It started with a stare held too long and silent as well as mutual understanding to what may be forming.

Matthew knew it, and he did too.

They carried on like normal however as the past had always been too much to give up; the past was full of energetic and cheery childhood and the joy of a newfound parent through adoption yet they bore striking similarities to each other.

Matthew hid his feelings however from everyone else, and he knew that the man that he'd always called 'Papa' did too.

The Canadian did not tell his best friend who had always known all of his previous secrets and had doubled as France's best friend, and he knew that Francis had not told him as well.

Matthew did not tell his brother who would often hang out with him and relieve the boredom of his existence or the fear that everyone was forgetting about him.

How come he had to fall for the nation of love?
The one who raised him, so he tucked his feelings away and pretended that romance did not exist for the Canadian until he couldn't pretend anymore as life moved on and took him with it.

The flowers were the first for him to see when Papa came by to visit though they were only a friendly gesture and lit up the room in a bouquet of colors; Matthew was secretly glad to have received them and rushed to put them in a vase.

The second surprise to speed things up was a love letter full of confession though marked anonymously.

Matthew knew who it was from.

The third was a surprise outing with the Bad Touch Trio where Prussia and Spain casually left the two alone as if it had been their plan to set up a date all along.

The fourth was when the question for whether he liked to have a kiss or not was asked, and lips met lips.

Matthew knew himself to be fine with it when time passed, and he knew nationhood had never entitled them to be lovers nor family as being a nation was much more than that and involved the politics that Mattie would ignore from this moment onward or had already ignored in terms of who was who in the world of nations.

France was France, and he was to be loved by his shy Canadian no matter what regardless of history and politics.