America? Who?

Sunflower

(Two and a half week after the last meeting)

The distant sound of his alarm clock woke him in the morning. America groaned as he sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes and enjoying the birds tweeting outside his window. He opened the one side curtain he had in the room, the sunlight filling up the messy blue white and red bedroom (he had fun painting it himself- of course after asking for permission from Matthew). He sat there for a while, enjoying the warmth on his skin. He glanced at the clock that read 7 am.

At least he had gotten some decent sleep... without any nightmares. The tired nation dragged himself out of bed, washing up his face. He hesitated as he stopped in front of the kitchen. Was he hungry? Did he want to eat?

Hell yesh.

With that, he went into the kitchen and prepared the necessary things for cooking pancakes. He paused once he finished mixing everything and a small nostalgic smile crawled unto his face.

"Teach me your ways, Mattie!" Alfred yelled with sparkling eyes, clearly eager to learn the Canadian's cooking skills.

Matthew shot his head up, smiling slightly at his brother. "Sure. I can teach you how to cook pancakes, Al."

"Yeeesssss!" He practically squealed, bouncing towards the other as he watched the Canadian move around. He took out some ingredients, untencils, etc.

Once he's done, he faced the American with a small smirk. "Now all you have to do is follow my lead, Al."

Alfred ended up making too many pancakes. Apparently, he lost track of time. He frowned, "What am I going to do with all of th-"

"Cooking without me already?" America jumped at the sudden voice. "Thank you, Al."

Ok. He almost forgot about being in a different world where he doesn't exist (which is so not cool btw) and also living with his brother who doesn't know a single thing about all these parallel shenanigans. Alfred swirled around and smiled sheepishly, "Hey dude." He waved with a smile.

"Good morning to you too." Matthew smiled and served a tower of pancakes for himself and Kumajirou. He spread the maple syrup, sliced one of them and ate it. Alfred squirmed and looking hopefully at the Canadian. Finally, Canada's eyes brightened as a smile stretched his face. "Oh, you're actually good at cooking pancakes. It's almost like the ones I always cooked." He chirped, taking another bite.

Alfred chuckled and ate his own pancakes. "Well... I had a brother who always cooked pancakes for me whenever I went at his home. I asked him to teach me and I got used to it." He smiled, almost lost in his thoughts.

"...He must have been a great brother." Matthew said, noticing Alfred's wistful look on his face.

Alfred's smile widened with a chuckle, "Yeah...he was."

For a moment, a comfortable silence fill in the room as they ate their pancakes. Matthew ate another one before saying, "Is he here yet?"

Alfred's smile widened even more (if such thing was even possible). "It's Russia we're talking about here, Mattie. 'Course he is." With that, he finished his meal, washed the dishes and skipped into the garden.

ꕥ-✿-ꕥ

America hummed a song in his head as he watered the sunflowers seedlings with enthusiasm. Matthew considered him as a friend (maybe even a brother) and it took a week before the Canadian openly chatted with him without a hint of suspicion and caution, it made him happy yet sad at the same time.

If it took a week for the Canadian to trust him then... does that mean that it'll take more than a week for the others to do so?

It worried him but the fact that Russia seems to act like his Russian back to his world begged to differ his thoughts. He smiled widely when the said nation came to his vision. It is kind of strange that Russia acts so friendly to him in this world while the others are very much wary of his presence every meeting.