Galehus

Part 3

"I can't believe that you're actually living with him! This is wrong on so many levels!"

Canada loved his brother. He really did. Even if he was loud and obnoxious and overly obsessed with hamburgers. However, just because you loved someone did not necessarily mean that you didn't occasionally fantasize about beating them over the head with a hockey stick and then lock their unconscious body down in the storage shed for a few weeks.

He did find it rather interesting how things had changed around here since he and Prussia had started dating—or whatever it was that they were doing; he felt like you couldn't really call it dating, since they were living together and everything... For one thing, before Prussia had moved in, he'd often go weeks without any contact from the other nations. He'd never get phone calls or emails or anything...

Now, all of a sudden, he was constantly bombarded by messages. Mostly from America. Pretty much entirely from America, actually. Although, he would occasionally get an email or two from Germany, usually stating something along the lines of 'Would you please tell Prussia to return my...(insert item that he'd swiped from Germany's house and put with his own things)? Thank you'.

And there were also the occasional messages from France and England, usually just asking how he was doing, if Prussia was treating him all right, whether they'd 'done it' yet... That last question was exclusively asked by France, by the way...

For another thing, he was also dealing with constant physical guests too. France and Spain would randomly pop up, looking for Prussia. Germany would occasionally show up with Italy, usually in order to go through Prussia's things in search for something that he'd stolen from the house. And, of course, there was always his brother. Who now had a tendency to show up just about every other day.

Usually just to complain about Prussia.

As he was doing right now.

Canada was getting pretty good at ignoring his brother's presence. He'd just scoot around the kitchen, washing dishes, putting the clean plates back in their places in the cupboard. The sorts of everyday tasks that didn't require much thought. And he'd think about things like the hockey game that was showing tonight, wondering if maybe Gilbert would want to watch it with him. Probably depended on if he were drunk or not...since he'd gone out with France and Spain.

The Canadian was paying so little attention to his brother that he didn't even notice that America had actually stopped complaining about Prussia for once. And was instead glaring at Canada's kitchen table. Or, to be more specific, at the little ball of yellow fluff that was currently sitting on the kitchen table.

And was staring right back at him, head tilted to the side slightly.

Canada sighed to himself, as he wiped another plate clean and placed it in the drying rack. He should probably answer America. He was starting to get a little tired of constantly having his brother complain about their new living arrangements. "Alfred, I'm not a kid. I can make my own decisions about who I decide to share a house with..." Not that he'd really made the decision, since Prussia just kind of moved himself in without asking for permission...

America was barely listening to his brother, as he was more interested in the staring contest he'd engaged in with the chick. Neither of them were backing down. Because he was the hero, and the hero would show weakness in the face of the enemy! He would never be defeated by Prussia's evil demon bird!

"Piyo?"

"Prussia is totally not right for you, Mattie!" he finally responded, after processing what his brother had just said. "And I'll prove it!" Right after I show this bird who's boss.

Canada sighed again—he felt like he did that a lot around America—and walked over to the cupboard, pulling down a clean coffee pot. "Alfred, just because you personally don't like Gil doesn't mean that I'm not allowed to like him." He turned, blinking once when he noticed that his brother was apparently engaging in a...staring contest or something with Gilbird. Then decided it was better not to ask. "Why don't you try talking to him or something? I'm sure you two would get along fine if you just tried getting to know each other."

"I don't need to talk to him! I already know that he isn't good enough for you, Mattie!"

"And why not? I don't even understand why you don't like him. He's never done anything to me."

America paused, accidentally breaking eye contact with the little bird, as the thought suddenly struck him. He actually couldn't remember why he disliked Prussia so much. Although there must be a reason. A hero wouldn't just dislike someone for no reason...

And then he glanced back toward the bird... Who was still staring at him, head cocked to the side in a rather curious expression. "Shit! You tricked me, evil demon bird!"

"Piyo Piyo?"

Canada was just going to pretend that America wasn't here right now. It'd be better for his sanity in the long run. Instead, he wordlessly began to set up the coffee pot, knowing that his brother would be whining for some later. Hopefully, he'd leave before Prussia got back home, since he really didn't want to deal with the fireworks that would go off if those two laid eyes on each other.

"Who?"

Canada glanced down at the familiar voice, smiling slightly at the sight of Kumajiro sitting in the doorway, staring at his brother, who had flopped his head onto the table after losing in his contest with the little chick. "Morning, Kumariki. I just filled your bowl."

America turned his head to stare at the polar bear at this statement, finally removing his gaze from the little yellow bird. Who seemed to take the inattention as permission to do what he usually did with Prussia.

He cheeped once and then hopped up to rest on top of America's head.

Canada had heard his brother scream like a girl before. On multiple occasions. Most of them involving ghosts—or what his brother thought were ghosts. Canada had learned a while ago to not try comforting America when it was late at night and he'd just finished watching a marathon of Japan's horror movies, as his habit of disappearing at inopportune times usually just led to America screaming about how there was a ghost in his house. Then, it would take hours for Canada to convince him that he wasn't a ghost, and please, please come out from under the bed?

Anyway, so he'd heard America shriek many many times before. However, he was pretty sure that this scream beat all of those other times put together in terms of pitch, volume, and sheer girliness.

"THE EVIL DEMON BIRD IS ATTACKING ME! HELP MEEE~! MATTIE~~!"

He immediately turned, eyes widening as he saw his brother jump up and start thrashing around in panic. "Alfred! Stop—Stop moving around so much! You're going to hurt him! Just stop moving!"

"HE'S GOING TO EAT MY BRAINS! OR PECK OUT MY EYEBALLS! I KNEW IT! I KNEW BIRDS WERE EVIL! HITCHCOCK WAS RIGHT!"

"Piyo Piyo!"

Canada jumped forward, attempting to grab his brother and stop him from running around. Gilbird was hanging on for dear life, cheeping in panic at the movements of his perch.

And then there was a slam from the front door, heavy footsteps, and "Hey, Mattie! You'll never guess what the awesome me—what the fuck is going on in here?"

Romano's arrival had signalled the end of their drinking outing. Probably for the best... Spain had ended up getting dragged out by a cursing Romano, France had opted to stay (read: stalk that waiter—Prussia really didn't want to know how that ended up), and Prussia had headed to Canada as soon as possible. As, after he'd gotten over the irritation at knowing that he'd walked right into France's trap, he'd started imagining Mattie's reaction when he got home and showed him the tickets...

Mattie would just stare at him in shock for a moment. And then flush an absolutely adorable shade of pink, maybe he'd even start crying out of sheer happiness. And Prussia would of course be awesome and tell him how he'd worked to get those tickets just for him and, since he was such an awesome lover, he wouldn't say no to a make out session on the couch as a way for Mattie to show his gratitude.

And maybe Mattie would finally give up on the totally not-awesome rule that Prussia had to sleep in his own room.

So he'd walked through the front door, incredibly excited to show Mattie the tickets and hopefully start in on a very productive rest of the day...

And had instead ended up walking in on America screeching and flapping around the room like some demented chicken, Canada yelling at him to stop moving while he chased him around, Kumajiro just sitting on the floor, seemingly just watching the show...And Gilbird sitting on top of America's head, cheeping occasionally in distress.

"What the fuck is going on?" he repeated, louder, managing to catch Canada's attention at least. The Canadian paused, giving a sigh of relief, and then pointing toward his brother, who was attempting to tear Gilbird off his head. Thankfully, the little chick was pretty good at dodging and was just moving around and cheeping at the hands coming toward him.

"Can you please get Gilbird off of America, Gil?"

"Yeah, sure..." He took a step forward, motioning for America to stop attempting to grab his bird. Which he finally did, after a few more seconds, "Hey, what're you doing on top of that unawesome guy's head?" he called to the chick.

Gilbird immediately turned toward his master's voice, giving a happy cheep of recognition. America immediately winced, as he felt claws dig into his skull. "Ahh, get it off me!"

Prussia smirked slightly, slowing down and instead chose to saunter over, pausing in front of America for a moment before he reached up and gently lifted the little bundle of fluff into his hands. He stroked him comfortingly, grinning as the bird nuzzled into his warmth. "I've told you before to stay away from the unawesome ones. Only Mattie and I are awesome enough for you to sit on."

Gilbird cheeped once and Prussia grinned, moving to set the chick onto his own head before glancing at America, who was now scowling at him in irritation. "What're you doing here?"

America glanced toward Canada, opening his mouth as if to respond, before catching an incredibly irritated warning-look from his brother. One that plainly read, 'You say anything bad to Gil right now and we'll see about that undefended border'...

So he just shoved his hands into his back pockets and started walking toward the front door. "Nothing. Just wanted to talk to Mattie. But now that we're not alone anymore, I'll just be going."

"All right. I need to talk to Mattie alone anyway," Prussia responded mockingly, moving across the room and sliding his arm around the other nation's shoulders. Receiving a look of exasperation when he did so.

Still, it was totally worth the glare he received from America. Particularly when it was coupled with the slamming of the front door.

There were few things in the world more fun that getting on another nation's nerves.

A/N: Hmm hmm... Sorry this took so long. And sorry for the lack of Denmark/Norway interaction. This chapter was supposed to be DenNor-ish, but it was not cooperating. (At all; I tried working on that for like 4 days straight and it wasn't going anywhere). So we're going into subplots instead...

And guess who managed to twist their ankle due to the fact that she's a ridiculous klutz?

Sigh... *shakes head at self* Oh well. At least it was only twisted and not broken or anything...