Title: Pierce an Arrow through My Heart
Pairing: Philippines x Hong Kong
Warning(?): Human names used. Hong Kong ooc ness. Fluff.
Sitting on a low branch of her favorite mango tree, sat Maria, the personification of the Philippines, carving out wooden arrows made from nearby branches.
Bow in hand; she tests out her home-made weapons on a poor, helpless mango a few branches overhead.
Isa. She sets the bow in proper position.
Dalawa. She pulls back the string, locking on to her target.
Tatlo. She releases the arrow.
She smiled as she heard the satisfying thump of stone piercing fruit on wood. A perfect hit. She jumps from branch to branch acrobatically, trying to reach her prize. Retrieving her arrow, she savors the sweetness of her national fruit.
As she finished her yellow delight, the light sound of breaking twigs made its way to her ears.
Hunting instincts kicking in, she springs to the safety of the top branches. She readies her bow in defense mode.
With sharp eyes, she looks for the cause of the break. Looking around, shed spots a familiar mop of messy black hair. As the person turned around, she saw well kept, but still fairly large, England-like eyebrows.
Feeling mischievous, she decided to startle him jumping off her branch and landing in front of him.
Crouching down low, she sprang up and did a back-flip, landing expertly on her feet in front of her target.
"Natakot ka ba kuya?" (Did I scare you big brother?).
It was a pointless question really. Even though he had a perfectly stoic mask on, nothing could cover the alarm hidden deep in his coffee brown eyes.
Li Xiao, the personification of Hong Kong, said nothing and chose to just stare at the weapons on Maria's back. Seeing this, she grabbed them from her back.
"Are you looking at my arrows?" (Is it me, or does this sound wrong? XD) He nodded in their direction.
A proud grin spread across the Filipina's face. Looking closely, a faint pink tint dusted the cheeks of the young Cantonese male.
"Do you like them? I made them myself." Puffing her tiny chest in pride, the 5'2 foot girl looked up at the 5'7 boy. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. He was smiling. Smiling! His face looked absolutely angelic with the light glow of the setting sun accompanied by the light, spring breeze.
Dropping her weapons, she couldn't contain the small gasp that escaped her soft, pink lips.
"K-kuya…" She said in a small voice.
"Maria". She flinched as an unusual wave of emotion replaced the impassive tone that she heard in his voice millions of times before.
"Ano po kuya?" (What big brother?) She managed to squeak out.
He chuckled at her sudden politeness. He stepped closer to the Filipina and started stroking her long, ebony hair.
All her muscles tensed at the sudden contact. Poor Maria was not used to this form of intimacy from him. Not at all.
"You can call me by my first name, you know." He said, still stroking her hair.
"But that would be disrespectful, po. Kuya China taught me to always be respectful, po" She spoke softly, trying to avoid his eyes. Li Xiao stopped stroking her hair and instead grabbed her shoulders, forcing their eyes to meet.
"I don't care about that, Maria. You aren't my servant; I am not your master. I want to be your friend. I want to be someone close to you." She stared at him. For once, she could see the loneliness hidden deep inside his solely. He was only a lone boy hidden behind the stoic mask, a boy who desperately craved her attention. Feeling her body react before her mind, she wrapped her arms around his chest in a tight embrace. Burying her face in his shoulder, the words she spoke came out muffled, but Li Xiao heard them clearly.
"But…you are close to me Li Xiao. You've always been." His face turned pink at her bold move.
Millions of emotions ran through Li Xiao as he slowly processed what was happening. He was happy, no, ecstatic! Wrapping his arms around her petite body, he hugged her back tenderly.
Breaking away, he was about to confess his hidden feelings for her, when suddenly, a shrill shout of a certain Taiwanese girl shattered it.
"Maria! Yao gege needs your help right now in the kitchen!" She screamed when she got close to them. Greeting her and her and then saying goodbye, she sprinted in the direction of the Chinese man's house.
Turning her back from the Cantonese boy, Mei stared at the retreating figure of her younger sister.
"You know Li Xiao", she started, "It's not going to be easy."
He didn't turn to her. Instead, he stared longingly at the direction from which the Filipina disappeared.
"I know that". He replied.
"You're going to have to compete against rivals"
"I know that"
"And many challenges"
"I know that"
"…And the fear of rejection" He stared at the ground, dread threatening to consume him.
"I know that very well Mei."
"Very well then" With that being said, she returned from where she came from.
Feeling emotionally drained, Li Xiao sits down on a nearby tree root. Stretching his legs out, he accidentally knocks over Maria's forgotten arrow. Picking one up, he examined it fondly. Thinking of his embrace with his Maria, he smiles one more time.
"I don't know how you did it Maria", he said while placing the arrow close to his heart, "but you've managed to pierce an arrow through my heart."
Looking at the finally vanishing sun, all he could think of was the radiant smile of the Filipina, his Filipina.
"Wo ai ni"
a/n: hey everybody! I tried making a one-shot between Philippines and Hong Kong, as you can tell. I made it too fluffy for my liking, but oh well. Funny thing, while I was finishing this up, Microsoft decided to be mean and not respond. I ended up having to re-type a third of this. I was like 'noooo! ' and was cursing out my computer. Heh, heh….well enjoy. I'll posting new chapters for The War Begins Again when I have the time. Please don't be shy! Read and Review!