A/N at bottom

Chapter 21

1763

Matthew sat at the kitchen table finishing off a letter. He tried to write at least one a week to his friends back home.

"England, could you mail this off tomorrow?"

"Of course, but I insist, call me Arthur. It sounds ridiculous if you don't!"

Alfred sat next to Matthew. Whenever he was in the room, which was most of the time, the other two were civil to each other, so Matthew didn't try to put up an argument this time.

"Sure, Arthur."

The Brit smiled.

"Now, I'll go get breakfast."

Matthew inwardly groaned. He absolutely despised English food, but of course he wouldn't fight in front of Alfred, who seemed an O.K kid so far.

"Yeah, breakfast!" Alfred whispered.

When Arthur came back with the food, Alfred devoured it, barely looking up to breathe (Matthew just picked at his breakfast to make it seem like he ate it). They usually ate in silence, so nobody had to force a conversation.

"Well," Arthur stood up. "I have work to go do. Put your dishes by the sink when you're done."

"Hmhphm," Alfred responded.

"Sure," Matthew clarified.

Matthew couldn't believe what he was seeing. It had been half an hour since Arthur left, and Alfred was still eating. Matthew had never seen anything like it. He decided he had to get to know Alfred better in order to understand just what went on in his crazy brain.

"Alfred."

"Hmphmg?"

"Do you want to play a game with me?"

"Yeah! Yes! I wanna play a game!"

"Ok, what should we do?"

"Let's play hide and seek!"

"...sure, why not?"

"Ok I'm hiding now!"

Alfred ran out of the kitchen, laughing all the way. Matthew didn't bother counting, he just followed after him.

"Alfred... where are you?"

Matthew didn't know Arthur's house that well, so he didn't know where the good hiding spots were.

"Alfred?"

"Hehehe."

Ah, there he was. In his room.

Matthew walked into Alfred's bedroom and quickly saw him under his bed. But, he didn't want to ruin it for him, so...

"Alfred are you in here?"

"Hehehahaha!"

"Ok, if you're not in here then I'm leaving."

"Haha!"

The American jumped up from under the bed.

"I'm here! Yay, I win! You totally didn't see me!"

"Wow, good job Alfred."

"I'm gonna go tell Iggy that I won!"

"Yeah, you go do that."

With that, Alfred raced out of the room, giggling and yelling.

Arthur smiled at seeing the two getting along so well. He held the letter he was supposed to mail in his hands and walked over to his bed. He took it and stuffed it under his mattress, along with the 30 other letters Matthew had given him to mail.

Besides, how would Matthew find out?

A/N

And that's the chapter! As always, criticisms are greatly appreciated! The next chapter goes up next Friday!

Also, I started a new story if anyone is interested. It's basically about Canada, ghosts, and history. It's called:

The 5 Ghosts Canada Met Throughout His Life (And One Bonus)

I'm updating it next Friday!