Hello! Thank you for all the wonderful support! I hope this chapter doesn't let you down! Enjoy :D
A Very Asian Vacation
"Let's explore, da-ze!"
Japan fanned his face with the techno magazine he bought from a tourist shop, blearily trying to focus on the jumping Korean. They had just landed on the island after almost being capsized in the ferry they had ridden- courtesy of Hong Kong and Korea rocking the boat- and his queasy stomach, added to the sun beating on his head, was not starting him off well for the day. He endured them in the car, endured them on the seas and had to endure them in the middle of a godforsaken island.
"We're doing no such thing, aru! We're going straight to Thailand's house."
"Where is Thailand's house?" Hong Kong stated dully.
That seemed to stop them for a second.
"The ferryman surely knows…" Japan quickly turned, not wanting to face the dread of getting lost again with his family.
However, he felt all hope dissipate into the miserable, suffocating air. The ferryman was already on his way to the mainland, leaving them completely alone and unguided in the middle of the isle. This was a joke- surely it was a joke. One of them had to know how to get to Thailand.
"See?" Korea smiled smugly, "God wants us to explore! Survival style!"
"Great," Hong Kong muttered, "we're getting heatstroke and dying after all."
"Come on! It's a good way to family bond, da-ze! They do this sort of thing all the time on reality psychiatric TV shows!"
"Throw innocent people in the middle of nowhere and have them eat other?"
"And don't forget the loaded gun for suicide!"
"And the random bear that starts mauling them."
"And the bones buried in the sand!"
"And a crazed deserter that they have to take with them and turns out to be a sociopathic cannibal."
"And Wilson the Volleyball!"
"It's actually Jiangshi that came in the form of a volleyball to posses the spirit of the westerner and take him to the underworld, aru," China stated factually.
"Can we stop mixing up movies and focus on the problem, please?" Japan rubbed his temples, he could already feel a migraine pulsing.
"I told you!" Korea gave an exaggerated sigh, "we go explore. We find the cottage. We stay at the cottage!"
Japan pleadingly turned to China- the older nation should have at least have some sense in his head to get them out of this situation- but found the Chinese already sitting down on the grass, cross-legged, with a big scowl.
"My legs hurt, aru! I'm not as young as I used to be."
"This sucks," Hong Kong huffed, "Is there no Information Centre here?"
They were hopeless. They were absolutely hopeless.
"Korea-san, do you know where- Korea-san?"
Japan turned to his left, expecting to find his hyperactive younger brother but saw nothing but the wide expanse of sand at the feet of the thick lush of the forests. He turned to his left and the same view, a complaining China and a huffing Hong Kong, met his gaze. Maybe he ran out in to the water- the waters were clear, untouched and uninhabited.
"China-san," he said wearily. "Where is Korea-san?"
"Did he finally drown himself?" China muttered, "he's right over… there? Yong Soo?"
China's head turned from side to side hastily, his eyes whipping across the empty expansion across them.
"Im Yong Soo? Where's Yong Soo?"
"Great, now he's gonna get eaten by bears," Hong Kong shrugged.
"There are no bears in Thailand, especially not an island," Japan could feel annoyance biting at his skin, his tone slowly turning snappish.
"Talk about no creativity," Hong Kong rolled his eyes, "Guess we all can't be perfect, now can we, Nihon?"
"Hong Kong-san, this is not the time to argue-"
"Footsteps, aru!"
This started to sound like a very cheesy survival show.
A long trail of footsteps were embedded in the sand, walking down towards the faint forestry in the midst of the island, and disappearing into its perimeter. China was ready to dash into the growth before the little lost Korean got himself killed, but Hong Kong pulled him back and proceeded to use technology: calling him. After four missed calls, five text messages and twenty Nationbook notifications, it seemed like Im Yong Soo had disappeared off the face of the earth.
Hence, they followed his footsteps and Japan felt as if he was in a very laughable prank video. The more they walked into the forest, the thicker came the mosquitoes and the more humid were the airs, almost choking. They began mixing up his footsteps with leaf rubbings or other dents in the sand that started to get thicker and thicker until the ground was riddled with roots and fallen leaves.
"We're lost."
They prowled around the forest for three hours they've prowled, running in circles and spinning in spirals. They gave up on Korea fifteen minutes in and proceeded to look for any road signs or banners that would remind them that civilization was close by.
But no luck whatsoever.
No luck at all.
Japan fanned his flushed face with his techno magazine, feeling his as though his airways were constricted and his breaths were shallow. It was getting hotter and the sun was now blaring at them from the dead centre of the skies, beating down mercilessly on their skins and heads between the leaves of the trees. Any more exposure and Japan was sure he'd start peeling.
"Stranded on a bloody island with two old men, fan-fucking-tastic, isn't it?" he could hear Hong Kong mutter behind him, his fingers tapping expertly on his phone.
Japan suddenly stopped and Hong Kong sharply bumped into him. Before the teen had a chance to lash, Japan pulled out his phone and checked if there was any signal.
It was full.
He switched on his cellular data and tapped the Nationbook app on his phone, skipping past the trillion notifications he had from nations and interests alike, before selecting Thailand's name. If they didn't have his number, then surely Thailand would know where they were through Nationbook, right? He sent a quick message to the Thai to call them on one of their numbers along with a GPS on their coordinates.
"Like, what's with the sudden stop? Latest update on Tokyo Kinky?"
"No, I- what?" his eyes widened and a blush heated his face. "W-what are you talking about?"
"Like, please. I hacked into your phone a thousand times," Hong Kong rolled his eyes, "never knew you were into erotics-"
"This is not the time to discuss such things," his face was going to explode, his lips bitten down so hard they were threatening to bleed.
"Why not?" Hong Kong smirked, "we're two guys alone on an island. We can take it as a sexual bonding lesson like in Blue Lagoon, right?"
Before he was going to snap at the smirking teen, he stopped himself and looked around, "What do you mean two guys? Where's China-san?"
"Gramps?" Hong Kong scrolled down his phone uninterestedly, "he's over there."
Japan turned to the direction in which Hong Kong had jerked his head and, to his horror, found China crawling on the ground, huffing and puffing so heavily that his body raked with every breath. His face was beet red, his expression close to dying.
"Oh," he panted, "now you remember… me, aru."
Japan's phone vibrated. All worried feelings for China were quickly forgotten as he answered the call with a gush of relief.
"NIHON! I told you to follow me but you didn't listen~! In your faces! This is what happens when you don't listen to your older brother-"
Korea's voiced blared out of the speaker. All sense of relief washed away. Japan quickly pulled the phone away from his ear- something was definitely ringing- before Hong Kong snatched it from his hand.
"Yo, Yong Soo, does Thailand have a charger for an iPhone 5? Mine's complete low on bat," he said as he pocketed his own phone.
"Ek, iPhone 5? When you have a Samsung- which is made in KOREA- you'll know that low battery and whatever doesn't happen on a daily basis unlike that American RIP-OFF. I had to pay 2 million dollars because America decided to steal my idea and then shove it in my face-"
"That's real cool," Hong Kong said nonchalantly, "but does he have a charger or not?"
"Thailand is Korea-supportive," hmphed Korea on the other line, "and he doesn't support American rip-off's of good Korean merchandise! Even if he had a charger I'm going to feed it to the elephants, da-ze!"
"So he does have a charger?"
"Hong Kong-san, please give my phone back," Japan sharply stuck out his hand. He was sticky, he was sweaty and he just had his phone snatched out of his hand unceremoniously and impolitely. Hong Kong would be a very lucky lad if he didn't get a good whap to the ear for insolence.
"Like, can't you see I'm talking," Hong Kong rolled his eyes. "You gotta respect it when people are on the phone, Nihon."
"Ooooooh! Burn, Nihon, burn, da-ze! This is what happens when you don't bro-fist when I ask you to!"
"We need to ask Thailand for directions-" pressed Japan.
"Like, shush."
Japan gawked. Hong Kong had shushed him. Hong Kong, a small teenaged island suffering from hormonal imbalance and badly chopped hair, shushed him. Him. The empire of Japan. Nihon-koku. His elder.
This boy needed a very serious class on manners.
"OW!"
Japan yanked his phone back and glared at the Chinese teen that was now bent over, clutching his throbbing scarlet neck. Eyes watering from the sudden stinging, Hong Kong hissed as he tried to glare back at the Japanese, failing miserably. He ended up screwing his eyes shut and buckled down on the moist, damp ground.
"You are so paying for that," he said through clenched teeth. "You are so-"
"Korea-san, may I speak to Thailand-san?" Japan said, coolly watching the teen murmur a stream of curses from his kneeling position on the ground.
"What did you do to Xiang?!" screamed Korea. "You killed him- you killed- WHERE'S ANIKI? HE'S ALWAYS THE LOUDEST BUT NOW I CAN'T HEAR HIM- YOU ATE ANIKI-"
There was a sharp scuffle on the phone- Korea screaming, some whistling, a sharp bang- before a sudden silence lapsed over. For a moment, Japan was scared they were cut off the very line that could save them from this endless meandering- no matter how ludicrous and idiotic that line was.
"Japan! Long time, ana~!"
"Thailand-" his voice was tight. He wanted to cry it out desperately but he held himself. He was Nihon-koku and he couldn't lose himself simply because he was on wit's end. He had to stay strong and keep himself in check.
"I got your message on Nationbook! Just stay put, ana~! I'm on my way."
"Thank you, Thailand-san," Japan said stiffly. "I appreciate your help and I apologize for troubling you."
"It's alright, it's the least I can do! I'm glad you all decided to come! Just give me a few minutes- Toto needs his nap right now."
Japan shut the phone and placed it back in his pocket, looking back at his two 'travel-mates' that oh so graced his day. China was sitting on a small rock, his face bright pink and his breaths unstable, while Hong Kong had massive beats around his head, the cord linking into his satchel.
"Thailand-san is on his way now. We just have to wait," he informed them.
China looked up at him, sweat pouring down his puffy face but Hong Kong merely fingered him. Stay cool, Japan, he warned himself. Stay cool. He leant against some tree, the shade of the leaves very much welcome, and sighed. Any minute now and Thailand would come, hence, they'd all be out of the ridiculous dilemma that they had put themselves through.
More like Korea had put them through.
However, all initial optimism- if Japan could even call it that- soon drained to tightened frustration because an hour later he was still standing by the tree, checking his watch, with Thailand nowhere to be seen.
"Come on," Hong Kong huffed, "I've broken the world record in Subway Surfers and we're still stuck here."
"Thailand-san isn't answering his phone," Japan said through grit teeth.
"This is totally your fault," Hong Kong said dismissively as he crossed his arms, "seriously."
"And how is it my fault?"
"I dunno, ask yourself why don't you," Hong Kong huffed.
Japan felt his right eye twitch.
"Where is Thailand, aru?" China yelled from where he was still sitting on his stump. "The noodles I made are getting cold and I need to pre-heat them!"
"I still think that we should've gone to an Information Centre," Hong Kong rolled his eyes. "I mean, they've got one everywhere but knowing you old men, you'd probably die when we're half way through this bloody path."
"When you're over 4000 years old- or even more than that aru- let's see how you'll feel!"
"Totally much better since I'm way more healthier than either of you. Nihon's due a stroke soon with all the salt he's sucking."
Japan was going to send the boy a very nice retort before something caught his eye. It was a large elephant who was actually overweight, escorted by a gleefully smiling Thailand who immediately started waving at them. At last- AT LAST- this sweaty torture was over. He waved back, acknowledging the Thai, and picked up his satchel from the damp dirt.
"Welcome to Thailand, ana~!" laughed Thailand gleefully.
The large elephant stood valiantly next to him and Japan could detect a slight proud arrogance in the elephant's stance. He shook his head. His brain was fried and his eyesight was deteriorating; elephants don't have expressions.
"Took you long enough, aru," China muttered.
"Toto didn't want me to leave the house," Thailand explained, "so I had to make sure he was happy before I left."
"So where's the car?" Hong Kong said as he peered around the large elephant.
"What car?" Thailand smiled.
"Oh, so it's an ambulance is it?" Hong Kong nodded, "Gramps needs the stretcher- it's due time he throws his back."
"That's cruel, aru!" snapped China. "I don't walk around throwing my back all the time!"
"Sure you don't," Hong Kong snorted, "I have physical evidence of every single scenario and am working on a presentation for the next world meeting anyway."
"No, Tsetse here volunteered to help," Thailand said as he affectionately patted the elephant, "in Thailand we all ride elephants!"
It could have been a normal elephant ride… if China stopped asking for breaks for him to stretch his 'ailing bones', if Thailand stopped rattling about different plants and wandering off the path to show them barely seeable flowers and tiny, insignificant animals. It would have been a normal ride if Hong Kong stopped chattering with Korea- who's painfully loud voice was booming from the speaker across the whole island- using Japan's own phone and throwing snide comments whenever he had the chance.
Above all, it would have been a normal elephant ride if Hong Kong didn't decide to be funny and throw a toy mouse at the elephant.
"I like, wanted to see if the myths were true," Hong Kong casually defended himself, "there's like, no harm in learning, yeah?"
"Yes there is harm if it concerns a spoilt elephant in the middle of nowhere!" screamed China.
"Tsetse is not spoilt," Thailand's voice was flat and stern as he threw an uncharacteristic glare at the Chinese.
Thailand- cheery, happy-go-lucky Thailand who took nothing to heart- was reduced to narrowed brows and a thin scowl. A feat Japan didn't think possible. He apologized on the behalf of his siblings but the Thai's expression did not relent- he was ultimately touchy when it came to his elephants. He was currently running soothing circles on a frazzled Tsetse's leg, trying to placate the elephant that had almost trampled all of them to death mere seconds ago.
Japan cringed, stepping away, and held himself back from throwing his head into his hands.
