Alter

Take 12! End?

War rushed after Vee, his voice rising in desperation. "Vee, will you just stop for a second!" Vee kept marching up the stairs, each step more rigid than the last, ignoring the flustered writer trailing behind him. War's chest was tight with frustration, and as he finally caught up, he grabbed Vee's arm just before he could turn the doorknob to his room.

"Okay, seriously," War panted, spinning Vee around. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you acting like this?"

Vee stared at him, face stone-cold, eyes sharp with suppressed anger. His lips didn't move, but the silence was cutting, leaving War feeling more unbalanced by the second.

"You're really not gonna say anything, huh?" War's voice cracked slightly, and he tugged at his hair in exasperation.

"I've apologized, I've explained! What more do you want? Should I—should I write it in a letter? Make it into a poem?Or should I start kneeling before you?"

Vee just blinked, his expression a perfect mask of indifference, which made War snap even more.

"Ugh, you're impossible!" War started jabbing Vee's shoulder, his poking becoming increasingly obnoxious with every stab. "Come on, say something. Anything. I know you're mad, but do you have to be so—"

With a quick slap, Vee knocked War's hand away, his eyes flashing. "Stop poking me. You're being insufferable."

War recoiled slightly, not because it hurt, but because finally, something broke through Vee's icy demeanor.

"Oh, now you talk. Good. Maybe next, you'll actually tell me why you're mad instead of playing this stone-faced action figure." War crossed his arms, glaring right back at him.

Vee's face hardened again, pulling himself free from War's grip. He crossed his arms, and the cold, distant look War feared most settled back in.

"You really think you're that important to me, don't you?" Vee said, his voice sharp, each word laced with a quiet fury. "You're out here acting like a kiss changes everything, like we're suddenly something. Let's be real, War—we're not a thing. There's nothing between us, and there never was."

War's heart plummeted, but Vee wasn't done.

"You're getting ahead of yourself," Vee continued, his eyes flashing with a mix of frustration and something darker. "What? You think a kiss means I'm yours now? You think it's some kind of magic that makes everything about us different? Grow up."

War opened his mouth to respond, but Vee cut him off with a bitter laugh. "Why should I care about you flirting with someone else? You're acting like I'm jealous or something, but I couldn't care less. Why would I? You're not mine. You're not anyone's. And I sure as hell never planned to be *yours.*"

War felt a sharp sting at Vee's words. Every sentence hit like a punch to the gut. He tried to process it all, tried to keep himself together, but Vee's words cut deeper than any insult ever had.

"You kissed me," War managed, his voice shaky, "I mean you kissed me back."

Vee snorted, his expression indifferent. "So what? It was a kiss, War. A stupid, heat-of-the-moment thing. Don't make it into something it's not. You're not special just because of that. Don't start thinking you mean something more."

War's chest tightened, struggling to breathe through the sharpness of it all. This wasn't the Vee he thought he was getting to know—the guy with the glimmer of something softer beneath that tough exterior. This was a wall, reinforced with coldness and sharp edges.

But even as Vee turned away, dismissing him as if nothing had ever happened, War couldn't shake the feeling that beneath all that anger, there was something Vee was hiding from even himself.