Regret (Chapter 12)

“Aah! Isn’t this the life, my boy?”

“Hm?”

Italy raised his head slightly, not bothering to look over his shoulder to his grandpa as he just continued to stare out to the vast empty ocean. He grunted very slightly in possible agreement as he still looked onward.

What were Germany and Japan up to? Were they still on the island? Did they get off somehow? Maybe they found that Chinatown back in the island. Surely they must have… right?

“Italy?”

Italy’s ears perked and he finally looked over his shoulder, seeing the two of the beautiful women from before, whose named he learned was Venus and Lucia, sitting on their knees in the soft sand not too far away from him. They gently curled their fingers in a motion for him to come over to them. He hesitated for a moment before he decided to get up and go over to them, sitting in the middle of the two with his legs stretched out in front of him.

“What ever is the matter, Italy?” Venus cooed, seeing the distracted and distant look in his eyes as he continued to just look to the horizon.

Italy shrugged a little, glancing down as he felt warmth cover over his legs, seeing that Lucia was starting to cover up his legs with sand; probably just trying to be playful. He lightly smiled at the action before looking back to the blonde beauty beside him. “Ah, I’m just worried about my friends. It’s seems like I’ve been here a long time and I just hope they’re doing okay.”

“Bah!”

At hearing the exclaim, Italy pursed his lips, looking over to his grandfather laying in the lawn chair as usual, soaking up the rays and being gently fed grapes by the raven haired Leona. Of course, even though it’s been a few weeks or months, he wasn’t really sure, Rome wasn’t very keen on forgiving the two anytime soon, even if it meant he could spend some time with his grandson.

The auburn Italian sighed through his nose, his small smile fading off into a saddened frown once more, his head drooping to see that his legs were completely gone, covered by a blanket of sand. Everything was so nice here, he almost felt bad for not feeling very happy to be here. But without Germany or Japan, it just wasn’t the same.

“I just wish I could see what they’re doing…” he muttered one last time, sighing quietly before just deciding to lie down. Of course it didn’t take long to feel the rest of his body slowly having sand pushed over it. Lucia sure did like putting him under sand.

Venus pursed her lips at this, furrowing her brows before looking to the brunette babe covering Italy in sand. “Lucia, stop that. You know he has a-“

“It’s all right. Grandpa bandaged me up. Nothing can get out of my uh... gaping hole in my torso. Not even liquid.”

The blonde frowned just a bit to see how forlorn the little Italian looked, she swore that his eyes were losing more and more light every day that he was here. She was only just a lovely maiden of the heavens, but she knew she must be able to help him somehow. While the Italian continued to just get buried under sand, Venus stood up and when over to her main master relaxing next to Leona.

“Rome, honey?”

“Mm, yes, Venus?”

“Italy has just been such a sad popsicle for the past week. Isn’t there anything we can do to cheer him up?”

Rome lowered his shades a bit at the mention of Italy, glancing over to where he was all ready half swallowed up by the sand not too far away. He huffed a little through his nose before putting his shades back up.

“I don’t really get why. He shouldn’t be lonely; he’s got you gals and me! And you’ve kept me company for centuries and I’ve never gotten lonely.”

“Well, he did mention something about Germany and Japan. Perhaps he misses his friends.”

Rome frowned at this, tilting down his shades once again to get a clearer look at Venus, “he shouldn’t be. They’re the ones who put him here.”

“Germany’s grandfather put you here too but you still wanted to visit his grandson.”

Rome froze at this, almost letting his shades fall completely, but he quickly caught them before they did, but lifted them up so he was resting on his head. She was right, even though he wanted to mostly see Italy; he did want to visit Germany too to see how he was holding up and if he was taking care of himself along with Italy. Perhaps Italy just wants closure. That’s understandable, right?

“Hm. Perhaps my paradise isn’t what he needs right now.” He muttered quietly before getting up from his lawn chair. He went over to the ever innocent Lucia, who had her hands folded in her lap as she was sitting next to a large lump of solid sand. He cleared his throat before he crossed his arms,

“Italy. I know just sitting here isn’t exactly what you want to do right now. I know you have all over these ladies to wait on you hand and foot and give you hugs and kisses and I thought that was enough. Seems not.” He paused, lightly sighing as he was still a little bit uneasy with the idea formulating in his head, “but you’re still not happy. Perhaps some closure will help. So I uh, I decided to let you go back down to Earth so you can visit with them.”

There was a moment of silence from the content maiden and the amounts of sand around her, but soon the lump of sand shifted and Italy suddenly burst up from the giant lump, his eyes lit up like the sun with a bright grin to accompany it.

“Really!? I can go back? I-I didn’t know that was possible!! I can’t wait to-“

“Italy, wait.” Rome quickly interrupted him, making the others smile falter a bit. He reached down and took the boys hands, pulling him up to his feet before brushing the sand off of around him. “When you go back, you will not be alive. You will just be a spirit, and only one person may be able to see you.”

Italy tilted his head in a bit of confusion, “may be able to? So there’s no guarantee that Germany would be able to know I was there at all?”

Rome blinked, a little surprised that Italy all ready jumped ahead to knowing who he was going to haunt. It figures, since Germany was the one he went to haunt such a long time ago. He nodded lightly, seeing the other slightly deflate at such the news.

“Hey now! I didn’t see he completely couldn’t. And besides, you’ll still be there to be around him. You can’t interact very much with the real world, but if necessary you can if you concentrate hard enough. But don’t be causing trouble!”

Italy nodded, his smile slowly recovering as it was starting to seep in that he was actually going back in the real world! He can see what’s been happening and how they’ve been doing!

Oh, he hoped they were able to move on from the incident fairly well. But then again, it’s Germany and Japan! What’s the worst that could’ve happened?

“All right, let’s get going. We have to go pay a visit to God.”

“Thank you, grandpa!”

~~~~~

Italy opened his eyes slowly, wincing at first to the natural sunlight that poured into the room but once he got used to it, his eyes widened.

Germany’s home. He was finally standing in Germany’s household for the first time in several months, and honestly it felt like his own home as well since he was here all of the time. This was so wonderful!! Was Germany here??

“Germany!! Germany, I’m home!!” He called out happily, almost skipping down the halls as he checked through room to room to find his beloved captain. He sure did hope he could see him, that’d make things so much easier!!

“Japan, it’s me.”

“Germany!!” Italy chirped, hearing the other speak from the living room. Oh how had it been so long to hear his voice!! He ran down the hallway in his bare feet, practically sprinting before he finally reached the main room of the house, seeing Germany sitting on the couch and on the phone.

There he was. After all this time, there he was.

Italy carefully went over and sat next to Germany on the couch, “Hi, Germany!” He greeted with a bright cheery smile. He held his breath as the other shifted and brought his hand up, thinking perhaps he would wave to him. But instead, Germany fixated his stare on his gloved hand, frowning a bit towards it for some reason.

“Yes, I’m sorry about that. How have you been doing? Are your arms still…”

Italy watched curiously as the other took off his glove, his eyes widening as it was covered in a dark reddish hue of something. That was… his blood, wasn’t it? He gulped quietly, not even sure how to feel seeing Germany’s hands stained with his own blood. Though the moment was short lived as Germany slipped the glove back on in shame.

“…Germany?” He asked again, this time a bit louder, reaching a hand out to wave it in front of the man’s face, even snapping his fingers to try to get his attention. But, to no avail. His shoulders sagged and any traces of his smile vanished into thin air.

”I see… my hands are still the same as before as well.”

Italy clutched his hands into little balls of fist, his eyes beginning to shimmer along with his chin starting to tremble. No… no… he left paradise to make sure they were okay... this couldn’t be happening!!

“Germany!! It’s me!! Italy!! Germany, I’m right here!! Right here!! I’m here again, everything going to be okay!! Can’t you see me?! GERMANY!!!”

He suddenly held his breath. Germany had looked up at the other yelling his name to him. His blue eyes shifted back and forth against the room, even putting the phone down momentarily to try to look around and listen. After a while, he finally set his eyes on where Italy was. Was... this for real? Was he finally able to see him?

“G… Germany?”

Germany remained in eye contact with this ghost for a little bit longer, searching the spot as if wondering if something was there. After a few moments, he leaned back into the couch, bringing the phone back to his ear.

”Are you still there?”

Italy slumped even further this time. He was sure he made a connection there!! Maybe it wasn’t enough. With a saddened sigh, Italy got up himself up from the couch, deciding not to waste his time sitting next to him, but instead began to look around the room, to see if anything big had changed during the time he was gone.

Surprisingly enough, little to no changes were made to anything, and surprisingly there was even a very fine layer of dust over things, which meant Germany hadn’t even wanted to touch anything, even to clean them. He furrowed his brows at this, and frowned a bit more in concern.

”Tch, don’t remind me. I mean, it’s nice we have people willing to help us search for him despite what’s going on but… I’m not looking forward to be facing them again after everything we have done to them, and what we have done to one of our allies.”

Italy turned around at this, this piquing his interest greatly. ‘Search for him’, did he mean searching for his own body? They were teaming up with the allies for that? He blinked at this, and a small hopeful smile spread across his lips. They were teaming up with the enemy... in a common goal to rescue him.

”Haa… you always know what to say. I should really try to be more like you about this, calm and strong. I am very glad I have you as an ally.”

He stepped forward to be in front of Germany, smiling lightly as he just watched the other seem to just be calmed by whoever was on the other line.

”Yes, we will. I will keep my promise. Thanks, Japan. I needed this talk.”

Italy’s eyes widened at the mention of the promise. He remembered what they promised back then, that he would be there when he would wake up. Once more he felt the warmth the tears outline his eyes, smiling brighter with hope as he did all he could from just hugging his best best friend. After all he was a ghost; there was no telling what a ghost hug could do to a living person!

He stepped back however, seeing the Germany pushing himself up from the couch to stand to his full height. He quickly moved aside as the other stepped forward, not wanting to accidentally bump into him.

” I’ll keep that in mind, thanks. I should get my paperwork for the meeting together then. We’ll talk later to coordinate our leaving times. Tschuss.”

With that, Germany set the phone back on the receiver and headed forward in stride to head to his office. Meanwhile, Italy glanced to the phone before back to Germany leaving. Meeting? Probably to talk about their search party methods with the allies like he mentioned before. He grinned at this, feeling a little fuzzy inside about how everyone was banding together to find him. He really was loved!!

He blinked as he was suddenly shaken from his thoughts, seeing Prussia come into the room after Germany was gone, heading towards the couch where the phone resided next to.

“Ah, Hi Pruss—“ Italy froze in his greeting as he felt the weirdest sensation go past him. He quietly yelped as Prussia was able to just walk right through his body like it was nothing. He shivered and hugged himself, not exactly sure how to feel about the weird sense of violation of privacy. He couldn’t even pinpoint what he was feeling it was just too odd!

He shuddered though, hearing Prussia pick up the phone and dial, only waiting a moment before he greeted the other line. Italy looked over his shoulder as Prussia seemed to also be talking to Japan, but figured it wasn’t any of his business to listen in on his phone calls.

“Mm! Germany, wait for me!”

Italy called out, even though the other could quite hear him. He merrily skipped over to the doorway, looking down the hall to see if he could spot the blonde somewhere close so he could follow him.

“Keep an eye on Germany, would you?”

He paused at this, leaning back so he was out of the doorway and looking over to Prussia. Huh? How come he was asking Japan to watch Germany? Curiously, he stepped back a bit so he could hear the other better about it, frowning as the albino just shifted a hand through his hair in just sheer worry of the situation.

"He hasn’t really been himself and has been more on edge since he’s come back, and I don’t know what he would do if something else bad happens. I know I’m going to the meeting too, but he listens to you more than he does to me. I don’t know maybe he has a ‘friends over family’ preference. But please, if something comes up, could you do something?”

Hasn’t… been himself? Been more on edge? Italy’s eyebrows furrowed at this as he glanced back to the door where he saw the German last. Perhaps Germany wasn’t doing as well as he looked, and even then he was still looking a bit… different. It was hard to describe but, he could notice that the other didn’t look like he was very happy, even though most of the time he didn’t look happy either.

He frowned lightly at this as he thought for a moment, before he smiled. Germany was his best friend, even if he killed him off for food! Yes, it was horrible, but he was still technically alive!

If he couldn’t haunt Germany as a ghost like Rome thought he would, he would be his guardian angel!

Though he wouldn’t need to guard too much probably, Germany was big and strong! What bad could possibly happen at a simple meeting?