"Matthew dear, will you be a love and watch him for us? He's being a real pain for us…"
That was how it had started. Just an innocent question, one that Arthur was notorious for asking of him. Unfortunately, unlike his brother, America, Canada- or Matthew as Arthur stubbornly referred to him as- was still under the control of the crown, despite his flimsy constitution.
Speaking of his twin, the man had apparently jumped ship, gone right on back to his country.
The year was 1919, and Matthew was tired as he ever had been, even with the Great War finally coming to an end.
But he had a rather unfortunate job, it seemed. The way Francis had described the man, Prussia, to him, it made the German nation they had just pummeled into the ground sound like the master of escape and maddening to talk to, let alone negotiate with. Francis' advice had simply been to ignore him. Matthew had been delighted- watch a war criminal! That was exciting! He was thinking that maybe, the two were finally starting to trust him! After all, he had been through an entire goddamned war, had seen the exact same shit they had!
However, now that he was here, Matthew realized, with upmost irritation at his former mentors, current masters, he had been assigned the lame job, the cozy job. The kind of job that was so easy humans could attend to it.
"Ah! So they sent someone new to watch me!" A bright voice asked him with a laugh, his German accent marring even the language of nations that they a. "Man, I must be throwing those lil' humans a run for their money!" Though, Matthew had no ungodly idea why he needed watching by even humans- the man was both blind and wheelchair bound, it seemed, his eyes swollen and sightless from mustard gas injuries.
Matthew sat down, rubbing his temples.
"Awww, you're not even going to speak with me? That's no fun. Surely you know at this point that this is rather pointless, the best thing you can do is at least entertain yourself."
Matthew ignored him thoroughly. Entertain you, you mean? The young nation thought to himself, bitter about babysitting this older man who clearly didn't need any watching.
The albino man, cracked his knuckles, and rolled his neck. "Mmm, by the way you're breathing and how heavy your tread is, I'd say you were Alfred, but you're definitely not him. He stopped by early to tell me that he'd make deals with Germany and myself, and he was tired of England tryin' to push him around." The man laughed. "He caught on a lil' late to that cheese, but whatever. I did tell him to side with me, at least I wouldn't treat him like a colony!" He snorted. "Oh well. That's passed. Either way, you sound a lot like him- you're about his size, and if England and France sent you here…. Mmm, you're Canada, aren't you?" He asked, before looking directly at where Matthew was sitting, making the young nation jump a bit.
Prussia looked at him a second longer, before tilting his head up and laughing. "You jumped? That means I actually figured out where your face was, didn't I?" The albino nation gave him a snaggletooth smile. "Well, your silence tells me far more. I'm right, aren't I? Far more than you'd like me to be."
He hummed, sitting back in his wheelchair, smirking.
"What are you so happy about?" Matthew asked, his curiosity brimming as he got to his feet, walking over to him and standing in front of him.
"They finally dignified me enough to give me a proper nation to fight." He said, smirking as his head raised up to look at him. "You breathe really loudly." He said, pointing it out much to Matthew's confusion, before the younger nation was kicked over by one of his feet planted firmly in his stomach.
"Agh!" He cried out as he hit the floor, completely surprised as the older nation stood from his wheelchair, smirking at where he had heard Matthew fall.
"Step 1, never, never ever, underestimate your opponent, particularly if they're older than you." Prussia said, leering at Matthew despite how he still had no eyesight. The Canadian attempted to role to the side quietly, but the older Germanic nation took his cane, and whacked him upside the head with it, making his ears ring. "Step 2, if France is afraid of me, you probably should be as well!" He laughed. "Then again, he knows if he showed me his fucking face, no matter how I was incapacitated, I would move heaven and hell in order to kick his backstabbing, bastardly ass."
"Holy shit." Canada said, breathless as Prussia circled him. "What the fuck- you're blind, and handicapped."
Prussia rolled his head since he could not roll his eyes in obvious frustration. "I'm blind, but like most older nations, I am far more connected to my other senses than you young folk. I imagine France told you to be wary of me? And yet you didn't think that perhaps, I was feigning the seriousness of my injuries?"
Matthew scrambled to his feet. "What are you going to do?" He asked, frightened. He had heard horror stories from his men about this man, and suddenly, he realized- he was about a foot taller than Prussia.
"Damn, you're tall, aren't you?" Prussia muttered, in distaste at figuring that out. "Well, my plan was to break out of this glorified zoo cage, and go fucking find my brother and friends. We lost the war, yeah, we got it." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, I was unconscious and rather sick when the truce came around, but I'm not fucking unreasonable."
He took a deep breath in, and out. "So, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Canada." He grinned. "We've never met before, so I figure I would at least try and reason with you."
He took a bow. "Prussia, at your service. I'm like, at least 3 times your age, and you can bet your ass that I won't be sitting here much longer. So I'll give you a few options- 1, you walk with me and help me find Germany. Or 2, I kill you, and I go find my brother." He shrugged.
"Isn't there a third option?" Matthew asked, shocked at how overconfident he was.
He shrugged. "No, not really."
"What about if I kill you?" Matthew asked, frowning.
Prussia snorted, rolling his head again. "Good luck with that." He said. "That's actually filed under option two, since you can't kill me. You smell of nothing but human blood- you've never taken the life of one of our kind. Even when you burned your brother's heart with England, England delivered the final blow to him. You're soft in ways that cannot be quantified."
Matthew's teeth grit in upset, but he softened when Prussia spoke again.
"I'm somewhat jealous of you. However, I suppose I did the same with Germany. I have never let him kill one of our own- it's a sort of innocence you cannot return." He shrugged. "In the event you do kill me, know that you did it to yourself."
Matthew paused, fidgeting now. "Why do you want to see him? Germany, I mean?" He asked, quiet.
He paused, sighing. "Isn't it obvious? I want to at least reassure him that I'm in one piece. Last time he saw me was England and France probably carrying me away, unconscious. For all he knows, I'm actually dead- like…not going to come back." He scratched his head. "I'd also like to make sure the same's true of Hungary, Austria, maybe Italy." He shrugged again, becoming rather conversational all of a sudden. "But I think Italy's fine, the backstabber hasn't so much as popped in to see me- but I have a feeling he's just fine."
"France made me think you were a monster." He murmured, and Prussia grinned.
"Why, I'm flattered he thinks that of me- I wonder what he must think of himself." He said, chortling. "Eh. I'm not bothered by it any more. It's been a long time since I got used to him calling me such."
Matthew frowned at Prussia, who seemed to be nothing but truthful to the point of bluntness. "Alright- I'll take you to see Germany." He agreed. "Get back in the wheelchair, though…" He murmured, and Prussia smiled a bit more genuinely.
"Ahah, you're a smart lil' nation, aren't you, Canada?" He said, sitting right on back down in the wicker object. "Maybe I can find my poor little Gilbird…"
"Gilbird?" His confusion was obvious, and Prussia laughed loudly.
"It is a strange name! But it's my human name, made into a cute little pun for my pet bird!"
"…Gilbert?" He deduced, and Prussia nodded sagely.
"Yep, that's me!" He said, allowing Matthew to push him.
Matthew's footsteps were still loud, and he had since gone quiet.
"You miss your brother too, don't you?" Prussia asked, unfortunately hitting the nail on the head, and the younger nation stopped.
He sighed, looking at the floor. "I do. It's a similar situation, I suppose, which is why I…I sympathize with you, somewhat. I can't imagine being in your place, where you actually have a good relationship but you think the other might be dead- no…America and I have been on bad terms for the last century." He murmured. "We occasionally talked toward the end, but its weird between us, and I don't know how to fix it."
Prussia hummed. "Alfred was heartbroken when you didn't go with him, and again when you and England hurt him in such a personal way." He said. "But you don't seem like the type to want to go through with such a hard separation from England…" He acknowledged. "You seem like a survivalist, and so you stuck with England over going along with your brother."
"More than that- I feel like I'm always pressured by forces within my own being…I, Matthew, I want to go with him- he's my brother, Alfred, and he's cared about me since day one. But Canada doesn't want to be with America, and so I cannot."
"The pressures of your people are a powerful thing- going against them can tear you apart and ultimately kill you." Prussia agreed, quiet. "Your brother understands- the only way to make it less awkward is to just…deal with it." He shrugged again, noncommittal. "It's how Austria, Hungary, myself, have all dealt with the changes in our friendships over time. We really do generally like each other…but, but…." He sighed. "Of course, we have to follow the desires of our people over our hearts." He paused. "It gets easier, with more time and with more instances between you." Prussia looked up at him.
"I'm sure your brother would be more than happy to talk with you- no matter what happened. And, you know what, you seem like a more rational fellow than England or France, and I'd be happy to talk to you just as I've helped Alfred."
Matthew looked at him, and the man's smile, and he felt something rather inappropriate in his chest. Something that felt suspiciously like his heart beating faster at seeing
The man was attractive, and muscular and proud. All of those were Matthew's turn ons. He was also invested in family and being supportive.
Shit. Matthew frowned as he looked at him. He had also proven completely capable at dominating when he wanted to.
Matthew was in trouble- this nation was hot.