Matthew quickly lowered his phone away from his ear, turning around slowly to look at his family members. Keith seemed a bit worried about what they had just agreed to; leaving their mother/father to go and hang out with the very person who had broken his heart many years ago. The small family were, once again, leaving Arthur behind to go off and do their own things, yet he didn't even look upset by this. He looked, empty. He was smiling like he usually did for his children, always smiling, but this smile looked forced, like it didn't really belong there at this moment in time. Cymru looked a bit scared, who could blame him, Arthur was finally accepting their help, and everyone was leaving his twin, small tears were gathering in his eyes as he hugged his twin from behind, his face buried into Arthur's shoulders as his blonde locks mixed in with his twins. His thin arms were tightly wrapped around Arthur's waist, comforting the English man as much as he could without annoying him.
Matthew stood slightly away from the group, currently arguing with himself on whether or not he should tell his father Alfred's secret.
'I can't tell him, Alfie will know it was me… he will leave me, forget about me. But if I don't tell him, dad might be in danger, I just know Alfie is going to try something at this meeting, I can feel it in my gut… my brother or my father…. in a way I will be protecting them both though, dad will know what Alfie is doing and Alfie won't feel rejected…I'll tell him, I'll tell him now… right now'
"erm, Dad I-I need to tell you something… something important" The blonde Canadian finally muttered, his head hanging slightly as he realized he had once again stuttered slightly, at least he managed to get the groups full attention now. Arthur slowly broke out of Cymru's possessive grip, walking calmly towards his nervous son. hooking his fingers underneath Matthew's chin, he carefully forced the boy's head up, making violet eyes look into his own Green eyes.
"Go one son, what it is you need to tell me, I promise I shall not get mad" Arthur whispered, loud enough that only Matthew could hear him. Stepping back, Matthew took a deep breath before doing as he was told. 'here goes nothing'
" Dad, you need to know that Alfred, the reason he is being mean to you… He, well he loves you" Canada let his gaze look over his father's form, nothing had changed by this announcement, tilting his head slightly Arthur chose to speak finally
"well yes, I should hope that all my children love me" sighing Matthew, looked tiredly at his father, how can the man be that oblivious.
"No, I mean he love, loves you.. like In a sexual way" A small blush spread across both Arthur's and Matthew's faces at these words. Both blondes oblivious to the now growling Welshman and confused Australian In the background.
"oh, oh!... no, no, no… I never gave him the means to think that way about me! Oh dear, this is not good, not good at all" Arthur spluttered out as he became flustered by the news, he didn't love Alfred like that, he was his son for Christ's sake! He couldn't even imagine thinking of the American boy like that, he had raised the loud boy from a young age. When he finally noticed his twins distress, Cymru decided he should act quickly before Arthur scared his children, again.
Moving forward slowly the Welshman slowly wrapped his arms around his trembling twins waist, burying his head into Arthur's shoulders yet again, it was comfortable for them both. Arthur was able to feel his Twins presence and calming breaths on his back, while Cymru was able to tell when Arthur was calming down through his breathing and how tense his back muscles were, right now he could feel his brother shaking more than a Chihuahua in the snow.
" Brawd, you need to calm down" The older blonde cooed into Arthur's ear, feeling his twin melt into his embrace, accepting the comfort he was being offered. " If the American boy desires to think of your relationship in that kind of way, it is up to you to explain to him that you do not feel the same… You will still have Alba, Shawn and I with you, you can't get rid of us that easy" Cymru explained, his voice monotone and calm as he reassured his English twin that he was there for him.
"Diolch i chi, brawd" Arthur muttered, making sure to use his twins native tongue to add emphasis onto his gratitude. He would never admit it to anyone other than his family, but Arthur craved reassurance most of the time. He knew why he needed it, whilst he was under Rome's rule he was always criticized, always told how useless he was, how nothing he did was right or if it was right it wasn't up to standard. His time under the Roman bastards rule was one of the most trying times in his life, it even beat the fall of his empire, he just couldn't forget the lesson he learnt from his time Rome 'If you never try, you will never be hurt'. ever since that time he had give up on trying, the one time he had tried to change, well the revolutionary war proved that it was best to stay with his old ways.
"eich bod yn croesawu" Cymru whispered back, placing a tender and loving kiss to his brother's temple resting his head back onto Arthur's shoulders, not really knowing what his brother was going through, whatever it was though he didn't like it if it made his brawd hurt. Coughing slightly Matthew tried to catch his family's attention again, and once again he succeeded.
"Well, erm the reason I decided to tell you this now, dad.. is erm because I think Alfred is going to try something during the meeting. But I still don't know, despite the fact that I know him better than most countries, I can't seem to tell if he is doing something…." Matthew explained, noticing Keith tense up slightly at the thought of Alfred trying to court their ex-carer, it just didn't seem like the America they knew, it was like someone was controlling him. A sudden thought struck the Canadian boy causing his eyes to widen slightly, the person who had been texting his brother. Whenever that person managed to contact the elder blonde, Alfred always seems to try harder to capture their father's heart. There seems to be a correlation here, and Matthew didn't like it.
"Well I will have to be a bit more careful in this meeting won't I my dear" Arthur announced, a malicious smirk spreading across his pale face sending a small shiver down Matthews spine, reminding him of his father's previous profession. Cymru tightened his grip around his twins waist slightly, giggling as he heard a low rumbling coming from his brothers throat, feeling the vibrations through his back. His brother seemed to be purring, the very thought caused the Welshman to think of his smaller brother as a rather content looking cat, ears flopped over slightly and tail wrapped around himself as he nestled himself in Cymru's arms. Kitty-Arthur seemed like a cute idea Cymru concluded, feeling a small blush paint his face, luckily Arthur couldn't see him to ask what he was thinking about.
"I am sure that uncle Cymru, uncle Shawn and Uncle Alba will protect Mummy anyway, not to mention me, Leon, Chelles, little Peter and you Mattie! Plus mum can defend himself as well!" Keith piped in, a fox like grin pasted on his face as he tried to reassure his younger brother and himself. He really didn't like the thought of his American sibling putting a 'move' on his mother, it made him sick to his stomach if he was honest. His mother, in Keith's eyes, was pure like snow, not something that was supposed to be hurt or tainted in any type of way, so the thought of anything perverted happening to his mummy just made the Australian feel ill. Wales chose that moment to encourage the last statement out of his nephew's mouth.
"Brawd is very good at fighting, he can easily hold his own in a close combat situation, he is good with a bow and arrow, excellent in magic though not as good as Alba but that is to be expected he hasn't had as long as Scotland to practice" Cymru chirped happily, complimenting both of his brothers as he went along, soon his voice grew quiet as he began to recall the fights his brothers used to get into. "You should have seen it when he and Aiden used to fight, even my dragons were scared of the two. no one could break them apart when they started, they had to finish whatever they had started, usually ending with them both in hospital though, same goes for the fights between him and Alba, before we all got separated again" Swiveling around in his brothers grip, Arthur turned around and embraced his elder twin, entwining his slender fingers in wavy long blonde hair, he began massaging his twins scalp gently. Smiling slightly as Cymru buried his face into Arthur's neck, nuzzling it slightly as he took in his brothers cent.
"Cymru, you are thinking too much again, thank you for the compliments but I do believe that you are hurting yourself by recalling how I gained these fighting skills, though there are a few events you and our brother's do not know about, and I would proffer it to stay that way… for now. I would like if you stopped" His voice was controlling but reassuring as he attempted to calm his twin down, it was moments like this that left the family confused as to who was the elder of the two brothers; in truth they were just both equally as caring to one another, both possessive, both protecting and both scared of too many things to even consider naming.
Neither Matthew nor Keith could hide the smiles which tugged at their mouths as they watched their mother/father comfort his brother, the same way he would comfort them when they were scared or upset about something. It was moments like these that all of Arthur's colonies loved and would never forget throughout their lives. Many people are convinced that Arthur was a bad parent from the way that Alfred had turned out, very few knew about Arthur's parenting skills and even less knew about Alfred's 'mask'. In the end all of Arthur's children had turned out well mannered to some degree, most knew how to express themselves in a creative manner but most of all, all of them spoke their minds. All of these traits had been encouraged by their blonde carer from young ages and even if most of them acted like they disliked the old blonde, Seychelles and Hong Kong both being prime examples, they all gave him thanks at the end of the day.
"Boy's you can both stay out here with your uncle and I, then the three of you can all go to the hotel in the morning" Arthur explained, pausing to see how his twin would react to his silent order, apparently he was now overly pleased with the idea.
"WHAT?! NO WAY AM I LEAVING YOU ALONE! Alba and Shawn aren't here at the moment and I will be damned if I leave as well!" The Welshman screeched loudly, pushing Arthur away from him slightly, his rage taking over as he looked at his brother. Sighing Arthur indicated his head to his son's, silently ordering the two boys to leave him and his brother alone for a bit, complying instantly Matthew quickly grasped Keith's wrist in one of his tanned hands, tugging at him so they could leave the camp site, neither really knowing where to go but they knew better than to stay around their father when he was about to 'fight' with one of their uncles. Waiting until the boys had left before answering, Arthur glared at Cymru, neither of the twins backing down from the others stare.
"Cymru, I need you to go with them to keep an eye on them" Arthur explained in a monotonous voice, the words dry and cold as they left his mouth.
"And I said I was not going Arthur, I need to look after you, you take priority" Cymru answered, his voice equally as cold as his twins, his arms folded across his chest defensively as his eyes studied Arthur from where he stood; tense, probably because they were arguing, Withdrawn, annoyed, worried, happy? why was Arthur happy when everyone was leaving him again? it didn't make sense.
"Look, brother, I know that you are worried about me, but I am also worried about my children, if what Matthew says about Alfred is true, I need somebody to 'scout out the field' so to speak, I cannot do it as I am a target in this situation, neither Alba nor Shawn can do it as they are both visiting a friend, you are the only one left who has the skills and whom I can trust to speak truthfully about what may happen" Arthur's eyes softened as he explained his reasoning again, hoping that his brother was going to understand why he wanted him to go. What he didn't expect was for Cymru's eyes to brim over with tears, the salty liquid slowly falling down his brother's cheeks as the Welshman continued to glare at him, making the Briton flinch slightly.
"That's not fair Arthur and you know it! Why don't you come with us? you can share a room with me! T-then you won't be alone!" The long haired blonde desperately began devising plans to keep his twin close to him, though he himself knew it wouldn't work, Arthur was to bloody stubborn to think on anything other than his original plan.
" Cymru, we both know that I can't go with you. What if America see's me along with his brothers, considering Matthew is supposed to be at Keith's home not with me that would only cause tension between them both, it won't matter if you are with them, as far as America knows, you, Alba and Shawn were all at the Hotel this whole time so there won't be any difference in whether or not you are with my son's, plus he won't suspect you of anything will he? no" Arthur described once again, continuing on, his voice sounding almost weak as he began pleading with his twin "please, Cymru, Brawd… I need you to go with them, I can't keep an eye on them if America is after me… Plus, don't get me wrong but even though I love the company you are all giving me, I need to be alone for a small amount of time, it's almost been a full week and I haven't been alone once, I need to… think on a few things, please" With each plea which left his mouth, Arthur took a step forward until he was once again holding Cymru in him arms, a weak and attentive embrace. Arthur couldn't help but hope his twin didn't push him away again, his worries were trampled when slender arms raised to grip at his back, grasping tightly at his top.
"damn it Brawd" came a quiet mutter from the Welshman as he wiped his tears on Arthur's shirt. "Fine, I'll go but you have to be in contact at all times! If you don't text back or if you miss a single call I will not hesitate to leg it back here and beat the crap out of you, you hear me mister?" His voice sounding darker than usual, Arthur knew that his twin would not think twice about carrying out that promise which made him chuckle slightly, why did all of the Kirkland brother's always resort to violence to back up a promise?
" Yes Brother" Arthur muttered as he kissed his twins cheek before whipping his head around and bellowing out "BOYS! GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE NOW SO YOU CAN EAT!" Within a few seconds two blurs rushed into the camp site, stopping by the fire both ready to receive the food which they had been summoned for. Giggling slightly Arthur began to make his way over to the boy, ready to serve them their dinners only to be stopped by a tug on his wrist, looking towards Cymru, Arthur tilted his head slightly asking for an explanation.
"I mean it Albion, If I lose contact with you there will be trouble"
"I shall keep my phone on me at all times, and text back straight away, I shall answer any calls from you or our brothers. I promise on our family bond" Arthur promised. He seldom promised anything on his 'family bond' with his brothers, he hoped that this meant that when ever he did it added emphasis to the promise, it usually worked, this was no exception. Cymru finally nodded, pleased with Arthur's answer he released his twin's wrist, taking a few steps so that he was in front of his brother.
"come on then let's get these boys fed, and get them to bed, I shall stay up with you tonight I think" the Welshman giggled out, as the two blondes walked forward to fill their young family members stomachs along with their own.
All that was left now was to wait until morning, to see how their plan would play out.