Catch Me If I Fall
by AB
Chapter 9
Bits and Pieces Of Proof and Reason
"I'm anxious about this night sailing lesson." Andronicus and Vasilis were walking down the port to the sailing school, holding hands as they had done for almost three months now. Ever since that day at school they never stopped holding hands. At first a lot of the villagers had looked at them with either scorn, indifference or by ignoring their very presence but as time passed most of them softened up to the young couple. Seeing them being young, in love and with the exception of being gay being no different than the other teenage couples on the island.
"Yes, I know, you've told me like a hundred times already." Vasilis laughed. "You'll do great, stop worrying." He rubbed his fingers on Andronicus' palm squeezing it gently.
"Yes, I know, but still… I am anxious okay!?" Andronicus whined.
Vasilis looked around and pulled him off to an alley where he proceeded to hold the boy's face in his hands and rub their lips together enticingly before sucking Andronicus' breath from his mouth with a wet, sloppy, passionate kiss.
Andronicus held him from his waist as they kissed and kissed and kissed.
"You know you've been putting your cake and honey in me but I have yet to put mine in yours." Andronicus whispered. Vasilis blushed.
"Yes, that'll happen. I just can't seem to get enough of yours, ever." Vasilis replied.
"I'll be late for the sailing lesson… " Andronicus said but made no move to leave.
"I'm not stopping you… " Vasilis nibbled on his lower lip.
"You are kissing me, same thing." Andronicus pulled him closer.
"We continue like this I'll have to squeeze my sausage in your buns right here and now." Vasilis whispered in his ear.
"You started it… " Andronicus moaned and against his desire he pushed Vasilis back straightening his clothes.
"It's your fault for being so god damn sexy."
Andronicus poked his tongue at him and started walking.
He took his seat and pulled out his book and text pad. An hour of theory later they were in the sea. Vangelis explaining them about beacons, night sailing and so on. Vasilis waited for him to finish his lesson and then they went to Andronicus' house. His mother was not pleased that they continued to go out together in this fashion but she knew now that she could not force Andronicus to break it off and so she stayed in the sidelines.
"Finally Friday… I'll go have a quick shower and then we can play some FIFA?" Andronicus asked removing his clothes.
Vasilis looked over scanning him quite overtly and purposefully. "Yeah, sure we could do that… " His voice trailed.
Andronicus blushed at the intense scrutiny and walked in the bathroom.
He turned on the water, adjusted the temperature and stepped in the bathtub.
He begun with rinsing his hair and face and was about to rub over his chest when he felt a cold breeze and a second later someone stepped in the bathtub behind him. He felt hands snaking to his flaccid almost four-inch dick and around his chest.
"Or we can do this." Vasilis whispered in his ear and started a slow jerking off motion with his hand.
Andronicus moaned softly and meandering his hand between their bodies he wrapped his slender fingers around Vasilis' rigid soldier giving it a good squeeze.
"Ya… " Andronicus let out and moved his butt back pushing Vasilis' hard penis between his buns. "You were saying something about buns and sausages earlier?" He breathed wiggling his buns.
"You little minx, have you any idea how much you turn me on?" Vasilis brought his hand down from Andronicus' chest and took hold of one of two hips. Squeezing it he brought their two bodies together.
Andronicus pushed his ass back with Vasilis pushing forward and Vasilis found himself dickhead deep inside the love of his life.
They groaned softly with Vasilis rocking back and forth.
"I am no minx but you turn me on so much as well and I bet you I can make you cum at will." Andronicus wiggled his pert behind.
Vasilis groaned. "I doubt it… " Whatever he intended to say was lost as Andronicus constricted his anal muscles as if he had not taken a dump in weeks. His sphincter held the impaling member in a vice like grip. Vasilis blew his cork lodged in Andronicus' anus slamming his hips back and forth like a jackrabbit in heat.
"Oh my fucking god!" Vasilis yelled as he orgasmed inside Andronicus, his hand rapidly stroking Andronicus who did not last long and sprayed his offerings to the cascading shower water.
It took them a moment to catch their breath. They soaped each other up and rinsed off before drying each other up.
"Vasili… it looks like Iraklis is uploading stuff in google drive." Andronicus had exited the bathroom first and turned on the computer.
"Weird, I don't remember seeing this picture of you before?" Vasilis asked him as he sat down.
"Dunno, it's always been there, it's the only one I have of me and dad… before he broke up with mum." Andronicus replied taking the framed picture from Vasilis looking it over.
"He's not blond." Vasilis stated.
"No, neither is mum, I guess I took from one of two grandparents." Andronicus shrugged.
"Yeah… I guess." Vasilis said and lifted a leg to put his underwear on.
"Looks like Iraklis has left a message in Skype. He wants us to video call the group before opening anything he uploaded earlier. Shall I call him now?"
"Well we aren't dressed but what the heck." Vasilis chuckled.
Andronicus poked his tongue out and pressed the video call button on the group.
It didn't even get to ring and they could see Iraklis, a few seconds later Fraggos' and Iasonas' faces appeared through their web-cameras.
"Hey… " Iasonas waved, he looked positively mirthful. Iraklis chuckled with Fraggos slapping his forehead.
"Honestly now? Iasonas, Andronicus… fuck all of you looked like you've just gotten laid! I need a girlfriend!" Iraklis teased them.
"Why would you say that 'cause two of them are also at least half naked?" Fraggos jested.
"So what's up?" Vasilis asked.
The mood on Iraklis face changed in an instant. He took a couple deep breaths before he started speaking.
"You guys know how I like reading conspiracy theories even if I don't necessarily believe them right?"
"Yeah, we know." Andronicus replied.
"Well… I've sort of been running a crazy idea on my head… and I've been trying to find proof of either proving it true or false, it's why I have not been as active in google drive lately."
"What idea?" Iasonas' curiosity peaked.
"The idea that… the wreck was not an accident." Iraklis said, swallowing hard.
"Come on… what are you saying? That someone purposefully sabotaged the ferry? For what reason?" Vasilis tried rebuking the very notion.
"I think… if I am correct to cover up Pavlos' rape." Iraklis was almost pale white and anyone who could see his face could easily tell he was not kidding around.
"Show… show us what you found… you found something didn't you? I mean why else tell us now?" Vasilis almost ordered him.
"Okay… so open the google drive and go into our folder, then into the new folder I created "Wreck proof"." Iraklis told them. They all hurried about to open their browser and then google drive's link.
Once there they waited for Iraklis to continue.
"So… It wasn't easy and I could not find concrete proof but I'll show you what I did find." He took a breath and told them to open a file.
"This is a newspaper article I found. It shows how the ship owner company had won several awards that year for those ferry boats, on customer service, speed of travel between Ydra and Athens and finally for their exemplary service of their ferry boats." He waited for them to read the article, then he had them open another file.
"So next I found this article that the storm had caught them off guard but there was not much they could do because of some "technical problem" that the article does not name because the case or the information were not released to the press." He continued to present them with what information he had found until only one file remained.
"This is all… this, I mean… it doesn't prove much of anything except maybe that the captain of the ferry had the worst possible luck on the planet?" Vasilis still tried to cling on the belief that the wreck had been a horrible accident.
Andronicus could sense his discomfort and squeezed his hand under the table comfortingly.
"I know so I… if my father ever finds out I'll probably be grounded for the rest of my life but I used his coast guard credentials to access the coast guard's mainframe. I found that file left in there. It is the folder of the investigation that followed the wreck. It is still open and cold." He waited until everyone had opened it.
"I made copies of copies and did my best to delete anything that could back-trace this to my dad's computer or to us seeing it. It shows that the captain had declared SOS to the coast guard immediately when the rudder failed."
"Wait, the rudder failed? How does that happen on such a boat? I mean everything is run by a computer no? And that was never released to the public." Vasilis spoke in clear worry.
"Yes, it was never released to the public or the media because it is still an active case even if cold. They don't know how or why, the way the boat fell on the reef it destroyed the propeller and rudder almost completely and to such an extent that with the destruction of the boat's computer system because of the water prevented them from discovering if the rudder had been tempered with. In his last communication the captain had told the coast guard that the checks before leaving the port had shown no errors. The coast guard verified this with the ship owner company with their authentication codes and event log from their operations' center. Furthermore, when the storm hit them the captain, a seasoned sailor with more than twenty-five years of experience, did everything he knew and could to steer the boat without the rudder and keep them afloat until the coast guard and any other vessel around could provide aid. The captain knew of the reef from the naval charts and previous experience and the boat's GPS showed clearly that he tried his best to avoid it entirely but because of the storm and the rudder's failure he was unable to. After the ship ran aground on the reef he and the crew followed procedure to the letter but because it was night, cold and with gale force winds and rain the passengers that did not die from drowning because they did not manage to get out from inside the boat died from hypothermia or crashed on the rocks by the waves. Only eleven passengers managed to live long enough to be rescued by the coast guard and a huge container ship that was nearby and positioned itself in such a way as to provide calm water for the coast guard ship to do their jobs." Iraklis took a breath and continued.
"There were some parts that my father did not have clearance to view, something about a coast guard officer being on board the boat and two more pages I could not view. Look I cannot prove it but… I think someone sabotaged the rudder in hopes of the storm catching the ferry in open sea and sinking it to cover the rape of Pavlos. I cannot prove it but I do not think that your aunt was leaving your uncle that night. I think she was going to Athens to get Pavlos tested in a hospital and then proceed to Piraeus police department where Ydra belongs to name who the rapist was and move the legal system along for whatever would be next. I think the rapist learned of it and did all he could to prevent it."
Vasilis had gone ghost white. "But… that would mean… I mean… my aunt, cousin, so many loved ones lost from Ydra in that wreck...I think I'm going to be sick… "
Iraklis was not over. "Andronicus… what do you know of your grandparents' deaths?"
"Not much, why? I know that they died in an accident… car crash I think mum said once?"
"No… they were in that ferry… you, me, Fraggos, Iasonas and Vasilis are all connected, the wreck connects us, Fraggos and Vasilis their cousins and Iasonas' mum and my dad were two of those eleven that survived."
"No, I am pretty sure they died in a car crash… " Andronicus said, his face a grimace mix of surprise and denial. His mother would not have lied to him about this would she?
"Andronicus… I'm really sorry, I mean I… I shouldn't have to be the one to tell you this but… here's the passenger manifest from that wreck. I logged in from my father's account, he's a coast guard officer."
"WHAT? Are you an idiot? The coast guard will know, and your father… " Vasilis started saying but Iraklis cut him off.
"Will you relax? You've taught me better than this, I did not print this from my father's account and it's not strange for him to view it, he had viewed this like a hundred times in the past. I mean our fathers were best friends." He told Vasilis. "It was not strange that he looked at that case file containing the passenger manifest. So I took screenshots of the thing from the prtsc button in the keyboard, pasted them to Microsoft paint and uploaded those after removing all metadata and personal info data from the properties. We're good." Iraklis concluded grinning.
"Oh ok, I did train you guys well." Vasilis grinned back.
Andronicus read the manifest and bolted out of the room before Vasilis could even react. "Guys I'll call you back later."
Andronicus walk-ran to his mum's room and burst in without even knocking.
"Wha… " She did not even manage to get a single word out.
"Why did you lie to me, us? Grandma and Grandpa did not die in a car crash, they died in the naval wreck here in Ydra. Why lie to me?" His voice full of anger and accusation.
Her jaw hung for a moment before she could reply.
"I… I am sorry, at the time you were so young… I did not tell you that they died in a car crash, you were very young and just told you that they had gone to a long journey. Then later on when you asked again I did not tell you that, you sort of filled the gaps." She spoke calmly, too calmly.
"Why not tell me and Christina the truth?"
"Christina knows, she always has."
"Then… why… ?"
"I do not know why she never told you."
"Why should I? Not in my job fucking description." Christine had heard it all. She threw in her comment, shrugged in deathly apathy and walked away.
"What else are you lying to me about then?" Andronicus continued.
"What? Nothing. Why would I lie to you?" She rebutted him, there was worry in her eyes.
"I don't know… this is so fucked up… " Andronicus just turned and left. This had happened so fast that Katerina had not even thought to ask how or from where Andronicus learned of this.
Andronicus closed and locked the door to his room behind him. He sat next to Vasilis and hugged him. Vasilis just let him enjoying their close proximity, he always loved snuggling with Andronicus and enjoying the heat of their bodies and the boy's smell wafting to his nostrils.
"This changes things, who would kill almost five hundred people just so he could kill a single person… and a child at that." Vasilis was not asking Andronicus. He was just voicing his thoughts which troubled him.
"Must have been whoever raped Pavlos… he probably sank the boat to silence the whole matter forever." Andronicus replied.
"How do we find him? Our search so far has turned up so little. It is down to only three people who could have done this, the rape I mean, and things are not moving fast enough… "
"Yes, but now we have more information to cross reference from. Whoever it was it must have been someone who had enough access to Pavlos to be able to do this without getting caught, someone who had probably done this before either here in the island or elsewhere, and he must have had intimate knowledge on the workings of a ferry such as this to be able to sabotage it, also time is a factor, the ferry would have docked for no more than twenty, thirty minutes at the port, unloaded and loaded passengers, at the most, he must have known where to go, and what to alter and be out of the ferry before it departed, and all that with people coming and going… there can't have been many males like that in Ydra that left after the wreck and he couldn't have left before as he would have to have physically done this, training someone else to do it would have taken too much time and effort." Andronicus surmised.
"Yeah… I think you're right but we have no access to databases and what little we have access to like social profiles is giving up a lot less information than I would have thought of." Vasilis rubbed his forehead displaying his frustration at the slowness and ineffectiveness of their so far effort.
"Makes sense doesn't it?" To Andronicus the answer was self-evident.
"How so?" It was not so to Vasilis though.
"Well, think about it, you're an adult guy, you like raping kids and you have just sabotaged a ferry boat full of almost five hundred people, would you even have social profiles? Would you not be more than a little paranoid and careful about what info you display online?" Andronicus elaborated.
It was as if a light bulb had turned on in Vasilis' mind. "Yes! So perhaps I… we should search not for what is online but for what isn't."
"Now you have lost me again, just when I think I've outsmarted you." Andronicus teased him.
"As you said, we cross-reference what information we have, names, dates and so on with what information is not available online. If someone doesn't have social profiles, and/or he has very little digital footprint then something's off. Let me recall the others." Vasilis Skype called the rest of their little conspiracy.
Andronicus and Vasilis spent ten minutes completing each other's sentences explaining what they had come up with.
"Aww, you guys are cute, you even complete each other's sentences now." Fraggos teased them grinning.
Andronicus poked his tongue at him and Frenched Vasilis who looked mighty happy.
"Only problem now is I don't want to overdo it at coming and going to Athens on daily trips, it costs like fuck and eventually my mum will catch on to what I'm doing or worse the police will, hacking ain't exactly legal."
"Oh! I remembered what I've wanted to tell you earlier." Iraklis exclaimed. "There is a young coders' campus conference, seminars and so on during Easter's second week. Perhaps you could attend it, you'll be in a hotel wifi, I am sure you could...uhm "Creatively acquire access" to databases or anything else there without anyone knowing it was you. Here let me give you the notification I got from Facebook."
"What!? How did I not know about this!?" Vasilis nearly screamed. He opened the link Iraklis sent him. "Oh it's in Thessaloniki, great I haven't been there, five days, cool! Yeah, I'll sell the idea to my mum. They continued talking for some time until Andronicus started yawning and said he was tired.
Time seemed to fly as Easter was almost on them.
"Mum, I've been thinking, I want to transform the second floor to a semi-autonomous apartment. I mean I'll be eighteen years old in a couple of years and I'll be coming and going to uni. And I really want my space even now, so I've been thinking of having a bedroom, a bathroom and an extra space for living room and attached small kitchen with a hatch for the stairs. Doesn't all have to be done instantly, I mean we can do the bedroom now, the bathroom maybe later and I can work on the living room on my own and in two years or so we do the kitchen and a separate door to outside." Vasilis told him mum during lunch one night.
She looked at him, scanning him on how much he had changed and how fast it all seemed to be going. Sixteen years ago she was breastfeeding him and now he was asking for almost adult autonomy. His enthusiasm made her feel a certain sad joy. Her little boy was not so little anymore.
She nodded her approval. "We can start cleaning up the second floor and attic then, transport what we want to keep to the basement storage and throw away the rest, meanwhile you need to decide what colours you like, you need to gather the money to purchase them, I won't purchase everything, you want autonomy you need to work for it as you will when you start working for a living. I'll pay for the plumbing and such. We have a spare sofa in the basement storage you can use for the living room." She told him making him beam at her as he stood up and walked round the table and hugged her.
"Thank you! Come on I'll start by washing the dishes and then we can go up and start now. I can transfer my… "
"Vasili, calm down, we won't start now, it's almost ten in the evening. Tomorrow we'll start by emptying the basement from what we don't want to keep, then we'll empty the second floor and attic, then we'll need to bring the plumber for the bathroom and electrician to look things over and then you'll have to buy the paint and your friends can help you paint the whole thing up. After that you can move your stuff there."
Vasilis sighed. "Okay… I guess… "
"But since you offered you can wash the dishes." She told him and left the kitchen before he could protest.
The night could not pass fast enough, school could certainly not finish fast enough, he ran back home, had a shower and waited for his mum to return home from the store.
"For real now, as you would say, have you thought of anything else all day?" His mum chuckled.
"No, now hurry up already!"
"Calm your horses, let me have a shower and grab something to eat." Vasilis spent the next half hour pacing up and down in the living room waiting for his mum to finish up.
Taking a few large garden rubbish black coloured bags they climbed down to the moist, dark, cold basement.
"Okay, so left corner there are all of grandparents' stuff, we'll start from there, the furniture we'll keep and if you like any of it you can have now or later. Then right corner there are your dad's stuff, we'll leave that alone for now, the rest of the room I don't even remember what is what so we might uncover a few good things and a lot of junk. Just show me everything and you can start putting the junk in the bags and taking them outside, okay?"
Vasilis nodded and pushed his long sleeves above his elbows.
They started working, removing the white sheets from the furniture and dusting them, then his mother and he would look everything over and decide if one or both of them wanted to keep something, if not Vasilis would throw it in a bag, when a bug filled up he would take it outside and leave it by the garbage bin for the municipality truck, one of few motor vehicles allowed in the island, could pick them up.
They made a break for Vasilis to finish his homework and Vivi to get some rest.
"Mum! I'm going down to continue." He yelled at her and descended the basement's stairs.
He gazed at the corner where his grandparents' stuff where. They had almost finished going through that corner of the room. Gazing around he saw the pack of things his mum had told him they were his dad's. For some reason all these years now he had never come down to look those over. Not that his mum had forbidden it or anything but the thought had not crossed his mind. His mum had told him that they would leave those for now, but that did not mean he could not search through them a bit, may he could find a picture of his father or a memento he could put up in his desk and/or room, perhaps his medals from his service in the military navy or coast guard.
He lifted the white sheet and viewed what was there. There looked to be three rather large, metal and wood chests. Two of them were locked with a heavy, iron cast padlock each. The third was also locked but the key was forgotten on it. Vasilis unlocked it, removed the padlock and opened the heavy rusted, iron lid.
There were various pictures of his father inside, alone, with his mother, parents, with him. He picked those he liked the most, then underneath them he found several letters with "To Vivi, my love." On them, love letters to his mother, he thought from when he was on a ship, back then they had no internet or emails or mobile phones, so letters like these were how people communicated. His mum had probably kept them out of sentimental value.
He left them aside without opening them and a different envelope held his attention. This one was newer, much newer, for one thing the "To Vivi and Romanos." Were not handwritten but printed, then the envelope itself looked new, not more than five or ten years old. Finally, why would his father address his mother and his uncle at the same time?
He opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside. It was handwritten in his father's handwriting and the yellowed paper had various stains on it.
Vasilis read the letter and understood that the stains were actually tears as Niki was writing the letter.
By the end of it he was shaking in silent rage. He heard his mother's voice in the distance.
"No! Don't read that!" She sounded anxious, in fact in full despair.
He looked at her, a blank desolate look on his face, his fists by his sides vibrating with energy.
He swallowed hard as he met her gaze. She took a step back at the intensity of the anger displayed in his eyes.
"You… you knew, all this fucking time you knew and did NOTHING!? This proves his innocence, and you've allowed him and the WHOLE FUCKING ISLAND TO BELIEVE HE DID THIS!?" Vasilis could barely control his emotions.
"Yes. What would you have me do? I have no other evidence Thanos did anything, the only rape victim that we know of lies inside a watery grave, all evidence of any wrong-doing lie with him and this letter would not be accepted in a court of law or even by the police to even start an investigation even if I paid or threatened them. What would you have me do? Show this to Romanos? He would have needed no evidence. He would have marched into Thanos' house and beaten or strangled him to death. What good would have that done? There would still be no evidence and he would be in jail for murder. What good would that have done? All those old or young bitches that gossiped him and riled the rest of the island would have had actual evidence of wrong doing and things might have gone so bad we might have had the need to leave the island altogether. Go on then, you fashion yourself almost an adult, show me then what an adult you are, what would you have done in my stead? You are a single mother now, your husband dead, your brother accused without evidence of raping his own child, your child is not even a teen, what would you have done?" Surpassing her initial state of shock at seeing her son being so angry at her and the knowledge that he now knew what she knew and spoke firmly at her.
There was a lengthy, stale silence between them before Vasilis attempted to speak.
"I… Romanos has gone so long thinking… he lives in exile for fuck's sake."
"Yes, and that was all I could do for him, have you any idea what I had to do to get him that job?"
".." Vasilis breathed. "Why not tell him now? Why not show this… "
"Show him the letter? With Thanos back? He'll kill him still. His anger will not have been tempered by a few meagre years. Show the letter to who? The villagers? It means nothing to those that gossip, it is not legal proof, anyone can say I forged Niki's handwriting and wrote the letter myself."
"This is not fair!" Vasilis exasperated.
"No, it is not. But this is what being an adult is. Life throws shit at you and you have to react not with emotion but with logic and do the most with what each situation has instore for you. You think that being an adult is drinking, fucking and having fun? Think again mister."
"I… I need some air." He told her and stormed out of the basement still holding on to the letter.
Vivi tried to stop him but he just shook her hand away and left.
He run in autopilot to Andronicus' house and rang the bell erratically, constantly.
Christine answered the door looking vexed.
"I am not in mood for your usual shit, let me in I know Andronicus is here." Vasilis declared to her before she could open her mouth.
"I will not be talked to like this by a filth like you. Go away." She raised her hand, presumably to slap him. The look on his face stopped her.
"Go on, do that." His voice barely above a whisper. She stepped aside seething.
He walked up the stairs, Andronicus found him mid-stairs.
"What is it? You look awful."
"Ca… can you please come with me… I need to talk to someone and you are the only one I can think of… " Vasilis whispered to him.
"Sure, my room?"
"No… come with me." Vasilis grabbed his hand and lead him outside, to the far side of the port, past the old admiralty and right at the end of the pier. They sat on the huge rocks placed there to break the waves.
Neither of them spoke for a while before Vasilis extended his hand and gave Andronicus the letter. Andronicus read it before looking up with tears streaming down his now swollen eyes.
"Why… " The question left unasked was the same Vasilis had asked his mum.
"Doesn't matter anymore, but we have… we know who did it. This changes everything, no more searching blind for who raped my cousin, for who killed all these people. Only problem now is that I know for a fact that Thanos doesn't know shit about boats or engineering. He has never worked a day in his life, has lived so far by spending his parents' money and he dropped out of university where he was studying literature. He doesn't even know how to sail much less how to sabotage something as complicated as a ferry boat in twenty to thirty minutes without anyone finding out. And how did he found out about Niki and my father… she lied about that as well, my father did not die in a coast guard drill gone wrong, he drowned in that wreck… how did Thanos learn of this when my father used a fake name to book the tickets?"
"There are only so many professions or categories of people who could have had access to Pavlos… did Pavlos do any sports? A teacher perhaps?"
"No, the teachers so far as I can remember have all been women, Pavlos had swimming lessons and… " Vasilis paused as if something or someone had hit him in the head.
"What?" And?"
"Sailing lessons… "
"Vangelis would never… "
"No, he wouldn't but he came here after the wreck, after the old instructor left. In fact I know for a fact that he left the very next day after the wreck without even saying why or leaving a message, two weeks later a truck came from a moving company with the keys to his house and a legal document authorizing them to open up and move his things to a new undisclosed location. The old instructor had also served in the military and before and after had partaken to sailing races. He would have all the knowledge he would have needed to do this."
"But why? What would...oh he was the second man?"
"Who else? He brought Pavlos to Thanos or Thanos to the sailing club after hours, somehow convinced Pavlos to stay and… "
"Then why not also… "
"Maybe he liked to watch as someone else raped a kid, made him cry… how the fuck should I know… but it makes sense doesn't it?"
"Yes, how do we prove it? 'Cause so far it is only the speculations of two teenagers."
"Oh, now I know exactly where and what to look for. When I go to that campus I know which databases to hack and my coding internet friends can and will help me once I show them what we have found and the letter… I won't even have to ask."
They stayed there in silence Andronicus hugging him close, until it got dark and col.
"Can you please spend..."
"Yes, of course." Andronicus answered the unasked question.
They walked back home, ate mostly in silence, Vasilis mostly still in shock.
"Is there a picture of Pavlos, we've been doing this for him as well all these months and I still don't know what he looks like." Andronicus asked Vasilis when in his bedroom.
"Yes, sure, I found some old pictures of me and him earlier today." Vasilis searched through the pictures he had found earlier and brought up to his room and found one.
He handed it over to Andronicus who looking at it gasped.
"That...that's me… " Vasilis looked at the picture, its' colours fade by time it was one of him, Pavlos and another boy. They were in their speedos, in one of the island's beaches looking up at the camera grinning. They looked wet, happy and carefree.
"That's the boy… the first boy I had feelings for, even if I did not understand them at the time. Pavlos, he… was my first fantasy."
"Iraklis was right, we are all connected and those who did this will pay."
Andronicus nodded before hugging him.
They were connected by their past and they would make Thanos and his partner in crime pay.
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