The sun was out today. It sat high in the sky, and it was decently warm as a result. Not that warm- it was still the colder time of year- but warmer than it had been for the past few days. The past few days, in fact, had been nothing but rain, sleet, and snow, depending on the time of day and what mood whoever controlled the skies was in. That was DC for you, Matthew supposed- he couldn't remember a time he'd been to his brother's capital when the weather had actually been decent, instead tending to hover between too hot and humid, too rainy, too snowy, too dreary, or too windy on any given day.
Maybe it was just his current mood talking, but even the 'decently warm' weather that was going on right now wasn't quite right. At least it wasn't sleeting again. He could take that consolation. But it was the kind of weather that made it hard to wear anything- put on a coat, he was too warm, go without his jacket, it was far too cold. So yeah. The weather was just about even, at best- even if the sun was out now, shining down, as though announcing that all of the clouds ought to be perfectly cleared away now, and that the days of cold weather and sleet ought to be done with.
Matthew rather hoped he'd be headed back towards Ontario soon. At least then, he'd have actual snow.
And it certainly said something that he was thinking about the weather instead of the conversation he was supposed to be having today, honestly. He was less of a person for avoidance, these days, but the fact remained that he'd rather not be having, well, just about any conversation with Alfred at all at the moment. It wasn't that a conversation with Alfred wasn't going to be a good conversation. Whatever wound up happening, they both knew each other too well for it to not at least be interesting, if nothing else. And frankly, the longer Matthew put off actually talking to the man, really and properly talking, the worse things would get but, well-
-to say things had been tense would be to put it very, very lightly. Which was, to be honest, at least partially Matthew's fault. Mostly because a large part of Matthew wanted to punch Alfred in the face enough times that it would actually bruise for once, maybe break his nose in the process, and then laugh at him about it. But. You know. Generally a bad idea to punch the person who basically held Matthew's life in his hands in the face. Or other, more unmentionable places, for that matter- even if seeing his brother squeak would continue to be very, very satisfying. Even if, right now, it seemed like kicking Alfred might actually be for Alfred's own good, the way Alfred was getting caught up in all of... this. Mostly it'd be good for Matthew's temper, though.
See, it didn't help that Matthew and Alfred... Sure. Alfred had always been the stronger brother. Even when they were both useless kids, Alfred always had that strength of his. But while they'd never exactly been equals, it had never been so blatant before. The only other time things had come this far to a head between them, the good son and the rebel son, it had ended with tears, burnt capitals, and a lot of fences to mend. This time, though- this time they'd managed to completely throw off whatever relationship they'd used to have. Matthew could pretend, sure- but even that didn't work because there was an icy fire in Matthew's veins now that would never forget that, technically, Matthew was subordinate to Alfred now. He was the older twin, damnit (...that joke lost a lot of humor now that it was this painfully ironic).
And when things got this... whatever... normally Matthew was the one who was good at talking it out. Except he mostly wanted to lash out and try the whole burning each other's hearts out and seeing who won thing again, honestly, even if there was an equally large part of Matthew that was just... tired. Tired of fighting his brother. And just... he just wanted to hug his twin brother and have them both move on except no, he didn't want that at all, because none of this shit was okay and Alfred had to know that and he didn't think he actually could keep himself from hurting things if he got the chance and-
-yeah. There were a lot of good reasons Matthew wanted to avoid a proper conversation, really.
But it was time to force the issue anyway, wasn't it? Because they couldn't just stay like this forever. The sun was out. Matthew was in a calmer mood. It was probably better to do it now, before Matthew wheedled his way back to Ontario long enough to make sure everything was running properly. Because things were going to get worse before they got better, and frankly, Matthew didn't want to leave it out on the "worse".
So. Time. Matthew was just going to have to take the opportunity to hit Alfred with a strong right hook no, no, that- god this was going to end so badly.
"Alfred." His voice was undertoned with the kind of apprehension he didn't normally have when saying his brother's name, though he did at least make the effort to put a usual smile on his face, to make it a little bit bright and sunny. Matthew didn't think it had worked as well this time, but hey, he was working on it, alright? This was new to him.
Alfred was torn. He wanted to talk to Matthew badly, knowing that Matthew was one of the few true 'allies' that he had left. But was he truly an ally, or was he only there because he had to be? On one hand Alfred was tempted to loosen Matthew's leash, but he wasn't sure if he could trust Matthew to stay. He'd worked hard for this and wasn't about to let Matthew slip out from under him that easily, and yet he wanted his brother to see that it was for the best this way. Alfred wouldn't desert Matthew the way Arthur deserted them both. Arthur might argue that Alfred deserted him after his Revolution, but Arthur was hardly around during his youth. So who really deserted who?
He felt a savage sort of satisfaction knowing that he came out on top and was one of the more powerful empires of the world..but he didn't really want his brother to suffer under his rule. He might not care so much about the territories he'd conquered from other European nations who decided their colonies weren't worth worrying about in the midst of a war that overtook a good chunk of Eurasia, but Matthew was his brother. And little as though he wanted to admit it sometimes, his brother was still important to him - Whether his brother was technically a possession of his or not.
Alfred turned when he heard his brother's voice, a small smile coming to his lips. Despite the tension, he was still glad to see his brother. He was glad to see that someone was still there with him, even if it turned out they were there because they had to be (though he hoped that was not the case). "Matthew, how have you been? Is there anything I can do to ease this transition for you?" Alfred almost bristled at the words falling from his lips. They sounded so..official, so detached. So rehearsed. It was hard to sound relaxed when they fought brutally with one another, but this was his brother.
Matthew fought a valiant fight, Alfred was willing to acknowledge that. It was a fight that he probably would have won had the British Empire actually done what he'd advertised he would do. Alfred was not only angered at the way that Arthur treated Matthew, but at the fact that Arthur essentially used Matthew as a shield. It also seemed like a rather cheap way to get out of fighting with Alfred himself. A war that was supposed to be between himself and England and he only saw England at the tail end? That hardly seemed right. Alfred was certain that he would treat Matthew better than Arthur treated Matthew, not least because Arthur set the bar so low that it would be nigh impossible to treat him worse than Arthur did already.
And Arthur wasn't the only Empire that Alfred had issues with. He could 'get along' with Germany, Italy, and Japan easily enough when he needed to, but he disliked what they were doing. He might be guilty of spreading his influence as well, but it was different when said influence was democracy. He wanted to save the world, not plunge it into ruin the way that the Axis seemed to be working toward. He also wanted to be the one in charge, the most powerful nation in the world..and that couldn't very well happen when an alliance of three powerful empires stood in his way. Four if one included England.
He'd already seen signs of unrest though. Trust issues budding between each of the powers. They probably thought he was too oblivious to notice, but he could pick up on a lot more than most gave him credit for. And that was entirely the point - He didn't want them to realize that he was keeping his eyes open to the extent that he was
His brother looked good. It was probably an odd thing, to think that at the moment, but as much as Alfred seemed eminently punchable at the moment, power suited him well. True, beneath looking relatively good, standing tall like that, he looked just about as stressed as he'd ever been, but Matthew could only assume it came with the territory (pun intended). The fact remained though that, out of the two of them, Alfred was a little more built for this, a little more extroverted, a little taller (even if Matthew would deny it), a little bit more... noticeable.
This did not in any way make Matthew less angry at him, though. Actually, considering it for a moment, it probably actually made it worse. This, obviously, was not what his brother was likely going for, here, but seeing the man even look somewhat in his element doing this was yet another reminder that Matthew, in fact, kind of felt like he'd been standing on a bridge someone decided to set several explosive charges on, just to see what would happen when he fell. That, and it reminded him that Alfred now not only could pick up and move him if he wanted to, but also had legal power to hold over Matthew's head. As his sibling, this was unacceptable. (As a person and a Nation, it was worse, but then ag... yeah moving on.)
And then Alfred spoke, and for some reason, Matthew's first thought was: that can't be my brother. It would be, Matthew thought, both a lot easier and a lot harder if this proved to be true. On the one hand: no overwhelming desire to either emotionally or physically beat out of Alfred what he was thinking. On the other hand, if it wasn't Alfred, then that meant that- no Matthew you're angry, you're not going there do you understand. Either way: that didn't sound like Alfred at all. That didn't sound like Alfred at all, and that fact managed to dull a lot of the... whatever was going on in his head down to a thin sort of hissing.
As much as he did not want to think "I have lost my last brother", starring this man in the face and pretending he wasn't Alfred at all, just for a moment, at least cleared his head a little bit.
For a moment, Matthew paused. He... really didn't know how to respond to this, actually. Part of him wanted to smile and tell Alfred that his congress moved too slowly and he'd really like to actually have a better idea of how things were going to work once the United States was out of a state of emergency. Part of him wanted to complain about the weather, not really answering the question at all. Part of him, yes, still wanted to break Alfred's nose. Part of him wanted to tell Alfred he could do nothing at all- not like this, with eyes and words that were practically lies and a breach this cold between them. (That, Matthew thought, was probably the closest thing to the truth, though honestly Matthew wasn't entirely certain what the truth would actually be.)
Instead, he sighed and said "There isn't enough good maple syrup around here, so if you can find something decent..." his tone purposefully overdramatic, his slump over-exaggerated and fake and silly. Jokingly complaining about maple syrup, pretending to be playful... yeah, this wouldn't actually help anything at all. But it was a lot easier than trying to untangle the knot of things that were closer to the truth, and if he did that Matthew was more than a little afraid of what would happen next. So yeah. Better to avoid that until his brother stopped saying things that didn't fit him at all and standing tall and straight like some empire and looking like someone needed to come in and knock him down a few pegs again (for his own good, so that at the end of the day, his ego wasn't the size of a moose when it came time to deal with other people, like when they were- else, or just for Matthew's own catharsis- he wasn't sure which).
Alfred wasn't sure what to expect from Matthew, what sort of response Matthew would provide him with. All the while he was extremely tempted to call Matthew by his old nickname of Mattie, but wondered if that would be seen as too much of an insult. This was Alfred's brother and Alfred still cared about him, but he wouldn't blame Matthew for being pissed off at him after everything that happened. Yet he didn't want to lose his brother either, and the only way he felt he could be absolutely certain that Matthew wouldn't leave him was by leaving Matthew under his command. He just..couldn't help but hope that Matthew was there out of some sense of actual loyalty and caring rather than just obligation.
The corners of Alfred's mouth twitched upward when Matthew responded with maple syrup of all things. "I can work on getting better maple syrup delivered here for you, yes. I'm surprised you didn't bring some from home just in case." He knew that Matthew was (mostly) joking, but he was relieved at the temporary lessening of the tension that came along with it and thus played along with it just as eagerly.
He took a deep breath. Matthew was the closest thing he could consider an ally at the moment.. "Something needs to be done about the Axis. I know we can't do anything right away but something needs to be done about them." For the first time in this conversation with Matthew, Alfred looked concerned. He might be unsure what his end goal was..did he just want to rescue those who were under Axis control and right everything again, or did he want to go a step further if it came to that and unite the world under his vision? If he managed to take out the Axis he could do it couldn't he? A look of almost manic glee flashed across his face before he stopped himself..not only was he getting too far ahead of himself, but that last thought was as chilling as it was intoxicating.
Alfred looked back toward Matthew, managing to bring a smile smile to his face (even if it both felt and seemed a little forced at this point). "They won't stay friends forever, I can already see some of the tension building up." He wasn't the best at patience, but he knew that being patient in this instance could mean the difference between life and death. He pretty much had no choice, though he hated to find himself in such a position.
He wasn't sure why he was spilling all of this to Matthew..perhaps because Matthew was the only one he could really talk to about this. Everyone else was part of a difference alliance or was a member of Latin America he either conquered or was only marginally affiliated with him. "You've seen it too, haven't you?" He was certain that Matthew had. Alfred was more observant than most thought, but Matthew was always the more observant of the two as far as Alfred could tell.
He just wanted..someone. He would force others to be his friends if he absolutely needed to, but that wouldn't make him happy no matter how much he convinced himself otherwise. He would do it though, if he had no other choice
