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A warm plate was set on the table in front of you, the aroma originating from the cheap dish expelled into the air above, making your mouth water. Trying to exhibit some form of manners, you didn’t immediately dig in but instead turned your attention to your friend sucking down the last drops of liquid in his glass.
The purple haired boy across from you gave an appreciative nod to the woman delivering his food, and handed her his empty glass. As the waitress poured another cup of lemonade he met your stare with content, fingers drumming in time with the old music playing over the clattering of dishes. The little diner you two were at was always slow, and quickly became your favorite place to eat ever since Doppio suggested it.
“Man! They brought our food out pretty fast this time!” A bright smile flashed across the boy’s freckled face, just as eager as you were to start eating. Ever since you literally bumped into him on the streets, he had become someone who you didn’t mind opening up to.
His sunny disposition and realm of innocence that surrounded him was a nice change from the gore you dealt with every day since joining Passione. With a hand around your glass, you raised it to your lips and took a gulp. Sighing in relief you set it down, the cola traveling down your throat was all the more refreshing after a long day of reconnaissance and dealing with the members of your squad.
“I’m not surprised, they probably already start cooking them the second we walk through the door,” you said, popping a fry in your mouth and chewing while your friend let out a hum of satisfaction as he bit into his burger.
You came to savor nights like this, where you could relax and not have to constantly look over your shoulder. Out of the corner of your eye you watched the old waitress point and giggle at you two with her coworker from behind the bar. You felt your cheeks heat up a little, and you quickly stole a glance at Doppio to see if he noticed too. Fortunately, he was too preoccupied with trying to find the biggest fry in his pile with an expression of pure concentration.
A laugh escaped your lips at this, hiding your smile behind a napkin. It was things like that made you cherish him. In response he looked up at you with a confused expression, a long fry held between his fingers. “What’s so funny?”
Laughing a little bit harder you shook your head, “It’s really nothing.” Turning your plate around so that the fries faced you, you started sorting through them.
“I bet I could find a bigger one in my pile,” You grinned. At this, he scoffed and held up his one long fry for the both of you to observe.
“Oh please! Ten bucks says you can’t!”
With that comment, the challenge was on. The boy across from you set the fry off to the side and resumed eating while you starting looking. His bright yellow eyes fell on your hair, obscuring your face while your head was bent down. He noticed how silky it looked and fought the urge to touch it. Before you entered his life it was mostly the boss he spent time thinking about, but lately he’d be lying if he said he only thought about you when you were together.
After a minute of comparing fry after fry you lifted your head back up and winced at the slight pain shooting through your neck. Your careless smile was compromised by a grimace that took its place. Doppio instantly noticed, expression hardening. He set his burger down and opened his mouth when it was clear.
“What’s wrong? Does your neck hurt?”
“Yeah a little bit,” you sheepishly replied, waving your hand in dismissal, “but it’s no big deal.” Memories of last week’s stand battle resurfaced, you were just running errands for your leader when you were taken by surprise and thrown into an alley wall, a fight ensuing. The assailant ended up resembling a donut while you got away with light injuries. Light injuries that were still painful after a week though apparently. “It’s all okay now.”
Taking a sip from your drink, you met his eyes and let out a small chuckle, “That kind of stuff comes with the job I guess.”
“As long as he got what was coming to him!” Doppio agreed. The foreign expression of seriousness vanished from his face and the sweet smile you adored returned. The boy certainly did have some strange quirks that confused and creeped out most people, but that’s what made him unique. You accepted them, but the only thing that unsettled you was that he could become very threatening.
Your mind wondered to the first time you witnessed the change of personality, a few weeks after your friendship took off. You two were walking home from a grocery store a few blocks away from your apartment long after the sun had set. Your friend had generously offered to help you carry the bags home, the streets silent except for the sound of crickets. In what seemed like an instant, some random man barreled into you and violently ripped your bag from your hands as hit you the ground. In the seconds it took you to recover and rise to your feet, Doppio was a few feet away, towering over the man on the ground (bags in one hand), cursing and kicking the absolute shit out of him.
The man’s pleas of mercy fell deaf on his attacker’s ears. You stood there dumbfounded while the boy gritted his teeth and drove his loafer into the stranger’s ribcage several times, the man eventually throwing up on his shoe from the severity of the beating. You swore you heard bones cracking and before you could open your mouth, you looked at his face, not sure if it was really Doppio in front of you.
He turned his head in your direction, the street light illuminating his features from above. Frozen, you held his stare while he stopped kicking. For a few moments nobody moved. The man was the first to, as he began crawling away during the pause. Your lips split apart in shock, because you swore his eyes turned black and he matured physically.
Deciding the best course of action was to pretend nothing happened- you broke eye contact first and bent over to gather up the fallen groceries, swearing loudly when you realized it was the carton of eggs that hit the ground as well. You didn’t hear him approach, but when you stood up and faced him he was close once more, offering your purse in his right hand with a gentle smile and a mixture of vomit and blood on his shoe.
He even went back to the store alone and brought you more eggs after setting the remaining bags on your counter. Ever since that night the whole ordeal was stuck in the back of your mind, never truly forgetting about it. You resolved to never bring it up, and hoped nothing would set him off again. Sadly, there were a few times after that, with the same conditions and each time the boy seemed to forget what had happened and complained of a headache. You played along with it, and in time it became just another quirk.
A loud clang accompanied with the sound of liquid spilling roused you from your thoughts, along with a groan of, “What a pain!” Somehow the boy managed to spill the glass of lemonade all over the table with a knock of his elbow. You started snickering at his distressed expression and threw some of the napkins at him, familiar with the event.
“This isn’t funny! It happens every time we go out!” Doppio shouted, accepting them. He crumpled them up and started wiping with an adorable frown on his face. The frown turned into mortification when he paused to hold up the fry twice as long as your pinkie. “Damn it! The lemonade completely soaked my fry!”
That had you really laughing, doubled over and clenching your stomach. Your noises of merriment gradually calmed down and you looked at him. Forgetting about the fry ordeal, his eyes were wide and quickly scanned the diner in confusion, looking for something. Then the ringtone started from his parted lips.
The purple haired boy imitated an incoming call, “Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring!” You rolled your eyes in amusement, and played a mental game of guessing what the phone would be this time. When the “phone” rang, he’d find the most inconvenient thing to answer the call with. Food, small animals, toothbrushes, children’s toys, and sometimes your hand were subjected to this behavior. This definitely got you strange looks in public, but you and him couldn’t care less. You were more interested with who was on the line.
Holding the wet empty glass up to his ear, the aura of professionalism surrounded him, eyes wide with an intensity that made you shiver, “Hello? Yes, this is Doppio.”
“Is the boss disappointed about the fry too?” you asked, amused. You adopted the name from his constant babbling about this “boss” who was, according to Doppio, the most amazing person to ever exist. In response he shook his head and held a finger up to his lips to shush you in favor of the nonexistent person he was talking to. You weren’t offended in the slightest, used to the odd phone calls.
Finally picking up your burger you paid him no mind while you dug in. Across from you, your friend twisted his body to the side and stole a few glances at you while you ate, talking in hushed tones. Doppio furiously nodded every few seconds and looked like he was receiving directions on how to break into the white house.
Sure he was a little psychotic, but you knew he was a caring and loyal friend, the type that was becoming more hard to come by.
It was only those lonely nights when you couldn’t sleep that you mulled over the thought of a relationship with him, heart racing all the while. Over time you began to notice the air change between you two and you certainly felt the butterflies in your stomach when his hand brushed up against yours. The relationship aspect scared you, due to the irreversible damage it could do to a friendship. So you settled for things how they were now, the longing never dissipating.
After saying his goodbyes, the purple haired boy set the glass down, looking at you. He looked determined for a reason you couldn’t place. The right side of his face was wet but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Have a nice chat?” you inquired with an eyebrow raised. Doppio gulped and took a deep breath, his hands flat on the table.
“Yeah, and are you finished yet? I-I have something to tell you.”
Gathering your things and taking one last sip of your lemonade, you waved to your favorite server while Doppio took out his wallet and threw some bills on the table. Encasing his hand in yours, he lead you through the door into the serene night. Your face felt a bit hot at the contact and your pulse quickened with every step, and shortly after leaving the diner the two of you arriving at a nearby fountain, not a person in sight.
The purple haired boy sat close to you, reaching out his other hand to grab onto your empty one. You didn’t protest, and leaned closer with the corners of your mouth raised. Both of his hands gently squeezed yours while he took a deep breath.
Blinking, he straightened and gazed into your eyes.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while,” he whispered, cheeks tinted pink. “I-It’s just, whenever we’re together all I can think about is how important you are to me! You’re so nice and you don’t think I’m crazy! You and the boss are the only ones that make me feel something, and I can’t imagine life without you! Please let me be with you!” he finished, bringing his body closer. He guided your hand over his heart and gently set your forehead against his. “I love you,” he uttered. You felt the light heat of his breath pan over your face before your lips met, the way his slightly chapped ones sweetly pressed against yours made you tear up.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds before you smiled into it, “I feel the same way, Doppio. I love you too.” At that, he laughed and threw his arms around you, the soft purple fabric of his shirt rubbing against your cheek. Returning his embrace, your eyes fluttered close as you listened to his rambling.
“Wow what a relief! I thought you wouldn’t like me like this, and I almost didn’t believe the boss when he said I should go for it! He really is amazing!” Your eyes immediately flew open at that, and with hands on his shoulders you tenderly pushed him away to arm’s length, his expression one of confusion. “What’s wrong? Did I say something?“
Smiling, you put a finger to his lips, “I have a question for you.” He nodded, and fixated his attention on you. It seemed like now was the best time to get a straight answer to a question that had been bugging you for months, “Who is the boss you always talk about?” The question came out way more loaded than you intended.
“Ha! He knew you’d ask that and told me that you’ll find out very soon! Incredible, huh?” The freckled boy laughed and pulled you into another hug. The answer unsettled you, even more questions running through your mind. Going quiet, you started to put things together. While Doppio brought a hand to your head and began to comb through your hair with his fingers, you remembered the unit you did in high school on personality disorders. “I know you’re excited! He’s a little intense but you two will get along fine!”
You had no idea just how “fine” he meant.