Dune was sitting next to the apartment door his brows furrowed as he stared at his phone. Will wanted him to be a figment of his imagination. He didn't have the energy for anything, not even Dune. And this wouldn't be a low-key hang out. Not going off all the missed calls and Dune's expression. Will was unlocking the door before Dune noticed him, and jumped to his feet.

"I've been calling you," Dune said.

Will paused, seeing his sports bag on Dune's shoulder. "I left it at yours?"

"Yeah, I said that in the texts. Have you read any of them?" Dune was agitated, his weight bouncing from foot to foot.

"Not yet."

Dune's lips pressed together. He didn't like that, clearly.

Will leaned his shoulder on the front door. "Can we talk later?"

"You mean can you ignore my phone calls later?" Dune shook his head. "No. No, that's not okay with me. Leaving me in complete radio silence to worry about you all night, and all day, is not okay with me either."

Will stared at the bag, and not Dune's eyes. His stare was too intent, too demanding. Will didn't have anything to give. Not right now. "We can talk, I won't avoid you. But I don't want to argue right now. It's been a shit enough day already, so can we please do this tomorrow instead?"

That made Dune hesitate.

Will opened the door, but turned so that he could close it behind him. Dune was already stepping into the threshold. "Dune, my head's a mess—this isn't going to be the conversation you want to have, so please, let it go for tonight."

Dune took the sports bag off, laying it down in the hall. He closed the front door, and then he slowly pulled Will into his arms. "Ease-up, okay? I'm not here to argue or fight with you. You came over super worked up yesterday, wanting to tell me something, and you look absolutely shattered today. I promise I'm not trying to make your day worse."

Will's eyes fell closed. His arms were weak when they wrapped around Dune's waist. Shattered seemed like the right word to Will.

"I'm sorry. I'm too tired to talk about it right now."

"That's okay." Dune rubbed his back. "You don't have to."

Will swallowed hard. Part of the reason Will didn't want him coming in was because he didn't want to be seen like this. Everything felt dumb and stupid right now, except Dune, because Dune was never dumb or stupid. But Dune was going to make a big deal of it if Will had a melt down, and Will would rather solitude for it. Solitude even from Gabriel.

It would be nice if he could take the car and just go. Problem was, he no longer even had the student apartment to go to. Here was a safe space until Gabriel was back, and then Will would end up worrying Gabriel if he didn't seem okay. Maybe he could go home? Back to dad's place? He could just go up to the room and try think through everything and sort out his thoughts. Dad would leave him alone for that.

Dune rubbed his back long enough for Will to be too aware of the way they were pressed together, so he pulled away. Dune was trying to search his face, Will was turning away. "Do you want tea?"

"Sure."

Will kept his back to Dune in the kitchen. He stirred up two cups for them, and sat at the kitchen table. Will pretended not to notice the way Dune was clearly gathering himself up to talk.

"Yesterday," Dune started, voice low and soft, "What was it you wanted to talk about? It seemed really important."

All at once, Will remembered exactly how panicked he had been going to Dune's house. And he remembered how certain he was that Dune would be able to help him. He also remembered how he'd acted once he got into the house. "I'm sorry I pushed him."

"No," Dune shook his head, "I'm not asking about that, I want to know what you wanted to tell me. You weren't that upset over nothing."

"It's okay now," Will said. He chanced meeting Dune's eyes, to try convey that he was being earnest. "I sorted it out. I was making a bigger deal of it than I needed to."

Dune frowned. "Can you tell me?"

"It's fine now."

Dune stared straight at Will, eyes locked on his, and Will got how unhappy Dune was right now loud and clear. He didn't look away. "I sorted it out," Will insisted. "I'm sorry that I made such a big deal of it—really, I am, but it's fine now."

"Well I'm not fine."

Will's eyes widened.

"I'm not fine." Dune repeated. "Not with what happened last night, not with the fact you went completely radio silent on me—again—and not right now either. We can't keep doing this. And before you start apologising, I'm not talking about missed calls. I'm talking about us. We can't keep doing what we've been doing."

"We haven't been doing anything."

Dune didn't say anything, but met Will's eyes. All Will could think of was how he convinced Dune to do his homework, and the flirting that went with it. But it was innocent. It wasn't like Will was actually flirting, only having some fun. It wasn't a convincing argument, and Will didn't voice it, because the way Dune was looking at him told Will that he wasn't going to agree for the sake of agreeing.

"If we were just friends, and there really was nothing else, then yesterday wouldn't have turned into a such a mess," Dune said, "Luke wouldn't have flipped out, you two wouldn't have fought, and I would have been able to say that there wasn't a reason for anyone to have acted the way they did."

Will frowned.

"Will, I didn't even know whose side to take. I know you're the one who barged into the bathroom, but Luke was calling you names, and I felt like shit because there was no middle ground I could take." Dune said seriously.

"I'm sorry for putting you in that situation," Will apologised. And he meant it. He really, really did. Stressing out Dune was the last thing he wanted, and he could only imagine some of the turmoil Dune had been after he left. He imagined Luke giving out about him, saying that he had no boundaries, and that he was inappropriate, and he imagined that Dune wouldn't be able to bring himself to bad mouth him. And that would leave him in a bad position with Luke.

If, like Dune said, it was absolutely crystal clear that there was nothing going on between them, would yesterday have been better? All he'd seen of Luke was a jealous boyfriend, but he knew that Dune wouldn't go near him if that was all there was. Dune and Gabriel had been two aspects of his life that were kept completely separate. Maybe that was part of the problem?

"Are you sure about Luke?" Will asked him.

Dune's expression flickered, looking pained, then grim. "It's not anything serious, but I think this is going to be a problem with anyone I date, not just Luke."

So Dune didn't think Luke was the problem.

"Do you actually like spending time with him?" Will pressed.

Dune gave him a look.

"I'm asking because I don't think I've seen anything in him that I want you around."

"That's because you two have done nothing but fight since day one. And I know that the fighting was coming from both sides, and not just him."

Will sat back in the kitchen chair, and nodded. Yeah, the fighting came from both sides. "Let's go on a double date then. Me, you, Luke, and Gabriel."

Dune's eyes widened. His gaze flashed around the apartment he was in, and though it was well hidden, Will knew the dislike curling in him now. Dune hadn't liked Gabriel from the start, and that wasn't any different now. Same way Will felt about Luke.

"That should sort it out for everyone, shouldn't it?" Will suggested, his voice light. He took a sip of his lukewarm tea, and then stood to dump the rest of it down the sink. Dune wanted to date Luke, and Will didn't like Luke. But he wanted Dune to be happy, and to get what he wanted. Dune, who would always call out anyone behaving badly on the team, and stood by what Will wanted in the past, even when he disagreed with it. Will could do this much for Dune.

"I'm sure that'll help straighten everything out, won't it?" Will said, latching onto the idea firmly. "Until now we've only ever told Luke that I have a boyfriend. Maybe seeing that he exists for real will make everything easier." Will swallowed. "For everyone."

Dune thought it over, his eyes on his empty cup of tea. "That's a good idea," he said eventually. Reluctantly.

"Though, I do want Cassie there." Will said. He joined Dune at the table, folding his arms in front of him. "She wanted to meet up with Gabriel again."

"I don't think she's fully convinced you two are actually dating," Dune said, searching Will's face again, "You don't talk about him with her?"

"Should I?"

"I mean, don't you want to? You two talked about guys all the time over the summer. I thought that once it didn't have to be a secret, you would open up about it. Instead it's the opposite, you've been even more withdrawn than I've ever seen you." Dune let out a long sigh. "I just... I don't like how things have been, not just with Luke, I mean with all of us. And maybe having us all meet up, with Gabriel, will help that? But I don't want this to be a one-off thing to make Luke happy. That isn't why I'm here, and that isn't why I brought this up. I want us to be normal again. Friends. And I mean actual friends."

Will pressed his lips together. He felt exposed. He couldn't argue, because Dune was right, but he didn't like it being pointed out like this. He had to remind himself of what had happened just before this, and the mess that had been Kyle, the threat that had hung over Gabriel because of their relationship... none of it felt right. Nothing in his life here felt like something he knew how to deal with—and throwing up seemed more an inevitability than anything else right now.

"How would Thursday night suit?" Will asked, choosing to look at the punching bag tucked away in the corner of the living room and not Dune. Will had noticed Gabriel using it more the past few days. "We can go to the Chinese outside your college when your classes end."

"I'll ask Luke and Cassie, but I'm free."

"I'll ask Gabriel when he's home."

The air was charged with discomfort right up to the point when Dune was leaving. Dune was clearly, distinctly, unhappy when it came to going out the door. He even wore that dissatisfied expression when he pulled Will into a hug. He was warm. Tense. Dune said, "Call me if anything comes up."

"I will."

Dune held him, face hidden. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine." Will said.

"Are you sure?"

Will pushed Dune back, letting him see the eye-roll. Dune raised his hands in submission, and some of the unhappiness left his expression. The tension in his lips eased. The worry in his eyes remained. "I was just checking, talk to you later."

"Later." Will leaned against the wall in the hall a long time after Dune left, sifting through the conversation they'd had. He was preoccupied when he started making the lasagna, and when Gabriel arrived home—just as dinner was ready—his final thought on the conversation was that Dune hadn't cracked so much as a smile the entire time. Neither had Will, of course. But Dune... Will didn't want to have those kinds of conversations with Dune again. He didn't want to make Dune have to worry, and wear so grim an expression around him. Because of him.

He'd do better. So that he didn't have to do this again.

A/N: Hi all, been a while! Writing fiction instead of final essays is so bizarre.