Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place and/or Axis Powers Hetalia.
I saw a clip of a Disney Channel show, and I was unsatisfied with the way they represented anime fans. So, I got into the spirit of writing a crossover to see if I could smooth the stark difference between anime and Disney Channel.
EDIT: I have decided to write a sequel due to popular demand. Keep an eye on my profile to check it out whenever it does come out.
Summary:Alex Russo has to write a paper on the American Revolutionary War and she's flunked the class so far. She decides to conjure up a study buddy from one of Justin's current fandoms. No pairings except for a hint of USUK.
Studying With the Hero
Alex Russo tucked a bit of her soft, dark hair behind her ear as she examined her report card. She pulled open the door to the Waverly Sub Station as she mouthed - or wordlessly mocked - the scolding that she was sure to receive. The teen stopped in her tracks when she saw her older brother at one of the tables, watching something on his laptop.
Justin seemed to be engrossed in a show that he was currently gushing over. He let out a laugh in response to accented voices arguing with each other. "That's so true," Justin stifled a chuckle so he could listen more.
Alex snuck up behind Justin and stared at the animated characters that argued on the laptop's screen. She rolled her eyes. This was nothing new. Justin always found a fad in some sort of nerd fandom every other month. Last month was sudokus. The month before that it was the rocket science. She leaned down beside Justin's head and spoke suddenly, "Hi, Nerd. What're you obsessed with today?"
The male teen gasped and clamped a hand down to the top of his laptop, intent on closing it. Alex placed her hand on the laptop's top right corner to keep the screen up. Justin groaned and let Alex straighten the screen up to its full height again, "It's none of your business. You'll just make fun of it."
"That's not ...always true," Alex looked up to the ceiling as she spoke out loud. She pulled up a chair and sat beside Justin. She dropped her book bag on the ground and hid the report card under it. Her eyes fixed on the video that Justin was watching. She scrunched up her nose in confusion, "Why's that air head-ish guy screaming a lot?"
"That's Italy," Justin explained, "This anime is Hetalia - Axis Powers. Like in the World Wars."
Alex slowly looked at her brother as if he said two plus two was fish, "They made a show about the World Wars? And you were laughingat it?" She leaned back in her chair and gave out a huff of understanding, "It all makes sense now. I knew you were always screwed up."
Justin groaned again, "No, no. No. Hetalia is about all of the countries of the world, but it mostly focuses on Europe. It goes through history and all the characters - the personified countries - and their relationships with each other." He laughed a bit as he clicked on another video and allowed it to load when paused, "I've become a lot more patriotic ever since I first saw America. Italy is the main character in the show and it focuses on Italy, Germany, and Japan, but it also does a lot...well, some important things, too."
"So about the relationships. This is like international affairs?" Alex smiled at her joke, not knowing what an effect it would have on an actual fan.
"Here, I'll show you." Justin gestured to the screen, "This bit is about when France was experiencing bankruptcy because of the Suez Canal. In history, France wanted to unite with England for the island country's money."
"Is this show a comedy? How? History is seriously boring," Alex stared at the laptop's screen.
Justin rolled his eyes, "Hetalia isn't meant to be taken seriously. It's purely for enjoyment. I'll show you." He clicked the play button on the video, "This is how the attempted unification plays out in Hetalia format."
Alex watched the screen. An incredibly depressed looking man sat back in a chair. "England," He spoke with a French accent. She guessed that the long haired man was France, "I want for you to...marry me."
Alex blinked and stared at the animated character oddly. When England was shown, Alex gasped, "England is in dire need of a makeover... Just look at his eyebrows! They're huge!"
Justin laughed under his breath, "Yeah. You get used to them after watching the series for a while."
"I don't recall it being April Fool's, France," England spoke warily and then laughed awkwardly when France said he was not joking, "What? You can't afford to even buy a calendar?" Alex watched, ignoring England's eyebrows, wondering why France stood. He passed a piece of paper to England. England visibly panicked when he saw what it was, "That's a marriage registration form, you idiot!"
France stood behind England and proceeded to try and force England to sign the form, "No, it's not! Can't you see? It is a calendar!"
Alex only watched the rest of the scene played out until France dragged England off with one of the creepiest expressions Alex has ever seen. When the video ended, Justin looked expectantly at Alex. She looked at Justin slowly, "This is what you're fan boying over? One guy forcing another guy to get married?"
"I knew you wouldn't understand." Justin rolled his eyes and stood when his mother called him upstairs. "Don't touch my computer," Justin commanded Alex as he locked it and then hurried upstairs.
Alex stared at the laptop and rested the tips of her fingers on the keyboard, prepared to crack Justin's password. She sighed and spoke out loud to herself, "Let's see what geeky word is your password this week, Justin." She typed in a few letters and clicked enter. A satisfied smirk sat on her face as the YouTube screen popped up again, "So easy." Alex looked at the tabs that Justin had open and clicked on something that said 'Axis Powers Hetalia - 39'.
Another video screen appeared, taking place of the YouTube tab. Alex noted that it was paused and she shrugged and clicked play. She watched France, England, and another country talk. Learning from the conversation, Alex deducted that the blonde haired, innocent looking country was Finland. "Weird clothes, guys," she muttered about the old fashioned clothing the countries wore.
The three countries talked about the New World and how a child was showing up from time to time. Alex went on to watch the rest of the five minute episode, ending it with England becoming the guardian of the little boy with dirty blonde hair. Alex stared at the tab that read 'Axis Powers Hetalia - 40'. With a shrug, she clicked on that tab and played that episode. She laughed a bit to herself when she saw France and England fighting over who America's older brother was. She watched the animations again and smiled when she saw England holding baby America. "Aw," she spoke quietly, "okay, that's kind of cute." Of course, this was when America leaped out of England's arms and ran towards a buffalo. Alex stared at the laptop's screen as America swung the buffalo around his head in circles, giggling all the while. "Strong kid," she thought.
With a sigh, Alex looked at the palm of her hand, "Oh! I have to call Harper and tell her how to do my Revolutionary War paper." She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and dialed her best friend's number. Once Harper picked up, Alex told her the requirements for the essay. She paused when Harper refused and responded, "But Harper, I'm going to fail American history if you don't help me out with this one, little thing." She paused, listening to Harper's response. "It takes five minutes to write an essay. You can write yours, too."
Alex minimized the window on the laptop and stared at the Hetalia background Justin had up. She smiled, knowing that she'd have new material to tease Justin and then a brilliant idea popped into her head. Her smile grew devious before she closed the laptop and took it with her down into the lair. It was then that Alex realized that Harper was still on the line. She had just accidently tuned out Harper's refusals. "Yeah, yeah, Harper. Yeah, I'll just do it myself. See ya," Without another word, Alex ended the call and tucked her cell phone back into her pocket.
Alex set the laptop down on the coffee table and opened it. She pulled out a wand and then aimed it at the screen's background. Of course, Alex had only seen a couple episodes of Hetalia, so she did not know all of the characters. Even so, she could guess that the blonde with a '50' on the back of his leather jacket and a hamburger in his mouth and hand was America. She spoke an incantation she had practiced. Originally she was going to prank Justin, but this new idea was a better use of the spell. A surge of white and blue shot out of the wand and wrapped around the computer. After circling it for a few seconds, the streaks of light shot over to the couch and formed a human, male body. The flash disappeared, revealing the blonde haired, blue eyed older teen from the laptop's background. The spot where he had been on the laptop's background was now empty.
The boy sat up on the couch and rubbed his head. The hamburger he was eating in the picture was still in his mouth. He looked down at the juicy piece of fast food through glasses covered eyes and grinned contentedly as he inhaled the rest of it. He looked around, faced away from Alex as he chomped down the second big mac in only two bites. Finally he turned to Alex, seeing her. He swallowed the last remains of his burger and grinned brightly, flashing his pearly white teeth, "'Sup? The name's United States of America, but you can call me America for short!" He laughed loudly to finish his statement.
A thought of hesitation and worry almost buried itself in Alex's mind—almost. "Hey, America," Alex waved awkwardly, wondering just how long it would take for America's booming laugh to reach the rest of the family's ears, "My name's Alex Russo."
"Sweet digs," America glanced around again, "it reminds me of Iggy's basement. He's real into the occult, you know." He gripped his stomach and pouted a bit, "You got any food?"
"Yeah, we'll go get something, but first," Alex waved her wand around to show that she was a wizard, "I need your help for a little something."
A new spirit rose into the atmosphere around America and Alex. His eyes widened as a determined look bloomed across his expression. "Of course," He shouted with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out, "I'll always help, because I'm the hero!" That loud laugh resounded again.
"Okay, here's the deal," Alex pulled her binder out of her backpack that was on the couch. She slipped a piece of paper out of the binder and handed it to America, "I need you to dictate to me what the Revolutionary War was like. It'd be great if you could also form your thoughts into five paragraphs with seven to nine sentences per paragraph."
America looked over the sheet with a look of longing, "It's been a while." It was a serious tone America used. It was obvious how he wanted to gloss over the entire thing when he said, "I just beat up Iggy and won my independence. That's pretty much it."
"Iggy is the British Empire?" Alex asked as she pulled out a pencil and a notepad.
"Well, Iggy is England," America handed the sheet back to Alex and started walking to the door, "England has like..." He counted his fingers, "five different personalities. I'm glad I wasn't around to see a few of 'em. I heard from France and Spain that he was a real perv when he was a pirate and when England was Britannia..." America shuddered, "He was such a jerk!"
A small, somewhat devious, smile appeared on Alex's face as she scribbled down America's opinion, "Yeah, that sounds good. Okay, tell me about the American Revolution." She looked to the country expectantly.
"I jabbed at Iggy a few times and invited France and Prussia over. A few shots went off and I was independent," America stood on the steps. "Can we go get food now?"
"It sounds like you had a teenage party," Alex stopped writing down what America had said and crossed her arms.
America stared at the ceiling and bit his lip with a flash of wonder in his eyes. Obviously, he was mentally reliving the moments of the revolution, "Well...yeah. Besides all the gore, prisoners of war, explosions, discipline, and heart wrenching, it was a teenage party." The excited, juvenile tone came back, "Let's go get some food!"
Alex set her notebook and pencil on the couch and picked up Justin's laptop, "Don't you want to know how you got here first?"
America shook his head no, "I'm just starved! I can't wait around for Arthur to show up and feed me gross scones."
"Of course," Alex looked back to the laptop's background to stare at the nation with messy blonde hair and bushy eyebrows, "I'll just summon England."
America's bright blue eyes widened as his smile was wiped off his face. He jumped up and hurried over to Alex, "You're gonna summon England? Are you nuts?"
Alex walked around the couch and set the laptop down on the coffee table, "You're not giving me the answers I want and something tells me that England will give me more accurate info." She lifted her wand and prepared to cast her spell.
"Why do you wanna bring him in to ruin the fun?" America sat beside Alex, hoping to discourage her, "I'm way cooler, and he's so lame!"
Alex ignored America's retorts as she spoke the incantation and waved her wand. The surge of white shot out of her wand again and circled the laptop. The white merged into various hues of green and formed the shape of a human standing beside the coffee table. With a short flash, the light disappeared, leaving England holding a small saucer in one hand and a tea cup in the other.
"Agh," America let out an exaggerated, drawn out groan and leaned back on the couch. "Alex, why'd you do it? Why did you betray your country?" Every other word was drawn out in complete dread.
A glare formed on England's face as his vibrant, green eyes narrowed, and the edges of his thin lips tilted down, "Oh, America. I see you're as polite as ever." Sarcasm dripped and melted with his English accented voice. "Honestly, how on Earth can you stay in the same room as an idiot like him?" He asked Alex before taking a sip of his tea.
"Takes one to know one," America shrugged as he delivered what he thought was a good come back.
England set is tea cup and saucer down on the coffee table after sitting down on the couch adjacent to Alex's seat. "Brat," He growled and turned to Alex. His scowl softened into a polite smile, "My name is England. My formal name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. What can I do for you, Miss?"
Before Alex had a chance to speak, America interrupted, "Or you could call him Eyebrows. France does it all the time."
"Don't mention that frog's name, you brat," England snapped as he, again, glared at America's lazy stare.
Alex took this short pause in insult throwing to explain what she needed, "Iggy—"
England's line of view darted from America's smug face to Alex. He groaned, "Are you joking?"
Alex shrugged, "It caught on. So anyway, I need you two to tell me all about the American Revolutionary War." She picked up her notebook and pencil again to take down notes, and then looked back to England.
England stared at his tea cup coldly and made no effort to speak. Alex waited a few seconds before looking to America. He had attempted to become fascinated with the color and texture of the pillow beside him. America was never really good at doing things he did not want to do. He bit his lip gently before saying, "I told you. I beat England up and won my independence."
"I mean specific details that would fill up three pages double spaced," Alex refined her question before England scoffed. She looked back to him, expecting him to speak. When he did nothing of the sort, Alex directed her attention back to America, "Like the Boston Tea Party or maybe the Battle of Yorktown."
England's glare hardened even more until he finally closed his eyes. His knuckles grew white as his fingers gripped into the sides of his crossed arms. "England was choking me with his stupid taxes on tea and junk, so I helped some good friends of mine dump it," America explained, "It was nasty stuff anyway. I didn't care. The Battle of Yorktown was fun, at least, when France came along." Alex watched as England's figure tensed more and more as America went on talking, "He trapped England via the ocean, and my forces trapped him on land." His booming laughter returned, "And that was it for England! I became free!"
England breathed in uneven breaths as his frown dug into his cheeks. Alex finished up scribbling down the last of what America had said, "England, what about you? Any victories or mistakes you wanna talk about?"
"Finding him was the biggest mistake I've ever made," England spoke with metaphorical ice trailing out of his mouth.
America growled and glared at England again. Alex glanced back and forth between England and America. The awkward atmosphere heightened with each additional minute. Alex took America's growl and England's seething expression as a cue to wrap up the interview, "So England was sort of like your dad, right?"
While still facing England, America answered, "I guess. Big brother was more like it. Annoyingbig brother was more like it." England opened his eyes and slowly looked up from his tea cup to America's gaze, a growl emanated from his throat.
Alex quickly added in hopes that the two nations would calm down, "Who wants ice cream?"
Instantly, the cross expression on America's face disappeared before he grinned brightly at Alex, "I want ice cream!"
"Like the child he is," England huffed under his breath, his body relaxing a bit.
America stood up and faced England, "Come at me bro!" He had both of his palms up and motioning towards himself. "C'mere and lemme show you what a kid I am! That is if your old corpse can take it!"
England gasped incredulously and stood as well. He pulled his sleeves up and ground his teeth together, "You say that one more time. See what happens, you impertinent child."
"Uh—" Alex lifted her hand and was interrupted.
"You. Old. Corpse," America spat out his words.
England let out a hiss of frustration before tackling America to the ground. Alex stood up and stared at the nations. The two punched and kicked at each other as they shouted out curse words and reopened old wounds from their histories. It was then that Alex heard someone coming down the stairs into the lair. Quickly, she found her wand and turned both America and England into small figurines. Alex placed them on the table and looked expectantly at the staircase.
Justin hopped the last couple stairs and landed on the floor of the lair. When he saw Alex, he stopped and asked, "What're you doing down here?"
"Just doing homework," Alex gestured to the notebook on the couch along with the pencil that fell to the floor.
Justin's stare was embedded with suspicion, "Why'd you take my laptop?" He picked up the laptop and opened it, seeing the background was missing two characters. He spoke slowly, "Why are America and England gone?"
"They were getting hungry," Alex responded and reached out to the two figurines on the table, "I was just…I made England some tea." She gestured to the tea cup that sat on the coffee table.
Justin looked back to Alex and then to the figurines in her hands, "You zapped them out of the background, didn't you?"
Fully expecting Justin to scold and command her to do what was right, Alex groaned and nodded. Justin put his laptop down and grabbed the figurines from Alex's hands, "This is so cool!" A remorseful look appeared in his eyes, "But it's so wrong…" The look disappeared, "But this is so cool!"
Alex blinked a bit and stared blankly at her brother, "Okay. That works." She showed her notebook to Justin, "But I only want them for a few more minutes to an hour. I have to write a paper for American history on the American Revolution." She shrugged, "I thought that it'd be more accurate if I actually had the participants with me to dictate… Speaking of which, I'm going to zap out France and Russia." She reached for Justin's laptop.
Justin's eyes widened before he stood in front of his laptop, "We will under no circumstances take France and Russia out of this anime. It would be explosive. Besides it was Prussiawho trained American soldiers—not Russia." He laughed a bit to himself and looked off into the distance, "Prussia is awesome."
Alex rolled her eyes and shoved past Justin, sweeping up his laptop into her arms. She stopped at the opposite end of the coffee table and took out her wand, prepared to take the two aforementioned nations out of the portable computer's background. "You'd better let me interview them or else I'll takeevery single nation out of the background and summon them right here," She curled the sides of her lips into a devious smirk.
Justin very nearly hyperventilated. The background was of a group digital painting of all the nations in the anime. Justin did not think he could take an entire world meeting inside the small confines of their family's lair. "Alex," Justin held his hands out to her to warn her, "do not take out any other nation. These two rarely get along with the rest of the world as it is. If you take all the nations out, chaos will rampage."
A new light entered Alex's eyes, "Chaos is my favorite word." She tapped the wand on the edge of the laptop's screen, "We'll start with France. At least I know what he looks like."
Justin shouted and dropped the figurines onto the coffee table. He snatched his laptop back and held it to his chest, "No, Alex!" With a tap on the figurines and a short incantation, Alex transformed the two, small toys back into nations personified in human forms.
England was lying on his back under America. The two stared into each other's eyes and red danced across their cheeks. That was, until England firmly placed his foot on America's stomach and kicked him off. "Get off of me, you fat git," He shouted, "You'll crush my insides!"
America let out a short lived yelp as he was kicked off the island nation. He sat up and glared at England who still sat on the table, "Alright, alright. Don't get your panties in a twist. Besides I wasn't even touching you! Are you so insecure that you're worried about being in that position with me? God, you're so fragile."
"You bloody twat," England snarled and jumped off the table. He stomped on America's chest and ground down on it, "You stupid, American brat!"
America winced sharply and ground his leather gloved dressed fingers into the floor, causing it to whine and crack from his incredible strength. He laughed condescendingly, "I notice you're not verbally denying that you liked that position!"
England gasped, and then his heel dug into America's chest harder, "Who would ever like you? Certainly not me! Maybe you're just trying to get me to like you so you're not so alone! Well, you had your chance!" His voice began to waver as he blinked more. His breathing became erratic, "Two hundred and thirty six years ago!" A rare look of seriousness appeared in America's bright blue eyes. "You ruined it, you dumb American," England was no longer yelling. He lifted his foot off of America and sat down in his seat from before.
Alex cleared her throat. America looked back at her, "Oh," he said, "sorry." He laughed awkwardly, "Whenever we fight, I feel like all I can concentrate on is England," England looked up with a blank look in his eyes, "and how hard I can punch his face in."
England scoffed and opened his coat. He pulled out a white stick that was maybe a centimeter in diameter with a gold star on the end and aimed it at America. "Belt up," England shouted, "Just belt your obnoxious mouth up!"
America flinched and held his hands up defensively, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Iggy, calm down! Put your wand up!"
"That's England's wand?" Alex looked to her brother for information, "Why does he have such a weird wand?"
"England is really into the occult," Justin explained, "and his wand is the stereotypical magic wand. The entire anime is based on stereotypes."
"I don't want to hear it, you arsehole," England hissed before a surge of blinding light shot from his wand to wrap around America. After a few seconds, the light dispersed and an America figurine appeared in the character's place.
Justin picked up the figure and placed it on the table next to England's tea. "England," Alex sat back down in her seat, "do you guys always get that angry at each other?"
England slipped his wand back into his coat pocket and took a sip of his tea. "No," he answered, "talk of the…of his revolution just brought up old memories is all." He set the tea cup back down on its saucer with a small 'tink'. His voice was softer and his eyes had a faraway look. "The revolution," he stared at the America figurine on the table, "was a dreadful experience for me. I remember it down to the last tea leaf that he threw into one of his harbors."
"Can you start from the beginning?" Alex asked England and gestured with her pencil. She placed the tip of it to the paper and waited for the nation to speak.
England gulped lightly and closed his eyes. He told Alex every detail he could possibly remember about the revolution from its messy beginning to the humiliating end. In the process, England had picked up the America figurine and held it in his hands, stroking its plastic hair. After he had finished explaining the last he knew, it was ten twenty three at night and his voice had gone nearly raw. He added almost wordlessly, "I just... I missed it when he loved me."
Alex scribbled down the last note and Justin finished up his notes as well. He was very interested on listening to England's view of the revolution. "Thanks, England," Alex thanked the nation, "I have all I need now."
England nodded and stood, "I assume it is time for me to go back into your laptop computer?"
"Yeah," Alex put her notebook and pencil down on the table and Justin opened the laptop. Alex repeated a reversal spell, and England disappeared back into the computer's background along with America.
"Wow," Justin closed the computer, "I never knew how hard the American Revolution actually hit England. It makes me feel like America didn't appreciate anythingEngland ever did for him."
Alex rolled her eyes, "I know that England really misses America and all, but didn't you stop to think about how much England was babying America?" She packed up her book bag, "I mean, yeah, he was a protective big brother, but he was way too protective. He didn't let America do anything. I'm going to write about the revolution the right way."
Justin sighed. He should have known that his little sister would side with America. He took his laptop into his arms and stood up, "Alright. I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late." Alex laughed in response before Justin went up to bed.
About a week later, Alex's teacher was handing back the American Revolutionary War essays. Alex accepted her paper eagerly and looked to see her grade written across her cover page in red ink. Her eyes widened at the 97 percent that was there. She never usually aimed to do that well on papers. Alex flipped through the few pages to see comments that praised a few select places. The only points that were taken off were for spelling or grammatical errors. A piece of paper was placed on Alex's desk. She put her essay down and examined the paper. It was of her next year's schedule. More specifically, it was a list of the classes she would be taking. A grin appeared on her face when she saw she would be taking World History.