It was just another day at first. Normal lessons, normal lunchtime spent sitting with his Romanian friend Vlad, checking across the room to discreetly text their friend Arthur who had already graduated. There was nothing to suggest anything was going to be out of the ordinary. And yet Lukas felt a slight sense of dread as he sipped his coffee quietly.

"What are you thinking about?" Vlad asked his friend who had been staring into the cup of warm, brown beverage. The blond slowly looked over at him before placing the polystyrene cup on the round canteen table.

"I feel as if something will happen," he said matter of factly. He shrugged, tracing the circumference of the cup with his index finger. Vlad took a bite of his sandwich before speaking again.

"It's probably nothing," he reassured.

"Maybe."

As the Romanian teen began a long winded story that Lukas half listened to about Vlad and his adopted family's day out at the weekend, he decided to scan the canteen. In the corner he saw Berwald, Tino and Mathias, the two latter bright and cheerful as usual chattering endlessly, and Berwald sitting quietly watching Tino with obvious adoration. There wasn't a single sign of Emil though. Frowning, he scanned the room again. Nothing. No sign of the platinum haired boy.

He sighed taking another sip of coffee. He worried for his sibling who didn't talk to him as much as before. He didn't even know if Ice, as they had nicknamed him a while back, even had any friends at school. He rarely saw him during school hours, and even at home he often locked himself in his room, not letting anyone in. Not that Lukas was really one to talk. He did the exact same. Mathias always joked about how obvious it was that the two of them were brothers.

The bell went off, making him jump slightly. He looked at his watch, realising that lunch was over. Vlad jumped up out of his seat, rushing to pack everything away. He beckoned Lukas to hurry up. The Norwegian finished his coffee, tossing out the cup and slung his messenger bag onto his shoulder and followed his friend back to class.

Even at the bus stop Lukas still saw no sign of Emil, and on top of that he had to deal with the Dane babbling loudly next to him.

"You never sit with us anymore, Nor," the wild-haired blond complained. He poked the boy's cheek, earning a glare. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Slightly."

The sixth former crossed his arms and pouted. Lukas rolled his eyes, a light smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. The older boy could be annoying, but try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to getting angry at him for longer than a split-second. The idiot had a mind that ran on a single track. But it was a good track. He cared for them, his family, more than anything. He was, even though he would never admit it aloud, quite good-looking and had a charisma that Lukas had to train himself to ignore.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, interrupting his thoughts. He flipped it open to fins a message from Emil, saying he would be home by dinner. He bit the inside of his cheek, rereading the message. No explanation, just a plain fact. Any attempt to get something out of him would fail, he knew how stubborn his brother could be. If he had asked him to clean his room, his room wouldn't have been cleaned for another lifetime just to defy him, maybe even into the next. It was quite adorable.

He sighed, slipping the phone back into his pocket. He explained the situation to the rest of his brothers as the bus pulled up.

Throughout the whole bus journey he tried to sort his thoughts out, something he was beginning to find increasingly difficult even without the Dane being his loud, cheerful, perfect self. Scratch the perfect, the dork was far from it. Yet, even when people, namely Lukas himself, were being rather mean, he still kept up his optimistic facade. The Norwegian respected him for that, more than he would ever let slip.

From an outsider's perspective, the five of them must have looked like a group of high-maintenance teenage boys who enjoyed bickering between themselves. But they were more than best friends; they were family, tied together by bonds people could never break. Dan, Sve, Fin, Ice and Nor.

He remembered the day in which they all got those nicknames. It was a few years back, when Tino and Emil first started World High. Celebrating had ended up as a tradition that the whole household upheld – Berwald and Mathias got their celebration, then Lukas, and now Tino and Emil.

It was a Thursday but Érik had allowed them to stay up late (withing reason). They had sat down on the floor in Tino's room, if Lukas remembered correctly, with cake, fizzy drinks and popcorn. Suddenly, completely out of the blue, Mathias suggested the idea of pet names.

"Our normal names are boring," he had said, "Let's think of something different and original, that only we've thought of."

"Like what?" Tino chirped in, completely excited about the idea. Mathias scratched his chin, hoping it would make him look more thoughtful, when in reality it just made the big idiot look a tad stupid.

"We're all Nordics, right?" he leaned forward, grinning, "There are five Nordic countries, and there are five of us. The Nordic 5." The name had a ring to it, Lukas had to admit. Mathias went on to point out how all of them came from a different Nordic country as well, making the idea fit like a glove. He pointed to Berwald and Tino in turn, calling them Sve and Fin.

"What about us though, Dan?" Mathias turned his head towards Emil who had queried his plan. "Lukas and I have dual nationality, so how will we decide which of us is which?"

After a second of thought, Dan replied with a grin.

"You'll be Ice, because you're the younger of you two, just like the country. That and your unnaturally white hair fits the bill. So you're," he turned to Lukas, his eyes filled with a captivating brightness, more full of life than ever before, "Nor."

"Hey guys! Nor is smiling!" Lukas had been snapped out of his daydream by a loud, Danish voice. He composed himself, realising there had been a light smile on his lips. He refused to let his stoic portrayal slip.

"I did no such thing."

"Did too. ~"

"Dan."

Fin giggled at the two of them, who were now pushing each other – well, the Dane was going for a hug, Lukas was pushing him away – the Finn's violet eyes enlivened.

"What were you thinking about, Nor?"

The Norwegian finally managed to push the older boy away, and straightened out his school blazer. He tucked a lock of blond hair behind his ear before slowly reminding the other three of the memory.

"That feels like so long ago," Tino mused, to which Berwald and Mathias nodded. It had been almost three years after all.

"Our stop," Lukas stated, moving towards the gangway. They thanked the bus driver, before making their way home. It was a nice, short walk that Lukas always looked forward to. While Mathias and Tino ran ahead, releasing all their excess energy which they seemed to have an unlimited amount of, he and Berwald stayed in a tranquil silence. From the back he had a clear view of the two energetic boys. Berwald was also often consumed in watching the two race home. Usually.

"D' you like him?" The tall Swede placed the question on the table so suddenly that Lukas was caught completely off guard.

"Pardon?"

"Mathias." The Norwegian's face portrayed an image of light shock. He bit the inside of his cheek.

"No, where did you get that idea."

"Th' way you look at him." When Lukas questioned what that meant, he added, "Yer eyes have a shine to them, 'nd there's a smile on yer lips."

"Not true," he looked up at him, Berwald's eyes were focused on the two figures ahead, his eyes light. His whole posture was completely relaxed. He was only that way around one person.

"I could say the same thing about you and Tino."

The Swede nodded. "You could." He outright admitted it. In a way, Lukas envied his confidence on the subject. He knew exactly what he felt; Lukas didn't. He had mixed feelings about his best friend. Did he really find him annoying, or was he just lying to himself?

"Hey Nor!" He looked over in the direction of the voice and saw the Dane waving enthusiastically at him. "Come on!"

Lukas rolled his eyes, but the corners of his lips were faintly raised. He and Berwald approached the house at a gentle pace, to the place where the two Nordics stood. The door was slightly ajar, and the four could hear a scuttling from down the corridor, followed by loud yapping.

"Hana!" Tino kneeled down and let the dog run into his arms. The Finn laughed as the little pup licked his face. "I missed you too, girl." He petted the puppy's head before setting her back inside the house. The little Maltese pup ran down the corridor into the kitchen, followed by the four teenagers. Mathias dumped his bag on the floor next to the heater and reclined on the sofa in the living room. He made eye contact with Lukas through the open doorway. The Norwegian raised his eye brow.

"What?"

After a moment of silent debate with himself, he answered, "Nothing." He began to make his way up the narrow stairs to his room, when Mathias' words made him stop in his tracks.

"Play something for me." The boy turned around, features twisted in confusion. "Please."

"I have coursework."

"Please, Nor," the Dane pleaded, getting up off the couch. He followed him, and Lukas knew that even when he closed the door on him, he didn't leave. Just sat in silence outside his door.

Stressing out completely, he felt like it was impossible to concentrate on the strings of letters on the paper in front of him. With a sigh, he got up from his desk, and slumped down on the floor, his back against the door.

"Why are you so persistent about finding out about the violin?" he asked the air, knowing the wild-haired blond would hear him from the other side.

"We live together," he heard the Dane's voice, muffled by the wood of the door, "You're my brother and my best friend, but I barely know anything about your past. About before I met you."

"Does it really matter?"

A minute seemed to pass before he replied. "I guess not." They sat back to back with only the door between them for what felt like an eternity, before Dan asked a question he hadn't expected. "Do you trust me?"

He shuffled around, opening the door just enough to make contact with eyes that he swore were the sky. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'd trust you with my life, but I sometimes wonder whether you'd do the same." He thought about that for a brief moment, before getting up to open the door completely. The boy looked up at him from the floor, gaze curious.

"Get up, bror." Retrieving his valued instrument, he sat down on his pristine bed. Mathias sat down next to him, eyes focused on Lukas' face rather than on the violin.

"It was a present," Lukas began uncertainly. He hadn't spoken about his past family much for so many years, that all his words clenched up in his throat. "From my dad."

"Your dad?"

Lukas nodded. He spoke of how the four of them had lived a modest life in Lofoten; his father a fisherman, mother a shopkeeper. His father visited Iceland a lot. One time, he brought back the beautiful instrument home with him for Lukas' third birthday. His mother wasn't pleased that he had bought him it instead of something that a child usually enjoyed, like toys, but he had a natural flair for the instrument even at such a young age, though it was too big and heavy at the time. His mother, who had played the instument herself in her childhood, taught him all she knew. He played at special ocassions, like birthdays and Christmas, and his dad always praised him with a bright smile that made wrinkles appear at the corners of his eyes. Those moments the nicest of his memories from before dad died.

Mathias listened carefully, silently. When Lukas had finished, he placed a large hand on the polished wood of the violin.

"So that's what it means to you."

"It's all the good I have left to remember dad with."

They sat in silence, thinking to themselves.

"You have us now." He looked at Mathias who was grinning his stereotypical grin. Without warning, he wrapped his arms around the Norwegian's body in a tight, warm, slightly suffocating embrace. Lukas tried to struggle free without damaging the instrument on his lap, one hand on the Dane's face, trying to push him away, but failing.

Snatching the violin, Mathias placed it safely on the ground, before locking his hands around Lukas' wrists, pinning him to the bed. The younger boy wore an expression of obvious annoyance, which became mixed with slight anxiety as he noticed the Dane's mischievous smirk.

He tried to control it but he couldn't. It was too much. Mathias knew exactly where to tickle him to make him burst into an out of character fit of laughter that brought tears to his eyes.

"See, now we're happy," the Dane laughed, continuing to tickle the younger male.

"I swear I'm going to kill you," Lukas chocked through laughter. When Mathias finally ceased to tickle him, his chest heaved from weariness. If he wasn't so tired he would have kicked the Dane into the ground. Or, that's what he told himself was the reason why he hadn't protested about the man's position on top of him, eyes connected, with less than a metre between their faces.

"I'll give you a 10 second head start before I murder you," he breathed heavily, his eyes wandering across the other's face.

"Sorry to interrupt," both their heads snapped in the direction of the doorway in which stood a shaken Tino, his face flushed. Realising what the situation must have looked like, Lukas pushed the other boy off, his cheeks feeling warm.

"What is it, Fin?" he asked walking over to the younger boy. Mathias joined him, his face a painting of worry.

Tino looked Lukas straight into his eyes, and they sole sight of them without the message made his heart crack with worry.

"It's Ice."

Second time uploading, hopefully this time the chapter will not do the same thing as last time. Please rate, it means a lot.