"Are you sure you want to get that?" China playfully bumped Russia with his hip, "I'm telling you aru, that coffee does not taste good,"
"Oh? And you are warning me?" Russia snorted as he flipped through the Russian ruble (his currency) he held, counting it. An unexplainable happiness had overcome him this morning but he refused to believe it was connected to the outing he had planned with China.
"Yes aru!" China hissed, his voice shaking as he tried not to laugh, "It sucks!"
"Yeah yeah whatever," Russia shook his head, "I'm sure you're just being dramatic..."
"I'm really not aru," China shook his head harder, "you are going to regret this, I'll bet on it,"
"You will?" Russia raised a playful eyebrow at him.
"Yes!" China grinned, showing his rarely surfacing competitive side, "I'll bet you one hundred..." he paused before nodding, looking satisfied with the number he came up with, "...and thirty seven yuan you'll regret it aru~"
"I have no clue what that is in ruble but I'll bet on it too," Russia smirked, before looking up to see that the girl behind the counter was quickly walking over. He almost ignored China's snorted, 'twenty American dollars, you should be able to afford it', while staring at her. She wore the uniform, nothing special. Just a regular human.
"I'm sorry for the wait," the girl apologized, "One of my coworkers dropped an ice cream in the deep fryer and it made a mess,"
Russia heard China mutter 'it's fine' under his breath before raising his head higher and smiling at her, "I'm sure that would make a mess,"
"Yeah," she sighed, seemingly grateful that they hadn't started to chew her out over something that wasn't her fault, "but anyway, what do you two want?"
They ordered their food, Russia claiming the coffee despite China's warnings, on the other hand China hesitated before grabbing a soda. (Which Russia had been quite certain he didn't enjoy only a few years before.) As they made their way over to a corner table he commented on this, "I didn't think you liked soda,"
"I don't aru," China sighed, "I couldn't think of anything else to get without holding up the line,"
"There wasn't a line," Russia pointed out, plopping into one chair and almost spilling the still very hot coffee on himself, "and why worry about that?"
"It's called being polite Ivan," China smirked, sitting down as well, though he placed the drink on the table beforehand so as to not suffer the same fate Russia nearly had, "but of course you don't know much about that aru,"
Russia tried to protest but China shook his head, "I'm joking obviously, no need to worry aru,"
"Fine," Russia crossed his arms, leaning back slightly in his chair and smiling in a way that could have looked threatening if he didn't mean it truthfully, "what were we going to talk about again? Some things got lost in translation I'm sure."
China raised an eyebrow, talking around the plastic straw that he was now drinking out of, "What do you mean 'lost in translation'? We just discussed going to get drinks aru,"
Russia closed his eyes, leaning down and bringing the styrofoam cup up to his mouth, preparing to drink the hot liquid, "I don't know, I'm not exactly the best at conversation, perhaps you had specifics?"
"I did not aru," China shook his head, putting the soda back down again and watching carefully for Russia's reaction to the coffee. So when the white haired nation's eyes flew open, making a sort of retching noise in his throat, he smirked, "Is it bad?"
Russia had spat out the coffee, "This is-" he sputtered with his words as China began to laugh, "This is really gross!" There was a twinge of embarrassment to his voice as he wiped the edge of his mouth with his sleeve, "why didn't you warn me?!"
"I did warn you aru!" China tried to make eye contact, laughing, "isn't it horrendous?"
"Yes!" Russia spluttered, meeting his eyes urgently before frantically staring into the depths of his drink, squinting one eye for better vision into the dark liquid, "What the hell is it made of?!"
"I have no idea aru, but presumably coffee beans," the corners of the Asian personification's mouth twitched violently as he took the plastic lid off of his cup. He looked up to see Russia staring at him with a look of dumbfounded betrayal.
"Why didn't you stop me from picking it up then?" His voice nearly cracked, making the statement sound partially heartbroken. China tried to ignore him, now shaking with silent laughter as he struggled to bring his own drink to his lips. "I wasted ten dollars on this," Russia shook his head, "why did you let me?"
China managed to get a proper hold of the drink he held even as his shoulders shook with laughter. He took another sip as Russia continued to berate him with meaningless and teasing complaints. "Ivan you actually wasted thirty dollars, if we are talking about American ones here aru,"
Russia raised an eyebrow, breaking off from his partial rant, "How?"
"I bet you that you would hate it, and you do. I basically asked for twenty and you agreed to it aru," He smirked at the Russian, swirling the straw that had been removed around in the soda once more.
Russia seemed to do the math in his head, counting numbers on his gloved fingers before the realization settled on his face. "I hate you sometimes Yao..." he pouted.
"Yeah okay," China rested his chin on one hand, reaching the other out across the table, "pay up. The coffee tastes nasty, we both agree on this aru,"
Russia stared in astonishment, shaking his head slowly from side to side disbelievingly, "I don't get you..." but he reached into his pocket anyway, pulling out a twenty dollar bill after some searching. He always kept some American dollars on him now that they were so commonly used, it was actually pretty common for personifications to do this with multiple forms of currency since there was so much travel in their lives.
"Thanks," China smirked as he plucked it out of the other's hand, a certain mischievous air to his voice.
Russia rolled his eyes, "and how's your drink mr. master gambler?"
Eye's lighting up, China smiled, "It's good!"
"I thought you didn't like soda," Russia furrowed his brow, a confused smile-like expression playing on his lips, "isn't that what you said?"
"Yes it is aru," China nodded, "but I like sugar, so that kind of balances out my hatred for these strange bubbled drinks aru,"
"Ah," Russia snorted at the ridiculousness of their conversation, taping a finger on the edge of his abandoned styrofoam cup, "I forgot about that,"
"Sugar is great though," China nodded vigorously, "I would think you would agree with me, right aru?" when Russia tried to speak he cut him off once more, giving off a jittery attitude in even his speech, "but I probably shouldn't have too much of it all at once aru, the caffeine and sugar content are both very high and unhealthy, especially combined aru,"
"I can tell," Russia responded, resting his chin in his hands and staring into China's face. Neither of them seemed to notice the contented smile that now took up the once blank space of his mouth. China was busy swirling a plastic straw in the bubbly liquid, golden brown eyes fixed hard on it as if expecting something exciting to happen. Russia on the other hand only sat there internally appreciating the company, though whether he enjoyed seeing China or just not being alone he would never be sure.
FInally China seemed to realize that their conversation had gone silent, though he seemed far more distressed about this than Russia, who had been enjoying the peaceful quiet. "Sorry aru-!" the brown haired country exclaimed, a certain embarrassment in the way he said it, "were you trying to ask something?"
"Not really," Russia sighed, pulling himself into a straight-back sitting position once more, "our conversation has progressed so there is no longer a need to describe this meeting," he nodded kindly, but was caught somewhat off guard by what his companion said next.
"I suppose France would call this a date," he mused, thoughtfully tilting his head and staring up into a far corner of the ceiling, "but that's only by his definition I'm sure aru,"
"Y-yeah," Russia stuttered, a light blush landing on his cheeks though it went unnoticed by his ally, "I suppose he would call in that,"
"But you are right," China nodded solemnly, "it doesn't exactly need a label aru,"
Russia pondered this as well, "No," he mused, "I suppose it doesn't..."
They were silent once more, Russia staring forlornly at his still full cup of coffee as China downed the rest of his drink. There was a soft clicking from somewhere in the coffee shop, the murmured voices of the employees from the back room. A calming veil seemed to rest over the place.
But of course China interrupted this, making Russia jump as his suddenly spoke, seemingly staring off into the distance, "I can feel the sugar rush settling in already aru..."
When Russia looked confused, as if to question his knowledge in the subject (though he did not have to audibly express this) China was sure to clarify, "I don't always do well with sugar aru, well it doesn't hurt me but it's... um..."
"Adrenaline inducing?" Russia finished for him, even though it was in the form of a question.
"Yeah," China nodded, "I guess it has to do with consumption of other foods or something? I haven't researched it,"
Russia shrugged, "I wouldn't know, I'm not really interested in those sorts of things," his companion nodded harder at this before stopping once more and making eye contact.
"I'm sure you aren't aru," he stared (this statement was so deliberate that it almost sounded like an insult). Russia blinked, not quite understanding. China shook his head at the silent question, "you have other things to do most of the time, but hey," he looked up, smiling brightly, "at least you aren't bored aru,"
"I guess so~!" Russia chuckled, the contented smile still present on his face. Boredom really was horrible, he knew this first hand, especially since it was paired with the loneliness he was cursed with. (Though the way China had phrased the statement raised more than a few questions about how he spent his time when no one else was around.)
Their pointless banter continued, the early morning light fading away into the warm sunny daylight that afternoon so often held. It wasn't quite so late yet, but it was the same warmth that Russia appreciated so much, an innocent break away from the freezing cold of his homeland. China didn't seem to notice the difference, he lived in the southern-ish part of the country so he was used to such temperatures. Russia partially envied that carelessness.
Having already paid- as was the custom in the shop- neither one of them panicked when China got a call on his phone. (Their governments were really using these new technologies to the best of their abilities and it truly showed.) Russia didn't understand the language his ally spoke in but he assumed that it was to not seem disrespectful by using English or some other form of speech. Russia tapped his fingers on the table, staring into his eyes and trying to convey the question he wished to ask; 'what is this about?'
Seeing the look and presumably understanding China rolled his eyes, and shrugged his right shoulder. Russia had no clue what that was supposed to mean but at least they had tried to communicate.
The call was finished a few minutes later. China sighed, putting down the cell phone and rubbing his eyes, interrupting Russia before he even asked the question aloud, "Emergency meeting or something aru, I think I annoyed them somehow..."
"Hm," Russia nodded. He knew that feeling alright, even partially corrupt governments, or simply differently in other people's eyes, were not fun.
"I... I probably have to go," China sighed, "I don't really want to make anyone madder or something aru,"
"I don't want to intrude on anything," Russia struggled to come up with compassionate words even though he was genuinely concerned, "but what could you have possibly done that made anyone angry? You haven't exactly been doing much recently..."
"Well, there's a lot I could have done to anger them aru, especially since I haven't been doing much," the statement was stated with a sigh that sounded almost like he was giving up.
Russia raised an eyebrow and China hurried on to explain further, "If I'm not doing much at all that also includes government activities aru, and I have been severely lacking in some of my duties recently, particularly anything to do with communication which is something that is not extremely good at aru."
Nodding, Russia confirmed that this made sense. He had dealt with similar bosses in the past, and similar situations (at least he thought so, it was hard to tell what was really going on inside the opposite nation's mind). He still felt internalized jealousy because of the climate of China's physical land but he had sympathy over many other things. It sucked to feel useless to the people who constantly sat in higher positions that were just out of reach, even if these people could be killed and were replaced every so often.
China bowed his head, "Goodbye Russia, 我希望能再次见到你, and please take care of yourself aru,"
Russia wasn't sure of an exact translation but he felt the meaning of the words none-the-less, as he hoped to see his ally in the near future too. He wasn't great at returning hopeful emotions but he could certainly try, "Я буду беспокоиться о тебе..." he murmured, "take care of yourself as well, да?"
China smiled, a hint of sadness in his face, "是."