"Aiyaa! Why are young countries so troublesome? They won't let me be!" I yelled my grievences at the endless rows of bamboo in front of me, knowing no one would care if I yelled at plants. "Sign this! Draft this treaty! Aquaint yourself with modern culture! Become capitalist! It never ends!" I gritted my teeth in frustration at everything and everyone. With a sigh I walked deeper into the forest until I came across a clearing, my secret clearing, where I came when I needed to be alone. 'No one knows about this place. I can relax here. No one to shove problems in my face like it's their pastime.' At least I thought no one knew about it, until I came across a certain russian sitting in the middle of my secret clearing.

"Oh hi China! I was waiting for you!" Gritting my teeth, I tried not to lash out at Ivan. "What are you doing here~aru?" I choked out the words, trying to be as nice as possible. "Oh, I brought you something!" He exclaimed, producing a pair of panda ears on a headband. I facepalmed. 'Of all the things...' "You like cute things, da?" He said putting the ears on my head. "Yes, thank you, now if you would please leave me alone right now." He looked childish and confused. "Why?" He asked, it was almost hard to remember his dark history when he acted in the most childish, innocent way...almost. I sighed. "Because i want to be alone right now, okay~aru?"

"Well misery loves company and you love cute things, so if I stay and wear these ears then you get both; and you will feel better!" He said, placing the panda ears on his head. "Yeah well I don't want company right now." I snapped at Russia, anxious for him to leave. I sat down in the middle of the field, hoping Ivan would get the hint and go home. He didn't, sitting right down next to me he said. "Whether you want it or not I'm staying to make you feel better." 'Why can't he understand I just want to be alone right now!?' I was getting more frustrated by the moment. With someone here I couldn't very well yell at the bamboo until i felt better. "I said I wanted to be alone, so go away~aru!" I yelled, trying to get him to leave me be. He looked at me and said. "No."

That was it, I lost it. "Don't you get it! I don't want you here! I have enough to deal with without your antics piling on top of my issues~aru! I could deal with it when you follow me around outside of here, but when you invade my sanctuary it gets harder to deal with you! Can I not have a single place to myself~aru?! I have so many people shoving issues in my face, that I don't need a childish andimmature country bothering me! I just want to be alone~aru." I was standing at this point, hot tears running down my face, I sat back down, looking up at Russia who had stood up.

"I get it." He said, bitterness in his voice and a glare in his purple-blue eyes. He turned away from me. "I'll leave you alone, forever." He walked away from me, I regretted taking my frustrations out on him. "Wait." I croaked as he disappeared into the bamboo. He waved. "Enjoy your solitude." He said and disappeared. I put my head in my arms and cried, only leaving once it was dark.

Days passed, uneventful, dull. I spent much time sulking in my room, refusing to deal with any other country or even my boss. Knock, knock. I hugged Shinati-chan tighter, ignoring him. "China, CHINA! Open the door!" My boss yelled, trying and failing to open the locked door. "No~aru!" I yelled back. I heard a sigh. "You are acting like a depressed teenage girl! Now open this door!" 'So what if I am?' I thought to myself. 'It's true, you never know what you have till it's gone.' More pounding on the door. "You have a world meeting today!" I squeezed my hello kitty doll tighter, I miss him, I miss Ivan.

'Why did I have to yell at him?' "I don't care!" I shouted back at the door. "You are over 4,000 years old! Grow up!" My boss yelled one last time, as I heard his footsteps stomping away from my door. 'I wish he would come here again.' A week after I had yelled at him I went to his house to apologize, I was turned away. I tried again, I never made it past the gate. He gave his guards an order to keep me away. "I know I should go to the meeting, I'm supposed to, but he will be there; and I'm not sure I can handle him looking at me like that again." I said to no one in particular, staring at the ceiling of my room.

"I should go. Maybe I can talk to Ivan, maybe I can apologize." My mind made up, I sat up, tossed Shinati-chan on my bed and unlocked my door, opening it to face the meeting that awaited me.

I stood outside the door to the place of the World Meeting, taking a deep breath and steeling myself, I walked inside. Everyone was milling around the large table used for the meeting, waiting for the rest of us to arrive, or chatting with the other nations. "Hey China! You made it!" America yelled, running up to me and abandoning a conversation with England. "Hey I was talking to you, ya bloody wanker-oh hey China." Arthur yelled before noticing me. America slung his arm around my shoulders. "Dude, bro, I was getting really worried there! But now your back!" He yelled, slapping me on the back rather violently. I felt uncomfortable, and wanted to just go sit somewhere by myself until the meeting started. America remained ignorant as always, but England noticed something was wrong. "China, are you okay?" He said, probably seeing the bags under my eyes and my tear-irritated eyes. "Y-yeah I'm fine~aru." Trying to act normal. "Are you su-" Luckily Arthur was cut off by Germany's voice yelling. "Alright! The meeting will now start! Everyone sit down!"

I sat down in my assigned place, glancing around for a certain scarfed figure. My eyes were met with a noticeably empty seat. Germany obviously noticed it too for he said. "Who is missing?" "Wait a minute, I'm here, sorry for my lateness." My head whipped around to face the door, my long hair inadvertently hitting the nation next to me in the face. "Watch your hair!" He yelled, but I ignored him in favor of watching Russia walk down to his seat. He looked at me with the same venom as all those weeks ago and sat down. Germany cleared his throught and said. "Alright, now that everyone is here, we can start the meeting."

The meeting was exhausting as always, but I knew I had to talk to Russia; so I tried to find him immeadiantly after the meeting, only to get lost in the sea of nations who also got up to go to their hotel rooms. I tried to find him anyway, but only succeeded in getting bumped around by everyone else, eventually I found my way into the hallway. Panting, I searched around; with no luck. I couldn't find him.

With I sigh I tried the next hallway. No luck. 'I might as well return to my room.' I thought gloomily. 'I will try to find him again later.' Opening my door I ran in and plopped down on my bed, burying my face in my pillow, I did my best to ignore the rest of the world and rest. I knew I needed rest if was going to be able to get through the meeting tomorrow and then search for Russia afterwards. It would have worked, if after only 1 hour my phone hadn't gone nuts. Annoyed at whoever disturbed my rest I answered the phone. "Hello?" I answered. "Hey China it's me, France! I noticed you looked down on yourself, so everyone is going to Yam'Tcha tonight, and I was wondering if you would like to come, oui?" 'Why not? The meeting is at his place and it would be rude to refuse, plus I need to eat.' "Okay, I'll be there." I agreed. "All right, we will see you at 6, au revior!" France said, hanging up. I looked at the clock. "5:30, I better get going."

I walked through the hallways after dinner, getting my self lost as I searched for my room. 'That restaurant France took everyone to was great, I was impressed with their array of tea.' I suddenly stopped in the middle of a hallway. Turning around in a circle I said. "I have no idea where I am." I reached for my phone, before realizing I had left it in my hotel room. 'Great, now what?' My question was answered when someone walked out of their hotel room. I ran up to them and asked. "Excuse me, I'm lost~aru. Can you tell me how to get back to room 385B?" He turned around and I jumped a little and gasped, not realizing who I had been asking.

Ivan glared at me, before turning around and stalking away. I ran after him, I needed to talk to him, to apologize. "Wait~aru!" I shouted, tugging on his sleeve. He stopped, but refused to say anything or look at me. I tried to turn him around to face me, but he wouldn't budge. "Ivan, please look at me!" Russia instead started walking away again. In an attempt to stop him I pushed on the back of his knee with my foot, and grabbed his shoulders. I had meant to push him against a wall but he fell on the floor instead, with me sitting on his stomach.

He didn't resist or try to get up, but he turned his head away from me. I knew he wasn't going to look at me so I started talking anyway. "Look Russia, I lost my temper at you when we where in my clearing, and I didn't mean to, but that doesn't excuse what I said~aru. I didn't mean it; I was just upset. To tell you the truth I didn't think it would be too horrible without you there...but I was wrong~aru. You really don't know what you have till it's gone. After I realized that, everything became dull, colorless, nearly devoid of meaning, days passed with no change, and I-I missed you Ivan. I missed you so much~aru." By this point I was crying, my tears probably staining Russia's white, dress shirt. I opened my eyes and Ivan was staring at me, seemingly waiting for me to continue, so I did. "Russia, when I was waiting, hoping you would come back, I-I realized something~aru. Wǒ ài nǐ Ivan, I love you."

With that over, I started crying anew, putting my face in my hands and sobbing. I felt Russia shift underneath me, and soon realized he had sat up, which landed me right in his lap. "I'm-m sorry~aru. I'l-l l-leave now." I said sniffling. I started to get up, but I felt strong arms wrapping around me, stopping me from getting up. "Stay." I heard him say. I looked up at him, happy to finally see his eyes filled with an emotion other than anger and venom. I hugged him back before hearing him whisper something to me. "Я тоже тебя люблю Yao, I love you too." I snuggled deeper into his chest and sighed, happy to have my Russian stalker back.

The moment lasted until South Korea yanked open his door and yelled. "Hey lovebirds! Get a room!" I flushed at his remark and made to get up when Russia picked me up bridal style and said. "Da, okay!" I flailed around yelling. "Hey wait a minute, I still need to get back to my room." Ivan looked at me and said. "Just shut up." He then kissed me, effectively making me shut up, but then again I didn't mind. I kissed my Russian back, hearing South Korea say. "Hey Hong Kong! Pay up!" I could just imagine Hong Kong smirking at us while he paid South Korea. "Here's your 20 bucks, though I think we all knew it would happen in the end."