Disclaimer: If I owned Hetalia I wouldn't be writing Fanfiction…but I am….so I don't.

Summary: Arthur is still trying to get over Alfred's mother running out on them for some other guy. His friends have been encouraging him to go on a dating site, and when he starts talking to a mysterious 'France', it is the start of something Arthur definitely wasn't expecting….


Chapter 1

"Time for bed, Alfred."

Alfred stopped playing with his action-hero toy and looked up at his father as he entered the room – blonde hair, green eyes, bushy eyebrows, bad temper, and utter meanie…a totally uncool dad.

"But Daaaaad!" Alfred whined, his little curl bouncing around as he crossed his arms huffily over his chest.

"You should've been in bed an hour ago." His father replied, frowning slightly and picking the boy up, placing him in his off-the-floor bed.

"I know what Mum would say!" Alfred yelled, starting his protest.

His father stiffened as Alfred mentioned his mother. "Arthur, just how do you expect to be a good parent if you lack discipline?" Alfred put on a high-pitched voice, mimicking his mother.

"That's enough out of you, Alfred." Arthur almost growled, not bothering to tuck his son in and turning out the light, slamming the door behind him. Alfred huddled under his blanket, knowing that, once again, he shouldn't have brought up the subject of his mother.

Arthur hadn't smiled even once since she ran off with some other guy, Alfred thought he had seen him hanging around the school a couple of times, but he didn't know the guy otherwise. His father had stayed in the house for weeks, the only one he saw was Alfred. He took to drinking, and when added to his bad temper, he could be very scary. But he stopped drinking so much when Social Services threatened to take Alfred away from him. Alfred was the one thing Arthur had left, and he would not ever let them be separated.

The man hesitated in the hallway outside Alfred's room, letting out a shaky breath before continuing downstairs. He grabbed a beer from the fridge before sitting down – none too elegantly – at the kitchen table. Laying his head to rest on his arm, he watched the light from his laptop flash on and off – he had left it charging on the table and forgot to take it upstairs with him.

She left you

Get over it

C'mon, how long has it been now?

You need to get up and start seeing people again

It'll do both you and Alfred some good

Trust me.

Arthur frowned as he thought of all those things his friends and colleagues had told him recently, and rested his forehead on the table.

I…don't want to…let go… Oh come now, that was taking a break-up to a whole new level of 'pathetic'. Arthur clenched his fists at how weak he was being, and grabbed his laptop, punching the keys as if everything that had gone wrong in his life was his laptop's fault. He browsed a few dating sites, but as soon as he clicked on them, the screen was filled with cheesy images of unrealistically happy couples with their hands intertwined.

It made Arthur rolled his eyes, until he came to a site that had the name simply as a banner at the top of the screen in elegant writing.

"Perfect Match?" Arthur read aloud – only the name of the site was cringe-worthy so far. He decided to look through the format and everything, to make sure he understood what it was asking him. Okay, so far it's easy to follow…this is still a ridiculous idea though. He hesitated, but made a profile, leaving out any information about Alfred – if they were really promising, then he'd tell them, otherwise they didn't need to know about him. He selected an appropriate image of him – Alfred, his mother and Arthur all smiling on holiday, with Alfred and his mum cropped out carelessly. He waited for around half an hour with the tab still open, while he checked his empty email inbox for the tenth time. All of a sudden, a small notification popped up saying 'France sent you a message'.

'France'? What sort of username was that? He clicked on the message, and read it with a somewhat amused look.

'Bonjour, new member! You look interesting…'

Well, that was a cheesy hello.

'Interesting how?' Arthur replied, wanting to know more about this 'France' person.

'Different. A lot of men on this site have pictures of them topless and showing off their obviously fake abs…but you look normal.'

'Well I apologise for my lack of abs.' The Brit replied, smirking a little.

'France' sent a smiley emoticon in return, before saying 'So how long have you been single?'

Arthur and 'France' spent most of the night talking about casual, personal, and general things, and before he knew it, Alfred was wondering downstairs sleepily.

"You're up early," Alfred remarked, before looking at the bags under his father's eyes and correcting himself. "Or, you never went to sleep at all last night?"

Arthur smiled somewhat guiltily at him. "I guess I didn't realise the time." He said apologetically.

"What were you even doing?" Alfred asked, curiously stepping over to peer at the laptop screen, but Arthur put the lid down before he could.

"Breakfast?" Arthur changed the subject, and the seven year-old trudged over and sat down at the table.

"Yeah…" He mumbled.

"'Yeah' what?" Arthur always believed there was nothing wrong with good manners.

"Yeah…please…" Alfred corrected, emphasising the word with sarcasm and pulling a face.

"Was that so hard?" Arthur asked, but his son only grunted in response. Arthur made him a bowl of cereal – he complained about any of Arthur's home-cooking – pausing with his hand still on the bowl until Alfred thanked him for it through gritted teeth. He let go of the bowl and set about making his own breakfast, when a little beep came from his laptop. He blushed slightly as he remembered he was still talking to 'France'. Alfred gave him a suspicious look, but he ignored it, setting his bowl down and taking the seat opposite Alfred.

"Have you got your bag ready yet?" Arthur asked, and his son nodded, acting like he was already bored of the conversation. Arthur dismissed the behaviour, and the over-exaggerated yawn his son displayed. "What about your homework? Have you done – "

"Yeah, yeah…" Alfred replied, waving his hand dismissively.

"Alfred…" Arthur began in a warning tone, but Alfred looked up, silently challenging him to continue. Arthur narrowed his eyes and sipped his tea, avoiding a yelling match that would've occurred had Arthur done anything to rise to the boy. He knew his son well, but the scary thing was how well his son knew him. Arthur glanced at the clock as he took another sip of tea. Then did a double-take and hurriedly looked back at it to see that Alfred needed to be in school in ten minutes. Alfred noticed too and grabbed his bag as Arthur grabbed his keys and they drove off to school in a rush.


Well, that was hectic as usual… Arthur thought to himself as he walked back through the front door. He just hoped Alfred hadn't forgotten anything. He sighed, hanging his keys back up on the little hook by the door, and decided to make a cup of tea. Putting the teabag in the cup, he automatically filled the kettle up and began boiling the water, without even having to look where he put everything – it was his routine now. Once he had made his tea, he settled down and opened up his laptop. Almost at once multiple notifications saying 'France sent you a message' all popped up. Wow, this girl must really want to talk to me. He thought, a little flattered, actually. The first few messages were just smiling and winking emoticons, then it started saying 'Are you there?' and 'If you don't want to talk, just say…'

Arthur set his cup down and began typing:

'Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you like that, I was…' Arthur thought for a moment. 'Busy.' If she doesn't care, she won't ask.

'Busy? Your life must be interesting then…' Arthur slowly got the implied meaning, and blushed, even though no one was looking at him.

'No, I didn't mean like…that.'

'Like what, mon ami?' He could almost see the smirk written over the typed words.

Arthur sent an unimpressed emoticon at that, and 'France' sent a laughing one back to him. He had to smile, which was surprising as no one had been able to make him smile that easily before. They started another conversation, causing Arthur to be late picking Alfred up. But all the while, he just couldn't get the mysterious 'France' out of his thoughts.

Who was this 'France' person, and why do I want to meet her more and more every time we talk?


A/N: So that was the first chapter of my hopefully long FACE family fanfic! Did you like how Arthur automatically assumed France to be a girl? Muhahaha XD Reviews please! (Like, seriously, you have no idea how much they mean to me!) *has no life and doesn't care*