This is Hetaween
This is for everyone on the threads for the Hetalia Halloween Event (Hetaween), whether they be commenters or lurkers. There's been so many wonderful crack-ish theories and comments that I couldn't resist the idea of writing about it. I hope you all enjoy!
This is Hetaween
Kiku Honda had been working on a web-comic for several years. It was a fun, goofy little thing with an ever-growing and very devoted fan base. His own roommate was a fan of his work, though he kept it a secret from all but a few people. Kiku felt honored to be one of those trusted people. At the same time, he felt horrible for keeping it secret that he was the author of the web comic. Every time his roommate would enthusiastically talk about it, he felt like he was somehow betraying the young man. It was especially bad for the past two days with the special Halloween event he was doing for his fans.
He put down his pencil and flexed his fingers, coaxing regular blood flow back to the sore digits. It was day two of the event and he was starting to feel a little stressed by the challenge he placed upon himself, but he felt it would all be worth it in the end.
At the sound of persistent knocking, he looked to his partially closed bedroom door, wondering if he would have to get up and see who was calling on them. It would be a welcome break and a relief for his back, which was beginning to ache from being in one position for so long.
"Alfred-kun, are you going to answer the door?" He called, wondering if his roommate was even still around. For all he knew, the young man could've slipped out when he wasn't paying attention.
"I can't!" Alfred yelled back. "I'm lurking on the threads and holding a turkey! Plus I'm pretty sure I broke my F5 button on that last round. Oh wait, never mind! It's cool!"
Kiku blinked in confusion, wondering briefly why the American was holding turkey and when they had gotten any. The last time he checked the only things in the refrigerator was his tofu, Alfred's hamburger meat, a month-old expired carton of milk, a tiny block of cheese, and a plate of charred scones from their British friend that he didn't dare touch. (Alfred, on the other hand, would munch on them around midnight and complain about how bad they tasted.)
He sighed and stood up, his legs and back cracking in protest. He couldn't very well leave the persistent door knocker to stand out in the hall, especially considering that with the number of Alfred's crazy friends who visited them on a daily basis, if he didn't answer the door the poor thing might get kicked down (again).
To Kiku's immense relief, he found a grumpy British man standing in the hall with a duffel bag. "Ah, Arthur-san, I didn't know you were coming over for the night," he said, smiling at his friend. He stepped aside to let him inside. "It must have slipped Alfred-kun's mind."
Arthur sighed as he walked inside. "He wouldn't answer his phone, so I gave up trying to call him and just came over. I had to get away from my brothers. They are driving me absolutely insane."
Kiku thought of his own brothers and felt great sympathy for his friend. "Alfred-kun is in his room."
"Thanks."
Door answered, Kiku retreated to his room to get back to work. He had the most brilliant idea about how to add a little more UST between two of his main characters and needed to get it down before he lost his inspiration.
"What the bloody hell are you-? Go to the damn bathroom, you moron!"
"Okay, but you gotta promise me you'll yell if there's an update while I'm gone!"
"You just said the next one isn't for another twenty minutes!"
"But-!"
"Go!"
Kiku glanced out his bedroom door just in time to see Alfred dash by chanting about how he needed to pee. He ignored it. It was typical Alfred behaviour. He had more important things to worry about, like deciding what sort of costume to put his American character in. There were so many amazing options. What if he didn't choose the right one? What if his fans hated whatever he picked? Would they rise up in revolt if he chose something not relating to super heroes?
He shook his head to dispel such thoughts. He had tension to create.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Arthur glared at Alfred from where he was laying sprawled across the man's Captain America themed bed, reading Sherlock Holmes. It was the first time he had ever felt bored in the presence of the American, though the mix of anger and annoyance was something he was quite familiar with. The weird music coming from the computer speakers wasn't helping matters.
"What the hell are you listening to?" He asked, setting aside his book.
"The playlist for the dance party around the world," Alfred responded quickly, his eyes glued to the screen as he mashed the F5 button and eagerly looked to see what new posts had been made on the main thread.
Arthur raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What?"
Alfred sighed dramatically and finally looked away from the computer screen. "It's a play list of songs selected by a fan of Honda-sensei's work. All around the world we hit play at the same time and groove out to songs together!"
"But… why?"
"Because it's totally awesome and brings us closer together as fans!" Alfred explained. "Man, I wander what's going on in the CAPS thread… I should check!" He turned back around, scrolling up to find the link he was looking for so he could open it in a new tab. "Holy shit, page seventy-five? What the hell have they been doing in the half hour since I last checked? We were on page sixty-two!"
Arthur rolled his eyes. The whole thing sounded quite ridiculous to him. It wasn't that he disliked Honda's work. He was actually quite fond of the web-comic and also eagerly awaited updates, but that didn't mean he wanted to sit in front of a computer for hours on end reading thousands of comments and writing up his own. He would wait patiently until the end of the event before he got online to read the translated strips.
Alfred began to laugh at whatever it was he was reading. "Oh Steve. You always pop up at the weirdest times, you creepy motherfucker."
"Steve?" Arthur questioned, peering at the computer screen. "You can't mean the alien from that fan game you've been obsessing over."
"That's exactly what I mean," Alfred said, grinning at his friend. "I'm so glad you get that. Kiku never understands it when I try to explain it to him. I wish he would, then I'd be able to share all these funny stuff with him! Usually he loves memes…" He hummed and refreshed the page.
"So what is Steve doing now?"
"Hmm? Oh, well Honda-sensei keeps giving us hints of which character will appear next. I think that crazy Danish guy is next, so obviously that means it's actually going to be Steve dressed up as him."
Arthur was stunned into silence. Forget ridiculousness, he'd never heard something so stupid. "There is something wrong with you all."
Alfred laughed loudly. "Oh, chill, Artie! It's all in good fun! It's not like any of us really think Steve is going to make an appearance. It's just one of those running jokes. Like the older Italian dressing up as the grandma in Little Red Riding Hood!"
"…didn't Lovino do that this year? Only with a gun and sunglasses?" Arthur asked.
"Yup!" Alfred nodded enthusiastically. "And Antonio was the hunter and Bella was Little Red and Lars as the wolf? They made a totally awesome group!" He paused, staring blankly at the screen. He seemed to be on the verge of discovery.
Arthur knew Alfred had realized something when he gasped in surprise and stood up suddenly.
"Dude, this is weird! That's one of the costume groups in the event! That's weird, right?" He looked to Arthur for agreement and all the British man could do was nod. He was rewarded with one of Alfred's bright smiles. "Okay, so if the Russian ends up not going to the party because he burned his tongue with wasabi, then it officially goes from freaky coincidence to what-the-hell Honda-sensei is spying on my life, okay?"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Oh please. You know the only reason Ivan didn't show up was because he knew Natalia would stalk him the entire time. I would've stayed home too."
"Dude. Wasabi."
-.-.-.-.-.-
Five minutes to go until update time.
Kiku nervously began sketching the final panel, praying he would be finished in time. He knew he wouldn't have time to go back over the lines, but he could do that later.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Yao sighed as he watched Yong Soo continue to spam the F5 button repeatedly, just as he had for the past ten minutes. Next to him, his younger brother Xianliang was tapping away on his handheld game system (which he'd borrowed from his new Icelandic friend).
"Aiyaa, give it a rest already."
Yong Soo shook his head. "No way! I love this event! Plus, this gives us room to make HST jokes!"
Yao almost didn't ask, but curiosity got the best of him. "HST?"
"Honda Standard Time. He's so cool he gets his own time zone!"
Xianliang rolled his eyes.
Yao decided not to ask any more questions.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Dragomir Dalca happily hummed to himself as he adjusted his tiny hat, carefully pulling on the ribbons to make sure they hadn't gotten lost within his blond hair. Aside from his brief tangle-up with his Japanese classmate the day before when they somehow got their backpack straps linked together and couldn't get them undone, he'd had a marvelous week. He'd gotten to bother Elizaveta without doing much of anything. He witnessed one of Roderich's infamous embarrassing moments. He terrified Alfred so greatly at the Halloween party that he was sure the American would avoid him for the rest of the year.
Yes, life was good for Dragomir.
He stopped and took a deep breath of air, relishing in the chill of autumn that was slowly creeping up on them. A booming laugh drew him out of his pleasant little world and he opened his red eyes in time to see Mathias Kholer run quickly past as though the hound of Hell was nipping at his heels. He felt this thought was an accurate one when he saw that the Dane was running from Natalia Arlovskaya, who was chasing after him wielding a hanger and shouting about ripping off Mathias's dick.
Dragomir smirked, one fang peeking over his lips, and continued on his way. If Mathias didn't manage to win the heart of Nikolai Christensen, he was willing to bet that the Dane and the crazy Belorussian would marry and have psychopathic babies one day.
-.-.-.-.-.-
On the other end of the spectrum, Toris's week was not going well. Rather, it was going about as well as it always did. His best friend Feliks had rambled on about ponies and painting things pink whenever he talked to him. Natalia had (amazingly) not crushed his hand at the Halloween party when they (as well as Eduard, Raivis, and Feliks) had gone as a group, but she had ditched him to go find her brother before the end and so he missed his opportunity to ask her out on a date. Then Alfred had brought up horror stories about the parties they used to throw together.
At the moment he had lost Natalia somewhere on campus after running into a group of five many people had dubbed the Nordic Five because of where they were from. His phone rang and he answered it, praying it wasn't Feliks calling to update him on the exact shade of pink he'd selected to paint his room.
"It's, like, totally unfair that they wouldn't let me bring my horse to the party."
Toris sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Hello, Feliks."
"You agree, right? It was so unfair!"
Not surprised that they had circled around back to the pony problem, Toris found a nearby bench and took a seat. He was in for a long conversation.
-.-.-.-.-.-
End (of part 1?)
-.-.-.-.-.-
Dragomir is Romania, btw.
Xianliang = Hong Kong
Nikolai Christensen = Norway
How many references can you spot?
This is Hetaween
Kiku Honda had been working on a web-comic for several years. It was a fun, goofy little thing with an ever-growing and very devoted fan base. His own roommate was a fan of his work, though he kept it a secret from all but a few people. Kiku felt honored to be one of those trusted people. At the same time, he felt horrible for keeping it secret that he was the author of the web comic. Every time his roommate would enthusiastically talk about it, he felt like he was somehow betraying the young man. It was especially bad for the past two days with the special Halloween event he was doing for his fans.
He put down his pencil and flexed his fingers, coaxing regular blood flow back to the sore digits. It was day two of the event and he was starting to feel a little stressed by the challenge he placed upon himself, but he felt it would all be worth it in the end.
At the sound of persistent knocking, he looked to his partially closed bedroom door, wondering if he would have to get up and see who was calling on them. It would be a welcome break and a relief for his back, which was beginning to ache from being in one position for so long.
"Alfred-kun, are you going to answer the door?" He called, wondering if his roommate was even still around. For all he knew, the young man could've slipped out when he wasn't paying attention.
"I can't!" Alfred yelled back. "I'm lurking on the threads and holding a turkey! Plus I'm pretty sure I broke my F5 button on that last round. Oh wait, never mind! It's cool!"
Kiku blinked in confusion, wondering briefly why the American was holding turkey and when they had gotten any. The last time he checked the only things in the refrigerator was his tofu, Alfred's hamburger meat, a month-old expired carton of milk, a tiny block of cheese, and a plate of charred scones from their British friend that he didn't dare touch. (Alfred, on the other hand, would munch on them around midnight and complain about how bad they tasted.)
He sighed and stood up, his legs and back cracking in protest. He couldn't very well leave the persistent door knocker to stand out in the hall, especially considering that with the number of Alfred's crazy friends who visited them on a daily basis, if he didn't answer the door the poor thing might get kicked down (again).
To Kiku's immense relief, he found a grumpy British man standing in the hall with a duffel bag. "Ah, Arthur-san, I didn't know you were coming over for the night," he said, smiling at his friend. He stepped aside to let him inside. "It must have slipped Alfred-kun's mind."
Arthur sighed as he walked inside. "He wouldn't answer his phone, so I gave up trying to call him and just came over. I had to get away from my brothers. They are driving me absolutely insane."
Kiku thought of his own brothers and felt great sympathy for his friend. "Alfred-kun is in his room."
"Thanks."
Door answered, Kiku retreated to his room to get back to work. He had the most brilliant idea about how to add a little more UST between two of his main characters and needed to get it down before he lost his inspiration.
"What the bloody hell are you-? Go to the damn bathroom, you moron!"
"Okay, but you gotta promise me you'll yell if there's an update while I'm gone!"
"You just said the next one isn't for another twenty minutes!"
"But-!"
"Go!"
Kiku glanced out his bedroom door just in time to see Alfred dash by chanting about how he needed to pee. He ignored it. It was typical Alfred behaviour. He had more important things to worry about, like deciding what sort of costume to put his American character in. There were so many amazing options. What if he didn't choose the right one? What if his fans hated whatever he picked? Would they rise up in revolt if he chose something not relating to super heroes?
He shook his head to dispel such thoughts. He had tension to create.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Arthur glared at Alfred from where he was laying sprawled across the man's Captain America themed bed, reading Sherlock Holmes. It was the first time he had ever felt bored in the presence of the American, though the mix of anger and annoyance was something he was quite familiar with. The weird music coming from the computer speakers wasn't helping matters.
"What the hell are you listening to?" He asked, setting aside his book.
"The playlist for the dance party around the world," Alfred responded quickly, his eyes glued to the screen as he mashed the F5 button and eagerly looked to see what new posts had been made on the main thread.
Arthur raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What?"
Alfred sighed dramatically and finally looked away from the computer screen. "It's a play list of songs selected by a fan of Honda-sensei's work. All around the world we hit play at the same time and groove out to songs together!"
"But… why?"
"Because it's totally awesome and brings us closer together as fans!" Alfred explained. "Man, I wander what's going on in the CAPS thread… I should check!" He turned back around, scrolling up to find the link he was looking for so he could open it in a new tab. "Holy shit, page seventy-five? What the hell have they been doing in the half hour since I last checked? We were on page sixty-two!"
Arthur rolled his eyes. The whole thing sounded quite ridiculous to him. It wasn't that he disliked Honda's work. He was actually quite fond of the web-comic and also eagerly awaited updates, but that didn't mean he wanted to sit in front of a computer for hours on end reading thousands of comments and writing up his own. He would wait patiently until the end of the event before he got online to read the translated strips.
Alfred began to laugh at whatever it was he was reading. "Oh Steve. You always pop up at the weirdest times, you creepy motherfucker."
"Steve?" Arthur questioned, peering at the computer screen. "You can't mean the alien from that fan game you've been obsessing over."
"That's exactly what I mean," Alfred said, grinning at his friend. "I'm so glad you get that. Kiku never understands it when I try to explain it to him. I wish he would, then I'd be able to share all these funny stuff with him! Usually he loves memes…" He hummed and refreshed the page.
"So what is Steve doing now?"
"Hmm? Oh, well Honda-sensei keeps giving us hints of which character will appear next. I think that crazy Danish guy is next, so obviously that means it's actually going to be Steve dressed up as him."
Arthur was stunned into silence. Forget ridiculousness, he'd never heard something so stupid. "There is something wrong with you all."
Alfred laughed loudly. "Oh, chill, Artie! It's all in good fun! It's not like any of us really think Steve is going to make an appearance. It's just one of those running jokes. Like the older Italian dressing up as the grandma in Little Red Riding Hood!"
"…didn't Lovino do that this year? Only with a gun and sunglasses?" Arthur asked.
"Yup!" Alfred nodded enthusiastically. "And Antonio was the hunter and Bella was Little Red and Lars as the wolf? They made a totally awesome group!" He paused, staring blankly at the screen. He seemed to be on the verge of discovery.
Arthur knew Alfred had realized something when he gasped in surprise and stood up suddenly.
"Dude, this is weird! That's one of the costume groups in the event! That's weird, right?" He looked to Arthur for agreement and all the British man could do was nod. He was rewarded with one of Alfred's bright smiles. "Okay, so if the Russian ends up not going to the party because he burned his tongue with wasabi, then it officially goes from freaky coincidence to what-the-hell Honda-sensei is spying on my life, okay?"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Oh please. You know the only reason Ivan didn't show up was because he knew Natalia would stalk him the entire time. I would've stayed home too."
"Dude. Wasabi."
-.-.-.-.-.-
Five minutes to go until update time.
Kiku nervously began sketching the final panel, praying he would be finished in time. He knew he wouldn't have time to go back over the lines, but he could do that later.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Yao sighed as he watched Yong Soo continue to spam the F5 button repeatedly, just as he had for the past ten minutes. Next to him, his younger brother Xianliang was tapping away on his handheld game system (which he'd borrowed from his new Icelandic friend).
"Aiyaa, give it a rest already."
Yong Soo shook his head. "No way! I love this event! Plus, this gives us room to make HST jokes!"
Yao almost didn't ask, but curiosity got the best of him. "HST?"
"Honda Standard Time. He's so cool he gets his own time zone!"
Xianliang rolled his eyes.
Yao decided not to ask any more questions.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Dragomir Dalca happily hummed to himself as he adjusted his tiny hat, carefully pulling on the ribbons to make sure they hadn't gotten lost within his blond hair. Aside from his brief tangle-up with his Japanese classmate the day before when they somehow got their backpack straps linked together and couldn't get them undone, he'd had a marvelous week. He'd gotten to bother Elizaveta without doing much of anything. He witnessed one of Roderich's infamous embarrassing moments. He terrified Alfred so greatly at the Halloween party that he was sure the American would avoid him for the rest of the year.
Yes, life was good for Dragomir.
He stopped and took a deep breath of air, relishing in the chill of autumn that was slowly creeping up on them. A booming laugh drew him out of his pleasant little world and he opened his red eyes in time to see Mathias Kholer run quickly past as though the hound of Hell was nipping at his heels. He felt this thought was an accurate one when he saw that the Dane was running from Natalia Arlovskaya, who was chasing after him wielding a hanger and shouting about ripping off Mathias's dick.
Dragomir smirked, one fang peeking over his lips, and continued on his way. If Mathias didn't manage to win the heart of Nikolai Christensen, he was willing to bet that the Dane and the crazy Belorussian would marry and have psychopathic babies one day.
-.-.-.-.-.-
On the other end of the spectrum, Toris's week was not going well. Rather, it was going about as well as it always did. His best friend Feliks had rambled on about ponies and painting things pink whenever he talked to him. Natalia had (amazingly) not crushed his hand at the Halloween party when they (as well as Eduard, Raivis, and Feliks) had gone as a group, but she had ditched him to go find her brother before the end and so he missed his opportunity to ask her out on a date. Then Alfred had brought up horror stories about the parties they used to throw together.
At the moment he had lost Natalia somewhere on campus after running into a group of five many people had dubbed the Nordic Five because of where they were from. His phone rang and he answered it, praying it wasn't Feliks calling to update him on the exact shade of pink he'd selected to paint his room.
"It's, like, totally unfair that they wouldn't let me bring my horse to the party."
Toris sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Hello, Feliks."
"You agree, right? It was so unfair!"
Not surprised that they had circled around back to the pony problem, Toris found a nearby bench and took a seat. He was in for a long conversation.
-.-.-.-.-.-
End (of part 1?)
-.-.-.-.-.-
Dragomir is Romania, btw.
Xianliang = Hong Kong
Nikolai Christensen = Norway
How many references can you spot?