Love is a Three Letter Word [You]

XIII

"Hello?" Adrian poked his head in through the door that was open and walked in. He stared at the watermelons and looked around at the boxes still waiting to be unpacked.

"Hello?" Vincent stared, watermelon guts splashed onto his face since he wasn't expecting Adrian to walk in. How did he even know where he lived? They'd only talked the one time. Oh, wait, the food market was just across the street wasn't it? And there was a house above it. So...did Adrian live there? It did look like a family-owned operation.

"Do you have a thing for watermelons?" Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"I really don't know why I bought so many myself," Vincent sighed.

"Hm, well, I'll take one or two off your hands and give you this to trade," Adrian held out a bag of produce.

"Please do-" Vincent reached for the bag and Adrian wiped his cheek with his thumb and then licked the watermelon guts. Vincent stared at him. Adrian stared at him. The two blushed awkwardly and Vincent turned to place the bag on the counter.

"I'll just uhm, take these then," he laughed awkwardly and picked up two random watermelons. "See you around," he nodded and exited.

Canterbury: This bitch is fuckin' gay isn't he?

Timber: Don't say that like you have something against it.

Thompson: We've made it this far can we just return the plate and be done with it?

Canterbury: You fucking do it. I'm not going back in there.

Timber: We're counting on you, Thompson.

Thompson: You two are a bunch of scaredy-cats.

Thompson walked into the apartment and placed the plate down. He bowed a bit and walked away. "Thank you," Vincent smiled. He didn't have extra cash to spend on buying new plates.

Thompson: See? That wasn't so hard.

Canterbury: Great. Let's fucking go.

Timber: I feel bad. We didn't even wash it...

Vincent, tapping on the counter: Don't worry about it.

Timber & Canterbury, to Thompson: He knows morse code too?!

Thompson, to both: Well, when I said we should learn to speak to each other telepathically you both said no. But, if we had awakened our superpowers this wouldn't be a problem.

The triplets continued bickering and made their way down the stairs. Vincent briefly wondered what they would try to learn next to keep him from hearing their conversations. Maybe they'd come up with a weird pig latin?

"Hm, Adrian did find my place rather quickly though. Is he friends with Joker?" Vincent didn't think about it too much and started washing the plate the triplets returned. "Oh, that reminds me..."

...

Vincent carried a tupperware container holding watermelon into the storage unit he was currently renting. He'd managed to save his cell and travel with it. Rebuilding it was hard but at least it came in handy. He didn't think he would have to use it so soon.

"Oh? You're back?" Sparkling hair tinted pink with a braid on the one side. The male meditated on the makeshift bed in the cell. "You know, you really don't have to keep me in here, Mr. Psycho. I'm not going to tell anyone about you," he smiled, saying the same thing he has said a dozen times.

"That's what they all say," Vincent replied, putting the watermelon into the compartment.

"Did you end up buying a lot of watermelons recently?" Blavat tilted his head and smiled, returning the unnerving grin Vincent usually wore.

"You know, we really wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't asked so many questions and provided a hypothesis for why I was moving," Vincent sat down in a chair and crossed his legs. "Did you want me to kill you? Why else would you do that?"

"Teehee," Blavat reached for the watermelon. "I just have a habit of blurting things out, I suppose. Did you find your perfect match too?"

"There you go again with your strange predictions."

"They aren't strange! The cards whisper to me!" Blavat huffed and shoved a watermelon piece into his mouth.

"Whatever you say."

"Besides, I helped you get your fake IDs and stuff. Can't we call it even? I have no interest in blackmailing you! Really! No one would listen to me anyway. I'm a starcrossed moron," Blavat insisted. "Absolutely the most looney of tunes! I'm also off of my meds so I'm hearing voices again which is fun..." Blavat sighed. "Please just let me out? I have someone waiting for me in another country so I'll seriously be out of your hair."

"I'll think about it," Vincent stood up.

"Are you leaving again? So soon? But you just got here," Blavat pouted.

"I have some job searching to do and some people to look up."

"I don't have any social media accounts because the government totally stalks them," Blavat called as Vincent left. "Just so you know! Also if you could get me a smoothie at some point, please! I really like the mango ones!"

Vincent rolled his eyes. Blavat didn't seem like a threat he needed to kill but he couldn't be too careful. The book YouKnowWho had written was becoming quite popular so Vincent especially needed to be careful. How was Alois doing? He should ask him later.

He wandered over into a nearby park and plopped down under a tree. He took out his phone and looked up 'Adrian's in the area. He had no idea what Adrian's last name was and the only viable account he found was on private. Damn. Vincent stared at the branches of the tree he was lying underneath. He really missed YouKnowWho and all of the good times they spent together.

Vincent took out the book he'd been planning on reading and at some point, he ended up falling asleep. The wind blew through his hair as he laid there, completely unaware of his surroundings.

"Are you a reader?"

Vincent opened his eyes to see Adrian smiling down at him. The way the lighting of the trees worked, Adrian appeared to be some kind of angel. How fitting for his silver hair.

"Yes, I'm a fan of books," Vincent replied. Did it count if Adrian was the one to talk to him? Vincent was minding his own business, it wasn't as if he was picking up his old habits again. Adrian had come to him. He wasn't doing anything wrong. Nothing at all.

"Really?" Adrian smiled, excited. "We were just looking for someone to manage books in the cafe portion of that market you were at. All of the stuff my brother buys isn't selling because he is terrible at it! Have you found a job yet?" How did he know Vincent was looking for a job? Well, it was probably obvious with the discount watermelons and the fact he recently moved here.

"No, I haven't."

"Would you like to work there?"

"I would love to," Vincent smiled. Was it really wise for him to work there? But, he needed a job so...it didn't matter.

"Fantastic!"