So it's been a while and let me tell you why: college. But now I'm home for the summer! Working full time, but still home! This means I barely have to cook, when I go grocery shopping I can put fruits in the basket without seeing my life and bank account flash before my eyes, and if I die it won't take two weeks for the cops to find my corpse! Anywho, enjoy your chapter.


xix: good

This was one of those lucky days where Will had worked a nice, quiet night shift and had come home at 7:00 am, had kissed the girls goodbye, and had slept the day away while Nico worked only to rise from the dead at 2:00 PM hungry enough to "eat the whole freaking world". So Nico had driven him to McDonald's and now they were waiting in the school parking lot stuffing their faces with French fries and chicken nuggets and burgers -ridiculously amazing burgers, waiting for the bell to ring.

"We don't do this enough," Will said, kissing Nico's cheek.

"Sit in school parking lots eating food like some kind of stake out?" Nico said. "That's probably a good thing, hate to break it to you."

Will scoffed and stole the remainder of Nico's fries in one giant bite.

"We should probably destroy the evidence and throw out the trash before Danny and the girls get out," Will said.

"We've got fifteen minutes," Nico said. "Not that they won't smell it."

"Oops," Will shrugged. He didn't look all that sorry, blond hair sticking up and out awkwardly, button-up untucked and sleeves rolled awkwardly. Somehow the man had a five day break from work, so that was probably fine.

They still got out early to dispose of the evidence (the crime being eating McDonald's without your children), and lazily made their way back to join the clump of parents waiting for their kids. Will was trying to mimic a face he swore Tessa had made the other day when eating spinach.

"Gross, Tessa is way cuter than that," he said swatting her away.

Will rolled his eyes back to add to the effect.

"Stop being so gross, what is wrong with you-" Nico said trying to swat him away. But Will took his hand and kissed his cheek.

"Oh now you're gross- you're all prickly," Will said.

"Show me," Nico demanded. "Show me where it's written that I have to shave all the time."

"You don't, but this is awkward because it's not a beard but it's not smooth it's just gross," Will said.

"Well maybe tomorrow when I'm not dressing, feeding and otherwise organizing four small children I will shave," Nico said.

"I look forward to it," Will said.

Nico was about to reply something witty, but that was when he noticed the mom looking at him strangely. She was, of course, wearing activewear and a white baseball cap and her haircut gave Nico flashbacks to the days he used to work as a waiter and have a manager to fetch for picky customers. Will followed Nico's gaze and smiled at the woman.

"You're Susan, right?" Will asked. "Oliver's mom? I think our daughter, Francesca, is in his class. With Miss Naidu?"

"Yes," she said. "I thought I'd seen you at the open house."

"Yes, I was there," Will said, very friendly.

"Yes," the other woman said, her lips very puckered. "Yes, I just hadn't realized that… Francesca wasn't picked up by a babysitter."

Nico frowned and was about to say something nasty, but shut up. A few other parents turned around.

"Susan, honestly," one mum huffed.

Nico wanted to leave but he needed to wait five more minutes to leave with the kids, assuming they walked fast.

"Well someone has to worry about these things," Susan huffed. "I mean, is it like this in front of your daughter?"

"Daughters," Nico cut in. "We have three beautiful, lovely little girls and one son who are being raised in a loving home. And yes, for our home to be loving that means that their two dads are going to hold hands and kiss in front of them. Maybe if you got laid you'd be able to take the stick our of your ass and understand, Susan. Now if you excuse me he tried being nice, I tried being bitchy, and I think we can all agree that we don't need to hear more from you today, Susan. Enjoy your Wednesday."

Will took his hand and whispered something encouraging that Nico didn't get because he was busy giving Susan his 'fuck off' stare. Susan opened her mouth and another mom Nico had seen at PTA meetings cut in.

"You heard him Susan. That's enough out of you."

Susan pretended to check her emails, but really she was playing Candy Crush. Now it was quiet and awkward and conversations were hushed, so Nico was even happier than usual when Tessa emerged with the other small waddling army of kindergarteners. She was more than happy for Will to scoop her up and prop her on his hip. Nico bet she had been fussy all day because she'd only seen him for a few minutes that morning. Cata forgot she was trying to be a cool eight year old as opposed to an uncool one and dropped her backpack, which Nico recovered, to tackle-hug Will. Danny had no such pretensions and he was happy to climb up on Nico's back for his piggy-back home. Nico was anxious to leave when the cool PTA mom, maybe Violet was her name, came by and put her hand on Will's shoulder.

"Don't listen to people like her," she said. "Everybody else knows your daughters are more than fine."

Will said his thank yous but Cata frowned.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," Will said. She didn't quite believe him and came to stand on Nico's feet and talk to him about science class until Franca came out, holding hands with a friend and wearing another daisy and dandelion crown, of course. Nico picked up Franca in a bear hug of her own, Will kissed her hair and they got their kids away from school and back home and agreed to order Chinese and watch a movie in their pajamas that night.


Will was reading in bed when Nico came in, after putting down Tessa who had a bad habit of getting up in the middle of the night to wander the house. Nico was not looking forwards to her being able to read the lock on the front door. Then they would be in for it.

But Will's eyes were glassy, like he was looking at the pages instead of reading.

"Will," Nico said crawling under the sheets. "Don't tell me you're seriously worried about that PTA mom."

"I'm not," Will said. "Not about her anyways, I think you handled that pretty well. I'm worried about her kid."

"What?"

"Her kid," Will said. "In Francesca's class. And all the other parents who didn't say anything but thought it, and all of their kids in all of our kids' classes. I mean, kids are mean to each other enough as it is. I don't want to be another tool in the arsenal they may have against our kids. I can shake pretty much anything off, but Danny's only ten, and Tessa's four, and that's a whole lot of mess for some little kids to understand. I know at Camp everything was fine, but I grew up in Mississippi first. It's just something I think about."

"I get that," Nico said. "I grew up raised by literal rocks and ghosts, though. And so I think that it's more important that those four kids have someone to come home and cry to when they've been picked on."

"You're right," Will said. He snuggled up against Nico. "You're so good for me. And for the kids. When did you get so smart?"

"Your last shift was really long," Nico said again. He kissed Will's head. "Too long."

"Were you being sentimental?" Will asked, feigning shock.

"Fuck off," Nico said. "Stay on your side of the bed."

"I will do no such thing, I like it here."

"Jesus, Will."

"There ain't no room for him, here."

"My God," Nico scoffed. And so Will stayed on Nico's side like the annoying significant annoyance that he was.