The young girl of nineteen sat down at the bench, patiently awaiting the arrival of her brother Feliciano, or Italy to a few people she had not met yet. Italy would get in trouble for housing a mere mortal. She checked her watch, paranoid that she was late for their meeting. The golden watch read 2:07.
I'm just a few minutes late. Nothing to worry about... She smoothed her curly brown hair behind her ears, knowing well that it wouldn't even stay in the same position for more than a few minutes. She looked down at her white sneakers, making sure they looked generally clean and the laces were tied. The basket in her lap felt uncomfortable, but she didn't want to put it in the space next to her in fear of someone stealing the meals inside: containers full of pasta.
Did I come to the right place? He said there would be a tree against the bench! She leaned back into the bench. If he was cancelling he could have at least told me-
"Geli!"
The girl whipped her head in the direction of the voice. Italy! "Feli!" The young girl quickly stood to her feet, placing the basket on the bench. The excitable boy ran up to his sister and hugged her, disregarding the basket entirely.
He lifted her off of her feet, swinging her a bit. "Oh, I'm-a so sorry for being late-a! I just-a passed by the cutest art store, and I was-a looking at the supplies in the window and I got distracted, and-"
"Feli, it's okay! It's okay!" Geli separated from her adoptive brother, and smiled widely at him.
"R-Really? Oh I'm-a so happy to hear-a you say that! Why-a don't we go there after we have-a the picnic I so carefully set up!" He grabbed the basket and pulled his sister along the path to a hill. At the top was a blanket — the Italian flag — and a cute umbrella to provide shade. They set down the basket and sat down carefully on the blanket, situating themselves underneath the umbrella. The two siblings fell into a comfortable silence, allowing daydreams to manifest.
"Oh," Geli soon snapped out of her reverie as she remembered something and turned to Italy, who was staring fondly at a flower next to her. He broke his stare and looked at her. "Look in the basket, Feli!" Feli, very excitedly, turned to get the basket. A look of curiosity plastered itself on the country's face as he twisted around to retrieve the item.
"Pasta!"
The rest of the evening was filled with teaching Geli how to fly a kite (and successfully flying said kite into a tree), drawing random things they saw in the park (like said kite-stricken tree), and enjoying each other's company. They even managed to shop in the art store before it closed. The blanket ended up being heavier than it was in the beginning, as the pair managed to shove into it a bunch of art supplies: outlining pens, flesh markers, colored pencils, erasers, blending tools, various paints, and randomly sized watercolor and sketching books. Geli skipped with Italy all the way home, regardless of her aching feet and legs. Her hands hurt from swinging the basket back and forth, and she ended up getting sick due to forgetting her jacket before leaving. But she couldn't care less, she was so happy.
She, irrespective of Italy telling her to go to bed around eleven PM, stayed up until three in the morning, because she was drawing. (That may have been Italy's fault, but no one is really going to blame him— after all, he made someone happy.) The drawing turned out great, counting the fact that the girl was tired and driven only by pure inspiration.
The drawing was of the tree with the big kite stuck in it... Which also made her remember that they never took the kite out.
Oops?
