Again, like, wtf? Is my story just sucking ass just as much as I thought or is nobody reading this like at all? Are you hiding from me? Thank you RussianChinaDoll for your review. You were like the only one. I feel like the spawn of Canada and Prussia sometimes. Like, I am fucking AWESOME but fucking NO ONE notices me. Like, seriously. ANYONE can leave a review. Sorry for being on hiatus for so long. My grandmother is visiting and I'm a roady (is that even how you spell it?) for my town's high school band, which my sister attends. So, I've been like super busy. Ugh, I feel like I should just rewrite this story. I keep pushing things too quickly. Give me your feedback on this. Or not. Whatever the fuck you wanna do. On with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia now shut the fuck up and read this terrible story

"Here it is." Yao said.

Right in front of me was a crystal clear creek of water. Water that flowed so smoothly over rock, you could just faintly hear the trickle of water. Frogs croaked and crickets chirped, practically making music all around us. The cattails that jutted out from the bank swayed in the wind, and leaves from surrounding trees fluttered into the water. My artistic pulse immediately went wild, and I itched to draw the scene around me.

Yao broke the silence. "So... What do you think?"

I glanced over at him, having completely forgotten of his presence.

"It's just... Wow..." I whispered, still mesmerized by everything around me.

I heard Yao giggle and I looked at him again. He just smiled at me. "This is where my mom used to take me. She and I found this place when we were exploring the around us. Did I ever tell you that my mom used to paint too?"

I tilted my head to one side. "No, you didn't."

He smiled and grabbed my wrist. "C'mon, let's sit over here." He lead me to a cluster of rocks. There, there was a certain rock that seemed suitable for two people to sit on, and that's where Yao took me to sit on. Once we were situated, Yao crossed his legs and began talking again.

"My mom used to paint, yes. I never acquired the skill, mostly because as soon as I was interested, she got sick." I saw his eyes glaze over. "I kind of feel bad for not speaking up sooner." He said regretfully.

I shook my head. "I'm sure she didn't mind, since you were happy anyways." The corner of his mouth turned up a bit and he nodded. "I suppose you're right. Anyway, she liked to paint a lot. The paintings she created were mostly based off of traditional paintings of the Chinese culture. She liked to stick to tradition. I admired that about her." He smiled, probably uncovering happy memories of his mother. He shook his head and continued. "She put her heart and soul into her paintings, and they would always turn out absolutely breath taking. I wish I could draw like her. Kiku can draw, but he's more of a modernized drawer. Like, digital, you know?"

I nodded in understanding. I think he's into some Japanese thing... Anime, right? Yao continued. "She taught him, since he showed interest immediately." The corners of his mouth turned down. "Though I'm not sure his drawings are as innocent as they started out as." I smiled. I figured he was like that. The shy person with the strangest obsessions. But Yao was the older brother. Of course he was concerned. Yao sighed. "Let's talk about something else." I nodded and wiped my smile from my face, trying to hide my thoughts. "I could teach you how to draw, Yao." I said out of the blue.

Wait, where the fuck did that come from? Oh well.

Yao's eyes lit up and he looked at me hopefully. "Really? You'd do that?"

I nodded. "Of course. I don't know how good of a teacher I'd be though."

Yao shrugged. "You'll get better. I can't wait to start. When are you free?"

I scratched the back of my neck. "Uh, I don't know? Why don't you pick? I'm bad at stuff like this."

Yao ran his fingers through his hair as he thought of some sort of plan. Suddenly, his eyes brightened and he looked at me. "How about you meet me at the coffee shop on Sunday at noon? You can bring the art supplies and we can eat there too. Does that sound good?"

I nodded my head. It was summer. I probably wouldn't have a life except for when I'm around Yao.

He smiled brightly and said, "Then it's a date." My eyes widened and Yao laughed and quickly explained, "Not literally, chill." I laughed nervously and nodded.

Yao gazed out in front of him, staring at the creek. I followed his gaze to a rock that seemed to have inscriptions on it.

I glanced at Yao. "Hey, do you know what's on those rocks?" I asked curiously. He didn't say anything, he just stood up and followed a path of rocks that were just barely sticking out of the water. The rocks looked rather slick, due to the water that had been spraying lightly on it. I stood up as well and started to follow Yao. I looked at the small man, expecting to see him struggle, only to see him jump gracefully from rock to rock. His movements were swift, fluid, yet grounded, all at the same time. It was rather mesmerizing. The whole scene was, actually. The creek, the sounds of the creatures around us, and the soft padding of Yao's feet.

I shook my head and focused on getting across the creek's rocks without falling into the clear water. I slowly put one foot on a rock, testing it. It didn't make my foot slip from under me, so I put more weight onto it until all of my body weight was on it. Surprisingly, it wasn't as slippery as it looked. It was slippery, yes, but not too bad if you were careful. This place was creepy... I stepped onto another rock, and it supported my weight as well.

I'd made it over to the last rock when I actually slipped. I let out a gasp, but I felt a small hand wrap around my wrist and pull me before I could fall into the cold water below me. I looked up to see Yao, worry laced in his face. "You okay?" He asked me. I swallowed and nodded, not really able to talk yet. He let out a breath of relief and pointed at the rock that we'd been after. "This is my memories of previous years."

He sat on another rock nearby and motioned for me to sit next to him. It was starting to get pretty dark, so I had to squint to see what was carved into the rock. Names, names everywhere. It was Yao's and what I assumed was his mother's. They were not only in English, but in Chinese as well. It looked like some were half English and half Chinese. Some of them were just English or just Chinese. But they all had one thing in common. They all meant the same things. I looked at him. "Is that your mother's name, Yao?" He smiled a bit, still looking at the carvings and nodded.

"We did this every year. And actually," He pulled out a nail thing and a small hammer from his backpack, which we were still lugging around, despite that school was over, and handed it to me. "I was gonna do it with you this year." My eyes widened and I looked between the tools and Yao.

"A-are you sure, Yao? I mean, this has been your tradition..." He smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, since you were the only one that stuck around, I figured you were special. I'll show you how to do it, here." He grabbed the nail and put it against the rock, and held the hammer right above it. He said, "You get one chance at it, so you have to be very..." He tapped the nail into the rock with the hammer, though enough to chip a bit off. "Careful." I nodded and watched closely as he began to chip more and more, forming a Chinese symbol that was the same as the others already engraved in the rock. "There." He said as soon as he was done. I looked at it. It was a lot neater than the previous ones, since he's grown since then.

"Okay, so you have to hit it softly, but just enough to chip it off. And don't hold the hammer too high above, you might hit it too hard." I nodded and complied to his directions. Yao watched as I began to carve a line down, then back up to the right, and down again. It would be considered a backwards "N" for English speakers. Then I carved another line straight down, but put two half ovals to the right, into a "small capital B", then a circle with a line to the right. Finally, I carved two lines, straight down, and a line horizontally, connecting them both. In the end it looked like NBaH, almost.

Yao tilted his head. "What does than mean?" I smiled.

"It's 'Ivan' in Russian lettering. I hope you don't mind." Yao shook his head.

"No, no of course not. I love it."

I smiled and scratched the back of my neck sheepishly.

"Well now that were done with that." Yao said, laid back on the rock, looking at the now starry sky. I leaned back as well, right next to him. The city was a ways away from where we were, so you could see the night's sky quite easily. Yao pointed out constellations to me, gave their name, backgrounds, and even some's solar system, since stars were suns anyway. I closed my eyes and listened to Yao's smooth voice. I didn't tune out the words the honey-smooth voice was forming, since I was quite interested in space, but I focused on how calming his voice was. I looked over at Yao, his eyes full of admiration and curiosity. He caught me looking at him and stopped talking.

"Yes?" He said.

I couldn't think of anything to say so I just leaned in closer... and closer...

"Hey! What are you kids doing down there?"
A voice made Yao and myself jump and look at the source. Up at the bank was a police officer, pointing a bright flashlight at us. I jumped up and squinted to see past the light. "I'm sorry sir we-"

"Yao? Oh it's you! I didn't recognize you with... who is this?" The police officer interrupted my frantic apologies.

Yao chuckled from behind me. "Hey Andrew. This is Ivan. He's a friend from school." He gestured towards me.

The officer -Andrew?- raised an eyebrow. "Ivan, hmm? Well, Ivan, I'll tell you this once. If you hurt Yao, I swear to God-"

"Oh, shut up 'Drew I can handle myself just fine."

Andrew frowned but nodded. "Where's your mother? I thought you only came here with her?"

Yao's smile instantly faded and was replaced with a grim face. "She died just recently. The cancer got her."

Andrew lowered his head. "I'm very sorry Yao. You'll be in my prayers."

Yao nodded. "Thank you."

I shifted awkwardly. "Umm..."

Yao finished the conversation between the overprotective friend. "Well I'll see you later, Andrew. Thanks for 'stopping by'" He put airquotes over it.

Andrew chuckled and nodded. "See ya. Be safe." He winked and headed back up the hill.

Yao huffed, visibly annoyed by his last comment. "Stupid asshole..." He muttered under his breath.

I smiled and looked at him. "You get offended so easily, Yao. And I thought you didn't like Christians. He said he'll keep you in his prayers. That means he's Christian, right?"

Yao smiled. "Yeah, he's Christian. But he's an exception. He doesn't hate LGBTs. He's Episcopalian. They're a bit more laid back, and they accept people more than the average Christian. They have an entire community, actually. PFLAG. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians And Gays. His family is pretty cool." I stared in awe. There was actually a community of gays? I have to look that up.

Yao giggled at my amazement. "You should do some research. You'd be surprised." I nodded, still a bit dazed.

"C'mon," Yao said, and I looked in his direction. "Let's go. I'm getting kinda cold."

I nodded and watched him again as he gracefully jumped from rock to rock, not slipping up at all. Eventually, I followed and took my steps very carefully. Right foot, then left next to it. Right, then left. When I finally got to the last rock, a small hand was outstretched towards me. I looked up carefully and saw that it was attached to the small Chinese man. I smiled and took the hand.

"Thanks." I muttered.

Yao hummed a welcome and started back up the slim path towards the car. I followed him and heeded the places Yao warned me about before. Once we got up to the car, I walked to the driver's side and opened the door, a goofy grin on my face.

Yao giggled. "Such a gentleman." He said, and slid into the car.

I smiled and walked around the front of the car and got into the passenger's seat. I pulled the seatbelt over my chest and clicked it into the small button next to me. I laid my head back on the headrest as Yao drove out of the dirt road and onto the road, over the bridge. I found myself falling asleep, and eventually did.

HOLY SHIT THAT TOOK FUCKING FOREVER TO WRITE. I'm sorry school started two days ago and I really haven't had a chance to use the computer. But OMG I GOT TO SEE MY GIRLFRIEND. (We aren't supposed to be dating bc we got in trouble so I couldn't text her or see her all fucking summer so I'm like so fucking happy. And I didn't get in trouble bc I was dating a girl, it was because of different personal reasons) I'm not gonna brag, but I am, bc she's so beautiful and I love her and I need to shut my fucking face and get on w this shit sorry. PFLAG: IT'S A REAL THING GO LOOK IT UP, YOU'RE NOT ALONE BABIES. I'm cereal that thing is amazing google it. Also, I am an Episcopalian. So yeah. That's what it's like check it out breh. And sorry if the last part seemed rushed: it was. Uhhhh if anyone has questions, PM me. I think that's it. Thanks so much for reading and happiness~!

~mmbzb

Oh one more important thing: If there is any insecure LGBT(Q) person (or any person!) you can always throw me a message kittens. I like to make people feel better, and I like talking to people! You guys are all beautiful, thanks.