C4 The Reuinion

Their dorm was reasonably sized—the best the school had to offer, which wasn't all that great in the long run. It was dull compared to the luxuries he was used to, but the most convenient of his options; the upscale apartments and residential homes were just too far from campus. Vincent could hardly give a damn, anyway. He spent most of his short time there locked away in his bedroom—a small, tidy little den with a bed on either side. He had long since perched himself on the edge of his own, desperately trying to understand the situation. He hadn't seen Kailan in three years. Yet by some strange turn of events, they'd ended up at the same university—and as roommates at that.

Vincent wiped his hands over his face for probably the hundredth time and looked across the room to Kailan. It'd been far too long, and he still wasn't waking up from this dream. "Am I still drunk?"

Kailan chuckled. "I hope not, it's like ten in the morning."

Vincent stood to his feet and took a few short strides to Kailan's bedside. He looked real, alright. Different, older, but real. Maybe Bessy, or Brenda, or whatever her name was, drugged him last night, and he couldn't shake the hallucinogenic effects. He bent over and pinched Kailan's cheek. He felt real, too. What the hell was going on?

"Don't pinch me! Is that how you greet a friend?" Kailan hissed, swatting his hand away.

"I'm not going bat-shit crazy. You're actually here." Vincent stood tall, turning this way and the next and finding it all the more difficult to still his anxious self. He was confused—baffled and excited and angry all at once. Every time he looked to Kailan, it felt uncomfortably surreal, like he'd stepped out of a time machine. In the blink of an eye, he had gone from a boy to a man, and there hadn't been a second in between. Not for Vincent.

His mind was jumbled with inquiries, but of all the questions gripping his tongue, this one itched him the most: "Where the hell have you been, Kai?"

Kailan seemed visibly unhappy with the question, the corners of his lips slacking. "I was sent to a military school, no biggie." Setting down his belongings on his bed, he turned to Vincent with a wide smile. "But look's like we're roommates now! What're the odds of that?"

Vinny crossed his arm over his chest, the other coming up to brush the rough callous of his fingertips over his lips. No biggie? Three years with no contact was 'no biggie'?

"We thought you were dead," he murmured into his palm. Every ounce of blood in his body seemed to be rushing to his head all at once. "I actually thought—" He hesitated, exhaling a lungful of air through his nose.

If he were to continue, his anger would only take over. He didn't want that. It was his first meeting with Kailan in years, and he'd be damned if it wasn't a pleasant reunion.

Instead, he worked up a smirk. "Yeah. What're the odds?"

Kailan grinned, sinking down onto his bed. Sitting cross-legged, his chin came to recline in the palm of his hand. "So what have you been up to since I was gone?"

What a goddamn question.

Vincent could feel his jaw flex under the strain of the query. All this time, Kailan had no idea just what hell he'd spent the past three years enduring. He had abandoned him without a word, and now he had the audacity to pretend it never happened? Friend or not, he was testing Vincent's patience.

He reached to his nightstand drawer and hastily pried it open, seizing a fresh lighter and cigarette from among its contents. Of course, it proved hell to light, and he cursed to himself as he struggled with the flint wheel. His anger was quickly rising, and nicotine was his only convenient sedative. After four or five tries, his rage had met its peak. He snapped, tossing the objects aside.

"If you really wanted to know, you would have contacted me!" His voice was much louder than he had intended, and the hurt in his eyes was definite. Now he was angry. Not only angry at Kailan, but angry at himself for being so terrible at bottling his frustrations.

"Don't raise your fucking voice," Kailan hissed under his breath, leveling his stare with Vincent's own fuming glower. "I'm sorry, okay? By the time I was even able to, it felt useless. I mean, you had all your little friends there. Didn't really think I was missed that much."

Vincent had no words. If it were anyone but Kailan, he'd probably have thrown a punch by now. Instead, he only collapsed back in his bed, picking up the cigarette and lighter—which had so conveniently rested by his head—and fighting to light it from his slacked position.

"Well," he murmured past the futile flicking of the lighter and the cigarette that muffled his tired voice,"you thought wrong, asshole."

"I'm glad." Kailan's chuckle broke the tense vibe between them. "I've never been good at judging situations, anyway." His gaze fell from Vinny to Archibald, who seemed wary of the stranger. "You have a cat?"

Small cooing noises were made in effort to get the cat's attention, but Archibald wanted none of it, and let off a rash hiss, backing off into the comfortable abyss under Vincent's bed.

"Archibald. He showed up not long after you left," Vincent explained, shaking out his hand as his thumb was seared by the hot metal of the lighter.

"Aw, replacing one stray with another." The joke came out a little absentmindedly as Kailan seized the pieces. It took him but a second to light it, tossing the lighter playfully in his hand as he passed off the cigarette to Vinny. "The school I went to didn't really allow pets; it felt a lot like prison, actually." Pressing back against the wall, he smirked, but there was a tell in the side-sweep of his eyes.

Vincent knew there was much more to that smirk, but he also knew that Kailan was veiled when it came to emotions. It was easier to just pretend their troubles didn't exist; 'don't ask, don't tell' was practically their mantra. So, of course, Vincent didn't ask. He only observed the storm in Kailan's eyes and tilted his head back to suck the smoke from his cigarette, as if it were nothing more than flavored oxygen. In only a few seconds, he was calm. He could focus on Kailan's features without the rage boiling in his veins.

"A prison, huh?" He tilted his head back to exhale a cloud of smoke. "You get your ass handed to you?"

"I probably deserved the amount of shit that happened there." Rolling onto his stomach, Kailan gave his head a shake. "Food was shit, woke up early and everyone was either gay or blatantly homophobic. Good times."

Vincent always found homophobia a word enriched with satire. It was comical to him, like some kind of fabricated self-diagnosis. There was no fear to it, no phobia to phobia. But the thought brought him back to something entirely. Just like Vincent's fire, Kailan too had a fear.

"Does it still happen?" He glanced up, his stare landing firm and unwavering on Kailan's dark eyes. "The storms?"

Kailan visibly hesitated at the question, dropping his gaze to a vacant forward-stare. "Sometimes, but only if I get overwhelmed. Then the storm makes it worse, and it's a cycle until I go inside or calm down." His laugh sounded a little dry. "Hasn't happened in a year or so though, but you know me; I'm not moody like you."

A small smile played on his lips, and Vinny thought it better to leave the conversation where it was, cracking open the window to waft out the harsh scent of his cigarette. He leaned back against the chilly glass, putting his cigarette ashes out on the dusty wooden sill. "I managed to sleep through class," he murmured, eyeing the graying weather outside. "Guess I can live without a day of calculus."

Kailan blinked, fishing out a paper and skimming through the small text. "I have class in ten minutes. I wasn't here yesterday, so I can't really miss it." Rising to his feet, he clutched a few of his essentials. "I'm sure we can catch up later." He gave his friend a grin, one resembling the same mischievous smile he once shared with Vinny long ago. "Don't get into trouble, Firebreath."