The More You Love Someone...
The More You Want To Kill Them
#3
The thing with Will and Xander was just that. A thing.
There were no deep, hidden feelings. No pining. No angst. Only two men ready and willing to fall into bed whenever the mood struck them. Sometimes the mood struck in the middle of the day in a private alcove in the park. Sometimes the mood struck a good five times in a row. One particularly memorable moment the mood struck in the Kiriakis Mansion. The whole family sitting to dinner while Xander plowed him over Victor's desk only one room away.
But, as far as feelings go, there were none. The only talking they did was the dirty kind. The only confessions they had were, coincidentally, also the dirty kind. The situation suited Will and Xander fine.
Will knew one day Xander would reveal the whole thing to Sonny in a rather humiliating, public moment. Oh, well. Will was an adult and he could sleep with whoever he wanted. And it was shocking how often Will wanted Sonny's older, sexier cousin.
When Paul left Will behind, Will knew this wasn't what he had in mind. But, Paul left and what he would want didn't matter either.
If getting pounded by Xander distracted Will from Paul's absence, all the better. It also distracted him from Sonny's incessant hounding. The steady trickle of memories still coming back. And the unshakeable feeling someone watched him everywhere he went.
Most of the time, a memory would strike Will at the oddest moment. Sometimes a slight impression, sometimes a full blown flashback. Never in order and never making much sense without context.
What no one warned him about with the serum, though, were the migraines. Deep, unrelenting migraines that started without warning, blinding Will with pain.
The more memories that came back, the more migraines Will felt.
Fed up, Will spent an afternoon in the hospital undergoing scans and tests and bloodwork. The researchers salivated at the thought of Will opening up for study and analysis.
Will didn't care what they did as long as they drugged him up for the pain.
After hours in the cold, antiseptic-smelling hospital, the doctors and residents all blurred into one. However, near the end of the day, a somewhat familiar face drew the list vial of blood.
For a moment Will thought it was the man he saw in his hallway when he kicked Sonny out. Or even the guy he bumped into at the club that first night with Xander but no.
This man, doctor by the looks of it, was familiar in an entirely new way.
Dark hair, blue eyes. Handsome face covered in facial hair and a half smile. Massive shoulders and thick arms which made his white doctor's coat look obscene.
Will strained the workings of his memory. Tried to put a name to the face and a time for when they might have met.
"Uh," Will said, as the man wrapped, yet another piece of gauze and a cotton ball to the crook of his elbow. "We know each other. Right?"
The man nodded while writing a label on the collection of blood samples.
"You really don't remember?"
Will shrugged. "My memory is splotchy, as you should know from the case notes. You seem familiar but I don't know why."
"You know," the man swiveled on his stool and faced Will head-on. "Finding out you were the subject of this study made me sign up?"
"Why?" Will questioned, getting an eye-full of the man's thick, thick thighs.
"I wanted to see you for myself," the man answered.
"How did we know each other, then? When did we meet?"
"A long time ago, now," the man admitted. "Six, seven years. We weren't close. I don't think we even liked each other. We met at a club and later, you introduced me to Sonny. My name is-,"
"Brian," Will whispered before shaking his head. "Right?"
Brian nodded.
Will stuck his hand out, meeting Brian's hand in a firm grip.
"Nice to meet you. You know, again," Will offered with a sheepish smile.
"You too," Brian chuckled. "So, remember anything yet?"
Will thought for a long moment before shaking his head with a shrug.
"Not so much," Will explained. "I mean, nothing concrete. I don't remember you per say but I get the gist of how we felt about each other. We used to fight over Sonny, I think."
"You could call it that. You had him. I wanted him. You got him in the end."
"Maybe you were the lucky one," Will mumbled under his breath.
Brian opened his mouth before closing it, fast.
"Surprised?" Will asked with a pleased smile.
"I heard you divorced," Brian admitted. "And I'd heard around about all the drama with you and him before you died. Or, well, didn't die. Either way, I guess I'd never expect to hear you talk about him like that."
"A lot can happen in six or seven years," Will said.
"So I see," Brian admitted with a nod.
The two stared at each other in silence for a few moments. The other residents ambled by, faces stuck in clipboards. Reviewing Will's files or typing away at their tablets.
They both jumped when the door to the large room opened. Another shift of residents and nursing students clambered inside.
Brian slipped from Will's side with a quick wink. He carried the vials of Will's blood out the door and Will felt no shame watching him walk away.
He didn't notice someone winding, yet another, blood pressure cuff around his left arm. Didn't hear most of what everyone said above him. It wasn't like they were talking to Will anyway, only about him.
The vaguely familiar shape of a man sitting in the waiting room caught Will's attention. Will couldn't see much. Only a general outline of a tall, muscular man visible through the window of the door.
But a temporal thermometer rolled across his forehead, distracting him.
When it was time to leave, Will listened to strict instructions. He needed to return in the morning and not drink any alcohol or caffeine in the meantime.
Brian met him in the lobby.
"Hey," Brian cleared his throat, scratching at the back of his head. "My shift's over now. Wanna get out of here? See how much things really do change."
"Depends," Will answered with a coy smile. "You gonna take notes on me the whole time?"
"Trust me," Brian let out a short laugh, "my interest is definitely not professional."
"In that case, yes."
The two ended up in a swanky bar attached to a new condo complex where Brian resided.
They spent the whole drive to the place with a steady stream of conversation. Brian explaining his days in medical school, how excited he was to begin his residency. Will glossed over his own meager attempts at getting back into writing. Much more interested in Brian and the past they shared.
They didn't get a chance to talk too in-depth about it until their hostess sat them at a candlelit booth.
Will enjoyed it. He liked it even more when he saw truffle fries on the menu.
Unfortunately, he couldn't shake the feeling someone was watching him. Fearing Sonny would pop up at any moment, Will glanced around the room.
There was only a fair smattering of other customers. A couple on a date, engrossed in one another. A group of women giggling at a man who walked in a few minutes after Will and Brian.
When Will glanced in the man's direction, he could have sworn the guy's head turned the other way. But, Will didn't give it much thought. There was no way the man's tall, muscular outline could be Sonny.
Will shook off his unease and focused on unwrapping the paper around his straw. Per the doctor's orders, he stuck to drinking water.
"So," Will said, stirring the ice around his cup, looking at Brian from beneath his eyelashes, "tell me about our past."
Will listened to Brian talk all throughout dinner. Asking for clarification or throwing his hands over his face in embarrassment.
After eating, Will wrapped his hands around his glass and leaned across the empty table.
"Wait, so I introduced you to Sonny? And you went after him anyway? You're such a douche."
"Hey," Brian let out a sharp bark of laughter. "I didn't know you two had your weird, unspoken thing. I thought you were a closet case."
"Wasn't I?"
Will took a drink from his straw. Lips wrapped around the plastic tip, slurping as his cheeks hollowed. He looked up to see Brian staring at his mouth.
"So," Will leaned further across the table, licking up a stray droplet of water sliding down the straw. "It was only Sonny you wanted? Not me?"
"Uh," Brian floundered, shifting in his seat, gulping down a swig of his beer to delay answering. "I guess. I mean, I thought you were really-uh-you know. Hot. But, I mean, Sonny sort of caught my attention and you were still-,"
"In the closet?" Will guessed, amused.
"That," Brian acknowledged, giving Will a quick once-over. "You also were a little too insecure. I like confidence."
Will edged even closer, playing with his straw and Brian. "You weren't even a little curious?"
Brian's eyes flickered between Will's eyes and lips.
"I get the feeling I was," Will said with a smile. "I mean, considering how you look now. You must have been just as sexy when you were younger. I can't imagine meeting you and not seeing the possibility."
"I'm a bit more filled out than I used to be," Brian said although he looked pleased with the compliment.
"Bulked up?" Will asked, downright leering at Brian's massive biceps.
Will slid his hand the few inches across the table to clasp Brian's. He grinned when Brian turned his palm over, intertwining their fingers.
"You said you live here, right?" Will looked up toward the ceiling.
"Yes," Brian answered, voice low and husky.
"Show me?" Will asked, already pulling Brian out of their booth.
"Wow," Brian panted, flopping onto his back. Body sweat-soaked and satisfied, grinning up at nothing with a dumb smiling on his face.
"Mmm," Will agreed. Enjoying the twinge in his lower back. The unfamiliar but pleasant tingle of beard burn around his thighs and ass.
"Not how I thought meeting you again was gonna go," Brian admitted with a laugh.
Will rested his chin on Brian's arm and wiggled his eyebrows.
Brian rolled his eyes, leaning up for a quick kiss.
"You know," Will said as he sat up, arms stretching over his head. "I think I remembered something about you."
"Oh, yeah? What?"
"Well," Will hopped off the bed, wincing as he gingerly looked around for his clothes. "Pretty sure when you were balls deep I thought to myself, 'I used to hate looking at this smug face every time I walked into a coffee shop.' But, then you hit a really good spot and I couldn't focus anymore."
Brian laughed, long and loud. Head thrown back, completely unashamed of his nudity.
Will located his boxers dangling precariously over a large TV. He vaguely remembered ripping them off his own body when he caught sight of Brian naked. Who needed things like undergarments or dignity when something that magnificent stood before him?
"Where are you going?" Brian asked. He kneeled on the edge of the bed, hands reaching out and dragging Will back against him.
"Home," Will answered, whimpering when Brian mouthed between his pecs.
"Why?" Brian whispered into Will's skin, tongue tracing up a vein along his neck.
"Because I'm tired and we both have to get to the hospital early in the morning."
"Stay here," Brian urged, pulling Will back into bed. "We can go in together."
"Maybe," Will laughed, falling all too easily onto Brian's lap. "But, you know, this isn't gonna go anywhere."
"Oh, yeah?" Brian asked, distracting Will and himself with long, deep kisses.
"Hung up on someone else," Will managed to say once they surfaced for air.
"Sonny?" Brian teased, laughing when Will pinched his side.
"No," Will rolled his eyes. "My boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, whatever. Paul."
He said it as if it was an answer unto itself. As if Paul's name explained everything.
Brian rolled Will over so he could straddle him.
"If you're so hung up on him, why aren't you together?"
"Because he's an idiot."
Brian, holding himself up above Will, let his eyes roam up and down Will's naked body.
"Obviously."
Will grinned even while his entire body blushed.
"Just sex?" Will asked, hand sliding down Brian's stomach, resting in a patch of hair.
"God, yes," Brian moaned, Will's hand wrapping around him.