[If Leon ever doubted that the world was out to get him, this would just about cinch the deal, really. The luck of it, that the person who would slam right into him would be--
...Well, it's Stahn. There's no doubting that. He's older, of course, but he's so much the same Stahn that it makes Leon's heart ache and his throat close up. Learning that Stahn had been killed at the hands of that psychopath had been enough to ruin Leon for a time, even if he hadn't shown it; he couldn't have, not when he was looking after a bunch of clueless kids. But it was true. A world without Stahn was a world that just wasn't right, and he couldn't accept it. He had to fix it.
There had never been any other option.
But even so, he never expected to see him again, and here he is, standing there as easily as that, with the same bright eyes and the same messy, pain-in-the-ass hair, and for a moment, Leon thinks he might be swallowing back tears, and the thought bothers him less than it would have before this journey.
He reaches up to shift his mask back into place, ducking his head more, as if that will help. Maybe it will. He needs it to, because... as happy, purely, entirely elated as he has to acknowledge he is to see Stahn again, breathing and alive and as well as could be, he can't be here. This meeting can't happen. He... he just can't.
He clears his throat, and his voice wobbles only a little, though he tries to keep it pitched low.]
...Excuse me. I have somewhere to be. [He has nowhere to be--the lie could almost make him laugh. Now, more than ever, wearing an identity that doesn't exist and living in a world that hates who he is, he has nowhere to be.
no subject
...Well, it's Stahn. There's no doubting that. He's older, of course, but he's so much the same Stahn that it makes Leon's heart ache and his throat close up. Learning that Stahn had been killed at the hands of that psychopath had been enough to ruin Leon for a time, even if he hadn't shown it; he couldn't have, not when he was looking after a bunch of clueless kids. But it was true. A world without Stahn was a world that just wasn't right, and he couldn't accept it. He had to fix it.
There had never been any other option.
But even so, he never expected to see him again, and here he is, standing there as easily as that, with the same bright eyes and the same messy, pain-in-the-ass hair, and for a moment, Leon thinks he might be swallowing back tears, and the thought bothers him less than it would have before this journey.
He reaches up to shift his mask back into place, ducking his head more, as if that will help. Maybe it will. He needs it to, because... as happy, purely, entirely elated as he has to acknowledge he is to see Stahn again, breathing and alive and as well as could be, he can't be here. This meeting can't happen. He... he just can't.
He clears his throat, and his voice wobbles only a little, though he tries to keep it pitched low.]
...Excuse me. I have somewhere to be. [He has nowhere to be--the lie could almost make him laugh. Now, more than ever, wearing an identity that doesn't exist and living in a world that hates who he is, he has nowhere to be.
But he needs to be anywhere but here.]