Two Boys Learning

29. A&W's--Except Not

"Where are you going?"

His voice still groggy from sleep, Will sat up, watching Ash freeze in the doorway. "I, uhm," the smaller boy squeaked. "Oh. I'm just--do you want to come?"

Will yawned, stretching his arms over his head. "It's literally nine in the morning. What planet are you living on? We don't get up this early on a Saturday."

Ash blinked. "I'm going out."

Will sighed heavily and grabbed his sweatshirt from the foot of his bed, yanking it on over his head and shoving his phone into his pocket. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm coming. Where are we going?"

Ash flushed a little. "Er...the woods around my house, if you don't mind."

Will went still, slowly looking up to meet Ash's gaze. "I don't mind," he said, his voice low. "But...do you mind?"

Ash looked down, trying not to let Will see how much it meant to him that the bigger boy actually cared about whether or not it would be hard for him to head in the direction of his house when his father was undoubtedly in a raging fit over his disappearance. Ash had texted his dad, telling him that he wouldn't be home for the next several weeks, and then blocked his dad's number at Will's urging. It still felt weird, to have such an enormous weight lifted from his shoulders that he hadn't even known was there.

"Yeah," he said honestly. "I'll be fine. It's just a walk."

Will studied him for a moment, longer, then nodded. "I'll get us some breakfast and tell my mom we're heading out, yeah? I'll meet you in the truck."

~ ~ ~

"When did you find this place again?"

Will's voice broke Ash out of his trance, staring up at the abandoned building in the middle of the woods. It seemed to have been some sort of hunting shed at one point, but now it only housed dusty bottles of what must have once been beer, old, broken pieces of guns and crossbow bolts, and and shattered windows.

"A few years ago," Ash responded, shooting Will a grin and shoving his hands in his pockets. The grin didn't feel as forced as most of his others were, and he counted that as an improvement as he ducked through the doorway. "Come on. It's perfectly safe."

Will didn't look convinced, ducking through the door behind him, until Ash laughed a little and used one of the old shelves to haul himself up onto the rafters, his legs swinging while he situated himself perfectly in the roof beams.

"See?" he laughed. "Perfectly safe."

Will rolled his eyes a little and snickered, leaning against a wall. "Don't fall."

Ash frowned down at him. "Excuse me, but I've been climbing these boards since I found this place." He patted the wood next to him fondly and grinned.

"And what, may I ask," Will questioned, a smirk pulling at his lips, "do you call 'this place'?"

Ash stared at him blankly. "Hm?"

Will snickered a little. "Do you have a name for this place?"

Ash blinked slowly. "Uh, no." He blinked again, chewing his lip. "What about...A&W's? Because of our initials, I mean, but also because of the store, you know?"

Will looked pleasantly surprised. "That's a really good idea." He looked around, then picked up a broken shard of glass and looked back up at Ash. "C'mere."

Ash blinked, then climbed down from the rafters, going to stand next to Will as the bigger boy carved something into the doorway and stepped back to reveal a jagged A&W's carved into the wood.

Ash grinned. "Looks perfect," he said, but then looked to where Will held the sharp edge of the glass against his palm, waiting for Ash to look at him.

"I read somewhere," Will drawled, a slight smirk playing at his beautiful lips, "that blood oaths are binding and powerful." His eyes seemed to darken with emotion, and Ash shivered a little and the implication, looking down.

"Ash," Will said, the glass still hovering over his open palm. "Look at me."

Ash slowly looked up, swallowing hard, and was surprised to see a shacking amount of gentleness--of love?--in Will's gorgeous eyes.

"You," Will said slowly, enunciating each word and looking straight into Ash's eyes, "are beautiful. You are strong, stronger than most people I've ever known. And I'm gay, Ash, and I'm not afraid to show it, and I'm proud of it, but I sure as FUCK wanna be proud of it with you at my side."

Ash inhaled sharply, tears pricking at the back of his eyes. He smiled, and Will continued. "I'm here for you, okay? I'm always here for you. So...it's fine if you don't want to hurt yourself, but I thought it would be cool if we could leave a mark on this place...kinda as our OWN place. You know?"

Ash grinned, nodded, swiping at his face and grinning. "Okay."

- - - - - - - - -

AHH! Finally a moderately large chapter--or at least, one that isn't super smol.

Hah.

Oh, also I updated early! Yay!

I know a ton of you want me to have them confront Ash's dad--and some of you want more Tori in the story (looking at you Clatoforever5) and I'll get to that as soon as possible! Thanks for bearing with me, you guys. Means a lot.

Vote, comment, and follow! Please!

Q: What grade are you in (or should be in--Covid's messed everything up)?

A: Just finished up 7th. I'm sooooo happy to finally be a teenager.