Unlike this rather beautiful glass of Coke, I don't own Hetalia. The Coke doesn't either. It's me who owns the Coke. But not Hetalia. Or Dulux. I own a covering of it, though. That's on my wall. It looks good, if I may say so myself. And I may. Because I say so.

Attraction of Opposites

Chapter One: Dulux Originated In Korea

Leon really hated his family sometimes.

From time to time, he would question why exactly he had been born into one of the most dysfunctional families in existence, beaten only by his cousin's family.

But that's a different story.

The point was, Leon was irritated.

For you see, he was not only expected to share a bedroom with one of his siblings - a complete invasion of his privacy - he was expected to share a bedroom with his Korean half-brother, Yong Soo.

And as nice as Yong Soo surely was deep down and all of that, Leon really did not want to be groped in his sleep, thank you. Nor did he want to have to endure K-pop every waking moment of his day; catchy it may be, to Leon's tastes it was not.

And don't even get him started on the way Yong Soo was planning on decorating their new room.

A Korean flag covering one wall? Everything in black, white, red and blue? Posters of Korean celebrities everywhere? Really?

Well, excuse Leon for actually having some taste.

...perhaps that was a little harsh.

But at least Leon wasn't planning on torturing his morning self. If he had it his way, it would be done tastefully in blacks, whites and greys, with accents of other colours here and there. Yong Soo could have his posters on one of the walls on his side of the room, Leon would have his (totally not A1) poster of Jackie Chan on his side. The furniture would be sleek, but not so modern that it was reminiscent of an office. A single Korean flag would hang above Yong Soo's bed - likewise, the flag of Hong Kong would be above Leon's.

But it wasn't as if he'd put much thought into it, or anything.

He didn't understand why exactly they had to leave their old house, either.

It was something to do with being closer to Leon's uncle and his family - the aforementioned dysfunctional cousins, the Bonnefoy-Kirklands - but why exactly that required moving house, he didn't know. Pointless, in his oh-so-humble opinion.

He had been trying to keep a positive outlook on it - he rather liked Matthew, Alfred not so much, but Matthew was calm and quiet, two traits Leon valued greatly, having grown up in a household of eight - until, that is, he was shown into his room.

And saw Yong Soo sitting on the windowsill, nose in some sort of magazine and iPod playing what could only be the dreaded K-pop.

What the hell had Leon done in a previous lifetime to deserve this?

As he saw his brother enter, Yong Soo had thrown down the magazine and raced towards Leon, flinging his arms around him and nearly knocking him over.

And then proceeded to explain his ideas on the interior decoration.

Because Dulux apparently originated in Korea. Disregarding the fact that it's part of a Dutch company.

Naturally.

Leon despaired of his family. When he didn't detest them, that is.

Why couldn't he just have a normal family? Like... Like-

Leon didn't know of any normal families.

This worried him slightly.

Oh, well. With a bit of luck, he might meet someone normal at his new school.

That was another thing he was annoyed about.

He wasn't the world's most social person - his social life was mainly comprised of Tumblr and deviantART - so in moving schools, he wasn't really leaving behind any friends, but one thing about his new school stood out in the most horrible way...

They wore uniform.

As you might imagine, this was quite an unappealing idea for Leon, who lived in skinny jeans and adorable printed t-shirts (so manly, right?). His new uniform consisted of neither of these things - he was now expected to wear grey trousers, a shirt and tie, a jumper and - the worst part - a blazer.

He shuddered at the thought.

Yes, he'd seen photographs, and sure, they looked smart, but they also looked like Hogwarts students. All that was missing was the owl.

Enough sulking, though.

Time to kick Yong Soo out into the garden.

"Hey, brother," Leon said to his Korean sibling, "I thought I heard someone playing Gangnam Style earlier - why don't you like, go and see if you can find them? Show them how it's done or something."

Yong Soo's strange hair-curl seemed to flick up in interest, and his face lit up. "Sure! No one can beat me when it comes to dancing! Gangnam Style originated in Korea!"

Well, that got rid of him. And for once, he was right.

Fishing his tablet out of his bag, Leon saw that his new neighbours hadn't bothered to set a code for their wifi.

Don't mind if I do.

And, like that, Leon had entertainment for the rest of his life.

Well, not quite as long as that.

He'd get bored of Tumblr at some point.

Then, he might consider going outside of his bedroom.

...'might' being the key word there. Although, he'd have to give it a rest once he started at his new school - AKA, in seven days.

Enter his smartphone.

It was at that point in his idle musing and internet surfing that his mother opened the door to his room, and it occurred to him that he ought to get a lock for that.

"Li Xiao, sweetie, your boxes are in the hall," she said, her smile telling him to obey or else.

Groaning, Leon stood up from his position - sprawled out on the carpet, as the room had yet to be furnished - and staggered over to the door. He stumbled his way downstairs, grabbed everything marked 'LEON'S SHIT' and hauled it and himself back upstairs, pausing only to creep up behind Yao and give the older boy a shock.

"Li Xiao! Come back here!" Yao yelled at him as he traipsed back to his domain.

"Sorry, Yao," he called over his shoulder, not really meaning it. Teasing his brothers was much too fun to resist and really feel bad about.

Holding his boxes in one arm in a precarious pile, he pushed open the door to his and Yong Soo's room again, only to find another of his siblings sitting cross-legged on the floor, nose in a manga.

"Hey, Kiku. What are you doing in here?" Leon asked his brother. He liked Kiku - the Japanese seventeen-year-old was much calmer and quieter than most of his family, and a lot less creepy than the others (cough-Mei-cough), and he always let Leon borrow his manga, unlike Yao, who guarded his book collection like Leon's Canadian cousin did his hockey stick.

Kiku stood up, bowing formally to Leon. "Ah, Leon-kun! I am terribly sorry, I did not mean to intrude! I was just trying to - ah - evade Mei-chan for a while - she seems to have taken to following me around, I don't quite understand why..."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Kiku, I'm your brother - you don't have to refer to me as '-kun'. And it's fine, you aren't intruding."

"Arigatou, Leon-ku- Leon. Thank you," Kiku said, flashing him a grateful look.

Dumping his armful of stuff on the bed-less floor - they were expecting the larger furniture to be delivered the next day, and were planning on spending the night in sleeping bags, for lack of a better solution - Leon began arranging his possessions on the side of the room he had decided to claim as his. Slowly sorting his stuff into relatively tidy piles, he steadily made progress on his mountain of probably unnecessary belongings, blissfully uninterrupted by any Korea-obsessed maniacs.

Of course, the peace could only last for so long.

"Heeeeeeeeeey, Leon! Hey, Kiku!" Yong Soo yelled, appearing in the doorway.

Leon facepalmed.

"Oh... Konnichiwa, Yong Soo-kun..."

"I thought you were like, teaching the neighbours to dance?" Leon questioned his brother.

"Oh, I was, but they were busy suddenly, for some reason!" Yong Soo replied brightly.

"And who can blame them?" Leon said in an undertone.

Yong Soo gave him a confused look, as Kiku gave a quiet snicker. "What?"

"Nothing, don't worry. Your stuff's probably downstairs, why don't you like, go get it?"

"Oh, okay!" Yong Soo bounded out of the room happily, singing under his breath in Korean.

"Leon-kun, that was mean," Kiku reprimanded, hiding a smile.

"He's annoying. What d'you expect?"

"I am saying nothing..."

Leon grinned at his brother, putting the last of his school stuff on the respective pile. "You agree with me." It wasn't a question.

"Ah, now did I ever say that?"

"You like, implied it."

Kiku gave him an amused look. "Since when could you read between the lines?"

"I've been spending too much time with you, clearly."

"Be careful what you say, Leon-kun, you may just lose access to my manga collection..."

Leon gave him a scandalised look. "You wouldn't..."

"Be very careful..." Kiku teased him.

Leon gave him a mock glare, turning away huffily. A few moments later, Yong Soo returned, his own tower of belongings only just balanced in his arms. "Hey, Kiku, Mei's looking for you..."

Kiku cursed quietly in Japanese and jumped up, marking his place in his manga with a printed bookmark produced from seemingly nowhere. "Arigatou, Yong Soo-kun... Goodbye, Leon-kun, and good luck." With that, the raven-haired teenager hurried out of the brothers' room, leaving Leon to smirk and Yong Soo to give him a confused look. Leon waved this off, telling him to get on with sorting his stuff, and headed downstairs to annoy some of his other siblings.

All in a day's work.

The next day was the same, to some extent.

Leon and Yong Soo had a minor argument about interior decoration, but two teenaged boys in one room was never going to be a calm affair - it was, naturally, only the first of a steady stream of incidents.

Their furniture arrived - and a good thing too, it was uncomfortable sleeping on the floor, despite the cushions and pillows Leon had commandeered from Yao - and, once Leon had persuaded Yong Soo to let him arrange the furniture in their room, it didn't look half-bad.

The next day was similar, and the next... Before long, it was Sunday again, and Leon was throwing his books into his satchel with very little care.

Nervous? Him? Never. Which was precisely why he was most definitely not texting Matthew and Alfred about his new school. Likewise, a while later, in the early hours of Monday morning when Yong Soo was snoring and his phone was concealed under his duvet, Leon was not at all talking to an online friend somewhere in North America about the next day. Nope. Nuh-uh. Not at all.

...Leon had a bit of an issue with denial, it seemed.

At around five in the morning, Leon finally turned off his phone, eyelids heavy and sleep beckoning. Ready? For school? Of course! He was already sleep-deprived - a sure sign of being ready to tackle the hell we call education.

His dreams that night were filled with images of seas of students, all bearing a strange resemblance to his cousins.

A/N

Editing this author's note because no one wants to read a 400-word-long a/n on the first chapter...anyway, yes, hello, I'm Anna and I like to waste time writing this shit. If you want more Anna fantasticness, follow me on tumblr where my username is currently aphdanmarked. I used to try and update this fic every Friday, but that went out the window. IN THIS STORY there will be swearing, awkward teenage boys and both homosexual and heterosexual relationships, although the main relationship will be homosexual. I don't really proof-read my chapters, so feel free to correct me on shit. There probably won't be any foreign languages spoken, but if there are and they aren't French or Spanish, it's likely that I used Google Translate.

To be honest, that wasn't much shorter than the original a/n...ah well, there's less rambling and annoyingness...enjoy!