Work Text:
_X_1_X_
The July before college is slow for Will. Days at work are long, the sun seems to stay up forever, and the humidity is frankly unbearable this year. Will’s going to be heading to Samwell in just a few weeks, and that’s going to change things. It’s already starting to feel like he’s drifting away from his hometown and the people in it.
It’s not like his high school friends are awful people, they just aren’t exactly the type he envisions keeping in touch with on a regular basis. Still, they’re definitely good enough company for sitting around late Sunday afternoon down by the beach. Add in a couple of beers they’ve gotten from someone’s older brother, and it’s a pretty decent way to end his summer.
The conversation is the special kind of lazy and nostalgic that tends to come around as a result of being on the precipice of a big change. They roll through commentary on the past year, embarrassing moments from growing up together, and where they think they’ll be in ten years.
Will and Marrianne, briefly his girlfriend and now just a friend after some mutual queer realizations, are the only two going far for college. It surprises no one they want to get out of town permanently; a shared sense of dread about this small town was the thing that brought them together in the first place. The other constant that pops up between people is discussion of marriage and kids. It seems assumed that’s part of the picture for everyone here. It’s a carefully constructed and awkward dance among the high school sweetheart pairs, neither one wanting to commit more than the other.
Will feels equally awkward, but for a vastly different reason. It feels like getting married to anyone he knows now would be the ultimate kind of stagnation, and Will’s just not here for it. It’s fine, mostly, though he’s uncomfortable through the talks of rekindling his romance with Marrianne. Things get sidetracked quick enough by jokes about who will be the first to turn into a grill dad, and Will tries to let the irritation go. He takes a sip of beer and tries to steady his breath. Marrianne shares a sympathetic look, but it’s not really what Will wants right now. Getting out of here, being unattached and having a good time on his own, is going to be the best thing that ever happens to him.
_X_2_X_
Summer is probably the most amenable season on the Samwell campus. Something about those few weekends before fall is near magical. That’s what Will’s chalking up his good mood to, anyway. The Reading Room is delightful, and the Frogs have taken it over to ring in junior year.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, my good William?”
After all this time, Will figures he’s pretty over Nursey’s general shenanigans, drunk or not. Where he used to find them annoying, he’s recently been reluctantly charmed by them. Today he’d go so far as to call it regular charming, no reluctance involved. Summer really is magic at Samwell. Instead of needling at Nursey’s need to quote poetry, Will merely shrugs in response.
“I feel like,” he says, taking the last sip of his drink, “it’s going to be a lot less flattering than the original Shakespeare. But, if you must, go for it.”
Nursey laughs louder than he typically lets himself. “Maybe I won’t if you’re going to call me out like that, man. I can’t be predictable.”
Will joins in laughing as Chowder climbs back out onto the Reading Room with their drinks. The way Nursey sits up when he sees Chowder suggests he has something important to say, but the wiggling of his eyebrows says he’s about to be ridiculous.
“Chowder. My dearest bro. I heard that someone had an extended visit with the Farmer family over summer, and my life is desperately devoid of deets. What does a gentleman such as myself have to do to get you to tell me about this?”
“It was so good! I think her family really likes me, which is a huge relief, and we actually got enough time off from our summer jobs to go up and visit my family.” Chowder flushes a bright read before
“Wow, C, you know I’m mad hyped for you and Farms, but you have it so bad.”
Will nods like this is actual wisdom and adds, “A key fine-able offense if we weren’t so gracious and kind.”
“Cait’s just really cool, you guys! It’s not my fault I managed to get the best girlfriend, but it’s true and I may as well make sure everyone knows it.”
“Hey, Dex,” Nursey says bumping his shoulder into Will, “do you think we’ll get to tell more people about how C literally ran into the love of his life before or after the wedding?”
“Oh if you think it won’t be a constant stream of chirps during the whole lead up, you’re out of your mind.”
“It is way too early to be planning my wedding chirps!!! I haven’t even proposed.”
Nursey and Dex exchange a look as Chowder puts his head in his hands. “That sounds,” Will starts “like a sentence that has a ‘yet’ at the end of it, Chow.”
“I mean,” Chowder shrugs, “it kind of does in a way. We haven’t talked about it specifically, but we’ve talked about the future after college plenty. She’s kind of my favorite, you guys. So, yeah, I’d wait until after we graduate, but I’d ask her. Or say yes if she asked me.”
“Holy shit,” Will smiles softly at the same time Nursey replies, “Absolutely incredible.”
“I love this for you, Chowder. This is the best possible news!” Nursey is positively beaming.
“I mean hard same; it’s just wild to think about” Will tacks on.
“Wait, what do you mean wild?” Nursey says raising an eyebrow.
Will just shrugs. "That seems like a lot of commitment."
"That's the point, Dex!" Nurse is enthused but not upset "The idea that you love someone that much, that you want to be with someone through all of their moments. Like you’ve picked out mutual favorites, and you’re going to love and support each other about it. It's nice to have a person like that."
Dex rolls the idea around in his head for a bit before shrugging again. "Yeah, that sounds nice enough, but I guess it's just hard to imagine without having someone." As if on cue, Dex and Nursey both turn towards Chowder with raised eyebrows. Before any further chirps can be exchanged, Chowder flushes once again and the frogs all dissolve into quiet laughter.
_X_3_X_
It's an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday evening in their apartment. Derek's brow is furrowed, his eyes focused on his laptop screen, and the very tip of his tongue sticks out of his mouth. He looks, objectively, ridiculous. Will adores it. A ridiculous Derek, unguarded and comfortable in a space, ranks pretty high on Will's list of favorite sights. He feels lucky to see it often.
Derek's been working on this piece for hours now, though, and, while Will's gotten him to be better about stretching and taking breaks, he's probably forgotten to eat for a good chunk of the day.
“Hey, babe” Will starts gently. Derek, however, neglects to respond. “Have you eaten recently?”
Derek hums a non-committal noise that strikes somewhere between “in a minute” and “no, but if I don’t say that out loud you can’t yell at me.” Will nods and gets up to head to the kitchen.
A look around the cabinets shows there are a handful of decent options for food; the question is really what will work best when Derek’s this engrossed. Real food, something like a nice pasta, would probably be ideal in terms of being filling but isn’t great competition against the intense focus. A sandwich could work though. Handheld, easy to eat, less messy than any type of cereal would be. Will shrugs to himself, makes two, and returns to the living room where Derek’s barely moved.
He sits on the edge of Derek’s arm chair and leans the sandwich into his space. “Hey, I made you something.” This time the hum from Derek is incredibly pleased. Derek takes a bite without taking the sandwich from Will and continues looking over his work while chewing.
I can’t believe the love of my life is this much of a disaster , Will thinks fondly. I’ll have to put something in my vows about feeding him sandwiches.
Will watches Derek take another bite, oblivious to the world, before his train of thought catches up with him. And then he freaks out a little bit. Because thinking casually about what’s in his vows means he’s thinking casually about what things are going to be like when he marries Derek. Which means, on some level, he’s really sure he’s going to marry Derek.
The longer Will sits with the idea (and the more bites of sandwich Derek takes) the more he realizes that this isn’t the first time he’s thought something similar to this. Normally it’s just casual ideas about things they can do years down the road; he’s had some ideas about new holiday traditions and how nice of a place they’ll need before he can start hinting that getting a dog would be good for them. Still, it’s a constant kind of certainty. There’s been an undercurrent of permanence to his thoughts about their relationship at least since they moved in together after graduation, but this is really concrete.
William Jacob Poindexter is going to marry Derek Malik Nurse.
Or he’s going to try to anyway. He’s going to ask. When and how are up in the air, but it just seems right that Will’s reached this conclusion. Just as Will’s settling into this revelation, Derek hits enter with a flourish, takes the last bite of sandwich from Will, and finally looks up with an incredibly goofy grin on my face.
“You,” he says swallowing around the last few crumbs, “are a gentleman, scholar, and my personal hero.”
Will chuckles. “You just need to eat to survive, babe. Good paper?”
Derek doesn’t miss a beat launching into an explanation of his latest project. It’s complicated in its analysis of symbolism and cultural connections, but the explanation is thorough and engaging enough it makes plenty of sense to Will. Derek’s expertise clearly shines through, and, just because he can, Will thinks about a future spent saying amazingly flattering things about his notable professor of a husband.
_X_4_X_
Will sits on the idea for a couple of months before deciding anything. The more he sits with it the more he’s convinced it’s a good idea, though. So Will decides it’s time to start planning.
Picking out the ring was surprisingly easy. Derek’s a fan of silver over gold, and he’s not fond of most flashy jewelry. It was never a question that a simple silver band would be best. What to get engraved— because Ridiculous Romantic Derek Nurse would want a meaningful engraving on his ring— was another matter entirely. Will ran through several lists, brainstorming lines of poetry and meaningful words in the hopes of conveying how he felt. The answer to that, too, was shockingly simple when it came. He settled on “24+28” inside the band as both a shorthand for their commitment and a nod to how far they’ve come since being two defensive players sharing a line.
The proposal eludes him. It’s not that Will doesn’t want to marry Derek; the thought of being Derek’s husband absolutely delights him at this point. Will’s just determined to do this right because it’s the very least Derek deserves. He feels pretty confident they’re on the same page. Every time they talk about the future, they’re comfortable mentioning plans a decade or more out. There’s been chats about how to convince their families to come to them for holidays to cut down on travel once they get a bigger place. It’s not in writing or anything, but Will knows how Derek feels about marriage generally and how Derek feels about him specifically. All he has to do is pick a date and ask.
There’s no way he can pick something like a holiday if he wants any element of surprise. Valentine’s Day is also Derek’s birthday, which makes it both predictable and already a day for celebrating Derek. New Year’s is their anniversary and a New Year’s proposal feels cliché anyway. Every other major holiday is dominated by family time, which is usually stressful for Derek since he wants to make sure everyone has a good time. Even giving the holidays their due space, there's plenty of days left in between to choose from. The date, Will decides after looking at a calendar for objectively too long, isn't so much a problem as what to do with the day itself.
Will feels like he’s spinning his wheels. He finally caves and engages in one of the most time-honored traditions of Samwell Men’s Hockey; creating a problem-solving group chat. Now’s as good a time as any to convene a group to talk this through with. Chowder is the obvious first addition as Will scrolls through his contacts. Best friend status, emotional intelligence, and problem solving skills make him a clear choice. He adds in Shitty and Lardo as well, both because they know Derek incredibly well and because he would trust Lardo with his life. He debates adding more people before deciding simple is probably best. Derek’s more observant than most give him credit for, and it takes the surprise out of it if he catches on.
Will’s “Before we start, I would like to remind everyone in this chat about how we’re no longer doing relationship fines,” causes a cascade of question marks and emojis in the chat immediately. He dutifully ignores them all to send his second message as planned “I want to propose to Nursey, and I’m looking for some input on how to make it special.”
_X_5_X_
Will settles on a plan. There’s been discussion about wanting to take a trip for some time now. In the last few months especially, Derek’s been on a one-man mission to see the Grand Canyon with Will, and Will’s finally agreed to go.
It’s a good plan. It’s personal and doesn’t have to be announced to everyone there, but it’s just a big enough gesture to appeal to Derek’s romantic sensibilities. It’s a great plan. It’s the best plan he’s ever had. He can do this.
That’s the mantra he’s been running with, anyway. In reality Will’s spent the entire week leading up to the trip nervous as all get out and he’s pretty sure Derek can tell. If there was any doubt about that, it’d have been washed away when perpetual late packer Derek Nurse welcomed Will home from work with packed suitcases, take out, and Netflix.
There’s a kind of anticipation in the air Will can’t pin on their upcoming trip. He’s just hoping that Derek doesn’t attribute it to anything being wrong; he wants this to be a surprise but stressing Derek out isn’t worth it. So Will curls himself up on the couch and tries his best to stay calm through a couple of episodes of Great British Bake Off before bed. The second is only half finished when Derek says something.
“Fuck it! Uh, stay here” Derek untangles himself from their shared blanket and leaves the room. Before Will can really get himself together enough to definitely disobey that request, Derek returns with his right hand closed at his side and his left running through his curls.
“Listen, I keep trying to think of good opportunities to do this, but nothing seems big enough to encompass exactly how much I love you” Derek sighs and fidgets a little. Will hasn’t seen him this nervous in years. “It doesn’t help that three times a week I look at you and think I’m never going to be more in love than I am right at that moment only to be proven wrong every fucking time. So I’d kind of like to keep getting impossibly more in love with you forever if that’s good with you.” Will’s eyes go wide as Derek drops to a knee. “Will. Babe. Light of my—”
“Oh my god, yes, come here!”
Derek chuckles, warm, light, and everything Will wants to hear for the rest of his life, as he lets Will pull him back onto the couch. “I didn’t even get to ask you yet.”
“You can if you really want to, sorry, I just— Actually,” Will spares a second for a quick kiss and then bolts off the couch towards his carry on.
When he returns Derek’s got a pleased but confused look on his face and the ring box still in his hand. Will takes a second to breathe— not from nervousness but rather just a plethora of emotion— and holds out his own box. “I was going to ask you when we got to the Grand Canyon, but you beat me to it. Marry me back, Der?”
_X_+1_X_
He's not freaking out. The venue looks beautiful, the wedding party is fully prepared, and the guests are arriving on time. He's also not nervous. Will's been looking forward to this day for months now. Derek's his best friend and love of his life, the feeling is mutual, and they're here to announce as much in front of their closest friends and family. No, William Jacob Poindexter is bouncing on the balls of his feet because he's excited in a way he hasn't been since he was a kid on Christmas.
Chowder knocks on the door before letting himself into Will’s dressing room. “How’re you feeling, Dex? Are you ready for this?”
“You have no idea how ready I am, Chow.” Will beams and follows Chowder down the hall.
The ceremony itself is short and ridiculously sweet. Shitty cries immediately, which is to be expected of Shitty Knight at wedding, but several other friends and family members admit to dabbing at their eyes during the ceremony.
Will pays little attention to all that, though. His focus is solidly on Derek standing next to him, returning the goofy grin on his face and love in his eyes. He listens to the cadence and weight of Derek’s vows, letting the words wash over him. Will tries to pour every bit of affection he’s feeling into his vows. Words have never been his strong suit, but he hopes it comes across. Either way, he feels grateful to get a lifetime of making sure Derek knows exactly how he feels.