This Isn't Living.
It had been a couple of months since China had been let out of the hospital she had spent most of her life in and yet she still hadn't been able to bring up the courage to stand. She didn't count the times when she moved from the wheelchair to something else as most of the time she propped herself up and her arms took most of the weight. It wasn't that she didn't want to stand on her own two feet, instead that she was terrified of falling and not being able to pick herself up again.
She could ask Russia to help her; but she didn't want to seem weaker in front of the other Nation. But what could she do now that said Nation was sat before her asking about the same issue.
"Are you listening China?" Russia asked interrupting her thoughts, "I asked if you try to walk when I'm not here, I mean you need to build your strength up, da?"
China bit her lip, "Yes, I do, but..."
"But you haven't tried." Russia said with a soft smile as opposed to her chldish grin,
"No, I haven't." China whispered.
"Why not? Does China not want to walk?"
"Of course I want to walk," China almost snapped at her friend, "I want to walk, to run, I want to dance and try all the things that are now in my head," She sighed calming down slightly, "But most of all I don't want to depend on other people anymore, I am a strong Nation now I want to be able to stand on my own two feet." Her last part came almost as a whisper, "This is the first time people have believed I will live for a normal length of time, but now I'm stuck the way I was before, I might as well still be in that hospital bed."
"What you were before wasn't living," Russia's gentle sureness startled China, "Before you were just surviving, you never did anything for any real purpose, so you couldn't really fail, and now you're afraind to fail. But failing's part of living because it showed you tried."
"H-how?" How could Russia know? She had never said this to anyone.
"I watch people, they think it's creepy and that, because of the country I am, I am plotting how to make them one with me, but really it's just because people interst me. And watching them I noticed that when we all first came here everyone was sad and everyone was hiding somethin, now some are getting happier but I still see fear, not of me, all around me and I see it in you whenever walking, standing or falling is mentioned, though you hide it well."
China was surprised, she hadn't realised that Russia noticed so much, or that she already knew before asking that she hadn't been practicing walking.
Russia stood and held her hand out to China,
"China is lucky, she has someone to help her up if she falls." Slightly reluctantly China took the offered hand and was pulled to her feet. Russia held her arms gently but did very little to support her weight.
"See, China is strong enough to do the things she wants." China's legs gave out from under her but Russia caught her before she hit the floor lifting her back to her feet. "And I will always catch you when you're not strong enough alone, and I will always help you."
Russia took a step back still holding her arms, forcing China to make a descision, walk or fall. China took her first step.
