I really prefer het pairings; I'm not going to lie. Don't like, don't read.

I don't understand this pairing at all, but it's so cute! Also, I apologize for the stupid title. I couldn't think of anything…

Finally, I've emphasized Canada being considered invisible and downplayed Prussia's attention span. This is done purely for humor.

Yes, Mrs. Persephone is Mama Greece. No, I don't know who she's married to, or if she even is.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Mathilde is not good with people.

Really, she doesn't mind so often, since it gets her away from her brother and his friends.

Well, except when she met Gilbert Beilschmidt.

Gilbert, you see, was considerably more social, but at the same time only had a couple of close friends. He was loud, obnoxious, and never stopped using the word "awesome". Although his family was actually German, he had lived in New Prussia for a while and just started calling himself "Prussian" despite not being born there and living there for less than a year.

No one really tried to understand him anymore.

Neither did Mathilde, which could be why all this happened the way it did.

It started when her brother, Alfred, decided to plan a party. It was that time in the school year when nothing was going on; exams were too far to worry about and classes were in a bit of a lull, so obviously something reasonably exciting had to happen.

How Yao got him that many fireworks and Roderich booked that band for it, she'll never know.

Alfred was quite notorious for his parties.

So, Mathilde was just waiting to see who wasn't going to be there so she could go stay with them.

Gilbert, on the other hand, was in quite a different situation.

And that is where our story begins.

"Come on guys! Al can't just not invite me!"

Francis gave him a pitying look, "Ah, but that is, how may I say, fate's design?"

Antonio agreed less dramatically, "For once you should listen to Francis. But seriously, I only got in because he and Lovina were friends." he stared off a bit, "I think she might have blackmail or something…"

Gilbert slammed his hands on the lunch table, "I'm being completely serious! Why didn't he invite me?"

The both gave him a blank look before saying, "Roderich booked the band." and then went back to eating their respective lunches.

"And…?"

They exchanged a look before Antonio shrugged. Francis put an arm on the "Prussian's" shoulder, "You see, mon ami, Roderich booked it in exchange for your… lack of invitation."

Gilbert's jaw dropped visibly.

"I think you broke him." Antonio said, hesitantly poking him with his fork.

Francis shrugged, "He'll have a plan made before Chemistry."

In fact, he didn't have a plan until the end of the day.

His brother was busy in the Science lab, so he had some time to kill before he could leave. Normally he would hang out with Francis and Antonio, but the former was also in the lab and the latter was on a date with the older Vargas sister.

So he went into the nearest classroom and tossed his bag into a desk so he could…

"Ow!"

Huh?

He apparently threw his bag on a person.

The Awesome Gilbert does not do that sort of thing.

"I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!" he said, hurrying over to the girl.

She smiled a bit, handing him his bag. "It's okay. It happens all the time, really!"

Gilbert, in an effort to be considered awesome and relieve boredom at the same time, flopped down in the teacher's rolling chair and wheeled himself in front of the girl's desk. "So, what's your name?"

The girl sighed, looking a little tired for some reason. "Mathilde Williams; I'm in your Chemistry and World History classes. I'm also Alfred Jones' half-sister and Francis Bonnefoy's cousin." The lines sounded rehearsed, but caught his attention.

"That's right, I guess Francis did say something about driving his cousin home today..." he responded, buying time more than anything else as plans formed in his mind.

She seemed pretty happy to have something to talk about. "Yes, Alfred was busy."

"I hear he's having a party next week." Gilbert said with a smirk. Oh yes, he knew exactly what to do now.

"It looks like it. I'd really like it if he'd stop having them at the house…" She started, but stopped as though she felt she'd said too much.

Gilbert couldn't relate. "I don't think I've seen you at any parties."

"I don't go to many…" she said in her quiet voice. It was very gentle, and Gilbert found it easy to listen to.

That could come in handy. He responded, "Too bad." And then he flashed a smile, "I'd love to see you at one sometime."

She blushed a little at that, "Uh, thank you?"

He sighed, "Well, I should probably get going. West should be done now." An idea hit him then, and he couldn't be more proud of his mind at that point. "Come on, the awesome me shouldn't be seen walking alone."

The first day they really met, he accidentally left her in a hallway.

But that was okay, he still had a week.

The next day he met her at her locker.

Of course, that meant he had to pace around the school for a while, but Ludwig always insisted on getting there early so he had time.

Finally he saw her, near the locker of one of the people he avoided as much as possible.

Ivan Braginsky.

So, at a distance, he called. "Good morning, Mathilde!"

Good job Gil, that didn't sound stalker-like at all.

But it actually worked.

She was entirely surprised that someone was talking to her, and smiled and waved back.

He didn't notice, but she kept smiling all morning.

At lunch, he waited to walk in until he'd seen her so he could end up beside her in the lunch line.

In between piles of grease being splattered onto their plates, he tried to start up a conversation.

"So, Mattie, which classes do we have together again?" Oh yeah, great move.

She looked a bit startled, but answered, "Chemistry and World History. Did you finish the World History homework?"

"There was homework?"

Apparently that was funny, because she laughed a bit.

He had planned to find out where she usually sat, but was tugged into his usual seat by Francis.

There's no need to mention Antonio. As mentioned earlier, he had a date with Lovina the night before, so he was sort of dreamily poking at the grease stained chicken on his plate, oblivious to the world.

"Gilbert, I have a very important question for you." the Frenchman said as they sat across from one another, his eyes narrowed a bit.

"Uh, what?"

"Why did Mathilde look like that," he pointed to Antonio, "on the way home yesterday, after talking to you?"

Gilbert smirked, "I just came up with a great idea to get into Alfred's party, that's all."

"You're going to hurt my—"

"No! Just get on her good side. I might ask her out, who knows?" he shrugged. "Anyway, people go on first dates without getting together all the time. No big deal."

Francis, who was well known to ask girls (and boys) out all the time with no promise of a second date, couldn't really argue. He sighed, "Just… don't hurt her."

"I never planned on it." he said. "Hey, Antonio! Stop drooling and help me with this World History thing!"

For World History, he planned to just switch seats so that he could sit next to her.

Then he realized he'd been sitting next to her all year.

The teacher, a tired Greek woman, didn't even stand up at her desk. "Class, please find a partner to check the homework." And then she sat down and went back to dozing.

A cat jumped into her lap, but everyone had stopped wondering about how they found their way in.

"Found their way" was what the teacher said, at least.

Anyway, Gilbert turned his desk to face Mathilde's. The Canadian, on the other hand, was searching the room forlornly for a partner. That is, until she realized Gilbert was there.

"Oh, uh…"

"We're partners."

"…thank you." she said, and he couldn't help but smile—No, smirk.

"No problem! I think I make an awesome partner… for this class!" he amended, but she didn't catch the innuendo.

"Did you do the homework?"

"…Antonio did."

(For an update on the Spaniard: He was currently in the back corner of the room with Lovina. Since the Italian wasn't cursing, we can only assume she had been… silenced, for the moment. Gilbert would later remember the reason he usually partnered with Antonio.)

Mathilde sighed. "That's okay. We'll go over it so you can pass the test on Friday."

"There's a test on Friday?" he asked, but then something else hit him. "Wait, you'll actually help me pass?"

"Yes and of course. Why not? Usually I just check my work by myself and then…" Actually, she wasn't sure what she did. If someone did notice her, she usually had a pleasant conversation. If they didn't… well, sometimes she would hold one of Mrs. Persephone's cats.

At her blank look, he said, "I guess I should try to pass this class." It wasn't like the class was worth failing; what with how easy it was if he could just pay attention.

That should explain everything about his grades,

"Alright, so Johann Reuchlin was a leading author in the Reformation..." she started, flipping to the chapter.

Gilbert cringed, "You pronounce that 'Yohaan Raow-chlin." He emphasized the German "ch".

Mathilde looked at him funny, but pronounced it slowly and decently. Gilbert would like to stress that "decently".

At his dismissive response, she added, "I could lapse into French."

"So about this Reformation…"

The next class with her was in Chemistry, giving him one class period to start planning. That is, until he realized he had to pay attention in Gym or he'd get hit in the face with a basketball.

That really hurt the first couple of times.

He had quite the ingenious plan when he sat down at his usual lab table and faced the teacher.

Of course, he didn't get to use it.

The teacher, who was known only as "Grandpa Augustus" to everyone, usually in their respective native language—they had no idea how he knew to respond, it had become almost a game to see which ones he didn't know—stood to begin conducting the class.

…which promptly raised the question, "Why in the world is our principal conducting the Chemistry class?"

Vasch was the one to voice this question, somewhat exasperated at the latest antics in the school.

"Well, you see, I gave your regular teacher the day off." Grandpa Augustus said, as if that explained everything.

Gilbert spoke up, "Not that you're not awesome or anything Opa, but why not just get a substitute?"

"Well, I wanted to mess with the Mentos and Coke as some scientific nonsense and this seemed like the easiest way!"

The class murmured something in surprise.

"Oh, I guess she didn't tell you… Well, find your usual partner and follow me outside!"

Alfred was his usual partner in this class.

Decision-making time…

He could have an awesome time with Alfred causing havoc and maybe convince him to let him 'crash' the party unnoticed, or he could partner up with Mathilde and continue his current plan…

Mathilde, who was currently looking around the room a lot like she had in World History, sighing as she waited for whoever couldn't fit into their usual group to spot her, if they did at all…

Alfred tapped him on the shoulder, "Dude, I hope you're thinking what I'm thinking here!"

"That we should find different partners and try two plans at once?" he tried with a, possibly desperate, smile.

"Woah! I never thought of that! Okay, but I get to aim for Ivan this time!"

He honestly hadn't thought that would work.

"Mattie! Come on!" he said, and she hurried over to him gratefully.

"Thanks again…"

"No problem! But you'll have to bear with me a bit here…"

"Mathilde Williams, I swear I didn't mean to land us in detention."

"It's fine, Gilbert, really!"

He and Alfred had succeeded in their plan: They soaked half the class in soda, including Grandpa Augustus, just as Assistant Principal Wolfgang (who insisted that he be called "Assistant Principal Volf-gong", as it was pronounced) walked in. Grandpa Augustus wouldn't have cared much; maybe a notation or something, since he got caught in it too.

That was just his luck.

Alfred and Kiku, the unlucky student that ended up his partner, were still wringing out their shirts in the bathroom. Theirs had backfired and exploded more on them than the targeted Russian.

The teacher in Detention that day skipped out. It was probably Mrs. Persephone, who could very well be asleep in the room and they'd never know. And thus, conversation was born.

"…I really thought that would work."

"Technically, it did work." Mathilde corrected. She was doodling on her binder, making sure she had something to do in case of a lull in talking.

He reached over with a pencil and started doodling as well.

Alfred and Kiku showed up a little while later, and Gilbert was almost hesitant to stop.