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“Ow. Ouch. Ow, Will, careful.”
“Oh stop. I’m only trying to help you,” Will chastises. Mack huffs and crosses his arms over his chest, angling his face away from the cold pack Will’s been holding against it for the past thirty seconds. Will looks at him with an expression that practically screams ‘really?’.
“It hurts,” Mack grumbles petulantly. The muscles in his cheek are still spasming, and he hasn’t been able to open his left eye properly yet. Each time he tries, the cut atop his eyelid splits apart again, blood seeping down his skin and mottling his eyelashes.
“I know, baby, but we need to ice it, otherwise it’ll only get worse,” Will says. He’s hovering above Mack’s lap, knees bracketing Mack’s thighs, and he’s frowning softly. Mack just wants to kiss him, but Will keeps refusing to let Mack have a kiss until his lip has stopped hurting.
And Mack has tried using the cheesy cliché of ‘kissing will make it better’ but Will has adamantly refused each and every time, so now Mack is not just in pain, but he’s also grumpy. A great combination.
“At least we won,” Mack says as he curls his fingers around Will’s wrist, guiding the ice pack forward once more. Will chuckles but it’s weak, the sound floating off his tongue without any real flavour or truth to it. Mack frowns. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Will mutters. He shifts closer, spare hand cupping Mack’s jaw as he soothes his thumb over the uninjured side of Mack’s face. Mack hums and lets his right eye slipped closed, a soft sigh slipping from his lips.
“I’m not buying it,” he says. Will sighs and Mack peeks his eye open again, catching the tears in Will’s eyes before he can turn his head away. “Smitty, are you crying?” Mack asks. He frowns softly to himself when Will pulls his hand away, his weight dropping down to rest atop Mack’s lap.
“You scared me,” Will admits, and the way his voice shakes, edging eerily close to having it crack, makes Mack’s heart shatter. He doesn’t care about any pain in his face, any blood that’s still lining his skin. He needs Will in his arms.
Tugging him forward, Mack lets Will hide his face in his neck, a few trace tears meeting the exposed skin of his back. Neither of them says anything, too wrapped up in the moment to break it with words. They’d only say something awkward and muck it up anyways, Mack especially.
Will nuzzles further into Mack’s neck after a few seconds, a soft apology slipping from his lips. Mack huffs fondly and soothes a hand through Will’s curls, careful not to yank or snag too hard. Will’s normally into that, but this was neither the time nor place for anything too rough.
“Now you know how I felt that day in Pittsburgh,” Mack teases. He shouldn’t. He should drop the moment and let it be, but Will still whines, another apology slipping forth in a way where Mack can hear the clench of his teeth. Mack huffs fondly, angling his head until he can press a kiss to Will’s hair. “I’m teasing. That wasn’t your fault and we both know it.”
“And this incident wasn’t yours,” Will mutters. He sounds almost half asleep and Mack can’t help but giggle over it, the pure, unfiltered love he feels for Will seeping through his heart and simmering in his veins. Love isn’t something he’d ever thought about before, but of course it’s Will who pushes him there. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that, babe,” Mack mutters. Will sniffles and wipes his nose with the back of his hand before he gently presses the ice pack to Mack’s skin again. Mack hisses but doesn’t pull away this time. Some part of him thinks Will might break if he does.
“I’m supposed to be taking care of you, and yet here I am, crying on your shoulder,” Will says. He sniffles and wipes his nose again and Mack can’t help but laugh fondly. Will whines and pinches his arm. “I’m being serious.”
“I know you are but babe, I really don’t care. If you need to cry on me, go ahead,” Mack says. Will huffs at him, but there’s no bite to it, no malice. Just unbearably comfortable fondness that makes Mack almost dizzy with how much love he hears in it.
“You’re an idiot,” Will says, but he shuffles closer all the same, thumb gently brushing over Mack’s still-puffy top lip as he shifts the ice pack carefully. Mack hisses and Will smiles apologetically, but he doesn’t let the words ‘I’m sorry’ fall from his mouth again. Mack giggles.
“Yours.”