Friday

This time Berwald's alarm got to me before Hanatamago had the chance. I groaned, tapping his shoulder to wake him. He reached behind himself, shutting the alarm off, then wrapped the same arm around me, pulling me closer to him. I chuckled, burying my face in his chest and inhaling his scent. It was comforting, clean and masculine but not overpowering. I'd have to ask to use his cologne sometime.

We laid in bed like that for a good ten minutes, just basking in the early morning togetherness. But I had work to do, and Eli's to fill in on my love life. I wiggled, trying to free myself from his arms, but he was apparently having none of that and he tightened his hold on me.

"Beeeer. I have to get up!" I whined, giving him a look. He frowned and gave me a squeeze. I chuckled, pressing a kiss to his cheek, effectively getting him to release me with naught but a bit of grumbling. I smiled, shuffling my way out of bed and over to the bathroom, taking my turn first. When I returned I found Berwald looking through his closet for clothes to wear, and I joined him. After a small debate, I located a turtleneck that I thought would look positively darling on him, and demanded that he put it on. Sure enough, it was absolutely perfect on him, hugging in all the right places. I nodded, proud of my accomplishment, then went to my bag to pull out clothes for that day. What luck I had anticipated the second overnight and I had brought enough clothes for two days.

I was dressed a few minutes later, and followed Berwald out into the kitchen for breakfast. But, looking at the time, we discovered we didn't have enough time to make anything. I gave him a pointed look, making sure he felt guilty for setting our schedule off-track with his morning cuddling. Once he was what I deemed "guilty enough," I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, we can grab something at the cafe." I assured, pulling on my coat and handing him his. We traveled side by side, making a basic plan to move me into his house. After some contemplation, I realised that there wasn't very much that would need moving. Berwald already had furniture, so I didn't really need to hold onto any of mine. It seemed like a waste to me to throw it all away, but Berwald offered to let me occupy part of his storage unit. It was mostly empty anyway, according to him. And, other than furniture, my belongings were pretty sparse, mostly consisting of clothes, Christmas decorations, and some electronics. We agreed that we would begin the process once I got off. Luckily for us, the manager of my apartment complex had finally gotten the elevator fixed, so Berwald would actually be able to make the trip up.

I unlocked the door to the cafe when we arrived, letting him in behind me and then relocking it. It wasn't quite time for opening yet. I waved him over to a table, then went behind the counter, locating Eli. She was in the middle of frosting some cupcakes, but she paused when she saw me.

"Hei." I offered, picking up the other bag of icing and getting to work on some cookies.

"Hei? That's all I get?" She wondered, returning to her cupcakes. I chuckled.

"How are you?" I tried, shrugging when she sent a glare my way.

"Very funny. Spill the beans. I know I heard more than one person come in this morning." She deadpanned, not leaving me any room for argument.

"Alright, alright, you got me. I might have brought my boyfriend to work today. We didn't have time for breakfast this morning, and I felt bad, so..." I trailed. This earned me a raised eyebrow.

"You stayed over again?" She asked.

"Joo. A-actually... I might be... Kind of... Moving in with him, maybe..." I admitted. She dropped her icing bag, staring at me openly. I flushed, trying to busy myself with another pastry.

"What?" She questioned, not looking away from me.

"Uh, joo. I mean, the heat in my apartment is broken, and there's enough room in his house, and my lease was almost up anyway, and Hanatamago..."

She held a finger up, cutting me off.

"You, Tino Väinämöinen, are moving in with your boyfriend?" She said slowly. I nodded. "Oh my gosh! Look at you, making a commitment!" She squealed, giving me an awkward hug over the table between us. I groaned, pushing her away.

"You make it sound like I have commitment issues." I pointed out, making my first trip out to the display case, depositing the now frosted cupcakes and cookies. I made a point of waving to Berwald who was still patiently waiting at his table. He waved back, and I blew a kiss his way before I returned to the back room.

"Sorry, I'm just so excited! But are you sure he's safe? I mean, you've only known him for..."

"I'm sure." I cut her off. Deep down, I knew that maybe we were moving a little too fast. But I was having trouble convincing my heart of that, and sometimes you just have to listen to what your heart tells you. Thankfully, Eli dropped it, asking me instead about my night. I gave her minimal details, but she somehow still caught on that Berwald and I had done something a little less than innocent. She fought me for details on that, but I refused, managing to fend off her insistent begging. Perhaps it was time for me to become concerned with her interest in the love life of gay men...

Finally, it was time to open up. I began the first brew of coffee, giving the very first cup to Berwald, then unlocked the door. Of course, Ludwig was waiting outside, and I welcomed him in, getting his order ready quickly. He looked questioningly at Berwald as I handed him his coffee, and I chuckled.

"That's my boyfriend, Berwald." I explained. "I'm feeding him breakfast today." I added. Ludwig nodded, understanding taking his expression.

"Congratulations. I hope he's nothing like Feliciano." He offered, making me laugh.

"He's more like you, honestly. You'd probably get along." I replied. He nodded, but his glance towards Berwald was unsure. "But you know," I continued, "I guess that makes me the Feliciano of the relationship... Oh gosh, I hope I don't annoy him! And he's so nice, he'd never tell me! Oh no, Ludwig, am I..."

Ludwig held up his hand, halting my rant before it could go anywhere.

"You are nothing like Feliciano, friendliness aside. And... As much as I might complain about him, I don't actually mean any of it. I do love him, as you are aware. Don't worry about it too much." His piece said, he headed to his normal table. My fears consoled and Ludwig taken care of, I had a few minutes, and I selected some pastries from the window, putting them on a plate for Berwald. I joined him at his table, eating the cheese danish from the plate while he chose the cinnamon roll. I learned that his plan for the day was to clean up his house a bit to make room for me. I felt bad for not being there to help, but there was nothing I could do, work called. He assured me that it wasn't a lot, and wouldn't take him long, but I think he just said that for my benefit. We finished off breakfast, then I bid him goodbye, seeing him to the door. He promised to meet me back at the cafe around two.

The rest of my work day went as it normally did, the only mentionable thing that happened being a visit from Emil who was on his lunch break. He bought himself a latte, and I threw in a couple cookies for good measure. He thanked me with the faintest of blushes, occupying one of the tables by the window. Before he left, he called a goodbye, which I returned, and he made his way back across the street to his next class. Other than that, it was a standard day. Well, alright, it was a pretty good day, as Eli decided to give me Saturday off; she wanted me to get moved in while I could. We finished on time, and Berwald was waiting for me when I left.

I grinned, leaning down for a kiss before we headed over to my apartment complex. We stopped at the grocery store and I located Antonio, asking him if they had any boxes I might have. He smiled, nodding, and led me to the backroom, letting me take as many boxes as I wanted from a huge pile they had waiting to go out for recycling. I thanked him profusely, taking as many as Berwald and I could carry, and we were on our way again.

We made it to my apartment not long after, squeezing into the small elevator and waiting as it climbed the floors. I led him to my small home, opening the door and dropping the boxes I had been struggling with on the couch. He followed me in, depositing his boxes as well. He took a look around, and I waited, wondering what his opinion on my living quarters would be.

"...I's really col' in 'ere." He pointed out, and I laughed.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm pretty sure the heat is broken. Anyway, make yourself as comfortable as you can. I'm going to go ahead and get started in my room."

He scoffed at the thought, grabbing boxes and following me to my room. I was a bit embarrassed; it was a mess in there. My bed was unmade, and there may have been a few piles of clothes that I neglected to pick up. But he didn't think much of it, just began putting the boxes in their upright position. I started with my clothes, pulling them out of the closet and folding them before placing them in the boxes. I followed that with the stuff in my dresser. I flushed a bit when I remembered that all of my naughty stuff was contained inside of my dresser, and I hastily asked Berwald to run out for lunch. I claimed that I wanted to have pasta, and that nothing else would do. I handed him some money, and shooed him out. He seemed skeptical, but he didn't question it, heading out to retrieve my pasta. Alfredo, to be exact. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the door shut, and quickly found an inconspicuous black shoebox. I shoved all of my unmentionables into it then found some string and tied it closed. Hopefully that would be enough to deter Berwald from looking inside. I shoved that box into one of my clothes boxes, covering it with my underwear in hopes that Berwald would leave this box to me when we got around to unpacking.

I did a quick sweep through the rest of my apartment, making sure there was nothing else I needed to hide before Berwald returned, which wasn't too long after. Just like the good boyfriend he is, he came bearing fettuccine Alfredo, and he was even smart enough to stop by his house and drive his car over. I thanked him with a kiss and paused in my packing efforts to pull out two plates and split my lunch with him.

We got back to work as soon as the dishes were done, and by seven o'clock we had pretty much all of my possessions in boxes and ready to be transferred to his house. We shoved the most important ones into his car, filling up the trunk and the back seat. There were still a few boxes left upstairs, and we'd have to move the furniture, but it was a start, enough for me to get by in his house until we could get to the rest of it.

He drove us the short distance to his house, and we rushed to get my boxes inside, both of us tired of the process and wanting to shower off the sweat that had accumulated as we worked. Once we had a stack taller than Berwald, we decided it was time for that shower, and hopped in. We kept it clean, both of us too physically exhausted to do anything too risque. However, dinner was still needed, late as it may be. Berwald got to work on that, leaving me to start unpacking a few of the boxes. I made sure to hide the little black box before he could call me for dinner, shoving it into one of the drawers I now had claim to in his dresser. It fit nicely, and I covered it with a layer of clothing to make sure he wouldn't find it. That was another story for another day. After I had that situated, I began filling the other drawers, namely the ones at the top of the dresser. It made sense, these would be harder for him to get to. But it worked out for me, because I always hated stooping over to get to things.

I had just started hanging shirts in the half of the closet I had claimed when he shouted my name, his voice and the lovely food smell coaxing me into the kitchen. I smiled at him as I entered, loving the sight of chicken noodle soup almost as much as I did him. Almost. And, even better, he had bread bowls! I grinned, flopping down into his lap and giving him a big kiss. He seemed surprised, maybe because it was pretty sloppy, but he didn't seem to mind too much, and he wrapped an arm around me, pulling me close. He buried his face in my hair, holding me against him for a moment, not saying a word. I looked up at him curiously, wondering if something was the matter.

"Sorry," he whispered, kissing my forehead, "jus' ha' to make sure this was real."

I blinked, not exactly sure what he meant. Did he think this was all a dream? If so, it was a pretty long one, I had to say. But maybe he was just as swept up in the moment as I was. After all, we were going to be living together! That was a huge step towards making a life together.

Hmm... That sounded nice. Making a life together. The words brought with them thoughts of a wedding, and a honeymoon, and a little blonde boy running around the yard with Hanatamago, and a creaky porch swing oddly enough. They were wonderful thoughts, and I only wished that Berwald could share them with me. But maybe he was, maybe that's why he needed the reality check. I smiled, this time to myself, and pressed one more kiss to his lips before clamoring off of his lap. He shooed me to the table, but I made sure to grab the food before he could, sticking my tongue out at him when he sent me a look. He eventually sighed, signaling he had accepted his defeat, and got drinks for the two of us.

With a meal before us, we fell into silence, both of us too preoccupied with disposing of the food to bother with conversation. It wasn't as if there wouldn't be time for it; we had what seemed like all the time in the world. But as the food waned, so did our excuse for not talking, so I decided to inquire about his legs again. They had, after all, moved!

"So, did you call the doctor today?" I asked, washing down a bite with a drink of juice. He nodded, wiping his mouth before he spoke.

"Ja. He sai' he wan's to see me this weeken', if Ah have the time. Wan's to check up on me. Bu' he sai' i' was a goo' sign, and tha' Ah shoul' try to use them as much as Ah can."

I nodded, thinking that sounded about right. Berwald was going to have to learn how to use his legs all over again. As excited as I was about the progress, I had to understand that he wasn't going to be walking any time soon. Relearning aside, he also had to build up the muscle again. And, from what he said, it seemed that he wasn't quite sure how they even worked anymore. But maybe the doctor could help a bit with that.

"And Lukas? What did he have to say? I never asked yesterday."

"He was happy. Sai' we shoul' celebra'." He replied, finishing the last of his dinner.

"Ha! See, I'm not crazy, it IS something to celebrate!" I said with a smug grin. He raised an eyebrow.

"Watchin' ya ge' drunk coun's as a celebration?" He wondered. I flushed, remembering my actions from the day before.

"Oh hush. You were supposed to drink too! And I wasn't drunk, I was tipsy." I insisted.

"Tipsy? Ya used sal' instea' of sugar." He pointed out.

"You say it like it's not something everyone does! I mean, come on, have you ever looked at the two? It's practically impossible to tell them apart!" I said in my defense.

"Well, if ya looke' a' the packagin'..." He trailed.

"Don't even get me started on..." I was cut off by the doorbell. Both of us shot glances towards the door, startled by the noise. We just stared at the door, too stunned to move. The doorbell rang again. "Um... Were you expecting someone?" I asked, looking at the entrance warily.

"No." He replied, looking at the door with just as much suspicion as me. The bell rang once more, then came a voice.

"Waldy, we know you're in there, the lights are on! Come on! Open up!"

The voice was loud, obnoxious, but most of all familiar.

"Oh, i's jus' Mathias." With that said, Berwald went to open the door. After a short greeting, the tall, boisterous blonde entered, flanked by his husband and brother-in-law. I blinked, still sitting at the table with my spoon in hand, the sudden addition of three people not quite registering with me.

"Hej!" Mathias greeted, sending a huge grin my way. "What are you doing here? You know, you're here so often, you'd almost think you lived here!" He joked. Lukas, who had been behind him this whole time, elbowed his way around his husband.

"Well, if you'd shut your mouth for five seconds and opened your eyes, you might see all the boxes piled up over there. Call me crazy, but I think we can take that to mean that he moved in. Hello, Tino." Lukas said, producing a bottle of Champagne from a paper bag he had been holding. "We came to congratulate Berwald." He explained, handing me the bottle when I showed interest. I looked it over, deciding that Lukas was much more willing to spend money on good alcohol than I was. It was a very high quality champagne, one I was looking forward to getting a glass of.

"Well, you brought drinks, so I can hardly say you aren't a welcome sight." I handed back the champagne, giving Lukas a smile that he returned, though his was smaller. Emil sidestepped Mathias as well, walking over to the table and setting down a tray of cookies. I smiled at him as well, effectively causing a blush to spread over his cheeks. It was just too much fun to tease him.

"They're lemon cookies. Bróðir says they go well with champagne." He offered, retreating back to Mathias' side. I chuckled, getting up and clearing away our dinner plates. We were finished anyway. While I was dropping those into the sink, Lukas helped himself to some wine glasses that Berwald had stashed in the cupboards. They weren't champagne glasses, but they would do.

I returned to the table and helped Lukas by distributing the glasses that he filled. After a bit of complaining, Emil even convinced him to make an exception, and he received a glass as well. After a short toast in hopes of Berwald's recovery we all took a drink. Just as I had expected, it was very high-quality and went down well. When I tried one of the lemon cookies that they had brought, I was pleasantly surprised by the lovely mixing of flavors. I'd have to steal Lukas' recipe.

Emil was only allowed one glass, but he seemed alright with that, so long as he had claim to most of the cookies. We all agreed, though Lukas warned him not to overdo it. He took me to the side a few minutes later to inform me of Emil's cookie problem. Apparently the kid had quite the appetite when it came to the sweet treat, and he could easily eat the whole plate if we allowed him to. I made sure to grab a few, passing some to Berwald as well. I didn't want Emil to make himself sick, after all.

Between the four of us and the one glass that went to Emil, the champagne was gone before we could even get much of a buzz. But we still managed to make it a rather jovial gathering; they assisted with the unpacking a bit, then we decided it would be hilarious to carry Berwald out into the middle of the street, and we ended the night with a terribly off key ballad, courtesy of Mathias. By that time, it had gotten pretty late, and they asked to sleep over, Pulling out the couch to serve as a bed. Emil chose to sleep in the armchair, though we all knew he would be far from comfortable in it. I gave him a kiss on the cheek as a reward, though I mostly just wanted to see the red flush that went from the tip of his nose to his ears.

We bid our guests goodnight, then Berwald and I retreated into the bedroom, snuggling in bed for a bit. There might have been a small amount of groping, but that's hardly any business of yours. I can do with my ass what I please. And at that moment, Berwald's big hands were definitely pleasing. But we kept the heavy petting to a minimum, not wanting to alert our company to what was going on behind closed doors. So, with a few kisses, and some tangling of limbs, we fell asleep. Or, in Berwald's case, stayed up all night, unable to move because of a certain me in his arms, and unable to sleep because of a certain Mathias snoring his head off in the other room. How Lukas can live with him, I doubt I'll ever know.

A/N: Pretty laid-back for a second to last chapter, huh? Well, I think that suits this story, honestly. It's kind of a laid-back story, don't you think? And SuFin is a pretty laid back pairing, if you think about it. Hmm... But wow! I only have one chapter left! But I think it's an appropriate time to close this story up. The biggest conflict has pretty much been resolved, that Being Ber's legs. But more on that in the next chapter!

Gosh, sorry for taking so long! This past month nearly killed me, I swear! Between catching up after the trip, a huge research paper, and several performances, I've been a busy bee. That's not even mentioning my club activities! I also might have hit a small bit of writer's block, but it's best not to mention that. I'm sure all writers have those days.

So, I finally graduate in a few weeks. That's crazy for me, really it is, but I really wish it could just be now. I'm getting really tired of school, and it seems that my teachers are dead-set on giving me project after project until my last day of school. Speaking off, anyone know of any really cool documentaries? I have to watch one for my English class, and I'm having a bit of trouble with finding one. The topic is open, so anything interesting is fine!

So, I wonder what fic I'll be posting next... I have a few in different states of being written. I have one or two that already have a couple of chapters to them, and others with just a few paragraphs... Hmm... the choices. Well, I guess this is as good a time as any to bring this up...

I have added facebook to the many ways that you can contact me! Enough people showed interest that I created a facebook page just for my fanfictions! I'll post little ficlets on my facebook, as well as my tumblr, so feel free to check either out. I think I'll be more prone to using facebook though, just because it's in my comfort zone. But joo, feel free to ask me questions there, comment on stories/ficlets, or even just say hi. I'm a friendly gal, once you get to know me! The page is pretty bare at the moment, as I'm still developing it, but it could be totally awesome with some tough love!

I think all that's left is to post the links, so here they are! Just remove the spaces. If you can't get these to work, you can always get them from my profile!

www. Facebook Kuroriya (This is the new facebook page!)

www. ask-kuroriya. Tumblr

ask-nstac. Deviantart

Alright, that's all for today, and I hope to see you for the conclusion of Fourteen Days! Reviews are always appreciated!