Wayfarer at the Zephyr ➵ Solangelo

Part Two: Of Gold and Cerulean

And Will kisses him again, the grateful brush of melodies buzzing against his lips. "Thank you," he whispers.

———

"Welcome!" There were two women grinning cheerfully by the doorway, a few steps short of the clinic area. "Age, sir?"

"Um," Will feels flustered. Nico looks at him in concern. "Thirty-one, miss," Nico supplied for him.

The lady scribbles down her stash of attendance sheets, all while pausing as if to verify how old he actually was. "Thirty...? That doesn't sound right," she smiles up at Will, "You look very youthful. Let me lead you to the line of your fellow age-range patients."

Will feels Nico tense up beside him. "Actually," he points out sheepishly, "I'm volunteering."

The lady's face morphs into surprise. "Oh! I'm very sorry. Come this way, we will have your license and field checked."

The space around feels liberating, as he basks in his own element. The swarms of Texan people flowed like grains of salt, washing over bays of hopeful cure, and apparent, wishful thinking. Will Solace sees men, women, and children of all ages. He sees a family of four, two elderly grandparents; he sees a teenager and her little brother in one hand, flying paper bills on the other. He finds peace in the diversity of sights that day, and suddenly the grip on his hand pulses red.

"You were staring." Nico complains.

"I was not. I was only merely sucking up to get accepted to this bountiful blessing of an event."

"She was flirting with you," He mutters, glancing far away.

"Nico," Will looks at him, "Don't you think she saw us holding hands?"

There is shuffling from behind them. The lady walks back in, holding a clipboard. "Mr. Solace?" She calls out. "Approved. We need you at station three. I hope you like children?"

Will smiles, then looks at Nico's still-frowning face. He squeezes his hand one last time as he receives the stack of papers from the lady's hands, letting her lead him to his stall.

———

"Nico!" Will yelps, a toddler climbs up his back as a couple more reach out towards him to clutch at his hair and clothes. "Help!"

Nico was snickering at him, watching from the sidelines. "Hey, I'm not the volunteer here."

Will rolls his eyes as a boy shoves his lollipop into his mouth, smiling once doing so. Will tries to smile but evidently fails to do so, his eyes looking like he was about to cry. "Nico—!"

He sees a pair of shoes in front of him, then feels the weight lessen as the man scoops out the little girl from his back. He looks up to see his husband carry the child, eyes soft while cooing at her.

Will felt like his cheeks were about to rip apart. He feels his chest constrict at the view unfolding in front of him, remembering a memory from before he had left the earth. He wills himself to be tight-lipped, neutral, until the rabid pulsing in his chest subsides to a mere dance of nerves.

Later at dusk, shortly after the volunteering event had ended, Will finds himself taking Nico to a nearby beach. They left their shoes to stroll barefoot by the shores, the sandy mists of fond nostalgia clouding Will's thoughts once again, as he reminisces of all the times he had been here strolling in his hometown.

"Thank you, Nico," he whispers. "I missed home. A lot."

"I could tell. I missed coming here to visit your mom, too." Nico laces their fingers together. Depleted waves crash by their feet, the sky above them belches out red-blood orange and drifts apart, dispersing to broken embers of lavender.