Emil smoothed down his hair as he stepped out onto the platform.

The sound of the city could be heard even over the roar of the train speeding away behind him, and it sounded amazing. Scanning the crowd, he spotted his aunt and uncle waving to him from where they were waiting.

"Thank goodness you made it!" His aunt called as he approached them. "We were worried for a moment there."

"I'm on time." Emil replied, dumping his cases at their feet. "Are we walking?"

"Of course." His uncle scoffed, "It's free."

Emil internally groaned as he picked his luggage back up and lugged it behind his aunt and uncle. The walk was at least half an hour from the station to their house, made even more excruciating by the heavy bags, and the muggy weather. His hair was doomed.

Well, he could always quickly shower before he left for his student digs.

That was why he was there, of course. His first year of university! A self-proclaimed prodigy, now flying the nest and joining the fitful mess that was the student population. What a splendid thing to boast about at the next family gathering.

He had been quite lucky, really. He'd found a place not even a stones throw from the university campus, with 6 rooms, and a separate kitchen and dining room. It didn't take poverty to be able to appreciate that particular arrangement, not at all! He didn't know who the other people he would be living with were, but it was always nice to meet people.

He hoped they were tidy.

"Emil! Emil!"

Three pairs of feet thundered towards him, and Emil briefly realised that they had arrived before three small bodies collided with him, all shrieking in delight and rattling off question after question.

"Are you living with us?"

"Can we play together?"

"Am I going to school with you?"

"Can I live with you?"

"Are you staying?"

Their mother had faded into the woodwork as soon as her children had delighted with the sight of Emil, their father trying to prise them off of their poor cousin. "Now, now," he said, putting them down and turning to see that they had already clung back on in a losing war, "don't ask so many questions at once. One at a time."

"I'm not staying for long this time." Emil apologised, "but I always have time for a game."

The three cheered before dragging him inside, their father throwing a floor skyward and muttering a prayer before following them.

Lalli arrived in a foul mood.

He hated trains, he despised boats, but planes? His nemesis. Screw scratchy blankets, it was the flying tin cans Tuuri insisted were called aeroplanes who took top spot.

They could have taken a boat. Lalli had seen that they could have while flicking through a brochure waiting for their flight. But Tuuri had wanted to fly, and so fly they did.

Lalli's stomach would never forgive him.

"The rest of our stuff should arrive soon." Tuuri chirped to the stony-faced Lalli, cheerfully nattering away as she dragged her suitcase down the steps from the airport. "So we'll just get a taxi and get to our house, okay?"

"This isn't home." Lalli pointed out as he trailed after her, his own suitcase considerably lighter.

"It will be for the next three years, Lalli. Please try to make this work."

Lalli didn't grace her with an answer.

Tuuri piled into the front seat of the taxi while Lalli slipped into the back, tucking his knees into his chest as he stared out of the window and tried to ignore the looks the driver was giving him.

Their house was quaint, Lalli decided. While Tuuri dealt with the driver and payment, Lalli had swiped her keys and was unlocking the front door before she could stop him. He pulled his suitcase inside and surveyed the room.

The entry hall was a small porch, which lead on to the kitchen and dining area, separated by a thin glass door that slid into the wall. Lalli kicked off his shoes as he padded in. There were no other shoes on the rack, so he assumed he was alone.

The kitchen lead into a small bathroom that stank of cheap candles, the garden, and the living room. The shelf was empty in there and Lalli assumed that they'd have to fill it themselves. There were worn sofas and thick, fluffy blankets. Lalli stroked the closest one. It wasn't scratchy.

One door lead into a stairwell, and another into a bedroom. The handle was much heavier, and upon closer inspection he noticed that it could be locked by a key. Lalli took one look at the room and decided that he did not like it.

He went back to the stairwell and noticed another door with a similar handle. He opened it.

Yes. He liked this room.

He quickly grabbed his suitcase as he saw Tuuri struggling up the path and ran it into his chosen room, almost dropping it in his haste. This room! He wanted this one!

"Lalli!" Tuuri wheezed as she managed to haul her suitcase inside, "You can't do that!"

"Do what?" He innocently asked as he came round to watch her struggle.

"Run off like that! You should have waited."

Lalli simply shrugged and left to investigate upstairs. He could hear Tuuri pottering around downstairs and paid no mind to it as he peered in through doors and scrunched his face at almost every single room.

As he came back downstairs, he looked out of the window and saw another human being walking up the path with a purposeful stride, and a small hoard of children following him as they dragged various bags behind him, and two other adults.

He stiffened for a moment before slinking back into his claimed room. Hoping no one would barge in, he crawled under the bed and listened hard.

The key jangled in the lock. The pause as they registered the shoes in the shoe rack.

"Hello?" They called out. Lalli felt his chest throb at their voice and was almost convinced it was a sign he was going to die.

Thankfully, Tuuri was downstairs to deal with them. "Hullo!" She tottered over to him, all sunshine and fake rainbows. "I'm Tuuri! My cousin Lalli is somewhere, probably in his room. It's nice to meet you!"

"I'm Emil." The stranger continued, and Lalli had to hold two fingers to his neck to check his pulse. Was his heart not working correctly? "These are my cousins, they're helping me get my things here."

The three small humans all chatted away and Lalli clamped his hands over his ears. Nope! Nope nope nope! Disgusting voices!

The two adults and Emil went on to have a private conversation in a gibberish he couldn't understand, and he thought he heard Tuuri tell the small ones that one was adopted. He snorted into the carpet.

Silly Tuuri.

About twenty minutes later, after goodbyes had been exchanged and the door had shut with a sound of finality, Lalli deemed it safe to crawl out from under his bed.

He peered out to see a pile of bags by the staircase, and Tuuri standing in front of his door with arms crossed over her chest and angrily tapping her foot as she frowned at him.

"What?" He asked her in their native tongue.

"You know what." She replied. "You can't ignore these people forever."

"I can."

Tuuri threw her hands up in annoyance. "Yeah, whatever, Lalli. Help us get our bags up?"

Having noting better to do, Lalli grabbed the closest bag and hauled it up the stairs-

And bumped straight into a stranger.

Lalli stumbled away with a muffled sound as the stranger jumped about a foot into the air with a strangled shriek. Their blond hair brushed their shoulders, seeming to sparkle, and they looked up in surprise. Lalli felt his chest do that stupid thing again as his stomach filled with butterflies.

He didn't know what that meant.

"Oh- I'm sorry!" Emil - Lalli assumed- rushed over to steady him. "I didn't see you. You must be Lalli! I'm Emil. It's nice to meet you."

Lalli peered over Emils shoulder and saw Tuuri giving him a look that promised pain if he didn't reply.

"... You too."

Emil seemed satisfied with that reply. "I can handle my own bags." Emil assured them. "Thanks for your help anyway."

Lalli nodded and retreated back downstairs, pushing his thoughts to the back of his head. They had no place here.

A few hours later saw Tuuri shoving a tray into Lallis hands and insisting that he brought it up to the strange blond man. With glare, Lalli begrudgingly obliged. It wasn't as if she would pay any attention to his protests, anyway. He gently knocked on the door before pushing it open.

Emil was passed out on his bed, mouth hanging open as he snored. His bags sat empty next to the wardrobe. Lalli set down the tray on the desk, careful to not upset the steaming mug he carried, as he peered in a few drawers and through a crack in the wardrobe. They had unpacked all of their things already.

He turned his attention back to the sleeping man. Careful to not upset any creaky floorboards, he tip-tied over and inspected them closely. Soft, feather like eyelashes looked almost dewey in the faint light, his skin looking like a peach. Hair like woven gold spilled out onto the pillow beneath his head, one arm tucked underneath it while the other lay just under his chin.

Lalli prodded him in the chest. He wasn't entirely sure how to deal with this odd feeling in his stomach, or the urge to nap with them, so he'd ignore the former and promptly quench the latter by waking him.

The weird gibberish he was speaking earlier spilled out as he quickly sat up, rubbing at his eyes. Lalli simply pointed at the tray he'd brought up until Emil followed it and spotted the mug of tea and plate of biscuits.

"Thank you, Lalli." Email sleepily said, rubbing at his eyes. "I suppose I'd better go downstairs and join you both."

Lalli didn't know how to reply to that, so he simply trotted back downstairs, grabbed his laptop, and curled up in the sitting room with the fluffy blanket wrapped around him.

Emil came down a few moments later, mug in one hand, laptop tucked under his arm, and a chocolate digestive in his mouth. He nodded at Tuuri, who was kneeling at the coffee table with her own steaming mug and thick tome, before sitting down next to Lalli. He was careful to not invade his personal space, even when he leaned over to put his mug onto the table.

"Any ideas when the others will arrive?" Emil asked as he booted up his laptop.

"Haven't a clue." Tuuri replied. "What did you say you were studying again?"

"Oh!" Emil almost dropped his biscuit. "Chemical and environmental engineering. What about you two?"

"I'm studying Northern European studies with history." Tuuri proudly replied before gesturing to her cousin, "Lalli is studying Archaeology and Geography."

Lalli simply made a sound of agreement before turning back to his laptop.

"Archaeology?" Emil asked, turning to Lalli. "I didn't realise that was a course."

"Oh, it is!" Tuuri excitedly assured him. "Lalli is pretty good at it."

Lalli looked slightly irritated that his cousin had spoken for him, but couldn't bring himself to feel too angry about it. It got him out of talking.

Emil looked slightly put off, however. He didn't voice it.

The three dug out some frozen pizzas for dinner that night, deciding that they'd make something extravagant, or order in takeout, when the rest of their housemates arrived. Tuuri turned in early, Lalli scandalised to discover that she had taken the other bedroom on the ground floor as opposed to an upstairs one like she had said earlier, realising that she had lied in order to force him to socialise, which left Lalli and Emil to watch bad TV together. Emil seemed to be comfortable enough, sipping on his drink as he snorted at the cheesy jokes and godawful pick-up lines.

Lalli slowly allowed himself to relax into the plush cushions. Maybe the strange feeling he got was simply because Emil was a stranger, maybe they were just nerves. He'd have to live with him for the next three years, so getting on was a must.

Slowly, he allowed his heavy eyelids to droop shut.

The TV turned off with a soft click as Emil carefully got up from the sofa, deciding it best to leave Lalli there. From the way he had shied away from reaching hands and arms earlier, Emil summarised that Lalli wasn't big on the whole touching business and he wasn't about to touch him while he was unconscious and prone. That was just... Rude, and the thought left a bad taste in his mouth. Still, he couldn't bare to leave his hair as it was. Leaning forwards, he quickly ruffled it so it looked more presentable before turning around to busy himself with something else. He put their empty glasses on the side in the kitchen before creeping back in to retrieve his laptop and head upstairs.

Once settled upstairs, Emil grabbed his phone and called his parents. He wasn't sure which time zone he was in now, so he had no idea if it was early or late back home - especially considering he had slept earlier and so was not tired - and could only hope he hadn't woken them up.

"Hello?" His mothers sleepy voice answered.

"Hello, mother." Emil replied. "Did I wake you up?"

"Yes, yes, but no matter. Did you get there okay?"

"I got here just fine, auntie and uncle met me at the station and helped me move my things over. I'm all moved in now."

"That's good. Who else are you living with?"

"I've met two of them- Finns. Cousins, I think. The others haven't arrived yet."

"You're living with- with savages?!" His mother hissed down the phone. Emil nodded despite how his mother wouldn't be able to see it.

"I'll live. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Please don't do anything rash!"

"Sleep well."

Emil hung up and stared at his contact list for a few moments, eyes glazed over.

Welp. They still hadn't changed stances on that, then.

Slipping into his pyjamas, Emil tried his best to sleep.

Only to be woken up a few hours later to the sound of someone pulling something very heavy up the stairs. He sprung out of bed and peered under his door, seeing a pair of feet and a large suitcase.

Cautiously, he pulled on a t-shirt and peered out of his door to catch a flash of bright red hair.

Another housemate had arrived. He glanced at his clock.

7:30am.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Who arrived that early?!

Emil was half of mind to storm out there and let them know exactly what they thought of this nonsense, but he caught a glimpse of Tuuri grinning up at him from downstairs and felt some of his anger melt away. He simply gestured in the direction of the red head and pulled a face.

Tuuri waved him downstairs, and so begrudgingly he obliged.

"She's a housemate from Norway!" Tuuri excitedly explained as though it excused everything. "She used to be in the army. This is pretty late in the morning for her."

Emil grunted. "I was in the army too, and I still find this far too early."

"Y-you were?" Tuuri uncertainly said, looking Emil up and down. He tried his best to ignore that, but it still stung.

"Yes, I was." He hissed back. "I'm on temporary leave until I finish my degree."

"You don't look like you're in the army." Tuuri frowned at him, leaning in closer as though to inspect him.

Emil pouted at her. Just wriggle the knife around, Tuuri. Just wriggle it around.

"Ah! Hello!" The Norwegian shouted down at them, leaning excitedly over the bannister. Emil was thankful for the distraction. "Captain Sigrun, a pleasure to meet you." She jogged down the stairs two at a time, and Emil noticed that one of her arms looked... Significantly stiffer than the other.

Maybe she'd left due to an injury?

They firmly shook hands, Sigrun crushing his slighter one. He tried to not wince too hard, that tended to just encourage them. "Emil." He choked out.

"Excellent!" She released him from her vice grip before grabbing her other bags and hefting them up. "Well, I'll just get myself upstairs and let you two go back to bed. See you later!"

And with that she tromped back upstairs, leaving Tuuri and Emil to share a bewildered look.

What had just happened?

Tuuri simply shook her head and walked back to her room, badly stifling a yawn, while Emil quickly went to the living room to see if Lalli was still there.

There was a lump of blanket on the floor. He knelt down and cautiously lifted the corner. A pair of bright, bright eyes stared right back.

"Lalli?"

"Mmr."

"Come on, you're going to hurt your back." Emil tried to encourage him to crawl out to no avail. Lalli didn't seem to be interested in moving.

"I'm not above carrying you." Emil warned.

That certainly got Lalli moving. With a groan, he wrapped the blanket closer to himself and stood up, slinking away towards his room like a scolded cat. Emil watched him with a faint satisfaction before retreating back to his own room. He stripped the t-shirt back off and crawled back into bed.

Lalli did not go back to his bed.

He had never managed to sleep in the conventional places. A bed was not somewhere to sleep for him. Underneath it was a different story entirely, however, but this time he wasn't planning on sleeping in his room.

Carefully, he cracked his window open and slipped out. Right outside his window was a tall, tall tree. If he could climb it, he could sleep all he wanted entirely undisturbed. No Tuuri shaking him awake and scolding him for not using a bed, no strange red haired woman loudly shouting him awake, and no Emil.

It would be perfect.

Once settled in he branches, he let his eyes droop shut again, confident that the leaves of the tree would hide him well enough to buy him a few more hours of privacy.

His alarm went off at 9am.

With a groan, Emil smacked the off button and lay face down in his bed for a moment before sighing and pushing himself up. It wouldn't do to succumb to the temptation of the snooze button now - he had to keep to his old habits if he wanted to pass this semester.

Stumbling out of bed, he threw open his curtains and stretched in the early morning sunshine.

A strangled choking sound made his eyes fly open.

Lalli was sat in the fork of two branches, his eyes as wide as saucers as the two stared at each other in stunned silence. Two hands were clamped over Lallis mouth, his face slowly turning red for a reason Emil couldn't quite identify. Embarrassment at being caught in a tree? Suffocation? Shock?

Emil didn't quite know what to do, so he simply slowly drew the curtains again while maintaining solid eye contact, and slowly sank down to the floor.

Why.

Why did he do that.

What could have possibly possessed him to do that? To think that was a good idea?

With a groan, Emil scrubbed his hands down his face. With a cringe he realised that he had stubble peppering his face. He must have looked a right state! How awful!

Quickly pulling on a t-shirt, he grabbed his toiletries bag and stumbled into the bathroom.

Lalli, on the other hand, was still in the tree, firmly demanding that the tree swallowed him up and never spat him back out. He hadn't meant to be seen. He didn't realise that someone had chosen the room directly above his own! And it just had to be Emil, didn't it! The stupid idiot hadn't even noticed that he was there, stretching his arms wide and throwing his chest out, a satisfied smile on his face as he basked in the sunlight. Lalli hadn't meant to make a noise. If he hadn't, he may not have been seen.

Ugh.

He hoped this hadn't just made it awkward.

Gingerly, he descended and slipped back in to his room.

Please don't say anything to Tuuri, please please please! She would never let him live it down, forever lecturing him about what was socially acceptable and what wasn't. He was doing just fine on his own, thank you very much!

He quietly grabbed his toiletries and escaped into the downstairs bathroom, locking the door firmly behind him.

Sigrun watched the Finn with a bemused expression as he scampered out of his room and into the bathroom, covered in leaves and furiously blushing.

Well, that was a fine first impression.

"Don't mind him." Tuuri sighed as she placed a steaming mug in front of Sigrun. "He's a little... Different."

"We all have our quirks." Sigrun replied, leaning her elbows on the table as she rested her hand on her cheek. Metal glinted as it caught the sun and Tuuri barely stifled her gasp.

"I-I'm sorry, I-" she spluttered when Sigrun glanced at her.

Sigrun waved her off. "I'm used to it."

Tuuri nodded and tried to not focus too much on the glaringly obvious prosthetic arm. "So," she tried, attempting to change the topic, "what should we make for breakfast?"

"I already ate this morning." Sigrun replied as she took a sip of her coffee. "What do we have? I'll do a food run."

"We already have some Rivita, some cheese, a packet of ham..." Tuuri counted them off on her fingers. "I don't think we have any cereal yet."

"I'll go in a bit."

"I'll come with! I'll need to learn where it is, anyway."

"More the merrier." She took another swig of her coffee as Lalli left the bathroom. "Morning, Twig!"

"Morning Lalli! This is Sigrun. What do we say?"

"... Hello."

"Did you want to come to the supermarket with us later on?" She asked. Lalli quickly shook his head and hastily retreated into his room. Sigrun simply accepted this with a nod as she downed the rest of her coffee and got up to grab some juice.

"Ugh! I'm so sorry about him. I'll make him come with us." Tuuri scraped her chair back as she made to stand, but Sigrun pushed her back down into her seat.

"Leave it, it's fine. There's always another time."

"I suppose." Tuuri mumbled as she looked at the door Lalli had disappeared behind.

Lalli jumped up onto his bed and pulled his laptop onto his lap, deciding to focus his attention onto his course. It started in five days, so he thought that he may as well read around the subject a little. Prepare himself for what he was about to get himself into. He loaded up the first powerpoint that had been uploaded and checked their reading list. It all looked expensive, and he shuddered at the though of getting a part time job to be able to afford all of this.

In a separate tab, he began looking for job vacancies.

He heard the sound of Emil coming downstairs, and he fought to keep his face neutral. It was highly unlikely that Emil would go into his room anyway, but he may have wanted to… talk, about what had happened earlier, and Lalli wasn't sure he was ready for that just yet. Their common language wasn't exactly his forte, and he wasn't sure that he knew all the words to explain anything. Tuuri probably did, but did he want her to explain it? No. Hell no. She omitted things and always gave him a pitying look instead as though she were trying to protect him.

He didn't want to be protected.

After about forty-five minutes of pure, blissful solitude, Emil gently knocked at his door.

"Hey, Lalli?" He asked, sticking his head in. "The others are about to go to the supermarket, was there anything you wanted?"

Lalli was quiet for a moment, thinking over his answer.

"Cookies." He said with an air of finality, giving a nod.

"Any particular kind?"

Lalli shook his head.

Emil left. He didn't close the door.

Lalli's eye twitched in annoyance.

The Swede relayed the message on to Sigrun and Tuuri, who then left with an updated shopping list. After they'd done a sweep of the house, they realised that they were missing some basics, such as bleach, drain cleaner, and dish soap. Their other two housemates hadn't arrived yet, either, so they supposed that it was best to get everything now before they saw the state of disarray that they'd been landed in. Once he was sure they were gone, he allowed himself to slowly sit down in a kitchen chair.

Was it a good idea to ignore what had happened earlier? Surely Lalli hadn't intended to be there – well, it was difficult to not intend to be up in a tree when you had gotten yourself up there – but, hadn't intended to be looking directly into his room. Lalli didn't even know which room was his… right? Right?

Emil fiddled at the edge of his collar. Perhaps he was over thinking this. Lalli had looked as shocked as he was; it was simply an honest mistake. Nothing more, and nothing less. That's what he was telling himself. It meant nothing, it was nothing.

His head snapped up when he heard shuffling, and he saw Lalli still in his pyjamas shuffle into the kitchen and grab a carton of apple juice out of the fridge. He grabbed a glass and poured himself some while Emil watched.

Emil suddenly felt incredibly overdressed. There Lalli was, looking relaxed and comfortable in his baggy clothing, while Emil was dressed in a shirt, with a blue jumper over the top and a pair of black jeans. He couldn't help but feel like his father.

"I'm sorry about last night," Emil suddenly said, not entirely sure why he'd wanted to break the silence between them, "you looked so tired, I thought it best to leave you there."

Lalli just shrugged as he put the apple juice back in the fridge. "Sorry about this morning. Didn't think anyone was in that room."

"It's fine."

"Tuuri will scold me if she knows."

"I haven't said anything." Emil assured him. "It was a mistake, she doesn't need to know."

Lalli stood in place for a moment before padding over to the table and sitting down next to him. The chair made a quiet creak as it took his weight.

"You shaved." He commented.

Emil felt like he were being scrutinised. "I- I did. What of it?"

"Nothing."

Emil rubbed at his chin, suddenly feeling incredibly self-conscious. Did he miss a spot? Was it all red and irritated?

"Your face is good."

Emil choked on air, looking at Lalli for an explanation. Luckily, the Finn wasn't quite finished yet.

"It's smooth." Lalli ran two fingers down his jaw. "No patches."

Emil mutely nodded, trying his hardest to fight the red that was threatening to take over his face. Was he being teased?!

His saving grace was the sound of a phone vibrating in Lalli's room. They sighed and stood, leaving their juice behind, as they trotted into their room and shut the door. Emil sighed and slumped into his seat, his face still burning where Lalli's fingers had been.

He was so doomed.