Homeless (a Hetalia Fanfic, Book Three)

Chapter 8~!

Thank you, ab workouts. You really are life-savers.

Maybe it was divine intervention or just sheer good luck, but I wasn't tethered to the ground by my feet, which meant that I was able to first grab the chains at my hands, then swing my feet back and forth until I had enough momentum going for me to flip upside down. My feet pinched the chain between themselves and my head was suddenly aimed at the floor. 

With that taken care of, I turned my attention on figuring out how to get out of these manacles. I would need a key to get out of these the regular way.

Too bad for these manacles, but I'm not that much of a "regular way" kind of girl!

... Okay, please disregard any naughty thoughts that declaration might have provoked. I am so sorry...

With extreme pressure applied in the right places, you could break just about anything. That's exactly what I did, and I managed to fall back to the ground without landing on my face. Of course, I stumbled and fell on my rear, which aggravated my wounds and stained my shredded pants with even more blood. 'Oh, whatever.' 

I had survived, and with just a few wounds to account for it. The real tragedy was how my phone and all its pictures had been confiscated. It's probably been destroyed by then. C'est la vie, as Francis would say.

Now my mission was to escape and get back to a country who could shelter me until I was able to report my findings. Seeing as how I was in Japan, or at least I had been in Japan when I was drugged, then Kiku was the obvious first choice. It was unlikely that I would be crossing the sea in this state, so to Kiku's it was. 

But first things first: I had to escape this place, wherever it was.

~~

Kiku sighed softly as he approached his front door and unlocked it. He removed his shoes and slipped on his house slippers, relishing the more comfortable attire as he moved through his home. 

Suddenly, a gentle thump alerted him to the presence of another in his house. The Japanese man stayed low and grabbed the sheathed katana that was hidden in a clandestine crevice between a door frame and the adjoining wall. He crept around a corner and found himself in the kitchen-- no one was there, but the sound persisted once, twice.

Kiku found the source of the noise in his living room. It was a brunette woman kneeling in front of a kotatsu and trying to bandage her wounds, but she cursed under her breath every time her fingers slipped on the needle and her elbow struck the edge of the table. Said furniture was littered with suture supplies and bandages, most of which had evidence of blood on them. A steel manacle was locked around her left wrist, and its twin was on the floor in warped, broken pieces.

"Arice?" Japan asked incredulously. The American spun to look at him while she struggled to close an injury on an awkward-to-reach spot on her torso. 

"Shit-- Sorry, I am so sorry," she said quickly, reaching over her shoulder and then sighing when that didn't work. To Japan, it was like watching a dog chase its tail. Speaking of dogs, Japan's was dozing contentedly just under the kotatsu's blanket. "I, uh, I--"

"Do you need some herp with that?" Japan asked, setting his katana down against the wall. Alice slumped a little and nodded.

"Please."

Kiku came over and tried to not blush at her shirt being off. Practically speaking, it wouldn't have made much sense for her to keep it on when she was trying to bandage her wounds. At least her bra was still on.

He set to work, using his deft fingers to stitch up the wide gash under her right shoulder blade. "What caused this, if I may ask?"

"Uhm... You know how I was finding out stuff about W.O.R.L.D. earlier?" she replied, and his eyes widened ever so slightly.