Chapter Text
For a Friday afternoon, the small park was pretty empty. Not a big surprise once you understand the circumstances. It was Summer - not many kids were home during that time, especially in the first few weeks of the holidays. Many of them were on vacation with their families or went to Summerschool, and the town was far too small to be considered a tourist attraction in any way, so of course, the playgrounds were primarily empty, aside from very few children and sometimes their parents.
In short: It was the closest to heaven on earth to Will.
Will was never popular amongst his peers. Even in kindergarten, he’d always keep to himself and silently draw or play with bricks, unbothered by other kids. It was not like nobody wanted to play with him. Rather, Will didn't let anyone get too close. The other kids learned quickly that, unless they wanted to be hissed at and get bit, it was in their greater interest to leave him be.
And of course, he opposed a challenge to older, bigger kids, which was not shocking or unheard of - it was almost a part of human nature to challenge those that stood out or appeared weaker to see whether they deserved to be respected or not. Will didn’t pass any of those “challenges” by any means, but after biting another boy who was much bigger than himself so hard he started to bleed, everyone kept space between themselves and Will once and for all. And of course, he did not complain. In fact, he was quite happy with the results, even after almost getting his parents in legal trouble. He was too young to understand what legal trouble was anyways, so he didn’t pay much attention to what happened after that incident.
So in conclusion, it was easy to see that summer was his favorite season. Not because of the nice, warm weather that pushed people to go for a swim or eat ice cream with their friends, but because of the amount of free time added to his loneliness. Now he didn't have to worry about boring school work and could fully concentrate on doing everything in his power to stay alone.
One may wonder what a young elementary school boy such as Will would do in the park all by himself. Sure it must be boring to just sit there without anyone to play with. But Will disagreed. He quite liked sitting on the swing and kicking the small rocks to see which ones would get the furthest. He loved the sound of not getting questioned when staring very intensely at bushes, trying to discover a new species of bugs. And yes, it was unusual for someone his age to reject anyone who wanted to be his friend, but at this point, anyone who knew Will for long enough was too tired to question it.
So of course, it caught him by surprise when his view was blocked by a shadow that didn’t seem to disappear while Will was on another one of his bug discovering journeys. The boy ignored the uncomfortable feeling of someone standing behind him, persumably watching his every move. While the parks were almost always kind of lonely, that did not mean that Will was always alone. He never expected that other kids wouldn’t come as well, but by at large, the football fields were the ones that were of greater interest to the only few other people that would come as well. So all that combined with Wills reputation, it was very annoying to him.
-”What do you want?”, he hissed as he turned around.
Will looked up to another boy. He seemed unfazed by his angry tone and instead went down to his knees so he could take a closer look at a ladybug on one of the leaves. Will watched him closely as he picked it up with his finger and turned to him.
-"Ladybug"
-"..Yes"
The boy kept staring at him and Will was getting ready to bite if he didn't leave anytime soon. But inspecting all his facial features, he could not for the life of him figure out who he was. He was dressed.. quite unusually. Will noticed how his clothes looked very expensive and formal. A dark vest over a white button up shirt with some modest pants. Even his hair was kept tidy and combed with so much care, Will didn't see a single strand stand out of place. They were aligned so well, he could probably count every hair on his head if he knew how to count over twenty.
-"Who are you?"
-"Hannibal"
Will raised an eyebrow with irritation. He was so awfully calm, as if he didn't care that the other boy spoke to him in that tone.
-"Well then, Hannibal.. "
Will leaned in closer, an angry look spreading across his face.
-"I'd leave if I were you"
-"Do you want to play tag?"
Will stayed quiet for a second, but the stupid little grin that was painted across the boy's face only made him feel angrier.
-"What is your problem? I don't want to play with you!"
-"We can also play hide and seek. I am very good at it. I bet you won't find me"
Will was, of course, having none of it. He was ready to attack, when his brain suddenly clicked. He smiled a little.
-"Only if I can seek first"
-"Sure. You can count, right?"
-"Duh. Go hide then"
Will turned around to face the bush and covered his eyes. He grinned devilishly as he started to count (to twenty of course) when he heard tiny footsteps behind him running away to find a hiding spot. Will took his sweet time counting very loudly until he finally got up and pretended to seek for a few minutes before going back to minding his own business as he did so often.
Was it mean? Sure. But everyone should know better than to disturb his precious alone time. Will loved to play with nothing but his own imagination. He would have entire very complex (well, to a seven year old that is) stories in his head that he would play out in the park. The fields of grass, swings and slides were his stage and the metal fence, bugs and empty park benches were his audience. The wind was his applause and the sandbox was a big autogram card for him to practice his signature on.
A tragic abduction took place, and Detective Will Graham was the police's last hope. Of course the job wasn't easy. He very intensely thought about the evidence found at the crime scene. Something was off, but he could not figure out what. Where was the victim last seen? What were they doing the night before? And who could have taken them?
Maybe today was not the day to solve the case. It was already getting late and a little chilly, so Detective Graham knew he had to retire for the night and take a well deserved break. He wondered if his assistant, otherwise known as Will's father, had bought him his tobacco (aka: make dino nuggets for dinner) as he had requested.
So just like that, Will went up to a bench to pick up his backpack where he was carrying his water bottle and a lunchbox with some snacks he'd take to the park. He left without a second thought about the boy who was still hiding. Surely he'd take the hint after being set up like this and stop bothering him.
But much to Wills disappointment, it would not end there.
-"If I tell you to be more careful climbing trees, will you listen? Be honest"
Wills father opened a new little pack of bandaids, sighing at the little injuries on his sons skin.
-"Sure"
-"I don't believe you"
The man chuckled. He showed the bandaids to his son, hinting to Will that he could choose one.
-"Spongebob", he pointed at a yellow one with little dots.
His dad nodded and put the Spongebob bandaid on Wills elbow. The boy smiled, continuing to eat his dino nuggets while watching Scooby Doo. Normally parents seemed to be against letting their children watch cartoons while eating, but Wills dad had no problem with that. It wasn't like his son watched TV a lot.
-"Did you have fun outside?"
-"Yep. I almost solved the case"
-"Oh really? Who is the main suspect?"
Will looked at his father wide eyed, as if he was scared to say something. His eyes pointed to his stuffed Hello Kitty plush on the other side of the couch.
-"What? No way! Didn't she have an alibi?"
-"Psst, not so loud! She can't know we're onto her.."
His father giggled, letting his hand go through the boys long, fluffy hair. Will wasn't very fond of haircuts, so he needed to learn how to maintain his long, thick locks very early on.
Will turned to the TV again, taking a bite from his dinner, when suddenly the door knocked. He didn't pay much attention when his father got up to answer the door, but had a visibly confused look on his face when he said it was for him.
-"What?"
-"A boy wants to speak to you. Did you make a friend?"
Will shook his head as he walked to the entrance, his eyes widening when the boy from earlier stood there and smiled at him.
-"Looks like I won this game, hm?"
-"What are you- How do you know where I live?!", whisper-screamed Will to show his anger while not alarming his father who was waiting in the living room as to not bother the boys.
-"I saw you go back. I just wanted to bring you this friendship bracelet I made for you"
The boy revealed a blue, pink and purple bracelets with some seemingly random beads on it. Will could see he had a similar one on his right hand, except his was pink, yellow and blue. A much lighter color palette compared to Wills.
-"What is this?", he said, visibly upset and unwilling to accept the gift.
-"I wanted to bring it to you tomorrow, but you might not be outside by then so I figured I should give it to you now!"
-"I don't want your bracelet. Or your friendship. Can't you tell?"
-"Do you not like the colors? I made it a while ago in case I make a friend so.."
-"I am not your friend!", Will said, unintentionally a little louder this time.
-"Ah. You like to take things slow, hm?"
The boy giggled.
-"Okay then, I'll make you a new bracelet. You can come to my house so we make it together if you want?"
Will only watched in silence as the boy ran back home, waving at him.
-"Who was that?"
Will turned to his father.
-"I don't know. Ignore him"