Nora's POV


I woke up in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar couch. I turned over to see Carolyn sitting next to me, holding a cup of coffee. "Ah, you're awake. I got this coffee for you. Don't worry, I put enough creamer in it to kill a small child."

"Thanks. Gimme," I mumbled, grabbing the cup from Carolyn and gulping it down in about five seconds. "Where are we? Was that... was all that not a dream?"

Em plopped down next to me with a plate of waffles. "You mean, waking up in Hetalia and then you yelling at everyone? Nope, not a dream."

"Right now, we're in America's house!" Dakota said. She was smiling as brightly as ever. How was she coping so well?

"We're... in an anime. Hetalia. Twelve year old Nora's dream." My stomach churned as I numbly tried to process things. I grabbed a waffle off of Em's plate, and she glared at me. "What? You've got, like, ten."

I dipped the waffle in some syrup and glanced over at Chugoku, who was sitting in an armchair. "Where are the countries? Are they gone?"

"They're over in the kitchen, discussing something. They didn't say what." Chugoku looked at me. "Why?"

"Because I don't think we can call you" I lowered my voice, "Chugoku in front of them. I know that's the least of our problems... but it would be weird, you know? Because of Japan."

Chugoku glanced at what I guess was the door to the kitchen. "Yes, I suppose. Just call me Adri like you have been, then."


Third Person POV


"So what are we gonna do about these chicks?" America said as soon as the woman with the short red hair, Em, had left with a stack of waffles.

England glared at him. "I believe the term is 'lady.'"

America just shrugged and laughed. "Whatever, dude!"

England rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. And he did. A fifty-state nation of a headache.

"Ohonhonhon~ I would be most happy to host them in my house and-"

"No." France was cut off by the other seven nations in unison.

Nora then walked into the kitchen. She looked around nervously. "Um, hi. I'm Nora. I'm sorry I yelled at you guys earlier, but I thought I was dreaming." she then turned to America. "Do you have any waffles? Or burgers? 'Cuz you always seem to have food with you. And I'm hungry."

"Doesn't your friend have waffles?" America said, unwilling to share his stash of burgers... wherever he kept them.

"Yes. She has like ten. But she is a selfish meanie pants and won't share."

America gave her a look that said, "I'm a selfish meanie pants and I won't share either."

"Ouch. Okay." Nora said, turning hopefully to Italy. "Do you have pasta?"

Italy looked extremely happy. "Ve~ Pastaaaa!" He said, pulling a plate of - you guessed it - pasta out of nowhere. "Here you go, bella!"

Nora smiled at him. "Grazie," she said.

"Prego!"

Nora walked back out of the kitchen, eating her pasta as she left. The countries had been smiling politely, but the cheery looks dropped off of their faces as soon as the small twenty one year old left. Except Italy, who seemed oblivious to the situation.

"Dudes... Does anyone else think that they could be the countries we felt in August a few years ago?" America wondered.

"I think if they were countries, they would be infants, aru! It's only been twenty-one years since then, and they look like adults." China said.

"I agree... besides, we only felt one country in August, not five. What concerns me is the claim of coming from a different world... a world where we're some kind of cartoon?" said England.

"Anime." Japan corrected him.

"Oh, whatever. Something's not right."

America struggled with the effort of thinking. "Dudes... Maybe... THEY'RE ALIENS!"

England clapped a hand over his mouth with a hiss of, "Keep it quiet, you bloody idiot."

Nora rushed into the kitchen, followed by Carolyn, the girl they had been calling "Chew-adri," the hyper blonde (named after one of America's states?) that had tackled Russia, and the redhead, Em.

"What about aliens?" Carolyn asked.

"Yeah, is Tony here?" Em asked, looking excited.

America lost it at the mention of his alien friend. "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?! HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT TONY?! AND WHAT KIND OF ALIENS ARE YOU 'CUZ I WANNA KNOW HOW TO TELEPORT WITH A FREAKIN' LIGHT SHOW!"

England, ignoring America, furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms. "Even though he's an idiot, he brings up a good point. Ladies, please tell us more about how we existed in your world."

All of the girls looked at them, then each other. "Should we tell them?" Carolyn asked.

"Yeah..." The rest agreed, except for Dakota. "Tell them what? A guessing game? Ooh! Ooh! I know! Pick me! Pick me!"

The girls facepalmed.

"Well, there's this anime called Hetalia..." Nora started.

An entire explanation later...

"So let me get this straight- you come from an entire different dimension where everything is a lot more detailed, and in that dimension, we're all characters off of an anime… Hetalia?" England asked, looking a bit shocked.

"Yeah- and there are no human representations of countries, just the landmasses, that's it," Nora said. She glanced up from her notebook, which she had conjured out of nowhere, to look at England. "Could you stop frowning, please? I can't draw you if your eyebrows are all scrunched up like that."

England gaped. "You're… drawing me?!"

Nora nodded. "I've been having a bunch of flashbacks of when I was a huge Hetalia fan, and I remembered how I made it my personal goal to draw all of the countries. I never got around to drawing you, Japan, or Germany. Well, except for now. This 'grabbing things out of thin air' thing is really convenient. Here, look." She turned her notebook around to the group. On it was an almost finished drawing of England, with Flying Mint Bunny hovering by his head.

"You can see Flying Mint Bunny too?" England asked, astounded.

"Of course I can! I've been a big believer in magic and fairies since I was a little girl. I didn't think I did anymore, but I guess that part of me will never go away." Nora smiled. "Can you girls see her too?"

"I can." Chugoku said quietly. "She's very cute."

"I can, but she doesn't look like she did in the anime! She's got fangs and pointy ears. Creepy!" Dakota shivered.

"Yeah, she looks creepy to me too." Carolyn agreed, grinning. "But I kind of like her better this way."

"I can't see her." Em stated bluntly.

America grinned in relief. "Finally, someone who's not totally nuts!"

"Have you ever considered that maybe you're crazy, because you can't see her?" Nora shot back.

Em huffed defensively. Back in the day, she had been a huge America fangirl, and old habits died hard. "B-tch, America is too awesome for your bullsh-t." She walked over to stand by America. "And by the way, Flying Mint Bunny is about as real as a calm Dakota: not."

America high-fived Em. "Dudes! My citizen is awesome!" Then his smile dropped. "Wait, you are American, right?"

"No sh-t, Sherlock," Em said teasingly, and the smile returned to his face.

"Everyone knows Hondurans are more awesome than Americans…" Carolyn said jokingly, but America missed the sarcasm.

"Dude, what?! But Honduras is like, so depressing! And she's always talking about soccer!" America insisted.

"Hmm… Really? Honduras hasn't appeared in Hetalia yet, so I guess I don't really know…" Carolyn shrugged.

"Just how many of us have appeared in this Hetalia, da?" Russia asked, a creepy smile on his face.

Dakota hugged him and squealed, which she had done every time Russia had spoken. Everyone was used to it by now.

Chugoku, who hadn't said much, decided to be the one to answer this question. "Well, the Allies and Axises have all appeared, then there's Prussia, Canada, the Baltics, the Nordics, Sealand, Austria, Hungary, Australia, Spain, Cuba, Romano, Grandpa Rome, Greece, Netherlands, Belgium, Germania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Romania, Seychelles, Belarus, Ukraine, and, umm… Holy Roman Empire…"

Chugoku looked at her friends. "Did I miss any?"

Nora and Carolyn, who had been the most die-hard hetalia fans of the group, gave her a look.

"Well, there's Egypt," Nora said.

"Taiwan." Carolyn nodded, and Nora cringed after a moment.

"Just don't ask." she said to the countries' mildly confused faces.

"Okay, there's Macau," Carolyn said.

"Hutt River," Nora said.

"Cyprus."

"Hong Kong."

"Bulgaria."

"Wy."

"Seborga."

"Ladonia."

"Kugelmugel."

"Monaco."

"Picardy."

"New Zealand."

"Cameroon."

"South Korea."

"Molossia."

"Vietnam."

Carolyn searched her brain for any more countries, but she couldn't come up with anything else. "Ah, fine. I suppose I'll let you win just this once."

Nora nodded in satisfaction. "Thank you, most gracious and benevolent Celery."

"Yuck." Carolyn stuck out her tongue.

Nora seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, before asking, "America, do you have a piano?"

America scratched his head, confused. "A piano…? I think so… dude, why do you need a piano?"

"Music." Nora replied simply. Then her spine stiffened. "Wait, Austria isn't here, is he?!"

America looked even more confused. "Umm… no."

Nora relaxed a little. Then she stood up to go find the piano.


Nora's POV


I walked through the hallways of America's house, searching for the piano. I loved music, but my phone was dead and I couldn't listen to anything. And there was no way I would sing or hum in front of the countries.

Normally, I didn't care what people thought of me, but these were countries. Anything I could do, they could do better. Way better. So much better that I would look like an uneducated baboon and get the living dignity embarrassed out of me. I guess I was just nervous of getting judged, you know?

As I walked, I thought about all of the conversations we had had with the countries so far. I cringed again, thinking of how I cringed when Carolyn mentioned Taiwan. I hoped I would never have to explain that to the countries. When I was head over heels in love with Japan, I was viciously jealous of Taiwan simply because people like to pair her and Japan together. I completely disregarded her as a character and got unreasonably annoyed whenever anyone brought her up.

Ah, pre-teen angst.

I finally came across a cluttered room with various instruments in it. Shoved in the back corner was a piano.

I ran across the room and petted the piano lovingly. "Aww, poor baby hasn't been played in a while, has she?" I said when I saw the dust that had come up on my hand. Don't judge me for pet-talking instruments. Music was my life. Back in highschool, I could play the trumpet, saxophone, and piano pretty well, and I was picking up the flute and clarinet. When I graduated, playing trumpet and piano were the only music skills I retained since they were the only instruments I owned.

Brushing the rest of the dust off, I opened the lid and sat down on the rickety old bench. It was a good thing I didn't weigh very much.

Placing my fingers on the keys, I wondered which song I should play. Bad Apple was the first song that came to mind. It seemed fitting, since I had learned it when I was going through my hetalia phase. I played a few quick arpeggios to warm up my fingers, and, bracing myself for the rustiness (I hadn't played this in years), I began to play.

"Nagarateku toki no naka de demo/ kedarusa ga hora guruguru mawatte/ Watashi kara hanereru kokoromo/ mienai wa sou shirenai/ jibun kara ugoku koto mo naku/ toki no sukima ni nagasere tzukete/ shiranai wa mawari no koto nado/ Watashi wa Watashi sore dake/ yume miteru?/ nani mo mitenai?/ kataru mo muda na/ jibun no kotoba/ kanashimu nante/ tzukareru dake yo/ nani mo kanjizu/ sugoseba ii no/ tomadou kotoba/ ataerarete mo/ jibun un no kokoro/ tada uwa no sora/ moshi Watashi kara/ ugoku no naraba/ subete kaeru no/ nara kuro ni soru…"

While I played, my mind wandered off. Was this really real? If so, why, and how, were we here? I was an avid Christian, so I wondered what God's purpose for this could be.

I played the key change early, stumbling a bit over the new notes, but kept singing.

"Ugoku no naraba/ ugoku no naraba/ subete kowasu wa/ subete kowasu wa/ Kanashimu naraba/ kanashimu naraba/ Watashi no kokoro shiroku kawareru?/ Anata no koto mo/ Watashi no koto mo/ subete no koto mo/ mada shiranai no/ omoi mabuta wo/ aketa no naraba/ subete kowasu no/ nara kuro ni nare…"

I decided to play the instrumental part, even though I had technically just played the end. Bonus challenge mode since I was up a key. It wasn't easy, but it helped me think.

Was I really okay with being here? Could I even go back? I slowed down and improvised a chord to end the song. It didn't sound half bad.

My satisfaction was interrupted by applause coming from behind me.

Oh, frick-frack snickety-snack click-clack, I thought as I whirled around, causing the creaky bench to groan in protest.

SHUT UP, BENCH. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOUR OPINION.

"Dude, that was awesome!" America shouted.

"You have such a voce bellissima, bella!" Italy said, hugging me.

The other countries started saying the same thing, pretty voice, good job, etc.

On the outside, I was trying to keep my face calm and thankful, but on the inside, a bunch of chibi-Noras were zooming around in a jumble of emotions. I was ecstatic that I was being complemented, but super nervous and freaked out at the same time that the Allies and the Axis had not only heard me play an instrument, but sing, too.

"Thanks, guys!" I said cheerfully, trying to hide the fact that fireworks were exploding in my stomach. "Now… excuse me."

I ran to the bathroom and did my own little mini-dance of joy.