Never In A Million Years : Sweden x Child! Reader

Never in A Million Years : Sweden x Child! Reader

    The Swedish man known to his friends by the name of Berwald was not typically known for getting into trouble, stepping out of line unless needed, or anything like that in the general sort.  He was a stringent rule follower, and an enforcer of those rules with an iron fist. It would be no surprise to anyone who knew him that he would personally dole out the punishments to those who had broken, or even bent, the rules. At a younger age, he had been slightly more lenient to those he deemed as rule breakers, but those days had long since passed and gone away. Now it was an almost militaristic kind of enforcement that he used when holding up the rules. Even to his own family members, the strict standards were applied and enforced ruthlessly and as swiftly as he could possibly give to the intended person.
    So one could very well imagine the shock and surprise that his four brothers felt when they saw him walking into the front door, out of a howling snowstorm, with a small, frail child, bundled up in his warm inner coat, held tightly in his arms. The moment that everyone noticed, silence ensued, four mouths opened in shock at the strange, yet oddly adorable scene before them. Berwald, a hulking bear of a man, was carrying around this small and vulnerable child, as she cuddled into him, her face buried into his chest as though she sought nothing more than to completely smoosh herself into him. Tino had to refrain from squealing as not to frighten the poor thing once he had recovered from his initial shock. Mathias snorted and was about to make a snarky comment when Lukas quickly stepped in and silenced him before anything damaging could come out.
    "So Berwald, where did you find this little one?" Emil asked from where he sat at the table, his puffin sitting on his shoulder. Berwald looked down at the little girl, who didn't seem like she was about to move her face from its current position anytime soon, and looked back up.
    "She w's outs'de in th' cold," he stated very simply, heading over to the couch and wrapping her in a thick blanked that had been draped over the back of said couch.
    The girl was shivering ferociously in his arms, clinging to the giant of a Swede for warmth. Tino instantly let out a small noise similar to a gasp and set about making some hot chocolate for the both of them, seeing how cold they must have been at the moment. A few more moments of silence ensued, where everyone was just watching the pair in shock and now a bit of confusion. Why did Berwald decide to take her home, even if she had been outside? That didn't seem very like him. Mathias managed to finally pry Lukas' hand away from his mouth and blurt out the question he had been dying to ask the Swede.
    "So she's not yours, Ber?" he piped up, immediately shut up again by Lukas choking him. Despite Mathias being the second oldest of the five brothers, he was by far the most immature out of all of them. Berwald shook his head and continued to hold the girl, though with increasing awkwardness as he had never had to deal with anything like this before. Mathias sprang up from the couch to look at the little girl huddled up in Berwald's arms, but the moment he tried to see her face, she let out a scream and started pushing away from both men at the same time. Berwald, not expecting the little girl to start struggling, nearly dropped her, and hurriedly tried to regain his grip. She started to shriek loudly, finally tearing herself away from Berwald and landing on the floor with a thud. In the blink of an eye, she was gone, out of the room, without hesitation.
    Berwald hurried after her, his long steps carrying him swiftly into the other rooms as his clear sapphire eyes swept across each section for the minuscule child. Every time he looked under something or in another room, it seemed as though he found evidence of where she had been. The blanket had been abandoned in one spot under the kitchen table, his jacket in another spot near the stairs, wet footprints leading up said stairs. Berwald quietly went up the stairs to the second floor, watching as the little wet footprints eventually faded out, right before the bedrooms, leaving no clue as to where the little girl had gone. The Swede supposed that he had no choice but to check each one until he found her, or until she revealed herself. Either way, he had to start somewhere, and the best bet was to begin where he thought she might be.
    And so he searched rooms of the upper floor for the little girl he had brought in from the freezing cold. Each closet was rifled through carefully, each bed was inspected, both on top and underneath, and each little place where she might possibly hide was searched. But each room was seemingly empty of a small presence that was hidden. He finally reached the last room, wondering where the little one might be, when he heard a tiny sneeze from one of the corners of the room. Berwald quietly closed the door, and headed over to the corner. There, he found her, squished between the wall and a heavy oaken dresser. Her breathing was hitched and strained, practically screaming of the illness she most likely had gotten. Berwald carefully moved the dresser out of the way, only to have the little girl bolt over to the closed door, crying out for her mother and father as she scrabbled for the door handle, just out of her reach.
    Berwald came over to her and as he was about to gently take her into his arms, she collapsed, her breath wheezing through her lungs. He scooped her up carefully, noting that she now was not struggling against him, and carried her back downstairs. The moment he appeared back down on the first floor, Tino practically flew over to them, fussing over the poor girl's health and insisting that everyone help in making her feel better. He took the hot chocolate he had made earlier and poured it into two mugs, adding a bit of cold milk and a straw to one of them for the little girl. Lukas and Mathias were sent off to go find some dry clothing for the small child, and Emil was instructed to run a warm bath and find some medicine for her. Tino gently took the girl from Berwald and wrapped her up in another blanket he snagged from a cabinet, before pushing the Swede to go out and get changed himself before he caught a cold too.
    After doing as he was told, Berwald returned downstairs and looked around to see Tino carrying the tiny girl off to the bathroom, probably for the bath Emil had prepared for her. He sat down on the couch to wait for them, and thought over what he had seen with that girl. She had literally been sitting outside, half in the snow, her lips blue and she looked as though she would have died had she stayed outside for another minute. Berwald had picked her up and brought her here, but she was scared of him. Or was it that she was scared of the sudden new surroundings that she had been brought into? He wouldn't know until he asked her, or something like that, and she didn't seem too keen on actually talking to him right now. All he could do at the moment was wait until she was ready to talk.

         ~Timeskip~

    It turned out that the little girl, who, through various attempts and gestures before writing it down to find out, was named (y/n), and that she was completely unwilling to talk to any of them except for Tino. Even over the course of several days, and no success of finding her parents, she hadn't taken a liking to anyone in the house except Tino, and she clung to him like a lifeline. Of course, he would inform the others about what little (y/n) had told him, such as the nightmares and things that had happened at her "other house" as she had called it. Tino later pried from her that she had been in an orphanage that wasn't up to the required standards, Berwald found out after a little digging. The five brothers all agreed to take her back and promptly adopt her as soon as they could.
    At the orphanage, however, the couple who ran it absolutely refused to let (y/n) be adopted, claiming that they had no right to keep her anymore after what they had done. Berwald stepped in at that point and demanded quietly that they be allowed to adopt the young girl, who clung tightly to Tino's leg throughout the whole argumentative procedure. The couple had quickly crumbled underneath Berwald's intimidating gaze and hesitantly let the brothers adopt the small child. Only one condition applied, that one of them, and only one, could apply to be her adoptive "parent" as they were all related to one another in some way. Berwald signed his name where it was needed without any pause, and finished up the whole packet of paperwork necessary within minutes. Out of all the brothers, he cared the most for little (y/n), and all of them knew it, even though she didn't fully accept him.
    After they went home, it seemed as though things were normal, at least as normal as they could be in a household like theirs. Mathias was the usual crazy, beer loving maniac he could be, Lukas ever present to keep him from doing anything too stupid, Emil still as reclusive as he had been, and Tino just as worrisome of everyone as he always was. But Berwald had changed, though rather subtly so. He still carried out his own hobbies and his job, as a carver for a few shops here and there in town. He was still quiet spoken and intimidating, but all four of his other brothers could see that he was much more caring, especially towards (y/n). Even though she still had yet to completely warm up to him, she would let him hold her close to him, and trusted him with things like tucking her into bed. A few times she even called out for him specifically in her high and quavering voice after a frightening nightmare.
    One particular evening, only around three months or so after the adoption, Berwald was reading up in bed, into the late hours of the night, when he heard a cry from the next room over, (y/n)'s room. Instantly, he sprung out of bed and pattered his way down to her room, knocking before entering, as habit would have. The Swede went over to the bed they had bought for (y/n) and scooped her up out of it with practiced ease, rubbing her back soothingly. She leaned into his shoulder with a whimper, grabbing fistfuls of his night shirt tightly in her hands. Her whole body was trembling with the fear left over from what she had seen in the nightmare just moments ago. Berwald continued to soothe her gently, swaying a little bit as he did to try and ease her troubles.
     "Papa...," (y/n) whined, her face still nestled into his shoulder snugly. "Papa don't ever leave me behind...."
    Berwald was stunned, not only that she had called him her Papa, but that she specifically had asked him to stay with her. Not Tino, not Emil, Mathias, or Lukas. Him. He had thought she didn't like him because he was scary, or a towering giant over her, or any other number of reasons. But she had finally accepted him, as her Papa and as family, like everyone else already had. He allowed a small smile to come across his face and gently patted her hair with his hand that had been rubbing her back. If she didn't want him to leave, then there was only one answer he could ever say to her.
    "N'ver 'n a m'llion years."

         ~Fin~