Eagle One

“You’re still getting water for your next cup.” Will’s probably going to switch to water, too. All of the sudden, the useless sidekick shows up in a helicopter, and Will realizes he hasn’t been watching the movie as close as he thought he was. He looks over to Gia, who is so damn pleased with herself, and an idea strikes him as someone dramatically falls out of yet another helicopter.

Her gaze flickered towards him, remaining the same intensity as his. Taking a step forward, she allowed herself to be the flint to his fire. He would burn her before this conversation was over. It didn’t matter. This was too interesting to merely pass off. “That’s what got you into Hudson. This.” A hand was held up, gesturing towards the anger that stiffened his bones. “What makes you so scared to be like this?” She asked, narrowing her gaze as her hand rest on his chest. She pushed him back with a tease. In that spree of a moment, Will forgot something. Cora was the best damn thing that would ever happen to him. She would be sure he would know that before she walked away from it all. Now, she would bait, tease, and try to bring out the demon he was so eager to show now. How long would it take before he just snapped?

He reaches up, moving fast, to grab her wrist and yank her forward. If she wants to be close Will can make it closer, practically looming over her at their height different. He’ll use every advantage he can over her right now. This Will is ruthless, not caring about her comfort or ideas. He wants to hurt her the way that she’s hurt him.

“I like that, though.” Sawyer stared at the painting, knowing that his lover would have liked that idea, too. He was always about celebrating life, and Sawyer could hear him chastising him for being such a brooding artist time. It was almost as if he could hear his voice telling him to loosen up a bit. It was still hard, though, because he knew where that lifestyle had gotten him. Sawyer wondered if his lover would do it all again if he knew he’d die in the end. “I will, thank you. I know he, uh, well, the theoretical subject would feel the same way. So, thanks. I really mean it.”

“I’m glad I could be of help, dude. I better get back to this run before too much lactic acid builds up,” he says with a shrug. Sawyer seems like a nice guy, but Will still has a couple of laps to finish up before his body decides to call it quits.

He can’t go to sleep.

It’s not something he wants or knows how to explain, so he settles for looking Will in the eye and using his most pleading voice, hoping that maybe Will will realize how much he means it. “Will, please. I can’t. I don’t want to see her, the nightmares are awful. I’d rather be exhausted. I’d rather just never sleep. I’ve got, like. Another fifteen or so cans of energy drinks.” As he says it, he realises how unhealthy it sounds. There’s no way Will’s going to agree to let him stay awake now.

“I don’t like lying,” Andrew mumbles, though that feels like a lie itself. He lied to Abby, his whole family, everyone back at home about Hudson. He lies to Dom about the stash of vodka at the back of his closet. For someone that’s so bad at lying, Andrew seems to do a lot of it.

He can feel Andrew’s resistance as they get closer and closer to his room. He’s practically begging Will at this point, as if he knows it’s inevitable but he just can’t give in. Will doesn’t have to be the good guy here. He’l tie Andrew down to the damn bed if that’s what it takes. But something inside of Will knows once Drew’s head hits the pillow and his arm wraps around his waist, he’ll be out like a light. The exhaustion is pulling at him, and even Will can tell how bad it’s effecting him now.

As Dom sat down, the look on Will’s face worried him, the bullets aren’t even fully in the works, it was just a prototype and a written report and he’s afraid that Will would get too disappointed over the end product, who knows it might even fail. Heck he was still confused about what he wanted to do. “I mean.. they’re gonna take awhile and probably won’t even work properly, and I have like, 3 weeks to get it done so I’m gonna just maximise those 3 weeks.” Dom hesitantly replied, trying to lower the expectation and excitement Will contained. It was nice to know st least someone was excited about it, but the doubts just shrouded his mind of the practicality it had.

“Well, if you ever need someone to field test them, I’m your guy, okay?” No one else is going to get to use cool as fuck bullets before Will. Dom can downplay how cool they’d be, but if he’s successful, Will wants to be there to try them out. Anything that can give you the edge in the field is important. Everyone trains so hard, and is so evenly matched for the most part, if you can get that extra inch above someone, you take it.

Will shakes his head. Dom’s crazy. What he’s cooked, carbonara, is fucking delicious. Will’s shoveling it into his mouth, despite Dom’s joke, and he slows down slightly, wiping the sauce off of his chin. His plate is half empty and Will feels his brain catching up with stomach. The dish is heavy, with the milk, cheese, and bacon, and Will’s starting to feel it sink to the bottom of his stomach.

“You cracked the code, Gia,” Will says with a laugh, shaking his head at her. The next time she asks for a refill, she’s getting cut off. “For a school full of spies, a lot of y’all are lightweights, you know that?” Gia’s drunk on wine, Daniel got drunk on just a couple of beers, and even Drew can’t handle more than three or four shots. The worst of them all is Gemma, really, but Will is purposefully not thinking about Gemma West tonight. Not even a little bit.

( Did you want something or did I earn a real life compliment from the Cora Underwood? )

Hurt flickered across her expression for a brief moment. If you blinked, you would have missed it. She leaned forward with a sense of malice. No. She wasn’t going to play nice anymore. Her words held just as much venom simply because he called for it. He asked for her to remain her cruel self. Yet, she was relieved. She didn’t know any other way. It was the only thing that worked well for her - cruelty. It kept the weak away and brought her a sense of protection that she was so fond of. “Yes, because talking to you means that I want something. You’re learning finally.” She gritted her teeth, forcing a sarcastic smirk to fall on her lips.

Clenching her fist, the brunette tried her best to not pick up the gun again. It wasn’t wise to carry a weapon when anger seeped through her veins. She would suffer through a RED streak. It had been a while since she’s had one of those. There was no point of triggering one now. Cora allowed a chuckle to fall against her lips before shaking her head. “Honestly, I’m so surprised you can pull off being a dick so well. Did you take a lesson from me, 13? Or was that there all along?” 

Her words are laced with sarcasm but there’s truth behind it. All Cora does is take, take, take until Will knows he’ll have nothing left to give. Can he crack through her shell before that happens? Probably not. It doesn’t stop him from trying. the nickname stings his skin and Will keeps his expression neutral, refusing to devolve into a glare. No, not yet.

“Is this why you accepted Hudson’s offer, then?” he asked, looking up at Will with a small, teasing smile on his face. Will was a bit of a stereotype, with his American guns, and love of football, but Roman never really minded. “The promise of guns and explosions?” 

“Of course it is, dude,” Will says with a roll of his eyes. Roman’s probably into that movies without a plot that don’t even make sense. That existential bullshit that makes money for no reason. Will won’t judge though. Not out loud. Roman can have his shitty, indie movies and Will will keep his action flicks and comedies.

When Will basically declares that he’s going to sleep, Andrew does the opposite of what Will told him to do and fights him. It’s not like he can put up much resistance when he’s so exhausted, but he tries. He starts dragging his heels, to get Will to stop, but it just makes Andrew stumble instead, so he keeps walking while trying to pull away. “Will — no, no, I can’t sleep, dude. C'mon, stop. You never skip class! Don’t start, dude, it’s bad.”

“It’s okay to sleep Drew. It’s okay to see her.” Will’s voice is a lot softer, like hes dealing with a small child. In a way, he is. Andrew brings but the big brother in Will that he never knew he had. It didn’t exist for his home life, and the guy he was on the field, as a quarterback, was more of a leader figure than anything else. Never a big bother, or anything even close to that. But when Will’s Andrew nearly falls and Will’s arm wraps around his waist to secure it, it feels a lot like that instinct everyone is always going on about. He can’t imagine what Andrew’s feeling about his sister. Really, he can’t. But Will wants to be there for him, so that’s exactly what he does, both literally an emotionally, as they make their way through the dorm building.

Her head was pounding, thudding through the remainder of the room. Even with the headset on, she felt a throb with each bullet that left the gun. Distracted. Astray from her actual goal. Cora Underwood was never like this. She was not some predictable school girl that flaunted over her emotions. She was a damn grown adult. It was about time she started acting like one, even if it meant throwing a cold shoulder towards someone else. It wasn’t mature to push someone away like this, but it was the only way she knew to keep herself safe.

Targets remained tainted along the way, bullets through just the right points before she slipped off her headphones. Her world filled with loud rings of shots. There was a moment where she caught herself staring at Will. He was better at this than she would have thought. Then again, she didn’t really know him at all. He was a mere flicker of an illustration that she made him out to be. Not a real person. No, it was merely a toy she fiddled with when she was bored. And yet, it wasn’t like that. She couldn’t separate her head from the glares that were shot in her direction. Strange as it was, but Cora didn’t want to be ignored least of all by Will Davis. 

Instead of returning her focus to the gun range, she watched. His movements were smooth, something she wanted to obtain in this field. She tried to act like she was the best, but she wasn’t. Admitting that she wasn’t just as skilled as the other agents gave a flaw that she didn’t want to admit. She wished at time she could just be this steel robot, moving through the motions and brushing off the world around her. She had almost succeeded - had not some of these people gotten underneath her skin. She didn’t speak at all, not until Will seemed done. His headset slid off from his ears, placing on his neck as he put down his gun.

“You’re good.” Cora spoke, expecting retaliation for even acknowledging her own presence.

“Don’t sound so surprised that I actually belong here,” Will says in a monotone. Cora’s statement may have been said without malice, but he’s been bitten too much after docile encounters to regard her as anything but hostile. their last encounter isn’t the only time she’s lashed out at him, but the anger from it still courses through him. Will’s generally not the type to hang onto anger for too long. But he’s running out of patience as more and more things add to the stress of his ‘job’ with nothing to really take it away. Even alcohol, the only thing to get him through college, isn’t providing for him. Will’s been sober since he drank with Daniel. not wanting to become too reliant on it again. Hitting the bottle after  along day is just too damn easy to fall back into. Will’s here to be the best, nothing less, so that’s what he’s going to do.

“Did you want something?” Will’s voice is flat, again, as he double checks the .38 compact. He loads the magazine into place, smacking it up with the palm of his hand. Will doesn’t load the first round into the chamber without his headphones on, double checking the safety before he sets the pistol down. He’s not going to let her distract him while shooting, especially not with a brand new gun he’s been itching to test shoot. Despite his resolve, sarcasm starts to seep into his voice without any warning.“Or did I earn a real life compliment from the Cora Underwood.”

He can feel the stress rolling off of Andrew in waves, and Will makes sure to keep him close. If there is one person who appreciates his physical brand of comfort, it’s Andrew. When he starts talking, it asks more questions than it answers. Andrew’s not looking too hot. Will didn’t want to bring it up, because that’s a rude thing to say, but he can see how tired Andrew is. He’s the jumpy sort of tired, too, which Will saw some students get after crashing from caffeine loading and pills during finals week. He never did it himself, but he can see the symptoms and Will swallows hard. If Drew is going drugs someone will have hell to pay for selling them to him.

Will’s older brothering him, as usual, which is kind of strange, considering that he doesn’t like his biological brother, but Andrew’s not going to question it. Being taken care of and cared about feels good, and he’ll take all of it he can get. He’s already poked holes in what Andrew’s telling him, and he caves, just like that. It’s been days since he’s gotten enough sleep, and he’s way too tired to resist the attention and care he’s getting. “I’m just… You know some people were mad because someone cleaned out the energy drink aisle? Uh, that asshole was me.” He was lucky no one had spotted him doing that. It’d been a dick move, but he needed the Red Bull and Monster more than anyone else, he was pretty sure.

“Fuck Drew. You know those things are awful for you.” When Wil was young(er) and stupid(ier), he used to chug those damn things. But then his middle school football coach caught him and made Will run laps until he puked his guts up out through his mouth and nose. It was a good lesson. A little traumatic, but a good lesson. From that point on, the only caffeine boost he got was from the occasional Coke or cup of coffee, and he couldn’t even smell an monster without remembering ralphing everywhere.

“You up for a friendly competition?”.He asks, feeling a little antsier than normal. He hasn’t even warmed up yet, but  Will knows his session will gobetter if he’s shooting with someone else.

turn the lights off and i’ll glow

When Andrew opens the door to see a camera thrust into his face, he’s like, “Um. Excuse me?”

There’s a slender black haired man standing on his doorstep grinning broadly at him with a flash of perfect, blinding white teeth, and all of a sudden Andrew knows why he’s here. Roman West is on his doorstep. Roman West, from Roasting Ghosts With Roman, commonly hashtagged during live-tweeting as #RGWR, is standing in front of him, and he’s like, “Yeah, you called? I’m, you know. The ghost hunter?”

Of course. Andrew sighs, mumbles, “What the fuck, Will,” and then says, “Yeah. Of course. D’you, like. Wanna come in?”