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“Oh, look at that! Will Solace is transferring here.”
Nico coughed on his exhale, and Jason laughed. His perfect stream of smoke broke, scattering into the open air of Nico’s porch.
Jason wiggled his phone in Nico’s direction, and, still coughing, Nico accepted it, shifting his joint to his other hand.
Sure enough, Will Solace stared back at him in full hockey uniform from their university’s athletics page. His blue eyes barely pierced through the grills of his helmet, but Nico could recognize them anywhere.
Nico stared at the picture a little while longer, cataloguing the differences between the Will on the screen and the Will he remembered from high school.
Just as his lungs settled, Jason said, “Now’s your chance, di Angelo!” and Nico started spluttering all over again.
As much as Nico enjoyed going to parties, he certainly never spent much time inside of them.
“I’m going to go smoke,” Nico yelled into Jason’s ear, already fishing a joint from his pocket. When Jason nodded, Nico patted his face and left, looking for the back porch.
When he finally found it, the cooling air outside was enough to make him shiver. He pinched his joint between his thumb and forefinger as he patted his pockets for his lighter.
“Damn,” he murmured when he came up empty. “Damn.”
“Need a light?”
Nico turned to find Will Solace. MVP, he thought dimly, suddenly remembering everything he’d ever heard about him from afar. Top scorer. Projected top NHL draft pick. But the loudest voice in his head was screaming, how did he get hotter?
Will took a step closer, the single porchlight above them catching his blue eyes just right. “Hello?” he asked, his smile lopsided as he waved a hand in front of Nico’s face.
Nico rolled his eyes. “Yes. You have one?”
As he hummed, Will pulled out a shiny silver lighter. His fingers were warm for the second they collided with Nico’s during the handoff.
Nico lifted the joint to his lips, flicking the lighter once, twice, to light it. He inhaled deep, loving the way the smoke burned through his lungs. He exhaled away from Will, and when he turned back, Will was still looking at him. Nico shivered, and tossed the lighter into the air between them, not willing to risk another accidental brush of fingers. Will caught it easily.
Already, the smoke was working through his system, so Nico asked, “Will Solace, right?”
Will nodded, and then surprised him. “Nico di Angelo?”
Nico made a noise that he would deny to his last breath. “You know me?”
A smile tugged at Will’s lips, and Nico paid too much attention to it. “I know you,” Will replied. “Jason Grace’s emo friend. We went to high school together, right?”
Nico tried not to snort at Will’s use of emo, and turned away again, this time to lean back against the banister. Will joined him a second later, his arms draped over the railing. There were only a few inches between them, Nico noted. “You and Jason went to East,” Nico said. “I went to North. But I came to a lot of Jason’s games, so…” He trailed off with a shrug.
“That must be why I don’t remember having any classes with you,” Will said, still grinning. “I think I’d remember someone like you.”
Nico was never the best at reading other peoples’ intentions, but the smoke layered over his brain certainly wasn’t doing him any favors. Still, why would Will Solace be flirting with him? Nico was probably the butt end of a joke that had gone so far over his head that he’d missed both the setup and punchline.
Rather than dignifying Will’s likely insult with a response, Nico took another deep inhale, then tipped his head back to blow the smoke straight up into the air. When he tipped his head to the side, he found that Will was still watching him, his eyes cast low, maybe to Nico’s shoulders or neck or mouth--
Oh.
Nico offered the joint to him, letting himself sway just a bit closer. “Want a hit?”
Obviously, he wanted a hit. He’d probably come out here to smoke himself. Why else would he have a lighter on him? He’d probably only offered the light in the hopes of stealing a hit, anyway.
Will hesitated. “I’ve never…”
Nico lifted an eyebrow. “Never? Aren’t hockey boys, like, notorious for it?”
“What!” Will actually looked taken aback, and Nico laughed.
“It’s a joke,” Nico said, because at least one of them had to make their intentions clear. “I know you athlete types. Can’t ruin your lungs, or whatever.”
“I do edibles,” Will told him, a touch defensively.
Nico smiled, amused. “Better than Jason. Bastard is determined to stay weed-sober. Which I respect!” he tacked on when Will huffed. “Just means I never have anyone to smoke with.”
Nico lifted the joint to his lips again, this time fully aware of Will’s gaze on him. Just for that, he decided to exhale through his nose. Will inhaled sharply next to him, and Nico tamped down a smirk. “You sure you don’t want a hit?”
Will looked tempted, but Nico wasn’t one to peer pressure anyone into anything, so he took one last hit before crushing the lit end of the joint against the railing at his elbow. “Find me when you’re sick of brownies and gummies, alright?” He dropped the joint into his jacket pocket, and reached over to pat Will on the chest with his free hand as he pushed off the railing to head back inside.
Nico stabbed angrily at his shitty cafeteria mostaccioli. He’d spent the last ten minutes complaining to Jason about the cruel and unusual torture that was his Intro to Biology class, and he’d had to restart the same story at least five times. The problem with being best friends with one of the school’s top football players was the inability to hold a private conversation. (Maybe if they weren’t in public, but Nico should be allowed to disappear into the shadows if he wanted to!)
“Remind me tomorrow, and I’ll show you that trick Leo taught me to memorize those equations,” Jason was saying to someone behind Nico. “See you then, alright?”
“As I was saying,” Nico said again, after a few seconds’ pause to make sure that they were once more alone - in a packed cafeteria, whatever. “I fully bombed the pop quiz yesterday, because the professor spends three straight hours talking nonsense--”
He cut himself off when he saw Jason’s eyes flicker over his head - again. The smile that appeared on Jason’s face was one that Nico had yet to see that day. However was behind him had to be Leo, or--
“Hey, Will!” Jason said cheerfully, and Nico’s entire body went stiff. “You’re good at bio, right?”
“Not too bad,” Will answered as he came to stand beside Nico’s chair. “I was supposed to TA a freshman course at my old school. Why?”
Jason grinned, his eyes catching Nico’s just long enough for Nico to find a kick to his shins fully necessary. “Nico keeps asking me for help, but I’m shit at all things STEM. Do you think you could give him a hand?”
Nico risked a glance upward, knowing that he should be able to read disgust just fine, but Will was pointing a goofy smile down at him. “Absolutely. Could I see your phone?”
He slid the device out of his pocket, unlocked it with a few quick motions, and passed it over without question. After a few moments of tapping on the screen, Will handed it back. “Text me whenever,” he said, and tapped Nico’s shoulder with his knuckles as he said, “I’ll see you around, Jase.”
Nico spent far too long staring down at the simple ;) text that had been sent from his phone, presumably sent to Will’s number. He was only startled out of his shock when Jason said, “You’re welcome.”
His head snapped up, already glaring. “For what?”
Jason scoffed. “I just wingmanned the hell out of that!”
“You inserted yourself into my personal life,” Nico grumbled.
“Quit complaining about your classes in front of me, then,” Jason shot back, “or I’ll ask Leo to tutor you next.”
Nico put it off for as long as he could. But as the semester progressed, the homework only got harder, Nico wasn’t sure how he would survive without help.
He took a picture of his textbook, and sent it off to Will with a text that said, what the fuck is this.
Will started typing back almost instantly, and a moment later, Nico received a message that said hey! give me a second to see what you’re working on :)
Nico stared at his phone until the screen went black, and only then did he turn his attention back to his textbook. Will was probably busy, or maybe he wouldn’t actually want to help Nico at all, so it was for the best that Nico continued trying to struggle through it on his own.
When his phone buzzed, Nico practically dove to check his messages. Will had sent him a veritable wall of text, some long and thorough explanation for the gibberish printed in Nico’s textbook, capped off at the end with, I could call and walk you through it, if that wasn’t clear enough!
Nico wasn’t about to let his mind linger on Will any longer than it had to. I think i’ve got it now thanks
Unfortunately for Nico, Will’s explanation did make a lot more sense than anything his professor had said over the last few weeks. He was probably going to be asking for help more often than he’d like.
Nico wasn’t going to the party just because Will invited him. Nico really only ever went to parties to have a new backdrop while he smoked, and he wouldn’t have agreed if he’d known that the only place he could light up was beside Will’s bedroom window.
He wasn’t yet high enough when Will appeared in the doorway, leaning heavily forward with his hands on either side of the doorframe, a giant smile on his face. “Hey,” he greeted, “how’re you doing in here? Sorry there isn’t a better place to smoke - the neighbors on this side of the building are way cooler than the ones by the living room window.”
Nico’s hand was getting cold from being held out the window for too long. “I’m good,” Nico responded. He’d had more than enough time to study everything in Will’s room from where he sat on the floor beside the bed. “I’ve got everything I need. Weed. Fresh air. The smelliest pile of hockey pads I’ve ever…smelled.”
Will stepped into the room with a light chuckle, joining Nico on the floor and sitting across from him. “I could try to bring the party in here, if that would make you feel better.”
Nico grimaced, and Will laughed again.
“C’mon, Austin’s cool, I promise,” Will said. “And I only invited the fun part of the hockey team.”
“You mean, the nerds,” Nico shot back, one eyebrow raised.
“Is that your way of telling me that you’re bored?” Will scooted himself forward, his legs criss-crossed and his chin resting in one hand. “What kind of host would I be if I didn’t keep all of my guests entertained?”
Nico raised an eyebrow. “A bad one. So, what are you going to do about it?”
A grin stretched widely across Will’s face. He leaned back quickly and used his hands to help push him to his feet before he held a hand out to Nico. “C’mon, let me introduce you to everyone. I’ll make sure you have a good time.”
Nico let Will pull him to his feet, stumbling slightly when the room started to spin, but Will was quick to catch him. “You’re gonna make me meet people when I’m high? Not cool.”
“Don’t worry, they’re all pretty wasted by now,” Will assured him, and tugged on Nico’s hand to lead him out of the room.
“I feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”
Will looked up from across the cafe table, pen poised over his notebook, and his face lit up in a grin. He rested his elbows on the table and leaned closer. “And what gave you that idea?”
Nico slouched in his own chair, his arms crossing over his chest. “You’ve been spending all of your free time - your very limited free time - helping me with my homework. And what are you getting in return?”
“Well,” Will started, “I am getting my own homework done in between helping you, and you did buy the coffee this time. Not to mention the good company.”
Nico frowned. “Me?”
Will’s foot tapped against Nico’s under the table, more than once, which made Nico think it wasn’t an accident. “If you feel that badly about it, I wouldn’t be opposed to you buying me dinner sometime.”
“Is that your way of saying you’re hungry?”
Nico didn’t fully understand what Will meant when he said that the hockey house was throwing a high school-themed party. It didn’t make any sense - they’d all only left high school a few years ago. And why on earth would anyone want to relive high school?
Still, Nico went. Because Jason was going, and because Will had invited him, and because he’d never smoked at the hockey house before, and maybe it would be a fun place to be high.
As it turned out, a high school party wasn’t much different than a college party - or maybe that was because college students weren’t willing to give up bongs and beer pong for the sake of authenticity. As was typical for these kinds of houses, the kitchen had become a full bar, the beer pong table was set up in the back room, and music loud enough to make Nico’s teeth rattle was playing over a ridiculously-sized sound system. The only differences that Nico could note right off the bat were the fact that the music was a few years older than usual - meaning he actually recognized a song or two - and a lot of the girls had taken the theme to mean it was a pajama party.
It wasn’t until Nico was led into the smokey basement that he learned the party was in honor of one of the team’s freshmen, who “never got to let loose,” the team’s captain exclaimed, shaking the freshman by his shoulders, “so let’s show him a good time!”
The next thing Nico knew, he was being pulled into a circle on the floor, Jason to his left and Will to his right, with an empty beer bottle spinning wildly in the center of the ring.
“Is this seriously what people did in high school?” Nico muttered to himself, but it must have come out louder than he thought, given how Jason started to laugh beside him.
“Maybe you’d know, if you ever stepped foot outside of your house,” Jason said, and Nico elbowed him in the side.
“Like you ever went to parties!”
With a huff, Nico turned his attention back to the circle just in time for the bottle to slide to a stop, a lingering drop of liquid from inside the bottle dripping onto the cement floor as the bottle pointed straight at Nico.
He hadn’t been paying attention. What did that mean? Was he supposed to spin the bottle now? And what happened after that? Why was everyone staring at him? Who had been the last one to spin? Why wasn’t anybody staring at them?
He felt a nudge against his right side, and looked up at Will’s smiling face. Nico was barely finished thinking, am I about to be the butt of a joke? when Will placed a hand under Nico’s chin and tipped his head up.
Will kissed him.
Will kissed him.
Will kissed him.
Nico was not high enough for this.
When Will pulled away - after barely a press of his lips against Nico’s, ending it far too soon - he was still smiling, even as Nico’s brain turned to static.
Static that sounded suspiciously like I like you I like you I like you.
Why couldn’t this realization have come two months ago?
“I’m not high enough for this,” Nico stated, staring wide-eyed into Will’s still smiling face, a split second before he scrambled to his feet and took off up the basement stairs. Somebody called after him, but he couldn’t be sure if it was Will or Jason or somebody else, but he was too focused on wiping the feeling of Will’s lips off of his own and searching frantically through his pockets for the joint he’d tucked away.
Will is pretty, Nico thought against his will as he pushed his way out the back door. He had surprisingly good teeth for a hockey player.
Will is smart, his brain told him as he dipped around the corner in search of privacy. Concussions were usually a larger concern in football, but hockey was still a contact sport, and Will had managed to keep his head on straight even after getting knocked around on the ice.
Will is nice, the words wrapping around him like smoke as he finally sparked the end of the joint between his lips and inhaled. He was always so friendly, and helpful, and selfless, and patient with Nico when he needed the same concept explained to him over and over again, and thoughtful as he went out of his way to make sure Nico was comfortable wherever they were, and it always seemed so easy to make him laugh - and Nico loved making him laugh, because that laugh was like music, and that smile could light up a room, and--
Oh, god.
Nico choked on his next inhale.
He had a crush on Will.
Nico didn’t leave his apartment except to go to class. He didn’t answer his phone unless the text came from Jason, Hazel, or whoever happened to be delivering his GrubHub order that afternoon.
He did feel bad that he’d left Will’s last few messages unread, going all the way back to the night of the party, when Nico had gotten so high that Jason had had to ping his phone just to find him, and then carried him out to the car. He knew he should at least let Will know that he was okay, that he hadn’t smoked himself into a coma, but then Will would ask to meet up with him, and Nico wouldn’t be able to say no, and then Nico would do something stupid like kissing Will in public, and--
He couldn’t let that happen. And as long as he didn’t leave his apartment, he wouldn’t be forced to come face to face with Will. And staying away from Will meant avoiding any embarrassment that came from…whatever Nico might do the next time he saw him.
That didn’t mean his heart ached any less every time he received a text from Will just to check in. Or to see if Nico still wanted help studying for the test he had coming up. Or to invite Nico to another party at the hockey house.
The messages stopped after a while. That didn’t make Nico feel any better, either.
He managed to scrape by for the rest of the semester, relying on better grades from when Will was tutoring him to barely skate by before the final. He was aiming to pass, not excel, and he was managing just fine, even if he did get an email from his professor that spoke of her concern about his steadily dropping grades. Like most of the messages he’d received recently, he let that one go unopened.
As much as Nico had wanted to go out to one of Will’s games toward the middle of the semester - when Nico could safely consider them friends, and it officially didn’t feel weird for Nico to go to a sporting event that he knew next to nothing about - he didn’t manage to catch a game before the season ended. What he did catch, though, were some of the stats that people talked about too loudly in the halls on their way to and from classes.
…got into more fights than I’ve ever seen in one game…
…surprised he didn’t get ejected from the arena…
…new record for time spent in the penalty box…
Nico started wearing headphones in between exams to avoid hearing anything at all about the hockey team. He didn’t need to use up any more space in his brain thinking about pretty blonds when he already had so much academic nonsense that he needed to hold on to for just a little while longer.
The football team regularly hosted any end of semester parties, seeing as their season didn’t have any overlap with that time of year, unlike some of the other popular sports at their university. Nico hadn’t had any intention of attending said party, even after Jason assured him that there would be no Christmas theming to it whatsoever.
“You can’t Catholic-trauma your way out of this one,” Jason told him.
“But it’s cold.”
“You’ll be inside,” Jason pointed out.
“But I can’t smoke inside.”
“You can get drunk inside,” Jason reminded him, “and I’ll even stay totally sober so that you can get wasted, if you want to.”
Nico agreed to attend the party.
It was going to be fine - maybe even fun! He was going to get drunk without even worrying about being underage for another month, and Jason was going to make sure he got home safely, so he could do anything he wanted. And it was a football party. Nico liked the football guys. They so rarely intermingled with the hockey team.
Immediately upon arriving at the football house, Nico downed a couple of shots, just to kickstart the process. He switched to a mixed drink afterwards, because he was at least going to enjoy something that he drank that evening, even if it was a little heavy on the tequila. (He really shouldn’t have let Leo choose or make his drink for him. But what did he care? Nico was there to drink.)
It wasn’t long after that that the world started to feel a little fuzzy around the edges, just out of focus and a little faraway. Most of the night - the bits that he could remember - passed in a blur, either of Nico following Jason around like a lost puppy, or Jason trailing after Nico when he got bored and started to wander off.
Somewhere around the time that Jason said, “I’m running to the bathroom, don’t wander out into the street,” Nico took off to do a bit of exploring around the house. He couldn’t remember if he had been to the kitchen yet - he had, that’s where Leo was still acting as bartender - or if he’d seen the bracket for that night’s beer pong tournament - his name was written down on the bottom, like he’d placed a bet he didn’t remember - or the last place where he saw Jason - upstairs? downstairs? maybe in the living room? - when he zeroed in on the first tall blond he could find.
That wasn’t Jason. Of course, Nico didn’t learn that fact until after he’d grabbed the guy by his shoulder to spin him around, and nearly fell flat on his ass when he was met with freckled cheeks and sky blue eyes.
A warm hand caught Nico’s arm, keeping him from falling. Nico was always surprised at how warm Will always was, when he spent so much time on the ice.
“Nico?” Will tugged on Nico’s arm until he finally managed to regain his balance. “Are you alright?”
Nico tried to rip his arm out of Will’s hold. “You’re not Jason.”
Will’s mouth turned down in a pout. That didn’t look right. Will wasn’t supposed to pout. “No, I’m not. Is Jason supposed to be keeping an eye on you?” He glanced around, over Nico’s head - and it was totally unfair that he was tall enough to look over Nico - but that wasn’t right; he should only be looking at Nico.
“I can take care of myself,” Nico told him.
“I know you can.” Will’s gaze turned intense, almost examining as he looked over Nico. “How high are you right now?”
Nico rolled his eyes, which made the whole room spin. He was pretty sure he would throw up if he did that again. “I’m not high.”
“Come here,” Will said, and he brushed Nico’s hair away from his face to get a clear look in his eyes.
He was a lot closer than he ever had been before. No, that wasn’t quite true. There was that one time--
What was Nico supposed to do the next time he saw Will? Was it kiss him, or not kiss him? Both sounded like equally wonderful and terrible ideas. And Will was already leaning in, so, really…
Nico shoved himself forward, his mouth mashing against Will’s. It had been a while since Will kissed him, so Nico wasn’t entirely sure what it was supposed to be like, but he was pretty sure Will had been better at kissing last time.
He shoved Nico away, which sent him stumbling a few steps backwards until he ran into somebody, who gave him just enough of a shove in return to put him back on his feet.
“What the fuck--” Will started, but bit his tongue before anything else could come out. He seemed angry, and somewhere in the back of Nico’s booze-addled brain, he remembered hearing something about the most aggressive hockey season the school had ever seen. Without another word, Will grabbed Nico’s wrist and dragged him through the house, past the kitchen and out the back door onto the frosty back porch.
Nico felt like they’d been here once before.
“What the fuck is the matter with you?” Will shouted, throwing Nico’s hand away and pushing himself back a few steps, like he couldn’t stand being so close to Nico.
Nico frowned. “What?” He didn’t understand why they had to be outside. It was so cold outside.
(But Will was warm. Will could totally keep him warm.)
Will scoffed. “Are you kidding? You ghosted me weeks ago, Nico. You don’t get to act like nothing’s wrong. You don’t get to just try to kiss me out of the blue after everything!”
Nico remembered now. It was not kiss him.
“What did I do?”
Will laughed. Nico hadn’t heard anything funny. “I don’t even know why I’m trying. You’re clearly not going to remember this. The same way you apparently didn’t notice that I was always flirting with you, or the fact that we were practically fucking dating. Did none of it mean anything to you? Did you think that I would’ve kissed you during a stupid game if I didn’t actually like you?”
Nico took a step forward, swaying dangerously. “Make me remember.”
“What?” Will asked, some of his anger cut with confusion.
“You think I won’t remember this,” Nico told him with another step. “So make me remember.”
He stumbled forward into Will’s arms.
Nico had to come clean after the party. (And after the vomiting. And after the headache. And after he finally stopped feeling like death warmed over.) (This was why he never drank. Smoking rarely made you want to die the morning after. Alcohol always seemed to make it so that you wished you were never born.)
Jason had been kind enough to keep Nico alive long enough to make him want to die all over again. He got Nico home, fed him, made sure he was hydrated, and only after Nico returned to the land of the living did Jason recap the events of the party:
Nico kissed Will. Nico and Will disappeared outside for a few short minutes. Will returned with an unconscious Nico in his arms and a deadly glare in his eyes. Will dropped the unconscious Nico into Jason’s lap. Will, like Jason with his unconscious Nico, left the party soon after.
Nico would have cried if he wasn’t so dehydrated. As it was, he stayed curled up in bed until most of the campus had cleared out for winter break.
He was more than happy to leave his apartment after that, knowing that the chances of running into anyone he knew were slim to none. He had no intention of leaving campus until Christmas day, on which he would be forced to share at least one meal with his family, but until then, the campus belonged to him, Jason, and anyone else without reason to celebrate the upcoming holiday.
For the week leading up to Christmas, Nico spent nearly every waking moment thinking about Will. He needed to apologize - that, he was certain - but how? A text out of the blue would be weird, and likely wouldn’t feel genuine. They’d never spoken to each other over the phone, but there was really no reason that Nico couldn’t call Will, aside from the fact that the call would realistically be ignored, and Nico didn’t exactly want to leave a stuttering, stumbling voicemail for Will to replay and make fun of whenever he wanted.
Nico had resigned himself to the fact that he would never be able to attend a hockey game at their school without feeling absolutely miserable, when Jason let himself into Nico’s apartment and announced, “I joined the intramural hockey team.”
Nico frowned. “You’re a football player. Are you allowed to be on other teams?”
“Nope!” Jason replied with a big grin. “But intramural teams don’t count. And I’ve been wanting to get back on the ice ever since-- Uh, the start of the school year, really,” he corrected quickly, as if it would keep Nico from realizing that he meant ever since he’d started hanging out with Will again. “Anyway, we’ve got a game this weekend, and Leo went home with Piper for break, so the stands are basically going to be empty. Wanna come watch?”
It wasn’t like Nico had anything better to do. That weekend, he found himself just as cold inside of a building as he would have been outside, bundled up in his winter coat in a seat one row back from the ice. He didn’t think that an intramural team would get too aggressive, but he also didn’t want to feel like he was about to get killed any time someone was checked into the thin piece of plexiglass protecting him from the action.
He joined the rest of the sparse crowd’s applause when both teams took the ice, cheering particularly loud when he recognized Jason through his helmet - which was fairly easy, considering Jason seemed to be wearing a helmet more often than not during football season. When the other team took the ice, though, Nico’s heart stopped.
Jason hadn’t said anything about playing against their school’s official team.
It didn’t look to be everyone, at least. Probably just the members of the team that lived close enough to their families that they could remain on campus for a bit longer than everyone else, or anyone that might not celebrate Christmas. Nico didn’t see any coaches beside the benches, so it wasn’t like this was any sort of regulation game, or even a required practice.
He forced himself to relax. There was no way Will could possibly be there.
Nico’s heart tried to spring itself free from his chest when the arena’s sound system crackled to life, and an announcer quickly introduced himself as Cecil, a sophomore in the radio department who definitely had permission to be up in the announcer’s box. Then, Nico’s heart shriveled up and died when Cecil announced the team captains that had skated up to center ice as Jason Grace and none other than Will Solace.
He should’ve recognized Will, really. Even among the others on his team, Will held himself the most confidently on his skates, and his blond curls peeked out from the edges of his helmet.
Will moved like a whirlwind across the ice. It was no wonder he was a top projected draft pick - even though he intended to finish his degree before committing to a career as an athlete, he’d told Nico toward the beginning of their friendship. He moved faster and hit harder than some of the best players on the ice alongside him. Even Jason was no match for him when Will checked him into the boards and stole possession at center ice.
Nico had known Will was good, but he was almost like a one-man team.
And the rumors of his aggression on the ice didn’t do him justice.
Will looked like everyone else on skates had done something to personally offend him - even his own teammates. Off the ice, Will always seemed so cheerful and bubbly, but right now, he wasn’t even playing to win - he was playing to kill.
Being nothing more than a friendly scrimmage, the game was scheduled as two halves rather than three periods, cutting it twenty minutes shorter than a regular game. As both teams disappeared to the locker rooms for a break, Nico took out his phone to pass the time. Jason texted him within minutes.
[From: Jason; Sorry, I didn’t know Will was still in town]
[From: Jason; I’ve never seen him this amped up before. It’s kind of freaking me out.]
Nico kept a close eye on Will for the rest of the game - not that he hadn’t been before - and made note of his increased aggression. There weren’t any real refs in the game, since it was nothing more than a friendly match between players who knew how to follow the rules and could discipline themselves just fine. But it meant that Will wasn’t spending any time in the penalty box, or really off the ice at all. He had to be exhausted. The only real good news was that he hadn’t started any fights, probably because everyone else was steering clear of him as much as possible.
When the game ended, Nico texted Jason to let him know that he was heading out, and there was no need to wait for him. Then, rather than actually leaving, Nico lingered in the arena and scoped out the hallway that would lead him back to the locker rooms. He caught sight of boys with hockey duffle bags spilling into the lobby from one direction and, rather than sneaking down into the locker room, staked out the end of the hallway until he saw Will leaving with one of his teammates.
“--get it under control before we’re back to practice,” his teammate said, causing Will to let out a heavy sigh.
“I’m working on it,” Will told him. “I thought I had it figured out, and then-- Whatever. I’ll work on it, alright? Don’t worry about me.”
His teammate clapped him on the shoulder before heading off in another direction, leaving Will to make a straight shot toward the doors.
Nico couldn’t let him get away. He called out, “Will!” and rushed forward, nearly tripping over his own feet when he moved so suddenly.
Will looked… tired. And he certainly didn’t seem happy to have been stopped. Or maybe he just wasn’t happy to see Nico at all. “What do you want, Nico?”
“I’m sorry,” Nico told him, his heart suddenly pounding so loudly in his ears that he couldn’t tell if he was shouting or whispering. “I shouldn’t have kissed you at that party.”
Nico had never been the best at reading facial expressions, but why did Will suddenly look so sad? “Thanks,” he muttered, staring off at something over Nico’s shoulder. “Can I go now?”
“I--” What? No, Will couldn’t leave, not when Nico hadn’t even explained himself! “I’m really sorry, Will. It was stupid of me, and I was really drunk, not that that’s any sort of excuse for--”
“Seriously, you don’t have to explain yourself,” Will told him, looking more and more uncomfortable by the minute.
“I do,” Nico insisted. “Being drunk that one time doesn’t excuse the fact that I was ignoring you for weeks, when you had never been anything but kind to me. When you kissed me, Will, I--”
Will winced. “Please. We really don’t have to talk about this.”
“But I like you,” Nico exclaimed. “I didn’t realize it until you kissed me, and then I… I was fucking terrified.”
“Of what?”
“You!” Nico cringed when Will’s expression hardened. “No! Not you! Of… Dating, kissing… everything. I’ve never done any of this before - I’ve never liked anyone as much as I like you, and that scared the shit out of me! I was so afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to stop myself from kissing you the next time I saw you that I just… ghosted you, which was so stupid of me. And then I fucking went and kissed you anyway, like an idiot, and I’m so sorry for only thinking about myself in all of this. I never wanted to hurt your feelings, but I didn’t know how to deal with my own, so I just… didn’t. How do normal people even talk about their crushes? I feel like my chest is about to explode.”
Warm hands found his shoulders, squeezing comfortingly, and Nico suddenly remembered where he was, and who he was talking to. Before he had a chance to feel completely mortified, Will said, “Take a breath, Nico. Please don’t explode.”
Nico wanted to bury himself in Will’s chest. He was probably sweaty, and likely smelled pretty awful up close, but the hands on Nico’s arms felt so nice that he couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be fully wrapped up in Will. “I won’t explode,” Nico told him, a few seconds delayed.
Will smiled down at him, though he still looked tired. “Good. I would miss you, if you exploded.”
“You would?” Nico asked, his eyes going wide as a realization struck. “I could take you out for dinner. I thought… I thought you were joking, when you suggested-- You were flirting, weren’t you?”
“I was usually flirting with you, yeah,” Will replied. He gave Nico’s shoulders one last squeeze before he let go, and Nico missed the touch immediately. “Can I…take a rain check on that? I just need some time, I think--”
Nico was already nodding. “Yes. Of course. Take all the time you need. I’ll be around for the whole break - I mean, except for Christmas day - so just text me, and-- I mean, I don’t know if you’re going home for Christmas or not, but--”
“I’m not,” Will told him. “Hanukkah’s not really that big of a holiday. But I’ll text you when I’m ready to take you up on your offer, alright?”
“Cool.” Nico took a deep breath. “Okay. Um. You can go now. I mean, I’m also going to leave now, so--”
Will grinned. “Well, it would be stupid not to walk out together, right?”
Nico and Will were dating - officially. No more confusion about we’re just study buddies and he’s just nice because he has to be. Will was nice because he wanted to be. And because he was a nice person, basically all of the time. (Championship games not included. And certainly not games played during a period of time where he was pissed off because the guy he liked was ghosting him, apparently.)
Will liked Nico, too, which he stated very clearly during their first real date, where Nico took him out for dinner. “I figured it was clear, since you knew I was flirting,” Will had told him, his arms stretched out to hold Nico’s hands across the table, a wide grin on his face, “but I wanted to say it anyway. I like you, Nico.”
They’d had a few conversations about communication over the first few days of dating, where Nico tried to make Will understand that he wasn’t the best at understanding subtle cues, though he tried to initiate those conversations as subtly as possible. Will, on the other hand, quickly made it very clear that he was going to be incredibly forthright with his affection for Nico, just to make sure Nico never felt uncertain about Will’s feelings for him again.
The few remaining members of the hockey team hosted a New Year’s party, ending their break from both classes and practice with a bang, and for once, Nico didn’t hesitate for a second before agreeing to go.
The party was much less crowded than every other that Nico had been to, likely due both to the current lack of students on campus and for a desire to give the hosts a chance to let loose a little more than usual. Hosting the usual ragers often left the hockey team only slightly less sober than the DDs, but having fewer guests that were all people the team could trust gave them a bit of a break.
Nico, of course, was never drinking again, and since it was too cold outside to linger longer than strictly necessary, the first words out of his mouth upon entering the hockey house were, “Where can I smoke?”
Will led him down to the basement, empty aside from a small grouping of furniture in one corner. He cracked open a small window on the opposite end of the basement, then joined Nico on the couch, sitting sideways on the cushion with his knee pressed into Nico’s thigh and his arm draped over the back of the couch.
Nico paused in between flicks of his lighter. He glanced up at Will and asked, “Are you sure you wanna sit so close? It’s gonna get smokey.”
Will darted forward, pressing a kiss to his temple. “Maybe I wanna try it out. As long as you’re okay with sharing, of course.”
“Yeah, sure,” Nico told him, and looked down at the joint in his hand. “I probably shouldn’t smoke this by myself, anyway.” He stuck one end between his lips and sparked the lighter, inhaling once it caught. He tipped his head back to exhale, and nearly startled when his head bumped into Will’s arm, rather than resting against the back of the couch.
Will watched every second of it.
“Your turn.” He handed Will the joint, barely holding back a giggle when Will almost dropped it. “It won’t burn you,” Nico reassured him, then added, “just don’t touch the burning end. Duh.”
Will studied the joint. “How do I…?”
“Put it to your mouth.” He did. Nico noted how soft his lips looked around it. “Now inhale.”
Will sucked in a breath, and immediately started coughing. Nico laughed, taking the joint back from him and stealing his own hit.
“Oh god,” Will said in between hacks.
“Coughing is good!” Will glared back at him, and Nico leaned in with a teasing smile. “Means you actually got some smoke.”
Will coughed again, his hand coming up to pull the collar of his sweater over his mouth. Once he was finished, he said, “I don’t see how you’re getting any smoke, since you’re not coughing at all.”
“Practice,” Nico answered easily. “And I’m not sucking it down like it’s a race. C’mon, let’s try again, but this time, I’ll blow some smoke at you, and you just breathe normally.”
Will nodded, so Nico shifted himself closer, angling to face Will. He breathed in deep, then pulled the joint away from his lips to blow smoke into Will’s awaiting mouth. As soon as he leaned in, though, Will closed the distance between them, pressing an unexpected kiss to Nico’s lips and causing him to giggle, smoke pouring out of his nose instead.
“You’re not supposed to kiss me,” Nico said, too delighted to really be upset.
“Sorry,” Will told him, though he didn’t sound very sorry at all. “Can we try again?”
Nico rolled his eyes, and took another hit. He leaned in again, and while the kiss wasn’t quite so much of a surprise the second time around, it still sent Nico into a fit of giggles.
“Sorry!” Will said again, and pressed his lips to Nico’s cheek, his arm coming to wrap around his waist. “I just can’t help myself. Every time you get so close to me, I just have to kiss you.” He kissed Nico’s cheek a few more times, traveling closer and closer to his ear before blowing a raspberry into the side of his neck.
Nico shrieked, and eventually managed to shove Will away. “I thought you wanted to get high!”
“I’m already high,” Will told him, already laughing at whatever he was about to say - which was how Nico knew it was going to be a terrible joke. “High on you.”
Still, Nico laughed anyway. And he shoved Will away again. And he went to take another hit from the joint in his hand, and felt the sting of burning paper licking at his finger. He pulled it away, glancing down at it as he said, “Oh. I’m about to be really high.”
Will was almost entirely sober, and Nico cursed him for it. Despite it being a New Year’s party hosted by some of Will’s very good friends and teammates, he was more than happy to step out when Nico decided that being so high and around so many people was too much for him. Will very calmly ordered an Uber for him while they sat out on the front porch, and pressed a kiss to the side of his head when a car pulled up to the curb.
Nico was afraid for a moment that Will was going to send him off alone, but after helping Nico into the backseat, Will rounded the car and climbed in beside him. Somehow, Will’s hand found its way into Nico’s, their thighs pressed together despite the bench seat being plenty big enough for them to spread out. Will gently stroked his thumb, tracing circles across the back of Nico’s hand. The motion was entrancing, leading Nico to drop his head to Will’s shoulder as he focused on the skin on the back of his hand going numb from the repetitive motion.
The car rolled to a stop, and Nico blinked as Will let go of his hand, then disappeared from the car. He reappeared outside of Nico’s window, and Nico blinked again.
“Up you get,” Will said, because somehow the door had opened without Nico noticing. Will hooked one hand around the back of Nico’s neck while the other gently tugged him out of the car. The hand on his neck, Nico realized after Will pulled him out of there, was there to protect his head from hitting the car’s door frame.
Nico managed to point Will in the direction of his apartment, and the next thing he knew, Will was asking for his keys. “Will you stay?”
“Hm?” Will intoned, and then he was guiding Nico into a chair inside the apartment, and pulling off Nico’s shoes. “You want me to stay?”
Nico nodded slowly, closing his eyes, humming.
“Open your eyes.” Hands gripped his shoulders, and Nico opened his eyes to find Will barely an inch from his face. Kissing distance, really. Supposedly, Will shouldn’t be able to control himself. Will looked at him so deeply that Nico thought a kiss would come any second, so deep that Nico’s insides flipped, but then Will pulled away. “Wow. You are so gone.”
“Hey!” Nico intended to yell, but it came out as a high pitched whisper. He attempted to grab Will, only for Will to gently catch his hand. His fingers pressed warm into Nico’s wrist. They were still close enough that Nico could feel the warmth radiating off of Will, but far enough that Nico could no longer map the patterns of Will’s irises. (They’d been swirling earlier, which was one of the things that let Nico know he’d smoked too much. They swirled like clouds in the sky, or crested like waves in the ocean. Beautiful.)
Nico groused, “You just don’t know how to smoke.”
Will grinned, and pressed a kiss to Nico’s forehead before rising to his feet. He held his hands out for Nico to take, helping him up as well, and asked, “Do you want anything? Or do you think you just need to lay down for a little while?”
A nap sounded very, very good, but since Will was offering-- “Ramen! I’d love ramen.”
“I can make ramen,” Will said. “Show me where everything is, and I’ll make it for you. As long as you’re not looking for anything fancy.”
Even high as a kite, Nico had no trouble directing Will around his kitchen, at least enough to find a pot and a bowl. As he waited for the water to boil, Will said, “Can I see your phone?”
Nico handed it to him without question, and only after Will passed it back a few moments later did Nico ask, “What was that for?”
“I texted Jason,” Will answered. “I don’t have his number. I figured he’d want to know that you made it home safe from the party.”
Nico was going to be incredibly grateful for that when he was finally able to think anything other than, “How are you so smart?”
Will grinned, and leaned closer to whisper, “Handsome, too.”
He winked, and Nico nearly swooned.
There were plenty of post-season games that Nico had the chance to go to, even though he hadn’t gotten to watch any from the championship series. There were a few charity games, as well as more scrimmages with the intramural team and friendly matches with other local colleges and universities just to keep the team in practice.
Will was much more exciting to watch when he was goofing off with his teammates on the ice, clapping them on the back and knocking their helmets together after a good play. Nico could have watched Will on the ice for the rest of his life, if not for the fact that it would mean giving up the ability to take Will on dates and kiss him whenever he wanted.
As always, Nico loitered in the arena’s lobby as he waited for Will to change out of his hockey pads so that they could walk out together. He had his usual vantage point on the hallway that the teams slowly trickled out of, though he didn’t pounce on Will the second he saw him, only because Will was deep in conversation with some of his teammates.
“...out to this bar with the whole second line,” Nico overheard one of them saying, “do you wanna come?”
“Sorry, I’ve got plans with my boyfriend,” Will replied, “but I’ll try to catch you next time, alright?”
Will waved goodbye as he stepped away from the group, and almost walked straight into Nico where he’d practically appeared only a few feet away.
Nico could barely contain his grin, but crossed his arms and tried to look stern anyway. “Did you call me your boyfriend?”
Will blinked, then: “Oh, shit. We are boyfriends, right?”
Nico hummed, but he could feel his composure breaking, so he looked up at the ceiling in exaggerated thought. “I don’t know, I wasn’t asked beforehand…”
“Oh, okay,” Will said, a bright grin stretching across his face. He rolled his eyes, grabbed Nico’s chin, and kissed him lightly. “Will you be my boyfriend?” he asked, voice low.
Nico smiled against Will’s lips. “Yes.”