A/N: Um so I go back home tomorrow which is sad because it's so warm here and my town has been affected by floods -_-

I was meant to update my stories over the course of the two weeks that I was here but I kinda got carried away with not going outside and doing basically what I do at home – derp around on my laptop. Apologies for that.

To answer a question: Prussia dies because he got too awesome. Okay, not really. I'm not sure yet, but it's most likely a terminal illness. It has to be something someone could suffer from without them knowing for a while and then be diagnosed with when it's too late and they just have months to live – Prussia knows he's going to die upon learning, basically. I'm thinking cancer but I know that's a sensitive subject and I'm scared I'll do it wrong. T_T

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Hetalia because I'm not genius like that. If I did however own Hetalia then Germany and Italy would skip through fields of pasta like real men do

Anyway, without further ado...

Chapter Four – It Could be Alright

Alfred soon decided he had things to do.

Other things. Things more important than his little brother's feelings.

It certainly wasn't homework, it certainly wasn't chores and it most definitely wasn't something else related to education.

Matthew's eyes felt like they had ran out of tears and he could cry no more, instead all he could do was gasp and whimper like a little puppy desperate for its owner.

That's what Matthew was.

Desperate for his owner.

Desperate for Gilbert.

Matthew walked through the halls, feeling a little bit more upbeat than he usually was. He was still pushed around a little but for some reason he didn't seem to care anymore. He was happy for once and that's all that mattered to him.

He finally reached his locker, put in the right combination, opened it and took out all the books out he would need for his first few lessons. As he did, he found himself humming happy tunes. Usually he would open his locker door silently, feeling a bit groggy, tired and depressed. But today...today was different.

Matthew felt like an entirely new person. He didn't feel like the unremarkable teenager everyone seemed to forget or never notice. He felt strangely...high. Intoxicated on happiness. Matthew had tried drugs before as an attempt to fit in (which, of course, failed miserably, although he was recognised for a few hours afterwards) but he had never felt as good and as high as he was feeling that day.

He never knew that one person could do such a thing, probably because he had never experienced it before. So maybe there were people out there willing to change people's lives around, even if it made them look like a total idiot.

As Matthew closed the locker door, suddenly something bubbled inside of him.

He's probably forgotten me.

There was a chance Gilbert had forgotten all about poor Matthew's very existence. Matthew sighed, his happiness vanishing in the blink of an eye only to be replaced by melancholy. He was back to square one; it was like he was walking in circles. People would know him for a day then forget who he was the next. It'd always been like that.

Well, except for when he lived in Canada.

"Hey, Mattie!"

Matthew let out an extremely loud gasp beyond his control and his books flew out of his hands out the floor. He felt embarrassed for a second as he looked around to see if anyone had seen – nope, of course not. Surely he knew that by now?

Matthew bent down to pick up all the books he had dropped, an angry blush forming on his face. He had to go through this almost every day. The worst case scenario was that someone else had his name – after all, it is a very common name – and was calling them instead. The best case scenario was that someone had noticed him. The even better case scenario was if it was Gilbert who had called him.

He stood back up, his composure strangely renewed, forming a calm and collected new Mattie. He looked around to see if he could put a voice to the face and, sure enough, Gilbert was right beside him, along with a girl Matthew had seen before but didn't know too well.

"G-Gilbert!" Matthew stuttered, overwhelmed by the sudden acknowledgment. His blush returned, making him feel extremely stupid. He closed an eye in embarrassment. "Y-You remember me!"

Gilbert stood there, arms folded across his chest, smirking like he always did.

"What? You think I've forgotten all about you, Birdie?" Gilbert asked, pouting his lips so that his voice came out teasingly and somewhat cutely.

Matthew cringed outwardly at the pet name but inwardly he was laughing at it. Giggling, in fact, like a love struck schoolgirl.

"Birdie?" Matthew asked, slightly smiling. "What the...?"

Suddenly, the girl butted in with, "He's got an obsession with birds. It's kind of creepy, if you ask me."

Gilbert looked very hurt and offended over his obsession being pointed out like that. Wait a minute...that's right, she had a little obsession of her own he could use as blackmail...

"Hey! At least I don't get horny over two guys having buttsex with each other!"

Okay, now Gilbert was asking for it. The girl growled and started to play fight with him, something Gilbert was more than happy to do. Matthew just watched awkwardly, wondering why on earth they were friends. Opposites attract, he supposed.

Just like him and Gilbert. Gilbert was pretty much a bad influence on Matthew but for some strange reason Matthew just didn't seem to care. As long as he had a friend who cared for him enough to never forget him, then he was alright with having a bit of an infamously arrogant rebel have a bad influence on him.

The two stopped fighting all of a sudden upon remembering that Matthew was there and watching them with bemusement. They both rubbed their necks awkwardly whilst glaring at each other coldly. Matthew could feel an intimidating aura surround both of them, almost scaring him to death.

He started to sweat a little and he pulled at the strings on his favourite hoodie. The girl then walked over to him, gave him a big hug (not even caring that Matthew didn't hug back and stood there, stiff) and a quick little kiss on the cheek.

"I'm going to my other friends now," she said specifically to Matthew, although she was aiming it at Gilbert too. "So...seeya, Mattie!" She walked off, looking behind her and waving, a slight skip in her walk.

Matthew's body felt so weird after that. A girl knew his name yet he didn't even know hers. It was so awkward for him he could barely meet his violet eyes with Gilbert's crazy coloured ones, which he knew were looking at him.

"W-Who was that?" Matthew asked, his voice coming out as a soft little whisper. Noticing he sounded a bit rude, he continued, "I m-mean, I've seen her around school before, I just don't know her n-"

"Elizabeta," Gilbert interrupted, lifting Matthew's chin up. Matthew gulped, thinking Gilbert wanted to kiss him or something. When Gilbert moved his hand away, Matthew felt slightly relieved yet at the same time kind of wanted to be touched again. He had a soft but tantalizing touch Matthew wasn't used to. For a split second, he wanted Gilbert's hand to run down all of his body...

No.

For a split second, he wanted Gilbert to kiss him.

No.

What the hell was wrong with Matthew? Now that he thought about it, he'd never really been attracted to girls but he'd never been attracted to boys, either. He thought of himself as asexual or just had a thought that love was just a waste of time and unnecessary heartbreak he didn't want. But Gilbert...

Gilbert was different.

Matthew gulped, blushing at the impure thoughts slithering around in his head. They just wouldn't leave him. The only way he could have gotten rid of them was to be professionally purged but the hormones taking over Matthew's body were too strong and powerful to be purified.

When Matthew allowed for his gaze to meet Gilbert's, he only blushed harder. Gilbert had been staring at him as Matthew shook his head as his attempt to block all the thoughts of him with Gilbert. He had admittedly been a bit confused as to what was going on but didn't bother to ask Matthew about it. He didn't want to lose Matthew before he'd even got him.

"You okay?" Gilbert eased out, hoping Matthew was alright. That was the most sensitive way of approaching it...

"I'm f-fine," Matthew covered his face with his hand, smiling shyly to himself. Gilbert wanted to comment on how adorable he looked but just couldn't find the right words. If Matthew had been a girl, it would probably have been a lot easier.

"Um, good," Gilbert bit his lip over how stupid he sounded. As a whole load of topics and enquiries circulated around his head that he could use to help change the subject, he smirked at Matthew to make it look like he was alright. He wasn't sure if he was or not. Suddenly, for some reason he could not fathom, Gilbert let out, "Hey, d'ya like birds?"

Matthew stopped covering his face and looked up at Gilbert with a 'are you serious?' type of face. He probably didn't realise what he looked like, though, because he looked pretty rude. Gilbert was laughing somewhat nervously to himself, knowing he'd asked a stupid question.

"Um...I guess I do?" Matthew replied, although he didn't know what his actual answer. "Some of them are really cute but others are just annoying."

Gilbert's smirk dropped a bit at the last few words of that sentence. Matthew was wrong – all birds are cute; they're not annoying! For some reason, although Gilbert wanted to yell at Matthew, he refrained from doing so. He obviously wasn't a bird lover.

There is an obvious joke to that, so take it both ways.

"I have a bird," Gilbert proclaimed although it was totally irrelevant and Matthew didn't ask. "His name is Gilbird, after the awesome me, of course. He's normally in my room but yesterday I let him fly around the house for a bit."

Matthew did recall seeing a little bird in the kitchen but didn't speak to Gilbert about it, thinking it was only a house pet, which was correct.

"Oh..." Matthew couldn't say anymore. He glanced at his watch – five more minutes until class time. "Um, so you like chicks and birds and stuff?"

"Yeah," Gilbert answered, drawing out the word for no apparent reason. Probably to make his sentence sound longer and therefore making him sound smarter; Alfred did that a lot and people fell for it because they're probably dumbasses. "They're the only type of chick I like."

Fuck.

Gilbert's eyes widened at what he just said. Did he just...?

Matthew blushed, suddenly realising what Gilbert meant. For some reason, it didn't make him feel awkward or embarrassed (okay, well, maybe a little bit). Instead, it made him feel relieved and kind of happy.

"Um, ignore that," Matthew couldn't help but notice how Gilbert had a slight blush on his cheeks, a rare sight he never thought he'd see. "So, um, you wanna sit with me at lunch?"

Matthew bit his lip to stifle the giggles over Gilbert's blunder.

"S-Sure," Matthew nodded his head.

Gilbert nodded his head as well as a sort of 'yay!' way, before asking, "Okay, so where should we meet?"

"Um, outside the doors of the lunch hall?" Matthew replied. "O-Or you could meet me outside of my class right before lunch, if you want."

Gilbert nodded again. "What class you got?"

"Art," Matthew responded cryptically before remembering he needed to be more specific. "In room 14."

"Ah, okay," Gilbert somewhat smiled, his arms across his chest again. "I'll meet you there, then."

"Okay," Matthew didn't know what else to say without sounding like an idiot. With perfect timing, the bell rang for first period and they both exchanged their goodbyes, walking away in different directions.

A/N: I'm going to cut it short here because my hands ache and it's still pretty long anyway. Usually the other chapters are 3,000 words long but today I can only manage roughly 2,000 :( Sorry about that~

Is my bird joke too English? Do Americans/Canadians/Anyone of another descent/Narnians call girls 'birds'? -Is culturally unaware-

Um so next chapter we, uh, see Matthew make more friends and stuff. GOD DAMMIT TIAAH WHEN WILL WE GET TO THE GOOD STUFF?

Ahem. Anyway, thanks for your lovely reviews so far, I look forward to more, da? ^-^ Hasta la Pasta~!