"Where is he....?" I mumbled to myself.

I breathed in the winter air as I ran towards Hetalia academy.

I used to love winter, but things have changed.
Now I hate winter, it's so cold and the snow just stabs at everyone's faces.
What's the point of winter?
Besides letting animals hibernate, it's pretty much useless and pointless.

I was now at the door of Hetalia academy.
Once entering, I continued to search for him.

"Arthur!" I called out as I looked for my best friend, who was also my long time crush.

I looked around but couldn't see him.
I could never really find him-or it was hard to and took a long time-not ever since he got his girlfriend, Victoria, or Chelles.

She looked a lot more pretty than I did, which made it no surprise why Arthur fell head over heels for her.

I, on the other hand, am not so beautiful. I have (h/l) (h/c) hair with (e/c) eyes and a plain face. I don't dress as pretty as Victoria does, which is another reason why Arthur chose to be with her other than me.

I do admit that I've been kind of depressed by Arthur's choice.
However, that doesn't keep me from trying to give him hugs like the old times.
Though, the thing is that every time I try to give him a hug or maybe just a pat on the shoulder, he always either walks away with an annoyed look on his face, or gets angry and says something that really breaks my heart, such as,"Can't you see that I already have a girlfriend, you git?!"

Things have become different ever since he started dating Victoria.
I can't even smile cheerfully at him without earning a glare or a scowl from him.

I let out a sigh before once again yelling out,"Arthur!"

After looking around one more time in the academy, I finally spotted the familiar Brit.

"Arthur~!" I yelled out with happiness as I half tackled him with a hug.

"Get off of me, git!" He growled as he pushed me down.

I looked at him with a shocked and hurt look on my face; he never went so far as to push me down like that.

I instantly felt other everyone's stares on the two of us; we were earning ourselves the wrong kind of attention.......

"I have had enough of this, ______!
I am sick and tired of you interfering with My and Victoria's relationship!
Have you ever even heard of 'personal space'? That's exactly what me and Victoria want! We don't want you to bother us!"

I stared at him with tears pricking at my eyes; I've always been sensitive to things.

He continued,"I'm sick of you not respecting our privacy!
In fact, I'm tired of you disrespecting me with everything!
If I can't get the needed respect, then I can't be your friend any longer!" I watched in horror as he yanked off the friendship bracelet that I had made for him when we had first declared that we were best friends.

He threw it to the ground as he said,"Now, I want you to stay away from me and Victoria!"

And with that, he turned and started to walk away, leaving behind me and his old friendship bracelet.

I crouched down and picked up the bracelet before holding it close to my heart.

I turned around and ran as fast as possible out the door of Hetalia academy.

The whole way, I couldn't stop tears from streaming down my face.

I kept on running despite the fact that my lungs were crying for air, despite the fact that the snow of the harsh winter pushed against me.

I just wanted to get away from all of the pain that I was feeling.

I soon found myself running through a snow-covered forest; not caring if I got lost or not.

I didn't even care to pay attention to the beautiful scenery that surrounded me, I just kept on running.

I eventually stopped running and slumped down under a tree, trying to catch some air as I breathed in winter's cold and snowy breath.

I sat there for what seemed like ten or fifteen minutes, now finally staring at the scenery.

It was very peaceful out here, not another sound besides my heavy breathing.

Nobody would ever be able to hear me cry out here.

I looked up at the snow-covered trees, their icicles pointing down at me as if they were teeth waiting to chew me to pieces and devour me.

I looked at the ground that was blanketed in whiteness. Its rough and firm snow compacted together reminded me of the old winter times I use to have with Arthur when we were younger.

~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~

I stood out in the snow, building a snow fort.

With winter holding me in a cold embrace, I smiled, I've always loved winter.
Especially when we had no school because of the point that ice covered all of the roads near the school we went to.

Despite the fact that my hands were freezing due to my gloves soaking up the snow, I continued to build.
My knuckles were probably starting to crack but that didn't stop me.

I wanted to make a snow fort for me and my new best friend, Arthur.
We would play in the fort while making sure we weren't seen in it and throw snow balls at anyone who passed by.

I smiled at the thought, when I heard a certain British accent yell my name,"______!"

I turned to Arthur who was now panting from running a long distance.

"Yes, what is it?" I asked before tightening my (f/c) colored scarf around my neck.

"_______, what are you doing out here? You're going to catch a cold!" He said with worry in his words.

"Well, I don't mind, especially if I'm building a fort for the both of us!" I smiled.

Arthur seemed surprised by this as he said,"You would do that for me? Risk catching a cold just for me?"

"Of course, we're best friends, remember?" I held both of his hands in mine,"And best friends would sacrifice anything for the other."

"_-_-_____......" Arthur always had a habit of stuttering when he was either nervous or being shy.

"Hey, Arthur?" I said.

He seemed to snap out of whatever world he was in as he said,"Yes?"

"Would you like to help me build the fort?"

"S-sure...."

And with that, we spent the whole rest of the day building the fort that had became a masterpiece.

~~~~~~End Of Flashback~~~~~~

I smiled, I used to always enjoy winters, especially if it was with Arthur.
We would always do all the things that kids usually do, such as making snowmen, snow angels, etc.

I then felt tears as my smile disappeared.

Those days were over, however, this time it wasn't over him having a girlfriend.
It was because he didn't want to play out in the snow anymore, claiming that we were too "old" to play such childish things.

Getting up, I began running towards the same direction I had been going once again.

I watched as the forest around me seemed to morph together because of the tears I was crying and because I was running so fast.

I didn't pay attention to where I was going because after about one to five minutes of running, I suddenly fell over a slope that contained rocks.

I tried to grip onto one of the rocks but they were too slippery due to the snow and also because I was holding Arthur's friendship bracelet in the other hand.

I felt the sharp point of rocks dig into my skin while scrapes were made on parts where my skin was exposed.

I was tumbling down about halfway when I hit my head on one of the rocks.

I felt pain and something warm drip down my face.

I saw some blood drip down from my eyebrow, just barely missing my eye.

The last thing I saw was whiteness and some red before passing out.

~~~~~~•~~~~~~

I slowly opened my eyes as I stared at the blinding white sky above me.

I stared at it for a little while, thinking about where I was and how I got there.

That's when the memories I had before getting knocked out came flooding back.

All the memories that flashed quickly through my head made me extremely dizzy, making me want to throw up.

Once the dizziness subsided, I realized that I couldn't feel anything thing and that there was no longer blood dripping down my face.
The snow must have frozen the blood and kept it from bleeding anymore.

I tried to get up but I couldn't.
I felt really numb and I was sure to be paralyzed.

I could tell that I was holding something close to my heart, which I soon remembered was the Arthur's friendship bracelet that he had thrown away as if it never meant anything to him.

I could tell that I was crying due to the depression I felt.
These tears would freeze up due to the freezing temperature like , as I just realized, how I am.

I'm going to die........
And I would soon be forgotten, or remembered by Arthur as a bad memory.

I wanted to think about at least some of my childhood memories, such as my parents, before I withered away, but I wasn't able to.

Instead, all I could think about was Arthur and the friendship he had broken.
How he had left my heart broken along with the friendship.
How?
By dating Victoria and for breaking the friendship.
He had ignored me when I needed him the most.

I was almost always depressed when Arthur started Victoria, now, I'm fully depressed now that we aren't even friends anymore.

Why did he have to hate me?
Why did he have to love Victoria if I had always loved him just as much, heck, maybe even more?

Why had he left me so broken when it was me who had always tried to help him and make sure he was left unbroken during obstacles?

Then I remembered the time I had given Arthur the friendship bracelet, that bracelet that was once full of promises and our becoming of best friends.
The bracelet that had shown that each of us would never be alone when overcoming life's problems.

~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~

"Artie!" I called out, excitedly searching for my best friend-to be.

I shuffled through the crowd of kids, saying a polite,"Excuse me" or,"sorry" when pushing past them.

I had been running around the whole playground at recess searching for him.

I looked around before calling his name out again,"Arthur!"

We were just starting a new school year, fourth grade, and we had become really good friends in the beginning of third grade.

This is why I wanted to become his best friend, because of the point that he had stayed with me longer than any of my other "friends" I had. Those other friends either left me for the popular group or just got annoyed with me.

But Arthur, he stayed with me and together, we fought and overcame obstacles.

Anyway, I kept on searching for Arthur before spotting him wearing his usual black cloak sitting under a huge oak tree near the playground.

"Arthur!" I yelled before lunging myself at him as I gave him a hug.

I loved giving him hugs, though all the kids would make fun of us and say we were "dating".
That didn't stop me, not at all!

"_-______?" He said, pulling the dark hood of his cloak down.

"Yep! It's me!" I giggled.

He smiled before returning my hug.

By then, some kids around us were whispering our names, making it obvious that they were teasing or questioning us again.

"Arthur, I want to tell you something!" I said quickly.

"Okay, what is it?" He asked.

I held out the bracelet that I had worked so hard to make and showed it to him,"This is a friendship bracelet. I want to tell you that you are the first friend to have actually stayed with me for a little over a year, and because of that, I now declare you as my best friend!" I slipped the bracelet around his wrist,"And I have a matching one, too!"

I showed him mine.

"_-_____....." He said as a smile again appeared on his lips,"You are also both my first friend ever and the first friend to have stayed with me!"

I smiled, he was the greatest friend ever!

It was kind of sad that he had never had any other friends besides me.
All the kids used to bully him until he was in tears.
But that soon changed when I stood up to his bullies once and earned him as a great friend.

That's when I remembered another thing.

"Oh! And ,Arthur, one more thing!" I exclaimed.

"Y-yes?" Arthur said shyly.

"If there is a time you don't ever want to be my best friend anymore, you just take the bracelet off and you throw it down to the ground as hard as you can! But I know you would never do that to me, right?"

"Of course, I will always want to remain your best friend...."

I smiled brightly before grabbing his hand and dragging him somewhere else to play with the other kids (who had gotten bored once realizing that I wasn't asking him out or anything.)

~~~~~~End Of Flashback~~~~~~

I remember that day like as if it had just happened yesterday.

I was cheered up by this memory but soon lost the happiness as a thought came to mind.

He never kept the promise, he said he would never want to quit being best friends.
If he said that, then why did he yell at me that he didn't want to be my best friend anymore?

I sensed more tears as I thought about this.

I wanted to cry out in agony from all of the emotional pain I was feeling but I was, as said earlier, paralyzed and even if I weren't, my throat was too dry.

I sat there as tears froze to my cheeks.

I started to remember the good times me and Arthur had before he started dating Victoria.

One memory was the time it was Valentine's Day in the year of sixth grade.

~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~

I was sitting at my desk, feeling glum because of the point that nobody gave me any Valentine's Day presents.
Not even my now major crush and best friend, Arthur.

I slumped my head down onto the desk while I stared down at my feet under the desk.

Why didn't anyone love me?
Why didn't anyone care about me?
Well, Arthur did but he probably doesn't feel the same way I do for him.

I thought more depressing thoughts when I heard someone in front of me clear their throat.

My head shot up to see a familiar blonde boy blushing a deep rose-colored red.

"W-w-wh-what is it, Arthur?" I asked with a surprised tone to my voice that probably matched perfectly with my expression.

"Well.... I wanted to give you something for Valentine's Day.....
So here!" He said timidly before shoving a heart-shaped box of chocolates in front of my face.

And my, was he trembling; he looked like he would explode any second!

I didn't want to make him any nervous by staying quiet any longer.

"Arthur, thank you! That was very sweet of you!" I said, not so glumly now that I knew that I was cared for.

I leaned over and gave Arthur a kiss on the cheek, which made his blush grow a seemingly impossible deep shade of red.

"Yo-you're welcome....." He said while smiling at me.

~~~~~End Of Flashback~~~~~~

I remembered this time so well; just thinking about it cheers me up when I'm feeling down.

I could imagine that I was smiling now, though I couldn't really feel it because I was so numb from the cold snow I was laying on.

All these happy thoughts soon became saddened thoughts when I realized something.

Why did Arthur give me those chocolates if he didn't even feel that way about me?

I mean, if he loved me, then why is he dating Victoria? Why did he break our friendship?

I pulled myself out of my thoughts when I saw how dark it was getting outside.

Or was it my vision starting to blacken due to me dying?

I wanted to scream out for help so much, but who would hear me?
Nobody.

I thought about all of the bad memories with Arthur when I suddenly remembered something my mother used tell me.

She had always told me to look on the bright side of things no matter how bad things got.

I then thought that maybe, just maybe, Arthur did still care about me.....

I started to think about-or tried to- all the good memories with Arthur.

I then thought of a promise that I would ask Arthur to make if he were hear now:

Arthur, promise me that even after I die, that you will keep smiling and do whatever it takes to make your girlfriend, Victoria, happy no matter what.

Wait...... Of course he would be happy even after I die, he even said that he didn't want to be friends anymore! So why would he care about me?!

I shook those thoughts out of my head; those thought most definitely did not look at the bright side of things....

I then thought, just before my life started to wither away, all of the great memories I had with my old best friend.

I could feel my head become nauseous and my mind start to shut down.

Just before I was about the die, I thought of something I wanted to say to Arthur:

Thank you, Arthur, for all the great memories you gave me......

~~~~~~•~~~~~~

I saw nothing but blackness for what seemed like eternity when I suddenly felt warmth.
How was I feeling this warmth?
Where was it coming from?

I want so badly to just snuggle up against the warmth, but I couldn't.
It's like the warm summer air, you can't exactly snuggle up with it like a blanket, it's just..... There.

Is this what death feels like?

Am I in limbo or something?

I saw a strange white light suddenly appear near yet far away from me.
I, for some odd reason, felt the urge to get closer to it.
I began to somehow get closer to the light, closer and closer.

I was finally close enough to touch it.

I gently wrapped my fingers around it, holding it as if it were delicate and rare.

As soon as I touched it, though, I felt a weird sensation that I was floating.

I looked down by couldn't tell if I was really floating, for, as said before, I was surrounded by nothing but blackness.

The light shined through the cracks between my fingers before it started to become bigger and brighter.

It was like I was becoming a part of the light as it began to consume me; it seemed to spread along the surface of my body, leaving no darker color showing.

Once fully absorbed in the light, I was just "floating" or whatever was happening to me when my eyes started to adjust to the light and the weird sensation slowly faded away.

I adjusted to my surroundings with cautious yet curious eyes.

Once they adjusted, I saw that I was in an unfamiliar room.

It wasn't a hospital, it just seemed like any normal room in a house.
Well, not really normal, it looked too wealthy to be normal....

I put a hand to my forehead where the rock from the slope had hit me.
It was bandaged up tight.
Who had did this for me?

I looked down and saw that I was covered in about five layers of blankets.

That's the first time in what seems like forever that I've actually felt something.....

I also noticed something warm wrapped tightly around my right hand.

I looked over and nearly fainted when I saw Arthur sitting next to the bed with his head on the covers as he slept.

How long has he been laying there?
Why is he laying there?
Didn't he hate me?

My heart started to beat at a quick pace and I started to panic as I thought about this.

I quickly rolled the covers off of me before getting up while carefully prying Arthur's fingers off of my hand.

I didn't want Victoria to notice that and get angry with me.

So, running out, I made my way towards the door when I heard Arthur calling my name.

I stopped for a brief second; why is he calling after me?
Is he calling my name out of anger?

Opening the door, I then ran out.

As soon as I ran out, I was met with winter's cold air; it seemed so much colder since someone had took my coat, scarf and my gloves off.

I was just about to step foot out of his front yard when I felt a hand grab my wrist.

I turned around to see Arthur, standing there and staring at me with saddened eyes.

I tried to pull my wrist away but he wouldn't budge.

I looked down at our hands and gasped, noticing that Arthur had his friendship bracelet on.

He seemed to notice that I saw the bracelet, but he didn't speak for a while.

"I'm so sorry, _____, I didn't mean for any of this to happen to you....." He suddenly spoke, breaking me out of my trance.

"W-what...?" I asked with confusion.

"I am so, so sorry that you had to go through all of that....
It was horrible for me to say those things that I said to you; I swear, I didn't mean any of them...
And it was horrible for you to nearly die alone in the woods in one of the most suffering ways...."

"A-ar-Arthur..... You really cared about me......?" I asked with tears pricking at the corner of my eyes.

He stared at he for little bit as if letting my question sink in.

"Yes. The truth is, I've loved you ever since we became friends and I've always cared about you....." He had tears pricking at his eyes too as he said this.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing; I've been waiting for years to hear those words.

However, finally, I was able to say something that I've always been too scared to tell him until now,"I-I've loved you too for a long time now...."

Arthur smiled the most heart-warming smile ever as the tears that were once of sadness turned to tears of happiness.

I smiled too.

It was rather rare to see him smile, but he always seemed to smile when he was around me before he started dating Victoria.
But now that he was smiling, I was as happy as ever.

That's when a question appeared in my mind,"Wait, what about Victoria? Isn't she still your girlfriend?"

Arthur looked down at the ground before looking back up at me as he said,"No.... She broke up with me when I went looking for you.
She said that she couldn't love me anymore and that Francis was a lot more handsome and better than me..."

I rolled my eyes at this; I have always knew that she wasn't good enough for Arthur anyway, especially if she goes after guys for their looks.

I, on the other hand, actually love Arthur for who he is both on the inside and outside.

"Arthur, I'm so sorry about that....." I said while looking down at the ground; it is still hurtful to find out that someone who you thought loved you actually didn't.

"It's actually quite fine. To be honest, I didn't really want to be with her as much as she wanted to be with me either." He said while lifting my chin up with his index finger.

I still had more questions, though,"Arthur?"

"Yes, love?" He smiled.

"If you loved me the entire time, then why did you start dating Victoria?" I said, becoming slightly depressed at the memories of him dating Victoria.

Arthur let out a sigh before saying,"Well, you see, I kind of gave up on trying to confess my love to you because I didn't want to risk our friendship. I also was afraid that you would reject me.
So I decided to date Victoria in hopes of trying to get my love for you off of my mind.
However, I just couldn't stop loving you, that's why my relationship with Victoria wouldn't have lasted very long anyway.
I just wanted to stop loving you, but I couldn't. That's when I decided that I couldn't love your wonderful hugs in fear of my love for you becoming stronger.
It wasn't that I hated you or anything because you kept on hugging me, it was because of fear for loving you.
That is why I say it now, knowing that you feel the same way about me, I love you, ______, and I always have and always will."

"Promise?"

"Of course, and this time, I won't break it." And with that, he lifted me up and kissed me passionately.

The kiss was so loving and gentle, however, he most definitely wasn't holding back.
This is what we had both been waiting to do for years, and now we were both finally getting what we wanted.

The kiss was about to become a lot stronger than it already was when some annoying need for a thing called "oxygen" became too much.

We pulled apart, both panting, as we looked at each other with a loving smile planted on our faces.

"You want to stay in my house? It's a lot warmer, and plus, I don't want my new girlfriend to catch a cold." He said as he wrapped his hand around mine.

"Yes, of course!" I nearly yelled out, feeling the most joyful as ever.

And with that, we made our way inside his house before cuddling up and becoming extremely thankful for winter bringing us together.

For, if I hadn't ever gotten lost in the harsh winter forest, both me and Arthur wouldn't have been able to confess our love to each other.

So, winter, if you somehow can hear me, thank you.....

~~~~~~Fin~~~~~~