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“Hey, Halt?”
The two Rangers were sitting out on the veranda, Halt leaning back in his chair with the appearance of napping and Will seated across from him. It was a beautiful day, a bit on the warmer side but with a gentle breeze that was just strong enough to ruffle the apprentice’s hair, but which lacked power enough to disturb their task. Jenny had so kindly gifted them (and, by extension, Halt) a basket of strawberries, and Will was busying themself with carefully removing the green tops of the fruits with their dagger (thoroughly cleaned beforehand, of course) so that the red part could be used for making jam. Halt had told them that if they could get enough done before daily chores rolled around, then he would teach Will how to make it.
(He was going to regardless, but Will didn’t need to know that.)
Will set another ugly berry aside, adding it to the small pile of rejected fruit that Halt was slowly picking at. He had told the boy that using damaged fruit for jam would cause it to go bad faster. Will believed him, it made logical sense, but they had to suppress an internal giggle at the thought that it was just an excuse for Halt to indulge himself.
The older man sighed, not even opening an eye as he responded. “Yes?”
Will hesitated, pausing in their task. Without looking up, they asked the question that had been weighing on their mind for a while; “Do you have to be a man to be a Ranger?”
Halt didn’t respond, and Will swallowed nervously. They continued their work with their seax, making sure not to cut their thumb as they used it as a buffer against the edge of the blade. They placed the newly cut berry in the bowl with the rest of the prepared ones, and the severed green part got dropped into a bucket on the porch to be fed to Abelard and Tug.
There were a few awkward minutes of silence between the two of them, before Will spoke up while cutting another strawberry. “I thought you said that leaning in the chairs ruined them,” they mumbled. Halt sighed again and settled the chair down, bringing one leg up to rest his ankle on his knee and lean his elbow on it.
“I said that you leaning in the chairs would ruin the floor ,” he corrected. “Don’t sass me. Now, as for your question, why do you ask that? One of your friends asking about it?”
Will shook their head, setting their knife on the table. Halt raised an eyebrow at them.
“No, not that,” they replied, fiddling with their fingers. “It’s just- well, I-” Will took a breath, noting how Halt looked somewhere between concerned and amused. “I don’t want to have my- my apprenticeship terminated,” they confess, and Halt’s eyebrow somehow went even higher.
“Now why would that happen, boy?” he asked, and Will couldn’t help the slight flinch that accompanied his use of the word. Halt leaned closer and tilted his head slightly. “Don’t play games, you know I hate that. What are you saying?”
Will’s eyes flicked up quickly to meet Halt’s before looking back down at their hands. “I just… I wanted to tell you this now, before we got- before you- before we got too close, because I don’t want it to be a drastic change that would change your opinion of me, and I didn’t want you to find out on your own and think that I was deceiving you or keeping it from you, and-”
“Will,” Halt cut them off, holding up a hand. “Take a breath and spit it out already. What do you want to tell me?”
Will did as they were instructed, breathing in deeply and letting it out before continuing with their rough confession. “I’m… not- a boy,” they force out. “I mean, I am physically, just not… mentally. I feel like something other . Not quite a- a girl , but not… you know? Does that… make sense? Alyss told me what it was called before, but I forget what it was. Uhm… yeah. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”
Will didn’t dare look up as they waited for Halt to respond, their breath held nervously. When Halt finally spoke, his voice was softer than Will usually had the honor of hearing him, and they looked up at his words.
“You know that I’m not the most conventional of men,” he started, spreading his hands in a shrugging gesture. “I don’t care much for gender roles or stereotypes or whatever new words are being thrown around these days. People are people, and they can do whatever they please as long as they leave me alone. Who am I to tell someone how to live their life? It’s not mine to live. Point is, Will,” he said, running a hand through his hair with a small sigh. “I don’t care. And I don’t mean that in a mean way, I simply mean that I really don’t give a damn. You’re your own person, and I can’t tell you what to do with yourself. Now, I can’t promise that I’ll understand fully, or that I’ll even remember, but I’m not disappointed, and I’m certainly not going to abandon you over this.”
Will felt tears welling in their eyes, and they nodded. They didn’t trust their voice not to shake or crack or do something else embarrassing. Halt stared at them for a moment longer before sighing and standing up, stretching his arms above his head. “I’m getting too old for this emotional nonsense,” he grumbled. “Finish up with those berries, kid. I’m going to go find the jars and sterilize them.” Halt passed them on his way in and ruffled their hair a bit roughly. He stopped in the doorway, and Will looked up at him with slight confusion in their eyes.
“Are you okay?” He asked, waving a hand vaguely. “I don’t want you to beat yourself up over this or anything. I, unfortunately, was a teenage… er, at one point, so I understand somewhat how acceptance or the lack thereof can mess with someone.”
Will nodded, noting the correction and smiling slightly at him. “Y- yeah,” they replied. “I’m… I’m okay. Thank you, Halt.”
Halt nodded, shifting awkwardly before turning and going inside, his cloak swishing behind him. Will smiled and sniffled, leaning their head back for a moment before taking up his seax and hurrying to finish preparing the fruits, lest Halt change his mind.