Spain/South Italy

Spain/Romano is an extremely common pairing involving the characters Spain and South Italy. It is mainly referred to as SpaMano or RomaSpa. It is also called Spero by some fans, from the first syllables of Spain and Romano in Japanese, or Oyabun Kobun (親分子分).

Childhood
Spain and Romano likely grew up in the middle of the Roman Empire, though after Ancient Rome vanished, the other children began to bully Romano and his brother for their land and art.

Soon after this, Austria and France went to war over ownership of Chibitalia. After a long period of war (The Italian Wars), Austria claimed Chibitalia as his own, on behalf of the Holy Roman Empire.

Austria proceeded to hand custody of Romano over to Spain, marking the beginning of his control over Southern Italy.

The Era Of Boss Spain
Though Spain at first was overjoyed to get his own servant, he quickly found that the older brother Romano was disobedient, lazy, and had problems with wetting the bed, as well as being a challenge to handle in general. France insisted that he take care of Romano instead, but Spain refused to give him up.

After seeing how careless Romano was at handling chores, Spain begged Austria to exchange Chibitalia with him (due to seeing that the child was more obedient, polite, and "cuter" than his Italy), though he wasn't successful. In Axis Powers Hetalia Volume 1, it is revealed that Romano also had the disease Chorea, though he eventually was cured of the disease shortly after Spain made him dance the Tarantella.

The younger Romano often felt weak and useless, and was jealous of the attention his brother got in comparison to him, as well as his brother's natural talents. He also believed France and Spain were only using him to get a claim on his late grandfather's inheritance. However, Spain was unaware of his feelings and simply believed that Romano hated him.

When the time came for Romano to go on a trip back to his homeland, he insisted that he go alone, though unbeknownst to him, France still had the intention of becoming his boss. Romano subsequently was kidnapped by Turkey, who was planning to conquer Europe to begin with. Spain managed to rescue Romano, but the war with Turkey was far from over.

In order to protect his servant, Spain threw himself further into poverty by selling most of his assets to Turkey. Even though their kingdom wound up thrown into debt due to all the money spent on South Italy's protection, Spain refused to let go of him since he was 'special' to him, even after being scolded several times by his boss. Seeing this made Romano realize how much Spain truly cared for him, and after (very shyly) thanking his caretaker for rescuing him, Spain changed his view on him as well, saying he "also had a cute side after all" and that "it would be so cute if he was so honest all the time".

Being under Spain's rule for a long time, Romano kept rebelling against him, but after being taken over once by Austria, he though that Spain was better and since then after that Romano and Spain have developed a pretty good relationship.

Though Romano would often claim that he hated Spain, he had the tendency of becoming extremely jealous when his boss was in the company of others, especially in the case of a German soldier (where he believed Spain was also in danger). Spain remained oblivious as to why the child treated him harshly, and would only upset him more by comparing his face to a tomato when he was angered (due to it being red and chubby).

Spain also found that pulling Romano's haircurl would garner a violent reaction, though Romano secretly enjoyed it, finding that it "felt nice". But after France told Romano about "teasing play", Romano became disturbed by the hair-pulling, saying "This is-!!!" before walking off, saying Spain is a pervert. Though, it's shown that his curl has changed shape into a heart as he says this.

Spain had spent much of his money on Romano, despite him sinking further into poverty.

The War Years
After the unification of Italy (an event which has yet to be covered in the series), Romano had long since left Spain and went back to his homeland to live with his brother. However, he was shown to still be in contact with Spain by the time of the "Great Depression", when the two attended a meeting and blamed America for the rapidly-spreading financial crisis.

When both of the Italy brothers were kidnapped by England during the Spanish Civil War, Romano attempted to call Spain to bail them out of the situation, though he was unable to rescue them (due to his boss ordering him to make hundreds of roses).

Due to the high cost of the war, both ended up having to spend a lot of money. As a result, Spain was in debt by the start of WWII, and refused to get involved.

Modern Life
As Romano grew into an older he continued to be close to Spain, and is rarely seen spending time with other characters. Whenever he gets in trouble he calls Spain for help, like the time he was captured by England in WWII, or when he ran out of pasta and refused to accept anyone's food but Spain's (only to receive Spain's 'cheer-up charm' instead of pasta in the end).

When Spain became ill due to his poor economy and was near-death, Romano attempted to go out on a quest to help cure him. This included pushing through the mafia and running as fast as he could to help Spain. This shows why claims of him not liking Spain are not only incorrect but non-canon as well. But by the time he returned, Spain had completely recovered due to his people adopting the euro as their currency.

At some other point in time, Spain had a dream in which both Italy brothers were his servants and Romano was warmer to him. But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare once his idealized version of Romano, in an attempt to wake him up (as he had done when he was a kid), jumped down on him and crushed his "vital regions". This revealed that Spain appreciates Romano just the way he is.

In a strip from volume four, Romano is shown reading a book about Spanish history and reading about how Spain spent all its money on Southern Italy in the past. Somewhat embarrassed upon having just discovered this fact, Romano tries to tell Spain something that could be interpreted as an attempt to say thank you, but only for Spain to answer that he used to spend his money without thinking in the past, but now he knows the importance of saving money. Of course this led to Romano becoming really annoyed, and Netherlands saying that "he was always like this" (referring to Spain's thick-headedness).

During the Halloween Event 2011, Spain called Romano cute several times despite his appearance and unsettling aura, and stated that "he's so cute I just can't help but want to protect him".

Also during the Christmas Event 2011, Spain was surprised to see Romano working hard for once, and even after being told by Romano that he didn't need to help, he decided to crouch behind him so that he didn't disturb him and used his 'cheer-up charm' with him, which only succeeded in making Romano lose his patience.

In another strip, Spain and Romano had to deal with an influx of turtles in Romano's home. Romano was dismayed and annoyed about the situation, but Spain was cheerful about the whole thing, going so far as to ask Romano what names they should give to the turtles.

In one strip, Spain is leading Romano to his home because he is completely drunk, when suddenly Portugal appears, Romano then complains that whenever Portugal is near Spain acts weird, and becomes upset with Spain because he is always meek around Portugal and apparently jealous because Spain is “playing favorites” with him.

In another strip, Spain invites Romano to hang out with him at his place, Romano refuses because he doesn't want to “Hang out at a house full of old mans fighting all the time”, Spain then continues to insist for him to come hang out with him, saying he will shown him the Spaniards's “Clamping live roses on their lips”, which Romano finds dumb, Spain then accidently bites the rose's thorns and stars bleeding, while Romano initially finds funny, he becomes worried about him and starts to freak out when Spain's bleeding becomes worse, yelling and asking if he was alright.

Spain also asked Romano to marry him in 2005 when gay marriage became legal in Spain. Romano seems to have accepted, stating ""Minimum 2 free meals and a nap with pasta" as his response to the proposal. This is shown in this strip.

Fan Speculations
Going by a line from part 2 of Boss Spain's Control Of Southern Italy, it is believed that part of the reason why Romano treats Spain so coldly is due to him fearing that Spain only wants him for his grandfather's inheritance, and that his childhood fears have possibly carried over into his adulthood.

Another speculation and long-held fanon belief is that Romano is a strong Catholic and tries to deny any strong feelings he may have for Spain, remaining "closeted" as homosexuality and/or bisexuality wouldn't be approved of by his people's religion. One other belief is that Romano considers Spain to have been the cause of most of his childhood grief, and therefore has a hard time showing that he cares.

Romano's inferiority complex is also believed to have carried over to his adulthood to some extent, with him being lonely and resenting the attention and popularity that his brother gets and the idea that his brother has someone to confide in (who he happens to hate).

It is also speculated that Romano has an abandonment complex, which may have stemmed from his grandfather having left him in his youth in favor of taking Veneziano to live with him, and later dying. Spain was shown to fantasize of having both brothers living with him under his roof on two occasions, and expressed interest in having the younger Veneziano eventually marry him, which Romano objected to (as he would be abandoned).

Spain is either seen as the one who is unaware of Romano's true feelings, or the one who actually holds more affection.

Published Manga

 * Chibitalia (omake, Axis Powers Hetalia volume 1)
 * The Harsh Reality of Roses (Hetalia World ☆ Stars - Chapter 76)

Webcomic: "Extra Stories"

 * The Story Of Italy's Big Brother
 * Boss Spain's Control Of Southern Italy
 * Lithuania's Outsourcing Series, part 3
 * Boss Spain's Control Of Southern Italy, part 2
 * Spain's Lazy Morning
 * In Just Two Minutes, You Can Grasp The Exterior Of The European Economy
 * Boss Spain Doesn't Understand (incomplete)
 * Sea Turtles And Southern Italy
 * Halloween 2011

Webcomic: "Comic Diaries"

 * Comic Diary 2
 * Comic Diary 5
 * Comic Diary 9
 * Comic Diary 10