Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia

Australia's breaths came out calm and even as his eyes were closed, and he strained his ears to hear any movement in his silent surroundings. His heart beat rapidly in his chest, but from anticipation rather than fear. His hands were at his sides, plunged under the murky cool water that came up to around his waist, feeling for even the slightest of movements.

Suddenly, Australia felt a breath of water movement near his submerged right hand. Snapping his eyes open the teenaged nation leaped to the opposite side and just narrowly missing the jaws of a large saltwater crocodile. Inhaling a deep breath Australia plunged himself fully under the water, opening his eyes, despite stinging in protest, to barely make out the blurry outlines of shapes. His eyes adjusted in time to make out the same crocodile with its jaws open wide again swimming straight for him. Sinking further down into the cool water to avoid a collision with the beast, he watched as the crocodile bumped its nose against a rock, it snapped its jaws in annoyance. Australia pushed himself up with his legs, holding the struggling crocodile in his arms as he breached the surface, gasping for air. He placed the large and angered crocodile on the rocky bank of the creek. Australia stepped onto the dry ground and easily jumped in the air to avoid the sweep of the crocodile's strong tail, it could easily break his leg with how powerful it was if he wasn't careful. Even with his quick healing abilities a broken bone would be a pain in the neck to deal with until it did heal.

He pounced on the crocodile's back, careful not to cause the giant beast any harm and gently yet firmly placed his knees on either side of its head to steady it.

"Oi Steve!" Australia called out to his koala friend that was sitting at a safe distance watching everything that unfolded almost as if he was used to watching this, "Pass us the cloth would ya?"

Steve picked up the piece of black cloth that Australia had placed next to him, he carried it in his mouth to his owner.

"Cheers mate," Australia thanked, "This one's a bit feisty"

When the crocodile underneath him tried to thrash around to try and shake the Aussie off, the nation had to steady himself. Once the croc started to settle down a little, Australia placed the black material over its eyes to calm the reptile down. Australia then tied some rope around it's jaw to keep it from biting him. As soon as Australia had the crocodile secure, Steve crawled over closer and climbed up to sit on the nation's shoulder.

Australia then lifted the crocodile into his arms with little trouble and proceeded to carry it outside of the fence that contained livestock that belonged to the farmhouse just up the hill. Australia walked down the busy streets of the small bustling town carrying the crocodile that had stopped struggling but would continue to twitch its tail every now and again. Australia had to slow his pace so he could readjust the croc in his arms, as the reptile was starting to get a bit heavy.

The few people that had passed him sent the Australian nation the strangest looks, think that he had almost gone mad. Australia supposed he did look a bit odd, his clothes still drenched from the water, a tiny koala clinging to his shoulder and a large crocodile in his arms, but it didn't make his grin falter. He only stopped walking once he was once again out of the town and near a quiet billabong on the outskirts of town. There were no people around here for a couple of kilometres, so the crocodile would be undisturbed.

Steve had crawled off his owner's shoulder and sat a safe distance away from the crocodile and Australia. Australia bent down near the water's edge and removed the fabric and untied the rope and stepped back quickly in case of another attack, but the crocodile seemed to slide straight into the water with a content growl and looking happy with the larger space of the billabong. A grin rested on Australia's face as he beamed down as the salty submerged itself under the water once more.

"Try to keep yourself outta trouble," Australia said before picking up Steve and placed him on his shoulder once more. He began the walk back to the farm he had gotten the crocodile from.

He remembered the events that had passed the other day that led up to relocating the crocodile. He had been at the market stocking up on some more food when he had heard the elderly lady beg some of the men to help her get rid of the reptile, as it was threatening her cattle which was her livelihood. But the men had taken one look at the size of the beast and turned her down, so imagine their surprise when Australia had volunteered to help her take care of it. A boy that looked no more than sixteen enthusiastically agreed to help her, she must have been desperate because she didn't turn his offer down. They didn't know however that Australia had been wrestling crocs since he was an ankle biter and not even met England yet, though he would admit the ones he used to wrestle were smaller crocodiles.

Except for the very first crocodile he had gone up against back when he was really young. The crocodile had been terrorising the people in the tribe he was living with at the time. So he snuck out to try and move it away from his camp, long story short that's how he found out about his faster healing abilities.

It has been just over a decade since England left, and if Australia was being perfectly honest, but being alone and running an entire nation was hard work, but he got through it. He had to fill out majority of the paper work that his boss had placed in front of him, but England was still in charge of his security, so that took off most of the weight off his shoulder's a bit. He was also secretly thankful for the bit of freedom he was given as well, even if he did have to sit through boring meetings on improving his economy. But he only had to sit through them if he went to them in the first place. At least his cold was a bit better, his nose was no longer congested, and his head didn't ache. Which reminded him he had to go and thank New Zealand once again for the soup that his brother had brought him on several occasions. And he also still needed to send that letter to Russia thanking him for the trade, that did help out greatly with his economy.

It wasn't before long Australia reached the farm house as he had to walk slower while carrying the crocodile to try and not stress it any more than it was. He knocked politely on the lady's door and she stepped aside to let him in. She was a short lady with her grey hair tied into a bun that sat on top of her head.

"I moved it down a billabong out of town," Australia explained as he gestured to the area that he walked back from, "Your animals should be fine now, if you see another one just give me a yell"

"Thank you, so much young man," The lady praised, "You know, you could have used a cage instead of getting in the water"

"No worries, needed the cool down anyway," Australia dismissed with a shrug.

"You don't know how much you have helped me. It's not much but please take it." The lady held a couple of golden coins in her hand outstretched for Australia to take.

"No it's okay you can keep it, my first service is free anyway" Australia grinned.

He could tell by the lack of food in the cupboards and that patches in her clothes that they weren't too well off, the depression seemed to affect them too. He received a small salary from his boss anyway, and that usually helped him afford food and whatnot. He doubted that this lady didn't have much money because of the depression, so she should save what she could.

He was about to turn and leave when a pile of blue fabric caught his eye. He walked over to the kitchen table and narrowed his eyes in concentration at the familiarity of the torn and dirty fabric. He reached his hand out and flattened the fabric out, his breath caught in his throat and his eye's widened as he saw it. It was the flag from the rebellion, the Eureka stockade flag! He had completely forgotten about it, he always wondered what became of it.

The lady saw his discovery and walked over to him, "My son found it a while ago, I was going to throw it out or sell it at the market."

"How much?" Australia asked finally tearing his gaze from the flag to the lady, "How much do you want for it?"

The lady smiled kindly and patted Australia's hand with her frail one, "It's yours son, consider this your repayment. You'll be saving me the trip to the market anyway"

Australia folded it back up and thanked her once more and then left her house to walk to his own.

XxxxXxxx

Walking up to the gate of his home he noticed a letter sticking out of his mailbox had caught his eye. Curiosity filled him, so he placed it in his pocket and walked through his door, he would read it later. He set the flag down on his table and began to search through his closet in search of something to store the flag in. He settled on a large frame that he had bought one day, figuring hed find some use for it. He gently placed the fragile flag in the frame and hung it proudly on his wall. He looked at it and smiled softly, he was glad to have it back after all it was part of him. Steve also peered at it curiously, he wasn't there when Australia was at the rebellion, but he had heard the stories from the nation.

It was then that Australia remembered about the letter he had received, he flopped down on his couch and placed his feet on top of the coffee table and took it out of his pocket. He had recognised the fancy handwriting belonging to his dad.

"It's unusual to get two from him in the same month," Australia observed out loud to no one in particular. Letters didn't come very often due to the long distance, at best he would receive about four or five in a year, and he had just got a letter from his dad earlier that month, he must have sent this one with his magic, which meant it must have been extremely important.

Australia carefully opened the letter and began to read, even Steve poked his head over the nation's shoulder to look at the letter.

Dear Australia,

I have sent a letter to your boss explaining the situation as well. Europe is in a dire situation which I fear will only get worse, if that happens it will result in war. If that is the case, I ask of you to send some of your men to fight for the British Empire. I have sent a letter to your brother with the same request.

Hope you are faring well with your Economy,

England

A gleaming white toothy grin spread its way across Australia's face. The feeling of excitement and anticipation filled him as he re-read the letter to make sure he read it correctly. When they were younger he and his little brother always listened with awe as England told them one of his battles or war stories. Maybe this was their chance to experience those as well.

Australia excitedly leapt of the couch Steve, unprepared for the sudden movement had fallen onto one of the cushions, he glared and growled at his owner, but it seemed to go unnoticed. Australia practically ran into his office in search of a letter, so he could write to New Zealand. This could be their chance to be recognised as nations by the others.

So the next chapter will be about the announcement of war, so stay tuned. I do believe that nations would have some sort of inhuman strength that would just be above the average person, but nations like America and Russia would have an even greater super strength over the others, if that makes sense. So while Australia can carry a crocodile he wouldn't have super strength like that of America or Russia.

Please review it always means so much to hear that you enjoy my writing :)