Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 7

Listen to the song with the chapter.

The meeting room was in silence. It was a new prospect for every country there, none of them used to the deafening quiet. It hadn't even been this quiet before the other countries had come back!

At the front of the room stood Arthur. He swallowed and glanced around the room at the stricken faces. They weren't taking the news about Oliver all too well. For some, it was simply the idea of the counterparts coming back. They'd heard the tales of two years back, seen the damage it had done, and now there was a high chance of it all happening again. Everything that went wrong before, it was all going to go wrong again.

"But... they'll come back right?" Alfred sat upright, plastering a grin on his face. "I mean, come on. People came back before, they can come back again... right? Right?"

"We don't know that for certain" Francis said. "There is obviously the possibility that people could come back, but there's also the chance that they won't. There can only be a selective amount of chances we get to come back I guess."

Arthur nodded.

Yao cleared his throat and stood up. "We... um... we found Ivan." Kiku placed a comforting hand on his arm as everyone stared at him. "He's... he's dead."

There were a couple of shocked murmurs but apart from that, just sad, knowing nods. People had suspected it now. With the added news that the 2ps were back, a disappearance wasn't just a coincidence.

"Do you think it was Viktor?" Ludwig looked up at him as  Yao took his seat again.

"We don't know anything. There was no signs of anything to signify who it was" Kiku said. "It was a knife through the throat. There wasn't much more. Maybe we could run the knife through forensics, but..." he trailed off,  the thought flashing through everyone's minds. There wasn't any point. They all knew really who it was, and even if it wasn't it was one of them.

"It seems we're in the same position as a couple of years ago" Arthur sighed and sat down. Peter was stood next to his chair and he picked him up, cuddling him.

"We also have something to say" Matthias rose from his chair and glanced around the room before taking a deep breath and starting. "Lukas is dead. Emil says they looked like him and Lukas, Loki and Egil he said. They burned the house too."

"Scheisse" Ludwig hissed. "That means that it's not just the ones from last time. They were bad enough, but now we have more? That's an extra five added on, because I assume that it can't be just Lukas and Emil out of the Nordics who have 2ps. If they've turned up, who knows how many others could appear as well."

"We could be dealing with a..." Gilbert gulped noisily. "A 2p Roderich." He mocked a face of shock and fear, turning slowly to meet the Austrian's furious gaze. "I can't deal with one, let alone another, possibly a murderous one too!"

"This isn't the time for jokes Gilbert" Roderich shouted. "This is a serious situation. Go put them where they belong."

Gilbert snickered.

"What is wrong with you?" Ludwig sighed. "You were killed last time, you know what it's like and here you are pretending it's nothing?"

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "Jeez West, I was only lightening the mood a little."

"Well learn when to and when not to" Ludwig hissed. "We need to think of what to do. What did we do last time?"

"Nothing" Lovino stood up. "We didn't do anything. Anything at all. We just sat there like fucking ducks and waited while they trashed more and more place. Waited while they knew where we were for them to catch us, to find us and kill us. When they proposed an idea, we responded, because that was all we could do. That was what killed us. You remember the massacre once Lutz and Kuro got inside the conference building don't you potato? That's going to happen again and this time there will be nothing that can stop it, because like before, we won't be fucking prepared. We're all going to die again. Don't you bastards see it? All of us, we're all going to die once again and I don't know about you, but I'm not ready for that."

"Fratello..." Feliciano grabbed his arm. "Fratello calm down."

"I will not calm down Feli. Don't you understand or are you brain dead like the rest of them?" Lovino ripped his arm away from his younger brother. "I don't care about you lot. You lot can all die slowly like before. Well that's not happening with me. That's not happening again." He kicked back his chair, listening as it made a screeching noise like chalk on a blackboard, and stormed out, slamming the door as he went.

No one came after him. He didn't want them to. He wanted to be alone for a change. No one buzzing round him like flies. He ignored the receptionist as he went through the lobby as she asked him to sign out and left the building, getting in his car and just driving. The meeting had been held in Italy much to his delight, which meant that he didn't have to watch his speed. He just wanted to get home.

It didn't take him long before the door was open, the key in the lock. He ripped it out and closed the door, parts of his anger withering away in small pieces. That didn't matter though. For a moment, he leaned against the door, tears threatening to spill. Then he pushed away and ran outside. The house his brothers and him owned was a large one in the countryside with a garden that was more like a field. It had belonged to all of them, their sister included. She used to live with them too, until her boss had taken her back to Vatican City. Lucia had been the one he could tolerate. She wasn't as scatty as Feliciano and Sebastian or as happy-go-lucky. She didn't piss him off as much either.

But what did they matter? At the end of the day, if one of them died, technically they all died, even though they were all their own parts of Italy.

There was a selection of trees at the far end of the garden, and right at the moment Lovino's anger boiled over, they were what he was looking at. He wrenched the gun out of the holster he kept hidden. The gun buckled in his grip, the noise echoing in the surrounding emptiness. It'd been a while since he'd been this angry, since he'd shot stuff for no reason. Normally he preferred not to use the gun. It reminded him of the mafia, but right now, he didn't care.

It was times like this when he was thankful he didn't have any neighbours. They'd probably start shouting at him right now. But then again, that wouldn't stop him anyway.

He'd just carry on shooting, the gun still slamming into the back of his hand. It hurt. His palms were raw from holding it and every so often a trickle of blood would find it's way between the metal and skin.

He didn't care.

A pair of arms wrapped round his middle and a head rested on his shoulder.

"Please stop."

Lovino dropped the gun and turned round, burying his face in Antonio's t-shirt.

"It's going to happen again. It's going to I swear. We're all going to die again and I... I can't deal with that."

Antonio placed a hand on his head. "I know."

Lucia - Vatican City

Decided to let this one out a day early coz hey why not? Hope you enjoyed ^-^