First Hetalia story, so I'm kind of nervous. Heh, heh, I feel awkward too…and excited at the same time. Well, I hope you enjoy this. :)

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Entering homes of friends and relatives without permission or a warning was a rather bad habit Alfred F. Jones had picked up on. The second he entered, expecting to be yelled at for being rude by his half-brother, Matthew Williams, Alfred was greeted with silence, though it was occupied with a wild drum riff in the distance. Smiling to himself, Alfred made himself at home, listening to the beat, Matthew would normally play whenever he got bored, was stressed or whenever he needed to practice for a performance. Matthew was dying to perform publicly too, hoping that he'd finally be noticed, Alfred had happily agreed to help his relative out, asking the school principal for permission to use the auditorium on Wednesday that week.

Whistling The Star Spangled Banner to himself, Alfred tossed a leftover cheeseburger in the microwave, tapping in the desired time to heat up his snack. He'd go upstairs and rudely surprise Mattie later, right now, he was starved. Having thought about it for a while, Alfred was going to ask Matthew if he could sing a song with him just for kicks, Alfred loved performing publicly, but had only done so twice, that was back in grade school, when he was nine. Teachers had praised him for having such a great voice and had offered his parents some chances at getting Alfred noticed, without Alfred knowing of course. Even though his parents had declined, Alfred still fought alongside Matthew to be noticed, though Matthew more than Alfred.

Reverting his whistling to humming, for his cheeseburger prevented him from doing so, Alfred burst into Matthew's room, making the boy squeak and drop his drumsticks. Laughing, Alfred apologized and made himself comfortable on Matthew's bed, eating his cheeseburger obliviously as Matthew glared at him.

"Hey Mattie, I was thinking about it lately, would it be fine if I sang a song with you for your performance on Wednesday?" swinging his legs like a child as he asked his question, Alfred ignored the slight shock that painted itself on his half-brothers face. Matthew probably expected to be playing alone, albeit it being a scary thought, he was hoping that Alfred would ask him this very question, like always, Alfred was destined to outshine him one way or another. Thinking it over, Matthew knew that he'd hurt the American if he rejected him, but something in the back of his mind told him to let him just so he wouldn't have to deal with an upset Alfred.

"Uh, I guess you could, what song do you have in mind?" he finally asked after his brief moment of solitude. Alfred beamed at this and jumped up, rummaging through Matthew's collection of CD's, some being Alfred's for when they guy came over abruptly. Matthew had never put the CD's in any type of order, so it was bound to be hard to find the one Alfred was looking for, they owned over three hundred by the way.

"I was thinking of something from Secondhand Serenade, or School Boy Humor ya know? The girls would totally dig us if we did," the American smiled, pulling out two CD cases that were far away from each other in the collection. Matthew tilted his head slightly, Alfred was a heart throb with the girls and it kind of irritated the Canadian, the two of them looked like twins for heaven's sake and Alfred still got more females around him.

"I would've chosen Green Day," Matthew mumbled, tapping a drumstick against one of the drums lightly, earning a catchy beat. "I didn't think you'd ask me now, I mean, I've already chosen a riff to play too and we'll need a guitarist and the such," he added, waving the other drumstick while still keeping the beat with the other. Alfred momentarily bobbed his head to the taps, but halted his actions, plopping down on Matthew's bed once more.

"Well, yeah, I know we'd need one, that's why I already arranged that," Alfred pointed out with a bright smile. Matthew's hopes fell even further at that, now he was forced to play with other people, count on Alfred to make him sour for the rest of the day. Huffing, Matthew reluctantly agreed to it and heard that Kiku, Alfred's Japanese friend, would be their pianist. "Got a guitarist in mind? I could as Gilbert, but he's kind of an ass and would ruin everything…"

"I-I could ask Francis…" Matthew blushed at mentioning his crush. Alfred's thoughtful frown disappeared and was replaced with a happy, yet sly smile as he clapped his half-brother on his shoulder, agreeing that Francis would be a great idea. Francis played guitar, but never had performed for anybody that Matthew knew of, he had played for him once and Matthew was blown away at how good the guy was at it. Matthew had tried guitar himself once, but all he got was sore fingertips and always ended up being frustrated, Francis had played a soft song for him, so Matthew didn't know if he could play something he and Alfred had in mind. "I'll see if he can play the song we're going to sing, could you postpone our performance?"

"Of course I can, I already did too, don't worry, I've got this all planned out!" flashing his signature smile, Alfred went as far as adding a thumbs up and a wink. Matthew could only slouch in the stool he sat on, feeling defeated, there went his only chance at fame, this would be a fifteen minutes of fame moment, he could just tell and the thought kind of got him down. Matthew almost told Alfred to cancel the gig, but knew that it was ridiculous, besides, it was probably just nerves and instinct getting to him. Two weeks from now, he'd be at photo shoots, doing interviews and being noticed for once. That thought lifted his spirits a bit and slammed the drumsticks down on the drums, starting a riff without warning Alfred, which much so Matthew's amusement, jumped with a girlish yelp.

Alfred hadn't expected for Matthew to up and start a riff without telling him, the Canadian always made sure to tell someone something would happen beforehand, so this was sort of unexpected, maybe he was just happy. Alfred smile, Matthew never seemed to be happy these days and sadly, he didn't know that the cause of his unhappiness was he himself and his popularity in school. His popularity wasn't as full blown as Ludwig's, a German boy that had just recently moved to the States, the guy managed to rake in even more girls than Alfred and Gilbert combined and he didn't even try. Hell, Ludwig looked like he hated it, giving that he was getting intimate with that cute little Feliciano boy.

Sighing, Alfred heated up another cheeseburger, listening to the happy beat Matthew played upstairs. His popularity was enough to satisfy him, but the thought of singing publicly thrilled him, it was great, he had loved singing ever since he was little. It would also probably get him a little more famous too, outside of school wise that is. Alfred had remembered his childhood friend, Arthur Kirkland, the British boy would absolutely abhor a huge load of attention, that was for sure. Smiling forlornly to himself, Alfred also remembered that the boy had moved back to England a few years back, he missed him dearly and Arthur had never gotten the chance to visit him either even though he had promised to do so whenever he got the chance. Maybe he was lying, because who the hell was that busy at the age of seventeen? Err…Alfred couldn't even remember how much older Arthur was than himself, was it two years? Yeah, that sounded right.

The sound of the drums abruptly stopped and Alfred turned to look at the stair case, waiting for Matthew to emerge from the second floor. A minute passed, and the Canadian appeared with his small red and white phone pressed softly to his ear, listening intently to whoever was on the other side. Alfred, figuring that it wasn't anything that would concern himself, returned to waiting for his cheeseburger to heat up.

"Hey Alfred, when's the gig?" Matthew asked as he sat at the dinner table, resting his elbows on the table, the phone still pressed lightly to his ear.

"Next Monday, I even got the principal to advertise it," he gave a thumbs up, he knew that putting up flyers for their gig would attract more attention, though it was only in school. Alfred had told Matthew to tell people out of school and the boy had yet to do so, he didn't have many friends that didn't attend the school they attended. Matthew nodded and returned to his conversation with whoever was on the phone with him.

XXX

Alfred didn't exactly expect to get even more attention after the flyers were hung, but Tuesday, he had received so much more attention than he had Monday that week. Apparently there were some girls that had never heard of him, found his picture on the flyer attractive and hunted him down. Alfred, every now and then, saw the slightly bitter looks he received from some other male students, but ignored them, talking smoothly with the girls, kindly declining their offers of dates. Now that the gig was officially set to Monday next week, Alfred, Matthew, Kiku and Francis, who had just recently confirmed that he could attend, would have to practice every evening in the auditorium after school and at home.

He really enjoyed practicing with the other three as well. Kiku was great on the keyboard, Alfred never knew the boy could be so energetic whenever he played, but Francis had stated that music can do things to people. Matthew definitely fit that statement too, he was normally quiet, shy and a tad reserved, but that evening, he had played like he had never played before, going crazy one the drum set. Francis, who claimed to play calm music more often than high strung music like the one they were rehearsing, played like he had never even heard the term 'calm music'. It was funny, truthfully. They had decided to play American Idiot by Green Day and even though it was bashing on the country he was so proud of living in, Alfred agreed to sing it. It allowed Francis and Matthew to get their own little bits of attention, Kiku having play second guitar. Alfred was baffled when he had learned that Kiku was also rather impressive on the guitar, but not as much as when he touched the keys of a piano or keyboard. Another song would be Your Call by Secondhand Serenade, Alfred knew that Matthew down right adored that song, for the boy was in tears every time he heard it. Playing it was a whole different thing too, all four of them had gotten rather emotional after that and deemed it the last song to be played. The last one they had decided on performing would be Heaven by O.A.R.

"How about we start with Heaven, American Idiot goes next and of course, we've decided to end with Your Call," Kiku suggested, taking out a small palm sized notebook out of his pocket to write the order of the songs down. Matthew, Francis and Alfred had all agreed to that order after a bit of conversing about it.

"Man, I'm glad our school's so open to this kind of stuff," Matthew smiled, tapping his drumsticks together, maintaining a steady beat to Alfred's whistling. "This is all so nerve wracking, I'm surprised I'm even doing this," the Canadian continued, taking a shaky deep breath to show how nervous he really was. "But I'm super excited too."

"Yeah, don't worry too half-bro, we're going to be amazing," another flash of his signature smile along with a thumbs up got Matthew to smile a tad more, tapping his drumsticks together some more, creating a catchy beat that Alfred whistled some more to.

After their small break, they had decided to end their practice session with a quick run over what they were struggling with in each song before packing up to go home. The school provided the keyboard and drum set, so Matthew and Kiku had a little less to do than Francis did. Waving their goodbyes to each other, Kiku went one direction, Francis another, though sending Matthew a suggestive look and Alfred and his half-brother in a different one. They walked home in silence, Matthew still a tad red at the look Francis had given him when the four had split up to go home. Alfred continued to whistle happily on the way home, deciding to stay over at Matthew's for the night, having called his parents beforehand.

"Do you think we'll do good?" Alfred stopped his whistling to look over at his half-brother in slight confusion, though the look of doubt explaining the question to the American. Alfred wasn't exactly the kind of guy to get nervous about something, only worrying about it until the real thing was about to happen. Matthew on the other hand, dwelled on something days before it would happen and sometimes, months. Smiling Alfred placed a hand on Matthew's shoulder, gaining the Canadian's attention.

"I said don't worry about it buddy, we'll be amazing," his one thousand watt smile was probably blinding Matthew…

XXX

The week continued by almost uneventfully, excluding the extra attention three out of the four of them were receiving. Alfred watched as Matthew made them dinner, Alfred didn't exactly enjoy cooking food, for all he could do in that topic was microwave and boil. A certain shaggy haired blond with large eyebrows popped into his head at the thought of cooking and he had to chuckle to himself. Matthew sent him a strange look, but continued on with making their meal for the evening. Thinking of Arthur always made Alfred miss the other and feel nostalgic, so he always ended up having to change his thought pattern before it got any further, making him feel old.

Matthew's cell phone rang and the boy allowed it to ring a few times before actually picking it up. He greeted with his usual 'hello, this is Matthew Williams speaking, you might have the wrong number' Alfred had to snicker at the last part of the greeting. People always called Matthew, not intending to call the boy, so he had changed his usual 'hello this is Matthew' to what was stated earlier. Matthew's lips curled into a smile as whoever was on the phone seemed to intentionally call him, listening intently to the person.

"Alfred, Francis wants to speak with you," handing the cellular to his half-brother, Matthew resumed his meal making as Alfred took the device and pressed it against his ear, greeting the Frenchman with a casual 'sup?'.

"Ah! Alfred, our dear Arthur is coming over for the summer from Angleterre, and I mean for the whole summer," the guitarist announced, happiness evident in his voice. Francis had also known Arthur when he was younger, though the two always ended up arguing and fighting over the most of ridiculous of things. But none the less, Alfred was shocked, had Arthur forgotten his number, or had he intentionally called Francis first? Oh yeah, he had lost his previous cell phone…

"Really? That's amazing!" Alfred whooped, punching a fist into the air. Summer wasn't in a month, but he was happy to hear about this, now he had something else to look forward to. Francis had a habit of speaking something in French first before speaking it in English, it kind of irritated Alfred, but he let the guy talk the same sentence twice whenever he did so, which he was doing now, Alfred normally tuned Francis out until he heard an English word.

"I'm surprised he didn't call you first."

"Hah, I lost my old cell," Alfred chuckled sheepishly, itching at the back of his neck even though Francis wasn't physically present. Francis made a sound of understanding before asking to have Matthew be put back on. Handing the cell phone back to his half-brother, Alfred resumed to being bored, yet, there was a small amount of excitement. His childhood friend was coming over for the whole freaking summer, so Arthur did care about him, and that made Alfred smile, though, he'd have to ask Arthur why it had taken him so long to get a whole free summer. Who was busy at this age anyways?

Alfred, Matthew, Francis and Kiku hung out with each other more now that they were a self-proclaimed band. They practiced every evening after school and Alfred practiced with Matthew every night for as long as they could, normally until Matthew's wrists began to hurt since he hadn't played this extensively ever in his life. Matthew had said that Alfred was a great singer, though Alfred saw a small amount of bitterness in the boys eyes, he had decided to ignore it. Every now and then, Francis would come over to practice with them, Kiku doing the same thing, though less occasionally, being more busy with having to tutor someone.

It was now Sunday, and poor Matthew was so stressed that he couldn't even keep the beat on his drums. Alfred had told him to take deep breaths and sit still, but the Canadian had told him that sitting still felt impossible. Alfred knew that the Canadian would be even more stressed on Monday, especially right before performance, so he was seriously worried.

"Dude, if you keep stressing out like this on Monday, we'll never be amazing, just calm down," Alfred ordered, shaking the boys shoulder slightly. Alfred had to admit that he was a bit nervous as well, his hands shaking in the slightest. "We'll be fine as long as we stay calm," he added, smiling broadly and crossing his arms, puffing his chest out dramatically, which almost made Matthew laugh. That was a good sign. Matthew thanked his half-brother for helping and had given the practice another shot, nailing it. Alfred had stated that Matthew sounded professional and the Canadian had smiled widely at that.

"Hey guys! Devinez quoi?" looking up at the sudden intrusion, Alfred and Matthew looked at the excited young man standing at the door to Matthew's room. How the hell did he get in? Alfred thought that he had locked the door…"Guess what?" Francis finally asked in English.

"What?"

"The media's going to be there!"

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Devinez quoi – Guess what

Eh, heh, nervous, eh heh…Hope you guys are nice on this, it's kinda late at night and I'm kinda getting dull on the keyboard giving what time it is…Iggy isn't going to appear until probably next or the third chapter, probably even the fourth, though I doubt it. I really hope you like this and give it a chance, so please review, we all know that it's motivation :) Peace out my friends.