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Life is like a revolving door. People and places you know, come in, and sometimes they stay awhile. Other times, they leave quicker than they came. Sometimes, you're the one that goes in. And you come out in a different place too.[break][break]

A perfumery, picking up an order for a client. The easiest pick-up imaginable, a barely hi-and-hello to the worker there with that Tracey with the ass, and bam. Delivery mode. That's how it should of been. A simple pick-up.[break][break]

Life is hardly simple. Because sometimes, in that revolving door, you can see someone you used to know. Who used to know you too.[break][break]

The door jingles, his buddy having told him of the hot new brunette working at Sweet Scentery. Pushing down his shades, he takes that one step in, and makes that stride over quickly to the front, when she steps out-[break][break]

He freezes. His shades fall off the bridge of his nose, clattering onto the tiled floor. Suddenly, he's little Wyatt Rodgers again, the neighbor boy from elementary school who hated cooties from girls. Suddenly, he's the high school prom date, holding flowers in a hand, and a dainty hand in the other with no care to win prom king. Suddenly, he's the shut-in the station, the arsonist of Kanto that burned his house down still at large, the dying whispers of his parents filling his ears.[break][break]

"Selene."[break][break]

He wouldn't forget.[break][break]

Sometimes, the revolving door picks the wrong moment, and all you're left with is a helping of PTSD so heavy that it buries your parents all over again at the funeral.[break][break]

For the first time, he's on the backfoot. He hasn't felt this way in a long time. He's always so careful to stay in control of himself. He looks like that same teenager who was too scared to talk to girls. Sheepish.[break][break]

"You look good. I uh... I'm just here for an order."

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Yup. The revolving door of life, an endless labyrinthine comedy. A reminder how many times he'd watched it turn. How many turns he put in it. No matter how many times, somehow they turned here. The clock nears 30, and they're both just...[break][break]

Here.[break][break]

It's hard not to think of all his mistakes. Mistakes and failure are a part of life, as is chances and success. It's a matter of rolls, like a pair thrown in Monopoly. Sometimes, it lands on Boardwalk. Sometimes it lands on free parking. And sometimes...[break][break]

Sometimes, it's bankruptcy from that one asshole's hotel.[break][break]

"Cool," he leans down, to snatch up his shades. "Cool cool." His hands go into his pockets. Miss Linda's order on the the docket, ready to be taken. And all Wyatt can do... is stand there, like an idiot, unable to speak. His tongue tied.[break][break]

"You moved to Hoenn?"[break][break]

It's me or them. Her voice, ice in his veins like a dagger to bleed him dry. Unfortunately, coming off of a funeral, those words only had one answer.

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She clears her throat, she smiles. That night, years ago. He had asked her, and high school wasn't the same. Her smile, that autumn night before the winter solstice, he held the world in his hand.[break][break]

And then it was ripped from him in an instant. And he felt anger.[break][break]

"That tracks," he comments. He's rubbing his neck. An offer to move to Kalos with her, or to stay in Kanto and burn people the way they burned him... now, that answer would be easy, but back then, his anger controlled him. His temper made him worse.[break][break]

"Little bit ago. There was a... conflict of interest." The simplest answer, but not the fully correct one. He puts his shades back on, pushing them up. He doesn't need her eyes staring him down. The shame he felt now tore at his heartstrings. And now he felt mad, at himself. A dream of what could have been.[break][break]

"Perfume though... fits you. You uh, always did smell good." Maybe he just forgot he had gone to college. Or maybe, he just wanted to not remember his childhood much at all right now.

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Man. Wyatt really hated revolving doors sometimes.[break][break]

It must have been one of the worst days for her. He decided on revenge in fury over forgiveness in love, and he wasn't to blame there. In fact, he still doesn't think his decision was wrong. For her, it was like watching her boyfriend march to an early grave, because he couldn't see straight. All he wanted back then was fire.[break][break]

He'd told Yuina Higashi it once. Who you are is ingrained in what you do, and vice versa. That's what defines us as people. His mistake engulfed him in fire. How it got him in trouble with everyone around him. But, due to his own death wish, he constantly put himself in the flame. Was it a hope that a stray bullet would get him? Rocket deserved to burn. Maybe if it did get him, his parents could tell him good job one last time, and he could close his eyes.[break][break]

Her compliment wasn't on deaf ears, but it was making him quiet. How he wishes he could make up for it. But that's Wyatt the teenager's problem. Part of maturity... is not being able to change the way things are now.[break][break]

Three sample strips in his hands, he sniffs. "Hey, this is sandalwood." He looked down at it, the second one having caught his eye. "Just like-" His father's.[break][break]

"..." He pushes the shades closer to his eyes, making sure to grab a hand that might try to pull them off. "Hm. Rainy day."[break][break]

Zero percent chance that day. Not a cloud in sight.

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Take it with him? In this weather? "I'll... I'm good. I have some at home." It wasn't a lie. When he finally let her wrist go, he wanted to do something else entirely.[break][break]

The mention of Miss Linda's order has him snap out of it, and he nods. "Yeah... I'll get to it." He wasn't going to show her his eyes. Not a chance. But as he grabbed not only the delivery, but the card, he would open his mouth just a second, before shutting it.[break][break]

"Good seeing you, Selene."[break][break]

He turned on his heel. With that revolving door behind him, the way out was clear. They'd cross paths this once, and then poof. It's over. No more. He'd forget again, not addressing it, and walking on. Continuing his one-man League-less war on Rocket.[break][break]

When he steps out of the store, he sees the card.[break][break]

"..." Normally, getting a beautiful lady's number was a triumph. It only felt worse, knowing it was a beautiful lady who he smashed the heart of already. He ponders to toss it in the trash. And pockets it instead.[break][break]

He rubs at his eyes under the shades. What a rainy day.

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