(...)
x x x Close Relations x x x
x...six...x
[those two too mature children]
(...)
Yao stepped out of the scalding shower, draped only in the thickest, fluffiest towel that threats-on-Alfred could buy, and feeling remarkably better about the day. Sure, it was a little past noon, and he would have liked to be sleeping right now (what with no meeting room and all), but at least Alfred knew that Yao was better off not awakened before the rising of the sun. And, as a plus, he no longer smelled suspiciously like Earl Grey!
Then Yao rolled his eyes; it was really amazing how far his standards had dropped.
He turned the doorknob to the frontroom of the suite, only to discover -
"Gege!" Taiwan called from the couch, sitting across from Hong Kong, who raised an eyebrow - most likely in amusement - at Yao's current state of dress. Taiwan noticed this too, and then wrinkled her brow, remarking, "What are you doing dressed like that?" She glanced quickly towards the clock, "Don't you know your flight leaves in less than an hour, and you've still got to pack!"
"Oh God - the plane!" Yao gasped, clasping a hand over his mouth in horror, "I have to pack! I have to get all my clothing ready! I have to confirm my flight number and seat change request! And your tickets!" 'I have to get those horrible magazines that Alfred ever-so-helpfully-left-here out of the house before Taiwan and Hong Kong catch sight of them!' he thought inwardly.
"You also have to get dressed," Hong Kong noted, raising an eyebrow. Yao flushed - feeling particularly out of sorts - before nodding and hurrying back to his own room. The violent tumble of drawers and suits could be heard; Hong Kong hid a smile, while Taiwan outrightedly laughed.
"How long do you think we should wait?" Taiwan cheerily asked her fellow nation. Hong Kong - who was busy haphazardly rummaging through the cabinet drawers, pulled out an appropriately-sweet stick of candy, sticking it in his mouth. "You look like a cow," Taiwan snickered, before clearing her throat. "But anyways - how long should we wait before he go in?"
"Let's give Yao -ge..." Hong Kong looked at the clock, still crunching down on the candy stick, "Twenty seconds."
Taiwan pouted, "You're too nice, Xiang," she complained, "Even I can get dressed in twenty seconds!" And then when the other island shot a glance at her, she grumbled back, "Okay, okay, so maybe Gege dresses slower than I do..."
"Mmm," Hong Kong replied, noncommitally. The candy stick was on its last few inches, Taiwan noted. Hong Kong didn't even hesitate in crunching the rest of the candy stick. And then he glanced at the clock once more, noting, "Only a couple more seconds... five... four... three... two..."
"Done!" Yao proudly exclaimed, slamming open the bedroom door - and comically hitting Hong Kong in the face with a flamboyant swing of his hand, "Oh God! Xiang Gang!" he cried out, as the other sat on the floor, rubbing his nose and looking as if nothing at all had occurred. "Are you okay?" Needless to say, Taiwan and Hong Kong were disappointed after seeing the other entirely clothed - and even with his ponytail done properly!
"He's just... disappointed... Gege," Taiwan sweetly said, helping her sibling to his feet, helping to dust off imaginary specks of dirt all the while muttering (in a level that was hopefully too low for Yao to catch), "See what I said?"
"What did you say, aru?" Yao asked, curious as ever.
"Oh nothing!" Taiwan replied, smiling sunnily at her elder, "I was just thinking that you don't need to pack too much, right? I mean, Nii-san is coming over to the United States shortly, and he can bring whatever else you need from this apartment, right?" Hong Kong rolled his eyes, while Yao beamed, because any opportunity to pack and carry less was a good opportunity indeed!
"Of course! That's such an easier way to go about things, aru~" Yao cheerily put forth, "However, I still need to pack a couple of things and then run down to the airport!" He glanced at Hong Kong and Taiwan, "Will the two of you be coming with me back to Asia?" he asked. Hong Kong shook his head, while Taiwan sheepishly smiled. "That's too bad," Yao said, "But I'm glad you're here right now," he added, "I could use the help, you see?"
And with that, the other left for his room once more, opening drawers and closet doors in an attempt to find all the money, candy, and Kitty-chan merchandise which he had stored away in the recesses of the suite. Taiwan and Hong Kong, of course, like the good children they were, reconvened to plot once more.
"He's not onto us, is he?" Taiwan hissed.
"Yao-ge isn't the type of suspect anything," Hong Kong blithely replied.
"What do we do now?" She whispered. After all, there weren't that many opportunities to catch Yao outside of the UN and China - all by himself - and on a non-Lunar New Year day as well!
"We'll proceed as planned," Hong Kong smoothly said, as Yao dashed back into the room, grabbing the larger portion of the candy from the cupboard (but not before exclaiming, 'Hey! Alfred took my last magical rainbow sugar stick!') and rushing back into his room and half-packed suitcase. "It's not as if there's anything going particularly wrong right now." He said this while some tell-tale bits of the candy stick lined his mouth. They were red and green.
"Okay," Taiwan agreed, "The dressing room was just a bonus, I suppose," she murmured, grabbing a nearby napkin to brush off said bits of candy from Hong Kong's mouth. "As soon as he finishes packing, then?"
"Sure," Hong Kong replied, licking his lips to get any leftover taste of that magical rainbow sugar stick.
"Finally~" Yao called out, dragging out a lumpy suitcase. Why it was lumpy, Taiwas was pretty certain she did not want to know. "I could barely fit all of the plushies and candy and clothes!" Yao grumbled, "So I decided to just leave most of the clothing behind, and just make away with the candy and stuffed animals~" And then he directed his attention towards Hong Kong, who was currently rifling through the contents of the nearby desk drawer. "Xiang Gang," he started, "What are you doing, aru?"
"Yao-ge," Hong Kong remarked, raising an eyebrow while pulling a certain something out of the desk drawers. Yao blanched - because wasn't that...? "I didn't know you read this sort of thing..." the other managed to say in complete and utter monotone, flipping boorishly through the pages of utterly indecent (not even half-naked!) women. "Kiku-nii has a lot more of this sort of stuff," he continues, bringing Yao closer to cardiac arrest, "And it's much better too."
"Xiang!" Taiwan screeched out - snatching said magazine from her sibling's hands (before Yao can), "What are you doing with something like that? And how can you say that you've ever seen anything from Nii-san?" she put her hands on her hips, scowling, and Yao was very proud of her until the next words left her mouth, "You know that gege isn't prepared to see this stuff right now!"
Yao felt his jaw drop.
"Wh-what do you mean, aru?" he said in an absolutely scandalized manner, "If there's anything that Kiku made that you two can watch, surely I can see it too, aru!" The fact that Kiku - prim, proper (and somewhat obsessed with anime) Kiku - was the creator was somewhat reassuring. And him making something worse than Alfred? Yao scoffed, mentally - impossible!
In response, Hong Kong cocked an eyebrow at Taiwan, who winced. And then she shrugged, and Hong Kong nodded - leaving Yao utterly bemused with the exchanging of glances. "Well, the thing is, gege..." Taiwan muttered out, face a bit redder than it should have been, "We... well..." She cleared her throat, while her sibling elbowed her to continue forth, "We don't really think this stuff is... well... appropriate for you, gege."
"Appropriate...?" Yao echoed, "I'm older than you two, aru!" he protested, feeling a bit like a parent with a teenage, "If you're able to watch it, then I should be just as able!"
"Well," Taiwan shot a glance at Hong Kong, who merely smiled. She sighed, "Well, if he says he's able to..." Hong Kong carelessly tossed her a packet of DVD's. All of which were Japanese. And none of which had any decorated titles. "Hmmm..." she wondered aloud, as Hong Kong motioned for Yao to sit on the couch as well. "Which one of these shall we watch?" A quick glance at the clock removed all but two of the programs, "Well, we have Princess of the Orient and Escape from Planet T." She held up both nondescript disks at the two of them.
"Princess of the Orient sounds better for someone like Yao-ge," Hong Kong remarked. "Escape from Planet T is a bit too wild."
"Wh-what is this about, aru?" Yao asked, laughing nervously, "This can't be too long of a film, right? I do have a flight in half an hour, you know?" Hong Kong blinked, saying nothing, while Taiwan expertly turned on the various systems required to enjoy a good movie.
"You're not going to... leave... are you, Yao-ge?" Hong Kong asked - in an entirely innocent fashion. "Feel free to," he added, sweetly, "Because Taiwan and I often watch this stuff, but as she's said, it may not be appropriate for you." Taiwan bit the inside of her cheek to stifle the riotous laughter she just knew was coming. How did her sibling turn out to be such an amazing liar?
"O-Of course not!" Yao stuttered out, gripping tightly onto the nearby fabric - which just happened to be Taiwan's arm, "Th-this isn't horror, right?"
"Nope!" Taiwan cheerily replied. "But it's a bit like... history, shall we say?" And here, it was Hong Kong who snorted in laughter. "Shhh!" she hushed her quieter sibling, "The presentation is about to begin!" Somehow or another, Yao found himself wedged between Taiwan and Hong Kong, both of whom were holding his hands. It was a nice feeling, he thought off-handedly, and they should have more family bonding moments like this.
And then the film started. And his widened, because wasn't this setting a little bit familiar? "It's a duplicate of the Imperial Palace," Taiwan murmured, answering his unsaid question while snuggling close. And it was a masterful copy, Yao thought, taking in the curves and seals - all of which had been duplicated rather splendidly. And the robes! And the hair-pieces! And the instruments in the background. And so, it continued throughout the whole of the film; in some desperately homesick manner, Yao managed to train his eyes on the architecture, on the clothing, on the design and detail of the video - forgetting altogether that there were people and they were getting undressed.
Twenty-six minutes - filled with beautiful intricacies of the imperial seal and imperial dragon and imperial robe - later, and Yao blinked, because the film was supposedly over. "...What about the plot?" he asked, blithely. "Oh..." he murmured, as a terribly-red Taiwan swerved her head to look at a not-at-all embarrassed Yao. "I-I'm so sorry!" he muttered out, embarrassed, "I was so concentrated on the architectural details that I..."
"Completely ignored the rest of the film," Hong Kong flatly finished.
"Oh God...!" Taiwan groaned, flopping herself on the opposite side of the couch. "How did such an intensively thought-out plan go wrong?" she muttered, rubbing her temples and hoping the blush on her face would quickly reside.
"I'm so sorry, aru!" Yao apologized, profusely. "I think I just..." he started, only to look at the clock in abject horror. There was barely a half-hour before the lift-off of the flight.
"I think I need to get to the airport, aru!" And with that, he grabbed his suitcase, and dashed out the door, calling out, "I'm so sorry, aru! I'll make it up to the two of you - we, we, we can watch that movie, later - again, at my house, okay?" He rushed back to give each of them of a hug, before kissing their foreheads and pressing the suite key into Taiwan's hands. "See you in a couple days, aru!" And with a wave and high-pitched 'aiieh!' (most likely caused by the elevator doors), Yao was off the floor and on his way to desperately make his way on the airplane.
Taiwan and Hong Kong sat - on the couch - with a Yao-sized space between them.
"How..." Taiwan rasped out, fists clenching and unclenching, "How... did Gege manage to only see the architecture and clothing in that movie?" She ground her teeth together, kicking the foot-table in frustration, "He's just...!" she cried out, "It's just impossible to make him see certain things! I swear that he's purposely doing all this, just to try and get us upset!" She pouted, scoffing and raging over her own implausible theories.
"You know," Hong Kong remarked, not terribly ruffled in the least, "The book Alfred gave Yao isn't that bad in the least."
And with that, Taiwan justified kicking her sibling in the shins.
It was marginally better than kicking the foot-table, because while neither actually responded, at least Hong Kong wasn't made of oak.
(...)
