Hello and welcome to my first birthday fic for little Mattie, and I know this isn't the right age for him, but I really wanted to do this idea.
Beep
Beep
Beep
The sound of an alarm cut thought the air of a soft July morning, waking the two inhabitants in bed.
"No, too early," muttered the blond inhabitant of the bed, reaching out to turn it off.
"Beep, beep means get up and feed me, so feed me," came the reply from the other inhabitant in the bed who was in fact a polar bear.
"Wait a second, I didn't set the alarm last night," said the blond, looking at the clock, his way-ward curl getting in his eyes.
"Don't care, beep beep means get up and feed me," whined the bear again.
"Fine, Kumajiro. I am getting up," sighed the blond, giving in and crawling out of bed to get dressed. As he passed the calendar on the wall he noticed something.
"Oh look, Kuma, it's my birthday," said the blond, smiling and looking at the bear still on the bed with violet eyes.
"So?" asked the bear, tilting his head to the side.
"I guess you're right. It's not like anyone is going to remember. They're too busy with getting ready for Al's big party," was the sad reply. He pulled on his favourite maple leaf print jumper and track suit bottoms, and then headed to the kitchen which meant passing though the dining room, and just as he was rounding the corner…
"SURPRISE!" shouted three different voices as party poppers went off, and there standing beside a table next to a pile of presents were three other blonds, his family.
"You guys remembered," he said softly as tears came to his eyes.
"Of course, lad. Plus it's not every day that the birthday boy turns tripe figures, now is it?" said the sandy blonde with green eyes as he smiled and pulled him into a hug.
"Oui, of course we could not forget about petit Matthew's birthday. We just wanted to surprise you for your big day," answered one of the other blonds who could have been his twin if he was older and talked with a French accent.
"As if. Dude, your b-day is like only four days before mine. How could I forget?" added the final member who was in fact Matthew's twin but had blue eyes like Francis.
"I still can't believe you really remembered though," was his reply, smiling from all the attention he was getting from his family.
"Well, enough of that. Time to open presents. Here, open mine first. It's the best I'm sure," said the excited blond holding out a small box in red, white, and blue paper with stars stuck on it.
Matthew took the gift, and the paper was removed. There inside of the box was a shiny plastic name tag with, 'Hello, I am Canada' on it.
"Thank you, Alfred," he said, smiling good naturally, closing the box again and wanting to beat him over the head with it.
"Well, you're always whining about how people forget your name. Well, now they'll always know what to call you." He smiled that happy grin and suddenly you just don't want to kill him anymore.
"I also got you a crate of maple syrup because you said you liked it so much," he added.
"Ok, I choose next," said Matthew softly, picking up one of the cards. The picture on the front was of queen Elizabeth. She was in a red and white dress with little maple leaf earring and a matching necklace. The normal crown was nestled in her silver hair. The card inside read as such:
Dearest Matthew,
Congratulations on becoming one hundred. For you, I hope there are many more years to come,
Yours sincerely,
Queen Elizabeth II
After reading the card Mattie looked up at Arthur, blinking. "Why did she send me a card?" he asked, still blinking at him confused.
"Well, it's tradition in my country that when you turn a hundred you get a message from the queen, and I know you're not part of the British empire any more, but you're in the common wealth, so I kind of pulled some strings for you. I've know little Liz since the day she was born, so she was more than happy to write it. I even got her to wear that outfit just for you," explained Arthur, looking embarrassed.
"But why?" he asked, still surprised.
"Well, I know you feel like I might forget about you sometimes, but you're just so well behaved I don't have to worry about you, and since Alfred became independent I worry about what he's going to do even more than before. 'Cause know I can't stop him from doing stupid things," he continued to explain, still acting nervous.
"Like how after he heard Russia was going into space he wanted to be the first man on the moon so that Russia couldn't get there first and built a giant laser on it to destroy his capital? We all laughed and said it was stupid, but he still did it."
"Hey, that wasn't stupid and I bet the commie really would have done it if I hadn't gotten there first," interrupted Alfred.
"So I just wanted you to know that even if am not giving you a lot of attention, it's because I trust you to do the right thing and not blow up the world." He smiled at him softly, making it seem like he was the only one in the room
"Ô mère je l'aime, je vous remercie, je vous remercie," Matthew started to babe as tears really did come to his eyes. This time he pulled Arthur into a bone crushing hug.
"You're welcome, lad. Now stop with that stupid language. You know how much I don't like it," said Arthur, continuing to smile the same soft smile as he patted his soft blond locks.
"Oui mere," replied Mattie, looking up at Arthur with watery violet eyes before picking up another card. This one was a notification that a polar bear had been sponsored in his name.
"I may not be able to do anything as a country to help save them, but I can as a person. I don't think it will do a better job at remembering your name though," explained Arthur with a little laugh.
"So who's the last box from then?" asked Mattie, pulling it towards himself.
"We thought you might know. It was on the doorstep when we came in," answered Francis, watching him open the box.
The contents were simple, a little pewter necklace with an anatomical correct heart pendent, a crystal figure of a bear holding a sunflower in its mouth and a James Bond book. It was titled 'from Russia with love.'
"Well, that's stupid. I guess they don't know you that well. You already have that book," muttered Alfred, looking over his shoulder at the box's content as well as Arthur and Francis gave each other looks over his head.
"And for my petit Matthews, my birthday gift for you is," started Francis as he came up behind him to lean over his shoulder.
"I am not going to let either of these two cook your birthday meal," he jested to both Alfred and Arthur.
"Oh merci papa," sighed Mattie as if a great weight had been removed from his shoulder.
As the day was drawing to a close, Matthew pulled the book out of the box and opened it; on the first page was an inscription.
Dear matvey
As I don't know when your family may turn up for a visit, I just left your gift on the doorstep like always. Please always wear my heart as it has always belonged to you. I will see if I can come over and visit soon.
любовь всегда
Ivan
p.s Feel free to burn this note after you read it.
After laughing softly, Matthew cut the page out of the book and placed it in a folder with 'good table manners' on the cover before heading to bed.
"I have a thing for you for on your own day," said Kumajiro from the bed where he had been hiding all day. He wasn't much of a social animal.
"Oh really, Kuma? And what's that?" asked Matthew softly, thinking it was something along the line of not eating the bed.
"You're Matthew," said the bear proudly, causing Matthew to freeze where he was.
"What?" he asked just to be sure he heard him.
"You're Canada," he replied before curling up to sleep.
"Thanks, Kuma, I love my gift," he thanked his friend, petting his fur before climbing into bed himself.