Wow, it's been a while since I've wrote a fanfiction. Hello, Neko here! How's everyone doing today? This is my first attempt at a fluff story, so I would REALLY appreciate any comments/constructive criticism/pointers/you get the point. :D

Now, one thing I want to tell you all… this will NOT be an instant UsXCan fic. There's going to be a lot of road bumps, twists, and turns along the way, so if you want an instant Alfred and Matthew love fix, you've come to the wrong place. =\ There will also be no yaoi in this story, since I am very uncomfortable describing sexual scenes. (That's a long story I really don't want to get into now.) So if you're after hot UsXCan sex, this is also the wrong place.

However, if you want a genuine love story between two friends, this is the story for you! :D

Also, this story is pre-written. If I find just one person interested in it, I'll update the next chapter on Friday, and then every Friday I'll post another chapter. So sit back, relax, and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 - Swift Greetings

"Alfred Foster Jones Jr., get in here before I drag you in by your ear," Mrs. Jones yelled from the back porch. Alfred cringed and put his superheroes in the sandbox.

"Coming mommy!" the nine-year-old boy called back, dusting the sand off his pants and dashing across his soaked backyard over to the porch.

"Take off your shoes before you come in. I don't want little piggy tracks on my newly waxed floor," Mrs. Jones scolded, staring at Alfred's muddy feet. "And don't think you're going to look like that when your aunt and uncle get here. I want you to march upstairs and wash right now."

"Aww, but mooooom," Alfred moaned. "I just took a bath this morning."

"Tough," Mrs. Jones spat. "You're going to behave yourself as well, am I clear?"

Alfred rolled his eyes. "Yes, ma'am."

Mrs. Jones chose to ignore her son's rude gesture and strode into the kitchen. Alfred grumbled under his breath as he pulled his sneakers off without untying them. He wiggled his toes trapped in his socks and slid across the kitchen floor. His dad flipped to the next page of the newspaper.

"Hey, daddy, you'll never guess what I saw today," Alfred jumped on the chair next to his father.

"What son?" Mr. Jones humored his son without looking away from the paper.

"That sign next door, you know how it's said "for sale" for like… forever?" He paused and waited for his father's answer. After a moment, he continued, "It has a 'sold' sticker on it now!"

"That's nice," Mr. Jones replied, flipping the page.

"I wonder who's moving next to us," Alfred mused. "I bet Superman had his cover blown and he has to move here? Or maybe Batman had to get a new headquarters because Robin needed to go to our community college. Oh, I know who it is. Sabretooth is hiding out here and Wolverine's gonna ask me to-"

"Didn't your mother ask you to take a bath?" Mr. Jones interrogated and peeked over the top of his paper for a brief moment.

Alfred wondered if his dad heard anything he said. "Well… she did, but-"

"Go," Mr. Jones returned to his paper, waving his hand to urge the boy away. Alfred wanted to protest, but sighed and slinked to the staircase. He took one last look at his father turning another page of the newspaper and crawled up the stairs to the bathroom.

~USCan~

"Ouch? Mom, that hurts!" Alfred hissed as his mom dug the comb into his scalp. She doused more gel on his hair and fought with the strand of hair still sticking straight up on her son's head. For a moment, she succeeded, until it sprung back up seconds later.

She let out an exasperated groan. "That stupid strand of hair…"

"But I like Nantucket," Alfred murmured.

"Nantucket? You named it," Mrs. Jones questioned.

"Well, yeah." Alfred replied, "It kind of looks like that island by Massachusetts, don't you think?"

Mrs. Jones pinched the bridge of her nose. "Whatever. Just don't tell your Aunt and Uncle that you named your hair. They'll think you're a loon."

Alfred sighed. "Of course." She walked out of the room and headed down the stairs. Alfred looked in the mirror and wrinkled his nose. His hair was slicked back so much he looked like a Nazi from World War 2. His mother dressed him in a white turtleneck sweater and a blue sweater vest with red and white diagonal lines going across it. His black dress pants draped over his black dress. Alfred knew that the first thing he was going to do after his aunt and uncle left was burying the clothes in the backyard along with the other clothes he hated.

"Alfred, present yourself immidiently," Mrs. Jones called from downstairs. "Our guests are here."

"Showtime," Alfred muttered and opened his door. As he descended the staircase, he could see his Aunt and Uncle along with his older cousin.

"My, doesn't he look dashing, Elizabeth," his aunt commented. "He looks just like his dad, but with your eyes."

"Doesn't he?" Mrs. Jones replied, her eyes twinkling.

"He's going to be a handsome lad," she replied. "But he's going to have to do something about that lock of hair."

"I tried everything, Jane, but the accursed thing won't stay down," Mrs. Jones moaned.

Alfred nodded to his uncle to acknowledge his presence; his uncle returned the gesture. He turned to his cousin.

"Hey, Arthur," Alfred greeted.

"Hello, Alfred," Arthur replied. There was a four-year difference between Arthur and Alfred, but they were virtually the same height. "I see you're looking well."

"Yeah," Alfred looked at his cousin's hands and grabbed one of them. "Wanna come outside and play superheroes with me?"

"No, thank you."Arthur pulled his hands out of his cousin's grasp. "I don't play superheroes anymore."

"You… don't?" Alfred replied, cocking his head. "But you loved them last time you came to visit."

"That was when I was 11," Arthur replied. "But now I'm 13, and that changes things. I'm a young gentleman now and must behave as such."

Alfred cocked an eyebrow. "What have they been feeding you, Raisin Bland? Why would you want to grow up anyway?"

Arthur's hair bristled a bit. "I'll have you know that growing up is a part of life, and everyone must do it sooner or later."

"Well, I'm going to be a kid forever," Alfred replied, sticking out his tongue. "I want to go to Neverland and fight Captain Hook and fly around and never grow up."

"Poppycock," Arthur grumbled. "Those are only fairy tales."

"And this is coming from the same guy who thinks he sees fairies," Alfred teased.

"I told you they're REAL!" Arthur huffed. He looked up at his mother and flinched, realizing he'd said too much.

"Excuse my son," Mrs. Kirkland cleared her throat and continued to talk to her sister. "He's having a bit of trouble letting go of his imaginary friends. That's why I wanted to talk to you. Since his brothers all moved out of the house, he's been talking to these creatures to keep himself company."

"I see," Mrs. Jones said, taking a sip of her tea. "Poor boy."

"That's where I thought maybe you could help. He and Alfred seem to get along quite well. Winston and I thought maybe if he stayed here over the summers that he would slowly forget about his… friends. What do you say?"

"It would be no trouble at all," Mrs. Jones replied. "What do you say, dear?" Mr. Jones grunted in approval without taking his eyes off the television screen. "Junior?"

"What?" Alfred spat after arguing with Arthur.

"Would you like if Arthur stayed here for the rest of the summer?"

"What?" Alfred jumped off the floor to look at his mother. Her stern look reminded him to mind his manners. "Oh um… yeah, that'd be cool." The words burned his throat like poison.

"Then it's settled. Arthur will remain here in the states and then go back home once school starts back up in the United Kingdom." Mrs. Jones bloomed with excitement. "I promise he'll be quite happy here. He can stay in the guest bedroom."

"That's wonderful," Mrs. Kirkland mused. "Oh, look at the time, Winston. We better go to our hotel room if we're going to make it back home tomorrow."

"Is it that late already?" Mr. Kirkland glanced at his watch. "So I see. Well then, we'll be on our way."

"Of course," Mr. Jones got up and shook the man's hand. "It was nice to see you again, Winston."

"Likewise," Mr. Kirkland replied. The two sisters hugged each other and said their good-byes. Mr. and Mrs. Kirkland said their good-byes to their son and exited the home. Mrs. Jones turned to Arthur and smiled.

"I'll show you to your room, Arthur." She walked up the stairs and waited for him to follow.

"This isn't over," Alfred whispered to Arthur. Arthur stuck out his tongue and followed Mrs. Jones back up to the guest room. Alfred looked around and decided to sit on the couch and watch the soccer game on the television.

"Daddy, it's called soccer not football, right?" Alfred questioned.

His father's eyes remained glued to the screen and he grunted in agreement. Alfred smiled and puffed out his chest.

"I knew it," he whispered and continued to watch the end of the game with his father.

~USCan~

It was almost midnight when Alfred finally crawled into his bed. He yawned and crashed down on the Superman comforter below him. Cracking an eye open, he looked out his bedroom window to see stars twinkling above him. He was glad his parents moved out of the city; the sky was beautiful out in the countryside. However, Alfred couldn't help but miss all of his friends back in Philadelphia. In his small town, he lived in a development where doctors and lawyers resided, but not many kids around his age were there. They were either too old and would ignore him or too young and couldn't play the way Alfred liked to play. Alfred got up on his bed and sat on his knees. He folded his hands together and stared at the star.

"Hey, Mr. Star, I know wishing is stupid and stuff, but I was wondering if you could help me out. Arthur said he wished on stars all the time and it worked for him. I don't know what I could do for you, but I was hoping you could please, please, please, please with a cherry on top even though I don't like cherries give me someone I could play with." Alfred paused and took in a deep breath. "Oh, not someone who's like ten years older than me. I want someone just like me." He looked down at the 'sold' sign in front of his neighbor's house. "Oh, and I want them to be a boy and live right next to me in Superman's house."

Alfred nodded and ran over everything he said to make sure he covered everything he wanted. He threw back the comforter, buried his way through them like a tunnel, and turned on a flashlight. He began to read the latest comic book that he had got (albeit without his parents' permission) and skimmed through the first few pages.

"Honda Kiku, you're a genius," he snickered to himself and continued to read the entire night.

~USCan~

Beeeep… beeeep…. beeeep…. beeeep….

Alfred's listless hand smacked around on his dresser until it finally connected with his alarm clock. He smiled in victory.

Beeeep… beeeep…. beeeep…. beeeep….

His eye cracked open to look at his alarm clock, which wasn't even turned on. The time read about 7:32 in the morning. Since when did he wake up this early on a Tuesday during summer vacation? He rolled over on his left and stuffed his pillow over his ears. Finally, after a few more seconds of failing to ignore the sound, he crawled out of his bed and stared out of his window.

"It's a moving van," Alfred mused. He looked around the yard and saw a man and woman eyeing over the house and talking to each other. Alfred's expression flattened. "They're not Superman or Batman or Wolverine. They're just normal people. This stinks." Alfred was about to leave the window when something moved on a couch in the yard. He narrowed his eyes to make out the shape. Unable to see it through the window full of Superman and American window stickers, he ran over to his double doors that lead onto a patio for him to play on. Alfred strained his ears to try to hear what she was saying, but they were incomprehensible. The woman turned her head and called out to the person on the couch.

Alfred turned his attention back to the couch. It was a girl around his age with dark blond hair cut around her chin and wore a red shirt and tan denim pants. She looked up from her book, placed it on a couch cushion, and walked inside the door. Curious to learn her name and offer her to play later, Alfred sprung off the railing and ran off the balcony, through his room, down the hall, and tromped down the stairs, skipping the last one.

"Where do you think you're going so early?" Arthur asked and looked over his embroidery. Alfred cringed as he reached for the front door handle.

"Oh, outside," Alfred replied.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "I can see that. What for?"

"To meet the new neighbors," Alfred replied and swung the door open. He jumped over all four steps on the porch, landed on his hands and knees, and darted over to his white fence. The fence was a good two feet taller than he was, so he jumped up and down to try to see. Since that failed, he scanned the ground for something to stand on. Spotting his mother's two-step ladder to water her flowers on the roof, he dashed over to the porch and picked it up. He still needed to stand on his tiptoes to look over, but he soon found himself spying on the woman over the fence.

Now that Alfred could hear the woman right, he knew why he couldn't understand her. She wasn't speaking English, but some kind of soft, flowing language. The man beside her nodded a few times and gave his input to her words. She paused and looked over at Alfred.

"BonjourHi!" she exclaimed. Alfred jumped in shock and teetered backward on the ladder. He lost his balance and crashed to the ground below, letting out a light shriek as he fell. The woman cried out in that strange language again and rushed over to the other side of the fence. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to frighten you."

Alfred looked over to meet the green eyes of the woman kneeling next to him. He replied, "Oh, uh, no biggie. I'm not hurt."

The woman held a hand over her heart. "Good. I was afraid you were injured. You must be our new next door neighbor."

'Wow, for someone who was speaking a totally different language, she speaks English pretty good,' Alfred thought. "Oh, yeah, I am. I'm Alfred F. Jones II, but you can call me just Alfred."

The woman giggled. "It's nice to meet you, Alfred. I'm Mrs. Williams, and this is my husband, Mr. Williams."

"'ow do you do?" he asked. Alfred held back a giggle. This guy talks funny.

"Nice to meet ya," he replied and tipped his head. "So, where are you from?"

"Oh, you probably don't know where we're from," the woman chuckled and rubbed his hair.

"Don't worry. I studied all fifty states and their capitals this year," Alfred chirped. "And I got a B on the test. There's nowhere I don't know about."

The woman laughed. "Non, we're not from the United States."

"Really!" Alfred looked over his shoulders and motioned for her to lean down. Once she was at his level, he whispered, "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone you're aliens. I like aliens." The woman smiled and stood up straight. "So, what planet are you from?"

"Oh, a galaxy far, far, away on a planet called 'Canada'," she explained. "We traveled many miles to come and live among you so we can make peace with our race." She knelt down and put her hands on Alfred's shoulders. "Brave little hero, will you help us?"

"Of course!" Alfred jumped up and down. "That sounds like so much fun? I can't wait to tell…" He paused and pursed his lips. "I mean, it will be our little secret. Scout's honor!"

"Thank you. If you don't mind, I have a mission for you. My younger unit is inside our house, and he isn't happy about moving away from our planet. Would you go in and welcome him?"

"I'm on it," Alfred responded and dashed to the front door of his neighbor's house. He swung open the door and paused. 'Wow, their house is soooo big? How am I going to find their younger unit… younger unit… I wonder if that was the little girl I saw before!' Alfred walked to the left and entered what would be their kitchen. He turned to his right and walked into a vast room with boxes littering the floor. He returned to where he started and scaled the steps to the second floor. To his right was a white wall and to his left was another shorter hallway with two rooms on each side and one at the end. The first room to his left was a master suite with white curtains lining the windows. The right room was a large bathroom with a walk-in shower and bathtub. Alfred crept to the last room at the end of the hallway and peered in the door.

The room was white with polished hardwood flooring. It had a black spiral staircase over in the corner leading up to another floor blocked off by a sliding wooden door in the ceiling. There were unopened boxes scattered around the room, and a bare bed resting in the middle of the right wall. The girl he saw earlier sat on the bed with her back to him and stared out the window. She was hugging something to her chest and her shoulders were shuddering.

Alfred stepped through the door and walked over to her. "Hey, younger unit. I'm Alfred of Earth. It's great to-"

A pillow flew through the air and hit the wall behind him. Alfred dodged to his left as the girl turned to face him. Her eyes were either a deep blue or violet (was that even possible?) with puffy, red eyes and tears staining her cheeks. She yelled in frustration and threw the stuffed animal in her arms at him. It hit him in the chest; it knocked Alfred back a step or two.

"Sortez!" she shouted and knelt down to grab more stuffed animals out of the box in front of her. One by one, she fired them at Alfred, yelling repeatedly in a language Alfred couldn't understand.

"Hey, take it easy!" Alfred argued. "I just wanted to help you." However, she ignored him. Finally, the girl stopped throwing animals at him and curled up around another stuffed animal on her bed. Soft sobs escaped her lips and her blonde hair covered her eyes. Alfred paused and wondered if he should approach her or not. Tiptoeing across the room, Alfred walked over and sat down in front of her. She lifted her head to look up at him and rested her nose on top of a stuffed polar bear.

"Hello," Alfred spoke slowly. "My name is Alfred. I am a boy from Earth." The girl raised an eyebrow. "It's great to see you here. If you-"

"I speak English you know," the girl hissed and narrowed her eyes.

"That's great!" Alfred sat up straight. "That makes this so much easier. Your mom told me you came from a faraway place and you want to make peace with Earth. That's great? I want to help. If there's anything you want to know, anything at all, I can tell you."

After a long silence, the girl asked, "Are you stupid or something?"

"Huh?" Alfred blinked. 'Well… I did say any question.' "No, are you?"

The girl pouted. "I am not!" There was another awkward silence between them. "What do you want?"

"Me? Oh, I want to be friends. Is that okay with you?"

"Okay… I guess it is."

"Now… I'm-"

"Alfred, I got that," she smiled. "My name's Matthew."

"Oh, well hello Mattie-wait! You're a boy?"

"Well yeah, what did you think I was?" The look on Alfred's face was all he needed. Matthew didn't know what to expect from his new friend, but somehow, he could tell he was in for one heck of a ride.

To be continued…

So again, tell me what you all think! I'll be awaiting your reviews. =)