A/N Dis is fluff
Tino Väinämöinen, known to most as Finland, sat at his desk in psychology, towards the front of the class. His friends, Mathias Køhler, Lukas Bondevik, Emil Steilsson, and Erland Oxenstierna, sit next to him though this provides little to no comfort for him. The seat behind him behind him belongs to a quiet and looming figure whom scares Tino half to death. It wasn’t that he was mean, or doing it on purpose even. Berwald, as Erland’s older brother, was around Tino often and loomed over him, and the others often. This made the small blonde rather uncomfortable. If that wasn’t enough that the quiet giant was just intimidating, he was constantly staring at Tino.
“It’s no big deal.” Erland said when Tino told the younger brother of his concerns. “ Sve is harmless. He’s super weak.” Tino knew that was a lie. He’d had gym class with Berwald, and knew how much he could lift. He had seen the way Berwald’s muscles moved beneath the skin. Tino shook his head. Usually such ideas were fun to entertain, but Berwald had just entered the classroom. Tino focus on the book in front of him, but he could still feel the Swedish man’s eyes on him even after he heard the soft thunk of Berwald sitting down.
As the others began to talk the two in the middle of it all remained, Tino’s nose in a book, and Berwald’s eyes trained to Tino’s back. Tino stood rather abruptly, and left the room. Despite his ability to deal with Mathias Tino had had enough. He marched as far from the classroom as possible. Passing the pool door he bumped into a girl he recognized. Emma Dupont, a Belgian, had been standing outside before being knocked to the floor.
“What on earth were you doing there?” Tino asked picking himself up then helping her to her feet.
“Nothing, Nothing at all.” She whispered. “ And keep your voice down.”
Tino rolled his eyes, but began to whisper as well. “Of course because a person doing nothing usually whispers.” Usually he was much sweeter than this, but Berwald’s constant gaze had pushed him to his wits end. “So really what were you doing?”
Emma sighed and pointed to the large doors that led to the pool. “Watching the swim team practice.” Tino gave her a questioning look. “Yeah Yeah I know, but I don’t want Jett to see me.”
Jett Kirkland was one of the many Kirkland brothers, though unlike the others he was from Australia. “Why not? Arthur is your friend isn’t he? Doesn’t that make you and Jett kinda like friends too?”
“Tino, Tino, Tino.” Emma said shaking her head and smiling. “This isn’t a matter of friendship. It’s a matter of love!” Tino looked at her in utter confusion. “Jett and I are friends yes. He’s so kind, funny, and not to mention handsome. I fell for him. I can’t tell Arthur, or Jett.”
“Why not?” He didn’t understand. If she liked Jett so much why not tell him? Why not tell Arthur so he can help? Tino had never been in love with someone before.
“Jett may reject me, and that’ll hurt. With Arthur…” She lets out a sigh. “He’s my best friend, and Jett’s brother. If things go wrong, and he’s trying to help us get together…”
Tino blinked. “So you just watch him?” She nods. At that moment Tino had a thought cross his mind. If Emma felt this way about talking to Jett, could someone like Berwald have those same kinds of feelings, and if that was the case imagine what it must have felt like seeing Tino storm out of the room like that.
They had never spoken much, but the conversations they'd had Tino enjoyed. He thought Berwald was a good person, and enjoyed talking to him. The thought that maybe Berwald was doing this because he liked Tino made the Finnish heart inside his chest flutter. Did he like Berwald? Sure he had helped him with a few projects, and sure during gym Tino often found his eyes drifting to Berwald’s muscles. The few times he’d heard Berwald talk had made him very happy, and even blush.
Finding Berwald became Tino’s priority. He was stoic and even cold at times, but Tino knew he was a kind person with all of his heart. Tino’s heart was never wrong. For the first time Tino had missed a class, and for the first time he’d miss two. Berwald didn’t have literature with him, Tino didn’t know what class he had, but he’d find him one way or another.
The two didn’t cross paths until the end of the day. Berwald’s back was to Tino, but he knew it was him. “Berwald Oxenstierna!” His voice was louder than usual. Berwald turned along with several of their friends. “Can I speak with you please?” He quieted his voice giving it a softer more gentle tone. “Alone…”
Berwald nodded at let the smaller blond lead him away from the others. Tino was, to the large male, rather adorable. He was too busy staring to notice Tino stop. He slammed into the smaller figure, and they both toppled to the floor. “Sorry.”
Tino blushed looking up at Berwald. “It’s fine.” Neither of them moved. “Berwald… do you…” He searched his mind for the words. This was harder than Tino had expected. “Berwald… I… I think I…” His mouth refused to form the words that he wished to say. All this skipping class and emotional discovery, and he can’t even tell him?
Berwald listened attentively. He could feel his heartbeat speeding up. This almost sounded like a confession. Berwald had a crush on Tino, and it had been there for a long time. He'd chose to remain silent. Due to his accent along with his speech impediment he hated to speak. Often times others couldn’t understand him, and they gave up trying too.
“You’re cute Berwald, and maybe we could get dinner sometime.” Tino’s face was bright red. “Just the two of us.” He watched as Berwald smiled, and nodded. The pair finally got up, and Berwald placed a gentle kiss on Tino’s forehead. As he did so Tino heard him mumble something along the lines of my future wife. Tino shook his head sure he had misheard the words from Berwald. Little did he know he hadn’t.
