title: in which Warren is pissed and Will tries to make amends
author: newtypeshadow
fandom: Sky High
pairings: Warren/Will, mentioned Will/Layla
disclaimer: Sky High and associated characters and settings are not my property. This story was written for pleasure, not for profit.
notes: inspired by my school job.
notes2: thanks so much for all the reviews! they give me joy :)
Warren's pissed. Layla's apologetic, but Warren won't talk to her, either. He just stalks around the school hallways, as angry and aloof as he was before he met them. And people get out of his way.
Except Will. "Look, Warren, I didn't—"
"Save it," Warren growls, hurrying off.
Will is afraid to ask Layla what he should do because Warren might see and think there really is something going on. So he does what usually worked when he and Layla were having problems: he goes to the Paper Lantern. Warren is there, of course, working hard to ignore him while still bussing his table and refilling his water glass. "Warren—"
"I'm working," the older boy snaps.
"Please, just—"
"Go home."
Will sighs and puts his head in his hands, but Warren takes no pity. A short Chinese woman with bags under her eyes comes to his table. She puts down his receipt—$7.49—and asks him to come to the register when he's ready.
Will knows that Warren gets off at nine and does dishes at the end of his shift. Suddenly, a smile blossoms upon his face.
At eight o'clock, Will tells the woman at the register he has no cash or plastic on him. She glares at him and calls over a thin man with drooping shoulders. In a burst of Chinese, she has washed her hands of Will and he's being led to the back and deposited next to Warren, who's scrubbing pots.
"What the hell?" Warren's eyes narrow at Will at Droopy's clipped Chinese. The teenager dries off his hands on the towel hanging around his neck and reaches for the wallet in his back pocket.
"Warren, stop. I don't need your money."
"So pay me back."
"How can I when you won't let me talk to you?"
Droopy says something else and impatiently holds out a hand. Will closes his hand over Warren's wallet and steps forward. "Warren will show me what to do," he says. Droopy leaves. Warren throws off Will's grip, puts away his wallet, and resumes scrubbing.
"Those," he says with a tilt of his head, "are dirty. You wash them in this sink, dunk them in the middle sink, and rinse them over there."
Will gets out a pan caked with what looks like bread crust and begins. "I know you're mad. You have every right to be." Warren says nothing, but does dump out his sudsy vegetable water all over Will's arms before depositing the pot in the middle sink. Will sighs, but doesn't protest. "It was a kiss on the cheek—"
"It was a kiss."
"On the cheek, Warren. Layla and I have been doing that since before we were dating."
"Oh, so it's unreasonable to not want your boyfriend kissing other people, especially people he used to be dating?" Warren hisses, hands furiously scrubbing a new pot.
"Look, we're both sorry! It won't happen again, I swear!"
"No shit, cos I'll kick your ass."
"Sure you will. Just like that day in the lunchroom."
"Fuck you. You ran like a baby."
"I had no powers! Of course I ran!" Will splashes into Warren's pot. Warren retaliates by grabbing the nozzle over the third sink and spraying Will's t-shirt. He leers. "I win."
Will, dripping but happy for Warren's good humor, kicks his boyfriend in the shin and resumes washing his pan like all is right with the world.