Closing Doors (Wilmon AU)

Starting Again

Saturday, January 7th:

Grabbing some oat crunchies from a bin, Wille looked out the stable door towards the paddock. Sara was near the fence with her brother, talking and laughing. It was good seeing them having fun.

On the other side of the fence, a tall guy was standing near them, holding a shovel. He chatted easily with both of them.

Wille went to Rousseau's stall, and fed him the treats while stroking his head. As always, the scent of hay and horses, and the soft sounds of animals moving and eating, helped the tension in his chest unwind. School was starting back up tomorrow and he wasn't looking forward to facing all the students. Hearing their comments and gossip.

"Oh, you're back," Sara said, smiling widely as she entered the stable. She walked right over to him and gave him a long hug.

Wille hugged her back tightly, loving that their relationship had progressed to where she felt so comfortable with him. Pulling back, he looked closely at her face. "I don't think I've ever seen you look so calm and happy."

"Things are looking up. I got accepted as a boarding student here, with a grant. Everything is covered," she beamed.

He hugged her again, sharing her joy in this. "That's fantastic! Now you'll be spending even more time down here, won't you?"

Sara nodded. "Yes, but I also just want to immerse myself in the day to day stuff at the Manor House. Make as many friends as I can."

Wille grinned at her. "And is that a new friend you were just with? A tall, handsome guy who works with the horses. Seems perfect for you."

That made Sara laugh hard. "No, no. Marcus is wonderful, but he's not my type. He's hanging out with Simon."

Wille did his best to hide his expression from her, as she was so good at reading people. He turned back to Rousseau, feeding him another treat and stroking his neck while he processed that.

He hadn't realized that Simon was gay, in the limited time he'd been around him. Did it change things? Something about it felt unsettling, like he needed more time to review all their interactions, looking at it from this perspective.

Eventually he turned back to Sara. "Well, I better get back to my room. I need to unpack and get ready for classes tomorrow."

She said goodbye as she started to muck out the stalls.

...

Sunday, January 8th:

"How about that new murder comedy movie?" Wille asked, scrolling through the listings on the screen.

Felice set a bag of chips and their drinks on the shelf nearby. "No, how about something we've seen before? You know we'll be talking half the time."

Wille put on an episode of Friends, and settled next to her, pulling a purple blanket over them. He had bought a few things for his room over the holidays, including a portable door lock gizmo so August and the other boys couldn't enter without knocking.

"I like that rope light," Felice commented, waving to the coil glowing with faint red light on his shelf.

Wille smiled. "Thanks. You can change it to different colours, but red suits my mood." He'd had it a while, but it likely wasn't turned on when she visited before.

"Like a red light district?" Felice joked, raising her eyebrows. "Honey, you should have made your move back when we were dating if you wanted that."

Wille bumped his shoulder against her's, laughing. "No, no. More like the colour of war, of vengeance."