Estonia strode hurriedly to the harbour of Nagasaki, wanting to get to Japan's boat in good time. He was getting rather hot and sweaty in his rush, mainly due to the blazing sun which he was quite unused to. Today was the day that Japan was due to go on his supposed fishing trip, and Estonia had yet to find a way of preventing his plan. At this rate he would be begging for his life from Russia before the week was over.
Estonia's first day in Nagasaki was spent being an annoyance towards Japan, who had been polite but dismissive whilst refusing his requests to spend some time together. After this, he had spent the rest of the day sneaking around the boat which was to be used for the trip in the hopes of seeing or hearing something fishy which could help him stop Japan embarking on his voyage. He had no such luck, and was eventually roped into scrubbing the ship whilst Japan went off somewhere else, leaving Estonia unable to contact him for the rest of the day.
The previous day was spent by Estonia trying to use the knowledge he obtained to find a way to stop the trip. He had hired a car and had spent most of the day driving round the outskirts of Nagasaki. Driving on the wrong side of the road was rather bothersome, but once he had gotten used to it, he managed to have a good think. Unfortunately his thoughts were fruitless and he now had to improvise a plan as he made his way to the dockyards, at the moment begging seemed to be his only option.
Now Estonia had reached the port. Despite the early hour, they were already bustling with activity; sailors and fishermen hurriedly carried crates and ropes from one boat to the next, and wheelbarrows full of still-wriggling fish were carted around. The fish were certainly easy to smell, the putrid salty scent most certainly offended Estonia's olfactory system.
Estonia stopped for a moment and attempted to make himself more presentable, smoothing down his jacket which he really shouldn't have bothered to put on this morning, it was far too warm to wear wool. He thought that if he looked presentable he may have more of a chance of success when trying to convince Japan to give up his ambitions to go on the trip. He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, pulling out a pale blue handkerchief. He raised it to his head and was about to use it to wipe the sweat off his forehead when something small fell out of it and drifted to the ground. Estonia automatically crouched down to pick it up, but paused as he realised what it was.
For it was a sprig of mint.
Estonia's first thought was one of confusion and slight disgust as he realised that the handkerchief hadn't been washed since it was last used, just under a month ago. However, this was swept aside as he remembered what the plant was.
Estonia quickly used the handkerchief to pick the plant up and returned it to his pocket, looking around in guilt. This plant could certainly solve his problems, but could he really bear to drug a fellow nation? England had no qualms about it, although he had been intoxicated, and the nation he had poisoned had been France, who was possibly one of the more deserving personifications. But Japan, whose apparent crime of annoying China had very little to do with Estonia, was not someone who deserved the same treatment. How would he go about getting Japan to eat a strange leaf anyway? He would have to put it in some type of consumable. England had told him to use it on someone he didn't like, but had unhelpfully not given any help about actually getting them to take it.
"Estonia, you're here again?" A voice, which Estonia assumed was Japan's, called out from behind him, make him start and whip around in a panic, his guilt levels going through the roof.
"Oh, hello there," Estonia laughed nervously as he tried to remember how to act normally. "I haven't just been dreaming up of ways to drug you," he thought, willing Japan to pick up on his non-drugging vibes.
"Excuse me for the intrusion, but what are you doing here?" Japan asked, barely able to mask his annoyance.
"I wanted to say goodbye to you before you went off on your trip," Estonia replied, his Japanese shakily-spoken, not being used to speaking the language. The only reason that he knew any Japanese whatsoever was due to a brief stint where Russia thought it would be a good idea to learn the language and had appointed Estonia as his clueless tutor. He hadn't practiced the language at all since them, with the exception of when the World Meeting was held in Tokyo a few years ago, so he found it a little difficult to follow conversations.
"That is very kind of you, but rather unnecessary," Japan coldly replied. "I assure you that we will see each other before long," his head bobbed a little, which Estonia assumed was some sort of half-bow, but there was a small frown on his face, showing his discontent.
"Of course," Estonia replied, perhaps a little too loudly, "But it seems rude to come to your country without visiting you," he tried to fabricate a sensible excuse as to why he had been following Japan so closely over these past few days. He thought that Japan, who seemed to hold politeness and tradition above all else, would appreciate someone trying to be polite.
"I was just going to get a cup of tea. I'll get you some as well," Estonia hurriedly declared, turning around quickly but not so quickly that he didn't see Japan opening his mouth, trying to stop him, no doubt.
Estonia quickly walked a little way into town, wanting to find some sort of shop or café which would sell him a couple of cups of tea. He walked down a few short streets, getting looks from locals who were amused at the confused-looking blond guy. As he spent the time walking around and looking for his objective, he thought about his situation a little. Perhaps he could use the tea he bought to put the leaves in, if he tore it up into small enough pieces then it shouldn't be too noticeable. He hoped that it didn't have any taste which would make it easy to detect, he certainly wasn't going to attempt to find out himself.
Eventually, Estonia found a small café which had just opened for the day, he was probably their first customer this morning. He made his way up to the counter:
"Could I have two cups of tea to take away, please?" he asked the person behind the counter, an older woman who looked as though she had just woken up.
"To take away? I suppose I can do that," she looked confusedly at the strange foreigner and his strange tea-drinking habits. "What kind?" she asked.
"Your strongest-tasting variety, please," Estonia replied, he thought that it would be best if it had a strong taste in order to mask the drugs he was planning on putting in it.
The café owner nodded and went about getting his drinks. Estonia paid her and took a seat at one of the tables of the café. He retrieved mint sprig from his pocket and began to tear it up as best he could. He had to use his fingers to do so, although he did attempt to cover them with the handkerchief. Touching the leaves didn't seem to be the best idea. He added four of the small leaves into one of the cups of tea. They were fairly noticeable whilst bobbing at the top of the liquid but he hoped that they would settle as regular tea leaves would. He then made his way back to the docks with his purchase, looking for his undeserving victim
"You shouldn't have," Japan grimaced as Estonia forced a cup of poisoned lukewarm tea onto him. He did feel bad about annoying Japan in such a way, but the thought of being punished by Russia was an extraordinarily good motivation tactic.
"I've come to apologise for bothering you over these past few days," Estonia explained. "I hope this somewhat makes up for it."
"Oh, you have been no bother at all. Thank you for the tea," Japan lied through his teeth, raising the polystyrene cup to his mouth before suddenly stopping. "It smells rather odd," Japan suspiciously eyed the cup, drawing away.
"Really? Mine tastes just fine," Estonia made a big show of taking a gulp of his own non poisoned cup of tea. Japan followed his lead and took a sip of his own cup. He pulled a face, but tried to hide it.
"Is something wrong?" asked Estonia.
"Oh no," Japan replied hurriedly, wanting to be polite. Estonia knew that he would probably be bothered by the fairly large chunks of leaf floating in his drink, he hadn't been overly successful at tearing them up. Hopefully Japan would think them as just tea leaves. "I must finish this quickly, though. I should leave for my trip immediately," he tipped back his cup and gulped down the rest of his tea with a look of determination.
"I'll walk to your boat with you," Estonia was keen to stay with Japan a little longer. He kept shooting nervous sideways glances at his victim, hoping that the mint sprig infused cup of tea would work quickly and Japan would be unable to set sail.
Japan nodded, not looking quite so annoyed this time. The duo walked along the seafront, quickly at first, with Estonia barely managing to keep up with Japan's rapid walking speed, but at a rapidly decelerating pace. After a short while, Japan's arm began to wave around, sticking out to the side, as if searching for something.
"Is something wrong?" asked Estonia, hoping that this was a strange sign that the mint sprig was working.
"Oh no," Japan wobbled, "Oh my," he reached out and grabbed onto Estonia's forearm. "Yes, I'm quite alright," he spoke shakily, looking nauseous. The mint sprig must be very potent in order to be working this quickly.
"Do you want to sit down?" Estonia asked, worried about how tightly Japan was clutching onto his arm.
"No," Japan replied angrily, pushing away from Estonia's arm and immediately losing his balance and falling against Estonia's chest, wrapping his arms around Estonia's shoulders. A passing sailor winked at the pair.
"I'm sorry," Japan spoke unsteadily, tripping over his words. "I'm… I'm… Oh, you're so sparkly!"
Estonia raised an eyebrow, as did all of the people passing by them.
"I think you should sit down," Estonia sternly told Japan. "I think you're ill. It must be all the stress."
"But I don't want to," Japan stuck his bottom lip out, his arms now around Estonia's waist as he slowly began sinking to his knees. It was beginning to get rather awkward.
"C'mon, we have to go," Estonia nudged Japan with his knee, trying to get him to stand up; having another man's face near his crotch wasn't his kind of thing.
Japan grumbled a little as Estonia pulled him up. It was obvious that he wouldn't be able to walk on his own. At first he tried to lend Japan his shoulder, but Japan's legs weren't functioning at all and he was being dragged around on his knees. Then Estonia tried to carry him over his shoulder, but his shoulders weren't wide enough and Japan just slid off. Estonia thought about asking one of the now-staring sailors to help him, but eventually settled for carrying Japan bridal-style in his arms, luckily he was fairly light. Japan giggled as he hung onto Estonia's neck; their antics were gathering quite a crowd.
Estonia awkwardly carried Japan away from the seafront, wondering where he was going to go with his giggling luggage.
