Chapter Text
“Oh, Mr. Lang, you must have me confused for someone else!”
Lang stares at him. His concussion must be worse than he realized. He was going to kill whatever doctor released him when he clearly had brain damage. But, right now, he had more pressing matters.
“Yuno, baby,” he steps toward the younger man like he’s a frightened deer, hands in a placating gesture. “You were at the hospital, you were ocean dumped and you’re confused, okay? Now, I just need to call—”
Yuno cocked his head. “No. Mr. Lang, you’re not listening to me. I wasn’t in the city last night or today. Whoever you saw wasn’t me. Maybe when they were ocean dumped, they forgot who they really were, I dunno. Maybe I have a copycat.”
Lang nods slowly. It wasn’t a bad theory… could he really have been fooled by a look-alike?
No.
There was no way.
…right?
Lang kneads his brow. “I’ll call the hospital and figure this out,” he sighs. His eyes flick up, meeting Yuno’s (presumably). “Are you staying here tonight?”
Yuno hums slightly. “I, uh— …sure… yeah, I’ll stay.” He fidgets, moving from foot to foot, barely concealing his urge to run around to burn off his excess energy. “I just gotta call this guy back then….”
“Yeah, yeah, you do that, baby. Night, Yuno,” Lang waves as he walks inside the house.
“Good night, Mr. Lang!” he calls out cheerfully.
~
Lang’s teeth ground together as he listened to the holding music on the other side of his phone. If they kept him waiting for one more minute, he’d—
“Hello, this is—,” the familiar voice of the doctor from earlier came on over the speaker.
“Why didn’t you call?” Lang snaps, cutting her off.
“Excuse me?”
“You released Yuno, but you didn’t call me.” Lang’s nails dug into the palm of his hand as he clenched it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir,” her voice rose with her irritation. “I told you, we are keeping Yuno overnight to monitor him.”
“Is he still there, then?”
“What? Of course,” she sighs sharply. “I’ll get someone to check his room so you will let this go.”
That cursed waiting music came on and Lang had to physically restrain himself from throwing his phone across the room.
After a moment, the doctor’s voice came back, but this time, she sounded rushed.
“Yuno is not here. One of the nurses said they saw him leave and thought he was already released so they didn’t say anything until now, I am so sorry, I don’t know how this happened.”
Lang forces himself to take a deep breath. “I’m coming back and I’m bringing Yuno,” he replied shortly before hanging up, not allowing the woman another chance to speak.
Lang throws his phone onto his bed and stalks out of his room. A quick glance out of the front window shows that Yuno isn’t outside anymore. The house is dark, and anyone inside is either asleep or pretending to be.
The sound of water catches Lang’s ear and he follows it to the end of the hall to the bathroom. It’s a half-bath and hardly anyone uses it but, hunched over the sink is Yuno, brushing his teeth. His helmet, jacket, and shoes are off and Lang can’t help but watch him from the shadows of the hall.
Yuno’s shorter than he is, with fluffy dark hair that he was sure would be soft to the touch and sparkling brown eyes that he hardly ever got a glimpse of and—
“Mr. Lang?” Yuno’s wiping his hands off on the towel hanging there.
“What’s up, baby.”
“…were you… were you watching me?” Yuno asks tentatively, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
Lang pressed his lips into a thin line, pulling his thoughts together. “We’re going to the hospital.”
“What?? Why?” Yuno splutters. “Is someone hurt? Are—are you hurt?”
“No,” Lang explains shortly. “We’re going to clear up this whole copycat situation.”
Yuno’s concerned expression falls away, leaving a more relieved, if not exasperated, one in its place. “I was about to go to bed; can we do this in the morning?” He’s finished putting away his toothbrush and toothpaste and busies himself wiping up water on the countertop.
“No,” Lang grumbles, “I want to get this over with n—”
Yuno yawns and Lang stops midsentence, eyes intent on his face.
“Fine. We’re going in the morning, eight o’clock, alright?”
Yuno bobs his head sleepily. “Alright, Mr. Lang. Good night, again,” he smiles.
Lang grunts in response. “Don’t forget about tomorrow.”
~
Yuno does not forget about the morning, but that doesn't mean they aren’t late.
It’s 8:43 when they finally leave and 9:30 when they finally get to speak to the doctor from the night before.
“We’ll do a quick examination of Yuno and match him to the files we have on database. We’ll just do weight, height, eye color, and blood type. Does that sound okay with you, Yuno?” She asked pointedly, not looking at Lang.
Yuno glances at Lang. “Uh, yeah.”
“Is that a yes? I want to clarify; you are consenting to a blood test as well as the other things I listed?” The doctor repeats.
Yuno straightens up. “Oh, yeah, I mean, yes.”
“Alright, if you just follow Patricia, she will get you started,” the doctor smiles as she motions Yuno to follow an older nurse out of the room.
Yuno doesn’t look back as he follows the woman out of the room. The doctor steps forward, cutting off Lang’s line of sight of the younger man.
“Again, I am really sorry about last night, I—”
“I won’t sue, stop apologizing,” Lang snaps.
The doctor lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Right. Well, I—,” she stops as Lang pulls a cigarette from his pocket, “excuse me, sir, you can’t smoke in here.”
Lang scoffs. “What, will it kill any of these sops any faster?”
The doctor glares. “No smoking indoors, that’s our policy.”
“Fine. Let’s talk this chat outside then,” Lang growls.
He doesn’t wait until he’s outside to light his cigarette, much to the doctor’s displeasure.
“You were saying…?” Lang leans against the wall, exhaling a plume of smoke.
The doctor looks exasperated as she taps her forehead, trying to trigger her train of thought.
“Oh, right. I asked around and the receptionist on duty last night said he saw a man wearing a bike helmet and a red jacket pick Yuno up.”
Lang’s brow furrowed. “Hm.”
The doctor stared. “Well, if that’s all, I’ve got work to do.”
“You said a red jacket and bicycle helmet? Do you have footage of this?”
The doctor shrugged. “We have cameras, but I haven’t seen them and before you ask, neither are you. You’d have to have a warrant for that and last I checked you’re no cop.”
“Thank heavens for that,” Lang muttered. “Thanks anyways, doc, you’ve been great.”
The doctor smiles slightly before disappearing back inside the building.
Yuno, or better called the copycat (unless the man Lang drove here today was the copycat…), left the hospital last night with a man in a helmet and red jacket. And his Yuno had been out of the city, returning sometime late yesterday, and with no knowledge of a hospital or an ocean-dumping.
Was there really another Yuno running around? Was it planned, or did he just get confused after his memory loss? Or was his Yuno so brain damaged, he had forgotten his trip to the hospital entirely?
Why had he been starving?
Worst of all, had he really been fooled by a copycat? He had known Yuno for years, could he actually mix him up with someone else?
No, there was no shot.
So, what? Yuno had crippling memory loss? That wasn’t exactly a comforting thought.
Lang exhales, flicking his cigarette onto the concrete before stepping on it.
None of this made sense. His only hope was that the test results would make some kind of sense….
“Mr. Lang!” Yuno was startled as he stepped out of the automatic doors. He puts a hand on his chest in a calming move. “I didn’t see you there.”
Lang can’t help but smile, sue him.
“What’d they say?”
“Well, I’m me,” he confirms cheekily. “I matched up with their files but that guy you picked up that other night didn’t.”
“He didn’t?” Lang doesn’t know why he’s shocked. What, did he want one of his best friends to have brain damage? He should be relieved.
“Nope,” Yuno shrugs, “Dunno who you picked up last night, I hope they pay you back sometime.”
“Yeah… I hope so….”
Yuno regards him for a moment. “Oh, and the doctor is emailing you the results or something so you can look at them if you want. Anyways, I gotta run.”
Lang snaps out of his brain fog. “You got someone picking you up?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Lottie is.”
Lang narrows his eyes and Yuno fidgets, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Alright. See you later, Yuno.”
Yuno bobs his head before running off. “See ya, Mr. Lang!” he calls over his shoulder.
~
Lang doesn’t know where he’s driving to as he speeds down the interstate.
Yuno was fine. He was healthy and happy and running around the city right now with Lottie and whoever else was around to jump on the chaotic bandwagon he led. He was probably off on some dock right now, threatening to push Eli into the sea with a smile on his face.
That’s how it should be.
But something lingered in the back of his mind.
And that something was the sight of his dearest friend, hunched on the front porch of the old manor, with a trembling voice that told him he had been ocean dumped.
But that wasn’t Yuno.
It couldn’t be, not according to the hospital records.
But there was the scraping feeling of his heart against his ribs that traitorously whispered otherwise.
His hand was around his phone before he had even thought about dialing.
“Hey, what’s up, Lang?” Ray’s voice cut into Lang’s thoughts, steadying him on the now.
“Have you talked to Yuno lately?”
“Mm, no, no I haven’t. Why? Is something wrong?”
“No, just wondering,” Lang replied nonchalantly. “He’s been acting weird about this whole G6 thing and I just wanted to know if you’ve heard him talk about it.”
That wasn’t entirely a lie, at least.
“Oh no, I haven’t. Haven’t seen him in a while actually.”
Lang sighs. It was a long shot anyways. Even if Ray had seen Yuno, how would he know whether it was the copycat or not?
“Perez has though, apparently. He’s all freaked out, wearing a bomb suit, guess Yuno is terrifying to him, for some reason.”
“Perez saw him? What was he doing?” Lang ignores the cars blaring their horns behind him as he cuts them off to exit.
“Uhh, something about blowing a car up? And stealing people’s IDs or something. Typical civ Yuno things, you know. He was with some other guy too, Perez was scared of them both, it seems.”
“What did this guy look like?”
“Perez said he had a helmet on or something…? And he was wearing red, maybe. I don’t really remember. You know him, or something?”
“No, no. I don’t know him,” Lang’s voice lowered. “Where did Perez see Yuno last?”
“I’d have to call him, I can text you what he says. Are you sure everything’s okay—?”
“Bye, Ray,” Lang replied shortly before hanging up.
He had to get to the bottom of this. If there really was a copycat running around, why did he claim to be ocean dumped just to go around terrorizing random citizens with pranks? What was the point of this all? Just to make Yuno look bad? Everyone who knew him knew he could be dangerous when bored, blowing up cars and stealing IDs was not out of his wheelhouse on a slow Tuesday.
And how did he mimic Yuno so well?
For an idiot like Perez to not distinguish them made sense but for Lang…?
He should know better.
How could he not recognize the man who he claimed was one of his best friends?
His phone buzzed, mercifully interrupting his thoughts.
It was Ray, reporting back with the copycat’s last known location.
“Please don’t be a wild goose chase,” Lang muttered as he veered into the other lane to turn.
~
It was a wild goose chase.
Between people who had seen the real Yuno and the ones who had differing accounts of the copycat and which way he had gone, Lang spent most of the day driving in every which direction.
He was going to quit, go to bed, and forget about this entire day, forget about that copycat’s face.
Lang didn’t even realize where he was driving until he saw the crashed car at the front gate.
He was out of the car in seconds, flying toward the unfamiliar vehicle. There was no one in the front seat, and the passenger door was hanging open, likely since the driver’s side was crushed.
Whoever had wrecked their car had been fine enough to climb out then. The crash didn’t look particularly fatal, unless the driver wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
Lang’s eyes drifted up to the familiar sight beyond the gates.
Clean Manor.
Here again.
He had a feeling he knew who the driver had been.
~
Yuno’s head was pounding. The ground kept shifting underneath him, his glowing shoes a blur as he watched them stumble forward.
His helmet was constricting and hot, why was it so hot?
His fingers fumbled with it, it was so tight, why couldn’t he—?
“Yuno!”
The warm feeling in Yuno’s chest grew at the sound of his voice. Or maybe that was just the drinks. They did burn the whole way down…
“Hi, Mr. Lang,” Yuno turned to face him, swaying as he turned too quick.
“Woah, careful there.”
Something pressed against Yuno’s arm and the middle of his back. Oh. It was Mr. Lang. He hiccupped.
“Are you drunk?”
Yuno smiled, a wobbly kind of smile like he was going to burst out laughing. “Is this what being drunk feels like, Mr. Lang?”
He was being moved in some direction, and his feet were slower than the arms moving him. Hm, that was annoying. Why did people get drunk?
“Watch your head,” Lang said, his voice faraway even though his hands were right there.
“Watch your he— oof, ow,” Yuno’s forehead throbbed slightly from the bump as Lang positioned him in the passenger seat of his car.
Lang huffed affectionately before shutting the door and walking around to the other side.
His breath was all gross smelling, like beer and pineapple cocktails and his helmet was trapping it—
-Uff-
He hoisted it off, hair stringy with sweat sticking up in every which direction.
He blinked. This wasn’t Mr. Lang’s car.
“Yes, it is. I didn’t steal it, unlike the one stuck in the front gate,” Lang chided.
Did he say that out loud? Wait, was he saying this out loud too?
Yuno’s eyes eased over to Lang as he pulled into the street to drive. He wasn’t looking at him and hadn’t said anything, so he must have kept it inside.
Lang smirked.
Yuno’s face burned and he looked away quickly.
Lang watched the young man from the corner of his eye. It was… unsettling how much he looked like Yuno. His face, though he often didn’t get the chance to see it, was exactly like his friend’s and his mannerisms, while slewed by his drunkenness (had he ever seen Yuno drunk before?), were just like his as well.
Yuno’s head rested on the window, arms loosely wrapped around his middle, a queasy expression on his face.
“Not going to puke again, are you?” Lang asked gruffly as he eased into a right turn.
“Mm-mm,” Yuno (not Yuno) shook his head slightly.
Lang grunted in reply. “You better not, this is a new car.”
Yuno chuckled weakly and muttered something in return.
“Say that again, I didn’t hear ya.”
(Not) Yuno shifted to look at him. “Smells like a new car.”
~
By the time they reached the Cypress house, the copycat had started to sober up. He definitely still needed water and probably a sandwich, but he didn’t stumble as much when they climbed out of the car and into the house.
That was how the two ended up sitting across the table in the kitchen, Yuno (the copycat, of course) eating a ham sandwich and guzzling down a water bottle under Lang’s watchful eye.
“So,” Lang shattered the comfortable silence, “who are you, really?”
Yuno’s brows furrowed, “what? I’m… Yuno…? Heh, what do you mean, Mr. Lang?”
Lang kneaded his forehead. “Look, unless there are two of you running around, there can’t—”
Yuno set his water bottle down with a soft thump. “Oh, there is!”
Now it was Lang’s turn to be confused.
“…What?”
“Yeah, I’ve got like an evil twin, or something…? He didn’t seem that evil, but he looks and sounds just like me, his name is Noyu though.”
“Noyu?”
“Yeah, Noyu Sukk.”
“…”
“…Right….”
“Anyways,” Yuno continued, “Noyu picked me up from the hospital, so we’ve been hanging out ever since.”
Lang couldn’t handle this. Not while sober, at least.
He leaned back, lighting a cigarette. “So, you and your… twin—”
“Noyu.”
“You and Noyu have been running around terrorizing people—”
“Pranking, yeah.”
“But you don’t know how Noyu is… related to you?”
Yuno looked like the idea hadn’t dawned on him. “I mean… he said he was my twin…?”
Lang exhaled a long-suffering sigh along with a puff of smoke.
“Okay, whatever, that doesn’t matter,” he waved dismissively. “You can’t be Yuno, because I saw Yuno and you’re not him.”
“I am Yuno though, I know you, Mr. Lang, and Tony and Ray, I remember everything… well, nearly.”
“You can’t be my Yuno, man, you don’t match his hospital records,” Lang snapped.
Fake Yuno leaned back, eyes shifting to the ground. “O-oh. I’m sorry, Mr. Lang,” he mumbled.
Lang exhaled. Whoever this was, he truly believed he was Yuno. Then there was this “evil twin” business. If there really were duplicates of Yuno running around, there was a chance this Noyu character knew more than the man sitting in front of him.
“Just get some sleep. You’ll have a nasty hangover in the morning and if you’re anything like my Yu—,” Lang cleared his throat, “if you have never had one, you’ll want someone to help you out.”
Yuno bobbed his head then shuffled down the hall, stopping when he realized he didn’t know where to go.
With a groan, Lang directed him from his spot in the kitchen.
“And brush your teeth!” Lang called after him.
“Yes, Mr. Lang!”
“Don’t use any of ours, just grab an extra from the cabinet.”
“O-okay!”
~
Yuno swerved around the sparse traffic as he zoomed toward the house. He had heard from Kitty that there was some look-alike running around, but he hadn’t met him yet. With nearly half of the city having seen him, it was starting to feel like the copycat was avoiding him. He wouldn’t do that on purpose, now would he?
Then there was Ray’s text. “Just checking in,” he had said, nonchalant as ever. But then he told Yuno how Lang had been fishing for information about him, of all people.
Ray didn’t know anything about what was going on between Yuno and Lang (was there something going on?) so he hadn’t needed to lie when he didn’t tell him anything. But Yuno knew he would, if he needed to. Ray and Lang were better than they had been, but they weren’t… like how they had been….
Yuno wasn’t sure what Lang was looking for. But if it had anything to do with this copycat business, he knew he would have to put it to rest quickly. It seemed like fate wanted any excuse to punish Yuno for someone else’s drama.
Yuno wasn’t angry when he turned onto their street. He wasn’t even mad when he slowed to a stop and parked in front of the Cypress house.
But as soon as he stepped foot onto the driveway, the fury began to set in.
How dare this copycat drive a wedge between him and Mr. Lang? Nothing ever went in Yuno’s favor, and for once, things were comparatively not bad and now there was some guy running around with his name, messing with his friends, just to make problems for him.
He didn’t lock the door behind him.
The copycat was here. He was in this house. In his house. He knew he had to be.
Yuno was drawn to him, a magnet skittering across the carpet toward its counterpart, or like an original toward his duplicate.
~
Yuno couldn’t sleep, no matter Mr. Lang’s request. This house wasn’t like the Manor. It wasn’t even like Tony’s closet nestled between cans of spaghetti. Its sounds were different. He could hear cars driving by better than he could in the Manor, and there were no crickets and tree frogs to lull him to sleep like there had been in his bedroom. Mr. Lang had asked him so many questions but left him no room to ask his own.
Why weren’t they in the Manor still? Where was Tony and Ray… and Mickey? X often left the city to hide from the cops and Marty was often juggling his own gang duties, but there was the main crew and the nerds and Harry and Nino and—
Yuno rolled over.
It couldn’t be that he disappeared after being ocean dumped and the fam—gang fell apart, could it?
There were entire months missing from his memory, but Mr. Lang seemed more concerned with Noyu. It wasn’t like he did any real harm, except to the Manor’s gate… but it wasn’t like they were using it anymore.
The bedroom door creaked open.
Yuno blinked, the hall light momentarily blinding him.
“Mr. Lang?”
In the dark, something small and silver glinted dimly.
~
Lang wasn’t even trying to sleep when he heard the scream, but it scared him out of his stupor, nonetheless.
He was off his bed in a bat of an eye and down the hall until he reached—
“Yuno!”
Yuno, his Yuno, stood in his bedroom, arm around Other Yuno like he was a hostage, a knife pressed to his throat.
“M-mr. Lang, h-hey,” Yuno swallowed nervously.
“Hi, Mr. Lang!” Yuno greeted cheerfully.
Lang blinked, fumbling as he switched on the light.
There, standing in the middle of the bedroom of his house, plain as day, were two Yunos.
His Yuno, wearing his trademark white jacket and cat-eared helmet was unmoving as he held his karambit to the duplicate’s throat, who was dressed in deep green and charcoal.
Yuno’s helmet visor was up, likely so he could see without the hinderance of the tinted polycarbonate. A shiver went down Lang’s spine at the steely, unblinkingly gaze of his cold, brown eyes.
Now that they were next to each other, Lang could see a few differences. For one, cat-eared helmet Yuno was shorter than Other Yuno.
But that was not important right now.
“Mind telling me what’s going on, Yuno?” Lang directed at his best friend.
“I was just sleeping, I don’t—don’t kn-know—”
Helmet Yuno jerked him, signaling him to be quiet. “He’s a fake, Mr. Lang,” he declared bluntly. “He isn’t me. I don’t want you to—,” he stopped, and not for the first time, Lang wished he wasn’t wearing his helmet so he could see his expression. “I’m taking care of him.”
“Taking care of him?” Lang echoed. “Yuno, baby, you don’t kill.”
Neither Yuno said a word.
Lang’s eyes flicked back between the two of them.
Fine then.
Lang’s entire demeanor shifted.
“Yuno. You aren’t killing him. Not here, not anywhere. If anyone is going to slit his throat, I’ll do it myself, or better yet, I’ll get one of the boys to do it.”
Yuno’s grip on the knife loosened.
“Just let me handle this, Yuno. You trust me, don’t you?” his eyebrow raised slightly, as if to signal how hurt he’d be if he didn’t answer correctly.
Yuno met his gaze. His brown eyes softened, slipping back to something Lang was more familiar with. “Of course, I trust you, Mr. Lang,” he responded, his voice light.
He dropped his hand, pocketing the knife and stepping back. Other Yuno stumbled away from him, fingers rubbing the superficial cuts on his neck. Lang forced his gaze to remain on Helmet Yuno.
“Now get out of here, Yuno.”
“What?” Both Yunos echoed.
“Not you,” Lang grumbled before motioning to Helmet Yuno, “you, you go sleep somewhere else, I know you have other places to stay.”
“Oh.”
Helmet Yuno flips his visor back down. “Okay, Mr. Lang.”
He walks past the pair and to the door, then pauses. “Be safe… Mr. Lang.”
Then he was gone.
Other Yuno lets out a shaky exhale.
“Y-yeah,” he stammers. “I don’t think I am going to get any sleep tonight.”
Lang pries his gaze from the doorway back to his friend. “Honestly, man, me nei—,” he stops mid-word, mouth hanging agape as he stares at Yuno.
Yuno fidgets under his stare. “Wh-what?”
Lang snaps his mouth shut. “Uh… Yuno, baby, your eyes are... green…?”
“What.”
Yuno darts out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom, throwing on the lights and leaning toward the mirror and—
Staring back at him were a pair of green eyes, as alien as someone else’s smile.