My Little Hetalia: FACE Family

by nobody_in_particular

A Room for the Night

"Keeping yourself strong proves a greater strength," -America
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Alfred winced slightly as the hot tea burned his throat. He had grown up drinking Arthur’s tea and was used to it, but after he got hooked on coffee, tea just wasn’t enough.

He set down his cup very gently, knowing that Arthur would fuss at him if he wasn’t gentlemanly enough.

“I wish Tony was here,” he muttered, staring down into his Earl Grey.

“Al, Tony is an alien from outer space. I think he can take care of himself for a while,” Matthew said, not bothering to even look up at his twin.

“You missed the point,” Alfred said, then said quietly, “as usual.”

Matthew decided not to say anything back, not wanting to start a fight that would surely last all day. Alfred wasn’t one to back down easily from any sort of fight. He was the hero, after all. He would keep at it until the other person finally gave up and said he was right. If you were to ask Francis or Matthew about that, they would most likely tell you that he got that part of his personality from Arthur. Arthur himself would deny it (no surprise there) but that never made it any less true.

They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the first stress-free moment of the day they’d had so far. The four of them-Alfred, Arthur, Francis, and Matthew-were sitting around a small table in the guest room in Fluttershy’s house. The room used to belong to Discord whenever he dropped by, but the Spirit usually ended up in Fluttershy’s bed anyway, leaving the room obsolete.

Fluttershy had agreed to let the four men (and Kumajiro) stay until they got their problems sorted out. She didn’t question them much, knowing where her boundaries were. She had gotten very few answers out of Mathew, but from what he had been able to tell her it sounded like they would be there for a while.

Arthur took a long sip of his tea before looking over at Francis, realizing the man hadn’t spoken at all for at least fifteen minutes. His eyes were cast downwards and his hair had been messily pulled out of the ponytail. Surprising, since Francis would usually contract a serious case of OCD when it came to even a single hair being out of place.

“What’s the matter, old chap? Finally learning how to be quiet?” Arthur asked, more harshly than he had intended to.

“Nothing,” the Frenchman said, his voice sounding as sad as he looked. He stood up and quickly walked into the hallway, not looking back as he left.

Arthur sighed and looked down into his empty teacup. On the outside the fine china was painted-almost childishly-with little flowers and suns and pink hearts.

“I’ll be back,” he said, taking the same exit as Francis had. He expected to see his husband sitting against the wall, but there was no one there. He glanced out the window and saw him sitting next to a small fish pond in the backyard. He had the tip of his hoof dipped in the water, swirling it around mindlessly.

Arthur quietly walked up behind the purple unicorn, trying to not let himself be noticed. He almost couldn’t believe it when he saw Francis’ shoulders shake and sniffling noises were audible. He didn’t realize he’d spoken his thoughts out loud until the man’s body stiffened.

“Francis, are you crying?”

“Non, I do not cry,” Francis said, his voice cracking on the last word.

Arthur didn’t say anything. He wasn’t stupid; he knew that Francis was one to cry from time to time, usually when being reminded Jeanne. He had a million snarky thoughts running through his mind. He could’ve picked any one of them and embarrassed Francis even more, but for once he didn’t.

Arthur sat down next to the older blonde, rubbing his back gently.

“Ça va être d’accord, mon peu chou.” he said slowly in mispronounced French.

Francis laughed softly and rested his head on Arthur’s shoulder.

“Really, Angleterre? Cabbage?”

“You say it all the time to the twins.” Arthur pointed out.

“Indeed, mon cœur.” Francis cooed softly. Then he started giggling. “Everyone is probably wondering where we are. Germany will be so mad at us for missing today’s World Meeting. Oh, if only they knew…”

Then he started laughing that annoying French laugh of his that Arthur couldn’t help but think was adorable, even though he refused to admit it.

And before he knew it, he was laughing, too, thinking of the other countries’ confused looks as they thought of where the family could’ve gone.

“Oh, that reminds me,” the heavily accented voice next to him said. “Antonio and Gilbert were coming over tonight to have dinner. Those two will obviously make up the craziest scenarios to explain our absence.”

It sounded hilarious and they couldn’t stop laughing, no matter how hard they tried. Arthur was desperately in need of air, but the sound of his lover’s laugh set him off again every time.

It wasn’t long before they collapsed on the grass, their arms wrapped around each other. Arthur nuzzled his face into the crook of Francis’ neck, breathing in his sweet scent.

“Je- Je t’aime Francis,” he whispered softly before falling asleep even though it was only about five o’clock in the afternoon.

“Je t’aime Arthur,” Francis said in return, kissing the top of his mari’s spiky hair.

He looked down at the other stallion’s face as he slept. For a man who usually had a sour mood and a frown on his face all day long, Arthur looked rather peaceful when he slept, the corners of his mouth upturned ever so slightly.

“Ah, mon Cherie, if I were as cruel as I seemed I would leave you here until morning,” Francis said as he lifted Arthur onto his back. He was used to the weight from when they used to go out drinking together and the Brit would end up passing out before he got home.

He walked into their room and saw Matthew and Alfred sitting on the carpet across from each other. Neither boy looked up as he walked in and set Arthur down on the bed before getting in next to him.

“I give up, Alfred. This is not working,” Matthew sighed.

“What?” Alfred asked in shock. “It’s totally working! Besides, you’re in the lead now, so you can’t be looking for an excuse to drop out.”

“Al, Rock, Paper, Scissors doesn’t work with hooves. How do you make the scissors?”

Alfred shrugged, a goofy grin on his face. “I don’t know. Maybe we should actual scissors instead.”

Matthew’s dark brown fur paled, shock in his violet eyes. “Yeah, I vote on not doing that.”

“Come on, Mattie. Sometimes in life you have to take the risky road. Now is one of those times.”

“Plus comme la chemin à la hôpital,” Matthew said under his breath.

“What did you just say?” Alfred asked. “Huh? You know I don’t understand French like you and Papa do.”

“Nothing,” Matthew said with a wry smile. “You want to get to sleep? Dad and Papa have already hit the hay.”

“What? But why?” Al groaned. “It’s so early! I can never go to bed before 9:00.”

“Fine then,” Matthew said, getting in between his parents. “But you’re gonna be really bored in a little while.”

Alfred considered that for a moment before rolling his eyes. “Scoot over, then.”

Matthew smiled, knowing he had won. “Yeah, just don’t wake Dad up. He’ll kill you.”

Alfred gulped, eyeing the bed in worry.

Once Alfred had gotten in without waking up either of his parents, he rolled over to face his twin.

“This is so boring!” he whispered.

“Fermer en haut et aller à lit,” Matt whispered back.

Alfred huffed angrily and squeezed his eyes shut. “I already told you I don’t understand French!”

Author's Note:

Yay, I got this one up sooner! Sorry if any of the translations are incorrect. I used Google Translae and I don't know how well it works.

Translations:
non: no
Ça va être d’accord, mon peu chou: It'll be alright, my little cabbage
Angleterre: England
mon cœur: my heart
Je t’aime: I love you
mari’s: husband's
mon Cherie: my sweetheart
Plus comme la chemin à la hôpital: More like the path to the hospital
Fermer en haut et aller à lit: Shut up and go to bed

Comments

[BurningSkies]

La hôpital should be l'hôpital because in french the h is silent therefore hôpital is essentially just ôpital and the bizarre and annoying laws of french grammar decree that if a word starts with a vowel, the determinant (words in french like le, la, du, etc.) that goes in front of it gets it's vowel replaced with an apostrophe, but only if it's singular.
Peu should be petit because peu = few

Why did that first correction take up so much time to write?

[Fankat10]

Woah i didn't know Hetalia existed here!