This is going to be another one with multiple parts, so I hope you enjoy part one!

Nico's POV- 2006

He watched as Will's mother hammered the final nail into the tree, stepping back and admiring her work with her hands resting on her hips. "There you go, boys," she said. "It's ready." Nico couldn't tear his eyes away from it, the wooden platform resting on the thick branch of the tree with strong wooden walls protecting it from the reaching limbs of the tree, the tiny glass window situated between the panels allowing them a glimpse at the forest that surrounded them. One glance at Will confirmed that he, too, was in awe, his mouth hanging open and happiness shining in his bright blue eyes. "Thank you," they chorused, wrapping their arms around Naomi's waist and squeezed tightly. She laughed softly as she hugged them back; she smelled like fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and new flowers blossoming on a warm spring afternoon. 

"You're welcome," she responded, breaking apart and setting her tools back inside of the toolbox, shutting it with a soft click and looking back at the treehouse. "Go on, check it out. It's completely ready. I'll be inside if you need me." She began to disappear into the woods, moving toward the shining light of her house on the other side of the trees. Nico and Will stared at each other for a split second before a wide grin pulled at the corners of Will's mouth, showing off the fresh gap where his first tooth had fallen out. 

"Race you!" he called out, leaping onto the ladder and shimmying up the rungs. 

"Hey, no fair," Nico complained, latching on after Will and pulling himself up onto the platform seconds after Will. Underneath them the small forest that separated their houses seemed even smaller, the leaves at eye level and the birds nest they had been trying to reach all summer a couple of yards away. "Woah."

"Yeah," Will agreed. "Woah." They were speechless for the first times in their lives before Will flopped onto his beanbag, burying his face as far in as it would go. "This is so cool!" he exclaimed, unable to hold back the excitement that was coursing through his veins. "I can't believe your dad got us all this stuff. Check out all these lincoln logs! I've never seen so many in my life." He began to paw through the bucket and Nico sat cross legged next to him, taking the little people out from where they had been stuffed among the lincoln logs and making them dance across the floor in front of him. 

"Yeah, neither can I. I think he felt bad, about my mom and Bianca and all that stuff." He felt tears creeping up into his eyes until he felt a hand on his back and Will was looking at him with his eyes as wide as the ocean, the lincoln logs sitting at his feet. 

"It'll be okay," Will promised. "Mom says that stuff gets better with time. And they'd want you to be happy. They'd be happy for you, that you have this now. You like it, don't you?"

"Of course I like it," Nico responded, pushing himself up. There were crayons sitting in one corner and he grabbed a deep purple, handing Will a bright orange. "We should sign our names. So people know it's our tree house."

"Good idea," Will agreed. "What about here?" He ran his hand across a patch of wood near the entrance, so that anyone who was climbing up the ladder would see their names, the colors bright and bold to mark their territory. Nico nodded and together they scrawled their names on the wood, grubby hands gripping the crayons. When they stepped back they were staring at their signatures, their handwriting spiky and messy but Nico couldn't help but love it.

"We need a name for this," he decided. "What are we?"

"We're the tree house club!" Will grinned, jumping up and down. All around them leaves scattered but their tree house stood strong, supporting them from the bottom up. "We can talk and play and tell each other secrets. First grade is gonna be a hard year, but the tree house club will always be ready for fun."

"The tree house club," Nico echoed as he scribbled out the words underneath their names. "Yeah. I like that."

Will's POV- 2010

"I bring this meeting of the Treehouse Club to order!" He slammed the gavel on the floorboards, making the box quake just a tiny bit more amid the howls of the winter storm beating down on them, the flurries visible through the small glass window that had been frosted over. "Vice President Nico, what do we have on the agenda?"

"Well, we have the cookies and hot chocolate that my dad made us," he offered, bringing out the tupperware container stained with chocolate and the two foam cups with steaming brown liquid sloshing inside, whipped cream sitting atop melting marshmallows. "And the snow ball fight, if the president wants to go outside in the storm?"

"The president decides that hot chocolate and cookies will be just fine for today." He reached out for the hot chocolate, the whipped cream frothy and he pulled off the cap, dipping a cookie inside. "And, treasurer Nico, how much money do we have in the account today?" Nico reached out for their sequined change purse, pulling out the crumpled and slightly damp dollar bills and letting quarters scatter across the floor, barely missing the cracks. 

"The treasurer is pleased to announce that the account currently contains three dollars and sixy nine cents!" Nico grinned, collecting the quarters in his hand. "If we want, we can go to the gas station and get a bag of chips. That is, if you want to leave our nice, warm house." He patted the portable space heater sitting in the middle, wincing and jerking his hand back once he felt the searing heat. "Ow."

"The president has made up his mind that it will be perfect to stay up in the headquarters," Will said. "It's nice being up here with you, anyway. I missed hanging out with you." 

"I missed hanging out with you, too." The small smile on Nico's face made Will's heart beat faster and he could feel happiness bubbling up in his chest. "I miss being in the same class with you."

"Me, too," Will said. "How's fifth grade been for you? How's Mrs. Celotta?"

"She's nice, I guess." Nico heaved a sigh. "She's still not as nice as Mr. Smith, though. Do you remember how he used to bring cupcakes for the whole class when it was someone's birthday?"

"Ooh, yeah, and remember the lemonade he gave us on the last day of school?"

"That was fun," Nico smiled. "I miss fourth grade."

"Me, too," Will agreed. "It was easier. I don't like multiplying fractions. It's hard."

"And I don't like the book we're reading," Nico continued. "Is your class reading Stopping to Home?"

"I hate it!" Will blurted out. "It's stupid and it sucks and I hate it. It would be better if you were there, though. You can make anything funny."

"I bet it wouldn't even be bad if you were there," Nico said. "I wish we were still in the same class."

"Me, too."

"Will?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me we'll always be best friends." Nico had flipped around to face Will and there was something in Nico's eyes that Will had ever seen before, a look of desperation that shook Will to his core. 

"Of course," Will replied. "I wouldn't want to be best friends with anyone else. I don't even want to think about not being best friends with you. Like right now, this is the happiest I've ever been. You and me in our tree house, eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate. There's no place I'd rather be." He dunked a second cookie into his hot chocolate, his smile showing globs of chocolate and sticky marshmallow. Nico laughed and there, in that tree house there was a feeling of peace and happiness that Will never wanted to leave.

Nico's POV- 2015

"Will, can I talk to you about something?" He hugged his knees to his chest, nervousness coursing through his veins, sweat beading his forehead. Will glanced up from his textbook, setting his mug of hot apple cider down onto the floor. 

"Sure, what is it?" Around them the trees pressed to the window, hues of red and orange and gold and green meshing into a color that Nico could only describe as autumn. He took a long sip of his apple cider as Will frowned, setting down his pencil and swiveling around so that all of his attention was focused on Nico. "Nico?"

"I- I think I like boys," he stammered, his voice shaking like the leaves outside in the wind. "I don't know if I like girls, too. I don't think so. I just thought, you should be the first one to know." He released a long, slow breath, watching as a beetle crawled across the floor as they stewed in silence. When it had slipped underneath the floorboards he glanced back up at Will to see him grinning. "You're okay with it, right?"

"Of course I am!" Without warning Will threw his arms around Nico's shoulders and he was wrapped in warmth, Will's hands pressing into his back. "I'm so happy you told me, Nico. You have no idea how much this means to me." Nico blinked back tears as they sprung into his eyes, wiping the few that escaped away with the back of his hand as they rocked on the floor together, clinging to one another like glue. "Nico? You okay?"

"I've never been better," he said with a watery smile. "Thank you, Will, for everything. I'm happy to call you my best friend."

------

It began with the whispers, hushed tones following him around wherever he went. As soon as he walked into the door he felt all eyes on him, burning a hole through his skin as beads of sweat popped up all around him. They continued as he walked through the hallways, the words spoken behind hands, the faces morphing into expressions of shock. Nico's mouth was dry by first period. By second his heart rate had doubled with the focus of the school pressing down on him. In third period he quietly slipped out of English as his class worked on their presentations, leaning over the water fountain and letting the liquid provide moisture to his body, at least for a second. That was when he heard the murmurs, the sound of sneakers skidding on linoleum and when he gathered up the courage to glance being him there were three boys watching him from the middle of the hallway, in a heated discussion as they eyed Nico. Their faces went white when they saw him looking and they shoved the boy in the front forward and he stumbled before regaining his footing, straightening up and standing ten feet tall.

"Hey, we wanted to know," he began, shooting a look to his friends as they snickered behind him. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" Nico could feel himself begin to sweat again, his mouth like sand as the hallway swum in and out of focus.

"You know, the rumors," he continued. "That you're gay and stuff? It's no biggie, we were just curious." Nico felt like passing out but he stood his ground, clenching his fists at his side and blowing a long, slow breath out of his mouth.

"No comment." His voice came out squeakier than he had hoped and he winced, making eye contact with a spider spinning a web in the corner instead of the boy standing in front of him.

"What? What do you mean, no comment?"

"Sorry, I have to go." His sneakers slid on the floor as his legs carried him out of the school, faster and faster with each step. He didn't stop until the school was far behind him, until the prickers of the bushes were grabbing at his clothes and he was shimming up the ladder to the tree house, pulling himself inside and collapsing onto the floor. That was when he allowed the floodgates to open as tears flowed freely out of his body, his shoulders shaking as he wracked his brain for anything else that could explain how his secret had gotten out, anything other than the horrible thought that was rushing through his brain. But the tears finally stopped, there was only one solution in his mind.

------

He lifted his head hours later when he heard the door open and something was gently set down on the floor, followed by a heavy thump. Will sat next to him, pulling his legs close to his body and running his nails underneath each other, like he always did when he was nervous. "I got your bag from the english room," he said quietly, fear creeping into his voice. "I guess you never went back?"

"What the fuck, Will?" Nico was sitting up, wiping the tears from his face as his pain turned from sadness to anger. "Who did you tell?" Will's face went pale, his mouth opening and closing without a single sound coming out. "Oh, come on. Don't tell me you didn't know this was coming."

"I told one person, okay?" he blurted out, his eyes welling. "One of my friends mentioned how he was interested in you, and I told him that you liked guys. I thought it would help both of you, I didn't know it would spread."

"Well, it did." Nico stood up, shrugging on his backpack and standing over Will. It felt good, to see Will cast in his shadow, his mouth trembling. "Do you know how much it sucks to have the eyes of half the school on you, whispering about whether the rumors that you're gay are true?"

"It must suck, Nico, I'm so-"

"Save it," he spat. "Us, this- this is fucking over. See you around, Will." As he climbed down the ladder he could see less and less of Will until the final glimpse of blonde hair was gone and his feet were hitting solid ground. Silent tears leaked out of his eyes as he stood on the ground, completely and utterly alone for the first time in his life. 

Hey guys, I hope you liked part one! Part two will be up next week.

Nina