literature

RomanoxReader The Pickpocket Chapter 9

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On your way to Florence, you stopped by Pisa, mainly to see the tower.  You were very surprised to find that there were other monuments  in the square where the tower was located.  According to Romano, a long time ago, unbaptised people were not allowed inside the churches, so the people would build small tomb-shaped structures called baptistries.  Converts woud get baptized there and then enter the Church or Cathedral for the rest of the service.  He pointed out the baptistry to you, and you figured out that the larger, more ornate building must have been the church.

There had, however, been an issue with the people selling things at the plaza's gate as you left.  There were several large dark men, all trying to sell the exact same thing.  They would attempt and put items in your hands and demand money afterwards.  Romano had been telling them to fuck off, but they just kept shouting at him.  In all the commotion, you'd  managed to sneak your way out of the yelling, selling mob.  As you watched Romano fight for his life and his empty wallet, you leaned on one of the tables of the legitimate vendors.  The woman seemed nice enough.  She asked how you were doing and what you were looking for in broken English.  You just pointed at Romano cursing all of the fake Coach bags the men were trying to sell.  They had actually moved a good distance away from you.

"I'm waiting for him."  The kiosk owner chuckled good-naturedly.  You did actually consider buying some of the woman's relief pendants.  They were so detailed and sophisticated-looking.  You managed to find one in your favorite color that caught your interest, so you paid for it.  You were about to turn around when you felt someone grab you.

"Don't you fucking run away!"  Your mental freak out ended as soon as you realized it was Romano.  You started apologizing and laughing when he interrupted.  "Don't ever do that again!  Do you understand me?"

"Wh-what did I do?!"  You had absolutely no clue what had done, but he was really close and really upset; you had trouble looking him straight in the eyes.  His mouth was just so close to yours.
"Don't run off like that!  You fucking scared me half to death!"
"But I didn't run off!  You did!"  You tried defending yourself, but it was just so hard.  Was he getting closer?
"Always stay clo-!" He stopped mid-sentence, let go of you, and began walking away.
"Romano!  What the heck? Where are you going?!"  You could have sworn you heard the vendor laughing as you chased after Romano.

"Romano what's wrong?"  He ignored you. "Romano!"  You grabbed his arm and he spun around.  "Romano, a-are you okay?"
"I'm fine, god damn it!"  He was really red and you couldn't honestly put a name on the emotion he was expressing.  It was something between anger and crying, maybe it was panic?  "Just, come on.  We have a long trip to Florence."
So you arrived in Florence after two silent hours of train-ride.  He wouldn't talk to you; he wouldn't even look at you.  You wondered how it was that you'd fallen in love with a guy who acted like a girl.  Honestly, what man gives a girl the silent treatment?  You tried talking to him again on your way to the hostel.

"Roma, why won't you tell me what's wrong?"
"Will you just leave me alone?  I'm angry, okay?"
"But why?"
"It's not your problem!"
"It is my problem!"  He finally turned to face you. "Romano, we're friends, your problems effect me.  And, look, I'm sorry I got lost in Pisa, but I'm okay, and you're okay, so I don't understand-"
"We're friends."  His face changed.  He took a deep breath and swallowed hard.
"Y-yeah?"
"I'm sorry.  I'm not angry anymore, okay?  You just freaked me out is all."
"Is that seriously the reason you were angry?"
"W-well that was one-"
"Do you have abandonment issues or something?" you said trying to lighten the mood.  Apparently so, however, since he frowned and glared at you.

"Just hurry up.  All the rooms'll be taken."
"Oh, okay."  Seriuosly, though, what had you done?
"You're really, really dumb, you know that?"
"Oh, and you're Mr. Genius, I'm sure."
"You don't get it."
"What? What don't I get."
"Just hurry up."  He lengthened his stride and you practically had to jog to keep up with him.  At that pace, it took you very little time to get to your hostel.  And lucky for you, it was a family hostel.

Once in the tiny white room, Romano threw himself on the minimilistic couch and sighed happily.
"You play on quite the emotional swing-set, don't you?"
"Aw, shut up.  I'm just glad I don't have to stay with a stupid sweaty group of guys.  Just let me enjoy this, okay?"  You shook your head, but you were glad that he was in a better mood.  You tossed your bag by the bed you decided was yours.  Then you sat on the armrest and leaned over him a bit.
"If you want, you can switch rooms now."
"No!"  He was glowing pink.  You just laughed.
"You're so easy to tease."  He started to sit up, so you started to straighten up as well.  His movement had caught you so off gaurd that you slid of the arm of the couch and tumbled to the floor.  Now it was Romano's turn to laugh.

"Hey!  That wasn't funny! Ow..."  you put a hand on your bottom where you'd landed.  You were sure that there'd be a bruise there tomorrow.
"Okay, okay. Sorry, but-" He was still laughing.  You'd never seen him laugh this hard before, and he had a contagious laugh.  Soon you were laughing, and you had no idea why.  Romano must have forgotten he was on the couch, because there was a thump and then he was on the floor too.
"What the hell, Roma?"
"I have no clue!"  He wiped his eyes and sighed loudly.  You sat up and yawned.

"Hey," he said suddenly serious.
"What?"  He swallowed and turned his head before answering
"I'm, i mean, I'm sorry for blowing up at you like that."
"Lovino, you already apologized."
"Yeah, but it was uncalled for."
"It's really okay."
"No, it's not.  I'm always the one making problems."
"Lovino..."
"You probably hate me, don't you?"
"What?! No!"  He had no clue how far off the mark he was.  He stared at you for few moments before he continued, like he was making sure you weren't lying or something.

"Well if you start to, just let me know, okay?  And i'll go far away."
"Have you been drinking?"
"What?  Of course not!  It's only like two in the afternoon!"
"Sorry, you're just saying really weird stuff."  You mussied up his hair a little before he swatted your hand away.  He bit on his lip and was blushing really badly as he did so.
"I thought I told you not to touch my fucking hair, you stupid girl!"
"That's the Lovi I know!"
"Don't call me that! God damn it all!"

After you finally resolved the fight, you decided to spend the rest of the day just walking around the city, looking at the shops and various churches from the outside.  Romano told you all about the two major art galleries in the city and promised to show you where they were tomorrow.  So the rest of the day went by pretty quickly.  Throughout your time on the street, you'd often felt Romano's eyes on you, and sometimes he'd act like he was totally not looking at you, but other times he'd maintain eye-contact before walking off somewhere else.  You just figured that it would be best not to ask why he was watching you so closely.  Maybe it had something to do with his abandonment issues.

The next day, Romano woke you up early to go see the Uffizi gallery.  He said it was important to get there early because they moderated tickets by the half-hour, and there was a lot to see.  You managed to get tickets for entrance only ten minutes before your time, so you barely had to wait, but the wait was nothing compared to the three flights of stairs you had to climb to get to the galleries.

"I thought I was done with stairs after we left Rome!" you complained.
"Oh, hush!  You have to climb more to get to your dorm; you can handle this."
"Roma!  Carry me!" you teased.
"Get the fuck off me!  Stupid girl!" He forced you to trudge up the rest of the stairs.  When you finally reached the top-floor, you were amazed at the size of the museum.  It was arranged in a giant U shape with mulitple floors.  There was work dating back from the Greek and Roman classical period all the way to the late-Renaissance.  There was Botticelli, and Gentileski and Carvaggio and Bellini, just to name a few.  You were so excited and frantically explaining things and pointing out techniques that you didn't notice Romano's slight smile.  Upon leaving the museum, he had commented on how excited you got around art.

"Well, it's what I love, so of corse I get excited around it!  Don't you get excited around the things you love?"
"Humph."  You shook your head.  He really didn't express his feelings very well.  Surprisingly enough, the Uffizi had taken up most of your day.  You went back to the hostel to relax for tomorrow.  Romano had suggested you go to the second gallery in Florence, the Accademia. He seemed to be in a relatively good mood, so you thought it might be a good time to bring up the issue of Christmas.

"Romano?"
"What the hell do you want?"  he was reading the newspaper as he sat on the couch.  You nervously fidgeted with your drawing pencils since you had been drawing at the time.
"Do you, uh, want to celebrate Christmas?"  He put the paper down and looked at you like you were dumb.
"I'd like to, but considering the fact that I have no fucking money, I won't be able to.  I'm still expecting presents, though."  He said it so seriously that you questioned whether or not he was being serious.  He went back to reading the paper as if the conversation was over.

"Isn't it enough that I feed you and pay for yor transportation?"
"Isn't it enough that I'm showing you around and keeping you safe?"  You were a bit stunned by the point he'd just made.  Was he trying to say that you should just be happy to have him around?  Even if it wasn't, you came to the epiphany that you should be happy to have him around on such a holiday.
"But seriously, you're not expecting presens, are you?"
"No, you stupid girl, I was joking."
"oh, okay."
"But I will be going to Mass early in the morning, so if you want to come with me, I'm sure the cathedral will be nice."

"How early are we talking, here?"  Romano was a pretty devout Catholic.  Well, at least, in church he was.  Outside of that it was kind of hard to tell, considering the number of people he hated.  You'd been to a few services with him and found it more interesting to look at the ceilings with all the artwork than to listen to the preist drone on in a language you didn't understand.  By the time Christmas arrived, the two of you had moved from Florence to Asissi.  It hadn't been on of your "must sees" of Italy, but Romano had recomended you go there.  And it was beautiful.

Asissi was placed on the side of a mountian and was really hilly.  you cold look out a window and see for miles around.  Every morning you and Romano woke up at the crack of dawn to the chirping of some very lively birds.  Romano had complained on several occasions that the stupid birds ought to be hibernating or something.  You went with him to St. Francis's Cathedral for the celebration of the Christmas Mass and you had to admit it was pretty spectacular.  Some of the pilgrims had been quite emotional, and had you been more religious and actually understood what the father had been saying, you might have been able to sympathize better with them.  But you weren't, so you just looked at all the funny looking Dark Age paintings on the walls.  It was almost comical at how inaccurate the artwork was.

The rest of your Christmas Day you spent cooking with Romano. It was a lot of fun trying to get him to taste everything you made and watching his facial expressions.  You'd definately improved since he'd started teaching you, but you still missed his standards sometimes.  Uunfortunately for you, however, spending Christmas with him made you realize just how badly you wanted him.  Your artwork had been getting steadily more and more cheesy.  It was almost sickening.  You would try and draw, realize the concept sucked, grumble, and then tear  or ball the paper up and start over again.  When Romano had asked what the matter as, you'd pretty much acted anything but normal.

"Art not going well?"
"No," you said hesitantly.
"What's wrong with it?"
"I don't like the concepts I keep coming up with."
"What are the concepts?"
"Nothing that you'd be interested in!  Why are you getting so question-y about my art, geez, you never took this much interest before, why now?"
"Sorry I asked.  I'll try not to bother you anymore."  You slapped your hand to your forehead.  You had to be the single most awkward person on the planet.

According to Romano, Catholic Christmas lasted for twelve days, which made a lot of sense, considering the song.  It ended on the Epiphany, and he said he wanted to spend all of the Christmas season in Asissi, which you quickly consented to.  You hadn't taken a bad picture yet.  And landscapes, you'd realized, helped you stay away from cheesy, sappy drawings of happy couples.  Once Epiphany arrived and passed, you planned out the rest of Northern Italy so that you'd be able to catch the last three days of Carnevale in Venice.  Milan, Turin, and Bologna passed quickly and soon it was time to head towards Italy's city.
Oh gosh reader-tan, you made Romano angry! Why would you do that?!1!

Well, I managed to get this one up! Although I really feel like the quality on these last two chapters has been...unsatisfactory. So I apologize for that. I promise that they'll get better again, really! Especially next chapter~! I have plans, my friends.

And this one is just chock-full of unimportant Catholic stuff. Also, Reader-tan does not have a set religion because I feel it would be rude/offensive to arbitrarily designate her one. So if the Christmas part is an issue, I apologize. It was not meant to be offensive. Neither was the part about reader-tan's church-time art viewing. And yes, I am Catholic myself, but I don't agree with it on every issue. (I am so upset with its stance on homosexual marriage, you don't even know.) But please understand that this is in NO way supposed to be a way for me to push my faith off on reader-tan (or anyone ever). I'm simply trying to keep Romano accurate, and most of Italy is Catholic. So I hope that clears up any issues with the religion parts. (end of religion rant) OTL

Extra note: For some reason, my U key is sticky, so there'll probably be a whole bunch of missing U's in words. Just a warning.

So please enjoy this sub-par chapter! And please look out for the next chapter tomorrow!

Navigation:
Prolouge: [link]
Chapter 1: [link]
Chapter 2: [link]
Chapter 3: [link]
Chapter 4: [link]
Chapter 5: [link]
Chapter 6: [link]
Chapter 7: [link]
Chapter 8: [link]
Chapter 9: :heart:
Chapter 10: [link]
© 2012 - 2024 Bastet-CGRP
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xsasusakuxsasusaku's avatar
I am also catholic heh my dad always makes me go. I don't know about you but my dad is full fledge catholic. If I miss one day I have to go to confession. If we don't go to church Christmas Eve then early Christmas morning. I learn to love it though. Ps great story ^J^ sorry if I upset you somehow ((I don't know how but I always end up upsetting someone heh))