Summer days were supposed to pass with ease. Early in the morning, the smell of freshly baked bread would waft through the air accompanied by a cool breeze to carry it down pathways and throughout the surroundings of the early opening marketplaces. People would talk to each other and amongst themselves, exchanging friendly greetings which ranged from simple words to kisses and so on. Everyone was rather kind to each other, often offering deals to family members or close friends, sometimes even strangers who seemed a little short on money that day. Nevertheless, whatever the case, twelve year old Autumn was always amongst the crowd. Not usually to buy things, though she did run errands there every once in a while, but mainly just to see the world in action. Besides, with being loved by the whole town, her sudden appearance and bright smile never once bothered a single soul. She was admired there, not only because of her beautiful, unique skin tone that no one else had, but because of her personality that could light up a room, no matter how tense the moments before had been. In all, she was radiant and appreciated. Each morning, she'd run down the cobblestone pathway with her two best friends, Maddison and Hannah, and would hear her mother's cautious warning from behind, telling her not to go too far away from the house, only for her to respond with a dismissive wave, having complete faith in herself to be safe. After all, in this wonderful, delightful town, nothing could happen to hurt her. Nothing could possibly ruin the amazing life that she lived.

That was until war struck years later.

.

1939

Naples, Italy

Summer days no longer started with any chirping birds or amazing smells. There were no voices or open doors and rarely could a nice person be found. Maddison and Hannah spent their time separately without each other, finding the world to be a dangerous and disgusting place now since people were doing such horrible things. With the German and Italian military now occupying their once so peaceful town, going outside seemed more like a hassle or a chore than a likely decision. Even without the company of her friends, Autumn still left the house at times, though she often found herself missing the harmonious happiness that everyone used to have.

As she quietly walked down the worn street alone, her scuffed boots clipping small stones and pebbles, she hummed a happy tune to herself and brushed her short, ebony hair away from her auburn eyes, dark enough for anything to reflect in them, even in the fog of the day. She glanced upwards at the sun, shielded by incoming clouds which threatened to start a downpour, though she didn't particularly mind. 'It will be a good day,' she told herself in her mind, shoving her hands into the pockets of her purple cardigan, only to feel one of her fingers tear through a hole at the bottom. Autumn cursed under her breath and released a deep sigh, still trying to keep a positive attitude when the next incident came.

Yelling and screaming was heard from behind her back, causing her to whirl around and see a woman pushing a German soldier out of her shop. That, of course, was a horrible decision since those from Bundesrepublik Deutschland were more tense and strict than any other people on the planet. Immediately as she saw the man push back and hit the woman, Autumn's instincts came into action and she began running towards them to help. Before she even made it halfway, though, an Italian man rushed over from out of what seemed like nowhere and stopped the next hit, holding up both of his arms, showing he meant no harm. "Smettere, per favore!" he exclaimed ever so quietly, waving around a white flag in his right hand. "Uh. . spreche Sie Italienische? Si." He continued on, speaking rather quickly and frantically in his native language, explaining the situation, whatever it truly was, and trying to make him calm down. The German officer only yelled an angry reply, spit on the ground, and left, pushing past the girl who had been watching from afar. As she watched the Italian help the woman back inside, she curiously drifted over towards the situation, catching the eye of the strange boy that has rushed in from who-knows-where. When he saw her, a small smile began spreading across his face, yet he was forced to look away when the older woman began speaking to him again. Autumn felt a small leap within her heart and she felt the need to follow him inside, only to be drawn back by the sound of her mother's voice in the distance. With a roll of her eyes and a hesitant turn, she headed back towards her house on the hill, only able to think of the nice stranger and the way he had looked at her.

.

Autumn stepped inside her house through the front door, a small smile lighting her face as she caught sight of her mother cooking at the stove, hanging her cardigan on a hook by the door. "Sorry I took so long. I was out and-" She was cut off rather abruptly by her mom shushing her and pointing at the radio which she had only just then noticed was on. As always, it was turned onto some political station she didn't care about which only spoke of death, war, victory, more death, and so on. It was honestly too depressing for her to enjoy. "Do we really have to listen to this?" She asked, sitting down in a chair by the device, wanting more than ever to change the station.

"Of course we do. Ever since your father was drafted, this is our only way of knowing about his whereabouts. We could listen to that Englishman, Haw-Haw, but I can't really understand his language," she said, shooting a glance back to her daughter who let out a quiet groan, though immediately lightened up a bit when she saw her mother begin to serve pasta into bowls. "Ah, come on. I made your favorite." Autumn shot up from her chair and slowly took the bowl from her mom's hand, hugging her from the side and laughing slightly.

"Thank you, mother." With that, she was temporarily removed from her previously thoughtful state of mind and went on eating, though she had never truly gotten the image of that soldier out of her mind and the weird way she felt about him so suddenly that she couldn't understand.

.

By the time the next morning came, Autumn somehow found herself wandering involuntarily around the town, feeling as if she were being pulled out there by something. Well, someone, really. Strangely as she passed the bakery where the incident had occurred the day before, she was disappointed to see no one standing there. She couldn't truly imagine why as she had only seen him once, but yet she still found herself standing there in the walkway alone, her eyes locked on the empty doorway.

For many days, life passed like this, her hopes up for God-knows-what reason only to have them fall to the ground in pieces when she couldn't find who or what she was looking for. It was on one of those days, with her back turned to the empty grass lots on the right of the path and with her eyes wandering around the window that she heard that all too familiar voice.

"Ciao~"

Autumn turned rather swiftly, a light gasp escaping her as she heard the words, this new Italian man startling her with his friendly voice. "O-Oh, you scared me."

"Sorry, miss. I saw you standing here for a while and was wondering if you were alright."

She placed a hand over her chest and let a relieved sigh out, glad it wasn't that officer from the other day. "Yes, I'm fine. I just- You're that man that saved that woman the other day," she said in astonishment, beginning to smile a little.

"Yes, and you're that girl that was watching me," he smiled flirtatiously, having to look up slightly at the tall girl, adjusting his tan colored cap that rested on his head oddly. It looked as if it could fall off, yet stayed on as if it were glued. Extending his hand, he winked and his eye seemed to sparkle, though it may have just been her imagination. "I'm Feliciano Vargas. Who are you, beautiful?"

Yes. He was definitely flirting. "My name is Autumn," she said as she took his hand, though instead of him shaking it, he lifted it to his lips and pressed a kiss to the top of it, grinning down all the while. This caused a blush to spread across her cheeks, though she tried to conceal it.

"Ah, Autumn. My favorite season, right next to spring. That's a very lovely name to match your very lovely self. Tell me, Miss Autumn, would you like to go to dinner sometime?"

There was a long, awkward silence as she stared, unsure of this man's overwhelming charmingness. "I just met you. I don't even know you."

"You're right! Then we should get to know each other better. Tomorrow at eight?"

Again, there was a pause. All that could be heard was the calm breeze and Autumn awkwardly shifting her feet. She turned to glance at her house behind her, wondering what her mother would think of this. With a happy sigh, she whirled back around to face Feliciano, gripping the side of her arm nervously. "I'll be here. Eight."

"Really?" He seemed more shocked than he should have for looking so confident earlier.

"Yes, but I have to go for now," she began as she turned, smiling and waving at him while walking back home. "Ciao, Feliciano!"

He stood in the pathway and laughed triumphantly under his breath, beginning to walk back the way he came from. "Ciao. . Autumn."

She arrived home and repeated what she had done days before, placing her cardigan on the hook by the door and sitting down in a chair, her mother cooking again. "Mom, I uh. . today I met a boy."

She stopped what she was doing and curiously turned to face her daughter, wiping her hands together to get water off of them. "A boy?"

The girl couldn't help but feel somewhat giddy about this, letting out a small giggle through her lips as she thought of the flustered young man she saw earlier that day. "Yes. He asked me if I could go to dinner with him tomorrow and-"

She was cut off by a loud gasp from her mother's side who seemed more than a little bit pleased for Autumn to have met someone. "That's wonderful! Is he cute? Is he smart? What does he talk about?"

"Mother, he's- I. . I don't know much about him other than he's kind enough to help an old lady and is a soldier."

"Ah. Good enough. When's the dinner?"

"Tomorrow. Eight p.m. sharp!" She said, growing more and more excited as they spoke, though she couldn't tell why. After all, they had just met.

"Oh, honey, we have so much to do before then! You need to pick out an outfit and choose your hair and shoes and. . oh, this will be fun."

For the rest of the night, Autumn and her mother spent their time picking and choosing different clothing, trying to decide what was too dressy and what was too casual. Eventually, they settled on a respectable yet short dress, the bottom half being black and the top a medium blue, a white strap separating the two near the waist line. It was not formal or casual, but perfect and she loved it.

All she had to do next was force herself to sleep and push herself through the slow, painful hours of the next day until she'd see the sweet and flirtatious Italian soldier that she couldn't get off of her mind.