Veneziano watched in amusement as Romano tried to rush Japan, or "Kiku", out of his room so they could go to a fair.

"It was your idea to come here and go to this stupid thing so let's go!" Romano yelled for the hundredth time.

Japan laughed as he finally emerged from his room, "Relax, Ano. I just have to put my hair up and we can go!"

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Ano!"

"Romano, just go wait in the living room. I'll make sure he hurries," Veneziano finally stepped in, not wanting things to get any worse. Romano's mood needed to be at least somewhat decent if they wanted to enjoy the fair today.

"Yeah," Romano muttered. "I'm sure that's going to happen."

As soon as Romano was out of sight, Veneziano turned to look at Japan who was smiling proudly to himself as if he had just won something. "You really should finish getting ready.

Japan shook his head. "I'm almost done. I was actually thinking about keeping my hair down... I prefer it that way, I only put it up because it gets in the way of things."

Veneziano looked at Japan's hair. "Hmm. You should let me cut it tonight. The ends are beginning to look rough."

Japan looked down so he his hair would fall to his sides and he could look at it. "Yeah," he nodded. "I guess you're right. But not too short, okay? If we're staying here for the winter, I'll need the extra protection."

Although it attracted Veneziano's curiosity that Japan was always making excuses to keep his hair long (Did it matter? If he liked it long, he liked it long.) he didn't say anything. He just nodded and watched as Japan seemed to change his mind and put his hair up. Quickly tugging on his sleeve when he saw that the older nation was watching. "Alright, let's go!"


"Hey, Ano!" Japan said once they were at the fair. "Do you think we should get some cotton candy? I bet it tastes good."

"You've never had cotton candy before?" North Italy asked before his brother could yell at Japan for calling him Ano.

"You mean you have?" Romano asked, surprised.

"It's Fairy Floss! You remember Fairy Floss!"

Romano shook his head. "I would never eat something named Fairy Floss. That sounds like something Engl..." he stopped when Veneziano shot him a look "...it just sounds crazy."

"It delicious. I had some when I went Ireland." He ran up to the cotton candy booth and got two sticks. "You should really try it." He handed one of the sticks to Japan. "No matter what anyone says, Kiku, you are never too old for cotton candy. Here, Romano. We can share this one."


Japan was left alone while the brothers decided to take a ride on something he thought looked like it was going way too fast to be safe. So as he waited for them to come back, he thought it would be cool to look around at the different games the fair had. Mostly, the games looked kind of boring, and when inspected closely, obviously rigged.

There was a basketball toss, some water shooter thing, something that had to do with a very large hammer-looking thing, but none of them really caught his attention. Well, none of them did until he saw a game that had a large stuffed panda as a prize. And the large panda was stuffed inside what looked like a wooden bag. Before he knew what he was really doing he walked over to the booth and pointed at the panda.

"What do I have to do to get that?" he asked hoping his English was well enough for the worker to understand.

"That?" The worker looked at it for a second and shrugged. "I've had that thing hanging there for years. No one has wanted it, but it makes a nice decoration. Hmm... For you," the worker took in Japan and shrugged again, "just knocked down five of that clown's teeth."

At first, Japan thought that sounded painful until he finally looked at the game in from of him. There was a huge clown's head with ten teeth made out of boards. Japan nodded to himself, "How much?"

"Well," the worker rubbed his beard and thought. "Usually the game is 10 dollars, but since you are going after such an unwanted prize, and the look in your eyes is telling me you really want it, 2 dollars. Just don't rat me out to my boss."

"No worries," Japan said, handing over the money as the worker placed 5 small white balls in front of him.


"Ooooh!" Veneziano said when they stepped off the ride and saw the Panda Basket on Japan's back. "Where'd you get that?"

"From a game over there," Japan smiled widely. "Does it look good?"

Romano lifted an eyebrow at the young nation. With the long hair and panda on your back, you almost look like China. When he looked over at his brother he could tell that he was thinking the same thing. Strange how Japan was so intent on leaving China and everyone behind, but he was trying his hardest to look like China.

"You ever wonder if there is more going on then we know about?" Veneziano asked him later that night after Japan had gone to bed.

"All the damn time," Romano answered, "but there isn't a thing we can do about it, is there? Do you really want to force him to tell us anything?"

Veneziano shook his head. His brother was right, but that didn't make him worry any less.


A/N

Okay... It's 7 in the morning and I haven't gone to sleep yet. So good night and good day and I hope you've all enjoyed reading this! I promise the regular updates will continue to come until this is over.