Author's Note: Before you lovely people start reading this chapter that took me FAR too long to write, I just want to say how much I appreciate you all. When I first started this story I never thought I'd reached over 50 people following it so for all new followers welcome and to all old followers, welcome back! I'm so sorry this has taken me so long to write but I've had a lot of other things going on in my life and so I've really struggled with this. Hope it was worth it. And the song mentioned at the end is Survive by Rise Against. I've wanted to include it for a long time and it was only listening to it today that gave me the inspiration to finally get this finished. So thank you all for sticking with me and I hope you enjoy. And for good measure, Hetalia does not belong to me!
"Matt. Mattie. Matt, wake up. Matthew. Mattie wake up!" Alfred hissed, crouched on the no touching line between the two sides of their bedroom and trying to wake up his brother without disturbing their parents in the next room. He continued to quietly call for his brother, bouncing slightly with excitement.
Eventually Matthew stirred, "What do you want?" He mumbled sleepily, hugging Kumajirou tightly as he cracked one eye open and looked over at Alfred.
"I want you to wake up. Duh! It IS my birthday after all." Alfred replied, "Come on, before I throw something at you."
"I'll never return it if you do..." Matthew replied, rolling over so his back was to Alfred.
"You're no fun. You were up early on your birthday!" Alfred grumbled. Matthew had celebrated his own birthday three days before.
"That's because you woke me up..." Matthew said quietly, tired and not wanting to know just how early it was.
"Yeah, because it was your birthday. Duh!" Alfred was bouncing on the line. Eager to be up and moving, "Come on, Matt!"
Matthew sighed and rolled over again, rubbing his eyes. As much as he wanted to go back to sleep he knew there would be absolutely no chance. His brother was far too excited about his fifteenth birthday to allow that. As he sat up, he reached for his phone and checked the time. Six thirty. A whole hour earlier than Alfred had woken him on his own birthday. Yawning, Matthew stretched.
"Come ooooon!" Alfred said, making no effort to conceal the excitement mixed with frustration in his voice. Why did his brother have to be so slow?
"We can't wake Dad and Papa until later anyway. So why do we have to be up?" Matthew asked softly, looking over at his brother who was wearing his favourite Superman pyjamas.
"Because I can't sleep. And if I can't sleep then you shouldn't be sleeping either. Those are the rules little bro." Alfred replied, eyes wide with excitement.
Matthew laughed softly, "Less of the 'little bro,'" he smiled sleepily at him, "We both know that I'm the older one."
"Yeah, but I'm the most epic which of course means that your epicosity is dwarfed to the point that technically means that really I'm the big brother and you're my little bro." Alfred nodded slightly at the end of his sentence.
Matthew sighed and shook his head slightly, too tired to argue and knowing that once his brother had his mind set on something then nothing was really going to do anything to change it.
Slowly he sat up and rubbed his eyes again, exhausted.
It seemed to Matthew that Alfred had never been so excited to go to school. They had made pancakes while waiting for Arthur and Francis to wake up and the four of them had eaten breakfast together. Alfred had opened his presents from their parents – consisting of new rugby boots with the Captain America shield on them, tickets to a rugby match in a few weeks time and some xbox games. Upon turned to look at his brother, Matthew had admitted that he had Alfred's present ready but wanted to wait until after school to give it to him. Alfred had complained about this but eventually given in, despite pestering his brother relentlessly all the way to school.
The day passed reasonably uneventfully. Alfred was wished a happy birthday by several people he didn't actually know and the rest of the rugby team had banded together to get him a cake and some balloons for lunchtime, along with the traditional birthday beats. Matthew had oddly kept his distance from Alfred, staying with his own group of friends and the four of them had gone suspiciously quiet whenever Alfred was around.
The end of the day came quickly and Alfred practically bounced over to where he always met Matthew. His brother was already there, waiting for him. Also there were Gilbert, Feliciano, Ludwig, Antonio, Kiku and, actually most of Alfred's group of friends.
"Hey dudes, what's up?" Alfred asked, looking around.
"Well..." Matthew replied softly, "They're coming round to ours."
"Seriously? Epic!" Alfred grinned, "I would ask the occasion but I already know! Am I right!" He held his hand up for a high five which Matthew reluctantly accepted. Alfred continued eagerly, "Now that's settled, come on! My birthday's not going to last forever!" he started to lead the way, grinning as Kiku stepped up to walk beside him.
"Happy birthday, Alfred." Kiku said, looking up at his friend.
"Hey, thanks dude. That's like totally epic. And it's realyl cool that everyone's coming round." Alfred gushed.
"Yes, it is." Kiku agreed, "It will be fun to see how you celebrate your birthday."
"Well duh, it's going to be epic. It is my birthday after all," Alfred grinned.
"I am glad," Kiku replied, "I am also glad that you are happier now, Alfred."
"Naw, thanks dude!" Alfred smiled over at him, "Things are pretty freaking epic at the moment. Did I tell you what Dad and Papa gave me this morning? Captain America rugby boots. I mean how cool is that!"
"Yes, you told me this morning. I agreed, it is very cool." Kiku said with a soft smile.
While they had been talking, they reached home and Matthew squeezed past Alfred, getting out his keys and opening the door. "Dad! Papa! We're back!" He called, holding the door open for everyone and pressing against the wall to try to not get crushed by the crowd.
"Come out into the garden," Francis' voice called back from through the open the patio doors at the end of the hall.
"You heard the man, dudes!" Alfred laughed, "Let's get this party started!"
The group of friends hung out in the garden until the sun started to get low, at which point Arthur stood up and called over the noise, "Excuse me! I believe it's time." He said, looking over towards the patio doors as Francis emerged from inside. He was carrying a tall cake with layers of Red, White and Blue. When he put it on the table it became clear that it was designed to be the Captain America shield, with each layer being a different ring. In the star on the top were fifteen lit candles.
"That's epic!" Alfred grinned, jumping up onto a plastic chair to get a better look, "Thanks, Papa."
Francis laughed, "It is my pleasure, mon petit."
"Alfred, get off the chair!" Arthur told him, "You'll end up getting hurt and that wouldn't be a good end to your birthday."
"Chill out, dude. I'm cool up here." Alfred replied with a grin as around him, everyone started to sing 'Happy birthday'. When they were done he finally jumped back down off the chair, picking up the knife as Francis removed the candles.
Once everyone was occupied with cake, Matthew got off Gilbert's lap and stepped forwards, nodding at Feliciano as he did. Feli leapt to his feet as well, almost sending Ludwig's cake flying as he scurried off. "Now," Matthew started. "This morning I promised you a birthday present, Al. And I've got it. The our of us thought long and hard about what on earth I could get you that could live up to your epicosity and in the end... we came up with this. So this is from all of us, but especially me." He got a small wrapped package out of his pocket and held it out.
Alfred took it and pulled the wrapping paper off, flipping it over and reading it, "You made me a CD? Cool!" He looked up, "Thanks Matt."
Matthew grinned, "Gil helped, along with his massive music collection... but also..." He looked over as Feliciano reappeared in the doorway, carrying something else covered in wrapping paper. "Feli helped me with this."
Alfred put his cake and CD to one side before standing up and going over, taking off the wrapping paper while Feliciano kept the present upright. The paper fell away, revealing a beautiful canvas painting of Matthew and Alfred as toddlers. Matthew was on his stomach and holding Kumajirou tightly with one hand while Alfred was on top of him, clutching Tony. Both boys were laughing happily. "Wow..." Alfred said softly, taking in the details of it, "That's beautiful."
"Now that is a first." Gilbert said with a grin, pulling Matthew onto his lap again, "We've silenced Alfred!"
Everyone laughed at this before conversations started to break out again. Alfred went slowly over to Matthew and smiled at him, "Thanks, Matt. That was really cool."
Matthew looked up at him and grinned, "It's okay. Love you, Al."
"Love you too, Mattie." Alfred ruffled his brother's hair before going off to talk to other people.
"So what's on this CD?" Alfred asked as they were getting ready for bed. It was later than normal but it was a Friday night.
"You'll have to play it and find out." Matthew grinned, tossing him the remote for the CD player.
Alfred grinned back, going over and slotting the CD in. He started to skip through the tracks, jumping over the slower ones or the ones he already knew until he found one which started off with a decent beat. "What's this?" Alfred picked up the box and skimmed over the back, "I mean, what kind of person doesn't list the tracks on a CD?"
"One that wants them to be a surprise." Matthew replied, lying down on his bed and looking over at Alfred, "This one... suits you. That's all I'm saying."
Alfred raised his eyebrows at him, "And it has swearing in it? Honestly Matt, I'm surprised your delicate ears can take it." He teased.
"Shut up and listen." Matthew replied, hugging Kumajirou close and turning off the lights on his side of the room.
"Life for you's been less than kind. So take a number, stand in line. We've all be sorry, we've all been hurt. But how we survive is what makes up who we are."