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Things hadn't gone the way he'd planned. They hadn't gone the way he had planned at all. And when it had come crashing down, it came down fast. 5 years, and now they were here. Knights. Defectors from the Negaverse. Far from living the life he had wanted for Ladon and himself.

In the end, this was where they were. In the end, Billy had at least been able to get through school, but instead of having the money to finally provide a comfortable life for the two of them, he was using his skills to help those having issues coping. Philanthropy was not a trait he kindly held, but in these times.... Well, there were more than a few people in need of a good psychiatrist.

He was lucky if he could at least keep a handful of real paying clients so that their bills, scant as they'd tried to keep them (A paper trail could be a horrible thing...) were paid, and food and other provisions were seen to. In the end, keeping things low-key, their heads down, and leaving few traces of themselves had been the name of the game. As defectors, they were wanted dead more than even the senshi, it seemed.

Over the years he had once again allowed his hair to get shaggy and lengthly, although he kept it slicked back out of his face, and he still kept a bit of chin scruff, but not much else had changed. 'cept for the knight thing. A knight of Uranus - he'd made more than a few crude jokes about that one.

Ahh~

Now he was home, flopped on the couch, one arm propped along the back, the other on the arm of the couch, and one foot up on the coffee table. He leaned his head back and sighed.

"We are staying in tonight."

Someone had hit their mental limit for the day. He was home, he was seated, not another thing was gonna get done, apparently. And it wasn't even Friday.

Billy groaned and covered his face with one of the couch pillows.

"We stay in and the dogs stay out~" Billy specified, words muffled by the pillow over his face.

The backyard of their home just outside of the city limits was fenced in for a reason. After all, the pups couldn't hog the bed all the time.

All in all though, he was quite tired. If not physically, then mentally. The problems of everyone were long and complicated, and he heard more than he wanted to hear. Ever. Some clients shared too much.

At the questioning of how his day had gone, Billy gave Ladon a look that was somewhere between incredulous and 'where do I begin?'

"Today was a walk-in day,"

Which was code for 'if you're Order, and you need to talk, get yo asses in here. You each get an hour.'

"This one page comes in, and I think it is gonna be the usual boo-hoo about his first kill or something. No. He's just 'agonizing' about whether he should tell his civiliain girlfriend. Both are 15, mind you. So I smacked him on the back of the head, told him to keep his trap shut, and shoved him out the door. And then..."

This went on for a while until Ladon would eventually be left face-palming. Or something to that effect at least.

"I just want to strangle them sometimes," He finished, making strangling motions in the air for emphasis.

He heaved a sigh.

"What about you?"

Billy sighed. It was a sad state of affairs that this city was in. And to think they had helped perpetrate that for so long... Perhaps it was punishment. Billy let a hand mess around in Ladon's hair.

"You know I'd take us away from here if I could," he said low, soft. Left unspoken was the fact that they had deserted the Negaverse, they couldn't then just desert Destiny City.

Because with Destiny City in the Negaverse's grip, and without Order's opposition and efforts, they would expand, until the whole world was its slave. No where on earth would be safe. For them, or the ones they cared about. Though it felt like they were doomed to that fate already...

Maybe in another time, another life, they could finally live together the way they were meant to - without war and heartache, without loss and scars. Even if they could turn the tides, they'd still be marred by war. So next time, perhaps next time, when the space cauldron saw fit to forge them anew....things would be right.

It was all the hope he had to cling to. Next time. Another life. A better life.

"Hmn..." Billy appeared to take a moment to consider, although they both knew he wouldn't say no. "I guess that depends on if you intend to deliver desert later, too."

And there it was. That look. Some things never changed, but then again...how long had it been since either of them wasn't working late, or just plain too exhausted to enjoy anything but sleeping in their bed? It had to have been over a month.... Two months. Almost three... Not that Billy kept track. Honestly he did good to know what day of the week it was anymore. At the very least it was nice to know that even through years and loss of memory, Billy held the same intense desire that had started their whole saga. Even if it was to be tempered with the more pressing need to insure their safety and well being...which was now in much greater jeopardy, being traitors an' all...

But staying in the Negaverse had simply not been an option, and it stung to think that all they had fought for back then...all the blood on their hands, had been for a lie. It would have been easy to stay, and just turn a blind eye. Then they would have been free, but not happy. Not happy at all. Billy had long held doubts in the Negaverse that began a little before a certain incident with the DMC and a collar, but he'd operated with a whole 'put up and shut up' mentality.

At first becoming a knight had felt liberating, but it was a short-lived bliss. Soon after the Negaverse's rise in power had crushed that. It had been, quite literally, the near-end of the world. And then they were caged. Caged and hunted, like animals in a game reserve. They couldn't leave. There was no where to go. Despair was easy to fall in to. In some ways Billy had given up, lending all his hope to another life, forsaking any of this one ever righting itself.

That's perhaps what made Ladon stronger than him. He hadn't quite given up yet. And that spurred Billy on. It made him put forth the effort to try to make a difference.

"Of course," he purred. And now he had another decision to weigh in on. Hmn...

As Knights, they couldn't have looked more opposite - and that was saying something, considering how polar opposite they were regardless - silver and black, pink and green, caramel and pale, but now Uranus and Saturn as well. One a middle-eastern desert dweller, and the other..okay, well the Victorian themes of Saturn weren't too far from what Wolframite had always been... Still, it was an amusing sight.

"Hmmm, well, why don't I make dinner for my Victorian gentleman?"

Their cabinets were well stocked now. Billy's job allowed them to live much more comfortably than they had before. Of course, they still couldn't spend all that lavishly, because that would only draw attention to them... Dangerous attention. But they could eat well, were clothed in more than thrift store bargains, and going out on a date wasn't going to break them.

"I was thinking herb chicken and gravy, with mashed potatoes. Buttered French bread maybe?"

Honestly, all Ladon had to say was that he'd already eaten, and Billy would have just warmed up some leftovers for himself instead - no worries. He didn't care so much for cookies and the like, so if Ladon wanted to pig out on those he could.

By the words 'something light,' Billy could already gauge that Ladon had already eaten. Billy, on the other hand, had never really stopped his habit of eating out of vending machines for lunch. So his little bag of chips and candy bar hadn't gone far.

What to do? Billy opted for the teasing route.

"Hmm, seems like someone's already eaten then, huh? With out meeee~"

"Cookies are not dinner~ How do you even get full from cookies? auuuugh," Billy headed in to the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator door to see what leftovers lay within.

Tuna? Perfect. Ladon could now take billy with stinky tuna breath as punishment.

Bill grabbed the tuna and then the bread off of the top of the fridge and set about making a couple sandwiches. Oh, bag of sour cream and onion chips? That works too.

Sandwhich made, he plopped back on the couch.

"I guess that just means tomorrow better be extra awesome," he continued to tease.