“OOOOHH PIIIIICOOOOLLOOOO” Markus’s booming voice shouted from the hallway outside Vincent’s front door.

“He’s going to make the neighbors complain.” Vincent sighed.

“I’ll go tell him to quiet down. I’ll be right back.” I got up from the bed to go answer the door.

Vincent and I had managed to finish cleaning our mess pretty quickly, so we laid down together and snuggled in the bed. We had been whispering sweet nothings back and forth like some cheesy high school couple when Markus interrupted us.

“Oh hey, Piccolo. Here’s your fancy date night clothes. Where you two off to?” He asked nosily.

“Thanks. And I’m not telling you anything. Nosy Old Man.” He chuckled at me when he noticed I was blushing.

“Come here kid.” Markus pulled me into his arms for a hug before I could say no, “I’m sorry too, by the way, for being too overbearing earlier. You know I can’t help worrying about you though.” I hugged him back, then he continued with his nosiness, “You two finally talk things out? Instead of secretly pining for each other for ever?” He only whispered it, I assumed so Vincent wouldn’t hear him.

“We actually had a fight. But it ended up okay. So yeah we talked a bit, and we decided to take things slow and figure it out one step at a time.” I answered.

Markus held me out by the shoulders at arms and smiled warmly at me, “That’s good to hear. Well not the fight part, but I’m glad you two talked things out. I think you guys would be great together. I know he’ll treat you good.” He patted my shoulder.

Vincent cleared his throat behind me, “You two done gossiping yet?” He was giving Markus a nasty glare. Markus promptly let go of my shoulders, then grabbed ahold of Vincent to hug him too. Vincent groaned and weakly tried to push away but ultimately gave in to Markus’s hug with a soft chuckle.

“You give nice hugs, Old Man. But don’t hug my man like that anymore. I do not like sharing.” Vincent said, making Markus chuckle and me blush even more. Hearing Vincent finally call me his man sent a crazy, strange, electric feeling through my entire body.

As I went to cover my face with my hands, Markus had looked at me just in time to see how embarrassed I was now, “Awe, Piccolo! Look how red you are!” He teased me.

“Hey, by the way, what does Piccolo mean? Why do you keep calling him that?”

“It’s just my term of endearment for him. I means little boy, more or less. That’s for him to talk to you about when he’s ready.” Markus answered. They both looked at me waiting for me to answer. Vincent pulled himself from Markus’s hug finally, then moved to me and caressed my cheek.

“Does it have anything to do with the story about the scars?” He asked.

“You told him about the scars?” Markus asked in shock.

“Sort of, but technically, no not really. And no, I haven’t actually told him about it… he saw them, but I asked him not to ask about them yet.” I answered both men.

Vincent seemed to accept that answer, and let it go for the time being. Markus, on the other hand, got a devious smirk, like he was about to stir the pot.

“So you two did end up knocking boots? What happened to “we’re not in that type of relationship” and “I’m just offering peace and quiet”?”

“Well… One thing lead to another, and the rest is none of your business, Old Man. Now. If you’ll excuse us, we have a date to go get ready for. Thanks for bringing him nice clothes though. See ya.” Vincent responded, nearly closing the door in Markus’s face.

I stopped the door before it shut all the way, “Hey, don’t be so rude.” I scolded him, earning myself a stern ‘who do you think you’re talking to’ look from Vincent. “Sorry.” I followed up shyly.

“Oooh look at you being a good boy again! That always did suit you much better.” Markus praised. I gave him a nasty glare in return.

“Woah wait what?!” Vincent gasped.

“Okay bye Markus.” I groaned and closed the door, without slamming it in his face, even though he definitely deserved it now.

“We are not going to just let that comment go, Roy. What the hell did he mean by that?!” Vincent asked loudly.

I sighed, “Vincent. Please. Not now.” I rubbed my temples as I attempted to walk away.

“The list of things I’m not allowed to ask about just keeps growing and growing. You’ve got a lot of secrets.” Vincent was clearly unhappy with me about all of this.

“Vincent, they aren’t secrets. I want to share things with you, I really do. But it’s a part of a past trauma I’m not quite ready to share yet. Can’t you just accept that for now?” I pleaded for him to not push anymore. I just wasn’t ready to talk about it, and I thought I had made that very clear already.

“How long will I have to wait for you to trust me enough to share that stuff with me?” He asked, lowering his voice.

“I don’t know Vincent!” I shouted louder than I’d meant too in frustration, “Until I feel like I’m ready to share it. I shouldn’t have to explain that so many fucking times in one day, and you shouldn’t be pressuring me into telling you anything when I’ve made it clear I’m not ready to talk about it.”

Vincent scowled at me, “I can’t help it that it bothers me that Markus clearly knows some huge secret about you and I don’t! I get that you two have known each other longer, so he’s bound to know more. But he’s not your boyfriend or the guy you’re trying to get with. Why does some Old Man get to know but I don’t?”

“Because he and I have a certain history. You and I haven’t had the chance to share an intimate history together yet. I’ve already explained to you that we aren’t romantically involved, but he still means a lot to me.” I sighed again, thinking this conversation was going to happen now whether I was ready or not.

Vincent groaned and through his hands up in the air, “We just keep going in circles with this conversation. I personally had thought we’d been friends long enough for you to trust me the way you trust him.” He paused, then made eye contact with me. The look in his eyes was mostly hurt. “I think we should postpone this date. Sorry. I’m just not in the mood to go out with you anymore.” Then he walked past me back to his room.

Fine. Whatever. Maybe we wouldn’t be able to make things work between us. Clearly we had a hard time understanding each other. I left Vincent’s apartment, slamming the door behind me out of anger and frustration. I guess Markus had expected me, because he was still here, sitting in his car. When he saw me, he waved me over to get in his car. I climbed in to the front passenger seat, and he drove me back to the station in silence. When we got there, I hobbled my way to my bed in the bunk room and just through myself into the bed. Today was such an emotional roller coaster for me.

______

A/N: Jealousy can cause lots of problems if you can't talk it out.
The next portion of this chapter will be in Vincent's POV.

OH also, I'm doing this books characters in Kinktober this year! More info to come.