Hello again, normally I like to make updates as fast as possible to keep my motivation up. The problem with that right now is that I have a bunch of other self- imposed projects that I felt needed work. Also it's the first week of the semester so I have concerned myself with things such as books. In any case here is a shiny new chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not on Hetalia or any other media that inspired this story.

A few days later, the three boys were sitting in the dining room waiting for their uncle to come over and discuss the trip plans. Francis was passing the time by reading a book with… dubious content. Alfred and Matthew, on the other hand were bored. They had virtually exhausted Alfred's supply of games and neither of them felt like reading.

"What are we gonna do?" Matthew asked his brother. Alfred sighed and looked around the room, his expression implying that he was in physical pain from the boredom.

"I don't know dude, just give me a minute and I'll try and think of something."

"Alfred thinks?" Matthew thought to himself as his brother resumed lying on the floor as though he were a puddle. Francis looked up from his book at the two boys.

"Why don't you go play a game in the backyard or something? Your constant sighs of boredom are distracting me from my reading!"

"What's in that book anyway?" asked Matthew, "It looks like something that is written for adults."

"I'm close enough to being an adult. So it doesn't matter if I read this."

"That's it!"

Both Matthew and Francis turned toward Alfred who was sitting up and grinning stupidly.

"What's it?" asked Francis. Alfred leapt to his feet and assumed what Matthew guessed was supposed to be a 'hero' pose.

"We are going to mess with Uncle John." Alfred announced, adding a slight emphasis to the word 'we'.

"How are we going to do that?" Matthew asked, imitating his brother's inflection. Alfred put his hands on his hips and leaned backward slightly as he started laughing.

"We're totally going to hide from him! It's gonna be the funniest thing! When he shows up here he's gonna be like, 'Woah, where did Francis, Al, and Mattie go?' and he'll be all surprised when we're all over the place!"

Matthew smiled, it sounded like an amusing enough diversion. It would be much better than just sitting around with nothing to do. Francis looked less happy about the idea. Matthew guessed it was an age difference thing.

"I'd really rather not." Said Francis, who had already gone back to his book and had little intention to join them in their game. Alfred gasped and stared at Francis with a crushed look on his face. Matthew wasn't fooled though, he knew that when his brother got that expression it meant that loud begging would ensue.

"Please, please, please, please, please, please, pleeeeaaaasssseeeee! If you don't hide too it won't have the same effect at all!" Alfred began. He went on in this manner for around ten minutes, leaving Matthew completely stupefied that Francis was able to endure for that long. Eventually the Frenchmen broke down and decided to play Alfred's little game. They scattered around the property to find good places to hide. Alfred looks up and decides that the top of a tree is a good place to hide from his uncle, so he flies to the upper branches to wait. Matthew decides to hide in the basement; to him it didn't really matter because he was naturally the best at hide and seek in his family. Francis had no idea where to hide, so he decided to go to the tree house that was also in the back yard.

Shortly after they all found their hiding places their uncle arrived.

"Hey Jane, where are the boys?"

"Ummm…. I heard Al say something about hiding from you." She said to her brother. John rolled his eyes and smiled.

"This shouldn't be too difficult." He said as he went to the back yard. From the top of a nearby tree he heard the sound of laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha! He'll never find me in this tree!" Alfred practically shouted. John smiled and shook his head.

"You can come down from there Al." Alfred gasped and jumped down from the tree, stopping his fall a foot above the ground.

"How'd you find me?" he asked in an exasperated tone. John laughed and told Alfred that he gave himself away. John then headed to the tree house, figuring he'd find one of the other boys there. Francis winked and waved at his uncle.

"You're getting odder by the year…"

"Nice to see you too…" Francis said in reply. John sighed and shook his head. He often wondered what type of people his French nephew spent time with.

"Now we have to find Mattie." Alfred proclaimed, "You can't win the game without finding Mattie." John nodded and the three went in search of Matthew. Francis wasn't sure if there was a point in looking for his younger cousin; due in part to his gift and his naturally quiet nature Matthew was incredibly good at hide and seek. So good that Francis declared a rule about them playing that game, Matthew had to be the seeker first. The three searched the house for the Canadian boy for a couple of hours without any luck.

"Let's go wait in the kitchen. You two can tell me about your friends as we figure out the details for this campout." Said John with an exasperated sigh, "Mattie will come out when he feels like it."

"It would be pretty funny if he was just hanging out around us this whole time, just waiting for us to figure it out." Alfred said with a grin. The three of them then sat down at the table and started talking. They were so engrossed with this that they didn't notice the last chair moving itself away from the table.

"I wonder what I'll have to do to get them to notice that I'm here…" Matthew thought to himself as he listened in on the conversation.