A/N: This took way longer than expected, I'm so sorry... School has been so busy. I hope this chapter turned out okay. :) After all, there's only two more to go..

"A table for two under Butler, please."

The hostess nodded and smiled. "Sure thing." She glanced down and wrote Halt's fake name on the waiting list. "That'll be about just a few minute's wait."

There was an empty bench by the door for them sit on while they waited and listened for their party to be called. The restaurant wasn't too full. They suspected that the wait was just giving time for new tables to be wiped down and ready for customers. It was almost a pub… not too fancy, not too casual, but it didn't look dirty by any definition of the word.

Will kind of confirmed that, as he took off his grey jacket and said, "This is a really good restaurant."

"Oh? I haven't been here before," was Halt's reply.

"It is. I've come here a few times." With his jacket just tied around his waist, a thought made him freeze. Halt waited, on the edge of his seat for an update on Will's thinking. But when Will came back into the real world turns out all he was thinking was:

"Two. Two times I've been here." Halt thanked him for the precise confirmation.

They got a booth, like they'd asked. The blonde waitress introduced herself as Jess, and handed them a couple menus. "Can I get you two some drinks?" she asked. "They're on the last page."

Will skimmed over the drink menu at the bottom of the second page. There were a selection of beers there, and he felt a little temptation grow at the thought of a sip of alcohol… Then he saw Halt, and knew he didn't need it.

He turned to the waitress, "Just a water, thank you."

Halt got… coffee. Will knew it was only natural to express how ridiculous getting coffee at dinner was- and Halt dodged all reason with his stubbornness and sardonic remarks.

"Will it even taste good with the food?" Will asked.

"I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess," he said, solidly putting an end to that debate. "Don't act like you're my mother."

A new song started to fill the room: Houses of the Holy, as Halt had decided on what he'd wanted for dinner and Will was still thinking.

"Ah," Halt mumbled, "Led Zeppelin."

"Is this them?" Will asked.

Halt gave him a look that told him to 'please leave'. He said, "No, of course not, why would you think so?"

But this time, Will wanted to aggravate Halt even further. "Because you told me so," he said.

Halt stared at Will with such an intense, solid look that Will was actually expecting him to growl under his breath… but it only lasted for two seconds and ended with a big, heavy sigh out his nose. He'd given up on trying to argue with this boy.

Everything so far had put them in the lightest of moods- it was almost unrecognizable against the tone of dark, starless grey that they'd seen so far. Halt didn't want that to change, but he did want Will to know something very important.

"I talked to my boss," Halt said, as he sipped his newly arrived coffee. Will knew exactly where this was going and he looked up from his menu. "He said he would try his best to… pull some strings."

Will gave him a smile that radiated tragic happiness into the coldest of hearts, like it always did.. "Good. I'm glad it's at least a possibility." He turned back to his menu. "But what'll happen afterwards?"

Halt regarded that question very seriously. "That may be the most useful question you've had so far…" he muttered. "I don't know. I hadn't thought about that yet."

Will shrugged. He'd finally decided on what to get and put his menu on top of Halt's. "I don't know, either," he told him. "I think it'll sort itself out. At least… I like to think so."

Halt looked away from where their eyes were meeting. Now he wished he hadn't said anything.

"Let me take you to the movies. Can I take you to the show?

Let me be yours ever truly. Can I make your garden grow?"

Will, on the other hand, was glad he did. He knew that, even though Halt's face didn't give him any hint of it, that he was feeling bad about dimming their smiles. About painting over that little spot of white that had stood out from its grey, starless background. But Will wasn't going to stand for that. The paint was still wet, and they could wipe it away if Will found just the right spot. "What's it like there? What are the people like?" Will asked.

Halt looked around, suspicious that people might hear them, but there seemed to be no one listening to Will but him. He turned back to him and answered, "I've been a lot of places. When I'm not doing a job, I'm at home, waiting for one." He paused. What else was there? "I had an apprentice… his name I won't say right now, but we go out to dinner sometimes and talk. My boss and I spend time together, occasionally."

Will sipped his water, closely listening to Halt's story like it was the most interesting thing in the world… With a little push, Halt launched into a story about Gilan's apprentice era, because he liked seeing the entertained glint in Will's eyes- and Will, conversely, liked seeing the nostalgic pleasure on Halt's face from talking about his friends, that Halt didn't even realize was there. Will could see the tenderness in his eyes when he talked.

Halt explained how Gilan wore a funny shirt during a serious mission, and got tons of compliments on it when they were supposed to be blending into the crowd. Another highlight was when Halt and Crowley were forming the Ranger Corps (Crowley was his boss, but the two essentially put their heads together to revive the company), and they got mistaken for brothers by three people in one day, because of how they treated each other, even though they looked completely different. Halt had dark hair, and Crowley was a redhead. Halt expressed his confusion and dismay at this idea very clearly. Will laughed at every twist and turn, even though he wasn't supposed to. Halt weaved words so interestingly around each other and it made Will so happy watching it happen.

And Will heard the sarcasm, loud and clear, but in the end it didn't matter. Halt's sarcasm was just there to give off the feeling that he was uninterested, but Will knew that that was anything but true. What he radiated was just a perfume. It masked the real scent. Halt had even said it out loud before:

"Wh…" Will said… "Don't you have something else to do besides waste your time with me?"

Halt surprised both of them with a laugh. He laughed, because of the absurdity of the idea. How… ridiculous that sounded to him. He laughed not too hard but he could feel tears coming to his eyes, because of the… that idea.

"No," Halt said. "In reality, Will, it's the other way around."

Will smiled every time he remembered that, but as he thought about it more and more, he realized that knowing that he was worth somebody's time was actually small potatoes compared to Halt laughing, and that was the real reason he'd been thinking about it so obsessively. He hadn't heard anything like it since that morning.

Ugh, why wouldn't Halt laugh? Will imagined that what'd happened that morning was so rare, that Will was lucky to hear even that… but he wouldn't settle. One wasn't good enough.

They didn't talk about Gilan and Crowley all night. Halt didn't want to spend this nice meal together talking about his past- or even talking the most. Talking too much was Will's job. So he took over, after a while; he brought up a good book he read the other day and let Halt tell him what was wrong/inaccurate/stupid about its beginning, middle, and end.

When their food came, they reluctantly redirected their attention away from each other and started eating. It was only a short period of time before they returned to the groundbreaking new feeling of no stress, and no worries. Never did they return to the possibility that Crowley wouldn't call back with good news. They weren't out of the woods yet… but they acted like they were. They acted and they ignored the dark, overcast cloud hanging over them.

"Is the food good?" Will asked, after their third or fourth bite.

Halt nodded. "Yes, it is. The coffee makes it so much better."

Will grimaced. "Alright, fine. I believe you."

And, breaking through the water barrier that separated expression and emotion, was a small smile that Halt suddenly didn't feel so scared to let out. Smiling was like pulling in a rope tethered to the person who it was directed towards.

Unfortunately, ruining his internal moment of melancholy was his sudden exploded into a coughing fit, which alarmed Will with its suddenness to the point where he dropped his fork in his food. It made a "clink" sound on the edge of his plate. Usually smiling wouldn't pose an issue when Halt was drinking, but this time, under pure coincidence and bad luck, it did.

"Said there ain't no use in crying. Cause it will only, only drive you mad.

Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had? Oh-oh."

"Are you okay…?" Will asked, slowly but worried, with a pinch of bemusement.

"Y-Yeah," Halt said, in between coughs. He put a hand on his throat. He didn't want to be too loud, or it might alert the people around him. "I-I, I just swallowed wrong." And yet he still couldn't stop coughing.

Not for any less than half a minute. People began staring. It felt like that time Gilan got compliments on his shirt during a mission… they were supposed to be translucent, not bright yellow. "Are you going to die?" Will laughed.

"P-Probably!" Halt grunted. "This is why I don't smile, goddammit-!"

Will had never heard Halt curse before. It wasn't too off-putting; instead it made him burst into more laughter. Halt finally stopped coughing, but the redness on his cheeks didn't fade until later. The groundbreaking relief, and the warmth that blossomed inside Will's body didn't fade until early the next morning.

Ten o'clock: they paid and left. They hadn't taken a car there, and they didn't drive back. They walked- and this was a good thing, because, one, it was nice out. A little chill was just lingering under the surface, not enough to persuade Will to put on his coat again. And, two, if they hadn't walked, Will would've never spotted the small store on their left that was infested with chocolate like a forest was infested with trees.

He didn't say anything at first. Just a glance and the slightest pause was enough to set the closely observant Halt off.

"Want to go in there?" Halt asked.

"Well…" Will muttered. He shrugged, like a stubborn teenager when he didn't want to do something his mother was excited about. "Fine. Why not?"

When Halt opened the door for him and Will walked in, he took a deep breath, like he was trying to inhale all the food through his nose.

"Heaven…" he whispered.

I knew it, Halt thought. He hadn't been fooled for a second. Ohh I knew it.

Will had to look at every box, every candy, in every window, before making even the slightest decision… "Ughh I don't want to get too much, but it's so hard to pick…!" Will whispered- although his "whisper" was more like an exclamation compressed into a lower tone.

"I can't help with that. I am your guide," Halt said, gruffly, "not your warden, so make good choices."

"You can get something too, you know," Will offered. Halt opened his mouth to reply but before he could get anywhere, Will rushed to add: "And don't tell me you don't like candy, because that's what everyone says."

"I do like candy." He rested his hands in the pockets of his black jacket and walked over to Will's side. "But I get enough calories from drinking a lot of coffee, and I've no need for it."

Will stood up straight from where he was bending down and eyeing a cherry coated in milk chocolate, and faced Halt. "Alright," he said. "Suit yourself. But you're missing out."

"I'm not missing out. I'm just stronger. I can resist temptation."

The younger boy snorted, snubbing the idea for good.

Halt still insisted on buying them for Will… but Will didn't let him, because he'd already let Halt pay for dinner. Eventually Will won that argument (one in a thousand). After all, it was only seven dollars.

Will bought a number of things. Not too much, but enough to make somebody's mouth water. He promised himself and Halt that he'd wait until later to eat them… but both of them knew that wouldn't happen. He started eating as they walked home.

First he bit into a crunchy, milk chocolate bar swirled with caramel.

"What did your work say about your situation?" Halt asked.

The street lamps lit the way for them down the street. Everything else was coated in a void of darkness and melancholy. But, inside their own little bubble, it didn't feel so bad.

"I'm a pretty good employee, so they said they'd let me off the hook if I worked overtime tomorrow." Will sighed. "In truth, though," he continued, "I've been looking for something else to do. With my salary, I'm not going to keep a house for long." He paused. "I used to not have to have a big salary."

Halt knew where that was going. He didn't want to press on into the past. "What kind of job do you think would suit you?"

"I don't know, yet," Will said. "I'm not looking for anything special. Like you said before… some jobs are made to make you money. You need some other hobby on the side to keep you happy."

"And I stand by that."

"And I always agreed with you."

They passed someone on their right. A shady looking figure… he leaned against the building wall, giving off smoke like a bonfire. His hood was up, and he was eyeing them both, but any fear that shivered through Will's body was short lived. Halt was pulling him closer to his side every time somebody's eyes glazed over him.

The sky looked about as lively as it had at three o'clock the morning before. Hollow, like it didn't exist. It was going to shave everything around their little bubble, like pulling back a veil, any moment now… what was under was a complete paradox.

"Any stars?" Halt asked.

"No," he said. "Still a hole."

He bit into a cherry coated with milk chocolate and found, inside, an idea, like finding a hidden treasure inside an Easter egg. If the sky did decide to pull back that veil, Will wouldn't be upset… but he wouldn't be satisfied, either.

So those two moments in the past of absolute acceptance and fulfillment were gone, and they were replaced with something else. Would there even be a third moment where he would be completely okay if he died? He tried to imagine if he died, right then, right next to Halt, right under the starless, hollow sky.. But a drop of melancholy rippled inside him. That wasn't right. That wasn't it. There was so much more that had to happen first… That happy, warmly colored feeling he'd enjoyed before was gone now. Where'd it go? Had the sky taken that, too? He couldn't leave now… he wanted it louder, fresher, definite, infinite. This night could repeat over and over and he'd love it.

And Will was right about before. About the alcohol. It'd made him forget- it'd made him happy, but seeing this weird guy, even though he was still very new to Will's life, give just the slightest smile, or show the slightest bit of true happiness was better than any alcohol or drug he could've ever tried. How could he put that into words...? How could he verbally express how Halt had somehow made him feel...

Not whole. Not yet. If he thought about it, he could still feel the wound in his heart, that wouldn't heal with just one night.

But this was the first time he felt like he was ready to try.

"Thanks for dinner," was not even the tip of the iceberg, but it's all he could muster when Halt dropped him off at his doorstep.

Halt gave him a simple, blunt nod, and told him in the most unrevealing way, that he'd had a good time too. A very good time.

Happiness. Halt looked up the word as he walked back home…

"Happiness: the state of being happy."

Well, Halt snapped, switching his phone off and slamming it in his pocket. Thank you, Google, that was awfully helpful of you. He was looking for something else. Nothing simple like a search engine could understand such a theoretical feeling, like what he'd felt before. That happy, warmly colored feeling he'd enjoyed before. Where'd it go? He wanted it louder, fresher, definite, infinite. He wanted to repeat this night over and over again.

Happiness… was coming home, checking your phone, and finding one new message from the man you'd placed your happiness's life in. Crowley had called him back…