/ Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, Himaruya does.

/ Pairing: Prumano. (Prussia/Romano)

/ Warnings: BL/shounen-ai.

/ Note: Written as a request fic for De-Anon over on deviantART. I've never written this pairing before, but it was fun! The request was for a Prumano friendship/fluffy oneshot centered in the city of Rome.

This City

Rome: it was a city that Romano knew he could go to to get away from the antics of the other national personifications, to be carefree if only for a few days or a few hours.

The weather turned out absolutely beautiful after a good week of unpredictable rain, no clouds barring the view of the crystal clear cerulean sky. There was this airy, blissful feeling that surged within Romano as he traipsed around his city, a full-on smile upturning his mouth. He greeted a few of the street vendors and painters that he happened to pass, stopped to exchange a few cordial phrases in Italian before continuing on down an almost continuous downward slope lacquered with sandstone pavement.

He hopped in between the two swinging ropes of a trio of young girls playing Double Dutch, absolutely surprising the one whose turn it was to jump and eliciting bubbly giggles from her friends. He flashed them a huge pearly grin before skipping out of the ropes, chuckling under his breath as he stepped over in front of one of his favourite fountains in the entire city of Rome.

The water that babbled out underneath a carefully crafted, life size Neptune statue glinted like gold in the endless sunlight; the air around this majestic fountain always soothed Romano, its moisture coolly caressing warm, naturally tan cheeks. He breathed in deep through his nose, eyes flickering down to the coins that dotted the bottom of the fountain in all hues of natural metallic, belonging to currency from god-knows-where. I really need to come here if I ever need some spare—

"Hey Romano! I hope that's you, otherwise I just made myself look like an idiot! Kesese!"

A shock of horror wiped Romano's grin off his face as soon as that heavily-accented voice met his ears: he'd know that voice anywhere, seeing as how the German owner of said voice would tag along with Spain every time Romano decided to pay the tomato lover a visit.

Dark brows knitted together in frustration and Romano's trademark grimace tugged down the corners of his mouth as he spun around and stomped up to none other than the cockily-grinning Prussia, reaching out and harshly jabbing the other's chest. "What the hell do you think you're doing here, potato breath? Can't you go bug Spain or France or someone else that actually wants your company?" His eyes narrowed almost to slits as he protested.

Prussia just laughed and poked the center of Romano's forehead, right under the part in his hair, though he didn't use nearly as much force as the Italian. "I'm free to sightsee, aren't I? Spain and France happen to be busy today."

Romano cursed under his breath: it seemed completely wrong to him that a potato eater was standing right in front of him, housed in his heart city! "What made you decide to come here instead of visiting any of the other countries then? And don't touch me, dammit!" He stepped back, putting a good six inches of concrete between himself and Prussia.

The other nation shrugged, sidestepping Romano and striding up to the edge of the fountain as he replied, "I've already been to the other countries around here hundreds of times, to where I've memorised a lot of their major tourist traps and monuments. I've only been to Rome twice in my whole existence, and I wanted to see it again."

Romano turned and stepped beside Prussia; it surprised him to find the snowy-haired German with his eyes closed, breathing in the unique, sun-baked aquatic scent that wafted around the fountain. It was boggling to Romano to see his polar opposite doing almost the same action that he himself had done earlier upon approaching the fountain. Prussia looked calm and at ease standing there, the lines from past war and worry disappeared for the time being from his forehead, around his mouth, under and between his eyes. Distantly, Romano wondered if that was what he himself looked like when he visited this fountain, though he quickly shook that thought away: the ongoing economic struggle must be driving him crazy if he was going to even think about comparing himself to old sausage breath here!

Prussia's hand disappeared into his pocket for a second to fish out a broad silver coin and position it atop the thumb of his left hand. Despite his qualms, Romano watched the taller albino hesitate for a moment, probably reciting a wish in his head, before flicking the coin skyward. The flat metal spiraled a few times in the air before smacking the water with a solid phlunk.

Prussia's satisfied grin stretched across his face and, just as unceremoniously as he had shown up, he pivoted on his heel and waved behind him, shooting a "well, see ya later, Romano!" over his shoulder.

Wait, wait, wait. Something about Prussia just up and leaving like that rubbed Romano the wrong way, not to mention the weary feeling of being alone that slowly encroached upon him. "Wait, dammit!" he called after Prussia, an action that he never thought he'd catch himself doing.

Prussia stopped, though his eyebrows were raised in surprise and light confusion as he turned back to face Romano. "What? I thought you wanted me out of your sight." He stifled an amused chuckle. "Haven't had enough awesome in your day yet, Romano?"

Little lines appeared between Romano's eyes from the furrowing of his brows— he really hated to have words shoved in his mouth, especially ones that probably tasted like wurst and beer if they actually had a taste. "N-No, it's not that! I…" his gaze dropped to the ground; he couldn't look Prussia in the face and say what he was going to say. "I guess I could… show you around Rome if you want. So you won't get lost and so you can get out of here faster or whatever."

Wearing an ever-confident smirk, Prussia walked back over to Romano and flung an arm around the other's sinewy shoulders. "Okay! Lead the way, tomato-face!"

Instinctively, Romano jumped out from under Prussia's arm and punched him in the side out of irritation. "F-Fine, but first things first: don't touch me, dammit!"

Some things in life came as a surprise to Romano: roller coasters, finding change in a pair of freshly laundered pants, how his curl would get a few kinks in it if he slept on it wrong or if someone 'flustered' him. Another of those surprises came in the form of the cocky Prussian by his side. Before today, if someone had told Romano that he would become friends with one of the German countries, he would've insulted them to their face, called them crazy and rhetorically ask if they needed this year's influ-stupid vaccine.

Now, however, he might've believed them… though not without still insulting them outright to cover up that belief.

The two now sat square in the middle of the Spanish Steps, finishing off a pair of sweet, flaky churros that Prussia had bought from a nearby street vendor. The oceanic blue that coloured the sky throughout the day now melded with streaky orange, gradually fading to mauve.

Prussia would cackle every time someone passed them and had the audacity to complain about the "two weird-looking kids sitting in the middle of the goddamn steps," yet it was something about the light, amused tone of the other's laugh that brought the shade of a smile to Romano's face, though it would be quickly masked by a grimace if Prussia were to look at or say something to him.

"Thanks for showing me around the city. It was a lot of fun, actually," Prussia remarked as he balled up his now vacant churro paper, inconspicuously peering at Romano out of the corner of his eye.

Romano shook his head, following suit with his own paper; the tension around his eyebrows was gone now, his coppery eyes glimmering like butterscotch hard candy in the setting sunlight. "Don't mention it. I… I had fun too. You're not so bad, I guess, for a potato eater. I thought you'd be more like your brother than a prankster."

"Haha! I could never be like West. Maybe if I tried really hard and shoved a stick up my ass for a day, I could." The skin around Prussia's ruby eyes crinkled from the amused, crooked grin that overtook his face.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments that felt like concentrated eons. When Romano spoke, his voice sounded foreign to himself, softer and less screechy now than it had been in days. "So… you have to go now? Back to Germany?"

Prussia nodded, though his reply was hesitant, "Ja, West needs me… or at least I think he does. We'll have to do this again, though: I want to see everything that Rome has to offer one day. Or I could show you around Berlin, preferably the west side."

Romano made a face: he couldn't picture himself powing around Berlin, a potato-loving city, even with his newfound friend-type-thing, or whatever Prussia could be considered to him. "I'll show you the rest of Rome when you come back. Just tell me when you'll be in town again. …When does your plane leave?"

"In about an hour. I need to make my way down to the airport, get through security and customs and all that shit before I miss my flight." Prussia stood, jamming the compact ball of churro paper in his pocket.

Romano hopped to his feet as well, though he held onto his paper ball. He was surprised at how close together they had been sitting; he didn't really expect Prussia to be in such close proximity to himself when the other turned to face him, sporting an astonishingly gentle smile.

"H-Hope your flight goes smooth," Romano managed, glancing away as an embarrassed blush swilled in his cheeks.

He stuck his hand out but instead was met with a pair of toned arms encircling his shoulders. He knew that he probably should've shoved Prussia away like he usually would do to anyone with the tenacity to even attempt to hug him, much less be successful in that endeavour, but… well, truth be told, hugs were nice and weren't easy for the Italian to come by, especially since Spain had stopped hugging him by his request. His arms wrapped around Prussia's taut midsection in a reciprocal embrace, chin perched on one of the German's shoulders.

They stood like that for a long time, much longer than Romano would've expected, before Prussia cleared his throat and broke their silence. "Until next time I'm in town, Lovino. Ciao."

And before Romano could appropriately react to his personal name or language being used, Prussia pressed a kiss against his cheek and released him, flashing a grin as he turned to make his way off of the Steps.

It took Romano a solid moment to assemble his flurried thoughts as he watched Prussia's figure retreat into the distance, cheeks positively smouldering. His hands flickered up to cup around his mouth and nose to amplify his farewell shout. "D-Don't keep me waiting, asshole!"

Prussia simply threw his head back and laughed.

Fin.