Solangelo One Shots

Next Stop: Unknown

Will's POV

He dragged himself onto the subway with his scrubs hanging off of his shoulders and his eyelids threatening to close any second. The strong scent of hand sanitizer wafting from his hands made him sick, the sound of impatient patients buzzing him into their rooms every second for a new pillow or a cup of water still ringing in his ears. He pushed himself through the people packed into the subway like sardines, managing to find his usual seat next to the door, the one with the burning hot air blowing directly on his face, the one that no one but he would take. The black haired boy was there again, music that only he could hear playing through earbuds. His fingers were wrapped around the same hot coffee as always, the paper cup plain and brown, but still beautiful in its simplicity. Will cast a glance at him, furrowing his brows as the boy next to him quietly tapped his fingertips on his knees, staring at an insignificant spot on the wall. Will looked at the same spot, but there was nothing different about that specific space of white than any of the other spaces of white that made up the dome shape of the subway. 

There was a small part of him that wanted to continue to observe the boy, to see if he would make any action that would bring him out of his normal routine but he could feel exhaustion creeping in on him even as he sat still, threatening to overtake his body at any minute. Besides, the boy next to him wouldn't do anything differently than he did any day. He never did. Will's gaze flickered back to the spot that the boy was staring at and he found it beginning to blur, as if someone was smudging fresh paint and before he knew it the soft rumble of the train was lulling him to sleep.

A gentle tap on the shoulder quickly brought him out of his sleeping state and when he opened his eyes the black haired boy was staring at him, one earbud hanging at his side. "This is your stop, right?" he asked. "Pelham Bay Park?" Will shot up, rubbing his eyes and staring around. 

"Yeah, it is," he said, standing up and smoothing out the wrinkles in his scrubs. "Thank you so much. I would have missed it." He shrugged. 

"It's no big deal, really. I noticed you always got off here, and I thought I'd do you a favor."

"Well, thank you." Will began to step off of the subway before turning around, a small grin on his face. "Hey, and just wondering, what's your name? It's just, we sit next to each other on the subway and you just did that favor for me, and I don't even know your name."

"I'm Nico." Nico smiled and it lit up his eyes like stars in the night sky. 

"I'm Will. I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Nico said. "See you tomorrow." Will stepped off of the train, standing just past the yellow line as he watched the train shoot back into the blackness. When he could no longer see it he turned around, hiking up the stairs into the cool night air. The trees sticking out of the concrete city waved their newly orange leaves at him as he walked down the street, finally walking into his apartment building and unlocking his small studio. His medical textbook stared up at him menacingly from his kitchen table but he pushed it off, brushing his teeth after showering and changing into his pajamas and collapsing into his bed. He pulled the covers over his body, burying his face in his pillow as he ran over his schedule for the next day. 

Classes in the morning, he reminded himself. Work in the afternoon. Study at night. Go to bed. It sounded dull in his head, but he knew it would be worse in real life. When he found himself drifting off, he expected his dreams to be plagued with medical formulas and wrong answers on test. Instead it was the first pleasant dream he had had in a while, in a dim subway hurtling towards nowhere with a black haired boy by his side. 

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His textbook weighed heavy in his backpack as he stepped onto the train, claiming his seat next to the hot air duct with Nico in his seat, two coffees clutched in his hands. "Here," he said, handing Will one of them. "I got you this, you seem like you could use a pick me up. And I got you cream and sugar on the side, I don't know how much you like." He pulled a small plastic bag out of the pocket of his jacket, stuffed full with sugars and creamer packets.