Mathew was reluctant to admit it, but he actually enjoyed being the centre of Francis' attention. The man had put Claude on charge and took the day off to spend with Mathew. Right after breakfast, they had left the ship to go explore.

In the few days since Francis and his men had arrived in Canada, they had made a great deal of progress. A few small buildings were starting to pop up and there was already talk of building a more permanent dock for Francis' boat.

"Père?" Mathew said hesitantly, looking out at the ocean. "What is that?"

Francis squinted, looking in the direction Mathew had pointed. "I believe that is another ship," He smiled fondly at the young boy. "Don't worry over it. If that is he boat I think it is, you may soon be meeting an, um, aquatiance of mine."

Mathew nodded, before his attention was grabbed by the small shape of Kumajirou on the edge of the trees. "Look, there's Kuma!" He ran off towards the bear, Francis following closely behind.

It wasn't until late that evening when the boat Mathew had seen finally made it to the shore. The boy had seen it land from the window of his room on Francis' ship.

He and the European had stayed out until late on the afternoon, when it had started to lightly rain. Although the abundance of bad weather cut their day short, they had still managed to have plenty of fun. After rejoining Kumajirou, Francis and Mathew had continued to observe the progress made in the buildings, before eventually stopping for lunch. Francis had brought a small basket of food with him which they ate in the shade of the trees.

A few minuets after the ship had docked, Mathew heard an unfamiliar voice from outside his door. By that time he had been introduced to everyone on the ship, so he figured that the voice must have been the voice of someone from the new ship.

It seemed that his curiosity was soon to be cured, as soon after first hearing the voice someone knocked on the young boy's door. "Mathew, I have someone I would like you to meet," Francis said through the door. "Can you please come out?"

Mathew opened the door and cautiously peaked out. It seemed that rather than there being one new person aboard the ship as he had previously believed, there was two.

The older of the two was a man slightly shorter than Francis, with unruly blond hair and angry green eyes. The younger looked to be about the same age as Mathew. In fact, Mathew thought that he and this new boy looked remarkably similar. The only notable difference was their eyes. Mathew's were a deep violet and this boy's were sky blue.

"Mathew, this is Arthur," Francis said, gesturing to the older man. " And this is Alfred."

"Hello," Arthur greeted Mathew, obviously trying to smile, but only succeeding in looking constipated. "You're Canada, correct?"

Mathew nodded, already gaining a slight dislike for Arthur. Francis had mentioned him a few times, saying all he cared about was gaining more land for himself.

"I'm America!" Alfred said, grinning broadly. "So we're sorta neighbours!"

"Sort of, not 'sorta'," Mathew heard Arthur mutter under his breath, but Alfred didn't seem to hear and if he had, it clearly didn't bother him.

Mathew slipped his hand into Francis', already ready to be done with these strange people and expecting Francis to ask them to leave. However, Francis didn't seem to feel the same way to their guests. In fact, he invited them to stay for dinner.

Mathew tried to enjoy the meal. He really did. But he didn't like how Francis was paying absolutely no attention to him. All of his attention seemed to be on Arthur and Alfred.

It wasn't as if Mathew didn't understand being interested in the pair; he was as well. They were just so strange that they seemed to command attention.

What he really didn't like was everyone acting as of he was invisible. He probably could have shoved his face in his food and proceeded to stand on his chair screaming with out anyone noticing.

Nevertheless, he managed to make it through the meal without engaging in any questionable activities. And just when he thought things would finally start to go well, Francis decided it would be a great idea just to leave him alone with Alfred.

Mathew felt betrayed. Completely betrayed. How could Francis, the man who had found him and took him in, just abandon him? And with the strange child of his enemy, no less.

"Are you just gonna sit there?" Alfred asked, looking at Mathew with curious blue eyes. He didn't seem bothered by the situation. When Mathew gave no answer, he tried again. "C'mon Mathew, just talk to me."

Mathew gave his southern neighbour a cold look. "It's Canada, not Mathew."

"Père?"

"Hmm?"

"You won't ever forget about me, will you?"

Francis looked down at Mathew as he tucked the child into bed. "How could I possibly forget about you?"

"I don't know," Mathew said quietly. "You just could."

"I could never forget about you, mon cher," Francis placed a soft kiss on the boy's forehead. "Goodnight, Mathew."

A smile graced Mathew's lips. "Good night, Père."

Ugh, I don't even want to know how late this is. I'm not even going to bother with coming up with an excuse. This should have been done weeks ago.

Anywaaaay, what's new? I dyed my hair. It's redish purple now. But nobody cares, do they?

I'm going to add an extra chapter to this, but I don't know for sure when yet. I'll be in PA over the weekend, but I have a Death Note/ Hetalia cross over I'm planning to upload tomorrow. Then I've got a USUK oneshot that's almost done and two more DN one shots I'm planning.

Thanks for reading and please reveiw! (They make me feel guilty and as a result I update faster.)

-GS