I do not own Hetalia.

"Matthew." Alfred whispered to his brother. "Matt. Maaaatt."

"What?" The other boy asked groggily.

"Are you awake?"

"I am now. What do you want, Alfred?" The two young boys shared a room in their lakeside cabin, where they were currently staying, with two identical bed right next to each other. Their room was dark, aside from the small nightlight on the opposite side of the room

"I'm bored." Alfred informed Matthew.

"Then go to sleep." Matt irritatedly argued.

"But I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not tired."

Matt rolled his eyes but Al didn't see. Then he turned over to face his brother. "Well, then, what do you want to do?"

"Let's go exploring!" Alfred had been trying to convince Matt to explore the area around the cabin for a while.

"We can't. If we leave Mama Arthur and Papa Francis will be angry."

"Fine, Matt, if you don't want to go, I'll just go alone." Alfred got out of bed and changed from his PJs to a pair of jeans, a tee shirt, and tennies.

"No, Al, you can't! It's dangerous!"

"Then come with me."

Matt bit his lip. He really didn't want to go, but he knew his brother was to pig-headed to listen to sense and stay here. He couldn't let Al go alone. The boy may say he was a hero, but he wasn't invincible. With a groan he got ready. He put on almost the exact same thing as his brother, but added a sweatshirt and grabbed one for his brother, too. It may be summer, but the breeze off the lake could be cold.

He met up with his brother outside.

"Hey, Matt. So, you did come?"

"I couldn't let you go alone."

"Don't worry, this is going to be great!" Al exclaimed then went running along the lakeside, forcing Matt to follow him. He didn't know how far they had ran when they finally ran out of breath and had to stop, but they couldn't see their cabin anymore.

Matthew looked around, enjoying the fresh air and calming water. There was a slight breeze that made him feel even more at home. He looked up at the moon and stars and smiled. He could never see this many stars in the city.

"Hey, Al, isn't this beautiful?" His brother didn't respond Matt turned around and looked for him. "Al? Alfred?"

Then he caught sight of his brother. The boy was sitting with his knees against his chest and his head down. He was shaking and Matt could tell he was crying. He then remembered that older boy was afraid of the dark.

Matt ran over to his brother. He wasn't exactly sure what to do so he started by putting the sweatshirt which he was still holding over his shoulders. Then he put his arms around Alfred and pulled him close.

"It's okay, Al, it's just me. It's okay. You're fine, it's just a little dark. There's nothing there. it's just us."

The older boy stopped crying and looked up at his brother. He smiled a little but didn't say anything.

"Do you want to go home now?" Matt asked kindly.

"No! It's too scary to move. Besides, I'm a hero; I can handle this."

"But we have to go back eventually."

"Not now."

"Okay." Matt didn't want to push his brother. He didn't get scared often but when he did it was bad.

He rested he head on top of his brother's. He watched the waves wash against the shore. It was so calming, so relaxing, so…

"Get up you two, get up!" Matthew hadn't even realized that he had drifted off until he heard his Mama Arthur yelling at them. He rubbed his eyes and looked up to see Papa Francis was there too. "What are you doing all the way over here? We were scared half to death when we saw you weren't in your room."

Matt looked over at Al. He was blushing all over, so the younger brother stepped in to explain.

"We were exploring, but I got scared so Al protected me. He tried to tell me to go back, but I was too afraid to move, so he stayed with me, and we must have fallen asleep."

He cast a glance over at Alfred and saw he was looking gratefully at Matthew. Al would never want their parents to find out he had been the one who was afraid.

"You shouldn't have left the cabin at all, especially in the middle of the night. You could have gotten hurt or kidnapped or-"

"Be easy on them, mon cheri." Papa interrupted., grabbing Mama around the waist. "They're just little kids, and they're okay, so there's no harm done really."

"No harm done? They could have been killed!"

"Mama." Matthew spoke up. "I'm sorry and I promise I'll be good and do whatever you tell me without complaining." Matt elbowed Al and his older brother said "Yeah, me too."

Though Matt already did that, Arthur decided it would be refreshing to see Alfred do what he was told. He sighed. "Okay, let's go back to the cabin, boys."