Someone Warned You Matty, They Really Did

The town looked very strange, but Matthew Williams was unlikely to go any further. The snow was continuing to fall and the train had stopped very close to here. Wherever here was.

He had heard of this town before. His father had spoken of it before, rather absently. But it was not his dad's words which he remembered, it was everyone else's words who he had heard speaking about here. 'Never get trapped in Hearth. You will regret it.'

But if Matthew missed this town he could not be considered actually looking for his family. He did not have that much to go off of, but he hoped it would be enough. Surprisingly, failing for an entire year did not bother him as much as it might have. All of the travelling was fun, if not as successful as he had wished it to be. Matthew was beginning to wonder whether looking for his brother was now just an excuse so he could continue to travel. His father had been so willing to pay for his expenses because of it.

In that way, Matthew almost felt as if he were taking advantage of him.

But he was not going to find anyone today. He would ask around tomorrow, but now he was exhausted. For a long while he was one of two people on the train and for some reason that kept him from getting any sleep. It seemed too personal. The other man had not had the same problem. Seeing the sign for an inn in the distance headed towards that.

He was stopped as another body collided into his, his hand dropping the handle of his luggage and several other boxes tumbling into the snow.

"I'm so sorry!"

"No, no, no... it was my fault, eh!"

Matthew quickly helped gather the fallen parcels and handed them to the man who had bumped him. He blinked. He should not have been surprised in seeing the other passenger of the train, but for some reason he was. "No, I wasn't looking where I was going!"

"But..." the other blinked at him through the cascade of hair which had escaped his ponytail and was now concealing his eyes. "I bumped into you from behind... how can that be your fault?"

Matthew thought about it. "No harm done," he smiled at the other as the man counted his packages and seemed to arrive at a satisfactory number. "Eh... You new here?" Considering how small of a town it was, Matthew was a bit surprised to discover this man actually meant to stop here instead of missing another stop. Appearances could be deceiving, but considering the amount of caution he had heard about this town, the Canadian was certain it was still strange.

"Yeah," the other nodded. "Moving in with a friend. He's just..." he paused, looking around the area. "Late. Typical of him though."

"Not bad weather to be waiting in," Matthew smiled. Of course, he liked snow. But it was not snowing now and the other seemed dressed warmly for the occasion, so he did not feel like he was out of place mentioning it.

"Not at all," the other smiled back. "I've heard a lot of things about this town, but it seems rather pleasant."

"I know," Matthew nodded, looking around. Despite all of the horror stories, Hearth did not seem like a place that was capable of all the horrible things he had heard of. As Matthew was not usually the type to believe rumours that did not have fact backing them up, he was disinclined to think more on what he had heard. A few days here before heading into the city, he could find a phone book for the area for names and ask around if that failed. Other than that... sightseeing.

"Sorry again."

"No, no! It was nothing, eh! I'm sorry!" Matthew waved off. The other laughed.

"I'll stop apologizing if you stop. Agreed?"

"Right," Matthew nodded, looking again towards the inn.

"See you around, then?"

"Maybe," Matthew smiled, waving as he headed towards the inn. Well, so much for the horror stories he had heard of Hearth. Someone was moving in and not insane and everyone else here was like that at one point. So what could go wrong in the few days he was staying?

Notes:

I called the town Hearth for obvious reasons. But if it is not obvious, I did not want to call it Hetalia, because it includes more than just Italy. And I wanted something a little more original from Chikyuu, just because that has already been used by people.

Toris and Matthew apologize a lot. You guys are not Kiku! Honestly.