we lovvvve the stress of daily updates but also being so bored that it's become a habit:) someone take my phone away.

Nico noticed how nervous Will was almost immediately.

They were both still in the lead for the race to be Homecoming Kings, but Nico knew that had nothing to do with the problem because Will hadn't been fazed by that all week. He just smiled and blushed whenever someone brought it up.

So when Nico watched Will as he shifted awkwardly from one foot to another at the bottom of the stairs to his apartment, he was a little suspicious.

"Will?" he asked. "You alright?"  Nico straightened out his black, skull t-shirt.

Will's head snapped up, his smile shaky. He only nodded. Nico narrowed his eyes. He started to walk down their sidewalk. Will's fingers laced around his own.

Holding hands has become one of their things now. Nico wasn't exactly complaining.

But after two minutes had passed and the only noise was coming from angry drivers beeping at other drivers to get to work, Nico squeezed Will's hand.

"What the hell is up with you?" he asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"You're so quiet. Did something happen...?"

Suddenly, Will's hand started to sweat a little. Nico squeezed it again, blushing a little because Will was never nervous and he had to make the most of it.

"I wanted to ask you something." Silence. Nico waited patiently, still walking towards the school that was now in sight. Will glanced at the building and sighed, relieved.

"Whoops, would you look at that? I'll just ask you later." And then his hand was slipping out of Nico's and Will was running away. His blonde hair flew behind him.

Nico was sad for a second. Had he done something wrong? Did Will not want to talk to him? The sun beamed down on Will as he ran further away, making it seem like time was slowing down.

"I'm proud to be holding your hand," Will's voice rang in his head. Maybe it was something else...

Nico shook his head but couldn't stop the rapidly growing grin on his face. He looked up and saw Mark smirking at him. He pointed finger-guns at him and winked. Lucas was beside him and shoved him a little. Mark looked at Lucas with loving eyes.

Nico wondered if him and Will could ever be like that someday.

***

Nico caught Will staring at him as he did push-ups in gym.

"Hey, Sunshine," he taunted, looking up at him as he held his body up. Will's eyes darted to meet Nico's. "Did you stuff a bunch of candy inside your underwear when I wasn't looking, or is that a boner I see?"

Nico had never seen Will so red. He howled with laughter and got out of the push-up position. He sat down on the mat and watched as Will tried to cover his face.

"Don't be so smug, Death Boy," he said. Nico raised his eyebrows at the nickname. "We both know you're always the one wanting to hold hands."

"Untrue," Nico claimed. Will crossed his arms and squatted down to be eye-level with him. "You always hold my hand first."

"Mm, but do you seriously think I don't notice you glancing down at our hands every five seconds and smiling?"

Fuck.

Will could tell he got Nico there.

"Not very emo, is it?" he teased. Nico shoved his shoulder and smiled a little even tho he was blood-red. He hated Will, just a little bit.

***

The end of the day came by very slowly. Nico was so tired by the time the last bell rang.

All day long, people had asked who he was going to Homecoming with, a question he hadn't even asked himself.

And every single goddamn time, he would think of Will immediately and get red.

When he got to Will's locker to walk home with him, Lucas was there. He was smiling like a doofus and had a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

"The gym," Lucas said, stuffing the yellow roses into Nico's hands. The yellow made him think of Will.

"The gym...what?"

"Go to it, dumbass."

Nico was confused, but he suddenly realized all the smiling and giddy kids around him. He ran off to the gym.

Mark stopped him at the entrance and handed him another bouquet of flowers, this time with blue roses.

"He's waiting," he said cheekily. Nico felt his heart pounding. What the fuck was going on?

He entered the gym and sure enough, Will was standing there with a huge poster in his hands and a large crowd behind him. They all had their phones out, ready to capture the special moment.

Nico read the poster carefully; Be my sunshine at Homecoming?

Nico rolled his eyes at the poster. If anything, Will was the sunshine between the two of them. Despite the line being not-too mushy and romantic, he could tell Will put a lot of work into the poster. The outside was rimmed with flowers and it was painted with a light blue and yellow pastel color.

Nico walked up to Will calmly, set the flowers down on the ground, and hugged him tightly.

"Yes," he said, and everyone in the crowd laughed and cheered and smiled at the two. Nico could see Will's eyes shining as he kissed his cheek.

Everything was as close to perfect as it could get.

When they were walking home, Nico checked the leaderboard for the Homecoming Winners.

"Woah," he said. "Our votes went up so much."

Will kept his eyes on Nico and sighed happily. He squeezed his hand and kissed his forehead.

"I don't care," he whispered.

Nico tried to laugh sarcastically, but it came off more as nervous.

"Need an inhaler?" he asked, a little breathless. "You seem to be needing one every time I'm around, you know..." Will smiled and buried his face in Nico's neck.

"I think you need it more, di Angelo."

And although Nico would never admit it out loud, Will was totally right.

you people do not understand how PISSED I AM RIGHT NOW.SO. PISSED. AT. MY LIFE.
anyways thanks for reading bc finishing this chapter is the only thing that kept me fucking same today
love you guys more than i love myself rn (which is a lot *hairflip*)
-reyna