Don't own Hetalia or Full Metal Alchemist.

"This" is the human language – in this case, Chinese.

"This" is the language used by nations, where they can all understand one another easily.

The story has China in his physical late teens to early twenties.

Five Golden Stars: The First Gatekeeper

At a thousand years of age, China knew he wasn't the oldest being in the world. The earth beneath him often sang of its age in the night, as did the moon and stars.

With this in mind, China felt suitably wary as he and his hunters approached a man they didn't recognize laying nearby. He wore strange clothes, not like their protective leathers, and seemed to have weird adornments and ornaments on his body. His hair was a bright gold which truly appeared quite unnatural to the brunette who had only seen dark hair in his millennia of existence.

China muttered to the others in his hunting party to stay back and approached the man, nudging him with his boots. "Wake up."

The man groaned and rolled over, his eyes fluttering open. "Ugh, where am I?"

China's hunting party jumped back, crying that the man spoke a demon tongue. China blinked in confusion and gestured for them to quiet, before turning to the supposed demon. "What is your business here?"

The man turned to stare at him and China was caught off-guard at the sight of a pair of gold, gold eyes. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you. Can you speak like me instead?"

China scowled but looked at the humans behind him. "The demon has requested that I speak like him. I am capable of doing so, but I do not wish to alarm you."

The group looked uncertain, but nodded. "We will trust your judgment, Sage."

China nodded his thanks and faced the gold man again. "What is your business here?"

The man gave a delighted sound. "You can speak my tongue!"

China growled in frustration and drew a stone knife, holding it under the man's chin threateningly. "I did not come here to exchange pleasantries with you! Who are you, what do you want and why can you not speak like us?"

The man's eyes widened at the weapon so close to his neck but kept his pleasant smile on his face. "Well, I'm not from here, so I can't speak the language. I don't remember why I'm here, but I'll tell you once I figure it out."

"And your name?" China demanded, returning the knife to his side.

The man rubbed his neck and smiled at the Asian nation. "Why, it's Xerxes. And who are you?"

Xerxes was different from the others China had met (though admittedly none of them had been nations yet). He couldn't understand their language, for one. Then there was the fact that he would mumble to himself at times and draw lines on the ground with a stick. He called it "writing" and taught it to China and China's emperor.

The people called him the Golden Dragon, whispered of the not-man's powers, and left him alone. But the man, Xerxes, didn't seem to notice.

No, he was too enamored with China to notice how China's people acted. The golden haired man was completely enthralled with the slighter country, following him around and talking to him in his demonic tongue whenever he could.

China was at first resistant to the blonde's attentions, but his sincere affection for the brunette and his unending curiosity eventually won the Asian over (much to Xerxes' delight).

The two spent months together, whispering and learning and living side by side, and China could honestly say that the emotion he felt whenever Xerxes was concerned was the closest he had ever felt to love in his short-long life.

However, the days of eternal companionship reached a turning point one day when Xerxes finally remembered his reason for being in China's land. He approached China that night, claimed the other's lips in a desperate kiss, and spoke six opening words. "I have grave and good news."

He told China about the world he'd come from, how his people were only a step from extinction, and about the little nation that was forming on his east. "Its people are resilient, but without a personification they will eventually fall. I came here to find a way to get a personification for the little country. I just didn't expect to fall in love along the way. I can save the country, and its people, but I'll need you to carry the child so that it can survive. One nation sprung from two countries is more likely to survive than one from one."

China turned the idea about in his head, his body cradled in Xerxes' larger one as he came to a conclusion. "I will carry the child, Xerxes."

"Are you certain?" The blonde man's voice was hesitant. "You will not be able to see the child once it is gone."

"I know, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to save a nation. Nor does it stop me," he blushed lightly, "from wanting our child to come into the world."

Xerxes kissed China again, reverently whispering "our child" under his breath as he slowly and carefully tied their energies together, pushing the entwined force to rest beside China's heart. Another heart beat began beside the Asian's own, and China softly locked eyes with his lover. "I love you," he breathed, and Xerxes echoed the sentiment fluently in China's tongue back to him.

The days passed quickly after that, the moons rising and falling in a blur as Xerxes prepared China for the "birth". He had moved the mother-to-be to a cave closer to the center of the imaginary border and kept a constant watch for intruders or enemies.

The day of the birth arrived in no time and Xerxes was startled awake by his love's cries of pain. The energy and second heartbeat within China skyrocketed and a pillar of light was unleashed from the young man's body, blinding his worried mate.

When it faded, China was cradling a small body close to his own, joyous tears misting his eyes. He kissed the little one's forehead, then turned the baby to face its father. Gold eyes stared out at Xerxes from a head of brown-black hair, and the blonde drew closer to the mother and child, a tear escaping his eye unnoticed.

"He has your eyes," China said softly, and Xerxes swallowed roughly.

"Yeah," the blonde croaked, offering a small smile, "and you hair."

The two remained quiet for a little longer, their presences and energies melding together in a joining of mind and soul, before China sighed. He shifted their child into a more comfortable position, before offering him to Xerxes. "I think you should go now," he murmured.

The blonde froze, caught off-guard by the comment, and stared at China disbelievingly.

"You have to," China continued, his eyes already filling with a different kind of tears. "If you don't, I'll be too attached, and then I'll never let go of him."

"China…"

"Please," China begged, tears trailing down his face as his arms drew the child closer to him, "take him, please, or I'll never let go."

Xerxes hesitated, but nodded and gathered their child into his arms. He kissed China on each eyelid, the taste of salt lingering as he drew back and pressed his forehead against the other.

The two remained quiet, the soft cooing of the child between them the only sound in the room. Ignored by the two (now three) nations, their surroundings grew blanker and blanker, nothingness replacing stone and white replacing color.

The two finally looked up at where the entrance to the cave had been. In its place a large stone gate loomed over them, its wooden doors covered in frightening hieroglyphs. In front of the closed gate was a teenage boy with one green eye, one purple eye and a mop of dark brown hair.

The boy stared at the small family before jerking his head back toward the doors behind him. "Xerxes. It is time to go."

Xerxes began to pull away, the child in his arms, but China had one last thing to ask of his love. "Please, Xerxes, take care of our little star. Take care of my Xing."

The blonde blinked the tears from his eyes and nodded once. "I promise," he swore, and the Gate opened to pull him away.

When he was gone, the door stayed open, and the teenager lingered. "You'll see Xing again," the boy said. His voice echoed like a thousand voices in one, alone and together at the same time. "A mother and father's love is certainly enough to pay for several visits between the two of you once Xing's old enough to travel between worlds. I am not a cruel person, future People's Republic of China. While Xing will need to live in his own world, I will not keep a parent from seeing their child." The teenager turned then and walked into the Gate, the doors slamming closed with his departure.

China stared sightlessly ahead, the world returning to normal around him. Everything was normal again, but the world felt so much colder now.

Love is not deterred by age or distance, as China learned very early in his life.

Before Russia, before Japan, before he even knew of the world outside his own, China had fallen in love with a man who introduced him to a world beyond his own.

So yep, part two is done. The only person to guess was an anonymous review, Jordan. You were incredibly close on the first guess (in fact Prussia will actually be the "father" of the next child, but not the "mother"), and got this one on the dot, so great job!

As a note, the Gate is not OOC in my mind; the cruel one is Truth, who controls the Alchemic flow for those who believe in and practice the Western Alchemy, while Xing controls the flow for those who believe in a practice the Eastern Alchemy.

And, as a note, China's eyes are amber in this story, which explains his wonder at Xerxes' gold eyes.

The Golden Dragon: It's believed that a golden dragon taught China's emperor their language and how to write.

Please review.

Ja ne!