A/N: This was written for TGW Summer Comment Fixathon, for nobodysomeday's prompt of Will/Alicia: she keeps finding herself at his door. I still don't own TGW!
-x-
If she's being perfectly honest, Alicia's a little nervous when Will invites her over to study (cram) for the first time. It's still early in the semester, so she hasn't met that many people and doesn't want to mess up their quasi-friendship. She has a few friends, yeah, but mostly she just sees the girl she's sharing an impossibly small, impossibly overpriced apartment with. And Ruby's nice, but she frequently underestimates the thickness of walls, and tends to provide Alicia with details that are nowhere close to necessary.
So, yeah, to be perfectly honest, she's a little anxious, shifting from foot to foot in front of Will's apartment, waiting for him to let her inside. Alicia's about to knock a second time when she lock clicks and the door opens.
"Oh, hey." Will's tone is so nonchalant that it almost seems like he's surprised to find her camped out on his doorstep. She wonders for a painstaking moment if she screwed up the time, but he waves her inside and says, "I'm glad you're here—I'm getting dangerously close to dropping out of school to join the circus."
Alicia follows him through the door. "The circus?" she repeats, as she takes a look around the place. It's—well, it's small and rundown, but it's relatively clean considering the number of roommates she knows Will has, so it's nice, all things considered. "Are you hiding a secret past as an acrobat? Or do you just have a love for elephants I'm unaware of?"
"I'm an excellent juggler, actually."
"Hmm," Alicia says, struggling to keep a straight face. "I don't know if I believe you."
"Come on." He leads her into the living room where she can see his books sprawled across the table. There are piles of notes, too, all written in his cramped handwriting she thinks might as well be a different language. "I'll show you."
An hour later and Alicia's not anymore familiar with the cases she needs to memorize for Monday, but she has seen Will juggle an assortment of items that includes (but is not limited to): coins, pens, and some rather questionable pieces of fruit.
(She apparently had nothing to be nervous about.)
-x-
"You're late."
"Sorry. I was out with—"
"Peter. Yeah, I remember. The asshole from the bar the other night."
"Just because he's got an internship lined up for the summer doesn't make him an asshole, Will."
"It does if it's all he talks about it. Tell me he didn't bring it up tonight and I'll recant."
"He… Well, he…"
"I rest my case."
"Shut up and let me inside. It's cold out here."
-x-
It's almost two in the morning, and Alicia has no idea what she's doing.
(Well, what she's doing is knocking on Will's door at 1:47 a.m., so maybe she means she has no idea why she's doing what she's doing.)
Anyway, she's shifting from foot to foot, waiting for someone to let her inside, and shivering in her too-thin jacket. And she's really starting to regret that she didn't wear her heavy coat because it didn't match her dress and she wanted to look nice for Peter.
She probably should have called first, but she just started walking here after the fight and it didn't really occur to her until now. And as the door opens, and Alicia also realizes that any one of the other guys who live here might answer. So she's about to launch into an explanation, when she sees that it's Will, looking rumpled and half-asleep, hand caught halfway between his side and his hair.
"Alicia?" He slurs her name a little, and he's blinking furiously, like he's not quite sure if she's a dream or not.
"Sorry," she says. "I'm so sorry, but I didn't know where else to go, and Ruby had someone over, and I can't believe I was so stupid—" And somewhere along the way, she's started crying a little, and she's not quite sure why Will doesn't just slam the door in her face and go back to sleep.
"Hey, slow down," he says. "Come in before you freeze. And why aren't you wearing an actual coat?"
"Because I wanted—" Alicia drags a hand across her eyes, wiping away the tears (and also half her makeup). "Never mind. It's fine. I'm fine. I'll just go. I'm sorry for waking you up."
"Don't be stupid." Will shakes his head, finally looking more alert. "I was up. Well, I had fallen asleep on my notes, but I was mostly still awake." He reaches out and rests his hand lightly on her shoulder. "Come inside. I'll get you a drink and everything."
"Okay." Alicia smiles in spite of herself and follows him inside.
-x-
(She's back on his doorstep two weeks later, this time because Peter has apologized and has started talking about her following him to Chicago after she graduates. Alicia tries not to notice that Will is a little less supportive this time around.)
-x-
She's standing on his doorstep (again), but this time she's not in front of an old, rundown apartment. Instead, the building is new and sleek and a painful reminder that she doesn't know this version of Will at all. (And maybe this time she does have a reason or two to be nervous.)
He answers the door almost immediately, dressed in nice pants and a button down. Alicia wonders (again) if it was a mistake to have called him, to have agreed to meet him here.
"Hey," she says lamely.
"Hey, yourself." There's a small pause that's just a shade away from being awkward. "It's nice to see you. It's been a while."
"Yeah," she agrees. "Well, um, thanks for considering me. I know I'm not exactly the most qualified..."
"Don't mention it." He shrugs off her words with a casual raise of his shoulder. "That's what friends are for, right? And besides," he adds, "we both know you're good at this. You always made me look like I'd never opened a book at Georgetown."
That's not entirely true, but she manages a small laugh. "Really, Will. Thank you."
He grins. "Maybe you shouldn't thank me until after everything's official."
"Oh, I—"
Will cuts across her stammer with a look she remembers well. "I'm joking, Alicia. Come on in."
She returns his smile weakly, steps inside, and hopes whatever she's looking for is behind the door.