After the event at the roof, Mathias, Berwald and Mathilda got escorted away from the place by a police officer. She told them there was nothing to be afraid of and tried to do everything such a case needed before they got to the police station. Mathias wasn't crying anymore then, he was staring blankly out into nowhere. It creped his sister out, but she couldn't tell him not to. She was still traumatized by what she had seen, her brother down on the knees, cut and mistreated, gaging on someone's… she turned away, looking out of the window in the police officers office.

She could only imagine how Mathias or Berwald had it. The only thing she could do now was to give her brother sympathetic looks to inform that she was there for him. But Mathias didn't say anything; he just kept staring at nothing.

Her red dress had some darker, rusty red stains on it. Too bad it wasn't ketchup like it normally was when she had red stains on her dresses.

Berwald who had several times tried to adjust his glasses, tried to do it again, but failed. They were broken he guessed. He couldn't do much else than that when Mathias wouldn't let him do anything else but to talk.

Before Mathias had collapsed in tears, he had tried to push Berwald away, but as soon as the tears came he gave up. Now that he wasn't crying anymore, he would try to push anyone who touched him away again.

A killingly long time passed before any grownup entered the door to the police officer. When a grown up did enter, it was first Mathias's and Mathilda's parents.

Mathilda was the first of them to stand up; she hugged her mom while their father stood in the doorway with a shocked expression. Later when their mother turned to Mathias, everything went slower. She looked at her son for a while, feeling like killing whatever beast that had done this to her son. She tried to hug him, to comfort him. But Mathias leant away from her or flinched or said nothing.

"Honey, we need to get that suit fixed don't you think?" She said, trying to cheer him up. Berwald watched the mother try to comfort her son, watched Mathilda hug her dad. He waited for his own parents, what would they do?

He thought about it while feeling like he could have done so much more to stop Henrikk from doing it.

As time went the amount of people in the office got reduced to only Mathias, his mom, Berwald and his mom that had arrived shortly after Mathias's dad and Mathilda left. Berwald's dad was working late. Their moms sadly greeted each other. They knew all the details about the case…or, almost.

A new female police officer entered, explained what they would do and why. She would ask some questions and both boys would be free to answer.

She sat down behind her desk with a pen and paper ready.

"Can one of you two boys tell me precisely what happened tonight?"

Berwald looked to Mathias, but the Dane didn't respond. He looked at the police officer, furrowing his eyebrows without knowing it.

"We were at the roof-"

"Why" the police lady interrupted.

"To get some air" Berwald informed, already feeling angry. The lady wrote it down, before gesturing to him to continue.

"we talked, and suddenly we heard someone cough" He looked at Mathias and opened his mouth to say Henrikk was the one who did it, but Mathias suddenly moved his hand and gently held onto the end of his suit jacket, stopping him.

"They were masked" Mathias stuttered, saying his first words in a long time.

"We couldn't see who it was" he lied.

Berwald looked at him shocked. Why would he say that? They knew who it had been!

"Height, possible age?" The lady officer asked, looking down at the paper she wrote on. Berwald gapped. He was surprised she hadn't noticed the lie, shocked even.

"N- Not much older" he himself tried. If Mathias lied, he had his reasons, but he sure as hell was going to ask why when he could.

"Two of them were around 1, 75 meters tall, one was shorter, and two others were around 1, 80 meters" Berwald continued. He crossed his legs, feeling Mathias's grip on his jacket tighten a bit

"Do you feel like you got sexually harassed, Mathias?" she didn't look up, simply kept writing on the paper.

"y- Yes" He inhaled deeply and looked down, away from his mother's sad eyes.

"Did you feel threatened?"

"Yes of course!" He said sharply, looking at her, feeling a sort of anger build up together with utter shame. His mother laid a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it away.

The questioning went on like that, consisting of Mathias trying to keep himself from crying and Berwald telling the truth whenever he could. Their mother's only listened, what else could they do?

When the questioning was done, the teens went to their separate cars with their parent. Berwald said a sympathetic "good bye". Mathias only gave him a hum and waved his hand without looking at him. It was a movement that could have been easily missed, but Berwald took it nicely, as Mathias easily could have ignored his "good bye" and simply walked away without responding at all.

During the days that came, Mathias isolated himself quite a lot from the others. No one was allowed into his room, and he would ignore the messages that popped up on his computer screen when he saw them. He barely ate, slept or spoke, and when he did speak, it was sad and barely hearable.

He didn't show up on school that Monday, unlike Berwald.

The Swede got glared at during classes, and he had to try to contain himself from slitting Henrikk's throat with a pencil or a pair of scissors. He had never felt so angry before, never. Why Mathias decided to lie about who did it was a mystery to him. But he knew perfectly well what Henrikk had done. It was a dishonor to Mathias and the world itself that Henrikk was allowed to walk freely, that he wasn't rotting in jail by now.

Henrikk for once didn't seem so cocky anymore when Berwald glared at him. No, he silently kept to his gang. Berwald let it pass for a while, but on the Friday, one week after the fight, he couldn't hold it in anymore when he heard Henrikk brag about what he had done, so care free.

He smashed the black haired teen to the wall so hard it knocked the breath out of him and punched him so hard he blacked out immediately. Henrikk's gang members didn't dare walk close to him, no, they fled. No teacher saw what he did, but that was okay, no teacher had seen what Henrikk had done either.

That day he walked straight up to Mathias's house after school. He needed to see him, needed to talk to him. Mathias's dad opened the door. He only looked at Berwald and after a few seconds he let him in. he told him Mathias was up in is room and told him "good luck"

He knocked on the door, but the only response he got was a weak hum. He opened it, taking it as an allowance for him to go in.

"How is it going?" he asked as he took in the sight of his room for the first time. The room was dark, as an effect of that he had pulled the curtains together.

"Fine" Mathias murmured. He had buried himself under a red duvet so Berwald couldn't see him.

Berwald moved closer and after a while he sat down at the end of his bed. He told about how his week had been, how Henrikk had bragged only once and how he himself had punched the guy unconscious as a result of it. Mathias actually breathed a laugh at the last thing.

After a while the Swede asked why he had lied, why he didn't tell the officer that Henrikk and his gang was the ones to blame. Mathias didn't answer until a long time had gone, but when he did, it was simple.

"I didn't want more drama. I didn't want the case to get out to the news so other people would get to know. I didn't want my parents to know what's been happening at school" he said, still hiding under the duvet.

Berwald tried to make him come out of the duvet, but the Dane refused. A longer time went, and it was around after an hour had gone that Mathias's mom came to check on them; she was greeted with the sight of her son' friend caressing his back, doing nothing more than to sit there in silence accompanying him. She smiled as she told him that Mathias hadn't dressed yet. It seemed like she had startled him a bit, but he smiled when he saw her. She commanded Mathias to dress himself and then walked away.

Berwald waited in the short hallway upstairs as the Dane got dressed. He thought for a minute before entering again, this time about something else.

"I don't judge you, if you wonder" He told the Dane as he sat down next to him on the bed again. This time he could see Mathias's face and eyes. He looked confused first, but then his eyes widen slightly. His mouth twitched slightly and a smile formed. It was a shy smile, but it was a smile.

They talked some more; about things that weren't important, about things that were important, and about things that didn't matter. It felt good for Mathias to be able to talk about things that didn't remind him of the event and he began to open up more and more during the day, that was till Berwald's phone started ringing.

It was his mum and dad and they were worried sick; it wasn't like Berwald to not go home right after school. If he didn't, he would always send a message. They told him dinner was ready, but he explained where he was and that was all they needed to let him stay a bit longer. He would simply just have to put it in the microwave when he got home. He checked his watch, noting the time 16:47.

When Berwald checked his watch the next time, it was 18:32.

"Will you meet me at the bus stop next Monday?" He asked, ready to go home, standing in front of the front door.

Mathias looked down, not sure.

"Maybe" he muttered.

"Please?" it wasn't like him to plead, but he had to, he wanted to see the Dane back again, happy and livid like he had been just one week ago. Isolation would just make things worse.

Mathias dwelled on it, not sure what he should say. He was scared, but that pleading look Berwald had in his eyes-

"Okay" he breathed.

"Promise?"

"Promise" Mathias smiled, but it quickly faded.

Mathias parents were watching and listening from the kitchen without the two teens knowing and hugged each other. Their son was finally going back to school.

The next Monday, rumors had spread like wild fire during dry season. Mathias was back at school. His classmates were curious, was it true? Were the things Henrikk had told them pure facts and not lies? It would explain why the blond had been gone for so long, but how could anyone do something like that for real?

The Dane held himself close to the Swede as they roamed the hallways; always close enough to grab hold of his sleeve or hand if he got scared. He felt pathetic doing so, but he couldn't help it either. The closer they got to the classroom the first period was supposed to be, he felt his own nervousness get stronger. Someone was behind that door to the classroom, and he knew perfectly well who.

"It is true" "omg what?" "No way" People whispered as he walked into the classroom. Berwald walked in front of him and he held a firm yet gentle grip around the Dane's wrist so he wouldn't run away as he suspected.

The Dane had assumed that laughing and pointing or howling would come next, but it didn't. After the whispering stopped, not a word was said.

Henrikk wasn't there yet, much to Mathias's relief. But something strange was going on. His classmates just looked at him sympathetically now, like he was a shot puppy in need for rescue or help. It wasn't anywhere close to what he had expected it would be like.

When Henrikk and his gang entered, something even more unexpected happened. People booed at him and his gang. Mathias looked at with big eyes from behind Berwald's back. The smiling Henrikk looked at them in confusion before his smile actually faded. He had bragged all week, gotten good response and people had even laughed when he had told what he had done to Mathias. But now that people knew it was actually true, they weren't laughing anymore.

Henrikk got mad when he saw Berwald and Mathias standing there innocently like they hadn't done anything. They had made the whole class turn on him for God's sake! He boiled with rage and strode over, but even a Henrikk in rage wasn't enough to defeat a defensive Berwald. The black haired teen fell to the floor like a dead fly at the direct fist-to-face punch and stayed there. The class cheered while Henrikk's gang got him back up on his feet's again. None of them dared go against Berwald though, seeing as the most dangerous and scary aura was surrounding the Swede. Like a pack of wolf's run away from fire, the "gang" fled to the other side of the classroom.

Weeks went, but that was the last encounter Berwald and Mathias had with Henrikk and the gang for a long time. There were still improvements to be made, but Berwald did not depart from Mathias's side.

It took a month before the Dane dared walk more than one meter away from his friend or even speak loudly; two months before he dared walk to places alone. Three months before he didn't flinch whenever someone moved too sudden in his presence or got scared by loud noises or scary looking people, and four months went before he was as close to the Mathias he used to be as he could get.

During the four months, he and Berwald got closer and closer. They visited each other almost every day, just to play videogames or even bake because Mathias was rather skilled at that, even if he didn't want to be. Sometimes Mathilda joined and the three of them would make brownies and watch a movie of the funny sort. Those with violence were still a bit too hard for Mathias to handle.

Some days it would be just him and Berwald again, and they would listen to music without doing anything, something the Swede appreciated once in a while.

Henrikk didn't bother them anymore and his gang had somewhat left him. He was all alone, kept to himself and glared at Mathias whenever he passed. He really hated him now, more than he used to. He had taken away his popularity, his gang, his awesomeness. He had embarrassed him in front of

them all, and that wasn't acceptable. He needed to do something and planned his master plan in the shadows of the school.

As the fifth month closed in on its end, the only thing Berwald and Mathias needed to worry about was the big class trip. Summer was close; the temperatures were high so of course they didn't worry too much. Instead of planning, they went out to play football in a less serious way and went to the cinema.

The night before the big day Berwald stayed at Mathias's place. He had brought his bags there and helped Mathias pack his. Mathias noticed the way the sun reflected in Berwald's eyes, how his glasses slid down a bit when he bent over to put the nicely folded clothes down in the bag. It was cute and Mathias took out things the Swede had put down in the bag several times just because he wanted to see the Swede adjust his glasses again.

They both talked like crazy before getting sleepy. They shared the same bed, but it was normal to do so in Mathias's family. Friends slept in the same bed even if they wanted to or not.

It felt weird to Mathias anyway, because he hadn't really had any friends over since it was innocent to share the same bed. The two of them had shared it several times and he tried not to think too much about it, but the thought of falling asleep in Berwald's arms were always so tempting. He had gotten so close to the Swede, closer than he could ever imagine and now he wanted to get even closer. It was a curse he thought, because he knew Berwald accepted him the way he was, but Berwald wasn't gay nor in love with him as he was with him.

He hadn't told him yet, but it had to be that way, didn't it?

He heard Berwald's breathing get lighter and turned to face him, finding him to be fast asleep. The moon light from outside shone down on him, making it possible for Mathias to see him clearly. He moved closer, feeling the Swede's body temperature. He studied the man's features as he always did: the slightly furrowed eyebrows, the soft looking lips, that cute nose… He felt Berwald move closer too and felt the Swede move his arms to hold around him; he smiled faintly. It felt cozy and he felt the nearly always present nervousness leave. It was weird that, but it always left when Berwald touched him or was close. Only Berwald could do that; make him feel safe without doing more than touching his shoulder or just being there. It was too much. How could he possibly try to not love him?

It was so bittersweet, he thought. He still felt damaged and pathetic when Berwald wasn't there, but not as much as he would have if Berwald hadn't been there at all, though, he wanted Berwald to always be there. He didn't want him to leave.

He pressed closer to the Swede and heard a slight murmur, probably sleep talking, but he didn't manage to understand the words.

He murmured "natta søde" and shortly after fell asleep.


As you guys probably noticed, I have been quite busy lately, due to my Finals of course. Anyway- as you also can see, this chapter stretches over a long time period- something that will make the characters seem a bit changed in later chapters.

I do hope you as a reader enjoy reading this story, so please be kind and review and tell me what you think of it.

Btw- "natta søde" is Danish and means "good night sugar/cutie"