Berwald was in a daze as he stood up from the paint-splattered wood floor. Unless his eyes deceived him, he'd just witnessed adorable little Tino ambush his captors with a paintball sniper rifle.

Tino is...

...kind of dangerous, actually.

"Berwald!" Tino appeared in the doorway, set the gun down and then came running at him with open arms and a huge smile. "I got my husband back! I got ya back! I GOT YA!"

Tino laughed as he threw his arms around Berwald and gave him the tightest hug that he could. "I'm so happy I got ya back. It sucked when they took ya, I didn't have any fun at all! Not even a little! Well, okay, shooting Mathias was kind of fun, but not as fun as being with you of course!"

Dangerous...but also cute.

"Yer the best," Berwald noted "Ya just are."

"Ya think so?" Tino grinned as he let go "Did ya see how I shot them all and then when Mathias wouldn't surrender I shot him a bunch more times?"

"Yah, that was good. Thank ya for that, by the way."

"No problem! I always kind of wanted to do that. Shoot Mathias, I mean."

Berwald nodded "M' too. That guy is crazy."

"I know! He's crazy all the time. He's mean too."

"Yah," Berwald put a hand to the side of his face, shuddering as he remembered Mathias's threat to rip the bandages off. " 'll say…"

I hope Tino never wants to know what m' face looks like without bandages on…Please please please let him never find out until it gets better. Please! Berwald silently pled with forces unseen.

"Hey, Berwald?" Tino had a very thoughtful expression on his face all of a sudden. "Can I ask ya something? I-I really wanna ask it…"

Uh oh…Berwald swallowed down nervousness. Please please please let it not be about m' face…

"Yah, I guess ya can ask it…" Berwald reluctantly responded.

"Okay, well… It's kind of weird but…do ya..." Tino looked down at the paint-splattered floor "...like flowers?"

Whew! Better question! Berwald liked that question approximately a bazillion plus 4 times better than the one he'd been expecting.

"Hmm..." Berwald thought about it "I...do n't like flowers."

"Oh..." Tino sighed with disappointment.

"I love flowers."

Tino's head shot up. "Really?"

"Yah. Who doesn't? Flowers are great. Did ya know that some can ev'n kill people?"

Tino gasped before beaming and wrapping his arms around Berwald again. "I knew it! I knew it was ya!" He clutched the back of the Berwald's shirt with his tiny hands and pulled his friend as close to him as he possibly could "I'm so glad. This is the greatest!"

Berwald was all kinds of confused as he hugged Tino back. "What's th' greatest?"

"You are!"

"M'?"

"Yep!"

"...because I love flowers?"

"Because of a bazillion reasons."

" 'm confused…"

"That's okay," Tino replied as he pulled his arms back and took Berwald by the hand. "Here, let me take this back before Mom sees that it's gone. Then we can play some more, yah?"

"Sounds good," Berwald replied, face turning flamingo pink as their fingers intertwined.

"By the way," Tino noted as he picked the paintball gun up with his free hand "Your face-"

Oh no. No Tino, please don't ask-

"-turns red and pink a lot. Is that because you're blushing?"

-oh…

Berwald replied with nothing but redder cheeks.

"Are ya? Wow, you're even more red now. Ya kind of remind me of a shiny red Christmas ornament-no don't look away! I love shiny red ornaments! Ber-wald! Look at me, please? Aww…you're ADORABLE!"

So glad Mathias is gone…