Ivan loved to sit on Matthew's lap during world meetings. There was no explanation other than the fact that it was a very comfortable spot. And Matthew never made any protests, or at least, none that were audible over the yelling between the rest of the Allies.
It wasn't until the day that Alfred and Arthur had started arguing over Harry Potter that Ivan was confronted by the quiet Canadian. Alfred was all but standing on the table, looking down at the Brit who was verbally assaulting the rowdy American.
"You need more names Britain dude," Alfred was saying, glaring through his rectangular lenses. "Too many of your people have the name Harry."
"That's a blatant lie you ignorant git!" Arthur slammed his hands on the table and got close to Alfred's face.
"Really? Prince Harry, Harry Potter, Harry Styles, Harry Andrews, Harry Anderson. Seriously, find some new names like Jasper or something."
"Oh you're one to talk!"
Ivan's attention was dragged away by the soft tugging on his scarf. Normally he would've been angry, especially if it was someone other than precious little Matthew, but he wasn't. "Da?"
"C-could you p-please get off of me," Matthew's timid voice was almost inaudible over the scuffle being made not even ten feet away and Ivan was mildly surprised that he'd even heard him.
Ivan stood up but contrary to the idea of moving elsewhere he scooped Matthew up and sat down again, cradling the flushed Canadian. Matthew squeaked slightly when he was lifted from the seat and moved to the intimidating Russian's lap.
He didn't seem to want to argue anymore because he lightly buried his face into Ivan's scarf. A few moments later he seemed to realise what he had his face pressed against because he squeaked again and covered his face with his hands, knocking his glasses crooked, and causing Ivan to chuckle. His chuckling startled Alfred and Arthur into silence.
"Aiya!" Yao said, his deep brown eyes focused on Ivan. "What so funny?"
Ivan shook his head and smiled at Matthew. "Nothing, da?"
Matthew shook his head with wide, frightened eyes. Ivan didn't seem mad, which only made him that more frightened.
Ivan cooed softly. "Cute."
"Who are you talking to mon ami?" Francis asked, lake blue eyes scrutinising him.
Alfred blinked dumbly and glanced at Arthur as if he knew the answer. Arthur was looking just as vacant.
"You're drawing attention," Matthew whispered.
Ivan looked up at everyone else expectantly. No one really remembered what the meeting had been about. Francis had been flirting up Yao and getting nowhere in his sex life while Arthur and Alfred had been arguing.
When no one could answer his silent question he laughed, affectively sending shivers down everyone's spines. "I'll be leaving now." He stood up, still cradling Matthew, and left the world meeting.
No one argued.
Matthew wasn't entirely sure what to do. He looked around. He looked at Ivan. He looked at his hands. "Wh-what are you doing, eh?"
Ivan just smiled again, warmer than Matthew thought possible. "I seem to have lost my teddy bear," he spoke, violet eyes looking into indigo. "I can cuddle you instead, da?"
Matthew flushed again. "M-mon dieu." He averted his eyes again. "O-oui." He buried his face in Ivan's scarf again and the burly Russia smiled.
He'd got himself a cute Canadian cuddle bug.
"You'll become one, da?"
Matthew's voice rose. "Wh-what!?"
Haha! Happy birthday steelgray! I hope this isn't too terrible. Like I said, I lent my disks out to a friend and haven't gotten them back due to winter break so if they're terribly out of character I apologise to the extreme! So I exicited a bit of a head canon here, whenever Mattie is flustered he'll speak French. I don't speak French and Google translate is an arschloch so I used the little French I know, please excuse any inaccuracies. I hope you enjoyed this! I'm going to go make myself a hot cup of tea and wait the next hour until New Years and then I'll probably make some waffles or something. I don't know. ~Cat.