Francis had kept his mouth shut after that. Despite Matthew asking and pleading with him, Francis refused to divulge the information his little brother was so desperate for that night.
"I've been held hostage for the past half a day." He reasoned with the smaller boy next to him. "I've had my life threatened several times tonight, once I thought I was a goner for sure! Have a little sympathy for someone in my situation!"
Matthew, of course, held no sympathy for him. "Your husband tackled Germany with a bad arm. Alfred got shot in the leg. And you're the one who had the toughest time." The Canadian mumbled under his breath. He picked up his pace and trudged along the sidewalk, heading home.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Francis asked, a little incensed. Both of them remained silent for the rest of their walk.
Yao, to everyone's surprise, stayed the night at the Bonnefoy household. Gupta had left after dropping Arthur off and Diego had gone straight to his own house after the fight - while he was an Ally, he wasn't particularly close with any of the other members, save Matthew. It could be argued, of course, that Matthew was the only reason he was in the gang after all. Diego, though they didn't talk a lot, was actually a close friend of Matthew's, and one of the few that he had. The instant he'd found out that his wavy blonde friend was a member in dangerous gang, he'd joined in. The Cuban man also instantly regretted it the second he'd met the leader of the Allies, but for Matthew's sake he'd kept his mouth shut and his fights with Alfred to a minimum.
Even though it was after midnight, the 5 members were finding it hard to sleep. Matthew had made hot cocoa (every cup sans the Canadian's had been spiked with rum by their respective drinker) and they spent the night in the sitting room playing poker to calm frayed nerves. At some point Francis and Arthur had gone indiscreetly into the laundry room. The noises issuing forth were unpleasant, and while Yao blissfully ignored them, Alfred made gagging noises at every breathy moan, and Matthew tried not to cry in embarrasment.
After finishing poker (which Yao won, despite Alfred calling him a cheater) Matthew excused himself and decided to call it a night. It was going on 4 in the morning and Matthew was sick of hearing Alfred say that his wound had reopened with every shake of the dryer. Alfred, unfortunately not taking the hint, had followed his almost-twin up the small staircase and into his bedroom. While Mattie blissfully kept his ill words to himself, he wished rapidly in his head that Alfred would go away.
The purple eyed teen let out a weary sigh and pulled back the comforter of his bed. The American instantly took this as his cue to climb in, justifying it with an 'I don't want to be alone tonight'. While normally Matthew would insist to the man that ghosts weren't real and there was nothing to be afraid of, tonight Matthew let it slide and climbed into the other side of his double bed. It was a little small, but he'd make do. Though Alfred was good at hiding it, Matthew had become quite good at reading his brother and knew that Alfred was very upset with the night's events. After all, Alfred and Ivan had never liked each other, but betrayal was a very personal blow to his brother more than anyone else. Besides that, the poor guy had been shot, and while it was nothing too serious, he'd had to ruin a perfectly good pair of pants to stop the bleeding and had taken almost as many painkillers as Arthur had after his burn. So dejectedly Matthew removed his glasses and set them on the nightstand, telling himself he'd have to get Alfred's from downstairs for him in the morning. Otherwise the American would hurt his leg trying to blindly feel his way down the stairs.
Not long after Matthew's eyes had adjusted to the now-darkness did he notice the reflection of blue eyes next to him. "What?" He wispered, a little offended that his brother would so openly stare.
"I heard gunfire in that room you were in." Alfred stated it so bluntly. He was always like that, for as long as Matthew had know him. Sraight to the point. "I can't believe you actually pulled the trigger."
Matthew snorted lightly. He couldn't believe he'd done it either.
"Look dude." Alfred continued, his eyes sliding down to look away from the other's face. "I guess what I wanna say is... you saved lives back there. I mean, you stopped us from charging into that house, you helped when that alarm went off, and Francis might be dead if you hadn't had the guts to shoot at Prussia. I mean, I knew the guy back when I'd had that big fight with Arthur, he'd helped me straighten my punch. So I know he's damn scary. You did good." Alfred's eyes locked back with Matthew's own purple ones as he awkwardly blurted out, "The Allies are lucky to have you."
Matthew, dumbfounded, simply nodded. His brother, having nothing more to say, turned his head in the other direction and let out a deep breath. They both fell asleep shortly after.
The next day was spent in quiet recuperation. Yao took his leave shortly after bringing everyone a Chinese breakfast from God knows where. Alfred forcibly ordered everyone around, demanding food and saying that sleep had frozen the muscles in his leg and he couldn't move. This, of course, meant that he was stuck in Matthew's bed. It wasn't until Arthur had told him off, exclaiming "I wasn't this obnoxious when I was injured!", that the athlete had finally shut up. Even then he was back to whining after an hour, telling Matthew he was hungry and that Francis should make him food.
Matthew had sweetly asked Arthur to make him scones instead. Oh sweet revenge.
His biological brother spent the day dramatically telling his lover about the time he'd spent frightened for his life, tied to a chair with a maniac lusting for his blood. He didn't once mention Matthew or how he'd saved him.
Furious at being treated as if he was Alfred's slave and had never been a part of the fight at all, Matthew had left after lunch to spend his time at the beach. He needed the waves and the sand and the sun right now, and he needed some time to figure out why he seemed to be so unimportant and invisible in the lives of his brothers. Sure, Alfred had told him last night what an asset he was, but that was once in the 3 odd years that Matthew had known him. And anyways, the self-proclaimed hero seemed to have already forgotten his confession last night, instead using him for a comfortable bed and company.
And, he told himself lightly, if he was lucky he might even see Gilbert on the sand.
Matthew knew he should be ashamed, hoping he might meet his albino friend so soon after having a huge fight the day before. He also knew that they couldn't go anywhere with the relationship they had - they'd never be more. In fact, they should probably be less. The quiet boy probably shouldn't be seeing Gilbert at all. But he couldn't help it. He was attracted to the guy, he'd admitted this to himself some weeks before. And he genuinely enjoyed the other's company, besides when he was trying to slit his brothers' throats.
While Matthew knew that this relationship was no good and perhaps very dangerous, he also knew that it didn't matter to Gilbert that they were on opposite sides of a gang war. This mattered to Matthew quite a lot, actually, but he found Gilbert's sentiment extremely touching. And he was a little ashamed with himself that this was so important to him and he couldn't let go, yet Gilbert was willing to risk a lot for a simple friendship.
Matthew sat waiting for quite a while, hoping that Gilbert would show up. He watched the coulds and turned these thoughts over in his mind. And although staring at puffy condensed water vapor with crashing waves to drown out his attention actually wasted a large portion of the Canadian's afternoon, he eventually admitted to himself that the silverette did not share the same plans for a day at the beach as Matthew did. So slowly, Matthew picked himself up of the sand, brushed the dirt off his shorts, heaved a great yawn, and went home to his ungrateful brothers.
A/N :/ I promise Gilbert's past is in the next chapter. I just wanted to throw in a filler until then.
I hadn't planned on Albert being so sweet in this chapter, but there are a lot of Hetalia pairings I support and AmeriCan is one of them.
I also have a confession to make. I haven't watched any recent hetalia episodes or read a hetalia fanfic in over a year and a half. So... sorry if I'm rusty on anything.
So anyways, I don't own Hetalia despite my best intentions blah blah blah.