She mentally sighed as she handed over her passport. "Thank you, sir…erm, ma'am," the Danish customs official tried to correct his mistake. Nikolina got this almost everywhere, as most people thought she was a boy. A very pretty boy, but still a boy. While she would admit that she had no chest to speak of and a low voice, she was in fact, one Norwegian-born, Ambassador Nikolina Solheim, 22 years old, blonde hair, blue eyes, 160 cm tall and most definitely female. Her clothes did nothing to betray her gender either; as she dressed like a man and she could almost already hear the whispers behind hands as the Danish within the airport mistook her for one.
Trying to ignore the few curious glances thrown her way, she swung her dark red backpack over her shoulder and tried to inconspicuously look around. Her clothes and other belongings had already been shipped to the embassy almost as soon as her position as the –now Norwegian ambassador to Denmark was announced.
Stunned, Nikolina had packed in a daze, the announcement still ringing in her ears. She was only 22, the youngest ambassador ever, but the position had been open and she'd needed a job. She'd been briefed by the Storting and then ordered onto her flight, which left very soon after.
She hardly felt regret handing in the keys of her small flat to the owner. She lived by herself, though once upon a time, her brother had lived with her until he was recruited by the Icelandic government to do covert missions for them. Though he was two years younger and she hadn't liked it, she'd let him go because of his skills, extraordinary maturity and the fact that he was a native Icelandic.
Other than her brother, Erikur, Nikolina had no immediate family to speak of. Her extended family was large, but distant. Last she'd heard, they lived in Finland or something... She'd never known her parents, as they had died just after Erikur was born. So she'd taken to raising him and herself as best she could.
Shaking herself out of her reverie, she looked around for someone. Parliament had said someone from the embassy would be there to pick her up, but she saw no one by her gate. So she decided to head for the door, hoping she wouldn't have to call for a cab, her red backpack a comforting weight in a strange place. No, she reminded herself, home now.
Mathias was overcome with boredom. Not that he'd ever let it show, as there was always people around and he had an image to maintain, but man! Somebody out there must have really hated him, to have been given this job. Oh wait, he'd volunteered, but no matter. The plane from Oslo had just been completely emptied and of the 40-something Norwegians that were milling around in front of the gate, none of them looked like his Norge. Or, at least, the new ambassador. He'd been told short, blond hair, blue eyes, about 20-something and oh, they had a hair accessory of some type or something. That was it. Not even a gender or name.
Mathias had a sign that said 'Welcome, Norwegian Ambassador' in Norwegian on it, but nobody really seemed to be paying attention to him. Well, except for the Danish, as he was the head of their government, but he wasn't concerned with them right now. Sighing miserably in his head, Mathias stared at the crowd, not eager to jump in and find their new ambassador. Funny, as only hours ago, he'd begged and pleaded before his parliament to do this. With this thought in mind, he straightened up and started to make his way forward. Until he got slightly sidetracked, that is.
It was love at first sight and Mathias wasn't even gay! But, at the moment, he felt like there was an honest-to-God angel walking towards him.
Late afternoon sunlight streamed in from the huge glass airport windows making the boy's blonde hair glow as though there was a halo over it. Glancing up, the youth caught Mathias's eye, beautiful blue-violet gems meeting cerulean blue. A blush graced the elegant face and the smaller man quickly looked away, though continued moving towards him. Mathias noticed that he was taller than the boy by a good head and that even his body resembled that of an angel's. Thin, willowy limbs with just enough sinewy muscle to give the small limbs a powerful look or at least from what he could see.
A white sideways cross shimmered on his bangs, almost hidden by the platinum blond hair that surrounded it. His clothes even seemed to fit him perfectly, the colors lending him a fierce, yet strong look. He wore a black button-down, the sleeves rolled to his elbows. A dark red backpack was slung off one shoulder and a red skinny tie was immaculately placed down his front. Black skinny jeans hugged a frame that was almost too sinful for words. But his shoes, Mathias blinked and looked again, were those black flats on his feet? Oh well, cross dressers certainly weren't a new thing at the embassy.
Blinking again, Mathias realized the boy had stopped in front of him and after reading the sign, had addressed him.
Nikolina navigated the Norwegians crowded together in front of the gate and reached the other side. Suddenly dreading having to leave the familiarity of her people and their language, she shook her head and shaking off the first niggling touches of homesickness, stepped out of the crowd. Glancing around, she saw a sign written in her language, welcoming her, the Norwegian Ambassador. About two seconds after that, she noticed the man holding the sign.
He was a (very, VERY attractive) Dane, as she noticed his spiky, gravity-defying, almost-certainly-gelled blonde hair, his black trench coat over a fancy red button down that was unbuttoned at the top and a very loose black tie. This was thrown over black skinny jeans and sensible black boots. The jeans only served to emphasize his nice figure and how very tall and fit he was. He stood at least a head taller than her and she already had to look up at him three meters away. As she brought her eyes back up to his face, their eyes met and she realized that he'd seen her checking him out. As their eyes locked, absentmindedly noticed his eyes were a brilliant ocean blue, almost a sapphire color, and blushed furiously as she realized he was grinning at her. Annoyed already that she'd gotten caught, Nikolina immediately resolved to keep him at arm's length, as obviously, he would not, even though he hadn't even said anything to her yet.
Once she was within range, Mathias didn't even have a chance to say anything before she started, saying, "I'm Nikolina, the new ambassador. And you are?"
Mathias realized that he was still grinning stupidly at the angel and sobered up a little. Realizing that heavenly visage was addressing him, he tuned back in and caught the last part of his sentence, the question. Instead of answering him though, Mathias grinned from ear to ear and dropped the poster, hugging the surprised Norwegian and saying "Norway!" quite happily. After a second he released the still surprised angel and backed up just a little to see his face, his Danish smile still spread jauntily across his own face.
Noticing that the pale angel stiffened immediately under his embrace, Mathias made a mental note to hug his beautiful angel, his Norge more often from now on. Odd, but he was already getting possessive feelings for the beautiful boy in front of him. No way in hell would he ever let Berwald, Gilbert, Ivan, or Francis touch him. It would have to be over his dead body first. Coming back to present company, narrowed eyes indicated Norway wasn't too happy about the Dane's last move, but that got the angel-lad to show some emotion, so that was a good thing, right? Based on his previous facial expressions (bored, embarrassed), he didn't look like one who wore his heart on his sleeve, like Mathias did.
Shoving aside his mental debate for a time when he wasn't with this beautiful creature, Mathias finally answered Norway's question, his hands sliding down to grab one of his hands.
"I'm Mathias, but you can call me Denmark! We have a habit of calling all the ambassadors by their country names so you'll be "Norge" or "Norway". In addition, you'll be living in the Nordic compound, which is part of my house! So, I'll get to see you every day! Won't that be exciting?"
Nikolina shivered, hearing her country name in Norwegian so caressed by his tongue. It was almost like he'd done that on purpose, the idiot. Inwardly, she was a little thrilled that she'd get to share a house with this annoying-yet-unique person, but she'd never admit to it. She'd been in an abusive relationship before and would not let that happen again. It had both broken her physically and mentally. She'd had her heart broken and herself broken. Some of the bruises were still fading on her back and she was reluctant to have anyone touch her because she was afraid of giving something away. She hadn't had anyone to turn to when this had happened and her boyfriend had threatened her if she said anything, so she had remained silent. She hadn't even told her brother, who'd been very busy at the time with his own affairs. However, she realized that with this job she'd be in close contact with a lot of people so would have to get used to getting touched a lot.
She barely noticed her surroundings as the chatty Dane, or "Denmark" as he wanted to be known as, nattered on about the various other ambassadors, but was barely listening. She was acutely aware, however, of the Dane's almost unconscious hand movement from her hand, to the small of her back as he helped her into the sleek black limo that was to convey them to the governmental compound. Nikolina felt, that for better or for worse, her life was about to change.
Mathias knew, as he carefully helped the most amazing being he had ever met into the limo that he would do whatever it took to keep Norway by his side.
