Bookstore

By: Chibi Ra Chan

Rating: T

Pairing: China/Korea, mentions of past Russia/China.

Notes: This is my first stab at an AU Hetalia story, so I'm a bit worried. The idea for this comes from my dear friend and sometimes beta reader, Mii, who gave me the prompt of 'Takes place in a bookstore, the main emotion is memories/fear, must have a supernatural element.' Poor thing had no idea what I was writing this for. I hope she likes it.

If there was one thing that could describe Yong Soo's part time job, it would be boring. Or stupid. Either or really.

Honestly what kind of teenager works in a dusty old book shop? This was all Kiku's fault, that much he did know. He had kindly asked his cousin to help him find a job so that he could buy a new TV to watch his beloved dramas on and this is what he gave him.

'Stupid Kiku and his stupid sense of humor' he mutter to himself while slumping on the counter. 'He knew this would be lame, that's why he works at a videogame company and leaves me with this dust hole.'

It wasn't exactly as if anyone ever came here. His entire clientele consisted of annoying tourists who managed to get themselves lost in Chinatown and needed directions back to the main streets, or extremely superstitious weirdo's who actually believed in this old magic voodoo stuff.

Like that one British guy who came in all the time and ended up sending him up and down the isle's looking for specific tomes. From ancient magic to charms to alchemy circles and anything else you could possibly think of. The dude was whacked, but he was entertaining if nothing else. He'd even offered to cast a spell to find him a boyfriend.

He had agreed of course, because being crazy limey aside, he was funny and truth be told he needed all the help he could get in the love department. Still, more then once Yong Soo wondered how he even read all the books he bought, they were almost all in Chinese. But he digressed.

The point was, his job sucked.

Just as he was about fall asleep for the umpteenth time today, because let be honest there was only so much a guy could do in a dusty old bookstore that no one cool or mildly attractive ever visited, the bell above the store's entrance chimed, slowly jarring him awake.

Blearily the Korean boy looked around and only saw a blur of red and black before he was tackled to the ground behind the counter.

"What the hell-!"

"Shhhhh, quiet he'll see me aru!" Spoke the aforementioned red and black blur.

Had Yong Soo not A) been half asleep and B) had a borderline concussion, he would have asked questions. Like, who'll see you? And why are you on top of me? Or the even more pressing, who the hell are you?

But he was half asleep and he just might have a concussion so the only thing he could think to do was to obey the red and black blur who was diligently watching the glass door with a worried expression on his face.

Upon closer inspection, Yong Soo found, it wasn't a blur after all but a boy, a rather petite boy at that. He had long black hair in a ponytail that was now irritating his nose, and kept ducking down every few moments, his long sleeved red shirt swatting him in the face every so often.

Despite the fear in the man's eyes, he had quite a pretty face, and in Yong Soo's book that made up for nearly hospitalizing him any day.

"What are you looking fo-" Yet once again, he was cut off as the boy forced him to sit up.

"Aiyah! He's coming in!" He tried, in vain, to hide behind him but their already odd position wouldn't allow that. Faintly Yong Soo heard the bell ring again at the front of the shop.

"Who's coming in?" He whispered fiercely, not exactly knowing why he was whispering, only that whoever walked in certainly had this pretty boy all shaken up.

"Shh, he'll hear you aru!" He whispered right back, suddenly very close to him.

'Ah, Chinese.' He though dryly, concerned about who ever just walked into his bookstore, albeit he hated his store, but still, this dude could be dangerous. "Who'll hear you?"

The Chinese boy did another double take at the approaching shadow. "My crazy ex-boyfriend aru. He won't leave he alone!"

"Yao~" came a sing song voice that made both of them pause for a moment. "Where are you? You didn't really mean to break up with me did you? It was a mistake, da?" involuntarily a chill ran down Yong Soo's back. 'No wonder he's scared, this dude just sounds creepy.'

"Shit!" The boy, Yao he guessed, who was still kind of sitting on him, cursed. Suddenly, his attention was solely focused on him, burring into him with deep brown eyes. Yong Soo gulped nervously. This had started out as such a normal day too. "You! Do you trust me aru?"

"Not really, you kinda tackled me into my own counter and-" the other man rolled his eyes and cut him off yet again. 'Doesn't anyone let me speak anymore?' he thought darkly

"Close enough aru." And before he could mutter another word in protest, not that he'd let him finish his sentence anyway, the Chinese man pulled him by his striped shirt and plastered their lips together.

Everything after that came in fragmented thoughts. He was being kissed. By a stranger. With a creepy stalker ex. On the floor. At his crappy job. Did he mention he was being kissed by a complete stranger?

Despite it being forced and ultimately a diversion to make some dude leave the cute stranger on top of him alone, it was nice. Well that was possibly the biggest understatement of the year, it was beyond nice, it was amazing.

He wasn't exactly soft in his approach, hardly waiting a single moment before slanting his mouth over his. Taking his shocked and slightly parted lips as permission, he quickly slipped his tongue in his mouth, exploring the unknown territory.

Yong Soo froze. 'How in the world did this happen?' he thought trying very hard not to encourage the other man too much. Yao opened his eyes again and glared.

"You could help you know. This won't work if it's not believable aru."

"But I don-" He was kissed again, this time the other man's hand fisted in his hair pulling, not enough to hurt, but enough to sensitize his scalp. He could do nothing to hide the moan that escaped his throat.

"Better aru."

Well, this wasn't exactly the way he had imagined his day turning out, but it did beat out hanging with the weird British guy. By a long shot. Cautiously, as if testing the waters, he kissed the not so stranger back, twining his tongue against his, earning a groan for the other man in return.

Feeling bolder, Yong Soo ran his hands down Yao's sides relishing in the hiss of air that he sucked in when he traced circles though the fabric of his shirt.

"How's that?" He smirked at Yao's blushing face, and laved the side of his throat, as much as the high collar would allow at least. The fingers in his hair, pulled tighter and before he could even comprehend it he was back on his back again, having trouble remembering how to breathe from of the onslaught of lips, hands and annoyingly ticklish hair.

He nearly died when the other man's hips briefly came into contact with his. Seeing this, Yao dipped closer to whisper directly into his ear, teasing the outer shell with each inhale and exhale. "Not bad aru, but I-"

"Yao? What are you doing?"

Yong Soo fought the urge to smile. 'How's it feel to be cut off every time you try to speak da-ze?' But he had slightly more common sense then that. Instead he focused on trying to see the extremely tall man who was currently looking at their ahem, interesting position, on the floor with something akin to disbelief.

"Ivan I thought I told you not to follow me anymore aru?" To his credit Yao managed to lose the look of extreme fear from earlier and had now adopted an expression of mild irritation at being interrupted.

This Ivan person cocked his head to the side and regarded not Yao, but Yong Soo with disbelief. "Just who is this little boy Yao?"

Ouch, Little boy. That didn't exactly sit well with Yong Soo, who was actually tall for his age. 'No one calls me a kid and gets away with it!' Before he could curse the tall blonde male out, Yao interrupted him sensing the stupidity that was about to escape his mouth and get him hurt.

"Ivan, we broke up, it's over aru."

"But you must have bee-"

Yong Soo interrupted his sentence by wrapping his arms around the Chinese man's slim form, pulling him to his chest protectively. This guy didn't know who he was messing with. "I don't know who you are, but Yao clearly doesn't want you here."

He could almost see the cogs working in the other man's head, putting two and two together.

"He belongs to me now, so get out of my shop! Before I call the police." Let it be known that if necessary Yong Soo could put aside his generally easy going attitude and be as scary as the next guy.

With a glare at the Korean and a whispered, 'We'll talk later' at Yao, the tall man sulkingly exited the bookstore, a sinister air around him. 'Geez, what a weirdo. Guy can't take no for an answer. I'd hate to be the one who pisses him off next.' he thought darkly.

The Chinese man sighed and relaxed in his grip before squeezing his hand once in what he could guess was thanks. "Aiyah, that went better then I expected it to aru." Immediate threat now gone, he let got of the smaller man.

Yong Soo raised an eyebrow. "That was the good scenario?"

Absently Yao nodded, looking around for his sandal that had become lost during the entire fiasco, finding it under the counter desk. "Yeah, Ivan doesn't mean it but he can be scary when something doesn't go his way aru. Normally he's just a big child aru."

Getting off the floor and rubbing his sore behind, Yong Soo scoffed. "Yeah I could tell. Sweet boyfriend you had. Can't imagine why you broke it off. Was he in the Russian mob or something?" He said that as a joke, but when Yao stared at him with a stony look he quickly recanted. "Er- you know what, I don't want to know."

He shrugged and put his sandal back on. "Suit yourself aru." Even with the both shoes back on he was almost a head shorter then Yong Soo. They stood awkwardly behind the counter, simply staring at each other, nott sure how to proceed.

Honestly, what's to say after you've made out and heavily petted on the floor of a bookshop on your first meeting?

"Uh, So do you have…."

"Thanks for helping me ou-"

Both flushed at speaking at the same time.

"Talk about awkward." Yong Soo spoke while running a hand though his hair. Next to him Yao grunted in agreement. "Okay you first."

The small Chinese man blushed an endearing shade of read, looking anywhere but at him. "Thanks for helping me out aru. I'm sorry if I scared you or anything, uh…." Yao nearly hit himself when he realized that he had done some very explicit things with a person whose name he didn't even know.

Yong Soo grinned. Easily flustered or not, he was adorable. "Lets start over da-ze." He stuck his hand out cheerily. "I'm Im Yong Soo, 17 years old, I work here. Nice to meet you~!" He cooed.

Yao blushed even deeper and let out another 'Aiyah' (which he found incredibly cute) "Great not only do I have bad taste in men, but I'm a pedophile too." He muttered under his breath before catching his hand in his much smaller one.

"I'm Yao Wang, 20 years old aru. I swear I don't usually barge into stores and assault their salespeople aru."

"Does that mean I'm special then?" Older guy, very cool indeed.

Yao rolled his eyes, but a small smile stayed on his face. "I guess, but don't let it go to your head aru."

Yong Soo grinned. "Well since you assaulted my person-" Yao rolled his eyes "Not that I didn't like it!" He quickly reassured. "Do you think I could get your number? Since we've already gotten all the way to second base and I've already had to deal with your jealous ex and all…."

He was rewarded with a dry peel of laughter.

"Koreans, so impatient aru." None the less he took one of the stores business cards and proceeded to write his cell phone number on the back. "This is a magic book shop aru? How lame."

"You get used to it." 'Well, you will….' he thought to himself with a cheeky grin "Some really interesting people find their way into this old dust hole…"

Maybe Yong Soo didn't hate Kiku and this stupid bookstore as much as he first thought. After all that creepy British guy's spell charm thing just maybe working.

Ending Notes; Yeah I totally cheated to get out of the supernatural element. Sorry, I'm just not good at that kind of thing, so England's love charm will have to do. This was actually my first time writing Ivan too., and I made him a creepy stalker ex, but in my defense he's kinda like that in canon anyway. China and Russia totally broke up in the early 90's.

Thank you for reading and please drop a review and tell me what you think of my AU! I'm really interested in my reader's opinions!

Forever and Eternally,

-Ra