[Vincent x William A.[?]]
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"You'll always look mad if you keep frowning like that."
He turned his head with the corner of his eye slightly twitching in annoyance, he found the black-haired man with a quarter of the skin on his face rotting looking at him in amusement. Michael walked over to sit beside him, he shifted slightly away. "So what?"
"You have a problem or what? You're so curt every time you talk," Michael said as he grabbed the television remote and turned it on.
Vincent snorted. "That's none of your business. You're the same anyway—in our world, at least. You've changed a lot here."
"I'm comfortable in this world." Michael smiled faintly, his eyes still glued to the television screen as he flipped through the channels to find something that interested him. "I want to stay here forever."
"What about your own family?"
Michael stopped pressing buttons on the remote immediately, he was silent for a few moments. Michael put the remote on the table and leaned back against the couch, his arms folded across his chest. "I don't know."
For a moment Vincent's purple eyes flickered at him. "Your mother came back a long time ago, they started fixing their relationship again with your father. William seemed to have changed a bit though he was still as cold and aloof, still a jerk like me. Do you still want to stay here or give another chance to go home?"
"I'm afraid they'll still treat me the way they used to, like I treat them like trash." Michael lifted his legs up onto the couch and tucked them up to his chest. "They hate me, you know that."
"Probably." Vincent shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "I can take you home temporarily there and if things go bad I'll bring you back here. That's if you want. I'm not forcing."
The eldest Afton shook his head. "I don't want to owe you more, I haven't even returned your favor since the first time you helped me. You never told me what you wanted from me." Michael looked at Vincent with a look that couldn't be interpreted, he looked worried as well as guilty.
Vincent averted his gaze quickly. "For that you have to return to our dimension and help me get rid of some things that can disturb your family."
"Scientists," Michael said quickly, Vincent giving a small nod. "You always leave to get rid of them and come back and leave again. So that's what you always did before those scientists ravaged Ennard—you protect us, huh?"
"Protect isn't the right word, you guys are already messy enough without their interference, I just don't want any more issues."
Michael snorted. "Liar."
Vincent didn't answer.
"I know you like my father."
Vincent still kept silent.
Michael glanced for a moment and found the man's forehead furrowed deeper as he pursed his lips together. "You hide it really well, you act like you hate him but you care about him," Michael said quietly.
"I do hate him, he's the main reason why I died. That feeling is gone in youthful days."
"You liar."
Vincent thought back to his conversation with Michael last month, he knit his eyebrows together and exhaled slowly. He stared at the several lifeless bodies lying on the laboratory floor for a few moments, then he closed his eyes, then teleported from there.
He was now on the second floor of Afton's residence, there was no one there. He stepped towards the stairs while thinking that maybe he should go back to that dimension to check on Michael. Maybe later. Vincent walked down the stairs slowly, then he stopped midway to see Elizabeth and Chris playing together—more like Chris chasing Elizabeth while the girl laughed merrily, then a woman's voice reprimanding them told them to be careful. The atmosphere in this house was increasingly peaceful.
He was about to head back down the stairs when a man came from Chris and Elizabeth's direction appeared. William. Their gazes met for a few moments, no words came from Vincent, only thoughts drifted off to nowhere.
"Glitchtrap, dinner is ready, are you listening to me or not?"
Vincent blinked in surprise, William looked annoyed—apparently because he ignored his sentence so he had to repeat it several times. Vincent didn't say anything other than nodding in understanding, after that William walked away. He immediately went after him and headed to the dining room, then his steps stopped again not far from them.
He stared at how William and Isabel treated each other, spoke to each other, and chuckled together.
His chest ached, but who was he to William?
He really was a liar.
And he will lie to himself even more.
He hated him.