Manpower [Russia x Reader Fluff]

The Chapter Where Russia Comes In

China grew to be an adult before I did. He became the country he always wanted to be: big, successful, and powerful. He was so proud of himself, but he never forgot about me. I suppose I was grateful for that. We had built his nation together. He had the culture, smarts, and vision, and I had the ability to make technology. We worked together, and I was proud of him, but then, his boss decided to build the Great Wall.

During that large-scale building project, I witnessed how much pain his people were in: overworked and underpayed. I wasn't standing for any of it. One day, I took China to the meadow where he had given me my second name (the first was Rusussun) and told him what was on my mind.

We were sitting on a hill overlooking the meadows. China was sitting next to me, his legs outstretched in front of him, leaning back on his sleeve-covered hands. I sat criss-cross-applesauce beside him, my hands clasped together. We sat close together, for we were the best of friends (we still are), and though China was too busy to play with me, he still cared about me and took good care of me. In return, I cared for him.

"China, your people, they're working too much. Please, let me make the building project easier for them. I hate seeing them in pain," I told him.

"What will you do? Make construction machines?" China asked. He looked out over the meadow, his voice sounding distant, yet on task. I turned my head to face him, and I saw the look in his eyes. He cared, but not enough.

"Well, why don't we install inclined planes like the Egyptians use? It worked or them, so it may work for you," I explained. "The stones and bricks will be brought up to the work sites more quickly and the wall will be completed faster."

China pursed his lips in thought as he considered his options and thought about what I had offered. After a long moment, he said, "Okay! I will go and talk to my boss about it!" China sprang to his feet, then bent over and fitted his hands beneath my armipts, scooping me up. His metabolic age was around eighteen, whereas mine was now eight. He could lift me up so easily. China then swung me around like a father swings his daughter, watching as I giggled uncontrollably. He had the biggest, toothiest smile on his face. He loved swinging me around like a princess.

When China stopped, he perched me on his hip. "We go home now!" he declared, marching towards the imperial palace where we both lived.

"Okay!" I giggled, still gleefully shaken from the swinging. I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him with my legs as we went home.

The Emperor had denied the offer to make the building project easier. Instead, he made the workers work harder. Manpower is strong, but men are not machines. They break so easily. This made the peasants rebel against China and the Emperor. After that, China never stopped trying to make life easier in his nation, and with me by his side, we both thought nothing was impossible.

Then, Confucius came along one day. He took one look at me and smiled. He lifted me up from the ground and placed me atop the nearest surface. I don't remember what it was... a table of some sort? He asked me what I liked to do, and I said, "I like to build things!"

His smile faltered just a bit as I explained who I was: the spirit of technology. I told him everything I had built, and he listened intently. Confucius was a man I could talk to, he really was. He wrote a lot of things, I remember, and he was always at his desk. One day, he died, and out of grief, I picked up one of his books and began to read it.

One thing was clear: Confucius had not liked how much of a tom-boy I was. In his books, he made it clear that China should be a strictly patriarchal society. He had written many things that women should and should not do. This angered me, but then it saddened me, for I realized that my friend had not believed in me.