Thanks to Eternal Nexus Warrior and an anon for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

DenScot: The Name Game

Patrick was sitting in front of his computer, trying to ignore the commotion outside. His brother Alistair had brought his friend along for the weekend, and Patrick didn't want to interfere.

He heard a knock on his door and turned around, seeing Alistair's friend, Mathias standing there.

"Hey," Mathias said. "Alistair told you about those games, right?"

Patrick nodded, before going towards his shelf. Alistair had told him that Mathias liked the same type of games that he did, but didn't have the money to buy many of them, and asked if Patrick could lend him a few. Mathias came over, and soon they had a pile of the games Mathias wanted to borrow.

"Thanks, Pat," Mathias said, smiling as he left with the games.

Patrick stood frozen for a moment. He had never heard someone outside of his family calling him 'Pat'. Everyone either called him 'Patrick' or 'Ginger' (a nickname he could tolerate), but never 'Pat'.

He shook his head. It was too bizarre.

…

A week later, he was watching a movie with Alistair. It was just the two of them at home, and Patrick decided to talk about what was on his mind.

"Hey, Al," Patrick said. "Last week, Mathias called me 'Pat'."

"I told him he could call you that," Alistair said.

"Oh. I thought he heard you guys calling me that and assumed it was alright for him."

"Isn't it?"

"It's not that, it's just… You, mum, Artie and Will are the only ones that call me that."

"What about dad?"

"Nope."

"Oh… Hm?"

Patrick shook his head. It would still be weird, but he could live with that.

…

A few weeks passed, and Alistair arrived at his room, looking serious.

"What's wrong?" Patrick asked.

"Um, nothing's wrong," Alistair said. "I just thought I could tell you…"

"What is it?"

"Well, you see… Mathias and I are together."

Patrick simply stared, his mind trying to process things.

"When did that happen?" he asked at last.

"A week ago," Alistair said, scratching his head nervously.

Patrick sighed. He wondered if one could experience foreshadowing in real life.

So, I have a nickname that only my mom and sister use (my dad only uses it when he's calling me, and my mom's side of the family moved away, so now it's just my mom and sister that call me that). It's a shortening of my name using the last two syllables. And when my sister's friend called me that, I was completely caught off-guard. I figured he heard my mom and sister call me that and accepted that it was my name, but when I told my sister about it she said that she told him that he could call me that. She was a bit shocked to realise that it was only her and my mom who called me that. And a few weeks later, she admitted that the two of them started dating, and I couldn't help but think that him calling me by a name that only my family calls me by was a bit of foreshadowing.

And this time, the pairing is from the perspective of an outsider. What do you think?