Prompt: Matthew recounts just how oblivious his brother can be to the art of love. VariousxAmerica
Alfred has always been pretty, that much was obvious. Whenever he passed a gaggle of nations most of their eyes would follow him, sometimes even a couple of giggles and stares could be heard. When he was talking during a meeting most nations would focus on how well his clothes and jacket accentuated his muscular frame.
France had the tendency to grope Alfred more than other nations, England tried extra hard in his desserts (sometimes they were even edible). Japan was more open with him, Russia's eyes would follow his every move, Germany would stare a little when Alfred smiled, Prussia would tell the worst jokes just to make Alfred crack a smile.
Alfred was completely oblivious to all that. He never noticed. He never noticed how Russia's eyes followed him longer than they should, he never noticed how Japan would blush when he was close to him, he never noticed how England would do everything in his power to make him happy, he never noticed how France lavished him with sincere compliments, he never noticed how Germany was more tolerant to him when he was late, he never noticed how Prussia would go out of his way to talk to him.
Prussia
Prussia?
One time, a long time ago, he had a crush on that albino man. Like most things in his life, he was introduced via Alfred.
Alfred and the kinda German had been out drinking, Prussia had been drunkenly singing a duet with Alfred. It had been some generic love song. They had pulled no stops. They were dancing on tables, jumping over chairs, flirting with the other occupants, the whole shebang. Matthew had been forced by Arthur to pick up his brother, he had headed toward the duo, but some hoser had pushed out a bar stool and caused him to trip. The red-eyed nation had leaned over Matthew and helped him up, and then he returned to Alfred.
That was everything to Matthew. Inconsequential to most, but to him it meant everything. Someone had helped him up, someone had noticed him.
The sad thing? That had happened in the mid 1800s. Nothing had came about that encounter. Their relationship had stayed the same.
Good thing, Francis came to the rescue. He had noticed Matthew's little crush, and set him up on a date with Prussia. Francis thought that the two "forgotten" nations could get along. It would be the love story for the ages!
The date? Well, let me set the mood. It was an expensive restaurant, overlooking some random countryside in Germany. There were lit candelabras to set the mood. The chandeliers? Pure crystal. Fireplaces were in every room. Prussia was dressed nicely, hoping to impress his date. There was hope and happiness in his eyes. This would be the happily ever after they both deserved. It was romantic, it was perfect.
Till it wasn't.
Francis had managed to get the date by claiming that Alfred was the one who wanted and was going to the date, not Matthew. That "little" secret had come out when he corrected Prussia calling him Alfred. Matthew could still see the realization in that poor Prussian's eyes. Prussia had stormed out of the building claiming that the date had lost its awesomeness.
Francis had told him it was a valuable learning experience. He had told Matthew that everyone experiences heart break at some time, and it was important to deal with it. Matthew internally scoffed at that diatribe.
He actually kinda felt bad for Prussia, he had been lied to by one of closest friends. He expected sapphire, but got lavender. He had been promised someone else, but that didn't fix Matthew's broken heart. His crush had basically rejected him in the worst way possible. Still, Matthew was able to get over it with some vanilla ice cream and terrible Romcons. Matthew was pretty sure that after that disaster the BTT had sweared to never talk about that again...and they didn't. Every time Matthew had approached Prussia about the terrible date, maybe get over it and just become friends, Francis had hurried him away saying something along the lines of 'let his heart heal'.
That whole tragedy had soured the previous amicable relationship of Matthew and Prussia. Now, they just shared awkward handshakes and uncomfortable small talk.
As stupid as it sounds, some of his most prized memories were with Alfred. He might be oblivious and self centered, but he really did try. One time, that dolt, had added so much toppings to his pancakes that the pancakes had fallen over. It was fun and adorable to watch Alfred hastily clean up his mess. After cleaning up, Alfred had given him his best smile and challenged him to a horror movie marathon.
Arthur went by many names: England, Britain, Brows, Iggy, and some less PG names. To him Arthur was his caretaker. A prideful, stubborn man. He had always been a possessive country, some claimed he was greedy, and they were probably right. But, sometimes he felt like he came right out of a story. Everything he did was grand, every story he weaved was magical. He was the knight and shining armor–er that's at least how Alfred described him, Matthew wasn't sure he agreed.
Arthur was a pirate. He daringly sailed the seven seas on the look out for his next treasure. Often times he would warn Matthew of the dangers of a siren. He talked about how their godly voice would lead even the most experienced sailor to their demise. He was right.
Arthur had heard that siren's call, and he had followed. He didn't even try to fight back. The minute that song reached his ears he turned around and entered his watery cage. Arthur had been caught be a siren. An idiot siren, who didn't even realize that he caught someone, but a siren nonetheless.
He couldn't hold that against Alfred though. Alfred was oblivious. He probably didn't even realize that he snagged someone. If Alfred knew he did that he would have done everything in his power to let Arthur go, but Matthew wasn't sure Arthur would have wanted to leave, even if the beautiful song had ended.
Matthew did love Alfred, despite the dangers. Matthew knew Alfred loved him back. Matthew would love him no matter what, even despite the risks. Maybe Matthew himself had fallen prey to the siren.
Sometimes Arthur would talk about how a siren's call can cause the most stoic person to do the most irrational thing. He was right there too. Matthew can distinctly remember a night where the siren's song had called for Arthur.
It was the roaring twenties. It was a special night, all Arthur's territories were able to meet with him. It was hard to get all of them together, with all the time zones and scheduling difficulties.
Everyone was having a blast! Australia was scaring New Zealand with a random spider he had found. India was talking to Hong Kong about some new tea. South Africa was cracking these terrible puns. Scotland was challenging Ireland to a drinking contest. Wales was silently questioning his brothers and life decisions. Matthew was mediating the whole thing.
And Arthur?
He was doling out affection. This was the most affectionate anyone had seen him be. It was wonderful. The affectionate terms like 'poppet', 'luv', 'sweet', and 'lamb' were being thrown around haphazardly. He never used the terms on anyone except his dear younger brother.
Then?
Then, came a call. It was surprising to have a call, telephones were pretty new, the first transatlantic call had just been made a couple months prior. Matthew could remember the surprise at the new technology Arthur had, but it wasn't unexpected, Arthur always had to have the newest technology, it was how he connected with Alfred.
The ringing cut through the room like...like...like something shocking! Arthur, being ever the gentleman, took the call. Arthur had paled, Matthew can never remember a time where Arthur looked so scared and helpless. Arthur had dashed off, leaving with no explanation. Only through gossip had Matthew found out that Alfred had been on the Favorite, it was a small boat that capsized. Thankfully, Alfred was ok, but he had managed to contract pneumonia. Arthur left for a month to take care of Alfred.
That wasn't the first time either. This was a long time ago, but on one of the nations' meeting Alfred got sick with consumption. Arthur, again, stayed with Alfred for 6ish months. He would snap at anyone that commented that Alfred didn't look good.
It was easy to see that Arthur heavily cared for his previous colony. Even when they were children, Alfred was the golden child. Every art he drew was a masterpiece, every competition he won was a breakthrough, every sentence he said was taken as scripture. Even the other brothers took to Alfred. It wasn't uncommon to see Scotland teaching Alfred curses, Wales could be found feeding Alfred edible food, Ireland was commonly teaching him how to cheat in games. Even now, those countries still had humongous soft spots for Alfred. It seemed like he was the hub that kept the disastrous Kirkland family together.
Matthew knew why they had fallen for the siren's call. It was a beautiful, haunting melody. It pulled on all the right strings, it knew how to get you to feel something. Some described it as bewitching. The song had promised him everything he had ever wanted. That by itself would be almost impossible to handle, but that wasn't the worst. The song was paired by the most beautiful face imaginable. Big, sapphire eyes, a honey tan, golden hair, a body that made you want to get on your knees and worship it. The siren was absolutely beaut-no ethereal. Sometimes Matthew worried that he had fallen prey to the siren, but when he thought about it, it didn't seem like such a terrible thing.
Alfred had never been into romance, Matthew can remember that. Anytime kissing, or God forbid, a sex scene came on Alfred would always blush all the way to his ears and try to burrow into Matthew. It was pretty cute.
Although, there was one time Alfred had been interested in romance. It had been in the 1800s. It was cute to watch Alfred get love advice from Francis. It was also fun seeing Arthur scramble to find out who the mysterious beau was. Matthew had to keep Alfred's crush a secret from Arthur, Arthur would've disemboweled that poor nation.
Alfred had been all blushes and stuttered words around his crush. His crush just happened to be the ever strict Ludwig. It was fun watching Alfred trip all over himself to get Ludwig's attention and affection.
One time, Alfred had even made homemade chocolate for him. The good thing about this story is that it did end happily. Ludwig had accepted Alfred's request and the two started dating.
They were obviously inexperienced in that department. Shy pecks were shared in forgotten rooms, nervous hands would seek each other out, eyes would constantly seek each other out. One time Matthew had spotted them making out in a dusty stairwell.
Now that a Matthew thought about it. He was pretty sure those two had popped each other's cherry. He can remember in one meeting in England that those two had shown up late. For Alfred that was common, but for Ludwig it was unheard of. That had risen his suspicion, but what sealed the deal was that Alfred would constantly giggle when asked why he was late, and Ludwig would blush to his hair and stutter out some excuse. What sealed the coffin was that Alfred had a slight limp and a "bruise" on his slender neck.
The relationship eventually ended when Arthur found out and chased poor Ludwig away. It was still obvious to all the nations that those two still had feelings about each other. Those two would have the cutest blushes when they were around each other.
Not even his father, Francis, was exempt from that siren's calling voice. Matthew wasn't sure when it happened, but if he were to guess it probably would've been around the Wild West, around the 1880s.
During the Wild West Alfred was untamable, he was wild and free. He was irresistible, bringing in poor saps with honeyed words, but then he would burn the poor saps with the passion they so coveted.
One time Francis had to go to Virginia to talk to Alfred about some business. When he came back, he was completely smitten. That wasn't that surprising though. Francis had always enjoyed the more beautiful side of life, and Alfred matched that description perfectly.
Matthew would never really know what happened during that meeting, all he knew was that Francis started going out of his way to woo that American. It wasn't that shallow flirting either, the one that he tried with random people in the street, this had some real emotion behind it.
Matthew was glad that Francis was able to get that back though. He always had this look when he was reminiscing about Jeanne d'Arc, but now he got that look when he was talking about Alfred. It was nice, Francis deserved some real love in his life.
Sometimes when Matthew was walking by those two he would hear Alfred joke about how Francis should accept a new maid of Orléans, a New Orléans he would say. If Matthew had to choose his favorite admirer of Alfred it would be Francis. He knew Francis would take good care of his baby brother.
No one was really sure what Ivan and Alfred's relationship was. Some, cough Hungary cough, said it was 'gay forbidden love', 'they hate each other, but they also fuck each other'. Matthew wasn't sure he could disagree.
It was very traumatizing to enter a hallway and see your precious younger brother spitting in someone's hand, proclaiming 'that he knew Ivan liked it' and 'he could do more for twenty dollars.' To make bad things worse, Matthew had seen Ivan reach into his jacket with a sigh, and take out 100 dollars. He never saw Ivan or Alfred that day.
It was also pretty traumatizing to have your younger brother complain to you about how that 'commie bastard' had accidentally sent him a dick pic.
Matthew was pretty sure Ivan's feeling for Alfred had arisen during the Cold War. Or, you know what, it could all just be a trap for Ivan to take back Alaska. If that was Ivan's real goal, Matthew would personally hurt him.
When Matthew remembered Alaska he shivered. He didn't want to remember THAT day, but unfortunately Matthew just wasn't that lucky.
THAT day had started normal, Francis and Arthur were fighting, Prussia was attempting to sneak into the building, Alfred was proclaiming his new invention could get rid of communism. The only difference was that poor, sweet Latvia had brought up Alaska.
You know Alaska, a piece of territory Russia used to own! The mention of Alaska quickly got Ivan's interest. Ivan, wanting to gain more friends, decided that he would find Alaska in Alfred's body and steal it. Ivan could be a pretty charming nation when he put his mind to it.
The day had continued normally, except for the fact that Ivan was plotting. It was clear to the other nations that he was up to something, but to Alfred nothing was out of the ordinary.
The only clue that Alfred got that something was happening was when Ivan brazenly walked up to him and asked him where Alaska was. Alfred being oblivious responded that it was 50 miles off of Russia.
Ivan had not given up though, despite Alfred's naivety. He kept trying to lure the secret out of Alfred. Nothing worked though.
It was a little later in the day, and it seemed Ivan had an epiphany. He had walked behind the poor American, took out his big, meaty claw, and groped Alfred's perfect buttocks.
Alfred had stilled, his smile was frozen on his face. A couple seconds passed before all Hell broke loose. Alfred had turned around and socked Ivan right in the jaw. There was an audible crunch after that happened. All the other nations just looked on in disbelief or horror.
It got gory real fast. Let's just say that the janitor had a lot to clean that day.
Thankfully, all the gore came from Ivan, not Alfred. Ivan seems to have this perverse interest in Alfred's hatred of him.
From that day onward Ivan would practically glow every time Alfred turned his sapphire eyes to him. Every time Alfred so much as glared at him he would reach into his coat and jerk something.
Kiku was a quiet, kind individual. Everything he did had this charm of elegance and grace.
At the beginning of Alfred and Kiku's relationship, Kiku had acted like an older brother to the blond. He had taught him social cues, how to read the mood, how to read some Japanese, how to speak Japanese, a lot of things really. He was the calm to Alfred's energeticness.
If Matthew were to take a gander when Kiku finally realized what he felt it would be the 1980s-1990s. That was when some of the big anime were hitting the VCRs. It wasn't uncommon to see someone watching Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, Ghost in the Shell, Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and more.
Alfred had started becoming obsessed with anime then. You couldn't shut him, it was all 'did you see the new episode?', 'I can't believe he died!'.
Alfred had really started bugging Kiku about anime, and Kiku, being polite, had started telling Alfred all about anime. It wasn't uncommon to here the two talking about the newest and coolest anime.
From what Matthew saw, Kiku was an often time ignored nation. Maybe it was from his closure of his nation, or maybe it was just because he was polite and quiet. So when Alfred had shown interested in something only Kiku had, he must've been flattered.
Kiku was always an observant nation though, he must've thought Alfred's sudden interest was about gaining some new favor, but after Alfred had shown his genuine interest in anime and in Kiku, Kiku's eyes gained something else when he looked at the honeyed blond.
Matthew could see where the nations were coming from. He wasn't unreasonable. He saw the wide, innocent sky blue eyes, he saw that golden tan, he saw liquid gold hair, he saw the rippling muscles, and, as embarrassing as it was to admit, he saw that plush derrière. He knew why nations flocked to Alfred.
Matthew would meet those sky blue eyes, and see the genuine affection, the warmth, the happiness. He supposed that that was what brought in many of the nations. He could understand why. It was...amazing to look into such caring eyes and see real love. Matthew would not trade those eyes for anything in the world.
Secretly, Matthew worried that his love for his brother wasn't just pure. He can vividly remember dreams where Alfred had used his sinful mouth and locked him in a trance with those delectable legs. Matthew would always huff in embarrassment and get drunk off whiskey whenever his sheets were sticky. It was terrifying, a brother shouldn't feel this way, but Mathew did.
Matthew knew Alfred would never look at him that way, but he could still hope. They were nations, they lived awhile, if Matthew were able to make Alfred let go of his strict morales he might have a chance, and if he didn't have a chance, he would still love his brother. He would love his brother forever. He could never give up the love, whether familial or something more.
"Mattie!" A poke to his eye brought him out of his thoughts. Alfred was broadly smiling at him.
"Do you want to go to lunch? I got invited by Ludwig, Gilbert, Francis, Arthur, Kiku," Alfred shivered a little. "and Ivan to go to lunch. I was wondering if you wanted to join us?"
"I'd love to." Matthew replied
But first he had to take care of a few nations. He could see Prussia eyeing his innocent brother's body. It was time to grab his hockey stick and protect Alfred's innocence.