Name: Together

Pairing: Denmark x Norway

Requested by: Dreams-Wishes-Hopes

Word count: 964 (Story only)

Kiss: Kiss on the forehead

Sequel to Kiss of Mannerheim

Together

It was dark around him. The only sound reaching his ears was the sound of the wind howling into his ear, making him think wolves had surrounded them. His mind slipped into unconsciousness again. Because of his unconsciousness, he didn't notice the men approaching him and the male lying next to him. Strong, but wounded hands lifted the two almost frozen bodies from their little snow fort. It seemed like a grave. The men exchanged a few words in a tongue the other humans would not be able to understand, had they been awake.

In his dream, Mathias was floating. His tired body was surrounded by fluffy clouds and sunshine embraced him. Strangely, the golden arms were cold, icy cold, almost piercing his skin while he drifted away, towards his comrade that he harboured forbidden feelings for. The Norwegian soldier had intrigued him when they met at the front lines, Molotov cocktail in his hand, stoic expression and hate burning in his eyes, just like the enemy's tank in front of him. Lukas was a beauty, and dangerous. Mathias had instantly been in love. Never in his life would he have hoped to find love among death.

The cold sunlight kept tickling his skin, making the Dane squirm on his cloud. The cloud creaked under his weight and Mathias frowned, not understanding why clouds made noises. Suddenly, the sky he was drifting through, was filled with voices, screams, murmurs and pants, cries and pleads. It was so loud, so scary. He wanted to wake up, get away from that nightmare. He was scared, so scared. The sounds echoed in his head and frightened him, making him toss and turn. The cloud creaked more and a few of the voices became louder and seemingly closer, scaring the poor man even more.

"Oh, god, he's awake. Oh my god, thank you for this miracle. Quick! Someone get me a-" Mathias didn't listen to the voice anymore, he just opened his eyes and stared into the dim light around him. At first, he couldn't see anything. He shivered, teeth clashing against each other, hands rubbing over his arms feverishly. He didn't understand where he was. The only thing he remembered, were the fingers of Death that had gripped his throat, dragging him into the darkness, away from Lukas.

Lukas!

He failed to sit up straight, he was too weak. He breath was irregular, hands shaking, eyes wide. Lukas, where was Lukas? His body seemed to be unable to stop the frantic trembling as he took in the scent of decay, ugly and making him sick. All around him were beds, stretchers, filled with people, screaming agony, groaning and tearing at their bandages. Some of them had lost a limb, others were blue from the cold. Mathias searched with his eyes, lingering on every lump of human on the uncomfortable stretchers, unable to see anything through the blur of tears.

His nose was running and he tried to sniff, only taking the horrid smell. Eyes burning and cheeks getting wet with the tears, he felt panic rise in his chest. Hyperventilating and scared, that was how the nurses found him. He was drugged and sent back to dreams unreal, Lukas laughing at his side, unharmed and beautiful.

When he woke again, his heart was hammering and the tears returned as he once again found himself in the field hospital. He can't be dead, please, let him be alive. In his head, he kept repeating the sentence, like a prayer. Nurses were ushering to his bed again, but he didn't want to speak, couldn't speak. His breathing was still irregular and the small women were trying their best to talk to the Dane, which failed horribly because of the language barrier. When they helped him sit up and started to feed him soup, the liquid feeling hot on his still cold lips, he finally spotted the Norwegian soldier.

"Lukas…", he breathed out, blinking fast to prevent the tears from spilling again. The nurse in charge of feeding him looked confused, following the bright blue stare. When she noticed what her patient was looking at, she patted his shoulder and smiled. Somehow, he sensed that the man that had stayed with him in the cold, was okay. They would be fine.

1980, forty years later

"I was so scared I'd lost you back then", he whispered, nuzzling the ever familiar hair in front of him, getting drunk on the smell. "You were so cold, so so cold. I thought you had died that night. I thought we both had died. But here you are, lying next to me." A warm feeling of gratitude washed over Mathias as he looked at Lukas, who was resting in their bed to his right. They had celebrated their anniversary. It had not been much, they had just shared a lovely dinner together, candles and wine, soft music playing in the background. After the Winter War and the Second World War, they had moved out to the Finnish country side, far away from curious and judging eyes, as it had been wrong for two men to be together at that time. They had grown old together in their warm and joyful home, saved each other from night terrors countless times. They had fallen in love and they had fought. But they had done it together. And that was what mattered.

"I love you", Lukas whispered, before pressing a kiss to Mathias' forehead. "Always have, always will." It was a bold statement for him, not something he'd say often. But just for today, he could. Just today, before they both drifted off into dreams, smiles on their faces.

Okay, this was requested by Dreams-Hopes-Wishes a while back. They didn't specify which kiss they'd like, so I went with this one in the end. And I have to confess, I bawled my eyes out while writing this. I'm so proud of myself that I was able to keep it under 1000 words. Would have loved to make it longer, more angst and everything. Oh well...

~Hana