The forest's treeline was crisp against the open field, wooden posts and its banners flying in the gentle breeze giving the atmosphere a summer nostalgia. The MoonWood Festival had a smaller turn out than Alfred had anticipated beforehand. Then again, the population of this town was minuscule. 

The two "friends" took their leisurely time wandering from stall to stall, eyeing knickknacks and such that had Northwest written all over it. Stereotypical pine tree shirts that scrawled the city name proudly, an assortment of salmon and trout keychains, and a shelf of stuffed animals that were of any temperate forest biome. Sweet hickory and amiable hints of honey dreamily traveled through the air and into Alfred's nostrils. He could recognize the smell of a cook out from a mile away. He would have gone tearing through the crowd to get first in line for a plate of juicy baby back ribs...if it weren't for his Belarusian friend squeezing tight to his hand...

"Are you scared of getting lost in the crowd? You know you don't have to-". He let his sentence drift away as she looked up at him pleadingly. He pushed out an irritated sigh and let her be. Perhaps he wouldn't call it irritation...more or less an overwhelming sensation of butterflies in his stomach. He couldn't just pinpoint why this suddenly made him feel so, but her elegant tiny hand in his larger one...made him strangely content. He was scared of this new sensation...but he somehow embraced it with semi-open arms. 

"Alfred, what's that?!" she tugged at his hand, pointing almost childishly off at something. He turned his attention to her gaze. About almost 30 or so feet away, was a rather sizable wooden platform atop the grass. It was surrounded by an assemblage of greenery and tulips of all sorts of colors. String lights that glowed a basil dim yellow were hung over across the platform and hooked into nearby trees. On this platform, were many types of folk, dancing in pairs, kicking their shiny boots and heels to the beat of a fiddler's old glossy violin. 

"Hmm...look's like some kinda hoedown?" he speculated. The thing he hoped wouldn't happen, had happened, as she tugged at him. "Let us join in this 'hoedown' dance!". Her strong tingly accent made her all the more cute, as Alfred could have sworn he felt his cheeks set ablaze. Cute?! Now he was truly being ridiculous. He can't find Natalya cute, he had told that to himself before. Yet here he was being proven wrong, the tiny Belarusian going completely ballistic over things he considered normal and simple in his country. 

"Oh uhm uh...". He couldn't go dancing. He knew he couldn't. For one, you couldn't just free style your way through a hoedown. You needed to real have the kick in your boots for it, and you couldn't mess up or you and your partner would come tumbling down. But was that really the reason he didn't want to go up there with her? Was it perhaps because...he would melt at the sight of her under those firefly lights and amongst the budding tulips and shrubbery, like a goddess of nature. "I'm...I'm actually hoping to go grab something from the barbecue first". The excuse was fast paced, but it made logical sense as he was a presentable glutton. 

"Da, I see. I suppose I should try indulge in your uhm...cook out delicacies. He blew a breath of relief as the two made their way to the spiraling line of people that was moving rather painfully slow. As they stood in line, he could clearly see that the holdup was because of some poor teenager at the mercy of a grill. He was fumbling with paper plates and bumping into other volunteers. He dropped burger patties and burnt sausages clumsily. 

"Ah man, this guy is givin' BBQ a bad name!" Alfred whined, hands on hips almost instantly. "Sorry Nat maybe we s-". It had only been 30 minutes in and he had lost her. "Hey Nat?! Nat!" he called over the heads of irritated people. He felt strangely panicked losing her. He knew she could take care of herself, but he couldn't help but panic. He had to reason with himself. This was a small crowd, and she couldn't have gotten far. 

"You, shaky boy, do NOT hold the spatula like that!" he heard an intimate voice shout from the start of the line. He leaped out of line and craned his neck, staring off at the line up of grills. Low and behold, there was Natalya, pointing at volunteers and shouting vague instructions. He gawked at her. What did she think she was doing?! 

He jogged parallel to the line and reached the start, where his blonde friend stood, still barking orders. He stopped in front of her, ready to heave out a comment. She couldn't just do that! Cookouts were a masterpiece, and you couldn't just "cook" a burger. But the wafting smell of spicy burger meat settled his senses. Natalya had gone around, fixing little mistakes, making the assembly line all the more efficient. She eyed him happily. "I figured they could use some help. Can't have my dear starving in line". she came in hotly close, tapping his stomach with a single finger, before twirling around, facing away from him. Face to face again, she held a plump and hot cheeseburger. His eyes lit up at the quality of the patty, and the flakes of seasoning atop a sesame seed bun.

 "Wow Natty...I didn't know you could grill" he chuckled, finishing inspecting the burger, and finding himself inspecting her. A genuine happy grin pulled at her lips. "Da, I am somewhat accustomed to it". She was glowing and he couldn't deny it. Sure, she was basically an angelic maid who could serve him burgers...but she truly was alight just as boldly as the stars.

He took a bite and was sent into flavor central. "Wow, you gotta try this!". Natalya shook her head. "Nyet, I made it for-"

Without even taking a moment to think his actions through, he gently held her chin, and made her open up, and fed her a morsel of the juicy cheeseburger. She took a petite bite and chewed, taking a moment to swallow. She bit her lip. "Hmm, I can see why you enjoy these....but I have had better". Alfred wanted to laugh at her bold claim. He found it rather...pleasurable. 

"Oh uh....Bela...you got a little". There was a small smear of ketchup on her bottom lip. "Hmm?" she seemed to be in a daze at his bold little laugh that she hand't noticed this herself. "Pft...it's just...you have some...here". He moved a finger to her lips and wiped the ketchup off. Her lips, her plump lips. Her pillow lips, soft cherry lips....they were warm and moist. The pair turned a beet red, and Alfred couldn't move. Their eyes were locked on one another, and he was falling hopelessly in love. 

Love...this was love...how stupid. He removed his finger from her lips and cleared his throat. "Erm yeah...lemme finish this burger, then we can go jet over to some of the activities."

He never finished it. The knot in his stomach, the hot climb of heat in his face. He was no longer hungry for food, but for a girl only a few feet away from him. 

It gradually became darker, and lanterns and streetlights painted the grass in a moon yellow. Hot air balloons drifted through the night sky, tossing flowers down to the ground below. People cheered as they caught flowers in handfuls. Natalya tried many times to capture a rose in her hand, but someone would crane over her and snatch the flower from her grasp. She was growing rather frustrated, possibly on the verge of a violent blowup. With her, he never knew....

A shower of daisies rained onto the crowd, and Alfred swiped a single dainty daisy from the sky. He held it in his palm and looked at its fragile pedals. Fragile and as a pale as her. A hand weaved into hers, and he brushed the daisy under her ear. "There...now you go one" he flashed a heroic grin her way. Now would have been a moment where she could have called him dumb for pulling that. But only silence was shared, as a stunned Natalya admired the daisy in her hair. 

"Thank you Alfred," she whispered, hiding her face under a curtain of bangs. "Don't mention it Natty..."

The festivities continued on long into the night. Carmel apples, slices of warm pecan pie, and a chase down with a duck who stole Alfred's precious glob of cotton candy. They bought matching shirts, and a crotched scarf, striped in fall oranges and purples. Natalya wore that scarf despite the nice weather. They had approached a photo opt, and Natalya was helplessly dragged into line. She was not pleased, being forced to wear sheep ears, Alfred sporting a Sheppard's stick and straw hat. The camera clicked and Alfred had to stop her from strangling the photographer. 

The terrified photographer handed Alfred the picture as he walked back to his now wrecked photo shoot set up. A writhing Belarus heaved in and out, stamping over and over on the lamb ears. Alfred tapped her cautiously on the shoulder and handed her the polaroid. She growled as she snatched it, but eyes melted, and her expression softened. Alfred looked at it from behind, holding her shoulders excitedly. 

Belarus was rather irritated in the picture, with her little lamb ears and a pink bow tied around her neck. Alfred was laughing in it, one hand holding the Sheppard's stick, the other giving a thumbs up to the camera. She traced a finger over the glossy surface of the photo and pushed out a gentle giggle. "This is so stupid..." she laughed, gingerly tucking it away into Alfred's jacket pocket.

They held an almost trance-like hold on one another as they couldn't comprehend what to do next. They could have simply stayed in that minty moment, a trace of fireflies fumbling by, and a sky full of stars and wishes, dreams and pursuits of a young love. But it became increasingly worse for him as had fell ablaze to her eyes, oh her gemmed eyes and long lashes. A hand pulled her arm and they wondered onward, and at the edge of the steps to the platform. The hoedown was still in full swing.

A full band of fiddle players was in swing, and deja vu was simply just begging them to join in. So, Alfred lead the way into the center of the platform and guided his partner in front of him, and began dancing to the crescendo of the bow to the string. he kicked his shoes and danced about, Natalya confused at first, but hugging her hips close to him as they danced together in the lovely evening hoedown. And every guided swing of the fiddler's bow, had guided them closer and closer together.

Less and less could he focus on the music and its rhythm, but more on his dance partner. Her clumsy attempts to follow along with his feet, and her eyes bouncing up to him and back around curiously. He adored that fire in her soul that now burned so brightly.

Fire? How ironic. She was an ice cavern of shut out secret and broken lazy memories. Would this then proceed to mean...he had done his job? She was alive with the people, with herself. And she cherished moments and took her time to really get to know him. He may have been her obsession...but at this point...was she his obsession? Was all of this motivation to her wellbeing, his own obsession. Or was it something to fuel his hero complex?

His heart throbbed at this notion, and he wanted nothing more than to stay frozen in this moment. She was so unbelievably warm. She was so unbelievably alive. She was so unbelievably lovely. 

Chest pressed to chest, they glided across the platform in unison, as if they were shooting stars against the night sky above them. His ears rang nonstop as he felt dizzy with warmth. Dizzy upon her rare beauty and her content smile. And it all came down at once with one simple statement that left Natalya's lips. 

"Thank you, for everything"

Scared, he was simply scared. He felt like he couldn't move, as the rest of the world followed in lead. The music just suddenly stopped, the fiddler's hand frozen in motion, up in the night air, delighted faces in the crowd frozen in lovely expression. A heartbeat drove madly in his ears as the two were alone together. Thank you? Was this the end of it all? Was she ready to be set free once again? She didn't need him at this point...she had thawed out the ice in her heart.

No more Tuesday morning treads up steep mountain trails, or playful banters as they baked food for one another. No more company...just a now empty house...empty of his porcelain princess. 

He couldn't let her go...he couldn't bring himself to the thought of it. 

He tucked a hand behind the back of her head and drew her close to him. Firefly lights, summer nights, god, he couldn't let her flee from his tight grasp. Not yet...just one more moment. One more goodbye.

One single dip, and trembling lips touch another's plump ones. It was an embrace of insurance. Not just for her...but for him too.

'I am here. I am always here'

His arm was tucked under her waist as he swept her over into their last farewell. What just happened? Alfred didn't know...Alfred didn't care. 

He could feel time slowly run its clock as he saw the fiddler player's hand twitch and start to guide down the the finger board. Dancers' feet slowly moved forward, and the lights above them flickered.

One last goodbye. Just one more minute....please.

The two had dipped into a final and long kiss as the fiddle had spread upon its final andante...the final goodbye.

________________________________________________________________________________

Wow, hi everyone it's been...erm...quite some time

It's been this way, as my mental health was in need of some adjusting and I simply forgot about Hetalia. I went hyper over the old anime series Lupin The Third, well then season 7 came out, and I was thrown back into obsessing over this accursed show. And of course, this lovely ship.

I hope this was worth the wait, I finally did it, wooooo

So yeah my drive is to FINISH this story soon. Updates will hopefully be at least weekly or monthly. Life just happens to be filling for me. Music scholarships over my head and one last year of high school, it's just ehehehe funny. And hey, it's almost over, this nightmare pandemic is drawing to a close. Either way stay safe, stay healthy, and get the vaccine if you can asap.

Oh and I wanna shoutout my friend Guacamoleninjapingas who is a brilliant writer and is working on my favorite AmeBel fanfic in the world, "You're Not Alone Anymore". So PLEASE, if you can check em out, support their story and vote for the chapters! They work so hard and update so often go recognize their brilliance!

-Jameson