Counting My Lives | Denmark x Reader

Counting My Lives | Denmark & Reader

“I think they’d be a pretty interesting couple, don’t get me wrong,” Arthur’s thickly-accented voice rang out amidst the chaos of the arguing group, disagreeing with Elizabeta’s previous proposition. “But I just don’t see how it’ll work. I mean, he’s obviously emotionally-invested in her, and he’s been stuck to her like glue since before I can even bloody remember! But their personalities do not mix, and I do not think that they would be able to maintain a healthy, stable relationship. They fight all the time even now, and I don’t care what the frog has to say about love -- if you’re fighting all the time as friends, you’ll fight all the time as boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Come on, Arthur!” Elizabeta wined. “Haven’t you heard of unresolved sexual tension by now? Once Lovina and Antonio are given a little push, they’ll turn into adorable, fluffy little bunnies next to one another. Sure, they’ll fight, but they won’t fight as much. Don’t you agree, Kiku?”

“Prease don’t drag me into this,” Kiku replied, his voice quiet. You could tell he was making his best efforts not to get involved, but he’d told the two of you before that he agreed with Elizabeta on this in the past.

“Honhonhon, what do we have here?” Francis asked, leaning forward while standing right beside Arthur.

“Nothing that’s of any concern to you!” Arthur yelled, and grabbed the frenchman’s hair, pulling down so that his face smacked against the table. In response, the frenchman knocked Arthur’s tea cup over so that it spilled into his lap. The Brit jerked up immediately, unintentionally pulling the Frenchman with him up by the hair in the process, and let out a scream of such a high frequency that somewhere nearby, Hanatamago -- who Berwald had snuck in to cheer up Tino since Tino had three tests that day -- raised his head and almost barked, which scared the living daylights out of the two boys previously mentioned, as it was against school policy to let dogs into the building.

The brawl between Arthur and Francis continued, while Elizabeta began reprimanding Kiku because he wasn’t standing up for her. Soon enough, Tino and Berwald stalked over to the two boys who had almost gotten them in trouble and joined in on the fight as well, with Tino yelling at Arthur and Francis while they were beating each other up and Berwald glaring at them in a very creepy way.

It all finally ended when Kiku yelled at the top of his lungs, “If it’s so important to you, Elizabeta, then why don’t you ask (f/n) what her opinion on this issue is!” The second he said this, all eyes turned on you. You had been sitting there, peacefully sipping your apple juice whilst enjoying the chaotic scenery with one ear, the other turned toward the science documentary you were watching, so you needed to take a minute to recall what had caused the fighting in the first place.

“I honestly don’t care,” you replied. “Whether or not the two of them gets together doesn’t really matter because either way they’re going to different colleges, so they’re not going to see each other afterwards. Besides, Lovina’s brother has a lot of college friends, so even if Lovina leaves Antonio, it’s not like all of her options are closed.” Your remark brought the discussion into a new direction because of the subject of college. More specifically, whether or not going to a different college was an excuse to break up with your high school boyfriend or girlfriend.

The discussion got continually heated until the bell rang. You were the only one who had actually finished their lunch.

-------

“Hey there, everyone!” Your teacher’s voice rang throughout the room. A tall man with greying hair yet a relatively muscular stature, your English teacher, Mr. Jones, and was Alfred Jones’s father. He taught students from all grade levels, and you had had him as a teacher twice.

“Today, I have an announcement to make, so it’d be quite nice if you’d stop and listen to me for just a couple of minutes, and then you can go back to using your phones!” By now, it was January, and most students -- and teachers -- had basically given up on putting any effort into academics at all; you, Tino because of his parents, and a couple of others were the exception. Even though you had been accepted into one of the best schools in the country by this point, you still cared about your grades. Academic conscientiousness was just something built into your system after years of strenuous studying to get straight A’s on your report card.

“I’m working to organize the senior prom, and will be the teacher supervisor this year,” Mr. Jones began. “I’ve been the supervisor for the past 5 years, so I know just about everything about promposals and getting the perfect date. I just wanted to say that since prom is going to be in a couple of months, if you need any help or advice pertaining to anything about it, -- from getting the perfect date to whether or not you should go -- you can ask me. Thanks for your attention, and you can go back to whatever you were doing before.”

Excited chatter broke out amongst the students. Oh brother, you thought to yourself. Can these people just get over themselves? I mean really. Prom is in May! You weren’t even sure whether you were going to go or not. You definitely didn’t have a date, and the only person who you were interested in wasn’t really interested in you…

What am I saying? You thought to yourself. I’m not interested in him anymore. Besides, I’m not even sure what college he’s going to, but it’s most likely not the same as mine, and if my friends found out that I had liked him of all people for such a long time, I’d never hear the end of it…

You buried your face into your issue of Nature and pretended that the heat which had rushed to your cheeks when thinking about him was just embarrassment over the fact that you still didn’t have a date even after 4 years of high school.

-------

“So, Erizabeta, did you get any promposars today?” Kiku asked Elizabeta, trying but failing to mask the interest and excitement in his eyes. She had been getting promposals left and right and hadn’t accepted or declined any of them, but she didn’t seem to mind it that much.

“Yeah. Arthur’s little brother asked me out. It was the funniest, most adorable thing, and his promposal idea wasn’t even too bad. But he can’t even go to prom yet, he’s too young!” Elizabeta said with a giggle, and then began to genuinely laugh. “He’s quite the lady’s man, though. He’s asked out every girl in the grade, and found a different way to do so every time!”

You raised an eyebrow. “He didn’t say anything to me,” you replied, setting down your article.

“That’s because you haven’t lifted your head from scientific learning since December” Elizabeta retorted. “What’s with you? Why don’t you ever…oh, what’s the word?” She waved her arms around for emphasis. “Socialize?”

“Well, since the teachers haven’t been teaching us since December, I figured that I might as well teach myself.”

“You’re rucky, you know.” Kiku said. “Tino has arr the teachers you don’t have, and he’s been getting tests every day.”

“At least he’s going to be prepared for college,” you replied. “Besides, I overheard them talking to each other, and I get the feeling that Tino’s suffering is going to end pretty soon.”

“Aw, but that means Berwald won’t have the opportunity to be adorable and try to make him happy,” Elizabeta replied with a visible frown. “He’s been doing so well, too…”

“Hey, (f/n)?” Kiku asked, deciding to change the subject. “What are you doing for prom?”

“I don’t think I’m going. I don’t have a date, or a dress, and it’s already the end of April.”

“Well, who do you want to be asked out by?” Elizabeta asked, leaning in closer to you to intimidate you into giving her the answer.

“No one!” You shot back a bit too loudly, though your face began to turn a bit pink. Stop thinking about him, stop thinking about him!

“Ooo, look, Kiku, (f/n) (l/n) actually likes someone!” Elizabeta purred, smirking devilishly. “Who’s the lucky gent who stole her heart away from those science books?”

“Nobody!” You retorted. “I don’t like anybody! And even if I did, I wouldn’t go to prom to them, because I’m not dating someone if I don’t know for a fact that I’m going to the same college as them!”

“Ah, so you don’t know what correge they’re going to?” Kiku asked. “So what correge is Arthur going to?”

“Are we seriously playing this game?” You hissed, furious. “As if I wouldn’t know he’s going to Oxford! He’s literally had it written across every shirt he’s worn for the past 6 months!”

“Alfred?”

You sighed. This would be a long lunch period. Why did they give you a full hour to eat your lunch?

-------

“Gosh, come on, (f/n)!” Elizabeta wined, giving you puppy eyes while you were trying to get to class. “Do I really have to list everyone in our grade until I finally hit the right spot? Why can’t you tell me?”

“Elizabeta, I’m trying to get to biology class, and you should be trying to as well. We’re going to be late if you keep holding me up like this,” you muttered, exasperated. When will she just stop?

Elizabeta opened her mouth to reply, but eventually gave in, smirking because she knew your biology teacher, Mr. Bondevik -- who happened to be a sophomore’s uncle -- wouldn’t be teaching today just like the other teachers. Or, well, more like he’d be trying to teach, but nobody would stop talking, so he’d give up in the first 5 minutes of class. When you arrived in the room, you looked for people who were sitting by themselves to try to shake Elizabeta from your shoulders.

Most of the kids you saw either had the spots next to them filled and were eagerly talking to one-another about nothing in particular, or they had the spots behind them empty and had their things spread out across two tables, which wouldn’t do because Elizabeta could bug you from behind. There was one empty seat with the seats around it filled...but it was next to him. You looked down to hide your burning cheeks. How could you possibly choose? Both would be equally awkward…

Thinking about it, you realized that he wouldn’t bother you like Elizabeta would, and as long as he didn’t talk to you and you didn’t talk to him, you’d be okay. Just as the teacher called for everyone to be seated, you quickly scurried over beside the tall, blond Dane, hoping he didn’t notice as you lightly placed your stuff around you.

As predicted, Mr. Bondevik tried to control the class but failed, so he just wound up putting a documentary up on the projector screen and hoping everyone else followed along. You were watching the documentary, but even without him speaking to you, Mathias Kohler’s presence was enough to make you extremely uncomfortable and unfocused. You rested your face against your arms, but kept stealing glances at him to see if he was looking at you as well. When he finally was, and your eyes landed on his, he gave you a dorky grin and whispered, “Hej.”

You were glad that the lights were off, that there were a lot of kids talking so the movie couldn’t really be heard anyways, and that Elizabeta had gotten distracted by Lovina and Antonio’s conversation in front of her, which seemed to be satisfying her need for romantic action between the two, because your face was beat red, nobody heard him talking to you, and Elizabeta would know that you liked him the second she saw how you were looking at him otherwise. “Hey,” you mustered out with a really shy grin, and you cursed how awkward you sounded.

“How are you doing?” The Dane asked, looking away from you and at the screen.

“Good, you?”

“I’m great,” he whispered back. “Say, I heard you were going to (college/n). Is that true?”

“Yeah,” you replied. “I got accepted in December.”

He gave you a kilowatt smile, and you swore you that this boy was going to kill you. “I got accepted there, too,” he said.

You froze, and gaped at him. “R-really?” You asked. “Haha, that’s so funny…”

“Yeah, I know, right?” He said. “What’s your major going to be?”

“Biology,” you responded. “I want to be an archaeologist.”

“Oh, really?” The Dane asked, a bit startled. “I’m majoring in bio, too, but I want to be a paleontologist.”

If you had a drink, you would’ve spat it out at this point. “That’s great...maybe we’ll be in the same class, haha…”

“Yeah! That’d be awesome! This is going to be so cool!” His eyes were shining an electric blue, and you couldn’t help but smile with you. The infectiousness of his enthusiasm...if you were starting to escape from his grasp before, he had caught you and reeled you back once again with just this one, small conversation. Crap...now I have no reason to not ask him out, other than the obvious me being too scared…

The two of you fell into an awkward silence, and you decided to settle your gaze back on the screen, realizing that you had nothing left to say and that adding anything more would ruin the conversation and make you look like an idiot. You were so mesmerized with the narrator’s explanation of the Great Pacific Ocean Dump that you didn’t notice the Danish man stealthily taking your phone from its place on the table and copying your number down into his own.

-------

“So, (f/n), continuing where we left off…” Elizabeta said, catching up to you as you left bio and headed toward your locker to pack up for the day.

“No.”

“Pleeeeeaaaasssseeee!”

“No.”

“Why’d you sit next to Mathias today?”

You were able to hide your blush this time. “Because that was the only spot where I could sit and not leave you with the opportunity to sit by me.”

Elizabeta looked at you for a long moment, and then grinned. “It’s Mathias, isn’t it?”

“WHAAAAT?!” You yelled, and a couple of kids turned towards you to see what all of the commotion was about.

“It is! It is!” Elizabeta cheered. “Nothing slips past me! There’s no reason why you’d talk to him if you were really engrossed in that documentary because Mathias wouldn’t bother you while you were actually watching it!”

“It is not!” You hissed, though your countenance gave you away. You were blushing to your ears now and began to storm off at a quick pace, cursing this girl for her constant meddling in affairs which didn’t pertain to her.

“(f/n) likes Mathias~ (f/n) likes Mathia-” Elizabeta sang and tried to catch up while you were ahead of her. You went to round a corner and were met by a hard chest. Startled, you stepped back a couple of steps, and then you saw who the chest belonged to, and were even more startled. Had he heard Elizabeta…?

His face turned pink and he began to stutter. “Ah, (f/n), I-I, uh...y-you...you like me?”

You froze. Crap! “Uh...w-well,” you couldn’t meet his gaze, and stared anywhere but at him. If you were blushing to your ears before, you were blushing to your neck by now. I am going to kill Elizabeta! You thought. You were shaking, and fought back tears.

Mathias pulled you into his chest for a warm hug, stroking your back gently in comforting circles. “It’s okay if you like me, you know,” he whispered. “I-I like you too…I’ve liked you since first grade...”

You flushed. “I-I’ve liked you since first grade too.” Mathias tried to pull away to look you in the eye, but you continued to cling to him like a lifeline. “And I was always too scared, because you were really smart and I was really smart but you were also really cool and really handsome and really athletic and really funny, and even back then the girls really liked you and I was jealous so I couldn’t get the courage to ask you out, but I really wanted to-mmf!”

Mathias cut your ramblings off with a sweet, gentle kiss. It felt like a lifetime before he let go, and when he did he began to chuckle. “(f/n), you really think it was me who had all of the ladies? You’ve always been the chick. Every dude in the grade has been talking about you since we actually started to care about girls! You’re smart, and pretty, and kind of shy, but really adorable, and everyone else would always stare at you at lunch, and I’d always get really nervous and jealous because I’d liked you way longer, and I was always so scared that you’d take one of them instead of-mmf!”

This time, you cut Mathias off with a kiss, equally sweet and gentle, albeit a bit uncertain because you were both pretty new at this and your heart was still pounding against your chest at 95 miles an hour. When you two parted, you both looked down, pausing to think of what to say.

“So...wanna go to prom with me?” You both said in unison.

“Yes!” You both replied with cheeky grins.

-------

“Do you get them?” Elizabeta whispered to Kiku, who was strategically positioned behind a row of potted plants placed within the school building for decoration.

“Yes. Both times,” he replied.

“Erizabeta, who’d you choose to go to the prom with anyways?” Kiku whispered while the two of you stood up and began to walk away chatting, curious as to what her response would be.

“That’s for me to know, and you to take pictures of while hiding in a bush by my house on prom night,” she replied with a smile, and she stood up to leave.

When he was sure he was gone, Kiku jumped up and yelled, “YES! MORE PICTURES!” Abash because of his excitement, he quickly looked around to make sure that nobody had seen his outburst, and then began to head out of the school building himself.