Disclaimer: No, I still don't own Axis Powers Hetalia, much to my dismay. I could tell you who does own it, but I don't know myself.

It had only been 10 minutes and Matthew already wanted to leave. There was just something about the first day of school that made him want to crawl under a rock and take a very long nap. Every where he looked, he saw people hugging each other, smiling, greeting friends that hadn't be seen in weeks, hell, even months...But he didn't have that. He didn't have a large group of friends to be excited to greet on the first day back. He had Feliciano, but he saw him on almost a weekly basis, so it wouldn't be much of a reunion. There was Ludwig, but he really only talked to him when Feli was around. Then there was Gilbert, but he didn't think the older albino would be all that excited to see the meek Canadian. Then there was…

"Bonjour, ladies!What a wonderful morning to start off the school year with, non~?"

Francis. The blond Frenchman that always went around, sweeping numerous girls (as well as a few boys here and there) off of their feet as he pleased. His velvet tongue only matched by his beautiful golden locks, wonderful complexion, and those beautiful blue eyes…

Why, it made Matthew…Well, it made him sick to his stomach. He had mixed feelings for the older blond. One side of him was absolutely infatuated with him; his smile, his laugh, how French just beautifully flowed from his lips… It made him half tempted to join the small group of girls that followed him around like a group of lost kittens. Yes, needed to say, he was love-struck with Francis.

However, the other side of him (the more rational side) knew that all the Frenchman really was; a condescending man that always had one hand in his pants, and another on the hem of some girl's skirt. He was a skirt chaser, and nothing more; purely interested in getting his sexual satisfaction, no matter who he hurt in the process. Yet, despite the fact, he was still probably the most popular man in the school, along with Alfred, of course.

But, even knowing all this, he could never get Francis out of his mind whenever the man was around. All he could think of was how his smile seemed to sparkle like a well polished diamond, the way he always smelled of rose water and peppermint, the way he always seemed so…so touchable. As if Matthew could just curl up with him, like a child with a security blanket.

The Canadian averted his gaze, a small blush now gracing his otherwise pale cheeks. He turned around, facing the street, trying to keep from looking, from walking over to him, from wrapping his arms around his waist and snuggling into his lean chest as the smell of sweet roses hit his nostrils, from—

He gasped lightly as a pair of slender arms snaked their way around his neck, wrapping themselves around him as he felt a head place itself next to his own, blond hairs tickling his ear.

"Well well, bon matin, mon petite ang. It's been such a long time since I last saw you, hasn't it? I missed you~" His breath hitched in his throat and his legs turned to jelly as he felt the other's embrace around him. It sent small shivers up and down his spine. Francis knew exactly what effect he had on the smaller Canadian, and he had no qualms about using it to his advantage.

"F-Francis…" Matthew took a second to regain his composure, before sliding his hands between the space of his neck and the Frenchman's arms and freeing himself from what felt like a death grip around his neck, even though it was merely a loose hold, barely even touching him. He turned around, face now bright as a tomato, glare in his eyes.

"I-I told you not to do that to me! I have no desire t-to be another o-one of your f-floozies, okay?" Even when trying to chew someone out, Matthew was still as shy as ever. His stutters proved it to be so. He watched as Francis' small harem made small gasps, looking at him as though he was a blasphemer.

"How dare he reject Master Francis' advances!? Why, if Francis had even done that to me…" One of the girls almost swooned at the thought, face becoming flushed as she fantasized.

"That stupid Alfred isn't even worthy of a second of Francis' time, and yet even when he decides to be so generous and spare that stupid orphan one glance, he just pushes him away! The nerve!" Matt heard a few of the girls murmur things like 'Yeah!' and 'Exactly!" and "Stupid, poor, orphan boy!" as they all nodded in agreement.

Great, so not only did they think he was Alfred, and that he was an orphan, and that he was poor (all of which were false), they probably also wanted to spit on him now. It made him sick how the girls practically worshipped Francis as if he were a god.

"Now now, ladies. It's perfectly all right, Little Matthieu is just playing hard to get, non? Mon petite…-" Francis had turned around to smile at him, but he was already long gone, running off to the side of the school. Francis just stood there, watching the smaller boy run away, until his small group of worshipers walked back over to him, one of them grabbing onto his arm and snuggling with it. They were all talking amongst themselves about how the Canadian didn't even deserve to be within the Francis' sight, all of them tearing the young boy down. He simply turned around to face them all, a large smile on his near perfect face. "It's alright, my darlings. Now, we should be headed to class now, non?" The girls simply blushed and giggled as they went back to their normal routine of following him around.

{x~X~x}

Once Matthew had gotten far enough away that Francis had been out of his range of vision, he slowed to a slow jog, before eventually stopping. He had made his way to the left of the school, near a small garden that the last year's seniors had planted before they had graduated. He sat down on a small tree stump, trying to prevent tears from spilling from his bright indigo eyes. He let out a deep, shuddering sigh and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater, not even noticing as a certain white haired boy walked up behind him.

"Hey, shouldn't you be getting to class, Mattie?"

Matthew nearly fell of his stump as he jumped a few inches in the air, not expecting to hear a voice from so close behind him. He slipped on a smile before turning his head to greet whoever had cared enough to talk to the near invisible boy.

The sun may have been shining into his glasses, making him squint his eyes as he looked up from his sitting position, but even through half-lidded eyes, it wasn't hard to tell who the person was. Silvery white hair, red eyes, it could have only been…

"Gilbert! How have you been?" Matt smiled and stood up from his stump, turning around to look at the taller man before him.

"Heh, I've been the same as always; awesome." Gilbert chuckled and walked over to Matthew. He slid his arms around the smaller boy's thin torso, then embraced him into a tight, warm hug. Matthew was taken aback by the sudden action, but smiled and hugged back, resting his head onto Gilbert's shoulder.

"I saw what happened with you and Francis. That was so not awesome. I can't believe those stupid skanks, calling you poor, and such. But the worst was them mistaking you for that stupid, bubble-headed brother of yours." Matthew giggled at the other's comments as he felt the Prussian remove his arms from his body as he did the same. He scratched his head and humbly looked down at his feet, cheeks tinted a light shade of red once more.

"It's alright. I never really listen to what they have to say anyways…and I'll have you know that Alfred isn't a bubble-head. He's…" Matthew tried to think of a word besides bubble-head, almost straining himself to pull a word from his mental dictionary, but…

"Okay, so he's a bubble-head, but still! He's my brother, so don't say anything too bad about him, kay?"

It was no secret that Al and Gilbert weren't what one would call 'chummy.' In fact…they pretty much detested each other. They always said they hated the other, but Matthew new that it was a little too strong a word for their special…relationship. Even though they fought every time they were in the same room (mostly verbally, but there had also been a few times where they had tossed punches at one another), they still didn't really hate each other. But…Hell would probably freeze over before either one of them would admit that they even remotely liked the other.

Gilbert opened his mouth up to speak, but was quickly cut-off by the sound of the school bell. Matt smiled and hugged the taller boy again before dashing off, waving behind him saying "Better not be late on the first day!" or something of the sort. Gilbert just smiled and shook his head before heading off to his own classes.

{x~X~x}

"Lunchtime~! Yaaaay!" Feliciano smiled as he jumped and skipped down the hallways, trying to make his way to where Matthew was. The blond smiled at his friend and nodded his head. The brunette grabbed the taller boy's hand, dragging him down the hallways, obviously excited about the first lunch period of the year.

Matthew just smiled and laughed, allowing himself to be dragged behind the manic Italian. After a few minutes, the duo had finally reached the front doors, Feliciano quickly pushing them open with one hand, just enough so that he could make it through. He had completely forgotten about the blond Canadian whose hand he had taken hostage of, however, and the door almost completely slammed into the other boy's face, if it hadn't been for a sturdy looking arm that held the door open for him. He looked behind him and smiled at the taller blond.

"Haha, thanks Ludwig. You saved my nose there, eh?" Ludwig smiled and held the door open so his smaller companion could make his way through without fear of having his face smashed in by the heavy block of metal.

Feliciano looked back behind him, completely unaware of the near-death (well, for his nose anyway) experience he had just put his friend through. He frowned a little, about to tell 'Mattie-Cakes' to hurry up, when he noticed the taller blond behind him.

"Ludwig! I haven't seen you aalll day!" He released Matthew's hand from its death grip and ran over to the German, wrapping his slender arms around the boy's rather built torso. He hugged him tight, and Ludwig just blushed and returned the sign of affection.

"Well, it's a good thing I found you two, or poor Matthew would probably be lacking a face right now."

Feliciano looked over at the Canadian with a quizzical look on his face. Matthew just smiled and shook his head, giving the little Italian a smile. Feli just shrugged his shoulders before grasping Matt's hand in his own, and taking Ludwig's hand hostage as well before running out the doors once more, dragging his accomplices along as well.

{x~X~x}

Matthew sat in his chair, fidgeting. Finally, last period. Thank Jeebus. And yet we still have a good 4 days till the weekend. The Canadian thought bitterly to himself as he stared at the clock, watching the long, thin red second hand slowly tick away at the few seconds of the first day of his hell. The clock read "2:16" and sadly, school didn't get out until 2:30. 14 more minutes of hell left.

Matthew was absorbed into his own thoughts, reverting back in age a few years as he started to sing "99 Minutes of Hell on the Wall" in an attempt to drown out the sounds of his French teacher going on about how they were going to have a 'wonderful year' and how he was 'excited to see them again' and all the nonsense school teachers usually said on the first day of school while they waited for school to get out. (So they could drink booze.)

Matthew sighed and rested his head on top of his arms, getting tired of his song after getting to 82 minutes. He peeked up over the sleeves of his sweater and glanced at the clock once more. 2 more minutes. He groaned in his mind and lay back down in his arms, waiting for what would probably be the longest two minutes of his life to be over.

After waiting for what felt like months (at least, it would if he was a hamster) he heard the school bell finally ring. His teacher made an attempt to say good-bye to his students, but gave up after half the class simply got up and left, paying the poor man no heed. Matthew joined that half of the class.

Before reaching the door, however, he felt someone grab his arm. He turned around and was met with beautiful, blue eyes. He frowned.

"Mathieu~ I can't believe that we have been in the same class for 50 minutes, and yet you haven't even looked over at me, little less gave me a friendly 'Bonjour~!' I thought we were friends…"

Francis gave a look of disappointment. Matthew was half tempted to just walk away, but the charming Frenchman's pout caused the other half of him to emerge. He sighed before moving closer to the other and hugging him loosely.

Seeing his window of opportunity, the taller boy quickly wrapped his arms tightly around the smaller Canadian, leaning down to smell his hair.

"Ahh~ Smells of…Cucumber-Melon, non~?"

Matthew just blushed before pushing Francis away, glaring at the man. He stomped his foot on the ground and walked out of the door.

"Mathieu, mon cher! Wait for moi~"

Matthew just ignored him and stomped his way down the hallway, over to his locker, a deep frown on his face, sadness barely visible on his pale face.

{x~X~x}

"Alfred, I'm home!" Matthew walked into his house, not surprised at having received no answer. His brother was almost never home before him. He usually hung out at school with his large group of friends before going back home.

After setting his stuff down on the couch, the Canadian walked into the kitchen and reached up to pull down a box of Reese's Puffs off of the top of the fridge. Once he had made a bowl of cereal, he went back to his room, munching on the small peanut butter and chocolate spheres. He sat down at his desk, placing the bowl by his speakers, and then turned on his computer.

He sat there for a few hours, idly eating cereal and chatting with Feliciano over IM (which the blond always found to be amusing, seeing as how the pair always winded up talking about the weirdest things, like what their bra sizes would be if they had boobs. It didn't matter what Feli said, Matthew was certain he would at least be a C-Cup.) He didn't even notice when Alfred got home, nor did he notice when Alfred walked into his room and stood behind him, reading his little brother's conversation with the hyperactive Italian. He also didn't notice when his brother leaned his head in, a mere inch away from his ear.

"C-Cup?"

Matthew let out a loud scream and nearly fell out of his rolling chair while Alfred had to cover his ears to keep them from bleeding at his brother's shriek.

"Damn, Mattie! You're like a fucking banshee…"

Matthew sat there, hyperventilating, trying to calm himself down. He turned around to face Alfred (who was now standing there, snickering). Getting up, he flicked his brother in the forehead and frowned.

"Damnit, Alfred! Quite sneaking up on me!"

Needless to say, the younger blond was fuming.

Alfred simply rubbed his sore forehead, and gave his bro an apologetic look. "Okay, okay. Dang, you flick hard."

Matthew just sighed and pushed Alfred out of his room, muttering out 'you deserved it…' before shutting his door and locking it. He leaned up against the door and looked over at his bed. He saw his small, pink flower diary sitting on the floor, looking abandoned. He walked over to it and picked up the pen he had left on his bedside table. Opening up the pink book, he turned to the second page, his last diary entry next to the blank one. The chewed the tip of his pen in thought, before figuring out what he wanted to write.

August 28th, 2009

Dear Mrs. Finkleton,

Alfred sucks. I've told him a million times, "Don't sneak up on me like that!" and yet he does it anyways. One day, he's going to give me a heart attack, and then I'll die…Well…Today was the first day of school. It was pretty nice to see Ludwig and Gilbert again, and as for Francis…well…I just wish that he would stop messing with me all the time. I mean, if he just came up to me and said 'Bonjour, Mathieu! How is your day going? Oh ho ho." Or something, then I would be fine. But he always has to pull some sort of stunt. It ticks me off...Especially since I…have feelings for him? I don't know if I would call it that, but…I guess more of a 'crush' I guess. Damnit…hormones suck. Well, that's all I have for now I guess…

Sincerely,

Matthew Williams

He shut the book and looked at the clock. 9:25. It wasn't that late, but Matthew felt tired. He got up, got changed, got ready for bed, and after a few minutes, finally was ready for some well deserved sleep. He sat down on the blue sheets of his bed, set his glasses on his night stand, turned off his lamp, and let the sweet embrace of sleep take hold of him.

Alrighty, another chapter of my failure story up~!

Thankfully, it's a little longer than my last. Phew.

Okay, in case any of you are interested, me and my beta are having an argument over where it's normal to put cereal. I keep telling her that it's normal to put it on the top of the fridge, but she insists that you're supposed to put it in a cubbard.

So, help me prove her wrong, alright? Poll is on my profile. ;D

And remember, read and review, alrighty?