Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.
Maple Magic
"Come now, I have some tuna for you."
Little Canada carefully pushed the bowl of tuna towards the white creature in front of him. The balloon-sized animal's fluffy fur bounced in the arctic wind as it scooted closer. There was a deep trail in the snow like a drool that told of the creature's slow progress.
"Here, don't be afraid. I added a little something special today."
The creature, now at an arm's length away, sniffed cautiously at the bowl, not minding the tiny drifting flakes piling up nor responding to the crouched boy who looked like an oversized, colourful snowball. Canada waited patiently with hands on his knees and an encouraging smile.
Finally, it nibbled at the top of the food pile, before digging in with the ferocity of a bloodthirsty hound.
Canada let out a little chuckle.
"It's good, isn't it? That's my favourite topping too. Maple syrup just makes everything taste better."
While watching the creature ravish the bowl, Canada reached out a hand and stroked its head. Under normal circumstances, this would have caused a tantrum and possibly some bloodshed, but it seemed like the food this time made for enough compensation.
After licking the bowl clean of all traces, the satisfied creature looked up with a surprisingly spotless mouth. Canada withdrew his hand quickly.
"Did you like it? Would you like some more?"
A gush of icy wind filled the silence between them as Canada waited expectantly. Then the familiar haze of disappointment floated through the young boy, making him feel as cold on the inside as the grey sky. Tears threatened to form on the edge of his shining eyes. They stared at the only one in the world who paid any attention to him. It felt unfair that this precious friend couldn't comfort him in any way.
Gathering his resolve, Canada extracted a water bottle filled with a swirling yellow liquid from his messenger bag. He put into the bottle a white strand of fur he had taken earlier when petting the unsuspecting target. He then muttered some words under his breath which sounded suspiciously like 'abracadabra' before taking a few generous gulps from his bottle.
Suddenly, the boy stood up and declared in a loud voice, "I, with the power of maple magic, hereby give you the power of speech."
He took a deep breath, as if buying time to think about something, then continued in a slightly softer voice knowing that the important part was over.
"I, Ca–" a sudden gust of wind roared past the pair and flipped over the empty food bowl, "–nada, name you, Kuma–" the same gust of wind roared back and unflipped the bowl into its original position "–jiro, to be my familiar for the rest of my life."
A glazed look overcame the creature's already blank face. For a while, nothing happened, causing Canada to wonder if the ritual went wrong in any way. His mind was in a whirlwind as it processed what he'd just done, and evoked a mixture of guilt and embarrassment. A small part of him wanted to blame his current guardian for any negative consequences since the spell was a modified version of what he'd read in one of England's books.
"More."
Canada blinked at the soft voice before a small grin spread across his face.
"Did you just say 'more'? Can you understand me now? Oh, Kuma– Kuma…"
"Jiro," the creature supplied.
"I'm so sorry Kuma…jiro. It just slipped my mind, silly me. And, er, I apologise for asking, but what type of animal are you?"
Though the creature's face was blank and unreadable, Canada could've sworn it gave him a disbelieving look. He started feeling his face burn up with embarrassment.
"Polar bear."
"Oh, I see. Thank you. Erm, you know, I'm really excited to meet you," Canada said nervously as he worked up a shy smile.
"Come home with me so I can tell my brother that I have a polar bear, and that he's my new friend. He'll be so jealous!" Canada gave a small giggle at the thought of what America would do, which was probably whinge at England for a talking Alien or something else equally ridiculous.
"She."
"What? Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."
"She," the polar bear repeated.
It took a few seconds for the boy to understand his new friend's meaning, and then he blushed again at his incorrect assumption.
"Sorry, that was really stupid of me to think you were a guy without, er... will you forgive me?"
"Yes."
By now, small veins of water were streaming down Canada's face and neck from all the melted ice particles.
"Thank you, Kuma…mana. Let's go now, it's this way," Canada said quickly and pointed behind him.
"Who?"
"Sorry, Kuma…" Canada felt very guilty about his repeated failure towards his new friend.
"Jiro, but who are you?"
"Oh," the boy visibly let out a sigh of relief at the fact that he wasn't the only one with name problems, "I'm Canada."