"Teach us to care and not to care; teach us to sit still" – T.S. Elliot
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The sky was clear and blue, with only a few puffs of white breaking the stillness. It contrasted beautifully with the cold, biting wind that could only mean that winter was on its way. Kiku huddled himself deeper into his scarf, closing his eyes for just a second to enjoy the crisp, cool air. He really loved English autumns. It was a pity that he could not stay to see it turn into winter, but he was only there for a week. Kiku made a mental note to remember to come back in time to see the lights be switched on in Oxford Street. He always watched them with Arthur. What were originally a few strange coincidences had become an annual tradition. Likewise, Arthur would always come to Japan to see the first of the sakura begin to bloom. They may have been half the world away from each other, but the friendship they held was something that nothing could break. Not even the vast land or powerful oceans that separated them for the majority of the time.
The small road was quiet; it was too early for most people to be awake. It was even too early for Kiku to be awake on a normal day, but he had been unable to sleep, and an early morning walk before visiting Arthur did sound nice. His sharp footsteps were repeatedly interrupted by the crunches of fallen leaves which were sprinkled all across the pavement. The trees were not yet bare – the evergreens were still in their everlasting bloom, and the rest were scattered with orange and yellow and brown, as if they were on fire. The leaves almost made the trees seem capable of emotions. While years of a society where smiling in the street at nothing in particular had caused Kiku to hold his usual calm expression, inside he smiled at the sight around him. The sun was rising over the quiet houses, somewhere a bird was chirping happily, and another replied. Occasionally a leaf would silently float down from a tree, joining the others beneath him. Kiku enjoyed the cold, clean wind and the tranquil surroundings. His life had been so busy lately; it was nice to get away from it all, even if it were only for an hour or so. But there was a deeper meaning to the walk, the reason why Kiku had been kept awake. It was not a bad thing – for once – but it had occupied his mind nonetheless. He had recently found a scrapbook: nothing pretty, just a place to store gathered memories so that they could last forever. Somewhere, that scrapbook had a twin. And if Kiku remembered correctly, that twin lay somewhere in Arthur's house. It was not on display, but a long time ago Arthur had promised to always keep it in a place where he would not forget it. Only Kiku knew about that place.
The book had all sorts of things: letters, pictures, postcards and various objects which had specific meanings to the two. Kiku had brought it with him to England, and even on his walk. He dawdled through a nearby park, completely carefree and at his own pace. He was not in a rush; he had all the time in the world on his hands. Taking a seat on an empty bench underneath a tree still shedding its summer coat, Kiku took the old book from the bag in which he had kept it. The front cover was nothing spectacular, simply black leather with 'memories' written in gold calligraphy across the front. The first page held a small daisy chain and a letter:
Dear Kiku,
How's everything
in Tokyo? Spring's FINALLY started – I was getting bored of it
being so wet and cold all the time! I know you always tried to
convince me to make you daisy chains and that always went down the
drain, but I decided to make one today, just for old time's sake. I
know it's bad. Shut up. It's not completely sunny yet (I'll
have to wait until summer for that) but it's nice. You still like
spring, don't you? You'll have to tell me when the sakura start
blooming. I'll come see you then, I promise! Well…if it's not
too late. But I'll still come visit you anyway. Look, I can see the
chrysanthemums already! They know I'm writing to you…and my God
that was cliché. I apologise, I really do.
I have to get back to
writing, you know how it is. Write back soon though, otherwise I'll
have to track you down and demand a reason from you.
All the best,
Arthur.
It was amazing that the daisies had even lasted that long. Alongside them was a small chrysanthemum, obviously picked from the tree after Arthur had written the letter. Kiku couldn't help but smile at the letter. It was brief, but he knew that Arthur had difficulties admitting to things that were very deep, especially to those who he had feelings for (as Kiku would later discover) but it was always easier for them. Kiku was always a lot more free around Arthur, and often ended up blurting out things that the Englishman would not know how to respond to other than blush. But the great thing about what they had was that it was always just a friendship; no matter what either of them said, it was all safe because it never had any other meaning behind it. To have the ability to say anything and know that it's just seen as a joke…it was wonderful to Kiku. That was one of the things that made Arthur special to him.
The next few pages consisted of a lot of photos from one particular summer, where Kiku and Arthur had gone to Bath. The memories all flooded back to Kiku, each one fighting to be the one he dwelled on the longest. He remembered asking Arthur about certain statues which he knew would make his friend awkward, and how Arthur would always somehow find a way out of explaining them. There were photos of the caves they all went in, and how pretty they were.
"Wow, Arthur-san!
Look how high that is!" Kiku gasped as the lights in the cave all
lit up to show it in all its splendour. To think someone climbed that
high was amazing to Kiku. While the cave did impress Arthur, he could
not see what it had that seemed to take Kiku's breath away. He had
been here before, but his first trip was so long ago that the cave
had gradually lost some of its original charm. But it was funny to
see his friend seem so taken by it. And to think some people had the
nerve to say that England was not a beautiful country, Arthur
thought. If they could see Kiku's face then they'd think twice
about that.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool Kiku." The Japanese man
smiled behind his camera. Kiku loved taking pictures of things. He
turned around to face Arthur.
"Smile, Arthur-san!" He barely
gave his friend time to register what was going on before the camera
snapped. Finally realising what had happened, Arthur-san tried to
grab the camera. However he stopped when Kiku laughed and buried the
camera down his shirt. When Arthur sighed and retreated, he could
imagine the triumphant look on Kiku's face. Kiku ran up, slung his
arm around Arthur's shoulder (which did mean he had to stand on his
tiptoes slightly) and took another picture. Looking at it, Kiku
smiled.
"I like this one, look!" He handed the camera over to
Arthur, who also smiled at it.
"Yeah, it's nice. Send it to
me when you get the chance" And they left with that – after all,
the cave was getting cold.
The aforementioned pictures lay stuck to the pages beside each other. Kiku remembered that holiday better than most of his others. In fact, the only ones he could remember with that much precision were the ones he took with Heracles to Athens and Thessaloniki. Arthur had introduced them, and Kiku owed him a lot for that. He would have found someone for Arthur, but the Englishman did that all by himself. Kiku never really saw how Arthur could have kept a conversation going with Alfred long enough for anything to happen between them, but somehow he did.
The time had flown by,
and it was not until he heard his phone go off that Kiku realised
just how long he had be reminiscing for. Kiku packed the book away
and started off again, finally answering his phone.
"Moshi-"
"Kiku,
where are you?"
"I'm sorry, Arthur-san. I lost track of the
time…you won't believe what I found the other day..." Kiku
mused. Arthur sounded confused.
"What?"
"…do daisy
chains and Bath ring a bell, Honeycake?" Kiku laughed at the old
and almost forgotten nickname for his friend. He could imagine Arthur
going red at the other end of the phone. Kiku had forgotten how he
had come up with the name, but remembered that Arthur's reaction to
it was so funny that he decided to keep it.
"Do you have it
with you, Kiku?"
"Yes…why?" Kiku could almost hear the
smirk on his friend's face.
"Two can play at this game…I
think it's time to bring up our trip to Osaka…" Kiku paled
slightly at some of those memories. But he quickly relaxed.
After all, a part of friendship was relying on each other. Another part was embarrassing yourself in front of each other.
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AN: I wish I owned Hetalia. But I don't. Isn't that sad?
Anyway, this was written for Gosangoku, who's my Arthur 3 Thank you for being such a good friend to me and always caring and listen to my rants (especially the ones that make no sense) and listening to my painful Spanish and…well, putting up with me all the time. You're an amazing person, don't forget it. And remember: "A flower doesn't even know how pretty it is, ever in its life" That's you in a nutshell. You're a very pretty flower indeed. And woah that was sappy. My apologies amigo.
This isn't meant to be romantic but I realise now how it turned out…interpret as you will! But it was intended as a friendship fic, hence the hinted Giripan and USxUK. And LOL when you type in USxUK on word it thinks you want to say Suzuki. That made me smile.
Review pls? Maybe I'll write a sequel with Arthur's memories…we shall see, yes?