Feeling a story start to pull together to close is a strange feeling no matter how often or how surely it happens.

0o0o0o

Yao was alight with anticipation and fear. They were doing something he never imagined he would be able to do. They were going to take Ivan back, and then what would happen? How would they disguise his disappearance? And how would they enter the quarantine if they could even get there?

Calm down before you speak. Kiku's words came back to him, his warning and reassurance before he'd disappeared back into the call with the pilot and instructed Yao to try to call the Nordic doctors. The quarantine would be difficult to get into and even more difficult to take Ivan from.

Tino didn't pick up. Emil did, and was silent.

'Emil? I need your help,' he said. Emil didn't respond. Yao resisted the urge to demand again. 'Emil, please.'

'Yao?' Kiku asked, covering the mouthpiece of Heracles' device. Yao nodded. 'May I speak to him for a second?'

Yao handed the device over. Kiku spoke to him in hushed tones. Emil spoke back slowly, tongue stumbling on the Mandarin. Yao could only guess where he'd learned it.

He only caught a few words, and those he did-for Leon, I promise, I'm trying-were enough to make his voice shake when Kiku silently handed the device back.

'Yao.'

'How do you get into quarantine, Emil?' Yao asked.

'I don't know.' Emil sounded defeated. 'Why would you ask me? Why would you ask so much of people, Yao?'

'I...I have to.'

'No. You don't.' Emil's voice was not cold. It was simply flat, drained of all that made it alive. 'You feel like you have to.'

The retort rose; Heracles said I needed to, before Yao realized how stupid he sounded. How stupid his antics must look to all watching. How easy it had been to play him and his power.

'I know.' The words crowded to escape, and yet all he could say again was 'I know. I know. I know and I'm sorry.'

Emil was silent. The device rustled with feedback.

'Maybe you do.' Emil's voice was not happy, but it was perhaps relieved. 'If you can get there around five in the morning tomorrow, someone will be coming in. His name is Mathias. Ask for him if you can't find him. Tell him-tell him you're a friend of Emil Bondevik and tell him what you need to do.'

'And until then?' Yao checked the time. It would be a long day.

'Don't come to the quarantine.' His voice cracked. 'Please.'

'Because you'll be there?' Yao asked. Emil made a sound, angry and lost and horrible.

'Yes.'

0o0o0o

The Nordic doctors came back the second day. Tino's hands shook as he recorded vitals.

'Emil's here,' he muttered. 'He shouldn't be.'

'Why?' Ivan asked. Tino's eyes flashed at him, furious and hurt.

'Because he's seen enough of this. Because he's going home soon. They're bringing in new people. Khøler and Bondevik.' His mouth twisted. 'Because he never should have had to watch death. I don't know what we thought, that he was able enough to handle all of this.'

'I'm sorry,' he said.

Tino nodded. His shoulders slumped. His eyes were shadowed from sleeplessness.

'Yao has your scarf,' he said dully.

'He knows?'

'He's smart enough to find you. Or Kiku is. He's not smart enough to leave you be,' someone said. Tino's eyes never raised from the screen.

'Go back to the monitoring station, Emil.'

Emil leaned against the bed frame. The thin metal clattered. Ivan could only see the defeated set of his shoulders from where he lay.

'Berwald wants to talk to you.'

Tino was motionless for a long second before he silently pushed himself up and walked away.

Emil crossed to where Ivan could see him.

'Yao is coming?'

'Yao is…' Emil laughed. 'He's going to try.'

'Did you help him?' Ivan asked. He sat up. Perhaps there was a bit of hope.

'I did what I could.' Emil met his eyes for a second. 'I told him the truth.'

'What truth?'

Emil didn't answer. His eyes were cold. 'You don't have the virus.' It was a statement.

'No. I'm immune.'

Emil's eyes betrayed their hurt for a second before they smoothed back into indifference. 'Because of the metal?'

'Yes.'

The boy looked away, over to where Tino was talking to the tall doctor.

'Send him back right away.'

'T'no.'

'I don't care. Send him back.'

'They're talking about me again,' Emil said. 'They think they're being quiet. In the middle of the night, arguing about how fast Mathias will get here.'

'When did they decide to send you back home?' Ivan asked. Tino's movements were sharp and hopeless. Berwald looked stooped over in grief.

'They've been discussing it since the funeral. They didn't confirm it with me until yesterday.'

Emil still stared at the doctors. His eyes shone. He made no move to wipe the tears away.

'I don't forgive you.' His voice was flat and emotionless. 'Just in case you were wondering.'

'I was,' Ivan said. His chest felt numb. His head was full of smoke, far away and simply watching.

'I'll be leaving soon,' Emil said. 'Mathias is flying in later today.'

'Goodbye.' Ivan took a long breath. It was like breathing with the disease had been. Rough and scraping and not enough. 'I'm sorry.'

'I am, too.' Emil stood and touched his face with a sort of curiosity when it came away wet. He spoke to Tino in a strange language, but Ivan was too tired to understand if it had been in English. Tino led him away. Emil did not look back.

0o0o0o

Yao typed out some messages about being sick and that perhaps he would come to meetings later. He showed Kiku. Kiku read and wrote an email about his lack of attendance because of caretaker duties.

'It should cover us for a while,' Kiku muttered, stashing Heracles' device back in his pocket. 'The pilot is my friend. He's under Feliciano's wing of the fleet.' He smiled slightly. 'He's very good. I believe his training score was on par with Alfred's.'

'The Alfred F. Jones of the Arthurian wing?' Yao laughed. It felt good after the steady fear of this strange mission. 'Impossible.'

'It's what he does. Fly.' Kiku looked happier than he had in days. 'I suppose he did learn it, though. He's the younger brother of the Celestial Knights leader.'

'Gilbert. The Prussian Eagle. You're joking with me, Kiku.' Yao grinned.

'I am not.' Kiku's eyes were bright, and for a glorious second Yao could imagine them before the alliance, talking about a strange man with violet eyes and teasing in the way only they knew.

'Him, Feliciano, and I are all friends, actually. Though him and Feliciano only met after Gilbert's fleet dissolved. Ludwig secretly took Gilbert in and Feliciano helped him instead of reporting him-ah, wait.' Kiku pulled out the beeping device and tapped out a message. 'He's here.'

Yao felt light as he ran towards the docking bay. When they got there, Kiku paused in front of a seemingly random door.

'Here.'

Yao pushed it open. A sleek fighter plane was humming quietly. It seemed an older model that Yao was expecting. A man stepped out, and Yao raised an eyebrow.

'Kiku says you're a good flier.'

'I am.' His voice was deep and accented, and he watched Yao with a mixture of concealed interest and wariness. 'Kiku?'

'This is Yao.' Kiku nodded. 'Yao, this is Ludwig.'

'We should go.' Ludwig strode back towards his plane. Yao followed.

'How's ruling the fleet?'

Yao started. A man with a shock of white hair twisted around from the front passenger seat, grinning.

'Gilbert?'

'The Prussian Eagle at your service. Both me and my plane.' Gilbert laughed and rapped his knuckles against the door. It clanged. His hand was silvery. Gilbert saw him staring and flexed the metal limb. 'Like what you see?'

'Shush, Gilbert.' Ludwig half-turned to glance at Yao. 'I apologize. This is my brother's plane.'

'It's called Gilbird,' the ex-Knight said, catching Yao's eyes again. 'I hear you're breaking into quarantine and busting out the king of bad pasts.'

'I heard he had...something with the leaders of the Union of Two Nations,' Yao said uneasily. The plane lifted off smoothly.

'Braginsky has some pretty bad shit with me, too.' Gilbert laughed. 'He's got a past with everyone.'

'Watch your language, Gilbert.'

'He deserves to know.' Gilbert raised an eyebrow at Yao. 'Kiku called in a pretty big favour from both of us to get you here.'

Yao looked at Kiku, who was silently staring out the window.

'Thank you, Kiku,' he said. The word seemed inadequate for all the small gestures and kindnesses Yao had brushed away. Kiku nodded, a sad sort of smile on his lips.

'Of course, I still don't like the guy. Too much to forgive. But we're better now.' Gilbert laughed, a wild, sharp sound that lodged in Yao's turbulent mind and stuck. 'Good as we'll ever be.'

'How is Feliciano?' Kiku asked. Yao was grateful for the distraction. Ludwig looked up from the joystick.

'He's well.' He sounded different, lighter, happier. 'I am...trying to teach him to fly.'

'He's not doing very well, but he's got the best teacher he could ask for.' Gilbert nudged his brother's arm. 'Kiku's told you he's on par with Alfred, but my little brother can outfly the Arthurian Eagle any day.'

'Quiet, Gilbert,' Ludwig said, but he was smiling.

0o0o0o

'We're here,' Gilbert announced. Yao woke with a start. Ludwig and Kiku were already off the plane, talking.

'Thank yo-'

'Here.' Gilbert tossed him two medical masks. Yao caught them and turned them over. They had a different insignia on them than he was used to. A rose instead of a dragon. 'They're modern, don't worry. Francis got them for me. Think of it as a bonus to the deal of flying you here.' The man looked at him, red eyes serious. 'Listen. I don't appreciate you dragging Ivan back into my life, and I could probably hate you for getting him involved with West, but it...it pays off what I owe him.'

'I'm sorry,' Yao said. Gilbert seemed like a warrior, so different from the man of before.

Gilbert shook his head.

'Repay me by taking care of your prodigy.'

'I-I will.'

'Make sure he never has to do your job, alright?' Gilbert sighed and ran his metal hand through his hair. He looked old, weary. 'I made that mistake with Ludwig.'

Yao had too many things to say, apologies for something past and done or for the future-or for Ivan. Gilbert turned away and popped the door. His left arm brushed against the wall when he got out. Yao looked over to the driver's side. The frame was scraped there.

'Gilbert.'

The Prussian stopped. 'Yeah?'

'You said this paid off what you owed to Ivan.'

Gilbert was halfway out of the plane, but he turned back. 'Where do you think I got my arm?' he asked with a half-smile. At his brother's call, he jumped out of the plane and ran towards him, laughing and talking again.

Yao sat there, mind too full for several seconds before he strapped on the mask and got out of the plane as well.

0o0o0o

Mathias was tall and boisterous with blue eyes that snapped from Yao to Kiku to the man beside him, who he introduced as Norge. When Yao mentioned Emil, he went still.

'You're Emil's friend?'

'Yes,' Yao said. Some lonely part inside of him that stood in wonderment of all the people Kiku knew wished it didn't sound so much like a lie, but Emil had been Leon's friend and nobody else's.

Mathias kept studying him before he burst into laughter.

'That's garbage! Come on, I'll get you in.'

'What?' Yao asked. Mathias grinned at him.

'Emil has a type, let's just say, and it's not you. Plus, you're way too old for him. But you know him, and I think he's at least grown used to tolerating you, and I like the way he's looking at my plane, so come on. You want to break into quarantine, don't you?' Mathias waved at Kiku and started towards his ship. 'Who you breaking out?'

'Ivan,' Yao said.

'Braginsky?' Mathias asked, tossing a nurse's uniform at him. 'You don't happen to know any Danish, do you? The uniforms are from my fleet.'

'No.'

'Don't talk to anyone, then.' Mathias threw another uniform at Kiku. 'Why are you trying to break out Braginsky?'

'I have my reasons.'

'We all do.' Mathias stood up. 'It just depends on whether they're worth it in the end.' He smiled, and the flames in his eyes lessened a touch. 'Come on, get in. I'm feeling generous today.'

The other man sat by them, disinterestedly listening as Mathias carried on a one-sided conversation.

'Hey, fleet leader,' he whispered suddenly, staring out the window.

'Yes?'

'You'd have to have a damn good reason to break Braginsky out.' He looked over and raised his eyebrows. His eyes were the same shade as Emil's. 'What is it?'

Yao felt the weight settle back on his shoulders. His reasons were impulse and attraction and nothing more concrete than fleeting emotion, and yet his world rested on those factors right now.

'I don't know.'

'Wow.' The man leaned back and motioned to Kiku. 'Does he know that?'

'Better than anyone,' Yao said dully. The man laughed.

'And yet he's still with you.' He glanced over to Mathias, who was now talking to Kiku. 'Mathias is reasonless and I keep with him because there is no other place I would rather be,' he said softly. 'Think of that next time you doubt yourself.'

Yao's throat felt thick, and he nodded. The man leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

'How did you win the word of my brother, anyways?'

'Emil is your brother?'

'Lillebror.' He opened his eyes again. 'I'm Lukas Bondevik. Don't call me Norge. Only Mathias does that.'

'I suppose I had someone to vouch for me,' Yao said quietly. 'His name was Leon.'

'Was Leon.'

'He died of the coughing virus.'

Lukas was quiet. When he spoke, his voice was gentle. 'I'm sorry to hear that.'

'Emil loved him,' Yao said. The words were harsh on his tongue, and he blinked back the stinging in his eyes. Lukas looked horribly lost for a second before he turned away for so long Yao was about to apologize.

'And did Leon love him back?' Lukas asked.

'Yes,' Yao said. Lukas breathed out soft and slow.

'That's how you won him, then.'

0o0o0o

Ivan was alone and cold and the metal humming in his chest had never felt so alien. He drifted, through dreams and nightmares and perhaps waking, waiting for anything to happen. The Nordic doctors did not come back, and Ivan wondered if they ever would, or if they had only stayed for Emil.

He dreamed of Yao, his steady words and his bright angers and his red silks and his sharp amber eyes, whispering words Ivan could not understand in the haze. He imagined what Yao would say if he saw Earth, not as the wars had left it but as it had been, green and blue and shining. Breathtaking. Probably his satisfied sort of small laugh, teasing, I expected better from all your tales.

'Ivan,' the Yao in his dream said, and he reached out, trying to capture again the feel of silk and long hair and his skin, wondered if he'd ever see Yao again.

'Ivan,' Yao insisted again, and then sharper, again, more and more real until Ivan was gloriously awake and warmer than before and his chest hurt when he gasped because Yao was there, in front of him, real in the silk and spill of his ponytail and the amber of his eyes, stained with tears and repeating Ivan, Ivan until Ivan held him and pressed their mouths together, and he laughed wild and bright and his fingers dug into his shirt to pull him closer and Ivan's world was warm again.

0o0o0o

Even stranger is the appearance of a new story, and the changes in universe you must make to end one and create another.

:: Messy hair from sleeping where you normally don't