A/N: WHOO EUROPE YEAH! Also, for those who aren't familiar with my updating habits, I usually try to update each weekend! Just a heads up.

Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.
Peter Pan belongs to JM Barrie.

On the other side of the globe, another teenage girl lay sprawled out on her grandparents' couch. Gillian let out a big puff of air through her lower lip, fluffing her long, silver bangs upwards into the air. Wrinkling her nose and squinting at the laptop screen, she reread Maddie's email for the umpteenth time.

Hi Gillian,

Thank you so much for the Christmas present. It's really nice. My family's been pretty reluctant to take down all our decorations, but the tree has got to go by the 15th because that's when the garbage disposal people are going to take it, officially. But don't worry; I'm going to keep yours on our mantel just a little bit longer. C:

I'm afraid there really aren't any super interesting pieces of news to give you. There was a lot of snow…and school started for the second term. Nothing's really different. I mean, it's halfway through the year already. Al has college applications, which I guess you figured out since Ludwig should be working on them too. All the seniors are really, really busy, which is kind of making me nervous for next year…

One cool thing though (but it just really affects me and not that many other people, sorry if it's not interesting to you) is that HK and I put up posters for the spring play auditions. We're going back to just a play, not a musical – I think they're going to do that every other year instead, even if Arthur did a good job with West Side Story last year. Anyway, our play is going to be Peter Pan. It's kind of cool; the posters have only been up for a few days but a lot of people signed up already (I was scared they wouldn't because so many of the people from West Side were from your grade!). A lot of freshmen who I've never heard of especially, and that's really good since we need people who can pass as children, you know?

Anyway, I'm probably boring you because you're doing way cooler things in Europe. So happy new year, and say hi to Francis for me!

Maddie

Gillian wrapped her arms around a cushion and buried the bottom half of her face in it, biting back a little grin. It was just like Maddie to be constantly apologizing all throughout her letter. So cute. Gillian's long, thin legs kicked up lazily into the air, causing her to kick the other cushion to the floor by accident.

"Morgen, mäuschen!"

A lean, wiry young man of twenty-three strolled in, his long fair hair tied back in a ponytail. Gillian flopped over onto her back and scooted to make room for her cousin as he settled down beside her, picking up the fallen cushion. Fritz Hohenzollern craned his neck at her laptop.

"What are you reading?"

Gillian had, with a bit of difficulty, wiggled herself into an almost-sitting position against the couch's end, placing her laptop precariously onto her belly as she adjusted herself. "Only this really awesome letter from this really awesome person."

"Mmhmm…like your friend? Or some boy?" Fritz poked her leg teasingly. "Love letters so young?"

She pouted at him indignantly. "It's a GIRL! And I'm eighteen! Who says I'm too young?"

He shrugged. Gillian spun the laptop around to show him, not really caring about the way her shirt got caught on the edges and rode up her stomach. "See?"

Fritz caught the computer before it went crashing to the floor. Placing it on his other rescue, the cushion, he studied the words on the screen.

"So your friend is in a play?"

"Nah, she's the stage manager. Which is this crazy busy job of organizing everything. And she's really good at it. That's what makes her so awesome. She stage managed last year's play too, and I was the star!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!" Gillian failed to mention that the play in question had actually been a musical, the musical had been based off of Romeo and Juliet, and her role had been neither of the Romeo or Juliet. Those had gone to her friends Antonio and Lovina. "It was awesome, people gave me standing ovations and everything. Wanna see pictures?"

She didn't wait for an answer, reaching over his shoulders to click open folders on her desktop. "There! That's me and Lovi. She looks grumpy because she was acting, but she's actually like that ALL the time. Then there's me and Francis! We're dancing! Isn't that awesome? Then there's me and Liz, when I'm being way more awesome than her. I'm not even exaggerating this time; it's actually in the script - how awesome is that? There's me and Lovi and 'Tonio! At the end they actually kiss onstage and it was so funny because she wouldn't let him in rehearsals, so Arthur had to make up a fake kiss but the real kiss was more awesome because the fake kiss just looked so fake oh and here's me being the MOST AWESOME of all the girls because I got to wear red and nobody else did -"

English wasn't his first language, so Fritz only understood about a third of the words pouring out of his cousin's mouth. However, the difficulty lay not in the words she was using, but the incredible speed of how they were uttered. "Okay, awesome…" He handed the laptop back to her. "Can we look at them later?"

She pouted. "But we haven't even gotten to the scene where I kick Al and all the other Jets' butts! Or the scene when 'Tonio DIES."

"I'm sure it's awesome. But I came in here to fetch you so we could pick up your friend from the Hauptbahnhof."

Gillian finally shot up into a real sitting position. How could she have forgotten? Francis was coming in on the 3:30 train from Paris that day. Now that the holidays were over, it was time to resume their epic journey across Europe. If anyone had looked at their trip so far, they would have thought that it was a little illogical…Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Prague, Paris…now Berlin. But who cared? They were doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, without anyone telling them what to do. Anyone at all. Gillian bounced excitedly on the cushions. It would be so awesome to play tour guide and show Francis around Berlin. With Fritz, too!

Her cousin was regarding her in a mixture of amusement and affection. "So, ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Hello," HK said brightly.

The tiny freshman standing on the other side of the table gazed blankly at them. Maddie was trying to keep smiling (which was so very tiring at the end of the day), while HK had chosen to settle for an expression of affable contemplation.

"Hello," he repeated. "I'm HK, the director. This is Maddie, stage manager. And you are…Johann?"

The boy nodded solemnly and twiddled with one long braid. Maddie was grateful for the sign-up sheet; she would have definitely mistaken this kid for a girl without seeing his name. Having read it, HK was now regarding him with interest.

"Edelstein? Are you related to Roderich? I always thought he was an only child."

Johann locked his mournful eyes upon him. "Yes. No. I dyed my hair. For Art."

"Uh, okay. Cool." Maddie added herself to this strange conversation. "So, Johann. Why do you want to be in the play?"

"Theatre is Art."

"Well." HK exchanged a glance with Maddie. This kid was really weird. "…You're not wrong."

"Any particular role you're interested in?"

"No."

"Do you know the plot of Peter Pan?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Uh. Great. That's totally great. We'll just have you read for, uhh…" Johann was definitely one of the smallest – if not the smallest – student they'd auditioned so far. Maddie pointed at the various stacks of paper at the end of the table. "…Michael. There are three different scenes, but don't worry, they're all really short. I'll read the other roles with you. Feel free to look over it first."

Johann accepted his cold reads with grave dignity and began skimming the text. Maddie looked over at her friend, who was doodling on the audition sheet. Seeing what looked to be one really long braid down the margins, she poked him urgently.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"It's how I remember who we've seen," HK explained, showing her his other papers. Maddie noticed that there were little pictures on every single form, including a surprisingly good rendition of a Stunfisk.

"Right. Jonas. His favourite pokémon." She peered down at his drawings. "And is that…Natalya?"

HK looked pleased. "Yes. Good job."

"Why did you give her fangs?"

"I think she'd make a good vampire." He shrugged shamelessly. "You know. The sparkly kind."

"Seriou-"

"Ah?"

The two guiltily turned their attention to the perplexed freshman waiting to continue his audition. "Sorry, sorry. We'll begin."

Johann's wide eyes flickered up and down from his script as he followed along.

"Mother, how did you get to know me?"

"A little less noise, there."

"At what time was I born, mother?"

"At two o'clock in the night-time, dearest."

"Oh, mother, I hope I didn't wake you."

"Thank you," HK intoned serenely. Maddie shuffled through the mess of cold read papers to find the second bit of dialogue. She should have been more prepared. Being stage manager was already hectic, even when they were just holding auditions, she thought sourly. HK was sitting there drawing whatever he wanted while she was the one reading with the actors. Not to mention that there were a lot of new people to audition this year, since about half the normal people who came out to auditions had belonged to last year's graduating class, which included both Arthur and Roderich.

Speaking of Arthur…she shot a sidelong look at HK, who was doodling a second braid to match Johann's hairstyle.

"Here we are," she announced as she found the second sheet. "Ready?"

There were about four lines of Wendy and John lines to be read before Johann could come in. Maddie couldn't help feeling slightly stupid as she talked to herself.

"I am happy to acquaint you, Mr. Darling, you are again a father. Boy or girl? Boy. Mummy, it's hateful of him."

Johann drew himself up and exuded the perfect air of childlike pride. "Now, John, have me."

"We don't want any more."

"Am I not to be born at all?"

"Two is enough."

"Come, John! Boy, John." Johann sighed dramatically. "Nobody wants me!"

Maddie pushed her glasses up her nose and continued to read as Mrs. Darling. "I do."

"Boy or girl?"

"Boy."

"Thank you," chirped HK once again. There was no room left to continue his doodle; he had reached the bottom of the page. "Don't worry about the last scene, we've heard enough. That was really good, Johann. We'll email you about callbacks."

Johann nodded solemnly again, and picking up his book bag – Maddie suddenly realized it was exactly like Roderich's old one, how did she miss that? –disappeared out the door before you could say, "Michael Darling is Art."

"He's less curious than you'd expect for a little kid," HK remarked the instant the door closed. "But I kind of like the idea of a sombre and morose kind of Michael. It'd still be really cute. In that Eeyore sort of way. What do you think?"

"I think you should actually let on that you're paying attention to the actors, because I had no idea you were really watching."

HK's lips twitched as he gave her one of his almost-smiles. "But that's my secret. See if they're still good when they don't think I'm watching."

"Secrets, secrets," she grumped, trying to pack all the little loose half-sheets of cold reads into a folder. "Speaking of secrets, how's Arthur?"

HK betrayed no emotion. "Fine. I guess."

"I guess? Well, that doesn't sound too good."

She hadn't really meant anything by it, and was surprised when HK abruptly stood up and shoved his own papers a little forcefully into his messenger bag. "Couldn't talk for that long. He was probably busy with Christmas. Or whatever. His family went over instead of him coming back. So. Yeah. Busy. He said."

Maddie sensed that it would be better to keep her mouth shut. But this plan proved to fail when HK changed the subject.

"Speaking of secrets, how's Gillian?"

She squeaked and all the cold reads slipped out of the folder and onto the floor. HK rolled his eyes before stooping over to help her.

"Uh, fine, too. I guess."

He smirked, but she cut him off before anything could be said. "She's with her grandparents and cousin in Berlin, going to Christmas fairs and being "awesome," as usual. Francis is with his dad and stepfamily in Paris, and then he's going to go visit her this month. Probably right around now."

It felt very satisfying to actually have an answer. HK stopped smirking and turned towards the door.

"Well. Great. For them. See you tomorrow. Same time and place."

"Yeah." Two more days of auditions, then time to cut for callbacks. Even though a show of this size really wasn't going to need any cutting. "Bye!"

He was already gone. Maddie plopped the overflowing folder into her backpack. Fifteen minutes. Only fifteen minutes to bike home. Her fingers itched, anticipating the computer keyboard already.

A/N: Fritz says, "Good morning, little mouse!" Very adorable =D I found it in a phrasebook my German friend showed me. Now I have resolved to introduce myself to people in Germany this way: Ich bin die Comix. Ich komme aus Hong Kong. Ich bin Eisbärringkämpfer von Beruf. (This is all true, of course /straightface)

I'm actually very eager about experiencing a Hetalia High theatre production again, although HK's directing style will be considerably different than Arthur's, naturally. Expect less shouting. And more snarkiness.

Please review! Thank you =D