why is that so big? I love it! A fic I’ve reread several times is… well many of them. I love rereading fic. It’s such a comfort thing for me. But I’m going to shout out the Only Time series (QAF) because it is so pitch perfect and post canon so it has become canon to me.
🛳️
A fic that brought me aboard a new ship… well sometimes a girl slides into @eliooliver83 ‘s DMs and says, explain this hockey thing to me like I’m a child and she responds with a bunch of information and fic recommendations that are definitely not suitable for children and one of them is how to cherish your own shadow and now I’m still very confused by hockey and how the fandom works but I am very much aboard the tknp ship.
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A fic I wish I could read again for the first time. Oh. That is without a doubt Your Name Like a Boat (ofmd) which takes the trope of soulmate marks and turns it into the most delicious and beautiful story that… I just cannot. There is a bit of a twist at the end (which is why I wish I could read it for the first time) and it just took my heart and wrung it out in the very best way. I’ve reread it a bunch but the first time was a bit magical.
Game I'm currently playing: I'm on a bit of a roll through surreal fantastical games. I just finished my 478373738th run through of Journey (the most beautiful game in existence) and am now playing through Rime, which is a criminally underrated game that I've heard almost no one talk about. The story is heartbreaking but beautiful (and I can't say more than that to not spoil the ending) and the graphics/art style is incredible. If you ever need a game to play, please play this one!
Snack I can't get enough of: potato chips! I have NO self control if you put a bowl of sour cream and onion or sweet chilli chips in front of me. If you offer me chocolate, I'll have a single piece and be good for the day, but chips and a can of ice cold Coca Cola? *Chef's kiss* it doesn't get any better than that for me.
Hello lovely! May I request : 47. "Sex seems like so much work. Like I don't want to wash my sheets that often, thanks." for the ace prompts please? Xx
Sorry this took so long, and also I don’t even know what this is but you can also read it on AO3 because it turned out longer than I had anticipated.
***
The kids were visiting for the weekend. The whole gang – Dustin, Lucas, Mike, Will, El, Max, and Dustin’s new girlfriend (who Steve kept forgetting the name of but who giggled at Dustin’s jokes and thus proved that she was good enough for him). Only, they weren’t really kids anymore, were they? At 18 and 19, they took up so much more space than Steve had anticipated. The apartment that he and Billy shared wasn’t the largest one to begin with, and with seven lanky teenagers staying with them, it felt more than a little crowded when they were all crammed in there. Luckily, they weren’t really interested in staying in a lot. Or, as Dustin put it:
“Come on, we’re in the big city now, are you guys telling me you’d rather stay inside this shitty apartment, than going out and see the sights?”
Steve had ignored him calling their apartment ‘shitty’ in favor of getting them out of there, because Billy’s shoulders were tense and he was starting to look like he was going to explode if he didn’t get some peace and quiet soon. So Steve appointed himself tour guide and took the kids out for the rest of the day.
And evening.
They didn’t actually make it back until the middle of the night, because Steve lost half of them after dinner, and when he finally herded all of them over the threshold of the apartment at 45 minutes past midnight, all of them but Will and El had somehow managed to get drunk (including Steve). There was a lot of giggling and stumbling, and Steve had to forcibly move Dustin and his sleeping bag to the other side of the couch when he tried to sneak into his girlfriend’s sleeping bag.
Steve gave up on trying to get them to sleep twenty minutes in, and left them in the living room in favor of sneaking into the bedroom and closing the door behind him. Billy was still awake, sitting with his back to the headboard, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.
“Please don’t tell me you got my sister drunk.”
Steve froze. “Uh, okay.”
“Steve …”
“I didn’t! She managed that on her own, thank you.”
“Steve.”
“With a little help from what’s-her-name, Dustin’s girlfriend. That girl is crafty.”
“Are you drunk?”
“… no?”
Billy patted the spot next to him, and Steve unfroze and got in the bed. He put his head on the pillow and looked up at Billy while smothering a yawn. “I’m beat. Were we really this bad when we were their age?”
Billy huffed. “’Their age’, you do realize that that was just a few years ago, right? And yeah we were. Worse, probably. You know, I remember hearing all these stories about how King Steve used to party, before I showed up …”
“Lies”, Steve said and burrowed deeper into the pillow. “Lies and slander.”
Billy laid down on his own pillow, and turned off the beside lamp before putting his arm over Steve’s chest. “Uhuh. Sure. Says the guy who comes home smelling like a distillery.”
“Not my fault. Lucas spilled a beer on me.”
“Sure he did. Go to sleep. Oh, and if any of them puke, I’m not cleaning it up.”
***
No one puked, at least not without cleaning it up themselves, and when Steve woke up around ten am – bleary-eyed and with his hair sticking out in all directions – he found the others spread out in the kitchen and the living room, having breakfast and bouncing back from hangovers the way only teenagers can. Billy caught his eye from across the kitchen and wordlessly held out a cup of coffee.
“Oh my god I love you.”
“I know.”
“That’s a Star Wars reference!” Dustin cheered from the table, pointing excitedly at Billy. “I knew you watched them!”
Billy shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, kid.”
“Sure you don’t”, Steve muttered under his breath, causing Billy to glare at him warningly. Steve grinned into his cup.
“So, what are we doing today? There’s this exhibit that –“
And just like that, Steve’s grin turned into a grimace, and he groaned. Billy glanced at him and nudged him with his shoulder.
“Don’t worry”, he said, quietly. “I’ll take today’s shift.”
***
Billy took the kids to whatever exhibit Lucas had been ranting about, and Steve took a shower and a two-hour nap on the couch before Dustin called from a payphone and woke him up, asking him to join them for lunch. Feeling a bit more like himself, Steve agreed, and met up with the others forty minutes later at a little restaurant four blocks from the apartment.
The kids had already made plans for the rest of the day (the girls had decided that since they had just spent hours at a boring museum, the afternoon was for browsing stores), and Billy loudly declared that if they wanted to go shopping, they’d have to go by themselves damn it, and dinner was at seven.
When they broke up after lunch, he and Billy walked the kids to a bus stop that would take them downtown, and told them to be back before dark. Or at least, you know, ten pm. Or eleven.
“Okay mom”, Mike drawled and rolled his eyes just as the bus showed up.
Everyone got on – except for Will. He was hesitating and squirming a bit, and at the last second he said “I don’t feel too good, actually, I think I’m gonna head back with Steve and Billy. But you guys have fun!”
The rest of them complained, but the bus driver put an end to it by resolutely shutting the doors and driving off. Not until then did Will turn to Steve and Billy, looking a little guilty.
“I mean. I don’t have to stay with you guys if you wanna be alone. I can … take a walk, or –“
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Steve said, throwing his arm around the boy (who was as tall as he was now – maybe even taller if you didn’t count the hair – which was honestly insane). “If you’re not feeling well, you should get some rest.”
Will ducked his head and didn’t meet his eyes. “I’m fine. I just didn’t … I didn’t want to go with them right now.”
“No?” Steve met Billy’s eyes over Will’s head. “Why not?”
Will shrunk even more. “I don’t know. Didn’t feel like it.”
“Well, guess it’s just the three of us for the afternoon, then!” Billy said and clapped him on the back. “Which is good, because that means you can help me prepare for dinner. Steve’s hopeless in the kitchen.”
“Hey”, Steve protested.
“It’s okay, babe”, Billy said and pressed a quick kiss to his temple. “You have other redeeming qualities.”
***
When they got back to the apartment, Billy announced he was going to take a shower first and left Steve and Will to clean up after breakfast (after a significant look at Steve, who had stayed home for hours and apparently should have done the dishes already). Will was all too happy to help, and he chatted excitedly with Steve as he dried the plates. It was a stark contrast, Steve thought, to last night and this morning, when Will had been subdued and quiet.
“So, hey”, he said, once they’d put the last of the plates away. “What’s up?”
Will looked away, suddenly finding a cupboard very interesting. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, why would you want to spend time in this shitty apartment – Dustin’s words, not mine – instead of spending time with your friends, enjoying the big city?”
Shrugging, Will walked past him into the living room and ran his finger over a row of books on a shelf. “I don’t know, I … It’s not like I don’t want to spend time with them. I just …” He picked a book, seemingly at random, and plopped down on the couch. “They can be a lot.”
Steve chuckled and sat down beside him, leaving enough space between them that he could pull a leg up and stretch out. “They sure can. But they’ve always been like that. What’s changed?”
Will was leafing through the book, but not reading it. He was quiet for a long time, but Steve waited patiently.
“It’s just …” He took a deep breath. “Mike and El are disgustingly in love, all the time, and now Dustin’s with Hannah, and, like, Max totally made out with some random guy last night and Lucas got all upset about it, and they yelled at each other for a while, and then they made out – and they’re not even together anymore, you know? And it’s just …” He stared down at the book in his lap. “It’s a lot.”
Steve nodded slowly, taking a deep breath. “And you feel … left out?”
Will gave a one-shouldered shrug and didn’t look up.
“Don’t … Don’t worry about that, shit. You’re young, you’ll find someone too, just gi–“
“But that’s the thing!” Will exclaimed and stood up, book in hand. “I don’t want to!”
Steve looked up at him. “You … what?”
“I don’t … I don’t want to find someone. I don’t want … that.”
Steve stared. “’That’?”
Will took a deep breath and for a second he was eyeing the door as if he was going to make a run for it, but then he deflated and sat back down. “Some … woman … tried to kiss me last night.”
“What? When?”
“When I was waiting in line for the bathroom. She stumbled into me and tried to …” Will trailed off and grimaced. “I pushed her away and ran outside.”
Steve sat up and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. You should have said something, we would have gone home.”
“We did, like ten minutes later. But the point is that … I told Lucas, and he hi-fived me.” Will looked up, miserably. “He doesn’t know.”
“Know what?”
Will glanced at the door to the bathroom, which was still closed. “Lucas and Dustin, they don’t know anything. Mike, he thinks I’m …” He bit his lip. “He thinks I’m like you guys. But I’m not.”
“How so?”
“I don’t want … a girlfriend or a boyfriend. I don’t want anyone. I just want things to be the way they’ve always been, but the others, they keep finding each other, and it’s like they’re … they’re growing up, or whatever, and I’m not. It’s like they’re …” His voice cracked. “It’s like they’re leaving me behind. Going somewhere I can’t follow. Or, someplace I don’t want to go.”
Steve was squeezing his shoulder now, and scooting closer. “Hey, hey. They’re not leaving you behind, and you are growing up. Just … at a different pace.”
“I’m not”, Will said and allowed himself to be pulled into a half-hug. “I won’t ever want that.”
“It’s okay”, Steve said. “And, just to be clear; when you say ‘that’, do you mean, like, sex?”
Will’s voice was muffled by his own sleeve when he answered. “… yeah.”
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“It’s not. You don’t get it.”
Steve huffed out a laugh. “Well, you’re right about that.”
Something in his voice must have caught Will’s attention, because he sat up straight and frowned. Before he got a chance to speak though, Steve continued. “I don’t get it, because I don’t … you know. Get it. Get it?” He nodded expectantly, waiting for a reaction, but sighed and dragged his hand through his hair – giving up on explaining what was supposed to be a joke when Will’s face did something complicated. “Listen, Will, I think Mike’s onto something. You may be more like us than you think. Or, at least more like … one of us.”
Will sat back, still frowning. “W-what?”
Now it was Steve’s turn to glance at the bathroom door. “Okay, so I totally shouldn’t talk to you about this because you’re just a kid –“
“I’m eighteen.”
“Yeah, you’re a baby. But listen, me and Billy? We’re together, sure, but we haven’t been together in that way for, I don’t know, probably like six months now? And before that, it was even longer.”
Will looked even more confused, and Steve bit his lip in frustration. “We haven’t had sex in half a year. Okay? Because … well honestly, because Billy’s a lot like you in that regard, and it doesn’t do much for him. I guess. So we don’t … we don’t really …”
Will wet his lips. “You … you don’t? But I thought –“
“You thought what? That we were fucking like bunnies?” At this, Will’s face turned red and Steve made an apologetic face. “Sorry.”
“But you flirt all the time! And, like, kiss and stuff …”
“Yeah”, Steve said and leaned back in the couch. “We do. And Billy likes that as much as I do, and he’s good at it.” He nodded pointedly. “I mean, he’s very good at it. But …”
The bathroom door banging open made both Steve and Will jump and turn towards Billy, who was waltzing out of the bathroom with only a towel around his waist, scarred torso on display.
“But that’s all I want to do”, he finished and turned to Steve. “Did you use my toothbrush this morning?”
“… uh, no?”
“Well, someone did. I swear I’m gonna kill those kids.” He caught Will’s eye from where he was sitting in the couch, gaping. “Not you. You get a pass, for having good taste.”
He walked over to Steve and kissed him on the top of his head, before pushing him out of his seat. “Move it, Byers and I are gonna have a talk.”
“Put on some clothes first, maybe? You really want to talk to the kid half-naked?”
“So what?”
“It’s inappropriate!”
“Says the guy who was just discussing his sex life with a kid.”
Will raised a finger. “I’m still eighteen.”
“Pfft, whatever”, Billy said and jumped over the back of the couch to take Steve’s newly vacated spot. “Hey babe, if it bothers you so much, why don’t you go find me something pretty to wear.” He made a kissy face at Steve as Steve rolled his eyes and left, and then he turned his attention to Will.
“I heard most of what you guys talked about.” Will gulped, and his eyes widened, but Billy just waved it away. “And basically, yeah. We don’t really fuck. ‘Cause I … I don’t really want to, and ‘cause Steve’s a …” His voice softened a fraction. “Steve’s a really good person.”
“You don’t …” Will didn’t seem to know what to ask, so Billy continued.
“Besides, sex is so much work. Like, I don't want to wash my sheets that often, thanks.” He gave a wry smile and splayed out in the couch, getting comfortable. “Seriously though, I never really wanted it either, before. Don’t get me wrong, I fucked around when I was a teenager, because … well, because of a lot of things. But it was miserable, and now I wish I hadn’t. It would have saved me a lot of grief. And then, after the whole –“ He gestured vaguely at his own chest. “– you know, thing, I really didn’t want to be touched for a while. And Steve was there, and we got together, and he respected that, and it must have been a year before we even held hands. And we still haven’t … Well, let’s just say that there are a lot of things that we simply don’t … do.”
Will was listening, looking like he hardly dared to breathe. “But Steve said you, he said six months since you …”
Billy made a face and waved his hand around. “There are a lot of things you can do without … doing the do, if you know what I mean.”
“He does not know what you mean”, Steve said as he walked out of the bedroom, holding a bundle of clothes in his hands. “And you’re not gonna corrupt him with details about our sex life. Or lack thereof.”
“You started this!”
“And I’m gonna finish it”, Steve said and threw the clothes in Billy’s face. “Put on some goddamned clothes, you can’t cook if you’re naked.”
Billy laughed. “Sure I can. It’s not like the kid’s gonna want to jump me, as we have just established.”
Steve groaned. “Oh my god, you’re the worst.”
“You love me”, Billy said, grinning knowingly.
Steve held out for a few seconds, before giving in and sighing. “God help me, I do.” Then he turned to Will. “So, anyway; whatever you’re feeling, you’re not alone. You don’t really need sex to be happy with someone. And while I might be … well, more into the sex thing than Billy is, and while he sometimes indulges me, even though he doesn’t care for it –“
“You’re making it sound like I’m sacrificing myself for you, pretty boy.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Well, that is kinda what you do.”
Billy threw up his hands and gave a deep sigh before starting to pull on a T-shirt. Then he turned to Will. “Look, it’s like vacuuming. It doesn’t give me anything, I don’t like it, it’s not like I’m looking forward to it, but it’s also not like it hurts, and I’ll do it for Steve. Sometimes. Because he likes vacuuming, for some reason. You know?”
Will nodded, still not speaking. Steve took the opportunity to go into protective mother hen mode. “But just because Billy does that, it doesn’t mean that you should ever let anyone talk you into it if you’re not sure you wanna do it. And I mean really sure, okay? If you don’t ever wanna have sex, you shouldn’t do it. Ever. It’s all up to you, and no one else gets to tell you what to do, no matter who they are. Okay?”
“Uh, okay.”
“Good. Now, onto more urgent matters; when the hell did Max make out with that random guy yesterday? Because I feel like I would have noticed that happening.”
“It was while you were chasing Dustin through the park because he stole that street sign.”
Billy looked up from where he was pulling on sweatpants, and glared at Steve. “Wait, hang on, Max did what?”
Steve held up his hands in defense. “Don’t be mad, I didn’t do anything!”
“You damn well should have, she’s my sister!”
Will looked between the two of them, a confused smile on his face, which grew into an uncharacteristically wicked grin when he added, “Then she made out with Lucas”.
Billy froze. “Again? The little shit, I’m gonna kill him …”
