Hello my lovelies~ ^_^ This chapter is going to start out potentially a bit confusing if you aren't familiar with dream flashbacks but that is totally fine by me because here is your pre-warning. The warning, as usual, includes the typical cursing, sexual content, abuse, etc. And yes you should be expecting all of those things to just pop up individually at any given point. Well now that I have you concerned and anxious, ON TO THE STORY
An eight year old boy with dark brown hair and glasses walked through his door, having just got home from school. He had developed a small crush that day, his first crush, and being as close to his parents as he was, he was eager to tell them. He walked into the living room and found that no one was in there. He heard faint voices coming from the kitchen and figured his parents were in there. He walked in on his mother and father seeming to be arguing about something, though he had no idea what it was. All he caught of it was "No he's perfectly normal, don't go labeling him." before the attention was turned to the boy. "Hello William, how was school?" His mother asked in a happy tone, vastly changed from the tone she had used only a moment ago.
"Ah yes, how are those grades, son?" His father piped in.
William smiled at his parents. "My grades are always great dad, you know that."
"I know, but you know how much we love hearing it." His dad replied, getting up from the table to get something to drink.
"Yeahh." William said a bit bashfully. "Oh, I almost forgot, mom guess what!?" He exclaimed happily.
"What is it dear?" She asked leaning in seeming highly interested.
"I-I think I have a crush." He said simply.
"Aww that's darling, why don't you tell me more about it in the living room?" She said, getting up and leading the way to said room. William followed and sat down indian style on the rug in front of the couch. "So who's the little cutie?" She asked.
William blushed just a bit and looked down at his hands in his lap. "Well um, I don't know his name yet, I just met him today. But he has this really pretty red hair and he's really fun to be around. Also he makes me smile a lot." Will said, finally looking up at his mother. Her expression was a pained smile and William didn't understand why she looked that way. He hadn't ever seen that look on her face before. "Mom, is something wrong?" he asked.
"Oh, no it's nothing. I just need to go talk to your father for a bit. Why don't you get started on your homework and we'll call you into the kitchen when you're ready.
"Okay." He said simply. He pulled his black backpack over to the coffee table and took out his homework. He heard yelling, his father's voice, coming from the kitchen. He couldn't hear all of it but he did hear a very loud. "I FUCKING KNEW IT!" come from the man whom he had never heard curse before in his lifetime. Will jumped a bit at the sound and ignored the muffled slew of expletives that followed the initial reaction.
He had finished all of his homework and had sat about for five minutes before his mother screamed for him to go to the kitchen. "WILL!" He hurriedly ran into the room and looked petrified when he laid eyes on his parents again. He cowered a bit and sunk to the floor afraid that he was in trouble. He had never been in trouble before.
"Y-yes? Am I in trouble? I'm sorry! I wont do it again, whatever it was!" He said quickly as he pulled his knees to his chest and huddled by the cabinets.
His mother softened her expression and sighed. "No, your father is over-reacting about nothing. But we need to talk to you. It's about something serious." She said sincerely. William only nodded and waited for the speech he knew he was about to receive. "Okay so, Will, this is about your crush." She said slowly.
"What about him?" Will asked cluelessly.
"Well honey, you don't really have a crush on him, he's just a good friend is all." She said.
"Yes I do though. I don't want him to just be my friend, I want him to be my boyfriend." He said, knowing for sure that it was how he felt.
"No honey, you just think that because you're young. This is just a phase, don't worry." His mother said reassuringly.
William was hurt by the words and he didn't know why. He balled his fists and gritted his teeth. "NO MOM! THAT'S NOT IT! I REALLY LIKE HIM AND I WANT TO BE WITH HIM AND HOLD HIS HAND AND KISS HI-" He was cut off and his head was now facing the side and there was a stinging in his cheek. He turned his head back to see his father standing over him angrily and knew that the slap had come from him. He began to let silent tears fall as he stared up at his now terrifyingly enraged father.
His dad picked him up by the front of his shirt and pulled their faces close. "Now you listen to me and you listen good son." he spat. "One, you do NOT fucking talk to your mother like that! Ever! Two, you will listen to what we have to say and you will not argue over shit. Now I'm going to go straight to the point here. Boys do not have relationships with other boys, they do not kiss other boys, they do not hold other boys hands. Boys only do those things with girls and that's the way it should be. I will not have any son of mine breaking such a rule! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" He yelled. William was trembling and holding his eyes shut afraid of the anger he would witness if he didn't. "ANSWER ME FAGGOT OR I'LL BEAT IT OUT OF YOU!" Will's dad screamed in his face. Then he slapped him again and again until he felt that William understood. His mother had left during the yelling so there was nothing stopping him from being beaten by his father. He cried as he received hit after hit with the repetition of harsh words all having something to do with his preference of boys and how he was a 'faggot'.
William woke up with a loud scream and looked around terrified. He realized he was in Grell's room, having stayed the night. But where was Grell? 'I know I fell asleep with him, he was laying on my chest.' Will thought as he pushed the blankets off himself and looked around more thoroughly. Grell then burst through the doorway in a panic, still shirtless from last night.
"Why did you scream?" He asked, looking at Will, who seemed perfectly fine.
"Oh, uh, sorry. I had a nightmare, i think." He said. He didn't want to remember it and his mind was already trying to shut it out. Instead he let his eyes roam over Grell's bare chest and admire it.
"Really? What was it about?" Grell asked, hoping he could help.
"It was nothing." William said quickly, a little too quickly. He looked away as well and he knew it was obvious he was lying.
"People don't wake up screaming over nothing and I can tell when you're lying I've known you since grade school. Tell me about the nightmare." He insisted.
William sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. He didn't want to but once again there was no getting around Grell and his questions. "Fine. It was ..." That's when he thought it over and realized it was a memory he had repressed. He suddenly remembered that day and remembered having to hide his cut cheek and black eye and going to bed crying every day for that whole week. He couldn't even finish his sentence and he doubted he could answer Grell because right then he broke down into a sobbing mess and put his head in his hands to hide his teary face from his redheaded friend.
"What is it? What's wrong Will?" He asked walking over to the weeping was rare to see him like this and it concerned Grell to the full extent of the word. He wrapped his arms around Will and held him close. "You can tell me. I wont judge you, trust me." He whispered softly.
Will hugged onto Grell almost immediately and sobbed into his shoulder as he tried to whisper the words out. "I-it was a m-memory that ... that i'd f-forgotten on purpose." He had barely made it through that sentence and he wasn't sure if he could say the rest at the moment.
Grell recognized William's inability to speak at the moment and backed down a bit. "Okay. you don't have to tell me all of it right now, that much is enough. Just cry it out and you can tell me later." He said in soothing voice. William simply nodded into his shoulder and cried and cried for about half an hour. When his tears finally ceased the two of them had adjusted so that they were laying across the bed and holding each other. "Are you willing to tell me now what the memory was?" Grell asked carefully.
"I-I'll try." He agreed, pulling back from the embrace just a bit so that he could look directly at Grell. He took a deep breath before beginning. "Basically, it was a memory from a time when I had theoretically ... come out to my parents. It was when I was about ten. I had come home from school and ... told my parents I had a crush and when my mother asked who, I-I told her it was ... it was a boy in my class." William wasn't going to disclose that it was indeed Grell that he had liked back then even.
"Okay" Grell said, letting William know that he was still following along.
"Well when I told her that she went to tell my dad and ... needless to say, ... he was pretty pissed ... even though on some level he apparently knew that was the case. They called me into the kitchen to talk to me and my mother started off by telling me it was just a phase and that it was just that I wanted to be the boy's friend ... I told her she was wrong and after going back and forth about it I ... well I yelled at her. That resulted in my dad ... yelling .. at me ... a-and ... b-beating me. That's when I woke up." He finished. His eyes were tearing up again and he couldn't help it.
"Will, I'm so sorry." Grell said as he pulled Will back into his embrace. Will let the tears fall onto his redheaded friend once more and gripped onto him for dear life.
"H-he called me a ... a .. f-faggot." Will said through his sobs and he hated the word for even crossing his own lips. He knew it was offensive to his friends but it stung on a personal level now, especially having heard it from his own father.
Grell began to run a soothing hand up and down William's back. "It hurts, I know. Just let it out, it'll be okay from now on. I'm here for you."
Will rubbed his tear stained cheeks against Grell's shoulder and looked up at him. "T-thank you for being here for me. I don't know what I'd have done if I woke up from that at my own home." He didn't know what else to say and he still didn't want to tell Grell that the boy he liked back then was the same guy that he liked now. The redhead sitting in front of him. Sitting in front of him shirtless. Both of them shirtless. They had fallen asleep shirtless. He blushed a deep red and turned his head away from Grell's gaze.
Grell was about to say something sentimental along the lines of 'of course, it's what i'm here for' but stopped himself when he saw William's dark blush. He giggled and knew that it was probably something to do with him or them or the lack of shirts in the room. "Well someone seems to be feeling better already if their mind is in the gutter like that." Grell teased, knowing his comment was more than likely assuming more than what William's mind was thinking.
Will blushed even more so that his ears and neck were now a light shade of red. "W-what! No, i-it's not like that!" He defended, winding up more flustered than before. Grell giggled even more at the response and couldn't bring himself to retract his statement or even respond. This lead to William continuing to stammer and ramble on due to his embarrassment. "I-I don't think about those kinds of things! Well I mean I do, of course! But I don't just think about it! That's not how I meant it to sound at all! I just think about that when I'm alone is all. I-I mean it's not like that's all I do when I'm alone!" He was getting more and more flustered and it didn't help that it only egged on Grell's laughter. William finally ended his statement with "I'm not addicted to masturbation!" and buried his face in his hands because he swore he was the deepest shade of red possible.
Grell continued to laugh for a minute and when he finally calmed down he was grinning. "I know Will,I was just messing with you. Although the addiction thing is kind of a relief." It was obvious by his tone that he was still finding the whole thing humorous.
William held his hands to his face still but raised his head and parted his fingers to peek at Grell. He looked much like a bashful child that way. "Oh." He said simply as he dropped his hands.
"So shall we go make breakfast or would you prefer to go out to eat?" Grell asked, changing the subject to spare Williams cheeks from any further redness.
"Well I haven't had your cooking lately, so why don't we just make breakfast?" He asked, mentally pulling up the memory of some particularly fantastic pancakes created the last time he and Ronald had spent the night.
"Sure. And I'll take that as an indirect compliment." Grel said giggling. He got up from the bed and sashayed his way out of the room, swaying his hips in a teasing manner naturally. Wiliam's eyes subconsciously followed the motion and he wasn't brought back to reality until the view disappeared from sight. He smacked himself lightly in the forehead and got up to follow Grel downstairs to the kitchen.
Half an hour later, double chocolate chip pancakes had been made and both Grell and William had bits of chocolate covering their faces since they had partaken in a small chocolate war. They were giggling at each other's appearances and smiling as they dug into the pancakes. As Grell ate, he stared at Wiliam and thought over what he had been told about the dream. He remembered William having a black eye for the first week they knew each other and wondered if it was possibly because of him. He entertained the idea for a moment and then dropped it entirely in favor of assessing the situation and how the dream might help direct their plans. That's when it hit him, his parents needed to accept him in order to stop pushing him. That's why they pushed him into his school work, because it distracted him from relationships that they knew he would want to pursue. "Uh, Will?" He asked, setting down his fork for a minute.
"Yeah Grell?" He asked, about to take a bite but setting it down instead. "What is it?" He tilted his head to the side, smiling softly because of the chocolate still on their faces.
"We maaayy need a change in focus on our plan to get you free from your parents control mentally and physically. It's a change in tactic due to the dream you told me about, so you know the reasoning behind it. Though I know you won't like it." Grell explained. He knew that if he didn't William would think that it was only for Grell's benefit which it surely wasn't but he wasn't about to let anyone else take his rightful position in the plan.
"Just spit it out already, what is it?" William demanded. The words were making him jittery and nervous and he couldn't stand not knowing what Grell was planning.
"Well I deducted that the reason your parents are always putting more and more expectations on you is to try and keep you from having a gay relationship. They figure it's better to distract you so that you don't wind up going behind their backs and having a relationship that they would disapprove of, so they keep your schedule busy." Grell was rambling again and he felt as though he was stalling but wouldn't admit it.
"Okay, so what is the point here? What's our plan of action?" William asked, fearing he already knew the answer but needing confirmation anyway.
"Will ... you need to find a boyfriend."
End of chapter. Cliffhanger. End of the world. Right? Wrong! I shall have a new update for you lovelies as soon as I possibly can. I have the house to myself as well as the laptop and a monster energy. Its go time.