Noxious [DenNor]

11.

There was a subtle shift in the very air by which the occupants of the kitchen were sustained. It didn't go overlooked by Lukas. Rather, he willed himself to ignore it as he stood, stiff, and with slate colored eyes as round and solemn as an owl's. He was locked onto Mathias as a predator might lock onto its prey of choice in a fleeing stampede.

"How did you know that?" The Dane's slanted eyebrows knitted across his forehead.

"That doesn't matter right now. But it's true, and you just confirmed it to me. You can never fall in love. If you do, someone will die."

Tino, for the first time ever, began to look as old as he truly was. He looked slowly from Mathias to Lukas. When his gaze stopped on him, Lukas felt his breath catch in his throat. There was something in his old friend's gaze that somehow spoke everything without saying a word.

He knew. He knew everything. Not necessarily about the curse, but about Lukas himself.

He knew exactly how Lukas felt. It was such a gentle, understanding look that it was all he could do not to turn away, and to deny it to himself as he had been doing for so many years.

But no. He had dug himself into this hole, and he knew it was long overdue that he plow his way out.

"Norge..." Mathias's eyes fell to the floor. He appeared to struggle with some kind of internal turmoil before he spoke back up, his voice more normal than it had been the entire night. "C'mon! You know I was just a kid. It's not fair that some old lady could have that kind of power over me after so long!"

Lukas shook his head. "It doesn't matter. It could be the end of the world itself, and the curse wouldn't be broken until the person you love dies. Or unless the woman herself ascends from the grave to break it."

"Why can't you and your buddies just do it?" Mathias's chin began to quiver. A staggering wave of nostalgia all but knocked Lukas from his feet as he was reminded of the young boy-warrior- just a kid- he had once known and conquered distant lands with. He pried his eyes away, mustering a half-shrug of one, bony shoulder.

"Not how it works, I'm afraid."

With that, Mathias's hands flew to his head. He clutched at the long, golden tresses sprouting from his scalp as he, illuminated by the sickly yellow light of the oven light, paced from one side of the room to the other. "Is this really what's been bothering you all this time, Norge?"

It gave Lukas a thrill of relief to hear his obnoxious nickname out of Mathias's mouth once more. His expression softened. "Since I found out... So for about a week now, yes."

Mathias's large hands slid from the top of his skull, down his face. His palms rubbed circles on the lids of his eyes. Silence stretched on for what felt like hours, but there was nothing he could think to say. Not given a situation like this. Misery weighed on his limbs like a sack of stones, deeming him motionless, helpless to do anything besides watch as Mathias, in a frenzy that appeared to quicken by the second, paced from one side of the room to the other.

"Den, could you stop pacing?" Lukas almost jumped out of his skin when Tino's voice, though quiet, cracked through the small room. "It'll be alright. Is there really no way we can fix this?" Mathias stopped pacing. All eyes on Lukas.

Grim situation, that though it may have been, Lukas bristled at the words. Coldly, he muttered, "I said there was no way to stop it. None that I know of, at least. Vlad might have something on it, but Arthur swears he knows nothing about breaking curses this powerful."

"Nor..." Mathias's voice was suddenly quiet. Though he appeared to have taken heed of Tino's request, there was a look in his eye that Lukas didn't quite like. It was confused, like an animal clueless to its captivity, but who had just discovered the glass pane separating him from the rest of the world.

He found himself inching a subconscious step towards the doorway. "I'm sorry, Denmark. That's just how things-"

"Why does it matter so much to you? Whether or not I can fall in love? Because- and maybe this is the beer talking- but I kind of feel like you've been trying to, uh... Well," He paused to scratch the top of his head.

"You've been acting really weird around me lately, and I don't know why," He blinked slowly. "At least, I don't think I do."

Oh. Oh no.

"I don't know what you're talking about, you stupid Dane! And my behavior is hardly something you should be thinking about at a time like this!" Lukas was on the defense at once.

Tino, more agile than his curvaceous body let on, shot up between the two bristling nations. "Alrighty! That's enough of this, yeah? It's really late, you guys! Like, four in the morning late, and if you wake Peter up, I won't be happy." The hint of warning in his voice was directed at Lukas; he just knew it.

Mathias either didn't notice or didn't care about Tino's warning. He stormed around the Finnish blockade to confront Lukas. "If you honestly don't know what I'm talking about, then why are you acting like this?"

Lukas leaned forward. "I'm not acting like anything."

"Oh, you are so! I've known you almost my entire life; I'm pretty damn sure I know when something's up with you."

"Maybe it's none of your business?"

"You two, stop!" Tino's plea fell dead on Lukas's ears. He was locked, venomous glare on venomous glare, with his Danish counterpart. His heart was a ferocious, pounding animal in the confines of his rib cage.

"You've made it obvious that this is my business! It has everything to do with me, and you just won't admit it."

"Oh, yeah?" Lukas's voice was quieter now, but no less deadly than before. He felt slight shudders pass through his body with each violent thump of his heart. "If you're so sure about it, then why don't you tell me what it is you think I'm hiding?"

The flame in Mathias's eyes diminished.

"What?"

Lukas felt a rush of cold, embittering satisfaction at the expression of surprise etched so plainly into Mathias's features. He leaned forward, fists clenched at either side of his body. Clearly, so as not to be misunderstood, he repeated his prior proposition.

"Tell me what it is you think I'm hiding, Dane."

Silence. Denmark leaned back, as pallid and blank-faced as a sheet of construction paper.

Seeing that he was being ignored, Tino finally threw his arms into the air in surrender. "I'm going to bed. If you two wake Peter or Sve up, I will personally drive you back to your individual countries and leave you there."

Unmoving from his battle stance, Lukas watched as Mathias's eyes traveled from his face and traced the departing steps of Tino. When the Finnish man disappeared up the stairs, apparent by the cease of creaking floorboards, there came the quietest of whispers from Mathias's lips.

"I think you're in love with me."

Lukas hoped the constriction of his heart in correlation to this revelation didn't show as he rocked backwards on the bare soles of his feet. Mathias still would not look at him, making his expression near impossible to decipher, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"I am," he conceded. Amidst the stillness of the otherwise soundless house, Lukas's voice sounded unnaturally loud. "But it doesn't matter now, now does it?"