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Fresh crisp wind of the forest roadside blew his hair back, almost as if to kiss his forehead goodbye. The greyish skies disappeared onto the orange and red sunset to the left, while the city curved straight to the right where the airport was, and yet the two of them chose to face across instead. Emil was on the verge of counting how many trees were at the other side of the road when Leon crouched down to the gutter in boredom.
"You okay, Lee?"
Emil stood up from leaning (sitting, actually) on one of the taller teen's luggage. Leon nodded with his lips pressed onto a thin line.
"Yeah."
"So how's Iceland?" Emil cleared his throat, sitting down at the space next to his bestfriend and remembering his icebreaking lessons. It was ironic that he had to take icebreaker lessons with Mathias because apparently, everybody was pretty much aware of the situation other than Leon himself.
He just had to go for the dense type, huh? He can't help but think of himself stupid sometimes too.
"Well, nice, I don't know, can I rant?" Leon smiled to himself—the one where his eyes did the smiling instead of his stoic lips—as his long fingers fidgeting with the strings of his hoodie. Emil had noticed the girlish scent lingering on the hoodie—the one he gave him as a souvenir—and felt a sting in his chest just thinking of Leon's girlfriend.
Sometimes, Emil wished the world was kinder and Leon was more attentive. The scent smelled strongly of water fountains found in parks, or perhaps holy water in churches. That certain water smell with a tinge of vanilla which scent could give him sore toncils alone. That's how unnatural yet fresh it seems. No wonder Leon liked it--
"--was very cool. Especially that igloo you showed me, that was the best."
The Icelandic found himself catching only the last part of the other boy's rant, being too preoccupied with the sudden waft of vanilla that met his nose. Emil looked down to his road between his feet and sighed.
"Now, are you okay?"
He looked up to see Leon looking at him before glancing to the road behind him passively, and Emil still jumped in surprise at the sudden question. "Yeah! I'm good. Your bus is just late."
He paused at the lie, the pain slowly resurfacing from the depths of his chest where he told it to stay. Is he okay? What kind of question is that? It's not like he could answer with:
No, actually. I just wish you were into boys.
Leon, much to his disappointment, nodded and believed it. He brought out his phone from his hoodie pocket and scrolled aimlessly on his Twitter, as always. Emil can't help but sit awkwardly and bite his cheeks inside his mouth.
Sometimes, he doesn't get why it had to be the one and only Jia-Long Wang, Leon's new name which is the opposite of what his current shitposting Twitter account username suggests. They just bond because of the mutual exhaustion of the present society's shenanigans, as well as what the older generation countries had to say about it. They roll their eyes together when the ancient ones blame global warming on teenagers their age, and one day, while Leon was living with Arthur, he approached Emil on a world meeting and asked about a meme.
It wasn't a dramatic encounter, and that's the problem. In his head, it all felt like something special, even if it was just Leon literally walking up to his seat at the meeting and asked, with literal no emotion whatsoever, "Do you have Pikachu and Tom and Jerry meme templates?"
But it didn't really start there. For him, it may have started when Leon got enough freedom to do sleepovers and often did it over Emil's just because he had internet connection fast enough "to catch up with his Tumblr wokeness". It was a win-win scenario, however, because Leon get to borrow his laptop while he borrows Leon's Playstation. Sometimes, they even played together.
That's so gay, now that he's thinking back on it. Two teenagers in the same room for more than 12 hours straight in cold ass temperatures and only one bed?
Well, it didn't and never ended up like how he fantasized it to be. Leon slept on the bed while he...stayed up all night. Some nights, if he's particularly tired, he'd sleep on the futon Kiku gave everyone last Christmas. Other nights, it was the other way around where he slept on the bed while Leon slept on the futon.
It was at that moment he realized life may not be as grand as he wanted it to be. All his life, he never even cared about someone other than family. He never even cared about affection, or whatever shit versus AI game Leon had on his PSP. All he wanted before Leon came to his life was some nice sweaters, Mr. Puffin, some effective fever remedies for volcano eruptions and more movie nights with the other Nordics. And then Leon came to fuck up everything.
"What are you mumbling about, volcano boy?" Leon whispered, catching him off guard when he smelled fresh mint coming a few inches from his face.
"Ahh! Shit!--Leon! The hell, man?!" Emil glared at his bestfriend as dangerously as he could, trying his best to ignore the mint Leon just popped on while he was spacing out...again.
As well as the fact that the brunet leaned over and chuckled at his reaction. His eyes were still fixed on his phone, but he had a smug look in those brown eyes nonetheless.
"Someone mumbles volcano, officially volcano boy," he said to himself, but onviously loud enough on purpose to let him hear. Leon continued chewing, and with every breath, he could smell the mint. The wind really betrayed him by blowing from Leon to him, making Leon's perfume and mint overwhelm his senses. Emil frowned.
"Eyo, remember that time you drank toothpaste water in front of Arthur and had to hold the--"
Leon whipped his head almost immediately, eyes glaring and lips slightly turning onto a pout. Emil felt his heart race, smirking smugly to feign his internally dying organs. He loved breaking onto Leon's straight face sometimes.
"Oh come on, we won't talk about that or else I would carry you to Hongkong and confiscate every sweater, every gadget and every hand sanitizer you had in your belongings."
Leon leaned closer and leaned his head on his shoulder, making him freeze on the spot. His sonorous voice was right next to his ear, his minty breath tickling his hair just a few seconds before he moved. Emil mentally muttered a silent prayer that at least Leon couldn't see his face else he'd see a tomato the size of a basketball replacing his head.
He wished for his heartbeat to slow down, possibly due to the fear his pulse may he detected by Leon's cheeks. Is that even scientifically possible? Or is he just paranoid?
"Hey, anyways, thanks for having me over for a good two months. I had fun," Leon said, texting Yao on the phone casually. "Maybe next winter I'll show you Hongkong? What do you say?"
Emil's happy thoughts were cut off by the sound of the bus. He decided to calm himself and shrug Leon off as the road rumbled at the bus they long awaited came.
"I'll stick to Iceland, thanks."
His girlfriend will probably be in Hongkong, anyway.
"Aw that will be fun," Leon said.
The two stood up as the bus stopped, grabbing Leon's luggage and chucking it in the space in the bus. Emil's hands felt numb and his system all felt the same kind of wrong-ness, but it's not like he could make Leon stay. That would be immature, even if he tried.
The last bag was Leon's backpack, which he just swung on his shoulders freely. The brunet teen turned to him before he took one step forward.
Emil watched as Leon extended a hand. "See you next summer or winter break?"
How could he say no to that? He sighed and shook Leon's hand, pushing his lips into the safest smile he got. "See you next summer or winter break."
To his surprise, however, Leon swung him by his hand and pulled him to a handshake-to-hug handshake. He was buried into Leon's chest for a good few seconds and his face might as well be as red as his hoodie.
"Bye!"
The other teen finally boarded the bus, and Emil watched his reflection as the doors shut closed. Leon took a seat where he can't see him very much from outside, but that's fine by him. There was next summer or winter he'd have to worry about. Maybe by next summer, he could tell Leon.
By next summer...he convinced himself.