Francis handed the child a plate. The boy rubbed his eyes sleepily, but gave him a smile nonetheless. It had been getting late when Francis had found the child wandering around on his own, so he had decided to wait until the next morning before trying to find out who he was. Francis had given the boy one of the spare cabins in the lower part of the ship. It wasn't ideal for anyone, but Francis had been insistent that the boy have his own room.

"He almost looks as if he could be your child," Claude had commented once Francis had closed the door to the boy's room. "You both have similar facial features."

Francis had passed the comment off as Claude being delusional, but looking at the child in daylight, he could easily see where Claude had gotten the idea. The boy could have passed as Francis' brother. Perhaps...Francis hesitated, not wanting to get his hopes up for fear of being let down. But there was the slightest chance that the boy could have been like him. A country.

"You said your name was Canada, correct?" Francis asked.

Purple eyes peeked at him from beneath blond hair as the boy nodded. "Canada is my name. But I like Mathew too."

"My name is France, but you can call me Francis."

The boy responded to this much as he had to every other time someone had tried to communicate with him: a long stare and perhaps, if they were lucky, some kind of physical reaction acknowledging that Mathew had at least understood what they said.

In general, Mathew's social skills seemed to be lacking. He rarely spoke to anyone besides his bear, to which he could spend hours to talking about absolutely nothing. Francis found it to be extraordinarily interesting to watch, but the rest of his men only seemed to be annoyed by it. They had come all this way only to have their progress halted by an uncooperative child.

"Do you have any idea where you may have come from?" Francis tried again. "If you have a family, we want to get you back to them as soon as possible."

Mathew tilted his head to the side. "I don't have a family. I just woke up. Yesterday. I was in the woods."

Francis tried hard to conceal the smile that threatened to take over his face. He was almost positive this child was like him. "Mathew, I believe that you are the human representation of this land. That means that you are connected to this place and that it is a part of you. Do you think that could be true?"

"It is," Mathew said simply. "I know it is," A small smile crept onto his features. "Are you one too?"

"Oui," Francis confirmed. "And there are many others. With in the next few days, another country England should be arriving. He hopes to claim some of the southern land."

Mathew nodded, feeling as if he knew exactly what land Francis was speaking off. He could feel it up against his land as clearly as if it was pressing against his body physically. It seemed so normal, as if it had been their for centuries even though a Mathew had only woke a day before.

There were a few minuets of silence between the two, that was eventually broken by Mathew. "Do you think Kumajirou could have some food?" He asked the Frenchman, slowly petting his bear's ears.

"Is that your bear's name?" Francis asked, reaching for one of the (relatively) clean plates.

Mathew nodded. "He says he's hungry."

Francis added some food to the plate and placed it in front of the bear. Mathew had been fairly insistent that Kumajirou get his own seat and Francis just hadn't had the heart to say otherwise.

The bear leaned his head closer to Mathew's, and the boy tilted his head on as well as if listening. "He says thank you," Mathew said once the bear had pulled away and began eating his own food.

Francis laughed softly. This really was an interesting child.

Francis shivered, pulling his thin coat tighter around him. When Antonio had spoken of his trip to the new world, he had said it was warm. Prehapse they had different standards of what was warm, but by Francis', Canada's weather was something fully deserving of the phrase 'too damn cold'.

"Are you sure you're alright, Mathew?" Francis asked the young boy. They were both standing by the shore if a beautiful lake, Mathew up to about his ankles in the water. "You're not too cold?"

"It's warm out," Mathew replied, the look he have Francis clearly saying TJAT he felt that he was stating the obvious.

"Well excuse me for not finding this awful climate to be enjoyable," Francis huffed.

Mathew giggled, claiming out of the water. "If you're cold we can go back. I don't mind."

"Are you sure?" While Francis was eager to get out of the cold, he didn't want to be between the boy and his fun. As a country, they had such a short time of true innocence and he didn't want to take away any of that from Mathew.

Mathew nodded. "Isn't it going to be getting late soon anyway? You said we need to get back before dark."

Francis smiled, ruffling the boy's hair. "Aren't you smart? As soon as I get the chance, I'm going to teach you to speak French."

"Is that the language that you speak sometime?" Mathew asked as they started to walk back in the direction of the ship.

"It is," Francis confirmed. "It is the language of my homeland."

"It always sound nice when you speak it," Mathew said, latching onto Francis' hand. "I hope it sounds as pretty when I do."

"It will sound even prettier," Francis promised. The look of complete happiness he received assured it. He would do anything he could to let this child keep his innocence.

I am so sorry for updating this at such a late time. I normally try to get everythingwritten a day ahead, but I fell asleep early last night then was at my friend's house all day. The next two chapters should be on time though. :)

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Thank you so so much to everyone who reviewed/read/followed/favorited. Every time I say an email in my inbox I started smiling like an idiot. I'm pretty sure I scared at least on person.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thursday!

-GS