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By the time Friday rolled around, Tony was getting really sick of answering the same question.
Yes, he and Greg had broken up. No, they weren’t going to say why. Yes, the last time they were together had been at school last week. No, he... didn’t know where Greg was now.
Not all of those were necessarily true. Mostly because they had never been together, really, so they hadn’t broken up. And last Thursday hadn’t been the last time they were together.
One thing was true, and he hated that he even cared. He didn’t know where Gregory was. He didn’t even know if he was alive.
Tony hadn’t told anyone the truth yet; that it was all fake. An agreed-upon fake relationship that would protect them both. Like some stupid mafia short story from his creative writing class. Nothing about it was real. He didn't want it to be, after what had happened. So he kept it to himself, the terrible past two weeks he had with Gregory.
Well, no. That was a lie, because how could he go without telling Ellis the truth? Sure, they’d been drifting apart, especially with Greg in their friend group, but maybe that was his fault. It didn’t matter now. They had been best friends for a long time, before Greg showed up, way too long to throw it all away over-- wouldn’t you know it-- a boy.
Besides, once Gregory disappeared, Ellis had been worried sick; weird as it was, they were close friends. He deserved an explanation, in case Greg never came back.
So even though they hadn’t really spoken since he and Greg had “gotten together”, Tony took Ellis aside, and explained everything. GGY and how he’d gone too far into investigating, how Greg had been one step ahead of him the whole time, how quickly things had gone from suspicious to deadly.
Greg was the reason he was still alive right now. Granted, he was also the reason Tony had come so close to death.
Ellis had taken it surprisingly well-- shocked and horrified, finally understanding why Tony had ghosted him so suddenly-- and they finally made up. Which was all well and fine, except Ellis was still worried about Greg, checking his phone every second in case he called or texted, checking the news, asking around in case he had been spotted.
What part about Gregory being a murderer did he not understand? Tony didn’t get it. Why should he be worried? Greg had gotten them into this situation, and he had gotten them out, and that was the end of it. All the hand-holding and walking home from school together and kissing that never... actually happened... anyways-
All of it was for show. Gregory had never seemed to reciprocate any feelings he’d had before all this started, anyways. So there was nothing to care about. Greg was gone. Good riddance.
At least, that was what he thought. A few days ago, he’d sat down at the library, pen and paper in hand, ready to write for the next three hours before he had to head home. Tony had felt an itch to write, a sort-of distraction from everything else, something on his mind that he just had to get down on paper.
Just like most of his writing, it wasn’t fictional. That was the problem; as he scribbled out loose sentences and ideas, Tony realized he was itching to write about the past two weeks. Everything Greg had dragged him into just by being the mysterious GGY, by leading him to his death only to abruptly save his life at the last possible second, and putting them both into an uncomfortable situation. Fake-dating, or Tony would be killed and Gregory would have to be the one to do it.
It was story-worthy, but he hated it. Tony hated that he could craft such an unbelievable story that was actually true, and he hated that it was about Gregory. Gregory shouldn’t have been in his thoughts. They were done. It was never real. He wasn’t in danger anymore.
Wherever he was, off murdering other people or hacking arcade cabinets and entire security systems, Tony shouldn’t have cared. He shouldn’t have worried!
It just happened that every time someone mentioned Greg, or every time he thought about his former friend, there was an inexplicable longing, a heaviness in his chest akin to grief and he shouldn’t have been grieving his would-be murderer!
The more the week went on, and the more kids at school asked him, whispered about him as he passed in the halls, the more anxious he got. Where was Gregory? He wasn’t really dead, was he? Maybe he’d left the Hurricane, now that Tony knew who he was and could report him to the police any time he wanted. That would make sense.
When he brought that up to Ellis, though, his friend had shot him a disdainful look. “You know that’s not true. He wouldn’t just leave.”
“Wouldn’t he?” Tony challenged, but there wasn’t much to argue. Ellis was right, and it only made him worry more, a sick, heavy weight in his stomach at every thought of Greg. So yeah. By Friday, he was sick of it all.
As they headed out together well after the end-of-the-day bell had rung, Tony glanced at Ellis, staring down at his phone, and ventured, “Have you gotten anything?”
Ellis huffed, stuffing his phone into his pocket. “Nothing. He hasn’t even been online to see my messages.”
“He’s a hacker,” Tony reminded him, burrowing deeper into his hoodie against the late fall chill. “Y’know, GGY and all? If he was online and didn’t want you to know about it, I’m sure he has his ways.”
“I know.” Ellis lifted his face to the darkening sky, glaring into nothingness. “You haven’t stopped mentioning it, man, when are you going to let it go?”
They had this conversation too often. “Let what go? The fact that he almost got me killed, or the fact that he’s a freaking murderer?”
Ellis ignored him. “You know that there’s more to it than that. We both do. He’s our friend, he wouldn’t just ghost on purpose.”
“He tried to-”
“He didn’t!” Ellis whirled around, halfway across the courtyard, and glared at him. “You told me exactly what happened. He saved you! You said it yourself that something more had to be behind it, but then you don’t even want to explore the possibility that Greg never wanted to hurt anyone?”
Tony shut his mouth. He had nothing to say to that. Watching Ellis storm off to his mom’s car, he trudged down the road toward his neighborhood, still frustrated. He was angry at Greg. He was scared for him. He wished that things hadn’t worked out this way, but he didn’t want an excuse for what had happened. He just wanted- he just wanted-
-his phone buzzed. It wasn’t Ellis, or his parents, or anyone else he might have expected. It was a number he hadn’t had the heart to block. The message was simple, meaningless to anyone else but him. At the hilltop.
Tony stared down at the message for a moment. His heart was racing, eyes flicking to the horizon but seeing nothing but his face. There was no way he had to go. This couldn’t be happening now but it was and he had to make sure it was really him. Why now? After a whole week? he didn’t care, he didn’t even care, he had to go see him.
Tony stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, hesitating only a moment before crossing the street and racing back down the way he'd come. Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex was barely a 15-minute walk from school, but he wasn’t wasting time walking. Not now.
Not when Greg had finally broken the radio silence.
He was already waiting there when Tony arrived, his silhouette standing out on the horizon. The shadow of the boy that had tricked and lied to him.
The hill was opposite the Pizzaplex, where they sometimes went to hang out-- the view was great and no one ever came up there, so if Gregory was anywhere, it had to be here. He and Ellis should have checked here sooner.
Footsteps soft in the grass, heart racing from the run there, Tony started climbing the hill. The closer he got, the more he could see Greg-- and someone else standing a few feet away, already talking to him. Some college-age young woman, blonde hair and bright green eyes gleaming in the setting sun, arms folded over her purple flannel.
As soon as she noticed him, her expression went blank, and she told Greg something before heading back down the hill, where a car was waiting. Tony had hardly noticed it there in his rush. The young woman avoided eye contact as she passed, but something about her seemed... familiar? He couldn’t place it, though, when Greg was right here, right here...
Greg glanced back, and his breath caught at the sight of his face. His amber eyes were striking as always, bathed in the warmth of the sunset, but they didn’t distract Tony from the curved scar dipping across his right cheek, the makeshift splint on his wrist, the dark shadows under his eyes.
He had stopped just a few feet away, and when he didn’t move any closer, Gregory slowly got to his feet, watching him cautiously as he stepped closer. “Tony?” His face split into a tiny, nervous grin. “It’s me. I mean, it’s actually me.”
Tony backed up before the other boy could get too close, eyes wide. His heart felt like it was about to pound out of his chest; taking a shaky breath, he let himself speak. “Yeah? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It- it means I’m not-” Greg shook his head, pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes for a moment. “Wow. Sorry, I just didn’t think I’d ever...” He laughed softly, peering over his fingers at Tony with such an earnest expression that he almost let his guard down. “I’m so glad to see you, Tony.”
Tony stiffened. Looking him over, he couldn’t deny that something was different. Maybe it was how he held himself, closed off, nervous, which wasn’t something Greg had ever been. Nothing but confident, relaxed, amused at practically everything. Most of the time, anyways, barring the times when there was danger...
Or the softness in his voice. He hadn’t ever heard Greg talk like that, look at him the way he was looking at Tony now... and despite everything, he let himself step closer this time, until he’d bridged the gap between them.
“Do you remember?” Gregory whispered, fidgeting with the edges of his cyan-streaked bangs. Tony had always found it cute when he did that. He couldn’t even deny that now. “What happened... the last time we saw each other?”
“Yeah.” Tony remembered it vividly-- the moment Greg snapped and pushed him away, telling him to run as the murderer, the real murderer, approached him holding a threat in the form of a gleaming knife. He had broken a rule in whatever twisted society he was a part of, sending Tony away when things came to a head. Breaking off their fake relationship to keep him from being involved in that nightmare.
He had escaped, and that was the last time he’d seen Gregory-- facing the murderer, who towered over him, with an unfathomable rage in his eyes. Eyes that weren’t quite his. Something had always been off about them before.
Everything about Greg now felt... right. He was safe. He was... himself.
Tony had blocked out all explanations before. Now he wanted one, and Gregory seemed willing and ready to give it. So they wordlessly sat down in the grass, looking out as the sun dipped below the horizon, and he explained everything.
Mind control and computer viruses and murderous robots, the locked-down mega mall where Greg had spent six hours trapped after being locked in... it was a lot to process, but Gregory was patient, explaining with a quiet desperation to be heard, to be believed in.
Tony rarely wrote fiction. He liked truth, he knew truth. This was the truth. Everything Greg was saying, crazy as it was, was true. Greg’s mind-controlled form had been GGY. He had fought against it after Tony got involved, desperate to keep his double life separated, and when the threat to Tony's life had appeared, Greg had improvised.
That was why, in that moment when the murderer was approaching him, Gregory abruptly seized his hand and announced that they were dating, so no, Tony wouldn't be killed. The past few weeks, the fake relationship, it had all been to protect him.
At the end of the day, Gregory was just a victim of mind-control-- even the murderer after him, Vanny, was mind-controlled. He could hardly explain how it worked, or even how it happened, without falling quiet, a haunted look in his eyes. Greg remembered bits and pieces, hardly enough to put together what had happened to the both of them. He kept repeating one thing, though.
“I never wanted you to get hurt, Tony.” Gregory shivered; the sun was well below the horizon, and it was getting darker, the wind picking up. “I tried to keep you out of all this. It didn’t agree with that.”
“...I believe you,” he mumbled without really thinking. Of course he did. Greg was like an open book, still stricken with guilt over something he hadn’t had any control over.
It was only a little while before Gregory couldn’t explain anymore, and they sat in silence, neither sure of what to say.
Tony had been trying his best just to keep his cool, but if Gregory was himself, and after all this was still willing to talk to him, to be his friend... was it possible? He didn’t want to wait, he couldn’t wait for the answer any longer.
“Greg?” The other boy hummed in response. “We were... you remember what happened, right? With us?”
“No?” Gregory's head snapped up, looking panicked. “Did I say something wrong? What is it?”
“Not that-” Tony sighed, folding his arms. “We... we dated. Fake-dated, so the murderer wouldn’t... kill me.”
The other boy flushed. “Did we? Sorry, I don’t remember much from the last few weeks.”
Tony swallowed. He wasn’t sure where the words were coming from anymore. “Y’know, we never... broke up. Officially.”
Greg was watching him closely. “Yeah?” His cheeks were tinged with pink, whether from the cold or something else, he couldn’t tell. “Do you want to?”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. What was he supposed to say to that?
Was he supposed to admit that his heart had skipped a beat every time Gregory had grabbed his hand in the hallways, every time they walked home together; how every time, even when they were in danger, Tony felt inexplicably safer, just being near him? It had been fake. It was all fake. Right?
What did Greg want him to say? Did he want to break up, for real? Or... not?
Tony squeezed his eyes shut, cheeks burning. “No.”
“Really?” Gregory whispered. He nodded. “So you actually want to...”
He hadn’t really been one for making the first move, but in that moment, Tony dared to reach out, grabbing Greg’s uninjured hand in his. It was warm, skin callused but fingers soft around his. “Yeah,” he managed, smiling a little. “I do.”
Greg stared at him for a moment, then laughed, the warm smile reaching his brilliant eyes as he leaned closer. “Oh. Good. Me, too.”
A pleasant shiver ran down his spine as Gregory leaned his head against his shoulder, huddling closer until there was hardly a gap between them. Tony exhaled softly, left hand pressed against the grass on his left, fingers curled around the grass to ground himself, and his right fingers linked with the boy at his side. “I thought you’d never ask,” he whispered, and felt his boyfriend-- his real boyfriend-- lean closer in response.
The tension melted away, leaving only warmth; sure, it was cold, the sun long having disappeared below the horizon, but Tony didn’t care when Gregory was right here with him. And he had so much to tell him, so much to say, and they ended up talking for the next hour before they both had to leave-- Tony’s mom would be worried by now, and apparently the young woman who had passed Tony on his way here was Greg’s sister; she was waiting in the parking lot down the hill.
“Besides,” Gregory added, bumping his shoulder with Tony’s with an affectionate grin, “we can’t exactly be alone with her waiting so close.” Tony blushed furiously and didn’t answer.
“And there’s still a lot I have to sort out.” Amber eyes met the ground again, still vibrant in the flickering streetlight at the end of the road. “I haven’t been myself... free... for a long time. Vanessa’s going to help me find out what happened to my parents.” Gregory visibly wilted at the thought; he hadn’t talked about it much, but from what he had mentioned... if he hadn’t seen or heard from them in years...
Greg looked away, shoulders hunched as he walked a few paces ahead. “After everything that happened, we should... we should take it slow. I don’t want to push things too fast. And I still have to figure everything else out; I mean, I need to talk to Ellis, and... oh, shoot, I have to talk to Ellis-”
“Don’t worry about it.” Tony reached out, grabbing his hand again. “Greg, it’s okay. We can take it slow... whenever you’re ready.”
Gregory huffed, rolling his eyes playfully. “If you say so. I just... I don’t want to make you wait, y’know?”
“It’s fine,” he repeated, smiling. “I’ve waited this long, anyways. We’re gonna be okay.”
His boyfriend nodded, squeezing his hand, and Tony could believe his own words, too. Whatever had been controlling Gregory, keeping him away, it was gone. The danger was gone. It was going to be okay.