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danrdarrenc · 3 years ago

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100 Different Kisses

88. kisses in which ‘i’ll kiss you right now to prove i don’t feel anything for you’ but the kiss proves the opposite & 52. kisses in which, “i can’t believe this is real, but i love you so much”

It starts when Will walks into the Pub in the middle of June to find Abby having breakfast with a dark-haired man he doesn’t know. Within minutes, he’s discovered the man is her cousin Sonny, son of Justin and Adrienne Kiriakis. When Abby leaves for work, leaving Will and Sonny alone to talk some more, they hit it off right away.

In the first half hour of meeting they’ve discovered: that they both love baseball (although Sonny would never be caught dead on a field), they’d both come out to their families at fifteen, Sonny lived in Dubai while Will lived in Switzerland, they both love to read, they both love trashy TV shows (The Bachelor is Sonny’s favorite; Keeping Up with the Kardashians is Will’s), and that they each have three siblings.

Will is immediately smitten.

What Will hadn’t noticed at breakfast, however, was the shining gold wedding band on Sonny’s finger. So when he arrives that night at his grandparents’ townhouse for a welcome home dinner for Paul, Will is surprised to find Sonny there.

“Sonny?”

“Oh. Have you met?” Paul asks.

“We met this morning. I ran into him having breakfast with our cousin Abby. How do you know each other?”

“Sonny’s my husband,” Paul announces, a huge grin on his face.

Sonny laces his fingers with Paul’s, but his eyes find Will’s, almost in apology.

And so begins the longest year and a half of Will’s life.

Although Paul is his stepuncle, because they’re close in age, Will has grown up alongside Paul, as close as brothers, the only brother Will had known for thirteen years until Johnny was born.

So when Paul returns home to join John at BlackPatch, they fall into their natural rhythm of hanging out - watching movies, playing basketball, meeting for breakfast or lunch. Only, now Paul has a shadow, an extra appendage, a husband who joins them, but Will cannot separate himself from them without seeming suspicious.

But he’s gotten ridiculously attached to Sonny in so short a time and Will hates it. He doesn’t want to be attracted to his basically-a-brother’s husband, but Sonny is everything Will wants for himself: kind, funny, smart, beautiful, easy to be around, confident. So Will sticks around, spends as much time with them as he can, joins them in creating Sonny’s new coffee shop cum event space, and he tries to stop his feelings for Sonny, he really does, tries to see Sonny as a friend only, goes to The Spot, the gay club in Salem, to try to find someone else, except fighting his feelings only makes them stronger. By the time September rolls into October, and Common Grounds has its grand opening, Will is madly in love with Sonny.

Working at the paper, Will has much more flexible hours than Paul, who’s always off somewhere investigating and at all hours of the day and night, and so as fall turns into winter, Will finds himself alone with Sonny more and more often. His daily routine is to stop by for a cup of coffee in the morning, a cup of coffee and a bagel at lunch, and help Sonny close up shop after work. It’s so domestic and so ingrained into his life that Will can almost pretend it’s their life and that Sonny isn’t married to someone else. But he is and when Paul is there, Sonny only has eyes for Paul, and on those days, Will leaves them to it, slips out quietly at night while Sonny and Paul are laughing softly together or making plans for the weekend that don’t include him.

Will’s had unrequited feelings for guys before but it’s never been this bad, never felt so out-of-reach as it is with Sonny and yet so close as when he’s alone with Sonny and he can imagine them sharing a life together.

Things get strange when Paul goes incognito undercover with John and Steve just before Christmas.

From all the time they’ve spent together in the last six months, Will knows that the holidays are Sonny’s favorite time of year. He loves the cheer, the spirit, the generosity, the gift giving and receiving, and the time spent with family. But this year, Justin and Adrienne are in Arizona visiting Sonny’s three older brothers and Paul is literally nowhere to be seen or heard from. So Sonny is understandably a bit down.

Will makes it his mission to make Sonny’s Christmas and New Year’s cheerful ones.

“Are you doing anything for Christmas?” Will asks over coffee two days before Christmas, three days after Paul’s disappeared.

“Uncle Vic wants me to attend the annual Titan Christmas party but I really don’t want to. I don’t even work for Titan.”

“Come to the Horton tree trimming with me tomorrow.”

“I’m not a Horton,” Sonny hedges.

“Your aunt and cousins are Hortons. I’m allowed to bring a guest. Aunt Jen won’t kick you out, I promise,” Will assures with a grin.

Sonny huffs out a laugh.

“Come on. Pleeeeeasssse,” Will begs jokingly and bats his eyelashes obnoxiously.

Sonny laughs fully and shakes his head in amusement. “Okay. Okay. I’ll close up here at noon and we can go to Aunt Jen’s.”

Will’s heart leaps and he just barely refrains from telling Sonny he loves him.

So at noon on the dot the following day, Will picks Sonny up at Common Grounds and they walk together to the Horton house. As promised, Sonny is welcomed with open arms and plied with eggnog and cookies. The rest of the day passes uneventfully with Sonny quietly observing the horde of Hortons hanging their ornaments until things get uncomfortable as they’re getting ready to leave. While they’re putting on their coats and saying their goodbyes, they inadvertently get themselves stuck under mistletoe in the foyer.

“Come on. You know what mistletoe means,” Julie insists.

His heart beating wildly in chest, Will stares at Sonny, who has a strange look on his face that Will can’t decipher. After a long beat, Sonny steps forward and pecks Will’s cheek quickly.

Will blinks, his cheek burning where Sonny’s lips touched it, and turns to Julie who is smiling, apparently satisfied.

They don’t talk as they leave the Horton house and they part ways soon after with a silent wave goodbye, their homes being in opposite directions.

For the next week, Will attempts to maintain their routine of coffee, bagels, and close up, but suddenly Common Grounds is twice as busy as it usually is and Sonny is almost always occupied when he comes by. Considering the strangeness between them after the mistletoe incident, Will suspects that at least part of Sonny’s constant occupation is purposeful.

The morning of New Year’s Eve is the first time in a week that Will catches Sonny alone and at a quiet moment.

“Hey,” Will greets him cautiously, unsure if Sonny will spook.

But Sonny grins at him and Will relaxes. “Hey. I’m sorry we haven’t seen each other since Christmas. It’s been absolutely insane here.”

“No worries,” Will says honestly since Sonny doesn’t appear to be weird around him. “Are you having a party tonight?”

Sonny nods.

“If you need an extra set of hands, I’d be happy to help,” Will offers.

“Are you sure? You don’t have plans or anything? Not meeting anyone for a kiss?” Sonny asks and Will has a niggling feeling that Sonny is fishing for information on his dating life.

“Nope. Completely plan free.”

“Okay. I’d love the help. Thanks. Actually, are you free now? I could use a hand doing some inventory.”

Will rolls up his sleeves dramatically. “I absolutely love doing inventory.”

Sonny throws his head back with laughter and Will’s heart flutters.

Twelve hours later, Common Grounds is packed like a can of sardines and so loud no one can hear anything even said directly into their ear. But the shindig is a hopping success and Will, Sonny, and Sonny’s staff are running themselves ragged keeping up with all the partygoers.

Will has been so busy that he doesn’t realize it’s almost midnight until the DJ announces it and the entire place erupts in a countdown. He thinks briefly that maybe he should have gone to The Spot instead to get a New Year’s kiss from a random stranger, but he’s never really been that kind of person and he would much rather be staring longingly at Sonny, imagining a different universe where he throws his arms around Sonny’s neck, their lips meeting at the stroke of midnight.

Will and Sonny finally collapse on the sofa in Sonny’s office at three in the morning, both yawning and half asleep.

“I should go home,” Will says, his eyes drooping.

“You’re almost asleep, silly,” Sonny mumbles. “C’mere,” Sonny adds and pulls Will’s arm as he lies back on the couch.

Will goes willingly, almost asleep, as Sonny said, slotting himself into the space between Sonny and the back of the couch. His head falls automatically onto Sonny’s chest and he’s fully asleep within seconds.

It’s only six hours later when Will blinks slowly awake that he realizes he slept curled into Sonny’s side, Sonny’s arms tight around him.

In the weeks that follow, they don’t discuss falling asleep together on Sonny’s couch but Will senses something has shifted between them. Sonny’s always been happy to see him, but Will’s almost certain there’s an extra twinkle in his eyes when he spots Will walk into Common Grounds or a wider grin at something Will says or that Sonny sits just a little bit closer to him when they eat together or just talk. It’s driving Will crazy because it’s not obvious enough for Will to broach the subject with Sonny but Will swears that he’s not imagining it either.

Valentine’s Day is when Will knows absolutely without a doubt that he’s not imagining it.

Sonny is short-staffed for all the reservations he’s booked for the night so, based on Will’s one summer waiting tables at the Brady Pub, Sonny hires Will for the night. After they’ve closed up, they share some left over food and Sonny offers to walk Will home despite living on the other side of town.

“If you ever get tired of writing your articles, I’d be happy to add you to my staff, even if you are a bit green,” Sonny propositions as they stop in front of Will’s apartment building, knocking his shoulder into Will’s playfully.

“Oh, thanks. I’ll keep that in mind,” Will teases with a laugh.

Sonny grins. “No but really,” Sonny says with a hand on Will’s elbow. “Thank you for the help tonight. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Will doesn’t know how to respond to that and is preoccupied anyway thinking about how beautiful Sonny looks in the moonlight and how much he wants to kiss him right now.

So Will just says, “You’re welcome.”

Sonny’s grin turns soft at the edges as his eyes trace Will’s face, flicking down to Will’s lips and back up to Will’s eyes. Will’s breath catches in his throat as the air thickens around them and he realizes just how close they’re standing, and that Sonny’s hand is still cradling his elbow.

They stare at each other, the moment of tension building and hanging between them, and Will’s face, unbidden, leans forward, slowly closing the space between them. His heart beats a drum against his chest as Sonny’s face moves forward to meet his and their lips are just about to touch when a car alarm goes off.

Sonny jumps like he’s been shot, his hand dropping Will’s arm and his eyes wide and horror-stricken, like a deer in headlights.

“I have to go,” Sonny says quickly and disappears into the dark within moments.

It takes Will a long time to fall asleep that night.

The next morning Will stands outside Common Grounds for five minutes before gathering the courage to walk inside. He needn’t have worried, though, because Sonny grins at him the second he sees him.

Will’s stomach flutters with nerves as he walks over to the counter but Sonny greets him like nothing happened last night and his nerves turn to confusion and a bit of paranoia when Sonny acts completely normal. It’s only when their hands accidentally brush over a packet of sugar and Sonny snaps his hand back like it’s a rubber band that Will knows he hadn’t imagined them almost kissing last night. But still Sonny doesn’t say anything and then quickly rushes off to his office to make an apparently very important phone call. Will leaves Common Grounds confused and returns later for their nightly close up only to find the shop already closed.

Hurt, Will retreats home like a wounded animal.

It doesn’t get any better as winter stretches into spring.

Sonny never acknowledges it, continues to pretend like there’s nothing wrong, like there’s no tension between them, like things are exactly like they used to be before Valentine’s Day, despite Sonny jumping a mile in the air whenever their hands brush, despite Sonny never letting himself be alone in a room with Will, despite Sonny unilaterally changing their routine to closing Common Grounds before Will gets off work and never mentioning it. Sometimes, when they are together Will catches Sonny staring at him and then quickly turning away.

It’s absolutely driving Will up the fucking wall with want and frustration and a tiny bit of anger. He wants to shake Sonny, to get him to admit his feelings, but Will has always been a bit of coward, and so he lets the tension between them simmer unacknowledged, albeit with great effort.

When he knew his feelings were one-sided, he was able to suffer in silence, to hope that one day they would morph into something softer, something more brotherly and he could let Sonny go. But with the way Sonny’s been around him since Valentine’s Day, Will’s got so much hope that Sonny returns his feelings, it’s all he can do to not do something stupid like ask Sonny to marry him.

It comes to a boiling point at the welcome home party at the beginning of May for the BlackPatch spies. The whole family is there at Common Grounds: John and Marlena, Steve and Kayla, Tripp, Stephanie, Joey, Justin and Adrienne, Paul, Sonny, Will, Brady, Eric, Belle, and even Sami makes an appearance.

Sonny’s been avoiding him all night, running around making sure the food and drinks are ready and available, counting and recounting napkins, plates and bowls and silverware, and mingling with his family. Will has watched Sonny’s frenzy, so unlike his usual calm and steady assurance, and his clinginess to Paul unlike anything Will has ever seen from Sonny in the year that he’s known him. Paul and Sonny have always been affectionate, never afraid of PDA, but Sonny’s never attached himself so thoroughly to Paul’s side before now, like they’re glued together.

It’s easy for the guests to pass it off as Sonny having missed his husband for six months, but Will is certain there’s a different reason for Sonny’s unbreakable attachment and it snaps something in Will.

As the party winds down, Will follows Sonny into his office at the back of the club.

“Need any help?”

Sonny nearly jumps a foot in the air at his voice. “No. I’m fine,” Sonny says sharply.

“Are you though?”

“Yes,” Sonny grits out, rifling through papers and not looking at Will.

“You know you’re a terrible liar, right?”

“What’s your problem, Will?!” Sonny shouts at him from behind his desk, spinning around to finally face Will.

“What’s my problem? Will asks. “What’s your problem, Sonny?”

Sonny’s eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Will barks out a bitter laugh. “Of course you don’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sonny asks angrily, finally emerging from behind his desk.

“How long are we going to deny this, Sonny?”

“Deny what?”

“My god. You are so frustrating,” Will mutters to the ceiling. “There’s something between us. You know there is. You’re just too afraid to do anything about it.”

“There’s nothing between us,” Sonny denies. “Anyway, even if there was, it doesn’t matter because I’m married.”

“I think we both know that doesn’t matter.”

Sonny glares daggers at him.

Will can’t blame him. He can’t believe he’s said that; after everything he’s said to his parents about unfaithfulness, he can’t believe he’s even thinking about hurting Paul like this. But he wants Sonny so much, desperately needs Sonny to admit that he returns his feelings, that right now Paul just seems like necessary collateral damage.

“I’m sorry,” Will apologizes, because he hates that he’s willing to hurt Paul to get Sonny. “You’re right it does matter. But Sonny,” Will almost pleads and takes a step into Sonny’s space. “Can you really stand there and pretend like we haven’t been dancing around each other for months?”

“We haven’t,” Sonny denies again, his mouth a thin, angry line.

Will takes another tentative step closer to Sonny. “So, us almost kissing on Valentine’s Day, and every time since that our hands have accidentally brushed and you’ve pulled away like you’ve been scalded, every time I catch you staring at me when you think I’m not looking, every time you run out of the room when we’re left alone, you purposefully changing the club’s hours so that I’m still at work when you’re closing up, that was all because I mean nothing to you?”

“You don’t mean nothing to me,” Sonny answers immediately. “But I’m not in love with you.”

“Prove it.”

“Excuse me?”

“Prove it. Prove you’re not in love with me. Prove that I’ve just been imagining the tension between us,” Will challenges.

Sonny stares at him, his mouth hanging open slightly.

Will stares back boldly, a dare.

After a long minute, Sonny says, “Fine. Fine. I’ll prove it. I’ll kiss you right now to prove that I don’t have feelings for you.”

“Great,” Will says, his heart beating a mile a minute against his chest. He hadn’t actually expected Sonny to give in and now he’s suddenly been granted the opportunity to kiss Sonny.

“Fine,” Sonny says again.

Then he swallows thickly, stalks forward, grabs Will’s face with both his hands, and slams their mouths together.

It’s a hard kiss, bruising lips and too much teeth, Sonny’s fingers digging painfully into his cheeks, nothing like Will imagined their first kiss to be, and it’s over before Will can fully process the feel of Sonny’s lips against his.

When Will opens his eyes, Sonny is back behind his desk and he looks absolutely wrecked, close to tears.

“There, see. Nothing,” Sonny croaks, a blatant lie.

“Sonny, I -” Will starts, not quite knowing what to say. This hasn’t gone at all like he planned and now he feels even more miserable than he’s felt all year pining after Sonny. Somehow this has made things worse and he thinks that he might have just ruined their friendship and possibly his brotherhood with Paul.

“Please leave, Will,” Sonny pleads, his voice a broken whisper.

Will swallows his heart and leaves, but not before taking a last glance at Sonny, who’s collapsed into his chair, his head in his hands, quietly sobbing.

Will avoids Sonny for the rest of May and into the beginning of June. When Paul asks why the three of them haven’t been hanging out the way they had before he’d left on his mission, Will says simply that he’s been overwhelmed with work and he’s leaving them alone to make up for the six months that they were apart. For his part, Sonny never asks.

But as Salem turns hot, Paul insists that Will start spending time with them again. Unable to decline without raising questions, Will agrees. The first time Will sees Sonny in over a month it’s at the lakeside and he’s shirtless and dripping wet. Will nearly turns around on the spot but Paul catches sight of him and waves, so Will swallows the lump in his throat, plasters on as sincere a smile as he can, and walks over to their beach spread.

“Hey! Haven’t seen you around in awhile,” Sonny says to him as Will drops his beach bag on their blanket. “Everything alright?”

Will stares at Sonny in disbelief; he never realized Sonny was such a good actor, or else that he is extremely successful at compartmentalizing.

“Uh, yeah. I was just giving you and Paul some space,” Will answers flatly.

“You really didn’t have to do that,” Paul replies, draping his arm across Sonny’s shoulders.

“It’s fine. I wanted to,” Will says, watching Sonny gently move out from Paul’s arm to grab a bottle of suntan lotion.

“In case you didn’t bring,” Sonny says, holding it out to Will.

“Thanks,” Will says politely as he takes it, deliberately brushing his fingers against Sonny’s.

Will feels Sonny’s fingers flinch under his, but he doesn’t jump away as he had been months ago, and Will’s certain Sonny holds his gaze for longer than is strictly necessary.

“Meet us in the water?” Paul asks.

Will nods and watches them walk down to the lake hand-in-hand. Five minutes later, Will joins them and it’s more than a bit easy to fall back into their old camaraderie. As they joke and laugh together and splash each other, some of the tension in Will’s shoulders eases and he ends up having the most fun day he’s had in months.

After that, Will finds it slightly less painful to be around them and he manages an internal balance of desperately wanting Sonny and studiously ignoring his feelings the way Sonny seems to have done himself. Thus, June passes in playing basketball games, going to baseball games, watching movies, and the three of them generally spending most of their free time together.

Things get uncomfortable for Will in the middle of July when Paul suggests they all hit The Spot for a night out.

“We can be your wingmen!” The excitement on Paul’s face sinks Will’s heart.

“I’m not interested,” Will says over the top of his coffee mug.

“Come on, Will. For as long as you’ve been out you’ve always been boy crazy,” Paul announces.

Will’s cheeks flame. “I have not,” Will mumbles, embarrassed, and avoids meeting Sonny’s eyes.

“Really?” Paul challenges with a raised eyebrow. “You had a crush on every football and baseball player in high school. And how many boyfriends did you have in college?”

“Two! I had two boyfriends in college! I’m not my mother, thank you very much,” Will replies, indignant and offended that Paul is making him out to be a runaround. But Paul just laughs and, to Will’s chagrin, Sonny is grinning into his donut.

“No, but really. Are you even dating around?” Paul asks more seriously. “Since I came back last summer I haven’t seen you with anyone.”

Will swallows. “I told you. I’m not really interested right now,” Will answers, but his eyes flick to Sonny, who’s frowning at something apparently very interesting on his napkin.

Paul shrugs. “Whatever. But come with us tonight. Maybe you’ll meet someone.”

Will turns his attention back to Paul and agrees to join them.

As it turns out, Will does meet someone. His name is Neil Hultgren and he’s wonderful. Smart, an athlete, kind, everything Will would normally be attracted to, if only he weren’t fiercely in love with Sonny. But Neil is fun and the sex is great, so they date casually, Will, Sonny, and Paul’s hang outs now becoming double dates, and Will thinks it might be the start of a long road of getting over Sonny.

As summer fades into autumn things get serious with Neil. Will likes him a lot, more than he expected to, and so Will agrees to be exclusive, considering he’s not seeing anyone else anyway. He’s still in love with Sonny and he’s certain he’s not in love with Neil, but he immensely enjoys the time they spend together and being with him greatly takes his mind off of Sonny, at least until Will is alone again without Neil to distract him.

Sometimes, when the four of them are together, Will thinks that Sonny has a scowl on his face after he and Neil share a kiss or that Sonny stares at their linked fingers just a little too long, but with how Sonny was before the disaster confrontation at Common Grounds in May and how he’s been since that brief unmentioned kiss, Will thinks he’s probably just imagining it.

September and October pass uneventfully under the same routine of work, dates with Neil, double dates with Sonny and Paul, and family gatherings. As November blows in with a blizzard, Paul insists on making Will and big 25th birthday party at Common Grounds.

“I don’t know,” Will hedges. “You know I don’t like birthday parties.”

“Come on, Will! It’ll be fun,” Paul promises.

“Everyone always says that and something always inevitably goes wrong,” Will counters.

“Don’t be a spoilsport.”

Will sighs. “Fine.”

Paul grins and sweeps Will into a big bear hug.

So for the next two weeks, Paul, Sonny, and Neil buzz around town inviting literally every person in town that Will is related to, any and all Hortons and Bradys, and all of Will’s other friends and coworkers. There’s sure to be at least fifty people there and Will dreads it.

But they’ve all worked so hard on this party that Will can’t do anything but appreciate it.

So on the morning of November 16th, Will is just getting ready to hop in the shower when there’s a knock on his door. As far as he knows he’s not expecting anyone; they’re all busy getting Common Grounds ready for his party.

Curious, Will opens the door.

“Hey,” Will says, surprised to find Sonny on his doorstep. “I didn’t think I was seeing you until the party tonight.”

“Can I come in?” Sonny asks and Will swears he sounds nervous.

“Sure. Everything alright? Where’s Paul?”

“He’s with your grandparents getting stuff ready for the party. Is Neil here?”

“No,” Will says slowly. “I’m meeting him at Common Grounds. Sonny? What’s going on?”

“I wanted to give you your birthday present before the party.”

“Oh no. Did you and Paul get me some kinky sex stuff you don’t want my family to see?” Will laughs.

“I love you,” Sonny blurts out.

Will blinks, thinking he’s misheard. “What?”

“Neil’s going to ask you to marry him tonight. Please don’t say yes,” Sonny responds.

“What?” Will asks again, confused because that’s definitely not what Sonny said before and also because he’s in a little bit of a panic now. Will’s been considering breaking up with Neil because despite how much he’s tried, he still hasn’t gotten over Sonny and he’s still not in love with Neil and that’s unfair to Neil who Will knows is in love with him.

“I don’t want you to marry Neil.”

Will is so confused. “What are you saying, Sonny?”

“I love you,” Sonny repeats and Will definitely doesn’t mishear it this time.

“Please don’t say that if you don’t mean it,” Will pleads.

“I do mean it. I love you,” Sonny says for a third time.

“Why would you say that to me?” Will asks angrily. “For almost a year you’ve made it very clear that you don’t have feelings for me and now you come barging in here on my birthday to tell me you supposedly love me and you expect me to believe you?!”

“I - you’re right. I’m so sorry, Will. I’ve been terrible to you. I have had feelings for you since Paul went undercover, probably even before. I was lying to myself and to you, trying to make myself believe that I didn’t because I didn’t want to. I’m married, Will! I didn’t want to fall in love with someone who isn’t my husband! But you - you just - you just happened. I don’t know. I don’t know! You snuck up on me. With Paul busy all the time and then gone without a trace for months it was just the two of us and it felt so domestic, y��know? Like it was our life,” Sonny says, pointing to himself and Will.

Will can barely hear Sonny’s ranting over the blood rushing in his ears and the pounding of his heart. That’s exactly how it had felt to Will, and Will has so much hope he doesn’t dare breathe for the possibility that this is all a dream.

“And it was so easy to imagine that we could have that forever,” Sonny continues, caught up now in his confession. “And when we almost kissed on Valentine’s Day, I got scared. I got scared shitless, Will, because I wanted to kiss you so much that night and I didn’t even think about Paul until that car alarm went off. I just forgot about my husband because I was with you. So I ran away.

“I pretended that things were the same between us, but I couldn’t, not really, so I kept my distance from you, just like you said at the welcome home party. And I hated being called out like that because you were throwing everything in my face that I was trying to deny. So I kissed you to prove you wrong but it only made it clear that I was in way deeper than I thought I was.

“With Paul back, I thought it would be easy for me to convince myself that I didn’t have feelings for you, but right away I knew that something had changed within me because suddenly things felt different for me between me and Paul. I couldn’t stop thinking about you and wishing that I was living with you instead of him. I was so grateful that you stayed away from me after the party because I thought with the space I could shift things back. Get myself back on track with Paul, but it just made things worse, honestly. Because you weren’t there, but I was thinking about you anyway all the time. Missing you and wanting to be around you. Paul started feeling like a nuisance and I hated that. I hated that I didn’t want to be around my husband but it happened and I couldn’t fix it.

“And then you started dating Neil and I’ve been so jealous, Will. Like, it’s insane how jealous I’ve been watching you with him. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to punch him in the face for kissing you or holding your hand. And that’s when I knew that I loved you. That I was in love you and that I wanted to be with you for real. Because I wanted to be the one casually kissing you and holding your hand.”

“You really love me?” Will whispers, hope fluttering wildly in his chest.

“I’m crazy about you,” Sonny answers.

“Prove it,” Will says, the ends of his lips curling up in amusement.

Sonny laughs a full-belly laugh and closes the distance between them.

Will’s heart is beating painfully against his chest, threatening to explode, and his breath in coming in short puffs, so close to an anxiety attack, as he watches Sonny walk towards him.

Sonny stops toe-to-toe with him, their faces inches apart. Will can see the gold flecks in Sonny’s brown eyes and the beginnings of the moustache and beard Sonny had mentioned last week that he wanted to grow for the winter.

“What about Paul?” Will asks quietly into the air between them.

“I have to have a long and painful conversation with him. Not tonight but I will. I promise. I don’t want to break his heart, but I have to because I want to be with you, Will. I want to be with you so much I can hardly stand it. Can I kiss you?”

“It wouldn’t be much of a birthday present if you didn’t,” Will deadpans.

Sonny laughs again, bright and loud, and shakes his head in exasperation. “C’mere,” Sonny mumbles and places his hands on Will’s cheeks, cradling Will’s face gently, so different from the pinching grip of the fleeting kiss months ago in Sonny’s office.

Their lips meet softly, and this time it is exactly what Will imagined their first kiss to be. Sonny’s hands slide off his face to cup the back of Will’s head, his arms resting loosely around Will’s shoulders and his fingers tangling in Will’s hair. Will whimpers when Sonny’s tongue darts into his mouth and he wraps his arms around Sonny’s waist, pulling him closer so they’re chest-to-chest.

They kiss unrushed and unheated for a long time, Will’s not sure how long, but at some point his lungs start burning and he regretfully breaks away for air. He drops his forehead against Sonny’s, his eyes still closed, and whispers, “Is this real?”

“Yeah,” Sonny whispers back.

Will opens his eyes to find Sonny watching him, a tiny smile curling his lips. “I love you so much, Sonny.”

“What about Neil?” Sonny asks, an echo of Will’s earlier question.

Will lifts his head away from Sonny’s to better look at him. “I don’t love him. That’s not true. I do love him. I’m just not in love with him. I’ve loved you since that first day I saw you with Abby and I’ve tried to stop, I really have. I tried to fall in love with Neil. I wanted to. But you’re the one in my heart, Sonny. You’re in my bones. You are a part of me. I’ll always love you.”

Sonny’s face splits slowly into a blinding grin and Will’s lips curl into a matching grin, his heart bursting with joy.

They grin stupidly at each other for a long minute, their arms still around each other, until Will asks, “What did you mean that Neil is going to ask me to marry him tonight?”

“Oh. Neil told me and Paul last week that he was planning to propose to you at the party tonight. He has a ring and everything.”

Will bites his lip, thinking. “I have to talk to him before the party then. I can’t let him come and propose and turn him down in front of everyone.”

Sonny nods. “Can you ask him not to say anything to Paul? I can’t let him hear about us from anyone but me.”

“Yeah. Of course.”

“I should go,” Sonny says unconvincingly. “I told Paul I had to run an errand for the party. He’ll be wondering where I am.”

“Okay,” Will says and regretfully drops his arms from Sonny’s waist as Sonny’s arms pull away from Will’s shoulders. Will misses them already.

“I’ll see you at the party,” Sonny says and heads towards the door.

“Yeah,” Will agrees, following behind Sonny.

“Good luck with Neil.”

“Thanks.”

At the door, Sonny turns around and grins again at Will. “Happy birthday, Will,” Sonny says and kisses him quickly before slipping out of Will’s apartment.

Will closes the door behind Sonny, the reality of the last half hour fully sinking in. Sonny loves him. Sonny is leaving Paul for him. Sonny loves him!

Will laughs into the emptiness of his apartment, giddy with nerves and happiness. He knows that the fallout from this is going to be messy and painful for everyone involved but Sonny loves him and wants to build a life with him and that’s really all that matters.

As he makes his way into his bathroom to take a shower and get ready for the party, Will thinks this is the best birthday he’s ever had.

#will horton #sonny kiriakis #wilson #my fic #mywilsonfic #100 different kisses

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