A/N: This might be my favourite one in the series yet. A few warnings: some later content may be more worthy of an OT rating, but YMMV. As part of a series, this story may contain elements and references to previous stories, but once again I hope that it will manage to be readable on its own. I kind of have been building up to this, though, just to warn newcomers! o3o

Basically all the "official" pairings from World Wide Story (which, by the way, is having its first newly edited chapter uploaded today…) that we stopped seeing in All The Answers are back again in this one. Yay!

AND GUESS WHAT? According to my stats, 104 people out there consider me to be one of their favourite fanfiction authors. Thank you all, I feel so honoured. /bows deeply

Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.
The Mighty Ducks belong to Walt Disney Pictures.

January 4th, 9:08 AM, -10 degrees Celsius, excluding windchill. Maddie crept past her brother's open door, listening to Gabriel's soft snores trickling out into the hallway. Her mother was already downstairs, frying pancakes for breakfast. Before she turned the corner, Maddie froze upon hearing her father's voice.

"…about seven inches last night, probably more out in the country. If this keeps up, they might postpone the first day of school, even. Though it also depends on the wind, whether it makes an affect the commuters…"

Maddie took a deep breath and silently tiptoe-hopped across the hallway towards the door just as her parents' backs were turned towards her. Reaching it in perfect time, she quickly shoved boots onto her otherwise bare feet and wrenched open the front door.

"Maddie, is that you?"

Panicking slightly, she dived straight into the freezing cold. And instantly regretted the decision as soon as the door banged shut behind her. Yeah, going outside in nothing but shorts and a hoodie in the dead of winter was probably the dumbest idea Maddie's mind had generated yet – one in a long list of many, with more guaranteed to come. Emitting tiny yelps of cold, she struggled through the pile of snow towards their mailbox.

"Maddie! What on Earth are you doing?"

"J-just a minute!" she stammered back, tugging the tiny door down, wincing as her fingers touched bare metal.

Bills…bills…an advert…

Shoved in at the back was a light brown, very fat parcel with a scribbly, uneven script in one corner, bearing the words:

Gillian Beilschmidt
Reichesstraβe, 88
B-13086, Berlin
Germany

"MADELEINE JENNIFER WILLIAMS, return inside this second before you freeze to death!"

"Coming!" Mrs. Williams stood back to allow her daughter to flounder back up the path and back into the house, gasping feebly through chattering teeth.

"What were you thinking, going out there in nothing but your pyjamas? Go get dressed and then come eat something hot."

She nodded meekly, handing over the stack of mail – except for the largest one. Then, hurtling up the stairs two at a time, nearly colliding with a sleepy-eyed Gabriel partway through, Maddie dashed back into her room, burrowing beneath the covers.

"Sorry, Kuma," she apologized to the chubby, grey-white British longhair cat nestled on one side of the bed. Kuma blinked twice, staring intently at the human girl ripping apart the packaging eagerly. As the contents of parcel were showered onto the sheets, Kuma yawned, giving up all attempts to recognize her owner.

Maddie eyed the slightly crumpled pieces of stationery, covered from top to bottom in messy, excited handwriting, but picked up the rest of its contents first.

Gillian had packed it all in as a big fat bundle. Maddie could feel something hard in the centre of the lump, and slowly began to unwind the dark blue fabric. After a few seconds, she realized that the covering itself wasn't just for wrapping and protection – more unravelling revealed a long woollen scarf with tiny white leaves embroidered along the edge. It was gorgeous. Distracted by this revelation, Maddie dropped the surprise at the end onto the covers, where it landed with a loud tinkle. Maddie gasped in delight and picked it up by the gold string at the top. Kuma swatted at the three-tiered ceramic Christmas tree dangling from her fingertips, and the pieces clanged together musically.

Maddie smiled at her presents and carefully set them down before finally reading Gillian's letter.

Dear Maddeh dahling,

Do you like your present? Isn't it AWESOME? Next time you send me something, it better have a pic of you wearing it. You'll look awesome, trust me. It cost me like three euros to send this package all the way to you! But of course, you deserve it too because you sent me a pretty damn awesome present. I even got it a few days before Christmas, which is why I'm wearing it in our family picture. (Sorry, I couldn't wait…)

Maddie peered back into the envelope and pulled out a photograph. Four people beamed up at her next to a heavily decorated Christmas tree. Two of them were thin, elderly but cheerful people who could only be Gillian's grandparents. In front of them knelt a young man in his mid-twenties, who shared near-identical grins with the teenage girl sitting next to him. It was only a picture, but Maddie still blushed when she saw that the girl was wearing bright pink lightning bolt earrings that dangled nearly to her shoulders. She'd just thought that they'd suited her…

Anyway, I hope you got this in time. I hope Luddy and 'Tonio got their stuff too. Francis is still in Paris with his dad, but he'll come here soon in January! So I didn't go out and do all the touristy thingies like the wall, or the Reichstag, or any of those things. I did them all when I was little, when I first came over with vati and mutti and Ludwig. It's just been me and Fritz hanging out near here. So not downtown or anything…still, there's a lot of awesome stuff happening! Apparently the next neighbourhoodish area is really trendy and shit, so we go there a lot. Lots of restaurants, art galleries, and other hipster type of stuff there. And a lot of people who speak English, actually. Like this one comedy club we went to – someone told me they thought my earrings were cool! So that's you, awesome!

The most awesome part about Germany in the winter is definitely the Christmas fairs, though. You should see them. They're all like these little booths that sell everything from cheese to sausage to gingerbread and ornaments. We got some to put around the house, and that's one of the things I got you, the tree bell thingie! Got you a gingerbread person too, but…I ate it. Hahahaha!

There was this awesome slide people set up in the middle of the fair – it was like, eight feet tall and really steep! We went on it five times, until the lady told us that it was too much and it really was for the little kids. So unawesome. Those babies were usually too scared to go alone anyway.

Maddie was suddenly struck with the image of Gillian and her cousin mobbing a giant, bouncy-castle type of booth in front of a crowd of crying children. She groaned and laughed simultaneously, looking back down to read the rest of the letter.

So that's me. Hope you're having a Christmas just as awesome as mine! Don't die at school! School = evil. Don't let it take away your soul, Maddieeeeee!

Just kidding, you're too awesome to be soul-stolen. Tell me everything that happens! That hag Tackett missing me in detention? Feli and Luddy are okay now? Lovi and 'Tonio being all lovey and shit? (Well I guess Tonio's doing the lovey part while Lovi just yells at him or something) Al still being crazy? Keep me updated and I'll do the same. Francis and I are going to keep on visiting people to laugh in their faces how they're working their asses off in school while we have all the freedom in the world. Right now we're planning on saying hi to Roddy and Liz. Francis also really wants to see Artie, so maybe we can fit more people in. Like Vash! That would be pretty awesome!

WRITE ME BACK! NOW!

Gilly

Maddie was so concentrated on the words that she was startled by the knocking on her door, causing her leg to kick sporadically. Kuma irritably got up and hopped off the bed, making a beeline for the sunny spot on the rug.

"Mom says to come down and eat," Gabriel informed her through the door.

Several minutes later, he and the rest of the Williams family looked up from their plates to hear a light tinkling sound.

"Look what I got," Maddie announced, holding up the tiny tree.

"Adorable," smiled Mrs. Williams. She gestured towards a plate. "Eat up."

The tree jingled cheerfully as Maddie brought it over. Gabriel ignored the ornament as it was set next to his place, his attention focused solely on scarfing down his bacon.

She reached for the syrup as her father spoke to both of them. "So. Plans for today? Last weekend before class begins again. It's a great day to be out."

"'Still got another week," Gabriel mumbled over the rim of his mug.

Maddie had plopped a spoonful of whipped cream in the centre of her pancake, and was now topping it with blueberries. "Alfred wants to hang out. He said something about skating."

"Great idea! Gabey, why don't you join them?"

The preteen shot his father a dour look. "But I was going to work on my film…"

Maddie rolled her eyes. Recently, her brother had become just a little bit obsessed with video. Or perhaps it was just that he wanted to avoid hanging around with his older sister, since it obviously wasn't "cool". Not that she cared, honestly.

"Suit yourself." Mr. Williams' coffee mug paused on its way to his lips as the doorbell rang. "That's probably him right now."

Sure enough, as Mrs. Williams opened the door, her greeting of, "Alfred! How nice to see you!" was drowned out by the even louder exclamation of, "HEY! MADDIE READY YET?"

"I'm not even done eating!" she yelled from the kitchen. In seconds, an excited face peered in at them.

"Oh my god, pancakes!" Alfred's blue eyes widened beneath his blond hair, which was growing just a little bit too long. "Damn, looks so good…"

"Come on, have a plate," Mrs. Williams offered generously. Before anyone could move, their guest was already in a chair across from Maddie, scooting it up close to the table and picking up a fork eagerly.

"Pig," she scoffed.

"I'm a growing boy," he grinned. Turning to Gabriel, who looked significantly more interested in conversing now that another non-adult male present. "How's your movie coming along?"

Maddie excused herself as Gabriel began to talk about the comic he was trying to animate. Alfred was more than up to the task of finishing their food, judging by the loud clattering of silverware upon porcelain. When she walked into her room, the sun pouring in was obscured slightly by a light flurry of snowflakes. Maddie shooed Kuma away from her closet door and began to dress for the cold weather. After pulling on her 2010 Olympic mittens, she hesitated, then grabbed Gillian's new scarf to finish the outfit.

Alfred was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, looking very full and pleased with his second breakfast. As Maddie made her way towards him, he smirked.

"Red, white and blue!" He pointed at her mittens, hoodie and scarf. "How patriotic. I approve."

She snorted and pretended to be offended. "Shut up, I'm Canadian." Gabriel appeared on the staircase, dragging his hockey bag behind him.

"Here, you can use it," he said bluntly. Before Maddie could even thank him, her brother was darting back into his room.

Alfred picked up both bags with relative ease, car keys dangling from his fingers. "Great! Let's go."

The snow was still providing a blurry curtain over their vision, but the two eventually made it to Barryknoll Park. There was no way that lake was frozen enough for a safe game of hockey, but park management was kind enough to create a few small ice rinks for people's convenience. Only one was taken up at the moment – by a small family of four who seemed to be using the day to teach their youngest to skate. Alfred and Maddie claimed the third, skipping over the one in between for respectful distance, and began to set up their gear. The snow had finally let up, so Maddie wiped her glasses one last time.

Alfred smirked. "Hey lil' sis, if you think those mittens are gonna make this another win for Canada, be prepared to be disappointed. Just telling you before tragedy hits!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well you know why the Mighty Ducks freaked out over Iceland? Because the filmmakers knew it wouldn't make sense for a bunch of American kids to beat Canada. Also, the flying V would never work in real life."

"Hey! Don't diss the Ducks!" Alfred began to mime air guitar with his hockey stick. "Weeeeeee are the chaaaaampions, mah friiiiieeeeeends…."

Maddie laughed as he continued singing, tossing the puck into the ice.

Like a miracle, the snow clouds vanished for good, providing the rest of the day with bright sunlight to counter the chilly air. The siblings on the court didn't seem to notice, busily pushing and aiming and screaming with glee when one managed to score a goal past the other. By the afternoon, it turned out that 2010 Vancouver Olympics mittens perhaps did have some sort of lucky charm to them, because Alfred was bushed at the score of 7 to 3 in favour to the Ontario native. His pout was still there when they took their lunch break at the snack stand.

"I don't wanna go back to school," he lamented, picking at his fries.

"It's your last year!"

"I know! I think I already have senioritis."

"Wow." Maddie shot him a stern look. "You have college applications, Al."

He covered his ears dramatically. "Shhhh. We're still on break. Don't ruin it. Have a freakin' fry!"

Alfred shoved the tray towards her. Maddie picked one up and surveyed it thoughtfully.

"You know what we need here? Poutine."

"'Kay. I'll agree it tastes good, but poutine is so weird."

"It's just as weird as gravy with mashed potatoes – in fact, it's practically the same thing!"

"But that's because like, you can shape the mashed potatoes into a mountain, and then make a scoop at the top with your spoon, so when you put gravy over it, it's like a volcano!" Alfred reached over and tugged on her scarf.

That made her jump a little. "Hey! Don't make it dirty…"

"Never seen ya wear this before." Alfred examined the white leaves. "Christmas present?"

He didn't notice the silly little grin that crept across her face. "Yeah."

"Awesome!"

The word made her smile again. "Yeah, I know."

A/N: Ate maple cookies whilst writing part of this. Appropriate.

I made up the Berlin address, so it could be completely done wrong. I was lucky enough to pay a visit to Germany when it was late October, when people were beginning to put up the Christmas fairs. So it's mostly from memory that I describe Gilly's experiences C: That tree-chime ornament was really cute.

/doesn't think there are many people who actually bother following this series anymore, but that's okay, because I'm just really in love with my characters and giving them rounded lives

Um please R&R? I've kind of missed the feedback. /puppy eyes