Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: Axis Powers: Hetalia belongs to Himaruya Hidekazu, I own nothing.)

[Inspired by: "Okitegami" by Maaya Sakamoto]

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Really, Alfred thought as he worked on tying together different colored ribbons, he should have seen this coming. What a shame though, that he wouldn't have expected anything on this day. Matthew should have given himself more credit.

In the background of Alfred's hearing, he could pick out a few of the other nations doing awfully pestering things to his brother, but then again: really, he should have at least thought this might be coming.

"Wh-wh-what are you doing?" Matthew squeaked as Francis crept up to him with a weird collection of items in his full arms. Francis smirked, and Matthew couldn't help but let out a yelp of fear.

"Hold still, mon petit Matthieu, hmm?" Francis said almost seductively, and Matthew tried his hardest to sink as far into the chair as possible. Unfortunately, his translucency was failing to make an appearance today, and he hadn't any idea why. It always seemed the few times when he actually wanted to become invisible, he failed to do so.

Alfred chuckled amidst his humming as he listened to the following struggle between Francis and Matthew, and continued tying together silk ribbon. When his concoction of red and white seemed as awesome as he could manage (with a pricked finger or two from the needle used to sew them together), he announced his victorious efforts. "Francis, the ribbon has been made to perfection!" He said with a smile as Francis snitched it from his grip.

"C'est magnifique, Amerique~!" Francis proclaimed as he admired the handiwork, before returning to Matthew. "Arthur, won't you assist me in keeping him restrained?" He asked. Arthur gave him a wholehearted salute, and pulled rope from seemingly nowhere. Today was one of the rare occasions in which Francis and Arthur would cooperate willingly together. After Matthew had been properly tied to the chair and blindfolded for good measure, they got to work.

Matthew squeaked as Francis began playing with his hair, while at the same time he could feel Alfred and Arthur's hands messing with his clothing. "What are you doing? Is this some sort of weird sexual fantasy?" Matthew spoke even faster than Alfred could manage on a good day, and he was therefore rather impressed. But Francis broke the silence first.

"Ahh, my darling Matthieu, we would never objectify you in that way!" Francis said a little too mysteriously. And yet, at the same time, Alfred took off his jacket. Arthur was painstakingly pulling a shirt onto his bare chest. A sudden rush of footsteps outside of the room roared on the vibrating floorboards. To say the least, Matthew was terrified. He nearly whimpered when the door slammed open.

"Feliciano Vargas reporting for duty, Francis-onii-chan!"

"What am I doing here?"

"Hush up Ludwig, it's a special occasion, aru!"

"Is this some sort of sacrificial ritual, da?"

"Ivan…"

Matthew suddenly heard an onslaught of voices all talking over each other, managing to catch bits and pieces of conversation as they swirled around the room sickeningly. "Alright! I need everyone's attention on me!" Matthew jumped as Alfred projected his voice over the entire room's banter. It quickly fell silent, after a few disgruntled complaints.

"I'll take Matthew outside and Francis and Arthur will tell you all what to do! Don't be too noisy!" Matthew yelped as it felt like he was being lifted into the air- in his chair still! It seemed Alfred was being very literal when he said he was taking him out. "Wow Matthew, are you eating right? You feel light as a feather!" Alfred commented, and Matthew couldn't think of anything to say back except a few noises of surprise as his chair sloshed back and forth and left and right, seemingly in midair.

He could hear a door open as he abruptly swung to the right, feeling a little sick to his stomach. As Matthew identified the sounds of birds and bugs singing, he deduced that he had been taken to his backyard. Alfred finally put him down on the ground and began untying the knots Arthur had made so tediously. "I can't take the blindfold off yet, sorry Mattie!" Matthew blushed in embarrassment as Alfred used his nickname.

"What is all of this about, Alfred?" Matthew stuttered out, still sporting a slight blush.

"I can't tell you! That would ruin the surprise!" Alfred exclaimed excitedly, and Matthew could only sigh. Neither nation could think of anything else to say, and they fell into a somewhat uncomfortable silence.

"You know, Matthew..." Said person was not expecting the voice to cut through the distant sounds of nature, and jumped just slightly at the exclamation. "I don't really get why no one notices you."

"Oh! Well," Matthew began, looking down despite only seeing black, "I don't do very much internationally, so I guess when I don't say anythi—"

"No, I don't mean like that." Alfred cut him off. "I mean, how do people not notice how…" Alfred trailed off, seemingly deep in thought. "..How pretty you are?"

Matthew's head snapped up. "What?"

"N-no wait! You misunderstood. I mean, your land and stuff. Your country's beautiful." He cleared his throat loudly. "Yeah." Alfred had stuttered. That didn't happen often.

"Oh… thanks." Matthew couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Why do I feel like this? Shouldn't I feel grateful that he noticed my country? But Matthew still couldn't help but feel a little dejected. Uncomfortable silence reigned on.

"Well," Alfred began as it sounded like he stood up, "I think they're ready for us now. Scared?" He teased, and Matthew couldn't help but blush.

"Not really." He lied, and though Alfred knew he was lying, he let it go anyway.

"Alright! I'll lead you in, 'kay?" Alfred said as he took Matthew's hand. Matthew's blush intensified at the contact. Weird… He's making me feel weird. He inferred.

Matthew whimpered a bit as Alfred tore across the rough terrain and lugged him through it. As if planned, a particularly large lump of dirt caused him to trip and lose contact with Alfred's hand. "A-Alfred, wait!" Matthew feared that his brother would not have noticed the lack of pressure in his hand and continued on. He started to lift his blindfold.

"Now you wait!" Matthew heard Alfred's feet trudging through the ground. "You're not allowed to take that off yet!" Matthew again felt the contact of their hands as Alfred yanked him up on his feet again, and continued walking (though slower this time).

"Sorry…" Matthew mumbled. He really was not expecting Alfred to notice, though. Why did it seem as if everyone knew he existed today?

"Sorry?" Alfred asked as he turned the doorknob and the hinges creaked when the door swung open. "What are you sorry about?" Alfred didn't give him a chance to respond. "Alright, you wait here and I'll go see if everything's ready!" The hand left him, and Matthew was left in the middle of what could be a giant trap. He began to think the worst and huddled on the floor where he previously stood (the fetal position always felt comfortable in times of doubt and fear).

After a few minutes the door swung open, and where Matthew was expecting a rush of noise, there was none. Strange…

"Alright, come on in, Mattie!" Alfred said, before he noticed his brother was sitting on the ground. "Matthew, what are you doing on the ground?"

"S-sorry!" Matthew yelped as he stood straight up, how he had previously been.

"Yeah, alright. Come on in!" Alfred avoided the apology and pulled Matthew into the room's threshold. "Alright, everyone! When I say three! One, two,..!" Alfred pulled off the blindfold, and Matthew was introduced to what looked like the whole world. "Three!"

"Happy birthday, Matthew!" At least thirty of the nations had just wished him a happy birthday? Streamers, balloons, champagne poppers, everything Matthew had ever read in books that was at a birthday party? Wait, he was being thrown a surprise birthday party?

"Wh-wh-whaaa?" Matthew couldn't manage to say anything else at the moment. He cleared his throat abruptly and shook his head. "Wh-why would you do all of this for me? I thought you all didn't know it was my birthday, like always! I don't…" Alfred put a friendly arm around him and smiled.

"Of course we knew it was your birthday today!" In actuality, Alfred had only just realized a week ago that his brother even had a birthday, and had told everyone else immediately. Technically, no one did know it was his birthday. But Matthew didn't need to know that, right?

"You seemed a bit down lately, petit Matthieu, and we wanted to show that we really do care about you, hm?" Francis said with a big smile, and brought his arms around the small boy in a big hug. "Happy birthday, Matthieu!"

Slowly, one by one, each nation in the room gave him congratulations and presents. While wishes were varying in style and sincerity, it didn't matter to him. This had been the most anyone had ever done for him before in his life, and he felt eternally grateful. It was, however, when he realized what Francis, Alfred and Arthur had done to him before the party had begun that he really felt appreciated.

The t-shirt Arthur had pulled onto him was what was really special. It was a simple white, but covered in assorted colors of ink; each nation had written him a little well wish and a signature somewhere on the shirt. Again, there were different lengths of style and sincerity, but Matthew didn't care in the slightest.

And in his hair was the ribbon that Alfred had made, red and white in color, and beautifully simple. It made him feel like a girl, but he didn't mind. It was carefully constructed to sit on his head just so, and he nearly felt some of the love in it radiate off when he brushed against it with his fingers.

Matthew sniffled a bit and gasped when he found his eyes tearing up. Why am I crying? Shouldn't I be happy? He finally smiled for the first time in months. It seemed as if Francis and Alfred had some sort of smile-sense, because they instantly noticed.

"Matthieu! You're smiling!" Francis said with twinkling eyes, a smile on his own face too.

"Y-yes." Matthew replied, still trying to hold back the feeling to cry.

"Ah? But why are you crying then?" Alfred asked, and Matthew cursed himself for not being able to hold it back completely.

"N-no one's ever done this for m-me before. I just felt s-so happy!" Matthew wiped his eyes again and sniffed. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm doing this!" Matthew said, still smiling as he laughed nervously and continued to wipe the tears away.

Francis seemed to have magically sunk into the background as Alfred took the wrist of the hand Matthew was drying his tears with. "It means you're really happy, Matthew! And I'm really glad," Alfred looked away for a moment, "if this hadn't made you happy I would have given up on trying to cheer you up."

Matthew didn't look for any sort of indication that throwing his arms around Alfred and crying a bit more would be perfectly acceptable, it was simply done. He buried his face in the crook of Alfred's shoulder and squeezed him as hard as he could manage.

"Th-thank you…" Matthew whispered as he hugged Alfred tightly, and a slight flutter was felt when Alfred returned it.

"You're welcome." Alfred said in an uncharacteristically subdued tone.

It took them both a moment to realize everyone had left the room and gone outside. "Let's go enjoy that beautiful scenery you have, huh Mattie?" Alfred said with a big smile before pulling Matthew back in order to see his own newly recovered smile.

"Y-yeah, let's go!" Matthew said, and it was his turn to take Alfred's hand in his and pull him to his backyard.

"Wait, go ahead, Mattie, I have to go to the bathroom first." Alfred rubbed the back of his neck anxiously with a nervous laugh. Matthew nodded, and scampered off to the outdoors to visit with everyone else after letting go of his hand.

Alfred looked at the immense mess left behind in the room, with empty cups and streamers and poppers left everywhere. "Ahh, this is going to take forever to clean up!" He complained, but he sighed as he saw through the room's large glass windows his brother chatting amicably with Kiku and Feliciano.

"Happy birthday, Matthew." Alfred said with a slight smile, though tinged a bit melancholy.

"I love you."

Thanks for reading! Please take the time to review. I know there are probably quite a few other birthday fics out today that are better than mine, but I appreciate your audience and feedback nonetheless! I just love writing sappy things like this, so sugary sweet.

Thanks again,

Infidel Pumpkin.