the two sit alone in the wheeler basement. unusual now. but not for nothing they used to be a party. but things have changed. some unwanted as time has failed them. adolescence has turned into teenage blues. with that comes visual changes. ⸻ body hair & the lanky bodies they have found themselves in. but will has always remained the same. like a root between the soil ( stunted by the weeds ) “ well byers ⸻ i guess its just me and you ” he pulls out xmen #134, sliding it over. ( a copy that was supposed to be wills after all ) BEFORE HE WENT MISSING. a foreshadowing that never made sense until now. “ its yours ”
time has been unkind. it has reshaped the faces of the people who once knew him by heart, harshened their edges, pulled them forward into lives that keep moving … and will ? will has stayed behind, suspended in stillness, caught somewhere between then and now. so unchanged it’s almost eerie, like that boy they pulled from the quarry once, cold and unmoving, while the world kept breathing around him. everything changes, they tell him. it’s normal. you let things go. they never told him that he was the thing that was going to be left behind ⎯ but for now, he’s here, with dustin, in this small, sacred place that once stitched them all together and somehow, that’s enough. a soft laugh escapes him at the sight, his head tipping as nostalgia settles warm and heavy in his chest. his fingers brush the cover with awe, like it might vanish if he presses too hard. “ dustin, i ⎯ ” instead, he steps forward and wraps his arms around him, firm and grounding, hands resting steady at his shoulders. he stays there a second longer than necessary, memorizing the feeling, to keep it when it is inevitably taken away from him again. then pulling back, nodding quickly, a crooked smile tugging at his mouth. “ i’ll take good care of it. i promise. ” he says, holding the comic close. “ but you can’t come back later asking for it back. ”
