"This is your place then?" An unfamiliar voice echoes from the hall. It's loud enough for Yung Cuz to hear it from a fair distance.
"Ye." YV says, a hint of pride in his response.
The stranger whistles. "Nice thing you got goin' here Veeny! Gotta say I'm impressed! Very spacious, love the crown moulding!"
The voice reaches an obnoxious decibel and Cuz looks up to see a yellow triangle hovering into the room. He blinks. He'd met a lot of weird creatures before, but never someone else like him and Yung Venuz.
The curiosity and surprise only takes him for few seconds though. His video game is more important than any annoying guests YV has over. They never stay long, and besides, they all usually just ignore him anyway. He shifts his attention back to his pastime, but he steals the occasional glance at the foreign triangle.
YV isn't far behind the loud stranger. His arms are crossed and his expression is fairly smug. The stranger is still going on about how great YV's mansion is, and YV isn't exactly disputing it.
"Yeah, this is fantastic, I'm loving this! A fella could really unwind here, you know?"
YV snorts. "Never said u were stayin' over 'ny time soon, Bill."
Bill chuckles, "oh details, details…I can at least appreciate what I'm seeing, can't I?" He taps a golden statuette of YV's likeness. "You've got good taste, I must say!"
"Damn rite I do."
Cuz rolls his eye and scoffs.
Bill falls abruptly silent. Even without looking up, Cuz can feel his gaze settled on him. Without Bill's loud prattling, the only sounds in the room are the click of controls and the ambiance from Cuz's game.
Cuz glances up, locks his eye with Bill's. It doesn't deter him, Bill's eye as unblinking and his gaze as steady as ever. There's suddenly a palpable chill in the room.
"And who might this be?" Bill says. His voice is chipper, but the cheer didn't seem to reach all the way through his words. Like defrosted meat that's still raw and cold in the center. Cuz suppresses a shiver.
"Mah Cuz." Venuz says, sounding uninterested, but Cuz notices the way he never lets Bill fully leave his field of vision.
Bill chuckles. "Not seeing the family resemblance."
YV shrugs.
Bill hovers over to Cuz, who moves over, more to maintain some distance between them than to be polite. He's never been especially jumpy but he's not interested in Bill coming any closer.
Bill doesn't seem to notice, or care, snapping up the space in an instant, and continuing until they're inches apart. Cuz tries to shuffle over but there's no more room to move. He presses himself into the arm of the couch. He says nothing, looking Bill up and down with a neutral expression, although his discomfort is mounting.
Bill is still staring, as though he's discovered a new species. "Well, well," he chuckles again, though it sounds something other than amused. "Haven't seen a circle in a good long while."
He smiles, a little hint of teeth peeking through his eye. "Forgot they came in sizes this small!"
Cuz gives a little nod, though he's not sure why. He tries to return his focus to his game, but he can't seem to. Bill's presence is a tangible, palpable thing, and it demands notice. His eye darts from his game, to the uncomfortably close stranger, then over to YV, who is now not even bothering to disguise his sharp watchfulness. His hands are by his sides, twitching.
Bill reaches out suddenly and squishes the sides of Cuz's face. Cuz squeaks.
Bill giggles. "He's a cute lil' fella, that's for sure!" he squeezes him. "Oh I could just crush him with my bare hands!"
Bill's voice and expression are cheerful, boarding absurdity, but there's a thinly-veiled menace, some festering, bleeding knot of emotions writhing at his center. Some rot at the core of him. Cuz sees an underlying savage hatred in that gaze, the cover of which is peeling back like a layer of cheap lead paint, and he knows it's directed at him. Instincts urge him to react, preferably to retreat somewhere, but he remains rigid, staring into that piercing, glowing eye.
"Yo Bill," Venuz calls. "Thought ya wanted 2 see the spa or somethin'."
Bill laughs, releasing Cuz, the menace gone as though it'd never been there to begin with. "Oh yeah! That does sound pretty neat!" He jumps into the air, hovering towards the door. "I'll be there in a jiff!"
Bill hovers through the door without waiting for YV, and YV doesn't follow him out. He watches him go in silence.
Cuz is motionless, petrified, for a good few seconds after Bill leaves. Slowly he picks up his controller, fumbling with it in his shaking hands.
He spies something moving out of the corner of his eye and looks up to see YV beside the couch, still staring at the doorway.
"Who…waz dat guy?"
"Jus some guy." YV says.
"Some guy?"
"Ye."
Cuz is quiet. "Is he comin' 'round again?"
Yv shrugs, though Cuz sees something stony, vicious even, in YV's gaze.
YV suddenly sets his hand on Cuz's arm. Cuz glances at him in surprise. YV isn't exactly the touchy-feely type. The contact is soothing though, and Cuz feels a lot safer than he did a few seconds ago.
"He'll be keepin hiz distance." YV says. He pulls his hand away and hovers out the door after his guest.
Cuz stares at the threshold for several long seconds before tearing away his eye and booting up his game again. Fucker ruined his high score.
