Hints

 Tino took off his shoes, setting them neatly next to some others there were, before stepping further inside. Berwald did the same, walking towards a stack of stapled papers on a table. He flipped through them quickly, pulling out a thick packet of lined paper. It was a romance--straight, to lower suspicion. He flipped through the packet, as if making sure it was the right one. Tino silently followed Berwald, peeking behind him at all those papers on his table. He sure hadn't been kidding about writing stories, and there were multiple of them! The Finn found himself wondering about how he had never known about this before during his long life, but decided that better late than never.


Berwald turned around, sure of what story it was, and held it out to Tino. " 's really l'ng, s' if you d'n't w'nt t' read 't all, you d'n't h've t'." He offered, not wanting to force the writing onto him.


"No no, I really want to!" Tino assured, taking the papers in his hands, before he searched for a nice place to make himself comfortable, plopping finally on Berwald's couch on his stomach. He quietly began to read. The Swede smiled to himself, walking over to sit next to Tino. When he sat down, he felt the same feelings he did when the Finn took his hand: lovesickness. He kept wondering when he'd be able to build up the courage to confess, and when he's be able to decided if Tino was straight or not.


Tino swung his legs back and forth, fully concentrated on the story and the plot, biting on his smile at some things the characters said. It was altogether so sweet, Tino loved to read it so much. Flipping through the pages took some time as he read it all, but in the end he got it finished, and he raised his gaze at Berwald. "Wow," was all he managed to say at first, "you're really good at this, Su-san! I loved it!"


Berwald smiled again, nodding. "Th'nk you, T'no.." Whenever he showed this type of thing to others, they said the same thing, but for some odd reason when Tino said it, it sounded ten times better.


Tino nodded, smiling brightly. "It's amazing how you've managed to come up with all those ideas! I could never", he laughed, handing the papers back to Berwald. "It was so romantic, too..! I was almost jealous of the main character sometimes!" he chuckled.


The word rung in his head. Jealous? Why would he be jealous? Berwald continued to tell himself the same thing: it didn't mean anything. Nothing meant anything love-wise with Tino. It hurt to admit it, but it would hurt worse to know he was lying to himself. He finally nodded, still very faintly smiling.


Tino chuckled, rolling to lay on his back instead on the couch. "Hmmh.." The Finn let out a thoughtful hum, glancing at Berwald. "What do you feel when you're writing stories like that?" He asked out of pure curiosity.


"I f'l... h'ppy. 't rem'nds me of..." He paused suddenly. Had he almost finished with 'you'? He needed to finish, or else Tino might get suspicious. "S'me'ne."


"Someone?" Tino tilted his head, although he felt his stomach drop a little. So Berwald had someone special for him, who he thought about while writing those beautiful sentences and plots? "Do you have a lover?" Tino asked, realizing too late his words and blushing awfully deeply. "I mean- you don't have to answer, I didn't think about it-"


Berwald might as well answer, now that the question had popped up. He nodded slightly, looking Tino right in the eyes. "I d'."


"You.. you do?" Tino asked, and he found it really hard to cover up the sadly surprised tone. "Oh, well, that's great! Who are they, do I know them?" He asked, smiling faintly, in order to look happy and to hide his slight disappointment.


"You pr'b'bly know him better than me.." He answered, making sure to add the 'him' in there.


Tino blinked - it was a male person, and someone that he knew well. "Uh.. Emil?" He asked carefully, not really sure who would he know better than what Berwald did.


Berwald shook his head. "You kn'w h'm b'tt'r th'n 'nyone on th's Earth."


Tino was genuinely confused, and a bit desperate too, because if Berwald had a lover that Tino knew that well, it'd hurt him even more. "I don't have any ideas about it anymore.." He admitted quietly.


"H'nt?"


Tino pursed his lips a little and gave him a nod.


"H' wears 'n ad'r'ble wh'te h't."

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