To Fall in Love
Norway had isolated himself from the rest of the world – literally. He wasn't trying to avoid all of the countries, just the Nordics. That's right, he was avoiding his brother and his brothers-in-arms. In his opinion he had a very good reason to. A few weeks ago they all went out, Denmark's treat, and he had a little, well, he had way too much to drink. He was a quiet person, he really was. But raise his blood alcohol level by too much and you'd think he was a Dane.
Norway was lying on his bed and buried his head into his pillow as he remembered that night. He had said too much, things he never wanted any one to hear. They weren't fundamentally bad things to say. To most people, they would be good things to say and good things to hear. Not to Norway, to him, the words that came out of his mouth that night were horrible. Words that he didn't even think were true. Words that got him into this much trouble.
He glanced at his phone; it was sitting peacefully on his bedside table. After a few days of shutting himself out from the world his phone had exploded with wondering text messages and worrying phone calls. He had ignored all of them. The calls went straight to voicemail, the messages left unread. Norway had gotten so irritated with the constant buzzing and the frequent lighting-up of his mobile that he just turned it off. His home phone was no different; it had rung constantly until Norway finally unplugged it from the wall.
Ignoring the cellular and landline ways of communication wouldn't keep the Nordics away. Norway knew this. Once contacting him through phone failed, they showed up at his house. He had tried to make it look like he wasn't home; the blinds and shades were pulled shut. His porch lights were off and the door was locked up tight. One particular Dane had a spare key to Norway's house though (for emergencies only). Norway anticipated this too; he had anticipated this long ago. There was a second lock installed on the door, a deadbolt lock that required a different key to open. His car was still visible in the garage, so it was a dead giveaway that he hadn't left.
The incessant knocking was almost enough to make Norway crack and open up his house. If he walked towards the door he could hear voices calling for him, asking him to open up the door because they knew he was in there. He heard all of them, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland. Couldn't they take a hint? Surely Iceland and Sweden could. Even Finland knew when to give up. He wasn't in the mood to talk, and he wasn't letting them in.
He had gone up to his room and put his headphones in, turning up the volume of his music loud enough to drown out the knocking and shouting. He was undisturbed until the focus of their knocking moved from his door to his window. Norway's room was on the second story of his house, so they were obviously throwing something, more than likely rocks, at his windows. He frowned, that just made him angry. If they broke one of his windows, they would be the ones to pay for it to be replaced.
Within a few minutes, the clattering of rocks at his window had stopped. Within a few hours, the knocking had stopped. Perhaps they had all decided to just go home. That was fine with Norway. That's what he wanted, to be able to hide from his emotions unbothered and alone. Norway decided this was a good time to make something to eat. The knocking and shouting had made it hard for him to feel safe going down to the kitchen to make food so he was quite hungry. As he pondered on it, he realized that he could have just called the police; they could have come and solved his knocking problem. He didn't want his friends to get in trouble with the authorities just because they were worried about him. He just wanted his friends to not worry about him.
For as hungry as Norway was, he couldn't bring himself to make anything more than just a simple butter sandwich. That was a thing; it was a snack that he enjoyed quite a bit. He also brewed himself a cup of coffee and sat on his couch to relax for a bit in a room other than his bedroom. He had downed half of the cup of coffee when he heard knocking on his door again. This time the knocking wasn't loud and wasn't overdone. Just three simple, normal knocks. Norway listened for a while more until he heard a strained voice choke out, "Please Norway, open up. It's just me, Denmark, your best bud. Remember?"
Norway quietly sat his cup on the coffee table and tiptoed to the door, he didn't want Denmark to know that he was just on the other side of the door. Norway peered through the peephole in the door and saw the Dane standing right outside, and he looked awful. He probably looked just as awful as Norway did. Denmark looked tired, like he hadn't slept for days. His hair also wasn't standing up on ends like normal. It made Norway's heart ache; he didn't like seeing Denmark like this. Denmark wasn't supposed to look like this.
Norway quietly sighed and reached to unlock the deadbolt, the door itself was already unlocked, and opened the door a crack. Norway gazed out and met Denmark's eyes, and a small smile spread across Denmark's lips. "You finally answered your door." Denmark looked down, "Can I come in?" Norway nodded and opened the door just enough for the Dane to walk in before closing it and locking it behind him.
The first thing Denmark did was envelop him in a hug. With an aggravated huff, Norway shoved him off. What did he think he was doing? Going around and hugging him, didn't he know that was the best way to mess with someone's heart? Norway changed his mind; he shouldn't have let Denmark into his house. There was nothing he could do now. Not even releasing an angry troll would make him leave.
Denmark kept staring at Norway with sad eyes and then looking away. It was really starting to piss Norway off. "What do you want Dane?" He said almost accusingly.
"Why are you ignoring us? I thought you were our friend." Denmark wasn't looking at Norway. Instead, Denmark was pouting to the floor.
Norway sighed irritably; maybe if he lined it out for him, he'd go and leave him alone. "Have you ever thought that maybe I'm ignoring you because I don't want to talk to or see you?" Norway made an angry sound before adding, "Of course you haven't. You never think of anyone other than yourself. You don't care how other people feel."
Denmark was actually offended, it didn't happen very often, but sometimes words did have an effect on him. "I do care Norway," he said softly, "Why do you think I stood outside of your house for hours on end, waiting for you and calling for you?"
Norway was frowning not out of emotionlessness, but out of emotion. He was upset and he could feel his nice built-up walls start to crumble. "I wish you would just go away." He said, currently glaring at one of his houseplants.
Denmark made a move to get closer to Norway, but the Norwegian sent a warning glare at him that made him stop. "Norge," he started, "If this is about what you said that night we all got drunk, that doesn't matter."
Now Norway was hurt, and down came the walls. "What?" he breathed out, "What do you mean, my feelings don't matter to you? God, you're so selfish!"
Denmark realized what he had just said and went to elaborate on what he had said, "Nor, Nor, Nor. What you said doesn't matter to me because I already knew. I've always known. You don't have to be drunk for me to see how you act around me, how every time I come into contact with you, even something just as simple as me bumping into you by accident, your cheeks tinge pink for a second." As he said this, he made his way to Norway, who didn't make any motions to move or push him away.
Denmark reached up and pushed the Norwegian's long bangs back behind his ears and said, "I've always felt the same way about you. I just don't understand why you act like it's such an awful thing to fall in love with me."
Denmark cupped the right side of Norway's face and was rubbing Norway's cheek with his thumb, waiting for an answer. When the only thing he got out of the Norwegian was a blank, unreadable stare, Denmark spoke again. "For the record, I love you too Norge."
Norway's face softened, that's what he wanted to hear. Just having Denmark say that he felt the same way wasn't enough. Norway wanted to hear the actual words come out of his mouth. Norway wrapped his arms around Denmark and smiled whenever the taller man nuzzled his head into the crook of his neck.
Maybe falling in love wasn't so bad after all.
