After saying goodbye to Ivan Matilda heads home. She was determined to check up on the other Soviet nations and make sure they were doing well. Grabbing a basket she fills it with bottles of maple syrup and heads out for a short tour of Europe. She stops at the homes of each of the former Soviet nations and delivers to each a bottle of maple syrup explaining to each how eating it will bring one happiness. She reaches Germany's door on the afternoon of April 1st, even though she doesn't fully realize this having lost track of time on her travels. Knocking on the door she smiles and prepares herself to ask for Prussia and is happy to see he answers the door.
Prussia looks surprised to see her but smiles.
"Hey, Canada what brings you here?"
Matilda smiles and pulls out the last bottle of maple syrup. "I came to give you some maple syrup." She holds the bottle up with a smile. "It brings happiness to those that eat it."
Prussia gives her a skeptical look. China had been by earlier and tricked him into buying a couple of pandas and even if she was cute he wasn't sure if his brother would appreciate him blowing more money on something useless. "How much is it going to cost me?"
Matilda blinks at Prussia in confusion. "Cost you? It won't cost you anything, its a gift. I've been giving them to everyone." She tilts her head to the side causing Prussia to blush slightly at how cute she is.
"Uh well, if that's the case." He reaches out to take the bottle from her. "Uh thanks." He hurriedly closes the door and leans against the inside as Matilda stands outside confused by his behavior. Shrugging it off she heads home, her errand completed.
Prussia remained propped against the inside of the door to the house for a few more minutes before taking a look at the bottle in his hand. The amber liquid was thick and clung to the insides of the bottle. Prussia unscrewed the cap and sniffed at the contents. They were sweet and had a woodsy smell to them. He paused in what he was doing as the smell brought to mind the two people that constantly seemed to invade his thoughts: Canada and Matthew Williams. Shrugging he takes a quick sip of the liquid and his eyes widen. It was really good. It wasn't long before he had finished off the bottle.
When Matilda got home she let herself relax. Removing her coat and hanging it on her coat rack by the front door before calling out for Kumajirou. The bear came running to her and looked up at her curiously.
"Who are you?"
Matilda sighs. "I'm Matilda, you know Canada, the one that takes care of you." She was getting a bit annoyed with how her bear always seemed to forget her. He had been doing so since she had first gone to live with England and decided to live as a girl. The only times he seemed to recognize her were when she dressed as Matthew. it was rather frustrating, why did the bear have to care if she was a boy or a girl, she certainly didn't.
"Oh. Hungry."
With another sigh Matilda makes her way to he kitchen to prepare dinner for the two of them.
It was after dinner while Kumajirou and Matilda were settled down on the couch that something interrupted their normal routine. A loud pounding on the front door had Matilda nearly falling off the couch and onto the floor in surprise. Still startled she turns around and looks over the back of the couch toward her front door. The pounding has continued and is now mixed with insistent calls of 'Canada! Hey, Canada!' Slowly Matilda stood up and made her way to the front door. She pauses in front of it for a moment before hesitantly reaching out and opening it. She nearly gets a face full of fist as the man pounding on her door almost doesn't seem to notice her opening it. He stops though and just stares at her for a moment.
"Prussia?"
The albino looks at her quizzically for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, that's me. Hey I know this may sound awkward but you got anymore of that awesome syrup?"
Matilda blinked and almost closed the door on the man. His honest face the only thing preventing it. That and Matilda had to admit he looked rather cute trying to ask for something so silly so nonchalantly.
"Of course. Um, come on in and I'll get some for you." She bites her lip in nervousness before leading the Prussian to her kitchen and getting into her cupboards for the syrup. "I'm kinda curious though. How did you go through all of that in such a short time?" She walks over to him with the bottle, handing it to him.
"Er well, once I started drinking it, it just kinda went..." Prussia let himself trail off at the dumbfounded and shocked expression on Matilda's face.
"You drank it?"
"Yeah... Wasn't that what I was supposed to do?"
"Well you can I suppose but, straight? Mon dieu. You could have mixed it with something or poured it over pancakes. Honestly."
Prussia just watched the Canadian as she tried to explain the proper use of maple syrup to him.
"Pour it over pancakes?" He made a face at that that caused Matilda to step back in disbelief. "Have you ever had West's pancakes. They're horrible. Barely even edible." Prussia would have gone on but Matilda was already forcing him into a seat at the table.
"Sit." She then went over to the stove and grabbed a pan before getting her ready-made mix, which she made herself, eggs and milk to start making pancakes. "I will show you the wonder that is pancakes properly. As for Germany's pancakes... If they are as horrible as you say I'll make you up some instant mix, all you have to do then is follow the directions and you can have these whenever you want."
Prussia sat at the table watching the blur of motion that was Matilda in the kitchen. She moved with such precision and grace. The Prussian couldn't tear his eyes off of her until she had turned to him and set a stack of fluffy pancakes in front of him. Then she took the bottle from his hands and poured a generous amount over the cakes before setting it down and placing a fork beside the plate. Then she went across the table and repeated the process on a second stack.
Prussia picks up the fork and looks warily at the fluffiness in front of him before tentatively cutting out a bite and raising it to his mouth. He slowly puts it into his mouth and his eyes widen as the flavors hit his tongue.
"Mein Gott!" The rest of the pancakes vanish rather quickly after that.
When he was done and his plate was cleared Prussia went back to watching Matilda. She could feel him watching her and it made her a bit nervous. Setting the dishes into the sink she turns around.
"So uh, would you like me to put together some of the pancake mix for you?"
"That was from a box?" Disbelief colors Prussia's question and he stares ate her even more.
"Uh, well no, not exactly I guess. Once a month I mix up all the dry ingredients for pancakes so it saves me time when I want some."
Realization blossoms across Prussia's face when he hears this. "Awesome! Sure I'll take some if you're offering."
Smiling Matilda pulls out a tub and lid and then pulls down the container with her pancake mix. Using the cup measure she used earlier to measure it out she scoops some into the tub and then secures the lid. "There, that should be enough. Oh I almost forgot the directions." Hurrying over to the fridge Matilda grabs a pad of the front, held there by magnets, and quickly writes down the directions for making pancakes. Taking some tape, she then tapes it to the lid of the tub and hands the package to Prussia. "There you go."
Prussia takes the tub and looks over the directions. "Thanks."
As he is looking over the directions for the pancake mix Matilda studies him. He really had fared better than the others in the Soviet Union and now she had a chance to ask why.
"Prussia?"
He looks up at her curiously. "Ja."
"Um, while you were living with Russia... How did you..." She bites her lip, worrying it between her teeth.
"Are you asking about why I'm better off mentally than the others?"
Sheepishly, she nods.
Prussia runs a hand through his white locks with a sigh. "Don't worry I get that question a lot. And to be honest I think you're the only person I'm up for telling the answer to."
"O oh?"
"Yeah. You remember how after the war I asked you to look up one of your soldier and tell him I still remember him."
"Yes."
"I tried being like he was. He never let the conditions of his situation get him down. Hell he even rallied the others into rising up and fighting us." Gilbert lets out a small chuckle at the memory. "I guess I kind of tried to mimic him as best I could. Thinking about him and keeping my head up were the two things that got me through all of that. I know it may sound strange but that's how it was."
Matilda swallowed thickly. He had remembered. He had remembered her male self after all these years and it helped him get through one of the worst times of his life. She felt a hollowness begin to grow in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to tell him, but she was still too scared. What if she told him and he told the others? What if she lost everything and was once again ignored? She fought back the urge to say anything to him.
"Hey, did you ever find him after the war and let him know I didn't forget him?"
She opened her mouth expecting to have gone mute from the confusion and fear inside of her but instead out came, "Yes, he was surprised to hear about you. He hoped you got off easy in the trials since you weren't really a bad person."
"Yeah well back in the day prisoners of war were actually treated like people so I guess I tried to maintain that at the camp. Still things could have been better. Did he ever get married or have kids? Is he even still alive?"
Matilda was shocked by his questions. Why was he so interested in someone he thought was human. "No, he never married or had kids." She looked at him as she paused before answering him about whether Matthew was still alive. She didn't know herself. She had created him for war but there had not been war in so long and the future didn't look like there would be a war anytime soon. Biting her lip she saw how eager Prussia was to learn the fate of Matthew and that gnawing feeling in the hollowness of her gut grew. "No, he died a few years ago. I'm sorry."
Prussia seemed to fall a bit hearing that but smiled up at her sadly. "That's to be expected." Slowly he stood. "I should probably be getting home before West sends out a search party for me. See ya round Canada."
She showed him to the door and watched as he got into a rental car and drove off. She felt horrible for telling him what she had but it was sort of the truth. Matthew was dead. The way things were now and how they looked to be going she would not have need of him ever again. If that was the case then he truly was dead. Closing the door she thought of his face as she told him this and how it had fallen slightly when he learned Matthew was dead. Her heart ached at the thought. Prussia couldn't have been in love with Matthew right. She remembered Arthur's stern warning about falling in love with humans. How it only led to misery. Prussia had only known Matthew for that time in the prison camp and after that he had survived Russia while thinking of him. He must have idealized Matthew as a figure of hope to survive that. It only made sense that he would fall in love with that idealized version. It still caused Matilda's heart to ache.
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Woo, so I hope you enjoy this. I've been getting some wonderful reviews so please keep those coming. Thank you.