A/N: Just a heads up, this story will have some sad/possibly triggering moments due to Emil's depression.

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Emil Steilsson never considered himself attractive or desirable. In fact, he didn't even view himself as average. As far as he knew, no one, male or female, had ever shown an interest in him. Then again, why would they? He always considered himself extremely below average. His people skills were nearly non-existent. His looks reminded him of an elderly man; silvery locks, short, scrawny. A heavy Icelandic accent threw itself over every word that came out of his mouth. The way Emil saw it, he was a freak of nature.

He always wished he looked like his older brother, whose looks favored their mother. Lukas had wavy, blond hair and eyes with irises such a deep blue that they looked like sapphires. The only thing the brothers seemed to have in common was the fact that neither of them spoke much.

Mathias Køhler, Lukas's husband, was the only talkative one in the house. He always seemed to have something to say, whether his words were needed or not. His eyes were beautifully blue, like the summer sky, which Emil knew Lukas adored, having caught him gazing at them multiple times. One day, Emil hoped to be in love like that, even if it did seem like a long shot.

Though Emil got along with Lukas and Mathias, he felt that they didn't understand him at all. He could tell they were trying their best, but every outburst of "What is your problem?!" or "Why can't you just behave like everyone else?!" would always set him back. All Emil wanted was for Lukas and Mathias to understand him, but he knew that would take a miracle. In the meantime, all he could do was wait, and hope for a miracle.

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June, 2014, Reykjavik, Iceland

Emil gazed into the water before him as the last fifteen minutes of daylight trickled from the sky. He breathed in deeply, clenching a smooth, black stone in his hand. It was the perfect skipping stone, and Emil often pondered how far he could throw it, but he knew he never would. Something about the stone made it too perfect to throw.

Footsteps resounded on the beach behind him, and he turned to find Lukas. Emil had had no idea that Lukas even existed until two weeks previous, when his mother had informed him the Lukas would be taking over legal guardianship of him to give him a better life in America. Devastated and terrified, Emil had refused to speak to anyone for a week. Yet when Lukas arrived, he had seemed so kind and understanding of it all. He hadn't gotten frustrated with Emil or even called him ungrateful, like their mother had. All Lukas had done was talked with him about it until he was eventually okay with moving to another country. Deep down, Emil doubted he would ever truly be okay with it.

"How ya feelin'?" Lukas asked, tucking his hands in his pockets. He shivered slightly.

"Fine, I guess," Emil answered with a shrug. "Where's Mathias?" He was so used to seeing Lukas and Mathias together that it was odd to see one without the other.

"He's scoping out restaurants in the area," the older brother answered. "Mathias wants to take you out tonight so he can get to know you better."

Emil began to feel uneasy. "I don't speak Danish," he slowly said, struggling to find an excuse not to go.

Lukas chuckled. "Just because he's from Denmark doesn't mean he speaks only Danish. He speaks English as well. And Norwegian, but that's only for special times."

"I don't have to change my last name, do I?" Emil asked, ignoring what Lukas had said about Mathias speaking Norwegian.

"I would never expect you to change anything about yourself, Emil," Lukas answered.

"Does Mathias expect me to?"

"We're going to have some problems if he does," Lukas simply stated. He looked over at his brother with his deep blue eyes. "I'm not doing this to ruin your life, Emil," he reminded. "I'm doing this to five you a better one."

Emil turned from his brother and looked back toward the waters one last time. Tomorrow, this beach would only be a memory. "I know," he sighed. He turned back toward his brother and began walking away from the beach.

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August, 2014, Iowa City, Iowa

So far, Emil's first day of high school was going well. Sure, it wasn't like school back in Iceland, but it would do. He had to make sure to keep his head down all day to about conversation, with anyone. The only student he had talked to all day was a girl his age named Lilli Zwingli. She had invited him to have lunch with her and her friends, which he had nervously accepted. He only hoped he wouldn't be expected to talk much.

Lilli peered over her shoulder at him with her bright green eyes. A small smile lit up her pretty face. "Don't worry, Emil. My friends are all very nice. They'll make you feel welcome." Her short, blonde hair swished back and forth as she looked forward once more.

The group at the lunch table looked like an interesting bunch, to say the least. There was a girl sitting on one side with long, blonde hair and an enormous bow. Her blue eyes were focused on a girl a little further down the table as she spoke with her. The second girl had a dark caramel-colored skin tone and long, brown hair that hung in pigtails. Her brown eyes were wide enough to make her seem highly intrigued with her conversation. Next to that girl sat another girl of Asian descent, who had her fingers intertwined with the boy across the table from her. He had silvery-blue eyes and wavy, blond hair. Next to each of them sat two boys, who seemed engaged in deep conversation. One had an asymmetrical haircut, his brown hair longer on his left side, and green eyes. The other boy had curly, blond hair and blue eyes.

Just as Emil was about to sit down, two boys of Asian descent ran over, arguing loudly over who had gotten there first. One of the boys had a curl that randomly stuck up on his head. It almost irritated Emil. The two boys took their seats at the table, leaving a spot for Emil across the table from the girl with the long, blonde hair and next to one of the Asian boys.

Lilli sat down next to the blonde girl and cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "Everyone," she said once she had their attention, "I'd like to introduce you to the new kid, Emil. He moved here from Iceland!"

"Nice to meet you, Emil," the blonde girl said. "I'm Natalia, Lilli's girlfriend."

"I'm Laura," the darker-skinned girl said. She gestured to the Asian boy across from her, the one with the curl. "This is my boyfriend, Yong-Soo." She then pointed to the Asian girl and the blond boy. "These two are Mei and Max. Good luck getting them to talk. Mei's been in Taiwan all summer." She rolled her eyes. "And the boy with the curly hair is Raivis, and the other is his boyfriend Neoklis, or Neo." Laura smiled warmly. "I'll leave him to introduce himself," she said, gesturing to the Asian boy next to Emil.

"I'm Leon," the boy stated, looking over at him. "I can tell that Laura is already shipping us, so I apologize in advance for any awkwardness that may ensue."

"The heart wants what the heart wants," Laura sighed with a shrug.

"Yeah, the heart," Yong-Soo scoffed, dodging a playful smack from Laura.

Lilli's face was bright red as she turned to Emil. "I-Ignore them, Emil."

"Why should he ignore us?" Yong-Soo laughed. "You obviously brought him to sit with us for a reason, Lil."

"I did not!" Lilli yelped.

Emil stared down at his tray, completely overwhelmed by this new group of people. The only normal-seeming one was the boy next to him. He exhaled deeply and looked to the food on his tray. It looked much, much more different than any kind of food he was used to eating.

"This food is an insult to Chinese food," Leon grumbled, unceremoniously dropping his spork onto his tray. "It makes me sick."

"Sorry that we're not all privileged like you," Yong-Soo snickered at him. "Not al of us immigrated from China with our older brother in eighth grade."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Yao is from China. I'm from Hong Kong."

"Details, details," Yong-Soo muttered with a careless wave of his hand.

Emil's mind was still processing what Leon had said. Leon had moved here with his older brother as well. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to befriend him. Emil only hoped his accent would disappear like Leon's apparently had. Then again, why would luck ever choose to favor him?

"I always thought China and Hong Kong were the same place," Neo mused, twisting his hair around one finger as he joined in on the conversation.

Leon gasped, offended. "That's like saying North and South Korea are the same place!"

Now it was Yong-Soo's turn to be offended. "No. They. Are. Not!"

"It was an example, Yong-Soo," Leon sighed. "Calm the fuck down."

"Yeah, calm your tits," Lilli giggled.

"You're one to talk about tits," Yong-Soo snorted. "Don't think I didn't see that picture you sent Laura over the summer. "He winked at Lilli, who turned bright red.

"That was supposed to go to Natalia," she murmured, burying her face in her girlfriend's shoulder.

Natalia patted the side of Lilli's head. "There, there."

They're even smaller than I thought they'd be," Yong-Soo commented. He immediately winced as Natalia's and Laura's feet collided with his shins. "Sorry," he gasped out.

"You should be," Natalia grumbled.

Neo and Raivis snickered to each other at the end of the table while Emil just sat where he was. What kind of friend group was this? Had they all seen revealing pictures of each other like that? How many of these kids had seen each other in the nude? Was that just how American students were?

"What's your next class, Emil?" Lilli asked him, grabbing his attention from his awkward thoughts of everyone at the table.

Emil pulled out his schedule and checked it. "Chemistry in lab 204," he answered.

"Hey, I've got that, too," Leon said, slinging his bag over his shoulder as the bell rang.

"Hear that, guys?" Laura squealed. "They have chemistry!"

"Oh, blow me, Laura," Leon groaned, getting up. He nudged Emil's arm. "Let's go."

Emil followed after in an awkward silence for a moment before finally unleashing his inner thoughts. "What the hell was all of that? I think I learned more that I wanted to about all of you in the past half hour than I planned to in a school year."

"We're a pretty open friend group," Leon stated with a shrug. "We've all seen that picture of Lilli. Yong-Soo used to call her the 'President of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee' for awhile. Then Nat got wind of that and bear him up. She always had the hot for Lilli, just like Neo always had the hots for Raivis. Lilli and Raivis dated for a whole year before they stopped pretending."

Emil nodded to show he understood. "My brother is gay, so that stuff doesn't bother me."

"Right on," Leon said, grinning over at him. "My brother has this freakishly tall Russian boyfriend. I live with them."

"I live with my brother, too. He's Norwegian, but he's married to a Danish man," Emil sighed. "It's all their fault that I had to move here."

"I understand how upset you must be," Leon began, "but try not to be too hateful to them. Trust me, they already feel guilty enough for taking you from your home."

"And how would you know that?" Emil asked, narrowing his eyes at the other boy. "Lukas has no conscience. In the whole three months that I've known him, all I can say is that he's extremely emotionless."

Leon frowned. "I don't quite follow, Emil. What do you mean by 'three months'?"

"I have only known my brother for three months," Emil answered with a shrug. "He grew up with his dad in Norway, and I grew up with our mom in Iceland. He met Mathias on a business trip in Trondheim. They got married in Copenhagen two years later."

"Damn," Leon stated after letting out a low whistle. "Well your brother sure has an interesting love story."

Emil scoffed. "Yeah. Interesting." The only way he could tell Lukas was in love was the way he would look at Mathias as if the sun wouldn't rise without him. "They're definitely interesting."

"Sounds better than my brother's love story," Leon laughed. "All he did was run into a tall, Russian man at the Asian food market. Guess it was love at first sight, because Ivan joined us for dinner that night and the next and the night after that, and now he just lives with us. He has never missed dinner."

Emil smiled. "Never missed dinner, huh?"

Leon let out a loud laugh. "That's all you got out of that?"

The Icelandic boy shrugged. "Chinese good is good."

"Now I can't argue that," Leon agreed. "I always told Yao that he should've opened his own restaurant instead of being a psychiatrist, but he said that was too stereotypical. He didn't want to seem too 'fresh off the boat'." He rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself. "To Yao, appearance is everything."

"Must be hard living in a house like that," Emil sympathized.

"You have no idea, bro."

"I have an idea of it," the Icelandic boy admitted. "My brother is such a tight-ass about appearance at times. It's pretty bad." He rolled his eyes. "Lukas is always like, 'Emil, stand up straight! There are people watching us!' Like I give a fuck or something." Emil crossed his arms and grumbled to himself in Icelandic for a moment. "My brother can be a real dick at times."

"Aren't all older brothers dicks?" Leon asked him, a smirk playing on his lips. "I bet Yao and your brother would be good friends one day."

"I could see it," Emil laughed.

"You're not that bad, Iceland," the Asian boy told his Scandinavian companion. "I could see this as the start of a beautiful friendship." He slung an arm around the silvery-haired boy's shoulder. "That is, if you're willing to accept."

"I don't think I'm in a position where I can pass up friends, now am I?" the other boy responded, blushing.

"Then it's settled," Leon stated. "From this day forward, Emil, you are my official best friend. I'm going to have to go and tell Yong-Soo to fuck off and find a new one. It shouldn't be too hard for him, though." He shrugged indifferently. "I've been meaning to find a better best friend than him anyway ever since he started dating Laura." His smile was contagious, spreading over to Emil as well. "So how does that make you feel?"

"Good?" Emil questioned. "I mean, I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. I've never really had a best friend before, so I don't know what it's like." He looked down at his feet as he walked. "I've always been more of a loner."

"Well not anymore," the Asian boy assured. "I'm going to show you how to live here in America! You'll see! You're going to have so much fun that you'll never even miss Iceland once!"

"You really think that?" Emil asked, looking up at Leon with wide eyes. "If you say you can do that, then try it."

Leon felt his heart skip a beat for a moment from the intensity of Emil's stare. He chose to ignore it as they walked into the classroom and he took his arm back. "Here, you can take the spot next to me. No one usually sits there anyway."

"Thanks," the Icelandic teenager answered, sitting at the lab table next to Leon. He couldn't help but feel a weird stirring feeling in his stomach. Though he couldn't tell if it was a pleasant feeling or not, it made him uncomfortable. He hoped that it would go away soon. After all, there was no way he could be developing a crush on Leon so soon. He doubted Leon was even remotely interested in guys anyway.

Then it hit him, that sickening wave of depression. No one liked him. No ever had, not even his own family. He doubted the people at school liked him. He was worthless. Nothing. Lukas had only taken him in because he felt sorry for him. That was all. It wasn't like Lukas and Mathias really cared about him or anything. They were just people who did nice things for their image, just like everyone else. No one truly liked him, and he knew that.

"Emil?" he heard Leon ask.

Emil looked over at him, frown quickly turning into a neutral look on his face. "Yeah?"

"What was that all about just now?" the other boy asked. "You suddenly got all gloomy out of nowhere."

"I did?" he asked. How had Leon noticed? No one ever noticed when he got that way! No one! "I guess I didn't notice."

"Don't scare me like that, man," Leon laughed. "Gloomy looks don't suit someone like you." He smiled at Emil and put a hand on his shoulder. "Instead, you should try smiling more. I think that would look better on you than a frown."

Emil sighed. "Sorry about that. I just have a lot on my mind today is all." He forced a small chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll work on smiling more."

"That's a good Emil," the Asian boy encouraged with a wink. He took his hand back and got his book out of his bag. "Here, I'll share my book with you today since you don't have one yet." Leon opened the book between them and leaned his elbow on it, propping his head up. "So what was it like in Iceland?"

The Icelandic boy shrugged. "It was okay. My mom is still there. She Skypes me almost every night." He smiled to himself. "She worries a lot about me." He didn't want to mention that she worried about his depression and other mental illnesses, fearing it would freak Leon out and the other boy wouldn't want to be his friend anymore. "But I think it's just because I moved to another country with my older brother, whom I hadn't ever met until it was almost time to move."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Leon answered. "My mom is still back in Hong Kong with my dad. They insisted that I come here with Yao back in eighth grade for a better life since my brother is a doctor."

"What kind of doctor is he?" Emil asked.

"He's a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa hospital," the other boy answered. "Basically, he deals with the crazy patients in the psych units."

And just like that, Emil's heart sunk. Leon had used the word "crazy". Little did Leon know that Emil himself was one of those "crazy" people as well. Now Emil made a point to make sure Leon could never know.