I don't own Hetalia. Or anything else mentioned in this.

A Child, a Dog, and a Headache

Yo. My name's Cirrus. I'm seventeen, a junior at a no-name high school, and am supposedly very smart. I have dark blue eyes, and black hair styled like Basil from Katekyou Hitman Reborn! I say supposedly smart, because I was stupid enough to sign my life away to a company that sends me psychopaths right after I have finished calming the last one down. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

"Problem: Instead of opening your box to find a teenage-looking unit, you found a small boy with short black hair and wearing long silk robes. He is rude and snobby and refuses to eat anything other than Chinese cuisine, and he flies into a rage whenever reminded of Mongolia.

Solution: Oopsie, we've sent you a Chibi!China on accident! If you decide that you would like to exchange him for a normal unit, you can call Customer Services and we'll send you a new one right away."

- YAO WANG: User Guide and Manual by LolliDictator.

I could only stare at this man as he finished speaking and asked if I had any questions. "Yeah," I started slowly and looked around so as to not see him staring at me, "so you want me to take care of the less popular versions of certain units to see if they can live with humans?"

At the man's nod, I continued. "And these units are popular among females right?" Again he nodded, and I allowed the confusion I was feeling to be expressed. "Then why ask me? Last I checked, I was a guy."

"You went to the National Youth Leadership Forum for National Security, correct?" I nodded a little hesitantly: while I was there, some people had mistaken me for a girl, and things got a little awkward. "While you were there, a number of teachers and special guests had said that you would be a good choice for government projects, and described you as adaptable and simplistic."

I felt my face get warm at that; I'm rather emotional for a male, and am admittedly feminine compared to other males. Though it does get awkward when people mistake me for a girl during gym and try to drag me into the girl's locker room (no thank you). I nodded to show I was following along.

"Add to this your fondness of cultures and languages, you seemed like the best choice in caring for these units." I let out a sigh and leaned against the green banister in front of me. I was staying at my parent's lake house at the moment, while my dad taught summer school and my mom was in another state for her job.

Summer had just begun, and I had been hoping for a relatively calm break when this man arrived with a box. I sighed in thought. "How will I afford to pay for them?"

"If you agree to this project, you will in a sense be hired into the company and paid for caring for them through company funding."

"How will you know when to send the next unit?"

"We'll install a camera system in all but the bathrooms, and when the unit looks content and appears to be able to handle another unit nearby, we'll send the next one."

I stay quiet for a moment longer before exhaling and smiling at the man. "Sure, I'll do it. What could it hurt?"

The man smiled back and handed me a clipboard. "Sign this and we'll begin the project."

I looked for a second before shrugging and signing my name. I knew the original characters because I watched the show they're in, so I shouldn't be completely helpless.

I handed the clipboard back to him and he looked to verify the name, before smiling and showing me to the box, hired electrician already moving to the house. "Thank you for accepting, and welcome to the project, Cirrus."

Once we approached the box, the man handed me a manual. "This is the manual for the original unit. Not many keep the defective ones, but they are mentioned in the trouble-shooting section. This will be your first one."

I read the name on the manual and felt my lips tilt up. YAO WANG: User Guide and Manual. I quickly opened the book and flipped to the trouble-shooting section. I read the small paragraph and I honestly didn't know what to think. Chibi!China, huh? Sounds bratty, but what child doesn't?

I nodded to the man, and he pried open the box and stepped back. A small child was curled up in the box, and I was given a moment to admire how life-like he appeared (he was even breathing, too) before his eyes opened and the child exploded.

"What is this? Where am I, aru?" I watched with wide eyes as the tiny nation stormed about (he never did leave that giant box, though…) and waved his small fists at the delivery man. The man gave me a pleading look so I quickly picked the mini-nation up and set him on my hip.

I babysat my babysitter kids (oh, the irony) when they were small and helped my parents sheet-rock the ceiling when they felt the need to improve the lake house; holding Chibi!China was just kind of a mixture between the two.

China continued to squall in my arms and, growing a little annoyed, I put my hand on his head and looked him in the eye. "That's enough, Zhongguo." I said. "Stop your childishness and act more respectable."

He stopped screaming and glared at me for a moment before his eyes hooded and he yawned. I moved him a little higher and the tiny nation wrapped his arms around my neck and fell asleep on my shoulder.

I looked at the startled delivery man and offered him a half shrug so as not to jostle the child. "Must've been sleepy."

The man just shook his head and helped move the smaller box with China's stuff into my room. With my parents not here, I'm going to be sleeping in their giant, can't-touch-the-floor-if-you-sit-on-it bed. My room has two small beds on either end of it, a TV without cable (but with a Playstation 2 hooked up to it), and rather erratic designs: a paper Chinese dragon with a missing forelimb was hanging on part of the ceiling, the curtains were black with yellow constellations on them, the room was currently being lit with a very dim push light, and music without the voice singers was playing from a small speaker below the TV.

In the tiny closet were a few pieces of clothes and a bookcase with random and numerous books on it. Walking to my bed I tried to pry China off of me, with no such luck. If one arm got loose, the other got tighter, so I seemed to be stuck with a Chinese kid cuddling me as I spoke with a person I was surprised hadn't been accused of human trafficking yet.

I sighed at the thought (though I was cracking up in my mind) and turned to look at the delivery man who had put Yao's box on the closest bed. The man turned to me and spoke as he remembered something. "The clothes were replaced with ones Chibi!China can wear as well as extras. They are all machine washable."

I smiled in relief at this and the owner of the mentioned clothes murmured something before snuggling closer. The man smiled at this and offered me his hand. "My name is Daniel Hermes, and I'll be the one delivering you the units."

I shifted Yao to one arm and shook his hand. "Cirrus Strifen. Pleasure." I then walked the man to his truck. "I'll call if something's wrong."

Finally, the man was gone, leaving me cradling a small child and beginning my days as a caretaker.

It has now been two weeks since I've gotten Yao and it has been rather interesting. It was pretty funny on the second day when Yao woke up, saw the paper dragon, and screamed bloody murder at this supposed atrocity.

Outside of that, Yao started to learn that I wasn't going to cook Chinese food everyday and (very slowly) got over it. It probably helped that he was welcome to sleep beside me in the huge bed whenever he had nightmares. "Whenever he had nightmares" soon changed to "Whenever he felt lonely" which was all the time, so pretty soon I had a tiny nation curled up next to me whenever it was bed time.

He seemed like a normal child to me: he was fussy if he didn't get his way, he was possessive of me and he loved getting gifts. I swear, his eyes were sparkling the day I gave him a necklace I got from Chinatown in San Francisco two years ago.

It had an onyx stone carved into a cylinder on it with a silver dragon wrapped around the cylinder. It was well made and Yao absolutely adored it.

Now, I knew he was possessive of me when I got a call about a week into the project that told me Sogna could come home. Sogna is a Border collie puppy I had gotten recently.

I had gone with my friends to a murder mystery-dinner thing at a medieval castle and we had an archery contest of sorts (I won). While we were there, we saw a pair of border collies playing fetch with the humans. They were pretty cool, always carrying a stick for a human to throw.

The two adult border collies also had five puppies running around, all looking black and white like their father except for one. She had dark fur as well, but it was lighter like how a black dog with dirt in its fur looks lighter. It also had a slight reddish tint to its fur.

The first time I visited the castle, I thought the dogs and puppies were awesome, and they seemed to like me too. When I had to leave (the mystery itself was so cur and dry that I was frustrated afterwards), the smallest puppy started to follow me. They got the puppy away, but I didn't forget the little one.

I visited again in the summer and played with the dogs again. I was messing around with the piano in the castle (can't say playing, 'cause that would be a lie) when the manager approached me.

He told me they were trying to get rid of the puppies because it would be difficult to take care of them once they got older. I agreed to take one of them and went outside to choose. The first pup to run up to me was the red-brown pup. I decided to take that one since it like me so much, and that was that.

I named it Sogna for the Italian word "Sogno", which means dream. Anyway, the vet called and said that Sogna was ready to go home, and I quickly got Yao and the two of us went to pick her up.

The entire trip there had Yao acting sullen and moody while I described Sogna to him (brown eyes, likes to run, really smart and athletic). Yao looked confused when we stopped at the vet, then looked downright shocked when he met Sogna.

Apparently, he had thought Sogna was human, and was annoyed that he would, in his words, "have to share me".

Right. It had been kinda creepy at the time. The two get along okay, but sometimes Yao would scowl at Sogna if she's resting on my lap.

So, after two weeks of caring for Yao, I heard a knock on my door. I looked up from the book I was reading (Red Rider's Hood) and glanced at the clock. 10:00 AM. I usually don't get visitors, especially this early.

I stood up from the couch and turned to answer the door. As I opened it, my eyebrows raised. It was Daniel again, but he didn't look happy at all.

So...yeah. I found a nice seat on the bandwagon. It's comfy.

Please review.

Ja ne!