"(And) in another life,
I would make you stay."
—Katy Perry; The One That Got Away.
Disclaimer: all to Himaruya. Hope you enjoy. After all I did promise a happy alternate ending, didn't I? *goes to check* apparently I didn't, but I wrote this anyways.
Emil, wake up!
Slowly, the darkness surrounding and blinding him, began fading as light became more visible and let him, after all, return to himself.
"H-huh?" He blinked a couple of times as sudden cold filled him, especially in his lower limbs. His eyes met those annoyed of his brother.
"If you don't go down for breakfast in five minutes, you'll be late for school." He said as he walked away, leaving Emil there to gather his things.
Emil, meanwhile, sat still in his bed, still processing everything that had happened. He was still alive…? He opened his clutched fist and saw the small note he had made just the day before (or at least according to what was happening), he turned around and looked under his pillow, finding the bottle of pills he had been planning to use being unopened.
That mean he hadn't used them.
He felt a great relief suddenly settling in his chest, meanwhile a small voice muttered darkly that he hadn't done it because he was a big coward.
He chose to ignore it as he could still relish in the feeling of being alive.
He got to his feet and greeted Mr. Puffin who sat in his cage and gave him a glare (if birds can glare, that is) for he had forgotten to feed him last night. And an angry Mr. Puffin isn't really a way to start a day.
"Emil, Eduard came to pick you up," announced Lukas from downstairs.
Emil let a small smile adorn his face as he dressed himself and go to the breakfast table, running two by two the stairs as he was anxious to this meeting. He tripped in one of the stairs, and as he was almost going to come into collision with the hard ground, a pair of arms held him steady, and when he stared into the blue eyes of his best friend, he lunged forward and kissed him.
They pulled away at the sound of some teasing whistle, and as Emil gasped for air, Eduard stared at him, baffled, then let Emil land on the floor.
"I'm so sorry it took me so much to get around," he said, as he recovered his breath, "but I needed to do that." And he stamped again his lips against Eduard's.
After a whole minute they finally (albeit reluctantly) pulled away as Lukas was ushering them to 'forget cheesy nonsense and get to school already', for they were going to be seriously late.
They walked together to school, and whilst Emil wasn't exactly ecstatic to present his science project, he felt like nothing that day could bring him down.
"Care to explain?" Asked Eduard as they both headed to lunch break.
"You'd never believe me if I told you half of it," he answered with a soft smile still lingering on his Nordic features. "Let's just say I'm happy to be here." He sighed as he extended his arms, feeling that all that had been nothing but a nightmare (and it had). "Perhaps, one day, I'll tell you," he promised, "but only when I'm ready."
"Okay," Eduard agreed as they went back to classes.
.
The next period was literature, at least in Emil's period. He bid goodbyes to his Estonian friend as he stayed in the doorway, perhaps a little eager to begin, and he blinked in surprise as Eduard gained a little boldness as he stole a peck before going to his own classroom before he was scolded for his tardiness.
He sat next to Ivan, as he usually did during those classes. They chatted a little about anything until the professor, Arthur Kirkland, entered and hushed them with some side-remarks under his breath about having been kept up late ("surely by Mr. Jones", whispered Ivan to Emil, who gave a nod as a silent agreement).
Class went by boring, as Emil would usually call it, while they reviewed some Shakespeare. Much to many's dismay. Mr. Kirkland went on and on about the passion imprinted in every work he had made and how it portrayed pure, raw emotion, the very depths of human desire.
And so Emil had yet another essay due the next day.
"You know you'll have to tell him about it eventually, right?" Emil stared at Ivan, wide-eyed, as he muttered that.
"What do you mean?" Ivan gave him a smile.
"About everything," he went back to packing his things. "I know you remember it, I was there too."
Emil made no movement to acknowledge that, and he stayed behind. Thinking about it all again.
.
"I see you made it back." Emil turned around to meet the curious glance of Mr. Kirkland. "I'm rather glad about it, lad."
"You remember it too?" He asked in disbelief.
"Of course I do, I was the one to guide you." He snorted, half-amused.
"But I thought you said you were a spirit and that you could trade forms?" Emil tilted his head, now confused.
"Well, I lied. It was a way for you to trust me. Sorry about that." He shrugged.
The Icelandic stared at the hand clutching his backpack strip, he bit his lip and he stared around the empty classroom, and before his English teacher made it away, he made sure to mutter a "thank you," before he got out entirely.
Arthur smiled a little and shook his head.
.
"I see you invited your boyfriend for dinner tonight," was the greeting Emil got at arriving hand-in-hand with Eduard. "Well, I'll just have to inform Matthias to cook for another person." He turned to the kitchen and went to talk to his friend about the meal arrangements.
"I see they already took me in as part of the family," said Eduard as he stared into Emil's impassive face.
"I guess they are," and held Eduard's hand a little bit tighter.
.
"Where are we going?" Asked Eduard, partially annoyed at being blindfolded.
"Just wait, you'll see soon enough." Emil promised as he kept pulling his partner towards their mystery destination. The only clue about their whereabout was the soft murmur of the wind. "Here we are." He reached a hand to the Estonian's face to remove the kerchief.
"About time," Eduard exclaimed as he could finally notice where they were: the children's park near their school.
"Yeah," said Emil as he unhung his violin case from his shoulder. "Please sit, this will take a while."
Eduard smiled as he listened to the soft tunes coming from the chord instrument, lulling him into a sense of peace only accentuated by the beautiful silvery moonlight showering them, marking Emil's features.
He felt as in a dream.
The Alternative End | 代案終わり
Yeah, this was the original plan. Kinda. Hope you are happy with it. Also, I want to make a couple of notes I forgot in the original story.
Regarding Russia's antagonism towards Estonia: I think I did mention it, but Iceland was the first country to recognize Estonia and Latvia as a country after the Soviet Union dissolved, in 1991. (Actually, this August 22nd was the 25th anniversary of this.)
About the 'singing to death thing': The Baltic's independence from the USSR is more commonly known as "The Singing Revolution," this because it consisted in spontaneous mass night-singing demonstrations in Tallinn, Estonia. Therefore, my poor joke.
Iceland's friendship with Russia: They have close commercial relations, and Iceland stated Russia as its "new friend" after having been turned down by his older allies for an emergency loan. There is a huge post about this topic here: alda-sigmundsdottir/is-russia-icelands-new-be_b_ (if the link was cut by FF you can browse it like "Is Russia Iceland's New Best Friend?").
~smoothie over & out.