Closing Doors (Wilmon AU)

St. Lucia

The more he was around Sara and Simon, the more conflicting things he saw. Sara was an odd girl, but seemed to be getting more confident and happy as the months went by. Their mother, who seemed so warm and loving.

And then Simon. Wille had thought back on his first days at the school, and Simon was the person he had noticed the most. His amazing solo the first day, and the way he challenged the rich kids during classes. How could a kid who seemed so clean cut, so good, be involved in dealing? Did his family know? Was Sara just as oblivious as he'd been about Erik?

Sara furrowed her brow. "Um, OK. I've been better since I've been on meds, but having Asperger's and ADHD definitely made it hard for me in school."

Wille took her hand, stroking along the back of it, in a supportive way.

She gave him a squeeze back and sighed. "It was hard to do the schoolwork, to concentrate, to learn. But also to get along with people. Some girls in my class were so mean about it-" Her voice cracked with emotion, and Wille could tell she was on the verge of tears.

With a muffled swear, Wille gathered her in his arms. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. We don't have to talk about this." He rubbed her back a few times, and let her go.

Sara reached into her pocket, and pulled out a tissue. Wille looked away as she blew her nose, and dabbed at her eyes, giving her time to compose herself.

"It's OK. Eventually I got help and my mom and Simon were always so good to me," Sara said, leaning against Wille's side and letting him wrap an arm around her. "Simon was the one who applied to get us into this school. It's been better for both of us. He deserves an education that could get him scholarships for a good university."

Wille was wiping at his own eyes by then, and she passed him a clean tissue with a chuckle. "Sorry. You are making me miss my brother. It's hard being here, so far away from him."

"Yeah," Sara replied. "And wasn't there something in the news that he's going into a program in Austria? He'll be even further away."

Wille nodded, but didn't want to talk about that. "And your Dad? He's not in the picture anymore?"

"Why hello! What's this? Is there love in the air?" Felice teased, leading Rousseau towards them.

Standing up, Wille gave her a quick hug in greeting, and pulled an oat crunchie from his pocket. Rousseau was already nudging him with his large head for it.

Sara laughed. "You are spoiling him." Getting up, she put the pails away. "Want me to cool him down and groom him?"

Felice looked at Wille. "He doesn't look that bad."

That had Wille and Sara laughing, and she grabbed Rousseau's reins. "Maybe I'll trim the mane a bit. It's hanging in his eyes half the time."

"Hey!" Wille squawked, as Sara mounted the horse and walked him away.

"I like that she's so comfortable with you now," Felice said, walking out the side door. "What were you talking about?"

"My brother, her brother," Wille said, shrugging. "I asked about her Dad when you came up."

"She doesn't talk about him much. Her parents are divorced but it sounds like he had big issues. She and Simon don't have contact with him."

Friday, December 9th:

August knocked on his door, for once, before opening it. "Hey, did Erik get a new phone? He's not replying to my texts."

"Oh, right. You might not have heard," Wille said, trying to remember the way the Court was presenting things. "He's in Austria, and may be outside cell service areas."

"Austria!" August said, leaning on the edge of Wille's desk. "When did all this happen? He didn't mention anything about it that weekend."

Wille shrugged a shoulder. "I'm a bit out of the loop here too. I think he applied for some special nature program a few months ago and heard last minute that he got in. It all happened so fast."

"Is that why you went away last weekend?"

It was hard to not look irritated, to keep up a friendly facade. "Yeah. With him out of the country, I'm going to be more involved in stuff."

"Woah. All that on top of school? Will you have time for the rowing team?"

Wille chuckled. "The rowing team is my #1 priority, of course. Before my country, family or education."

"As it should be!" August smirked before slinking away.

"I really need to get a lock for this door," Wille said to himself, shutting it and moving a chair in front of it.

Picking up his phone, he called the Court. "Hello, Farima? Have you had a chance to check into my second cousin, August?" He had asked her to check into his finances last weekend, at the end of all the meetings.

"Yes, and there are some things of concern. I've brought them to the Queen's attention. We are going to cover his tuition at your school."

"His tuition?" Wille repeated. "Oh, yes, that's great. Um, can you please keep my name out of it when you tell him? I don't want things to be awkward between us."

"Sure. We'll say the school contacted us, or something like that."

"Thanks."

Tuesday, December 13th:

The St, Lucia ceremony went smoothly, with Sara glowing as Lucia.

Wille watched at the reception afterwards as many people approached her, Simon and Linda, complimenting her, praising Simon's singing.

But then a middle aged white man edged closer to them, holding a small package of flowers. Even across the room, he could see their expressions still, not welcoming him at all. After a couple minutes, he left again, and Linda hugged Sara, clearly comforting her. Was that their father?

His phone buzzed, and Wille pulled it out.

Is this you?

The text was from a friend at his old school. Someone he hadn't heard from in months. He tapped the link, and a short video played.

It was gritty, a bit out of focus. But it was from Wednesday. Wille holding a large wad of cash, shaking it at Simon and accusing him of being a dealer. Simon pushing him against the wall, trying to grab the cash. They are scuffling, arguing, and then Simon elbowed him hard, making Wille bend over in pain, grabbing the cash.

Wille looked around, and almost every student had their phone out, glancing at Wille or Simon in shock.

WTF???!

...

-A/N: Wille's having a bad year....

-Simon & Wille: Yay! They are Enemies! That means they can start working on being Friends... and then Lovers.... Thanks for reading the fic so far, and there will be a lot more Wille / Simon interactions going forward.

-Swedish Krona: $1 USD = about 10 Krona. So Simon's cash envelope had about $1000 in it.