A clever title

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WHO: Tino and Malin
WHEN: Friday evening, December 11
WHERE: Tino's apartment
WHAT: Tino and Malin have a temporary state of insanity.
WARNING: Malin's nasty mouth.

Comments

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Malin raised her eyebrows at Tino when she heard the dog's name. Flower-Egg? What kind of a name was that? It sounded like... well, like a flower's egg. A lady like this would've deserved at least a prettier name. Malin looked at the dog and nodded firmly. "I'll call you Flower, then." She scratched Flower-Egg behind her ear and then hugged her tight to her chest. "Aww, so cute! I think we'll get along well, Flower." Can't say the same about your owner, she added in her mind.

She put the dog down to the floor and saw Tino heading to the door. Right, he was going to get the boxes. He probably wouldn't need her help with that (more like Malin was unwilling to help) and Malin's stomach decided to inform her that she needed food now - she had only had a sandwich earlier that day - so she cried out, "I'll eat while you're away" to Tino's back and headed to the kitchen.

She poured the cold coffee into the sink and opened the fridge to check what she could make. She wasn't feeling like going downtown to buy some food, but she assured herself that she would pay back to Tino the first thing tomorrow. She took bread, butter, some cheese, tomatoes and water out of the fridge and settled down to make a sandwich for herself yet again.

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Carrying the rest of the boxes upstairs to their apartment, Tino hummed quitely to himself, "Ja se Oolannin sota oli kauhia, huraa, huraa huraa~..," careful not to be heard by Malin, because he didn't know if she knew the song, and even if she did, he didn't think she'd take it as something even close to funny.

After finally setting down the last box, Tino stretched his back, moaning a bit when his spine popped. "Aaah, that almost got my back..." Sighing, he looked around the room, now full of all kinds of boxes, and wondered how Malin was supposed to get all that stuff fit into this room or even to this apartment. I don't think that Eduard and I had this much personal stuff even if we had combined all of our things together... Oh, well. He sighed and walked out of her room, to the kitchen, and grabbed a coffee bag, going to the coffee maker.

Should I make two or three cups..? I say three. Two at least but it's good to be prepared. I wonder if Malin drinks coffee? And if she does, how much? Should I just make at least 5 cups just in case..? Tino glanced behind his shoulder.

...

He turned back to the coffee maker. Make it six cups.

[*"And that war of Åland was a horrid one, hurray, hurray, hurray..."]

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[ooc: "When with three hundred ships sailed the Englishmen on the shores of our Finland~~"

Malin sat down at the table and munched quietly on her sandwich while watching Tino carefully from the corner of her eye. She wondered how they were going to stand each other. Well, if they avoided one another as much as possible, then maybe - just maybe - it would be possible to survive this. Malin was pretty sure the man hated her guts already. For some unknown reason it bothered her a bit.

However, she quickly shrugged the feeling off and closed her eyes when she smelled the delicious scent of hot coffee. "Mmm, coffee," she sighed and got up to pour some for herself as well. "The only thing that keeps me going. By the way," she then added casually, "I think we should figure out what each of us does to keep this place tidied up and pleasant. I can't stand dust or disorder. You better not be the kind of guy who doesn't care for his environment in the slightest."

She gave Tino a hard look and continued, "It's nicer to live in a clean home. Don't you think so?"

I love how this apartment situation reminds me already of the IRL Åland - Finland situation

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Glancing at Malin who had appeared next to him, Tino raised his eyebrows just the slightest bit, partly wondering why Malin seemed to be so comfortable with eating or drinking his stuff without even asking (even though he was sure she would pay for them later), and partly because of the look she gave her. Did he look like a person who didn't care about keeping order in his apartment? Well, of course sometimes (during the most important hockey tournaments, finals, first few days of vacations, when he'd get drunk...) he tended to let this and that laying around and maybe sometimes he forgot the dishes in the sink for several days but NORMALLY he thought that he was actually a pretty clean person for being a single man of his age.

"Yeah, I mean, of course," he said, turning to look away again to pour the coffee in his mug, "...Eduard and I had an agreement that both took care of their own stuff and cleaned when either one had more time. It actually worked for us." ...But that was Eduard.

Taking a sip, Tino closed his eyes and sighed, enjoying the taste and feeling his headache calm down a bit. "...How would you like to arrange this then..?" He asked, still not opening his eyes. It was probably better to let Malin come up with something she'd like to do and then see if it worked for him or not. That way they could probably be spared from a fight and he wouldn't have to put himself in danger of getting contemptuous looks in case Malin thought his ideas were stupid.

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Malin tilted her head and looked back at Tino, raising her eyebrows slightly as well. Was he surprised? What, did he think she wouldn't have thought of the practical arrangements they needed to make in order to be able to live together in this apartment? If that was the case, then he was wrong. She frowned. Malin liked it when she had everything organized. There wouldn't be any unpleasant surprises that way. If the apartment was clean at all times, she wouldn't have to do any quick cleanups after hearing there were guests arriving in 30 minutes. That would be awkward.

She took another bite of the sandwich and sat down at the table again, lowering her cup of coffee onto it. She hummed quietly and glanced out of the window before saying strictly, "Saturday is the day we clean up the apartment properly. You do it on even weeks, I do it on uneven weeks. 'Cleaning up the apartment properly' includes mopping the floor, wiping dust off everything, vacuuming, washing the toilet, etc. We wash our own dishes right after we've eaten. Frankly, I don't care about what state your bedroom is in so let's agree that we keep our bedrooms clean on our own."

She sipped coffee and then looked at Tino again. "A place for everything and everything in its place. Sounds good to you?"

[find_a_fin]

Tino thought about this. It indeed sounded like the best solution for him and Malin. The only backside to it was that what would he do if there was a big exam coming and he'd need to study the whole weekend or when a hockey tournament would be on. But he could think about that later.

Nodding, Tino refilled his mug and sat down across Malin at the table, rubbing his temples. "Sounds fine to me." Taking a long sip, Tino glanced over the table at Malin and leaned to his elbow. Now that he thought about it, he had never lived with a girl. Well, of course he had lived with his mom, but he didn't have any brothers or sisters so he didn't have any experience of how girls acted in their homes. He had seen movies of course, and in those it somehow seemed the girls usually wore only little bits of clothing when they were around their apartments. The thought made Tino blush slightly and he looked away. On the second thought, the girls in those movies only did that if they lived alone. Or if at the end of the movie they ended up hooking up with their male roommates. Wait a second. Would that mean that if Malin turned out to be one of those girls who wear only bits of clothing, it'd be a message for Tino that they should hook up?

CRASH

Tino's elbow had slipped from the table and the mug he had been holding was now on the floor in pieces, a pool of hot coffee around it.

LET'S HOOK UP ♥

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Malin had finished eating her sandwich so she felt satisfied, her stomach wasn't empty anymore. The feeling of hunger was one of the worst she knew and she was usually the one out of her female co-workers to eat most at lunch. She had never understood how some women could go on for days without having a proper meal. Perhaps she had just been fed so well in Finland when she was younger that she couldn't even consider not eating.

She was drinking the rest of her coffee down in one go when she heard a loud crash and almost choked on her own drink. The surprise caused by Tino's mug breaking when it hit the floor resulted in Malin coughing hard and trying to breathe again properly. Her eyes filled with water and she covered her mouth with her hand, coughing into her fist while putting down her cup of coffee to the table.

"F-fuck," she muttered when she finally could breathe better and glared at Tino. Wait, was that blush on the man's cheeks? However, Malin chose to ignore it and focus all her strength on getting a glass of water to wash away the bitter taste left in her mouth, careful to avoid the ever growing pool of hot coffee on the floor. He's an idiot, she concluded in her mind.

I TTLY SHIP IT.

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I'm an idiot, Tino lamented in his mind when he quickly kneeled down to pick up the shards of broken china from the floor, holding his head low, face and ears burning hot, heart beating fast from the shock. When he had picked up the pieces, he stood up and walked to the trashcan, quickly glancing at the doorway to see if the sound had lured Flower-Egg here but was relieved when he saw nothing. His girl was probably taking a nap in his bed and at those times there were only few things that could startle her.

Grabbing a handtowel, Tino kneeled down on the floor again, still not daring even to look at Malin, more embarrassed than he'd been in a long time. Swallowing hard, Tino chewed his lip and pressed the towel on the pool of brown liquid, letting it suck it in. After the towel was soaked, he got up on his feet once again, going to the sink to flush the towel when he saw something red staining the cloth. Oh great...

He had sliced himself accidentally while picking up the shards.

Sighing miserably, he put his hand under the flow of cold water, hanging his head. I'm REALLY and idiot...

DON'T TELL SWEDEN

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Malin watched as Tino bent down to pick up the shards and then, after a while, to dry the floor. She frowned, feeling a bit guilty for thinking bad of the younger man - he was clearly trying to be nice to her, and he seemed really embarrassed about this incident. It hadn't been done on purpose. Malin shook her head slowly and would have liked to slap herself. Living together would be so much easier if she tried to get along as well. Something about Tino Väinämöinen just made her act mean around him - perhaps it was the fact that she had taught herself to dislike everyone with Finnish origins (and now she was completely ignoring her own origins that were deeply rooted in Finland, too) or maybe it was his tendency to try and please everyone. Who knew.

Malin sighed and went to take a closer look at the cut Tino had got from picking up the shards. She took his hand into her own and inspected the wound. She was, after all, a nurse and this was her job. The least she could do to make up for making Tino carry all those boxes. "Do you have plasters anywhere? It would be better to put one on it, it looks like it will bleed a lot. I can't see any shards, tho. We should still clean it."

*LE GASP* A SCANDAL!

[find_a_fin]

When Malin came to him and took his hand to inspect the wound, Tino only barely kept himself from yelping out loud, so unexpected it was, and he was still trying to stop thinking about her walking around their apartment in skimpy clothing, since it was kind of disturbing and also made his flush return. He admitted that Malin was really pretty and all, but her attitude... Well, frankly Tino thought that if he ever accidentally got a glimpse of her when she wasn't fully dressed, he'd be in trouble.

Even the question from Malin almost went unnoticed as Tino squirmed slightly in her hold, but when she finally looked at him with a stern look, he forced the answer out of his mouth. "Uh, wha-oh, plasters? Umm, I'm not entirely sure, I think I do, in the bathroom..." He rubbed his neck with his free hand and gave a nervous laugh. "But I don't think that'll be necessary... I mean, It's only a scratch..."

Really, Tino. Is it appropriate to be thinking of women in only few clothes?

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Malin gave Tino a look that clearly said, "Obey now or you'll cry and obey". However, she was used to this. Patients and other people were always telling her how it was nothing and it would pass over time. It never got less annoying, though.

"It's still bleeding," she pointed out aloud and shook her head at any protests Tino might have come up next. "I'm a professional. I know what I'm doing, so trust me on this. Besides, what bad does one single plaster do? Or does it hurt your manly ego to have a plaster on a cut you caused yourself? Or maybe you can't stand being taken care of?" Malin raised her eyebrows at Tino and smirked slightly. "Well, which one is it?"

She led him to the bathroom, sat him down on the toilet seat and began going through the closets to find those plasters. She frowned and muttered, "You know every household should have a first-aid kit in case of an emergency. Why is it that I can't find one, hmm?"