celeweenie

wsh who just knows that’s Mack, his Mack. he learns how he functions and how to accommodate and help him without even knowing it’s autism, that’s just his Mack and he loves his Mack

Mack gets quiet sometimes, so Will helps him through the motions, talks enough for both of them and then lets the silence settle when it’s needed. Mack has big feelings, moments where will has noticed it’s hard for him to do anything but yell or cry or break a hockey stick or punch a windshield. Will waits him out or goes through his mental checklist to deescalate and recalibrate Mack, giving him the chance to let his emotions play out and then transitioning to something healthier. Mack thrives under Will’s attention, yaps and chirps and bounces around the room, doing spins on the ice for him and is at Will’s side the second Will says his name. It’s harder around the others, to make eye contact and carry conversation that doesn’t revolve around hockey, so Will stands there and guides him far enough to get into a rhythm with the others, stands across from Mack so he has someone to make eye contact with rather than awkwardly glance everywhere but his teammates eyes. Mack likes a certain type of tape, wrapped a specific way after he’s geared up in a specific order of events. Will glances at the almost gone roll of tape and doesn’t think twice before ordering a new box, slipping the new one in mack’s bag while he’s distracted the next day. he tapes his own stick with it first, getting the annoying start of the roll out of the way so Mack doesn’t have to struggle with it later, not wanting the younger man to get overwhelmed trying to deal with the different texture that coats the outside of the roll and the annoying picking that you have to do to get the tape to lift. he trades the almost gone roll with the new one and uses the rest of Mack’s up. they don’t follow Mack’s — read: Rick’s — meal plan one evening, ordering out something different than usual. he catches Mack freezing up before he casually slips in “it’s the same amount of calories - same ratios for protein and grains and-”

and Mack isn’t listening because Will just ordered a meal that matches his diet down to the exact calorie — how Will knows how many calories dinner is supposed to be is beyond him — and is still yapping on about macros and whatever. he’s plating mack’s food on his favorite plate, retrieving the fork that Mack fawns over every time he uses it, snagging a blue gatorade from the fridge because gatorade is safer than soda right now.

Mack stares at him, eyes wide and lips parted in realization. will carries their food to the couch, setting Mack’s on the side with the blue blanket that Mack adores, because it’s so soft and just the right texture against his skin. it keeps him warm in the arctic temperatures of Will’s place, and it matches Will’s eyes so perfectly. Will plops down on the couch, avoiding the blanket like the plague because he can’t stand the way it feels, but keeps it just for Macklin.

Mack follows him to the kitchen mindlessly, still trying to catch his body up with his mind, finally intercepting Will when he picks up their drinks. Mack takes a moment to admire him, admire everything he does for Mack, how deeply he knows Mack, how he truly sees him. he watches Will’s brows furrow and can’t stop himself from leaning in to connect their lips in a sweet, chaste kiss.

they breathe for a second, staring at one another before diving back in. Will wraps a hand around Mack’s waist, light at first and then firm, sturdy. Privately, Mack is grateful he did that, the light touches make his skin crawl and suddenly he gets hyper aware of everything touching his skin and-

Mack smiles against Will’s mouth, oh. Oh he knows me.

will: awww look at u baby ur so pretty baby i lov u sososo much cmere baby i'll give u a kiss no a thousand kisses a million kisses ur so cute my baby

mack, blushing furiously: will--

mack: [realizes will was talking to the family dog]

my (20M) best friend (21M) came to visit me at my family home for the first time and im rly excited that he's finally here but bill (fake name obvs) keeps talking to my dog in like this baby voice and kissing her and petting her and letting her sit in his lap and it's so annoying because like im here too and like why can't smitty just do that with me

like he could just as well kiss me and pull me to his lap and call me a good girl or boy idc like my dog doesn't even know any tricks even though will i mean bill keeps trying to teach her and one time he got cali to sit down on command and he was so excited he gave her sixteen and a half kisses and twenty-one scritches but when i showed my sickest deke to bill he just said it was cool and didn't even kiss me?? the fuck

my dad rly likes bill and welcomed him to stay at the house with us for as long as he wants but it's so annoying when my friend's so focused on our family dog and i think i should like buy a house in vancouver where i could take him every offseason from now on for when he comes home with me but when i told my childhood best friend about all of this he hung up on me and my brothers keep fucking chirping me even my little brother who has the world's biggest hockey crush on my will so like what-the-fuck-ever rj ur a little stinker anyway and ur not coming to boston with us so suck it.

so yeah reddit am i the fucking asshole or not

edit 1: to all the people asking no, obviously my friend and me are not dating. like, objectively i'd marry him in a heartbeat but that has nothing to do wit this. fuck off if ur not going to offer real advice.

edit 2. IT'S NOT LIKE THAT WE'RE JUST FRIENDS WHO SOMETIMES MAKE OUT AND I'D DIE FOR HIM THAT'S IT.

edit 3. MYFRIEDN CAUGHT ONTO MY JEALOUSY AND NOW HE'S STARTED COMPLIMENTING ME LIKE ALL THE TIME AND PETTING MH HAIR AND GIVIGN ME LIKE BIG FAKE SMOOCHES AND I JUST iwanandiebutalsoforhimtokeepgoingbutalsotonotbejokingbutlikeinabroway

edit 4. SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR THE LAST TIME WE AREN'T GAY WE EVEN PLAY HOCKEY OKAY

afaik there’s no proof of this other than some tenuous extrapolation based on his family having registered as republican pre-trump era (which like… mass repub are gen nawwt maga, see eg m*tt romney famous rino).

but much more importantly: the cardinal sin of hrpf is EVER falling for the propaganda that a hockey player is a good person!!! listen. PLEASE. for your own sanity. the stripper does not love you. in fact the stripper barely sees you as a person, not necessarily bc they’re consciously racist or sexist or homophobic but bc they’ve never once interacted w anyone outside their tiny hockey bubble which is wildly insular and homogenous and heavily, heavily punishes nonconformity.

will: yeah?

mack: now that i'm captain. we should like. stop. like the. the things we do. like i should get a girlfriend. right? that's what captains do. right smitty?

will: yeah sure man no sweat do what u want

mack: that's... it? ur not... like. upset?

mack, internally: he should be so fucking upset. like crying-his-eyes-out, so-angry-he-breaks-things-and-begs-me-not-to-leave upset. like he should tell me not to go through with it and that he'd be better for me than any girl. and he should obviously throw me down onto the bed and fuck me to make me understand that i'm all he wants. obviously. like objectively that's what he should do. like objectively that's what i would do if smitty said he'd want to fuck someone else. like i'd chain him to the bed and not let him leave until he swore i was all he wanted. and like obviously he should do the same to me bc he doesn't want anyone other than me and he doesn't want ME to even think about anyone else. like, objectively.

will, carefully keeping his voice easy-going and perfectly even: well yeah it was only a matter of time. fun while it lasted though, right?

mack:

mack: 🤨

mack, blood boiling: like it's been two years though. nothing?

will: dude no offence but ur not the only man in the world. if u wanna get a gf, get a gf. hey, do u think people still use raya for hookups or should i just redownload grindr?

mack, blank faced, gritted teeth: whywouldudothat.

will: i mean if ur getting a gf, then i'm--

mack: throws will's phone against the wall

will: stares

mack: stares back

will: say sorry

mack: why would i say sorry? i'll buy u another one. ten if u want. like do u think ur grindr hookups would. or even could. like i'm obviously way better for u than any of them

will: that's not really how apologies work

mack: good bc i'm not apologizing when ur the one being a fucking idiot. pull ur head out of ur ass smitty obviously u won't need to download anything bc ur not fucking anyone else

will: well unfortunately u don't get to decide that for me.

mack: i do if ur my boyfriend, though.

will: well luckily we're not that, so.

mack: we are though. like exclusive. like no one other than me. right? say it

will, sighing theatrically: fineeee if that's what u want then whatever i guess. neither one of us will fuck anyone else. if u insist

mack: i do. like, ur mine smit. obviously.

will: lol sure whatever

not in a commitment issues way, just nothing ever really seemed to change when he was dating someone. he’d mention having a partner like he was talking about the weather, never really gushed about anyone, never acted particularly lovesick.

gabe and leno used to give him so much shit because half the time they weren’t even convinced he liked the people he was dating.

then he meets macklin and it’s like a switch flips.

he turns into the biggest lover boy ever.

he’s always looking for macklin, always talking about him, always finding some excuse to be next to him, every conversation circles back to macklin and before long everyone around him knows far more about mack than they ever expected to.

he just completely loses any sense of being chill when it comes to him.

gabe and leno never let him hear the end of it, constantly chirping him for being such a simp.

colleen on the other hand is absolutely delighted because she’s never seen him this happy.

macklin finding out that this is completely new behaviour for will and being extremely pleased about it because in the back of his mind he’d been a little worried he was maybe being a bit too much.