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Will never did learn to like Chinese food that much, even after their second year at Sky High when he flew the whole gang out to Hong Kong and Warren had ordered authentic dishes for them from food stalls at the Temple Street night market.
After holding up the entire school carrying five teenagers a couple of thousand miles in Warren’s beat-to-shit Mustang was a cinch, but apparently his super strength didn’t include cast iron taste buds and he’d felt like his tongue had been burnt off after trying the chilli noodles that the others had enthusiastically gulped down.
So, generally, when over time they got into the habit of meeting up at the Paper Lantern he tended to stick with plain fried rice. Maybe a spring roll or two and some plain noodles if he was feeling really adventurous.
He did always like the fortune cookies though, even if sometimes they seemed to be secretly mocking him.
* * *
A thrilling time is in your immediate future.
That one he’d got at the dinner they’d had after they all graduated.
Warren had been at college for a year already and wasn’t working at the Lantern anymore but he’d came back for their ceremony and spent a good half hour at the beginning of their celebration meal leaning against the serving hatch and shouting what Will assumed were joking insults in Cantonese through to the chefs. He’d even tied his hair up and bussed their starters over to them when they were ready, carrying the whole lot like a pro and slinging them onto the table till it was like he’d never left the place and nothing had ever changed since the first time they all ate there.
Warren had shucked the formal jacket he’d been wearing as well, and the form hugging, short sleeved black shirt he had on underneath showed off his chest and arms extremely well. The loosely knotted dark red tie he wore with it matched the red flames of his tattoos and was just a begging invitation to grab hold of it, haul him in and –
Yeah. Will dragged his eyes away from Warren’s mouth and instead met the knowing and amused gaze of Layla, who of course had seen it all. So, he supposed that one thing at least had changed since the first time they ate there.
He hadn’t wanted to bend Warren over the table and bite his Adam’s apple at that point.
Layla’s eyes softened and she raised her glass of green tea in a silent toast. He shot a rueful grin back as he lifted his own glass of coke and wished, for the hundredth time since they’d broken up, that he could have been happy with her. She was lovely and beautiful and his best friend.
The fact that she’d been as brilliant as she had when he’d broken up with her – had listened to his stuttering excuses as to why and had stayed his friend when his reason for why he wasn’t romantically interested in her had boiled down to ‘you haven’t got a cock’ was just one more thing to add to the list of Why Layla Is Awesome And Will Is An Idiot.
Although the fact that it had taken her all of ten minutes to ferret out the codicil of ‘oh, and you aren’t Warren’ to Will’s ‘I think I’m gay’ explanation definitely went down on the list of drawbacks to being friends with her, even though eventually she’d been cool about it (“Really Will, I can understand. He IS very good looking – why do you think I picked him to try and make you jealous?”).
Another drawback was the fact that lately she seemed obsessed with the idea of matchmaking for him and Warren, as if that was ever going to actually happen!
Warren came back from gossiping with the hostess and slid onto the bench seat next to Will, slouching down and drawling
“So… You crazy kids all got plans for what you’re doing for the next stage of your ‘superhero journey’?”
Will smiled back and tried to ignore Layla’s pointed look at the position of Warren’s arm where it was draped behind him along the back of the seat. He waggled his eyebrows gamely and said,
“Well, business school for me. Got to get in training for the family business of ‘real estate’!”
The others all laughed and started talking about their own plans. Layla was taking a year out before going to college and was going to Brazil to help save the rainforest (“You should come with me” she told Magenta. “Yeah, no – I’ve heard they eat guinea pigs there” “That’s Peru” “Whatever, I’m still not going”. Layla looked at the hand Magenta was edging toward Zach and exchanged a smile with Will, but she didn’t tease Maj over the real reason she was staying)
Magenta was going to the same school as Zach, majoring in Biology and beginning to talk vaguely about Veterinary science. Zach cheerfully said ‘No idea, dude! But I know I’m going to shine!’ when asked what he was planning to major in.
Ethan had made no attempt to buck the nerd trend he’d been riding all through school and was studying science, more science and just for a change, some science. He’d been pretty open about Dr Medulla being his personal hero throughout school and he’d already begun co-responding with interesting sounding scientists in other cities about possible placements for graduate studies. Will was just hoping he didn’t end up fighting him as a mad professor in the future, because that would really suck.
They should all be getting placements with partners for their superhero pairings soon as well, although Layla was refusing to ‘participate in a flawed system that forces us all into an unrealistic dichotomy’
It looked fairly sure that Zach might be going to pull out as well – though in his case it was more because ‘Dude! You’ll be ok, but even though we helped save the school and all, they’re still not going to let us have any fun’
Will supposed he couldn’t blame them. If his powers hadn’t kicked in he wouldn’t be looking forward to his placement – as it was he just hoped it would be someone he could get along with. He knew the wrong pairing could land you both in hot water.
And speaking of hot… The other four were now deep in the middle of an involved argument as to whether Layla’s quest to save South American plant life should also include water weed, and whether it would be possible to block the entire Amazon with it if you grew enough of it, but Will wasn’t able to give the thread of the discussion the attention it deserved because Warren was pressing in closer to him at his side, thigh and shoulder warm against Will’s and breath hot on his cheek as he leaned in and said in a low voice
“Hey, Stronghold. You know the partner placements?”
Warren seemed to be excited about something and he was smiling at Will – grinning really, even while he tried to hide it from the others behind one hand. Warren glanced at him sideways, eyes flaring with mischief, and Will could only nod in reply seeing as his throat suddenly felt baked dry. Warren’s voice went even lower, to something almost near a purr – which distracted Will so much it took a couple of seconds to register what Warren was actually saying
“…not supposed to know ahead of time but, shit – everyone knows if you take Mr Bhoy and Ron Wilson out and stand them a couple of drinks then they’ll gossip like old maids. So it’s pretty certain that you and me are gonna be teaming up come September!”
Warren let his smile flare out brightly as he leaned over to snatch one half of the cookie Will had just accidently snapped open in shock at Warren’s words. He added happily, with none of his usual sarcasm
“Isn’t that great?”
Will smiled back and thought that the only reason he managed to pull the expression off was because the shock he was in had obviously short circuited enough neurones that a loony, escaped mental patient grin came naturally. Warren pulled his arm down from the back of the seat and actually gave Will a quick hug. Just before he had to close his eyes against the exquisite frustration of it he caught sight of the motto from his cookie.
A thrilling time…
Oh yeah. College was definitely going to be thrilling. In more ways than one.
* * *
Do not mistake temptation for opportunity.
Life doesn’t suddenly get fair in college either.
Yeah. He knows – no shit, Sherlock.
In fact, from Will’s point of view it gets even less fair than high school. Because at least then he’d been able to talk to Layla but now his best friend turned girlfriend turned best friend again had been several thousand miles away saving the rainforest for a year so he’d hardly heard from her, telecommunications being slightly spotty in the depths of the jungle (he could have flown out there to visit but Will’s flying ability did not come with whatever navigation instinct it was that kept birds from getting lost, and with his sense of direction if he tried to get to Brazil he’d most likely end up in Botswana), and his arch-enemy turned best friend turned secret, pathetic crush was now also his superhero partner and had somehow talked Will into being his roommate after the summer vacation now that he was turning sophomore and could live off campus.
(Warren had ‘talked Will into it’ by the fiendishly persuasive manner of asking ‘Wanna share a place next year?’. Will had barely let him get the words out before saying yes)
So basically he was fucked, and he had no-one to talk to about it.
He can’t even talk to Magenta about it either – her being the only person other than Layla who knew about his crush (When the superhero partner placements had been officially announced she’d asked him in an offhand way “Isn’t your lusting after his ass going to make that a bit awkward?” then, when he was nearly choking on his own spit spluttering in response she’d just raised a sardonic eyebrow and said dryly “I’m sorry, did you actually think you were being subtle about it?” Will had decided Magenta was definitely going to end up as a villainous guinea pig shapeshifter because she was already pure evil)
Because the problem with Magenta was that instead of being sympathetic she had a tendency to roll her eyes and give him really stupid advice like –
“Just tell him about it! God, Will – for someone who’s meant to be invulnerable you really need to grow a pair!”
Will glared at her from across the table as she unconcernedly popped another wonton in her mouth. He snapped back
“It’s hardly that simple, Maj! We work together and – oh yes, he’s not into guys! That might be a bit of a drawback, don’t you think?!”
Magenta opened her mouth to say something but then seemed to change her mind, manoeuvring another piece of Moo-shu pork into her mouth instead. When she’d finished chewing she put her chopsticks down and said
“He might surprise you, you know. And what have you got to loose?”
Will said bitterly
“A really good friend? He’s hardly going to want to spend time with me afterwards if I spill my guts, is he?”
Magenta opened her mouth to reply but before she could Will looked down and added miserably
“And I may be invulnerable physically, but I don’t think I want to cope with my heart being shattered into a thousand pieces, thanks”
He didn’t see the odd look of frustration Magenta threw him and he didn’t pay much attention to her muttered comment of ‘Boys. Both as thick as each other…’. Instead he picked up his cookie and morosely broke it open, then snorted when he read the motto.
‘Don’t mistake temptation’ – well, at least once one of these damn things had something realistic to say.
College sucked.
* * *
Grand adventures await those who are willing to turn the corner.
If Will had been more cynical, or, depending on your point of view, more observant about the world, then maybe the fortune he’d got from the extra cookie Warren had passed over to him at lunch would have acted as a warning.
As it was he’d carried on as though it were business as usual. Wake up, try not to think about Warren while jerking off in the shower, have breakfast, try not to think about licking milk from the corner of Warren’s mouth as he ate breakfast, go to his morning Business class, try not to fantasise about Warren in a business suit as Will goes down on him underneath the desk, meet up with Warren for lunch and argue futilely against going for Chinese again, try not to fantasise about sweeping the dishes containing Warren’s Pork in Black Bean sauce and his own plain fried noodles off the table and slamming his friend down on top of it to put his mouth on that distracting, golden skin and ravish him…
As he said. Business as usual. Perhaps with slightly more Warren-based temptation business than normal and then, when they’d left the restaurant and were walking back to campus, arguing about who got to pick the movie for their regular Thursday evening of bad sci-fi and popcorn, they’d turned round the corner and seen the giant, metallic, robot squid.
It had taken them a couple of seconds to spring into action, but Will thought they could be excused because really – Giant Metallic Robot Squid.
“Who the hell comes up with shit like this?”
Warren’s low voice echoed his thoughts and brought him back to reality. Will looked over to meet his friend’s exasperated look and suddenly remembered that they weren’t really dressed appropriately for this particular party.
He glanced around and noticed a conveniently placed alleyway which he nodded toward.
“Want to join me in the changing room?”
That came out sounding much more flirtatious than he’d intended and for a horrible moment when Warren’s expression went a bit blank he thought the other man had heard all the things he tried desperately to never say along with the simple question, but then Warren gave him that sharp, dangerous grin he always got during a fight and said
“Let’s suit up!”
The special costume-carriers that Ethan had manufactured for them both (he hadn’t teamed up with a single partner as superhero support and instead had started to set himself up – very successfully – as an inventor and technology expert for hire) were small and discreet and somehow packed away all their gear into wristbands not much bigger than sports watches, with the suits themselves springing out and slipping on so quickly and easily that Will could almost swear the material was semi-sentient and helping out. (This thought is disturbing and he tries not to have it too often. Especially while wearing his costume)
The ease of changing generally means that Will would be able to pay attention to his surroundings while dressing but this time he takes extra care to concentrate on nothing else but the slide of blue and white material over his torso and the snap of the red cloak and armbands going on.
He’s very, very pointedly NOT thinking about the fact that Warren is right there behind him – getting undressed – and so he comes close to jumping when he hears Warren say quietly behind him
“Ready?”
And when he turns round his breath catches for a moment, because even in the dark shadows of the alley Warren looks incredible – the sleeveless suit leaving his defined, tattooed arms free and the black and dark red material that does cover him hugging every lean muscle he has in a way that always leaves Will’s mouth slightly dry and also makes him feel vaguely idiotic, because he’s jealous of a damned costume.
He’s stood there for too long and the atmosphere’s begun to turn a little strange, heavy with tension. Warren’s forehead begins to crinkle in puzzlement and just as he starts to open his mouth Will snaps out in a strangled tone
“Ok, let’s go!”
He thinks Warren might have started to say something, but Will’s out of the alley and up and flying toward their monster of the week before he can finish. And if the blow he deals the first of the robot squid’s tentacles to reach for him is a bit harder than even he would usually hit – well; he’s suddenly got a whole lot of frustration to take out on something, and a mechanoid sea creature fits that bill quite nicely, thank you.
A second robotic arm wraps round him and drags him from his flight path as he’s circling round, and a third gets a hit in that he almost feels as he’s struggling to get free. It’s the only strike that limb manages before a hot blue fire ball sizzles past him and melts the arm into a rain of silvery molten metal even as it’s coming down for a second go.
Will spares a glance down to the ground as he shatters the loop of articulated metal around him and he can see Warren in a clear space in front of the robot, the inevitable film crew already gathered on the pavement safely out of the way and filming Airstrike and Inferno’s latest battle.
Will can tell they’re going to be six o’clock news fodder again, and that Warren’s probably going to get most of the footage. He can’t blame the news crew for concentrating on him though – Will keeps one eye on him as he dodges robotic limbs and darts in to land hits on the main body, and he can tell that ‘Inferno’ is being more than usually spectacular today; with ghost-fire flames completely surrounding and almost boiling the air around him, every fire-ball he throws a strike that melts another part of the robot and is swiftly making it look less like a squid and more like a swiss cheese.
He finds he’s kept too much of his attention on his partner when one of the last two remaining arms catches him a glancing blow that sends him tumbling backwards in the air. He pulls out of the spin just in time to hear Warren’s high, ringing bellow of rage and to see the huge ball of – he can’t even call it fire; it’s so white-hot that it’s blinding, a cornea-searing blaze of magnesium flame that shoots toward the remains of the machine like a rocket, punches through the body of it and burns it to the ground like it had been made of tissue paper and not metal.
There’s a long, frozen moment when everything seems still – and then the few misshapen remnants of the thing fall to the ground with a clatter and for a few seconds the only sound is the soft ‘plink-plink’ of cooling metal, before there’s a roaring cheer from the crowd that’s gathered and the sounds of sirens start up in the background.
Will feels odd, as though that last hit had actually managed to knock him a bit dazed, and he’s just about to fly back down to join Warren who is looking up at him from the ground when the damn camera crew surge forward and Warren now has the reporter hanging off his arm – blonde and pretty and very, very intent on shoving her generous, perky tits in Warren’s face.
And Will decides he really has had all the excitement and adventure he can cope with for one day without screaming, and he turns tail and runs.
* * *
He spent some time just flying – trying to cool himself down – and he’d obviously lost track of time while he did because dusk was drawing in when he slowly swoops down to drop quietly onto the balcony of his and Will’s shared apartment and silently let himself in.
The flat was dark, which meant that Warren hadn’t come back yet either – three guesses where he was and the first two don’t count – and Will knew it was an emo-indulgence of the first order to leave the lights off so he could sulk in the dark, but he couldn’t help it. He really didn’t want to see all the evidence of Warren around the place; his text books and papers and the entire contents of his wardrobe that Warren didn’t seem to be able to keep in his room.
But he only just had time to drop down onto the couch with a sigh before he heard a door in the hall – Warren’s bedroom door – open. Then the man himself was in the doorway of the living room and he didn’t turn the lights on either, just stood in the shadows by the door watching Will and then said abruptly
“You took off awfully fast, Stronghold”
It’s been a very long day, and Will has been battling stronger than usual attraction to Warren as well as huge mechanical calamari so he can’t seem to help it when he replies in an extremely bitter tone
“Well, you looked like you were getting on fine with your heroic attempts to get into that reporter chick’s pants so I didn’t think you needed me”
Then he winced, because there’s no way that anyone with ears wouldn’t notice the fact that he just sounded like a jealous thirteen year old girl.
Maybe he can pass it off as being tired, or pretend that he fancied the blonde himself and that’s why he’s annoyed.
“Hey, look – I’m sorry. I’m just a bit beat and it’s none of my business who you get off with, is it?”
Warren doesn’t reply immediately and Will begins to feel prickles of apprehension. He suddenly has a nasty feeling that something’s about to go very wrong any minute –
“Isn’t it? Because I get the impression that you want it to be your business”
…now. And, ladies and gentlemen, we have disaster. We have Will’s whole life crashing down about his ears, leaving him gasping with the shock.
Now Warren moves closer, a few steps away from the door and into the middle of the floor, where his face is completely in shadow. Will still can’t find any thing to say, just sits there gaping like a fish and trying not to hyperventilate. After a few moments Warren says very quietly
“Kinda notice you’re not denying it, Stronghold. That mean I’m right?”
And Will really can’t bring himself to lie to Warren to his face. Not about that. He can’t bring himself to look him in the face though, either, and so he closes his eyes and says in a flat voice
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
Warren’s voice sounds like he’s even closer, and perhaps Will could see his expression now but he doesn’t think he wants to remember Warren looking as disgusted with him as he no-doubt is so he doesn’t open his eyes. Squeezes them tighter shut, in fact, and now his flat tone breaks down when he says
“Yes! I’m sorry. I know you’re not – that you wouldn’t want - …I’ll go, ok? You can request a new partner and we can sort something out with the apartment and-“
A hand over his mouth cuts off Will’s babbling and his eyes fly open to meet Warren’s intense, hot and apparently very pissed off gaze. Warren’s voice is very low when he says
“You, Will, are quite one of the stupidest people I’ve ever met”
Then the hand’s off Will’s mouth and Warren’s lips are there instead, and his teeth, and his tongue – all combining in a brutal kiss that feels more like an attack than an endearment. It certainly acts on Will like a blow to the stomach would on a normal person – knocking the wind out of him and leaving him reeling and panting when Warren eventually pulls away. It seems that Warren’s not immune to the effects either, because his voice is ragged when he speaks again, still somehow sounding annoyed
“Absolutely stupid. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that, you fucking idiot?!”
Will doesn’t know, but fortunately it was apparently a rhetorical question because Warren’s kissing him again without waiting for an answer – hot and wet and messy – and this is now absolute top of a list Will’s forming in his mind of the best things Warren could ever do with his mouth, except now Warren’s pushing him back against the couch to straddle his thighs and his lips are moving down Will’s jaw to suck hard kisses along his neck and this – this is his favourite now for at least thirty seconds until Warren pushed the neck of the costume he’s still wearing down and bites at Will’s collar bone.
Will’s still not sure quite what the hell is happening and his hands are still hovering around – not sure where he should put them, until Warren pulls away again to rear up and snarl in his face
“Fucking touch me, you moron!”
Insults aren’t generally a classic sweet-nothing to murmur in these situations but they get Will moving at least, and the next few minutes get very confused with both of them groping and grabbing at each other, Will managing to drag Warren’s t-shirt off him and Warren trying with less success to get Will out of his costume. Finally it dawns on Will that Warren is trying to say something but isn’t prepared to stop kissing Will again so it’s coming out as an incomprehensible mumbling. He’s not willing to stop pressing his mouth to Warren’s either but at last he makes out the word ‘…bedroom’ and ok – yes. That’s the best idea he’s ever heard in his life.
He’d always thought that having super strength was cool but, thought Will dazedly, he’d never really known how truly awesome it was till he realised it meant he could hook his arms underneath Warren’s ass and lift him up effortlessly as Will stood up from the couch.
That finally made Warren tear his mouth off Will’s to glare at him, but after a second he just said
“Take us to the bloody bedroom then”
And leaned back down to bite at Will’s ear.
They made it there eventually, with a bit of stumbling and a couple of minutes break because they slammed into a wall and Will took that as an opportunity to suck a hickey onto Warren’s neck while Warren panted above him and squeezed his thighs tighter around Will’s waist.
When they make it to Will’s bed they crash straight onto it, Will twisting them as they fall so he’s on the bottom and cushions their landing. It’s still a bit a of shock that makes Warren bite a bit too hard at Will’s lip, but his muffled complaint of ‘ow!’ just means Warren spends several moments soothing the hurt with his tongue so Will doesn’t protest.
He does when Warren abruptly climbs off him though – but as soon as Warren makes clear what he’s intending with an eye roll and a blunt command to ‘Strip’ Will gets with the programme very quickly.
So quickly that his costume gets launched across the room and he’s back on the bed before Warren’s even got his pants off, which earns him a raised eyebrow but no comment because it’s not like Warren can complain about him following orders so enthusiastically.
But then Will gets to watch Warren as he slowly pushes his jeans down and off and ohgod, ohchrist, now he notices that that’s all Warren was wearing. That there’d never been anything underneath that loose, warn denim but Warren’s dark, honeyed skin and his thick cock – free now and standing to attention, so hard it hits against Warren’s smooth, tight belly as he moves back over to the bed and to Will.
Now the air in the room seems to have gone thick – too thick to breathe but that doesn’t matter because Will can’t seem to catch his breath anyway, and when Warren finally lays down on top of him, drapes himself over Will so they’re touching everywhere Will doesn’t even care because this is the most perfect moment he’s ever had and if he died of suffocation now he’d die happy.
And then Warren moves, rubs up against him in one long, slow stroke and if the dying thing can be put on hold that would be good, that would be great because Will wants more of that – lots more and right now, please.
He tries to tell Warren that but all that comes out of him is a moan – but apparently Warren is fluent in moans because he does do it again, and again and he’s kissing Will while he does and grabbing at Will’s shoulders so he can rub harder and giving Will back his moans, groaning them back into his mouth when Will clutches at him – spreads his hand on Warren’s back and grabs at his ass to pull him down more firmly against him.
Then Warren actually growls at him – which sends Will’s spine bowing up from the bed because he’s never heard anything that hot in his life, and Warren’s batting Will’s hands away from where they’re scrabbling at his hips and he’s hooking one leg up over Will’s hip and groping down between their bellies as he mutters
“Hands out of the way, Stronghold. You can drive next time, ok?”
And Will would ask what the hell Warren was talking about but then he doesn’t need to because Warren’s got both of their cocks in his hand, silky smooth and hard against each other, and they’re both so damp with sweat and pre-come that they just slide slickly into the ring of his fist as he pumps his hand. And Will wants more of this as well, as much as he can stand and then more on top of that, but he could feel his stomach tightening and his balls drawing up as soon as his cock touched up alongside Warren’s and it only takes two more strokes before he’s coming and coming, shuddering and bucking up against Warren and shivering again all over when Warren grips them both tightly and moans ‘Will…’ against his mouth as he comes too.
* * *
Will is really not sure if he’s ever going to get control of his breathing again, but he calms a bit when he gets pulled over to lie on his side, face to face with Warren, who finishes up his manhandling of Will by wrapping his arms around him and nosing his face into Will’s neck, grumbling in a muffled way as he does
“Really very, very stupid. I have no idea why I like you…”
That sends Will’s heart racing again, and he’s going to be awake all night, he can tell. But somehow, listening to Warren’s breathing as it slows and deepens, between one breath and the next he slips into sleep.
* * *
Will wakes up again in the middle of the night and stumbles, eyes still mostly closed toward the bathroom. He’s still half asleep while he takes a piss and flushes and gets a drink of water, but he wakes right up quick when he gets back to his bedroom doorway and sees Warren in his bed, sprawled on his stomach with the sheets pushed down to his hips, looking like some fallen angel in the soft light shining through from the hall.
His face is turned into the light and Will gets lost for… well, probably an embarrassing amount of time in tracing how the harsh lines of those cheekbones flow and yield down into the soft, full curves of his lips.
He’s so fascinated that he doesn’t notice the glint of white that show Warren’s eyes are open, and he starts when a semi-slurred grumble comes from the bed
“Y’gonna stan’ there a’night or comin’ t’ behh..”
The last bit mumbles away before Warren can get to the ‘d’ and Will has to clear his throat before he answers back. His voice is still rough anyway when he says
“Yeah. Be right there”
He picks up Warren’s jeans that are in the path to the door, trying to look like he meant to do that all along and give himself an excuse for standing there that isn’t that he was gazing lovingly at Warren like he was a piece of precious art.
As he throws them onto his desk chair out of the way a piece of white flutters down and when he bends to scoop it up he sees that it’s the other fortune he got today – the one from his own cookie, that Warren had apparently decided to keep.
Today is a lucky day for those who remain cheerful and optimistic.
He realises he’s grinning like a loon and he carefully puts the scrap of paper onto his bedside table for safekeeping before sliding back into bed.
Warren makes a sleepy annoyed noise and buts against Will’s shoulder until he lifts up his arm so Warren can rest his head back down on Will’s chest. He grumbles something inaudibly and then settles down with a sigh as Will carefully strokes his hair.
Will grins up at the ceiling, wide awake and not caring. Yeah – he’d always liked fortune cookies.
the end