"Mattie!"

A slender blonde soon found himself enveloped in a tight hug from his over eager brother. Despite nearly being bowled over he smiles at the other blond.

"Al, honestly do you always have to plow into me like that? What if I had dropped Nanuq?"

"Ah, sorry 'bout that bro. But hey, you coming drinking with us tonight? We're heading down to a bar after the meeting lets out."

Matthew smirks at his brother's invitation. "Is Arthur going to be there?"

"Course."

"Then I guess I'll come. I'll meet you there."

"Awesome. See you there Bro."

And with that Alfred took off down the hall to spread the word, he never noticed the evil glint to his brother's eyes as he smiled in thought of what he would do that night. It was always fun to mess with Arthur when they went drinking. Sometimes Matthew would prevent the Englishman from drinking a drop of liquor and other times he would make his glass bottomless by using sleight of hand to slip his drinks to the man with none the wiser. Yes, he always enjoyed messing with his former ruler.

Matthew was enjoying the show. He had decided to let Arthur have double drinks that night by slipping his own to him. As such Arthur was stripping and dancing on a table top as the other nations hooted and hollered for him to continue. Matthew caught a wink from his Papa as a camera was brought out and pictures were taken. Yes, being passive aggressive was the best kind of revenge. Now that that was taken care of he decided he'd go somewhere else. Despite his love of causing Arthur misery he didn't really enjoy being surrounded by the others as much as they may believe. As such he often snuck off to a different bar once his mission for the night was complete. Tonight he had even come prepared to have a real night on the town. Smiling he paid his tab before slipping out of the bar and wandering down the streets to find a place he could change and then go and have some fun of his own.

Gilbert watched as Francis took out a camera to begin taking pictures of Arthur as he stripped and danced on their table. He also caught him winking at someone and saw Canada smile in answer to the wink. Gilbert knew Matthew even if they hadn't ever spent much time together. He had always liked the blond even if he didn't seem to notice. He grinned to himself as he saw Matthew slip out of the bar. He managed to make an excuse for himself before following him out. Gilbert had always had a habit of watching matthew when they were near each other. He didn't understand why the rest of them seemed to overlook the slight Canadian but saw it as a blessing since it meant he didn't have to share.

Exiting the bar he saw Matthew rounding a corner and followed after, being sure to keep a safe distance so as not to be noticed. He followed the other for several blocks before watching him slip into a public restroom, one of those family ones. He watched it from across the street and was surprised when instead of Matthew he saw a hot blonde step out of the room. She really was a looker too. She was wearing very short and tight jean shorts that hugged her voluptuous hips in a way that would make any man drool. Going up from there showed she was wearing a pair of layered tank tops, one red and one white, the white one on top. They allowed Gilbert to see her large and soft breasts that just added to her vavoom. An arm cuff and a choker completed the outfit as she tousled her hair one last bit before looking up through the soft locks and smirking in a way all too familiar to the albino. His jaw hit the ground when he realised the woman wasn't some random hotty but Matthew!

Gilbert stared after Matthew for long while as this new information processed. Then, before he even realised what he was doing, Gilbert began hurrying after Matthew to see where she was going. It lead to him standing outside of a biker bar, one he had seen Matthew walk into. He made his way in and found that because of the dark lighting he wasn't really noticed as he came in. Though that may have had something to do with the blonde currently up on the bar grinding on a pole. Gilbert recognized her as Matthew and quickly found a seat in a corner of the bar to watch the show. He watched as Matthew accepted tips from the drunk bikers and even shots from a few. She seemed to be handling her liquor rather well and soon she's calling on the bar tender to sell her a full bottle of tequila with her tips. Gilbert watches as she lays herself on the bar, snagging a few limes and some salt. It struck Gilbert then that she was going to offer up body shots with the tequila. Far be it from him to pass up such an opportunity. He gives things a moment to get underway before working his way to the front of the line. Once there, he acts quickly and takes the body shot, licking the salt from her hip then going up to take the lime from her lips. He grins at her like the cat that just caught the canary as their eyes meet and she realizes he knows who she is.

"Gilbert!"

Panic seems to take hold of her whole self and she rolls off the bar, tossing a few bills onto the bar before bolting from the crowd and out the door. Gilbert doesn't even pause before he's following after her out onto the street.

"Mattie! Matthew!" He manages to catch up to her and she wheels around to slap him but he doesn't let go of her wrist.

"Let go of me!"

"No, not until you talk to me."

"Talk to you! You, you, I can't believe your nerve."

"My nerve! I'm not the one lying to everyone about who I really am."

That seemed to shut her up.

"I know there has to be a good reason for this, so I want you to tell it to me. Otherwise at tomorrow's meeting everyone finds out."

She narrows her eyes at him, "Fine, there's a park nearby. We can talk there."

Not trying to shake his grip on her wrist she turns and leads him to a bench in a park a few blocks away. She sits down and he joins her.

"So what do you want to know?"

"How about we start with why?"

He sees her roll her eyes. "Like that isn't obvious, how are female nations treated? Not very well, is it any wonder then that I would hide my gender from the men of our world. Though maybe its time the facade ended." She seemed wistful at the end there and Gilbert couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about.

"Well, when did you start hiding who you were?"

"Not long after Papa found me and took me in."

"So does Francis know?"

"Course it was his idea." There was that smirk again. "Come to think about it, maybe I should just reveal everything at tomorrow's meeting. One last humiliation for Arthur before leaving him alone."

Gilbert blinks at that, "Wait, why don't you like Arthur?"

She seems to scowl, "Ask Francis tomorrow after the meeting." She stands up, shaking Gilbert's hand from her wrist. "I'm going back to my hotel. Don't say anything to anyone til tomorrow ok?" She grins at him before leaning down and kissing him on the corner of his mouth, then she was gone.

Gilbert sat there in shock, slowly turning red. He supposed it wouldn't be too hard to hold off saying anything about this til tomorrow.

The next day the nations were once again gathering together for a meeting. Many were nursing hangovers from the previous night. Arthur perhaps had the worst of it as he was seated between France and America. The two seemed to enjoy adding to his misery, though from France's occasional smirk he was doing this on purpose. Just as German was stepping up to call the meeting to order the doors were shoved open and in walked a beautiful young woman in a red pencil skirt suit with a white blouse. She had short cropped blond hair that just hit her shoulders and violet eyes seemed to laugh from behind a thin pair of wire framed glasses. At first everyone stared in shock, trying to figure out who this woman was but then France jumped to his feet.

"Matthew!"

"Oui Papa."

It was then Arthur let his jaw hit the table top and his vision blanked for a moment as he fought to stay conscious. Many others also looked to be having similar struggles of disbelief.

"What! Mattie! No way, this is some kind of joke right?"

Alfred took a few steps around the table to his brother, er sister.

Matthew shook her head and then grinned. "No, I'm sorry I deceived you for so long Al, but I had a few very good reasons to keep this hidden. One of which is sitting right over there."

Here she pointed a finger at the Nordic nations who looked like deer caught in headlights.

"You, how?"

"How did I survive for five hundred years without you? I got lucky."

"Bloody hell, why didn't you ever tell me, you told the bloody frog? I I thought you trusted me."

Everyone in the room cringed away from Matthew's glare, directed at England. "Trusted you? Why would I have ever trusted you? My sole purpose in staying with you for as long as I did was to make you suffer as you made Papa suffer. Didn't you ever find it strange how America only began to whisper about revolution after I came to live with him?" An evil gleam entered her cold eyes, "Or how after you introduced them to me unrest began to build in your other colonies? That was all my doing. I never trusted you, for you I held nothing but contempt and hatred." By this time francis had wrapped Matthew in his arms and was glaring and grinning at Arthur, patting her head.

Arthur worked his jaw at seeing this and hearing all Matthew had done to bring him to his knees.

"But, why? Why do you hate me so? Is it because I never noticed you were a girl?"

Matthew laughs, a cold and disturbing sound. "What, no! I hid that from you because you men, all of you, look down on female nations. Why would I want you to know I was a girl?" The laughter leaves her face completely and she steps from Francis' arms. "No I hate you for the pain you put Papa through, the suffering you inflicted on him when all he had wanted was to be your friend."

Jaws around the room seemed to drop as Arthur fell to his knees. He didn't know what hurt more, learning that Matthew was a girl and had hidden it from him, that she had instigated the rebellions that brought his empire crumbling down, laughing about it behind his back, or the fact that she was so loyal to France that she would do all of this for him.

"Ma cherie, perhaps I should drive in the final nail to his coffin. I feel this should come from myself." Francis pulled Matthew back slightly, stepping forward himself and kneeling down so his face was level with Arthur's.

"Arthur, I'm sure you remember Jeanne, the girl you burned for fighting for me. The girl you made me to watch die. The girl born of your savage distrust and greed from my own body." Francis stood in front of Arthur, looking down at him with disdain as he seemed to take in what he was saying. A question seemed to bloom in his eyes as he looked up at Francis.

"Like Matthew I hid who I was, I gave her the idea so she could protect herself, just as my mother did for me. Jeanne de Arc was our daughter Arthur and you killed her, murdered her in cold blood."

Arthur felt he was being punched in the gut by a freight train. He had killed his own daughter? "I I couldn't have known. You never... Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"You raped me in a drunken rage Arthur, why would I tell you?"

That last bit said Francis turned to Matthew and the two left the meeting room as the rest of the nations stared after them. No one felt sorry for Arthur as he wept before all of them. He had been utterly humiliated in front of the entire world. The thing was he felt he deserved every bit of their mockery. He had been a fool and now they all knew it.

Ah, the last installment of this little tale, I think. It is for now at least. If I get enough of a reaction from this I may continue with a short bit of PruCan and the story of how Arthur makes an attempt at apologizing to Francis, cause I like happy endings, though this had one for Francis and Matthew at least. Anyway review please.