"...There's good fwiends und bad fwiends...?" If anything, the boy seemed even more confused. He wasn't quite sure which would belong in what category, seeing his access to friendship was, sadly, rather limited, but regardless it was still something the boy pondered on about. He never heard of friends being put into two whole categories; you were either friends or you were not. And as far as the boy was concerned, if one wasn't being hurt, then they were all friends. So unless one was, for example, Ivan, who killed a lot of his people, Viku considered them all friends. Including this nice lady he just met.
With the topic of different friendships going right over the small boy's head that preferred simplicity, Viku now found himself focused on the conversation regarding of fears. He tilted his head in thought when asked what kind of monsters he was referring to, standing right back up. He jumped a couple times and opened his arms wide to try and express the size. "Biiig ones! Big monsters, they come out from closet and underneath beds, and eat chu! They go aaaaaam~!" With that, he opened his own mouth and made some biting motions with his jaws, before giggling and running around her in circles. "Und then, they go run! They do lots of running, and hide! Because if chu just eat and sit, chu get fat. Chu know what fat is da? It when chu get big." Again the boy finally managed to stop in front of the female nation and made round large movements with his arms at his sides, before giggling. "It funny! They wook like balls, Miss Thi!"
In the midst of his own giggling fit, the boy almost missed the added comment the other stated with a smile and the hint of determination. Almost. Just almost, if it wasn't for the phrase that caught his attention. His happy smile faded away in an instant, and instead, a weak, forced one made its way out. His brows furrowed as he clearly struggled to keep that fake mask of an expression on his face. "...D-Da... That's nu fun, either... very scary." He muttered, "To... Lose people. It very scary da."
As if trying to pull himself away from the topic itself, he once more tried to focus on the riddle given to him. Well, his own little version of a riddle at the very least. One he couldn't seem to be able to solve on his own. However, he no longer was able to do so. All his focus was put on the mental flashbacks of images that was in his mind of the bloodied fields and men being sent on marches to the death camps in Russia. He gripped at his shirt slightly, whimpering, the same saddned smile on his face. "..A-Ah... Um... I dunno... Being Germany ish not bad, though... He keep bwuder und I safe..."
"Vâng," Vietnam says with a nod but, seeing that he's confused she restates in a more simple way the difference, "Good friends try really hard to be nice. Bad friends don't try very hard to be nice - sometimes they don't try to be nice at all." Which she thinks ought to be a simple enough of a distinction for him to grasp, even if it will probably take him some time to understand the full ramifications of it. But the sooner one can distinguish good friends from those who probably shouldn't be your friends at all, the better. The world they live in is no place for naivety.
As the boy begins to describe the sort of monster that he means, her eyes go wide in feigned alarm. She gasps when he says that they eat you, but then her expression becomes amused when he begins to explain their exercise regimen and the consequences if they don't follow it and she's laughing by the end of it. When she manages to curb her amusement enough to talk properly she comments, "Well, if they're big but still small enough to hide in the closet or under the bed, then I don't think that they would scare me. Have you ever heard of Kung Fu? My brother China invented it, and he taught me, and I changed it a bit but that means that I'm really good at fighting. Even if the monster was fat like a sumo wrestler I don't think that it would scare me." Now she holds out her arms, her own ability to describe something large with arms so much larger than his contrasting sharply with his own efforts, "But if it was big - really big, like the size of a building - that would probably scare me. I don't think that I could fight that." Well, maybe... She'd probably go for the eyes and hope for the best.
And she's enjoying the amusing conversation so much that she almost kicks herself when she realizes that she pretty much ruined it by mentioning what is probably the only fear shared by all nations. She nods solemnly when he agrees that it's scary to lose people. "When you are old enough, it will be your duty to take care of your people and keep them safe. You must never be too scared of something else to do that job," she quietly cautions, but leaves it at that. She doesn't wish to dwell on such an unpleasant topic.
Though it directly relates to his situation with Germany. She's actually completely unaware of Germany's... demographic restructuring. And if she was told about it she wouldn't feel any particular way about it - after all, it's not like this is the first time anyone has committed genocide. In fact, she's so jaded about it that it would take it happening to her for her to really care about it. Which is why she's somewhat more focused upon the idea of freedom than she is the idea of the actual physical safety of one's people. "Is your brother not grown up enough to take care of both of you without help?" she asks - an honest question, not a rhetorical one, as she doesn't remember what Romania looks like. The mere fact that he has a little brother that he's taking care of doesn't necessarily mean anything - nations who can hardly look after themselves sometimes end up with younger siblings, after all.
"Oh..." When explained the difference of a good and bad friend, Viku slowly nodded in understanding. He certainly didn't understand the whole scenario or how that would possibly play out, but it was simple enough for him to at least understand that there was a clean cut of the blacks and whites of the world. As he would grow older he would learn the concept of grey as well, but that was for more in the future, when he could comprehend such mix. For now, simplicity was best. Perhaps that was why storybooks too were made with such idea; there were goods and bads, and rarely any in between. Only once the targeted audience was mature enough did they slowly throw in the characters that were not the brave warriors or the fire breathing evil dragons, but someone who could be both good and bad at the same time and switch roles. Again, a thought for another time.
For now, Viku was just picking up on what the female nation was trying to teach him, or rather, introduce into his sheltered mind. Friends wasn't something the boy regularly spoke or thought of, so any information at all were greeted with an open mind and curious questions to analyze the said concept. "So, do chu know wight away which people are good fwiends, and which ones are bad?" He asked, his head tilting to the side slightly in thought. "I wanna make good fwiends. Bad ones are bad, and bad ones make me bad too, da? That's no good. I don't want bad." As any child his age wanted, he wanted to be the good guy. The hero of the storybooks, the prince that would rescue a princess in fairytales, the brave knight that beat up the bad monsters in the adventure stories. And those portrayed characters never had 'bad friends' on their side... Did they? Viku couldn't recall any that did, at least.
"Kung Fu...?" Viku repeated the unfamiliar word when asked if he ever heard of it. The conversation of the monsters they were regarding to faded away rather instantly as the attention was now shifted to this strangely named... Activity? Viku wasn't sure what it was called, was beginning to be explained briefly. He shook his head from side to side in response to whether or not he heard of it, only to widen his brown eyes in amazement when he heard China invented it. He wasn't sure what it was exactly, but inventions were good, right? He believed so! They were new things, and the child loved hearing of them! So when it was hinted that it would help fighting, Viku grinned and was back up on his feet again, making a few hitting motions in the air. "Ohh, so it's for fighting? I can do fighting, too! See? I do wike this," he made a few punching motions and tried to kick, only ending up slamming his butt right onto the floor when he raised his foot for a good kick, "Oof! Mn... I still do wots of pwactice for kick, da? I do good though. I do wike this, und be stwong! A big boy has to be stwong!" He babbled on, trying to portray himself as someone tough, despite his pudgy appearance. "Und, that way, monsters go away." Now he was tripping over his own story, but he didn't care. He was sharing information, and regardless of it being true or not, it made him feel mature. Like a grown up, like all the others in this party!
"Und, I be stwong, und that way I keep people safe, too." He concluded, taking a deep breath to end it right there. As if all he said was connected, that he was speaking in a coherent slide. He however frowned up to her when she asked about his brother, quickly leaning in from his seated position, crossing his legs and putting his hands on his knees to lean forward. "He big," Viku replied, his eyes giving a clear glint as he spoke, "He big und stwong! He big, but Viku haf to make sure he no do crying. He do lots of crying..."
"Không," Vietnam replies with a quick shake of her head, "Sometimes you don't know for a very long time, but then you figure it out." And, still trying hard to keep it very simple, she leaves it at that. She figures that if he'll ask if he has any further questions, but now that he understands the basic and very important point of what she was trying to say she is content to leave it at that instead of going into even more depth unless it's his idea to do so.
"You haven't heard of Kung Fu?" she asks in surprise when he questions it. While she's completely used to everyone in the West not knowing anything about her and her culture, she's equally used to almost everyone everywhere knowing at least a few things about her eldest brother and his culture. She now gets to her feet, but leans over a bit so that she's not towering over him too much - she's not very tall even though she's an adult, so that isn't too difficult. She watches his kick with wide eyes, and laughs softly when he falls to the ground - a light, happy sound and not the least bit mocking in nature. "Vâng, I'm sure you're very good at scaring away monsters," she agrees.
Suddenly, there's a subtle change in her demeanor - the amusement in her features is replaced by a very serious and focused expression as she straightens and focuses all of her attention at a point in the air to one side of her. Then, so quickly as to be difficult to see, she kicks high into the air at that spot. At first glance her ao dai appears to be a dress - one with a narrow skirt that might be very restrictive to her movements. However, there is a slit up both sides all the way to her waist and underneath it she wears a pair of very loose bottoms, so her movements are hardly restricted by her clothing at all. So even in her most formal attire, she's able to demonstrate a very quick and controlled kick, her breath coming out in a sharp, "Hah!" And for an instant she looks very fierce and dangerous.
But only a moment later, her foot is back on the ground and a very warm smile comes to her face - it's as if that didn't happen and she's back to 'normal'. And she tilts her head in thought as he answers her question about his brother - who is a fully grown nation in his own right, from the sound of it, but perhaps not a very strong one. Well, she feels sorry for his little brother then - she herself has very strong siblings for the most part, which has been a problem of its own at times but she believes that's better than having siblings who can't protect you. Then again, she has siblings that are strong enough to protect her but choose not to - and that's its own problem. "I'm sure that the war was very hard for him," she says gently, a note of compassion in her voice.
