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William couldn’t fucking stand it. 

He couldn’t stand the way that Vyncent fight-flirted with Cantrip in the pit. Couldn’t stand the way he acted like it was nothing; like Will wasn’t a cage away.  Couldn’t stand the knowledge that Vyncent had kissed that Shauna girl and made future plans with her, even if he’d been drunk.  Couldn’t stand how he looked to Will for help during the whole thing, after he wooed her to begin with. Couldn’t stand how he acted like the way Will was acting in response made no sense to him. 

Him and his stupid, dumb, pretty eyes. 

10 months they were alone, together, in the old base. 10 months of the two of them baring their souls to one another, confiding in one another, watching every movie in existence on the same couch and sharing the same blanket, sometimes sharing a bed, holding hands, locking eyes — 10 months Vyncent seemed to have forgotten as soon as Dakota came back into the picture and they suddenly weren’t at the base anymore. 10 months that William thought really mattered to him (they mattered to Will!), but apparently Vyncent just wasn’t picking up on all those signals. William wanted to cry, and scream, and throw shit at him.  Which was very unlike him, because he normally was very non-confrontational and low-energy (as Dakota had said before; maybe it hurt a bit, maybe not), but this entire situation made his blood boil in ways he didn’t know was possible when you’re essentially dead.  Vyncent made him want to bang his head against a wall.

“Why?” he wanted to demand in a fit of frustration. “Why are you being so fucking cruel?  I thought you liked me too.  What is with you?”  In the logical, non-jealousy-ridden part of his brain that was currently on hiatus, William recognized that nothing between them had ever been clear (even if they held hands) to either of them.  He barely even knew that he liked Vyncent, let alone if Vyncent liked him.  Instead of saying anything clear and concise, he found himself falling into older, pettier habits — because that was easier.

The very first time, when Dakota implied Vyncent may have been flirting with Ashe, was when William first realized he did not like the idea of Vyncent flirting with other people – and that was before their time by themselves.  They’d had a few encounters already that made Will’s heart race – helping him with homework, their hands would brush and they’d meet eyes a little too long; watching movies, Vyncent would offer to share the blanket with Will, and they’d cuddle up a little close for comfort.  Will could hardly process how these things made him feel, but what he did understand was that the mere implication Dakota presented caused his chest to tighten and he found himself asking for Vyncent to clarify that it wasn’t the case.  Vyncent had given him a weird look and brushed past it.  

After that, the time with Cantrip was amplified; much more intense.  There was no mishearing Vyncent calling her hot; asking her out.  William, through his visceral fear at Alan (even with him compelled) in front of him, mid fight, felt that ache in his chest except a hundred times worse.  He sneered at Vyncent, made charged comments about his flirting; tried to get him to stop.  Tried to remind him that the two of them had something and he really should be trying to preserve that!  Vyncent felt the same as William, right?  He was under that impression.  At least when he felt like this.  What else were people who held hands and sometimes shared a bed and all that other stuff if not something ?  Vyncent, however, didn’t seem to pick up on his annoyance much.  It confused Will.  Later on, he figured it was a heat of the moment thing.  Maybe he was just nervous, or trying some weird tactic on her.  Maybe he didn’t mean to do it.  In the moment, though, William’s head was spinning with jealousy and contempt.  When Vyncent thought he’d killed her, Will’s head was still reeling from him asking if she wanted to go out sometime seconds before, and even though he knew she likely wasn’t dead, he’d scarily thought to himself, “ whatever .”  Why did he think that?  Not like it was her fault Vyncent was an ass.  But even through how betrayed he’d felt, he scared himself with that one.  So, afterwards, he tried rationalizing it.  He put it out of his mind; went on as normal with Vyncent.  Chalked it up to nothing.  When Vyncent later asked her if she had a boyfriend, it took everything he had to ignore it.

The next time, at the shack with Shauna and Denise, was the worst – much more all at once, and enough for William to disregard logic altogether.  He didn’t care what the circumstances were; hearing how Shauna spoke to Vyncent, seeing her touch him, made him dizzy with wondering what Vyncent had said and done with her the previous day that would warrant it.  She brought up pet names he’d called her.  When she promptly kissed him with William a mere arm’s length away, he lurched back a bit and ached, deeply – a part of himself far down inside asking why they had never done that before — why had some random girl just done it to Vyncent so easily without him even really pushing her away?  Why the fuck was he calling some girl things and probaby kissing her back the night before and not doing that with William ?  Amidst Vyncent’s confusion with Will, who was upset and blaming him and decidedly not bailing him out of the situation, Dakota yelled to get in a word in above everyone and said he, Denise and Will should give them some time alone, and ushered them out of the shack.  William was so goddamn mad, and overwhelmed, and almost a little anxious.  His ears were ringing quietly.  He had an epiphany in that moment that what Will thought they had wasn’t the same as what Vyncent saw.  Everything they were was just a joke to him.  He felt humiliated and extremely jealous and vindictive all at the same time.

Dakota pried him a little on the way out while the two “lovers” quarreled back inside (and William could hear her kiss him again, which only scrambled his brain further).

“Hey man, what’s up?  Is there something going on?”  His voice had been quieter than normal when he’d asked, as if he knew he was treading into dangerous territory that he wasn’t even sure he, Dakota Cole, could handle.

Denise bounced nervously on her heels, staying quiet, looking between them, and said, “I think I should let you two be alone!  This seems a little complicated,” with an awkward laugh and a friendly, if concerned, smile.  “I can write up some stuff that might be helpful to take care of Bobo and I’ll give it to Vyncent for you!”  After waving to Dakota, who sighed and thanked her, but didn’t stop her from leaving, she veered away from them as they headed back to the RV.

William didn’t answer Dakota’s questions all the way there, mostly because he was scared of what he’d say in his worked up state but also because he was busy putting most of his energy into fighting back tears or frustration.  Dakota didn’t ask him again, but when they sat down in the Winnebago and Will gripped onto the steering wheel with immense force - veins popping in his hands - he could feel the redhead’s eyes boring into him, using every ounce of brain power he had to determine if William was really feeling how he suspected he might’ve been.

Dakota finally tried again, “Are you two, like, ok?  Vyncent’s basically got a girlfriend now — this is good, right?  Why d’you care so much?”  He seemed to bite back another few words at the end, as if realizing he should be delicate with his wording, somehow.  For once, it came off like Dakota may have known the answer to his own question.  If William were less on the verge of tears, he would’ve been kind of impressed.  Not considering his own words (to restore the natural balance and level out Dakota’s uncanny insight today), Will sarcastically replied,

“Yeah Dakota, everything’s so fucking good right now!”  He pointedly avoided answering the other two questions his friend presented him with.  He threw his hands up from the steering wheel in a wild gesture as he spoke, then promptly slammed them back down onto it.  Dakota stared at him for a long moment, giving Will more time to be bitter without meaning to.  “I’m clearly fucking thrilled about this!  So happy for Vyncent!”

“Alright dude, c’mon…” Dakota’s words were even quieter, and Will couldn’t figure out if he sounded like he was about to cry from Will’s harsh tone or yell back at him for being a bitch.  “Relax… What’s your deal right now?  I’ve never seen you get like this, like…” he paused and thought about it, hard.  “Ever.  You’re being so weird.  What’s going on between you two? Are you…?”  He hesitated, dancing around the question, seeming awkward suddenly.  Even though it was small, William felt a jab of familiar shame go through his stomach at the weight the words and pause held, even if Dakota hadn’t meant it.

“Let’s just get the fuck out of here, my God,” Will growled out, now desparate to diverge from the subject and once again dodging the questions entirely.  Dakota made an annoyed noise in his throat as William shoved their key into the ignition and cruelly twisted it, as if he was physically mimicking what Vyncent was metaphorically doing to his heart.  He’d have to write a poem about that later.  “He can catch up to us on his own.”

“You’re gonna make him wa–?”

“Yeah, I am.  He deserves to walk.”

After a few moments, the tension in the air lightened up ever so slightly with the hum and gentle vibrations of the RV, and Will immediately felt bad for being mean to Dakota over nothing.  He wasn’t the one who deserved to be yelled at.  He wasn’t the one being stupid and playing with William’s feelings.  Even so, he couldn’t help but snap, all of his frustration having nowhere else to go with Vyncent no longer in his proximity.  Before he put the vehicle into drive, Will whipped his phone out from his pocket and shakily texted Vyncent, his adrenaline pumping back up with each letter he tapped.

“ we’re leaving. finish with your girlfriend in there and start catching up, we’re not waiting. you can walk like you deserve to. ”

He probably wouldn’t even see it.  Will tried to teach him over their 10 months how to find specific apps but he was abysmal at it, never even getting how to just click a notification for it to take him to the message app.  It was kind of endearing.

Then William tucked his phone away, guiltily glanced back at Dakota (who was now whispering something to Bobo in one of the seats that Will couldn’t hear), and looked back out the windshield towards the road.  

“Sorry, man,” he told Dakota without looking at him, “for being shitty just now and… everything.  It’s, um. I… It… Nevermind.  Let’s just get out of here.”  His friend only hummed in response, as if still thinking to himself, barely hearing William.  He didn’t seem all that hurt by the tone of the noise, just contemplative.  William felt a hot tear roll down his cheek, and even though Dakota didn’t see, Will - who was now coming down from that scathing feeling of anger to a deeply hollow disappointment - embarrassedly realized he was probably already onto him, anyway.  He took a deep breath, and began to drive off.

Vyncent had caught up to them at the shop, out of breath, and angrily demanded to know why they left him behind (he apparently had to literally shoot himself in the foot to get away, which Will found extreme and not necessary).  He also blamed the other for the foot incident, even though he literally did it to himself.  Will was once again overcome with a petty desire for vindication, and he deflected all of Vyncent’s grievances with insults and insinuations that he deserved what he got.  Dakota tried interrupting them again, seeming both frustrated and somewhat nervous at the same time.  

“Hey, is there something between you two?”  He blatantly asked, whilst William yelled that he’d sic his gang on Vyncent, and the other countered that he didn’t actually have a gang.  He then cried about William being cruel for no reason.  William barely heard Dakota talking.  No reason?  No reason?   He really was blind.  “Why are you fighting?!”  Dakota tried, a little louder.

Still, he got no response – and by that point the other two were nearly biting at one another.  Vyncent was lamenting about how horrible the whole day had been and how part of it was Will’s fault; Will deflected that nothing was his fault, actually.

“No, you know what man?  Fuck you!”  Vyncent exclaimed, finished with the whole ordeal, and as William flushed with anger in a way he hadn’t since being alive, he passedly hoped the other would stay bald forever and suffer.  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Dakota staring straight at him, so pointedly he could have sworn he felt his friend’s eyes pierce through his soul.  The expression Will still wore on his face when he glanced the other’s way was telling – and he knew it from the way Dakota’s gaze went from level intensity to wide-eyed realization, and William understood that he’d given himself away.  Unsubtly, he looked away and down at the ground, face still bright red.  A palpable silence came over the room as Vyncent moved away from him, grumbling, tears in his eyes. 

Thankfully, they didn’t really fight like that again afterwards.  William did pour a considerable amount of rubbing alcohol over Vyncent’s foot while treating his gunshot wound, though — much more than necessary, causing a searing burn to shoot through him and making him scream in agony.  And William felt a little vindicated (if a bit guilty) at that. 

From the moment they were bedding down in the Winnebago that night, William began writing multiple charged, angsty poems about the ordeal (with a lot of metaphors about wolves worked in).  Some pages were just scrawlings of his inner conflict, however.  Some he just scribbled one or two sentences of feelings on before he tore them out entirely, tossing the crumpled pages across the floor of the vehicle.  Vyncent was dead asleep (he had a very long day and there was no chance of him waking up) in the back of the RV on the floor, while Dakota was simply curled up in one of the seats facing away from William, Bobo splayed out over his torso.   William assumed the redhead had been dozing, since when Dakota was really passed out you knew , but apparently he wasn’t asleep at all.  After maybe the third ripped paper from William’s notebook found its way across the ground, he stirred and turned his head to face Will, then frowned in his direction, blinking at him.

“Hey, man.  Writer’s block?”

William bit back a snide remark, reminding himself that he was not mad at Dakota and had no reason to be mean.  “Yeah, I guess,” he replied, voice a bit rougher than he expected.  He cleared his throat.  William didn’t look up from his book to meet Dakota’s gaze.  “Something like that.  Sort of.  Yeah, I mean— yeah.  Sure.”  He bit at his lip, force of habit.  “Can’t sleep?”

“Nope.”  The redhead shifted in his seat and promptly stood up, depositing Bobo — still out cold — on the seat before lumbering over to Will where he sat on the ground beside the driver’s seat.  He sat down cross-legged beside him and leaned over to look at the pages he was writing on.  “Whatcha trying to write about?”

As he spoke, Will swiftly shut the book so his friend couldn’t read anything.  Dakota sniffled and sent him a sideways glare with no real annoyance behind it.  “Too personal?  Have you been writing your feelings down too, like I do?  Like I told you?  It’s pretty helpful.”  He pointedly glanced in the direction of Will’s discarded drafts laying around the space.  “But I mean, I guess it can be complicated sometimes, too.  Been there.”

William’s hands clenched around his notebook, staring unblinkingly down at it, head hung.  “Sorry I woke you up, man.  I’ll be quiet, you should go lay back down.  You need to sleep.”

“Hey, speak for yourself, man; those eye bags are terrible lately.”  He pointed a finger close up to Will’s eyes to emphasize his point, even though Will couldn’t see.  “I couldn’t sleep anyway, it wasn’t just you grumbling over your poetry or whatever.  Haven’t stopped thinking about today, honestly.  I don’t like it when you guys fight.  Don’t like it when we fight, like just in general…”  Dakota became a bit quieter then, pulling back his hand and fiddling with his fingers in his lap.  William turned to look at him, finally, and was immediately overcome with intense guilt.  Dakota had said multiple times before how much he hated when they fought with no effort towards communication.  It made him nervous or, at worst, shut down.  Thinking back, William believed he handled everything quite well that day, all things considered, which he was glad for.  Regardless, Will’s outburst clearly upset him.  He suddenly felt twice as bad.  “Are you and Vynce ok?”  Dakota followed up before William could even get out an initial apology.  He sounded troubled.

William stared at him for another moment, eyes suddenly aching a little.  He instinctively reached up and rubbed one.

“I, uh… yeah, yeah; we’re fine,” he said, because it wasn’t totally a lie.  At least, he thought so.  “I just… I was just being stupid.  I mean, so was he but I— we…”  Frustrated at his own inability to form a sentence, Will groaned and tried again after a moment.  Now that he was mulling over everything, he was forced to realize that his own response to the whole situation was a bit… dramatic, all context in mind; and it was dramatic because William had feelings about Vyncent that he couldn’t name outside of a wildly emotionally charged state.  He’d spent the last 10 minutes or so trying to describe it in written words more than he was writing edgy freeform at first, but it wasn’t working.  He suddenly realized Dakota was still waiting for him to continue.  “No, yeah, we’re ok.  Sorry if I upset you, Dakota.  I don’t usually get like that, you know me. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”

“Listen man, I don’t want you to like, keep everything inside or anything—“ Dakota began to clarify, “It just stresses me out when you go at each other's throats like that!  I almost had to get between you, y’know?  And I hate that!”  He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair and tugging a bit.  “I think I kind of get the deal but like, I also don’t… What I know more than anything is that I just hate to see the Prime Defenders fighting again.  We gotta do better as a team.  So… please, William, man, just be clear about what the deal is!  Beat the bush!”  He said the last part with a hint of amusement, and Will couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.  “Are you… with Vyncent?” 

Dakota’s strange hesitance in the car earlier that day came back to William with the way he worded the question now.  He stared straight at his friend, much more anxious than before, but Dakota’s eyes hardly looked judgemental — more so curious.  Then he tried to respond, but nothing came out.  His mouth just opened and he stammered a bit, so he shook his head instead.  If William still had a heartbeat, he knew it would be pounding wildly in his chest from the anxiety right now.  Even if it felt like a lifetime ago, he still remembered the feeling.  

William took a shaky breath and looked back down at his notebook, cracking it open slightly to quickly glance at his last few entries; starts to paragraphs with no end, mostly.  With it still open, he found his voice again and said to Dakota,

“It’s not like that, no.  At least, um… not for him.  I don’t think.  I don’t know.”  He cringed at his own words, hardly knowing what he was saying.  “But, I… I guess it’s like that for me.  Just me.  Onesidedly.”  Through his embarrassment and shame, Will felt a bit of bitterness course through him again.  He shot a glance in Vyncent’s direction, and found that he was still asleep by the gentle, rhythmic rise and fall of his chest — thank God.  Then, he looked back at Dakota to gauge his reaction to what William was saying.  His eyes were a little wide, and he broke into a smile.

“Oh my God, so I was right!  You do have a crush on Vyncent!”  he whisper-yelled, clearly excited but still having enough foresight to keep his voice down — once again, thank God.  “I was right!  I knew it!  I did it, I cracked a case, Will!  I can finally officially retire.”

William was entirely red in the face, staring through him at this point.  Even though he’d essentially just said to Dakota yes, he had a crush on Vyncent, hearing the reality of it repeated back to him felt crushing in a coincidental way — and it amplified that feeling of shame once again, making him want to curl into a ball and disappear.  He didn’t reply to Dakota fast enough, so the redhead continued talking.

“ That’s why you were so weird about Summer, isn’t it?  You’re–” he paused for a split moment.  “Sorry, man, I had no idea!  That’s cool though, love who you love!”  he said a little louder.

William quickly shushed him, feeling frantic.  “Yeah, man, yeah,” he said.  “Totally, thank you.”  Dakota’s smile downturned a little at seeing the look on Will’s face.  “But like please, please be quiet.”

“Sorry,” Dakota said quickly, pointedly looking over at Vyncent, then back at William.  “Well, anyway… why don’t you just tell him you like him?”

“I don’t really want to talk about this,” William announced decidedly.  “I thought he liked me but now I guess he doesn’t,” he added in a rush.  He thought about how cool Cantrip was.  He thought about how pretty Shauna had been.  Yeah, he had no idea what he thought Vyncent saw when it came to him.  He had an uneven leg, bags under his eyes and the complexion of a zombie.  Maybe he really did overreact – more than he’d thought.  Why did he ever think Vyncent would like him like that ?  He probably just held his hand to be nice.

“Geez, man.”  Dakota’s voice snapped him back to reality.  “Alright.  I guess it’s not really my business,” he decided.  “Just… try not to fight with Vynce anymore, just cause you like him… that’s all kinds of backwards.”

“Yep, you got it, ‘Kota,” Will replied a bit distantly.  He didn’t know if he meant it or not.

“If you feel like you need to yell at him cause he’s being flirty, just punch me instead or something!” Dakota offered.  “Then I’ll know, and I can take it.”  

“I’m not going to do that, man,” William protested. 

“Well, you should!  That’s communication.”

William didn’t bother arguing, just weakly nodded at him.  “Sure…  I’ll keep it in mind.”

Dakota grinned at him and stood back up to lay back down in one of the seats.  “Ok… great. Night, Will!”  Mere moments after saying that, he began snoring.  William guessed that cleared his friend’s conscience.  He moved and put his notebook away in his bag on the driver’s seat, then looked over at Vyncent once again.  He felt another pang of guilt as he took in his condition; foot bandaged, tear tracks under somewhat swollen eyes, clothes messy and torn, arms scuffed up.  At least he’d gotten his hair back, courtesy of Minerva.  Regardless, he looked like a wreck.  Still, along with the guilt of knowing that he was the reason for some of it, William felt a wave of affection come over him.  Even if he didn’t feel the same way as the other after the time they spent together, Will couldn’t help but want to be with him.  That thought scared him a little.  Shame was something that William knew extremely well, clearly.  He didn’t know why.  It was something he seemed to have picked up somewhere long ago.  He tried to leave it behind, but it seemed to stick to him and not let go despite his desire to lose it.  It followed him in most aspects of his life.  His powers.  His desires.  His feelings.  It constantly reminded him that everything he was was wrong.  

Even though he couldn’t stop feeling how he felt about Vyncent, right now he wished that he could.  The experience of caring about him simultaneously felt like a warm, comfortable fuzziness in his head and a vice grip in his stomach; a threat, dangerous.  He didn’t know why that was the case, either.  William was starting to think he didn’t know anything at all.  

He plopped all his weight down onto the driver's seat and peered out the windshield at the night sky.  They were parked on the side of the road in some grass, the Winnebago invisible to outsiders and thus they were free to watch how they pleased without the fear of being seen.  Not that anyone was really around, though the occasional car did pass by every now and again.  William let himself get lost in the quiet familiarity of it.  Simply observe, never be seen.  He pulled his notebook back out and wrote that down.  With the book still open, he felt his eyes grow heavy and he finally dozed off.

William dreamt that Vyncent kissed him back at the old base while a nondescript film played on the TV.

When William woke up the next morning, his neck fucking hurt.  Turns out sleeping upright in your RV’s driver seat did not do any favors for muscles that were already constantly sore.  He groaned as he stretched out, instinctively grabbing his nape as he glanced over his shoulder to see if his friends were still conked out or not.  Through slightly blurry vision, he found that Dakota was missing entirely (along with Bobo), but Vyncent was sitting up at one of the table seats, elbows up on the surface and head tilted slightly down, eyes shut but clearly not asleep.  His eyes were still red around the edges and a little puffed out.  William wondered if he’d been crying again.  

“Hey, man,” he said, voice gravelly.  He coughed a little to clear the sleep out of his throat.  “Morning.”

Vyncent’s eyes slowly opened to look over at him, bleary.  He didn’t move from his position in the slightest, but one of his long ears twitched ever so slightly.  Normally, it was one of the many endearing things William liked about him, but it made anxiety creep under his skin at that moment as Vyncent wordlessly stared at him. 

“Hey.”  When he finally did speak, his voice sounded like shit.  Like he’d swallowed nails and coughed them back up.  William winced at the state of it.  

“Doing… ok?”  William tried, even though he knew it was the wrong thing to say.  Vyncent’s eyes narrowed at him, and he expected that to be all he got from the other, but he replied,

“Better than yesterday, I guess.”

Will had absolutely no idea where to take the conversation next.  The tips of his fingers suddenly  tingled with more anxiety.  He went through multiple potential sentences in his brain that he could say next in a matter of moments and found none of them good enough.  

“Listen, man,” Vyncent said, clearing the fogginess coming over Will’s head and surprising him.  He moved his arms off the table and sat back in the seat, folding his arms behind his head.  “Sorry about yesterday, I guess.  I really did not know what was going on.  I didn’t ask for that,” he grumbled the last bit, seeming annoyed.  “I seriously do not have a girlfriend.  Like, she literally meant nothing to me.  I know for you – and like, kind of Dakota I guess – it’s like, bros come first in the Prime Defenders.”  He paused.  “Actually, not for Dakota; he seemed weirdly down for it.  Honestly, didn't appreciate it.”  Vyncent shook his head.  “Not that I really appreciated your reaction either , but like, after thinking about it for a while, I get it now.  You just don’t want our friendship to get destroyed by a girl and, like, I pretty much agree with that sentiment.  Not really looking for anyone now, anyway.”

As Vyncent spoke, William felt himself zoning out while staring at him more and more.  Vyncent most definitely did not get it, but not in the way Will had thought.  Oh, my God, Will thought.  He’s stupid.   Actually, it was probably better off that way.  If Vyncent was really that blind to the idea that William could like him in a way that was most definitely not conducive to the label of “bros”, he dreaded imagining how he would react to the mere concept.  He’d probably grimace, shy away from him entirely; maybe he’d even be sick from knowing how William thought of him.  Alright, maybe that was a little extreme.  But it could still reasonably ruin everything.  Maybe the things they did in those 10 months at the base were just normal friendship activities back where Vyncent came from.  He’d shared with Will a lot of his home in their time together — maybe that was just part of it.  William really did misread everything from the start, it seemed.

“Hey, man, stop for a sec,” Will interjected before Vyncent could continue.  “There is no reason you need to be apologizing.  I was…”  He desperately wanted to believe his response was still somewhat justified, but knowing that Vyncent genuinely didn’t read a thing like how William thought he did, he was forced to realize it wasn’t.  “I was out of line.  Seriously.  I shouldn’t have reacted like that.  I’m sorry.”  He didn’t know if he was entirely sorry.  “Let’s just forget about it, ok?  …I’m really sorry I shaved your head, man.  I’m not sorry about the soul patch, though – that thing had to go.”

Vyncent breathed out a laugh, but it fell a little flat.  “Dude, it’s fine. Minerva fixed it up.  That wasn’t really you , anyway.” He smiled faintly at him from across the RV.  William’s stomach clenched.  “And honestly, fair.  I kind of agree.  You did me a solid with that one.”

William laughed lightly back.  He turned back around in the driver’s seat.  “So, we’re good, Vynce?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Good.  Hey, um, by the way – where’d Dakota go?”

“Oh, I think he went to get–”

“PIZZA!”  With strikingly perfect comedic timing, Dakota burst through the door to the Winnebago, balancing around 4 pizza boxes in one hand.  William, for once, readily welcomed the distraction.

They all ate on the small table within the RV.  Surprisingly to Will, Vyncent huddled up to his side, their shoulders brushing in an act of casual intimacy they had shared many times before.  Though normally comfortable, it made William more nervous than ever.

For the next two or so days, even once they met back up with Minerva, it seemed like Vyncent made more of an effort to go back to how things were with them before.  Though, after their conversation, William wasn’t sure if he wanted it anymore.  Instead of just making him warm inside, it also now twisted him up with anxiety.  Being close to Vyncent made him happy, but it seemed tainted now, in a way.  His feelings had never been more mixed about something. 

Vyncent would reach out for his hand to hold and it would take all he had not to tear away.  He would lean into Will’s side and the other would tense up, shy away a bit.  His heart yearned for it all, but his brain told him to know better now.

When they had followed Minerva back to her place after… “handling” another chaos spirit, and she’d invited the lot of them down to the basement with the canister it was held within in tow, red flags were immediately raising in William’s mind.  Vyncent had taken a sudden, shaky breath which made Will glance curiously in his direction, but his attention was almost immediately retaken by her.  

“It’s time to say goodbye,”  she’d added, directly to Vyncent, unreadable.  William felt his pulse spike.

“Is no one else worried about this, like even a little?!” he whisper-shouted to Dakota and Vyncent, the latter of which he pulled back in their direction by the sleeve of his jacket.

Dakota shrugged, staying put.  Vyncent stuttered uselessly, seeming stressed.

“Virion, I’m going to need your help for this one, towards the end,” she added as she began stepping down the stairs, waiting for them to come.

William looked exasperatedly between her and Vyncent.  He looked back at Will with suddenly very tired eyes and said, to Minerva,

“Ok, yeah,” then pulled away briefly to follow her.  For probably the third time that day, Vyncent reached his hand out as he started to move away and grasped Will’s.  However, this time felt like it had purpose, direction.  William swallowed dryly, squeezing back involuntarily, and went with him.

Once they got downstairs, Minerva connected the canister she held to a large glass vial she kept on a table off to the side of the room.  Inside there seemed to be several swirls of energy moving around, and when she released the spirit held inside the canister it appeared identical to the other motes of light within.  How many did she have down here?

A bit more frantic now, William whispered to Dakota, who was following somewhat hesitantly, “ She’s got a bunch of demons, what do we– ?”

“Are those all demons?”  Vyncent blatantly asked, seeming nervous but, somehow, not just over the question he was asking.  He eyed the vial warily.

“What?”  Minerva said, like she hadn’t heard him at first.  “Oh, yes; we’ll need a lot of energy for this.”

“Uh… ok, then.  So, what do you need my help with, exactly?”

“Well, I can’t exactly–”

William cut her off.  “Hey listen, Minerva, you’ve been very nice but we’re not gonna– open your Hell portal until you tell us what’s going on here!”  He was prepared to fight his way out of this, if he needed to.  He had no idea what she wanted with Vyncent, but awkward tension or not, he was not about to let anything happen to him.  He felt Vyncent’s hand twitch in his.

Minerva eyed him strangely, then looked back at his friend.  “Have you not filled your friends in?”

Vyncent tore his hand away from Will’s to gesture a bit wildly as he responded. “I haven’t had the chance to!  I’ve been trying to– meaning to, but everything was just so… one thing after the other, y’know?!”

“Vyncent, what the Hell is going on?”  William turned to him, confused beyond belief.

“I– I’ve wanted to bring this up since the toy thing, seriously, but it’s just been one thing after another–!”  The anxiousness on Vyncent’s face rubbed off on Will, making his mouth dry.

“Bring up what, the Hell portal?  This is something you were planning on?”  He asked, trying to pry for a straight answer that made a lick of sense.

“No, it’s not a Hell portal, it’s a portal to my home!”  Vyncent yelled.  “Where I came from!  …I think.  She–”  he gestured in Minerva’s direction, who gave a little acknowledging wave,  “lived there too; nearby!  Literally up the hill and like, down the road from me!  She’s from my world.”

William was at a loss, staring at him in dumbfounded shock, no anger behind it.  “Well why didn’t you– why didn’t you say anything?!” 

“I just haven't had the chance!”

“Haven’t had the chance ?  How is this information not more important than anything else that’s happened the last few days?!  There were many good times to bring it up!”

Vyncent was trying to stutter out excuses over Will, but ended up not saying anything at first.  “It’s just a hard topic for me to bring up– it just– that– it means I’m leaving–!”

“Well I’m glad you’re bringing it up now, a minute before you’re leaving us to go back to your home world!”  William cut him off, speaking a mile a minute.

“I don’t know if I’m leaving yet, I just– I just need someone to talk about it with, I’m freaking out right now!”

“Well now’s a great chance, man!”  William laughed humorlessly.  “Spill it on me.”

“I just–”  Vyncent’s words faltered, gazing at William with a sad and frightened look in his eye.

“Vyncent, where’re you going?”  Dakota chimed in.  William didn’t hear him, though Vyncent looked over his shoulder in their other friend’s direction.

“I’m happy for you, I just wish we had maybe a little more, uh– y’know, preparation time!” Will sputtered, once again giving another deadpan laugh.  His ears were ringing.  If his heart could still beat,  he could only imagine what it would feel like.  He was happy for Vyncent.  He was.  This was all he’d really, truly wanted since he got to Prime – to just go back to where he’d been ripped away from, his home.  Not to tell them in advance, though, when he’d known it would be coming – it felt like a betrayal all over again.  William wouldn’t get a chance to give him a proper goodbye; couldn’t make his last day there really count.  There was hardly even a chance to cry.

“Are you going somewhere?”  Dakota piped up again.

“Yeah, it’s maybe my fault,”  said Vyncent, eyes glassy.  “I, um, don’t know what to do!”

“When are you coming back?”  Dakota went on.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”  Minerva put in from behind him, now holding the vial filled with chaos spirits.  William put his head in his hands and tried not to tear up.  “Sure you know!  You’re coming along–!”

Dakota spoke over her, “You guys going on a date?”

Vyncent gave Dakota a bewildered expression and opened his mouth to respond, but Dakota continued.  “Do you trust this girl?”  he asked, expression turning serious as he glanced over at Minerva, staring her down.  After a beat, he added,  “I don’t know.  You better cough up the whole truth, lady, cause I’m feeling a little white lying going on.  And I hate lying.”

“I’m surely not a liar,” said Minerva, raising an eyebrow.

“Hey, maybe step away from the like, chaos portal while we iron this all out?”  William spoke up again, gesturing over towards her.  

She gave a heavy sigh and turned to him.  “Whether Virion wants to come with me or not, I am leaving.  Today.  And I will not wait long.”

“Yeah, right, can I have five minutes, maybe?!”  Vyncent said a little loudly, likely against himself.  He looked frazzled still, swiping a hand across his own face and eyes darting quickly between Dakota and William.

Only slightly exasperated, Minerva replied simply,  “Sure.”  She moved to the other side of the room and dug down in a box strewn to the side, pulled out a book and began flipping through it, eyes no longer on them.

Immediately, Vyncent began rambling back in William and Dakota’s direction, a little out of breath.  “Listen, guys, this had been on my mind all day– like, ‘how do I bring this up?’  You guys are my only friends, y’know, and what am I supposed to do?  I gotta go home cause right, I have to save the people in my head, and stuff, but–!”

“Maybe you could have just said that,”  William said, stopping him.  There was no frustration in his words, and none currently welling up within him.  He forced the initial shock and confusion down; there was hardly any time for it.

“I don’t know what to do–”

Maybe a little more sadly than he meant to, William asked, “Are we ever gonna see you again?”

Vyncent audibly swallowed.  “I don’t know.  Maybe?  I need to make my mind up first, I don’t have time… but if I got here the first time, and now there’s a way for me to go back, then… maybe there’s a way for me to come back again.”

“What do you mean, you haven’t made your mind up yet?”  William asked gently.

Vyncent gave him a quizzical look.  “I mean, yeah– cause I have… I feel like it’s my responsibility to help you guys here.  I can’t just… leave you behind now.”

William took a quick breath.  “Make your head shut up for a second, ok?  Because the whole time I’ve known you, this has been the one thing you’ve wanted the most – and it’s right within your sights, right now.  What kind of friend would I be to tell you to walk away right now?”

As Will spoke, Vyncent seemed to become less jittery, hearing him out.

“So, I… I think you gotta do it, man.  I don’t want…”  His chest really hurt.  “I don’t want you to walk away from something like this.  I know how important it is to you.  You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“I know,” Vyncent said, and William saw his lip tremble ever so slightly.  “It’s just hard, William.  Cause… I feel like I have more here, now.  But, at the same time, I have unfinished business there… and here.”

“Listen, Vynce.”  He stepped up a little closer to his friend.  “We can take care of ourselves.  Ok?  I don’t want you to have to worry about all these problems at once.  We can take care of it for a bit, but… you need to go see your family, at least.”  Will took a deep, uneven breath.  He looked right into the other’s eyes, and felt as though he could see the weight of everything they’d been through together within them at a glance.  “ I wouldn’t be able to live with…  not letting you take this chance,” he said, and heard the shake in his own voice.  

Vyncent looked at him for a moment that felt eternal.  If William didn’t know any better, he would mistake it for a look of pure, unadulterated affection.  His eyes squinted a little with the tears barely being held back in them.

“Ok,” he said, voice rough.  “I want to try and find a way to come back, though… Once I bury some hatchets back there.  Find my mom.  Y’know…  This place has kind of grown on me.”  

“Yeah.  You’re making the right choice.”  William started to sweat, his knees felt like gelatin, everything was too warm – because knowing this could be the last time he saw the person who made him feel alive the most again, he suddenly felt like he had to say it even with everything in the universe screaming that he shouldn’t.  Dakota was coming up beside him, as if preparing to say something as well, when somehow William found his voice again and it all tumbled out.

“I’m really gonna miss you.  And I…  I can’t let you leave without telling you in case you can’t make it back, that I– I really like you.  Like, more than normal.  Not in a bro way.  In like, a Shauna way.  Ok, maybe not exactly like that, she was kind of crazy.”  William felt lightheaded.  “It’s the best way I can describe it.”

He couldn’t look away from Vyncent’s face the whole time he talked; and the more he said, the more Vyncent’s eyes widened and his mouth fell into a thin line.  He looked like he was realizing a million things all at once – probably mostly that he was lucky he got to leave right now.  It made Will break out into a sweat, but he couldn’t stop himself now that he started.  “I think I might be, like, in love with you or something.”  Then William laughed very awkwardly, since he couldn’t take the quiet that came over them because he had never even admitted that to himself before, and being forced to confront it in the silence was horrible .  Regret washed over him instantly.  “Sorry,”  he added, barely able to squeeze it out of his lungs.  

While they were talking, apparently Minerva had been preparing things and, to Will’s guess, they were just out of goodbye time.  Guiltily, as she stepped back towards them and put a hand on Vyncent’s shoulder, he realized Dakota hadn’t said anything yet.  

“Are you ready yet?”  she asked, tone polite but urgent.  Guess she wasn't paying attention, William thought through the intense embarrassment and shame that was now coming over him all at once.  In her free hand, she held the vial of spirits at the ready, pointed towards the back of the room and glowing with a strong magical energy that looked about to burst.  The book she’d been reading was discarded nearby on the ground, open.  Vyncent seemed not to register what she had said, still looking at Will like a deer in the headlights.  Minerva shot a glance back at the vial in her hand and said,  “Alright, well I’m taking that as a yes.  Prepare yourself, Virion.”  She grasped him by the arm suddenly and popped open the end of the container.  Bright orange energy flooded out from it and directly back into her, through her entire arm, torso, and then into Vyncent, which then caused him to snap out of the trance he seemed to be in before.  William and Dakota looked on in concern and awe.  Minerva dragged Vyncent along to reach the wall in the back of the room as he cried out in fear, and she placed her hand against the stone.  As she did so, the energy redirected through both of them as the wall began to burn from the middle of her palm, before morphing into a tear through the very fabric of reality.  Universes formed and deformed past the portal, melting into one another and separating once again as Minerva focused all of her energy seemingly into finding the right one, her eyes screwed shut in concentration.  She let go of Vyncent’s arm and he looked, horrified, back at William and Dakota.  William couldn’t help but look past him at the spectacle before them, and saw that the distorted images of unclear realities finally took a solid shape as a desolate wasteland in utter ruin, covered in gray.  Fear settled in the pit of William’s stomach – for Vyncent, and for this world he was about to go back to that looked nothing like anything he had ever described to him in their quiet moments together.  Something had gone very, very wrong.

Vyncent hadn’t yet looked back at the portal, and was still looking in their direction even as Minerva said,  “Alright, get ready!”  through half-shut eyes.  William wondered if when he turned around and saw the horror that was his home, he would decide not to go back, after all, or if he would bravely run forward without a second thought.  If he ran through, would he be ok?  His chest tightened again.

It tightened even further when Vyncent took a step back in their direction.  Then, in an instant, he was in front of William again.  Before he could even open his mouth to ask anything,

Vyncent had leaned down, grabbed Will by the arms and kissed him fully on the lips.  William was stunned – he had no idea how to react so he just didn’t, stiffening up entirely and effectively making this probably the worst first kiss in the history of kissing.  He couldn’t even believe it was happening; he felt his legs go intangible and fell halfway through the ground with a yelp, stopping the kiss in its tracks.  Vyncent went to catch him and lift him back up, and when their eyes met as he steadied William, he gave him a lopsided, nervous grin before turning around and running back towards the portal.

When he finally saw what was before him, he paused again, took one final glance back at Dakota and William, lingering on the latter for just a moment, before Minerva said,

“Virion, come on !”  and reached back for him, grabbing him and pulling him through in a single fluid motion.  Through the haze that had settled over his entire brain, William's dysfunctional heart delivered the message, I have to go with him .

“Dakota,”  he said without looking back at his friend, voice wavering.  He was already taking a step forward without even realizing it.  “We can’t let him do this by himself, what if he–?”

Before he could finish, Dakota was a flash of red at his side.  He felt his friend’s arm hook around his waist and drag him towards the portal, and William screamed and shut his eyes but this was exactly how he wanted it to be.

Once he came to after blacking out when they fell through, William was greeted by two sets of arms hugging him.

They’d figure things out.