The air is full of wispy smoke and the laughter of drunk teenagers. They were all either lounging and talking to each other over the base of the music, or dancing to the indie rock. Will leaned against Ethan, laughing hysterically at a joke, warm from the arm casually thrown around his shoulders and the bubbly drinks he'd been sipping throughout the night. He tugged on Ethan's jacket when they locked eyes, and brought their mouths together for a long kiss. Will moved until he was nearly in Ethan's lap, and pressed his fingers gently to cup his jaw when arms encircled his waist.

Ethan laughed after a moment and pulls away, patting Will's arm indulgently. "You're drunk."

Will shrugged and moved to kiss him again, hands trailing back to his jacket. "So?"

"So, I'm sober and I'm not going to do this." Ethan gently unclasped Will's hands from his clothes, smiling at him with utter adoration. "What time were you meant to be home, baby?"

Will thought about it, blinking slowly as his brain tried to provide an answer to the question. "One in the morning." He drawled, voice slurred with the effort of remembering after a drawn out moment. "But I want to stay with you. Don't make me go home, please, Ethan. I love you."

Ethan laughed again and kissed his forehead, running a hand through his sweat-curled blonde hair. "I love you too, baby. Don't worry, I'm coming with you. I won't leave you on your own."

"Do you promise?" Will asked, all doe-eyed and with a soft, doubtful expression. He had never liked the term 'baby' until Ethan started using it. Ethan pinched his cheek, and Will suddenly remembered Ethan was like, three years older than him. Starting college.

"Of course. I'll even cuddle you if your mom lets me in your room."

Will beamed and tried to kiss him again, laughing brightly when Ethan tickled him to distract him.


One thing Will was sure of was that he was quite possibly the biggest idiot alive. This belief was only reiterated when his aunt, six-year old Artemis, said "Will, you're the biggest idiot alive."

Artemis (birth-name Diana, but nobody called her that because they respected that if she wanted to be Artemis, she was Artemis) wasn't very good at helping Will's self-esteem. Letting her clamber up into his lap, her copper ringlets bouncing as she very nearly missed standing on his genitals, Will asked, "What makes you say that, Arty?"

She gave him a bemused expression, clearly unimpressed. "It's Artemis."

"Sorry," He struggled not to let his smile show too much. "What makes you say that, Artemis?"

"Freddie went to heaps of effort for you." She said bluntly. "And you totally dissed him."

Wondering to himself if anyone even said diss anymore, Will made a face at the child. "I know. I said sorry to him."

"Freddie was real sad," She said, snuggling into his chest despite her words and general attitude. Will hugged her tightly, melting a little at her obviously sleepy eyes. "He just wants to be friends with Nico, but you don't want them to be around each other."

Will knew she had a point, he just wished it wasn't the six-year old that had to tell him this. "It's not that. Dad just makes Nico a little nervous- "

"He does not, Nico really likes dad. He thinks he's weird like you."

Okay. So now he was the biggest idiot alive and weird. He guessed he could deal with that; it wasn't like it wasn't exactly true. He stayed quiet when Artemis continued. "I think Nae should have Freddie and I for dinner tonight, and then Nico and Freddie can get along."

"Arty, I don't think-"

"Artemis!"

"Fine- Artemis, don't you think it's a little late to be organising a family dinner. There are so many people in the house already-"

"No! You gotta do it, Will!" She said, smacking his chest, suddenly awake and alert enough to glare at her nephew intensely. "You gotta, gotta, gotta-!"

"Okay!" He yelped, grabbing her hands and gently putting them in her lap. "Okay, Artemis. We'll have a family dinner tonight. But you and Austin are sitting at the kids table-"

"Austin is a baby, that's not fair-"

Will couldn't help his grin this time. "Do you want to have this dinner or not?"

Artemispouted, adorable as always, angry as always. Will smiled sweetly at her, knowing he had won.


4:43PM- So it seems we're going to be having a very large, family dinner tonight.

4:43PM- Please elaborate?

4:44PM- You know. Like, everyone including Arty and dad is gonna be there. Kay and Michael are home today. Mom's making lasagne AND barbeque.

4:46PM- it sounds nice, when should I be home? (also, why is this happening?)

4:47PM- pls be home by 7 at the latest xx (Arty)

4:48PM- of course baby xx Ill bring home cheesecake

4:49PM- you truly live up to your name, di Angelo~~

4:49PM- oh shut up xD ill see you soon

4:50PM- LOVE YOU MUNCHKIN


Will felt, overall, the dinner was going well considering how worried he had been about the whole thing. Nico was on his right, chatting to Will's mother about school and his courses and Percy Jackson. On his left side, Lee was peering down at his phone, his ears bright red under his freshly-dyed brown hair as Lou looked over his shoulder to read the article he was looking at. Michael was talking to their dad about some new EDM single that had come out of his dad's studio, and Artemis and Austin were colouring in on the floor, their own food abandoned.

Kayla leaned across the table and smiled at Will warmly, tugging on one of the locks of his blond hair. "Are you growing this out again?"

Kayla was probably Will's favourite out of his siblings because she was the most like him. He grinned back at her, thinking about how he had not had a haircut in the last couple of months. "I wasn't really- do you think I should?"

Kayla looked like she was seriously contemplating it and then shook her head. "Nah, I think you look better with it shorter." She said, squishing his cheeks. "How would we see these cute things if you had long hair?"

Will complained playfully, knowing full well that Kayla had a major soft- spot for his round cheeks. She was always trying to feed him more, even when he didn't want to be fed.

She sat back in satisfaction, watching him considerately. "I have some new skirts and dresses upstairs," She said easily, slapping Michael's shoulder when he threw a couple of peas at her. "You should try them on after dinner. My hips aren't narrow enough for them."

Will felt his heart swell with love for his sister. His family had all been accepting when he'd told them he was genderfluid, but none more than Kayla, who was always offering him whatever feminine clothes she thought he would like. He adored her for it completely.

"I'd like that a lot, Kay," He smiled gratefully, and they both went back to their food, tuning into different conversations. Will glanced at Lee and Lou as they spoke to one another, covering his mouth to hide his grin at the shy smiles and nervous gestures Lee was making.

Lou was utterly insane, but she was utterly insane in a way that made everyone fall a little bit in love with her. And he guessed Lee had been severely pinched by the love bug. It was adorable, really, to see his sixteen-year old brother who tried to appear as if he didn't have a care in the world, act so flustered around a girl he had known for a couple of years.

Will glanced over to Nico when he felt an arm drape over his shoulders, and suddenly he was hit with a hard nostalgia that he tried to swallow as Nico smiled sweetly at him and murmured a 'You've barely touched your food, baby.'

Will quickly looked down at his food, but not before noticing the flash of confusion cross Nico's face. Sometimes he couldn't look at him- they were nothing alike, but everything alike. Will wanted to be sick, he felt queasy.

"Will, are you alright?" Nico asked in his ear, and Will swallowed down his unease to give him a gentle smile and lean against him.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just remembered that I haven't caught up on Mob Psycho 100 yet, and I got a little stressed out-"

"You're such a weeb," Nico rolled his eyes fondly, nudging him. Will had heard the same thing for months, and sometimes it was just a wondrous experience to be able to know that this, this is what Nico probably looked like when he had been staring down at his phone during those months they had talked before he graduated. It blew Will's mind sometimes to think he was this lucky to have a guy like Nico. He was so- "You should at least be fawning over Re:Zero-"

Um, excuse me? Will stared at Nico like he was crazy, ready to tell him exactly what he thought about that. "I finished Re:Zero last week, Mob wasn't even on my radar until yesterday, so of course I'll be thinking about it more-"

"Have you watched Yuri on Ice yet?" Nico interrupted quickly and Will immediately launched into a wistful tale of how he wanted to watch it with Nico, but Nico had been so busy and they simply hadn't had time.

All in all, dinner had been going splendidly.

"I'm just saying, Lou, is koreaboo really the correct term if they're deriving it from something Japanese…?"

Will tucked his phone between his neck and shoulder, peering down at the two boxes of cereal in his hands and trying to determine which one Austin wouldn't spit out onto his high-chair. He rolled his eyes as Lou spoke, and put the less colourful one back on the shelf.

"No, I get that it's a pop culture colloquialism, but like, I still think it's a slightly problematic way to talk about problematic people, you kn- Shit!" Will stumbled back, nearly dropping both his grocery basket and his phone, fumbling and letting his basket drop to the floor as he saved his phone, clutching it tightly to his chest.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," Will said anxiously, leaning down and beginning to shovel his items back in the basket, looking up to smile gratefully as the person he had completely crashed into righted the basket into a standing position.

"It's not a problem, I was looking at my phone-" The mysterious person said, and Will's smile fixed on his face as he gazed fully at the person. Man. With silky black hair and silky black eyes dressed in a soft looking university sweatshirt and sweatpants and looking heart-achingly attractive. Oh. Oh no.

"U-Um…" He began, voice small. He looked around slowly, trying to find an escape, but his eyes always came back to that face, which was slowly morphing into an expression of surprise.

"…Will." Shit, he sounded great saying his name, oh no, oh god-

Will swallowed, tongue thick in his mouth and cheeks flushed and ears ringing. "Hey… Hey, Ethan."