Sealand didn't exactly enjoy staying over at Norway's house...of course he never truly hated it. In all honesty on his part, he enjoyed Mathias's much more. It's not that he didn't like his uncle Norway he just...his uncle never seemed to connect emotionally.
That and it possibly had something to do with the fact that this was his first time spending the night without Mathias spending the night as well. Which in Sealand's mind made no sense, why did his uncle tend to spend the night at Norway's house?
It didn't help when he had a nightmare...he hated them. Always showing up at the wrong time and the wrong place for his liking, he remembered once he walked in on his Mum and Dad wrestling.
The small nation pushed the thought to the back of his head. He just needed some sort of comfort, that's all he was asking for, hopefully, his uncle wouldn't mind. Of course, he felt that this was a bad idea and something nagged at the back of his brain not to go in but he did anyway.
The door creaked open with incomprehensible slowness to reveal a dimly lit room with three windows and a bed resting near the left wall. A slow rumble echoed in the sky signifying the storm slowly approaching the house.
Peter eyed the bed for a moment, noticing the lightly tossed sheets on it. Among them laid a medium build male with white skin and platinum hair. In some ways, his uncle seemed dead among the sheets, even as his chest rose and fell slowly as he breathed. The only indication that he was truly alive and not among the dead that night, a ragged breath fell from the man's lips as Peter looked at him from the doorway. It sounded almost like a small cry.
A low growl erupted from outside the house, starting slow before a bright strike streaked the sky above. Whatever thought that had come into the boy's head was gone. It lit up the room as the loud roar of thunder made its appearance or rather sound.
Peter jumped slightly at the noise but didn't feel afraid of it. He idly wondered if the storm was upon them or very near. He remembered his elder brother telling him of how storms worked and something about the moments in between the lightning strike and the thunder. He didn't think it had even been seconds before his uncle then suddenly burst from the sheets that once covered him. That startled Peter more than the thunder ever would.
Norway's outline was the only thing Sealand could see for a good three minutes until a short crack of lightning made its appearance again. The Norwegian seemed paler than usual in the dim light; Sealand brushed it off as just that.
For a moment, he only rubbed his eyes and looked around the room before spotting Peter at the doorway. "Peter? What are you doing here?"
Thunder rolled outside sending shivers down the small nation's spine. His uncle seemed to wince at the noise, "I had a bad dream."
"Oh," Peter watched Norway for a moment as he seemed to mumble things to himself. "Would you like something warm to drink?"
Usually, he would simply be asked to sleep in his parents or in some cases Mathias's bed, but this was Norway not his parents, not Mathias either. Norway was a bit different in some aspects.
"Yes, please," were the only words he could think to say.
The Norwegian staggered out of bed and found the light switch with a fair amount of ease. The sight only reminded him when his father had heard him scream in the middle of the night. All he heard was a loud crash and some really fast footsteps. Tino was in his room in seconds to comfort him. As for his father, when the light turned on the poor nation was on the floor of the kitchen, downstairs, they all slept on the second floor.
His Mum had made a silent vow to make sure Berwald had his glasses on whenever he was awake.
The light turned on and flickered a few times before turning on completely. Sealand squinted before his eyes adjusted to the harsh light. But something did occur to Sealand, his uncle did look fairly paler than usual...maybe it was just the fact that he had nothing but his pants on.
He realized that he had never seen his uncle without his shirt on, and, in fact, he had never seen Norway without long sleeves for that matter. He now understood why.
He was covered in disfigured scars, some that covered his arms, others that looked like nick marks from swords practically everywhere, even one that ran from his right shoulder to his left hip. There were multiple ones that grabbed his attention the more, though.
In the middle of his chest, right over where his heart would be, was a fairly fresh looking scar; it looked like someone had tried to claw out his heart. The flesh looked as though someone had taken their fingers and literally tried to rip out his heart mercilessly. Jagged marks tore away from the main scar and etched themselves into the outside skin, like lightning marks almost. Just the thought of it gave the boy a small undetectable shiver.
There was another that looked similar albeit smaller, lower and closer to the left of his chest. The smaller nation could only stare for a couple moments before the tired male turned his back slightly to him. Norway rubbed his eyes and yawned not noticing the younger nation staring at his back.
It started on the left shoulder if not covering it entirely and ran down the back of the entire side while part leaked over onto the other. It looked like a terrible burn scar; it kind of matched his actually, although his was in a different place and much smaller comparatively. He didn't want to pry on where his uncle had received such a mark either but the question still lingered in the back of his mind.
Sealand did wonder about the scars along his underarm, though, they looked exact and always going up and down, but why so many of them? On both arms, in fact, but they seemed to be deeper on the left? How strange?
...
Peter had never understood a couple things about his parents and his uncle Norway, that being their strange ability to stand the cold. Guys, it's below freezing out there you need to wear a coat. It may have something to do with the fact that around eight months of the year their countries can turn into a freezer, but what can you do?
The younger nation watched his uncle place the warm milk in from of him. Sealand snuggled in his blanket, nodding at his uncle as a silent 'Thank you' and timidly touched the ceramic surface.
It was warm but not too warm, unlike when his father practically had it boiling and his mother tended to get it far too cold for his liking. Norway seemed to have mastered the talent of warming milk. He'd have to ask the nation to teach his parents at some point.
"Would you like to talk about it?"
The question brought Sealand out of his daze of thoughts and musings. He shrugged and sipped the warm drink with care, "It...It isn't that bad I guess...it's just a scary thought that turned into a dream is all."
Peter paused, it felt awkward talking about this to Norway, but at the same time...he felt comfortable. It was conflicting really; his uncle had a relaxing aura around him that made people able to open up around him. In all honesty, that was the same thing that crept Sealand out. It wasn't like his uncle couldn't be intimidating, though, kind of like his Mum when he went to the shooting range with Dad.
Norway watched the younger with interest; it was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it. His hands were gripping the mug fairly tightly and his eyes downcast, he gave a silent sigh. Tino had a strong belief in people 'talking' about their problems rather than bottling them up.
Also, if Peter went home and told Berwald and Tino about this nightmare, oh would he get an earful from Tino and the ultimate death-glare from Berwald if that happened. But it wasn't like he could force the child to talk about his dark dream.
The Norwegian glanced again at his temporary child; Sealand was new to the family in aspects. Most of the Nordics had known each other since…he couldn't even remember anymore. Sealand was the new 'addition' and Norway was only beginning to warm up to him.
Peter then looked up his eyes full of question, "Did the thunder wake you up?"
He could have sworn his heart skipped a beat, so Sealand had already been in the room when he woke up. Norway gave off a small twitch, oh how he hated feeling vulnerable. "Yes, that was one of the reasons."
Peter blinked, "Did you have a bad dream too? It's okay if you did, I know sometimes Mum does and Dad too…I don't know about Uncle Mathias though."
"Yes, I had a bad dream as well." He gave a small smile out of comfort for the smaller nation or himself, it was beyond him. Sealand seemed to think something over as Norway tried to ignore the blue eyes that roamed his multitude of scars.
"Do you want to talk about it?" It was an innocent question, to be honest, but it still felt almost like prodding. Maybe this is how Peter would talk about his nightmare, offer up a little of yourself for something. Norway took a breath.
"If I tell you my nightmare then will you tell me yours?" Peter nodded slowly at the offer.
"Mum always wants me to talk about my nightmares, so I think it will help you!" For a moment, Norway only gave a blink, Peter may be a bit smarter than what people take him for.
Norway let off a small smirk as he thought back to his dream, he wished he hadn't. "It was dark, dark as it gets. Nothing in the sky but black, I couldn't see and I didn't hear anything either." The Norwegian thought back for a moment and mentally toned down some of the details.
"For a while it was peaceful, then I did start to hear things…I heard the cracking of fire burning and people screaming. But I couldn't see them, I couldn't find them and I couldn't help them. It felt eternal and there was this awful…pain…at first it stung and then it burned…like the fire I could only hear." There was a small pause as the nation collected his thoughts and looked at Sealand for any sign of fear or for him to stop, none ever came.
"It went on and on until I could suddenly hear gunfire. I felt like I was back at war…and suddenly I was fighting again. I fought until I realized that the people who once stood beside me were gone, they were all dead…that's when I woke up."
Peter was quiet as he slowly sipped his warm drink. "It sounds really bad, I once heard Dad talking to Mum about something that involved a war. It didn't sound good at all."
Norway nodded, "No it is never good." He paused, "What about yours?"
The nation didn't miss the small hitch of the other's breath as the question fell from his lips. "I was alone. All alone, not my brother or my Mum or Dad, nobody was there. I got scared and started to run, I couldn't find anyone it was like they all had left me. I don't like to be alone anymore, it's scary." The grip the smaller nation had on his cup was near shattering, Peter was afraid to be alone, truly alone, like he had practically been before they 'adopted' him.
Before Norway could say anything Sealand began again. "Uncle Norway, I know my Dad's human name, my brother's, I know my Mum's human name and I know Uncle Denmark's human name, I even know Iceland's, but I don't know yours." The younger looked at Norway, his eyes…the emotion in them was something he couldn't place.
Of course this left the Norwegian baffled, so apparently none of the others had dared mention his human name? Or it had just slipped their mind and he was none the wiser. He smirked, "Lukas."
Peter took this in, "Emil, Lukas, Mathias, Berwald and Tino."
He nodded, "Such strange names."
Lukas gave a small huff, "They're strange to you."
Sealand gave off a genuine smile at this, "Absolutely strange."
…
"Mum, why does Uncle Lukas have so many scars?" Tino could have sworn he heard Berwald choke on his drink. It did come out of nowhere to be honest.
Seeing as his husband was having a couple issues talking and breathing at the moment, Tino took this one. "Why would you say that?"
"Because both you and Dad don't have that many, I don't even think Mathias has that many and he has a lot."
"How would you know that?" Finland knew for a fact that Lukas had not once, shall he repeat not once, taken his shirt off in from of him. Although it wasn't like it was on his wish list but it never happened.
"Well, Uncle Denmark was talking about how he's been in all these battles and…"
"No, Peter I mean Norway."
The younger mouthed an O before continuing, "Well it was storming and I had a bad dream so I went into Lukas's room since I didn't know what else to do. I didn't even have to wake him up, though; the thunder did that for me." It took all the blonde had to restrain a chuckle at the thought of Norway springing from his bed at the crack of lightning.
"But when he woke up he didn't see me immediately until the next flash of lightning. So then he asked what I was doing here and I told him. He turned the lights on and he didn't have a shirt on. So, I couldn't help but notice the really big one across his chest…" Peter drew his finger from his right shoulder to his left hip.
"Then there were these smaller cuts all in random areas on his chest and belly. In the middle of his chest was this huge round circle scar with little ends sticking out at weird angles. There was another one like it, but it was smaller and less circle-like." The smaller nation paused for a breath while Berwald seemed to soak all of this information in, finally regaining his ability to breathe properly.
Tino couldn't help but wonder the origin of some of the scars his son was talking about. Sure they all had scars from battles and fights along certain blows to their country but he couldn't exactly recollect where some could have come from.
"But that's not even the worst one." Oh, he dreaded it now; Peter immediately scrambled around until his shirt was off and pointed to a medium size burn scar on his stomach.
This was obviously a memoir of when his country was literally on fire. Tino pushed the urge in the back of his mind to snuggled his child after seeing the old scar, it always saddened him. Peter was far too young to have a scar such as that.
"He has one kind of like this; only it's on his back." The smaller nation reached an arm around to his right shoulder. "It starts here and it practically covers that entire side, some of it actually was over on the left side too. I didn't want to ask about any of them, but there were so many, it was actually kind of scary."
The boy's enthusiasm died down quite a bit as he slipped his shirt on over his head again. Tino had noticed that once Peter had mentioned the burn scar on Norway's back, Sweden had gone rigid. He would have to confront his husband about it later.
Sealand all of a suddenly remembered something apparently important, "Then there were the scars on his arms…all in the same direction and so many of them, what could have done that to him?"
Tino felt his blood run cold.
…TO BE CONTINUED…
So basically what this is based on is 'Dealing With Sealand' from Hubbidehubbide…I can't spell it, it's something like that. Love her art and reread a bunch of the dealing with Sealand comics and noticed Norway wasn't in them at all…may have something to do with her other artwork involving his suicide but…I have no idea. Anyway, someone I dreamed up this wonderful fanfic and thought of it as kind of them finally being actually introduced to one another formally.
It started out just as a sweet family fanfic then it got dark. So I'm kind of a fan of the really kind of dark depressed Norway things…and I read a fanfic about 'Nordic Bonding'. Well, Finnmark was burned, literally, burned! Which is a fairly large part of Norway in my standards, could be wrong, though. Then couple theories and history lessons later we get this thing. You'll learn about the other marks later.
Ugh…I'm tired…obviously some errors here and there…that's to be expected…I don't have a beta reader anymore and I'm too shy to ask for another one. If you enjoy beta reading and if you feel like getting emails in the middle of the night about stories or you decide 'Ah, what the hell I'll take pity' PM me. You won't have to beta often, see my profile or PM me for more info. Thanks for reading the boring author's note.
~SunsetRandom~
