Sorry I've been so slow in updating. School's almost over which is good and bad because I have lots more homework now, but the end is in sight. So the next update might be a little while. I apologize.

Thank you koshaka for your wonderful review! I feel so honored! :)
Thank you Kudo Shinichi Tanteisan for faving!

I do not own Hetalia. Hetalia belongs to Himaruya Hidakaz.

"I have never been more insulted!"

"Ve~. It's okay, Ludy! I'm sure Mr. Kirkland was just having a bad day!"

Feliciano bounced as he swung the cases in his hands and skipped like a freaking six-year-old girl. Ludwig just shook his head as he could feel the wrinkles tattooing themselves rather contentedly onto his forehead.

They continued down the road, passing several other persons and vampires along the way. Feliciano loved meeting new people, but his Master wouldn't let him stay to talk to anyone when they were on a business trip, especially one that involved multiple stops like this one. He would put on his mad face that made Feli want to cry sometimes. Feliciano didn't like that.

The cheery vampire didn't need much to entertain him. He was very satisfied with people-watching and whistling at a pretty bella occasionally. The bright colors of town and the noise of the crowds kept him occupied for the most part. However, his hands started to get tired from holding the bags for too long.

When they were nearing the exit of town, Feliciano's hand slipped off one of the bags when he was swinging them. The case flew from his hand and right into the head of a pedestrian.

"Aiyah!"

The unfortunate victim was dressed in red with dark eyes and long brunette hair that was tied back into a ponytail. He was rubbing his forehead while muttering in some foreign tongue under his breath angrily. His traveling companion had similar, dark eyes but his hair was short and flatly cut. The one with the shorter hair bent down to pick up the case as Feliciano ran over.

"Ve. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Forgive me! I did not mean to throw it! I was just walking and-"

"You stupid boy. You should watch what you are doing, aru! Aiyah!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes as he went over to do some damage control.

"I apologize for this. He can be a dummkopf sometimes, but he would never mean to harm anyone."

The man straightened himself and narrowed his eyes.

"This is your servant, aru?"

"Ja."

"Then you should control him, aru! My head is pounding! Honestly! If he can't even handle carrying a bag without it flying into someone, I can hardly see the value in him at all, aru!"

Feliciano, who was clutching the bag to his chest, backed up and hid himself behind Ludwig as if to hide from the humiliation. This was worse than Ludwig's mad face.

Ludwig's jaw hardened as he could feel his vein popping in his head. He'd already been through enough crap today in dealing with ungrateful people! He didn't need this now!

"How dare you say that he doesn't have value! Everyone has value! The only things that aren't valuable here are your horrible opinions and your inability to recognize when something was just an accident!"

A flash of worry crossed his mind as he wondered if the offended man's vampire servant would respond to the harsh statements about his Master. After all, many people dragged their vampiric help around with them for protection. Feliciano? Well, he was just useful for carrying things. However, the man's servant remained impassive as if with full intention of staying on the sidelines.

Satisfied with the offended gaping of the man in red's mouth and his lack of response, Ludwig grabbed Feliciano's shoulder and walked him away.

"We're done here," he said, with finality. And the two continued down the path and out of the town.

"Kiku! Move, aru!"

The vampire hadn't noticed his Master leave as he seemed transfixed with the new ideals the tall, blonde stranger presented to him.

"Gomen, Master Wang," he said flatly, as he walked to catch up to him.

As the walked through the town, Kiku zoned out as he attempted to process these new thoughts. Although, the thoughts weren't exactly new to him. He'd thought the way his Master treated him and the other servants was unfair, but he thought that was just the way it was. He didn't know that some Masters actually treated their vampires with care. His master would never defend him like that man defended his clumsy servant.

The walk was mute between the two since they left the town and they were very near arriving at their hometown. It was normal for them to travel in silence. Kiku Honda was just quiet-natured while Wang Yao was nursing a migraine.

As they continued down the path, they saw a dark outline of a figure in the distance. Continuing forward, the figure still hadn't moved and remained motionless, staring them head-on. Kiku got a bad feeling about this. He cursed himself for leaving his katana at home.

"Kol kol kol. Look who it is."

Yao and Kiku stiffened at the voice. They knew that laugh anywhere.

"I expect you have my payment, da?" the scarrved vampire said, smiling.

"Of course I don't have it with me, aru. I'm not going to walk around with containers full of blood on my person, aru!"

The Den leader's smile never faltered, but there was some unseen signal that summoned the rest of his Den out of the shadows. The first two, Eduard and Ravis, grabbed Kiku and pinned him to the ground while the last, Toris, forced Yao to his knees and restrained his arms behind his back.

"We had deal, remember?" Ivan towered over the smaller man.

"Yes, I would acquire blood to feed you and your den, and I would leave it at the agreed meeting place, aru! If I did this, you said you would leave me alone! Have I ever missed a delivery? No! And I don't plan to! I have the payment, but I will leave it where I promised I would, aru! So go away!"

Ivan's aura darkened.

"You have it with you."

"No. I just said I don't have it with me. I have it at-"

"Yes, you do. Every human has blood inside them. Fresher that way."

The den leader knelt down slowly, letting the light reflect a little off his fangs.

Yao's eyes went wide.

"Ivan! Ivan! I told you! I have the payment, aru! If you do this, you won't get any more blood from me, aru! I'll report you! I swear, aru! Kiku isn't your bloodtype so you can't take him! I'll make him testify on my behalf!"

Kiku struggled on the ground, baring his fangs, but still unable to get free. Was his Master trying to get him killed? They would have no use for someone not of their own bloodtype so they would just get rid of him if they thought he could be a witness!

"Silly, human. And what will happen, da? There are few Hunters now."

Yao began to struggle.

"There's a Hunter that lives in town! He's killed many vampires like you!"

"Kol kol kol. Maybe I should pay him visit, da? Maybe he wants to become one with my Den~!"

"Mr. Ivan, sir? I'm not sure about all of this. I think-"

"Does little Toris have something to say?" Ivan's eyes, stared deep into the subordinate vampire's soul.

"N-no, sir."

Ivan watched Yao tremble in fear for a few moments as he neared dangerously close with his fangs. Suddenly, he jerked back and motioned for the two to be released.

Kiku rushed to his Master's side to help him up all the while baring his fangs to try to look as intimidating as possible. Although, he knew that none of them would attack without orders from their Den leader.

"Continue the payments, but I need more. I'm sure you can handle that simple task, da? We will be seeing you later~."

Without further adieu, the Den walked off the path and into the woods to disappear amongst the dark shadows and trees.

There was a moment of silence in which the two just breathed. Yao was rubbing his wrists from where Toris held them tightly and Kiku was wiping dirt off his clothes from when he was shoved into the ground.

The walk back to their hometown remained as soundless as the rest of their travels, but Kiku was thinking more and more treacherously.

Upon arriving to the Wang Estate, the two were greeted by a young servant who took one look at their condition and knew something was wrong.

"What happened?" the young vampire asked, his dark eyes curious and tinged with well-justified worry.

"Ivan-san wants the payments increased," Kiku said flatly.

Yao was not as calm.

"He attacked us in broad daylight, aru! He nearly bit me! I'm going to the sheriff, aru!"

"Wait. So you're, like, not going to do what Ivan asked?"

Yao wheeled on the boy.

"Of course I am! Are you an idiot? I have to, aru! I'm just going to warn the sheriff. He use to be a vampire hunter. He'd want to know if vampires were this close to his town. And, he might up patrols in town for us or something. He's not going to jeopardize my home, aru!"

With that he slammed the door shut to leave the two servants inside.

"Leon-san."

"Yes, Kiku?"

Kiku sighed and closed his eyes.

"I am reaving the estate."

"L-like… why?!"

The boy was only thirteen, but he needed to hear this.

"Ivan-san is getting desperate. He's going to either run this estate to the ground with the demands he's making or he's going to force Yao-sama to join his Den. Master Wang can't protect us anymore. It's clear he will not defend us."

Leon's big, brown eyes were creased with confusion.

"Where will you go?"

"I met some people today. I think I'm going to find them again and join them. I would rike to berieve we have common interests."

"…What about me?"

Leon's voice sounded small.

Kiku gave the kid his once-in-a-blue-moon smile.

"I've known you for a rong time, Leon-kun. You're rike a brother to me. However, I berieve it would be for the best for you to find another manor as well. You don't have to follow my exampre. This is my choice, but I want you to have as bright a future as possibre. I doubt you will have one here."

Leon, deep in thought, studied the ground as he processed this information.

"Think about it."

Kiku went to his room to gather his belongings and returned shortly. Leon hadn't moved from the spot he was left. The older servant placed a token in the boy's hands. It was his origami crane, a simple good luck charm that he carried around with him everywhere. Leon smiled warmly. He was touched to know that Kiku entrusted him with this modest but sentimental possession.

"Sayonara, Leon-kun."

The door closed to leave the young boy as confused and conflicted as ever.

"You know that the only reason you couldn't be arrested for drinking on the job is because you are the sheriff, Beilschmidt," Yao growled as he slid onto the bar stool next to the albino man.

"You know that the only reason I still go by "Beilschmidt" is because I couldn't get my name legally changed to "Awesome"," he smirked, clearly the beer was starting to take effect.

"Somehow, I don't doubt you tried, aru. Although I don't know why you would bother. The Beilschmidt name isn't something to sneeze at, aru. What with your brother's garlic business being so successful-"

"My little brother inherited the brain for business… as well as the whole estate. I just know how to keep less awesome people from hurting each other, and that's all I need to know."

Yao sighed as he rolled his brown eyes in his head. Dusting off his shirt, he lowered his voice to a more subtle volume.

"Well, that's why I'm here, aru. I have reasons to believe that there might be some wild vampiric activity close to town."

"Wild, you say? How far away?" His expression showed he was sobering up quickly.

"A mile, aru. Maybe less."

Gilbert gave him a hard look.

"And how did you come to believe these "reasons" you speak of?"

"I prefer I kept that business to myself. All you need to know is that the town might be in danger, aru."

Gilbert sighed as he took a long swig of his beer. Slamming it down roughly and rubbing the side of his head as he sighed.

"I'm a sheriff. Not a Hunter. Different badges. Different…policies. All I do is make sure that the people of this town are safe."

His pale brows creased with withheld pain.

"But the town isn't safe until this threat is taken care of, aru! …I can pay you."

"Yao, you really don't want me to do this for you. I might stumble upon some less than legal dealings you might have going on …such as trying to bribe the town sheriff. You have to decide which you think is worse."

He took another huge swig of his alcohol as Yao gritted his teeth in frustration. Yao knew that, for a cop, Gilbert was a more laid-back type. After all, they were having this conversation in a bar. However, he would uphold the law.

Unsatisfied, the Master pushed himself up from the stool and stomped out of the building angrily. Now what was he going to do?

He didn't make it far down the street before an arm weighed heavily across his shoulders. He jumped and tried to push the stranger away before the man backed off himself and held his arms up in surrender.

"Hey, now. No need to get so wound up."

"Who are you, aru?"

Yao had never seen this man before. He was tall with blonde hair that stuck up in ways that reminded the brown-eyed man of a lightning strike victim. His obnoxious blue eyes and cocky smile were all he needed to peg him as someone he did not want to waste air talking to.

"The name's Mathias. I couldn't help but overhearing back there you might have a little vampire problem."

"What's it to you, aru?" he crossed his arms indignantly.

"I, well, me and my brothers are the answer to your problem. We're Hunters. The Nordics. Perhaps you've heard of us?"

"No."

Actually, Yao had heard of the Nordics, but he chalked just about everything up to rumor and exaggeration because of the degree of absurdity in the stories that followed the name.

"Well, that's alright. You'll know us after we're done. If you can just tell me the details as well as fork over some cash, I guarantee we'll have the vamps eliminated in no time."

Yao looked the kid over again. He didn't look that old or experienced, but the temptation that this kid and his gang would be able to rid him of Ivan forever was just too sweet to pass up.

Mathias jumped in again at the notice of his hesitation.

"I'm not a stuck-up cop, man. I don't need any the story behind it. I just need the names, last location, blood type, and money then you're home free. Simple, right?"

"…Fine, aru. But I'm paying you only half up front. You'll get the other half when you actually complete the job, aru. His name's Ivan. He's an A+ Den leader. He has three vampires in his den, but you'll have no trouble with them, aru. I have every confidence that if you kill Ivan, they'll run. I don't care about them anyway. Ivan's the one threatening me, aru."

"A Den leader, hu? That's gonna cost you, but it's nothing the Nordics can't handle."

"It better be, aru."

"Hey! Morons! Lookie here!" Mathias announced as he let the sack of money crash onto the table of their rented house as if kicking the door in dramatically didn't already alert them to his presence.

However, the sound of money seemed to summon his brothers from all corners of the room. He trained them so well.

"Mathias. Did you just volunteer us again. Without asking us." The monotone blonde stood in the doorway brooding, yet he couldn't keep his eyes off the money.

"Oh, Mat! We talked about this, remember?" Tino said with a much gentler and more pleading tone.

"So what? This is just the first half! We just take care of this one vamp and we get another bag of goodies just like this one!"

Berwald appeared like he tended to do. Mathias hadn't proven it yet, but he just knew the guy could walk through walls. Berwald gave Mathias a look of disapproval before melting into the darkness of the back hallway.

Lukas, still brooding, remained unconvinced as Tino shuffled at the tension that was building.

"Come on, guys!" the oldest brother raised his arms in surrender, "You act like I'm Dad back from the dead roping you into chores. This is our job! And I got us good money this time! I just don't get what's with you."

The room was physically silent –no sound waves emitted verbal communication- but the arguments in the Nordic household were more often than not silent but deadly.

Berwald, at age 22, was the supreme master of the art of silent jousting. Mathias wondered if he'd ever heard the guy talk more than twice during a single day. It was like he had a limited number of times his mouth could open before it locked up until the next morning.

Fourteen-year-old Lukas was debatably the second best. He was quite the expert at being displeased mutely or at least in short phrases, but Mathias had the special talent at getting him to snap. It was never pretty afterward.

Tino was their levelheaded, eighteen-year-old mediator. He had no problem interceding and keeping the peace between the brothers, but he did have an airheaded side to him that made him kinda tactless about it sometimes.

The last was Emil. He was basically a mini-Lukas even at age six. The two would never admit it, but they were the most alike of the siblings, but, thankfully, Emil still had his childhood innocence that allowed him to, well, express himself through talking occasionally.

Mathias, the oldest at 26, never got into the whole silent-thing. It wasn't that he wasn't good at it. It was that he didn't see the point. He knew the power of words. He had vocal chords, and he intended to use them.

"I don't know. It is a lot of money. Maybe I can help with this one?" the purple-eyed, youngest brother asked.

"No." Was the word that resonated throughout the room, backed up by the hard glare of Berwald.

Emil frowned in a scary likeness of Lukas and went to sulk on the couch. Mathias sighed and went over to consul him. He never understood why Emil wanted to join them on Hunts so badly. They were killing. It was not something that a child should want to do.

"Look, buddy, the vamp's an A+ too so you wouldn't be able to go anyway," he gave the kid a weak smile.

The Nordics were fortunate in the fact that each of them had a different blood type. Their parents were AB+ and AB- . AB was the best type for a Hunter to have considering it was an extremely rare blood type. That meant that few vampires had the matching type, and, the ones that did, were few in number because they didn't have many food sources. Although, only one of the brothers received their parents' blood type. The rest all had different types as provided by the fortunate number of possibilities their parents' combo could produce.

This gave them a huge advantage as Hunters. They could all go in and take out a target or they could go tag team in groups of two which was their preferred method of attack. Whichever one of them had the blood type of the vampire they were after stayed back and watched Emil. It was just routine. Their most frequent teams were B+ Tino and A- Berwald; AB+ Mathias and B- Lukas because of how their blood types and particular weapons skills complimented each other.

Emil didn't smile, but his frown disappeared. His innocent eyes still longed to be included as one of the big boys. At least he wasn't being left out of one he could have gone on?

"Mathias. He's six years old," Lukas hissed.

Mathias glared at his normally stoic younger brother.

"Yes, but I was just trying to tell him we need him here to hold the home base while we're gone."

"He is just a child."

The eldest clenched his fist.

"I could say the same thing about you!" He growled under his breath as he shoved past Lukas. "Now are we gonna make a plan to get this guy or what?" he barked, as he stomped off to plan the demise of the unfortunate vampire.

Lukas sighed and lagged after him, Tino and Berwald not far behind, leaving Emil kicking his feet frustrated on the couch supports and practicing his scowl on the wall.

Yay! The full Axis, China, and the Nordics appear! And Prussia's back! Let the party begin! So I never planned on including the Nordics, but I've actually grown to like them. I also decided that the Nordics are really the only Hunters left at this point. There's not really a Hunter's Guild anymore. Prussia is now a sheriff which he is well qualified for because of his background in self-defense and etc. I also made Denmark the oldest. I wasn't sure who was older, him or Sweden so I just made Denmark older.
(PSA: There will be no pairings still other than a little PruHun.) Yup.

Looking forward to it.