After closing the door to his room, the fifteen-year-old Swede let out a mildly agitated sigh and plopped himself down in a chair facing his desktop. He pressed a button on the monitor and it immediately lit up, the computer let out a disgruntled fizzle of energy before starting to make any signs of activity. The boy rested his right hand on the grey mouse connected to it, index finger lightly tapping the left section of the mouse. After a rather rough encounter with his mother, he decided that letting off some steam talking to people would make him feel better.
He opened up a new window, typing in the familiar address for a Nordic chatting site that was anonymous, so he could get away with spilling things to people without having to account for it later. Even though he himself didn't spill much at all, really. Berwald Oxenstierna was a rather withdrawn sort of person and a bit of a shut-in as well. Still a bit aggravated at his mother, he hoped that having a decent conversation would calm him down, despite physically not looking any angrier than before the argument with his mother.
Regardless, the blond Swede clicked the 'Start Chatting' button on his screen and waited for the sever to match him up with someone. Berwald himself would have been registered as "Me" in the full chat display while the other person would be "You". Of course, the colors of the font were different colors to further emphasize the difference.
Berwald waited only a second before he was matched up with someone else from another Scandinavian country.
You: Hello there! :D
Me: Hello.
Even in text Berwald remained rather withdrawn.
You: What country are you from? :) I'm from Finland.
Finnish? Berwald asked himself mentally, but continued with the 'conversation' they were having.
Me: I'm from Sweden.
You: Ahh, so you're Swedish then, huh? :D My name is Tino, and I'm 14. How are you doing? Haha.
Berwald noticed that this Tino person seemed to be a very happy person, though it could have all been just a charade, he thought.
Me: I'm Berwald. And I'm 15.
Me: I just had a fight with my mom, so I'm still kind of angry. Sort of hoping that talking to someone else would make me feel better.
You: :c Aww, I'm sorry. What was it about?
Me: My mom's just sort of over-protective. She's pretty clingy, and it might be because I'm an only child, but I kind of want to leave home already. I wish I could.
Berwald stared at his reply for a moment, waiting for the Finnish Tino to respond, if he was going to respond at all. Even from his first impression, Tino seemed to be like someone who'd at least make an attempt to help.
You: I'm sorry. :c My mom and I are a lot alike, but I don't like my dad very much. He's so old-fashioned.
Berwald smiled a bit at the recollection of his father, whom of which he liked much more than his mother.
Me: I actually like my dad. : ) We're a lot alike in the sense that we're both quiet and reserved.
You: : ) Oh, so you're the quiet type? Haha. I can be a little loud sometimes, but I try not to be.
Me: That's good. I think I'm kind of boring, so you'll keep the conversation going.
You: Boring!? :c Don't think of yourself that way. I don't think you're boring.
Me: But we just met and we hardly know each other…
You: True…But I actually have made some really good friends from this site. : )
Me: Really? I've just met some interesting people, never really had any friends from here.
You: Of course! :D I made a really good Estonian friend here a few months ago, and we keep in touch by emailing frequently.
Me: …But this is a Nordic chatroom…
You: Well I guess he found about it somehow. ^ ^
Me: True, I guess.
There was another pause for a moment as Berwald usually killed any possible attempt for a conversational reply with his one-liners. He hated how he did this, but at the same time, he really didn't know what else to say. Forcing himself to even speak just felt sort of wrong. It didn't sit with him correctly. But how else should he keep a text-only conversation going?
Me: I don't like talking, so I find typing to be more comfortable.
You: You don't like talking? :c Why not?
Me: I sort of mumble a lot and slur my words together. The way I speak is kind of ugly, so that's why I'm quiet.
Me: My handwriting's pretty difficult to read too.
You: I'm sure it's not that bad. Everyone has 'bad handwriting' to some extent, I think. : )
Me: Haha, thanks.
You: Don't worry about it! :D My dad says my handwriting looks kind of girly. It's just because it's neat!
Me: Handwriting can be misleading, though. : )
You: Haha, yes, I think so too!
Berwald continued to talk to this Tino person for the next half an hour, one of the longest conversations he had ever had on this site. Berwald didn't know whether to be suspicious that this Tino was squeezing information out of him like some sort of playful snake or be happy that he actually found someone to share it with. Berwald had few friends at school, though got pretty good grades at school. He had a rather intimidating glare, and as tall for his age, and addition to his aloof behavior, few people actually knew him for what he was.
You: Oh, do you mind if I ask for your email? : )
Me: What?
You: :D It's okay if I can have your email, right? You seem like an interesting person to talk to. I'd love to talk to you again.
Me: Really?
You: Of course, haha. : )
Berwald felt a little anxious as he stared at the light blue colored text on his screen, awaiting his reply. Should he actually decide to give his email to this person? This person that claimed to be a 14-year-old boy from Finland could really be someone lying to him. But as he thought about it again, who would bother with someone like himself?
Berwald wasn't much. True, he was pretty good at sewing, but that was something he just learned out of boredom. He didn't really have any special talents or ties to any special anything, really. He was just a young high school student who was rather unsure of himself. With that in his mind, he reached for the enter key and pressed it lightly, sending his email address off to the complete stranger that he had managed to friend in the period of about a 45 minutes.
Tino then provided his email, which Berwald then wrote down on a scrap of paper behind his desk that was lying next to an empty plate he hadn't taken care of yet.
You: _ lll I'm sorry! It's been really nice talking to you, but I think I have to go! Feel free to email me. :D
Feeling as though he now had some obligation to reply, he typed rather slowly,
Me: Don't worry, I will. : ) It was very nice talking to you as well, good-bye.
And like that, their conversation had ended. Berwald's shoulder sunk as he stared at the words longer, pushing up the pair of black glasses that sat on his nose. His blue-green eyes scrolled over to the bit of paper with the new email address written on it. With his mind rather blank at this point, he opened up a new window for his email, still leaving the chat with Tino minimized.
After adding Tino as a contact in his contacts list, there now was a whopping total of six contacts. Looking at it made him feel lonely. Three of those on the six were relatives, and two were old classmates from school, then left Tino. Berwald sighed lightly, forcing himself to start composing a new email that he'd send to Tino.
With his fingers sitting on the home keys, he managed to leave the subject bar blank, and started to type idle things, managing to reread it to himself several times before moving on. He stopped halfway between the second paragraph, finally sick of himself and closed the window, clicking the button that signified he did not want to save it as a draft. Muttering under his breath rather angrily, he closed all of the windows and turned off his monitor to go read a good book.
---
In Finland, Tino Väinämöinen had just finished having dinner with his family. As he finished helping his mother clean up, the rather pessimistic Swede he had been talking to was on his mind. "Berwald," He faintly mumbled under his breath, causing his mother to look at him strangely, "Did you say something, Tino?"The blond headed boy shook his head a few times and added a smile, "N—no!"
And after a short while, Tino put Berwald out of his mind as he continued on with his day, finishing homework from school and taking their small dog on a walk. Tino quickly forgot to write an email like he had said he would. In fact, he had forgotten to write Berwald's email down at all. And he went to sleep without thinking anything else about it.
---
Slumped over his computer like a crazed man, Berwald had waited a few days for Tino to email him. But he hadn't. Berwald wasn't necessarily beating himself up about it, but it was nice to talk to someone who couldn't hear him speak. He hardly had any friends, and was occasionally made fun of for his froggy-sounding voice, but he put up with it. He was a little disappointed every time he looked in his inbox that there was nothing from anyone who even looked remotely like a Tino. Berwald had absolutely no idea what his last name was, but it was rather rude to ask someone's last name in an anonymous chat.
It was then that he actually summed up enough courage and determination that he would write an email to Tino. He opened up a new window, and left the subject bar blank like he did the first time, but this time, he actually didn't close the window halfway through writing the email.
Hello, Tino.
It's Berwald. I guess you forgot to email me, so I'm trying to email you now. I hope you get it. We already did talk a lot in the chat, and a lot of questions have already been answered, so I don't really know what to say. Even when I'm not even talking I'm kind of at a loss for words, haha. : )
Berwald sent it, still wondering if there was even really a reason to sending a pointless email like that at all.
--- OKAY WOW. : | Geez, I make Berwald sound like such a little whiney emo kid. I need to stop this. Yeah idk anymore. Sorry this is short and lame, but I'll most likely write more and be cool about it. Also, don't worry bros, I really will get more fics out, I PROMISE YOU! ; U ; Sorry I'm such a lame hoe, yeah, you'll have to forgive me for that one, sweet lord. AND LIKE. Bros, feedback and perhaps advice would be cool at this point.