"I'm going to die, I'm going to die! No! Make it stop! Please!"
That was the phrase Japan was screaming to himself repeatedly while he and Alfred continued to fall farther and farther into the seemingly endless abyss.
He was no longer in Alfred's grasp, so he just kept falling. Falling, that very word terrified the nation right now, both the action of falling itself, and the uncontrollable result that waited for him, and for that, he was terrified, more terrified then he had ever been in his life. He was falling face first; the speed of his decent seemed to be increasing the further they went, at least to the mortified nation it felt that way.
"No, please! Someone, anyone, help me!"
His heart was pounding intensely, feeling as if his heart was about to burst out of his chest. The blood rushed to his head, giving him an intense headache. And the fear of his end normally would have made him, or anyone start to cry, but both his pride and the speed of the decent didn't allow him to shed a single tear. Japan clenched his eyes shut as tight as he could, like trying to wake up from a bad dream, a dream you try so desperately to end with all of your being. But no matter how hard he shut his eyes, not matter how much he want it to all end, nothing change. He just continued to fall.
"I can't do anything! I can't stop!"
Alfred, who was falling right next to him on the other hand, was enjoying it as if he was a child on a ride at an amusement park. He was laughing as if there was nothing wrong with the world, as if there were no worries. He finally noticed Japan, shutting his eyes in fear.
"Hey, what wrong? You swallowed a bug?" Alfred then laughed hysterically at his own humor, like the normal America would.
"What do you mean what's wrong! We're falling to our deaths!" Japan yelled, slightly pissed at the other man's nonchalant attitude, now giving Alfred a death glare.
Alfred just stared at Japan. He didn't expect that kind of reaction from the usually reserved nation. "What are you talking about? We're going to Wonderland." He said in a puzzled way.
Japan surprised at the other man's response. "What's he talking about, is he stupid? Could he really be that stupid to not know what was coming?"
But he was lying to himself; he knew how smart America really was, despite what other people might claim. "What's going through his head?"
Alfred then said "Don't worry, as long as I'm here, you'll be safe, since I'm the hero after all!" And then the man smiled brightly, trying to reassure the other man, like an innocent child.
Japan didn't know what to say. He just stared at Alfred.
"Oh look, we're here!" Alfred said, with a highly anxious look in his eyes.
Japan looked to see a small tunnel of light that was growing bigger the more they fell.
"So this is it…" Japan gently closed his eyes to accept his fate.
They fell faster and faster, and the passage of light was growing larger and larger with every second, this was it.
Japan kept his eyes closed, just wanting it to end quickly and painlessly.
"Eh?"
The sensation of falling stopped. The blood no longer rushed to his head, his heart no longer pounding in his chest, his surrounding actually felt…tranquil.
Kiku slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying on dirt. He stood up and brushed the dirt off himself and then looked around to try to figure out where he was. He was in, what seemed like a forest, and an exotic one at that. The plants and trees were species Kiku had never seen or heard of before. The plants and trees were of unnatural colors, such as neon pink, bright purple, any bizarre color imaginable, and they were also in any shape you could think of. Some limbs were twisting through and through each other, some straight as an arrow, leaves of all shapes and sizes. Strange animal calls were being exchanged in every direction. In Kiku's eyes, it was just a mess.
"Hey you there~!"
Kiku swiftly turned around and gasped to see a floating pair of bright green eyes and a smile was like a brilliant crescent moon, smiling in a rather sadistic way.
"Oh wow. Did I scare you?" Then floating smile began to laugh. The area around the smile and eyes then started to materialize. And after a few seconds, Kiku was face to face with-
"Prussia?"
Prussia has floating right in front of Kiku. He had a black studded collar around his neck that had a sleeveless, skin tight pink striped shirt attached. He also wore skin black jeans that had several rips in it, probably there on purpose. But the most notable feature was the animal features. What also surprised Kiku was the pistol in a gun holder attached to his belt, he wasn't scared of it, because he knew Prussia was very skilled in weaponry, but it surprised him none the less. He had purple cat ears and a tail that waved sensually moving in the air.
"So, you, what's your name?"
Kiku snapped out of his speculation and said "Uh, K-Kiku."
"Aww man really? You serious man?" Prussia said, now floating a little closer to Kiku, a little too close to Kiku's liking.
"U-Um, yes."
His face lit up in happiness. "Aww yeah! Man, I'm awesome, not like I already was! But-"
Prussia then pounced on Kiku at full force, making Kiku fall over to the ground "I found Kiku!"
Kiku was lying on the ground, struggling to get the other man off of him, but Prussia was too strong for the smaller man.
"H-Hey, Prussia, get off of me!" But Prussia wouldn't move; he kept hugging Kiku, and nuzzling his head in his chest, which made the Asian nation extremely uncomfortable.
"Get. Off!" And with that, he pushed the other man off of him with all his strength, causing Prussia to fly back into a back flip and into the air again.
"Man~, what was that for Kiku?" Prussia said, looking rather hurt and shed a tear, but Kiku knew he was just pretending.
"You threw yourself at me, why do you think?"That is what Kiku thought, but being too polite and still hating himself for snapping at Alfred, he didn't dare say it out loud.
"Let me ask you some questions. First off, where am I?"
Prussia stared at Kiku for a while as if he was the crazy one, yeah, the cat eared man floating in the air was obviously the sane person here. "You're in Wonderland dude. Where else did you think?" Prussia then smiled softly, "Everyone's been waiting for you, you know."
"What?" Kiku was confused; Alfred said he was taking him to Wonderland to make him happy, now Prussia is saying everyone's been waiting for him?
"Well, you don't have to think too much about it now!" And then Prussia floated behind Kiku and slapped his hands on the smaller man's back and started pushing him, "Right now, all we have to do is go to the Hatter! Come on Kiku, pick up your feet!"
Kiku didn't want to keep walking; he just wanted to know what was going on, he had more questions to ask. But he kept stumbling while Prussia kept yelling at him saying "We have to go see the Hatter!" Kiku figured that, if he did go to see the 'Hatter', maybe he could answer some of his questions, because Prussia wasn't going to be much help. So after a while, Prussia didn't need to push Kiku anymore, Kiku just walked beside Prussia. He tried to ask more question while Prussia was leading the way, but he either ignored the question, or was too anxious to see the 'Hatter', that he just couldn't hear Kiku.
After a few minutes of walking, Kiku started to see an opening that seemed to open up to a vast field.
"Yeah, we're here!" Prussia then started swiftly flying ahead of Kiku into the field.
"Gilbert! Where the hell have you been!" The loud shouting came from the field, the voice seemed all too familiar to Kiku so he ran (as fast as he could run in a yukata) to see if his hunch was correct.
When he got the forest edge, he saw a small field, surrounded by trees and large boulders, the field itself wasn't managed very well, and the grass was growing as high as Kiku's waist and almost all of it was yellow and dead. The only area that was tame was in the middle of the field. Kiku could see Gilbert in the middle, still floating in mid-air, and he could also see a rather long table with several seats but it only looked like only a few of the seats were actually taken.
Kiku started to walk towards the middle of the field. And once he got there, his hunch was proven correct. At the head of the table was an irritated England, and not to Kiku's surprise, he wore different, bizarre looking clothes. He wore a top hat with the cards of Joker and Ace of Clubs tucked in the red ribbon that was wrapped around the hat. He also wore a green, plaid coat, it would be something a gentleman would wear if not for the color, pattern, and the several multi-colored patches poorly stitched on to it, but it was neatly buttoned and had a tie tucked into the coat.
In one of the occupied seats was France. It seemed like he was rather amused by the fight between Prussia and England. He had rabbit ears, similar to Alfred's, but they had golden fur instead of white. He wore a long sleeved coat that extending to his thigh area which was colored a very dark red and the first few buttons were open to expose his chest area, which had a crisp white shirt underneath. He also wore golden sashes that extended from his shoulder down to his waist and a purple scarf around his neck.
England was furiously yelling at Gilbert. "I can't believe you! You've taken all this time, and you STILL haven't gotten it! I knew I couldn't rely on an idiot like you to do this!" England was glaring and maliciously yelling at Gilbert, while Gilbert himself didn't seem to care at all; he just seemed to ignore him.
"U-Um, excuse me?" Kiku hesitantly said, trying to be as polite as possible while interrupting their (one-sided) argument.
England snapped his head to Kiku, obviously irritated that he was interrupted. But then his eyes went wide.
"You, come over here." England gestured to Kiku to come closer.
Not wanting to be impolite, Kiku hesitantly walked over towards England where he sat.
"What's your name?" England was eyeing Kiku, he seemed skeptical of the new 'guest'.
"My name is Kiku." Kiku's voice was shaking. He felt incredibly nervous, but he did not know exactly why.
"R-Really?" This grabbed his immediate attention, for England straightened his back and shot his eyes open.
"Y-Yes…" Kiku felt nervous in the presence of England, so he tried to evade eye contact with the other man by looking to the ground.
Gilbert then stomped over to England and started yelling at him. "See? It's Kiku, I found him in the woods and I brought him here, that's why I couldn't get it!" He said, obviously irritated that he was scolded.
"Excuse me, what do you guys keep referring to as 'it'?" Kiku was curious to what this important thing is that Gilbert was supposed to get.
"Ah, his stupid tea, he ran out and then yelled at me to get more." His voice then went into a mumble "Even though I don't even drink it…"
"Well, tea aside." England stood up with a smirk on his face and started walking towards Kiku. He then took Kiku's hand and gently kissed it. "We welcome you to Wonderland." He then gave a seductive smile to the other man, and eyeing him as if to a lover.
Kiku because flustered and blushed all the way to his ears, his whole face was a deep shade of red. He quickly yanked his hand from England's grasp. "W-W-W-W-What do you think you're doing?" Kiku was still in complete shock; he started to stumble backwards and stumble over his words.
"Ah yes, do forgive me. I haven't even given you my name, how ungentlemanly of me." England took off his top hat off his head and did a short, respectful bow to Kiku. "My name is Arthur Kirkland, dear." Again, he smiled to Kiku, who again blushed deeply. Arthur seeming pleased with the other man's flustered reaction.
At the table, France began to laugh hysterically. "Oh wow, Arthur is trying to seduce Kiku!" France still continued to laugh, nearly falling out of his chair.
"Francis! Shut up you stupid rabbit!" France and Arthur began fighting with each other, yelling rude remarks and insults such as "stupid rabbit" or "eyebrows", at each other right and left. To Kiku, this was just usual behavior. Gilbert was leaning his elbow onto Kiku's shoulder; also starring at the two like this was an everyday thing, which it probably was.
Arthur finally stopped fighting with Francis and turned his attention towards Kiku. "Oh yes! I nearly forgot!" He practically skipped to Kiku, and once he got there, he stopped directly in front of him, he just smiled brightly, and mischievously at Kiku, like a child planning something. And Kiku knew that this couldn't be any good, especially for him. In the meanwhile, Gilbert and Francis just looked at Arthur, and then to Kiku, and then to Arthur, and it was written all over their faces 'Oh, this again…' This did not make Kiku feel any more secure with his situation.
After a moment of awkward silence, Arthur raised his hands and clapped two times. A cloud of smoke suddenly appeared, completely surrounding Arthur and Kiku. Kiku stared to panic, looking around, trying to find out where he was, because he could not see Arthur at all.
When the smoke finally started to clear, Kiku started to feel a rush of relief to gain his sight back, but his bliss did not last long.
He looked down to see he was wearing a dress! It was light blue with plenty of frills and lace. Kiku was speechless; he was so mortified and embarrassed that he couldn't speak a word. This was the worst experience he ever had; he could practically feel all of his pride and honor rush away. Not to mention his masculinity.
"Aww, Kiku looks like a princess now!" Kiku's head snapped up to see Francis, Gilbert, and Arthur eyeing him like he was a little girl. He was not completely sure who said it, but it really could have been any of them. His face flushed with embarrassment. They all started to laugh at him. Francis nearly falling out of his chair, Gilbert holding his stomach and laughing as loud as he can, and although Arthur tried to hide his laughter by covering his mouth, he still couldn't help but laugh.
"H-How and why, did you do this to me?"
Arthur stopped his laughing to answer his question. "Oh well, I did it using magic of course! And I did it because that dress suits you!"
Kiku was not surprised that he had magical powers. But why a dress?
Gilbert's ears suddenly stopped laughing and flicked his ears in the air. He started to look around his surroundings, moving his head from right to left multiple times.
Kiku tried to ask Gilbert what was the matter, but he didn't listen, whatever he was looking for had his full and immediate attention. Gilbert then grabbed at the pistol that was in its holder.
Kiku started to worry. M-Maybe it's nothing and he's just overreacting…
Kiku then turned to Arthur and Francis, his eyes widened slightly when he noticed Francis grabbing at the hilt of a blade which was secure in its holder. Kiku did not notice the sword before. But he knew something was coming.
Arthur on the other hand, did not reach for a weapon. Instead, he grabbed onto Kiku's shoulder and brought him closer to his body, as if trying to protect him.
All of them wore a very grim and serious look on their faces, more serious then he's seen them in a long time. They were looking at the forest edge where Kiku entered from. They didn't seem to be angry, but they were dead serious about what was coming.
Kiku saw a figure slowly emerging from the entrance. He squinted his eyes, but was still unable to see the details of the face, but he could see that he was wielding a large axe in his hand. The grim figure was slowly approaching them.
Francis and Gilbert now pulled their weapons out, getting ready to kill the mysterious man in any second.
As the armed man slowly emerged out of the shadows, Kiku froze. His eyes widened, his heart started to pound. No… this can't be right… that's impossible…
No… wait…
Gilbert aimed his pistol at the figure. Francis pointed his blade. The man raised his axe.
Please… don't…!
Kiku was completely immobilized. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't say a word. Arthur was strongly grasping him, and refused to let go of the smaller man. Kiku felt completely helpless. He wanted to stop them. But then the inevitable came.
Francis, Gilbert, and the other man charged at each other.
"NO! DON'T!"
But it was too late…
Wha~! Lame cliff hanger! I'm sorry if this chapter totally sucks… I've been having writers block, and even now, it still sucks OTL. Soooo, who do you think the mysterious man is? Hmm? I think ever since I had the idea, I HAD to make Prussia the Cheshire Cat and England the Mad Hatter. They're just, perfect for each other :D. I did not think of putting France in at all at first, but then I realized I needed a March Hare, so, you get France BD.