hello!!! i havent written fanfic 4 ages but ive been struck by the harringrove bug so. so. softball coaches au? where billy is an ex baseball player and steve gets roped into it by max bc she teaches some of the girls 🥺
Yay for Harringrove bugs! It's okay to take breaks from your hobbies. I call myself an artist even though I -maybe- make one thing a year haha
Baseball is super rough on joints so maybe Billy's a pitcher (he's chunky 💗so no one expected it in the beginning of his career) but he couldn't afford to get the fancy Tommy John Surgery for his elbow, so there went his chances at a longer career.
Billy begins to pick up some of his old habits of doing WAY too many things at the same time (drinking, smoking, music, tv, and lifting weights at the same time, you know), so Max ropes him into being an assistant coach for her softball team. He whines the entire time. Softball pitches are weird. Why is the ball bigger when a girl can hit the same damn sized ball?
Thing is, girls are nicer to each other than boys are. On teams, men are encouraged to develop family dynamics, but there's constant ribbing, and in the big leagues, a team is a business. And that hovers over everyone's heads like a doom cloud raining on occupational longevity.
But here, the girls bring spare socks and hair ties for each other. As well as other stuff that Billy, the man of the group, respectfully looks away from.
And yeah, that one player who has a bossy streak to rival Billy's is a loudmouth who needs to chill the hell out, but. Well. Maybe that's why Max bullied him into this. Billy can spot the "problem kids" a mile away.
Team Nights are movie nights for bonding and, admittedly, to cut the players' free time in half so they don't have enough time to get bored and get themselves into trouble. Frankly, during away games, they are their own horde of chaos, but again: Billy. He keeps them in check faster than Max. Which is a blessing because Max's anger is really something to behold.
Enter: Steve. Baby-sitter extraordinaire and now a full-time nanny for like 4 families. Two of which have teenagers on the team, so he drops them off and picks them up from the Team Nights -
And Billy becomes very distracted.
"A male nanny can't be straight, right?"
Max's eyes rolled in her kitchen while stirring in seasoning into the massive pot of popcorn. "I think you're praying for some kind of stereotype. Or you're thirsty for a husband, finally."
Fast forward to the team winning some big State championship. Max and Billy get raises to their paychecks, and it turns out that one Steve Harrington is extremely bisexual and gets paid very well.
He pays for Billy's elbow surgery. Technically, he doesn't need it anymore, but he still uses his body a lot. Their first date probably involved Billy using the speedometer to show off his pitches, therein injuring himself and activating Steve's over protectiveness.
Billy's definitely thirsty for a husband. And he gets one. It's not so bad, retiring to be a part-time sugar hubby.
