The French-Canadian Way (Hetalia)

Author: Ashynarr

Summary: In canon, Matthew was raised by Francis and Arthur, but didn't turn out too much like either on the surface. What if he'd taken after his founding Nations just a bit more?

Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine.

Warning: CanAme, French!Mattie

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Even though it'd only been two weeks since this whole mess had escalated, Mathieu could still barely believe that the extremists who had been causing havoc for almost the past decade had gone so far as to kidnap foreign politicians, then go one to murder one of his, forcing his boss to actually send in the military to help stop them.

Lord, it had escalated to needing the War Measures Act in a time of peace - or at least he hoped it would stay that way, because he didn't want to find out how Arthur or the others might react to their people being dragged into what had until now been an internal affair. All he needed now to make things worse was either the onset of a third World War or his own Civil War, neither of which seemed likely, but then again…

(At the least, Joseph had come forward and genuinely apologized for not stepping in sooner, which was mildly reassuring, but not enough to keep the other Provinces from chewing him out for his inactivity up to then.)

How had things even gotten to this point? His people had been working hard to catch all the people behind this movement, but there just seemed to be more every time he turned around. For a brief moment his paranoia entertained the idea of this mess involving Communist infiltrators, but shoved it away, knowing his panic over the idea would not help right now.

But what could he do? His boss had expressly forbidden him from trying to track down the leaders himself just in case they killed Cross like they had Pierre, and he really wasn't interested in paperwork right now for obvious reasons.

Which left him with… nothing to do.

Great.

He let his head fall into his hands, doing his best to rub away the headache forming from his frustration. When had everything fallen to this?

There was a knock on the door.

Mathieu lifted his head, wondering if he'd misheard, but no, there it was again. It wasn't one of his people, so who…?

He slowly pushed himself up from his seat, making his way over to the doorway and opening it after the next set of knocks had ended. And then slammed it closed again.

"Tabernac," He muttered to himself, feeling a flare of panic as the thoughts he'd been suppressing for over a year now came back in a flash. This was really the worst possible time to be dealing with this, so why-

"Mattie?" His surprise visitor asked from the other side of the door. "Uh, are you alright? Do you need me to get someone?"

Mathieu closed his eyes and took several breaths, trying to whet his suddenly dry mouth. He could do this - all he had to deal with was either Alfred gently letting him down or else explaining why they couldn't speak to each other anymore. Right, he could totally handle this.

He opened the door again, forcing on a smile. "Sorry about that; you just surprised me is all."

"I'll say," Alfred replied, still looking concerned. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I-" He sighed, smile a bit thinner. "As good as I can be right now, all things considered."

"Yeah," The American shifted on his feet. "I heard about the kidnappings and stuff, and I thought, y'know, maybe you might want something to take your mind off of it for a bit? Because I know how much it sucks to be in a situation like this and you can't help out because it might make things worse even though you could totes handle it just fine-"

"Alfred, you're rambling," Mathieu cut in, relaxing fractionally from the brief amusement it brought.

"Right, sorry," Alfred apologized, trailing the conversation, such as it was, into an awkward silence.

The Canadian eventually broke it, it only out of manners drilled into him by both his mentors. "Do you want to come in?"

"Oh! Ah, sure," The other agreed, waiting for Mathieu to step back before coming inside and allowing the door to be shut behind him. "So… how've things been, besides the, y'know…"

"They've… been." Mathieu replied eventually, with a lack of other things to describe. "Besides all this, generally things have been improving for most people."

"That's good," Alfred flashed a grin before it faded again. "I'm, ah, sorry I didn't pay much attention to the stuff happening up here before now, which I know probably makes me a really shitty neighbor and everything."

"You were distracted by the space race and your wars, it's fine," Mathieu replied, even though the temptation to ask how exactly he had missed it was strong, but it was obvious the other felt awful about it already, so he decided not to add to it. "I would have brought it up if I'd thought you could help, but since it was all internal only, I don't think my boss would have agreed to help from you even if you offered it."

"Still, I could have at least offered, like, moral support or something, maybe gotten my people to show support for your side and weaken these guys' case." Alfred grimaced. "I mean, they obviously are now that its headlining all the newspapers and tv stations, but I dunno if that's as much help as it could've been."

"Maybe," Mathieu replied, not really sure what else to say to that. "...was that all you came up here for?"

"Ah," Alfred ducked his head, looking distinctly uncomfortable now as he replied, "Actually, there's something else…"

"Oh?" He had a sinking feeling about where this was gonna go. "If you don't want to talk about it…"

"No," The American cut in firmly, after a second continuing much more quietly. "No, we need to talk about this. You've been avoiding me for the past year now."

"I've been busy," Mathieu offered weakly.

"So busy you can't take even one of my calls, even if it's for business?"

The Canadian hissed, knowing his use of his Provinces to filter all his calls would come around to bite him in the ass. "Has that affected trade somehow?"

"Matt, forget the damned Nation thing for a minute," Alfred grit out, starting to look frustrated. "You and I both know this isn't about our countries, it's about us. As people."

Well, there was no backing out now. He sighed, shoulders drooping. "The kiss."

"Yeah, that." Alfred exhaled, nodding his head slowly. "You know, it's probably a good thing you ran out initially, because my knee jerk reaction was probably gonna be a bit like what you did."

"I see," Mathieu replied dully, really wishing he didn't.

"Hey, I said initially, I've had more than a year to think and talk to people about it since then, alright?" The southern Nation shrugged. "After I snapped out of it, I sorta went to Ginny since she's, well, probably the person I trust most to not freak out about it, and I explained it all to her and stuff and then asked what I should do."

"And she said to come talk to me?"

"Well, yeah, that was one thing," Alfred admitted. "But she also asked me what I wanted to do about it, not what my people or my bosses or the other Nations would. That… sorta took a bit longer for me to eventually decide because, y'know, I'm not exactly the most experienced in this sort of thing, but I eventually decided on something."

"...and?" Mathieu wondered where this was going, because so far nothing Alfred had said really leaned one way or the other aside from his initial admittance.

"When did you first start liking me?"

"Huh?" The Canadian took a second to parse the question. "...remember when I came down in the twenties to visit you in New Jersey?"

"...at the speakeasy, right?" Mathieu nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, we chatted for a bit, Sue dragged me off, and when we got back you'd disappeared and I didn't really see you again for a long while." Alfred frowned. "Wait, were you avoiding me then, too?"

"...I was," Mathieu admitted after a long pause, figuring he might as well come clean now. "But to my credit, I was still trying not to off myself for going against basically everything the church and Francis had taught me, so I wouldn't have been the best company then."

"What changed?"

"I… talked to someone." Mathieu didn't want to out Arthur right now, even indirectly, allowing Alfred to come to his own conclusions there instead. "And they set me straight. Actually told me that if you would let it get in the way of us still being friends, then you wouldn't be worth it anyways."

"Sounds a bit like something Ginny or Bella would say," Alfred grinned, the expression managing to linger this time.

"Well they are better than us when it comes to all this," Mathieu agreed, smiling a bit as well.

"That they are," Alfred nodded, allowing the conversation to lapse into a more comfortable silence.

Eventually, thought, Mathieu had to ask, if only to affirm one way or the other how things would change for them. "...so what did you decide?"

"I decided," Alfred started slowly. "That I don't know."

"...you don't know?" Was that even a real answer?

"I don't know if I like you that way, or if I will," Alfred admitted, crushing Matt a bit on the inside. "But what I do know is that, really, the worst that can happen is that we just… don't work out. I can't imagine us ever having a fight bad enough to make us hate each other, so avoiding what might turn out to be something really good for both of us would probably just have me wondering for the rest of my life if I'd missed out, and really, I can't think of anyone else I'd trust with a first time deal… I mean, if you're still alright with it?"

It took a long minute for Mathieu to find his voice, and even then it came out faint, his mind scarcely able to believe this was actually happening. "Yeah," He replied, feeling a smile creep up at the corners of his mouth. "Yeah, I think that's alright."

It would be better than alright, he thought. It might even be perfect, once everything else was over with.

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AN: Well finally! Of course, as I stated in the chapter, this wasn't exactly the best time for them to hash this out, and there will be consequences seen next time, but I can finally say the AmeCan is here so everyone go nuts and celebrate. The rest of the chapters I have planned should wrap up all the main outstanding issues, and then I'll be free to start up other projects, so yay me.