Troyler AU - Uncuff Me

seventeen

Conflict. It denotes the struggle between two opposing forces to achieve victory. It's a predominant emotion that arised deep within oneself, consciously or otherwise, when faced with extreme indecisions. And extreme they were. Never in his life had he being thrown into such task that was so beyond the bounds of possibility. Choices were tossed at him so carelessly, like they were worth not more than pieces of scraps. But the decisions that he beared in his literal hands were nothing short of severe and they weighed a thousand times more than they should with each second that ticked by. A rock and an extremely hard place, he saw no way out of them without someone getting harmed. He has to do it, he has to decide. The walls were closing in and he can't think, can't breathe. Eyes closed, he can't bear to look in the eyes of those people that were depending on him. He can't bear to see the pleading look flickering on their faces, nor the hope, nor the love.

He has to decide, now more than ever. With one last exhale, he decided. Then, he pointed.

***

For all the time that Troye had spent crying over his past, he'd spent twice the time keeping them out of his present and making sure that they'll never be in his future. He had struggled but succeeded, to momentarily forget about all the pain derived from his past, to leave all that burnt him in a forbidden place and never look back, just so he could focus on finding his happiness again. But the thing about happiness, it never really sided with Troye. Lady Fate was being unreasonably cruel to him when he had done nothing to deserve such cruelty. Fairness, much like his happiness was never really there for him because if it was, then this wouldn't be happening.

Seeing that familiar face, he felt like he was sixteen all over again. It was a face of a sweet boy he once knew and loved with all his heart. But it was also a face of wretched lies, broken promises and hurtful betrayals. It was a face that taught him his first heartbreak and brought him all the misery that followed. It was his own personal curse, that face, that with one look at it, his whole reality warped into an unpleasant nightmare in just an instant. All of his repressed memories came gushing back to him like a tsunami, breaking down walls that he had erected around those memories without much difficulty. Time stood still and zoomed by at the same time, and he'd never hated someone like he had this man. And seeing that loathesome smirk on that face, his hatred was more now than it has ever been.

"Hello, spuddy. I've missed you."

Upon hearing the nickname again, he had to push the bile down with a harsh swallow before he could find his voice. "Emery."

"I haven't heard anyone call me by that name in a long time. Brings back a lot of memories. All good, I assure you." He said, his face a picture of daunting fondness. "But I go by another name now, haven't you heard? Your boyfriend here and everybody else, they know me by the name Sam Pepper. I'm quite famous, really."

It was only when Troye tasted the coppery saltiness in his mouth that he realised he had been biting on his jaw too hard. He forced himself to calm down and relaxed his tight fists on his sides before he regained his control to speak without stuttering. "I want you to let him go."

Troye watched as Sam sauntered in half a circle around them, their eyes still locked with each others'.

"Well, I can't do that. On the contrary of what you would've believed, I didn't seek for him. It was him who came looking for me. In fact, I think he had been trying to look for me for a long time now." Sam threw a smirk at Troye before he chuckled amusingly to himself. "Only this time, I've deliberately threw more crumbs for him to follow, you know, to aid him a little. He was quite the persistent little thing."

Troye's eyes followed the moving figure of Sam, still sauntering slowly in circles around them before he tried again. "He has nothing to do with this. Just.. let him go."