Solangelo Oneshots

THIRTY ONE/THANK YOU

     Nico was 9 years old when he first met Will Solace, and it would be wrong to say he wasn't aware of his feelings then. The moment he laid eyes on the dorky goofball, Nico knew he was in love.

   9 years old, but in love nonetheless.

   Will was just that "dorky new kid" when he'd first moved into the neighborhood, all he had wanted were some friends. And if - coincidentally - Nico just happened to bump into him at the park where he had no clue Will would be at that time of the day, who was Will to stop a friendship from blooming?

  The first day of school was filled with screaming, crying and a lot of hugging. Not all necessarily in that order. The boys had been reluctant to leave their moms and had faced a lot of trouble at school after seen constantly clinging onto each other.

   For them, it was normal. They were used to it. When they weren't at school they even kissed each other on the cheek so it was nothing new, but third-grade boys can be mean, and so when one day Nico heard Tommy Bales call him a "fag" after he'd been spotted hugging Will outside during recess - Nico couldn't help but be upset.

   After school that day, Nico had gone over to Will's house and snuggled with him in his bed. He'd started to cry out of nowhere and murmured incoherent words into Will's chest. "Will," he'd asked softly after wiping tears from the side of his face, "What's a fag?"

   Will had stiffened, he was the same age as Nico but growing up in a household where his father had never stopped talking about 'being a man' and how much he hated 'faggots' had exposed him to things he shouldn't have known about. Too many ideas put into his head, all too soon.

   Will had simply stroked Nico's hair, giving him a light peck on the cheek before eyeing the lock on his door warily as he heard the sounds of his father's footsteps approaching. He relaxed when he had heard the footsteps fade away and whispered into Nico hair, "Well, I think it stands for Flawlessly Adorable Guy. What do you think?"

  Nico had sniffed and looked up to Will with eyes brimming with tears, "I think it's supposed to be a bad word. I heard Tommy and - and he was saying h-how it's not right for .. a boy to hug a b-boy." Nico held in his sobs and looked at Will, hope in his eyes.

  "Do you think it's wrong?" Will poked Nico's nose and smiled gently after he shook his head no, "There you go then."

  Nico smiled and fell back into the warmth of Will's chest. He'd fallen asleep that way, listening to Will's heartbeat and wondering if this was really how it was to be in love.

   Nico was 13 years old when he learned not everyone had relationships like the one he had with Will. His parent gushed over them of course, always murmuring about how adorable they were but Will's parents were different. As they grew older, Nico learned to notice the things he hadn't when he was younger. The dirty looks Will's father threw to the both of them whenever he thought they weren't looking, the warnings he gave them to keep his room's door wide open.

  That hadn't changed anything between them.

  Nico still gave Will butterfly kisses on the cheek and curled up against him when he was tired, he still hugged Will whenever he felt like it and slept in the same bed as him when he slept over. But he was older, no longer nine years old and so he wondered if he'd really been in love or if that was just something all nine years thought.

    One day, they'd been taking a stroll together in the old train yard that hadn't been used in forever when he suddenly sat down on the tracks, legs crossed. Will had noticed and sat down in front of him, a smile playing on his lips. "What's up."