I got distracted so I wrote this on a whim. At this point the summary is revealing more than I've written, so...yeah. Spoiler alert~! Too late...

Anyway, I'm going to continue studying for my exams now. See you next chapter~

At 9:04pm, the phone rang. An anxious Romano quickly picked up. "Damn it, Spain, where the hell are you? You said you'd be here two hours ago! What, did the plane suddenly decide to take a siesta just like you?" He huffed angrily as he heard the Spaniard laugh on the other end.

"Haha, sorry Lovi! The flight got canceled; I was gonna tell you but then my cell phone died. Anyway, I managed to get on the next flight, so it's all good. I'm at the airport right now, waiting for the metro. I'll be at your place in, say, half an hour? Sorry to make you wait so long!"

Romano snorted. "That better be a quick half-hour or I'll lock you out of the house." Then, in a gentler tone, "You sure you don't want me to pick you up?"

"No, no, it's okay! I can get there just fine. Thank you, though~" Spain paused. "Ah, the train's coming in two minutes. See you soon, Lovi! I love you!" There was a click as he hung up.

Romano blushed. "I-I l-l-love you t-too, bastard," he mumbled, lowering the receiver. "Stay safe…"

At 9:38pm, Spain was hopelessly lost. "This place looks so different at night," he muttered to himself as he huddled under a streetlight to squint at a map. Somewhere along the way he must've taken a wrong turn. He looked around, trying to find a street sign, but in the darkness he couldn't read the names. Then, noticing an alley leading to a bigger road, he decided to try his luck on the other side.

He had gone about halfway through the alley when suddenly he spotted two people in front of him. One was tall and slim and held a black attaché case in his hand, while the other was big and beefy and stood squarely with his arms folded. Both were wearing black and had their backs turned to him. Spain quickly ducked behind a Dumpster. They looked like something out of a spy movie. What were they doing? Carefully, he peeked out from his hiding spot. One of them was saying something to the other. He strained his ears to listen.

He was so engrossed in what was going on in front of him that he failed to notice the third man coming up behind him with a metal rod. The last thing Spain remembered was an ominous shadow spreading across the ground before a sharp, searing pain suddenly erupted in the back of his head and everything grew dim and blurry…

The three Mafioso surrounded the intruder. "We owe you one," said the slim man to the one with the rod. "What do we do with him now?"

"Shall I kill him?" the beefy one offered, reaching into his coat for his gun.

"No, not here!" the third man hissed. "It'll be too messy. Look, he's already bleeding from the head. It'll be tough enough cleaning out just those stains. We'll take care of this another way…" He fished a small bottle out of his pocket. The other two's eyes widened. "Come find me later and we'll throw him in the canal, got it?" They nodded.

From the crumpled heap on the ground came a low groan as the intruder stirred. "Look, you two get back to your posts; I'll handle this." He shooed them away and, popping open the lid, yanked the intruder's head back and dumped the bottle's contents down his throat. There was some feeble thrashing that grew weaker as the deadly liquid diffused into his system, until finally his body went limp. The man shone a flashlight into the intruder's eyes. The pupils were still.

He hid the body behind the Dumpster and hurried off.

At 10:12pm, a grey car pulled over on a deserted stretch of road by the canal. The passenger door opened and one of the men retrieved a body, loosely bundled in a plastic tarp, from the backseat. With a grunt of effort, he heaved it over the railing and watched it plummet into the canal with a splash. The bundle slowly sank as the current attacked it, disappearing in a swirl of bubbles into the swift-flowing dark water. The man waited until it was completely gone from sight, then returned to his seat. The car drove off as furtively as it had arrived, leaving nothing but a cloud of exhaust in its wake.