And here are the prompts and the days for Asakiku week 2025!
Day 1: Artist * Idols * Kids
Day 2: Vintage * Plants/Flowers * Memories
Day 3: Exchange Student * Distance * Gangstatalia
Day 4: Secret * Skinship * Traditional Clothes
Day 5: Nyotalia * Letters * Royalty
Day 6: School * Reminiscing * Starry Night/Stargazing
Day 7: Free Day!
Remember: You can do all or one of the prompts for each day! It also can be AU versions of the characters as well! You are not required to do all of the days if you want to participate, and you can submit things late if you don't make it in time.
We look forward to seeing everyone's hard work on the 24th-30th!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 4/?
Fandom: Hetalia (Anime & Manga)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Japan/Russia (Hetalia), America/Japan (Hetalia), England/Japan (Hetalia)
Characters: Japan (Hetalia), Russia (Hetalia), America (Hetalia), England (Hetalia), China (Hetalia)
Additional Tags: Historical Hetalia, Russo-Japanese War, Period-Typical Racism, Imperialism, Top Japan (Hetalia), Bottom Russia (Hetalia), Colonialism, Political Negotiations as Foreplay, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Bottom England (Hetalia), Sexual Content, Enemies to Enemies (hatefucking), FTM/Transmasc England
Chapter Summary:
“Who do you think you are?” Kiku exhaled breathlessly, matching the other’s low tone, “Are you an evil spirit?”
Arthur just smiled, “Yeah. And one of yours, I hope.”
Arthur and Kiku are part of the same idol group. Kiku has some worries when he sees that the fan's perception of Arthur is changing.
Arthur was sitting alone in the rehearsal room, having come to the space so he could practice by himself for a while. He held his sheet music in his hands, looking over it with some interest when he heard someone call his name.
“Arthur… is it okay if I talk with you for a second?”
He looked up to see Kiku standing in front of him. Kiku had a serious look on his face, but it was different from his usual stoic or polite expression. Arthur could only assume that whatever he wanted to discuss probably wasn't just small talk, so it must be important.
He set the sheet music aside, nodding. “Sure we can talk. What's up?”
Although Arthur had known Kiku for a while, he had only been working with him extensively for just under a year. Arthur joined their idol group eleven months ago, while Kiku was one of the founding members of the group. That was to say, while Arthur felt like he understood Kiku pretty well, there were still times when what he did or said shocked or surprised him.
This was one of those times.
Without further warning, Kiku bowed his head low, bending with his back completely straight.
“I'm very sorry about last night!”
Kiku's sudden and sincere apology only baffled Arthur.
“H-huh? Wait-! Quit bowing to me!” He placed his hands on Kiku's shoulders and lifted him up so they were face-to-face again, “Don't just apologize when I don't even know what you're apologizing for.”
“Sorry…” Kiku said reflexively.
“No, you don't have to apologize for that either,” Arthur shook his head slightly, “And like I said, just what do you have to apologize to me for?”
Arthur hadn't a clue what he could be on about, while Kiku just stood rigidly still, looking sheepish.
“Well… you've probably noticed it, haven't you? Ever since you joined the group, your personal fans have been treating you differently…” Kiku started slowly.
Arthur tapped his chin, thinking. He did his best to ignore the things his die-hard fans did or said about him on social media (for his own sanity), and he mostly let his agent and the group managers deal with his fans.
Simply put, if there had been a sudden change in the fans’ opinion of him, he was clueless.
“Have they been different?” Arthur asked.
Kiku nodded. “It's true. They've been saying you've gone through an image change, since joining the group.”
Arthur blinked a few times- this was news to him.
“Really? What are they saying?” He asked.
“They're saying that before, you had a cool, ikemen type look that almost bordered on ‘yami-kei’ , but now they say that ‘yami’ part of you is completely gone, and that you've been playing into a more light-hearted image…”
Ah, so that was it... he had grown soft in his old age.
Arthur was no stranger to the image he put on for the world. Growing up, his favorite songs had always been more punk-flavored, and he also tended to like songs with darker lyrics. How happy was he, when he discovered an entire sub-genre of music known as ‘yami kyoku’ that suited his slightly morbid tastes perfectly.
So, when Arthur was making his debut as an idol, he took to yami-kei songs like a fish to water. Fans had always said that Arthur had a dark and mysterious feeling to him, and even when he wasn't intentionally feeding into his punk aesthetics, he still couldn't wouldn't be well placed in a lighthearted setting. Some of Arthur's western fans had said that his extreme version was his punk-look, and his soft version was something like the dark-academia-look.
All of that is to say, others seemed to view him as a bit edgy, for better or for worse.
“I see…” said Arthur, “So they're saying I haven't been as reproachful looking anymore.”
“It's not about looking reproachful!” Kiku shook his head vigorously, “It's the fact that you had a cool and mysterious image, and I've greatly damaged that image of you. It's my fault, because I've been too familiar with you on stage and too close with you in public. Because I always have had such a bright and cheerful image, they're saying I rubbed off on you, and you don't seem as dark and mysterious as you used to be. Really, it's is my fault, so-”
Arthur caught him right before he bowed again, clasping his shoulders firmly. “What did I say about apologizing?” Arthur paused, before he softened his tone, “It's not necessary.”
“But your image-”
“Kiku, I'm sorry to tell you this, but I don't give a rat’s arse about my image.”
Kiku looked at Arthur as if he had said something terrible.
“B-but…”
Arthur held up his hand, as if to stop Kiku. Even though he did like playing into the ‘dark and mysterious’ side of his character, he had never curated a stage personality so that he could be shoved into a box, never to step outside of it. If his actions happened to detriment his fan's image of him, then so be it.
Especially considering that there was something far more important at stake than his stage personality.
“So, that's how it is…” Arthur said, sounding contemplative, “When the dark and mysterious Arthur puts his hand under the cute and sweet Kiku's chin on stage… It destroys the unfeeling and cold image that the fans have of him!”
Kiku's face turned a bit pink at the retelling of the previous night's events.
“Yes, that's right,” Kiku said slowly.
“But, there's something that the fans have to come to understand- their image is just a preconceived notion of my character as an idol. In reality, my dark and brooding character has a soft spot for cute things…” Arthur smiled slightly, “Just like the real me.”
Kiku felt his heart skip a beat. The way Arthur had been looking at him when he said that…
As if to distract himself, Kiku tried to move on from the subject.
“Well, I guess if you don't mind your image changing slightly, I can't choose to be angry on your behalf,” Even though Kiku had been so worried about how Arthur's fans had reacted, he knew that Arthur knew what was best for himself, and he wouldn't try to force him to be worried if he didn't want to be. In fact, maybe changing his image slightly would turn out to be a good thing.
Kiku continued, “Actually, it's kind of gap-moe. Maybe the fans-”
“Forget about the fans for once,” Arthur lightly pinched Kiku's cheek, “If they don't like me when I do what I'd like, then that's okay, they don't have to like me.”
You'd think a guy who talked this way about his fans would have poor ratings, but if anything, Arthur's ratings only seemed to be going up, recently.
“And besides,” Arthur continued, “There's only one person I'm keen on impressing these days.”
“And who's that?” Kiku asked.
“You.”
Kiku lightly covered his mouth with his hand and looked away. Just what right did this guy have to be making his heart do somersaults in his chest? Who said something like that!
After a few seconds, Kiku removed his hand from his mouth and replied as calmly as he could. “You… I'm already impressed with you. There's no need to try to impress me.”
However, it seemed like Arthur had gotten into a mood where he wanted to tease him, and his flirtations did not stop there.
“Kiku, for the next event, would it be too much for the fans if we kissed on stage?”
If the hand under his chin the previous night had stunned him, then what would a kiss do?
“Forget about it being too much for the fans, it's too much for me! Idea rejected!” Kiku had picked up Arthur's sheet music, and he rolled it up as if he had the intention of whacking him with it.
“Sorry, sorry!” Arthur laughed a bit, “I wasn't serious. I wouldn't do anything that would make you uncomfortable.”
Kiku huffed a bit, lowering the roll of paper. “Sometimes I can't tell if you're trying to get a rise out of the fans, or out of me.”
“I'd take getting a rise from any part of you that I can get-”
Arthur did not move fast enough to escape from being hit with the roll of paper this time. But instead of being upset, he seemed to find this especially funny, and he laughed as if he were having a great time. Seeing his laughing face, Kiku couldn't stay mad at him.
“You're really unbelievable,” Kiku said, shaking his head, “Acting this way…”
“Hey now, who's more surprised by me? Is it the fans, or is it you?”
Bullseye.
…But Kiku wasn't ready to admit that, yet.
“The fans are going to say things about us…” Kiku placed a hand on his temple.
Arthur smiled crookedly. “Hopefully they will.”
He didn't escape from being whacked with his own sheet music that time, either.
...
I have far more knowledge on vocaloid and vocal-synth music than I do on idol culture. I wonder if that was apparent in this fic, (haha).
Also for those curious, yami-kyoku 病み曲 or yami-songs 病みソング is a real type of music that you can look up if you'd like. As the name implies, this music is usually darker or 'edgy,' for lack of a better word. Considering how Arthur seems to have a punk style on occasion in the manga, I tried to consider what image he would have if he was part of an idol group in Japan, since their popular music genres are a bit different than what's popular in the Western world.
