Always an angel, never a god.

XIII

Wallace had a feeling this conversation wasn't actually about skating. But he didn't know for sure. He didn't know a lot of things. Maybe he was a bit more clueless when it came to Scott than he thought. He-

"Wallace!"

His head shot up as he tried to awkwardly make up an excuse.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about when my next shift is. Did you know that they're trying to get me to work Saturdays too?"

"Uh, alright... Could you please just let go of me? For a second?"

Wallace nodded and hesitantly let go of Scott's hands. He immediately missed the closeness.

Scott went off to go (badly) skate around the rink. He was calling to Wallace to look but he didn't feel like he was actually there. To him, it was just him and his thoughts.

"Hey! Dude!"

Scott stopped right behind Wallace and spun him around.

"Listen, it's alright that you don't want to talk about, whatever it is that is bothering you. But if it's affecting you this much, maybe can you just tell me a little piece? I promise I won't judge!"

Scott held out his pinky.

Wallace pushed his hand away.

"I kinda just want to go home if that's okay with you."

"Oh. Okay."
Scott did seem a little disappointed but he cared more about Wallace's wellbeing than some stupid skating rink.

Scott was in the middle of taking off his skates when he saw Wallace starting to get frustrated with them. He eventually just stopped trying to get them off and just looked down at his hands, eyes watering.

"Hey! It's not that serious! I mean- that sounded bad- Don't get upset! I-"

Scott groaned.

"Redo."

He leaned over and held Wallace's face in his hands.

"It's gonna be okay. You shouldn't let whatever it is affect you like this."

"But it's like- really bad."

"I know. But I promise you'll be fine. You always have been, why would you stop now?"

"You're kinda smart when you try."

Scott smiled and wiped his roommate's eyes with his thumbs.

"So let's save our tears, and let me help you get these off, alright?"

Wallace nodded and Scott started to untie the laces of his skates.

"See? Wasn't so bad. C'mon, let's go return these."

They picked up their skates and gave them back to the worker behind the counter. They earned some odd looks because one of them was still misty-eyed, but who were they to judge? They didn't know the full story.

...Well, neither did Scott, but still!

They walked out of the building and headed to the car. They both got in and Wallace started the car, but he didn't start driving.

He was just, staring down at his lap.

"Hey, if you want I can drive-"

"No. It's alright. Just-"

"Just give me a minute."

"Okay."

After what was way longer than a minute, Scott decided to lean over and rest his head on Wallace's shoulder.
He reached for his hand and held it.

"Can I help?"

"Without me telling you what's wrong, no. Not really."

"Oh. Alright."

"This is helping me, though."

Scott smiled a little and hugged Wallace.

A/N

SORRY FOR LEAVING YALL ON READ FOR LIKE, EVER. EVERYTHINGS JUST BEEN A LOT LATELY (will wood reference?!? 🤯🤯🤯) BUT YEAH, ILL TRY TO GET BACK ON A SCHEDULE!!' THANKS FOR STICKING WITH ME!!!

XOXO