why people should give georgie a lot more credit, will/skandar, pg
WHAT THE HELL, WHY AM I POSTING THIS AT 3AM. CLEARLY, I HAVE ISSUES WITH SLEEPING.
Title: why people should give georgie a lot more credit
Author: likecharity
Pairing: Will/Skandar
Rating: PG
Warnings: Real person slash
Summary: Will has promised himself he's going to tell Skandar how he feels tonight. And he really is. No matter what obstacles get in his way, or however many of them there are.
A/N: For moonythestrals, to whom 'requesting' is apparently synonymous with 'volunteering to write'. XD Kidding, ily really. ♥ If anyone wants to know where in the hell this idea came from, head over here, although upon reflection I'm not sure that will actually clear anything up at all.
"How many have you had?" asks Anna, eyeing the glass of wine in Will's hand.
Will looks sheepishly at her. "Oh," he says. "I don't know. It just keeps being refilled."
This isn't entirely a lie. There are loads of people here who've been hired specifically to refill everybody's wine glasses. Okay, so he has been hovering near them ever since the afterparty started, subtly waving his glass around every time it was nearly empty, but still, his drunkenness cannot be blamed solely on himself.
He's pretty sure Anna disagrees with him, though, as she raises an eyebrow and shrugs at him doubtfully, turning around to go and talk to Georgie. He reaches out to grab her shoulder as she leaves, but misses spectacularly, loses his balance, and very nearly falls over.
Yeah. Okay. So he's really drunk, and it's probably mostly his own fault.
He brushes himself down and slinks away, frowning. He has to be drunk. It's the only way he can feel brave enough to do what he's been planning to do tonight -- tell Skandar his true feelings.
On reflection, that sounds incredibly girly, but he can't quite bring himself to care. It's been a few years that he's felt something more than friendship for Skandar, and it's high time he knew about it. He decided the other day that tonight would be the perfect time, and he's promised to himself that he'll do it, so there's no backing out now.
He takes a deep breath. He straightens his tie about five times. He runs a hand through his hair, because that always seems to be one of those things people do when they're about to tackle some nervewracking task.
But, he realises then, these people obviously do not actually care about their hair, otherwise they would be more concerned about messing it up. He tries desperately to neaten it again, briefly contemplates asking Anna if she has a pocket mirror, then realises he's being ridiculous, and heads off into the crowd to find Skandar.
* * *
"Why is he being so weird?" Anna asks, slumping down in a chair next to Georgie.
"Will? Will's always weird," Georgie tells her, not particularly helpfully, sipping on her orange juice and shrugging.
"But have you noticed how drunk he is? And how little sense he's making?"
Georgie swallows, putting her juice back down slowly and considering this. "That's true," she says after a while. "He is acting weirder than normal. I can think of one explanation, but it's kind of unlikely."
"Go on," encourages Anna, intrigued. This afterparty is so boring -- it's getting to the point where even Georgie's crazy theories are welcome.
"Maybe he's finally decided to tell Skandar how he feels," Georgie says, with another little shrug.
"How he feels about what?" Anna prompts, feeling vaguely stupid.
"About him, silly," Georgie says, rolling her eyes. "Have you been living under a rock or something?"
"You mean--" says Anna, struggling to get her head round this. Is Georgie really saying what she thinks she's saying?
"I mean," interrupts Georgie, "that Will has a crush on Skandar."
She says this second part of her sentence in a kind of sing-song voice, and giggles, and Anna finds herself joining in. Of course Will has a crush on Skandar! How had it not occurred to her before? Now that she really thinks about it, Will really hasn't been very subtle at all. For one thing, he was more touchy-feely with Skandar than with anyone else, and he was always saying things about him that came out sounding really, really gay.
"Do you think Skandar feels the same way?" Anna asks.
"Dunno," says Georgie. "Maybe. Do you want to go find out?"
Anna's standing up in a flash, ready to go. This ought to liven up the party.
* * *
"So I said, don't blame me, blame Andrew!" Ben is saying, loudly, a little too close to Will's face, and laughing hysterically.
Will squints at him. He's pretty sure he wasn't following this story even when it started, and there's a high chance he didn't quite understand the middle of it either, but he laughs anyway, nervously, hoping Ben will go away now.
"Um," he says, as politely as possible, "I have something I need to go and do."
"May I join you?" asks Ben, smiling widely at him. His teeth glimmer distractingly, and Will squints at him again.
"Er, it's something I have to do alone," Will explains.
"Ah, well, young William," says Ben wisely, wrapping his arm around Will's shoulder. "There are many things a man must do alone."
"There are?" Will squeaks uncertainly. He wishes Ben would go find someone else to confuse, and leave him alone so he can go and get this over with, but it doesn't seem like that's likely to happen any time soon. "Like what?" he asks, and hates himself for it.
Ben pulls back, looking a little startled. "Oh," he says. "Er."
Will blinks at him until he seems to regain his composure. Ben slinks closer again, steadying a large hand on Will's shoulder in a slightly disconcerting sort of way. Will brings his wine glass back to his mouth, deciding he's going to need the alcohol for more things than he expected.
"The first example I can think of," says Ben, then lowers his voice, "is wanking."
Will splutters, spilling some wine down his chin.
"I've really," he says, wiping his chin frantically and slipping out of Ben's grip, "I've really got to go. Alone. Not to -- not to wank, I mean -- there's just this thing -- listen, see you later."
"Bye!" calls Ben cheerily after him as Will hurries away.
* * *
"Okay, here's the plan," says Georgie, conspiratorially, ducking her head as she pulls Anna behind a wall.
Anna just laughs at her. She's feeling a little lightheaded from the alcohol, and also from the anticipation of whatever this plan may be, and it's a little hard to take Georgie seriously. Luckily, it seems that to Georgie, drunkenness is contagious, and it's only a split second before she's giggling as well.
"No, seriously," she gasps a couple of minutes later when Anna can't even remember what they're laughing about, "this is really important, because we don't want Will to know that we know."
"He doesn't know that we know?" asks Anna.
"No," Georgie confirms. "And if he knows that we know, he'll make us stay out of the whole thing, and that'll be so boring."
She pouts. Anna nods, understanding quickly. "Okay," she says. "But can Skandar know that we know?"
Georgie tilts her head on one side, tapping a finger against her lips as she thinks. "Hmm, yeah," she decides. "Yeah, he'll have to. But he'll have to know that Will doesn't know that we know, as well."
Anna pauses. "What?"
Georgie frowns. "I dunno, I lost track of that one."
Three fits of laughter later, their plan is formed.
Georgie heads off to find Skandar, and Anna heads off to distract Will. They can't have him knowing that they know, after all.
* * *
Skandar is in sight.
Will's throat goes very dry, and he downs the rest of his wine in hopes of solving this problem. It doesn't work. He looks at Skandar from across the room and his throat feels dryer than ever, closing up, possibly with his heart in the near vicinity.
God, he hates being nervous.
Skandar's alone, and in all honesty, he looks a little awkward, tapping his foot and glancing around like he hopes someone will come and talk to him soon. But to Will, he looks amazing. Actually having him in front of him like this is just making things worse. He can't imagine telling him, actually saying those words out loud.
A thought strikes him.
What words, exactly? He hasn't planned this part at all. What the hell is he going to say? Hey Skandar, I've fancied you for an alarmingly long time, wanna do something about it?
He sighs frustratedly, leaning back against the wall.
Unfortunately, he isn't actually standing anywhere near a wall, and leans instead against a chair, which topples over into some woman. He manages to catch himself in time so that he doesn't go down with it, but the woman is probably pretty pissed off. He looks up at her.
"Oh," he says, embarrassedly. "It's you."
"Yeah," says Anna, righting the chair and regarding him with a slightly suspicious look in her eyes. "What're you doing? Besides attacking people with furniture, I mean."
Will glances back to Skandar, but sees that he's now talking to Georgie, and he has sort of mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he's disappointed, because of course it means this is going to be dragged out even longer, but on the other hand, at least he can carry on putting it off.
"Will?" Anna waves a hand in front of his face.
No, he really has to go and do this now. He's got to leave Anna, he's got to interrupt Georgie, he's got to get Skandar on his own. It doesn't matter that the girls won't understand, this has got to happen tonight.
"I'll be with you in a second," says Will, whisking off across the room before Anna has a chance to stop him.
* * *
Georgie spots Will walking -- somewhat wobblily -- towards her and Skandar from across the room, and she quickly places a hand on Skandar's back and guides him into a corner.
"What's going on?" Skandar asks.
"We need to talk," Georgie says ominously, taking one last glance over her shoulder.
It's all right, though. The coast is clear.
Will appears to have been held up.
* * *
"Now see here, Will," says Ben, and Will wants to hit him, "it's not really that I'm drunk. It's not even really that you're drunk. It's just that we've known each other for a while now. Do you see what I'm saying?"
"No," says Will truthfully, craning his neck to peer over Ben's shoulder at where Skandar was standing just a moment ago.
"Ah," says Ben gravely. "Oh dear."
There's a silence then, which Will thinks he should probably take advantage of, but it's like his reaction time has slowed down or something because before he can actually make a move to leave, Ben is talking again. And touching him.
"I'm really sorry if I'm going way out on a limb, here," Ben says, rubbing Will's shoulder now for no apparent reason. "But -- you are gay, right?"
If Will still had any wine left in his glass, he would be choking on it right about now.
"What?" he says, then lowers his voice and says it again. Then he drags Ben aside, because he's pretty sure that one guy near them is a reporter of some kind, and he doesn't want the press overhearing this conversation.
"I'm sorry," Ben says. "I just sort of assumed. Usually I'm pretty good at that sort of thing, so I'm sorry I--"
"I haven't denied it," interrupts Will. He's actually starting to feel like he's sobering up, which will probably be a problem in the near future.
"Ah," says Ben happily. "You had me worried there for a minute. So you are?"
"I--" says Will, then sighs. "Yeah," he says, feeling himself go a little pink in the cheeks.
"Don't be embarrassed," says Ben, kindly, and Will would probably appreciate this heart-to-heart a little more if it was happening at any other time ever. "I am too."
"You are?" says Will. He's only slightly surprised, probably because he can't quite bring himself to care enough about this confession to elicit any further reaction.
Ben nods. "So, you see," he says, and that's when Will spots Skandar again.
"HOLD THAT THOUGHT," he almost yells, leaping into the crowd once again.
* * *
"Why are we running?" Skandar shouts ahead to Georgie as he follows her down some random corridor, away from the rest of the party.
"Because," says Georgie, annoyingly, and then stops, looking at him.
"What? What's going on?" he asks for the second time. He has the feeling it won't be the last time these words pass his lips tonight.
One minute he was standing there trying to make some sense of whatever it was Georgie was rambling on about, and the next minute she was grabbing him and running across the room.
"Will fancies you," says Georgie, and Skandar can tell how much she's enjoying this. "Like, a LOT."
"Oh," says Skandar.
He's gotten pretty good at this, over the years. 'This' being pretending to have no interest in Will whatsoever. Yeah, okay, he can admit to being friendly with him whenever he's asked about his relationship with his co-stars in an interview or whatever, and his parents and everyone know that he enjoys Will's company, but beyond that, he's got to keep it zipped. And he's good at that. It's easy, actually, to just slip in a snide comment, or shrug it off, whenever someone starts asking him about Will.
It's easy because it's about a hundred times better than the alternative. If anyone knew how he really felt, he's pretty sure he'd die. It's not like he's gay, he just -- well, he likes Will in the same way that he likes girls, which he supposes equates -- for most people -- to 'gay', and there's no way he's being labeled as that.
"Oh?" echoes Georgie, frowning at him. She peers at him and he tries to keep his face void of any expression. "Don't you care?"
"Dunno," says Skandar. "It's a bit -- it's a bit weird. But it's Will. I kind of figured he was gay."
He puts a little bit of extra stress on the word 'gay', and Georgie picks up on it, looking slightly taken aback.
"D'you have a problem with it?" she asks, her face falling.
"Nah," he says quickly, not wanting things to go that far. "He's still Will. Why are you telling me this, anyway?"
Georgie bites her lip, hesitating. Then she says, "No reason. Just -- I dunno, I thought you would have wanted to know."
Skandar shrugs with one shoulder, keeping up his fake disinterest. At least until he knows where she's really going with this. He can't go round admitting this stuff to anyone without good reason.
"Never mind," says Georgie.
The word 'wait' is on the tip of Skandar's tongue, but Georgie has fled before he has a chance to call after her.
* * *
"Shit," says Will to nobody in particular, dejectedly leaning against a wall that is actually there this time.
Clearly the universe is against him. The universe does not want him to confess his feelings to Skandar. (At the very least, Anna and Ben don't, though he has no clue what their problems are.) All this time he's waited for this one night, and he was so sure it was going to happen. He thought he'd finally open up, tell the truth, get it all off his chest. But it's just not happening. He is tired of fighting. He is tired of chasing Skandar around. There must be a reason why he can't seem to do this.
It must be that it's not the right time. It must be that it's not meant to be.
It's probably also got something to do with the fact that he's a chicken, running away at the first glimpse of a struggle, but he's choosing to ignore that. He's going to wallow in his misery instead.
"I have to talk to you about my hair," says Anna suddenly, wandering over to him and patting her head to illustrate her point.
"Your hair," says Will in a monotone. "Okay."
"It's got so much product in it," says Anna. "See, usually I just use -- hang on."
"What?" asks Will.
"You're actually listening to me," she says, looking puzzled. "You're not rushing off anywhere."
"No," Will agrees. "I've given up."
"On what?"
Will gulps. "Er," he says, quickly, "nothing."
"You're giving up on nothing?" says Anna. "That's going to be a difficult job."
"ABORT," cries Georgie, appearing seemingly from nowhere and leaping between them, looking at Anna. "Cancel cancel cancel."
"Cancel what?" asks Will, looking half-heartedly around for anyone carrying a bottle of wine.
Georgie looks shifty. "Nothing."
"You're cancelling nothing?" smirks Will, and Anna flicks him on the arm.
"Anna," says Georgie, "I need a word with you."
Will is alone for approximately seven seconds.
And then Ben finds him again.
* * *
"Skandar's really not interested," says Georgie.
"Are you sure?" asks Anna. "You know what he's like. Incapable of expressing any kind of affection for people."
"Yeah," says Georgie, "but I told him that Will fancies him, and he didn't even really react. I don't think he cares."
"Argh," says Anna, her heart sinking. There goes her excitement for the evening.
"It sucks," agrees Georgie. "But we've got to stop Will from saying anything, now. It'll break his heart if Skandar turns him down."
"I don't think we need to worry," says Anna. "I think he's given up."
"Yeah? Why?"
"Not sure," says Anna, "but I believe his exact words were 'I'm giving up', so..."
"Ah," says Georgie. "All right then."
They lapse into a gloomy sort of silence, and Anna sighs. She can't really be bothered with this anymore anyway.
* * *
"Will," says Ben sadly. "You seem to have lost all your enthusiasm."
"Did I seem to know where it was before?" asks Will tiredly, but doesn't wait for an answer. "If we're going to talk, Ben, you're going to have to find me some more wine."
"Your wish," says Ben, grabbing a half-empty glass from a nearby table and brandishing it at Will, "is my command."
Will takes the glass. "Germs," he says, making a face.
Ben ignores him. "So, continuing on our conversation from before," he says. "I'm gay. You're gay. How about that, eh?"
Fuck the germs, thinks Will, and takes a gulp from the glass.
* * *
"Have you seen Will?" Skandar asks Andrew on the other side of the room, tapping his fingers anxiously against his thigh.
Okay, so Georgie was probably lying, or at the very least, exaggerating, and it's probably insanely risky to go on nothing but her word, but in spite of all of that, he's still standing here, asking where Will is, and knowing exactly why it is he wants to find him.
"You lot've been running around like headless chickens tonight," observes Andrew, and Skandar nods impatiently. "You haven't even had any caffeine."
"Ah," says some man that Andrew is standing with, "but they have had wine."
"True!" chuckles Andrew, and turns away again, and apparently that's the end of that conversation.
Skandar carries on, determinedly, and nearly walks right into Tilda.
"Hi," he says, "sorry."
"No worries," says Tilda, and then frowns at him. "What's up?"
Skandar is not at all pleased with this greeting. "Nothing," he says, somewhat testily. "I'm just -- I'm looking for Will."
Tilda sort of smiles, and opens her mouth and then shuts it again. She turns, pointing behind her, to where Will is standing with Ben and looking exasperated about something. A wink and she's gone, and Skandar's heart pounds in his ears as he takes another few steps forward.
Is he really going to do this?
He can't be, because that would be idiotic.
But he's still walking, and now he's hovering around behind Ben and any second now they're going to ask him what he wants and then he's going to have to ask if he can talk to Will alone, and then they're going to have to find somewhere private and then he's going to have to actually say it, or at least just confront him about what Georgie told him. And then Will is probably going to look at him like he's crazy or disgusting or something, or maybe he'll laugh, and why is he so nervous about this?
"Yes, William Moseley," says Ben, loudly, interrupting Skandar's train of thought. "I am asking you out on a date. Wow, you're not that great at picking up on hints, are you?"
Skandar's stomach does something very strange, and he digs his fingernails into the palms of his hands, staring at Will from behind Ben.
Will is opening and closing his mouth over and over again, and Ben is just sort of waiting for a reply, and Skandar stays there until he just can't stand it anymore and then he's practically running, pushing past people to get the hell out of there.
* * *
"What was Ben asking you?" Georgie asks suspiciously, blocking Will's path.
"None of your business," he says, watching as a door swings shut behind her. He's pretty sure that was Skandar leaving, and that can't be good.
"Tell me," says Georgie, sticking out her bottom lip as far as it can go. "Please."
"You look like a duck," Will informs her, stepping to the side to get past her.
But she steps with him. "Tell me," she demands.
"No," says Will firmly. "Listen, I've got to go find Skandar--"
Georgie looks incredibly sad at this single fragment of a sentence, and Will would stop to wonder why, if there weren't more pressing matters at hand.
And then she says, "I don't think you should."
Maybe this is another hint from the universe that this really shouldn't be happening, but Will doesn't care, because he saw the look on Skandar's face when he overheard Ben, and whatever it meant, it needs some explanation.
He lifts Georgie up in the air, ignoring her squealing protests, and sets her aside.
A quick check of his watch as he's heading outside tells him that it's nearly midnight. The night is almost over -- he's got to take whatever chances he can get.
* * *
Skandar is standing outside, breathing in the cool night air and wondering what the hell is going on, when Will bursts through the doors rather dramatically.
"HI," he says loudly, and Skandar can't help but laugh.
"Hi," he says back, grinning.
"I've been -- I've been looking for you all night," says Will.
"What's going on with Ben?" Skandar says, getting to the point, wondering if he even really wants to hear the answer. What if Georgie got things mixed up? Somehow thought it was him that Will fancied, when in actual fact it's Ben?
"Nothing," Will says immediately, and then purses his lips and considers this. "Well, not nothing. I think there's a lot of things going on with Ben, some that are possibly rather worrying, but where I'm involved, there's nothing. I told him no."
Skandar nods, glancing away again. Okay, he thinks. Okay. He's not sure how to play this one anymore -- if he ever knew in the first place -- but it seems like it's best to take this conversation one step at a time, try and work out how Will's feeling before he says anything and makes a fool of himself.
"I've got to tell you something," says Will, and that's when Skandar knows that it's true. He has doubted Georgie all along, because you've got to take most of what comes out of her mouth with a grain of salt, but standing here now and looking at Will's face, he knows she wasn't lying. Wasn't even exaggerating. Will looks more nervous than Skandar's ever seen him, and even though there are probably several other things that he could be about to say, Skandar knows which one is coming.
And so he takes pity on him.
"It's okay," he says softly. "I -- I know what it is. You don't have to say. Georgie told me."
Will looks extremely confused. "Georgie?" he repeats. "But I never even told Georgie, how the hell does she--"
"I think Georgie knows a lot more than we think she does," Skandar says, and they laugh, and then there's a silence, and it's a little bit awkward. Which is weird, because between the two of them, they rarely are.
"Er," says Will, checking his watch for god knows what reason.
"Hm?"
"I know this is going to sound weird," says Will, "but I promised myself I'd tell you, tonight, and I'm not sure that what just happened counts. I don't think we did it properly, because I don't know how you feel, and, well -- I think I should actually just say it."
"Okay," says Skandar, feeling a smile creep across his face. "Go on then."
Will pauses, fiddling with his cuffs. "I can't think of the right words," he admits after a moment. "Everything's either too soppy or too...explicit."
"Explicit?" laughs Skandar. "That sounds interesting."
Will goes slightly pink, shrugging and laughing nervously, and Skandar takes pity on him once again.
"Okay, how's this?" he says, grinning. "Skandar, I have something to tell you."
"Skandar, I have something to tell you," Will repeats, trying to keep a straight face.
"I have feelings for you which definitely cross the boundaries of friendship, and I was wondering if you share these feelings, and, if so, would be interested in exploring them further," Skandar continues, smiling when Will splutters with laughter. "I have a few ideas in mind, but I feel they're too explicit to share at this current time." Will laughs louder this time, more openly, and Skandar struggles to keep going. "I think you should also know that I would never go out with that weird Ben guy, because you are clearly much, much more fun, witty and attractive."
Will shakes his head, Skandar is about to round it up and finish it off when he speaks.
"I'd repeat that," he says. "You know I would. But if I did, I wouldn't have time to do this."
His lips are on Skandar's before Skandar can even really react, and it's so good and so unexpected that for a moment he's just standing like a statue in Will's arms, feeling like he's lost control of all of his muscles. But then somewhere a clock starts chiming midnight and it brings him back to life, and he wraps his arms around Will, sliding his tongue past his lips and pulling him closer. Will makes a small, satisfied sound, like a sigh, and opens his mouth just a little wider, wet and warm against Skandar's, and Skandar doesn't want him ever to pull away.
But, frustratingly, he does, only a moment later, and as far as Skandar's concerned, it's not for a good enough reason, like one of them being on fire or about to be swarmed by bees or something.
"It's past midnight," is Will's reason for stopping, apparently. "And I still didn't tell you."
Skandar wonders how Will can even be in control of his vocal chords after a kiss like that, but once he's cleared his throat a few times he finds that he can still work his after all too. "I think," he says, somewhat croakily, "that what you just did counts."
"Yeah?" says Will, and he appears to cheer up a little.
"Yeah," says Skandar, "if you do it again."
Will does as suggested.
And he appears to cheer up a lot.
* * *
"Well, that was anticlimactic," sighs Anna, kicking off her shoes and stretching her feet out in front of her.
Georgie just sighs, looking miserable.
"I really thought that was going to work out, you know," Anna continues, as Skandar and Will hurry past the window behind her, holding hands. "I thought it would get really exciting."
"It was exciting for a while," Georgie says. "But it didn't really have a happy ending."
Just to the right of the window, Skandar and Will laugh breathlessly, peering inside, checking if anyone can see them.
"Guess it just wasn't meant to be," Anna shrugs. "I really thought Skandar might like him too, though, you know."
"Yeah, so did I," says Georgie, a little more animated this time. "But like you said, he's -- what is it that you said? Oh, he's incapable of showing affection."
Anna laughs. "It's true."
Outside, Skandar presses Will up against the wall and kisses him deeply, slowly, clutching at his shirt.
"Sometimes," says Anna to Georgie, frowning, "I think I should pay less attention to your crazy theories."
"Sometimes," says Skandar, as Will breathes hotly against his neck, "I think we should give Georgie a lot more credit."
Title: why people should give georgie a lot more credit
Author: likecharity
Pairing: Will/Skandar
Rating: PG
Warnings: Real person slash
Summary: Will has promised himself he's going to tell Skandar how he feels tonight. And he really is. No matter what obstacles get in his way, or however many of them there are.
A/N: For moonythestrals, to whom 'requesting' is apparently synonymous with 'volunteering to write'. XD Kidding, ily really. ♥ If anyone wants to know where in the hell this idea came from, head over here, although upon reflection I'm not sure that will actually clear anything up at all.
"How many have you had?" asks Anna, eyeing the glass of wine in Will's hand.
Will looks sheepishly at her. "Oh," he says. "I don't know. It just keeps being refilled."
This isn't entirely a lie. There are loads of people here who've been hired specifically to refill everybody's wine glasses. Okay, so he has been hovering near them ever since the afterparty started, subtly waving his glass around every time it was nearly empty, but still, his drunkenness cannot be blamed solely on himself.
He's pretty sure Anna disagrees with him, though, as she raises an eyebrow and shrugs at him doubtfully, turning around to go and talk to Georgie. He reaches out to grab her shoulder as she leaves, but misses spectacularly, loses his balance, and very nearly falls over.
Yeah. Okay. So he's really drunk, and it's probably mostly his own fault.
He brushes himself down and slinks away, frowning. He has to be drunk. It's the only way he can feel brave enough to do what he's been planning to do tonight -- tell Skandar his true feelings.
On reflection, that sounds incredibly girly, but he can't quite bring himself to care. It's been a few years that he's felt something more than friendship for Skandar, and it's high time he knew about it. He decided the other day that tonight would be the perfect time, and he's promised to himself that he'll do it, so there's no backing out now.
He takes a deep breath. He straightens his tie about five times. He runs a hand through his hair, because that always seems to be one of those things people do when they're about to tackle some nervewracking task.
But, he realises then, these people obviously do not actually care about their hair, otherwise they would be more concerned about messing it up. He tries desperately to neaten it again, briefly contemplates asking Anna if she has a pocket mirror, then realises he's being ridiculous, and heads off into the crowd to find Skandar.
* * *
"Why is he being so weird?" Anna asks, slumping down in a chair next to Georgie.
"Will? Will's always weird," Georgie tells her, not particularly helpfully, sipping on her orange juice and shrugging.
"But have you noticed how drunk he is? And how little sense he's making?"
Georgie swallows, putting her juice back down slowly and considering this. "That's true," she says after a while. "He is acting weirder than normal. I can think of one explanation, but it's kind of unlikely."
"Go on," encourages Anna, intrigued. This afterparty is so boring -- it's getting to the point where even Georgie's crazy theories are welcome.
"Maybe he's finally decided to tell Skandar how he feels," Georgie says, with another little shrug.
"How he feels about what?" Anna prompts, feeling vaguely stupid.
"About him, silly," Georgie says, rolling her eyes. "Have you been living under a rock or something?"
"You mean--" says Anna, struggling to get her head round this. Is Georgie really saying what she thinks she's saying?
"I mean," interrupts Georgie, "that Will has a crush on Skandar."
She says this second part of her sentence in a kind of sing-song voice, and giggles, and Anna finds herself joining in. Of course Will has a crush on Skandar! How had it not occurred to her before? Now that she really thinks about it, Will really hasn't been very subtle at all. For one thing, he was more touchy-feely with Skandar than with anyone else, and he was always saying things about him that came out sounding really, really gay.
"Do you think Skandar feels the same way?" Anna asks.
"Dunno," says Georgie. "Maybe. Do you want to go find out?"
Anna's standing up in a flash, ready to go. This ought to liven up the party.
* * *
"So I said, don't blame me, blame Andrew!" Ben is saying, loudly, a little too close to Will's face, and laughing hysterically.
Will squints at him. He's pretty sure he wasn't following this story even when it started, and there's a high chance he didn't quite understand the middle of it either, but he laughs anyway, nervously, hoping Ben will go away now.
"Um," he says, as politely as possible, "I have something I need to go and do."
"May I join you?" asks Ben, smiling widely at him. His teeth glimmer distractingly, and Will squints at him again.
"Er, it's something I have to do alone," Will explains.
"Ah, well, young William," says Ben wisely, wrapping his arm around Will's shoulder. "There are many things a man must do alone."
"There are?" Will squeaks uncertainly. He wishes Ben would go find someone else to confuse, and leave him alone so he can go and get this over with, but it doesn't seem like that's likely to happen any time soon. "Like what?" he asks, and hates himself for it.
Ben pulls back, looking a little startled. "Oh," he says. "Er."
Will blinks at him until he seems to regain his composure. Ben slinks closer again, steadying a large hand on Will's shoulder in a slightly disconcerting sort of way. Will brings his wine glass back to his mouth, deciding he's going to need the alcohol for more things than he expected.
"The first example I can think of," says Ben, then lowers his voice, "is wanking."
Will splutters, spilling some wine down his chin.
"I've really," he says, wiping his chin frantically and slipping out of Ben's grip, "I've really got to go. Alone. Not to -- not to wank, I mean -- there's just this thing -- listen, see you later."
"Bye!" calls Ben cheerily after him as Will hurries away.
* * *
"Okay, here's the plan," says Georgie, conspiratorially, ducking her head as she pulls Anna behind a wall.
Anna just laughs at her. She's feeling a little lightheaded from the alcohol, and also from the anticipation of whatever this plan may be, and it's a little hard to take Georgie seriously. Luckily, it seems that to Georgie, drunkenness is contagious, and it's only a split second before she's giggling as well.
"No, seriously," she gasps a couple of minutes later when Anna can't even remember what they're laughing about, "this is really important, because we don't want Will to know that we know."
"He doesn't know that we know?" asks Anna.
"No," Georgie confirms. "And if he knows that we know, he'll make us stay out of the whole thing, and that'll be so boring."
She pouts. Anna nods, understanding quickly. "Okay," she says. "But can Skandar know that we know?"
Georgie tilts her head on one side, tapping a finger against her lips as she thinks. "Hmm, yeah," she decides. "Yeah, he'll have to. But he'll have to know that Will doesn't know that we know, as well."
Anna pauses. "What?"
Georgie frowns. "I dunno, I lost track of that one."
Three fits of laughter later, their plan is formed.
Georgie heads off to find Skandar, and Anna heads off to distract Will. They can't have him knowing that they know, after all.
* * *
Skandar is in sight.
Will's throat goes very dry, and he downs the rest of his wine in hopes of solving this problem. It doesn't work. He looks at Skandar from across the room and his throat feels dryer than ever, closing up, possibly with his heart in the near vicinity.
God, he hates being nervous.
Skandar's alone, and in all honesty, he looks a little awkward, tapping his foot and glancing around like he hopes someone will come and talk to him soon. But to Will, he looks amazing. Actually having him in front of him like this is just making things worse. He can't imagine telling him, actually saying those words out loud.
A thought strikes him.
What words, exactly? He hasn't planned this part at all. What the hell is he going to say? Hey Skandar, I've fancied you for an alarmingly long time, wanna do something about it?
He sighs frustratedly, leaning back against the wall.
Unfortunately, he isn't actually standing anywhere near a wall, and leans instead against a chair, which topples over into some woman. He manages to catch himself in time so that he doesn't go down with it, but the woman is probably pretty pissed off. He looks up at her.
"Oh," he says, embarrassedly. "It's you."
"Yeah," says Anna, righting the chair and regarding him with a slightly suspicious look in her eyes. "What're you doing? Besides attacking people with furniture, I mean."
Will glances back to Skandar, but sees that he's now talking to Georgie, and he has sort of mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he's disappointed, because of course it means this is going to be dragged out even longer, but on the other hand, at least he can carry on putting it off.
"Will?" Anna waves a hand in front of his face.
No, he really has to go and do this now. He's got to leave Anna, he's got to interrupt Georgie, he's got to get Skandar on his own. It doesn't matter that the girls won't understand, this has got to happen tonight.
"I'll be with you in a second," says Will, whisking off across the room before Anna has a chance to stop him.
* * *
Georgie spots Will walking -- somewhat wobblily -- towards her and Skandar from across the room, and she quickly places a hand on Skandar's back and guides him into a corner.
"What's going on?" Skandar asks.
"We need to talk," Georgie says ominously, taking one last glance over her shoulder.
It's all right, though. The coast is clear.
Will appears to have been held up.
* * *
"Now see here, Will," says Ben, and Will wants to hit him, "it's not really that I'm drunk. It's not even really that you're drunk. It's just that we've known each other for a while now. Do you see what I'm saying?"
"No," says Will truthfully, craning his neck to peer over Ben's shoulder at where Skandar was standing just a moment ago.
"Ah," says Ben gravely. "Oh dear."
There's a silence then, which Will thinks he should probably take advantage of, but it's like his reaction time has slowed down or something because before he can actually make a move to leave, Ben is talking again. And touching him.
"I'm really sorry if I'm going way out on a limb, here," Ben says, rubbing Will's shoulder now for no apparent reason. "But -- you are gay, right?"
If Will still had any wine left in his glass, he would be choking on it right about now.
"What?" he says, then lowers his voice and says it again. Then he drags Ben aside, because he's pretty sure that one guy near them is a reporter of some kind, and he doesn't want the press overhearing this conversation.
"I'm sorry," Ben says. "I just sort of assumed. Usually I'm pretty good at that sort of thing, so I'm sorry I--"
"I haven't denied it," interrupts Will. He's actually starting to feel like he's sobering up, which will probably be a problem in the near future.
"Ah," says Ben happily. "You had me worried there for a minute. So you are?"
"I--" says Will, then sighs. "Yeah," he says, feeling himself go a little pink in the cheeks.
"Don't be embarrassed," says Ben, kindly, and Will would probably appreciate this heart-to-heart a little more if it was happening at any other time ever. "I am too."
"You are?" says Will. He's only slightly surprised, probably because he can't quite bring himself to care enough about this confession to elicit any further reaction.
Ben nods. "So, you see," he says, and that's when Will spots Skandar again.
"HOLD THAT THOUGHT," he almost yells, leaping into the crowd once again.
* * *
"Why are we running?" Skandar shouts ahead to Georgie as he follows her down some random corridor, away from the rest of the party.
"Because," says Georgie, annoyingly, and then stops, looking at him.
"What? What's going on?" he asks for the second time. He has the feeling it won't be the last time these words pass his lips tonight.
One minute he was standing there trying to make some sense of whatever it was Georgie was rambling on about, and the next minute she was grabbing him and running across the room.
"Will fancies you," says Georgie, and Skandar can tell how much she's enjoying this. "Like, a LOT."
"Oh," says Skandar.
He's gotten pretty good at this, over the years. 'This' being pretending to have no interest in Will whatsoever. Yeah, okay, he can admit to being friendly with him whenever he's asked about his relationship with his co-stars in an interview or whatever, and his parents and everyone know that he enjoys Will's company, but beyond that, he's got to keep it zipped. And he's good at that. It's easy, actually, to just slip in a snide comment, or shrug it off, whenever someone starts asking him about Will.
It's easy because it's about a hundred times better than the alternative. If anyone knew how he really felt, he's pretty sure he'd die. It's not like he's gay, he just -- well, he likes Will in the same way that he likes girls, which he supposes equates -- for most people -- to 'gay', and there's no way he's being labeled as that.
"Oh?" echoes Georgie, frowning at him. She peers at him and he tries to keep his face void of any expression. "Don't you care?"
"Dunno," says Skandar. "It's a bit -- it's a bit weird. But it's Will. I kind of figured he was gay."
He puts a little bit of extra stress on the word 'gay', and Georgie picks up on it, looking slightly taken aback.
"D'you have a problem with it?" she asks, her face falling.
"Nah," he says quickly, not wanting things to go that far. "He's still Will. Why are you telling me this, anyway?"
Georgie bites her lip, hesitating. Then she says, "No reason. Just -- I dunno, I thought you would have wanted to know."
Skandar shrugs with one shoulder, keeping up his fake disinterest. At least until he knows where she's really going with this. He can't go round admitting this stuff to anyone without good reason.
"Never mind," says Georgie.
The word 'wait' is on the tip of Skandar's tongue, but Georgie has fled before he has a chance to call after her.
* * *
"Shit," says Will to nobody in particular, dejectedly leaning against a wall that is actually there this time.
Clearly the universe is against him. The universe does not want him to confess his feelings to Skandar. (At the very least, Anna and Ben don't, though he has no clue what their problems are.) All this time he's waited for this one night, and he was so sure it was going to happen. He thought he'd finally open up, tell the truth, get it all off his chest. But it's just not happening. He is tired of fighting. He is tired of chasing Skandar around. There must be a reason why he can't seem to do this.
It must be that it's not the right time. It must be that it's not meant to be.
It's probably also got something to do with the fact that he's a chicken, running away at the first glimpse of a struggle, but he's choosing to ignore that. He's going to wallow in his misery instead.
"I have to talk to you about my hair," says Anna suddenly, wandering over to him and patting her head to illustrate her point.
"Your hair," says Will in a monotone. "Okay."
"It's got so much product in it," says Anna. "See, usually I just use -- hang on."
"What?" asks Will.
"You're actually listening to me," she says, looking puzzled. "You're not rushing off anywhere."
"No," Will agrees. "I've given up."
"On what?"
Will gulps. "Er," he says, quickly, "nothing."
"You're giving up on nothing?" says Anna. "That's going to be a difficult job."
"ABORT," cries Georgie, appearing seemingly from nowhere and leaping between them, looking at Anna. "Cancel cancel cancel."
"Cancel what?" asks Will, looking half-heartedly around for anyone carrying a bottle of wine.
Georgie looks shifty. "Nothing."
"You're cancelling nothing?" smirks Will, and Anna flicks him on the arm.
"Anna," says Georgie, "I need a word with you."
Will is alone for approximately seven seconds.
And then Ben finds him again.
* * *
"Skandar's really not interested," says Georgie.
"Are you sure?" asks Anna. "You know what he's like. Incapable of expressing any kind of affection for people."
"Yeah," says Georgie, "but I told him that Will fancies him, and he didn't even really react. I don't think he cares."
"Argh," says Anna, her heart sinking. There goes her excitement for the evening.
"It sucks," agrees Georgie. "But we've got to stop Will from saying anything, now. It'll break his heart if Skandar turns him down."
"I don't think we need to worry," says Anna. "I think he's given up."
"Yeah? Why?"
"Not sure," says Anna, "but I believe his exact words were 'I'm giving up', so..."
"Ah," says Georgie. "All right then."
They lapse into a gloomy sort of silence, and Anna sighs. She can't really be bothered with this anymore anyway.
* * *
"Will," says Ben sadly. "You seem to have lost all your enthusiasm."
"Did I seem to know where it was before?" asks Will tiredly, but doesn't wait for an answer. "If we're going to talk, Ben, you're going to have to find me some more wine."
"Your wish," says Ben, grabbing a half-empty glass from a nearby table and brandishing it at Will, "is my command."
Will takes the glass. "Germs," he says, making a face.
Ben ignores him. "So, continuing on our conversation from before," he says. "I'm gay. You're gay. How about that, eh?"
Fuck the germs, thinks Will, and takes a gulp from the glass.
* * *
"Have you seen Will?" Skandar asks Andrew on the other side of the room, tapping his fingers anxiously against his thigh.
Okay, so Georgie was probably lying, or at the very least, exaggerating, and it's probably insanely risky to go on nothing but her word, but in spite of all of that, he's still standing here, asking where Will is, and knowing exactly why it is he wants to find him.
"You lot've been running around like headless chickens tonight," observes Andrew, and Skandar nods impatiently. "You haven't even had any caffeine."
"Ah," says some man that Andrew is standing with, "but they have had wine."
"True!" chuckles Andrew, and turns away again, and apparently that's the end of that conversation.
Skandar carries on, determinedly, and nearly walks right into Tilda.
"Hi," he says, "sorry."
"No worries," says Tilda, and then frowns at him. "What's up?"
Skandar is not at all pleased with this greeting. "Nothing," he says, somewhat testily. "I'm just -- I'm looking for Will."
Tilda sort of smiles, and opens her mouth and then shuts it again. She turns, pointing behind her, to where Will is standing with Ben and looking exasperated about something. A wink and she's gone, and Skandar's heart pounds in his ears as he takes another few steps forward.
Is he really going to do this?
He can't be, because that would be idiotic.
But he's still walking, and now he's hovering around behind Ben and any second now they're going to ask him what he wants and then he's going to have to ask if he can talk to Will alone, and then they're going to have to find somewhere private and then he's going to have to actually say it, or at least just confront him about what Georgie told him. And then Will is probably going to look at him like he's crazy or disgusting or something, or maybe he'll laugh, and why is he so nervous about this?
"Yes, William Moseley," says Ben, loudly, interrupting Skandar's train of thought. "I am asking you out on a date. Wow, you're not that great at picking up on hints, are you?"
Skandar's stomach does something very strange, and he digs his fingernails into the palms of his hands, staring at Will from behind Ben.
Will is opening and closing his mouth over and over again, and Ben is just sort of waiting for a reply, and Skandar stays there until he just can't stand it anymore and then he's practically running, pushing past people to get the hell out of there.
* * *
"What was Ben asking you?" Georgie asks suspiciously, blocking Will's path.
"None of your business," he says, watching as a door swings shut behind her. He's pretty sure that was Skandar leaving, and that can't be good.
"Tell me," says Georgie, sticking out her bottom lip as far as it can go. "Please."
"You look like a duck," Will informs her, stepping to the side to get past her.
But she steps with him. "Tell me," she demands.
"No," says Will firmly. "Listen, I've got to go find Skandar--"
Georgie looks incredibly sad at this single fragment of a sentence, and Will would stop to wonder why, if there weren't more pressing matters at hand.
And then she says, "I don't think you should."
Maybe this is another hint from the universe that this really shouldn't be happening, but Will doesn't care, because he saw the look on Skandar's face when he overheard Ben, and whatever it meant, it needs some explanation.
He lifts Georgie up in the air, ignoring her squealing protests, and sets her aside.
A quick check of his watch as he's heading outside tells him that it's nearly midnight. The night is almost over -- he's got to take whatever chances he can get.
* * *
Skandar is standing outside, breathing in the cool night air and wondering what the hell is going on, when Will bursts through the doors rather dramatically.
"HI," he says loudly, and Skandar can't help but laugh.
"Hi," he says back, grinning.
"I've been -- I've been looking for you all night," says Will.
"What's going on with Ben?" Skandar says, getting to the point, wondering if he even really wants to hear the answer. What if Georgie got things mixed up? Somehow thought it was him that Will fancied, when in actual fact it's Ben?
"Nothing," Will says immediately, and then purses his lips and considers this. "Well, not nothing. I think there's a lot of things going on with Ben, some that are possibly rather worrying, but where I'm involved, there's nothing. I told him no."
Skandar nods, glancing away again. Okay, he thinks. Okay. He's not sure how to play this one anymore -- if he ever knew in the first place -- but it seems like it's best to take this conversation one step at a time, try and work out how Will's feeling before he says anything and makes a fool of himself.
"I've got to tell you something," says Will, and that's when Skandar knows that it's true. He has doubted Georgie all along, because you've got to take most of what comes out of her mouth with a grain of salt, but standing here now and looking at Will's face, he knows she wasn't lying. Wasn't even exaggerating. Will looks more nervous than Skandar's ever seen him, and even though there are probably several other things that he could be about to say, Skandar knows which one is coming.
And so he takes pity on him.
"It's okay," he says softly. "I -- I know what it is. You don't have to say. Georgie told me."
Will looks extremely confused. "Georgie?" he repeats. "But I never even told Georgie, how the hell does she--"
"I think Georgie knows a lot more than we think she does," Skandar says, and they laugh, and then there's a silence, and it's a little bit awkward. Which is weird, because between the two of them, they rarely are.
"Er," says Will, checking his watch for god knows what reason.
"Hm?"
"I know this is going to sound weird," says Will, "but I promised myself I'd tell you, tonight, and I'm not sure that what just happened counts. I don't think we did it properly, because I don't know how you feel, and, well -- I think I should actually just say it."
"Okay," says Skandar, feeling a smile creep across his face. "Go on then."
Will pauses, fiddling with his cuffs. "I can't think of the right words," he admits after a moment. "Everything's either too soppy or too...explicit."
"Explicit?" laughs Skandar. "That sounds interesting."
Will goes slightly pink, shrugging and laughing nervously, and Skandar takes pity on him once again.
"Okay, how's this?" he says, grinning. "Skandar, I have something to tell you."
"Skandar, I have something to tell you," Will repeats, trying to keep a straight face.
"I have feelings for you which definitely cross the boundaries of friendship, and I was wondering if you share these feelings, and, if so, would be interested in exploring them further," Skandar continues, smiling when Will splutters with laughter. "I have a few ideas in mind, but I feel they're too explicit to share at this current time." Will laughs louder this time, more openly, and Skandar struggles to keep going. "I think you should also know that I would never go out with that weird Ben guy, because you are clearly much, much more fun, witty and attractive."
Will shakes his head, Skandar is about to round it up and finish it off when he speaks.
"I'd repeat that," he says. "You know I would. But if I did, I wouldn't have time to do this."
His lips are on Skandar's before Skandar can even really react, and it's so good and so unexpected that for a moment he's just standing like a statue in Will's arms, feeling like he's lost control of all of his muscles. But then somewhere a clock starts chiming midnight and it brings him back to life, and he wraps his arms around Will, sliding his tongue past his lips and pulling him closer. Will makes a small, satisfied sound, like a sigh, and opens his mouth just a little wider, wet and warm against Skandar's, and Skandar doesn't want him ever to pull away.
But, frustratingly, he does, only a moment later, and as far as Skandar's concerned, it's not for a good enough reason, like one of them being on fire or about to be swarmed by bees or something.
"It's past midnight," is Will's reason for stopping, apparently. "And I still didn't tell you."
Skandar wonders how Will can even be in control of his vocal chords after a kiss like that, but once he's cleared his throat a few times he finds that he can still work his after all too. "I think," he says, somewhat croakily, "that what you just did counts."
"Yeah?" says Will, and he appears to cheer up a little.
"Yeah," says Skandar, "if you do it again."
Will does as suggested.
And he appears to cheer up a lot.
* * *
"Well, that was anticlimactic," sighs Anna, kicking off her shoes and stretching her feet out in front of her.
Georgie just sighs, looking miserable.
"I really thought that was going to work out, you know," Anna continues, as Skandar and Will hurry past the window behind her, holding hands. "I thought it would get really exciting."
"It was exciting for a while," Georgie says. "But it didn't really have a happy ending."
Just to the right of the window, Skandar and Will laugh breathlessly, peering inside, checking if anyone can see them.
"Guess it just wasn't meant to be," Anna shrugs. "I really thought Skandar might like him too, though, you know."
"Yeah, so did I," says Georgie, a little more animated this time. "But like you said, he's -- what is it that you said? Oh, he's incapable of showing affection."
Anna laughs. "It's true."
Outside, Skandar presses Will up against the wall and kisses him deeply, slowly, clutching at his shirt.
"Sometimes," says Anna to Georgie, frowning, "I think I should pay less attention to your crazy theories."
"Sometimes," says Skandar, as Will breathes hotly against his neck, "I think we should give Georgie a lot more credit."