Title: Paper Stars
Author: Hong Kat
Rating: K (will possibly change in the future)
Genre(s): Drama, Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Victoria and Emma are the best of friends, though their growing feelings for each other might change that fact. As they go through high school things in their lives get complicated. Their affections mixed in with life's daily dramas makes everything not so easy for the two of them.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia and clearly since this is on this site, that is obvious.
A/N: This was intended as a birthday present for a friend but since I fucking suck it's now super late and there will be a second chapter, no promises on how long that'll take though, I'm sorry. When I say second chapter I mean this entire thing will be multichapter please bear with me. I still do not have a completely planned out storyline but, this story will revolve around Emma and Victoria, who if you couldn't figure out after seeing the characters and the fact that this is fanfiction, are Fem!Iceland and Fem!Hong Kong, respectively. There will be story arcs following other important characters in this but it all somehow affects Emma and Victoria, in some way. Everything I do has a point to it alright? I guess you could say this is sort of slice of life-ish in a way. Holy fuck this is also unbetaed so tell me if you see horrible grammar mistakes alright? I trust you guys.
Victoria was, what you could say, friendzoned (if such a thing existed and wasn't just a stupid excuse guys used when a girl they were 'friends' with wouldn't accept to having sex or being in a romantic relationship with them. But Victoria digressed, that was a discussion for another time.), by her best friend. It began at least a year ago, if not earlier. Emma was her name, she was from Iceland and she was Victoria's crush, not just a girl crush, but a crush crush, she liked her in ways that just best friends weren't supposed to like their just best friends.
You're probably wondering what this Emma girl looks like. Well Victoria will gladly tell: Emma had absolutely gorgeous unique eyes that were like amethyst but mixed with a bit of white cloud, or lavender, but that seemed too soft to describe such a hot tempered girl. Yes she needed to have her eyes compared to jewels, they really were that pretty. She may act like an ice queen outside, much like her older sister, but she was all raging hot emotion underneath and Victoria liked that about her. She also really liked teasing her and seeing a blush flower on her cheeks or hanging out with her and being comfortable with just about everything together because that's how friends worked. But Victoria didn't want to just be friends anymore which majorly sucked because she was pretty sure Emma would want to stay friends, forever, no 5ever.
Victoria wasn't troubled by the fact that she liked females; she accepted that she wasn't completely straight after having stared at a few girls and noting that she would bang them if she could, nope, she was troubled by the fact that her friend would never ever see her that way. Even though Emma had admitted to Victoria that she was bisexual that didn't mean Victoria had any chance whatsoever. It was just ugh.
´Gdi' was all she could think as she was forced to watch Emma try on clothing as they went shopping at the mall, very revealing clothing. Okay maybe it was her fault for making Emma go to this store but still! Emma looked good, no not good, great, sexy, and beautiful, in just about everything she tried on and she still needed Victoria's opinion?! Well, Victoria had been the one to pick out the clothes, and since she had excellent fashion sense, of course Emma would look so delicious. It was like dangling a treat in front of a cat but the metaphorical cat would never be able to even have a taste of it. Victoria sympathized with that cat, she and that cat could get together over a cup of coffee and share their woes, man that poor cat. Which reminded her, crap, she needed to buy some weird ass herb or something that for Dai Ga Jie. Victoria had no idea how a imaginary cat reminded her of that but she was glad it did. She would have Victoria´s hide if she had forgotten again.
Sighing she stood up from her seat in the changing room, yes since she was so much in the friendzone (once again a non-existent thing but the only thing Victoria could describe this rift as currently) Emma actually told her to just sit in the changing room bench so she didn´t have to constantly open the door to show her what she was wearing for approval. This was honestly sad. If Jeong Hee were here she'd probably laugh at her.
"Hm? What's wrong?" Emma said, turning around holding a shirt casually to her chest while only in her underwear which made Victoria die inside, just a bit. She would never be allowed to tap that, Christ.
"Fuck I gotta go get something for Chun-Yan, I'll be right back you can stay here," Victoria said hurriedly as she shrugged on her cherry red motorcycle jacket.
"Wait I'll go with you, I didn't like this store anyway," Emma said, locating her light green v neck t-shirt and skinny jeans before redressing. Victoria waited patiently for her friend to finish before opening the changing room door and walking out with her. She probably should have refused, kept her there so she could think away from her infatuation, but she never really could say no to Emma like Emma couldn't say no to her ridiculous ideas.
Victoria was a girl that was always thinking, full of ideas, many of which got her in trouble with Alice or Chun-Yan; both who both treated her like a kid, which she hated. Goddamn she was 16 freaking years old she could handle things on her own now! She always ended up dragging Emma into her harebrained schemes and getting them both in trouble with not only those two but Emma's older sister, Kristin, who was a total bitch just saying. She hated Victoria with a passion since their first meeting, but she respected her a bit on the fact that she was polite and proper when she wanted to be. It was a complicated relationship those two had. Victoria really didn't mean to get Emma in trouble all the time, but Emma just wouldn't let her take the brunt of her punishments alone. She was honestly an angel, a godsend, and both Victoria and Jeong Hee could attest to it.
"We need to go to the Chinese medicine store, I think I need to get ginseng but it might have been Reishi mushrooms, ugh why do Chinese herbs have to be so damn expensive and hard to find?!" she muttered, walking at a brisk pace, Emma having to quicken her own to catch up.
"Uhm what is it exactly for?" Emma asked, arms behind her back as she peered at her friend.
"I wouldn't know what Chun-Yan is up to. She's like an ancient Chinese lady," she emphasized this with a wave of her hands as if she just couldn't grasp the concept correctly, which made Emma giggle a bit, "She may act and look like a cute teenager but rest assured she's as wise as a 4,000 year old guy, no, as wise as how old China is! You just can't get your mind around it," Victoria finished with frustration, not wanting to call Chun-Yan and have her tsk at her for forgetting so easily and Victoria hated it when Dai Ga Jie was disappointed with her (which wasn't too often), it was horrible. Especially when she gave her "the look" the look that, for some reason, a lot of people in her family could do but she couldn't. It was a look that just said, "I am very disappointed," and it's not like other people couldn't do it but it was like Victoria's family's own breed of it. It was the type of guilt that made you want to bury yourself in a hole.
'Like I can't get my mind around you?' Emma thought to herself, looking down at her white boots. She sighed, though it wasn´t very loud it still caught Victoria´s attention. She wanted to bury her face in her hands, that thought sounded so much like a 13 year old girl´s and Emma was certainly not that anymore.
"What´s up?" she said, casually slinging and arm around her best friend's shoulders, "You sound troubled, did I like, say something?"
Emma used to be surprised by how casual Victoria acted when it was just them. Right now the mall was almost impossibly empty; leave it to Victoria to know the time that people wouldn't be here and drag Emma along.
At first when Emma had just transferred to Victoria's school she hadn't known anyone, and honestly it got a bit lonesome when the only people you talked to were your siblings.
Since Kristin was two grades ahead of Emma she didn't have the same lunch time as her and thus Emma was usually left alone with nothing to do and the cafeteria food wasn't particularly something she wanted to try when she saw a fruit pulsing almost visible, definitely not healthy, or natural green waves.
Sometimes she wondered why they moved to England in the first place, they had all been content in Norway, why move? Norway was also one of the richest countries in Europe and it wasn´t like they were living badly at all. The five of them had their own house that they shared with six bedrooms and two bathrooms and they never had any trouble with paying bills and such, since all of them worked to earn money and she thought they had been living rather comfortably. But for some reason they decided to move to England, where things were much different from Norway and the people were not as kind as they were where they used to live. Whenever she asked though all her sisters would say was that England was just somewhere they wanted to visit and since English is the most vital language to learn currently it'd be good if they all improved from the classes they took in Norway.
She hadn't ever planned on pursuing a career that would require her to be completely fluent in English. She dreamed of being a volcanologist when she grew up, ever since she was little. Sure it required a bit to communicate with other fellow volcanologists but she was already well educated enough in the English language to do simple things such as that.
Emma had always been fascinated by volcanoes and crustal movement; it was simply amazing when she thought of it. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, underwater volcanoes, and the spreading of the ocean floor, it was all, just wow. Though she had never stood on a volcanic mountain before she really would like to; just thinking about it got her giddy with excitement, standing on a mountain that she knew had bubbling magma underneath it and could explode at any given moment like a bomb set a ticking but with no time marker to indicate detonation. Well that was only stratovolcanoes but she wouldn´t mind going to a shield volcano to watch the lava drip down. Sometimes she wished she could touch it, ha what a dream, touching lava that would melt off your fingers and burn your hand. Hell she'd be singed within an inch of it, if she didn't die from all the ash in the air first that would get in her lungs. It was strange that she was so calm thinking about such things.
She told herself the first volcano she was going to go to had to be in Iceland, absolutely no where else till then. She was apparently Icelandic, at least from what she had been told by her sisters (minus Kristin), which gave her a feeling of independence because the rest of them most definitely weren't. Helena had originally come from Denmark before meeting Kristin, Marilena from Sweden and Suoma from Finland, all five of them from Scandinavian countries. Emma wasn't Norwegian like Kristin liked to insist every time they broached the subject of their nationalities; Kristin was though, a Norwegian through and through. She spoke the language practically religiously and this just made Emma wonder more the reason in their leaving. Often times she would call out to Emma in the hallways in school in Norwegian and it would be rather embarrassing feeling the eyes on the two of them conversing in their first tongue. But it was because of these common embarrassing meetings in the hallways before class that she met Victoria, and for that Emma was grateful.
It had been a strange encounter, well maybe not all that strange but it was a bit, different. It was 9th period, the last class period she had before school let out. Emma was talking to Kristin about the homework she needed to do today so that her older sister would be aware that Emma was going to the library afterschool. Emma had no doubt that if Kristin didn't know where she was, she would call the police or worse, and if that didn't work she would hunt Emma down. It was a comforting thought when she walked through less than safe neighborhoods on her way home but otherwise it was just overbearing. Kristin really could be such an overprotective sister.
"Ja jeg vet, at jeg vil ikke bli for lenge Kristin [Yes I know, I won't be too long Kristin]," Emma grumbled, as she fiddled with her long almost silver tresses. The damn kinks in her normally manageable hair (well, after showering) just wouldn't go away! Ugh Kristin was lucky her hair was so neat and controlled, but, at least her hair wasn't like Helena's. Helena's was an absolute mess, even with short hair, though she guessed one could consider it a sexy kind of messy.
"Og før du går ringe meg storesøster [And before you go call me big sister]," Kristin said, taking pleasure in seeing the annoyance and blush on her little sister's face. She was just too adorable sometimes; the only fault was that she absolutely refused to call her Big Sister anymore.
Emma groaned in annoyance, responding with, "Jeg er ikke kalle deg det, jeg er ikke en liten jente lenger jeg er seksten! [I'm not calling you that, I'm not a little girl anymore I'm sixteen!]"
As she turned to leave a harsh wind blew through the hallway and her short russet brown skirt flew up. Hurriedly she pushed it back down in time for nothing too embarrassing to have been seen. She squeaked, clenching her eyes shut, why in the hell was there a wind gusting about the school hallways?! There was not an open window in sight and they were nowhere near a school exit how was this possible?! They were in the middle of goddamn winter, the air conditioners weren´t turned on either. Turning her head revealed that it had happened to Kristin as well as she pushed down her navy blue skirt, though she didn't really react to it like Emma had. In fact Emma hadn't heard any noise that indicated that Kristin felt it in the least, damn her and her passiveness. As she turned back to leave once again, choosing to ignore the random gust of wind, her wrist was grabbed.
"W-wha– ahh!" Emma screamed in surprise, she fell forwards as the person pulled her ahead, her white heeled boots finding nearly no purchase on the ground as they tried to keep up with the top half of her body. It would have been comical had she not been so terrified of hitting nearby people and objects as she was dragged around like a kite. Not only did she have to worry about being injured but also being exposed, these skirts were just too short. It was absolutely terrifying, much so that she didn't even see who the person who'd grabbed her had been, too focused on dodging people and things.
Looking back though, revealed that Kristin was chasing after her, an absolutely malicious glint in her eyes as they bore into the captor whom Emma had yet to see. Turning back to look at her sister was a big mistake though that was for certain because the second her head turned back forwards she was forced to duck as a Frisbee (Who would be throwing Frisbees in the hallway anyway?!) flew over her head that would've hit her if she hadn't ducked when she had. 'Come on Kristin catch up already!' she thought frantically; she wasn't sure how much longer her feet could carry her (see: flail around like uncoordinated frog legs) before giving up and letting the rest of her body literally be dragged across the crowded school hallways like a dead corpse.
An "oomph!" was heard and a thump; risking a look back confirmed it, Kristin had been hit by the freaking Frisbee of all things and she was currently sitting on the ground rubbing her forehead.
'Get up get up!' Emma thought in a panic and she was dragged further and further away from possible salvation . . . she never thought that her sister would be her salvation in a situation like this.
Just as she yelled out to Kristin, Helena appeared in front of Kristin, waving her arms frantically and blocking Emma from Kristin's sight. Emma couldn't make out what she was saying but it was probably a slew of apologies, Helena had been the one to throw the Frisbee after all, at least that's what Emma saw after ducking down.
At this rate Emma would never be saved, urgh that sounded like something a prissy princess type girl would have said, and that was not her. She may be physically weak but that didn't mean she couldn't try to escape by herself.
Deciding this would be a good time to actually look at who was grabbing her, something she probably should have done from the start so at least she might have an idea as to how and where to hit them, she took a good look at her captor.
Long dark brown hair, slim toned legs, oh, breasts, okay, female then.
Skít though, she had no idea who was pulling her along the school hallways, well it made sense, considering she and her sisters were still pretty new to the school, though Helena had made plenty of friends already in the short time they were here, as expected of the outgoing Dane.
In one last futile effort, Emma once again tried to drag her feet, and to her surprise as she was doing that, and getting less and less hold of her top half, the mysterious girl, stopped, and had her grip on Emma's arm been any less tight, Emma would have dropped onto the ground and hurt herself in some way.
"We're here," she said, turning her head slightly so she could gesture vaguely with an incline of her head the classroom they were now both in front of.
"Here? Where is here and why am I at it?" Emma asked, her breathing slightly labored.
"Oh, I had forgotten I was still holding onto you," she said letting go of Emma's hand now that she was able to properly stand on her two feet. "Hey you know you actually look kinda cute. You're new here too . . . so what's your name?"
Emma blushed at the "cute" remark but otherwise remained poised and as ice cold as her sister as she brushed herself off, patting down her skirt.
"Emma," she answered when she was done with her inspection, looking slightly down at the girl, because to her mild satisfaction even though the other was obviously much stronger she was still a bit taller.
The other girl raised an eyebrow at the frostiness of Emma's tone, "So I've caught an Ice Queen I see."
"Ice Queen!?" Emma said with indignation, "How dare you, you don't even know me!"
"How dare I? Wow I really grabbed the wrong girl huh?" she held her hands up, as if in surrender, though the smirk on her face told otherwise.
Emma didn't know why she was acting so angry and unreasonable, she would usually never let herself get like this around strangers, and it wasn't even that often at home. Actually what was she talking about, she should have been able to say all this, she could act angry if she liked! This, total stranger, had grabbed her and put her in danger, also making her late to class; she had every right to get angry at her!
"Yes, how. dare. you." She glared for extra effect, as if that would daunt her. Whenever Kristin spoke to someone with the intent to intimidate, she usually succeeded in doing so, very very well. Emma had never had any particular need to intimidate people but this was a better time than never to test out if she had the same ability as Kristin.
. . .
Well unfortunately no, if the girl's giggle was any indication.
"You're cute, but not that funny; that's totally cool though."
Emma blushed in embarrassment, tilting her head down towards her shoulder as she glanced at the linoleum floor, opting to keep her mouth shut this time around. She felt like such an antisocial freak.
"Hey, is your hair, like, naturally white?" she asked, leaning against the classroom's doorframe.
"Yeah I was born like this," Emma replied curtly, still looking at the floor. Her right hand is on her left elbow in that awkward stance she'd seen a lot of girls make before, and she didn't like that she was doing it right now.
"Cool."
There is a silence, and Emma can't bring herself to look up at the girl she only just before had been attempting to tell off. She bites her bottom lip, eyes darting from dark spot to dark spot on the floor. The silence is deafening now, and is clearly much too dramatic for such an encounter.
Emma let's her eyes tentatively glance upwards, before shooting back down, instantly regretting it. She had been staring at Emma, and it was unnerving. Now that Emma knew, she felt even more uneasy. A lock of her silvery white hair slipped from its perch behind her left ear.
The girl blinked at the movement.
"So uhm, are you gonna come inside with me or not?" she asks, her face and voice not betraying the nervousness one might see in her eyes.
There was really no point anymore, the final bell had rung maybe 5, 10 minutes ago, and Emma didn't particularly enjoy her literature class that is shared with the three most well known students on campus: Alice Kirkland, Francine Bonnefoy, and Amelia F. Jones. They often, no, always, bicker during class, and Emma is having a hard enough time as it is, since she isn't completely fluent in English. Adding the fact that Alice hated her guts, and liked to pick on her, she could see the bright side of this situation.
Instead of walking away, like she had planned to, instead Emma hesitantly nodded. As soon as she did she was being pulled again, this time into the classroom, which she found out was a science lab.
The room's lights were off, but the large projector was on, and a video was paused, with two Asian actors, looking as if they were about to profess their love for each other.
Emma looked at the screen, eyebrows raised, and her mouth in a small frown.
"안녕! Who's the cutie you brought along?"
Emma was pulled from her thoughts by a female voice, not the voice of the girl who had taken her here, but another's. What exactly were they doing here?
"Emma, she's a new girl from a foreign European country," Emma's original captor said absentmindedly as she inspected her nails. They were a bright and offending red that should have been way too mature of a color on a girl her age, but it seemed pretty fitting. In the middle of each nail was a white flower pattern, and it seemed familiar but Emma couldn't seem to put her finger on it, no pun intended.
"Oh cool!" the other girl seemed to take this answer fairly well. She herself wore almost physically loud neon clothing that seemed to scream, look at me! in a very teenage, bubbly, way. Her hair was done in one long braid that reached half down her back, with a very cute mint choco polka dot bow tied at the end. Yes cute, Emma liked her ribbons and bows.
This girl grinned, and seemed much more friendly and outgoing than the other girl had been.
"Hey I'm Jeong Hee, from South Korea, nice to meet you!" Jeong Hee held out her hand, Emma assumed it was for her to shake. Since it wasn't like Emma didn't have manners, she took her hand, reluctantly grasping it but regretting it immediately, gasping in surprise as Jeong Hee tightened her grip and shook up and down, with a lot of unnecessary force in both her hands; yes she was apparently one of those people that shook hands with both of their hands. Emma had felt like a ragdoll much too many times today than what should be healthy.
The other girl watched the whole exchange between Jeong Hee and Emma coolly, legs crossed, and flip phone in hand as she snapped a picture.
"Oh that's right, I forgot to give my own name," the other girl was perched on one of the school computer chairs' top rail, her feet planted on the seat. She didn't look away from her phone. "It's Victoria, Victoria Li. And before you ask if I'm Chinese, no I'm from Hong Kong, so I'm a Hong Konger." Ah so that was the flag on her nails.
"That's so rude of you Victoria, you should have introduced yourself before you grabbed her at least! Also you need to make eye contact!" Jeong Hee pouted as she lightly swatted Victoria's arm. Victoria only waved her hand flippantly in Jeong Hee's direction.
Emma felt so, awkward. She didn't know either of these girls, and here she was with the both of them alone, in this room. She was once again in that posture, that awkward posture that seemed to say, "Can a hole swallow me into the ground right now? Yeah thanks that'd be fantastic." It was like some teenage instinct to have her hand on her elbow/arm like this, and her legs feeling awkward while they stood up. 'Terrible', Emma thought to herself, 'a truly terrible feeling.'
"So Emma, if you're new here, then, you must not have any friends!" Jeong Hee addressed Emma once again, in that chipper way of hers.
To put it bluntly that was absolutely correct actually. And that's not something a person would usually want to admit but in this case, Emma just didn't care, it wasn't like she would ever meet these two again anyways, the school was absolutely massive.
"And you say I'm rude huh?" Victoria said, now not on her phone and instead watching the other two girls, her cheek leaning on her right hand, as her elbow rested on her thigh.
"Well it's not like she's disagreeing with me!" Jeong Hee pouted, looking back at Victoria with a hurt look, but Victoria only scoffed.
"Even if that's the case you don't just say things like that, there are things called social rules and common sense."
"Actually, she's right, I," a sigh and a slight shrug of her shoulders with her hand still on her arm, "don't really have any friends." Emma shrugged again, looking at the ground while her hands left her arm to instead fiddle with the bottom of her shirt's cloth.
"I told you so," Jeong Hee whisper hissed, in the loud way, with her hands cupped around her mouth, like a megaphone, as she tilted her head backwards to give Victoria a pointed look to which Victoria responded to with a roll of her golden eyes. Emma could obviously hear what Jeong Hee had said but chose not to respond.
"Anyways Emma, that's totally cool! Actually that's better than cool because we'll automatically be your best friends then since you don't have any others!" Jeong Hee chirped cheerfully back at Emma after her not so secret exchange with Victoria. Emma blanched, that was kinda direct. Victoria smacked her face.
"Jeong Hee just, let me do this okay?" she said, her voice muffled by her hand as she peered at Jeong Hee threateningly through her fingers.
"What? Did I mess up?" Apparently she didn't feel any hint of Victoria's glare.
"Yes, royally." After this Victoria sighed, closing her eyes and combing her fingers through her long waist length dark brown hair, before slowly opening her golden eyes and looking at Emma.
"Okay look, like we got off on a bad start, and honestly I didn't think you'd be so annoyed about the whole grabbing thing—"
"Well I am," Emma cut her off, looking crossly at Victoria. She had nothing against Jeong Hee who seemed to be nice, but she still had reservations about Victoria. She was only apologizing now and she seemed so, so (what was the word?), so stuck up god. Emma didn't like her at all. "We were chased down five hallways by my sister and I practically had my arm pulled from its socket, so yeah, I guess I'm pretty 'annoyed' about that whole situation."
"Whoo," Jeong Hee whistled, "Someone is lathering on the sarcasm."
Victoria gave her an aggravated questioning look that seemed to convey, "What the hell are you talking about she's just butt hurt and she only said one sarcastic thing. What is the meaning of sarcasm to you?" Victoria's glances could be pretty detailed.
Jeong Hee just shrugged in reply before turning away to continue watching the Korean drama that was still running on the board it was projected on.
Victoria after having felt Jeong Hee wouldn't bother them anymore turned back to face Emma, sighing in annoyance as she continued to run her hands through her long hair. It was a just something she did for no particular reason, maybe it calmed her down or something like that, she wasn't sure.
"Alright I'll admit it was dumb of me to take you but you know you looked interesting and you were speaking in some weird European language, so I thought why the heck not?"
Emma lost the angry look on her face to instead replace it with a disbelieving stare. Why the heck not? WHY THE HECK NOT?! Was that really why Emma went through that traumatic experience? Because some girl thought it'd be fun to drag her around? Literally, what. the. fuck.
"Hey uhm, you're not mad right?"
Emma could only pull up a chair, sit in it and stare at the Korean drama that was playing. This was so stupid that she could formulate no correct response to what she had been told.
"I'll take that as a no then."
Emma sighed at the memories as she and Victoria headed for the local herbal store, and the familiar feeling of being dragged nearly everywhere was once again with her, but this time she could not help but appreciate their intertwined hands. She also could not help smiling at the familiar red color on Victoria's nails.
"What's got you so happy?"
Victoria's question brought her out of her thoughts and looking at Victoria's confused face only made her smile more.
"Nothing," with the smile still on her face Victoria found that hard to believe.
"Sure doesn't seem like nothing to me."
"What, I can't smile every once in a while?"
"You can, but when you do you know I always have to stop myself from hug tackling you." Victoria grinned when she saw Emma pale at the threat.
"W-well I can't help it if I'm just that cute," Emma attempted to say so confidently but instead stuttered, and the words she had just spoken made her want a hole to swallow her into the ground. That had sounded so dumb god. She covered her face in embarrassment as she blushed.
Victoria herself was flushing red, a hand covering her mouth to hide the squeal that was practically clawing its way up her throat; Emma's reaction was too cute for this planet. Victoria wondered how she didn't just internally combust just then trying to hold it in; Emma just did not realize how endearing she could really be sometimes.
A/N: I honestly hate when people put language translations on the fucking bottom of the story like I'm not losing my place in the text to scroll the fuck down to see what they're saying, just put the fucking translation there it's not awkward looking or anything! On the topic of translations, I used Google translate for that Norwegian conversation bit between Kristin and Emma, it's probably wrong, so if you know Norwegian tell me how it should be written please.