"Magnus," Will announced as he threw open the door to their shared apartment, "I am completely and utterly fucked."
Magnus looked up from his phone, rolling his eyes. "Hey, Will. My day was fine, thanks for asking, how about yours?"
"You can tease me later," Will groaned, flopping onto the other end of the couch. "Help me now."
"Okay, fine, what's the problem?"
"It's James," he replied. "I can't stop thinking about him and I'm. So. Fucked."
"Relax, you drama queen, just ask the man out!"
"What if he says no?"
"Then you pick up and move on with your life and quit moping about your cute friend that you keep scheduling your life around."
"But I don't want to lose him!"
"Will. Please calm down. Suddenly I'm feeling stressed about asking someone out and I'm already seeing someone."
"Okay, okay, sorry," Will said, rising and pacing their tiny living room. "We've been friends for so long, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I made it weird between us somehow. But I think I'm in love with him, Magnus. To the point that I can see myself spending the rest of my life with him!"
Magnus gasped. "You? Mr. Commitment Issues?"
"Oh, fuck off," Will said with no heat. "What do I do?"
Magnus patted the sofa cushion beside him patiently and rubbed a hand up and down Will's spine soothingly when he sat down. "Look, Jem's a sweetheart. He'll hear you out. Just be honest with him, ask him out, and see where things go. You're going to feel torn up like this until you do. Darling, you are a catch, he's got nothing to say no to here. He already loves you in one capacity, it's time to hope he also felt the same shift you did."
Will smiled weakly. "Thanks, Magnus."
"Oh, and just remember..."
"Yeah?"
"Break his bed, not his heart."
The sudden pillow to the face did nothing to muffle Magnus's laughter as Will shut the door to his room with a huff.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Alec? Got a second?" Jem peered around the doorway of their kitchen, fingers wrapped around a cup of tea that hadn't been warm for a while.
Alec looked up from the book he was reading with a smile. He knew his flatmate so well. Jem would mull something over to himself and go very quiet, especially if the thing he was thinking about was stressing him out. Then, if he wanted Alec's advice, he'd ask, ever so politely, before inevitably stressing himself back out.
It would be hard to handle if Alec wasn't aware he did the exact same thing to Jem far more often than Jem did it to him.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"It's Will," he said simply.
"Again?"
"Mmhmm. The feelings seem to be more permanent than I'd thought initally."
"Well," Alec said carefully, trying not to smile, "That can be a good thing. He'd probably say yes if you asked him out. What's the harm? Just smile and be honest with him."
Jem raised an eyebrow at him, sitting on the edge of their battered sofa.
"What? That's what you told me to do with Magnus and it worked."
"Yes, but this is me."
"So?"
"Alec," Jem sighed tiredly. "Please, I don't want to have this conversation again. You know why it's different and you know why I don't date. "
"Tell me again anyway," Alec said stubbornly. "Maybe if you say it enough you'll hear that you're being ridiculous."
"Fine. There is no way anything could work. I'm dying, and I'm not terribly interested in a 'short-term' fling that could easily be the rest of my life, but any serious relationship is doomed to end quickly. The clock is not on my side, Alec. I don't have a life to give someone. I can't grow old with someone. All I can do is break their heart." Jem sighed, leaning back against the sofa and tucking his feet up underneath him. "It wouldn't be fair to Will."
"He's already going to be heartbroken when..." He trailed off with a grimace, hating how resigned Jem looked to dying. "When we lose you. Would it be so bad to be happy between then and now? Besides, I think you're forgetting something important," Alec said, trying to be gentle.
"And what's that?"
"You are worth loving," he said simply. "Friend or lover or anything. You, James Carstairs, are worth loving. No matter what."
Jem looked down at his lukewarm tea, eyes bright for a moment. "Thank you," he managed quietly. "Perhaps I should take your advice."
Alec rose from his chair, patting Jem on the shoulder as he went into the kitchen. "Oh, and Jem?"
"Hmm?"
"Make his dick hard, not his life."
The sound of Jem choking on his tea and sputtering a curse or ten at Alec followed him as he walked, laughing, into the kitchen.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey, babe?"
Alec hummed in response, not lifting his head from Magnus's lap.
"Will is being a right pain in the ass about pining for Jem. Thoughts?"
"They're oblivious idiots," Alec said fondly. "Jem's got himself all worked up about loving Will."
Magnus gave a wicked grin. "I've got an idea. If we ask them to switch roommates so we can live together, you move in here and Will moves into yours and Jem's place..."
"They'll be living together and hopefully they'll figure their shit out," Alec finished. "Brilliant. Let's do it."
"And as a bonus," Magnus said, leaning down for a kiss, "We get to move in together."
Alec grinned and held him close, putting their master plan on hold.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Somehow, Jem realized, this was simultaneously everything he'd wished for and the worst possible outcome.
Will was moving in, unpacking boxes just one room away while he sat curled on the couch, mindlessly reading a book and remembering none of it.
They'd been friends for so long that there had been no outward level of awkwardness. Just Will with boxes in his hands and complaints in his mouth about how sappy Alec and Magnus were being.
Jem's hands had been shaking a little before he opened the door, but seeing Will had relaxed him into their familiar state of comfortable companionship.
His comfortable happiness had lasted all of twenty seven minutes before he realized that Will was going to drive him slowly insane.
The object of his affections strolled back into the living room, running hands through his hair and stretching with a hand on his lower back.
"I forgot how much moving takes it out of you," Will complained, gratefully taking the water Jem had left on the table for him.
"That's why you're moving and not me," Jem replied evenly, forcing himself not to look up from the book he was reading. "And it's your own fault for having so many boxes of books."
"He says, currently reading a book."
"As I said, there's a reason you're the one moving instead of me."
Will laughed, and Jem looked up, grinning. They held each other's gaze just a moment too long before Will sat rather unceremoniously in the squashy armchair.
"I'm glad we get to live together," Will said after a long silence. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have to deal with all the time."
"Even with my demon cat?" Jem teased, looking up from his book again.
"Even with the demon cat."
"Magnus and Alec can go be disgustingly happy," Jem said fondly, "While we mutually descend into cohabiting bachelordom as two broke university students pretending to be adults."
"Sounds perfect," Will said, downing the rest of the water. "I'm going to go take a shower."
Jem made a very concentrated effort not to let his face betray him. "You know where the bathroom is," he said calmly, continuing to read his book until he heard the water running. At that point, he dove for his phone, calling Alec immediately.
Alec picked up and Jem said, with no preamble, "I have miscalculated in thinking this was a good idea."
Alec sighed. "Hello, James."
"Yes, yes, hello. You and Magnus have been scheming, haven't you? Why did I let you talk me into this?" Jem lamented, tucking his feet under him and running a hand through his hair. "I'm not going to be able to keep it together."
Alec took a deep breath. "Listen, I-"
He was cut off by the sounds of a scuffle on the other end and then a click.
"Hello, Jem darling," Magnus called happily. "You're on speaker!"
"Did the two of you just want to live together and this is convenient collateral or have the two of you been meddling in my love life again?" Jem asked bluntly, still listening to the pattering of the shower.
"Both," Magnus said shamelessly, "And, as it happens, you weren't the only one we were meddling in by orchestrating this move."
Jem's grasp of the English language abandoned him for the briefest of moments, mind reeling with the implication.
"You don't mean... Surely, he doesn't..."
Alec and Magnus laughed, though not unkindly. "He does."
"It's still not a good idea," Jem said with a sigh, not noticing the sound of the shower had stopped. "I'm afraid of ruining it."
"What's the worst that could happen?"
"I screw up and the best thing I've ever had is gone forever," Jem deadpanned.
"Ever the optimist, James," Magnus chided.
"Magnus, it could happen and it will happen if we live together. Eventually, Will's going to figure out that I think I'm in love with him."
A soft gasp from the doorway behind him startled Jem so badly he nearly dropped his phone.
"Dammit," he swore under his breath. "Gentlemen, I have to go. I hope you're happy, that was Will who just heard everything I just said." He hung up and turned to face Will.
Before his half-formed apology made it out of his mouth, Will was kissing him. Jem distantly heard himself make a small, surprised noise at the back of his throat before relaxing and raising one hand to rest on Will's face gently, but it all appeared to be happening to someone else.
Kissing Will Herondale was like an out-of-body experience.
Will pulled away soon (far, far too soon) and smiled at Jem, a little sheepishly.
"I really hope I was the Will you were talking about," Will said, laughing despite himself, "Or this is going to be really awkward."
"Of course it was you," Jem said, too shocked to be anything but perfectly honest. "It has always been and will always be you."
"Good," Will said, closing his eyes and touching his forehead to Jem's, a tentative brush of warmth that made Jem's heart ache. "Because I think I'm in love with you, too."
"Lucky me," he whispered, pulling Will down beside him on the couch.
"I'm glad I'm here," Will said in a soft voice, facing Jem and close to falling off the couch.
"I was afraid it would drive me insane," Jem admitted. "But this... This, we can live with."
Will gave a heart melting grin. "How did I ever live without it?"
"Sap," Jem teased fondly, pulling him closer and stealing another kiss.
Will pulled back again moments later, panting slightly. "So, should I move the rest of my stuff into your room or the spare?" he asked cheekily.
Jem thwacked him fondly over the head with the book, but did later help him unpack. They left a lot of Will's things in the spare bedroom, lining the walls with his photos and his shelves and his beloved books.
(Soon, this room would be cluttered with books and sheet music and plants and a noticeable lack of a bed, while Jem's would soon be full of two closet's worth of clothes and matching nightstands and two sets of bright laughter ringing off the walls of their first shared home. Magnus and Alec were going to be unbearably smug, and neither Will nor Jem could bring themselves to care.)
A/N: Hello everybody! As usual, I hope you enjoyed the update. Let me know what you think and/or requests, you know the drill.
One quick thing. If any of you are going to Anime Expo 2017 in Los Angeles and are going to be there on Sunday, July 2nd, look for me!! I'll be there with a couple of friends, and I'd love to be able to meet some of you all in person someday, so this will be a cool opportunity if any of you happen to be going. I'll be the redhead with the Star Wars backpack, and my profile picture at the moment is of me. The name's Nat <3
Hope to see some of you there! Have a lovely day, and stay hydrated this summer. Take care!