I don't own Hetalia or Avatar: The Last Airbender and/or Korra.

Our favorite Hetalia characters as humans in the world of Avatar!

This is how my mind works now...there is no going back for me...

This is how I envision their lives and adventures would play out.
Making up most of this as I go because that's how I roll! I'm not really trying to have a best selling plot so don't expect one...but hopefully it's fun to read!

Since it's an AU (for the Hetalia people) only their human names will be used (because as I recall there is no America, Japan, Italy or other such country in the Avatar world)

There are a couple genderbends...I won't say who because I don't want to spoil anything.

They won't be like the "official" genderbends aka the Nyotalia characters because I don't want them to be different...just the opposite gender. Also I know the original characters waaaay better than I know the genderbent ones and it would be way too much for me to have to do extensive research every time I want to write about them. I hope that makes sense and I'm sorry if it doesn't.

Hetalia related note: Don't freak out because of age inaccuracies, mild OOCness and the like, okay? This is just something fun that came up in my head and I had to adjust some character details to fit in the Avatar world. Nothing too drastic (at least not to me) but if you're looking for perfection in everything then this probably isn't for you.
Avatar related note: Don't freak out because the names aren't Avatar-type names, please. I'm not going to rename characters in a crossover just to fit the world they're in...that wouldn't really be a crossover, now would it? So yeah. The names aren't Avatar-like and there may be some other stuff that isn't completely Avatar-like either because it's actually hard to research everything...but it's supposed to be for fun so if any Avatar imperfection really bothers you then you may want to leave.

Date Indicator - ASC (After Sozin's Comet)

Example: Aang was broken out of the iceberg (the beginning of Avatar: The Last Airbender) in late 99 ASC. The Fire nation war thing ended in 100 ASC.

-Brief (hopefully accurate) Timeline-

99-100 ASC - Avatar: The Last Airbender begins and ends.

153 ASC - Avatar Aang dies, Avatar Korra is born.

234 ASC - Avatar Korra dies, next Avatar is born.

310 - 716 ASC - Everything goes to heck in a handbasket.

716 ASC - Avatar (OC) Amal dies.

732 ASC - Story starts.

All Avatar info (such as timeline, flora, fauna and so on) retrieved from the Avatar Wiki.

Any needed Hetalia info retrieved from the Hetalia Archives.

I fail at writing actual bending...just a heads up...I try my best...

And the first chapter will probably be full of crud because I just want to introduce most of the people/important plot points!

(I did proofread but I was tired and my eyes hurt from staring at the screen so if there are any glaring mistakes I apologize!)

"Ten copper pieces?! Are you out of your mind?!" Lovino slammed his fist against the counter; a gust of wind burst from where his hand made contact with the wood, scattering a few loose papers lying nearby and blowing through his own dark brown hair.

The man behind the counter scrambled to gather his papers. "I'm sorry, Lovino. But you're not the only one with money problems."

Lovino glared. "But you honestly can't pay more than ten copper pieces? It's a whole crate of tomato-carrots! It's worth at least twice that!"

The man sighed, donning a glare of his own. "I think you're aware that you aren't exactly the favorite person in this town, young man, not with the way you treat people."

"Well I'm not trying to please any of you."

"I, personally, wouldn't bother buying from you at all except for the fact that I know you need the money for your little brother. I'm pretty sure many others feel the same."

Lovino's jaw clenched and he ground his teeth.

The man cleared his throat. "By the way, how is he? I heard from Antonio that he had a pretty bad episode last week and-"

Lovino snatched the money off the counter and shoved it into his satchel. "Antonio exaggerates. Feliciano is fine."

He hurried from the shop without another word.

Outside, the apparent object of the towns affections was waiting for him underneath a blanket in the old wooden cart.

The cart was still mostly full, holding seven of the ten crates they had started with and they had already visited all of their usual buyers. He looked in the distance at the setting sun and knew they would need to return home. Today had not been a good day.

Lovino grumbled to himself, alerting the lump under the blanket to his presence.

The blanket was thrown back to reveal the ever cheerful face of Feliciano, his light rusty-brown hair was slighty messed up from being under the blanket most of the day except for one wild curl that matched Lovino's own only on the opposite side.

His little brother's happy expression fell slightly at the sight of him.

"What's wrong, Lovi?" He asked innocently. "You look upset."

Lovino only grunted in reply, grasping the handles of the cart as he began to pull it along towards home.

Feliciano remained sitting inside like he had been most of the day, having been too tired to walk all the way to town, and Lovino was regretting that he'd come along because of the extra weight he had to pull all the way back.

Of course when Feliciano had asked to come Lovino had expected to be returning with an empty cart.

Dang it all!

There was a pause before Feliciano spoke again.

"If you're upset about not selling much, don't worry. I'm sure we can sell more tomorrow...or the day after. And anyway we can just eat what we don't sell, right? That way we don't have to buy as much food and-"

"We need the money for your medicine and to pay the soldiers, idiot. If it was about food why would we even sell what we grow?"

"...Well...I don't think the medicine actually helps anyway...maybe we don't need to buy any? That way we have more for the soldiers-"

"Just shut up." Lovino snapped. "Can we not talk about it, please?"

Feliciano fell silent.

Lovino sighed. He was right. The medicine didn't help his brother at all, at least as far as they could tell. His condition had never gotten any worse but at the same time he had never improved in any way they could see.

The most they could do was try to treat the symptoms as they came and in the event of a particularly bad episode they could only wait for it to pass since there was no cure for whatever his ailment was.

He and Antonio had talked recently about whether they should continue to buy medicine at all. It was expensive, at least for them. And then they would have more money for the soldiers.

Lovino fumed silently. He hated them. The Elite soldiers. But then, who didn't in this town? They had few resources as it was without the soldiers coming to tax them for "protection".

'Five minutes.' Lovino thought, smiling darkly to himself. 'If I could have just five minutes with one of them...or with whoever it is they work for...Oh I would just love to-'

"Lovi!"

His brother's voice snapped him out of his fantasy. He stopped and whipped around.

"What?! Can't you just keep quiet for more than a-!" His brother was practically jumping up and down in the cart, waving one arm wildly and pointing at something ahead of them with the other, beaming like an idiot.

"Look, Lovino! Look!"

Lovino looked. All he could see were the usual residents of the town walking among the rundown shops. There were a few strangers of course. The odd group of travelers would stop here on occasion, some just passing through and looking for supplies but usually they were traveling vendors who never had anything interesting or useful. At least nothing worth what little money these townspeople had.

Lovino, for the life of him, couldn't understand what had caught his brother's eye. When he turned back to his brother he was just as excited, if not, more than before.

"What?!" Lovino growled, exasperated, "Use your words, moron!"

Instead of replying Feliciano leapt high into the air over Lovino, stirring up a breeze, and landed in front of him before taking off down the street, swiftly weaving between the people in his way.

"Where are you going, you idiot?!" Groaning, Lovino pulled the cart along again, trying to catch up with Feliciano.

Honestly. Sometimes his brother lost his mind over the most stupid things.

When he was finally able to catch up he found his brother standing a few paces away from a small vendor's cart. Lovino grabbed his arm and held him back lest he decided to actually approach. These were strangers. Outsiders. He wasn't going to let his naïve brother walk into some thief's scam or something.

Looking at the cart he saw what must have gotten his brother so excited.

On the vendor's cart there was a sign with only a symbol on it.

An element symbol.

The symbol for air.

Goosebumps prickled on Lovino'a skin and he swallowed hard. That wasn't something he was used to seeing.

He and Feliciano were the only airbenders in this town...and as far as they knew they could be the only ones alive.

Most people who passed through the town and happened to find out they were airbenders would act as if they were some great thing. Like rare creatures of some kind.

So who were these people?

For the first time since walking up he took a good look at them.

There were four, all wearing hooded cloaks of some kind although only one of them actually had the hood pulled over his head and it hung low, hiding most of his face from view.

This one was standing behind the cart, leaning against the wall of the shop they had stationed themselves in front of. His stance and body frame identified him as an adult man but he was a mystery otherwise. He looked down and didn't seem to notice them staring.

Beside this man, sitting stiffly on the ground and reading a book, was a girl who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, Feliciano's age. She had light blonde hair pulled back into a braided bun with a few loose strands that hung in her face which she seemed intent on attempting to smooth back every few seconds. Her blue eyes were locked on the pages of her book and she didn't notice them either.

On the other side of the cart were two young men who also appeared to be around Feliciano's age. One was blond as well though his hair was slightly darker in color and short with an odd lock of hair that stuck up in the front. He too had blue eyes and wore glasses. He looked to be very fit, at least his arms looked rather muscular. He didn't seem to be able to keep still and bounced around excitedly, now and then he crouched down to speak to the other young man.

The last young man sat on his knees on the ground, polishing a sword he held in his lap. His straight black hair was short and his dark brown eyes only left the sword when the blond boy called for his attention. Though he wore some loose-fitting clothes it was obvious he was slim and didn't appear to have much muscle mass, at least not as much as the other boy, the girl, or the hooded man.

They were certainly an odd group.

From where they stood Lovino couldn't see what they were selling, if they were selling anything at all, and wondered what exactly the point of the sign was then. Just to attract attention? It had worked for Feliciano...but he was a special case when it came to most things.

Feliciano tugged on his arm.

"Lovi! Lovi, can we talk to them? Please!"

Lovino crossed his arms. "Why in the world do you want to? It doesn't even look like they're selling anything."

"But we could ask! Please! They have the air symbol! They might have...I don't know...airbender stuff! Wouldn't that be cool?"

"Airbender stuff? Like what?"

Feliciano pouted. "Pleeeeaase!"

Lovino glanced at the slowly sinking sun again and sighed. Antonio was probably already worried and wondering where they were...but he did that every time they left the house so a few minutes more wouldn't hurt. At least it might satisfy his brother long enough so they could reach their home in peace.

"Fine." he let go of his brother's arm. "But let me do the talking."

They walked up to the cart and Lovino cleared his throat. "So who the heck are you people?"

Feliciano lightly jabbed his side. "Lovi, be polite."

Lovino pushed his brother away. "I don't have to be polite if I don't want to now shut up!" he turned back to the travelers and spoke directly to the hooded man.

"So what are you here for anyway? Are you selling anything or what?"

The man straightened up and Lovino could see his mouth turned up in a smirky sort of half-smile.

"That depends." the man said.

"Depends on what?"

"On who wants to know."

Lovino scoffed. "What in the name of all things living does that mean?"

The man laughed. "Don't get yourself so worked up. I mean that I can't show these things to just anybody. So why do you want to see what we have?"

Lovino ran a hand through his hair, irritated. "I don't want to see anything. It's my brother. He saw your dumb sign and he freaked out. It's the air symbol."

The man turned his still hidden eyes on Feliciano. "The air symbol means something to you?"

Feliciano nodded, smiling. "Yes. We don't see it a lot really, actually ever. Only in books and things. My brother and I are airbenders and probably the only ones for miles because we've never met any other-ow!"

Lovino elbowed Feliciano in the side, shutting him up.

"Airbenders? Really?" The man sounded genuinely interested now. "Well that's exactly what I was hoping to hear. We only show these things to airbenders."

The three other travelers had stopped whatever they had been doing and were now giving them their full attention.

The hooded man looked around quickly and, seeing that the street had become empty except for them, lifted a plank of wood off the top of the cart, reached inside and brought out a large bulging sack.

He came around to the front of the cart, crouched down and began emptying the contents of the sack by laying each little item carefully on the ground.

It took several minutes before he finished and it took Lovino a few to realize what the items were.

Toys.

Dozens and dozens, no, maybe hundreds of little toys. They took up a large part of the street.

"Really?" Lovino grumbled. "What's so special about these? They're for children. Why would-"

"Oh! Lovi look!" Feliciano knelt to get a better look at them. "Are you really selling these? How much?"

The hooded man laughed. "The price depends on which ones you want. They're not expensive."

Lovino groaned and attempted to pull his brother off the ground. "We don't have the time or the money to waste on these." he growled.

Feliciano looked up at him, clasped his hands together and pleaded. "Please, Lovi. Just let me look. Maybe it won't cost much. Please!"

He attempted to stare his younger brother down but after a moment he gave in. "Fine! Have it your way! I'm not promising to get you anything though."

Feliciano turned his attention back to the objects on the ground.

After a moment he gasped and picked up one of the toys. A clay turtle. "Look at this one!"

"You like it?" The man asked.

Feliciano nodded, setting the toy down beside him as he continued his search.

He soon reached out and picked up two others. A pull-string propeller and a wooden monkey.

Lovino began tapping his foot. He really should stop him soon. Feliciano, being the childish person he was, would probably pile up dozens of these little trinkets and there was no way these things were worth whatever the price was.

"Feliciano...we need to get home. We really don't have time for-"

"Done!" Feliciano held up a total of four toys. The last one he'd chosen being a little wooden hand drum.

Lovino blinked, surprised. He looked at the large number of toys that remained on the ground. Even though they weren't anything special there were certainly better and much more interesting toys here than the ones he'd chosen. And he'd only chosen these four?

"Really? You're that excited about these?"

Feliciano nodded.

"Are you even going to play with them? You're not baby. These are probably for infants."

Feliciano frowned. "Well...I just like them..."

"Well I told you I wouldn't promise to get them for you. I'm not going to waste money on something that-"

"Hold on." The man interrupted. "Let's talk this over...Are you sure those are the only ones you want?"

Feliciano nodded without hesitation.

The man smiled. "Well then maybe we can make a deal. You see there isn't an inn here and we need a place to stay tonight and some food...if you can give us that then you can keep those, free of charge."

Feliciano turned his hopeful eyes on to Lovino.

"We can help them, can't we Lovi?"

Lovino looked the group over once again.

The blonde girl was now standing, her expression hadn't changed from the overly serious one she'd been wearing but she now had her eyes trained on them and the toys Feliciano held.

The blond boy, also staring at them, was bouncing on the balls of his feet and tugging repeatedly on the back of the dark-haired boy's shirt all the while he seemed to just be whispering "oh man oh man oh man oh man" excitedly to him. The dark-haired boy was calmly trying to remove the hyper boy's hands from his shirt and quietly asking him to not invade his personal space. He was staring at them also.

The hooded man's expression, at least what they could see of it, hadn't changed from its smirk.

Lovino crossed his arms. "I think food and shelter is worth more than four little toys."

"Of course it is! But money isn't a problem for us, right Al?" The man turned to the blond boy.

The boy, Al apparently, grinned from ear to ear and gave a thumbs up. "No problem here!" he laughed loudly.

"So, do we have a deal?" The hooded man stretched out his hand.

Lovino scowled at the open hand and then at the man's still hidden face. "We'll take you back to our house and see what our guardian says...no promises though."

~*~oOoOo~*~

It was growing dark by the time they arrived back at the house. It was at least a mile from town.

Lovino was secretly glad he'd allowed these travelers to come with them. The one named Al had offered to pull his cart for him. He seemed to be incredibly strong and it was easy for him to pull the mostly full cart even with Feliciano riding inside. He knew it would have taken longer if he was pulling it himself.

Their own vendor cart was much smaller, seeming only big enough to hold the large assortment of toys and nothing more.

When they arrived at the house Lovino helped store the two carts in the large shed out back before leading the others inside.

"Antonio! We're home! We have some-"

Before he could get another word out a person came sprinting down the hall, slammed into Lovino full force, lifting him up and spinning him around in a tight embrace.

"Oh thank goodness you're home! I was getting so worried! I was just about to leave to go looking for you when I heard you come in! I even had my axe and everything! Who knows what could happen to you two when you're out alone? I should never have sent you by yoursel-"

Lovino wrestled himself from his caregiver's arms and straightened his shirt. "Get ahold of yourself! We're back and we're fine aren't we?"

Antonio was barely phased by Lovino's rejection of his hug and instead turned his affection onto Feliciano who of course accepted it.

Only then did Antonio seem to notice the four strangers standing in the entry way.

He immediately placed himself between them and the strangers, his expression serious. "Who are you? Did you follow them home? Lovino, did they rob you?"

Lovino smacked the back of Antonio's head. "No, idiot! They need food and shelter and they're willing to pay."

"And they said I could have these!" Feliciano cut in, holding up the four objects he'd chosen.

Antonio relaxed. "Oh. Well, if that's all then of course you can stay. But who exactly are you?"

The hooded man slowly lowered his hood, revealing two things.

The first was his somewhat startling appearance. Silvery-white hair, red eyes, and rather fair skin.

The second was a small yellow bird, sitting nestled up to his neck, that flew up to sit atop his head like a fluffy hat of some kind.

The man seemed amused by the shocked expressions Antonio and Lovino were wearing.

"My name is Gilbert and I'm a firebender." He said, smiling. "If you were wondering about the hood now you have your answer. Some people are just jealous of my awesome looks."

He put an arm around the shoulders of the blond girl who almost seemed to be his height. "This is my little sister, Luise. She's sixteen and an earthbender. I call her Lulu most of the time though because it's cute."

Luise sighed. "Brother, honestly...that's not necessary. And did you have that bird in your hood the whole time?"

Gilbert ignored her and turned to the two boys. He gestured first to the dark-haired boy.

"This is Kiku, he turned sixteen a few days ago and he's a firebender too. He's also got that great sword."

Kiku bowed his head. "It's a pleasure to meet you." His voice was calm and seemed like he was forcing it to sound deeper than it probably was. It most likely hadn't changed yet and he was probably embarrassed. Lovino knew he would feel the same in that situation.

Lastly, Gilbert introduced Al. "This is Alfred. He's fifteen and he's an earthbender too. We met him on our way here and he joined our little...I guess you could call it a quest. It's a good thing he showed up too. We ran out of money a while back and he's been helping us out with that."

Alfred grinned. "Well we have a common goal. I think it's kind of my duty to help out any way I can!"

Antonio smiled. "Well well. You sound like busy people! Perhaps you can tell us about this quest and goal of yours over dinner? I just finished it a little while before you got here."

Gilbert laughed. "Absolutely!"

Antonio led them through the house to the dining room.

"Lovino, Feli, could you help me in the kitchen? The rest of you can make yourselves comfortable."

Lovnio followed Antonio with Feliciano trailing after them.

It wasn't likely that Antonio actually needed help with anything. Lovino suspected there was something he wanted to talk about and the kitchen was far enough away from the dining room for them to do it privately.

His suspicion was proven right.

Once in the kitchen Antonio turned to Lovino, his face suddenly serious. "How did you do with selling today?"

Lovino pulled out the small handful of coins from his satchel. "I only sold three crates...and I couldn't even get full price for them. It was-"

He stopped short. Antonio's expression had darkened suddenly and...what was that dark spot on his forehead? Why hadn't he noticed it before?

Apparently Feliciano noticed it too as the young man timidly reached out a hand and brushed some of Antonio's hair aside, exposing the bruise. Even though he was careful Antonio still winced. Their guardian gently pushed the hand away and in doing so they also saw his hands. His knuckles were scraped and bloody.

Feliciano whimpered. "Antonio..."

Lovino could tell by the look in the man's eyes that something was wrong. "Did something happen today?"

Antonio sighed. "...While you were gone...some soldiers came by."

"Again?! They were just here last week!"

"I know, I know. They said they were raising the prices and some other nonsense...I told them the truth, I didn't have any money or anything valuable for them...and..."

Antonio rubbed his face with his hands and leaned against the counter.

Lovino allowed a short paused before prodding him further. "What happened, Antonio?"

"They...burned the field...everything we hadn't picked."

Feliciano gasped. Lovino felt a knot form in his stomach.

"...Everything?"

"Everything. That money in your hand and whatever you didn't sell...it's all we have left. And they said they'd be back again tomorrow...so I tried to fight them-"

"You did what?!"

"And of course they were wearing armor...and most of them were benders...it could have been much worse than this." he gestured to his bruise and scraped knuckles. "It made them mad though...and then they told me that if we can't pay...if we can't pay they're going to..." Antonio didn't seem able to get the words out.

Feliciano looked like he was on the verge of tears.

Lovino whirled around and punched the wall. "...So that's it. We're finally done for, aren't we?"

There was a long silence.

"Well, maybe...maybe there's one thing we could do." Lovino turned back to Antonio.

"Those weirdos that came here obviously have money, or at least that Alfred kid does. I say what get as much as we can from them and hopefully it's enough for those sons of pond scum when they come back."

Antonio nodded. "Alright. I guess that's our only option."

After Antonio and Feliciano took a moment to compose themselves they all carried the food and extra dishes out to the dining room.

Lovino saw that Antonio had cooked some sort of meat and vegetable stew again. Really all they had on their small farm were tomato-carrots and the different small rodents that tried to eat them so it was usually all they ate.

Luckily the three of them were incredibly fond of tomato-carrots so it wasn't unpleasant.

After they began to eat there was an awkward silence as it seemed nobody really knew how to start a conversation.

Lovino found himself just staring at all of them.

Gilbert was picking off crumbs from a piece of bread and giving them to his bird, which was still perched on his head. He kept look looking at Feliciano and he appeared to be about to say something several times only to close his mouth again or fill it with another bite of stew.

Luise sat perfectly straight in her chair and didn't make eye contact with anyone though she did glance across the table at Feliciano every few minutes.

Alfred had at first dug right in to his food but after a few moments he seemed to forget about it and was only staring across the table at Feliciano with wide, excited eyes and a huge grin.

Kiku was behaving much like Luise except he didn't seem as uptight as her. He kept stealing glances at Feliciano as well.

Lovino stopped eating as he realized this.

What in the world?

They were all looking at Feliciano. Why?

He looked at Feliciano. He didn't seem to notice their visitors behavior. He was too busy eating and staring at the bird on Gilbert's head.

Antonio was staring into his bowl of stew as if it were going to give him the answer to all of life's problems so he certainly hadn't noticed.

It was starting to make Lovino uncomfortable. He was about to ask what the heck was wrong with all of them when Gilbert seemed to find his voice at last.

"So...Feliciano, that's your name right?" he asked.

Feliciano tore his eyes away from the bird and nodded. "Yes, that's right."

"I was just wondering...how old are you?"

"Uh...well...I just turned sixteen."

Gilbert nodded and looked thoughtful as if this was valuable information.

"Tell me," he continued, "what do you know about the Avatar?"

Antonio looked up. "Avatar?"

Feliciano tilted his head to the side. "...Not much...I mean, nobody around here really talks about the Avatar or things like that. But-"

Lovino scoffed. "Nobody talks about the Avatar because the Avatar is just pointless."

Feliciano frowned. "Grandfather said that the Avatar helps people...that's all I can remember."

"Yeah, I remember him saying that too." Lovino crossed his arms. "And then a month later the soldiers beheaded him for not paying taxes. If the Avatar helps people why are the Elite so powerful? Why is the Avatar letting them get away with all of this, huh?"

Feliciano looked down at his food and poked at it with his spoon.

Gilbert cleared his throat. "Well, since you don't know much about the Avatar you probably didn't know that the previous one died. Or rather he was killed but we don't have to go into that right now."

Antonio's brow furrowed. "Killed?"

"Well too bad for him." Lovino took an angry bite of his bread.

"Yes..." Gilbert continued, his eyes once again locked on Feliciano, "he's been dead for about sixteen years."

Lovino rolled his eyes. Where was he going with this?

Antonio looked confused and then, finally realizing how everyone was staring at Feliciano, he sat up straighter in his chair. He looked back and forth between Gilbert and Feliciano, who was still staring at his stew, and slowly shook his head.

"...No. No. You can't be...Are you serious?"

Feliciano looked up and tilted his head innocently again. "Hm? What, Antonio?"

Lovino was completely lost. "Would you cut the mysterious crap already?! If you want to say something just say it!"

Gilbert leaned back in his chair, smirking in his way that Lovino was slowly growing to be annoyed with.

"Alright, I'll say it. Feliciano, you are the Avatar."

What the heck did I just write?! I don't even know! It sounded better in my head when I was half asleep writing it!

Ok...I'm pretty sure that was stupid...all of it...I'm bad at this...But I don't really care because the wild plot bunnies will not leave me alone and it was begging to be written!

So any chapters I write from here on out will probably be much shorter...

If you've stuck with me this far then thank you for reading!

R&R if you'd like!

If people like this I'll try to continue!

That's all for now!

Peace out!

~Dreamer

EDIT 4/23/2014: Chapter edited. Fixed some errors, took out the time skip thing as it just felt unnecessary, there is no longer a mention of an air bison (he may appear later on), "Empress" is now just "leader" until I figure out who the Elite leader is, I think that's all.
Please inform me if you find an missed name/grammar/spelling errors if you wish.