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Will hadn’t gotten out of bed in some time. Nico probably knew exactly how long it had been, but Will didn’t actually want to know, so he didn’t ask. He knew that, at some point, he had slept, and at some point, Nico had left, and beyond that, time was soup.
If he thought hard enough about it, he could probably remember that it had been 4 days since Drew had released the article containing her interview with Tantalus. Three days ago, Nico had finally called the police to scare off the reporters that had taken up residence on the sidewalk across the street, which had cleared the road for Nico to take Kayla back to the airport while Will stayed locked inside. (He’d cried after they left, disappointed that he couldn't see his sister off, but knowing that it was safer for her to keep her distance for as long as possible.)
Two days ago, he had checked his phone religiously for the text that told him Kayla had returned to her apartment unscathed, and ended up staring down at an incoming call from his mama until the screen went dark. He hadn’t looked at his phone since.
Nico had apologized when he had to leave for work, no longer able to take care of things from home. He’d tried to convince Will to come into the office with him, but he and Will both knew it would do more harm than good. Nico had left, and Will was alone, and Will lost track of the wasted hours.
He may or may not have been asleep when he heard the front door open. With the curtains closed, Will couldn’t tell if it was late enough in the day for Nico to have returned, or if somebody was breaking in because they thought the house was empty. Will was sure he’d rather be burgled than have to fight off an overly-bold journalist.
When the bedroom door swung open, Will wasn’t sure if he should play dead or fight for his life.
Before he could choose, a familiar voice said, “Dude, when’s the last time you left this room?”
Will lifted his head off the pillow and spotted Lou Ellen moments before she flopped down onto Nico’s side of the bed. “Uh. What are you doing here?”
“Checking in,” she answered as she slid a hand behind her head, tucked under the pillow. “You haven’t been answering your phone.”
With a huff, Will dropped his head down again, staring at the bathroom door just past Lou’s nose. “You can let Nico know that I’m fine. I don’t need somebody to stop by in the middle of the day to make sure I haven’t gone catatonic.”
Lou rolled her eyes. “Nico didn’t ask me to come here. You think he wants someone in his house when he’s not around? I told him that he could either tell me where the spare key was, or he would never see those clothes I borrowed again.”
Will’s eyes flickered around, searching. “Where are the clothes?”
“At my apartment,” she answered with a scoff. “Those were some nice fucking sweatpants. He’ll be lucky if he ever sees them again.”
“So…” Will frowned. “You are here to check up on me.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Lou rolled onto her side, meeting Will face to face. “It’s been a shitty week. A couple of shitty weeks, really, and I haven’t seen you around the office in… I mean, this is the longest I’ve gone without seeing you since we got back from the last tour. It’s not like you to sit around at home all the time.”
Will was careful not to point his glare at her, instead aiming for a blank spot on the wall across the room. “Gee, I wonder what could have changed so suddenly that--”
Lou shoved at his shoulder, nearly knocking him onto his back. “Don’t be an ass. I’m worried about you - a lot of us are. Nico’s been a mess all day because he’s thinking about you and not his work. Honestly, I kind of needed a break from him.”
Will settled himself back into place, rubbing gently at his shoulder. “You’re not here to drag me out of the house? Or to make me confront Tantalus, or make an official statement?”
“Do you want to do any of that?” Lou asked, and when Will shook his head, she continued, “Then no. I don’t fucking care what we do. I could use a nap, to be honest, or I could tell you about all the other shit that’s gone on this past week. I could show you all of the memes I have saved on my phone. Whatever, dude,” she finished with a half-shrug.
Will was quiet for a moment before he responded, “Has anybody done anything dumb enough to make people forget about the stupid stuff I did?”
Lou tried to suppress a wince. “Probably not to that scale quite yet, but Leo did get caught too close to another fire, so he might be getting charged with a misdemeanor.”
Lou did end up falling asleep eventually, but not before she’d gotten them each a glass of water, and convinced Will to sit up for the first time in a few days in order to drink his, despite the protests of his aching back. It was only a short nap, less than half an hour, before Will heard the front door opening again, followed by another familiar voice - yet still not Nico - calling out, “Okay, where the fuck are you?”
“In here,” Lou shouted back, sounding groggy. When the bedroom door opened, she waved to Rachel as she entered the room.
“Oh, cool, you’re both here,” Rachel said, which had Will briefly wondering whether she expected to find him or Lou there alone. She pulled a tablet out of her bag before leaving the bag by the door, then dove across the mattress to land on her stomach between them. “I know your next album is still a ways off, but I’ve been in a generating phase for a few other artists, and thought some of these concepts might interest you guys.”
Lou flipped around to get a better view of Rachel’s tablet, but Will turned onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. He didn’t want to think about concepts for an album that, at this point, seemed unlikely to ever happen. How could he write when all he had was static in his head? How could he record if he never got out of bed? How could he bring any more attention to himself when the entire world was already breathing down his neck?
“I don’t--” Will started to say, cutting through Rachel’s chatter and causing her to pause, both her and Lou turning their heads toward him. Will looked the other way. “I don’t think I have that in me right now.”
“Okay, no problem,” Rachel said, and Will heard a few taps against the screen of her tablet before she added, “Hangman, then.”
“Obviously, we’re going to guess all of the vowels first,” Lou said, and Will glanced over just in time to see Rachel bumping Lou with her elbow.
“Haven’t you ever learned how to take turns?” Rachel asked. Still, she wrote a letter A on the second of four dashes on her screen. “Will, your turn.”
He didn’t have to think for longer than a second. “Jazz.”
Rachel’s jaw dropped. “How the fuck.”
“Is that seriously it?” Lou exclaimed.
“It’s supposedly the hardest word to guess,” Will told them. “I figured it was worth a shot.”
Rachel shoved the tablet at him. “Alright, hotshot, your turn, then.”
Will took the tablet, erased the original four lines, and started to think of a new word.
A few rounds of hangman turned into Pictionary, which morphed into pseudo-charades, which became a shouting match between the three of them about the official rules of the game when the bedroom door opened again.
Piper let herself in, perching at the foot of the bed. “You know, something tells me this is the most girls Nico has ever had in his bed.”
“Hey,” Will greeted, “what are you doing here?”
“Your sister borrowed a pair of my shoes,” Piper answered. “Lou told me I could swing by this afternoon to grab them.”
Will’s head tipped toward Lou. “You can’t keep inviting people into my house.”
“I can do whatever I want forever,” Lou argued, “because I am the master of Pictionary and I’m better at charades.”
“You cheated at charades!” Rachel cried out, now sitting upright against the headboard, her arms thrown into the air.
“You can’t cheat at charades,” Lou insisted.
Piper scoffed. “Yeah, you absolutely can. Also, I think you’re supposed to have even teams when you play. Rachel, wanna partner up?”
“I have a girlfriend,” she replied apologetically.
Piper rolled her eyes. “Will, that makes it you and me.”
Lou stated, “You didn’t even ask.”
“I’m not pairing myself up with a cheater,” Piper told her. “It’s me and Will against you and Rachel. How are we drawing words?”
“We’ve just been acting out whatever we can think of off the tops of our heads,” Will explained.
“Oh, no,” Piper said, already shaking her head. “We’re doing this right. I need paper, pens, and a bowl.”
Nico had spent most of the day unable to focus, but knowing that Lou had left the office to make sure Will was taken care of allowed him to at least get something done that day. She’d sent him a text when she left the house, which Nico took as his cue to head home.
Will seemed to be asleep when Nico entered the bedroom, but his eyes slid open as soon as Nico laid down beside him.
“Hi,” Nico said softly, settling on his side and running gentle fingers through Will’s curls. “How are you feeling?”
Will took a deep breath, leaning into Nico’s touch. “Like I need a shower.”
Nico’s heart jumped, but he didn’t let his surprise show on his face. “Well, don’t let me stop you,” he said, letting his hand slip out of Will’s hair, his fingers trailing along Will’s jaw until his index finger hooked under Will’s chin. Nico pressed closer, his lips barely fanning over Will’s as he added, “I might even join you.”
Will let out a puff of laughter. “I don’t need the distraction,” he commented before closing the distance between them for a quick peck. He pulled back and started to roll out of bed, lingering where he sat on the edge of the mattress as he glanced at Nico over his shoulder. “I don’t know what your plans were for the rest of the night, but… I mean, I’m kind of hungry. Maybe we could order a pizza, or something?”
Nico struggled to keep his smile contained - Will hadn’t wanted to eat in days! He’d been nauseous, or stated that he simply didn’t feel like it, and now here he was, asking for something he wanted! “I’m down for pizza,” Nico replied. “I’ll order while you’re in the shower. The usual?”
Will nodded, and while his smile didn’t quite meet his eyes, he looked lighter than he had in the last few days. He pushed himself to his feet and dipped into the bathroom, the door closing softly behind him.
Nico pulled out his phone as soon as he was alone, but rather than searching up the number for their favorite local pizza place, he opened up his texts.
[TO: Lou; idk what you did but it got him out of bed. thank you]
Lou’s response came quickly.
[FROM: Lou; it was a group effort <3 ]