Bet you weren't expecting a new chapter, huh? Well, neither was I. I only wrote this in the last...two hours or so. This chapter skips ahead a few months.
Francis sat next to Arthur in the courtroom, nervously tapping his fingers on his knee. Arthur placed his hand on Francis's, causing the Frenchman to look over at him. Arthur gave a small smile while keeping his eyes on the judge. Francis smiled and turned his hand over, giving Arthur's a squeeze. Arthur squeezed back and nodded his head slightly. Francis turned back to look at the judge. She was looking over a list of small cases such as theirs. The couple knew theirs would be reached soon. Francis looked across the aisle, to where Alfred and Matthew sat together next to the social worker. They were here today to see whether they would be able to adopt the boys or not. Francis sincerely hoped they would be allowed to. Arthur squeezed his hand again, drawing his attention to the front.
"Alfred F. Jones and Matthew Williams to be adopted by Francis and Arthur Kirkland-Bonnefoy," the judge read aloud. She blinked and her eyes scanned the form before her before a tiny smile turned up the corners of her mouth. "Accepted." Francis hugged Arthur tightly in relief as the judge continued on to the next case.
"Papa! Papa!" Francis stood up quickly and hurried over to the boys, wrapping his arms around them both in a hug. Matthew and Alfred hugged him back just as tightly, and a moment later Arthur joined them. Matthew pulled back to look up at Francis.
"Can we go home now, Papa?" he asked. Francis smiled and answered in English.
"Yes, we can go home now. We can all go home together." Arthur lifted Alfred from Francis's arms and the new family left the courthouse together. Alfred looked up at the adults.
"Can we go get ice cream?" he asked hopefully. Arthur and Francis glanced at each other and chuckled.
"Alright, let's go get ice cream," Arthur said.
"Yay!" Alfred cheered. The four got into the car and drove a short distance away to an ice cream parlor. Matthew and Alfred ran in together. The man behind the counter looked up with a smile as the door opened.
"Hello, what can I get you today?" he asked.
"We want ice cream!" Alfred said. The man grinned down at him.
"What kind would you like?"
"Uhh…" Alfred's face scrunched up in concentration. Matthew's nose was pressed to the glass of the display as he looked at all the different kinds. Arthur smiled.
"How about you tell us what kinds you have, then we can decide?" he offered. The man smiled back at him and started listing all the flavors they had, the children listening intently.
"…and then we have the brand new American Hero flavor," the man said. Arthur could have sworn Alfred's eyes grew to three times their original size.
"There's a hero flavor?" Alfred asked. The man nodded. Alfred grabbed Arthur's hand. "Dad! Dad! I want that one!"
"Alright Alfred," Arthur said.
"Woohoo!" Meanwhile, Matthew still had trouble deciding. Francis lifted him up so he could see the buckets of ice cream better.
"Well Mathieu? What kind do you want?" Francis asked quietly.
"Mmm…je ne sais pas, Papa," he said.
"You don't know?" Matthew shook his head. He looked up at Francis shyly.
"Do they have maple kind?" he asked. Francis blinked.
"I don't know, cher, how about you ask the nice man if they do?" Francis lifted Matthew higher so he could look across the counter at the man. Matthew fidgeted a little with his hands. "It's okay, Mathieu, go ahead and ask."
"Um, pensez-vous, oh, je suis désolé, do you have maple flavored ice cream?" Matthew asked softly. The man looked thoughtful for a moment.
"…You know what, we just might. Let me go check in the back room." The man disappeared through a door and Francis set Matthew back down on the floor. A few minutes later he came back carrying a small tub. "You're in luck! Not many people like this kind so we don't get it very often, but we just got a new tub of it!" He quickly scooped some up and handed it down to Matthew. The boy beamed at him.
"Thank you very much!" he said. The others got their ice cream and Francis paid for it, then they sat down at one of the tables in the shop. After they were finished, the family called out thank yous to the man and left for home. Alfred was bouncing up and down in the backseat of the car.
"We're finally going home, Mattie!" he whispered to his new brother. "We have a house that's all ours!" Matthew nodded, smiling back at him.
"Oui, Alfred. We're going home."
Woo, another chapter done! I'm excited about it. It's progress! I'm not sure how much longer this story will be, but I'm sure there will be at least three or four more chapters. But I am also planning out a new story that has absolutely nothing to do with this one, and I need a bit of help. I need to know what animal you guys think is most similar to each Hetalia character, because it's an important part of my next story and I only know what to do for like two of them. Mammals only, no birds, reptiles, or water-dwellers. If you guys could leave your opinion in a review, that would be great! ^^