Flatmates - Solangelo AU

TWENTY SIX

(Fair warning, I wrote this at midnight and it isn't edited, but bear with me please)

TWENTY SIX

Will woke up and heard the shower turning off, a few minutes Nico exited dressed, but hair still dripping. "You okay?" Will called out softly, so as not to startle him.

"I'm fine, go back to bed."

"Nightmare?" Will had figured out that Nico always showered after a nightmare, even if it was three in the morning like right now.

"Nothing I can't handle, go back to sleep, Will." Nico stepped closer and rubbed his hands on his face wearily.

Will decided that lack of sleep and grief were the causes of his next move. He grabbed Nico's hand and pulled him onto the bed, tucking him under the covers and wrapping their bodies together, chest to his back.

"Will?"

But Will pretended to be asleep, and when Nico's frame started shaking gently from silent tears, Will just held him closer, breathing in his scent. Eventually Nico drifted off as well.

Naomi knocked on the door at seven to wake them up. Will sat up and felt a hole open up in his chest, sucking every emotion out of him when he remembered what was happening today.

Nico grabbed his hand tightly, and when Will could feel its warmth, his heart started slowing back down to its normal rate. "I'll be there the entire time."

"What was it like?"

"What was what like?" Nico looked puzzled.

"Going to your sister's funeral." His voice was quiet, feeling stupid for saying anything when he already knew how rough of a night Nico had had.

"I couldn't afford one. They have an assistance program that covered the cost of a cremation, but I didn't want anything to do with that either, so it was all dealt with quite quickly and I never found out what they did with her. An open casket was definitely not an option."

"What about your father?"

"Called her a selfish bitch and then hung up." Nico took a deep breath and straightened his posture. "Enough about my depressing backstory. What do you want for breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry." Will started, but at the look in Nico's eyes he amended it and asked for a piece of toast. And then he was left alone with his thoughts as Nico ran down to the breakfast bar.

"Mom?" He knocked on her door. Feet shuffled and it was unlatched. Naomi was already in her black dress and her eyes were red.

"Have you heard anything from your father?"
"That man is not my father."

"Have you heard anything from Victor?" Her voice broke when she said his name, and Will had to resist to stick his hand through the wall once more, he was never usually this violent.

"No." And even though he hated Victor, his mom was hurting so he pulled her into his chest as she sobbed. "I don't understand. How could someone who hates gays so much be one himself?"

"Do you hate gays?" Will decided to test the waters. There was no way he would ever come out on the day of his sister's funeral, but now that Victor was hopefully out of the picture, he had started hoping that it would be possible one day.

"Sexual orientation has nothing to do with it. Nico is gay and he is a wonderful person. Victor is gay and he's an ass. I don't understand how anyone can see a person for the label, not for the human being underneath the label."