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Steve nearly drops the water he’d just poured himself when he turns around to see Billy leaning in the doorway of the kitchen.
“Take that thing off.” he says, closing his eyes as they roll softly, shaking his head. Glass of water now abandoned on the countertop. “Where’d you even find that anyway?”
Billy clicks his tongue and pushes off from where he’s standing with his hip against the door frame. He’s wearing Steve’s ratty old Scoops Ahoy hat and looking rather smug about it. Steve can’t believe the thing even still exists, could’ve sworn it got thrown in the trash a few years ago when he’d been packing up for California.
“I was digging around in the closet looking for an old book to give Max and found this conveniently stuck right underneath it,” Billy saunters closer, reaching out a hand to run his knuckles softly over the worn material of his shirt. “Got me thinking of all those hot summer nights picking you up after the mall closed…” He’s trailing off, crinkling the fabric of Steve’s shirt between his fingers now and pulling a bit.
And Steve remembers. Does he ever. Like it was just yesterday and not years ago now.
He remembers ducking out the side exit of Starcourt after shift and Robin’s fond looks as she headed in the opposite direction. Remembers the rumble of the Camaro idling in the faint pink and blue of the neon lights that wrapped high around the top of the building. Thinks about sliding into the passenger seat and his lips on Billy’s before he’d even closed the door behind him. Steve’s cheeks burn a little at the memory of Billy pulling away only a couple inches to look down at the stupid blue and white uniform with half lidded eyes and say ‘hey, sailor’, lips curling up devilishly.
Billy pulls him back into the present when he steps right up into his space, arm sliding over his shoulder easily. He’s got this look on his face like maybe he wants to eat him alive.
“Also had me thinking about all those slow, cold nights in the fall after I started working at the Sam Goody next door. Nobody interested in ice cream or the cute brunette behind the counter except me.” Billy tilts his head up just a fraction to look at Steve through his lashes. “And you’d let me steal cherries from the little dish when Buckley was on break.”
“I think I remember you helping yourself to those even when Robin was looking, too.” There’s a soft smile on Steve’s lips and his eyes are crinkling a little at the corners.
Billy laughs a bit and brings his arm down so he can wrap his hand around the nape of Steve’s neck, thumb rubbing little circles behind his ear. The stupid sailor hat is still balanced on top of his curls and Steve can’t help but bring his hand up, tug it down a little. It’s a good excuse to get his fingers in Billy’s hair, push a few pieces behind his ear. He didn’t expect something so small to make him feel so sentimental.
Looking into Billy’s eyes, he’s pulling his bottom lip between his teeth a bit while he thinks of that last year in Hawkins. Before they packed up and headed for the hills. Thinks of all the times they left somewhere in separate cars but ended up together at Steve’s giant empty house. In Steve’s bed. Countless late nights passing a joint between them next to the open window, staring out at the glow from the pool and the dark woods, silence wrapping around them heavy like a duvet. Kissing soft and slow like they had all the time in the world, knowing Billy would have to leave before the first rays of sun even crested the tops of the trees.
He can feel his chest tighten a little when Billy brings his hand around to cup his cheek, using the pad of his thumb to loosen Steve’s lip from his teeth. It’s as if just thinking about who they were back then, just a couple of idiot kids, has his body reacting the same way it did when this was all brand new. Like Billy hasn’t looked at him like this a thousand times, hasn’t held him with this tenderness every day since. Steve’s drowning in his eyes, sucking in deep, slow breaths that bump their chests together on the inhale.
“You hated that job so much, baby.” Billy’s got his other hand up at the small of Steve’s back now, tucked under his shirt at the waist of his pants, fingers stroking gently at the soft skin there. “But I’ll never forget how sweet your lips were that time you faked me out for the sample of mint chip,” he bumps their noses together softly. “and I leaned over the counter to steal a taste off your lips.”
A soft noise tumbles out of Steve and he presses in to finally seal their mouths together. He wants to melt into Billy, be so close that they’re almost one. He settles for snaking both arms around his back and pulling him in tight. He tilts his head and slots their mouths together to deepen the kiss, eating up any space left between them.
Head swimming with so many memories, Steve can feel all of this love between them so intensely.
Billy scratches his fingers softly through the hair at Steve’s neck and pulls away just the smallest amount, but it’s enough to make sure he catches his eyes.
“I felt so lucky to love you then, y’know?” Billy breathes it out like a whisper. All his playfulness seemingly forgotten for the moment. “I feel so damn lucky to be loved by you now.”
And Steve goes so easy then, turns a little mushy in the centre and leans down to fit his face in the space where Billy’s shoulder meets his neck. Almost feels shy at admission like it’s the first time he’s hearing the words. He breathes Billy in, fills his lungs until he feels like they could burst.
When he pulls back and locks their eyes once more, he’s struck, not for the first time, by the weight of his devotion to Billy.
“God… I’m so in love with you that it sometimes doesn’t feel real.” He draws his brows together a bit and smiles small when Billy breaks out in a soft grin. “The people we’ve become under the safety of each other? This life we’ve created together because of it?” Steve shakes his head again and Billy threads his fingers through the crown of his hair, pulling him back to the crook of his neck.
“I’m glad I kept you around, pretty boy.” Steve can feel the smile in his words even if he can’t see it.
Billy sneaks his hand out from where it’s kept warm beneath Steve’s shirt and pulls the sailor hat off his head, tucks it into the back pocket of Steve’s jeans.
They stand there in the warmth of the sun pouring through the kitchen window for a while longer.