I'll have to explain my life before ever being involved with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It's not much.

There were three major imperialistic nations ruling the world back then; Russia, China, and England. I happened to be under China's rule, starting around 220s BC. I had been doing quite fine living by myself, but under China, I did so much better. He protected me and showed me different things, like fishing and trade. I relied on those quite a lot.

China also took in other nations; I certainly wasn't the first. That was Japan. I always thought Japan was the favourite of China, the way he coddled him, but Japan never made any attempt to take advantage of it.

Then there was Taiwan. She was about my age, I believe, but we never interacted much, because she hung around Japan a lot; I think she had a fondness for him. She even lived with him (though this was because Japan, after leaving China, took some sort of control over her. Stockholm syndrome, maybe?).

Korea wasn't around often, but when he was, he always attempted to get as close to China as possible, usually through hugs. China disliked this very much, and would politely push him away every time. Never stopped him from trying.

To be honest, China took in a lot of nations, being somewhat of a surrogate parent, strict, but meaning well.

He tried teaching me Mandarin Chinese, showing me the different characters and how to say them. I didn't like it, and I created my own language instead. I used the exact same characters, but I spoke them differently. Cantonese. China gave up teaching me Mandarin, and left me to my own devices.

I heard Japan did the same, though he completely rewrote his language and the characters.

The point being, China was trying to be an important part of our lives. The sad part is? We all took it for granted.

China gave us such nice things.

Nice didn't even cover it. The clothes were made of hand spun silk. The palace in which we lived was covered in jade, gold, silver, and whatever else China saw fit. There was porcelain and pottery and all sorts of rare treasures around.

It was more then nice.

Then again, China was away a lot (imperialism and trade). So more often then not, us little ones would take care of each other. Everyone had a task. It rotated quite a lot, though. Sometimes Taiwan would cook, other times I cooked. It was really up to whoever volunteered for it.

And it felt right.

One day, while watching China quarrel with Russia from behind his fence (neither knew what the other was saying, so really they sounded like they were throwing random words out to each other; I swear I heard China yell "Your mother is a strawberry!"), someone came to me.

I instantly recognised him as England. China had mentioned enough times the description of him: blonde, green-eyed, had an air about him that you instantly notice—and then he had prominent eyebrows.

That was the first thing I noticed, of course. I then noticed how immaculate and well-dressed he looked. Black boots, ruffled shirt, long overcoat, and a hat adorned with feathers and even some jewels. Nothing like me (I was in street clothes for the time being; they were hand-me-downs and full of holes and covered in dirt).

At the time I was fishing, so after getting a quick look of him, I turned back to the water's edge and continued to my task. I snagged something on my line. It turned out to be a black carp, and a pretty decent-sized one at that.

When I pulled it to shore to put it near my pile of other freshly-caught fish, I caught England staring at me. Or rather, staring at my fish. So I decided to pay him some attention.

I turned my body to him and waited for his move.

He said something to me, and I didn't know what he was saying at all. Maybe China kn—

China was too busy yelling at Russia to go away.

I shook my head at England, frowning and trying to make it clear to him I did not understand.

He then pointed to my fish.

"What about them?" I asked. It was his turn to frown. He didn't understand me, either.

"Fish," I said, pointing to the fish. He nodded, so I continued with my charades. I looked at him with question, and he said something to me again, reaching into his coat and pulling out a small velvet bag, a deep purple in colour, with gold drawstrings.

What was in it? My curiosity was obviously piqued, so I stayed quiet while he fished something out of the bag.

My eyes widened as England held up a silver coin. He smiled, and then held his palm up to pour the rest of the contents of the bag into it.

There was a lot of silver. Quite a lot. I wanted it, and England knew it. He pointed to my fish again.

So he wanted trade. Fair enough.

I nodded and cupped my hands together for him to drop the coins in. He carefully, daintily, put the coins back in the velvet pouch, one by one, and handed me that instead. He then picked up the fish, tipped his hat to me, and left.

I looked back to where China was—where China wasn't. Where did he go?

"China!" I called. "China! Look what I've gotten!" I called out.

"Yes, aru?" China called back. He sounded close; at least, not inside the palace. I ran to where I heard the voice, and sure enough, I found its owner. China was standing (I assume he was walking and stopped to wait for me) with his hands in his sleeves, a small smile on his face.

"You know that England person?" I asked. China nodded and signaled for me to continue. "I was fishing when he came up to me and offered me this." I held out the bag.

China gingerly took the bag and undid the drawstrings to look at the inside. "Oh my, aru," he cooed. He was interested as well. "And you say you got all this from England?"

I nodded eagerly.

"This is beneficial to me. I will have to offer something more…useful to England than fish, aru. At least I know he's interested. Thank you, Hong Kong, aru." His eyes were glittering with satisfaction.

"I was a bit surprised he wanted to trade, to be honest," I said, looking down at my feet.

"England has shown interest in my goods before, aru," China replied, a small smile painted crookedly on his face. "I'm sure he knew he could get to me through you. So long as he pays well, I will consider trading with him."

"So I did well?" I asked.

"Very well."