I touched on it before but Lesley has quite a nebulous concept of feelings/relationships, he pretty much had only one "friend" most of his childhood and what happened with his father left him quite divorced from his self, which made building new relationships complicated.

For Elov, he feels strong empathy and some kind of fucked up possessiveness on his right to be the one to put an end to his perceived suffering. Is this love ? Is this friendship ?? Who knows, it's very strong and very confused, even more after Elov came onto him hard and added sex to the mix, a first for him and definitely something that latched onto his craving for touch. Now he's unsure if Elov does want to die and on top of that he knows he'll lose this physical attention if he does kill him, but at the same time if anyone has to do it he wants to be the one.

I do see what you mean about seeing him maybe having feelings for Wallace. I think in a way despite their relationship starting with Lesley hating Wallace the fact that it didn't start on a basis of befriending him only to "liberate" him helped a more organic relationship to bloom (even though Wallace gets pretty suicidal after his little reunion with Elov, since Elov specifically told Lesley not to kill him this keeps Lesley from starting to think of it as needing to free Wallace from this suffering, if anything at first he sees it as payback for what he did to Elov. His anger put a lid on his empathy). Wallace definitely does develop some romantic feelings for Lesley as time goes, he grows fond of the guy and I think this genuine appreciation does bleed through in Lesley's own feelings for Wallace.

I realize it's a bit like. Elov and Lesley's bond is based on their worst toxic feelings, feeding Elov's love of the thrill and Lesley's hunger for affection. Wallace and Lesley's has organically grown by getting to know each other despite a more than rocky start. In both situations they do have some sort of feelings involved, but it's very different.

We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Koyasan, hakone and we did day-trips to Nara and Kobe.

I really recommend staying a night or two in koyasan to visit , it's very remote but you can get there by train from Osaka and there are tons of beautiful temples to visit as well as the Okuno-in cemetary which is breathtaking. We slept in a shukubo (which is a temple which you can sleep in) and it was well worth the price for the beautiful scenery, the nice hot bath, the buddhist meditation and the traditional monk meals. There are a lot of temples who offer this service but we personally stayed in the Rengejo-in temple (but if you want to visit the cemetary during the night, which is a possiblity, I would recommend a temple closer to it since they tend to close their doors at 9 and the cemetary is quite big)

I also really enjoyed Arashiyama in Kyoto, the monkey mountain is well worth it if you like animals (it's one of the rare places in japan where they aren't exploited sadly) and there are a lot of cute cafes along the way (the main road can get a little overwhelming with tourists, but there are more breathing room than in say Gion, you can easily find less traveled streets that are charming). Not the most japanese, but I really loved Kiki's tea room there: it's a very small tea room with a charming decor, delicious scones and a huge variety of some of the best teas I've had the chance to taste.
Another Kyoto spot I enjoyed is the Maruyama park (and the Ikkyu-an cafe there) but an obscure place I really recommend is the Moan cafe on Yoshida mountain ! We happened on it by total chance and it's a little bit of a trekk there but gosh is it charming as fuck.

I really like cafes as you can see… But cafe aside, I really recommend you visit nakano broadway in Tokyo (to me it's more worth than Akihabara if you are looking for goodies, starting from the second floor there's tons of both vintage and recent second-hand goods). I also really enjoyed the Shinjuku Marui Honkan (OIOI) department store in shinjuku, just lots of good store there and when I went a few indie fashion brands. SPEAKING OF if you are interested in alt/indie fashion LaForet department store in Harajuku is a MUST GO, the lower floors have tons of small creators shop it was super interesting.

As far as Osaka goes, it was one of my favorite place we stayed at ! I just recommend walking around the different shōtengai there, depend on which one you visit there are really different kinds of shops/vibes. If you like stationery and cats I recommend checking out 'U-ARTS', it's a small shop with tons of cat-themed stationery and some writing/art supplies too, really cute. Otherwise, it's really a great city to get lost in because there are tons of cool streets with small shops and great food.

The deer park in Nara is really cute and worth the trip, the city itself is quite charming but I don't have a particular recommendation either. Kobe we went for personal reasons (my sibling was born the day of the earthquake so we went to the Kobe Earthquake Memorial Museum, which was interesting but is not a must see either if you don't have a particular interest in disasters and disaster prevention) but chinatown there was quite interesting ! Hakone is a great destination if you want a little break from the big city, there are tons of ryokans with plein-air onsen there if you can afford it and it's nice to walk along the lake, more of a chill destination though.

Hope this gives you a few ideas ! Honestly there's tons of places that looked cool and we couldn't go to so I really recommend exploring, you'll often find something cool without even searching much !

You have a great memory anon, something does indeed happen between them as teens :3c I'll keep the details to myself but Gary ends up in locked-in syndrome. Mikael is the first person to notice that Gary is aware and not merely comatose, which thankfully does lead to him getting the appropriate therapy and recovering some motor functions as he reaches adulthood.
At first it's complicated for Mikael to visit him but Gary's mother eventually helps and he gets to come and go as if family. In a way she kind of accepts him into the family too even if he's so outside of their circle. Mikael takes care of Gary when he's there and continues to do so even after he's discharged.

Their relationship becomes complicated, there's lots of resentment from Gary and at the same time Mikael remains his only means of escapism. Slightly sci-fi but these characters were first created within the context of being able to venture into other people's dreams thanks to an experimental drug and I still like this idea,,, experimental dream therapy designed to help coma victims, the last place where Gary can still walk and talk and taunt Mikael's guilt, always taking the form of himself as a child even as they grow older, the return to reality always hitting like a brick. Lots of fun but purely hypothetical, for now I'm having fun daydreaming about their teen years before the accident

Somebody asked for some over on tumblr so I'll give you the same facts I did over there !

(cw: self-harm, attempted suicide)

When they are together, Mikael is almost always touching Gary in some way: leaning on him, holding his arm, hand resting on his nape, keeping him close and corporeal. He'll sit behind him and hug him and casually hang his arms around his neck. Gary pretends to only tolerate it.

Their fights can get pretty nasty. Biting, scratching, hair pulling, nothing is off limits, but they mostly wrestle and roll on the floor until one of the two manages to pull free and punch/kick. Sometimes they'll start laughing with a split lip and a bleeding nose midway as if just play fighting, though usually it's mostly Mikael laughing and Gary trying to kill him for good.

Other times it devolves into other physical contact. Their hormones are in full bloom and there's only one step between anger and hunger when you're already touching and grabbing at the other anyway.
The contrary also happens, mostly because Gary is quick to anger and Mikael too stupid for his own good.

They're not always fighting though. Sometimes the dust settles and they've tired their bodies with whatever shenanigans kept them occupied so they'll slip into tender lazyness, lying together intertwined as close as possible, hands under shirts or playing with hair, breathing as one. It's the only way Mikael will keep calm for more than five minutes.

They often will try to sneak out of doing their chores to hang out away from the eyes of the adults. In the attic, up on the taller trees, on the roof or in the multiple nooks, crannies and hidden doors of the old house.

Mikael sometimes looks for unfinished cigarettes inside the ashtrays the staff hide when they're done smoking behind the kitchens; they try to smoke them nonchalantly, passing the small butt to each other, just enough for a disgusting taste of adulthood. Gary often gets sick from it so they don't do it often.

Mikael has tried LSD (directly) and weed (second hand) before; the only drug Gary has ever taken were the few grains of cocaine left on his father's desk, but it wasn't even enough to get a taste.

Despite Mikael busying his mind away from bad thoughts, Gary will sometimes isolate when depression overwhelms him. It becomes a game of hide and seek where Mikael will usually find him with fresh cuts, or sometimes worse. Thwarting Gary's suicide attempts has become a game ever since the first time he did it, though Mikael never laugh at it, even if he sometimes smiles still and says dumb shit after getting him out of harm's way.