Warning: I do not own Hetalia

Also warning: This is in no way trying to mock or romanticize anything that happened in the actual real-life event, this is just an overdramatic retelling. Please don't kill me
Also also warning: I'll be straying away from history a little bit for this. Just please be aware that some aspects of this will be different from the real thing, whether it be intentional or not.

Li had learned pretty early on that war was scary. He'd been hearing about all the horrors going on in Europe and his neighbouring countries on the radio for what seemed like forever now. How long had this second world war gone on for? 3 years now? All the tragedy and pain being dealt to his family and friends... It really scared the teen, and it scared him even more how his entire government expected him to be an adult and make decisions like them to keep their little colony safe. Wasn't the 'last' world war supposed to be the war to end all wars? This all just seemed like some bullshit.

The Cantonese boy sighed, looking out the window of whatever fancy schmancy building he was in now. Because he was a personification, his and England's government had decided to keep him protected from the terrors of war somewhere close to the capital of his region. (Which he thought was kind of stupid, because if Hong Kong were to ever get attacked, the capital was probably the last place he'd want to be. At least he thought, he hadn't really been attacked by another nation before. Traded and given away or just occupied, yes, but that was about it.)

While looking out at the bustling city, Li thought to himself about the rest of his family, both from the British Empire and Asia. Everyone had been fighting so hard recently, it kind of made the teen feel like he wasn't doing enough himself—which was an insane thought, since there wasn't much the colony could do anyway. He was just that; a colony. All he could really do was sit around and maybe make materials for the British Empire. It was actually a pretty good job, and he knew that, but he still felt like he could be doing more.

And maybe if he was doing more, he thought to himself, he'd be able to work alongside his siblings. It'd been a while since he'd talked to them and honestly, he really missed them. It was kind of boring being by himself all the time, but he'd been managing with it as well as he could.

"Hong Kong?"

Li glanced behind him as he heard someone—probably a government official—call his name. He stood up properly and closed the window, nodding as a hello before walking up to the man and giving him a formal greeting. He was probably here to give the Hong Konger more terrible news about the war, wasn't he?

"Like, hi. Is there an issue?" Li asked politely, raising an eyebrow slightly. The man shook his head, to the teen's surprise. Was there good news after all?

"No, sir. The Canadian troops have arrived—"

"What do you mean Canadian troops? There's nobody else here." Li interrupted, giving the man a weird look. The man gave him a look back, raising an eyebrow.

"The troops from Winnipeg and Quebec City, sir? We told you about them about two weeks ago. We told you to be ready for their arrival."

Li went silent for a moment, trying to remember when he was told this. He gasped lightly when he finally remembered though, nodding slowly. He faintly remembered someone mentioning Canada a while ago, but he was too busy daydreaming to pay attention. He knew what Arthur or Yao would tell him if they found out what he'd been doing in the middle of a meeting: "Li Xiao Chun-Kirkland, for the love of god if you ever want to even think about being independent you need to at least pay attention when your government is talking to you about something important like this!"

The thought made him chuckle.

"Oh, right. Sorry, I must've forgotten. Please continue." Li said, smiling apologetically and gesturing for the official to go on. The man nodded as an 'it's okay' before continuing on with his message.

"Right. As I was saying, the Canadian troops have arrived safely and accounted for. Actually, Mr. Canada came along with them."

"He did?!" Li asked more excitedly than he expected, clearing his throat and rephrasing it before the man could question it. "I mean— He did? What a surprise. Did he say why?"

"Not exactly. He said he wanted to help his soldiers out, I believe. He also said he wanted to see you, which is why—"

"Can you bring him here?" Li asked, once again way too excitedly than he should've. "Ah wait, I mean—"

"He requested the same thing, actually," The official said, smiling just barely at the teen's excitement. "He'll be here as soon as I leave."

"Oh, like, jolly good," Li said, smiling a little as well and nodding as thanks. "Thank you for notifying me. Like, is that all...?"

The official nodded, "Mhm, that's all. Long live the King." He said, saluting and walking out.

"Long live the King..." Li said, saluting as well and chewing his hair while he waited for Matthew to come into the room. The teen smiled to himself as he did so, much larger than he would ever show anybody else. If he was being honest to himself, he was quietly hoping that if he were ever to work alongside his family in this war it would be with Matthew. What could he say? He missed him a lot.

A few moments later, the Canadian quietly entered the room, opening the door as gently as he could and closing it even moreso. He nodded politely at Li, standing still.

"Hong Kong."

"Canada," Li responded, staring back at Matthew just as blankly. They stayed like that for a few moments, before Matthew snorted and held his arms out. Li smiled back, though much smaller, walking over to give him a hug.

"For real this time, hi Leon!" Matthew chirped, squeezing Li tightly and ruffling his hair. The brunette let out a few laughs, squeezing him back with one arm and using the other to try and take Matthew's hand off his hair.

"Like, I missed you, Matt! And like, get your hand off my hair, you're like, totally ruining my style~"

"Nah, I definitely missed you more," Matthew teased back, letting go finally and crossing his arms proudly. "How've you been? What about your land?"

"I've been like, totally fine! My territory too," Li replied, shurgging "It's just that like, Arthur's been really paranoid about me so he's been sending people to come like, basically babysit me. That's like, totally uncool but whatever."

"Oh come on, I'm probably the best babysitter you've ever had~" Matthew said, smirking. "Everything'll be fine, anyway. I'm only here for patrol duty, eh?"

"Yeah, that's like, basically it. I like, really missed you, Matt."

"I missed you too, little bro," Matthew said, giving Li one more hug before following him out of the room, talking about both of their nations and catching up with each other.

Li didn't even know what happened. All he knew was that he heard some sort of... marching sound early in the morning, but ignored it and went back to sleep. Then he heard a loud 'boom' sound about half an hour later (which hurt like hell for some reason), the screams of civillians outside, and now he was being ushered by his government officials somewhere safe. He tried asking them multiple times what happened and how he could help, but they just ignored him.

"I promise sir, we'll tell you later. Just please let us get you to safety right now." One had said. Li frowned at him, but nodded his head reluctantly and rushed with them to the safe room in the building they were in. He watched in a weird mix of panic and boredom as the others fussed over who should stay in the room with him and who should go out to the battlefields—

"Wait a minute, did you say battlefields?" Li asked, interrupting their conversation. All the men glanced at each other awkwardly, before one pulled Li aside to talk to him, allowing the others to continue discussing what they should do.

"What's happening?" Li asked again, sending the man a look. The man bowed his head as an apology, sighing.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, Hong Kong, but... We've been attacked."

Li's eyes widened, clutching a hand over his heart. So that's why everything hurt so much! But wait, that just raised so many more questions...

"By whom?" He asked, a little worried about what the answer could be.

"By the Japanese, sir." Li raised an eyebrow, trying to hide his shock. Japan did this? Kiku? But... Weren't he and Kiku friends..?

"Do you know why?"

"Not yet, Mr. Hong Kong. All we know is that they're coming in strong and that the Canadian troops already here aren't trained for this so—"

"What about Canada?" Li cut him off desperately, holding onto his shirt tighter. "Please, sir. Is Canada okay?"

"He's fine."

A giant rush of relief ran through the teenager; he let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. He gestured for the man to continue explaining, which the man did.

"While Mr. Canada himself might be okay, we don't know if his troops will be. They're only trained for guard duty, they aren't ready for this level of combat. And even if our troops are ready to take this, the Japanese army is just too big. We won't be able to hold them off." Li thought for a moment. That most certainly wasn't good. Besides his own soldiers (which was a small group as is), Matthew's men were the only people he had left to defend him. Nobody else would be able to make it in time. His eyes widened as he got an idea, saying

"I'll go." The man raised an eyebrow in shock, looking at Li weirdly.

"With all due respect, Mr. Hong Kong, it's too dangerous to—"

"What do you mean too dangerous? We're in a war, of course it's dangerous." Li said, nodding in determination. "I'm going out to fight and that's final. I'm not standing put and watching as other people risk their lives for me and my nation. It like, just isn't fair! And besides,"

He walked to the door of the safe room, smirking a little triumphantly "I'm literally the personification of Hong Kong. I know how to lead the troops trough shortcuts and alleyways that the Japanese wouldn't even think of checking. With me on their side, surely we'll win."

All the men in the room looked at each other, as if speaking without actually making sounds. Eventually one sighed, nodding.

"If you say you'll be fine, Mr. Hong Kong, we trust you. Be careful out there. Long live the King."

Li nodded, quickly running out of the room and out onto the streets. He closed his eyes briefly as he ran; Matthew was somewhere nearby, he could feel it. Hopefully he could catch up to the other and stop them before they started doing something they might regret. He smiled to himself as he saw a tuft of blond hair in the distance, waving to draw more attention to himself and putting his emotionless mask back on once he was close enough.

"Matt! Matthew! It's like, me!" He called as loudly as he could without getting the enemy's attention, tapping on Matthew's arm. Matthew turned around in surprise, frowning and checking the teen over.

"Leon! What are you doing here?" He asked, adjusting his glasses. "Your government told me you were in a safe room somewhere. Isn't it too dangerous for you to be out here?"

"Like, of course it is!" Li said, crossing his arms, "And that's like, exactly why I'm here. I'm like, coming to help protect myself. I'm like, totally not a princess in need of saving or like, anything stupid like that, y'know? Besides, I like, can totally help you! This is like, my region, I know everything there is to know about here. I like, can totally help you navigate the terrain so you like, have a better chance of beating the Japanese."

Matthew went quite for a second as he thought, then smiled brightly and nodded. "Fine, you're on the team. Go ask the men over there to get you in the right clothes, though. If you're a soldier you gotta dress like one, Leon." He nodded to himself as the Cantonese boy went over to where he pointed, getting onto a box to address the rest of his troops about the change of plan.

"Leon, are you sure we're going the right way?" Matthew asked quietly as they snook behind buildings, tightening the hold on his gun as he heard more explosions in the distance. They'd been fighting in the war-torn city for a few weeks now, and even though they had been making a bit of progress, it was at a heavy cost. Both Matthew and Li had lost a lot of their men, and the rest of Li's weren't that keen on continuing. The Canadians still didn't retreat though, even refusing to give up when Kiku demanded their surrender. That thought gave the Hong Kongers hope.

"Like, yes. I'm not sure why they like, sound so close, though," Li said, chewing his hair as he ran. He stopped for a quick second to look around, before running again. "This like, should work. It's like what the Germans did earlier in the war, y'know? The whole like, encircling thing."

"Yeah, but the German soldiers had experience," Matthew muttered mostly to himself, not wanting to scare the teen. This must've been a lot for him anyway, he didn't want to add onto that.

"C'mon, this should be the way to—" BANG!

An explosion blocked the way Li was going to lead them out of the building. He paused for a moment to calm his heart, (it was beating so loudly he was sure that if the Japanese soldiers found them it would be because of that) before running off in a different direction.

"Like, okay then. That like, was a bit unfortunate but like, we can still go—" BANG!

Another explosion. Li frowned, backing up and chewing his hair. "This like, isn't good. Matt, tell your soldiers to get out of here."

"What? Why?" Matthew asked, putting a hand on Li's shoulder and hesitantly giving the command.

"Because— Because I can feel Japan. He's like, around here."

"You'd be right, Li." A voice rang out. It was a voice that both Matthew and Li knew, but it was different; it sounded twisted in a way. Corrupt.

"Kiku?" The teenager called, frowning and backing up more. "Like, where are you?"

"Japan, come out," Matthew commanded, moving the hand he had on Li's shoulder to hold his hand. The Canadian's voice also sounded uncharacteristically cold, Li noted. He figured it was the other's 'business' voice he had heard Arthur or Alfred talk about on occasions. "We just want to talk with you. Perhaps we can sort out this whole situation civilly."

Kiku's laugh rang throughout the broken walls of the building. "You really think I would go through all this trouble if I wanted to solve this passively? Of course I don't want to do that. Violence is the only way to get through to people." He said, slowly stepping into view with a small army of his soldiers. For such a small man, he gave off an extremely intimidating aura. The wicked smile on his face didn't help.

"You know that isn't true, Japan," Matthew said cooly, raising an eyebrow. Li looked up at Matthew, studying his face. Even though he had a good poker face, the Cantonese boy could see he was terrified. He just hoped that Kiku wouldn't see that too. "Look at yourself. This isn't you. Stop this madness and leave all of us alone."

Kiku laughed again, coming closer. (to which Matthew and Li moved back) "It's really funny how you think you can solve all of this passively. No wonder it took you so long to gain independence compared to America. You're way too soft to be fighting in a war, even. When are you gonna learn that things can only be won through brute force?"

"I already told you, that isn't true. We can talk this out, I can promise you that. Just please calm down and we'll negotiate the terms of this whole mess."

"Oh cut it out, Canada. What are you even doing, trying to play the hero? Isn't that your brother's job?" Kiku sneered, tilting his head in amusement. Li looked back up at Matthew again. Kiku was really getting to him, he could tell. "Stop pretending to be something you're not. You're not even a nation, really. Just a glorified colony."

"This isn't about me—"

"Just give me the boy already." Kiku said coldly, sighing and holding his arms behind his back. Li didn't like anything about Kiku at the moment; not his tone of voice, not his expression and certainly not how he called Li 'the boy'. Weren't they friends at one point...? Why was he being so heartless to the Hong Konger? Did he just not care about him any more?

"No. It was my job to protect him and protect him I will." Matthew responded just as coldly, gently squeezing Li's hand. "You said it yourself just now, he's only a boy. Look at what you've done to his territory. Why do you want him so much?"

"Because if I'm ever to create order in Asia, I need control of all of Asia." Kiku hissed, walking forward once more. "Including him and his land. Give him to me."

"Do you even care about how much you're hurting him? Look at him, for goodness' sake! He's terrified!" Matthew protested, glaring. Li blushed a little at that out of embarrassment, but said nothing. For some reason he felt like it wasn't his place to say anything.

"Oh calm down Canada, don't you have other things to do besides get in the way of my plans? Surely you should be busy with America after what happened to him, not bothering me—"

"What?" Matthew interrupted, frowning. Li glanced up; he could see the blond's eyes widen. "What do you mean after what happened to America?"

"..." Kiku stayed silent, studying Matthew. Then he smiled just barely, "You don't know yet? You were so busy fighting for the colony that you don't know what happened in the rest of the world—?"

"What did you do to my brother?!" The Canadian cut him off, gripping Li's hand tighter and paling. Li started frowning too, balling his free hand into a fist. He may not have been that close to Alfred, but they were still technically brothers, and Alfred was still one of the many people whom Li admired a lot.

"Calm down, it's not like he's dead. Not yet, at least." Kiku said simply, smirking ever so slightly through his poker face. "But maybe I'll tell you if you give me Hong Kong."

That stung a lot, too; Hong Kong? They were so distant now that they couldn't even be referred to by their human names?

"N-No, I-" Li looked up at Matthew, going as pale as the taller. The Canadian was staring blankly into space at this point, biting his lip so hard it looked like he was gonna bleed. The brunette also noticed that tears were welling up in Matthew's eyes; how could Japan just be okay with hurting him like that? How could he be okay with hurting both of them like this?

"I'm not giving him up to you! I told you I was sent here to protect him!" Matthew yelled, letting out the tiniest of sniffles and holding onto Li so tightly it almost hurt, "Now spit it out already! What the fuck did you do to Alfred?!"

Kiku caught the sniffle, breaking into a smirk. "Are you really crying over this? It's not even your nation. How can you expect anyone to take you seriously if you'll get so soft over something as cynical as that? I told you you weren't ready to be a nation."

"SHUT UP!" Matthew yelled, glaring at Kiku now, "This has nothing to do with me! All of this has to do with you and your sick mind! Tell me what you did to Alfred before I— Before I hurt—" The Canadian couldn't finish his sentence, instead just letting out some tears and an angry grunt. Kiku snickered again.

"See? Even you're resorting to violence. I told you, it's the only way to get what you want." Kiku said, mindlessly checking his nails. "I'll restate my deal from before. If you surrender and hand over Hong Kong, I'll let you go and tell you what happened to America."

Matthew glanced down at Li, who looked back up at him. Li figured he was supposed to give him a signal of what he should do, but how could he decide? He didn't want to be left with Japan, but he didn't want Kiku to tell Matthew and inevitably make him even more upset. "I-I dunno Matt... Like, just save yourself. I'll like, be fine," He finally muttered, hoping that Kiku didn't hear.

"I'll give you to the count of three before I take drastic measures, Matthew," Kiku said calmly, using Matthew's human name to rub more salt into the wound.

"One."

"No Li, I can't leave you with him. He's a monster," Matthew whispered back, squeezing his hand and wiping his eyes with his free arm. "Give me a minute, I'll figure this out—"

"We don't have a minute, Mattie. It's like— It's fine. I can take care of myself, I'm like, not a child."

"Two."

"Li listen to me. I don't know what he did to Alfred, but I can't let anything like that happen to you too. Just let me handle this."

"Like, I know, but either way he's like, gonna take me. We like, don't have a choice—"

"Yes, we do. I can fix this, I can—"

"Three."

Kiku snapped his fingers. Two of his soldiers quickly ran over to the the two, detaining them before the could even understand what was going on. Matthew and Li immediately started shouting protests, but the two soldiers stopped them by putting their hands over their mouths.

"Time's up," Kiku said, shrugging and walking towards Li. He examined the other's terrified face for a moment, before smirking slightly. "I'll be taking this. You can just leave Mr. Canada attached to a pipe or something, someone will come find him eventually. It's not like he can die or anything."

The solder holding Matthew nodded, dragging him to a dented pipe on the wall and handcuffing him around it. The Canadian cursed once he was finally able to speak, scowling at Kiku.

"You won't get away with this. Someone will stop you one day."

"I already have gotten away with it, Canada. I got what I wanted," Kiku said, gesturing to Li. (Who was struggling around and trying to kick Kiku) "Come on, let's go. I'm sure someone will find you eventually."

Matthew wanted to say something, anything to get them to stop and let him go, but realized that wouldn't work and watched them leave the room. He locked eyes with Li one last time before they turned a corner, leaving him alone. Hesitantly, he hung his head down and started crying.

word count: 3916

before you say anything:
yes, this is much angstier than i normally write. yes, japan is really ooc here. and yes, india did help with this battle but is not in this fic for some reason. i will answer all of those now ^^

okay, so i've had this hc about the battle of hong kong ever since i've learned about it and it's pretty dope in my opinion. it was really angsty in my head, so it is here. i also have a headcanon where during WW2, japan really let the power get to his head and kind of lost it, so that explains that. and yes, i know that india was one of the biggest contributors to this battle, but i was learning about this in a canadian school so i mostly learned the canadians' pov. also for me, this headcanon is a big point in canada and hong kong's relationship so for reasons, the british and indian troops never showed up. i did say this would differ from real life for a reason. (also, i can't write india for the life of me i'm sorry)

honestly this was mostly just a way for me to map out my headcanon better and also to practice writing more evil types of characters, since i'm shit at that. this probably won't be that good when i look back on it soon, especially since it takes so long to get to it's point ^^'

but oh well, practice is practice. if you enjoyed this, (and are actually reading the AN for some reason), great! i'd really appreciate it if you could R&R!
and if you didn't, sorry about that man! i mean, if you wouldn't mind maybe you could also leave a review on things i can improve on? only if you want, of course.

see y'all next year or whenever i decide to make another fic! i'm leaning towards another ace attorney one honestly...