The Nebulous Meaning of 'Hero'

Chapter 6: Pure Evil

a/n: sorry for the wait, I've been on holiday where i wrote this on paper, and it took me longer than i expected to type it up!! 

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Vincent maintained a stubborn silence as he walked but Wes could see his eyes flicker over every few moments, checking if Wes was still following.

"You board?" asked Wes at last, realising they were headed to one of the school's boarding houses. It was an absent-minded question, careless. This time all the tension was on Vincent's side and Wesley felt oddly reckless.

"Yes," Vincent forced out, not looking round, and Wesley accepted that answer quite contentedly (well come on, it was Vincent, he'd hardly expected an answer at all) but then Vincent added, all angry haste, "My mother's dead and my father's in prison, where else would I go?"

This time he did turn round, fixed his eyes determinedly to Wes's. He looked almost uncertain, and Wes thought he was probably wanting him to falter, apologise, run away. Instead he just- shrugged, which was so fucking- stupid, insensitive. It was a split-second reaction and it caught Vincent off-guard. His mouth formed around the hint of words and then stopped, reformed itself into the classic Odisti Smirking-Frown of Contempt and Disgust.

"Fair enough," said Wesley, because this was Vincent Odisti, for fuck's sake, and pitying him didn't seem like an option.

"Stop following me," spat out Vincent abruptly, splintering the tense silence. His hands were stuffed deep in his pockets and there was something sort of boyish, endearing about that. Wes was so fucking fucked. His voice came out softer than he'd planned as he answered,

"Stop running away all the time."

Wes was so caught up watching Vincent's softly startled little blink, watching his stupid, utterly unvillainous pink lips drop open just a fraction, that he almost actually fucking jumped when another voice joined the conversation.

"Yeah, Vinny," it said playfully. "Why you always running away?"

It took a few seconds for Wes to recognise Dakota, arm slung casually round Vincent's neck. The few seconds were largely due to the fact that Dakota's hair was now a pale, pastel-powder blue, neatly parted at the side and kept from falling into her face with a white bow Alice band. It wasn't only her hair that was completely different from last week, though- the oversized bomber jacket had been replaced by a soft-looking blue jumper and a white Peter Pan collar, the ripped shorts and combat boots with a darker blue geometric-patterned skirt and white plimsolls. Noticing Wesley's confusion, she just laughed, explained,

"I like to switch things up. Keep people guessing."

"Please fuck off, Dakota," snapped Vincent, who'd shied away from her arm like it would burn him (which - to be fair - knowing Dakota, it might).

"Woah, Odisti," began Wes warningly, but Dakota just laughed and – Wesley's heart almost stopped at the sight of it – ruffled Vincent's hair. Vincent, of course, slapped her off immediately, but Wes still stared like he'd just seen someone attempt to hug a Komodo dragon.

"So you two – know – each other?" he managed to ask after a few stunned seconds.

"I used to date one of the boys in the same boarding house as him," Dakota explained easily. "Kept bumping into Vinny in the kitchen where, as you can imagine, he was an absolute delight and threatened to kill me if I finished the tea bags."

Vincent scowled, made no reply.

"Anyway," continued Dakota, crossing over to where Wes stood and slinging and arm through his. "What are you doing around here, Wes? Did Vincent walk out of Teamwork and Coordination again?"