Romano x Reader: The Family Reunion

I sat there as bored as ever, needing something to do when a thought came to mind. My mother and the rest of my family and those I only now just met sat laughing and playing in the ocean, reuniting as this day called for. Taking out my phone, I dialed the first number I saw and kicked the sand over and over, feeling giddy as I waited for him to pick up.

"Ciao?"

"Hey Romano, you want to come and entertain me, I'm bored out of my mind here."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I'm at a stupid family reunion and I have no one here that I'd be willing to have fun with. Will you come and play with me?"

"No."

"Romano, please, I'm so bored!"

My voice echoed back to me and I sat there for a moment, confused at whether or not he would answer back.

"Fine, where are you at?"

"I'm at my house, the beach, just make sure to bring your swim trunks okay!"

"Sure, I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Yay!"

I hung up and hurried back to the porch, grabbing my summer dress that I had worn over my swimsuit and hummed an Italian song Romano had taught me the other week. He was jealous that I had it memorized already when it took him two months just to figure out the first two verses, but I had always been good with music, especially when it came to memorizing it.

"(Name)! why do you look so giddy all of a sudden?"

"Oh, because I have a friend coming here to play with me, he's an okay guy and I'm sure you'll like him."

"Well, okay."

My great aunt left me alone as I walked up to the front of the house and watched, waiting to see if Romano would really show or if he was playing with me. After about five minutes, I saw Romano's black and silver convertible camaro drive toward my house, the top down and as he parked right up front, I smiled.

"Glad you made it!"

"Yeah, well, I couldn't just let you die of boredom, now could I?"

"Your mean, Romano."

He grinned at me as I led him down the walkway toward the back of my house and straight toward the beach. We talked for a while, ignoring everyone on the porch and the kids playing in the ocean until he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

"Romano! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You'll see, (Name)."

"Put me down!"

He laughed at me, something I hadn't heard in a long time, and after a while, I realized he was standing in a deeper part of the ocean and when I protested again, he did drop me. I popped back up and spat the ocean water out of my mouth, and then dunked him as he stood there laughing at me.

"That's what you get, Roma!"

We played a dunking war until I finally gave in and couldn't stop laughing, he laughed at me as I picked a stray piece of seaweed from my hair and tossed it onto the beach.

"That…that was fun, Romano, I guess that next time I have a family reunion you and I have to get together again."

"We should, I really liked that."

We laughed while walking back up to the house, rubbing towels over our bodies and as we came up to the porch, I realized that some of my family members were watching us with curiosity and happiness. But all too soon, my mother came running up, a bright smile on her face.

"(Name), food is ready, why don't the two of you come up and get something to eat, after that we're playing some games and having the annual karaoke contest."

"Oh, thanks Mom, and by the way, this is Romano Vargas, my friend from work."

"It is very nice to meet you, Romano."

He smiled and blushed slightly, shaking her hand before my overprotective father saw us and came bounding up as well.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here, (Name), would you introduce us?"

"Of course, Dad, this is Romano Vargas, my friend from work."

Romano shook his hand, a deeper blush settling upon his cheeks as he talked with my father. But I quickly cut them off and grabbed Romano's hand, pulling him up to the food.

"Your dad kind of scares me."

"You haven't been scared enough until my grandfather and a few of my uncles come up, trust me, they are scarier."

"Should you have really invited me then?"

I looked up at him, a scowl on my face, but as we stared at each other, a blush began to form.

"I-I don't know what your talking about, I mean, who else would I invite, you are the only one I really like to hang around."

"Impossible, everyone likes Spain and Italy…why shouldn't you?"

"Because, those two are far too cheery for me, Germany almost never smiles, Prussia is a pervert, France always tries to grope me…Romano, you're the only one I really like."

A deeper blush settled as we took our food back to our own little table, watching the ocean as we ate.

"All right, its time for games, the first is the egg toss, everyone find a partner and set yourselves up on the beach."

I glanced at Romano, grinning as I grabbed his wrist, pulling him over to my aunt and picking up an egg.

"What are you doing?"

"We're going to play a game, Roma, I only really play this game because its funny when the eggs crack in our hands."

We set up with the rest of the people, laughing as he began to joke with me, saying that he would throw me back into the ocean if I didn't catch the egg.

"Roma, you forget, I play this game every year, and I was raised playing softball, you played soccer every day of your life, you have no chance."

"We'll see, ragazza."

We began to toss the egg back and forth, other people getting eggs cracked across their heads and chests, even my one cousin who yelped when his egg exploded in his face. Romano and I were a pretty good team, we caught it, threw it back, and it always seemed that we would make it to the end, until we realized how far apart we were getting.

"(Name), are you sure you can catch this?"

"We'll see, if not, I can always go jump into the ocean to clean myself off!"

The fact that he was still comfortable in his swim trunks, and I hadn't put my summer dress back on was testament to the fact that we were happy with each other, and could forget everything else around us.

"All right, we just need one team to get out and we'll have our winners."

It was Romano and I against my mother and grandfather, which nearly made me laugh because Romano clearly saw how intimidating my "cowboy" grandfather was.

"Okay, Roma, throw it!"

He nodded and tossed the egg, I took a step back, and one to the left, positioning myself, until the egg was right where I needed it, and it cracked across my chest. A yelp burst from my lips as I stared down at the yolk and egg shell bits that dripped down my torso.

"All right, time to go jump into the ocean!"

I gasped as Romano once again picked me up, I tried to push him away and get him to let me go, but I was tossed into the cold, salty water, coming back up to growl at him.

"Hey, you said that you would go back in."

"Oh, your in for it now!"

I chased him up the beach and to the porch, staring at him from across a table before jumping over it and forcing him to run back down for the beach. I could hear people laughing at us as I ran down the beach after him, lunging for his legs, wrapping my arms around him and forcing the two of us to fall into the sand, laughing our asses off.

"Okay, okay, I give, I give. Mi dispiace, io non lo farò più!"

I laughed at his apology in Italian, until I realized that I was lying on top of him, his hands on my hips, and we pulled away, sitting in the sand until I heard my cousin come up.

"Come on, (Name), the karaoke contest is starting you always join in that."

"What, no I don't, I can't sing!"

"Oh come on, you were in choir in high school, you can sing for us!"

"No I can't…I get…I don't like being on my own on stage."

"Well, it's a single karaoke contest, you know that you can't get out of it, besides, we already picked out your song!"

"What? No!"

Romano laughed at me and stood, reaching a hand out and pulling me up when I placed my hand in his.

"Come on, ragazza, you can't do one song?"

"No, Roma, I would get so embarrassed at school that I would start hiccupping…if I do that here…they won't let me live it down."

"Let me guess, you usually find a way to get out of it?"

"Yeah, but there's not really anything going on that will get me out of it."

"Well, why don't you sing it, but just pay attention to me, pretend that I'm the only one there?"

"I…would you really do that?"

"Of course, this isn't like when Prussia forced us into that karaoke bar last year, you can't get out of this one."

I thought about it for a few seconds before sighing and nodding, letting Romano pull me up to the karaoke box so I could see what song had been chosen for me.

"Oh…oh hell no, this can't be right, they chose the one song I had stuck in my head for weeks…damn…no…."

"What song?"

"No don't look, its so emberrasing."

"It can't be that bad."

"But it is, I hated this song for a while until I finally listened to it and fell for it wholeheartedly, and the damned thing was stuck in my head for weeks."

I pulled Romano away from the book and sat him on a bench, refusing to let him go see, and when he still struggled, I sighed and sat in his lap. A rough sound came from his mouth and we stared at each other, his hands resting on my waist and mine crossed over my chest, blushes standing out against our skin.

"I…I'm sorry, I just really don't want you to see the song."

"It can't be that embarrassing."

"But it is…you'll understand why when I have to sing it."

He sighed and began to play with some of my hair as I watched my more talented family members singing, their voices and confidence outshining what little bit I really needed to do this.

"Okay, its your turn (Name)."

"But I don't want to, you tricked me into doing this."

"It doesn't matter, you have to go up there."

I whined until Romano pushed me off of his lap, making me stand and be dragged away by my cousin while my mother came up to him and pulled him to the front of our little family. With a deep sigh, the song started, and I had no use but to throw myself into the music, and sang my heart out, forgetting that everyone was there until I began to chicken out, and Romano grinned at me.

~Keep on going, you have to.~

Singing on and on, I stared straight down at him, remembering why I had loved this song, why I found it embarrassing. The song was all about my crush on Romano, I hated being away from him, I loved being with him, and it was only pure bad luck that my cousins would torture me with this.

~Last verse, you can finish it, I know you can.~

Just as I finished the song, everyone cheered and I began to step off of the higher part of the porch until my mother grabbed my hand and the microphone.

"I guess we have our winner this year!"

Everyone cheered louder and my blush turned so many different shades of red that I was sure if Spain were here he would compare me to his tomatoes. Luckily, I was let off the porch and made my way to Romano, taking him back to our picnic table and pulling on my summer dress, breathing hard with near panic.

"Calm down, your going to make yourself pass out."

"I think that's what I'm trying to do."

He grinned at me and pulled on his t-shirt and put a hand out to me, a blush on his own cheeks.

"Come on, let's calm down with a walk on the beach."

I smiled and placed my hand in his, walking down to the beach with him, watching the sun set below the ocean, stars beginning to peak out behind the meager clouds in the sky. I gasped in awe at how beautiful it was, my hand still linked in his, until I was pulled into his arms, a smile on his face.

"(Name), I don't really know how to say this…I really don't…but…um…."

"Ti amo, Romano."

He looked straight into my (e/c) eyes, his hazel green ones glittering with happiness and shock.

"T-ti amo troppo, la mia bella donna."

He kissed me, my arms wrapping around his neck, my fingers tangling into his hair, just missing the curl that I was warned never to touch. Romano's own arms wrapped around my waist, pressing our bodies together until we were interrupted by a click and a flash, making us gasp in return. Breaking apart, we stared at my mother who was holding her photography camera and smiling at us.

"Sorry, I just needed to capture this moment. We all have been waiting for the two of you to get together like this."

Glancing up to the top of the sandy hill, I saw my family smiling down at us, a little too happy for the fact that I now had someone just for me, and no one else.

"Believe it or not, Mom, I've been waiting for this too."

Romano smiled at me, pressing another kiss to my lips before we made our way back up to the porch, hand in hand, and no one could tear us apart.