I own not the wonderfulness that is Hetalia. (Obviously. I am, after all, only a teenager. And I can't draw manga for my life. I can't draw anything for my life, for that matter. The cover took me a full thirty minutes to do, and it sucks.)

Lukas whacked the puck with all his force towards the goal, trying desperately to keep it away from the insane Canadian playing against him. Why was he doing this again? Oh, yes. He thought it would fun to play against someone of his skill.

It would be fun to play against someone of his skill. Matthew, however, did not fall into the aforementioned category. Jones wasn't joking when he said the Canadian was like a demon when it came to hockey.

Matthew stopped the puck with a smirk and shot it straight into the goal on the other end of the rink. Perfectly. In around zero-point-five seconds. And the rink was ridiculously large, as well. Fuck.

And why exactly did he agree to doing it one-on-one? If he had some decent teammates to distract the terrifying beast of a boy, he might be able to score a goal once in a while. But no, Matthew had so far scored ten, whilst Lukas had only one.

The game ended with Lukas still on one, and Matthew with twelve.

Damned Canadians. Just wait until we ski, Williams.

.:.

Earlier

When Lukas got home from a tedious day of revising what he already knew, he stayed only a few minutes to grab his skates and hockey stick as well as his ski gear, then scribble down a note explaining where he was for whoever found it first. He then sprinted to the sports centre to meet Matthew before their hockey game.

Upon arrival, Matthew was sitting in the reception area, talking to someone Lukas recognised from HIA, an albino who was regularly with the creepy Frenchman and Spaniard. What was his name again? It slipped his mind, but he knew that it was something Germanic. He could only hear snatches of their conversation, but it seemed to be in English with the odd word of other languages.

"-ja, Birdie?" Matthew's companion said in reply to something or other.

"I'm meeting someone, actually, for a game of hockey, but you can watch if that's okay with him."

"Who's stupid enough to challenge you, mein liebling?"

"Believe me, Gil, he isn't stupid. Although, I'm not sure what his hockey skills are like. Still, he's an amazing skier, so he should be pretty good. Oh, and I think he goes to your school."

Lukas felt a flush of pride at that. And, wait a minute, Gil? Of course! The albino's name was Gilbert- the self-proclaimed Prussian egotist.

He stepped into the sight-range of the two, deciding it was rude to carry on eavesdropping.

"Hei, Matthew."

"Monsieur Bondevik! Salut! Ah, Lukas, this is Gilbert, he also goes to HIA, you might know him? He's my boyfriend. And Gil, this is Lukas Bondevik," Matthew said enthusiastically.

The albino looked at Lukas for a second. "Ohhh, I remember you! You're the new kid- the one Matthias won't shut up about!"

What? 'The one Matthias won't shut up about?' Has Matthias been talking about me? That's slightly creepy...

"So, you're challenging mein Birdie to a hockey game? Good luck with that. Und believe me, you'll need it."

Birdie? Strange nickname... Lukas raised an eyebrow.

"You're very quiet, aren't you?"

"That's probably because you're overwhelming him, Gil..." Matthew smiled at his boyfriend. "Don't mind him, Monsieur Bondevik. He's probably clinically insane."

Gilbert huffed dramatically, stuck his nose in the air and folded his arms in mock indignation. It was then that Lukas noticed the yellow canary fluttering around his head.

"Please, call me Lukas," The Norwegian said, eyeing the bird now in Matthew's hair.

"O-okay, Mons- Lukas. Oh, and that's Gilbird!" The Canadian pointed to the little bird.

"...Gilbird?" Dare I ask?

"Ja, he's like an extension of my awesomeness! You think that's weird? Birdie's got a polar bear..." Gilbert said to Lukas, still faking annoyance at Matthew.

"Kuma's a dog, Gil... He just looks like a polar bear..."

"Hmm, I wonder where that strange sound is coming fro- Schieße! That hurt, Birdie! So unawesome!" Gilbert pouted, for he had just been hit over the head with a rolled-up flyer whipped from a table beside Matthew.

"Well then, don't tease me!" Matthew retorted, but there was no venom to it. Lukas shook his head. This couple was really weird...

"Alors!" Matthew said sweetly, as if he had not just hit his boyfriend round the head with a poster, "The rink is in use right now, so we'll have to wait a bit, I'm afraid. Désolé, this was the earliest I could get it. We have around a quarter of an hour to wait. Do you mind if Gil watches?"

Lukas shook his head answering the Canadian's question without actually having to communicate properly. There was, however, one completely irrelevant question that was eating away at him.
"So... How did you two get together?"

Matthew and Gilbert looked at each other with amused expressions.
"Well... It's a strange story..."

"You mean TOTALLY AWESOME story!" The albino yelled.

"The short of it is that we fell in love at first sight, but couldn't work up the confidence to tell each other for months. It wasn't really helped by my overprotective cousin, Francis, either."

"Kesesese, and the long of it would have us here for hours!" Gilbert cackled.

"Francis? The creepy French student?" Lukas asked, unable to believe that Matthew could possibly be related to someone like that. And didn't that mean that Jones was also related to him?

"The one and only!" The albino sniggered.

"Yes, him. And before you ask, no, he's not related to Al. Francis is my father's sister's son. They've spent a few Christmases with us and believe me, the two do not get along."

Lukas nodded sympathetically. He could imagine the American and Frenchman disagreeing with each other. From what he knew, Francis was flirty and opinionated, and Jones was brash, idiotic and equally self-absorbed. Quite what Arthur saw in him, he would never know. In fact, there was a certain annoying Dane who was rather reminiscent of the American. And Matthias, needless to say, was loud, overly friendly, naive, creepy, hot- wait, what? That was ridiculous. In no way did that thought just cross his mind. His Danish classmate was by no means hot; he was fairly attractive, but not- that was just... Just no...

"Lukas. Lukas~ Lukas!" Matthew broke his train of thought (and a good thing too, for his mind had entered less innocent places, for some unfathomable reason), waving a hand in front of his face.

"Sorry, what?"

"I was just saying that we should put our gear on, the rink'll be ours soon." Matthew turned to Gilbert, "And you should probably go to the cafe."

The Prussian nodded, gave his boyfriend a light kiss on the the cheek and ruffled his hair, and then skipped off.

The Norwegian looked at Matthew quizzically. "The cafe?"

"It overlooks the rink. Let's go!"

.:.

Around three quarters of the way through the two athletes' game, Gilbert was joined by another, unnoticed by the two sport fanatics.

"Hey, Gilbert! Isn't that Lukas? With your boyfriend? How'd that happen?"

The albino looked up at the Dane. "Hey, Matthias! My awesomeness didn't see your lesser awesomeness there! Ja, it is, your little Norwegian seems to be putting up a half-awesome fight so far. I haven't an awesome clue how it happened, but they seem to have bonded over sport- Birdie says that Lukas is awesome at skiing or something? Anyway, why are you here?"

"I was snowboarding, and decided I wanted to take a break, so I came here. I guess you're watching them two? Mind if I join you? What're they on? And yeah, he's beyond epic, no joke."

Gilbert grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to the padded window-bench he was reclining on for the Dane. "Feel free, kid. Score's nine-one, to Birdie, of course."

"What?! Nine-one? I thought you said he was doing well, man!" Matthias yelped, confused. How was Lukas doing so badly? He was a winter sports god!

"Ja, he hasn't run away screaming yet and he actually scored a goal. Birdie's pretty terrifying on the ice, he even scared the awesome me," Gilbert said casually, stretching his legs out on the bench as the blonde-and-red blur shot another goal, the blue-and-white blur barely keeping up.

"Wow... Matthew- Matthew, right?- must be like, really good... Lukas is an expert..."

"He's fucking awesome."

Matthias mentally battled with himself for a moment or two, before grabbing the attention of the Prussian (who was following the game with eager eyes, having been informally taught for a while by and therefore also influenced by his boyfriend) once again.
"Hey, Gil? Can you keep a secret? It's really important that you don't tell anyone, with the possible exception of your boyfriend, as long as he swears not to tell."

Gilbert turned back to him, his ruby red eyes wide. "Sure, man. What is it?"

Matthias spoke uncertainly and quickly, "I think... Gil, I think I'm in love with Lukas."

A/N

Ooh, a confession and cliffhanger. Okay, so this chapter was crappy. Whatever.

THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH FOR YOU REVIEWS! I know everyone says this, but they really do make my day.

(And since I can't be bothered to PM IAmApple, you didn't miss much earlier. Except for robe fittings. Though the others probably told you that, didn't they? Ah, whatever. I totally missed you, though! Oh, and I made ze awesome Gilbird/Sweden lose the game. *manic grin* And sorry for ripping your OTP apart. I wrote this at the half term, before I got into Prustria. (With my mother looking over my shoulder at one point. Awwwwkwaaard!) Plus, PruCan is still adorable!)

What else? Oh, yeah...

TRANSLATIONS, PEOPLE! (Is it obvious I'm drinking Coke?)

(Read this in a deep voice) In order of appearance...

German!

Ja: Yes (duh...)

Mein Liebling: My darling

Mein Birdie: My Birdie

Und: And

Schieße: Shit

Norwegian!

Hei: Hey (I think...)

French!

Monsieur Bondevik: Mr. Bondevik

Salut: Hi

Alors: So

Désolé: Sorry

I apologise for any mistranslations, the dominance of French (j'adore français!) and if I missed anything. (And the monstrously long author's note.)

Thank you, xXWatergirlXx for the correction!

Have a nice evening/day/whatever, depending on where you are, and please review/favourite/follow! If you do that, I may post a PruCan oneshot for this universe at some point. I've started one, but I only have around two hundred words at the moment...

Byeeee~!