This one's for insanity under the moonlight. Hope y'all enjoy!

Song: A Pirate's Life For Me

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess in a magical kingdom…. that you won't find ANYWHERE on a map. She was kind and generous and everyone in the land loved loved her. After all, who doesn't love the Mary Sue? This annoyingly perfect pretty princess was riding in the pretty forest on her pretty pony when a TERRIBLE, AWFUL, EVIL dragon swooped down and snatched the girl off her saddle- without her hurting her or the horse. It took the princess back to its cave where it planned on keeping her there. Because apparently the dragon thought she was sooooo beautiful that he wanted to keep her with his gold and jewels…. Luckily, a handsome, perfect prince heard of the princess's imprisonment. He boldly rode to the dragon's lair and, after a brief and somewhat easy fight on the prince's part, the EVIL dragon was killed. The PERFECT prince and the PERFECT princess got married after knowing each other for five minutes and lived happily ever aft-

"I don't like this story!" Madeline yelled. She pushed her "prince" away from her and stomped over to where the poor "dragon" was lying on the ground. "You okay, Ivan?"

Ivan sat up and rubbed the back of his head before answering. "I'm fine." He accepted Madeline's hand and slowly got to his feet before facing the "prince." Gilbert glared at them angrily, his tousled white hair glinting in the weak Autumn sunlight.

Madeline glared back. "That was a bad story, Gilbert!"

"Zhat's how fairy tales are supposed to go!" Gilbert shot back. "Zhe prince saves zhe princess und zhe bad guys die!"

Ivan sighed and sat under the small pine tree they'd been playing by. He tuned out of his friends' argument and took in the scenery. The playground at Hetalia Elementary was Mecca for all children in the area. It had a huge jungle gym, slides, and swings that were made out of solid metal and probably wouldn't pass the current safety standards if an inspector visited the school. Since the school was tiny however- only 250 students altogether -it wasn't given any notice. A basketball court, baseball field, and other various playground equipment completed only the first part of this little patch of heaven. A gentle hill took up the other half of the lot and the great expanse of grass with a boundary of trees at the top of the hill had much more potential for fun than anything else. Football, tag, and various other games could be played on the hill. The upper right corner of the hill brought particular enjoyment for the older kids; it had several huge trees that separated the grass from an old, deserted road and was often called "the couple's corner" since no teacher could see anything that went on and the kids could spot anyone coming up.

Gilbert, Madeline, and Ivan weren't in this infamous corner; they were third-graders and had no interest in spreading cooties beyond what their make-believe required. A lone tree near the left side of the playground was much more to their liking, since there was plenty of space to run in with shade nearby if needed. These three were an odd trio; Gilbert was an obnoxious albino who delighted in his strangeness, Madeline was a "shy" blonde-haired, indigo-eyed girl with an annoying twin brother (luckily, he preferred sports to pretend), and Ivan…. Ivan was just quiet. Some of his classmates were scared of him because he was tall for a third grader, even though he'd done nothing threatening. Maybe it was his ashy blonde hair, or purple eyes…

He snapped to attention when he heard Madeline say his name.

"-And why is Ivan always the bad guy?"

Gilbert pouted and whined, "Who cares? He never complains about it!"

Madeline's glasses flashed angrily. "Just because he never complains doesn't mean he likes it!"

Ivan spoke up: "Madeline, I don't mind."

"See?! I told you so!" Gilbert crowed.

The blonde frowned and folded her arms. "Fine! But I want to play something other than the princess! I never get to do anything!"

Ivan straightened quickly. This was a new idea! But what kind of story could they all agree on?

A similar question seemed to be on Gilbert's mind because he demanded, "All right, miss smarty pants! Vhat should ve play?"

"Um…. we could all be..." The tip of Madeline's pink tongue poked out between her lips as she thought.

"Pirates?" Ivan asked. The other two blinked and stared, making him uncomfortable.

"Ksesese! I like it!" Gilbert suddenly yelled, pumping a fist in the air. Madeline smiled and nodded in agreement.

Whitebeard was a terrifying sight to behold. His thick, curly beard covered his chest and he often set it alight in the midst of battle. What scared people the most, though, were his scarlet eyes; rumors said that looking into his eyes was like looking into Hell. He carried a pistol in one hand and a cutlass in the other as he faced off his two opponents on the bloodbathed deck. His crew all lay dead, along with the bodies of most of his attackers.

His enemies advanced fearlessly. Madeline the Marauder and Ivan the Terrible were equally well-known and feared along the seven seas. Madeline was dressed like a man in a loose white shirt and dark breeches with her long blonde hair tied back in two braids. Ivan was dressed all in black from his tricorn hat to his leather boots, adding a certain eerie glow to his purple eyes.

Madeline jabbed her sword in Whitebeard''s direction. "Jus' give us the treasure an' we'll leave ye alone."

"Now I can't just do that, lass." the white haired man replied, idly slicing the air with his cutlass.

"You give us no choice then. Prepare to be-"

"HEY!"

Ivan flinched and dropped the pine branch he'd been holding. He and Madeline were standing across from Gilbert, who was under a different tree. Looking down the hill, he could see Mr. Beilschmidt, the fifth grade teacher (and Gilbert's older cousin) stomping towards them. Now that he was aware of his surroundings he also noticed that the playground was empty. Weird.

"Vhy aren't you three in class?" Mr. Beilschmidt shouted. "Zhe bell rang ten minutes ago!" His blue eyes caught sight of Gilbert and narrowed. "Hmph, I should have known you'd be here."

Gilbert pressed a hand to his chest, mock hurt smothering his features. "Excuse me?! That's so prejudiced!"

Meanwhile, Madeline seemed to be horrified. She pressed her hands to her mouth and mumbled, "I'm so sorry, sir! We didn't even notice the bell!"

Ivan nodded in agreement. They'd been so caught up in their game they hadn't heard anything but the sounds of battle and the rise and swell of the ocean….

Mr. Beilschmidt ran a hand through his bright blonde hair with one hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with the other. "Vhatever. Just get back inside, your teacher is frantic vith worry." He glared as Gilbert snickered and started prancing down the hillside.

"Ja, ja, ve vouldn't vant to vorry Feliciana~"

"Zhat's Miss Vargas to you!"

With another cackle the troublemaker ran towards the school at full speed. Madeline and Ivan followed behind at a more sedate pace, accompanied by the irate teacher.

"Vhat vere you doing, anyway?" Mr. Beilschmidt asked, half curious and half exasperated. "Playing at some fairytale?"

Ivan shook his head. "No, something much better."

A playground like the one I described exists. At least, it did when I was in elementary. But then the safety inspector... *sob*

Anywho, hope y'all enjoy Thanksgiving this upcoming week(?)!