( all i wanna do, is always bring good to you )

chapter seventeen !

VINCENT COULD RECOUNT THE EXACT MOMENT HIS LIFE ALTERED. When Vincent, at the age of seven, decided playing tag with his neighbor- a five year old girl named Lydia who, in truth, did not like him much- would be a grand idea.

He'd walked over to her home, knocked on the door too hard and was met with the gaze of Lydia's mother, giving him a cold glare that reminded him all too much of his own mother. But alas, at seven years old, Vincent did not know any better. He'd explained that he wanted to meet the woman's daughter. He had been desperate for friends. His mother had been continuously mentioning how he had none and how that was terribly sad.

He didn't want to seem terribly sad.

The woman had hesitantly agreed after a while of Vincent's rambling, and Vincent wouldn't lie and say he hadn't been excited. He had never really, truly had a friend before at that point.

He had met Lydia in the backyard, a little blond girl with her hair in pigtails. She was kind to him, understood why he wanted friends so much. She had, admittedly, been a good person.

Right up until they played tag, when it all turned to shit. Vincent had ran after her, attempting to tag the girl but instead falling right on top of her. He remembered her crying, remembered her looking up at him and her eyes widening, her scream and the way she scrambled out from underneath him.

He remembered when he looked down at his hands and they were paler than usual, smaller. When he looked down at his shoes and instead of a pair of sneakers he saw a pair of Lottie III's, the exact same shoes Lydia had been wearing. When he looked over his body and realized he was considerably smaller than before. When he realized he was wearing exactly what Lydia had been wearing.

He had been dumbfounded, standing there with eyes just as wide as the girl across from him. Her mom had ran out quickly, and looked utterly terrified at the sight of her daughter practically multiplied. In all honesty, Vincent thought it would have been hilarious if not so traumatizing.

His parents had been called over and that had been the first time he had ever seen them express any emotion other than anger. When for the first time around Vincent, they'd been scared. But not scared for their son, no. Scared by the fact that he was a fucking freak like the rest of them.

He remembered when his mother grabbed him and he'd accidentally transformed into her as well, the way she clenched her teeth at the sight and turned around, both her and Vincent's father pulling him much too roughly back home.

They forced Vincent to stay locked in his room for two days after that. "Get that shit under control or you're fucking out of this house," they'd said before leaving for a trip to who knows where, just to get away from their freak of a son.

Vincent figured out how to switch back and forth in those two days. Despite how scary it was to him, he managed to stay calm enough. If faced with too strong of an emotion, he couldn't control the power at all, it seemed.

That was the day he was disgraced by his entire family, and the day he realized he wasn't normal whatsoever. Lydia and her mother moved away two weeks later, far from-

"Vincent," Five started as they walked in the dark, as it was quite late, turning towards the boy and hitting his shoulder against Vincent's as they walked. "You look fucking horrible."

"Gee thanks, Five. Did my makeup and everything. You likey?" Vincent joked with a chuckle. "I feel fucking horrible too. That vision bullshit is too much," He spoke honestly, hesitant but honest.

"Are you okay?" Five suddenly asked, grabbing Vincent's arm to stop him from walking, pulling him aside.

Vincent looked at Five's hand on his arm before looking back up at Five, shrugging with a small grin. "Who said I wasn't?"

"Don't give me that, Vincent. I know when something is bothering you," Five tried again, shaking his head and still not releasing Vincent's arm from his grip.

"Do you now? Interesting.." Vincent couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "I said I'm fine. Why isn't that enough for you?"

"I'm allowed to worry about you, you fucking imbecile. Sorry you're allergic to someone actually giving a shit about you," Five snapped lightly, before sighing and letting go of Vincent's arm.

Vincent played off his unease at Five's composure also slipping lightly by chuckling. "Got it. Let's get walking. What did you wanna talk about?" He changed the topic, really not wanting to talk about his feelings at the moment.

Five looked hesitant to agree, but nodded anyway, beginning to walk by Vincent's side again. "I wanted to test out your abilities. See what you have and what you don't."

"And how are we gonna do that?" Vincent asked with a chuckle, jumping a bit when Five grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers, blinking quickly and hating the way his breath hitched at the contact.

Five hadn't noticed, simply pulling the boy aside into a large greenhouse of sorts, arrays of plants both dead and alive inside. He turned up the light switch, a light kicking on slowly, flickering a few times. "It's abandoned, but sometimes I'll come over here and water the plants sometimes just because. Though I obviously haven't done that in a while," He explained. "I used to come here a lot when I was a kid to test out my abilities." He spoke, closing the door behind him and letting go of Vincent's hand. He tried not to huff at the loss of contact.

There was a couch inside, run down and worn. It was clear that people didn't often come here, especially considering how difficult it was to find. The plants were quite nice, the ones that were alive anyway.

Vincent chuckled, raising his eyebrow as he looked at Five. "Aw, you brought me to your secret place!" He joked with a laugh, hiding his surprise when Five looked away, his cheeks going bright red. Vincent shrugged it off and sat on the couch, waving away the dust that erupted from it.

"What abilities do you have for sure?" Five questioned after a bit of silence, turning to look at Vincent. He looked tired, purple eyebags obvious. Vincent decided he'd force Five to sleep later on.

"Shapeshifting, obviously. I can go three days into the future and also different dimensions, but please don't ask me to do those things. I can move things with my mind, hypothetically. It's happened once but I don't know... maybe it wasn't even me. I was in a supermarket," Vincent explained slowly. "And the living other peoples death thing, I guess. Maybe that ties into the one time I read my moms mind?"

"What the hell do you mean the telekinesis could have been someone else?" Five asked, furrowing his eyebrows and looking slightly annoyed.

"I mean... there were a lot of people around. But no one saw me! I think.." Vincent explained, trailing off at the end.

"You are so fucking stupid, it is incredible," Five sighed deeply, running a frustrated hand down his face. "Try moving something with your mind-" He looked around for something, grabbing a small potted plant and placing it on the floor. "Move that."

Vincent furrowed his eyebrows, looking between Five and the plant before laughing lightly. "Fine, I'll embarrass myself just for you," He joked, averting all his focus to the plant. He eyed it, attempting to lift it into the air with nothing but his mind.

As expected, it did not work.

Five cursed under his breath, shaking his head. "Are you focused?" He asked, watching as Vincent nodded. "Listen Vincent, you have to take this seriously. The world ends in just a few days and we're going to fucking die. Unless we find a way to stop this and, hey, maybe you really are the missing piece."

"Probably not. I'm a fucking amateur. Plus, I'm literally useless. I can barely even shoot a goddamn gun anymore. And I did that shit for decades," Vincent spoke with a sigh, shutting his eyes.

Vincent jumped a little when he felt hands cupping both sides of his jaw. His eyes opened, met with Five, who was now sitting beside Vincent on the couch and much too close. Five looked annoyed and so so exhausted, tilting his head lightly with furrowed eyebrows as he looked at Vincent. "Shut the fuck up. Alright? You're not useless. I never said you were useless. Never. Because then I would be lying and I don't like to call myself a liar."

"You already are one. Don't tell me you haven't lied about anything to me in the past few days," Vincent chuckled, shaking his head.

Fives expression softened, and suddenly he looked ten times more tired. "Yeah, I may have lied about some things," He whispered, looking like he wanted to say something but opted on shutting his mouth for a few long seconds. "What happened?" He asked, tracing a finger over a scar on Vincent's jaw.

Vincent stiffened lightly at the touch, but didn't bother moving away. Five would only grab his face again, anyway. "Ah. Your mom. She's a feisty one," He joked, swallowing hard at Fives glare before sighing. "My dad threw a beer bottle at my head when I was nine and I just barely moved out of the way. Some of the glass cut my jaw." He replied truthfully.

"Fuck, Vince.. did they ever do something like that again?" Five asked, suddenly very concerned. Five had never been so concerned for Vincent before. Or not so openly, at least.

"No. My dad apologized after and brought me to the hospital. I had to get stitches because it was really deep. But my parents never hurt me physically. That was the only time," Vincent mumbled with a shrug, his grin slowly reappearing. "Stop looking at me like that, asshole. You twisted my arm so hard it nearly popped my wrist out of it's socket once!"

"That was one time," Five mumbled with a light chuckle. "To be fair, you were being very annoying and nearly burnt Dolores' nose off," He pointed out. "But I would never hurt you again. Not purposefully." He suddenly looked serious, so serious it surprised Vincent, who visibly lost his composure, his grin slipping away for a moment.

"Don't lie. You'd totally punch me in the face if you got the chance. You're anger personified in a teenager," Vincent chuckled, shaking his head. His head that Five was still cradling in his hands.

Jeez, Vincent thought he could pass out.

"And you make me the angriest I've ever been," Five nodded. "But that's expected. You don't stop talking."

"My constant talking is endearing," Vincent grinned wide, shrugging.

"Almost," Five chuckled, shaking his head. "You're too big of an idiot and it's kind of worrying. I don't need you dying without me."

"Oh yeah, that would be fucked up. Can't die without my best bud," Vincent grinned with a chuckle, hoping Five couldn't feel just how hot his face had become in his grasp, cheeks red and flustered. Vincent wasn't good with being close to a boy. Especially a boy he was utterly attracted to.

"You're such a dumbass," Five chuckled, sighing. "You make no sense to me. I've been trying to figure your dumbass out forever," Five leaned closer to Vincent, just barely.

Vincent swallowed thickly, hoping Five didn't notice. "Not as easy as it looks," He gave a lopsided grin. "Sorry, I'm not an open book, darling."

"I've never been the type to either. But you know more about me than anyone else and I barely even know what your childhood was like," Five chuckled gently.

"You don't have to," Vincent shrugged, looking right into Fives eyes and suddenly it was too much. Vincent's face felt too hot and Fives hands on his cheeks was overwhelming. It was too much all at once, yet nothing was even fucking happening.

Nothing was happening yet Vincent's heart was beating so goddamn fast.

A lightbulb burst.

The lightbulb burst and Vincent and Five jumped away from each other, Fives hands gone from Vincent's face. Shards of glass were all over the floor and oh shit- they were gonna have to clean that up.

Five glanced over at Vincent with wid eyes. "Did you do that?" He breathed out.

"I- I don't fucking know. How would I do that?" Vincent asked quickly, shaking his head.

"Strong emotions make it hard to control your powers," Five explained before he furrowed his eyebrows, slowly turning towards Vincent. "Do I make you nervous?" He asked, clearly confused.

Vincent's eyes widened and he looked away, mouthing the word "fuck" to himself over and over again before he looked over at Five, shrugging and trying to act calm. "Not at all.. Maybe it's strong feelings of annoyance with myself for- uh- not showing off my powers. But hey! Look at that! My powers! Fucking amazing! Wish my Grammy was here to see this even though she would definetly smack me across the face because my grandma also hates me... uh. This is getting wildly off track."

Vincent jumped when he was pulled up by Five, both of them standing up and Five moving to hug Vincent tightly. Vincent stiffened, spluttering out a "um" or two. Now his face was definetly red hot, burning so fucking much.

Vincent swallowed hard, not knowing if he should hug back. He didn't have much time to think about it before Five grabbed Vincent's arms and wrapped them around his torso, basically forcing Vincent to hug him back.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Vincent watched over Fives shoulder as the same potted plant Five had placed on the ground slowly lifted into the air unprompted, lifting higher and higher until Vincent quickly pulled away and the plant flung against the wall and the pot shattered.

Five looked at Vincent and raised his eyebrow, letting out a small laugh. "Well, this is fucking weird," He simply said, eyeing Vincent up and down.

Vincent furrowed his eyebrows, looking down at himself and realizing he had transformed into Five on accident. His eyes widened as he looked back up at Five, who looked amused. Vincent quickly turned back into himself, realizing that he was gonna have to deal with his body aching all day due to doing what he'd just done.

"I do make you nervous," Five pointed out, sitting back down on the couch and looking all too smug. "Why do I make you nervous?"

"You don't! Maybe you just smell like vomit and shit mixed together and it was a strong feeling of sadness for my nose," Vincent huffed, sitting down as well.

"Whatever. We'll talk about this later," Five chuckled, shaking his head. "You are the one with the telekinesis then. Good job with that. But also, you broke my favorite plant in here and it was very very very unpleasant to come face to face with myself."

"Again, your fucking fault," Vincent shook his head. "Now we have to clean this all up."

"You were the one who made the mess," Five joked with a grin, shrugging.

"Fuck you. I hope Hazel and Cha-Cha punch you across the face before I do."

"You would never."

"But are you totally sure about that? Theres no proof I wouldn't."

"No proof you would either." Five retorted, pointing at Vincent.

Vincent huffed, flipping Five off and shaking his head before he got to cleaning, Five eventually standing up to help him out.

And maybe Five really did make Vincent extremely fucking nervous. But that didn't mean he'd ever go and admit it.

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A/N: this is 2690 (haha nice) words because I love them lmao. i hope u like this i think it's lowkey cute lmfao 🥺🥺

also. vincent and everyone he transforms into: