Having the Flu SUCKS. (Den+Est)

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

As Mathias pulled his shirt over his head in his first period gym class, he wondered how he had managed to pull himself out of bed that morning. It almost seemed like the whole entire night he couldn’t sleep, and it wasn’t until about four am that he was finally able to lay his head down and stop tossing and turning for a moment, only for his alarm to wake him up two and a half hours later. And it was weird too, because usually Mathias found it quite easy to fall asleep.

He was beginning to think he had a cold sometime last week while the school was rearranging the dorms from co-ed to divided because of issues with the only one bathroom and sexual intercourse disturbing—never mind, either way, Mathias felt extremely weak helping the two new kids moving into his dorm. He was sneezing almost non-stop, he felt achy all over, and his nose was stuffed. On top of that… one of the kids that was moving into his dorm was that weird technopathic kid whose camera he had broken. And boy… did that kid have a lot of nice things. Nice things that Mathias was absolutely positively terrified of breaking. The other guy, well the other just scared him out of his mind. With his glares and mutterings and… well, just all around weirdness.

Eventually he was feeling so parched that he decided he couldn’t handle it anymore and he plopped into his bed, and took like a ten minute nap before he woke up feeling even worse than he did before, so he decided to move out onto the roof, where he stayed until it got dark. It was like the fresh air made him feel a bit better, but the second he moved back indoors, things got worse again. He felt dizzy and sick, and it was this that kept him from drifting to sleep as quickly as he normally did. In fact, tossing and turning and sneezing all night, Mathias wondered idly if he had kept any of his roommates up, as he would’ve sincerely felt bad if he had somehow made Eduard’s opinion of him worse after their first meeting. He didn’t even want to think of what the other guy thought of him, and honestly, he already knew what Kiku thought of him.

But after getting his two hours of sleep, and waking up to a pressing feeling against his face, he knew he was sick. He could hardly stand up without feeling extremely dizzy, and yet somehow, he still found himself bumbling around awkwardly in the changing room, hardly even noticing what he was putting on or even the rate he was doing it at, even less that he was the last person outside on the track, when normally he was one of the first. Especially on what they called “running days,” which was what today was. They spent the entire period either one, running a lap, and then walking a lap, or two, running the straights and walking the curves. Mathias had always been more partial to the first option himself, and even though he felt like he was going to die at any given moment, he decided to continue with his usual plan.

And oh boy was that a horrible idea if there ever was one. In fact it was probably the worst idea Mathias had ever had… EVER and that was saying quite a bit, because as he got further and further along the track, he was beginning to find that the colors were meshing together, and his head was spinning. The headache he had woken up with seemed to spread down his entire body, and though it was probably what one would consider an extremely hot day, somehow, someway, the lightest of breezes was enough to send shivers down Math’s back. Shoot… how could he let himself get sick!? How could he let this happen!? It was like he never ever got sick, but every time he did get sick, it was like an evil death flu that wanted to take his life.

The second reached the furthest end of the track from the school by some bushes, was when it all hit him, and he let out a slight cry for his mother, before that icy cold feeling enveloped his entire body, and he plopped weakly to the ground.

[eesti]

Gym class was truly the bane of Eduard's life.

It wasn't that he wasn't athletic.. It was appropriate though, because he really wasn't. There was just also a large amount of other reasons that he didn't like gym. Like the heat! And the sun. And... How it was always requiring him to do things like move, when really he had no energy for anything besides sitting at a desk for hours at a time. Yeah, maybe it had something to do with his aversion to eating... But sitting around didn't take much energy, so, he didn't move and he didn't eat and everything was fine.

He'd also managed to be able to sit out this gym class as well. He'd told the teacher an excuse about some sort of unwell feeling--which he may or may not have blamed on his roommate, who Eduard was pretty sure was ill these days--and just like that, he'd been allowed to sit out. They'd already walked out to the track anyways, it would have made no sense to send a kid who just obviously wanted to be excused and be indoors to turn right around. Although he was normally an insomniac, resting easily enough on just a few hours of sleep, he'd hardly gotten any last night thanks to the new roommate. Why, out of all people, had he been destined to get stuck with Mathias?

Okay, so Mathias wasn't all that bad of a guy. He did seem to like cooking sweets, and the Estonian teen did like sweets--who in the world didn't, anyway--so there was usually an odd cookie, cake, or Danish to nibble on. But he just didn't seem all that well lately, always sneezing or sniffling or doing some other annoying thing that was part of why Eduard's night was restless.

Eduard, seated in the grass just a yard or so from the track, picked idly at a stray cat hair on his bluejeans.

He glanced at the track, trying to spot the Danish kid out of the pack. Perhaps that was why Mathias was having such a hard time breathing and not sneezing lately. Somehow, Eduard just attracted wild cats, he always did. They were everywhere in Estonia, but when he'd came across a tiny little kitten last week, he knew that there was no way he'd just let it stay out when it's mother was nowhere around. The cute little thing wasn't very old, just at the cusp of being able to eat solid foods.

Since it was small and more importantly quiet, he'd snuck it in to his dorm room and had been hiding it in his bedroom ever since. The small darling was outstandingly fluffy and caramel colored, with wild tufts framing his head that Eduard gave it the name Mati. Sure, it was the Estonian variant of Mathias, but.. Mathias would never find out about it! It wasn't Mati's fault that Mathias' hair looked like he been hit by lightning, and Mati bore an odd resemblance to him, but he didn't want to seem strange for naming an animal after Mathias. After all, he was still terribly cautious of the Dane and his unstable powers... Every time Mathias even walked by his room, he silently prayed nothing would break.

Even though the kitten was more than content only sleeping on Eduard's pillow and staying on his bed, sleeping in his clothes hamper when Eduard was in bed--all for the better, so he couldn't smoosh it, but... Maybe Mathias was allergic to cats and little Mati had spread his fur dandruff around with Eduard's help.

Well...

Oops.

At least he didn't have to face Mathias much. This was their only class together, and, he figured it couldn't take all too much longer before gym class was over. He was glancing down at his watch before he heard a dull thud.

Looking back up, the Estonian was shocked. There was just a huddled.. mass of Dane on the ground, not too far from him. Hurrying to his feet, he quickly strode over to the track. Most everyone else was far ahead, and Eduard looked around.

Oh God, that can't be allergies, what if he's hurt really bad and there's not anybody else around and--

He was nervous. He was a sidekick, how was he supposed to help anyone, especially when his powers didn't relate to healing at all? Rushing to be at his side, the Estonian knelt down next to him and meekly shoved at Mathias' shoulder.

"U-uh... Ae, Mathias, are... you okay?"

It was a stupid question, but what else was he supposed to ask?!

"Do you need me to get someone?" His voice kept rising out of shock and anxiety. "Please, um, you're not dying or something are you?!"

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Damn. It. All. To. Hell. He couldn’t have been that weak to just /collapse/ could he? Just because his heart was racing and when he cracked open his eyes there were about two or three different levels of the reddish-brown rubbery track that he was used to did not mean that he was too weak to be able to handle himself did it? No way! …Ouch…Mathias quickly pushed his eyes together to chase away the brightness of the sun. Maybe if he just died there on the track he’d have a good reason to miss out on science class other than simply telling the teacher that he was, “talking to the principal” or that he was “feeling really queasy.” He was starting to wonder if the teacher even believed him when he told her that he was speaking to the principal. He doubted it, but that was beside the point, because now someone was tapping his shoulder, messing with him.

Quite frankly though, it wasn’t the fact that his shoulder was being nudged that surprised him… no, it was when he flipped onto his back and saw who it was that was doing the tugging that surprised him. Or maybe it wasn’t that that was surprising him so much, and he was just imagining that it was Eduard who came to help him because he wanted Eduard to come over. Which may have been a bit creepy on his part, and he knew it, but after all, Mathias did get stuck in a gym class with a bunch of people he didn’t know, and while he was by no means an unpopular kid, he didn’t know anyone else in the class besides Eduard.

He then realized that he had failed to answer Eduard’s questions for about a minute, in favor of shutting his eyes against the light. Shoot. Now Eduard really was going to think he was dying and it was all his fault, “Ah—um… I’ll be fine… just tell the coach that I went to the nurse would you?” He flipped over once again and tried to pull himself upwards, “H-hey... Could you help me up?” Normally he really didn’t ever need help getting up. Which probably meant that whatever disease or virus he might’ve contracted was a lot worse than he thought at the beginning of the week when he’d first begun to develop the sniffles.

But he was sure that as queer as Eduard was, he definitely wasn’t a bad guy, and probably did the best he could, so Mathias had respect for that, and he hoped that he wasn’t asking too much by asking Eduard to pull him up. It wasn’t as if Eduard was the one laying on his stomach in the middle of the track anyway.
“A-actually never mind… just go tell the coach…” He let out a deep breath of air, and pushed himself slowly onto his knees, “I think I’m not going to die, so I’ll see you later!” He grinned widely towards Eduard, nudged his knee with his foot, and began to pace away from the Estonian before he was even able to get a word in edgewise.

But he didn’t manage to get far at all before— using his half-shut eyes—he managed to navigate himself directly into a large pole. He hadn’t the slightest idea how he missed it, after all, it was bright yellow in color, but either way, his ramming into it managed to create quite the loud noise and it only succeeded in sending him flying back into the grass, landing once more, with a thud.

Ouch. Now that was what hurt like hell. He rolled onto his side, and grabbed a hold of his nose, which was beginning to ache dully. Now he really needed help getting back up… it was even quite hard the first time… “Eduardddddd..” He whined, “I lied, can you help me up this time for real? I ran into the…the… big yellow pole!” Of course said, “big yellow pole” was actually the large goal that many American football players used to kick their footballs into, but as of now, Mathias was more focused on the fact he literally felt like he was going to die if he didn’t get to the nurse soon.

“Can you walk me too the nurse as wellll…?” He added as an afterthought, hoping that Eduard really wouldn’t mind helping him out. He felt like he didn’t have to worry about that kind of stuff with Eduard, because even though the technopath had some nice electronic-stuff, he didn’t seem like some kind of spoiled brat that wouldn’t help a friend—could they even be called that? – or roommate in need of it.

He actually sincerely hoped that he wasn't just making himself look like a complete idiot in the process of all of this.

[eesti]

Eduard immediately stepped back when Mathias turned over and looked at him. The poor kid--well, Mathias wasn't that much of a kid but--the poor kid just looked so sick and weak, he couldn't help but feel bad for him. Nervously crossing his arms over his chest, he waited for Mathias' response. And it seemed like it was taking him a really long time to come up with something....

What if he was brain damaged or something?

He hadn't seen the Danish teen fall, so maybe when he fell, he'd fallen on his head and now he'd probably black out or something! Eduard furrowed his brow, really hoping that Mathias wasn't that bad off. It would really be awful to have to get another roommate after he'd just switched, and--

Letting out a quick exhale as the Dane finally talked, he felt a bit better. Mathias was alive! That was a relief, but, his weak plea for Eduard to inform the coach of his illness was... well, weak. The poor thing couldn't even get up off of the ground, and his features softened as he uncrossed his arms. Trying to figure out what he could to do help the blonde up--he had never been in this situation before where he had to help someone out, much less someone who was larger than him--the Estonian just kind of awkwardly shuffled about.

"I... Um, what do you want me to do?"

At least he was relinquished from his duty of having to help the other without having done anything, Mathias apparently having decided he didn't need help after all. It made him feel well, a bit useless. Apparently he wasn't as heroic as he thought that he could be, because without any regards to Eduard at all, the Dane just grinned, got himself up, and was off on his way.

And Eduard was just left dumbfounded, standing just beside the track with instructions to tell the teacher still that Mathias was wondering off.

It was already a bit more excitement than he was used to in a day, but then again, whenever Mathias was around... Things always seemed to turn out that way. He awkwardly turned around, adjusted his glasses, and scratched at the side of his head. Why was Mathias so strange?

But before he even had time to contemplate, he jumped the very second he heard the loud noise and accompanying thud.

He was almost afraid to turn around again, but he slowly did.

Mathias was on the ground again, this time rolling around in the grass.

Apparently, he was also five years old and Eduard couldn't keep his eyes off of him lest he harm himself.

He was also now sounding like a five year old, whining and calling out for Eduard's help. Hesitantly, the Estonian walked up to him, and this time kneeled down beside the other. He glanced up at the goal post and wondered just how Mathias didn't see it, but figured it wouldn't be much use to think much about it. It was Mathias, after all.

"I think they call it a goal post..."

That was saying something, considering he was supposed to be the nerd, and Mathias was supposed to be the amazing-at-sports-with-girls-all-over-him popular guy. After correcting him, he offered a hand down to Mathias.

It wasn't like he was really looking for an excuse to stay in gym class, but he really did consider taking the other to the coach and passing him along the chain of command. Who knew how long Mathias would need to cling on to him and need someone to stop him from hurting himself? But he still attempted to grab the Dane's hand, sighing in the process.

"I could bring you to the nurse. She'll probably just tell you to get some rest though."

He almost wanted to add on because it seems like you have allergies, but wasn't quite sure what to think after the entire falling and walking in to large objects thing. All of it might of just been Mathias being Mathias though. Eduard tried to tug him up, hoping that the Dane at least had enough strength left to help Eduard help him.

"Just please... Don't black out on me or anything while we're walking."

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Mathias once more blinked upwards when Eduard moved over to him for a second time. He wanted to be silly and make some kind of joke about their meetings always involved him getting into trouble of some kind, this technically being like the third time. The second time being when he first fell down, but he kept that to himself. Now wasn’t really the time to be making jokes was it? Especially with him lying on his back defenseless in the grass. That was not to say he wasn’t quite notorious for making jokes at the wrong time, but, even he knew that this wasn’t the time.

“Well yeah…” Mathias blinked, “Of course they call it a goal post... but it’s also a big yellow pole so it works in that respect as well…” Now Mathias had said some weird things in his day, and he knew it, but when it got to the point where he was talking theoretically about goal posts without so much as a second thought about it, there was obviously something up. He wanted to go back and erase his stupid comments, but now he knew that it was much too late to do so. He was forever destined to continually embarrass himself in front of Eduard, even when something inside of him wanted to look good in front of his Estonian acquaintance…not that he could possibly look good right now. His hair probably looked like some kind of unstyled mess, and he probably had huge bags under his eyes and oh God what if he that stinky sick people’s breath!? He made sure to brush his teeth like eighty times that morning. Well not that he didn’t do that every morning—but he made extra sure of it this morning! He suddenly covered his mouth and did a quick breath test, but was relieved to find only the usual minty smell… and his hair couldn’t have been that bad because he styled it at least somewhat… right? His foggy mind was preventing him from remembering and it was starting to piss him off.

But in the long run, Mathias shook away his worrying thoughts and helped Eduard help him up, “Black out on you… why would I do something like that!? Come on… I may seem sick but I’m not all that sick!” Which may have been quite an understatement, because the Dane could only remember about two or three times he’d ever been “sick” and every single time it was something along the lines of what he had right now. Except… right now… he honestly felt more terrible than he could ever remember feeling in his entire life. And he didn’t want to admit it… even if he was just admitting it in his head, but he wanted someone to sit with him and hold him close to them until he felt better. But he could only think of one person even remotely willing to do that, and that was his mom, and she’d probably just tell him that he was an adult now and that adults could nurse themselves back to health! Well mother, there were times when he just wanted to be held and cared for, and this time was one of them.

Mathias began to walk towards the nurses office, not even realizing that he was leaning quite heavily upon Eduard until they were about halfway there. He was still managing to halfway carry himself along, but he knew that Edward was probably going to hate having deciding to have helped him out after this. He didn’t really want that. Not at all really, so he turned his head to the side and quickly uttered a, “Thank you for helping me out!” and secretly planned to himself to find out what Eduard’s favorite treat was somehow, because he was definitely going to repay him for this. Heck, Mathias didn’t even give Eduard the chance to tell the gym/training coaches that they were walking to the nurses office… he just sort of… led him there himself.

When they reached the nurses office, Mathias pulled himself away from Eduard, and glanced at him a moment, “I guess you can just go back to gym now then…” He smiled lightly and scratched at the back of his head a bit. He didn’t really want Eduard to leave… he really didn’t, but after all, Mathias had attributed to him skipping yet another class, and that was probably all Eduard was going to have ingrained in his mind about his new roommate, was that he was the “sick kid who made me skip class the only two times we ever hung out.”

But once again he shook away his troubling thoughts and paced into the nurses office… only to immerge out after the nurse told him that he should contact his parents and tell them that he had gotten a bad flu and would be taking some medicine to help make it better, but that he was excused from classes until she deemed it was okay. On top of that she said something about getting a lot of rest. Of course she did… that was what they all said. He glanced sadly at the ground a moment, vaguely annoyed to find that it was still spinning and that he still felt like he was going to collapse at any moment.

[eesti]

"...But no one calls it a big yellow pole. It's not the same... ...Well, you're sick, I'll forgive you for your English for now."

Yes, Mathias was full of stupid comments but that was just expected of him. Eduard was pretty certain that the other man was quite different from other seemingly popular kids. As far as the Estonian was concerned, the Dane was pretty eccentric in all of his own ways regardless of what other people thought. Not that it excused his questionable hold over the English language, but, it was a start in explaining things.

Eccentric indeed though, as he plainly could see the other cover his own mouth. He quirked an eyebrow, wondering what in the world Mathias could be doing as he was supposed to be heading off to the nurse. It was almost as if he was too preoccupied with other things to even get off of the ground, and well, Eduard just sort of stared at him. Especially when he tried commenting on the entirely plausible suggestion that Mathias might black out or something, considering he'd already collasped twice. ...Disregarding that one reason behind his collasping was entirely his own fault, though.

"You're sick... Who knows what you'll do? Please don't throw up on me either."

They weren't entirely outlandish requests, were they? He wasn't used to dealing with sick people, and he certainly didn't want some sick person to get sick on him... At least Mathias was lucid, because he sort of just went along and followed Mathias to the office instead. It wasn't like a gym teacher was an actual teacher anyways, he didn't feel entirely indebted to run off and tell the coach where they were going. If he asked later, if anyone asked, well, he was doing an absolutely heroic deed and helping a completely helpless hero to the nurses' office! A hero was helpless, and here Eduard was, helping him. Yep, Eduard was the best sidekick of them all today. This would be something to brag about later, even though... He wasn't doing much.

Well, he was letting Mathias lean on him. At least the other smelled minty fresh and not like an actual sick person. When the other turned toward him and mumbled his thanks, Eduard actually gave a small smile. He immediately tried to surpress it, not wanting to show that he was being so.. receptive to the thanks. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do, because if he did, rest assured that Mathias would have been pawned off to someone else. He stayed silent rather than respond though, but it was of course nice to know Mathias wasn't just taking him for granted.

At least they reached their destination soon enough. It was kind of a shame when Mathias had to pull away, consideirng he'd gotten used to the weight on his side and the warmth that the other man brought. Eduard just sort of awkwardly smiled as well, giving a small shrug.

"I can wait until they give a verdict on you at least. I wasn't running or anything today."

Nor would he really be running any day, but... He'd already skipped out on class, it was probably already evident he was gone, so... Why not just wait a little longer?

It at least didn't take that long. Mathias ducked in to the office and came back out not too long after, and the Estonian had just... stood around to wait. When Mathias did come out, though, Eduard half expected the other to start accusing him, because, there was always that slight chance it was just allergies or something, but instead he seemed more.. melancholic.

"So, um... What was it?"

Eduard noticed the flash of sadness in his eyes, and he frowned. Maybe the nurse accused him of lying or something, which would be easy for her to say because she didn't have to live with his constant sick-noises--even if they were mostly sneezing.

Taking a step closer, he place a hand sympathetically on Mathias' cheek, trying to tilt his head back up a bit.

"It can't be that bad, can it? Did she give you forty-eight hours to live?"

It was a weak attempt at a joke, but, well... Something about seeing the Dane sad didn't sit right with him. He didn't like it, and he most certainly didn't want to see that face again.

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

“So, um… what was it?”

Mathias jumped into the air a bit at the sound of Eduard’s voice. It was probably bad to say this, but he hadn’t expected Eduard to stick around at all. Which probably wasn’t exactly fair for him to be thinking, but he had… and now he was kind of regretting it a bit. Eduard did stick around, and Mathias had made the fatal mistake of not giving him enough credit. After all, Eduard did help him out, so maybe he wanted to see if the person he helped was going to get better after all or if he was going to end up being dead the next or something… well good news for Eduard, he wasn’t going to die.

But before Mathias even got a chance to answer really, Eduard was onto his second question.

"It can't be that bad, can it? Did she give you forty-eight hours to live?"

And once again, Eduard had a hold of his face. Boy this kid was stealthy. Why did Eduard always have to grab his face when he was off-guard? It wasn’t that he actually minded the face grabbing so much as the fact he wasn’t expecting it either time it had happened. He hadn’t ever really thought of Eduard as the unpredictable type, but maybe he really was a lot more unpredictable than Mathias thought originally. Still either way, Mathias found that when Eduard actually did pull his face upwards in that manner, it was a lot more calming than he ever imagined, and weirdly enough, he could feel his cheeks heat up a bit. Although he wasn’t sure if he was blushing because he felt somewhat embarrassed about this, or if it was just his flu acting up on him, but either way, Mathias stared at Eduard’s arms awkwardly for a moment, which stretched into a long time, which seemed to stretch into infinity, but was actually only a very short amount of time. He was about to reach up and grab Eduard’s arm as well, but just as his fingers began to wrap around Eduard’s wrist, that funny sensation began to fill his nose and, and…

A loud sneeze erupted from his lips, and luckily enough for Eduard, Mathias managed to pull the crook of his elbow up quickly enough to keep Eduard from being covered in “sick.” That was a close one. He was just glad he had fairly quick reflexes, because if he didn’t have them, then poor Eduard would probably have a whole lot of “sick” on his glasses, and Mathias was unsure how the boy would react to that.

But the good thing about his sneezing was that it broke the awkward moment and gave Mathias a chance to fumble with the small pills the nurse had given him a moment, before he glanced back towards Eduard, this time trying to crack a smile despite his present situation, “… If I only have forty-eight hours to live then I’d better get to work on those thank you cookies I was going to make you!” Of course he definitely wasn’t feeling up to making cookies at the present moment, but once he felt better he would get right to work again.

He lifted his foot into the air and attempted to turn around quickly towards the dorms…needless to say, that was a bad idea if he’d ever had one, because this time he didn’t collapse or blackout or anything, he simply was just overwhelmed with dizziness, and he bent over and placed his hands on his knees and let out a few deep breaths of air to try and qualm it, but to no avail. This headache was really starting to make his life hell…

“Hey Eduard?” He whined one last time, “Can you please help me to the dorm too? I know you don’t like skipping classes and all that… but, you can go right back this time!” He pulled himself up as best as he could and held his hands up in defense, “I know my charming good lucks are enough to keep anyone around, but, it wouldn’t bother me none if you just helped me get to my bed so I can sleep… ” He slipped the medicine into the pocket of his basketball shorts and blinked slowly before adding, “I-if you don’t mind of course!” He scratched the back of his head and waited for Eduard to give him an answer.

((I made it so that Eduard could do the puppeting this time. orz I feel like I'm always being like the master of the puppets sooooo... orz))

[eesti]

Why couldn't Mathias just come up with a response?

No, instead, the Danish kid had to just stare at him like an idiot and it made Eduard feel very awkward. He never put his hands on anyone for any reason just about, and now that he actually felt bold enough to do something like place a hand on Mathias' face, the kid was being quiet. The questions hadn't of been that hard, right?... Maybe the nurse just accused him of faking it or something and he was being told to suck it up and get back out on the field and run until he collapsed again...

Mathias' cheeks were turning red, which wasn't a good sign. The Estonian immediately started to assume it was the fault of a fever, because if he was really that sick, a fever would be right up there....

But no, instead, Mathias pulled away and sneezed.

He just sneezed and thankfully, had been able to catch himself. That could have been a whole lot worse, but, well... At least Mathias hadn't started throwing up or anything. It still caused Eduard to withdraw his own hands pretty quickly, rubbing one against the back of his neck and taking a step back. Why was it every time he thought he was having a slight moment with the other, that... Mathias himself ruined it? It was kind of suspicious, a guy like that nearly acting just as awkward as he could be... They should have switched places or something.

When he brought up the subject of cookies, however, Eduard just had to put his foot down at any mention of those considering Mathias' state.

"Oh, umn, no, you don't have to make cookies for me or anything! That's okay, really. Please don't, I'm uhm... diabetic."

Maybe when the time came and Mathias wasn't sick anymore, he'd willingly accept cookies. He liked cookies. He liked cookies very much, because they were usually very sweet, and he really liked sugary things... A lot. One of his favorite desserts even was just egg yolk mixed with sugar, but.. he couldn't run the risk of Mathias ever cooking for him with how he was now, and he knew how sometimes sick people liked to try and be productive (like running track, for example) to pass the time while all they did was pass their germs on.

When he was better, though, Eduard could just tell him that the whole diabetic thing was a product of his delirious ill mind.

Things weren't as planned though as Mathias tricd to stalk off and Eduard noticed it seemed as if he was unable to. The whining, inevitably, came right after.

Mathias really thought that Eduard didn't like skipping math class? He was sorely mistaken. All of his other classes today, even, they were just the run of the mill sidekick classes that he (or anyone, really) could accomplish in their sleep. So if Mathias needed him....

"Well, if you really can't handle yourself."

That was his response only after listening to everything the other had to say, watching the way that he sort of just pathetically held himself together. The Estonian felt pretty bad for him at that point actually. He cautiously--not wanting to get sneezed on again--approached the other, placing a hand very carefully on his shoulder.

"I don't mind escorting you back. We don't want you dying on the floor on your way back alone, do we?"

With that, he gave a small smile and gently rubbed the portion of Mathias' shoulder that his hand was on. He urged the other ahead with a small push from his hand, glad that it wasn't all that long of a walk back anyways.

"It's just not because of your dashing looks or your charm or anything, though. So don't take it the wrong way."

Yes, the other student hadn't actually said anything about dashing good looks, but Eduard was certainly thinking it the entire time. Normally Mathias was what... regular other students would consider above normal in the looks department (and Eduard also, he just didn't like to consider himself regular) but the illness baring down on him made him sort of... cute and helpless. Like the kittens that Eduard just couldn't leave out on the streets to die or be eaten by bigger cats...

This was the only thing on his mind as he escorted the other to the dorms. Being sick also meant that Mathias was quieter than usual--aside from occasional sick noises--which was really a win on Eduard's part.

When they reached the dorms after Eduard fretting every second that the other would keel over or something, he was washed with relief that he didn't.

"Back home already, and there's plenty of time to miss more classes." He mumbled jokingly as he opened the door for the Dane.

Unfortunately, he was able to see inside as well and notice a certain furry little animal rolling around on the floor with what looked like one of Eduard's good ties. He nervously bit down on his bottom lip, figuring that he must not have shut his bedroom door as securely as he thought he had earlier but now the cat was out of the bag. Figuratively, and... semi-seriously.

"...U-uh, well, you should just head to your room..."

He mumbled, hoping that Mathias wasn't immediately drawn to the tiny invader.


_{(I puppeted ;___; and thus demand nurse!kitty mati ;______________; it'sfivethirtyamsob)}

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

It wasn’t until they reached the room did Mathias realize that Eduard had said he was diabetic. Funny… Eduard didn’t really seem like he was diabetic. But then again Eduard was kind of the nerdy type so Mathias wouldn’t have put it past him to have something like that… either way, Mathias knew that as soon as he got better he was going to bake some cookies… he would just have to find out what diabetics ate. Diabetics weren’t allowed to eat regular food were they? Agh… he wasn’t sure… he’d just have to look it up later. Although he had no idea how he’d do it without getting caught… seeing as how he’d probably need the internet for that. Oh well… he’d figure it out eventually. For now… just thinking about his bed was enough to make him realize that he was listening to almost nothing that the other was saying... oh great… now he felt like a complete jerk.

At least he was well aware of the fact that if Eduard were to come to a stop, he’d probably either, one, fall asleep right then and there, or two, lose his balance and plop directly to the ground, then go to sleep, curled up on the floor of the dorm. He really didn’t care what he did.

"...U-uh, well, you should just head to your room..."

Mathias blinked, and pulled himself away from Eduard a moment. He began to pace away without thinking, before he realized how stupid he was for not saying thank you properly. He said thank you once before, but Eduard was continuing to help him, despite the fact that Mathias really wouldn’t stop whining… and for that reason alone it was enough to warrant a second thank you. With that being said, Mathias quickly turned on his heal back towards Eduard, took a few steps forward, before he wrapped his arms around Eduard’s waist and tugged on him tightly, “Thank you very much!” He stated, surprised at the excitement that came from his voice, even though he knew that someone would be able to hear the nasal-ness of it if they listened carefully, not that it was a big deal to him.

Yeah. Eduard seemed to be a really nice person… once you got past the awkwardness. On top of that he was pretty, so while Mathias probably would’ve hugged just about everyone, he felt as though Eduard did deserve to be hugged. Although Mathias knew that Eduard probably felt somewhat odd about it, so it wasn’t very long before he pulled away, and grinned weakly at him, before he turned around to be greeted by what looked like a completely… adorable ball of fluff rolling around on the floor with a tie.

A cat? Were cats even allowed in the dorm rooms? Wasn’t there some kind of policy against that? Mathias narrowed his eyes at it a moment, before he grinned, and completely forgetting that he was supposed to be allergic to cats, he ran over to it, and kneeled next to it, and snatched the tie away from its grips, only to watch as the kitten seemed baffled a moment, before it jumped after the thing playfully. Mathias could feel himself starting to laugh, as he lifted the tie into the air as quickly as he could for the small thing to hop after. The cat hopped into the air and dug its nails into the tie, clinging to it tightly, before it began to slid down a bit, causing certain small rips in the tie’s surface. Mathias let out a gasp, before setting the tie on the ground, and nudging the cat away from it. Oops. Whose tie was this anyway? He flipped the thing over multiple times before he noticed a small tag with the initials ‘EvB’ written in lose handwriting.

“Shoot!” He uttered, slapping his hand to his forehead, and this was just silly. Was he forever destined to screw up Eduard’s belongings? Not that the small rips in the tie were all that noticeable, but either way, the tie actually did look somewhat nice… although Mathias wouldn’t ever really be able to tell because he’d always figured that ties were just ties, and whether they were fancy or not was just stupid and useless. Plus he only owned like three ties that he wore consistently, and they all matched the school uniform, on top of the fact that he had used the same ones since freshman year… he didn’t see the need in getting the fancy ones when the regular ones worked just as – as—

He let out another sudden ferocious sneeze. This time though, he knew what it was from… and it wasn’t from his sickness. The small creature below him gave him the answer very clearly. And the sudden fact that he was unable to breathe through his nose at all, only proved to make matters worse.

But the cat was so cute! He leave it just yet… but then again… it was only making things worse for him. And he knew it was… oh well! He laid down on the ground on his stomach, and continued to use Eduard’s tie to sleepily play with the kitten.

And it wasn’t until he was halfway through dozing out did he realize that he had no clue where this cat even came from or who it belonged to… although… he was getting ideas… not that he really minded right now. He lowered his arm to his side and dropped the tie in front of the cat before he placed the side of his cheek on the floor and looked at the cat a moment.

“You… you look… kind of like me…” He stated under his breath to the kitten trying to keep himself awake, “Is your name Mathias too?” He didn’t even really know what he was saying anymore. But it was true that the kitten did look a lot like him… well as much as a cat could possibly look like a human.

He pulled his hand over the small kittens body and brushed across it gently, before he suddenly realized that he was completely ignoring Eduard. How silly of him, “Eduard… I know this cat is yours, but don’t worry! I won’t tell anyone!” He felt his eyes beginning to flutter off, “What’s his name?”

[eesti]

Eduard just stood and waited for the Dane to run off to bed, because hopefully he could understand what was good for him. Since it had been so drastic that the other man nearly passed out after running around... But no, again, Mathias was just walking slowly and...

And then, Mathias turned right back around. Before he knew it, he was being hugged temporarily and tightly. The teenager was a bit confused at what to do, his hands stayed awkward at his side, and well... his face was rather red by the time that Mathias pulled back away. The voice that he used to thank him had just been so.. excited even... Had he just helped the other miss school?

Oh, that would be terrible...

He was just encouraging the Dane's delinquency! That was a terrible thought, and now the Estonian began to worry if he was just going to get in trouble from all of this. But the hug felt nice, the momentary warm embrace, and he almost began to raise his arms to cling on to Mathias' shirt even with the prospect of getting in trouble lingering on...

So just as Eduard was about to accept the hug and hold on to him, Mathias pulled away, gave that adorable stupid smile of his, and turned back away.

He ran a hand through his hair, scratching lightly at his scalp. At least the further away Mathias was, the least embarrassing the situation could become. Eduard was slowly trying to come to terms with the fact that... just maybe he had a crush on the other. There was a distinct possibility that every time he thought something about the blonde, there was always a tinge of affection along with it. Mathias was loud, rambunctious, always so full of life--present time excluded, of course--something that actually made him quite hard to hate. And he was....

Running toward Mati, getting right down on the floor with him, and playing around.

Stepping in the dorm, he shut the door behind him. He looked away and shuffled his feet, staring down at the two, a little torn as he began to smile when Mathias laughed. Eduard felt lucky that he was forced in to such small quarters with someone who could enjoy themselves like that. It just made him feel better--

until he heard the sounds of the tie ripping, just ever so slightly, and Eduard grimaced.

That was just perfect. Again, he was thinking good things about Mathias and something else ended up ruined. He just sighed when Mathias exclaimed outloud, though, because he couldn't entirely blame the blonde. It was probably already torn or bitten or messed with somehow before Mati had a chance to rip it. When the Dane sneezed, he actually showed more of a reaction, jumping in response.

Eduard bit his bottom lip as he walked over to them both, just in time as Mathias laid down on the floor. The poor guy... Didn't he know he should be in bed instead of on the floor or playing around with a cat or anything else?! Eduard would wrangle him up off of the floor if he had to, and the chance of him having to do that seemed pretty good at this point. Eduard knelt beside him, watching as the Scandinavian stole the kitten's attention with his lazy playing.

His grimace turned in to a smile as the other brought up the similarities in appearance. It was true! The creamy yellowish fur, tinged with the brown and white... and such beautiful blue eyes. Mati was the spitting image, but... Calling him Mati was more original than just reusing Mathias' name.

And then he froze when Mathias began speaking to him again.

The absolute terror that had passed through his body when Mathias said it was his was miserable. The only relief that followed was still rather tense, but he tried to ignore it.

"I-It isn't mine! Well, he's not really, he's umn... ...He's a stray... I just found him outside one day, covered with dirt and leaves and sticks..."

With a weak smile, the Estonian tried to explain himself in mumbles.

"And I couldn't leave him outside, because he looked so sad and I didn't want him to be eaten by a dog or trampled or run over or anything... So see, I was just doing a public service! And I was saving the little guy's life! S-so yeah, you can't tell, because if you do they'll throw him back out on the street..."

He reached out and scratched the kitten behind the ear gently, earning the pleasure of hearing a rather loud purr even if Mati never let his paw off of the tie. That wild fur flying everywhere was just so soft.

"...Well..."

His heart sped up, almost as if he was ready to give a full confession on everything in his life. Leaning down to the kitchen a bit closer, he simply couldn't look right at the Dane.

"This little fellow's name is Mati. It was just... either that, or Madis. But Mati sounded cuter."

The purring kitten looked like he was getting just as sleepy as the human Mathias, and that caused the Estonian to switch gears a bit. He switched from petting Mati to leaning more towards Mathias, lacing his hand through the fluffy bangs of the other. His hair wasn't quite as soft as fur, but it was still amazing how light it felt as opposed to weighed down with tons of products.

"Hey... Don't fall asleep here. Let's get you in to bed, okay? Mati can come with you if you want, but.. if you fall asleep here, you'll regret it when you wake up."

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

“Mati? Oh that’s a really cute name… I think it fits him well.” Mathias pulled his hands to his chest, along with Eduard’s tie, not really noticing that the cat pounced lightly after it, and was now trying to pull it from his grip. Except Mathias had his hands wrapped quite tightly around it, and he wasn’t about to let it go. It smelled much too… good to. And even though Mathias couldn’t really smell much of anything right now, (Its wasn’t like playing with a cute little kitten was really helping his cause much either.) he actually really didn’t even have to look at the tag on the tie to know who it belong to, but it was a good thing he double checked, right?

“But I’m glad you found him and not some weirdo who would’ve done something bad to him because you are a really good person! I can tell! You act kind of weird sometimes, but I think you are a really nice person once you get past all that awkwardness…I bet you could make lots of friends really easily! I’ll be your best one if you want! You can be mine as well, and I’ll make sure you never eat your lunch alone again!” Even though he was more or less just babbling rather uselessly, he meant everything he said. He did really like Eduard. He felt like he had never seen the poor boy hanging around with anyone, and quite frankly, he didn’t understand why. Was Eduard really that shy that he couldn’t just get up and talk to someone? What if his feelings got hurt or something? Would he have no one to talk to face to face? Mathias knew that Eduard probably had a quite a few online friends, but… Mathias somehow felt like a real hug could work much better than an online one. Although that may have been just him because he stunk at technology, but that had to be right, didn’t it?

It was then that he suddenly realized that Eduard was carding his fingers through his hair. If Mathias hadn’t been so sick, and that hadn’t felt so good, he probably would’ve protested over someone touching his hair. But oddly enough, he didn’t care. In fact, he enjoyed it quite a bit. He didn’t want Eduard to ever stop, and he found himself resisting all temptations he had to jump up into Eduard’s lap and cling onto him until he promised Mathias that he wouldn’t stop, or better yet, do as Mati the kitten was, and purr. But humans couldn’t really purr could they? So he opted instead for nuzzling lightly against Eduard’s hand in appreciation. His sick mind really was silly wasn’t it?

“Oh! Umm..” Shoot. Eduard wanted him to move now? That wasn’t cool. He didn’t want to get up right now! He was just about to fall asleep anyway. The floor could’ve made a perfectly fine bed for him! But he wasn’t going to say that Eduard. He was only trying to help, and Mathias respected Eduard enough to pull himself to his feet slowly, and grab a slight hold of the kitten, before he slowly began to trudge towards his bed. Oh his bed… it had never ever looked more comfortable than it did right now, despite it’s rather lumpy mattress, old sheets that were given to him by the school, (because he’d miraculously gotten the ones he’d brought from his home seriously stained up.) and the fact that he swear he slept on nothing but little metal chunks of spring.

But he supposed it was better than sleeping on the floor wasn’t it? Yes it definitely was, and thinking about how this was the last time he’d be forced to move for a while, it actually didn’t take him very long to hop into the bed, and lay on his back. Sure those stupid old springs and the age of the school mattress was a bit disheartening, but honestly, he sort of felt like he was on a cloud right now. A nice fluffy cloud.

He could feel the kitten trot across his stomach lightly for a moment, but it too must’ve thought it was on a cloud (Mathias wasn’t really sure whether to like this or not…but never the less.) because before long it settled rather lightly on Mathias’ stomach, and began to purr loudly. He too started to doze off… but it was only for a short amount of time before he realized that he had forgotten to tell Eduard something.

“Hey Eduard? I almost forgot to tell you something…” He pulled his hand out above his head, only to realize that he was still gripping rather tightly onto the tie, much to his embarrassment. He knew placing it by the kitten wouldn’t work, but either way it was kind of creepy to be carrying around someone’s tie wasn’t it? But that wasn’t what he wanted to tell Eduard! The tie didn’t have anything to do with anything at all! He shook his head a bit, and dropped the article onto his chest, “I wanted to tell you that if you ever needed anything or anyone to hang out with you are always welcome to hang out with me.. because I-I know what it’s like to not have anyone to hang out with and I really hate that feeling. I know I kind of…” He yawned a bit, “I know I said this a second ago a bit, but if you need a friend or something you can talk to me! Someone as good looking as you are shouldn't be sitting alone at lunch... even if you like it that way..”

That sounded kind of weird now that he said it, and he sincerely hoped that it wasn’t just a product of the cloudiness of his sick mind. Knowing him it probably was, and when he wasn’t so sick and achy he’d probably wonder what the hell he was saying all that time he was sick. At least lying down flat on his back was helping relieve the achiness, but even so, he knew that there was no way he was sounding even remotely coherent right now… or if was sounding coherent, he was probably sounding weird.

But that was okay with him, because he didn’t like the thought of someone as kind or as handsome as Eduard was being all alone. He just hoped that he wasn’t making the wrong assumptions either, and that all those times he’d ever seen Eduard alone was actually Eduard being alone and not just him waiting for his card game buddy to come and join him… either way, Eduard didn’t have the same charisma Mathias possessed, but that didn’t really mean anything did it? Something like that wouldn’t drive people away would it?

As he sat there trying to figure out Eduard’s state of friends, he realized that his eyelids were heavy and he could feel himself beginning to drift off into dreamland. It wasn’t long before those thoughts completely died away and he was drifting away into dreamland.

[eesti]

Mathias though it was a cute name?... Mathias thought it was a cute name! Oh, well that just overjoyed Eduard in a way, but... He did sort of wish that the Dane would stop encouraging the little kitten to play with and ruin his tie... He was going to have to get some kind of toys for it, maybe something with feathers everywhere. But then the little poor dear would probably just spread them all over the dorm and everyone would know... Why were there no discreet cat toys? They either liked to destroy things or make things make noise. It just wasn't fair!

And then, before he knew it, Mathias was off on a tangent about how... Eduard was a good person?

He tried to listen, he did, but it was a little bit awkward that on one hand, Mathias was complimenting him, while similarly insulting him at the same time. How um.. nice? it was that Mathias thought he was a good person, but... pointing out just how he was awkward and weird and lonely was a little detrimental to the Danish student's cause. And besides, Eduard had plenty of friends! He was very popular on most of the forums he frequented, and he had at least five msn requests a week--seven or eight, if creepy old Turkish men were to be counted--and as long as he was with technology, he was never truly lonely. It was just sort of all the other times. But now he had someone offering to be his best friend, and well, he realized he was a bit quiet and should probably come up with something to say.

"I... thank you." Mathias just made him stutter and pause when he spoke, much more than he did with anyone else. Usually he was professional no matter what, only speaking when confident, but with the other teen he couldn't be helped. "I just need to keep him a secret, I don't think cats are actually allowed so he's been hanging out in my room... About everything else though, I mean, I eat lunch and everything alone because I want to, it's not as if... I don't know."

He was mumbling again.

He was mumbling, but at least Mathias was receptive to the way that Eduard was stroking his hair. It made him smile again when Mathias rubbed against his hand, but since he'd just scolded the other for not being in bed yet, Eduard let the back of his fingers stroke against the other man's cheeks, down to his chin, until he focused his attention back on petting the content little kitten.

Though when the other did decide to get up, Eduard folded his hands in his lap and watched him trudge off toward bed. Hopefully no one else would have to learn about Mati, but it wasn't the end of the world that one person knew and maybe he'd even be able to hide the adorable contraband mammal in Mathias' room sometime!

Before following Mathias in to his bedroom however, the Estonian came to his own feet and ran off to the bathroom. Grabbing the closest washcloth he could, he soaked it and wrung it out until it was barely damp. It would help if the Dane had a fever or anything, which while Eduard really hoped he didn't--he hadn't felt particularly hot or cold when Eduard was busy touching his face everywhere--but he was going to be prepared for anything just in case! That was just how Estonians were, even if that trait was most often attached to boy scouts... It wasn't bad to be prepared.

He took the cloth and hurried to Mathias' bedside like a worried wife.

Once in his room, he smiled at the image of tiny Mati crawling around on Mathias' stomach. The guy looked a little too big to be playing with kittens, as if he could just cover the contraband calico with one hand, but Mati didn't mind--in fact, he seemed to be taking walking around on the slowly breathing giant's body as a great accomplishment, like he had scaled suur munamägi and was claiming his prize even if Mathias had set him there.

Sitting by Mathias' bed, he leaned over toward him and brushed away any hair from his forehead. He then laid the washcloth down against it, feeling content that he was doing everything he could to help to make Mathias feel better as soon as possible.

Even if it was a little creepy that Mathias seemed to really enjoy his tie.

"Hmn?"

Eduard only mumbled in response. What could Mathias still want to say, when he should still be asleep?

Eduard reached up for Mati, stroking the kitten behind it's ears, flicking the tie away from it slightly. There was no need for him to wake up and see the tie and start getting all excited again or anything.

But then Mathias was offering him all these... things. Saying that he would hang around with Eduard again, even though the Estonian never gave him much of a reason to. Anyone would have helped Mathias from the track back to the dorms and stuff, right? It wasn't like Eduard was special for doing any of these things!

The way he spoke about knowing how it felt to be lonely though... That hurt.

It was always possible, Eduard guessed, that maybe even though Mathias seemed to posess such charisma and charm it didn't mean he had a billion friends. It might have been the fact that he tended to break most things, most expensive things, that it left him with very few friends after all. Or he could have just been unpopular as a child, and well... whatever the reason was, he was sort of right. Eduard usually was a solitary person, independent and proud, but it's not like it was bad to have someone else around.

...But, did Mathias really call him good looking? That was a little unexpected, and it probably was the fever or just general feeling of displeasure or something that ever made him give a silly statement like that. As silly as it was, it was appreciated at least, he couldn't remember the last time that someone ever called him anything other than cute or adorable. And that was going back pretty far...

He just didn't know what to say to Mathias.

"O-oh.... ...Uhmn, tack."

That was Danish for thank you, wasn't it? He was very touched by the sentiments, so much that his eyes threatened to become cloudy and he just didn't know how to say thank you properly and in English and all... And he'd taken Swedish classes in school, it had been required, and he knew the similarities between the two languages that it was just maybe enough to get by out loud...

He stopped petting Mati though, and he looked away for a few moments. He didn't know.. what to say. At all. No one had ever tried to reach out to him before. Not in any way, and not like this. If Mathias even remembered any of this when he was better, it wouldn't be that bad to maybe take him up on his offer and eat lunch with him once or twice. Well, there was a flaw in that anyways, Eduard never really ate during lunchtime and if he could he'd spend it in the library studying but maybe he could find out some nice Danish dishes or something and bring a lunch for Mathias.

It would give him a reason to go through with the whole thing anyway...

By the time he looked back up to Mathias, the Dane had his eyes closed. He was already asleep it seemed, and Eduard sat on the edge of his bed beside him and stroked his hair back again with a small frown.

Why did Mathias have to be so nice to him?

It made Eduard want to do stupid things, and before he could even think more about what those stupid things were, his eyes were settling down on the Dane's lips.

"Godnatt... Sov gott."

'Goodnight, sleep well' was also hopefully close enough to the Danish counterpart.

He would have kissed Mathias' forehead, really he would have. But see, there was already a cloth there, so he was forced in to more drastic measures!

Leaning over toward the Dane, he held his breath before placing his lips against Mathias'.

The moment after he did so, he suddenly seemed to regain his senses and hope that just maybe it wouldn't make him sick as well. He just didn't know how to kiss properly either, so his lips just sort of... stayed on top of the Dane's.

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

The fact of the matter was that Eduard really was special for helping him. Mathias figured that the most Eduard would actually do to him was help him to the nurse before he was worriedly dashing back to class in the fear that he was going to get an unexcused absence. Probably thinking all the while about how whenever Mathias was around, nothing but bad things happened, and how the upperclassmen always made him miss class, always broke his nice stuff, and how he tried to make a diabetic kid sugary-chocolaty cookies that he wasn’t supposed to be eating in the first place. Because wasn’t it always the bad things that stuck with people? No one ever seemed to remember the good things, which in a way, was a part of the reason why Mathias had lost so many friends after he had that accident in middle school. Luckily for him though, before he could endure anymore torture at his school, he was plucked out when he turned fifteen and sent to Asher Academy. But even so, with as many friends and nice people he had met at the school, he wasn’t sure how many of them would actually come to help him out this much if he fainted on the track. Maybe he was just being somewhat judgmental, but he really couldn’t help but wonder.

It was this string of thoughts that kept Mathias in a state of half-asleep, half-awareness. It was almost as if his body was telling him that he needed to sleep, but his mind wouldn’t let him. It was shouting into his ear, forcing him to stay awake and that if he didn’t there would be grave consequences. It was saying, Hey Mathias! I know you haven’t slept properly for a while, but there are more important things to worry about! What was more important than sleep? Wasn’t that what kept people alive or something? Sleep? Mathias wasn’t about to sit there and die because he wasn’t getting enough sleep! Why couldn’t he just turn off his brain? When he wasn’t sick it seemed to turn off just fine! In fact, it turned off in the middle of class half of the time, which often resulted in him getting a textbook slammed onto the desk in front of him… which most of the time didn’t really help in waking him so much as it just startled him and…

And, what in the world? Was this Eduard’s idea of a joke? Well, he definitely awake by now that was for sure. If this was Eduard’s plan all along, then he was just crazy. Right about now, it didn’t matter to him that Eduard actually had some really soft lips, he just wanted to know if he had some kind of hidden camera somewhere that was there to record Mathias’ reaction then allow for it to be distributed on the internet. Would Eduard even do something like that? Everything in him wanted to say no. He wanted to believe that Eduard wasn’t just messing around, trying to make him feel all weird and fidgety. But something inside of him was forcing him to deny his gut feelings and replace it with negativity. Never once in his entire lifetime had he ever considered himself a negative person. Where most people were afraid of humanity and even more afraid of being hurt by someone they loved, Mathias had always looked on the bright side of things. He couldn’t really help it, and that was just who he was usually… but no, no, what was Eduard trying to do. Trying to get at?

Mathias pulled his hands upwards slowly, and placed them on either side of Eduard’s face, before he slowly and gently as he could possibly handle, pulled Eduard away so that his face was situated about a centimeter away from his nose. He stared at him a moment, trying to see even a slight hint of mischievousness, but the more he looked, he more relieved he was to see nothing of the sort. But even so… Mathias was a bit lost as to why he had decided to do this. Although Mathias was almost a hundred percent certain there was no trickery behind Eduard’s actions, it was still a bit weird to kiss someone you hardly knew wasn’t it? Although Mathias wasn’t exactly how certain he was that he wouldn’t have done the exact same thing. No he probably wouldn’t have. Or would he have? The more he thought about it, the more unsure he was. But either way, he couldn’t help but feel a slight hint of amusement at Eduard’s actions. He seemed like he almost didn’t know any better. It was really rather cute. In fact was almost adorable! He was surprised to find that the Estonian was able to do anything like that in the slightest. Mathias wanted to pull Eduard up into his lap, and hug him until he couldn’t breathe anymore, but that would probably be just as weird, if not weirder than what Eduard had just done. Plus it would probably kill the poor guy, and he didn’t want that at all.

It was then that he realized all the thinking he was doing, and he was sort of just leaving poor Eduard hanging with his hands all over his face… He let out a slight laugh and pulled them away in embarrassment, trying to keep his face from turning horribly red, all the while knowing that he was failing miserably. How silly of him. Sure Eduard was a nice guy, but this wasn’t anything to get all worked up over was it? But Eduard did have really pretty eyes… what was he talking about!? He was sick! He wasn’t supposed to be getting all weird and flustered over this!

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves a bit, Mathias could feel a grin beginning to form, “You sure are weird Eduard.” He slipped his hands behind the crook of his neck, and shut his eyes again lightly, chuckling lightly, “Don’t think I didn’t hear you talking to me in Swedish. But it’s okay, I still understood what you were saying.” He pulled his eyes open again, and glanced back towards Eduard, trying to keep himself from laughing with… some weird emotion he couldn’t explain. At one point he could’ve sworn it was surprise… but now he didn’t even know what it was at all. He was beginning to wonder if it was adoration, but he still couldn’t exactly pinpoint it, and it was annoying him. But he tried to push it away. He really did, but he couldn’t, “… Maybe next time you kiss me you won’t do it when I’m half asleep!” He said this with a bit of a chuckle, before he shut his eyes a bit again, not really wanting to sleep anymore, but knowing that it was more than likely quite inevitable.

((....Yes. These are my lovely chunky paragraphs. ;;))

[eesti]

Eduard's hands found their way to settle on Mathias' shoulders, careful not to squish Mati or anything while he was leaned over. It took a bit of contortion to do so, and it wasn't very comfortable, but he was willing to put up with it for now.

Just for now, because his fingers were starting to grasp and hold on to the Dane's shirt, and he was trying to tilt his head to connect more with him...

Before he could fully grasp the situation and realize just what he was doing, Mathias was pulling him away.

His cheeks flushed red. He was going crazy, that much he was absolutely certain of. He really just kissed another boy, one who was his roommate, who could have very easily not even been gay! Just because he was bisexual, it didn't mean that he should make his heterosexual roommates uncomfortable, since kissing a male was a good indicator of sexuality!

Eduard thought that the other was asleep, but now, he was just staring in to the beautiful blue eyes that reminded him of the sky back in Estonia. There was certainly no reason to just look away, but he didn't have to for the guilt to be clearly written on his face. He never would have done anything if knew Mathias was awake! Moreover, he never would have done it ever normally!

Mathias...

Mathias was just above and beyond the scope of normal anyway.

So was the way that he made Eduard feel, though there wasn't much he could really use to explain himself and why he was over the body of his sleeping friend kissing him.

He was still so close, too. That had.. to be a good sign, right? If Mathias found him repulsive, he should have reacted more violently or.. maybe he was just creeped out beyond all belief and never wanted to see Eduard again and would change dorms just to get away from him. All of these things that he was busy worrying and fretting over were things that the Estonian never wanted to happen, ever, but he just couldn't help it when Mathias was so.. quiet. The least he could have done was kiss Eduard back or something! Did he think Eduard was a gymnast or something and that it was easy for him to sit with his spine practically bent in half?

To add to his embarrassment, Mathias started talking, just calling him weird. He swallowed his own breath and bit down on his bottom lip, pouting as he furrowed his brow. Weird? Weird? M-maybe he was a little weird, Mathias was too though right?... Before his eyes could start to water though, Mathias mentioned the Swedish, and he felt miserable in an entirely different way.

"I.. I only know Swedish. I'm sorry."

Eduard was close enough to Mathias still, not moving an inch. Everything he said was a whisper, close enough that he still felt compelled to cling on to the other. When Mathias looked at him again, that was when he shrunk away bit. He let go of the Dane's shirt before slowly twisting around in the bed, enough to lean over his torso instead.

Mati didn't even see it coming before Eduard swooped down on him, wrapping the tiny kitten in his arms tightly. He tried making sure he'd put no pressure on Mathias, but he just needed to hide his face.

"...N-next time I kiss you? I.. I won't kiss you again. I'm sorry, it.. ...it was a good-night kiss. You'd know that if you knew what I said."

He mumbled. There was just enough margin of bed left between the edge and Mathias that he was able to curl his feet up on it, still hiding away.

"That was all it was. I'm.. I'm sorry, I could leave if you want me to, I mean, it's not like I'm gay or that you need to run off and go in to another dorm or something! A-and.. I'm not taking advantage of you while you're sick or... I'm sorry.... I just.. ..maybe I have a crush on you, but please, that doesn't make me weird or.. or anything...."

He hugged Mati a bit tighter, when the tiny kitten gave off a mewl and kneaded at his arm. Eduard kissed the top of his head, trying to calm himself down so he would stop rambling and talking complete nonsense.

"I.. I just... I'm sorry."

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Watching Eduard’s reaction, Mathias started to feel immensely horrible himself. The poor guy seemed as though he was about to start crying at any given moment, and the longer Mathias stared at him, the more he could feel his heart breaking. Mathias wasn’t a bad or scary guy was he? Did Eduard think that Mathias was going to hurt him or take back his words? Just because he was sick didn’t mean he was going to do anything hurtful or cruel once he got better. If Eduard thought that Mathias was going to be cruel then he was just being silly, because he had always been a pretty forgiving person, especially when he got mad and for the most part he never really held grudges. But… Mathias hadn’t even gotten mad, so he really had nothing to forgive. He didn’t even know if he had it in him to get mad at Eduard in the first place. Even more so after how much he was helping him… but now he was using the cat to hide his face? Mathias couldn’t help but realize how cute this was, and he could feel his cheeks beginning to flush as well. But what was he doing? Shouldn’t he be mad over something like this? Wouldn’t most people be mad? Why couldn’t he decide on how he wanted to feel about this?

“Oh… Umm, h-hey it’s okay! You can speak Swedish to me… at least until I teach you Danish okay!? Plus you probably didn’t know what language to resort t-to soo it wasn’t a big deal, I was just being stupid! You shouldn’t listen to me most of the time because almost everything I say is stupid... I can’t stop it most of the time either… I hope I didn’t upset you all that much! I mean, I’ll teach you how to say anything you want in Danish because Swedish is just evil Danish! And it’s nowhere near as cool and… and…” What was he even saying anymore? He could hear his voice dying down to barely a whisper, “I…” Shoot he was rambling, and probably only making Eduard feel much more embarrassed than he was before. But… but he didn’t want Eduard to feel worse! He wanted him to feel happy! Happy about what though, he wasn’t sure, but either way, he didn’t want Eduard to feel bad. He really didn’t, “An-and I knew what you were saying…” He stared up towards the ceiling, “… But I used to get good-night kisses a lot when I younger, but I don’t remember them being on the lips.” He tried to let out a small laugh so that Eduard knew that he wasn’t saying this bitingly, and that it was all out of good humor, but he found it hard to do so.

Now Mathias may have not been the brightest bulb in the pack, and he knew it, but he also knew from he had observed of the Estonian, that he was quite sensitive, and Mathias was suddenly feeling that his rambling was going to only make Eduard feel even more awkward. But for one reason or the other, Mathias couldn’t stop himself from mumbling quietly to the boy who had his head buried into the cat on his stomach, “You don’t have to keep apologizing! You were sweet…” Sweet!? Oh what on earth was he talking about!? That was such a weird way to describe what Eduard had done, it really was, but he didn’t even know what to say about it anymore. Eduard was confusing him too much.

“I’m sorry Eduard… I still…” He had almost forgotten that Eduard had slipped in that ‘maybe’ he had a crush on him, “I don’t mind what… You didn’t both—“ He sighed deeply. He couldn’t even think of the words to say. He knew exactly what he wanted to say… he just… didn’t know how to word it… which wouldn’t have been the first time for him, “It’s okay, alright? You don’t have to worry okay? I like you being –“ Shoot. He had no idea how to say it. He really didn’t. So instead Mathias opted for moving his arms around a bit, so that he was able grab a hold of the Estonian’s shoulder’s and pull both Eduard’s and himself upwards again. He stared into Eduard’s eyes a moment, before he leaned forward and gingerly brought his own lips to Eduard’s. He took in Eduard’s pine-tree-fresh scent a moment, before he pulled away, realized that the second he did so, it felt like he had done so much too quickly. But somehow he figured if he tried to do it a second or third time, he would probably end up being the weird looking one wouldn’t he?

“There!” He grinned towards Eduard, and pressed his finger to the tip of Eduard’s nose, “That was a stop apologizing right this instant kiss. We only give them to people when we want them to… cheer up!” Yes he had just made that up on the spot, and yes it sounded completely stupid and cheesy, and somehow he maybe sort of had the slight fear that Eduard was going to laugh at him. But maybe if Eduard was laughing, then he would be happier. Mathias wondered how Eduard looked when he was laughing. He probably looked really good!

But it wasn’t until right after he said that, did he realize that he had pulled Eduard almost directly into his lap, and he still had his hands placed on his shoulders… wasn’t he supposed to be the sick one? Yet here he was… once again, ignoring his tired body’s pleas for sleep and rest, and was sitting up pretending that the world wasn’t spinning or anything. At this rate he was never going to get better!