The bulletin had been posted in the front lobby for weeks. The new roster.
Fighters were arriving and departing in bundles before the seasons changed. No one wanted to get caught up in the dreadful winter snowstorms that ripped through the space between the Smashverse and the universal porthole to other home dimensions.
One of the last to leave had taken a huge part of the world with him, and in the worst of ways.
Ness sat curled up on his bed. His hazy vision was stuck on the falling leaves outside of his window, the sleepy trees awaiting the cold.
He had stayed like this for what seemed like an eternity. Every movement he made felt forced. Useless. He refused to leave the safety of his room.
He hated these feelings. He hated being alone.
The raven headed boy slid from his sheets and perambulated out through the hallways, an uneasy regret gnawing at the back of his mind.
He found it easy to blame himself. The fact that his roommate left him. He had been put through so much unnecessary danger that Ness couldn't have been less surprised to find the twin bed parallel to his empty one stormy morning. Even so, he was beside himself with desolation.
The few weeks that Ness was alone was a strange type of adjustment period.
The nights that he had stayed up with Lucas playing silly card games and watching movies and chatting idly about anything and everything vanished before him. All their antics. The snide remarks they exchanged after a good day's fight. The times that Ness would hold Lucas to comfort him as he cried for whatever reason. Such memories made Ness's heart buckle in his chest. He could feel it whimper.
Ness leaned against the back steps of the mansion. His purple eyes never landed on a singular object for very long. The sole purpose of him taking these walks was to clear his mind but the cluttered thoughts only got worse.
The fights would begin to take place soon. He didn't know how to handle Lucas not being there with him.
He pondered over his first day in the Smashverse. He sincerely hoped that he could dig up a happy feeling to assist him. There weren't any to be found.
The PSI user eventually gave up and retreated back to his room. He wondered why he bothered with bettering himself at this point.
Nights were practically sleepless for Ness. He spent the deepest hours tossing and turning in drowsy torment, images of the only true friend he ever had plaguing his sanctum.
But he was more than that. If Ness merely called Lucas a friend, it would have been so understated that it was pathetic. There were attachments stronger than friendship existing here that Ness had kept well hidden for years. Now he could practically taste the sweetness that his desire painted his tongue with despite the hell ripping up his heart.
He tried so hard. He wanted to gush countless times but whenever he did, the look of nervousness in those bright blue eyes he would die for had him tongue-tied and helpless. No matter how much preparation he gave himself. It never worked.
He prayed every day for Lucas to come back to the mansion, to come home so Ness could pour his heart out to him. Lucas never knew.
And he never would know.
...
As the months went on, life continued at an unusually upbeat pace. Perhaps it was the spirit the newcomers brought with them. There were incredible fighters that arrived this season. The pickings were something one would expect to see only in fantasy.
Ness actively participated in all of his fights, showing the true vigor of a Smash veteran. Everyone he was pitted against fell under him by a shameful amount. Still, through victory, the once cheerful demeanor Ness portrayed was obviously gone.
He fought because he had to. In any case, he liked the sensation that the blows from his opponents gave him. They forced all clouded thoughts from his head. He could only focus on how the pain shot through his nerves.
At some moment after an especially rough battle, Ness remembered hearing Princess Peach's voice undulating through his auditory canals, yet he couldn't pick out what she had said specifically. He had asked her to repeat herself.
"You really did love him, didn't you?" The princess's glossy lips tightened into a worried frown. To her surprise, Ness smiled back at her.
"More than you know."
The rest of that day, Ness acted somewhat like his old self. The air about him was calmer and he even introduced himself to a few of the newcomers at dinner before returning to his room.
Ness waited until midnight. He grabbed a heavy coat from his closet and made sure he was covered from head to toe with warm clothes.
Attempting not to disturb any of the slumbering fighters, the PSI user ambled down the stairs of the dorms, through the dimly lit atrium and out into the front yard of the mansion.
The radiant silver light of an ever-present full moon caused the snow on the ground to glimmer. As Ness stepped through, it crunched under his boots. He found a suitable spot, then collapsed onto his back.
God, the chill was otherworldly. He could feel it in his very core. Ness took this opportunity to empty out all of his emotion once and for all.
He cried. After all the months that he had spent a lifeless husk, he finally cried. For all of the times he had felt Lucas's soft touch, for the way their eyes met when they spoke, for the unrequited feelings Ness would always hold, and for Lucas's abrupt and unprovoked departure.
Ness knew now, truthfully, that Lucas would never return his feelings. No matter how desperately he wanted him to.
He had wanted to have Lucas's undying affections. They just weren't there.
Ness understood this.
Ness finally realized that Lucas had left because of him. Because he knew how much Ness loved him. Because he couldn't lead Ness on any longer than he already had.
And at last, at midnight in that never ending field of snow, Ness accepted that Lucas would never come back.