All characters belong to Hidekaz Himaruya.
This is my first one-shot completly written in english.
As usual, Berwald was updating his blog. He was posting some photos that he had taken when he visited Spain. He wrote his experience and then he clicked "post". He looked at it for a while and then he went for a coffee.
This was his routine after a trip. Since he was a reporter, he had the chance to travel to a lot of places and he always tried to take the best pictures. He wanted to portray the city where he had been, so his followers could have a similar experience when looking at them.
But when he came back, he realized that he had a message. He didn't expect to have one but whatever. He was curious so he clicked on the little box, to see what that was about.
"Hey, I'm Tino. I'm one of your biggest fan. I love your blog. Did you have fun on that trip? I'm looking forward to see more of it".
Berwald was amazed. A lot of people reblogged and liked his posts, but only a few approached to him. Tino was one of them. What he was supposed to reply? He didn't know. It was really hard to interact to his followers, especially because he believed that he was just a boring person and was afraid that they will lose interest in him if they knew him better.
He looked at the screen for a while. Before answering, he decided that he wanted to look at Tino's blog. Why not? So he clicked on his username "vodka-lover".
He never believed in love at first sight and certainly not in whatever love you could find on the web. But when he saw Tino's face, he wasn't sure what to believe. He had seen a lot of people during his trips, but never someone that looked like Tino. He was by far the cutest guy he had ever seen and he was his follower!
He started to scroll his page. Yeah, he knew that it was some sort of stalking. But he didn't care. Nobody would know and he didn't intent to do anything but knowing a little bit about Tino.
There wasn't much sadly. Just some random pictures and then some random posts. He was a little bit disappointed.
He decided then that he was going to answer his message. He took a deep breathe. What was he supposed to say?
"I did. It was really hot though. I'm going to post more but I don't want to flood my follower's dashboards. Thanks for the kind message".
He hit sent and then he stood there for a while. He felt stupid. He probably thought it was a dull response.
On the other side, Tino was scrolling through Berwald's page. He was probably one of his first followers. He was in love with his photography skills and he often reblog all of his stuff. He was wondering how the hell the swede didn't block him yet.
Then he noticed that he had a message. Tino was really confused. He has never gotten a message in all the years that he had being in the page. He didn't even have a lot of followers. It was probably just spam.
"Oh, well…"
He clicked in the little message box and he was surprised. He had to read it three times, because he couldn't believe it. He wasn't expecting his reply at all.
"Oh my god" He was so amazed that he actually yelled. Well, he didn't care about it, since he was living on his own.
He started to write as fast as he could. Even though he had been following Berwald's blog for a long time, it was the first time that he had the guts to send him a message and the swede actually replied to him! His favorite blogger just recognize his existence, he was so happy.
"I hope you come to Helsinki sometime. I know you will take beautiful pictures of my city. Thanks for answering. I love your blog so much."
He stared at the message for a couple of minutes. What if Berwald thought it was too much and he didn't reply? Was he sounding like a crazy fan? He couldn't help it. He even turn the notifications on so he could knew when Berwald was updating.
He just hit sent and then went to do another stuff. He didn't want to think a lot about it. Berwald probably had a lot of fans like him. What was the chance to get another reply? He laughed and then started to do his housework.
A couple of days later, Tino was looking through his dashboard after a long day of work. He looked at the message box and there was nothing. Even though he tried to convince himself that he didn't want a response, he couldn't help thinking if Berwald liked the message or was terrified by it. What if he just delete it?
He went to Youtube to look at some random videos. He needed to clear his head. He couldn't help thinking that he was an annoyance to Berwald.
He went back to his blog and then he noticed it. Maybe he was dreaming or just hallucinating, since he was already feeling tired. There was a message in his inbox. He clicked on it and he didn't know what to think about it.
"Maybe I'll be there soon. Who knows? Wanna meet?"
Berwald thought a lot before sending that message. He didn't want to look like a creep. But since he looked at Tino's picture he couldn't stop thinking about him. It was so stupid. But he wanted to meet him. Maybe nothing would come from it, maybe he would gain a friend or something else.
From thousands of people that he had met during his trips, nobody really stuck for him. But Tino did. Was Tino adventurous enough to meet a stranger? Or would he turn him down? He wouldn't blame him, but he was really hoping to get a positive answer.
Tino, on the other hand, was so shocked that he couldn't even think straight. He always wanted to meet Berwald but he never thought that it could actually happen. Now what? He was so excited and afraid at the same time. What if he disappointed Berwald? He was just a waiter with a boring life.
After finishing high school, he didn't want to go to college. He still didn't figure what he wanted to do with his life. Now he was twenty years old and struggling to pay his bills. His life was really dull comparing to Berwald's life. It was an empty piece of paper waiting to be written.
But he couldn't pass that opportunity. It was too good.
"Yeah, sure! I can show you around if you ever come. My skype is…"
He knew that there was a chance of Berwald being just a creepy dude. But he chose to not think about it. Tino was really conscious about the fact that he was being naïve. He had nothing to lose.
Months later, Berwald arrived to Helsinki. He was excited. He told a small lie to Tino. He didn't have the courage to tell him that he was the only reason why he took that fly. He just wanted to meet him.
Tino was holding a big banner that said: Hi, Berwald! Welcome to Helsinki"
And Berwald just knew that he had made the right decision. He stood there with his stuff for a while until he finally got the courage to talk to him. Tino was way cuter in real life.
"Tino?" He asked. He knew it was a really stupid question, because of course it was Tino. But he was so nervous that the words just slipped.
"Berwald!" Tino shouted. He was really excited to finally meet him and there he was, in front of him.
"Um…" He didn't know what to say. He was just astonished by Tino. He took a deep breathe. He had thought a lot about what he was going to say to him once Tino was in front of him, but now his mind went completely blank.
"How was your flight? Let's go to your hotel and if you aren't too tired, we can go and eat something in a nice restaurant that I know" Tino couldn't hold it anymore. He prepared himself for days for this very moment.
"Sounds like a good plan" Berwald answered. They could literally do nothing and he wouldn't even mind, because the finnish was there with him.
After Berwald left his stuff in his hotel room, they went to eat in a small place where they could talk more.
"So for how long are you staying? I hope I don't steal a lot of your precious time" Tino said and then laughed.
"Just a couple of days" Berwald mumbled while he was looking around.
"Aw." Tino was a little bit disappointed but he couldn't do anything about it.
"I hope you don't get in problems because you are helping me" The swede responded.
"No, don't worry about me! Somebody is covering for me today" Tino didn't want to think about work so he changed the subject as quick as he could "Are you excited for this job?"
"Yeah, I'm" Berwald couldn't keep the lie anymore. "Tino, there's something I have to tell you"
Tino started to worry as soon those words came from the swede's mouth. Nothing good could come after that. He was struggling to look calm.
"What is it?" Tino asked.
Berwald didn't talk for a couple of minutes. The silence was really awkward. Tino just stared at him, because he wanted to know once and for all what was going on Berwald's mind.
"I lied to you" Berwald finally Revealed. He was afraid of Tino's reaction. He could walk away and the whole thing would just be in vain.
"Eh?" Tino was really shocked. "In what way?" Tino started to think in a lot of stuff.
"I came to Helsinki just to meet you. That's all. I just invented the job thing". He confessed. "If you want to leave, I won't blame you"
Tino looked at him with his eyes wide open.
"Come on! Now you are lying!" The fin refused to believe that. Why Berwald would put so much effort in just meeting him?
"It's true. I thought you were cute and I needed to see you face to face" Berwald blushed after saying this.
Tino drank all of his beer before responding. What he was supposed to say to that? His favorite blogger thought he was cute. He traveled just to meet him. They have talked a lot in skype but he couldn't believe what Berwald just told him.
The swede was nervous. Tino still didn't say a word.
"I…" Tino closed his mouth because he couldn't even speak. "So you went to all this trouble just to meet me. I don't think I deserve it"
"I would do it again because it's worth it" Berwald tried to sound confident.
"This is the sweetest thing that anyone has done for me" Tino was about to burst into tears, because he couldn't hold his emotions for longer.
Berwald just briefly smiled but then he quickly moved and sat next to him, so he could stay closer to the fin.
Tino just looked at him. He was right there, next to him and it was completely real.
"Can I take your picture? You'are the most amazing finding of my entire life".
Thanks for reading!