Hello! Welcome to the second chapter of this story. I wanted to get this up in time for Finland's birthday and even though in most places, it's already the seventh, it's only about 11:40 pm here, so I think I kind of made it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this special birthday edition of this story!

(-)

Tino woke up at about three in the morning. As he stared up at the darkened ceiling of his bedroom, he realized something. Today's my birthday, he thought.

Today he would be turning eighteen, he'd technically be an adult starting from today. He closed his eyes and sighed – so many life changing events had happened in the past few days. First, he had discovered that he was going to die prematurely, then he had starting dating Berwald, and now he was an adult.

Tino reached for his phone, which was sitting on his bedside table. He unlocked it and it opened up to his messages. The first thing he saw was a message from Ber that he'd gotten last night. It simply read:

Come to my house tomorrow at 2.

Tino figured that it was going to be something related to his birthday. He had replied to the message with just a simple 'ok'.

Deciding that he wasn't going to get anymore sleep, Tino sat up in his bed and got out of it. He quietly went to the bathroom and went through his usual morning routine, careful not to wake anyone up.

He went back to his bedroom and got dressed. Today, he had decided upon wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a gray t-shirt.

Having nothing better to do, he walked over to his desk and sat down in the chair in front of it. He grabbed a notebook from the stack of notebooks and loose papers placed on the left side of the desk. Over the past couple of weeks, since he had not been back to school yet, his friends had been getting his homework assignments for him. He looked at the notebook in front of him. It was his Algebra II notebook. He really hated that class, and math in general, in fact, he had failed Algebra II as a junior and now had to retake it.

He flipped open the notebook and looked at the work he had to do. It was about completing the square. Luckily, he mostly remembered how to do this and he got to work.

(…)

By six in the morning, he had completed about a quarter of the homework he had to do. He decided that he had enough of that for now.

Tino got up from his chair and walked downstairs. Someone was probably awake by now.

He saw the light on in the kitchen, so went to it. As he walked into the kitchen, he saw his mom busily cooking. She looked up as he came in, "Oh, good morning, honey," she said," Happy Birthday!"

"Good morning," Tino replied," Thank you."

"I was just making breakfast for you," his mom told him.

Tino nodded in response and sat down at the kitchen table. He made small talk with his mom and waited.

(…)

It was now 10 and Tino was in his room again. He was sitting in his desk chair and scrolling through Tumblr.

There was a knock on his door. "Come in," he called, locking his phone.

The door opened and his little sister came in.

"I…I um, made you a present," Lumi said, holding out a folded piece of paper that was a card.

Tino took it from her and looked at it, smiling. It was a homemade card made out of blue construction paper and various colored sharpies. The outside of it read 'Happy Birthday' in messy cursive writing. There were little balloons drawn around the words. The inside of the card was similar to the outside, there were still drawings of balloons on the left side of the paper, but on the right side, there was writing that read, 'Happy 18th Birthday! Have a good day today!' It was signed by Lumi.

He smiled at her standing there," Thank you Lumi, I love it."

"Really?" she asked.

Tino laughed," Yes, of course." He stood up and gave his little sister a hug, "Thank you."

(…)

At about 1:45, Tino walked downstairs from his room. As he passed by the living room, he stuck his head in. His mom and his step-dad were sitting in there watching tv. "I'm going to Berwald's house," Tino called.

His mom looked over," All right, have fun, just don't stay out too late."

Tino nodded," Okay."

Tino grabbed a dark blue jacket off the coat rack and walked out the door, starting the familiar walk to Berwald's house.

(…)

About ten minutes later, he reached the white house where Berwald lived. He walked up the path to the door and knocked.

He only had to wait a few seconds before the door was answered by Berwald.

"Hey," Berwald said," Happy Birthday."

Tino smiled," Thanks."

"Come in," Ber said, holding the door open.

Tino walked inside the familiar house. He heard some chatter coming from the living room, so he followed his instinct and walked toward it, Ber following behind him.

As he reached the living room, he found Lukas, Matthias, and Emil there.

Matthias was the first person to notice him. He broke out into a large grin," Hey Tino!" he called," Happy Birthday!"

"Happy Birthday," Lukas said too.

"Yeah, Happy Birthday," Emil mumbled, ever socially awkward.

Tino smiled," Thank you."

After that, they just hung out for a while, talking and laughing about various random things. Tino ended up getting so lost in the conversation that was going on that he didn't even realize how long he had been there. When he checked the time, it was already five.

Then, Berwald stood up and said he had to go get something. When he came back, he was holding a book that looked like a photo album.

Berwald handed Tino the book and said," Everyone helped in making this. Happy Birthday."

Tino looked at the book, which was indeed a photo album. On the front, there was a picture of the five of them that Tino instantly recognized as one that was taken about two years ago at a Christmas party.

Tino opened the book and started looking at the pictures inside, aware that everyone was moving around him so that they could look too. The first few pictures just involved Lukas, Matthias, and Tino. They were at Outdoor School in sixth grade. Berwald hadn't moved to The States yet and Emil had been too young to attend Outdoor School. The pictures gradually became more present. They covered middle school when Berwald had become part of their friend group. Everyone laughed at themselves as the pictures showed them as tweens, sometimes they were pretty bad. Then, it showed them all on their first day of high school (middle school for Emil). It chronicled their adventures through high school, going to various dances and football games, as well as all the things they did outside of school like the summer they drove to the Grand Canyon or when they went camping near Bend. The last picture was of Tino and Berwald sitting together, Berwald's arm wrapped around Tino's shoulder and Tino leaning against him. Both of them were smiling. Tino recognized this picture as one that his mom had taken about a week ago after they had told her that they were dating. The last few pages were blank and Tino decided that he'd add more pictures as time went on.

He closed the book and hugged it to his chest," Thank you all for this."

After that, everyone went back to talking. As Tino listened, he felt himself getting sleepy. He leaned against Ber and only half-listened to what people were saying.

Tino felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness before he ended up falling asleep on Ber.

(…)

Tino felt himself be shook awake. He groggily opened his eyes and saw that everyone was gone except for Ber.

"What time is it?" he yawned.

"About 9." Ber answered.

"I should get going home then," Tino said, realizing that he was going to be going back to school in the morning.

"Do you want me to walk with you?" Berwald queried.

"Um, if you want to," Tino replied. He didn't particularly like walking alone in the dark.

"Are you ready to go?" Ber asked.

Tino nodded, picking up the photo album he had been given.

They walked to Tino's house in a comfortable silence.

As they approached the door of his house, Tino turned to face Berwald.

"Thank you for everything," he said, wrapping his arms around his neck and kissing him, needing to stand on his tiptoes to do so.

"Goodnight," Tino whispered to him before walking into his house.

(…)

Tino walked up the stairs to his bedroom and opened the door. The first thing he did was place the photo album on his bookshelf. Then, he went to his desk and opened the journal he was starting to fall into the habit of keeping. He pulled out a pen and started writing about the day.

December 6, 2015

Today was my 18th birthday. I feel like my life is going by so fast. As of today, I'm an adult. I can vote, and if I go to any other country, legally drink alcohol.

Anyway, Lumi gave me a present today. It was just a card that she made, but I really appreciate it. Then, I went over to Ber's and hung out with all my friends for a while. While I was there, I got a photo album of my times with them since sixth grade to present day. It made me so happy. My parents were talking about getting me a present too. I think I heard them talking about getting me a car which I wouldn't mind.

After I hung out with everyone, I ended up falling asleep, but Ber woke me up at about 9 and ended up walking me home. He's really quite cute and I know that it's a bit early in a relationship to say this, but I love him.

Well, I suppose I should start getting ready for bed now. I'm going back to school tomorrow so I need to get some sleep tonight.

Goodnight!