[Fanfiction] War Bride - Chapter 2
Title: War Bride (Chapter 2)
Author: thislilchicken
Rating: PG-13 (for references to violence during war chapters)
Genre: Drama/Romance
Warnings: Deals with controversial historical events; I can't stress enough that I am neither directly supporting nor denouncing various countries. Opinions and assertions are made from the characters' viewpoints.
Pairings: JapanxTaiwan
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.
Summary: Ever-feisty Taiwan has always been tossed back and forth between two powerful men, Japan and China. What is she to them? A little sister? A future bride in training? Are they in it for her or for themselves? From Japanese Occupation and onwards to 2010.
Author’s Note: Constructive feedback is greatly appreciated, even if it is just to say that you didn't like the characterization and style of writing, and why. I'm new to writing fiction, and I feel lost as to whether or not this is good or bad characterization and plot pacing. 多謝！
Previous- Chapter 1
Taiwan, or Wan wan, as she was often called, shifted uncomfortably on her knees. She was not accustomed to sitting the way Japanese women did. In fact, the very few times China had bothered to discipline her, he had told her to kneel so that he would not have to actually see her angry face nor exert real effort in curbing her wild spirit. It did not help that she had been "asked" to adopt Japanese dress. However, after the preview of what Kiku Honda considered discipline, she humored his attempts to civilize her. Wan wan wriggled her toes in the tight white socks she had put on. Contrary to what her old brothers might think, she had some semblance of manners in the presence of a host.
Kiku Honda who was seated opposite the table from her glanced up, ever so slightly, from the report he had been writing. She immediately stopped wiggling herself in any way. After a while, she could no longer resist. "哥哥!*We've both been sitting here for an hour, your knees must be sore and your hand cramped from writing. Please, let's take a stroll around your house," she suggested, her voice dripping with a completely unnatural, cloying sweetness. At least the little girl knew how to pack substance into her flattery.
He didn't look up at her this time. His expression remained somewhat agitated, and the scritch-scratch of his writing continued as it had before Wan wan's sudden outburst. Ever since he had started composing his report, she had not dared to admit that she did not understand the characters he had written. Even the ones written in China's language were complete gibberish to her.
The cicadas outside droned on, drowning out the sounds of all other wildlife. They were a hypnotic and strangely comforting backdrop to the summer afternoon. If she were back on her island, there might be a light, refreshing afternoon shower. It always rained in the summer, sometimes starting at the same time everyday for a week or two. Or perhaps there was a large thunderstorm, or even a monsoon to wash the world clean of irritating mosquitoes for two weeks. The dirt roads were terrible after a hurricane though, and the waterlogged watermelons would be ruined even if they miraculously avoided being washed away. Oh, to be dangling her bare legs into a clear, cold stream, carelessly devouring the potent and sweet watermelons with wild abandon. She would let the juice dribble down her chin and arms, and toss the rinds aside for the rainforest floor to take into itself.
Even Kiku's delicately manicured garden was nature enough to soothe her restlessness.
She perked up the instant she heard the sound of his **pen being placed on the table. "Yes, I fancy a stroll," Kiku murmured, rubbing his temples. He empathized with the girl's radiant expression as she clambered clumsily to her feet, and was well aware that she would have dashed out of the room had she not been still learning to walk while wearing a kimono. It simply would not do for his little sister to continue dressing like a peasant.
The pair walked along the long hallway that encircled his private garden, his meticulously tended personal Eden. Wan wan minced along as best as she could beside him, but she couldn't help but fall slightly behind. What was the point of his abolishing the practice of foot binding if they could barely walk in kimonos as well?
"What did you think of the tour?" she asked, almost anxiously. She had been good and tried to be gracious, really she did, when Kiku made his first official survey of his newest acquisition. He had made short local visits to areas of particular interest in the weeks before, but none had been as thorough and carried out with as much pomp and circumstance as the one he just finished. Strangely enough, it was only then that she finally noticed the rather unavoidably large presence of police that seemed to spring out from nowhere, though Wan wan put that out of her mind. She had only hoped that he appreciated her island.
"We need to build roads," he said firmly, answering her in a rather roundabout way. "How are you to become a part of a modernized nation without having proper roads? And the railroads- if they aren't rusting or badly built, then they don't even exist!" The dirt and mud had been absolutely disastrous for his white uniform. Now he knew the practical reason why she never wore shoes. No matter, he didn't have to bother her any further about that particular subject because a paved road steaming in the midsummer sun would take care of the issue of bare feet.
"What is the need for roads? They are fine as they are," Wan wan said. "What is the use for railroads anyways? They are too troublesome and take too long to build. In the time it takes for people wait for a railroad to be built, they could have made the same journey a hundred times over on foot!" She had gone out of her way to show him some hospitality and try to please him to make up for the rude welcome she had given, and all he could do was find fault with her!
"What of schools and universities? You are content to let them forever remain ignorant and as uncivilized as savages, content to have them crawl around like animals in this age of advancement?"
"What good has learning done for any of them? No farmer needs to go to school to be able to work in the paddy fields, and in fact it would be a waste of time to even do that when they could be working in that same time!"
"I suppose you think it is fine to not have a sewage system either? Do you even care that your people are living in their own wastes like so many hogs?" he continued, trying to overlook her saucy outburst.
"What's wrong with that? It's also convenient for fertilizing crops! If they are blind enough to step in it, then it's their own fault, not mine."
Kiku could only gape at her terrible attitude. He hadn't noticed when they had stopped walking, but there she was, standing behind him looking as defiant as ever. She looked straight at him, and with her narrowed eyes, she dared him to strike her again as he did when they first met.
She wasn't sure if she was relieved or, strangely enough, disappointed when he kept his hands to the side and only shut his eyes and sucked in his breath. His fingers did not so much as twitch.
She didn't know that Kiku had told himself it would be the first and last time he would lay his hand on her with the intent to hurt her. She couldn't have known that he had sincerely hoped for a smooth transition, that he was genuinely interested in taking her in and nurturing her. Of course she couldn't, no one else had done so before him. He was just another stranger who looked to her home and saw the glory of conquest and the benefit of her rich natural resources, at least to her. He was deeply unsettled by the thought that she might be right. He refused to let her have her way with that.
"You don't know how to read." He had to divert the subject to something completely different; there was no point to keep arguing. She knew what she sorely needed improvement on, she was just too lazy and had no incentive to do it herself. No child actually wants to go through the pain of maturity, not at the price of giving up their freedom to run wild and do as they pleased without ever being held accountable. It would be even worse for her; she had severely delayed her own growth and would now have to mature at a breakneck pace for the sake of the millions of lives she represented.
"What?" she asked, first in confusion at the abrupt change in subject and then in great offense that Kiku had discovered her illiteracy. He was far sharper than she gave him credit for. Was her mystified wonder at his writing so obvious?
"China never bothered to teach you how to read, so you never learned. That's alright, I will teach you how." Strangely, he refused to address China as Wang Yao. Or perhaps not so strange, given that he denied even the claim that they were siblings.
Wan wan stamped her foot in exasperation. She had had enough of him commandeering her life and her home, never mind the fact that he had complete dominion over her. "Why are you doing all of this for me? I don't want any of it! Why can't you just leave me alone, like China did? You gave my people the choice to become Japanese or leave, so where is my choice? I never agreed to becoming your little sister, I don't even know you," she shouted at him, unsure of why she even said those things. "I put on these clothes to make you happy, brushed my hair and made myself clean and neat. I try to act Japanese to give you face. I sit quietly and follow behind you like an obedient little dog, and if you were as strong as you think you are you'd beat me like I was one too!"
Feeling that she had severely tried his patience to the breaking point, Wan wan turned and tried to run off before he really did hit her. In her haste, she'd forgotten that she had been wearing a kimono. Before she could take more than a few fast, forceful strides, she tripped on the garment that flapped between her legs. With her hands instinctively thrown before her to break the fall, she had not been injured. The hardwood floor felt cool against her flushed cheek, and she had half a mind to just lie there. She had humiliated herself enough in front of him.
Kiku's hurried footsteps vibrated in the wood, and she squeezed her eyes shut as he knelt down over her. "Mei-mei," he said in a subdued tone. He knew she liked being addressed as such. It was one of the few Chinese phrases she understood. Her body was limp as he gently wrapped his hands on her shoulders and pulled her onto her knees. Her eyes were still shut, even when she fell forward onto his chest.
Wan wan had screamed at him, tried to reveal the ugliest part of her childish nature to him to drive him away, and yet he still came forward. It had worked on Wang Yao to drive him away, why was it not working now? His gentle response confused her. She wanted to hate him, she wanted to have every reason to hate him and be released from his guardianship.
He was shocked at her proximity to him, and even more so at how she clung to the front of his robes. Her whole small frame shook as the loud sob that had been caught in her throat and finally broke through. Long, brown hair filled his nose with the sweet, powerful scent of the slender-tubed yu lan hua*** she had picked to bring into her room. Her small fists half-heartedly pounded his chest, and her tears of anger and frustration became a mourning wail for the end to her long childhood. Kiku fought the conflicting instincts to both push her away and to hold the little girl closer, and ended up making feeble movements to soothe her by rubbing her back. Her sobs only grew louder at his pathetic but well intentioned attempts.
She was but a little girl, after all. A little girl that had been neglected and allowed to act up and run wild to try to get the attention she craved but would never admit to wanting. However, Kiku was not naive enough to think that her sassy personality was a facade that hid a shy, sensitive girl. Oh no, he had seen enough of the way she acted when she thought he was gone to know that she had a fiery disposition that no amount of civility would ever be able to extinguish. The best he could do was to teach her to center herself and concentrate her temper into actually accomplishing something. Naturally she would fight him, if only in her mind, and naturally Kiku would fight back for her own good. She could cry to herself as much as she liked about him taking her freedom away, yet Wan wan proved herself that she did not have the mindset to modernize by herself. China certainly would not help her, he had enough trouble running just the mainland, a problem he has had for thousands of years. It left him, the experienced one who had wowed the world with his transformation, to do the same with his model colony.
After that day, Wan wan quietly accepted her time to grow up.
I was playing around with a new style of narrating- reviews please? Is it too confusing to be bouncing between her and Kiku? Also, should I have put more exposition into the build up and the argument? I meant to imply that this is the breaking point from a long series of "suggestions" of what she needs to should do.
*Pronounced 'guh guh', means "big brother" in Mandarin. I chose to use the Chinese word (Taiwanese is a dialect, so there is no different written form) to try to show her discomfort with learning a new language- the Taiwanese were forced to learn Japanese.
**For the history buffs, please know that I actually did try to find out whether or not Japanese people used fountain pens in the 1890s. I mean, it's just a little bit cliche to have him still using a brush and ink to write official documents.
***A sketchy translation would be Chinese magnolias. Many people grow them in their yards for the pleasant scent, and taxi drivers in Taiwan used to always hang a whole clump of them on the rear view mirror.
-Factoid: With this chapter, I wanted to somehow portray the fact that Taiwan held multiple rebellions against Japan at the rate of about once per month shortly after Japan's army secured control of the island. They quieted down in 1902, and flared up again in 1907 and finally in 1930. The way they were put down may not have been exactly "gentle", but they certainly were compared to how China would later handle the issue. Hint hint.
Next: Chapter 3 - The Talk
1, 2, 3, awwww...
Author: thislilchicken
Rating: PG-13 (for references to violence during war chapters)
Genre: Drama/Romance
Warnings: Deals with controversial historical events; I can't stress enough that I am neither directly supporting nor denouncing various countries. Opinions and assertions are made from the characters' viewpoints.
Pairings: JapanxTaiwan
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.
Summary: Ever-feisty Taiwan has always been tossed back and forth between two powerful men, Japan and China. What is she to them? A little sister? A future bride in training? Are they in it for her or for themselves? From Japanese Occupation and onwards to 2010.
Author’s Note: Constructive feedback is greatly appreciated, even if it is just to say that you didn't like the characterization and style of writing, and why. I'm new to writing fiction, and I feel lost as to whether or not this is good or bad characterization and plot pacing. 多謝！
Previous- Chapter 1
Taiwan, or Wan wan, as she was often called, shifted uncomfortably on her knees. She was not accustomed to sitting the way Japanese women did. In fact, the very few times China had bothered to discipline her, he had told her to kneel so that he would not have to actually see her angry face nor exert real effort in curbing her wild spirit. It did not help that she had been "asked" to adopt Japanese dress. However, after the preview of what Kiku Honda considered discipline, she humored his attempts to civilize her. Wan wan wriggled her toes in the tight white socks she had put on. Contrary to what her old brothers might think, she had some semblance of manners in the presence of a host.
Kiku Honda who was seated opposite the table from her glanced up, ever so slightly, from the report he had been writing. She immediately stopped wiggling herself in any way. After a while, she could no longer resist. "哥哥!*We've both been sitting here for an hour, your knees must be sore and your hand cramped from writing. Please, let's take a stroll around your house," she suggested, her voice dripping with a completely unnatural, cloying sweetness. At least the little girl knew how to pack substance into her flattery.
He didn't look up at her this time. His expression remained somewhat agitated, and the scritch-scratch of his writing continued as it had before Wan wan's sudden outburst. Ever since he had started composing his report, she had not dared to admit that she did not understand the characters he had written. Even the ones written in China's language were complete gibberish to her.
The cicadas outside droned on, drowning out the sounds of all other wildlife. They were a hypnotic and strangely comforting backdrop to the summer afternoon. If she were back on her island, there might be a light, refreshing afternoon shower. It always rained in the summer, sometimes starting at the same time everyday for a week or two. Or perhaps there was a large thunderstorm, or even a monsoon to wash the world clean of irritating mosquitoes for two weeks. The dirt roads were terrible after a hurricane though, and the waterlogged watermelons would be ruined even if they miraculously avoided being washed away. Oh, to be dangling her bare legs into a clear, cold stream, carelessly devouring the potent and sweet watermelons with wild abandon. She would let the juice dribble down her chin and arms, and toss the rinds aside for the rainforest floor to take into itself.
Even Kiku's delicately manicured garden was nature enough to soothe her restlessness.
She perked up the instant she heard the sound of his **pen being placed on the table. "Yes, I fancy a stroll," Kiku murmured, rubbing his temples. He empathized with the girl's radiant expression as she clambered clumsily to her feet, and was well aware that she would have dashed out of the room had she not been still learning to walk while wearing a kimono. It simply would not do for his little sister to continue dressing like a peasant.
The pair walked along the long hallway that encircled his private garden, his meticulously tended personal Eden. Wan wan minced along as best as she could beside him, but she couldn't help but fall slightly behind. What was the point of his abolishing the practice of foot binding if they could barely walk in kimonos as well?
"What did you think of the tour?" she asked, almost anxiously. She had been good and tried to be gracious, really she did, when Kiku made his first official survey of his newest acquisition. He had made short local visits to areas of particular interest in the weeks before, but none had been as thorough and carried out with as much pomp and circumstance as the one he just finished. Strangely enough, it was only then that she finally noticed the rather unavoidably large presence of police that seemed to spring out from nowhere, though Wan wan put that out of her mind. She had only hoped that he appreciated her island.
"We need to build roads," he said firmly, answering her in a rather roundabout way. "How are you to become a part of a modernized nation without having proper roads? And the railroads- if they aren't rusting or badly built, then they don't even exist!" The dirt and mud had been absolutely disastrous for his white uniform. Now he knew the practical reason why she never wore shoes. No matter, he didn't have to bother her any further about that particular subject because a paved road steaming in the midsummer sun would take care of the issue of bare feet.
"What is the need for roads? They are fine as they are," Wan wan said. "What is the use for railroads anyways? They are too troublesome and take too long to build. In the time it takes for people wait for a railroad to be built, they could have made the same journey a hundred times over on foot!" She had gone out of her way to show him some hospitality and try to please him to make up for the rude welcome she had given, and all he could do was find fault with her!
"What of schools and universities? You are content to let them forever remain ignorant and as uncivilized as savages, content to have them crawl around like animals in this age of advancement?"
"What good has learning done for any of them? No farmer needs to go to school to be able to work in the paddy fields, and in fact it would be a waste of time to even do that when they could be working in that same time!"
"I suppose you think it is fine to not have a sewage system either? Do you even care that your people are living in their own wastes like so many hogs?" he continued, trying to overlook her saucy outburst.
"What's wrong with that? It's also convenient for fertilizing crops! If they are blind enough to step in it, then it's their own fault, not mine."
Kiku could only gape at her terrible attitude. He hadn't noticed when they had stopped walking, but there she was, standing behind him looking as defiant as ever. She looked straight at him, and with her narrowed eyes, she dared him to strike her again as he did when they first met.
She wasn't sure if she was relieved or, strangely enough, disappointed when he kept his hands to the side and only shut his eyes and sucked in his breath. His fingers did not so much as twitch.
She didn't know that Kiku had told himself it would be the first and last time he would lay his hand on her with the intent to hurt her. She couldn't have known that he had sincerely hoped for a smooth transition, that he was genuinely interested in taking her in and nurturing her. Of course she couldn't, no one else had done so before him. He was just another stranger who looked to her home and saw the glory of conquest and the benefit of her rich natural resources, at least to her. He was deeply unsettled by the thought that she might be right. He refused to let her have her way with that.
"You don't know how to read." He had to divert the subject to something completely different; there was no point to keep arguing. She knew what she sorely needed improvement on, she was just too lazy and had no incentive to do it herself. No child actually wants to go through the pain of maturity, not at the price of giving up their freedom to run wild and do as they pleased without ever being held accountable. It would be even worse for her; she had severely delayed her own growth and would now have to mature at a breakneck pace for the sake of the millions of lives she represented.
"What?" she asked, first in confusion at the abrupt change in subject and then in great offense that Kiku had discovered her illiteracy. He was far sharper than she gave him credit for. Was her mystified wonder at his writing so obvious?
"China never bothered to teach you how to read, so you never learned. That's alright, I will teach you how." Strangely, he refused to address China as Wang Yao. Or perhaps not so strange, given that he denied even the claim that they were siblings.
Wan wan stamped her foot in exasperation. She had had enough of him commandeering her life and her home, never mind the fact that he had complete dominion over her. "Why are you doing all of this for me? I don't want any of it! Why can't you just leave me alone, like China did? You gave my people the choice to become Japanese or leave, so where is my choice? I never agreed to becoming your little sister, I don't even know you," she shouted at him, unsure of why she even said those things. "I put on these clothes to make you happy, brushed my hair and made myself clean and neat. I try to act Japanese to give you face. I sit quietly and follow behind you like an obedient little dog, and if you were as strong as you think you are you'd beat me like I was one too!"
Feeling that she had severely tried his patience to the breaking point, Wan wan turned and tried to run off before he really did hit her. In her haste, she'd forgotten that she had been wearing a kimono. Before she could take more than a few fast, forceful strides, she tripped on the garment that flapped between her legs. With her hands instinctively thrown before her to break the fall, she had not been injured. The hardwood floor felt cool against her flushed cheek, and she had half a mind to just lie there. She had humiliated herself enough in front of him.
Kiku's hurried footsteps vibrated in the wood, and she squeezed her eyes shut as he knelt down over her. "Mei-mei," he said in a subdued tone. He knew she liked being addressed as such. It was one of the few Chinese phrases she understood. Her body was limp as he gently wrapped his hands on her shoulders and pulled her onto her knees. Her eyes were still shut, even when she fell forward onto his chest.
Wan wan had screamed at him, tried to reveal the ugliest part of her childish nature to him to drive him away, and yet he still came forward. It had worked on Wang Yao to drive him away, why was it not working now? His gentle response confused her. She wanted to hate him, she wanted to have every reason to hate him and be released from his guardianship.
He was shocked at her proximity to him, and even more so at how she clung to the front of his robes. Her whole small frame shook as the loud sob that had been caught in her throat and finally broke through. Long, brown hair filled his nose with the sweet, powerful scent of the slender-tubed yu lan hua*** she had picked to bring into her room. Her small fists half-heartedly pounded his chest, and her tears of anger and frustration became a mourning wail for the end to her long childhood. Kiku fought the conflicting instincts to both push her away and to hold the little girl closer, and ended up making feeble movements to soothe her by rubbing her back. Her sobs only grew louder at his pathetic but well intentioned attempts.
She was but a little girl, after all. A little girl that had been neglected and allowed to act up and run wild to try to get the attention she craved but would never admit to wanting. However, Kiku was not naive enough to think that her sassy personality was a facade that hid a shy, sensitive girl. Oh no, he had seen enough of the way she acted when she thought he was gone to know that she had a fiery disposition that no amount of civility would ever be able to extinguish. The best he could do was to teach her to center herself and concentrate her temper into actually accomplishing something. Naturally she would fight him, if only in her mind, and naturally Kiku would fight back for her own good. She could cry to herself as much as she liked about him taking her freedom away, yet Wan wan proved herself that she did not have the mindset to modernize by herself. China certainly would not help her, he had enough trouble running just the mainland, a problem he has had for thousands of years. It left him, the experienced one who had wowed the world with his transformation, to do the same with his model colony.
After that day, Wan wan quietly accepted her time to grow up.
I was playing around with a new style of narrating- reviews please? Is it too confusing to be bouncing between her and Kiku? Also, should I have put more exposition into the build up and the argument? I meant to imply that this is the breaking point from a long series of "suggestions" of what she needs to should do.
*Pronounced 'guh guh', means "big brother" in Mandarin. I chose to use the Chinese word (Taiwanese is a dialect, so there is no different written form) to try to show her discomfort with learning a new language- the Taiwanese were forced to learn Japanese.
**For the history buffs, please know that I actually did try to find out whether or not Japanese people used fountain pens in the 1890s. I mean, it's just a little bit cliche to have him still using a brush and ink to write official documents.
***A sketchy translation would be Chinese magnolias. Many people grow them in their yards for the pleasant scent, and taxi drivers in Taiwan used to always hang a whole clump of them on the rear view mirror.
-Factoid: With this chapter, I wanted to somehow portray the fact that Taiwan held multiple rebellions against Japan at the rate of about once per month shortly after Japan's army secured control of the island. They quieted down in 1902, and flared up again in 1907 and finally in 1930. The way they were put down may not have been exactly "gentle", but they certainly were compared to how China would later handle the issue. Hint hint.
Next: Chapter 3 - The Talk
1, 2, 3, awwww...