Chapter 8
"Matthew! Gilbert!" Michelle yelled cheerfully, running up to the two boys who were carrying two suitcases and looking around with a confused expression.
They had arrived to the beautiful country Seychelles just minutes prior, and the sun was shining brightly onto the large terrain and the birds were chirping seemingly happily.
"You two made it!" She chirped, smiling sheepishly as she hugged them both at the same time. Matthew returned the hug gracefully, though Gilbert patted her back a bit awkwardly.
Matthew was awed by her beauty; her tawny beige natural skin contrasted with her azure A-line dress that almost reached her knees and had alabaster flowers scattered around the outer bottom, and when she looked at them there was an excited sparkle in her blue eyes. Her auburn hair was tied into pigtails with two bright red ribbons.
"Yeah, I wouldn't miss it for the world," He said, returning the smile.
"You two can stay with Juliet and I at my place, but there isn't much room," She explained, smiling apologetically. She lived in a small cabin to be near the beaches and parks, after all, and with Monaco also visiting there just wasn't enough space. "You can stay at a hotel near there, though, it's called Roseshore Hotel. It's near Silhouette Island, which has a really great beach we can all visit for the day!"
"Sounds like a plan!" Matthew said, the eagerness evident in his voice.
Once at the hotel, he decides to bring up what he had been wondering, "You've been pretty quiet, Gilbert. Is something wrong?"
"No." He answered, and he knew he was just being stubborn. He knew he had developed somewhat of a thing for the Canadian, and that because of that he was prone to jealousy. But he decided to put that aside, I'm way more awesome than that Seychelles girl, right? But the more he repeated that statement in his head, the more he doubted himself. "Let's just get what we need for the beach and then we can be on our way."
Once they arrived at Silhouette Island, they met up with Michelle and Juliet. All four of them were wearing their bathing suits – Gilbert wore an alabaster swimming trunk that reached his knees without a shirt, and Matthew wore one similar, except it was a pastel orange color, and he wore a blank t-shirt. The girls both wore beautiful bathing suits, Michelle wearing a baby blue bikini and Monaco wearing a red and white polka-dot one piece.
"Well, I never really said it but, happy birthday!" Matthew squeaked, beaming as he handed her a bright, amethyst iris he had picked along the way. Gilbert sent him a questioning glance, though Matthew wasn't sure what he was questioning exactly.
"Oh, thank you!" Michelle said, placing the flower on her ear.
Gilbert smiled slightly and also wished her a happy birthday, though it didn't sound too heartfelt to Matthew. It sounded almost forced to him, but nevertheless Michelle didn't mind as she had hugged him anyway.
"Well, uh, I can setup a few chairs, umbrellas, and blankets so we can relax at the beach for a while, before we go to Morne Seychellois National Park." Michelle volunteered, about to head towards the blistering sand.
"Ah, yes, and Prussia and I can go ahead and get the drinks and snacks." Juliet offered, though she quickly took Gilbert's hand and lead him toward the stand not too far away.
"What, are you into me or something? Sorry, I know how hard it is to resist this awesomeness, but I already have eyes for someone else, Monaco." Gilbert boasted, holding back his hair as if to emphasize. Although this action and statement was only to keep his reputation, he still couldn't help but feel a bit… disgusted with himself. He was falling apart gradually yet he still had the nerve to act like such an egoistic person.
"No, of course I don't. Why would I fall for such an abomination?" Juliet spat bluntly, shaking her head. That statement hurt him, but he decided to just shake the emotion away.
"Well, awesome me doesn't like you, anyway." Gilbert muttered, not wanting his emotions to show. He was about to walk away until Juliet took hold of his wrist again.
"Listen, I hate being alone with you as much as you do with me, but I think Michelle and Canada have a thing going on. I see a spark." Monaco said, nodding to herself after letting go of his wrist.
"What?" Gilbert choked out, feeling some indescribable feeling well up inside him. He knew what she was saying, but he just didn't want to believe it.
"I'm matching them up," Juliet said, pushing up her glasses. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"
"No, you can't do that!" Gilbert blurted out all of a sudden.
"What? Why not?"
"Because I say so! You just… you can't!" Gilbert bawled, furrowing his brows and clenching his fist as he almost hissed at the blonde.
Juliet glared at him and raged, "I don't have to take orders from anyone, and especially not from you. Unless you give me a valid reason, I see no reason not to match them up. They're perfect together, don't you see? They're both kind and passionate, and if they got together it would be perfect."
"But…" Gilbert trailed off, as he began seeing some kind of reasoning in what she saying. He gained his composure again and said, "I won't believe anything until I see it."
By this point, he knew. He knew how he felt about Matthew. There was no going back.
But when he went towards Matthew and Michelle carrying two drinks, who were setting up the umbrella, he began to see what Monaco was saying. Even appearance-wise, they looked great together. He tried to contradict those thoughts, tried to tell himself that his awesome self could take Matthew's heart no problem. But then Michelle tripped on the umbrella pole wedged on the ground and fell on Matthew, and they stayed in that position staring into each other's eyes, and Prussia lost it. He felt a lump in his throat, and his knees begin to wobble, and he found himself turning around, and with his wobbly hands he set down the two drinks he was holding on the table they had set up and he walked away. He wasn't one to make a scene, so before he left he muttered something about having to use the bathroom to Juliet.
She stared as he walked away, confused as to why he was acting kind of strangely after the scene unfolding before them. But when she looked back at Matthew and Michelle, she saw Matthew awkwardly scratching his head and apologizing to Michelle.
He cleared his throat, "Uh, Monaco, where's Gil?"
"He said he needed to use the lavatory." Juliet said, shrugging.
Matthew thought that was a bit weird for several reasons – one, he had used the restroom before they came to the beach, and second he wasn't one to just bail out on events firsthand. However, maybe he really did just have to use the bathroom, so he decided to let it go.
He sat down on the lounge chair with Michelle and Juliet and let the sun hit his skin. He couldn't deny that it felt relaxing as he took small sips of his Afterglow tropical drink.
"So, Matthew, have you made any moves on Gilbert yet?" Michelle cooed, laughing as he spit his drink out and almost choked.
"What?!" Juliet yelled, astonished completely.
"No, no, of course not! I-It's not like that!" Matthew stammered, a slight dust of pink appearing on his face as he shifted his weight from side to side.
"It's so nice to see love blooming in the comfort of my own country!" Michelle purred, holding her hands together as she fawned over the "blooming love".
"Michelle, what could you possibly mean by that? You don't mean –" Juliet said, wide eyed as she stared at Matthew and thought back to the Prussian's weird behavior. She then completely understood why he was acting that way, and she mentally slapped herself.
"Oh, yes." Michelle said a bit teasingly, looking at Matthew once again to see him scratching his head and avoiding direct eye contact.
He stood up, shifting his weight again, and said, "Gil's been gone for a while now, I think I'll go check on him."
Yes, he was indeed worried, but it was also a great excuse to get out of that embarrassing confrontation. He knew he felt a bit different around the Prussian than with other people, but did that necessarily mean he liked him? What was the definition of "liking" someone?
"Juliet, why do you look so nervous too?" Michelle asked, seeing as Monaco was avoiding eye contact.
"I maybe, sort of, told Prussia that you and Canada liked each other, and, uh…" Juliet trailed off, ashamed at her false accusation.
"Of course that's not the case!" Michelle cried, pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing before smiling softly. "Oh well, I'm sure nothing can stop them. And besides, I've got my eyes set for someone else."
Michelle winked playfully, and Juliet pouted and crossed her arms.
Matthew had looked in the boys' restroom and hadn't found Gilbert, so he began to panic a bit. Why would he leave without saying anything? What if… Maybe he doesn't want to hang around with me anymore?
He shook those thoughts away and instead began looking for him. He walked into a path surrounded by trees and nature that wasn't too far from the restroom. Matthew thought that maybe Gilbert just wanted to take a walk, so he went down that path looking for him. Then, if he didn't find him there he would go back to the hotel room and see if he was there. And if that failed too, he would go back to Seychelles and Monaco and worry.
And then he decided it would be best to let Seychelles know he went looking for Gilbert, but when he took out his phone he realized he had no service there, so instead he decided to go back and let her know before doing anything. Then he realized he had walked too far off and walked through one or two fork paths. And that's when it hit him – he was lost. With no signal or any way to reach anyone. Matthew sighed, and instead began to walk again, yelling out Gilbert name and hoping maybe he was here and would know his way back.
After half an hour of walking around in a clueless manner, Matthew sighed and sat down on a log. He knew he should have come with Seychelles so that he wouldn't get lost, yet here he was.
He heard a few distinct voices not too far from him, and steps approaching him, and he hoped it was nice people who would show him his way back. But what showed was two gruff, intimidating young adult males. When they laid eyes on Matthew, their expressions suddenly toughened.
"U-Um, do you know a way back to the beach from here?" Matthew stammered, averting his eyes and fiddling his fingers out of nervousness.
"Hey, you're that damn American from before!" One of them stormed, seemingly remembering some sort of a previous occurrence.
"Yeah! The one that took our wallets and trashed our things!" The other raged, furious as he cracked his knuckles. He picked up Matthew by the collar harshly and brought him close to him.
"N-No, t-that wasn't me!" Matthew squeaked, the color draining from his face as he began to sweat and tremble, and he let out a whimper when the other man threw a punch. He closed his eyes, but he still felt that terribly hard impact of the man's fist crashing on his eye.
"P-Please, stop!" Matthew pleaded, but he knew he could defend himself. He knew he could beat those two men in a matter of time if he wanted to; yet he didn't. And that was because he was a peaceful country, he made a vow to himself that violence is rarely ever the answer, and that it was better to be hurt than to hurt others.
"After what you did to us? No way, you damn American. That's bullshit." The other man spit, and everything else was a blur after that; he only felt the pain of taking a beating and the taste of his hot tears after they beaded down his cheeks and into his whimpering mouth. And when they left, he slowly tried to get up. He wiped his tears away completely, and with a bruised, aching body, he slowly limped towards who knows where, hoping he would reach somewhere with people who didn't have a grudge against his brother. With only one eye he was able to keep open, his vision was halved and a bit blurry.
"Matt? Mattie!" He heard Gilbert cry out. He lost his balance with his limping leg and fell into the Prussian's embrace. "Matt, what happened?! Are you okay?"
"P-Perfectly fine," Matthew said, trying to get out of his hold. "I-I'm okay, alright… I can walk on my own…"
"No, you can't!" Gilbert almost growled, startling the Canadian. He picked him up quickly, and carried him inside Michelle's cabin hurriedly, placing him on a bed. Matthew didn't know half the things that was going on, all he knew is that he was delirious and couldn't think straight, and that he saw Gilbert, Monaco, and Seychelles zooming around the room, wrapping things around some of his limbs, placing something on his eye, and putting something in his mouth. And when he finally did feel better after taking a small nap, he awoke to find Gilbert there, flipping through a magazine on a chair next to his bed.
"Oh, Mattie, you're up." Gilbert said, averting his attention from the magazine. "How are you feeling?"
Suddenly Matthew felt a lump in his throat, and he clenched the blanket on him and mumbled, "I can never do anything right."
"What? What're you talking about, Matt?" He asked.
"I… I can't do anything right!" Matthew yelled, bursting into tears unintentionally as Prussia's expression softened and he immediately brought Matthew into a hug.
"No, Mattie, this incident has nothing to do with you. It wasn't your fault. It was my fault, okay? Don't go blaming yourself." Gilbert tried to comfort him, though comforting wasn't his cup of tea. He wasn't lying, though, he thought that this incident was the result of his foolishness.
"No, stop!" Matthew yelled, pushing him away. "W-When I screwed up at the world meeting, lost Gilbird a-and got hypothermia, a-and now I-I got lost, a-and beaten... You've had to clean up all of my messes a-and I just… Why can I n-never do anything right?"
Gilbert took hold of his shoulders and made him look at him straight in his eyes, "Mattie, stop talking like that. Everyone screws up at world meetings. It wasn't anyone's fault for that Gilbird incident; it was an honest mistake, right? I don't clean up your messes, Matt. I help you. There's a difference. And you've helped me so many times." He hugged him once more, and when he calmed down he pulled away.
"So, you hungry? It's eleven in the morning, and you haven't eaten anything since the airplane ride." He said, sighing.
Matthew tried to get up, but Gilbert quickly went over there and helped him, "Hey, I know you're a country and you heal fast but you still have to take it easy."
It was true; healing when it came to countries was based on how well their government, economy, and society was going, and Matthew's country was going very well. So it would take two to four hours, give or take, to heal all those bruises that would normally take ten or eleven hours to heal.
Matthew felt a faint aching on his leg and stomach, and when he looked in the mirror he saw an eyepatch covering his left eye. He giggled a bit and said, "Hey, look, Gilbert, I'm the one-eyed ghoul!" He made a growling sound and held out his hand as in an attacking way, though in doing this his glasses fell off.
Gilbert chuckled, and took his hand after catching his glasses, "Alright, you comedian, you should get another hour of rest before we go anywhere again." He said, placing the glasses back on Matthew's eyes.
Matthew sighed and nodded, sitting back down on the bed after using the bathroom.
"So, Mattie, what happened?" Gilbert asked, trying not to let the anger towards whoever did this to him get the better of him.
"U-Um, two guys… They were angry at me." Matthew answered, though he was trying not to let Gilbert know that it was because of his brother that this happened, because he knew that there was some sort of tension between Gilbert and the Alfred and he didn't want to make it worse.
"Alright… Why?" Gilbert asked, narrowing his eyes as he knew Matthew was trying to hide something because of the way he averted his eyes and fidgeted.
Matthew didn't answer and only continued to fidget, so Gilbert repeated his question with a more serious tone. "Matt, so help me, I will tickle it out of you if I have to."
"Alright, alright!" Matthew said, giving in also because he knew Gilbert wouldn't let it go. "They… They thought I was someone else."
"Okay. Who?" Gilbert questioned. He was hoping that Matthew wouldn't say Alfred name, because if he did he knew he would just lose it whenever he was around the American again.
"A… Alfred…" Matthew muttered, barely loud enough for Gilbert to hear. He began to shift his eight from side to side, and Gilbert noticeably became furious. "Uh, no, Gil, it's not his fault! I just… look too much like him… And…"
"No, Matt, it is his fault. He should know not to get himself into trouble if you might have to pay for it. That damn American." Gilbert growled, balling his hand into a fist.
Matthew took hold of his fist and said softly, "He never means for these things to happen. It's not really his fault."
Gilbert shoved his hand away from him, letting his anger get the better of him as he yelled, "He never means for these things to happen, but they do, Matt! Why don't you just stand up to him?! Why didn't you stand up to those guys who beat you up?!"
"I know, it's my fault…" Matthew muttered, looking down at his feet only to feel the lump in his throat again.
Gilbert sighed, and tried to let his anger fade away for the moment, "Mattie, you know that's not true. This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been so foolish… But when I saw you and Seychelles, I don't know, I just…"
"You didn't want to hang out with me anymore, right?" Matthew asked, almost in a whisper from how much he didn't want it to be true. He knew now that he didn't like Michelle like that, but when it came to Gilbert… He did like him, didn't he? But he saw now that Gilbert didn't feel the same way.
"That's… not true. I like hanging out with you, I do. And I… I like you, Mattie." Gilbert said softly, placing his hand on Matthew's cheek as he looked at him. He had known for a while now that he had had romantic feelings towards the Canadian, but he assumed that Matthew only liked him as a friend.
"But your like isn't the same as mine, is it?" Matthew finished, staring into Gilbert's eyes apologetically. Matthew thought he was being a burden to him ever since they met, and though he said he was willing to help him he figured that Gilbert didn't like him in a romantic way.
"I… guess not." Gilbert answered, taking his hand away from him. "But… allow me this." He leaned in and planted a kiss on Matthew's cheek, and turned for the door.
"Seychelles and Monaco are waiting for us at the beach. Come when you're ready." Gilbert stated, though his voice sounded strained and out of life.
When he left, all that was left for Matthew was an empty feeling. He let his hand touch where Gilbert had kissed him. He wanted to feel it again. He figured he had made their relationship awkward now, as Gilbert was probably heterosexual, and he had just told him he liked him romantically. Gilbert had probably kissed his cheek out of pity. Matthew felt a tear run down his cheek, but he wiped it away and went to the bathroom.
He took off all the bandages and such and the eye patch, though his eye was still somewhat bruised. They had really hit him hard. He sighed and headed for the beach, where he found the lounge chairs empty. He saw Michelle and Juliet in the ocean, but Gilbert was nowhere in sight.
I can never do anything right… Matthew thought to himself, and as he sat by himself on that lounge chair he felt something hot and wet run down his cheeks, and when he took off his glasses to wipe it away he couldn't remember when he had started to weep.
Quickly, he stopped himself, because if anyone saw him he would be done for. He drank his tropical drink and closed his eyes after putting on his sunglasses, just in case his eyes were still red.
"Hey, Mattie!" Gilbert said, taking off the sunglasses from his face. "Why don't you come join us?"
The sunlight blinded him momentarily; he saw Gilbert smiling weakly down at him, but Matthew knew it wasn't a real smile. He was only acting this way because Michelle and Juliet were around.
"Sorry, I was just tired." Matthew lied, smiling apologetically. He stole a glance at Gilbert, and noticed that there was a faint stain of blood on his hand. He wondered what happened.
"Are you okay? Are you sure you're up for a long walk in that national park?" Michelle asked, a concerned expression on her face.
No, I'm not. Matthew thought to himself, stealing another glance towards Gilbert, who was avoiding eye contact.
"Yeah, of course." Matthew said, smiling. Although they went on the tour in the National Park and went to many little restaurants, and did fun things together for the rest of the day, Matthew felt empty. Gilbert wasn't acting like himself, but neither was he.
When they both returned to the hotel, they didn't converse much, other than asking the other to pass something to them. Matthew did ask Gilbert what was up with the blood on his hand, but Gilbert only responded with "I had to do what I had to." More or less, that meant he had to hurt those who hurt Matthew.
When Matthew went to sleep, Kumajirou snuggled in close, as if he knew something was wrong. Matthew wasn't sure whether Gilbert went to sleep at all, because when he awoke in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, he saw Gilbert reading a book with a little reading light. He didn't know Gilbert even liked reading, but if he was up this late, did that mean he had had another nightmare?
Matthew didn't ask, and instead went back to sleep. The only thought that continued to pass his mind was,
It wasn't supposed to turn out this way.
A/N: I actually got that whole misunderstanding idea from a shoujo anime somewhere. Things actually get worse from here. Just so you know, in this fanfiction Prussia is bisexual and Canada is pansexual. And what did Seychelles mean when she said she has eyes for someone else? Yeah, she's totally gay for Monaco. Oh, and I know Monaco was being a little rude in this chapter but, still, she means well so send her some love.
