The next thing Will knows, the sun is shining through his window. A sleepy glance at his clock on the nightstand tells him it's almost ten thirty. It's morning? Will thinks tiredly. How the hell is it already morning?
He also appears to be tucked into bed as well as if his own mom had done it herself.
And he's alone.
Will rolls over onto his back, stretching his limbs and yawning. And suddenly realizes with just a small shock that nothing hurts. Not his neck, feet, not even his back.
Dr. Sonny, Will muses, had done quite a number on him. And is probably at home sulking because he hadn't scored. Who could blame him, when he'd just been a sweetheart, and all he did was just lie there like a dead body.
Gotta be some way to make it up to him, Will tells himself, crawling out of bed to put on coffee before he hits the shower.
Will walks into the kitchen area, staring at the full coffee pot on his counter, along with the note next to it. Will frowns as he picks up the note, switching on the coffee maker to warm up the coffee as he reads the note.
Had to leave. The counter guy is supposed to come this morning. Didn't know when you were gonna wake up, so I was worried about leaving the pot on. But it was fresh as of 7 in the morning, but only if you plan on sleeping around the clock. Did anyone ever tell you how adorable you are when you sleep?
I'll call you later today
SK
"Well aren't you just the darndest thing?" Will mutters as he taps the note against his hand. "Aren't you just a mystery?"
Will really needs to go to the Pub to check on the lunch shift, check on their inventory. After that, his curiosity too great, Will drives himself out to the DiMera mansion.
The door's wide open. Will thinks Sonny's probably the one of the only people, if not the only person, who lives here that would be fine leaving the huge impressive front door open to whoever might come in or out. Small town living or not, someone should give him a serious talking to about installing a security system.
Will can hear the loud racket of the workers in the back of the house, but takes his time making his way over there.
The first room to get his attention is the smoking room. Will crouches down, touching the glossy floor, finding them hard and dry, and just looks as he steps inside.
He really put the work in, is all Will can think. Sonny really knows how to take care of what belongs to him. Really focused on the details and made them important. Color, wood, the very elegant fireplace, the gleam from the windows, which Will has no doubt Sonny washed by hand himself.
"Whaddaya think?"
Will turns, and still framed by the windows, by the light coming from them, looks at Sonny as he stands in the doorway. "I think this mansion has no idea how lucky it is to have you. You really see it how it's supposed to be, and you're definitely gonna work your tail off to put the life back into it again."
"Nice." Sonny crosses the room towards Will. "Really nice. You look really well rested."
"You're not supposed to tell people they look well rested. You're supposed to tell them how good looking they are."
"You've never looked bad a day in your life. You just happen to look well rested along with it."
"Smooth." Will wanders towards the fireplace, trailing a hand over the mantel, stopping when he sees the old picture frame holding a photograph of a young woman. "Alice." Will whispers, and the ache is felt inside him. Deeply.
"Marlena gave it to me. I think you look like her, just a little."
"No, I've never had that much innocence in my face."
Compelled, Will traces a finger over the young, hopeful face.
He's actually seen this particular photograph before, had even studied it just as closely as he is now, piece by piece, at a point in his life when he'd thought the story, the mystery surrounding it, beautiful. At a point in his life when he himself was still young enough to find the beauty in the tragic.
"Weird." Will says. "Having her here. Having a part of me here."
"She belongs in this mansion. So do you."
Will brushes that off, and the sadness in those clear eyes envelop his heart. Turning, he gives Sonny a very long, critical look. Work clothes, Will thinks, tool belt, night stubble. It's becoming more and more difficult to imagine him wearing a business suit and sitting behind a desk.
It's also getting harder and harder to imagine his life with Sonny not in it.
"Why'd you leave my apartment?"
"I thought you'd found my note. The counter guys came today." Sonny points his thumb behind him, towards the kitchen. "Practically had to beg and pay extra just so they'd fit me in on a Monday. I absolutely had to be here."
"You know that's not what I'm talking about. Do not try and tell me you came into my pub, to work--what, was it 6 or 7 hours bussing tables?--and have me a full body massage because you didn't have other things you could've been doing on a Sunday night. You showed up hoping to get lucky, Sonny, and you just up and left with nothing. Why?"
Sonny can feel his anger being poked at, putting a damper on his easygoing mood. "You're really something, Will. How is it you keep managing to turn the simplest thing into something way more complicated than it has to be?"
"Because more often than not, things are rarely, if ever, as they look on the surface."
"Okay, you want the truth? I'll tell you the truth. I did come to the pub because I wanted to see you. I bussed tables because I wanted to help you on a very busy night. I gave you a full body massage because I knew you had to have been on your feet for about 12 hours straight. Then I let you sleep because I knew you needed it, badly. What, has nobody ever done something nice for you just to be nice?"
"As some stupid societal rule, no, they don't. Not unless they're hoping to get something out of it. So what exactly were you hoping to get, Sonny?"
Sonny gives himself a moment, so he doesn't lash out. "That is quite possibly the rudest thing you've ever said to me. If you're so concerned about paying me back, I have about half an hour right now. We can go upstairs, fuck our brains out, and relieve you of your debt. If not, then I have a lot of work to do."
"I didn't mean to offend you." But Will can see now, he obviously has. "I just don't get you. All the men I've ever met, at the very core of them, would've been pissed because they didn't get lucky. That's what I was expecting you to do, and honestly? I wouldn't have blamed you. I'd understand."
"Is it really that difficult for you to understand that I actually care about you so much I'd take sex off the table just so you could actually get some sleep?"
"Yes."
"Okay, I'm wrong. That's not rude at all. It's just sad." Sonny watches the color in Will's face depen as those words hit him. He's embarrassed, Sonny realizes. "It's not just all about sex with me. It definitely makes things more exciting, but it's not the only thing keeping me around."
"I always have to know where I stand. If I don't, how do I know this is something I still want, or if I might be looking to change it?"
"So I'm throwing you off the tracks."
"More or less."
"Good. I'm a pretty easygoing guy, Will, but I refuse to be associated with all the other guys you've ever been with. In fact, you won't be with me at all. We'll be together."
"Because that's what you're wanting."
"Because that's how it's meant to be." His tone holds no room for argument. "Nothing we've ever had, or are ever going to have, is going to compare to whatever is between us. And I understand if you still need time to understand that."
"Is this supposed to be how you always get what you want?" Will demands. "Just telling me the rules in a ridiculously reasonable voice?"
"Not rules. Facts." Sonny corrects in what he thinks Will would consider his ridiculously reasonable voice. "And it's only ridiculous because you'd rather be fighting. We've literally spent the last half hour talking when we could've been fucking. Good fucking, or good fighting, takes time. But right now, I'm taking a rain check on both."
