We will talk [Canada]

It was reaching the end of the year, and Switzerland had, for some reason, agreed to host a World Conference. Normally, Matthew would deeply agree with the sentiment. However, this year... this year had not been a good one. Earlier in the year, Japan, who, while a member of the United Allegiance, had mostly sat on the sidelines of the war, had declared war and begun fighting after an event that had made Alfred terribly angry. All of the fighting had gotten much worse and public support had even started to pick back up. As a result, Matthew rather suspected that, even if other Nations had bothered attending, the World Conference would be a failure, but he went anyway, just in case.

To no one's surprise, it had gone absolutely terribly. More people had shown up than usual, given that it was being held in a neutral location, but the room had still been much, much emptier than many a World Conference in the past had been. While Matthew had brought speaking points on how to logically and reasonably discuss the crisis, any point he'd tried to make was swiftly ignored. Instead, accusations were flung around, arguments began, and Matthew had sighed, leaned back, and resigned himself to doodling in the margins of his notes. At least no one was paying enough attention to him to drag him into things, and at least he hadn't been the only one to give up on the meeting practically before it begun. Ivan was knitting a sweater, for example, which almost made Matthew wonder why he'd shown up in the first place.

Vasch had quickly grown fed up with how poorly things were going and had kicked them all out early, a fact that made Matthew feel somewhat less guilty for having to schedule his flight plans in such a way that he would have left the Conference before it ended. The Swiss were meticulous about properly registering the plans, especially given the wartime, but despite having filled everything out well in advance, his forms had kept on getting forgotten by the person he'd given them to or something like that- Matthew wasn't certain but these sorts of things just sort of happened sometimes- and he'd had to take a less-than-ideal takeoff time in exchange for not being shot out of the sky.

However, the meeting had ended so early that Matthew was actually going to have several hours before he had to get on the plane. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do, really. Alfred wasn't present (they'd conferred and determined that it was more important for Alfred to stay where he could remain in a position of command than go to a potentially useless meeting), but both Francis and Arthur were, so as they got up to go Matthew poked Kuma's side. "Come on, Kuma, meeting's over," he'd said. The bear had yawned and lifted his forepaws up instead, asking to be carried. Matthew sighed and picked him up, rubbing Kuma's head fondly as the lazy bear immediately fell asleep, and then followed after Arthur and Francis. He'd actually confirmed before the Conference started that he'd be coming with them to wherever it was they were going (probably a bar), but it appeared they'd forgotten...

...one of those days, right...

Matthew sighed, letting them get ahead of him for now. Maybe he could use this time to catch up with someone else who had come to the meeting? That, or he'd call Arthur in a few minutes and politely ask where he'd gone and how he'd forgotten that they were supposed to be meeting after the Conference ended. Maybe he'd do it in French, just to bug him (and Francis some, too- his more flamboyant father-figure would sometimes get annoyed at the 'low-brow' nature of Matthew's Quebec French). Yeah, that seemed like a decent plan. He re-adjusted Kuma in his arms, frowning. "You've gotten bigger again," he informed the bear. "Worried about something?"

Kumajiro yawned back, having been awoken again by a scent nearby. Silly human, bears don't worry about anything! That being said...

When Ivan put his hand suddenly on Matthew's shoulder, Kumajiro jumped slightly and made a startled growl, looking at Ivan with a thoroughly grumpy expression. He'd been having a nice nap! Matthew, on the other hand, just quietly laughed at his bear and turned around, perhaps a little annoyed to have been unexpectedly stopped but but certainly not as startled as Kuma was. "Oh, Ivan. It's nice to see you well," Matthew said with a genuine smile. He did mean it- it was always nice to see people well in these times. (That being said, perhaps it would be a sign that his own sign was winning if Ivan was not well. Matthew just wasn't the sort of person to wish harm on someone like that.)

Ivan was a bit of an enigma to Matthew in some ways. He, like most of the world, would occasionally forget Matthew was there, but had grown to recognize Matthew more than most people did, probably because Ivan knew so much about Alfred (a fact Matthew still wasn't entirely certain how much he liked). He was a bit pushy sometimes, but he did give Matthew a good game of hockey. Plus, it was a little difficult to be intimidated by him when Matthew had certainly been involved in pulling Alfred and Ivan out of a fight before...

...so he wasn't going to put up with being lead anywhere against his will, that was for certain. He rather calmly stopped letting Ivan move him anywhere, certainly. Ivan had only tried to guide Matthew by the shoulder a few paces before Matthew had stopped and ducked down, yanking his shoulder out of Ivan's grip as he did so. "Ask politely, eh?" Matthew said in a somewhat low voice, frowning. It wasn't quite under his breath. He perfectly intended for Ivan to hear it.

A moment later, Ivan actually asked, and Matthew smiled, as if to say see? Asking politely will get you far in this world. "Of course I'm willing to talk," Matthew said. "I wouldn't have bothered with setting up a flight if I didn't want to try talking about things." He paused momentarily. "...I can't miss my takeoff time, though. You know how Vasch is about these things."

Matthew hears Ivan's chuckle when he forces himself out of his grip and chooses to ignore it, mostly. He doesn't really get what's so funny about it, though. He didn't like being rudely lead somewhere without his permission. He rather imagined most people didn't, even if a few of them might not have the strength to actually pull away from Ivan. Even if he was going to the same place anyway, he much prefered to get there completely under his power. Maybe it was a stubborn streak, but Matthew rather thought that it was simply the autonomy that he'd earned and got to exercise whenever he'd like, thank you. Besides, grabbing him like that was rude.

He didn't comment further, though, instead nodding and following after Ivan as indicated, though for a brief moment he uncomfortably registered that the building was getting abandoned pretty quickly, and there were not and would not be people around them for some time. Matthew shrugged that off, though. He had Kuma (who was busy trying to decide whether it was worth the effort to growl at the cold-one's or not) with him, and while they could sometimes forget about him, Arthur and Francis were actually fairly reliable about remembering when Matthew was around and supposed to show up places, especially if he reminded them.

He should remind them, actually. Do more than that, really. Matthew pulled out his phone while he walked, expertly balancing it in his hands while keeping them firmly wrapped around Kumajiro. 'meeting with someone to talk things over will be late or might not show.' He paused in the quick typing before adding 'flights in four hours ill text before getting on the plane', texting the last bit to his brother as well.

Matthew didn't think that anything was going to happen. Ivan did seem to genuinely want to talk about something. However, they were rather firmly on opposite sides of the war, and it never hurt to be a little cautious. Texting his something-like-parents and his brother that he was safely on the plane was common courtesy, but it was also a bit of insurance. He'd specifically just reminded Arthur and Francis that they'd forgotten to meet him, so they'd be actively trying not to forget a second time in a day. This way, should anything happen, they'd probably be suspicious if they never got that text. Wasn't going to mention who he was meeting with, though- none of his family was going to be terribly level-headed about this.

"Good," Matthew responded idly to Ivan as he typed. "It was a pain to get the flight plans approved. I was trying to get it expedited, but it probably would have been faster to get my pilot to do it. For some reason," he said with slight humor, "they tend to lose his papers less often." As he finished speaking, they walked into the conference room. It was mostly empty now, though one of the cleaners was already beginning to work on cleaning up some of the mess the meeting had made. 

Matthew sat down directly across the table from Ivan. For two people, the large table felt rather unwieldy and frankly a little silly. Kuma poked at Matthew's arm before hopping up onto the table, filling the space in front of the seat next to him and curling up to take another nap. Matthew gave him an amused look. Of course. No one else was here, so why would the bear sleep on the floor? (Well, that, and it gave him a better eye on the proceedings.)

For a few moments, Matthew didn't speak at all. He was waiting for Ivan to speak, since Ivan had suggested he had something to say. However, Ivan just watched him from across the table, smiling. Matthew paused, unsure for a moment of what to say. "So- what is it that you wanted to talk about?" he said, deciding if Ivan wasn't going to speak there was no point in beating matters around the bush. "I do have a flight to catch," he added jokingly. His expression clearly showed that the flight was in four hours, it was a diplomatic flight, and so Matthew could show up rather more close to 'on-time' as opposed to the two hours early most people suggested and be perfectly fine.

Matthew watched as Ivan looked up for a moment, thinking. He seemed nervous for some reason, which, in turn, made Matthew a little nervous. Of course, maybe he was reading too much into things. He tried not to do that too often, as misunderstandings could often be the root of conflicts, assuming makes an ass out of you and me and all that. Still, the fact was, anything that made Ivan nervous could probably make most people nervous- there wasn't much that would outright upset Ivan at the outset (except perhaps his sisters).

There was no reason to worry, though. As soon as Ivan spoke, Matthew's face lit up, fierce and almost a little bloodthirsty. Oh, this was brilliant! The apprehension Matthew had been feeling earlier bled away, forgotten somewhere below his enthusiasm for his national sport. He gave Ivan a cocky smirk. "That depends. You ready to lose?" Oh, he hadn't had a good game in some time. He could play against his brother, sure, and Alfred was pretty good (and also Matthew's only outlet for his other sports love in lacrosse), but they knew each other far too well. He needed a new victim- er- opponent.

"I've got some great new players. They'll beat anything you've got." He didn't doubt it- he'd had some brilliant amateurs rising the ranks of the CHA recently, and the Montreal Canadiens had a legitimate chance at the Stanley Cup recently (despite the unrest in the region, to Matthew's delight). "Besides, things have been getting boring without you- I always look forward to beating your ass." Canadian Hockey was still hosting the same tournaments it always had- no simple war was going to deprive Canada of his blood sport- but it was getting boring, what with the Hockey World Championships mostly being hosted on the United Allegiance side of things. Look, as fun as basically hosting a tournament between himself, his brother, and sometimes one or two Nordics was, it was nice to have at least one other nation there that stood a chance once and awhile, and Russia had been consistently good for a long time.

Not that anyone stood a chance against the team Matthew was already mentally drafting in his team, of course. The last U-17 team had really had some prodigies, and he'd one-hundred-percent be able to poach some of Alfred's NHL players, the ones that were still technically Canadian nationals... Oh, Ivan had no idea what was coming for him. He was going to get it good. The only wrinkle was that, despite Matthew's best efforts, he didn't know but so much about the state of Russian hockey at the moment. Somehow, that never came up as important in intelligence briefings. He had no modern footage of their teams, so it would be harder to try to set up against the current playstyle...

Wait. Hold on. Slowly, Matthew fell enough out of a competitive, excited mode to realize the main, glaring issue with this plan. "...this is not going to be fun to try to organize, is it?" he said. (All thoughts of ulterior motives had vanished. Using hockey for an ulterior motive? That was tantamount to heresy in Matthew's mind, and therefore failed to cross it as an option at all. If this was bait, then Ivan had chosen just about the perfect choice.)

"Since you approached me first, do you have any ideas?" Hopefully, since Ivan had gone ahead and approached Matthew, it meant there was a plan in place, and Matthew could go back to mentally drafting a team that was guaranteed to put Ivan's ten feet under. Then again, knowing the situation, there probably wasn't much of a real plan in place that would withstand great scrutiny from both sides, so it would still take some brainstorming.

Still. Matthew was already excited. The possibilities... an opponent that would be a true unknown, a true threat... his face fell back into a very bloodthirsty place. Oh, this was going to be brilliant.