I have an issue with being a total Hetalia nut, so I have to add myself into the story, under a different name of course. ;3 Yes. This is fluffy. Because I'm in love with Canadians and I want to steal one for myself. So back off my Canadian. Only Gilbert can steal him. :3

By the way, yes, Elise is my good friend and fellow writer, Junewolfe. Thank you June, for being such an amazing person, and helping be my crack-writing-buddy! ;D

*Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia. Hidekazu Himaruya does. I envy him for this fact.


"You can't be serious." I sighed, exasperated. Of all the stupid things Alfred had gone and done, he had to go mingle with humans, who would die eventually—being nations, we don't die—and worst of all, they were females. Surely Alfred knew the consequences of…

No, I won't think of that right now.

My French influences were starting to mingle with my thoughts, confusing me, sending my mind into the gutter.

"I'm dead serious, bro." Al chuckled, placing a bottle of beer in my hand. "Drink up. You're gonna need it."

"No, I won't." I muttered, setting the bottle down on the table. "They aren't here yet."

"Oh." Alfred grinned sheepishly. "About that…"

"They're here?" I blanched, my lilac eyes searching for the females. "Where?"

"In the living room." It wasn't until Alfred said it that the sounds of girls laughing drifted to my ears. "Come meet them."

"I don't want to." I hissed, not at all comfortable with the situation. "Send them home, and let's not risk anything, okay?"

"I'd rather live in the dangerous side of things. I am the hero after all!" Al laughed loudly before heading towards the living room. I, finding it hard to leave his brother alone to the temptations of beer and women, followed him after closing my eyes to rub my temples, only to see he was gone, and there was only one girl in the living room now.

She had short brown hair that rested in gentle curls about her shoulders, just barely concealing blue-grey eyes as she leaned forward on the couch to get a look at the picture of Al and me on a fishing boat.

"That was taken last summer." I said, startling the girl. She jumped up, the notebook in her lap falling to the floor. Her cheeks turned bright red, ashamed of being caught, but caught doing what? So far, she hadn't been doing anything wrong.

"Sorry." She said quietly, leaning down to pick up the notebook. I noticed what she was wearing; a pair of denim shorts that were hardly mid-thigh, and a grey tank top with a skull on it. The weird part was that she seemed uncomfortable in them, pulling at the bottoms of the shorts or the tank, as though trying to show as little skin as possible. "Alfred said you were going to take me to the beach separate from them. Are you ready?"

"I guess." I had concluded there was no way anything good was going to come out of this, but who cared? "What's your name?"

"Paulius." She replied with a small, shy smile. I found himself smiling back at her, not at all feeling as though anything dangerous could come of a friendship with such a kind human. "But I go by Pauli. It's Lithuanian."

"Well, Pauli, I'm Mathew, but you can call me—"

"Mattie." She interrupted with a grin. "Alfred said you didn't like being called Mattie, but I think I can get away with it."

Wait, what just happened to the shy little girl? I was starting to like her…

"Come on." I held the door open for her, and she bounced out, still holding the notebook. Then, I locked the door, and led her to my jeep. The red paint stood out among the other darker cars, and I cursed under my breath about Al's insistence on that particular color.

"So, why exactly do you think you can get away with you calling me Mattie?" I asked her as I pulled out of the lot.

"Well," She paused to buckle her seat belt. "I have this friend who doesn't let anyone else touch this stuffed dog I gave him once. I'm the only one allowed to touch it. Not even his girlfriend can!" She seemed pleased with this news, and I found myself fascinated with how innocent she really seemed. How anyone who was her age—she appeared about eighteen—could possibly be that innocent was beyond me. "No one can touch his food; no one can touch his puppy, but me. So, if I can get away with stuff like that with a huge, muscles-the-size-of-the-Himalayas kind of guy, I can get away with calling you by the nickname you despise." She paused again, like she was thinking. "Maybe it's because I'm so annoying?"

"I don't find you annoying." I told her, not risking taking my eyes off the road to look into hers. I was thankful my blonde hair sort of formed a curtain so I didn't have to look her in the eyes.

It was going to be a long drive to the beach.


"An hour drive and we have nothing to do." Pauli mused, drawing circles on the window as we made our way to Galveston Island. She had her legs kicked up on the dash, the sun glinting off the smooth, slightly-tan skin. "Why don't we play a game?"

"A game?" I looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "Depends on what kind of game."

Alfred had an issue with making me play stupid games when we would drink with his friends. Most of the time it ended with someone being shoved into a closet with someone else and sitting there awkwardly until we were let out. Someone meaning me and Gilbert, seeing as how Alfred thought we were both in love with one another, simply because Gil actually remembered my name, and was my friend. Just that; a friend.

"Twenty questions, Morgie style." She beamed at me. Obviously this game was fun, or it was going to end with my death, either mentally or physically. Or both.
"Define Morgie style," I said, skeptical.

"I ask a question, you answer. You get three skips throughout the entire round, and you can't use the same question twice." She leaned her head back, closing her eyes. "The questions can be anything, preferably personal, and you can't ask anything lame." She drew out the 'a' in lame, and I chuckled, amused by her actions.

"Alright. Ladies first." I motioned for her to start.

"Oh, I forgot." She grinned at me evilly. "Rule number two; men first."

"What's rule number one?" I asked, confused as to where I had lost it.

"There is no rule number one." She winked at me, before waving her hand at me. "Come on, start!"

"Okay, what's your all-time favorite memory?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"The day I got into your jeep." She laughed before continuing. "No, it was when I was little my mom gave me a locket and told me that as long as I had it, she would be with me forever. I've put a slip of paper in it with names of everyone I love, along with a quote. Thank god it's a big locket."

I glanced at the hollow of her neck, noticing that the locket was actually not a locket, but a small bird cage on a chain. It wasn't huge, but it looked more clunky than anything. As I thought this over, I found my eyes lowering to the top of her tank top and to….

Stupid, stupid! Eyes above the neck idiot!

"My turn." She remarked, not having noticed where my wandering eyes had gone, nor the fact that I was blushing. Her eyes were still closed. "What's your worst memory?"

I honestly had to think about it for a while. Could I tell her about the dark days as I called them? I shrugged, figuring there was no problem with it.

"Well, I'm often mistaken for Alfred, and for a while I was being beat up because everyone thought I was him." I chuckled at the awful memory, glad things were better now that Alfred started behaving in public. "He was such a trouble maker, you know. But one day, all the mistaking, everyone forgetting me, all of that led to a deep depression. I was in it for a while. My worst memory was none of that though. It was realizing that I was in the depression. I was looking at my arms—I used to cut myself—and I saw the scars, and realized I was in the worst place."

"Soon I came out though, and things were better." I finished, smiling. I glanced over at her to see a tear was escaping her eye. "Whoa, I was the one who told the sad story! Don't cry."

"Alfred never told…" She paused, before smiling sheepishly. "I guess Alfred wouldn't tell me that. It's not like I ever really was as close as Elise was."

"How long have you and Alfred been friends?" I asked, curious. She made it sound like they had been friends for quite a while.

"I think it's been a year now." She looked out the window, lost in thought as she tried to remember. "Yeah, it was about a year ago, when school started. He was helping someone at our college, and Elise ran into him in the library. She was looking for a French book, and I was helping on the other side of the bookcase. They became friends pretty fast, and I was sort of the third wheel…" She trailed off, before gasping, and slapped my shoulder. "You so used up your question! No fair! I said no lame questions!"

"Maybe it wasn't lame to me." I laughed, entirely at ease. "Alright, I'll ask a better question. How old are you?"

"You can't do that!" She wailed, just as we got onto the causeway. "But I'm twenty one, freshly turned said age and… Oh we're already here."

"We still have time for one more question." I told her, wiggling my eyebrows.

YOU ARE NOT FRANCIS YOU IDIOT!

"I would very much like to learn how to do that eyebrow thingy." She giggled. "Okay, so here's my question. Do you find me the least bit annoying?"

"Yup," I winked at her, teasingly. "You're simply infuriating."

"Oh shut up! I'm serious!" She whined.

"No, I don't." I replied. "You're far from annoying.

I glanced over at her and saw that she was sitting there with her arms crossed, lip jutted out in a pout.

"You're being a baby." I told her, smiling again. "I don't think you're annoying."

"Whatever!" She turned to look out the window, but I saw the reflection of a smile in the window.

I drove until we reached the seawall, and I parked along the edge of the street. For once, the beach wasn't packed, and I found a spot easily, right behind Alfred's red car, where a girl who could have been Pauli's twin clothing-wise was standing, waving.

"Hey there!" Alfred called, running over. I could tell he was slightly drunk, and face-palmed; this was going to be an adventure in itself.


"Alright everyone!" Alfred clapped his hands together like a camp counselor eager to begin the fun. "All your bags are in the trunk of my car. I'm going to drive it down on the beach. Bad idea? Maybe. But if I ruin my car, who cares? I'm the hero!"

I shook my head at my brother. He was such an idiot, though I still loved him. His crazy antics usually caused my demise.

"Come on!" Elise grabbed Pauli's hand and dragged her down to the beach. I followed behind closely. I wasn't sure where Alfred had managed to get onto the beach, but he drove to where we were and parked the car. I didn't think it was legal, but hardly anyone was there, so it didn't matter.

Once Alfred opened the trunk, Pauli reached to pull her bag from the trunk of Al's car. As she leaned in to grab the red backpack, I noticed a small spot of color on her right hip. It was light cerulean, but I couldn't tell what it was from where I stood. With a teasing smile, blue-green eyes sparkling mischievously, Elise poked the spot of color.

"Remember that?" Elise asked as she pulled her dirty blonde hair into a loose ponytail.

"Ha!" Pauli grinned, her hair blowing around in the breeze. "I'm glad I don't!"

I noticed her cheeks, however, held a faint pink tint.

"Hey Elise!" Alfred had found a spot to lay out our 'camp,' and he was trying to put up the red umbrella we had brought along and stored in the back of his car. I hadn't even noticed he had taken it out. "Come help me!"

He was doing a terrible job, being drunk, and a laughing Elise went to help.

"They're good together, don't you think?" Pauli asked, leaning against the now-closed trunk of Al's car.

"Yeah." I said as Al pulled Elise closer, the cane of the umbrella the only thing between them, and it closed on them. "She balances out his idiot-o-meter."

"What are you talking about?" She laughed quietly, eyes wishfully on the couple. "She is his idiot-o-meter."

"I guess." I leaned against the car like her, hands shoved deep in my pockets.

"Are you okay?" Pauli asked, and I turned to see she was looking at me, worry clear in her blue-grey eyes, though the grey appeared to be taking over. She set a hand on my arm gently.

"Fine." I forced a smile, though in all reality, I wasn't okay. Alfred was always so happy, and yet I never was. He always was great with girls (especially Elizabeta) when I wasn't. He was also pretty great with guys, though that's another story. "Why don't we help them?"

I walked towards Al and Elise, and within ten minutes, Al, Elise, and Pauli were all playing in the water, and I was laying on the blanket we brought to sit on, 'soaking up the rays.'

I just wanted an excuse to stay away from Pauli.

What are you doing? She obviously likes you.

"Yeah, well it's forbidden." I thought back to myself.

Forbidden? Since when has that stopped Al?

"Never."

So what are you waiting for? Go get her before someone else does.

"I'm going to get Hell for this." I muttered as I decided to get up to join in with everyone. However, I found Pauli wasn't with anyone anymore. I sat up, looking up and down the beach for her. Elise and Al didn't appear to have realized she was gone. I stood then, really worried, but something hit my back. Legs wrapped around my waist, arms around my neck, and I automatically held the legs so whomever was trying to get on my back wouldn't fall.

"Surprise!" Pauli's voice said, and I laughed, relieved. "Didn't expect it, did ya Mattie?"

I found myself grinning. "Nope. Not at all." I headed towards the water, not letting her go.

"Hey Matt, glad you could finally join us!" Al yelled, a dopey grin on his face as he dunked Elise under. When she came up sputtering, I finally reached them.

"I told you I could do it!" Pauli said, giddiness in her voice. With that, I dropped her, causing her to go under. Like Elise, she came up sputtering. "Mattie!"

"Sorry, hands slipped." I winked at her, and she stood there, her arms akimbo, glaring at me.

"Did you finally let someone call you Mattie?" Alfred snickered, though I knew he had planned this whole thing out.

"Shut up Alfie." I grinned devilishly.

"Alfie?" It was Elise's turn to snicker.

"Oh shut up." Alfred snapped, splashing me with water.

After three hours and an epic water battle we had packed everything up, about to hit the town to shop. We were going to head back up to Kemah to go to the boardwalk.

Last Call for Kemah!

"Come on!" Pauli had ahold of my hand, dragging me to the weight station game. It was the third game we had played so far (preceded by the water gun and ball rolling games) and she refused to let me pay for it.

"Welcome, little miss!" The man who was working the game grinned at her. "Want me to guess your weight?"

"Yes." She looked like she knew she was going to win. "There's no way you can guess my weight."

I wondered if she knew they purposely didn't guess it to get people to pay for it.

"We'll see about this." He looked at her, sizing Pauli up. I hardly wanted to admit that what he was doing sent tendrils of hot jealously through me. "I'd say a hundred and six."

She stepped up on the scale, and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head; she only weighed ninety-eight pounds.

"Alright, which one do you want?" He motioned to three baskets of prizes. One held rubber inflatable dolphins, the other held inflatable crayons, and another held small stuffed bears. Naturally, Pauli took the purple crayon.

"You weigh less than I thought." I told her as I led her to where the band was playing.

"So?" She looked indignant, like what I said irritated her.

"It's a good thing." I chuckled. Alfred and Elise had gone missing a long time ago, and I glanced down at Pauli, who looked so much like a child with her innocent blue-grey eyes, clutching the crayon to her chest like I was about to take it from her. "Think you can dance with me and still hold that crayon, or are we going to have to get rid of it?"

She blushed, as though something I said embarrassed her. I blinked in confusion, curious as to what caused her cheeks to heat up like that.

"I think I can get rid of it for a bit." She replied finally, walking over to set the crayon to the side. When she returned, the song changed to a slow one.

Perfect timing, Francis Jr.

"Shut up." I thought to the voice in the back of my head as I pulled Pauli closer. We didn't dance traditionally, because honestly, I couldn't dance extremely well. Instead, her hands were resting against my chest, her head on my shoulder. My arms were around her waist, holding her close, as we swayed back and forth.

"You dance like a girl." Pauli giggled at me, and I looked down at her, an amused twinkle in my eyes.

"Really?" I took ahold of one of her hands before spinning her out quickly, and pulled her back flush against my chest. "Is that girly?"

She looked shocked, and just blinked up at me. I noticed the grey tint in her eyes was dissipating. I was wondering what it meant when I realized that my face got closer to hers. She looked like she was waiting for something, but I felt my stomach clench.

I can't be doing this. It's forbidden! I've only known her for

what, a day?

I pulled away abruptly and walked away towards the fountain that hid behind the Aquarium restaurant.

"Mattie?" Pauli came after me. I was a few meters away from the fountain when her hand on my arm stopped me. "Mattie, did I do something?"

I turned to see that she was looking up at me, sadness in her eyes mixing with tears. It hurt me that I was the reason they were there.

"No, it's not you it's-"

"Don't even use the 'it's not you, it's me' line!" She snapped, her eyes turning more grey than blue. "What's wrong, really? And don't tell me it's nothing."

"It's…" I trailed off, not sure how to begin.

"It's because you're not human, isn't it?" She demanded, poking my chest with her finger. I backed up, not liking this side of her at all. To be completely honest, it scared me. For Christ's sake she had me backed against a wall! "Alfred told us about you guys, and what happens when you fall for a human. Well, guess what? I don't care. You were about to kiss me right there, and then you just stopped."

There was an angry tear slipping down her cheek, and I wiped it away, my fingers lingering against her skin for a moment too long.

"Well." I took ahold of her shoulders, pulling her around so she was the one backed against the wall. "Let's just finish where we left off." I suppose my French influences were beginning to show, seeing as how I was never this… forward.

I claimed her mouth with mine, her body flush against mine. The fire that scorched its way down my throat scared me, but I pushed the thought aside as I pulled back, wiping her bottom lip with the pad of my thumb.

"Not what I expected." She laughed quietly, and I frowned, worried I had ruined something, but she played with the front of my shirt, curling and uncurling her fingers around it, much like a cat kneading. "I didn't expect you to just leap into it like that…"

"And the hero's here to save the-" Alfred came around the corner, and blinked in surprise. Elise was grinning at Pauli, and I was blushing up a storm, same as Pauli standing beside me. "I knew it! All those times you warned me about love, and yet here you are, falling into it headfirst."

"Shut up Alfred." I muttered, before looking down at Pauli. I got lost in her eyes again, and leaned in for another kiss just as a saw a camera flash.

"Smile!" Elise grinned, and waved her camera. Pauli covered the lens with her hand as our lips met.

Maybe loving a human wasn't that bad after all…


Okay, so this is officially my first story. I hope you enjoy! Lots of fluff for the good romance lover! ;3