January 20th, 20XX, 3:57 A.M.
Winters University
Knock, Knock.
Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock-Knock, Knock, Knock.
Jeff Andonuts finally opened his eyes to gaze up at the blurry ceiling above him, eyes adjusting quickly to the darkness. He reached to his bedside table and groggily retrieved his glasses as he sat up. Upon noticing the clock, he cursed under his breath.
"This better be important, I've got class in three hours." He grumbled as though whoever was knocking at the door could hear him, which was probably impossible due to the near-soundproof walls and the sheer distance between his bed and the door of his on-campus apartment. He pulled on a white t-shirt that was lying on the floor and double checked that he'd worn some sort of pants to bed before heading to the door and opening it.
"What do you want?"He called before he even saw the person interrupting his already limited sleep. The person in question was an obviously drunk guy about his age wearing jeans and a hoodie. It wasn't until Jeff's eyes scanned his face that his jaw went slack for a moment. He was wearing a battered old red baseball cap that looked like it's been through hell and back. Because, well, it had.
"How dare you show your face around here like this?" Jeff's tone was bitter as his surprise turned to anger. The intruder simply chuckled in response.
"We haven't spoken in seven years, and this is the greeting I get? No 'I'm so glad to see you again.' or 'Where have you been for so long?' for me?" The intruder said. His voice was much lower and huskier than the last time Jeff had heard it. It was also surprisingly clear for someone who reeked so strongly of alcohol – of course, PSI users never did really react to humanly poisons.
The young inventor wordlessly took the intruder's wrist and brought him into the apartment, quickly turning away to lock the door behind him. The guy in the baseball cap smirked as he looked around.
"Nice place you got here, Jeff. Let me guess… full scholarship and people already trying to hire you?" He mused, taking a seat on the worn cloth sofa.
Jeff didn't turn around to look at him, nor did he respond, but his hands were clenched into fists.
"4.0 GPA or higher, on an accelerated course for a PhD, and have a large inheritance waiting for you now that the Phase Distorter your father built was repurposed into the most efficient travel system the world will ever know?" he continued, grinning up at the ceiling. Jeff slammed one of his fists on the wall next to him.
"Are you about finished?" He asked, his voice bitter.
"Have you even ever brought a girl or guy in here before? College is the time to party, you know." The drunk asked, taking off his hoodie to reveal a wifebeater beneath it.
"Or are you still stuck on me? I told you not—"
"SHUT UP, NESS." Jeff shouted, turning around with tears streaming from his eyes.
"You left seven years ago and only left a note saying 'I'll be back, don't look for me.'! Do you realize how worried everyone has been? It's all because you got this dumb thought in your head that there's no more use for you now that you defeated Giygas." He said, his voice starting to quiver as his crying became stronger, audibly whimpering as he spoke.
"Paula's still working to take over the preschool, I take it?" Ness asked offhandedly, staring at the wall.
Jeff nodded.
"Poo's taken over the throne in Dalaam by now, I'm sure."
Jeff nodded.
"You're at an esteemed university earning a piece of paper to tell the world something everyone already knew."
Jeff nodded.
There was an awkward silence for a moment where all the two could hear was Jeff sniffling.
"I can only destroy. My grades were always average at best and nothing really interested me besides baseball, but they kicked me out of baseball because I was so strong after our quest that I had an incredibly unfair advantage. What do you expect me to do?" Ness explained in a mellow tone. His smirk was long gone.
Jeff opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a loud thump as Ness banged his fist against the wall behind him, leaving a visible hole. As he moved his hand away, the hole began revert back into the wall it once was.
"I've spent the last seven years training, hoping eventually the PSI would just leave me and I could live a normal life. It's gotten to the point where I can even revert time. It's taken me all of my willpower to not go back in time just to relive the days where we could all be together." Ness explained, tears starting to fall.
"I can't deal with this anymore. Giygas ruined my life, Jeff, especially now that I realize just how much the people around me were able to achieve. I've lost track of what it means to be happy. I just can't remember."
Jeff walked to the sofa and sat down next to his friend and stared at the floor. Eventually he moved his hand on top of Ness' larger one.
"You think you're alone, but you're not. We're all still recovering. The fact that we lost our leader has hurt us that much more." Jeff explained, his voice was quiet and gentle.
"Paula has nightmares just about every night about someone dying and calls every morning to make sure we're okay. Whenever she dreams about you she goes completely out of commission and uses her telepathy to frantically search the world. She barely graduated from school."
Ness stayed silent.
"Poo is ill. He used far too much PSI in such a short time with us that it eventually took a toll on his health. He is only human, after all."
Ness finally looked back to his friend, his face solemn.
"What about you?" He asked.
Jeff looked up with puffy red eyes.
"I'm alone." He admitted. Ness nodded, knowing exactly why. After the war with Giygas, Ness spent a lot of time with Jeff, especially after Tony and he had went their separate ways after the kidnapping. It wasn't hard to believe that the inventor had difficulty making friends, so Ness became his one and only – a relationship that eventually became romantic after two years of Ness coming to visit every day by teleporting into his dorm room.
Jeff sighed, breaking a depressing silence.
"It was days before my sixteenth birthday when you showed up and told me we couldn't be together anymore, and disappeared. Once I'd heard you were gone, I shut myself in my room for a week hoping you'd just show up and tell me why you were doing all of this. I skipped my own birthday party. I shunned my peers and spent as much time in my room as possible in hopes that you'd come back." Jeff explained. He paused to take a shaky breath before continuing.
"When I got here I was finally over you, and I tried to make friends but they thought I was too good for them because of my last name, so I ended up in my room every day anyway. Like I said, Paula calls to check up on me every day, but our conversations are surface level and habitual by this point. I talk to Poo probably once a year, but you know that we were never close." Jeff told Ness, feeling like he was spilling out his heart.
"Jeff, I-"
"You're not sorry, Ness. If you were, you would have come back a long time ago."
"I am...H...A...P...P...Y..."
Jeff shot up from the sofa and backed away. Ness looked to him, his face suddenly twisted and the room covered in an unnatural darkness.
"I'm so sad, Jeff."
Jeff watched a light shine from Ness' fingers before everything turned black.
January 20th, 20XX 3:58 AM
Winters University
Jeff Andonuts suddenly sat up in bed, gasping for air and shaking like a leaf.
"Another nightmare? Are you okay?" A voice grumbled from beside him.
Jeff looked to the side and stared at the blurry face of his lover who was now awake as well.
"It was that same dream I keep having. You come back after like, seven years and start quoting him." Jeff explained, rubbing his temple.
Ness sat up in bed and embraced the young inventor.
"I promised I would protect you from anything. That's why we're developing the Bad Dream Eater together, right? He reassured the blonde before giving him a kiss on the forehead.
Jeff simply nodded, holding back a few stray tears.
Ness pulled Jeff into a tight embrace and lowered them back onto the bed.
"The dream is right about one thing, though. I am happy." Ness said.
Jeff smiled and cuddled closer into his best friend before drifting back off into sleep.
*Author's Note*
Thanks for reading! Just a drabble sort of thing I came up with. Let me know your thoughts. More to come soon?