Rivals and Regrets //Countryhumans AU [ON HOLD]

Four

10:47 February 15, 1942 - Tokyo, Japan

After breakfast, Japan went elsewhere in the house, and Australia helped Japanese Empire clean up. For some reason, as soon as Japan had left the room, Australia had begun feeling a weird and unexplainable form of... worry? Fear? Dread? He wasn't sure.

"Never talk to Akari about your personal life again," Japanese Empire said sternly.

"Oh?" Australia replied. "I mean, I wasn't going to say anything more after the teeth thing..."

"Really? Because it seemed like you would've kept talking if I hadn't of told you to stop."

Australia rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I won't talk to her about it again."

"Good. If you feel so compelled to talk about those sorts of topics, I would much prefer it if you talk to me. I am far more qualified in that area."

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind-"

"I'm being serious, Ned, I want you to only come to me if you need to talk about that. I am the only one here who understands what you went through, so I am the only one who knows how to comfort you."

"Yea... I get it... but the only reason you understand is because I felt comfortable telling you about my nightmares."

"And why did you feel comfortable telling me about them?"

"Okay. Okay! You don't need to beat the dead horse. I'll come to you if I want to talk about it."

There was silence for a few moments before Japanese Empire responded.

"Sorry if I came off as condescending, but I'd prefer to care for your troubles knowing I know what to do instead of worrying about what you've said to my daughter."

Australia sighed. "It's okay... I think I said too much, I just don't really know when to stop talking."

"I'm sure Noah loves it when you do that."

"Dickhead can't decide what he wants, one decade he's mad at me for not knowing English, next decade he's telling me to shut the fuck up," Australia chuckled a little bit, unsure at whether it was because he thought it was funny or to hide the pain. "Surprised he didn't beat my arse for being so annoying."

"He didn't beat you? I thought he had?"

"Oh, nah, he was probably the only one who didn't except Rhian."

"Hm... I thought I remembered him saying something about it."

Australia shook his head. "Not that I remember. Maybe he was talking about how he watched Kristopher beat me up because that happened a few times. I... don't really like to think about much of it."

"Anyway..." suddenly Japanese Empire changed the topic, "enough of the distant past, since you're clearly not up to it right now, I want to hear about more recent things. What have you been up to since we stopped talking?"

"Uh... since you've put me on the spot I can't really think of much/ I guess I became a vegetarian if that counts as something interesting?"

"You became a vegetarian and you let me feed you fish for breakfast?"

"Well, by vegetarian I mean I'm committed to it on weekdays, on weekends I allow myself to eat meat, and since it's Sunday, it was alright."

"Dubious morals but alright."

"I'm part-snake, I have to eat meat sometimes. I can't just live off the protein from eggs, even though they are very delicious. And I don't know what you mean by 'dubious', you eat meat, you're a fox."