Author's note: In this canon, Canada and America are brothers. I'm trying to stay as close to the series as possible so no slash, and no human names. I have more of this particular fic on my computer, so if you like it, review and I'll post more.

*Bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt*

Canada gracefully lifted his arm and pressed the snooze button with just enough force for the alarm clock to stop all while keeping his head face down in his pillow.

Just a few more minutes and then...

His thoughts were interrupted by an epiphany as he quickly sat up.

That's right! America is coming over today!

With a smile on his face he gently nudged the white mass of fur next to him.

"Kumatento, it's time to wake up."

"I'm Kumajirou"

The white bear murmured his correct name to Canada while lethargically rolling over to face his owner.

"Who are you?"

Canada had grown accustom to the morning greeting and answered like clockwork.

"I'm Canada, and you need to get up now so we can be ready when America gets here."

With a sparkle in his eye and a bounce to his step, Canada slid on his glasses and proceeded downstairs to the kitchen while his hungry, furry companion followed suit.

Despite his loud boisterous attitude, annoying laugh, ignorance toward world geography, bad taste, egocentric agenda and crude language; Canada really did enjoy his bordering country's company. He could be a little rough sometimes,

memories flashed of being hit in various locations by a very fast baseball

but at least he was being acknowledged. Ok, so maybe it wasn't brotherly companionship at first sight, but America had grown on him. I mean, America was his only bordering country, his only brother. America had his moments, he wasn't a complete jerk. Though his actions were sometimes a bit hasty, his intentions were mostly in the right place.

At this point, Canada was in the kitchen mixing a delicious pancake batter while Kumajirou nudged his feet. He carefully poured the batter onto the skillet and watched as the pancake batter formed a perfectly round circle. He poured two more, exactly the same size as the first, and smiled as the delicious aroma of pancakes wafted through the air.

There wasn't a better smell in the world than fresh pancakes in the morning, except for maybe fresh pancakes covered in maple syrup.

America wasn't an early riser, to put it nicely, but today was different.

He looked at the clock again, 6:24, and sighed. This sucked, the third time he had woken up that morning and the sun still hadn't risen. What was up with the morning? It's like everything was moving slower just to mess with him. Oh well, rolling around in bed wasn't going to change the earth's rotation or anything.

America yawned loudly and rose slowly, like a zombie, to his feet. His eyes barely open, he groped his nightstand for his glasses, nearly knocking off the clock.

He had something to do today, he knew it, but just wasn't entirely sure what. He racked his sleep clogged mind for a clue. There wasn't any world conference today; maybe a good hearty breakfast would jog his memory. He sluggishly moved toward the kitchen.

It was so weird being up before the sun, nothing felt right to him. He briefly thought about going back to bed but the thought of food seemed much more appealing. He had stayed up late playing an awesome new game Japan had given to him and didn't get to bed till midnight. He had beaten the game and planned to bring it to Canada's house today to figure out the multiplayer side.

That's it!

He finally remembered he was going to Canada's house today. He had initially planned for it to be an afternoon get together but since he was up so early he might as well leave early. He still felt worn from the abnormal morning but decided to shake it off in order to get to Canada's house in time for pancakes.

Picking up the pace back to his bedroom, America wondered aloud what the comparably meek nation was up to.

"I bet the weirdo gets up at six every morning."

America proclaimed loudly to no one.

Funny thoughts of the quiet nation eating whale blubber or whatever commenting on 'what a beautiful sight watching the sun rise was, eh?' filled America's head. He chuckled.

Nah, Canada was a nice place, and a nice country. He was a little boring, okay a lot boring compared to himself, but he was always real friendly, sometimes too friendly for his own good.

America opened his closet and grabbed a long sleeved shirt with 'AMERICA, Home of the Whopper' printed on it and some pants. He quickly put them on over his boxers and t-shirt all while imagining Canada's surprise when he shows up at seven.

After he had dressed, America grabbed Super Smash Brothers Brawl and went to get the keys to his Ford Ranger. He went through the living room to his front door, undoing the chain lock.

Shit, it was cold out. Like, there should be a law against it being this cold. He made a mental note to bring it up at the next meeting while quickly moving to his Ford. Key in the ignition, he cranked the engine and immediately blasted the heater.

Big mistake. America was blasted in the face with an icy hurricane. Teeth chattering, he turned the heater down and tore out of the driveway. Slowly, the truck warmed up, but his chattering had yet to subside.

America turned the radio down and cleared his throat. He usually loved to play his music as loudly as possible, but decided that it must be the cause of his slight headache.

*WHOP WHOP WHOP*

The sudden sound made Canada jump.

"Aagh!"

He gave a quiet yelp as he accidently flipped his pancake over his head and onto the floor. He hastily bent over to pick the pancake up to throw it away as another loud knock on the door filled his house.

*WHAM WHAM*

"C-Coming!"

Canada whimpered.

Kumajirou had already started trudging to the door, curiosity outweighing his hunger. Canada followed him glancing at the time, 7:22.

Surely America wouldn't be here this early... he rarely gets up before-

Canada's thoughts were interrupted as his door slammed open before he could reach it. America stood shivering in the doorway for a moment before immediately moving forward into Canada's house, all the while tracking in snow.

"SHIT it's cold out there; how the hell do you live in the middle of a gigantic freezer like this? You should seriously consider installing some-"

America was cut off mid sentence after stumbling over the small white bear and meeting the wooden floor face on.

Kumajirou gave a delayed "Ow."

Canada stared for a few moments before letting out a slight laugh.

"He heh, Are you alright America?"

Canada closed his front door, being sure to lock it, and kneeled by his brother after not receiving a response. What a clumsy oaf. Canada poked his brother and pushed his head so he could see America's face. Canada gasped when he came face to face with a bloody mess.

"Eww." Kumajirou remarked.

Eww was right. Canada was about to get up to go get a rag when America grunted. America's eyes fluttered open and he quickly stood up.

"Woah, what the hell?"

"You tripped over Kumarama, you should-

"Kumajirou" Piped the bear.

really be more careful." Canada answered while standing.

"Oh." Remarked America as he brought his fingers to his upper lip to inspect the nose bleed.

Canada sighed, wondering how much his brother had heard. "I'll go get you a rag."

Canada walked back to the kitchen followed by a slightly confused America. Canada noticed the pancakes on the skillet and quickly flipped them before they could burn. He then searched through his cabinet under the sink and grabbed one of the newer rags. He ran the white cloth under the faucet briefly, rung it, and turned to hand it to America who was sitting at his kitchen table.

"Thanks bro." America uttered as he began wiping under his nose with the rag.

Canada sat across from his brother and addressed him.

"You got here early; I thought you weren't coming until later."

Canada wasn't upset by his brother's less than graceful entrance that morning. If anything he was thankful he had the company earlier than expected.

"Yeah, well I woke up early." America stated matter-of-factly. "I thought I'd surprise you by coming early. Man this reeks. Tell your bear to move next time, will ya?"

Kumajirou replied, "Jerk."

America's headache had managed to turn into a full blown migraine; and there was still that worn out feeling he'd been trying to shake all morning. He cleared his throat as he pulled away the rag and put his fingers to his nose, which was still running warm blood. He leaned his head forward and pinched his nose with the rag.

Canada stood up to tend to his breakfast. The two pancakes that were left were cooked perfectly and he slid them onto a plate. Canada then picked up his batter bowl and poured four more pancakes watching them form into circles.

"Would you like some pancakes?" Canada asked even though he knew the answer.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure. Man, it's like negative a billion degrees out there-"

"Maybe you should wear a jacket..." Canada interjected, but remained unnoticed.

"Oh, I brought over this game I think you'd like. Do you have ketchup to go with those?"

This last inquiry was referring to the pancakes. Canada made a 'grossed out' face and answered. "If you must, I might have some in the fridge."

"Great! There is no greater breakfast then one covered in ketchup. Or lunch, or dinner."

America cleared his throat after making the ludicrous claim and rested his head on the table.

Canada glanced back and brought up the game America had mentioned earlier, not wanting his brother to get bored. That and he enjoyed the energy.

"What game did you bring? Is it multiplayer?" Canada inquired.

"Oh yeah, it's super cool!" America immediately perked up and went on jabbering. "It's a sequel to the Smash Brother Series, only this time it's on Wii and there are a lot of new characters like Sonic and stuff and there's this really sweet new mode called Subspace Emissary that lets you watch these really cool movie clips and fight a whole lot of bad guys at once, which I'm totally great at, and there's these bosses at the end of..."

Canada smiled as he listened to his brother ramble on about the pros and cons of the bosses and etcetera. The pancakes were just about finished.

Canada had heard of the series but hadn't played it often. He vaguely remembered the time when America had brought over the first installment on Nintendo 64.

It was nice when he came over.

"some of the levels, but it's hard to know when they'll come because every level is different. But when it does come you see this cool movie and most times you get another player added to your team, which I think is controlled with a two player remote, and then you can pick between a lot of different teams if you want to replay levels to get the bonus stuff. Woah, smells good bro! Is it finished yet?

America had been holding his nose with the rag during most of the monologue but removed it when he didn't feel anymore blood. When he removed the rag he was greeted by the smell of the fresh pancakes Canada had been hovering over the entire time.

America tossed the rag in the sink as he got up to inspect the breakfast.

"Yep! They're done." Canada answered as he slid one more pancake on the previous two he had made and the rest on a separate plate.

"Great! Now to find that ketchup..."

America started hunting through Canada's fridge for his favorite condiment forcefully moving around the other food stuffs.

"Aha!"

America emerged proudly with the plastic red bottle in his hands and sat back down at the table, which now had two plates of pancakes on it.

Canada grabbed the maple syrup out of the still open fridge and joined his brother who had already begun covering his plate in the red goo. Canada attempted to match America's gusto with his own plastic bottle smothering his pancakes in maple syrup.

America saw his brother empty just as much if not more maple on his plate than he himself had with ketchup. So he dumped more on.

The brothers kept adding more of their condiments until it were a matter of who could squeeze the bottles harder instead of what their particular tastes were. Projectile maple syrup and ketchup aimed toward the pancakes mounted with incredible speed until there were two towers of the condiments.

The countries kept squeezing with the same gusto until the bottles simultaneously ran out.

The scene was quite odd. America and Canada were standing at opposite ends of the table with their now empty plastic bottles. The table was effectively coated with the slimy mix of maple syrup and ketchup which was cascading off the table and onto the floor like a waterfall in some areas. Kumajirou was taking advantage of the pooling maple syrup, happily licking up the sugary stuff. Fierce looks of determination were still glued to the countries faces for a few moments after the bottles ran out.

Canada was the first to come out of the sibling rivalry infused contest and notice the ridiculous situation he was in.

"He.. heh heh.."

His face broke out into a huge smile and he started bending over from laughter.

"Hahahaha.. your... your face and... hahahahaha I... I just kept haha going... hahahaha and then you... heheh did too.. hahahaha."

America just smiled and shrugged. He sat down, careful not to touch the sticky table, and watched his brother. He was happy that Canada was happy.

Even though I would have won if they were bigger bottles...

But he decided to keep the thought to himself to allow Canada to enjoy the moment.

Canada soon recovered, sanity kicking back in, and moved to grab a rag to start wiping the table and floor. But the smile never left his face. To Canada's disgust, he witnessed America eating the mess on his plate.

"I can make more; you know... you don't have to eat that."

"What are you talking about? This is just how I like 'em,"

America had started picking at the pancakes. Not shoving them down his throat as was his usual manner, but tenderly picking at them and moving small forkfuls into his mouth. It's not like he found them unappetizing or anything, he had just sprouted this uneasy feeling in his stomach.

Canada just sported a quick laugh and gave a "Whatever you like" and kept cleaning the table. He moved from one side to the other systematically, making several trips to the sink to ring out the sticky stuff. When he had finished, America was done eating. Or so Canada presumed by the way he was leaning back in his chair. He had only eaten one of the ketchup soaked pancakes on his plate.

Canada placed the rag he had used to clean the kitchen in the sink along with the bloody white rag. He went back to the table, picking up both of the plates, and dumping their contents in the trash. He quickly rinsed them in the sink and left them there to wash later. He normally didn't like leaving any dishes in the sink but would make an exception for his brother's company. Speaking of which, his brother still hadn't spoken after the meal. He was just sitting there; his face grimaced, leaning back into the chair. Canada took his seat across from him.

"Are you alright?"

America cleared his throat. He still had that headache and now his nose itched. Not to mention that tiredness was slowly turning out to be more of an achy exhaustion. And he was thirsty. Very thirsty.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine."

America didn't want to look whiny in front of Canada. Canada was too much of a pushover for his own good, he'd probably start freaking out or something and then his bordering country wouldn't get to enjoy multiplayer mode.

"I'm just thirsty; do you have something to wash down that excellent breakfast, bro?"

Canada watched the transition carefully; his brother was certainly acting odd. He wondered briefly if he should press the question but didn't want to come off rude.

It's his business I suppose.

But he was a little hurt that America was keeping something from him. No matter, still very pleased to have the company, Canada let the brief moment of scorn pass as quickly as it came on.

"Sure, is a coke alright?"

"Sounds perfect."