This is first story on here, so I'd highly appreciate reviews. Obviously, I own nothing. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this, now would I?
When America had invited the Nordics over for an 'awesome videogame tournament', Matthew could predict exactly how the evening would go. Still, he at least hoped that he and the youngest Nordic might hit it off.
He was sorely disappointed when he and Iceland were safely in one of the back rooms though, both quiet voices a little unsure of what to say as they listened to Alfred's whoops of excitement and Denmark's scowls while the rest egged them both on in a multitude of languages.
It was Canada who finally spoke first, hesitantly looking up at Emil as he hugged Kumajirou to his chest. Usually, Alfred would begin rambling on about whatever topic came to mind, but Iceland seemed quite like him and truthfully, Matthew didn't know how much longer he would be able to stand the silence and awkwardness of standing around and listening to their brothers.
"Whooo! The hero wins again!"
Both boys jumped at America's shout of victory and Mr. Puffin shifted, angrily squawking in what seemed to be Icelandic. Emil nodded to him and Matthew swore that he could see the bird's eyes roll.
"So..." Matthew tried again, soft voice barely above a whisper. "What did your bird say-eh?" He missed Kumajirou look at him like he was mad for not understanding it as Iceland responded.
"That... that your brother and Denmark would get along well," Emil responded, voice surprising Matthew when it was louder than his own, even if only slightly.
The awkwardness persisted and Matthew rubbed the back of his neck as Kumajirou squirmed a bit, unhappy at being held like a stuffed animal. "You're hurting me, Canada," he complained and, once Matthew snapped out of his daze, he shifted him into a more comfortable position.
"What did he say? I don't speak French."
Matthew blinked in surprise as Emil spoke again. "He just wanted me to move him-eh," he admitted, lifting a hand to push his sliding glasses back up. He hadn't realised that Kumajirou couldn't be understood by the others. Sure, he knew that he spoke French-Canadian, but Matthew hadn't put two and two together before. Maybe that was why France always huffed when the bear spoke...
"Erm... shall we do something? It'll be hours before Alfred wants to take a break-eh," he tried to explain, and, once Iceland nodded, he set Kumajirou down and went over to dig through a heavily disorganised shelf until he found Scrabble and pulled it out, trying his very best to not make the tower of board games fall on him.
He unpacked the game in silence and soon the two were lounging on the dusty carpet, Kumajirou and Mr. Puffin looking at both sides.
"Wait... skjal?" Matthew's voice clumsily formed around the word, breaking the long silence. "English only-eh."
Emil seemed flabbergasted by this. "Really? That's a rule? Alright, I suppose."
Mr. Puffin had had, of course, had a different approach to this and exploded at Matthew in a mess of hardly understandable Icelandic- even for Emil. The bird got so angry, in fact, that he knocked the board over and tore it apart with his beak, squawking harsh words that Canada wasn't sure that he wanted to know the meaning of.
After a shocked moment, Kumajirou tackled the bird and held him down with his two front paws with the nations cleaned up the mess that he had made.
They disregarded Scrabble after that and pulled out Battleship. Usually, Matthew would have been hesitant to play a war game -Risk with Germany had been quite frightening- but Emil seemed to have a good control over his temper, not like Romano. He remembered the day that he had accidentally introduced the European countries to Risk, how Russia was silent through the entire thing, how Italy refused to roll in defense, how Romano and Germany got worked up over taking control of Europe, and how Russia went into a rage when he lost his country in the game to Lithuania and how, when none of them were watching closely, Latvia won.
Iceland seemed quite level-headed though, so Matthew handed one of the game sets to him and set the other one up.
And the moment that Canada called for the first move, E5, was when they were sent into the game.