Chapter 8! Chapter 8! woooo! (wow. Hyper much?) Tomorrow I'm going to MomoCon! I'm cosplaying as Canada, Chibi Romano, and Finland. I'm super excited! But this means I can't work on chapter 9 til Monday. So it'll be a few days later than normal. But I'll get it up as soon as I can! It won't be more than a week!

I'm sorry it's a bit short as well.

But here it is!

Chapter 8: Separate the yolk from the whites

Matthew broke the silence with a quiet "...um..." Everything he had been planning on saying promptly flew from his mind.

He opened and shut his mouth a few times, desperately trying to remember anything he wanted to say. He gestured for Lovino to sit in front of the plate, and the Italian did with a curious look on his face. He looked a bit angry, and it was making Matthew nervous. He knew Lovino was angry a lot, but there was no one else in the room, and he really hoped it wasn't anything he'd done. He was beginning to become skeptical of the power of pancakes.

"Um..." he whispered again. "H-hi." There was no response, and Matthew realized he probably wasn't at a normal audible level yet. "um... Hi, Lovino." he tried again. The Italian looked at him, expression still confused and angry. "um... I...I made you pancakes, eh?"

Lovino looked down at the plate, and Matthew couldn't read his emotions at all. Usually he was pretty good at that, but Lovino had more complex expressions than most people.

He finally started to remember parts of what he wanted to say. He wanted to thank Lovino for saving him from Ivan, he wanted to explain how happy he was that someone else could see him, he wanted to talk to Lovino and find out what makes him happy. He wanted a friend. Someone to talk to that wasn't in his family. And if he was lucky, then maybe Lovino could become more than a friend.

But his whole sentences were still absent from his mind. He knew if he tried to explain them, he'd just jumble things up or leave out the most important parts. He hoped Lovino would say something to start a conversation, he never knew how to do that.

With shaking hands, he uncovered the plate of pancakes he had painstakingly arranged into a perfect stack, and put the bottle of maple syrup next to them. Then he held out the fork tentatively. Lovino just stared at it for a moment. "...um..." Matthew said again.

"Who the hell are you?" Lovino snapped, the loud tone causing Matthew to flinch, dropping the fork on the desk.

This was not what he had been expecting at all. In every scenario he imagined, nothing was quite like this. He didn't know how to respond. He was so used to having to explain who he was, but when Lovino asked, he felt like his heart had been crushed. "Oh. Um...I...I, um..." He felt his face heat up and his eyes began to sting from tears forming there. "...I'm...I...I-I'm Canada!" Matthew burst into tears and ran from the room, brushing past Alfred in the doorway.

Matthew collapsed against the door that shut behind him, only able to hear the yelled parts of the conversation. He didn't understand why Lovino was so angry. And now Alfred had seen him get upset. Lovino was doomed.

"What the hell was that, Romano?" he winced as his brother shouted.

"No, Alfred, please don't get involved. Not with this." He whispered to himself. He knew his brother meant well, but it was overwhelming at the moment. He knew Alfred hadn't been joking about the threats. Lovino would be in some serious trouble if Alfred didn't like any of his answers.

Matthew was trapped in his inner turmoil for a while. Part of him wanted to go home and cry, part of him wanted to go back in the room to save Lovino from Alfred's impending wrath, and the rest of him just wanted to disappear forever. After a few moments of indistinguishable conversation, he heard Alfred shout again, "he likes you, you idiot!"

"No, Alfred, please." he was starting to hyperventilate. This was even worse now. He had wanted to at least become friends with Lovino first, and now Alfred was telling him everything. Matthew couldn't take it anymore. He fled from the building back to his own house. No one would care if he missed the meeting. Barely anyone would even notice that he was gone.

I'm sorry about the angst! *makes pancakes for everyone* Lovino needs some pancakes and Matthew needs a hug.

Chapter 9 will have Lovi's side to this whole mishap, his first taste of pancakes, and more Protective!Alfred.