A/N: Before anyone mentions it, I will assure you that bars definitely serve pancakes at 9 PM. Breakfast is awesome any time of day. And, pancakes are definitely better than waffles.

Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.
West Side Story belongs to Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim.


"No, no! He said it's a block WEST of Bradley and Grumman!"

"Are you sure? Because I distinctly remember Arthur saying to turn right."

"Yeah, and right is west."

"No, it's east! We're coming from Briggs station, so..."

"So it's right! Geez! I'm right!"

Lovina was walking slowly on purpose, just so she could distance herself from the arguing friends. She made an audible, irritated noise when Gillian decided that she'd finally had enough and simply yanked Francis's touchscreen phone out of his hands, intending to look up the address herself.

"Look, couldn't we just CALL someone who's already there and ask?"

"We could, but Gilly loves playing with the apps." Antonio smiled at her and set their connected hands swinging. Lovina still couldn't believe that she'd agreed to go to this cast party together - though Antonio had made a very valid argument by pointing out that it's what everyone would expect, anyway. It was two weeks after closing night. After their last, final performance, people had been laughing and crying and hugging each other, already moaning about how they had post-show withdrawal and would miss everyone...they all went to same damn high school, for crying out loud. There wasn't any need to worry about not seeing someone anymore - in fact, it would probably be even harder now to ignore them.

Like Antonio, for instance. Lovina stared at their swaying arms. He'd been on her case the day she'd set foot into the school auditorium, and had never stopped bothering her ever since. Not that Lovina had thought his care would wane after the show ended...and not that she'd gotten very nervous about it either...but, needless to say, it hadn't. Not one bit. He went to ridiculous lengths to be with her all the time, insisting on walking her to classes even if his was on the other side of the building, picking her up in the morning, driving her back. The last part meant, of course, that sometimes he would also take really random detours to shower her with affection elsewhere.

It was weird and embarrassing, to get so much attention from one person.

But nice, too.

"Loviii..." A whine with a slight Spanish accent brought her back to the present. "Are you even listening to me? What are you thinking abo-"

"HA!" Lovina grimaced. Trust Gillian to ruin the moment. "I TOLD you to turn right! Am I awesome or am I awesome?"

"Fine, you're awesome!...Bon dieu..."

"I heard that!"

Lovina waited until Francis and Gillian had set off around the corner before answering.

"I'm thinking there better be some damn good food at this restaurant."

"Oh, it's good!" They hurriedly crossed the street, and Lovina suppressed the desire to flip off the guy who nearly ran them over. "I went there once before. It's also really cheap, which is why I guess Arthur picked it for the cast party..."

"That, and they don't card," Francis smirked. "Or rather, they just don't care."

He and Gillian were waiting for the two of them to catch up in front of a dimly lit restaurant. Lovina could already see the familiar heads of the other cast alums already inside through the windows. As Francis pushed the door in, Lovina caught the word TIBBY'S painted proudly on it.

"Perfect timing!" Alfred waved excitedly to them from across the room, nearly knocking over one of the vintage fans in the process. "We were about to begin the video without you guys."

Almost the entire place was packed - then again, there WERE a lot of people involved in the production. Lovina looked about, recognizing many faces that had become so familiar - Elizabeta and Clara giggling with Feliks in a corner, HK listlessly sandwiched between Arthur and his brother (the latter sporting a wonderful case of Asian glow, which his other seatmate - Ivan - seemed to be greatly amused by), Heracles and Kiku sitting quietly with other stagehands, and even her own sister digging into an enormous plate of pasta as Ludwig watched.

Gillian dragged them over to a tiny table in the centre, beneath an enormous ceiling fan. "I totally forgot we filmed a video! Sweet, I'm going to be so awesome in this."

Lovina snatched up a menu and buried her nose inside it. So it was official. West Side Story was finally over. Four months of torture, turmoil and other unsavoury notions that began with a T. Four months of being surrounded by a bunch of batshit crazy people. Four months of one really, really annoying Spaniard who decided he was going to lengthen that time to...whenever. Lovina's cheeks flushed pink and she ducked even lower past the pages.

"Hey, Lovi, whatcha doin' over here?" A tug on the side of the menu opened it up to include Antonio. "Ohh, good idea..."

He smirked and scooted his chair closer. Delicate pink gave way to deep red.

"You bastard! Everybody we know is here!"

"They're too busy watching themselves fall over dancing," he replied, slipping one arm around her waist. Before Lovina could protest anymore, he pulled her up towards him into a passionate kiss.

Four months. From running away from his idiotic guts to making out in the middle of a restaurant. What an epic journey.

From his seat against the wall, HK pocketed his phone in satisfaction. Maddie eyed him from across the table.

"What are you doing now?"

"Nothing. Just a little treat to put on Facebook later."

Arthur set down his empty glass. "Who wants to get another pitcher?"

HK gave Yao a long stare before turning back. "Hooray. I'm surrounded by drunks."

"I am not drunk!"

"You will be soon."

Alfred slammed a hand down in the middle of their table in urgency. "Shhh! The Jets Song is the best part!"

"Stupid git! If there'd been something in these glasses you would have spilled everything! And as director, I beg to differ. There were plenty of excellent scenes..."

Maddie ignored the boys and peered at the menu. "Anyone want to share pancakes with me?"

"I WILL!"

Maddie started in surprise as pale arms appeared out of nowhere to wrap around her chair. Gillian grinned down at her. "Pancakes are awesome! With loads of butter and maple syrup!"

"Waffles are better."

Gillian whirled around to shout back at the daring soul who had made the comment. "Are you nuts? PANCAKES ARE THE MOST AWESOME THING IN THE WORLD!"

"I don't mind sharing with you, but we're at different tables," Maddie pointed out.

"That's easy. Come sit with us!" Gillian grabbed her shoulder and started to plough back through the chairs. "We're so much more fun than these dorks anyway."

Alfred's eyes were focused completely on the screen, and Arthur just rolled his eyes. HK did nothing, except to pull out his phone to take another photo as Maddie was helplessly hauled off.

Meanwhile, Lovina had completely forgotten where exactly she was when a loud cheer erupted around them. Prying herself away from Antonio, she looked around in confusion.

Francis laughed at them, before pointing at the screen. "Just celebrating your sensational improv, ma cherie."

She groaned at the sight. Antonio chuckled. "And you were embarrassed of kissing right here, Lovi..."

Lovina scowled and turned to her other side. And received a shock when she saw Maddie sitting next to her. When had she shown up? The girl was like a ninja, sometimes.

Said suspected warrior smiled at her. "Want a pancake?"

Gillian pouted. "Hey! I thought you were sharing with me!"

"It's okay, we can share instead," Antonio said reassuringly. "What do you want, Lovi?"

She tore her stare away from the other two girls to the menu. After spending a good twenty minutes behind the thing, she still had no idea what was on it. "Umm. Veggie omelette."

"With extra tomatoes?"

"Better be, assface."

They informed a baleful-faced waiter of their order, and Antonio grabbed her hand. "Lovi?"

"What?"

"Are you happy?"

"...What?"

"You see, I'm so happy when I'm with you. And it would be sad if you weren't...because, well, that's the opposite of happy!"

Lovina rolled her eyes. "Did you just figure that out?"

"I just want to make sure...you don't always look like it."

"Looking doesn't mean anything." She pointed at the other tables. "I got plenty of examples for you here. Berwald, HK, potato face, even scary bitch."

Though there was a bread basket right in front of her, Natalya was staring hungrily at Ivan, not seeming to see Alfred trying to get her attention from down the table. Lovina felt a twisted sense of pleasure at watching him fail miserably. In the end, he returned to gabbing away to Arthur - who, for once, wasn't giving him the glare of doom that usually was especially reserved for the tall blond.

"Loooooviiiiii..."

She irritably turned back to him. "Alright! Let's just say that the only thing that could make me happier right now is the damn food that's taking forever!"

As if on cue, the same glum chap who'd taken their order returned with a heavy plate of omelette. Antonio grinned as it was set down in front of them, picking up his fork.

"Then I'm personally going to make it my job to make you happy!" He jabbed it into one of her beloved tomatoes and held it in front of her.

"I'm perfectly capable of feeding myself!" She grabbed her own fork and shoved it into the mess of eggs and vegetables. "And what if making me happy turns out to be totally shitty?"

"Hmm, but I'm happy when you're happy. So it works out for all of us in the end!"

Lovina shot him a skeptical look. Then she looked down at her hand. "Fine..."

Antonio jumped a little as his mouth was nearly skewered with a mushroom. "Eat up, idiot! Because when you're happy, I'm happy, so you're happy, and I'm happy, and now I'm gonna stop before Gillian hears and gets annoying about it. Like singing that damn Circle of Life song or whatever."

He stared in surprise at the smirking girl. "What?"

She pushed the fork harder against his lips. "EAT."

Antonio obeyed. Or at least, he tried to. The mushroom slipped off the prongs, but he quickly caught it in his hand before it hit the floor. "Ah! Got it!"

He was still chewing when another loaded fork came coming his way. Antonio sat there, blinking with egg all over his nose.

Lovina leaned back in her chair, screaming with hysterical laughter. He smiled wryly back at her. "Okay, but you're going to eat it off my face."

She promptly stopped in mid-giggle. "WHAT?" The fork slipped from her fingers. "No!"

"Come on!" He leaned forward, a Cheshire grin spreading across his features. "You can do it, I know you can."

"You crazy stupid sicko pathetic..."

Neither of them paid any attention their own voices coming over the speakers.

Tonight, tonight,
The world is full of light.
With suns and moons all over the place.
Tonight, tonight,
The world is wild and bright,
Going mad, shooting sparks into space!
Today, the world was just an address,
A place for me to live in,
No better than alright…
But here you are,
And what was just a world is a star
Tonight!

FIN


A/N: Tibby's is a restaurant from Newsies, the fandom that first brought me to this site: an online friend began a Newsies fic, so I created an account to keep up with it. And now here I am with stories of my own C:

...A finished, 29 chapter story that spanned roughly half a year. Wow.

I can't thank the readers enough for staying by this long, and for my first actual fanfiction too. Thanks to you guys, I'm totally sucked into this writing scene now - I hadn't written anything for fun since I was like, eight. And while I did have fun doing creative writing in high school, it always felt more like schoolwork. Thank you for giving this back to me, everyone!

So yes, there will be some pre/sequels. I've actually written a whole bunch already. But the poll will also be taken into account (a few options were thrown in there just on a whim, so I'm surprised at how some received such enthusiastic responses), so don't forget to vote if you haven't, and want to see more C:

Just a heads up: I also have two omakes that are 150% silly and don't contribute to the story/characters at all.

BUT THANK YOU ALL AGAIN! I hope you'll still come across my stories in the future and enjoy them too.