Fic for Lullabyemyuu for being reviewer 300 on my story NekoRoma~

Why I Travel

Romano stepped under the sun and glared up at the sky as he pulled his hat down lower. The child rolled his sleeves up and walked into the tomato garden. Spain had told him not to worry about checking the tomatoes while he was out, but there were none left in the kitchen. He knew how to pick them or how to find the best ones, but he'd never been in the gardens without his boss before.

He carefully stepped through the soft soil, searching for the tomato plants with fruit hanging from them. The child nation walked through the plants looking for the biggest, brightest, most ripe tomatoes he could find. A smile crossed his face when he finally spotted the one he really wanted.

With basket in hand, Romano began pulling at the fruit, trying to break it free of the vine. However Romano's hazel eyes landed on something on the juicy tomato: a large worm. It's body was as long as his hand and it had a large, sharp pointed spike on it's bottom.

Shivers of fear ran down Romano's spine and he let go of the tomato, sending the large worm flying up in the air. The thing fell right back down on top of Romano's shirt. He let out a loud scream of terror and he began shaking violently, trying to shake the green creature from his shirt.

Soon, he found himself racing through the tomatoes quickly, trying to escape. Romano ripped open the back door and ran inside, tears streaming his face. He was quick to yank his apron and shirt off and toss them to the floor, not even bothering to check if the worm ever came with him inside.

Once he searched over his entire body, the small child cried out louder, "Stupid dummy bastard! Why is he never here when I need him?"

No sooner had those words left his mouth, he heard the front door open. He heart jumped into his chest and he raced to the hall, but he was disappointed to find Belgium at the door. He always loved her visits, but it just wasn't who he wanted.

"Hello, Roma~ Boss said I should come check on you while he was away~!" the blonde smiled, kneeling down to Romano's level. He offered his best smile, but she knew him, "Roma? Are you okay?" she looked him over, "And why are you half dressed? Did anything bad happen?"

He shook his head, "No … I was attack by a giant monster and that stupid bastard wasn't here to save me …" he muttered. Belgium laughed lightly and picked him up, carrying him to his large bedroom where she picked out a new shirt for him to wear and pulled it onto him. The woman buttoned up the buttons.

"There~ our little brave warrior looks perfect now~" Belgium ruffled his hair, earning a pout from the little Italian, "Boss is supposed to be back today, so you'll be fine on your own for a few hours, right?"

Romano nodded and looked at his reflection in the mirror. With the cream colored shirt on, he looked a tad bit older than before, especially since he wasn't wearing the terribly cloth bandana and apron anymore.

"Did you hear me?"

The child looked at her, "What?"

"I said, don't stay up too late waiting for him, okay? Get to bed on time tonight!" she hugged him and bid farewell before leaving.

He was left to his own devices. For a few hours he wandered around attempting to clean, however he only succeeded in making a bigger mess. After hiding the evidence of his messes, the Italian child began making dinner, but with out tomatoes, he was forced to make a different sauce for his pasta. Romano waited for his boss to come home and coo and tell him he looked like a tomato and all that embarrassing stuff. However, Spain never came home.

Despite what Belgium said, Romano stayed up late, waiting. He finally fell asleep.

Hours passed into the next day and Romano grew angrier and angrier waiting for his caretaker to finally come home from where ever he went all the time.

A full three days passed where Romano stayed up late, hoping that would be the day Spain came home. A full three days where Romano wanted fresh tomatoes, but large green horned worms taunted him by eating his fruit. A full three days of loneliness and silence as the child went about his daily routine.

Finally, the door opened and Romano heard the sound of boots tromping through the halls. He straightened up his posture, listening closely to the sound as he stirred the pasta. Anger coursed through his tiny body and he turned off the stove, grabbing up the large pot to dump into the sink.

The child scooted the pot across the counter, before moving his step stool to pour out the pasta and water.

"Roma~?" he heard Spain speak. Romano ignored him and dumped the strainer of pasta into a bowl and scooted his step stool back to the stove to check the cream sauce. It was partially boiled over and he growled, removing it. He set it aside and grabbed his bowl to take the pasta into it and poured some cream sauce on top.

"Oh Roma~ Boss is home!" the older man stepped into the kitchen, a tired smile on his face, "Ah! There's my little Roma~!"

The Southern half of Italy rolled his eyes and sat down at the table to eat.

"Did Roma make this for Boss?" Spain asked, leaning over the bowl to grab up some of the food. Romano continued to ignore him. He finished his own food and tossed the bowl into the built up pile of used dishes and left Spain alone in the dining room.

He made his way to his room and brushed out his hair, preparing for bed. His door opened, "Roma? Are you feeling okay?"

Romano glared lightly, feeling a lump in his throat. He stomped over to his dresser and pulled out his night clothes, "Get out." he muttered, simply.

Spain frowned. Usually when he got home from his long trips, Romano would hit him a few times with those cute tiny little fists, call him a few names, then sit down my the fire place and tell stories about what he did while Spain was away. He would fall asleep as Spain began his own stories of sailing with his men to the new world.

What had changed? Was his little Romano getting too old for those nights?

"Roma? What's wrong, mi tomate?"

"Don't call me that. I'm exhausted and I want to sleep." he stared, tossing the clothes onto his bed.

"But I want to know about what my Roma did while I was away~" he tried. His heart skipped a beat sadly when Romano shrugged, "I just did my chores like you asked and slept. Belgium and I went to a park nearby a week or two ago, but she only came by the other day to tell me you were coming home a few days ago."

Spain sat down on the bed, "That can't be all you did."

"Well, it was." the Italian child muttered, pulling off the shirt he wore to pull on the night shirt. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to go to bed now."

His caretaker sighed, grabbing Romano's shoulder, "Roma … why don't we go and sit by the fire? I'll read you your favorite story."

Romano shook his head, changing into his bottoms, "No. I just want to sleep the rest of my life away."

"Roma?" Spain muttered.

"What part of 'I just want to sleep' did you not get, dummy bastard?" the child glared, his temper finally snapping. "You want to ignore me and leave me at home to fend for myself, then leave me alone and let me raise myself! I'm not going to just accept you when you come back when I need you most when you're gone." his breathing was ragged after his words left him.

The Spaniard looked at him confused, "But-"

"No!" Romano shouted, "I needed you! That huge, scary worm wouldn't let me have a tomato! I ran out them and you weren't here to get me more or scare away the worm! Then I waited up for you the other night when you were supposed to be back, but guess what? You didn't show! You didn't come back the night after either! I'm surprised to see you even bothered to show up now! I made you dinner that night, I cleaned the house, I even got all dressed up nice, but you didn't show up!" he hadn't noticed the tears that streaked his own face. "I'm tired. Let me go to sleep, now."

Spain pulled Romano into his arms into a tight embrace, "Roma … mi tomatito … I never want to leave you here … I'm so sorry." he ran his fingers over the back of Romano's head and smiled softly, feeling the thin arms cling around his shirt. Romano began sobbing in his arms.

"Damn it, Spagna!" he cursed, "Just when I decided I hated you …" he mumbled.

The caretaker kissed his ward's head and leaned back against the headboard, "Roma~" he let the child sit up and wipe his reddened cheeks, "How about I make you a drink I discovered over in the new world? I won't make it as spicy as they did, but it's good~" he chuckled, "Then we'll sit by the fire like we always do and you can tell me about this worm that won't let mi tomate have a tomato~?"

Romano nodded lightly, almost unsure if he should led Spain have a second chance.

"Roma …" the man started. He shook his head and picked up the smaller nation and carried him to the kitchen where he grabbed a tin and filled a kettle with some fresh milk to warm it. Once warm, he poured it into a mug and dropped a few pieces of a muddy colored brick.

"It's cocoa~" Spain explained, "Kind of expensive, but I thought you might like it. Usually a drink like this has some sort of chile added to it to make it spicy, but I figured it would be good sweet, too! I'm not sure if it's been made like this before, since I only tried the spicy kind." he added a little bit of sugar to make it sweeter and sipped the hot drink, "mmm~ try some?" he blew the top to cool it a bit before handing it to Romano.

The child looked at the drink with hesitation, but brought to mug to his lips and carefully sipped at it. His cheeks went a warm pink color and his eyes sparkled, "It's not bad." he muttered. Spain chuckled and picked him up, hot chocolate and all, and walked to the fireplace. Romano sat on the floor, sipping his drink while Spain tossed a few logs in the hearth and set them ablaze.

Orange flames lit the room up and Spain grabbed a few pillows from the sofa and tossed them on the floor along with a blanket, which Romano gladly scooted onto. Spain smiled at the way Romano's frown seemed softer in the glow of the fire. He sat down next to his ward and enjoyed the warmth of the moment, his mind buzzing with the words his mouth couldn't form.

"So, what did you do while I was away?"

Romano shrugged and began spinning long tales of playing in the yard and cleaning and the evil monster of a worm that kept him from getting his tomatoes.

Spain's smile only grew wider at that part. He'd yet to take Romano into the garden and show him how to tend to the plants, pests and all.

"Oh, Roma~ you're too cute!" he hugged the child close, "Those won't hurt you and the only way you can get rid of them is to pull them off~"

Romano's face lit up bright red, "But it fell on me! It was trying to kill me! You should have been there to save me!" he waved his arms animatedly. His caretaker smiled warmly.

"Mi tomate …" he trailed off for a moment, trying to think of his words, "you're very precious to me, more than you'll ever know. I'm sorry I can't always be here, but trust me when I say I'm doing all of this for you. I travel so that you never have to worry about going hungry like I did when I was younger.

"I know I'm not always here to fight off the horn worms and get you tomatoes, but I try, Roma … I really do." Romano rested his head on Spain's chest. "I want you to grow up happy and healthy and know that you have a caretaker, a boss, a friend, who will always be there for you."

Tears sprung up in Romano's eyes because for the first time since his grandfather found him, he felt safe and happy and loved. He buried his face in Spain's shirt and hid the tears of joy.

Spain rocked the child back and forth, whispering how proud he was of how big the Italian was getting and how brave he was. That night, both fell asleep beside the dying fire, neither caring to remember about the hardships on the outside of the house.

Those tomato horn worms creep me out -_-

~Lady Pyrien