#ASKFHLAGDFGSSGDL

[juju-on-that-yeet]

It happened so fast he hadn't realized he even moved. All he knew was that suddenly Illinois was on the ground and his fist felt an all too familiar ache. He couldn't find it in himself to care at that moment. His vision was red and glaring with wideyed anger down at the taller man below him.

"Is that all this is to youse!?" 

He bellowed with a voice he barely recognized as his own.

"Some sorta fuckin' pity project!? What, youse feel bad all of a sudden for breakin' the heart of someone youse know? Youse just thinkin' if you play house for a little while, that everythin's gunna go back ta normal, and we can just forget this ever happened!?"

Illinois was holding himself up on his elbow with the tell tale start of bruise blooming by his mouth. 

"Yancy, no, that's no-"

"Don't FUCKIN' lie ta me!"

Lio's mouth closed with an audible snap that made him flinch. 

"If youse- if youse actually felt anythin' for me, youse wouldn't have jus' let me walk outta your room. Youse wouldn't have fuckin' ignored me for an entire week. Youse know what it felt like? Every time we were in tha same hallway, and youse jus' fuckin pull your hat down over your face like youse some bullshit cowboy?" 

Yancy jabbed his finger down at Lio.

"I ain't blind, and youse ain't as slick as youse think you are. Youse couldn't even look at me. Youse were fuckin' disgusted." 

"No, Yancy i wasn't d-"

"DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME!"

The greaser's voice echoed down the empty halls and left Illonois' ears ringing in the silence that followed shortly after. He wanted to deny it. He wanted to tell Yancy just how wrong he was, that he wasn't just doing this out of guilt for hurting his friend.

Yancy's eyes continued to burn into the Lio, forcing every ounce of hatred he had into it, as if sheer will would make the adventurer burst into flames on the spot. But... He couldn't. Even now, humiliated, heart shattered, he just couldn't find it in himself to hate Illinois. The only one he hated was himself.

"I never shoulda left tha prison again. No, i never shoulda left tha prison in tha first place." 

Illinois looked like he'd been struck again at those words. 

"You... You don't mean that."

"Right, kuz if anyone here is good at sayin' shit they don't mean, it's youse." 

Illinois flinched again with a grimace. 

"Yancy-"

"Why'd youse come lookin' for me, huh? Why'd youse bother draggin' me back here? Why couldn't youse just leave me be!? I was outta your hair! I was tryin' to forget you, for all our sakes! So why? Youse really get off on breakin' a bastard's heart that much?" 

This time it was illinois' eyes that flashed with anger. 

"Watch it, Yancy."

If it were under different circumstances, the growl in Lio's voice would have done things to Yancy, but now all he heard was a challenge.

"Sorry, did i hurt your feelin's?"

Now he was just being a dick, and he knew it, but that didn't stop him from sneering at Lio.

"Sucks, don't it?"

Unlike the fairly isolated (yet loud) yelling that clearly warned people to stay away, it was hard to ignore the two bodies pummeling each other down the hallways of the manor. Egos peeked with interest out of doorways to see who was fighting who this time, and most were stunned to find out that is was the jail bird and knockoff Indiana Jones duking it out, throwing each other into walls, exchanging punches, straight up body slamming each other with clear intent to do as much damage possible. 

Their falling out had been rumored about, with Wilford insisting it must have been some sort of lovers quarrel, but with how friendly the two had been in the past, to see them exchanging blows was something no one (except the Host) had seen coming. It was also something that nobody wanted to get tangled up in the middle of. So they just watched the fight pass them by.

It's when Illinois clocks Yancy hard enough to send the man stumbling back into the second floor banister that sends the egos into actual alarm. There's a resounding snap when he connects, and then he's not stopping. It's like time has slowed to a crawl. Illinois saw the realization dawn on Yancy's face as he's falling, the anger in his hazen eyes disappearing, swept away in the wide eyed wave of fear that washed over him like a rip tide pulling him down and out to sea. Lio couldn't move fast enough. His body moved like it was being dragged through mud, arm outstretched, reaching, grasping desperately for his former friend as he sinks out of view below the floor. His vision blurred, images splitting in fractals of red and blue around him as he reached the ledge to stare down at what he'd done. But when he peered over the remains of the railing down to the floor below, he didn't find the tiled floors stained in a spreading pool of blood, nor the dull  emptiness of Yancy's eyes. Instead he saw... Nothing. Just the same pristine tiles of the foyer under him.

"... Yancy?"

 Before Lio could act upon his shock, his vision blurs and once again splits into reds and blues, then all he sees is black.

(Im starting to get sick so imma send you what i got kuz there's no guarentee I'll finish this. No betas we die like men.)

---

OM FUCKIN G??????

BRUH IM

NOOOOOO DUDE I’M FUCKIN GONE I DIDN’T EXPECT THEM TO BOTH START FUCKIN GOIN AT IT AND THEN YANCY FUCKIN F E L L AND ???????? DID DARK SAVE THE BOY???????? I GOTTA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS (i mean i would obviously love to see more but no pressure fam)

AND HEY!!! I SAW THE LIL REFERENCES TO WORSE THINGS!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU FOR INCLUDING THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’M G O N E MY DUDE