Chapter 4

As the three nations and polar bear walked down the road, they planned to ask anyone outside if they had seen Matthew. They soon came to this wide open, grassy space with a couple of tree around it.

There was a girl sitting on the ground with her back against a tree. She was drawing in a big sketchbook and had blue earbuds in her ears. She had tan skin, dark-brown curly hair, and glasses, and she was wearing a black jacket.

"Maybe that girl saw Mattie," said Alfred. "I'll go over and ask her."

Francis stopped him. "Not so fast. I have a way with the ladies, so I will ask her."

"Hey! We're in my country!" Alfred protested. "I should ask her!"

"In your dreams, burger boy!"

Arthur just smirked. "Look at the shirt, lads."

Alfred and Francis looked. Aside from her black jacket, the girl was wearing a sweater with the Union Jack on it; a British shirt. Alfred and Francis sighed in disappointment.

"Stand aside," said Arthur. "and let the English gentleman speak to her."

"Don't scare her off, Arthur," Francis hissed.

Arthur shot a glare at Francis before walking over.

When he came near to her, he saw that the picture she was drawing was that of a man with big anime-like hair, a mask, and an angry face.

Arthur tapped on her shoulder, and almost immediately she took out her earbuds and turned her head.

"Oh, hi!" she said in a cheery kind of voice.

"Hello." Arthur glanced at her drawing. "Did you draw this?"

"Mm-hm."

"This is remarkable," Arthur complimented. "You have really wonderful art skills."

"Thank you." The girl smiled.

"Who's the man?"

"He's a character from a game called 'Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask'. His name is Randall."

"Oh," thought Arthur. "I might've heard of 'Professor Layton' before."

"I'm really interested in British culture and media," said the girl, who was pleasing Arthur more. "And actually, by the received pronunciation of your accent, I believe I'm talking to an Englishman."

"Yes," said Arthur. "I'm Arthur."

"I'm Lydia," said the girl, warmly shaking his hand.

"Actually," said Arthur. "My friends and I need your artistic abilities."

"Really?"

Arthur beckoned Alfred and Francis over. "This is Alfred and Francis," said Arthur. "Alfred's brother, Matthew, ran away a couple days ago, and we think he might have come here."

"So you want me to make a lost poster?" asked Lydia.

"Yeah."

"I can make some. But can you tell me what Matthew looks like?"

"He looks mostly like me," said Alfred. "Except his hair is a bit longer, he has violet eyes, and he has a long, loopy curl on his head."

Lydia nodded knowingly. "I can take you guys back to my house. That way, I can draw Matthew and print out multiple posters."

"Thank you, Lydia," said Arthur. "That would be a great help."

A couple minutes later, all of them arrived at Lydia's house. With Alfred as a reference, Lydia drew Matthew very accurately and made many copies of the lost poster. The three countries thanked Lydia, and set off to place the poster around the city.

While they were putting up the posters, Arthur noticed that on the brick wall, there was another poster. He took a closer look at it. It was a wanted poster with the picture of a young woman with bleached hair cut into a pixie cut and a scowl on her face.

Assuming that there would be a criminal on the loose in this city, Arthur took down the poster, folded it up, and put it in his pocket, just in case they might spot her and have to call the police.

"Where are we going?" Matthew asked Jade as she grabbed her jacket.

"We're going downtown," she responded, smirking. "To have some fun."

They left the apartment and started walking down the street.

A few minutes after they left, they noticed a police car coming down the road.

"Damn!" Jade hissed. She put up the hood on her jacket, pulled a pair of sunglasses out of pocket and put them on, and stepped behind Matthew with her face turned away from the road. She stayed like this until the police car had passed.

"What was that about?" asked Matthew.

"It's nothing," Jade quickly told him, resuming her walking and leaving Matthew confused.

They finally came to this bar downtown. It was packed with people that were either drinking, playing at the pool table, or just laughing and talking loudly to each other. Matthew hadn't been to a bar before, so he felt awkward in this environment.

"Want me to buy you a drink?" asked Jade when they walked up to the counter.

"N-No, thanks," said Matthew. "I'm just gonna use the bathroom. I'll be right back." And he walked off, leaving Jade alone to buy her glass of whiskey.

"Arthur, this is not the time for that!" said Francis as they approached the bar.

"I'm stressed out as much as you two are," said an irritated Arthur. "I need a drink."

After he went inside, Francis told Alfred, "You'd better go with him, make sure he doesn't drink too much."

Alfred nodded and went inside after Arthur.

Jade was finishing her whiskey when she turned her head to the left. There was a young man with messy blonde hair and large eyebrows sitting tree stools away from her with a glass of rum at his place. At that moment, he turned his head and made direct eye contact with her. She quickly turned her head the other way and stayed that way, with the ominous feeling that he was staring at her. After a few seconds, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the man wasn't looking at her anymore and felt a wave of relief.

She looked behind the man, but the uncomfortable feeling came crashing back down. There was another young man who was walking up to various people and looked like he was asking them something because the people shook their heads after he spoke. He looked….ever so similar to Matthew, except his hair was shorter, his eyes were bright blue, and instead of a long curl on his head, he had a short nantucket that stuck up.

Jade suddenly remembered the picture of Matthew's family that she saw last night. Was this Matthew's brother? What was he asking those people? Was he looking for Matthew?

She snapped out of her thoughts when he saw the man that looked like Matthew take the man with the eyebrows by the arm and drag him out of the bar. ("But I just ordered another rum, you git!")

Shortly after this happened, Matthew came out of the bathroom and came back to Jade. By this time, Jade had completely calmed down, and she and Matthew played a couple rounds of pool before leaving.

Alfred, Arthur, and Francis went to a couple other places to ask anyone if they had seen Matthew, but the answer was always "no". Since it was getting dark, the three got a room at a motel for the night. (They had some bribing to do to have the manager allow Kumajirou stay in the same room with them.)

Hours later, Francis and Kumajirou were asleep in one of the big beds. Arthur lay in the other bed, the effect of the alcohol giving him a headache. He was just about to drift off to sleep when he heard something in the room. He sat up, looked at the far corner of the room, and saw Alfred sitting in an armchair with his face in his hands. A couple sniffs and quiet sobs came from him. Surprised, Arthur got out of bed and walked over to him.

"Alfred?"

Alfred looked at Arthur, his face streaked with tears. "Arthur," he said quietly. "What if we don't find him? What if he's-"

"Don't say that," Arthur told him gently. "We will find him; don't worry."

After a moment of silence, Alfred said, "I didn't want to lose another brother. What I did already made me lose you."

"What do you mean?" asked Arthur.

"Did you think I was always glad to be independent?" said Alfred. "Sometimes I kinda miss having you around."

"I didn't think you thought that way," said Arthur. "I was really doing my best to take care of you, you know," he went on. "After you left, I thought that what I did wasn't good enough."

"But it was," said Alfred, putting a hand on the older nation's shoulder. "I really appreciate all that you did for me, making me a strong country just like you."

Now Arthur was starting to get a little misty eyed.

"I'm sorry about everything I said, that day we had that fight," said Alfred.

"Me too," said Arthur softly before Alfred pulled him into an embrace.

For a whole minute, the two of them remained in each other's arms. When they finally broke away, Arthur said, "We should probably get some sleep."

"Hey, Artie?" said Alfred. "Is it okay if I….if I sleep with you?"

Arthur hesitated for a bit. But then he said, "All right. But just this once."

"Thanks, dude."

Both of them got on either side of the bed. Alfred went to sleep right away, but Arthur gazed at his ex-colony for a number of minutes before drifting off to sleep.