A/N at bottom

Chapter 23

Matthew awoke to a knock on his bedroom door.

"What?" He called out.

"Can I come in? Please Mattie? I gotta tell ya something."

"Sure Alfred, come in."

The boy almost broke the door down in his excitement.

"Mattie! Iggy told me I'm supposed to tell you that there's a guy coming here so we have to be super quiet cause he has a meeting!"

"Alfred, you're shouting."

"Oh no! Ok... I'll be quiet. Shhhh."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah... do you wanna play a game with me?"

Sigh

"Sure Alfred."

"Ok chase me!"

"Alfred, wait!"

The American ran out of the room, laughing and screaming. Matthew tried to follow him, but he was tired, and the kid sure could run.

"Alfred, we're not supposed to make any noise!"

"Catch me!"

"Alfred, look where you're going! You'll got the staircase and fal-"

Uh oh.

"Yay! I'm so fast- ahhhhhh!"

He rolled down the stairs and directly into the kitchen, where Arthur was having his meeting.

Matthew ran down the stairs after him, prepared to face the angry Englishman.

"Arthur, I'm so sorry. I told him not to go near the stairs, and then he did it anyway and I know you have your meeting and I didn't want to-"

He took in the scene before him and saw that Arthur wasn't having a meeting with any ordinary person. No, this very man turned out to be Romano's older brother, Antonio!

"Antonio, what are you doing here?!"

"Ah, hola! I had no idea you'd be here!" The Spaniards eyes were shining.

"Of course!

"You two... know each other?" Arthur was puzzled.

"Iggy, hi!" Alfred had recovered from his staircase incident and stood up.

"Alfred, how about you go wait upstairs? Matthew will join you soon."

"Ok Iggy!" Alfred ran back up the stairs, refraining from falling.

"Ah, Arthur, of course I know Matthieu! He's like my nephew."

Arthur's eye twitched ever-so-slightly.

"It's so good to see you Antonio! How is everybody?"

"Missing you, of course. You have to write more often!"

"But I write every day!"

Antonio look baffled.

"Really? But we haven't received anything..."

"Really? Arthur, isn't that weird?"

They two looked towards Arthur, who managed to keep his composure.

"Oh, you know, that pesky international postal system."

"Yeah, I guess it does take a while for letters to send... hey, I actually have a letter you can take back! Here..." Matthew reached towards the kitchen table and grabbed a letter.

"Thanks Matthieu, I'll take good care of it."

The Canadian and Spaniard hugged once more before Arthur cleared his throat.

"Well... we do have that meeting to finish."

"Ah, sí, we do. Ok Matthieu, I'll deliver your letter. Be good!"

"Of course, Antonio." He turned towards the stairs. "Tell everybody I miss them!"

"Of course! Adios."

"Au revoir!" Matthew ran up the staircase where Alfred was waiting.

"Now, that meeting," Arthur said. "How about we discuss..."

Matthew had high hopes that day.

As Arthur's lies would prove, however, his spirits would soon be very, very low.

A/N

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

Also, I have another 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)