A/N: Sincere apologies for the delay! I had a weeklong vacation without any internet, and then I had a huge test and an essay. But both of them were the last ever I'll have to do! At least, in my undergraduate career. =3=

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

"Hello there, I'm Fritz."

"Francis. A pleasure."

The men shook hands generously in the sparkling, modern train station, with other Berliners hurrying past them to get to their destinations. Gillian, a complete head shorter than both of her companions, danced around them impatiently.

"Let's hurry up and go home, so we can drop the bags off! Then we can start exploring!"

The wheels of Francis's case made a soft zipping noise as they carted it towards the exit. They clacked in the gaps between tiles, though the three paid little notice.

"Haven't you already explored most of Berlin? You were here for almost three weeks."

"Yeah, but you haven't." Gillian squeezed between Francis and Fritz, wriggling an arm each into theirs, forming a human wall. "I've been scoping out all the most awesome ones, so we know what to do and what to skip. Aren't you pleased?"

"Yes, of course."

Gillian nuzzled her cheek into the sleeve of Francis's navy peacoat happily. Now that he was finally here, a lot more fun was going to happen. Fritz was great and all, a really fun cousin, but sometimes, he held her back. Lately, he'd been trying to get her to have some serious chats with him – and Gillian instantly had found other topics to talk about. But still, he would sit down next to her and start going on about responsibility, reasoning, recklessness, blah blah blah. Too many R words. Gillian liked to roll her tongue, but didn't really care to bother with the rest of the sounds.

They exited the doors of the station. Long rows of steps separated them from the street level. Fritz had been lucky in finding a parking spot for his car, and Francis's case continued to trundle along behind them. The loud smacks of the wheels bouncing off the steps greatly amused Gillian, and she craned her neck to watch it. Fate rewarded her carelessness with a swift slip of the foot on the edge of a step.

The stalwart men at either side were more than sufficient to hold her up, even as Francis momentarily lost control of the case.

"Whoa, there!" Fritz's arm tensed as she grappled with it, scrambling back to her feet. "Are you okay?"

"Just awesome, thank you very much!" She grinned to mask any embarrassment. Francis had finally righted his case on a step.

Fritz sighed. "Francis…promise me you'll look after this incorrigible girl for me?"

"Does it look like I have a choice?" The other boy laughed, and the chill winter wind whipped blond hair across his face. "Seems like I've been doing so for all my life."

Gillian placed her fists on her hips and frowned. "Hey! I'm totally okay with taking care of myself! Who said I can't? I'm awesome!"

"You can do whatever you want, Gilly, but I'll still be behind you with a bucket of water to put out the flames."

She stuck her tongue out at him. Fritz masked a smile and walked on ahead to unlock the car door.

Maddie blinked blankly at HK.

"What," she asked, "Do you mean by 'movers'?"

"I want to see if people can move well."

"You're going to do dancing?"

"Not exactly. I want people to move."

HK needed to check up with the Redundant Department of Redundancy. He stood facing her calmly, even as she frowned. "Are you trying to be really theatre-y or something? I thought we were through with that crap when Arthur left. And actually, he wasn't even that ambiguous. Just dramatic."

"There's supposed to be a lot of pantomime and action in this play," HK explained. "Even some of the main characters don't have many lines. It's all about the movement. So people who aren't willing to be over-the-top shouldn't be given too much to do."

He turned to the group of students that had separated themselves into clusters of chattering, murmuring, giggling, or squabbling huddles. One group, comprised of particularly short characters, was creating an awful lot of noise.

"Look, I'd make the perfect Peter Pan! Nobody here is as cool enough to lead the Lost Boys! I don't care that your name is Peter, Peter, but honestly, you suck."

"Says the guy who freaks out whenever he's grounded from the internet! Remember when Berwald took your iPad away?"

Maddie recognized the second speaker as Arthur's younger brother, but the instigator started again. "Shut up! I don't want you to talk about that! You're just jealous that I've got better technology skills. And that I'm totally strong, I beat him in arm wrestling-"

"He was only pretending so your stupid feelings wouldn't get hurt!"

The shortest of the bunch, a girl dressed in a pink hoodie, huffed impatiently. "Both of you, shut up. I'm always the only ever normal one here…"

Maddie retreated to the refuge that was the production desk while HK moved to break up the freshman squabble. At least these kids were set for being over-the-top. She flipped open HK's laptop and logged in, only half-listening to his announcement.

"Hi, welcome to the callback. I'm HK, and your director. That's Maddie, our stage manager, over there, and you'll get bonus points if you still remember her name at the end of this. Maybe some of you were in the show last year, which is great. But we're going to do something different right now…"

Maddie ducked behind the laptop, not sure whether she should have been insulted or amused by the joke made at her expense. On the one hand, it was true that for some unfathomable reason, Maddie had the amazing talent of completely confusing people shortly after being introduced. But was that really an adequate reason for HK to point that out to a huge group of people? Honestly.

Hi Gillian,

I'm writing to you live from our callbacks for Peter Pan! So this email might be really short, sorry about that. Due to the content of the show, we didn't really need to cut that many people, and we probably won't cut anybody from this unless they're absolutely unworkable. HK has his own ideas for how to figure out where to put people, which should be really interesting to watch.

People were now shuffling into a rough circle. Maddie was supposed to also be paying attention, as she and HK were the only panelists present. Leaning away from the computer reluctantly, she grabbed her clipboard and clicked a pen, waiting.

"So, I'll go first. My name's HK, your director. I'm a junior."

He gestured to his left, towards the short girl from earlier. "I'm Zoe, and I'm in ninth grade."

"My name is Jonas Stahl! I'm in grade nine, and my favourite pokemon is a Stunfisk!"

"You know me, HK. I'm Peter."

"Yeah, but not everyone does…next?"

As the introductions continued their slow crawl around the circle, Maddie snuck back to her letter.

Particularly a few newbies. There's Johann Edelstein, Roderich's younger brother. We didn't even know he had one until his audition, but I guess you would…do you find it weird, how when you leave there's an entire class of new people coming in to replace you?

Haha, sorry for that random bit of philosophical rambling…you can have some complaining instead (if you don't mind). It's easier to find new actors than to find new techies. Eduard said he probably will be able to help with lights again, but HK is going to have to teach sound stuff to whoever volunteers. I have a feeling he might even end up mixing a lot of the tracks himself. Right now, the only person I can be sure of is Feliks for costumes again. He even BEGGED to do them as soon as he heard what the play was…hands and knees, the whole deal!

A strange noise interrupted her from her writing. Maddie poked her head over the laptop to see Adam Smith awkwardly moving to the centre of the circle, arms flailing. Letting out another ear-splitting yowl, he slowly made his way to the other side until he was in front of another person. Raivis took a deep breath and began to imitate him, mirroring the way he flapped his arms, and letting his voice match Adam's. Maddie was totally mystified.

"What the hell?"

HK suddenly reappeared next to her. "They're doing transformations."

"What on earth are transformations?"

"They're some sort of warm-up that Arthur has to do in his acting classes. You start off with one repeated movement and sound, and then you transform the action by altering or adding a small aspect of it." Raivis was now stomping his foot after every yowl. "Like that."

Maddie stared. "They look absolutely demented."

"I know, right?" HK looked exceptionally pleased with himself. "Are you recording this?"

She rolled her eyes, but activated the webcam anyway. "How do you even explain this to somebody without physically doing it?"

"Arthur showed me on Skype like, last October. He looked so ridiculous." HK studied Zoe's quick, sweeping strokes, her chestnut side ponytail bobbing. "Hmmm…hey, you there. Marie-Lise, right? Start a new one."

"So I guess he's having a lot of fun in uni, isn't he?"

"Yeah. Lots. Probably. Stop distracting me." In a flash, HK did some transforming himself, unexpectedly taking a more authoritative tone. "Natalya, you have to copy her. Then add your own change."

This callback is getting kind of crazy right now, so I'm going to have to stop. I'll tell you all about it later! Hope you and Francis are having a good time too.

Your friend, Maddie.

"And, she sent a clip of this video they were recording of them! It was so awesome! All like, neeeeyyyaaaaahhhh…why couldn't have Artyfarts done that with us? Damn!"

Gillian already spoke really loudly, but the bustling pub Fritz had chosen for them to spend their last night in still gave her a challenge.

"We watched it like five times! Couldn't stop laughing. Then we tried to do some of this transformer stuff too, but I guess it doesn't work with only two people. Bah."

Fritz laughed. "Sounds like a leisurely way to end your trip."

Gillian poked him. "Hey! Don't say that! The trip's not over…just only in this part!"

The travelling bug had bit her hard, after a whole week of playing tour guide for Francis. They would romp around the city, looking at the big sights such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Pergamon Museum, and of course, the Berlin Wall. When Fritz got off work, they also spent time casually, going for drinks, movies, or just plain hanging out. But Gillian had been stuck in Berlin for an entire month now, and couldn't wait to go to new places.

"We're taking the train to Vienna," Francis was telling Fritz.

"Wonderful! The classical music capital of the world. It's a pity that you're only going in the winter. The Vienna Philharmonic does a concert at the Schönbrunn for free each summer. All you have to do is get there early with a blanket, sit in the gardens and enjoy."

"One of our really close friends is at the conservatory of music. I'm sure he can find a way to let us see a performance of theirs!"

If Roderich had heard this, he would have felt quite disconcerted over the fact that Francis had just called him a "close friend" of his and Gillian's. But he was not present, so Fritz just exclaimed at how fortunate they were, and Gillian drained her beer.

"But still," Fritz was saying. "After this trip, you must have some idea of what you want to do. Any plans for then?"

Francis shrugged noncommittally and looked at Gillian. She made a face. The whole point of the trip was to get away from planning out every small detail of life. Gillian wanted to live in the moment. She hadn't travelled halfway across the globe just to start thinking of all the limits people tried to put on her awesomeness again.

"Well…" Francis decided to speak, taking the hint. "My father spoke to me about this too. I could go back to Paris and intern with his advertising company. That's something I think I could do, anyway."

"What? No!" Gillian exclaimed. "You can't just ditch me and Toni!"

"I said I could, not that I would." Francis picked up his glass of cognac and sniffed at it. "It's only a thought."

She pouted. "But that sounds so unawesome and boring…"

Fritz cut her off. "It might sound like that now, but think about it, Gill. A trip like this has got expenses. You're going to have to figure out a way to pay it off somehow, even if your parents agreed to cover it. Or at least, there must be something you have to do after it's over."

Gillian groaned. The laughter and rumblings of the other late-night bar patrons echoed behind her. She knew that her cousin had only the best wishes for her, but she didn't want to hear his words tonight. It was only the end of January. There was so much more of Europe to see. She didn't want this trip to end.

A/N: I'm super sorry about the delay, actually ;_; I swear this shall not turn into another Thicker Than Water with month-long waits! But I am rather busy right now, packing up my stuff and dealing with last minute plans in Canada. That's right, I'm going home, and this time it's going to be for a while! =D I'm so happy. Eight months have been the longest that I've ever gone without being in HK.

Thank you for reading, please R&R! C: