by scorpions-tale
“Oncie, dear?” his mother called, “It sounds like there’s an animal at the door, will you go shoo it away before it wakes everyone up?”
Oncie was barely coherent; he had just managed to fall asleep after trying to calm himself down. He mumbled quietly and rolled over.
“Oncie, are you there?!” she yelled even louder, “I said I think there’s an –“
“Okay, okay, I heard you,” Oncie said, “I’ll check it out.”
“Okay, dear,” she replied, “But try not to talk so loud, either!”
Oncie sighed and pulled himself up into a sitting position, just becoming aware of the scratching at the door. He rubbed his eyes and walked over, just barely managing not to fall over. “Come on now, get lost,” he said, before he swung the door open.
“Hi,” Greedler said, standing out in the dark with only his underwear, gloves, and socks on, “Are you still mad at me?”
“Yes,” Oncie said, “Now go away! What if mom had answered the door instead of me?”
“You’re the one who wanted me to say hi to them,” Greedler said, shrugging.
“Not nearly naked and scratching at the door like some rabid bar-ba-loot,” Oncie said, “And honestly, maybe not at all, now. You wanted to be alone so much, you’ve earned it.”
“Shut up,” Greedler said, “You’re the one who had to pull out all that – all that weird talk in the middle of the night. We were perfectly fine business partners before that. I’m not sure where that went wrong.”
“Hm, let’s see,” Oncie said, “How about when my business partner pretended to like me on a personal level in order to get into my pants? Which, by the way, isreally weird, seeing as you’re me from the future, and that really is a weird thing to do. Hey guys, I’m going to go back in time now, I hope myself in the past is receptive to my advances!”
“I didn’t come here to do that, I came here for the sake of my business, idiot,” Greedler said, “That was an unintended side effect, I just…”
“Just what? You’re so self-absorbed now that you couldn’t possibly carry a relationship on with anyone other than yourself?” Oncie said, “Because that wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
Greedler looked off to the side and wrung his hands together, “I don’t even relate to you, either. So don’t get too cocky, alright?”
Oncie felt that he had touched a nerve there, and dammit he almost felt bad about it despite how angry he was right now, “I just don’t get it, okay? You know I’ve been alone for a long time, too. You know I’d…I’d probably have done a little trade-off, without you having to trick me into thinking I actually had a friend for once.”
“Stop it,” Greedler said, “Stop being pathetic.”
“I will when you do,” Oncie said.
Greedler thought about that for a moment and couldn’t think of a come back, so he just crossed his arms and stared disapprovingly.
“If I’m the pathetic one,” Oncie said, “Why are you the one who came over here in your underwear to talk to me?”
“Because I hate it when there’s a problem I can’t solve right away,” Greedler said, “I hate it when I have to wait to get what I want.”
“Well, I can’t believe I have to be the one to break this to you, seeing as you’re I don’t know how many years older than me, but sometimes you don’t get what you want, and a lot of the time you don’t get it exactly when you want it.”
“Maybe you don’t,” Greedler hissed, “But I do. I did, at least. And I will again. So maybe you should just learn to accept that, because it’ll work out for you too.”
Greedler reached out to put a hand on Oncie’s shoulder, but he was swatted away, “Oh, no, I’m really not in the mood for your fake affection right now.”
Mostly because he fell for it. Every single time. And he suspected he’d fall for it again, even if he was convinced that he was too angry for that. Better safe than sorry.
“I’m not leaving until you come back,” Greedler said.
“Then have fun standing out there in the cold all night,” Oncie said.
“I’m not cold,” Greedler said.
“Are you kidding? It’s freezing out there!” Oncie said, “You’re going to get sick.”
Greedler shrugged, “I’m not cold. And I haven’t been sick in years. Guess I’m tougher than you.”
“Goodnight,” Oncie said, pushing the door shut, “We’ll talk in the morning.”
“No,” Greedler said, holding the door open, “You’ll come back right now.”
“And why will I do that?” Oncie said.
“Because I told you to,” Greedler said.
Oncie rolled his eyes and turned away from the door, “I’m going back to sleep. Stand out there all you want.”
“Wait,” Greedler said, “I’m not sure if I care about you or not but I like it when you care about me, okay? I care about me, too. We have something in common.”
“Had something in common,” Oncie said, but for some reason it kind of hurt him to say that.
“Yeah. Had. Whatever,” Greedler said, “But it’s kind of stupid I don’t think I hate you. Well, maybe sometimes, but I know you hate yourself sometimes, too. It’s just dumb for us to hate each other like this. I liked it better when we didn’t.”
Oncie recoiled a bit at that comment. He liked to think of himself as a confident, outgoing person but there were those times when he did hate himself. Times not even his family knew about, even though they usually caused it. He didn’t want anyone else to know, but he couldn’t keep it from himself.
“Well, you’re the one who should’ve thought about that before you were such a jerk to me, weren’t you?” he said.
“It’s okay if you hate me sometimes, I guess. Then we’d just be…even,” Greedler said, although ‘even’ really wasn’t good enough for him it was better than nothing, “The difference right now is that when I hate you, I don’t leave.”
“I never said you couldn’t,” Oncie said, “If I’m such a burden on you, you’re welcome to leave.”
“Fine,” Greedler said, “I’m going to go back to bed now, then.”
“Okay,” Oncie said.
“But one more thing,” Greedler said, “You’ll never be like me. Not anymore. Not even if you tried. And sometimes I hate you for that. Sometimes I’m jealous of you for that. Sometimes I hate myself, too.”
Greedler turned and walked away, not looking back at all until he got inside. Oncie, on the other hand, peered through the crack in the not-quite-shut door the entire way, trying to convince himself not to go over there.
Of course he didn’t want to go over there. He was sure that Greedler was in the wrong this time. But he sounded nervous, too. Nervous and inconsiderate more than just outright mean. And, Oncie had to admit that he was curious as to why Greedler would ever be jealous of him. Mister big-shot success over there always seemed so full of himself that Oncie kind of assumed he had it all figured out.
Or he could just be really good at looking like he had it all figured out. Oncie sighed to himself.
“Mom, I think the animal got into my room,” Oncie yelled, “I’m going to go back there and check it out.”
“That’s nice, dear,” she said, “If it’s too big, Brett and Chet’ll get it in the morning. I wouldn’t want you hurting your successful little head.”
“I won’t,” Oncie yelled up before he left.
He approached his own camp, trying to work up the courage to knock on the door, and contemplating just turning back before he saw a familiar pair of eyes peering at him through the curtains, undoubtedly with that smug toothy grin beneath them. No turning back now, but Greedler still waited for him to knock.
“What a surprise,” Greedler said, opening the door, “You couldn’t stay away from me after all.”
He leaned up against the door frame with his usual confident swagger. Oncie was pretty exasperated by the fact that he insisted on keeping that little act up over a small victory, even when he was in a bad mood.
“You were the one who threatened to stay outside in your underwear until I came back, so you’re one to talk,” Oncie said, nudging passed Greedler to get inside.
“And you did come back,” Greedler said, “So it worked. Any by the way, I didn’t want to wear my suit in case it started raining. It might’ve shrunk.”
“I came back because I felt like it,” Oncie said, “Can we not make this into a competition, too? I don’t care about your suit, or whatever other excuses you have.”
“Fine,” Greedler said.
“Now, I’m going to lay down some ground rules here, and you can follow them or I can leave again,” Oncie said.
“If I follow them, it’ll be because I feel like it,” Greedler said.
“Yeah, right, whatever,” Oncie said, “Okay, so, rule number one is we’re going to talk about what you said and why I left and you’re not going to try and change the subject, okay?”
“Hmph,” Greedler said.
“Was that an okay?” Oncie said.
“What’s rule number two?” Greedler said.
“That’s…actually basically all I thought up right now, actually,” Oncie said, “I figured it’d take a while.”
“You shouldn’t make it a list if you only have one thing on it, idiot,” Greedler said.
“Okay, rule number two, how about you get through the entire conversation without insulting me?” Oncie said.
“This is going to be a very one-sided conversation,” Greedler said, “I sure hope you like talking.”
“See, this right here is exactly part of it,” Oncie said, “You were just practically begging me to come back here, and now that I am you’re back to being a jerk about it again. Are you only going to show any actual emotion when you want something from me, or what?”
“I wasn’t begging,” Greedler said.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re pulling this again!” Oncie said, throwing his arms up in defeat, “I don’t know why I even listen to you.”
“I don’t know why you wouldn’t,” Greedler said, “I’ve been through a lot more than you. You wouldn’t even understand.”
“Try me,” Oncie said.
“Okay, how about this: you make a mistake and spend the next few years trying to get another chance, and when you finally do there’s this smug young version of yourself that can’t even handle being second-in-command to the guy who’s going to stop him from having to make all those mistakes and spend all that time alone,” Greedler said.
“Well, can’t you see how it’s a bit frustrating to have someone just come in and start controlling your life, and basically have no say in the matter because he’s from the future and he knows everything so there’s no point in having your own opinions or trying to make your own plans?” said Oncie.
“I didn’t say you couldn’t make your own plans,” Greedler said, “I told you not to cut down any trees just yet. Other than that, do whatever you want, go wild.”
“Really?” Oncie said.
“Yeah, you’ll do fine,” Greedler said, slumping over at the table.
“How do I know you’re not lying to me again?” Oncie said.
“Because I know I damn well made a good company, so you’re damn well going to make one, too. There aren’t going to be any mistakes I can’t pull you out of,” Greedler said, “But as for the plans I’ve made in the future, you need to let me do my own thing with that.”
“So you get to be in the spotlight in the end, anyways?” Oncie said, crossing his arms.
“Yes, because I’m the one who had to suffer for your mistakes so I’m the one that should get the reward for fixing them!” Greedler said.
“They were your mistakes, too,” Oncie said.
“Maybe a long time ago. But not anymore. I’m a different person now,” Greedler said.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Oncie said.
Greedler looked down at the table, not wanting to discuss any of this all too vulnerable-seeming stuff with his past self. But, it was better to get it over with. Better to let the kid start up his company and feel proud of his own accomplishments while easing him into his own ideals so he wouldn’t cringe at the idea of selling oxygen when the time came. Then he could make his own, even better company here and establish himself again in…just how many years was it? He lost track. At some point in time he just stopped counting. But sometime. Sometime, he would make up for those lost years.
“Just one more thing,” Oncie said, “…Did you really mean it, when you said you didn’t care about me? Do you care about me?”
Greedler grumbled, “I won’t say I do. But I won’t say I don’t, either.”
He sat up straight and looked over at Oncie, “Did you really mean it? When you said you’d rather put up with anything than end up like me?”
Oncie rubbed the back of his head, “…I won’t say I didn’t. But I won’t say I did.”
“Fair enough,” Greedler said, “I meant it when I said you couldn’t be me, anyways.”
“Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?” Oncie asked.
Greedler was silent.
“I’ll stay with you, alright?” Oncie said.
“Good,” Greedler replied.
You Obviously Love Oncest 