Once Matthew had managed to calm his brother down Arthur brought up that Matthew would need to come clean to the rest of the world about his true gender. Matthew hadn't really minded since he figured there wasn't much point to hiding the fact anymore. Arthur tried to get him to agree that for the rest of the meetings he would borrow Alfred's spare suit and attend them properly dressed. He argued that he didn't like having to wear a borrowed suit and that he had time to go out and get one at a nearby store. His argument being that Alfred's suit would be too big.

"The two of you are the same bloody height!"

"But Arthur I'm leaner. I don't have all of Alfred's... muscle on me."

Gilbert had to hold back laughter at the subtle poke at Alfred's weight. It was a good thing he didn't notice though or he'd be in the corner crying about being fat.

"It won't be much of a hassle to get a suit and I have a few hours till my next meeting. If you want you can even come along and help me find one you find appropriate."

Arthur scowled for a bit longer before relenting. After a quick lunch Arthur, Matthew and Gilbert left to find a men's clothing store to get a suit. It didn't take long to find one and they made their way inside.

"Hello. How may I help you today?"

"Yes, well, we're looking for a suit."

"You've come to the right place then. Right this way to the fitting area. Miss you can sit over there in the lounge area while I get these two fitted."

Matthew looks down sheepishly as Gilbert cracks up and Arthur explains to the salesman that Matthew is the one they are getting the suit for.

"You do realize this is a men's store though, don't you. I don't have any suits for women."

"I'm sorry, but I am a man. Um can we just go back and I can try one on and you'll see."

Matthew heads towards the back where the fitting rooms are, not waiting for the salesman. Under his breath Gilbert swears he hears the other cursing the fact he's so effeminate and wishing he'd noticed sooner.

Nervously the salesman follows grabbing a few suits in sizes he thinks should fit the young man/woman, he still wasn't convinced it was a man. They get to the fitting room and he shows Matthew to one and hands him the suits.

"Thank you."

Matthew takes them and disappears into the dressing room. A few minutes later he is stepping out in one of the suits, patting it down and looking himself over.

"Hmmm, so does it look like it fits?" He looks up and sees Arthur and the salesman staring at him with their jaws practically on the floor.

"Oh, it, it seems to fit just fine sir. I'm sorry about earlier. You, were just so convincing."

"Hmm?" Matthew looks with confusion to Arthur then Gilbert, who seems to be trying to hold in his laughter at the reaction of the other two. "Gilbert?"

"So sorry Mattie, its just when you change from trying to look like a girl to a guy, well its a big change. I can never figure out how you hide all that when you wear a dress, it just doesn't seem possible but hey, I'm not complaining."

"Gilbert..." Matthew didn't really understand what the other was saying and looked in the mirror. He didn't seem all that different than before. Same hair, same eyes, same shape to everything. Well except his chest was flat now since he had left his stuffed bra with his other clothes. It was odd wearing pants again after so long though and seeing how thin his hips were was strange to him, every skirt he owned had given the appearance of wider hips but wearing straight legged slacks showed just how slim he was. "I don't see what's so different though."

"Ma Matthew, lad..." Arthur is lost for words and instead turns to the salesman. "We'll take the one he's wearing and if you could fit him for a few others we would appreciate it."

"Ah, yes."

The salesman quickly fitted Matthew for a few other suits and told the three they would be ready to be picked up the next day. Arthur insisted on paying for the suits and did so despite Matthew's protests that he could handle it himself. When they finished at the store they headed back to the hotel the conference was being held in and Matthew checked the time.

"Ah, shoot, I have an arctic council meeting in a few minutes. Thank you for the suits Arthur." With that Matthew ran off to his meeting. He reached the door just in time and headed inside only to find everyone staring at him, including Alfred.

"Who are you?" Echoed around the room at his entrance and Matthew felt himself slump slightly at not being recognized, he couldn't look that different.

"Mattie?" At least it seemed Alfred recognized him. Matthew smiles at his brother and nods.

"Yeah Alfred, its me."

The other nations seem to blink as one before Ivan is standing up and moving over to him. When he is right in front of the other he stops and looks down. Matthew looks up at him and meets his eyes.

"Canada?"

"Yes, that's me. I don't look that different do I?"

Ivan shifts uncomfortably before turning to go back to his seat. Matthew just blinks at his retreating back.

"Ivan?"

When Ivan sits in his seat he lets his head fall straight onto the table and everyone stares at him as he begins to laugh.

"This is some kind of joke, da? Little Matilda is a girl and she is just playing a joke on us."

"Um Ivan?" Alfred and a few others get up and go to check on the hysterical nation while everyone else continues to stare at Matthew.

"You're really Matilda then?"

He nods."

"Why are you..." Mathias wasn't sure how to finish that sentence at all. He wasn't sure if this meant Matilda was a girl and just crossdressing or a boy and had been crossdressing.

"Well Arthur found out I'd been crossdressing all this time and insisted I dress properly for meetings from now on so... Uh here I am." Matthew was trying to be confident but it was hard to do so when everyone was staring at him. He wasn't even really sure why.

"You're a guy! How did no one notice before?"

"Anko calm down. He looks completely different dressed like this, probably just a lot of practice in keeping up the charade of a woman is why no one noticed. Right Matilda?"

"Er, I guess. Um and its Matthew now. Arthur said it wouldn't be right to keep calling myself Matilda, though I don't really understand his reasoning."

The others in the room just stare at him, trying to figure out if he is being serious or not. In the end they decide it isn't worth the headache of trying to figure out and get the meeting started. Ivan never did fully recover from the shock and left the meeting mumbling something about how he was no longer so sure if he liked women.

The next day was one of the world meetings, with everyone attending. News of Matthew had spread quickly through the nations and eventually reached Elizabeta and Feliks. The two were standing outside the meeting room waiting for Matthew to come by so they could ambush him about his gender identity.

They almost missed him though as he really did look very different from before. Fortunately these two were familiar with the changes clothes could make on a person and they managed to grab him with a slight squeak.

"Ah, Elizabeta, Feliks! What are you two doing?"

"Hmmm, so he really is a man." Feliks pouts, "No fair that he's, like, totally better at it than I am."

"Aw, its ok Feliks, maybe he'll tell you his secrets."

Matthew stared at the two in confusion and tried to slip away but Elizabeta had a strong grip on his arm that wasn't relenting.

"So Matthew, right? Were you just thinking you were a girl all this time or was it something else?"

"I've always known I was a boy. I just liked life as a girl better." Matthew was aware of Elizabeta's own gender confusion. After Gilbert found out about Matthew's crossdressing he had asked pretty much the same thing she was now, explaining how Elizabeta had thought she was a boy until it became too obvious she wasn't.

"So you, like, choose to dress as a girl?"

"Well yeah."

Feliks was a well known crossdresser, no one was really sure why. Sure he was gay but he also was rather masculine and dominant. Odd coming from the Pole but that was how things had worked out.

"Hmm, well I guess we should, like, be friends from now on then. Since we both like it so much."

"Uh, I guess we could. But my family is trying to convince me to stop." Matthew furrows his brows. "Its not like its really that big of a deal if I still like wearing dresses, right?"

"Of course not!" Both Elizabeta and Feliks cry out. Matthew looks wearily at them. Feliks just looks like he's made a new friend but Elizabeta has a strange glint in her eyes that makes Matthew want to back away slowly.

Then, out of the blue, came the strangest question of the morning.

"So are you, like, seeing anyone?"

"Wha?"

"Do you have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend?"

"I I don't really see what that has to do with anything?"

"So you do? Who is it? Is it a nation? Do you top or bottom?"

The questions came rapid fire and Matthew wasn't sure how to answer. He really began wishing Gilbert was there but he had let the man sleep in since he wasn't required to be at the meeting.

"Uh, I, what does that mean? Topping? Bottoming?"

At his confused look Elizabeta frowns a bit. She hadn't thought he wouldn't understand.

"Its a way of expressing who is dominant in the relationship. Most often its the one that's most effeminate that bottoms or is submissive."

Matthew furrows his eyebrows and frowns slightly at what he is being told. So being the one to dominate the other, being more masculine meant you topped. He thought about him and Gilbert. Gilbert had let him take control of their first time, so he had topped then, but he was definitely more effeminate than Gilbert.

"I guess both."

The two blink at him in confusion.

"What does that mean?"

"I, well, Gilbert and I agreed to take turns, uh, being submissive? We're equals in this. Though he has way more experience than I do."

"Gilbert? You're seeing Gilbert?"

"And the two of you are on equal footing as far as top and bottom go?"

"That's..."

"Just so weird."

"Hmm? Why is it strange. Isn't it a good thing that we're equal?"

"Uh well I suppose so, but still this is Gilbert we're talking about. He's not really the type to lay down and take something, he has a very dominant personality."

Matthew gives Elizabeta a confused look. "Yeah but he still has his moments where he isn't. I pulled one over on him back in the last world war and he always seems to sit a little further way during hockey games. I think that's more he doesn't want to get hit accidentally though."

Feliks and Elizabeta take a turn to stare.

"So Gilbert's, like, known for a while that you were a guy?"

"Huh, he only found out a few months ago."

"Then what was that about getting 'one over on him'?"

"Hmm, well when war came around I'd stop crossdressing and enlist as a soldier. I got captured by Gilbert and taken to a prison camp he was overseeing. I broke out and freed the other POW's as well. Gilbert actually looked up to me after that, even if he didn't exactly know who I was."

"You, have got to be kidding. So you're kind of badass then?"

"Um yeah I guess. Um shouldn't we head into the meeting now. We don't want to be late."

After that things went rather normally for Matthew. Despite everyone having suddenly taken an interest in his supposed gender change. by the time the whole conference had come to an end Matthew had gotten used to the odd looks and random questions about how he was fitting in. At one point Ivan had even come up to him and asked if he would be interested in joining in the after conference hockey game as a player rather than a spectator. Matthew was all to happy to participate in the game and due to his participation a larger crowd than normal appeared to watch. Matthew was put on defense by Mathias, the captain of his team, and when the game began it wasn't really that different from how it usually went. Some of the nations that didn't normally come started to wonder if maybe they should leave when Ivan got the puck. For whatever reason he thought going down the ice past Matthew was the best plan. However, he wasn't counting on the Canadian coming after him aggressively and slamming him into the boards with enough force to split them. Ivan crumpled to the ice, winded and gasping for breath as everyone else just stared. Matthew paused, wide eyed, before kneeling down to check on the larger nation.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to slam into you so hard. Are you going to be ok?"

At the concern and worry in the other's voice Ivan couldn't help but chuckle a bit, though it sounded rather pained.

"It is alright, Matvey. I will be fine. Though you may have broken a rib... or three."

After that they got Ivan off the ice and patched up and the rest of the game was called off. Suddenly everyone was giving Mathew a wide berth to which Gilbert just chuckled and wrapped his arms around his partner.

"Keseses, that was awesome Mattie."

Matthew just smiled. He didn't mind how people saw him as long as he had Gilbert by him he was happy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Aww, sappy ending and I hope you all enjoyed this. Please review.