The French-Canadian Way (Hetalia)

Author: Ashynarr

Summary: In canon, Matthew was raised by Francis and Arthur, but didn't turn out too much like either on the surface. What if he'd taken after his founding Nations just a bit more?

Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine.

Warning: CanAme, French!Mattie

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"So why'd you drag me all the way out here?" Mathieu asked once they'd wandered far enough away from the small mansion Alfred called his country house that most of the sounds of the party inside were muffled by the trees between them. "Have you finally decided to check having your wicked way with me in a snow bank off your list?"

Alfred choked and turned to his boyfriend, pouting after he realized it had been a teasing joke. "C'mon, you know that was a joke; no way I'm gonna try anything like that in the cold. I just figured we could chill out here, watch the fireworks and welcome in the New Year on our own."

"Really now?" Mathieu grinned. "And here I thought you weren't a fan of the chilly weather."

"You know what I meant you butt," The American groaned, shoving lightly at his boyfriend.

"I do, and I appreciate the sentiment. By the way, is this…"

"The lake we played in when we were living together, yeah," Alfred smiled, leading the other down to the shoreline, which provided a lovely view of the starry skies above, free from nearly all light pollution. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

"It does," Mathieu agreed, cuddling up close after they'd seated themselves on a large boulder that had apparently been cleared ahead of time for the occasion. "Arthur always got so mad when we'd shove each other into the water until we were both soggy and muddy."

"I think he was more annoyed at us bringing it home and then dripping all over the floors," The southern Nation mused, cuddling back and wrapping an arm around Mathieu. "Sometimes I miss those days, ya know? Not that I regret what I've done since then but…"

"Things were easier," Mathieu replied, understanding completely. "We didn't have to deal with all of these politics or economics or the affairs of other countries as well as our own."

"Yeah," Alfred breathed out, a cloud floating away into the darkness.

Something in his voice caught the Canadian's attention, and he had a good feeling of what it could be based on the previous topic. "Hey, we've made up with Arthur since then, haven't we? And even Francis has come around - it's almost like a family, if the parents are always fighting and making up endlessly."

"And the kids are fucking behind their backs," Alfred muttered, drawing a laugh from his boyfriend.

"I don't think it's behind their backs if they catch us making out in an elevator. Twice."

"Hey, you started both of those, you perv. I was just retaliating in self defense."

"Is that what it's called these days?"

Alfred huffed in mock annoyance. "Seriously though, those weren't nearly as bad as the time Ginny caught us in the kitchen; at least they already knew we were together."

"I'm surprised she took it so well," Mathieu hummed, turning his head slightly so his cheek could rest against Alfred's shoulder. "I always thought the South would be fairly unified in their freaking out about us once they found out."

"She'd probably had a feeling for a while that something was up, considering she raised me. Probably just glad it wasn't something worse."

"Mmm, I think it was the same with Joseph. Or at least he wasn't as bothered by it as Henry and the rest of the Prairies were."

"At least they apologized later," Alfred shook his head. "I'm pretty sure a few still haven't forgiven me for 'betraying their trust' or whatever. Ginny says they'll come around eventually even if she has to chew them out again, but they aren't being vocal about it, so I'll live."

Mathieu grinned as a particular memory popped up. "Remember how Sam reacted when we were telling the southwest?"

"Oh god, he didn't even get two lines in before Bella turned on him and started chewing him out," Alfred laughed as well. "Almost felt bad for him by the end, but he needed it I think to snap him out of his knee jerk reaction."

"I can't decide if that or Percy's reaction was the best, to be honest."

"It's hard to say, on one hand you have this tiny Hispanic woman chewing out a guy twice her size with him quaking in his boots, and on the other you have the guy who literally swore he'd kick the collective asses of the entire south if they gave us trouble. Course, Ben claiming he'd join forces for that just made it better, but it's still hard to say which wins."

"I'm just glad we have most of them on our side," Mathieu hummed, looking back up to the skies as his internal clock counted down towards midnight. "It's nice to not have to really hide it from people anymore."

"It is," Alfred agreed, sighing again and letting his head tilt so it was resting on Mathieu's shoulder. "Like, I didn't really mind keeping low key since our relationship isn't anyone else's business anyways, but I don't have to skirt around it if the topic comes up anymore."

"It certainly makes life easier, doesn't it?"

"Yeah."

The two lapsed into a comfortable silence, mentally ticking down the minutes until midnight officially ushered in the new millennium for them. In his mind's eye, Mathieu could picture several of Alfred's States dragging their fireworks outside, checking them over and positioning them so that right when the clock hit 12 they could light them and celebrate properly.

For now, though, the illusion of the world being just them persisted, both enjoying the stars in the last few moments before they were washed out.

At five minutes to, Alfred spoke up again, voice quiet to avoid breaking the spell. "What're your New Year's goals? I mean, we're going into the twenty-first century, so you probably have big ones, right?"

Mathieu hummed, his hand having long ago found Alfred's hand now running his thumb in small circles on the back of it. "Well, finally getting you into that sexy little Santa outfit one of these Christmases is certainly up there."

"Mattie," Alfred whined softly, lifting his head from its resting place.

"Of course, finding a way to christen the north and south poles will be a much rougher endeavor, but I'm sure we can manage both with a bit of creative and long term planning."

"Mattieeeeeee," Alfred was flushing a brilliant red, drawing an even wider grin from Mathieu.

"Of course," The Canadian continued, dropping his voice as he switched to French. "If you're just talking about tonight specifically, there's plenty of things I can think of to do to properly start the year off."

"You know that's not what I meant, you pervert," Alfred shoved at his boyfriend, hiding his face behind his other hand while Mathieu laughed. "I was just thinking of things like, since it sorta marked the start of our relationship, we could, like, have our fiftieth anniversary on the Moon or something."

"The Moon?" Mathieu glanced up to locate it on instinct, only just remembering that it was just past the New Moon phase and so wasn't visible right now.

"Well, yeah, wasn't that what started it all?" The American asked, shrugging. "I'm sure Tony could help put something together if we asked him, and it'd be hard to beat the view."

"It'd certainly be less crowded than a restaurant," He agreed after a bit, still marvelling at the fact that such a thing was even feasible for them. If nothing else, it sure beat the idea of a romantic dinner in a park with the full moon hanging overhead.

(He wondered what it'd be like to have dinner under a sunlit Earth.)

"That might be part of the motive, I guess," Alfred laughed as he leaned back in to snatch up some more warmth in the cold night. "And maybe if we hit our hundredth we can go for Mars next."

"You're just hoping for a string of excuses to take me around the solar system, aren't you?" Mathieu grinned, not denying the idea would be hard to beat in terms of experience. More to the point, the idea of them actually reaching a hundred solid years of an ongoing relationship was enough to make him feel giddy even with all the unknowns to come.

"Well, yeah, what'd you expect?"

The Canadian snorted. "My boyfriend, the space nerd."

"You still love me, though."

"Of course I do," Mathieu smiled as he turned to the other, feeling the last few seconds begin to count down in the back of his mind. "Was there even any doubt?"

(There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C...(before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy...

Well, this one left them all behind.)

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AN: I can't believe I ended this fic with a Princess Bride quote. What has my life been reduced to? Ah whatever it's done and I'm happy with it and I might write more drabbles related to this in the future possibly so look forward to that. But yeah I hope you all liked this, lemme know what parts you enjoyed most so I can try and emulate those in future fics maybe.