Chapter 1:
The day seemed to have blurred together for Tino, he was up in his study, concentrating on his new story that he was writing out, when he heard his son knock on the door. Tino already knew it was one of the following things; either Alexander or Peter were dying, or it was morning already. Fortunetly, it was the latter option, and they started the boring routine of waking his ginger son up, and making sure they ate, and had their clothes on, brushed their teeth ect. Getting the two boys to school was a challenge, since Alexander wanted to stay home, and Peter was just way too eager, but Tino, somehow, managed to get them to school in time for first bell. He hoped Alexander didn't try to bunk off anytime soon.
Before he even knew it, it was 12 pm already, and Tino was still in his pyjamas, that were covered in oatmeal- from Alexander's messy eating habits. The sigh he released, was longer than any other that had left his mouth before. Once he was cleaned up, and the house was not such a mess. Tino was set to go, determined to get his story published, by the amazingly attractive Swede.
Okay, that plan died the minute he entered the café, realizing he was 15 minutes late, and was met by a really pissed off publisher, Tino could only muster up a small greeting, to which he got an inaudible grunt in return.
"So about me story-" but all of his atemps at voicing his sentence out ceased, when he met Berwald's sea blue eyes, who showed how pissed off he was.
"No, first, let's talk about you. Why did you write such a story?" Berwald stirred his coffee, an iced one to be exact, why would he drink a cold drink in the cold weather, what a weird man. His stare cut into Tino's fair skin, making him shiver.
"That's a weird question," Tino looked aside, trying not to squirm under his hard stare, he cleared his throat,
"Answer the question," the Swede pressed the issue, not backing down a bit,
"You're being rather intrusive,"
"It's a simple question,"
"It's a crude one,"
"You didn't seem to mind being crude in your novel," that made Tino cringe, he glared at the Swede before him, challenging him if you will.
"Come on, that has nothing to do with my personal life," Tino was trying not to get angry, key word; trying. But he could feel the heat rising up to his face, and his eyes watering slightly. He stood up quickly, too quickly, making Berwald sit back, and look up at the Finn.
"What are you doing?" he said, in his annoyingly calm tone, Tino just wanted to strangle him right now,
"I'm going to get a coffee, then we'll talk more," and with that Tino left the table, standing in line to get a coffee. His fingers reached up, and rubbed his flushed cheeks, feeling angry with himself now, it was a simple question, why couldn't he just answer it like a normal person. And besides, it's not like his reason was all that strange anyways, he just needed to build up his courage and day it outright to him. The Finn ordered a fully black coffee, and once his order came, he took his seat across from Berwald again.
"Are you ready to tell me now?" God damn Berwald and his extremely good looking face, and the way he pushed his glasses up, and his voice. Damn him all.
"Yes-" he cleared his throat, and sat up, glancing around for any listeners, "it's just, I want to see the reaction of the readers, be it positive, or negative, I just like the way people look when they're reading books. And I want people to have a reaction towards my novels, the more negative, the better," he explained, sipping on his coffee once in a while, to moisten his mouth, enough to continue talking.
"Why negative attention? Wouldn't you want positive?" Berwald was now intrigued, not that he wasn't before, but now the Finn really had his attention,
"I mean, it's just amusing, it's not like they can do much, and all they're doing to drawing attention to the novel, and I'm just gaining more popularity," Tino blew the arising steam off the coffee, and sipped at it again, scalding his mouth, but shivering at the sensation,
"That's... I've never thought that way before," Berwald realized a few things about this conversation, that he hadn't before, well first of all it seemed like the Finn wasn't just a cocky erotic novelist, and also he had really nice lips.
"I was a children's writer before this, but those books didn't go far, so I went after something bigger," Tino watched the people enter, and exit the café, wondering, if one day, these people would read his books. He wished it, but didn't rely on it, he was just starting out anyways,
"Oh god, you didn't write about Barney getting a blow job, I've read enough of that already," that comment made Tino choke on his coffee, he couldn't imagine words like these flying out of the crisply dressed Swede, and it surprised him, how he said it all with a straight face. This wasn't just some publisher man, this was a man with a great sence of control of his emotions. And he wondered, what must of happened in his life, for him to be so, imitating and self-absorbed.
While on the other hand, Berwald was actually panicking, he didn't want his potential date to die on their first outing... Wait- Potential date, what was Berwald thinking, he barely knew this man, he could be a psycho killer. Well Berwald would be closer to that than Tino, but what do you know these days from appearances, especially with the Finn, no one would know that he was a dirty old man, who liked writing about -ahem- dirty kinks.
Tino looked over at the clock, that stood high on the wall behind Berwald. And it showed him that it was time for him to return home, so he coud prepare a meal for his sons, before they came home,
"It's time for me to go home," he stood up, taking his coat into his hand, and stretched his back, in a rather awkward position, that tried not to actually show that he was stretching,
"You wouldn't mind if I invited myself for dinner, would you?" Berwald stood too, shrugging his own coat on, a small smile, that could be misinterpreted as a weird twitch, appeared on his lips. Tino gulped down some saliva,
"Oh sure, of course," oh shit...