Hello again, I would like to apologize for the delays. I have been doing about five things outside of this and they have kept me very busy. I haven't gotten myself properly obsessed with this installment of the Gifted Series and I haven't quite finished figuring out what all the chapters are about. In other words, updates to this story will be slower than for Feliciano's Fire. Please enjoy this chapter, as usual I really like reviews. They help keep me going.
Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any media that inspired this story.
It only took ten minutes for Matthew to get fed up with not being noticed and give himself away. He was mildly ashamed with himself because normally he was very patient, but not being noticed was a sensitive issue for the Canadian. It bothered him even if he wasn't noticed because he chose not to be visible.
"Oh hey Mattie, when'd you get here?" Alfred asked in an innocent, slightly oblivious tone. Matthew's eye twitched at his brother's nonchalant tone.
"I've been here the whole time Al…" he said as calmly as possible. Before he could say anything else to Alfred, Matthew felt Francis's hand on his shoulder. Out of all his relatives Francis picked up on Matthew's insecurity the most, and did his best to make Matthew stand out. The Canadian knew that his own nature made this an uphill battle for his cousin, especially since his own brother was naturally good at attracting attention. Matthew looked up at Francis.
"We are very glad you are here. Now please tell us what you think we should do for our trip." Said Francis. Matthew nodded.
"Well… I think that we should do our best to go to our favorite camping ground, and we should do tent camping because it makes it more of an adventure."
"Sweet." Alfred said with a smile, Francis had a slightly defeated look on his face.
"Have I done something to offend you? Do you really want to make this as difficult for me as possible?"
"No… I just want our friends to have the best experience possible….. Plus mom wanted me to make sure there was no way Al could spend the whole trip playing video games." Matthew said while smiling and scratching his head.
"I think it's a great idea Mattie, it's not really camping if you have air conditioning." Said John. "So how many are expected to come, and when will they be here?"
"Six more are expected, Gilbert and Ludwig are supposed to come in a couple of days and the others within the same week. I'm not sure how long it will take for all of them to adjust to the time difference as all of them are coming from Europe." Francis replied. Matthew sat quietly in thought for a moment.
"So we should give them all a little time to adjust before we go on the trip."
"Well how long should that take? I mean, aren't most of them used to the extreme time changes they go through every few months?" asked Alfred. Francis nodded.
"It only takes me a few days, the same for Gilbert but he's better at functioning during the adjustment period. Antonio and Elizabeta also don't take too long. I have no idea about the Vargas brothers or Ludwig…" Francis said with a shrug.
"Ok… so assuming that Feliciano and his brother will take longer to get on our clock than the others, let's say…. About a week?" Matthew tentatively suggested. The others nodded to show that that sounded like a reasonable amount of time. If the Italians needed more time than that was their problem.
"Alright, so we're going on this trip a week after the last people show up here? Sounds good to me, but how are we going to do this tenting thing? With Molly and me going there will be eleven people on this trip." The boys' uncle said with a raised eyebrow.
"We could divide by age, and have three tents. A couple of big tents, one for Francis's friends and one for Al and Mattie's friends. You could stay with the younger boys and I'll share a tent with your friend Elizabeta." Alfred and Matthew's mom said with a smile. John nods and writes all of this down. Francis gets out his phone and sends out a text to everyone who is going to Matthew's place to let them know about the plans for when they arrived.
Aaaaannnd this chapter is short as hell. I suppose that is my fault since I insisted on this story being a part of the main story line and the focal point will be the camping trip. I guess this is an exercise in writing about something mundane. I mean seriously, the whole point of this chapter is planning for the trip. Ah well, I hope that all of you liked it anyway.