Chapter Text
Lila fell in love once a week. It was not a new thing. Her brother’s teased her about it relentlessly when she had been small, and her dad merely held her when she cried over a new boy in her class, saying she simply had too much love in her heart for her tiny body to handle.
She’d been nine when she experienced Hanahaki for the first time. It was not a common thing, for someone to acquire the disease so young. Perhaps her father was right. She loved all too deeply, and as much as she was proud of it, she knew that she would never receive that love back. That was the thing about loving too hard; you always found yourself on the giving end.
When Lila found herself coughing into her arm, she knew the cause immediately. Those darned blue eyes. She huffed, and helped herself to an inhaler— one she’d invested in for this very reason.
William was perfect, this she knew. She knew that he was kind and loving and courageous and absolutely everything she had ever aspired to be. He was perfect. Beyond perfect. It drove her mad.
She had hoped the time she’d spent with Mr. Randall would have been enough to keep her affections away from the blue-eyed blond haired Lieutenant. She thought it had. She had seen William look at his Sergeant with that look in his eyes a half dozen times this week, and each time she had been able to turn away. She had been able to cool herself and keep from shaking and keep from being overwhelmed by dread and jealousy. She had thought it had been enough.
Despite what the others thought, Mr. Randall was very pleasant— a total opposite from her. He was cool, collected, he completed all his work in half the time it took the others, and sometimes he was kind enough to even come help her with hers.
She thought that would help. A man who felt no emotion as her newest acquaintance. Perhaps he would balance her out, teach her to control the love she felt all too deeply. Clearly, it hadn’t worked. Lila stifled another cough, and she helped herself to some tea before she called in sick.
~
Hanahaki. William had never even heard of it until his doctors had diagnosed him, his father standing in the room. He’d been placed on bed rest the moment he arrived at the manor, the doctors called for immediately. His father scowled at Will as the doctors explained.
Will didn’t even look up until they had left the room, overcome with shame. Perhaps it would have been easier, to cope with the fact that the one person he wanted he could not have if his father had not been there to torment him.
“Who is this girl?” he asked the moment they were gone.
William shook his head. “A distraction,” he said simply, “it’s not serious.”
“Not serious?” his father challenged, eyeing him in bed. “Not serious and yet you come home from work vomiting flowers. ”
Will didn’t look at him. “It won’t happen again.”
“It better not.” His voice rough, no room for arguing, the same way it always was with him. His father left quickly, claiming he had work to attend to. William fell back on his bed, cursing his blue-haired Sergeant for being so perfect.
The next day, William was back at work, but Lila was not. The concern on Lukas’s face was well beyond adamant. Lila was sick often, this was not the first time, but it was the first time since Miss Desroses and Mr Randall had become close. The first time Randall ever noticed. Lukas went home half a day early, which was no trouble, he always finished his work in half the time of the others anyway. He blamed his cough on the cold, and William felt a little hopeful that he could blame his disease on whatever Mr Randall and Miss Desroses had come down with.
Will busied himself in his office, not wishing to come down with a coughing fit in the middle of the precinct should Kym gaze at Lauren. He kept himself entirely consumed with paperwork. If he could keep her out of his thoughts, he could keep her out of his heart. He could escape this grasp she had on him. He could do it.
A knock at the door made Will's head jerk up, greeted with the blue-haired woman, donning a mischievous grin. He nearly groaned.
“Good to see you didn’t die,” Kym said, helping herself into his office the moment he looked at her.
“You knocked?” he challenged, “Who are you and where is Ladell?”
She shrugged, falling onto the chair opposite his desk. “Figured I better give you a warning so you didn't throw up on my shoes.” She eyed him, and Will tried desperately to ignore the immense relief in his chest at merely her eyes on him. “Good to see you didn’t die.”
Will cleared his throat, straightening his papers as he turned his attentions back to them. “Food poisoning.”
Kym scoffed, kicking her feet up on his desk. “You’re telling me those millions of chefs don’t actually know how to cook?”
Will glowered at her foot on his desk, and gingerly picked it up by the toe, dropping it to the side, which only resulted in a huff from her. “They know how to cook perfectly well.”
“So it’s the maids who don’t know how to shop for good ingredients—”
Will drew a short breath. “Ladell.”
She raised a brow at him, arms crossed over her chest as she sat haphazardly in the wooden chair. Will could only hope his months of practicing fake annoyance with her was enough to push her away. He couldn’t allow this. He couldn’t allow this hold she had on him. “What do you need?”
“I finished my paper work,” she threw her legs back on his desk, and this time, William didn't push her away. He simply raised a brow at her. “And you aren’t out somewhere terrorizing innocent workers at a melon stand?”
Kym merely shrugged, “I’d rather terrorize you. I get more of a rise out of you anyway.”
Will said nothing else, simply returned his attention back to his papers. Truth be told, he didn’t want her to leave. He wanted her to stay, and keep talking to him and keep teasing him and keep looking at him and not at Lauren. He wanted this relief in his lungs to last forever. He wanted to grab her hand and hold it tightly and to kiss her and hold her tight but truth be told William didn’t know if she even liked men, let alone if she liked him.
He forced thoughts of the way she gazed at Lauren away. Even when Kym had started working here, he’d seen the way she looked at Lauren. He couldn’t blame her. Lauren was perfect in virtually every way. It had never bothered him before, the way she gazed at Lauren, but now, now it stung. It set his veins on fire and made him cough and bleed. It made him sick.
William drew a short breath and sat up sharply, glancing at his Sergeant. “I need to speak with you about something.”
Kym dropped her feet off his desk, straightening in her chair. “...okay?”
“You do know that Lauren has a boyfriend, yes?”
Kym cleared her throat, looking away from him. “... Yeah?”
“I’ve… noticed the way you flirt with her, and I understand it, Lauren is wonderful. And the way you speak with her on your own time is your business, but this is a professional workplace and I’d like for it to be properly presented that way.” William looked down, flicking aimlessly through his papers as if they were discussing nothing more than the weather. “I don’t want you making her uncomfortable,” William said, not looking up at her, “It’s best you back off.”
He hoped the warning would work. He hoped that she would see some duty to her Lieutenant and stay away from Lauren. He wanted her attention on him, and only him. Sharing it with Lauren— relinquishing it to Lauren was simply too much for him.
“You must really be sick,” Kym said, more serious than Will had ever seen her, and Will’s gaze snapped up, immediately understanding he’d gone too far. “You’ve always scolded me, but you have never been cruel to me.” She stood sharply and Will’s heart dropped, his lungs threatening him with another aching cough as she headed for the door.
“W--Wait!” Will called, stepping around his desk to move after her, but she stopped, turning back to look at him.
William cleared his throat, rubbing his lips together as he tried to think of what to say. “I was… just trying to say that I understand. We’re in the same boat, you and I.” It would be better this way. Say it straight, be rejected flat out so he could begin to move on. She would understand. It wouldn’t change anything.
Kym’s brow furrowed, eyeing him warily. “You’re in love with Lauren?”
Will’s eyes widened “No! No—”
“Oh my God,” Kym whispered, moving back toward him, and Will cursed the way his dizziness faded with every step in his direction. “You’re in love with Kieran.”
Will’s brows shot up, moving to ask how she’d come to that conclusion before he hesitated. He could not say what pushed him to agree, but before he could stop himself, he said: “Yes.”
“Oh, Will,” she said softly, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder, and her mere touch felt like a cold rag to his burning fever. He resisted the urge to lean into her touch. “Of course.”
Of course?! She said it as though she’d suspected it the whole time.
“Is that why you would always act so strange when I flirted with him?”
I acted that way because I’m in love with you! He wanted to yell. He held it back, and again, he nodded. “Yes.”
Kym sighed, and dropped down again, this time in his chair. “You should have told me,” she insisted, and William resisted the urge to walk into the back room and scream. “What a bunch of idiots we are— both in love with someone we can’t have.”
William bit back a scoff. You have no idea.
Kym sat up suddenly, and William eyed her warily, sensing the look in her eye that always preceded one of her awful ideas. “We should go on a double-date.”
Will’s jaw nearly dropped. “What?”
Kym shrugged, settling back into his chair once again. “Lauren and Kieran, me and you. Maybe seeing them happy with each other will help us get over them.”
William knew this was a bad idea. An awful one really, but all he could hear was a date with Kym, and possibly a few hours of relief from the ache in his chest. “That’s… a good idea.”
Kym nodded, and she smiled. “I’ll ask Lauren and Kieran.”
William nodded too, hoping his smile didn’t look as fake as it felt.
Kym jumped to her feet and rushed out of the room, skipping as she went. William turned around, met with his own reflection in the window. Lord almighty what had gotten himself into.