It was a normal meeting to start off with. The only problem being that France had cancelled last minute. His workers were on strike again and he felt sick. Everything just escalated from there. A last minute change in seating plan had left Spain and England sitting next to each other and Romano across the table. For half an hour England had ignored them and they had ignored him. That was, until America made a joke about how he'd heard that England was still weak even in his pirate days and Spain heard. Of course, this was the only thing that didn't go over the oblivious idiot's head and he decided to start taunting England about it.

England sat there, his face growing more and more red with every story about how he'd lost, and finally he went purple and practically exploded.

"Are you forgetting all those times I beat you as well? I seem to remember one time where I not only beat an entire fleet of your ships, but also almost killed your precious henchmen over there to boot! I was in your house while you were pathetically walking home from the lost battle. When did you ever break into my house and damage something that was mine. You stole gold sure, but what is gold compared to that?" By the end of the speech, Romano had gone pale and he felt like all the blood had drained out of his face.

He heard an inquisitive "Che? What is he talking about, Fratello?" from Veneziano and Romano began to shake. He had pushed all memories of that day to the back of his mind whenever possible. Romano hated that bastard England so much!

"Did you not know? One day I completely obliterated Spain in a naval battle, and whilst he was walking home and sulking I was attacking his precious Romano. In fact, I should imagine that he still has the scars."

Nobody saw it coming. In fact, they were all just staring horrified. One minute England was standing there, half-furious, half-gloating, the next he was pressed against a wall, a knife against his throat and a gun against his head. The person doing this was none other than Italy Romano.

"You know what, you're right. I do still have the scars. I lived it all over again as well, when the wounds got so badly infected that Spain had to reopen them so they would actually heal. I had nightmares for years, all because of you. And I was right to. Maybe that was later on, but it would be like somebody doing that to America or Canada when they were your colonies, how would you have felt about that?" At that thought, both America and Canada went green. Even England seemed to halt a bit at the thought. Or maybe it was just the knife to his throat and the gun to his head. Romano slowly dragged the knife across England's throat, just breaking the skin and allowing beads of blood to trickle down his neck.

"Unlike the marks you left me, this one won't be permanent. I just want you to remember that I'm not a child anymore, I'm an independent country. I have my own reasons for being reluctant to fight in wars, but I'm not afraid to defend myself, everyone knows that we have a badass mafia.

I'm strong now."