Chapter 1 – The Boy and the Window

Today was a normal day at the High School of the World.

Well, as normal as a day really can be when surrounded by the strangest people across the globe. Which probably wasn't very normal in the grand scheme of things. However, the World was like a sort of home to everyone within it, no matter how odd or extreme their differences may be. The World was actually a series of schools that could take a child from kindergarten straight through to college, so many of the students knew each other very well. However, due to its immense size and ever-growing popularity, there were new students every few months or so, and others found it too hard and left. Friendships came and went in this place, and the students grew to adapt. It was normal to see your friends leave, and it was normal to find new ones almost instantly. Nobody ever paid the idea much thought.

That's just how the World worked. It was a simple truth that was accepted early on, especially to those students that had gone to the schools since their childhood. However, this often meant that, as children are like to do, not many of the students at the World became very close with one another. There was almost an unspoken rule that one is never to fall in love; to fall in love meant letting someone in behind your walls, giving them your trust, opening your heart to someone who would most likely walk away and take a piece of you with them.

There were still couples who gave it a shot, of course – but when one of the two moved away and on to a different school, the students saw what became of the one left behind. It was a fate few ever spoke about, but all feared.

Heartbreak, and the undying feeling of being so wholly alone that you couldn't stand it.

That was why Yao Wang, a Chinese boy of eighteen in his Senior year of high school at the World, promised himself he would never fall in love.

…

Resting his face upon on of his fists, Yao drew lazy lines across his notes that formed the vague shape of a panda. He wasn't really trying to make anything beautiful; he was bored, and class was going to be over in a few minutes anyway, then he'd be able to go to lunch and finally fill his stomach with something of substance. He had forgotten to eat breakfast this morning, and it was already late in the afternoon, and his stomach was growling, and why couldn't Alfred just shut up about food for one second please?

"Dude, seriously, I feel like that clock slows down on purpose when it's almost lunchtime!" The American whined loudly, gesturing not-so-subtly at the offensive clock hanging on the wall of the classroom. "Come on!" he shouted at the object, "move faster already so I can eat! I'm starving, and today they're serving cheeseburgers in line two, and I neeeeeeeed one right now!"

"You bloody git," Arthur Kirkland, the British student beside him, remarked with a tone of annoyance. "Time doesn't just slow down because it's almost lunch. And it certainly won't speed up just because you told it to."

Alfred F. Jones looked back at Arthur with a look of childish curiosity. "Eh? Whoa, man, so are you saying that if I asked really nicely it would speed up?" Not giving the Briton a chance to answer, he spun back around to the clock and held his hands as if in prayer, then allowed his head to fall and hit the desk with a loud 'thump'. "PLEASE, FATHER TIME, CAN YOU MOVE QUICKER SO MY STOMACH DOESN'T MELT ITSELF AWAY? PLE-EASE, I'M SO HUNGRY!"

Yao raised an eyebrow at the display, but was more than amused when Arthur proceeded to drop a textbook on the American's head without real warning. Alfred's head snapped up and he cradled it between his hands, whining obnoxiously. However, Yao (and the rest of the class) had become so accustomed to this display that he had learned to block the noise out. That was something a student had to learn if the attended the World – blocking out stupidity, that is – but it never truly went away.

The people in the World really were all a bunch of idiots.

Absentmindedly, Yao allowed his attention to wander a little further away to where his Japanese brother, Kiku Honda, was chatting with the Greek boy, Heracles Karpusi. Honestly, Heracles was probably one of the only people that could get Kiku to really speak, save for Alfred and that Italian kid (which, by consequence, included the German too.) His brother nodded politely at something the Greek was saying, an action which was promptly returned by a slow smile and a lazy gesture that probably had something to do with discussing philosophy. The two of them were always talking about philosophy, and while Yao had thought it interesting at first, the never-ending topics had quickly grown to be too abstract and drawled on for too long for the Chinese's likes. So he didn't so much listen to their conversation as he watched them have it, silently admiring how much Kiku opened up around this man.

He desperately hoped Heracles wouldn't move away, for Kiku's sake.

Just then, the bell started to ring, and Alfred was out of the door before it ended. His stampeding footsteps could be heard echoing from down the halls, but the rest of the classroom hardly even seemed to notice. Arthur seemed to be the only one who cared enough to say something, but as always, it was a mutter under the breath of something akin to "at least he's working off all those calories running down the hall."

In small groups the students filtered out, but Yao waited until there were few left before he packed up his belongings and rose to his feet. Lunch was an hour long at the World, to accommodate for the immense group of students, so he had no real reason to rush. And it was better to wait than to get run over by passersby who did happen to be in a rush, such as a certain glasses-wearing jock. At least, that's what Yao believed.

As he slung his bag over his shoulder, he caught sight of something that wasn't so normal for a day at the World. A boy who looked to be about his age was still seated at his desk in the far back corner of the room, next to the window. The boy was rather tall, a fact that was apparent besides the fact that he was sitting down, and was propped up on one elbow as he gazed outside. His bangs fell into his turned-away eyes so that Yao couldn't quite see what color they were, but his hair itself was a fair color, caught somewhere between being actually blonde and being somewhat white. A prominent yet handsome nose jutted from his face and complimented his slightly round yet still sharp jawline. He appeared to be unmoving, save for the slightest movement of lips as breath passed through.

Yao wasn't sure if the boy had heard the bell by the way he was just sitting there, but something held him back from asking. Even if he hadn't heard it, he would surely notice that the rest of the class was gone and follow. With one final glance towards the boy staring out the window, Yao Wang turned away and exited the room without a word.

…

"Hey, here he comes! See, Artie, I told you he wasn't going to skip lunch!"

"I've told you a thousand times not to call me "Artie," you bloody idiot."

Yao's table, which consisted of Alfred, Arthur, Kiku and Heracles, looked up to see as the Chinese boy took his seat across from his brother. Yao set his tray on the table and watched with an unamused gaze as Alfred and Arthur got into yet another quarrel, though it was quickly cut off by a hamburger being stuffed into the American's mouth. The silence was short lived, however, as Alfred decided to talk with half the thing still in his mouth, therefore spitting food onto the table. Not that he noticed. Arthur said something about how it was a revolting display of improper upbringing, but he refused to clean up the mess. Kiku and Yao shifted away from Alfred as subtly as they could, whereas Heracles simply remained where he was.

Yao sighed. He needed better, quieter friends who weren't his brother or his brother's friend.

Yao took a bite of his food and allowed a faint smile to creep onto his face as the food settled in his stomach. It was by no means gourmet, and he could've bought better things at the nearest fast food joint, but for now, it satiated his hunger, and that was enough. Just as he was beginning to enjoy his meal, however, Alfred decided to bring the table's attention back to Yao, asking him, "So hey, man. What took you so long to get here anyways?"

"I was packing up my stuff like usual-aru. You know I don't sprint a mile for a hamburger like you do."

Alfred ignored the comment and pressed for more. "Hey, not even you normally take that long, old man. So what's up?"

And then suddenly Francis was sitting on top of their table, sprung from oblivion, causing Yao to jump in surprise. He quickly moved his food as far away from Francis as he could and slid closer to Alfred again, trying to do all he could to get away from the Frenchman. Arthur shouted something obscene and rose to his feet, but Francis ignored him and winked at the rest of the table.

"Ah, did our Chinese friend here find l'amour at long last?" he asked under his breath, as if he were trying to seduce everyone at the table at once.

Yao glared at Francis with no reservations about appearing rude. After all, he wasn't the one sitting where everyone else's food went.

"Whoa, dudes, did you hear that? Yao has a girlfriend!" Alfred cried out, his eyes practically shining with excitement. Yao felt annoyance turn into frustration as the American and the Frenchman began talking animatedly with each other, leaving Yao – the subject of the conversation – out of it.

"I do not have a girlfriend-aru." Yao said, the conviction in his voice earning him his 'friends'' attention once more.

"Oh~?" Francis leaned in closer, and Yao could tell that he smelled like flowers. It was starting to make him dizzy. "Then, what were you doing while your friends awaited your arrival?"

Yao rolled his eyes. He gave up. There was absolutely no winning this game with Francis. Despite the almost-rule, Francis was one of the few people in the World who never stopped going on and on about love. He made constant remarks about how sad it was that people didn't love enough at this school. He was known to most of the students as a player, and women and men alike tried to keep away from him, not necessarily out of any hatred for the man, but they were afraid. That didn't stop Francis from trying, however.

And whenever Francis thought he found any trace of his beloved "amour," whether it had anything to do with him or not, he refused to change the subject. So the only thing Yao could do was tell him the truth and hope he dropped it.

"Look, I saw this boy as I was about to leave the class-aru. He was just sitting there, looking out the window. I didn't recognize him, so I left. That's it-aru."

Apparently Francis only caught the first sentence. "Oh hon hon, so our little Chinese friend walks the other way, oui? Not that I'm surprised, given these two over here," he said as he gestured towards Kiku and Heracles. Kiku's face lit up a bright red and panic seemed to overtake his eyes at the assumption.

"Ah, no, Francis-san, I'm not-"

"Whoa! Yao, I never knew you were gay! When were you planning on telling us, huh?"

Yao slumped to the table in defeat. Great. Now his friends were off on the tangent train, and nobody knew when it would return. Hopefully sometime soon. Yao didn't want rumors to start spreading throughout the school. It wasn't so much a problem as it was an annoyance, and he didn't have a problem with being considered gay. He just had never put much thought into his sexuality before. It kind of went along with the almost-rule. Don't fall in love; don't think about falling in love. Don't think about what kinds of people you'd end up falling in love with. It never ended well for anyone.

And now, Yao's completely crazy tablemates wouldn't shut up about it.

"I give up on all of you-aru." Yao sighed as he put more food in his mouth. The rest of the lunch period passed by ever so slowly, and eventually the group strayed from talking about Yao to talking about Francis and Alfred and Arthur (the last sputtering indignantly upon being accused of as being homosexual, to the Frenchman's amusement.) Francis never did get off of their table.

…

When Yao got home that day, he felt exhausted. That last test at the end of the day had worn him out, and although Kiku and the rest of his siblings were quick to get to their pastime hobbies, Yao trudged up the stairs to his room. He was the only family member in the house who had his own bedroom, since he was the oldest. His parents were just down the hall, and then the rest of his siblings had ended up sharing rooms.

So, not for the first time in his life, Yao was thankful he was the firstborn child. Having his own room meant that he could plop down on his bed and unwind and stare at the ceiling for as long as he wanted without people bustling around him. It was nice, and one of the few comforts he was allowed to have on a day-to-day basis.

And today was definitely one of those plop-down-on-the-bed days.

After that extenuating day at the World, Yao wanted to do nothing but fall asleep and never wake back up. He figured Kiku was feeling very much the same way. While most of the attention had been on him, his Japanese brother had also been a target of Francis's, and he seemed to not have taken the embarrassment all that well. Heracles was perfectly fine with the assumption; if anything, he didn't even notice what he and Kiku were being accused of. Or maybe he had. Who knows.

Yao closed his eyes against the comfortable warmth of his blankets pillowing up beside him. Sleep. He was going to sleep, and figure everything out tomorrow, when his head didn't feel so heavy. Maybe then his friends would have moved on to another topic. If he was lucky enough.

But for now, sleep. Sleep sounded nice.

A/N: Here's a new Russia x China project I'm starting to work on! My sister isn't going to be participating in this one, so it'll be up to me to write Yao Wang. This will be the first time I've officially ever written his character, so I hope he ends up coming across as the China we all know and love.

I plan on having a healthy dose of humor in this one, since my last Rochu, Broken Eyes in a Busy Crowd, is rather angsty and kind of depressing. However, this story is ultimately one huge character study, so it will get deep and serious lots of times, too.

Also, the High School of the World is an idea that I took from Gakuen Hetalia and similar fanfictions, but it has been modified for this story by me. There's so many parallels one can use when your school is literally known as "the World" and I figured it'd give some artistic touch to a rather popular genre. I hope you will all enjoy reading it as much as I love writing it!

One last thing - while this story is almost solely focused on the pairing Russia x China, it will also contain some America x England and Greece x Japan. However, since this story is written solely from Yao's point of view, you will only ever see as much of those pairings as Yao does, so it really won't be that much in the grand scheme of things. I hope these pairings won't dissuade some of you from reading! Thanks so much for anyone who takes the time to read The Sunflower Garden!

-Temorali