Code Secret Santa for @vexfulfolly !!!!
You asked for some no romo and some William, and I was pretty inspired! I really hope you enjoy this ♡
William sighed and stabbed at a cherry tomato in his side salad, resting his cheek on his fist. No one else was at his table, and when he glanced up, he could see his former group at their table, and he bit the inside of his cheek as he stabbed at his salad a few more times. He closed his eyes and sighed again. Maybe he could put his head down and rest before his next class at least.
William's eyes snapped open when he heard a cough from in front of him and he glared weakly when he saw Ulrich. He seemed nervous, drumming his fingers on his lunch tray, and William leaned on his crossed arms.
"Could I sit here? I want to talk to you if that's okay." Ulrich wouldn't meet his eyes and William narrowed his.
"Sure, whatever. Can't promise I'm much for conversation right now, though," William looked back at his lunch and continued attacking his salad.
Ulrich sat across from him and poked at his peas in silence. Just before William was about to ask what he wanted to say, Ulrich sighed.
Of all the things William expected Ulrich to say, that was not one of them. He looked at Ulrich in confusion and Ulrich refused to look up at him.
"I should not have been so hard on you. For anything. I just… I really didn't like you because I hated that you liked Yumi so I didn't even try to give you a chance," Ulrich tapped his tray with his fork. "And then you were really helpful and I still didn't want you to join the group because I was still jealous. Which was… really selfish, given what was at stake."
William couldn't believe his ears.
"And then when you did join the group, none of us warned you about the Scyphozoa. That was our fault. We should have prepared you better, warned you better," Ulrich sighed. "What happened wasn't your fault and we've all been really unfair holding it against you when it's on us, not you."
"I… why are you telling me this?" William narrowed his eyes. "Did you draw the short straw on who had to try and make peace?"
"I'm telling you this because we're sorry. Me especially," Ulrich finally looked up to meet his eyes. "If you wanted to, we'd really like it if you joined the group again. No pressure if you're upset with us and don't want to. And… I thought it might mean more coming from me since I was the biggest jerk to you, so I volunteered to tell you."
William mulled it over and shrugged. "Do I have to answer right now?"
Ulrich shook his head. "No, take all the time you need, we just wanted to let you know so you can decide for yourself."
"Thank you. I… will think about it," William nodded. "And thank you. It… does mean a lot coming from you. And I'm sorry. I was also being kind of a jerk once I realized how mad you got when I flirted with Yumi."
Ulrich shrugged and smiled softly. "Water under the bridge if you're cool with it. I do want to let you know though that I apologized to Yumi too for getting so jealous over her and I think it would mean a lot if you did too. You don't have to. I just wanted to let you know that she might appreciate it."
"For sure, for sure," William nodded. He could feel tension draining from his shoulders as he turned back to his food. "I'll figure out what I want to say to her. Thanks for the heads up. Are you gonna stay here or go back and eat with them?"
"Which would you prefer?" Ulrich shrugged, not looking inclined to move until William told him to.
"If you don't mind staying, it would be nice to not eat alone," William finally finished his salad and moved onto his reward for that, the lasagna that he'd been so excited for since the menu for the week had been announced.
"Okay," Ulrich smiled and they ate their lunches quietly.
William hummed to himself as he brought his bass to one of the music room. Some time to just play something and not think sounded good to him.
Then he heard soft guitar coming from the music room, and he sighed. He opened the door and regretted it when he saw Odd sitting on the little stage with a guitar in his lap. They stared at each other for a moment and William hesitantly stepped in.
"You mind if I sit in here and play too?" William sat in one of the comfier chairs and watched Odd as Odd shook his head.
"No, feel free," Odd shrugged and looked away. "I'm trying to figure out this song, but something about it is just… not sounding right."
William put his bass on his lap and chuckled. "Play it for me, let me see if I can help."
Odd smiled up at him and started strumming. He played for a minute before sighing. "See? It's just… it's missing something."
"I see what you mean, but I don't think it's anything you're doing wrong," William rubbed his chin. "It sounds really good, Odd, but I think you need some kind of a supporting rhythm. A steady background sound so you can have fun with it and do what you need to do, but it kind of ties the whole thing together. Play it again, lemme see what I can do."
Odd nodded and started to play it again, and William followed along, playing the same few notes in a steady pattern. Odd lit up as they played together and placed his hand on the strings to stop their sound.
"That's it! That's what this needed!" Odd laughed. "Thank you so much, William!"
"No problem, Odd," William sighed and smiled. "So… the other day Ulrich came over and… he said you guys were all sorry? About kicking me out and treating me like that?"
Odd nodded and sighed. "Yeah. We all feel really bad. We weren't fair to you, and I'm sorry."
"Well, I don't quite want to join the group again just yet, but I'm working on it. And I want to try and be friends with you guys individually before I do that," William shrugged.
"That's fair," Odd smiled. "I'm usually in here on Tuesdays after lunch, during my free period. Wanna meet and just jam?"
William grinned and nodded. "That sounds good. I'll be here when I can. Wanna just play until next period?"
"Yeah! Maybe you can help me with the rest of the song!" Odd laughed.
"Love to," William nodded.
"Alright! For this next assignment, you'll be working in pairs!" The English teacher smiled. "I will assign your partner."
William glanced across the room at Yumi, and noticed her looking his way as well. Both quickly looked away.
"Let's see, Dunbar and… hmm, Dunbar and Ishiyama!"
William winced and grabbed his things, standing up to cross the room and sit next to Yumi as others shuffled to sit with their new partners. Both sat in an uncomfortable silence until William sighed.
"Can I apologize?" William picked at a piece of dry skin on his lip with his thumb.
Yumi looked at him in confusion. "For what? I should be apologizing to you."
"For the computer stuff, yeah, but Ulrich already took care of that," William shrugged. "I want to apologize for all the clingy jealous flirting stuff."
"Oh…" Yumi's eyes widened and she nodded slowly. "Okay."
William sighed. "I really liked you at first. A lot. But… I started going overboard when I realized how much it pissed off Ulrich, and that is…so many layers of messed up. It was really unfair to you. It… it became less about liking you and more about beating him. And that's gross. And awful. So I'm trying to step back and sort what all I've got going on inside before I even think about dating anyone. I'm not going to keep hitting on you, I'm not going to keep bickering with Ulrich, I'm just trying to take some space to regulate myself before I jump back into things."
Yumi nodded slowly and turned away, and he could see she was trying to blink back tears as she pulled her notes out.
"Thank you, William. I really needed to hear that, and I'm really glad you're going to try to be better," Yumi smiled at him weakly and he smiled back. "I'm really glad to hear you're taking some time for yourself. I am too. That much drama isn't good for you."
"Definitely not," William chuckled. "Hey, I glanced at the rubric and the assignment is on the strength of love in fiction, what if we did it on more of like… a platonic love? If we really wanted, we could do it on The Return Of The King, and kind of lead everything to Sam carrying Frodo up the volcano? Or we could go a little smaller scale and do The Wizard Of Oz and talk about Dorothy, The Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and The Cowardly Lion."
"Let's do Wizard Of Oz, just because I don't want to have to read the whole series in less than a week," Yumi chuckled. "I really like that idea though."
"Cool, I think they've got at least two copies in the library," William grinned. "We can check them out when we get class time to go down."
Yumi nodded and laughed as they got their things ready to move to the library.
William hummed to himself, listening to music through one ear bud before he heard two guys in his grade laughing. This wouldn't normally be cause for concern, but he recognized those laughs and who they belonged to. And those two laughing together never meant anything good.
He turned around and made his way to where the laughter was coming from, and he grimaced when he saw who his classmates were picking on.
Jeremie looked up at William, startled, and before William had consciously made a decision, he'd sped over to get between Jeremie and the bullies.
"Leave him alone," William glared, arm out to protect Jeremie.
"Or what, Dunbar?" One of them snickered and tried to reach past him to mess with Jeremie again and William slapped his hand away.
The other bully tried to punch William, and William dodged, returning the favor, but managing to land the hit.
The three didn't have long to trade blows before Jim dragged them apart and to the principal's office, Jeremie following behind as the other two told Jim that William had started it and they hadn't been doing anything.
They told the same story to the principal, and when Delmas looked at William with a raised brow, Jeremie cleared his throat.
"Principal Delmas, William saw these two trying to mess with me and was just standing between me and them. It wasn't until they reached out towards me that he pushed their hands away and they started the fight," Jeremie inched away from the other two as they protested, and Delmas silenced them with a wave of his hand.
"William, is this true? You were just defending Jeremie and yourself?"
William nodded and Delmas sighed. "In that case, you get a lunch detention tomorrow for fighting, but you two have them through the end of next week for starting the fight."
Delmas dismissed them and William walked Jeremie to his room quietly.
"Thank you, William," Jeremie sighed. "I appreciate you stepping in to help me."
"Of course," William smiled softly. "Those guys are jerks. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks to you," Jeremie nodded. "I'm sorry you got a lunch detention for it."
"Worth it, to wipe those smug looks off their faces," William snickered. "I gotta get to my room, but don't go getting into any more fights, okay?"
"I'll do my best," Jeremie laughed.
"Hey, Aelita!" William smiled as he ran into the pink haired girl in the record shop. "Wouldn't expect to see you in the heavy metal section."
Aelita grinned up at him and shrugged. "I feel like my mixes are getting a little… stale. I wanted to listen to something new to get some inspiration, some new ideas, you know? I'm looking for unique stuff."
"Okay, unique…" William flicked through the cds with a thoughtful scowl, pulling out a few as he carefully went through the stacks. "I would start with these 3 albums. Anything by these bands actually is good, but these are really good albums. These two are a little more genre typical, but still phenomenal all things considered."
Aelita took the discs with a grin. "I trust your judgment. Any others you think I'd like?"
"What's your budget?" William smirked.
She laughed and shrugged. "I think one more should be good."
William nodded to himself and pursed his lips before pulling out a final album. "This is one of my favorites. It's really fun and I think you'll really like it if you like the rest of this stuff."
"Awesome!" Aelita grinned. "I can't wait to listen, and if I have any questions, I know who I'm gonna come to with them."
"I'm always down for music questions," William smiled. "And let me know which of those bands you end up liking, some are still touring, and my mom loves to bring my friends when we go to concerts."
"I'll keep that in mind!" Aelita smiled. "Thank you!"
William smiled as she headed to the front and he continued perusing the albums. They did have some new stock, but he already had most of them. But there could always be a hidden gem.
William could see the others all huddled up in Odd and Ulrich's room, playing some kind of video game, and he hesitated in the doorway.
He's been talking with all of them more, and there was still hurt there, but he was ready to call them his friends again. He knocked gently on the doorframe and cleared his throat.
"Do, uh…do you guys mind if I join in?" William bit the inside of his cheek and Odd smiled, handing him a sixth controller.
"We hoped you might come by, we would love that." Odd grinned as he and Aelita made room for William to sit between them.
William smiled as he got comfortable and looked at what they were playing.
