#i was really just gonna say that the reason i realized i was gay was early ace attorney fanfic

[gayofthefae]

Rewatching and just got to the roller rink fight. The whole thing is giving Mike rejecting Will before Will can reject him. He says they're just friends so Will doesn't. Just like "what did you think, really?" he honestly believes that Will believes what Mike is saying, so he says it for him.

To him, Will ignored him all day and maybe didn't wanna be friends anymore - certainly hadn't attempted to call back. He's fearing the same thing Nancy is with Jonathan.

He shoulder punches Will because he doesn't expect Will to hug him - he doesn't think they're still that close. He wasn't rejecting the hug, he just didn't catch it in time. He doesn't ignore Will, he just tries to distract himself with El and let Will initiate...but Will never does. He rolls his eyes and he mopes, but he doesn't talk to him.

And then he shifts. He gets angry that El was struggling and even that wasn't enough for for Will to call. And he puts all his anger, even if it wasn't about that, into that.

But then Will gets direct. He says "no, we're gonna talk about us and we're gonna talk about us now". And at first it's surprising because he sounds sad, like he wants them back. But then he's petty and angry himself too. And Mike thinks he's just trying to make the impending breakup happen now and he can't handle that. He wants to put it off.

He doesn't think Will is asking him questions or making requests about being ignored. He thinks he's giving him his reasons. So he puts it off. He shuts it down. And most importantly, he says what he thinks Will is going to before Will does.

He thinks they're breaking up. He doesn't think this is "let's fix our problems". He thinks this is placing blame.

So when Will looks sad at "friends", he doesn't know how to save it. So he just leaves. Leaving wasn't leaving to him. Both times: it was stalling.

He thought Will was gonna leave him so he stalled it, hoping he'd reach out. He didn't. Then his anger exploded and Will fired back - about why it was his fault their relationship was ending. He gave excuses he thought would work on Will, that he thought Will believed in, but they didn't. He realized he had been wrong. He hadn't lost Will already. But now he had.

The entire thing doesn't play like the truth is finally coming out, at least not on Mike's end. It plays like he just wants the conversation to be over. Like he's just trying desperately to prevent something from going too far.

He doesn't think he and Will are just friends any more than he genuinely thought Will was gay in season 3. He thinks that Will thinks they're just friends and Will suspects him. So he beats him to the punch.

It's the classic. It won't hurt as bad if he can tell himself Will never would have said those things if he hadn't interrupted him. The classic plausible deniability. *Their* classic self-sabotage.

"Maybe I feel like I lost you or something, does that make sense?"

Will thought Mike was telling him their relationship was already over. Mike thought Will was ending their relationship right then and there and trying desperately to put it off, because he felt he knew he couldn't prevent it.