#milnil

wlw ships: i’m a girl,, but i’m in love with another girl >///<

niles riding his bike to miles’ house that evening, judy murphy insisting he have dinner with them. she makes one of niles’ favorite meals because she knows he’d be coming over and she goddamn loves this boy, and niles damn near cries over it. this is the first new years niles can remember that he’s spent doing anything other than sitting by himself in his room with his nose in a book, avoiding the annual new years party his parents always have going downstairs. (it was never as if he was banished to his room or anything, of course. niles has always been free to join everyone downstairs if he pleases. it’s just that it’s always loud and there’s always too many people and he barely knows any of them and no one there is anywhere near his age and there’s a certain awkwardness to being the only kid at a party for adults, and. just less overwhelming to keep to himself.)

judy has to leave because she works odd hours as a nurse, and as disappointed as she is that she couldn’t get the rest of the night off to spend with her son, she’s equally glad that miles won’t be spending the night by himself. miles has niles. she leaves them with matching hair ruffles and a pack of sparklers and a “be careful, i mean it, call me right away if anything happens, love you”.

miles and niles leave with an hour ‘til midnight, ride their bikes side-by-side through the dark, reach the top of the hill that holds their carefully selected firework watching spot (they’d spent the previous couple of days scouting out potential spots and choosing between those for the best possible view) with twenty minutes to spare. niles slings off his backpack and pulls out a bottle of faux-alcoholic sparkling apple juice. miles has never had sparkling apple juice before. they drink it from paper cups. miles decides he does not like sparkling apple juice. niles likes it even though it tastes like shit.

they pull out their sparklers, prepare to light them up as soon as the clock hits midnight. this is a tradition miles has held with his mom for many years. he’s glad to have a second person to share this with. he’s glad that that person is niles. niles starts whispering the countdown in time with his watch, and miles’ practiced hands light his own sparkler with ease as they shout the final seconds. niles fumbles with the lighter, can’t get the stupid stick to work right, so miles puts his hand over his friend’s to guide the lighter. niles finds himself getting distracted by the way the sparks look reflected in miles’ eyes, almost loses count. his own sparkler catches right as they yell ZERO!! and, oh, they both feel so alive. fireworks go off all around them in brilliant bursts of color and sound, and they’re waving their sparklers high in mimicry, and their breath clouds in the cold air, and this is the best new years eve that niles sparks has ever had. this is the best year he’s ever had. and that’s all because of miles.

conclusion: their names are horrifically incompatible and all of these are ugly. anyway choose ur fighter