human AU I've been contemplating to post or not but eh hey whatever what have i got to lose
sorry about the densu fic i posts a few days ago it got taken down (wow ty ) but it can be found on my AO3 prussiasnipples
anyway so
im really really sorry if it's too OOC but yeah if you like it feel free to drop a comment and I'll only continue this if it gets a good response probably.

His hands combed through the limp hair resting on his lap as one would a cat, crying to comfort the Dane who didn't suit the silence that swept over him and stole his voice. Books and papers and broken glass surrounded the two of them and long since dried tears stained dark patches onto Lars' jeans and carved a stream of dried salt water into Mathias' cheeks. He didn't understand why the silence seemed so heavy, why the room was ripped to shreds and why when he'd come in to check on the blonde who was curled in on himself on top of a bed of paperwork he was told in a broken voice to get out while he could.

Mathias rose his head and looked up at the Dutchman, his eyes dead and his lips a thin line as he untangled his hands from his shirt. Sheer madness stuttered his words and pushed them together in a rambled mess "I thought I told you to go. I told you to leave so many time times why did you never leave? Don't get attached go while you can."

Lars simply held him closer.

It was too late to consider it.

Lars Peeters moved to Frankfurt with his younger sister Alice for work after years of going in between their birth countries of Belgium and Netherlands. They'd been okay with that set up, and they'd been glued to each other's hip since they could remember yet now the Dutchman stood outside an impressively tall building that made his insides churn uncomfortably and was being pushed aside by the traffic of people on the side walk. His sister had slapped down the advert in front of him without a word and a very pointed stare that had him terrified to defy her. Look, she was scary when she wanted to be despite the cute face and bubbly personality. Later on she had told him that it was closer to the university so he would stop complaining about biking at ungodly hours of the morning to get to work on time and it would be good for him to make friends with somebody who wasn't some stereotypically pissed off Englishman. He'd accepted reluctantly and looking down at the thick paper in his hands he wasn't sure he'd go through with his promise.

Flatmate needed
rent $170
call me for the rest of the details ;)

He stood with the expensive paper pinched between his fingers. His pipe sat on his lips and the wind forced his tattered scarf to try and strangle him to death as he counted up the levels of the high rising building. They looked so much more intimidating up close. Bulky headphones blocked out the sound around him and the angered mutterings of the people around him when he wouldn't move from his spot and after double taking at the almost penthouse looking- no seriously what the fuck is this building people don't live in places like this in the real world - he shook his head, tucked the paper back in his pocket and turned away. True it was given to him by Alice who was no doubt getting sick of the spare room reeking like cheap booze and pot but he couldn't see himself stepping a foot in there nor would it even be worth his time, he'd just be dragged out on heel anyway.

However fate didn't seem to think it was appropriate for him to leave there and then. Just as he started back the way he came, his hands in his pockets to find his lighter he walked straight into another person. Bracing himself for an angry collision he looked up and squared his jaw, and well. He was amazed by the eyes that looked across at him at perfect eye level. A smile graced the laughing lips of the other male who held his hand to his forehead and burst out apologies in a tongue he didn't understand. But it was the eyes that left him speechless. Faintly he could feel his pipe falling from his lips and falling to his feet as he stared utterly entranced by the impossibly blue irises that expressed his sincerity.

And the other's smile, dear god did it make his heart crash against his ribcage. Who ever the other male was he was all straight teeth and a lopsided grin that girls would dream about.

The other male's pupils were either blown huge in interest or he was taking something. Whoever this man was Lars already felt himself sitting on the fence about if he liked him or not. Lars was not usually one to judge a book by it's cover but his mind was already whirring with slight suspicion at how genuine that smile truly was.

Sure, he had a nice face but there was a bit of plasticity and arrogance to the way he held himself. From the smile that was too big for his face to the sharply cut and form fitting black suit he wore, which only just let an ox blood shirt remain visible from beneath the white trim of the collar. Then there was the black tie that had something white smudged on it that had Lars hoping to God, Jehovah, Moses, Buddha whoever was listening, that it was just a toothpaste stain, and then -oh for the love of fuck- he just had to let the tip of his pink tongue dart out and moisten thin lips before he chose to speak in thickly accented English.

But the look in his eye just didn't match the curve of his lips that made the shape of his words look inciting. His words were tainted with an undeniable accent that suggested something more Scandinavian rather than the German Lars had long since grown accustomed to. "Sorry bout that, wow haha I haven't been head butted in a long time, can I help you? Ya look a little lost."

Yeah in your fucking eyes you Nordic beauty Jesus fucking Christ. "Ah no I was just looking for somebody it's not import-"

"You don't look like the type to be hanging around somewhere like here. Usually it's a few thousand dollar suits you know." He wasn't even looking at Lars, eyes turned down to the end of his cigarette as he lit it."So I'm guessing you're here for the ad then? I 'd know Peeter eyes like that from a mile away."

"How did you-"

"Lucky guess, anyway you're here now so I may as well take you up now, yeah?"

"I was just going to lea-" He tried to fight against the surprisingly strong grip that took purchase on his arm. "Excuse me wait what you're the guy with the thing? And the winky face, why the fuck did you put a wink-"

"Yeah I'm the guy with the thing and the winky face. Sue me." He snuffed his cigarette on the pure white of the building before he let go and walked forward as if he expected the Dutchman to follow. Even if this guy was top model beauty he was starting to give off the air of being a right prick. "So are you coming or not?"

"I'm..." He gritted his teeth around his unlit pipe and counting backwards from ten he gave himself a moment to consider it.

At least the alcohol would be better and not the usual stuff he brought that had the same consistency and taste of urine. Rich boys and all.

He nodded.

"Brilliant. Denmark. 23. Mathias. Let us continue."

"24. Netherlands. Lars."

"I didn't ask."

xxx

As soon as he'd seen the cleanliness of the apartment and the views out of the large living room window, he decided he'd take the offer. He could tolerate the other's attitude if it were for the view that appeared so peaceful from so high up. The traffic below barely audible from the open windows. He kept his gaze on the horizon created by the city line and sky as he slapped down the requested $170 on the nearest flat surface. Only when Mathias excused himself to take a call did he move from the spot and continue to look around at his own leisure.

The bathrooms were all brick walls and wide windows, the floors vanished wood and the kitchen large and clean save for a few dirty dishes on the benches, and the spare rooms where almost as big as the living room and he couldn't help but feel a little more than relieved in some ways that he might actually have a place to stay that wasn't his sisters.

Despite the company he'd be with he liked it enough that maybe Mathias would leave him to do what he wanted. It'd be alright.

He wandered around for a while longer, scanning the shelves in the living room that claimed the walls, book titles he'd never heard of and some he wasn't sure should even exist. Behind the glass doors that lead onto the balcony he could hear the Dane growling down the end of the line. Scowling as he spoke in a way that had the Dutchman reeling backwards and choosing to take a different route. The first and last door he opened he automatically realised he perhaps shouldn't have. But it didn't stop him from doing so.

A bed stretched along one side of the wall, the black duvet folded neatly at the end of the mattress and seemingly hundreds upon hundreds of photographs and notes of writing were tacked to the wall above the bed in one form or another. He took a moment to scan over a few, pictures of the Dane smiling with his arm wrapped around somebody's waist, his lips on dozens of other's, scenery and random people off the streets, places he'd never been to or found familiar in some of the glossy photographs. On the wall across it had a similar set up to the lounge books ordered from author that took up the entirely of the wall from top to bottom.

A single book however lay on top of the bed sheets and picking it up he turned it over in his hands, post it notes sticking out from in between the pages that he had to be careful not to move as he looked for a title. 'Hans Christen Andersen: The complete Fairy tales'

"You're Alice's brother aren't you?" The voice came from behind him causing him to tense and clutch the book to his chest. "She told me she had family that she needed to find a place for. It's nice to know you're accepting the offer."

He turned around, confusion written across his face. Mathias was leaning nonchalantly against the door frame, arms crossed. "Alice asked me for a favour to have you in seeing as you'd been looking for a place near campus that wasn't some run down shit hole right?"

Lars nodded utterly speechless.

"That ad was just made for fun so it didn't look like charity. Anyway Alice found it amusing enough at the time when I gave it to her, so..." The Dane laughed quietly to himself. "I hope you don't mind."

"Ah...nee...it's fine I guess..." He dropped his gaze back down to the hard covered book, fingering the edges of the colourful pieces of paper the corner of his lips arched up in a half smile. "You like fairy tales."

"Have you read Han Christen Andersen's?" When he shook his head the Dane looked almost offended. "Looks like I'm going to have to change that."

Lars put it back down where it was originally, fingers lingering on the textured leather cover for a few moments. Pulling his coat tighter around himself he looked up at the Dane who was staring at him curiously, and it was as if the ocean were alive in his eyes staring him down and into his soul and oh god that was bone chilling but he couldn't find himself to look away and for a few minutes it was absolutely silent, the activity of the city distant and their breathing almost silent. That haughty attitude seemed to be gone for a while, that optimistic air that hit him like a storm was rendered neutral and Lars was confused as the seriousness began to engrave itself where the smile once was.

"I should be going." Lars finally said, breaking through the silence and he dragged in breaths from the thick air. The Dane blinked, the smile coming back as quickly as it had gone and nodded before pushing away from the door to let him through.

"Call me if you want some help with packing or something."

"Of course."

He didn't.

Instead he was to come the next day at the crack of dawn with his bags in hand and half a bottle of wine his sister had forced him to bring with him as a thank you. And said sister he refused to talk to as soon as he walked through the door in the weakest form of revenge, it still worked, she grew frustrated and left him to fume by himself for which he was grateful and felt just a tad bit guilty about. But she had it coming, basically throwing him to the care of a work friend and/or what he suspected to be (more than) friend.

As soon as he was at his sister's cosy one story house, he was mentally exhausted from the meet and greet and gradually started to feel a knot of worry in his stomach he rolled over onto his stomach. A habit from his youth had him turning up the volume on his headphones as loud as possible until his ears began to ring and he covered his face with his hands. Breathing heavily into his cupped palms until he calmed down. Alice sat on the end of his bed and he knew she was there but he chose to ignore her. He could feel her bouncing on the end of the mattress to get his attention and when she didn't get what she wanted she all but ripped out his music and scowled down at him.

"Stop sulking you're too old for that now." Manicured nails clawed at his scalp to get him to look at her, shooting a glare in her direction he sat up and as far away from her as he could.

"Who is he and why did you send me to him?"

"...Work friend."

He stared at her until she shifted awkwardly under his deadpan. Tipping her head back and groaning she gave in and confirmed his suspicions. But from the turn of her lips he couldn't tell if she was being serious or was just teasing him. "Okay fine we had a sort of not really friends with benefits thing going on. And I'm putting you under his care because it'd do you some good to be staying with somebody who oh isn't your little sister. You need a friend that isn't in a different country."

"Hardly little." Lars muttered.

"Calling me fat?"

"Maybe."

"Fuck you."

"Incest is frowned upon nowadays." He smothered his smile with his hands, burying his face into his palms. "He's a dick."

"He's not that bad. You don't even know him."

"I don't think I want to."

"You're on a roll of smart ass tonight."

"Oh I wonder why."

A pillow was thrown at his face and by the time he'd peeled it off she had left the room, muttering under her breath about how ungrateful he was. His laptop took her place and immediately began to look into the Dane. As he'd expected photos came up of him with a number of people, rich, famous, nothing like him. Mathias was a model, a coveted one at that. Articles ripped him apart, praised him and left his life bare for the public to read.

They briefly brushed along his life, his parents death, how he'd run away from a boys boarding school, how he was spotted for his first job with his girlfriend, how they'd broken up, scandal between him and a young business man from Norway. It all seemed so airbrushed from the way they spoke about him. There was nothing about his personality. Nothing about the kind of people he spent time with. It was two in the morning when he had nothing but Google images and the bottle of wine his sister ordered him to give to Mathias the next day for company. He drank straight from the bottle, looking over photo after photo of a smiling blonde who's grin became falser and falser the more it appeared on his screen.

Vaguely he thought of how Vincent Van Goph used to eat yellow paint in hopes he would find happiness and keep it inside him. And the more blurred his vision became while he stared at his soon to be flat mate's face he drew connections to that fleeting thought, his lips showed an emotion his eyes didn't agree with. Lars hated people like that.

Irritated with himself and the falseness on his screen he turned off his computer and sunk back into his pillows. The bottle long forgotten somewhere on his bedside table.

Even when he closed his eyes he still had half naked images burned into his retinas from his 'research'.

Shamefully he let his hands wander down his briefs.

xxx

Mathias requested that they went to catch something to eat after Lars had arrived bright and early with a pulsating headache. His term papers from his students were neatly stacked on top of the duffel bag containing his things and he was eager to dump his few possessions outside his bedroom door.

However he was surprised by how oddly chirpy and awake the other male was. He was even more surprised when Mathias picked up on how he felt and he found a glass of water and a handful of painkillers in the palm of his hand before he had to say a word. As soon as the little white pills were down his oesophagus, he was pulled out by arm for the promised meal. Lars couldn't believe his luck when the other male offered to pay for brunch.

"Have we met somewhere before?" Lars said over a cup of coffee and a sandwich. A bemused smile crossed Mathias for a few moments before he took his time to reply. "I feel like I know you from somewhere."

"Unless you're into underwear models...We could have been lovers in a past life. But..." Lars nearly choked on his drink when the tip of the other's pink tongue flicked out to moisten a thin lipped smile like it had the first time they'd met. Mathias shrugged, averting his eyes almost immediately after. "Who knows."

Lars stared at him a while longer, the same incredulous look he'd given his sister no less than 10 hours ago, he continued to stare until Mathias let up whatever knowledge he had. The grin fell and with a hefty sigh and he tossed his hands in the air dramatically. "I was your sisters booty call for a while and we talked once in the kitchen is that good enough?"

"You what." She wasn't joking. Delete, delete, delete.

"I think you were a bit high or something but...yeah... I slept with your sister on multiple occasions." They continued eating in an absolutely awkward silence until Mathias chose to break through it again with a laugh. "But oh god what if I was right."

"I hope to god you're not."

When they'd gotten back just before lunch, he had immediately took to filling his new room with his few possessions, his mind numb as he shuffled around and tried to recreate his impression of Mathias. He spoke more like an actor, his words so thought out and lines memorised perfectly to fool the average person into believing whatever he said. However there were fingernail indentations on the thumb of his hand where he'd dug them into the skin and occasionally his voice would waver if he had to deliver a line to a script he hadn't had to speak from before. He shouldn't have agreed to move in with the Dane, he concealed himself so perfectly behind suits and obnoxious smiles, Lars knew men like that were dangerous for a person's health. He should have run away and not looked back.

His epiphany from the night before should have been enough of a warning.

But Lars was taken aback by how his opinion had changed from 'dick' to 'less of a dick' and that sad smile had him wanting to know just exactly who...

"So I hope you like a little partying...there's kind of one tonight so if you don't... But don't worry they won't go down the hall or anything it's just a little get together." The blonde grinned a winning smile, leant up against the door frame in a position he seemed to enjoy with his arms crossed across his chest as Lars made the room more 'his'. He didn't even hear him come in.

...this Mathias was.

But like people drawn to the sight of an oncoming tsunami waiting on the beach to watch it before it destroyed everything he let himself be drawn into the strange blonde he thought he had pegged the second he had him.