Chapter Text
“Line up!” Monica's mom demanded, “William in the middle, Monica go to the right, no, my right sweetie, Damien to the left.” She said, lining up her camera, “You guys look so cute! Smile!” She took a picture of the trio in their costumes. Will had decided on a cat and was wearing a black onesie with a white chest tuft and a cat ear headband, his nose was painted black and he had three whiskers on each cheek. Monica had opted to just go as Julia alone and she was wearing a blue dress with a white shirt underneath along with a cap on her head. Damien, upon Will's insistence, had on a light blue shirt with light blue leggings and was wearing gradient light blue to light purple fairy wings. On his head he had a white mouse ear headband, his nose was painted pink and his face was painted with whiskers. He, upon the king's insistence, had disguised his wand as part of the costume, the poor wand now looked as if it was made of cheese.
✨Time Skip✨
“C’mon guys, let's do this haunted house! Aisha says it's so scary that it almost made her cry!” Monica cried, skipping ahead. Will reached for Damien's hand nervously, “Damien, can we hold hands? This is gonna be scary…”
Damien rolled his eyes, “Sure.” He grabbed Will's hand and they entered the haunted house.
Once inside they came across a hoard of ‘witches’ muttering ‘spells’. Upon noticing the trio they all pulled out their ‘wands’ and pointed them at the trio.
Damien rolled his eyes, disrespectful the lot of them. Plus, their wands looked more like twigs, not to mention “toadify” is not a spell.
“Oh, this isn't scary at all!” Will laughed.
Monica looked at the two, slack jawed, “Not scary at all? That was terrifying, I thought I was gonna get turned into a toad!” She kept going, leaving them in the dust.
“You ever gonna tell her?” Will asked, jumping slightly at the giant spider.
“Probably not, at one point I would have said yes but the things she says makes me think-” Damien jumped and grabbed Will's hand tighter when they rounded the corner and were met with pitchforks and torches, “S-sorry about that. Anyways, as I was saying, the things she says makes me think it's best not to.” Just then they heard a scream of pain from ahead and around the corner.
“MONICA!” They yelled, rounding the corner. Damien let go of Will's hand and ran over to her, “What happened?”
“I think I rolled my ankle!” She sobbed as he checked her out.
Will was standing a bit to the side feeling useless when a vampire stepped out of the shadows, “Your boyfriend is quite kind.”
“WHA-” Will lowered his voice, “Where'd you come from!?”
“I'm the guy who stalks you to make sure you don't touch anything. It's a decent job.” He shrugged and Will felt his face heat up as he remembered what the man had said, “He's not my boyfriend! I'm engaged to the girl!” The vampire laughed, “Well not from what I've seen. He seems quite attached to you, as you do to him. I've seen you two holding hands, leaning to each other at the scares, besides, the way you look at eachother… what I'm saying is, it appears that he's your human security blanket, not her.”
Will felt himself getting more and more flustered as the man went on, it was true but… why? “W-well, either way I'm the crown prince and I have to marry her! It's what's best!” Will didn't know why his brain- or was it his heart?- wouldn't let him say he loved Monica.
“Ah, an arranged marriage. Well lemme tell you a secret, as long as she knows and consents, your marriage can be purely political and you can both date whoever you want!” The vampire whispered.
“No, I- my dad would…”
“Say no more, I understand. But either way,” the man glanced towards Damien, “Keep ‘im around. He's a good soul and you won't regret it.”
“William! Are you coming?” Called Monica.
“Oh and that's the other reason I thought you and Cotton-top over there were dating. He consistently calls you Will, she alternates between Will and William.”
Will's face felt hot, he didn't like to think about this new information, “Yeah, uh, I gotta go.”
Once he caught up with Damien and Monica they finished the haunted house and sat down on a bench outside.
“Wait here, okay Monica?” Damien said to the small girl.
“Okay!” She nodded, “It's not like I can walk too well.”
Damien pulled Will aside, “Who was the vampire?”
Will tried his best to act casual, “Oh just a concerned employee. We just ended up talking a bit.”
Damien didn't break eye contact, “What about?” Will felt like someone had lit 50 separate bonfires on his neck and face, was this what Damien felt all the time?
“Just uh… nonsense stuff. N-nothing imor-important.” Will felt Damien's eyes boring into his soul. Damien wasn't even blinking, it was disturbing.
“I'll accept that. But only because Monica wants to go to another haunted house.”
“C'mon!” Monica hopped ahead, “This is the last haunted house of the night!”
Damien grabbed Will's hand and dragged him to catch up with Monica, flashing a rare grin at Will as he walked, “You heard the girl, let's go!”
Despite the fact that Damien was being openly happy for once and Monica was limping along, determined to get through all the haunted houses, Will couldn't stop thinking about what the vampire had said. Maybe… he did like Damien. As more than just a friend. At least he already knew Damien was gay and Amir, even before Damien came out to him, had always said Damien had a huge crush on Will… but no. Just no. It would be so wrong, a witch and a prince? It could never be. However… he could… pretend. Yes, a game of pretend never hurt anyone! He could pretend Damien was his… boyfriend. Will wanted to scream, and not just because of the haunted house. He was into girls, he knew that but why was Damien so… so… so goddamn cute? ‘Uuughgggg! This isn't rocket science! You either like guys or you don't!’ Will thought, paying little mind to the spooks and scares he passed, ‘You know what? I shall just PRETEND Damien is my boyfriend. Just for today. That way I'll know for sure. The pretend just has to stay in my head, that's all. Amir can help, he likes to pretend Dames and I are dating.’
After the haunted house they went home and Monica was sent to bed.
“Let's watch a horror movie!” Will said, shooting a quick text to Amir that he and Damien would be watching a horror movie.
“Sure, just let me get these damn wings off.”
Ping
Damien pulled out his phone and groaned, “Ugh, Amir. What does he want?” He read the text aloud, “Heard you and Will are watching a horror movie!- What, he got spy cameras up in here or something?- You two should make out during the scary parts dot dot dot, winky emoji, kissy emoji, smirky emoji? What the-?”
Will laughed, “Maybe not make out, but we could cuddle!”
Damien agreed so they started on opposite sides of the couch and at every scare they moved closer. Eventually, Damien found himself cuddled face first into Will's chest with one knee between Will's legs. He didn't mean to fall asleep but it was very comfy and he was very tired and he must have fallen asleep at one point because he woke up and…
Will leaned over so his mouth was against Damien's ear, “Good morning my little fairy.” Will he whispered.
“Mmm… what did you call me?”
“Fairy.” Will smiled, “Ya like it?”
“Sure, sunny.” Damien sat up, “How'd the horror movie end?”
Will grinned sheepishly, “No idea. I fell asleep.”
Damien laughed, then, maybe because he was feeling especially confident, maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or maybe it was the sugar speaking, decided to speak up, “I love you.”
Will died. His soul just left his body. It ascended to heaven, IT PLUMMETED BACK DOWN TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL, before delicately fluttering back up and into his body, allowing him to say the most poetic thing possible, “WhA- hdveccwheytegddggegdchshrvgdhchd!” Welp. Worst way to go. Voice crack followed by choking on air. Truly inspiring.
“OH MY GOD, WILL! DON'T DIE!”
“DO-hgdbfjirhfSITfhdbrvrLOOKLIhdxgtsvjtsKIMTRYINGTO?gdrfxthjv.”
Damien grabbed Will, flung him over his lap, and began pounding his back, “DO NOT FUCKING DIE, GODDAMNIT!” When Damien realized that wasn't working he flipped Will back up.
“Will, you're choking on air, correct?” Will nodded as he continued to cough, “Okay so, stop breathing.”
Will held his breath for a moment, then began gasping for air. Once his breathing was normal again, he looked up at Damien and flashed him a lopsided grin, “I love ya too fairy.”
Monica bounded into the room and hugged them, “I love you guys too!”
“And we love you Monica.” Damien laughed, hugging her back.