Hi again ~

I'd really appreciate reviews ^^'. I'm not trying to whine or anything, it just would motivate me a bit more you know? But I'm happy to see that some people have subscribed this story, so thank you for that ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. Hidekaz Himaruya does. I think you all knew that right? :)

Oh, and some character names:

Yekaterina = Ukraine

Emil = Iceland

Lucas = Norway

Matthias = Denmark

Anyways, to the chapter ~

oOoOoOo

Strange

Chapter three: The awkward first date

"U-um… Where are we going?"

"A sm'll c'fe."

"O-okay…"

And to prove his point, they soon arrived to a small but cozy café around the corner. Berwald opened the door for Tino who quietly thanked. Tino had a huge urge to talk. He always did, but when he was in an awkward silence like this his urge only doubled. He couldn't find anything to say, so they went to a small table by the window in deep silence. It wasn't dark yet, but the sun was setting. Tino glanced at Berwald and found him staring at him. Tino immediately blushed and turned to look out of the window. New questions popped into him mind every few seconds. "Why is he staring at me? Why did he even ask me out? Why did he bring me here? If we want to order something, shouldn't we go to the counter? What the hell am I thinking?"

One of his questions got an answer when a girl with a short blonde hair and, to be honest, huge… er… chest came to them. She was wearing a light green T-shirt and light blue jeans (those were apparently the colors of the café). She also had a white apron and a name tag that said 'Yekaterina', which told them that she was a waitress.

"What would you two take?" she smiled sweetly but little nervously. Tino could remember seeing her at his school. Sweet girl, but she spent half of her time crying.

"L'tte f'r me, ple'se. 'nd f'r h'm…"

Yekateina seemed to be little confused but then understood what the man said and turned to look at Tino. He was little embarrassed of attention and murmured quietly:

"Hot chocolate, please…" Berwald felt his cheeks get hot. "So cute…"

Yekaterina smiled sweetly and made notes.

"I'll bring them to you in few minutes."

As she left (bumping into some table on her way) the silence continued. Tino couldn't take it anymore, so he asked:

"U-um… W-why did you a-ask me o-out anyway..?"

Tino immediately felt stupid and hot. He fixed his gaze on his lap so Berwald wouldn't see his red cheeks, cursing his bad habit of stuttering. Berwald instead was taken aback. What should he say? "Because I fell in love you at the first sight? Because you're so incredibly cute it's so damn hard to keep hands off you? Because I wanted to have a friend?" Hey, the last one didn't actually sound too bad.

"Ah w'nt a fr'end."

Tino looked bit alarmed.

"What? Don't you have friends?"

"'nly mah co'sins h're in 'merica."

"Not that I had any friends back home…"

Oh, so he came from somewhere else? That explained why he had so strong accent.

"Oh, where are you from then?"

"Sw'den." and that explained why he was gay(1) Tino thought to himself. Right after that Tino mentally slapped himself. Mental note: Make dad stop with those jokes.

"Really? Haha, actually I'm from Finland too, I moved here when I was 3." maybe this guy wasn't that bad after all. Sure, he looked scary but he had done nothing bad at him so far.

"When did you move here?"

For some reason, Berwald looked little troubled by that question. Or maybe it was just Tino's imagination, since he answered right away.

"Fo'r da's 'go."

At this point Yekaterina came back with latte, hot chocolate and 2 cookies.

"Here you go! Cookies are on the house. Enjoy!" she told cheerfully and left to serve another customers.

Tino started to think. That explained why he hadn't seen him at school. He glanced at the taller man quickly. He was very tall, so could it be that he had graduated already?

"I just realized to ask; how old are you?"

"'ightt'en. H'd mah b'rthda' on J'ne. Ya?"

"Still seventeen. I have my birthday on December though, so were the same age. Haven't you started school yet?" Tino didn't feel that nervous anymore so he started to smile politely.

"No. I'll st'rt n'xt w'ek."

"Oh…"

They were quiet again, but it wasn't that awkward this time, but still awkward. Tino noticed that Berwald wasn't too talky person. He got pretty sure that Berwald wasn't going to start a new conversation, so he kept asking:

"You said you have cousins here, right? Could you tell their names, maybe I know them."

Berwald took a sip from his latte and answered.

"L'cas is o'r 'ge and Em'l is s'xt'en."

Tino tried to think. He didn't know Lucas personally, but Lizzie had called him hot more than twice. He could remember that he had a blonde hair and blue eyes too, and that weird cross-thingy in his hair. He didn't know Emil, which wasn't surprising if he was younger.

"I think I know Lucas… He's friends with Matthias isn't he?"

Berwald frowned, which made Tino nervous again. He was scary all the time, but when he frowned, he was so many times scarier! Nonetheless, he answered.

"Y'ah. Ah d'n't l'ke 'im."

"W-why?"

"'nno'ing."

"Oh…"

They were quiet again, but Tino was scared to talk this time. He didn't want to get Berwald angry for his questioning. He took the other cookie and took a big gulp from his mug. The sun was still setting as he looked out of the window again, not aware of the Swede staring at him. Berwald's eyes softened and his lips twisted, but so little that no one could see it. The Finn had moustache from the hot chocolate. He was so damn adorable, he just wanted to cuddle him for the rest of his life. Without thinking Berwald took a napkin out of his pocket and reached towards the Finn. Tino was in too deep thought to even realize this until he felt something touch his skin. Startled, he backed quickly away and nearly fell from his chair. It was quite scary and not to mention, intimidating. What was he trying to do with that napkin anyway? Choke him?

"W-w-w-what a-a-are y-you doing?"

Berwald stopped, blushing madly. He now realized what he was doing and backed of avoiding eye-contact.

"S'rry… Ya h've ch'col'te h're…" he said pointing above his lip, clearly embarrassed and offered the napkin.

"O-oh…" Tino took it and wiped his mouth with it. He was sure giving a great first impression; he was acting like a kid. He had been scared of Berwald, didn't even drink coffee, asked questions all the time and apparently couldn't even drink hot chocolate without getting his it all over his face. Oh well, at least he wouldn't need to worry about their second date which most likely won't happen after this. Not like he had been waiting for that or anything. He was straight, right?

And there they were, silently thinking about how awkward they were. Tino had decided to keep his mouth shut for now so he wouldn't embarrass himself more.

He was surprised when Berwald spoke.

"Who w's th't g'rl?"

Tino raised his brown quizzically.

"Who? That waitress?" Tino was confused. Berwald shook his head and continued.

"Th't g'rl ya c'me w'th."

"Oh! Of course!" Tino slapped himself mentally and very nearly for real. "That waitress? What am I thinking?"

"She's Elizaveta, one of my two best friends. She's rather… How do you say it… Special?" Tino smiled amused and his eyes softened. Lizzie sure was special, one of the kind. Thank God for it. If there were more of them it'd be the end of the world.

Unknown to Tino, Berwald felt pain inside. Could it be that Tino thought of this as a 'friendly date' and loved that girl? One way to find out…

"D' ya l'ke he'?"

"Huh?"

Tino was taken aback. Berwald thought he liked Lizzie? His best friend of, what, 6 or 7 years?The girl who wants him to be gay? If he did like her he most definitely wouldn't have come here. That was ridiculous.

So, he started laugh. Berwald looked little confused and that's when Tino realized that in fact, Berwald didn't know what he and Elizaveta (and Eduard in that matter) had been through. He managed to contain his laughter and explained.

"No. Most definitely no. For your information, she was the one to talk me into coming here. She also has a boyfriend. We've known each other for about 7 years."

Berwald didn't look at Tino, instead he watched the street through the window.

"Do'sn't me'n ya c'n't l'ke he'."

Tino stared at Berwald. No matter how much he hated it he started chuckling again. This intimidating man was actually so cute at the moment, though he wouldn't admit it.

"She's the big sister I never had. And if I liked her, why would I be here then?"

Berwald looked at Tino in the eyes and Tino smiled gently. He had a beautiful smile, and laugh too. He didn't seem to be that scared of him anymore, or at least so he thought. He also had so beautiful eyes... Tino looked so… kissable right now. Berwald wasn't sure how long he could keep himself from jumping on him. After all, Tino was like an angel, so sweet, so beautiful, so… perfect.

"U-um… B-Berwald?"

The Finn was looking nervous again and Berwald felt the urge to jump off the bridge. He was the man of ruining every kind of relationship even before it started.

"S'rry, Ah d'dn't me'n to."

Tino couldn't reply before they heard Yekaterina (or rather her breasts) coming.

"Have you two finished?" she smiled.

The two of them realized that they, in fact, had finished. Berwald asked for a check. Yekaterina left and Tino took his wallet out of his pocket.

"Ah'm pa'ing."

"No, I can pay for my own part."

"Ah 'nsist."

Berwald glared slightly at Tino and of course he wasn't going to disagree with him after that. Defeated, he put his wallet back to his pocket. In matter of seconds Yekaterina was there again and gave the check. Berwald left the money on the table and they both stood up.

"What now?" Tino asked as they left the café.

"Wh't do ya w'nt to do?"

Tino checked his watch and frowned. He should go soon, since he had to go get his schoolbag from Elizaveta (she had insisted that he won't take it with him) and then go to home. He had some homework to do too.

"I need to go…"

Tino couldn't look at the taller boy's face. He knew Berwald didn't want him to go (and even though he admit it, he didn't want to either). And he was right, Berwald was devastated. He had to do something, but he just froze on his spot, unable to think or move.

Fortunately he soon felt Tino tug his sleeve.

"I-I wrote my n-number here… Call or text me or… yeah…" Tino whispered shyly and held out a piece of paper, focusing his eyes on the ground so the other one wouldn't see his red face. Berwald carefully took it as if it would shatter into million pieces if he handled it wrong. He saw the blush on the shorter one's cheeks and had to resist the urge to hug him.

He failed it perfectly.

Before he could think anything, Tino felt two strong arms around his torso. They weren't squeezing him or anything, but he still wasn't too comfortable in his grasp. He wasn't used to get hugs from basically strangers. Berwald held him for good 10 seconds before coming to his senses and pulled away.

"Ah'm so s'rry!" Berwald whispered with a dark red pattern on his cheeks. The sight was quite amusing that if Tino wouldn't be recovering from his shock he would've laughed.

"Uh… Ah'll go n'w… S'e ya?" Berwald and with that, Berwald walked (rather quickly) away. A bit afterwards Tino did felt able to move again and began walking towards Elizaveta's apartment. She'll probably jump on him right away and won't let him go until he's told everything. After tonight, there was only one question in his mind.

"Why me?"

oOoOoOo

(1)= It's quite common Finnish inside joke. Sadly, most of the Finns call Swedes gay. As much as I hate to admit it, that was the first thing I thought when I heard that Sweden (in Hetalia) was in fact in love with Tino. Ironically, there are more homosexual people in Finland than in Sweden. But hey, I've got nothing against Swedes or homosexual (in fact I have some friends that like the same sex and I'd really like to have a Swedish friend), so please don't kill me.

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Thank you! And once again, I'm sorry if I made mistakes.