More rambling from me. Still sick of sad, gonna-kill-myself Matthew
zZz Line Break zZz
Scotland took a long drag of his coffin nail. The meeting had final ended and, after Canada's little break down, Scotland needed a quick hit. He glanced at his nephew out of the corner of his eye. The Canuck had a special roll and was puffing back hard. His speech, which had been well prepared (at one point), was a drunken mess with random plans and plots and slurs scrawled all over it. Matthew sullenly made a large smoke ring and watched it hang in the air and slowly fade. The one time, in a long time, that the other nations were paying attention to him and his family had promptly screwed him over. Worst part was they weren't even in a vaguely similar time zone so he couldn't, at the very least, phone them up and yell at them. So instead he would simply sulk. Scotland heaved a quiet sigh and tried his best to cheer the other up.
"At least this time you didn't give yourself a concussion or make yourself yak. And when your Prime Minister asks what happened to the others you'll have proof that it was at least a provoked attack." Scotland puffed on the lit cancer stick for a bit before the Canadian even bothered to answer.
"There are plans to take over Ukraine and make her cook perogies and Easter bread for us, for the rest of forever. There's a new recipe for maple syrup infused screech written in 'Radour and N'f'land's handwriting. The world will end before those two let 'Bec near their screech, even with maple syrup. They all spent one whole page insulting each other and half the nations in the meeting room. They listed over one hundred reasons why we should invade Cuba and could only come up with two as to why we shouldn't. B.C. and 'Tario wrote a terrible poem about 4:20 tulips and congress steps. There are sketches of what I can only assume are doomsday devices and what looks like some sort of…wood…chipper slash zamboni." Matthew finished his joint and sealed the roach in the baggie he then hid deep in his briefcase.
"Was that what those pictures were?" The Scot chuckled stubbing out his smoke. "Look at it this way, now you have blackmail material over all of them."
"Pfft…like this is going to even vaguely haunt any of them. At best they'll ask if anyone taped me losing my head. At worst…they point and laugh at me. And at that moment in time I can only hope they all fall flat on their asses." Matthew made a sour face at the thought. Scotland laughed again. The Canadians were good at making him forget that he was supposed to be an old country, proud and traditional. Sort of like his brother, with maybe a slightly smaller stick up his ass.
"Let's go get something to eat, aye?" Scotland threw an arm around the younger nations shoulders and steered him towards an inviting restaurant.
zZz Line Break zZz
His nephew, as well as the other children tied to the vast, northern land, were an odd bunch, that seemed to go out of their way to make everything funny, and yet there was something else there too. Scotland watched his nephew again out of the corner of his eye. Something that Russia had said along time ago about General Winter and his way of bringing up the nation children he claimed as his. All of the Canadians had, at some point in time and usually drunk or otherwise incapacitated, mentioned the cold general in passing. The smiles and laughter and warmth he was so use to seeing on their faces disappeared for a split second, leaving only the ice and cold and terror he had always associated with the Russki. But the warmth and life always found it's way back to all of them. Maybe that was enough…
"Figure it out, eh?" Matthew took a bite of his meal and looked up at his uncle. The startled look on his face was enough to send Matthew into a giggling fit. Manly giggles mind you. "You've been staring into space for the past five minutes with the oddest look on your face. I was just wondering if you figured out what was puzzling you yet?" Scotland stared at the young man in front of him. And made a decision.
"Mata," the Canadian visibly started at the variation of his name. Scotland rarely used it in public or even when there were other nations around. It was a name meant to be used by just him, a secret name between the two of them. "How come you aren't more like Russia?" Matthew looked at the man he had always looked up to, had always admired, the one he had came to love like a father. And he smiled.
"I was wondering when someone was going to ask me that question. I'm kinda glad you're the first." Matthew used his straw to stir his drink, violet eyes unfocused and staring off into a memory. "Your wondering about General Winter aren't you?"
"Aye, that I am." Matthew smiled again, though this one was sad and tinged with regret before the ice settled once again in his eyes.
"General Winter is not an easy man to live with. He can be kind one day and terrifying the next. I had decided early on not to bother him as much as I could, but that…was a mistake." Again the boy was off into a place so far away in his memories that there was no way for Scotland to follow, no way for the Scott to help bring him home . "He was livid when he realized that I was avoiding him and he…took steps to ensure that I would never do it again. But he also taught me things, things that saved me and my people…He went out of his way to be with me and at that time that was what I needed. Without him I would have been alone for a very long time…"
"But you had the others didn't you? Your provinces and territories were there with you." Scotland was curious. Matthew was making it sound like he had been alone for a long time, but he was sure both Ontario and Quebec had been around at least since both France and England had landed. Matthew laughed, a dark, brittle sound.
"I'm older than I look uncle. None the less, I learned to…roll with the punches, so to speak. Later I learned that the best way to handle the fear and loneliness was to laugh. And when the others came I had already taken that lesson and worked to instill it in them as well. People will always use each other, will always hurt each other, there will always be bad things in the world, and if we can't learn to laugh at it, then we lose. Someday we might lose more than we can bear…" A determined look settled on the Canuck's face. "And I owe my children better than that. Besides," a warm, familiar smile, "when you get right down to it, just about everything really is very funny. Anyway you should just be glad I inherited your sense of humor."
"You have no idea how glad I am about that lad!" The Scotsman laughed, loud and hearty. His nephew was odd, of that there was no doubt, but he could take care of himself and his children and they would always be there, in the frozen north, watching the rest of the world around them, as well as themselves, laughing the entire time. Canadian humor was as vast as the land and people who lived it. And for that Scotland was glad. Canada would not be Canada without it and he rather liked Canada just the way he is. "Still do you have to have so many mimes?"
"Uncle!"
zZz Line Break zZz
Ontario fumbled around for his cell phone, which at the moment (the ungodly early moment) was ringing in his ear, and resounding in his head. Grumbling, he fumbled with the cell phone and promptly dropped it under his bed. Who the hell texts at 4 in the morning on a Tuesday anyway? Fishing it out he flipped it open. The message politely informed him that, when Matthew came home, he was going to die. Probably fairly horribly. The only thing that was consoling him was the fact that he wasn't going out alone. The other provinces and territories all got the same message, judging from the panicked texts from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and Nunavut. B.C.'s text came in and 'Tario was forced to agree with the fairly simple message. They were all royally fucked.
zZz Line Break zZz
Later, with Matthew breathing fire down their necks, they would all turn on each other with a speed that would make your head spin. None of them would see the smug smirk he tried to hid.
Like he had told his uncle, just about everything was funny. Particularly a bad game of lay the blame.
zZz Line Break zZz
That's about it for now. Thanks for reading.
JHO14 - We all know it's called B.C. Bud for a reason. :D But if B.C. is a druggie so are all the rest of them…Canada is number one for smoking pot in the world after all.
Darkfire Kitten - Hope this helped a bit. I didn't mean to hit the complete button before, but god forbid I reread something. Sorry…
Methodtothismadness - Bitching! Love, love, ski-doo tobogganing in the winter/early spring. As for the drink, I don't drink beer 'till I'm drunk. I tend to stick to vodka and rum and whiskey/rye. However I will for sure go for a drink. Lol try to stop me.
Canadian Anon - Glad I could make you laugh! I will take your props and your offered drink both and say 'Thank you very much!'