From Best Friend to Boyfriend (Hetaila, HongIce)

Epilogue

When Leon had awoken that day, he didn't expect all the people he once knew to be countries. Neither had he expected them all to be crowding around him when he had awoken on the floor of a meeting hall. Tears streamed from his face as he was helped up by his older brother - Yao. Most would have placed the tears under the fact he had just fallen and hurt his head, though Leon would argue otherwise. It was the memories that belonged to his previous self as a teen in that small town that was shining through.

It was just one of those things.

"Leon are you okay?" Emil's voice piped up from the back of the hall, he was seated comfortably between Matthias and Lukas. The teen seemed confused with his friend but knew that it was just something silly.

Leon, on the other hand, seemed to rejoice. He had made it to the world with his friends within it. Wiping his tears away from his eyes with his thumb, they all stared at him with confused, tilted, faces. All Leon could think of was how happy he was that this worked.

"Leon... You should take a seat, falling back like that must've hurt." Michelle suggested through a fit of giggles. Nodding Leon began to make his way to a free space beside Yao and Im-Yong-Soo. Sitting down, he was given a sneaky grin by Im-Yong-Soo before being handed a paper with a small smirk.

Opening it up, it read something from Emil, asking to be met during the break. Leon, unaware what this world had in store had agreed straight away. He had taken this Leon's place, he may have well acted like what he believed the old Leon did.

The male scribbled a quick reply and passed the note back. It was almost instinctive of him to do so. He locked eyes with the other members of his once small town. Glancing to the side of the table he noted that Tino and Berwald seemed to be lovingly holding hands on the table - while an angry Peter was glaring at the meeting from the outside. Gilbert was cooing over an over rejoicing Matthew, and Arthur and Francis seemed to be on their own argumentative terms.

Locking eyes with Arthur - the blond gave him a suggestive wink as if to say he knew the little secret.

Slumping into his chair, Leon listened in on an overexcited Alfred who hadn't seemed to change from his previous self. It was almost as if they all had died and this was the heaven they were supposed to spend together.

------

Once the meeting had come to an end, Leon was stopped and shoved by Emil into a nearby bathroom. Shocked by the sudden interaction, Leon couldn't help but latch onto the other.

"What's gotten into you? First, you collapse in the middle of the meeting without any warning and now you're hugging me like I died and came back to life." Emil would scoff, glaring up at the male - his condescending eyes echoing the concern that resonated. "You haven't been sleeping well again, have you?"

Quickly coming up with a witty response, Leon would laugh. "I've, like, been having nightmares."

"Oh really? I find that hard to believe, what was so scary that you have to hug onto me like this?"

"I lost you."

"Oh. I see."

"I just wanted to make sure you're real when I had fallen asleep - you weren't alive anymore."

"That sounds like a horrible dream."

"It was, but I'm glad I've woken up now."

The shy smile that Emil gave him was a confirmation that this was not a dream. This was his new life - the life that he was given a chance at, and he would go through hell and back in order to make sure that the previous reality didn't happen once more. After all, how could he lose his boyfriend once more? He knew that something like that - was worse than any torture possible.

Yet, little did he know that now being a personification was a fate worse than any death or any loss imaginable. Leon and Emil were now immortal, but that came at a price - their bodies could be contorted by their bosses, but at least for now; they had each other.