Guess who is back! I am so sorry to all of my readers for this long hiatus, but I have been so caught up in real life I haven't been able to sit down and write for months... months, I cannot believe it. I am so sorry for this and hope you can forgive me, stay tuned to the end of this chapter to find out a few more news for an upcoming project that I think you will all love.

As for now, enjoy my little fairy tale, a spin on the classic Cinderella story, my version of how to turn this story up by several notches.

Rating: T

Pairing: Spain/S. Italy (I've wanted to do one for so long)

Inspiration and influence: Hetalia Fairy Tales by Kitty-Kat Allie, who's adaptation of Snow White is pure enjoyment

Characters: Spain, S Italy, N Italy, Rome, Germany, France, mentioned Prussia and cameo England.

Location: let us just call this a fictional Europe, because I do not intend to stage an age or specific location for this story, but you can probably guess most of it.

Chapters: 4

Disclaimer: Hetalia is owned by its various producers and ownerships. Cinderella is a global fairy tale with dozens of versions, this is an interpretation of some of them.

If the shoe fits, wear it

Chapter 1

"Hear ye, hear ye! By Order of his Royal Majesty, King Carlos of Spagna, in one full moon's time, all eligible bachelors and bachelorettes are invited for a three night festivity at the Royal palace to celebrate Crown Prince Antonio's 21th birthday and coming of age."

Excited whispers and murmurs filled the usually dull market square as the colourfully dressed Voice of the Palace, a small and thin man with a voice of a shrill tenor, shrieked out the proclamation that would open the palace gates for the first time in over 75 years. A crowd quickly gathered around the poor man, who was just doing his job. Young girls dressed in ridiculous huge hats, with an attitude to match, gathered like vultures to squeal and ask their questions about the Prince and his taste. What gifts should they should bring? What hairstyle did the Prince prefer? Did he like cream or ivory colour? It had been the talk of town for several years that the Prince had yet to marry, and with an upcoming ball it was clear. The King wanted a ball and most likely among those invited, someone whom the Prince would marry.

King Carlos was a righteous man of tradition, so it surprised them to hear the news of the gates opening. If the king sought for wives among the people he had to be desperate. Some townspeople even speculated he might be close to passing the crown. Then, who could be the next queen? They had all seen the carriages come and go for years, all with an hopeful princess to arrive at the gates, only to be sent home in tears. Since the windows were tinted no one knew what a princess looked like. They had to be ugly, or why else would the Prince quickly send them away?

Within minutes all scrambled away to hurry with preparations. Mothers fought with their bare nails to secure for their daughters, nannies came to console the girls when their closest friends turned to become their worst enemies. Anxious fathers paid overprice in order to help their little princesses make their wishes come true. In a matter of hours the shops emptied of silk clothing, jewellery, fabrics and even more ridiculous hats. When the poor Voice of the Palace finally fought his way away from the market, clothes torn from screaming girls who wanted to keep him there for more information, there wasn't even a thread to be found or a lace to be spared. It was clear to say that all the girls dreamed of becoming a queen one day.

Lovino was very happy to not be among them.

In fact, he had other things to worry about as he hurried past the market, into the tailor's streets ready to fight for every last piece of fabric possible.

Lovino was born to a seamstress mother and a drunkard for a father, who later drove the family's wagon over a cliff in the mountains. He was a lean young man at the age of 19 with a soft face, golden eyes and dark brown hair. The only imperfection to his young face was literally to stray curl that somehow refused to do what he wanted, and seemingly floated at the side of his head. You'd think a man like this would have a swoon of ladies waiting to be courted by him.

No, it was thanks to his drunkard of a father that he was often seen as lesser worth. Since the death of his parents, he had been the talk of town; he was seen as bad luck and bad influence by almost all. It left such a sour taste in his mouth that he often would act in the way everyone believed he should act like, bitter, angry and mean His brother, Feliciano, was the only person who seemingly held any type of affection to him and unlike himself, had earned some respect by the townspeople. He was simply that, nice and loving, all those things Lovino had forgotten how to be.

Lovino was on a mission. Wouldn't it had been great if Feli could meet the prince? His brother deserved a better end then was sure to follow them.

Truth to be told, their lives held much to improve upon. After their parent's sudden passing, the only relative they had left was their ageing grandfather, who owned the once popular Trattoria. People came from far and wide to taste the Italian cuisine that his family had made for generations. Sadly, after his grandmother's passing shortly after her son, his father, died, it had been severely neglected and now few people ever came to dine. It was still a busy place, since Lovino was forced to do all the tasks. His grandfather would be found in the back with a jug of wine, snoring.

Thank goodness for Feli. He was and would always be the small sanity he had left in all that mess of life he had. Feli was two years young than himself, 17, but already a blooming artist, a landscape and portrait painter. Lovino worked the trattoria because he wanted his brother to succeed. He knew there would only be a window of time before the senile old fools at the inn tired of his brother and moved to young people, so he had to get Feli acquainted with the Nobles of the palace. Only then would he know his brother would be taken care of for life and earn enough to live by.

Of course, he wanted to leave this hellish life himself, but he had no particular talents. He could cook, but only because their grandmother had written down the instructions he needed. He knew how to sow, but he was slow and the other seamstresses laughed at his pace. He guess he knew how to dance a little, but who made an honest living from dancing in these days?

No, it was better to seure Feli's life for now. Lovino almost ran into the butcher's boy in his hurry for good fabrics, which would be sponsored by months of savings. He had to do this, he had to get his brother out. He would make Feli the prettiest outfit that he could muster, no matter how many nights he would have to spend on it. He just hoped it would be enough.

His straw hat nearly blew into the wind and he had to jump to catch it. He could do this!

000

In another end of town, away from the dusty roads and gossiping girls, another battle was fought. Here sandstone had been polished to the point it resembled marble and on this stone Prince Antonio had been riled into a fierce one verses one swords-fight by none other than what he would normally consider his best friend, Francis Bonnefoy of Villafranca, a former duke who now lived in exile from bad behaviour at court in his former nation. He was a loyal friend and a good adviser, but his quick mouth had somehow made him end up in a similar conundrum that once had him thrown out.

You may wonder what had gotten him in such trouble this time? Well, maybe it was mentioning the upcoming ball that would take place only days away. To say the least, Prince Antonio was not amused by his father's declaration.

"You take that back!" the lively Spagnard had shouted at him, with yet another whip of his rapier. To his immense agrigation, his friend did not even so much as flinch.

"Surely, my dearest friend, you must understand that is it quite amusing." Francis said with a ghost of a grin on his lips.

The duel had been raging for nearly half an hour and it had started quite innocently. The two of them had been discussing measures of how to get Antonio's father to agree to change parts of the west wing to accommodate for the large amount of art. Art that Francis quite often loved to purchase for the palace. But then the talk naturally moved on to the upcoming ball. Like many, Francis too had been concerned for his friend's lack of interest in the many, many princesses that had arrived from far and wide and none seemed even interesting enough for the young prince as to even get out of bed from time to time. Which finally led Antonio's father to write the invitation. If anything Francis was certain it was to shake his one and only son from his lack of enthusiasm. It was not a popular idea.

It's not like Antonio hated women, but he found pretty much all of the princesses to be equally as dull and boring as they could possibly be. Except for one maybe, the blond with pigtails who was quite interesting, but very scary.

It was the mention of that said blond princess would probably have been a better option than the whole costly ordeal of a ball, that finally had sent Antonio riling after his rapier.

"In all fairness" Francis continued and dodged Antonio's next attack much like a bullfighter, "when we first met I would never have picked you for the choosing type. And now, the whole town is ablaze of anxious possibilities. Tell me, my dear friend, how many more hearts will you crush?"

"Enough to get him to see reason." Antonio countered.

"Alas, the crying of women shall be heard all over the world."

"It is not my fault, he's been pushing me to marry since I was 13. day after day of staring at portraits of one girl to the other, this whole thing, it sickens me."

"Is that why your father included the unmarried boys? Is this the reason why the females aren't of interest."

Antonio nearly stumbled, but managed to a staggering halt instead.

"No... no, no, no NO! It has nothing to do with that."

"But it does, doesn't it. I saw you with that stable boy last year."

Antonio, beet red, finally managed to disarm his friend, but not out of anger or tactics, more or less as a reaction to what Francis confessed to.

"He, he was just a thing; a short summer fling. And yes, I don't mind that, but in truth..."

"Yes?"

"I'm tired Francis. I just wish he would let me decide for myself rather than send them all to my face. I'm not good with that, never been." he said with a sigh, fatigue having taken over from the irritation he felt earlier.

Francis laughed, his friend's inexperience with deep romance was in the least adorable to say the least.

"Do not fear, my friend, whether it will be a him or a he, whether it will be this time or in years, I am sure that person is waiting for you somewhere."

Antonio sighed and handed back Francis' rapier. The two of them left now that the steam had settled only for servants to take care of the remnants of ripped curtains and shattered ceramics.

Trivia:

Spagna: is the Italian name for Spain, and yes, Spagna is fictional, though they did have a King named Carlos, Juan Carlos I of Spain, reign: 1975-2014.

Villafranca: I chose this name partially because it resembles France and partially because there were multiple locations named Villafranca, so France could have been from any of these.

000

So yes, I am back and Listen to your heart will be updated... that is whenever I can find my second notebook to remind myself how the story ends (no, the story has not been abandoned, it is still my baby).

But on another note, I am on the verge of creating something big here. Since I have my background in media, which includes a range of communicative forms, I present to you my newest baby.

FicReviews

A fanfiction based magazine for free download.

First Beta edition publishing on 11th of April

Yes, I have wanted to do something for some time. Still working out some of the details, but I am so proud to give you all a fanfiction based magazine for you all to enjoy. FicReviews is a free download magazine for writers and readers of all ages. It is currently in Beta, as I have yet to work out all the content and I really, really want you all to help me create it together.

You can already find some of the links to FicReviews on my profile, more links will come for the upcoming Fanfiction forum thread and download page..