Original - “Melt”
Title: Melt
Universe: Menagerie
Prompt: “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
Wordcount: 3690
Genre: Humor/Romance
Rating/Warnings: T for language
Summary: It’s the last week before Christmas break, and all Toni wants is for things to be normal. At least, that’s all he thinks he wants. Enter some creative matchmaking.
Author’s Notes: For richelle2972, who asked for Will/Toni and the song prompt and has been very patient about this fic’s belatedness. ♥ It’s finally done; I hope you enjoy it! :D
-
“So is that guy still stalking you?” Toni asks as he packs up to go to the observatory, and his brother gives him a look that’s equal parts bemused and questioning. Toni shakes his head. “You know him. The curly-haired one. Who shouted your name across the entire student union that time just to wave to you on his way out.”
“Oh, you mean James?” Paolo asks, laughing softly. “He’s not stalking me; he’s just my lab partner.”
“Trust me, he’s stalking you,” says Toni, tucking his star chart and red keychain flashlight into his bag. “He keeps coming up to me in my Roman History class and asking weird stuff, like what your favorite color is and what kind of shampoo you use. I started giving him really sarcastic answers when he wouldn’t shut up, but he’s been so persistent that I’m starting to wonder if he doesn’t realize I’m screwing with him.”
Paolo taps a fingernail against his lips in thought. “That would explain the bouquet of thistles. And the plush cockroach. And the Twilight-themed candy hearts.”
Toni groans. “Oh, Paolo, I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Paolo says, grinning hesitantly. “It’s nice that he wants to be friends.”
“I don’t think he just wants to be your friend,” Toni mutters under his breath, but finishes packing up, puts his jacket on, and heads outside, where he finds Zephyra waiting for him to walk to the observatory.
Zephyra isn’t the kind of girl he ever thought he’d be friends with - she’s giggly and excitable, and she actually reads those celebrity gossip magazines - but when a General Ed requirement landed him in an enormous Intro to Astronomy class with one face he recognized from the Classics department, it was impossible for the two of them not to feel a kind of solidarity. Having gotten to know her a little better, he’s discovered that beneath the slightly ditzy exterior, she has a sharp mind and a wicked, surprising sense of humor, and the two of them actually get along very well.
“I need a date for the Christmas Dance,” Zephyra laments as they make their way across campus to the sciences court. “But all the guys I know are either taken or not worth my time. You don’t count,” she adds immediately. “You’re a Classics major.”
“What does that have to do with it?” Toni asks, amused.
“Departmentcest,” says Zephyra, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. At his blank look, she elaborates, “Dating someone from your own major is like incest.”
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Toni laughs, though he can sort of see what she means. Classics is a small enough major that even as a sophomore, he already recognizes most of the faces in the department, and sometimes it does feel like being part of a family.
“Who’re you going with?” Zephyra wants to know.
“Nobody,” Toni says. “There’ll be plenty of people there without dates to dance with. Paolo and Bianca are both going stag, too.”
“Breaking hearts must run in your family,” Zephyra says, shaking her head. “I know that guy from Roman History really wants to go with your brother-”
“You mean the creepy guy who’s stalking him?”
“-and I’m sure there are lots of guys who’d love to go with Bianca.”
“You mean there are lots of guys who don’t realize that she would eat them for breakfast,” Toni says. Bianca is more devoted to her studies of pharmacology than many parents are to their children, and he and Paolo are the only people Toni’s ever seen her show genuine warmth towards. She’s very polite to those around her, but guys who try to pick her up usually end up running the other direction after a dose of the touch me and I will cut off your hands and feed them to you look.
“Well, you should bring a date,” Zephyra says, holding the door to the observatory open for him as they arrive.
“Too late,” says Toni, turning to walk backwards as he enters. “Already bought my ticket.”
“You can still have a date,” Zephyra tells him accusingly. “You just- watch the step down!”
Toni’s not even aware of falling - one moment, he loses his balance, and the next, he’s in someone’s arms. Their owner laughs, then gently sets him on his feet.
“Careful,” says the tall, sturdily-built young man who’s just released him. “Don’t let the floor sweep you off your feet. It won’t call the next day.” He grins infuriatingly. Toni’s eyes widen.
“It was an accident!” he snaps. “Why the hell would anybody put a step down there?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to take that one up with the architect,” says the young man, with a smile that looks far too much like a smirk for Toni’s tastes. “Do watch your step on the way up to the telescope, though.”
“Sure, thanks,” Toni says shortly, then adds, “you asshole,” under his breath as he turns and heads up the staircase.
“Why’d you snap at him like that?” Zephyra asks the moment they’re out of earshot. “He was such a gentleman!”
“A gentleman who was laughing at me for falling?”
“He wasn’t; he was laughing at the situation!”
“You always give people the benefit of the doubt,” Toni points out.
“No, I don’t.”
“Creepy Stalker Guy.”
“Oh, come on, he seems nice, and he just likes your brother-”
“Exactly,” says Toni, and reaches for the telescope. And though he does spend quite a while complaining about the encounter to Paolo later, he assumes that after that, the matter is closed.
He’s wrong, apparently, because when he sits down in Roman History the next day, Zephyra drops into the seat beside him with an excited look on her face.
“D’you know who that guy is?” she asks excitedly. “The one who saved you last night?”
“Don’t you think ‘saved’ is a pretty strong word for it?”
“He’s one of the stars of the fencing team and he just won some kind of award in the Physics department! They had some kind of science fair, and apparently he did this really brilliant project on neuron stars-”
“I think you mean neutron stars.”
“-and everyone I talked to agreed that he’s one of the most eligible bachelors at the school right now!”
“I don’t care.”
“Are you guys talking about Will Leone?” Stalker Guy drops into the seat next to Zephyra.
“No,” says Toni.
“Do you know him?” Zephyra asks delightedly, and Toni applies his palm to his face.
“Yeah, he lives right below me and Martin. We never see his roommate, but Will comes to our game nights and stuff sometimes. Speaking of which, we’re having one tonight; you should come.”
Toni blinks at him. “You’re inviting us?” All he gets in response is return-blinking. “Why?”
“Well… why not? You both seem cool, and you’ve been really nice about telling me stuff your brother likes.”
It takes Toni a moment to register the lack of sarcasm, but when he does, he experiences an enormous wave of guilt. This guy really is that straightforward and naïve. And he still genuinely wants to date a version of Paolo that likes thistles and cockroaches because they’re gritty and ironic and sleeps with paranormal romance novels under his pillow, if Toni’s sarcasm has really been going over his head.
That sounds terrifyingly like true love.
Which is how Toni finds himself letting Zephyra drag him to the game night that evening. James and Martin live on the east side of campus, in the residence hall made up of two-person apartments.
“Hello!” James calls, flinging open one of the second-story doors and beaming down at them as they approach the building. Either someone saw them through the window, or he actually is a total stalker. “You’re just in time! We’re about to play Game of Thrones ale-pong Risk!”
Toni takes a moment to parse that sentence and temporarily settles on the illegal part. “Is anyone at this party twenty-one?”
James’s bright expression doesn’t falter. “It’s ginger ale! We have tankards to drink it out of! You divide into teams for the different families, and you put the tankards around a map-” He’s run down the staircase and is pulling them up it and inside now, and Toni starts to wonder what he’s gotten himself into.
The living room of the apartment is tidier than he thought it would be, but, having seen the inside of James’s backpack, he chalks the neatness up to Martin, who’s pouring tankards of ginger ale and setting them carefully on the table. To Toni’s surprise, Paolo and Bianca are sitting on one of the couches listening to him explain something about the map that’s laid out as a game board.
“Hello again,” says Will, who’s sitting on the other couch. “Here to play, Toni? Going to throw a glass of water in my face if I beat you this time?”
“Augh!” Toni buries his hands in his hair. “It was five years ago, Will, and you were asking for it; let it go!”
“You know him?” Zephyra demands.
“Unfortunately,” says Toni, aware that the rest of the room as gone quiet, “yes.” He glares around. “What?”
“Antonio and I have known each other since elementary school,” Will explains with a mischievous grin. “I believe our first meeting involved me causing him to drop his lunch tray and ending up with a handful of macaroni and cheese in my face. Our relationship continued in the same romantic vein until my family moved away in tenth grade; I wasn’t aware that we attended the same college until yesterday.”
Toni groans. “Of all the goddamn places you could have gone.” He sees Zephyra opening her mouth excitedly and gives her a don’t even think about it look. “Weren’t we going to play the game?”
They do, thankfully, and it turns out to be a lot more fun than he expected. Once they’ve been playing for a while and need a break, Martin suggests that they watch the first episode of the show James apparently based it on.
“Um,” says James. “Only if we skip part.”
“Why do we need to skip part?”
“Because there is at least one person in this room who will kill me for the character I made them in the game.”
Bianca rolls her eyes. “We’re not children, James. I don’t care if you made me the villain. Nothing about a fictional character is going to make me try to kill you.”
James eyes her and Paolo. “I beg to differ.”
As it turns out, James is right.
Toni goes home that night with his ribs sore and his face tear-streaked from laughter, and decides that maybe letting Zephyra drag him to a social event wasn’t such a bad idea this time.
The next night, Toni revises his opinion entirely when an ice-zombie ambushes him on his way back from capoeira.
“Wh… what the hell?” is all he has time to gasp before the thing is staggering towards him, fingers curled like claws, head tilted unnaturally to one side. He can’t see very much through the dark and the bloodstained bandages wrapped around its head, just ice-white skin and blue lips, but he turns and runs rather than waiting to see. Its footsteps start to chase him.
Dimly, through a haze of what the fuck what the fuck oh holy shit I’m going to die, he registers that he’s on east campus, not far from where they were last night, and diverts his course towards the familiar building. There’s the staircase up to James’s and Martin’s apartment, and tucked beneath it, another door, which Toni throws himself at and pounds on.
“William, open the fucking door, oh my god-”
Before he can finish drawing a breath to continue screaming, the door swings open, and he tumbles inside and slams it behind him, sliding the deadbolt home with shaking hands. For a moment, he just hangs onto the handle, gasping for breath, and then Will’s holding him and saying something in an urgent, serious tone.
“-happened? Do you want me to call the police?”
“I d-don’t know.” He’s numb with shock. What the hell just happened? There’s no way it can be real, no goddamn way; creatures like that don’t exist, and its eyes were too human. Its eyes were familiar. Now that he thinks about it, he swears he’s seen them somewhere before-
It hits him suddenly, obvious and unmistakable now that he’s actually thinking.
“JAMES!” he shrieks. “That bastard! I’ll fucking kill him!” He lunges for the door, but Will catches him around the waist and holds on, ignoring his struggles. “Let me go! I’m going to rip off his head and kick it into orbit!”
“Whoa, calm down,” says Will, dodging one of Toni’s flailing arms without releasing his midsection. “I’m not letting you leave until you promise not to commit homicide.”
“That will be never! Let me go, Will; he’s going to die-”
“Let me get you something to drink,” Will says firmly, lifting him bodily and carrying him over to the sofa in front of the TV. “What do you want? Juice? Tea? Water?” He picks up the remote and pauses what’s playing, and Toni takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.
“James Hawke’s blood,” he says. “Though I would also settle for his tears. What are you watching?”
“Um,” says Will, turning slightly pink, “Firefly. It’s a sci-fi show.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that. Is it good?”
“I think so. Want to see the first episode?”
It isn’t until Will insists on walking him back to his dorm, after half the season, Indian takeout, and a surprisingly peaceful evening, that Toni wonders if James was planning this all along.
“You were planning this all along!” Toni accuses at the dance the next night when he sees who he’s been dragged over to, and Zephyra grins.
“Well, only since the party Tuesday night. Come on; just one dance.”
“He doesn’t have to dance with me,” says Will. His eyes twinkle a little. “If he’s not confident in his dancing skills…”
“I am perfectly confident in my dancing skills,” Toni snaps. He didn’t even know Will did social dance, too. “Don’t you have six hundred other girls asking you to dance rather than being coerced into it by their friends?”
Will raises an eyebrow. “Jealous?”
Toni doesn’t even dignify that with a reply, just glares and turns on his heel to stomp out of the gym. The cold night air diffuses his anger, though, and he takes a deep breath and looks up into the dark sky above the courtyard; it’s starting to snow. In spite of the dance going on in the room behind him, light and noise spilling out through the windows and doors that line the covered walkway, the courtyard itself is dark and deserted, its few small lights giving it a blue-gray hue under the cloudy sky.
“Sorry to intrude,” Will’s voice murmurs from behind him, and Toni spins. “All joking aside, though, I would like a dance. May I have one if I promise not to tease you?”
“If you must,” Toni says grudgingly. “But I’m doing it as a favor to you.”
Will’s smile is maddening. “Of course.” He offers his left hand and right arm, and Toni hesitates a moment before taking them, suddenly nervous. Will’s hand is hot around his, which feels nice in the chilly air.
One song ends and the next comes on, a fast waltz. They start to dance around the outside of the courtyard, and Toni discovers that Will is a good lead: he gives clear signals but doesn’t manhandle Toni. Which is good, because last time a guy did that Toni wanted to punch his throat out.
“You look rather serious,” Will laughs. “Is dancing with me that unpleasant?”
“I was thinking,” Toni says. Will doesn’t ask about what, and he’s grateful for that, too.
“Do you have any classes tomorrow, or are you already free for break?”
“The section I had was cancelled, but Paolo and Bianca both have labs in the evening, so we’re not getting the train back home until after dinner.”
“I’ve never asked you before, but it must be nice to be so close to your brother and sister.”
“It is. You’re an only child, right?”
Will nods, then smiles a little. “We never really talked about that sort of stuff, did we? We were too busy sniping at each other and pretending to be enemies who just happened to have the same group of friends and spend lots of time together. Why do you think we didn’t want to admit the truth?”
“Because you were always so godawful smug,” says Toni. “You still are.” For some reason, this only makes Will grin.
“Do you remember my last day there? When you hit me?”
“Yes,” says Toni, feeling his cheeks go warm. The snow is falling harder now, settling on their clothes and in their hair, and they’re leaving footprints around the courtyard as they dance. “You were being an ass.”
“Was I?” Will asks, raising an eyebrow and looking amused. “Because all I remember doing is stopping you behind the science building…” He halts their motion along one of the edges of the courtyard, and before Toni knows it, his back is against one of the wide pillars that support the overhang for the walkway, and Will’s body is pinning him there. “…telling you I’d miss you…” He puts a finger under Toni’s chin, the other hand still on his waist, and gently tips his face up. “…and stealing a kiss.”
Toni really should have seen this coming, but he’s as unprepared for the warm mouth that descends on his as he was back then. Will kisses the same way as before: like he knows exactly what he’s doing and exactly what he wants, and something about that confidence makes Toni’s treacherous body go all hot and shaky. Maybe because Will is the only person he’s ever met who’s had the balls to kiss him. Whatever the cause, it’s close and overwhelming and plucking at places in his body which send such thrumming chords of pleasure through him that it’s a little scary.
When Will tries to coax his mouth open, it’s too much, and he panics. That is, if you take panics to mean shoves Will off, punches him, and runs.
It’s not the most dignified exit, but then again, there’s something to be said for repeating the past.
Just like last time, it doesn’t make Toni happy. Even the next day, having caught the bus into town to go to his favorite ice cream parlor, all he can think about is what a coward he is. He got amazingly lucky and then wasted that luck because he was too scared to make himself vulnerable. Will has probably already realized that he could find dozens of people confident enough to take him at his word without running away and hitting him in the face.
Toni takes a sip of his milkshake and shivers, wondering if for once, it’s not making him feel better enough to be worth it. He frequents this place all seasons of the year, and today, with four inches of snowfall from overnight turning the town into a Christmas card, he’s the only one in the brightly-colored little shop.
The bell on the door jingles, and someone else enters, and Toni blinks dumbly at him for a moment or two before his brain really processes who it is.
“Hey,” says Will, sitting across from him at the little table. “I’ll go if you want.”
Toni’s mouth opens, closes, and opens again. He feels like a fish. “How did you know to find me here?” Will grins tentatively.
“How do you think? Your older siblings told me.”
“Paolo and Bianca told you where to find me?” Toni buries his face in his hands. “How could they sell out their own little brother?”
“Because I told them I was sorry.” Will’s voice is gentle. “I didn’t mean to take things too far or too fast.”
“You’re sorry? I punched you in the face!”
“It didn’t hurt,” Will says, grinning. “You have a weak arm. Or maybe your heart wasn’t in it.” It’s the same tone he always takes, the same grin, but now Toni thinks he can hear the flirtation in it, along with an edge of caution. And then it hits him: Will is still here. He’s willing to be patient, willing to keep trying, willing to make an effort for Toni rather than giving up on him. “In all seriousness, though, if you want me to stop, just say the word and I will.”
He’s watching Toni intently now, waiting for an answer, and Toni feels trapped. His instinct is to lie, because if he never admits he cares, he can never get hurt. That’s how he’s always done things. But he’s never before been offered something that he thinks might be worth the risk.
It took courage for Will to kiss him, both times. It must have taken courage to come here, knowing he might be shot down, and offer anyway. Maybe it’s time for Toni to be brave, too.
“I… want you…” He hunches down over his milkshake and hides his face. “…to stay.” That wasn’t as hard as he expected.
There’s a silence, and he looks up, cheeks on fire. Will is grinning, but it’s not the smug grin. It’s the happy grin, the genuine one, the one Toni likes best.
“All right,” he says, “then I’ll stay.” He nudges Toni’s wrist with a knuckle and smiles. “So, I’ve heard you love this place. What would you recommend?”
And Toni thinks that he should have known, that his first date with Will would, just would be sitting across a bright orange plastic table from him, eating ice cream on a freezing winter morning, Will’s knees under the table pressed up warm against his.
Universe: Menagerie
Prompt: “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
Wordcount: 3690
Genre: Humor/Romance
Rating/Warnings: T for language
Summary: It’s the last week before Christmas break, and all Toni wants is for things to be normal. At least, that’s all he thinks he wants. Enter some creative matchmaking.
Author’s Notes: For richelle2972, who asked for Will/Toni and the song prompt and has been very patient about this fic’s belatedness. ♥ It’s finally done; I hope you enjoy it! :D
-
“So is that guy still stalking you?” Toni asks as he packs up to go to the observatory, and his brother gives him a look that’s equal parts bemused and questioning. Toni shakes his head. “You know him. The curly-haired one. Who shouted your name across the entire student union that time just to wave to you on his way out.”
“Oh, you mean James?” Paolo asks, laughing softly. “He’s not stalking me; he’s just my lab partner.”
“Trust me, he’s stalking you,” says Toni, tucking his star chart and red keychain flashlight into his bag. “He keeps coming up to me in my Roman History class and asking weird stuff, like what your favorite color is and what kind of shampoo you use. I started giving him really sarcastic answers when he wouldn’t shut up, but he’s been so persistent that I’m starting to wonder if he doesn’t realize I’m screwing with him.”
Paolo taps a fingernail against his lips in thought. “That would explain the bouquet of thistles. And the plush cockroach. And the Twilight-themed candy hearts.”
Toni groans. “Oh, Paolo, I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Paolo says, grinning hesitantly. “It’s nice that he wants to be friends.”
“I don’t think he just wants to be your friend,” Toni mutters under his breath, but finishes packing up, puts his jacket on, and heads outside, where he finds Zephyra waiting for him to walk to the observatory.
Zephyra isn’t the kind of girl he ever thought he’d be friends with - she’s giggly and excitable, and she actually reads those celebrity gossip magazines - but when a General Ed requirement landed him in an enormous Intro to Astronomy class with one face he recognized from the Classics department, it was impossible for the two of them not to feel a kind of solidarity. Having gotten to know her a little better, he’s discovered that beneath the slightly ditzy exterior, she has a sharp mind and a wicked, surprising sense of humor, and the two of them actually get along very well.
“I need a date for the Christmas Dance,” Zephyra laments as they make their way across campus to the sciences court. “But all the guys I know are either taken or not worth my time. You don’t count,” she adds immediately. “You’re a Classics major.”
“What does that have to do with it?” Toni asks, amused.
“Departmentcest,” says Zephyra, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. At his blank look, she elaborates, “Dating someone from your own major is like incest.”
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Toni laughs, though he can sort of see what she means. Classics is a small enough major that even as a sophomore, he already recognizes most of the faces in the department, and sometimes it does feel like being part of a family.
“Who’re you going with?” Zephyra wants to know.
“Nobody,” Toni says. “There’ll be plenty of people there without dates to dance with. Paolo and Bianca are both going stag, too.”
“Breaking hearts must run in your family,” Zephyra says, shaking her head. “I know that guy from Roman History really wants to go with your brother-”
“You mean the creepy guy who’s stalking him?”
“-and I’m sure there are lots of guys who’d love to go with Bianca.”
“You mean there are lots of guys who don’t realize that she would eat them for breakfast,” Toni says. Bianca is more devoted to her studies of pharmacology than many parents are to their children, and he and Paolo are the only people Toni’s ever seen her show genuine warmth towards. She’s very polite to those around her, but guys who try to pick her up usually end up running the other direction after a dose of the touch me and I will cut off your hands and feed them to you look.
“Well, you should bring a date,” Zephyra says, holding the door to the observatory open for him as they arrive.
“Too late,” says Toni, turning to walk backwards as he enters. “Already bought my ticket.”
“You can still have a date,” Zephyra tells him accusingly. “You just- watch the step down!”
Toni’s not even aware of falling - one moment, he loses his balance, and the next, he’s in someone’s arms. Their owner laughs, then gently sets him on his feet.
“Careful,” says the tall, sturdily-built young man who’s just released him. “Don’t let the floor sweep you off your feet. It won’t call the next day.” He grins infuriatingly. Toni’s eyes widen.
“It was an accident!” he snaps. “Why the hell would anybody put a step down there?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to take that one up with the architect,” says the young man, with a smile that looks far too much like a smirk for Toni’s tastes. “Do watch your step on the way up to the telescope, though.”
“Sure, thanks,” Toni says shortly, then adds, “you asshole,” under his breath as he turns and heads up the staircase.
“Why’d you snap at him like that?” Zephyra asks the moment they’re out of earshot. “He was such a gentleman!”
“A gentleman who was laughing at me for falling?”
“He wasn’t; he was laughing at the situation!”
“You always give people the benefit of the doubt,” Toni points out.
“No, I don’t.”
“Creepy Stalker Guy.”
“Oh, come on, he seems nice, and he just likes your brother-”
“Exactly,” says Toni, and reaches for the telescope. And though he does spend quite a while complaining about the encounter to Paolo later, he assumes that after that, the matter is closed.
He’s wrong, apparently, because when he sits down in Roman History the next day, Zephyra drops into the seat beside him with an excited look on her face.
“D’you know who that guy is?” she asks excitedly. “The one who saved you last night?”
“Don’t you think ‘saved’ is a pretty strong word for it?”
“He’s one of the stars of the fencing team and he just won some kind of award in the Physics department! They had some kind of science fair, and apparently he did this really brilliant project on neuron stars-”
“I think you mean neutron stars.”
“-and everyone I talked to agreed that he’s one of the most eligible bachelors at the school right now!”
“I don’t care.”
“Are you guys talking about Will Leone?” Stalker Guy drops into the seat next to Zephyra.
“No,” says Toni.
“Do you know him?” Zephyra asks delightedly, and Toni applies his palm to his face.
“Yeah, he lives right below me and Martin. We never see his roommate, but Will comes to our game nights and stuff sometimes. Speaking of which, we’re having one tonight; you should come.”
Toni blinks at him. “You’re inviting us?” All he gets in response is return-blinking. “Why?”
“Well… why not? You both seem cool, and you’ve been really nice about telling me stuff your brother likes.”
It takes Toni a moment to register the lack of sarcasm, but when he does, he experiences an enormous wave of guilt. This guy really is that straightforward and naïve. And he still genuinely wants to date a version of Paolo that likes thistles and cockroaches because they’re gritty and ironic and sleeps with paranormal romance novels under his pillow, if Toni’s sarcasm has really been going over his head.
That sounds terrifyingly like true love.
Which is how Toni finds himself letting Zephyra drag him to the game night that evening. James and Martin live on the east side of campus, in the residence hall made up of two-person apartments.
“Hello!” James calls, flinging open one of the second-story doors and beaming down at them as they approach the building. Either someone saw them through the window, or he actually is a total stalker. “You’re just in time! We’re about to play Game of Thrones ale-pong Risk!”
Toni takes a moment to parse that sentence and temporarily settles on the illegal part. “Is anyone at this party twenty-one?”
James’s bright expression doesn’t falter. “It’s ginger ale! We have tankards to drink it out of! You divide into teams for the different families, and you put the tankards around a map-” He’s run down the staircase and is pulling them up it and inside now, and Toni starts to wonder what he’s gotten himself into.
The living room of the apartment is tidier than he thought it would be, but, having seen the inside of James’s backpack, he chalks the neatness up to Martin, who’s pouring tankards of ginger ale and setting them carefully on the table. To Toni’s surprise, Paolo and Bianca are sitting on one of the couches listening to him explain something about the map that’s laid out as a game board.
“Hello again,” says Will, who’s sitting on the other couch. “Here to play, Toni? Going to throw a glass of water in my face if I beat you this time?”
“Augh!” Toni buries his hands in his hair. “It was five years ago, Will, and you were asking for it; let it go!”
“You know him?” Zephyra demands.
“Unfortunately,” says Toni, aware that the rest of the room as gone quiet, “yes.” He glares around. “What?”
“Antonio and I have known each other since elementary school,” Will explains with a mischievous grin. “I believe our first meeting involved me causing him to drop his lunch tray and ending up with a handful of macaroni and cheese in my face. Our relationship continued in the same romantic vein until my family moved away in tenth grade; I wasn’t aware that we attended the same college until yesterday.”
Toni groans. “Of all the goddamn places you could have gone.” He sees Zephyra opening her mouth excitedly and gives her a don’t even think about it look. “Weren’t we going to play the game?”
They do, thankfully, and it turns out to be a lot more fun than he expected. Once they’ve been playing for a while and need a break, Martin suggests that they watch the first episode of the show James apparently based it on.
“Um,” says James. “Only if we skip part.”
“Why do we need to skip part?”
“Because there is at least one person in this room who will kill me for the character I made them in the game.”
Bianca rolls her eyes. “We’re not children, James. I don’t care if you made me the villain. Nothing about a fictional character is going to make me try to kill you.”
James eyes her and Paolo. “I beg to differ.”
As it turns out, James is right.
Toni goes home that night with his ribs sore and his face tear-streaked from laughter, and decides that maybe letting Zephyra drag him to a social event wasn’t such a bad idea this time.
The next night, Toni revises his opinion entirely when an ice-zombie ambushes him on his way back from capoeira.
“Wh… what the hell?” is all he has time to gasp before the thing is staggering towards him, fingers curled like claws, head tilted unnaturally to one side. He can’t see very much through the dark and the bloodstained bandages wrapped around its head, just ice-white skin and blue lips, but he turns and runs rather than waiting to see. Its footsteps start to chase him.
Dimly, through a haze of what the fuck what the fuck oh holy shit I’m going to die, he registers that he’s on east campus, not far from where they were last night, and diverts his course towards the familiar building. There’s the staircase up to James’s and Martin’s apartment, and tucked beneath it, another door, which Toni throws himself at and pounds on.
“William, open the fucking door, oh my god-”
Before he can finish drawing a breath to continue screaming, the door swings open, and he tumbles inside and slams it behind him, sliding the deadbolt home with shaking hands. For a moment, he just hangs onto the handle, gasping for breath, and then Will’s holding him and saying something in an urgent, serious tone.
“-happened? Do you want me to call the police?”
“I d-don’t know.” He’s numb with shock. What the hell just happened? There’s no way it can be real, no goddamn way; creatures like that don’t exist, and its eyes were too human. Its eyes were familiar. Now that he thinks about it, he swears he’s seen them somewhere before-
It hits him suddenly, obvious and unmistakable now that he’s actually thinking.
“JAMES!” he shrieks. “That bastard! I’ll fucking kill him!” He lunges for the door, but Will catches him around the waist and holds on, ignoring his struggles. “Let me go! I’m going to rip off his head and kick it into orbit!”
“Whoa, calm down,” says Will, dodging one of Toni’s flailing arms without releasing his midsection. “I’m not letting you leave until you promise not to commit homicide.”
“That will be never! Let me go, Will; he’s going to die-”
“Let me get you something to drink,” Will says firmly, lifting him bodily and carrying him over to the sofa in front of the TV. “What do you want? Juice? Tea? Water?” He picks up the remote and pauses what’s playing, and Toni takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.
“James Hawke’s blood,” he says. “Though I would also settle for his tears. What are you watching?”
“Um,” says Will, turning slightly pink, “Firefly. It’s a sci-fi show.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that. Is it good?”
“I think so. Want to see the first episode?”
It isn’t until Will insists on walking him back to his dorm, after half the season, Indian takeout, and a surprisingly peaceful evening, that Toni wonders if James was planning this all along.
“You were planning this all along!” Toni accuses at the dance the next night when he sees who he’s been dragged over to, and Zephyra grins.
“Well, only since the party Tuesday night. Come on; just one dance.”
“He doesn’t have to dance with me,” says Will. His eyes twinkle a little. “If he’s not confident in his dancing skills…”
“I am perfectly confident in my dancing skills,” Toni snaps. He didn’t even know Will did social dance, too. “Don’t you have six hundred other girls asking you to dance rather than being coerced into it by their friends?”
Will raises an eyebrow. “Jealous?”
Toni doesn’t even dignify that with a reply, just glares and turns on his heel to stomp out of the gym. The cold night air diffuses his anger, though, and he takes a deep breath and looks up into the dark sky above the courtyard; it’s starting to snow. In spite of the dance going on in the room behind him, light and noise spilling out through the windows and doors that line the covered walkway, the courtyard itself is dark and deserted, its few small lights giving it a blue-gray hue under the cloudy sky.
“Sorry to intrude,” Will’s voice murmurs from behind him, and Toni spins. “All joking aside, though, I would like a dance. May I have one if I promise not to tease you?”
“If you must,” Toni says grudgingly. “But I’m doing it as a favor to you.”
Will’s smile is maddening. “Of course.” He offers his left hand and right arm, and Toni hesitates a moment before taking them, suddenly nervous. Will’s hand is hot around his, which feels nice in the chilly air.
One song ends and the next comes on, a fast waltz. They start to dance around the outside of the courtyard, and Toni discovers that Will is a good lead: he gives clear signals but doesn’t manhandle Toni. Which is good, because last time a guy did that Toni wanted to punch his throat out.
“You look rather serious,” Will laughs. “Is dancing with me that unpleasant?”
“I was thinking,” Toni says. Will doesn’t ask about what, and he’s grateful for that, too.
“Do you have any classes tomorrow, or are you already free for break?”
“The section I had was cancelled, but Paolo and Bianca both have labs in the evening, so we’re not getting the train back home until after dinner.”
“I’ve never asked you before, but it must be nice to be so close to your brother and sister.”
“It is. You’re an only child, right?”
Will nods, then smiles a little. “We never really talked about that sort of stuff, did we? We were too busy sniping at each other and pretending to be enemies who just happened to have the same group of friends and spend lots of time together. Why do you think we didn’t want to admit the truth?”
“Because you were always so godawful smug,” says Toni. “You still are.” For some reason, this only makes Will grin.
“Do you remember my last day there? When you hit me?”
“Yes,” says Toni, feeling his cheeks go warm. The snow is falling harder now, settling on their clothes and in their hair, and they’re leaving footprints around the courtyard as they dance. “You were being an ass.”
“Was I?” Will asks, raising an eyebrow and looking amused. “Because all I remember doing is stopping you behind the science building…” He halts their motion along one of the edges of the courtyard, and before Toni knows it, his back is against one of the wide pillars that support the overhang for the walkway, and Will’s body is pinning him there. “…telling you I’d miss you…” He puts a finger under Toni’s chin, the other hand still on his waist, and gently tips his face up. “…and stealing a kiss.”
Toni really should have seen this coming, but he’s as unprepared for the warm mouth that descends on his as he was back then. Will kisses the same way as before: like he knows exactly what he’s doing and exactly what he wants, and something about that confidence makes Toni’s treacherous body go all hot and shaky. Maybe because Will is the only person he’s ever met who’s had the balls to kiss him. Whatever the cause, it’s close and overwhelming and plucking at places in his body which send such thrumming chords of pleasure through him that it’s a little scary.
When Will tries to coax his mouth open, it’s too much, and he panics. That is, if you take panics to mean shoves Will off, punches him, and runs.
It’s not the most dignified exit, but then again, there’s something to be said for repeating the past.
Just like last time, it doesn’t make Toni happy. Even the next day, having caught the bus into town to go to his favorite ice cream parlor, all he can think about is what a coward he is. He got amazingly lucky and then wasted that luck because he was too scared to make himself vulnerable. Will has probably already realized that he could find dozens of people confident enough to take him at his word without running away and hitting him in the face.
Toni takes a sip of his milkshake and shivers, wondering if for once, it’s not making him feel better enough to be worth it. He frequents this place all seasons of the year, and today, with four inches of snowfall from overnight turning the town into a Christmas card, he’s the only one in the brightly-colored little shop.
The bell on the door jingles, and someone else enters, and Toni blinks dumbly at him for a moment or two before his brain really processes who it is.
“Hey,” says Will, sitting across from him at the little table. “I’ll go if you want.”
Toni’s mouth opens, closes, and opens again. He feels like a fish. “How did you know to find me here?” Will grins tentatively.
“How do you think? Your older siblings told me.”
“Paolo and Bianca told you where to find me?” Toni buries his face in his hands. “How could they sell out their own little brother?”
“Because I told them I was sorry.” Will’s voice is gentle. “I didn’t mean to take things too far or too fast.”
“You’re sorry? I punched you in the face!”
“It didn’t hurt,” Will says, grinning. “You have a weak arm. Or maybe your heart wasn’t in it.” It’s the same tone he always takes, the same grin, but now Toni thinks he can hear the flirtation in it, along with an edge of caution. And then it hits him: Will is still here. He’s willing to be patient, willing to keep trying, willing to make an effort for Toni rather than giving up on him. “In all seriousness, though, if you want me to stop, just say the word and I will.”
He’s watching Toni intently now, waiting for an answer, and Toni feels trapped. His instinct is to lie, because if he never admits he cares, he can never get hurt. That’s how he’s always done things. But he’s never before been offered something that he thinks might be worth the risk.
It took courage for Will to kiss him, both times. It must have taken courage to come here, knowing he might be shot down, and offer anyway. Maybe it’s time for Toni to be brave, too.
“I… want you…” He hunches down over his milkshake and hides his face. “…to stay.” That wasn’t as hard as he expected.
There’s a silence, and he looks up, cheeks on fire. Will is grinning, but it’s not the smug grin. It’s the happy grin, the genuine one, the one Toni likes best.
“All right,” he says, “then I’ll stay.” He nudges Toni’s wrist with a knuckle and smiles. “So, I’ve heard you love this place. What would you recommend?”
And Toni thinks that he should have known, that his first date with Will would, just would be sitting across a bright orange plastic table from him, eating ice cream on a freezing winter morning, Will’s knees under the table pressed up warm against his.