The theater is styled after a quaint city street, apartments and shops rising up on either side, complete with balconies and window boxes. Rows of court restaurants are disguised as sidewalk cafés dyed in a milliard of color, street lamps dot the corridors, providing most of the light, and neon signs blare messages across the way, catching eyes and turning heads. The air is all sugar and grease: popcorn pumped full of butter, chicken fingers and fries sitting in heaps of crackling oil.

Nico used to get lost in the confusion of hallways and the vastness of the place, but now he's been there enough times to know it like the back of his hand. He likes traveling here alone, undistracted. He likes the feeling of solitude in a haze of faces (just as long as the solitude is a choice), likes the way it makes him feel more in control of himself.

He makes his way up to the ticket counter and blinks up at the array of films displayed up on the screen while he waits in line. The endless hubbub of voices settles into a specific place within him, the laughter and varying tones and infinite topics. It's all much too much if he lets himself dwell on it all at once.

But he gets to the front of the line and it all just stops, fades away. Feels insignificant. It's impractical that any of it would have had an effect at all.

The boy at the checkout counter has eyes the color of the sky that's missing from the theme of the place. He grins and says hello, seems genuinely excited when Nico tells him what movie he's seeing. ("I watched that a few days ago! It's amazing, you'll love it.")

Nico walks away in such a daze that he drifts down completely the wrong hallway and gets so lost he's almost late for the show.

(Ticket Boy was right, it was fantastic.)

-

The next time Nico ventures there, he's almost forgotten the kind boy at the ticket counter, but it all comes rushing back when he grins at him from behind the gelato stall. Nico is feeling short of breath, his palms are sweating. Ticket Boy is just as beautiful as he remembers.

"Hey," he says, and leans one elbow on the counter like he's talking to an old friend, "what can I get for you?"

Nico blinks, opens his mouth, closes it. Swallows. And mutters, "Hopefully some gelato."

The boy's face opens up like a flower blooming. It's enthralling, the way his eyes blow open and his lips part in shock and delight before he drops his head back and laughs at the ceiling. Like he's got nothing to lose, like he's spilling himself out for everyone to see. Like he's unafraid.

Nico is grinning without meaning to. He wants to laugh too, he wants this boy to teach him how to be unafraid.

His eyes flicker downward–the nametag on the guy's chest says Will– and then dart back upward to catch him coming back to himself. Will is still huffing quietly shaking his head as he pulls his gaze back down, "You're going to need to narrow your choices down a bit. It makes my job much easier."

I'll have vanilla, he would've usually said, but his heart is still dancing and his chest is still too warm, so he leans forward, "What's your favorite flavor?" and when Will replies, "Tiramisu," Nico bites his lip and tells him, "Then I'll have that."

Will's expression is charged and awed, his cheeks flushed. He looks like he just skied down a steep mountain; he's all adrenaline. "Of course."

Nico takes the cup from his hand with a wink and walks away with a fire raging under his ribcage.

-

His third visit comes on a rainy day and he runs inside and shakes his head like a dog trying to dry its coat. Today, he didn't come for a movie, but instead spends at least ten minutes trying to find where Will has been stationed and then stands in line for another two just to get some candied nuts, which he's not even a huge fan of.

"Hello again," Will says, and Nico's thoughts are nothing but: He remembered me. He knows me. He knows who I am.

"Hey," he says back, and then cocks his head, narrows his eyes into playful slats, "We've met three times and you haven't even asked my name. Tsk."

Will's laugh is an abrupt sound and it's so loud it carries even in the glaring loudness of the place. "To be fair, you haven't asked for mine either."

Nico just shakes his head, "Haven't needed to, Will."

The other boy turns away, but Nico sees the huge grin on his face anyway. He grabs a prettily decorated cellophane bag and faces Nico again with a more repressed smile on his face, "What can I get for you?"

Nico frowns as his eyes sweep over the options and then, because he really has no preference, he simply chooses the ones directly in front of him and studies Will's face as he carefully transfers them into the bag. He has a little concentrated frown on his face and he swears softly when some of the nuts spill onto the ground. When he finally raises his eyes, there's a stark blush on his cheeks.

Nico grins at him and offers up his credit card. Will takes it from him carefully, like Nico's handed him a ticking bomb, and flips it over, lets a smile sneak onto his face as he reads the name printed at the bottom, "Nico di Angelo."

His fingers thrum across the counter, "That's me."

Will huffs at him quietly and swipes his card. When he hands it back, there's a soft fondness in his eyes, "Take care of yourself, Nico."

"Yeah... you too."

-

It's a Tuesday afternoon and it's been two weeks since he since he last saw Will. Really, he should be studying for his upcoming physics exam, but he's decided to indulge himself a little instead.

After buying a ticket to some animated kid's movie, he wanders around, eyes sifting through the hoards of people to find freckles and hair like liquid sunlight. He checks every restaurant, the gelato stand, and the concessions, but Will Solace is nowhere to be found.

He checks his watch and finds that he has three minutes until his movie is meant to start (not including previews), so he sighs in frustration and resigns himself to the fact that Will isn't working today.

But then there he is. In the only place Nico didn't think to check, sitting in a chair before the main hallways and tearing people's tickets, pointing them in the right direction.

Nico approaches hesitantly and nearly gasps at the way Will's eyes light up. It's like watching the sun catch fire. It's improbable, doesn't make sense. It's beautiful.

He pulls Nico's ticket from his hand and grins down at it, "Ah. Good choice, Mr. di Angelo." Will looks up at him with a sly look on his face, all pearly white teeth and glinting irises, "I missed you the last couple of weeks."

Nico's face heats up fractionally, but he folds his arms and pops his hip, trying to seem unaffected. "That so? Maybe I'll have to stop by more often."

Will rips his ticket and hands it back with a flourish, "You'd better. I get lonely, you know."

Nico's face splits into a grin and he flicks Will's nose with the ticket stub, "Yeah, yeah. Where's my theater?"

"Take two rights and it's at the end of the hall." He holds Nico's gaze as he says it, looking slightly disappointed, like he's trying to drag the moment out as long as possible.

"Thank you." Despite his best efforts, Nico sounds slightly breathless.

-

Nico finds himself at that particular movie theater at least once a week.

Will fills oversized cups with liquefied caffeine for him and laughs at his strangely specific burger orders and summarizes dozens of movies so that he can decide which one to see. Occasionally, when he's sure no one is watching, he slips something extra across the counter and drops a sly wink, "Don't tell."

This particular day, he's posted at a concessions stand in a back corner and when Nico reaches the front of the line, his smile widens by at least a foot. "What are you seeing today?" he asks, already reaching for a Heath because he knows that they're his favorite.

"Not sure. I'm thinking I might go see that new horror film..." he looks down in embarrassment as he says it, purely because he knows that Will is adamantly against anything of that nature.

But Will just laughs, "You're much braver than I am. I can barely watch the previews without jumping."

Nico snickers quietly and points over Will's shoulder, "Can I get some popcorn?"

His hair bounces when he nods, falling ove.r his forehead, curling around his ears. "Of course. Salted?"

"Always."

Walking away, he glances down at the candy bar in his right hand and immediately falls to a stop. Printed in careful Sharpie are seven digits and underneath that, Will's name and a smiley face. Nico laughs, delighted and disbelieving, and turns around to look at Will, but he's grinning at his next customer, nodding, waiting for them to decide what they want patiently.

He hesitates, looks down at the chocolate, and then turns again, biting his lip in order to avoid looking too completely foolish.

Later, he smooths the wrapper out carefully across his knee and dials the number, holds his breath as the phone rings and almost chokes when Will's voice filters through, "Hello?"

"Hey," Nico drags his knees up to his chest, presses his back further into the couch, "It's Nico."

"Nico." He says it like it's a revelation, a tiny miracle that means everything. "Hey. Hi. I... I didn't know if you'd call."

Nico snorts at that and closes his eyes with a huge grin on his face, "Yeah, because I've been crushing on you for two months–more than two months–but I wouldn't call."

The goes silent for several seconds and Nico is trying to decide whether he should swear or immediately apologize, when Will finally chokes, "Oh. Well, I've... Nico. Nico, the next time you go to the movies... do you think... Would you want to go to a movie with me?"

"I'd love that."

-

The day of, Nico spends nearly twenty minutes trying to decide what to wear, which is certainly a feat considering that it usually takes him no longer than three. He eventually decides on a red plaid button-up, a pair of blue jeans, and a black beanie.

When Will arrives at his door, he immediately regrets his choices. Will Solace looks fantastic. Maybe it's just that he's never seen him out of uniform, but Nico can't seem to stop staring.

They decide on some action adventure show. It's mostly all flash and no substance, which is definitely a good thing because Nico can't really focus on it anyway. He keeps sneaking glances over at Will, at his profile cast in the flickering colors of the screen.

He's thinking less about the plot and more about what it would be like to kiss him. He thinks that maybe Will would be gentle, that he'd hold him like something important. He's thinking that Will's hands are big enough to cover most of his lower back, that if they kissed right now it would probably taste like movie popcorn and chocolate.

Nico is so engrossed in his own thoughts that he sucks in a small, startled breath when Will presses their knees together. When he looks over, Will is staring straight forward, his expression unreadable, but his hand is sitting on the armrest, not palm up, not exactly an invitation, but a temptation. It makes Nico's heart thunder.

He reaches out slowly. It's not sly or smooth, but when his fingertips touch the back of his hand, he feels his whole chest stutter, watches Will's fingertips twitch in surprise and then lay still. Nico grins and immediately resigns himself to spending the rest of the movie tracing patterns over Will's forearms, circling them back to his hand, down his fingers.

When he glances up, Will's eyes are closed softly. He looks like the embodiment of bliss.

"Will," Nico whispers, and his eyes flicker open, catching the light from the screen, looking like stained glass.

"Yeah?" he asks, and turns his head.

Nico grins, slips his hand into Will's. "Next time we watch a movie together, we're doing it at my house so I don't feel guilty about missing the entire thing."