A/N
Okay, so this is a story based off of a role-play between one of my friends and I that was spawned from pure boredom, so please don't tell me that the idea is weird or makes no sense because I already know that. Overall, this is a test for myself to try and turn a crack role-play into an actual story, so sorry if I fail (hopefully not, I spent enough time editing that I could have finished chapter 2 by now :/ . . .).
Disclaimer: I do not own the idea to Hetalia, nor the characters. If I did . . . I don't know what would happen, but it would be different.
Warning: This story will eventually contain mild violence, swearing, and BL (don't like, don't read).
I apologize in advance for my weird writing style. I normally write the thoughts straight into the paragraph, but I tried to seperate them out this time.
- Thoughts are (hopefully) surrounded by dashes -
Italics are just emphasis on words, not thoughts
'Italics surrounded in quote marks are quotes from the past'
Sorry for the confusion . . .
Enjoy!
Chapter 1 - Who's There?
It was just another ordinary day on the beach.
"Ve~! Germany, may I make pasta?" Italy asked. He stretched lithely, like a cat, and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before jumping to his feet. He skipped over to Germany, who rolled his eyes.
- Yes, just another ordinary day – Japan mused. – When Germany-san says no, Italy-kun will start begging. Then he will make pasta anyway, wander away to find something else to entertain himself, and then have a mid-morning siesta. As soon as he wakes up, the process will begin anew. This normally repeats at least three or four times a day. Westerners are quite strange. –
"No, Italy, you can't," Germany replied, slightly exasperated.
"Ve~. But Germany, pasta is so yummy! Pretty please? I'll make some lasagna with the vegetables Japan found! It will taste so good, and then we can go explore this island and find more things to mix with the pasta! Please, Germany?"
"No, Italy. I already said you can't, didn't I?"
Italy tilted his head, confused, and Japan could not help but mirror his sentiments. Normally, Germany would start a long-winded lecture about why Italy 'may not make pasta because it wastes food' and how 'pasta is only empty carbs, which are not good for soldiers like us', not that Italy could not make pasta. Realization struck Japan, and he could not help but let out a gasp of surprise.
"G-Germany-san," he stammered, worried, "w-when you say 'cannot' do you mean-"
"We-we only have potatoes left," Germany confessed, eyeing Italy nervously. And for good reason, too, because, after a moment standing there in confusion, Italy's eyes opened in sheer panic. They darted around the camp, hoping beyond hope that what Germany said was a lie. He began digging through all the boxes and packs strewn around camp in a fit of desperation.
"It is okay, Italy-kun. We will find something else to eat; there is no need for worry," Japan said quickly, trying to comfort the now nearly hysterical Italian, but to no avail. After encountering nothing but boxes and boxes of potatoes in the food supplies, Italy fainted. Germany rushed forward to catch him in his arms, placing the unconscious Italian gently on the ground.
"I didn't mean for him to find out like that," the German murmured guiltily.
"Germany-san, why did you not tell me about the shortage earlier? We could have found a way around this outcome," Japan inquired, a bit more shortly than usual.
"I only realized we were out of the ingredients for, well, anything besides potato dishes, a few moments ago. I was sure we had enough to last a while when I checked last night, but I must have been mistaken."
"Ah, and Italy-kun did wake up surprisingly early today," Japan nodded finally in understanding. He sighed, "Now the question becomes: what do we do? Most likely, Italy-kun will not wake up until he smells pasta . . . or something similar."
"No, he won't." Germany affirmed, and then winced slightly as he went to sit.
Noticing this, Japan's eyebrows nit with worry on his otherwise impassive face. "Germany-san, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," Germany grunted.
"You are bleeding," Japan noted, glancing at the other's leg. "Even I could hardly call that 'fine'. Here, let me see." He knelt, pulling the ripped fabric aside to reveal a relatively shallow, but long scrape running along Germany's calf. This is quite new - Japan thought. When did he procure this injury? He spotted a few splinters in the wound, probably from whatever object did this, and carefully extracted them. Germany blanched from the pain, which was understandable as some splinters were in quite deep.
"Germany-san, when did this happen?" Japan asked, his curiosity finally getting the better of him.
Germany hesitated, a faint blush coloring his cheeks as he answered, "When I went to grab Italy."
To this, Japan merely sighed. "You leapt before you looked," he stated, standing up. "Be still," he ordered sternly as he went to search their meager supplies for antibiotics, bandages, and painkillers. There were none, although the Asian could have sworn that there had been a First Aid Kit among the cooking supplies the night before. "Germany-san," he asked after a moment, "did you move the First Aid Kit? I cannot find it."
"No," a puzzled German replied. "It should be there. Did you check the other packs? It could be you're just looking in the wrong one."
"I will check," Japan replied doubtfully. He rummaged through the other packs, and even checked the boxes to see if they had misplaced it. " . . . How strange. It does not seem to be here," he concluded after a moment, giving up and heading back to Germany. He shrugged off his uniform jacket, and, drawing his dagger, began cutting strips from the fabric to be used as bandages. However, after a moment he paused in his rhythmic slashes and looked at Germany. "It cannot be a simple coincidence," he said out loud.
"Coincidence?" Germany asked distractedly, examining his wound.
"The ingredients for the pasta and the First Aid Kit would not disappear so suddenly, and at the same time," Japan muttered with a frown.
"But last time we checked there wasn't anyone on this island besides us!" Germany exclaimed heatedly, and then added, almost as an afterthought, "And that was yesterday."
"I know it seems unlikely, but that would be the only explanation," Japan replied calmly. "After all, we would need to go into the forest for more supplies, or to search for healing herbs to replace medicine, which would logically mean that the person is trying to drive us into the forest." Echoing his thoughts, a small flock of birds took off not far away, cawing loudly, startled into flight by some unknown creature.
Cursing, Germany pulled out his gun and tried to stand. He nearly toppled over, all color leaving his face as he was forced to put weight on his leg. Japan steadied the larger man before expertly maneuvering him back onto his seat. Ducking down, he wrapped the make-shift bandage around Germany's leg with practiced motions, and tied it off in order to stem the bleeding. Quickly grabbing his katana, he glanced over his shoulder before heading into the forest.
"Stay here, and take care of Italy-kun," he ordered, ignoring the German's protests, and vanished from sight. Germany let out a string of curses at everything that was going wrong. He couldn't move, Italy was rendered even more useless than usual, and now they were separated from Japan. Perhaps the Asian had some kind of plan which he did not know about, but searching for an unknown enemy by himself was very rash, not like the nation at all.
Finally, Germany calmed himself down and took up position as guard like Japan had wanted. If he could do no else, he would be helpful in any respect possible. He wouldn't let his allies down.
Meanwhile, in the Forest:
Stealthily, Japan darted through the thick green undergrowth. For once, he felt glad for his tiny size, as it allowed him to move around such tight places so easily. He would have been lying if he said he was only a little nervous to face the enemy alone, but Germany and Italy could not fight. It was left up to him to draw the enemy off so their weakness would not be discovered and used against them. The rustle, which signaled the position of the enemy, grew louder as he headed further into the forest and closer to the source. Japan slowed, considering the possibilities. He could, obviously, find a vantage point and try to spot the enemy before it spotted him. However, due to the scarcity of vegetation above the tree-line, that plan would risk exposure, something any warrior would only face if he had no other choice. The next option would be to approach from the ground and spy, which, although useful overall in gathering information and provided a lower risk of exposure, had a much higher chance that he would be captured - also unacceptable. That would leave scare tactics; try to frighten the enemy away before he realizes you are there. This was quite underhanded, but it just might work.
Getting to work, Japan quickly scouted out good places to set natural traps, traps which would make it seem like the island was working against his enemy, rather than another person. This would work particularly well if the opponent was superstitious, but such a convenience was not always available, so he would have to make do with what he had. Noise traps were also placed at regular intervals, to mark enemy approach as well as indicate where the other traps were, so that he would not be caught in his own trick. These were fairly subtle, but, if the intruder scared easily, then it would be well worth it.
All he could hope for was that the single enemy was not actually a group of five Allies. Well, that and it was not one Ally in particular. –Russia-san – Japan thought, shuddering slightly, pausing in his work as memories surfaced. – After Yao-nii, no, China-san had told him of Russia-san's stalking habits, he realized that a similar pattern had been taken up with him recently. It was bad enough trying to convince his boss that unifying his country with Russia-san's was a bad idea, but having the creeping suspicion that Russia-san was watching him sleep . . . that was a bit too much – Japan shook his head, quaking slightly at the flood of recollections. – After he discovered that Russia-san's boss had been having talks with his boss about marrying them, he jumped at the first chance to ally himself to Germany-san and Italy-kun and join the war. After all, the emperor could not marry him off to an enemy during wartime. At least – Japan thought – he did not think his boss could.
Still deep in thought, he continued walking, half-blindly, through the forest, until one rather scary thought occurred to him. What if the person he now sought really was Russia-san? Panic bubbled in his stomach. The idea that Russia was the one stalking around this island looking for him was more than just a bit worrying, particularly because the person had obviously found their camp. With his allies back at the beach, he was all by himself. Alone . . . With Russia-san. Kami-sama, this was bad.
Back on the beach:
Germany hobbled back to his seat, wincing in pain as he sat once again. Everything had been secured into a diminutive mountain, all the loose equipment packed, and Italy hidden behind it all. Despite his injury, the task had been fairly simple because of their dwindling supply pile. That did not equal to painless, however, and his face had turned white from exertion. Hopefully, Japan would come to his senses and return to camp instead of causing trouble. For all they knew, the enemy on the island didn't actually know they were there. All evidence pointed to the contrary, but that did not mean he couldn't be optimistic. – Optimistic? – Germany wondered. Great, next thing you know he'll be hallucinating from infection. That was the trouble with these tropical islands, they are absolutely festering with disease, crawling with insects, and humid to the point it was unbearable. Maybe Japan would find some sort of antibiotic for his wound.
Suddenly, there was a resounding crash nearby. The brush rustled, quaking violently as something, or someone, tried to push his way through onto the beach. – Did someone get around Japan? – Germany wondered, refusing to entertain the notion that Japan had been captured, or worse, as he grabbed his gun, aiming it at the epicenter of the shaking.
"Who's there?" he demanded sharply.
In the forest once again:
Japan debated whether to turn back to camp or continue his search in the forest. He would have felt much safer back at camp with his allies, but turning back would mean admitting defeat. That would be a hard pill to swallow, admitting defeat out of fear. And not even the understandable fear of the unknown, but the fear of Russia of all things! It was decided then. He would not do anything further about the unknown enemy, but instead just find out who was on the island besides them. Then he would, at the very least, have some useful information for future reference. As soon as he saw who the intruder was, he could head back with a field report.
Determination filling him once again, Japan glanced around his surroundings, faintly noting that he had been spacing out for quite a while. The trees looked unfamiliar from when he had begun thinking, so he must have been walking as he thought, an inveterate practice which he still needed to get rid of. It was almost as bad as pacing, a habit which he had only quit recently. Yao, no, China had often scolded him for wandering off whenever he needed to think because he would turn up in the strangest places, even on the opposite side of town, spacing out for hours. Lost in a new tangent, he did not notice as the rustle of leaves, which gave away the location of his enemy, crept closer. Before he could investigate his surroundings further, the enemy sprung, and he stiffened in shock and fear as a pair of strong arms wrapped tightly around his chest and pulled him into a hug.
A/N
Ah, I love cliffhangers~
I should have Chapter 2 up soon, so in the meantime, please review!
Thank you!
