Enjoy.

I decided to write something AU. So, yeah, enjoy, and let me know if anything's seriously out of whack, you know, the usual.

Ari = Iceland

Aage (pronounced sort of like Ah-gee, soft g) = Norway

Arthur = England

Mihai = Romania

Taurys = Lithuania

Feliks = Poland

I don't own Hetalia!end/AN/

Ari had been out late before, but this was an all new level of fatigue; it felt as though his very muscles were being dragged down by some invisible force, and it took a lot of effort just to push the door of the library open and pull his book bag along with him.

It was still a nascent joy, however, that he was out all by himself. Never mind that it was cramming a project on Germany to present tomorrow; freedom was freedom. So he reveled in his, tired body and all.

He stumbled towards his (Aage's) car, thinking of how his elder brother would rip him a new one for being gone so long. It wouldn't matter that it was the university library, and therefore staffed with plenty of security guards; never mind that he was within a hike's distance from his brother's campus home. It seemed that all that mattered to Aage was getting to treat him like a child.

Ari rolled his eyes, and flicked out the car keys. The parking lot was lit up by the glow of the library, and maybe he should have been looking around; in any case, he wasn't.

He slammed into the car, face first, and crunch, pain shocked through his skull as he tried to right himself underneath the weight of an unseen attacker.

"W-What? What- who-? Help! HELP!" In the moments it took to come to those words, his wrists were forced behind him and swiftly bound. His head was slammed into the car again by a large hand, and blood dripped into his open mouth as he tried to scream again.

"Please shut up; no one can hear you anyway." It sounded as though the attacker was mildly annoyed, but his forceful actions seemed to prove otherwise.

Magic! He felt it, all around and very powerful. It didn't stop him from whimpering out, "Stop, just stop, what do you want?"

Ari didn't even have the time to hate himself for sounding so pathetic; a bag went over his head, obscuring his vision and flooding his brain with the smell of used laundry. Then he was pulled, feet scrabbling for some form of balance. "Stop!"

One of the crushing hands released, only to knock him on the head once again. The inside of the bag swam in his vision, and he kicked violently, trying to summon a spell to mind that would help with this situation. He wasn't as proficient as Aage, however, and had only moments before a flattening force settled on his chest and refused to let him breathe properly; his magic was bound.

Gasping and flopping like a fish, he knocked against the inside of a car door, and then a large hand shoved him into the car's backseat. With the slamming of the door, and the starting of the car, Ari's fate was sealed.

He could only pray that Aage would know what to do.

There were few in the world as secure as Arthur in what they did. He was an unsung hero, really, here to protect the world from things they couldn't perceive. He sought out danger and lived to tell the tale. He was also modest about it. Hence the 'unsung' in 'unsung hero.'

Arthur was dealing with one such danger right now; a Mihai Popescu, or so he said his name was. It was probably really some dark secret lost to time.

The Romanian was cheerily chattering away about a medical video he'd seen where the doctor had drilled into a skull. Apparently, he was fascinated by blood and gore; it wasn't really a surprise to Arthur, considering what the little monster was. "I think one of the other people almost fainted, but really, it's amazing how we can do all these things to people's bodies and it heals them! It used to be that we drilled into skulls and people just died. Weird, huh?"

"Yes, very." Arthur didn't feel bad about targeting this one; he clearly was a bit freaky anyway. "So, how did you see this video…?"

"Oh, I snuck into a class. I guess you can find this stuff online if you want to, though." Mihai grinned at him, snaggletooth sticking out jaggedly. It was as though he thought he'd met someone he could get along well with.

Or would be an easy target. Arthur smirked inwardly, because the prey thought it was the predator. "I see… Do you sneak into classes often?" All he needed to do was keep him talking, and follow him into whatever discreet place he was going to lead him to.

"Yeah… I'd attend them as a student if I could, though. I've got a stomach for gore, and I'd be good at being a nurse or something… Oh, hey, you know what? I've got some of those videos on dvd back in my hotel room; would you like to see them?" Mihai was apparently of the mind that Arthur liked the things he liked. And since Arthur had been nodding and being encouraging the whole time he described a dead deer he'd seen on the side of the road, Arthur couldn't entirely blame him for being so gullible.

"I would love that," he said emphatically, glad to have such a streak of luck. This one had been easy to spot, easy to get into a conversation, and now he would be easy to take out. There hadn't even been any alcohol involved yet.

Mihai smiled again, grabbing the crook of Arthur's arm in a rather familiar manner, and leading him towards a shabby motel hardly a hundred feet away. Again, could this day get much better?

Arthur followed, pretending to be as gullible as Mihai was. Really, how had Mihai survived for so long? He clearly wasn't turned yesterday, so maybe he was just good or lucky at finding people that were stupid.

The walked up the steps, Mihai's grip slipping off of Arthur. He drew out a card key, sliding it in the door, before swinging it open. "I've got one that shows this guy getting a javelin removed from his shoulder. It's really cool, the techniques they use to get it free without killing him! Most people would probably just rip it out, and boom, he'd be dead."

Arthur nodded, giving him a false smile. Only moments more, he reasoned, as they slipped into the room.

Mihai smiled at him, then turned his back, digging in his suitcase. "Well, would you look at that, I left them at home- Aaaagh! What are you doing?"

Arthur had tackled him, and with expertise of a hundred such operations, had pinned Mihai's arms with his legs, digging his knees in and sitting on his chest.

Wheezing, Mihai was trying to gasp something out, but what most came across was the terrified, dumb expression on his face. He hadn't seen it coming, and that gave Arthur satisfaction.

He pulled his stake out of his coat, ignoring the rush of whispery protest from Mihai, and positioning it over where his heart was. "Thought you were getting a meal, didn't you, vampire?" Arthur couldn't help but smirk. "Well, this is the end of the line for you. Goodbye."

Arthur started to lean on it, sinking it into the chest, and hearing the cracking of bones; a blinding pain suddenly attacked the right side of his head, as he went flying. His vision was a crackling blaze of stars, which turned to black, but not before he thought, Two of them… I'm a goner.

"…coming awake now. See, both his eyes are blinking…"

"I know."

Arthur slowly came to, hearing first Mihai's voice, and then an unknown. He'd almost forgotten where he was, but the four walls of the motel room came into sharp focus. He looked around dazedly, finally settling on a blonde seated across from him. The other vampire. He tried to stand up, only to find he was bound into the chair. He gave a sigh; the game was up. "Just do it already."

The blonde one raised an eyebrow. "Do what?"

They really were cruel; not only hadn't they given him the mercy of killing him while he was asleep, they were going to play mind games with him. "Suck my blood and kill me, of course. What else would you do?"

Mihai, who turned out to be sauntering around behind the blonde one, barked out a laugh. "Well, you heard him, Aage, we'd better enjoy him while he's here."

The blonde one, Aage, didn't seem to find it funny, if his lack of facial expression was any clue. "We're not here to suck your blood; I am not a vampire."

Oh wonderful, they were going to go into serious mind games! Arthur cursed inwardly, struggling against the rope. "Oh? If you're not going to harm me, why would you lure me here and tie me up in your room? If you don't mind my asking…"

"I need your help." Aage was straight to the point, if it was the truth.

This surprised Arthur. His help? He rarely got asked for anything; most people didn't know the nature of his work, much less his abilities. This man obviously knew something about him and his hidden career. "My help with what? And why- how did you use a vampire to lure me here?"

Vampires weren't trustworthy creatures; they were bloodthirsty, not capable of caring for humans in a way other than as a snack. Every last one he'd met had shamelessly lured undeserving humans to their deaths.

Aage waved off the question, impatiently saying, "Consider him housebroken."

Mihai only leaned on the back of Aage's chair, watching the proceedings with interest.

"But you work with a vampire?" Arthur couldn't get off of this fact. Vampires couldn't be 'housebroken,' he'd never been able to tame one.

Aage gave an annoyed 'tch,' before finally saying, "With enough patience and stiff training, anything can be fixed, even a vampire. Don't tell me you've gone about just killing every dangerous creature you come across? No, don't answer that."

Arthur felt a little chagrined, because he pretty much had, and Aage clearly knew that.

"I've got a more important matter than your methods," Aage continued, seeming to be at least less stiff now that they were on to the topic he wanted to be on. "Many wizards, such as me and yourself, have been going missing. The disappearance sites have been practically glowing with magic themselves, and I can't help but suspect a powerful wizards- or group of wizards- is involved. In any case, I can't take them on alone."

"Wait, missing? Like they're just gone, poof, or was there a struggle? How do you know this is true? Most wizards don't keep in contact with others." Arthur was a little skeptical; he still felt like he was being tricked.

Mihai cut in, saying, "I can smell more than one magic-user in the places that the wizards disappeared. Something went down, because there was a huge amount of magic used."

Aage continued on that train of thought. "I know one of the wizards, and I've been able to hunt out traces of the others. How do you think I found you?"

It was a good point, and Arthur had to concede. "But why me? How do you think I'd help?"

Simply shrugging, Aage said, "The more firepower we have, the better chance we have of winning. So, are you coming with us or not?"

Arthur had to consider, looking over at Mihai, who was absently rubbing the bloody spot on his shirt where Arthur had tried to drive a stake into him.

The vampire noticed, and gave him an antisocial look, shoulders hunching forward a bit.

"I suppose so." Arthur just nodded. He'd wanted to do something big in the magic world, hadn't he? And what better way to put his skills to use? It really wasn't all that great hunting down random monsters in the streets.

Aage nodded back, but added, "Don't try to kill Mihai again; I wouldn't appreciate it."

"Yeah, sure." Arthur still couldn't see how Aage could trust that thing; he must have put some sort of hex on him to believe he would follow his orders so well.

"Then we're settled." Aage snapped his fingers, and the bindings released Arthur. "We'll set out again in an hour; you'd better pack light."

Arthur disappeared out the doorway with a nod. Here he was, about to go off on an adventure. At least he would have tales to tell that charming kid next door…

Feliks stumbled through the street, forlornly looking around. He could feel the blood building up to boiling point in his veins; he was sure he would go mad at any moment.

He had to find Taurys, or else bad things would happen.

The people were smelling more and more nice, the waft of hot dogs less and less. Feliks clutched his coat to himself, muttering and trying to focus on something, anything other than the threatening change in his body.

His skin was hot, he could feel it; he skirted around another lady, eyes straining to find the white car.

Taurys simply must be found; the alternative was too horrible to think.

/AN/ I hope you enjoyed this! I want to be a fantasy writer, can you tell?