It wasn't until Kumajiro started nudging him the next morning that he actually realized he had dozed off. Matt was nowhere to be found, but Gilbert awoke lying down in Matt's bed. He ruffled the hair on top of the curious bear's head, and sat up. He noticed that the key on a chain was gone, so Matt must have taken it.
An unfamiliar scent came to him, so he stood up, to go investigate. He placed Gilbird on his shoulder and walked down to the stairs to the main room. Matt was there in the same gear he was in last night; the maple leaf pajama pants and still topless. He was standing in the kitchen by the stove, one hand on his hip, the other on the handle of a frying pan.
Elizabeth must've caught him watching Matt intensively, because she got his attention silently and motioned for him to come into her room. With one last look over to Matt, he went over the twins' room.
Fantine was there too, and she shut the door behind him.
"I'm so sorry about last night, but it happens nearly every night, but normally when we have company he stays up all night just in case." She said
"He was really tired last night, I'm sure he probably tried to…" Elizabeth told her sister, then turning to Prussia, "Did he wake you?"
"I wasn't asleep yet, so… no" He said back in a low voice.
"I do apologize again. It was strange though, he normally goes on all night, but he only did it a couple of times and was silent. How strange, did you do something about it ?" She asked.
Lying, Gilbert just shook his head.
"Well, anyways, let's get out of here before he gets suspicious of us." Fantine said.
So they dispatched, but Gilbert headed to the washroom. Looking in the mirror, he saw his hair was disheveled and his eyes were sleepy. It was probably the best he's slept in a long time. He was having a lot of troubles sleeping lately, no matter how tired he was, he would just end up staring at the ceiling all night.
He washed his face, and arranged his hair in a more decent way. Satisfied, he walked back to the dining room and there were bottles and plates all laid out.
Matt brought out a plate with a massive pile of pancakes on it. He was smiling and cheerful, a total contrast to what he saw last night. Despite the delicious taste of what Matt called maple syrup on his pancakes, he couldn't peel his eyes off of him. Every time Matt looked up, he would catch Gilbert watching him, his face would get all red and he'd look back down at his food. Gilbert didn't care if he got caught watching, he was lost in thought. He was trying to figure this guy out, how could somebody endure whatever he was going through right now, and still be as cheerful as he is?
Interupting his thoughts, the phone started to ring. Elizabeth stood up before Matthew could.
"Really ," She said, "If you keep doing everything in this household you'll put us out of a job!"
"Job? You're my sisters, not my maids!" He said back but Elizabeth had already answered the phone.
Even from where Gilbert sat, he could hear America's loud voice.
"Yo, where's my little bro, whoever-canada maid-girl?" He asked.
Matt let out a little sigh and stood up, taking the phone from Elizabeth.
"For the last time, we're twins, if anything, I'm older, but whatever, what is it-"
"Oh hai! Okay so I'm in a bit of what you'd call a situation here. Dude, you wanna do some, like, serious ass-kicking with me little bro? I'll be the hero of course, you can be my sidekick. How does that sound?"
Matt let out a long breath, running his fingers through his hair, he looked over at the others, and if looks could kill, the look Fantine was giving him would've turned him to stone. Fantine didn't want anything to do with foreign affairs associated with wars, especially when it came to America. Matt laughed nervously, turned away from her and started talking quietly.
Prussia was pretty sure Fantine was just sizzling in her seat, staring at Matt. Prussia leaned over to Elizabeth, giving her a questioning look. She just shook her head shamefully. He was finished his breakfast at this point, so she stood up and took his plates away. He followed her into the kitchen.
"I recommend you leave now, at least do some sightseeing for a bit or else you might be caught in the middle of a storm."
"Huh? My awesome presence should be able to keep everybody calm." He said.
"You know, modesty is an attractive trait," She started violently scrubbing the dishes, "And you don't know my sister, or even me for that matter. Why don't you take a look at some historical museums? Parliament buildings? A few hours will probably be it…"
"Yawn, don't you guys have anything, I don't know, awesome?"
"Just look around, you'll find something" She snapped.
"VOUS AVEZ FAIT… QUOI?! [YOU DID… WHAT?!]"Came a shrill voice. At the sound of a plate smashing, Elizabeth grabbed his arms and pushed him out the front door, locking it.
Scared for Matt, he started pounding on the door.
"You let me in! NOBODY locks the awesome and almighty PRUSSIA out!" He called.
He put his ear up against the door, but instead of hearing Elizabeth countering Fantine to get her away from Matt, he heard her voice louder than Fantine's, shouting at Matt.
[RANDOM AN: To be honest, from what I've read about Canadian history, this is actually accurate in how French and British Canadians would confront the government about all their issues. The French Canadians were very open about it when they didn't like something, while the British Canadians were worse, but they did it in a more private way if that makes sense. Little history lesson there for you guys ^^ Now sorry for interrupting!]
He punched the door one more time, but it was no use, there was just too much noise inside the manor.
Cursing under his breath, he walked all the way around the house, trying to find a place where he could get in, but the place was surprisingly protected. The nearest windows were at least 8 feet up, and there was no easy access to them. There was no back door either.
After about 30min of trying to break into the place, he gave up, and just stood at the front door until Fantine opened it again.
She was obviously still mad, but she just stared at the ground as she let Prussia back in. He slowly walked in, cautious of the tension in the air.
He made his way over to Matt's room; he had a good feeling as to where he was. Elizabeth was standing silently by his door. Prussia pushed through into the bedroom, daring her with his eyes to try and stop him. Trying his best not to slam the door in her face, he shut it behind himself and went to the second room. Without hesitation he walked into it. Matt didn't even seem to notice, instead the wall was empty of photos, and he was arranging them on the floor in front of him, only this time, there were notably more photos.
Gilbert kneeled down beside him and picked up one of the photos. It was of a younger Matt curled up, smiling, against a polar bear. When he turned the picture over, there was writing that was unmistakably Britain's script. "Young Canada loved the bear he found. He named it Kumakichi" it read.
"So your bear's name is actually Kumakichi? Or is it Kumajiro?" He asked curiously.
Matt looked over, and to Gibert's surprise, he was perfectly calm, if anything, it was like nothing had happened earlier.
"That's Kumakichi" He said pointing to the bear in the picture.
"Alright then." Gilbert said, although he could've sworn the bear's name was actually Kumajiro.
"So what are you doing?" He asked, trying to get Matt to stop being so silent.
"I'm re-arranging my collage." Was all he said, "I'm adding some new photos, so I wanted to put them in, but with how I had it before, they wouldn't fit." He said, frowning.
Gilbert took advantage of the situation to learn everything he could about Matt, even though he wasn't interested in any country's history but his own, he thought maybe he would be able figure this guy out.
He picked up another picture, only this one it was a picture of both Canada and America as children, America had tears in his eyes, but was hugging his brother and yelling at Britain. When he flipped the picture, it was writing that he could only assume was France's.
"Canada est si mignon, mais quand il est triste, il envoie douleur à votre propre cœur. C'est tellement mignon la façon dont son frère lui défend toujours !" Read the delicate handwriting.
"What does this say?" Gilbert asked, he really didn't know what much French. Matt took it and read it over, smiling a little, he read it out loud.
"'Canada is so cute, but when he is sad, it sends sorrow straight to your own heart. It's so cute the way his brother always defends him!' is what it translates to" He said, looking at the picture again. "I guess Britain was being mean to me." Then to Gilberts surprise, Matt held the photo next to his face and smiled, "I was a cute kid, eh?" he said jokingly with a wink.
Gilbert was stunned for a second, but then laughed shakily, not so much at Matt, but the sheer craziness of the situation. It seemed learning about Canada's past was actually being counter-productive, and instead actually making him more in the dark on the guy.
So that's how they spent the rest of their day; arranging and rearranging photos until Matt was finally happy with it. Gilbert actually had a good time, it was surprisingly fun, just going through old pictures and joking around.
It was like they were in their own little world, now Gilbert understand why Matt retreaded here, it was as peaceful as the outdoors here, but it was like you were somewhere else entirely, away from the world and your worries.
Kumajiro- or rather… Kumakichi? Gilbert wasn't totally sure, Matt's polar bear was again the one to wake them up from their fantasy land.
"I'm hungry" came the voice from the other side of the door as they put the last picture up together.
The two of them just looked at each other and laughed.
"Well, I guess it's dinner time! What do you want to eat tonight?"
"You're asking me about dinner?", He thought about it for a second, " Well, I need awesome food that will be able to bring awesome tears to my awesome eyes." He decided.
"hmmmm" Matt wondered out loud, " well we could have poutine again, that's probably one of the only Canadian food, what do you normally eat at Germany's place?"
"Pasta, pasta, and the odd bit of wurst" Gilbert replied kind of sourly.
"Okay, well, how about I barbeque some steaks for tonight, and maybe for dessert I can take you to get a beaver tail?"
"sounds good, but beaver tails? Isn't the beaver like, your national animal?" Gilbert asked, confused.
This just made Matt laugh a bit, "It's definitely one of them!" Was all he said.
So Matt did just that, they had a great steak dinner, but this time Matt let the twins, who were silent the whole time, clean everything up.
"You ready to go?" He asked, fixing a tuque on his head, "Dress warm, it's probably going to snow again."
"Snow? It's spring!"
"Your point?"
Gilbert sighed, he hadn't even prepared so stay more than a day, and certainly not in such cold conditions. His uniform was pretty warm though, so he just decided to brave it. Matt gave him a skeptical look, but shrugged it off. So with Gilbird on his shoulder and Matt carrying Kuma- his bear, they went off.
They headed into a place called Ottawa, where there were bright lights in fountains, as well as quaint little displays. It was like a more modest New York City. So they came up to a stand, and he saw what Canada had meant by beaver tails.
The beaver tails were actually a pastry in the shape of an oval with a sweet spread on top. Canada ordered a maple one, no surprise there, and Gilbert settled on a chocolate one. He felt Gilbird shivering on his shoulder, so he gave him a bit of his beaver tail, which was really warm. He let out little pips of happiness and snuggled up closer to him. Gilbert trusted Canadian food now, it hadn't disappointed him yet, so he took a big mouthful of the stuff and was surly satisfied.
"That's it! I'm done!" He said out loud. Matthew jumped a little, startled and look at him questionably .
"Your country's food is too good." He said while taking another mouthful. Matt beamed a little and took another bite of his own, or at least tried to as the bear tried to steal some from him. It was at that moment that the snow started to fall.
"Well you aren't really dressed for the weather, so why don't we head back?" Matt suggested, and Gilbert nodded.
Matt lead the way, so Gilbert decided to take advantage of the current situation. Getting a handful of snow and molding it into a ball, he threw it at Matt's back. While Gilbert started laughing his head off at the look on Canada's face, he was almost immediately lobbed by one himself. The quick return-fire caught him slightly off guard, and in no time he was standing alone in the middle of the path. The polar bear sat on the ground eating Matt's left over beaver tail. Gilbert's battle instinct kicked in and all his senses went into hyper drive. Matt was nowhere to be found, but he knew he was close by. Gilbert tentatively reached down and made another ball.
"You want to start this?" He called, "You realize you're fighting the great Prussia!"
"I'm aware" came the answer, followed by an expert snowball throw that if Gilbert wasn't as skilled in battle as he was, would never have been able to dodge.
He looked slowly around, and then he heard a snowball break on a tree to the north, so he immediately lobbed his snowball to the south, only to get hit in the back with a second snowball.
"Clever…" He whispered. A light chuckle was all he got as an answer.
Once again, Matt and Prussia were once again locked in their own world, a secret battle. While they were fighting, eventually Matt came out of the trees, and as they were lobbing snowballs at each other, Gilbert would call out battle techniques that Matt should try, between all the taunting words that is.
Watching from a distance were Fantine and Elizabeth. The snow had started on their clothes, but they were almost entranced.
"It's like the old days, you know, when America wasn't such a big jerk" Said Elizabeth.
"Oui [yes]" Fantine replied.
And with that, the two girls went back inside.