this summer I'm gonna get us a motorbike {Tulio}

[miguel]

Miguel was trying not to dwell at great length on the fact that he had failed miserably in what had been his whole purpose in leaving in the first place. What was really important was that he was back. He was back at school and he could probably go back to just doing things the way he'd been doing them before he had packed up his things in a really clichéd looking knapsack on a stick over his shoulder and climbed out his dorm window. There was no reason at all that he should have needed to climb out the window - the doors weren't locked or anything, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

He was probably late for classes starting, but nobody at this school had ever seemed to care much about that. He wasn't worried. What he was worried about was explaining to Tulio that he had looked high and low, searched the four corners of the earth...or, you know, all the cities he could get to before he'd run out of money.

Which he had. Really quickly. He was completely broke at this point, and no amoun of denying it would help. He had managed to hitchhike back to the school, so with his things over his shoulder in the same knapsack he'd left with them in.

He was headed through the commons, in broad daylight this time instead of skulking around in the dead of the night, when he caught sight of a familiar head of hair.

"Tulio?" he called, questioningly. He hurried around to find the face of the head, and grinned broadly. "Tulio!" He wrapped his arms around his friend, at roughly elbow height, picked him up, spun him in a circle, then set him down. "What have I missed? I have to tell you, adventuring is just not the same without you, there is nothing at all that...Tulio, are you all right?"

[Deleted]

There Tulio was, just strolling along, minding his own business, when someone dared disrupt his peace by calling out his name. Oh, but that was not the worst part. Before he could even turn around and find the source of the voice he found himself wrapped tightly in a hug, arms pinned to his side, and being lifted bodily off the ground and spun around. Letting out a yell of surprise and indignation, he looked down at the offending creature and was shocked to be met with the sight of a very familiar mop of blonde hair.

He was too shocked to struggle. Even when he was back on his feet he just stared at Miguel. He hadn’t seen the other boy for months, and while his first instinct might have been to return the embrace, he made the mistake of listening to what his friend was rambling on about.

Correction: his former friend.

His whole body stiffening, Tulio glared down his nose at Miguel who had the gaul to babble on about all the adventures he had been on alone after abandoning his supposed best friend. Finally he had the sense to shut up.

“Of course I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I be alright? I’m perfectly fine. Everything is... fine,” he replied snootily.

[miguel]

Tulio was looking at him like...well, not like he didn't know him, which would have been bad enough, but like he did know him and thoroughly disliked him. That was even worse.

"That," Miguel said, stating the obvious, "is not a 'fine' face, that is a 'Miguel you've done something awful' face." Maybe Tulio was expecting him to come back with Chel. Miguel couldn't remember what he'd put in the note...hadn't it been something like like 'dear Tulio, sorry to be leaving without you but I know you love her and I'll find her for you if it's the last thing I do on this earth because you're my best friend and I owe it to you'? Hadn't that been it? Or...no, maybe it had just said something about how he had to go find something, and...

"What did I do?" he asked, plaintively. "Do tell me, Tulio, it's terrible to keep guessing." He twisted his mouth sideways and quirked up one eyebrow in what he hoped was a manner that would appeal to the better nature of any hardened criminal (but might have looked like he was trying to pass a really rough meal).

"Don't leave me standing here in the rain. It isn't kind." Never mind that it wasn't raining even the smallest bit.

[Deleted]

Tulio could not believe it, and his expression showed that clearly. Miguel was actually asking what he did? He had to ask? If Tulio wasn’t so self involved, he might have seen the irony of the situation, as it was little over a year ago when their roles had been reversed and he had had Miguel upset with him for something he didn’t even remember, having forgotten the first year or so of his time at Avalon.

“Oh, it’s nothing! You never to anything!” Tulio replied, poking one finger at Miguel’s chest. “Why should I ever expect you to take a moment and actually think for yourself?”

Pushing past Miguel to continue on his way to the dorms, he made a very ungraceful show of flailing as he tripped over the stick his “friend” had been carrying with his belongings on it. After much waving of arms and wobbling about, Tulio somehow managed to keep his footing, but the whole thing only made him more furious.

“And it’s not raining!”

[miguel]

Miguel stared down at his chest where Tulio had poked at him savagely, but before he could retaliate or even react, Tulio was flailing all over the place tripping over Miguel's earthly possessions.

"Think for my- what's this about, Tulio? I am thinking for myself! You didn't ask me to go out and - I mean, you didn't even know I was going. I thought of that all on my own!" He sounded undeniably proud of that fact.

So what if it wasn't raining? There were far more important things to argue over here. Miguel hurried to catch up with Tulio and grab his shoulders (much too late to catch him if he'd actually fallen over the stick on the ground).

"Be careful," he recommended. "I left my things on the ground." He picked up the knapsack and held it a little awkwardly. "Anyway, it could rain, and if it didn't, you'd've left me out in it, and wouldn't you feel terrible then?" His eyes widened slightly, and he looked up at Tulio through his eyelashes.

[Deleted]

Now Miguel was actually bragging about leaving him behind? How was that supposed to be helping? He was proud of coming up with the idea of abandoning his best friend in his hour of need to go off and find adventure on his own? Tulio could not believe his ears!

“Well congratulations, Miguel! That was such a wonderful thought you had! I am just so glad you thought of it!” he exploded, his voice absolutely saturated in sarcasm. “You obviously don’t need me to do all the planning anymore, you’re just so great at thinking on your own! Good thing I wasn’t around to ruin your little adventure!”

Seriously, didn’t he feel even the slightest bit guilty? Obviously not, because he was still talking about being left in the rain that wasn’t there and acting all confused or hurt or just plain bewildered. Tulio had a very strong urge to take the stick from him and whack him with it.

“No, I wouldn’t feel terrible at all because at least you would know why I left you!”

This time he didn’t trip as he turned and attempted to storm off again.

[miguel]

Miguel wasn't sure if he'd ever seen Tulio quite so angry, and it was making him feel a little intimidated. If he let Tulio get any more worked up, he felt like his explanation, which he had thought was so magnificent before, was going to be woefully inadequate to justify that kind of anger.

"I didn't....it wasn't to go without you, it wasn't....I..." He held the stick at his side loosely, feeling frazzled and completely at a loss. "Tulio! Wait!" He reached out and grabbed at Tulio's shoulder, trying to turn his friend back around.

"Why I left you...what? I went to find her for you, didn't you get my note?"

Miguel forgot about the rain that wasn't there and decided it was more important that he figure out what was really bothering his friend-who-wasn't-acting-like-a-friend.

"I didn't leave you, I left...school...just...I was going to find her, because you love her. So there, now don't you feel horrible?"

[Deleted]

Miguel just wasn’t even making any sense anymore. Before he seemed to be bragging about his solo adventures, but now it was like he was backpedaling, trying to take it back or make it sound like it was all for Tulio’s benefit somehow. Still, Tulio found himself stopping yet again to listen.

“Note? There was no note,” he replied in a low, accusatory voice, fixing a narrowed gaze on Miguel. Oh, but his ‘friend’ wasn’t done talking. He just kept insisting that he hadn’t gone off to abandon him and that he had been looking for some girl and that Tulio lov-

Oh.

Tulio’s jaw dropped. Yes, as a matter of fact, he did feel pretty horrible now, but it wasn’t just about how he had been treating Miguel. Miguel had gone to find her. No! Tulio did not want to think about her! He was finally doing better! He was having good luck meeting beautiful girls in coffee shops and, okay, so maybe they were all brunettes, but that was just a coincidence! He actually spent most of his time now not thinking about her, but now Miguel had gone looking for her and he had used that word to describe Tulio’s feelings for her and, oh Gods, what if he found her? What had he said to her? What had she said back? Did she just send him along his merry way, wanting nothing to do with either of them anymore? Did she... what if she came back with him? What was Tulio suppose to do then? What did it mean? He wasn’t ready for her games again, he was still too fragile from being abandoned by everyone.

“I... can’t breathe...” Tulio gasped dramatically, dropping down to sit on the ground right where he had been standing. Apparently that was a lie, though, because it definitely took breath to rant, especially a hysterical one. “There was no note. There was no note! She was gone, then you were gone, and I was here, and I didn’t... and I don’t lo-ah!”

In an even more dramatic display, he fell forward to land face first in the grass. “Mfmmrmfm,” he mumbled into the dirt.

[miguel]

Of course there was a bloody note! Why would he have said there was a note if there wasn't one, and why would he have run off without leaving one anyway? What kind of horrible friend would just walk out on his buddy like that? What kind of terrible person would just walk away from the person who had saved his life and been his partner in crime on numerous occasions, and...

Well, that was bringing up bad memories, so he decided not to continue along that train of thought.

"There was too a note," he said indignantly, apparently not noticing that Tulio had fallen over onto the ground...or maybe he was too indignant to care. His jaw was set (indignantly, no less), and he crossed his arms over his chest...indignantly.

"If you didn't get the note, that's not my fault," he said, although it most certainly was, considering the place in which he'd left it. "And you should use real words. I can't understand you when you're eating grass. See here, Tulio, stand up." He grabbed hold of Tulio's ankle and began to tug on it, seemingly unaware of the fact that you couldn't really make someone stand up when you had their foot in the air.

"Don't be so dramatic," he said, with no small amount of hypocrisy. "I forgive you, I suppose. Get up. Really, get up. You look ridiculous." He gave Tulio's ankle another tug, accidentally pulling off his shoe, which he tossed over his shoulder without much thought.

"I didn't find her," he added, after a moment. "I tried. But I couldn't find her."

[Deleted]

Why was Miguel insisting there was a note? It was a bald faced lie! There was no note! Or, if there was a note, Tulio certainly hadn’t seen it so there might as well have not even been one! He could have explained this in an equally indignant tone, and taking an equally indignant stance with an equally indignant set of his jaw, but it was hard to be indignant when laying face down in the grass. So instead he settled for indignantly raising one arm and pointing indignantly into the air.

“Mmphmmrfm!” Tulio exclaimed.

It wasn’t very effective.

Letting his arm fall back to the ground, he half heartedly tried to pull his foot out of Miguel’s grasp while Miguel whole heartedly tried to... pull his leg off or something. Fortunately he only succeeded in pulling off his shoe. Lying there for another moment, Tulio heaved a loud sigh before rolling over onto his back. Sitting up, he glared up at his ‘friend’ for a moment before turning his head and spitting out a mouthful of grass and dirt.

“I did nothing that needs forgiving,” he sniffed haughtily, which was a close cousin to indignantly. He wasn’t sure what to say about the other bit, the bit about her, so he didn’t say anything. “Now get me my shoe.”

[miguel]

Miguel did not have any idea what "Mmphmmrfm" was supposed to mean, but if he had to guess, he'd probably have assumed it was just more indignant meanness directed at Tulio's innocent best friend, who had only been acting out of selfless pity and concern for his buddy.

Well, he had been ready to forgive Tulio, and now Tulio was saying he hadn't done anything?! Had he completely missed the entire conversation they'd just had? Miguel had done him a favour, or at least tried to, and Tulio had repaid that kindness by being perfectly awful to him upon his return. Of course he deserved an apology. Although...to be fair, he had failed massively in finding the girl he'd set out to find, so he could see how Tulio would be upset about that.

"I'm..." He took a deep, dramatic breath, then let it out all in a whoosh with the next word. "...sorry. I tried to find her, but I failed. Please forgive me, Tulio." Ugh, this was awkward. How had he gone from demanding apologies to being the one apologising? He glanced over his shoulder in the direction he'd tossed Tulio's shoe, but he couldn't quite seem to find it.

"Perhaps an animal ran off with the note," he suggested.

[Deleted]

Miguel was finally apologising, even asking for forgiveness! That should have been it. Tulio should have been able to accept the apology, grant the forgiveness and move on... but somehow he just couldn’t do it. It had all just been too much too quickly, and now not only had Miguel returned but he drudged the topic of Chel back up and all the horrible feelings that went along with her and it was just all too much for Tulio to take.

Besides, he wasn’t even apologising for the right thing!

“You left me!” he burst out suddenly, throwing his hands up in the air for emphasis. “She messed with my head and then left me, my own memories left me, and even that damn horse left, but you...” Miguel was the one person who always stuck by him, no matter what. He was never supposed to leave. Now when Tulio looked up at his friend from where he still sat on the ground, his eyes were still accusatory, but also filled with hurt. “Just a few weeks after her, you disappear with no word, no note, and I’m stuck here here all alone, left to wonder why all my friends would rather run off for adventures on their own that go with me. Better yet, they didn’t even have the decency to tell me!”

He was rambling now, near hysterics, but after months of trying to pull his life back together after losing the few people he actually cared about, he could barely think straight let alone talk straight.

“Oh, but maybe they weren’t alone! Maybe they were together. Maybe that had been the plan all along, to ditch me!”

[miguel]

Did Tulio have any idea how hard it was for Miguel to admit when he was wrong? To apologise like that? Did he have any idea how difficult that one little word had been for Miguel to spit out? Clearly not, because he was still having a little fit about the whole thing, which Miguel definitely did not appreciate.

"Tulio, for the last time," (he said that even though it probably wasn't anywhere near the last time), "I did leave a note. It certainly isn't my fault that the note wasn't there or you couldn't see it, because I did leave it, and it said quite clearly that I was going to find her and bring her back for you because I could see that you were miserable without her."

That accusation was just preposterous. Why would Miguel want to go off with Chel? He hated- er, well, he didn't hate her, but he certainly wouldn't have run off with her and abandoned Tulio. Honestly, who would do something like that?

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life," he said frankly. "I'm not the one who broke the rules to begin with, Tulio! I'm not the one who brought women into this at the start! That was you, with that other girl! You can't assume I'd run off and do something just to make yourself feel better because you've already done it."

[Deleted]

Tulio was hyperventilating now. He was sitting on the ground, dirt on his face, hair sticking up every which way, one shoe missing, glaring up at Miguel with hurt and accusation in his eyes and now he was hyperventilating. It really was quite the image for any passersby.

“Miserable without her? Ha!” he protested loudly. “She made me miserable with all her teasing and her insults and her old man fetish.” And her beauty and that excited glint in her eye when they planned a job... no! No, she was bad news and she had driven him crazy and now she was gone and he was better off without her. Much, much better. Really.

Of course Miguel was denying running off with Chel, and even Tulio couldn’t argue because he knew it to be the truth. As much as he might have been angry with his friend, as suspicious as he had grown over time, deep down he had always known that this was something Miguel would never do to him. But did he have to throw Audrey and Tulio’s own betrayal of their pact back in his face? Miguel was supposed to be the wrong one here in this conversation!

“This has nothing to do with Audrey!” he shouted, but there was little else he could say on the subject other than feebly deny that that wasn’t the reason for the accusation. Which he did. “That’s not why I said that.”

Of course he didn’t say why he actually had, because admitting that he was so hurt by Miguel leaving without a word that he was lashing out wasn’t a very manly thing to do. So what now, then? Sitting there a moment, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Okay, so maybe you did leave a note...” Tulio admitted reluctantly. “In some stupid place where it got lost so I never found it.” He could have continued and said that Miguel should have just told him in person, but even Tulio knew he would have had another fit and either forbade him to go or insisted to go with him somehow while not admitting to actually want to find Chel but just to adventure somewhere or something.

“Don’t ever do that again.” He let the words linger a moment before holding his hand up to Miguel.

[miguel]

Old man fetish. Miguel thought about that for a moment, then, much to his chagrin, discovered that it made him laugh. Well, would have made him laugh, if he hadn't been determined to not laugh. Instead it came out as a half-snort thing that almost sounded like he was trying to rid himself of a hairball.

"Just because you were miserable doesn't mean you didn't love her," Miguel said. It was a very astute statement coming from someone as...well, not astute as Miguel, but he didn't seem to realise that.

He wished Tulio hadn't mentioned Audrey's name. He generally like to refer to her as "that girl" in his mind, it helped him to pretend that she hadn't existed and that that whole thing had never happened.

Tulio finally admitted that there might have been a note that he hadn't gotten, though, and while that was not an acknowledgment that he had read said note and chosen to ignore it (which Miguel had considered briefly), it was as good as an apology coming from Tulio. He was going to believe that, anyway, because it was a good reason for him to stop fighting. Miguel was equal parts hot-blooded Spaniard and totally distractible blonde, and the latter part was quickly winning over his consciousness. He just couldn't be bothered to fight too much longer.

He should just promise he wouldn't do it again, shake Tulio's hand or help him up or whatever he was going for there. He wanted to say something about how he hadn't done anything, but that would probably just take them back to square one, so...

"I will never again do the thing I didn't actually do," he said solemnly, and grabbed Tulio's hand, giving him a sound tug upwards.