freaks of nature - stenbrough

-22-

TW: coma
unedited

——

"You're thinking about him again, aren't you?"
"What?"

Richie was laying on his stomach on his bed. He was resting his chin on his hands while staring at Stanley. Stanley was sitting on his window seat staring out into the street. He had to knee to his chest and his head resting again the wall.

"Bill. You're thinking about him."
Stanley looked over, "how did you know?"
"You've been weirdly quiet and everything in my room that's metal is shaking."
"Oh...sorry."

Stanley took a long breath and the metal stopped moving.

"It's fine. What even happened with you two?"
"We thought we loved each other...that's all."
"Wow."
"What?"
"You have told me many crazy things, but that Staniel, that's the first lie."
"It's not a lie."
"Uh huh. Just remember I was there when we broke you out of the MHA. What I saw wasn't people thinking they were in love, it was two people definitely in love and if I didn't know any better I'd say you still are."
"I love Betty."
"Love is a strong word."
"What about Eddie? Do you love him?"

When Richie didn't respond, Stanley smiled. Richie was always better at dealing with others emotions then his own.

"Richie?"

He nodded slowly.

"Yeah...I love him."

Stanley's smile grew. Richie looked up from his bed and met his eyes.

"What are you smilin' at?"
"Trashmouth has feelings."
"Oh shut it," Richie rolled his eyes.

He grabbed a pillow from behind him and threw it at his friend, hitting him in the face.

"Richie!" He laughed.
"What?"

Stanley threw the pillow back.

"Staniel, in all seriousness-"
"See, you can't do that."
"Do what?"
"Put 'Staniel' and 'in all seriousness' in the same sentence."
"Whatever. In all seriousness," Richie put emphasis on the three words, "I think you still love him. I've never seen you that touchy-feely with anyone before."
"You obviously haven't seen me and Betty in my bedroom," Stanley smirked.
"Leave the jokes up to me, Stanthony."
"Nope. I deserve this."
"Stanley," Richie deadpanned.

Stanley's smile fell. Richie hasn't used his normal name in years. He looked at him confused.

"You love Bill. Go visit him."
"What if Sharon doesn't let me?"
"Why would that happen?"
"Because I left Bill there...it's my fault that he's in this condition."
"No no no no no," Richie rolled off his bed.

He walked over to his best friend. He grabbed his hands and pulled him to his feet.

"You have to know that it's not your fault. You know the best out of anyone that when Bill's made up his mind, he won't waver."

Stanley didn't respond.

"Now come on, I'm taking you to the hospital to go see him."
"Okay," Stanley sadly smiled, "but I don't love him."
"But-"
"No, just drop it...please?"
"Okay, I'll stop."
"Richie!" Maggie called from downstairs, "can you come here for a moment?!"
"Coming mom!" Richie turned back to Stanley, "the second I come back up here, we're going."
"Okay."

Richie turned around and left the room. Stanley sat back down and looked out the window.

"You murdered one of our best agents!"
"You murdered Bill!"
"Shut it! Rumlow was just trying to help you be able to control your flighty mutation!"