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"You going to be here soon, Den?" the annoyed older boy asks into the phone.
"Yeah, give me, like, three minutes."
"You're thirty minutes late already," the Norwegian adds.
"I know, Lukas, I know. Don't worry, I'm turning onto our street right now."
"I don't even see what's so important, that you had to be late on our sixth anniversary."
"I-" The sound of a car horn cuts off the Dane.
"Den? Den, what was that?!"
"Nothing, Norge. Some drunk bastard was going into the other lane."
"You sure it wasn't you?"
"Haha, very funny," Lukas can almost feel Matthias roll his eyes. "It's a good thing that I love you, Luk-"
This time, he's cut off by loud screeching. The sound of metal on metal fills Lukas' ears, causing him to wince. He hears a scream, and another crash. And then, all is silent.
"Den?" Norway questions, his voice wavering. "Matthias?"
There's no response.
Lukas goes for the door, shoving his phone in his pocket. He just barely gets his boots on as he exits, leaving the door wide open. Sprinting, the Norwegian makes his way down the street to where the three-way intersection is.
His already short breath leaves him as he look at the scene before him.
A white pickup truck's front is smashed in. In front of it, a sleek black sedan's trunk is shattered. The front right of the dark vehicle is crushed into a large tree.
Falling over the snow, Lukas runs as fast as he can. A man stumbles out of the pickup, holding his head. But no one exits the sedan. The Norwegian peers into the black car, eyes widening. Using all his might, he pulls at the door, his adrenaline rush helping him to nearly pull the door off its hinges.
"Matthias! Matti, wake up!" He yells, unstrapping the seatbelt. "Matthias!" He falls on his knees, pulling his unresponsive boyfriend onto his lap. Lukas hugs the Dane to him, trying to wake him up.
He hears footsteps behind him, and a gasp. His head turns, finding Tino and Berwald behind them.
The Swede, seeing his distraught Finnish fiancé, asks the shorter to call 113. He then walks over, inspecting the Danish man. Lukas doesn't loosen his grip on his boyfriend, only silently pleads for him to open his eyes.
-:-
A year later, Lukas trudges up the sterile, white stairs, a cup of coffee in his hands. He enters the room without even looking up, knowing the sight that will greet him. His boyfriend, still lying in that bed, still unresponsive, still comatose. His face will be slightly stubbled, as the nurse shaves it every other day. His hair lies flat, not obnoxiously gravity defying like it should be. And his eyes will still be shut, the shimmering blue hue lost.
As soon as the blonde settles in his usual spot, the doctor comes in. "Mr. Bondevik."
"Dr. Eriksdotter."
"I've come to talk about Mr. Køhler."
"I'd assume."
The woman pulls over a chair, looking eye to eye with the representative of her nation. "Matthias... He isn't responding to anything we've done. His condition, though slightly improved, isn't how it should be."
"What are you saying?" Lukas sends her a look.
"I think we should pull him off life support. Let him pass naturally."
Lukas freezes. "B-But he's a nation? He shouldn't die?"
"No, but sometimes, this can happen. The actual nation itself is going through rough times, and sometimes a new representative is created. You know this." She takes his hands in hers. "I know this is hard for you, Lukas, but he isn't getting any better."
The man looks over his beloved boyfriend. The comatose male doesn't move. His usual smile is long forgotten, and that accent that Lukas finds adorable is but a memory.
"One more day, please? It's our anniversary today."
"Of course."
"Thank you, Frigga." Lukas, in a rare show of emotion, hugs the doctor who's become a friend of his over the past year. She embraces the man back, before leaving him, closing the door behind him.
Lukas turns back to Matthias, feeling the world crash around him. His boyfriend of seven years, in twenty-four hours, will be all but dead. The worst part is, the last thing he really ever said to him was implying he was a drunk bastard. But, likewise, the best part is what Matthias said to him. "I love you."
And though his life is tearing at the seems, Lukas doesn't allow himself to cry. The last time he cried was when Matthias gave him away to Berwald. This hurt much more than that, but crying is the last thing he needs right now.
Around noon, Berwald and Tino show up. They still haven't married, saying they wanted to wait for Matthias to wake up. Tino was bawling, having wanted Matthias to be the one to walk him down the aisle. Though their past wasn't great, they had become close over the years, and it is killing the Finn. The Dane was an older brother figure to him. Even Berwald, the best at stoicism over even the Swiss, Vash, sheds a few tears. His empty eyes were now cold, pale, and slightly watery. He, too, had become close with the Dane and couldn't believe what had happened.
Other nations show up throughout the day to pay their respects, even those who barely knew him. Emil shows up at one point, but never says a word. He sits next to his brother, and wraps an arm around the older's shoulders. They sit for about an hour, shrouded in thought. As he stands to leave, Emil presses a kiss to Lukas' hair.
The last two to visit come right around nineteen hundred hours. It's Alfred and Gilbert, two of Matthias' best friends. They smile sadly at the comatose man, setting a beer bottle on his side table. After a while of staring at Matthias and mumbling to him as if he could respond, they turn to Lukas.
"Lukas," Alfred speaks. The Norwegian looks up, eyes dry and depressed.
Gilbert hands him a bag, adding "Take care of yourself."
Lukas nods, watching them exit. He stands, trudges down the stairs for dinner - an apple and some water. After finishing, he makes his way back, and sits on the side of Matthias' bed. His slender fingers trace the Dane's features - his thin, pale pink lips, his long blonde lashes, his sharp, stubbled jawline. He runs his fingers through his blonde hair, already missing the silky texture. He presses a kiss to the other's lips, knowing this is his last chance.
"I'll miss you, you stupid Dane. I already miss you. I mean, what was so important that you even had to go out? You could've just stayed at home and we would have watched your stupid action movies. Every time I'd sigh, you'd look over at me and kiss my face and ask if I want to watch something else. But I know you love those movies so I'd shake my head and continue watching. We would've made dinner, which you would almost screw up and I'd yell at you." Lukas exhales. "But you'd still kiss me like nothing happened. You and your stupid obliviousness."
Lukas' face falls into the saddest half smile ever made. "I love you, Matthias. You stupid Dane." He gazes down, clutching his lover's hand. He hopes, for one last fleeting second that the taller man will grasp his hand again, say something stupid, and laugh at nothing.
He is again met with silence.
Lukas sighs, his indigo eyes peering around. They land on the shimmering silver bag that Gilbert gave him. Looking inside, a ghosted smile passes over his lips. He pulls a blonde teddy bear from the bag, which sports Matthias' signature outfit. Everything is the same, from his red pants to his little black hat.
On a string around the bear's hand is a beautiful ring. Lukas gasps, untying the string and inspecting it carefully. It's a wide, silver band, and in the center is a vertical stripe of ruby, then one of diamonds, and finally one of rubies again.
Lukas notice a red heart on one of paws with a little speaker icon on it. Curiously, he presses it. His breath is taken away when that accent hits his ears. It's the accent he's been missing every night and day for three hundred sixty-five days. The one he calls his boyfriend's phone for every night, just to hear his adorable voice message. It's Matthias' face.
Lukas, who had been too shocked from hearing his boyfriend's voice, missed whatever he said. Pushing it again, he presses his ear close to the bear, to make sure he can hear it.
"Will you marry me?" questions the bear.
Indigo eyes widen, looking between the soft bear and the sparkling ring. The Norwegian must sit there for three minutes, eyes enlarged and filled with raw emotion. Now, he allows himself to break. Ultramarine irises become shiny with enough tears to last a year, falling over his porcelain cheeks.
In one quick motion, he slips on the band, hugging his comatose lover. "Yes," he chokes. "Yes, I'll marry you." The Norwegian sobs, curling into the Dane's side, his head rested in the crook of the taller man's neck.
What he doesn't notice is the quickening of the heart rate monitor.
Cyan eyes squint open, nearly blinded by all the white around him. When his hearing and sight both focus, the first thing he notices is the small man cuddled up to him. The second is his sobbing.
"Why?" Lukas quietly chokes out. "Why do you have to die?"
"Norge?" Matthias' voice calls, hoarse from the lack of use.
"Great, now I'm imagining things... I miss you, Matthias..."
"Norway..."
"You're already haunting me? Oh, why won't you wake up?"
"Lukas!" Matthias tries, his gravelly slightly louder.
Lukas looks up, and Matthias is met with those beautiful eyes he's come to love. Only this time, they're bloodshot with tears that fall down his faces in sheets. Matthias doesn't know why he's crying, or what any of his words meant. 'Why wouldn't I wake up? Why would I be haunting him?'
When Lukas sees those squinting, azure eyes, his heart leaps into his throat. His sobs pause for a moment, before resuming, louder. He tries speaking into his cries, hugging the Dane.
"Lukas... W-Why are you crying?" He uses his strength to wrap his arms around the small male.
"M-Matthias! Y-You're a-awake!"
"H-Hey, calm down, Lukie..."
And he tries. Every minute or so, Lukas will calm down, look at Matthias, and start sobbing all over again. It takes him five or six minutes, but he finally looks up to the younger, mere tears rolling down his cheeks. Weakly, Matthias cups his face and brushes away tears with his thumbs.
"Was I asleep?" he rasps.
"Y-You've been in a c-coma for a y-year!"
Matthias looks surprised - as surprised as he can, at least. "What?"
"Y-You d-don't remember?"
"All I remember is driving home... I had a silver bag for you..."
"It had a bear in it?"
"Yeah... Wait... How'd you know? That's supposed to be a surprise!"
"Never mind that... You were in a c-car accident," Lukas sniffles, "on our sixth anniversary... A year ago today. The car behind you ran you into a tree... I found you and Tino called the ambulance. Berwald stopped the bleeding... You've been comatose ever since."
"Happy Anniversary?"
"Stupid Dane..." Lukas murmurs, and Matthias smiles smally. The shorter male almost begins to cry, seeing the familiar smile. "The doctor said you weren't responding to anything, or really improving. She wanted to take you off life support."
"My country must be in bad shape..."
Lukas loves the fact that, even after just waking up, his first thought is his people. "I asked her for another day, since it's our anniversary... She agreed. I'm glad she did."
"Did anyone come to see me?"
"Almost everyone did."
Matthias smiles cockily. "Everyone loves me..."
Lukas rolls his eyes, curling more into Matthias' side. The Dane takes this moment to look around. He sees sterile white walls, one of which has a cork board with pictures of him and the other Nordics, him, Gilbert, and Alfred, and most importantly, him with Lukas. He grins widely at them, before continuing his inspection.
His eyes land on the teddy bear next to him. Shakily, he picks it up, pressing the paw. Lukas looks up, surprised by the noise. Their eyes meet. "You saw it?"
"Gilbert and Alfred gave it to me... They thought you were going to die..."
"Oh..." He gulps, looking down at where the ring was, his hands, the floor, just about anywhere that isn't Lukas.
"I said yes."
Shocked, azure eyes look down, finding Lukas is showing off his hand, that sports the ring. Gently, Matthias takes the smaller hand in his own. After inspecting it, he kisses Lukas' knuckles.
Lukas looks at him through his lashes, before leaning up and pressing their lips together. Matthias' arms wind around Lukas' thin frame like vines. The smaller cradles his lover's head in his hands, trying to show him his intense feelings through a single kiss. All the taller man can smell, feel, and taste is his fiancé. He smiles into the kiss, thinking of that word. 'Fiancé...' The pull away, the emotions of the Norwegian translated to the Dane.
"Jeg elsker dig," Matthias whispers.
"Jeg elsker deg og," Lukas responds.