"Hey Emil, how have you been? That's a stupid question, right? You must think I'm a fool for coming to visit you once a week and leave you white dahlias, I still remember you once said they were your favorite." Eduard switched his weight onto his right foot. "However, foolishness is not my topic of discussion, it is, as always, keeping you up to date." He smiled at the marmot-imprinted grave, his eyes twinkling softly at the Icelandic spelling of the name pertaining once to his best friend.
.
"Lukas seems back to his old self, he still misses you a lot, but at least he doesn't cry himself to sleep like Matthias told me he used to the first days… Matthias was the first one to turn his back on grief…"
"Hey, I'm home," said the Dane as he hung his jacket near the door, grinning at that day's events. He still couldn't get over the fact he had won Berwald in a bet. And the look he wore!
He climbed the stairs, two-by-two, as he always would, making a lot of noise, as he is. He stopped by their bedroom (Lukas still couldn't bring himself to sleep alone with his nightmares), and when he saw it empty, he turned on his heels and walked up to the room crossing the hallway, the one that once was Emil's.
Surely, Lukas was sitting in the bed, caressing the pillow as if there was someone there while he sang a Norwegian lullaby, one Matthias had come to learn Emil loved as a child. Matthias leaned on the door, observing the scene before him with that soft look in his eyes and his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't want to break Lukas from the trance he seemed to be in, his voice was so soothing and peaceful… he dreaded it would come back to those days where crying was all Lukas could do to relieve his pain.
He took careful, silent steps towards the bed, Lukas' gaze focusing on him as he approached. His singing came to a halt as the Dane sat on the bed. They stared for a few minutes until Matthias decided to break the silence.
"Let's head down, dinner won't make itself." He received a tiny smirk that made him grin too. He waited until Lukas was out of the room to take the key and close the door, slipping it under the door soon after, it was time to let go.
"Guess who beat a Swede's ass today?" He asked smugly as he caught up to Lukas on his way down.
"Your mom?"
"Hey!"
Lukas broke into laughter, and despite the enormous pout Matthias wore, he too started laughing, he was glad to see Lukas being so free. He'd have to make sure Lukas did that often.
Definitively.
.
"College is going fine…"
"Why are you grinning so much?" Eduard lifted his gaze to settle it on that Russian guy that used to annoy him to no end (he still did, but the Estonian now tolerated him a little). He then proceeded to roll his eyes.
"My grades, they're pretty neat."
"You shouldn't be so happy, mine are better," he added with a grin of his own. "Besides, it is barely our first semester~"
"As you say, Ivan, it is barely our first semester, you shouldn't be so surprised when I beat your Russian ass in the rest of the year."
"Ooh, what are you going to do about it? Sing me to death?"
"What if I am?"
They both broke laughing, it was just all so funny considering they hated each other just a few months ago, it was as if they had bonded when that happened. They still hadn't quite gotten over it, but they would, eventually. Things like this took baby steps to finally cross the road.
.
"There's this Latvian guy from an exchange program, he's really nervous all the time and shaking a lot,"
"H-hey," asked a small, squeaky voice from behind him. "I-is this seat o-occupied?" He asked, pointing to the space besides Eduard.
"Of course not, you can sit if you want," he offered, watching amused as the little guy sat, shaking like a Chihuahua dog. "Y'know, you're in a college, no one's going to bite you here, so no need to keep shaking like that."
"I-it's a medical p-problem," he tried explaining.
"Ok," Eduard shrugged. "My name is Eduard, Eduard Von Bock," he said while offering his hand to shake towards his new classmate. The other one accepted it a little curious.
"M-mine is Raivis Galante…"
"but if you really get to know him, he's a really nice person, and an interesting one at that. It makes me feel guilty I tease him so much all the time."
.
"…What else? Oh, right. I still miss you, but I guess that's to be expected. There are some days I feel like it is impossible to go on without you, fortunately, those days are less and less often now…
"I seriously wish you would've talked to me sooner instead of keeping it all bottled up to yourself, not that I'm blaming you or anything, since it was also my fault… but I was supposed to be your best friend, and I kind of felt betrayed that you didn't trust me enough to admit you felt bad or anything… but as they say, what's done it's done."
.
His gaze now settled on the sky, that seemed blue forevermore, with a soft, indigo shade to it, and the clouds never-been-whiter. A couple of birds passed by, peeping and minding their own business, as do birds.
Eduard glanced at the watch in his wrist, sighing softly. "I hope you don't mind, but I have to leave early today, I have something important to do, I hope I find in me enough strength to resist the urges to come next week. Until then." With as much care as he could muster, he kneeled and placed the small, white flowers besides the tomb.
With a small gesture of his hand, he bid farewell to the, once, most important person to ever exist in his life.
And he could breathe free afterwards, as if that visit was all that he had needed all along, to get rid of that pressure in his chest every time he came here.
He let him go…
The End | 終わり
Thank you all for reading, I know this last chapter took an awful lot, and I feel relieve to finally give closure to this, despite it being a little short.
This fanfiction was inspired by "Let Her Go" from Passenger and "If I Die Young" from The Band Perry. The ending is really far from what I had first imagined it, but I feel happy with it, nonetheless. I will think about posting the alternate ending in a different entry, but it is highly unlikely I do so. Without further ado, I, too, say "until next time!"
~smoothie out.
