After a bit more walking, Hong Kong stumbled upon another low, wooden gate. Behind the gate, the nation could hear whistling teakettles and see a large table with a vast array of teacups and teapots. Never in all the Chinese preteen's life has he seen so many different kinds of tea sets all in one place, and he's lived with China and England.
"And a very merry unbirthday to you da ze!"
"Why, thank you~"
Hong Kong opened the gate and walked through, now curious about the voices he just heard. He stood by the large, decorative table, shocked to see who was there.
On the other side of the table was South Korea and Taiwan, both laughing and having tea. Seeing those two wasn't quite what had shocked Hong Kong, having seen everyone else before, but seeing them as how they were presently was what shocked him.
His two siblings, both supposedly around his age, were now much older; Korea and Taiwan both looking at the age of early twenties. Not only was it their age that surprised Hong Kong, it was also what they were wearing.
Korea was in some type of waiter getup; white dress shirt with a black vest and bow tie, and black dress pants. Over his waiter styled clothes was an unbuttoned, hay colored coat, and on his head was a forest green top hat. Even with the random color clash, Hong Kong had to admit, it didn't look all that bad.
Taiwan was dressed in some sort of cutesy, French maid clothes you can find in one of Japan's lolita clothing catalogs. Instead of the dress being black and white, like the usual French maid clothing, it was pink and white. Along with the maid outfit, there was also white bunny ears on her head with pink ribbons and a matching bunny tail. It was defiantly a Taiwan sort of thing.
Hong Kong looked back and forth from Korea and Taiwan. It was just really strange to him. He knew for a fact that Taiwan was just a little older than him and that Korea was younger than him, how could they look like young adults when he barely looked like a regular teen?
"Look! Over there!" Taiwan suddenly shouted, pointing at Hong Kong. Said nation stiffened up a bit from being spotted all of a sudden.
The two older Asians turned to each other before taking off towards Hong Kong. Taiwan was sprinting towards him by the table while Korea had leaped onto the table and started sprinting on it, swiftly avoiding all the dishes. As they ran, they both repeatedly started yelling, "PARTY CRASHER!"
Hong Kong took a step back when Korea and Taiwan reached him. Korea was crouching from the table and Taiwan was right next to him, both Asians really invading his personal space bubbling.
"I wasn't crashing your party. I was just standing here." Hong Kong defended himself, shrinking down a bit to lessen the closeness between him and his siblings. It was rendered useless when the two started getting even closer. "You guys have a lot of intricate tea sets." The Chinese preteen commented, trying to get them to back away.
His plan worked. Korea and Taiwan backed away, simultaneously blinking at him. Hong Kong had an uneasy feeling when the two suddenly perked up, revealing toothy grins.
"YOU LIKE TEA (DA ZE)!" they shouted, happily. As they chanted the sentence over and over again, Korea, now on the ground, and Taiwan grabbed each of Hong Kong's wrist, pulling the distressed preteen around in a circle.
"Tea..." Hong Kong looked over his shoulder and saw Japan at the table. He was up for a moment, but then dropped his head back down on the table, falling asleep right away soon after. Hong Kong raised a thick brow at the oldest one here. Japan was dressed in his usual casual kimono, but had gray mouse ears on his head and whiskers on his cheeks.
"Please have some tea!" Taiwan said, she and Korea pushing him to a seat.
"Now, who might you be da ze?" Korea asked with a smile, pouring some tea for Hong Kong. "I'm the mad hatter!" Korea bowed, taking off his large hat, his hair curl appearing from under it.
"Mad hatter..." Hong Kong repeated.
"And I'm the mei hare!" Taiwan added, curtsying.
"May hare..."
"Yep! M-E-I, mei!"
"Okay, well, I'm Hong." Hong Kong introduced himself, picking up his tea cup and nearing it towards him mouth. Judging from the handle on the cup, he guessed it was English tea.
Before Hong Kong could take a sip of tea, Korea took it out of his hand, placed it on the table, and shook the empty hand. "Nice to meet you, Hong!" Korea was shaking his hand with such enthusiasm that Hong Kong was moving up and down on his chair.
"Have you come to join our unbirthday party?" Taiwan kindly asked, drinking what had been Hong Kong's cup of tea.
"No actually I–" Hong Kong paused for a second, letting what Taiwan had said sink in. "I beg your pardon, 'unbirthday'?" The two older Asians nodded again, Korea sipping tea as Taiwan handed Hong Kong a new cup. "I don't quite understand what you are saying."
"You talk funny da ze." Korea said, chuckling. "You know! An unbirthday!"
"And what is that?" Hong Kong asked with little interested as he neared his new teacup to his mouth. This time, it was Chinese tea. He hadn't even taken a sip before Taiwan snatched the tea cup out of his hands.
"You don't know what an unbirthday is?" She gasped. "Why it's simple! The world has given us 365 days in a year." Taiwan started, placing the teacup on the table.
"And only one of those days is your birthday da ze!" Korea continued on, sipping the tea Hong Kong just had.
"Giving you 364 unbirthdays!" Taiwan happily concluded. "That is why we're gathered here to cheer!"
"With that logic, then it's my unbirthday, too..." Hong Kong snorted to himself with apathy.
"Really?" Korea shouted with a truck load of cheerfulness, jumping out of his seat.
"What a small world!" Taiwan giggled, doing the same.
"In that case!" Hong Kong watched as Korea grabbed a table spoon and started waving it around like a conductor. All the strange teapots started to whistle, creating a cheerful tune that the two started to sing to.
"A very merry unbirthday!"
"Wait, what?" Hong Kong was genuinely confused, and the fact that Korea and Taiwan was dancing around him hand-in-hand didn't help.
"To you da ze!" Korea sang, soon being joined by Taiwan.
"A very merry unbirthday!"
"F-for me?"
"For you~" Taiwan giggled.
"Now blow the candle out da ze, and make your wish come true!" Korea then brought out a large cake that could likely be found at one of America's parties, with a lit candle in the middle.
Hong Kong only watched everything with his usual poker-face, but inside revealed terror building up from his 'mad' siblings. And instead of him blowing the candle out, Taiwan was the one who did it (not that he cared or anything).
"A merry merry unbirthday to you!" They both finished as the cake took to the sky, exploding into colorful fireworks. Hong Kong noticed how the loud explosion had woken Japan up.
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat," Japan started drowsily saying, swaying from side to side in his seat, "How I wonder what you're at. Up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky." As he finish, Japan's head fell back onto the table with a loud thugand continued off to sleep.
"..." Hong Kong remained completely static at what had just went on while Taiwan and Korea started clapping for Japan. The younger of the two then turned to him, smiling widely.
"So what brought you here da ze?" He asked, "Huh? Huh? Huh?"
"Yes! Yes!" Taiwan added, "Tell us everything! We like stories!"
Hong Kong considered what the two had said and asked. Should he tell them about the Prussia-cat telling him to come here, or how he got to this insane, wonderland? The preteen decided to go with the latter, hoping that if he said something, he may get some answers.
"Well, let's see..." Hong Kong started, thinking back to what happened earlier. "I was walking around the bamboo forest around Gougou's house with Chen–"
"Chen! Chen! Chen!" The two interrupted, jumping in their seats and clapping their hands.
"Who's Chen?" Taiwan asked, smiling. Hong Kong only gave his usual poker-face at her before continuing on.
"I was about to say who he was before being rudely interrupted... Anyways, I was walking around with Chen, my panda–"
"PANDA!" Japan shouted with fear, waking up suddenly and gaining everyone's attention. "PANDA!" The Japanese dormouse continued screaming, running all about.
"KIKU!"
"Oh no!"
Korea and Taiwan leaped out of their seats out of shocked when Japan started acting crazy. The two started running towards him, Korea holding the Japanese dormouse back as Taiwan tried to calm him down with soothing words. Nothing was working so far.
"The wasabi da ze!"
"Get it and put it on his nose!" Taiwan quickly shouted to Hong Kong. The preteen instantly stood from his seat, running along next to the table until he reached the wasabi. He didn't have time to wonder why there would be wasabi at a tea party because both Korea and Taiwan were screaming at him to hurry up.
"Put it on his nose da ze! His nose!" Hong Kong ran back, scooping up a fair amount of wasabi with the spoon that was in the wasabi container before putting it on Japan's nose.
Right then, Japan started calming down, slowing his breaths down until it was back to normal. Once he was calm again, the Japanese dormouse drowsily dropped to his knees then to the ground, falling back into slumber.
"Oh, thank goodness." Taiwan sighed with relief, Korea doing the same. At the same time, both Asians turned to Hong Kong with a glare.
"Look what you did da ze!" Korea huffed, placing his hands on his hips. Hong Kong was slightly baffled at the two. He couldn't believe they would blame him for Japan's panic attack.
"Well, who in the bloody right mind would think–" Hong Kong started to defend himself, rather loudly, but he was cut off a moment later by Taiwan.
"That's the problem! You weren't in the right mind to think!"
"When you don't think, you shouldn't talk da ze!" Hong Kong was partly taken back and partly offend by what his siblings had just said. "Okay then!" Korea continued, "What was going on with Chen?"
Hong Kong looked back and forth between Korea and Taiwan, giving them both a raised brow before hesitantly continuing with his story. He was really wondering why a mouse-Japan would have a huge fit over a panda. That's when an idea came to his mind.
Panda in Chinese was 'hung maau', 'bear cat'. Japan was a dormouse and mice don't like cats... Hong Kong concluded that was probably it.
"Well... Chen and I walked around or a bit before taking a break and–" the Chinese preteen started continuing on. Before he could continue anymore, he was interrupted, again, by Taiwan.
"Clean cup! Clean cup!" she shouted randomly, throwing her and Hong Kong's tea cup into the air, confusing said preteen to no ends. He never even touched his tea.
"Clean cup! Clean cup! Clean cup! Clean cup! Move down! Move down! Move down!~ (da ze)" the two older Asians sang, pulling and pushing the younger down the table before he could object.
" 'taking a break and'...?" Taiwan asked, signaling the Chinese preteen to continue. Said preteen only gave her an odd look, but she didn't seem to notice.
"And, that's when a mint bunny–"
"Mint! Who wants mint!" Korea shouting, holding up a mint colored, English tea pot, Hong Kong being interrupted, again. All the interruptions were really starting to get in his nerves.
"Just a quarter cup would be nice." Taiwan smiled, slicing her tea cup into half, then half again, creating a fourth. "The mint tea is fairly strong." The Taiwanese mei hare giggled to Hong Kong as Korea poured her tea.
Hong Kong watched with astonishment as the tea poured right into the cup and not stilling out, defying the laws of physics. The tea just filled up as if there was a transparent wall to the cup.
"Would you like some tea, too?" Taiwan asked sweetly.
"Well, considering I haven't drank a single cup–"
"If you don't like tea, then you could just make a polite conversation da ze."
"I'm actually very fond of tea, being both English and–"
"There you go speaking all funny again!~"
"If you like tea, why don't you drink some da ze?"
"I've been trying to, but–"
"Subject change (da ze)!"
Hong Kong abruptly rose from his seat and banged his fist on the table, scaring both Korea and Taiwan out of their seats. "You two are getting on my very last bloody nerve." Hong Kong growled.
"C-calm down..." Korea said, backing away from the dark preteen.
Taiwan ran over to the Korean, hiding behind his back. She appeared for a moment, revealed a cup of tea and asked, "H-how about a cup of green tea?"
Hong Kong banged on the table again, earning a wince from his older siblings. "Enough with the bloody teas!" the Chinese preteen shouted, not at all holding back his anger, "I don't have a single moment in all of bloody hell in deal with something like this! Of all times–"
"Time! Time! What is the time da ze!" Korea shouted, interrupting Hong Kong during his rant. Right then, the flying mint bunny appeared trough the gate as panicked as ever.
"No time for knowing the time! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" it shouted.
"The flying mint bunny..." Hong Kong said to himself, his poker-face returning.
Korea grabbed the mint bunny's pocket watch as it flew past him, examining the clock. "Pssh! Of course you're late da ze! This is a week slow!"
"Mmhmm, exactlyone week." Taiwan agreed, also examining the clock.
"What?" the mint bunny screamed. Hing Kong gave a questioning brow raise. If it was exactly 'a week slow', then shouldn't it not matter? The preteen just ignored it, not wanting to bother himself.
"I can fix it!" Korea shouted, taking the pocket watch from Taiwan and swinging it onto the table. This caused the watch to reveal its inner workings. "It originated in Korea, so I mustbe able to fix it da ze!" the Korean said, using chopsticks to rip out all the gears and springs.
"Oh my goodness!" the mint bunny screamed as if each loose spring was a stab to its soul.
"Let's see now, I'm going to need kimchi!" Korea said.
"Kimchi!" Taiwan repeated, handing him a bowl of kimchi. The Korean dumped it all onto the open watch.
"Soy sauce!" Korea shouted next.
"Soy sauce!" Taiwan repeated, "Excuse me, Kiku." she whispered to the sleep Japan as it was next to him, handing Korea the soy sauce.
"Thank you. Hmm... What else..."
"Cream!" Taiwan shouted, handing Korea the said item.
"Of course! Cream da ze! And uh–"
"Tea!"
"Pssh, duh! How could I forget tea?"
"Bean paste!"
"Wasabi!"
"Oyster sauce!"
"Chili garlic!"
As the two older Asians continued naming random stuff and dumping it into the watch, the mint bunny watched with horror as Hong Kong watched expressionlessly. They had stopped after Taiwan had given Korea fish sauce, the Korean shutting the pocket watch and cutting off the food that seeped through the edge.
"All fixed da ze!" Korea shouted proudly. The watch suddenly started going crazy, dangerously jumping around the table and chomping its mouth like a Petey Piranha.
"Mad watch!" Taiwan shouted. "Mad watch! Mad watch!" She and Korea started going crazy, too, running behind Japan and looking over him at the watch.
The mint bunny was also scared, flying around in panic, shouting, "Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!"
Hong Kong was panicking a bit inside, too, watching as the mad watch was nearing him. Quickly, he pulled out one of his small explosives and waited for the mad watch. Right when the watch was close enough and its mouth was open, the preteen threw his explosive, it landing right in the watch's mouth as it closed.
Right when the mad watch chomped down, the little explosive went off, exploding in its mouth. The impact sent the watch tumbling towards the mad hatter and mei hare.
Korea and Taiwan peeked over Japan to see the pocket watch completely broken. The two turned to each other for a brief second before both pushing the busted watch towards the mint bunny like nothing happened.
"Yep!" Korea started.
"One week slow!" Taiwan finished.
"My pocket watch..." the flying mint bunny wept, picking up the abused pocket watch. "And it was an unbirthday present, too..."
"It was!" Taiwan exclaimed.
"In that case!"
"A very merry unbirthday to you!~" the two Asians sang, each grabbing one of the mint bunny's wings and tossed it flying away. Korea removed his hat, flapping it as a goodbye while Taiwan did the same, but with a handkerchief.
"Ja ne..." Japan drowsily said before falling back asleep.
"Wait! No! Ugh!" Hong Kong groaned, running towards the mint bunny and out the gate. When he turned back to Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, the three were enjoying their tea party like nothing every happened. "Well, that was absolutely stupid and a waste of bloody time." Hong Kong said, turning and walking away with a huff.
Notes:
-Ja ne - Bye (Japanese)
Reviews are loved, please excuse grammar, spelling, and/or language...