At the next world meeting, which thankfully the date wasn't too far away, England had tried his best to talk to Canada. Canada would have none of it.

"Can you please stop following me?" Mathew asked as he nervously gave a smile to a passing nation and tried to walk fast enough to stay away from Arthur.

"Can't we just talk? Please stop trying to leave and let's just talk about this."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Then just let me talk about it."

"No."

"Why not?" England asked.

"Because this makes me uncomfortable." Mathew answered.

"That can't be the only thing, you're blushing."

"Fine," Mathew said. "If you really want to know, you called me after I left, and I think you were drunk. I'll let you figure out the rest." Mathew blushed suddenly, his cheeks flushing red, and gave his goodbyes. "Now, I really need to leave."

Arthur let him slip away from him, thread his way throughout the crowded meeting room, and leave. The meeting still had three hours left to it. Arthur sighed, and paid attention to keeping notes so he could at the least tell Mathew about that.

He really didn't want to think about what he had said while drunk. He could only hazard guesses. He couldn't remember any of it himself. He dreaded to learn exactly what had happened; unfortunately, he could easily think of what likely had happened. He just didn't want to admit to himself that he had broken down and tried to repeat himself, begging, and likely crying in a pitiful way for Mathew to respond to him positively. So, he concentrated on his notes, and tried not to think, at all.

'What was that?' The phone was ringing. 'That's odd. Who would be calling me now? Canada? No, that's right. He doesn't want to talk to me. Might as well pick it up anyway.'

"Hello?" Arthur asked.

"Hi."

"Canada?" He questioned. "What? Why?"

"Um," his voice sounded uncertain, and wavering. "Well, there's something I'd like to talk to you about."

"Alright."

'He wouldn't want to talk in person.'

There was silence on the other end of the phone, obviously he would need some prompting to get started.

"Well? Go ahead." Arthur winced, that had sounded too brisk and rude.

Mathew didn't seem to notice. "No, uh, not on the phone like this. This-I want to talk to you about this in private, like face to face. Is there a time I could meet you at? I'm already here."

'How had he not noticed that?'

Mathew's voice continued. "And, um, where would you like to go? Is your house okay? I'm pretty close to there."

Arthur's eyebrows lifted. This was surprising to hear. It sounded almost like-no, that couldn't be it.

"Um, yeah," he said instead without voicing his thoughts. "My house is perfect."

"A bit prideful there, eh?"

The laughter sounded forced, but it wasn't at all. It wasn't much, but it had been enough to make them laugh, and that was all that was needed. It felt comfortable to talk to each other again.

"Whatever you say Mathew, my home is wonderful. Don't you dare insult it. It's almost six o'clock. Would you like to have dinner with me?"

"Just so long as you're not the one that's making it. Do you mind if I cook? I could pick something up if you don't want me to."

"Your cooking is fine."

Mathew giggled. "Thank you, I'm glad you like it. It's good to know that all of papa's efforts to teach me to cook properly weren't wasted. So, I'll see you in a few, okay? And, by the way, I want to talk about what you said. I shouldn't have just blow you off immediately like that. I'd like to do it, be your boyfriend that is. I'd like to at least try. Um, yeah, goodbye."

Mathew ended off and hung up a little too quickly for his nervousness to stay hidden. Not that his voice and trailing off hadn't been a total giveaway.

The dial tone didn't bother England though. He didn't hear it.

'I could be your boyfriend. Mathew said it. Mathew was willing to try it, to do something as risky as a relationship with him. He saw him in that light. Well, maybe, and maybe he was still the only one blinded, but he could at least try to change that now. He did it. He was able to win him over, almost. He would just ignore that he hadn't fully convinced Mathew but, the battle was half over now. He wouldn't have any more negative thoughts piling up inside him like casualties anymore.'

"Yes!" He yelled, punching his fist into the air, then slowly lowered it feeling foolish.

'I'm acting too much like America, I'll need to curb that bad habit more, I'm acting like such an idiot then being so weird afterward. That's not very good. That isn't what I should be concentrating on. I don't care about that right now. Mathew said yes. This is so strange, being so happy for something so simple, but I just can't believe I did it. I tried my hardest to avoid it, and yet I feel so much better about…everything now. Concealing everything…I need to stop doing that. In a relationship you share everything. I-I can do that. I can stop holing everything up, I can put that behind me.'

'I did it.'

He laughed out loud, for no reason it seemed. He set the phone down on its charger and something caught his eye while he was doing it.

A calendar. The calendar he'd had hanging up on his wall for the past year. He'd hung it up just before he first realized all this. It had been the day before Mathew stayed over and fell asleep on his couch that first day. It had been a year. A year since he first started all this, and realized that he might like Mathew when he didn't particularly liked anyone.

It had taken such a long time, everything takes time, but a year? Why had it taken him so long to follow through on what he truly wanted to do? He used to be an empire. Why had he been so afraid of a little bit of pain? Maybe because it hadn't been a pain he was overly familiar with? It didn't matter. At least this time he didn't have a scar to show for it. He hadn't been rejected, fully. He hadn't gotten hurt. He'd taken a leap, and Mathew had caught his breath with his reply, and him with it. He hadn't fallen, like that saying always seems to make seem will happen.

He had risen.