The three of them continued to follow the whale for another couple of hours. Both Hong Kong and Finland were beginning to think they might need to give up chasing after what appeared to be a random whale. But when any such suggestion was attempted to be gingerly brought up to the Canadian, Matthew would shoot them a look that neither was very comfortable with seeing on the usually friendly personification.
They were reaching the end of their patience though, and Finland was about to try again in suggesting that they follow a different tactic so that they didn't get lost too, when Hong Kong spotted something off in the distance. Matthew had nearly knocked the Asian man over in his haste to get to the binoculars, the apology quickly said anyway but nearly inaudible as the Canadian hadn't lingered long enough. But Hong Kong was used to the flighty nature of the Canadian, having spent some time with him when he'd been growing up in Arthur's household, although this was on a level that even Finland was getting dizzy watching.
"Maple! It's them! It's them!" Matthew said from where he stood at the very edge of the front of the boat. "It's really them! Oh, maple…the boat's completely a mess. How on earth did they keep afloat? Oh, we have to go faster!" He rambled, Tino hurrying to acquiesce and adjusting the controls to push the speed of the boat.
Soon, they had pulled up alongside the boat, the whale giving out another whistle that asked for praise for his work. "Oh, good job! Thank you so much, eh…" Matthew said to the whale as he hurried to jump on the deck of the damaged boat, tying off the end of a rope to the side of the boat to keep the two ships floating together.
"I can't believe that actually worked." Tino said in disbelief to the Asian man standing next to him, shooting him a quick look of bewilderment before following after the Canadian of the group. Matthew had already taken off at this point though, climbing up to the ladder to the steering wheel area.
Spying Francis asleep sitting up, the two Italians also asleep on the floor, Matthew felt a smile break out onto his face that he couldn't control. He rushed over to his big brother, avoiding tripping over the two Italians, and engulfed the European in a tight hug.
Francis let out a grunt at the impact and being awoken so abruptly, Matthew pulling away to look over the Frenchman. Francis looked ready to start complaining, not completely awake at the moment. "Alfred, what are you doing moving around with your injury…non…Mathieu?" Francis said, doing a double take at noticing the distinctive curl. "Mathieu?" He asked again, reaching out for the younger man.
"Oui. Il est moi, Mathieu." Matthew replied, smiling and giving a laugh that sounded like he was trying to hold back the tears. Francis gave a similar laugh, pulling Matthew to him for another hug, the two holding tightly to one another as the Frenchman latched onto the Canadian like a lifeline. "Are you alright?" Matthew asked, still hugging the older man.
"Oui. I'll be fine as soon as I get some food and water in me." Francis said, letting Matthew go and wiping away a stray tear that he'd been unable to stop slipping out. "We 'ad better go get the others." He said, Matthew nodding as the two of them shook the two Italians awake.
"Ugh…go away hamburger-bastard. Why are you up? Just to annoy us?" Romano griped as he was woken up, mistaking Matthew for Alfred.
"I'm Canada." He said, a little louder than he usually did when trying to correct someone's mistake thanks to his urgency. But it apparently got through to the southern Italian, Romano shooting upright fast enough that he knocked his head on the bottom of the control panel. Matthew winced at that as Romano held onto his head and cursed, his loud cussing enough to wake Feliciano who was far more pleasant.
"Oh, Alfredo…" Feliciano began, Francis whispering in his ear that help had arrived and that this man was Canada, prompting the northern Italian to open his eyes comically wide. "Ah! Help! Finally! Oh, Grazie, grazie…" He said, launching himself at the Canadian, Matthew too polite to push him off despite the other's clinginess. "Where's Germany?" Feliciano asked, letting go and looking over the Canadian's shoulder as though expecting his friend to materialize in front of him.
"Germany is in another search boat. Hong Kong is radioing him right now and he should be here soon. Don't worry aboot it, eh" Matthew said with a kind smile, Feliciano pulling Romano into a tight hug in his glee. "But…where's Alfred?" Matthew said, asking the question that he'd been itching to ask as soon as Francis was awake.
"He's been babysat by Angleterre down in the bedroom. Both of them fainted yesterday and had to be carried into the room. Your poor twin…." Francis was saying, shaking his head as he thought about the early morning fiasco. "He's not well, mon cher. I think he's gone too long without eating his usual meals and the blood loss from where the shark got him has been making things more difficult." He said, Matthew's face taking on an expression of worry as he hurried down into the cabin.
He spotted Yao and Kiku slowly moving around on deck as Hong Kong raced over to them, quickly swinging Kiku's free arm around his shoulders to help support the injured man back to the other ship. He looked around for Tino, not seeing him out on either ship's deck and figuring he'd already gone into the cabin himself. He was about to follow when the two Italians climbed down the ladder as well, followed by Francis. The Canadian hurriedly rushed through making sure that neither of them needed immediate care before he took off in search of his twin. Sure enough, he found Tino in the bedroom, leaning over the two blondes who were asleep on the bed.
"Mr. Britain….Mr. Britain….Arthur, you need to wake up…." Tino murmured in a voice just above a whisper as he tried to gently rouse the British man. Seeing Matthew enter the room, the Finnish man shifted to make room so that he could look over the two men. "Mr. Britain…." Tino continued, Arthur only twitching a little before sighing in his sleep and nuzzling closer to Alfred.
"Is…Is…." Matthew asked, afraid to ask about his brother's injury and unable to look himself. As it was, the two men on the bed were too close for either to tell right away since the blanket had also been drawn up over Alfred at some point by Arthur. Tino shared a sympathetic look with Matthew before nudging Arthur again enough so that Matthew could slide the blanket down somewhat.
"There's one…" Matthew mumbled as he could make out under the blanket Alfred's left arm, seeing it uninjured. "But, the other…" He said, looking fearfully up at Tino before seizing the opportunity of Arthur's shifting around some more to yank the blanket off his twin. "Oh thank maple…" The Canadian breathed out as he saw his brother still had two arms, although the angry red mark on his right arm didn't look too good.
"Come on Mr. Britain, you need to wake up. Please Arthur…" Tino said, returning to his previous task once he too breathed out a sigh of relief at finding the American intact. Arthur made a few noises of protest before he lazily opened his eyes, looking up at the two men curiously before gasping and attempting to immediately sit up. But Tino kept him from doing so, although he wasn't quick enough to prevent any quick movement from Arthur that resulted in the British man wincing at the pain in his head.
"Tino? Matthew?" Arthur asked as he was aided in slowly sitting up, one hand holding his head and looking at the two of them like he wasn't sure he hadn't just imagined them both.
"It's us Arthur. Boy, are we glad to see you're all here." Tino said with a smile as the British man finally realized belatedly that help had come. Arthur smiled back in return, giving a short chuckle as he reached out for Matthew, the Canadian obliging him like he had Francis and pulling the British man into a hug. Although the British man's hugs were not as frequent as Francis', Matthew felt how relieved and happy Arthur was to see him as he gave him a shorter version of the embrace the Frenchman had given him.
"It's good to see you lad. You too Tino. Not a moment too soon." Arthur said, wordlessly motioning for Matthew to give him room to stand up on his own. The Canadian let him do so, hovering nearby as he carefully watched his older brother's movements. "I'm afraid once Alfred fell asleep, none of the usual tricks I've had success with was able to wake him." He said to the northern North American twin.
Matthew nodded grimly as he recognized what had happened. It would be worrisome for a while, but he knew how to remedy that problem. He looked over to Alfred, clear longing in his eyes to look him over as Tino had already begun to do, but he stuck by Arthur's side to walk with him back to their ship.
"Lad, I can walk just fine. I have been since the bloody 'hero' in there pulled us onto this floating wreck." Arthur said as he protested the need to be assisted out. But Matthew shot a disbelieving look to his older brother that was obvious in its message that Arthur was going to be helped whether he liked it or not.
"Seriously Matthew, Tino's going to need your help in carrying out your twin. He isn't exactly a little thing anymore…" Arthur was saying, but the boat being jostled by something interrupted them and caused the British man to abruptly look about. The sudden head turn was too much though, and Matthew hastily supported the sagging British man while Arthur cursed up a storm that might've been equal to the one that had put them all in that mess.
"I guess that would be Germany and his team." Matthew said as he let Arthur sit for a moment to take a breath before they climbed out on deck. "He did say he'd follow after us as soon as he got our message. I mean, he said he was closest to us, but how could he have gotten here so quickly?" Matthew said, not sure how that physically was possible.
"Is Prussia on board?" Arthur asked tiredly, Matthew replying with a confused nod. "There's your answer. Not much of what he does seems to make much sense. I often wonder who is worse, him or your twin." Arthur said, the two of them hearing the familiar shout of Feliciano at that point as the northern Italian cried out for his friend.
They then heard rapid footsteps above them that signaled Feliciano had jumped off Matthew's boat to race across the deck of Alfred's to get to Ludwig's. It was followed by a large splash, Arthur sighing as he and Matthew realized that the hyper Italian had just flung himself overboard, possibly taking Ludwig into the ocean with him. That question was quickly answered when Ludwig's shouts to Feliciano to be more careful came more from the side of the boat than above them, Matthew unable to keep from snickering at that despite his worry for Arthur and Alfred.
"I suppose at some point we should get up there." Arthur said, Matthew pulling him to his feet and once more hovering beside him as they climbed out on deck. Off to the side of Alfred's deck sat a soaking wet Feliciano and an equally drenched Ludwig, the Italian with a death grip on the German man as he gushed about his rescuer saving him yet again.
Gilbert laughed from where he stood on the deck of their boat, Roderich off to the side while Elizabeta snapped pictures to document the friends' reunion with a fond smile on her face at Feliciano's antics. Ludwig was shaking his head and awkwardly patting the Italian's back as he did his best to not seem just as pleased at having his friend back safe. Eventually, the German had enough of just sitting on the deck, standing up and walking back to his boat without effort, likely having had Feliciano stuck to him like Australia's koala many times before and so had gotten used to carrying him.
"Australia has one ship out with a couple of others in it, and Spain does too. I'm not so sure if either of them are still close by. Australia didn't seem to pick up your transmission, so I'm guessing he went off in a different direction and probably will meet up with us back on land." Matthew explained as he and Arthur headed over to his boat. "Um…Romano, will you go with Feliciano? I'm sorry, I just…I'm not sure there's enough room for everyone to be properly treated on this boat and…well…" Matthew trailed off, Romano rolling his eyes in response.
"Damn potato-bastard will ignore me anyway with Feli acting like a big baby." He said, climbing back onto Alfred's deck to head over Ludwig's boat, grumbling and cursing the entire time as he stepped onto their boat. They could all see him level a glare at the German man before going over to sit by where Roderich had distanced himself from the others, probably more to avoid Gilbert than anything.
"Perhaps I should go with them too…" Arthur suggested to Matthew as they stood next to his boat, the Canadian instantly looking to ague. "I don't want to, believe me…but with Alfred unresponsive, you'll need to be able to focus on him." He said, Matthew shaking his head.
"Antonio's probably on his way. We'll have to be gentle with moving Alfred anyway." Matthew countered, Arthur taking a deep breath but not arguing further, stepping onto the boat to grasp Francis' offered hand. Once on deck, he tore his hand away from the Frenchman with more vigor than necessary, Francis chuckling as they returned to their normal routine now that they weren't wrapped up in just surviving. Seeing that Arthur was going to be looked after until he got back, Francis sending him a look to encourage him to go back to his twin, Matthew hurried back to Tino and Alfred.