Wintumn one shots

Forever Winter

A/N: Fun fact about me is that I'm a HUGE Taylor Swift fan. The title of this chapter is actually a song title by her, it's one of my favourites and when put into the context of these two it's very sweet and I highly recommend giving it a listen, some of the lyrics are actually used in this chapter so if you know the song you might be able to pick them out.
Prompt: Winter's mental health takes a dip but he needs to be strong for Autumn...right? or the one where Autumn comforts Winter.
This is a request by wonderhawk_otp thank you so much I hope you enjoy!
Words: 2259

Tw: mentions of depression
It was getting bad again, he knew that it was. He's been struggling like this since he was a teenager, he was an 'odd' child to say the least, uninterested in what other boys in his classes were interested in. He found peace in drama and music, he was a huge mummy's boy and despite his father's best effort of getting him into more 'manly' hobbies he really had no interest in sports.

Other guys he knew wanted to be builders or football players or be rich and famous, he always knew he wanted to work with children. The bullying got bad when he was around 13 and man , kids can be cruel. He never cared and acted like it never bothered him, he would never admit that it kept him up at night crying into his pillow.

As he got older he learnt how to stand up for himself and the bullying died down a bit but his self confidence and mental health continued to struggle. It was getting better, he swears it was. Being the deputy manager of his first nursery job and then moving to The Knight Nursery where he found what he could only describe (and only to himself) his second family, things were starting to look up.

And then he met her, he'll admit was she his favourite person ever the first time they met? No. But when he got to know her and learnt her story he felt himself falling for her, and fast. He had finally found someone that he could be himself around. She brought out the best version of himself and he utterly adored her in every single way.

This particular day, Winter woke up in his own bed (they had spent the night apart due to different shifts and he didn't want to disturb his love's slight lie in). He stared at the ceiling, he didn't feel good. It had been building up over the last few weeks, the room had been stressful and he had lots of new children starting and as the room leader he was getting overwhelmed with the workload, he could feel his self confidence dropping and honestly felt like he didn't deserve any of these good things that life had given him recently. He's usually very good at masking when he feels like this but today he didn't want to move, he called in sick to work.

Autumn arrived at the nursery and went straight to the office "Morning Marjorie" she said starting to unpack her bag. "Alright Autumn good morning, I'll need you to cover in preschool today if that's okay, I'm sure you already know why". Autumn stopped setting her desk up and gave Marjorie a confused look. "What do you mean why would I know already?" Marjorie was just as confused now too "Winter isn't here today he called in sick I assumed you already knew". Autumn was shocked, Winter? Sick? That can't be right, he never gets sick and anytime he has been he's always let her know. "Marjorie I'm gonna call him and then I'll make my way down to preschool." She went to the staff room and called, just checking up on him. It rang a few times but he never answered, she needed to get to work so sent him a quick message addressing her concern for him and off she went to preschool.

The day dragged in and all she wanted to do was go see Winter. She had been so distracted all day and Charlotte and to keep bringing her back to reality when she zoned out. As soon as her shift was finished she raced out of the nursery and sped (maybe slightly over the limit but there were bigger issues to worry about) to Winters place. She knocked the door, no reply, she called him, no reply. She was growing increasingly concerned, he had never done this before especially to her. She stood outside his door for a few minutes before remember she had the spare key. She finally got in and the whole place was dark. The blinds hadn't been pulled up, dishes from last nights dinner were still in the sink, his everyday belongings were untouched. "Winter?" She called to the empty house "Winter? My love, it's me".