"Brooding up on the roof again? What happened? Did your pet beetle finally keel over?"

Vio turned to the speaker with a smirk.

"No, but thanks for the delicate wording. I'll be sure to return the favor when your dingy, old laptop finally decides it's had enough of you playing video games all night long."

"Very funny," Shadow said with a roll of his eyes, walking to Vio's side and leaning on the rails. "So, why are you up here?"

"Why are you up here?" Vio replied flatly.

Shadow looked to his side to see that Vio's smirk was gone, replaced with a resting scowl. His eyes were fixated downward, framed by pressed eyebrows. Shadow frowned.

"I just needed someplace to think."

Shadow sees Vio look at him, not moving his head.

"What are you thinking about?"

Shadow turned his gaze back to the cityscape in front of them, the sun setting in the distance.

"Well, we all regained some memories recently. I found out some things that I need to process."

"Things like…?"

"Things like…" Shadow hesitated for a moment, "like what happened between us."

The gentle hum of the cars below punctuated his sentence. Vio sighed, keeping his gaze fixed on the streets below.

"What do you know?"

"I don't know if I want to say it all. I'm still not sure how to think about it."

"Well, I can tell you what I know, if you'd like."

"Knock yourself out," Shadow shrugged, keeping his eyes fixed on a certain cloud in the sky. He didn't know if he could get himself to look at his teammate while listening to what he was about to say.

"Well, I remember that I pretended to be your ally - your friend - and then you found out it was all a lie, so you tried to execute me."

"That sounds right," Shadow nodded, frowning.

"Then the others came to my rescue, and we killed you."

"That's also right," Shadow nodded again. "Anything else?"

"Not really," Vio shook his head. "The rest is a blur."

"Well, I'd say I'm in the same boat as you. I don't remember much else either. I mostly remember being angry, and…" Shadow gripped the rails tighter for a second, "hurt."

Vio's gaze remained unchanged.

"So?" Vio's tone remained flat.

"What do you mean, 'so'?"

"Do you hate me now?"

Cars were humming again. The sun sank deeper into the horizon, and the sky became a flurry of orange, pink, and blue.

Shadow gulped. "I don't know yet."

"I see."

For whatever reason, the humming became louder in Shadow's head, and he felt a tension in his chest that grew stronger by the second. His breathing grew harder and harder until he forced himself to laugh.

"It's so funny, isn't it? We hurt each other again after all this time. But this time, I was the one who used you. Serves you right!"

He heard Vio's soft gasp, making his heart leap with sadistic joy.

"That's right! Maybe that's why we're here again now. I got my chance to get back at you!"

When there was no response, Shadow just laughed again, putting a hand to his eyes and leaning back.

"So? How does it feel? Do you get it now? How it feels when your friend turns around and stabs you in the back, all for some intel?"

He ended his sentence with a long sigh, removing the hand from his face - only to see Vio was again unmoving. It was a sight that truly pissed him off.

"What? Not going to say anything? You had such a snarky comeback to everything I said back then! And to think I saw that spunk of yours as a good thing before you betrayed me! Now that memories are coming back, I'm starting to miss it, you know? I miss laughing with you. I miss plotting stupid, grandiose schemes with you. I miss staying up late and causing trouble just for the hell of it. I miss not caring about anything or anyone else in the world - because I had a friend. I had you!"

Shadow yelled the last word, feeling the tension in his chest burst. He took a moment to catch his breath, his eyes like darts as they aimed themselves at Vio. The other boy seemed as though he were a statue. It made Shadow want to rip him to shreds.

"But you have me now."

Shadow blinked, eyes wide. "What?"

"You have me now. Right?" he asked as he finally turned to face Shadow, the dull gaze of his eyes betrayed by the softness of his voice.

Shadow scoffed, feeling his face grow hot with frustration. "What does that matter?! I'll never forgive you!"

"I know. And I know there's nothing I could ever do to make you change your mind. But if you want me to be here for you, you have me now. And I promise I'll never leave you again."

Vio extended a hand to Shadow.

"Could we start over? Would you give me that privilege?"

Shadow said nothing.

"Because I think if we could start over, and we became real friends this time… we could have so much fun - fun that we never had the chance to have before. But now we have that chance. And I've been waiting for it all this time." He started to smile, both with his mouth and his eyes.

"You have?" Shadow asked, feeling his heart skip a beat.

Vio nodded gently. "I have. I remember that much."

Shadow looked into Vio's eyes, seeing a bit of sorrow mixed into the kindness, and his mind became a maelstrom. Memories of his past self struggled against all he'd experienced in this life - hatred and anger wrestling with love and patience. And yet, when it came down to it, Shadow had only one thought that superseded all the noise in his brain.

He wanted to take Vio's hand.

So he did, and he noticed how much he liked the warmth it brought his own hand to do so. It made him smile sheepishly, and suddenly he wondered why he ever had such a violent outburst in the first place.

"So?"

Shadow arched an eybrow. "What?"

"Does this mean we're starting over?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does."

"Wonderful. It's a pleasure to meet you again," Vio said, sounding the happiest Shadow had ever heard him.

"Oh, cut the formal talk!" Shadow laughed, this time with more levity. "That's not how we do things."

"I was trying to be soft."

"Well, I don't like soft! I like you better as a bastard."

"Why? Because then it's like looking in a mirror?"

Shadow gave a mock gasp before hitting him lightly on the arm. "Take that back!"

"Not a chance in Hell."

"Which, by the way, is where you'll go when you die," Shadow retorted, lazily pointing a finger at him.

"Correct. And you'll be there, too." Vio answered, then put his arm on Shadow's shoulders.

"Then, when we meet there, let's make the place ours!" Shadow smirked and put his arm around Vio's waist.

"Ooooh," Vio cooed, eyebrows arched. "You've still got a taste for power, huh? I thought you were a good guy now."

"Can't a boy have dreams?"

"I guess so," Vio sighed, shaking his head. "Now, come on. We need to see if the others remembered anything important."

Shadow nodded, and they began to walk together towards the stairs.

"Vio?" He asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"I know you asked just now if we could be friends because you wanted to move past what happened before, but… Aren't we already friends?"

"Of course."

"The worst of friends?" Shadow teased with a grin.

Vio nodded, returning the grin. "The absolute worst."