"History is written by the victors." - Winston Churchill.
A/N: And ain't that a bitch? The title is based off of the GOSICK opening. Sounds French, I think. And I would like to state here and now, I'm an American. [Insert "Stupid American!" à la faux French here] I have not actually heard Australian people speak. Aside from like the Wiggles, Crocodile Hunter, and communitychannel's videos, that is. All wonderful examples, yes? Sarcasm.
So yeah, Australians! I mean you no harm. This little American isn't trying to be offensive. She just doesn't meet too many Australian people. My friend loves Australia and stuff. She told me it has six states, so a states quiz on Australia should bode pretty well.
PS Hospitals scare the living crap out of me, so I don't know too much. I had to watch Scrubs for reference.
I am in a hospital. There is a boy frantically screaming. Holding my hand. Telling me to hang in there. Saying I'll be alright. He has brown hair with two ends sticking up. Pale green eyes. Bandage across the nose. He's got skin like he's in the sun a lot. Blood on his clothes. He's squeezing my hand with all he's got. It sort of hurts. A doctor comes in and practically has to rip him away from me. The doctor has an austere look in his eyes. Two nurses in blue scrubs come in and take him out of the room. The boy is trying to fight off the nurses as well. No, I want to say, let him stay. Please let him stay. I try. Nothing comes out. I fade out.
I wake up in a room filled with white. White walls. White sheets. Doctors in white. Nurses in white. Grim charts printed on white sheet of paper. Even the flowers on the bedside are white. There is a throbbing pain in my head. I touch the aching spot with my hand and find that, yes, here too the wrappings are a deathly white. A boy with sharp brown eyes peeks into my white room. His eyes catch mine for a moment before someone shouts at him. The sounds of running footsteps on tile make me drowsy. I fade out.
There is a light breeze in the room. It's coming from the open window. Nighttime. The bright moon outside flashes me a halfhearted grin. Taunting me with a secret I couldn't possibly know the answer to. How long have I been like this? Coming in and out of this dreamless sleep. If that's what you call it. The moonlight shines on a chair that wasn't there before. Bloodied school clothes hang off the back. I assume, I tell myself bitterly, those are mine. Below the clothes there is a child's toy of some sort. A sun with eight rays of light. A childishly cruel smile poised on its sewn lips. Blue eyes intent on malice stare back at me. Perhaps for the last time, I hope, I fade out.
ヘタリア！
Light was streaming through my open window when I finally woke up. It was morning now. Daylight. Slowly, so I wouldn't screw up my bandages, I pulled myself out of the cocoon of sheets I'd been wrapped in. I looked around the white room. I spotted the chair with the bloody uniform and the eerie sun toy.
I walked over tentatively, like somehow the toy would spring to life and eat me. It didn't. However, the sun's features seemed to have changed from the other night. It's eyes were a cheery blue and its smile was completely cartoonish. No sign of evil here. Quickly, I set it down before it could start reciting demonic phrases in my ear. I could hear an argument starting outside my door.
"...resting right now...really shouldn't go in...doctor's orders..."
"I don't give a...seven days...can go shove a croc up his...Steve!" countered a boy incoherently to the hospital nurse. He sounded very determined and vaguely familiar. Is it bad that I can't remember his name? Possibly.
"...animals in the hospital...!"
"Don't care...go ahead and call...nothin' on me...goin' in."
The boy stormed in with an angry nurse at his heels. There was a koala on his arm, also very angry, and poised to strike. The queer trio came in, loud and bringing mad vibes into the room. It was kinda annoying and giving me a headache.
"You can't be in here!" hissed the nurse "She's supposed to get her rest!"
"Bugger off already, it's visiting hours and you're wasting my time!"
"You're kind of loud, so if you could be quiet-"
"Young man, I've been a nurse at this establishment for over twenty-five years and never, never in my twenty-five years of service have I met such an unruly visitor as you! Were you raised in a barn? Surely you've heard of manners! Courtesy! Civility! Are these words familiar?"
"I don't give a rat's arse how long you've been working here, lady," He retorted, eyes reflecting the bullshit the nurse was dealing,"Visiting hours are from 8 AM to 8 PM and I intend on making good on my visiting! Now if you'll excuse me."
"My head is starting to hurt really bad-"
"Well, I never!"
"It's about damn time you did then!"
"EXCUSE ME, COULD YOU BOTH KINDLY STOP YELLING? I'M GETTING A HEADACHE."
Their attention snapped towards me and for a while everything went quiet. Nothing but the sounds of beeping hospital gadgets and the squeaking of wheelchairs filled the room. We just stood there and stared at each other for a while. Me, the green-eyed boy, the touchy nurse, and for some reason that angry koala. That touchy nurse recovered first, having had a page on her beeper and mumbling something about Mr. Dickinson relieving himself on the geraniums again. She stormed off, leaving me and my visitor alone with his angry koala.
"So," I smiled, "Who are you?" It was an innocent enough question. The only memory I've had of this boy was him frantically screaming at me on the hospital bed. He looked surprised for a moment and then broke into peals of laughter. The koala on his arms was perched precariously as its owner bent over double from laughing. Now it was my turn be surprised.
"That's a good one, Sheila. Almost got me there! 'Who are you?' That blow to the head must've hit you pretty hard there, huh?"
I said nothing. My silence spoke for itself. After hearing no affirmations to this supposed absurdity, he stopped laughing. He even straightened up. His face a new mask of awe and disappointment.
"You're not joking, are you...?"
"No, no I'm not," I continued "What's going on? Where am I? What happened to me?" The boy just stared back, just as confused and shocked as I was. I tried to remember anything from beyond the blurry hospital occurrences. Nothing. Then I tried to remember where I had seen this guy before the hospital. Also nothing. This couldn't be good. I tried to remember anything that had happened before I was in the hospital. I drew up a complete blank, as white and as empty as the hospital walls. Oh God. A horrible thought occurred to me. My name. My own name. What was it? What was my name, goddammit!
"I...I don't...I don't even remember my name..." I choked out. My fists balled up so tightly that my nails dug painfully into my skin. Not enough to bleed, mind you, but hard enough so that it was uncomfortable. It was pretty damn close though. Though I tried not to, I was crying by then. Crying for the things I wished I could remember. Crying for not knowing something as simple as my name. Crying for this feeling of hopelessness. I cried like a small child that has lost something precious. I have lost something precious.
I felt a hand patting my head comfortingly. I looked up and saw the boy carefully avoiding the bandages to pat my head. He gave me a reassuring smile. The kind that don't look halfhearted. I think this is "grinning ear to ear." Wiping away tears and snot, insanely gross combination, I hiccuped myself to a stop. He was still petting my head when I stopped.
"Psh, forgetting a few things isn't that important! See, I forget things all the time. Sometimes even feeding Steve," he offered. The koala, Steve most likely, growled in response. I think Steve understood English. Something to keep in mind next time I got near this mad marsupial.
"Not your name!" I bawled.
"Well no, but I've done sillier things. Much more queer than forgetting my name."
"Like what?"
"Hmm...Well when I was real small, a kangaroo mistook me for her joey and rode off with me in her pouch. I was halfway across the Outback before anyone caught up to me! Man, was my boss blue in the face. Told me not to get too close to the wildlife. As if I'd actually listen to him," he laughed. It was such an outrageous story that I had to. A kangaroo mistaking this Australian for her own? It was absolutely insane!
For a while I listened to him as he told me stories about his hilarious misadventures. I laughed and cried tears of joy from laughing too much. Seriously, this guy was funny. Steve took a crap on his arm halfway through one story, so he had to excuse himself to use the bathroom. Cleaning off koala crap was some serious shit.
I may not know much, not even my own name, but I did know that this Koala had some serious issues. That and the sun plushie's eyes were following me around the room...
"You're kind of creepy, but cute in way. I do hope you know that," I stated to the sun plush. I was not expecting a reply, naturally, but when I did get one it was unnerving to say the least.
"Yes. Thank you, I get that a lot."
"Holy-! You-You can talk! You're talking. You're talking to me. You're a talking sun plush and you're speaking to me in my brain!"
"I think we've already established that, you simple-minded girl. Anything else you'd like to say, Captain Obvious?" retorted the sun plush. For a doll, this thing had one serious mouth on it. Geez.
"Who are you and why are you here?"
"I see that your brain is more grey splatter than grey matter these days. Very well then. You may call me Sol. I am an adviser of sorts."
"I receive my pearls of wisdom from a creepy talking doll? Huh. That sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood horror movie."
"And I'm to assume that you think Outback Zack would be better suited to dispense his words of wisdom unto you, hmm? Is that it?"
"Well..."
"Please don't actually answer that, I'm afraid your idiocy may be contagious. I don't want to catch it."
"Hey!" I exclaimed indignantly. I was probably a lot of things, all of which I couldn't exactly remember, but sucker to a creepy doll wasn't gonna be one of them. I started to count the tiny tiles on the floor to pass the time, blocking out any more of Sol's supposed attempts to communicate with me. I was probably imagining this is all. A mere side effect to all of this hospital medicine. My memory would probably come back soon and I could live happily ever after. I told myself this as I counted. I waited for the Australian and his demented koala to come back.
Twenty-nine...thirty...thirty-one...thirty-two...thirty-three...thirty-four...thirty-five...
ヘタリア！
"Augh, Steve! Did you eat bad eucalyptus leaves or somethin'? That stuff was runnin' down my arm like nobody's business!" fumed Australia as he trailed out of the men's room. Keith Irwin only had a handful of times when he was mistaken for a toilet, but not one of those times was the animal in question a koala with the runs. There was a piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe but he hardly noticed. He was too busy bemoaning the runny poop that had been all over his arm three minutes prior.
He turned the corner and nearly bumped into another one of his country classmates. It was Kiku Honda otherwise known as Japan. What was he doing here? Didn't he have those weird little comics to start reading? Or better yet, why was he walking around in the sunlight of his own free will? Usually a student had to coax Japan out of his burrow of a room like a frightened animal. Japan had his head down, like he was ashamed of something. Australia, in his blessed oblivious state, did not notice.
"G'day Kiku! Didn't see you there. It's actually rare to see you outta your room and in sunlight," began the Aussie,"What brings you 'round these parts? Gonna visit Philippines?"
Kiku shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. He was about to do something horrible. Something he could never take back. Something he had to do. God knows he didn't want to, but the consequences that would happen if he didn't...He didn't even want to think about thinking about it. He walked over to a nearby window and opened it wide. The Australian looked at him funny, but said nothing. For such a fine spring morning, it was awfully breezy. World Academy students were milling around the bottom for some reason. Waiting. Uh-oh, thought the Aussie, Kiku if you're gonna do what I think you're doing...
"Australia-san," Kiku began, now dangling a stack of loose papers out the window, "Forgive me." And with that, Japan let go. The papers in his hand scattered and created a snowfall of loose papers. The students below scrambled to catch them and swiftly made their getaways with their ill-begotten booty. Australia couldn't believe what had just happened. But he had to. Japan had just scattered the entire history of the Philippines, about four hundred fifty years of recorded history, had gone out of the window. Just like that.
"Kiku, how could you? You were her ally. You were her friend."
"Australia-san. It wasn't my choice. You know what happens when a country leaves his history out in the open like that...the protocol..."
"She was attacked. Sent to the bloody hospital. Looked like she wasn't gonna wake up. She doesn't even know her own name!"
"...The first country to find the fallen country's history may may do what he wishes with it. I had to take it back from that person or else he'd use her. I couldn't stand that...so I...I..."
"-Scattered her pages in a free-for-all, knowing full well that it meant there was to be a brawl for ownership?" Australia bitterly replied, "God, Kiku. Does Perla look like she's in any condition to go off and fight for her pages?"
"I didn't know. Sumimasen deshita. I didn't know."
"Don't you start bawlin' too, Japan. Look, you got it away from that wacko. That's something at least. Why couldn't you keep 'em then?"
"News travels fast, Australia-san. If I had kept it any longer," he added weakly, "I would have been destroyed, my own pages taken along with hers."
"What's done is done, mate."
"I'll...I'll just be going now...Ex-excuse me."
"You do that Japan. You go on and do that."
Japan began his retreat back, ashamed and sorry for what he had done. He gave a look over his shoulder some distance away, expecting to see a disappointed and angry Aussie looking back. But no. Right now Keith was looking more than disappointed. The slight twitch of his mouth and downcast head. Thick brows furrowed, giving lines of worry across his forehead. No,this wasn't mere disappointment on his face. It was betrayal. Sheer betrayal. It spoke to Japan. Called out to him in its mournful baritone, Why? Why did you do this? How could you be so selfish? So cruel?
He had to look away now. Any longer and he'd start doing strange things. He thought he could assure himself that he'd done things right. That he didn't just betray a good friend and ally. He couldn't, he simply couldn't. To use a Western idiom, Japan had definitely gone and burned down a few bridges. The question was, could he build them back up again?
Meanwhile there was a bored Philippines in her room, wondering where her wonderful new friend had gone. She was obliviously innocent for now, but for how long? How long would it be before a country would find her, challenge her for her pages, and leave her face down in the dust? It was only a matter of time. Time and luck.
ヘタリア！
Sharp brown eyes survey a room. A room that once held something precious, something valuable. Something that could have brought Philippines down to her fucking knees, and no you perverts, not that way. The sharp eyes found the spot. The dreadfully empty spot where a stack of pages lay just a few hours before. The glare intensified. Someone stole it, dammit! After all that trouble too...
Getting Philippines alone in a secluded area, the naive little bitch. Making sure there would be no one else around in shouting distance. Convincing her to bring her own history, a task that was made extremely difficult due to the interventions of a certain Australian. And finally to knock her out cold with a "borrowed" water pipe, take the book, and hit the ground running. He had accounted for almost everything.
Almost, but not quite. He didn't think that a certain Happon, would be staking out locations for photo graphical purposes. He didn't think that said Happon had a special camera that could take pictures at night. He didn't think said Happon would accidentally snap one of him leaving with the book in hand, fleeing the crime scene. Or that the little bastard would call up the equally bastardly Australian and scoop up Philippines. And now...This. Damn them. Damn them all.
"There's always a calm before a storm, Philippines," sharp crown eyes said, addressing no one in the empty room,"Enjoy it while it lasts."
With that in mind, the boy with the sharp brown eyes left. Nothing left behind save for an an aura of hatred, a few bloodied bodies, and shells from the M-16 slung across his back. He would get Philippines. One way or another. He'd get her good. His curly black hair waved with the spring breeze, light shining off the single star pinned to his tagiyaf. Yes, someday soon, he thought, Won't be long now, Inshallah.
"History is written by the victors you know," stated the boy to the sky, head tilted upwards, "And I intend to be a victor."
唄う！
Somebody remind me
What happened last night
'Cause I can't remember a thing
This must be what it means
Feel like I've been in a sleeper
I think they call this Amnesia
- Skepta, Amnesia
A/N: The whole amnesia bit was inspired by a mixture of Tsubasa Reservior Chronicles/Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rondo. Now I haven't actually seen an episode of either, but I do know that contracting amnesia + finding pages = AsianMe gets an idea for a Hetalia fanfic. I'm gonna work boy love in here somehow. I loves me some boy love. And for now this is Rated T, but who knows? Piri-chan's fate could get really messy. Yandere FTW! ^J^
I'll explain the whole pages thing as we go, because I'm not 100% sure what the hell I'm doing.
Also um, yeah at the end there if you're Filipino and know the truth about the only "Catholic" country in Asia, don't spoil it for those who have no idea what I'm alluding to. It only makes things complicated and gets me slammed on by thinking all Muslims are terrorists (Muslim people are cool. Shame to the few who are terrorists and mucking up the good name of Islam.)
I'd translate those phrases for you, but I'm lazy and that's what Google Translate is for. Rate and review, da?