Thank you all! Great to see so many being interested on this one :)
Okay, I realized that I still forgot some warnings, such as violence, slight abuse and alcohol use, so I guess... I am now scaring all the people away. It is not actually so bad but there are scenes that might be uncomfortable.
Check the end notes for more blaablaa.
And btw, this story will have lots of sweet Dennor moments so the last chapter was just the beginning.
Second chapter: Goodbye party
The long weekend with Norway had left the Dane refreshed and ready to face the week's duties. Sure, they had been doing much more than just sleeping and resting. They had gone for a date, Norway had taken him for hike as he usually did when the weather was good enough, and they had debated about various topics they were working with. Also, they fulfilled their honourable duty to check how Iceland was doing, which almost ended up with the Icelander blocking their numbers once again, and prank called Sweden to see if he was home. Too bad, the Swede was away just then so they had to give up their dreams about free dinner at his place.
But now it was already Tuesday, and the Dane was back to work. He had told Charlotte about his plans that morning and the woman had sadly accepted, noting that she had been expecting to hear this soon as young people tended to move away sooner or later, and Jens had his last year in the university going on. Denmark had nodded, and promised to do three weeks more so the woman would have time to find somebody else to work the shifts the nation had done.
He was just finishing his shift and preparing to hand over to Kristian and Rikke, when the woman ran to him with almost fearful expression on her face.
"Is it true?" she asked quickly and bit too loudly, attracting attention from few customers, "you are leaving?"
"Yeah", Denmark said with a nod, "I will have a Thesis project abroad, and since it takes longer than year, I thought it is better to give up the apartment here and move completely there. It is so stressing to travel back and forth all the time." Rikke nodded, but she had a strange sadness in his eyes, that the nation didn't really notice because he was just moving the cleaned glasses on their correct places.
"Where?" Rikke asked now with normal, though a slightly upset tone.
"Norway", Denmark replied, "it is a good project. I can't believe they decided to give me a chance with it." He had selected Norway because of oblivious reasons; if he needed to get away for a while, he would for sure prefer to go where his lover was.
"Ah, that is not too far away", Rikke said with a small nod, "I will come and visit you."
"I am not sure if… Rikke?" Denmark said and glanced up, only to notice that the woman had left just as suddenly as she had showed up. The Dane wondered if he should go after her and explain that he would be far too busy for visitors or maybe the place he was going to work was some kind of secured military area, but he decided to let it go. The humans easily forgot their promises, and he would just not give away the address. Also, he was going to have a phone date with Norway, though the Norwegian called them regular evening calls, so he needed to hurry home and be ready for the most important meeting of that day.
The next two weeks after the announcement went on mostly normally, though Rikke's reaction confused the nation somewhat. He had used to see different levels of disappointment and even sadness at the moment of leaving, so he was familiar with the way how Charlotte wished him the best and thanked for the past years, and Kristian shrugged and mentioned briefly that he hoped the next guy would be just as awesome to work with as the Dane had been. His football team was sad to see him leave, though they jokingly announced that the next man joining them would take them up to nationals, and Jens would forever regret his decisions to leave them just when things were getting interesting. Denmark laughed with them and noted that if one new man really could take their hobby team suddenly up to the professional level, he would personally come and beg them to take him back in.
But Rikke, she surprised the nation with her reaction, and Denmark couldn't figure out if it was normal or not as there were still many things within human nature he did not understood completely. First, she seemed to be upset, but in very next day she acted like nothing had happened. She didn't comment about moving or replied to others' comments about it. She worked like normal, though she seemed to be in her own thoughts and sometimes Denmark couldn't stop thinking that there was something strange in way how she looked at him. Sometimes her eyes were too empty, sometimes she was just like normally. But Denmark, over thousand years older personification, thought it was not important. Only vaguely he wondered if the woman had been always so eager to be near him, if she had always used so much make-up and clothes that hugged her figure tightly, giving a good view of her breast and hips. He didn't pay much attention to that.
It was end of his second last week when Charlotte came up with an idea.
"Guys, let's have a meeting", she called them. Friday evenings tended to get busy, so they were all helping with the evening, though Rikke could have been free to leave a bit earlier after they closed the door and started to organize for the next day. She had stayed behind for some reason and helped anyway.
"About what?" Kristian said, "don't tell us you have found something new with butterflies on it?"
"There can not possibly be anything new with butterflies", Denmark noted, "we already got everything."
"I bet Lotte could still come up with something", Kristian muttered, "right?"
"Like… Name for this coffee place?" Denmark asked and frowned slightly, "its' name is literally just Coffee Place at the moment so… Coffee Butterfly?"
"Don't you dare to give her ideas!" Kristian said quickly while Charlotte, who had been listening them this entire time, raised her brow and sighed.
"Boys", she said and gestured them to come closer, "if you could just gather here for a moment, and it is not about butterflies this time."
"Sure, ma'am", Kristian said and they all took a place around the desk. Denmark noticed that Rikke was standing a bit too near him, but he only moved away slightly without mentioning about it because Charlotte demanded the attention.
"I was thinking about organizing a party", she said and nodded toward Denmark, "Jens have been suffering with us four years, he deserves to go off with a celebration."
"I like that idea!" Kristian yelled, and Denmark nodded with a smile. Rikke didn't say anything, but she didn't decline either, so they assumed she was with the plan.
"Perfect", Charlotte said and leaned over the desk, her long hair hanging over her shoulder, "I will need everybody to help with preparation, even you Jens so this not gonna be a surprise. Sorry about that."
"No problem", Denmark replied.
"We can have the party here", she continued with a small nod, "just move some tables on side and make curtains on windows so we get some privacy."
"Should we invite more people?" Kristian said, "no offense, but a party with only four of us will be damn boring."
"Of course", Charlotte replied, "I already have five guests coming over."
"I can invite the guys from football", Denmark said happily, "they are weird bunch, but nice guys."
"That sounds much better already", Kristian said and winked, "I will tell my girlfriend to tell her single friends that there will be hot football players, so we will have this place full without problems. You can invite your band, right Rikke?"
"Or better why don't you play for us!" Charlotte declared and smiled, "I will pay, of course."
"Some live music would be cool", Kristian agreed, but Rikke seemed to be in her thoughts because she didn't reply until Denmark poked her arm and said her name. Then she startled and looked around before smiling shyly.
"Yeah, sure", she said, "I will ask if they like the idea."
"Great", Charlotte said, "okay then everybody. I will make a list of duties, and… What you think? Would the Friday be the best?" They nodded and started to talk about the details with more and less excited tones. Only Rikke stayed out of the conversation. She staring at the nation and slowly nodding when she was asked about something. Denmark felt like something was horribly wrong, but he still didn't do anything for that.
The party was going on well, Denmark thought when he looked around and held the half empty beer bottle between his fingers. They had moved almost all the tables away in order to have enough moving space for all the people, and the whole place was decorated, which made the Dane happy that he wasn't going to be one to clean up for the next day. It was already late, and the party had been going on for hours, but Charlotte had promised that they could stay until two, so nobody was too busy with leaving when the fun had just started. In fact, Charlotte herself was so far only one that had left the party, but it was understandable as she was pregnant, and her husband had almost begged her to come home and rest. She had given up and tasked Kristian with taking care that things didn't get too wild and the place would be locked down after the party ended.
Rikke's band had played earlier, but now they were all among the people, enjoying dancing and talking instead of creating the music. Denmark chuckled a bit when he realized how easy it was to spot the band's members in the crowd as they all had green and pink on their hair and more piercing that Denmark ever though was possible to have. Rikke did have those too, but she took the jewels off for work, and apparently her pink and green hair was just something she could clue on herself when she wanted, or so Denmark thought. In fact, he had no idea how such things worked, though he amused himself for a moment with thinking what Norway would say about such things and if he put them on himself.
One of his team mates tapped his shoulder and laughed, telling the nation that the party was awesome, and they would all miss him. Denmark nodded and replied that he would miss them too. There was more laughing, mixed up with the alcohol and the man moved away. Denmark chuckled again and took a sip from his beer. Most of the people were rather young, and they had been enjoying the free drinks maybe even a bit too much, tough mostly the things were staying in accepted level when Kristian kept the control. Denmark had so far had only one beer and his second was just going down. He knew well that that would barely make him tipsy, and if he kept going on slow he would be sober for long time as his body worked actively to get the alcohol processed as fast as possible, making it hard for him to get drunk at first place.
Still, there were some things his healing skills had no affect and so, when the air started to get too heavy for his liking, he made his way to the back door. It was a slow process as there were lot of people who wanted to talk to him or hug after the alcohol had relaxed them enough to be ready for such intimate act. Denmark laughed with them and accepted all the wishes and more and less stupid jokes threw at his direction. Things didn't calm down until he got to the small back street and the door closed after him. Then he sighed and leaned against the wall, enjoying the moment of peace and calm in the chilly spring night.
"What a life", he muttered and raised the bottle to his lips. He had got used enough for humans that he didn't feel too weird about being surrounded by them, but he still noticed he was missing his own kin. No matter how much he thought about it, things were just different when he was with other personifications. In fact, he had jokingly asked the Norwegian to join him for the party, but he had declined
The door opened again, and the nation raised his brow when he saw Rikke stumbling out and closing the door a bit too harshly. During the past few days, the woman had been looking sick and Charlotte had asked already twice if she was sure she didn't want to see a doctor. She had declined both times with few muttered words, and blamed everything on her problems with sleeping. She said the nights had been restless lately, but had not explain anything when they asked. After a while, they let her be and trusted that she knew her limits.
"Carefully", Denmark said and reached his hand when the woman almost tripped on her own legs. It wasn't hard to see that she had had already more than enough alcohol. She was swaying slightly, her eyes unfocused and a drowsy expression on her face. When she saw the nation, she seemed to pull herself somewhat together.
"Jens", she wailed and grabbed the offered hand, pulling herself closer to the Dane, "Jens."
"Rikke, are you okay?" Denmark asked worriedly, "you should not drink that much."
"I am fine", the woman replied with making the last word too long, "I just need… A bit…"
"A bit what?" Denmark asked and leaned closer to hear better. Rikke wasn't exactly short woman, actually she was around the same height with the nation, but she wasn't keeping her posture and she was already drunk enough to not care if her balance didn't work like it should.
"You…", she sighed and before the Danish man had a chance to ask, the woman pressed herself against him and kissed him hard. First, he didn't react. It had been centuries since anybody else than Norway had kissed him, and he couldn't recall anytime when the kiss had come from a drunk female that tasted like beer and lip-gloss. Rikke seemed to take his unresponsive acting as accepting, or she just didn't care, because she kept holding his lips, trying to push her tongue into his mouth. Then Denmark felt a hand trying to find a way into his pants, and being dangerously successful, and that snapped him out from the shock. He grabbed the woman by shoulders and pushed her away, holding tightly in case she would try something else.
"I think you have had too much alcohol", Denmark said quickly, "it is time to go home."
"But…", Rikke complained, but it was easy to keep her drunk mind and body under the control now that Denmark wasn't shocked anymore.
"Home", the nation said, and after while Rikke muttered something and nodded. Denmark let go of her, cautiously following that the woman really went back inside. When the door closed again after her, the man let a shaky breath and turned to walk away. He had his wallet and phone in his pocket and everybody at party was too busy to notice that he was gone, he had no reason to stay longer.
He grabbed his bike from the pile of all the bikes at the corner, but didn't mount. Instead he just walked and pushed the bike next to him, because he felt like a bit longer way to home would make good. He had walked ten minutes when he finally took his phone and made the call he had thought about all that time.
"Nor?" he asked right away when he heard the call connecting.
"Of course. Who else you would have excepted?" the Norwegian's familiar voice said, "although, at this time of night, I was tempted to ignore the call."
"Oh yeah, sorry", Denmark said and used the tone he thought was cheerful, while Norway knew it as the one the Dane used when he tried to hide his true feelings, "I was just missing you." The Norwegian didn't reply right away, but just before the Dane was going to ask if he was still there.
"What is wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing", Denmark said, "I just thought… I know we planned that I will come to your place on Sunday after that meeting I have tomorrow, but I really miss you and I think we can make it a video call meeting with my boss so would you mind if I come already now?"
"I am not home right now", Norway said.
"Oh", the Dane muttered with disappointed tone, "then, I guess.."
"I will come to you", the Norwegian interrupted him, "it will take only few hours. Can you wait for that?"
"Yeah, of course", the Dane said, "but you don't need, it was just silly…"
"You are upset", Norway stopped him again, "I will come to you."
"Thank you", Denmark said, and the call ended. He pushed the phone deep into his pocket, and walked the rest of the way to home with his bike, feeling much better already now that he knew the Norwegian was coming. Still, he couldn't get the taste of lip-gloss off his mouth no matter how many times he stopped to, spit and rub his lips.
Norway showed up only two and half hour later, which was much faster than should have been possible, but who knew what tricks the Norwegian nation had. Denmark was first confused about hearing a knock from the door, but quickly remembered that Norway didn't have a key to this apartment. He jumped up from the armchair he had been nestling in, and hurried to open the door. He smiled when he saw the man standing in the hallway, a small bag on his shoulder and hat covering his hair.
"Hey", the Dane said, but Norway used a good moment to look at him, carefully observing the man for any signs of problems. Then he reached his hands and took the Dane's face between them, gently holding him still while he looked into his eyes. His hands were a bit cold after he had walked outside, but Denmark didn't mind. He only leaned into touch and closed his eyes.
"You are not wounded, but still hurt", Norway said softly and moved to stroke the Dane's hair, "who did this to you?"
"I will tell you all", Denmark promised and tugged the Norwegian's jacket's sleeve to get him in to the apartment. Norway dropped his bag at the door and left his jacket and hat on the chair, not really caring about hanging them neatly. He followed the Dane into his bedroom and settled down on the bed, leaning his back against the wall and taking the man's hand. Denmark started to explain about his evening and night, and Norway listened without interrupting. He only held tighter when the Dane told about Rikke, and there was anger in his eyes, though it wasn't aimed to the Dane.
"She kissed you", he repeated.
"Yes."
"Did she try to touch you more?"
"She tried to get her hand down here", Denmark said with a nod and gestured toward his crotch. Norway seemed to be not happy about hearing that, but he didn't blame the Dane. He was still holding the man's hand and with a sleek movement he climbed on his lap. Denmark wrapped his arms loosely around the Norwegian's waist when he hugged him.
"You are mine", Norway said, somehow making it sound like a question and statement at the same time. Denmark nodded.
"Forever." Norway kissed him softly, just touching his lips long enough for that been called a kiss, but Denmark still thought it was much better than the one he had unwillingly received earlier. Kissing the Norwegian felt right and left him with warmth, instead of shock and haunting feeling of being used.
"Let's go to sleep", Norway said, "it is too late to be up."
"Or too early", the Dane noted and glanced at the window to see the first light of morning appearing.
Okay, I used lots of time to think how Denmark would react for being kissed like that. My first plan was to have him just shrug it off like nothing because you know, he is a manly warrior and immortal personification and have been doing lot of terrible and scary things during his. So I thought that he would just move on and never think about it until later tell the whole thing to Norway (who freaks out because it is his Dane).
But then I realized that this is something different. He would for sure easily ignore threats and fighting, because that is something he has gotten used for. But being kissed against his will? That is different. That has never happened, and we are following my headcanons here which means he hasn't really have other persons than Norway kissing him. So he is not too pushed down because of it, but he is still upset and uncomfortable because he is a person with lot of feelings, and so he is relaying to the one person he knows will never make him do anything against his will, and that is Norway. This is why I also pulled Norway back into story sooner than I thought I will, he is bringing in comfort and stability (before we go into madness again).
And the name of the coffee place is Coffee Place, because I have power and use it for silly things.
I hope to see you guys on the next chapter too. Rikke is gonna find out about the little, tiny fact on Jen's boyfriend...