Carter's War - 18. Chapter 18

"It's not much," Will admitted, "but it's comfortable."

Marc nodded mutely.

"Can I get you a coffee, tea or something?" he asked, returning to the kitchen and flipping open the fridge.

"Tea?" Marc asked; now free of the boots, he began to remove the many layers of clothes he had on. It was the one secret Canadians had over the entire world, layers. The more you put on the warmer you were. Will had seen the American tourists in their thinsulate parkas shivering at a bus stop next to a Canadian girl wearing three sweaters under her thin denim jacket. All the technology in the world and it was beaten by good old-fashioned ingenuity.

It was like when Jared came home after Christmas with a pen that could write in space. The Americans had spent a fortune developing a pen that could write in any environment, a true wonder to man's inventiveness. And the Russians used a pencil. Will could just imagine the Russians orbiting the planet in the ISS laughing at their one American colleague chowing down on dehydrated Irish stew while they ate Chicken Kiev.

He set the kettle down on the side and plugged it into the stove. "Any preference?" he called back, opening the cupboard that had been dubbed the tea cupboard because it was stuffed to the brim with all types of teas and infusions. These were unwanted gifts given at Christmas time by relatives who weren't sure what you wanted so walked into the first store they could find and grabbed the first gift basket they saw. Invariably there was always one stuffed full of tea bags. And they ended up in that cupboard.

When Will deviated from his strict coffee diet he always drank Earl Grey; his grandmother had given him a taste for it when he was little, and once you drank Earl Grey, Red Rose certainly wasn't a proper cup of U and Me.

"Red Rose, if you got it," Marc said appearing beside him to stare into the cupboard at the mountain of tea collected there.

Will sighed inwardly as he pulled it down and reached in to fish out the teapot. He stopped as he turned back to Marc in surprise.

It was technicolor. He set the teapot down on the side and turned back to Marc again. It was still technicolor.

Marc had a strangely proud grin on his face as he stepped back and did a quick spin to show off the vest. It was like it had been designed for a stage production of Joseph. Made from intricately woven wools in a stunning array of colours, he looked like a children's TV presenter about to perform. There had to be a warning label on it saying prolonged exposure can cause seizures.

It definitely suited his personality.

"That's cute," Will said as he popped a couple of tea bags into the pot.

"I got it at Phase Two this afternoon, I love it." He leaned on the counter watching as Will poured water into the pot, "I'm going to wear it to my next job interview."

Will grinned as he shook his head, "I wouldn't hire you." He picked up the pot and motioned to the two cups in the wash rack as he led the way through into the living room.

"Yeah, but that's because your company's boring," Marc said as he ignored the couch completely and sat down on the rug beside the coffee table.

Will watched him a moment before he sighed and joined him on the floor, scooping up the remote and flipping on the TV. As usual it greeted him with the standard line-up for a Friday night, the standard array of sitcoms carefully laugh-tracked so that you were cued to laugh on demand. He enjoyed them; they kept him mindlessly entertained when he got home till something more interesting came on later in prime time.

He suddenly remembered Jared and he got up, "I'll be right back." He smiled lopsidedly as he passed the remote over and descended the stairs to the finished basement.

Jared was there banging away on MSN, the light from the one lamp lighting his face manically as he pounded keys. He didn't glance up.

"Hey there, buddy." He punctuated the words with the clicking of keys.

Will sat down on the stairs and watched Jared a moment, "Which one's this?"

"Becky," Jared said. A wolfish smirk decorated his face as he flicked the ash of his cigarette into the ashtray, "We're playing the total truth game."

"Oh, no," Will said shaking his head. "You know these online chat hook-ups are hit-or-miss; for all you know you could be talking to a 40-year-old biker with butt-less chaps and a taste for spankings."

Jared shrugged, "Better than nothing. She's asking me when the last time I had sex was."

"On that note..." Will said as he shook his head, "I'm going back upstairs, Marc's here..."

Jared glanced up from his typing, "That's the," he made a circular motion around his temple to indicate crazy.

Will shook his head, "Nothing like that,"

"Well, Brody's out, got himself a date with that ticket clerk he met when he got into the city; he said not to wait up."

Will nodded as he stood up and walked back up into the living room to find Marc had stretched out on the floor and was channel surfing.

* * *

They were curled up together at the foot of the couch, Marc wrestling the controller from him with a grin as he changed the channel, switching it to a channel that was displaying the best of classic British sitcoms.

Will groaned inwardly, Are You Being Served, played over and over and over ad nauseum. He'd seen them all and he reached to take the remote back, as Marc playfully held it up out of his grasp.

"No, I want to watch them," he said with a grin. "It helps me understand where you're from."

Will shuddered. "I'm not that kind of British..." he said, reaching for the remote again as Marc stuffed it up inside his shirt.

"You're going to have to go get it," he dared with a broad grin.

Will arched an eyebrow darting a hand in to grab for the remote, as Marc grabbed for his hand. Both laughed as they found themselves wrestling to get free and Marc, who had the advantage of leverage, pushed with his legs and Will slid over onto his back dragging the giggling Marc down with him.

Marc tore the remote free of his shirt and tried to hold it up out of Will's reach as Will poked Marc in the ribs causing the young man to lose his balance and fall across Will's stomach. The remote slid away from them both as Marc suddenly found his face inches away from Will's staring into those soft hazel eyes.

Jared wandered up the stairs and stopped in the doorway to the lounge; he surveyed the scene with one of his bemused looks that said he knew exactly what was going on, even when the people involved didn't. Both Will and Marc glanced at him.

Jared shrugged and shook his head, "Cool."

As he wandered his way into the kitchen, Marc turned to Will, "Roommate?"

Will nodded as he cocked his head to see through to the kitchen, "Jared this is Marc, Marc that's Jared."

"Nice to finally meet ya," Jared said towelling off his hands on a dishcloth and shaking Marc's hand. "Well kids, it's been fun, but I am gonna stumble my way to bed now. Don't stay up late, now." He chuckled to himself as he made his way upstairs leaving Will to look at Marc.

"He's right, it's like two am."

Marc nodded, "I should be getting home."

Will shrugged again, "Stay, we have a guest room. That way we don't have to go out in that cold."

Marc smiled, "Ow!"

"What?" Will asked in confusion, wondering where Marc had hurt himself.

"That was you twisting my rubber arm," Marc said as he settled back on the couch next to Will, but faced inwards so that their noses were close together.

"I can't kiss you," Marc said after a moment.

Will gave him an amused smile that was unexpected, "I wasn't asking you to..."

Marc wrestled with something mentally, his eyes dancing across Will's face, "You're not making it easy for me."

Will lay there still smirking, "I don't care." And he realized he meant it.

Marc sighed regretfully, "I want to, but I'm still going out with Libbet and I can't cheat on her."

"I understand that," Will said, acutely aware of how close Marc was to him; again, he simply didn't mind it. It was just nice to be that close to someone.

"Let's watch the TV," Marc said as he turned back to the screen.

Will shook his head in wonder at the strange guy as he wrapped an arm around Marc and drew him close, the two just watching the film and sharing a moment. It was when Marc turned back to him, and looked at him with those grey-blue eyes that Will knew he was in trouble. He opened his mouth to say something but fell silent just staring into the wide and fearful eyes that were looking at him, trying to search his eyes for answers to some hidden question.

"What do you see?" Will asked quietly, realizing his hand was now sitting on Marc's thigh. Marc's hand in turn was twisting in the folds of Will's shirt.

"I don't know," Marc said after a moment in frustration. "This isn't getting us anywhere."

"Then we should keep things strictly platonic," Will said, feeling the closeness between them as his fingers rose up to Marc's waistband where the shirt had become un-tucked, his fingers touching skin.

"How will we do that?" Marc said lifting his arm a little to allow Will's fingers under the shirt.

"Well," Will said blowing out a sigh, "We could forget about the attraction and act like it doesn't exist." His hand was now tracing a light pattern on the skin of Marc's back. "Just be friends."

"I like that idea," Marc said in a small voice, "but that won't work if you get much closer..."

"I know," Will said leaning in to kiss Marc gently.

Marc returned the gentle kiss, before he pulled back, "You, you can't do that..."

"I'm sorry," Will apologized, surprised when Marc swooped in for a kiss of his own, which he broke almost immediately.

"We just can't kiss each other whenever we want to." Marc took a deep breath and steadied himself, "What are we going to do?"

Will swallowed. "We just can't give in to it, we're adults, we can control our urges... you can control your urges, right?" he asked sounding faintly hopeful.

"I can," Marc said, "I sincerely hope. You know, I'd better get to bed. Nothing happened. Okay?" He stood up and adjusted himself to hide his fairly obvious excitement. "The bedroom's upstairs, right?"

Will smiled after him, "You know we're doomed, right?"

"Yes, I do..." Marc admitted hiding his smile.