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The only real issue was that Lucas wasn’t exactly sure when it happened.
He and Max had been going out since middle school, he and Will had been bestfriends since elementary. For Christ’s sake, they were in the same tiny ass friend group.
Somehow, however, Lucas never expected those circles to collide.
Not until they did, of course.
Realization hit him on a Saturday, more specifically, movie night. It was a sort of tradition for the party, after all the shit they’d been through, to try and be normal as possible.
He and Max both arrived to the Wheelers house at the same time, and they entered the basement to Mike and Dustin arguing over something, Jane asleep at the far end of the couch, and Will sitting in a side chair picking at his cuticles.
Immediately, Dustin and Mike tried roping them both into their argument, another about Star Wars. Lucas waved them off. Max, unfortunately, took the opportunity to team up with Dustin and argue with Mike. Per usual.
Lucas, instead, made his way over to Wills seat, running a hand through his hair.
“You good?” He murmured.
Will turned up to him with a smile, and opened his mouth to reply before both men hear Max exclaim so loud Jane startles awake.
“Whatever, Wheeler! I don’t know why I’m even arguing with you.”
With a huff, she shuffled towards Lucas and Will.
Mike scoffed at her, but his and Dustins disagreements quieted as everyone arranged themselves to view the television.
Mike sat on one armchair vertically with his legs propped up on the side, and Dustin and Jane ended up on another one, pressed far too close to each other. Will, Max, and Lucas took the couch.
The wheelers lacked a lot of things, but money was not one of them, so when Lucas says their couch is huge, their couch is huge.
The three could’ve easily spread out across the cushions. They didn’t.
Instead, Lucas sat near the very middle with Max pressed against one side and Will pressed against the other.
Max and Will don’t question any of it. They giggle at nothing together, bump hands in the shared popcorn bowl and smile, play footsies under the blanket. They treat it as if it’s no big deal.
It isn’t, he guesses. Not to them, anyways.
But that isn’t when Lucas notices. He doesn’t notice when Max whines about being out of snacks one movie into their marathon and, once in the kitchen, he grabs stuff for Will.
He doesn’t notice when Dustin and Mike take a bathroom break and Jane stares at the three like they’re a puzzle she wants to solve.
He doesn’t even notice when they shift, and suddenly Max is in his lap and Will, with his feet tucked beneath his thighs, is pressed up against his chest, their heads sharing the space.
Lucas notices when everybody is saying their goodbyes and he plants a kiss directly on wills mouth, and Max follows it with a kiss to his cheek.
And Will…doesn’t freak out. In fact he kisses both back and, though flushed a little more red, smiles how he always does.
Lucas makes it through his goodbye kiss with Max, the bike ride home from her house to his, a shower, and dinner before it hits him like a ton of bricks while laying in bed.
They kissed.
‘They’ as in all of three of them.
‘What the hell?’
But Max wasn’t mad at him, and he wasn’t mad at her.
‘Maybe it was just a fluke.’ He thinks. ‘A one time thing. It was late. Our minds weren’t clear.’
The idea comforts him enough to bring sleep.
———————————————————————
It was not a fluke. More of a pattern, a tradition, if you will.
Because slowly, the lines separating Max and Will started to blur.
Like the time Max invited Will on their date to the mall.
It wasn’t awkward, it wasn’t weird, Will was barely even third wheeling. That was a problem.
Oddly, Lucas felt no urge to treat them differently. When he bought Max something, Will got something too. He was carrying both their bags. He was holding doors open for the trio.
And he liked it.
Max had been through so much. Abusive family members, dying temporarily, spending all that time in the upside down, and that doesn’t even compare to Wills story.
Lucas had always felt protective over the two. He enjoyed watching them have fun, he enjoyed taking things like money off their hands, all the smiles and laughs they offered lifted his heart in a way nothing else could.
And they brought out the best version of each other as well.
Shared secrets, long glances, physical contact, the two were practically inseparable. Lucas felt lucky to join their duo.
Sure, maybe the pet names were pushing it, (seriously, how could someone even glance at those two and not call them baby? How did the others resist calling them ‘pretty’, or ‘sweet girl’ every time they looked upset?)
yeah, he could’ve chilled out on all the grabbing.
But…he didn’t want to.
Lucas liked whatever the three of them had going on, no matter how odd or undefined it was.
It felt like he had two girlfriends, (because Will was never like the other guys, was he? He wore softer clothes, enjoyed things like make up and nail polish, allowed, though never without protest, Lucas to buy his stuff, he liked being told what to do and when to do it. Who was Lucas not to comply?) and who dared complain about two girlfriends?
Sure, they got weird looks from the others, but as long as his girls were happy, all was right in the world.