By the time Berwald arrived at the nurse's office it was already half-way through second period. It would take far longer for Tino to finally come-to.

It wasn't hard to get past Mr. Wang, the nurse. It wasn't like he actually ever paid too much attention to the students unless they were in dire pain, and that was a good thing for the boys at the academy because it was that much easier to slip into the back and cut class. Berwald suspected the man did it out of kindness. The only real reason the man looked up today was because he seemed to be confused as to why one student would be carrying another. Berwald quickly thought up a reasonable excuse, because he was pretty sure oh yeah, he drank too much vodka and passed out was going to help him here.

" H' jus' f'nted. P'lled 'n all n'ghter studyin'."

This was actually a tangible explanation. The students here were very serious about grades, even Mathias (who cut class almost every other day) panicked if his class rank went down by one space. In the time he wasn't molesting Nikolai, he was studying. Mr. Wang simply nodded knowingly and walked Berwald back to the cots.

"Really, you boys should be taking care of yourselves better, aru. At your age what you need is sleep, not all nighters. Tell your friend that when he wakes up if I don't get to." The Chinese man said, looking back at him from the doorway.

Berwald agreed and Mr. Wang went back to his desk, away from the cot room. Berwald settled into the chair next to the bed to wait with Tino. Mr. Wang didn't expect him to go back to class; he knew that he was going to be there when the Finn woke up from the sound of things. So, the Swede just settled on sitting. He had done all of his work for the week anyway, and anything he was missing now could surely wait until he went back to class tomorrow. The only class he really expected to have any work in was math, and he was in no rush to start.

Leaning back in his chair, he gazed at the boy's sleeping face. He had never actually seen him this close up before, and it was truly a sight to see. Soft blonde hair framed his face perfectly, and his cheeks were flushed a pale tint of pink. His lips were barely parted, and his eyelashes cast small shadows over his cheeks every time he breathed. It almost felt wrong watching him right now. It had to be considered slightly voyeuristic, all things considered. He was a little infatuated with him, after all. It wasn't his fault though; Tino was just easy to get infatuated with. Anyone knew that.

Looking over at him again, Berwald's eyes were drawn back to the choker around his neck. It was sort of a strange item for him to be wearing, and not because it was overly-feminine (no one ever said anything about the way Feliks dressed) but because it was out of place on him. From what Berwald had seen, Tino always looked so cheerful, bright. If the Finn was to wear a necklace Berwald would have guessed it to be a thin chain with maybe a tasteful charm dangling from it, that just sounded like it would match his personality better- but this certainly seemed to be a contradiction. It looked like a leather pet collar, kind of like in punk-goth style, but Tino wasn't really punk or goth. He was just Tino, bright and beautiful, but not dark and heavy.

Or did Berwald miss something fundamentally important?

Now he wracked his brain trying to think of anything that may have explained this strange contradiction. It did really draw attention to his collar bones, but that almost seemed too carefully planned. From what he had gathered Tino wasn't a fashionista like Feliks was. Maybe he was into BDSM? He blushed a little at the thought and shook it off. It was pretty well known that Tino was in no way promiscuous, and there was no way he could have gotten into something like that yet. There was a rumor going around that one time Francis tried to put a 'friendly' (read: perverse) arm around him, and Tino about bitch slapped him to hell and back. Of course he apologized afterwards but it was needless to say that as much as anyone wanted to, no one ever invaded the Finn's personal space.

With a sigh, he gave up thinking for now and went out to the medicine cabinet to get Tino some aspirin and a cup of water for when he woke up. Though Berwald didn't know exactly how much he had managed to drink earlier, he was relatively sure that the boy was in for some sort of hang-over.

It seemed like forever until Tino came to. Berwald was actually starting to nod off himself, but snapped back up when he heard a soft moan and a creak from the cot.

"Nnuh..."

The Finn twisted a little, squinting his eyes before slowly blinking them open. Berwald sat up straight now, watching the other with interest. He would probably be a lot different when sober, and the Swede was curious to see his first reaction.

Violet eyes opened to surroundings that he didnt recognize. Tino blinked a couple of times, eventually realizing that he was in the nurse's office, but wondering how in hell he got there. Ah, perkele! His head was really throbbing. He slowly sat up, trying to get his balance back so that he could stand up and ask someone what was happening. Someone was way closer to him than he had had expected, and when he turned the tip of his nose touched to another.

"OYAAAAAAAAH!"

He shrieked a little and jumped backwards when he came face to face with a kind of serious looking boy, then cringed. That scream really hurt his head and jumping sent his vision spinning. Dammit. He didn't think he drank that much, and especially not enough to have forgotten that he had talked to someone. He usually had blurry recollections of what he had done while he was drunk, but this was the first time that it seemed blank to him. He tried to make his head stop spinning long enough to remember something, anything about the events that led up to this. He cautiously looked back over at the taller male by his bedside.

Oh. It was Berwald, that boy he was talking to earlier.

OH. Shit.

What the fuck did he say to the poor guy while he was drunk? He really hoped it wasn't anything too vulgar, or crass, he knew that when he drank he wasn't himself and he had been known to say strange things. Berwald still looked serious, and it made Tino slightly nervous. He giggled softly, trying to break some of this damn uncomfortable silence. "Hei, sorry about that... I just didn't expect to see you there was all..."

The Swede nodded, and Tino chewed his lip nervously. It took him a moment to realize Berwald was offering him something, and another moment to realize that it was some much-needed advil. Even if scary, the taller man did seem kind so far. With a small smile, he took the pills and swallowed them dry, brushing some hair away from his face. "Kiitos. A-ah, It means thanks in Finnish."

Berwald mm-ed in response even though he was slightly puzzled as to why Tino didn't take the water. He hadn't expected the boy to be the kind to swallow pills dry, but it seemed that there were probably quite things about Tino that he never would have expected. He already counted three. The other seemed to be trying to stay sitting up, and Berwald realized that he was actually trying to turn to face him. He offered his hand to help steady the Finn, and shyly (if not a little hesitantly) the offer was taken. Tino was then able to move to sit on the edge of the bed across from Berwald.

"S-so... Um..." The Finnish boy sighed softly. This was going to be awkward, and there was no way around it. "Ah... Okay, so I know this is going to sound really bad and all and you can judge me for it if you want, but... What exactly did I say to you earlier?"

The Swedish male swallowed, hoping his speech wouldn't fail him now, because now he actually needed to talk to a sober Tino. He would actually remember this conversation, so he really didn't have room to screw up.

"W'll... Ya' introduced yerself. 'N ya asked me ta' do ya a f'vor." He opted to leave out the part about Berwald admitting to liking him. Sober Tino had probably already seen the way Berwald looked at him, so he deemed it uneccesarily awkward. Besides, he was proud of himself for speaking relatively clearly so far.

"What did I ask?" Tino asked, his eyes worried now. Berwald was quick to notice this and try to soothe him.

"Ya didn't ask fer anythin' bad. 'M n't really s're wh't ya' meant by what ya said, th'gh. S'methin' 'bout n't bein' alone..."

Tino looked perplexed, as if trying to process what he could have possibly been talking about. He shifted in his spot on the bed, looking up for a few minutes before his eyes widened a little. He looked back to Berwald, face a little red, and tried to get his words strung together properly so that he didn't confuse the other again.

"Ah... I think I meant that I wanted to get to know you better. Hang out and stuff... maybe even, uh..." The Finn trailed off. "Well, you know, date." He finshed quietly.

Berwald had expected that from a drunk, but this confession from Tino sober was not one he had seen coming. Or was it a confession at all? "Hn. Do ya' r'gret th't?" He questioned, waiting for a yes. Maybe it wouldn't sting as much as he had expected it to if he accepted it first.

"Well, only half of it. I wish the first time you met me formally wasn't when I was drunk." Tino laughed slightly. "But as for what I said... I... I think I maybe kind of still mean it." He rushed his words together, and it took Berwald a minute to decipher what he said and realize what it meant.

Tino just asked to be his boyfriend?

Okay, so that was rushing things a little bit, but the Finn did just ask him out at the very least. And since Berwald would certainly agree... that meant they were dating? This was... surreal. Berwald was no one, and Tino was definitely on everyone's radar. He blinked, trying to figure out if this was one of those wet dreams that starts tame and gets dirty, but after a minute he determined that he was certainly awake. Looking at the other's eyes he decided that the boy was genuine, and this wasn't all some elaborate prank set up by Mathias or another bored kid. He wasn't even sure how to react. This meant he could be close to him now, exactly how he had wanted to, and even stranger it was by Tino's request.

"So um... do you think we could-"

"Yeah." Berwald finished for him. It looked like he had suffered enough trying to get all of that out. Tino seemed to perk up a little now, violet eyes now brighter and far more familiar to him. He smiled softly at Berwald and nodded a little, as though trying to prompt himself to say something.

"I'm really glad. Hei, do you have a cell phone?" He asked, swinging his legs now.

Berwald nodded and took it out. He was due for an upgrade, but he hardly ever used the thing. He only occasionally used it to call home, and as an alarm clock. Tino didn't seem to care what type of phone it was though, he quickly found they key pad and started rapidly typing things in. Damn, those slender little fingers flew across those keys fast. Until now Berwald had always thought it was a joke when people talked about teens texting like that.

After a minute he handed Berwald the phone back and it had a new contact listed: Tino~! The Swede couldn't help but find it kind of cute the way he had typed it.

"Text me!" Tino demanded.

"Mmkay. Wh'n?" Berwald asked.

"Now. I need your number, remember?"

Realizing what Tino wanted him to do now, he texted just 'hey', and Tino seemed content with that. He added the number to his contacts (the list looked pretty long, from what Berwald could tell) and then gave Berwald his attention once again.

"Do you want to get dinner? I know it's kind of early but classes are already out, and I missed my lunch. They always have food around anyway."

Berwald looked at the clock on the wall and was surprised to see how much time had passed. It was definitely after school hours by now, three in the afternoon. He nodded, and looked back over to Tino. "Ya s're yer 'kay ta w'lk?"

"Yeah" the Finn smiled. "I'm feeling way better now. I think the Advil's kicking in."

"'Kay. L't m' t'll , th'n we c'n go." Berwald said, then got up and left to go to the man's desk.

Tino nodded and smiled when he walked out, but sighed heavily once he was out of the room. Really, he should feel bad about this. He should feel terrible. It was horrible really, what he was about to drag Berwald into. And even worse, Berwald was a kind person. True, that reason was exactly what drew Tino to him, but it still made him feel bad.

He knew that Berwald was perfect for this. Even though he was slightly intimidated by the man, he had everything he wanted. Strong hands, quiet so that he could talk- and hey, it helped that he was quite handsome. It would certainly make it easier for Tino to be good to him in the terms of physical affection further into this. Lust was a powerful thing.

However even though Berwald had all of the qualities he had been searching for, it was harder for Tino to rejoice now because this list of things was now a person, a human being; and everyone had feelings, no matter how stoic they came off. Maybe that poker face would help him feel less guilty, though.

He tried to reason with himself. It wasn't like he was going to abuse the man, hell he wasn't even going to leaving him (that would destroy the purpose anyway because then he would need to find someone else). He just needed him for certain things. Given certain things were unorthodox and Tino had no idea how Berwald would take to them, but he knew he would get his way. He wasn't dumb, he knew Berwald wanted him. With a little seduction anything was possible.

It wouldn't be one sided, though. Tino would be good to him, pay him back for everything he did. He would be a good boyfriend, do sweet things for him (hand-holding and such) and he would definitely do sexy. He had no objections to giving himself to the man. So yes, he would certainly reward him for his efforts. He just hoped it would be enough for what he was about to drag him into.

Berwald came back in the room now and Tino smiled and jumped up, walking over to him and asking if it was pizza day.

Hello again~

A word on this chapter: Okay, so anyone reading has probably noticed that Tino's character is a little more assetive and or confident than people typically make him, especially with him making the first move here. I just can't see him as some timid little damsel here, and I didn't have the heart to sit around and make him wait for Waldy to move first (because Waldy takes forever to make moves like that sometimes). However I love cute, shy Tino and i'm sure he will eventually show up in a story I write, just not this one. Anyway, I did try to keep him fairly in character in other aspects so hopefully I didn't butcher him for you too badly.

Berwald... Is Berwald. I don't know what else to say for that XD

Thank you to everyone who reviewed so far, even though doesn't let me reply to you right now I do read all of your comments and they make my day~

Aah, I feel derpy-awkward now! These are long notes. Please review, it makes me happy!

-minn