Jen/Tonya THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR COORDINATING ALL OF THIS—not sure if you need this: Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. Characters belong to Days of our Lives.
A/N: Thank you THANK YOU and big mwuahs to my ninja Beta/ text buddy/ book yammerer/ fellow fangurrrrler/ editor/ word nerd/ and, now, good friend, KB. Shout out to all of my twitter gals for encouraging me while writing and making all of my DAYS fantastic just by being you and yapping with me. And, yes, Amy, I finally went there.
Soundtrack: What Will's listening to: watch?v=VH4fWBxoibA (on youtube)
(Just listen, don't watch. The conductor is creepy looking.)
And here's the Overture to Romeo and Juliet they also listen to: watch?v=Cxj8vSS2ELU (Same creepy conductor.) (on youtube)
And the unattributed quote that Will whispers to Sonny is from Oliver Wendell Holmes.
That's it. Read! And let me know if you want more! Happy Valentine's Day, sweeties!
WARNING: Some very M-rated M/M action here. And language. I do enjoy the F word.
Any Human Heart
"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold."
~Zelda Fitzgerald
"Today isn't really my favorite holiday, you know," said Will. Sonny rolled his eyes.
Will thought about their first Valentine's Day, one of the worst and best days of Will's life.
From the terror and heartache of worrying that his daughter, whom he had really just started to love, if only in the abstract, would leave this world before he got to know her to sheer devastation when he thought he'd finally lost Sonny for good, to the elation he felt when Sonny pulled him into his arms and kissed him and told him they would start over, his heart had nearly burst several times.
It was not an overstatement to say that the events from mid-January to mid-February the year Ari was born still affected him ten years later. He had thought their life could not possibly get more chaotic or devastating- that he and Sonny had been through the worst together.
Oh, to be young again.
Will had had no idea.
He could feel his heart pounding.
Sonny put his hands on Will's shoulders. "Will! Hey baby, you okay?"
"Oh, fine. I'm fine. Just dreading a busy day at school. My students will be high on sugar and loooooooove. They won't have their essays done and I can't wait for it to be over." He turned to look at Sonny. "You don't have a big surprise up your sleeve, do you? Please say no."
"Daddy! Papa! Happy Valentine's Day!" Ari bounded into the living room. She was wearing a pink headband with red glitter-covered hearts bouncing on springs. Her red shirt was long-sleeved sprinkled with white polka dot hearts. She wore a hot pink tutu skirt and purple leggings. Red and pink striped leg warmers stopped just above her favorite red converse sneakers. She was PUMPED. She loved Valentine's Day and that was all Sonny's fault.
"I'm ready for school!" she giggled. She pursed her lips and stared at Will. "Daddy, why don't you have a Valentine's outfit on? Where's the pink shirt papa and I got you?"
"Honey, I just don't. . ." His voice trailed off. How could he say no to his little sweetie? "I forgot."
"Silly daddy! How could you forget Valentine's Day? Go change, pleeeeeeease?" she looked at him, her eyes sparkling, the corners crinkling just a bit. "Oh, my," he thought to himself. "She looks just like me when I'm trying to charm the pants off my husband."
Will locked eyes with Sonny over Ari's head. He was fairly certain that Sonny's smile had the tiniest hint of a smirk. "You get your Valentines together in your bookbag and when I come downstairs, we'll leave." Ari busied herself with gathering her things.
"Sooooooo, Will, in addition to inheriting your beautiful blue eyes and flaxen hair, it looks like our little girl has your 'Turns grown men to mush' act perfected," Sonny said.
"What can I say? I guess it runs in the family." Will laughed and ran upstairs. "Damn. I never got an answer from Sonny," he thought.
"Bye Daddy! Bye Papa!" Ari blew them kisses and ran off to the school. They took her to early arrival so that Will could walk Sonny to the Club before he had to be at school.
Sonny grabbed Will's hand as they started walking to the Square "Had a change of heart about your outfit, eh?"
Will rolled his eyes. "Let's just say that she is the only person besides you who always gets anything she wants from me."
Sonny turned to Will and raised an eyebrow. "Anything?"
"Anything except for an elaborately planned Valentine's Day."
Sonny's face fell. Will's heart sank.
"Always ruining the moment, Will."
Sonny was pretty unflappable. If he bothered to react like that he really was disappointed. It was time to shake it up a bit—to stop saying no and start saying yes.
Will stopped walking, leaned against the gatepost at the entrance to the square, and pulled Sonny to him. He tilted his chin down and pushed out his lips. "Just you wait until later." He shifted one foot to the other and back before bringing his cheek next to Sonny's. He closed his lips around Sonny's soft earlobe and sucked. Sonny moaned and pushed into Will, then thought better of it and moved away. "C'm'ere." Will cupped Sonny's ass and squeezed it.
"Will!" Sonny gasped. "Keep your grabby grabby hands to yourself!" Will kissed his neck. "Town square. Public." Will flicked his tongue along Sonny's jaw. "Upstanding business owner citizens." Pushed his lips against the corner of Sonny's mouth. "Aren't we a little old for this?"
"Never." With that, Will backed up into the shadows between the gate and the pine trees outside the square without letting go of Sonny. He nosed the collar of Sonny's shirt aside and latched on to the delicate skin under Sonny's collarbone. He bit down, hard.
"Hmmmmmmmph." So this was how it was going to go? Sonny didn't think he could wait until "later." He took Will's chin in his hands and brought his mouth down hard on Will's. He sucked Will's lower lip swollen and then nudged inside with his tongue. Without breaking the kiss, he pushed Will back against the wall, moved his hands from Will's face to his hips, picked Will up just a bit and ground their straining cocks together.
"Sonofamthfuuuummmkkuuhhhhh."
Sonny broke away. "You started it!"
Will smirked. "I was just reminding you of why you put up with me."
"Well, now I'm 'Up.'"
Will drew back and looked at Sonny asking with his eyes if Sonny wanted to "go there."
"Yes, Will. Ohmmigodyes."
With one hand, Will pulled Sonny's mouth to his own and swallowed Sonny's tongue, sucking and biting and teasing. With his other he quickly unbuckled Sonny's belt and unzipped his dress pants. Sonny's cock sprung out, rock hard and leaking.
"Commando, eh?"
"You know it," Sonny growled. Will closed his fist around the silken shaft and started pumping. "Ummmmmhuhahhhhoh," Sonny groaned.
Will smiled against Sonny's mouth. He had Sonny right where he wanted him, writhing and squirming, forgetting where he was. Luckily, if he kept Sonny quiet, nobody would see or hear them. He brought his extra hand down to his own fly and unzipped. With Sonny bare-cheeked under his dress slacks, they were going to need something to, uh, receive, what Sonny was about to give.
He pressed closer to Sonny and whispered "Come for me, baby."
Sonny exploded into Will's hand, his cries swallowed by Will's kiss. Will shoved his hand into Sonny's hair and held Sonny's head to his until Sonny started breathing again. Will cleaned Sonny up, tucked him in, and zipped him back up.
"Well." Sonny laughed and wrapped his arms around Will's waist, giddily grinning. "If that is 'now' what do you have planned for 'later'?"
"That was 'just in case.'"
"Just in case what?"
"Don't you remember what happened last year?"
"AGAIN, Will, always ruining the moment."
Last year on Valentine's night Will got home a little later than he had planned. Ari was staying with Sami, enjoying time with Will's (much younger) siblings. Will stopped by after work to see her, and she didn't want to let him go.
"Daddy, the boys at school teased me because I gave Valentines to everybody, including the girls. Papa always says that Valentine's Day is for everyone you love, not just boys." She wrinkled her nose and curled up her lips. "Ew. Boys."
"That is what your Papa says. Valentine's Day is for everyone." Though Will didn't buy into the holiday hoopla, necessarily, Sonny made it very clear, once Ari was old enough to understand what was happening on Valentine's Day, that she was never ever tofeel like it was a time when she had to win the approval or curry favor with just one particular individual. Every year Sonny gave Ari a Valentine gift and insisted on serving her heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. She always delivered little bouquets to her grandmas and took cards to everyone in her class.
He supposed that what Sonny was doing, and how he approached the holiday, would come in handy once Ari was old enough to care who did what for her on Valentine's Day. Eventually Ari wouldn't be saying "Ew," when it came to boys. (Or girls—who knew?) Will had thought he knew all there was to know about love from what he shared with Sonny. But Ari, well, she was a piece of his heart walking around outside of his body, and he shuddered at the thought of holding a sobbing Arianna while that heart broke into a million pieces.
Ari looked up at Will, her big blue eyes searching and sad. "Will you and Papa always be my Valentines?"
"Of course we will, sweetie." She snuggled against him and fell asleep. He gently unwound her arms from around his neck, settled her into bed, and headed home. It had been a long day.
When he finally reached home, he found a note pinned to his front door.
You are the one who is good with words. I'm better at showing than telling, but tonight I'm going to tell you how much you mean to me. Starting with this. I know, I know. You're the bookworm, the poet. I'm not. But I happened to read the first line of this poem on the top of cap of an iced tea bottle, and I looked up the rest of it, and, well, this is how I feel about you.
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
~e.e. Cummings
xo Sonny
P.S. Go to the stereo and turn it on.
Sonny found this? His Sonny? Of the spreadsheets and inventory lists and video games and pizza and tea parties with Ari and mountain climbing and football? And not only was it poetry, it was perfect.
He walked over to the stereo and picked up the remote control. There was another note taped to it.
Will, after you hit "play," head to the fridge and grab the snacks I have in there for us. You'll find me in our room. Waiting for you. Don't be long.
-S.
The violin solo from Scheherazade played over the speakers. The first notes were followed by welling wave of sound from the rest of the orchestra. Will couldn't help but be swept back to another time and place.
Shortly after Sonny took them rock climbing for their first date Will got him back by insisting the two of them pack a picnic and head out to Symphony on the Green—Salem U's outdoor summer concert series. On the program: Rimsky-Korsakov' Scheherazade, forty five minutes of playful, romantic swirling orchestral music. It was impossible, as far as Will was concerned, to remain unmoved while listening to the piece.
They found a place under a huge old oak tree to spread their blanket and listen to the concert.
Sonny, more into Drake than Dvorak, found himself welling up during some passages and tapping his foot to others. As the forty five minute suite progressed, Sonny scooted across the blanket, moving closer and closer to Will, first holding his hand, gently stroking it with his thumb. Next, he leaned up against Will, sitting shoulder to shoulder with him. Finally, about halfway through, he fell back against the tree trunk and pulled Will into his arms.
Will remembered how safe he felt sitting there under the stars with Sonny. And how ridiculously alive.
Sonny's hands were never really still. First he lightly ran his fingertips up and down Will's arm, driving Will to complete distraction. When Will relaxed into Sonny's embrace Sonny reached one hand around to Will's jaw and absently stroked it, while the other hand traced circles on Will's thigh. Will turned so that his head was nestled into Sonny's shoulder and his lips were level with Sonny's chin. With the barest amount of pressure Will kissed his way down Sonny's jaw line. Sonny responded by tipping Will's chin up just a bit and capturing Will's lips with his own.
Will reached around and placed his right hand on Sonny's neck, pulling Sonny closer. He opened his mouth, giving Sonny permission to explore. Sonny traced Will's lips with the tip of his tongue before sliding it inside.
Will sighed into the kiss. He felt like, after months of being afraid, wondering what to do, and holding his breath, he could finally exhale. "Where we love is home." Will whispered.
"Yes, Will, you're home. We're both exactly where we should be," Sonny breathed in his ear.
"Shit, did I say that out loud?" Will squeaked. "It's hot quoting Civil War era philosophers while making out with your new boyfriend," he said.
"You're adorable," Sonny said.
On a perfect summer night under a blanket of stars, the ends of their nerves tingling, Will and Sonny forgot about the music and lost themselves in each other.
Whenever something was tough between the two of them Will would retreat to his favorite armchair and listen to this very piece over and over again, willing himself back to the beginning with Sonny—back to when they first started falling in love. He needed that feeling to get him through the roadblocks that always seemed to pop up—right around Valentine's Day, unfortunately.
He listened when he and Sonny had broken up. He listened when he went for a walk after Sonny proposed and turned Sonny down. He listened while waiting in the hospital after Sonny had been hit by a car walking to meet Will for dinner on Valentine's night. He listened when he had to miss Valentine's Day because of a book tour for his one published novel. He listened when his mom was booked in jail, again, a few Januarys ago. He listened when Ari was in the hospital with meningitis. and he slept by her side for a month's worth of cold winter nights.
"He remembers," Will said to himself. That music—it was the closest thing he could get to a hug, a reassurance, other than actually having Sonny's arms around him. Sonny knew that any anxiety Will brought home with him would float away with the strains of the song.
He went to the fridge next and found a bowl of hand-dipped chocolate covered raspberries. "You're berry cute!" said a note pinned to the bowl.
"And now he's writing puns!"
What he loved about Sonny, though, were not Sonny's words, but his actions. Sonny showed Will, every day, how much Will meant to him. Tonight, Will had every intention of showing Sonny how much he meant to Will.
He picked up the bowl of berries, a chilled bottle of prosecco, and two fluted glasses and walked into their bedroom.
He found Sonny bathed in candlelight, propped against the pillows, and fast asleep, wearing black boxers with red kisses all over them.
"What I wouldn't do for those to be my kisses right there right now," he thought wistfully. Not wanting to wake Sonny, who obviously needed sleep after months and months—years, really—of long hours at work, Will slipped out of his clothes, picked up a quilt from the chair in the corner of the room, and climbed onto the bed beside Sonny, covering them both with the blanket in one sweep.
He thought about how people have such high expectations of this one holiday. "Flowers, candles, gifts! It Must be Valentine's Day in Salem!" read one of the signs in the town square today. Sonny was going to feel so bad that he fell asleep.
But every day was Valentine's Day when he was with Sonny, as far as he was concerned. He still couldn't believe that, out of everyone he could have had, Sonny chose him and nights like tonight, even without whatever else Sonny might have had planned, proved it. He was home.
He wrapped his arm around Sonny and put his nose in Sonny's hair. Breathing in time with his sweet, sappy, and, tonight, surprising, husband, Will went to sleep.
"Ahhhh," Sonny said, looking up at the trees surrounding them. "Right, last year. Well, I tried."
Will brought his hands up to Sonny's face, combing his fingers through Sonny's hair and rubbing Sonny's cheeks with his thumbs. "Honey, it was perfect."
"But I had all of these plans."
"Well, things don't always go according to plan, huh?" Will smiled. "This morning, particularly, and I think I'm finally starting to be okay with that."
"But weren't you a little disappointed last Valentine's Day when you found me asleep?"
"I'm never disappointed when I find you in my bed, Sonny."
Sonny grinned and gave Will a kiss. Out of everyone his gorgeous husband could have had, Sonny still couldn't believe that Will chose him.
"But, if you remember what you had in mind last year, what came after telling me I was "Berry cute," which was very cute, by the way, because I certainly remember what I had in mind last year, why don't we pick up where we left off, later?" Will's eyes bored into Sonny's, sending shivers up Sonny's spine.
"You got it."
After what seemed like days, but was merely hours, Sonny left the club in T's capable hands and drove home. He barely got in the door before Will tackled him with a feverishly hot kiss.
Sonny broke away. "Will! Valentine's Day! Flowers, cards, romance?"
"Fucking, sucking, and blowing."
Sonny gasped.
Will's eyes burned with desire. "I have been waiting All. Day. Long. for you." He started unbuttoning Sonny's shirt and kissing his way down Sonny's chest. "I have been chaperoning Valentine parties at school. I have been watching teenagers make moony eyes at each other. I have nearly been run over by flower deliverymen." He circled Sonny's nipple with his tongue and nibbled. "I have been listening to my Mom talk about EJ and what they're doing later. I have helped Grandma hang balloons from every light fixture." He knelt down and unbuttoned Sonny's pants and pulled his boxers down. He traced a line with his tongue from Sonny's hip bones to his cock. He growled "And, now, right now, I just want you. All of you. Happy fucking Valentine's Day." He took Sonny into his mouth.
"So hot Will holy geezus," Sonny grabbed a fistful of Will's hair and dragged Will up to face him. "If you want a happy fucking Valentine's Day, you'd better slow down!"
"What's your plan?" Will asked, his eyes dark as midnight boring into Sonny's.
Sonny took Will's hand and pulled him over to the couch. Hit the stereo button. Listened.
"Well, clearly you had a plan, Will. You queued up Romeo and Juliet?"
"Nothing better for mind-blowing sex. Those violins. . .that English horn solo. . .the flutes." He unzipped his pants. "I've been known to have a tender heart, occasionally. You've taught me that."
"It's awfully, romantic, though." Sonny unbuttoned Will's shirt and tossed it away. He latched onto Will's collarbone and sucked.
"I have a weak spot for orchestral mind fucking." Will shook his pants off one leg and then the other.
Sonny could see goose bumps running up and down Will's arms, legs. . .Will shivered at the sight of Sonny's eyes roving up and down his body. Sonny fell back on the couch, pulling Will on top of him so they were pressed skin to skin. Will straddled Sonny and sank down into his lap, grinding their hips together and eagerly ravishing Sonny's mouth, rubbing his ears and biting them, tearing at Sonny's thick and so sexily messy hair, combing through it and then holding on for dear life as Sonny answered Will by licking and sucking whatever part of Will that was still enough for him to get his mouth on. Their moans drowned out the music. "Oh Sonny, god, yes, mmmmmmm." Will was shaking. "Honey, get me ready. I need you inside me."
Sonny held Will to him and reached down and felt around in the pocket of Will's discarded pants. He figured, what with Will's music selection, that he might find some lube there. He slicked his fingers, reached around and thrust one finger into Will. "Hooooooohhhhhyeaaaah," Will moaned. He buried his nose in Sonny's neck. "Mmmmfuhhmoreson." Sonny slid another finger in.
"Better?"
"Mmmm hmmmm."
"Look at me, Will." Will shook his head. His entire neck flushed from his collarbone up to his ears.
"Darling, you gave me a hand job in the park this morning and you won't look at me? You. . . " Sonny kissed the tip of Will's nose ". . . are so precious." Will practically turned purple at that. Sonny crashed his mouth into Will's and thrust his tongue inside while scissoring his fingers to open Will up.
"Fuuuuuuuccccccccccccck Sonny."
"You like that?" Sonny breathed. He lubed himself and picked up Will by the hips and brought Will back down on his throbbing, aching cock. "How about this?"
"Ohhhhhhhmmmmmmmm." Will started to ride Sonny, rocking and bucking and thrashing in Sonny's lap. He grabbed his own leaking cock and pumped it while leaning over to suck on Sonny's lip. "I'm so. Close." Sonny was nearly there as well. . .He had Will right where he wanted him—reduced to a quivering, writhing mass of muscle and sweat and sweet, sultry moans.
"Will?"
"Huh?"
"Come for me, Baby."
"Yessssssssss. Mfffff." Will clenched hot and tight around Sonny while his cock pulsed in release.
When the hot liquid hit Sonny's chest he exploded into Will.
They both saw stars.
Sonny held Will, stroking trails down his husband's still flushed back. Will licked a drop of sweat from Sonny's brow.
"So, Sonny, is that what you had in mind for 'later'?"
Sonny huffed, catching his breath, smiled up at Will. "Pretty close."
Will pinched his nipple. "Pretty close? PRETTY CLOSE?"
Sonny squeezed Will to him. "Kidding, baby. That was perfect."
Will leaned back and gave Sonny a look. "Oh, no Mister. you said 'Pretty Close.' Hope you ate your pancakes this morning because we are just getting started."
It was a happy fucking Valentine's Day.
"Perfect," Will thought later. "Perfect was the word."
Will's nose woke him up when Sonny walked through the bedroom door with two steaming mugs of coffee that he set on the nightstand.
He felt pretty calm. They had enjoyed several years of relatively peaceful Valentine's Days. After twenty years of marriage Sonny had eventually eased up on the V-Day extravaganzas—nothing left to prove—and Will had finally reached the point where he no longer worried so much about what calamity might be lurking.
"Son—"Will gasped. Sonny had just pulled on a pair of sweatpants before heading to the kitchen, and HOT DAMN. The way the sweats sat low on Sonny's hips, nearly exposing what curled below his navel, made Will want to grab Sonny, shove him on the bed, and do very inappropriate things to him.
"C'mere honey," Will reached his arms out and waved Sonny over. He put his hands up to Sonny's face and took his mouth in a deep kiss. Sonny returned the favor before reluctantly pulling away.
"Babe, I hate to break it to you, but I have to get going. Valentine's Day and all—it'll be busy, especially since the holiday is on a weekend this year."
He showered and dressed. Will lay on the bed and watched him pull his clothes on.
Sonny was equally alluring in his dress slacks perfectly tailored to highlight everything about his ass that Will still worshipped, and Sonny knew it.
"Glad I still have that effect on you, sweets." Sonny bent down to kiss Will. "I'll see you later. I love you."
The phone rang that night at 2am. It was the call Will had been dreading since Ari asked them to always be her Valentines all those years ago.
"Daddy," she choked through sobs. "He broke up with me. On Valentine's Day! After three years of dating. Who does that?"
"Son of a motherfu—" Will thought. Sonny and weren't exactly thrilled about Ari being tied down for so much of her college experience, but her boyfriend had treated her well and encouraged her artistic endeavors, and, well, that was about as much as her parents could ask out of a partner for their daughter. Plus he and Sonny got together young and it worked out ok, eventually. Ari hadn't dated much in high school and had been picky about choosing someone long-term, but when she fell, much like Will had all those years ago, she fell hard.
"Oh sweetie. I'm so sorry," he said.
"It hurts. It hurts so much. What do I do now?"
"I don't know what to tell you to do, honey."
Sonny rolled over and looked at Will. He mouthed "WHAT?"
"Hold on sweetie," Will covered the phone. "Her boyfriend broke up with her," he said to Sonny.
"Who DOES that on Valentine's Day?" Sonny asked.
"YOU talk to her." Will handed Sonny the phone. This was a job for Sonny. When something went wrong, Will still had that urge to curl up in a ball and shut out the world until everything calmed down. Only Sonny could talk him out into the sun. It was the same with Ari. They made a good team. Will was good at future planning—where to go to college, what to do for a career, how to apply for a summer internship and make arrangements. Sonny was the one who helped both of them continue to consider their hearts, not just their heads, when making decisions.
"Sweet pea."
"Papa," she wailed. "Why does it hurt so much? Why today? What do I do? I trusted him. I'm so angry. I'm so sad. He said he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life and he didn't want me to be tied down with his indecision and baggage. And he didn't even talk to me about it. He just decided and that was it."
That sounded familiar to Sonny. "Oh honey. I've been there." He looked at Will.
Will knew exactly what Sonny was talking about. He sighed. What happened around Valentine's Day all those years ago had cracked his heart right open and he was never the same. Neither was Sonny. But he thought that it was because, when they picked up the pieces, they had done it together.
"But Papa what do I do?"
"Honey, you have to figure that out. It's gonna hurt. It might hurt for a long time. You will find yourself just going through the motions for a while. Thinking about the good times and crying. Reliving it all. That's ok. The only way you can get to the root of the life is to let things in. Feel them all. Don't shut down. Keep your heart open."
"Do you think maybe he'll come back to me?"
"He might, sweetie. You two are young. You have a lot of growing to do."
"I miss him so much. I don't know if I can love someone else this much."
Sonny smiled. Ari was her father's daughter. So dramatic. So all-in. Nothing halfway. "Ari, your Dad has said to me, often, 'Never say you know the last word about any human heart,' It's a quote from. . ."
"Henry James," Will whispered."
"Oh, you and Dad and your words."
"If your Dad could hear you saying that. . ."
"When everything happened with you and Dad why did you even bother? How did you pick up the pieces?"
"I'm not going to lie. It was honestly one of the worst times of my life. I cried myself to sleep every night for a month," Sonny said.
Will, laying in bed next to Sonny, stroking Sonny's arm, felt his heart break all over again when he heard Sonny say that. He leaned over and gently kissed Sonny's neck.
"How did you move on?"
"Well, honey, I didn't, really, and that's due, in part, to you. When we thought we were going to lose you, I realized how much your Dad meant to me and how I didn't want to lose him."
"But your heart was broken."
"Both of our hearts were broken, Ari. But we had already shared so much love, and once you experience that you don't want to live without it, regardless of what it does to you. I hate to say this, sweetie, but you're going to have heartbreak, large and small, through your whole life."
"Did you and Dad?"
"We did, even though you might not have seen a lot of it. We did—with each other and with other things in our lives. But we got through it."
"I don't know how I'm going to get through this."
"I don't either, but you will. And we'll be there with you."
"Can I come home this weekend? I know it wasn't planned, but. . . "
"Sometimes things don't go as planned. But, honey, that's sometimes when the best things happen, and, of course, you can come home. We'll come get you in the morning. We'll watch stupid movies and eat popcorn. We'll stop on the way for pancakes. It'll be just the three of us, like old times."
"Stay on the phone with me until I go to sleep, please."
"I will, sweet pea. I love you."
"I love you too."
Sonny lay on his side with the phone against his bottom ear. Will put his arms around Sonny so his chest was pressed against Sonny's back and they were spooning. Sonny listened until the sobs quieted and he could hear Ari breathing steadily on the other end of the line, all of those miles away, at school. "Goodnight honey."
No answer. He hung up the phone.
Turning his head to meet Will's eyes he said "I think she's going to be ok, eventually."
"Thank you, Sonny, for that, and for everything. For holding the pieces of my heart together."
"I love you, Will. I always have, since the first day I met you."
Sonny took Will's hand and held it as they drifted off to sleep.
Will whispered in Sonny's ear "I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart."
In the darkness, Sonny smiled.