Oh my goodness you guys, 45 of you have this story on alert. 45! I can't believe it! 27 fav's and 44 reviews too! I seriously can't even believe it. It's only been a few weeks, thank you all so much! :')

Here's chapter 7!

Chapter 7: Vanilla

Matthew couldn't help but smile all the way home. He leaned against the door after he shut it behind him and let out a soft laugh. He never thought he'd be able to talk to Lovino. And now they were meeting tomorrow! He could hardly contain his excitement.

He heard his phone ring and saw that Alfred was calling him. That was different, usually he had to call since his brother often forgot. But Alfred wanted to know all about his interactions with Lovino recently, so Matthew wasn't too surprised.

After a long conversation with Alfred (who had wanted to be there when Lovino arrived, but Matthew talked him out of it. Alfred also promised to beat Lovino up if he did anything mean. He reassured the American that he'd be fine), it was decently late. So after feeding himself and Kuma dinner, he headed upstairs to make sure everything was ready for tomorrow. He already had his clothes picked out and ironed, and all of his papers for the meeting were packed into his bag.

He looked at the one alarm clock next to his bed. That wouldn't do. Not at all. Seeing as how it didn't work so well that morning, he unplugged it and moved it across the room, hoping that if it was out of reach, then he'd wake up when he got up to turn it off. Paranoid, he set the alarm on his watch as well. That wasn't good enough. What if the power went out and he didn't hear his watch? Ignoring the fact that without power, he wouldn't be able to make pancakes properly, he took the clock from the guest room that Alfred usually stayed in. That clock was considerably louder, since his brother tended to sleep through most loud noises.

He frowned at the two alarm clocks in front of him. Then he got a brilliant idea.

He gathered up all of the clocks he had in his house and set them up around his room, making sure there were some (especially the loud ones) far enough away that he would have to get up to turn them off. He usually was early to things and generally didn't have problems waking up decently early, but he knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep because of his nerves, and there was no way he was going to be late.

Deciding that that wasn't enough, he proceeded to find everything he could set an alarm for and also put them around his room. Setting the final one, he looked around his work. With a satisfied nod, he went around to double and triple check them all. He caught himself humming happily. He hadn't been this excited in years.

"Who're you?" Kumajiro asked, walking by the room.

"I'm Canada!" Matthew replied happily.

With a gesture that would have been a shrug, had the bear not been standing on all fours, he waddled off down the hallway.

Smiling, he attempted to go to sleep. He ended up tossing and turning for hours, stuck in a combination of nervousness and excitement. He'd never had so many emotions for a world meeting before.

When all of the alarms went off in the morning, Matthew jumped out of bed, the most awake he'd been at that early in the morning in a long time. Running around his house, he frantically got ready and rushed into his kitchen, eager to get started on the perfect pancakes.

He calmed down a bit when he saw the clock. He didn't want to be too early. And if he was rushing, he could mess up the pancakes. There was no way he was going to mess this up. Carefully, he measured out all of the ingredients. How many pancakes would Lovino want? Would he even like them? The Canadian smiled to himself. Of course he would like them. Everyone liked his pancakes. It was the one thing people would occasionally remember him by.

Matthew decided on a medium sized plate-full of pancakes. He made twice as many as he needed to fill the plate to make sure Lovino would get the most perfectly shaped and golden colored ones. The rest were for his and Kuma-whatever's breakfast, and testing.

With a deep breath, Matthew tasted the pancakes. He sighed in relief. Alfred was right. These were definitely the best he'd made. Quickly finishing off his own plate, he called Kuma down for his breakfast and covered Lovino's plate. He broke out a bottle of his best maple syrup and tied a red ribbon around the neck. If these were Lovino's first pancakes, they had to be the best.

Glancing at the clock again, he headed out the door. Getting there fifteen minutes before he had planned wasn't too early. That's when he usually got to things, anyway.

He made it to the building in record time and tried to calm himself down as he walked down the long hallway to the conference room. His heart was racing. He was beginning to doubt his plans, though he had spent days trying to perfect everything. Pancakes could only take you so far, right?

Matthew shook his head as he walked into the room. No. Pancakes made everything better. Surely, they would make Lovino happy. Happier, at least. He set the plate on the desk and began to walk a few steps back and forth, unable to remain still. He was definitely not used to being this nervous. He was usually able to sit still and just fidget a bit when he was anxious, but not now. He suddenly wished Alfred was there, he always could come up with something to calm him down or diffuse the tension.

But before Matthew could worry any more or wish for different circumstances, the door opened and Lovino was there. Neither of them moved for a moment, and then Matthew broke the silence with a quiet "um..."