winter passing

<div align=center>William was merely insecure, he'd been insecure since day one and it was probably somewhat difficult to change that. A lot of things had lead to the way he was, it was hard for those things to ever be undone. He purred at the wave of warmth he received from the interior of the coffee shop, though he didn't make a move to take his coat off. He'd probably take a little while to warm up, though warm drinks would help. There was too many people in here for William to be completely comfortable, but it would be okay for a little while.

He sat himself awkwardly on a chair at a table next to the window, he supposed this had turned into a sort of unexpected date, they hadn't planned to meet today, but William supposed it had been a streak of luck, though only because he had wanted to be warm. Where he really wanted to be was bed. He would have liked to curl up under the duvets of his bed and hide, Gabriel had bought him an electric blanket for Christmas, it had served him terribly well over the past few weeks. You were probably more likely to find him underneath his blankets than anywhere else nowadays.</div>

<div align=center>William nestled into the warmth of his coat, giggling very softly and grabbing Gabe's hands. He liked to hold hands, it didn't really matter who it was with, but of course it made it just that little bit nicer that it was Gabe. William didn't particularly understand that hand-holding was generally seen as a romantic gesture, he didn't have a very good idea of what to do between friends and what strictly went on between couples. Sometimes romantic gestures crossed over onto his friends, and he had no idea why they reacted strangely, poor William didn't have any idea he was doing anything wrong.

He still didn't really understand love. But he was pretty sure that was what he felt toward Gabriel. He didn't get that feeling when he talked to anyone else, or was near anyone else. It was a nice feeling that Gabriel gave him, it made him happy. "Cinnamon." He answered, "do they have cinnamon coffee?" His mother had put cinnamon in coffee, but he didn't know if you could buy it in cafes. It probably wasn't even a good idea to feed him coffee, but they were here now, and that was what William had asked for. Caffeine may have ended up making him bounce off the walls.</div>

<div align=center>William would probably learn over time that hand-holding generally wasn't something friends did, especially if they were both boys, he was too naive to really understand. Micheal had taught him things, and he'd more or less learned things from Gabe by what could be called trial and error, but Gabe had never really taught him anything else. William just liked affection at the moment, to him it didn't really matter who that affection came from, but he liked it more when it came from Gabriel, more so than anyone else. He supposed that meant he did like Gabe a lot, comfort felt good when Gabriel provided it.

"Thank you!" Bill chirped, though struggled immensely to actually pick his cup up, since he was still wearing his mittens. It was cute, really. He didn't sip it yet though, for fear of burning his tongue, which was pretty likely to happen, since it was William. Gabe had probably selected correctly by lots of milk and an ungodly amount of sugar, both of those things William enjoyed very much, though they might make other people feel positively ill. He smiled brightly at Gabe, "thank you for coming to find me." He nodded, "I was really cold."</div>

<div align=center>William hadn't even thought about taking his mittens off, though now he thought about it that was a good idea. He spent a moment pulling them off, letting them dangle freely from the end of his sleeves again. He picked his mug up, and took a tentative sip from it, squeaking quietly and frowning when it burned his tongue. He placed the cup back on the saucer, and sat back on his chair. He'd let himself warm up for a little while, he was still so cold. Bill had stopped shivering though, the interior of the cafe was warm, he'd just have to sit for a little while to warm himself up.

"It's cold." He agreed with a nod, he wondered when the snow would go away, he wondered if he wanted it to go away. William liked the snow, it was fun to play in, he got so cold though he often wondered if the fun that came with the snow was worth the sub-degree temperature. He always got sick in the winter, without fail. You could practically hear the sickness in his voice. It was nothing more than a cold though, with a sore throat to accompany his sniffles.</div>

<div align=center>"Buddy?" William lifted an eyebrow, he liked it more when Gabe called him things in Spanish. He could never understand them, but it sounded nice and it made him purr. His fingers absently wrapped themselves around Gabe's wrist, and he pulled his hand close, in a far less platonic way than it had been a few minutes ago. The change would probably have been barely noticeable to someone that didn't know him very well. But this was Gabe, and it probably couldn't be said that Gabe didn't know him very well. The boy giggled softly, "buddy." William didn't really think that was a very good pet name.

How could Gabe like the cold? Bill shook his head, he hated being cold. William didn't like the summer much more though, he liked the warmth but the sun burned him and made him hurt. William's pain threshold was incredibly low, things that probably shouldn't hurt him did. "The cold makes my face sting." He complained, "it makes it hard to breathe for me, too." He frowned a little, and tightened the grip he had on Gabe's wrist just a little. However, the cold gave him an excuse to make the journey to Gabe's bedroom every night, it's too cold in my room! Let me sleep with you! Unfortunately, Gabe had moved in with Micheal temporarily, the atmosphere in that room was always prickly, William didn't like it.</div>