Solangelo One Shots

Breaking Down the Walls(Part 2)

Part two to last week's one shot!

Will's POV

I thought I was nervous for my date, but my anxiousness paled in comparison to Nico's. The smile on his face seemed forced, his eyes darting around the street as I held open the door to the apartment building. Despite this he grabbed my hand as we walked down the street and as we continued he seemed to ease into the steps, becoming less robotic each foot we traveled and more like the person I had fallen for in a coffee shop, kind and sweet. 

"You never told me where we're going," he said after a while, swinging my hand. "Can I know or is it a secret?"

"I thought we'd go to the art museum," I told him. "They have this amazing contemporary art exhibition right now. After that, who knows."

"Fancy," he grinned. "I feel so classy, going to an art museum. Did you pick it because you knew I'd like it, or so we could feel like rich people for a night?"

"I figured you'd like it," I said. "Besides, it's free from five to eight." He laughed and if I could have taken the sound as a shot I would have. It was light and happy and it filled me with more joy than I had felt in a long time.

"Are we taking the subway?"

"I have an unlimited pass," I said, waving my metro card in the air. "We could ride all night, if we wanted to." His grin widened and when he turned to me with happiness dancing in his eyes I was sure he was going to kiss me, there in the middle of the sidewalk. But then something flickered and the joy was gone, replaced with the same nervous smile he had worn when I picked him up. His grip around my hand tightened as if he was terrified of losing something important to him and I watched his eyes flutter shut and his chest rise with a deep breath. He stopped walking, his eyes remaining closed and with each passing second the feeling of worry grew greater and greater. His walls were back up, re-enforced to cover whatever secret he kept locked away in his mind.

"Nico?" I asked. "Did I do something." He let out the breath he had been holding in, his body untensing as the air flowed past his lips. 

"No," he said after a minute had gone by. "Sorry. I haven't dated in a while. Everything's still a little bit new." His words were carefully chosen, each one building the wall to hide a mystery I couldn't seem to figure out. He must have sensed the feeling of worry I couldn't seem to shake because he pushed a smile onto his face, pulling me along the street. "Come on," he said. "If we wait much longer, we're going to be caught in rush hour." I followed him down the street, pulled along by his persistent hand and as much as I wanted to be carefree, to enjoy my time with Nico, there was still a nagging voice in the back of my mind that told me something wasn't quite right.

Despite our best efforts, we were still caught in rush hour. We were thrust into an overcrowded subway, packed in like sardines with our bodies pressed against ten others. Nico was so close my body had begun to absorb his, one of my arms wrapped around his waist to keep from losing him in the crowd. His hand was rubbing against mine as the train rumbled along the track and we enviously eyed the seats lining the wall. As soon as the doors slid open and someone stood from their spot I dove for it, protectively putting a hand over it before someone else could steal it. "Sit," I said, gesturing for Nico to take the seat. 

"You take it," he said. "You got it, after all."

"Yeah, but I got it for you."

"How about this," he said, sitting down and patting the empty space next to him, about enough space to fit a small child.

"That seat's not going to fit both of us," I told him. 

"We can try, at least," he said. "Come on, sit down. We have a few stops until ours, we might as well be comfortable. Or at least more comfortable than we would be standing." I felt a smile spreading across my face as I wedged myself in between Nico and a woman rocking a screaming baby. She shot me a glare rivaled by none when I sat down but the feeling of Nico's arm against mine canceled out any negativity, blocking the woman's glare so that all I knew was happiness.