Sickly Sweet Naming Contest

Antonio Fernandez Carriedo (better known as Spain) smirked up at the gigantic building, pulling his small ponytail tighter in a small show of courage.

Next to him, Francis Bonnefoy (France) and Gilbert Beilschmidt (former Prussia) were bursting out laughing (which was slightly eerie considering that France's deep, rich laugh was spooky when added to Prussia's 'kesesese' laugh which always sounded evil no matter how happy he actually was).

"And this intimidates some people? Kesesese~! It's not too bad I guess. But only five stories? That's a pushing it a little." Said Gilbert, like the true pessimistic critic he was.

After their bosses had flat out refused to let any of them drive the cars, they had opted to instead ride their bikes to there. But, the self-proclaimed 'Awesome Gil' had gotten tired about half way there. So they parked their bikes outside of the library and walked the rest of the way, Francis carrying Gilbert piggyback style.

And yes, the school did seem slightly smaller in Antonio's opinion. But, considering that the WCM assembly was on a tight budget, it would have to do. It would probably hold all of the five hundred-and-counting countries that were attending the all-nation school, and the younger, smaller nations had a whole different class.

"I doubt it matters mon ami, but what exactly are we doing here anyway? I thought that the school didn't start class until next week?"

"We came to get the class schedules, duh. I heard from West that we had to fill out some form or something too. Of course, he would know because, being the nerd he is, he's already done!"

After that it was useless to continue listening to his ranting, as it no longer had direction or purpose.

They hurriedly jogged the rest of the way to the entrance and grabbed a stack of papers that the lady at the front desk gave them. While looking through them, they found a note to each of them saying that they had to keep a journal of sorts recording at least a week before school started and a month into it as well. After that, it was their choice whether they continue the experiment.

Prussia scoffed.

"Ha, as if the awesome me would waste my time with such a boring task by choice. But if I do remember correctly, there was that cutie in the back at the last World Conference Meeting…"

Antonio and Francis gave him a questioning look.

"…Who? Are you talking about Elizaveta? You know she started dating Roderick about months ago."

"What, you mean that crazy, psycho, pan-wielding she-demon? No, of course not, I'm not suicidal! And how could I forget-Roddy is constantly talking about her; it's almost not fun to call him anymore."

Francis sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Gil, I think that's because he has caller ID. He knows you're prank calling him so it's useless to try-"

"Don't try to discourage me from my goal Francis. I will make him cower at my feet if I have to sever a limb to do so~!"

Both of the other men sighed and began walking back to the library to retrieve their bikes, leaving an oblivious laughing Prussian behind.

-o0O0o-

Alfred F. Jones yelled in delight and punched his fist in the air as he and his younger half-sister, Madeline Williams, raced towards the school.

Well, he raced. Madeline just kinda jogged behind, yelling things like 'slow down' or 'did you even park your freaking bike, jerk'.

Geez, why did she have to have those bipolar mood swings? They were starting to get on his nerves…

They were about a yard from the school now and Alfred suddenly stopped, causing the moody Canadian behind him to run into him. Bad idea.

"What the crap Al, are you mentally retarded or something? You don't just stop in front of someone when their walking! Next time you do that, I'm gonna-"

Suddenly Madeline stopped and noticed what America was looking at and she found herself relaxing in the face of the school.

It was not only huge and structurally magnificent, it was also put right on top of what might be the steepest hill this side of Europe. The lovely variety of flowers surrounding the area was beautiful and the light breeze that tore past him, rushing to the flowers, warmed her up considerably. She grabbed the old fashioned camera she always had strapped around her neck and took a quick picture of the beautiful scene, promising herself that later, she would come back with her art supplies and paint the stunning landscape herself.

"Maddie lets go get those papers and have a quick look-see around the school. I wanna go lie down in the fields~!"

Madeline nodded in agreement and gazed at the flowers a little longer before running to catch up with the eager American.

After getting the papers they needed and discussing (more or less arguing) the assignment, they split up each choosing a side of the hall. Madeline got the right and Alfred got the left. As Madeline began checking the classrooms on her side, she noticed another person in one of them. He was writing on the board and humming, earphones in and ipod strapped to his arm.

Two Hours earlier:

After Prussia finally noticed that his friends had left him, he huffed in anger and quickly decided that if he was here maybe he should look around, have some fun. He grabbed his ipod from his pocket and put it on MSI-Lights Out. Oh, how he loved that band. He ran to all the classrooms, looking for something fun to do. He fiddled around with the TV sets and computers, but got bored with those quickly. So, he decided to instead set a challenge for himself. He went to one of the rooms with a huge marker board and began trying to list as many countries as he could think of. Then he made it harder by adding their human names to their country names. This wasn't too hard, considering that West often made him memorize the names of countries and the only one's he didn't know, didn't matter. How come the only one he couldn't think of the name of was that quiet country in the back of the WCM, the same one who had been on his mind non-stop since then and had plagued a good many of his dreams (not that he was complaining). He just wished he could remember…Heck, he couldn't even remember if he knew it in the first place! What an un-awesome crush he was. Jerk.

Canada smiled slyly and slipped into the room, trying her hardest to fade into the background-a talent she was very good at. She crouched behind the teachers desk at the back of the room and swore under her breathe at what she saw. The massive marker board was covered every inch in the names of countries, slanting slightly and smaller at the bottom. Next to every nation's name was their human name. And the only one who had yet to have a human name next to theirs was (aside from Wy, Monaco, Montenegro, Seychelles, and various others who weren't even listed) Canada herself. The only thing that was listed for her was her name and a small drawling of herself, which the man was working on at the moment. Surprisingly, it was quite accurate, which made Madeline blush slightly. People tended to forget her frequently, and when they did notice her, they usually mistook her for her brother, which ticked her off to no end. So it was both embarrassing and lovely that someone had not only remembered her, but also knew that she was Canada. She smiled brightly and sneaked up to who she recognized as Prussia, or Gilbert, a dissolved nation who was in a sort of 'retirement'.

Also, her secret crush.

She waited until she was right behind the oblivious ex-nation (holding her breathe the entire way), before letting out a breathy 'Peek-a-boo' into his ear. Then she laughed coyly and sat on a desk as Prussia shivered and gasped, recognizing the voice as Canada's. He turned around to see no one. No…not know one…a barely someone. Canada was doing that fading thing and was almost impossible to see.

"Canada, you can cut the act. I can see you perfectly well…Well, sorta."

This surprised Canada. Most people weren't able to see her at all when she purposely faded. She made herself more noticeable and smirked at Prussia.

"Well well, look what the cat dragged in."

"Actually Francis carried me." Canada looked a little confused by this so he elaborated with a quick, "After I got tired of riding my bike here."

Canada nodded in understanding then smirked again. She was no where near done with toying with the ex-country and Prussia was more that willing to participate.

"So I see you need some help with your little project."

"Yeah, I can't really remember any of the African countries or those really small ones. I only really remember any because either we're friends or Luddy wanted me to look 'em up in case they became a problem."

"Hmm, I guess that would explain why I'm not up there." Canada said with a hand on her chin, thumb and pointer finger making a checkmark around it, an evil smirk lighting her face.

Prussia looked slightly offended, taking a step back and clutching his heart.

"Ouch, Birdie. That one stung a little. No, I have you up here, it's just you never told me your real name. Can't blame a guy for not knowing the unknown."

Madeline's smile slipped and she frowned.

She hadn't told him, had she? Well, it's not like Gilbert would know that.

"Oh really? How can you be sure?"

Gilbert's face became serious and cold. He was getting a little tired of this cold-shoulder approach. Bipolar or not, this was just rude and insensitive.

"Canada, I promise on my awesome flag that I would definitely remember your name if you told it to me."

Canada scoffed. What a lie.

"Oh, a flag, how honorable!" she laughed, voice dripping with sarcasm. "What does a flag mean for a country that's already dead?"

Prussia's face lit up with anger. Okay, she had just crossed the line.

"Don't insult my flag, jerk!"

"I'll do what I want! I am a country, after all!"

"Yeah, just barely! Your own family can't even remember you! I'm sure Alfred's in the other room right now wondering who he came here with!"

Gilbert, who hadn't taken one breathe during his little rant, had to take deep, audible breathes to regain it.

And when he looked up, he wasn't surprised to see his secret crushes face, eyebrows raised, slack jaw, and he swore he saw tears in the others eyes.

"Look, geez, I'm so-"

Then Madeline's face reverted to an angry, sarcastic, jerkwad mask again. She looked somewhat frightening.

And then she was right in Prussia's face, grabbing his chin gruffly to bring him down to Madeline's eye level.

"Do you want to say that again?"

The smirk that Madeline was sending him now was different from the others. This one was seductive and made Gilbert blush bright red. It was also filled with pure hatred and reminded him of how many wars the Canadian had won. Gilbert did his best to return the smirk with one of his own.

"What? You mean the fact that nobody knows who you are, let alone that you're Canada? That people sit on you at meetings because they didn't see anyone there? That?"

The Canadian tilted her head downward so that the Prussian couldn't see the tears that were dripping from her eyes. Then she put on her best psychotic look and punched Gilbert hard in the cheek, sending him sprawling on the floor.

"Yes, that! Would you like another, love?"

Gilbert spit out a mouthful of blood and broken teeth, smiling at his crush's choice of words. So a sickly sweet naming contest was in order, huh?

He sat up and grabbed Madeline's hand as she got nearer, pulling her down and Gibert up. Gilbert put his foot painfully on Madeline's chest to keep her from moving and bent down till their noses were almost touching.

"If you can touch me, sweetheart~" Gilbert said, pushing down hard on Madeline's chest causing her to wince.

Then Madeline smiled and pulled upward on Gilbert's arm, succeeding in making him fall forward-straight into Madeline's outstretched fist.

"Ow-Gott, Birdie that hurt!"

Gibert fell to the floor next to Madeline, clutching his possibly-broken nose in pain.

"I guess that means I'm winning, darling~"

Gilbert glared at the now-standing Canadian, sitting up and wiping the blood away.

"Maybe so, but I'm not giving up yet, mein leibing."

And with that, the fight escalated, and with every punch, kick, or stab a sweet insult was thrown as well. By the time they had collapsed, both physically and literally exhausted from the flirty battle, they had ran out of both words and breathe. Cuts and bruises were found almost everywhere on their bodies and they now had matching black eyes. They were now laying on two lab tables, directly across from each other, trying to keep their breathe steady, their thinking straight, and their eye sight from going fuzzy.

"So, who…won?"

"I'm not…sure, maybe we should…"

"Give…up?"

"Exactly."

They paused momentarily before continuing, less winded.

"So was it a tie…or a draw?"

"Both…neither…"

Their was a small chuckle from the other side of the room.

"Well, I certainly had fun. We should do this again sometime-" At this, Maddie scoffed. "-And maybe next time, we could exchange something other than kicks and punches. Kisses would be nice, no?"

Madeline barked a laugh and sat up, spitting in Gilbert's eye. He laughed, wiping the liquid out of his squinted eye, not noticing the embarrassed smile and tomato red blush of the Canadian next to him.

"Thanks Birdie. Really feelin' the love-"

Madeline groaned and fell back on her table, covering her face with a slack arm.

Did he really have to say that?

"Hey, are you okay?"

Gilbert got up and walked to the table next to his. Though Madeline had covered up both her eyes and her cheeks, Gilbert could still see that the rest of her face was beet red. Putting his hand on her forehead, Gilbert immediately felt it heat up.

"I think you have a fever…darn it Birdie, why didn't you tell me that you were sick? Don't you know it's bad to get in fights when you're sick?"

"Yeah…about that….I'm really sorry…that was my fault…"

Madeline sat up, feeling like maybe Gilbert was right; maybe she was sick.

Gilbert looked at her, slightly confused. How had this girl gone from mean and rude, to seductive and flirty, to sweet and nervous, all in just a few minutes? "I mean, I know she's bipolar but…." He thought. "This is different."

"Hey, um, sorry about all that before, but are you okay? I mean, a few minutes ago you were insulting me and now you're apologizing and blushing…why?"

This made her blush even brighter and look away, refusing to speak for a few minutes. "Well I guess now is as good a time as any." she thought before huffing in defeat, turning her head to the curious country.

"Y-you know my father, Francis r-right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, s-since he's you're friend and all…" she gulped and took a deep breathe, flinging her head up.

There was a slight silence before she continued, more relaxed now that the worst was over with.

"And… he said you liked sarcasm and rudeness, that you were into those 'hard to get types' and always looking for a good fight. L-look, I'm sorry if I did something wrong….I should-"

And before she could finish, Gilbert's previously slack jawed face had returned to its customary smirk. Suddenly a hand was placed under Madeline's chin and she was pulled forward into soft lips. When she pulled away, she was staring into blood red eyes and Gilbert was smiling like crazy.

"Birdie, I like you for who you are and I swear that I will never forget you."

Madeline blushed bright, smiling. "Madeline."

Gilbert cocked his head to the side.

"Huh?"

"Madeline Williams. You wanted to know my name, right?"

Gilbert perked up in understanding.

"Maddie, huh? Nice ring to it…but I think I'm gonna stick with 'Birdie'."

Now it was Madeline's turn to smirk.

"You…"

Madeline chased Gilbert around the classroom, laughing and teasing, blissfully unaware of three pairs of green and blue eyes at the doorway.

"I think it turned out quite well, don't you Alfred?"

"Oh, shut up, Francis! Don't act like you planned this!"

Antonio could only giggle at the newly formed couple and the childhood rivals, simultaneously yelling and chasing each other. Oh, how they were alike.

AN:

This is a little one-shot i wrote for my Reading class last year. I actually had to write two because the first one, which i will also be posting on here, was nineteen pages and i had to read it out loud to the class. Needless to say, i ended up reading this one C: I don't like it much, but if you guys think something of it, just say the word and i'm sure i can make more Hetalia fics C:

Committing the 3 R's of fanfiction (Read, Rate, and Review) makes the world go circulatory.

I wish you all fun, food, and plenty of free time!

Sarcastically, Pans