neighbors | solangelo au

1.12

tw;; how fucking gay nico is for will

Nico woke up and stared at the ceiling for a few minutes. He needed to convince himself, before he started the day, that whatever he'd been feeling the night before (well, really, earlier that morning) was composed entirely of adrenaline and caffeine and an emotional high point. Will's my best friend; I was just happy to hang out with him, he thought, actually believing himself a bit when it was put that way.

He got downstairs into the kitchen and realized he was wrong. 

Will was sitting cross-legged on the counter, drinking coffee out of Nico's favorite mug, and Nico struggled to breathe normally when he first made eye contact with Will. He was surprised Will didn't notice the surprise (panic? excitement?) that was probably evident on his face.

"Finally, you're up," Will said, holding another mug in Nico's direction.

"Thanks for inviting yourself in." Nico struggled to speak casually, and tried, maybe a bit too hard, to keep his fingertips from brushing Will's as he took the coffee.

"Hey, don't complain; I made you coffee," Will said, flashing Nico a smile that made his stomach flutter.

"Touché."

So Nico had been on a bit of a caffeine high and caught up in the moment a bit, but, in all honesty, that probably just magnified his stupid crush so that he'd actually notice it. And okay, maybe he'd already noticed and tried to make it go away, but thanks to stupid Mrs. Larsen and her stupid fucking strong coffee, he now knew that he was in over his fucking head and there was no way he was going to stop being really fucking hung up on Will.

Bianca walked in from the living room, interrupting Nico's train of thought, for which he was kind of grateful, but also kind of not. 

"I feel like you spend more time in this house than I do," she said to Will with a laugh.

"You're always out with Sha-, I mean, Brian," Nico said.

"I make you dinner most of the time," Bianca protested. "You'd probably starve without me."

"I would no- actually, you're right," Nico replied.

"I wouldn't let you starve," Will remarked. "Although, all I can make is grilled cheese and scrambled eggs."

Nico reminded himself to breathe, and tried to grin at Will like he wasn't completely falling apart. "Thanks. See, Bianca? I don't need you."

She shook her head and tsked. "You'll be sorry if I ever take a semester out-of-state."

.

Will had to go to some "new student orientation" thing for school, so Nico sat on Will's front steps to wait for him to come back, and tried to convince himself that everything would be okay, that this horrible crush situation would work out somehow. He'd had feelings for guys in the past, and those had gone away, so this inconvenience would be short-lived, right? He'd just have to deal until then. As long as Will didn't find out, everything would be fine.

Nico reconsidered slightly when Will and his dad got back and Nico's eyes hit Will's face, but he told himself he was overreacting, and conjured up what he hoped was a casual smile.

"Staying for dinner, Nico?" Andy asked, stopping at the screen door to wait for Nico's answer.

"Sure, if it's no trouble," Nico replied, and then forced himself to keep his breathing even as Will took a seat on the porch beside him.

"So, how'd it go?" Nico pulled out his phone to text Bianca that he was staying at Will's for dinner and let the distraction help keep his voice even.

Will shrugged. "Fine. But, you know, who the hell wants to go back to school?"

"Me," Nico replied sarcastically. "I love getting three hours of sleep and spending most of my day with people I hate."

Will grinned. "Technically I'm part of your grade now so I take personal offense at that."

Nico grinned back. "Okay, so I hate everybody but you and, like, that quiet girl in my gym class last year."

"I'm honored to be part of such an exclusive group," Will joked.

"Shut up," Nico said, laughing and pushing Will gently (and pulling his hand back from Will's shoulder as quickly as he could without seeming suspicious).

Andy called something from the kitchen, which Nico didn't hear because he was wishing he had kept his hand on Will's shoulder a second longer, and Will, who didn't seem to notice Nico's distraction, yelled back "okay!" and pushed himself to his feet, waiting for Nico to follow before going inside.

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sorry the ending was hella awkward. writer's block is a bitch.

i feel like i haven't written bianca enough, so i'll have to put a lot of bianca into part 2 to make up for it.

xo - lucy