AN: well... For starters, this story doesn't have anything to do with Guns N' Roses' song, but I just couldn't come up with a better title and this kinda fits. It might change if I come up with something better.
This is different from anything I've written before, but I'm pretty happy with the result; I hope you lot enjoy it :) As always, English is not my first language, so I apologize for any mistake you might find.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia (I wish).

Then (I)

He was lost. There was no denying it. Antonio felt his lower lip tremble as he turned around, trying to see something, anything, that would lead him back home. Unfortunately, all the trees around him looked the same, and after having turned a few more times, he realized he now had no idea from where he had stepped into the clearing in the first place. He hugged himself, trying with all his might to stop the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. He would NOT cry, because Papa always said that men don't cry, and that one time he had because he had fallen on some thorny bushes, João had laughed at him and called him a pussy.

A cold gust blew, howling as it slid through the forest, and Antonio forgot what Papa said and that one time João had mocked him: he was lost and alone and scared and cold— surely that authorized him to cry. So he cried. He cried for a long time, then stopped, then realized that crying had not improved his situation at all, and then he cried some more.

He was starting to come to terms with the fact that he was going to die in that forest when someone spoke just behind his back:

"Will you quit that? It's annoying!"

Startled, Antonio jumped, letting out a shriek. Instead of turning, his panicked mind urged him to seek refuge behind the nearest tree. Once he felt relatively safer, he gathered up all the courage he could summon and peeped back at the clearing from behind the trunk.

In the middle of the clearing stood a girl. She had long, golden hair tucked into two pigtails, and her big, bright eyes looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. "I'm not going to eat you, you know," she said, a smirk forming on her lips while she crossed her arms.

"Who knows," Antonio replied. "My brother says that there are cannibals in this forest." Despite his words, he left the safety of the tree and walked towards her. She might be able to help him go back home; and if she turned out to be a man-eating savage— well, he had realized earlier that he was going to die anyway.

"That's bollocks," the girl stated, rolling her eyes. "There are no cannibals in the forest: the faeries kicked them out."

"Faeries?! Those are real?!" he panicked. Mama always told him to be wary of anything remotely unnatural. She said that magical beings had fun tormenting humans, and Antonio had no reason to doubt whatever his Mama told him.

"Of course they're not, silly!" she snorted. "How old are you? Seven?"

"And eight months!" he yelled in protest.

The girl raised an eyebrow —an incredibly thick eyebrow, Antonio noticed— before bursting out laughing. "Seven years and eight months, alright," she said mockingly. "You're still a toddler to me, though."

"Oh yeah? How old are you?"

"Ten! I'm much older than you," she smirked, "and that means you have to obey me."

Antonio pouted. He couldn't argue against that: at home, too, he had to comply to whatever João told him to do because he was the older brother. Sometimes he wished Mama and Papa would have another kid just so he could boss someone around. "It's not fair," he grunted. "And who are you anyway? You're not from the village," he pointed out, throwing a suspicious glance at her.

"No, I'm not," she admitted. "I live on the other end of the forest."

"Isn't that too far away?" Antonio asked, suddenly worried. "Will you get back home before twilight? Mama always says that the forest is the most dangerous at night."

She chuckled. "Aren't you the cutest thing?" she said, suddenly leaping forward to ruffle his hair.

Annoyed, Antonio slapped her hand away and, not knowing what to say, stuck his tongue out at her. Being this close, he realized that her eyes, just like his own, were breathtakingly green. He also noticed that her pale skin was covered in freckles, particularly her nose and cheeks.

"As endearing as it may be having you worry about me," she said, sarcasm dripping from every word, "you don't have to." She leaned over him, making Antonio painfully aware of their height difference. "I know this forest as if I lived here."

Those last few words got stuck in Antonio's head in repeat, like a broken record. I know this forest as if I lived here. I know this forest as if I lived here. I know this forest—

"You know the forest?" he asked once the initial shock was gone.

"Were you listening to me?" she scolded. "Yes, I do know the forest."

"Then could you—?" he blurted, stopping mid-sentence because of a sudden attack of shyness and embarrassment. The girl looked intensely at him, amusement evident in her eyes, and Antonio felt his face grow hot as he blushed. "Could you— could you guide me home?"

"Are you lost?"

"Obviously." I wouldn't be here with you if I weren't, he thought. But he didn't say it out loud, because Papa had taught him to be nice to the ladies —although it could be argued whether the girl in front of him was indeed a lady—, and because Mama had taught him to be nice to people, and because João had once told him that he should be nice to people to whom he wanted to ask for a favour.

The girl let out a pondering "hmm", theatrically resting her chin in her hand and looking at Antonio through half-lidded eyes. "I think I could, yes, maybe—" she stopped abruptly, smirking widely, and Antonio knew he wasn't going to like what came next. "Oh, what's the magic word?"

If Antonio had thought before that he couldn't blush anymore, he had been terribly wrong. As it turned out, he could, and he did. His face was so red and felt so hot that he wouldn't have been surprised if it had exploded. "Pardon me, Miss," he said, putting his best I've-never-broken-a-single-plate-in-my-life voice, "would you be so kind to please show me the way back home, if it's not too much of a bother?"

"My, my, how can I say no to such a well-mannered boy?" she giggled, making Antonio roll his eyes. "Okay, yes, I'll take you home." Before Antonio could react, she grabbed his hand and began to walk impetuously. "Hurry up! If we move fast, we'll get to your village right before the sun sets!"

She did not lie. Antonio found himself astonished when they finally left the trees behind to appear on the dust track that led to his village. The girl had guided him without a doubt through the forest, not even once had she stopped— and the sun hadn't even begun to hide behind the mountains! Antonio laughed joyfully, running down the path while happily shouting: "We did it! We did it!" He hadn't advanced much when he turned to thank her; but, to his surprise, the girl had already gone. I guess she wants to be at her home the sooner she can, he mused, and she has a long way to go.

He stared at the forest with a sad pout. Even though she had scared him to death, even though she had mocked him, even though she had left without giving him the chance to say "goodbye" or "thank you"— well, he had to admit, deep inside, that she was a pretty cool girl.

Not that he'd ever say that out loud.

~{§}~

A week later, Antonio wandered through the forest. He was trying to get back to the clearing where he had met that peculiar girl, to no avail. Not for the first time, he asked himself why he was doing that. What were the chances of them meeting again? Even if he got to the clearing, how could he be sure that she would be there? Groaning, he sat down on a rock, cursing out loud his impulsive behaviour.

"What has happened to my well-mannered boy, who now speaks with a foul sailor's mouth?"

He turned faster than what he thought he could, and there she was: leaning against a tree, arms crossed before her chest, a playful smirk in her lips and an amused glint in her eyes. She looked so natural, one may think she had been rehearsing that pose for all her life. Suddenly speechless, Antonio needed a few moments —during which he opened and closed his mouth without emitting any sound— until he could utter a simple "hi".

"Hi," she repeated, winking, and waited for him to speak.

However, Antonio was completely out of words. Or rather, there were so many things he wanted to say that he didn't know where to start. He frowned, trying to put his thoughts in order, while silence grew more and more awkward around them.

"How did you find me?" he finally managed to blurt out.

"Oh, the faeries told me you were in the forest and guided me here," she answered; after seeing Antonio's horrified face, however, she was quick to deny it: "I'm kidding! Relax, I'm just kidding! Silly, I told you the other day that faeries don't exist," she said, speaking slow and vocalizing more than necessary —offending Antonio to no end—. "I've just been hanging around here for the last few days. I was expecting you to come sooner or later— and it has taken you a while," she ended, faking a hurt pout.

"I-I was grounded," Antonio confessed, a slight blush colouring his cheeks. "My parents were mad at me for arriving so late the other day."

"Ah, so you came back to me at the first chance you got," she giggled. "That's so cute!"

Antonio shot her a murderous glance. "I only wanted to thank you," he informed coldly. "You left so fast I didn't have the chance."

"You're welcome," she smiled, for once not sarcastically or mockingly. After a few moments, she added: "Is that the only reason why you wanted to see me again?"

The boy shrugged. Truth is, he wasn't sure. That's what he had kept telling himself, that he only wanted to meet her again to thank her for her help; however, now that he had already done that, he found that he didn't want to leave, not yet. He bit his lower lip, looking everywhere but at the girl's face. "I don't even know your name," he muttered.

"Well, I don't know yours either," she pointed out; yet she answered anyway: "I'm Alice. What about you?"

Alice. That was a nice name. Antonio smiled shyly and told her his name. "Pleased to meet you," he said, stretching his arm towards her.

"The pleasure's mine," Alice said, shaking his hand with a half-smile on her face.

~{§}~

They began to meet periodically. Alice wanted to make the clearing in which they had first met their meeting point, but since Antonio didn't trust himself to learn the way there, she agreed to change it. Instead, she would wait for him at the edge of the forest, close to his village, and then they would roam around.

On their strolls, Alice told him about the forest: she spoke to him about the different kinds of trees, she taught him how to recognize different animal footprints, she made him learn which berries were poisonous and which weren't. Antonio, on the other hand, told her about his village: he talked non-stop about his very own tiny garden, he told her all the antics his brother and he pulled off, he complained about his mean tutor.

Sometimes they would have a race— Alice won every single time, which made Antonio yell that it was highly unfair, since she was older, thus taller, thus had longer legs. She only laughed at that and said he was so cute when he was mad —which only angered him further—.

"I've named it Invencible!" Antonio proclaimed proudly.

It had been Alice's idea: they had to make tiny boats with whatever they could find to later have them race on the creek. Antonio, who was dead set on winning, had put a lot of effort in what he claimed to be "the best ship ever", and his friend had to admit that, although coarse, it was a really nice boat. He had even made a tiny flag with a leaf in which he had carved the letter 'A'; however, after Alice had pointed out that it was her initial too, he had removed it.

"Invincible, huh? We'll see about that," she teased.

After agreeing the start and end of the race, they set their boats on the start line. Alice made the countdown; when she yelled "GO!", both of them set their boats free and began to run beside the creek, shouting encouraging words. Invencible soon took the lead, which made Antonio cry out happily. He was a skilled craftsman, even at a young age, and had provided his boat with all it needed to defeat the strong current and the dangerous rocks.

"And the winner is—!" he exclaimed while Invencible came closer and closer to the finish line.

Suddenly, a pebble was thrown from somewhere behind his back with spot-on precision: it hit his precious boat and knocked it over. Horrified, Antonio could only watch as Invencible disappeared under the water and Alice's boat calmly crossed the line.

"And the winner is me, apparently," she said mockingly.

Antonio turned to face her, with an expression of both disbelief and betrayal. "You cheated!" he screamed. "You threw a rock at Invencible, you sank it!"

Alice made a gesture of innocence with her hands, smiling. "Me? I would never do that."

"Yes you did! I saw you!"

"How could you see me if you were facing the other way?"

"You just practically admitted that you did it!"

"Oh, come on… It's not my fault that you chose to call it 'invincible' instead of 'unsinkable'."

Antonio opened his mouth, indignant, and it took him a few moments to react. "YOU WITCH!" he yelled, running towards her. When he reached her, by pure impulse, he kicked her on the shin.

Alice let out a yelp of pain. Her friend's outburst had taken her completely by surprise. "You little—!" Decided to fight back, she grabbed Antonio's arm as he tried to retreat and pulled so hard that he fell to the ground; however, the boy had decided that, if he fell, he wouldn't fall alone, and dragged Alice with him.

"I'll teach you to go around sinking other people's ships!"

"You don't need to teach me! I already excel at that, you just saw it!"

The wrestling soon became another game. None of them knew for how long they ran after the other, pushing and pulling and laughing, trying to pin down the other against the ground. They decided to call it a day after Alice accidentally elbowed Antonio on the face so hard that his nose started to bleed.

"I'll let you know," Antonio said with a nasal voice, a handkerchief pressed against his bloody nose, "that I'm still mad at you for what you did."

"What did I do?" Alice asked innocently.

They were lying together on the ground. Alice's hair was tousled and full of pine needles; Antonio's shirt was torn and bloodstained. Nothing important: it was a price both of them were willing to pay if it meant having fun. (Antonio highly doubted that Mama would agree with him. Then again, he and Mama never saw eye to eye when it came to what could and couldn't be done while playing.)

"You know what you did," he pouted. Upset, he got up and began to walk away. "I'm going home. I can't stay with you ship-murderer one minute longer."

Alice snickered and quietly made a countdown: when she said "three", some footsteps reached her; after she said "one", someone spoke.

"… I don't know the way back," Antonio mumbled, downcast.

This time, Alice laughed out loud. It did no good to Antonio's shattered pride.

"Come on— let's get you home."

~{§}~

They were like night and day. Antonio was a sweet child who loved talking and doing something different every day; while Alice, on the other hand, almost all the time spoke sarcastically and didn't like breaking her routines. It took them ages to decide what to do, and the days they didn't argue about something mundane were scarce. However, despite their personalities being so different —or perhaps precisely because of it—, they soon became the best of friends. Antonio knew he could trust Alice with his problems and often asked her for advice; in return, he became the pair of ears that would listen to whatever she wanted to complain about.

As they grew up, the conversation topics evolved as well. Alice, being a few years older, was the one who first brought them up; and Antonio followed gladly.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe that," he chuckled, earning a hurt look from Alice.

"Why wouldn't you believe that yesterday a guy confessed to me?"

"Because… I don't know," he shrugged. "Because it's you, I guess."

Alice let out an outraged gasp. "What is that supposed to mean? You should know that I have plenty of suitors."

"Yeah, sure," he teased. "How about you introduce us?"

"No way. I wouldn't like for them to see the loser I spend my time with."

Antonio laughed, immune to Alice's insults. With time, he had learnt to read beyond her everlasting sarcasm and mean words, and he knew she rarely meant what she said.

"Okay, let's go back to your wooer. Are you going to marry him and be happy and have plenty of kids?"

She snorted and hit him on the shoulder. "I don't know. I mean, he's handsome… but he's also loud, and he doesn't know when to shut his big mouth, and—"

"Basically, he's obnoxious."

"Yes, that's the word." She frowned. "It seems I'm going to have to break his heart."

"Oh, don't worry about him: I'm certain he'll meet someone much better than you."

Offended, Alice threw at him the first thing she could think of, which happened to be the apple she was eating. Antonio, who out of experience was expecting a projectile, caught it mid-air and bit it, a playful glint in his eyes.

"Aren't you going to ask me if I have any admirers?"

"You?" she laughed. "Please, you're still a kid."

"I'm not!" he protested. "I'm a man!"

"You're thirteen."

"And five months!"

"Still thirteen," she said in a tone that didn't give room for an argument. "Brat."

"I'm called a man at the village," he pouted.

"Grow a beard and then we'll talk."

Accepting that the battle was lost before it started, Antonio decided to shut up before Alice's verbal assault made him cry —which had happened more than once before— and absently gave another bite to the apple. Alice was very fond of them and often brought some with her so they could have a snack when hunger attacked.

"Hey, Alice— if you ever get married, will I be invited to the wedding?"

"Sure." She looked at him and smirked. "You'll be the prettiest of all the bridesmaids."

Sometimes Antonio wondered why they were friends.

~{§}~

Antonio had barely turned seventeen when he first had a wet dream. He woke up in the middle of the night, panting, sweaty, and hard, and for the next ten minutes he just laid there, eyes wide open, his gaze fixed somewhere in the ceiling, trying to ease his heartbeat. It wasn't a new feeling, not at all: he had started to explore his body a few years ago, and he wasn't unfamiliar with morning woods. No, that wasn't what was shaking him.

He didn't get any sleep for the rest of the night. His mind was too busy trying to understand why the dream had been, of all people, with her.

When they met the following day, Alice instantly noticed that there was something wrong with her friend: he shunned every time she got too close, he avoided looking her in the eye, and he spoke much less than usual. She kept asking what happened, he kept answering that he hadn't slept well; and she only stopped her interrogatory after she realized she wouldn't be getting the truth —because she was certain that there was more behind Antonio's strange behaviour than a bad night—.

"I brought some books. Fancy some reading?"

"Yeah, great."

Alice looked at him with a weird expression on her face before leading the way to their reading spot. It was nothing special, just a space between two trees in which they both could sit comfortably. The sun reached them easily and the creek flowed close, making that one spot the perfect place to relax and just spend a day doing nothing. Those, usually, were Antonio's favourites, but that day he didn't seem to be excited— not even slightly pleased! Alice was starting to get pissed, because it was obvious that something was bothering Antonio —it had always amazed her how easily his friend let out his emotions, even when he tried with all his might to keep them at bay—, and one may think that, after almost ten years of friendship, he'd trust her enough to tell her anything. That didn't seem to be the case, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. Hurt? Confused? Whatever it was, she didn't like it. She gave Antonio a couple of books so he could choose one before submerging into her own— luckily, books never failed to make her forget about her problems.

Antonio picked a book at random and opened it. He had the intention of reading, he wanted —needed— to distract his mind. However, he had barely read one page when he found himself staring at Alice from behind his book. He was only now noticing how beautiful she looked while reading: bright green eyes moving from left to right, and lips slightly parted as she took the book in. He saw her eyes widen, he saw her purse her lips, he saw her hold in a gasp… Before he knew it, he had put down his book and looked at her without discretion. After all, Alice never paid any attention to her surroundings while reading— he could start to juggle and she wouldn't even notice. He smiled without even noticing.

Even though Antonio had grown to know that part of the forest quite well, Alice still walked him home out of habit. They usually invested that time in planning what to do the next time they met; that day, however, Antonio remained as quiet as he had been the whole morning.

"How was the book?"

"Hmm—? Oh, it was fine."

Alice narrowed her eyes and shot him a disapproving look. She knew her friend hadn't read at all— mostly because, if he had, he would have screamed after turning a page and finding a cute family of spiders she had put in the book. Her patience had finally drained: she stopped, grabbed Antonio's arm and firmly pulled to make him face her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she screamed. "Don't tell me that it's nothing or that you had a bad night, because I'm not buying that! Will you please just tell me what's the matter?"

Antonio, who clearly wasn't expecting that, opened and closed his mouth in shock for a few moments. His eyes moved from left to right, up and down, never stopping in the same spot for more than a brief second, and they avoided crossing with Alice's burning gaze.

"Is there something I can do to help?" she asked more softly, realizing that she might have been a bit too aggressive.

"I— No, not really," he answered, biting his lower lip and shaking his head. "It's just— just a dream I had."

For a moment the whole world fell silent. Alice had raised an eyebrow and her lips were twisted in an expression of disbelief. And then, just like that, she burst out laughing.

"Aren't you a little old to be having nightmares?" she managed to choke out.

Antonio shrugged, feeling his cheeks growing hot. He almost told her that his dream had been quite the opposite of a nightmare, but, for once, he thought twice before speaking.

"So that's it? That's what was bothering you?"

He nodded and Alice shook his head, unbelieving.

"You're the biggest dork I've ever met." Despite herself, and surprising Antonio to no end, she moved forward and hugged him. "See you tomorrow, yes?"

"Okay."

She smiled, turned around and left. Antonio stood there for a few more minutes, wondering why she had had to go and do that. He only hoped that she hadn't noticed his body's reaction.

That night, he dreamt with her again.

~{§}~

It took him a little over two weeks —two weeks of constant stress and sporadic dreams— to finally gather up the courage: he had to tell Alice. He just didn't know how. I can't just go and tell her that I've been having indecent dreams with her. Then again, he couldn't say that he was in love with her either— he didn't know if he was, for starters. More than once he had pondered if what heated his body was love or just plain lust. Whatever it was, what couldn't be denied was that he was indeed attracted to her, and he had to tell her before all the secrecy drove him mad.

He was only scared that he might screw up ten years of friendship over what could be nothing more than a fleeting infatuation.

"Hey, Alice…" he called her.

"Yes?"

She was walking a few steps ahead of him, but stopped and turned to look at him when he spoke.

"Mind if I ask you something?"

"Not at all."

Antonio took in a deep breath. What he was about to do was stupid, but what else could he do? His brother had moved to town a few months ago, and he wasn't close enough with anyone else.

"How— how do you tell someone that you like them?"

"What?" She sounded amused. "Aw, don't tell me that you fancy someone."

He shrugged, blushing, and Alice laughed.

"Why do you ask me? I've never confessed to anyone."

"No, but you've been confessed to, right?"

"I'm so sorry, Antonio, but I highly doubt that you'd be able to match them," she chuckled.

"Well, enlighten me."

For the next twenty minutes, Alice talked non-stop while they strolled. She told him about one guy who had serenaded her at night ("I dropped a bucket of cold water over him— how dared him wake me up in the middle of the night?!"); she told him about another guy that had left a trail of red roses that led to an eighteen-pages letter ("I stopped reading at page two; then I burnt it and hit him for plucking all those roses"); she told him about yet another guy that would follow her around and try to help her in everything ("In the end I smacked him and told him that I'm not bloody useless"). Antonio listened carefully, but with every story he lost more and more his hope.

"That wasn't helpful," he complained once she finished. "None of those worked!"

"They didn't work on me," she pointed out. "I'm sure that whoever you like will appreciate any of those."

"I highly doubt it," he muttered.

"Or— you could be more ordinary and just straight tell them."

"Ordinary doesn't fit me," he smiled. "I'm more crazy. How about I do something crazy?"

"Something crazy?" she looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "And what would that b—?"

Before she could finish speaking, Antonio closed the distance between them, grabbed both sides of her face, and kissed her.

Alice didn't react at all: she was way too shocked to move. So she just stood there, eyes wide open as Antonio's lips pressed against her own; and when he moved away, she felt her jaw drop.

Antonio looked at her, loving the way she looked so surprised. She would have never expected for him to kiss her, right? And then he realized what he had just done. His eyes opened in shock as he abruptly pulled away from her. He mumbled a quick apology, not even caring if she heard it or not, and quickly turned around, fully intending to flee. However, before he could run away, Alice screamed his name and he froze in place.

Alice's head was a whirlwind of questions, and she wasn't going to let Antonio leave without getting an answer. She walked slowly to where he had stopped: he was hiding his face behind his hands and she caught a glimpse of his eyes in between his fingers before he quickly shut them. When she reached him, she realized that he had blushed madly— even his ears had turned beet red.

"That was crazy indeed," she muttered, slowly taking Antonio's hands with her own and pulling them out of the way so she could look at his face. His eyes, however, remained tightly shut. "Antonio," she called softly, "please, look at me."

He complied after a few seconds. His eyelids opened and he looked at Alice, although almost instantly he turned his gaze to the ground.

"My face is here," she said with a low chuckle, trying to catch back Antonio's eye —and, to her surprise, making it—. They both looked into each other's eyes for what seemed an eternity before Alice spoke again, her brow furrowed: "When did you get taller than me?"

And, just like that, she leaned forward and kissed him again.

AN: that's the first chapter! I hope you liked it; reviews are widely appreciated :D Also, I believe a warning is in order: not all the chapters are going to be as lighthearted as this one, starting by the next. There's a reason why this is labeled as "Drama" besides "Romance". I hope that doesn't discourage any of you to keep reading :P