Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Will begins to worry that he may be losing his mind.

He’s grown up knowing the risks of too many screens, too much social media, it’ll melt your brain! His mom always warned him before pushing him out the front door to play in the street with friends. She wanted him active and out in the world, not stuck behind a screen scrolling his life away.

It’s what made him the side-quest king he’d become. Baking, golfing, playing board games. Trying new restaurants, going on hikes. He played in softball leagues and had even once joined a board game club at the Los Gatos Library with a bunch of nerdy dudes who definitely didn’t know anything about him or his job, and he’d loved every second of it.

All that is to say, maybe recently he’d been spending a little too much time online and he was very much aware it was a slippery slope.

Will sees the TikToks… the tweets… the signs pressed up against the glass as he breezes by, pretending to be zoned in on his stickhandling. He knows what a ship is, and he knows the internet thinks he’s captaining one with his best friend.

At first, he thought nothing of it. The blaringly macho world of sports can be unironically, incredibly homoerotic. Butt taps and tackling hugs, it’s a contradiction, but nothing groundbreaking.

Then he found it funny: the loooong reaches about what could’ve been said on the bench. Goofy moments with his buddy suddenly set to tender music. Offhand comments about a passing lane transformed into heartfelt confessions of love.

Kind of ridiculous, but it made him laugh.

He found particular joy in the unspoken rivalry for his heart. Taylor Swift songs blaring over sideways glares between Gabe and Mack. A cheeky elbow to the head suddenly becoming part of the narrative.

“I kind of love being seen as this big ol’ prize,” he laughed one night as he lounged across a random hotel bed in Calgary, scrolling aimlessly.

“Huh?”

“Oh, nothing. Just you and Gabe fighting over me again on TikTok.”

Mack laughed.

“Whatever you say, dude. That shit will rot your brain.”

———-

Another element of Will’s new chronically online life was the bane of the league: The NHL Follow Tracker.

He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it. On one hand, who really cared who someone followed? It was technically public information and didn’t really impact his life.

On the other hand…

He had begun feeling a little winded whenever he opened his burner account and was met with another random assortment of clonified blonde girls listed beneath the “Macklin Celebrini followed…” subheading.

At first, he’d clicked through their profiles under the guise of curiosity about his buddy’s conquests. He’d scroll through pictures of smiling sorority girls, zeroing in on the locations in their bios and breathing a sigh of relief when they were based in Miami or L.A. He knew for a fact that Mack had only flown one girl out so far and had felt burned by the whole experience, so he hadn’t exactly been eager to recreate it anytime soon.

His heart unclenched whenever he convinced himself that these girls would only ever exist on his phone.

Occasionally, though, he’d see one hailing from Vancouver or San Jose, and his mind would spiral.

It was like he’d blink and suddenly have one tab open to her college athlete profile, scrolling through her subpar stats, while TikTok played a video she’d posted three years ago with her friends creating now outdated Tiktok trends.

Those girls made his chest feel tight. He couldn’t understand why.

From experience, he knew the conversion rate between a cheeky follow and a future wife was astronomically low…

But never zero.

There was always a chance, however slim, that Blondie Number Thirty-Four could be soulmate material. She could be wooing Mack right now with flirty DMs. He couldn’t help picturing his best friend falling in love with every one of them.

In a sick, twisted way, he liked opening the tracker and seeing a fresh batch of candidates. To him, it meant the previous week’s selections hadn’t amounted to much if Mack was publicly willing to open the velvet rope to his DMs for even more people. 

It was a sick, twisted roller coaster…

And he had no idea why he was even buckled in.

At first, he thought maybe it was because he didn’t want some girl showing up and disrupting their friendship.

If Mack was busy playing lovebird on their days off, who would Will golf with? Who would he drag to new restaurants? What if she found Will annoying? What if she wanted Mack’s time and attention all to herself?

Deep down, he knew that wasn’t it.

Back in college, when Ryan got a girlfriend and slowly became less and less available, Will hadn’t batted an eye.

This was different.

He knew that the thought of Mack running his hands over a stranger’s skin, nuzzling into her neck, or exploring her with his tongue made him want to throw something.

The thought of those green eyes roaming across someone else’s body, filled with lust, made him want to die.

He was beginning to wonder if all that screen time had finally melted his brain.

Or maybe…

Maybe he was starting to feel differently about his best friend.

——-

The storm had been brewing quietly inside Will for a few weeks before his armor finally started to crack.

“The chick you followed yesterday was kind of a rocket…”

Will’s heart launched straight into his throat.

Mack had noticed who he followed?

“She from Raya?” Mack casually added before Will’s brain had even caught up.

“Who? Oh… no. She just popped up on my homepage. Chucked her a like and a follow out of boredom.”

Mack chuckled under his breath as he tugged off a skate.

“I’m sure that would make her feel really great to know.”

The conversation fizzled out naturally, but it burned within Will long afterward.

Was Mack paying attention to him too?

He hadn’t even considered that as a possibility, and it cracked him open more than he was willing to admit.

He felt emboldened by this newfound information. A little lightheaded with possibility.

He needed to do some experiments.

⸻

A few days later, Will was lying in bed, aimlessly scrolling when a cookie-cutter NCAA beauty popped up the second he opened Instagram.

He barely registered her face before clicking into her profile, throwing a like on a few photos and giving her a follow.

Then he tossed his phone onto his pillow, spent approximately thirty-four seconds picking at his cuticles, picked the phone back up, and unfollowed her just as quickly as he’d followed her.

He chuckled to himself like the chaos demon he was slowly morphing into. Running a hand through his curls, he rolled his eyes, followed her again for thirteen seconds, and then unfollowed her once more.

Will was an episode and a half into a show and slowly dozing off when his phone vibrated beside him.

Mack: Trouble in paradise?

Will: Huh?

A screenshot of his chaotic follow-unfollow spree appeared a moment later, and Will could barely contain the smirk spreading across his face.

Will: lol

Mack: …?

Perfect.

Content with Mack’s curiosity, and offering absolutely no explanation, Will silenced his phone and went to sleep.

——

The next morning, after a quick run and a protein shake, Will pulled into Sharks Ice ready for practice.

He chatted casually with his teammates as they slowly trickled in, ran through plays in his head, and layered on his pads.

“How’s your friend?” Mack asked as he dropped into the stall beside him, the picture of nonchalance, his eyes focused on digging through his bag for tape.

“Good morning to you too…” Will replied.

This was almost too easy.

“Who is my friend?” he asked, as if there were any doubt in his mind about who Mack meant.

“Megan… was it?”

“Mack… what are you talking about?” He did his best to hide his shit-eating grin behind a look of innocent confusion.

“Never mind…” Mack muttered, abandoning the conversation before wandering off to finish sorting his gear.

Will wasn’t entirely sure why his best friend’s response made him so happy.

It shouldn’t have.

And yet it did.

It made him feel oddly powerful, stroked his ego, and maybe, just maybe, gave him the confidence to keep pushing.

⸻

Will skated aimless circles as he warmed up his legs, the ice slowly filling with his teammates. Mack joined him without fuss, gliding over to playfully joust him with the end of his stick.They bantered like they always did, smacking Toff in the back as they passed, firing chirps at one another and talking through plays they’d been working on as if the tension simmering beneath the surface didn’t exist.

It made Will feel hopeful.

Hopeful that maybe it didn’t have to be all or nothing.

Maybe it could be all and more.

Everything and then some.

The possibility scared him, but in an unavoidably intriguing way. The threads had started to show, and every muscle in his body wanted to pull on them just to see what unravelled next.

——-

After some routine physio and a post-practice lunch at their favorite local café, Will flopped down beside Mack on the couch back at his place, ready to continue his little thread-pulling expedition.

As Mack flipped through Netflix looking for something to watch, Will held his phone close to his chest, firing off check-in texts to anyone he could possibly think of.

What?

He wasn’t trying to look like he was deep in conversation with a certain blonde from Instagram.

He simply needed to know how his mom’s day was going. And Grace’s. And Ryan’s. And Jacob’s. And Gabe’s. All at the same time.

He was a caring friend, and there was absolutely nothing nefarious happening here.

Sure, he’d thrown in a few over-the-top chuckles, but that was only because Ryan’s Ughhh, fine? had made him laugh.

Nothing suspicious was happening here at allllllll.

“Let me guess…”

Will looked up as Mack’s voice cut through the comfortable silence.

“Megan?”

Jackpot.

“You sound a little jealous…”

The words left his mouth before he could stop them.

It felt like he’d tossed a grenade into the room and was now waiting for the explosion.

“What?!”

Mack sounded genuinely shocked, his face flushing a deep scarlet. Will was suddenly convinced that the next person to speak would lose, so he stayed quiet, studying his best friend’s face as a dozen conflicting emotions washed across it. He watched as Mack became intensely fascinated with the water bottle in his hand, picking at the cap like he’d just discovered an ancient fossil.

“Why would I be jealous? That’s insane, dude.”

The response was barely above a whisper, sounding more like a question he was asking himself than one directed at Will.

“Is it?”

Will stared holes into the side of Mack’s face, silently willing him to look up.

“Why would I be jealous?” Mack asked again, finally meeting his gaze. A nervous laugh escaped him as he tried to ease the tension hanging between them.

Will weighed his options.

He could laugh it off. Make a joke about Mack having a crush on the mystery girl. Tease him for misinterpreting the question.

He could shrug and say, I’m fucking with you, dude.

Or, for once in his life, he could throw caution to the wind. Be vulnerable. Risk it all on red.

He wasn’t sure how to approach the ticking time bomb sitting beside him, but one thing felt clear: putting Mack on the spot wasn’t the answer.

So instead, he flipped the script.

He let Mack peek behind the curtain of his own mind.

“I get jealous…” Will admitted quietly. “A lot. About you.”

Mack’s emerald eyes stayed locked on his, but he didn’t respond.

So Will kept going.

“I don’t know why. When I see you follow a new girl, my stomach actually hurts sometimes. I didn’t even realize it was jealousy for the longest time. I thought I was just pent-up or something.” He let out a small laugh, a futile attempt to lighten the increasingly heavy atmosphere.

“I’d scroll for ages, overanalysing them. Wondering what about her caught your eye. Whether you were talking or just exchanging likes. If they lived near San Jose, I’d start wondering if you’d met up…or if you were going to..."

“Why?” Mack asked softly.

He slumped back against the couch but never broke eye contact.

Will studied him as though he were seeing him clearly for the first time.

Mack was gorgeous. Even before… whatever this was, Will could have told you that.

He was intense in the best way, bratty in the worst, yet somehow had the face of a cherub. Sparkling green eyes. Milky skin. Two completely different smiles. One was small and closed-lipped, reserved for strangers, shielding his insecurities from the world.

The other was wide and unapologetic, all gums and sunlight, bright enough to light up his entire face from within. That smile absolutely wrecked Will in the best way. It made him feel trusted and let in on the secret of Macklin. 

Because I didn’t want you to do… any of it.” Will swallowed.

“If I’m being honest…” He let out a shaky laugh. “I secretly hoped we were as connected as everyone seemed to think we were. I think somewhere along the way I started buying into the Willmack hype and as much as I couldn’t get you off my mind, I hoped maybe you were so hung up thinking about me that you didn’t have a single second left to focus on finding anyone else.”

“Whoa…”

“Yeah… whoa.” Will rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry. That was a bit strong. I don’t think I’ve ever even thought that out loud before.”

He flipped his hat around, desperate to give his hands something to do.

“It’s true, though. I really was hoping you’d suddenly notice me… differently. The same way I’d started noticing that maybe I’d been…” He laughed awkwardly. “Noticing you differently.” The words tumbled out in a graceless rush.

“I told you fan edits were going to corrupt your brain.” Mack tried desperately to lighten the mood, but Will was too far gone to take his foot off the gas now.

“Mack… I’m serious.”

Mack began picking at the seam of his hoodie as if it were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. Will watched him closely, noticing the way he seemed to be using every muscle in his face to stop himself from smiling.

“What have you been noticing about me?”

He framed it like an offhand question, but it was a fishing expedition if Will had ever seen one.

“I’m not sure how to answer that.” Will laughed softly. “It’s kind of multifaceted.”

Mack stayed silent.

“On one hand, I noticed the way I feel around you. Lighter. Even when you’re pissing me off.”

A smile tugged at Mack’s mouth.

“I noticed how I never get sick of having you around. How I always end up seeking you out, even when I probably should be sick of you by now.”

The smile grew.

“I noticed the way my skin prickles whenever you touch me. How the muscles in your forearms flex when you grab at my wrist when we are fighting or how the veins in your arms pop out like a map that makes my head go a little fuzzy"

Mack’s eyes widened slightly.

“And I noticed how every Instagram blondie could spend the next 34 years in the gym squatting her heart out and she would never have half the wagon you are hauling around back there..."

“Will!”

“It’s got its own gravitational pull, dude.”

“Please don’t ‘dude’ me right now.” Mack rolled his eyes with enough force that he probably caught a glimpse of his own brain.

A silence fell between them. Macklin didn't know how to respond to everything that was layed out before him, so he relied on instinct, reaching out to grasp Will's hand in an effort to occupy his own fidgeting.

“I don’t know how to do this.”

Mack’s voice was quiet as he absentmindedly played with the fingers of Will’s right hand.

“But do you want to?”

“I want to.”

Mack still couldn’t quite meet his eyes.

“God, I’m acting like a blushing virgin.”

“Well…” Will laughed. “We kind of are, I guess. It’s a first of sorts.” Mack groaned and covered his face.

“Do you remember how you figured it out last time?” Will asked.

“I dunno. I got kind of lucky with Isabelle. She was weirdly confident about the whole thing and didn’t expect me to have all the answers. Let me be a bit unsure. The first few times were a little clumsy, but…” He shrugged. “We just figured it out together until I knew what I was doing.”

“We can do that.” Will squeezed his hand reassuringly.

“We can just… figure it out together too.”

Mack smiled at that.

It was a soft smile. A nervous smile.

An unfamiliar smile.

“Okay… but…” He laughed weakly. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Let’s ask ChatGPT!” Will announced with the enthusiasm of someone unveiling a cure for cancer.

Mack immediately dissolved into hysterical laughter. Will felt his heart soar. This strange new territory somehow still felt familiar. The panic of everything being different eased away.

“Dude…” Mack wheezed. “You have got to be kidding.”

“Why not? Let’s use our resources, Macky.”

Will crossed the room and plonked down at his desk while Mack hovered awkwardly behind him.

“Seriously… kill me.” With newfound confidence, Mack surged forward, grabbed Will’s arm, and pulled it away from the laptop just enough to throw himself dramatically into his lap like an oversized toddler.

“See? This is a good step. How are we feeling? Scale of 1-10?”

“I want to punch you in the face.”

“Okay…” Will nodded thoughtfully. “Let’s call that a three.”

He pinched Mack’s side lovingly.

“This may be the stupidest thing we’ve ever done.” Mack groaned and flopped back against Will’s chest, his head falling against his collarbone with familiar comfort.

“Maybe you’re right. Want to abort the plan?” Will asked sarcastically, praying to god Mack wouldn't take him up on it.

Mack immediately reached for Will’s wrist, wrapped it around his waist, and snuggled closer.

“That’s what I thought, brat.” Will ran his top teeth gently over the skin of Mack's ripe cheek, a delicate bite, before turning his attention back toward the laptop.

“Sooo…” Mack tilted his head back. “What exactly are you going to ask, smartass?” Green eyes peeked through long lashes, accompanied by a full gummy smile.

Will made a dramatic show of cracking his knuckles and fluttering his fingers before carefully placing his hands on the keyboard.

The performance earned him a spectacular eye roll.

Gay Sex 101

He typed it quickly and hit enter.

“Fucking kill me.” Mack couldn’t stop laughing as he traced absentminded patterns along Will’s forearm.

“‘Step One: Talk openly about what you’re interested in.’” Will read it aloud with mock seriousness before glancing down. “Macky, are you interested in fucking me?”

“I’m interested in blowing my shit clean off at this point.”

“‘Step Two: Expectations should be discussed and consent should be enthusiastic.’” Will continued. “Do you consent to enthusiastically fucking each other for the next 10-12 business days?"

“Can’t hear you. I’ve actually died. This is me actively passing away.” Mack squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face against Will’s neck, dragging Will’s free hand up to cover his own face.

“Come on, Captain Coachable. What would Daddy Celebrini say if he knew you were skipping your very first class of Gay Sex 101?”

“Oh, yep. That’s great, Smit.” Mack groaned. “How about we don’t talk about my dad and gay sex in the same sentence?”

Will laughed.

“Fair.”

“Now can we please change the topic? Oh look, douching.” Mack pointed desperately at a random paragraph before immediately regretting it. A look of horror crossed his face “Jesus. There’s a lot of admin involved in this, huh?”

Will buried his face against the side of Mack’s head and laughed.

“Mack, don’t take this the wrong way…” He felt the younger man tense slightly. “This is all a little overwhelming...I don't even own lube at this point! I want this...so badly" He pushed a gentle closed mouth kiss under Mack's ear, "but maybe we need to not get too ahead of ourselves in the first five minutes...."

“Thank God.” Mack practically melted in relief. “I thought it was just me.” He twisted around enough to look at Will. Relief and reassurance passed silently between them.

“Maybe we don’t need to go from zero to one hundred immediately.”

Mack pulled Will's middle finger between his lips to nibble delicately at the space between his knuckles.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Mack continued. “I’m still all in here. But maybe we can trust our instincts a little more. Push the research paper aside for a second and just…”

He waved vaguely between them, unable to find the words.

Then he hopped off Will’s lap, snapped the laptop shut, and pulled Will to his feet.

They stood face-to-face in the middle of the brightly lit living room looking less like two people having a romantic breakthrough and more like they were about to fight.....or line dance....or file taxes together.

“Okay, Will. Lock in.” Mack bounced on the balls of his feet like a sprinter preparing for a race.

Will threw a stray balled-up sock at him in response.

Mack immediately broke into exaggerated high knees before windmilling his arms as though he were desperately trying to avoid a sports injury.

Will couldn’t stop laughing.

The mood was giving fourteen-year-old virgins .And somehow, annoyingly, it felt perfectly them.

Boisterous.

Awkward.

Unsure.

Will took a moment to appreciate the raw honesty of it all.

There wasn't macho, it wasn't putting on a front to impress a stranger. 

Just two best friends trying to figure something out together.

It wasn’t romantic....or sexy

It should have been painfully awkward.

Bur Will had never felt more comfortable.

Almost instinctively, he slipped Mack into a lazy headlock like it was any standard Tuesday and started walking him backward toward his bedroom.

Once inside, he respectfully left the overhead light off and switched on the bedside lamps instead, filling the room with an orange glow.

Mack watched the whole process with obvious amusement.

Will flashed him a reassuring smile before slowly stepping into his space, careful as someone approaching a nervous bear cub. His fingers traced lightly along Mack’s forearms. A shiver followed. His hands settled gently against Mack’s sides and drew him closer. Right into his chest.

Mack squeezed his eyes shut as the breath left his lungs.

Will couldn’t help laughing.

"Are you good?”

“Yeah, man… I’m great. Just don’t look at me.”

Will teetered for a moment, debating whether he should lean on comedy to get them across this threshold. It was a hard cycle to break. Light bullying was woven into the DNA of their friendship, and he loved that about them. But he knew that if they were going to move this thing forward, someone had to steer the ship.

“But I like looking at you…” He ran his thumbs softly over the apples of Mack’s cheeks as he cradled his face between his hands, drinking in every scar and freckle he could find.

Will’s inner monologue was going nuts.

Come on, Mackie… meet me here. Don’t joke your way out of it. Don’t call me dude. Just… lean into it.

Mack’s eyes fluttered open, and the air between them seemed to thicken.

Will watched in agony as Mack’s tongue slowly swept across his bottom lip before he finally leaned forward and captured Will’s mouth with his own.

Will was sure he physically melted, liquified, molten lava puddle on the floor.

His hands settled on Mack’s waist as their mouths moved together slowly, his first kiss with Mack felt like finally arriving somewhere he’d been trying to reach for years. He caught Mack’s bottom lip gently between his teeth, his head going fuzzy at the plumpness of it. Mack’s tongue found his quickly, living up to his intense reputation even now. Warm hands slipped beneath the back of Will’s T-shirt, and for a few glorious minutes, Will could have sworn he was floating above himself.

Mack pulled away first, a relieved giggle escaping almost instantly.

“Oh, thank Goddddd…” He ran his hands along the sides of Will’s neck, rubbing at his earlobes like lucky pennys. “I was worried I’d built it up too much in my head,” he admitted. “That all these feelings were because we played well together on the ice and were best friends, and somehow I’d tricked myself into thinking there was something more underneath it that wasn't really there. That we’d finally do this and I’d realize I was kissing a wet fish or something.”

Will shot him a look of overdramatic shock.

“Are you serious right now, Mack?”

Mack giggled softly against his skin, peppering soft kisses back against his mouth.

Will couldn’t help but be completely charmed by the brutal honesty wrapped up in the man standing in front of him. He pushed Mack back onto the bed, whipping his shirt off in a quick swoop, and laughing as he followed him down.

Mack’s hands greeted every newly exposed inch of skin with reverence, tracing slow paths along Will’s torso as though he were reading braille. Occasionally he’d lean down to steal another kiss before continuing his exploration. Will watched through half-lidded eyes, content to figure this out together.

As Mack’s fingers drifted lower, Will felt a flutter deep beneath his skin and his breath caught in his throat.

“Can I… uh… just…?”

Mack hesitated, fingers hooking lightly at the waistband of Will’s sweatpants.

“Whatever you want.” The breathy response sounded far calmer than Will actually felt. His entire body already felt like it was on fire.

Mack carefully removed the remaining barrier between them before sitting back on his heels to look at Will sprawled out beneath him.

Part of Will suddenly felt shy at being completely exposed while Mack was still completely dressed but the rest of him was far too overwhelmed to care.

“Now…”Mack wagged a finger in his direction. “I’ve never done this before, so if I hear one complaint, I’m going to punch you.”

Will mimed locking his lips shut. He laughed at the sight of the perfectionist perched between his thighs.

Then Mack wrapped a hand around him, and Will nearly short-circuited.

“Hello. Nice to meet you.” Mack jokingly introduced himself to his penis.

“Mack, I swear to God…” . The giggle fit between his thighs should have killed the mood. Instead, it made Will feel impossibly warm.

This dork.