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New Bill S Preston Esq/Reader fic on my ao3! // kofi
You sighed and gathered up a pile of books that had been stacked haphazardly on a shelf they pretty clearly didn’t belong on. It was a rainy Sunday night and the bookstore you worked in was empty save for you, a few coworkers, and one regular. You had a half hour to go before close and you were champing at the bit to finally be able to go home. Your feet throbbed and ached as you walked and your back was screaming for the relief of being able to sit down. You reached up for your hair that you had wadded into a bun and began working it down from the knot you had forced it into, sighing when you began working it free and running your hands through it. Maybe you would take off your glasses and let everything be a smudge for a few minutes.
“Uh, excuse me, most bodacious book babe?”
You blink and turn around, ready to give a thinly veiled ‘fuck off’ response but you are stopped short by curly blonde hair, hooded blue green eyes, and a handmade crop top.
“Yeah?” You ask, hand still mindlessly threading through your hair, noticing the guy’s eyes follow your progress as you smile brightly and slip into customer service mode. “Do you need help finding anything?” You stop just short of saying ‘handsome’ and when the guy lights up in a huge grin you kick yourself for not saying it because this frankly adorable man deserves to hear it.
“I am Bill S Preston Esquire and this,” He steps aside and gestures to a second taller guy who you were comfortable ignoring in favor of keeping the guy named Bill in sight, “Is Ted “Theodore” Logan and we are in desperate need of your literary knowledge.”
You let out a little laugh at the phrasing and lean against the customer service counter. “Okay,” You reply moving to the computer and poising yourself to start searching for the book the duo is looking for. Bill comes over with Ted close behind and the former hands you a paper with a list of classic novels written surprisingly neatly.
“We both need a book and according to a most bogus rule we cannot have the same book.” Bill says looking a little distressed as he explains the situation to you.
“Fascists.” You remark, taking the page and smiling with half your mouth as Bill leans over you to look at the list. Some of the titles on the page had been marked out or highlighted, you figured the marked out ones must have been ones that were already taken while the highlighted ones were books Bill and Ted were more familiar with. You grinned, tapping two books that are highlighted. “Gatsby and Mockingbird.” You say, already turning around and making your way down the shelves, you can hear ‘Dude keep up!’ and feel Bill and Ted following quickly in your wake.
You stop to pull Gatsby first and then crouch down to get Mockingbird a few shelves further into the store. You look up just in time for Bill and Ted to come to a halt behind you. You reach for the shelf to pull yourself up to stand but are instead met by Bill’s hand. You look up and know you are blushing as you allow him to pull you up. He’s shorter than his friend but you are shorter than just about anyone and find yourself eye to clavicle with him. He has a very nice clavicle, you notice.
“Gatsby.” You say, handing it to Bill so you can have something to say and a reason to stop looking at his chest, “Set in the 1920’s has two movies based on it and is really easy to talk about.” You then step away from Bill, handing the copy of Mockingbird to Ted, “To Kill A Mockingbird is a classic and deals with race relations and classism, it has a movie and a play based on it as well as a graphic novel to make the reading a little easier if you are not a traditional book person.”
“Most excellent!” Ted cried, doing what looking like an air guitar at Bill who did one back. Oh man these two were damn cute. Ted then stopped and looked at the book in his hand, you were familiar with the look on his face, the one that said ‘I got this book too late and cannot possibly do a report on it now’. “You, uh, don’t happen to have anything that would make reading more simplistic for two rock stars such as ourselves, do you?”
You grin and look back at Bill who is also looking at his admittedly thinner book with similar trepidation. “You two didn’t really think I would send you home without sparknotes, did you?”
The relief that washed across their faces made your toes curl in delight and Bill looked at you with the brightest grin you had ever seen, “You are truly the most bodacious and non-heinous book babe!”
You flush and reach to tie your hair back to give yourself something to do with your hands.
“Oh.”
You look at Bill who is frowning now. And god damn if you wouldn’t do anything in your power to keep him from ever making that face again.
“It looks most excellent down. Your hair.” Bill stopped when he felt Ted looking at him and all of a sudden he was a shade of red that matched your own blush, “Not that, uh, you can’t put it up. It is your hair and your choice and I can’t make a choice for you, your body your rules and… yeah.”
You stare at him. He stares at you. Ted is looking between the two of you like he can’t decide who deserves his cheesy grin more.
“So Sparknotes are in the test prep section and are organized alphabetically by title,” You say and turn, your face burning from embarrassment as you lead the two boys behind you, “If you’ll follow me.” the walk wasn’t long but you were extremely aware of the silent argument happening behind you and you chose not to pull the books immediately and instead simply gesture to the shelves and duck the fuck out.
You are back at the customer service desk, your head dipped down as your try to sort the books and keep your ears focused on the music being piped into the store and not the sounds of Bill and Ted still in the Sparknotes section. You had been flirted with in the store before. It normally didn’t go well because the men were old enough to be your father. According to a manager who had resigned in disgrace it was your fault because you knew about Star Wars. Then again, you weren’t totally sure that what had happened with Bill was flirting… maybe he was just another guy who wanted to make sure you knew he was Woke.
Bill didn’t seem like that.
“Uh, uh, most bodacious book babe?”
You willed the blush down and looked up at Bill who was standing in front of you like he wanted very badly to bolt.
“Did you need anything else, sir?” You ask, biting down a grin when you saw his face curl at the word ‘sir’.
“No, well, yes.” He opened his mouth and then closed it, his ears going red, “Do… do we check out here?”
You allowed yourself to visibly deflate and shook your head, “Head up front, Del will take care of you up there.”
“E-excellent.” He mumbled and made his way up front, Ted wasn’t behind him, you figured he must have already made his way up front and sighed as you reached to tie up your hair again and start sorting the books as you heard the door close.
Then open.
Then close.
Then open.
You looked away from your books, ready to level the new customer with a look that very clearly said ‘we are nearly closed can you kindly fuck off?’ but instead you watched as Bill hustled down the length of the store and staggered to a halt in front of you, holding out a piece of paper.
“You are an exceptionally bodacious and intelligent babe and I would be most humbled if you would do me the honor of going on a date with me.” Bill announced, too loud and too nervous to be anything but adorable.
You accept the folded piece of paper and regard it like you aren’t collapsing from excitement on the inside. Leaning against the customer service counter and looking up past his very nice clavicle and into his anxiety filled hooded blue green eyes you smile.
“Most excellent.”
He hits you with that smile that shame the sun and rocks that goofy air guitar before leaning in to kiss your forehead and go bouncing off and out the door. “Good night book babe!” He yells when he reached the door and waves back at you, Ted doing his own air guitar on the sidewalk outside.
You smile and reach to touch your forehead. What weird, adorable, boys.