Disavowed Anger In The Face Of Evil

[Ohm]

Wendy said they would keep an eye out for him, which was the nicest thing he'd heard from anyone not named Aion in the last few days. He smiled, but that smile diminished slightly when Daniel asked if he could talk to Aion.

They needed to talk, he said, and off they went, but not before Aion gave him a reassuring smile, it was a cute smile from him, something that made him glad to see, but Amos could not help but be a bit worried. He did not want to stay away from him too long.

That wasn't too clingy, was it? Not here, anyway, right?

That left him with Wendy and the empty space between them. There wasn't much silence as the wind cut through the air and falling snow, but neither said a word at first.

Amos coughed and asked:

"So, uh, how's your stay been here? You could probably guess how mine went."

[Ryuki]

Daniel and Aion needed some time to talk, which Wendy could respect. She wasn’t sure what their relationship was, but it seemed they wanted to catch up. That just left her with her and Amos. After a bit of awkward silence, Amos asked how her stay on the island had been.

“In short, not great,” she responded.

“Long story, I woke up in one of the bedrooms at the research center, with a sick girl under it. I thought she was dead, but then she attacked one of the guys I was talking to. After that, I’ve just been traveling through the wilderness.”

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Daniel walked a bit further away, with Aion. Not too far, obviously. Not too far that they couldn't call for help, and honestly if either Amos or Wendy leaned over and strained their ears a bit, they'd probably be able to hear the conversation unless they were whispering. Daniel didn't intend to whisper. Nothing here was secret, just a bit personal.

He didn't intend to whisper, but when he opened his mouth, he was silent. At first.

A lot of his friendships had fizzled out without so much as a final conversation or a goodbye, in retrospect. Shit, that'd be hard enough even without a death game looming over everybody's heads. So, how exactly does one end a petty enemyship? How does one close the books on a relationship of any kind gracefully, in a place like this? He had his breakups but they could count on seeing each other afterwards. And Aion, well... it'd be wrong to say they broke up. That implied they had anything of substance in the first place.

He drew in a breath, and exhaled it as nervous laughter. "So, uh... I see you've gotten pretty close to Amos since we last met, how'd that happen?" he started. Beating around the bush of the real issue, maybe, but he did want to know, so...

[Primrosette]

Aion was silent for a few seconds when Daniel seemed a bit nervous around him and he was a bit stunned that Daniel seemed to be making a comment about him and Amos. He felt himself let out a small chuckle that didn't really mean anything. He just felt like laughing a little. He didn't want to read into things blindly, but a part of him wandered if Daniel had secretly liked him ever since their hook-up at that party. Aion never thought that he would have got together with Daniel back then.... But it happened. He never really asked how Daniel felt after what they did, because he felt that he couldn't be good enough for Daniel. He was still full of too many issues and he hadn't wanted to burden Daniel with that.

Aion felt himself scratching his left cheek and he was trying to not look away from Daniel, feeling his cheeks getting a bit warm. "Oh, well, shit. Yeah, we're boyfriends now." He admitted honestly and then he smirked harmlessly. "You're not jealous, are you, Daniel...?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Daniel's breath caught. He had to walk it back, now. The words tumbled out. "What? Oh, fuck no, I'd sooner tongue an ice fishing hole then get with you again-"

He raised a hand, more to stop himself than anything. "But like. I just... noticed," he trailed into a mumble.

Just give him a second, he had to steer back on track. They were here to make amends, not... wherever this was going. He snapped his fingers a few times, as he tried to think of the next words, the next move.

[Primrosette]

Aion actually felt a bit hurt for a moment and he was trying to keep a smile on his face. He didn't want to admit that he had felt something afterwards. But he never acted out on it as he had got back to his on-and-off-again boyfriend. It was all that Aion knew.

"Damn, that's a shame." Aion grumbled softly and now he was feeling awkward as hell. What was he supposed to do now? "....Does it really bother you to see me being happy with someone..?"

Crap. That wasn't what he wanted to say. But he was curious. He had been the first to try to make amends back in school. He had been so nervous to approach Daniel more than any of his other victims of bullying.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"...no," Daniel said, spat almost, as if the words were a shield he placed between him and Aion, just a little too eagerly.

To be honest? It did kinda sting, but in the same way Aion's presence used to grate at him long after he'd maybe kinda sorta turned a new leaf. Well, to be honest, Aion never stopped being the cranky bitch Daniel knew back in the day, he just found outlets for it that weren't other people, people that Daniel cared about, and he wasn't sure if that should be counted as turning a new leaf. That implied you grew as a person, right? Did he? A black marble was lodged in Daniel's brain and it screamed no.

And this guy, of all people, was the one who found a new flame on the island. Meanwhile, Cedar was rotting somewhere! Did he get to talk to her, smooth things out with her, before she died? No. But this guy of all people got such a privilege.

...so maybe it did bother him.

"I mean, that's really lucky for you. Both that you found someone, and that I'm talking to you. Some of us," a growl crept into his voice, before he shook his head, remembered to keep his voice level, "stumbled onto our ex girlfriend's corpse before ever getting to smooth things out with her, so."

[Primrosette]

Aion felt the sudden regret taking over and he felt terrible that he didn't even think about Cedar. He had felt all starry-eyed about being with Amos and that he hadn't seen any dead bodies. Daniel wasn't wrong in a way. He had got lucky. He then felt like he was being a bit selfish. That wasn't very fair towards Daniel. But what could he even say...?

He knew what it was like to lose someone. He had lost his older brother, but he couldn't just throw that in Daniel's face. That would be so insensitive and mean.

"...I...." Aion was at a loss for words. "Daniel, I'm sorry, really."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"Really, now." It wasn't a question, because Daniel wasn't looking for an answer. (Was he ever?)

"And you've always been sorry for the other shit too, right?" His tone remained flat, too flat, too close to sarcasm, he would have noted as much if he was a bit less focused on the cold biting through to his skin and the hunger that rumbled because meals were so lean (and how he would have preferred Cedar live than Aion no matter how cute he and his new boyfriend fucking were) and... "But you've just never said it to my face."

[Primrosette]

Aion felt his temper starting to flare up a little and it actually made his head ache a bit. He felt a bit annoyed that Daniel was trying to start up shit with him. Again! It was pretty funny in a way that Daniel was the one who would try to rile him up first. Like it was a challenge to push his buttons. He had never meant to mess up that group project that they had all worked on, but one of the guys' with them was being a dick about his younger brother having a failure for an older brother and he wasn't taking that crap from anyone.

"And why the fuck would I be sorry for chewing out that guy on that group project? He involved my little brother, how can you...." Aion noticed that his tone was getting a bit louder and he let out a shaking breath, his hands were trembling by his sides. "But yeah, I'm very sorry for how I treated other people. Some have forgiven me, some have not."

But he *did* apologize to Daniel. How could he even forget...?

Aion let out a bitter laugh. "I can't believe this, you really want to make me the enemy right now, Daniel." He shook his head slightly and he scoffed bitterly. "...You're the one who screwed up with Cedar. It wasn't my fault that you...."

He felt himself letting out a whiny noise under his breath.

"God, you are so stupid." He choked a little on a sob. Shit, shit, shit. "You're a fucking idiot...!"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"I didn't!" He snapped, like the crack of a whip. "I did want to fix things! With-" Like the first dramatic crack of a sinking ship, breaking beyond repair or rescue. (Whatever this relationship was, there was no going back on it.)

"I wanted to fix things with Cedar! With you, and-" he took a deep breath in. His head tilted back, looking up at the dreary sky. The frost stung his eyes the way it stung his cheeks, all over petty high school bullshit when any of them could die at any moment. (Did that not make this confrontation all the more urgent?)

And yet, there remained the truth. Daniel wasn't smart or slick or good at planning or fixing anything at all. All he was good for was mindlessly seeking his own whim at any given moment, and salving every wound of his ego.

When he looked back down, he glared. "You know what? You're right, I AM part of the problem! And I'm sorry too. For giving you the cold shoulder after doing at least half the work on a three person project, because that must have been so hard for you."

He got the apology, so what else did he want, anyway? He had to stop running his mouth and think for a second if he wanted an answer to that, but-

[Primrosette]

Aion felt like things were getting out of control and he realized that he never wanted to continue falling out with Daniel. It felt so wrong. He had wanted to be better for Daniel. He had wanted to try harder. He couldn't help that the bitterness was coming back. He hated that he felt like there was nothing that he could do to make things right.

"Daniel... God, I just can't with this. Fuuuccck...!"

He was kicking at the snow again, feeling like there was an empty void in his stomach.

"....Do you know why I apologized to you?" He glanced at Daniel and he wiped a tear off of his face, trying to keep his temper under control. "Come on, it's pretty obvious why I did back then. After we got together.... I hate that I even felt anything for you back then for a while. I was scared of being a burden so I never told you why."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Daniel flinched, but it was only snow flying, and the black ground beneath it. He stayed frozen, mid-flinch, as Aion kept talking, and said...

...He could have sworn he had some kind of response prepared, but Aion's confession shattered it. He couldn't remember what he was going to say.

"Actually?!" he yelled, he wouldn't have yelled if he could help it. "I- You-"

His mind was blank, and now it raced with words, none in the right order to be a response. Had Aion felt this way ever since? There's no way. The feelings had to have died eventually. Did Daniel ever feel precisely the same way? He stared at Aion, as he stumbled over words, "But that's... no, no, you don't... you-" and he had to admit, what else had he been doing this whole time, with Aion? The thing he held a grudge over allegedly was as far away from their high school relationship as this death game was from high school. He'd been staring at the remains of a trainwreck, long passed but still smoking, and there was nothing to be fascinated by but still he stared. In disgust? In despair? In the way he stayed still, as if he was expecting Aion to hit him?

(If fascination wasn't love, then Daniel had never really loved anyone.)

But when he finally strung together a sentence... "What the fuck, Aion?!"

[Ohm]

"I... see." It was all Amos had to or even could say.

What else was there too? Sorry that you're here too, dealing with all this?

At least Amos got something out of this compared to her.

The silence between them contrasted with the increasingly louder sounds coming from Aion and Daniel. It was enough for Amos to notice, and the final outburst was enough to make him flinch and look toward the pair.

He did not like this, not one bit.

Amos' face shifted to a look of concern, and as Wendy went closer to them, Amos followed.

"Aion?" He called out, but he was not sure if he heard him or not.

[Ryuki]

While Wendy and Amos were talking, Daniel and Aion’s conversation got louder, and angrier. Whatever was going on, Wendy didn’t want it to get out of hand. A scary thought popped into her head that this argument could lead to…

Wendy walked over to the pair, while Amos followed.

“Guys,” Wendy said nervously, “Please calm down. Fighting won’t do us any good.”