"So what if it's been less than a month! My little Icey-wicey, all grown up and going to college!" Mathias grasped my cheek with his gloved hand.

"I'm not your little anything." My protest fell on deaf ears as he continued to coddle me like a child. As I tried to protest, a hand snaked up his shirt, grasping his red tie and giving it a firm pull. Mathias immediately released me at that point, his hands moving to his neck as his face turned red.

"You need to learn something about personal space…idiot." Lukas addressed Mathias, roughly releasing his tie and causing him to stumble back a step. The other's only response was a weak cough. "And you, lillebror…-" Lukas began, stopping however when he saw Leon standing next to me with a befuddled expression. "Ah…how inconsiderate, scolding you in front of your….?" the end of his sentiment trailed off curiously.

"This is my…friend Leon." I blushed furiously. "And Leon, this is my….my brother Lukas, and his kaerasti Mathias." I smirked slightly to myself at Lukas' faint blush.

"It's nice to meet you." Leon quickly held his hand out to Lukas, who shook it in return despite his embarrassment. "Emil hasn't told me much of you, but you seem like a fair enough person, having put up with him for so long." My brother's small smile came at my expense, Leon would be repaying me in full later for it..
"He is quite the handful…" He muttered thoughtfully, glancing at Leon with a smirk. This was the most expressive I'd seen him in a long time. Leon blushed slightly, apparently catching a meaning I wasn't.

"Okay, awkward introductions aside; Leon, we should probably get going or we'll miss the…thing, y'know?" I started to pull him away. "What thing? Is there a drinking contest? Were you guys planning to get hammered without me?!" Mathias laughed, slinging one arm over each of our shoulders.

"No, we were like, going to go to Alfred's party tonight so we've got to be able to leave a bit sooner." I sighed in relief as Leon covered for me, shooting him a quick half-smile.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to miss out on any of the booths before then.." I started to walk out of the tent as Mathias released us. There was a moment of silence before he replied.

"Oh, I get it! You guys are totally gonna-" He would have continued his phrase if not for Lukas' hand clapping over his mouth, sufficiently cutting his phrase in half.

"I'll catch you later Emil." Lukas waved with his other hand as we rushed off towards the musical booths. Once we were out of earshot, I let out a sigh of relief, slapping my hand against my face.

"Your brother and his friend are pretty interesting.." Leon commented, leading me towards the stage set up in the street.

"More like pretty strange…" I muttered in response, ruffling my hair slightly. Upon the stage was a single male sitting at a piano, from which a melodic string of notes knitted its way through the air towards us. I found myself subconsciously leaning towards the stage, his song drawing a crowd towards him.

"That's Roderich, from Austria. He's like, a musical prodigy." Leon's head hovered over my shoulder as he spoke, his breath tickling my cheek. As we continued to listen, he didn't move away, more for the sake of being able to hear me if I spoke.

Once the song came to an end, Roderich modestly took a bow and exited, some members of the stage crew pushing the piano behind a curtain while the next act prepared to go on. The crowd split like the sea as soon as he departed, his musical spell now dropped. As everyone filed away, a familiar feeling rose in the pit of my stomach.

"Why do I keep skipping breakfast?" I thought to myself, pursing my lips in irritation at my own forgetfulness.

"Hey do you want to like, get some food?" Leon read my mind, pointing with his thumb to a semicircle of booths, each with a different flag pinned above it. Each held foods from each country, a tantalizing scene for the growing pit in my stomach indeed.

"Sure." I remained casual, glancing around at the different foods. "I was kind of interested in trying some of your country's food actually.."

"Alright." He perked up a bit. "I'll get lunch, but you have to get dessert." A small smile made its' way onto his face as he indicated to a small clutch of trees a bit away from the booths. "Meet you over there." I hadn't a moment to respond before he walked off.

As I drew closer to the trees, I could see they were cherry blossoms, their pink petals coating the surrounding grass, low-lying branches providing a curtain of privacy from the rest of the festivities. I walked a bit further forward, reaching the other side of the trees. At the other side was a small lake with a bridge stretching over its' surface. Not a soul could be seen around the water's edge, apparently this area was quite a secret.

"This would be a great place for a romantic picn- wait what am I saying?!" I cut my thought short, shaking my head slightly. "Where the heck did that idea come from?"

Scanning the area, I spotted a bench wrapping around one of the larger trees, quickly making my way over to it. There was a perfect amount of shade over the wooden surface, keeping it an excellent cool temperature. Sitting down, I leaned against the trunk of the tree and closed my eyes as a gentle breeze blew from the lake, carrying the scent of the water towards me.

"Honestly though…thinking like that. He only considers me a friend.." I muttered to myself, sighing.

"Who only considers you a friend?!" A sudden voice next to me caused me to jump up in fear, flopping onto the ground.

"Hvað í fjandanum!?" I quickly stood up, seeing a tall blonde male dressed in a cowboy outfit standing next to the spot I'd been sitting.

"Woah dude I don't speak french." He laughed, adjusting his stetson.

"Neither do I, it's Icelandic." I grumbled, taking a seat on the bench as I tried to suppress my wheezing. "Do you like sneaking up on random people like that or are you just an idiot?" My tone was probably a little cold, but he didn't have to sneak up on me like that.

"No man, I just saw you all alone and thought I'd say hi! I didn't think you'd get all freaked out like that….I'm Alfred, homeland of the 'ol USA by the way! What's your name?" He crossed one hand over his chest, holding the other out towards me.
"I'm Emil..I moved here from Norway a week ago, but I'm originally from Iceland. I wasn't scared by the way, you just caught me off guard." I begrudgingly shook his hand. Just then, a bit of movement in the trees caught my eye. Turning, I saw Leon walking towards us, two white boxes in one hand. He had a bit of an angry expression on his face, but he wasn't looking at me. Instead his gaze was fixed on Alfred. As he approached us, Alfred smiled a bit at him, apparently not noticing his glare.

"Hey Leon! Wazzup? I'm just hangin' out with Emil here. Seems like a pretty cool guy." He swung an arm over my shoulder, squeezing me awkwardly. Leon deadpanned.

"Yes well, if you don't mind partner Emil and I were like, kind of in the middle of having lunch." Leon shook the boxes lightly. "So, if you would, stop giving him a freaking panic attack that would be nice." I could almost feel the waves of irritation coming off of Leon.

"What do you mean giving him a panic attack? Everyone loves hanging out with me! That's why you're both coming to my party tonight, right? Eight o'clock! Be there or be square!" He walked off then, the stirrups on his boots clinking as he went. Once he was out of earshot, Leon visibly relaxed.

"I do not like him…but he throws such awesome parties…Are you alright?" He grunted, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm fine..he just startled me." I sighed, leaning against the tree and closing one eye. "So what's in the boxes?" I hoped my blush wasn't as prominent as it felt.

Leon set one box in front of me, placing a set of chopsticks on top of it.

"It's Bento, I figured since you haven't like, tried anything before, you should try a variety." He set the other box in his lap, pulling his chopsticks apart with a snap.

"Alright." I mimicked his actions and picked up the chopsticks, pulling them apart and cradling them awkwardly in one hand. Holding them up in front of my face, I attempted to manipulate my fingers around the foreign objects. After a minute or so, Leon seemed to understand I was having trouble, reaching over and smacking my hand lightly.

"Here, like.." He set his box on the bench, moving to sit behind me, repositioning my fingers with his own. "Just move this finger, not the other ones." I was rather flustered by his proximity, though he didn't seem to notice.

A few failed attempts and hand-slaps later, I was finally able to control them. The next step was using them to pick up food..

"I thought the Chinese invented forks, why the hell would they make something this complex?" I muttered, my hand wobbly as I picked up a clump of rice.

"I don't know, chopsticks were small and easy to carry around, besides girls look fabulous with them in their hair." He held his chopsticks behind his head in an 'X' shape, causing me to chuckle.

"I guess you're right..still who thought eating with sticks was a good idea?"

As I finished the last of my bento, I'd come to the conclusion that I liked Chinese food.. Except for pickled vegetables, the likes of which I wasn't fond of.

"So, do you want to like..get dessert then go back to the dorms to get ready for the party? We can check out the rest of the festival tomorrow." He muttered, his head propped up on his arms.

"Sure, I guess." I gathered up the boxes, standing and stretching before returning to the throngs of people enjoying the festival. As I continued in search of the place I was looking for, I felt a slight tug on my clothes. Leon had hooked his thumb in one of my belt loops, and was holding tightly, as if I'd leave him behind. This caused me to blush profusely, but I didn't say anything.

Finally, I spotted a booth selling sweets, quickly walking up to it and searching for the item of my desires. Keeping my selection hidden from Leon, I grabbed several different bags and quickly bought them, all the while making sure he wasn't paying attention. Luckily, he was captivated by his phone screen at the moment, blushing slightly and his mouth hanging open a tiny bit.

"Odd." I thought to myself, turning to face him. "You alright Leon?" He quickly locked his phone, shoving it into his pocket as he avoided my gaze.

"Y-yeah I'm fine Kiku was just reminding me that we shouldn't wear our traditional stuff to the party…Alfred's well know for getting a little out of hand with his celebrations." He scratched the back of his head. "So, what'd you get?" I could clearly tell he was trying to redirect the conversation, I let it slide, a sudden idea popping up in my head.

"I got a few different things.." I reached into the bag. "But I want you to guess what they are." A small smile curled onto my lips.

"Alright well…let's go back to the dorms then. If I have to guess that means I can't see…and I don't like standing around with my eyes closed like some kind of idiot; at least not in public."

Transulations-

Lillebror- Little brother, Norwegian

kaerasti- Boyfriend (Not allowed to have non-English characters in this apparently..? So it's misspelled)

hvað í fjandanum- What the hell (common phrase with him, yah' see?)