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“We were both young when I first saw you.” Will sings, his voice soft was as to not disturb the neighbours. He leans against the side of the messily made bed and brushes his fingers through the soft, ebony curls of the boy lying on his outstretched legs.
“I close my eyes and the flashback starts I’m standing there-,” Nico continues. Eyes closed and fingers tapping against the soft carpeted floor of his bedroom. The phone between them playing their current favourite song. The volume low enough to hear the voices of the two.
“-on a balcony in summer air.”
The pair continue to sing, alternating between lines, verses and singing together. The last notes of the song come to an end as Nico opens his eyes. He’s met with pools of pale blue and a lax smile shining down on him. His lips tilt upwards as he shuffles to sit next to Will, reaching for his phone as the song loops on repeat.
“I love this song so much.” The blond proceeds to break out in a slightly out of tune karaoke sesh as he croons out the chorus. He grabs Nico’s brush from his desk as he mimics a rock star’s performance, banging his head to the pop ballad song. The other hums along as he taps around on the device. He brings up the music video cutting the audio midway as he brings the screen up between him and Will.
They start all over again watching the MV as they join in on Taylor Swift’s singing. Eventually, they’re adding over the top adlibs and progressively singing louder than the other. At this point in time, the two are shouting the hook. “ROMEO SAVE ME. THEY’RE TRYNA TELL ME HOW TO FEEL.”
The brush is ripped from Will’s grasp, now in the hands of its owner. “THIS LOVE IS DIFFICULT BUT IT’S RE-ALLL.”
“DON’T BE AFRAID. WE’LL MAKE IT OUT OF THI-“
“Nico, shut up!” Persephone growls from the living room.
“-mess…” Will’s hand latched onto his mouth as they lock eyes, red tinting his cheeks as they proceed to erupt into a fit of giggles. Nico shrugs and they continue to jam out at a respectable volume.
The hairbrush is returned to its place on the desk. Nico yawns and free-falls into the comfort of his How to Train Your Dragon bedspread, his legs falling lazily over the edge as he mushes his face into his pillow. Will rests his head against him and fiddles around with the phone until he pulls up the camera app.
“You know what we should do?” A couple of beats of silence pass before Will huffs and starts poking his childhood friend in the side. Squirming and strangled complaints assure Will that his childhood friend hasn’t dozed off.
A muffled response probes the boy to continue speaking.
“We should film our own music video!” Looking at Nico expectantly, he’s pleased to see the nest of curls part to reveal a set of intrigued, obsidian eyes.
The boy peers at Will, processing the idea in his head. “Yeah, okay. That sounds fun.” He paused, taking a second to stretch. “We could do it at the park?”
Will’s enthusiasm was amusing. “The park at the beach or the one across the road?” Before Nico could reply, it was followed by, “let’s do it at the beach!”
“Sure.” Nico thought for a moment. “Before that, we should split up the lyrics.” He makes a gesture to Will and his phone is handed over. The lyrics are brought up in a tab.
“Should I write it out?” Will searches through the scatter spread across the previously tidy room for a pen and paper.
That would take too long. “Nah. Come with me.” They walk into the spare bedroom-slash-office which houses what they need. In the space is a single bed which is adjacent to the desk that holds the desktop computer and printer. Nico enters the password as Persephone saunters up to the door frame and clears her throat.
“What are you doing?” She raised her eyebrow at Nico then pointedly looked at Will. He shuffles out of her line of sight and takes an interest in the carpeted floor. He glances at Nico. His rigid stance an indication that there would be no answer. Does that mean Will needed to reply? He swallows the lump in his throat and stays silent.
Nico continues to ignore his father’s girlfriend, his back turned to her as he brings up the internet. She repeats herself and Nico groans. He can’t ignore Will’s discomfort who is hovering by him while trying to politely acknowledge Persephone in the doorway – albeit awkwardly.
“None of your business.” He can feel the daggers in his back as he pulls up a word document.
“You know, the computer isn’t for playing on?” It’s not a question. It’s a silent indication. An indication that Nico should get off.
“I know.”
Persephone lets out an exasperated huff and steps out.
Nico copy and pastes the lyrics onto the blank document and plays with the set-up. He turns his attention to Will and asks for his opinion. They decide it’ll be easier to assign parts by highlighting the text in colours to separate their parts and then print it out. Orange for Will, purple for Nico and black for both.
Two copies were printed in colour much to the displeasure of Persephone who nagged how much paper and ink cost and how it shouldn’t be wasted. Speaking of waste, Nico didn’t want to spend any more of his time stuck in her presence and escaped to the hall with Will in hand. Persephone was a ticking bomb, but so was Nico. And the only way to diffuse the situation was to shut the door in the face of his father’s wretched girlfriend.
He let out a sigh, easing the tension he had on Will’s wrist.
“Let’s practice.”
A copy is handed over and they go through the song a couple of times. Shoulder by shoulder, the room is filled with soft voices as the young boys imagine their own love story down by the beach.
-----
They walked down the road towards the beach, but not before they had a pit stop at the small, shopping village. Ice cream and snacks are a must.
They also stopped by the other park, racing for the better swing. Nico huffs as he is begrudgingly, once again, forced to sit in the swing too small for his butt. “That’s not fair. Lemme use that swing too.”
“Nah uh. I got on here first.” Will sticks his tongue out, painted blue by the candy he just consumed. The other boy reels in his glare and settles into the narrow seat. He can’t be bothered to start this argument again.
Nico kicks off the sand, momentum sending him higher and higher. The lulling of the swing providing perfect white noise for him and his video ideas. Thinking back to the sole reason that caused them to leave the comfort of his room, he devises scenarios for them to film.
“I’ll be Romeo and you can be Juliet.”
This startles Will to a halt. Feet plunging into the sand, his head swivels comically to Nico. It was Will’s plan to make a fan-made video. So, he assumed by right of his idea, that he would be Romeo, and Nico his Juliet. Wait, what. Will chastises himself and chases the thought away.
“No, I’ll be Romeo and you will be Juliet. It’s only fair.”
“What?” Nico scoffs. “Fair? How is that fair. You have to be Juliet because you’re blond!”
“What,” a look of incredulousness flashed by, “Why? That’s stereotypical to think that Juliet should be blond-”
“But Taylor Swift as Juliet is blond-”, and besides, you should be my Juliet. Nico’s cheeks flare at that image. “-and the prince is a brunette! Hello, that’s me.” As if to prove his point, he attempts to shove his head in Will’s direction to give him a better look.
Will forces back a laugh. If only Nico wasn’t so adorable, Will would’ve scoffed at him. Or hugged him. Gods, he wanted to hug Nico. But he was kind of in the middle of a disagreement. And Nico was still on the swing.
“Yes, but I’m taller.” The triumphant glee on Will’s face frustrated Nico.
Nico’s height was a touchy subject for him. It also didn’t help that Nico fit snuggly in the kid swing.
The shorter boy jumped from the swing in practiced finesse. He sent his most intimidating glare and marched up to his childhood friend. “Just you wait,” he poked him sharply in the shoulder, “I will grow taller than you!”
“Aww, sure you will Neeks.” Unable to resist the ray of sunshine in front of him, Will glomps Nico into a hug and pats the crown his head. “My little baby,” Will sniffles, “They grow up so fast.”
Nico turns bright red and his hands are clammy. He tells himself it’s because he’s embarrassed. But it might also have to do with how close of proximity he is to Will.
“Oh, shut up.” He wriggles himself free. “Enough with the crocodile tears. We’re literally the same age!”
Will always liked to pull the ‘I’m-older-than-you card.’ His birth year was one before Nico’s and he always liked to bring that up, but really, he was only a couple months older. Right now, they were both ten years old until Will’s next birthday.
Its annoyed Nico to no end and in spite started to call Will an old grandpa whenever he brought it up. Exasperated, he makes his way to the edge of the park, yelling taunts at his companion. “Hurry up Grandpa, the first one to the beach gets to be Romeo!”
-----
Rather than following their musical plans, Nico and Will opted for the more active choice of chasing each other down the beach.
This then led to a string of Nico’s mischievous antics which was really in retaliation to Will’s subjection of babying him at any given chance.
“Nico, stop! It’s cold!” Will’s shrill voice broke out over the sound of the calm waves.
Nico did not relent on the onslaught of attacks he was sending Will’s way. He was knee-deep in the surf, an evil glint in his eyes as he doused Will with icy seawater.
Revelling in the satisfaction of revenge and maybe a little bit of Will’s laughter, the two childhood friends settle down into the sand.
The sun is low on the horizon, the sky an ombre of the darkening blue to an orange-pink hue. The sunset is an indication to make their way back to Nico’s.
It’s a chilly walk home. The goosebumps on Will’s arm and the chattering of his teeth is an indication to Nico that the poor boy is freezing. Feeling a pang of guilt, Nico shed his black hoodie and draped it over Will.
Will gives his thanks with nudge and a small blush. “So much for filming a music video, huh?” They chuckle.
“What do you say we go back to mine and make a fort?” Nico hesitates for a moment. “We could say it’s a castle.”
“That sounds great.” Will captures Nico’s deep brown eyes with his own pale blue. “A castle to our very own love story.”