The best part was the part I must have missed

William quietly entered the house, noticing that Mike was awake. He made a run for the stairs and went up them quickly, trying to find a place to hide the uniform.

Mike hadn't heard William. "Oh. I...see. The Carden dynasty hasn't exactly fallen; we've had...erm...technical problems and..." Planned to marry the enemy? Become the foe? "So wait, what you're telling is that you're here to replace me?"

William carefully moved into the bedroom and opened the closet door. He placed the uniform behind some old boxes, causing a cloud of dust to appear. As he coughed from the dust, he saw something in the corner of the closet. Looking at it, it looked like a picture of a young woman. William carefully picked it up and dusted it off. It turned out to be a picture of Mike sitting down with a beautiful girl. William didn't know what to think, other than wondering what had happened.

"Neither am I, apparently," Mike confessed, shrugging.

Suddenly everything clicked together in William's mind. He remembered how Mikey and Mike had talked about a woman that Mikey had sent to get information from Mike, and that Mike had loved her, but ended up killing her. He looked at the picture with wide eyes. ...The makeup must have been her's. And that means....I just used a dead person's makeup.... William carefully placed the picture down in the closet before racing into the bathroom and kneeling down in front of the toilet. He wretched, emptying some more blood. He felt guilty and creeped out.

Mike was about to ask the boy on the phone if the 'Bill' he was referring to was his William, but then heard his boyfriend upstairs. "What's going on?"

William still felt nauseous. He was shaking slightly. Unable to vomit on his own anymore, he carefully moved a slender finger to his mouth. He had always hated doing it, but in some cases, he had to. Moving his finger further back, William brushed the back of his throat, moving his finger out just in time to vomit again.

Mike looked up at the ceiling when he heard William vomit. "Hello?" he asked, not getting an answer on the phone.

William closed his eyes, moving back to lean on the wall. He wrapped his arms around himself, and looked up towards the ceiling. Just how am I going to explain? 'Oh, and by the way, I accidently used your dead girlfriend's makeup. Sorry!'. Yeah, that's not going to work. Fuck!

"Michael?" Mike replied, incredulous. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine. What's up? What's going on? I don't get a word from you for weeks and now...what the heck are you doing? Where are you?"

William's eyes were still wide. He sat still, only moving once to vomit yet again. He wretched, his throat burning. He sat back down on the ground, curling up quietly.

Mike decided it couldn't get any weirder. "Look Chiz, I really don't get what's going on right now, alright? William is being sick upstairs, and if you haven't got anything urgent to tell me I'll just go help him."

William could vomit anymore, no matter how nauseous he felt; there was nothing left for him to vomit. He curled up, pulling his limbs close to himself and rocking very gently back and forth while staring at the floor.

"Like anyone'd want an Avian to protect the city," Mike muttered. William's silence suddenly alarmed him. "Look, you know where I live? Are you around? Come over. I'm really busy right now. Or just call back in a few minutes." He hung up and ran out of the room and up the stairs, almost tripping on his way.

William hid his face in his knees when he heard Mike coming up the stairs. He continued to rock slowly back and forth, trying to keep calm but failing.

Mike entered the bathroom, eyes wide. He kneeled down beside William and attempted to lift him. "What's wrong? What happened? What did you do?" He already hated himself for letting him leave while he slept, certain it was the cause.

William took several deep breaths, unable to speak. He was struggling to breathe, but made sure to keep taking plenty of deep breaths to stay conscious.

Mike petted the boy's hair repeatedly. "Calm down and tell me what happened."

Still unable to speak, William continued taking deep breaths. He carefully reached over to the cabinet, pointing to the makeup case. He leaned his head up against the wall, attempting to straighten up so that his lungs could fill with enough oxygen.

Mike took the case with a trembling hand. He had entirely forgotten it was there - in fact, he probably had never known. "I can explain..." he started, hoping William hadn't gotten the wrong idea.

"I know already," he was able to whisper before gasping for breath again. He closed his eyes for a second before calming down, finally able to breathe normally again.

Mike pushed William's hair off his forehead, sighing with relief. The dropped the bag. "I'll get rid of it if that's what's bothering you."

"th-that's not it," he whispered, curling up again. He pulled his limbs as close as possible.

Mike stared into the boy's eyes. "Tell me what is it, then," he whispered.

William shook his head. "I...I can't..I..," he paused for a moment, realizing that he had to explain everything. "Iwentouttogogetajobtomakesurewehadenoughmoneyandtotryandmakeyouhappywithme, soIhadtolooklikeawomansoIusedanextrarazortoshave, andthenIcameacrossthemakeupcaseandusedsomebecauseIdidn'tknowwhoseitwas, andthenIfoundajobandthenIcamebackhomeandhidtheuniform, andthenIfoundthepictureintheclosetandeverythingmadesense, andthatwaswhyIwassick," he said it all in one breath, hiding his face in his knees again.

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