“Did something happen?” Gabriel asked casually.

Will, in the middle of slicing up an avocado, tensed. In the same casual way Gabriel had spoken, he looked over his shoulder, smiled. “Didn’t hear you come in.”

Gabriel placed his laptop bag down and came over. His rested his hand into the small of Will’s back. “I’d be surprised if you heard me over that.” He said, dark eyes on the TV. Will looked too, realising just how loud he’d turned the music up. Quickly he picked up the remote and turned it down.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Gabriel’s gaze lingered, and Will realised he was waiting for him to answer the question. Did something happen?

“I started on the lasagna.” Will deflected. That was ‘something’, right? “I’ve the vegetables all cut, I just used what was in the fridge, I hope that’s okay, and the mince is just gone into the frying pan.”

Gabriel lingered around Will’s shoulder. Will started to cut the vegetables again, and Gabriel let out a breath. He kissed Will’s cheek. “I’ll be back after I change.”

As soon as he left the room, Will stopped cutting. He was making a mess of the avocado. He shook himself, hoping to ease away the last of his jitters, and was back at it when Gabriel came back in sweat-pants and t-shirt. The casually dressed boyfriend eased Will’s heart more than the teacherly-dressed Gabriel. In a suit, Gabriel was something forbidden. In trackies, Gabriel was his.

“How was work?”

“Busy,” Gabriel set up at a chopping board next to Will, and brandished an onion. “Did you leave these in the fridge on purpose?”

Will paused a second too long. “No.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

“I was leaving them till last,” Will continued, “So I could see what I was doing for the rest of it.”

“Uh huh.” Gabriel returned the onions. His hand found its way once more to Will’s back. He leaned against his shoulder as he looked over him. “Did you leave anything for me to do?” He asked, amused.

Will remembered that this was meant to be a couple thing. A shared moment. All he’d been thinking about when he arrived was keeping himself occupied. Moving. “Putting it all together.” He eventually concluded. “Sorry, I know you said we’d do it together, we can next time.”

“You don’t need to apologise for making me dinner.” Gabriel kissed his shoulder. There was a contemplative look in his eye. His hand slipped from Will’s back to his waist, and then he rested his chin on Will’s shoulder. Will, smiling, braced himself on the counter to support Gabriel’s weight. His curly hair tickled his jaw.

“I can finish the rest.” Gabriel told him. “You can do homework, or whatever you feel like.”

Will leaned back, and Gabriel answered with more weight. Will chuckled. “In that case, I might go for a quick run.”

Gabriel shifted once more. His hand flattened on Will’s stomach. In the microwave's reflection Will could see his smile had gone, and that contemplative look was back.

“Again?” Gabriel asked.

“Again?”

“You already went for a run, didn’t you?” Gabriel traced the buttons on his shirt. “Your runners are left in the hallway.”

“I might have just been walking.”

Gabriel pressed a kiss to his neck. “You taste salty, and I know you wouldn’t be sweating after a walk.”

“Don’t be tasting me,” Will grumbled. Gabriel let out a laugh. He stood straight, and gently had Will turn to face him, retreating enough that they could see each-other’s faces.

Will hadn’t been trying to hide the run, but now that Gabriel had probed the answer from him he felt like he had been. It didn’t even matter that much. “It was only a little circle around the park,” He said. As the words left his mouth, he cringed. It felt and sounded like an excuse.

Gabriel’s expression started slipping to something more serious, meaning he heard it too. Will steeled himself. No. No, he told himself, I’m not doing this with him. This hadn’t actually been a slip-up. He hadn‘t gone over his exercise quota for the day, the run was perfectly acceptable. He didn’t need to excuse it, or defend it. Why was he acting guilty of something?

“Will.” Gabriel searched his eyes. His brow creased. Gabriel took his hand. “If you need to go for a run, that’s okay.”

Will nodded. Gabriel was giving him an out. “I’ll only circle the block, work up my appetite. Ten minutes, tops.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Gabriel promised.

Will left Gabriel to finish up the meal and slipped his runners on. He picked up a jog when he got to the edge of the park and chose the shortest route. Guys were kicking a soccer ball around, and a few people walked their dogs in the evening light. He used the run to clear his head and tried not to worry. Whatever was going on with his mom he could figure out. But he couldn’t work himself into a frenzy of exercise over it.

Inside was the lasagna was already starting to smell delicious. He found Gabriel stretched out on the couch with a book in hand. The tv hummed with a nature documentary in the-ground.

“What are you reading?” Will leaned on the back of the couch.

Gabriel turned over the cover for him to see. It had a giant protractor on the front. Will raised an eyebrow. “You read maths books in your free-time?”

“I’m thinking about doing a post-grad,” Gabriel put it onto the coffee table and twisted around to face Will. “This is for research. Did you have a good run?”

“Yeah,” Will looked at the tv. He’d relaxed more. Enough to speak easy. “It was a bit stressful today. That helped.”

Gabriel rubbed his hand. “College?”

“We’ve hardly even started it,” Will shrugged. “It’s nothing much.” He came around and joined Gabriel on the couch, sinking into the cushions. “I do have a few readings to do for class though.”

“I’m good at reading,” Gabriel said as if revealing a rare skill

With a smile, Will rested against him, his chin on his shoulder. Gabriel responded by wrapping an arm around Will’s waist.

“I have a practice game next Saturday.” Will said. “We’ll be going against a college team from down south, Cork, I think?”

“A match already?”

“Coach thinks seeing where we are against the opposition early is important. It’s a good idea.” Will explained. “I’m a bit nervous. I haven’t played much over the summer, just practised with Dune.”

Gabriel hummed. “You’ll do great.”

“I’m hoping.”

There was a pause. “So,” Gabriel said, “You and Jack didn’t make up?”

Will had to remember how much he’d told Gabriel. He knew about Will’s feelings being found out, but Will didn’t update him on what happened after that. “It’s not like there was something to make up about per-say. I wasn’t getting along with Amanda, and the two of them are thick as thieves, so…” he shrugged.

Gabriel rubbed his side. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Will straightened enough to look at Gabriel. “I don’t think I ever really considered dating Jack. I didn’t daydream or imagine what could be… I just liked him.”

“Can I ask something?”

“Sure.”

“It’s something you wouldn’t tell me before.” Gabriel added.

Will hesitated, unsure as to where this was going. Something he’d refused to tell Gabriel? Was there anything like that? There were certain topics avoided, but nothing he‘d refused outright to answer. Was there? He nodded.

“If it wasn’t Cassie, and it wasn’t Jack, that day you came back to the house after having been with someone… who was it?” Gabriel asked, “If I remember right, you were fighting with Dune at the time, so it couldn’t have been him.”

“Ah,” Will blinked. Right. The make-out session that almost ended in much more. “That was Birch.”

Gabriel’s eyes widened. “Birch?”

Will nodded.

“Oh.” Gabriel said. “I didn’t realise there was anything going on between you two at all?”

“There wasn’t,” Will said quickly. “That was the last time anything happened.”

“Okay,” Gabriel continued in good-humour. “Meaning that wasn’t the first time?”

“Spin the bottle.” Will shrugged. “If that counts.”

“If it got you interested, it counts.”

A timer in the kitchen started buzzing. Will followed Gabriel and took out two plates while he got the lasagna from the oven. It smelled delicious. Will took a moment to recall the last home-cooked meal he’d had, and beyond the food Gabriel had given him last week, it was a black hole in his memory. Not that his dad didn’t try to feed Will healthy food. Even if he gave hints about money trouble, he kept buying broccoli every week, and making Will special dinners that he himself wouldn’t even sniff, never-mind taste. Will was hard-pressed to want to taste some of the end-results.

“I might put a slice aside and bring it home for my dad, if you don’t mind?”

“No problem,” Gabriel said, distracted. He hung the oven mitts back up. “How much happened?”

“How much?” Will repeated.

“Between you and Birch. How much happened?”

Will glanced at his expression, but Gabriel seemed at ease, and Will saw no reason he couldn’t answer. “We made out.”

“And how was that?”

Will, this time, averted his gaze. Warmth pooled in his cheeks. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was weird, mainly because he couldn’t imagine asking Gabriel what it was like when he’d been physical with his ex’s. It seemed a bizarre thing. Personal. But maybe it was normal to ask about past experiences with a boyfriend? Gabriel had more experience than he did with this kind of thing.

“It was… kinda…” He picked at the edge of the counter. “Rushed? And impulsive and… good. He was small, and inexperienced, and he felt nice on my lap, so—”

Will glanced up and stopped talking. The relaxed expression was gone from Gabriel’s face, and the set of his mouth was one of tension.

“I’m sorry,” Will blurted. “Was that meant to be a joke? I shouldn’t have answered.”

“No, no it wasn’t a joke.” Gabriel rubbed his jaw. His darkened eyes darted away from Will. “I shouldn’t have asked at all if the answer would make me angry. No, it shouldn’t annoy me at all since it was before we were even close - but it does. I’m sorry.”

Gabriel dug out a spatula and plated them two large portions in silence.

Will studied him, thinking over his response carefully before he spoke. “You’ve dated other guys before me, and that doesn’t annoy me. I’m aware of it, you have more experience than I do, and that’s okay. But, if you started talking about how this one time you were grinding on a guy and had a good time, or how this one guy had a neat trick with his tongue—well, I wouldn’t like that too much.”

Gabriel approached and covered Will’s hands with his own. His dark eyes stared straight into Will’s. “I worried all summer that someone would come along and take you away from me.”

“I can relate.”

Gabriel smiled briefly. “I guess two weeks isn’t enough for the reality of having you here to sink in fully. It still feels like it's… a stolen weekend away. Like time is limited somehow, and you’ll be going back home.”

“Dublin is my home now.”

Gabriel lifted his hands and kissed the back of his knuckles. Will reddened and made a noise of protest in his throat.

Gabriel grinned. “Too disney for you?”

“Too disney-prince,” Will protested. “I’d prefer something less PG.”

Gabriel’s smile widened. He released Will’s hands and stepped forward. Their breaths mingled together, and Gabriel touched his forehead against his. His hair ticked Will’s face. He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply.

“I’m sorry for being jealous,” Gabriel whispered to him.

Will wasn’t mad about that. The only thing that had surprised him was Gabriel’s sudden anger when he’d turned back to him. “It’s okay,” he told him.