Archive of Our Own

Thinking about kissing a friend in broad daylight is a fiscal responsibility Mike should learn how to uphold.

It’s simply just practical. 

You see, Ted had always taught Mike to always be opportunistic — be extroverted and go out there to talk to people, know the keys to persuasion and use it to your advantage, and grab every opportunity that life brings to you. Maybe even make that opportunity yourself if life doesn’t hand it to you on a silver platter, but Mike doesn’t need to do that right now.

This has shaped Mike to the leader he is — brave and bold — from his years of experience of being a Dungeon Master to burning bridges over a capstone project because they’re in college and some are still acting like a middle schooler. People just can’t seem to get their shit together. 

Anyhow, Mike knows all the logical steps to take, which is why he majored in business and not in creative writing. Ted had said that it was practical. It sucks, sure, but it still suits Mike somehow — both opportunistic and outright greedy. 

Perhaps this astute advice from a father who’s fairly ignorant is what brought Mike here on this very sunny day from across the road, staring at the huge whiteboard sign for a moment too long that the guy holding it assumes interest.

Kiss your homie for 5 seconds and win a brand new TV!

Upon a further look, Mike notices that the guy was wearing those Ray-Ban Meta glasses. He glances at his surroundings, trying to see if anyone else is interested in this… social experiment? He sees that some people are doing a double take, squinting their eyes at the sign like they read it wrong. People are simply passing by, busy with their own lives. 

For someone like Mike, it is never enough to just be an onlooker. He can’t be passive, not now, especially when the opportunity is practically thrown at his face. It takes form in a whiteboard sign with the words Kiss your homie in blue marker. The big rectangular box settled on the ground is just an incentive.

Fuck it. 

The recording Ray-Ban Meta glasses won’t stop Mike. He crosses the road, looking left and right until he’s reached his objective. 

The guy points his finger and gestures at Mike to come closer. “Hey, you down?” he asks.

This is recorded and is going to be posted, Mike thinks as he takes another look at the guy’s glasses. He shouldn’t act so rashly, especially when he’s in public and wearing his student ID. This whole interaction is going to be posted, but it won’t stop Mike from simply grabbing this golden opportunity. It’s practical! 

Mike crouches to check the box. “Is this legit?” he asks, opening the topmost part of the box. He removes the styrofoam and sees the untouched flatscreen television. 

“Yeah, man. The TV’s all in there.”

Mike continues to inspect the box. It was a 40-inch Hisense H4 series Roku Smart TV, with warranty and all. Mike weighs the pros and cons in his head, but there are hardly any cons at all other than the public humiliation he’ll face.

But that’s a problem reserved for the future Mike to face.

He stands up after fully inspecting the TV, deciding that it’s definitely worth it even if he— they don’t need a TV right now. “And it’s all free?” Mike inquires, still skeptical but now willing.

The guy nods. “Yeah. You just have to kiss your homie. It’s gotta be a man, though.” 

Look, kissing’s no problem. Mike knows how to do that like the back of his hand. A homie? That’s also not a problem. A good friend would help Mike out with this. But Mike hasn’t tried kissing a man yet, but he is very, very open to it for some reason. Very interested about trying it out with a certain homie.

Mike clears his throat, trying to stop daydreaming about kissing a homie because he has to think about how to get his homie to try this challenge out with an open mind. Very clever, Michael. “I’m not with a friend right now, though. Mind if I give someone a call so he can come over here?”

“You can ask anyone here. It can be any guy.”

“No. I’m calling someone. Hold on.”

It’s a non-negotiable for Mike. The sign clearly says homie, so of course he’ll be calling his dear best friend! Why would he take a random stranger when someone is a perfect candidate? He grabs his phone from his pocket and calls Will, only for him to decline the call. He furrows his eyebrows in both curiosity and worry, as Will usually picks up on the third ring. He opens the Messages app to ask what’s going on, only to find a text from Will already sent to him.

True to his word, Will does arrive in five minutes. Mike notices how Will’s forehead was forming tiny beads of sweat and the rise and fall of his chest, trying to catch his breath. Mike was about to be flattered by the fact that Will ran just because he had told him to come, but when he followed where Will’s eyes were focused on, Mike stills.

The whiteboard.

In Mike’s head, this was the thought process — one, Will already came out as gay and wouldn’t mind kissing a guy. And two, they’re friends. Best friends, even. Surely they’re both comfortable doing this challenge, because it’s a hundred times better than kissing a total stranger, right?

Right?

The guy was the first to break the ice. “Okay, you guys down for this?” he asks, tone slightly a little too high like he was excited for something to transpire between the two. 

Will doesn’t speak, instead throwing intense looks at Mike. Luckily, Mike knows him enough to read what it means. Are you serious right now? What the fuck is this?

And so, Mike answers the guy on behalf of Will. “Yeah,” he answers, trying to keep his voice level because he cannot, at all cost, sound weirdly excited. “We’re down.”

“Are you guys straight?”

See, Mike keeps having an identity crisis over his own sexuality. He keeps on saying that he’s straight, but he’s not that opposed to being with a guy. A certain guy, in fact. Right now, he’s looking forward to kissing Will! It doesn’t sound straight at all, but Mike swears has no interest in other men. Just Will. 

But they’re just friends. It’s very normal to think like that, especially that they knew each other the longest. That’s just closeness. An unbreakable bond thing. Which is why Will is the perfect candidate to be the homie which Mike will kiss. That’s not gay at all.

Mike was the first to answer the question. “I am,” he says, feeling like he had to force that answer out. For some reason, saying the next words were hard to verbalize, like it was a heavy burden he had to carry. “I have a girlfriend.”  

“Nah, I’m– I’m gay, yeah. I have a boyfriend,” answers Will, who was suddenly looking around the place.

Mike leans into Will’s ear to whisper. “Nervous?” which he earns a shove from Will, because Mike always invades his personal space. Will does not say anything to Mike’s teasing.

“You two have partners?” 

They both nod and answer in unison like they were two peas in a pod. “Yeah, yeah.” 

The two share a look. Will was the first one to avert his eyes.

Will pulls out his phone apologetically. “Let me– uh, call my boyfriend and ask if this is okay. Real quick.” he says to the guy.

Right. Mike was so caught up in the idea of kissing Will that he actually forgot that he has an obligation to tell stuff like this to his girlfriend. He chuckles nervously. “Let me do that, too. Wait a sec.”

He calls El. She declines it on the first ring. He receives a text from her in an instant.

She’s exactly just like Will, Mike thinks.

By the time he’s finished talking to El, Will was also getting off the phone. He looked annoyed, which worried Mike. He was about to ask, but Will beats him to it. He steps closer to Mike, whisper-shouting his predicament. “Carl’s overreacting. He asked if I was cheating on him. I said ‘I’m literally informing you and I’m asking if you’re okay with it’ and I also explained that it’s for a free TV. He asked who I was going to kiss and said it was you. He got mad!” Will rolls his eyes and scoffs in disbelief. “Carl said that it would’ve been fine if it was literally anyone else. I’m so sick of him telling me what to do.”

Stupid fucking Carlton. 

If only it was Mike. 

He’d treat Will so much better than Carlton ever could. No man in their right mind would ever get mad at Will. Matter of fact, Carlton should be groveling right now for Will’s forgiveness. If Will ever gets mad at Mike, he’d be on his knees and hugging Will’s leg in an instant.

Stupid Carlton doesn’t know what he’s about to lose in just five seconds.

Will turns to the poor guy who was holding the whiteboard for far too long and says, “I’ll do it.”

Mike’s heart did a flip, but perhaps it was just the adrenaline starting to rush at the thought of kissing a man for the first time. Because, allegedly, Mike is not gay and is not at all interested in his best friend like that!

“Great!” The guy eagerly puts the whiteboard down on the ground. “You guys ready?”

Will nods. Mike could only swallow his own saliva because his mouth went dry all of a sudden.

“Three,”

Mike’s breathing turns shallow, hands slightly shaking from anticipation. Where would Will put his hands? Would Will kiss him back with fervor? Does Will even want to kiss Mike back, or is it simply out of spite for Carlton?

“Two,”

He’s imagined kissing Will before. A lot of times, actually. It might explain his odd behavior of not keeping eye contact whenever he’s with Will because his eyes are simply drawn to Will’s lips. Mike wonders if his lips are as soft as it was in his dreams. Fuck, are his lips chapped? How is he supposed to perfectly kiss Will now?!

“One.”

Don’t think, just do.

When Will rests his hands on his neck, Mike absolutely loses it.

Mike wraps his arm on Will’s waist, the other creeping up on his back. He sees the surprise in Will’s eyes when Mike lowers him down, pretty hazel eyes all wide for him to see. The sun kisses his face, accentuating his freckles, and Mike wants to kiss it like how the sun did.

He could practically feel that fucking Ray-Ban Meta glasses recording his every move and the passersby stopping in their tracks just because Mike decided to do a dip kiss like they were newlyweds when they could literally just kiss like a normal couple. A couple of friends, yes, but it’s not looking good for them because Will had his leg up! Friends don’t hold each other like they do, but they’re not like any normal friends. They knew each other best, had been friends since kindergarten, even fought otherworldly monsters — though that memory was hazy and Mike isn’t sure if that was even real.

His train of thought is put into a halt when Will’s hand moves toward the back of Mike’s head and pulls him in for a kiss. It’s not exactly a kiss, per se. Their lips are just resting on each other’s. Still, Mike’s world tilted on its axis. Will is the sun and everything feels warmer, and all Mike wants to do is to take, take, and take until it burns.

“Five,” the guy counts. “C’mon, open up. I’m not seeing any kissing.” he says impatiently.

Fuck his stupid straight life.

When Will shyly parts his soft lips, Mike dives in so he could drown himself in Will’s mouth — his tongue seeking for the words left unsaid years ago, while also simultaneously pouring the wanting he repressed for so long. What surprises Mike is that Will returns the same fervor in the kiss, sucking on his lower lip and immediately diving back to pay attention to Mike’s eager tongue.

The ever opportunistic Mike being greedy is no surprise. He, for sure, is going to kill Carlton for having all this and not worshipping it in the slightest.

“Four,” 

Will’s hand threads through Mike’s hair and tugs, eliciting a quiet moan from Mike that the only two could hear, noise drowned out by the people’s chatter. Mike stills in horror, because what the actual fuck was that, which earns him another tug from Will who was still busy with his mouth.

“Three,”

The hair tug puts Mike’s body into a jumpstart, like he went to a system reboot. Now that the haywire’s resolved, Mike goes back to what matters — kissing Will stupid until he forgets that Carlton ever existed. Will smiles into the kiss, making Mike’s heart flutter like he was just experiencing love for the very first time.

Mike starts to doubt everything he has learned about love, because he’s holding it in his arms now, and carrying that feels so light and so right.

“Two,”

The two get carried away, the kiss almost bordering on public indecency. There was an influx of onlookers with their phones out, recording the two men who were so keen on winning a TV. Mike doesn’t know whether to feel ashamed for doing this in public, but he’s willing to pay the price. He gets to kiss Will and keep a TV at that. 

Another tug from Will.

Mike’s grip on his waist becomes firmer. “Fuck, Will.” he softly sighs into Will’s mouth.

“One,”

Mike was the first to pull away, albeit reluctantly, to breathe. He helps Will stand back up properly because doing a fucking dip kiss must have hurt his neck or something, but Will stumbles over nothing, eyes dazed and lips pink. 

“There we go!” The guy cheered, and so did a few onlookers. They were gawking at the two like they put on a spectacular five second show.

“Got dizzy, sorry,” Will giggles, and Mike has never heard anything so beautiful. What more if it were his—

“You guys just won a brand new TV! How do you feel?”

Mike’s heart was still pounding. “I feel pretty great, like, I could take on the world right now,” he says without thinking properly.

“I know,” Will backs him up. “I feel– I, uh… I don’t know what to say.” 

The guy turns to Mike, who was still breathing pretty hard from just a five second kiss. Embarrassing. “Do you still feel straight?”

Fuck no.

But Mike isn’t going to say that on camera.

“Yeah– yeah,” Mike answers with feigned confidence. “pretty much, yeah, actually. I think that kissing another guy is, uh, peak masculinity or something. I’m very straight.” 

Will snorts. He is feeling more embarrassed about Mike’s statement than the making out in public thing, but he doesn’t tease him for it. Not yet. Mike looks so fucking constipated.

“Whatever you say,” the guy in Ray-Bans says, not entirely convinced. “Well, you guys can take home the TV. Congratulations!”

Will gives the guy a small smile, ignoring Mike who is standing there like a stupid tree waiting to be climbed for some reason. He takes a step towards the box and leans down to pick it up, which makes Mike snap out of his trance all of a sudden. 

Mike doesn’t let Will carry the brand new TV, let alone lend a helping hand. The two walked in silence back to their shared apartment. Will kept his eyes peered on the ground out of embarrassment, while Mike glared at anyone who stared at them in judgment.

Of course the people would stare at them. They made out for fuck’s sake! 

Or maybe they’re just jealous that Mike won a TV, or that he got to kiss a pretty guy. Either way, Mike still won.

Will opens the door for him. Once they step foot in their apartment, Mike puts the box down and tries to make small talk after all that. Yikes.

“Uh,” Mike starts, giving Will a sheepish smile. “Want to try it out? The TV, I mean.”

Will desperately tries to hold back his laugh, because Mike looked like a kicked puppy. He just won a TV, he should be celebrating! “Sure,” he says, taking a step closer to Mike. “Let me help you set–”

“Will, no,” Mike interrupts. “Just go sit down on the couch. Eat my Pringles or use my Geek Bar or something. I just want you to relax.”

“Okay…” 

That’s weird, Will wants to say. It was really weird that Mike would let him use his Geek Bar. 

A month ago, which is a night that Will remembers as clear as day, he was full of curiosity. He recalls asking Mike, “Can I hit?” and Mike just started fumbling with his belt to take it off with no explanation. Will was laughing so hard that he turned red while breathlessly explaining through his tears, “I meant your vape! Put your pants back on!” and Mike looked so disappointed, he swore not to let Will touch any of his things including the said vape.

But now, settled on the couch, Will is not interested in the Geek Bar on the coffee table at all and instead blatantly stares at Mike who was setting the TV up. 

He sure can hit.

Once the TV was all set, Mike hands the remote to Will. He doesn’t argue on which show to watch. He just wants to bask in Will's warmth who was sitting beside him in silence.

Will breaks the silence as he clicks on a random show. “Why’re you so quiet? Is it because we made out–”

“Will,” Mike closes his eyes, feeling ashamed of the whole… incident. Yes, money-wise, he did the right thing. But as a friend… “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I should go talk and say sorry to that idiot Carl–”

“Shut up.”

All of Mike’s worries melted when Will grips his shirt and pulls him in for a kiss. It was different than it was earlier — this one was soft and slow, now that they had all the time in the world. The sounds from the TV fills the room, together with hums of approval from the two as they explore each other’s mouths once again.

The two end up sprawled on the couch, not really paying attention to the show when they have each other right there. Mike holds Will in his arms, stealing kisses here and there, admiring what he deprived himself of having years ago.

All it took was a free TV.