Title: The Englishman and the Hare
Rating: K
Reason for Rating: Fluuuuuff. BoyxBoy.
Length: 945
Prompt: Curling. And 'cause I want to.
Pairings: EnglandxFinland
A/n: Curling's fun to watch. I actually wrote this a couple weeks ago when England was playing against Denmark. ..truthfully, I was rooting for Denmark. Those Danish girls were cute. -leech- Anyways, enjoy!
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Arthur sighed, shaking his head. He was doing no good in the Olympics so far. No medals, not even a real chance at one. He was doing horrible and, America was doing amazing. Leading in the medal count with 15 medals. Five of those were gold!
The British man stood up, about to face France in a Curling match. Just preliminaries, but it was an important game nonetheless. There was no such thing as an unimportant game. You stop trying for one, then why try at all? Arthur had to win, he just had to. If he didn't win at least one medal, he'd never hear the end of it from Alfred. And he really didn't want that..
Alone, he thought he was, as he stood in the locker room that was given for each waiting country team, and grabbed his slider shoes and his stopwatch from the locker. The brooms were at the sheet, as were the stones. Arthur pocketed the stopwatch and turned on his toes towards the door.
He was brought at slight alarm, when he turned around, to see someone standing there.
"Finland?" he questioned, confused at the fellow country's presence, and why he hadn't noticed it.
"Uh.. A-arthur.." the Finn whispered, looking unsure of himself, a slight blush crossing his face. It wasn't warm in here, it was actually quite cold, he thought, not acknowledging Finland's use of his real name. Was he sick? He'd hope not, if Finland was sick, that would effect all of the man's Olympic competition. Even if a disadvantage of his rivals was nice, it ruins to fun to fight a opponent that wasn't at their best. No fun at all.
"What is it?" he asked, "Are you alright?"
He may have been a little concerned, don't get him wrong, but he knew the Finn a bit, as much as he'd opened up to him. Finland was a tad quiet, and to himself, but once he opened up, he was very kind and polite. He was never very loud, and Arthur liked that. After wondering where he went wrong in raising Alfred, quiet was good, a nice change from the 'I'm the hero!'s and 'you'll be my backup!'s. He was terribly sick of it.
"Er.. I just.." Tino trailed off, beating around the bush.
"You what? I'm sorry to rush you, but I do have a match coming up, so.."
"Ah! I'm very sorry, I just.." he mumbled, smiling slightly to himself, "Wanted to wish you luck on the match."
Now, Arthur didn't see that coming.
"Wish me.. luck?" he tilted his head, "Why?"
"Why? Because.. Because I want you to win!" Tino grinned, fidgeting with the object in his grasp.
"Want me to win..? Well, I guess.." the Brit murmured, slightly put off, then noticed the thing in Finland's hands, "What is that?" This cause the Finn to jump, looking a little lost as he tried to decide if he should give Arthur the thing, or hide it and lie. After a few moments of throwing the idea back and forth, he just gave up, knowing that England would question him until he told him. The blonde haired man held his hands out awkwardly, looking away in embarrassment.
Arthur looked at the object, grabbing it from the Finn's hold, examining it closer. It was a little silver necklace, with a small hare charm dangling from it. The small trinket was cute, but England was confused.
"What..?" he began, but Tino cut him off.
"It's a good luck charm. The hare has helped me before, and I thought it could help you."
"Oh? Tha..thank you, Finland-"
"Tino."
"Huh?"
"Call me Tino, please."
"Ah, alright.. Tino.." he mumbled, rolling it on his tongue, and continued, "Anyways, it was a very thoughtful idea. Thank you."
Finland turned a few shades of red darker at this, fidgeting with his own fingers now that he lacked the necklace. Arthur snorted at the sight, it was cute. He hadn't seen the Finn act this way, though really, he hadn't seen much of Tino lately. The Finn always seemed busy, be it with keeping his economy in it's wealth, or other plans. Thinking about it, Arthur realized that it had been so long since he'd visited him in London. Even if it was a visit for a day, or a couple days, he noticed how much he missed the little blonde's company. Quiet, he was, but he made very lovely conversation when they got to it(and Tino was cute, to boot!).
Arthur unlatched the hook, making the two ends meet at the back of his neck, and re-hooked it. The Brit smiled at Tino, grasping the little metal hare tightly in his calloused fingers.
"I'll wear it during the match, yeah?" It was more of a statement than question, and Tino knew this. The look on his face made Arthur smile. Just the fact that he accepted the Finn's gift, and would wear it during his game made Finland happy.
"Alright! Lykkyä tykö, Arthur!" the Finn chirped, beaming at England. Arthur nodded to him, re-gripping his items, and turned on his toes to exit to the arena. A deep rooted feeling of warmth, and the he could do it came over him suddenly. He felt confident he could beat Francis in this match, and he had Tino to thank. As he left in total confidence of his ability, he didn't hear the whispered 'Minä rakastan sinua', but he didn't need to, he already knew it.