#horrified HSFHFDJ and comes clean about his identity immediately. 'i was gonna use this to make myself worse but oh my god +

[runelocked]

❝ Uh-huh. I'm waiting for the punchline. ❞ -mikey :) (gonna spam you with these on ur blogs rq)

“ THE PUNCHLINE IS THAT I’M TRYING TO FIX THINGS. ” WILLIAM GRUMBLES, LOW AND EMBARRASSED. Because yes, it's technically the truth, but yes, it's uncomfortable to admit his future is full of mistakes. Especially when the idea of ever admitting this before had been like asking him to apologize - another thing he won't do ! He will, eventually, but that's neither here nor there.

He can't quite bring himself to look at his stepson; his flushed, disgruntled expression speaks for itself, and the hand he waves impatiently reeks of awkward sincerity. After all, telling Michael - literally the same age as him, in this horrible, hellish future . . . the boy he had bullied and Henry had seemingly sent to die ( scooping counts as dying, even if Michael is alive: William is still struggling to wrap his head around it all ) - that he's his father from the past attempting to make amends now is quite frankly the most ridiculous thing he's had to do in his life. Though admittedly, losing a bet and having to wear the prototype Spring - Bonnie head out in public during college had been close.

Off topic. Whatever. He's trying to avoid dwelling on this too long, still refusing to meet Michael's gaze. " I'm not sorry for lying to you for the past few weeks. So I pretended to be your friend, big deal. I'm telling you the truth now and you don't even believe me, see ? " He blows out an exasperated breath, almost irritated at Michael for making this so difficult. " I'm him, I'm from 1969, and I'm trying to . . . fix things here. Don't make this worse than it already is. "