demogorgongotme | IC Inbox

"I can ask Jonathan if I can borrow his car." He's gotten good at driving while emotionally compromised, oddly enough. He takes after his brother in that way.

He gnaws fitfully at his lower lip for a long moment, then steels himself and forces a smile onto his face. He knows that people can hear when you're smiling on the phone, and he wants to at least try to give Mike less to worry about.

"I really did like the roses, though. Nobody's ever got me flowers before. I'll have to ask Mr Blackwood how to keep them alive longer."

“Okay good,” Mike is not good at driving when emotional and has nearly crashed his car more times than he cares to admit.

The silence stretches until it’s almost unbearable and he’s about to call time before Will saves him from that particular purgatory, and if he ends up twirling the phone cable around his fingers like Nancy did when she had a teenage crush that’s between him and God. “I’m really glad you like them, I uh… got hung up on trying to research meanings and all that stuff but then I figure I should just get colours you like and not think about it too deeply.”

The smile is more genuine when Mike says that. It means more than he probably realizes that he would go through the trouble, but then again, Mike was a writer, a sucker for a narrative, enjoying double meanings and riddles and smart approaches to small things like that. It makes Will relax a little bit more.

He laughs a little bit, dredging up what he'd learned from his boss about flower arranging for the job. "Sincerity, friendship, energy, desire? I think you did good. And...yeah I like the colors too." He knows that Mike is probably really frustrated by how freaked out he gets by physical contact if they're not careful, so even the slight indication that Mike might still want him is encouraging. Unless it was on accident, in which case they could totally twist the meaning as they saw fit.

"So...see you Saturday?"

Will laughs and oh… he’s missed that. Really missed that.

He heaves a sigh, “okay so maybe I did the thing where I overthought what I wanted to say so hard I gave up and somehow when I stopped trying got it right,” it’s unfortunately on brand.

He’s not frustrated at all, the hesitation has more to do with his own issues with intimacy in any form than anything Will has done, he’s slowly getting over them in the way you kinda have to when your unofficial roommate is like an oversized and very annoying cat who can’t go a day without sitting on you in some way, or playing with your hair, or generally getting up in your business.

“I look forward to it,” genuine. Even if it’s hard, even if he has to face the consequences of his actions, he made Will laugh today, there’s a flicker of hope to cling to.

Edited 2023-02-16 02:31 (UTC)

They've both got intimacy issues of such drastically different stripes that honestly being able to come together in the middle on anything to do with their feelings for eachother is a miracle in and of itself.

"I think that means you need to turn off your brain sometimes and just do what feels right. I know it's hard, but you do better when you're not massively complicating stuff in your own head," he points out. He knows Mike has to know this, but it's a lot harder in the moment to hold on to that line of thought. Maybe having it said out loud will help.

If it weren't a phone call he could just kiss Mike goodbye and hang up before he had to be out the door for the day, but as it stands, he just glances toward the clock above the stove, and lowers his voice again, murmuring a quick "gotta go. Love you, see you Saturday."

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