Stale, mate?

On the first floor, France and Canada walked past doors slowly, chatting while they made their way across the corridor. France had quickly began to tell his former colony a story about Englands and his childhood. It seemed a bit exaggerated, but at least, Canada thought thankfully, it wasn't of the explicit kind this time. He wasn't a prude by any length, but his papa could get a bit unsettlingly over board with these kinds of things...

They had looked at a bunch of „museum doors" already but hadn't found anything particularly interesting. No sign of their nations on the boards and no sign of people inhabiting this old they had also not found yet was any sign of a kitchen. Both of them were getting kind of hungry…

Just as France was about to start yet another story, Canada stopped him and said, unsure,

"W-wait. Do you smell that?"

France looked in confusion at the other nation for a moment, but than he started to notice it too. The air smelled like someone was cooking near them and whoever that was; he seemed to know what he did. So there was not only somebody living in this place, they also had a functioning kitchen. Figuring they might as well ask permission to use this kitchen, they decided to follow the smell.

It didn't take them long to find what they were looking for – one of the later doors in the corridors and the only one that seemed to be open. Ignoring the sign on it, France knocked on the half opened door before allowing himself in. Canada followed, looking a bit worried. It didn't seem right to just walk into other peoples rooms, even if their door was open. And who knew what kind of person was in here anyway? He wouldn't want his papa or him hurt or in danger after all…

"D-do you think its okay for us to just enter…?", he asked, voicing some of his concerns.

But the older nation found no time to respond. Nearly immediately after they had set foot into the smaller corridor behind the door, a young man came into sight, a warm, friendly smile on his face.

"Oh how wonderful!" he cheered, "Guests! How can I help you, boys? Are you hungry? Do you want to stay for dinner? It's going to be ready soon and we always have so much anyway!"

The two nations just nodded and smiled politely, a bit taken aback.

"Wonderful! Just go through the door furthest right and wait there, will you? That's the dinner room. Oh, and would you mind telling the boys in the rooms with the numbers 2 and 4 on them to go wait there too while you're at it? They're right on the way, if you don't mind. Thank you!" the cheerful man told them.

He waited for them to give another nod before disappearing behind a door opposite to the still open entrance. Canada and France, deciding to go along with the cheerful offer without worrying too much for now, just walked down the corridor. It didn't take them long to find the doors they were supposed to be looking for. Quickly, they decided to split up and each get one of the boys. France would take the door with the number 2 on it and Canada the one with the 4.

-ooOOoo-

France softly knocked on the door and went inside when nobody answered him. It was a nice looking room, bright and friendly. The owner appeared to be a boy around ten, who was currently attempting to… catch the air? At least that was what it looked like to Francis. He wore light and slightly oversized clothing, as well as a bright smile on his face. For a moment Francis just stood there, admiring the cuteness of the little one, before speaking up.

"Bonjour mon petit, my name is Francis. I was asked by a lovely, cheerful young man to deliver you safely to the dining room.", Francis said, smiling at the child. After a moment he added, "Ah, and may I know what game you are playing there, little one?"

The boy stopped with… whatever it was that he had been doing before to look at the visitor, his smile growing even wider at the sight.

"Hello! It is nice to meet you, Mr. Francis. My name is France but you can call me Frenny if you want. Oh, and I was just trying to catch Lumodets! But they always get away… I bet with Tria's help I could catch them! I will just go and visit him after lunch!", the boy answered, speaking fast and enthusiastically.

Francis gave him a confused look. Had he heard that correctly? He must have, but then that just created more questions than it answered… Maybe this little boy was just playing, and part of his game was to pretend to be him? In that case, he guessed he should feel honoured. It was always such a pleasure meeting someone who adored his beautiful country as much as he did. Though what on earth Lumodets were, Francis still had no idea. Noticing that he had been standing in silence for a few moments, he quickly spoke up again,

"It is nice to meet you too, mon petit France. May you tell me what Lumodets are while we make our way to the dining room?"

The boy grinned even brighter at the prospect of sharing his knowledge and gladly enlightened the men.

"They are about the 3 centimetres tall, fairy-like creatures that shine like a bright little candle-flame. Lumodets love to be near humans and irritate them. They do that by making the human feel like they saw a light but if they look there is nothing there! I love them, but they are super hard to catch!"

Francis nodded kindly at the explanation, though it really didn't help with anything much. He suddenly had the strange feeling of standing next to the little Arthur again – the looks weren't even too far off now that he thought of it… He silently wondered, just for a moment, if he should ask the island nation about this imaginary creatures when they all met up again. They made their way to the dining room slowly, the boy France talking all the while about some Tria and his imaginary fairies.

-ooOOoo-

At the same time at which Francis had entered room number 2, Matthew had walked into room 4. His knock was light, as it tended to be, and when nobody answered he carefully opened the door and let himself in. What he found was a clean, well organised room, filled with bookshelves as well as a neat bed and desk. On the bed sat a boy maybe thirteen years old, who was staring at a chessboard that was lying in front of him. He appeared to be playing against himself, deep in thought. After locating the boy, Matthew politely cleared his throat to get his attention and said,

"I-I am sorry to bother you, but I was asked to bring you to the dining room… Um, name is Matthew, by the way. I am a visitor…"

The boy didn't react at all, as if he hadn't even heard the Canadian. Not that this surprised Matthew, of course. Sighing in defiance, he went up to the boy and carefully, as not to scare the child too much, touched his shoulder. That usually worked when it came to getting people's attention, he had found, though he thought of it as a somewhat desperate manner. Didn't mean he had to restore to it any less often, though. As he had hoped, the touch caused the boy to react. Quickly, he turned around to see who was there. When he saw Mattie, he blinked for a moment, startled, before asking,

"Uhm… I am sorry, but may I know who you are? Why are entering my room with out knocking and why did you just touch me, for that matter?"

The boy's voice showed clear signs of insecurity but the reaction still surprised Matthew – in a quite positive way, that is.

"I-I am sorry, but I did knock…I guess it was just not loud enough… My name is Matthew, Matthew Williams and I was told to bring you to the dining room since lunch is nearly ready. Me and a friend of mine were invited to stay for it by a very cheerful man.", he answered calmly.

The boy seemed satisfied with it for now, though he still eyed the man with a hint of suspicion.

"I see. I might have missed the knocking while Jet was talking. Sorry. Um, I am Canadia, by the way…", he said.

Matthew blinked rapidly for a moment in disbelieve at the last words. Did that boy just claim to be him? But that couldn't be true… could it? No, it was probably some game, he told himself – he might be forgotten a lot, but surely it wasn't quite enough for the Universe to just replace him. He was about to nod in approval of his theory, when another thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"Don't you mean Canada?", he asked.

The boy was silent for a few moments, looking a bit embarrassed at his mistake, before mumbling a "yes, thanks". He seemed rather uncomfortable – more so than somebody just pretending should be at such a mistake, a part of Matthews mind noted – so the man decided it was the smartest thing to just bring him into the dining room without any more conversation.

-ooOOoo-

When Matthew and Canada reached the dining room, Francis and France were already waiting for them. The younger boy was currently talking to the air about his friend Tria and how they would get him here. Canada didn't seem to pay any attention to the other boy and just sat down on the large desk in silence. Matthew decided to sit down next to Francis, who seemed too focused on something else to notice it. He was about to touch him to get his attention when his papa realised he had joined him and turned towards him.

"Ah, bonjour Mathieu," Francis said and than added in a lower voice "Do you have any idea what is going on here? This boy there, the one talking to the air, he said he was France! I think he might be playing a game, but to be honest he is acting very sincere. I fear he might be hallucinating. And he is talking to fairies too – he reminds me a lot of petit Angleterre."

Matthew looked at him for a moment in silence before admitting,

"The boy I brought here claimed to be Canada… Well, actually he said he was Canadia but… He seemed very serious too, do you think th- …"

They had no time to discuss the subject further, as the man they had met before entered the room with a bouncy step and a big smile. In a chirpy voice he said,

"Hey guys! England and Austria are done fighting. Sit down Franny, will you, they'll be here any minute now."

France looked up from his imaginary fairies and sat down next to Canada. The man smiled and sat down opposite of the two boys.

When everyone had sat down, Francis decided to speak up.

"I have to thank you for letting us join dinner, mon cher. It is very kind of you. Ah, and that despite the fact that we did not even properly introduce ourselves. How impolite, allow me to make good for it now. My name is Francis and this is my… little brother, Matthew. It is a pleasure to meet you."

His words were followed by a suggestive wink in the mans' direction. The cheerful man ignored the look – or maybe he simply didn't notice it – and said,

"It's great to meet you! I am Germany and it's always nice to have guests, we get them so rarely recently."

This statement caused the two visitors to get even more confused. After they exchanged a quick look, Francis asked what was going on. The answer he got was not really helping to clear things up though.

"Huh, of course I can! So, we are currently fighting World War One, but I kind of already gave up, so I am just looking after the boys. The kids don't even know how to fight; I mean they are kids after all – and even if they did know it, we would never let them in danger like that! So it is actually just England against Austria. Um, but as it turned out they are both really bad at actual fighting too. But somebody has to fight, so they just kind of… changed the battlefield, so to speak and now they are having cook-offs. The problem is just that they are both so good, it's impossible to decide who won so it always ends in a stalemate! Not that it matters of course; after all, we all get to eat delicious stuff all the time so no one cares who wins the war since nobody is really fighting any more anyway!"

Before they could ask for a better, less ridiculous and insane, explanation, a woman and a man in aprons entered the room.

The two persons, presumingly Austria and England, were both carrying really delicious looking food. They placed the dishes on the table and sat down themselves, the man next to Canada and France, the woman next to Francis and Matthew. After this everyone just unceremoniously started to take something.

When everyone had food on their plates and started eating, the woman looked at the two visitors with a friendly expression and said,

"It is really nice to have guests again. I am England by the way."

"Ah, yes, I am Austria. It is nice to meet you," added the man politely.

So Francis introduced the two of them again. Both man were beyond confusion now. They had absolutely no idea what was going on. This just didn't seem like a game any more, at least not one voluntarily played. Maybe they had unwittingly run into abandoned mental patients of sorts? Or maybe… Matthew and Francis both shook their heads at each other at the idea. Looking at each other they decided to just go with it for now and worry later. When the First World War becomes a cooking duel, one should probably just give up.

So France started to flirt with this girl-England and Matthew silently listened to the conversations going on, using his usual near-invisibility to his advantage. It wasn't often that he found something positive in his situation, but sometimes it could be kind of entertaining to abuse. The small France had started talking to Germany, he noted.

"Tria said I can't come to him, can he come down here instead?", the boy asked.

"Of course he can, but say, when did you talk to him?"

"Oh, we send the fairies to each other. They're super quick!"

Mattie chuckled a bit at this, Francis had been right, the boy really did have some similarities with Arthur. Deciding to listen in to another conversation, he focused on Austria and Canada, who were chatting somewhat quietly.

"…going Canadia?", asked the man

"We will finish the game after dinner. I am winning.", answered the boy, seemingly not noticing the mistake in his name again.

"That's good to hear", was the retort from Austria.

A very polite conversation. Matthew wasn't sure if he should be happy that this little version of him was winning in chess or be upset that he seemed to have forgotten his own name again. He decided to be happy and continued eating, enjoying his nearly spectator like view of the lunch and the sometimes entertaining little conversations of the others. Not the one between England and Francis though, he didn't know how far the other man would go, but he had no wish to find out.

The lunch passed rather fast. It seemed that Francis had successfully flirted with England, because he promised her to come back in the evening with that special kind of wink. After that they had quickly helped declare yet another "fight" to be a stalemate, and then left the World War to explore another door and maybe find out what was going on. And while they searched for something interesting to look at, Francis started to tell his former colony exactly what he had said to girl-England and what he was planning to do in the evening, while Matthews head became redder and redder.

A/N: Yes, France going back there would have probably been part of the story one way or another.

Also, "Jet" references the SovJET Union, which would have been one of Russias next stays probably.