Nikolo #2
“Okay.” Willan’s face twists into something that’s not quite a grimace.
“Do we need to talk?” My face must be screaming something because he rushes to clarify his point.
“Not to be an ass about it, but we’re a bit different to Kai and Finn, aren’t we?
They were the blind leading the blind there. And we’re…”
He waves his hand, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly while he tries to find the words.
“Two old friends, occasionally fooling around and getting reacquainted?” I offer, even though it makes the knot in my stomach tighten.
It’s not that what I’ve said is wrong. It just feels like it doesn’t do justice to what this is between us.
Sure, so far it may not be much—just hanging out, doing magic and fooling around after—it feels like…
more. Something I can’t put a name to yet.
Either because I’m not ready yet, or we’re not ready or.
Or maybe because whatever it is, it’s not done baking yet.
It feels like that little ball of magic I held—a universe of potential for whatever we want to make it.
“Yes! That!” Willan agrees readily before pulling a face, making my nerves ricochet all over the place.
“But also no? Yes, but not flippant?” His head tips to the side, and his ponytail spills over his shoulder while he frowns at me in concentration, trying to find the words I couldn’t.
When he finally lands on them, he carefully puts his drink down on the coffee table and twists around to face me front on, drawing in a deep breath.
“We’re two old friends, who are reconnecting.
Kai and Finn… they were oblivious, almost to the point of willful ignorance.
” He grimaces apologetically at me, having just vaguely insulted my best friend, but I wave him off.
“I don’t… I don’t think either of us are oblivious to whatever feelings we may have.
But our history makes things different. And, I feel, we’re…
. focused on the present. Just doing what we’re doing.
And if things change, we’ll talk about it. ”
“Deal.” The urge to lean in and kiss him is almost overpowering. But casual kissing is not what we do, and we’ve literally just agreed to maintain the status quo. So I smother the feeling and try to soothe the ache it leaves behind by pressing my knee into his leg.
Willan huffs a snort and rolls his eyes. After a moment of internal contemplation, where he picks at the button indenting the couch back, he mutters under his breath. “This is exactly why Aleksi worked so hard to keep us apart as kids, I swear.”
The second the words come out of his mouth his lips seal shut.
I don’t think he meant to say that bit out loud.
It’s not like I’m unaware of the possessive way Aleksi always kept Willan and me in our corners, close enough to benefit him, but never close enough to develop any sort of real friendship between us.
I’m also well aware there isn’t much love lost between Aleksi and Willan, but there is something in the way that he says it—bitter and angry—that I don’t expect.
“What do you mean?”
Willan tries to avoid my eyes, embarrassment flushing his cheek all the way down his neck. Giving up on trying to maintain the ‘status quo’ space between us, I shuffle forward, manoeuvring our legs so they’re intertwined. When I’m done, I don’t let go of his knee, giving it a comforting squeeze.
Willan lets me rearrange us before answering. He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but I can see the vulnerability in his eyes when he finally looks at my face as he confesses.
“I may or may not have had a giant, raging, completely embarrassing crush on you as a kid.”
Well. Shiver my timbers. “Reeeeeeeally?” I draw the word out playfully and the red flush of Willan’s cheeks intensifies, along with the racing of his heart, making my teeth ache.
Willan huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. Fuck me, but he’s cute when he’s pouting.
“Oh, grow up.” He huffs again and grabs a small, decorative cushion and clutches it to himself protectively. “You had to have known. I tried to hide it, but I was a kid. And absolutely pathetic about it.”
“Nope. Never had a clue.” Grin nearly splitting my face, I squeeze his arm to take the sting out of my teasing. “Tell me more about how you were in love with me.”
Willan squawks—there’s no other word for the sound that comes out of his mouth—in indignation and launches at me with the cushion, playfully hitting me with it. Laughing wildly, more joy filling me than I think I’ve ever felt in my life, I wrestle him back, trying to get the pillow from him.
We end up play fighting and laughing until our faces are wet with tears, and Willan is breathless.
That’s when I use his weakness against him, snatching him up in my arms and hauling him halfway into my lap while he struggles to get control of his rasping breathing.
I make sure to pluck the cushion from his lax grip and toss it to the nearby armchair.
With his back to my front, Willan has to twist to face me.
Beneath my hand on his chest, I can feel his heart racing a million miles an hour.
It only thuds harder when our eyes lock on each other and all our walls come crashing down.
Deeply rooted affection, lust, and longing swirl in Willan’s tear-stained eyes.
Maybe we are just as oblivious as Kai and Finn.
“I’m not exactly ready to say what this is, especially with everything else that comes with it. But there’s something here isn’t there?” I cave to the need to voice what I’m feeling.
“Yeah. There is.”
The tension in Willan’s back eases away, until he’s relaxed completely against me. He fits perfectly. Pulling my eyes away from the hypnotising sight of his lips, I have one last thing to ask of him.
“I don’t want to hide what we’re doing. But can we… I don’t know how to say it without being the fucking worst.” My arms tighten around him, and Willan squeezes back.
“Not play it up so we don’t have to explain how we reconnected and therefore all the magic stuff.” Willan easily finds the words I can’t.
“How do you keep doing that?”
“I told you, Nikolo, I got you.”
Fuck the status quo. With a groan, I surrender. Willan meets me halfway, and our lips meet as if they’re magnetised. It’s not just a kiss, it’s a promise. Of what, I’m just not sure yet, but I know that it’s right.
“So you and Willan are… friends now?” Kai readjusts the strap on his toga and fluffs out his skirt, admiring himself in the mirror.
Surprisingly, everyone’s gotten involved for toga night tonight.
All the staff are dressed up, and it’s not even a holiday.
Sure, it means seeing Belinda flirting with Lifo about how his legs look in a skirt, but overall it’s worth it.
“That’s what I’ve said.” I level him with a look. “Repeatedly.”
“I know. But I’m just trying to, like, understand. The last I heard, you guys were just going to talk out your stuff.”
“We’ve…we’ve been hanging out.” I say in a small voice, nodding at Erod, the security guard who’s popped their head in to tell me doors are about to open for the night and there’s already a line to get in. When I turn back to Kai, he’s frowning at me with a puzzled look on his face. “What?”
“Well. It makes sense that you’ve hung out if you’re suddenly cool or whatever. But hanging out? Plural? When? Why didn’t I know? Why wasn’t I invited?”
It would be easy to assume Kai is just being self-involved—and he kind of is—but beneath all his flamboyant vanity, I know it’s actually because he cares. And because I care about him, I want to be honest. I’m nervous, though, toying with the pleats on my skirt.
“Well. Um. Uh.” I stammer, then haul myself together. “We’ve been reconnecting about mage stuff.”
“Like, magic?” Kai’s head cocks to the side like he’s doing complicated maths. “How?”
“It’s hard to explain. I’m not doing magic. I’m just… there.”
Kai stares at me long and hard and I’m once again grateful I’ve never really been a blusher. Not like Kai’s Finn who still somehow manages it despite the whole magically undead thing.
“Well. This explains where you’ve been lately, I guess.” There is definitely still a tinge of hurt there, even as he says, “but I’m happy if you’re happy.”
“I’m happy.” I say with a nod. Kai’s grin spreads over his face, turning him from smouldering hot to devastatingly sexy. “And I’m sorry for not mentioning it. It’s not like it was a secret or anything… it was just… I needed…”
What I need right now is Willan to swoop in and do that thing where he fills in the blanks for me. It’s fine, though, because Kai still gets me.
“It’s cool. I don’t ‘get it’,” he waves his hands about to demonstrate the vagueness of it all. “But I get it.”
“Thanks.” I nod, smiling tightly and swallowing the ball of emotion lodged in my throat. One of the things I love about Kai is the easy way he just accepts things and rolls with life. Sometimes he’s too easygoing, but right now, it’s definitely his number one trait.
“Whatever you need bud.” He claps me on the shoulder and scoops me up against his side. “Now let’s go meet our adoring public,” he crows, pushing his way through the door with his usual dramatic flair.
We’re busy from the moment we get behind the bar.
Kai and I made a pact when the Hot Vampire Bartender thing started to blow up online that we weren’t going to get involved—something our boss, Maddy appreciated.
We’ve both had our fair share of overzealous ‘fans’, and having no obvious association to the whole thing has helped us keep a healthy barrier between us and them.
Not that we don’t check on the feeds—it’s not like either of us have egos small enough to not look.