AN: Moi! I'm back~ With a real chapter~ Don't hate me for taking this long. ^^" I had the most hectic spring of my life, I graduated about a month ago... and my chapters are so long. (Should probably start to try cutting them a bit...) The second reason I took this long is that I have gotten into rp-ing... I now have two pages in Facebook. And no, I'm not going to give you links there. I like having secret identities~ xD (Nevermind that I'm not hiding my true identity at all in fb...) You may try to find me if you want. I don't think it would be too hard as I'm not exactly hiding the fact that I'm a Finnish admin... ^^" Anyway, I hope during my little "hiatus" (I refuse to call this a real hiatus because I was still writing the whole time :I ...almost the whole time) my writing style has also developed for the better. ^^"

P.S. I'll try to win over my shyness and put up some art in my DA as well soon. *averts eyes to the side*

Now... The disclaimer. Ice, get here!
Iceland: *voice can be heard from somewhere from the background* Don't want to.
Su-chan: You're really lazy sometimes, you know... *a book flies over her head, soon followed by an irritated nation*
Iceland: Why the hell did you say that? ! Dx
Su-chan: ...Language, Ice.
Iceland: I talk like I fuc- *gets a book thrown at his face*
Su-chan: I told you to limit yout language!
Iceland: *stays quiet, glaring Su*
Su-chan: Now, be a good boy and do the disclaimer. You're the only Nordic that hasn't done it yet.
Iceland: Heeell no.
Su-chan: And why not? *getting irritated*
Iceland: Because you're evil. :I
Su-chan: And you're childish. :I
Iceland: AM NOT!
Finland: *runs in from somewhere* Guyys! Don't fight!

...

Canada: *forgotten by everyone (again)* SomeSnowInShell doesn't own Axis Powers Hetalia. She is just using us, the characters of Himaruya Hidekaz, for her own and hopefully also your amusement. *does a quick bow before turning invisible again*

Hope you enjoy~

- Dedicated to Shannon, my lovable (though sometimes annoying) twin. :3 -

"Mats og Joa"

Chapter 11: Homecoming

Joa was discharged about a week later. Dr. Braginski told him to come for check-up every month so Joa's recovery could be monitored until the course of antibiotics he was on ended. Dr. Braginski also told us to call him if anything came up.

"What about working? Can I work?" Joa asked.

"Hmm..." Dr. Braginski stared Joa critically for while. "No hard work," he said, "I would recommend you to start by working only a few hours per day and increase the number of hours you work gradually over the weeks. You have yet to regain your strength fully and that's your most important job to do. So, no hard work. We don't want you to get sick again, da?" Dr. Braginski smiled.

"Mm. I understand." Joa rose up from the chair he had been sitting on, talking with Dr. Braginski and took the bag which held his few belongings he had had with him in the hospital. Belward and Mathias rose up from their chairs, too. Tino wasn't with us, he was at the restaurant, making last arrangements for the party we were holding for Joa's homecoming. He hadn't listened when I told him Joa didn't like crowds. At all.

"Hey, I can carry that bag to you." I heard Mathias say, his arm extended towards Joa to take his bag. When Joa just shot a cold glare at him, his face fell and the arm dropped back to his side. I couldn't find any sympathy for Mathias from myself. It was his own fault.

Our car ride back to the restaurant was an extremely silent one (to think Mathias was in the car too). Berwald drove and Mathias sat next to him in the front. From my seat, all that I could see of him was the back of his head. He sat with his head bent forward, and the only thing that told me he wasn't sleeping was his breathing. Joa sat next to me in the back, behind driver's seat. I guess, from his seat he could have seen Mathias' expression if he had just looked that way. But no, Joa was staring out the window, lightly tapping his fingers to his tight. At this point he had of course also changed to normal clothes, now wearing straight-legged trousers and a dark blue sweater underneath his brown coat. His hair was fastened the usual way with the cross clip. On his neck I had made him wear his blue and grey scarf, it was winter after all. He looked good now, maybe a little pale and a bit too thin (that would be easily taken care of with Francis and Yao's cooking) and his eyes hinted on slight tiredness after his long sickness, but he still looked very handsome in his clothes.

...You didn't hear that from me just now. I'm not into men no matter what Marc and Xiang say.

And Joa is like my brother for goodness' sake!

A-anyway... The silence in the car was very close to eerie. No-one was bickering and even the radio was closed. Once we got to the restaurant however, it was an another story all together...

Back at the restaurant I found out Tino clearly hadn't listened at all when I told him to only invite a few of his friends to the party (I had already learnt Tino knew at least half of the city) but back in the restaurant there was well over fifty people waiting for us! The place was swarming! Oh, and did I mention that Joa didn't know about us throwing a party for him? This was supposed to be a surprise.

Oh, what a surprise was he getting...

I went inside ahead Joa and others. I needed to have some words with Tino. He was waiting for us on the entrance.

"Tino!" I whisper-yelled, "I told you to not invite too many people!"

"Relax," Tino said, "there's only about thirty of us. The rest are customers."

"But why so many?" I continued with an agitated tone.

"They're all my friends. I couldn't leave anyone out." Tino smiled apologetically.

I sighed... Right. "Only" thirty. Joa was going to have a fit...

"Oh my..." I heard from behind me. Speak of the devil.

I turned around to see Joa with Mathias and Berwald behind him. Even though he looked completely expressionless to everyone else, I could read slight panic from his eyes and he had also paled a bit as his eyes darted around the room from the big "Welcome Home, Joa!" banderol hanging from the ceiling to scanning all the heads in the dining area.

Yeah, the crowd was already affecting him.

Cue to Tino to get carried away.

"Joa! Ooh, it's so nice to see you again! You look good! Ah, there's so many people I want you to meet!" Tino gushed and took Joa's arm (and Joa jumped slightly) and started to drag him towards the crowd. Mathias and Berwald also disappeared to their own ways.

I could already see this was a bad idea.

Especially as Francis came up to speak with me.

I jumped when a hand landed on my shoulder, turning around I saw our favourite Frenchman (needless to say, I tried my best to shake his hand away). But Francis' grip was strong and I was unable to bolt away. On the other side of the room I could see Feliciano and Yong Soo jumping on Joa and hugging him as Tino and Toris stood smiling next to them. After that Yao came and shook hands with Joa, saying something to him and Joa answered. Xiang, next to Yao, glanced my way.

Francis spoke. "Mon petit cher," he started with his voice sweet like saccharine and syrup mixed together, "is that gorgeous, lovely little flower," he gestured towards Joa and I almost gagged, "is he... ton frère?"

I regained my composure quickly quickly and answered. "Yeah. Though his name is Joakim, not "gorgeous" or "little flower", or whatever you called him."

"Mm... Oh là là..." It was obvious he didn't listen to me any more... And the wolfish grin he had plastered all over his face was just simply wrong.

After staring (and slightly drooling) Joa for a good while, Francis turned back to me. "Could you introduce us, mon mignon?"

I bristled at the name he used for me and for a moment I was about to say no. But then again...

"Fine..." I huffed. The sooner Joa learnt to avoid Francis, the better. I tried not to punch Francis as he yet again started to stare Joa inappropriately. Luckily someone did it for me.

"Aïe!" Francis yelped and turned to look at Arthur who had just joined us. "Chouchou, what was that for?" He whined.

"For being a bloody frog! And I've told you to stop calling me with those disgusting pet names!"

"Arthur... You wound me, mon cher..." Francis said, putting a hand over his heart, but no-one paid attention to him any more as Arthur turned to speak with me.

"Audun... You should learn to never promise anything to him. It's not safe."

I know," I told him, "I just thought that it would be for the best if Joa knows to avoid him as soon as possible."

Arthur looked thoughtful. "That's actually quite a good idea..."

"Oh, you're so evil!" Francis gasped dramatically but we ignored him again.

Then Arthur's look suddenly changed to nervous and he sent a fleeting glance at Joa, who was being greeted by Kiku and Heracles. He turned back to me, "Audun... Do-... Do you think he stills remembers me?" He said in a near whisper.

"I don't know." I said truthfully and Arthur bit his lower lip. "You have to go talk to him and check," I continued.

"I don't know if I have the guts to go that."

Francis made his presence known again. "Well, chouchou, why don't we go together?" He called with the excitement in his voice only hidden with his usual "charm",

Arthur let out one final angry huff before they both followed me.

"Joa... Joa..." I pulled his sleeve gently. The people around us were speaking loudly to get their voice heard over each other that Joa wouldn't have heard me if I had tried just calling him. Yelling was out of question as it would be only embarrassing.

Joa swirled around, "Audun! ...Where did you go?" He looked relieved to see me.

I pointed my hand to the vague direction of where we had been. "I was... around. There are two people who want to meet you."

Joa raised his gaze to look at Arthur and Francis behind me. He looked a bit uncertain at first before recognition lit his eyes and they widened a fraction. "Arthur... H-how on earth...?"

Arthur's mouth turned into a wry grin. "It's been a while, Joakim. How have you been?"

Without any warning, Joa flinched. "P-please... Don't use that name... We're friends, just call me Joa...!" He said hurriedly.

Arthur's massive eyebrows creased. "Well, okay, but... I thought you hated nicknames, Joak- Joa."

"It's just... forget it." Joa turned his head to look away. I could feel confusion seeping into my mind as well.

"But, but! Mon cher, maybe it's just your nicknames that le beau fleur doesn't like." This was Francis (of course).Without anyone noticing, he had sneaked right next to Joa and wrapped an arm around his waist. Dangerously close to Joa's... well, backside. I glared as he took Joa's hand swirled him around so he faced him. Joa seemed startled at first before his look slowly turned to annoyed. Francis took Joa's left hand (while his own left slid insidiously lower and lower from Joa's waist) and brought it to his lips, giving Joa's hand a small kiss. "My name is Francis," he said in a low whisper and then added something in French, something I will never repeat to anyone, judging from how red Joa and Arthur's faces turned from rage.

Joa delivered Francis a healthy and resounding slap.

I nodded to myself. Yeah, Joa could take care of himself when needed.

Then, suddenly, I got a feeling that someone was watching us. I looked back, over the swarms of noisy people, just in time to see Mathias turn to look away.

Weird...

I turned my attention back to Joa and others. Francis was nursing his red cheek with a pained smile and Joa and Arthur still looked angry.

"Ah! C'est la vie... But, you speak French, Joakim?" Francis asked Joa and got a nod back. He then turned to Arthur with an (obviously faked) appalled look. "What have you taught to your little friend, chouchou?"

Arthur scowled. "I have taught him nothing, you frog!" Then he continued with gentler tone. "We studied French together in high school for about six months before Joa switched to German."

That was new information for me, too.

Before the situation could turn more awkward with the silence that Arthur's story had created, Alfred popped into the scene.

"Hey, Iggy, I've been looking for you!"

Arthur let out a grotesque snarl.

"You...!" He growled, "didn't I tell you to wait at home?"

"But it was boring! Mattie's here, so I also couldn't call him to watch movies with me! And Tino and Mathias are my buds too!"

"I don't care, git! I told you to wait at home!"

"B-but I got scared, Iggy, there was something under my bed!"

"I've told you not to watch horror films alone! Call Kiku!"

"Kiku's here too!"

Joa chuckled. "Could you introduce me to your friend, Arthur?"

The Englishman made a small "tsk" sound. "Fine. This is Alfred, my charge. We work in the same company. I think that also makes him think that we live together."

Alfred extended his hand to shake hands with Joa. "Alfred F. Jones, hero at your service!" He shouted. "Arthur's my partner at work, I've taken care of him all these years!"

Arthur snorted. "Hah! We were introduced to each other only about a year ago!"

"I had seen you before! I saved your life!" Alfred insisted.

"Yes. Once. And my life was never in danger!"

"He had a knife!" Alfred continued insisting.

"I could have handled it myself!"

"You looked like you were ready to cry!"

"Shut your trap this instant, you blasted brat!"

Arthur was now yelling with his face beet red while Alfred wasn't looking much different. As amusing as the scene looked, Francis told me and Joa to follow him as he started to leave. Arthur would find us once he was done with Alfred.

Francis led us to greet Gilbert, with him there was also quite a lot of others. Feliciano was hanging from the arm of a tall and muscular, distantly familiar looking blond man, smiling and talking animatedly to him. Francis draped his arm over the shoulders of Gilbert and another, brown-haired and green-eyed, cheery looking man who was holding a very angry looking Feliciano from bolting away. Mathias, who was talking with Gilbert as we came, silenced quickly when Joa came to his view.

Wait... I soon realised the other Italian man had to be Feliciano's brother, Lovino. Lovino's hair was slightly darker than Feliciano's and the trademark curl was sticking to a different direction. The most notable difference however was in their personalities. Whereas Feliciano was always happy, Lovino was spitting out Italian profanities (that's what they sounded like, I had heard Marc curse a few times) at his companion, whom I now realised had to be his Spanish "not-boyfriend" Antonio.

"Audun!" Feli shouted as soon as he noticed me.

"Hi, Feli."

He looked past me and greeted Joa and Francis as well. "Hi, Joa! Hi, Francis!"

Joa just nodded back and Francis laughed and reached over to ruffle Feli's hair. Unfortunately this set Lovino off.

"Bastardo! Don't you dare to lay a hand on Feli!"

"No te preocupes, Lovi~ Francis está okay~" Antonio said.

"'Don't worry'? You tell me not to worry when some animal is harassing my brother? !"

"Ouch." Francis gasped. "So cold, Lovino. You wound me!"

"Stai zitto, bastardo!"

Feliciano looked shocked. "Fratello! Don't use that kind of language!"

"Lovi...mi tomate. Don't yell, be nice to Francis." Antonio tried to calm him down.

Yet again, it didn't work. Loviono snapped completely. "Nice? Nice? You're telling me to be nice, you idiota? ! And I'm not your tomato!"

"Fratello... Don't get angry..."

"Shut up, Feli! This has nothing to do with you! Argh! I knew I shouldn't have come, every place just full of idiote!"

"Lovino... Calm down." The tall blond next to Feli spoke for the first time. His voice was deep and strong and held a feeling of authority.

Lovino didn't seem to like Feli's friend. "Don't you tell me what to do, you potato bastard!"

Feliciano gasped again. "Fratello! Don't talk to Ludwig like that!"

Lovino just started Feliciano furiously for a while before storming to the opposite direction.

"Fratello? Where are you going?"

"Home!"

Feliciano tried to go after Lovino but Ludwig held him back and Antonio spoke, "Don't worry, Feli, I'll go after him." He smiled and and took off running after Lovino, calling out something like "Fusosososo~" as he went.

"DON'T FOLLOW ME!" We could hear Lovino yell before the two disappeared into the masses of people.

"There they went..." Mathias commented quietly and Gilbert and Francis hummed in agreement while Ludwig sighed.

Feliciano looked sombrely to the direction his brother and Antonio had disappeared before suddenly perking up again. "Audun!" He called my name.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I have to introduce you to my boyfriend!" He said and clung himself to Lugwig's arm. "This is Ludwig!"

"Nice to meet you." Ludwig said before Feli pulled him down to his level and gave him a gentle kiss to the cheek, making Ludwig's face flush red. Interesting, he hadn't seemed like a guy who would blush easily.

"Likewise." I muttered.

"You know, Ludwig's my little brother!" Gilbert put in and leant to Ludwig's shoulder as he he straightened up again. Ludwig glanced him from the corner of his eye and sighed exasperatedly. "Broder..."

I stared the two of them and soon came to the conclusion they must have been born in the wrong order. Gilbert didn't act like a big brother at all and Ludwig was constantly telling him not to do stuff.

Then Gilbert noticed Joa and came over to look at him closer – or would have came if Ludwig and Mathias' hands hadn't landed on his shoulders at the exact same time and held him on place. Joa flinched and instinctively took a step back. I don't blame him after what happened with Francis and as I knew Francis and Gilbert were good friends.

"Hey! Let go of me! I'm not going to harass him, I'm not like Francis! And I have Mattie!"

Mattie...? Oh! He meant Matthew... But why had an intelligent guy like Matthew fallen in love with someone like Gilbert?

Then Gilbert started targeting me with his questions, "Whitey! Hey, Whitey!"

"What is it?" Is asked for the second time that night.

"I was just going to ask... if he is now that big brother of yours?"

It took me a while to progress what he had said to me. "No," I said then. "This is Joa."

"Huh?" Gilbert blurted intelligently.

"They're not biological brothers." Francis elaborated for me. Just how many people had Tino told about Joa and I...? !

I glanced Joa and he took the task of explaining. I hadn't noticed until now that he and Mathias had been quietly studying each other all this time. Now, he pointedly ignored Mathias again. "It's a story we've been using. It's easiest to just tell people we are brothers. The truth would have gotten me in prison." Joa said somberly.

"And the truth is...?" Gilbert pried.

"I picked him up from the street after running away from my... house."

"Why was Whitey on the street?"

"I had ran away from the orphanage I lived in." I piped in.

"How old were you?" Gilbert asked Joa.

"Sixteen. Audun was seven."

"And... Why did you run away from home?" Gilbert was starting to sound bewildered.

Joa took a deep breath and averted his eyes quickly downcast. "...That is for me and only for me to know." He said coolly.

I caught a movement in the corner of my eye. Mathias had clenched his hands into fists. My own hand by my side twitched momentarily, too. Joa had never told me anything about his past. Apart for the fact that he was originally from Norway.

A heavy silence hung over our group for as long as Joa kept his gaze on the floor. No-one had any idea of what to say or do to break the silence, nor were we brave enough to do so. The noise other people made with their talking and moving around sounded louder than ever even in my ears.

How could they act so normal?

In the end, the silence was broken by Xiang who suddenly appeared next to me out of nowhere. (How did everyone manage to sneak on me? !) "Hey, guys. Are you spacing out here?"

We all jumped and Joa's head snapped back up, his eyes giving away his startle.

"Oh... It's just you, Xiang." I said.

"Who else?"

"Well, it could have been anyone!"

Xiang shrugged.

I sighed. "Did you have something to tell us?"

He nodded slightly. "Hm. Gege and the Canadian guy in the kitchen got the buffet ready for us. Oh, and it's Francis' turn to go to the kitchen."

Francis sighed in turn and looked at Gilbert. "Will you come with me, mon ami?"

"'Course! Mattie's there, too!"

We looked after the two until they disappeared . Then Xiang spoke again. "Should we, like, go now?"

I frowned a little at his speaking style before deciding to shake it off. Xiang was probably just fooling around as usual. Anyway, we followed him to the buffet table where Yao and Matthew had set up a wide range of different dishes from all around the world. After loading our plates, we went to look for a table that proved to be a harder task. What table would be long enough to fit everyone of us? Fortunately it didn't take long to spot Berwald's giant form looming over Tino who was waving at us like a lunatic, shouting "Tänne päin!" which I assumed meant that he wanted us there.

As it turned out, the table was just big enough to fit us all comfortably. Feliciano and Ludwig decided to go and find seats from the other end of the table where they saw Kiku and Heracles sitting together. I found out Feliciano and Kiku had been friends since high school, and Ludwig also knew Kiku from a longer time, but the trio of them had gotten together rather recently when Feli and Ludwig had met each other accidentally.

To my surprise, I also found the rest of my friends sitting on the table. Xiang, Mathias, Joa and I sat on the opposite from them... Elise happened to sit right in front of me and smiled when I sat down. I had a strong feeling someone had arranged the seating, Xiang and Tino being the most likely culprits. I glanced Xiang on my right and caught a glimpse of his smirk before he turned to talk with the blonde girl on his other side, between him and Toris... Or wait. It took me a moment to realise the "girl" was actually a man in drag. Just then the blonde noticed me.

"Like, oh my gawd...! You must like totally be Audun, who my fabulous new friend," he draped one arm around Xiang and I felt a pang of jealousy in my heart, "has been telling me, like, the whole evening! But like, my gawd, you're totally such a cutiepie!"

"Um... Who are you?" I put in before the blonde drag queen could continue his rant.

Xiang spoke up when the blonde quieted to regain his breath. "His name is Feliks Lukasiewicz."

"And how do you know him?" I snapped a little harsher than I meant.

"We, like, met tonight." Xiang answered casually.

"Oh, oh!" Feliks seemed to have gotten his breathing back under control. "And I like, work as bookk- I mean, Mr. Oxenstierna's personal assistant!"

I glanced Berwald and got a small nod back. I then looked to Feliks and then back to Berwald. He couldn't be serious... Berwald nodded again, as if sensing my thoughts.

Then I heard bickering from my left where Joa had sat down next to me. Mathias sat next to Joa and Joa was hissing to him to shut up. "Try to get in your thick skull, I don't want to hear another word from you!"

"Joa! Can you please listen to me? !"

"I've told you thousands of times already, I don't want to hear any more of your lies!"

"But I haven't lied to you! I would never...!"

"SHUT UP!"

I was about to rest my hand on Joa's arm to ask him to calm down (all that yelling couldn't be good for him) when Kavi and Liên came over to our table with a cart filled with plates of some sort of soup. Liên gave a plate to each one of us in our table while Kavi hushed Joa. "Oh you are the one who this party was held for, ana~ So please don't yell at people and especially not boss on this spacial evening, okay, ana~?" Joa appeared embarrassed even though his face remained cool.

Meanwhile Tino was asking Liên why the soup was suddenly brought in. "Oh, it's just something I've been trying to make for a kind of long while," Liên said, "I wanted you to try it out tonight." I tasted the soup carefully and found it to be some kind of spicy vegetable soup, not at all bad. Tino also liked the soup and immediately agreed to add it on the menu.

We ate in (mostly) peaceful and comfortable silence, with the rest of the restaurant buzzing around us, until another person came over to greet us. "Joakim Johansen?" a familiar voice asked from behind me. Joa swirled around quickly and shock and disbelief showed on both men's faces while Elizaveta chuckled next to me.

"Roderich!"

"It really is you..." Mr. Edelstein said while holding a hand on his heart.

Joa got over his surprise first and let out a quiet laugh. "Long time no see."

"Definitely." Mr. Edelstein huffed annoyedly. "To go and disappear like that... What have you been doing all these years?"

Joa sighed. "Been around. Doing odd jobs... Things at home got unbearable."

"Ah, I see..." He didn't really seem to know. An awkward silence rose its head again. "A-anyway, Audun is my student nowadays... You've taught him the violin well."

Joa smiled a little. " Thank you. How is he doing otherwise in school?"

"Oh, he is a good student from what I have heard from Elizaveta... Doesn't cause trouble like some of his friends." I heard Marc whistle from the other end of the big dining table.

...Why do people always have to start talking about my school life to life to break awkward silences?

Later that night Joa and I went to sleep in the room that I would now share with Joa. He turned off the lights but left his small bedside table light on and took out a book to read for a while before going to sleep. I turned around in my bed a few times and then called out his name in a whisper. "Joa?"

Joa looked up from his reading, surprised. "Audun. I thought you were sleeping."

"I would be if you didn't have that lamp on."

Joa let out a small snort of laughter, put away his book and turned off the light. I heard him lie down on the bed. "Better? Now, what is it that you really want to say?"

Joa was creepy sometimes like that. I searched for the right words for a minute. "I... Okay, I know this is going to sound stupid... But... Are you happy right now?"

A long silence followed from Joa's side of the room and I heard his bed creak and the sheets rustle in the darkness as he turned before finally answering. "Ja. I think I am. We've both been very lucky."

I smiled a bit to myself. "Okay. Good night, Joa."

He chuckled on the other side of the room. "Good night... lillebror."

~ End chapter 11 ~

AN: As seen from the start, I'm trying to make this blabberings of mine slightly shorter from now on... I'm kinda scared some people don't like them. ^^" So, no random notes this time.
Anyway! In next chapter some answers are going to be got about Joa's past. Secrets have the tendency to not stay hidden forever~

Translations for this chapter:

mon petit cher (French) = my little darling
ton frère (French) = your brother
Oh là là (French) = Oh, wow (or something like that)
mon mignon (French) = my little one (or something like that, these are just random petnames)
aïe! (French) = ow!
Chouchou (French) = just some petname
mon cher (French) = my dear
le beau fleur (French) = the beautiful flower
C'est la vie (French) = That's life / oh well (can be used in pretty much every situation)
bastardo (Italian) = bastard
no te preocupes (Spanish) = Don't you worry
está (Spanish) = is
stai zitto! (Italian) = shut up!
Idiota (Italian) = idiot
fratello (Italian) = brother
mi tomate (Spanish) = my tomato
idiote (Italian) = idiots
broder (German) = brother
gege (Chinese) = older brother
tänne päin (Finnish) = this way
lillebror (Norwegian) = little brother

I'm proud to say this time I did most of the language stuff myself! I was in French classes last year a bit before Francis' part of the chapter was written. My friend E-chan helped me some. Thanks for Italian words go to my Spanish pair Tia and German word I asked from my Math pair Heidi~
Also, I forgot to mention in last chapter... Tino plays kantele because it's Finland's (un?)official national instrument and because Kalevala's main character Väinämöinen was the one who invented it. xD

And now~ We'll jump almost ten years back in time for the little bonus story I promise~ Idea given to me by CutsTheMustard. (I'm sorry I had to change your scene a bit to make it fir my plot.) After that, review replies.

Bonus story: Concert (14-year-old Joa's POV)

The reason I love playing the violin is because it feels like the music washes me away from my worries...

Tonight was the first time I was playing in my home city's famous junior orchestra. If I did well, I would be accepted in the orchestra. Mamma would be proud of me.

And Erik would be happy I wouldn't be as much at home... But let's not think about him now.

I looked around the auditorium, trying to find my mother to flash her a small smile and tell her everything was okay (I didn't need to concentrate too much of my playing, I knew this piece by heart). Instead of my mom, I found another familiar face and out of shock, my fingers met a wrong note. A blond-haired boy next to me playing kantele gave me an odd look.

As soon as the concert was over and people had mostly stopped applauding to us, I sped off, my trusted violin in its case hitting against my legs as I ran. If that boy had been who I thought he was... I had to find him! I ran up and down stairs, trying to get to the front of the theatre. The other musicians followed me, going to be congratulated by their families, they tried to get past me but I wouldn't let them. I must have looked selfish, but I didn't care about the looks I got. I came to the entrance hall and scanned it through with my eyes. No signs of Mats. I was about to run outside when I bumped into the kantele boy. "Wah!" "Anteeksi! Förlåt!" The blueberry-eyed boy blinked at me.

"Hey... You're the boy who played violin next to me," the boy smiled. "My name is Tino! Tino Väinämöinen!"

"Joakim Johansen..." I muttered.

"Are you lost?"

I blinked. "No... I was... looking for someone."

Tino smiled. "Could I help you? I'm good in finding people!"

"I'm fine..." I scanned the room nervously, if Tino was holding me back too long, Mats would have time to disappear again! Suddenly a woman's voice called behind us in Swedish and Tino turned around. "Ja, mamma, jag kommer!" Then he turned back to me and gave me a sad look, "I'm sorry, I can't stay to help you..." I nodded and soon Tino was gone again. I turned around and ran outside, looking around frantically. I caught a wild-haired boy stepping into a taxi, I try yell his name after him but it's in vain. He's gone. Again.

"Joakim!" I hear someone call my name behind and again, I swirl around fast, a faint hope of seeing Mathias raising in my chest. I only see my mother behind me. And she was worried.

"Joakim! Where did you disappear? The conductor wants to talk with you!"

"I'm sorry... I thought I saw Mats..."

My mother's face softened. "The chances that he would have been here are about one in half a million. You know we live far away from where he lives." She sighed. "You can try writing a letter to him again once we get back home. Come now. The conductor waits us."

"Okay..."

- fin -

AN: I'm sorry it's so crabby bonus scene! ;A; I kinda lost my mood halfway but I want to update today...

translations:

mamma = mom (Norwegian, also Swedish, Danish and Icelandic)
Anteeksi = I'm sorry (Finnish)
Förlåt = I'm sorry (Swedish)
Ja, mamma, jag kommer = yes, mom, I'm coming (Swedish)

-Tino's mom in this story is Finnish-Swede, that's why he speaks Swedish with her. This is because Finland is the only bilingual Nordic country.

Review replies:

The Loser of the Year: Moi, ja anteeksi että meni näin kauan. ^^" Kiitoksia kehuista ja joo, noi kolmen tunnin yöunet kuulostaa jokseenkin mun normipäivältä. xD Toivottavasti tykkäsit tästä luvusta!

: Yes, I have somewhat answered your reviews already. Thanks for those. :3 As for replies... It's my aim and honour to keep things realistic in fanfiction and rp-ing. And well... Making stories is kinda like cooking, your premade soup is a good example. xD As for occasional typos... You can see where I have gotten distracted. ^^" (Happens easily.) Anyway, update is here now, hope you enjoyed!

CutsTheMustard: I'll later reply to the PM. Thank you for patient(?) waiting. :3

Rhythm15: Now it's a real update! Hope you enjoyed. And the horrible stuff is behind me now. :3

kuro-kirsche: I was already planning that fic last summer and started but then my PC broke. This summer I will write it!

: I actually realised the irony just after your review. ^^" Thank you and I hope you liked this chapter!

Guest: Actually no. You're wrong. To my knowledge, Himaruya hasn't given any official human names to Norway, Denmark or Iceland yet. "Lukas Bondevik" is just one of Himaruya's possible names for Norway that the fans have taken a great liking of. And when I started this story was started, none of those options were posted yet, so the names of Norway, Iceland and Denmark and some other characters I have thought up/decided myself. Please check the story's publishing date and your information before you review like this the next time. Thank you.

I hope you guys hear about me soon again. I'm currently stuck on the countryside so I have lots of time to write and quite ambitious plans concerning fanfiction for this summer!

Please review, they always brighten up my day!