"What kind of trap (pant pant) is this? (Pant pant pant)"

"If you had listened to me, (pant pant) we won't be in this situation either! (even more panting.)"

"Like hell (pant pant) it would make a difference! (Pant pant ) That other path may have more traps than this one! If you still have the energy to talk, think of a way to get us out of here!" England insisted that he was not wrong.

"Why am I always the one cleaning up the mess you and teacher left?" Hong Kong complained in his deadpan voice.

"JUST THINK OF A BLOODY IDEA ALREADY!" A certain England lost his patience.

"What do you want me to do? Blast that thing with the fire cracker?" Hong Kong sounded a bit annoyed, quite an achievement considering that he was flat most of the time.

Well, there was a reason why Hong Kong was annoyed, because they are being chased by a huge rolling bolder down a slope. With England and his bad luck, triggering this kind of trap was a piece of cake. So they have been running down the narrow slope for quite a while now, amazingly still hanging on. But every country has a limit, and that includes Hong Kong, even though he was a continent.

Still, it was a huge bolder, what could you possibly do to stop a rolling bolder?

"Well you are the one with the weird ideas!" England blurted out almost immediately, who else would go around carrying a whole lot of fire crackers?

"Well here is an idea, why don't you stop and try to stop it? Even if you get squashed, the bolder would be slowed down and I can run to safety. " Hong Kong snapped, literally.

England was knocked speechless by Hong Kong's frustrated reply. This was the first time he saw Hong Kong lost his temper, and it was sort of his fault…

"Fine, my bad. Sorry for forcing you and making you clean up my mess. But we really need an idea quick or we will both get squashed by that thing." England decided to apologize.

Hong Kong, shocked that the hot tempered and unreasonable England would actually apologize to him in such a tone, decided that it was more important for them to stay alive for now. Still, they were simply running down a dark, empty and narrow walkway, what can they do anyway?

"Ok, I only have one suggestion, that we keep running. If I am not wrong, there should be another uphill slope or something like that." Hong Kong suggested after some thinking.

"Well, if that is the case~" England suddenly grinned.

"Whatever comes next, I don't like it." Hong Kong shivered instinctively.

"Heh, hold on tight, and try to keep up!" England suddenly grabbed Hong Kong by the arm and started dashing in an amazing speed, dragging a certain shocked and amazed Hong Kong.

His pirate days paid off after all.

"Hey, China. Why are we stopping?" America asked as he kept walking despite China's orders.

His question was answered by an arrow that missed his face by a mere cm.

"Do I still need to explain anything?" China gave him the I-told-you look.

"Ahahaha…" America laughed and retreated back into the crowd.

"Anyway aru, this traps shoots poisonous arrows. Like America had demonstrated, simply walking through this trap will probably get you killed." China shot America a smirk, "so, if you don't want to die, please do as I say aru."

"Ve… This looks dangerous…" Italy hid behind Germany, who patted Italy's head in attempt to calm him down.

"Italy kun, I am sure that as long as we follow the instructions given by China kun, we would be fine." Japan assured as Italy poked out from Germany's back and looked at Japan.

"V…Ve… I will give it a try." He finally said.

Meanwhile, China hand already started crawling through the trap like what Hong Kong and England did, the other countries followed. It was all smooth, until it was Italy's turn.

"Ve, ve, ve." Italy was happily crawling when Germany stopped him by the collar.

"Italy, keep your butt down and stay flat." He ordered.

"Bu… But, if I keep flat, I will dirty my shirt." Italy protested.

The countries facepalmed.

The logic of not dirtying your shirt if you don't stay flat coming from a guy who can eat a plate of pasta and turn his shirt to a splatter of tomato sauce just sounded unconvincing.

"Let me handle this, Germany kun." Japan took over and gave Italy a cat, the same cat Italy found in Germany's house last time.

"Ah~ The Germany cat! It is so cute!" Italy's eyes lit up and grabbed the cat almost immediately. (Yeah, his eyes were closed, but you know what I mean)

Then, he did what Japan had expected, cuddled the cat and started rolling on the ground. By the time Italy noticed it, he had already made it through the trap, alive.

The countries now look at Japan in a different light…

After walking down the empty pathway for a while, they too, came to the split.

"Da, which one should we choose?" Russia asked.

"Hmm, the big brother, I, think that the right path is better." France suggested.

"But the hero thinks that the left one is better." America shouted.

"Ah, then let's split ways aru. The people who want to go to the right path, follow me. The people who want to go to the left path, follow America." China moved to the right side and instructed.

The crowd soon split into 2 groups. France, Russia, Belarus (who was hugging Russia from the back so tight that Russia almost suffocated), Italy and Germany joined America. Japan, also believed that the right is always better than the left, decided to Join China, along with Korea (who insisted that he must go with China or China's breasts will be stolen) and Taiwan.

"Teacher, why are you so worried about Hong Kong all of a sudden? I am sure Hong Kong can take care of himself." Taiwan asked innocently.

She did not understand what all the big deal was about. So what if this place was full of traps? Hong Kong, Korea and she played here since they were kids. Besides, Hong Kong was super independent since he was young, Korea, on the other hand, worried China with everything he do.

"I am not worried aru."

"But you are making it hard for Japan and Korea to catch up."

China paused in his tracks and turned around, just in time to see Japan and Korea struggling to keep up with his pace. Since when did he start walking this fast?

"They are just slow aru. I am not worried about Hong Kong either. I just want to find them quickly so we can get back to the party." China answered impatiently.

Taiwan watched as China shouted for them to be faster, considering that he was so much older yet so much faster, and shook her head.

"Teacher, when are you going to be honest to yourself and admit that you are afraid to lose Hong Kong again?" Taiwan shook her head and asked.

China paused upon hearing Taiwan's question.

Afraid to lose Hong Kong?

Immediately, flashback of the time he spent with Japan played in his mind, including the war that separated them. He still did not understand what he did wrong to cause Japan to leave him. Since the start, he had tried to understand Japan's mindset, but he messed up every time (what they call generation gap). As Japan grew, he never saw Japan smiled at him with his heart like when he was a child anymore. But when he saw Japan with Germany and Italy, he was constantly smiling. So everything was fine, Japan was happy, that was all that mattered.

But why did it feel so empty? Why was his heart hurting for no reason? Why couldn't he stop crying?

That's right, he was afraid, terrified. He already lost Japan, one of his younger brothers. Taiwan and Korea have their own bosses and houses. He only has Hong Kong now, and he can't lose Hong Kong. No matter what.

He did not want to cry every night again, feeling the darkness slowly devour him. He did not want to be alone again.

"The fact that Hong Kong like England is not going to change anything. Hong Kong will still be your brother, what exactly are you scared of? Teacher, to Hong Kong, both you and England are equally important. You are very important to me as well." Taiwan gave China an assuring smile and patted his shoulder, breaking China's train of thoughts for a good cause.

"Taiwan…"

"Taiwan Chan is right. Even if we now have a different language and culture, we are still under the same piece of sky, looking at the same moon every night. You will always be my brother. You need not worry about losing anything. I promise, no matter how far we are from each other, we would still be a big family." Japan continued, if there was one thing that he could never forget, it would be the times when he and China would sit on the steps of China's house and look at the moon as the drank tea.

"That is right da-ze! You are my aniki forever! (so does your breasts) I will never forget you! (so you should never forget that your breasts are my property too)" Korea gave China his usual sunny laugh. Guess he can agree with Japan if it was for his dear aniki. Yup, just once won't hurt.

"Japan and Korea too… Ahh… What is this aru? All of you have already grown so big!" China was close to tears.

"Teacher, we are no longer small kids and we no longer live with you like we used to, but it does not mean that we have stopped loving you. I am sure Hong Kong think of the same thing too." Taiwan smiled and gave China a hug, and instantly left China in tears.

"Ah! No fair! I want to hug aniki too!" Korea shouted and joined Taiwan in hugging (/squashing) China.

Japan, too cool for hugs, stood beside them and smiled with such warmth that it could melt the hardest ice.

"The three of you, have really grown up. It makes me so proud." China wished his panda was here to see this touching moment.

That's right, what was there to be scared of?

"Sorry I am late for the party! Cuba mistook me for America again… Eh..? Where is everyone?" The door was flung open as a person dashed into the party room.

"…Was it over already…?" he stared at the empty party room, a piece of paper flew pass him.

…

"Who are you?" The bear in the person's arms suddenly asked.

"Canada da yo."

Heh heh, since this is the first time in this story, i guess i can talk a bit, right?

Hope you like the appearance of the bear. I thought it would be cute if a bear suddenly pops out.

Also, this chapter is supposed to be touching (well, the china part.)

i dun expect you to like, cry or anything (cos i did not cry writing this, well, i almost cried)

But please review and tell me if the china part was nicely/poorly done.

Was it redundant or maybe random? Or was it just nice?

Finally. For those bear fans out there.

I WILL BE FEATURING THE BEAR MORE OFTEN FROM THIS CHAPTER ON~

PLEASE WAIT IN ANTICIPATION~

(Note, if you noticed, this chapter is longer than my usual chapter for around 800 words. So please spare me a few more days for the next chapter. Now that i have anyther story to manage and lots of homework, my brain does not function at times. You don't want sloppy work, do you? ;D)