A/N: Hello my lovelies! So here we are again. The beginning of a new Pleasantville story! And here it's time for important notes. Which are important, so please read~ :D Okay, first off, this is a direct sequel to Just a Little Push, so if you haven't read JaLP then you will not understand what's happening here. (You will not even know who the protagonist of this chapter is.) So you should probably read at least that one first. Second, this story has TONS of OC's and sort of crossover characters...altho they mostly act as OC's, so if you don't like OC's, then you might want to skip this one. The main focus is still the canon characters, but the OC's are also very important as well. Thirdly, this is a gen!flip AU: America, Canada, Prussia, and both Italies are female. And fourthly, there is established USUK, PruCan, Spamano, and Giripan in here so far. And there maaaaaaaaaay~ be other couples being established in this one, but I don't want to give too much away so… . Mew. SO THOSE ARE ALL THE NOTES. I HOPE THIS STORY PLEASES YOU I LOVE YOU ALL. *kisses*
Old, New, Borrowed, Blue
Part 1: In Which Old Friends Party-Crash
If there was one thing about this town that annoyed Leon, it was that there were many many people who didn't seem to understand that most people required sleep in order to function. He didn't mind being the person that his friends came to when they have a problem. It was nice being needed, after all. But it was really annoying when they ignored the fact that he occasionally needed to sleep through the night.
It didn't help when he stumbled out of his room and almost immediately tripped over something. Some sort of bag, probably Francis's… He'd have to yell at him tomorrow morning, or rather—he glanced over toward the kitchen and at the digital clock over the stove—this morning.
Someone was pounding on his door at three in the morning and it just kept getting louder and louder as he tried to navigate around the room with absolutely no light…
"Cher, make it stop." And it also didn't particularly help when his apparently-roommate whined at him. Leon could hear Francis roll over, probably burying his head under his pillow in an attempt to block out the noise.
Leon still wasn't entirely sure when it was that Francis had moved himself into his apartment. Apparently long enough for Leon to now be well-aware of the fact that Francis was a whiny nightmare when he was unexpectedly woken up.
He'd reached the front door finally and sighed, trying to imagine who it could be. Gill, maybe? Or his grandmother? Except his grandmother wouldn't have bothered knocking; she would've just let herself in. So it was probably Gill.
He really needed to get it through that girl's head that it was not okay to bang on someone's door at three in the morning. He needed sleep.
"Cher."
"I'm getting it." He wasn't really dressed to receive visitors, but he rather doubted Gill would even notice that he was greeting her in his boxers.
He left the chain on—just in case it wasn't Gill—unlocked the door, and pushed it open.
And was immediately greeted by the voice that he probably least-expected. A sudden, eardrum-bursting shout of, "Leon!"
He was also greeted by the sound of his door almost ripping off its hinges as a huge figure slammed into it. He jumped back, startled, and then shouted, "Chris, don't break my… Let me unlock the door first!" He hurried to push the door closed and pulled the chain off. Not entirely sure that he was actually conscious right now. Because why the hell would Chris be standing outside his apartment at three in the morning? Wasn't he supposed to be on the practically-other-side-of-the-country right now?
He didn't have much time to ponder his possible unconsciousness, as he was worried that Chris might actually break the door if he didn't open it immediately. He physically braced himself, which turned out to be a good idea, as he was almost instantly lifted off his feet in a bear-like embrace as soon as the door opened wide.
"Leon!" Chris was one of those people who had never really been able to comprehend his own strength, particularly when he was excited. And right now he was squeezing the life out of Leon. "You should've seen your face! Isn't this the best surprise ever?! I bet you didn't expect to see me here!" He finally released him at that, possibly only a few moments before Leon would've been asphyxiated. Although he only set him free so that he could stand back and look him over. "Are you eating good, Leon? You look skinnier I think. And you'd better be getting regular exercise because a healthy heart is a happy heart!"
Yeah, he was definitely conscious. Only real-life Chris would be nagging him like an overprotective mother. Leon glanced back toward the interior of his apartment; back toward his nice warm bed that he probably wouldn't be seeing again for quite a while. "Chris, what…?" Actually, he took a step back and motioned for Chris to step inside. "Why don't you come in, Chris? So we don't wake up the neighbors…"
He'd be surprised if they hadn't already woken up some of his neighbours. Which meant he'd probably hear about it tomorrow. Someone—probably Miss Irving—would passive-aggressively mention people being noisy at ungodly hours of the morning and then fix him with a pointed glare.
Chris had passed by Leon into the apartment almost before he'd gotten the invitation out and then started running his hands along the wall. "Where's your light switch, Leon? Oh, wait…" And the room was immediately flooded with light.
"Ow. A little warning would be nice, cher."
And Leon took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment to compose himself. The thing was… Well, he loved Chris; they'd been best friends since the literal cradle and their time apart hadn't changed that. But he was very aware of certain flaws in his friend's character. And one of those flaws was the reason why Leon had tried his best to keep his friend away from Pleasantville.
Francis had pulled himself to a seated position at some point during Leon and Chris's conversation and was now sitting there, blinking sleepily. He brought a hand up to cover his mouth as he yawned and then rubbed at his eyes and patted at his hair, which was sticking up at weird angles and it was probably best that Francis was still too tired to really think about it…
Chris had frozen in the entryway, leaving Leon very little room to maneuver the door closed, and was presumably staring at the room's occupant. Leon squeezed himself around and moved between the two. And yep, Chris's expression was about what he'd expected… He was staring at Francis with the same look someone might have if they walked into their best friend's house and found a giant tarantula sitting on their couch. Incredibly confused and more than a little freaked out.
"This is Francis," Leon cut in before anyone could say anything that would make this situation any worse. "He's my…" he hesitated and then settled on, "roommate. Francis, this is Chris. He's one of my best friends from back home."
Francis nodded and yawned again. "You didn't mention that your friend was coming to visit us, cher." And then he flashed Leon a mostly-disguised look of annoyance 'And you definitely didn't mention that he was showing up at three in the morning.'
Leon gave an awkward shrug of 'I have no idea either' and turned back to Chris, who was still staring at Francis like he wasn't sure why he was there. "So-it's not that I'm not happy to see you, Chris, because I definitely am—but…what are you doing here?"
And that seemed to at least momentarily distract Chris from the couch's occupant. He grinned brightly. "It was Big Mike's idea! She called a couple months ago and said that we should come out and visit you! And we've never even gotten a chance to see where you live, Leon! I want to meet all of your friends and visit all of your favourite places around town and see where you work and everything!"
You know, Leon really wasn't at all surprised that his grandmother was behind this. When wasn't she behind stuff like this?
"And she told you to make it a surprise, right?"
Chris's nod was enough confirmation that Leon's grandmother was indeed evil incarnate. Especially because she knew exactly why he hadn't wanted Chris to visit… And something that Chris had said was bothering him, but the mention of his grandmother had distracted him.
And he jumped when a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around his neck from behind. "Cher~ You're not being a very good host. I'm sure your friend is tired and would love to get some rest. I would graciously let him take my bed and you and I can share for the night."
…And that really hadn't been the best thing to say right now. Not that Francis could really know, since his teasing normally wasn't a problem. But now… Leon just stood there, resisting the urge to smack himself in the face, and watched as Chris's eyes widened in absolute horror. His friend almost audibly gasped and had to take a few deeps breath before he suddenly shouted, "An incubus!"
Leon really had no idea who it was who had introduced Chris to the occult. Probably Claire, since that seemed like a little sister thing to do. But whoever it was had single-handedly made Leon's life a million times more difficult. The problem was that Chris was scarily overprotective—there really wasn't any other word for it. He'd been protective when they were kids, but after Leon's mother's suicide… It'd kicked up to eleven. He hated when Leon made new friends, very rarely approved of them, and would often justify his irrational dislike of them by convincing himself that they were some evil, occult creature.
"…Cher, what is he talking about?" Francis whispered very quietly, as if worried that Chris might overhear them.
Sometimes Leon wondered why he couldn't have normal friends. He sighed and then ducked his head to escape from Francis's arms. "Francis isn't an incubus, Chris. We've been over this…" Too many times to count. "Were you planning on spending the night?" He ran through the apartment's layout. There weren't many places where someone of Chris's size would be able to sleep comfortably, but he could probably figure something out…
"Oh!" Chris suddenly exclaimed, "I forgot about Ronnie! I told him that I wanted to see you first and then I'd come back to get him…"
"You brought Ronnie with you too?" Leon glanced back toward the door leading to his bedroom. There was absolutely no way that four people were fitting in his apartment. And he was rather surprised; Ronnie wasn't the type of person who'd just drop in unannounced like that. He was usually the responsible one. Leon had been friends with him since the beginning of high school, when he'd decided to join the drama club to keep everyone from worrying so much about him, and Ronnie had always been the sensible, level-headed one. Who wasn't completely freaked out when Chris accused him of being a vampire.
Then again, he also had a tendency to just go along with things if he didn't particularly care about the outcome… Which was part of the reason why Chris still thought he was a vampire. He'd always been a bit lazy when it came to things like that.
Chris nodded and then added, "We brought Robin too!"
"Now, cher~" Francis had moved to stand by Leon's side now. He flashed Chris a bright smile that made Leon more than a bit nervous. "Why didn't you tell me we were having a party? I would've made us a cake."
They were all rather surprised by the voice that suddenly came from the direction of the doorway. "I believe that technically, as the ones showing up without warning, we should've been the ones bringing snacks."
And there was Ronnie, standing inside the room and leaning against the door. Which Leon hadn't even heard open up. He stared at them for a few moments with his normal bored expression—Leon had rarely seen any other expression on his face for as long as he'd known him, besides when he'd put on another character's mask.
"Ronnie…"
"Sorry for the lack of notice," Ronnie interrupted, pushing himself away from the door and slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Which suddenly reminded Leon of the fact that he was currently standing in the middle of his apartment, greeting his friends in nothing more than his boxers and a wife beater… "Chris wanted it to be a surprise." He eyed Francis for a moment and then raised an eyebrow pointedly at Leon. "If we'd known you already had a guest…"
Francis had started leaning against Leon at some point during the conversation and now just responded with a simple "Bonjour" and a wave. Which probably meant that he was starting to fall back asleep.
And thankfully Ronnie was a lot better at reading the atmosphere than Chris was, as he glanced down at his wrist—where there wasn't a watch—and said, "Well, it looks like it's time to get back to the hotel, Chris. And try to find Robin."
"Where is Robin?" That had actually surprised Leon a little bit; he'd expected Robin to burst through the door at some point and throw her arms around him.
Ronnie shrugged, "She saw a club on the way and made us drop her off… Said she'd rather say hi after Chris had stopped blubbering over you."
"I didn't blubber over him!" Chris sounded rather indignant. He crossed his arms over his chest and then fixed Francis—who may have fallen asleep while standing up, he was now leaning practically all his weight on Leon and had rested his head against his shoulder and geez, he was heavy. "I knew Leon shouldn't be living all by himself, though. He's rooming with an incubus!"
It probably said something that Ronnie didn't even look surprised by this accusation. He just blinked once and then responded with a "Is he? Well, apparently even incubus's need their sleep. I think we've interrupted Leon's rest for long enough."
"But…" Chris looked between all three of them, "We can't leave Leon alone with an incubus…"
Ronnie moved out of his perpetual slouch and grabbed Chris's arm, lightly tugging him toward the door. "Leon can take care of himself. We'll see him tomorrow morning."
Chris didn't look convinced, but he allowed himself to be pulled away. Although he turned at the last moment and called over his shoulder, "Don't worry, Leon! I'll get rid of it tomorrow! You'll be okay!"
Leon wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he just sighed and waved. "See you tomorrow, Chris."
The door closed and he just stood there for a moment, feeling like his life had just been flipped upside down again. He also felt like he really wanted to call his grandmother right now and yell at her, but he rather doubted that she'd care.
"So, I'm an incubus now?" And Francis's voice came way too close to his ear. And was unexpected, since he'd been thinking he was asleep.
Leon shook his head slightly and then pushed him off so he could move back towards his own room. "Don't ask. He'll probably try to exorcise you tomorrow, though, so prepare for that."
And he'd worry about that once he had more than three hours of sleep in his system.
A/N: NEW STORY NEW STORY. Okay, so I know this was really OC-focused. Don't worry that the whole story will be like this. It just fit in best this way chronologically.
Hmm, not sure what to say here. Just for your information, this story takes place about one year after Just a Little Push. Aaaand… I can't think of anything else to say. I hope you enjoy this story! And that it doesn't take 3 years to complete. Ahahaa… .
