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Snow flurries whisked away by windshield wipers, cold air blocked by heated air conditioning, 007 rides along the road in his white Toyota Corolla. The Christmas party was a blast, old friends and new ones attending the celebratory bash, but it was time to go home to rest and return to his son, C00lkidd. C00lkiddwas old enough to stay home by himself for a while, but something about leaving C00lkidd alone for longer than five hours made 007’s gut twist with worry, especially with all the harassment he’d been facing lately at school. 007 knew he was overthinking and, quite frankly, being overprotective, but he’d be damned before he let anyone lay a finger on his son.
…But 007 was getting ahead of himself. Like, really, he lives in a nice area. His neighbors look out for him—one even offered to babysit C00lkidd for tonight. They’re nice people. If someone wanted to break in, they’d be the first to call him and let him know. So why was he so worried? So… paranoid?
Tried and truly, 007 was just overthinking. Overly worried that something could jump out at him, could crash against his windshield with the force of a thousand tornadoes, because it’s nights like these, cold, dark nights, that makes him think of Noli.
It’s cold outside. So, so damn cold. That piercing chill that hit him as he exited the venue reminded 007 of his sophomore year of college, fall semester. It was cold that night. He and Noli both decided to take a walk after ‘studying’ (goofing off) in the library. Wearing each other's clothes, sharing each other’s drinks, laughs, and lips.
That awfully tender memory made 007 rot from the inside—feeling a perpetual burden on his soul merely recalling memories of Noli and him. Things ended so roughly, so uncertainly. 007 had so many regrets, what if’s and maybe so’s keeping him up at night, haunting him until midnight hours, and fuck, all 007 wants to do is forget.
Forget about how Noli’s lips felt against his, how soft the skin of his neck felt in his hands, how easily Noli melted into his touch… pressing his foot against the gas, going a little over the speed limit, all 007 wanted to do was forget, because if he remembered anymore, guilt and regret would wash over him like a tsunami would a city, and he’d drown in that murky burden.
He was only 30 minutes away from home. He could make it. He could make it without having to feel like this anymore. Meet C00lkidd at home and tuck him in. Go to sleep himself, pack away the leftovers from the party. Bury the leftovers of Noli. He doesn’t have to remember.
Hahahahaa...
A cynical, distorted, and high-pitched cackle that sounds all too familiar. 007’s heart drops at the wheel, his blood running cold in his veins. That couldn’t have been Noli’s voice, right? The initial shock of it all makes 007 veer into the wrong side of the road—instantly catching himself. Thank God there were no other cars in his vicinity. Panickily, 007 looks into his side mirrors, seeing absolutely nothing behind him.
Okay, yeah, he was probably just hearing things. Recalling anything that has to do with Noli had that effect on 007. All he had to do was drive home. Just keep driving. Pin your eyes ahead, 007—
Did you think you could run from me, Sev?
His foot hovers off of the gas pedal briefly, letting his car roll on its own as he tries to comprehend what he had just heard. Undoubtedly, that was Noli’s voice, right? 007, unfortunately, knew it all too well. His somewhat relaxed posture contorts into something rigid, more tense, as he positions both hands on the wheel, gripping onto the inanimate object like it would run away.
He’s only fifteen minutes away from home, fifteen minutes away from C00lkidd, but as the road outstretches further and further, 007 realizes that this drive has been longer than fifteen minutes. That the scenery beside him had been repeating… over and over. The same asphalt in front of him, the same fallen log to his right every two minutes, that same small hill tucked away by darkened leaves… He was, without a doubt, stuck in a loop.
Only the Void Star could contain such indiscernible, insurmountable power. Esoteric in nature, the only man who could wield the Void Star was…
You know you can't keep running away forever, right? Trying to forget everything?
Noli.
Suddenly, 007’s blood isn’t the only thing running cold, as his cars heating soon rolls to a stop—dissipating sickeningly slow. What also slows is his car, 007’s boot lifting off the gas to flick the AC back on, though, futile. It’s getting colder and colder, and now, 007 knows that he’s right in Noli’s palm.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
His boot roughly shifts over to the brake pedal—pushing on to it and halting the car to a full stop. There’s no point in continuing to drive now—not while he’s in this pseudo purgatory of Noli’s. Pale palms squeeze the wheel angrily; eyes shut roughly like a hydraulic press. Why can’t he just leave me alone?
007’s done everything to change, to move on. He’s rewritten his story in the most normal, convenient sense. He has friends—a family. Why couldn’t Noli do the same? Why can’t he just move on? Make amends with 007 normally, cordially?
Cordially? Why would I ever be cordial with someone who ran away from the only thing I had?! With someone who ruined my life?!
007’s eyes dart around as Noli’s boisterous voice echoed throughout his mind. The man finds Noli’s voice particularly grating, something akin to nails on a chalkboard—but it’s deeper than that. His heart ached upon hearing Noli’s voice, yearning for him, but at the same time, wanting him as far away as possible. From his side mirrors to the back of his car, haphazardly putting on his coat all the while… Noli was no where to be seen—but 007 knew this technique all too well. The drivers door is flung open by his clammy left hand, 007 clambering out fully afterwards.
“Finally decided to show your face, Sev?” A raspy voice drawls from behind.
007 whips around, seeing nothing behind him. “Noli! Show yourself!”
A tap at his shoulder.
“Boo.”
Standing right in front of 007 was Noli. Awfully calm, knowing that 007 could do nothing to leave, as they were placed between life and death itself, an extraterrestrial world that wasn’t quite earth, wasn’t quite Hell or Heaven, just something unique to Noli—a space between memory, metaphysics, and existence in general.
“Dammit, Noli, why do you keep doing this?!” Instinctively, 007 dashes backwards, attempts to summon the c00lgui despite himself, but his entire body is thrashed into the car by an insurmountable force—nothing that 007 could ever predict.
“Because you’re not going to run away from me, Sev. Not now, not ever. Not while you’re living in this facade. Not while you run away from the life we could have had.”
“F—facade?!” 007 coughs out, his spine aching from the recent impact to his back. “What do you mean facade?! I’m…I’m retired now, Noli! That life isn’t the kind of life I want to lead anymore!—“
“—And you left me behind, Sev. Lost, lonely, empty, forgotten. I didn’t know what to do without you when you left. When you ran away because of… what? Some damn kid?” He steps closer, slowly, suspensefully, Void Star floating in his cloaked palm. “Using your adopted son to try and turn your life around? Like some ‘get out of jail free card’? Let’s be real, Sev, you’re absolutely pathetic. You’ll still be—“
“—Fucking stop—“
“—A dirty hacker.”
“That’s not me anymore!”
“Just.—”
“No!’
“—Like.”
“Shut up!”
“—Me.”
007 attempts to rise but is forced back down by Noli’s abilities. Unmistakably, 007 was rendered absolutely useless. 007 coughs out again, his head hanging low, “you think… You think you’re better than me?! Less pathetic?! You’re chasing after your college roommate after all this time over some failed dream!”
“It wasn’t just a dream, Sev! It was a promise! A promise within reach!” Noli finally stands before 007 now, peering down at him like a God would his subjects, or like a shepherd would his sheep—though, rid of any carefulness or kindness that a shepherd would carry. “You said we’d run away together, that you’d go nowhere else without me! And you threw it all away! You gave up on us and our dreams to just play house with some kid!”
“He’s not just some kid!” 007 passionately shouts back, rigidly craning his head up to meet Noli’s eyes, “He’s my son! Don’t you dare call him anything else but that! Maybe you’d have one of your own, a life of your own, if you weren’t stuck in the past—"
“You were the one who left me in the past! You were my whole world, Seven! My everything! And I know I was yours too. You needed me, and I needed you, yet you threw me away like I was temporary, like I was always something to just move on from!” The Void Star in Noli’s palm grows effervescently, ready to be used, to destroy 007 once and for all, using all of Noli’s pent up resentment, betrayal, and love for the man before him, who writhes on the floor, to destroy him once and for all— but 007 says something. Words that make the Void Star’s glow calm, and Noli’s heart pause.
“You’re killing me, Noli, this all is!” The man shouts, his head throbbing rapidly, “You think I didn’t want to take you with me? You think I wanted to just… throw you away and leave from everything we had behind?! If anything, you did that on your own accord! We could’ve raised C00lkidd together, I could’ve kept you with me, but you created this—this narrative in your head that I just left you behind and used my son to start some kind of ‘new life’ without you on purpose!”
It wasn’t… on purpose? But… But 007 practically ghosted Noli as soon as he adopted C00lkidd? Was that not purposeful?
In that moment, all those years ago, Noli never exactly considered that maybe 007 was too busy taking care of his child. He was a single dad in college; he didn’t have time to hack Roblox HQ anymore and risk his life all for the sake of mischief—he had someone else to take care of—someone to live for. His son. Obviously, he couldn’t be the center of 007’s life anymore, Noli was just a ‘friend’ to 007. Some weird friends with benefits bullshit, of course, he’d prioritize his son over him!
Fuck, Noli felt absolutely ignorant. Self-centered, self-important, and ashamed. Noli had become something beyond human, a layered manifestation of everything and nothing all at once because of 007. He funneled the energy from his irrational obsession for 007 into gaining the Void Star…
Now knowing it was all for nothing, that his obsession, devotion, was all over a miscommunication, Noli felt absolutely destroyed. If only Noli thought rationally then, thought rationally now, they wouldn’t be in this situation. This rocky, violent, and uncertain situation full of regret and suffering.
Noli’s arm lowers, the Void Star floating to his side instead of in his palm.
Noticing Noli’s silence; 007 continues, “I’ve wanted to stop hacking a while after we burnt down that pizza place, I just didn’t know how to break it to you… but then C00lkidd came and… and—I had to take care of him. He’s my son and love him. I’d be no better than whoever abandoned him if I just up did the same. I didn’t want to abandon you too, Noli. I never wanted to, you just… walked away on your own and I was too busy to really... reach out?”
Only silence from Noli. Regretful, self-contemplating silence.
And thus, 007 goes on, “And I’m sorry for that, really, I am. I was ignoring everyone when I first got C00lkidd.” 007 hangs his head low, his voice crackling and breaking like old paint on a dry wall. He was gravely injured, his head panging like he had a concussion—and he probably did. “I was... I was scared. I felt too guilty to reach out. Do you know how shameful it is? To be broke and nineteen with a baby and no one to lean on?” Before he knows it, 007’s tearing up, forcing himself to remember those memories hurt him more than that hit to his spine.
“Seven.”
Soft sobs fill the silence between them, all coming from 007. His hands grip his khaki pants, dyed brunette hair falling in front of 007’s face.
“Sev, don’t break down on me. Just—”
Using Noli’s powers, 007’s head is lifted up by force. Their gazes meet, Noli finally noticing 007’s tearstained face.
“—Just look at me.” Noli slowly inhales, then exhales, catching his breath and calming himself down. How could I formulate an apology to Seven? Because quite frankly, everything that Noli had did to 007 has been one hundred times worse than what 007 did to him.
“Nothing that I’ll ever do or say will make you forgive me for the years of torment I’ve subjected you to, Sev. I don’t… I don’t regret getting the Void Star, but I regret resenting you for all this time. I regret ever chasing after you for this so long, for getting in the way of your family—I… Fuck, I shouldn’t have… done any of this…” Noli’s voice trails off, his free hand placing itself on his hood.
007 just stays silent, still sobbing, still looking Noli in his eyes as he speaks.
Suddenly, Noli summons his c00lgui using the hand that wasn’t on his head, sifting through the panels with a confused look, “I don’t… remember how this thing works. I’ll just heal you for one hundred. The Void Star isn’t meant to heal people so I…” An exasperated sigh escapes from Noli’s mask, “So, I have to do it like this.”
As 007 is healed, the brunette eyes up towards the masked man. “You… kept it?”
“…Yes.”
“But… But why?”
“Because… I didn’t want to forget. I didn’t want to forget what we had, what we did, and… And it’s still pretty useful, you know. You did a good job.” Averting his gaze, like it would pain Noli to look 007 in his eyes anymore, the c00lgui is dispelled—and so was the liminal purgatory space they stayed in. The shift of worlds was hardly felt, just a slight pressure lifted off of 007’s body.
“Just… Go back in your car, Sev. Forget about me, forget about this, I—I don’t know what I’ll do—”
“After all this chasing after me, you’re just going to run away. Again, Noli? Really?”
“Well, you—” Ran too? Not exactly. 007 didn’t necessarily ‘run away’….
“Well, I what? Well, I want you to stay with me. I want to talk more, catch up, I guess? I…” 007 inhales as they stand in the middle of the narrow road, his heart pounding out of his chest with worry, “I missed you, Noli. I was thinking of you the whole time I drove I… I don’t want you to leave me again, as much as you want to run away.”
Upon glancing at 007, Noli’s met with 007’s tear-stained face. It’s earnest, honest, it’s real. That yearning, that hunger that they had both felt for each other in different ways, had finally met and contorted into one. There was more, much more that they needed to talk about, that they needed to say to each other, and those qualms wouldn’t be settled by Noli running away. Noli couldn’t start anew and rewrite his story by being stuck in the past—by going after people who lived in the present out of spite. He needed to… live. To change and become a new person.
So, with that being said, Noli, somewhat reluctantly, agrees, “Okay. I won’t… I won’t go. But where do you want to go from here, Sev? What, you gonna introduce me to your kid or something? Gonna let me spend the night? Just… make amends after all this? After what I’ve done to you? You’re just gonna… forgive me?”
“Yes, exactly all the above, Noli.” Confidently, 007 speaks, inching closer to Noli. He’s… Reminiscent of his college-self. Knowing what he wants and… being assertive while doing so, “I want to talk about everything. Talk about us. I don’t want to leave you bitter and regretful, Noli. That won’t give either of us closure—it’ll hurt me more than it hurts you to see you like that.” A pale hand is placed upon Noli’s cloaked shoulder. “So, come with me. Stay with me. Don’t run away from me anymore. Embrace me, Noli, like I would embrace you.”
A cold breeze passes through the trees, leaves softly rustling at the motion. It felt as if everything slowed down, some sense of serenity brought by this eerie, dark, and narrow road with little to no lampposts. How strange. Is this where they rekindle their love? Let’s… Not get ahead of ourselves. Noli still damaged 007’s car, and although he could revert it, that would be pretty hard to forgive. He had also cracked 007’s spine, knocked the wind out of him, Goodness, there was a lot of things Noli had done after seeing 007 after all these years…
Yet…
007 was still willing to forgive him. Was still willing to open his heart and let Noli back into his life—even meet his child. Noli felt insecure about it all, guilt bashing his head in with a brick over and over, but there was no use in denying 007. Not when he was so close to becoming his again, not when 007 was accepting him with open arms. And thus, Noli shockingly agrees, but not with his words. No, with his actions.
He wraps his arms around 007 tightly, suddenly, and eagerly. He was taller than 007 now, the Void Star corrupting his body beyond belief, but still, 007 embraces his cold body as well, finding some semblance of warmth within this desolate, frigid environment. Noli squeezes him, before parting.
It’s funny, thinking that all 007 wanted to do was forget before meeting Noli again. Now, 007 wants to remember. Remember all the times he had with Noli. Sweet times, tender times, nights spend cramming in work they missed, days spent tormenting people with their exploiting tools. He doesn’t want to leave everything in the past anymore, only some parts, but he wished he recalled and rekindled these memories under better circumstances.
“I’ll teleport us to your place.” Noli breaks 007’s train of thought, “And your car—I’ll—I’ll uh, fix it in the morning, too. I’ll bring it with us. I’m sorry about that, by the way.”
“It’s fine.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry about all of this.”
“It’s okay, Noli.” A hand is placed upon the masked man’s shoulder. “It’s behind us now.”
“Okay, yeah. Thanks.” Noli goes stiff at the touch. “Okay, brace yourself. Might make you a little nauseous.”
A phasing sound of warping soon fades into existence, reality soon warping and bending around them. Going, going, and gone, the two (and 007’s car) are teleported to his home.