Matthew didn't think that there would be a time when he was actually happy to get away from Arthur and Alfred after all the time he spent alone, but he forgot just how annoying they could be together. The two started fighting within minutes of the plane taking off from Rome and didn't stop until they landed, ignoring the protesting Canadian between them. Then when they landed Arthur refused to get into a car so they had to walk to Matthew's house, another fight broke out as Alfred decided to bait the Brit again. By the time they made it to their destination, Matthew was seriously tempted to just leave them outside. Lucky for them, he was too nice to do so.
"Can you two shut up already?" Matthew questioned irritably as he dropped down on his couch rubbing at his temples. "You've been fighting for hours."
"Pft, this isn't fighting. It's just friendly conversation," said the American, just before he was elbowed in the stomach for the umpteenth time that day.
Angry green eyes glared at him before turning to the Canadian. "I'm sorry Matthew, he just doesn't shut up. I will try to ignore him as much as possible."
"Whatever dude. So what happens now?" Alfred sat down in his favorite chair at Matthew's house.
"Now we need to set up a place for research." Matthew replied pulling a notebook out of his bag. "I'm going to try talking to my government about letting us use one of the smaller facilities tomorrow but until then it's better to just work with some of the smaller projects. This has most of my successful weapons, though they do need some tweaking." He finished passing the book to his brother.
Alfred instantly began to fervently read the book, much to Arthur's confusion. Since when did the American actually look excited about reading?
"I can definitely work on these, Mattie."
The Englishman was definitely not happy about being excluded. "What about me?"
"You need to start gathering information. We never did find out how something this big managed to make it to the market, all we really know is that it came from Madagascar. Feliciano has hired some people to investigate the lab itself but I'm not sure how much I trust them. It would be a good idea to set up a network that could tell us as soon as a large number of people begin to get infected." Matthew paused for a moment to think before setting a stack of books on the table. "Try working with your magic too, just make sure not to rely on it too much."
All three men were silent for a bit, their exhaustion from the quick travel finally catching up. Arthur's phone rang and after a grimace he exchanged a quick conversation with Francis. Looking up, he noticed that Matthew was looking more melancholy than he had been.
'What's wrong lad?"
"Just remembering things better left in my own time." The Canadian sighed looking out the window. "How close I came to being able to save at least one person I cared for."
"What happened?" quietly wondered the American, not really expecting an answer.
Matthew raced through Paris pushing the car he had commandeered to its limits. He had been on his way to meet up with Francis when the other man had called saying his home was surrounded and that he couldn't get out.
"We told him it wouldn't be safe to stay here." The blond growled turning onto another deserted street and sighing as he saw the Frenchman's house in the distance."Let's knock some sense into him after this fight is over ok Kumasaka? I can't let him die; he's all I have left."
Kumajiro growled in agreement as Matthew drove through the front gate, making sure to run over the few enemies still outside.
Noticing the broken front door, the Canadian exited the car pulling out his brothers' gun and a small knife he had found not long before and entered the house.
Figuring out where the group had gone was not hard for Matthew as he followed a trail of destruction through the once magnificent house. As he was walking through one of the destroyed rooms the Northern Nation noticed the body of Sesel lying among the fallen maids. After pausing to close the eyes of his fellow country, Matthew ran after the trail of blood praying that he would find Francis alive.
Matthew sighed as he entered the ballroom to see Francis fighting a large group, he wasn't too late. Immediately the Canadian began shooting into the horde as he ran forward using the knife to slash at any creature that got to close.
Kumajiro ran forward after his master, using his increased size to take out any of the creatures who attempted to sneak up on Matthew as he desperately fought to reach the last of his family.
Suddenly one of Francis's targets moved out of range right as he moved forward into a lunge and another grabbed his arm, adding pressure as the bone snapped.
Matthew cried out in despair as the group moved forward and overwhelmed the French Nation and tore him apart. In this moment of distraction, the blond did not notice one of the creatures until it bit down on his arm hard.
Feeling something inside him snap, Matthew thrust his knife into the head of his opponent and grabbed Francis's sword and began killing anything that got too close.
"I can't really remember much of the fight after Francis died." Matthew admitted rubbing the scar on his arm. "I just snapped; he really was the only person I had left. Seeing him get killed just pushed me too far. The next thing I remember was standing in the ballroom with Kumajiki nudging my leg. We were surrounded by the bodies of the infected and there was blood everywhere… it was all over the floor, the walls, dripping from the sword that I now held, and even covering me and Kumaska."
The other two nations sat in stunned silence after hearing this tale. Neither of them were Francis's best friend, but to hear of such a brutal death was still incredibly difficult. No wonder Matthew was as serious as he was now. He'd not only witnessed his own twin's death, but also both his caretakers'. They simply had no idea what to say.
"I've always hated that I wasn't able to make it in time to do anything, but I'm not sure how much good it would have done. Shortly after quite a few countries started acting like the infected and so there was no choice but to fight, it was either fight and die or wait to go mad."
As the silence stretched on after that statement, Arthur finally stood up and started to head toward the kitchen. "I'll make us some lunch, I know I am rather hungry."
Quickly jumping up the Canadian brushed past Arthur looking slightly panicked. "Don't worry about that, you two are guests here. I wouldn't be a proper host if I let you cook for us."
The American finally shook himself out of his stupor and slowly followed the other two into the kitchen. He would definitely be working hard to make sure his brother never had to go through that again.
Matthew sighed as he walked away from his boss's office, he should have known the man wouldn't believe him. The only good thing that had come from this meeting was that he didn't have to do any paperwork for a few weeks, apparently he was being worked too hard and the stress was going to make him crazy. Pulling out his cell phone the Canadian called his brother trying to come up with a new plan while the phone rang.
Alfred picked up his phone as his brother called. "Hey Mattie, done with your meeting?"
"Yeah, my boss won't listen to me so we don't get a lab from my government." Matthew replied as he exited the building, looking around at the large crowd warily.
"Damn, well maybe I can get something. My boss is pretty chill about stuff like that. Come back here and ... what's that noise? Mattie?" Alfred's smile fell as he heard the unmistakable sounds of screaming from his brother's end of the phone.
"There's another attack Al, I swear these things are tracking me." The younger of the two growled as he fended off an attacker.
"Oh shit, shit shit shit, why did your meeting have to be so far away? I can't make it there in time. Hurry up and get out of there Mattie!"
"I can't just leave Al, they will keep- Shit!" The Canadian quickly swung his sword around killing the creature that had managed to get behind him. He growled in annoyance as the phone slipped from his grasp and hit the ground and was stepped on by another attacker.
As the home screen of his phone popped up, Alfred realized there was nothing he could do to help his brother. He'd never make it there on time. He'd just have to hope his brother was capable of defending himself. As he waited through the next few hours, calling his twin several times only to be greeted by voicemail every time, he began to worry more and more. The American turned on the news to see what he could find out. Eventually the story came up, stating that a group of people had attacked around the prime minister's office, but there were no fatalities. It was the only comfort he would receive as hours then days passed without a sign of the Canadian. He seemed to have fallen off the planet, never answering his phone and not coming back. Alfred and Arthur continued his work, setting up a lab that they hoped would eventually be used and calling in Francis to help.
AN: So first off, there is a chance that I will Abandon Heaven For You will no longer be working on this with me. She has told me that it is ok to go ahead and work on it on my own if we continue having communication problems. Even if this does come to pass I can assure you all that To Save The Future will still be completed. Second, my beta Amaya Kira is going to be overseas from November 28th to December 9thand won't have any internet access. If anyone would like to temporarily help me by betaing my work while she's gone it would be appreciated, otherwise I probably will not be posting anything during this time. I would also like to thank everyone for their reviews, it really helps me keep finding inspiration when I know that there are people like you that enjoy reading what I write. Feel free to PM me anytime if you have any questions or just want to talk.
Unara Akoni