———
They were 11 years old. On Dolores' bedroom floor, surrounded by a war zone of plastic limbs and broken swords.
Adonis, legs crossed and tongue poking out in focus, held a gleaming knight figure upright. He gave it a pompous voice, "Sir Luminar will now pass righteous judgement upon the fallen!"
Dolores squinted. "You sound like my dad during parent-teacher night."
"Then your dad must be awesome."
"He threatened to audit my teacher's grading system."
"Wait, why?"
Dolores, ignoring his question, scowled, crouching on the other side of the battlefield. His villain, a vaguely demon-looking robot thing with three arms and a cape made from tissue, was now pinned under Luminar's horse.
"You cheated," he muttered, "You used your dumb horse to jump over the fire pit."
"It's called creative strategy," Adonis said smugly, "And Sir Luminar has holy armor of clarity. That fire can't hurt him."
"It's my fire! Its mind-melting properties are God-level— meaning you can't just become immune to it."
"You didn't say that before."
"I'm saying it now."
Adonis paused, tilting his head, "Dolores. You always play the villain."
"So?"
"So," he adjusted his glasses, "You're, like, freaky good at it. Kind of terrifying, honestly. Always coming up with sneaky plans."
Dolores leaned forward, picking up his demon figure. "And you always think villains don't make sense, but they do. Luxferre— he was made in a lab and then betrayed by the kingdom. They said they wanted order, but they really just wanted control. So now he's getting revenge."
"Oh. Dang."
"Yeah."
Adonis frowned. "That's deep."
"I saw it in a movie once."
They were quiet for a second.
Then Adonis made a dramatic whoosh noise as Sir Luminar leapt off his horse. "But what if," he said, eyes gleaming, "They both think they're right? Like— Luminar isn't even the real good guy. He just believes he is."
Dolores raised an eyebrow, "That's what I declared like three weeks ago."
Adonis ignored him, "So they fight! Their ideals are different, but they're both good people. Justice versus justice. Then, they make up."
The other boy reached over and made Sir Luminar offer his hand to the demon. Dolores hesitated... then grunted and had his figure slap it away.
"Next time," Dolores said while blushing, "Maybe they fight, but they don't finish. Like... They disappear. And meet again later. On another world or something."
Adonis brightened, "Yes! And Luminar gets laser armor."
Dolores grinned faintly, "Lame. Demon gets a scythe made of screams."
"Disqualified. That's too cool."
They laughed, and the figures clashed again. Plastic limbs bent, the villain's cape tore, and Adonis insisted on playing dramatic background music with his mouth.
For all their bickering, Adonis never treated him like a freak. Never flinched when Dolores got weirdly intense, or said something too smart. Even when he was quiet.
He just rolled with it. Like Dolores was... normal. Like he wasn't the son of people who kept files Dolores wasn't allowed to open.
"Hey," Adonis said after a while, lying flat on the floor and lifting Sir Luminar toward the ceiling. "You think we'll still hang out like this when we're adults?"
Dolores blinked, "I guess. I'll probably have a jetpack."
"You'll probably fall off your jetpack and die."
"... Will you still play with action figures at my funeral?"
Adonis smirked, "No. But I'll steal your jetpack."
He laughed so hard at his own joke his glasses slid off his face. Dolores found himself laughing too, and they lay there for a while.
———
They weren't supposed to be up there.
The tin roof of the park's public washroom creaked beneath their weight as Dolores scooted forward. Wind tugged at his too-big hoodie, and he curled his toes over the ledge. Next to him, Adonis had his legs swinging freely over the edge, like he didn't care about falling at all.
The sky stretched wide and purple above them, the sun already dipping beneath the hills. The schoolyard below was empty, the shadows long. Dolores glanced over at Adonis and frowned, "You brought the wrong kind of chips."
"You're welcome," Adonis said with a grin, pushing his glasses up his nose. "They were on sale. Besides, it's all the same once it hits your bloodstream."
"You're confusing food with poison," Dolores made a face but still reached for one after taking and opening the bag, crunching it with theatrical bitterness. "Tastes like sadness."
"That's what you get for trusting me."
They sat in silence for a while after that. Comfortable. Dolores liked that about Adonis— he didn't make him talk. Didn't fill silence with fake laughter or questions about his parents. And unlike everyone else at school, he never tried to act cooler than he was. He just was. Glasses, chipped tooth, bad haircut, and all.
Dolores tilted his head, studying him, "You ever think about what you wanna be when you're older?"
"Tall and muscular!" Adonis said instantly.
Dolores blinked. "That's not a career."
Adonis flopped onto his back with a dramatic sigh. "Fine. I guess a vet? Or maybe a game developer. I wanna make something weird, like a horror game but with, like, emotional damage and talking animals."
"You already have emotional damage." Dolores offered helpfully.
"Exactly! I'm halfway qualified."
Dolores gave a now rare laugh, short, soft— and Adonis turned to grin at him like it was the best thing he'd heard all day.
"You laugh like Luxferre just lost again." Adonis said.
"He never loses." Dolores replied.
A few seconds pass.
"What about you?" Adonis asked, quieter now.
"I don't know." Dolores hugged his knees. "... I think... I just want to move out of town?"
Adonis squinted. "Your house freaks me out sometimes."
Dolores went still.
"I'm not saying that to be mean," Adonis said quickly, "It just... it's too clean. And your parents always talk like they're in a science movie. I swear I heard your dad say something about 'nerve restructuring' once. What does that even mean?"
Dolores looked down at his hand, now tracing spirals on the roof. "They're just... like that."
Adonis didn't press. Instead, he shifted closer, took a chip from the bag, and raised it to Dolores' mouth. The latter ate it without looking.
After a moment, Adonis reached over and lightly pushed his arm.
"Ow."
"Tag. You're it."
Dolores blinked. "We're on a roof, idiot."
"You said that last time, and then I won."
"You fell."
"You were still the last one it."
Dolores groaned but stood up anyway, chasing Adonis in slow-motion laps around the perimeter of the roof. They weren't very fast, and they weren't very good at running on the roof, but for a few minutes, it didn't matter. There was just breathless laughter and wind in their faces.
At some point, they collapsed again, side by side. The last bit of sun slipped behind the clouds.
Adonis, still catching his breath, looked over, "Hey. Even if your parents are weird and scary and probably hiding a secret dungeon, you're not."
Dolores didn't answer right away. He didn't know how. So, he just nodded.
It was enough.
That was the last time they ever went up on the roof.
A few months later, Dolores started walking faster when Adonis called his name in the halls. Then he stopped replying to texts. Then he stopped making eye contact.
Adonis didn't push. He got the message. And somewhere along the way, he stopped being a skinny nerd with bad posture and turned into the golden boy everyone knew today. Even more charming, confident, and carefree.
But sometimes, Dolores still remembered the way Adonis looked at him on the roof that day.
He always saw him. And never looked away.
It was easy, back then. Before everything good turned into something dangerous.
He still remembered the way they'd built stories together. The ones where the villain wasn't always wrong, and the hero wasn't always right, and the world needed both of them to keep spinning.
He'd remember that last part most of all.
———