DenNor • Bite-Sized Fluff

01 Hide 'n Seek

Playing hide and seek with no spot in the entire World Conference Building to be off limits proved finding a single country a mind-numbing task for the poor Lithuanian. Everyone else, on the other hand, excitedly rushed out of the main room to find a suitable place to hide, usually with a friend or two in tow.

This was no different for Mathias and Lukas.

Mathias hurriedly slides into a nearby closet he spotted in his peripheral. "Quick, Norge, in here!"

"Shut up. Everyone can hear you."

Lukas takes a second to weigh the options of hiding in the dark closet, with Mathias eagerly holding out its door.

Everyone else has their own partner: Tino and Berwald, Emil and Leon, even the strict Ludwig with Feliciano! I wouldn't want to interfere their fun and become a third wheel.

The Norwegian snaps out of his thoughts and finally moved. He can see Mathias beaming at him as he awkwardly shuffled into the closet. It seemed smaller than the outside due to the amount of space the large Dane was taking up.

Lukas pulled the door near to a close, leaving just enough space to peer at the surroundings outside the closet. "I don't think this is ideal to hide the both of us." He's practically pushed up against the right side of Mathias' body.

"C'monnnn, it's fine! See?" Mathias waves his arms upwards, then where Lukas was standing. "Get comfy, alright? Tolys'll take a long time to get here."

A wave of comfortable silence washes over them as they catch the breath they lost as they were running. Mathias decides to turn his head, planning to observe the interior of the dark closet.

Instead, finds himself entranced with the sight in front of him. A few inches away from his face was the stunning side profile of Lukas, a thin beam of light from a source outside the closet door gracing his soft features. They were contorted into a slight frown, keeping watch for movement outside of their hiding spot.

Woah, Lukas' face looks so pretty this close. I mean, he has always looked really, really good-

The Dane inwardly slapped himself. Now's not the time to think like this! We're hiding in a game of hide and seek for the god's sake-

Mathias' thoughts were interrupted once again when he caught sight of the Norwegian lose his footing and stumbling backwards. He shoots his arm out and behind his back, though, just in time to prevent Lukas from continuing the fall.

"Sorry, I think I slipped on something. The dust, probably. It looks like nobody had cleaned this closet in a while."

After making sure he was alright, Mathias softly smiled at the other man, endearment evident on his face.

"Hey, you might lose your balance again. Here, hold my hand. I don't mind," Mathias excitedly whispers, still grinning warmly.

Lukas felt all his blood rushing up to his face when he heard those words. Thank goodness for this darkness, he thought. Wouldn't want to raise his ego higher than it already is. He cranes his head to gaze at Mathias. "No, thank you. I'll pass."

"Nah, nah. I insist!"

And without any further warning, Mathias laces his fingers through the other's smaller ones.

Lukas made his head look down and fixed his eyes onto the wooden floor. It was like a bunch of butterflies were fluttering about his stomach, but the butterflies are actually eagles that were hurriedly scouring the land for their next meal.

Meanwhile, Mathias maintained a calm composure, despite his erratic heart doing backflips behind his ribcage.

A few more moments of silence pass as they adjust to the warmth they feel from each other's palms, along with the emotions racing through their minds. Worried about the Dane's temporary quietness, Lukas suddenly blurts out,

"Loser. Are you afraid of the dark?"

Mathias' eyes widen, but only for a fraction of a second. His face softens into a grin, as if in realization, then allows a quiet chuckle to slip past his lips.

"Where'd you get that from?" He begins in mock offense, "Why would I, the Kingdom of Denmark himself, be afraid of something as small as the dark?"

Lukas scoffs. He knew he should've kept his mouth shut. "Whatever. Forget it."

In a few moments, Mathias felt himself lose a bit of hope on the belief that the smaller man next to him does feel the same as he does, due to his not-so-positive reactions.

Mathias looks down to their interlocked fingers, then starts to loosen the grip from the hand he was holding. He stops right after, though, as he feels the other's hand give a light squeeze to his own.

Lukas' hand. Squeezed mine. My hand. Huh, I must be imagining things-

"I don't mind," Mathias hears Lukas start. "I quite like it, actually."

Mathias whips his head to look at Lukas, keen to hear more of what the Norwegian thought, of the hand holding and of himself in general.

But before he knew what was happening, with his mouth halfway open to question the other on the matter, he felt Lukas' free hand clamped on top of his mouth. Of course, this effectively shut up the Dane.

"Shush," The Norwegian whispered. "I just saw Tolys pass by," he adds as he strains his eyes to get a better look at the Lithuanian's location.

Mathias carefully shifts his focus onto the hand curved around the lower part of his face. Now, it was his turn to wear a blush, one that carefully dusted along his cheeks (not that he knew Lukas had blushed a short moment ago).

Trying to reassure himself, Mathias shakes his head and thinks, "At least Lukas wouldn't notice this in the dark." He inwardly sighed in relief after he had convinced himself that the thought had no flaw.

Unfortunately, Dane did not take into account that Lukas could feel his face heat up beneath the hand covering his mouth.

He didn't have to know that just yet, though.

With a small, but still genuine, smile, Lukas commented, "You can tell me what you wanted to say later. But right now, we're going to beat everyone  here playing this game and win."

-

1045 word count

Thank you for reading my first ever fanfic, even if it is quite short! If you would like to request anything, would like to point out mistakes or anything I could improve upon, please comment or send me a message :)

Yo it's currently,, 4:20am,, oops. I seem to get the motivation to write when it is wayyytoo late at night lol

Take care!

♡ Yours truly, fourfootpen