A/N: Not as happy with this chapter as I was the last one. But these stepping stone chapters are needed sometimes. ^.^ Bear with me please! I'll do my best to make the next chapter longer and, hopefully, have some more answers for all of your questions! And thank you to everyone that's given me help with the history I need to know for this story, I love to hear from all of you!
Closing the door to his room behind him, Mathew leaned against it and let out a sigh. He knew that having everyone stay at his house for the meeting would be a hassle but that had just been ridiculous! Alfred never had that hard of a time telling everyone to get in their rooms and stay there; though his near-twin was always far more blunt with directions than Mathew had been which, no doubt, was the reason.
But was it so hard for Arthur to understand that Francis was just not able to room with anyone else? Or for Feliciano to ask for extra blankets while Mathew was still at his room? Or even just on the same floor? His house wasn't a looming mansion or anything but it was big enough that trecking up and down the stairs repeatedly would tire him out.
And then, of course, was the multitude of problems he'd had when he passed the hall that the majority of his provinces inhabited. Even the thought of it, and the betrayed look that Alanis had given him when she passed in the hallway, made the throbbing behind his eyes start back up.
The migraine had started at dinner, just when Je'anne snapped at Alfred and Ludwig. While Mathew appreciated that the way his guests were behaving towards him had gotten Je'anne so frazzled, because there were days when he wasn't sure if she still cared for him or not, he'd specifically told her not to bother with it.
When she stormed out of the dining room, leaving behind an air thick with tension and eyes that were locked onto him, the migrain hadn't actually been that bad. As the day stretched on, crawling by as he bustled from room to room and nation to nation, it had steadily progressed into a feeling not unlike he was being beaten over the head.
Pushing himself away from the door, Mathew crossed through his room and into the adjoining bathroom. Pale, neutral colors made up the theme of the room; nothing fancy like he knew the other nations had. But then, to look at a high-class decor really wasn't why Mathew went into his bathroom.
And he liked tan.
Like the color palet, Mathew's bathroom was simple in design. It had all the necissities and little more. That, the Northern nation had reasoned when he first furnished the place, meant that it would be easy to find everything. Not that Mathew ever let his rooms stay messed up for any longer then he had to. Everything had a place and he liked to keep it there.
Which was why it only took a few moments of looking into his medicine cabinet to find the bottle of headache pills. Snatching them up to take out to the bed with him, Mathew pushed the cabinet door shut. And, for a brief moment, he found himself staring at the place where a mirror should have been.
Somedays were harder than others when it came to this. Even though the glass wasn't there anymore...He could still hear the voices. Still hear their threats and screams. Still wonder which side was true and which was a lie.
Abruptly, he turned on his heel and left the bathroom with an ache in his chest that hadn't been there before.
He would just take the pills without water that night.
xxxChina and South Korea's roomxxx
"Hey! Hey, Yao! Come look at this, da-zee!"
Yao sighed as Yong Soo's voice, loud as could be, shattered the peaceful silence the room had been. He should have known that it wouldn't last for long. Yong Soo and silence had never gotten along well. It was not, as his younger brother had pointed out once, created in South Korea.
"What is it?" Yao asked, clearly annoyed.
"I said come look at this!"
The Chinese nation dropped the pen he was writing with down on the desk, narrowing his eyes over his shoulder. Yong Soo had wondered into the bathroom a while ago, supposedly to get a shower, and he wasn't all that sure whether he really wanted to go in and look at anything. "I'm busy out here, Yong Soo. Is it really important, aru?"
There wasn't any answer. Nodding his head once, Yao picked the pen back up and turned back to his papers. It wasn't work for tomorrows meeting, that had all been taken care of earlier, but the last pieces of work his President had sent him to look over and sign. Which meant that it had to be finished and sent back to China as soon as possible.
Just as he put the nib of the pen to the dotted line at the bottom of his sheet, Yong Soo's voice rang out again: "C'mon, da-zee! I want you to see this!"
Pursing his lips together, Yao set the pen down. Again. "Fine. But if I get in there, Yong Soo, and this is just some game that you made up, you'll find yourself sleeping in the tub!"
Getting up from the desk, Yao pushed his chair in before crossing the room to the door that shielded whatever had gotten Yong Soo into such a flurry from him. And he could only imagine what it could be. His younger brother was so easily entertained...It probably was something as simple as the type of soap that Mathew's bathroom sported.
As it was, Yao hadn't been in there yet. With Yong Soo in there now, in who knows what state of undress, he wasn't all that thrilled about going in there either. With another sigh, Yao rapped his knuckles hard on the door. "At least make sure that you're dressed before I come in, aru."
There was another pause and then the tell-tale rustle of clothes being pulled on. Of course Yong Soo hadn't even bothered to get himself dressed and decent before calling him in. The Chinese nation rolled his eyes and waited until the noises stopped before pushing the door open.
Yong Soo was standing in the middle of the room, bright blue and green striped pajamas messily pulled on. He had a white towel flung across one shoulder, soaking the fabric of his pajama top. Another towel was on the floor near his feet and there was a puddle of water on the white tile by the actual shower. I
And, for the life of him, Yao couldn't see what the big deal was.
The bathroom was done up in plain white and black, giving it a more modern look then the room they were sleeping in. Heavy black curtains hung over the tub and the top of the counter matched it in color, both of which stood out in stark contrast to the white that filled the rest of the room.
"Alright, Yong Soo. I'm here. What did you want to show me, aru?" Yao raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Look, there isn't any mirror in here!" Yong Soo frowned and jabbed his finger at the spot above the sink where a large silver frame hung, apparently bolted into the wall.
Yao followed his siblings movements, eyes drifting to the frame. It looked like the base for one of the old fashioned mirrors that used to be so popular in Britain during the time of the first World War. Except...There was no glass pane in the middle of the frame. No actual mirror.
It was odd. Something about that missing chunk of glass, and the dark pane of wood that it revealed, made Yao feel horribly vulnerable. Open and unguarded. Which was silly, since it was just a broken mirror.
Frowning, Yao turned to frown at his brother. "Is this all you callled me in here for? A broken mirror? I told you I was doing something!"
"That's mean, Yao." Yong Soo let a sulky look settle on his face, crossing his arms over his stomach. "I wouldn't call you in here just for that. But it's pretty cool isn't it? You know mirrors were created in me, right da-ze?"
Yao had learned many years ago that there wasn't any point in correcting Yong Soo when it came to things he created. The Korean nation was set on claiming ownership for whatever idea struck his fancy. As long as it worked. If it didn't, then it didn't come from South Korea. And that was that. "Please just show me whatever it is that's got your attention. I want to finish my work so that I can get some sleep, aru!"
"Look at this, Yao!" Yong Soo squeezed inbetween the older nation and the sink and dropped down onto his knees. With an excited grin, he yanked open the door to the cabinets under it. "I wanted to see what type of soap and stuff he had so I pulled everything out." The Korean nation motioned to several bottles of bleach and containers of shampoo beside the toilet. "And look what I found when I did! Isn't that wierd, da-zee? Can you tell what it says?"
Blinking, Yao crouched down beside Yong Soo. Dark amber eyes narrowing, he reached in and trailed one hand across the mussed up wood. There were small, jagged lines all over the inside of the cabinet; some curved, some straight, facing all directions. Most of them were carved near the bottom of the back wall, but there were a few up in the corners and on the side walls as well.
It took a moment before Yao realized that they were letters.
The way they were placed didn't make any sense though. Every few spaces a different symbol would be thrown into the letter. It was clearly more then one, maybe two, different langauges.
"Well? Can you figure out what it says?" Yong Soo asked. He had shuffled back a few inches, without getting up, so that the Chinese nation could see it better. He'd spent a good few minutes staring at the writing but it had just been a big jumble to him. Yao though, he knew, was able to read most of the other countries langauges.
Still running his fingers across several of the words, feeling the rough way the wood had been carved and the splinters that still stuck up, Yao gave a slow nod. "Most of it, aru." The mixture of langauges threw him off a little, making it harder to understand; Russian and French and English, all in a row, all mixed together.
"Well? What does it say?" Yong Soo asked, leaning forewards to squint at the section of words Yao had let his hand rest on. Nope. Still no clue what was written there.
"They're names."