Chapter Text
William Wisp sat in the back of a booth at Lickety-Split, Vyncent beside him, with Dakota and Ashe across the table. It was unusually quiet.
“So,” Dakota said eventually, braving the silence with his usual smile. “How did it go?”
“Ummm… could’ve gone worse.” William shrugged, taking an unenthusiastic spoonful of his chocolate-chocolate double scoop. “The ankle monitor kinda sucks. And the whole not being able to leave Tide’s house without prior heroic approval and oversight.”
“I can’t believe they’re making you wear a fucking ankle monitor.” Vyncent grumbled.
“I can’t believe they’re not making you wear an ankle monitor.” Ashe pointed out. “Lightspeed has a soft spot for you man.”
“Nah, Lightspeed has a soft spot for Dakota.” Vyncent dismissed, “It’s like, just luck he happened to be standing next to me when she came over to talk.”
“You say luck.” Dakota said around a mouthful of strawberry. The owner of the store had just given up and handed him the whole gallon of it. “I say strategy.”
“At least David’s been served a warrant.” William said, leaning back against the old booth walls. “I don’t know if it’s even possible to lock somebody that rich up, but it’s good that the heroes are trying at least.”
“Fuck David!” Dakota said enthusiastically.
Ashe raised an eyebrow. “Do you want your family in prison?”
William hesitated, “I don’t really want David to be in prison, but then again, I didn’t really want him to be a psychopath either.”
Ashe nodded sympathetically, and William had the realization that they probably knew more about William’s situation than anyone else here. He wasn’t alone in having a family member in jail. He appreciated the… pity? Empathy? Whatever it was, it was nice to know he was understood.
“If anybody tried to break him out, I’ll break them out. Out of their bones .” Vyncent said, brandishing his spoon.
“Please don’t do that.” William said, with a cough. “Then you’ll definitely have to wear an ankle monitor. And it’s not very comfortable.”
“Maybe I could convince Lightspeed to get it off you.” Dakota suggested.
“Nah man,” William dismissed. “I got off easy. Lightspeed already did everything she could. No jail time, and my heroing license isn’t completely revoked- I'll take it.”
“What’re they’re gonna do if we’re fighting a bad guy and need you?” Dakota demanded.
William shrugged, “Again, I’d need approval to leave the house- but they might make an exception in an emergency? I’m allowed to be there as long as both of you two are there, I wear a body cam, and we report everything afterwards.”
“Unfair.” Vyncent muttered. “You’re a good guy. Your a fucking great guy and if they can’t see that they’re blinder than Dakota.”
“My vision matters not because my third eye is open.” Dakota sniffed.
“And yet, the doctor has prescribed you glasses that make your eyes approximately half the size of your face.” Ashe observed wryly. “Where are those, by the way?”
“Oh I dunno.” Dakota mumbled, shrinking in his seat. “Must’ve forgotten them. Uh. Somewhere. Somewhere I’ll definitely never remember so we totally shouldn’t look for them.”
“Mhm.” Ashe said, disapproval seeping through every part of the non-word. “Sure buddy.”
“What’ll you do now Will?” Dakota asked, changing the topics as elegantly as Dakota ever did anything, which was not very. “Now you have all the uh… free time.”
William laughed, though it didn’t sound as happy as he wished it did. “I dunno man. Probably watch some movies or some shit. I deleted Twitter ‘cause I didn’t wanna get more addicted to that then I already am, y’know. Too much free time is bad for me.”
“Try crochet.” Ashe suggested. “I got really into crochet recently. It’s great for quieting… everything. Great for passing time.”
William sighed. “Maybe.”
“Or figure drawing?” She went on, “Or animation, or piano, or violin, or researching the wealth gap, or makeup, or knitting which is different from crochet-”
“Okay, okay I get it!” William said, holding up his hands and laughing. “You have ADHD too. Maybe you're right. I don’t really know though. Not sure I can hyper-fixate my way outta this one.”
Dakota was frowning, a line of concentration creasing his forehead. “Whose on the other end of that monitor? Like, observing you or whatever?”
William shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably whoever WATCH’s tech person is.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he paused, a horrible thought coming crossing his mind. “Oh no. Oh nonono, Dakota, you don’t think-”
“HELLO THERE!” Came a deranged voice from his ankle monitor. “I see you’ve found your way to joint that sells cream of the iced variety. Please bring me a mint chocolate chip and rocky road- not really rocky, no one wants rocks in their ice cream! Ha!- double scoop. Waffle cone positive! Cross out!”
William could do nothing but stare in horror down at his foot.
“That has got to be against the law man.” Ashe said disbelievingly.
“What…” Vyncent looked lost. “Will, why is Professor Cross in your ankle? Oh my god- oh my god did they lock him in there?! I’ll get him out! Don’t worry, I won't let you stay trapped professor!”
“Vyncent no -”
A very harried twenty minutes later, they were standing outside the Lickety-Split, having been rather unceremoniously kicked out after a loud argument where William had barely managed to convince Vyncent that, like all technology, hearing Cross’ voice didn’t mean he was actually in the ankle monitor, all while Dakota had struggled to order a rocky road ‘without the rocks’. The details were better left in the past, but the phrase rocket ankle goblin had been said and William wasn’t sure he would ever recover.
They stood simply talking and laughing for ten minutes before Ashe got a text and sighed.
“Study session in five. I gotta get going.”
“I can take you.” Dakota offered.
“Sure, you know where my dorms are?”
“Maybe I’ll remember if you give me directions on the way.”
William watched with a smile as they sped off, and turned to Vyncent, who was still ruffled from the earlier debacle.
“So I guess we’re banned from two of these restaurants now.”
Vyncent squinted for a moment before seeming to realize that yes, they had in fact also been kicked from the restaurant across the street. “Neat! How many more do you think we need to get a world record?”
“At least ten.”
Vyncent looked despairingly down the street. “Damn.”
“Well we're competing with people who are just genuine dicks to servers.”
“And fuck those guys.”
“Fuck ‘em.” William agreed. “We could just go to restaurants to go . Make up for all the shitty customers. We could tip really well and stuff.”
“Can’t stop being a hero, can you?”
William looked away. “I was never really a hero, Vynce. But I really wanna be. It just- with all this, I think it’s gonna take me a little while to figure out how.”
Vyncent didn’t say anything for a moment, and then William felt a hand grab his own, and squeeze just a little. “I think you’re a hero.”
“Yeah, well, you also thought that WATCH had shrunk down Professor Cross and put him in my ankle monitor, so-”
“Nah. This isn’t like that.” Vyncent dismissed. “I know you’re a fucking hero.”
William pressed his lips together. “I’m trying Vynce. I wish it was as effortless for me as it was for Dakota, or- or you. You’re good. You don’t even have to think about it and you’re good.”
There was a long, long silence. Downtown was never quiet, but William didn’t think he’d ever heard it this close.
“It’s not effortless.”
“What?”
“It’s not effortless.” Vyncent reiterated. “Being good. I have to think about it all the time. Tell myself not to kill people, tell myself not to hurt people back for hurting me or hurting Dakota, or hurting you. I heard the heroes didn’t want you on our team anymore and Dakota had to talk me out of marching down there and beating them up until they changed their minds. Sometimes I’d think I’d give it all up, for you. All this being good shit. Doesn’t seem worth it sometimes. Then we end up in situations like this and I get why we do all the fucking song and dance- ‘cause this fucking sucks ass. Consequences, I mean.”
William could do nothing but stare at him. And he’d done enough staring at Vyncent you’d think he wouldn’t need to anymore, not when he had everything about the other boy’s face and expressions practically memorized, but he did it anyway. Did it so he could see the micro-expressions that flit here and there, the spark in the eye, the wind messing up Vyncent’s hair- which had been growing out to a frankly unmanageable length.
“I don’t know Vynce. I think this could be worse.”
“Could be better.”
“Things could always be better in our line of work.” William smiled wryly. “Not your fault anyways dude. At least I’m not in prison.”
“Small victories I guess.” Vyncent mumbled. “Y’know, I was thinking Will. About what Dakota said- like needing something to do and all- just call me. I’ll be there. I’m not gonna let you be bored.”
Vyncent said the word bored like it was some particularly nasty disease.
“I don’t wanna inflict my house arrest on you.”
“I don’t care.” Vyncent declared. “You could be stuck on house arrest in the fuckin’ chaos zone and I’d be there, if you wanted me to be there. I mean like, what are best friends for am I right?”
William laughed nervously. “Yeah man.”
“You are my best friend y’know.” Vyncent said, voice dropping to something more serious. William realized with a start they were still holding hands, and oh God his palms were totally starting to sweat- “And not like- not like the way Dakota’s my best friend. I know I lump you guys in together, sometimes, but you’re not the same. You’re like- you’re like the other half of my soul or something.” Vyncent laughed and let go of William’s hand to push his hair out of his face. “Sorry that probably sounds stupid.”
William was desperately hoping his half-dead half-alive state meant that the heat he was feeling on his cheeks and neck was purely psychological and not because he’d turned the approximate color of a tomato.
“Not stupid.” He rasped.
“Whatever you say. Hey, can you portal us back to Tides? I actually have a movie recommendation for once.”
William coughed as he opened the portal, desperately trying (and failing) to regain his composure. “ You have a movie recommendation?”
“Oh yeah. Ashe was telling me about the high points of cinema- have you ever heard of Veloci-pastor?”
*****
Tide walked with William into the therapist building this week. Not the actual office- thank God- but the supervision was constant.
“Do you have everything you need?” Tide fretted as he trailed William up the steps. “Water bottle, debit card, phone, emergency protein bars-”
“I got it, I got it, Jesus.” William laughed. “It’s therapy, not a trek across the Sahara.”
Tide nodded rapidly. “Well okay William. You just go in there, do your thing, and I’ll be right here waiting to take you home when you come out.”
“I know.” William said, flashing a genuine smile at Tide. “Thank you.”
Tide grinned. “Not a problem.”
William didn’t hesitate before pushing in the door to Ms. Nona’s office. She looked up from her chair, taking in the ankle monitor and the small backpack of supplies Tide had insisted he take.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
“Actually no,” William said, “I have one more confession to make. And seeing as how the last one surprisingly didn’t end up with me in prison, I don’t think this one will either.”
Ms. Nona raised an eyebrow. “Well now you’ve intrigued me.”
William smiled nervously. “So… you know my friend Vyncent?”