[center][color=f66600][h3]Niles[/h3][/color][/center]
[quote]"Wait, I'll come with you."[/quote]
He gave Deuel a nod of acknowledgement as they walked about the many trees that preceded the sand, falling into a companionable silence as they gathered firewood. It didn't take too long before Deuel decided to speak up again.

[quote]"I'm coming with you. Not just here, but where you're going. I want to take a bigger role in my family's charities, but I want to be with you too."[/quote]
At that, he smiled. He hadn't even finalized which college he was going to yet, and while there would be no sacrifice in terms of Deuel's professional aspirations in following him, it meant he'd have to leave his home and all of their shared friends behind. It... honestly made something inside him clench, a sucker punch of emotion that hit him hard enough to leave him reeling. He had to put conscious effort into making sure his breathing remained even and his expression remained neutral, because the last thing he needs at this moment is to make Deuel instantly regret his choice by acting like a needy child.

Before he can come up with a response, a way of expressing how much it means to him without creeping Deuel out, Deuel continues.

[quote]"I can afford to follow you, and I'd be a fool not to. Don't get me wrong, I like Conner and Ciel and the others as well, but I love you -"[/quote]
It's words that Niles has always wanted to hear. Deuel is perhaps one of the last people he expected, much less fantasized, about hearing it from - at least relative to the other members of their shared circle of friends and his parents. He's always regarded Deuel's attitude towards him as more competitive if not antagonistic, compared to the rest of his friends, but evidently he'd missed the part where Deuel started regarding him as family. He's heard it's like that for siblings. He wouldn't personally know.

Before Niles can tell his bro that he loves him too, Deuel keeps going.

[quote] "I gave this some thought, pondered it over days and weeks and months. But what I feel for you, this yearning, this warmth and fire, it's love."[/quote]
...Wait a second.

Wait wait wait wait wait hold on that's not - that - that can't be what he is saying, why would he- is this a prank? Who confesses like that? Is this real? Did he pass out from caffeine withdrawal or did he finally go into hypovolemic shock due to caffeine-induced ventricular fibrillation?

[quote]"But if you think you're not ready or if you don't want it, just forget what I said. If what I said burns what we have now, just forget about it."[/quote]
No no no wait he hasn't even had time to give the idea proper thought. The idea of... h-him and... r-romantically...

[quote]"I don't want to lose you, or anyone, but I don't want to lose you."[/quote]
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

You won't.

You won't.

Fucking say it, he tells himself, but his throat feels tight, like saying one thing would mean he has to say everything, and he doesn't have the foggiest clue what to say - [i]what he even wants to say[/i], beyond that.

This is Deuel we're talking about, the one who effortlessly matches his career prospects - the kind you need to be groomed for after having the good fortune of being born into it - the kind of person even his parents would approve of a relationship with. This is Deuel, who has all the grace and confidence he himself scrambles to pull off despite not breaking half the sweat that he does. This is Deuel, who has a philanthropic heart of gold that the inky lump of coal in his chest couldn't hope to even form a pale imitation of if he tried - which he usually doesn't. How could he even consider something beyond friendship with someone like that? If they ever got together, what will happen when Deuel realizes that, underneath it all, he's a selfish black hole of anxiety held together by scotch tape?

He stands there, in front of Deuel, unmoving. Throughout Deuel's confession, his face goes from a calm smile to wide-eyed bewilderment to thinly veiled distress if not panic. By the end of it, his lips are twitching upward in a desperate attempt to keep his clenched jaw and rigid posture from reading as anything negative, but the end result is closer to a grimace than a smile, and his eyes are wandering towards anything but Deuel himself.

The silence stretches on long enough to be awkward, before Niles finally regains a vague semblance of composure and chokes out, [color=f66600]"you won't."[/color]

There. Nailed it. Niles mentally high fives himself. Excellent work today, I'll see all of you here tomorrow. Bye.

Deuel is staring at him but he still doesn't have an answer - can't even think of one. Even as he regains his outward composure, try as he might, his thoughts just race in circles like a hamster on a treadmill that is also on cocaine. He... he needs more Red Bull for this. He needs more Red Bull right the fuck now.