Don't know when you'll get this. Fanfiction's being evil and not letting me update (current to when I'm writing this), so I don't know if you're getting this when you're supposed to (Wed, March 23rd) or sometime afterwards. Just have to wait and see, I suppose.

Also: don't own Hetalia. Or Avatar. Just Li. Who hates me. Kesesesesesese...

The meeting had been formally ended, and now the nations were leaving in small groups while discussing whatever seemed most interesting to them. Not surprisingly, the main topic seemed to be Li.

"Do you think she's all right?" Lithuania asked again, peering over his shoulder towards the door that led to the hallway that led to the stairs that led to the second floor where Li was still alone in her room. He'd been worrying about her ever since Hungary had intercepted him and told him Li wanted to be alone.

"If she wants to be alone, we should leave her be." Germany sighed, straightening up his notes from the meeting. "Italy, what are you doing?"

"Ve~," Italy chirped, "I'm making paper flowers! See, Germany?" He held out a delicately-folded paper flower, which was clearly made from his meeting notes. "I've been working on them all day! Aren't they pretty?"

"Italy, why in the world would you make paper flowers out of your meeting notes?" Germany sighed, not expecting a reasonable answer. He'd known Italy long enough at this point to realize he wouldn't get one. So he was somewhat surprised by the answer.

"I made them for Li! She seems really sad, so I thought these might cheer her up!" Italy smiled innocently at his friend. "Don't you think they're pretty, Germany?"

"Uhh…well, yes, they are certainly very well made, but…" Germany lost his voice as he stared at the flowers. Italy truly was an artist, to have turned something so ordinary as his meeting notes into delicate flowers such as these. He insisted on only using colored paper for his notes, too, so the flowers were light shades of yellow and green and blue and pink.

"Yay! I'm going to go give them to her now!" Italy cheered, preparing to run off upstairs. Germany, whose friendship with Italy had given him a fast comprehension time and faster reflexes, managed to grab the northern half of the boot-shaped country before he could rush off.

"Nein! She…" Germany remembered the look in Li's eyes as she asked everyone to leave, the tone of her voice. "She needs to be alone for now. Please, leave her be, and give them to her later."

"Eh? But, Germany, Romano and I are leaving in an hour!" Italy protested. "And I don't wanna wait to give them to her! Don't you think they'll make her happy?" He gave Germany such an adorable puppy-dog look that for a moment, Germany actually was tempted to ignore the voice of reason and safety in the back of his head and let Italy go upstairs and give Li the paper flowers. But years of looking out for Italy, first during World War Two when the older nation had needed saving from everything, then later as the world progressed to the current day, had made Germany's protective instincts strong enough to overrule even the feared puppy-dog eyes.

"She needs to be alone. I don't think she'd do anything drastic, but when I left her room, she seemed to be…stretched thin." Germany thought his words over carefully. "I'm sorry, Italy, but you cannot disturb her. If you want, I'll deliver the flowers for you, but I think you should let her be alone for now."

"Oh…all right…" Italy hung his head in disappointment, but then brightened and thrust the flowers into Germany's arms. "I'd better get back to the hotel and grab my suitcase before Romano leaves without me! Bye Germany! I'll visit soon and make some pasta!" And at that, the human representation of the northern half of the country of Italy more or less skipped from the meeting room, singing an Italian love song, and leaving the human representation of the country of Germany holding an armful of beautiful paper flowers to be delivered to a woman who may or may not be an insane fighting machine.

One moment while the author laughs maniacally, please.

Germany allowed himself a second to wonder at Italy's ability to switch moods so rapidly, then shook himself out of it and carefully set the flowers on the table. Almost everyone had left the room now, all but Lithuania, Russia (who was lurking creepily near Lithuania and eyeing him with a disturbing interest, making the other nation tremble a bit in terror), Austria, Prussia, and Hungary. Since Germany would be sharing a plane the next day with Austria, Prussia, and Hungary on their way home (they would leave sooner, but getting an extra ticket for Li had proved tricky, and thus they were forced to stay another night), he beckoned them over.

"Do you think we should check in on her soon?" Hungary asked as soon as they were all standing together. "She sounded so miserable earlier…it couldn't have just been a bad dream, don't you think?"

"I will have to give her these later anyways." Germany sighed, gesturing to the paper flowers. "Italy made them, and he can't stay long enough for her to recover from whatever mood she's in, so he asked me to give them to her."

"Bringing a girl flowers, West?" Prussia joked, giving off his trademark "Kesesesese" laugh. "Aww. Cute. Just remember, if you wanna get laid, you have to—"

"Bruder!" Germany cut him off in horror. "I'm just giving these to her for Italy! Do not read more into it than there is!" To his further embarrassment, his brother waved a hand dismissively and continued to laugh. Austria looked extremely uncomfortable, but was refusing to say a word. Hungary, in stark contrast, was glowering at Prussia, her hand inching towards her purse.

"Well, I'm gonna head back to the room and watch a movie. Later, unawesome people." Gilbert gave a mock salute, then ran off before his brother could do anything more than simply stare, blush, and stammer madly.

"Does he even realize what's coming from his mouth, or is it all a constant buzz to him?" Austria wondered after a moment. He handed Germany a stack of paper—his notes, useless now—and turned to Hungary. "Since we have an extra night, and there happens to be an orchestra performing, would you care to accompany me?"

"I'd love to!" Hungary exclaimed enthusiastically, face lighting up. Austria offered her his arm, the picture of the noble gentleman, and she accepted it gracefully. The only mar to the scene was when Prussia stuck his head back into the room and shouted something about who should be escorting who, to be met with a furious Hungary and her much-feared frying pan. She was followed by a mildly worried Austria, who excused them to Germany before walking after her at a leisurely pace.

Leaving Germany alone with his own notes, Austria's notes, Italy's flowers, and time to kill.

They really were exquisitely done, Germany admitted to himself, looking at the flowers once again. He almost thought he knew what Italy had done, a fold here, a crease there, crinkling the paper up just so…and Italy was so nonchalant about it, couldn't be too hard to make them. Without thinking too much about it, Germany took a piece of paper and began to mimic the flowers as best he could.

It was not as easy as Italy had made it seem. Perhaps he had the flowers to go by, but without unfolding one to see how it had been made in reverse, trial and error was all he had. And it was telling him that he was not very good at this. Yes, the flowers were there if he cared to undo one…but they were so beautiful, he couldn't bring himself to do it. So instead, he continued his attempts, and finally found himself with one acceptable paper flower.

Needless to say, it was not nearly as beautiful as Italy's. But it was acceptable, to Germany at least. The petals weren't as graceful as Italy's, and it was more compact, less open. He'd used a sheet of plain white paper to make it, but lines of printed ink on the paper streaked the petals with black. If it wasn't next to Italy's multicolored flowers, which had only pencil writing on them, it might even be called pretty.

"Germany?" Lithuania, who had disappeared at some point prior, stuck his head in the door. "It's getting late. Don't you have to return to your hotel?"

"Hm?" Germany looked up in surprise, then glanced out a window. The sun was starting to set, but gray clouds obscured half of what might otherwise be a beautiful sunset. "Oh, yes. I have to give Li the flowers Italy made."

"He made those?" Lithuania walked over, and looked at the flowers critically. "Um…some of these aren't as well-made as they usually are…"

"Those are mine." Germany flushed a little, quickly grabbing all of the flowers off of the table. He shoved his flowers into a nearby trashcan, and adjusted the ones in his arms before continuing. "I-I must deliver these for Italy. Please excuse me while I do that, and then I will leave for my hotel. Austria and I will return in the morning for Li."

"Okay." Lithuania seemed a bit glum at the prospect of Li leaving, either because she was distracting Russia from tormenting him or because he genuinely liked the girl. Germany would have bet on both, because Lithuania had spent a while with Li earlier. Even if he hadn't been around to see the vulnerable side Li had, accidentally or otherwise, shown Germany, Lithuania himself had faced horrors at Russia's hands. Him and Li probably had something in common.

As Germany walked out of the meeting room, down the hallway, towards the staircase, he allowed himself a chance to think about what Li must be feeling. She had lied about her past, obviously, but some things seemed out of place. For instance, she had called herself "Li Wu of the Fire Nation" the first time she had woken up after arriving in Russia's house, when she was partially delirious and likely still half-asleep. What reason could she have had for lying then?

So she was telling the truth about her country. But when she had said it was "small," she had hesitated over her words, and refused to make eye contact with anyone. That put some serious doubts in Germany's mind as to her sincerity on that point. But he had never before met a "Fire Nation," and despite being the youngest of the nations (official nations, at least), he had met pretty much all of the other nations.

Could it be a cult? That thought stopped Germany at the top of the stairs. Cults did not have human representatives, and tended to seclude themselves from others. If Li was from a cult, it would explain her reluctance to speak about her past, her confusion over common technology and current events, and it might even help explain her disturbing arrival. Some sort of cult ritual gone wrong, leaving her abandoned in the snow? And she had said she was a fugitive: perhaps a disagreement amongst members of the cult had resulted in her and some friends fleeing?

All that presented a plausible, reasonable explanation. Li was from a cult. Likely she had been born to it, or she would have some knowledge of the outside world, but a cult it must have been. That she had dared to oppose the leader's ideas and flee endeared her to Germany somewhat: he knew what it was like to have a crazy boss. It also explained other things, like her scars, her unwillingness to be touched. Cults had been made infamous by the abuses some inflicted on people, both their followers and others. Attempting to leave would have brought down the wrath of the leader on Li, resulting in whatever punishments he thought fitting.

But something about the cult theory didn't sit well with Germany. The pieces fit together, but they seemed forced, bent out of shape and misaligned. He would have to investigate the matter. There were government records of known cults, international archives he could dig into, experts he could phone to ask for advice and help… "Ich brauche nicht dieses Recht jetzt." Germany muttered to himself. It was a huge task, especially with all the things he had to do already for his job. He might have to recruit someone else to help him…

Li's room. He started walking again, trying to think up a plan of action for investigating cults in search of this "Fire Nation" Li claimed she was from. There were experts around the world he could phone, and based on what he knew from Li already he was fairly certain he could narrow down the parameters of a search in his country's files, as well as the international resources available to him. Perhaps he could gain more information from Li now?

Germany stood in front of her door, arms filled with paper flowers, wondering how to enter. He didn't want to simply barge in—what if she was changing, or not there, or any of a number of reasons that might bring embarrassment or anger or pain? But he'd promised Italy he'd deliver the flowers… Shaking off his doubts, Germany shifted the flowers to one arm, raised a hand, and knocked loudly.

"Li! May I come in?" He called.

"Okay…" A voice from inside the room answered. Germany reached for the doorknob, but before he could it turned and the door opened. Li peeked to see who it was, then opened the door fully and gestured for him to come in. Her eyes lingered on the flowers with suspicion, and Germany felt the need to explain them before she got the wrong idea about them. After all, Italy had made them, not him. He shouldn't take credit for Italy's work.

"Italy made you these." Germany said quickly, going to the vanity and laying them out. "He asked me to give them to you, since he had to leave and nobody wanted to disturb you. He sends his regards, and hopes that you will like them."

"They're nice." Li said offhandedly, going over and picking up a flower. She examined it with a critical eye, then frowned. "What are these markings on the paper?"

"Oh, he made the flowers from his meeting notes." Germany replied, a bit of annoyance surging within him. "Instead of paying attention and contributing, he made those. I don't think he had anything else to work with, though if he was planning on making flowers he should have gotten different paper. Although it was more likely a spur of the moment decision."

"What do they say?" Li held the flower out to Germany, looking curious. "I can't read it."

"Hm…this one appears to be from his notes on tariffs." Germany squinted to read the terrible handwriting. "Yes, it's talking about how he wants to raise taxes on imports from South America."

"South?" Li scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "America…is two people? Or do you mean his lower body?" She blushed slightly at the mental image that resulted, and shook her head a bit to clear it. "S-so, um, what?"

"Oh…nein, uh, America only represents one country on North America." Germany hurried to explain. "His full name is the United States of America, but he is usually just called America because it's easier to say than his full name, or the abbreviation of U.S.A. Other countries exist south of him, on the continent of North America and South America, and also on the thin area of land connecting the two continents called Central America." He paused to think over what he had just said, and spoke again. "I will explain tomorrow with a map."

"Oh. Okay." Li seemed a bit confused, not to mention surprised. There was a beat in the conversation, then, "So, how many continents are there?"

She didn't even know basic geography? How sheltered was this girl? Germany allowed his surprise to show as he answered, "Seven official continents. But only six are regularly occupied. The seventh, Antarctica, is centered around the South Pole, so nobody lives there. It's much too cold." Some brief emotion flickered over Li's face, there and gone before Germany could place it. He thought part of it might be disbelief, but why would that be?

"I see." She turned back to the flowers, idly sifting through them, and picked one up without seeming to think about it. But the moment she noticed which one it was, she gave a small yelp and dropped it on the floor. Germany, who hadn't been paying attention to the flowers she was looking at, took a glance at the one she'd dropped and felt his heart stop.

It was the one he'd made.

Li was willing to bet they didn't have panda lilies here in this world, because Italy would have known not to make the flower look like one if they did exist here. It was a beautiful flower, really, done like the others in the shape of a rose. But the one difference was that where the others were made of colored paper in light shades of blue, green, yellow, lilac, etc., this one was pure white with black stripes of writing (at least Li assumed it was writing, because the symbols were like no characters she had ever seen before) extending down each petal.

A cross between a panda lily and a rose. Both were considered romantic flowers: both were flowers Li liked, not for the symbolism but for their beauty and their smell. Neither were her favorite flower, that status was reserved for the fire lily, which bloomed only once a year in the Fire Nation. But unless she bought them from a flower merchant herself, it was completely inappropriate for Li to receive either a rose or a fire lily from someone else, even her family.

Because in the Fire Nation nobility, you always began a courtship by giving a girl a flower, either a rose or a panda lily, or sometimes a fire lily, if they were in season.

Well, they couldn't know that here. Italy couldn't have known that. So there was really no reason for her not to keep it. For the spirits' sake, it wasn't even a real flower! It was made of paper! Li wasn't sure what the precedent for that was, but she was pretty sure it wouldn't count for beginning a courtship.

Then again, she was royalty. Things for her were different. If she so much as flirted with a boy (not that she would, she had yet to find one she liked), the consequences could be enormous. Her honor was a delicate thing—what might be said as a friendly joke could be heard by a servant, blown out of proportion, and turned into a national political scandal. Were her father's advisors back home to hear of this incident…she could almost hear them clamoring for the head of the one who made this flower.

That's what decided Li. She would keep the flower. Part of it was just in spite of her own status, her own personal rebellion against the rules and restrictions of her upbringing, a rebellion only she would ever know of. Another part of it was that she genuinely liked the flower, despite its connotations in her home, and she wanted to keep such a pretty thing.

"Er…I'm very sorry." Germany apologized, bending over to pick up the flower. He straightened and began to say, "You see, Italy—"

Li took the flower from him without saying a word, smiling at it softly. "It's all right." She reassured Germany. "I was just startled when I saw its coloring. It looks like a panda lily-rose, don't you think?" Holding the rose up between them, Li felt a small smile creep across her face. This was definitely her favorite of all the flowers so far. It wasn't quite as well-made, meaning it had probably been the first Italy made before perfecting his folds, but Li thought she liked that about it too. That this…"panda-rose" wasn't quite as perfect as the other flowers.

"I'm afraid I don't know what a panda lily is…" Germany admitted, shifting nervously. His face seemed a bit flushed, and his hands were clasped firmly behind his back. "Is it from the Fire Nation?"

"N—uh, yup." Li turned quickly to hide her wince from Germany, but was afraid he might catch it anyways. Just how stupid was she, almost revealing the existence of the other three Nations like that? So far they only knew of the Fire Nation, and Li intended to keep it that way. She'd only let the Fire Nation's existence slip because she didn't understand the situation she was in. Now that she knew a few things about their world, she couldn't be talking about the Earth Kingdom, vast as it was, or the Water Tribes at the Poles, or even the Air Nomads in their temples! Germany had said nobody lived on one of this world's continents because it was at the South Pole—in Li's own world, the South Pole was home to the Southern Water Tribe, still on the path to recovery after its near destruction at the hands of the Fire Nation 150 years ago.

She couldn't see Germany's reaction, but his next words were tinged with an edge of what Li thought might be suspicion, or distrust. "I see. What do they look like?"

"Oh, you know what normal lilies are like, I assume." Li turned back around quickly, trying to seem as open and cheerful as she could. "Like those in shape, only their petals are white and have black stripes down the middle. The…writing on this flower looks a bit like that." She traced a line of symbols, and smiled at a vague memory. "My friend loves them, can't get enough. They're really rare, though, the second rarest in the world—well, maybe not, I guess." She avoided Germany's eyes. "Since apparently there's a lot I don't know."

"You do seem to have lived a sheltered life." Germany offered. Li looked him in the eyes now, thankful for the concession. Maybe he would stop digging for more information about her and simply let her be. It was doubtful, but she could hope…

As if. She wasn't exactly giving them much reason to trust her, was she? Lying at almost every turn, evading questions, throwing people into walls or through windows…if her group of friends, jokingly dubbed Team Avatar, had ever met a person acting like she was now, someone would have killed that person the first time she attacked, not allowed her to live to attack them again and again and then lie to them. These people were a lot more trusting than her friends—a lot more trusting than her, it seemed. No, definitely more trusting than her.

Li began to feel an odd, heavy sensation in her gut. She was thinking like a prisoner, judging these people like they were her jailors, when they were only trying to help her. Lithuania, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Italy, even Russia and America…they were only trying to help her, however they could. And look how she'd repaid them. Lies and suspicion and violence.

"This is really different." She said abruptly, not sure why the words were coming out of her mouth. Words came to her, wanting to be said, but she dismissed them because they made no sense, not even to her. "Umm, what I mean is…this place. It's…it's nothing like my home. Like how I've been living lately." Her eyes trailed down to the floor, and she spoke softly. "I'm sorry. I haven't been the greatest guest here, have I?"

"Was?" Germany blinked, seemingly taken aback by her sudden statement. "Ah…it's understandable. You arrived in such a way that would naturally make you suspicious. And there really is no reason for you to trust us, as none of us have ever met you before, and you know virtually nothing about us."

"That still doesn't excuse how I've been acting." Li insisted stubbornly. "I'm a guest here. But I've managed to attack a fair number of people, be extremely rude to pretty much everyone—including you—and I…I've been…" Her throat closed in on itself as panic set in. She desperately wanted to admit everything, to explain what was going on and just tell Germany everything about her. But she couldn't. Ru would never forgive her. Even if they weren't hostile, wouldn't telling them only drag them into her own problems, to some degree? Most of them would want to help her, judging by how they had treated her so far. And her problems were her own problems, and she could deal with them by herself, her and her group.

Germany seemed to understand that she couldn't bear to speak anymore, and stood in front of her, awkward, looking as if he would like to do something but had no idea what to do. It actually reminded Li of Ru, a little, because her friend wasn't good with emotions. Fighting, oh yes, Ru could disable an opponent, wound, maim, kill, all of these. She could strategize and plan and ration. But emotions, emotions were what threw Ru off the most. The few times Li had allowed herself to cry in front of Ru before this whole event began, her friend had been awkward, trying to hug Li and pat her back and tell her it would be okay like she saw others do. Coming from Ru, it was always enough. The thought of Germany trying it, though…

Li still wasn't looking him in the eye. She realized she was clutching the flower tightly, and relaxed her grip, hoping she hadn't damaged it, not permanently at least. It didn't look like it was, but she couldn't be sure—Li's experiences with paper didn't involve folding. Reading, writing, certainly those, and burning of course. A lot more burning of late than ever before. Definitely not any folding though.

The silence, which had been awkward after only a moment, was starting to get unbearable as seconds ticked by. Li made up her mind to end it at the same time as Germany.

"I think—" She began at the same time as Germany attempted to say, "So—" They both paused for a moment, and their eyes met. Li blinked a couple times before her usual reaction to looking into someone's eyes kicked in. She began to giggle. Then it was Germany's turn to be confused, watching as she had to sit down, she was laughing so hard.

"Was ist lustig?" Germany finally managed to get out. Li forced her laughter to slow, then stop, and she looked up at him with a small grin on her face. Realizing she hadn't understood him, he translated it for her. "What's so funny?

"I don't know." She shook her head. "But it's been a while since I laughed like that. I think it was overdue." Her grin faded as her mind went over the past week's events. The North Pole. Meiko. Seeing her blood flowing out of her, blood she knew would be used to heal Ru. Waking up here. Her series of brief awakenings, each giving her more information, until she finally woke up on the third day of being here to get out of bed and do something productive. The meeting earlier today. Throwing America through a window, then fleeing. Seeing Ru. Losing Ru. Dreaming of Ru. Ru.

Ru…

The all-too-familiar pang of loss hit Li's chest hard, and she turned away from Germany to mask how she bit her lip, an attempt to bring her emotions under control. Not that it worked, but she was able to get out a, "It's getting late. You should go to wherever you're staying. I'll see you in the morning." He paused, but seemed to realize she wanted to be alone and left.

Li made her way to the bed and curled up on it, feeling the unfamiliar materials of the sheets and blankets and pillows. It struck her, at last, that this place was not home, was not the Four Nations. That she didn't know when, if ever, she would see her home again. When she would see Ru again.

She slipped off into blissful, dreamless sleep.