ﾟ･stars were made for falling ﾟ･ (original)

epilogue- énouement

"Énouement," a noun; the bittersweet feeling of having arrived in the future, but being unable to tell a younger version of yourself how things would turn out. The word itself is French in origin, and is often cited as one of the world's most obscure sorrows. Leo had learned the word from Ivan once, what seemed like a long time ago, though it had probably only been a few months, and he was thinking of it now as he sat out on his front porch in the summer sunlight.

It was extremely hot out in the August sunshine, but he didn't want to move back inside to the air conditioning, knowing that his friends would be here any minute. It was his birthday after all, a very important one, apparently- his eighteenth, finally making him into an adult, or something like that. Really, Leo had never felt so young, knowing just how old he'd felt when he'd woken up in the Citadel, three months ago. Over time, he'd fallen back into just feeling like himself, but overall much more whole, almost. Something about him had changed, and it was for the better; that didn't negate all of the sleepless, nightmare-filled nights he would still have on occasion, or the horrible, crushing guilt that would sometimes hit him like a truck.

Sometimes, Leo still felt like an awful person, who'd done unforgivable things, and sometimes, he'd feel suddenly like Cancer, typically after he'd woken up, or right before he would fall asleep. But the feeling would always fade with the morning light, leaving him simply Leo again. Leo, who wasn't a bad person, at least not to his family or friends; who was only someone who'd done what he'd needed to do.

And his mother knew about everything, it'd been the very first thing he'd done. And Ari had listened patiently, waiting for Misha to leave the room to explain that she'd also had her own weird experience due to her nightlight being crushed. It was so, so wonderful to have a mom that not only understood, but was willing to talk about it. Not in front of Ava or Misha, of course, but when they were alone, Ari was more than willing to let her son vent about anything he had on his mind. It wasn't until he was around both her and Ava again that the weight of missing them fully hit him, leaving him a sobbing mess for quite a few hours. Next, Ava cried, then Ari, like it was infectious, but in the end, everything had somewhat gone back to normal.

Leo had a lot of school to catch up on, meaning he wouldn't be graduating until he was nineteen, but he really didn't care. Of course, the excuse Ari had given for him being gone so long was that he'd been captured by the Keykeepers for unjust reasons, which was half-true. And, by now, the barriers had come down, and the United States government had started to come back into town. Quite a shock for most of the townspeople, but it was going over weirdly well, with the fenced-in area Purity Gateway had reigned so supremely over finally rejoining the rest of the country. The world was bigger than ever for Leo, and one day, he did plan on visiting the rest of the states, after all his schooling had been done. His mom had already told him she wasn't going to allow any more time off for adventures, saving the world, or ending centuries-long loops.

Of course, with some people surviving the mass suicide of Purity's Communities, they were quietly helped reintegrate back into society. Casper had written to him about it, mentioning that Ivan and Misha just told the state government that they were also prisoners of the cult. The farmhouse was given a thousand dollars a month for each person who'd been locked up, which Casper equated to hush money. "I think they're saying that if we keep the fact that they let this go on for so long, and the fact that they were involved at the beginning maybe, on the down-low, they'll keep paying us. Doesn't matter to us any, we're really not down for more hero stuff."

Unlike what Aldrich had mentioned wanting, all of the surviving members of the group had decided to keep their involvement in toppling Purity very quiet, not wanting the attention of the government. It was better to pipe down and play the hapless victims of a system that self-imploded, then claim without much proof that it had been them who took the cult down. Besides, Leo thought that kind of fame would surely go to his head, and he knew something like that would only make Ivan much more insufferable. So, they told no one a damn thing.