Leon hated the dress. Actually, it wasn't so much the dress that he hated, but the ideals behind what it meant to wear it. It was a very nice dress, and Leon knew he had a great taste in fashion.

Of course, the materials for the plan had cost Leon a lot of money, coming from his savings that he earned by working after school hours back in Hong Kong. He would have to ask Lukas for extra money for his hormonal prescription, but he was sure that he would agree. It would be a reluctant agreement, but an agreement nonetheless.

With a sigh, Leon considered not to put the plan into action at all, but then he remembered Emil. He remembered the tears in his eyes, and his beaten body. No. Leon couldn't let that happen again. It was all worth it for Emil.

Emil stayed home the next day, even after school. He didn't want to risk an encounter with anyone he knew, especially in his current state. After Leon finished that day of school, buying the materials, and his homework, they played video games together. Both of them could feel the outside world fading as they sat next to each other, only if the outside troubles would fade, leaving the two of them behind, together.

That night, Emil slept fairly soundly, but Leon was struck with worry, yet again. What if the plan failed? What if everyone found out? What would happen to Emil? Slowly, he drifted off as well, but still on the thought of everything that could go wrong.

The next morning was a saturday, and Emil woke up early as he always did, even before his brother. He sipped coffee and watched the sunrise, the colors forming a painting in the sky. Meanwhile, Leon woke up late at eleven, something he always did on weekends. He came down the stairs groggy and tired, never having been a morning person, no matter how late the morning was.

"Good morning, Leon." Emil was sitting on the couch, a book in his hand. "You're still tired?"

Leon plopped himself right next to him, yawning again. "Timezones."

This managed to get a snicker out of Emil, but as Leon leaned his head against Emil's shoulders, Lukas walked into the room. "Hey, stay one foot away from each other," he ordered, waving his hand at Leon. With a roll of his eyes, Leon obeyed.

The rest of the morning and afternoon passed uneventfully, mostly just Leon and Emil attempting to get some time to themselves, and Lukas trying to get them away from each other, and treat each other as "friends".

However, that night, there was a dance for all high schoolers in the area that night, which was part of Leon's plan. Emil got dressed in his formal wear, a relatively fancy suit and tie.

However, after Leon emerged from his room, he was not wearing a suit, but the dress he had bought before. Emil had to admit, it was a really nice dress. The top was orange, and the colors gradually grew darker so at the bottom it was a deep red. Golden patterns spiralled out from the bottom on top of the red, reaching up to about stomach height. While the dress itself was nice, on Leon it looked… unnatural. His shoulders were tense and his expression was strained as if he was fighting a battle within his own mind. "H...how do I look…?" Leon whispered, panting slightly.

Emil didn't know how to respond, so he didn't, for a few seconds. "Uh… not so good."

"You d-don't like it?"

"No! I didn't mean that. It's a very nice dress, but it just doesn't look right on you."

Leon relaxed a bit, letting out a small laugh. "What, does it not match my eyes or something?"

"You know what I mean."

Clearly, the humor had helped Leon a slight amount, but he could still see tears pricking the edges of his eyes, that Leon was quick to wipe away with his arm.

Leon strolled up to Emil and hooked their arms together. "Ready to be my date?" he asked, his voice higher pitched than usual.

Emil nodded, but as he did, he knew that Leon relaxing enough to look natural was just an act, and that Leon was a surprisingly great actor. Together, they headed off to the dance, in order to fool everyone that Emil was not dating Leon, but his twin sister who had come to visit and that Leon had never come in the first place. Hopefully the plan would work.

As soon as the dance was over and the two of them reached Emil's home, Leon rushed into his room, tore off the dress, and washed off his make up. He threw on a binder, a simple black t-shirt, and sweatpants, and flopped back onto his bed. He sighed, a slight smile coming to his face as he traced his hands over his flat chest, pleased that it was back the way he liked it.

Leon stood up and looked at himself in a mirror that had been placed in this room before he had even came. He relaxed again as he saw his body without the dress. Man, he was just like Mulan in that one song about reflections. He hummed the tune before chuckling to himself, mostly a laugh of relief.

Leon opened his door and walked downstairs to see Emil waiting for him, still wearing his suit. "I think our plan worked," Leon said, sitting down next to him.

"But I was hoping I'd get to dance with you," Emil pouted, rather childishly. "And that was not dancing, that was just me stepping on your feet while pretending that we were dancing."

"You don't need a dance like that to dance," Leon pointed out, taking out his phone from his pocket.

"I'll just mess up again. I can't dance."

With a smile, Leon selected a slow song on his phone and put it on the chair. He grabbed Emil's hand and pulled him up. "Just put your hands here," Leon instructed as he grabbed Emil's other hand and placed both of them onto his shoulders. "And I put my hands here." Leon put his hands on Emil's waist. "And now we sway slowly to the song."

With a nod, Emil began to sway. The world began to disappear around them, as it had before. Emil reached his hands around the back of Leon's neck as they pulled each other closer. Slowly, the distance between their lips closed, and they shared that moment, and that kiss as theirs and only theirs, with nothing that could pull them apart. Eventually, the song faded away, but neither of them noticed, for they were both immersed in the pure perfection of the feel of the other's lips pressed up against their own.

A/N - Hey I'm really sorry about not updating for a while but I got a concussion and wasn't really allowed on my computer for a while, so I couldn't exactly write. Also, I probably won't be updating for a while after this because I'm going to Europe for 2 weeks and then a summer camp where we aren't allowed electronics for another 2 weeks, but I hope this chapter is good enough for now.