#serendipitous-magic

Ooooooo. Ooo oo ooooooooooo. Gwen you be coming in with the hard questions.

Firstly I want to quickly touch on the couples that I considered but passed on.

Byeler - I don’t mind if this couple doesn’t become explicitly canon in the timeline of the show because I don’t honestly think it could occur organically in a way that I would enjoy. Both of these boys would have to have their sexuality awakening, their sexuality crisis, their crushes on each other and THEN their getting together all within 1 or 2 seasons. And I don’t like my relationship growth done like that. Too hasty for me. So I am happy if they don’t go canon in the show timeline, but I would LOVE for the show to leave it open-ended for them to possibly be together in the future. :D

Cherik - these two old men are practically canon in the source material anyway. I’m happy to leave them be. I don’t need it confirmed. 

Poly Losers - i would LOVE to rewrite the end of that book to make the poly losers more explicit (even if they dont get fully together) buuuuuut…. Stanley and Eddie would still be dead so thats a big ol NO.

And so my choice for couple that I want to make explicity canon is…. *drum roll*

…

……….

……………………. TOKKA!

Toph and Sokka. My lovely bros that turn into much more. I love this couple because they have so much history together and affection for each other. It would be a slow build. We already know they remain close into adulthood. And we even have an unconfirmed theory that Sokka sired one of Toph’s children.

But I want it to be explicit please. Give me a comic all about their luuuuuurrrrve and their courtship. About Toph’s commitment issues and Sokka helping with baby Lin. And why they kept their relationship a secret. And how it was affected by Sokka dying. And why Toph decided to never be open about it even after his death. 

I want it. I need it. Pretty please?

just pick a badass name for yourself like Wolfstar

guys, you can now only refer to me as “Wyatt Oleff”. 🤓

(For the DVD commentary ask meme - still taking requests btw)

This passage is taken from You’re Weird Wheeler - and so obviously, spoilers for that story if you haven’t read it.

It doesn’t happen though. Will returns to him at the bar. Mike still feels queerly deflated though. They have a few more drinks and then they head home.

“I wouldn’t have gone with him you know…” 

Will slurs only slightly. It’s later that night and Mike is sitting on his assigned bed applying moisturiser to his feet. His heels have a tendency to get really, really dry overnight.

Fun fact: I spent so much time trying to decide what Mike should be doing in this scene. I knew I wanted him to be sitting on the bed and I just felt like he should be DOING something. I have no idea whether this is a thing guys do. But I landed on applying moisturiser to feet cause thats something *I* do before going to bed. Ha ha. 

Mike looks up and gives him a questioning glance.

“Benji” Will clarifies, “I wouldn’t have gone home with him. Not while you’re here. I just want to be with you when you’re here.” 

This is Will throwing out some bait, trying to see if Mike will take it. How he will react. That emphasis he puts on being with Mike over anyone else is his way of saying “im here, im yours, are you too thickheaded to realise that??”

“Oh. Right. That’s good.” Mike smiles up at where his friend appears to be swaying to imaginary music, his fingers clutched around a glass of water.

Suddenly Will is bouncing down on the bed next to him.

“Ya know. You’re cute when you’re jealous.”

I decided to make Will confident in this story. Borderline cocky. By this point he has a very strong idea that Mike might be into guys. Might be into *him*. And so like this moment. This is him just taking that last lunge for the both of them. Sick of the dancing around it. They’ve been doing that for the last few days. And if at the beginning of Mike’s visit he wasn’t quite sure, now he’s almost positive.

“I wasn’t jealous” Mike replies immediately. 

Water slops over the edge of the glass as Will holds both his hands up in surrender.

“Ok I retract. Sulky then. You’re cute when you’re sulky.”

Mike is blushing. He can’t help it. He should really be drinking water too. Blood and alcohol are pulsing through his veins, rendering his brain-to-mouth function slightly useless. Before he can think better of it he’s responding “You think I’m cute?”

Will seems to pause and look at him then. His lips curling into a impish smile as his head bobs up and down slowly in a nod.

Was it hot in here? It was as if Mike could feel the sweat pooling into the collar of his nightshirt as he plucks at it nervously.

“Truth be told…” Mike’s head whips back up as Will continues to muse. Irritatingly casual. He is looking at his glass of water as though its a snow globe. As though the precipitation beading on the outside of it is a thing of beauty. “… I think you’re fucking sexy.”

His eyes slowly slide from the small droplets of water back to Mike’s shocked face. And there must have been something that he is seeking. Something he finds in Mike’s eyes - because he smiles. And Mike can’t help but groan.

I love this part. It’s just such a departure from the shy, slightly awkward Will that was in the beginning of this story. *This* Will is fully confident in his sexuality. In his sexual allure. And he knows his best friend. He knew he just had to search Mike’s face after saying something as *forward* as that to get his answer. And he got it. Which is why he smiles. I just really love it. 

“Don’t say things like that…” Mike croaks, his throat dry and his blood buzzing.

The smile grows into a chesire grin. “Why not?”

“Because” Mike only takes an eighth of a moment to bother with hesitation, “because then I have to do this.”

“An eighth of a second to bother with hesitation” - i like that because i feel like it bucks that trope of searching each others faces slowly leaning in before having a first kiss. Will has been brave and laid out his cards. And now Mike is going to do the same without hesitation.

And they are kissing. The water glass drops to the floor with a thud as hot lips crash against hot lips. As gasps are sucked from one mouth into another. Hands gripping hair. More hands bunching up sleepshirts. 

Mike pushes Will down against the bed and feels a little put out when Will giggles with the action. Like he knew this was going to happen. He kisses him fiercely in retaliation, his body climbing over Will’s slighter form. All the better to feel everything as he lowers his body down to lie deliciously against every inch of his friend’s.

I liked making Mike a bit miffed with Will’s apparent self-satisfaction. It just seemed like a real boys-y, best friend, rivalry sort of reaction. Which is important for me to keep as a foundation of Will and Mike’s relationship at all times.

This pulls a moan from Will who interrupts the kiss to throw his head to the side and pant, his hands rubbing over Mike’s lower back. He looks up at Mike angelically as he proceeds to grab two handfuls of Mike’s ass and grind his hips up into Mike’s undeniable erection.

I get the feeling that Will is trying to show off in some regard here. To show Mike that he isn’t some delicate flower. That he’s a sexual being and he WILL NOT be shy about it. 

Mike’s breath hitches and his arms tremble where they are standing as unsteady columns either side of Will’s head.

“You fuck” he pants. “How did you know?”

This gives Will pause. He lets go of Mike’s ass and smoothes his hands back up to the middle of his back.

“I, I didn’t know” his eyes blink widely, and he sounds almost completely sober. “I– well… I hoped. I’ve kind of hoped for years… but I didn’t, well– I didn’t know for sure. I guessed. An educated guess. But a guess all the same.”

And all of a sudden the cockiness just slides away from Will. Its no longer important for him to be smug or “victorious”. He doesn’t want Mike thinking this is just some meaningless game to him. He wants Mike to understand the context. That this was truly a gamble for him. That he’s not arrogant enough to think Mike was just going to fall to his knees. This moment is the culmination of a lot of time spent agonising and wondering if he was just imaginging things. Or being too hopeful for something that he’d desired since childhood. He was *not* sure. He hoped. And he put trust in his friend and his instincts and just hoped he wouldn’t fall.