A Very Asian Vacation
He almost feared the coming day. The night ended on such an awkward note that Japan had no idea how to face the Korean in the morning. Should he ignore him or should he greet him? But what if Korea ignored him- that'd be a bitter punch to the face. Or maybe he should just wait and see what the Korean's reaction would be or-
"Come on, Nihon! Don't want to oversleep now! You make aniki look like a young man in the morning!"
Japan trudged to the bathroom and blearily tried to wash up. Clearly, he was overthinking. Clearly his restless night had been an absolute waste. Clearly he was the idiot of the century to take Korea seriously. In a way, he was thankful (that pushed one sticky situation out of sight) but he was slightly troubled. Was Korea doing this on purpose or was he truly that simple a person to actually bypass the whole situation that was, itself, quite severe?
"NIHON! GET OUT!"
He grit his teeth.
Korea banged at the door sharply, the wood rattling on the frame, and Japan winced with each and every shriek. However, he forced himself to calmly place the towels back into their hangers and dry the sink with a paper towel before pacing towards the door.
"About time! I thought you got a heart attack from all that salt-intake! Then, I'd have to go mouth-to-mouth to save your life-"
"Please stop with the vulgarity this early in the morning."
Japan would've regarded the morning as pleasant. The sun was warm and welcoming and there was a slight coolness in the air that brought a tinge of freshness. The lights of day were leisurely drifting from the low horizon, settling amidst the cloudless skies. It was quite beautiful to simply breathe in and watch.
But then… then there was Korea.
Korea who shattered this idyllic morning. Korea who proceeded to push Japan forcefully down the stairs, yank him across the corners of rooms, kick at his shins while exclaiming it wasn't him and blow energetically in his ear before laughing raucously.
Japan wanted to burst into a million tiny pieces because it was getting on the very last of his nerves.
"Like, what took you so long," Hong Kong was on the outside porch, his beats slung around his neck.
"Nihon," Korea shook his head dismally, as though the reason presented itself.
"God, I, like, pity you having to share with him," Hong Kong nudged a head Japan's direction. "Must be a real pain."
"You have no idea- the suffering I go through, da-ze! Just waking up and seeing him so old is enough to ruin your day!"
"Definitely all the sushi. It's not exactly doing you any favours, mate."
"A-roon-sa-was, ana~!"
Japan stopped glaring at the two, finding a happy looking Thailand stepping into the porch behind him. Surprisingly- not really- Toto the elephant had decided to join him, standing by Thailand's feet like a little, lost puppy. Something was wrong with that animal…
"Nice to be up and enjoy a fresh morning, right?"
"I doubt it's fresh anymore," Japan muttered.
"Cheer up! It's the youth of today that make life interesting," Thailand smiled.
"Being over a thousand years is not considered young-"
"ANIKI! I'VE MISSED YOU, DA-ZE!"
Korea rocketed across the porch, strangling China in the most brutal embraces Japan had ever witnessed in his life. The Chinese man was lifted off his feet, his face immediately bordering purple, his eyes threatening to bulge from surprise or pain.
"So you're, like, just gonna stand there," Hong Kong commented, "while your boy-toy flirts with someone else? Talk about no dignity."
Japan's face flared. "W-what-"
"No, Nihon!" Korea whiplashed, an expression of horrified guilt on his face, "It's not what it looks like! You're the one for me, da-ze! I'll take you to the hospital if you're bleeding, to the park if you're dying and want to see Korean poppies in the winter- I'll kiss you in the rain- even if we get pneumonia I don't care- NIHON-"
Japan's teeth grated as Korea screeched into his ear. Naturally, Hong Kong had the whole scene videoed until Korea slung an arm around his shoulders- he's been doing that quite often these days- and threw a peace sign with a 'pose, Nihon! This if for all the multicultural lovers out there, da-ze!' Only when Taiwan fluttered into the room did Hong Kong tuck his phone away and China lead them out of the porch, followed by Thailand who directed them towards the beach.
Morning Tai Chi, meant to put your soul at peace and strengthen your body and mind, was eventful…
Hong Kong's raucous music disturbed the calm lapping of the waves. Korea's antics behind China's back made Taiwan burst into fits of laughter at the most inappropriate of times. The 'accidental' kicks that Hong Kong sent at Japan's shins frazzled him so much that he literally tried to twist the boy's ankle (which was aimed at Japan's temple) only for China to reprimand him like a four year old caught stealing sweets.
If Tai Chi was an inconvenience, then breakfast was a war.
Korea and Hong Kong were pulling at the large bowl of rice, their free hands grabbing onto the different bowls of sauces and seasonings.
"Eat more, aru! I didn't cook all this for nothing!"
China threw extra helpings of fried vegetables into everyone's bowls without explanation while Thailand cheerily laughed as Toto, the elephant, ran circles around everyone in excitement. A jug of water spilt across the table, staining Taiwan's sundress and Hong Kong demanded fresh orange juice only to get denied the very second it left his mouth.
"No, aru! We are drinking soya milk or conjee only- none of that western rubbish!"
"This is the twenty-first century, gramps," Hong Kong rolled his eyes. He poked at Korea's hand that skidded towards the dumplings. "Get in with the times."
"Improper! Disgracing your lineage without a seconds thought, aru! I would've raised you a proper, traditional Chinese man without any of the westernized plague-"
"Yeah, yeah, keep yapping gramps."
"So rude, aru! Don't make me censor all your music!"
Through the arguments that erupted, Japan slid a plate of fried Jiaozi towards Taiwan. She looked up at him questioningly before beaming, her eyes glimmering with gratitude.
"Gum xia!"
It had always been her favourite dish, he thought as she helped herself to some dumplings, adding some vinegar to them. He would remember coming down in his black uniform, sword strapped to the side and buttons gleaming, and find her waiting for him by the breakfast table in her fluttering pink dresses. She'd always start with jiaozi and end with jiaozi, savoring the taste in her mouth. He didn't especially like it, but he kept it for her, simply to enjoy the happiness on her young face.
He was going to continue his noodles before he caught Korea's eyes. Korea blinked at him before a smug little smirk crept up his thin lips that said 'I-saw-what-you-just-did', wagging his brows. Japan felt a pang of dread build within him, yet kept his face composed. He prayed the Korean wouldn't make a big deal of it or to, even worse, tell Hong Kong, who was an expert at blowing things out of proportion.
And Japan had a feeling that, when it came to Taiwan, Hong Kong could become quite malicious.
Even more so than usual.
"You guys shouldn't eat too much, ana~! It won't help when you're going to be out swimming."
"Swimming?" Japan blinked.
"We come to a private island to do what exactly? Feed pigeons?" Hong Kong rolled his eyes.
"Thank you for the offer, but I'd rather not Thailand-san-"
"Why not?" Taiwan exclaimed. "It'll be fun!"
"Yeah, Nihon," Korea said suggestively. "It'll be real fun, right?"
"What do you mean?" Japan stiffened.
Hong Kong seemed to have sensed something too and poked the Korean with his chopsticks.
"So you guys are actually together now? Like, officially?"
"Of course! One learns many things from your bed-mate," Korea nodded importantly.
"Roommate!" Japan snapped.
"Bed-mate."
"Roommate-"
"I've prepared the best Chinese noodles, aru, only to be eaten by the beach, you know. You don't get them anywhere else," said China.
Was that supposed to convince him? Japan thought. Was that supposed to make him take up their offer to the beach and suffer through their insanity under the blaring sun until he got heatstroke from stressing himself out or dehydrating himself dry, screaming his lungs out at the antics he knew Hong Kong and Korea would cook up?
"I'm not very keen on sitting under the sun-"
"Scared you're, like, gonna peel," Hong Kong sneered. "Princess."
"I don't peel-"
"Sure you don't," Hong Kong said nonchalantly. "I bet you can't even swim let alone float."
"I assure you, swimming is the least of my concerns."
"I KNOW!" Korea stood up, "We'll see who's the fastest, ne? Who can swim the Pacific Ocean in less than an hour, wins!"
China rubbed his temples.
"That's impossible," Hong Kong leered.
"No it's not! I've done it loads of times, da-ze. Not my fault you aren't as fit as me."
"You, fit? All you do is video game your way through life."
"As if you're any better!"
"Like, I totally am."
"You can't even Tai Chi properly!"
"You can't even sit still for five seconds."
"You can't eat noodles with four chopsticks in one hand under forty seconds!"
"As if you can!"
"I broke the world record, da-ze!"
"I bet you don't even know what a world record is."
"It's a big black circle! Everyone knows that!"
Japan picked himself up silently, ready to slip through the doorway before they notice him and avoid any loitering by the beach. However, Taiwan grabbed his arm and energetically announced that they were heading off to swim.
"Ooh, Nihon, when did you get this sneaky," Korea snickered. "Running off with Taiwan all on your own-"
"How dare you implicate such inappropriate things, aru!" China roared. "Have some respect for your elders! Japan would do nothing of a sort-"
"Yeah, he's done worse," Hong Kong muttered darkly.
Would they ever drop it, he wondered helplessly. The comment stung so suddenly that it made him feel as though a sharpness had numbed his body, spreading a suffocating heaviness throughout. He looked away, trying to act as though he hadn't heard the Chinese teen, yet felt Taiwan's small fingers at his arm, rubbing circles empathetically.
"What is this?" China gawked. "W-what is this? How could you- how did you- how…?"
To be honest, Japan wasn't exactly shocked. He didn't expect it, yet he wasn't exactly surprised it was there. He'd be more surprised if Hong Kong didn't have it. However, China must've been living on a completely different planet with a completely different image of Hong Kong in mind than the actual, living and breathing boy they all knew.
"Take it off, aru! Take it off right now!"
"It's, like, permanent."
"Don't give me that nonsense, aru! Nothing's permanent, take it off! Zài shàngdì de fèn- take it off!"
"No."
China seethed.
"It looks so cool, da-ze," Korea inspected it up close. "I want one!"
"You will do no such thing!" China bellowed.
"Sure," Hong Kong carried on casually, without a glitch, "this wicked guy in London did mine, but I think he opened a shop back home…"
"I forbid it!" China was still carrying on insistently. "I don't allow it, aru! You will take this- this- this disease off right now!"
"Bit harsh, gramps, don't want you throwing your back now."
"Don't change the subject!"
Japan fidgeted slightly. He tugged nervously at his linen shirt. Taiwan was standing by Korea (which comically showed how short she was in comparison to the tall Asian) studying the tattoo on Hong Kong's lean back. It was of a thin black dragon, slithering from his right shoulder blade, down his back and wrapping around his left leg. Japan had to give it to him, it looked quite cool and at least he was being traditional by having a Chinese dragon rather than a red-string, blazing hot electric guitar (as England did… being the great example he naturally was).
"I'd like a tattoo as well," Taiwan smiled.
China looked as though he had been hit with a gong. Hong Kong merely smirked and shot her a thumbs up.
"The times are changing too fast for me, aru," China muttered. "Too fast- where did I go wrong with them? Why don't you talk some decency into them?!"
Japan realized that China was actually screaming directly at him.
"That's because Nihon's got a cool tattoo as well, right?" Korea laughed, "show them, Nihon! Flash it!"
Japan blushed heavily. He could hear the recorder on Hong Kong's phone go on.
"Is… is this true, aru?"
China looked like a wounded bear. Why on earth did he even feel guilty all of a sudden?
"Come on, Nihon!"
Wait a second…
How did Korea know about it? He never recalled-
"I'd rather not."
"But you, like, don't deny it," Hong Kong fixed a pair of huge sunglasses on his face, "strip up, Nihon. I bet it's a little cherry blossom."
"That would be cute!" Taiwan exclaimed. "I'd love a cherry blossom on my left shoulder!"
"And how about, 'property of Japan' to go along with it, yeah? Like old times," Hong Kong snapped.
Japan stiffened yet Taiwan's hurt expression did more than words ever could. Hong Kong crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. Korea, quite bored with the ongoing banter that he wasn't part of, proceeded to slip out of his shirt. Japan's eyes immediately fell onto the thick, knotted scar on the right of his collarbone. The skin, though no longer raw, looked distorted and painful. Korea caught his gaze and awkwardly brushed his fingers over it.
Japan swallowed.
He knew that scar.
His fingers were like lead and he felt a wave of sickness.
"Excuse me."
He pushed past Taiwan and ignored China's surprised calls and stalked silently down the stone path between the trees. He swallowed, his throat clenched, and his heart suddenly hammering against his ribcage. He took in a deep breath that rattled in his lungs making him stop, grip for support, and wait for his senses to flood back into him. He had no idea what came upon him- no idea where this wave of nausea flooded from- but he knew one thing. He knew that he felt a pressure building around him like four concrete walls, edging closer and closer until they were sure to converge, destroy and meet.
He stood, his eyes straining, as he glared at the screen of his laptop. He had refreshed the page about twenty times now and stared at it for so long that he had soon lost track of time. With one click of a button, he would've secured himself a comfortable flight all the way to tokyo.
But he just couldn't do it.
He had to. It was best he left now before things would start to bubble and burst. It was best to leave now, during the calm instead of an imminent storm. But why was it so hard for him to book a ticket? So hard to simply confirm his reservations and let that be it?
It would be rude on Thailand, he thought, and he didn't want to disappoint the smiling nation. After all the trouble Thailand went through to get them settled and to actually invite them over… he couldn't just pack up and leave like an angry tourist. Japan sighed and shut the laptop, running a hand exhaustedly over his face. Should he call someone?
Italy sprung into mind, but Japan didn't think he was in the mood to listen to the Italian get sidetracked by anything and everything that moved.
There was always Germany.
Japan cringed.
Germany meant well… but he wasn't exactly the person you'd call for comfort.
He swallowed and leaned back.
Was that it, then? Were those the only two he could turn to whenever he was in a dark corner? It wasn't that he was ungrateful, far from it. Those two Europeans were… quite the blessing, to tell the truth. They were different and they accepted him… loved him even though they saw, as clear as day, the atrocities he had done. They made mistakes too… they desecrated and destroyed as well… and maybe that's what made all the difference.
They understood him because they had gone through the same things.
His family… his family had suffered from his hand. They had paid the price of his ambitions.
And now… now he didn't know what to do.
"You can't erase the past," he said to himself.
His phone buzzed.
Quizzically, Japan reached out for it.
"Hello-"
"I'll say this once and only once, Australia, if you do not tell me where you kept your pathetic excuse of a wombat in my house, I swear I'll poison the airs until it bloody suffocates to death-"
"England-san?"
"Or god help me- Oh… Japan? Is that you?"
"Yes."
"Bloody hell- stupid technology. Sorry about that, I was phoning up Australia and must've called you by mistake. Have no idea how I managed to do that though…"
"It's no problem."
"Well then, I'll just- are you alright? You sound a bit down there."
Japan straightened up. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm alright."
"Doesn't sound alright to me. When you're stuck raising a bunch of teenagers for god knows how many years, you pick up stuff. So, anything the matter? You're on holiday with your family, right? Anything unpleasant happened there?"
"Ah… well, I-"
"Family problems," England snorted. Japan could see him nodding, "the last time I went on 'vacation' with my good ole family we ended up looking for Wales' imaginary dragon in the Tower of London only for Scotland to lock me up in a bloody cell overnight. Complete tosser, I tell you..." Japan pursed his lips. He could feel an annoyed rant coming along. It was as though England had been waiting for someone to rave on and Japan had the misfortune of being forced to listen. "I mean, I work the hardest to make sure they're not bloody bankrupt and have their bloody paperwork sorted out, but then they start complaining about everything! I mean, I think I deserve a bit of appreciation! Instead, they start making inaccurate 'historical' movies on how much of a bloody demon I was! And don't get me started on the whole 'take-away-my-language-and-ruin-it' parade that America's been throwing- who the hell speaks American? It's not even a bloody language, it's a fucking nationality- you don't speak American you speak ENGLISH! Is it so hard to speak normally- to value the English language as it is and not throw in these atrocities? And Oxford isn't even helping by adding those ridiculous words into their stupid dictionary- how are we going to fix the youth of today if you don't stop them from the very beginning? I didn't do that and BOOM, look at where that git America is, throwing fireworks around like it's a bloody party every July while I sit here- COUGH -"
"… England-san-!"
"God, I think I'm coming down with something. As if this damn rain is doing anything about it either- I mean, why is it only London that gets the downpours from nowhere? Why can't Dublin get it? They missed a freak storm by a hair- a hair! Instead, I get trees plucked from the ground and tossed into the skies- seriously! Is this because I decided to go a bit overboard when I was a youth- rebelled a bit too much? Oh yeah- on the topic of rebellion, how's Hong Kong?"
"Uh- Hong Kong-san?"
"Yeah, how's he doing? Is he alright? He hates it when I call up to check on him- apparently he thinks I'm treating him like a child."
"He's alright. He's at the beach with everyone else."
"Ah, the beach. That's nice… sun and cloudless skies. Sounds very nice actually," Japan could detect a tinge of envy. "What about you? Why aren't you out with them?"
"Well, I… I don't really like swimming much."
"Doesn't mean you stay cooped up in a room and avoid the sunshine. When it rains every single day, you learn to appreciate the simplicities of life."
Japan's lips parted.
"Well then, I need to go. Have to phone up Australia about his stupid wombat."
"Thank you very much, England-san."
"Sure… anytime, I guess… well then, cheers."
When it rains every single day, you learn to appreciate the simplicities of life…