DISCLAIMER: Still don't own Hetalia, its characters, or anything about it really. This is just me having fun.

A/N: I apologize for the long wait, but I don't really know what I'm doing with this fanfic to be honest. It sort of is what it is… I don't think the next chapter will be the last one; there will maybe be three more or so? It's hard to say because just like the last one I'm really just making this all up as I go. I just sat at the computer and wrote this all out in a couple of hours. So hard to predict what will happen next. Some readers, for the last chapter, asked for clarification on the setting or time period this takes place in. I've also been asked just why Yao and Arthur hate each other so much. All this and more will be answered- as soon as I think up the answers to them. (I'm so sorry; I really am shameful. Please enjoy anyway.) Also, there is a certain insult within that I do not own; I'll leave it to you to decipher which one I've borrowed.

Taking Responsibility: Part 02

"And this life sentence that I'm serving,

I admit I'm every bit deserving

But the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair."

- "Be My Escape", Linkin Park

"So what's this I hear about your lost virtue?" was Alfred's greeting to Matthew upon walking into the room where he was being secluded. His smirk was wide with impending jokes at his twin's expense. Even as Matthew glared back at him, he felt his cheeks blush even more. As if there was not enough embarrassment already!

"Go away," Matthew huffed, folding his arms and trying to sink further into his chair. It was quite a nice room that had become his prison, spacious and lavishly furnished, if only lacking in that it had only one door and no windows. He hadn't dared to see if the door had been locked- though apparently not as Alfred had just strode in- or if there was a guard posted at the door to make sure he stayed inside. His own mortification at his behavior had been enough to keep him quite paralyzed. How nice it would be to become as invisible now as he had been at the party!

As usual Alfred ignored him and proceeded to investigate the room. "Father said to come cheer you up," he explained, peering closely at a glass figurine of a dancing bear. He probably expected it to move like a wind-up toy by the way he kept prodding it. "He said that you shouldn't be too disappointed that your first attempt went so awry. He's had worst disgraces apparently."

Matthew could believe that. He was sorely tempted to try once again to explain that he had not intended to really do anything- as he had tried rather clumsily to do to Yong Soo's spluttering mad father but somehow when he let slip, "Well, maybe just to kiss him to make him shut up," that had oddly not improved matters for him- but Alfred was not the person to try and explain this all to. In fact- and his shoulders slumped as he realized this- it was rather a relief to see someone that was not angry with him. Which brought to mind, "They're really upset, aren't they?"

"Oh yeah, Dad is hopping mad," Alfred laughed, abandoning the motionless bear to look at his twin. Seeing Matthew's guilty expression, he quickly amended, "Oh but not at you. He's rather angry for you, I guess. He and Yao are having the screaming match of the century out there."

This only made Matthew wince again. This is why he shouldn't be impulsive; this was a bigger mess than he had ever encountered. If he could he would apologize to everyone, repeatedly, especially- "What about Yong Soo?" He remembered, with another stab of guilt, the other boy's stricken look as Matthew was being dragged away-that Ivan fellow was strong- and he wondered now if Yong Soo was also regretting this night. "How is he doing? Is he… alright?"

"Who?"

"Yong Soo."

"Who?"

"The- the," now Matthew was stammering again, inwardly cursing his brother's utter inability to remember faces and names and he stumbled to put the words together, "the man I was… caught with…" His face probably resembled a cherry by now.

"Oh him," Alfred nodded, oblivious to the other's discomfort. "Hmm… I don't know. I think they have him locked up in his room or something."

Matthew lowered his face into his hands and sighed deeply. He was greatly surprised when he heard Alfred say, "I don't seem to be cheering you up." Looking up he saw Alfred suddenly standing close by with an uncharacteristic look of concern on his face as if just realizing that his brother was experiencing something less than pleasant. After all Alfred wasn't heartless; he just lacked the proper understanding of how to read the severity of a situation.

"It's not your fault," Matthew tried to reassure his younger brother with a smile but he barely felt the corners of his mouth twitch. "It's just… I don't know how to fix this. I don't know how to apologize to everyone properly and I don't know what they'll do to me for this." His imagination had at hand a dozen creative punishments but in favor of not panicking he tried not to think of them.

Alfred frowned. "They're not going to do anything to you," he said quite firmly, with all the implication that he would never allow the contrary. "If that Ivan fellow comes anywhere near you, I'll wallop him. I had told him I would."

"You what?"

"He was talking all sorts of nonsense on how to go about punishing you for 'so insulting to the Lee family' or whatever. Dad was a bit busy trying to scream louder than Yao so I said no one was doing anything to Mattie or they'd find themselves in a fist fight," Alfred shrugged as if this was no big deal at all. "Next thing I know Father is pulling me out by the arm and telling me to come find you. Which is a shame because I think that Ivan guy could've used a good right hook to the honker. Luckily Kiku knew where you were or I would've been wandering around this mansion for ages!"

It felt like the world was spinning; this was getting out control. Of course- of course- his brother, who loved the idea of helping people and believed in ideals more than sensibilities and who did truly love his twin in his own way, would think nothing of how much worse the situation would be to so directly engage in a physical confrontation so long as he did it for Matthew's sake. Thank goodness Francis, at least, had the good sense to send Alfred away from where he could do more harm than good- though between Arthur's anger ignited against Yao, Matthew being caught in a very compromising position with one of the sons of the house, and Alfred casually threatening the new fiancé… The family was probably doomed anyway.

"You look like you're going to be sick," he heard Alfred's voice as if from far away. "Please don't throw up, Mathew. That would be so gross."

About an hour later- although it felt longer because why it was good that Alfred was out of the way, this also meant that Matthew had to be enclosed with his very easily bored twin- the door opened to reveal Yao and Arthur with identical scowling expressions. Both Matthew and Alfred rose to their feet, less out of good manners and more as if to confront a coming executioner. For a heartbeat or two there was silence, as immense disgust seemed to keep Arthur and Yao from speaking, and in that panicked moment of high tension, Matthew thought that maybe he should let Alfred punch Ivan anyway if it meant he could make a run for it. (Alfred probably would still do it if Matthew asked him nicely.)

Then Francis brushed past the two mute men, beaming with an unsettling amount of joy and pride, and came forth to embrace his firstborn. "Oh Matthew, Matthew!" he cried, kissing his son on both cheeks. "Congratulations! What a happy day this has turned out for you! Who knew you would turn out so much like your father after all?"

"W-what?" Matthew stammered, entirely thrown off. Had he been cast into some alternate reality because nothing seemed to be making any sense tonight!

Yao turned his face with a grunt of revulsion and Arthur's right eye started to twitch.

Speaking through clenched teeth, Arthur did his best to explain very calmly, "What your father means is that we have come to an understanding with the Lee family. In order for both of us to avoid disgrace- for somehow news of this debacle has traveled throughout the party somehow-" Both he and Yao glared at each other here, silently but quite obviously accusing the other.

Francis chuckled, "Ah well, you must not blame Elizabeth too much. What was she to think when came across two strapping young men swimming naked in a pond? Haha! Much the same conclusions we came to, no? And she is so very excitable-"

When exactly was this Elizabeth present? When he and Song Yoo had been swimming? Wait, that would have been before they toppled atop each other and before that almost-kiss where they were discovered- Had someone been watching that entire time? (And Matthew had thought he could not be filled with any further horror.)

"Regardless," Arthur cut in very firmly, his patience dangling by a thread, "in order to save face, we have come to an… arrangement."

Matthew gulped, "Arrangement?"

"Ye-es," his dad sighed, somehow stretching the word out several syllables. Then the tension eased from his face and he gazed at his eldest with abundant pity. What did that mean? Execution? Slave labor? What? "It has been decided that you and Yao's son Yong Soo will be married."

Matthew stared and then blinked slowly but no one suddenly cracked up laughing, "Got you!"

"Married?" he echoed and the word suddenly felt very alien on his lips.

Yao glared at him (and some distant part of Matthew's mind registered that the father glared just as his son, the expression more like a pout than a hard-edged gaze), "Yes, married. So my son will not have to hide his head in shame that what should have been given away in marriage was instead wasted on a youthful absence of mind."

"Hey Dad," Alfred spoke up, the pieces slowly coming together on his face, "Is this what you meant that marriage to Father is the worst sort of punishment? Is that what you're doing to Mattie?"

"Alfred!" Arthur groaned and practically slapped himself in the face with the palm of his hand.

"But- but-" Matthew tried to protest. "We didn't do anything. Not even a kiss!"

"You were naked in each other's presence!" spluttered Yao, utterly distraught. "And it certainly did not look like nothing to me when I see my son splayed beneath you- naked!- and you- and you!" Yao eventually gave up trying to be calm and instead started gesticulating wildly. "You seduced my son out of some sort of distorted loyalty to your father but you are stuck with your actions now! You have to take responsibility!"

"Oh this is just like you to turn this back on me!" Arthur snarled. They promptly started shouting at each other again things like "Your face draws in all the misfortune of fate! Your eyebrows just sucks it all in!" and "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!" and all sorts of random things really.

Francis just rolled his eyes, having never been impressed with this on-going feud. It had always seemed as though he knew the history behind it but never spoke of it just because it didn't interest him. "Girls, girls," he drawled mockingly, "you're both pretty. Can we move past this please?" Both parties just kept at it anyway and it reached quite an impressive fervor. Alfred was yawning, bored again, but Matthew was surprised. He had thought his dad's words regarding Yao were quite scathing before yet those seem to have underrated the anger behind them.

"If you hadn't raised your son to be such a brute!" Yao flung out the accusation apparently not for the first time. "Not that I'm surprised…"

Arthur cut him off sharply, "Most likely led astray by the scandalous behavior of your son! Stripping down to nothing, the midnight swim- I'm sure they were all his idea! He's no better than a cheap prost-"

"HE IS NOT," the words came bursting out of Matthew with an anger he didn't know was building. Even at their worst, he and Alfred had never fought so mean-spirited and childish as this and these last words about Yong Soo were too cruel to bear. Even as overwhelmed as he was Matthew could still appreciate something about that lonely young man that was so brimming with energy and curiosity and as insecure about his eccentricity as he was unapologetic about it. Neither of them had set out to do any wrong and it was not fair for Yong Soo to be so insulted when he wasn't even present.

It suddenly occurred to Matthew that it was very quiet in the room now. Everyone was looking at him in surprise, especially his family. The outburst now made him sheepish. "That is," he cleared his throat and trying to meet his dad's eyes (but mostly looking somewhere over his ear), "Yong Soo, he's… He's not like that. I don't, um, think he's a bad person at all. He was depressed because his dad was getting remarried and just wanted to have some fun to forget all that." His cheeks went aflame again and he could almost feel steam pop out his ears. "No! No, not that kind of fun! Harmless fun! That's it. That was all! Just goofing off sort of fun, you know?" He chuckled nervously and the sound was so pathetic that he stopped.

Yao looked utterly confused, like he had just been told that two plus two equals cheese. Arthur and Francis were sharing a look, trying to read from the other just how to respond to this.

Alfred grinned, like Matthew had just confided a wonderful secret, "Are you in love, Mattie?"

This just made the elder twin sputter again. He should have just explained calmly that this notion was ridiculous, that he had just found the other to be enchanting to be with, but purely in a platonic sense- or not so platonic perhaps as the unbidden imagery of Yong Soo beneath him with half-lidded eyes came to him, daring him to make a move- Ok, no, that was still something entirely different, very hormonal definitely, but not love. He had not even known the young man for a handful of hours; no one could fall in love that fast. But all the excitement of the evening must have worn him through because he had not formulated this response in time.

"Regardless," Ivan spoke up having just entered the room, "it has been decided that this is what is best for the families. How nice that old disputes can be put aside and we can all be one big happy family." He had the same placid expression from back in the party when his engagement had been announced.

"Isn't it?" Francis quickly agreed, wanting to keep the peace. "We are still on the cusp of oncoming spring. What a lovely time to have a wedding!"

"Well, they wouldn't be getting married now," Arthur corrected. "We can't upstage the wedding already planned. That would just reek of desperation and shame."

"It's not like one of them can get pregnant," Francis protested but soon conceded to the point.

"Perhaps," suggested Ivan, "it could be announced in the midst of the wedding festivities?"

Yao shook his head, "That would be too late! If we wait too long, talk would spread too far and fast. Best to get this over with quickly." Then he sighed, suddenly looking very tired. "Which will mean another party since we'll want to do this properly. When I think of all those invitations I'll have to write out again…"

"We can take care of the party," Arthur interjected, not to be helpful but as though Yao was insinuating that they were less than competent. "Our estate will work perfectly well and we know just as many of the elite as you do."

"If you had your way, the queen would be invited for a simple engagement party," scoffed Yao.

"Maybe she would-"

"Let us take this into another room, shall we?" Francis spoke up loudly, already pushing his husband out the door. "We can take some tea. Won't that be nice?"

"Oh that sounds very lovely," sighed Ivan delightedly as he put an arm around Yao to steady him. The shorter man looked at him gratefully and affectionately. It occurred to Matthew that someone that could inspire a look like that couldn't be all bad.

Alfred stretched his long limbs and made to follow. "Better make it coffee," he yawned. "It's so late already and we'll want to stay awake-"

"You two stay here," Arthur instructed, looking at Alfred with that penetrating gaze that was supposed to will his younger son into obedience (it rarely worked). "We'll be leaving shortly."

"Can't we just stay the night?" Alfred pouted. "It's so late already!"

Their dad grimaced. "Probably not the best idea under the circumstances," he sighed and rubbed at his eyes tiredly. "Just stay here and behave." How odd to hear him say as if he were leaving them to play rather than to arrange one of his sons's wedding.

Matthew's wedding.

The door shutting behind the parents added a sort of finality to the freshly quiet room.

~to be continued~