coming out of the closet-slash-wardrobe, will/skandar, pg

[likecharity]

Title: coming out of the closet-slash-wardrobe
Author: likecharity
Pairing: Will/Skandar
Rating: PG
Warnings: Real person slash
Summary: Will comes out to his castmates.
A/N: This was meant to be for National Coming Out Day, but obviously it is ridiculously late. So it's just a random coming out fic now.


"Andrew -- really -- this isn't necessary, I just wanted to--" Will stammered, chasing after the director.

Already this wasn't going as planned. He'd wanted to tell Andrew first, admittedly only really because he was putting off telling anyone else. And also because Andrew was an adult, and would maybe have some sort of wisdom to impart, or at least a suggestion for how to go about telling Anna, Skandar and Georgie.

But no. Andrew had misunderstood the sentence 'I have something to tell you and the others' (which, now that he thought about it, had been quite badly-phrased in the first place) and had immediately hurried off to find said others so that Will could tell them all at once.

Which was not what he wanted.

"Will's got something to tell us," Andrew said happily, kneeling down on the grass next to Anna. Anna was lying on her back reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, which she had been completely absorbed in for the past week or so. Georgie was playing with Skandar's Gameboy as he hovered anxiously next to her, advising her on which way to turn and which coloured blobs to shoot and so on.

"Can I just finish this chapter?" Anna asked, not looking up as she turned a page.

"I suppose that's up to Will," Andrew said with a shrug, glancing up at him. "How important is it?"

How important is it? Will repeated to himself in his mind. Oh, not all that important. Just something I've been keeping secret from you all for about five years. Just something that's been tearing me up inside because I've had to pretend it isn't there. Just something-

"Will?" Skandar had looked up from the game now, and was eyeing him curiously. "You went off into a bit of a daze there. You all right?"

Will sighed. Maybe it was best to just get it over with, even those these weren't the ideal circumstances. He knew these people, he knew they'd support him. He knew he'd be okay. Anna would probably just give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and say she'd stand by him no matter what. Georgie-well, he couldn't really imagine she'd care all that much. Knowing her, she'd probably go round trying to set him up on dates with random men from the crew, and spend the rest of the time asking for his opinions on clothes she wanted to buy.

And Skandar...well, he couldn't really predict Skandar's reaction, and maybe that was why he was so nervous. He was a guy and that was the thing. (Of course Andrew was a guy too, but he was older and about fifty times more mature, and had never given Will the impression of being even slightly homophobic, which was much more than he could say for Skandar.)

And there were certain things that'd happened with Skandar over the years, like this stupid on-again-off-again crush he had, and how he really did try to keep the whole thing a secret but how he always felt like Skandar knew. Not that he ever made it obvious or anything.

Well, okay, maybe sometimes his eyes would linger just a little bit too long when Skandar was getting his costumes fitted. And maybe he was the one who hugged him the most, even though it was always done under the pretense of winding him up. And, okay, there were some stupid things he'd said to the press when he wasn't really thinking, and that always caused Skandar to look at him funny afterwards.

But really, he didn't have that much to worry about. Even if Skandar was a little homophobic and would probably act weird around him for a while, they'd still stay friends. Their friendship was definitely strong enough for this.

Unfortunately, for some reason his body did not understand this, and was doing all the things it usually did when he got nervous. His hands were shaking, his heart was in his throat, and his legs had gone sort of wobbly. Fantastic.

He sat down cross-legged on the grass, wondering briefly why Georgie was the only one with a chair, and took a deep breath.

"What's all this, then?" Ben asked, appearing seemingly from nowhere and sauntering over to the group. "Is it the meeting of some sort of secret club that I'm not a member of? Am I being excluded?"

Will sighed. He liked Ben, he really did, but there were certain times when he really wished he would just go jump off a cliff. He'd gotten so used to it being just the four of them, and it had been hard to adjust to Ben. Actually, lately he'd been thinking he'd just about gotten to that point where it felt normal, and he felt just as comfortable around Ben as he did everybody else. But Ben had just changed all of that quite suddenly.

"It's a meeting of the Exclude Ben Club," Georgie laughed, putting down her game. Will had the horrible feeling that Ben was going to play along with this and that the whole thing was going to go on for ages and then they'd have to go back on set and his carefully-laid plans would be ruined. Ruined more than they already had been, anyway.

Ben gasped in mock-offence. "Well then," he said. "Maybe I'll just have to go off and start an Exclude Georgie Club."

Please do, thought Will desperately. He cleared his throat, hoping that this would somehow make a difference.

"Nobody'll join it," Georgie smirked. "Everyone's already in this one."

Ben wrinkled his nose and stuck his tongue out at her, and she did the same back. Will cleared his throat a second time.

"Y'alright Will?" Ben asked, and-oh no-came a little closer and settled himself down on the grass with them. "I've got some throat lozenges back in my trailer if you need-"

"Will was just saying he had something to tell us," Andrew interrupted. "I'm not sure how important it is, mind, but as we're all here-"

"It'd better be good," Anna said grouchily, sitting up. She folded down a page in her book and placed it next to her, then took off her sunglasses and squinted at him.

There was a short silence during which they all looked at him.

"I think it will be," Skandar said, contemplating Will's face. "He's gone sort of pale and fidgety."

"Thanks for that," Will muttered. He thought about the many ways he could say what he was going to say, but after a few seconds of this he remembered that everybody was still watching him expectantly, and decided it was probably best just to get it over with. "I...I'm gay."

"Oh!" gasped Ben in surprise. Everybody looked at him and he glanced sheepishly to the ground. "It's that sort of announcement. I just thought you were going to be announcing a party or something."

Will raised his eyebrows at him and he shrugged apologetically. He risked a look at everybody else. Anna and Andrew were smiling. Skandar was not.

"So's Dumbledore!" Georgie said suddenly. "Did you hear? I saw it on the news. Apparently-"

"Er, Georgie, I don't think now's the time," Anna cut in, looking nervously at Will.

"Why not? It's relevant," Georgie argued.

"Well, true, but..."

"Listen, Will, I'm glad you told us," Andrew said warmly-and loudly, clearly realising that now was indeed not the time for a discussion about Harry Potter. He leaned over and gave him a friendly-albeit rather awkward-pat on the back.

"Yeah," Anna said, grinning. "You know we'll always support you, no matter what."

She shuffled forwards on her hands and knees and gave him a kiss on the cheek before rocking back onto her heels and holding out her arms for a hug. Will grinned, hugging her tightly. "Thanks," he mumbled.

Well, that was three that'd gone pretty much how he expected.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Georgie asked, tilting her head to one side.

Will shook his head.

"Maybe we'll have to set him up with someone, eh, Georgie?" Andrew laughed, but Will wasn't really listening. He was looking at Skandar, who was picking at the grass, pulling blades of it out and tearing them.

"Skandar?" Anna muttered, returning to the place she had previously been sitting, and prodding him in the side.

Subtle, Anna, thanks, Will thought to himself, sighing.

"Yeah," said Skandar, giving him a tight-lipped smile. "Good for you."

There was a brief pause that sort of seemed to last several minutes, and then Skandar stood up and wandered off into the distance.

"Don't worry about him, Will," Anna said brightly. "It's just going to take him a little while to get used to. Don't you think, Andrew?"

"Oh yeah, that's all it is," agreed Andrew confidently. "You know what he's like."

Georgie had picked up the Gameboy again, losing interest in the conversation, and Ben was still sitting there awkwardly. Will thought he probably regretted sitting down in the first place.

"Maybe you should go after him?" Ben suggested tentatively. "And...you know. Try and get him to understand."

"Oh, I don't know," Will said, frowning. That was something he'd really rather not do, in fact.

"Actually, Ben, that's not a bad idea," Anna chimed in, smiling at Ben. "I think you should, Will. Look, he's only gone behind those trees. He's hardly stormed off."

Will gave Anna a pained look, but she ignored it.

"Go on! Either you go, or I do," she threatened.

Well, it probably wasn't meant as a threat, but it certainly seemed like one to Will. The only thing worse than him trying to have a talk with Skandar about homosexuality was the idea of someone else doing it. And talking about him.

"I'll go," he said resignedly, standing up and brushing the grass off his trousers.

"Don't be long," Andrew called. "Or we're not going to actually get any filming done today. This break has been going for ages."

He nodded, and as he walked away, heard Ben saying something about how he thought there must be some kind of a potential 'coming out of the closet-slash-wardrobe' joke that would be applicable here, but that he just couldn't think of one.

Sighing, he headed for the trees that Skandar had disappeared behind, wondering what he would say when he got there. He was too busy worrying to come up with any actual ideas, so when Skandar came into view he decided to just play it by ear.

"Hey," he said, scuffing his feet in the grass.

"Hey."

That was odd. Skandar seemed suddenly a little brighter. He wasn't actually smiling or anything, but there was something about the way he was holding himself that was different. Usually when Skandar was upset or pissed off about something, he would slump and mumble and be generally foul to everybody who came nearby.

"Listen, I can understand that you might find this a bit strange-" Will began anxiously, but cut himself off when Skandar looked up.

"Will," Skandar said, rather thoughtfully, as he looked him up and down.

"Er. Yes?"

"Okay, well, you know since you're gay and everything?"

Will frowned. His instinct was to correct Skandar's grammar-how many times had he told him it was because, and that since was only used when referring to time?-but then he remembered that there were more important things happening. He nodded slowly.

"Does that mean that I can do this?"

There was a long pause. Skandar didn't move.

"Er-" Will began in a small voice.

"Oh, damn," Skandar cursed loudly. "Okay, wait."

He scratched his head and then held up one finger before disappearing back to the other side of the trees. Will watched after him, puzzled.

A few seconds later he appeared again, and before Will even really knew what was happening, he was being shoved up against a tree and, well, kissed. It seemed like such a small, silly little word for what Skandar was doing to him. Technically, yes, he was kissing him, but it felt more like he was setting his insides on fire. Only-obviously-about a million times more pleasant.

Skandar's tongue began to push between his lips, and, dazed, he parted them. He realised his arms were pressed rather uncomfortably to his sides and he lifted them, flailed them around a bit, and then wrapped them around Skandar, pulling him even closer.

"That," Skandar said triumphantly a good few minutes later when they eventually separated.

Will tried to ignore the fact that he was panting rather heavily, not to mention being quite pink in the face and also possibly weak at the knees. He had the horrible feeling his hair had been messed up, too, and he was going to have to try very, very hard to ignore that.

"What?"

"Does that mean I can do-" Skandar said, then gestured to Will's dishevelled appearance and finished the sentence with a grin, "-that?"

Will straightened out his shirt-how had it gotten all rumpled up around his waist?-and blinked several times in succession.

"Er. Yes," he stammered. "Lots. Please."

Skandar laughed at him. "Good," he said. "I was waiting until it was official, you see. I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Not that you were being particularly subtle, you know."

Will felt himself blush even more. "Hey!" was all he could manage. He seemed to have been reduced to one-syllable words. He tried to get a grip. He swallowed, and rubbed his eyes. It suddenly occurred to him to pinch himself just to make sure he wasn't dreaming, but he'd learned from experience that that was something best done in private.

"Why did you disappear?" he finally managed.

"Oh," Skandar said. Now it was his turn to look embarrassed. "I was trying to get up the courage."

Suddenly Anna came into view around the corner. She headed towards them, smiling nervously. Her smile faded and became a look of deep suspicion when she noticed the way Will looked.

Damn, thought Will, giving in and trying desperately to neaten up his hair.

"Is everything okay?" Anna asked, eyeing them both warily. "Did you fall or something?"

Skandar looked from Will to Anna, and back again.

"I guess we'd better get everyone together again, yeah, Will?" he said.

Needless to say, the others were really quite confused when, a few minutes later, they were rounded up again to hear a second, quite similar announcement.

But all in all, the reactions were pretty much the same.