Mr Sweden and I have been living together for a while now. It's nice living with him… but after all this time he's still so scary! Finland thought to himself.

He ate from a bowl of porridge at the breakfast table, and gave a nervous glance at the corridor across the kitchen that led to Sweden's bedroom.

"I wonder why Mr Sweden hasn't come yet? He's usually here by now." Finland said out loud to himself, wondering why his housemate hadn't arrived yet.

It wasn't like Sweden to be late for breakfast, he was always at the breakfast table before Finland, with breakfast promptly made for the both of them to share.

"What if he's mad at me?! And the reason he hasn't come yet, is because he's avoiding me?!" Finland jumped to the wrong conclusion, his growing anxiety no doubt the cause of it.

"Oh! I hope it's not true!"

Unable to wait any longer, Finland got up from his chair and went towards Sweden's bedroom.

Finland knocked on the door gingerly and called out in a loud voice, "M-Mr Sweden? Are you going to have breakfast now?", so that Sweden could hear him clearly and he wouldn't need to enter his bedroom.

It wasn't as if Finland disliked Sweden… but the younger nation preferred to limit his contact with Sweden as much as possible to avoid scaring himself.

"Fin—" Sweden called out Finland's name as loud as he could in a hoarse voice, but coughed loudly before he could finish his sentence.

"Not that you have to come or anything! I'll leave you alone now!" Finland quickly excused himself, mistaking Sweden's exclamation as a sound of complaint.

"'Wait…"

Finland heard another sound coming from Sweden's bedroom, it was much quieter this time and seemed almost sad.

This was all Finland needed to convince him to enter the bedroom.

"What's wrong, Mr Sweden?" Finland asked as he approached Sweden's bed and crouched down to his eye level.

Finland then noticed that Sweden was curled up in bed, blanket drawn close to his body, his face partially buried in his pillow. The part of his face that was visible bore a pained expression, and was red and covered with small beads of sweat. His breathing sounded laboured and congested.

"Mr Sweden, are you alright?!" Finland cried out anxiously, worried for his friend's health.

Sweden may have seemed scary to Finland, but that didn't stop Finland from caring about him.

Sweden heard Finland call out his name and opened his eyes, and turned around to face him.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Finland asked, as Sweden, too hoarse to speak, took hold of Finland's hand and placed it on his own feverish forehead.

"Oh! Your head feels warm, you must have a fever." Finland remarked.

"Ja."

"I'll get you a glass of water." Finland got up and headed towards the kitchen.

Finland returned quickly with the glass of water and held it out for Sweden, but spilled its contents on Sweden's face. Finland's hand had jumped in fright when Sweden's hand had brushed against his own when he reached out for the glass.

"I'm so sorry! Please don't get mad at me!" Finland apologised.

"No. It feels good, th'nk you." Sweden thanked Finland and wiped the water across his face, grateful for the water's cool relief.

"I'll get you another glass!" Finland told Sweden and ran out of the bedroom.

Finland quickly returned with the glass of water and watched Sweden drink the glass rapidly.

"Is there anything else you need?" Finland asked, eager to help out of compassion for his friend, but also to compensate for his blunder.

"No. Y've been a good wife." Sweden replied and patted Finland's head gently as a sign of thanks.

"Uh… OK then!" Finland smiled nervously, his face red from blushing and backed away slowly from Sweden's bed and dashed out of the exit and quickly shut the door on his way out.

Thank you very much for reading my story! I'd love to know what you thought of it, so please feel free to leave a review :)