Chapter Text
Leon always watched Karno and his girlfriend interact with mixed feelings. At first, he thought it was because he knew their happiness wouldn't last long. Well, for a human, like Hana it would seem long enough, but Karno was a god, he would live so much longer after her death that all that happiness would feel very short lived. But the thought that, after a while, Karno would find someone else and maybe even get married also gave him some strange feelings.
It wasn't like he didn't like the idea of Karno having a relationship - and why would he? - a part of him felt satisfied at seeing Karno and Hana happy together, the other part was an unidentified, nagging feeling, like he wanted something he couldn't name. But why would their relationship have anything to do what he wanted or not?
Then there was Hana herself, whom Leon had fallen in love with once, but given up on because he accidentally hurt her. When she recovered, dark forces were after her and Karno chosen as her guardian, when pace returned, they were in love with one another. But if that was the reason for his conflict, why was he still so comfortable with their relationship? And if it was about Hana, what was bothering him so much about Karno?
It was a wish that made him finally realize what he truly wanted, and that he wasn't the only one feeling that way. What to do with such information was a hard choice, though.
I wish I didn't have to choose between Karno and Leon. Hana had wished, probably without ever noticing. As a reborn goddess, her wishes reached the heavens so much easier than any other human's, which meant sometimes they were little, wayward thoughts she had no intention of actually asking the gods to grant.
Chosing was inevitable, though. Leon had chosen to part from her when his powers, escaping the seal the King had put on them back when he met Hana, acidentally hurt her, and chose not to return when they were under control again because she wasn't fully recovered. He was also the one who chose to follow the King's orders and leave her protection to the other gods when the dark gods attacked. And, in the end, she had already chosen to date Karno and didn't seem to regret it. Not that he wanted her to.
What was that wish, then? Did it mean she wanted the same thing he just realized he did? Because he wanted both of them too. His love for Hana hadn't weakened after he gave up on her and, as strange as it was, at some point he had apparently fallen in love with Karno too. Or maybe he had been in love with Karno for longer and just thought it was as a friend.
Before Leon fell in love with Hana, he had cast love aside as a weakness and a source of negative feelings that he would never have any association with. And before he was briefly exiled to Earth and started interacting with Hana and her human friends, he had never considered the possibility of that kind of relationship with another man. It wasn't something gods did - not as far as he knew, but most gods he knew didn't associate with each other for love, anyway - or didn't do so in public, at least. Not that it was forbidden, but most of them probably never considered the possibility either.
After interacting with the humans, Leon had seen others make 'both' work. Reina, one of Hana's friends, was dating both Ichthys and Teorus, who, later, as strange as Leon found it - because Teo had always been more biased towards women even in his work, granting wishes only to young, pretty girls, which he had been called out for several times - started dating each other. Although apparently that last part wasn't a prerequisite of this kind of relationship but was exactly what Leon was now hoping for.
Things were so much easier when he used to ignore love and it's wishes. But that particular wish from the woman who changed him, the woman he loved, seemed to tell him these feelings were not one-sided. At least on her side. He could start with that. He just had to find out how.
Leon didn't know if it was for his luck or not but, when he returned to Earth, the first person he ran into was Hana. Her smile lacked its usual spark, she only briefly looked at him and alternated between being fidgety and deep in thought.
"You look troubled. Is it work?" Hana finally asked, looking through one of the hallways windows and mindlessly playing with her bracelet.
If she was so troubled before him, did she make that wish on purprose? Or maybe she noticed her mistake afterward, which was more likely.
"You don't look happy yourself. Is your work getting you down? You're not usually this meek."
"No. I am very happy." She said, but her voice said otherwise.
"But?"
"But nothing. Like Rinka says, if you know, you know, but if you don't then it's nothing."
From Hana quoting her sister, Leon could deduce what happenned. Rinka knew about the wish and was encouraging Hana to find out how much he knew.
"I warned you already about making wishes you don't want to be heard. The King was pretty amused by it..."
"But it's a problem for you, get in the way of your work. I know. You can just forget it happenned. I'm... kind of glad Karno don't know about it, though."
Hana really let out a relieved sigh and turned away from him, but didn't walk out. He knew her enough to say that was not what she wanted.
"That's not what your reaction is telling me. Guess your inability to be honest with what you want didn't change with a new boyfriend. Even if it was by mistake that I know, don't you think Karno has the right to? And who said I want to forget it? You shouldn't decide all these things yourself, goldfish."
"Don't you think I'm being greedy? And we can't do that with Karno!"
"Not without his consent. But who said he won't give it?"
"That's the problem." Hana finally turned back around, but with her eyes still n the ground. "I'm afraid he would say yes when he doesn't mean it just to please me."
"You're sounding like you don't know your own boyfriend very well." This time, the teasing made her look up at him with burning cheeks. That meant she was a little less concerned. All he needed was pushig a little further. "It stopped being your problem when your wish reached me. If you don't tell him until the weekend, I'll have to since it turned to be about work now."
He had decided to leave her to think and, if needed, talk to her some other time when she called out to him.
"Leon! Thank you."
"For what?"
"For not telling him before me. And because I know you care enough for Karno that you wouldn't give me adivice that would cause problems for him."
Well, the only problems Karno would probably say he caused for him were about work. But she was right. He wouldn't push her like that if he didn't think there were great chances of Karno at least giving the idea some thought without being offended by the suggestion.