"Oh my god this is so good. This is better than sex. Hell, this is better than my relationship. Matthias - I'm officially replacing you." Nina gloriously held up her ice cream sundae into the air, touting it around their faces.

Matthias looked at it surreptitiously, before giving Nina a nod. "I don't deserve you as a girlfriend," he deadpanned.

Nina smirked. "Naturally. Eat up hon, we have a hell of a night ahead of us."

As Matthias blanched an interesting shade of vermillion (Wylan mentally applauded his new and improved art vocabulary that came as a result of stress-painting/stress-drawing during and after semester finals) he smiled at the store's interior. It was an atrocity - bright pink was haphazardly thrown beside a cyan that honestly blinded him - but the ice cream was amazing, and the chairs were comfy.

Plus, college students got to pay half-price!

"That was information we didn't need to know," Kaz said distastefully, right as Jesper let out a mocking cat-call that altogether resembled the frat boys at their college way too much.

"Please stop," Wylan whispered longsufferingly. "You sound like…" he trailed off, trying to think of a frat boy he knew. "... somebody that's involved in a frat. A frat boy."

Jesper pretended to shudder in fear. "Not the frat boys," he said horrified. "Never the frat boys!"

Pretending to shake his head in disappointment, Wylan patted his shoulder. "There there," he said gently. "Acceptance is the first path towards a better future."

"But if we're being serious," Inej piped in, "what kind of future comes with being a frat boy?"

Wylan shrugged as Jesper feigned being shot. "I just keep on being hurt by the people I love," he said in a pained voice. Wylan almost choked on his own ice cream, just as Jesper began patting his back gingerly.

"Speaking of which," Jesper said, changing the subject. "what are we all doing for winter break?"

Wylan instantly remembered Kuweii's strange invitation and a strange feeling in his stomach rose. He chose to ignore it.

"Well, I was going to visit my aunt who's currently living in India, but it's too expensive," Inej explained. "So I'm probably just going to be in Denmark with Kaz."

Kaz shrugged. "Family," he said wordlessly. Wylan's brows narrowed as he remembered that Kaz had lived in an orphanage for a large part of his life, but chose to ignore it.

"He visits their graves," Jesper whispered to Wylan quietly amidst all the chaos of them eating their ice cream. He nodded sadly, thinking of them all. What family did they all return to during winter break? Did he have any right to complain about his own family?

"Anyways," Nina said shaking her head. "Matthias and I are going to my old home. I have a lot of… " she trailed off, looking for the right word. "People I know," she finally chose, "that stay there. I need to go back and keep in touch."

"What about you, Jes?" Wylan asked. The boy shrugged, and it occurred to him that Jes hadn't actually said anything about what his break was going to look like.

"Well, I'm going to visit my father," he said, giving him a careful look. "Sorry - I know we haven't talked about this at all but-" Wylan raised up a hand to stop him.

"It's fine," he said easily, "and plus, I've got to go see an old friend for winter break."

"What old friend?" Jesper asked curiously, straightening up a little. The rest of them all turned their heads to look at him and his cheeks instinctively darkened at the attention.

"Well," he said shrugging, "Kuweii's a really old friend, and - well." He broke off, searching for the words to describe their relationship. "It's better than being at my father's, to be honest."

They all nodded seriously, and Jesper wrapped an easy arm around Wylan, drawing him closer. "If you have any trouble," Jesper said seriously, "don't hesitated to call."

Wylan gave him a grateful look. "Thanks Jes," he said gently. "But I think I'm going to be alright. I should be, I mean, the last time I saw Kuweii he was still under ninety pounds and this was when we were fifteen."

"Well," Jesper said mildly. "I suppose I shouldn't worry about him being the person to wreck your apartment?"

"Under ninety pounds Jes," Wylan said smiling, kissing him softly. "I'm pretty sure he's just as harmless now."

"Well anyways," Kaz broke in sharply, causing them both to jump in surprise. "For anybody that's interested, Nina's trying to manipulate Matthias into intimidating the cashier so they can get more food for free, and Inej's subtly trying to steal some more. If you two are curious." He lifted a shoulder in an empty shrug.

"Oh my god," Wylan said in disbelief, staring at the three of them. "Jesper - Jesper are you going to-"

Without another word, Jesper happily lept onto his feet and began assisting Inej with the blatant thievery.

"So…" Wylan said awkwardly, staring at Kaz's dead black eyes. "How's life Kaz?"

The man looked at him dead. "You've been dating Jesper for a while, right Wylan?" he asked suddenly, and Wylan nodded slowly.

"Yeah, why?"

"It's been getting pretty serious?"

Wylan thought about the recent events - smiling instinctively as Jesper entered the room, enjoying his company, finding his quirks ridiculously adorable, rather than just ridiculous. "Yeah," he chose honestly. "It's been getting pretty serious."

Kaz smiled viciously - the smile of a shark, getting ready to crush its prey into the dust. "Hurt him and I promise you - we will not hesitate to attach you onto the nearest pole and set your bones on fire."

With that threat planted freshly in Wylan's mind, Kaz gave him a nod before standing up and helping Matthias terrify the cashier into giving them more food.

#

"Byeeee!" Nina said cheerfully, waving at him. Holding his suitcase in one hand, he reached across the distance between them and hugged her. Evidently not expecting this, Nina's grip was loose for a beat before wrapping him into an even tighter hug that nearly killed him.

"Let him breathe," Matthias chided gently. "Bye Wylan. Be safe. Make sure you get food and refreshments for the entirety of the plane ride."

Wylan gave him a nod before Matthias grudgingly pulled him into a hug and Wylan hugged him back. Two weeks or not, he had grown used to everybody's constant presence.

"See you," Inej said easily, waving. Kaz was silently at her side - they hadn't mentioned his threat ever since, and Wylan had given him plenty of opportunities - but he let the corners of his mouth tip upwards and nodded.

That was probably the greatest he could get.

"Bye sunshine," Jesper said softly after he was done with all of them. Wylan gave him a small smile in return, going onto the tips of his toes to kiss the other boy.

Sinking into the immediate warmth Jesper offered, they melted into each other for a while before he finally pulled away. "Bye," Wylan said, lightly kissing his mouth again. "I'll call everyday."

"Make sure you do," Matthias said strongly. "And remember what I said - food and refreshments for the whole plane ride. Dehydration is a major concern during things like these."

Nina snorted, mocking him for his parenting and the two began to draw away.

"They've got their own plane to catch," Inej said softly. "And, well, we have a train ride we should start preparing for." Beginning to head off, Inej stopped part way through to wrap Wylan into a long hug. "Be safe," she whispered into his ear. The pit in his stomach didn't reduce.

"Thanks Inej," Wylan whispered back. "You too."

Kaz waved one last time and the two began fading away, silently, as the two of them did,

As the two disappeared, he looked up again and Jesper. "Bye," he repeated, beginning to step away.

"Bye," Jesper repeated quietly. "You've got a plane to catch, merchling."

Turning around to start checking in for the plane, Wylan tried to keep his eyes on the other boy for as long as he could, until finally they had both disappeared in the distance.

A/N: And here's the next chapter! Sorry about the long wait, but school's just started and my schedule's starting to get a lot more busy :( . Fortunately, I have the next chapter up in the works so it will definitely not take as long as this one did.

Also, #stopwritersblock2k17 Seriously, it's murdering me. And not like, gently. It's more of a violent guillotine over and over again at this point, because I'm in front of my computer screen with twitching eyes and no words are being written.

Anybody planning on doing nanowrimo for the first time, or going back to it this November? If you want any tips-conversation-general thoughts on how not to epically screw yourself during the nano month, just ask. I've done Nano twice, and the first time I failed magnificently, and the second time (with a bed-ridden illness and procrastination levels so large they would delay global warming itself) I managed to get a good four thousand over the goal :)

Lastly (if anybody even reads this far into this authors note lmao) I know I originally said that I was probably going to do a Six of Crows x Grisha Trilogy crossover, but after I realized exactly how many plot holes and canon divergences would go into that, I slowly morphed it into another idea that's in it's beginning stages of being written (I'm so excited!). Don't worry - that doesn't mean that this story is going to stop being written. I've gotten pretty good at balancing stories while I write them, so TWVE isn't going to get ignored. On the other hand, if anybody's interested then check out my profile in a couple of weeks! The story is essentially a Les Miserable x Grisha Trilogy crossover (because it hasn't been done before! I'm so excited :) but at the same time, if you're interested from reading the summary but haven't read Les Mis, don't worry. It takes place in Alina's perspective entirely, and I'm planning on introducing everybody rather than just assuming the reader knows them. The working title currently is To Be Grisha, a play on Sia's song title which is called To Be Human.

Thanks for reading,

acka