"I-I was just… I…" Tino's heart raced frantically for an excuse, but his brain came up with nothing. "Um… there was some dirt on your face?" he squeaked pathetically as soon as it popped into his mind. Berwald blinked in silence before speaking.

"M'st h've f'rg'tten to w'sh it off y'sterd'y." he muttered.

"Maybe…" Tino said quietly.

That was a close one! I can't believe he actually believed that, though… Tino thought, sighing a little in relief.

"Y'u may w'nt to put s'me cl'thes on b'fore you cl'n the st'bles." Berwald pointed out. Tino's flush rose to the tips of his ears. "F'nd ya on the r'verb'nk l'st n'ght."

"S-sorry about that…" Tino mumbled. "I was exhausted."

"It's ok'y." Berwald said. Tino jumped out of the bed and put his clothes on as quickly as possible before heading to the door.

"I'll be back." He said. Berwald said nothing; he simply looked at him, but not with that glare in his eyes.

Tino quickly exited and practically ran to the barn.

He wasn't… blushing, was he? No, no, of course he wasn't! Tino tried to convince himself. I'm a stable boy, and he's a knight; knights are supposed to court ladies, and men liking other men—

"Ugh…" Tino growled in frustration.

No, I don't like him like that… I'm simply a servant to him, that's all.

….

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months before Tino knew it. In all of that time, his strange feelings for Berwald only grew stronger, but he was still nonetheless frightened of the man.

"'m goin' t' K'ng's f'st." Berwald said one afternoon.

"Really? That sounds exciting." Tino smiled. "Then I guess you'll be needing some help putting on your light armor?" Tino asked. Berwald nodded. Tino went to the case in the corner and took out the much lighter armor to help suit the man. He nearly had the chest plate on him before Tino noticed that something was off.

"Berwald… you have a rip in your tunic." He said.

"Hn?" Berwald turned his head to the back and looked down. "Gr't." he muttered, seeing a rather large gash in the back of his favorite maroon tunic. Before Tino knew what was going on, Berwald slipped it off his body and began looking for a new one. Tino's mouth dropped open a little and his knees quivered a tiny bit; he knew that Berwald was particularly fit, but he hadn't had a cluethat the man had the body of a god.

Tino stared at his neatly-chiseled torso and felt himself get a little dizzy. He wanted nothing more than to—

No, I'm not going to think about kissing him there! Tino told himself sternly. However, he couldn't keep himself from staring in the slightest, and he nearly whined when Berwald found another tunic and slipped it on.

"T'no? Yer f'ce is r'd; 're you s'ck?" Berwald asked, interrupting Tino's thoughts as he pressed his hand gently against the smaller man's forehead.

"I'm f-fine!" Tino laughed nervously, feeling his face growing even hotter. "Uh… l-let's get that armor on you, shall we?"

…

Tino went straight to work when Berwald left to go to the feast. It was sweltering outside, and Tino constantly had to stop working for a few moments to wipe his brow in the stuffy barn. As soon as he finished brushing the last horse, he sat in the corner of the barn, sweating from the heat. His mind trailed to what happened with Berwald that afternoon, and he felt himself just get even hotter.

That body… it's so perfect… Tino swooned. Something uncontrollable stirred inside of him, something that threatened to burst like a dam after months of denial. Unable to take it any longer, Tino hid behind the post and closed his eyes, palming himself through his trousers.

His entire body flared with heat as he thought of Berwald's rigid muscles flexing over and over again, sweat dripping down like a river in the crevices of his abs, all the way down to the waistband of his pants—

Tino shuddered violently.

In no time at all, the desperate Finn was as hard as a rock. He couldn't kid himself anymore; he wanted Berwald so badly that he would do anything to have him, even just once.

He shoved his hand down his trousers, stroking his aching member and leaning his back against the wall.

"God, Berwald…" he groaned, his breath coming out in sharp pants. He freed his member from his trousers and stroked himself harder, completely convinced that Berwald had to be very much a man down there. The sweltering heat, Tino's unbearably erotic fantasies, and the complete forbiddance of the act proved to be too much for him; he felt himself coming very close.

Almost there, he thought frantically, beating himself off even faster.

"Berwald…!" he mewled. Suddenly, the barn door opened without warning.

"T'no? Are y'u in 'ere?" A voice asked. Tino froze.

So close… so close! He thought miserably. He barely breathed as Berwald began to walk around, looking for him. Tino silently pleaded for his 'problem' to go away, but his stirring hormones would have none of it; in fact, just looking at Berwald's prominent cheekbones just made the poor man even harder.

"T'no?" The Finn jumped nearly three feet in the air; he hadn't even noticed that the knight was so close to him.

"B-Berwald!" he stammered, his heart thumping madly. "I—"

"… Wh't 're you d'ng?" The confused Swede asked slowly. "I h'rd ya c'lling m

n'me wh'n I w's c'ming b'ck. I th'ght you w're in tr'ble."

"No, I'm fine! J-just go back to the house, everything's fine, I'm almost done with the stables!" Tino babbled in a jumbled mess. He squeezed his eyes shut, almost wanting to cry in embarrassment.

"… T'no, w're you—"

"Just go back!" he exclaimed, too mortified to even look at Berwald. After a moment, Tino suddenly felt a hand on his body, making him tense up.

Oh God, he's going to kill me!

"Berwald, I'm sorry—!" An unexpected kiss silenced the shorter man. Tino moaned in surprise for a moment before quickly turning into ecstasy. Berwald gently pressed the front of Tino's body to the wall and snaked his hand up his tunic.

"B-Berwald!" he squeaked, feeling rough, calloused fingers stroking his nipples, making him convulse. "What—"

"I've 'lways w'nted ya." He grunted in Tino's ear. "D'dn't kn'w you f'lt th' s'me 'bout me." Tino inhaled sharply as Berwald pinned him a little harder against the wall with his pelvis. Tino suddenly felt fingers in his mouth; he sucked them and ran his tongue all over the digits, getting them as wet as possible. Berwald trailed the said hand further and further down, until he brushed it against Tino's member.

"Ber—" The knight's other hand clapped his mouth shut in a split second.

"You kn'w th' p'nishm'nt if we're c'ght." He hissed. Tino nodded frantically as Berwald began to stroke his weeping member. It was absolutely torturous, the feeling of those heavenly fingers on him, and Tino let out a wail of desperation.

"Be qui't." Berwald growled. Tino could barely register what he said; he was on the brink of finishing with a few more strokes.

"Berwald…" he panted over and over again, scraping his fingernails against the wall. Within a minute, Tino couldn't hang on any longer.

"Ngh!" he choked, forcing the noise to stay inside of him as he came the hardest he'd ever done, erupting all over Berwald's hand.

Tino panted heavily, not believing what had just happened. He turned to Berwald, seeing a look of utter shock and… amusement in his normally cold, glaring eyes. Tino also noticed that Berwald had a problem of his own.

Wasting no time, Tino got to his knees and began to undo Berwald's trousers. A hand against his forehead pushed him away, and Tino looked up at the man in confusion.

"No, T'no; I m'st be ch'verlous to m' w'fe." Tino stood up immediately.

"Chivalrous to your what?"

….

Oh Berwald, you and your wife-complex… Don't worry guys, as you can probably tell, I tend to update often for this story, mostly because I woke up this morning and found my email inbox full of story alerts and reviews for this. I went from being , like I usually am in the morning, to :'D. Sorry about how this is all completely historically inaccurate; I have no idea why I even started writing this, considering how the Nordic countries didn't have knights XD Thanks for the reviews, guys; they really keep me motivated