Title: The Gift of You
Character(s) or Pairing(s): Spain/Romano
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: Sometimes, Romano really is the sweetest person Spain knows.
Notes: Written for
lostangelkazuko for the
Spamano Valentine's Day exchange on Tumblr :)
Spain was more excited than Romano had seen him in a good, long while.
Normally that would really be saying something, because Spain was an easily excitable person who woke Romano up at 2 am to make him look at a particularly pretty star in the sky or got insanely fired up about one of the couples on his six thousands and fifty-two soaps finally getting together, but lately he'd had a stick up his ass over work and his economy and more work. Romano had mostly heard this from France, Prussia, and Belgium, since he'd had a fight with Spain early on in the stick-up-his-ass faze and hadn't spent much time with him since, and from what he'd heard he was just a little bit glad Spain had waited to come to him with his (numerous) apologies.
Romano would never, ever tell him, but he was extremely relieved to find Spain was in a better mood by the time his birthday rolled around.
Because he'd made plans, of course, and having those plans ruined because Spain was being a horrid bitch was just not acceptable in any way, shape, or form.
"Romano! You can see the sea from here!"
Romano looked up from unpacking his suitcase to find the door leading to the balcony outside their room wide open. "Of course you can see it. We're on the coast. Of an island. Stop leaving all the doors open."
"Ah, but the breeze feels so nice inside."
"If you let bugs in again I'm making sure they all bite you."
Spain just laughed at him, because despite the fact that Spain insisted the mother he barely remembered was a saint, he clearly hadn't learned any manners at all from her. "Bugs can't bit me on my birthday!"
"They can if I let them."
"Why would you do that?"
"You let them in, you're getting the bites." Romano knew he'd probably be the one getting the bites. Bastards always picked him first. It wasn't fair in the slightest. "Are you going to keep fucking around out there or are you going to help me unpack?"
"We can unpack later, we just got here!"
Romano hung up the suits he'd brought for dinner and decided that maybe Spain could be right this one time. If he hadn't already gotten him the gift that was this vacation, he'd think that was a good enough present for Spain's birthday AND Valentine's Day. "Whatever. I thought maybe you'd want to not live out of the suitcases this time."
"Mm. That last trip was so fun, though."
"Not when you broke the zipper on the suitcase it wasn't."
Spain was leaning haphazardly over the edge of the balcony when Romano decided to make his appearance outside. He turned around and grinned at Romano before answering. "But then I got to wear your clothes until we got it open."
"Your fat ass stretched them all out weird." Romano eyed Spain warily, just waiting for him to fall to his death or slip and break his skull again or something.
He jumped when something crashed down below, even though he was looking right at Spain and knew it couldn't possibly be him unless he'd managed to duplicate himself and oh god that was a terrifying thought. Trying not to focus more about that particular train of thought, he looked around for the source of the noise. Spain seemed entirely unperturbed, however, even thought it was apparently his phone that had gone crashing to its death over the balcony.
He grabbed Spain's sleeve and tugged him back away from the railing. "You idiot, you dropped your phone."
"No I didn't! It's right... where'd it go?" Spain groped around for his phone, checking all his pant pockets and then trying to reach inside Romano's. "I swear it was just in my pocket!"
"It was." Romano pointed down to the lawn beneath them. "Now it's hanging around in the yard."
Spain peered over the edge, pouting for a moment before the expression quickly shifted to relief. "The grass must have saved its fall, it doesn't look broken at all! Hold on, I'll go get it!"
Romano watched for a moment, just to make sure Spain didn't try to leap off the balcony to retrieve his phone, then went back to unpacking after he determined Spain had decided to go downstairs and out the front door like a normal person.
---
"We should go over to the beach." After they'd finished unpacking and gotten all the shit Spain threw all over the bed put away elsewhere, Romano had flopped out on the bed and really hadn't planned on getting up any time soon. The way Spain was running one hand through his hair and tapping the other one lightly against his side wasn't really convincing him to changed his mind either. "To the market too. For food."
"I made plans for food tomorrow. You deal with it today."
Romano felt a lip jut out against his neck and figured Spain was pouting again. He must have still thought that actually worked on Romano. "But it's my birthday."
"It's your birthday tomorrow."
"It's my birthday eve, then."
"It's one in the afternoon, it can't be your birthday eve yet."
"My pre-birthday afternoon."
"I'm not getting up, fuck you."
Those stupid lips were moving around over Romano's neck again and when Spain murmured, "That could be arranged," Romano figured he was making some stupid trying-not-to-laugh face over there.
"You are so lame."
"Yet I get a whole vacation planned for me by sweet boyfriend." Romano's next was being kissed and yeah definitely not getting up at all, fuck that. "Being lame is okay with me if that's what I get."
"Everyone was getting sick of your bitching." Romano grabbed Spain's hand to move his creeping fingers away from his stomach. He figured holding them still atop the bed sheets was far more acceptable. "I had to get you away before we all punched you in the face."
"How noble of you."
"I'm fucking noble as shit and you know it."
Spain laughed and the motion in his chest and stomach nudged against Romano's back. "Are you my knight in shining armour? Whisking me off to save me from some terrible fate?"
"No." Romano nudged his foot back against Spain's. "I am Romano and you are Spain and you're ruining my nap."
"Uh-uh. I think you're making my nap better."
"You're not even napping."
"I'm resting."
"Not the same thing." Romano pinched the hand trying to remove itself from his grasp, no doubt to do more ridiculous exploring beneath the sheets. "Go to sleep."
"Okay okay." Spain leaned up, just enough to kiss Romano's cheek instead of his neck or the back of his head like he had been. "But only because your sleeping face is so adorable."
Romano yawned and pinched Spain's hand again. He didn't even try not to laugh when Spain flinched away and whined at him. "If I wake up and you're staring at me I am cancelling your birthday."
---
Fortunately for both Spain and the existence of his birthday, Romano did not wake up (many more hours than he'd intended to sleep later) to Spain staring at him. Spain was still pressed against his back, one arm over his waist, the other smooshed between his back and Spain's chest in a way that could not have been at all comfortable, and he was sound asleep.
Romano's stomach didn't growl, but fuck if he didn't know he was hungry anyway. He pushed Spain away from him, ignoring any and all whines and sleepy sounds of protest, and got up to go to the market. He left Spain where he was, since it was so much easier to go shopping without Spain throwing random things into the cart every three seconds.
When he got back, arms laden with fresh vegetables and cheeses and fish, he decided to grace Spain with his culinary skills and actually be the one to make the food as well.
"Oh hey Roma."
Romano jumped when he realised Spain was right behind him and he hadn't heard him approach at all. The knife he'd been using to cut an eggplant clattered onto the counter before sliding off and falling on the floor. "Jesus fuck, when did you get here?!"
"Same time you did?"
"I mean. Shit. Go make yourself useful and clean that knife off."
"Alright. Do you want me to cut those tomatoes for you?"
"Fine, but no more sneaking up on me."
Spain nodded and once they both had clean knives, they set about chopping the rest of the ingredients for dinner. "I thought I had to make the food tonight?"
"Clearly you were proving useless with that task, so I'm handling it."
"So thoughtful of you."
Romano flicked a piece of the mushroom he'd been slicing off his finger and in Spain's direction. It missed, but judging from Spain's expression he got the general idea. "I'm the most thoughtful person you know, shut up."
"You are, though." Spain smiled and Romano turned his attention back to food preparation because he looked far too sincere when he said that. "Taking me on vacation for my birthday after I've been in such a bad mood, even though I know you're not doing so well either."
"Somebody had to chill your ass out."
"Well I'm glad it's you."
The edge of Romano's mouth shifted up, just a bit, but then Spain had to go and burn himself trying to mix the tomatoes into the eggplant, mushroom, and olive oil cooking away on the stove; the mood was effectively ruined.
Though Spain did get a kiss where the oil had splashed onto his hand, so if you asked him, he hadn't completely wrecked Romano's cute mood.
---
After dinner, a half-assed dessert that consisted of a chocolate bar Spain forgot was in his bag, and a couple hours of just laying around, Spain finally convinced Romano to leave the cozy confines of the villa yet again and go down to the beach with him.
"Just for a little bit?" He'd pleaded. "We already missed the sunset, but I'm sure it's really pretty at night."
Really pretty and cold. Romano didn't know what he'd been thinking, bringing Spain to a villa by the sea in the middle of February.
"It's a little warmer here than it was back at my place."
"Barely."
"But that's why you packed our jackets, right?"
"No, I packed them because you always forget to."
"Ah." Spain swung their arms back and forth as they made their way along the shore, far enough from the water so as to not get their feet wet, but close enough to see the gentle roll of the waves under the slightly clouded sky. "That is exactly why, how silly of me."
"Really need to learn to get your facts straight, you know."
"I know." Spain paused in their walking and arm swinging to look up at the stars that were visible through the cloud cover. "Say, think we can get up to see the sun rise tomorrow?"
"Fuck no," Romano quickly responded. "I'm not waking up that early."
"Aw, why not? Please?"
"We'd hardly get any sleep, it's already," Romano glanced down at this watch, then did a double take when he was the time. "Past midnight. When did that happen?"
Spain looked over at Romano’s watch as well. "Thirteen minutes ago, probably."
"Asshole." Romano tugged Spain along, wanting to continue their walk instead of standing there looking up at the sky. "Happy Birthday. If you drag me to the see the sunrise in the morning you better put me back in bed when we're done."
Spain squeezed Romano's hand and leaned over to kiss his cheek, then his nose, then his lips after he finally got Romano to stop walking. "I promise I will. Thanks, Romano."
"Yeah, yeah." Romano returned the small peck with a longer kiss of his own. "You're welcome."