🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Has he ever! Of course, the one I'm most well-known for is perhaps SicIre, aka him and Harry O'Connel. The definition of OTP for me and it has been the greatest honour to rewrite Irish Problems to tell their meet-ugly that launched a thousand posts. Saluting emoji.

But Michele is simply too shipable to me. Love GreSic, aka him and his childhood friend Herakles who bond over the shared secret of their horrible childhoods. Michele is also just weak to a man with big arms and big legs ... plus they can talk all throughout the night. I love GreSic, man.

TurSic is great for "The one that got away". I love these two being flirtsy and Michele being into being adored, but also clearly saying "Ah ah ah! Not your toy!". And Sadık can't help it, he loves to run after beautiful people to cherish. This ship is also very-well suited to femme fatale, ever-devouring Sicily Michele ...

I ship FraSic but only as horribly, messily divorced ship. These two only saw each other as shiny, shiny trophies for two weeks and then all they could think about was sexily murdering the other. I love FraSic as bitter exes so much man.

Sicgypt has also been on my radar, simply because I love the Sicily & Egypt connections throughout history and they're both very laidback together, I think. Would both love to adore the other.

Michele is also one of two men that Arielle has any romantic respect for and they make an absolute dream marriage in my res publica AU. They're only friends in LFLS (<main AU) and most other universes I come up with, though. Also because I'm too busy ruining Arielle's life by her finally being engaged to Tahir and then that DIPSHIT still chooses Robert. But that's neither here nor there.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Pasta Norma and good, fresh seafood. He loves an eggplant so much. Also pistachios, everything sweet that comes in pistachio, he'll get in pistachio. Hell, he has pistachio-flavoured condoms, which are one of the main reasons Harry seriously wanted to stage an intervention at some point.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Gangster - again. In this case, he's the biggest shark in Sicily's already dangerous shark tank.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

He loves gardening and cooking, both things he inherited from his mother. It was Maria Vento, who turned the useless, landscaped garden of that hell-mansion into a vegetable and fruit patch. After his father died, Michele expanded on it. He also taught both of the twins how to cook, and especially Lorenzo was an eager student.

🎯 -What do they do best?

He is an excellent cook and an excellent host. The latter is also connected to how he's a great leader. This man will keep a group together! He'll stand his ground, but he'll make concerns feel heard. He'll put everyone at ease and rally them to a cause, just because he makes them feel like a family. Certainly, he does choose to whom to extend his empathy - He wouldn't be a mafioso, couldn't be, if he did to everyone. But when he does extend his empathy, he does make it feel heartfelt.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Loves to cook! Loves to garden! Hates to have to catch Angelo's chicken and drive it back to his farmer neighbour! (Seriously, how do these chickens keep escaping and make it all the way over to his fenced in garden?).

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

When his mother first let him help cook in the kitchen ...

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Probably most of his childhood, as far as his father is concerned. To be beaten and then told that if he told his mother (again), he'd earn twice the beating again is probably seared into his memory.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

Already not answered here!

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Already not answered here!

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

He should be in an upbeat yet whistful regional romantic family comedy ... instead he's in this gangster drama.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

He's a pansexual cis man.

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

None! But Marco and Lorenzo Bontade, the twins he took under his wing when they were 12 and he just 18, refer to him as their "big brother".

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

He loves and adores his mother Maria above all else. She's his everything, the person he loves the most in the entire world. Her love is the reason he's even alive.

Because his father Salvatore is one of the main reasons this AU is called "Like Father Like Son". Jealous that someone else got attention by his beloved Maria, he quickly grew to hate his son and physically abused Michele for most of his childhood. Michele has never told anyone but Herakles about the abuse and he's haunted by everyone associating him with his father's brutal political legacy.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

He's such a tragic figure and I love that. He's so motivated by 'fixing' himself, eradicating any trace of the hurt he received in everyone's mind, that he doesn't notice how he hurts those he loves the most and wants to protect the most in this quest. You understand why he's so desperate to achieve his goal and you can also blame him for his actions, still. He's a posterchild for how most of the characters in LFLS have been failed, deserved support and help and didn't get it, so now they keep the cycle of trauma and abuse going.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Currently in a writer's block when it comes to Irish Problems, but I've been consistently writing him for the past few years. Even more so because most of the time when I want to write, it ends up being a SicIre drabble. When in doubt, make Michele and Harry be in love.

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

No, not Michele, dearest. Again, whether he grows old or not is none of my business, but I wouldn't kill my Miché.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

No phobias, as far as I'm aware of, no. He does have a deepseated distrust of father figures and hates being called 'son' or someone acting like he does with his own kids. Unadoptable by men, this man.

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

The Vargas brothers, but more specifically Lovino Vargas. Cousins thrice removed, Lovino believes that he's entitled to Sicily as part of his territory, especially since his family has all of Italy and is so much more successful than Michele's. Michele is going to give up his power and control over his cold, dead body. They also both hate how much they see themselves in the other - either all they could never be but should OR they see their most glaring faults reflected back at them.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

That is a good question, because I don't know when Michele stopped being my friend's OC and became my OC instead ... I'd guess somewhere in 2014, 2015. When my friend moved on to other places and I was still obsessed with both Hetalia and this little AU world I created.

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

They would have to stay in the shades, that was true. But that was always true. Michele's thoughts began to wander as he still couldn't spot the Irish - it wasn't as crowded except for a few tourists here and there and a lone student here and there as well. He was excited to see them again.

"Do you want to show them inside the cathedral?" Marco asked.

"If they want to."

"Are they all Catholics?"

"I would assume so! They're Irish, aren't they?"

"Would you still keep thinking about him if he wasn't?"

"Well, I don't want to introduce him to my mother, so …" Michele said and they groaned. "Boys, I already told you - I'll be professional."

"You better be," Lorenzo said.

"Last time you had an affair on the job, it was a fucking -" Marco said.

"- Catastrophe," they said in unison and Michele pulled a face. The twins hadn't been his right hands at the time, still too young, but of course they had noticed. They were very observant - and persistent.

"Right. It was and it is good to keep that in mind, boys," Michele said. "Also, Francois was also a catholic and that meant nothing but trouble … Sometimes birds of a feather just peck each other's eyes out. Especially if it's a proud gallic cock …" The twins snorted hard and giggled at that. "It's better to reach across the schism, to put the past behind us … Good men in orthodox churches," he said, thinking of Herakles. He hoped to tell him soon of his new alliance, knowing his best friend could keep a secret.

And yet, his mind was wiped from his childhood friend's face when he finally spotted the Irish - O'Neill first, of course, but unmistakenably the other two next to him.

Harry's suit was unbuttoned. Flattering cut he had to say, of course, but yesterday he had seen him with his jacket off and the sleeves of his shirt had betrayed even more of the strength underneath.