So this is a crack story, where the Hetalia characters are in an alternative universe (aka AU world) and want to win a song/dance show. Notice that I haven't listened to any character CDs, so I won't be taking this or that point in consideration – in my world, they sing like this XD. Oh, and the judges are from another manga ;)

Read and laugh. 'Nuff said. No yaoi (surprise? xD).

Introducing the Stars

The waiting room was filled with people, all of them with different personalities, nationalities and backgrounds. But they all had the same dream: winning the show they had gotten the opportunity to be in. They had all come from the finals of their different countries, to represent their nations.

"Hello!" A blond, grinning, twenty-ish woman opened a door. "Everyone who has gotten a spot in the TT show, please come this way!"

As she spoke, almost everyone started to walk toward the door.

"Look, I got to go!" The tall, scarf-wearing man tried to gently push the girl away.

"Don't go, brother!" the girl protested, stubbornly holding on. "Stay here!"

"Let go, Natasha, I need to go." He sighed and patted her head. "Look, I'm sorry that you didn't get in, but please support me and your sister, okay?"

"That's right." The other 'sister' gently untangled the pouting girl from her brother. "Vote a lot for us, okay?"

"Fine." The girl blew her nose loudly. "But one of you better win!"

"Da." The man smiled and started to walk after the others.

The contestant entered a huge room, where three people were standing on a small stage behind a microphone. The trio contained the blond woman and two men. One of the men was smartly dressed in a light brown jacket and his auburn hair lay perfectly. The other man was his opposite, with black, messy hair, dark bags under his eyes and a white, baggy t-shirt over a pair of blue jeans.

As silence slowly filled the room, the neat man spoke. "Hello and welcome to the True Talent show, congratulations on reaching this far. You have all won the Talent shows in your respective countries – now it's time for you to win the world title. My coworkers and I will be the judges. You will also work with teachers in dance and singing, and DJs, who will help you during your numbers. And a few more people will play a huge part in your life this following week. But you will meet them later."

"But first!" The woman cut in, grinning hugely, "we will present ourselves! I'm Misa Amane, but you can call me Misa-Misa! It's my first year, but I'm sure it's going to be marvelys!"

"You mean marvelous." The auburn-haired man didn't look too happy with the co-judge he had gotten, but collected himself and smiled. "I'm Light Yagami and this will be my fifth year. I'm looking forward to see what kind of shows you will put on for us."

"Yes. Ryuzaki Hideki, but you can call me L." The second man had started to nibble on a chocolate cookie, completely ignoring his male coworker's scowls. "It's just like Light-kun said: this is also my fifth year and I'm looking forward to your acts." He turned his head slightly towards the other man and said, in a voice that probably wasn't supposed to be heard by anyone but Light, but thanks to the microphone was heard by everyone – "Are we going to have a tea break now? I want to eat strawberry cake."

Light only rolled his eyes and went back to business. "The rules are simple: you will now be teamed up in pairs. After getting to knowing each other today, you will have one week to come up with a song you will perform to an audience." He smiled. "The show will be live, so I suggest you really put your heart into it.

"Okay, I'm going to announce your teams, so listen carefully." He raised his voice slightly and clicked his pen, preparing to check off the contestants. "Berwald Oxenstierna?"

A tall, intimidating blond man raised his arm. "Here."

"You will be with Lili Zwingli."

A cute small girl hurried over to the blond man and bowed slightly. She blushed slightly, but only seemed shy, not scared. "Please let's work hard together."

Berwald nodded and thought he had been quite lucky. By experience, he knew that the fact that the girl hadn't burst into tears was good.

"Next, we have Elizabeta Hedervary." A woman with long brown hair raised her hand. "You will be paired up with Gilbert Beilschmidt." He barely had said the name before a man with white hair started to swear loudly in German.

"What the hell are you doing here?" the red-eyed man yelled, staring in disbelief at his soon-to-be partner.

"I could say the same to you!" the Hungarian yelled back, storming over to the albino. "Did you poison all the other contestants in your country or did they just feel sorry for you?"

"Well, your country seems to have misinterpreted the world talent –"

"Enough!" Light snapped, getting down to stand between the two furious contestants. "If you don't like the partner we have given you, you can always drop out! Otherwise you have to suck it up and deal with it!"

The two childhood friends/enemies glared furiously at each other before the brunette jerked her head. "Fine, as long as he doesn't mess up my number."

"I could say the same." Gilbert replied sourly.

"Well, putting that aside…" Light coughed and scanned his list. "Ari Hansen with Peter Kirkland-Smith…" He frowned. "Wait, why do we have two contestants from England?"

L shrugged. "Apparently they had a Talent show for kids there and since there is no world contest for kids in this category, they sent him here."

"And you didn't check it up?" Light tried to sound calm, but the tight grip on the pen gave him away.

His colleague – now sucking a lollipop – shrugged. "We needed twenty to make it even."

"Great, just great." Light muttered. "Now we have to deal with a kid too."

"Hey, hey, I'm no kid! I'm fifteen! Well, almost." A blond boy jumped up and down in front of the auburn-haired judge.

"Peter?" A surprised voice was heard. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh snap." The boy swore as a furious blond man was making his way toward him. "Hey Uncle!"

"Why didn't you –"

"Okay, okay, you can discuss your family problems later! We are on a tight schedule so please be quiet and let me do my job!" Light felt a headache sneak up on him. "Who is Ari Hansen?"

A silver-haired man raised his hand.

"Good." The judge pushed the boy toward the other. "You will work together. Have fun. "

"Then we have Tormod Andersen?"

"Here." The man who had stood next to Ari Hansen strolled slowly towards them.

"Good, you will be paired with Arthur Kirkland."

"That would be me." Peter's uncle stepped forward to shake the expressionless man's hand. "Let's do our best, shall we?"

The Norwegian nodded slightly, ignoring the other's hand. Arthur frowned. Well, this is going to be fun.

"Moving on." Light looked down at his list. "Could Mikkel Granson and Alfred Jones raise their hands?"

A tall blond man raised his hand while a bespectacled man looked up from his hamburger.

"Hey, cool man!" The hamburger-man beamed and swallowed his last bit before raising his hand in a high five. "Let's rock this boat!"

The Dane grinned. "Hell yeah!"

"Right… Let's see, Matthew Williams and Roderich Edelstein." A man timidly raised his arm – so did a noble man.

"Pleasure to meet you." The brunette shook hands with his new partner. "Let's work hard, shall we?"

"Yes." Matthew smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

Light Yagami was glad things seemed to be going smoothly. He kept checking off his list. "Sadiq Adnan and Feliks Łukasiewicz?"

A man, that for some reason wore a mask that covered his eyes, raised one hand and found himself suddenly being glomped from behind.

"Oh my, like, totally gosh!" A feminine voice was yelling in his ear. "This is going to be, like, totally fabulous!" As his partner jumped down, Sadiq suddenly found out his partner was a man, or… more likely a girly boy. And a talkative one too.

"Oh, I was, like, totally worried, that I, like, would get someone, like, bad or something, but you, like, look like someone who can like, dance and stuff and I like, reaaaally like to –"

Light rolled his eyes and left poor Sadiq alone with the hyper Pole. "Then we have Ivan Braginski and Hercules Karpusi?"

The scarf-wearing man who'd had trouble with his sister earlier raised his hand and looked puzzled as no one else did.

"Hercules Karpusi, from Greece?" Light looked around.

"Maybe it's him? He looks Greek-ish to me?" Misa pointed at a man, who was sitting against the stage with his eyes closed.

The Russian walked over to the man and poked him in the cheek. The sleeping man opened his eyes slowly.

"Hercules?" Ivan smiled lightly.

"Yes?" The Greek yawned and blinked.

"We are going to be partners. Let's win, da?"

"Okay." The brunette closed his eyes again. "Wake me when there's lunch."

The Russian wondered if he should try to threaten the judges into giving him another partner.

"Okay, we've got two more pairs. Katyusha Braginski and Toris von Bock."

A woman raised her hand and smiled kindly when a gentle-looking man also did the same.

"Then lastly we have Tino Vainamonen?" Light frowned.

"You're supposed to say it like Väinämöinen." A blonde man corrected, not looking offended at all.

"Right, you will be with Yao Wang."

An Asian man raised his arm and smiled.

"Good, good. All contestants are here. Okay, so the rules are simple: one week, one number. The audience will judge which number they like the most and ten of you will get to the next round, where you will perform solo. Good luck to you all." The hazel-eyed man sighed as his co-judge of five years raised his arm. "Yes Ryuzaki?"

"Can we have tea now?" Shattered laughs were heard.

"Yes." Light sighed. "I need coffee." Loudly he said, "Take this as an opportunity to get to know your partner! You will be taken to your rooms in half an hour!"

"So what do you think about this year, Light-kun?" The dark-eyed man looked over the contestants; , as they had scattered around in the cafeteria.

"I think it will be very interesting." Light snatched his coffee cup away from L, who had been about to put sugar in it. "And next year, I will do the paperwork!" He sighed, frustrated. "Did you even realize two of the contestants have the same surname?"

"I actually did." L replied, putting three more sugar cubes in his own cup. "They are indeed half-siblings, but from different countries, so it should be no problems, right? And I have no idea why you got so worked up over that kid. Wouldn't it be interesting to see if he can win?"

"Interesting. Right."

The three judges had yet to realize how true those words would be.

Let the show begin.

So what do you all think? Interesting? If so, I hope you will like this: you will be the real judges! As the contest goes on, with me updating one chapter each week (plus/minus a few day, depending on if school's torture) , you will get the chance to vote which pair you would like to get to the next round. More info later^^

The wonderful Brit iconkittykittyhunter kindly offered to, well to put it short, make this story at the level it is now (believe me, it looks waaay more awesome than the first version did). :glomp: Thanks honey!

It goes without saying that I do not own the character. ;)