Guess who's back! Please read the note at the end.

Nico POV

I walked out of the barber's and took a deep breath, rubbing the back of my head. It was a strange feeling, without the long locks that had occupied that space before. The sides were neatly trimmed short, but not too short, with my uncut hair resting on the top slowly fading out into the back of my head.

I pulled my hood up and kept walking to the cab that was waiting by the curb and got in. I pushed the hair back out of my eyes and looked out the window.

When we arrived at my house, I paid the driver then got out and walked up the driveway.

Unlocking the back door, I walked into the spacious basement. I took my thin sweater off, flicking it onto the lumpy beanbag chair in the corner and flopped onto the bed in my old room. I stared up at the ceiling and frowned at the pieces of paper taped on there. They were miscellaneous lyrics or passages extracted from certain novels. I couldn't remember why I had done that, only that it made sense at the time.

"I want to gather up all the words in the world and write them down on little pieces of paper-then throw them in the air. They would look like tiny sparrows flying towards the sun. Without those words, the sky would be clear and perfect and blue. The deafening world would be beautiful in all that silence."

-B. A. Saenz

I closed my eyes, pushing the meaningless quotes out of my head and put my arms beneath my head. I closed my eyes and soon fell asleep.

* * * * *

The sound of someone knocking at the door jarred me awake. I tried to get my bearings back together and looked out the window, stifling a yawn. The sun was just beginning to set. It had been a couple hours, at the most.

I walked to the front and opened the door, swinging it open. I saw Will wearing a pale oversized shirt that hung loosely on his shoulders and a pair of shorts.

"Hey," he said, smiling.

I blinked, confused as to why he was here. My hello came out as a grunt and tilt of my chin.

He looked first at my hair, then eyes. "Do you want to go exploring?" he asked brightly. He continued to look hopeful despite the fact that I was even further confused.

I tried to play along. "What kind of exploring?"

He took his phone out and showed me. I fought the urge to roll my eyes as I saw Pokémon Go loading on the screen. Leo had been bugging me about getting it and calling me uncultured as I turned the idea down each time.

I gave him a look that said, are you serious? He returned it with a look that said I don't care if its just a wild weedle down the street and I don't care if I already have 10 let's go get it.

"Wait here." I closed the door and changed into a dark half-sleeve shirt. I slipped on my sneakers and opened the door, locking it behind me.

He pulled out a hat out of somewhere on his form and put it on. I suppressed the urge to go back inside when I saw that it was the same hat that Ash had.

A thin breeze picked up as we started walking and I glanced sideways over at Will. His hair curled out from under his hat, attempting and failing to escape. I watched as he blinked, his lashes a few shades darker than his hair. He was biting the inside of his cheek, staring at his screen and I looked away, focusing on not tripping over the uneven sidewalk.

I heard Will gasp as he stopped in his tracks. He looked up with wide eyes. "Vulpix," he whispered. He sputtered at my unamused expression. "That's my favorite." He ran off onto someone's backyard and stopped in the middle, almost quivering with excitement.

I sighed and followed, hoping the owner wouldn't come out.

He cursed as the pokeball missed, getting it on his second try. He sighed contently and showed me , getting only a mocking smile in return.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"What? No way." He put his phone away in a back pocket. "Lets go to the playground around the corner." He spun on his heels and started to walk away, knowing that I'd follow.

I shook my head and followed him, staring at the back of his heels. He started to run ahead when the playground came into view. He climbed up the monkey bars and sat on top, swinging his legs.

I took my time as I made my way over to the swings and sat down in one, kicking up some gravel.

"Nice haircut."

I hummed a response as a way of saying thanks.

He looked around, looking completely at peace here. The fading light was turning purple as the sun was setting.

I looked over at him. One moment, he was turning around on the bars and the next, he was falling backwards off the bars. My hands shot forward instinctively to stop him, but only managed to catch his hat as he stopped midway to the ground.

Will laughed at my reaction as he hung off with his legs curled around the bar. "You got so scared," he said around his bubbling laughter. "You look like you soiled your pants out of fright." He tried to control his childish laughter and failed.

I struggled to find a reply as his hair was still swishing back and forth from the abrupt movement. I sat down instead and flicked the hat at him in annoyance. I watched as it bounced off his shoulder and landed on the ground.

He stopped his shirt from slipping any further up his torso and held it there. "Aw. You do care."

I frowned at him. "No, I just don't want to be the only witness at the time of your death."

Will rolled his eyes in either exasperation or disbelief; it was hard to tell when he was upside-down.

He pulled himself up and landed on the ground in one swift motion.

He smoothed out his shirt and sat down on the swing beside me. His feet kicked up some gravel on the way as he started getting higher.

After a while, I joined him. I breathed in the air, holding it in before letting it out again. Soon enough, I was swinging just as high as Will.

He laughed loudly, sending it ringing through the quiet air. I let a smile take over my face. I couldn't remember the last time I'd had this much fun over such a simple thing.

Will jumped off the swing just as it was at it's highest peak and stumbled through the gravel. I followed soon after and landed on my feet beside him.

"What's this?" Will asked, smirking as he sat down among the gravel.

"What?"

"Is it just me or are you having fun?"

I threw a pebble at him. "Shut up. You're going to ruin everything."

I heard some snuffling behind me and turned around to look in the bushes a little ways off. Will craned his neck to look, his mouth slightly parted.

"I think it's just the dog that's been following me around."

I looked over at him questioningly.

Will shrugged. "She's been doing that for the past couple days. Maybe she just followed us. I didn't hear her, though." He frowned as he peered through the bushes.

"Quite the animal magnet, I see."

He chuckled.

I saw a pair of eyes staring back at me through the tangle of leaves before they turned away, leaving soundlessly.

I smoothed out the ground (as much as you can smooth out rocks) and sat down.

"School's coming up soon," said Will, evidently trying not to sound awkward.

I nodded, also trying to hide the fact that I was trying hard not to be awkward. "Have you made any new friends?"

I think both of us were unsuccessful in doing so.

"I found a kitten, if that counts."

"It doesn't."

"Then....there's you, I guess."

I frowned. "I don't think I count unless a friend tries to knock you out with a baseball bat."

His face crinkled up as he let out an uncontrollable laugh. His freckles seemed to swim across his face every time his expression changed.

"That was a memorable time."

He picked up a small rock, bouncing it up and down in his palm. "Are you sure you don't want to stay over anymore?"

I could feel my eyebrows rise up and hide somewhere in my hair in quiet surprise. "Why?"

"Well, why not?"

I went quiet, unable to think of a response.

"I mean," he looked in my direction, "you don't have to, if you don't want to, but we could have fun and actually do something. We might've started out on the wrong foot."

I bit the inside of my lip. "It does get a little quiet, I guess. Maybe."

"Awesome! We just got a projector screen thing in the basement and can marathon movies in there." He smiled again. "Tomorrow?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

He picked up his abandoned hat and we got up and walked home. He sent me a two fingered salute at me from his doorway before going in.

I unlocked the door and went in, getting ready for bed.

I spread out my blanket and was about to lay down when I heard something bounce off my window.

I frowned and craned my neck and saw that the light from Will's room was on. I pulled up the window and opened the screen and picked up a crumpled piece of paper.

Goodnight, it said in messy handwriting. There was a smiley face drawn beside it. I looked over at his window again and saw him waving. I shook my head and put the paper on my desk and closed the window.

He closed his soon after and I saw the light from his room go out before I laid down. I turned the light off and drifted off to sleep.

Ok, I know it's been over nine months and I didn't update anything for this story but I do have a reason so hear me out. The first few weeks after the previous chapter, I just lost inspiration for this story because I fucked up the plot and I didn't plan it thoroughly and I couldn't bring myself to just delete a few chapters and redo it (idk why). And then, I had an idea and I started it, had a few hundred words going and then deleted it because I did not like it at all. Then I put this story off for awhile because I didn't know what to do and I didn't have time because of school. (Stupid explanation I deleted) Long story short, this last half a year has been pretty terrible and I know you're going to say but you started a new story it couldn't have been that bad that you couldn't do you're old one first.
But, you see, here's the thing. I thought this story was kind of dying and I had this idea for a different kind of writing. By writing this chapter, I can already tell that my writing had changed over the period of time that I spent away from this one.
My other story, Handwritten, I feel like is more well-written than this one (shameless self-promo) so go ahead and read it and leave some feedback.
This is my longest chapter for this story, beating the last one by around 700 words (not counting this note).

Tell me how you guys are!! Who has started school? How's life in general? Who's joined some new fandoms? (I've joined like 8 more and I regret nothing)

lol ok, I'm going to go now bye