Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Willy scrambled to his feet but fell into the dirty clothes. This time he used the railing of the cart to push himself. As he got onto his feet he heard voices around him.

He jumped out of the cart and looked around the washer he was now in. There were four different people staring at him.

Gracefully, he landed onto the floor. “Hello!”

“You must be Wonka.” The elder man walked up to him. “Abacus Crunch.”

Willy shuck the mans hand when it was presented to him. While another woman came walking over.

“Piper Benz.” The woman shook his hand. “If you have a problem with him, you have to deal with me.”

Willy nodded. “Over there is Lottie Bell.”

“And Im Larry Chucklesworth.” A new person happily walked in.

Angered flared inside of him as he looked at the group. “They got you too, didn’t they?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Abacus answered. “We were all looking for a cheep place to stay.”

Willy nodded, thoughts running through his head. “There has to be some way out of here…”

“That contract they have is locked tight.” Piper cut him off. “If you get out, Scrubbit will call the cops and have them drag you back here, she’ll even charge you another 1000 for it.”

“Great.” He muttered under his breath.

“Alright!” Abacus called for their attention. “We need to get back to work. Come Wonka. You’ll be working with Del-Agla in suds.”

Willy followed the elder man into a separate room. “Who’s Del-Agla?”

“The newest-or was the newest worker. He’s not very friendly.”

The suds room was hot. Steam made the room seem to be filled with fog. Two massive tubes sat in the center of the room.

“I honestly have no idea where that man is.” Abacus said with a sigh. “But all you have to do is stir the soap into the water. Add the clothes and stir.”

Willy nodded as Abacus walked out. A sense of mystery slowly filled him. Who was Del-Agla? Why wasn’t he friendly?

But for now Willy guesses he’ll just have to work. He still desperately wants to follow his dream. But he might not be able to now.

***

“Wonka! The bell just went off.” Was what snapped Willy out of his thoughts.

Setting the stick down, Willy ran out of the room. The other scrubbers started walking up the stairs. Forming a line as the went.

Wonka fell in step with the forming line. Not without taking notice of a new person.  Was this the person Abacus was speaking of?

Girls went to one side of the hallway. While the rest went to the other side. Before he could find his room, Piper grabbed his wrist.

“You’re going to be sharing rooms with Del-Alga. Deal with it.” She made it sound like a bad thing.

With everyone in there rooms, Willy made his way to the only open door. A few sparks of excitement came through. He was finally going to meet Del-Agla.

“Hello!” Willy walked into the room with a smile on his face.

The person, Del-Agla, looked at him. His eyes were the first thing Willy noticed. Del-Agla’s eyes were a dark murky but beautiful hazel color. His eyes were exhausted and void of all emotions.

“Hi…” Wonka didn’t mean to sound so breathless, but he is captivated.

Del-Agla looked at him, clearly judging him. Anger flared up in him again. But he quickly shuts those feelings down.

The other man immediately turned away from him. Wonka watched as Del-Agla started changing into sleep clothes.

There was a knock on the doorframe. “Room service.”

Wonka turned around to see the small girl. He smiled and waved.

“Hello Noodle!”

The girl handed her a bowl and set another for Del-Alga’s bowl on the desk. He looked down at the bowl. The slop was a a dirty brown-greenish color. He started at it in disgust.

“You didn’t listen.” Noodle argued.

“Well-I-“ He didn’t want to say the real reason. “I just-wasn’t paying attention.”

“You can’t read.” Noodle instantly saw through his lie. “Can you.”

He sighed and set the bowl down on the desk. “Unfortunately. I’ve never needed to read. I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers.”

He heard Del-Agla scoff behind him. He glanced back at the other man. Who was seated on the bed.

“Look on the bright side. You’ve got a bed-“

The bed, which Del-Agla was sitting on, collapsed at that exact moment. The man went tumbling to the ground.

“Fuck-“ Del-Agla cursed.

“HEY!” He yelled at Del-Agla before he could finish. “There are children in the room!”

“She’s heard worse.” “I’ve heard worse.” Were said at that exact same time.

“Regardless.” He looked at the two. “You shouldn’t swear.”

Noodle shrugged as Del-Agla rolled his eyes. He gave Del-Agla a look before returning to Noodle.

“How much do you owe them?” The girl asked him.

He sighed. “Ten thousand.”

Noodle walked further into the room. “Count yourself lucky. I owe them thirty thousands.”

Willy looked at Noodle, confused. “How do you owe them? I thought they found you.”

Noodle shrugged. “Oh they did, then they charged me for trespassing.”

“Thats terrible.” Why would anyone charge a baby for trespassing?!

“Greedy beat the needy every time Mr. Wonka.”

“That still not right.” He argued.

“Thats just the way the world works.” Del-Agla chimed in.

He gave Del-Agla another look, who shrugged him off. He looked back at the young girl. Who was glaring at Del-Agla? He still didn’t know why everyone seems to hate Del-Agla.

“Del.” He called out to the another man. “How much do you owe?”

“Eight thousand.” Del-Agla responded.

The three feel into a silence, like they were all sulking in their own misery. Willy looked at the two other people. Anger rose up when he realized Noodle was probably going to be working her entire life here.

That wasn’t fair. She should be able to play, go to school, have a life. But no. She was stuck here, growing up. No child should be going through this.

Willy looked over and made eye contact with Del-Agla. He could see that Del was also clearly miserable. Part of Willy couldn’t blame him. They were both taken from their lives.

Maybe thats why Del-Agla behaved the way he did. Maybe Del-Agla seemed to be hateful because he was angry about being taken from his life and was now being forced to work.

And thats what made the anger rise higher up. A child like Noodle shouldn’t have to grow up like this. And him, Del, and everyone else here shouldn’t have been taken from their lives.

It wasn’t fair. None of them should have to go through this. Especially not Noodle. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.

Willy sighed as a plan was quickly forming. A dangerous plan, but a plan nonetheless.

He could feel eyes on him as he crossed the small room. He gently set his mobile chocolate factory on the table. Noodle walked over to watch him.

“What kind of chocolate do you like?” He asked the young girl standing next to him. “White? Dark?” He smiled. “Absolutely insane?”

“I don’t know.” Noodle shrugged at him. “I’ve never had chocolate.”

“WHAT!?!” His head snapped towards Noodle. “You’ve never had chocolate!?!”

Noodle seemed startled. “Yeah.”

“Del!” His snapped his hand over to the other man. “Did you hear her?!”

“Yeah.” Del did not seem to care.

He looked over at Noodle for a second time. “You’ve never had chocolate.”

“Yes.”

“Never. Not. Once.”

“Still yes.”

Again, he looked over at Del, who was calmly watching. “Del. What kind of chocolate do you like?”

“I don’t like chocolate.” Del answered him.

“WHAT!?! You don’t like chocolate!?!”

“No. I don’t.”

Willy turned around to see both of the two. “YOU’VE never had chocolate.” He pointed at Noodle. “And YOU’VE don’t like chocolate.”

“Yes.” Both responded.

“HEATHENS! Both of you.”

Noodle looked at the floor and Del rolled his eyes. He glared at Del before turned back to his mobile factory.

“Well then Noodle.” He said in a more calm tone. “We’ll just have to make your first one special.”

Reaching over he grabbed the desk chair and placed it next to him. He gesture for Noodle to sit, to which she did.

He started explaining how everything worked. Noodle quietly and excitedly watched him. Taking every bit of information in at once.

Glancing over at Del, Willy saw the man was also listening. He smiled at the other, who realized he was looking. Del looked away.

He went back to explaining to Noodle. He helped Noodle make her very first chocolate.

Giving one of the newly made chocolates, he handed another to Del. Who took it but didn’t say anything. Willy smiled, trying to encourage the man who said he didn’t like chocolate.

He smiled even wider as he saw Noodle’s face light up. he saw the hope and excitement on her young face.

“Do you like it?” Will asked Noodle.

“Yes! Its amazing! What was this one called.”

He patted Noodle’s head. “It’s called ‘Sliver Linings’.  To give you hope when there seems to be none.”

“I love it!”

He smiled even wider and turned back to Del. “Del?”

“If you’re trying to sway my opinion on chocolate.” Del began to answer. “It’s not swayed.”

He walked over to Del and leaned down in front of him. “Not even a little bit?”

“Get out of my face. Before I punch you.” Del answered.

Willy held his hands up in surrender. He moved back over to where Noodle was. There was an extra chocolate. He handed it to Noodle, who had finished her first.

“Do you want a lifetime supply of chocolates?” He asked the young girl.

“Yes! Absolutely!”

Again, Willy smiled. “I have a plan to get out of here.”

Noodle’s face became unreadable. And he felt Del-Agla staring at him.

“It’s simple. We go out. Sell chocolate. And pay off Mrs. Scubbit in no time.” He explained to the two others.

Noodle’s face showed shock and a bit of fear. While Del-Agla’s was cold and calculated. He could see the thoughts working in the other man’s head.

“Are you crazy!?” Noodle finally spoke up.

He was going to respond, but Del did it for him. “He probably is.”

He shushed them both. “There has to be a weakness is Srubbit.”

It took a moment for Noodle to respond. “Well…there was one time where an aristocrat came in. He was only asking for directions but Mrs. Scrubbit was all over him.”

Willy nodded. “Good. Do you have paper?”

Chapter Text

WHAM

Willy shot awake as his head hit the desk. He rubbed his eyes and whipped the drool off of his face.

He glanced over at the bed. Del was sound asleep. He sighed and looked back over at the plans. He spent maybe a good four hours working on the plans.

Placing the plans, he half stumbled half walked to the other corner. Since Del was asleep on the bed so he was going to sleep on the floor. It wasn’t the worse place he has slept.

***

“Hey-“

Willy jumped awake. Del was standing over him. Del looked like he just woke up. His dark brown hair was a mess.

Del’s hair was pretty all messed up. He blinked a few times before reaching up to touch Del’s hair. Who gently grabbed his hand, and even more gently, placed his hand on the floor.

“The uh.” Del started. “The morning bell just went off.”

Del walked away after that. Willy pushed himself to his feet. And walked over to his bag.

Rummaging through his bag he pulled out one of the three changes of clothes he had. He went over to the sink to change.

He sneak a glance over at Del, who was also changing. His hair was still a complete disaster.

Running his hand over one of the cold taps of water, he walked over to Del. He gently turned Del around and cupped the man’s cheek.

“Your hair is a disaster.” Willy mumbled running his wet hand over Del’s hair, smoothing the chaos.

He glanced at Del. Who for some reason, was too stunned to speak. He smiled at Del, who instantly turned away.

“I-uh-“ Del cleared his throat. “I-thanks.”

Del pulled away from him. Willy turned to grab his plans. He waited in till Del was ready before speaking up.

“Ready?” He asked.

Del nodded, and left the room without saying another word. He followed Del out of the room and into the hallway. Abacus and Larry were already waiting outside for the pair.

He followed the group down the stairs and outside. Bleacher was there checking their names off on a clipboard. He watched as Noodle went off in a different direction to go do something.

As soon as the got down to the main room, everyone went off to do their jobs. Before Del could go anywhere, Willy grabbed him.

“We gotta get the supplies.” He told Del-Agla simply.

“Supplies? Supplies for what?”

“Well…I haven’t actually made up a name.” He smiled at Del. “Come on.” He grabbed Del’s arm and dragged him to the suds room.

The suds room wasn’t filled with steam. The plans on the paper were visually forming. He smiled looking at the suds room.

“Okay.” He turned to face Del. “Here.”

Del took the slip of paper from him, it took him a moment to read through it all. “Wonka…what is this?”

“It’s a list of supplies.” He answered confidently.

“No. This is just a bunch of scribbles.” Del crumbled up the paper.

Willy smiled sheepishly. “I wrote what I thought the word looked like.”

Del sighed and walked away for a moment. He came back with a pen and paper. Del motioned him to come over to the table. To which he did.

“Tell me what you need. And I will actually write it.”

So Willy laid out everything he needed. Del proceeded to write everything down. Del’s hand writing was simple cursive.

“Your hand writings’ pretty.” He commented.

“Huh?” Del glance at him.

“Your hand writing is pretty.” He repeated.

Del looked at him for a moment. “Thanks…?”

He smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“Is this all?” Del asked him after another moment.

“Yeah. It should be.” He took the paper from Del.

“You can’t read it.” Del snatched the paper from him. “There is no point in you having it.”

Willy shrugged as Del shook his head and sighed. “You’re going to be the death of me Wonka.”

He smiled. “Good.” He booped Del on the nose before skipping off.

However, he stopped when he realized Del wasn’t following. “Del?” He asked.

Whatever haze Del was in, he snapped out of it. The man turned and followed him.

***

They had finished gathering the supplies. Del had left the room a while ago. Leaving Willy to start on what he was building.

After a while, Wonka left the suds room to get water. Thats when he found Piper and Del arguing. And it didn’t look nice.

“How incompetent can a person be?”

“I am not incompetent!”

“Yes you are. It’s been 4 hours! And neither or Wonka can’t seem to get a single thing done.”

“He’s doing something!”

“And what have you been doing for those fours hours? Nothing.”

“I haven’t been doing nothing!”

“You have a single job to do Del-Agla. And clearly you can’t do it.”

Wonka walked up to Larry. “What exactly are they arguing about?”

“We can’t do any work if you two do nothing in the suds room.”

“Oh. I didn’t think we were that important.”

“Yeah. You two are kinda important.”

“Im sorry.” He apologized. “I was didn’t know that.”

“It’s fine. Del-Agla should have told you.”

Willy glanced back over at the argument. If it wasn’t bad before, it was getting worse.

“What are you doing anyway?” Larry asked him.

He panicked. “Uh-can’t say yet.”

Larry looked at him for a moment, before looking back at the intense argument. “We should probably go stop them.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

The argument ended up finishing before they could help. Del stormed back into the suds room. And Piper stormed off somewhere else.

“Im going…” Willy trailed off for a moment. “Im going to check on Del.”

Willy trailed after Del. The man was ranting and pacing the suds room. Del was clearly furious.

“Del-“ Willy called out, gently grabbing Del’s shoulder.

“It’s not going to work!” Del yelled at him.

“Whats not going to work?”

“This!” Del gestured at the unnamed invention. “Now of that is going to work.”

“Del, trust me. It is going to work.”

“NO WONKA! They are going to kill you if you get too popular!”

“What are you talking about?”

Del moved away. “They don’t like people like you! None of this is going to work.”

Anger was slowly raising inside of him. “Del, I need you to trust me-“

“And I need you to listen to me!” Del cut him off. “This is never going to-“

“You keep saying that!” Willy cut Del off this time. “But you won’t tell him anything!”

“I don’t have to tell shit!”

Anger continue to rise. “You can’t just keep saying it’s not going to work and not explain anything else!”

“But it’s true! None of this is going to work!”

Wonka moved over to Del. “You can’t saying that! Have to explain!”

“You don’t understand!”

“Then tell me! Explain.”

Del turned to him. “You don’t know what they are capable of. One step out of line and you’re dead.”

“You’re just saying that to scare me.”

“See! You don’t understand.”

The anger at this point was running through his veins. He didn’t understand why Del was being so vague. Or stubborn.

“You didn’t grow up the way I did.” Del said. “You don’t understand how they act to people like you.”

“Oh so now you’re being classist!” Willy yelled without thinking.

“At least I don’t live in a world of daydreams!”

“They’re not daydreams!”

“Daydreams. Fantasies. They’re the same thing. But they are never going to-“

WHAM

People say it’s better to think before you act. However, it’s hard to do that when anger is rushing through your veins. When anger is the only emotion you are feeling.

Del went stumbling to the floor as Willy drove his fist into Del’s face repeatedly. Del fought back when he shove Willy off of himself and to the floor.

Willy kicked the lower part of Del’s calf. Sending the man falling to the floor again. As soon as Del got even half way standing, Willy shoved Del into the barrel behind him.

Again, Willy took advantage of Del being down. He immediately jumped onto punching the down man. However, Del grabbed his arm, causing him to tumble off to the side.

Del immediately took the advantage and had Willy pin to the floor. Del managed to punch Willy in the face before something else had grabbed Del.

Piper was dragging Del away from him. Larry was next to Willy, trying to get his attention.

“Wonka. You okay?”

Willy started at Del and Piper, who were now arguing. The anger was fading into a mix of numbness and shock. The adrenaline was fading into pain.

“Wonka. Are you okay?”

He finally looked at Larry. Who clearly was both concerned and worried.

“Yeah…yeah…” His voice trailed off.

“No you’re not.” Larry argued and out his hand. “You’re bleeding.”

Willy let Larry help him off. The pains of the fight making their self known. He let Larry drag him out of the suds room and into the main room, with the med kit.

Abacus took over. He made Willy sit on the desk chair. Like Larry, he let Abacus look over him.

He heard Del and Piper screaming at each other. He flinched not only at the screaming, but whatever Abacus put on his face.

“How many times has this happened?” Willy heard Larry ask behind him.

“Too many to count.” Abacus answered.

“How many what?” Willy couldn’t help but ask.

“Arguments, fights, screaming matches. Stuff like that.” Abacus answered again.

“He’s been here like what? Five months? And he can’t get his act together.” Larry responded.

“He’s too temper headed. Also thinking with his fist.”

“Fighting fire with a flame thrower.” Larry finished.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t been in jail for fighting someone.”

“Me neither.”

As Abacus and Larry continue to shit talk Del, Willy sat there looking at the suds room. Del and Piper were still screaming at each other.

Guilt slowly crept its way into Willy. He was the one to punch first. He started the fight.

He has been in fights before. But he was the one to always hit second. Always choosing peace over fist.

And yet there he was. The one to punch first. He was the reason for the fight.

Sure Del was the reason for the argument. But for the fight. That was all his fault.

Chapter Text

They haven’t talked. In the days since the fight they haven’t talked at all. Not even a word.

They still share a room. But no words have been said to each other.

Willy was the first one to break the silence. Him and Noodle were going to get the giraffe milk tonight and he wanted Del to come with them.

He made a promise to Del to help him get out. And even though they did get into a fight. Willy was going to keep his promise.

“Del.” Willy started.

Del, who was sitting on the bed, look up. “What?”

Willy took a deep breath. “I apologize for punching you in the face the other day. While you were the one who technically started the argument, I should not have punched you. So I apologize.”

Del stared blankly at him for a while. Almost as if he was trying to understand why he was apologizing.

“I…uh…thanks…?” Del responded.

After deep breath and Willy continued. “My first night here I promise that I would help you and Noodle get out of here. So I plan to keep my promise.”

“Okay…” Del still seemed confused.

Why was Del confused? Willy had no idea. But he continued nonetheless.

“You help me sell chocolate. And I help you pay off your debt.”

Del continued to look at him, taking in what Willy said. He could see the thoughts running through Del’s brain. Willy patiently walked for Del to speak.

“So…if we go through with this, what exactly would my job be?” Del finally asked.

That question threw Willy off his tracks a bit. He didn’t expect Del to ask something like that. And he didn’t really have an answer.

“Well-I-I don’t have an answer for you yet.” Willy fidgeted with his shirt sleeve.

“Im not making a deal with you until I have all the information.”

Willy nodded. “Me and Noodle are going to get some giraffe milk and I want you to come.”

“Im sorry…you need what milk?”

“Giraffe milk.” Willy should have seen that he would have to explain the giraffe milk.

“Okay……..why….?”

“Regular cows milk won’t do.”

Del slowly nodded. “Okay…you’re not going to tell me anymore. Are you.”

Willy smiled. “Nope!”

Del sighed as Willy turns to start to get ready. He grabbed his jacket and hat.

“Are we leaving now?” Del asked him after a moment.

“Once Noodle gives us the signal.” Willy answered.

“Whats the signal?” Del set his book down.

Willy walked over to the window. “We didn’t think to make a signal.”

Del sighed. “You need to start thinking further. This selling chocolate plan isn’t going to work if you don’t think ahead.”

Willy shrugged and started looking out of window. The sun had already set and the stars were out. Del was right, him and Noodle should have come up with the signal before all of this.

Willy looked back over at Del, who went back to his book. “Del.” He called out.

Del glanced up. “Yeah?”

“You asked what your job would be? What if your job was some type of manger.”

Del, again, closed his book. “Go on.”

“You seem to know about how to handle business. So maybe I can sell and you mange everything else.”

“So, an administrative specialist?”

“I…I…don’t know what that is…”

Del sighed again. “Fancy title for someone who runs everything.”

“Oh…so you want to be the ad-whatever you said.”

Del shook his head, but yet smiled. “Sure. I’ll be the manger.”

Willy smiled at Del. “Really!?”

“Yes Wonka. Really.”

Willy glanced outside the window when he heard someone calling his name. He smiled again when he realized it was Noodle.

“Grab your jacket.” Willy turned to Del. “It’s time to go.”

Del nodded and got up from the bed. Even though Willy told Del to get his jacket, Willy grabbed Del’s jacket.

As soon as Del took the jacket from him, Willy grabbed Del’s hand and dragged him out of their room and down the stairs. Del hesitated.

“How exactly are we getting out of here?” Del asked him.

He smiled. “You’ll see.”

He heard Del mumble something as he continued to drag the man down the stairs and outside. He made sure that Srubbit couldn’t see them.

“Willy!” He heard Noodle call out.

Willy very quickly turned around. Causing Del to stumble since Willy was still holding Del’s hand.

“Hello hello Noodle.” Willy smiled at the young girl.

He watched as Noodle gave Del a look. “Why is HE here?”

“Del is our…” Willy looked at Del for the word.

“Administrative specialist.” Del finished.

“Yeah, that thing.”

Noodle gave Del another look before shrugging. Willy nodded, motioned for Noodle to follow, and continued to drag Del around.

“Do you even know where we’re going?” Del asked, stopping, causing Willy to also stop.

“No I do not!” Willy smiled and started walking again.

However, Del yanked him back harshly. He stumbled, tried to catch himself, failed, and fell into Del.

Del caught him, his hands grabbed his wrist. Both their arms were pressed against Del’s chest. His face just inches away from Del’s. They both stared at each other for a solid moment, before pushing away.

“Come on.” Del said out a loud after another moment. “I know the way to the zoo.”

“We’re letting HIM lead the way?” Noodle asked skeptically.

“Do YOU know the way to the zoo?” He asked back to Noodle.

“I know what direction it is in.” She answered him.

“Well Dell knows where it is. So we’re going to follow him.”

The walk to the zoo took around ten minutes. At one point he held out his hand, Noodle happily took his hand.

They stopped a hundred feet away from the zoo. The group crouched behind a bush.

“So…” Del turned to him. “How are we getting in?”

“While the little orange man took most of my chocolate. He didn’t take this one.”

Willy broke out his cane. He had both Del’a and Noodle’s attention. He pressed the small button and the top opened. Relieving the small chocolate in a box.

“How is that supposed to help?” Noodle asked him.

He handed Noodle the small chocolate box. “Go give it to him and see.”

Noodle looked at him, and slowly took the box from him. She walked over to the ticket box where the worker was.

“Little orange man?” Del looked at him.

“Yeah. He’s been stealing my chocolates for years.”

“You’re not going to give me anymore information are you?”

“I don’t have anymore information to give you.” He answered.

“Okay…”

Noodle came running back over to them. “He has it.”

Willy smiled and looked at the ticket box. “That chocolate was called One Night Stand-“

“Excuse me?” Del cut him off.

“Yeah-oh.” Willy realized how that was a bad name. “I’ll find a new name latter.”

“Why?”

“No reason.” Both him and Del answered at the same reason.

“Anyway…” Willy changed the subject. “Watch this.”

Together, the three watched the guard go through a typical night out. Willy explained everything to Noodle, who was fascinated. Del on the other hand, seemed more concerned.

When the guard fell asleep, he grabbed Noodle’s hand and dragged her to the entrance of the zoo. Del quickly followed them.

“What the hell was that?” Del asked forcefully.

“My chocolate of course.” He answered plainly.

Del grabbed his free hand and yanked him. He yelped and stumbled back. Del pinned him against the wall.

“What. The. Fuck. Was that.” Del demanded.

“I told you. Its my-“

Del cut him off. “In it. What the fuck was in it.”

“Nothing bad if thats what you’re asking.”

“THATS.” Del gestured to the ticket box. “Not normal.”

“If you’re concerned if he is going to be okay-“

“What did you do?” Noodle jumped in. “Put drugs in it?”

“You put drugs in it!?!”

“I do not put drugs in my chocolates!” Willy defended.

Del glared at him and released him. Willy glared back at Del. He strengthened his hat by and walked away.

“Look, giraffe.” He said at a random door and opened it.

A tiger came running to him, Willy froze up. Noodle jumped up and closed the door. Del grabbed his wrist and pulled him away.

Del held him for a moment longer than necessary. But Willy wasn’t really complaining. He liked being held by Del.

All too quickly, Del released him. He smiled nonetheless. Del rolled his eyes and turned away.

“That says tiger.” Del said plainly, slightly irritated.

“ ‘kay. I’ll learn how to read.” Willy omitted.

Del sighed, Willy smiled at the other man. To which Del flipped him off. He glared at Del, who again, flipped him off.

Del rolled his eyes and started walking. Willy stuck his tongue at Del. Noodle started giggling, he grabbed Noodle’s hand and followed Del.

He opened the door to the door with the giraffe behind it. The beautiful giraffe stood in the middle of the room.

“Hello Mrs…….” he trailed off, not able to read the name.

“Abagail.” Noodle finished for him.

“Mrs Abagail.” He said. “You look mighty beautiful.”

The group walked further into Abagail’s room. He placed his cane upright in the ground. He wrapped his coat and set his hat onto the cane.

Spinning around, he pulled out some of his acacia mints. Abagail knelt down to eat them.

“Giraffes love my acacia mints.” He explained to the other two.

Noodle joined his side, he handed her some of the mints. She fed Abagail some of the mints.

He glanced back. Del was leaning against the wall. He was watching Willy. He made eye contact with Del and smiled at him. Del looked away.

Willy showed Noodle how to milk a giraffe. She scratched Abagail’s next when he milked her.

They got to talking. About anything and everything. He and Noodle talked about rhyming their names. And about their dreams.

“Del.” He called out to the man, who was still at the wall. “What’s your dream?”

Del didn’t answer for a moment. “Don’t have one.”

“What?!?” His head spanned towards Del. “You HAVE to have one.”

“Yeah!” Noodle agreed with him. “You cannot not have a dream.”

Del threw his hands up. “I don’t know. Go back to medical school and become a doctor.”

“You’re going to become a doctor!?” Noodle asked excitedly.

“Yeah. That was the plan.” Del looked away.

Willy came hear the misery in Del’s voice. He understood why, he had his own plans and dreams but getting stuck in the laundry mat has forced him to take a step back. And Del was also taken.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to complete your dream.” Willy said optimistically.

Del rolled his eyes. “Won’t be surprised if it never happens.”

Willy glared at Del. “If you work hard enough, it’ll happen.”

“Yeah…whatever.” Del replied pessimistically.

Willy turned away from Del. He finished milking Abagail. Taking a step back, he placed the milk jug in his bag.

He walked over to the ladder and helped Noodle down. She jumped down and into his arms. He hugged her then set her on the floor.

Turning back to his stuff, Del had walked over to pick it up and handed it for him. He smiled at Del and happily took it.

“Let’s go children!” He grabbed Noodle’s hand, twirled her around, then skipped out.

Del and Noodle ran after him. “Im pretty sure Im older than you.”

“Yeah yeah whatever.” He quickly turned around.

And immediately fell. Del rushed over to catch him, failed, and they both fell.

Del was on top of him, one of his hands his shoulder, the other on the floor. Willy stared up at Del, he made eye contact with his pretty dark hazel eyes. He looked away as Del pushed off of him.

He reached up, Del gently re-grabbed his arm and pulled Willy to his feet. Del left his hand on his arm for longer than necessary, but again. Willy didn’t mind.

Del cleared his throat and finally let go of his arm. Willy frowned at the loss of contact. But grabbed his bag nonetheless.

“Alright. Time to go. No falling will stop us!” He turned around and skipped away again.

Noodle happily ran after him, Del on the other hand, walked. He turned around, Noodle jumped into his arms. It took a moment for Del to catch up.

By that time, him and Noodle were playing with balloons. Del was smiling at the two of them. Willy skipped over to the man and tied one of the balloons to Del’s wrist.

“Do you ever ran out of energy?” Del asked him, still smiling.

“Nope! Im constantly on a sugar high from chocolate.”

“Thats…thats not healthy…”

“Eh probably not. Thats why I got you.” He booped Del on the nose. “Doctor Agla.”

With that he turned away from Del, not seeing how red Del’s face had gotten. Instead, he returned to Noodle. He grabbed her arm and spun her around.

“Anything else we need to do tonight?” Del joined them.

“Not that I can think of, what about you Doodle Noodle?” He answered then asked.

“No. Im kinda tired.” The youngest member claimed.

“Well we can’t have that. Let’s get going.”

He didn’t skip this time. However, still took Noodle’s hand. Del remained behind them.

Willy heard his last name get called out. It was the chief of the police. He and Del made eye contact. In seconds they managed to have a conversation with no words.

Del took Noodle’s hand from him and dragged her away. The poor girl was confused and she tried to come back to him. Del didn’t let up and dragged her away.

Getting shoved over water twice was not fun. Willy didn’t hate water, but getting dunked in water wasn’t fun.

And what especially wasn’t fun, getting hit in the head. Yes technically, he told the police that he had yet to be hit. So the police hit him.

His head hurt. A stabbing pain in the side of his head was the only thing he could think of. A white film was all he could see.

Something touched his face. He went to look up but the pain only got worse. He curled into whatever was holding him. The thing gently pulled him to his face.

The thing led him back to some place. It made him change into thiner, softer clothes. It gently pushed him onto the bed.

Whatever the thing was, it was warm. It tried to move away from him. Willy couldn’t really think, but he knew he wanted the warm thing to stay.

He reached out and grabbed onto it. The thing gently pulled away from him. He pulled back.

He heard something. Then he felt the thing join him in the bed. The thing gently held him. He curled into the warmth and snuggled into it.

Chapter Text

Willy woke up to the sound of the morning bells. He was cuddled around something warm. He shifted and so did the thing.

That got Willy to move. He moved away from the warm thing.

It was Del, still asleep. They were both curled up in the small twin bed. Del was gently holding him.

Willy stared up at Del. For once he didn’t have that pessimistic scowl on his face. For once he didn’t have his guard up. He was completely relaxed.

He gently ran his hand through Del’s hair. Taking effect to move the hair out of Del’s eyes.

However, that caused Del to stir and wake. It took a moment for Del to wake up enough. And for a moment Willy was ment with Del’s sleepy look. And it was absolutely adorable.

But Del finally woke, and he instantly pushed away. Del scrambled out of the bed and to his feet.

“Good morning Delly.” He happily said.

Del glared at him. “Do not call me that.”

“Why not? We share a room. So Willy and Delly.”

“No. No. Absolutely not.”

Willy got up from the bed and walked over to Del. “So tell me Del, how exactly did we end up cuddling in the same bed?”

Not that Willy was complaining. He liked the feeling of waking up in someone’s arm. And he kind of wanted it to happen again.

“I-uh-“ Del stuttered out. “You wouldn’t let me go. So I was going to wait until you feel asleep…” Del trailed off.

They both fell into silence. Willy looked around the room. He didn’t remember how exactly he got to the room.

“How…how did we get back here?” Willy thought back to last night. “Where’s Noodle?”

“Noodle is fine. I got her back here and went looking for you.” Del explained. “I found you unconscious by a fountain.”

“Im fine-“

“You have a concussion and a fever by the looks of it.”

Before Willy could respond, Del set the back of his hands on his forehead. Willy froze for a moment and let the cool hand rest on his forehead.

Del frowned. “You do have a fever.” Del pointed at the bed. “Sit.”

“Del Im-“ He tried to argue.

“Sit.” The other man argued.

Willy sat on the bed, Del turned around and walked over to the small closet. Willy chose to stuck out his tongue at Del.

Del apparently saw this and gave Willy a look. Willy copied the look he was given. Del sighed, grabbed something from the closet and walked back over.

“Tilt your head up.” Del demanded.

Del did it for him. The man gently touched and tilted his head up. He let Del do what he wanted.

Del set something on his forehead. Willy sat patiently waiting for whatever the thing was to be finished.

The thing was taken off his forehead. He watched as Del looked at the thing. It was a small rectangular plastic piece.

“100.3.” Del said. “You sitting at the edge of a fever.”

“Oh.”

“You’re not doing anything today.” Del order.

“Wait-but-“ He started to stand.

“Absolutely not.” Del placed a hand on Willy’s chest. “Sit your ass down.”

“Del I have to-“

“Sit. Your ass. Down.”

“But-“

Del wasn’t having any of the arguing. He pushed Willy back onto the bed. He looked up at Del, some emotion he didn’t quite understand flooded through him.

Again, Del placed a hand to his forehead. “You okay? Your face went completely red.”

Was that why his face was suddenly hot. “I-uh-yeah.”

Del gave him a look before going over to the sink. He watched as Del filled a cup of water, walked back over, and handed it to him.

“Drink.”

Willy took a small sip from the cup of water. The cold water actually helped with the sore throat that had made itself known. He handed it back to Del.

“You are not to do anything today, understand?” Del order again.

“I have stuff to do. And Srubbit-“

“They haven’t check our attendance in days. And selling can wait a day.”

“But-“

“Not buts.” Del started to leave. “Stay.”

Willy sat on the bed for a few moments, staring at the door. Del said not to do anything, but he still had stuff to do. So he was going to it.

Standing up, a wave of dizziness hit him. Willy had to place a hand on the bed frame to steady himself. He let the moment pass before half stumbled to the closet to get changed.

It took him longer to get changed than it should have. Dizzy spells would hit him every couple of minutes. The pain in his head from last night had returned.

Hopefully the group wouldn’t mind his tardiness. Del was right, Srubbit and Bleacher were no longer checking their attendance. But the group would notice his tardiness.

Glancing at the cracked mirror, a pale face stared back at him. He ran a hand over his face. He was tired even after having some of the best sleep.

Grabbing his cane he walked out into the hallway and down the stairs. Yet again, a wave of dizziness hit him. He had to steady himself again.

It took him a moment, but he pushed off the wall and walked down to the laundromat. Most of the group was in the main room.

He walked over to one of the desk and sat down. The slow dull pain in his head slowly became a stabbing. The sunlight in the room was suddenly to bright.

He placed his arms on the desk and put his head down. The darkness only helped a little bit. But the pain was still terrible.

A new pain made itself known as well. This time the pain was in his stomach. And it was also terrible.

“Piper!” Someone in the room yelled. “Can you can here please?”

A moment later he felt someone’s hand. He looked up, Piper placed a hand on his forehead.

“You feeling okay kid?” Piper calmly asked.

“Yeah…Im fine.” He lied and put his head back down.

“Kid I don’t think you’re feeling good.”

“Im fine.” He pushed.

“You feel like you’re running a fever.” Piper argued.

“Im. Fine.”

A sound of something plastic was set next to him. Willy didn’t brother picking his head up. A person grabbed his chin and forced him to look up. It was Del, and he did not look happy.

“I told you to stay put.” Del angrily placed the plastic thing on his forehead again.

Willy chose to stay silent. Del seemed annoyed and he didn’t want to push it.

Del took the plastic thing off his forehead. “102.5. Your temperature is raising.”

“Thats not a good thing.” He mumbled and put his head back down.

“No.” Del forced his head back up again. “Come on.” Arm grabs his arm. “We’re going back to our room.”

Before Willy could protest, Del pulled him to his feet. Willy stumbled to his feet, Del grabbed his waist.

Del continued to drag Willy out of the main room, back up the stairs, and to their room. Del, again, pushed him onto the bed.

“What did I tell you to do.” Del order.

“Stay put.” He answered.

“And what did you do.”

“Not stay put.”

Del nodded. “What we’re going to do is you’re going to get changed into sleep clothes. And you’re going to stay in that bed in till you feel batter.”

“Del I-“

“No.” Del threw his sleep clothes at him. “Get changed into that.”

“But-“

“Now.” Del order.

Willy sighed and started changing. Del watched him a moment longer than necessary, before turning away. And going back to the door.

“I have to grab my med kit. If I see that you have moved from that bed, there will be hell to pay, understand?” Del ordered again.

“Fine. Whatever.” Willy was getting annoyed with being order around.

Del looked at him, then left the room. Leaving Willy completely alone with his pains and his thoughts.

After getting changed, Willy laid on the bed, facing the wall. The pain in his head increased. He curled up onto himself.

Some time later he felt the now familiar plastic piece being placed on his forehead. The cool plastic felt nice against his skin. He felt the plastic leave, and then a hand into his hair.

“I have something that’ll help with the pain if you want it.” Del’s voice was quieter and more gentler.

“Please.” Willy leaned into Del’s touch.

Del continued to ran with hand through Willy’s hair. “Where’s the pain?”

“Head and stomach. Mostly head.”

“Okay.” Del left him.

A moment later he felt Del sit on the bed. “I need you to sit up.”

Willy sat up like Del told him. He has handed some meds and a cup of water. He took them from Del and shallowed them.

“Lay down on the bed. Im going to put something in your forehead. And you are to lay on the bed and sleep off your fever.”

Willy again, listened. “Why exactly do I have a fever?”

“It was 42 degrees outside last night. You got a concussion, and you were dunked under water, twice. It’s obvious.”

Del sat on the bed and placed some form of gel strip on his forehead. “That is supposed to help with the fever and headache.”

Willy nodded, not really caring as long as the pain was gone. Del returned the hand to his hair. Again, Willy leaned into the touch.

“You’ll be fine.” Del spoke to him calmly. “Your body is responding to the concussion and to the water when it was cold.”

Willy nodded again, sleepiness starting to grab hold of him. “Im tired.”

“That would be the medicine.” Del responded. “Go to sleep, let the medicine work.”

Again, he nodded. Del took the hand out of his hair and stood up to leave. But Willy didn’t want Del to leave. He wanted Del to stay here.

He grabbed Del’s arm to keep him here. Del looked at him and tried to pull away. But Willy pulled back.

“Willy, I have to-“ Del stared.

“Nooo…” He mumbled. “Stay…”

“Willy-“

“No!”

Del sighed. “Do you want me to stay that badly?”

“Please.”

Del sighed again. “Fine.”

He felt Del sit on the bed again. Who then returned his hand back to his hair. Willy smiled and allowed his eyes to close.

***

The next time Willy woke up he was in someone’s lap. Del’s lap to be exact. A book laid turned over on his chest. Del was talking to someone.

“But that doesn’t explain the idea of gel stripe.” The other person was Abacus.

“The gel stripe not only cools the person down. But it feeds medicine into the forehead of the patient. Kind of like moisturizer.”

Willy opened his eyes and looked up at Del, who had yet to notice he was awake. He smiled, he didn’t exactly know what Del and Abacus were talking about.

Reaching up, Willy gently touched Del’s cheek. Del jumped, completely startled.

“Jesus Christ. How long have you been awake?” Del looked at him.

“Not for a while.” Willy brought his hand down.

“How are you feeling?” Del placed his hand on Willy’s forehead.

“Better actually.”

He wasn’t lying. The pain in his head and stomach were very dull now. It was almost gone at this point.

“You feel cooler.” Del looked up at Abacus. “Can you hand me my thermometer?”

Willy was able to watch Abacus walked to the med kit. So instead he watched Del. Who took the plastic thermometer from Abacus and placed it on his forehead.

“You’re reading 99.8.” Del took the thermometer off his forehead.

“I’ll leave you two alone.” Abacus said before walking out.

They sat in silence for a moment before Del spoke up. “Are you going to get out of my lap?”

Willy frowned. “Do I have to?”

“I would like to put my med stuff away and get dinner-“

Willy sat up. “Dinner?! How long have I’ve been asleep for?”

“A couple of hours.” Del answered him. “You need the sleep.”

“Well-uh-I-“ Willy didn’t have a response.

Del got up from the bed and walked to his med kit. Willy followed him to the side of the room.

Del’s medical kit looked fancy and expensive. Its clean white plastic held a bunch of medical supplies Willy didn’t know the name of. Each part of the med kit had its own section. The labels were all had written in some fancy font.

“Wow…Del…” He mumbled.

“Oh yeah.” Del closed his medical kit. “My dad got this when I got into medical school.”

“That…that looks expensive.”

“Oh yeah…I guess it does.”

“You’re way too calm about this.” Willy noted.

Del shrugs and places his med kit into the closet. “You have to remember, most people who live here are more well off.”

“Well yeah…but thats…”

“Expensive? Yeah. Like I said, it was a gift.”

“Okay…”

Del turned away and walked over to the bed. Willy turned and followed Del. Who went face first onto the bed, Willy joined him.

“What are you doing?” Del asked him.

Willy laid down and snuggled into Del. “Snuggling.”

“Absolutely not.” Del said but didn’t move.

“Too late.”

Willy rapped his arms around Del’s stomach, and pressed his face against Del’s back. He heard Del tell him to get off. But made no attempt to get him off.

“Wonka…” Del mumbled.

“Yes?”

“Get off.”

“No.”

He heard Del sighed. “You’re not going to get off. Are you?”

“Nope.”

Del fell silent so Willy snuggled further into the man. Del was surprisingly warm.

***

Willy woke up with no secondary warmth next to him. No second person next to him. Del was gone.

Sitting up, Willy looked around for the other man. Del was over by the window. He was sitting on the desk chair, doing something in a notebook.

He got up and walked over to Del. Who was writing a bunch of number and letters into the notebook. There was a drawing of a constellation on the paper.

“What-“ Willy grabbed Del’s shoulder.

“Jesus!” Del jumped. “You have GOT to stop doing that.”

“Sorry.” Willy smiled. “What are you doing anyway?”

Del’s eyes lite up. “Im tracking the stars!”

“Really!?”

“Yeah!” Del launches into an explanation about tracking the stars.

Willy slowly nodded, not really understanding what Del was talking about. Who was excitedly and passionately talking about the stars. Del had this adorable little smile on his face.

So Willy just watched Del. He was pacing the room and talking with his hands. It was honestly adorable and unexpected how Del switched up.

He watched as Del walked back over to the window seal and grabbed his notebook. Del came over to him and started showing his constellations.

Del was like an excited puppy who was showing off his new toy. He responded each phrase with positivity. That only seemed to fuel Del’s enthusiasm about star tracking.

Del clearly loved star tracking. So why wasn’t he pursuing star tracking? Why was he going for a degree in medicine?

“Del.” Willy spoke up through Del’s ramblings.

“Huh?” Del looked up from his notebook.

“Why were you going for a doctor degree if you clearly love star tracking?”

Del frowned and looked back down at his notebook. “It’s…complicated…”

“How complicated?”

Del snapped his notebook shut and placed it on the desk. Willy watched as Del walked over to the bed and laid down.

“Del?” Willy followed Del.

Del didn’t respond. “Del.”

Again, nothing. “Del!”

Willy sat on the bed and started poking at the other man. He was trying to get a raise out of Del. To get him to respond.

“Del. Del. Del. Del. Del.” He kept poking. “Del. Del. Del.”

“What!” Del finally responded.

“Why are you ignoring me? Why didn’t you answer my question?”

Del didn’t respond, so Willy started poking again. “Wonka!”

“Answer me.” Willy kept poking.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because Im not going to tell you.”

Willy sighed and finally stopped poking Del. He laid down and snuggled against Del. He heard Del sigh but he didn’t do anything.

“Night Del.”

Del didn’t respond for a moment. “Night Wonka.”

Chapter Text

Willy, Noodle, and Del were all crouched on a back alley fire escape. The police ran under them, looking for the group.

Once the police left Del was the first one to climb down. Willy dropped the group’s stuff for Del to catch. He stayed back and watched as Noodle climbed down.

He was about to climb down, but Noodle was at the bottom of the ladder. Which was about five feet above the ground.

“Apple strudel? Are you okay?” He asked the young girl.

“Im scared.” Noodle confused.

“Thats okay.” He laid on his stomach and looked down the ladder. “I need you to jump down.”

“No!” Noodle yelled in fear.

“I know your scared doodle Noodle. But you have to get down one way or another. So I need you to jump down.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I know. But Dels’ there to catch you.”

“I am?” He heard Del say.

“Yes.” He looked down at Del. “You are.”

Willy turned back to Noodle. “It’s okay. Dels’ there. He’ll catch you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” He confirmed.

He watched Noodle jumped from the ladder. Like he had promised, Del was there to catch the young girl. Del made eye contact with him and set Noodle down.

Turing around, Willy climbed down from the fire escape. He to jumped at the bottom of the ladder. Not telling Del he was going to jump.

Thankfully, Del pounced over to where he was falling. He let Del catch him. Who caught him, made sure he was safely on the ground, and spun him around.

“Don’t do that.” Del glared at him.

“Do what?” Willy smiled innocently.

“You know what.” Del turned away from him and started walking out of the ally.

Willy smiled, watched Del walk away from him. There was a small part of him, actually a good part of him, wanted Del’s hands on him. The way Del gently touched him. The way Del always made sure he was okay with his touches.

Was this weird? Was this wrong? What was this? He didn’t know why this man, Del, made him so happy. Made him flustered.

Willy snapped out of his thoughts when Noodle grabbed his wrist and gently pulled him out of the ally. Del had his arms crossed and was waiting for them.

“We should head back.” Del stepped towards him. “I don’t know how much longer we can run from them.”

Willy nodded. Part of him wanted to stay out. Keep selling chocolate. Keep spending time with Noodle. Keep getting closer to Del.

But the other man did have a point. They can’t keep running every five minutes. That’s not good for business.

“Alright…” He nodded again. “Let’s head back.”

“Can we go get some dinner?” Noodle tugged on his sleeve.

“Of course Noodle doodle.” He smiled, spinning the young girl around. “Del?”

“I could go for some food.” Del watched the two. “I know a cheap place not too far from here.”

“Thats good. Come one Noodle! It’s food time.”

He instantly walked away, Del remained. “Hey!” He heard Del call out. “You’re going the wrong way.”

He froze. “Right…”

Spinning Noodle and himself around, he started off in the opposite direction. As he passed Del, he could hear the man sighing.

Then a hand grabbed his other arm and yanked him back. Willy stumbled back, letting go of Noodle’s arm. The hand stayed on his arm, another hand was placed on the small of his back.

He was met with Del’s scowl. It was a look that Willy was staring to get used to. It was a scowl that told Willy to “stop before I make you stop.”

“First off, watch we’re your going. You were about to run directly into traffic. Second, if you wait a second. I would show you the right way.” Del scolded him.

He glanced over to Noodle. “Do you hear this man? He doesn’t want me to run into traffic!”

That comment earned a glare from Del. Willy returned an innocent smile, to which Del rolled his eyes and let go.

“Come on. It’s this way.” Willy frowned at the loss of contact but followed.

***

They headed into a slightly more expensive part of town. The crowd faded from people of all ages, to mostly young adults. Most looked like they were heading to class.

“Del…?” Willy looked at the man next to him as they walked down the sidewalk. “Where are we?”

“The College Walk. It’s about four streets that college kids have taken over.”

“Why did they take it over?” Noodle asked.

Del shrugged. “Don’t know. They just didn’t.”

They continued to follow Del through the street. The man lead them to some hole in the wall cafe. They had to go through a back alley to get in.

The cafe was dark, there was almost this smoky kind of feel to the cafe. People gave their group looks. Del ignore all the looks.

Willy looked around the dark cafe. All the looks that were at the group, were directly at Del. And not him and Noodle.

Walking over to the counter, Willy glanced over at Del. Who was looking at someone in the corner of the cafe.

“Del.” Willy grabbed and tugged on Del’s sleeve. “Del. Hey Del.”

Del snapped out of thoughts. “Huh? What?”

Willy tugged Del over to him. “You were staring off into the corner.”

“Uhh yeah…I’ll…I’ll be right back.” Del pulled away from him and walked over to the person in the corner.

“Del-“ Willy tried to reach out to the man, but failed.

“Willy.” Noddle tugged on his sleeve. “It’s our turn.”

Willy watched as Del talked to the person, a girl. He turned to the counter to order.

After ordering, him and Noodle sat at one of the tables. His attention was placed into Del. Who was still talking to the girl in the corner.

The girl took Del arms in her hands. She placed them onto her chest. She was smiling while she was talking to Del.

Something flared inside of Willy, he didn’t know what. But he knew that he didn’t want Del talking to this girl. He knew that he wanted Del’s attention to be on him.

The realization hit him. He was jealous! Jealous that Del was talking to this girl and not him.

He shouldn’t be jealous! Del was an adult. His own person. He was allowed to talk to whoever he wanted.

Willy had to pry his eyes away from the corner, away from Del. He stared down at the table. Placing his arms down on the table, he set his head down on his arms. Trying to think of anything but the man in the corner.

But it was hard when the man was starting to consume his every waking thought. All he seemed to want now is Del’s attention. His approval. Anything he could get from Del.

What was going on? Why was he like this? Something like this had never happened before. What was this?

Willy snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a smaller foot being placed on his leg. He looked up, Noodle was staring at him. Like she was waiting for him to respond.

“Abacus always scolds Piper when bounces her leg.” Noodle said, or repeated, he really didn’t know which one.

“Oh…” Willy didn’t really know how to respond.

Willy glanced down out his leg, sure enough, he was bouncing his leg. A habit he was trying, and clearly failing to get rid of.

A worker came and placed their food down on the table. He handed Noodle her food, who happily took it. Then he placed Del’s food in the empty seat next to him.

Glancing over at Del, Willy saw that Del was smiling at the girl before gently kissing the girl’s hand. The girl smiled and walked away from Del.

The jealousy flared up. Why was Del smiling at her? Why did he kiss her hand? Who was she?

Willy looked at the girl. She was your typical pretty girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Thin and curvy.

Anger joined the jealousy. Who did this girl think she was? Del was HIS friend. Not hers. Why-

“Wonka!”

Willy jumped. Del was now standing in front of him, with his arms crossed. That scowl was on his face again, but there was a small hint of concern.

“Hello. Earth to Wonka.” Del waved a in front of his face. “Any one home?”

“I-uh-“ He had to blink a few times. “Hi.”

Del’s scowl changed to a look of confusion when he said hi. Willy looked away. Why did he say hi? That was stupid!

“Here.” Willy handed Del his food.

Del smiled at him, that fluttery feeling was back. “Thanks.”

Willy smiled back. “You’re welcome.”

“We can start heading back now.” Del handed Noodle half of his sandwich.

Willy nodded. “Ready to go Apple Strudel?”

Noodle was already eating the half of Del’s sandwich. “Yeah.”

***

Willy collapsed onto the bed as soon as him and Del got back into their room. He heard Del chuckled behind him.

“Tired much?” Del asked.

He nodded against the pillow. “I don’t think you got tired.”

A hand was in his hair. Willy melted into the touch. Again, he heard Del chuckle.

“Get changed." He couldn’t see Del’s smile, but he heard it. “Then you can sleep.”

Pushing himself up and out of the bed, Willy went over to the small closet to get his sleep clothes. He started changing.

He glanced over his shoulder, he made eye contact with Del. Whose eyes widen and immediately looked away.

Willy finished changing when he remembered something. Turning around he grabbed the small container of chocolate and walked over to the window.

“What are you doing?” Del followed him.

Instead of answering, Willy shot a grappling hook at Noodles window. The young girl immediately came to her window, just as he was sending the chocolates over.

Noodle was excited. He had promised Noodle chocolates daily. But recently he hasn’t been keeping that promise. So now he is going to keep the promise.

Noodle sent over a piece of paper. It had something on it. After two failed guesses he turned to Del.

“Do you know what this is?”

Del, who moved to lay on the bed, looked at the paper he was holding. “An acute triangle. 45 degrees maybe.”

“It’s an A.” Noodle called out. “Im teaching you how to read.”

“Oh!” He yelled out excitedly.

Noodle went to bed a bit later, Willy went over to the bed. He climbed onto the bed, much to Del protest. He stuck the paper letter to the wall.

Willy let himself fall onto the bed and next to Del. Like always, Del tried to move away. But like always, Willy didn’t let him.

But this time, Del didn’t really protest. Willy hugged Del and cuddled close to him. He felt Del relax into his hug.

“This is going to be a regular thing now, isn’t it.” He heard Del say to know one in particular.

“Yep.” Willy answered nonetheless.

The room fell silent as both men relaxed into sleep. Willy snuggled into Del. Taking in the warmth of the other man as the temperature dropped.

As his brain slowed down his thoughts began to take over. His thoughts went back to earlier, back to the cafe, back to the girl.

“Hey Del.” Willy called out before he could stop himself.

“ ‘eah…wha’?” Del mumbled sleepily.

“That girl…at the cafe…” Willy didn’t know how to ask. “Who was she?”

Del didn’t answer for a while, Willy thought he was asleep. “She..she was my girlfriend.”

“You’re what!?!” Willy sat up. “You have a girlfriend!”

“Had. I had one.” Del didn’t move.

Willy stared at Del. “What do you mean you HAD one?”

Del sat up. “She-I….I haven’t seen her since I got trapped here.”

“How long was that?”

“Five months ago…”

“Oh…Im sorry.” Willy unconsciously scooted closer to Del.

“Don’t be…I didn’t really love her.”

Willy looked at Del. Part of him wanted to push. Del had never talked like this. Never opened up like this.

“Don’t get me wrong…she’s a good person, she’s got the looks…but I never loved her.”

Willy gently grabbed Del’s arm. Wanting Del to continue.

“We only got together because my father was pushing for me to get a girlfriend. Her family was pushing her to get a boyfriend. We got together to get our parents off our backs.”

“We tried…we tried to make it work, between us. But there was nothing there. We wanted it to work, so bad. But it was bad.”

Willy watched Del talk. Del seemed sad, almost disappointed that him and that girl didn’t work out.

“Besides. She deserves someone better than me.”

When Del stopped explaining, Willy pushed. “What do you mean?”

“Oh come on Wonka.” Del, who had been staring at the wall, finally looked at him. “Im a mess. I can’t control my anger sometimes. Im a complete asshole most of time. Im the stupid white rich kid who’s living off of his daddy’s money. I don’t trust people. Im the-“

Willy frowned as Del continually laid out his flaws. His voice continued to rise, as his voice filled with self hatred. The man got up from the bed and started pacing the room. Continuing to speak of self hatred.

Getting up as well, Willy intersected Del’s pacing. He gently grabbed Del’s arm and held them close to his chest.

That got Del to stop, Willy took one of his hands and gently moved some of Del’s hair out of his face. He could see the broken and hurt in Del’s eyes.

Willy wanted to fix it. Wanted to help. He wanted to make sure Del didn’t feel like this. He wanted Del to talk about himself in a positive light. Not the negative light he was hearing.

“Don’t talk to yourself like that.” Willy told the man. “You’re not as bad as you think you are.”

Del pushed away from him. “You don’t know me.”

“But Im learning.” Willy took a step towards Del. “Del. I want to know you. I want to get closer.”

Instead of responding him, Del went back over to the bed. Willy followed him. He joined Del on the bed again.

“Del…” Willy gently placed his hand on Del’s arm again. “I promise, you’re not that bad as you might think you are.”

Again, Del pulled away so he could lay on the bed. “You don’t understand.”

“Maybe not yet.” Willy laid down and pulled Del close. “But someday.”

Another round of silence fell between them. Willy started tracing shapes into Del’s arm, hoping to give the other man some comfort.

“Del?”

“Yes?”

“What did you say to her?”

Again, Del didn’t speak for a moment. “I wanted to tell her that we shouldn’t be together. It was only fair. We didn’t really have anything against each other. So it was easy to breakup.”

“Thats good.” Willy responded, glad that it at least ended well.

“Yeah…she deserves someone better than me. Someone who isn’t as fucked up as me.”

“You keep saying you’re a bad person. But you broke off a relationship that wasn’t working. And thats good.”

He felt Del shake his head against the pillow. Willy sighed and went back to tracing shaped on Del’s skin of his arm.

The tracing seemed to help in some way. Because Del relaxed into him. Willy snuggled into the other man and continued to trace shapes into Del’s arm.

“Night Willy.” Del whispered.

“Good night.” Willy responded. “Sleep tight-“

“Let the bed bugs bite.” Del cut him off.

“Thats not the saying!” Willy said with a smile. “You shouldn’t let the bed bugs bite.”

Del laughed, and Willy laughed as well. He wanted to make Del smile and laugh more. He wanted Del to be happy.

Del turned so they were facing each other. Willy smiled at the other man, and Del smiled back at him.

“Hi.” Willy randomly said.

That made both men start laughing. Excited flooded through Willy. Again, Willy wanted, needed to get this reaction, this smile out of Del.

“Oh my god…I was having a breakdown not even ten minutes ago. And now we’re laughing in the same bed.” Del said while laughing.

“Are you cheered up?” Willy asked.

Del, still smiling, sighed. “Unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?! What do you mean unfortunately?”

Del laid on his back, so Willy curled into Del’s side. “I don’t know.”

Again, silence fell over the two of them again. Willy took in Del’s warmth. Part of, actually a good part of him, greedy wanted all of Del’s warmth to himself.

Willy started tracing shapes into Del’s skin. Knowing that helped the man relax.

And helped it did. In the matter of seconds Del was out cold. Willy snuggled further into Del as the man’s breathing slowed.

“Good night Del.” Willy mumbled while he joined Del in sleep.

Chapter Text

Willy leaned against the desk he was sitting at. Noodle was standing in front of a blackboard, trying to teach him how to read. While Del was siting on the floor next to him, working on his star tracking.

“So, what does this word say?” Noodle asked him.

Willy looked at the board, at Noodle, then back at the board. He honestly had no idea.

“Cat.” He heard Del say.

“Del!” Noodle yelled.

Del went back at his star tracking as Willy looked over. This entire day Del had been in a mood. He was snapping at everyone and everything.

Noodle went back to trying to teach him. However, Willy’s attention was divided. Part of his attention was on the less, the other part, the bigger part of his attention was on Del.

It took Noodle ten more minutes before she gave up. She bid for the two men good night before leaving.

The bit of his attention that was on leaning to read, merged with his attention on Del. Who was angrily writing in his tracking notebook.

“Del?”

“What.” Del snapped.

Willy turned to face Del. “Are you okay?”

“Im fine.”

“No you’re not. You’ve been in a mood all day.”

Del didn’t respond. Willy watched him for a moment before getting to his feet. He stood over the man on the floor.

“Del.”

Nothing.

“Del.”

Still nothing.

“Del!”

Willy stared at Del, the man still refused to look at him. So Willy snatched Del’s notebook away.

“What-hey!” Del finally looked at him.

“What’s up with you? You’ve been in a mood all day.”

“Im fine.” Del argued.

“If you were fine you wouldn’t be in a mood.” Willy argued.

“Give me my notebook back Wonka.” Del pushed.

“Tell me whats wrong.” Willy pushed back.

Instead of answering, Del just ignored him. Willy stared at the sitting man, before sitting himself on the floor.

You see, Willy was starting to learn Del. Not learn ABOUT Del but learn Del. Learn how he works, learn how to coexist with him.

He learned that Del is not going to just talk. No matter how many times he ask, Del won’t tell him if he doesn’t want to.

So Willy sat there, next to his partner. Del’s star tracking book still in his hands.

They sat in silence for a while. He eventually got bored. So he started flipping through Del’s notebook.

Each constellation were drawn perfectly. Each constellation had great care put into it. Each constellation was beautiful.

Willy looked up from the notebook, Del was looking out the window, Willy watched him. And took in everything about the man.

The moonlight perfectly hit Del’s face. It made his dark brown hair shine and glow. It made his hair seem much softer than it always has.

Gently lifting his hand, Willy placed his hand in Del hair. Who for some reason, didn’t protest. He just left Willy’s hand there.

Willy moved closer to Del, he slowly ran his hand through Del’s hair. Del leaned against him.

Thats how they sat there, for an unknown of time, they sat there like this. Willy continued to ran his hand through Del’s hair. It wasn’t as soft as he thought it was, but it was still nice to play with.

“I don’t think letting everyone in the laundromat is a good idea.” Del was the one to break the silence.

Willy looked at the man. “What?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Del repeated.

“I know, but explain.”

It took a while for Del to speak again. “I know it’s a good idea to have multiple people, but…we run more of a risk of getting caught.”

Willy adjusted Del so Del was more on his lap. “I know.” He reassured Del. “But they can help us.”

“I know…I…I just don’t want anyone getting hurt.” Del confessed.

“Del…” Willy again, adjusted Del so he could hold Del’s face. “I can’t promise no one is going to get hurt, but I can promise that everyone will have help everyone.”

Del relaxed into his hands. “I know.”

Willy rubbed Del’s face with his thumb. “Is that whats been bothering you all day?”

Del nodded. “You know you can talk to me, anytime?”

Del nodded again. “So instead of being mean to people, you’re going to talk to me?”

“Probably not.” Del smiled at him.

“Del!” He snapped that made the other man giggle. “You need to talk to me.”

“I know.” Del nodded in his hands.

Again, they spent awhile just sitting there. And again, Del was the one to break away. He pulled away and went to the closet to gather his clothes.

Willy didn’t watch, to give Del some privacy. So instead he got up and changed into his own sleep clothes.

What was starting to become a routine, was the cuddling. Each night they would cuddle. Del had stopped complaining about it, which made Willy happy.

***

The group was walking through the streets. There currently was a Winter Festival going on throughout the town. People were happily walking around, enjoying the day.

Noodle’s hand was in his. The rest of the group was a couple feet ahead of them. They too were enjoying the festivities. Glancing to the side, Willy saw the side of Del’s hood. Any time they were out in public Del had the hood up, completely obscuring his face.

They stopped in the main area for an early dinner. Del excused himself for a moment before completely leaving the group.

As the sun began to set the group started walking back towards the laundromat. And Willy started to worry. Del had yet to show. Noodle ran off to go talk to Piper. Willy stayed a few feet behind, waiting for Del to show up again.

A chilled hand ghosted his wrist. Willy glanced over, Del was there again. With his second hand tucked behind his back and a small giddy smile on his face.

“Del?” Willy couldn’t help but match the rare smile.

“Open your mouth.” Del order.

Willy did as he was told. Del stuck a plastic spoon in his mouth. He instantly took in whatever food was on the spoon.

Whatever was on the spoon, its temperature matched the outside around them. It was sour yet sweet. Its texture was like a snow-cone.

“What-“ Willy started as soon as the spoon left his mouth.

“Do you like it?” Del cut him off.

Plucking the spoon out of Del’s hand, Del relieved the small cup from his second hand. Willy looked up at Del’s face. The giddy smile was only growing.

Warmth immediately burst through him. This little giddy smile was rare. Del was constantly closed off. Never one to show his emotions. Oh how Willy wants to see that smile more often.

Digging into whatever was in the cup, Willy placed the spoon back in his mouth. Del stood there, patiently waiting for his response.

He flicked the spoon out of his mouth, he tapped Del on the nose with the spoon. “I love it.”

Del’s pupils exploded. “Really!?”

Willy laughed, he loves the way Del got excited like this. His hazel eyes got all blown out. The slight bite of the lower lip so it didn’t look like he’s smiling. The way he slightly bounces on his feet. It was adorable.

Del was adorable when he’s like this. When he’s finally showing an emotion isn’t just coldness. He was absolutely adorable.

“I promise.” Willy grabbed Del’s free hand. “I love it.”

Del was going to say something but Noddle ran back over to the two of them. She grabbed and tugged his jacket sleeve, wanting to show him something.

Happily, but somewhat reluctantly, he followed Noodle. He glanced back at Del, who was left standing there. All alone, by himself.

Guilt replaced the warmth. The smile that was on Del’s face was gone. He watched for a moment longer before Del walked toward the rest of the group.

***

Del was asleep next to him. Willy was flipping through one of Del’s old constellation notebooks. It was the middle of the night and Willy should have been asleep.

But there was two things keeping him awake.

The first was the guilt. Guilt for abandoning Del while he went off with Noodle. Guilt for feeling guilty about seeing what Noodle wanted.

The second was the thing he’d been planning for about three weeks now. He was finally to get the little orange man.

So Willy stayed awake. Lying on the bed, next to Del, flipping through one of the man’s old notebooks. Waiting for the little orange man to show up.

The sound of the window opening could be heard. Willy slammed the notebook shut and went perfectly still.

Noises could be heard. Willy held his breath, nervousness and excitement sat waiting. Waiting for the right time to move.

There was a yelp and Willy shot up from the bed. The glass jar sat on his desk, inviting him to come see the man who has been chasing him. He stood up, careful not to wake Del, and went over to the jar.

“Hello…? Willy asked, sitting down at the desk.

The little orange man glared at him. “Hello Wonka.”

Willy stared at the little orange man. “What…are you…?”

“I am an Oompa Loompa. Now stop gawking and release me.”

He didn’t, instead he asked his own question. “Why are-“

“What in the actual fuck is that thing!” Del was awake.

“This is the little orange man-“ Willy started

“Little orange man?!” The little orange man yelled, offended. “I’ll have you know I am an Oopma Loopma. And-“

“What the fuck is an Oopma Loopma?” Del cut the little orange man off.

The Oopma Loopma went off on a tangent. It went on and on about how Willy stole some coco beans from him. Del looked at him and confused look. Who returned the some look.

“Im going back to sleep.” Del muttered before going back to the bed.

Willy watched Del walk back over to the bed. His eyes continued to stay on Del as the man went face first onto the bed. Willy smiled, watching him-

“Wonka!”

Willy snapped his head back over to the Oopma Loompa. “We can talk about this like civil men if you release me!”

“Okay. Okay.” Willy sat forward to take the jar off.

“Thank you Wonka. Now would you be a kind sir and hand me that frying pan?”

Willy sat confused for a moment before getting up. “This one?”

“No, no. The bigger one if you will?”

A normal person would have seen the trick coming. Regardless of Willy being a normal person, Willy should have definitely seen this trick coming. Because his forehead connected with the metal pan with a concerning thud. Willy bit on his tongue to keep from yelling out.

The Oopma Loopma quickly fled the room. Saying something that Willy didn’t hear. Instead of chasing after the critter, he stayed right where he was. A hand gently pressed against where he was whacked.

“Ow…”

Willy glanced back over at the bed. Like he said, Del was back asleep. Willy walked over to the bed and collapsed into it. Waking Del up in the process.

“Willy!” Del complained.

Instead of answering, Willy wrapped his arms around Del’s sides and pressed his face into the man’s back. Gripping the man’s shirt, anger slowly started rising. He let the Oopma Loopma get away! That thing has been stealing chocolate from him for years. And as soon as he captured it, he let it get away.

What now? He spent all night trying to capture the Oopma Loopma that he didn’t make any chocolates. Noodle and everyone else was going to be upset with him! And he didn’t want them to be upset with him.

Willy was brought out of his thoughts when Del sat up and turned to face him. The man stared at him. To which Willy looked away. If everyone was go to be upset with him, surely Del was to.

“Why did you go quiet?” Del frowned at him.

Willy looked back at Del confused. “What?”

“You’ve gone quiet. And you never go quiet.”

“I….” he trailed off.

Willy pulled away as Del got off of the bed. Sitting up Willy watched the man throw his day clothes at him. Willy fumbled as the clothes fell to the floor.

“Get changed. We’re going back to the Winter Festival.” Was all the explanation Del gave him before starting to changed.

Scrambling to get changed, Willy quickly followed Del out of the room and down the stairs. He reached out for Del’s hand. Who happily took it to lead him the way back to the Winter Festival.

Del dragged him over to one of the booths. The man was buzzing with excitement. He handed Willy a cup and spoon like he did earlier today.

“You never explained what this was.” Willy pointed out.

“Soft frozen lemonade.” Del smiled at him.

Willy dug some of the frozen liquid out of the cup. Del was giving him another excited smiled on his face. This cup had a slightly different taste to it but Willy didn’t really mind.

Del and him spent the rest of the night just walking around. As the night went on both him and Del started relaxing more. Del was the one dragging him around. Gaining confidence with each step.

Del was honestly beautiful. The starlight made him glowed. He was talking about the stars again. So his speech came out faster, and his hands were moving. Willy stopped listening, choosing just to watch the man and all his glory.

Someone came up and said they were a cute couple. That threw Willy off a little bit. What did they mean by couple? Did the person think they were dating? Of course him and Del aren’t dating! He’s just a really good friend!

“Hey.”

Willy snapped out of his thoughts when Del stood. Del gently held his face, his hands were ice cold but Willy didn’t care. Any touch from Del, Willy welcomes. He snuggled into Del’s touch, making the other man laugh.

“Your face is warm.” Del pointed out.

“And your hands are cold.” He retorted.

That got another laugh from Del. “It’s almost 3AM. Do you wanna start heading back?”

What Willy wanted to say was no. He wanted to keep spending time with Del. He wanted Del to continue to hold him. He just wanted to be with Del. But Del did have a point, they should get back so they could actually get some sleep.

“Yeah…We should.” For some reason Willy’s words were slurred.

One of Del’s hands went into his hair. “I think the lemonade might have been spiked?”

“What’s that mean?”

Another small laugh from Del. “It means it’s got alcohol in it.”

“Oh.” Willy started to worry, he didn’t want to get drunk.

He’s seen what happens when people get drunk. It’s never pretty. He’s always done his best to stay away from alcoholic.

Del pulled his hand out of his hair and gently grabbed his hand. “Don’t worry. I don’t think there was a lot.”

Del’s reassurance was all he needed. “Okay.”

That got a smile from Del. “Come on. Lets go.”

They did go back to the lawndermrat. But didn’t go back to their room. Instead him and Del sat on the edge of the roof. Just talking. About what? Anything and everything. Nothing and something. Another cup of the spiked frozen lemonade sat finished behind them.

Again, Willy wasn’t paying attention to a word Del said. Optioning to just watched the man talk. Like his, Del’s words were slightly slurred.

Okay so maybe they were drunk. It wasn’t planned at all. And Willy wasn’t stressing about it too much. How could he? Del was there. Pretty, beautiful Del was next to him. He would never stress over something like this if Del was at his side.

“You’re pretty.” Willy said without thinking.

“Huh?” Del stopped talking and looked at him.

“You’re pretty.” Willy repeated.

“I-uh-I-thanks.” Del said after a moment, stumbling over his words.

Willy chuckled and leaned against Del. He was already warm but Del felt nice. He was completely and utterly content to stay right here. Next to Del. Thats all he needed.

“You’re pretty.” Willy repeated again. “When you get excited and you have this smile. The way you do those little feet bouncy thingy. And when you like something your pupils explode. How when you’re talking about something you love your voice gets all fast and you start talking with your hands.”

Willy sat up to look at Del. “You’re very pretty.”

Del was just staring at him. Like his brain was trying to catch up to what Willy was saying. Del’s face was completely red. That was because of the cold right. Right?

Del opened his mouth but Willy continued. “The way you were talking about yourself, the other night. I didn’t like it. You think really bad about yourself. But you’re not all that bad. You should love yourself more.”

Del gently cupped his face. Willy leaned up to Del. Willy wasn’t lying when he said he thought Del was pretty. From the moment he saw the pessimistic man, Willy thought he was pretty.

This was normal right? Thinking your friend was pretty. Of course it was normal! Willys’ seen pretty people all the time! But Del was special. Del made him smile. Del made him laugh. Del made his day. Del was pretty.

Del, was inches from his face. His pretty face inches from his face. He could feel Del’s breath against his face. He could smell the alcohol.

This tightness took over his chest. It was a good tightness. Warmth blasted through him. Where Del’s hands were on his body set off fireworks. And Willy wanted more.

He wanted more of Del. More of his touches. More of his reserved kindness. More of his smiles. More of everything.

Willy grabbed Del’s shirt to drag him closer and-

“What the fuck are you two doing up here!”

Willy let go of Del’s shirt as Del backed away. He spanned his head towards whoever had interpreted them. It was Piper, who did not look happy.

“Do you two realize what time is it? It’s almost 4:30 in the morning! Get your asses back inside before you fall off the roof!”

Willy looked at Del. They both stared at each other. A moment lost because of interruption. Did this mean something? No. Surely it couldn’t. Del was pretty, yes. But it doesn’t mean he LIKES Del.

“You think Im pretty?” Del’s voice was next to nonexistent.

“Yeah-“

“Stop being homosexuals and get your asses in here!” Piper yelled at them.

“Yes ma’am.” Both men mumbled before getting up.

“Are you two drunk?” Piper asked.

Both immediately denied being drunk. However Piper gave them a look that said she didn’t believe them. Del gently grabbed his and gently lead him back to their room. But Willy lead Del straight to the bed. Del ha

Chapter Text

Willy was practically bouncing off of the walls of the newly bought building. Del was next to him, smiling. Willy leapt forward to grab Del’s hand and swing him around. Who yelped and fell backwards.

As Del connected with the ground, Willy sat on Del’s lap. Successfully pinning the man to the floor. Willy smiled at Del, who was blankly staring up at him. Like he was trying to understand what was happening.

“Hello Del.” Willy waved a hand in front of Del’s face. “Heeeeeello.”

Del blinked a few times, snapping out of whatever trance he was in. “Get off.” Del shoved him off.

“Oh! You wound me!” Willy faked hurt.

A sigh, yet a smile from Del. “You’re impossible.”

Willy grabbed Del wrist and dragged him up. “You love it though.”

Del gave a him a look. A look Willy didn’t understand. But Del was looking at him and he was okay with that.

“Yeah…” Del’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Yeah. I love it.”

They sat there for a for a good while. Just staring at each other, not saying a word. Del was still lying on the floor. With Willy sitting, half leaning over the man.

Del reached up at his face and gently brushed the hair out of his face. Willy froze, letting Del do whatever he wanted. Del’s touches were always light. Always ghosting. Like he was not to hurt him. But Del could never hurt him.

“Hi.” Willy said as soon as Del brought his hand down.

That got Del to laugh. “Hello.”

“You’re pretty.”

Another laugh. “You told me that last night.”

Willy was going to respond but Piper was calling him. Reluctantly Willy pulled him to his feet and moved across the room. Not without sneaking a few glances at Del. Who had sat up and was talking to Lottie. Piper was off in a corner, away from everyone else.

“Hello Piper!” Willy stopped right in front of Piper. “What do you need?”

“Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?” Piper asked him, her tone pressing.

“What do you mean?”

“That.” Piper waved her hand between him and Del. “Do you understand what you are getting into?”

Willy looked back over at Del. Piper’s explanation, or lack of explanation, didn’t help. He looked blankly at Piper. Silently asking her to keep explaining.

Piper sighed. “Please tell me you know what’s going on.”

That didn’t help either. “What…whats going on?”

“Oh my god.” Piper groaned. "And I thought straight men were obvious.”

“Straight men?” If Willy wasn’t confused already, he would be now.

“Get back to your boyfriend.” Piper walked away.

Willy was left standing there, by himself. Completely and utterly confused. What did Piper mean by ‘boyfriend’? Do people think him and Del are dating?

“Hey.”

Willy looked up as Del gently grabbed his wrist. Smiling, Willy pulled Del closer. Del happily returned the smile. Warmth immediately spread through him.

“What did Piper want?” Del asked him.

“Don’t know. She really didn’t say.”

***

“D…e…e…? No. D…e…a…l…? No. D…e…l? Del!”

“Yeah?”

Willy looked up at Del, who was back working in his star chart notebook. Willy was currently sitting next to Del, on the floor, with a notebook of his own. He was trying to write any word that came to his head.

“Your name. D-e-l.”

Del smiled at him, warmth shot right through Willy. “Now all you’ve got to do is spell my actual name.”

Willy shut the notebook. What did Del mean his name? Del was his name.

Del must of seen the confusion on his face, because he was also confused. “What?”

“Your…your name’s not Del?”

Del laughed. “No.”

“What do you mean no?”

“I mean that Del isn’t my name.”

“Excuse me?!” Willy sat up. “Your name isn’t Del?!”

Another laugh. “No….wait…you actually thought my name was Del?”

“Yes!”

Noodle happily skipped into their bedroom. Completely unaware of Del not being Del. The young girl sat next to him.

“Hi Willy. Hi Del-“

“Thats not Del.” He cut Noodle off.

“Yes that is.” Noodle argued.

“His name isn’t not Del.”

“Your name’s not Del?!” Noodle looked at Del.

“No!”

“What are you people arguing about?” Abacus walked in.

“His names’ not Del!” Both him and Noodle shouted at the same time.

“Your name isn’t Del?” Abacus turned towards Del.

“No! Does everyone think my name is Del?”

No one answered.

“The silence says everything.”

Piper called for Noodle to go to bed. Willy had to encourage her because she was protesting. After a moment she did eventually leave. Abacus leaving some time before her.

They got changed into their sleep clothes. His eyes staying on Del just a little longer than necessary. He blew out the candle, flooding the room with just the moonlight. As soon as Del got into the bed, Willy snuggled right into the man.

Del was facing him tonight. Willy secretly loved it when Del decided to face him. That way Willy was able to watch Del fall asleep. To watch him relax as his brain turned off. Del was pretty when he slept.

“What is your name?” Willy asked after a moment.

It took a moment for Del to respond. “My name is Kadence.”

Willy pulled away from Del-Kadence. "You look like a Will-“

“Kadence.” Kadence cut him off. “It’s Kadence.”

“Well hello Kadence.” Willy smiled at Kadence.

“Hello Willy.” Kadence smiled back.

Willy snuggled back into Kadence. Who wrapped his arms around him. He felt the warmth come back when Kadence placed his face in his hair.

It was Willy who broke the silence again. “Why didn’t you correct us?”

He felt Kadence shrug. “Didn’t care all that much.”

Another time and Willy wouldn’t be satisfied with that answer. But he was snuggled into Kadence. And Kadence was holding him. So he may or may not have been already half asleep. Who could blame him. Kadence was nice and warm, even if his hands were always freezing.

There was a kiss on his hair. “Good night Willy.” Was the last thing he heard before warm darkness took over.

***

“Ohhhhhhhhhh Kade-!” Willy skipped into the changing room.

“Yeah?” Kadence turned towards him.

Kadence was in the work uniform Noodle and Lottie spent a few days designing. Today everyone was making sure everything was working. Uniforms, mechanics, lights, everything.

And Kadence was absolutely stunning. The uniform somehow fit perfectly but still being just a tad tight. The dark magenta complimented his dark brown hair and his pale skin.

It wasn’t fair that Kadence was this stunning in a simple work outfit. He could make any outfit look good on him. He was pretty.

“Hello. Wonka.” And right in front of him.

Willy smiled at Kadence. “Hi.”

There was a slight chill on his wrist. Willy glanced down, Kadence’s hand gently rested on his wrist. The man softly tugged him towards the door.

“Come on. Tomorrow’s a big day. We need to get some sleep.”

Willy nodded and moved his wrist so he was holding Kadence’s hand. “I think you just want to cuddle.”

“I-what-“ Kadence who was in mid step, froze.

“Yeah I think you just want to cuddle.” Willy stepped in front of Kadence so he was leading, never letting go of the man’s hand.

“I-uh-no-“ Kadence continued to stumble over his words.

“What’s wrong Del?” Willy turned around, tugging Kadence ever so silently.

But it was enough to make the man jerked forward. Willy grabbed Kadence’s biceps to keep him from tumbling forward even further. He slide his hands down to Kadence’s.

“Cat got your tongue?” Willy smiled at the man, adding a bit of slyness to his voice.

Kadence stared at him for a moment, blinked a few times, then shook his head. “Let’s go.”

Kadence gently pushed past him. Willy moved his hands so he could still hold Kadence’s hand. He let Kadence lead him back through the town and back to the laundromat.

As soon as they got to their room, Willy flopped on the bed. Behind him he heard Kadence chuckled. A moment later Willy felt a hand running through his hair.

“Can you at least get changed first?” There was fondness in Kadence’s voice.

Willy let out a whine, his face pressed into the thin sheets of the bed. He heard Kadence chuckled again, along with some movement. There was a hand tenderly moving his face. Willy whined as he looked at Kadence, who was warmly smiling at him.

“Hey there.” Kadence moved some of his hair away from his face. “I know you’re tired but I need you to get changed.”

“Nooooo.” Willy might be a tad overdramatic. Okay, very overdramatic.

He heard Kadence sigh as he watched him climb into the bed. Both of them still in their outfits for tomorrow. Willy turned onto his side to look at Kadence.

“Hi.” Willy said.

Kadence smiled at him. “Hello Wonka.”

As soon as Kadence opened his arms, Willy snuggled in. He pressed his into the man’s chest. Kadence responded by grabbing his coat. Inhaling, Willy took in Kadence’s sent. That’s another thing Willy loved about Kadence, he smelled a mix of wood and vanilla.

“You smell nice.” Willy said, his voice muffled.

“I…uh…thanks…?” Kadence replied above him. “I don’t know how to respond to that.”

Willy shrugged and began to trace shapes into Kadence’s back. He felt the man instantly relax with his actions. Willy found that absolutely adorable. How something as simple as tracing shapes into Kadence’s skin could get him to relax and drop into sleep in just a few seconds.

***

Kadence was still asleep when the sun began to rise. Willy, as tired as he was hours ago, had yet to sleep. Worry and doubt had taken his brain an hour after Kadence had fallen asleep.

Willy knew he had nothing to worry about. They finally got a shop to sell chocolate. The people were excited about the new shop. They had made sure everything was working. Kadence, Abacus, and Piper did safety check after safety check. There was nothing to worry about. But he still did.

There was shifting behind him. Willy glanced over his shoulder, Kadence had subconsciously shifted over to where he was sitting. Willy was sitting on the floor, his back up against the bed. He slowly lifted his hand and softly wiped the small bit of drool off of Kadence’s face.

He turned back to the notebook he was holding. The notebook was another one of Kadence’s. Willy often stole them so he could look at Kadence’s work. This time it wasn’t his constellations. It was Kadence’s old notes from medical school.

Willy didn’t understand what most of the words ment. His ability to read has gotten better over the past month and a half. But this medical jargon, he didn’t understand any of it.

With a soft snap, Willy closed the notebook. His hand ran across the weathered leather. The leather was somehow smooth yet rough. Placed in the upper middle of the cover sat a name.

“Will Fick.” Willy read the name, his voice barely audible.

Who was that? Willy had no idea. Why would Kadence put a different name on his notebook? If he was using this for school why put the wrong name on it? Unless he got it from someone else. But that’s not like Kadence. From what Willy has seen Kadence has always gotten brand new. Why would this time be any different?

Willy opened to a random page in the notebook. On this page there was an assignment stapled onto the page. He immediately scanned the page. A name was written in the top right corner.

“William Fickelgruber.”

Willy slammed the notebook shut with a snap. That was Ficklegruber's son. Why in the world does Kadence have a notebook that belongs to the son of one of the chocolatiers? Willy opened the notebook to a random page again. It was Kadence’s handwriting. None of this made any sense.

Kadence mumbled in his sleep and shifted again. Willy fully turned around, tucking his legs under the bed. Setting down the notebook, Willy placed both arms on the bed in front of Kadence. He laid his head in his arms and looked up at Kadence.

“Hello there.” Willy said, knowing full well he wouldn’t get a response.

“Morning Wonka.” He got a response anyway.

“OH MY!” Willy shrieked and jumped back, his side digging into the bed frame.

Willy spun around, at some point Piper had came onto his and Kadence’s room. She walked over to the desk chair, that was by the window, and sat in it.

“Didn’t mean to scare you.” Piper said.

“It’s fine.” Willy turned back to Kadence, despite the noise he made, the man was still asleep.

There was a moment of silence before he heard Piper speak up again. “Hey Wonka.”

“Yeah?” He responded.

“What did you do to him?”

“Huh?” Willy looked back at Piper.

“Del-Kadence. He was punching the daylights out of you over a month ago. Now you two cuddle every night.”

Willy shrugged and turned back to Kadence. “He’s not a bad person. He’s just has some issues.”

“Thats not a surprise.”

There was a pause. “Hey Willy.”

“Yeah?” Willy gently reached up to brush some of Kadence’s hair out of the sleeping man’s face. Kadence shifted in his sleep as Willy went to cup his face.

“What is Kadence to you?”

“He’s my friend.”

“And?”

“And he is the manager for us.”

“And?”

Willy gently thumbed Kadence’s face. “He’s someone who I really care about. He’s someone I cuddle with every night. He’s someone who I love spending time with. He’s someone who I want to always be close to. He’s someone who is taking up a lot of my thoughts.”

Kadence snuggled into his hand. “I wanna keep getting closer to him. I want to learn everything about him, I don’t care if it’s good or bad. I want to know everything about him.”

“Yes he’s angry with the world. Yes he has anger issues. Yes he thinks with his fist sometime. Yes he’s prideful. But he’s also caring. He’s protective. He’s passionate. And-“

“You love him?” Piper cut him off.

Willy pulled away and turned to look at Piper. “Yeah, as a friend.”

“God Wonka.” Piper sighed. “You know most friends don’t cuddle like that. Most friends don’t ramble for hours about another. Most friends don’t look at each other like they are in love. Most friends don’t get red in the face by a simple action.”

Willy turned back to Kadence. “Well then I guess we’re different.”

“Most FRIENDS don’t look like they are in love.”

He stayed silent. There was a hand on his shoulder. After a moment he heard Piper leave the room. Willy looked back over at Kadence. The sun had just started to cast its morning rays perfectly over Kadence’s face.

The sleeping man tried to move his eyes away from the sunlight. Willy moved so he could block out the sun. Kadence stopped moving, relaxing back into sleep.

“I keep saying I think you’re pretty because it’s true.” Willy started, speaking softly. “And I don’t like Im supposed to find you pretty. I know Im supposed to find girls pretty but I don’t.”

“Is this wrong? Why do I feel this way about you? Kadence I have no idea. And Im the one with all the ideas. But this time I don’t have why. I don’t know. Kadence, is this right?”

Willy looked down at his hands, they were shaking. Why were they shaking?

“This feels so wrong. Now that I think about it, all these feelings feel wrong. People aren’t supposed to like someone of the same gender. And-and I do. Am I wrong? Am I broken? Messed up?”

Willy took a shaky breath. “Is this some sign? That none of this is going to work? You said it a while ago Kadence, that none of this was going to work? Is this doom to fail? Am I just going to fail? If I fail then everyone is going to hate me. And-and I don’t want everyone to hate me.”

He felt like he was suffocating. Panic had grabbed his chest and was squeezing it. Willy couldn’t get his breathing under control. He couldn’t stop his hands from shaky. Willy hugged his arms. He tried to ground himself on anything he could. Nothing was working. Why was nothing working?

Willy tried to speak, tried to call out. But his vocal cords didn’t want to work. He tried to inhale, he couldn’t get even half an inhale in. His chest felt tight. Tears ran down his face as he felt his nails dig into his arms.

This was a bad time to panic, Willy knew this. He couldn’t seemed to calm down. He was failing. Failing at calming down. Failing at emotions. Failing at grounding himself. He was failing.

And he was going to keep failing. He was going to fail Noodle. He was going to fail at running his shop. He was going to fail at stopping the chocolate cartel. He was going to fail.

And everyone is going to hate him. They were going to leave him. They aren’t going to want anything to do with him. And he was going to be alone again. He doesn’t want to be alone again. He can’t be alone again.

Willy let out a chocked sob. He needs to stop. He needs to stop panicking, stop crying. If they see how much of a failure he is they were going to leave him sooner. He can’t be alone again. Never again. Please never again.

Something was forcing his hands off his arms. He was pulled out of the curled up ball he had put himself into. Willy grabbed onto whatever the something was. It gently held him.

Someone was talking. Willy tried to listen but he couldn’t focus on the words. So instead he sat that, trying to slowly get his breathing to slow down. The person didn’t seemed to mind his crying.

It took longer than it should have for Willy to calm down. Willy tried focusing on the voice again. It was Kadence, he was able to recognize the voice, but not what he was saying.

After a while, Willy pulled away from Kadence. Willy looked up at Kadence, whose face had concern and worry written all over his face. Willy did that, he was hurting Kadence. He was hurting people.

“Hey hey hey hey.” Kadence’s words finally reaching his ears. “Don’t start spiraling again.”

Why was Kadence being nice? Willy was hurting him. Kadence should be angry at him. He shouldn’t be nice. Willy doesn’t deserve Kadence to be nice to him.

“Willy.” Kadence gently grabbed his chin. Forcing Willy to look at the man. “Whatever is going through your head isn’t true.”

Willy shook his head, not trusting his voice. Kadence wasn’t right. He was going to fail, everyone is going to leave him, and he was hurting Kadence.

He looked away from Kadence. “Hey. Look at me.” He didn’t look at Kadence. “Willy, look at me.” Again, he didn’t. So Kadence jerked his head so he was looking at Kadence. “Look. At. Me.”

“Whatever is going on in your head, isn’t true. You are loved, you are not a failure, and no one is going to leave you.” Kadence said, like he knew what Willy had running through his head.

“Understand?” Willy nodded, not believing Kadence.

“Understand.” Kadence said again, Willy nodded again.

“Now repeat it back to me.” Willy shook his head. “Wonka.”

“I-I’m loved.” Willy’s voice was shaky. “Im not a failure. And no one is going to leave me.”

“There you go.” Kadence smiled at him. Oh how much did Willy love that smile.

Kadence gently cupped his face with both of his hands. Wiping the last of his tears away. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Willy nodded as Kadence pulled away. He watched the man get up and cross the room. Willy pulled his knees up to his chest and leaned back against the side of the bed. A headache was beginning to form.

“Drink.” Kadence came back over and placed a cup of water in his hands. “Small sips.”

Willy took the cup and took a few small sips. The water tasted nice, it helped with the headache. He felt Kadence sit next to him.

“How much sleep did you get?”

“None.” Willy mumbled into the cup.

“Wonka.” Kadence groaned. “You can’t keep pulling all nighters.”

Willy nodded. This wasn’t the first time Kadence had scolded him about his sleep schedule. Sometimes he would get into whatever he was doing that 10PM would turn into 6AM in a few seconds.

“Im sorry.” He mumbled into his cup again.

The cup was pulled from his hand. Willy’s eyes followed the cup as Kadence placed the cup on the wooden floor. Kadence looked at him, Willy looked back.

“Are you okay?” Kadence asked.

“Yeah…yeah…Im okay.” Willy knew he sounded like he was lying.

Kadence continued to look at him. Willy looked away. He always loved when Kadence was looking at him but now he didn’t. Because he wasn’t supposed to love Kadence.

There was a knocked on their door. Piper was calling out to them. Saying they leave in ten.

Kadence yelled back, saying they’d be ready in 20. He heard Piper sigh, agreeing for 15 minutes instead.

Willy smiled at Kadence, but then he killed the smile. He wasn’t supposed to have feelings for Kadence. So be might as well kill them. He heard Kadence get up beside, he followed suit.

They went down the stairs together. Kadence a few steps in front of him. Willy moved slower than he normally did. The combination of lack of sleep, dehydration, and hunger were not helping in the slightest.

Kadence promised that they could take a break later. Willy smiled at promise of food and a nap. That warm feeling Willy had been associating with Kadence came back. Willy mentally doused it with water, killing it. Thes

Chapter Text

“FUCK!”

Willy slammed his cane on the brunt ground. He heard the group jump behind him. Willy barely swore, in fact, Willy didn’t remember the last time he did actually swear.

The group behind him was completely silent. They were waiting from him to make the next move. Why? He was going to fail again. Kadence had predicted this on day one. He had failed. He should’ve never tried this.

“Willy-“ Someone started.

“Out!” Willy snapped, his back still towards the group.

“Willy-“ Someone else started.

“Get out!” Willy turned around to the group. “Get out!”

The group looked at him for a moment before leaving. The only one to stay was Kadence. Why wasn’t Kadence listening? Willy was just going to fail again.

“Just get out!”

Kadence came up to him. “Not until you calm down.”

“Get out…please…”

“No.” Kadence grabbed his jacket and hugged him. “Calm down.”

Kadence’s hold did calm him down. Wait-no-this was wrong. He shouldn’t be like this. Willy pulled away from Kadence. He turned away from the man, ignoring the frown that Kadence gave him.

“Get out.” Willy growled.

“Willy-“

“Kadence shut up and get out!”

Willy picked up his cane and walked to the other side of the room. Behind him, he heard Kadence leave. Leaving Willy completely alone. Alone with his thoughts and anger.

He was a failure. A complete and

utter failure. The shop had completely brunt down. The public hated him now. And he wasn’t able to free anyone.

“Hello Wonka.” There was a voice behind him.

***

Willy walked through the dark streets. He had to swim four miles back from the bout. The temperature outside was well below freezing. But Willy didn’t feel cold, he just felt wet.

His chocolate factory was also gone. It blew up along with the boat. The anger that had been brewing inside of him, froze when he jumped into the freezing water.

Willy froze, there was a man calmly standing in the middle of the street. His dark purple jacket leaked with some type of brown liquid. Willy stepped down into the street. His boots splashing into the puddle.

The man continued to stare at him. Willy kept walking until he was just a few feet away from the man. The brown liquid surrounded the two in a puddle. Gently lifting his hand, Willy scooped up some of the liquid. It poured from his hand, it began to price into his hands. Turning his blue veins to brown. Willy tried to whip the liquid away. It wasn’t working. Why wasn’t it working?

Willy scratched at his skin. No matter how hard he crawled at his skin, the liquid bleed into his arms. The liquid was being to soak his already wet coat.

“Willy!” Someone grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the rode.

Willy looked up, Kadence was gripping his arms. Willy looked down at his arms, the liquid was still soaking his arms. He tried to pull away from Kadence to whip the liquid away, but Kadence stopped him.

“Willy stop.” Kadence whispered.

“Get it off.” Willy yanked his arms out of Kadence’s arms, he started to scratch the liquid away.

“Okay okay. Willy look at me.” Kadence grabbed his face to force him to look at him. “There is nothing there.”

“Yes there is!” Willy shouted. “There was someone in the middle of the road.”

“Willy there is no one there.”

“Yes there was!” Willy turned to face the road.

Just like Kadence said there was no one there. Willy looked down at his arms. The liquid was gone, however there was now deep scratches, bleeding heavily. When did those get there? Did he do that? Willy looked back at the street, the man was now on across the street.

“Willy!” Kadence yelled at him as he took off running.

Willy ran across the street, he heard Kadence calling after him. That didn’t stop him. Willy honestly didn’t know why he was running to the man. His boot connected with the curb and he went face first into the curb.

SNAP

Pain flared through his left wrist. Kadence was instantly by his side, crouched beside as the man took his wrist.

“Willy, why are you soaked?”

“So’ked…?” Willy’s voice was slurring. “Im…Imnot so’ked…”

Willy looked down, sure enough he was soaking wet. When did that happened? He looked back up at Kadence, who was still cradling his room. Kadence was saying something to him. His mouth was moving, but Willy couldn’t hear his voice. Willy was tired? When was the last time he slept?

“Willy!” Kadence’s voice finally cut through the fog that had taken over Willy’s brain.

“Hmmm? Y’ah?”

“Listen to me. Are you cold?”

Why was Del asking that? Why would he be cold? Yes it was winter, and yes he was in the water. But he wasn’t cold.

“Imnot….not cold…” Willy mumbled.

“Damnit Wonka.” He heard Kadence say above him. “Get up, we need go.”

“Go wh’re?”

“The hospital.” Kadence answered. He grabbed Willy’s other arm to pull him up.

As soon as Willy’s feet hit the ground, his vision swarmed. Pain took over his head as a ringing noise started. His breathing was shaky. It hurt, everything hurt.

“Del….” Willy weakly called out, his vision fading.

“Yeah-Willy!”

Darkness took over and the pain was gone.

***

Willy came to a blinding light and beeping. Squinting his eyes, Willy looked at his wrist. It was inside of a brace. His other hand had multiple IV’s in the back of his hand.

“Thank god your finally awake.”

Willy looked over at the door as Piper walked in. He tried to sit up, but Piper grabbed his shoulder and forced him to lay back down. He sighed and looked at Piper.

“Where are we?” Willy’s voice sounded as rough as his throat felt.

“The hospital. Kadence found you in the middle of the road two days ago hypothermic.”

“What does that mean?”

“Means your body temperature got too low.”

Willy nodded and looked at the ceiling. “Why is it so bright?”

“Your eyes aren’t used to the light kid.” Piper walked over to the other side of his bed.

His eyes were following Piper, that was until he saw Kadence. Who was slumped onto his bed, notebooks and medical textbooks were scattered around him. Kadence was out cold.

“Kadence…?”

Willy gently reached out with his bandage hand. He ran hand over the side of Kadence’s face. Piper took the textbook that Kadence had been using as a pillow, out from under him. Kadence had no reaction, that wasn’t right, he always reacted. Even when the slightest changed happened he still reacted.

“He hasn’t slept in the two days you’ve been out.” Piper took one of the blankets from the side table and draped it over Kadence.

“Two days?” Willy asked, not taking his eyes off of Kadence.

“Yeah. You've had us all scared there for a while.”

Willy moved his hand so he could play with Kadence’s hair. Those feelings were coming back. He frowned and quickly moved his hand away. Squishing every each and every one of the bad feelings.

“Willy?” Piper cut through his thoughts. “Everything okay?”

"Is it wrong?” Willy looked up at the ceiling.

“What’s wrong?”

“This.” Willy gesture at himself and Kadence. “The feelings I have for Kadence, are they wrong?”

“You think it’s wrong?”

“Yes.” Willy nodded at the ceiling.

“You, Willy Wonka, think that’s wrong?” There was confusion and a slight bit of cheekiness.

“Yes.” He said again.

“Why?”

“Because everyone else ends up going for the opposite gender-“

“When have you ever cared about being normal?” Piper cut him off.

“I-“

“Listen Wonka. Is love natural?”

“Yes…?” Willy answered, not really seeing where Piper was going.

“And you love Kadence?”

“Yes…I think…”

“So if love is natural, and you love Kadence, then is it wrong?”

“I…uh….no…?”

“Then there’s your answer.” Piper patted his shoulder. “Get some more sleep. Kadence should be awake when you wake up.”

Willy nodded and looked over at Kadence as Piper left. Kadence was still out cold. Guilt started to creep into Willy. Kadence didn’t sleep for two days because he got hypothermia.

Looking back at the ceiling, Willy closed his eyes. Sleep was starting to take over him. He took a deep breath as he let sleep let take him.

***

Willy opened his eyes, getting blinded by the lights again. He pulled up his right hand, something was attached to his hand. Clear tubs ran from his hand, to a machine.

Looking back over to left, Kadence was no longer slumped against the bed. Instead, the man was still in the chair. His knees were pulled up onto the chair. A textbook was open and he was writing in a notebook.

“Kadence-“

“Jesus!” Kadence jumped, the notebook flew out of his hands. “Willy! You’re awake!”

“Yeah-“

Kadence jumped out of the chair and was instantly by his side. The man still seemed exhausted. He had bags under his eyes, which were bloodshot. His hands were quickly tapping on the sheets of the bed.

“How are you feeling? Are you still cold? Are you thirsty? Does your head hurt?” Kadence started firing questions.

“Woah woah woah.” Willy stopped the man. “Kadence slow down.”

Kadence stop his questions. “Right, you just woke up.” He sat on the chair, continuing to quickly tap on his legs.

Willy looked at Kadence. Who seemed entirely too awake to have barely slept the last two nights. Willy glanced over at the table next to him, there was another textbook, along with multiple mugs.

He looked back over at Kadence, who had yet to stop moving. “How much caffeine have you had?”

“It’s fine.” Kadence waved him off. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah Im fine.” Willy started to get concerned. “Are you?”

“Yes yes. Im fine.” Kadence waved him off again as he reached for one of the notebook. “Anyways, I was doing some research…”

Kadence started rambling about hypothermia. None of it made any sense. At one point Kadence got up to start pacing, a notebook in hand. Kadence’s ramblings continued as he started talking faster. It was concerning, Kadence wasn’t the one to constantly to be moving.

“Kadence.” Willy called out.

“But since you’re in the hospital you should be fine. However they should probably run some more tests. In my opinion…” Kadence kept going.

“Kadence!” Willy sat up.

“But I only have a bachelors degree so they might have better knowledge than me. Also…”

“Kad-“

BEEEEEEEEEEEP

Some alarm sounded, both him and Kadence jump. Willy could feel something running down his hand. Glancing over he saw blood. Why was there blood?

“Damnit Wonka, you pulled out your IV’s.” Kadence went over to his side, while a nurse came in.

The nurse took his hand to replace the IV tubes back into his hand. He looked over at Kadence, who seemed to be running purely on caffeine and stress. That was only adding to concern Willy was feeling. As the nurse felt, Piper and Larry walked into the room. He watched as Piper took one look at Kadence and her face matched the concern he was feeling.

“Kadence, how much caffeine have you had in the last hour?” Piper asked.

“Im fine.” Kadence said, convincing no one.

“Kadence, hun, you’re not fine.” Piper argued.

“No. No no no. Im fine.” Kadence walked back over to one of the notebooks.

“Seriously Kadence.” Larry joined into the conversation. “You need to go to sleep.”

“Im fine.” Kadence kept arguing. “Why is everyone assuming Im not?”

“Because you haven’t slept in two days. And all you’ve had to eat or drink is coffee.” Larry responded.

“You’v only had coffee for two days?!” Willy’s concern was at an all time high.

“And you look like you’re about to pass out.” Piper added.

“Im fine!” Kadence shouted, causing all three of them to go quiet.

“Kadence.” Willy softly called out, grabbing the sleeve of Kadence’s jacket. “Please.”

Kadence looked over at him. The man sighed and set his notebook down. “Fine.”

The group was silent as Kadence walked out. Willy moved to sit criss cross on the bed. While Larry looked over at Piper.

“You.” Piper pointed at him. “Get some sleep. Im going to make sure Del-Agla is actually going to sleep.”

Willy nodded and laid back against the bed. He heard Piper and Larry leaving, talking about some plan. A plan Willy believes he’ll learn about later. The lights overhead were still too dark. Willy closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.

So there was a plan. And it was okay for him to have feelings towards Kadence. Maybe after all this Willy can tell Kadence. That would be nice. But would Kadence like him back? Kadence had a girlfriend at one point. So does that mean Kadence would love him back? Was this even love? Or was this is just a simple crush?

Willy put his hands over his face and groaned. Why were these feelings so complicated? Why couldn’t they be simple? He just wanted it to be simple. So many things were complicated. And now even simple feelings were becoming complicated.

***

Kadence was holding his hand. Willy smiled, feeling Kadence’s cold hand is his. They were back in the brunt down chocolate shop. It’s where everyone had set up base camp. Kadence and the rest of the group were finalizing the plan. Willy was happy standing there, his hand in Kadence’s.

“Hey.” Kadence tugged on his  hand.

“Hm?” Willy looked up to meet the man’s eyes.

Kadence smiled at him. “You weren’t paying attention, were you?”

“No. No.” Willy lied. “I was paying attention.”

“Oh you were?” Kadence tugged him closer.

“Yes.” Willy happily moved closer to Kadence.

“OI!”

Both Kadence and Willy jumped. Piper was the who had yelled at them. The rest of the group was chuckling at them. Willy frowned as Kadence backed away from him, letting go of his hands.

“Now that those two are paying attention…” Piper going over the plan again. Willy knew he should be paying attention, even helping to make the plan.

Willy looked over at Kadence, who had taken charge of the planing. He reached out to grab Kadence’s hand. The man glanced at him. He smiled as Kadence took his hand. The group decided that tomorrow was the day. The day they fight back.

The group dispersed. Lottie and Larry went to go get some food for the group. Abacus, Piper, and Kadence were finalizing the last parts of the plan. That left Noodle to tell about anything and everything that happened in the four days he was stuck in the hospital.

“Anyway…!” Noodle kept going with her story. “Then Lottie went to go…”

Willy zoned out, his eyes focus on Kadence. Who was pacing in front of the table. He was talking with his hands again. He was adorable when he got like this. So passionate, so full life. Willy wants to see him like this more often. Hopefully after all this is over he’ll be able to see Kadence like this more often.

“Hey.” Kadence crouched down in front of him. “It’s bed time for you.”

“Bed time? What am I 2?” Willy joked.

“No. But you’re still recovering. So bed time.” Kadence grabbed his arm, pulling him to his feet. “Come on, let’s go.”

Willy curled up next to Kadence on the sleeping mat. Noodle was off to the side somewhere, sound asleep. Kadence was also asleep. Making Willy the only one awake of the group.

But with the quiet sounds of everyone sleeping, the negative thoughts started coming back again. The thoughts of failure, thoughts of everyone hating him. All those negative thoughts started running a muck in his head.

Willy curled into Kadence. Who subconsciously snuggled into him. Willy smiled, taking in Kadence’s scent. He missed this. At the hospital he couldn’t cuddle with Kadence. Actually, Kadence seemed more paranoid in the hospital. Like he was waiting for something bad to happen. Or maybe Willy was just overthinking this. Maybe Kadence was just sleep deprived and stressed.

The plan…what was the plan? Willy didn’t know. He should have been listening. He’s going to mess everything up. And then everyone is going to hate him. He should have been listening. Why didn’t he listen?

Taking a shaky breath Willy sat up. Kadence shifted as soon as Willy left his arms. Willy placed a hand in Kadence’s hair, messing with the man’s hair. Kadence relax into his touch.

“I promised I’d get you out of here.” Willy started so softly that the chirping crickets could barely hear him. “And I will. No matter how many times I fail, and even if you hate me, I’ll keep my promise.”

Another inhale, this time far less shaky. “I talked to Piper two days ago. And she said the feelings I have for you were okay. I think I might tell you after all this, like when you’re awake. Im not sure if you’ll like me back…but I feel that you deserve to know.”

“Wonka.” Piper called out, somewhere to the right of him. “Stop yapping to yourself and go to sleep.”

Sighing, Willy laid back down. Kadence instantly snuggled closer to him. Willy frowned, Kadence has been a lot more clingier, a lot more productive seen he got out of the hospital. And as much as it was sweet, it was a tad bit concerning.

Willy placed his face in Kadence’s hair. Scents of vainlla filled his nose. He gripped Kadence’s sleep shirt, greedy taking all of Kadence’s body heat. He heard someone get up and came over to him.

“You ever going to tell him?” It was Piper.

“Yeah.” Willy answered, his voice muffled. “After all of this is done.”

Piper hummed a response. “Why are you still awake?”

“Im not sure. My brain won’t turn itself off.”

There was a ling moment of silence. For a moment Willy was sure Piper had gone back to sleep. Willy picked his head up, Piper was looking at him and Kadence, thinking.

“You really love him, don’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Yes.” Willy placed his head back into Kadence’s hair. “Hey Piper.”

“Yeah Wonka?”

“Kadence…for some reason, has a notebook that belongs to Fickelgruber’s son.” Willy inhaled, taking more of Kadence’s scent.

“I know.”

How did Piper already know about the notebook. “How did…”

“I found him with the notebook first day you were unconscious. I asked him about it and he told me why he had the notebook.”

“Why does he have the notebook?” Kadence whined in his sleep as he sat up.

Piper didn’t answer for a moment. “It’s not my place to say.”

“Oh…” Willy looked down at the still sleeping Kadence. “I guess that makes sense.”

Why did Kadence tell Piper and not him? Did Kadence not trust him? Would Kadence ever tell him?

“Hey.” Piper pulled him out of his thoughts. “Kadence has his reasons and it’s nothing against you. He cares about you, very much. But he needs to tell you on his own terms.”

Willy nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, Piper was right. Kadence would tell him when he was ready. He can’t force Kadence to tell him anything.

He heard Piper leave back to her sleeping mat. Willy placed his face back into Kadence’s hair. His brain was beginning to slow as his body further relax into Kadence’s hold.

“Good night.” Willy mumbled into Kadence’s hair. “I love you.”

***

“So…” Willy started, watching Noodle from afar. “You don’t want Noodle to be apart of the actual plan, but you will use the fact that she is a child to help?”

“Yes.” Kadence said plainly.

“You’re weird.”

“Have you met this man named Willy Wonka? He’s the weirdest man I’ve met.” Kadence retorted.

Willy stuck his tongue out at Kadence. Who retaliated by flipping him off. He scoffed, in an overdramatic fashion. Kadence reached up and flick his forehead. Willy gently shoved Kadence.

“Knock it off.” Piper snapped at them.

Him and Kadence both stopped in an instant. Willy looked at Kadence, smiled, and stuck his  tongue out again. Kadence looked away, a hand covering his mouth. But Willy could see the man smiling. Kadence glanced at him so Willy stuck his to tongue out again. That caused Kadence to start giggling. Which in turn, caused Willy to start giggling as well.

“It’s hard to believe you two are grown men.” Abacus said behind them.

That didn’t help. In fact, that comment only made it worse. Because Willy and Kadence went from giggling, to full on laughter.

Chapter Text

“Kadence.” Willy called out.

The man in question was staring at the church. There were so many emotions flying over Kadence’s face. Guilt, anger, regret, sadness, and worry just to name a few.

“Kadence.” Willy called out again.

Kadence didn’t look at him so Willy called out again. And like the last time, Kadence didn’t look at him. Willy reached out to grab the sleeve of Kadence’s jacket. He gave a small tug.

“Kadence.” Willy tried for a forth time.

Still nothing. “Kadence!” Willy yanked Kadence’s sleeve.

Kadence snapped out of whatever trance he was in and stumbled back. Willy caught him, placing a hand on the small of Kadence’s back, the other went to the man’s waist. Kadence froze before his face went red.

“Heeeeellooo.” Willy waved a hand in front of Kadence.

It took longer than it should have for Kadence to pull away. Willy let Kadence leave his grip. However, Willy did move his hands to Kadence’s. The cold that normally came with Kadence’s hands were gone. Covered by the gloves he was wearing.

“What’s going on up there?”

“It’s…nothing…” Kadence lied.

“No it’s not.” Willy ran his thumbs up and down Kadence’s hands. “You’re thinking about something.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Willy frowned as Kadence took his left wrist. That wrist was trapped in a brace. Apparently he fracture his wrist the night he was admitted into the hospital. He let Kadence check over him.

“Kadence.” He complained after a moment.

“I don’t think you should be doing any of this with your arm.” Kadence said for what felt like the millionth time.

“Kadence.” He complained again.

Kadence looked at him. With a look that Willy dubbed the ‘Im concerned/upset but Im not good at expressing emotions so Im not going to say anything.’ Willy loved all of Kadence’s look, but this one as his least favorite.

“Hey.” Willy moved his hand put of Kadence’s hand. He gently cupped the man’s face. “Im not in pain-“

“Because you’re on painkillers.” He got cut off.

“I can handle myself.” Willy slid his hand down Kadence chest and smiled. “And plus, I got you to protect me.”

Willy left the poor man standing there speechless. It took a moment for Kadence to stop standing there like a fool and follow him up to the steps of the church. The priest was still inside, they just needed for him to find the giraffe.

“Why are we standing here when there is a back door?” Kadence asked after a few minutes of silence.

Willy snapped his head towards the man. “There’s a back door?!”

“Yeah.” Kadence shrugged. “I just remembered that.”

The two men started walking around the church. “Did you come here often?” Willy asked.

“Not for the purpose of actually going to church.” Kadence didn’t explain further.

They got to the back door, it wasn’t anything special. Just a plan dark oak door. Kadence placed his hand on the door knob but didn’t make a move to open the door. It took Willy a moment to realize Kadence was hesitating.

“Hey.” Willy took Kadence’s hand again. “What’s-“

Before he could finish, Kadence opened the door. Willy followed the man with concern. Something was wrong, and it was bothering Kadence more than usual. And Willy was going to find out what.

Kadence didn’t say a word as they reached the not confession booth. Again, the man froze up. Willy tugged Kadence into the booth. Flicking the lever, the booth started down. Throughout the short trip down Kadence was on edge and tense. Willy reached over and started tracing shapes into Kadence’s arm, which helped the man relax just a bit.

As soon the booth stopped Kadence stepped out. Willy quickly rushed to follow the taller man. The guard that was supposed to be there was gone.

“Hey Kadence…” Willy started.

“I know.” Kadence finished.

Kadence seemed to know his way around. The man stood in the middle of the room. Willy stood next to Kadence, he slipped his hand into Kadence’s. Giving his hand a squeeze, Kadence pulled away from him. He watched as Kadence walked over to the wall. A moment later Kadence pulled out the book they were looking for.

“Oh. You’ve found it.” Willy crossed the few steps over to Kadence.

Kadence was staring down at the green book. Willy called out to the man, who didn’t respond. That’s it. He’s had enough of Kadence spacing out and telling him that everything was okay when it wasn’t.

"Enough.” Willy yanked the book out of Kadence’s hands and placed the it onto the desk behind them.

He placed his hands on the desk pinning Kadence against the desk. The man’s face went red, as he looked at the floor. Willy moved one hand under Kadence’s chin to force Kadence to look at him before returning his hand back to the desk.

“You’re going to talk to me, and you’re going to talk me now.” Willy said, completely asserting his dominance over Kadence. “No more hiding from me.”

Kadence blinked at him a couple of times. “Kadence!” He shouted, causing the man to jump.

Lips were on his and hands were on his cheeks. Willy melted into the kiss, his hands moving to Kadence’s hips. He could taste the coffee Kadence had this morning. Warmth sprouted from his chest, completely wrapping around him.

“WILLIAM!”

Both jumped and separated instantly. Fickelgruber was standing a couple feet away from them, a gun pointed at them. He glanced over at Kadence, who had completely froze up.

“William…” Willy mouthed as the pieces started to fall into place.

The notebook for starters. It had the name William Fickelgruber written inside of it. The name was written in Kadence’s hand writing. Kadence’s name wasn’t Del, it wasn’t Kadence. No, it was William. The son of one of the men who were trying to kill him at this point.

“Oh did he not tell you?” Fickelgruber must have read his face. “I wouldn’t be surprised. He lies about to many things.”

“Kadence…?” Willy still used the name he used for the last week.

Kade-William was still standing there. Honestly, the man looked like he was about to cry. Willy reached out to grab the man’s arm. William looked at him before looking back at the floor.

“You are taking this surprising well Wonka.” Fickelgruber said with much disappointment.

“There had to be a reason he has yet to tell me.” Willy tugged gently on William’s arm. “Right?”

William nodded. “So your like your brother then?” Fickelgruber laughed. “I should have killed you when I killed your brother.”

Both him and William flinched at those words. Fickelgruber laughed at them again. He moved to point directly at him. William immediately shoved him out of the gun’s path.

“Get away from him.” William growled.

“I told you a long time ago William, attachments only get in the way.”

“He likes to be called Kadence.” Willy defended.

“Kadence?” Fickelgruber laughed at them. “Thats the name you chose to go with?”

Kadence flinched. “Yes…”

“When then I guess you can die like your brother did.”

BANG

“KADENCE!”

And just like that, Kadence crumpled to the floor. Willy dropped to the floor. Kadence was hissing in pain. Fickelgruber slowly started approaching the two of them. Willy didn’t care, he was too busy making sure Kadence was okay. Fickelgruber’s shot didn’t kill Kadence, he was just shot in the leg.

“He never learns.” Fickelgruber set the gun on the desk and picked up the book. “Maybe he will learn now.”

THWAM

THUD

Willy slowly blinked away. There phantom pain in the back of his head, but that quickly faded away the more he woke up. The rest of his body felt like it was floating.

“Look who’s finally up.” Someone said above him.

It was Kadence, he had his hands in Willy’s hair. Willy smiled and snuggled into Kadence’s lap. For once Kadence’s hands weren’t freezing cold. Everything around them was nice and warm. It was warm, it was comfortable, and Kadence was here.

Kadence kissed his forehead. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

He smiled and shifted further into Kadence’s lap. “Okay. Good night.”

“It’s actually the morning.” Kadence corrected him. “But go to sleep.”

“Hmmmmm fine.”

***

The next time Willy woke up he was back in his boat house. He hasn’t been here in years. A year after his mother passed he left the boat, left a chapter of his life behind.

“Mama?” Willy kicked the blanket off and got up.

“Over here dear.” His mother called out.

Flicking open the curtain, Willy walked through the boat house. At the desk Kadence was slumped down, out cold. He grabbed a blanket from the cupboard and laid it over Kadence. Willy sat on the other side of the table and just stared at Kadence. Kadence was pretty when he is asleep.

“Pretty, isn’t he?” His mama echoed the thoughts in his head.

“Yes.” Willy rested his head in his hands. “Yes he is.”

“Are you upset that he was hiding his identity?”

“I should, but I understand why. He didn’t trust me enough.” Any person could hear the bitterness in his voice.

“And you trusted him.”

“I did!” Willy sat up. “I told him everything, the least he could do was tell me who he was.”

Kadence chose that moment to wake up. “Im sorry.” Was all he said.

***

This time when Willy woke up, he was on the roof the laundromat. The night sky as completely filled with stars, no light pollution holding them back. Willy looked around the rooftop, on the far side, someone was standing on the ledge.

Taking cautious steps towards the person, Willy called out to them. If they heard Willy, they didn’t respond. They were in a dark navy blue suit, the white specks made it look like stars. A cloak of the same design flowed over the person.

“Im sorry.” It was Kadence. “This is all my fault.”

“Hey…” Willy grabbed the edge of the cloak. “It’s okay.”

“You’re hurt because of me.” The stars from the sky started to fall.

“Kadence, Im okay.”

The stars begun to wrap around Kadence. They molded together to create bandages. The star made bandages attached themselves to Kadence’s skin.

“Im sorry.” Kadence took multiple steps away from the ledge. “Please…Im sorry.”

The temperature around the two men dropped. Fallen stars, the ones that hadn’t become bandages, started flying in circles around them. Willy felt nothing. No emotions, no pain, no nothing.

Not even the hands that shoved him off the roof.

***

All Willy could hear was the blaring beeping. And the yelling. All around him. Everywhere. Loud, obnoxious beeping. Hands were everywhere on his body. Willy tried to desperately fight off the hands of him.

Where was Kadence? Kadence was always near him. Where was he? Did something happen to him? Is he okay? He wants Kadence. He really wants Kadence.

***

Willy was in a flower field the next time he woke up. It was quiet, it was calm. The field stretched out for miles and miles. Clouds covered the sun so it wasn’t too bright.

There was someone else sitting in the flower field. Willy pushed himself onto shaky feet. He walked over to the person, kid, it was a kid. They were sitting in a circle with three other people fast asleep. One was a young girl, who couldn’t be older than three. The second was a boy, ten by the looks of it. The other, who Willy could only assume was their mother.

“Hello.” Willy said to the child, sitting down outside the circle.

They looked up at him. The kid looked around five. Flowers were mostly around them. A group of three red flowers were held in their hands. They were braiding the flowers together. A unfinished flower crown of made up of the black roses rest gently on their head.

“Hello.” They said, not looking up from him.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Making a flower crown.” They answered simply.

“For who?”

“For you.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

Willy watched the kid slowly make the flower crown. He looked back at the sleeping people. Each of them had their own different flower crown. The girl had a daisy crown, the boy had some yellow flower crown, the mother had a white flower.

“What kind of flowers are those?”

“Daisies, White Carnations, and Yellow Yarrows.” They looked up at him and holds up the flowers they were braiding. “These are Red Camellias.”

New flowers randomly stared growing. The kid put down the flower crown and moved to pick some of the new flowers. Willy, too, picked a few of the new flowers. The flowers looked like lilies, but much darker.

They started making a new flower crown. Willy picked some up some of the black roses. He moved to pick up some other blue type of flowers. The kid finished their flower crown before standing up and walking through the field. Willy quickly got up to follow the kid.

Fickelgruber was lying unconscious in the flower field, surrounded by the darken Lilly flowers. The kid laid the flower crown. Once the flower crown was set on Fickelgruber, the dark lilies grew in between the grass.

“Why is he here?” Willy looked at the kid.

“He’s dead.” They answered simply again.

“What-“

They slowly looked at him. “All of them are dead.”

Willy finally got a good look at the kid. The looked kid looked like a much younger version of Kadence. Only their hair was much fluffier, their eyes were also a lot more brighter

“We’re not technically dead though.”

“Technically?”

“The child in the person whom you known as Kadence has been dead for years. While he is still alive.” They stared at him, their brown eyes boring into his own eyes. “You, are as close to as dead as one can be.”

That was confusing. “What…?”

“Your not dead.” They rephrased themselves. “But you’re close.”

“Okay.” Willy ran a hand over his face. “How do I…not become close to dead?”

“Your body has to heal over what happened to it.”

Something happened to him. “What happened to my body?”

“Something bad if you ended up here.”

Willy nodded and followed the kid back to the circle. So everyone here was dead. And he’s stuck here until his body got better. Willy copied the kid when they sat back onto the ground.

“He cares about you.” They spoke up after a while.

“Kadence?” Willy picked one of the black rose.

“Yes.” They nodded. “He’s just scared to say anything. He’s fears that by getting too close he’ll lose you.”

“He won’t lose me-“

“Look around.” They cut him off and pointed to the three dead people around them. “Everyone he has ever loved ended up dead.”

“He’s not going to lose me.” Willy pushed.

“You can make promises all you want. The problem is keeping them.” They handed Willy the finished flower crown they were working on.

Willy took the flower crown from the kid. The flowers felt soft, just like everything else in this place. Soft and gentle. He looked back up at the kid, who was fixing their own crown.

“Putting this crown on means I actually die, doesn’t it.” Willy said more than questioned.

“You’ll be safe. No harm will ever come to you again.”

Willy looked back down at the flower crown. Staying here does mean he’s safe. But what about Kadence? If he’s dead how will Kadence handle it?

“To answer the question you are thinking, Kadence will do what he always does.”

“Whats that?” He looked up.

“Force himself not to grieve the loss and shove everything away.”

“Thats not healthy.”

“No. But it’s the only way we know how to deal with it. Besides, if we leave first, they can’t leave us.”

Willy looked back up at the pronoun change. They were holding the red flower that Willy’s crown was made out of. Pushing himself up, Willy moved to kneel in front of the kid. He set his hand gently under their chin and made them look at him.

“I, will do EVERYTHING in my power to make sure you are never alone again. I love you. I will never leave you.”

“Promise?” Tears were threatening to fall from the child’s eyes.

“I promi-“

Willy didn’t get to finish his sentence. Before the kid went flying into his arms. With the kid in his arms, Willy held them close. He’s not dying. Willy has made up his mind. He’s not leaving Kadence. Not when they’ve both been through so much.

***

Willy woke up in a hospital bed, again. He looked at all the medical equipment, Kadence at one point did explain everything to him. None of it, however, stuck.

“Holy shit you’re awake.” A voice cut through the beeping of the heart monitor.

Willy shot his head towards the voice. “Where’s Kadence?”

“Hello to you too Wonka.” Piper rolled her eyes. “How was your extended nap?”

“…extended nap…?”

“You’ve been in a coma for about three weeks-“

“Three weeks!?” Against his body wishes, Willy forced himself to sit up.

Worry filled Piper’s eyes. “Hey don’t do that. You need to rest.”

“Im fine.” Willy brushed off the concern. “What happened?”

“From what Kadence has barely told us, Fickelgruber took both of you. Knocked you out, shot Kadence. And in the two days of you two being missing, did experiments on you.”

“Is Kadence okay?” Willy asked, not even caring about his own health.

But Piper cared. “Are YOU okay?”

“Im fine.” Willy fully got to his feet and looked around. “Where’s my stuff?”

“Hold on Wonka.” Piper too, got to her feet. “Slow down. You just woke up from a coma. You need to slow down.”

Willy went to respond. “No, not a word from you.” Piper ever so gently, pushed him back into the bed. “Let the doctors check over you.”

“I want Kadence to check over me!” Willy whined.

Piper moved to stand in front of him and crossed her arms. “Well Kadence isn’t here right now. So you’re going to have to deal with the doctors.” Her tone reminded Willy of the tone his mother used to use. “Who I might add, have actually finished med school.”

Willy whined and laid back on the bed. “Fine.”

After a moment, Willy heard Piper sigh. “You want Kadence here, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“You see him in a bit.” Piper promised.

***

Willy went bounding up the stairs of the laundromat. Another week of being stuck in a hospital and Willy was practically leaking with pent up energy. The sun outside had set a few hours before he was let out. Piper had told him his stuff was still in the laundromat. From what he was told, his stuff was put there because he didn’t have really have a home.

Throwing the door to his and Kadence’s room open, Willy took in everything. To put it plainly, it looked like a hurricane tore through the room. Minus his stuff. Willy’s belongings were sitting untouched on the desk. He took a step in, softly closing the door behind him. A few more steps were taken before Willy saw Kadence, sound asleep, curled up in on the floor, in a corner of the room.

“Kadence?” Willy whispered, walking the few final steps toward Kadence.

Willy sat down in front of the man. He reached out and brushed some of the loose curls out of Kadence’s face. That’s when Willy noticed the tear tracks that stained Kadence’s. Along with the fact that Kadence was cuddling with his jacket. That’s when Kadence woke up from whatever dream he was having. Willy went to greet the man, but Kadence quickly stumbled away from him. Hazel eyes wide with fear.

“Hey, hey.” Willy slowly moved towards Kadence. “Kadence what’s wrong?”

“I saw you die. You flatlined in the hospital twice. You got hurt because of me. Im the reason you died. It’s my fault. All of this is my fault. I didn’t want you to get hurt and you did.” Kadence started rambling, his hands moving to tug at his hair.

“Hey hey. Don’t do that.” Willy moved to gently take Kadence’s hands out of his hair.

“Im sorry.” Kadence said through sobs. “Im sorry.”

“No. You have nothing to be sorry for.” Willy gently tugged on Kadence’s arm, making the man fall into his arms. “Okay? Don’t be sorry.”

Kadence melted into his touch. Willy started tracing shapes into the man’s back. To which Kadence started to relax. They sat there like that, moonlight lighting up the room. At some point, Kadence’s breathing into soft, quiet snores. Time passed and Willy still traced shapes.

Something happened. Something had happened. That much Willy knew. The problem was that no one had told him anything. Willy was completely in the dark about what had transpired in the three weeks he had been unconscious.

“Thought I might find you here.” Piper said, walking into the room. “Is he okay?”

Willy shook his head and adjusted Kadence so he was lying in his lap. Piper joined him, she sat down on the floor next to him. He continued to trace shapes into Kadence upper arm. While his another hand went to Kadence’s hair.

“He’s has been stressing out for the past three weeks.” Piper said, watching the two men. “And it’s mainly because of you.”

Willy looked down at Kadence. “I don’t want him to stress about me.”

“Well he loves you. Whether you like it or not, he is going to stress over you.”

His eyes remained on the sleeping Kadence. Willy could see the three weeks of exhaustion on Kadence’s face. Guilt started to crawl up into him. While Kadence was here stressing, Willy was off taking an extend nap.

“You can’t feel guilty over something you could not control.” Piper’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“I promised I would never leave him.” Willy murmured as Kadence shifted in his sleep.

“And that was not your fault.”

Willy still wanted to blame himself so he changed topics. “What happened anyway? No one has told me anything.”

Piper didn’t answer him for a long moment. “When you two didn’t come out from the church after three hours, we knew something had happened. It took us another two days to just to get to get you guys out. And in those two days, Fickelgruber decided he was going to do some experiments on you.”

Willy nodded. “You mentioned that a week ago. But you never explained it.”

There was a long sigh from Piper, as Kadence shifted again. Willy quietly shh’d the man. That didn’t help Kadence, who shifted again.

“Fickelgruber thought it would be fun to see if a human could survive getting straight liquid chocolate injected into your arm-“

“WHAT!?” Willy shouted, which made Kadence jump in his sleep.

Another sigh from Piper. “Yep. And surprise, surprise. You almost got killed.”

Kadence chose that moment to wake up again. Like last time, Kadence instantly tried to get away from him. Rambling on about how everyone gets hurt because of him. How Willy was dead because of him. Willy watched as Kadence backed himself into the far corner of the room, hyperventilating.

Willy ignored the achy feeling that Kadence’s panicking was bringing. He knelt in front of the panicking man. While Piper turned on the room’s light.

“Hey, hey.” Willy gently grabbed Kadence’s hand. “Im okay. Im safe. Im not hurt.”

Kadence yanked his hand away. “Im sorry!”

“I know you are.” Willy said softly, pushing everything that wasn’t calming Kadence down away. “I know you’re sorry.”

Kadence’s voice helped him through his panic attack. So Willy continued just to talk. About anything and everything. Willy just let the words spill out of his mouth.

“…and then I found out I was in love with you.” Willy finally tuned back into what he was saying. “I didn’t understand it at first. I was actually really scared. And-“

Willy cut himself off. Kadence clearly calmed down a long time ago. Without him talking, the room was completely silent. Willy moved from the kneeling position he was in, to a sitting position next to Kadence.

“Um…yeah…” Willy tried to say something in the silence. “I guess thats my love confession to you.”

There was a beat of silence before Kadence said anything. “I guess that was.”

They fell into silence again. At one point, Piper excused herself to leave the two men alone. Kadence opened up his hand, so Willy took the hand. He smiled and gently kissed Kadence’s hand.

“I think I’m also in love with you.” Kadence said.

“That’s good.” Willy gently tugged on Kadence so he was lying on him.

“Im tired.” Kadence mumbled.

“Go to sleep.” Willy placed his face into Kadence’s hair. “I’ll protect you from nightmares.”

“Thats not how it works.” Kadence mumbled.

“Well too bad. I said I was going to protect you, so Im going to protect you.”

“Fine.” Kadence snuggled into him. “I’ll go to sleep.”

“Good.” Willy kissed Kadence’s hair. “We’ll talk more later.”