A/N: Welcome to another Ianthony! This time, it's strictly Ianthony. Because they've been giving me OTP feels.

Title: Waiting Game
Pairing(s): Ianthony (Ian/Anthony)
Summary: Anthony and Ian exist totally in the imaginations of writers. They change with each passing idea. Anthony is 100 percent aware of this, but when he finally convinces Ian that they were never really in love and that their feelings were only due to the writer manipulating them, he realizes that his feelings are real. (inspired by the song "Waiting Game" by Banks)
Warnings: Ianthony AU, anti!Ianthony (during some parts), language.
Rating: T

Waiting Game

Anthony had always known that he was just being set up.
He knew completely, but he could never tell Ian.
Ian was always completely oblivious. His memories were erased with each and every change in character. They didn't have strict names, like normal humans. They turned into whatever characters the writer that wrote them wanted.
They were Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla today. The writer was basing this story off of actual people. Two YouTubers that were best friends. Smosh, Anthony remembered that they were called. Again.
Anthony had been Anthony at least four times prior to this.
And Ian was Ian all four of those times as well.
But today, Anthony knew that he had to tell him. He was the unfortunate one, not having any memory whatsoever of the previous swirling whirlwind of romance the two had been involved in only minutes prior.
Anthony knew that this wasn't true love. He knew that Ian would just forget again and he would have to reexplain everything to him. But he just needed Ian to know, at least once.
"Hey, Anthony," Ian said, with a smile across his face.
That one smile could break Anthony's heart if he wasn't about to let his own break Ian's.
He raised a hand in front of Ian's mouth and said, "Don't 'hey, Anthony' me anymore. I've been 'hey, Anthony'ed before. Multiple times. You know that this is bullshit. Please, don't make me have to tell you."
Ian's left eyebrow was raised. "I don't get what you're saying man."
Anthony rolled his eyes. "You know that we're not real. You know that we change characters every couple of hours. Yesterday we were Ryan and Haven. I was Haven, a fallen angel that you found lying with a broken wing in the street. You stayed with me until I felt like I could fly again, but during that time, I realized that I was totally in love with you. By the end, I had kissed you, and flew off. The chapter ended there.
"A few hours ago, we were Gabriel and Nicolas, two complete strangers that happened to get stuck on an elevator together for almost half of an entire day. You and I began to talk, and you admitted that you were gay to me, and I told you that I was bisexual, and by the time we were saved from the elevator, we had exchanged phone numbers and the chapter ended. The author got writer's block on that story, so she turned to Ian and Anthony.
"Right now, you are Ian Hecox, a cute, funny, blue-eyed man that Anthony Padilla is completely in love with. I am Anthony Padilla, a confused best friend who doesn't want to hurt himself by admitting that he loves you. You don't know any of this, since you completely lose your memory with every passing story, but I learned to remember my past. I learned to keep the stories that made my path collide with yours close to me.
"You don't believe a word I'm saying right now, do you, Ian Hecox?"
His big blue eyes were so full of confusion and worry that Anthony wanted to break down. He couldn't believe that he had to do this to such an innocent person like him. Sure, this wasn't true love, but whatever it was, it felt damn close to it.
Anthony sighed and said, "I suppose I'll have to show you."
He rose to his feet and grabbed Ian by the back of the neck, pulling him in for a kiss. This kiss would prove that they had history. Anthony felt it in his bones. He had to prove this to Ian. He loved him too much to let him go without knowing what the hell was even happening.
The kiss was damn near perfect, at least for Anthony. He knew that there was really no such thing, since he was still being a written character, but there was no way to escape that reality: he was lifeless without the imagination of the author. There WAS no Anthony or Ian without the pen strokes of the person that created them. But this was too incredible to be real. This was almost... unbelievable, he thought.
If this wasn't true love, Anthony would never really be sure exactly what love was.
When he finally decided to pull away, he asked Ian, "Now, do you really think that we've never had previous experiences where we fall in love before?"
Ian was so confused. Anthony could feel his heart ripping into two pieces. There was no escape from the inevitable, and Anthony knew that if he didn't tell Ian, he would eventually have to. There was no avoiding this moment.
"B-But... maybe we're just... soulmates or something? Like... our past lives are coming back to us right now. That doesn't mean that we're completely imaginary! I... I want to be real..."
Tears flooded Ian's eyes, and, in turn, they flooded Anthony's as well.
He couldn't believe that this reaction came from someone who had once been so optimistic and happy. His characters were all just that type of guy. That was who he was. And Anthony was the more tactical, cynical, and precise of the two. That was who he was.
"Look, I know that this throws off everything that you have going for you right now, but trust me when I tell you that things are better off with you knowing. You may probably forget this all in the next cycle, but trust me when I say that I will always remember this and know that you are my soulmate. I wouldn't exist without you. You wouldn't exist without me. And we wouldn't exist without the author.
"And honestly, I fucking love you. You're everything to me. You mean everything. This is all bullshit because we can't ever actually fucking see each other for who we really are, but trust me when I say that you were meant to be Ian Hecox, and I was meant to be Anthony Padilla. This is the most you that you've ever been, and the same goes for me.
"Ian Hecox, you will probably totally forget me in the next cycle of this hell we live in, but know that when I tell you I fucking love you, I mean it."
There were no words. Ian was speechless. Anthony was waiting for Ian to respond with something. ANYTHING, at this point.
He needed to hear that voice tell him that everything was going to be okay. Just once. He needed to hear that voice; that absolutely divine voice, that godsend of a voice.
Kissing him was too perfect. He resisted the urge to reconnect his lips with Ian's. To release his pent up nerves, he balled his fists together at his sides. He just needed some kind of relief from this mental torment life was putting him through.
Just a vice.
Just... one.
"I... I want to be alone for a second, okay? I need to comprehend what you just told me," Ian replied, after what felt like eons of waiting with no response.
Anthony let out a sigh. This was exactly what he needed. Finally.
"Yes, thank you. Take all the time you need. Please... just... think about everything."
Anthony thanked whoever was listening to his prayers. Everything was going to be okay for now.
He just needed to get through the agony of waiting for Ian to actually make up his mind.

He was shaking. He couldn't believe that he had actually told him everything.
Anthony had to stop this. This thinking wasn't healthy. He needed to plant his lips on Ian Hecox's again. He had to kiss him again. Just one more time. He needed it. It was like doing a drug that gave him the best kind of high. Even just looking into those big blue eyes was practically a contact high. Just thinking about him made him feel like he had a buzz.
Ian Hecox was a fucking drug that needed to be with Anthony at all times. Without him, he would go insane.
There was nothing much left to say about him that hadn't been already said. He was the closest to any sort of life Anthony would ever have, and he would never question their existence again.
As long as Ian would at least be there for him, he was okay.
They didn't have to be in love.
They didn't have to even be friends.
They just had to be near each other for Anthony to be content. He needed to see him again. That smile was enough to send him reeling. Those eyes were forever etched into his memory. They wouldn't always be Ian's eyes, but they were the only eyes that mattered to him anymore.
Gabriel? Forget him.
Ryan? Who the hell is he?
Ian Hecox? The only man that would ever truly be worthwhile.
And there was nothing that he could do to save himself from falling anymore.
He sat on the couch, his head in his hands, hoping that there was a saving grace or some form of justice in this horrible reality he was forced into. His mind was racing, his heart was pounding, and his lungs were burning. There was nothing more that he wanted than Ian Hecox right now.
Nothing was ever going to be the same without him.
"Ian? Are you okay?" Anthony asked, getting up and yelling down the hallway of the Smosh household. He hated that he was so goddamn indecisive, but there was nothing he could do to avoid it.
Plus, he had no idea which room Ian had went into, so he was taking a stab in the dark.
He waited and smiled when he heard a muffled "I-I think so" from the first door to the right. There he was, in that room, contemplating accepting his fate with Anthony or refusing him entirely.
There was no turning back now.
Everything was just a waiting game from there.

PART TWO TO THIS ONE-SHOT? I THINK YES
Stay Unwritten, Reviewer Party! :)