Note: Up! Sufin AU, so you know the first chapter will be sweet and sad ;w; but the story will be happy, and I hope it's enjoyable.

Berwald moved to America as a child, an abrupt change due to his father's job. Having heard so much about America, he expected it to be some grand land full of friendly people, sunshine, and butterflies that would land on your hair. What he got instead was a rude awakening.

Maybe it was due to his quiet nature, his accent, or his tall stature, probably even his stoic face; but it seemed that not a single one of his classmates wanted to associate with him. In fact, they seemed downright terrified of him!

This obviously meant he had made zero friends in the month he had spent in America so far. Zip. Really, he wishes he could blame others, but he understood. His mother would always scold him about the permanent scowl on his face and would urge him to attempt to smile more. But despite how easy she made it sound, he couldn't. It was just not in his nature and it was quick work for him to understand that and realize that this was probably how it was always going to be.

That was until he met Tino.

The Finnish boy was also new to the country, and knew just about as much English as Berwald did (if not more) so he was unafraid of approaching him seeing as they were both foreigners, nor did he seem to mind how silent Berwald was since he seemed to speak enough for the both of them.

Berwald found out Tino's favorite flowers were Lilies, he could say his entire ABC's backwards, his father was a bit of a drunk, his favorite dessert was melted marshmallows on turnips, and he was allergic to dogs (but still wanted one very badly).

It came to no surprised that Tino was adventurous. He'd always ask Berwald to join him in some new adventure be it to the local lake or the forests, just anywhere to be out of the house and enjoy nature. No matter how many months, years, they had spent walking in random directions – they always found something new to investigate as long as they walked far enough.

One day they had found an abandoned house in the outskirts of a forest and declared it as their official meeting place. They'd meet each other there without fail every 2 days – no matter what. If they had an argument about something – they'd both still go there just to sulk in their own corner of the house until one or the other decided they'd apologize first. When Tino's parents got a divorced, Berwald was there to spend hours with the crying boy in his arms. When Berwald's grandmother died, the Fin was there in turn to comfort him through the day. Where promises of being best friends and living together forever were made before they were old enough to understand what romantic love meant.

They were inseparable. Girls started seeing Berwald's stoic nature as "sexy and mysterious" and he would always turn them down in favor of his best friend. And when others started going after Tino for his adorable charismatic nature, he turned them down for his best friend.

It really came to no one's surprise when they eventually came out as being in a more-than-friend relationship in high school. And even less of a surprise when they eventually got engaged the very month gay marriage became legal in their state.

They got married on a beautiful mountain top, covered in snow. It was a simple, some may even say improper, wedding. Neither of them were too bothered by elegancy and instead focused on having fun. They had homemade food, Christmas lights strung on the trees for decoration, lilies on every table top for décor, multiple tents littered about to prepare for the 3 day party they had planned, and anyone who brought an instrument was allowed to play at the wedding (no matter how experienced – or inexperienced, mostly – they were) and it seemed more like a party than a wedding. But they were both more than happy with the results, and had people complimenting them for weeks on hosting the most entertaining wedding they had ever attended.

They eventually bought their dream house – the old abandoned house of their childhood which seemed just as rickety as when they first saw it. After months of repairing the house together, they eventually got it to its original glory, if not better, and moved in.

Berwald was a carpenter and Tino was a designer, both worked well together and created countless of beautiful creations. They spent the late hours of the night planning their future together, hands clutched together and wide smiles on their face as they planned their long future together.

They spoke of adopting a little boy (or 2!) to raise together. They agreed on an older boy seeing as they were in needs of homes more often than the babies. They discussed on taking vacations soon with money they've saved up, and made a bucket list of all the places they wanted to visit. They even went as far as to talk about retirement plans. They agreed that they both wanted to live on a mountain top with a forest view. Tino joked that if they died in such high altitudes, they'd make it to Valhalla that much faster. So if one of them were to die before the other, it wouldn't be a very long way to look on each other until they could reunite, and the journey up would be shorter!

That did make Berwald chuckle.

It wasn't until one day when they were taking a stroll outside while chattering away about nothing in particular that Berwald realized just how real that thought may have been.

When Tino collapsed on the floor, hyperventilating and clutching his fingers into the ground, Berwald immediately carried him back home where he called an ambulance, not once allowing him to leave his sight for a second.

When they spent hours together in the hospital room, Berwald stayed, allowing Tino to nearly crush his hands as he clutched onto them, revealing just how scared he was as well despite the smiling mask he wore and insistence of "I'm sure it's nothing!"

When the doctor eventually gave them the diagnosis, Tino continued to smile through the tears that rolled down his cheek. When the doctor left them, Berwald was there to cry with Tino as he clutched onto him, sobbing into his chest and making empty promises of "everything will be ok".

Berwald would stay there every single day, waiting in the parking lot up to 2 hours earlier than he was supposed to until he was allowed inside again.

He was glad, but felt hopeless, when Tino was eventually allowed to leave the hospital and instead receive care from Berwald in their home instead.

Tino continued to insist they go out, so Berwald continued to take him around every day through their forest until night fell and they had to return home. They continued to make plans despite knowing it could never happen, and continued to love each other more and more each day despite knowing it would make it that much more painful to part for now.

Berwald always made sure to surround their bed with Tino's favorite flowers, lilies, their warm and loving fragrance calming his husband.

Every day, the house smelt of lilies.

Until one day, it smelt of chrysanthemums.

Note: Chrysanthemums are flowers often associated with death.

We all knew it was coming. Didn't make it hurt any less. In the next chapter we go to present time Berwald! So, any thoughts so far? It would mean a lot if you leave a review, I enjoy knowing what people think of my writing as well as hearing constructive criticism.

Thank you for reading!