Emil paused in his hunt for lightning bugs, his little hands gripping a jar tightly. "Lukas," he called firmly, breaking the hush that had come with twilight.

"Yeah?" answered the older boy from a few feet away.

"When I grow up, I'm gonna marry you!" His friend and neighbor turned his head to look at Emil, smiling warmly at the six-year-old.

"Is that so?"

"Yep, I just decided!"

"What made you decide that?" The younger boy looked down to study the lid on his jar as he formed an answer.

"Well," he said, twisting the lid back and forth on its tracks, "you're the prettiest person I know, and you're my best friend!" He jumped up and down excitedly, knowing he had given a good answer. "That's what my daddy says about my mommy, so that means I have to marry you!"

"Then I guess it's settled," Lukas said matter-of-factly, and they returned to their hunt.

"Lukas?" Emil called again after a couple of minutes.

"Yes?"

"Will you marry me, too?"

"I think that's how it usually works. If you're marrying me, then I'm marrying you."

"Good." The small child smiled to himself. Lukas was already nine, so if he said something, it was probably true. "I'm going to catch you a lightning bug."

"Emil? Are you up yet?" The teenager awoke from his dream to hear his mother calling for him.

"I am now," he answered, rubbing his eyes. His mother opened the door, smiling at him brightly.

"Happy birthday! Aren't you so excited?" She entered the room and placed a kiss on his forehead.

"Oh, yeah, I'm ecstatic," he grumbled.

"Oh, come on! You're fifteen now, and today's the day you get your timer!"

"Uh huh."

"Well, get dressed and come eat breakfast," she huffed, pretending to pout at his foul mood. When she left the room and closed the door behind her, Emil sighed heavily, falling back against his pillows.

"What a stupid dream," he mumbled, but he knew it wasn't really a dream. From age six, he had genuinely believed that he would marry his neighbor and close friend, Lukas. But that dream came crashing down three years ago, when Lukas had turned fifteen and gotten his own timer.

Emil wasn't sure what all went into the timer other than some basic information and a personality test, but it lead you to your true love. First it counted down until the day that you would meet them, and when you finally did it would ring out. Of course, if your special someone hadn't gotten a timer yet, it remained blank. That's what he had been expecting on Lukas's fifteenth birthday; that is not what happened.

After it had been implanted on his wrist, it beeped to life, showing a count down: two years, one month, and six days. But then there was also something that most people didn't see on a timer. There, in the bottom corner of the screen was a little exclamation point, an error sign. Emil had been upset, but that error message was the one thing that gave him hope. Maybe it's just set wrong. Maybe it's counting down until my fifteenth birthday. Nevermind that the appointed day didn't come near his birthday. Still, he deluded himself into thinking that they were still meant to be together, and both their families continued to tease him about his crush.

Fast forward two years, one month, and six days later, and Lukas was getting ready to go to college. When he met one of the boys down the hall from his dorm room, his timer rang. Emil had been helping him move in, so he got to experience that treat first-hand.

"Well, that's convenient!" the older boy, Mathias, had said happily, but Lukas ignored him. Emil dropped the box he had been carrying.

"Emil, listen," Lukas began, but the younger boy had already began running down the hallway away from Lukas and his "special someone."

He hadn't spoken to Lukas much after that day. He saw the older boy every time he came home to visit, but his parents always insisted that he bring Mathias as well. He had heard far too many times how great they looked together and how well the timer matched them up. Of course, it wasn't the timer that had made them so allegedly perfect for each other, but whatever. They both still had tiny error messages in the corner of their timers, so how perfect could they be?

"I don't see the point of getting a timer," Emil declared to his parents when he sat down for breakfast. "You guys don't have one."

"That's because we were already engaged when the timers came out," explained his father. "They would have just confirmed what we already knew."

"Honey, I know you're still disappointed about Lukas, but a timer will help you find the person who's really meant for you," said his mother gently.

"It wasn't just me, you know," Emil grumbled. "Lukas said he would marry me, too."

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but heartbreak is just a part of life, even with the timers. But things were so much harder without them."

"That's right, I went through five different girlfriends before I met your mother."

"Wait, Dad, I thought you had four girlfriends before Mom."

"Yeah, me, too." His mother put her hands on her hips in a pretend angry pose.

"Woops, I must've miscounted somewhere!" His parents chuckled happily.

At school that day, he talked to his friend Xiao, who had gotten a timer on his birthday a few months ago. The black haired boy proudly showed Emil his wrist, a big error stretched across the screen of the timer.

"It's kind of shitty if you think about it, but when I couldn't convince my family that I'm asexual, this baby did," he said, smiling widely.

"But what was the point of getting a timer at all, if you knew you didn't have a soul mate?" asked the blond.

"My family insisted, but it's not such a bad thing. It just confirmed what I already knew."

"Did it hurt to have it implanted?"

"Yeah, it kinda stung, and then my wrist was sore-ish afterwards. But it's not a big deal. I mean, it would be a bigger deal if you didn't get one."

"It's just sort of depressing, you know?"

"It'll be alright, Emil," said one of their other friends, Matthew, holding up his wrist. "I still have ten more years until I meet my one."

"Yeah, but you haven't promised yourself to anyone…"

Since it was a school night, his parents didn't throw a big timer party like some families did. Lukas's parents, since they were family friends, came over for dinner and cake, and at 7:30 sharp the timer technician arrived at the house.

Emil lay down on the couch, refusing to take his mother's hand, and presented his dominant arm to the technician. He explained a little about the timer and then firmly took Emil's arm and used the small gun to implant the device.

Emil flinched at the pain and subsequent burning sensation in his wrist. Everyone leaned in close when the timer beeped to life, flashing the start of its countdown: two days, four hours, and twenty-five minutes.

"That's on Friday!" exclaimed his mother, jumping up and down with excitement.

The technician softly congratulated him before excusing himself while the parents chatted happily. Emil just kept staring at the countdown in confusion. Why is it so soon? Who could it be? What the hell was Xiao talking about when he said it only "kinda stung"?

Friday arrived, and no one at school was making Emil's timer ring. "Hey if you don't find them before school gets out, we should go out tonight," said Xiao during lunch. "Yong Soo just got his driver's license, and he's looking for a chance to use it."

"Sure, whatever," Emil sighed.

"Just be glad yours is so soon," hissed Natalya. "I won't meet my soul mate until I'm fourty."

He walked home from school that day as usual and was surprised to see his parents' cars in the driveway. They were certainly home early. His mother rushed to greet him before he had even entered the house.

"How was school today, honey?" she asked excitedly. "Did you meet the one?"

"No, not yet, but I'm going out with Xiao and everyone tonight."

"That's a great idea! I'm sure, no, I know you'll find them today. The timer never fails! Well, come on in. Lukas and Mathias are here to visit."

"They are?"

Emil wasn't sure if he could handle seeing them on top of everything else. He hesitantly followed his mother into the living room, dumping his bag in the kitchen along the way. Lukas was giving him a warm smile, something that was rare to see on the older boy.

"Emil, happy—" he began to say, but he was interrupted by a ringing sound.

Slowly, Emil looked down at his wrist. His timer was flashing at him happily, signaling that he had found "the one." He looked back up at Lukas, who was staring at his own ringing timer in shock.

"Um, what does that mean?" said Mathias, looking at his also ringing timer, and Emil's jaw dropped.

The three of them looked at each other, checking their wrists again. Emil's mother gasped, and his father cleared his throat loudly.

"I think we should give them some privacy," he said, ushering his wife out of the room.

Silence filled the room as their timers stopped ringing. "Um," Emil began, but he didn't even know what to ask.

"The error message is gone," Lukas mused, checking his wrist once more.

"Oh, mine is, too!" Mathias said after rechecking his own timer. Lukas turned to him, smirking.

"You owe me twenty bucks," he said.

"Yeah, I do." The taller man smiled, scratching the back of his head. "But I guess what you said makes sense now."

"What are you guys talking about?" Emil asked, looking between the two.

"You know how our timers always had that little exclamation mark in the corner?" Mathias asked, smiling at the younger boy.

"Yeah?"

"Two days ago, our timers started counting down again," Lukas continued.

"What? I didn't even know that could happen."

"We didn't either, but it was on your birthday, so Lukas said that maybe…"

"Maybe what?"

"You're a smart boy, Emil," Lukas said, taking the boy's hands in his. "What do you think it means?" The younger boy looked between the two of them again.

"But both of you? I mean, all three of us?"

"Have you ever heard of polyamory?" Mathias asked, slinging an arm around the boy's shoulder. "It's where you love more than one person."

"Is that like those weird swinger people?"

"Er, no, how do you know about stuff like that?" Lukas asked, looking concerned. Emil pulled his hands back and shrugged Mathias's arm off, embarrassed.

"So, we're meant to be together," he said quietly. "All three of us."

"That's what the timers say," Mathias replied.

"What happens now?"

Lukas snorted, and Emil felt his face flush. "Nothing happens right now," said the older man. "You're still a bit too young to marry me."

"To marry us," Mathias joined in happily.

"That's not what I meant!" Emil glared at his childhood friend, who grinned back teasingly.

"You're too young to date us, too," he said cheekily.

"Jailbait," Mathias added sagely.

"For now, we'll just keep hanging out like we always used to."

"What, so you two are just going to keep dating, leaving me out for the next three years?" Emil asked angrily. The grin slid off Lukas's face, and he stared at the younger boy blankly.

"We're not dating," he said.

"Wait, what?"

"We're not dating, and we haven't been this whole time."

"You aren't?"

"Lukas, you owe me five bucks," Mathias laughed, earning a look from the other man.

"But you still owe me twenty."

"Fifteen."

"Fair enough."

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Emil exclaimed, annoyed at how they were talking around him. "Your timers went off a year ago, why wouldn't you start dating?"

"When our timers went off, we had just met," Mathias said, resting a hand on Emil's shoulder. "It would have been weird to start dating, just because the timers said we would eventually end up together. Plus we're pretty young to commit to each other already. We're just friends right now, and we've been seeing other people. In fact, Lukas has a boyfriend right now."

"What?!"

"Oh, not anymore actually," Lukas cut in, shrugging. "His timer started counting down the other day, so he decided to break things off."

"Well, that sucks, but I guess the timing is good. How weird would it be to have to tell him about all of this?"

"Would you guys stop saying weird things? You're not making any sense!" Emil stepped away from the two of them, clenching his fists. "This may be a joke to you guys, but to me it's serious business!"

"Emil," Lukas began, but just like before the younger had already run down the hall and out of the house. The man sighed, crossing his arms.

"Still, you must be happy," Mathias mused quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"You always thought he should have been your one, didn't you?" Lukas looked at the other man to find him grinning knowingly back. "I guess we have to ask Elizabeta and her boyfriends how everything works in a three-way relationship."

"We've got a few years before we have to worry about that," Lukas said coolly. "We should probably go after him, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah, that's what good boyfriends do."

"Stop, you sound like a creep."

Emil walked down the sidewalk, pulling his cellphone out and dialing Xiao's number.

"Emil, what's up?" his friend answered. "You were supposed to call me a while ago."

"Yeah, sorry, there were some…unexpected complications. Can I come over?"

"As long as you tell me all the juicy details."

They hung up, and Emil walked the three blocks to his friend's house. Xiao didn't even wait for him to knock, pulling him inside and up to his room as soon as he arrived.

"Woah, that's crazy!" said the black haired boy after Emil had told him everything. "I bet your parents are shocked. Ohmigod, were Lukas's parents there, too? Because that would've been great."

"No, his parents weren't there, but my parents probably went over there and told them. I thought my mom was going to faint."

"I've never even heard of polyamory before. I guess we could Google it."

"It's just so weird, though. I barely even know Mathias, let alone like him."

"I think a lot of people feel that way when their timers go off."

"But I have to spend the rest of my life sharing Lukas with him."

"I wonder if you'll both just date Lukas, or if you'll date each other, too."

"Ew, I really don't want to think about this right now."

"But you should be happy. You're going to be with Lukas, even if it's not how you expected."

"I guess…"

"Do you still want to go out tonight?"

"Maybe, since Lukas and Mathias apparently don't care about dating other people."

Just then, Emil's phone rang, his mother's number flashing across the screen.

"Mom?" he said, answering the call.

"Where are you?" came his mother's worried voice from the other end. "Lukas said you ran out."

"I'm at Xiao's house. Things just got a little too…"

"I understand that, but you really shouldn't run off without telling anyone where you're going. Lukas and Mathias have been walking all around the neighborhood, looking for you."

"They have?" Xiao looked at him questioningly, and Emil just shrugged.

"I'll call and tell them where you are."

"No, wait, Mom, don't—" Too late, she had already hung up. He put his head in his hands "This is so fucked up."

"Are they coming over here?" Xiao asked. "I wanna meet them. See how hot they are."

"You're asexual," the blond grumbled into his lap.

"That doesn't mean I can't appreciate an attractive human being."

The doorbell rang, and Xiao jumped off his bed excitedly.

"We don't have to answer," Emil said, following the other boy down the stairs to the front door.

"Yes we do!" Xiao threw the door open, revealing the two men on his porch.

"Hi, is Emil here?" Lukas asked.

The black haired boy assessed them for a minute before turning to Emil and mouthing "daaaaaamn." He clapped the blond boy on the back, smiling mischievously.

"Here he is!" he exclaimed, shoving his friend out and shutting the door firmly.

Emil stumbled, but Mathias and Lukas caught him before he could fall. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked grouchily, embarrassed as he straightened himself up.

"We're going out for ice cream!" Mathias proclaimed happily.

"He's buying," Lukas added.

"What are you…trying to do?" Emil chose his words carefully, trying his best not to ask if this was a date as the two men led him down the street.

"We're trying to apologize," Lukas explained. "We weren't trying to joke, but we weren't being very serious either."

"The truth is, we're not really at the point in our relationship yet where we want to date each other," Mathias continued. "There's a lot to experience and learn from being in other relationships, so we support and encourage each other to date other people. And we'll do the same for you, too."

"You want me to date other people, too?" Emil asked incredulously.

"Of course. You haven't even had your first kiss yet, Emil," Lukas said teasingly. "I am not going to teach you how to kiss when you're an adult."

"How do you know I haven't kissed anyone?" The older man shot him a look that said you can't hide anything from me. Emil sighed, looking down at his feet. "So when will you guys start dating?"

"When we're ready, and when you're ready."

"Wait, so you're not going to start dating without me?"

"No, that wouldn't be very fair," Mathias said, winking. "Even if you two got to grow up together without me."

"Oh" was all he could manage for several moments. He stopped walking, and the two other men walked ahead a few steps before turning to look at him. He wasn't sure how it would work, being in a relationship with both of them. But they had a few years to figure things out, and until then he could just enjoy being friends with them. He finally looked up at them, giving them a small smile that was rare for him to make. "I guess we can get ice cream, as long as Mathias is paying."

AN: There is no happy, healthy, fluffy DenNorIce out there, so I decided to write some. This is based on the premise of the movie Timer, which is an excellent movie. I started writing this at 5 in the morning, but I checked it over, and I don't think there are any real mistakes in it. I might leave this as a one-shot, I might write about these babies a few years in the future, I might write about other Hetalia characters in this AU. We'll see what happens. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!