"Um, Denmark?"
Mathias looked up- from his favourite TV show no less! - to see his Estonian boyfriend, Eduard, standing in the doorway to their living room.
"What's up?" The Dane reached to the remote and turned the volume down slightly. Estonia held some papers up in his hands.
"You were in the kitchen most of today, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Did you do this?" Estonia showed him the papers, which were half soaked-and-dried with a dark liquid, probably hot chocolate which the Danish man was partial to.
"Oh, I didn't think it had spilt that far…" Matthias shrugged. "Guess I just didn't wipe up properly." With that, he returned his attention to the show, but apparently that wasn't enough for Eduard.
"Taani, those were my notes for the meeting with Sweden tomorrow!"
"But you have everything saved on your laptop, don't you?" Denmark protested. "You can just print it out again!"
"You know the printer here is still broken, and the library's already closed…"
"Well email it to Finland or something, he'll print it for you, won't he?"
"He would, of course, but then it's possible Sweden himself will see it, and that's the last thing we want!" Rubbing his temple anxiously, Estonia placed the sodden papers down on the side and moved closer to Denmark's sofa.
"What? Come on, even I know Sweden can be a bit of a dick at times, but who cares if he sees?" Matthias reluctantly lowered the volume again on the TV to address the Estonian.
"Trust me, Berwald walking into that meeting knowing what I'm going to say is my worst nightmare…" Eduard tried to explain. "You know him; he'll have every argument planned out before I open my mouth!"
"Well yeah, but why would he care what his little wife is printing out?" Matthias got to his feet and picked up the papers briefly, inspecting the damage
Estonia groaned. "Denmark…"
"Seriously?" Denmark stood tall, trying to hold back his scowl "You're not the only one with a tough day tomorrow, Es, you know I've got my own meeting with f*cking Germany!"
Wound up, Matthias flung his hands in the air, gesturing how difficult his own tomorrow would be, but as he did that Eduard suddenly flinched badly, and flung his own arms up as if to shield himself from a blow.
Matthias froze mid-sentence. His arms fell to his side and the air around them suddenly seemed very cold. Seconds passed, but it could have been hours until Estonia slowly lowered his hands to his side too. It was so quiet in the room, but it was the kind of fractured glass type quiet, that was too painful to bear for long.
Estonia didn't look Denmark in the eye, in fact, his whole face was turned away as if in shame, but for the life of him Matthias couldn't understand why. He didn't even really know what had just happened. All he really knew was that he could see Eduard's eyes behind those wire-framed glasses, and they looked a lot shinier than normal as the Estonian began to turn away.
"Wait-no!" without thinking, Denmark grabbed Estonia's wrist, but he heard the other's sharp intake of breath and quickly loosened his grasp. But he was scared to let go. Swallowing, Matthias moved ever-so-slightly closer, when the light from a passing car briefly lit the room and brushed over Estonia's face, illuminating his eyes that were steadily brimming with…
No. Please…no.
"Oh Eduard." Matthias whispered. Unable to hold himself back, he flung his arms around the Estonian, and a rush of (mostly) relief hit him when Eduard turned into his embrace, curling his finger into his shirt and burying his face into his shoulder. Slowly, the smaller one's arms crept around the Dane's shoulders and he was clutching onto him, sniffing (almost) silently. Matthias briefly brought up a hand to stroke the Estonian's dark blond hair, questions buzzing in his brain. Denmark hadn't even tried to hit at all, had he? What the hell would make Estonia respond like that- sh*t.
Denmark lifted his head, staring at nothing in particular but horribly conscious of how Eduard was shaking, even though it was only slightly, as he realised. Estonia had only ever trembled like this around one other person, and that person was Russia. Could Russia have…?
"…Matthias?" His boyfriend's quiet voice interrupted Denmark's chain of thoughts, and he blinked before replying as softly as he could.
"Yeah?"
"I…I'm sorry for getting worked up over the papers." Dealing with the original argument first, how classically Eduard. "I know you would never do that on purpose."
"Never." Matthias confirmed, daring to press a kiss to Estonia's head. "I'm sorry for not cleaning it up properly anyway."
"That's ok."
More silence. Denmark slowly breathed out, knowing that he had to make something absolutely clear. But how exactly did he say something so important? Then he was suddenly speaking before his mind caught up.
"Heaven-" he said "- Or whatever the hell anyone thinks is up there- curse and destroy the day I raise my hand against you, Estonia."
In sync, the two pulled back from the hug, but Matthias held Eduard's arms tightly, rested his forehead against the shorter one's, and when he spoke, it was slow and determined. "I will never hurt you."
"Yes. I trust you." Eduard looked back at him, eyes still red-rimmed, and Denmark knew that that response mean far more than an 'I know' or 'Ok'. This was Estonia, who had suffered centuries of invasion after invasion and oppression, saying 'I trust you' to him, and he was not going to take that lightly.
Sitting back down on the sofa, Matthias gently pulled Eduard with him, situating the Estonian on his lap and finding a cooking show they both watched often, even changing the settings so it was in Estonian, and had Danish subtitles this time. And to both their reliefs, the silence seemed warmer.
A/N: *le gasp* ESTDEN FEEEEEEEEEELS Ahem yes, sorry for my hiatus...
Back on board the good ship EstDen [or DenEst, it works either way ;)] I felt like some angst was in order, but don't worry! Fluff next chapter :D