#wiltman

[ranger-raziel]

Will: I’m single

Horace: I can change that! :)

[halt-is-salt-blog]

Horace: *brings home a bag of candy* hey Will do you want some of this candy I found on the side of the road?

Will: wait but what if someone left it there and planned on coming back for later? what if they just thought "well, I don't see why someone would take some random candy on the side of the road"

Horace: Well, I don't see why someone would leave some random candy on the side of the road.

[halt-is-salt-blog]

I’d pay good money to see Will and Horace in a snowball fight

[halt-is-salt-blog]

Will: You want some? *hands can of soda*

Horace: ...This is empty! *throws can across room*

Horace: YEET

[surrealsi]

How about a nice wiltman fluff chapter?

Thanks so much. Probably not the “fluff” you meant but it’s still really cute. It’s not terribly long but I hope it’s good anyway, and it’s going up on my collection of stories, Carefree (ff.net, AO3) with the title I Knew I Could Trust You. :)

————————————-

What were they so afraid of, anyway?

They knew for a fact that all their friends would be more than accepting of them. Maybe they already knew.

What they were afraid of was how the people outside of their friend circle would treat them. For example, being on the football team, Horace was supposed to be a “manly man”, which meant chasing after cheerleaders and volleyball girls, and being the toughest, most heterosexual man he could, not crushing on his own best friend who also happened to be a boy. There was no way his teammates were going to be okay with it.

But it didn’t discourage Horace one bit from falling in love with Will.

And, through some miracle, Will felt the same way. After accidentally putting himself into an awkward situation, Will was forced to confess he liked his best friend of five years, without a clue that Horace had been thinking the same thing since the beginning of their freshman year.

It had been a month after they started dating, so their relationship was only getting started. They hadn’t yet said “I love you”; hell, they hadn’t even come out. Not even to Jenny, George and Alyss, otherwise known as The Squad. It was the way the other people in the school would treat them that frightened them. So they kept putting it off.

Will and Horace agreed, one night up texting at one in the morning (like usual) that they would come out to their close friends first before the entire school. That included The Squad, an older friend of Will’s, Halt, who was in college, and Will’s other friend Gilan, in his junior year of highschool. Those people, they knew they could trust and rely on to keep their secret until Will and Horace got the courage to tell the school. Aka, when the sun burned out, probably.

But ever since they agreed on that, they’d never set a date to actually tell them.

Which could be awkward at times.

The cafeteria was loud, so The Squad usually are in Will and Horace’s fourth period class, which was English. The teacher didn’t mind. He was off eating lunch somewhere else; they were good enough students that he could trust them.

“He forgot to remind us about the test tomorrow,” Will said, referring to the teacher. He sat on the very edge of his desk, half sitting, half leaning; checking his phone for messages. Horace was in the desk next to him, getting out his lunch and phone.

“Oh…” Horace mumbled. “I knew that.”

“Well it’s his fault, anyway. Aren’t teachers supposed to remind you of that stuff?” Will glanced up quickly from the screen.

“In high school we’re supposed to keep agendas. Or something,” Horace added. “But I think they should.”

“Hm. High school is still weird.” Will turned back to scrolling through various social medias, and let silence take over for a minute or two. Most of the other squad was still on the other side of the school, so it could take them a few minutes to get to the classroom. Will and Horace waited until then to eat their lunches. By now most people had cleared out of the room, and there were only about five other people still in there besides them.

So it was empty enough for Horace to bring it up.

“You know, I was thinking us and The Squad could go out this weekend,” Horace said. “Or… go to somebody’s house. Just to hang out. Maybe then, we could…” He paused, but Will knew what he was going to say. Horace finished anyway: “Tell them about us. If you’re okay with that.”

Will smiled just a little, without knowing really why. Maybe he was relieved Horace felt he was ready enough to do it that he could bring it up out of nowhere like that. Even though none of their friends were the least bit homophobic, neither Will nor Horace had even come out as gay to them before, let alone as a couple. They’d be doing both at the same time, and that was twice as difficult. Horace seemed to be ready now, or maybe he just wanted to get it over with before he never told them.

“I think we should,” Will said. “Let’s go out to lunch at Jenny’s restaurant or something and tell them. At a movie it’s kinda hard to talk to people.”

“Mm, true,” agreed Horace. “Let’s do that, then. If they can make it.”

“Alright.”

Jenny’s parents owned a restaurant, and she frequently worked (more for fun than for money) there and helped with cooking, taking people’s orders, or managing it. So they went there often, because Jenny was a talented cook, and also because she gave them a discount if they asked nicely. Usually there were a good number of people in there, but it wasn’t too crowded that they couldn’t talk about something privately.

Just the thought of coming out to them, and the fact that now they had set a date (a vague date, at least) to do it was now making Horace start to regret saying anything. But in his heart he knew that was just because of his own paranoia, and not because it was a bad idea.

If nothing else, he could trust Will. If Will said it was going to be okay, then Horace was willing to go into anything unsure. Because if Will was so sure, then it would be okay, and Will would be there to catch him if it wasn’t.

Interrupting his thoughts, the door to the classroom opened, and the two boys looked up. Jenny and George walked in, headed straight for the spot of the desks near the front corner, where they usually stationed themselves.

“Hey hey!” Jenny greeted cheerily. “What’s happenin’?” Her trying to be “cool” by saying “what’s happenin’” was completely ironic, of course.

She swung her backpack back off her shoulder, but it swung so fast she had to grab the strap to keep it from flying away from her. The sudden stop still gave the backpack power, though, and it smashed into the leg of the nearest desk.

For a moment it looked like the desk was going to fall. Horace gasped; it came out almost a yell, like he was frightened so the desk didn’t have to be.

“Jenny!” Will said. “Don’t break the desk!”

“Sorry!” she exclaimed. It was hardly apologetic.

Alyss came in a minute later, and they started eating.

Luckily for them, they had the classroom almost all to themselves. Only three other people were in there, too, and they were doing work quietly in the back. The teacher usually went out to eat with the other teachers, so it was almost as if they’d privately rented their own room for lunch.

They treated it like the pivot in their day. All of them never had any classes where all of them were together, only two, or, if they were lucky, three of them. Lunch was the point on which they rotated; a checkpoint to keep them all knitted tightly together, outside of the things they did after school together.

Not too long into the period, Horace brought up the idea of the five of them going out to eat on the weekend.

They were totally on board, except…

Jenny said, “That sounds fun, but actually…” she looked from George, on one side of her, to Alyss, on her other side, with a not so much sneaky but rather excited smile, “somebody… may or may be asking Horace out to a movie this weekend.”

Alyss’s eyebrows raised. “Ooh,” she grinned, and put down the salad she’d bought from the cafeteria. “Who is it?”

“Can’t tell. I may love gossip, but I don’t start it. She’s my friend and I said I wouldn’t tell.”

“We’re your friends too.”

“If you were my friends you wouldn’t pressure me into it, would you?” Jenny asked.

Alyss rolled her eyes. “You know I’m just kidding.” She pushed Jenny, lightly on her shoulder as a playful gesture. “I wouldn’t tell if I were you, either.”

“What’re you going to say?” George asked Horace.

Horace chewed on his sandwich very, very slowly, to buy himself as much time as possible. Seconds passed, and everybody still stared at him, waiting, intent on hearing his answer when he got enough courage to say anything.

Will was staring at him, too, but Horace couldn’t look back at him or it would be too obvious. Plus, Horace didn’t have to see Will’s face to know what it looked like. He was probably trying to keep his cool, but Will was so easily jealous that he wasn’t going to do a very good job of it. Horace had to choose his words carefully.

Finally he swallowed, and quietly spoke, “W-Well… I don’t know who she is. I couldn’t say.”

“She’s really cute,” said Jenny.

“She probably is, but I just…” Horace shrugged. “I don’t know if I'm… interested in dating gi- I mean, dating, at this point. I’m busy, and…” Horace realized, at that point that if he convinced them he didn’t want to date anybody, it would be even weirder to them if he came out with Will. So he had to phrase it differently.

But Alyss said something before he could: “Why not? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it, but I’m curious.”

“No reason in particular. I just don’t think I’d be interested in her,” Horace answered, half honestly. (There was a reason in particular, but the second half was true.) “I like to get to know someone before I go out with them. You know, be good friends for a while.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Horace could see a fleeting smile come to Will’s face.

“With most girls, I agree,” George replied. He dropped out of the conversation for now and resumed eating.

“But she’s definitely going to talk to you anyway,” Jenny said. “What’re you going to say?”

“I guess I’ll turn her down. I mean, I…” Horace trailed off, unsure of what to say anymore. “I don’t really like…”

Jenny’s eyes widened, and she gasped. Horace’s heart stung and he worried for a second he had gotten too close to the truth that she could figure it out.

“Wait!” she said. “Do you have a crush on someone already?”

So it wasn’t what he thought she was going to say. But Horace couldn’t even be relieved, because what she asked was hard to answer without screaming at her, “I’m gay and I’m dating Will”.

“No, no, I mean,” he stuttered. “Kind of- no, I mean, it’s not…” Horace pursed his lips together in frustration. Well, e was going to come out that weekend, wasn’t he? Maybe this was an easier way to than having to bring it up himself.

“Who is she?” Alyss asked. “Do we know her?”

“Is it me?” Jenny asked.

George glanced over at her and rolled his eyes. “You wish,” he said.

“Oh, shut up.”

“I-I…” Horace started, and all eyes were on him again. “You do, but it’s like… I don’t know if I can…”

Then Will stood up off the desk and leaned over to Horace. It occurred to them suddenly that Will hadn’t said one word during the entire conversation. They hadn’t seen him steaming with jealousy.

With one arm supporting him, he bent his head down, angled Horace’s head one way with his hand, and then kissed him.

It all hit them like a speeding truck. Nobody knew what to say for a straight (not-so-straight) five seconds, while Will kept kissing Horace and Horace didn’t pull away. Somewhere in the middle of the kiss, Horace accepted that they had already gone too far to go back, so he let himself kiss back and relished in how good it felt to be kissing Will in front of other people. It was like throwing his hands up in the air and saying “oh well, screw it”, but instead of being frustrated afterwards, he just felt at home.

When they finally stopped, they looked back at their friends’ reactions and got pretty much what they were expecting.

Shock. Vague confusion. But no disgust.

More time passed, and nobody moved a muscle.

Alyss was, surprisingly, the first one to burst out into laughter. That broke the ice, and the tension in the room crumbled. Jenny grinned from ear to ear, no longer shocked but instead staring at them in adoration. “Ohhh my god,” she giggled.

George’s initial reaction didn’t change one bit.

Will smiled. These were the best reactions they could’ve gotten. “So, no,” he said, “Horace won’t be getting asked out by anyone but me, because he’s mine.“

Jenny was about to squeal aloud, they could see it in her eyes.

“I just…” Alyss said, sounding like she was crying with laughter, “Will, only you would just- I…”

George’s face still hadn’t changed. “Huh?” he whispered.

Horace lifted his eyes up at Will, who was already looking back at him with the same smile. “Sorry,” he said, “but it sounded like you were going to tell them, and… I hope that was okay.”

Horace chuckled. “It’s just fine,” he said. “I knew I could trust you, if you thought it was going to work.” And he leaned forward to peck Will lightly on the lips, again, this time without worrying about who saw them.

[surrealsi]

RA Hill Fanfic: That Word ‘Forever’ (for Wiltman week)

Heeyy I know I haven’t updated HYUT in a while- if anyone’s still reading it, sorry about that. I’m still going to continue it. But for now, here’s a short Hill fic for Wiltman week. It’s for yesterday’s prompt, “scars”, and it’s late, so , again, sorry :) I didn’t spend too much time on it so don’t expect it to be amazing or anywhere near my best works, so, again, sorry... Okay I’ll stop being depressing, hope you like it :)

---------------------------

Will turned on his side, facing Horace. Their faces were already close, but they hadn't been looking at each other. Will was just kind of leaning his head on Horace's shoulder, and Horace wasn't sure if they were falling asleep or not. He sure could've, very easily fallen asleep… Horace couldn't remember a time where he felt more relaxed than he did now, laying in bed with Will by his side, their fingers intertwined… The door was locked; they hoped nobody would try to bother them.

But apparently they weren't going to sleep yet. Will turned and faced Horace, a smile already on his lips, and he said, "So… anything crazy happen in Araluen lately?"

Part of Horace's mouth turned up. His eyes were still closed, and he could feel Will's gaze on him. "Thankfully, no," he said. "I like being close to Cassandra; she's really nice." Horace was getting better at calling the princess Cassandra instead of Evanlyn. Every once in awhile he would slip, but it was usually around Cassandra and she didn't mind.

"Hmph." Will pouted. "Better not be leading her on."

"I'm not, don't worry. If she starts flirting or something I'll just tell her I like her as a friend." Horace squeezed Will's hand, saying, "Those other feelings are reserved for you."

Will knew that already, but hearing it out loud made him grin every time. He remembered that Horace's eyes were closed, and just as he started hoping Horace would see how happy that made him, Horace opened his eyes and did just that. These moments where it felt like they were talking telepathically occurred more often now than it used to when they were at the height of their friendship. Now they were at the height of… something else.

Was it dating? Will knew it was basically dating, but he still didn't like that word. It felt so… temporary. They weren't testing their relationship anymore, they knew how well it worked. It had been a year since they started… Will just called it 'being partners'. Even if this lasted for five years, or ten (and neither of them would mind if it did, to say the least), they still couldn't go any farther past 'being partners'. Marriage between two guys or two girls wasn't so much illegal as it was nonexistent, so either way they couldn't do it. That was only if it ever went that far. Will didn't want to be dating somebody for five or ten years. Being partners with them, though… he could live with that.

Just as Will forgot there was a conversation going on outside of his head, Horace asked him, "I heard something happened to you and Halt the other day."

"Oh, yeah." Will pushed all of those other thoughts out of his mind again and began his story, "So, Halt and I were going out to practice mapping, and when we got to our destination, several men showed up and started attacking us."

"Did they read the map better than you?"

"Shut up. Anyway, Halt and I beat them up pretty quickly, but the bigger question is, who sent them? We kept a survivor and took him to Araluen Castle to see if the king could get anything out of him-"

"Will," Horace interrupted again, "you're in Araluen Castle. That's why we're here."

"Oh." Will laughed, embarrassed. "Yeah. Well, hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get some more information. But the best part of this story is… I got a scar."

Horace's eyebrows came together, but it wasn't out of anger. He was raising them, in concern, because Horace had scars (inside and out) and they most certainly weren't the best part of any story. They were from pain and war and memories he spent years repressing. "How'd they hit you?" Horace asked.

"Oh, they had swords and I didn't see one get close to me- which, believe me, Halt has not forgotten," Will said, sighing. "I moved out of the way fast enough for him to miss, but his blade still hit my left arm. It was bad at first, but we treated it quickly and Halt said it'll leave a scar for maybe a year or so."

"Are you okay?"

"Don't look so concerned," Will said. He laughed to show Horace that it was okay. "I've had much worse injuries than this."

"Make sure it doesn't get infected."

"You worry too much."

"No, I worry too much about you."

Will smiled a little more at that. While he didn't want Horace to be too stressed out over something he couldn't control, or change, it felt good to know that Horace cared about him. A small, warm fire grew in his heart at the thought of Horace caring about him, and only him.

But Horace shouldn't be so worried over this, specifically.

Will sat up, and put one hand over the end of his shirt. "Wanna see?" he asked. Horace sat up with him and nodded.

Horace had seen Will shirtless plenty of times (back when they were just friends, of course), but it never failed to surprise him just how well this Ranger training was toning him. Before Will got apprenticed to Halt, and Horace saw just how strenuous that training was, he thought it was all about sneaking around and being stealthy, not necessarily developing a physical strength. But, wow, it was. Thinking about it made Horace blush.

Will pointed to a red line, running from his bicep around to the underside of his arm. It wasn't too big, nor was it very small. "It makes me look so badass," he said.

"It looks like it hurts," Horace whispered.

"The best thing is, I don't even have to fake a story about where I got it from. I can just tell people the truth and they'll be impressed. I'll say 'I got attacked by a couple assassins and I single-handedly fought them all off. I have this scar to prove it…'"

"What happened to Halt in that story?"

"They don't need to know about him."

"Who's 'they'?"

"The ladies..." Will winked at him, and Horace glared.

"He said, to his boyfriend," Horace narrated. Will just laughed, and after a moment Horace joined in. He knew Will was messing around. “Don’t let Halt hear your edited version of that story, either," he said.

"Forget about Halt- look at the scar!"

Horace took a better look at it. When he wasn't thinking about how badly that must've hurt, and how, if he touched it, it would probably hurt him even more… it did make Will look a hundred times more dangerous. The scar happened to be in just the right place on his arm. Not too high, not too low… like he had planned it to make some sort of statement.

Horace smiled. "Actually, it does look kind of cool…"

Will grinned and said, "I know."

Both of their attentions were taken from each other when they heard footsteps outside their door… Their hearts stopped in fear. They knew that the door was locked, but for some reason, they still got paranoid over any kind of sound outside their door. What if they had forgotten to lock it, and somebody walked in? What if that somebody demanded to be let in? What if they already knew Will was in there and accused them of doing something together?

The footsteps passed. Thirty seconds later, nothing happened.

Horace let out a sigh of relief. "The door is locked- I double-checked… but I can't help but worry…"

"It's not somebody finding out that I'm worried about," Will sighed. Horace glanced at him. What else is there to worry about? his face said. And Will knew his answer. He just hadn't planned to say it out loud, for some reason… Where did he expect to go with this?

His heart was beating faster, now. Through the fear, he managed to open his mouth and whisper, "It's the idea that… if somebody finds out about us and we can't convince them to keep quiet about it, we might not be able to be together anymore. I don't care who knows as long as we can keep this…" he gestured vaguely around them, "from ending. I don't like that, and, furthermore it scares me because I want this…" he gestured again, "to last for a while longer."

Horace was starting to smile, but Will didn't see it yet. He just continued, "I wish nights like this would be a lot more frequent. I feel like- and I don't know if you feel like this too, and I don't want to scare you, but… I feel like, in a year, or in a few years… I'll be even more in love with you than I am now, and just thinking about it ending so prematurely…" Will stopped, suddenly. Horace's face was a light red, and Will was reaching a deeper color quickly. They had never said the word 'love' before…

Will realized he had been thinking it for a long time.

He looked away. Well, now it was definitely ending prematurely, he thought. "I love you," he whispered.

He felt Horace's hand on the side of his face, turning him to face Horace again. They were so close their noses touched… Will was scared, but once he saw the look in Horace's eyes, he knew he had nothing to be scared of.

"I love you, too," Horace whispered. And he brought Will closer, until their lips met.

Everything, even any noises outside their door that might've been there, disappeared from Will's mind. They didn't matter. Horace worried too much, but if he could kiss Will like this, like the world was perfect, and they had nothing to lose… then this could definitely last forever. Neither of them would mind if it did, to say the least.

[rashipweeks]

Wiltman week will run from Sunday, February 7th to Saturday, February 13th and will be followed by Alyssandra week which will run from Sunday, February 14th to Saturday, February 20th. You can create any pieces for Will & Horace during Wiltman week and any pieces for Alyss & Cassandra during Alyssandra week. Visit this page to find out more about participation.

The official themes for Wiltman week are:

Day 1 ~ Green & Silver Day 2 ~ Rain  Day 3 ~ Scars Day 4 ~ Safe Haven Day 5 ~ Haunted Day 6 ~ Smile Day 7 ~ Blow Me Away

The official themes for Alyssandra week are:

Day 1 ~ Her Aim Is True Day 2 ~ Proud Day 3 ~ Knight/Ranger Day 4 ~ Alternate Universe Day 5 ~ Betrayal Day 6 ~ Alone Day 7 ~ Take Me Away

[blindlemonjackson-blog]

I Hear America Singing - Walt Whitman, 1819 - 1892

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.