-Looking at you, holding my breath.-
First Time; Lifehouse

-Hetalia-

When Matthew thought about it, two weeks really wasn't that long. Matthew was worried they wouldn't be ready for the contest in time. They'd talked it over, in yet another one of Alfred's two am conference calls, and decided that their bi-weekly practices just wouldn't be enough. Unfortunately, Arthur worked nights more often than not while Gilbert got off around six thirty everyday. The only days the two could get together were really just the practice days, which meant that Alfred and Matthew would have to be the go-betweens. They decided that Gilbert would write the songs and then go over them with Matthew, since he'd be the one to sing them in the end. That reminder made Matthew's stomach tie itself in knots. Once they worked out any conflicts, Gilbert would give the music to Alfred, and he'd get it to Arthur so they could practice in their free time.

Meanwhile, Alfred's dad had decided to drag him all over town to do volunteer work so he would have plenty of things to put on his college applications. That was where Alfred was now, leaving Matthew home alone with his mother, trying to hide his injury. Thankfully, he only had to wait another fifteen minutes or so before she went out to her friend's baby shower, and then he'd be free to move off the couch without having to hide his grimacing and limping. Matthew turned away from the clock when she came back to the living room for possibly the hundredth time that hour.

"Matthew, honey-"

A rather obnoxious knocking cut her off, and she frowned, wondering aloud who it could be as she went to the front door.

"Oh, hello Gilbert. I didn't know you were coming over." Matthew dragged himself up enough to look over the back of the couch and confirm that the self-proclaimed Prussian was at the door. Matthew grinned, glad to see him. His mother and Gilbert exchanged a few words before the albino crossed the room to where Matthew was, and the blond noticed he'd brought his other guitar with him. Unlike the electric guitar he brought to practices, this one was Prussian Blue, because Gilbert was obsessed with his heritage.

"Hallo, Birdie," Gilbert grinned down at him. Matthew prayed that he wouldn't make a snide comment about his injury in front of his mother as he smiled back up at the older teen.

"Hey, I didn't know you were coming," Matthew repeated. Gilbert smirked.

"I'm too awesome to make appointments. Anyway, I just finished a few songs, so I figured you'd wanna see them, ja?" Matthew nodded.

"Yeah. We can go over them in my room," he offered. Truth be told, he wouldn't have minded if Gilbert had just stopped by on a whim. He enjoyed the albino's company. That being said, he had to get Gilbert away from his mother before he said something incriminating.

"You sure you can get up?" Gilbert teased. Too late. Matthew's eyes widened and he quickly looked to see if his mother had heard. She apparently had, because she was giving them an odd look.

Gilbert must have followed Matthew's gaze. "I mean, you've been lazing around on the couch a lot lately. Sure you can still use your legs?" he saved. Matthew never thought he'd be this grateful for Gilbert's expertise in lying.

"Yes, Mattie, you really should go out more," his mother teased. "Speaking of which, I have to head out soon, Gilbert, but you're welcome to stay if you two don't mind being left alone. Alfred's out with his father, I'm afraid."

"It's fine," Gilbert said, shaking his head. Once Matthew's mother was out of earshot, he turned back to him with a grin. "Geez, didn't know you had it in you."

"What do you mean?" Matthew asked, dragging himself up off the couch. He groaned softly.

"You know exactly what I mean," Gilbert said. Matthew sighed and didn't meet his eyes as they walked to his room.

"...Yeah, but..."

"Hey, I'm not judging," Gilbert snorted. "Just didn't think the Golden Child could stand to lie."

Matthew burned with shame as they entered the bedroom. "I just...like working with the dogs," he said, shutting the door. Gilbert shrugged and dropped himself on the bed, plopping a notebook down beside him.

"The songs," he said with a nod. Matthew returned it and joined him, looking over the lyrics Gilbert had written. He blushed heavily as he read through the first song.

"G-Gil!" he squeaked.

"What?" Gilbert smirked.

"I can't- You expect me to-..." Matthew couldn't find the words to protest clearly, and Gilbert laughed openly at him.

"Jeez, I knew you were a virgin, but really," he taunted.

"It's indecent!" Matthew said.

"It's called rock, Birdie." Gilbert rolled his eyes. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"I can't go on stage and sing...sing..." Matthew searched for some of the more vulgar lines, "'Don't make a sound unless you're screaming my name.' I'd be mortified!"

"C'mon, that's gold," Gilbert protested. Matthew put his head in his hands. "It's just a song, Birdie. Don't be such a prude."

"It's so...dirty," Matthew groaned.

"Ah, come on. It's just a song," Gilbert insisted.

"You're not the one who has to sing it," Matthew said.

"You need to just get laid already and get over it. Sex is perfectly normal, Birdie." Matthew felt his entire face go red as he looked back up at Gilbert.

"I only turned sixteen!" It was perfectly normal to be a virgin at sixteen! Matthew wondered why he was even friends with Gilbert. Then again, he couldn't really picture himself not being friends with Gilbert. They were actually rather close. Possibly closer than Matthew really wanted to think about while they were sitting on his bed, debating the normality of sex.

"And? I had great birthday sex for my sweet sixteen," Gilbert said. Matthew hid his face in his hands again, positive he didn't need to know that. The albino laughed at him. "Even Al isn't this much of a virgin."

"Yes he is."

"Nein, Alfred can at least talk about it. Look at you, you're like a fourteen year old girl afraid to say 'shit,'" Gilbert said, poking him in the cheek. Matthew decided not to dignify that with a response. Gilbert sighed, probably rolling his eyes.

"Look, if you're gonna be that much of a prude, I'll sing that one. You can do back up or something for it. But you need to wake up and grow a pair."

"I just...people I know will be there," Matthew said, looking back at the albino.

"They're not going to take you seriously," Gilbert said, waving him off. "It's not like they're gonna say 'Oh, Matthew Williams sang a song about sex, I bet he's a man-whore.'" Matthew frowned..

"If I write it in French, will you sing it?" Gilbert asked.

"You don't even know French."

"You do." Gilbert shrugged. "We can just translate the fun stuff into French and leave the smut-less bits in English. Actually, that might be hot..." Gilbert trailed off. Matthew wasn't convinced.

"I'll still know what I'm saying."

"But no one else will. You said you'd be mortified if people you knew heard you talking about sex, right? Well they won't know what you're saying. They'll just hear sexy French and the girls will all cheer for you and one day you can actually get laid."

"...I don't think that'll work out very well," Matthew said.

"What? No one will know, except us. That makes it like ten times better." Gilbert snickered. "Or did you mean the girl thing? Because in this town, I'm sure there will be guys screaming for you too." He smirked, and Matthew flushed despite himself.

"Maybe...but I'll know I'm singing about sex."

"It'll be in French. Geez, we're going in circles here." Gilbert frowned then and tilted his head. "How come you even speak French anyway? Canada's mostly English-speaking, isn't it?" he asked. Matthew flinched and looked away, biting his lip. Gilbert shifted, leaning closer curiously. "Birdie?"

"Well, uh..." Matthew's eyes flicked to Gilbert's for a moment before looking away again, pulling his knees up to his chest. He supposed, if it was Gilbert, he could tell him. "...My dad was from Quebec...he...insisted that Mom only spoke French around the house...around him. ...It was my first language..." Matthew fidgeted uncomfortably.

"But, you don't have an accent like Francis," Gilbert pointed out. Matthew shrunk.

"Yeah, well...Mom taught me English too..." Matthew didn't want to think about this, but he could sense Gilbert wanted to ask more questions. He sighed. "He wasn't really happy about that..." He glanced up at Gilbert and saw he was frowning.

"He didn't..." the albino started cautiously, serious for the first time in a long while, as far as the Canadian had seen. Matthew made a sound and looked away, hugging his knees closer.

"I don't want to talk about this," he mumbled. He heard Gilbert growl softly.

"I'll track him down and kill him," the albino swore.

"Please, Gil, just drop it." Matthew shifted again, his wound hurting him in this position. "It doesn't matter." He picked up Gilbert's notebook to distract himself. He flipped past the explicit song and looked over the second one, eager for a change of topic.

"I like this one, but I'm not sure how the lyrics flow," he said quickly. Gilbert grunted and leaned over him to get a good look, practically setting his chin on Matthew's shoulder. Matthew swallowed a little harder than normal and hoped Gilbert didn't notice. His stomach flipped as the other's breath blew over his neck. Matthew cursed himself. It was bad enough Alfred was breaking the unspoken 'don't date within the band' rule - he didn't need this to start happening now.

"Here, I'll play it," Gilbert offered once he recognized the song, pulling the blond out of his worries. Matthew smiled slightly and nodded, shifting to give Gilbert more room to situate his guitar. "Hold that open for me," Gilbert instructed as he strummed a few chords on the acoustic to warm up. Matthew held the book up for him to see his own writing and Gilbert began to play the song, singing in his slightly rough voice. Matthew recognized some of the words and realized they were his own; the words he sang when they were trying to pull something together on that first day of practice.

"Like that," Gilbert said as it came to an end. Matthew nodded.

"It's really good," he smiled.

"Danke. I still think you should sing this one, though," Gilbert smirked, flipping back to the first song. Matthew flushed and shook his head quickly.

"No, I couldn't! Not even in French."

"Aw, c'mon. It would be awesome! It sounds better in a higher voice anyway," Gilbert said, using the excuse Arthur had to get him to join in the first place. "I mean, I'm an awesome singer, because I'm just so awesome, but I wrote it for someone with your range to sing. And I bet it's even better in French; people romanticize about sexy foreigners all the time, don't they?"

"But I couldn't," Matthew insisted. Gilbert groaned.

"Here, I'll play it, and you just sing the lyrics and French-out the smut. It's just me, so don't be all prissy and virginal. Or Specs. Don't be like Specs."

"Aren't you two..." Matthew cut off, mentally shouting Shut up! at himself before he said something worse. Gilbert grinned.

"Sometimes he cashes in a favor, but he's still a prude. Him and his orchestra," Gilbert snorted. "Now sing, damn you!"

Matthew knew Gilbert wasn't going to give up, so with a sigh he conceded to the other's whims. Gilbert continued to play the intro over and over, giving Matthew a pointed look. Matthew sighed and started singing.

"Ne fait pas un bruit, sauf si tu cries mon nom,
That's right, baby, not a single sound,
Ne dit rien, sauf pour m'en demander plus,
C'mon, baby, whatcha waiting for?"

If anything, it was more embarrassing in French. It sounded dirtier, somehow, possibly because of the way French was naturally a bit slurred. Matthew felt his cheeks burning, but as Gilbert played, he couldn't help but start to loose himself in the song. It was well written, if only it weren't about rough sex.

"Tonight, it's just you and I,
Roulons entre les feuilles,
Nous faisant crier l'un l'autre,
My hands are tied, I'm gonna die,
Et tu continues à gémir pour moi,
Baisons bestialement."

Matthew persevered, thankful that his mother had left already. He didn't want to think about what would happen if she heard him singing "Baises-moi comme une salope." He could hardly even believe he was singing it. The song was so filthy that more than half of it was in French now, and Matthew had a terrible feeling that this was all going to come back to bite him in the ass later.

Finally, finally it ended, and he was amazed his face hadn't burst into flames yet. Gilbert just stared at him for a long time, making Matthew uncomfortable. He shifted nervously under the ruby gaze, until he couldn't take it anymore.

"...What?" he asked, biting his lip. Gilbert raised his eyebrows at him.

"Fuck, you have to sing this on stage!"

A/N: Thank you so much for sticking around with this story. I'm sorry about the wait. Thank you very very much Hornet394 for fixing all my mistakes. I promise you all this chapter is exponentially better thanks to her editing. I am eternally grateful.

Also, thank you so much Petit-Arc-en-Ciel for the edits to this song. I feel much better knowing that the French is as accurate as possible.
On that note, if any German readers ever read this story and spot mistakes, please feel free to correct me.

To the Guest reviewer: Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear you like my story and think it's awesome. Thank you, thank you!

Please don't tell your mothers I taught you how to say such filthy things in French.

Translations for this chapter:
Ja: German; yes (see previous notes on Gilbert's usage of ja)
Nein: German; no
Danke: German; Thank you
Ne fait pas un bruit, sauf si tu cries mon nom,: French; Don't make a sound unless you're screaming my name
Ne dit rien, sauf pour m'en demander plus,: French; Don't say anything unless you're begging me for more
Roulons entre les feuilles,: French; Rolling between the sheets
Nous faisant crier l'un l'autre,: French; Making each other scream (possibly a rough translation)
Et tu continues à gémir pour moi,: French; And you continue to moan for me
Baisons bestialement.: French; Fucking brutally.
Baises-moi comme une salope.: French; Fuck me like a slut.

I'm a horrible human being.

Thank you for reading this story.
~VV