A/N: Sorry this chapter came so late. It's just with the whole July 4th weekend and all, everything was super crazy. But here it is!

Enjoy :3

Winter Snow

~(Emil's POV)~

"So you're telling me… that Lukas is actually your brother?" Alfred asked me, a look of both confusion and amazement spread across his face.

"Yes," I repeated for what felt like the millionth time. Alfred had probably asked me that same question thirty times now.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, standing up from his chair, "Artie, this is amazing! Lukas has a brother, and it is the prince he is pretending to be of all people!"

"Say it louder, why don't you?" Arthur replied, pushing him back into his chair.

Over the past few hours, I had gotten very acquainted with the two boys, learning that Arthur was a pirate and Alfred was just a prisoner he had once, but took a liking to. At first, they told me that they were just friends, but when I told them my story, they admitted that they were lovers.

Both of them were a little older than Lukas, and knew about him working for my dad to play the part of me. They did know why he was doing this, so I stayed silent about the real plan. Even at a young age, Lukas was super smart, and if he didn't tell them why he was here, then I wouldn't either.

"But does he really think he has no family?" I asked, already thinking of possible reasons of why Lukas could have forgotten everything.

Arthur thought for a moment. Then he nodded, saying, "He told us that all he had ever known was darkness. He saw daylight for the first time just a few days ago. By the look on his face, there is no way he was lying."

I nodded, taking all the information in. What did my dad do to him? "Ok… I want to see him as soon as possible though. I need to tell him everything, so thank you so much for your time," I said, starting to get out of my chair to leave.

I don't know how I was going to get to him, but I was going to have to find out quickly. I couldn't go by the name Lukas anymore, too. The King of Denmark would get suspicious, and eventually find us out.

"You are not going to go now, are you?" I was snapped out of my thoughts by Alfred asking me that question.

"What?" I asked him back, confused.

"Well," he replied, "You can't just march up to the castle and ask for Lukas or Emil or whatever. Seeing the two of you together, the Danish royals would see that you two look so much like the old Lukas and Emil that they would know something's up."

"You do have a point…" I admitted, sitting back down in my seat.

What was I going to do now?

"Lukas does visit us often though," Arthur added, "He asks us questions about stuff he doesn't get about the world. It is amazing how much he doesn't know. He should come here one of these days, and you can talk to him then."

"Ok… thank you. Do you two know of any places I can stay until then?" I asked them. I didn't have any money with me, but I knew pirates weren't just going to let me stay with them on their ship for a few days. Maybe they knew people in Denmark that wouldn't mind me staying at their home, or I could even catch up with the Vikings that got me here and stay with them.

I looked at Alfred and Arthur to see Alfred with a confused expression on his face while Arthur looked like he was thinking of places for me to stay.

"What do you mean? You can stay with us if you'd like!" Alfred exclaimed, smiling as he said it.

Arthur stopped thinking for a moment at this. He turned to Alfred and said, "No he can't."

"Why not?" Alfred whined.

"Because, if either of the Danish or Norwegian Kings find out that we are harboring an important piece of a master plan, then we are dead men, and I can't risk losing you. There is a family affair going on between these two kingdoms, and I don't want us to get caught in the middle of it."

Alfred thought about this for a moment. He then smiled a little, and replied, "Artie… I don't want to lose you either, but Emil doesn't want to lose Lukas too. And who says the Kings are going to find out? The good guys always win, and to me, we and Emil and Lukas are the good guys."

Arthur rolled his eyes, but couldn't help but laugh a little. He said to Alfred, "You've always been so much more confident than me…." He looked at me, then back at Alfred, thinking. It felt like forever before he finally said, "Alright, Emil can stay with us."

Alfred started to cheer as I smiled a little. I didn't want to come off as childish or something. I was way younger than them, and the last thing I wanted was for them to look down on me.

"But!" Arthur said, cutting the cheering Alfred off, "Emil, if anything goes wrong, Alfred is my first priority. This is more dangerous than you probably think, but I will help you get to Lukas up to a certain point in all of this, ok?"

"Yes, thank you," I replied, trying to contain my excitement. To be honest, just having help at all was more than enough. I can't believe this plan is actually going my way!

~(Lukas' POV and Time Skip)~

"I'm just saying, when I'm King, I'm getting a dog!" Matthias laughed as he laid back in his chair. I smiled as he kept on laughing, "Why don't you just get one now?" I asked.

"Because," he smiled, "My dad says that they shouldn't be trusted. Something about them soon evolving into something greater than humans. I really don't get him sometimes," he laughed a little.

I nodded and went back to eating my meal.

It was four in the afternoon, but we had gotten home late from ice fishing. It was a boring process to get the fish, but we talked about so many things in just four hours. After a while, we both started to get too cold, and decided to end our fishing adventure. We did end up catching two fish though! We each caught one fish, and that was what we were eating now.

Matthias prepared the fish for the both of us, and we were eating it in the kitchen while Berwald and Tino were out deciding a few more details for the wedding. Tino was really nervous while Berwald was calm like normal. It was funny how Tino kept going on and on about how the wedding was in just a week.

It had been three days since the kiss incident, and to be honest, it didn't really bother me anymore. I mean, it still bothered me, and if he ever kissed me again, I would get one of his long daggers and kill him myself, but it didn't bother me as much as when it happened.

I actually trusted Matthias again. I know it didn't take long for him to gain my trust back, but with him being his normal self, I could feel safe again.

"So," Matthias said, eating some of his fish, "Are you going to Berwald and Tino's wedding?"

I shrugged, "Over the past few days, I have gotten to know them well, but I was not invited. I can't just intrude on their wedding."

"What? Tino invited you when you first arrived! And if that doesn't count, I could ask for a plus one on my invite."

"You'd do that for me?" I questioned him.

He smiled, "Of course! You are my best friend. Why wouldn't I?"

I froze for a second. I was his best friend? I mean… he was my best friend too, but I never thought he would actually think I was good enough to be a best friend. I was always told that I had no expression, and people would hate me, but he didn't.

In fact, quite frequently he would tell me he loved me. Thinking about it, Arthur and Alfred are my friends too, and they don't hate me, I think. Tino and Berwald also don't hate me if they invited me to their wedding. Why would the King lie to me about this?

"Emil? Emil!" the words spoken by Matthias snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up at him, as he was staring worriedly at me.

"Are you ok?" he asked, "You kind of spaced out there for a moment."

I ate another bite of my fish, and said, "No, I'm fine. I just have never been anyone's best friend before."

"Oh…" he said, nodding as he looked at the table. He then smiled, and opened his mouth to say something, but something behind him made my heart stop.

"What is that?" I asked, horrified, as I looked out the window at this white stuff falling from the sky. What is going on? Was the sky falling?! I got up from my chair and walked over to the window. Matthias followed me with his eyes.

"What do you mean?" he asked before getting up. When he followed me, I heard him ask, "What's out there?"

I looked at him, surprised that he seriously wasn't noticing that pieces of the sky were falling or something. What was going on? Was this normal? "Do you really not notice the white stuff falling from the sky?"

He looked at me, a bit confused, then peered out the window, "You mean the snow?" he asked.

"The snow?" I repeated.

"Ya! Do you seriously not know what snow is?" he questioned, but not with his playful tone. I could hear his voice actually change to a more confused, serious, and almost suspicious sound. Snow was probably something that was very known, so I had to get myself out of this deep hole.

"I do, it just caught me by surprise," I quickly said. It was the only thing I could think of on the spot. How long was it going to keep falling from the sky? Were we going to be buried in it? What was it made of? With the snow, would I still be allowed to go outside?

Matthias looked at me for a second, face matching his previous tone. He probably didn't believe me, did he? I started to hesitate on whether or not I should say more, but then he smiled, shaking his head, "Winter is pretty early this year, isn't it?"

I nodded my head, silently praising the fact that he believed me. "Well do you want to go outside? I heard its good luck to walk in the first snow fall of the winter!" he exclaimed, already putting our food away. I guess I had no choice now, did I?

"I suppose we could…" I said, still keeping my eye on the 'snow' outside. "Great!" He exclaimed, turning around to face me, "Let's go!"

He then grabbed my hand, and started to run out of the kitchen, dragging me after him. Over the past few days, I had gotten used to him pulling me places and hugging me. I came to terms with the fact that that was just the way he was, and he wasn't going to hurt me like the King.

So, I followed him to the front entrance, leading to the outside. When we got to the door, he turned to me, still holding my hand, and said, "Are you ready?"

I nodded, a little scared of what this snow was like. Did it hurt if you touch it? I took a deep breath, preparing for whatever the outcome may be. If Matthias was bringing me into this though, I trusted that it was safe.

He smiled, and opened the door up quickly. The guards were standing out in the cold, and watched us as we walked out into the falling snow. Still jumpy about the snow, I ran to Matthias' side, and decided to watch and see what happened to him before I could feel completely safe.

He looked down at me, as I was embarrassingly clinging to him. He laughed, and held out his hand, letting the snow fall on it. I watch as the snow melted on his skin, and his expression didn't change to anything below his usual happy self.

I slowly started to let space come between us, as I watched more and more snow fall. I looked up at the sky, and felt the flakes of snow touch my cheeks. I smiled at the cold, yet warm, feeling that came about me when they fell all around me.

The snow falling down was such an amazing sight to see! As I looked at all the white around me, I started to feel myself smiling. The ground was already covered, so I was leaving foot prints in the snow as I walked around.

Matthias was right there next to me, too. He was smiling and still holding my hand. I could seriously stay like this forever. I felt his grip on my hand tighten a little so I turned to face him. He was smiling as usual, so I smiled back.

But something happened that confused me greatly. I was suddenly hit in the face with fluffy ball of snow. "What the-?" I said, looking up at him. He was laughing, as he said, "Snowball fight!"

He then let go of my hand, still laughing, and ran a few feet away. At first I was confused as to what was happening, but I pieced it together rather quickly. I guess people play games in the snow and 'snowball fight' is one of them. Probably the object of the game is to hit your friends with balls of snow.

I smirked at him, grabbing a handful of snow on the ground, and balled it up into what he called a snowball. I had never thrown anything before, so I prayed that luck was on my side for me to hit him with the snowball.

I threw the snowball towards him, not sure if my shot was even close. He quickly ducked to avoid the snowball, but it hit his shoulder. He fell to the ground laughing, "You're good!"

I smiled, and crossed my arms, "I know I am."

He laughed, and started to stand up. Was the game over already? I guess I won if it was over! I silently congratulated myself, for winning the game I had never played before. Mathias started to walk towards me, smiling. His smile was more… fake, though… I started to back up from him.

What was going on? Was he acting like the king again? I don't remember him drinking beer… Was this because he lost the game? I could feel my smile fading as he got closer, and fear started to replace my happiness. What was going to happen to me? Berwald and Tino weren't around this time to save me.

I was so caught up in thinking about what might happen that I didn't even notice him put his hands on my shoulders. I slowly looked up at him, before he said, "Yes, you are good…" he smiled, moving his right hand to where it was on the back of my neck. His cold hands sent shivers down my spine.

I waited for him to finish what he was saying. He started to smile a bit more, before he sang, "But not as good as me!"

Confusion filled my mind. What just happened? A feeling of relief did pass through me though that he wasn't acting like the king. But why was his smile so dark? I soon felt the reason of his dark smile on my back.

I shrieked, and yelled, "What did you just do?"

"I totally just won the game!" he laughed.

He had dropped a snowball down the back of my shirt, and my back was now freezing! I tried to get the snowball out, but with all the layers of coats I was wearing, I got tangled up.

"You are going to pay for this," I growled, as I shivered from the mound of snow still stuck in my shirt.

Matthias stopped laughing for a second, and asked, "Is it really still in your shirt?"

"Yes!" I replied, starting to try again to get it out. He laughed again, even though I didn't find this funny at all, and walked over to where I was.

I flinched at first, thinking that he was going to put more snow down my shirt, but instead, he started to help me get untangled from the furs I was wearing. I stared at him, confused as to why he was helping me out.

He smiled up at me, as he was sorting out the layers of my clothes. I looked away, face heating up for some odd reason. I then felt his hand reach up my shirt, as the cold snow fell out. My face then felt like it was on fire. I could get the ice out of my shirt without his help!

I quickly walked a few steps away from him, so he would know I wanted him to stop. Also, what if he lifted up my shirt a little too much, and saw the bruise left from the chains on my stomach? My whole cover could be blown. I have to be more careful around him.

He got up, looking down at the ground, and said, "Sorry about that… I guess I take things a bit too far sometimes."

"Its fine," I replied, "It's a game, so you didn't mean any harm."

He smiled, "Ok!" He grabbed my hand, and started to pull me in a different direction of the castle.

"Where are we going now?" I had to question since he wasn't telling me anything.

"Some place away from here! We can play in the snow more, just without the guards watching us. What do you want to do and where do you want to go?" he said, as we started to get further and further away from the castle.

I thought for a second about places I would like to go. I didn't know many places here, much less things fun to do in the winter. We had already done ice fishing and snowball fights, but what more was there?

I thought hard about what would be fun to do when it is the winter. Suddenly an idea popped up into my head. Icicles! Wait… what even are icicles? This doesn't make sense, why is my mind suggesting icicles when I have never heard of or seen one before? Have I, and I just can't remember?

I decided to give it a try, "Icicles?" I suggested, not knowing what the Hell they were and what you even did with them. What if my mind just made up a word since it was on the spot?

"What?" Matthias asked.

That's it. It was probably just a made up word in my brain. "Never mind," I said, quickly, already starting to think of other ideas.

"Wait, no!" he said, "I know where icicles are if that is what you want to do. They are fun to have pretend sword fights with. I haven't actually gotten the chance to play with one since I hung out with you and your brother though."

Huh, that's weird. So icicles really were a thing. How did I know that though? Maybe someone said the word, but how did I know it was a thing to play with in the winter?

"I know where some are though," he continued, "They are hanging from a tree near a thin frozen lake, so we must be careful, alright?"

I wanted to see these icicles and somehow figure out how I remember them, so I nodded my head, "Ok, let's go."

Matthias smiled, and started to lead the way to where the icicles were.

The lake wasn't too far away from the castle actually. It only took thirty minutes to walk there in the snow. The snow was still falling down on us when we arrived, and Matthias said it would keep falling down for at least a day.

When we got to the lake though, I started to look around for what could possibly be an icicle. It was most likely made of ice, hence the name, but that was all I knew. What was made of ice and wasn't called just ice?

"There's some over there!" I heard Matthias say, as he pointed towards a tree hanging over the lake. Was an icicle a frozen tree? I had never heard of that. I let him pull me over to the tree, and saw that there were large and small, sharp, pieces of ice, hanging from the tree.

A "Whoa," escaped my mouth, as I examined the tree more. Could I touch the ice? It looked so cool, like an ice dagger! I looked to Matthias, almost asking for his consent to break off one of the icicles.

He asked me, "You want one?"

I nodded. Who wouldn't want an icicle? They looked like so much fun, so why hadn't he played with them in such a long time? He smiled, and reached up, grabbing an icicle from a low hanging tree branch.

He broke it off, and handed it to me. "For you~" he said to me in a sing-song tone of voice.

I smiled, as I examined the dagger shaped piece of ice that was in my hands. He picked a small icicle, but it was still amazing to me. How could a piece of ice be shaped like this? It was fantastic, really.

I paused examining the icicle when Matthias said, "Look behind you at that huge icicle!" I quickly turned around to see a tall, skinny icicle that looked almost like a tall dagger that I believe was called a sword. The light shined through it, creating a spectrum of bright rays, going in different directions.

"It's beautiful. It looks almost like a… sword? Ya," I said, looking at it more. It was a ways away, and over the ice that he told me to be careful around.

"Do you want me to get it for you? We could have a play sword fight! It would almost be like old times," Matthias said, causing me to look back at him.

"Didn't you say the thin ice is dangerous?" I asked him. I didn't want him to get hurt, while getting something for a silly sword fight. And even though the sword fight seemed like lots of fun. I had never actually seen a sword fight before, but the King told me a story once about one. That was basically it.

Matthias shrugged, "I'll be careful. It is not that far out anyway." I started to consider what he was saying. Then, I thought about the consequences of anything happening to him. Both my King and the King of Denmark would want to kill me.

I had to think of something quickly. He was set for getting me that icicle so asking for him to forget it was out of the question. I looked at him, then at the thin ice… There was truly only one way…

"Can I maybe get it?" I asked, "You have done so much for me already, it's the least I can do. Especially since I am going to beat you in the sword fight. It will make me feel better." I knew I probably wasn't going to beat him in a sword fight, but it was the only thing I could come up with.

He laughed a little, "Wow. Getting cocky already are we?" he smirked, "But alright. Just please be careful, ok?"

"Of course," I replied back to him, already stepping closer to the ice.

I looked down at the thin ice. It looked like it could hold me, but then again… It also looked like it would break on the first step. This really was gambling my luck.

I slowly and steadily started to take the first step on the ice. When I did so, I found that it was stronger than it looked. I then started to carefully walk across the ice. The icicle wasn't that far away, so I reached my destination rather quickly.

I immediately grabbed hold of the icicle to gain my balance a little better. It was definitely harder to stand on ice that I thought. I looked back at Matthias who looked more worried than I had ever seen him. "Don't worry so much," I called out to him, "I am already getting the icicle, see?" I smiled to assure him that everything was going to be ok. Though my balance was a little shaky, I had basically been scared for nothing.

Matthias' expression didn't change though, "Just please be careful, alright?"

"I will, I will," I said to him, already starting to pull on the icicle. It was harder to get the icicle off the tree branch than I thought. I had to put my right leg back a little farther, to gain more upper body strength to break it off.

My hands were wrapped around the top part of the icicle, and I was using all the strength I could manage. I had to show Matthias that I could be strong like him. He couldn't just be my rock, while I did nothing for him in return!

I started to hear a crack in the icicle, meaning that it was starting to break off the tree. Though I was majorly struggling now, this was a success I wasn't going to let go of. I started to pull harder on the icicle, closing my eyes as my arms started to hurt from the pressure on them.

It started to get easier, since the crack made the icicle have less resistance against me. The only bad thing that was going on was my hands were slipping, and were also getting too cold to stand.

Soon enough, though, I heard another cracking sound go throughout the ice, and before I knew it, the icicle was off the tree. But since I didn't see it coming, the icicle shot off the tree before I could catch it.

I jumped in fear it was going to shoot into me, and ended up slipping on the ice. When I feel backwards, I hit the back of my head hard on the ground, also hearing Matthias shout my name, "Emil are you alright?"

I had to think about if I was really alright for a second. I looked around, my vision being a little hazy from the fall. I sat up, trying to find Matthias, as I said, "Ya, I'm fine, I just-,"

I heard the sound of ice breaking next to me.

Next to me was the icicle, sticking up and through the ice. Slowly, cracks were starting to spread from it and towards me. I looked to Matthias, and the look on his face showed that he could see what I was seeing.

Was I going to die? If the ice breaks under me, I was going to be roughly sent into the water, and I don't know how to swim. This couldn't be it though. I couldn't just drowned and die here! I was so close to freedom! My life and all hopes for freedom shouldn't just be cut short like that. I had to get out of this situation, but how?

"M-Matthias," I said, voice shaking no matter how hard I tried to seem unafraid.

Matthias was on the edge of the lake. It looked like he was debating whether or not it would be a good idea to go on the ice. In my opinion, the cracks in the ice would get worse if he stepped on here, and he was probably thinking that too.

"Emil," he said, staring at both me and the cracked ice near me, "I'm going to need you to slowly crawl over to me ok? Can you do that?"

His voice was shaking too. If he was scared, this was very wrong. I could feel tears threatening to fall. "Matthias, I can't swim. I don't know how, what if I fall in?" I asked, a tear finally falling from my eye.

"You won't, I promise! I would come over there and pick you up myself, but with too much weight, it will make things worse. Just please crawl for me, ok?" he said.

I nodded my head, "O-ok…" I said, starting to change my position so I could crawl to him. As much as I would had to admit this, I just wanted to be safe in his arms. I always felt safest there, and I wanted to be there more than anywhere else right now.

I put my hands out in front of me on the ice, causing the cleft parts of the ice to increase. I slowly started to crawl, causing more and more cracks in the ice to chase after me. I stopped.

"Matthias this won't work. The ice is breaking too fast!" I yelled, tears falling down my cheeks. I was so close yet so far to the safety of his arms.

Matthias' expression stated that he knew I wouldn't make it by just crawling. He even had tears falling down his face. "Just… stay calm," he shouted to me, "If you can just-!"

I heard a loud noise behind me. I looked behind me and saw a long and final crack in the ice, make its way in my direction. In the following three seconds, all the ice around me broke, causing the piece of ice I was sitting on to go lopsided into the water beneath.

A/N: Well that happened. I cut the scene short just because.

Review for the next chapter!

~NorwegianPilot17