Change (PruCan)

Full Title: Change for the Better, Change for the Worse
Pairings: mostly Onesided!Prussia x Jerk!Canada. Will also include Denmark x America, Onesided France x Liechtenstein, Belarus x Liechtenstein, Onesided Spain x Romano, Austria x Switzerland, and Onesided Hungary x Austria. Some will be platonic and some not. 
Notes: So I noticed Canada's always portrayed as really sweet and quiet and stuff. So I'm like, what if Prussia and America taught him to be confident and he ended up just plain cocky? Also, their ages won't be in perfect approximation to canon the whole time. Meaning Swiss and Liech are only a year or two apart, America and Canada are a year younger that Prussia and the same age as Germany, etc.
Word count: Spent three hours and fifteen minutes on 3048 words..

"Come on, Mattie, you can't be friendless forever!" A seven year old Alfred yelled as he struggled to drag a sled up the sloping street. He was assisted by an eight year old Gilbert, who was grinning cheekily back at the shy boy. They'd just gotten a full foot of snow, and the two boys-who had dragged Matthew along- intended on making the best use of their time before it heated up again. The Canadian/American in question held his stuffed white bear a little closer to his chest, shaking his head uncertainly. "No, I'd rather stay down-" His soft voice was interrupted by his obnoxious twin.


"Haha, we finally got it! Get in, Gil!" Gilbert fought back a frown at Alfred's interruption as he positioned himself behind the sled. "I'll push," he clarified. "I'm too awesome to be pushed. You get in first." Alfred shrugged, getting into the front of the sled. With a huge heave, Gilbert jumped in after him.
He'd always wished Matthew was in the sled with them, but he'd never forget that adorable grin on his face as they passed each other.

Years passed, and the boys were ten and eleven. They sat on the swings at the playground. Alfred's Danish friend had joined them, and they sat together on the set of four, absentmindedly talking about school and other stuff. A few other friends had joined them and were standing around with them; Arthur, Francis, Kiku and his older brother Yao. Francis was staring dreamily out at a younger girl sitting across the park with her friends and brother.

"You a have a crush on her?" Arthur asked, smirk playing on his face. Francis didn't get the chance to answers. "No way, dude, that Natalya girl would kill him. She's almost as protective of her friends as she is of her brother." The group at the mention of Ivan. "I agree with Alfred," Kiku nodded. Gilbert rolled his eyes as he heard a yell from all the way across the park. "Get your own dang opinion, Kiku!" All eight of them laughed, though they tried to cover it up. That's was started the greatest Nerf war in the history of World Elementary.

Gilbert noticed Matthew had split off from the others, and immediately went to locate his friend. He ended up finding the blond behind a tall maple tree. "Whatcha doin' back here?" He asked, causing Matthew to jump. "W-wha- oh! H-hi Gilbert." Gilbert chuckled. Matthew's stutter always made him laugh- not making fun of him, of course. "Seriously though, answer my question," he prompted. Matthew sighed. "The others weren't shooting at me, and they didn't notice when I shot them. It got boring pretty fast."


Gilbert furrowed his eyebrows. "You really gotta start being more social. Ya' know, talk to people." Matthew shook his head. "Easy for you to say," he sighed softly. "You're popular and cool and loud and smart and strong and awesome." Well, that was true. Gilbert was awesome, plain and simple. But that didn't mean Matthew didn't deserve any attention. "True, true," Gilbert nodded. "But really birdie, promise me you'll try and make some new friends? Confidence is key. You know what, me an' Alfred will coach you! On awesomeness! We'll teach you to be a conceited jerk like we are." Matthew laughed good naturedly, shaking his head. "Whatever, if you say so."

Admittedly, the next year was when Gilbert had first gotten a crush on his friend. It was also the most bittersweet year of his life. At the end of the year, when he was *thirteen, he and his brother moved to Germany. All his friends had held a huge goodbye party the day before, and the closest of them; Francis, Antonio, Matthew, and Alfred; had come to the plane with him to say their final farewells. "Skype me, mon ami," Francis ordered, patting his old friend on the back as they hugged. "Yea- hey!" Gilbert shoved his snickering friend off, turning to  Antonio. "Like Franny said, Skype us, okay?" He grinned sadly. "Yeah. Good luck with Lovino." Antonio punched Gilbert in the shoulder as he started his goodbyes to his oldest friends.

"I'll call you guys, no matter how expensive it is," he promised, voice muffled by Alfred and Matthew's jackets in their group hug. "You'd better, or I'll track you down and kick your butt!" Alfred yelled. They laughed, separating. Gilbert looked up at Matthew- the Canadian (he denied being American) had grown taller than him, he realized. "

"Remember what you promised, okay, Mattie?" Gilbert smiled weakly. "I'll do what you said," he agreed, voice louder than it had been a year ago and nearly a normal volume. "Get cocky, get loud, and get some friends." Gilbert buckled as he buried his face into Matthew's shoulder again, their last beg before his brother pulled him away (his goodbyes hadn't lasted nearly as long). "Remember, change, Mattie! Change for the better!" Gilbert yelled as they boarded the plane, and he frantically waved at everyone, eyes on his best friend Matthew Williams.

"Bruder, you're not crying, are you?" Ludwig asked as their old home faded from sight. "What? No way!" Gilbert sniffed. "I'm way too awesome to.. To cry!" His sentence was interrupted by a silent sob. 

_{((*Sorry to put an A/N in the middle but just wanted to explain my timeline here. It was summer and Gilbert was 11. For sixth grade he still just liked Matt as a friend but during seventh he got a crush on him. At the end of that year, he moved.))}

Gilbert yawned as he hit the button on his alarm clock. Great, another stupid day at this stupid s- wait! It was not another stupid day at his stupid school in stupid Matthewless Germany! 

His family had moved back to America just this last month, in fact, back to their hometown.  Seeing everyone else, the people he hadn't seen in person for four whole years, excited him, but not so much as seeing Matthew. During the first year of living in Germany, he'd broken his phone, and Matthew's number had been stupidly saved to the phone and not the card. No one else in his family had Matthew's number, and Antonio and Francis were the only ones with Skype, so he hadn't had any contact with Matthew in three and a half years.

For four months after losing contact, Francis and Antonio had kept him updated on everything Matthew did. As promised, he made new friends; a Dutch boy named Tim, a Cuban boy (whom Gilbert forgot the name of), and a few others. They of course talked about Alfred too, he and Matthias had started dating to the surprise of everyone and Gilbert had sent them his best wishes. However, after a while they slowly said less and less about  Matthew. They made it quite apparent he hadn't died or moved; showing him pictures of him from school trips and the yearbook. But it just felt wrong to Gilbert that his best friends talked more about Alfred than his brother whom they knew he liked.

There was no reason to complain, now, though, because he got to see Matthew for himself!

Gilbert was out of his bed in seconds. In minutes he'd showered and dressed, soon he'd combed his hair, brushed his teeth, and was downstairs. He almost laughed to see he was awake even before his brother, who had just stumbled out of his bedroom in his pajamas. "Come on, brohaus, not excited to see Feli?" the silver-haired teen prompted. This woke Ludwig up a bit and he quickly turned, nodding sleepily as he went back into his bedroom.

Pancakes, Gilbert thought dreamily as he ate that very food. They were always Matthew's favorite. There was a brief moment of doubt as he daydreamed- what if Matthew didn't like him? What if he didn't like guys period? Would it ruin their chance at being friends again if he asked him out? Trivial matters like that shouldn't break the awesome Gilbert's spirit, he reminded himself. It's not like you're gonna ask him out right away, give it a few weeks.

His plate emptied, Gilbert quickly stood, slinging his backpack onto his back as he ran to greet the bus. He slid into a seat, Ludwig soon following him. There were sudden yells from the back of the bus. 
"Gilbert!"
"Gilbert!"
"Bird-brain!" 
Gilbert chuckled. There they were- Francis, Antonio, and Elizabeta. He stood in a slight crouch, shifting to the back of the bus to sit in the seat next to Elizabeta. "Don't mind if I sit here, right? Kesese." The Hungarian rolled her eyes, but couldn't resist smiling at the sight of her old friend. "It's been so long, mom ami!" Francis exclaimed as Gilbert turned his eyes back to them. "Franny, we talked last night. I told you I was coming." The Frenchman rolled his eyes. "Oui, but we haven't see each other in person since the sixth grade. So much as happened since then!" Gilbert laughed as Antonio spoke up again.  "Yeah, see how Elizabeta's not with Roderich yet? Turns out he's dating that Swiss guy, Vash." 
"That surprises me. That Vash is dating someone, not that Piano-boy is gay," Gilbert pointed out. "Shut up! Don't bring that up and don't make fun of Roderich!" Elizabeta yelled, catching the attention of everyone on the bus. "Jeez," Gilbert sighed through clenched teeth, rubbing his head. "You're scary enough without your freaking frying pan. Remind me not to make you mad when you have it. Anyway, speaking of change, how's Mattie?" He asked the question with such a genuine smile on his face that Francis couldn't help but feel bad as he answered. "He's, uh, great!" 

It wasn't a complete lie. Matthew had, in fact, been doing very well. He'd made plenty more friends and gotten pretty popular with girls and guys alike. In seventh grade he'd started hockey, and had recently joined the football team, gaining more popularity as  he got better. He was no longer the quiet,  Matthew everyone had come to know- he'd become a loud, confident jock like his brother, and had even stolen his spotlight in recent years.

However, this wasn't the reason Francis and Antonio had stopped talking about him, of course. Matthew had become more than cocky- in fact, he could now easily be described as a jerk. He rarely talked about anything but himself. He'd become a huge womanizer, and had dated basically every girl in the school. He scarcely bothered talking about his old friends anymore and had in fact stopped really talking to his brother about anything. Whenever someone would bring up Gilbert, he'd brush it off, saying that 'he got over that silly friendship a long time ago.' Recently he'd even started forgetting about the old days. That was why Francis felt so bad saying that Matthew'd been doing great.

"Awesome! Can't wait to see him!" Gilbert cheered as Elizabeta gave Francis a sympathetic glance from behind. They were nearing the school by now. "Here we are, guys."
The teenagers filed off of the bus as normal. It was a normal day, after all; mid January was nothing special. Gilbert found himself scanning the crowd for Matthew. He finally found a head of golden-brown hair. "Hey, Mat-" He broke off as he turned the boy around by his shoulder. This wasn't Matthew, but Alfred. Astounding- usually people mistook Matthew for his brother, as far as Gilbert knew. "Gilbert? God, it really is you! Why didn't you tell me you were coming? Oh, right, lost your phone." The rush of quick wording brought a grin to Gilbert's face as Alfred separated his hand from Matthias's (whom Gilbert had also just now noticed) to hug him. "Great to see you," Gilbert said as they separated.

"I'm real sorry to leave you so soon after seeing you again, but have you seen your brother?" Alfred nodded in answer to Gilbert's question. "Yeah, he's got math first, I think." You think? But Mattie tells you everything, right? "Mr. Davis's room." The thought was broken off as Gilbert's face again erupted into a grin. "Awesome, *me too! Why aren't you with him, though?" The question still hung in his mind as the bell rung and Alfred muttered an apology, running to his class.  Gilbert was a few minutes late for his own class for two reasons- one being he'd never been to this school and the other being that his classroom turned out to be on the other side; he'd followed Alfred almost all the way to his classroom. He apologized to the teacher and introduced himself to the class, answering various questions about Germany. He wasn't really paying much attention, though, to anyone but Matthew.

_{((Let's just say they held Gilbert back a grade for immaturity. I've seen it done. XD))}

The first thing that struck him was his eyes, surprisingly enough. Once lit with a shy, hesitant kind of awe at everything, they now gleamed with pure confidence in a sense that said 'challenge my position, I dare you.' They were still that perfect violet, though. The next thing was Matthew's hair. It was still wavy, but he'd cut it short, about the length of his brother's, and didn't have that adorable stray curl any more. It still looked softer than a girl's hair. As Gilbert took a seat in the second row, he noticed how much Matthew had exceeded his height; in fact the Canadian looked to be over six feet now and had left Gilbert in the dust at five feet, ten inches. He no longer wore a baggy sweatshirt and instead dressed in a white and blue leather jacket with their school's logo; most likely got it from sports. Instead of paying attention to what the teacher was saying with the interest of someone who loved to learn anything, he texted discreetly under his desk. He'd changed for sure, and Gilbert had to say he was kind of proud. He wondered, though, why his old friend hadn't looked up at the announcement of his 'new' classmate.

After math, there were a few boring classes Gilbert didn't pay much attention to; he was too busy thinking about Matthew. Finally the time came for lunch. He had a good feeling Matthew shared the same lunch period as him, and he was right. There he was, sitting at a lunch table in the center of the lunch room, surrounded by friends. "Hey, Matt," Gilbert greeted loudly, not expecting to be ignored over the chatter. "Matthew," he said again, louder this time. "Matthew Williams!" He was yelling now, and had finally gained Matthew's attention. The irritated football player turned around to see an albino German with his arms crossed. For some reason he felt he should know this guy, but his face didn't ring a very loud bell. "Just who are you and what gives you the right to interrupt my conversation?"

Who are you?

Anything else would've just made Gilbert yell, or laugh it off. 'Leave me alone, I'm busy, get the hell away.' But those three words were enough to make him crack.

How many times had he heard those words directed at the very person I front of him by people he knew so well?

How many times had he had to sit for hours comforting his sobbing friend? 

How many times had he gotten detention for punching or even all out beating up the source of that stupid sentence?

And now here he was,asking his best friend, the boy who had loved him for five years, the question that was the bane of his existence.

"You haven't.. really forgotten, have you?" Gilbert stammered, gaining a small bit of laughter of the surrounding table. "Sorry, bro, but I don't know who you are. Would you kindly leave now?" Gilbert gritted his teeth. So Matthew had forgotten him. That's why no one talked about him any more. That's why Francis and Antonio changed the subject whenever he was brought up. "W-whatever. It doesn't matter," he stuttered, spinning and running from the table. He immediately sat down next to his other two friends, slamming his fists down on the table.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Gilbert demanded. "Him not liking me I can handle. Even just saying 'Oh, look, that guy I used to be friends with' or 'Hey, it's you! Remind me what your name is?' would've been okay. In fact, it would have been fine if he hated me. But for.. Forgetting me?" Francis put an arm around his now crying friend's shoulder. "You fell hard, mon ami.." He murmured. "We didn't tell you because we wanted you to be happy," Antonio sighed from Francis's other side. "We thought you'd be okay knowing he was getting along well. But we didn't expect you to move back here, so by the time that happened, you'd still be mad at us." Gilbert was still at loss for words as he silently sobbed into his friend's shoulder.

Weeks later, maybe even more than a month, Gilbert had convinced himself he was over it. Matthew had moved on, it didn't matter, of course the only reason he'd wanted to move back didn't matter, right? People always moved on. He shouldn't cling to the past like that. He was still good friends with Alfred and everyone else, so losing Matthew didn't matter. There was one last thing he needed to do, though.

"You're not asking him out, are you?" Francis asked worriedly as Gilbert pushed a piece of paper into Matthew's locker. He'd gotten over Matthew, right? "Nah," Gilbert sighed, shaking his head with a weak smile. "He forgot I existed, right? Besides, he has a girlfriend. Just a little something I've been meaning to say but haven't had the courage to. Even now I'm not signing it properly." The blond Frenchman raised an eyebrow, but asked no further question as they left for English.

Later that day,Matthew had finally shrugged off his followers to gather his things and go home. "Eh? What's this?" he murmured, just as a slip of white paper fell out onto the ground by his feet. He unfolded the paper to see it was a light red in color with a large yellow bird printed in the bottom left corner that reminded him of someone. He read the note to himself.

I told you to change for the better, but it seems you've changed for the worse. Guess there's nothing I can do about it, though. Take care, okay, birdie? A part of me will always love you.
-The Awesome Me