Work Text:
William has a lot of fears. He’s always been cautious of so many things, a quiet and careful kid, always out of trouble, always keeping to himself. A weird kid, who would traverse the woods with his friends, flashlights at the ready, but a cautious one nonetheless.
Still, none of his fears are quite as bad or pathetic as this , standing over the edge of the bathtub, clothes in a neat pile. All he has to do is step in, but he freezes at the final hurdle, staring at the water he knows is the perfect temperature. All he can see is his own skin flaking off and floating on the surface; blood seeping through water as pieces of his own flesh chip and fall free.
“William? You okay in there?” Dakota’s voice, just outside the door. He takes a second, knuckles white where he clenches the edge of the bathtub. With his new heart, William knows he will be fine, and he should be able to do this. Instead, he swallows his shame, and turns to open the door.
“William, wha- Oh, shit, sorry-” Dakota starts to back away.
“Could you, uh, help me?” William blurts, and feels so awkward asking. It was easier when Tide was here, when he could ask him instead, when the man would agree without even asking. Those times where William could sit unmoving in the tub, eyes scrunched shut, enduring it only as long as he had to. When Tide would mumble reassurances until the water was drained and William could wrap himself in one of their cheaply-made itchy towels. But Tide isn’t here, and Vyncent’s… Well, he’s Vyncent , with all his questions and lack of nuance. Dakota’s the best option he’s got.
“To take a bath?”
William shuts his eyes and nods, feeling thoroughly humiliated. “I… They freak me out a bit, so…”
It’s a very mild way of putting things. Dakota seems to get it anyway, even if William doesn’t mention the ways his rotted skin had peeled back and revealed blackened flesh the few times he’d tried bathing himself before getting his new heart.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” William blinks at him. Dakota puts a hand on his chest and gently pushes.
“Okay, as in, I’ll help.” He shuts the door behind the two of them. “What do you need?”
William hesitates at the side of the tub again. He draws in a rattling breath, and says, “Just… Just wash me.”
Dakota shockingly doesn’t ask any questions. He picks up the washcloth as William finally dares to get in, slowly lowering himself into the water, feeling the warmth lap at his skin. It doesn’t sink through the way it did when he wasn’t alive; it warms him, but no longer fights off a permanent chill.
“I’ll get your back first, yeah?” Dakota’s voice is soft. William doesn’t trust his own, so he just nods. When the washcloth presses to his back, gentle and soft and warm, he tenses. Dakota’s free hand finds it’s way to the crook of his neck, thumb rubbing circles into the skin there.
“It’s just me.”
William breathes out. It’s just Dakota. He shuts his eyes. The soft drag of the washcloth down his back is as grounding as it is terrifying, and this is where Tide would start talking, filling the silence with reassurance and anecdotes to keep William’s mind off it. But Dakota isn’t Tide. So, William fills the silence instead.
“Before uh, before this,” he taps his own chest blindly, and hopes Dakota can see, “Everything… Kind of just fell off whenever. Especially baths. And then Tide helped me for a while, but…”
Dakota also isn’t as dim as he might first seem. “Oh. Well, you’ve got me! Hey, I told you Vynce fell out of his bunk last night, right?”
“What?” William’s eyes almost fly open in shock, but fear keeps them glued shut. “Is he okay?”
“Oh, he’s fine.” Dakota gently scrubs across William’s shoulders. “I woke up to get water and he was just laying on the ground, family guy death pose. He was dead asleep.”
“Tide would kill you for leaving him like that.”
“Hey, he was fine !” Dakota pulls away from William, and he can hear shuffling as the boy readjusts, then presses the cloth to William’s chest and begins to run it back and forth. “I got Bobo to keep watch and make sure he didn’t, y’know, die.”
“Bobo is a monkey .” William manages to crack open one eye. Dakota looks at him with the one expression of a man whose child has just been gravely insulted.
“He’s smart . Smarter than you! Smarter than anyone !”
“He eats his own fleas.”
Dakota drops the cloth into the bath water. “Oh, and you wouldn’t?”
William stares at him, his other eye slowly creeping open.
“Also, that’s all of you done.”
“Oh.” William hadn’t even realised. With Tide, he’d been all too aware of every passing moment, all drawn out and terrifying. Dakota, with his lopsided grin, had managed to bypass that.
“You need help getting out and dry?”
“No, I got it.” William’s expression softens. “Thanks, Dakota.”
“Anytime. I mean it. I’m no Tide, but-”
“You were perfect.”
Dakota smiles wider, and leans forwards, kissing William’s forehead. “Don’t slip and die!”
Huh. That’s new
, William thinks, body tingling with warmth as Dakota slips out of the bathroom, once again pulling the door shut behind him. He pulls the plug and watches the water go down. His fear isn’t gone, not by a long shot, but with Dakota to help? Well, it certainly almost feels like it is.