So, as I said before, I decided I'll rewrite the first chapters I wrote for Tangled. And if you're asking yourself why, here are my reasons:

1st: My first try at this story was too "sweet". I prefer to write dramatic stories and not stories of the "and-they-lived-happily-ever-after" type;

2nd: Too OOC. Zhalia was just too sweet for her nature;

3rd: I don't want to do a rewrite of the Tangled movie only with the exception that Zhalia is Rapunzel and that Dante is Flynn/Eugene. I want to write something that didn't came out of a script I downloaded online. Instead, I want something that came out of my mind;

4th: I always wanted to know what would happen if Dante had Zhalia's past. Don't get it? Then start reading the story.

Disclaimer: As obvious as it is, I don't own Huntik nor Tangled. Do you really think I'd be in here if I did? Of course no. I'd already be writing sixth season by this time!

Chapter 1- Bittersweet endings

The red-haired boy looked at his target, a stand in the middle of the market, where polished and fresh pieces of fruit stared at him, pleading him to extend his hand and to take them from there.

His name was Dante, and he was an orphan left alone in the world, living in the streets. And his… hobby, was what kept him alive.

Of course, he didn't steal from poor merchants. He knew very well that their situation wasn't much better than his. So, he did the noblest thing he could possible do in a situation like his: he robbed food from the wealthy ones, those who lived in the richest neighborhoods in the city.

Maybe it wasn't the best thing to do but still… Compared to die from starving, it was the only thing he could do.

Dante looked again at the fruit stand. The merchant seemed to be distracted with a costumer in a hood, while the said costumer had his hand wrapped around a blond girl's one.

Dante grinned. That was going to be piece of cake.

Quickly and stealthy to not be heard nor seen, he crossed the crowded street -not that it wasn't very hard to pass unnoticed. After all, he was a poor boy without parents. People simply preferred to pretend he didn't exist. It was a rule part of their non-existent perfect world. People thought that if they'd ignore their problems, they'd simply go away. And that's what they did to Dante. They couldn't handle the thought that a little kid was living alone in the streets, being obliged to steal in order to survive, so they ignored him. It was easier than to admit that their perfect world was a shattered place where the innocence of a child didn't exist.

Dante shook his head. He already knew the truth, so it wasn't necessary to heard it in his mind again.

He sneaked down the fruit stand (an easy task, due to the normal shortness of an eight year old) taking a deep breath to calm down his erratic heart beating.

The air morning smelt of baked bread and also of chocolate muffins and Dante automatically thought that he should pay a visit to the bakery just a few feet away from his current target. He barely could remember the last time such a delicious food landed on his mouth.

He clapped his hands. "Okay, remember: easy and stealthy, he thought, looking above his head to find a large piece of wood. He knew that the fruit was resting on top of it and that if he wanted to eat tonight, he needed to…

"Why are we hiding?"

Dante gave a little jump and turned around, only to find two hazel orbs looking curiously at him.

"Uh… W-Who are you?" The boy asked, not managing to look away from the young girl in front of him. It was almost hypnotic, to be honest. Especially her hair. Her blond locks of hair resembled the sunshine and for some weird reason, Dante caught himself staring at it like if it was Humanity's most precious treasure.

Or maybe because for the simple and weird fact that it reached her feet.

"I'm Serena." The girl retorted, with a bright smile. She then extended her hand towards Dante "And you are…?"

"Dante. Dante Vale." He shook her small hand, feeling a bit uneasy. Gentleman things weren't really is forte. However, Serena didn't seem to notice how Dante's hands were slightly wet.

God, he really should practice his social skills. But again, he didn't have nobody to do that with.

"So… Dante, what are you doing underneath Mr.'s Conrad fruit stand?" Asked Serena, and the boy couldn't help but grin.

She really had a thing for asking questions and put her nose into matters that weren't her business, hadn't she?

"I… Huh…" Dante scratched the back of his neck, while his amber gaze scrutinized the girl. And judging by the look of her silky pink dress, she wouldn't understand. She seemed to be the daughter of a noble family, not some street girl. It was obvious that she didn't have to steal food nor to live in the streets of Corona.

"I… Was… Playing a game." Dante made a small pause, trying to decipher Serena's face. Did she buy it?

Well, she did it. Probably too much.

The girl put her hands together in a plead, giving little jumps. "Can I play? Please? I love games!"

Dante took a deep breath in order to not scream "Stop!" at the girl. He needed to steal the fruit on top of that wooden board. He could sense this weird feeling of rats biting his belly, which usually meant that he was starving.

And that's when a thought popped up in his mind. The girl wanted to play a game, wanted she?

"Well, Blondie-"

"Serena." She hissed, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at him.

"Whatever." Dante made a nonchalant gesture with his hand, shrugging. "I'll let you play with me if you follow the rules."

Serena squealed in excitement, and Dante almost felt bad for her naïvety. Almost.

"What do I have to do? I'll do anything, I just want to play with you."

Dante felt a bit taken back by that statement. What was the last time a kid of his age said he wanted to play with him?

Never.

And suddenly, in the middle of a robbery, this girl pops up from thin air, asks him a lot of questions, and then wants to play with him. Just a normal activity a normal kid would do.

But Dante wasn't a normal kid, was he? Nobody ever gave him the chance to be one.

With a small sigh, he composed himself. "Just… Just close your eyes and count to twenty, okay?"

"Are we going to play hide and seek?"

Dante nodded. "Yes, we are."

Almost immediately, Serena covered her eyes with her bare hands and started counting.

"One."

Dante took a deep breath, looking one last time at Serena. Part of him felt bad. She seemed so innocent and so sweet and she was the only kid who ever manifested an interest of playing with him. And what was he doing? Deceiving her into looking at the scary darkness while he robbed fruit?

"Two."

Dante shook his head. He needed to survive so that in the future he could be someone else. Someone who'd pay for the mistakes he did in the past.

"Three."

With a resigned breath, he began climbing the stand, before the merchant would quit the animated conversation he was having.

"Fo- Wait! You're stealing?" Dante mentally cursed. He thought that he had asked to count to twenty, not to three and a half.

He landed on the floor with a small "Ouch" before he looked at Serena.

"You'd never understand." He said, his voice bitter than he had expected.

"Try me." Serena put her hands on her hips and glared at Dante, and even if he was taller than her, Dante felt like a midget due to her reprimanding gaze.

"I… It's just…" Dante throw his head forward, rubbing his face, until he ended up by saying "It's a survival thing."

Serena tilted her head, before her eyes lit in understanding. "Oh, you're hungry."

Dante opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it. She was right. And it didn't really matter; the growl his belly released had already betrayed any lie he could try to say.

"I think that's a way to put it." He conceded, rubbing the back of his neck, while his cheeks turned into a deep shade of red. He could swear he never felt so embarrassed in his entire life.

Serena gave him a compassionate sad smile, and he felt disgusted. He didn't need the girl's pity. And it wasn't like he was some damn poor thing. He did know how to take care of himself.

However, before he could say anything he could later regret, Serena spoke: "Could you please go to the castle tonight?"

Dante raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Just go, please." She kneeled next to him, her piercing gaze making him feel… weird. And what she did next made him feel even more awkward.

Serena put her cold hand on top of his, unconsciously caressing his thumb, while Dante's eyes duplicated their size. "You just need to sneak through the guards and enter the back of the garden. Please. I promise that I'll give you something amazing!"

Dante simply nodded. He couldn't speak nor rationalize. His tongue felt ten times thicker and his brain was hypnotized by her eyes and how her blond hair seemed to shine.

"Great!" Serena adverted her gaze at his belly, remembering the sound it had made "Right… Gimme a second."

Before the redhead boy had the time to blink, Serena had already took off, her long blond hair balancing from right to left. And when she returned only some moments later, she had something in her hands.

"Here" She said, with a smile curving her voluptuous lips.

Dante looked suspiciously at the wrapped thing she had in her hands. And now that his brain was working again, he managed to ask "What is that?"

"A little gift I wanna give you."

"Uh-huh." The boy murmured. "Thanks."

"You're welcome but…" Serena tilted her head towards the wrapping still resting on top of her hand "You usually say "thank you" after you take the gift."

Dante rolled his eyes at the girl, before he grabbed the said gift. "Satisfied?"

The girl smiled broadly, leaving her white as snow teeth at sight. "Yes I am, now-"

"Serena! Where are you?"

Serena turned around in the feminine voice's direction muttering a "Dang it." She then looked at Dante, her smile long gone. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. But don't you forget to meet me at the castle, okay?" Before Dante could say something, the girl had already got out from underneath their hiding place. However, he caught a glimpse of her walking side by side with the figure in the hood, and he could swear that she turned around and waved at him.

Some minutes later, a sigh escape through Dante's lips while his eyes couldn't look away from the place he had last seen her, before she was swallowed by the crowd.

Her gift wrapped tightly between his hands, he shook his head. If it wasn't for the wrapped thing, he'd say that she was a hallucination.

After all, who in hell would even want to talk to him or even wish to meet him again?

Dante didn't know why or how, but some hours after the sun had go down and the moon had occupied its place in the dark sky, the boy found himself sneaking through the royal guards, before heading to the garden.

Madness. That was the name for what he was doing.

Think about it: He had met this nosy girl just some hours ago and just because she had asked him, he was willing to risk his own ass in order to meet her in the castle.

Now he was sure that she was some noble daughter that was friends with Royalty.

"Dante, Dante, Dante… Where the heck did you put yourself into?", he thought, shaking his head at his own reflection in the small lake.

And that's when he gave himself a good look.

His clothes were all dirty and torn. Especially his pants and jacket. And not to mention his bare feet that were filled with bruises because he couldn't afford a pair of shoes, which lead to him getting cuts all the time.

He stayed some more moments like this, looking at himself, feeling revolted. It was then that he saw a small stone laying on the soft grass. He picked it up and looked at it, before his attention turned once again to his reflex. He felt the burning sensation of hate evading him and even if he tried to get hold on himself, it wasn't enough.

"Take this!" He threw the stone at his reflection and it made it disappear for a few seconds, before the water calmed down and his mocking expression was looking once again at him.

Dante looked around the ground and found another stone. And when he throw it, he found another.

"Dante?"

Dante didn't know how long passed when he heard Serena's sweet voice calling his name.

He quickly let the stone fall from his hand and turned around, breathing hard. "Hi, Serena."

The blond girl slowly approached him. "What were you doing?"

Would she believe it again if he'd say that he was playing a game?

"Nothing special." He then looked at her hands, where a small bag was hanging in. "What's that?"

Serena exclaimed a small "Oh", before she smiled sheepishly. "This is my surprise to you. I thought that you could be hungry. After all, that sandwich I gave you isn't enough to handle your belly for the rest of the day, is it?" She extended the bag in his direction. "So I thought that you could enjoy this."

Dante wanted to be angry. He should be angry. After all, just a couple of moments ago, he was throwing rocks at his reflection thinking about how he hated himself and the feeling of being alone. But then Serena showed up with that sweet talk and her long blond hair and he couldn't help but to calm his nerves.

And even to smile.

He took a peek at the bag's contents, and his eyes lit up when he saw all the food in there. He then looked at Serena. "Is this for me?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. And I'll try to give you one of these every day."

"But… Why?"

Serena shrugged sheepishly. "Because I think I'd like someone to do it for me if I was in the same situation as you."

They both sat down in the grass, eating quietly so nobody could hear them.

And that's how Dante won his first friend.

Years passed since this and one night Dante climbed the wall and headed to the castle garden, just like he had done for the last two years since he met Serena.

But she didn't show up.

Nor in the next evening.

Nor in the following one.

It was only some months later, when Dante was obliged to steal again from rich merchants, that he heard a chat between two bystanders.

"Did you hear it? The Nobles think that our Princess' kidnapper killed her!"

"And how do they know that?" The second one asked, visibly skeptical.

"Because after all this time, nobody ever asked for a ransom price. And Princess Serena's family is the Royal family. They have loads of money and also… I heard rumors that when it all started, the guards found blood trails in the forest."

Dante didn't hear the rest. His mind was in shock. He couldn't believe that his Blondie was dead. He always thought that she had been on a trip or that she had even forgotten about him as the rest of the world did. And even that would have been better compared to what happened to her. And, even if Serena learnt him how to love himself again and made the hate and pain he had inside his heart disappear thanks to her caring personality, the void she left couldn't be replaced by anything. Not even by someone else who could do to him what Serena had done.

And that's why he did what he did; since he didn't want, or better, couldn't left himself suffer again like he did when he lost Serena, Dante shut the world off.

Just so you know, in the next chapter both Zhalia and Dante will be adults.

Now, could you please pretty please leave a review? You guys know that I really love knowing what are your thoughts ;)

And in a side note, if you're a How I Met Your Mother fan, could you please tell me what happened? I mean, I didn't saw the series finale because I was afraid of how it would end, but I read a review and if it's not some April Fools joke, the Mother died. The friggin' Mother died! How could they possibly have done that? And then Robin and Barney got divorced?!

What kind of world am I living in?