Many thanks to Ziz-Voice of the storm for favoriting and putting this story on alert. Thank you so much! I don't own. Enjoy. R & R people.

Chapter 5: Gladioli

Well, thought China, this is awkward. She and Vadim stared at each other. This is really awkward.

She shifted uncomfortably, "so." She said, breaking the silence, "do you… like… tea?"

Vadim just stared at her wordlessly.

Oh this is going to be a long day. Yao thought.

What had happened was this, Ivan and Vadim had come over, just as they had promised they would. Then while the other three chatted, or rather, Yue fell asleep in a terrified Vadim's lap and Ivan smiled creepily at the two of them, Yao called England.

The other woman had apologized profusely but she hadn't been able to make much headway, apparently Olivia wasn't much help either. Arthurine had been kept a little busy however, by having not only Olivia but Jean and Francis in her house.

When she heard Yao's complaints about Yue she suggested China do the same thing she had, but China was horrified at the idea of having not only her other, awful, self at her house but both Russia's too. When she told England that Arthurine suggested that both China's go stay at Russia's house then so he could be the one to deal with Yue.

Yao thought that was an even worse idea. She'd spent hundreds of years trying to get out of living at Russia's house; she certainly wasn't going there when there were two of them, even if there were two of her as well.

However when Arthurine heard Yao comment that Vadim was 'not that bad' she made a suggestion that Yao had, at the time, not thought was too dumb. She'd suggested a swap.

Give Yue to Ivan, who could almost certainly handle her, and take care of Vadim herself.

Yao had run the idea by the other three and when they all consented, she agreed. Yue didn't want to stay with Yao any more because apparently her good self was 'no fun.'

Ivan didn't really care either way but wanted to do what would make Yao happy, secretly he was also pretty happy to have a companion, any companion, up in that huge, empty house of his.

Vadim just wanted to get away from Yue and Ivan and apparently thought there was no way Yao could be any worse (not that he said so in so many words).

So with the deal made Ivan and Vadim went to get some things for Vadim and Yue and Yao packed the other China's stuff. She didn't have much, just a toothbrush, hairbrush and some clothes Yao had given her so they finished long before the guys got back.

While they waited the sat quietly in the living room. Or at least Yao did, Yue lounged on the floor and wasn't nearly as quiet. "Gotta say, it's been fun Yao but I'll be glad to get out of here," she yawned, "I'm so bored."

"Thanks," Yao said wryly, "I'm sorry my old-lady lifestyle is too slow for you."

Yue shrugged, "even if it wasn't, I'd still be glad to go with your Russia, I'm curious to see which one of us is right about the whole love-triangle thing."

Yao growled under her breath, "I'm telling you, there is no love triangle. Ivan. Does. Not. Like. Me. That. Way!"

"If you say so," Yue said evilly, not looking at all convinced.

"I hate to point this out but love triangles are actually very uncommon in real life, this isn't a Japanese anime, aru!" Yao said. The two China's lapsed into silence until the two Russia's came back.

Yue hoisted her pack onto her shoulder and turned to give Yao a wave as she and Ivan walked off. "Bye Vadim! Bye Yao! Take good care of him for me!" She yelled in an uncharacteristically peppy voice, "oh, and Yao, good luck with your Japan!" She called as an afterthought, smirking.

Ivan stopped dead.

After a second or two he turned back to Yao, a strangely solemn, almost hurt, expression on his face. "What's this about Japan?" He asked softly, though his voice had no problem carrying across the still snow.

Yao squirmed inwardly, why did she feel guilty all of a sudden? She didn't like Ivan that way and he didn't like her that way, and even if he did, she had the right to date and fall in love with whomever she pleased.

"Nothing Ivan. Yue Chung was merely referring to a conversation we had the other day." Yao said, she glared daggers at Yue, daring her other self to contradict her.

"I'll tell you everything later," Yue promised Ivan quietly, if Yao heard them she gave no sign, but Yue didn't think she had.

She lifted a hand in another wave, "later." Then she turned and walked to the car without a backwards glance, Ivan hurrying to catch up.

"So you're in love with your Japan?" Vadim questioned.

Yao looked at him, taken aback, she'd asked if he liked tea and this is what she got?

"Umm, er, of course I love him! I mean, I raised him after all. But I'm not in love with him if that's what you mean. Aiya! That would be silly." Yao said lamely, laughing hysterically. That was a bad lie, even for her,

Vadim didn't look even remotely convinced.

"What's his name?" Vadim asked softly.

Yao sighed, "Kiku," she said, giving up the game completely, "his name is Kiku." How was it that Yue and Vadim, who had never even met Kiku, could see Yao's biggest personal secret but Ivan, who had known Yao for so long, couldn't? Maybe that was it, Vadim and Yue didn't know her so they were able to see everything from a third-person perspective.

Vadim smiled gently at her, "he's a really lucky guy. I hope he knows that."

Yao smiled, Vadim was really nice, she laughed, "no. No way. I could never tell him. I'm practically his older sister, aru. He would be disgusted in me and I," she swallowed at the thought, "I would never be able to face him again."

Vadim's ice-blue eyes looked confused, "why would he do that? If I were him, I'd be thrilled you had a crush on me."

"No. If you were him, you'd think I was a paedophilic freak," Yao said bluntly, she'd had very many years to come to term with the facts. "Sweet of you to say that though," she added as an afterthought.

"I wouldn't think that!" Vadim argued passionately, "you're so nice and considerate, and you don't take heroin, and you're smart and you're so pretty, plus, I bet you don't show your Japan you like him by showing up at his house in the middle of the night and harassing his people!"

"Is that what Yue Chung does to you?" Yao asked absently, remembering that her other self had told Yao that she loved Vadim and knowing full-well that Yue had a habit of irritating servants if left unsupervised.

"No, that's what Kuro, our Japan, does to her," Vadim said softly, "he doesn't scare her as much as she scares me but that's just because she's braver than me, he's much more persistent. And frequent."

Yao scowled, not sure whose side she wanted to take. On one hand she sympathised with Yue, having a country you knew well turn psycho stalker on you could really make things stressful. On the other she didn't blame poor Kuro for being messed up if Yue had raised him like Yao had raised Kiku.

"I hope she doesn't treat him the way she treats you," she said sharply.

Yao disapproved of the way Yue treated Vadim, always following him everywhere and invading his personal space, getting up in his face when he was clearly uncomfortable but if she treated her foster brother who was in love, or at least infatuated with her, like that she would lose all respect for her other self.

Vadim shook his head, "she doesn't really like him but she treats him okay. She's not mean to him at least."

Yao breathed a sigh of relief, maybe Vadim had been right and Yue was actually a tolerable person deep down. Then again, maybe not.

The moment they set foot inside his large house Russia turned to Yue Chung, "now. You tell me what Yao was talking about, da?" he said with a smile that made Yue's heart rate accelerate with adrenaline and her fight-or-flight kick in, causing her body to tense. She loved every second of it.

She smiled, "well, I probably shouldn't, Yao might get mad."

Russia grabbed her arm, not enough to hurt, but enough to make sure she didn't go anywhere, not that Yue had made the slightest attempt to escape.

"I don't think you understand." He said, still smiling pleasantly, "Japan has hurt China in the past, he betrayed her once and she never got over it. If he hurt her again I would get very…wound up."

Yue smiled again, now his grip on her arm was starting to hurt, never before had Yue been in the presence of another country who was so easily able to hurt someone, even without trying. She would be lying if she didn't envy Russia's, this Russia's, strength, even just a little bit. She loved Vadim deeply but she couldn't deny there was something in her, some instinct, whether as a country or as a human being Yue wasn't sure, that was attracted to Ivan's strength.

She guessed it was a human something, not a nation something, Vadim and Yao were nations also and they seemed rather unnerved by Ivan's strength. Yue smiled inwardly, if Ivan thought he could intimidate her with his strength he had another thing coming.

"Really?" She drawled, "Japan is bad for her? Do go on Ivan, I'd be curious to see what Yao would say about that."

He dragged her into the living room, lifting her clean off of her feet by her arm and set her in front of a thick padded armchair, none too gently he pressed down on the top of Yue's shoulders, forcing her to sit. Then he shoved a glass of wine into one of Yue's hands and knelt to make the fire in the old-fashioned fire place, much like the one England had, though Yue wasn't to know this.

Ivan's face never lost its smile, "I believe in being honest in my intentions. I cannot say the same for Japan. I believe you of all people can appreciate that?"

Yue suddenly had a vivid flashback of her first Sino-Japanese war, of sitting in the foetal position, arms over her head under her western-style table as Kuro ripped her house and its surroundings apart. That had to be the only time in history, no matter what had happened to her, which Yue could remember being genuinely terrified of another nation.

That just made Yue more stubborn, her Japan was bad so Yao's wasn't, Ivan wasn't helping his own case. She had gone from teasing him by withholding information to flat-out not wanting to give it to him.

"Nope!" She popped her lips on the 'p.' "I'd rather watch you squirm." She slouched sideways in her chair, draping her legs over one of the arms.

Ivan sighed.

Yue glanced down at the wine he had given her, in the dim light the red liquid looked like blood.

I named this chapter Gladioli because it means 'Give me a break.' Hope you enjoyed. Didn't mean to cause any racial offense if I did so.