~Your Eos~

The air blowing into the villa was crisp and salty, rolling in off the ocean like castoff from Eos's rose colored hand stroking the surface of the sea. Dawn was a beautiful goddess; she painted the soft colors of morning across Nyx's darkened sky, and made way for her brother, the sun, to rise and warm the world. The dawn lived for such a short time, just an opening act at the start of each day, but she performed her part with such grace it was a shame more people didn't sing her praises...

Yet even though they did not, even though they treated her nocturnal predecessor with more reverence and her holy brother with more love, she still rose to fulfill her duties every morning in between the more glorious pair.

Forever faithful. Forever the unsung of the eternal trio...just like him.

"Ehi, stronzo!"

Olive colored eyes widened slightly, blinking away his somber musings as he turned his head from the window and was greeted with an explosion of slimy green innards from a less than ripened tomato to his face. Dusted bronze skin was now slick with the fleshy bits of obliterated fruit, the shock of which caused him to freeze in place and stare dumbfounded at the young teenager who threw it.

"You need to fix this, right now!"

Blinking in confusion, the Spaniard wiped a hand across his eyes to clear the gooey residue and shake away some of the seeds.

"Mi tomate...ah, enfadado," he finished rather lamely, as he tried to understand what on earth possessed the violent little Italian to...okay, many things could have done it, he didn't necessarily need to be possessed for the mood to strike. "What has broken that I need to fix?"

"Your country!" The Italian screamed in exasperation, glaring at the still confused Spaniard as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. "Your stupid war with your stupid friends is causing the stupid crops not to flourish; my tomatoes won't grow! Now fix this mess or I'm going to give you what for!"

The Spaniard clicked his tongue and peeled a piece of green tomato skin from his cheek.

Oh. That mess.

His eyes travelled down from the Italian to the segment of fruit in his hand. It looked like flesh and blood spilled over in his palm and he sighed. The war had not been going well for him or his allies and it was taking a toll on his land...his economy...and his people. It had almost been six years since Prussia and France had broken pact with their friendship and turned the world upside down. He knew many other territorial disputes and alliances had caused the breakage, but the fact remained that night and day had turned swords and spears in each other's directions...leaving the dawn to choose a side. Spain had sided with its brother, France, and in so doing made enemies with nearly the whole of Europe, isolating itself from the rest of the world. What few other nations sided with a cause he scarcely remembered were nations with their own personal agendas, worlds away from him and the problems of his country. Resources were poured into this never-ending conflict, and his country suffered for it...

Romano and his people were suffering too, but the proud little Italian would rather throw tomatoes at him than admit it.

A soft and apologetic smile crossed the elder nation's face, his eyes still sad with his thoughts, but a laugh lit his voice. "Discúlpame, mi tomate pequeño, but have faith...I think we're finally making headway this time. Inglaterra is too busy with his battles in Canadá, and my brother...he will not be able to count on much help when we begin the invasion in the coming months. Hopefully, this will all be over soon and your tomatoes will flourish again."

Romano's expression tightened, but Spain could see him fighting to keep hope from showing in his eyes. Romano had a fiery spirit and temper to match, but the boy had no more love of war than he did in seeing the dying vegetation he worked so hard to cultivate during his time in 'La Furia Roja'. His words were often harsh and crude, but Spain had heard the beautiful songs he could sing. Romano often made gestures of violence with his hands, but the older nation had seen the magnificent gardens he could grow with his tender touch. His little Italian was small and only one representation of a greater land, but to Spain he was a marvelous and unique being all his own.

Few saw Romano as anything more than another territory to claim...but Spain saw him as a being gifted with the power of creation, so saddened by all the destruction around him. Destruction he helped to cause, and therefore was his responsibility to fix.

The elder nation left the coming glory of the sun and knelt before his Romano, the boy trying so hard not to cry as his dirt-covered hands fisted the gardening apron at his waist. The Spaniard reached up and gently wiped his thumb across his cheek, catching a tear before it stained that tiny face. "It will be alright, Romano. I promise...the dawn will always bring about an end to the night."

~Fin~

Notes from the Author:

Howdy, all! This is the first short of my small collection of drabbles, dribbles, requests, gift fics, and ECTs. I'm actually really excited (and nervous) about this little side project I've decided to undertake in conjunction with my massive project (currently, "Never Your Hero"), but I believe this is worth it! In this collection I hope to do some character experimentation, scene and setting play, and of course – thank my amazing readers and reviewers for sticking with me through thick and thin. :) You guys have been nothing short of awesome, and to show my gratitude, I've opened the floor for requests at this time and will take a total of 5 before I close it to work on them, my main fic, and then take more again. As my schedule is still hectic (read my profile page, nothing has changed in my real life wise) so please forgive me if I take a little bit with your fic; rest assured, I will get to it.

Now, to introduce this one! …Or…conclude it…YAY, FIRST EVER ATTEMPT AT WRITING ANTONIO AND ROMANO!

This is in dedication to my amazing Beta Editor, Lady Hedervary (now AcquaToffana), and Eslyn. Both of these wonderful ladies are huge fans of Spain/Antonio and Romano/South Italy, and after having gotten a rather befuddling "write a Spamano challenge", this was produced through inspiration from them. X3 Its short, sweet, and full of all that fluffy goodness I love to write~ So I hope you all enjoy it as much as they did!

-The setting for this fic is in a villa in Spain during the Seven Years War, as indicated by the pre-Spanish invasion of Portugal (who is the "brother" Antonio refers to) and England/Inglaterra (the Spanish name) being engaged in warfare in Canada (yep, the Seven Years War really was a World War, if you will). If you've read my previous fics then you know my head-canon works to where the land and people are just as effected by the condition of their nation-tans/avatars, especially by events like wars, as the nation-tans/avatars are in turn by the states of their nations and how that nation is fairing in conflict. XD Love that double-edged sword to immortality…kinda balances it out, no? Poor Antonio and Romano~

-Though my historical familiarity in this area is far from the best, to my knowledge: South Italy (while it did change hands several times) was still under the rule of the House of Bourbon, rulers of Spain, during this time period of the Seven Years War…forgive me, to all my royalty savvy readers, for I am not a royalty savvy person...

That's all for this short, and again I hope you all have enjoyed it! At this time I open the floor for request fics and make known that I already have 2 spots taken. Note: Requests are encouraged to be from within the "You Were So Small" and the sequel "Never Your Hero" universes as…well, it's a lot easier for me to stick to that mindset given "Never Your Hero" is still on going (example: if you have a scene between characters, a flashback or a period of time that left you with a question in the fics...well, write it and I may answer with a fic! If you have an idea or a historical event you want written for, submit it - I'm open for ideas), but I will NOT enforce this if your request is doable in my book. THAT SAID, I do reserve the right to turn down requests if…like…you're one of those psychics who asks me to write something I'm already planning on writing in the story or something that would SO give away spoilers to the max (please don't let that stop you from asking anyway, I will let ya know if you're one of those gifted psychics~) or if you ask for something a little more explicit than I'm comfortable writing (yes, I've gotten those ^^; ).

Alrighty, folks, off to bed with me. Please feel free to drop me a line with any questions, comments, or concerns you might have and I'll be more than happy to get back to ya as soon as I can. X3 Till then, ya'll~

Sincerely,

General Kitty Girl