ten·e·brous
/ˈtenəbrəs/
dark; shadowy or obscure.
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A man stands alone in the dark. The air is cold as dark clouds gather above. The temperature felt like it was poking the figure's dark blue skin with sharp needles. Though, even if it wasn't cold tonight, the cracks littering the stranger's body would certainly fill that pricking feeling. With a simple tilt of their head, the man lets the light from above illuminate their face, revealing themself to be the one and the only United Kingdom.
His face is covered in cracks, some pieces already falling apart to reveal a dark void underneath. That's all he felt like now. A dark void. His tired eyes stare at another figure in front of him. Those once determined and stern eyes were now a shell of what they used to be. They were lacking that spark.
UK's felt his lips quivering as he struggled to speak. The figure smiles at the sight and nods, telling UK that he needed to speak now unless he wanted to die without any last words. (Or that's what he assumes.) He had planned to say something meaningful and strong as his final words, to show that he wasn't afraid of death. Even if no one was there to hear him
But now, he could barely find the energy to open his mouth. He could barely find the words to say. Mostly because he was already beginning to physically fall apart. Pieces of his body were falling off. Parts of his soft skin hardened until its texture was similar to ceramic. The stinging pain he felt as soon as a part of him broke off was excruciating. And the humiliation he felt, on his knees, looking pathetic, Infront of his killer, was unbearable. But what could he do about it? Walk out of the door with his legs that were barely functional?
It was futile, he realized. Probably a bit later than he should've.
He couldn't think of anything else. Why did it matter at this point? No one would even know what he said before he died. He was all alone here- all alone with the one person that caused all this.
After a long period of silence, there was only one thing UK could say.
"...Why?" He breathed out, in a desperate, raspy noise barely above a whisper.
-----
"UK?" America called out as he stepped in front of the dark oak door to UK's office. He went looking for the man after he had remembered that he borrowed a pen from him. He just wanted to give it back.
There was no response from the other side. Just silence. Now, America assumed that the country was simply asleep. Was he going to leave and give the pen back when UK woke up? Hell no. He wasn't exactly a patient person. So, he decided to enter the room, without knocking, even if he knew that the old man would blast him about 'knocking before entering' or whatever.
Opening the door, he smelled the familiar scent of lavender. He remembered the UK placed lavender all around his office just to mask whatever bad smell he was too lazy to find the source of. UK didn't really care if his office was messy or dirty until it became unbearable for him, which would force him to find a solution. And that solution wasn't exactly the best one. They often range from stuffing whatever trash he had in a corner of the office that people wouldn't see, to simply throwing shit out the window.
Now that he thought about UK's bad habits, he hoped that UK at least dipped the thing in sanitizer before giving it to him.
As he peered inside, he was surprised to see that the other country wasn't there. UK mostly spent his day cooped up in his office even if he didn't have a reason to, only going out to either get something to eat, or just to speak to someone. Sometimes the guy would stay overnight there, which was strange, and a bit gross considering his poor hygiene. He became withdrawn after WWII, and has never really been the same since. America never really understood why, but he never brought it up with him.
Sighing, he threw the pen, aiming for the desk, for it to just instead go over it and land somewhere on the floor. He'd just leave the pen and get the fuck out of here. He didn't enjoy being in the man's office at all. He'd rather be teleported into the middle of the ocean.
America turned around and slammed the door shut, not bothering to look behind him as he walked away. There was no reason to.
-----
Winter was slowly approaching.
The trees were beginning to shed. Leaves scattered across the ground, all of them were a variation of orange or red, their edges facing different levels of degradation, resulting in them turning into a dark shade of brown. Most of them piled up on the other side of a black metal fence that separated a park from the street, but some leaves had managed to make it past that barrier and onto the stone pavement. And there was actually a surprising amount, to the point that it would make someone feel bad for whoever had to sweep them all up.
"Thank god I'm not that guy." Australia joked as he thought of the idea.
He continued to walk down the sidewalk, his phone in hand, which was displaying a map. He currently was in another area of Anderterra that he was not familiar with. It was for some sort of three-day vacation with New Zealand. There was no reason for this vacation, they just wanted to take a rest from everything else that was happening back at home. There wasn't exactly anything bad happening, it's just that both of them felt a bit overwhelmed from both the amount of work they had, to the chaotic events that happened from time to time. Like Poland's pranks, which were beginning to grow more and more intense.
Unfortunately, that vacation was a day from ending. So both Australia and New Zealand just decided that they would just spend the last day hanging out at some peaceful areas before returning. He really didn't want to head back again, dealing with other people screaming at his ear about being unable to do much of his work (even if the deadline was weeks away) because he just couldn't understand what he was meant to do, to Canada's extremely passive aggressive replies whenever he asked a question cause apparently, the other man he thought he was joking even if his question was a genuine one, and to America's terrible jokes.
People there thought he was an idiot. Simply because he asked questions that he "should've known the answers to."
Australia cleared his head from those thoughts, instead, focusing on finding his way to the café where he meant to meet New Zealand in. He turned a corner and scanned the area, his eyes darted from building to building until he laid his eyes on one. He quickly glanced down at his phone then back up, and quietly cheered to himself. He had finally found the café. Usually, He wouldn't be this happy when he located something, he'd just simply shrug and walk over to it. But here? It would be difficult from the cramped buildings and all. The moment he got here, he assumed that it would be a pain to navigate as a tourist like him.
It was just a minor inconvenience though. Everything else about the place was nice. The street was beautiful, its reds, browns, peaches, and other colors really breathed life into the place, it gave it color.
He quickly peered into the windows and marveled at the sight, it looked so warm and welcoming. It looked lovely. He attempted to shrug off his excitement at seeing the place and pushed the door, suddenly everything looked even better on the inside. The ceiling was a spherical shape. On the edges of the circular roof were four pillars, all were elegantly carved patterns. These pillars intercepted the circle and were evenly spaced from each other. A large lantern hung on the highest point, and a small fire glowed from the inside, encased by a smooth glass. Its foundations and cap were a deep black, both reflected the light of the small flame. He continued to look around. Multiple shelves were attached to the wall, all were a beautiful cream color. Many pots and plants rested on these shelves, some with simple designs, like a single stripe, and some with sophisticated designs, truly a work of art.
As he looked around the place, astonished at the design of the café that really scratched that part of his brain, he failed to notice New Zealand approaching him until he saw a hand waving directly at his face.
"Hellooo? Are you there mate?" New Zealand chuckled as soon as Australia turned towards him, a bit surprised.
"Jesus, Zea, you startled me for a sec." Australia snorted a bit as he realized what had just happened. He then turned to look around once again. "This is actually a pretty nice place that you chose here. It's really cool."
"I thought that you'd like it." The other replied as he took a sip of, what Australia assumed to be, his coffee, "Guess I was right."
"True." Australia nodded, not bothering to look back at his brother as he spoke. That is until he felt something poking at his hand, which made him instantly turn his head. In New Zealand's hand was a cup, that was similar to his own. "Is that coffee?"
"Yep. I requested it to be very sweet, y'know, just how you like it." New Zealand responds as Australia takes the paper cup in his hands.
He could feel the coldness seeping through his cup, which indicated that this was probably iced coffee too.
"Holy shit-- This is iced coffee too? Gee, you didn't have to do that." He smiled, extremely grateful that New Zealand put this much effort into something he would like.
"Well, since our vacation was ending, I thought that we should enjoy it as much as possible, right?" His brother responded. Australia took a sip of his coffee, and sure enough, it was sweet. Just as he liked it.
"Dude-- You didn't have to do this. Thank you." His smile widened, laughing a bit. He was thankful for New Zealand. Because the guy actually understood him to some extent, or he at least didn't make fun of him for not understanding things from time to time. It was nice to have someone like him around.
"Hah. You owe me one now." New Zealand joked as a reply.
"Soo, anyways, where should we sit?"
"Maybe over there, it has a nice view of the sunset."
-----
Vietnam stared over at the cityscape below. It was buzzing with noise as people walked along the busy streets.
He wished that he could go leave this building, to finally stretch his legs after hours of sitting behind a desk, typing mindlessly, but he couldn't, cause he got unfinished work to do. He wished that he could leave earlier, or at least get something to eat, since he was starving, but no, he couldn't leave his desk until all his work was finished.
He'd file a complaint to his boss, if it weren't for the fact that it was he who imposed this rule on himself. He just felt like he needed to complete it for no absolute reason at all, and it was such a pain. Fuck you, brain.
Thank goodness Thailand was also working with him, and that she didn't impose the same rule that Vietnam did on himself. She was out, getting something to eat. Oh, how Vietnam envied her, that she didn't feel like if she got up from her chair before she completed her work that the sun would explode and everyone would die.
At this point, he was burnt out now. He had nothing to type in his report, so he just let out a groan and rested his head on the desk. His eyes were strained, his hands, legs, and back were sore, plus, he had a headache. What a cool trio. If only someone didn't force this rule on themself--
"Vietnam?" Thailand peered through the doorway, raising an eyebrow, when she didn't get a response she huffed and made her voice much louder. "OY! Wake up dumbass!"
Now that made Vietnam get up. He begrudgingly lifted his head up and mumbled something incoherent under his breath before turning to the other that was in the room.
"What?" He grits his teeth, trying hide to his annoyance. Though both of them were best friends, there were times that Vietnam would become moody and snap at Thailand, and she did that too. Thankfully, they'd resolve it eventually.
Thailand simply ignored Vietnam's hostile tone as she walked over and placed a bag of chips and water on top of his desk.
"You were probably hungry, so I just got you this." She said, before adding a, "You're welcome." After she didn't receive one from Vietnam.
"Oh. Thank you." Vietnam quickly replied as Thailand walked over to her seat.
"When will you be finished?" She asked as soon as she sat back down.
Vietnam glanced over to his computer, at least five more remained, but he knew that they would take forever, since he was lacking the motivation to do any of them.
"In a while." He admits, slouching in his seat a bit.
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Just wanted to establish the main characters in this story here ^^
This is actually the first story im planning on completing, but since i do take a long time to write, it might take a while. I'll try to at least update 1-2 weeks
Thanks a lot for reading :D
2276 words
Edit: fixed some spelling errors