Chapter Text
For as long as Will could remember, he had been a troublemaker. He didn’t mean to troublemaker, for the most part, it just happened. The rules from the houses that he lived in were bogus. Some of the times. Other times, he wanted to fuck things up. That’s all he had. He had no parents, no siblings, no last name. His last name was the name of his first foster parents. He had nothing. He grew up in the system, each year hoping that someone would come rescue him. Once he hit twelve, that’s when he realized that he wasn’t being rescued. The only person that was going to protect him was him. Will stopped trying to charm people over. What was the point? He stopped trying to abide by the rules and started doing his own things. If he was going to take care of himself then he needed to know the world. Also he honestly stopped caring. These adults weren’t looking out for him so why should Will follow their rules? The military sergeant who fostered him, demanded that Will cut his hair short? Will let his curls grow out and avoided the man every time he tried to get Will to have a hair cut.
Will didn’t care. He had two years left in the system and then he was out. He was free to do whatever he wanted. Even though, he didn’t know what he wanted to do. He just wanted to be free and unbothered.
Being unbothered by people was something that was hard to come by.
The lady, Ms. Grey, who ran the foster home, was nice, but overbearing. She wanted to know where Will was constantly. He got that she was trying to help him and she was suppose to be on top of these things but he wanted to be left alone. Sometimes people hid in trees to cope.
“Will?” Ms. Grey called out as Will tried his best to quietly slip into the house.
Will sighed to himself but headed to the kitchen. “Yes, Ms. Grey?” He plastered on a sunny smile. Please whomever was out there, let him get out of this quickly.
He stopped dead in the entrance of the kitchen. Sitting at the rickety old table was his social worker. Mr. David Balfour looked out of place in old and worn down kitchen of the Grey household in his sharp black and white suit. Mr. Balfour wasn’t the worst man in the world. He tried his hardest to get Will into a home that Will would like. It was a nice gesture but Will couldn’t get it through Mr. Balfour’s head that these people didn’t care about Will’s life. They either did it for the status that being foster parent gave them, like Ms. Grey and the attention her church gave her, or for the money. They was few foster parents that actually cared for the kids.
“Will, David has something to talk to you about.” Ms. Grey wrung her hands together and looked between the two of them.
Mr. Balfour sighed and stood up. “Join me in the living room, why don’t ya Will?”
“Sure.” Will crossed his arms and followed him into the living room. It wasn’t like Will had a choice. Mr. Balfour sat down in an arm chair, leaning his arms on his knees and stared Will down with tired ringed eyes. Will slouched down on the living room couch and crossed his arms, not breaking eye contact with Mr. Balfour. Will wasn’t going to let him win this.
“So, Will, how’s this place treating you?”
Will shrugged and stared at his shoe laces, well aware that Ms. Grey was listening in. He never got any privacy in this house unless he snuck out. “It’s fine I guess.”
Mr. Balfour sighed, rubbing his hands against his jaw. “You’re probably wondering why I’m here, aren’t you?” Will shrugged. He didn’t care. Balfour was probably just checking in on him. Like usual. “Will, are you happy here?”
No one has ever asked him this before. Will didn’t remember the last time he was happy, if he was ever happy. Will just shrugged again, trying to avoid the pain of the tears. Rule number 1: never let anyone know your feelings. The stronger ones would prey on that weakness. Will hasn’t survived this long being an idiot.
Part of Will relished in Balfour’s discomfort. He was glad he was making things difficult. At least he’d be remembered. Well mannered kids got pushed to the side and ignored for the delinquents.
“Will, I have a home that I think you would thrive in but if you are happy here, then I’m fine with letting you stay here.” Will watched Balfour’s hands move.
This was nothing new. He was constantly moved from home to home. From social worker to social worker. He’s watched as each social worker start out optimistic and just slowly loose hope in his case. He’s heard a version of this phrase a hundred of times. He just didn’t understand why Balfour tried so hard. Balfour told him, at one point in time, it was because Will reminded him one of his sons. Will was pretty sure that his name is Gilan or something?
So what if Will reminded Baflour of his son? It wasn’t like Will was his son. Why couldn’t Balfour just leave him alone and let him grow out of the system?
“His name is Halt, he’s a good friend of mine. He’s expressed interest of fostering someone for a bit. I think you two would be a good fit. You don’t have to give me an answer right away. Just think about it okay?”
“Okay,” Will mumbled.
Balfour gave him a tired smile. “You still have my number?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. I’ll let you be. It was good seeing you Will.” Balfour moved to pat Will on the shoulder but remembered the Will hated being touched. He sighed and put his hands in his pocket. “I hope to hear from you soon.”
Will nodded and stared at the spot where Balfour used to be. He heard Balfour leave with a silent click.
“So, Will, what did Mr. Balfour want?” Ms. Grey appeared at the doorway. He knew that this was just a farce. He knew that she was eavesdropping. He took a quick glance to her. She looked concerned but again it was a farce. She didn’t want to loose her good Christian status.
“Nothing.” Will stood up and left the living room. His stomach turned. He had a choice. This was the first time. Will sat on his sad little bed and looked around the small room. He shared the room with another foster kid so even in his room, he had no privacy.
Silently, Will got up and closed the door to his room and then gently shimmed up the window pane by the bed and slipped out. He climbed the branch of the old oak tree that ran under the window and started climbing.
This tree was the one place that he could have some part of privacy. The leaves concealed his small body so one could see him and no-one in this house could climb as good as him and get this far up.
Will settled into a small nook towards the top of the tree and sighed. The cold breeze ran through his sweater, chilling him down. Will watched the small seemingly cozy street around him. He didn’t hate this place, per say, he just didn’t fit in. Ms. Grey took him in and was relatively nice. He didn’t need to leave.
But did he want to stay?
At least this place was safe. He didn’t know what this ‘Halt’ man was like.
Will sighed and reached out to the small nook that was carefully hidden. He removed the small wrapped up cloth from the nook. He placed the cloth in his lap and carefully unwrapped the cloth. In the cloth was his most prized possession. His mishmash of drugs. Will was poor, he didn’t have the luxury of having one specific drug. He’d use whatever he could put his hands on. Will popped a few Xanax, wrapped the cloth back up and put it back, and then settled into his spot.
He didn’t have to decide what to do now. That could wait. Right now he just wanted to chill.
***
Will woke to the sound of sirens. He scrambled to get a hold on the branch that he fell off. “Shit, shit, shit shit, shit, shit!” Will hissed as he held on for dear life. With great difficulty, Will pulled himself onto the branch. He swallowed heavily, trying to get some saliva into his dry mouth.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead, trying to ignore the ache in his arms and the nervously fast heart beat. Will took in a wheezing breath, rubbed his chest. Was it concerning that he had a hard time breathing? Like there was something on his chest, preventing him from breathing.
Whatever.
Will squinted through the leaves to the dark scene in front of him. How long had he been asleep for? It was night time. The blinding blue and red lights gave Will a headache.
From the inside of the house, he could hear yelling. He heard Ms. Grey yelling and then a second later, another voice. It was John, her estranged husband. Great. He wasn’t surprised that John showed up. What Will was surprised about was that Ms. Grey was allowed to have foster kids with her current relationship with her husband. He was also surprised to see the sirens. Their relationship was bad but Will didn’t know it was this bad.
He slid down the tree, albeit a little slow because his eyes were totally not focusing properly, and slipped down to his window.
Johann, the kid that Will shared the bedroom with, peeked out of from under his bed. “Ms. Grey and Mr. Grey are fighting,” Johann mumbled.
“Yeah I can tell.” Will’s tone was so dry that he almost felt bad because the kid was scared. While the only way that Will has survived the system was too look out for himself, Johann was just a kid. He was new to the system. He still had potential to get out. Will sighed, a headache started to form. “I’ll go talk to them.”
“Police are here too.”
“Yeah, I’ll deal with that too. Stay here.”
“I’m fine with that.” Johann scuttled further under the bed. Will sighed and handed Johann his teddy bear before heading downstairs. Cops or his asshole parents?
He should probably deal with his parents first. If he got them to shut the fuck up, then maybe the cops will go away. Will shoved his trembling hands into the pocket of his faded grey hoodie and headed to the kitchen. He sighed when he saw Ms. Grey and John just inches from each other.
“You know, maybe if you didn’t take on these fucking charity cases, we wouldn’t be in this fucking position! Jesus Christ, May. They’re all lost cases! Especially that curly haired one. You’re blind to see that he isn’t high out of his mind half of the time!” John yelled.
“Don’t you dare say that John. Will is a good boy. Better than you, that’s for sure!” Ms. Grey yelled back. “At least he doesn’t fucking come bursting into my home in the middle of the night, drunk off his ass, and ruining my hard earned reputation!”
“That’s all you care about. Reputation, reputation.” John sneered.
Well, Will agreed with him but he was being the asshole currently and at lest Ms. Grey turned a blind eye to some of Will’s unsavoury habits as long as he put on a smile and hid it well.
He should probably get them to stop sometime soon. He cleared his throat, his hands trembling even more in his hoodie pocket. Both Ms. Grey and John spun around. “Will! What are you doing up sweetie? You missed dinner, you hungry?”
Will was hungry but that’s not the point. Will struggled slightly to put on a disinterested face. He was so tired. “I don’t know if you two know but the cops are here and unless you wanna deal with some shit I suggest you go and deal with it before they break down the door.” As if on cue, there was a bang on the door. Will looked over to door and then back to the adults with raised eyebrows. Honestly, he didn’t understand how they were adults.
Ms. Grey sighed, smoothed her skirt and headed to the door. Will took a step to the side to let her pass and then gave John a scathing look, which John gave back. But it looked less scathing and more disappointed in Will.
Fuck him, he wasn’t Will’s dad. He didn’t get a say in Will’s life.
Will turned around and headed back upstairs. He paused as he listened to Ms. Grey and then John speak to the cops to make sure that he’d be able to use the phone in her room. He didn’t want someone to interrupt him.
Will sat on the cold, perfectly made bed and picked up the phone. He typed in Beflour’s number. He was sick of this place. Hopefully this ‘Halt’ person wouldn’t cause this much drama in Will’s life.
“Hello?” Balfour’s voice was groggy. Will must have woken him up.
“Balfour, it's Will.”
“Will, what can I do for you?” Balfour shifted around on the other end of the line.
Will sighed and heard raised voices downstairs. This was the worst. “I want out.”
“Okay, I’ll call Halt in the morning and start the process.” Balfour sounded more awake.
“On one condition.” Will had to stop him before they got out if hand. Balfour made a sound for Will to continue. “The other boy here with me, Johann Valdez. I want him to get a better home. He doesn’t deserve to be here alone.”
Balfour sighed. “I’m not sure what I can do Will but I’ll try. I’ll speak with his social worker.”
Will guess that this was the best scenario that he could get. “Fine. I guess.”
“Goodnight Will.”
“Night.” Will hung up and put the phone back. He quietly made his way to the door, waiting for conformation that neither John or Ms. Grey was coming up. The house was silent. Will sighed and gently turned the doorknob and silently lifted the door as he slid out, trying to blend into the shadows.
He couldn’t be caught. He was never caught. He was like a ghost and he wanted to remain that way.
Will closed the door to his bedroom and sat down on his bed. There was slight shuffling under the bed and Johann’s small face appeared. Against his will, Will smiled sadly at the kid. “They’ve stopped. Go back to bed.”
Johann nodded and climbed out from under his head and curled up in a ball under his blankets. “Will?”
“Mhmn?”
“Are you really leaving?”
Will froze in his tracks. His sluggish and tired brain filtering what Johann had just asked him. Will shrugged and flopped down on to his bed. “Yeah I am.” There was a small and disappointed noise that came from where Johann was laying. “But don’t worry. I’m not leaving until I know that you’re going to be in a safe place.”
“I’m going to miss you Will.”
Will didn’t feel like he was going to miss Johann that much. “Yeah, I’ll miss you to.”
Will stared up at the dark celling and sighed tiredly. Johann was silent, so silent that Will thought that the kid was asleep. “Maybe one day, when we’re older and out of the system, we could be friends.”
Well fuck, that made Will tear up. Will sniffled. “Yeah, maybe.” They were silent again.
“Will?”
“Yes Johann?”
“Can I sleep in your bed? I’m scared.”
Will held back an annoyed sigh. Their beds were twins and while Will was pretty skinny and so was Johann, there still wasn’t much room. Johann constantly asked to sleep in his bed because he was scared. But Will was going to be gone in a couple of days. “Sure.”
He heard Johann get out of bed and he felt Johann in his bed, curling up to Will’s side. “Night Will.”
“Night Johann.”