A/N: Ugh my laptop is being such a whore -_- She's lagging oh so much and her fan is a huge attention whore. It's all like, BHHFHHacknowledgeme

My beautiful readers – show your faces! I am so disappointed with the lack of reviews :( I'll be your best friend! Even if you just review anonymously or about something really irrelevant like how much you love pancake cookies made by the bears of Sealand. I am heartbroken now and I will cry myself to sleep.

Anyway...I'm going to be inside Antonio on Saturday. Last year I was right in the vital region XD This time I'm inside his trousers. Inside his tight trousers. –Drools- LOVINO IS JEALOUS

DISCLAIMER: I just checked. I am not Hidekaz Himaruya, much to my dismay. If I was, then Denmark and Norway would be in it more and they would sex each other up all night.

Chapter Three – Nameless to Everyone Else

By now, Matthew was holding onto Alfred tightly like he was too frightened to let go, sharing his story despite being certain Alfred had stopped listening the moment he first spoke.

Surprisingly enough, Alfred was listening, at least attempting to take heed in his brother's misery. It still intrigued him to see his brother, who was quite the introvert, pour out every feeling in his heart.

Although Alfred was easily bored and distracted, especially by Matthew, listening to Matthew's monologue was actually kind of...fun. Fun in an interesting way. The way Matthew told Alfred about his first memory of Gilbert made it sound like he was sharing a fable rather than a true experience.

Alfred found himself wanting Matthew to continue; he had stopped to cry some more. Every time he spoke, or tried to, his words came out as sorrowful hiccups, making what he was saying incoherent. He was merely taking a short break to calm himself down and get his voice back.

"Continue," Alfred impatiently said, his tone a sort of nervous one, hoping it wouldn't upset Matthew further. "I wanna hear what happens next."

Matthew sighed, wiped a few tears away with the sleeves of his hoodie, and looked at Alfred with a trembling lip. His woeful violet eyes were vaguely bloodshot and his glasses rested halfway down his nose, the left lens more foggy than the right one.

"Well..."

Gilbert did as he was instructed to and sat down next to Matthew on his bed. He nervously glanced at him, not knowing what to expect.

Matthew let his hands flop onto his lap and sighed.

"B-Because..." Matthew choked on the words, unable to release them properly. "Because...I guess...I've never had a friend before."

Gilbert gasped, not believing what he was hearing. Matthew didn't have friends, nor had he ever? Surely his ears were deceiving him?

"Never had a friend?" Gilbert repeated in genuine shock. "B-But you're too awesome to not have had friends!"

Matthew smiled at Gilbert's attempt at a compliment. He guessed that Gilbert was new to praising others, and the only he said something was awesome was when he was referring to either himself or something involving him.

"It's true," Matthew looked down. His voice was quiet and jittery. "I have no friends, apart from my..." Matthew stopped mid sentence, realising h was about to mention his stuffed polar bear Kumajirou. He hadn't fully known Gilbert for long and couldn't risk embarrassing himself like that. Instead, he shook his head and said, "Nevermind."

Gilbert respected Matthew enough not to ask.

"So..." Gilbert wore a very cocky grin, "I'm your first friend?"

Matthew smiled. "I guess..."

Gilbert chuckled, arrogantly smirking.

"Awesome..." Gilbert muttered. "But I don't understand. Why have you never had a friend before, Mattie?"

Matthew shrugged. Even he didn't know the exact answer to that.

"I guess it's 'cause I'm bland," Matthew sighed, playing with the annoying curl protruding off of his hair. "Really. There's nothing remarkable about me at all. I'm not a character like you are. I'm easily forgettable, yet I still get mistaken for my brother."

Gilbert cocked an eyebrow in fascination. Although he begged to differ with everything Matthew had said, he wouldn't have admitted it so soon.

"Your brother?" Gilbert asked. He had a brother? Did he know him?

"Yeah," Matthew clarified, biting his lip to stifle his tears. Stupid fucking Alfred. Alfred was the source for each and every one of the Canadian's woes. Just the thought of him either made Matthew want to cry or throw up...maybe, in some circumstances, even do both.

"Do I know him?" Gilbert questioned, trying to think of someone who at least vaguely resembled Matthew. He honestly couldn't think of anyone that he knew, and Gilbert knew basically everyone who attended his school.

"You might," Matthew cryptically answered, his tone sounded accidentally like he was teasing Gilbert. "He's pretty popular and all. He's kind of an asshole, though. I'd list all of the things wrong with him, but the last time I did, it took over three hours."

Gilbert chuckled. Judging by the tone of Matthew's voice, he wasn't kidding.

"Ah, I get it," Gilbert nodded. He felt he could relate since he had a brother himself and all, but because of their differences he was never mistaken for him and vice versa. "Who's your brother?"

"Alfred..." Matthew growled. He looked up to see Gilbert still looking at him expectedly, thus telling him Gilbert hadn't heard him. Matthew cleared his throat and tried again, trying to sound calmer this time, bottling his anger and shame up deep inside.

"Jones?" Gilbert replied quickly. Matthew nodded, blushing because of how ashamed of it he was. "Ja, I know him. You're right. He's an arrogant dick."

Matthew laughed at how ironic that was before it dawned on him that Gilbert didn't like Alfred, which relieved him slightly. Gilbert leaned in closer to Matthew and whispered, "You're way more awesome than him, by the way. I kinda wasn't expecting you to be related to that fucker because you're..."

"Quiet?" Matthew's laughter and optimism faded. "Unremarkable? Forgettable? Boring? I've heard it all before, don't worry."

"Actually..." Gilbert put his hand on Matthew's knee – the one closest to him, anyway – and giggled smugly as a blush formed on Matthew's cheeks. "I was gonna say 'really awesome'. Seriously."

Matthew smiled as butterflies fluttered around in his stomach. His blush grew and his eyes started to water. He wanted to break down into tears. Tears...of happiness.

"Wow..." Matthew breathed. Now he was the shocked one. "T-Thanks."

"You're welcome," Gilbert took his hand off of Matthew's knee and instead proceeded to wrap his arms around Matthew, pulling him into a sort of brotherly embrace. "Besides, you've always gotta have that awesome sibling. I'm that one, obviously. And so are you."

Matthew wasn't sure what made him blush more – Gilbert's words or their 'hug'. He was at a loss for words and wasn't sure about how to reply.

Gilbert separated them suddenly, shuffling back to his original space. Matthew noticed that Gilbert's posture was awkward and he had his head down, perhaps to hide his own blush?

Just then, as if on cue like this was some sort of cheesy American sitcom from the 90's, there was a knock on the door.

Gilbert cleared his throat and shouted in a husky voice, "Come in!"

The door opened to reveal a muscular blonde man in a black tank top – Matthew sort of recognised him, but presumed that he was Gilbert's father judging by his stoic posture, height and outward appearance; he looked very strong. He was almost scary. Behind him stood a shorter, much more energetic boy, who definitely wasn't related to him whatsoever.

Gilbert rested one hand on his lap, swaying it to one side as he walked over to the door. Matthew quietly giggled at how feminine he looked.

"Yes?" Gilbert's tone was rude and annoyed. Matthew guessed that he hated to be disturbed.

"Dinner's done," the blonde man, who looked like a giant compared to Gilbert, declared. He, too, sounded annoyed, but that was probably because of the boy behind him excitedly jumping up and down, exclaiming, 'Yay! Pasta! Ve~! You made pasta!'

Gilbert motioned for Matthew to stand up, which he did. Very shyly he walked over to the door. He seemed to surprise the tall German, who had not seen him in Gilbert's room. Not because he wasn't visible at all, but because the door was skewered at an angle that hid him perfectly.

"Oh," he gasped upon seeing Matthew. "H-Hallo..."

The cute little teen behind him ran up to Matthew, forcing him into a large hug. When he finally pulled away, leaving Matthew gasping for air, he greeted him in his special way: "Ciao, ciao, ciao! Ve~! I'm Feliciano, but you can call me Feli!"

Matthew gulped and awkwardly nodded as a greeting.

"H-Hi Feli," Matthew shyly said, his blush coming back. Gilbert stood beside him, still smirking like he usually did, his red eyes glaring straight into the other German's amazing, piercing baby blue ones.

"And I'm Ludwig," the German greeted, shaking Matthew's hand. His tone was softer, but his accent made him twenty percent more threatening.

Oh, that was Ludwig? He looked less scary and muscular in the Facebook pictures. He did look familiar, of course, but he was so much more intimidating in person.

"Nice to meet you," Matthew's manners returned having lost them thanks to meeting Gilbert and Feliciano. He knew Ludwig was the type to not piss off just by looking at him. "Oh, I'm Matthew, by the way."

Ludwig looked at Feliciano before looking back at Gilbert. Gilbert had not taken his gaze off of him, and his smirk hadn't dropped in the past few seconds either.

"Right, anyway, we should get downstairs before dinner gets cold."

Gilbert was the first into the dining room, with Feliciano close behind. Feliciano had run as fast as possible – like a true Italian, apparently – just to get to the pasta, but Gilbert was really fond of food. He was so fond of food that he considered eating a hobby.

"Ve~! Gil, you win!" Feliciano pouted, mocking a defeated person.

Gilbert threw both of his arms up triumphantly.

"Yay! I'm so awesome!" Gilbert yelled, his voice echoing around the room. "Get down on your knees and praise me! I am the awesome me!"

Just when Feliciano was literally going to get down on his knees, Ludwig tapped him and whispered, "Not literally."

Feliciano didn't say a word – which was abnormal for him – and took a seat. Ludwig sat next to him 'in order to keep an eye on him' (yeah right). Gilbert sat opposite Ludwig, tapping the seat beside him in order to get Matthew to sit there.

Matthew hesitantly did. Gilbert discreetly scooted his chair to be closer to Matthew. Soon they were so close that they were touching, their legs overlapping. Matthew blushed at the sudden intimate contact whilst Gilbert looked at him, his crimson eyes full of affection and his smirk full of arrogance.

Arrogant affection.

That seemed to sum up a love struck Gilbert perfectly.

But he wasn't love struck...was he? He couldn't have been.

Matthew was nothing special; even Matthew himself was aware of that.

Matthew shook his head to get rid of all the impure thought that was sure to give him a headache later. He made a mental note to take aspirin when he got home in advance.

Gilbert's mother then walked in carrying a huge pasta bowl and an even larger potato bowl. Ludwig eyed the potatoes the most, whilst Feliciano's chestnut eyes were fixated on the pasta.

Feliciano stuck his tongue out in hunger, stamping his fork on the table. Ludwig face palmed, wanting to yell at Feliciano about how impolite he was being, but his mother just smiled at how adorable he was.

She was such a pushover. She had to be. She raised Gilbert. Gilbert effing Beilschmidt, of all people.

Matthew was more used to discipline. Every time Alfred did something wrong, Arthur would punish him. By him, it often meant Matthew. Arthur still got them mixed up. Matthew was well behaved and always obeyed the rules, yet still suffered for it, which wasn't fair at all.

As their mother took her seat, the four hungry teenagers took as much pasta and potatoes as they wanted before tucking in. It was silent at first until Gilbert's mother started a conversation with all four of them. Matthew was glad that she wasn't paying any attention to him at the moment. He was so shy around eating with other people.

"So, how was school?"

Gilbert looked at the other three and nodded.

"It was pretty awesome," Gilbert replied. Did he know any other adjectives? "Not as awesome as me, but oh well."

His mother narrowed her eyes and looked more in Ludwig and Feliciano's direction. She hadn't directly asked Gilbert and there was only so much of the self proclaimed Prussian she could take.

Ludwig gave the blunt answer of 'it was fine' whereas Feliciano went into great detail about his day, including what he had for lunch. Gilbert's mother listened attentively, although Matthew and the rest had switched off shortly after Feliciano began talking. Then Feliciano praised the dinner, stating how much better it was than English food.

"I bet it'd never be as good as yours," Gilbert's mother said, slightly disappointed.

Feliciano didn't know exactly how to reply, so he just giggled and continued to eat.

Once Ludwig and Feliciano had finished – they didn't have as much dinner because apparently they'd eaten after school anyway – they excused themselves and left, taking their plates with them into the kitchen before heading upstairs to Ludwig's room, leaving Matthew with Gilbert and his mother.

"So, Matthew," Gilbert's mother began. Matthew looked up, surprised at the mention of his name. It was what he had been dreading, but nevertheless he had to answer. He was polite and knew better than to ignore people when they asked him things. "How was your day at school? You haven't said a word."

Matthew gulped and looked at Gilbert. Gilbert was looking back at him neutrally, interested in whatever Matthew had to say.

"I-It was...alright," Matthew shrugged, putting a forkful of pasta into his mouth. He swallowed before continuing, "Mundane as usual."

He saw Gilbert looking at him expectedly and immediately knew what he had to mention.

"Oh, but I met Gilbert today," Matthew added, though he hadn't planned on adding that detail. "That cheered me up, I guess."

Gilbert flashed an arrogant, wide grin at both his mother and Matthew. His mother smiled back, thinking up another question.

"How is your family?" Gilbert's mother asked, hoping she wasn't being too personal and wouldn't scare Matthew away, or at least reduce him to tears.

"They're...g-good," Matthew answered, pushing his finished plate away. "W-Well...my dad isn't really my dad, I'm adopted. B-But I have an older brother, in Gilbert's grade, I think. He's my biological brother. It's a v-very complicated story."

Gilbert's mother nodded in respect. Gilbert's smirk faded and remained in a neutral position as he slowly turned back at Matthew. He didn't know he was adopted. In fact, he was pretty surprised. He made a mental note to himself that, when the two knew each other better, he wanted to know what the complicated story was, even if it took him years.

"Ah," that was the only thing his mother could say. She looked at both Gilbert and Matthew's empty plates. "Well, seeing as you're done, you can go now. Nice meeting you, Matthew."

Matthew wasn't sure if she meant leave the house or leave the table, but either way she was saying her goodbyes. She sounded like she genuinely liked Matthew, which made him feel a lot better, too.

Gilbert and Matthew both stood up magically at the same time, pulling their chairs apart. They held their plates tight and Matthew followed Gilbert out to the kitchen.

Once they put their plates on the side, Gilbert turned to Matthew.

"So, whatcha wanna do now?" Gilbert asked, hoping Matthew wanted to stay with him longer. That would, of course, only inflate his ego further and, if that were to happen, then the whole world would probably implode on itself.

"I didn't tell my dad where I am," Matthew sighed. "So, I think I should get going."

Gilbert's ego deflated just like a balloon thanks to that. His smirk dropped once again into a sad half-smile.

"O-Oh...okay," Gilbert sighed. "I'll give you a ride."

Matthew smiled warmly.

"Thanks," Matthew blushed. "And this time, maybe I should tell you where I live."

The two shared an awkward silence in the car at first, before Gilbert remembered what Matthew had said about being adopted.

"So...you're adopted, huh?" Gilbert knew it wasn't an ideal conversation starter, but it seemed to work for him. He didn't see anything insensitive about it all.

Matthew had his head pressed to the window, his hand tightly clasped around the car handle.

"Y-Yeah," Matthew bit his lip, his eyes darting straight down onto his lap again.

"Oh," Gilbert mumbled. "Yeah, when you told me your brother was Alfred, I was a little confused because he's American and you're Canadian. How does that work out?"

Matthew closed his eyes as painful memories came back to him. Memories of his mother, memories of...his happy times, where everyone knew him. Nobody asked him who he was because there was no need to.

"Like I said, a very complicated story," Matthew repeated, his voice cracking. Gilbert managed to read the atmosphere unlike Matthew's brother and respected him. He was about to apologise before he realised he had reached his destination.

Matthew opened his door hastily, before Gilbert pulled him back down. Matthew furrowed his eyebrows when he saw that Gilbert's door, too, was open. He was just about to get out, too.

"G-Gilbert, what are you...?" Matthew didn't know exactly what the question was that he wanted to ask, but he knew that he was getting his point across, even to a semi-idiot like Gilbert.

"I'm walking you to the door," Gilbert replied like it was the most normal, straightest thing in the world. "I don't care if you protest. I'm doing it."

Matthew was about to ask why until he saw Gilbert was already out and standing outside the car. Matthew shook his head and got out himself, slamming the door behind him on accident.

"Careful," Gilbert warned, wearing a serious face. "That car's new, and I don't think the actual owner will like it if you damage it."

Matthew laughed at the joke, surprised that Gilbert even remembered his shock at thinking the car had been stolen. Gilbert somehow seemed like he was the forgetful type.

But if he remembered Matthew with no problem then maybe he wasn't the forgetful type. Gah, all this thinking made Matthew's head hurt.

Once Gilbert and Matthew reached the front door, turning the light on automatically, Gilbert rang the doorbell just when Matthew was about to.

"I can't believe I don't have my keys," Matthew whispered to himself, hoping Gilbert wouldn't hear him. Luckily for him, he didn't. "This happens every fucking day..."

"You say something?"

"Huh? Oh, no. Not at all. Don't worry."

Just then, the door opened to reveal a very tired looking Arthur with a towel around his waist and one on his head.

Arthur rubbed one eye to indicate how sleepy he was. A slight blush was on his cheeks upon realising there were two strange teenage boys at the door and he was half naked. One swipe of the towel and he'd be fully exposed.

"Um...hello?" Arthur was very apprehensive. Who were these two?

He only vaguely remembered one of them. The red eyes seemed to ring a bell. But the pair of violet ones beside him? Nope, he didn't recognise them.

"I bought your kid home," Gilbert's voice was more husky and rude than it usually was. He obviously didn't respect his elders, although Arthur could pass for under thirty years old. "Be grateful."

Matthew closed his eyes tightly and blushed hard. How could Gilbert be so damn careless like that?

Arthur raised an eyebrow. His kid?

"Um, you're mistaken, sir," Arthur replied in an equally as rude tone. If Gilbert wasn't going to be polite to him, why the hell should he be polite to him? "My kid is in his bedroom probably not doing his homework. This must be a joke."

Arthur was about to close the door but luckily Gilbert managed to keep it open.

Gilbert gave a 'you're kidding me' look to Matthew, who just sighed sadly. He put his arms on Matthew's shoulders and pushed him forward, startling Matthew a little.

"Your other kid, idiot," Gilbert growled. "Matthew. You know. The awesome one."

It took a while for Arthur to remember.

"Oh! Matthew!" Arthur's tone suddenly became affectionate in five seconds flat. "I'm so glad you're home! Come inside."

Matthew waved to Gilbert as he walked down the driveway and back to his car. All the way back, he was mumbling to himself about how 'fucking unbelievable Mattie's vati was'.

Matthew shut the door behind him as he wiped his feet on the mat, despite them not being wet or dirty at all. Arthur didn't say any further words to the Canadian and instead went back into the living room to do God knows what.

Matthew went straight upstairs into his room to reflect on what just happened.

Surely it was all a dream? Matthew pinched himself hard. It most certainly was not a dream. He really had just made a friend. Matthew smiled to himself proudly. He was so tempted to tuck himself into bed and just sleep to make the next day come faster, so he could see Gilbert again.

To him, Gilbert really was the definition of awesome.

A/N: Please review~ It makes me feel loved.

Sorry for any sloppy grammar mistakes and my bad English. I'm from England, you see. We don't speak English here. Sorry.