Tutor

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 8


The moon shined through the corridors of the hospital, illuminated the dark hallways. The few hospital staff that were walking around suddenly collapsed onto the floor, soundly asleep. A figure seemingly skated along the floors, floating elegantly and rushing towards a certain room.

Denmark looked up from his bed and stared at the doorway. Someone stood there, holding a bag.

"Took you long enough, Nor."

"Shut up, you idiotic Dane," Norway said, dropping his bag of ingredients on Denmark's bedside table. "Be glad I even came. I had to knock out all of the hospital staff."

Denmark grinned. "Did I say I wasn't glad?"

"Tch. Say one more thing and I'm leaving. And you do not want to be left in the middle of a spell," threatened Norway, tracing a circle on Denmark's stomach (over the numerous layers of bandages) and adding arcane symbols to the center. "Trust me."

Immediately shutting his mouth, Denmark watched silently as Norway added items to the circle, placing them in different sectors and orientating them in certain directions. As Norway began to mutter quietly, a soft stream of words flowing from his mouth, Denmark slowly let his eyes close; before he knew it, he was asleep.


"Denmark's out of the hospital," declared Eduard in a three-way conversation with Elizabeta and Tino. "I saw Norway go do some creepy stuff."

They were in yet another abandoned classroom. Their war plans were progressing slowly, but they were detailing out an effective solution. At least, that's what they thought.

"No problem," said Elizabeta, grinning viciously and cracking her knuckles. "I can put him right back."

"Go knock out Norway while your at it," said Tino. "Anyways, thanks for the info, Eduard. I have to go to class now, so I'll see you all later."

The other two chimed out good-byes as Tino left their conversation; turning back to each other, Eduard and Elizabeta continued to discuss matters of importance, such as the newest ice cream flavor on campus.

...

Maybe this was why their plans were going so slowly.


Tino froze.

So did Denmark and Norway.

Tino had just left his morning classes and was planning on going to lunch when he ran across —

"THE ENEMY!" screamed the Finn, pointing at them hysterically with his left hand and pulling out his phone to call Eduard and Elizabeta with his right hand. "IT'S THE ENEMY!"

"Uh..." said Denmark. Norway slapped him harshly across the forehead and pointed at the fleeing Finn.

"Come on!" hissed Norway, yanking Denmark along with him as they ran.

Tino shoved his phone away, running as fast as he could to central campus circle where he had told Elizabeta and Eduard to meet him.

Denmark and Norway were chasing him fiercely, but, suddenly, Berwald stepped in front of their path, blocking Denmark. Norway quickly let go of Denmark's hand and sped past the Swede, leaving Denmark to crash into him.

Berwald barely flinched, but Denmark fell backwards, hard. "My gosh, what do you want?" complained the Dane, rubbing his back and getting up. "Move it, I need to chase that stupid Finn!"

Something snapped in Berwald. His normally stoic expression turned fearsome as he loomed over Denmark. "Don't call Tino stupid," Berwald said, clearly threatening the Dane if he continued to do so. But suddenly, Berwald drew back, confused. "Aren't ya... with him?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" snorted Denmark. "He's my ultimate enemy in this war that he started. Why would I want to be on his side?"

Berwald eyed him suspiciously, but Denmark pushed the Swede aside. "Chat with you later, but I've got to teach that kid a lesson!"

And with that, Denmark sprinted away.

Berwald watched him go, registering the words that Denmark had said; his eyes widened.

Denmark was not going to even touch Tino as far as Berwald was concerned.

But all of them were already far out of sight; Berwald sighed and grimaced, with no choice but to hope that Tino could win against Denmark, whatever they were doing.

Even as he worried, a feeling of triumph entered his chest. Tino wasn't with the Dane! All of his suspicions had been false. The only thing that Tino and Denmark would ever be was mortal enemies.

Berwald allowed himself a small grin.


The famed circle of central campus was known as a battleground. Mini-wars, often started at the school, would usually be resolved here.

But this was not just some "mini-war." And there was no way that Tino would let their war just resolve here. This was just the first battle.

Eduard was waiting there, sitting on the concrete wall that was built around most of the circumference of the circle. The Estonian's glasses were flashing white as he typed speedily into his computer. "I've cleared away all the passerby."

"Great. How much time do we have?" wheezed Tino, coming to a halt next to Eduard, who was once again using the university's camera system.

"About two minutes for Norway. It looks like Denmark is a bit behind, so four minutes for him. You're lucky my dorm is so close, Tino," said Eduard, grinning. "This will be very fun. I had a feeling that we might use this circle one day, so I've been building stuff all around it for use in a battle."

"Really?" asked Tino, looking around warily. "Well, Eliza and I will do our best to protect you while you activate your weird tech stuff. I hope Eliza gets here soon..."

"Norway's here, Tino," said Eduard. Tino whipped around; the Norwegian had entered the circle, arms crossed.

"Well, well," he said, smirking slightly. "If it isn't the Estonian. And where is your Hungarian friend?"

Tino humphed and refused to look at him. Eduard shrugged.

A minute passed in silence.

"Hey, you guys, are you gonna do something or what?" screamed Denmark, leaping over the concrete wall and landing next to Norway in a crouch. He rose up, grinning. "Or were you all waiting for me —"

"YOU WISH, YOU DUMBASS!" shrieked Elizabeta, suddenly leaping out from a nearby building window, frying pan in hand. Her hair whipped around and her clothes floated elegantly as she plummeted ten floors. The green hat that was on her head was blasted off, hurtling backwards towards Tino and Eduard as she ferociously brought the frying pan down onto Denmark's head.

CLANG!

"OWWWW!" screamed Denmark; Elizabeta, who hadn't yet touched the ground, used the rebounding force from smashing Denmark's head to fly backwards, just in time for her hat to land perfectly on her head. She finally hit the ground, glaring at Denmark and Norway.

Norway blinked; even he hadn't expected an entry like that. Denmark was crying on the ground, cradling his head.

"Let's get this party started!" roared Elizabeta, punching the air enthusiastically. She jumped forward again, bringing her frying pan back, ready to smash Denmark into the ground. Yes, into the ground.

Norway stepped in front of his feeble ally and raised a hand; a magical wind streamed from behind him and blew Elizabeta backwards.

"Stop with your creepy magic already!" cried Elizabeta as she was pushed away.

"Why does everyone call it creepy?" asked Norway, somewhat defensively. "It's not like I'm haunting you or something."

"Whatever, it's still creepy!"

Norway rolled his eyes and blew softly at the trio; the soft breath suddenly became searing flames.

Eduard smashed a command into his laptop; jets of water squirted from hoses built into the concrete walls, dousing the flames. Norway tsked and conjured lightning at the water, evaporating it. Eduard grinned and started a program; the circle suddenly split in half, and Norway and Denmark's side suddenly rolled back towards them, a crumbly wave of stone and dirt. Norway raised his hands and conjured a shield, blocking the wave and pushing it back into place in the floor. Suddenly pipes behind the Norwegian opened up, releasing bursts of smoke that Norway had difficulty blowing away; unfortunately (for Denmark), he was unable to see Tino soundly beat up his Danish ally.

Norway tsked again and swept his arms in a wide circle; he vanished, as did a rather bruised Denmark.

"Woo hoo!" laughed Tino, getting up from the floor where he had been attacking Denmark. "We win!"

The trio regrouped and discussed the battle excitedly, but were suddenly flattened by a magical wind that smashed them all into the concrete wall. Norway smirked as he stepped out from behind a veil of invisibility, dragging Denmark along by his hair, and poked each of his opponents. They were all unconscious. Deciding that he should be merciful, he used his magic to send them all back to their respective rooms. Finally, he swept himself and Denmark back to the Dane's room.

Once they arrived, Norway set down Denmark on the sofa. Eyeing his numerous wounds, Norway sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Denmark was useless.


It was 10:00 p.m. when Berwald arrived back at Tino's room, which was quickly becoming their room. He heard a vague crying from inside; his eyes widened and he slammed the door open to see Tino crying into his knees on the bed.

Tino's head jerked up at the sound, and the Finn quickly tried to stifle his tears.

"H-Hi, Berwald," hiccuped Tino, lip quivering.

Berwald closed the door and stepped over uncertainly, not sure how to comfort Tino. He finally spoke. "What happened?"

Tino sniffed and shot an evil glare at nothing in particular. "Stupid Norway. Stupid magic. We thought we beat them, but then he popped out of nowhere and knocked us unconscious." He sniffled again and burst back into tears.

The Finn slid miserably off the bed and onto the floor, sitting cross-legged and leaning back against the bed. Berwald sat down on his right, awkwardly patting the Finn on the shoulder.

"S'okay..."

Tino smiled tiredly through watery eyes. "At least I can depend on you, Berwald... Oh... We still need to study."

"Not today," said Berwald, firmly squashing the idea (because he really didn't want to study). "Sleep."

Tino nodded drowsily and let his eyes flutter shut as he fell sideways into Berwald. The Swede gulped slightly at the contact as Tino nestled his head into Berwald's shoulder.

Deciding that it would be very ungracious to simply leave Tino at this moment, Berwald pulled the blanket down from the bed and draped it over both of them. Tino snuggled deeper into the warmth of the blanket and Berwald and was breathing lightly soon after.

Berwald looked down at the Finn and gave a ghost of a smile before letting his head lean against Tino's; the feeling of the Finn's soft hair against his cheek was, Berwald decided, quite nice.

And after a few, peaceful minutes, Berwald closed his eyes and drifted into sleep as well.