Solangelo Oneshots

The Thieves, The Adulterers And The Homosexuals

TW: Homophobia

Will was nine years old when the neighbours moved in. There were four of them: one mother, one father, one girl, one boy. They seemed respectable enough so his ma baked them an apple pie from the apples in the backyard and went around to drop it off. Will watched from the window.

He was the oldest of his siblings but the one who got in trouble the most, though he didn’t mean to. His ma said he oughtn’t cause such a fuss or he’d end up in hell with the sinners. She said that only the rotten ones of this world go to hell. She’d rattle off a list every night that somehow kept growing longer and would always finish with the thieves, the adulterers and the homosexuals.

Will remembered being a young lad of seven and telling his ma that there was a pretty boy in his class. His ma soon took out the belt and held in her hands before the beating to give her lecture.

“Now, William,” she said. “I ain’t havin’ no sinners in my house. I ain’t never hearin’ you call a boy pretty again. It ain’t right, you hear me?”

“Yes, Ma,” Will had said and he took his beating dutifully and that was the end of it.

If Will had been allowed to call him pretty, he would have said that the new neighbour boy was the prettiest boy he’d ever seen but he wasn’t so, when his ma came home, he said to her, “That girl next door is awful pretty.”

And she patted him on the head and said, “Good boy.”

Will felt a surge of pride at that. He was raised a God-fearing boy and that he would remain. Ma didn’t ask for much and she had enough to deal with what with five children gallivanting about the house and a husband who left her for a much younger woman. Will never heard too much about his father. Ma said he was a no good, cheating swine and that was that.

With his father gone, as the eldest, Will had taken it upon himself to be the man of the house. He helped Ma out with chores and did his odd jobs to bring in enough food for the seven of them to go to beds on full stomachs even if the stomach was full on something unspeakable.

He was only nine but more of a man than his father would ever be, as his ma would say, and more self assured as his siblings would. No matter. They were just children. Will was practically grown already by his logic.

He helped plough the fields for the Smiths, did a newspaper round for Mr. Zachary, picked the orchid with the Jones twins, watched Mrs. Turner for a few hours every Friday evening and all whilst kissing his ma goodbye in the morning and being back in time to kiss her again before supper. Even so, he was allowed flights of fancy. He’d play with the boys in the strawberry fields and sit in the tree house his father has made for the children before he left. Naturally, his first thought when seeing a boy of around his age was that this was a new opportunity for a friend.

His ma allowed him to go over to next door as long as he took his siblings with him and made sure to watch out for trucks because she couldn’t afford to lose anymore sons. She was talking about Lee and Michael. They got run over by a big truck and Ma cried for weeks after, although she tried to hide it. Will cried when told but she scolded him because little boys don’t cry so he went to his room and cried there instead. The whole family was different after the deaths and they were poorer off too.

Will took Kayla, Austin, Jerry, Gracie and Yan next door. They bickered the whole way but they always did and only Ma could shut them up and only then if she was in a foul enough mood. Will knocked thrice on the door and waited politely and his siblings waited politely too for they might not have had manners amongst themselves but they retained some dignity around strangers.

A tall man answered the door with a short black beard and slicked back black hair. He wore a suit and a tie with birds on it and all in all looked like a very put together sort of fellow. He was proper so Will thought to himself that there was no reason for him to worry as a conversation between two proper gentleman should be quite civil unlike when he talked to the drunk man up the hill. That conversation was not civil at all and Will escaped with an inch of his life.

“Howdy, sir,” Will said brightly. “My siblings and I was goin’ down to the fields over yonder and our ma said to ask if the children next door might want to come.”

When the man spoke, it wasn’t with an accent Will was familiar of. The words were smooth though the tongue was sharp.

“I am sure Nico and Bianca would enjoy that.” The man turned around and yelled something in a different language and two children came scampering. Their weary mother dressed them for the outdoors and they joined the Solace children on their way.

Bianca stuck with the younger siblings. She was indeed a pretty girl and a clever one too. She did very well at handling the children and Will thought his ma would say she’ll make a good mother. Will wasn’t too sure. She seemed like a wild thing despite her peacefulness and he doubted she would settle soon. Ma would be disapproving.

Nico was the younger of the two and around Will’s age. He was a boy who could talk the hide off a cow and Will didn’t mind it one bit. He was rather into card games and cooking, which Will thought was odd for a boy. A lot about Nico was odd. He wasn’t proper at all but his company was enjoyable.

The two sat further away from the others, idly talking about what children talk about, before Nico abruptly stood and held out a hand.

“Where are we goin’?” Will asked.

“For a run,” Nico replied with a glint in his eyes.

Over the following weeks, Will saw that glint more and more. Their runs were leaping and bounding through the fields like puppies, tackling each other and laughing through it all. They walked too with carefree grins and a certain calmness found in each other’s company. They would go to the strawberry fields without the others and then to the treehouse too.
On one of those occasions in the treehouse, not long after they met, Will was explaining a book he had read and stopped to find his friend looking at him in a very peculiar way.

“You alright?” Will asked. Nico nodded and leaned forward to do something reserved only for boys and girls. He gave Will a kiss. Will touched his lips as Nico sat back with a satisfied expression. Will could not fathom how anyone would be satisfied after such a sinful thing but yet he felt it too.

“Why did you do that?” he asked once he regained the ability of speech.

Nico tilted his head. “I wanted too.”

“Ma says it’s wrong. God says it’s wrong.”

“You liked it though.”

“I did.”

Their weeks consisted of more and more little kisses on forehead, cheek and lips. They were innocent pecks between happy boys who would hold hands under the trees and sleep under the stars in each others arms and Will couldn’t help but think that maybe God was wrong about this.

How could this ever be something sinful?

-

A/N

Hey, loves! Hope you enjoyed. I do not know where this came from but it did. Couple of fun facts about my life are that I'm seeing my qpp tomorrow, which I am very excited for, and I recently discovered that I'm recipromantic. That means I only experience romantic attraction for someone after they've developed it for me. Go look it up if you want to know more or just look up the aromantic spectrum in general because it is very cool!

Ash x