China liked cute things.
He liked plush toys, things he could take to bed with him that wouldn't irritate him later. Soft personifications of animals with eternally adorable faces, they were. They never changed, never saddened or became restless, never learned the sin of rage and started wars and shed innocent blood over irrelevant things…
His toys never left him.
China often wished that his siblings were like the toys. Japan never would've become a selfish, violent empire if he'd been born a tiny, squishy momonga. Korea never would've become a deprived and perverted stalker if he'd been a plush red squirrel. Hong Kong should've been a plush panda that China could hide in his room, among the blankets and other toys, where England never would've found him and stolen him away…
"China?"
He was buried in his collection, made up of mostly Shinatty-chan, when he heard his youngest sibling calling for him. His body ached with age and fatigue, and he had yet to will himself to move by the time Hong Kong reached his room.
"China, you've been laying in here all day. It isn't healthy."
"Do you like plushies, Hong?"
He knew his question would catch the boy off guard, and he managed a pitifully weak smile at the confused nod he received in response.
"They're cute, aren't they? They're soft and cute and they never change emotions like we do. They're just there, to be comforting and…"
He buried his face in the stomach of a Shinatty, mumbling the final part of his sentence into the squashy material.
"And?"
Hong Kong's voice was wavering. The darker corners of China's mind were talking, not China himself.
"…but if you lose one, especially in a big place…" he felt his face grow hot while his chest grew cold, "…they never come back to you…"
The world seemed to swim and blend, and reality didn't grasp him again until he felt arms sliding around his torso. Thick, well-muscled arms to match thick, over-developed eyebrows that never should've been there…
"I came back to you."
He could feel Hong Kong's words as they left his lips. He felt them as a warm, consoling air against his skin. He smiled as he squeezed his plushies closer, and as Hong Kong mimicked his gesture onto him, he felt an epiphany's light on his heart.
"And that's why I love you more than any of these."