Soft! (If you’re still open!) Steve and Billy learning each other’s preferences- like how they like their coffee or toast, or which way to fold clothes, or how they squeeze toothpaste out. REAL DOMESTIC SHIT TRACY I NEED IT
Lucas slid into the back seat of the Beemer and said hey to everyone. Steve and Dustin were up front and Dustin was arguing with Steve about coffee, of all things, because against everyone’s advice Dustin had discovered coffee and had opinions that apparently they all needed to hear.
Lucas did his best job to tune it all out, though, because Max was sitting with him in the back seat. He leaned over to give her a little kiss on the cheek.
Max ducked her head -- still adorable after a year of on-again, off-again dating. “Hey stalker.”
Max rolled her eyes, but still smiled.
“Did you get that research done for Kaminsky yet?” Lucas asked. “I tried like three different sources but-”
“What!” Dustin exclaimed at Steve, interrupting Lucas’s train of thought. His voice was high-pitched and growing hysterical. “Coffee with cream and sugar? That’s offsensive. I’m offended, Steve. I thought we were friends. How dare you besmirch coffee like that?”
Steve gestured wildly. “I don’t see the problem. Billy takes his with like, half a cup of half and half and like four tablespoons of sugar. It’s like drinking hot candy.”
Why does he know how Billy takes his coffee, was Lucas’s first thought.
“But what?” Max prompted.
“Huh?” Lucas returned his focus to her.
“What was wrong with your sources?”
“Oh. Uhm. Turns out they were unreliable and I couldn’t use them.”
Max turned in her seat to face him. “I can’t find an-y-thing on my topic. Maybe you could help me-”
“-and he hates mayo which I tried to get him to try like five times but he claims it’s disgusting,” Steve said to Dustin.
“Are you talking about Billy?” Lucas asked. He smelled something about this and had to follow through. “Billy doesn’t like mayo?”
Max looked affronted that he’d cut her off. He shot her an apologetic glance and nodded up at Steve.
“No, man. he hates the stuff.”
“Yeah? How does he fold his towels?”
Steve huffed. “He rolls them. Like in a pool or a spa, or something. All of these pretty neatly rolled towels. I’ve never seen any real person fold their towels like that.”
The hypothesis was so close that Lucas could smell it. “What about this tube of toothpaste?”
“I thought he was gonna be all super neat and fold up the tube from the bottom, like, after I saw how he does towels, but no. He squeezes it from the top like, like who does that?”
Lucas leaned forward a bit. “Pancakes?”
“With blueberries, syrup, and bacon.”
Max raised her eyebrow at him.
“Does he give you goodbye kisses?”
Lucas clapped his hands once, so pleased that his hypothesis proved true. “I knew it.”
Max and Dustin looked at him like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears. “Dude,” Dustin said. “You’re just now figuring this out? Seriously?”
“They’ve been together for like four months,” Max said. “How did you not know?”
Dustin laughed. “Oh my god, wow. They made out on your porch, dude. You didn’t know?”
“I hate you both,” Lucas said as Max and Dustin laughed.
Lucas leaned forward again and gripped Steve’s shoulder. “Good for you, man. You guys seem happy around each other, so. Cool.”
“Thanks,” Steve said. “You’re a pretty smart kid, Sinclair.”
