I'm back with another chapter :) Thanks to everyone who has read/alerted/faved/reviewed/glanced at the story/what have you! I'm really enjoying writing this story!
Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own Hetalia. Please keep reading and reviewing!
It was the end of another shift and Kiku, Yao, and Yong Soo were heading back to their apartment for the night. It had been a good shift and the club had been busy like it had never been before; it had been so busy that Kin had to call in some girls that he knew to help out. It had been successful and they knew they could count on a pretty big commission thanks to the amount of alcohol that had been purchased.
"Aiya, tonight was pretty good, aru." Yao said, stretching his arms out as Yong Soo nodded in agreement.
"Yep! I can't believe how many cute ones there were tonight! And they were all so generous!" Yong Soo exclaimed.
"Yes, there were…" Kiku said, trailing off. Yao raised his eyebrow slightly while Yong Soo gave Kiku a teasing smile.
"Oh? Has a certain soldier caught Kiku-chan's eye? Better not tell Arthur-san, he'll be heartbroken to find out that his beloved is letting somebody else feel up her leg." Yong Soo said before bursting into a fit of giggles. Kiku sighed, Yong Soo would not let the whole "Arthur touching his leg" bit go.
Arthur had been a perfect gentlemen during the evening, for the most part. No mention had been made of what had happened the night before and Arthur had kept his hands to himself, save for kissing his hand. Arthur had ordered one of the more expensive bottles of shouchou and kept Kiku's attention with tales of his time in the Mediterranean as well as some stories about his childhood in the English countryside. It had been an enjoyable evening between the two of them, up until Arthur's friends had shown up, which was the point that Arthur's behavior had went a little south.
He had been perfectly pleasant to Matthew, but Kiku had never seen Arthur treat anyone with such contempt as he did Alfred, save for the Frenchman that was keen on Yong Soo. It was such a shame, Kiku thought dolefully to himself, Alfred-san seemed to be a very charming and handsome man. Short blonde hair, blue eyes, handsome face, and it seemed that his uniform was designed to show off his build. Alfred also didn't let Arthur's less than subtle insults get to him; in fact, it seemed as though his entire attention had been focused on Kiku.
"Ohh, Kiku, you're blushing!" Yong Soo exclaimed, drawing Kiku out of his mind. A quick look in a window confirmed it, trademarked blush evident on his face.
"I noticed," Yao began, lips curling into a smile, "that someone seemed to have picked up another admirer. A very handsome one, aru." It was taking all Kiku's willpower not to bury his face in his hands in embarrassment. Why did his brothers have to tease him so?
"I've noticed, Yao, that you spend way too much time paying attention to me. Doesn't that offend Ivan-san?" Kiku's comment did nothing except to make Yong Soo and Yao laugh harder.
"Ah, Kiku, don't try and change the subject, aru! Besides, it was Ivan-chan who brought it to my attention, aru!" Kiku decided to give into temptation, groaning as his face met his hands. Why did these moments have to happen to him?
"Calm down, Kiku, I think it's rather cute. You're getting a following! Soon you'll be just as popular as me! So tell us, what was his name? Say, was it that cute blonde fellow with the glasses? The one with the jacket?" Yong Soo asked eagerly.
"His name is Alfred, aru! And it is!" Yao squealed with delight. "Ivan-chan was telling me about him, aru. Seems he's a pretty big hero, aru."
"A hero, Kiku? Is he going to be your—what do they call them? oh—knight in shining armor?" Yong Soo gleefully inquired.
"You do know this is the first time I've ever met Alfred-san, right? To say such things after a first meeting…"
"Come off of it, aru! Alfred hardly took his eyes off you. Ivan-chan was afraid he'd burn a hole right through your face, the way he was staring at you, aru!" Kiku felt his blushing intensify. Really, these things shouldn't happen to him; first Arthur and now Alfred.
"Aw, is Kiku finding herself in the middle of love triangle? If you want my advice, go for Alfred, Arthur's eyebrows are just too—"
"I am not in the middle of any triangle, Yong Soo. Alfred was just interested in what I had to say."
"Interested in the same way Arthur is, perhaps? Tell me, when he was listening to you talk, did he have his hand on your thigh?" Yong Soo asked before dissolving into a fit of high pitched giggles.
"Yong Soo, please. We just met. I probably won't see him again." Kiku said a little sadly. Yao noticed Kiku's look of slight dejection and moved to place his arms around the smaller man's frame and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Aiya, don't worry, aru. I'm sure Alfred will come back again, aru." Kiku smiled up at Yao.
"Thank you, Yao. You're probably right."
When Kiku awoke the next morning, he was unsurprised to find that he was the first one up; he was careful to remove himself from between his brothers without waking them up. He quietly left the bedroom and headed into the kitchen/living room with the intention of starting breakfast so it would be ready by time everyone was up. Kiku was normally the first one up, Yao would generally wake up about a half-hour later, just in time for a cup of tea, and Yong Soo would stumble out of bed just as breakfast was hitting the table. Kiku wasn't exactly sure how much food they had in the house and he was pretty sure there was going to have to be a market run in the near future; when he opened the cabinet, he saw that they only had enough rice to get them through that Wednesday. Sighing, he began work on what was going to have to be a simple breakfast of rice and probably leftover meat buns; he could almost hear Yong Soo's complaints. He grabbed the canister of tea before reaching in the cabinet and pulling out the old cast iron teapot, one of the few relics from their old home in the village. It was worn and slightly charred, having survived being passed down on his mother's side as well as the brutal bombing of their village.
Sometimes Kiku liked to think of his childhood in the village, before the war. They had lived about a hundred miles south of Tokyo in a small farming village. Their father had been a simple farmer and their mother was the daughter of a fisherman. For the longest time, they had toiled their little bit of land while their mother kept their small house well-kept. The brothers had alternated between helping their father in the fields and helping their mother in the house until it had been discovered that while Kiku and Yao had a natural talent for cooking and housecleaning, Yong Soo was better at tilling the fields. They probably would have kept up with that arrangement if it were not for their mother falling ill and the outbreak of the war. Their father had rushed off to join the military, sending any money that he made back to their village to pay for their mother's medicine and it was decided that Yao and Yong Soo would work the field and Kiku would look after their mother, keeping up the house and preparing the meals. The arrangement seemed to have been working and their mother's prognosis had seemed to have been getting better until they received word that their father had been killed in the Battle of Midway. Since the harvest wasn't bringing in enough money to pay for the medication, all three brothers had been forced to find work in a nearby munitions factory. It worked for about a year and a half, before their mother died of the disease.
"Aiya, Kiku, you're letting the tea boil over, aru." Yao's sleepy voice drew Kiku back to the task at hand and he saw that the tea was indeed beginning to boil over the sides. Quickly, he removed the kettle and placed it on the low table while Yao took out the cups.
"Sorry, I was a bit distracted." Kiku apologized, pouring some tea into Yao's cup while Yao waved off his apology.
"What were you thinking about, aru?" Yao asked, pouring Kiku some tea.
"I was thinking about the village and Mother and Father..." Yao gave Kiku a soft smile before placing his hand on Kiku's arm.
"I thought about Mother this morning as well, aru…" Kiku smiled sadly, focusing on the steam billowing out of the cup.
"I wonder…what they would say if they could see us…" Yao raised his eyebrows before bringing up his cup to sip from it.
"Father probably wouldn't be too happy, but I'm sure he would understand, aru. Mother would have probably loaned us use of her make-up, aru." Yao chuckled. Kiku shook his head, sipping his tea delicately.
"I don't know Yao. I think they would be ashamed…to see their three sons as women…" Kiku trailed off, looking over at the small family altar that held their parents' memorial tablets.
"Kiku, you worry too much. We're not on the streets starving and we're not dead, aru. I think we're doing pretty well." Kiku shrugged before getting up to check on the rice.
Kiku was just setting the container of meat buns on the table when Yong Soo finally crawled out bed and into the kitchen for breakfast.
"Good morning, Yong Soo." Kiku said quietly, earning a grunt in response from the younger man; Yong Soo plopped down at the table across from Yao before picking up his cup of lukewarm tea and draining it.
"So," he asked, setting the cup down and motioning for Kiku to refill it, "what are we doing today?"
"We need to go to the market and do some shopping." Kiku replied, filling his brother's cup.
"There's laundry that needs to be done, aru." Yao said, placing a bun on his plate.
"Tch, bo-ring. I want to do something fun."
"Like what, aru?"
"We could look around Mitsukoshi Department Store!" Yong Soo exclaimed, causing Yao and Kiku to raise their eyebrows slightly.
"Yong Soo, I don't think we can afford anything in there…"
"I don't even think they would let us in the door, aru." Yong Soo dismissed their protests with a wave of his hand.
"We don't have to buy anything, just look around. Think how awesome it would be!" Kiku looked at Yao and shrugged.
"Alright, we'll go, but only for a bit and we won't buy anything, aru!" Yong Soo grinned and Kiku even found himself smiling. None of them had ever been to a department store like Mitsukoshi before and it would be a much more enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon than grocery shopping and doing laundry.
"Aiya, look at that stove, aru!" Yao exclaimed, pointing at one of the newer models.
"It's a lot better than the one we have." Yong Soo said, eyeing the stove with envy.
"And a lot more expensive, too. We'd be indebted to Kin for a long time before we could afford this." Kiku noted sadly.
"Let's move onto something else before we get too attatched, aru." Yao laughed as Kiku and Yong Soo nodded in agreement.
"Yeah! Let's check out the radios! That would be nice to have in the apartment!"
"Yong Soo, I said no buying. Any radio this place has would probably cost an arm and a leg, aru." Kiku shook his head and followed his brothers to the electronics section.
After a "quick" detour through the clothing section (where even Kiku found his iron resolve to not buy anything weakening) they made it to the electronics where the newest model of radios were. Having a radio for the apartment would definitely make staying home a lot more enjoyable. They would be able to listen to music as well as news broadcasts, instead of relying on the faulty radio that Kin kept at the club.
"Ahh, that's a nice model." Yong Soo said, pointing at a small, white Westinghouse.
"So is the one next to it. And its cheaper." Kiku said. Yao sighed, he knew that coming here would probably be a bad idea, especially if Yong Soo saw something that caught his eye. They were so busy mulling over radios that they didn't notice when a salesman came up behind them.
"Can I help you ladies with anything?" The brothers had found that it was more convenient keep up the appearance of being female when in public, for fear of running into someone associated with the club. The last thing they needed were their clients finding out about their secret.
"Ah ha, I'm afraid not, aru. We're just browsing." Yao said, punctuating his statement with a high-pitched giggle. The salesman smiled, giving the three of them a once over.
"Are you sure? I noticed that you three lovelies had been focused on those radios for quite a bit."
"We're sure, aru, thank—"
"Well, since you mentioned it, could you tell us the difference between these two models? Besides the price and the make, we mean." Yong Soo said, effectively cutting off Yao.
Fifteen minutes later, the salesman had effectively explained the difference between the Westinghouse and the RCA and why the Westinghouse was the superior model. It was only when they got to talk of payment plans and credit that Yao had wisely decided that it was time for them to head back home before the salesman could talk them into blowing what little money they had on a radio.
"So, if we were to get a radio, the Westinghouse is the one we'd want to get, huh?" Yong Soo was saying as they made their way to the train station.
"I suppose. Though it would be cheaper to get a local brand then one of the American ones, aru." Yao noted.
"Cheaper, yeah, but you heard what the man was saying. Obviously we want the Westinghouse." Yong Soo argued. Kiku rolled his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for another fight.
"I don't know why you're still on this, you know we can't get a radio right now, aru." Yong Soo was about to say something when it appeared an idea struck him.
"We may not be able to buy one…but that doesn't mean someone can't give us one!"
"Yong Soo, what are you talking about? Who's going to give us something so expensive as a radio?" Kiku asked. The younger man grinned before turning to face Yao. Yao's eyes got big as he shook his head feverently.
"No! I am not going to take advantage of Ivan-chan's kindness, aru!"
"Why not! He obviously doesn't mind spending money on you! What's wrong with asking him for a radio?" Yong Soo argued.
"It's rude, aru!"
"Alright then, Kiku, why don't you ask Arthur for a radio?" Kiku looked about as shocked as Yao did.
"Yong Soo, that would be the height of rudeness…" Yong Soo rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation.
"Ugh, fine! You two are so lame!"
"If you want one so bad, why don't you ask someone, aru?" Yao shot back.
"Because I don't have an Ivan or an Arthur to ask. Besides, it'll be easier for you two to do it. I'm sure they wouldn't mind…as long as they got something in return. " Yong Soo said nonchalantly, causing Yao and Kiku to simultaneously have a stroke.
"YONG SOO!"
"What? Oh, I'm not saying both of you have to put out. Only one of you. But if both of you do it, that means we can get two!"
"I can't believe you, suggesting that Yao and I…do that…just so you can have something to listen to music out of." Kiku admonished.
"Okay, fine. It does sound a little silly." Yong Soo conceded. Kiku and Yao sighed in relief; it wasn't everyday that they were able to talk Yong Soo out of his ridiculous ideas this quickly.
"We're glad you see it our way, aru. Maybe if we save our money—"
"If all of us put out, then we'll have three and not have to share! It'll be perfect!"
"YONG SOO!"
Bit of a slice-of-life/backstory going on there, heh.