They woke up curled around each other, Ralph pressing himself into Bill and Bill inwardly freaking out. Thankfully, it was Cecelia that came in to jump on the bed to wake them up. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Bill, wake up your boy-"
"Shut it!" Bill snapped, sitting up and glaring. Cecelia shrieked with laughter and sprinted out of the room. She ran back a few moments later, peeking around the corner.
"Mom and Dad are gonna be gone for the next few days, remember, so you hafta take me to school," she said. Bill sighed and slipped out of the bed. Ralph, who had woken up when Cecelia had started jumping on the bed, yawned.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll take you in twenty minutes," Bill said. Cecelia ran out of the room again and Bill turned to Ralph. "Feel like skipping today?"
"Okay," Ralph said. Even though Bill was fairly certain he'd been sleeping by eleven, he had huge, dark bags under his eyes. Maybe he'd woken up when Bill was still asleep – Bill was a very heavy sleeper. Even when he fell off his bed he didn't usually wake up.
"I'm going to take a shower. Cece'll tell you where some food is," Bill said, grinning at Ralph and heading for the bathroom. He took a quick shower – in and out in five minutes, they'd slept in a bit and he'd probably have to grab some toast for the road for breakfast, unless he took Ralph out for breakfast.
He turned slightly red at the thought and got dressed. When he got downstairs, Ralph was gone. "Where's Ralph?" Bill asked Cecelia, feeling a stab of horror at the thought that maybe, Ralph had remembered that Bill had actually been one of the ones to chase him down and try to kill him.
"He went to go get some clothes," Cecelia informed him. Bill nodded and decided to just grab an apple instead of going through the whole 'toast' issue, because, honestly, he was too lazy for toast.
A few minutes later, Ralph was back, fully dressed. Bill grinned at him. "If you wanna just stay here while I take Cecelia to school, you can."
"No," Ralph shook his head. "I told my father that I was going to school with you."
"Okay," Bill said, nodding. "We can just show up there and then you can have a panic attack or something – 'too nervous' to go to school?'"
Ralph agreed – he agreed to things a bit too easily, Bill thought, but all the easier for him – and they took Cecelia to school. Bill could drive, so they didn't freeze to death on the way there.
Bill's school was a public one – a chaotic, large public school that, even if Ralph wasn't planning to get overwhelmed, he probably would anyway. Bill grinned a little as he parked the car and got out. "Coming?" he asked Ralph, who looked like he was having an honest-to-god panic attack.
Ralph swallowed. "Y-yeah. Oh, and I need to… I need to tell you something."
"Hm?" Bill asked, leaning back into the car. Ralph waved him away. Bill rolled his eyes and went back to waiting for Ralph to get out.
"Can we not and say we did?" Ralph asked. Bill shrugged and got back in the car.
"Yeah, sure," he said. "Why not? We were planning on skipping anyway."
"Thanks." Ralph's voice was barely a whisper, but Bill smiled anyway and restarted the car.
"So," Bill said. "Where would you like to go?"
They ended up heading to a park that was just a little bit away from their houses. The two sat down next to each other on a park bench, not as close as Bill would like, of course, but closer than they would if it was just a casual thing.
The park was deserted, and this unnerved Bill. He glanced around, hoping that some mother with her baby would walk past, but they didn't. There wasn't even anyone in sight. He decided to talk to fill the silence.
"So, what did you need to tell me?" Bill asked. He wanted to touch Ralph, and these thoughts of touching Ralph weren't completely innocent either. He wanted to touch his face, to touch his chest, to touch his… well, it's kind of obvious where he was heading with this.
Ralph shifted. He seemed uncomfortable. Bill waited a few more minutes, but he was impatient. He couldn't stand this 'waiting' thing.
"Spit it out, Ralph," Bill said, reaching out to brush a stray piece of hair away from Ralph's face. It was like an electric shock went in-between them, and Bill jerked his hand away. "Sorry."
Ralph shook his head – Bill wasn't sure why; to clear it, perhaps, or to stop him from apologizing. "My father is in the Navy," he said. He spoke slowly, carefully, like he wanted to make sure that he was saying everything right. "And he's going to be gone a lot. And he was wondering if… if you could stay with me at the house because I…"
"Yeah, sure!" Bill said, grinning. Ralph looked relieved. Bill was a bit curious as to what the 'because I…' would have resulted in, but Ralph was looking incredibly uncomfortable and he didn't want to pry. "When?"
"Well, he left today," Ralph said, turning a bit pinkish.
"Today? But you just moved in," Bill said. Ralph shrugged.
"I don't know why he didn't want to stay for at least a little bit," he said. "But he's gone and… I think he called your parents last night. He said that he'd gotten things sorted out. He even said that he'd pay you if you wanted."
"Pay me? What for?" Bill asked. "I like being around you. Besides, all alone in a house with no adults? Think of the fun we could have."
He winked and, thankfully, Ralph didn't totally freak out. He just turned a little red, and Bill grinned. Yes, this would work. They could go to school on Monday, and have the weekend all to themselves –
Cecelia.
"Oh shit," Bill muttered. Ralph glanced over at him.
"What?" he asked.
"My parents are going to be gone for the next few days," he said. "We've got to take care of Cecelia."
"She can come over, too," Ralph said, shrugging. Bill, feeling a bit of courage, scooted closer to Ralph and put an arm around his shoulders. He leaned in close to whisper in Ralph's ear.
"But then we can't have fun."
Ralph turned bright red.
I have a feeling that, in a few chapters, this is going to turn into my first m-rated fanfiction. That is quite possible.
Especially when some other characters show up.
