About a little while later, they heard loud knocks on the front door. Alexei was the first to reach the door, as he knew whom knocks these belonged to. He quickly opened the door, jumping in America's arms as soon as he came in sight.
"Uncle Alfved!" the child cheerfully exclaimed.
"Alex!" replied the American, more than happy to see his nephew.
"Papa say I vill 'ave a b'other or si'ther!"
Alfred let out a little laugh at the statement and ruffled the child's hair.
"Yeah, I know! Are you happy about it?"
Alexei nodded in response, a big smile on his face. Alfred then gently put his nephew back on the ground. When he saw his own brother just a few feet away, he quickly ran to him and pulled the Canadian in a bear-hug, while sending death-glares at Russia, who was standing behind Matthew. Even if the war between the two nations was officially over, Alfred and Ivan just couldn't bring themselves to be anything more than just civilized around each others. However, they made efforts, just for Matthew. Alfred knew his brother (even if he didn't comprehend why or how) was happy with the communist basta- Ivan, and even he couldn't bring himself to force his little Mattie to break up with the Russian. Of course, he had made Ivan swear to never ever ever hurt the Canadian even just a little… and Russia had agreed. Nevertheless, all of this didn't mean they both didn't hate each other still…
"A-Al, I c-can't breathe…" Matthew finally managed to say.
"Oops, Sorry!" replied Alfred, loosening his grip on his brother.
"Al… You didn't have to come all the way here right away, you know" Canada said, laughing lightly.
"I know! But I wanted to congratulate you in person!" America answered with enthusiasm.
Matthew wanted to reply something, but was cut short by Alexei, who was now tugging on his uncle's pants.
"Uncle Alfved! Uncle Alfved! Come p'ay vith me!" he happily requested.
Alfred looked down his nephew for a brief moment and turned around, kneeling down to the child's level.
"Sure! What do you want to play?" he asked, looking at the toddler with a wide grin.
The boy then ran into the living room and came back with two mini-hockey sticks and a ball.
"Ho'key!" he exclaimed, handing one of the sticks to his uncle.
"Alright!" Alfred replied, satisfied by Alexei's choice of game. With the family he has, no doubt that boy is going to be hell of a hockey player.
Excited to be able to play with his uncle, Alexei then looked at his Papa.
"Can ve have the 'oal ?" he asked.
"Sure." Canada answered and went to the closet at the end of the hallway.
He came back with a small (about two feet high) goal in his hands and placed it in the corridor
"You remember that the ball stay in the hallway, right?" he asked his son, even though he knew he was more saying this to his brother than to the child.
"Yes." Alexei replied with a nod and then took place in front of the net.
"Think ya better than me?" teased Alfred.
"Yeah!" the child answered with a confident smile.
Canada couldn't help but smile at the two, happy that they got along so easily. Seeing that his presence was no longer needed, he decided that he could go finish some of the less-important work that pilled on his desk.
"Well… I've got some work to do, so you won't turn the house into a mess if I leave you two alone for a couple of minutes?" Matthew half-joked.
The two others nodded and the Canadian headed to his office. As he was about to enter the room, he noticed that Ivan's office's door was slightly open. He poked his head inside the room and saw that the Russian was sitting behind his desk, reading some papers. Matthew silently walked into the room, carefully closing the door behind him.
"Escaping from my evil-capitalist-brother?" Matthew mused with a short laugh.
Ivan didn't even bother to glance back, but Matthew was certain he heard a small chuckle coming from the other man.
"Got some work?" the smaller man asked as he was now standing beside Ivan.
"Da, just a couple of urgent papers I received this morning." he answered, leaning back in his chair and turning around to glance up at the Canadian.
Ivan then took Matthew's hand and gently pulled him until he was now sitting on the Russian's lap. Matthew quickly leaned closer; resting is head on the taller man's shoulder. He half-closed his eyes for a moment, just appreciating this moment of calm. He knew things were going to get a little bit more erratic later… To be honest, he didn't looked forward having to deal with his whole family, the stress from today's calls had tired him, not to mention that he hadn't got a full night of sleep; Alexei woke them up in the middle of the night because of a nightmare and Matthew and Ivan had to spend a part of the night trying to convince the child that Rasputin wasn't hiding under his bed. (Note to self: The next time Alfred is babysitting Alexei, remind him that Anastasia is not a proper movie for a two-years-old child.)
"Tired?" Ivan asked after a moment, taking Matthew away from his train of thoughts.
"…Yeah…" answered the Canadian, stifling a yawn.
Matthew was about to drift into sleep, when he suddenly heard the ringing of the doorbell. Pushing his glasses up on his nose, he let out a sigh before getting up, quickly leaving the office.
He walked toward the front door, passing by Alfred and Alexei, who surprisingly didn't seemed to have noticed the ringing of the doorbell as they were still playing mini-hockey. Taking a deep breath, Canada prepared himself mentally and opened the front door.
"Mathieu!~" France cooed as he pulled the Canadian in a tight hug.
"Bloody hell Francis! Will you leave that poor boy alone?" scowled England, who was standing behind France.
The Briton looked troughtfully pissed (well, more than usual) and after Francis finally released Matthew, he looked at the Canadian with a harsh look.
"How could you have let that…" he started, but was cut short by Ivan, who as just exited his office and was now standing beside Matthew.
"Wouldn't it be better if we all go discuss that in the living room?" he suggested, knowing this couldn't end well.
England and France's reaction hadn't been very different the last time, only the circumstance of the announcement has been. To start off with, Matthew had been quite surprised by this pregnancy and for many reasons, but mostly because, as far as he knew, he was still a man. However, he had reminded himself that he was also a country, so maybe it wasn't that impossible.
At first, it was quite easy to hide it under his usual over-sized hoodie and it's not like other nations were paying attention to him anyway, but as the months went by, he simply stopped attending meetings. France was the first to notice the absence of the Canadian, but when he asked Russia about it, he simply replied that Canada had more important things to do that day.
Unsatisfied by that answer, he then asked America, hoping Alfred would know more about the absence of his brother, but even he hadn't noticed. Francis' curiosity got the best of him and when he got back to his hotel room, he called the Canadian, asking for what was going on. Canada resigned himself and, not wanting to say this over the phone, told Francis to meet him at his house and to bring England. This last detail had alerted the Frenchman and he did as requested.
When both men arrived at their ex-colony's house, they found Russia, Canada and America all sitting in the living room, apparently waiting for them. Matthew nervously motioned them to sit down.
"So…hum… I-I don't really know how to say it…" started to explain Matthew. "Well, I'm even not even sure how it happened, or even how it is possible… B-But still, the fact is that, e-even though I'm a man… "
He paused and took a deep breath.
"…I-I'm pregnant…"
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT ? ! ! ! ?" shrieked England.
For a moment, France looked unsure of what to do, glancing between Matthew and Arthur. Finally, a bright smile spread on the Frenchman's face.
"Mon Dieu! This is merveilleux! Arthur, tu realise? Doesn't that means we'll be grand-parents?" France squealed in delight.
"And THIS is supposed to be a good thing!"
"Well, of course, cher~"
Looking at France and England argue made Canada nervousness go away and he slowly started to laugh, soon followed by Alfred and even Ivan let out a chuckle.
Hearing his ex-colonies laugh made England stop from his little "fight" with France and he glanced at the opposite couch, making his face's expression soften. He sighed before looking at Matthew.
"Are you happy about that?" asked Arthur.
"W-Well, I don't really know what to expect, but… Yeah, I'm happy with it and –he looked down at his now quite round stomach- I just can't wait to see him" Matthew replied with a warm smile.
And so, it took a while, but England eventually accepted it.
A/N: This is the first part of Chapter 4, which will be splitted in two, because he would have been too long and I found the perfect place to cut it.
French: Mon Dieu! = My God !
merveilleux= wonderful
tu realise= you realize ?
Also,
I'M SOOOOOORRRYYYYYYYY ORZ
Life caught up with me in the last few months... I finished writing that chapter about 3 months ago in a notebook, but I didn't have time to write it on the computer.
Thanks for all the wonderful review, you have no idea how they make me happy 3
