61. Complete

James was pacing, his impatience overtaking him. He felt like there was a fire in him, that was growing more and more unbearable with every day he waited.

When he finally managed to regain some level of control over himself, he let out a long string of curse words. He had been waiting for more than a week now, and still, there had been no sight of Tori. Sure, she had been gone for a few nights before. But it had never been like this. Never this long.

He forced himself to sit down on his sofa even as he felt his body aching for action. Reluctantly took out the phone Tori had convinced him to get, but he had never really cared to get the hang of. It wasn’t that all this new modern technology daunted him. Really. He just didn’t care for it.

It took him almost thirty minutes to find out how to compose and write a text. Finally managed to get down a “Where are you???????” and, a good five minutes later, figured out how to send it.

He then realized that he could expect a quicker response were he to just call her and, some ten minutes later, figured that out too. See? He really wasn’t that bad with technology. Brought the phone to his ears and listened.

“You have reached the mailbox of 617 2483 616. Please leave a message after the beep.”

“Hey, Tori.”

He received no response. Looked at the phone in confusion. “Tori?”

Slapped it a few times for good measure. “Is this thing on?”

When he suddenly heard a monotonous ringing in his hear, he rushed to get the offending item as far away from his sensitive ear as possible. Glared so intently at the thing that it seemed as though he were trying to light it on fire with his very eyes.

How he hated modern technology.

He spent a few more minutes sat down on the sofa as he thought. Where the hell could she be? Had she finally decided she had had enough of him, and left? Had she angered the wrong person… or was she still caught up in that revenge vendetta of hers?

Whatever it was, James told himself he didn’t care. He’d warned her after all—besides, if she were in any real danger, he would have felt it. As he felt the fire burning up again he once again got to his feet. He had waited long enough for Tori to come back. It wasn’t like he needed her, anyway. He just figured she would have wanted to be there… but he wasn’t going to wait forever. He had been wanting to finally get the revenge he deserved months ago, until Tori went and distracted him. Had allowed the pesky little rat who had dared make a fool out of him to live way beyond his expiration date already. In fact, he was pretty sure the piece of shite no longer even remembered their little encounter.

Well, James was about to make him remember. Emil Madden better watch out… because James was coming for him.

---

Aside from some rustling leaves, Tika’s trailer in StrangerVille was quiet.

Cai was trying to be just as quiet as he waited.

Trying not to let his patience get the better of him, he allowed himself to start pacing as he willed his mind, at the very least, to stay calm. Any moment, now…

Checked the time. 4 pm.

He was just about to give up and call it a day when finally, he heard the flash. He’d come.

Angelico, in turn, despite his little run-in with Cai in Selvadorada, had been convinced his plan was coveted enough, until he realized that the moment he neared Tika’s trailer, he had already found himself surrounded. Great.

“Oi, Angelico.” Took him long enough, Cai thought as he went on. “What a coincidence. What business you got at that ‘pathetic craphead you don’t at all care for’s house?”

“Oh, you know me,” Angelico smirked. “I’m always up for a good scuffle.” He advanced on Tika, menace written in his eyes. Tika had to admit: for a moment there, he felt a little anxious.

As he did, Cai advanced on him. “You know what? I think I might just be, too.”

“Oh yeah?”

Cai shrugged. “Yeah.”

“You wanna fight me?”

“Why not?”

Angelico’s attention on Tika faltered as he turned to Cai instead. “You’re right,” he mused as they moved closer to each other. Angelico’s eyes grew even more icy. “Why not?”

***

“You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do this.”

“Oh, same,” Cai grinned.

They bared their fangs and snarled.

“You know what,” Angelico panted as he threw Cai up in the air. “This is what I should’ve done from the start. I been taking my anger out on all these other people when really, it’s you. You’re the one who deserves my anger, all of it. And I’ll make sure you feel it just like I did!”

“I deserve your anger?” Cai’s voice was dripping with disbelief as he fended off another of Angelico’s attacks, shoving his hands into his face. “What about me? I’ve put up with a lot of shit from you, mate! You haven’t exactly made it easy for me to be your fucking husband.”

“That so?” Another punch from Angelico made Cai reel back. “And you think you were such a piece o’ cake? You never cared about what I wanted. Always too busy with yourself and your own enjoyment. Cause that’s what it’s all about with you, isn’t it? It’s all about having a good time.”

“What’s wrong with wanting to have a good time?” Cai breathed, bending down to avoid a roundhouse kick from Angelico.

“What’s wrong,” Angelico called as he aimed yet another punch—this time, Cai blocked it. “Is that that’s all you cared about. Soon as things turned less than great, you’d crawl away until it was back to the good fucking times. That’s not how it fucking works. Through sorrows and joys, Cai! Through hardships and triumphs!”

“What about the part where neither person is possessive of the other? What about the part where we’re all jealous free?”

Cai readied himself to throw another punch when Angelico jumped on him from behind. “I wouldn’t have had a fucking reason to be jealous or possessive if you didn’t feel such a need to seek any of those ‘good times’ you couldn’t have with me with someone else!”

“Well, we resolved that the last time, didn’t we?”

“And yet you still asked for a fucking break so you could fuck other people!”

“So what did you think, Ang?” Cai voiced, blocking another left hook. “That I was going to devote myself exclusively to you for the rest of my immortal life? I would have stayed with you forever. All I asked for was an occasional breather in between, you know, since forever really is forever in our case!”

As he spoke those words, he finally managed to defeat Angelico—pulled him up into the sky, a fire shining in his eyes.

“I never asked for anything final. I would’ve stayed with you until the end.”

Dropped Angelico to the ground. The latter landed on his knees and stayed like that for a while, trying to catch his breath.

Slowly, Cai moved back to the ground beneath him. By the time his feet hit the ground, Angelico was back on his.

“Even for us, forever can be over—” he snapped his fingers “—Just like that.”

A sadness had come over his voice. Cai noticed it.

The latter squinted his eyes at him, and before they knew it, they had found themselves locked in the other’s eyes.

Slowly, Angelico moved down to look up at Cai. There was a hint of a smirk on his face.

At the same time, Cai’s lips curled into a definite smile.

The next thing he knew, Cai lunged at him—for the first few split seconds, Angelico was surprised. Taken aback.

Then he lunged back just as passionately.

“I’m sorry,” Angelico gasped in between kisses.

“I’m sorry too,” Cai managed to breathe.

“I never meant for things to get out of hand like this…”

Cai briefly broke another kiss to respond. “Me neither.”

“God I missed you.”

“I missed you too. I fucking love you, mate.”

“I love you too… boludo.”

Tika stared at the two men who had seemingly been fighting to the death only minutes ago, confusion written on his face. Contorted his features into a frown. Furrowed his brow.

“Let’s have a baby,” Cai gasped. “Let’s make one right now. I know we’re men and so we can’t technically… But hell, this whole world is already mad enough as it is… I trust it to be mad enough for us.”

Neither of them heard the soft, mildly disgusted “Alright, that’s my cue to leave,” from Tika. They had no attention for anyone but each other.

“Hmm,” Angelico answered, his moving lips tickling Cai’s. “I don’t care. We’ll make it mad enough.”

“Mad enough for us.”

“God, yes.”

“Fuck, I missed you so much.”

“Me too, ché. Me too.”

“What was I thinking,” Cai told Angelico a little while later, resting his forehead against his. “Not being here right next to you?”

“And what was I thinking,” Angelico responded, closing his eyes as he felt the comfort of Cai’s embrace calming him. “Thinking I could be anything better when I’m not with you?”

“It’s not me that makes you great. That’s all you, Ang. You’re fucking great.”

“Yeah, well.. I’m still the best when I’m with you. I’m complete.”

“Let’s never not be complete again.”

---

A/N: And so the lovebirds are back again! I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Also, obviously, had to create the single most exaggerated reunion/back-together, soap opera inspired kind of scene, here. May have had just a little too much fun with that one.