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Jem had agreed to attending a wedding as his coworker's date in part because of the promise that Will would owe him a favour and in part because the idea of spending a few hours without having to share Will's attention with customers or their supervisor or other coworkers was too good a deal to pass up. He had not realized he was agreeing to a destination wedding with Will's entire family in attendance.
"I hate you sometimes," Jem said when Will explained this a few days later.
"Listen, it's a plus one invitation, it's an inclusive week at a resort. I've already negotiated us both the time off and I very nearly needed to sell my kidneys to convince him to give us both the time off at the same time but I did it," Will said.
"You're bullying me into this now?" Jem asked.
"I will pay for your flight, everything else is taken care of, free vacation, think of the free vacation. I cannot handle my sisters alone for an entire week, I need someone to save me. Save me, Obi Wan Jem, you are my only hope," Will said.
"Playing your boyfriend for three hours at some church is very different than playing your boyfriend for a week while we are trapped in a resort in a foreign country with a bunch of strangers," Jem said.
"We can avoid the strangers, you can spend the entire week drunk, don't make me go alone," Will said.
"You could bully another friend into this," Jem said.
"I don't like my other friends enough to spend a week trapped with them in a foreign country with my sister's friends, come on," Will said.
And that stupid little joke, that unreasonable glimmer of hope, that was the thing that frayed Jem's better judgement. Now he was here, getting off a plane and having Will take him by the hand and lace their fingers together. Jem almost swore at him in self defense but Will didn't stop to ask questions or say anything that would give Jem a good excuse for lashing out. Jem held his hand and when they stopped to wait for their baggage to come around on the little cart, Jem slipped an arm around his waist.
"See, not so hard," Will said.
Jem had wanted to make him uncomfortable in retaliation for the hand holding but Will took everything in stride including this. Jem now had no idea how to get out of it without making it more awkward so he was still holding onto Will when a voice behind them said, "Gwyllim!"
Jem did swear but very softly. Will snorted in his ear and told him to smile as he turned him around to meet the bride to be. Will's little sister was like a smaller female version of himself. Same black hair but worn extremely long. Same dark blue eyes but Cecily wore make up that made them even more noticeable, same sarcastic tilt of her smile. They chattered in Welsh for a moment and then proper introductions were made.
"So did you finally drive off every woman in London and now you've moved onto the men?" Cecily asked.
"Actually, I brought him because I was hoping I could start a row with old homophobic Uncle Alan," Will said.
"Ugh, you're a terror. Why did I invite you?" she asked.
"Because I am your favourite brother," Will said.
"You're my only brother."
"Therefore your favourite."
"If you start a fight at my wedding with Uncle Alan or the waiter or your cute boyfriend, I am disowning you and I'm sure I can convince Mam to disown you as well."
Their bickering continued and Jem was sort of pulled along in it as they gathered luggage. Cecily had come in on another flight since her and the groom, who Will had not yet referred to by name, had flown in from somewhere in America, not the UK. By the time they had made it to the resort, Jem was already fond of Cecily and knew that Will was distinctly not fond of Gabriel. The rooms were all clustered together on the fourth floor of the resort and some people, Will's older sister, a few of Cecily's friends, Gabriel's father, were already there.
"What did her fiance ever do to you?" Jem asked once they were safely in the room with the door shut on all the chattering happy people. Jem was already overwhelmed.
"Do you want to share or should we see if the couch is a pull out?" Will said ignoring the question.
The room only had one bed. Jem looked at it for a minute and then rather than dealing with that problem, and the prospect of waking up beside Will, he grabbed his bag and retreated into the bathroom. He leaned against the door and shut his eyes. This trip was going to kill him. His crush on Will was going to go from a low key attraction that just skirted the line past friendly and all the way into heartbreaking pining. He turned on the shower and tried to pretend he was at home.
Saying what he thought of Gabriel was not an option so Will was choosing the next best option, he was avoiding the man altogether. Jem was a fantastic excuse for that and the fact that Jem had apologized and retreated to the room rather than mingling when they got to the hotel just made it easier. He was tired and so they couldn't come to the big group dinner and Will regretted it so much.
"I'm taking you to dinner at the little cafe by the beach, put on something pretty," Will had said pounding on the door while Jem had what had to be the longest shower on record.
When Jem finally emerged with his hair just starting to dry so it flipped up at the very edges like it was thinking about curling and a white shirt open over a pair of khakis and bare feet. His shirt wasn't buttoned and his chest caught Will's attention and then it slid down. Against the bright white of the shirt, his skin was a golden brown and his pants hung low on his hips as though they could slip off if he moved wrong.
"Is this what people wear at resorts? I look a golfer," he said.
"You really don't," Will said.
Jem gave him another one of those glares that he had been shooting at Will since the airport. Will wasn't sure what exactly it said, only that it wasn't happy. Will flashed him a grin and the glare fizzled a little bit. Will got up off the chair by the window and and crossed to Jem. Jem watched him get closer with an even gaze and Will's heart rate picked up just a little bit more with each step until it was racing by the time he was close enough to touch.
Here was a line.
Will ignored that and reached out to tug Jem's shirt front together and start buttoning it for him. He left a few buttons undone at the top so the line of Jem's throat was obvious. Jem said nothing. Will smirked at him as he buttoned up the shirt but left a few buttons open at the bottle. He managed it without touching skin which was both a missed opportunity and a great relief.
Then he rolled the sleeves up to the elbow. Here he did touch skin but it was just arm. Still. He was far too aware of the texture of Jem's skin and the warmth of it. Will stepped back and observed his handiwork and made a show of examining Jem until he got just a shadow of discomfort. He adjusted Jem's collar and brushed imaginary dust off his shoulders because he wasn't ready to let Jem out of reach again.
"Is that acceptable for a date with William Herondale?" Jem drawled in a voice that dripped with sarcasm.
"You'll do," Will said.
Will took the opportunity to grab Jem by the shoulders and physically spin him and push him out of the room. He'd gotten more opportunities to touch Jem out of the past 24 hours than 5 years of not so accidental moments at work. Jem seemed mildly exasperated by the entire thing but hadn't shied away from the touch and there had been that moment when he had initiated it in the airport and Will had gotten to spend nearly five minutes with Jem's arm around his waist and their bodies close enough to feel the warmth of him.
The meal wasn't awkward. Jem laughed and talked with his hands and teased him about how much he hated Gabriel. They traded stories about childhoods and families and the only interruption was the waiter bringing them more wine or offering dessert. Over a cup of coffee at the end of the meal, Will decided that if the rest of the trip was an unmitigated disaster, it would be worth it for this fake date.
They came back up the beach to find Cecily and Gabriel as well as a group of their friends drinking by the pool. Will groaned but they had already been seen and Cecily was waving. Will banged his head on Jem's shoulder like he was banging it against a wall. Jem shoved him off and it probably looked like horsing around from a distance. Will grabbed him and pulled him back in to whisper in his ear.
"Stab me," Will said.
"Too messy, will you settle for poison?" Jem asked.
"Fast acting?"
"Sure."
"Then yeah, poison is fine. Just do it soon."
They were close enough now for Will to raise his voice to a normal volume and with a cheery wave say, "Hi Cece! Hi Lightwood! Hi people who went to that fancy design school in New York! How's the water? How's the cheap rum?"
"Don't be an asshole or I will drown you," Cecily said.
Somehow this exchange ended with them changing into swim suits up in the room and coming back down to the pool. Jem had thrown the white shirt back on without buttoning it up again and Will had to pointedly force himself not to look. Jem wasn't even complaining about it. He seemed to have settled down from his earlier flash of annoyance and was his usual serene self. Will on the other hand was more on edge. He wanted Jem too much and didn't know how the hell to deal with it.
Jem didn't get in the water, he just sat on the edge and dropped his feet in. Will wasn't given that luxury. Before he had even taken off his shirt, his other sister, the older taller blonder one, hit him around the waist and knocked them both into the water in a flail of limbs and screaming that left Will with a mouthful of water and enough of a shock that he almost panicked. He surfaced and spun looking for an attacker to find Ella pushing her hair out of her face and laughing at him.
"You are 29 years old, stop behaving like a twelve year old, what if you had killed me and we'd become one of those cautionary tales on the news?" Will said to her.
Ella just flung water in his face and swam away cackling. Will sulked back over to the shallower edge where Jem sat near the little crowd. He leaned his back against Jem's knees. The touch was a consolation after being dunked into a pool with no warning. Jem was behind him and above him and surprised him by smoothing the wet hair that was plastered across Will's face back. It was an intimate and affectionate gesture and Will had no idea what anyone was saying to him even as he engaged in the small talk about jobs and home towns.
Jem stayed there at his back as the conversation wove on and more drinks were ordered. Cecily and her obnoxious fiance were there in the water, curled around each other but Jem playing with his hair and leaning against his shoulder was more than enough of a distraction. Gentle fingers at his temple and Jem's voice near his ear and it was so easy like this to forget that they weren't actually together. This felt like it should be right and just the way things always were but it wasn't.
Jem woke up to a pounding on the door and a weight on his chest. He blinked into the sunlight and Will popped up out of the blankets beside him. The weight was Will's arm. They'd fallen asleep in the bed without actually talking about it. Jem had refused to mention it because he didn't want to accidentally let slip how much he wanted it. Will hadn't mentioned it for whatever reasons were there inside Will's head. Will apparently did not stay in one place when he slept. He had rolled over into Jem at some point in the night.
Heavy and warm and solid. He lifted his head out of the blankets and looked up at Jem. They were close enough for a kiss. Jem forgot how words worked. Will was nearly lying over him and his imagination was going a mile a minute in directions he wasn't sure he was strong enough to survive considering.
"Get out of bed, you slug!" a voice on the other side of the door called.
Will pushed up and got out of bed without saying anything. He'd fallen into bed with his hair partially wet from the pool and now it was a mussed tangle around his head. He slept in track pants and a t-shirt that clung to his shoulders. Outside the door was Ella. Jem was suddenly aware that he had spent the night in bed with Will. He was rumpled and blushed a little when Ella met his gaze. She didn't mention it. Of course not, Will had told them all they were dating. Of course they shared a bed. Jem couldn't get his pounding heart to calm.
"Mam and Dad got here this morning, we're doing brunch in an hour. Bring the boyfriend. Be aware that Mam is pissed you didn't mention him ever before inviting him on this trip so expect the third degree and a lot of fussing," Ella said.
"Fuck," Will said.
"You're own fault, baby brother. You know better than to try and keep secrets from our mother, she always finds out in the end," Ella said.
"Fuck," Will said again, conversationally, as though it were a full sentence. Ella patted his cheek and walked away. Will closed the door on her and pressed his back to it like he needed to hold out an invading horde. He was adorable with his hair like that and when he reached up to push both hands through his hair, the t-shirt lifted up and gave Jem a view of a little bit of stomach.
"How did we meet?" Will asked.
"We worked together," Jem said.
"Oh, right," Will said.
"We don't need a lie, just tell her we've been dating for the last few months," Jem said.
"Right, yeah, I can do that," Will said.
The brunch went well. Jem liked Will's parents immediately. They had that undefinable something of two people who were still madly in love even after a lifetime together. Will was on his best behaviour and it was another side of him. He was more polite when his mother was in the room and he got flustered more easily. To see someone who always seemed confident and well put together, fall apart and stumble over his words during an introduction was almost painfully endearing.
Jem picked up more the conversation than he had expected. He made up stories about first dates and being nervous about being invited to a family wedding so soon and wove in actual stories of things they had gotten up to at work or while hanging out on weekends.
"We have a great relationship," Will said when they had gotten away from the brunch and were walking along a boardwalk in the sunshine.
"Do we?" Jem asked.
"Apparently, did you hear all those stories you tell? Sounds better than my last three real relationships combined," Will said.
"You have shitty taste in girlfriends," Jem said.
"True, I should just date you all the time," Will said.
It was a joke and it made Jem's chest freeze up anyways. He had to suck in air around the lump in his throat and it made him cough a little. They were halfway down to the beach. They hadn't been going anywhere really, just away from all the family bonding time. Jem put on a little bit of speed so he was walking a few steps ahead. Will stayed quiet for a long moment and they were down at the water before he said anything else.
Jem stood with his feet just on the edge of the wet sand. Beyond them the beach fanned out and was full of people but just here, at the bottom of the stairs, was quiet for a moment. Will fell in beside him and Jem turned to him and would have said something to break the tension but Will's face was closer than he expected and the words died.
"Really?" Will said.
"Really what?" Jem was defensive again, he could hear it in his own voice. Swimming home seemed like a better option than this conversation.
"If I kissed you, would you punch me?" Will asked.
Jem gave up on the pretense that he wasn't interested. He let all that defensiveness into his expression when he said, "Yes because you're screwing around and I'm falling in love and it's less funny every minute it goes on like this."
He would have gone into a rant but Will's hand caught his cheek and turned his face back so they were almost nose to nose and all the words died. He wasn't sure he remembered his own name when he was this close to Will's eyes.
"I'm screwing around because I haven't got a shot in hell. You can't get rejected if you never let the other person know," Will said.
It was Jem that closed the distance for a kiss. He leaned into Will's hand first and that put him just a fraction closer and then their mouths were together. Will tasted like coffee and was surprisingly gentle. He cradled Jem's face in his hands and kissed him softly. Just a brush of lips, then another, then a little bit harder. Jem let his hands fall to Will's waist and pulled him in a little closer.
When the kiss broke, they didn't step away from each other. Jem held onto Will's hips and Will wrapped his arms around Jem's neck and their foreheads touched. It was comfortable and easy and felt right. Will chuckled and it was an almost embarrassed sound. Jem drew back enough to kiss the end of his nose and then settled their foreheads together again.
"Hey, Jem?" he said.
"Yeah?"
"Wanna go on a date with me?" Will asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I do," Jem said.