Disclaimer: Do not own Hetalia~
Matthew had never realized just how good of a friend Cuba was until now, mostly because the only reason Canada was even considering moving was because of said man. Cuba had come back that night to find Matthew still curled up in a ball beneath the thin sheets and instantly knew something was wrong. Matthew never grieved, at least not like this. Cuba settled down beside the curled up Canadian, making sure not to sit on his pet and putt a hand on Matthew's shoulder.
"What happened?" Cuba asked slowly, not knowing if he should pry but knowing that he couldn't just leave it alone. The two sat in silence for a while, only broken by the sniffle from the smaller of the two. Finally, Matthew worked up the energy to speak.
"I've been rejected," He said, his voice breaking over the word rejected and his speech muffled by the sheets and fur of Kumajirou. Cuba frowned lightly, before sighing lightly. He shifted to a standing position and brushed off his shorts lightly.
"I have something for you. I've been meaning to give it to you but I keep forgetting" Cuba said as he walked over to the closet and opened the door slowly. A small, satisfied, smile came to his face as he watched Canada pull back the covers and look at him with an honest curiosity. However, the smile faded when he saw just how red his eyes were from the tears.
Cuba gently lifted up the glass sculpture and he hid it in front of him, walking backwards to where Canada was laying. When he got close enough he turned around, honestly pleased at the small gasp that had come from the Canadian.
"I-It's beautiful," Canada stammered, sitting up slowly and rubbing the remaining tears away with the heels of his hands. To his surprise, Cuba sat at the end of the bed in a cross-legged seat and set the glass on the bed before him.
"F-F-For me?" He asked, his eyes wide and with a small shimmer of hope in them. Cuba nodded, a gentle smile coming to his face. Canada was so cute, even if he had been crying for probably a really long time. Cuba honestly didn't think of Canada in any impure way however, considering him as more of a brother than a love interest.
"Thank you" Matthew murmured, his voice low and a shaky hand reaching out to touch the glass almost afraid to break it. Cuba gently reached out a hand to ruffle the Canadian's hair before getting up and flipping on the bedside lamp and taking a seat on his own bed. The light only added to the splendor of the glass, sending shimmers of light around the room and causing Canada to break into the smallest of smiles, his mind sufficiently distracted. For now.
Cuba decided that this was his best chance to get to sleep and so decided that he would get ready and do just that.
When he woke up the next morning it was to an obnoxious pounding on the door that he knew could only be coming from one person. Cuba quickly buried himself deep into the multiple down comforters, groaning lightly. It was too early for that bastard to be waking him up. Cuba grumbled to himself but rolled over, planning with all intents and purposes to open the door just to slam it in Alfred's face.
Thankfully Canada got up before him and he could just ignore it for now. Most likely the only reason Canada had done so was because he had figured if Cuba had gotten up things wouldn't have ended peacefully and only caused more drama. Even if most of the nations had gone home, the meetings being officially done. They were trying out a new way of having the meetings, instead of one really long meeting at the same place every time they would have a period of shorter meetings over the course of two weeks at a different place each time. Where the meetings were held rotated around between the major countries that could support a gathering of such magnitude.
Matthew sighed lightly and grabbed his key before opening the door, leaving Cuba to fall back to sleep quickly. Outside, Canada leaned against the doorway, rubbing his eye half in sleep and half in an attempt to keep himself from crying again. Thanks to Cuba's gift he had managed to sleep, albeit fitfully, through the night. Despite this fact there were still large bags beneath Canada's eyes that he could do nothing to hide.
"So how'd it go?" Alfred asked brightly, a wide smile on his face. Canada gave him a blank look. A look that said everything. Could he possibly be that clueless? Wait…it was Alfred so yes, he was.
"How do you think?" Canada stifled a sniff and turned, fumbling with his key and trying to escape from his idiotic brother. However, he heard a sigh from behind him and he knew Alfred had finally gotten it. He choked back a sob, leaning his head against the cool door and closing his eyes tightly.
"I'm sorry Matty…I should have known," He said slowly, wrapping his arms around Canada's neck gently and resting his chin on his brother's shoulder.
"Yah, you s-should have. I never should have listened to y-you. H-he hates m-m-me and I-," Matthew was forced to stop as his voice refused to continue steadily. Canada didn't move away however and just stood there in the southern sibling's embrace, his shoulders shaking with each sob and his fists clenched at his sides.
"Come on Matty, let's go somewhere. Get Kumajirou I think he'll like it too" Alfred said slowly, pulling back and letting Matthew open the door and return with his polar bear. The elder of the two broke out in a wide smile and then led the younger outside and into a taxi, directing the man to take them to Spook Hill in Lake Wales. To say Matthew was confused would be an extreme understatement.
"Where are we going Alfred?" He asked slowly, a deep frown etched in his face. This better not be something scary or Canada was likely to take out his pent up frustrations on the elder man.
"You'll see" Alfred chuckled deeply, his attention focused on the buildings flying by. It was early enough on a Friday that there were almost no cars out so he was almost positive that Kumajirou wouldn't cause any commotion. The drive took about an hour and a half but seemed like nothing to the longer haired blond, seeing as he had fallen into a fitful sleep once more.
"Matty, Matty, wake up!" Alfred's wide smile was the first thing Matthew saw when he woke up. Matthew let out a small groan and rubbed his neck to try and rid himself of the small kink. Sleeping in a car was not comfortable at all.
"Where are we?" Matthew asked with a wide yawn, scooping Kumajirou into his arms and fallowing his brother out of the cab and into the forest around him, this didn't look like Florida at all, more like his home in the middle of summer. Though the heat was a bit more than he was used too.
"Its called Spook Hill. And don't worry. Its not scary at all!" He said, the wide smile still on his face as he led his brother to what appeared to be a white line painted on what looked like a small hill. Matthew frowned and raised his eyebrow lightly; they had driven an hour and a half for this?
"Watch" was all America said as he pulled a small marble from his jacket pocket and set it on the ground in front of the line. Canada's jaw dropped when he saw the marble go uphill. How was that possible? Alfred, instead of watching the marble watched Canada's reaction.
Of course, America knew that this was all just an optical illusion, having been here when he was younger, but he figured it would help Matthew feel at least a little better. Give him something else to think about, distract him so to speak. Alfred quickly took off after the marble and caught up, scooping it up into his hand with one deft motion before coming back to where Matthew was standing placing the marble in his brother's hand.
"You try," He said gently. Matthew did as he was told and a small smile came to his face. Matthew was smarter than Alfred was and so had already figured out how the illusion worked but was eager to find any way to distract himself and so played along with his brother. Alfred continued pulling out other random objects out of his pockets and all three of them, Kumajirou included, spent most of the day there. The only one being truly fooled being the Polar Bear.
"Do you wanna go for ice cream?" Alfred asked, a smile coming to his face. He knew that they would have to walk to catch a cab but figured that they could stop for ice cream on the way. Matthew nodded, opening his arms for Kumajirou and fallowing his brother in silence. The smile on his face fading as his mind wandered back to the previous day's events. Alfred noticed the sadness on his brother's face but kept silent until they both had ice cream in their hands.
"I'm sorry Matty" He managed to say gently, licking the ice cream cone and trying to hide his embarrassment. Matthew nearly dropped his ice cream right then and there had he not loved the cool treat so much. Kumajirou took this momentary lapse in attention to his advantage and stole a lick of the chocolate flavored ice cream happily.
"Y-your sorry?" Matthew asked, unable to believe that his brother would actually be apologizing for something. Alfred nodded and looked down at the strawberry cone in his hand, avoiding his sibling's gaze.
"Yah. I mean, if I wouldn't have said anything and made you confront him you wouldn't be hurting like this and I know I meant well but still…I hate seeing you hurt like this" Alfred half rambled, not looking up from his ice cream and stuffing his free hand into his pockets. He felt horrible, more so because he had had a great outing with Arthur the previous day and hadn't even thought back to what could have been happening between Matthew and Francis.
"Its alright" Matthew said, a sad lost look on his face as he licked at the ice cream half heatedly. Alfred however, wouldn't accept that and frowned deeply and looked up at Matthew again, his blue eyes narrowed intensely.
"No. It's not alright! Matthew I've never seen you like this. You weren't even this bad when Kumajirou ran away and you came to me in hysterics" Alfred said, flinging his arms around animatedly, not realizing that he was still holding his ice cream and watching helplessly as it fell off his cone and hit the ground with a small plop. Both North American siblings looked down at the ice cream with a blank expression for a moment before Canada let out a small chuckle, one that quickly escalated into full-blown laughter. Matthew quickly set down Kumajirou and gave the bear the rest of his ice cream so he wouldn't drop it and clutched his sides, laughing uncontrollably.
Alfred chuckled lightly along with his brother though even he could hear that Matthew's laughter was hollow. More of an outburst of pent up emotions than anything else. Alfred's intuition was confirmed when the laughter turned into sobs and Matthew had doubled over, arms wrapped around himself and the sobs shaking his body. Alfred quickly dropped to his knees beside his brother and wrapped his arms around him, satisfied only when Matthew had returned the embrace.
"It hurts so much Alfred. I-I don't know what to do," He said, his sobs coming unchecked as he buried his face into his brother's furry bomber jacket.
"Shhh, Matthew. It's ok. Everything will get better I promise" He said as he stroked the back of Matthew's sweater with a gloved hand. The two stayed like that for a while before the Canadian man pulled himself together enough for Alfred to call a cab. The two spent the entire ride back to the hotel in silence and went their separate ways.
Alfred swore to himself that he was going to make things right between France and his brother, if it was the last thing he did. This time, he was going to enlist some help.
Thankfully the next round of meetings were at Spain's house so they would have plenty of free time to plan.
From what I've found through research Spook Hill is actually kind of lame but I figured it would be the perfect thing for Alfred to take Matthew too. I don't really see Matthew as a big attraction sort of person. Especially if he couldn't bring Kumajirou with him.
Meh...my head hurts .
Anyway, Read and Review please~!