Because - Romano x Reader

Romano x Reader
Because
♥

Warning! Contains strong language/cursing!

♥


"Hey, I'm home!" you called, pushing open your front door and stepping inside.


"Oi, Ragazza!"  your roommate Romano called back from the kitchen.

The two of you had been friends for a long time, but you had been living with him ever since you had been kicked out of your last place. Which had been, well, a while ago now. His brother, Feli, had actually proposed the idea to the two of you. Romano immediately went on the defensive, cussing out his younger brother, but you thought it was a great idea. So, here you were. It wasn't all that much different from before, though, since you came over a lot.

You enjoyed the brother's company; Feliciano often dropped by as well, much to his older sibling's chagrin. Feli didn't seem to notice his brother's inferiority complex towards him though, but you, on the other hand, picked up on it a while ago. You thought it was stupid, personally. The brothers did a lot of stupid stuff.

You threw your things down on the couch and ran into the kitchen. Lovino was at the stove, cooking like usual. You were never good with that kind of stuff, so you were glad you now had someone who was. You scurried up to him and glomped him from behind, jumping up and wrapping your arms around his neck and shoulders. "Romano!" You sang.

He jumped, startled by your attack. "Chigi! Ragazza, how many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" he said, blushing lightly and clearly annoyed, putting down whatever he was doing. You giggled and let go of him, dropping back to the ground. He turned to face you.

"As many as you want, I'm not gonna stop," you giggled again, hugging him and kissing his cheeks. "Buona sera!"

"Ciao," he said moodily as he returned the gesture.

You admitted that this seemed really formal for your friendship, but you really liked stealing the chance to get close to him. He was nice to you and rarely cursed at you, unlike Feli and Antonio, who often dropped by as well, but it was still a little hard to get this close to him.

"So, what are you making?" you asked as he turned back around, going back to cooking.

"Food."

"No, really, Lovi?" you laughed sarcastically as you sauntered off to set the table. He grunted in response.

As you walked back into the kitchen to grab already finished plates of food to put on the table, Roma stopped you.

"I…," he started to say.

"You what?" you asked obliviously after a second.

He started to stutter. He pushed your arm away. "N-nothing," he said, his face turning a little red. "Dinner's almost ready." He turned back to the stovetop.

Well, wasn't he acting a little…odd?

You grabbed platters of food and left to put them on the table. While you were gone, Roma was mentally beating himself up. You didn't notice as you grabbed the rest of the food and put it on the table.

Heading back into the kitchen, you saw that Lovi was bent over at the countertop, running a hand through his hair.

Once again, odd.

You stepped over next to him closing the cabinets he had left open, and poked his side. You got almost no response from him. "Come on!" you chimed as you swept past him, heading towards the door leading to the dining room. He grabbed your arm, stopping you. You froze for a moment before laughing nervously.

"Lovi, why are you being such a weirdo tonight?" you teased, trying to laugh it off. You yelped as you were pushed onto your butt, and then onto your back. Romano was over you, straddling your hips, his hands by either side of your head. You were surprised and your eyes were wide, but you quickly calmed down, much to Roma's surprise. You wondered what in God's name he was doing, but it didn't really matter all that much. Dinner was probably getting cold. Both of you really hated cold food…

"O-oi!" he said, after a moment, straightening up and breaking you from your idle thoughts. "Why aren't you freaking out, you idiot? Aren't you a girl?"

"Because. I know you wouldn't do anything to me," you said promptly and simply.

Something snapped. You saw it. His eyes widened before his brows furrowed and his usual frown deepened. You blinked in surprise. He slammed his hands back down next to your head.

"Lovi—mmph!" You were cut off by his lips on top of yours. Your eyes widened, and you struggled to push him off of you. He growled and pinned your arms over your head, continuing to forcefully kiss you. Only when you stopped fighting and relaxed did he pull away.

He looked down at you, his eyes still upset and frown still intact, panting slightly. "I can if I want to. Don't forget that."

"But—!" you objected, but closed your mouth and looked away. You took a deep breath. "You…don't want to, Lovino," you concluded quietly. "You never have." The words came from your mouth without any thought. "You never wanted me like that."

"You idiot!" he roared. You flinched at the sudden outburst. "I never said anything like that! Ever! Putting words in my mouth now, are you, bastard? Why can't you get it through you thick skull, damn it? I—I—! Ti amo, stupid Ragazza!" he yelled, and roughly kissed you again. He pulled away, and looking like he was disgusted with himself, got up off you. You saw tears welling in his eyes. Breathing heavily, he stormed over to the door, and, grabbing his coat, flung it open.

"Toni's," he said, as he thundered out the door. "Don't follow me, asshole." His voice was strained, and he slammed the door.

You just laid there in shock.  After a while, warm tears started to stream down your face.

Why were you crying? This was almost like a dream come true. You had loved Romano for the longest time, and, even though he didn't do it well, he had said he loved you. So, why were you crying so damn much? Why?

You curled into a ball and sobbed.

♥

You took a deep breath and sighed, dropping your head, countless thoughts swirling around inside. You needed to be distracted. Things would play out, whether for good or bad. You were sure of it.

You reached out and knocked on Veneziano's door. If anyone could take your mind off of this, it would be him.

"Ciao, bella!" he chimed happily as he answered the door.

"Hi, Feli," you said.

"Ve, bella, what's wrong?"  His face fell to match yours when he noticed your sad expression.

You rubbed your arm nervously and looked away, a little bit of heat rising to your face. "It's nothing really. I just stopped by because I need some cheering up."

"Ah, alright… Have you eaten yet?" he asked you, returning to his cheery self and catching you off guard by the random topic. "It doesn't matter; I'll get you some pasta anyway. Pasta always helps!" He wandered off into the kitchen, leaving the door open for you.

You stepped inside, took off your coat and hung it on the rack by the door. You slid your shoes off and closed the door with your foot before heading to the kitchen, where the younger Italy brother already had two plates of pasta ready. You plopped down on a barstool, and he sat next to you, handing you a plate. A minute of silence passed as you both started to eat.

"So, bella, why are you so sad?" Feli ventured, genuinely worried.

"Feli, I don't want to talk about this—"

"Was it Fratello? I know he can be kind of a dick sometimes."

After a moment, you nod silently.

"Ve, you two are like a married couple, aren't you?" he said dreamily, as always.

You almost choked on your pasta.

"F-Feli!" you spluttered.

"What?" he asked innocently. "You had to have noticed already."

"Noticed what?"

"Well, he's letting you stay at his place, right? He gets mad if even I stay with him too long, ve. And he cooks for you and doesn't call you mean names. And you like him, right? Because I know he likes you, too."

Your face heated up instantly. "H-How…?"

"Ve, because I'm Italian!" he smiled.

You sighed and looked off into the distance. "Yes, I like him. But how do you know he likes me?" you asked, looking at him out of the corner of your eye.

"Fratello told me. Didn't he tell you already?"

You looked down, and nervously started playing with the food on your plate. "H-he told me. Just tonight."

"Ve, that's great, ______! So are you two, like, together now?"

You stiffened. "No."

"Why not?" Feli whined. "Don't you like him back?"

"I…do like him, but…he thinks I don't. He thinks I rejected him," you slowly said after a pause, your eyes not leaving your plate.

"But why?"

"Because he's an idiot who doesn't know how to confess and then runs off!" you snapped, suddenly very upset.

"Well, then we have to fix that!"

"Huh?"

"Come on, _______!" he sung happily, dragging you to the door by the wrist.

♥

As you stumbled up to Antonio's house, you reminded yourself to never get in a car with Veneziano driving ever again. Even though Vene could give surprisingly good pep talks.

You pulled open the door without knocking, and walked into the house. You paused as you passed through the dining room, a bowl of tomatoes on the table catching your eye. With a smirk, you grabbed one and headed to the living room.

Romano and Spain were there, where Spain was trying to console a tearful and pissed off Romano, who was sitting on the floor for reasons unknown.

You stepped back, almost into Feli who was following behind you.

"How did you know he was here, by the way?" you whispered to him.

He just shrugged. "I'm his Fratello."

You rolled your eyes at him, and stepped into the room. Crossing your arms, you just stared as Romano whined to his former Boss.

"And now she's going to hate me, and get close to stupid Veneziano—"

You already had enough of this. This was so idiotic. He was so idiotic. You were upset with him already, but now he was just pissing you off. You cleared your throat loudly and both men snapped their heads up.

Lovino's face went bright red. "O-oi! What did I tell you, asshole?" Romano yelled at you, even with tears streaming down his face.

"Shut up," you snapped.

He ignored you and started to rant. "Didn't you hear me, damn it? I said not to fucking follow me—"

He was interrupted by a tomato exploding on his face.

"And I said to shut your mouth. Maybe I have something to say, you ass."

He wiped the tomato from his face and stared at you, his usual frown deep-set on his face again.

You squatted down to your knees and crawled over to him, staring him in the eye. "You're a real idiot. You know that?"

He opened his mouth in defense, but before words could escape his mouth you grabbed the sides of his face and kissed him softly. He tensed for a moment, but quickly melted into the kiss. You pulled away and stared into his hazel eyes.

"Ti amo, Lovi."

You stood up and stared down at him. "And that's how you tell someone you love them! And then you wait for them to tell you that they love you back, not run off!"

You didn't know what was making you so mad or so bold, but as you looked at a shocked and still tearful Romano, it slowly faded away. It was replaced with a new feeling.

You started to shake, and tears started to roll down your face again. You covered your face in your hands.

"Ti amo, you idiot. F-fucking ti amo!" you said, hiccupping and wiping tears from your cheeks.

Lovino didn't know what to do. He kind of sat there awkwardly for a second.  Toni nudged him, motioning towards you. Roma mouthed something before Toni pushed him again.

"Hug her," Spain whispered to Roma, pulling him to his feet.

Roma shot Spain an almost death glare before wrapping his arms around you. After a minute of you just crying in his arms, he looked back at Spain.

"Keep going," he mouthed, motioning with his hand.

"I…I'm sorry, Ragazza," Lovi cooed, awkwardly rubbing your back and petting your head as you buried you face in his chest.

"No crying, mia bella." He pried your face from him, cupping it in one hand  and wiping a tear off your cheek with his thumb before leaning in and kissing you tenderly. His lips were soft, and did he know how to kiss. He moved just right, and you melted into him.

Spain gave a thumbs-up to Italy who was bouncing around excitedly.

♥

A couple weeks later, Toni had stopped by for a chat. As the three of you sat down, he grinned widely. You and Roma wore matching questioning expressions as both of you sipped your drinks.

"So, when's the wedding?"

The two of you both did spit-takes all over the table.