It wasn't that she couldn't see Matthew, or that he was easily missed in the rush of life. It was actually the exact opposite problem for Alice. He was too clear, he always seemed to shimmer, and even in a crowd he stood out. Normally the only creatures who did that were her fay friends, which she always tried her hardest to only speak to when she was alone. The witch hunts had left an impression and even though it was unlikely to happen she didn't want to be thrown in a lake with rocks tying her down again. It had been very unpleasant.

Alice had met Matthew before she had met Amelia, after landing in the new world with Francis and the others she had gotten separated. She found him playing in a meadow with three fairies flittering around him laughing and playing. They all shared the same shimmer of the fay so she had assumed that he was a creature of this land similar to an elf. So she had done logical option of offering to walk him to his keepers in the woods.

She didn't see him again for nearly a decade. The next time she saw him she learned her mistake, Francis came to flaunt his new colony coming by at the most inopportune time as she tried to get Amelia to eat something. Francis being the moron that he was burst into her house and kicked her out of her own kitchen swooping Amelia up explaining her would teach her how to cook.

Huffing and muttering to herself she sat on one of her dinning room chairs only to realize the elf child had somehow ended up in her home.

"Little one how is it you came to be here? You are very far from your forest." Alice said as she crouched closer to him.

"Francis brought me here." Was his soft answer and before she could ask him why Francis could see an elf child like him the obnoxious man himself appeared and introduced her to his dear colony from the land north, his name was Matthew.

As the years went by Alice tried to remember that Matthew was a nation and not some kind of fay. Which was harder than expected, especially once he became an independent nation standing on his own and a fully grown adult. He was handsome and tall enough to be an elf. Responsible and kind to others in a way so different than what she was used to with other nations and reminding her of her fairies. It made her feel like she was breathing in clean air every time he was near. Which was not acceptable for her to be thinking, she had known him when he was a child.

He still saw the fay though, laughing with them as they flew around him in parks or the forests where they walked after meetings. It was easy to deny any feeling besides friendship though even as they walked the old paths in the woods outside her manor laughing as they talked..

At least… it was.

"I'm not a child Alice." Matthew said suddenly, still managing his normal quite fashion; interrupting their discussion in such an abrupt way she couldn't remember what they had even been taking about.

"I know your not Matthew; you're a strong and capable nation." Was her reply, unsure why he was looking at her with such a determined expression.

"No I don't think you do Alice; you don't understand." Matthew said sounding unusually frustrated causing Alice to pause and turn to look at him closely.

"Matthew…" She started only to be cut off.

"I've loved for as long as I can remember. Yet you always keep me at arms length." She could see he would continue, the rare times he lost his temper he could go on for hours. Yet she felt frozen, he loved her, he had openly declared it not caring of who heard and the fairies who had been playing in the flower beds fluttered over excitedly. He was still talking she knew but she couldn't focuses on it with the buzzing in her head and the fairies excited exclamations in ancient Celtic.

She did the only thing she could think of doing as she watched his violet eyes burn with passion and the wind catch his hair. Standing up on her toes she grabbed his shirt to drag him downwards as she kissed him cutting off his rant and giving him her answer all at once.

AN: So… I wrote this… when I was supposed to be writing underwater. I normally don't even ship Maple Tea at least I think that is what this shipping is called but my sister was like why don't people do more interesting ships and I was like; Challenge excepted! Hopefully Monday or Tuesday I will update underwater, but expect random oneshots like this to start popping up because even if I get caught in one story I will write something!