A/N: Lots of crying in this chapter... I also changed the title, I think this works better.

Thank you everyone who reviewed and/or read the first chapter, I’m happy to know people like the story! I’ve already written some of chapter three, and reviews just might make me want to finish it faster... ;)

Chapter 2: Boys Don’t Cry

Daniel threw his bag into a random corner of his room and slumped onto his bed with a heavy sigh. He hated the first days of a new term, they were always so damn hectic... Especially this one, simply because he’d put even more effort in avoiding William than usual, and since the red-haired boy was especially good at finding him, it had been stressful. On top of that, he’d found the money he’d given William in his bag, which made him worry: He knew William barely had money to pay the rent of his small apartment, and none for lunch, let alone books they needed in classes. Right at the beginning of their relationship, Daniel had convinced William to let him help a little and give him some money for lunch every day, but now it seemed he wouldn’t accept it anymore. Daniel sighed, wiping a hand across his forehead. Maybe he had offended William somehow?

He groaned and jumped up from the bed, deciding he was getting hungry. He had visited the local supermarket and bought some noodles after school – his mother was at work and his father busied himself with all kinds of things around their yard all day, which meant no one would be there to cook for him. So, he had to do it himself, and noodles were the only thing he wouldn’t burn or otherwise destroy.

He walked downstairs lazily and went to the kitchen, turning the stove on on his way to the window. As expected, his father was there, tinkering with something or other, mumbling to himself as he did so. He watched his father curse and raise his hand that he’d hit on some part, and then went to get a kettle from a cabinet. He filled it halfway with water and put it on the stove, stopping to look outside again.

He wasn’t stupid. He knew his parents were having problems, and that was why his father was always out, when he wasn’t drinking, doing all kinds of pointless little things to distract himself while his mother drowned herself in work. He’d talked to his mother about it once, asked if there was anything he could do, or if their arguments were because of him, but his mother simply smiled and told him not to think about it too much – those were adults’ problems and he shouldn’t worry about them. It made him feel useless, even more when he had understood just why his parents had let him stay at William’s for a whole week during the vacation: they were both too tired to object, and at least they’d be able to argue in peace when he wasn’t around.

“Damn,” he mumbled when he noticed the water was just about to boil over the kettle and he moved it a little, reaching up to take two packets of noodles from the cupboard above. He put the noodles in the kettle, but as he was trying to find the curry that had miraculously disappeared somewhere, he heard his phone ring in his room and hurried up the stairs to his room to answer it. “Yeah?”

“Um, hi... Dan.”

“Oh, hi Norah,” he greeted his friend and sat down on the bed. “What’s up? Forgot to mark the homework or something?”

“Um, no, but... uh, well, it’s nothing—”

Daniel lifted his eyebrows when a series of objections flew at Norah’s answer at the other side of the phone and he asked, “Okay, who else is there?”

“Well, uh... the others.”

Daniel supposed he was right when he automatically connected the word ‘others’ with Sean, Monica and Matthew. “So... All of you are there, calling me,” he stated the obvious, frowning slightly, and then asked, “Why?” Suddenly all four of his friends fell silent and he repeated the question a little more hesitantly. He doubted it was about homework...

“Um, well,” started Norah, “It’s nothing important, really...”

“Bullshit,” commented Monica. “We know about you and Will.”

“Monica!”

“What? That was the reason we called Dan, right? So, the faster we approach the actual subject, the faster we’ll be done with this.”

“What...?” Daniel asked, more from himself than his friends at the other end of the phone. What on earth were those four talking about, saying they knew about him and— Daniel paled as he realized just what it was his friends had called him about and he let himself fall backwards on the bed.

No way in hell. How could they know, he’d tried so hard to hide it! He’d never even talked to William in school unless it was inevitable... They couldn’t have found out just like that!

And suddenly Daniel’s mood had changed from ‘so-so’ to ‘I hate the world’. Damn it all.

“Yeah,” confirmed Matthew, “We know that you and Will are... well, uh... dating?”

“Yeah. And we just wanted you to know it’s okay with us—”

“Is not,” Sean interrupted.

“Shh, nobody asked you!”

“You said okay with ‘us’ and I think I’m a part of—”

“Oh come on,” Monica and Norah groaned in unison. “You can’t be serious!”

“Well why the hell not? Just ask Matt what he thinks, he agrees with me, don’t you Matt?”

“Umm, well...”

“Hey, Dan?” called Norah, but received no answer. She tried again, “Dan, are you there?”

No, he wasn’t. Daniel had left the phone on his bed at the very beginning of the debate and gone back downstairs, where he had noticed the kettle had boiled over and messed up the whole stove. While turning the stove off, he’d managed to royally burn his hand in the hot water and now he was sitting on the floor, cradling said burnt hand as he tried to keep his tears at bay and not to shout curses all over the place.

Everything was going to hell. His parents were fighting, probably about to divorce, William was mad at him for some unknown reason and with his luck wanted to break up with him to find someone else, and now his friends had found out about him and William. And damn! His hand was aching!

“Fuck this all!” he declared, wiping his eyes with his good hand. “Just fucking...” Sniffle. “Fuck...”

William had just gotten out of the shower when his phone began to ring. Lifting his eyebrows, he wondered who would call him at this time of the day. Well, any time actually, the only person who bothered to do that was Daniel who now seemed to be angry at him, so he doubted it would be him. Sometimes he even wondered why he had a phone...

His thoughts were proved wrong as he looked at the name of his boyfriend flashing on the screen along with a small red heart Daniel had added to the end of his name, just for his own amusement. “Why are you calling me?” he asked the phone before answering, tugging his towel up when it started to fall off his hips. Daniel’s hysteric voice, however, made him forget about the towel and sit down on his small couch.

“Hey, calm down now, what do you mean everything?” he asked as he stood up again out of restlessness and wandered to his bedroom to find some clothes. “Dan, you gotta calm down if you want me to understand what’s wrong!” he told the younger boy, supporting the phone to his ear with his shoulder while pulling his pants on. “Okay, okay... Hey, just take a deep breath and calm down,” he instructed softly, sticking his hand into a drawer to try his luck in finding a pair of clean socks, “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes, ok? Ok? Good.”

William flipped his phone shut and hurried to the door, grabbing his keys before opening and closing the door, descending two sets of stairs while tucking his shirt into his pants, and finally made it to his car that was parked outside the block of flats he lived in.

In ten minutes, breaking the law, but just a little, he was at Daniel’s house. He parked the car and got out, cursing his luck when he noticed Daniel’s father outside. He hadn’t been lying when he’d said Daniel’s father hated him – it was more than true.

“And what are you doing here?” Richard asked as William tried to walk past him unnoticed.

“Well uh... Daniel... called me, and...” William hit himself mentally. Stop stammering and answer the question. “He sounded kind of upset so I thought...” Richard merely nodded, so he immediately took it as a permission to enter the house without more interrogation.

He pulled the front door open and walked ahead, knowing well that the door would close by itself after some time. “Dan?” he called and peeked into the kitchen, his eyes widening slightly when he saw the mess there. “What the hell went through here?” he asked as he knelt next to Daniel who was sitting on the floor, his knees drawn up to his chest. Was he crying? “Dan? Hey, baby what’s wrong?” he asked, reaching to touch Daniel’s shoulder. He could only blink in confusion when Daniel suddenly burst into tears – his ability to talk had gone with that.

In a short moment, William got a hold of himself and sat on the floor next to Daniel and pulled him into his arms, trying his best to offer silent comfort now that his vocal cords had decided to stop cooperating. And Daniel cried. William had never felt so helpless, he wasn’t sure what to do, whether to try and ask what was wrong, or stay silent in case Daniel just needed him to be there.

Eventually Daniel calmed down enough to pull away from William to wipe his eyes and mumble an apology in shame. “Don’t apologize,” William said softly, watching Daniel try to pull himself together. “Do you... want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Everything,” Daniel whispered, leaning his forehead against William’s shoulder.

William frowned. That was what Daniel had told him on the phone, too, and even though his boyfriend had a habit of exaggerating, he knew he certainly shouldn’t go and accuse Daniel of making things a bigger deal than they actually were. “Do you think you could elaborate a little? ‘Everything’ is a bit wide concept...”

“Okay then,” Daniel agreed, sniffled and sat up, looking straight into William’s eyes. “Are you angry at me?”

William lifted his eyebrows at the sudden change of subject and shook his head. “No... No, about what, why would I be?”

Daniel shrugged, sighing. “I dunno...”

“Dan, you’ve gotta tell me—” William began, but stopped awkwardly as he noticed the hand Daniel was holding. He took a hold of the wrist and Daniel grimaced. “Holy shit,” he whispered. “This looks bad.”

“Yeah,” chuckled Daniel. “Hurts like a bitch too.”

William nodded and stood up, pulling Daniel up to his feet by the wrist he was still holding. “I’ll drive you to the health centre.”

“Wh, what? No, you don’t have to...”

“I do, that looks fucking horrible.”

“Well thanks, but it’s fine, really...” Daniel tried, but William didn’t listen to him as he dragged him outside while digging his keys from his pocket.

Richard raised his eyes from the rusted car he’d been fixing when he heard the front door open with a bang. “What’s going on?” he asked, approaching Daniel and William who were walking to William’s car.

“Dan burned his hand, I’m gonna take him to the health centre,” William explained, but Richard stopped him by walking to Daniel and taking his hand to closer examination.

“Daniel what happened?” Richard asked as he inspected the hand.

“I, um, I was cooking and the water boiled over...”

“You’re so clumsy,” Richard sighed, “just like your father. Don’t bother William, I’ll drive him.”

Hmph. He should have known... Richard couldn’t even trust him to take his son to a health centre safely. What had he ever done to that guy? William watched as Daniel’s father hurried inside to fetch his keys and then lifted his eyebrows as a realization hit him. “Hey... He actually called me by my name.” Daniel shushed him with an elbow to the ribs before his father came back and ushered him to the car. “Hey, don’t worry, I’ll clean up the kitchen!” William called after them, receiving a laugh from Daniel while his father shook his head. He watched as the car drove away until it was out of sight, and then went back inside.

Once in the kitchen, he cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head. So... he’d promised to clean up the kitchen hadn’t he? “Smart, Will,” he mumbled to himself as his eyes took in the mess. “Really smart... But it’s okay ‘cause you’re helping Dan so shut up, find a rag and get to work.” He promptly took his advice to himself and grabbed the rag that was hanging above the sink before kneeling down to scrub the floor clean.

Oh, if his friends could see him now...

William’s mind quickly wandered to Daniel and his hysteric voice when he’d called him... Why had he sounded so upset? Surely not because of his burnt hand, or rather, not only because of his burnt hand – if it had been because of that, Daniel wouldn’t have called him in the first place, but gone to his father who had been working outside. So why had Daniel called him? William frowned as he stopped to think about it, but instead of finding answers, he only found more questions.

Daniel had asked him if he was angry at him, but why? If it was about something he’d said in school, it could have been solved on the phone, just like the majority of the arguments they’d had in the past. Daniel had sounded so hysteric, saying everything was going to hell... Why would he say something like that, Daniel the optimist? He’d have to ask that when Daniel came back...

Yeah. They’d have a long talk, something they rarely did. Maybe it had been too long since they’d actually talked about anything serious, sure, they talked about pretty much everything else, casual everyday things, but it was seldom when they had a serious talk. That needed to be changed – how would William know if there was something wrong with Daniel if they never talked about it? And why did he need a hysteric Daniel to understand that obvious fact?

Some boyfriend he was.

As he proceeded to scrub the front of the oven and the dishwasher, he heard a car drive to the yard and he stood up to see if Daniel and his father came back already, but the car wasn’t the same. He let out a quiet, maybe a little disappointed ‘oh’ when he realized it was Daniel’s mother, coming home from work, and so he continued his task.

Elaine entered the house, carrying a bag of groceries in each hand. She was about to shout and ask if Daniel had eaten yet, but stopped when she came to the kitchen and saw not her son but his boyfriend – cleaning up their kitchen? “William?” she asked while lifting the grocery bags to the kitchen counter.

“Hi,” greeted William, throwing a smile over his shoulder before turning back to the stove. “Daniel was cooking and the stuff boiled over,” he explained, “He burned his hand and your husband went to take him to the health centre.”

“H-health centre?” Elaine asked with a gasp. “He... burned his hand?”

“Yeah, it looked kind of bad but otherwise he’s ok,” William told her and the motioned towards the stove. “I wanted to help somehow and since Richard didn’t want me to drive Daniel to the health centre, I promised to clean up the mess.”

“Oh but you shouldn’t, let me finish that,” said Elaine, reaching for the rag that William then held away from her.

“It’s okay, I’m almost done anyway,” William said with another smile and turned back to the stove. He heard Elaine sigh quietly as she started to put the groceries to their places in silence. After cleaning up the rest of the mess Daniel had made, William washed the rag and put it back to where he’d taken it from. “They left some time ago, so they should be back soon,” he said, “I should probably go now.”

Elaine watched William walk to the door, frowning slightly, and then called, “William...” The boy stopped in the doorway and turned to look at her. “Would you like to stay for dinner?” she asked. Before William could open his mouth to object, she added, “For cleaning up the stove. I insist.”

William chuckled and then gave a slight shrug. “I suppose I have no choice. But I insist you let me help to make the food.”

“Oh all right then,” Elaine laughed, “you can start by finding me another kettle.”

“Roger that.”

Daniel was really surprised to see William and his mother chatting away in their kitchen when they came back from the health centre, where his hand had been treated and bandaged, though it still stung. His father was even more surprised, and not very happy about seeing William there, but to his own credit didn’t make a comment but went back outside, leaving Daniel to tell about his hand to his mother.

After the tale of how he actually had managed to injure his hand and what they had said about it in the health centre, Daniel blinked at the clean stove and the slight smile on William’s lips. “What are you doing?” he asked stupidly, staring at the knife in William’s hand and the carrots in front of him on the counter.

“It’s called cooking,” William explained, pronouncing the last word like teaching it to a stupid foreigner, which made Elaine laugh and shake her head. He then motioned towards Daniel’s bandaged hand, grinning, “But of course you know everything about that.”

“Shut up,” Daniel mumbled, “Did you really clean up the mess I made?”

William managed to give a slight shrug and tell him he did it because he’d promised before Elaine joined the conversation by saying, “Oh, William’s such a gentleman!”

“...Is he, now?” Daniel asked, lifting an eyebrow in amusement.

“Yes, yes, I wanted to thank him and ask him to stay for dinner, but he insisted I’d let him help! But now...” she took the knife from William’s hand and ushered him out of the kitchen with Daniel. “I’ll call you downstairs when it’s ready, you boys wait in Daniel’s room.”

Once they were in Daniel’s room as ordered, Daniel turned to William with a wide grin. “You have no idea what I saw when I came back home!” he said teasingly, pulling William’s hands away from his ears when he covered them, saying he wasn’t listening to him. “I saw my anti-social boyfriend, talking and making food with my mother! Can you believe that?”

“Well there must be something wrong with your eyes then,” commented William. “Have you thought about seeing a doctor about it?”

Daniel rolled his eyes, watching in mild interest as William took his phone from the bed and started to play with it. “No but seriously, it’s great you and my mom get along.”

William agreed with an absent-minded ‘hmm’ and then said, “You’ve got seven new messages here.”

“What? Hey, don’t read my messages!” Daniel exclaimed, trying to grab his phone from William who held it away from his reach. “Will!”

“Whoa whoa!” William pushed Daniel away with one hand and held the phone with the other. “This is about me, so I’ve got the right to read this!”

“Not before me you don’t!” Daniel exclaimed and managed to snatch the phone away from William. He sat on the chair in front of his writing desk while William moved so that he would be able to read the message over his shoulder.

“’It would be okay if it wasn’t Will’?” William asked and took the phone again, without protests from Daniel this time, scrolled the message to the beginning and read, “’Why don’t you answer the phone? We just wanted to tell you we don’t mind, we just don’t get why you didn’t tell us. Call me and’ okay this wasn’t the one.” He mumbled and chose another message to read. “Oh, here it is. ‘It would be okay if it wasn’t Will, seriously what do you see in that guy? He’s such an idiot, always putting people down. You deserve better.’ Gee, thanks.”

“They don’t know what they’re walking about,” Daniel mumbled.

“No, no, they’re right,” William said, “you do deserve better, why do you even bother with me!”

“Shut up Will,” Daniel sighed. “We’ve been dating for over a year, you think I’d suddenly dump you because my friends think you treat me like shit?”

“Well I don’t know, you tell me!” William snapped and tossed the phone to Daniel before sitting down on his boyfriend’s bed. They fell silent for a long time, until William mumbled a quiet apology.

Daniel shook his head and sighed. “It’s ok. I shouldn’t care about what they think anyway...”

“Is that why you were so upset?” William asked as he lay down on Daniel’s bed like it was his own. “You gave me a goddamn scare, I’ve never heard you so hysteric. I was sure there was some kind of mass murderer in you house, trying to kill you.”

“I... overreacted a little,” Daniel answered sheepishly. “Sorry I bothered you like that.”

“You didn’t ‘bother’ me,” William told him, reaching out to tug Daniel’s sleeve. “C’mon here...” He smiled when Daniel complied and lay down next to him and once he’d settled there comfortably, he continued, “I was thinking... that maybe we should talk.”

“About what?”

William shrugged. “Nothing. Everything, anything.”

Daniel laughed. “That makes a lot of sense,” he said and turned onto his stomach to be able to look at William in the eyes. He tilted his head a little. “So, did you have something in mind?”

“Not really,” William admitted. “Just a thought, since you sounded so upset and I thought maybe you’d like to talk about it.”

“Aw, you’re sweet.”

“Yeah but don’t tell anyone. Might lose my reputation.”

“Boys!” came Elaine’s voice from downstairs. “Dinner’s ready!”

Daniel smiled and stood up from the bed, tugging William up with him. “Okay then, time to make a good impression on my dad.”

William froze in horror at the door when he realized that he would have to sit at the same table with Daniel’s parents – well there was nothing wrong with Elaine, though she had been suspicious of him in the beginning, too... But Richard didn’t even want to see him in his house, let alone dining table! “Um, maybe that’s not such a good idea...” he said nervously, glancing over his shoulder back to Daniel’s room. “I can still escape from the window, you know...”

“From the second floor?” Daniel asked in amusement. “Oh come on, it’ll be fine.”

“No... Nonono...” William whined, as quietly as possible so that Daniel’s parents wouldn’t hear.

Daniel shushed him and they went downstairs, and ushered by Elaine, sat down at the table. Daniel’s father was already there and it made William nervous. Nothing good could come out of this one... He just hoped he could speak politely or even keep his mouth shut for once – these were Daniel’s parents and it was important that he wouldn’t make them hate him any more than they already did.

“Rice, William?” Elaine asked, extending her arm to give the bowl to William who managed a slight smile and a thank you in return.

As the dinner went on – with some problems on Daniel's part – William could only be grateful to Elaine who was constantly keeping up some kind of conversation: he dreaded the uncomfortable silences that usually occurred at some point. At the moment, Elaine was asking if he was still working at the gas station... what? Oh! He was supposed to answer that question! “Um yeah, yeah I am,” he answered and then shrugged, “Not like I’d make millions by working there but it’s something, pays the rent and keeps me clothed.”

“Right, you live alone, don’t you?” Elaine asked with a kind smile that put William more at ease. But just a little.

“Y, yeah. A small apartment in the central.”

“What about your parents? Where do they live?” Elaine then asked with a frown. Daniel had never told her about William’s parents, where they lived or what they did for living...

“Mom,” Daniel said, raising his voice, and then looked up from his plate to his mother. “Could I have some bread please?”

Elaine’s frown deepened as she started to reach for the bread basket, but then she noticed a distressed look on William’s features and stopped. “Oh darling, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s alright,” William assured her, smiling slightly. “My father disappeared when I was five and the last time I saw my mother...” he paused to think. “I, uh, I think I was fifteen, it was around the time before I moved into my own apartment, away from my foster family.”

“I’m sorry,” Elaine repeated softly and William shook his head to again tell her it was alright. She thought for a while and then asked, “Do you have siblings?”

“Mom!”

“Hey it’s okay, not like I couldn’t talk about it,” William smiled sadly to Daniel who wasn’t looking very happy. “A big sister,” he then answered Elaine’s question, giving a slight shrug. “Haven’t seen her in a long time either, heard she got married a few years back and I guess I’m an uncle now too, can’t be sure though.”

“And what did you do to make them all hate you so much?” asked Richard, opening his mouth for the first time during the dinner.

“Dad!” Daniel exclaimed in disbelief. “You can’t ask something like that!”

“I’m gay,” William explained, trying to sound as calm and indifferent as possible. “I suppose that’s enough to make a mother hate her own son and sister her brother.”

The silence after that was long and uncomfortable, just as William had feared. He mentally chastised himself for speaking like that, he seriously hadn’t wanted to sound so rude... After a while, he couldn’t bear the silence anymore and broke it with an apology, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like that,” he sighed. “I... guess it’s still a bit sore spot for me.”

Elaine shook her head. “Don’t apologize, it’s understandable.”

“No, I was rude, sorry,” William apologized again and managed a slight smile before standing up. “Thank you, the food was delicious, but I should go now.”

After brief byes and a see you in school from Daniel, William walked to his car and sighed. What a disaster. He should have just kept his mouth shut, like he had planned in the beginning, but as everyone knew, he wasn’t able to do that. He always had to get something said in most inappropriate situations, and that was what always got him into trouble.

He got in his car and drove a short way to the first bus stop where he stopped, letting out a shaky sigh. His hands were shaking on the steering wheel, his eyes were filling with tears. “Pull yourself together, dammit!” he told himself, but he couldn’t stop shaking. Now he was only trying not to start crying. He wouldn’t cry, for God’s sake!

Thinking about his own family – both real and foster, about how they couldn’t care less if he just rolled over and died – and then Daniel’s parents who loved their son so much, he failed at his attempt and started to cry silently.

tbc...