Flashback to 1983
The year was 1983. It was the first world meeting Arthur had invited Leon to "Now, no funny business, just keep your mouth shut and see how these work." He said. Arthur had been putting off bringing Leon to the meetings, as both he didn't want him to try to gain independence, but also, he was a rather strange boy, and he could do without Leon's strange quips over the meeting table. However Arthur had finally changed Leon's title from a British crown colony to a dependant territory, as both the lease was coming to an end and soon he'd be returned to Yao, and his economy had been improving rapidly each year, meaning he'd be more able to make his own choices with some financial security.
"Yes sir." Leon said. He was a little excited. He still had a younger body in comparison to a lot of the other nations, but he was growing up, and this was proof. Sooner or later, in his opinion, he would be able to propose ideas for himself, and maybe even become independent. In human terms, he looked to be about 14, and it'd taken an awful lot of convincing to get Arthur to let him go to the meeting.
"Just… keep quiet. I'll introduce you to people, and you can say hello, and nothing more." Arthur added "Your tie's askew, let me fix it." He continued fussing over him "And run the comb through your hair before we go in. You need to make a good impression." Leon patted his hair down a little, not even having a comb with him, while Arthur fussed over his clothes more. He knew that Arthur was just fussing because he wanted to make a good impression, and wanted to think that he'd done a good job raising him away from Yao.
"We're here very early." Leon pointed out as they walked into the meeting room and there was no-one there "Spooky." He added, looking around. The room was large, and a little dusty, and someone needed to open the blinds as it was just a little shady, beams of light shining through the gaps, sun strips of dust making themselves evident in the slightly darkened room.
"I like to arrive early, it gives me time to organise my things. And keep your comments to yourself. For the next couple of hours, just try to focus on taking notes and staying quiet." He said "You'll be sitting here, between myself and Canada." He continued, pointing to the chair "I sent word that you would be attending and they set a place for you."
"Will teacher be here?" Leon enquired, hoping to get a glance of his teacher.
"In meetings, we use country names, and you are not to speak with him." Arthur said sternly "He will be here, but you are not to say a word to him, except for a brief greeting." Despite his lease coming to an end soon, Arthur was set on handling all Leon's affairs with other countries himself, and this would be the first time he would let Leon start to take a little more control in what he was doing.
"Oh, okay…" he was a little disappointed, but he knew better than to argue with Arthur if he was letting him into a meeting. If he made a scene he wouldn't be able to come to another in a long time.
"I know it seems harsh, but it's for your own good, Leon. Remember, if you don't understand something, just write it down, and I'll tell you about it after the meeting. Everyone has place names, so if you don't recognise someone, just look at their place name. Don't speak to anyone unless they speak to you first, and try to avoid America, he has… some strange ideas, to say the least." Arthur was bitter about Alfred's flagrant disregard to what he'd been taught before.
"Understood."
"The others will be here soon. Why don't you stand with me while I write out the day's agenda on the board?" Arthur offered, trying not to seem like a heartless, or unkind person. He had a lot of rigid rules, yes, but they were there for a reason, and sometimes kindness was cruel.
"Sure." He stood up and walked over to the board with Arthur and watched him as he noted down various things. Leon wasn't going to say it, because he knew what'd happen if he did, but he found reading and writing in English tiresome and rather difficult, and so he only really had a vague idea as to what Arthur was writing on the board. He was much better at speaking it anyway, and he did know how to read and write some English, he was just bad at it, and preferred Chinese anyway, no matter how much Arthur tried to convince him of his language's superiority.
People started to mull into the room. Leon recognised most of them, but there were a few who he'd not seen before, and didn't know much about, but when they sat down, he could look at their place names and go from there. Most people gave him a small glance before sitting down, knowing he would be here, but not thinking much of it, because he wasn't really all that important or relevant to them.
After Arthur had finished with the agenda, he started walking back to his seat. Leon followed him, but as he saw Yao through the door stopped walking for a moment, not believing that it really was him. Arthur tugged him along by the arm "Come on, sit down, this is not the time to get distracted." He said "You can't talk to him, he'll fill your head with nonsense." Leon could have argued, but he didn't. He'd heard rumours that Yao had been managing his country a little unconventionally for a while, and so as much as he was a little insulted, and wanted to speak to him, he just did as he was told, not wanting to make trouble in his first meeting.
Leon sat between Arthur and Matthew like he was told and looked at his place name. In gold all caps on a wooden block read the words 'HONG KONG' he fiddled around with it for a moment, feeling its weight and balance, studying it carefully, with not much else to do, before Arthur told him to put it down.
"If I thought you were going to act like a child, I wouldn't have brought you." Arthur said with irritation "You need to act professionally. Remember; look don't touch. I can't believe I still have to tell you things like that." He added, lecturing him quietly before the meeting began.
The meeting started as most meetings did, boring and uneventful. Leon was just interested in seeing how they worked, and what everyone did in them. There were a fair few people he'd heard of, but never seen, or never even heard of. People would just stand at the front in an order that Arthur had put up and spoke about issues or advances in their country that they had put forward to talk about before. It wasn't really all that interesting. No-one had anything too interesting to say.
Japan brought up his new Nintendo family computer called Famicom, which would apparently be on sale to the public soon, as well as noting about having found the coldest temperature recorded on earth in Antarctica. It was an impressive -89.2°C. Russia admitted to having shot down one of Korea's aircrafts, explaining that they didn't know it was a civilian craft when it was flying over Soviet territory. There were other people, commenting on other things, but those were the only parts that Leon had really been listening to. It wasn't all that interesting. A hurricane here, a train crash there, and a bomb over there. Normal stuff.
He kept noticing one person in particular. The boy looked to be his age, and had incredibly light hair. He'd not spoken yet in the meeting. Leon looked on the agenda for… His name was 'ICELAND' apparently. He'd not heard of him, and he wouldn't be speaking in this meeting. He was sat between 'NORWAY' and 'DENMARK' He vaguely recognised Denmark, but not the others. Iceland didn't seem particularly happy about being there, and Norway was fussing over him a little, quietly. It was interesting to watch them talk amongst themselves, and he would go and say hello if Arthur hadn't expressly told him not to.
Leon rested his elbow on the table, leaning his cheek on his hand, sighing to himself. That Iceland guy sure was cute. It looked like he had purple eyes, but he couldn't be sure being this far away. And that hair! It looked so fluffy. He looked so cute. He smiled slightly to himself, watching him, letting out another quiet little sigh as Iceland looked like something Norway said had embarrassed him. He smiled a little to himself, watching him.
"Oi, stop daydreaming." Arthur hissed quietly, slapping upside the head "You're here to watch a meeting, not be away with the fairies." He said, before going back to listening to more conversation about current affairs.
After that, he tried to pay more attention, but Leon couldn't help it, there was something about the Icelander that kept drawing his attention. Bored of taking notes, Leon started to doodle in his book, little drawings of the white haired boy. Wow he was cute. The drawings were pretty terrible, but it was still fun to draw him.
The one time Iceland looked at him, Leon quickly looked back down at his notes, the faintest blush on his face. This boy…
At the end of the meeting there was a little socializing before everyone left to go home. Leon did as he was told, greeting everyone who greeted him, and staying quiet and letting Arthur talk. He guessed that Arthur preferred for him to be seen not heard, in order to make a good impression. He noticed Yao looking over at him several times, but not approaching him. He wished he could go and say hello and talk to him, but Arthur had an iron grip on his shoulder, introducing him to various people, while after they'd walked away, saying how much they annoyed him.
Leon dared a few more glances at Iceland, who was with a group of four other men who were all blonde and annoyingly tall. He tried to remember their names. There was Norway and Denmark, he remembered those two, then Finland? And next to him was a scary looking man Switzerland? No, Switzerland was shorter and had a little girl with a difficult name with him. Sweden? Sweden sounded right.
Taken out of his thoughts, Leon almost fell backwards as a massive force collided with him. It could have been only one person "Yong?" he exclaimed, trying not to fall back and cause a scene.
"Oh my god! Aniki said you'd be here! You cut your hair! And you got tall! I got taller though! Oh, hello England!" he said, clinging to his brother "It's been so long!" Yong was positively beaming. They'd been friends as children, and he'd missed his company.
"Hi, yeah, it's nice to see you." He said, receiving a cautioning look from Arthur "Arthur says I can't talk much, but tell me, what's older than being old?" Leon asked with a smirk.
"Wang Yao! Aru aru aru aru aru!" Yong chanted happily, making Leon laugh to himself. Arthur glared at the pair of them and pulled Leon away from his sibling.
"I told you to only greet people, now come on!" Arthur said, scolding him and pulling his arm "We're going home." Leon gave a fleeting wave goodbye to Yong as he was pulled out of the room.
He noticed, just as he left the door, Iceland giving him a brief look as Arthur steered him out of the room by the shoulder, with a harsh grip. Leon knew he was going to get lectured for this. But how could he not? He'd not seen his family in such a long time, and he'd not even been able to speak to Mei yet, or even say hello to Yao.
"What was that!? I told you, formal greetings only! There was no need to generate such a ruckus!" Arthur lectured him, walking to the car "I've given you this new status in the hopes that you won't abuse it! You have just less than a couple of decades with me, don't ruin them right at the end." He said, before getting into the car.
"Sorry, Arthur, it won't happen again." He said, sitting in the car.
"I don't mean to be a joy kill, but I'm just so proud of how well you've done in the years I've been looking after you. I just want to make sure that when you leave me, you leave in the best possible way." He said, starting the car "I don't want another America, tarnishing my reputation."
"I know." He said simply.
"All I want is for after leave, for you to continue to prosper the way I have helped you to. That means I'm going to start letting you make your own decisions, and make relations with other countries yourself." He continued, starting the car and starting to drive back to the house.
"Myself? Like I can have meetings and make business proposals… myself?" Leon asked, amazed by what he was hearing. Before this, Arthur had taken care of all his business, leaving him with very little to do himself, except to watch his economy growing as Arthur went to business meetings and met with people from all over the world to boost trade.
"Yes. I'll be there too, to advise you and explain things to you if you're not sure what to do, but it means you can arrange to meet people and make deals with them yourself." Arthur explained.
"So I can have business meetings now?"
"Yes, I'll explain to you how they take place, and what questions you should be asking, and I'll talk you through what we're aiming for before it starts." He continued, wanting to prepare him as best he could for when he left; the crown jewel in his empire. After Leon was gone, he'd have an empty house again.
"Okay." Leon said, taking all of this in, but Iceland still crossing over his mind, causing him to daydream a little as Arthur continued to lecture him about how business meetings worked.
"Oi, dilly-daydream, wake up." Arthur said after a while, noticing that Leon had stopped paying attention "What's gotten into you today? You keep drifting off." He continued, tapping him on the head lightly "I don't talk just to hear my own voice."
"Oh, nothing; I was thinking of the meeting." He said quickly "Hey, do you think I could do business with Iceland?" he enquired curiously.
"No way." Arthur said quickly, frowning "I've had wars with him over fish." He added "Anyone who tries to pick a fight with me over something so petty as fish isn't anyone worth trading with, and anyway his economy's bad at the moment and last I heard there was some big eruption again. He's always having those. Most of his land isn't even useable." Arthur continued "Why are you so interested?"
"Hm? Oh I don't know; he looked interesting I guess?" Leon suggested.
"Well he's bad news." Arthur told him "So any thoughts you have of doing business with him; just don't. He doesn't export anything of value to you, and he doesn't have the money to buy the things you manufacture."
"I guess…" Leon huffed internally "How about… America? Could I trade with him? Or… I could trade with teacher." Leon suggested "Who do I already trade with?" he asked.
"You already trade with India, Taiwan, and unfortunately America and China." Arthur told him.
"I was trading with him before, and then there was all that fighting." Leon commented "You're not still selling him opium are you?"
"Of course not!" Arthur exclaimed, feeling slightly insulted "I've moved on from that! We generally trade teas and textiles and other such things." Arthur told him "You trade with America with technology. The tea we export, we get from India, and you don't trade with Taiwan, per se, but you help represent her to mainland China, because he still refused to believe that she's independent."
"So I'll have meetings with teacher now?" Leon asked, not showing his excitement.
"I suppose." Arthur said, frowning "Don't get the wrong idea though, Leon. You will be discussing trade and nothing else." He continued, pulling up into the drive.
This chapter is just going to stand alone, I think! It's a prologue to 'Teenage Dream' but It's more of just some background on Hong Kong before he left England's control. I know that this is a one shot, and I don't usually coin for these, but the story is extended, and I might use it as a reference in other fanfics if the opportunity occurs.