Tino Väinämöinen looked around his kindergarten classroom with joy. It was his first day and he was ready to make friends! He was so happy to finally be able to be off on his own and out of the house. Since he had skipped preschool, it had been just him and his mom at home all day, and it got really old, really fast.

His violet eyes took in the room around him. He knew some of the kids from playing at the park this past summer. There were a couple kids like Lukas Bondevik, whose mommy was going to have a baby soon, and his best friend Mathias Køhler, whose cheek Lukas pinched a lot. Tino also say his friend Elizaveta from daycare, and her friends Gilbert and Roderich, who liked to fight over who would marry her one day, which Tino thought was silly since they were only five.

Tino's eyes then rested on a kid he didn't know. It was a boy around his age with short, blond hair and glasses. The boy had blue-green eyes that Tino thought were really pretty, and his desk was right next to Tino's. What luck!

Tino marched right over to his desk and sat down. "Hi there!" he greeted, smiling. "My name is Tino Väinämöinen, what's yours?"

The boy looked up at him. "Berwald," he softly said. He looked back down at his desk. "I wanna go home."

"But we just got here. School hasn't even started yet," Tino said. He was confused. Who on earth would ever want to miss out on a day of school? Especially when they just got there! This was a whole new world for them!

"I don't like school," Berwald huffed, pouting. "Preschool was bad. The kids were all mean to me. I don't want to be here."

"Well if anyone is mean to you here, I'll beat them up," Tino told him, puffing out his chest to show he meant business.

Berwald scoffed. "You're tiny, Tino. They'll be mean to you too if you're friends with me."

"I don't care about that," Tino said. "I'll be friends with everyone." He puffed out his chest a little more but wondered how long he'd be able to keep that up, considering he didn't have much room left in his chest to puff out. "I'm like a friend superhero, I guess. I'll be everyone's friend."

"Tino, you can't be friends with everyone," Berwald sighed.

"Says who?" Tino stubbornly asked. "I'll show you, Berwald. And you'll be my first friend that I made here!"

"If you're sure about that," Berwald said, opening his desk to organize his books and pencils.

.

Two Months Later

"Berwald, you're right, people really are mean," Tino sighed, sitting against the school building at recess. He frowned and brushed the dirt off of his knees.

"What do you mean?" asked Berwald, who had been leaning against the wall next to where Tino sat down. "And how did you get dirt on your knees? Who did this to you?" he demanded. He clenched his jaw. He didn't mind people messing with him, but when they messed with his friend Tino, who was such a nice kid, that was when he had a problem with it.

"It was that one group of third graders again," Tino said, frowning. "They didn't let me play soccer with them and then tripped me while I was leaving. All I did was say, 'Okay,' and walk away. I didn't want a fight or anything."

Berwald frowned and knelt next to Tino. "Bullies will be bullies, Tino," he softly said. "You just have to decide who your friends are is all." He gently brushed some dirt off of Tino's knee to find out that it was bleeding. "Tino, we need to get you to the school nurse!"

"No!" Tino whined. "She's going to put that stuff that'll make it sting on my knee! Please no, Berwald! Not that!"

Berwald grabbed Tino's hands and helped him to his feet. "Come on, Tino. Don't be such a baby." He helped the limping Tino over to the teacher. "Mr. Kirkland, can I take Tino to the nurse? His knee is bleeding?"

"Now how on earth did that happen?" Mr. Kirkland asked, kneeling down to inspect Tino's knee. The young British teacher frowned. "Well that's no good. Go ahead, Berwald."

Berwald helped Tino to the nurse's office. "If it hurts, you can just squeeze my hand. Sometimes that helps the pain feel all better," he said.

Tino bit his lip as the peroxide went into his wound. His hand immediately went for Berwald's and squeezed it tightly as he gasped out. "This is the worst part," he said through clenched teeth. "I hate this!"

The nurse sighed. "I know, sweetie," she sympathized. "It's awful, isn't it? But it needs to be done or your wound could get infected. Now how did this happen?"

"He fell on the soccer field," Berwald answered for Tino. "Are there any bandages you could put on it?"

"Of course," the nurse said. She frowned with Tino, who was struggling to keep his tears in his eyes. "I know it hurts, sweetie. You can cry. No one is gonna make fun of you in the nurse's office. And if they do, they're going to get in big trouble."

That was when Tino let his tears spill. "All I wanted was to play soccer with the older kids, but they pushed me down and said I couldn't play!" he wailed through his tears. By the sound of it, he sounded more upset over the fact that he couldn't play soccer than the fact that he was injured by the bullies in third grade.

"Is that true?" the nurse asked Berwald, who silently nodded. "Then why did you say he fell?"

Tino scrubbed at his eyes with his hands as his wailing became sniffles. "He didn't know how much I wanted to tell you. He was doing it for me, ma'am," he said. "Don't be mad at my friend, please!"

The nurse was surprised by Tino's outburst. "Are you sure, Tino? It's not nice to lie to adults like that, especially when someone got hurt because of it."

"He won't do it again," Tino quickly said, "will you, Berwald?" He smiled when his friend quickly shook his head. "See? He won't do it again."

"You're off the hook, Berwald," the nurse said. She quickly put a large bandage over Tino's knee. "And you two are free to go now," she said. "Just remember, it's not nice to lie to adults about bullies, okay?"

"Okay," Tino and Berwald said in unison with a nod each.

.

One Month Later

Tino walked up to Berwald, sniffling. "Berwald, maybe kindergarten isn't all I thought it was going to be."

"What do you mean?" Berwald asked, putting down his coloring book and looking up at Tino. It was indoor recess since it was raining outside.

"No one wants to play with me today. They all have their best friends to play with," Tino said. He was frowning as tears fell from his eyes. "And right now was when I just realized that I don't have a best friend. I mean, Lukas has Mathias. Alfred has Arthur. Elizaveta has both Gilbert and Roderich. Do you see what I'm saying? And here, I have no one…"

"That makes me sad, Tino," Berwald said, shutting his coloring book and looking up at him. "I thought we were best friends."

Tino blinked at Berwald in surprise and awe. "We are? We're best friends?"

"I thought we were," Berwald said, blushing. "That was what I thought, at least." He looked away. "I may have been wrong, I guess. But best friends play together like we do. They talk to each other like this. And they care about each other like we do too."

"You're right," Tino said, smiling. "Then I do have a best friend after all!" His smile could barely fit on his face. "I'm so sorry that I didn't realize it until now, Berwald! I feel like a really bad best friend! Please don't replace me! I'll be a better best friend to you!"

Berwald's lips twisted into a small smile. "You mean it, Tino?"

"Of course I do!" Tino stated proudly. "And we'll be the best friends there ever were for years to come!"

"Right," Berwald agreed, feeling like the luckiest little boy in the world.

.

Twenty Years Later

"You mean it, Tino?" Berwald asked with a smile as he looked over at his best friend of twenty years.

"Of course I do," Tino said, smiling back. "I wouldn't mind being married to you for the rest of my life. Just means many more years together for us. We'll be the two happiest men for years to come, right?"

"Right," Berwald agreed, feeling like the luckiest man in the world.