The next day, the start of school, Berwald begged his mother to take him instead of Ludwig's grandpa. She refused and personally escorted him over to Ludwig's house, where everyone was stood waiting for him, even the cat.

"Hello Berwald!" Ludwig greeted, holding his puppy.

"Do you remember me?"

"No," Ludwig confessed, "but Gilbert told me all about you! Let's continue being twins in this school too!"

"Is that a puppy?!"

Berwald and Ludwig spent their first week at high school telling everyone they were twins, they were determined to reinstate their primary school happiness into this new school, and talking about Blackie- Ludwig's puppy. Berwald was more than happy to hear about Blackie stealing food and demanding tummy rubs. Berwald told Ludwig about their football games and how they both wanted to be strong like 'Arnold Sausage'. Ludwig could never recall these memories but decided to remember this information to pretend being his past self.

Soon Berwald had cemented himself back in Ludwig's heart. Berwald never pressured Ludwig to remember but simply accepted it. They both spent their days as before, getting even better at football and playing with Blackie. The Swedish boy thought it was best not to mention Cat Boy or Egg so they stayed in his heart alone.

Let's fast forward a few years. Ludwig had made friends like Kiku… actually, just Kiku. Kiku was a quiet Japanese boy in Ludwig's English class, one of the few classes that had split him and Berwald up. The Swedish boy made friends with Lukas, a Norwegian boy in his English class, who was also bothered by Mathias. But still the 'twins' came first in each other's hearts. Their identity swapping continued until they were 13. Ludwig was told he needed reading glasses. The two boys now just looked like simple twins who were indistinguishable to their other peers. That is, until puberty crept up behind Berwald and changed his voice.

"Squeaky Swede!" The others taunted. Soon other, but unrelated, insults came. They mocked his accent, his scary mother, his scary face and his lack of enthusiasm in general. He said nothing, his voice becoming too embarrassing for him. He sat there and frowned. He ran off his frustration, he punched out his tears onto his punching bag. Unless it was Mathias, then he simply kicked the shit out of him.

Now they were distinguishable and memorable. Berwald was the squeaky boy, who was also now getting acne. Ludwig was still just a normal boy; he was normal whilst Berwald was good fun to tease. Ludwig did not know what to do.

"Do you want me to beat them up?"

"No, just ignore them. Unless it's Mathias."

"Why do you hate him so much?"

"He stole my dog teddy when I was little. Besides," Berwald sighed, "he's blessed enough to live next to Tiny."

"Who's Tiny?"

"I'll show you."

Berwald took Ludwig back to his corner of the road and then crossed it until they arrived at a little red house that matched the rest of the houses in their part of town. On the sign, next to the number "20", there were a list of the name of residents.

"Berwald, that doesn't say 'Tiny'."

"It does!"

"No, go right up to it, it says 'Tino'."

The two stood there and argued over the name until a boy came out of the house with a white dog. Berwald gasped and hid behind Ludwig.

"Can Bomber and I help you?"

Bomber was now no longer a puppy but Berwald still waved at him. Bomber waved his little paw back.

"We're arguing over the name on this sign. What does it say?" Ludwig asked politely, if not a little baffled, and pointed to the specific name.

"Oh! That says Tino! I'm Tino! My dad has bad handwriting." The short boy giggled. Berwald almost winced, he couldn't stand it. He wanted to show up to Tino's house, built and super handsome, and sweep the cutie off his feet, not be covered in acne with an ugly voice. He was ashamed.

"I'm Ludwig. May I stroke your dog? I love Maltese dogs."

Tino nodded and Ludwig immediately dropped down to cuddled and fuss a very excited Bomber. Tino giggled but jumped a bit when he saw Berwald.

"Oh! Hello." Tino jumped with surprise, then he whimpered a little, grabbing his arm. Berwald wanted to spontaneously combust. He had spooked Tino just with his face.

"Hello."

All three of them gasped. The deepest voice they had ever heard just escaped Berwald's mouth.

"Your voice is so deep!" Tino exclaimed, delighted suddenly. Ludwig saw his opportunity.

"Berwald loves dogs too. And he thinks you're cute."

"LUDIWG!"

Tino giggled and his little cheeks grew pink.

"Why thank you! I like dogs too, especially Bomber. I also love cats."

"I have a cat." Berwald replied shyly.

The three of them sat outside Tino's house to talk about dogs and cats and play with Bomber. Tino was now being home-schooled, which is why Berwald didn't see him in the mornings. He was a little boy from Finland and boy he loved to chat! Ludwig saw that, with every word from Tino's lips, Berwald melted more and more.

Ludwig was secretly worried though. He knew that they were all soon going to be hit by puberty either with a baseball bat or a bus. Would Berwald still be into Tino? Would Ludwig end up being ugly?

Thankfully, Berwald and luck was on the German's side.

"There's this face scrub. Works miracles." Berwald said, handing out him and Gilbert some face scrubs, a few months after meeting Tino. "Also, lay off the potatoes. Testosterone loves making acne from carbs, like potatoes."

Gilbert and Ludwig took Berwald's beauty advice. They used their special lotions religiously, used potatoes as a treat for when they completed laps, bathed often with toy submarines and kept a rigorous schedule. Ludwig was determined and so was Gilbert, oddly enough.