[Phone post]

[tidalwaves]

[Riiing, riiiing...

Send Marie a text, or leave him a voicemail. Put the time and date in the subject line.]

Comments

[tidalwaves]

[Slowly, Marie brought his arms up and hugged himself, trying to feel as small as possible. He briefly thought about how nice it would be if he could make himself so small he'd simply disappear, but his loud and angry thoughts took over.

His name sounded wrong on Vinnie's tongue. But he wasn't M anymore. No matter how much Vinnie wanted to insist, Marie knew he wasn't the Venusaur's brother anymore. He had other brothers. Real brothers. Brothers who could understand him and comfort him on a level that Marie would never have been able to compare to. No matter how many years he spent pretending they were actually brothers.

His throat burned, his head ached. Marie told himself Vinnie wasn't worth the tears. He could tell himself that all he wanted, though, it didn't stop Marie from choking out a sob and crying. For a split second, he imagined how nice it would feel to have Vinnie hug him. Thinking that just made him angrier, and made him cry harder.

And I'm sorry. ...]

Yeah. You should be.

[punchtheflowers]

[Vinnie bowed his head, and his gaze fell down onto the grass. He didn't have words to express how sorry he was right now, that he was the one responsible for Marie's tears. That being close to him right now would only make things worse.

But he steeled his gut and held back, forcing himself to hold fast onto the conviction that brought him to this point. Leaving the team was something he had to do. He had to keep moving forward, or he'd just keep falling down the same pitfalls over and over.

It was a long and hard journey to overcome the pitfall of misunderstanding strength. Maybe... in time, Marie would grow to understand him.

He could only hope - though right now, it was not a strong one.]

I really am.

[Recognizing the stinging feeling in his eyes, Vinnie took a step backwards and blinked, hard. In a gesture that was not nearly as inconspicuous as he would've liked, he sniffed and rubbed his runny nose with the back of his wrist.

Another step, and then another, he backed away. Then, after a small glimmer of hesitation, the Venusaur ran off - desperately trying to keep his eyes from watering.]