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Will had made the mistake of arriving to the coffeeshop an hour earlier than he was supposed to. Thankfully, he’d brought a textbook and enough cash to buy himself a couple of coffees, but after the hour had passed and all that caffeine had sunk in, he was even more jittery and anxious than he’d been before.
He was supposed to be meeting someone there, someone named Nico who would be wearing a silver ring in the shape of a skull. He’d wanted to get there early so that he could find a good seat to watch the door for when Nico arrived, and so every time the bell over the door sounded his head shot up, only to sink back down to his textbook when he didn’t spot a silver ring.
At long last, the door finally opened to reveal who Will could only assume to be Nico - close in age to Will, about twenty-five or so, wearing a button-down shirt and nice pants, anxiously spinning a ring around his middle finger.
Will had thought long and hard for the last hour about how he would introduce himself to Nico, but when his eyes landed on the other man across the room, he didn’t stand up to introduce himself. He didn’t smile and wave Nico over. Instead, he ducked his head once more and stared down at his textbook. What the hell did he think he was doing? Why did he think he could just meet up with some stranger and ask him for money? Why did he have to be cute?
The clearing of a throat nearby had Will slowly looking up from the book to see Nico standing beside the table. “Are you...Will?”
Will nodded frantically and closed his textbook. “And you’re Nico?”
“Yes.” Nico slid into the seat across from Will. “Um. I should buy you a drink, right?”
“No!” Will said, louder than he intended. “Sorry, uh, no, I’m fine. Thank you. I had one while I was waiting.”
Nico frowned. “You weren’t waiting long, were you?”
“Oh, no. Not at all,” Will lied. “Ten minutes, maybe. But you’re right on time.”
Nico nodded slowly. After a beat he asked, “How much was your drink?”
“What?”
“Your drink,” Nico repeated, and then stared down at the ring he was still twisting around his finger. “I came here prepared to buy you a drink, so I want to pay you back for the one you bought.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Isn’t that the point of this? I’m supposed to buy you things?”
“Have you never done this before?” Will asked.
“No. Have you?”
“Had an awkward first date, or whatever this is? Yes,” Will said, trying and failing to break the ice between them. “Had a sugar daddy? No.”
Nico winced. “Can we, uh, not use that term?”
Will let out a deep breath. “Oh, thank god. I was terrified that you were going to insist I call you daddy all the time, or something. Wow, I feel so much better already.”
“Good for you,” Nico muttered.
“So, uh, how did you come to need a sugar ba-- Um. A...companion?” Will finished awkwardly.
Nico hesitated, and though he finally stopped spinning his ring, he still didn’t look at Will when he spoke. “I was homeschooled as a child. I guess you could say that I never learned how to make friends. I don’t...communicate well, but I just inherited my father’s business. It doesn’t look good to have a CEO that can’t hold a conversation with his employees.”
When it didn’t look like Nico was going to continue, Will nodded. “Okay, so you’re just looking for someone who you can spend time with and who can help you feel comfortable talking to other people. Did I get that about right?”
Nico nodded, finally taking a few seconds to look Will in the eyes.
“Well, um, I’m in my last year of undergrad - I had to start school when I was twenty because I had to save up money to pay tuition, but now I’m almost completely out of savings, and it’s almost impossible for me to find someplace that will hire me with my class schedule,” Will explained. “My sister pointed me to the website that we met on - and I really don’t want to know what’s she’s doing on there - but I kind of figured this was my last resort.”
“What do you need help with?” Nico asked. “Specifically. What are you looking to get out of this?”
“Money,” Will said bluntly, and winced at how greedy he sounded. “I don’t want to be spoiled or anything like that, I just want to know that I won’t get kicked out of school for not paying my tuition, or evicted because I can’t pay my rent. I’m happy to spend time with you and be your friend if that’s all you're asking for, and all I ask in return is that you keep me from getting crushed under the weight of my debt.”
Nico nodded again. “That sounds...fair.”
“So...we should set up some kind of ground rules, right?” Will suggested. “Like, we have to spend a minimum of so many hours together each week, and in return, you...pay my rent, maybe.”
“We could meet for dinner,” Nico said. “Twice a week, we have a meal together. I’ll pay for your meal, and I can cover your rent.”
Will’s eyes widened in surprise. “Woah, uh, I meant that as more of a placeholder, you don’t actually have to--”
“I want to,” Nico insisted. “I want to help you to the same extent that you’re going to help me. So I’ll cover your rent. What else?”
“What else...what?”
“What else can I pay for? Cell phone bill? Electricity or water bill? You’ll need textbooks next semester, right?”
“I… Yeah, I mean, all of that, but you don’t have to,” Will tried again. “If you’re going to offer to pay for more, then you have to give me something else that I can do for you.”
Nico’s mouth opened like he wanted to argue, but snapped shut right after. “You--” He huffed, slouching in his seat and glancing out the window next to them in thought. “Can you be a...buffer?”
“What do you mean?”
“At...work parties or social events. Can you be a buffer between me and people that I don’t want to talk to?”
Will smiled, laughing softly. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Then I can pay your bills.” Nico straightened, growing serious once again, and Will missed seeing him looking so relaxed already. “What if I need to talk to you when we’re not already planning on seeing each other? Can I call you over on short notice, if it’s some kind of emergency? I can pay you for that, too. Maybe...ten dollars an hour?”
“That’s not--”
“Not a lot, right? Does fifteen sound better?”
“No--”
“Twenty.”
“Nico.”
“What?”
“You don’t have to pay me for that.”
Nico narrowed his eyes. “Twenty-five. And if you tell me no again, then I’ll make it thirty.”
Will’s mouth snapped shut so quickly that he heard his teeth click.
“That’s everything I can think of,” Nico told him. “If there’s nothing else that you need--” Will shook his head frantically, and he thought he saw a ghost of a smile on Nico’s lips. “--then I guess that’s it.”
“Thank you,” Will blurted out. “Really, thank you so much, you’re so much more generous than I was expecting. This is amazing, honestly, I don’t think I can thank you enough.”
Nico ducked his head and started twisting his ring around his finger again. “You can thank me by not thanking me anymore, please.”
“Oh!” Will felt himself blush in embarrassment. “Right, sorry. Um. Let me give you my number, and we can figure things out from there.”
For the next month or so, Will and Nico met for lunches and dinners and the occasional weekend breakfasts when their schedules couldn’t otherwise line up. Will gradually started to notice a change in Nico’s behavior, that he seemed to open up and get more and more comfortable with Will the more time they spent together. He’d gone from careful questions about Will’s life to complaining about the assholes that worked for him in the span of a few weeks.
Will even became aware of a change in himself after a short while, growing slightly self-conscious when he noticed that he’d gained a little bit of weight. It took him no more than a few hours to discern that the only reason for it was that he was no longer starving himself just to pay his rent.
Suffice it to say their relationship had truly proved to be mutually beneficial. Nico was taking full advantage of the fact that he had someone he was truly comfortable talking with, having Will meet him not just at restaurants but asking him to visit Nico in his office sometimes in his free time between classes. Sometimes they would sit and talk like usual, other times Will took the opportunity to have a quiet place to study.
They’d gotten close, they were friends. Nico knew that he was paying Will to like him, but he genuinely liked Nico. Right?
Will could never get to bed at a decent time on Sundays. No matter how early he knew his class was the next morning, he was just never tired until practically the middle of the night. He had changed into pajamas, brushed his teeth, and was getting into bed when his phone started ringing. Normally he would ignore a call coming in that late at night - unless it was his mother - because he friends knew that he appreciated what little sleep he could get. However, when he looked at the screen and saw Nico’s name flashing up at him, he didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Hey, Nico,” he said, but there was no immediate reply. “Nico?”
He heard a puff of breath - something he’d learned as Nico’s tell for when he was frustrated but couldn’t voice why - and then a whispered, “Shit,” before the line cut out.
Will called him back right away. “Hey, are you okay? What was that about?”
Another huff. “It’s stupid. I had a nightmare. It doesn’t matter. I thought-- never mind. It’s nothing.”
“Nico,” Will said softly, the way he did whenever he tried to coax the words out of the other. “Tell me what you thought.”
“Can you come over?” Nico asked.
Will glanced at the clock beside his bed. By the time he got to Nico’s, it would be past one in the morning. “It’s--”
“It’s late, I know, but please? Spend the night here.”
Will looked back at the clock before sighing. He wouldn’t be getting to sleep any time soon, anyway. “Send me your address. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
He heard Nico say, “Okay,” and the line went dead once again. A moment later, Will received a text containing Nico’s address.
He grabbed his backpack, checking inside to make sure he had everything he would need for class the next day, and then stuffed a clean t-shirt and pair of jeans inside the bag as well. Will opened up the Uber app on his phone - Nico had made him download it and use his account so that Will didn’t have to take the bus or a cab when Nico asked him to stop by. He plugged in Nico’s address and called for the ride before leaving his apartment and heading down the four flights of stairs to the lobby of his building and out the front door.
It was easy to assume that Nico lived in a nicer part of the city than Will did, but Will didn’t realize just how far on the bad side of town he lived in - really, it was the only place he could afford on his own. The ride was just over twenty minutes long, which would have made it an hour at least at any other time of day, and soon Will found himself standing in what looked like a fancy hotel lobby, uncomfortable in his old, worn sweatpants and t-shirt.
“May I help you?” the receptionist asked, judging eyes scanning Will’s ratty clothes, and he was sure the receptionist was seconds away from pressing some kind of silent alarm on him.
“Yes, hi,” he said, stepping toward the desk. “I’m, uh, visiting?”
The receptionist raised an eyebrow and asked, “Who are you visiting?”
“Nico di Angelo,” Will answered, and slipped his phone out of his pocket to read Nico’s apartment number. “Apartment fifteen-A.”
“Is he expecting you?”
“Yes.”
The receptionist seemed to hesitate for a moment before gesturing down a nearby hallway. “Elevators down the hall, on your right. Have a...nice night.”
“Thank you, uh, you too,” Will said, and turned down the hall. When he got in the elevator he learned that fifteen was the top floor, and when he stepped out of the elevator again he learned that there were only two apartments on the floor - one at either end of the hall.
He knocked on Nico’s door and, like he’d been sitting there waiting for Will to arrive, Nico opened the door almost instantly.
“I’m sorry,” Nico said, instead of a greeting.
“You don’t have to be,” Will told him, and Nico let him inside. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Nico shook his head, leading Will further into the apartment. Just the living room was larger than Will’s entire apartment - twice the size, probably. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I-- Normally there’s someone here that knows how to deal with me, but my sister moved away and Jason is on a business trip, and--”
“You don’t have to explain,” Will said. “You need help, so I’m here. How can I help?”
“We never talked about you having to sleep here,” Nico reminded him. “I can pay you double.”
“What? No, you’re not paying me anything for this,” Will said. “You asked me to come here to sleep, didn’t you? You’re not paying me to sleep, that’s crazy. So, do you want me to sleep on the couch and you can wake me up if you have another nightmare?”
Nico shook his head again. “Would you mind...sleeping in my room? With me?”
For a second, Will wished he’d heard that wrong. Sleep with him? In his bed? Next to his very attractive, very platonic sugar daddy? Waking up next to his hot sugar daddy?
“Uh, no, no problem at all,” he managed to get out. “Lead the way, I guess.”
Nico turned and walked through a door. On the other side, Will saw a bed so big that he didn’t think it would fit inside his apartment. Nico climbed into the bed, crawling under the covers, and stared at Will expectantly until he closed the door behind himself and made his way to the other side of the bed.
He dropped his backpack beside the bed and pulled his t-shirt off over his head, stuffing it in his bag before sitting down on the edge of the bed. He turned and got under the covers, finding Nico watching him as he did so. They laid down on their sides, facing each other.
“So, um,” Will started, voice soft like he didn’t want to disturb the quiet of the room around them. “I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of a cuddler.”
“Oh. Um. Yeah, me...too?”
Will smiled in the dark. “You really sound like it,” he teased gently. “You’re probably, like, an aggressive cuddler, right? Big spoon or little spoon?”
Nico huffed, though instead of sounding frustrated, Will thought it might just be his way of accepting the teasing. “Alright, fine, I’m not a...cuddler.”
“I kind of realized.”
“But...little spoon, probably.”
Will’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Are you saying that you want to cuddle?”
Nico hesitated. “Not if you’re going to be weird about it.”
“No, no, not gonna be weird. Just a little surprised,” Will told him. “So, can I…?” He scooted closer and carefully draped an arm around Nico’s waist.
He felt Nico stiffen momentarily before relaxing, and he even shifted slightly closer.
“Is this okay?” Will whispered, and when Nico nodded, Will felt his hair brushing against his chin. “You’ll wake me up if you have another nightmare, right?” Nico nodded again and pressed even closer. “Okay. Goodnight.”
“Night.” Nico rested his forehead against Will’s collarbone. He felt like he could barely breathe, though he wasn’t sure if it was the position they were in or his sky-high anxiety level. He could feel Will’s chest moving with each breath and feel each puff of air in his hair. Slowly, Nico matched his breathing to Will’s, finally relaxing completely and drifting off to sleep.
Nico woke up feeling warm and content with a comfortable weight against his back and wrapped around him. There was a noise that he didn’t recognize, but that must have been what woke him up, and suddenly the weight and warmth and contentment disappeared as legs untangled from his and the mattress moved under the shifting weight.
Nico rolled over onto his other side, chasing the warmth but unable to find the source until he opened his eyes. The noise stopped when Will tapped on his phone, and then he was pulling a shirt on over his head.
“What’re you doing?” Nico mumbled, wanting to reach out for Will but not wanting to sacrifice his arm to the cold air outside of the warm sheets. “Where’re you going? Come back.”
Will spun around to face him. He knelt on the edge of the bed and brushed the fingers of one hand against Nico’s cheek. “I have class,” he whispered. “Go back to sleep. Call me later, and I’ll come back, okay?”
“Okay,” Nico replied, and felt something soft against his forehead - lips, maybe, like Will had kissed him. He might have panicked about it if he wasn’t already asleep once more.
Will changed out of his sweatpants and into a pair of jeans, picked his backpack up off the floor, and sneaked out of the room without waking Nico a second time. He desperately needed coffee after only getting a few hours of sleep, but he also didn’t know how long it would take to get to class now that he wasn’t leaving from his own apartment, so he would have to suffer through his first class without.
It wasn’t until he was sitting down in his usual seat in his Monday morning lecture - third row from the front, fifth seat from the end closest to the door - that his morning finally caught up to him. He...kissed Nico. He kissed Nico. On the forehead. He kissed him goodbye and then told him to call him later, which meant that Will only had a few hours to feel perfectly normal again.
He could barely focus through the lecture, only taking a half-page of notes instead of his usual two or three, thinking instead about the feeling of holding Nico in his arms. Thinking about the way that Nico’s bedhead made him look so much softer. About how he’d asked Will back into bed with him. How he’d sighed so contentedly when Will kissed his forehead.
Class ended and people started packing up around him. He scrambled to shove his pencils and notebook and handouts into his backpack so that he could run out of there and get to a coffeeshop before his next class started. He hoped that some well-needed caffeine would keep his mind on track and focused on class, and while he managed to stop replaying that morning in his head, his mind decided to start creating new scenarios that had never and probably would never happen: lazy mornings waking up next to each other, holding Nico close in bed and kissing every bit of skin he could reach, climbing on top of him and crawling in between his legs and--
Will’s phone buzzed in his pocket, making him jump in his seat. He slid his phone out of his pocket, holding it out of sight so that his professor wouldn’t see, and opened the text from Nico. He was asking Will to stop by his office after classes that day. Will knew that Nico had a copy of his class schedule, so he would know that Will was avoiding him if he didn’t go straight after the end of class - which was in less than an hour.
By the time that his class finally ended, Will had come to terms with the fact that he was just going to have to face Nico. He was practically asleep when Will left, anyway, so he probably didn’t remember that Will kissed him! He might not have even realized that Will kissed him! There was nothing to be worried about, he was just going to sit and hang out, maybe review everything that he hadn’t paid attention to during his class.
He Ubered to Nico’s office building as soon as he was out of class, smiling at the receptionist in the lobby and nodding politely to anyone he came across on his way up to Nico’s office. He could hear whispers and feel stares following him as he made his way through the building, mostly mentions of Nico’s name and he could make out a few snippets of conversation where people tried to discern why Will might be visiting so frequently.
He did his best to ignore them as he made his way to Nico’s office, knocking lightly on the door before walking inside, like Nico had told him to do from the beginning - he shouldn’t worry about interrupting any conversation Nico might be having because Nico probably didn’t want to be having that conversation in the first place.
Nico smiled at him when he walked in, and Will felt himself relax instantly at the sight. Nico was finishing up a phone conversation, so Will shut the door quietly and made his way to the couch up against one of the walls. He didn’t know why Nico had a couch in his office, but it was a nice place to sit and study that didn’t make him feel like he should be getting scolded for sitting across the desk from someone important.
Will could hear Nico sigh when he hung up the phone, but then he was smiling at Will again and saying, “Hi. How was class?”
Will shrugged because, honestly, he couldn’t remember. “You know, the usual. How’s...here?”
“The same,” Nico replied. “Did you have lunch yet? I’m starving. I’ve been wanting sushi all day.”
“You’ve been awake for four hours, maybe,” Will joked.
Nico rolled his eyes. “And I’ve been wanting sushi for all of those hours. Should I order you something, too?”
Will shook his head. “No thanks, I’m not all that hungry.”
“Are you sure? I can order from someplace that has more than just sushi, if you’re not in the mood for that.” Nico raised an eyebrow at him in between searching his phone’s delivery apps.
“Really, I’m good.”
“Okay.” Nico focused his full attention on his phone, taking a few minutes to order his lunch before turning back to Will, suddenly much less confident than before. “So, um.”
“Do you want to sit over here, so we’re not just talking at each other across the room?” Will suggested, and Nico nodded. He got up from his chair and sat next to Will on the couch. “Alright, what’s up?” Please don’t mention the kiss, please don’t remember the kiss.
“I’ve got this...thing, coming up,” Nico started. “A work thing. Like, a party? An office party. And I don’t really want to go, I especially don’t want to go alone, so can you come with me? I’ll buy you a suit, and I can pay you extra for it.”
Oh, thank god. “Nico, I would be happy to go with you to this work-thing-office-party. And you don’t have to offer to pay me for stuff just because you think I won’t want to do it, or whatever. I’m happy to help whenever you need me.”
Will was expecting Nico to huff at him for refusing the extra pay once again, but his frustrated look suddenly turned to confusion. “You didn’t say no to the suit.”
“That’s right, I didn’t,” Will said. “I don’t have suit money, so I’m fine if you want to pay for that.”
Nico laughed, and Will thought his heart might have stopped. “Alright, I’ll look at your class schedule and make an appointment at a tailor for you for sometime this week. You’ve got a test coming up soon, right? So I’ll make sure to schedule it for after that so you don’t miss out on study time.”
“Yeah, thank you.”
Nico texted him an address before he walked into the lecture hall to take his test. He said to meet him at that address after class, and wished him good luck on his test. Will smiled as he read the text, shooting off a reply before shutting his phone off and heading inside the room.
He managed to finish the test with about twenty minutes to spare, so he texted Nico when he left to let him know that he would be early. Nico told him that he was already there. Will took an Uber to the tailor’s shop, finding Nico already inside and looking at the suits on display. Will walked up beside him, and before he could even say hello, Nico turned to him and said, “Which do you like best? I like this blue one, I think it would bring out your eyes, but I think it would be more practical for you to have a black suit. That gray one on the end is nice, too, though.”
Will looked over the blue suit in front of him, peaked around the displays to check out the gray one, and glanced around at the various black suit displays throughout the room. “I guess I would say--”
“You could get all three,” Nico cut in. “You should. You can’t have just one suit.”
“But I don’t need more than one suit,” Will pointed out, though Nico didn’t seem to hear him. Or care, probably.
“Yeah, get all three, and we can decide which one you’ll wear once they’re all made. Come with me, we’ll go talk to the tailor.” He wrapped a hand gently around Will’s wrist and started leading him through the shop. When they found the tailor, he introduced himself to the two of them, and Nico explained the different materials and styles of suits that Will needed made. Once everything was handled, Nico left Will to the fitting while he went back out into the shop, this time turning his attention away from the suit displays and toward the accessories across the room.
He looked at ties and pocket squares, taking a few ties that he thought would go well with the suit colors he’d picked out and pockets squares to compliment them. He went back to Will to show him what he’d picked out and to see if he had any opinions on them, though Nico caught himself more staring at Will in the half-made suit than he did listen to what Will was saying. When he tuned back in, hearing Will say something along the lines of, “those ties are fine,” Nico excused himself back out into the shop.
He scanned over the various accessories once more, finding whatever he could think of that would show Will just how much it meant to Nico that he was willing to go to this work party with him. Will deserved nice things, and as much as he hated it when Nico spent so much money on him, Nico just couldn’t help himself. He took a watch off of one shelf, a pair of cufflinks off another.
It took about an hour for Will’s fitting to be done, and the tailor said that he could make the other two suits using the first as a template, so the two of them were free to leave. The suits would be done and ready for pickup in about of two days.
As the two left the shop, Nico turned to Will and asked, “Do you have a shirt to wear?”
Will glanced down at the shirt he was wearing. “What do you mean?”
“A shirt to wear with the suit. Do you have one?”
“Oh!” Will’s face pinked up as he thought about it. “Uh, no, I guess not. But you’ve already done enough, I can go buy one myself.”
Nico frowned. “I’m the reason you have to get it in the first place, so I’ll take care of it. We can go now, if you’re not busy? It shouldn’t take long.”
Will looked like he wanted to argue but figured it wouldn’t get him anywhere. “Alright, fine. But just one shirt, okay? I don’t need an all new wardrobe.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, because not only did Nico buy him five nice shirts, but he also got belts and shoes, even new jeans and t-shirts when Nico had his driver take them to another store - Will learned that Nico only ever used Uber when he was out of town or his driver wasn’t available.
They were loaded down with shopping bags by the time Will finally convinced Nico to leave - filling the trunk of the car almost halfway. Just when Will thought he was home free, Nico asked his driver to stop at the nearest grocery store.
“Please don’t buy me groceries,” Will said.
“It’s for me,” Nico told him. “I’m out of paprika.”
Nico dragged Will into the store with him anyway, and soon enough Will was pushing around a grocery cart with eggs and milk and bread and cereal and plenty of other things that Nico insisted that Will needed. Finally, when the cart was almost too heavy to push, Will reminded Nico that they’d really only gone in for paprika, and so Nico paid for everything and they left.
After six trips up and down the stairs in Will’s apartment building, all of the bags were finally sitting in Will’s one-room apartment, taking up all the counter space in the kitchen even after Will stuffed all the cold and frozen goods into the fridge and freezer.
Will watched as Nico took in the small space around him that was now even smaller with all the bags cluttering the room. “I’ll admit that I may have gone a little bit overboard.”
Will rolled his eyes. “You think?”
Nico folded his arms over his chest, hitching his shoulders up slightly. “You sound mad.”
“I’m not mad.” He shook his head with a sigh. “I appreciate all of this, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just not used to...being spoiled like this, I guess. My whole life, I’ve had to work for anything I wanted and I just don’t feel like I’ve earned this stuff, so I guess it’s making me feel a little bit uncomfortable. Sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry,” Nico told him. “I should say sorry to you. You tried to tell me not to buy all this stuff for you but I didn’t pay attention to that. I’ll do better to listen next time.”
“Thank you,” Will said. “For saying that and for everything you got for me.”
“Of course,” Nico said softly. He stared down at Will’s shoes for a silent moment before he said, “I should, um. You probably have studying to do.”
“Right, yeah,” Will replied. “I should...do that.”
“I’ll let you know when the suits are done, since they’ll probably want you to try them on in the shop,” Nico explained. “So...I’ll see you then.”
“Sounds good.” Neither of them moved for a moment, and Will wondered why this goodbye seemed so much more awkward than usual. He had the strange urge to hug Nico, maybe even kiss him on the cheek, but that was totally unprofessional, right? So he stepped around Nico and opened the door for him to walk out. “See you later.”
It was the night before Nico’s work party. The suits had been picked up from the tailor - they all fit perfectly, and it was decided that Will would go with the classic black, like he’d expected. They’d talked about what time Will would show up at Nico’s apartment so that they had plenty of time to make it to the party.
Will was getting ready for bed - he was always exhausted by the end of the week - when Nico called him.
“Will?” he said softly, almost in a whisper.
“Nico, is everything alright?” Will asked. “Do you need me to come over?”
“No, I’m fine, I just--” He huffed, and Will allowed him time to gather his thoughts. “Is this okay? Are you sure you’re okay with going to this thing?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I realized I never asked you if you even wanted to go and just assumed you were okay with it,” Nico clarified. “If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to.”
“Nico, I’m happy to go with you,” Will told him. “That’s what friends so, and...that’s what we are, right? Friends?”
Nico didn’t respond right away. “Right. Friends.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come over?” Will asked. “You sound like you could use some company.”
“No, I’m fine,” Nico insisted. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”
He hung up before Will could tell him the same.
Will was dressed and ready to go by the time the Uber arrived at his apartment building to take him to Nico’s. He hadn’t spoken to Nico since the night before and he would admit that the was pretty anxious to see him again. He wasn’t sure what to expect when he walked up to Nico’s door.
Nico seemed just as anxious as Will felt, and as soon as he opened the door he looked ready to run.
“Are you ready to leave?” Nico asked, closing the door behind himself. He probably would have booked it to the elevator had Will not caught him by the arm.
“Woah, hang on,” Will said. “We’ve got, like, ten minutes before we need to go. Can we go inside for a second?”
“Why can’t we just leave?” Nico tried again.
“Because you seemed weird on the phone last night, and I want to make sure you’re okay,” Will told him. “Please?”
Nico sighed and walked back into the apartment, leaving Will to follow him in. Will took a seat on the couch, waiting for Nico to join him, but he stayed standing, arms crossed, facing Will but not looking at him.
“Nico,” Will said calmly, “are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” Will pressed. “You don’t seem fine. You can talk to me, you know. That’s what I’m here for.”
Nico folded in on himself somewhat, his shoulders curling in, and suddenly Will was reminded of the uncomfortable Nico he first met at that coffeeshop months ago.
Will got up off the couch and went to stand in front of Nico, practically forcing the other to look at him. “I’m here for you, Nico. If you need me to take care of you, you just have to ask.”
“I don’t need taking care of,” Nico replied.
“Then tell me what you’re thinking,” Will said, stepping closer and setting his hands comfortingly on Nico’s arms.
Nico still wouldn’t meet Will’s eyes. “I want you to come with me to this stupid work thing because I might die if I’m let alone to my own discomfort.”
Will smiled. “That I can do.”
Nico looked up at him through his lashes, and Will felt his heart jump at the sight. “Can we go now?”
This time when Nico tried to leave Will didn’t stop him. They both got into the backseat of Nico’s driver’s car, and they started moving. Nico sighed and leaned against Will’s side.
“I hope nobody tries to talk to me,” Nico started. “You know how much I hate smalltalk, especially when there’s no alcohol involved. It’s so unbearably boring, but I think it’ll be better since you’re here with me. You like smalltalk, right? So you can protect me from all the assholes who try to talk to me.”
Will laughed. “Of course, just use me as your own personal human shield.”
Nico tipped his head up and smiled at Will. “I knew I could count on you.”
The party was held on the rooftop patio of Nico’s office building. Already the place was full of people in suits and cocktail dresses, standing in clumps throughout the space or sitting around tables.
Will allowed Nico to pull him into the party, expertly dodging crowds and fighting to get to the other side of the room.
“Mr. di Angelo?” someone said, stepping in front of them and effectively blocking their path. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting to see you here. I mean, there’s just so many people here. Oh, and who might this be?”
Nico took a step back, bumping into Will, who easily slipped one hand around Nico’s waist and held his other hand out to the man in front of them. “His fiance, Will Solace. Nice to meet you, but we have to go, uh, over there. Now.”
With the hand around his waist, Will steered Nico around the man and toward an empty table near the far wall. They dropped into two of the chairs, and immediately Will grabbed Nico’s hands and said, “Shit, I’m so sorry, I just said the first thing that came to mind. I realized that we never talked about, like, who we’re supposed to be to each other. Like, in public, you know? I didn’t want to say friend or boyfriend because that sounds childish, but people would know if you were married, right? So I couldn’t say husband, either. Fiance was the first thing that popped into my head, and I’m so sorry if I messed something up.”
Nico squeezed Will’s hands. “Don’t worry about it, it’s my fault. I should have thought about that. Thank you for thinking so quickly, if it had been up to me I would have frozen until he walked away. God, that guy’s such a condescending asshole, I hate him.”
Will sighed, dropping his head down in relief. “Oh, thank god. Just...let me know if any more condescending assholes are coming over here, so I can continue being your human shield, okay?”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Will looked up at him and smiled before looking over Nico’s shoulder and seeing a tall blond man heading right toward them. “What about, uh, Blond Superman? Is he an asshole?”
Nico laughed. “Yeah, he is, but I can handle him.”
Will tried not to stare as Blond Superman walked up to them, setting a hand on Nico’s shoulder to get his attention. “Hey, Neeks, I didn’t think I would see you here tonight. Who’s this?”
Before Nico could respond, Will was on his feet, shaking the man’s hand and introducing himself once again as Nico’s fiance.
Blond Superman, still shaking Will’s hand uncertainly, raised an eyebrow at Nico.
“Uh, Will?” Nico said. “This is Jason, the friend who showed me that, um... dating website. Jason, this is Will, who I met through the site.”
Will’s eyes darted between the two of them. “Oh!” He dropped Jason’s hand suddenly and stepped out of his space. “Sorry, um. I’m not...actually his fiance.”
Jason snorted. “Yeah, I got that.”
Nico sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead. “I need a drink.”
Suddenly, there was a flask dangling right in front of his face with a smiling Jason attached to it. “I figured you would say that.”
Will left the two of them to have a conversation while he got drinks for himself and Nico. As he walked through the crowds, he was reminded of his high school’s dances, except the people were more intimidating and better dressed. There was a table set up against one wall with finger foods and drinks, so Will snagged a couple cans of coke off the end and headed back to Nico. Nico was already drinking straight out of the flask by the time Will returned.
They were there for just over an hour, Jason leaving at some point to talk to some of his coworkers and abandoning his flask with Nico - who insisted that Will drink with him so that he wasn’t drinking alone. By the time the flask was empty, Nico was leaning heavily against Will’s side as they sat and watched people throughout the room - making fun of too-short slacks or bad haircuts or Nico commenting about some of his least favorite employees.
Eventually, a lull fell in the conversation. Will draped an arm around the back of Nico’s chair. “You know,” Will started, leaning in to whisper in Nico’s ear, though he wasn’t sure if he actually whispered or if the buzz in his head made him think he did. “We don’t have to stay here if we’re just going to sit around like this. You showed the assholes that you can survive a party full of people, but if you’re not enjoying yourself, then we can leave any time you want.”
Nico tipped his head up, looking up at Will so close that their noses almost brushed. Will could feel Nico’s breath puff against his lips before he asked, “Will you come home with me tonight?”
“Do you want me to?”
“Yes.”
“Then yes.”
Nico was holding Will’s hand in the backseat of the car. He was leaning against Will’s side and claiming all of Will’s attention for himself - not that Will wanted to focus on anything else. They were silent for most of the ride, save for a single whisper of, “Will?” that brought his gaze down to Nico, who swooped up and pressed his lips to Will’s.
Will kept the kiss soft and under control as Nico pressed for more, pulling away completely once the car had reached Nico’s apartment building. They hurried to the top floor, finding their way into Nico’s apartment, then the bedroom, then Will was sitting down on the edge of the bed and Nico was climbing into his lap.
Will was just drunk enough not to think about it when Nico pushed his jacket and shirt off his shoulders. He found himself kissing a path down Nico’s neck as his fingers fumbled on the buttons of Nico’s shirt, though he paused when he felt hands at his waist, tugging at his belt.
“Oh,” Will said, mind working slowly as he tried to figure out some way to get Nico to stop or slow down or something. “Wait, Nico, maybe we should...not.”
Nico pulled back, removed his hands from Will’s belt, and cupped Will’s face in his hands. “Will, please,” Nico breathed, his lips grazing against Will’s with every movement. “Take care of me. You said you would. You said you’re my fiance, right? Let me be your fiance, just for tonight.” Nico pressed their lips together once, twice, five times before Will finally pulled back, hands on Nico’s waist to hold him away. “Please.”
“Okay,” Will whispered. He wrapped his arms around Nico’s back and twisted around until he could lay Nico down on the mattress. “I’ll take care of you, I promise.” He lowered his full weight onto Nico, connecting their lips again.
Nico woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, though it was immediately eased slightly when he felt a pair of lips on his forehead.
He cracked an eye open to see a smiling Will sitting next to him on the bed, holding out a glass of water and a couple of painkillers.
“Good morning,” Will said quietly so as to not aggravate either of their hangovers. “Can I tell you something?”
Nico nodded before swallowing the pills and drinking about half the glass of water.
Will leaned in until their noses bumped together. “Are you awake enough to remember what I’m about to say?”
Nico rolled his eyes with a smile. “I’m awake.”
“Good,” Will said, and kissed the tip of Nico’s nose. “I like you. Like, really like you. Like, I want to be with you for real, and not for pay.”
Nico sat up and rubbed one of his eyes. “You don’t...want me for my money?”
“No, stupid, I want you,” Will told him.
Nico looked between Will’s eyes as if searching for the real truth behind his words. “I...like you, too.”
“So, you’ll date me? And not pay me for it?” Will asked.
Nico frowned. “I’ll still be paying for dinner, or whatever.”
Will’s smile grew. “Of course you would say that.”