Chapter Text
Will
Jem had said it wasn't a date, and it wasn't, obviously, because their friends were coming too, but that didn't mean Will wasn't going to look nice for Jem. Blue brought out his eyes, obviously, because his eyes were blue, so jeans, and that tight black top with the Oscar Wilde quote that managed to be romantic and made his muscles stand out. Denim jacket, leather jacket, hoodie, or no jumper?
"You do realise this is a platonic meetup," Magnus called, amused, from the doorway as he came in.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean the next one will be," Will said, going for the hoodie.
"No, no, no, honey no. The denim jacket."
"Double denim? You think?"
Magnus paused, considering. "The leather jacket plus the black top doesn't work if you're going to wear the jeans. So yes, I think so."
Will put on the denim jacket and posed dramatically. "How do I look?"
"Like a twelve year old girl going on her first date. Hurry up."
Jem
Jem felt like a cliché when he saw Will. He quite literally did a double take. Also, he couldn't help but feel like Will had dressed up for him. Call him arrogant, but Will hadn't been the one stopping the meetup from being a date.
Though it wasn't like Jem had dressed up for Will or anything. He was wearing his nice jeans just because he wanted to look good. For himself.
When they had all reached the Happy Crocodile cafe, they sat down, taking up two tables. Will managed to get onto a table with Jem, and even though Tessa was there too, eyeing them dubiously, it still felt like it could have been a date. If Jem squinted, and pretended the judgemental girl and their friends weren't there.
After having unhealthy snacks, they left. They (read: Tessa, the strong minded one) had decided to go to a theme park, which excited some (Magnus, Tessa and Will) depressed others (Gideon and sort of Jem) and filled others with glee because they didn't want to go but at least their brother didn't either (Gabriel). Will had asked Jem if he would go on the ferris wheel with him, and Jem had replied with a "ferris wheels are stupid rides. Not fast enough to be exciting, but not slow enough to be fine for people scared of heights" which meant yes. Will knew what he meant (Jem didn't understand how Will, who had met him only a few days ago, knew him better than he knew himself), and had given him a shining smile in return.
The boys and Tessa split off into groups as soon as they got to the theme park. She went with Magnus to get tickets, Gideon and Gabriel went off to get candy floss, and Will and Jem were left to look around for any interesting rides. Jem, who wasn't particularly keen on theme parks, wasn't doing a very good job of it, but Will kept finding the best rides that even Jem appreciated: a sweet little merry-go-round playing charming, very old music, with these enchanting horses, captivating even though their paint was peeling off, a massive helter-skelter that Jem knew Magnus would probably love, and of course the ferris wheel, which Will pointed out with a crooked smile and a soft, even slightly awkward voice.
Gabriel got back holding a massive candy floss. He immediately started an argument with Will, which came as no surprise to Jem, or Gideon when he got back too. Jem found himself the new owner of an enormous candy floss, as Gideon broke up the fight. Sadly, Gideon reclaimed it.
"Did you two only get candy flosses for yourselves?" Jem asked sternly. Gabriel had the grace to look sheepish, but Gideon drew himself up and gave a righteous speech.
"Too big to carry... not our fault... didn't have enough money... Gabriel's idea..." ("thanks, mate") "surely you understand..."
"Alright, that's enough," Jem interrupted. Will smirked, and Jem hit him.
Tessa and Magnus appeared, but with two newcomers in tow. Jem frowned, and then, with a dawning horror, recognised his sister, Jessamine, with some new friend. Will gave a slightly choked laugh beside him.
"Do you know the boy?" Jem asked. Will nodded, pursing his lips together in an effort to keep from laughing. Jem suddenly noticed that Magnus was paying a lot of attention to this boy, and he looked at Will again. Will gave him a little smile, confirming his suspicions.
"So we've added my sister and Magnus' crush to the brothers focused only on their stomachs, a cynical, terrifying girl, a fashion icon, an idiot who happens to be my crush, and me," Jem muttered. He didn't think Will had heard him (he hoped not) but Will grinned and leaned in to whisper, "you can't be cynical about this, James. It's love."
"I'm not cynical!" Jem protested. Was he? He had had a very bad lung infection when he was younger, and had tried his best to be good; perhaps he was still balancing out those years of super-tolerance. It had been three years, though. He certainly wasn't Tessa.
Will looked at him derisively. "Sure," he said, his tone laced with sarcasm. Jem rolled his eyes, and went over to say hello to this new boy, dragging Will with him.
Will
Magnus' crush, whose name was Alec, seemed a little awkward at first, but turned out to be perfectly nice after a while. Jem's adoptive sister, Jessamine, was a little b*tch, although Tessa seemed to like her a great deal. Jessamine was giving Gabriel a run for his money in terms of rivalry against Will.
But he made an effort for Jem's sake. He still needed to go on that ferris wheel with him, which he was hoping might actually happen. Jem had seemed to warm to the idea. Or was that just Will getting his hopes up?
Jem was so cynical. But also adorable.
He agreed to go get a candy floss with Will for him and Will to share, which Will counted as a victory. They chatted with the others for a bit, then chatted to each other for a bit, just the two of them. They discussed a lot of things, like school and Magnus' crush, and finally Will broached the subject of going on the ferris wheel, crossing his fingers mentally. Jem waited, stringing out an agonising pause, until he said yes, grinning broadly at Will.
"I was always going to say yes, you know," Jem confided teasingly. Will frowned.
"Then why did you wait so long?"
Jem's grin grew even broader. "To watch you squirm."
Will spluttered, indignant, and Jem watched with a smile that could almost have been fond.
They got tickets from Tessa, who winked at them, making Jem frown in confusion and Will scowl. He knew exactly what Tessa was up to, and it wasn't going to happen. Just because Will had a mini, unreciprocated crush, didn't mean Tessa was allowed to do anything with that crush.
When they got to the ferris wheel, the attendant was a tiny woman who looked about seventy but upon closer inspection was actually only fifty. She was extremely nice, and rather than doing the embarrassing cliché that they always did in the movies and mistaking them for dating, she actually asked if it was a date. They shook their heads quickly, Will perhaps too quickly. She gave him a knowing look.
The ferris wheel was extremely fun. It started out slowly, and Jem leaned back into the seat. It was just starting to get darker, and Will felt himself relaxing into that half asleep, half awake dream state. However, he was shocked out of it when he felt Jem's head come to rest on his shoulder. Carefully, so as not to disturb or dislodge him, Will looked down at him. Jem's eyes were only half open, and he had a small, slightly dopey smile on his face. Will thought it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.
The ferris wheel began to speed up, and Jem yawned and took his head off Will's shoulder, which disappointed Will slightly.
"Enjoying the not-a-date so far?" Will asked teasingly. Jem hit him lightly, but did say yes.
"You?" Will nodded.
Suddenly they spotted Magnus and Alec, queuing for the ferris wheel. They turned to each other with matching grins, and as their seat dipped closer to the two men, they tried to catch some of what was being said. The first time, however, they couldn't hear anything, so they resolved to try again. When they got near again, the first thing they heard was, "...but she can be a bit much. I mean, I like her, of course, and I'm glad that she dragged me to the theme park, because you're..." the ferris wheel moved away again, making Will annoyed.
Jem glanced at him, eyebrows raised. "What are the chances they were talking about my sister?"
Will couldn't help but laugh a bit. "Pretty high."
By the time they got round again, Magnus and Alec had spotted them, which meant they couldn't eavesdrop. They waved at Jem and Will, who waved back resignedly, disappointed that they had been seen. Will decided he should put the rest of the ride to use and try to get closer to Jem. Will wasn't a naturally friendly person: he was charming enough, but he found letting people in enough to be friends a bit hard. Magnus had made it easy by being friendly; this was something else. Jem was nice, but reserved- but Will wanted to be his friend, wanted to get to know him, wanted to get closer.
He asked Jem about his parents, and Jem told him they were dead with a rueful smile.
"Oh," Will looked away, embarrassed. This was why he didn't make friends: he messed up. But he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You didn't know, Will," Jem said softly, and Will turned to see him smiling a little at him. Then Jem's grin widened. "Besides, I'm not exactly making it easy for you to be nice."
Will laughed a bit, and felt the tension disappear. Maybe Jem did want to be friends.
Jem
Jem was afraid he was coming across as unfriendly. He wanted to be Will's friend, of course he did, but he wasn't great at making conversation. He had felt bad for Will after Will had asked about his parents, so he decided to start the conversation himself this time.
"What about your parents? Do you have any siblings?"
"Uh, yeah, they're in Yorkshire- no, they'll be in Wales, actually, this time of year. Mam's Welsh. And I have a younger sister, Cecily, who you know about from Gabriel, and- just Cecily."
The lie was painfully obvious, but Jem didn't push it. He nodded, and then Will blurted, "and I- and Ella, too. She- my older sister." A pause. "Dead."
"Oh."
"Sorry, I- this isn't about me. Your parents- yeah, sorry." Will winced, and he had stuttered so many times, and Jem felt his heart breaking a little. He put his arm around Will, and after a bit of hesitation, Will rested his head on Jem's shoulder.
After a pause, they started talking again, about TV shows this time. Will was a devoted Supernatural fan, as well as an avid Sherlock watcher, and Jem watched Sherlock as well and a lot of the Big Bang Theory. Both of them watched a bit of Friends. Jem didn't know about Will, but he enjoyed himself immensely.
Once the ride was over, they got off, and watched, smirking, as Magnus and Alec got on. They were laughing and talking, their heads very close together. Will waggled his eyebrows at Jem, who laughed.
At around nine, after many rides and many candy flosses, they met up and decided to go back. Jem, Gideon and Gabriel would go back to their flat, and the others would go back to campus. Tessa and Jessamine were apart from the others. Jessamine turned away suddenly, looking haughty, as if Tessa had insulted her, but Tessa caught her arm and said something in a gentle voice, and Jessamine relented and turned back. Magnus and Alec were also murmuring to each other, completely unaware of the outside world. Jem, as he talked exclusively to Will, thought this was ridiculously sappy.
When the group split, Jem wondered about giving Will a hug. Was it too soon? Did most guys even hug? But when he leaned forward a bit, awkwardly, Will leaned in too, and they did end up hugging. Just for that second, Jem could feel Will's curls tickling his cheek, could feel his warm, solid arms around him, could smell Will, a bit of mint, something citrusy, and something that was purely Will. He let go somewhat reluctantly.
Will
The rest travelled back to college. Tessa and Jessamine were still talking to each other, and Magnus was talking to Will but kept looking over at Alec like he would rather chat to Alec instead. Finally, Will sighed and told him to go on.
"What?"
"Talk to Alec. I know you want to."
"But then you won't have anyone to talk to."
"Alec doesn't have anyone at the moment either. Go over to him or I'll drag you."
"Fine, fine!" Magnus went over to Alec, and Will watched the couples, internally sighing. He was painfully single.
He was really missing Jem.
Jem
Jem remembered how Will had hugged him. How he had stuttered, how he had kept trying to be friends even when Jem had been discouraging. He remembered Will's scent, the feel of Will's curls on his cheek.
He was really missing Will.
{And some bonus content! :)}
Magnus
Magnus hadn't had a crush like this since- God, since Etta, even. And before Etta, only Camille, who had turned out to be a lying b*tch. He didn't know why Alec was so important to him, but he was.
They decided to go on the ferris wheel, because Alec had never been, and Magnus (though obviously he hadn't said this out loud) thought ferris wheels were romantic. As if some divine force whole heartedly agreed, he saw Jem and Will on it together as proof.
He turned back to Alec. "So, enjoying uni so far? Made any close friends?"
Alec coughs. "Yeah, uh, uni's great, I'm loving- I do Politics, actually, and I'm really enjoying that. And I've made some friends: there's this guy, Jace, my roommate, he's cool. And Jessie, of course. Though..." he hesitated. "She's one of my closest friends, but she can be a bit much. I mean, I like her, of course, and I'm glad that she dragged me to the theme park, because you're here, and, um, yeah, you're great- and so are your friends, of course," he added hastily. "What about you?"
Magnus suddenly realised that Jem and Will had just passed them as they went round, and would have been listening to that conversation. "Well, uni's great, I'm doing Mechanics, actually, with this brilliant teacher, Professor Branwell, and as for friends- oh, speak of the devil! It's Will and Jem!" He was worried that his surprise came off as a bit fake, but Alec didn't seem to notice.
"Oh, I didn't notice them! Well," Alec eyed them with an amused expression, watching them talk. "They look like they're having fun."
Magnus stifled a snort of laughter, but couldn't quite keep it in. "They're quite the couple. Look, they're coming round again. Let's wave, shall we?"
Magnus nearly couldn't stop himself from laughing again at the look of rage on Will's face when he realised they had been spotted.
"Anyway," he continued after they had passed, "doing anything tomorrow?"
"Er, no," Alec said, looking up at him, slowly realising what was happening. "No, I'm completely free tomorrow."
"Well, not anymore," Magnus said cheerily, silently praying that Alec would go along with it. "Want to go somewhere with me?"
Alec grinned up at him shyly. "Sure. Are you going to tell me where we're going, or is that a surprise?"
Magnus decided on the spot. "It's a surprise."
Alec's grin grew wider. "Do you yourself know where we'll go?"
"Nope," Magnus confessed cheerily. Alec laughed. Then they had to stop the conversation temporarily, because Will and Jem had come round again.
When it was their turn to go on the ferris wheel, Magnus helped Alec into their seat, and sat extremely close to him, which he hoped Alec wouldn't notice.
"So," Alec looked up at him with massive sapphire eyes. "Tomorrow, what time, where are we meeting?"
"Uh... ten? Outside the dormitories?"
Alec smiled a little. "Dormitories?"
"Student accommodation, you know what I mean," Magnus rolled his eyes.
"Ok." One side of Alec's mouth twisted upwards slightly.
"I guess it's a date."