A/N: New user here, and this is my first fic on . Don't go easy on me when you review. Sorry about the rushedness in the middle part; I didn't want people dying from sheer length and long character introductions. -_-U Also, I've only watched Hetalia up to the thirty-something episodes and the movie, so some facts could be inaccurate. Also didn't get too much time to research, so...yeah. Dedicated to the tragedy in Japan just a few days ago. D: Let's pray for those who died and those who are missing. And the still-messed up areas, and the nuclear danger, and...
Oh dear. :l
AU Hetalia that's...serious? Rated K+ to be safe. I don't own Hetalia.
It was early afternoon when it hit.
The first thing that was notable was the sound. A steady, distant rumbling. At that early stage, it could have been anything. Kiku signed it off as some large truck or something and continued to pack his things. After all, the ship was to arrive early the next day, and if he didn't want to be late, he needed to pack while there was still time.
When the rumbling didn't stop, though, Kiku grew suspicious. The raven-haired young man curiously trotted downstairs, his faithful cream puppy trailing after him.
"What's that sound, Pochi?" the Japanese cooed, patting his pet with one hand and brushing aside the curtains with the other. "It's been going on for some time now. I wonder…"
Kiku trailed off. Pochi started barking.
Right outside the window, looming above the crowds of running people, was a huge wave, cluttered with debris that it had picked up on its journey from the shore. In short: a tsunami.
It came as a shock, but Kiku didn't need any prompting. He wasn't a very materialistic person; he took only Pochi in his arms and abandoned everything else when he ran out of the rented beach house.
The rest came pretty quickly. Pochi continued to bark as Kiku joined the stampede of frantic people. Some of the runners stumbled, and that was the end of them, the uncannily large wave devouring them alive. He began to grow tired, but he didn't dare give up. If he died, at least he would be proud to say that he died trying.
It wasn't long before someone shouted over the rumbling waters, "The observatory!" Of course! The resort contained an observatory that was seated atop a tall cliff in order to catch the mesmerizing view of the infinite ocean. Well, the view wouldn't be as magnificent as it once was, but it was a place high enough to both escape the towering wave and hold all the escapees.
Kiku and the rest ran towards the roofed stairs that spiraled upwards to a cliff that looked exhaustingly high. Some stopped to complain about the height, but those who had enough sense began the climb, and among those was Kiku.
Halfway up, he was already drenched in sweat, and the tsunami had devoured those right behind him, a swirling black vortex of rapidly ascending water. Pochi whimpered, looking back over his master's shoulder at the churning mass. Kiku, noting this, tried to climb faster, but to no avail. All his adrenaline had already been used up, and tiredness was already dragging on his legs.
And then, the worst thing possible happened: He tripped.
He was nearly there, yet he tripped over the last dozen steps. Pochi flew out of his arms with a cry of protest. The sheer force of the water threw Kiku against one of the steps, driving all the air from his lungs in the form of numerous little bubbles.
At that point, there was nothing he could do anymore.
Pieces of debris floated about in the swirling tsunami, a fragment or two cutting against his delicate skin and drawing velvet blood that swirled wispily in the water. It knocked him against things he couldn't even see in the murky liquid, and it began to numbly hurt. Strands of black hair floated about as everything grew muffled and slowed down. He was losing oxygen…he wouldn't…for…
Throughout the whole ordeal, Pochi never ceased barking.
/
"Aiyah!" The ponytailed Chinese man halted at the assembled group of odd friends lazing around in the exquisite hotel lobby. "Sorry I'm late," he panted, hands on knees from exhaustion.
"It's about time, Yao," smiled a blond with thick eyebrows, a cup of tea in hand. "You're usually one of the first ones here."
It was just another meeting in just another year, or so the peculiar group of friends thought. They had met each other at an international event some years ago, and, getting along well from there (and some, not so much), grew to be close friends. Every year, whenever everyone was available, they would gather in one of their hometowns to hang out a little. In the meantime, they usually contacted each other through either the Internet or long-distance calls. That day was their meeting day, a Friday in March.
"Talk about it, man!" The American in a bomber jacket named Alfred broke out a huge burger-filled grin, tearing his eyes from the football game showing on the lobby television for a moment to greet the newly-arrived Yao. "What happened, dude?"
"Um, well…" Yao smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's kind of a long story…"
/
Earlier that week, in the ridiculously early morning hours, Wang Yao received a call telling him that his cruise to Europe had been postponed to a date too late for his meeting in London.
His initial reaction, of course, was shock. How could he get to London in time, then? In the first place, why had the cruise been postponed? Yao never found out, but he had no choice but to book a flight ASAP.
After a whole lot of searching online, Yao finally found an open seat on a plane to London early morning on the day itself. Quite inconvenient, but there were no other seats open, and Yao didn't have much of a choice.
And of course, upon his arrival in London, he still had to pass all the excessive airport security checks, run around looking for a bus, and taking a great deal of time in finding the venue which was specified on the address given to him…
"…And that's how it went," finished Yao with a gasp, now seated among the rest.
"Aww…That sounded real messed up," sympathized Feliciano, the somewhat immature Italian with a unique flyaway curl.
"Agreed," nodded the earlier blond, an Englishman by the name of Arthur, who had chosen their current venue due to the small distance between it and his own city home.
"Speaking of which," added the buff German Ludwig, his arms crossed in an authoritative pose, "where are Ivan and Kiku?"
"Ivan called this morning," offered Francis, the flamboyant French in the group. "He said he wasn't going to make it."
"What?" exclaimed Alfred. "Dude, we only meet up once a year and he couldn't make it? Why?"
Francis shrugged. "He didn't say."
"What about Kiku?" asked Yao. "Any word from him?" He knew there was a slim chance the Japanese would call him. They used to be pretty close, with Yao even acting as Kiku's older brother at times (although Kiku would flatly deny it), but they got into a little…fight, and they haven't really been on great terms ever since. They were still friends, of course, more so on Yao's side than Kiku's, but just not as close.
"Well, that's quite an oddity," said Arthur. "Kiku's another one for punctuality."
"Maybe he's sick," suggested Feliciano.
"Knowing Kiku, maybe his dog's sick," joked Francis. "Pochi, was it?"
"Yeah, he sure was attached to the thing," chuckled Ludwig as he remembered the two eating their sushi together during their previous meeting in Japan. "I doubt he'd ever let it even step into a park or something by itself."
"It was a cute doggy," dreamed Feliciano.
"Well, Kiku seems like a pretty practical and down-to-earth dude, know what I mean?" said Alfred. "I didn't think he could get so psyched over a little doggy like that."
Yao laughed. "Kiku's actually pretty soft, shi ma? Well, I think someone better call him and ask why—"
His statement was cut off by a sudden interruption on the lobby TV: "News Flash!"
"My game!" exclaimed Alfred, keeling over like it was the end of the world. "Man, for a news flash? This is gonna be way boring…"
Alfred was wrong.
A grave-faced news reporter appeared onscreen with a mike in hand. "The video you see displayed here onscreen is live from Japan…"
"Japan?" chorused everyone in the group in shock at the sight of the waves of liquid debris tumbling over trees and buildings. It seemed to be a wave of destruction, mowing down anything in its path, even the strongest-looking of buildings.
"An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 has caused a tsunami along the shores of the countryside as well as massive damage to the properties within it. What you see now is an aerial view of one of the affected areas from a rescue helicopter. Waves of a whopping ten meters in height have swept away most of the residences and other buildings. So far, approximately a hundred deaths have been reported, and the number is steadily rising…"
At that point, most of them were pale in shock.
"…The tsunami is predicted to continue and hit Russia, Taiwan, the Philippines, and…"
"Ivan lives in Russia," managed Arthur, still recovering from the shock. "So…He…His flight must have been canceled because…"
"And Kiku…" added Ludwig forebodingly. "What happened to Kiku…?"
Francis laughed nervously at the notion in an ineffective attempt to lighten the doomed mood. "Y-You're kidding…Kiku wouldn't…"
The screen shifted to a view of a cliff side observatory-turned-refugee center that was absolutely crammed with drenched people, shivering from the water and fear for their lives. The floods caused by the tsunami, seen in the background, made the tall cliff seem like a sickeningly polluted lake. Among the refugees, there was a little girl carrying something soaked and shivering in her arms…
Yao blanched when he realized what it was. He felt like he'd been thrown off that cliff…
Even if they weren't too close anymore, they were still friends.
"Yao…?" Feliciano whimpered, seeming to catch wind of the Chinese man's suspicion.
"H…Hey," he stammered, widened eyes glued to the screen. "I-Isn't that…Pochi…?"
A/N: In case you wonder, when China said "shi ma?," he meant "是吗?" I just didn't type it in that way since I knew some people's computers can't read Chinese...It sort of means "right?," for all you non-Chinese who might be reading. He's not saying "aru" in every second statement because I don't put in speaking tendencies when I write serious fics.
Well...there was my first FF fic. D: I'll do my best! *bow*