[[for this chapter we have a guest writer, my lovely friend Jamie wrote this chapter, that is why it's so much better than the rest of the chapters, I hope you like it]]

If there were three things that Elise had difficulty tolerating, those things would be stuffy rooms, uneasy silence, and being forced into situations that she was uncomfortable with. All of those factors were put into place where she was in the Oxenstierna family house, as she sat back on a rather beaten up tan couch in a smelly old room with mainly just that couch, a small television that she had turned to a soap opera of some sort, and a coffee table. The room smelled of cigarettes, excessive amounts of alcohol, and something that was similar to the smell of an odd kind of tuna, all over lavender air freshener, and the combination of the scents was just bad enough for her to be bothered by it. All mixed together with dry, dusty air, the tiny fan in the corner did no justice and served no help to the cause.

Shifting uncomfortably, she smoothed out the skirt of the rather frivolous dress that she had been forced into for this occasion of meeting her soon-to-be husband for the first time. Honestly, not only did she find it unnecessary, but also slightly embarrassing. Her love for brighter colors and more modest clothing made her feel awkward in this particular dress, which was all black except for the hot pink bow in the front and the similarly colored fabric inside the train. And another thing; yes, high-low dresses were very fashionable, but it was much different to be wearing one for the first time, feeling completely clothed in the back but somewhat naked in the front. Not only that, but if she pulled the skirt down, it also pulled the top down, showing more of her chest than she wanted to. In the end, she settled for crossing one leg over the other and folding her hands on top of them.

More than anything, she wanted to be out of here and back home, just how life was before an arranged marriage was even considered. Not just because of the dress, this was just a minor inconvenience to her. If she didn't think too much about it, it wasn't bad, necessarily. It was just uncomfortable for the situation at hand, that was all. She was able to force a smile on her face as she focused only on the static-filled television screen, and managed to pick out the plot; just an old soap opera, and at this part they found out that the aunt was apparently Carol's father all along, but Liza's father-in-law was interested in Carol's aunt—

But perhaps she would never know what happened to Carol's father-aunt, because the door was open just a few seconds later. She quickly shut the TV off and turned her attention to the person at the door. He had white similar to her late Uncle Gilbert. He was wearing a nice black suit with a dark tie around his neck, and honestly, he looked even more uncomfortable than she was in her dress. Neither spoke for some time, him only giving her an odd stare, and she could only imagine what her face looked like right now, realizing halfway through the moment that she'd forgotten to smile, and it was too late.

The staring became unsettling quickly. In order to fix it, she cleared her throat quietly. "I'm going to guess that you're –"

"Erikur, yes, and you're Elise, the introductions were done before you got here," he concluded dryly. The straightforwardness of the man in front of her was somewhat surprising and unexpected, but what can you expect from someone that you've never met?

This time she didn't bother to break the new silence; it was simple enough that Erikur was just as thrilled to see her as she was to meet him. She only nodded in response.

"Anyways," Erikur considered after some time, plopping on the seat beside her on the couch, "I'm going to try to be civil to you since we're going to have to get married and all, but don't expect much, and especially don't expect me to fall in love with you like the happy fairy princess fairytale ending that every girl wants. Got it?"

Again, she nodded. "Er, okay."

Erikur continued. "So, we're just going to bullshit this marriage thing for maybe a year or so and then you're on your own. Just to make the families happy and all, understand that?"

"Completely, anything else?"

"I have a question. Why are you complying with literally everything that I say?"

Elise chuckled. "Because I want this wedding to happen just as much as you do."

"Ah." Now he smiled, not a big smile by any means, but it lessened the tension in the room. If she'd have blinked, she would have missed the transition of emotions, and now he appeared much more calm and friendly than he had at first. It seemed as if that one simple detail was enough for him to be alright with her. "Good, perfect actually. What's the reason, then? Got a lover waiting for you?"

She shrugged. "Technically, yes, a little bit. How about you?"

Erikur raised an eyebrow at the statement, dismissing the question. "Define 'technically'."

"Well, it's a long story," she explained, waving her hand dismissively. "But I don't want to bore you with the details right now. What's your story with all of this?"

"To start, even though I should love my family more than the world, they're all nutcases. Second, I'm gay."

"Do they know that you're gay?"

"...Um, no," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "They don't, actually. I mean, Ber's gay and Tino's basically his bitch, but they don't know about me. They might suspect I'm a little bi-curious at the most. They don't actually know about Leon."

"Leon?" she questioned, her eyebrow raised this time.

"My boyfriend."

"They don't even know that you have a boyfriend?"

"Nope. They were too quick to say 'hey, look, you're getting married to this girl here' for me to even get the chance to say anything," he finished, the end of his statement more mumbled.

Elise, feeling sympathetic for Erikur, patted his shoulder. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, that's partially where I am, too."

Having moved away from Elise's touch, simply because he wasn't necessarily fond of being touched without permission, Erikur returned a look of confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Lovino, he just confessed his love to me, after I told him I had to get married."

"Leon didn't take the news of our marriage too well," Erikur admitted, then let out an amused snort. "He went silent over the phone when I called him about it, then it sounded like he hung up. I got a text a little later from his older brother saying that he broke his phone."

Elise chuckled. "Poor him."

"Poor us. Do you have any clue how long it's going to be before we can text again?"

"Oh, I can only imagine," she teased, rolling her eyes. In return, Erikur smacked her shoulder playfully. She gave a look of false offense at the action, although a chuckle escaped her despite what she was trying to accomplish. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry that you can't text your boyfriend and I wish I could do something about it."

Erikur smirked, crossing his arms and looking fairly smug. "Thank you for your sympathy." Soon after, he sat up straight, leaning forward slightly and going serious again. "Anyways, neither of us wants anything to do with a legitimate relationship. So what exactly are we going to do to keep up the act until the divorce?"

"Well I was actually planning on telling my family about Lovino soon. Hopefully before the wedding. So we just have to pretend to like each other for a couple days until Lovino and Basch can finalize the truce talks. That way we never even have to get married."

Suddenly Elise heard footsteps outside.

"It's them," Erikur whispered before rushing over to lock the door.

"...He doesn't get along with his peers well, so I hope this at least was worth the chance that we gave. Who knows how those Germans would react if this all turned out to be worth nothing?"

"I'd assume they'd kick our asses first. Damn. Why'd we hook her up with Erikur of all people?"

"Because everyone else in this family's taken, other than maybe you and Lukas, but your relationship has always been unexplainable. Erikur, on the other hand-"

"Moan," Erikur whispered to Elise.

"What?" Elise whispered back, appalled.

"Just moan and make kiss noises," he whispered before saying slightly louder, "Oh, Elise," and making sloppy wet smooch noises.

The outsiders heard these noises and were utterly shocked.

Tino began whispering to Matthias. "Are they actually...?"

"They are, they are," Matthias reassured, although he looked just as shocked as he did. "How did they manage it?"

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it's a miracle." Just to make sure, Tino put his ear to the door. This time, he heard a feminine "Oh Gott, Erikur, you're so big..."

Even Matthias had heard this, and both jaws dropped. Both hand to clamp their hands over their mouths to keep from making any noise. Tino rushed down the hallway instantly, but Matthias only followed his act after standing there with a dazed and flabbergasted expression. As he ran off, though, he exclaimed, "Lukas! LUKAS! YOUR BROTHER IS LOSING HIS VIRIGINITY AS WE SPEAK!"

That was the breaking point for both Elise and Erikur. Elise was doubled over in hysterical laughter while Erikur tried to stifle his own.

"Where did that come from?" he managed to say once his own chuckles had ceased.

Elise, still attempting to recover from the fits of laughter that overcame her, managed to weakly respond before attempting to calm down, "Where did what come from?"

Erikur rolled his eyes, amused, as he propped his head on his hand while his elbow rested on the old couch's arm. "'You're so big'?" he quoted. "That makes it sound like we were fucking!"

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. What'd you think that it means?"

"It refers to the tongue, right?"

"...Elise, it refers to the dick."

"No!"

"It does. I would know."

"Oh my goodness, Erik – what are we going to do about this?! They think we were – oh goodness –"

"Let them just believe, I guess."

"But – but what about my family?!"

"...Oh. Right."

Although that conversation led on to more awkward chuckles exchanged between each other, at least they knew that they had this whole "liking each other" thing down well. The only thing left for them was surviving the next few weeks.