As soon as the door closed, Vinnie dropped onto his bed like a sack of hammers, hunched over the edge with his face in his hands. He sat like that for a long while, letting the day's events all catch up to him.

That horrible aching loneliness and the wretchedness of failure. A shining, unrequited love that had lasted a lifetime. They still echoed inside his chest, lost and aimless. No matter how often he repeated to himself that they weren't his, they seemed no less real - because the intensity of their presence had awakened similar feelings that already resided in the Venusaur's heart.

Self-loathing and the desperate need to be acknowledged. Fear of a love that couldn't be sustained. Now they too were fresh and new, thanks to the mistletoe.

For a while, Vinnie didn't say anything. He wasn't even sure how long it was before he could muster up five shaky, quiet words: "I'm sorry. I fucked up."