Just something quick I wrote last night, and we have a serious lack of NorIce, so I decided to upload it.
Emil had always been told that he was a strange child.
His parents had always been worried about him. They'd always wanted him to be more social, and not as shy and quiet as he was. They'd always wanted him to be popular, they wanted him to be surrounded by friends and people who liked and loved him.
And if he couldn't be all that, at least they wanted him to always have someone to hang out with, someone he could trust. They never wanted their child to be lonely, since they thought that no one could stand being alone as much as he seemed to be.
Which was false, according to teen in question. He didn't feel lonely, he never had, and didn't think he would do in the near future, either. But that wasn't anything his parents would accept.
Well, it wasn't like he was going to tell them, anyways.
Emil had an imaginary friend.
Yes, it may be more than a bit bizarre to have an imaginary friend when you were sixteen. Although Lukas was something different, he was like a real person. He didn't think this to appear less weird, Lukas was truly like a real human being.
For example, Lukas did have a great interest in Norway, he had also said that he would love to try figure skating, skiing, or something differently like sewing or dancing.
Since Lukas couldn't eat or sleep, he always asked what different foods and drinks tasted like, what they felt like, and why Emil liked or disliked them. He wasn't able to sleep, either. SO he would usually ask what Emil dreamt if he showed a lot of emotion when he was in his sleeping state. He would also ask what it felt like to be dreaming, or how it was to wake up from a dream. How dreams were different, or if they were all the same.
Those were all questions the Icelander had to think about thoroughly before he could give an honest answer, since he wanted Lukas to know all of this, even if it was just through something as simple as a dull description, it was at least something,
All of this also made Emil feel incredibly bad for Lukas, since life must be extremely boring and plain if you couldn't do simple things like tasting, sleeping, dreaming or smelling.
Lukas couldn't feel taste nor smell, and no one but Emil could see him.
That made Emil feel special, not that he would ever till his imaginary friend that. Even if it made it feel like Lukas was his and his only, which immediately made him feel bad instead, since Lukas deserved to have many friends, much more than Emil could ever give him. Even if he succeed to be incredibly annoying sometimes.
His imaginary friend looked just like a normal human being, if you looked past the fact that he was slightly transparent, and that he could walk through walls if he wanted to. Although, Lukas can also hold onto something of he really wanted to.
The Icelander couldn't remember when Lukas appeared in his life, he just knew that his friend had always been there, growing up with him, being like an older, overprotective brother. Lukas was three years older that Emil, that's at least what he said. He usually followed Emil to school, too, and often stood right next to him during the lesson, listening to the teacher like he already knew everything they were saying.
Lately, ever since Emil turned 14, they had been a little bit more than just friends. Kisses were shared between them more frequently, along with hugs that were slightly tighter and went on for a longer time.
You could say that they were in a relationship. But if you're in a relationship with your imaginary friend, isn't that like being in a relationship with yourself ?
When Emil had told Lukas this, Lhe strongly disagreed. Emil could even see that he hurt Lukas by saying that, even if he didn't show it.
Emil did think Lukas was his own person: He had his own interests, his own emotions, his own opinions and his own personality. They thought differently, and it wasn't rare that they disagreed about something. The two of them liked and disliked different things.
They were very different yet very alike.
Both of them loved the winter, and both of them loved warm (and ugly) sweaters. But they maybe liked different colours, or had different reasons for liking winter.
When they were watching television, they may feel differently about some of the characters, or the situations, but they never fought over silly things like that.
Yes, they did argue sometimes, but everyone does that, the important thing was that they still made sure that they didn't stay mad at each other for too long, which they usually didn't.
One time, for a year ago, when Emil had brought another friend home, Leon, someone Lukas didn't like too much, they had argued about said friend. For some reason Lukas had thought that this acquaintance would have a bad influence on Emil, meanwhilst the Icelander himself fiercely protected his new friend.
After that, Emil refused to talk to or even think about Lukas for a while, spending more time with Leon, ignoring Lukas the best he could.
After a month, he finally took contact with his imaginary friend again, whom had stopped trying to apologise, and that was when he had found Lukas more transparent than he'd ever been before, nearly invisible.
Ever since then, they made sure not to ignore each other for too long.
With a faint smile, the Icelander opened his eyes, looking up at his partner, who was now looking down on him.
Emil had apparently fallen asleep earlier, with his head resting on Lukas' lap, and legs stretched out on the rest of the, relatively small, sofa, but it was enough for the two of them.
"Why are you smiling ?" Lukas asked with his usual monotonic voice. Even though, Emil knew that he was curious. If you just tried, you could easily see what Lukas thought. Although, something told him that if other people could see his imaginary friend, they would call him a robot, or an emotionless stone.
"I'm not" Emil answered as he tried to regain his bored facial expression. He wasn't one to show much emotion, either. But if you compared him to Lukas, he was like an emotional wreck.
"Yes you are" the other then answered, with a ghost of a smirk lingering on his lips. "Don't try to hide it" he then added, and raised Emil's head and shoulders with his hand as he leaned a little bit closer. "I like your smile" he then said quietly, causing Emil's cheeks to turn pink.
Something about Lukas made Emil show and feel a lot of feelings, and he still wasn't too sure if he liked it or not.
Well, one thing was sure, and that was that he wouldn't give this up anytime soon.
Even if Lukas wasn't real to anyone but himself, he was the most real thing in Emil's life.