...

Ok, so after a month of absolute procrastination. Here it is! My first fanfiction...

I saw that America and Kumajiro didn't have any stories together so I just had to fix that!

Warnings for - Disturbing Dreams, Pickles, Theft, Tony, KumaCuteness, and Ahoge Abuse!

'Thoughts' - "Speech"

-(SC)- = Scene Change

I Own Nothing But This Foolish Story!

xXx xXx xXx

In Search of Maple

Chapter One - Maple Sky in the Morning

The evil alien invaders were attacking! Their numbers were too many to count, though Captain America was not afraid, not at all. He stood fearlessly atop a red double-decker bus, his awesome hero shield at the ready.

'Five more seconds.' He thought to himself as he eyed an oncoming personal hovercraft. Creeping over to the side of the bus he counted down in his head. 'Four, Three, Two, and ONE!' He leapt from the bus. His right hand latched onto the handlebar of the small craft, he then swung his body around and his feet connected with the giant grey head. With no chance to react the alien flew from it's seat and crashed to the ground where it promptly exploded.

"Too Easy!" Captain America grinned to himself as he settled into the previously occupied seat. "Now to the Mothership!" He shouted excitedly in his awesome hero voice.

There it was floating ominously in the crowded sky, their Mothership. A chill ran down Captain America's spine as he studied it. A blackened scone, that's what it looked like! He could smell it's vile stench from where he was. He released a shaky breath. "I must protect the world from this terror!"

Upon infiltrating the Mothership via craft port, Captain America then waged an epic war within the populated hangar.

These aliens were hideous! Naked grey creatures with enormous heads and bright red eyes. They were tall too, maybe 10 feet high or more! Of course they were no match against Captain America.

As the last of them fell…and exploded, a calm settled over the hangar, with Captain America stoically crouching in the center. In an overly dramatic gesture he rose to his feet like the superhero he was, when *WAM!* something hard collides with his head and he is sent flying.

"Nemesis.." Captain America grinds out through gritted teeth from his supine position on the cold hard floor. His shield now nowhere to be seen. 'Why does this dude always have to show up right when I'm about to save the world?' He closes his eyes in frustration, teeth still clenched. 'Seriously, what a freakin' jerk! I even go out of my way and offer him a place on my team, but Nooo he doesn't want to be MY backup!'

Captain America was brought back from his inner ranting by a heavy boot being placed on his chest. Bright blue eyes snapped open to stare into cold lavender eyes.

"Kolkolkol, why does little hero always wear tights?" His nemesis asked as he bent over slightly to put more pressure onto our hero's chest, eyes glinting with amusement.

"They're NOT tights!" Captain America snapped. "This is a hero's uniform!" With that said he began trying to wrestle the boot off of himself angrily.

Waiting patiently, with a child like smile on his face, Captain America's nemesis stood firm. When his prey finally stopped his senseless struggling, the larger man bent down a little more with a smirk. "Are you sure comrade? They look like tights to me."

Captain America's deadly glare was interrupted by a soft scarf tickling his nose. He swatted at it in annoyance. "There not tights, now get offa me. You smell like vodka and you're heavy." Our hero has been reduced to a whiny teenager...

A chanting of kol's brought the attention back to the offending man who was now holding - What was that? - No it couldn't be - 'Oh hamburgers I think it is!' He was holding a lacey pink tutu! "I am thinking you know ballet, da?" His expression was far too innocent to be believable, and if Captain America could actually read the atmosphere, he might be able to feel the malice in the air.

"No! No I don't - keep that girly thing away from me!" Captain America shrieked as he tried to fight off his nemesis.

"Kolkolkolkolkol…"

-(SC)-

"Oh my Founding Fathers, I don't know ballet!" Alfred cried as he awoke arms flailing. One undignified yelp later and he was on the floor in a tangle of sheets. Dazed azure eyes peered sleepily through messy wheat blonde hair just in time to see a large white ball of fur roll off the edge of the bed right after him. Before he had time to react the large furball crashed onto him knocking the air from his lunges and leaving him momentarily stunned.

A head appeared from the white ball of fluff and stared down at Alfred lazily.

"I'm hungry!" It cried in a demanding voice.

"Ka… Kuma… Kumajiro…?" Alfred finally said, still trying to regain his breathing.

"Who are you?" The little bear asked as he stared down at him, blankly this time.

"Oh… I'm Cana…-" Blues eyes widened as the teenager sat bolt upright causing the soft ball of fur to roll off of him and onto the floor.

"I'm America!" He shouted incredulously at the bear, now fully awake.

The little polar bear could care less as he got up and started plodding out the bedroom door and down the hallway. "I'm hungry!" being his only reply.

Alfred stared after him, suddenly lost for words. 'Kumajiro was in my bed… Ok… But why is Mattie's bear even in my house?' He tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy and frowned.

"Mattie?"

A crash from the kitchen reached Alfred's ears, making him jump, clearly startled.

"Oh crap!"

He was on his feet in an instant, however his advance towards the door was thwarted by his forgotten sheets that still held him in a tangle. One loud thump against a nearby wall and some aggravated grunts later, Alfred was out of his bedroom door and down the hall like a gunshot.

Hand on his forehead and heart pounding, Alfred stepped into the kitchen and scanned the area quickly.

Kumajiro looked up from the plain white tiled floor where he had fallen. There was glass everywhere. When he had tried to climb up onto the counter in the prospect of finding a potential snack he had gotten his paw snagged on the cord of a poorly placed coffee maker. Inevitably they both had come crashing down.

"Don't move!" Ordered a sharp voice from behind him. Kumajiro bristled at the tone of the voice and whipped his head around to view Alfred standing a little ways away. He didn't like the serious edge to his voice, it scared him a little, not like the ever calm and passive voice he was used to hearing. Though both voices were eerily similar.

Dark brown eyes met azure ones and Kumajiro felt himself calm down ever so slightly. Alfred was not angry, he only appeared worried. He had his right hand held up in a 'halt' gesture to get his point across to the little bear. "Stay right there and don't move anywhere. I will be right back."

Kumajiro hesitated for a second then nodded slowly. With that, Alfred turned and rushed out of the room. He returned a moment later wearing unlaced sneakers with no socks. The sound of crunching glass was heard as he walked safely over to the small polar bear.

Kumajiro felt strong hands grasp him under his arms and lift him gently into the air and away from the dangerous glassy mess he had caused.

"What a way to start the morning, huh?" Alfred said with a chuckle as he set the bear onto the surprisingly clean counter, now void of a coffee maker.

Kumajiro huffed and crossed his arms in front of his furry chest, he then turned his head away from Alfred sulkily. "Sorry." he grumbled while peeking at him from the corner of his eye.

"Don't worry." Alfred said, reaching into the walk in pantry and grabbing a broom from just inside the small room. "It's only a small mess after all, I'm just glad you didn't get hurt. Mattie would have been pissed." He explained with another chuckle.

"Well, I guess this puts an end to my morning cup of coffee today." Alfred sighed as he ran a hand through his bad bed head, due to excessive tossing and turning. "So little dude-" He said now turning to the white bear. "Where's your owner, huh?"

Kumajiro still had his little arms crossed and glared at him with obvious grumpiness. Alfred laughed quietly at the little pouting bear then reached into the cupboard above Kumajiro's head and pulled out a box of maple leaf crème cookies. The little bear's eyes locked onto the box immediately, his foul mood left behind with anticipation taking it's place.

"Don't eat them all, I doubt Mattie wants you to eat cookies for breakfast."

Kumajiro ignored him as he snatched the box out of Alfred's hands. Alfred just rolled his eyes, he was used to the furry creature's snooty attitude.

"Ok… while you're busy here, I'm going to go find my brother."

Alfred walked back into his bedroom and frowned when he noticed an empty bed. Shrugging, he made his way to a pile of clothes in the corner and started tossing left and right in hopes of finding some that were decently clean. After a few seconds he slowed down.

"What the crap?" He sniffed a black and gold hoodie in one hand then smelled a blue T-shirt in the other. He threw them to the side as well, opening and closing his hands afterwards. "Why do all of my clothes smell like pickles!?" He tried wiping his hands off on his boxers. "And why are they all sticky?"

Groaning, Alfred stood back up and gave the rest of his clothes an evaluating look. "Dude, Tony. We went through this last week. My clothes are not the enemy."

Kumajiro watched from where he still sat on the counter as Alfred appeared from the hallway, arms full of dirty clothes. A pair of glasses were now present on his face, shielding the world from his icy glare. "This sucks. I hate doing stupid laundry..." He grumbled as he passed the small bear and turned a corner disappearing again. Kumajiro crunched into another cookie and let his eyes follow the trail of fallen clothes back to the bedroom.

Alfred opened a small folding door and dumped his load of pickle wreaking clothes onto the washer lid. "Freakin' gross!" He cried as he peeled a sticky black sock off of his bare chest. A light from under the hallway bathroom's door caught his eye when he was reaching for the detergent. He stopped what he was doing and rushed over.

Most people would probably knock first but…

"Mattie!" Alfred yelled as he yanked the door open unceremoniously.

Empty.

"Mattie?" He said again as he pulled open the shower curtain.

Empty.

"Huh, I must have left the light on again." Alfred sighed dejectedly. He then eyed the shower, becoming uncomfortably aware again of how sticky he was right at that moment.

Ten minutes later, Kumajiro spotted Alfred coming back from where he had gone, now with only a towel around his waist and wet. Another smaller towel was in his right hand as he tried to dry his hair and walk at the same time. Alfred came to a stop behind the living room couch and stared absently at the blank TV. Kumajiro watched him uninterestedly as the teen tossed the wet towel he was holding onto the back of the couch, then brought his arms over his head and stretched causing a few vertebrae to pop noisily. Alfred let out a loud yawn afterwards.

The teen's eyes wandered over to the front door, where he noticed a familiar white travel bag. A mischievous grin spread across his face.

Without any moral hesitation, Alfred had unzipped his brother's luggage and was now rifling through his neatly packed clothes. A week's worth of clothing was now strewn across the floor, along with other personal possessions. Alfred abandoned his towel and slipped into some clean clothes that mysteriously smelled of maple. They fit perfectly like always.

"Hey, Kumajiro~" Alfred called childishly as he walked over to the kitchen counter. The small polar bear looked up at him blankly, like he hadn't just seen the teen strip down in the living room and steal his owner's clothing from his bag.

"Does this make me look unpatriotic?" Alfred asked and he turned around in a circle, arms held out in a questioning manner.

Kumajiro gave him an unamused stare as he finished off the last cookie in the box. "Who are you?" the bear asked, after swallowing.

"I know right? That's exactly what people are going to say." Alfred replied despairingly. He was wearing Matthew's red and white hoodie. The one with the big red maple leaf on the back, and some faded blue jeans. He had chosen this selection over an artistic T-shirt with a beaver on the front of it, another artistic shirt, this time with a moose on the back, and two hockey jerseys, one for the Toronto Maple Leafs the other for the Montreal Canadians.

"Well, whatever. Its not like I have to go to anywhere important today anyways." Alfred caught sight of the empty cookie box next to Kumajiro. "Hey! You ate them all!"

The small bear looked away from him and licked his paw to focus on something else. He still didn't like the sharp tone directed at him.

"If you get a stomach ache, that's all on you." Alfred chided as he grabbed the empty box and walked around to enter the kitchen. Tossing the box into the trashbin, he then pulled open the refrigerator door and peered inside. Milk, eggs, orange juice, butter, mustard, ketchup, and a jar of pickles. Alfred glared at the pickles, remembering the smell of his clothing from before. He shut the door loudly. He had the ingredients to make a proper breakfast, but simply deemed himself too lazy this morning to do so.

"You want to go out for breakfast?" Alfred asked as he looked over at the bear who had just eaten a whole box of delicious cookies. "Well, you're probably not hungry, but I am. I still have not had my coffee yet either." He grumbled with a pout now on his face.

"I bet Mattie wants some breakfast!" Alfred exclaimed, instantly cheerful again.

Alfred quickly searched the house again, looking for his brother. A second glance into his bedroom, no Matthew. He checked the spare room at the end of the hall. Yes, he did actually have a spare room, he knew his brother wouldn't use it though. Like he thought, no Matthew. He checked the second bathroom, again slamming the door open without thought of consequence, but his brother was not in there either. Growing confused, Alfred began checking unlikely places now, like the hall closet and the pantry.

Still, no Matthew.

'Is he on the couch?' Alfred shook his head. 'Nah, he woulda' caught me messing with his stuff.' The teen paused for a moment to think of more possibilities.

"Only one more place I haven't checked."

With a quick turn he marched back into the walk in pantry.

"There's no way he'd be in there."

After another short pause, he reached out and grabbed a fake brightly colored cereal box.

"Better check anyway." He decided aloud and pulled it forward half an inch, then turned it counter clockwise 30 degree's. Alfred let go of the box and watched as a hidden door hissed as it depressurized and slid open slowly with a waft of green mist for dramatic effect.

"Hey Tony~ Is Mattie down here?" Alfred called out as he poked his head into the large dark room that used to be his basement. It was now lit up with numerous bright and blinking lights attached to bizarre heavy equipment. Monitors scattered the walls showing different locations around the outside of the house and some other undisclosed locations.

Tony looked up from his glowing computer screen and greeted his friend and housemate with a few pleasant obscenities. What may have sounded like a simple and mindless stream of colorful insults was translated perfectly within the teen's brain and made into useful information.

"He's not? You did see him come in last night, right?"

"Fucking." Tony nodded.

"Around 1am? Dude, that's late."

"Bitchy!" Tony exclaimed.

"Totally dude! That's awesome!" Alfred beamed. "Ok, later dude."

He turned to leave but stopped and poked his head back into the cold room full of beeping noises.

"One more thing."

Tony spun back around in his swivel chair to face the teen.

"I thought we came to an agreement last week about you not destroying my clothes." Alfred rubbed the back of his neck in slight annoyance but kept his happy face on, eye twitching slightly. "I'm kinda running out, ya know? At least this time I can just wash them but last time you sort of set them on fire, and the time before that, they totally melted when I was still wearing them! Seriously dude, what the crap?"

Tony said nothing, he just kept staring at Alfred with his large red eyes.

"Right… we'll talk about this later. K?" Alfred concluded with a nervous chuckle. He then retreated from the room and closed the door behind him.

-(SC)-

"Ok bear dude, where's Matthew?" Alfred asked as he came back into the kitchen to stand in front of the small polar bear.

"Who?"

"My brother, where is he?" The teen asked again, growing impatient.

"Who?"

"Canada! You know, your owner?"

Kumajiro stared blankly up at Alfred. The silence was broken by a low rumble. The teen grimaced and put a hand over his stomach.

"You know what? Screw this I'm hungry." Alfred ran a hand through his now mostly dry hair, expertly missing Nantucket. He sighed after pushing his glasses up again. An idea struck him then and he grinned. "I'll just call him. He's gotta be somewhere close by."

After treasure diving in the couch cushions and finding 51 cents and a long lost TV remote, twice replaced, Alfred pulled out his iPhone. He pocketed the change then pressed Matthew's number. Canadian, Please, promptly started to play behind him. Confused, Alfred looked over his shoulder. A faint glow came to life from within his brother's half emptied travel bag.

Alfred picked up the small red cell phone by its cute little polar bear charm and dangled it in front of his face.

'Seriously?' He stared at the small device skeptically for a moment longer, watching it spin slowly by it's delicate chain. Tiring of listening to Canadian, Please, that was no doubt already getting stuck in his head, because of it's frustratingly upbeat and catchy tune, Alfred flipped the phone open to silence it. A deceptively large display picture popped up to greet him. Upon seeing it, he felt his face instantly flush in embarrassment.

"Who the hell took this picture?"

It was a shot of Matthew and himself in a booth at a local diner. They were popular for their breakfast selections. The picture was taken at an angle where he could clearly see his brother's smirking face as he pretended to read a newspaper. On the other side of the booth he could see himself "stealthily" reaching across the table and stealing one of Matthew's pancakes from his plate. Alfred bit his lower lip. They had argued about that, that day and he had vehemently denied taking any.

"If you had proof this whole time, you could have just told me!" Alfred cried out, now unmistakably flustered.

After replacing Matthew's display picture, he decided that it was his brotherly duty to snoop through the contact list. 'Lets see … Me, Francy Pants, Artie, Peter - Who the crap is "Lars"?' Cocking his head to the side, he continued down the list. With a wry smile, he quickly deleted Cuba's number and as an afterthought, he also deleted the number of that "Lars" character. As a finishing touch, Alfred concluded his brotherly meddling by changing the Canuck's ringtone back to Canadian Idiot.

Alfred dropped the tiny cell phone with the cute little polar bear charm back into the white travel bag and returned to Kumajiro.

"Ok, so I can't just leave you here alone, and neither of us know where Mattie is at the moment. So-" He shrugged "I guess you'll just have to come with me."

When Alfred reached the front door and put his shoes on, he noticed the little bear was still sitting on the kitchen counter awkwardly. Realization hit him and he made his way back to the bear.

"Sorry about that, dude." He said as he picked the polar bear up carefully and set him back on the hardwood floor. Alfred turned to walk back to the door but a tug on his, er, his brother's jeans stopped him. He looked down at the bear who now had his arms reaching up to him.

"Carry me." Kumajiro demanded shortly, as if it was obvious.

"Dude seriously? Can't you just walk?" The little bear growled softly as he motioned to be picked up. Alfred sighed and conceded for now, remembering that Matthew carries the little guy around everywhere.

Kumajiro felt himself being hoisted into the air and into the teen's arms.

"Lazy." They both grumbled in unison.

One awkward silence later and Alfred began laughing. "I'll only admit it, if you do, Bear Dude."

"Never." Kumajiro replied as he tried to get more comfortable in his arms. Alfred simply did not know how to hold the little bear properly, that much was apparent when he shifted the bear's weight and draped him over his left shoulder while supporting him with one hand.

Alfred got as far as his driveway before Kumajiro started struggling to get comfortable again.

"Hey, careful!" He snapped as the bear climbed all the way onto his shoulder, nearly knocking Texas off his face. Alfred hissed when he felt a sharp claw accidentally dig into the side of his neck. The little polar bear finally came to a stop, his back legs dangling on either side of the teen's shoulders and his head rested on top of the other's. He loosely curled his furry arms around Alfred's neck to hold on.

"Are you done?" Alfred bit out testily as he tried to adjust to the new weight on his head.

"I'm hungry." Kumajiro called down from his new outlook post.

"No way dude, you just ate a whole box of cookies like half an hour ago." Kumajiro tightened his grip around Alfred's neck ever so slightly. Alfred sighed. He knew the little bear was having a major poutfest on his head now. "Fine, but don't tell Mattie I gave you a second breakfast."

Walking up to his motorcycle, Alfred had to rethink his plans. Sure he could probably get to where he was going safely with Kumajiro with him. But he had a horrible nagging feeling hovering over him, accompanied by an image of his brother whisper-shouting at him about how reckless and stupid the idea was. One last image of Matthew's disapproving face and Alfred sighed aloud and turned away from his bike.

"Oh man." Alfred whined "This is going to be maybe a 30 minute walk. This blows."

Five minutes later. "Kuma, you're heavy." came another whine from Alfred.

Ten minutes later. "I think I'm getting a cramp in my neck, Bear Dude." came yet another complaint.

Fifteen minutes later. "Are we there yet, this is boring." Alfred was now slouch walking down the sidewalk.

Kumajiro had successfully ignored the teen for the most part and was now preoccupied with watching an odd wayward hair bounce happily in time with Alfred's steps. It wasn't like the long curl that he usually couldn't reach, this intriguing tuft was right in front of his face, almost taunting him.

Alfred was still coming up with complaint after complaint as he trudged down the sidewalk, when a warm tingling feeling ran down his body. He swerved, momentarily loosing his balance, and almost crashed into a streetlamp.

"HEY! Don't touch that!" Alfred yelled up at the bear as he attempted to jerk his head away.

Kumajiro glared down at the teen's head. All he did was lick the stupid hair, nothing horrible, so why did he get yelled at again? The small bear was getting tired of that sharp tone he kept hearing. Well fine, if that little lick caused so much trouble, Kumajiro would give his escort something worthy to shout at. With his mind set, the little polar bear then chomped down on the golden cowlick and started chewing.

Alfred's eyes widened in horror as an unusual cry tried to violently escape from his lungs. Instead it was caught in his throat on the way out, causing something that sounded more like an elongated squeak instead. Alfred bit down hard on his bottom lip as hot shockwaves relentlessly surged up and down his body. A second later his legs gave out from under him and he face planted onto the cracked concrete sidewalk. Kumajiro tumbled down after him and landed on his head with soft thud. This was not what the small bear had expected but he still counted this incident as a personal win against his owner's doppelganger.

Five minutes past and Alfred still had not stirred. Now Kumajiro was starting to get a little worried. He had already tried poking him in the head, chewing on his leg, pulling at his shoelaces, and bouncing on his back, but to no avail, the teen hadn't woken up.

Alfred released a muffled groan as his consciousness came back into focus. He felt two small warm paws pushing at his shoulder.

"Wake up!" Came a small demanding voice.

To the protest of his now aching body, Alfred slowly pushed himself from the concrete and sat back on his knees.

Relief washed over Kumajiro, not that he would admit it, however. At least he hadn't broken him. The little polar bear rolled backwards and plopped down on his bottom. Kumajiro watched as Alfred removed his miraculously undamaged glasses and rubbed his eyes with care before putting them back on his equally undamaged face. Now Kumajiro might not have the best memory, but this seemed pretty normal to him.

With a massive headache already throbbing behind his eyes and a now sore body, Alfred glowered down at the little polar bear. "Dude, why do you hate me?"

Kumajiro narrowed his dark brown eyes at the teen then held up one short furry digit. "One, my name isn't Bear Dude."

Alfred blinked, this actually wasn't the first time he had been scolded by his brother's bear, but it really didn't happen often. "Ok, I'm sorry Kumajiro. Anything else?"

"Two." Kumajiro continued as he held up his second finger. "Stop yelling at me, you're too loud."

Alfred opened his mouth to present his usual protest to the claims that he was in fact loud but then closed his mouth with a sigh.

"Fine, would you prefer me to start speaking like this around you from now on?" He asked, while almost perfectly mimicking his brother's quiet voice. Kumajiro gave no response to this, only held out his furry arms in a pick me up gesture with a quiet huff. Alfred rolled his blue eyes and stood up.

Being lifted from the ground again, Kumajiro felt himself being turned around to face forward as arms wrapped around his chest and under his armpits. This felt familiar he thought as he tilted his furry head back to look up at Alfred.

"I now see why Mattie carries you this way." Alfred said with a quiet laugh, still using his brother's mock voice. The thought that 'This might not be so bad after all.' came over Kumajiro as he chose to ignore Alfred's last comment to watch the scenery pass by as they continued down the sidewalk.

xXx xXx xXx

~(WMD)~

Where's Matthew? Find out in the next chapters

I fixed some things finally.

That dream in the beginning was really ridiculous, huh? lol

Alfred, you and your Hero complex! XD

Please don't forget to leave me a review. They are so very important to me afterall~