Vylante OneShots

I Wasn't There (SFW)

Originally Published: August 10th, 2019
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Please be warned that this is a tad tad angsty.. but if you read the other three parts you're probably used to it by now (((This is referring to the other oneshots that came from my After Starlight book, that were all published on August 10th, 2019)))

1830 Words

There was little Dante could have done to ease the man's stress. They were both in Italy and got the same text at practically the same time.

"Oh. Garroth." Vylad had said, picking up his phone first from the coffee table. Dante at first had ignored his phone, a little too engrossed in whatever show they'd ended up watching. He couldn't remember the title, now. "It's been a while since he texted."

Vylad went silent after that, reading through the paragraph. The rather long paragraph. The first line read: We are on our way home from Starlight. It's not looking good.

Which is.. quite good at sparking worry.

"Garroth said they were on their way home from Starlight.. just now.. didn't they go on that vacation months ago?" Vylad asked. This finally did snap Dante out of whatever was on the TV.

"What? Yeah. I remember being pissed about it because I had to come over here. They should've been home like, 2 months ago. He say anything else?" Dante asked, pausing the Italian show.

"Yeah, hang on." Vylad began to scan through the rest of the message, while Dante finally grabbed his phone to see for himself. The message seemed copy and pasted.

"Holy—"

"Crap."  Vylad finished for him, jumping from the couch immediately. "We need to go." He said.

Dante couldn't have agreed more. He only had a few days of business left, and besides this was a family emergency. He had every right to leave. He and Vylad began to tear through their shared apartment, grabbing necessities and clothes. They weren't planning on leaving anytime soon, so the place was a mess. Which would take a while to clean and pack.

After about an hour or two Dante had finished up and was tidying up the kitchen and packing food that wouldn't expire. Vylad was still in his room and hadn't come out since he had begun to pack. Which would have worried Dante if he weren't so focused on getting the rest of the place in order. He threw his bags to the door and began to pace around the house looking for things he had forgotten. When he was sure he had grabbed everything he needed, he knocked on Vylad's door. He figured while Vylad was still packing he could call to get tickets for a flight home. But he still needed Vylad's help as his Italian was more than bad.

Vylad didn't respond right away, so Dante knocked again. And.. he still didn't respond. Which was strange. The guy was definitely awake, and they didn't have time to lose. Growing a little annoyed, Dante tried to open the door a little.

He was kind of expecting to see the guy pretty upset.. but he didn't realize how much he was going to ache seeing him like that.

Vylad was hunched over a suitcase, sobbing a little as he held his phone in his hand. A quick glance around the room told Dante he still had packing to do.

"Vylad," Dante began, taking an unsure step forward. Vylad didn't move. "Hey, what happened?" He asked, easing down to his knees beside the man. Vylad's fists were clenched tight in his lap.

"Garroth— He.. why didn't I text him? To make sure he was okay? I thought.. I thought he was fine, but he wasn't. I mean, you read that whole thing! Travis and Aphmau almost died, Aaron's blind and lost his memory I.." He was sobbing at this point, breathing too quickly and too shallow for Dante's liking. Like he was hyperventilating.