Author's Note: Just a small fic cross posted from my AO3 that came from a Tumblr roleplay meme.
Violet eyes remained locked on the window, the large duffel bag by the door ignored in favour of the window. Due to the recent snow and extreme cold, everything outside was white and frozen over. The lake near his house was no exception, and as he moved his gaze to look it over he felt compelled to go out this instant and carve it up.
However, he had to wait until his brother arrived.
With much reluctance, the blond young man removed his gaze from the frozen lake to the path leading up to his house. While he was not surprised to see the path bare, he could feel slight irritation building up inside him as his brother remained out of sight. He knew the other was just as excited about winter as he was, and it had been forever since they had a friendly match with just the two of them. While it was fun to compete on an international stage, the blond missed the one on one games with his sibling.
Fortunately, his wait was nearly over.
A figure about his height and build suddenly appeared and was making great strides towards his home. One look told him that his brother was trying to contain his obvious excitement, and he had been doing a good job until he heard a familiar pounding on his front door.
The blond chuckled before rising from his seat to head to the door, managing to get to the doorway before it opened of its own accord.
"MATTIE!" The blond was immediately enveloped in what felt like a bone crushing hug by a man who could easily have passed for his twin. In fact, many often considered them to be twins.
"Nice to see you too, Alfie," he said, his words coming out almost as a wheeze until the other caught on and let him go.
"Sorry, Mattie. It's just been forever, ya know?"
"Oh I know, though you could pick up and call more often."
"Well I was going to, but you know how things are back home," Alfie, or rather Alfred, said as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
"At least you're here now, though I do hope you're ready to lose. The last match was simply a warm up."
"You mean the warm up you lost."
"We still won gold, and that was simply luck."
"Luck was nothing! We won because we were awesome!"
"You won't be saying that in February. The World Juniors were simply a taste of what's to come."
"Yeah yeah! Less talking and more moving! I don't want to be out there when another cold snap decides to happen." Which was one reason Alfred decided not to come visit his brother sooner. While it had been cold in his home, he knew Matthew's home was far colder.
Upon hearing his brother's words, Mattie, or Matthew, chuckled and reached for the duffel bag, slinging it over his shoulder before making for the hockey stick resting beside it. "Alright, alright. I'm coming."
With one of his trademark grins, Alfred Jones rushed out of the house and to the lake, leaving Matthew Williams to follow behind while shaking his head. For now he would let his brother be excited, because it wouldn't be long before he proved to the American why hockey was his national sport.
Fin