"B- but… what does this have to do with me?"

The Dane shrugged, an air of insolence surrounding him. "Oh, well, you went bright red when we arrived, so I'm assuming that there's something you want to say to either myself," he gestured at himself, before sighing in a defeated manner and flailing sideways, "or to Berwald."

"I didn't not!" he complained, feeling his cheeks heat up even more. Oh, wonderful. Just wonderful.

"Well, you did when we came to sit down near you…"

Tino coughed, trying to stop himself from stuttering over his words. "N- n- no…"

"Ac'ually, yah did."

He spluttered a little at the sound of Berwald's correction, which was not at all helpful, seen as he had more or less caused the situation by being the mysterious, tall man he was.

'But not handsome,' he thought, screwing his eyes shut. 'Definitely not handsome.'

"No," Tino repeated trying to be a little more assertive. "I didn't."

Matthias shrugged. "Matter of opinion, I suppose." Then he stood up, stretched, and the group gave him a weird look. He had just gotten there, and now he was moving again.

And then he sat down, on the opposite side of Tino, who shuffled back automatically, as the taller man reached out to grab his hand. He gave a striking smile, which to anyone else would probably have seemed attractive, but the Finn was still trying to get over the fact that he was holding his hands for no particular reason.

Oh this was not going to end well…

"You know…" he started with a wink, "if there's anything you want to tell me, I'm not going to go against you for it."

"I- I have no idea what you're on about."

Matthias shook his head, patting Tino's hands with his fingers. "Now, now, min kære," he started, with a look of slightly condescension, "I need to say this, ja? It's important for both of us." He paused, as if waiting for the Finn to say something, but quickly continued before he could. Not that Tino listened. The other man chose to ignore that fact.

"I really wish I knew what you had just called me."

"You see, I know that you have some very important feelings – everyone does, skat, it's completely normal, and there is nothing that we can do about that! But we must act on those feelings, or risk loosing our hearts and minds to the world of the damned and depressed – and you don't want to go there; it's all cold and wet and there are dragons, and stuff. So you're going to admit to what you want to say, and I'm going to ask you to dinner, and we're going to be perfectly fine, alr-argh! Berwald! Unnecessary pain!"

The Swede had a hold of the spiky blond hair, but appeared to just be holding it there. Yet the Dane was reacting like his usual idiot self, and acting like he was in complete pain.

"Sto' usin' N'rse mythol'gy as an ins'lt," he said sharply, pulling up slightly, and causing Matthias to yelp again. "I's no' very nice."

"Oxenstiernaaaaa! Stop being weirrrrrrd!"

"I'll call Luk's."

Matthias froze, not even twitching as Berwald tightened his grip. "You wouldn't."

"Try m'."

The Dane frowned properly for the first time in their argument (though Tino would be hesitant to call it that; it makes it sound like both sides have an equal chance of winning). Then, he sighed, glancing up at his friend. "Jeg beklager?" Berwald gave him a blank look, before muttering something in Swedish that was all too rapid for Tino to even understand the different words. "Er… jeg elsker dig?"

Berwald still didn't react with kindness, instead just glancing at Tino. Matthias followed his gaze. Annoyingly, the Finn felt himself blush – 'I need to stop doing that.'

"Hey, Tino…" he heart Matthias begin, before trailing off. "I'm sorry I was such a douche, okay? I didn't mean it. But… I'm not very good with people, you see, and I have a really good reason for why I did it. I mean, I can't tell you the reason, but I did!"

There was a moment where he pulled a face that was obviously meant to look cute and nonthreatening, but only succeeded to make him look about six years old.

Tino blinked, and burst out laughing. Wait, what? No. No, that was not the reaction he was meant to have. He was meant to apologise back for freaking out, or even just accept the apology and more on. Not sit there and giggle to himself!

From the looks the two Scandinavian men were shooting him, they pretty much thought that he had gone insane.

Matthias frowned. "Okay, I don't get it. What's up with him?"

Irunya shook her head, muttering in her strongly accented voice, "I do not know. He does this sometimes. It's very odd, but it's Tino."

The Dane gave her a weird look, but he didn't get another response. She shrugged in confusion. The rest of the group, however, just smiled to themselves.

"Something funny, Tino?" Toris asked with a smile, taking a sip from the cup in front of him.

The Finn shook his head, covering his face in his hands, but leaving a gap for one of his eyes.

"Maybe you should tell us; you know, so we can all know what's so funny?"

Again he shook his head.

There was a groan from Matthias, who jabbed the Finn in the arm. "Come on, dude! I want to know what you're thinking!"

Eduard caught on next, and smirked a little. Still, it was just too like him to get straight to the point. "You don't even know, do you?"

Repeating the same action, even if it was only three times, felt frustrating.

There was the shuffling of a chair, as a pair of arms wrapped around his waste. Tino didn't have to look behind him to know who it was, as Eduard chuckled in his ear.

"Sometimes I wonder whether you always need some persuasion."

There was a pause, where Tino moved his hands down, and glanced at his best friend. What was he on about?

Then he felt it. The fingers on his sides and the jolt of realisation that.

"St- sto- op!" he shrieked with laughter. Tino twitched and twisted himself as he tried to move away from the attack, but… "E- Ed- EDUARD!"

"Will you tell us?" the Estonian asked, laughing towards the end as well.

Tino nodded, squirming even more as his friend moved back, the idea of an imminent attack making him jumpy.

"I- it's just," he began, sounding a little wobbly. Then he coughed, and continued. "You looked so sorry and so pa- pathetic," he shot Matthias an apologetic look, "it was just one of those things that were adorable and hilarious at the same time. Like a kid being caught stealing… I don't know, liquorice or something."

Eduard spluttered slightly. "Liquorice? Really, Tino?"

"I believe the term is 'caught with their hand in the cookie jar'," Toris laughed, as Irunya gave him an odd look, which he was quick to wave off.

Tino pouted. "What? Liquorice is much better than cookies."

"Yes, well, most things are better than your cookies."

The Finn turned his head to glare at Eduard, who just smirked even more.

"There's nothing wrong with my cooking, Eduard," he said quickly, only to receive a wink. Tino stuck out his tongue.

"Now, children, if we can all just behave, that would be wonderful," Toris said quickly, using that condescending tone he only ever reserved for moments where he felt completely comfortable – something that made the Finn feel a little smug, because the normally stressed character had once again managed to calm himself down without copious amounts of medication.

Not that he would say well done, or anything, because that would be more than a little embarrassing.

Of course, exactly when he opened his mouth to make some weird retort, his phone buzzed.

Jumping and scrambling a little as he tried to remember where he'd put it (it had been far too early to create a functioning memory at the time) Tino finally located it in the back pocket of his jeans, which was weird, because he had always promised himself not to put it there.

He didn't check the caller ID before answering.

"Tino, I know this is short notice, but I need you at the stadium now."

The Finn blinked, before speaking in quick, happy Finnish. "Why, good morning, Sir! I trust you're alright today?"

His boss grumbled on the other end of the phone. "I will be when you get here. Aanaliisa has called in sick."

"Aana is sick? Is she alright?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure she's fine, but that means we have to deal with this event and we have no one to cover for it!"

"O- oh! Of course! I take you need me now?"

"Thank you. It's for the tennis, but I believe Miss Nieminen would like to get some practicing done before her match and have plenty of time to warm up, but for that we need someone who can-"

"Alright, Sir! I'll only be a little while. Tell Miss Nieminen that I will be with her soon."

"Thank you, Tino. I owe you one."

"The arena?" he asked quickly, trying to remember what matches the Finnish team were playing today.

"Yes, of course. Thank you."

He felt nothing when the line promptly fell dead, as he slipped the phone back in his pocket and shifted around to face Eduard.

"I have to go and help. One of the others is sick, apparently."

"Hangover, I'll bet," Eduard replied, though Tino ignored it.

Smiling, he headed to the door with a wave. The others said a quick bye as he turned around, the whole of the group knowing the importance that they did as they were told. He did not, however, expect someone to grab his arm.

Spinning to face the tall Swedish man was more than a little disorientating.

"Y'u com'ng t'night?"

Tino blinked. "Erm… where?"

"Back h're. T'night," he repeated, and the Finn bit his lip. Why was this man making him nervous? But at the same time fine? This made no sense.

"Oh, yeah! I think I'm meeting Ed here after we're both finished work and- and I better be going," he said quickly, as the other man's features clouded over angrily. "Because I am going to miss something and oh dear, I better rush. Bye Berwald! Bye guys!"

There was a clang behind him as the door pulled shut. Tino breathed a sigh of relief.

At least he knew whether the Swede would be there tonight.

Min kære / skat – my dear / dear

"Stop using Norse mythology as an insult" – Denmark/Matthias has just described (vaguely) the Norse idea of Hel, which is (surprisingly) the equivalent of Hell. Instead of it being burning and hot, it was cold and wet. I have no idea if there were dragons (I don't even know where the idea came from) but it seemed a Denmarkish thing to say…

Jeg beklager – I'm sorry.

Jeg elsker dig – I love you (Denmark is trying to get out of being told off – he's a little bit childish in my headcanon, in more things than just hyperactivity).

Aanaliisa – yeah, basically a case of insert a random Finnish name here. This was the first one that popped out. She's neither important, nor necessary, but there you do.

Anu Nieminen – a Finnish badminton player. She played a match on the first day of the Olympics (if the website isn't messing up again).

And now I apologise for the lateness, but school is catching up to me, and the holidays lead to even less time to write, unusually. Also, writers block, but I should be fine. However, I am going to spend this weekend dotting between different fandoms other than this one, to refresh my brain a bit, so if anyone wants to leave a prompt or something? It's the least I can do for you reading.

Hopefully this semi-rushed chapter will make do for a while.

Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews, by the way! They were lovely to read~