Work Text:
Will hates McDonald’s. Loathes it. He would rather be shot dead than ever think of stepping foot inside one. The greasy fast food place went against all his codes of honor (as a med school student, he had a reputation to uphold). He could practically see the disgusting green and brown smell fumes like those in a cartoon radiating off the place every time he drove by the local one conveniently placed just down the street from University. Don’t even get him started on the food—more like shit —that they serve there. Completely fake and filled with additives, chemicals, and god knows what. Anyways, the point is that he hates McDonald’s.
Until one day after staying at school well into the evening, a little longer than he’d normally stay, it was around 11 pm when he finally decided to go home. He’d been working on some important research paper and hadn’t noticed the skip in time while he was chumming it in the library, surrounded by nothing but medical textbooks and essays. Boring, but he loved it.
Will had left school after getting kicked out by the security guards doing their nightshift before they locked up the campus, and he suddenly had the most urgent need to go pee.
I’m just going to hold it in, Will thinks, steeling his bladder to suck it up. It doesn’t last long because as soon as he takes one step forward, he can feel his bladder swishing around and he needs to suck in a breath before he does something super embarrassing.
Will mentally counts to three and all but dashes to where his car is parked, instantly letting out a sigh of relief when he sits his ass down on the soft cushiony seat. At least this way, he could physically steel his bladder by having something of support for it. It was weird logic, but it somehow made sense in his mind.
Will starts up the car and drives at a snail's pace, afraid that he’ll actually piss all over the floor if he moves even a bit too fast. There’s not much traffic around—hardly any actually—but the car behind him honks loudly as it switches lanes and promptly revs the engine before speeding off. Jerk, Will thinks as he crawls along, stopping at the red light.
A distant blend of Earth’s ugliest colors attracts his eyes and before he can stop himself, his traitorous gaze is drawn to the hypnotic building that is the local McDonald’s. Will groans after realizing he really doesn’t have a choice. It’s the only place around that’s probably open and offers public restrooms.
He sighs in defeat as he turns into the parking lot, swearing that this would never happen again.
“I’m only going for the bathroom, just take a deep breath and…hold it in.” He mutters to himself as he locks his car and waddles his way inside. Will is immediately hit by the unpleasant stench of fried food and a strange lemony cleaner scent. He ignores everything and dodges a little kid (what kind of family brings their kids to McDonald’s at 11 pm?) as he beelines for the bathroom.
After doing his business, Will walks out and is determined to exit without making eye contact with a single person, especially the employees who he’s sure will try to goad him into buying something. Fortunately, though, most of the cashiers look dead to the world as they stand behind the register, half mumbling out orders to the people in line, and don’t even bat an eyelash in his direction.
Nice.
Will is about to get the hell out of there before his hair can soak up the stench until something catches his eyes. He stops like an idiot right by the door and turns just the slightest, attention zoning in on a man sitting by himself in one of the corner booths. He’s facing Will, but his eyes are busy staring out the window, and Will literally lets out a breath—McDonald’s air be damned. He breathes in the intoxicating fumes of McDonald’s chemical warfare and is all too aware of the pounding of his heart.
Fuck.
The guy was hot—undeniably, utterly, flaming, scorching, hot. Basically every adjective in relation to that word he can think of.
He was sipping on a child’s carton of milk, a few strands of midnight black hair falling in front of his face. Will wanted to run his hands over those luscious locks to smooth them back so they wouldn’t cover those pretty eyes. Pretty eyes that were now staring directly at him.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK.
Will panics, eyes widening like a deer caught in the headlights, and the man has the audacity to cock his head to the side, lips curling upward into a tiny smirk.
So Will does the one thing he knows best—runs. He grabs the door handle and all but bolts out of there, exiting the hell that was McDonald’s and back to the safety of his pine-scented car. He didn’t even care if he was rubbing his grease-scented clothes on the newly cleaned cushions, didn’t even bother rolling down the windows to breathe in the fresh air. Will just pulled out of the parking, vowing to never ever return—no matter what treasure lay at the end of the rainbow—and got out of there as fast as he could.
It’s only when he gets home, after taking a nice long shower, does the brief image of dark, sparkling eyes flash in his mind. Will blinks rapidly, trying to get it out but to no avail. His heart is thumping in his chest just thinking about the sheer coyness that exuded from the beautiful stranger, the way his perfect plump lips wrapped around the straw.
-
It took one whole week for Will’s resolve to break entirely.
He found himself back at the McDonald’s at 11 pm, the stupid clown statue in front of the store was staring at him with a wide grin on his face as if he was laughing at Will for coming back. Little weakling, it seemed to say. Will huffs and ignores the stupid thing, taking a deep inhale of fresh air before stepping inside the wretched store.
He makes his way to the counter, determined to act like a normal person who normally went to McDonald’s.
“Hello, what can I get for you?” The cashier drawls out, eyes just halfway closed.
“Uh,” Will starts because he actually doesn’t know what to get, or what the fuck he’s doing here. “Can I get a…hamburger?”
The guy rolls his eyes. “What kind would you like?”
Will was physically sweating now. “Uh…a cheese one?”
“Alright.” The guy says in the most monotonous voice possible while he taps out the order. “That’s going to be two-fifty.”
“Cool,” Will squeaks out and steps to the side to wait while the next person comes forward. He takes this time to discreetly scan around the room, praying to whatever deities out there that the hot stranger from last time would be there otherwise this would be a waste of time—and self-esteem.
Will’s gaze lands on a familiar pair of dark chocolate eyes that were practically burned into his memory. The guy is there, sitting at the same booth in the corner, sipping on his chocolate milk with a smirk already in place.
Will’s eyes widen just the slightest and he feels heat rushing to his cheeks because he wasn’t actually expecting the guy to be there. He quickly darts his gaze away, scared that if he looks at the man one more second his feelings would get exposed. After a moment, when he deems it’s safe to look back up the guy’s eyes are still on him.
Will racks up the courage and raises an eyebrow, determined not to back down and look like a coward. The guy’s smirk only deepens and he winks.
Fuck.
His brain automatically presses the eject button to his heart because it goes flying out of his chest, and Will feels his cheeks heat up just as his number is called. Will grabs the sad burger he ordered and decides to get the hell out before he can embarrass himself any further. He takes one last glance at the hot stranger, who’s still looking at him with a knowing expression before he exits the store and like last time, runs to his car (but not before trashing the unopened burger in the nearest trash can).
-
“So you’re telling me you went inside McDonald’s just because you saw a cute guy?” Frank’s face is perfectly controlled into a straight line, but the way his voice wavers just the slightest shows Will just how amused he is by the situation.
Will groans into his hands and proceeds to slam his forehead on the lab counter until he feels a warm hand instead.
“He’s not just cute, my guy,” Will says when he resurfaces. “He was the hottest man that’s ever graced the face of this Earth. I swear my life on it.”
Frank snorts, rolling his eyes while he scribbles down something in the thick notebook he’s always carrying. Perks of being med students. “Are you sure you’re not just being biased?”
Will narrows his eyes. “It’s not biased if it’s pure fact. You’d agree with me if you ever saw him.”
Franks looks like he’s not even listening anymore, probably grown accustomed to hearing Will rant about his “hallway crushes,” except this time he felt like this was more than just a “hallway crush.” This was a full-blown war that was bound to shred his heart into a billion pieces.
“Uh-huh,” He hums out. “Oh, by the way, you’re still down to have lunch with Hazel and me, right? She’s in town for the week.”
Will sighs and leans the side of his face on a hand. “Yeah, sure.”
“Cool,” Frank states as he grins widely, effectively ending his Ted Talk on the gorgeous McDonald’s man.
-
The first thing that happens when Will steps through the café door is that he’s getting pulled into a bone-crushing hug by Hazel, Frank’s longtime girlfriend.
“Will!” She cries out as she pulls away, a big smile on her beautiful face. She was wearing her frizzy hair in space buns, two loose strands framing each side of her face that only made her appear more elegant. “I’ve missed you so much. It’s been a hot minute.”
She turns to Frank and gives him a kiss on the cheek while Will watches with a fond smile.
“Yeah, I’ve missed our little hang-out seshes,” He replies as the three of them make their way to an empty table near the corner of the cafe.
Hazel hums merrily. “So how are your classes going? Any harder than Frank’s?”
At the mention of med school, both of them let out twin groans. “Ugh, can we not talk about school like ever,” Will complains, and Frank nods along in agreement.
Hazel throws her head back as she laughs, her golden-brown eyes twinkling under the glow of the light overhead. “Alright, alright, my bad,” She says as she throws her hands in the air. Her face lights up, eyebrows shooting toward the sky, “Oh I almost forgot! I invited my brother to come along today since we haven’t seen each other in a while. Hopefully alright with you?”
Will shrugs. He’d never known Hazel had any siblings—she never mentioned it and neither did Frank—so whoever they were, he was excited to meet them if they were as radiant as Hazel.
“Ugh, I texted him. I just hope he’s not oversleeping and actually shows up.”
“Isn’t that him?” Frank joins in from beside her, his gaze focused behind Will.
Hazel’s face lights up like a Christmas tree and she waves her hand excitedly. “Nico! Over here!”
Will turns around and almost drops his jaw all the way down to hell when Hazel’s brother saunters over to their table. He’s wearing a loose black tank top with gaping holes just under his armpit so Will could peek inside—not that he is because he’s not a creep or anything. The skinny jeans he’s donning seem far too tight for Will’s liking, mostly because he literally can’t breathe anymore as the mysterious man from McDonald’s takes one glance at him before his lips curl upward into a knowing smirk. His hair is tied back into a ponytail, bangs swept back to reveal a shiny forehead. Fuck. Will was dying. He was dying and ascending onward to the next life.
“Nico, this is Will Solace, Frank’s partner in med school. Will this is my half-brother, Nico di Angelo,” Hazel introduces them like the poor oblivious girl that she is.
Will swallows thickly as he nods, finding himself unable to meet the intense gaze of Nico’s eyes. “Nice to meet you.”
Nico’s eyes gleam with delight as he takes a seat next to Will, whose heart is hammering within his chest. Nico smells good—like fresh pine and a hint of rose—and Will is sure that scent will be engraved in his nose for the next two weeks.
“Likewise,” Nico responds smoothly in a soft voice blessed by the gods. There’s just the slightest hint of an accent that curls around his words, and there goes Will again—transporting off to Saturn.
The three of them, excluding Will, make small talk with one another (mostly Hazel asking how Nico was doing, to which the latter responded with brief comments) before Frank’s stomach growls for the third time and Hazel glares at him with feigned annoyance.
“Alright, I better go get us some food before this one here dies of starvation. You two behave.” She directs as she drags her boyfriend away before Will can silently plead with his eyes to not leave him alone with Nico.
Damn it. He’s left all alone with Nico, who turns to look at him the moment Hazel is gone.
Will has to look away because he’s afraid those eyes will take one look at him and know exactly what’s running through his mind right now—which is nothing but Nico, Nico, Nico, Nico, and ohmygosh he’s so hot.
“You’re McDonald’s boy, aren’t you?” He asks as a slight grin creeps onto his face.
Will scoffs, determined not to lose. “No, you’re McDonald’s boy.”
Nico raises an eyebrow at him before laughing. Fuck, even his laughter is hot. It’s deep and raspy, shaking his bones down to the very marrow.
“No, you are. I call you that in my head.”
“Well, I call you that in my head as well, so you’re McDonald’s boy.” Will shoots back, determined to avoid the fact that he missed an adjective. It was actually ‘Hot McDonald’s Boy,’ but Nico didn’t have to know that.
Nico rolls his eyes, “Okay, Will, fancy meeting you outside. Small world, isn’t it?”
Will gulps because that was exactly on the lines of what he was thinking. Real small world. “Y—Yeah. Who would’ve ever thought that the guy who drinks chocolate milk at McDonald’s at 11 pm is the half-brother of my friend’s girlfriend.”
Nico laughs and it’s a pretty sound, his face brightening up from the way his eyes curve upward into crescents. It’s like a scene from a movie and Will wants to whip out his phone if only to capture a picture of Nico’s outer-worldly beauty, but instead, he just takes it all in with his eyes, memorizing every line and detail of Nico’s face.
“So you were looking at me,” Nico muses, his voice a teasing tone.
Will scoffs and crosses his arms over his chest in order to come off as not weak-willed. “Only because you were looking at me first. You just couldn’t keep your eyes off me, could you?”
Nico chuckles lightly and even though there’s a faint blush settling on his cheeks, the smug smirk on his face never falters. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself there, Solace. Who says I wasn’t just admiring the handiwork of the door? It was nicely painted, wasn’t it?”
There’s amusement—almost like a hidden joke—riddled in his voice, and Will wants to laugh out loud. Before he can even dream of a response, there’s a platter of food being set in front of them, and Will tears his eyes away from Nico to meet the grinning faces of Hazel and Frank.
“We’re back!” Hazel chirps merrily as she takes her seat and immediately shoves a french fry in her mouth. “Hope you boys weren’t too lost without us.”
Nico snorts, turning to give Will a knowing look, before replying. “Not at all, we were getting along just peachy. I’m so glad you invited me out.”
Hazel’s face brightens at those words and the grin she sends to Nico can probably melt any snow. “Aww, I’m so glad to hear you say that.”
Poor, poor, poor oblivious Hazel, Will thinks as he sighs internally, already mentally preparing himself for the long day he’s going to have—especially with Nico di Angelo sitting beside him looking like a fashion model.
Sometime later (he’s lost track already) when Hazel and Frank are arguing about sports in their own little bubble, Will feels the slightest nudge against his knee. He looks down and notices that Nico’s leg had grown considerably closer, brushing against his just the teeniest. Whether it was intentional or not, Will would never know because his brain was already far too gone. Just the slightest touch left his entire leg feeling numb as if he’d just gotten frostbite, and Will had to force himself to maintain a straight face, lest he wanted to scare Nico away forever by breaking out into a maniacal grin.
Will turns his head a little to scan Nico’s face for any hint of reciprocation but is only met with the raven-haired man’s stoic expression. His face betrays nothing except the tiny smirk that seems to have been permanently glued on. Will wants to stab him (not seriously though because he could never) for being so… annoyingly infuriating? If that was the word to describe it. He doesn’t know because he can’t think right now—he can barely remember his own name—and now he has to sit for the next god knows how many hours with Nico di Angelo pressed against his side.
This was great, just great. Will is positive that there’s no way in absolute hell he’s going to come out of this with his reputation intact—or just alive in general.
-
It’s been a week since the last time he saw Nico at the restaurant. Thankfully, nothing embarrassing had unfolded for him and he managed to walk away with his dignity still intact (somewhat). Unfortunately, though, Nico made no attempt to connect with him; in fact, if Will recalled correctly, he had barely acknowledged Will’s existence after that little stunt he pulled (which was still burned on the top of his mind). After lunch, Nico had walked away without the slightest glance back at Will, who was left feeling a little dejected. With that, he promised himself that no matter what, he was not going to seek out Nico anymore. Nope. Not at all.
That mentality lasted for a week before Will found himself back at McDonald’s.
Will takes a deep breath before grabbing the handle and pulling open the door, making sure to puff out his chest so he’d still have some of his remaining pride left as he strides inside. His eyes find themselves drawn to the familiar back table, almost like there was a magnet pulling his attention there. Nico is sitting there looking like a dark angel in his black garb, flitting gaze landing on Will as soon as he steps inside. Will gulps but manages to keep the surprise off his face, staring at Nico head-on.
Nico has the audacity to smirk as he rests the side of his face on a propped-up hand. Will decides to pointedly ignore him, making his way to the register where he’s greeted by the same half-dead worker from last time.
“Hi, can I get a cookie please?” He decides to play it safe by ordering a cookie. Surely, they can’t go wrong with that.
The worker quickly taps his order in and grabs a warm cookie from the display nearby. Will pays and takes the small package from him, thanking him quietly before he finds his feet walking automatically to that table in the back.
He plops onto the seat across from Nico, whose looking up at him from his position sipping on chocolate milk with sparkling eyes.
“Just couldn’t stay away, could you?” Nico drawls coolly.
“I’m here for my weekly cookie run. It just so happens that you’re here at the exact same time,” Will finds himself explaining as he rips a chunk off his chocolate chip cookie before stuffing it into his mouth. It’s warm and delicious as expected (probably because they’re store-bought and not even homemade, but Will can brush that aside).
Nico snorts playfully, leaning back against the plastic chair in an infuriatingly way too attractive manner that has Will’s heart doing weird little flips. “Sure.” He drags it out like he doesn’t really believe him. Will doesn’t blame him—he doesn’t believe himself either.
“Why do you only get chocolate milk?” Will decides to switch up the spotlight, directing his gaze onto the children-sized jug of milk that Nico was gripping like his life depending on it.
Nico shrugs in a nonchalant manner. “It’s good.”
“You do know that McDonald’s is terrible for your health, right?” Will blabbers out without realizing, his brain gone on doctor mode for one second.
Nico’s dark eyes glimmer as if there were a whole milky way within them, and he smirks smugly. “Really? Then what are you doing here?”
Crap.
Will swallows nervously as he racks his brain for something to say because he possibly can’t blurt out, ‘Oh I just disregarded my honor code and started coming in here because you’re hot. Did I mention you were hot?’ Yeah, definitely not that.
Instead, he gestures around the room with his hand. “I like the… ambiance.”
At that exact moment, some drunkard stumbles in and starts yelling up a storm to the employees, complaining about how he’s going to call their manager if they don’t resolve his order quickly.
Nico laughs wholeheartedly, throwing his head back as he snorts and hiccups. The sight squeezes Will’s heart into a pulp, leaving it a mushed-up mess, because fuck. He’d never appreciated the beauty of laughter until now.
“Yeah, it’s real nice, isn’t it?” Nico teases, talking a bit louder because the man was screaming in an off-tune pitch now. “Makes you feel right at home.”
Will resists the urge to say something stupid like ‘No your face is nicer,’ and instead chuckles, nodding fervently in agreement. “Exactly! Couldn’t have said it any better.”
The drunkard starts stumbling his way over to their table, a scary look in his eyes as he grips a cheeseburger—so much so that the poor thing is half unwrapped, bits of shredded lettuce raining down on the floor. He starts grumbling out incoherent words—half insults at the McDonald’s workers and half retellings of his daily schedule—and Will turns to look at Nico with a raised eyebrow.
“How about we get out of here?” Nico suggests with a slight jerk of his head.
Will thinks he’s never heard a better idea and all but shoots out of his seat, grabbing his cookie and stuffing it in his mouth. He hears Nico let out a quiet snort and the two of them make their way past the drunkard, now devouring his burger like a starving caveman, and out into the evening air.
Will stuffs his hands in his pockets, huffing out a breath just to see the white outline of it against the dark expanse of the night sky. He curses himself for forgetting his jacket at home, too much in a hurry to arrive at McDonald’s on time.
Nico sips, rather obnoxiously if Will may add, on the last of his chocolate milk before trashing it.
“So where do you live?” Will breaks the silence, hoping to get some information about Nico. Not in a creepy serial killer way, just a normal ‘getting to know you better’ way.
Nico smirks at him, his dark eyes virtually blending in with the night sky. There’s still a little twinkle from where his pupil is like an endless whirlpool of stars that Will finds himself getting drawn to. “Trying to find out where I live now, are we?”
Will scoffs, thankful that it’s too dark for the blush on his cheeks to be visible. “Not like that. I mean, how will you get home?”
Nico shrugs nonchalantly, though his smirk doesn’t falter. “I walk.”
“What?” Will says in disbelief as he stares wide-eyed at the raven-haired man who seems too at ease with this whole thing. “You walk to McDonald’s at midnight all by yourself every Friday? Do you have a death wish, Di Angelo?”
Nico snorts. “Relax, sunshine, it’s not like I live an hour away. My place is only a twenty-minute walk from here and I need my Friday chocolate milk.”
Will shakes his head in disbelief. He ignores the slight jump his heart makes at the nickname Nico gives him, not wanting to dive into the implications of that, especially at night. “Unbelievable. Why not just buy a jug of it to keep in the fridge like a normal person?”
Nico frowns at him like it’s the most obvious thing on Earth. “Because it just doesn’t taste the same. Duh.”
“That’s how they get you,” Will murmurs as he pictures a poor, naïve Nico with his chocolate milk.
Nico hums, flashing him a sly grin. “Good thing I never claimed to be smart.”
Will lets out a huff of breath and stops in front of his car. Nico follows suit, eyeing him with a look. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride.” He walks around to his side and opens the door, raising an inviting eyebrow to Nico who stood rather awkwardly from afar.
Nico smirks at him. “Now you’re really just trying to get into my place, aren’t you?”
Will laughs and throws his head back slightly. “No. I just don’t think it’s safe for young, pretty boys to be alone at night so you can get in or not.”
He gets in and closes the door, watching as Nico’s gaze follows before he’s tentatively stepping to the passenger side and opening the door. Will starts up the car and is reversing when Nico, whose face is the closest it’s ever been, turns to face him.
“You think I’m pretty?” He asks in an all too innocent voice that’s hidden with coyness. His eyes are pitch black, swirling like a moonlight-reflected lake. There’s a grin slowly creeping onto his face—really freaking pretty and Will can’t deny it, he’s starting to fall head over heels for this boy.
Will coughs, pretending to look out the window just to hide his blushing cheeks from Nico’s sight. He drums his fingers on the steering wheel while he thinks of a response.
“I—I mean um not in that way. I mean not that you’re not pretty, you are, but n—not in that…um…” Will trails off as he stops at a red light that matches the flaming blush on his cheeks. He’s determined to never look at Nico again, in case he’s laughing at him, or worse, disgusted. God, why did he have to be such a fool?
Instead, he hears Nico laugh—loud and clear—ringing in his ears like a church bell. It’s a nice sound and helps calm his racing nerves before he realizes that it’s fucking Nico who is sitting next to him in his car. Fuckkkkk.
“Turn right here, Solace.” Nico directs him and Will subconsciously listens, switching lanes to turn into the residential street. They drive for a couple of minutes in relative silence until Nico points at an apartment complex nearby.
Will parks outside and dares a small peak at Nico, who’s unbuckling his seatbelt with a tiny smile on his face.
Will gulps. He wants to say something—he should say something—but he doesn’t know what. He’s scared that he completely ruined everything and probably chased Nico off to run for the hills. As Nico is kicking his long limbs out the door, he turns to grin at Will with an easygoing gleam in his eyes.
“For the record, Solace, I don’t think you’re too bad yourself. I’ll be waiting at McDonald’s same time next Friday.” With that, he gets out, slams the door, and walks off into the dark before Will even has the chance to close his wide opened mouth.
His mind is on pause but his heart hasn’t gotten the memo from the way it subconsciously beats at the sound of Nico’s voice—at Nico everything. Will gulps again, finding his hands to be shaking slightly as he reverses out of the parking lot because it feels like he’s been hit by the truck of feelings. It was weird because besides all these chance encounters, he really didn’t know anything about Nico, only that he was perfect in every way imaginable and Will was ready to go to the end of the world at his calling.
He was so screwed.
-
Next Friday comes in a flash because he’s been anticipating this day all week—even to the point where Frank was starting to suspect.
(“It’s nothing,” Will had told him when Frank asked if he was okay for the third time that morning.
“Doesn’t seem like ‘nothing.’” Frank muttered but thankfully dropped the subject as he continued on with measuring the appropriate amount of liquid they were supposed to be working on for a lab.
Will sighed because he honest to god didn’t know how to tell his friend ‘hey, by the way, the McDonald’s guy that I’m totally crushing on just turned out to be your girlfriend’s brother.’ He doesn’t think Frank would mind, or care really, but it still feels kind of weird.)
At exactly eleven on the dot, Will strides into McDonald’s in what he hopes isn’t too eager of a manner. He finds Nico sitting at his usual spot and the raven-haired man looks up just as Will walks up, taking a seat across.
“Hi,” Will manages to speak up despite the chemistry experience of nerves that are bubbling within his system. Hopefully, that experiment doesn’t end up splattering all over Nico.
“Hey,” Nico says in that attractive, laid-back drawl of his as he smirks. “You came.”
Will finds himself nodding dumbly. “Of course. You called?”
Nico nods as well and Will notices the small pile of food he’d accumulated at the center of the table. He blinks rapidly, doesn’t know if it’s the shitty yellow lighting or if he’s just tired from a long day, but Nico is ducking his head down in a rather shy manner and there’s a light blush spilling over the cheeks he’s desperately trying to hide. Will’s heart rate automatically picks up at the sight, suddenly wondering if he’d somehow misread their situation.
Was this a…date?
He couldn’t even think it for fear he’d jinx the entire thing.
Nico clears his throat softly and pushes a cup of something towards Will, who takes it gratefully despite not knowing the contents inside. Will is determined to eat whatever Nico has bought them, even if he loathes McDonald’s because he actually has no resolve when it comes to Nico.
“I don’t really like eating here at night but sometimes I crave something sweet. You should try the fries with their chocolate milkshake.” Nico rambles on and if only to prove his point, dips a sad, pale-looking french fry into his milkshake before eating it.
Will resists the urge to gag and decides to man up, copying Nico’s actions. He chews on the fry and is pleasantly surprised to find that the salty-sweet combination wasn’t as putrid as he was imagining. It’s not something he’d add to his diet, but if it meant spending a little more time with Nico then he’d gladly go through about a hundred of these. (Okay maybe not that much but the point still stands).
Will looks up from his drink and finds Nico’s eyes already on him. When their gazes meet, Nico glances down quickly, the corner of his lips quirking upwards.
“So…is it to your liking?” Nico asks.
Will wants to laugh because it sounds awkward and he’s never taken Nico as the definition of awkward. That was him.
“Yeah. It’s good.” Will responds with a little hum. “A bit sweet though.” He wants to add something stupid like ‘just like your face,’ but decides against it. It’s too early—or in their case, late—for this shit, and scaring Nico away is definitely something he’s not adamant about doing.
Nico only smiles at him and Will’s heartbeat smooths out into a line. He’s officially dead now and his death will be announced in the newspaper headline tomorrow—‘Local Medschool Student Dies. Cause of Death? A Killer Smile.’
They stay there in their own little corner, under the flickering yellow lamp, talking about anything and everything—mostly nonsense if Will had anything to do with it. He told Nico about his days at school, and how Frank is his partner in crime (making sure to go into explicit detail on how they almost blew up the classroom once during one of their…crazier experiments). In return, Nico told him about his decision to drop out of school in order to pursue a career in creative writing—something he was always passionate about. He has an idea for a novel but just needs the motivation to start writing. Will offers to read his draft when it’s ready and Nico forces him to pinky promise on it. They even exchanged phone numbers and Will had to stuff his mouth with french fries before he stupidly yelped in excitement. Every time Nico let out a cute little laugh, or when his eyes would squeeze shut and twinkle like the stars above, Will would make another mental tally on the number of times he’s lost his breath at the sight in front of him. By the end of their one-and-a-half-hour stay at McDonald’s, he’s lost count.
When they’re walking out into the cold, night air, Will offers to drive Nico home, to which the latter accepts. The short ride to Nico’s house is relatively quiet and by the time he’s parked outside, Will wants to say something. His heart is caught in his throat, fingers itching to lean over and brush the loose strand of hair covering Nico’s face.
Nico coughs and Will blinks out of his daze and stares at the raven-haired man who still manages to look angelic even in the darkness within the car.
“So um I had fun tonight.” Nico starts out in such a quiet voice that Will nearly has to strain his ears to hear him. Thankfully, their faces are quite close to one another so Will hears him perfectly and prays that Nico doesn’t hear how loud his heart is now beating.
Will nods fervently in agreement. “Me too! We should do it again sometime. I—I mean uh if you want to that is…” He trails off nervously, a half-grimace plastered on his face because he just had to blurt out something stupid.
To his surprise, Nico only smiles, his eyes curving upward into little crescents. Will releases a breath he’d been collecting and copies his smile if only for something to do.
“Yeah…I’d like that.” There’s a coy manner in his tone and Will takes a leap.
“Okay…” He says. “Maybe a nice café instead of McDonald’s, o—or the library if you want…Um.”
Nico chuckles lightly and leans in close enough so that Will can see the faint pink on his cheeks. He’s absolutely mesmerizing, drawing Will in like a siren. Will has a weak heart. How could he refuse?
He’s holding in his breath again, aware of every molecule of air floating around right now, and before he can even make his next step, Nico is darting forward and there’s a pair of soft, warm lips on his cheek that’s gone in a flash. Will blinks dazedly as Nico pulls back with a weird lopsided grin on his face and Will wants to reach forward to smash their lips together but he manages to refrain himself. Baby steps.
“Um was that okay?” Nico asks in a quiet, tentative voice.
Will somehow finds himself nodding rather robotically in response. “Y—Yeah. More than okay actually.”
At that Nico smiles widely, dimples carving a corner out of his cheeks. Even in the dark, he’s still as dazzling as ever. “Cool. I’ll see you later, Will. Give me a call, yeah?” He opens the door, kicking his long legs out, and Will only nods again as Nico slams it shut.
Nico gives him another smile and a wave before he’s sauntering off into the distance, leaving Will sitting stunned inside his own car. Will slowly reaches a hand up to his cheek and traces it gently with a finger, the ghost of the kiss lingering like a mild sunburn, before breaking out into a stupidly giant grin. He felt like he was floating on cloud nine, high on ecstasy, and nothing in the world could ever make this feeling leave him.
-
“Frank,” Is the first thing that Will says when he sees his friend on Monday. “Buddy. I need your help.”
Frank is busy texting on his phone whilst flipping open their gigantic one-thousand-page textbook. He doesn’t even glance up as he raises an eyebrow, a signal for Will to keep going.
“So um do you remember that guy from McDonald’s that I was telling you about,” Will says, trying to keep his voice steady, while he takes out his pack of multicolored pens and highlighters.
Frank finally shows a sign of emotion as he snorts. “How could I forget? What did you say he was again? Oh yeah, ‘hotter than the fucking sun, felt like I was burning alive when we met gazes.’” There’s a playful smirk on his face, almost like he knows something, and Will doesn’t like it one bit.
He ignores the last part of Frank’s comment and clears his throat. “Yeah okay, anyways, so um I might have been talking to him for the past couple of weeks and…” He trails off for dramatic effects. “We met up last night and he kind of kissed me on the cheek.” Will has to internally squeeze his core in order to not burst out squealing and screaming like an excited little girl—he’s sure his classmates probably wouldn’t appreciate it.
At that, Frank looks up from his phone, even going so far as to put it face down on the table. There’s a spark of mischief that lights up his eyes as he smiles. “Really, Will? Good. That’s good for you I mean. I’m happy.”
Will gulps and trudges on. “One more thing um…that guy turned out to be Nico, you know Hazel’s brother.”
Frank only lets out a laugh. “Oh. I know.”
Now it’s Will’s turn to show off some emotion as he stares wide-eyed at his friend, eyebrows raised to the roof. “What? You knew?”
“Yeah, Hazel told me,” Frank says with a smug little smile. “You’re not the only one who talks you know. From what I heard, I think Nico is pretty taken with you too.”
If his eyebrows were raised to the roof, now his jaw is lowered to the ground. “Nico talked about me?”
Frank shrugs in complete nonchalance; meanwhile, Will was going through an existential crisis. “He may have said one or two things, but I guess now that you’re… friends…you could just ask him.”
The realization creeps into Will and he gives Frank the biggest smile he can muster at nine in the morning. “Dude, I love you man.”
Frank laughs again. “Save that for Nico.”
-
They agree to meet up on Saturday afternoon since the Friday midnights were seriously taking a toll on Will’s sleep schedule. Believe him, it wasn’t easy for a med school student. Nico had texted to ‘surprise him :)’ and Will had gone through three Pinterest boards, a couple of Reddit threads, and checked out the nearest food places on Yelp. He wanted to sweep Nico off his feet but was finding it difficult with the limited possibilities around him. So with nothing in mind, he figured calling in for a little extra help wouldn’t hurt.
On Thursday, after a grueling five hours of pure science lectures, Will comes home dead like a log and gets to texting Hazel, who’d flown back to San Francisco a week ago.
Hazel responds enthusiastically, going off on a tangent about ‘how happy I am for you and Nico,’ and ‘you two would make the cutest couple,’ and Will had to stop her before his face burst from blushing too much.
She gave him a general list of the things that Nico was into, which Will was incredibly thankful for considering he still didn’t know much about the guy, and by the time he was tucked into a comfortable blanket burrito in bed—he had a good idea of where to go on their first…date?
Whatever it was, Will smiles to himself and drifts off to sleep with nothing in mind but a pair of dark, velvety eyes and the echoes of soft laughter ringing in his head.
-
He picks Nico up at his place the next day after having spent just about two hours rummaging through his closet and getting ready. Nico looks beautiful as ever even if he was dressed in a simple dark gray hoodie with the hood up so he looked extra adorable. Tufts of soft, black curls peek out from underneath the hood and Will smiles at him when he climbs in the car.
“Hi,” Will greets, already a little out of breath as if he’d just run a marathon. “You look nice.”
Nico flashes him a minuscule smile and opts to look at his hands on his lap. There’s a pale pink blush spreading across the bridge of his nose and Will notices his long, dainty eyelashes when he flutters his eyes open and close. Gosh, Will wants nothing more than to take out his phone and capture this moment, but he doesn’t so he resorts to memorizing each and every line of Nico’s face as if today was his last day on Earth.
After a beat, Nico turns to look at him, signature smirk in place. “Did you forget that you’re supposed to be driving, or are you gonna keep staring at me all day?” His voice is teasing, but the ever-growing blush on his cheeks says otherwise.
Now it’s Will’s turn to blush as he starts up his car, almost fumbling with his keys when he sticks them in. “S—Sorry.”
Nico hums in response and Will taps his fingers on the steering wheel as he drives.
“Guess where we’re going,” Will asks after a couple of minutes of silence.
“Not McDonald’s?” Will can sense Nico’s smile even if he’s not looking.
He laughs. “No, not McDonald’s I’m afraid. But maybe next time.”
“So sure there will be a next time?” The smugness dripping from Nico’s tone is evident even miles away.
Will decides to respond coyly. “I’m hoping.”
He hears Nico let out a quiet snort. “I’ll decide after you take me to this mysterious place.”
Will stops at a red light and glances at Nico, whose face is illuminated by the midday glow of the sun. He is a literal angel walking on planet Earth and Will doesn’t know who to pray to for getting so lucky. “I think you’ll like it.”
Nico turns to look at him, eyes reflecting a golden hue, and flashes him a soft, lopsided grin. “I think I already do.”
-
“The museum. Really?” Nico snorts as Will drives into the parking lot. He looks so childish, unlike his usual ‘bad boy’ demeanor, with his face pressed to the glass and Will wants nothing more than to give him a big fat hug.
“Hey! Don’t hate it till you try it. Museums are fun.” He defends himself if only for his honor.
“I never said I hated it. I guess I wasn’t expecting this at all.”
Will smirks as he kills his car. “What? Has no one nice ever taken you to a place like this?”
“No one as nice as you,” Nico responds so quickly it almost gives Will whiplash. It takes him a moment to process what just came out of Nico’s mouth and by the time he looks up, the other boy is already halfway out of his car and running off—door be damned.
Will sits there and lets that swoop in his heart calm down before he gets out, making sure to close the door Nico had left so carelessly open. He resists the urge to skip all the way to the entrance in case anyone was watching him because that would totally not be cool. Will finds Nico waiting at the front, a cute pout on his face most likely because he couldn’t get in without the tickets that were on Will’s phone.
“So nice of you to wait for me,” Will teases as he walks up, his eyes lighting up when he sees the splotchy blush on Nico’s cheeks.
“Shut up,” Nico mutters and tails behind him as the employee allows them through. “Take me to the dinosaur exhibit.”
Will grins widely and ignores the wild beating of his heart because ohmygosh Nico just couldn’t stop being an adorable little dork.
“I am not adorable or a dork.” Nico grits out, his cheeks bright red for whatever reason. Will realizes he must have said it out loud but he only grins.
“Yes, you are. Come on, I’ll go take my adorable dork to the dino exhibit.”
He gulps and inches his hand closer to Nico’s until their pinkies brush. There’s a spark of electricity that sends a jolt up his entire arm, nearly causing him to flinch, and from the way Nico’s eyes widen just the slightest, Will is sure he felt it too. He’s about to retract his hand when he feels Nico brush their pinkies together once more before he’s hooking them together, nearly causing Will to drop dead from a heart attack right then and there. In front of the giant silver rocket ship display too.
Will sneaks a glance down at Nico, whose looking elsewhere, but his lips are curled into a little smile.
They walk around mindlessly, checking out the exhibits as if they were back in grade school again until they reach the dinosaur exhibit on the second floor. There’s a huge model of a pterodactyl hanging from wires on the ceiling and even Will is a little impressed by the gigantic t-rex fossil display. He lets his eyes dance around the room, taking in everything before they ultimately glance back at Nico almost as if it were on instinct. Nico is staring up at the ceiling, eyes wide with awe, and he looks so youthful and adorable (he knows he’s said it a thousand times but he’ll never stop) that Will might burst out crying.
“So are the dinosaurs to your liking, dino boy?” Will takes the opportunity to lightheartedly poke fun at the raven-haired man.
Immediately, Nico darts his gaze at him and glares. “Call me dino boy again and you’ll be the next fossilized display here.”
Even with the threat, Will still couldn’t help but bust out laughing. Meanwhile, Nico only seemed to grip his pinky tighter.
“It’s not funny, Solace,” Nico mutters, but from the way his lips are quivering slightly, Will can tell he’s trying not to laugh as well.
Will hiccups and sucks in a breath to stifle the last remaining giggles. “Okay, okay, fine. No more dino boy it is.”
At that moment, Nico’s stomach rumbles, and the owner of said stomach blushes furiously while Will has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.
Will grins wickedly. “Come on, let’s get you some food.”
-
The museum café is situated on the third floor, with high windows so one could look out while dining and be granted a nice view of the…parking lot. Will pouts sadly when he realizes this, but one look at Nico and he’s reminded that the only nice view is the one right in front of him.
“Do you think they serve dino nuggets here?” Will hides his grin behind the menu and feels a kick to his shin.
“That’s it. This is the first and last date I’m going on with you,” Nico mutters out bitterly and once Will registers what is said, it only fuels his confidence.
He sets his menu down and quirks an eyebrow up, “Oh, so this is a date?”
One thing that’s really attractive about Nico is that his blushes look like wine splotched on his face, which only amps up the cuteness factor (in Will’s eyes at least). “Did I read this wrong?”
Will reduces his teasing grin and opts for a soft smile as he shakes his head. “No. You read this perfectly fine. To be honest, I was going to save this for maybe after but I guess now is about as good a time to say it. I uh—” He takes a deep breath to mentally prepare himself for what he’s about to say next, “I like you. A lot. I mean ever since I saw you that first time in McDonald’s—and I hate McDonald’s, but I kept going there just so I could find an excuse to see you, which is pretty freakin’ stupid now that I think about it. I know we still don’t know each other that well, but I would really like to…I mean if you want to as well. Anyways, I just uh…really like you.”
Will is afraid that Nico is going to walk up and storm out of there when his expressionless face doesn’t move an inch until he breaks out into the most beautiful, blinding smile ever. The blush is back in full force and it’s like he turned a complete 180 from the smug guy from the dim McDonald’s corner booth. It’s a refreshing sight though—one that Will knows he’ll never get enough of.
“I like you too, Will,” Nico confesses in a soft voice that was nearly a whisper.
Will thinks his heart is going to pop like a balloon from how much it simply hurt right now. He thinks his face is going to crack too if he doesn’t stop smiling like a stupid idiot, but Nico is looking back at him with a similar sense of… adoration? (he hopes). He knows that it’s barely the beginning of something new, but he’s pretty confident that it’s going to be special.
Until then, Will is willing to run around as many McDonald’s if it means he gets to hold Nico’s hand under the table like they were doing now and see him smile like that forever.