Heyo~ Poet here! This is my first fanfic dedicated to Independence Day (July4) and I hope you all like it! :) Sorry, I suck majorly at categorizing. . . OTL But this story will be finished by July 4th~! :D
Hope you enjoy! Please notify me of errors that I missed! :)
"Mattie come on! We have to start getting ready!" Alfred urged his older brother as he took the sleeve of his favorite hoodie captive, all the while pulling him along.
"E-eh? But it's three days from now, why are we getting ready so early?" Matthew helplessly followed his younger sibling; he long since gave up protesting against Alfred and thought about the events that transpired earlier.
Alfred burst through the door of his room, eyes gleaming with excitement, and proclaimed in a loud voice, "Mattie! We're going shopping!"
Jumping at the sudden intrusion, Matthew turned towards his brother with a confused face and looked at the clock. 4:30pm. "W-what? But it's almost dinner!"
Alfred visibly frowned, flailing his arms out, "But Matt! It's important, we have no time to waste!"
"No ways Al, I'd rather stay home and relax. . ."
". . . " Matthew heard footsteps approach him.
". . .? Al Are you- H-hey!" the Canadian was suddenly abducted by his brother as he was taken against his own will to do God knows what with Alfred. For the first few minutes he flailed, trying to get Alfred to release him from his grip, but eventually gave up. Seriously, who could wrestle themselves from someone who was able to lift and spin a bison as a child. A bison. . .
'Curse Al and his strength. . ' Matthew thought glumly.
Though he knew that once his little brother was excited about something, there's no sense stopping him.
"Dude! This is gonna be the best party ever, and the best party ever needs time to prepare so that everything is awesome! So, in that case we have to go to Party City!"
". . . That's what you said about last year's party. . .And what's Party City?"
"No bro, it's gonna be better than that! And in my country, Party City is this huge store filled with all kinds of awesome things for parties and holidays and stuff!" Alfred explained, still with Matthew in tow.
Matthew sighed, 'You said that last year too. . .'
Deciding on keeping his mouth shut, Matthew thought about the reason for the event that led to his current position. Yes, in three days it will mark another year of freedom for Alfred and his country, 'Independence Day'. The day that America finally broke free from the oppression and rule of Great Britain resulted in America finally becoming its own independent nation. With each year, Alfred always hosted a huge barbeque party at his house, each a little different but still held a signature feel to it.
Hearing the faint whirring of what Matthew thought was sliding doors, he realized they had just entered Party City. Alfred made a beeline for the aisle containing food ware, all the while getting distracted by the decorations in the store itself. Matthew could see the excitement and pride swelling in his eyes as he took in the store, subconsciously letting go of Matthew's possibly stretched out sleeve. All around there were slight decorations in honor of Independence Day. The red, white, and blue colors of the American flag decorated register aisles; and the respective colored streamers floated elegantly in the air. After Alfred finished gazing, he made his way to his destination, with Matthew trailing behind him. After stopping at one end of an aisle, Alfred turned to face his brother.
"Alright Mattie, you take the next aisle and I'll take this one. Now remember! Look for something awesome, something that screams 'best party ever!' okay?"
Matthew sighed but smiled, "Okay, meet back here in around fifteen minutes."
Alfred nodded and started looking, while Matthew walked to the aisle over, which happened to be the cup and plates aisle, and scanned the different decorations on the shelves while deciding to start with cups first and looked for things that seem to fit his brother's expectations. There were some that seemed promising and some that just weren't what they were looking for, so Matthew decided to narrow the candidates down to two and let Alfred decide the winner. He heard a voice in the aisle next door, "Whoa, cool!"
Matthew chuckled and thought to himself, 'Seems like Alfred found something interesting.'
He continued to look for plates, in the meantime passing by some ware that said "Independence Day!" or "Fourth of July!" or "Celebrate!" Matthew just shook his head at the different phrases that he set his eyes upon. He looked until he found one that said "Party!" Sighing at how generic it was, Matthew decided to just take the plates and headed to Alfred. Matthew thought as he walked and remembered catching a glimpse of the aisle Alfred claimed, realizing that that particular aisle was just utensils. Chuckling, Matthew shook his head, 'Just like him to pick the easier thing to do.' He reached the end of the aisle and saw Alfred standing there, holding a few packs of napkins, spoons, forks, and knives. Alfred grinned at him.
"Yo! Right on time bro, you got the plates and stuff?"
"Yeah, but there's one thing you have to decide on, which cups do you want?" Matthew asked as he held up the two packaged columns of cups. Alfred grinned," Alright! Leave it to the hero to make the final decision!" Alfred stared at the plates that Matthew were holding and studied the cups. After a few minutes of debate, Alfred piped up, "The left one! It matches the plates the most, and just perfect that it matches the utensils!" Matthew looked at the utensils in his brother's hands and realized that they weren't normal utensils. Then a realization hit him, "Y-you actually looked?"
Alfred pouted, "Hey, hey, a hero can be serious when he wants to be!"
The Canadian laughed and waved his hand, "Right, sorry. . . So should we pay and go home?" he looked at his cellphone clock. 5:45pm. Hearing Alfred agree, they head for the cash register and pay for their supplies. After paying, they started their walk home, "We have to come back tomorrow!" Alfred stated with a nod.
"E-eh? Tomorrow? Why? Didn't we buy everything?" Matthew asked surprisingly.
"Uh no? What's a party without decorations, especially if it's supposed to be the best party ever!"
Matthew's shoulders slumped before a defeated sigh escaped his lips, "Fine. . ."
When they arrived home, Matthew and Alfred placed their supplies on one half of the kitchen table and made dinner, using the other empty half of the kitchen table to eat. Tomorrow would be another day of shopping as well as the invitations being sent out, and mixed feelings floated around the table. Matthew's feeling of reluctance and dread, and Alfred's feelings of excitement and glee. When dinner was finished and cleaned, Matthew sighed and spoke, "Alright Al, now it's time for the invitations."
"Alright! I know just who to invite! You can invite people too Mattie!" He grinned.
Matthew chuckled and nodded, "Wait now, don't forget to make a list of whom we've sent and who we haven't."
With Alfred nodding vigorously, they both set to work bringing out a bunch of paper and writing out unique invites to each of their friends.
A total of almost three hours had passed and it was around ten o'clock at night when they decided they finished. The invites were as followed:
Alfred: Kiku Honda, Im Yong Soo, Yao Wang, Meimei, Roderich Edelstein, Elizabeta Herdervary,Ivan Braginski
Matthew: Feliciano&Lovino Vargas, Antonio Fernadez Carriedo, Francis Bonnefoy, Ludwig&Gilbert Beilschmidt,Kaoru
The two shared their lists, making sure they didn't forget anyone. "All good?" Alfred asked.
Matthew's eyebrows furrowed slightly, 'Wait, isn't someone missing?' Matthew had a guess and decided to ask his brother, "Hey Al, you don't want to send and invite to Arthur?"
Matthew looked at his brother with confusion and curiosity. Alfred's gaze faltered slightly, "O-oh, well he's probably too busy, like always. . . S-so there's no need to send one!"
Matthew didn't respond right away, thinking about what Alfred said. 'Now that I think about it, of all the years that Al had the party, I don't think I saw Arthur at any of them. . .' Though it could be because of the fact that it was Arthur, who Alfred broke away from; besides that, the air would be too awkward for them. "But who knows? Maybe this time he won't be busy! You should just send him one anyways." Matthew attempted.
Alfred paused, "S-sure,. . ." He grinned nervously before turning his eyes to scan the list desperately. Seeing something to change the topic Alfred thought, ' Thank God!...' He frowned, "Mattie?"
Knowing that Alfred wouldn't do it, he made a mental note to do slip Arthur's invitation in with the others. Matthew raised an eyebrow at his brother's sudden change in demeanor, "Y-yeah?"
Alfred pointed to a name on his brother's list, "Why is Gilbert Beilschmidt's name on your list?"
Matthew frowned, "Al, he's my best friend. Of course I'd invite him. Besides, you can't tell me not to invite him?"
"Yes I can! It's my party! Plus why would you be best friends with that bastard! He's bad news dude. . . He'll ruin my best party!"
"Al, you said I could invite who I wanted; I want to invite Gil. That's that. Wha-? Al he came to your party last year! Why not this year?"
"Be-! . . ." Alfred didn't know how to formulate a reply. It was true, Gilbert did come last year. "Fine. . ." he said through gritted teeth.
Matthew smiled triumphantly and started placing the invitations into small envelopes and wrote the addresses of all their friends. With the plan of sending them all out tomorrow, Matthew made an extra invitation and secretly wrote Arthur's address on the envelope before slipping it into his pile of invites. He smiled internally, hoping Alfred didn't happen to sift through the pile, all there was to do was get some sleep and hope for the best tomorrow.
A/N: that's all for this chapter! :) Working on Chapter two at the moment^^ This will be a short story, maybe a few chapters? I would estimate three to four chappies~! :D
Hope it's okay so far~!
