Work Text:
“I’m home!” Steve called through the apartment, moving to hang his coat on the hook by the door and stumbling a little when his foot clipped a haphazardly discarded boot, cursing under his breath.
Honestly, how many times did he have to tell Billy not to leave them in the middle of the doorway? Even Eddie managed to at least kick his heavy combat boots near to the wall when he got in, so Steve didn’t almost break his toes every time he walked into the apartment. It seemed he was the only one able to actually use their shoe rack for its intended purpose in their relationship.
With a sigh, Steve grabbed Billy’s boots and stacked them alongside his own sneakers. He noted that Eddie’s boots weren’t in their usual position, so figured he was probably staying late at the tattoo parlour. Perhaps Steve could get him to pick up some Thai for dinner on his way home?
Steve had only made it a few steps further in, thinking about whether he felt more like Pad See Ew or something spicier tonight, before he noticed something else laying on the floor. It was a light grey oil-stained hoodie. And a few feet from that, crumpled into a pile, was Eddie’s new Metallica t-shirt. Billy had stolen it earlier that morning, despite Eddie’s complaints that he was going to stretch the shoulders out again. Steve frowned.
While the discarded shoes were a common occurrence, Billy didn’t often leave his clothes lying about in the main living spaces. He at least managed to throw them into the corner of their bedroom that had been relegated to dirty clothing (none of them had thought to buy a washing basket when they moved in together, and a year later it seemed they never would. Why fix what wasn’t broken, right?). If Eddie had been home too, Steve might have thought that they had just got caught up in each other and would be looking forward to either catching them in the act or joining them for the aftermath. But given Eddie’s missing shoes, it seemed Billy was home alone.
The house was just a little too cool for him to be walking around naked like he sometimes did, so the fact that Billy hadn’t even made it to the bedroom before stripping down gave Steve pause. Steve flicked on the thermostat on his way past, noting it hadn’t been turned on yet (that explained the cold) and adding another point in the ‘something’s up’ column.
“Billy?” Steve questioned into the silence, picking up the clothing as he walked and stooping to grab the jeans and as he came to them, the boxers tucked up inside. He still hadn’t got any response from Billy, and Steve wasn’t able to hear any noises coming from deeper in the apartment. Unbidden, Steve increased his speed a little, a small flutter of anxiety starting up in his gut.
Billy wasn’t in the living slash kitchen area when Steve entered, the quick glance through the room showing no signs of the apparently naked blonde. His phone was sitting on the coffee table though, the keys to his Camaro resting on top of the screen.
That settled it, Billy was definitely home, and something was definitely wrong.
Billy never went anywhere without his phone. He was almost perpetually attached to the thing, to the point that he even took it with him to the bathroom (much to Steve’s disgust). The fact that it was sitting out on the coffee table while Billy wasn’t even in the same room? Big red flag right there.
Now that Steve was thinking it, Billy hadn’t been sending nearly as many dumb memes to their group chat this afternoon as he usually did. Steve had just assumed it had got busy at the auto-shop and had put it out of his mind. Now he was beginning to think there might have been a reason for Billy’s uncharacteristic quietness.
Given that their apartment only had one bedroom and bathroom, none of them feeling the need to pay for anything bigger when they didn’t need it, Steve didn’t have many other places left to look. He dropped his own phone and keys down onto the coffee table next to Billy’s, dumping the discarded clothes there as well, and made his way to their bedroom, sped even further by his worry now that he knew there was something going on with his boyfriend.
Billy wasn’t on the bed when Steve entered their room, so Steve was about to turn towards the bathroom to check there when a movement from the corner caught his eye.
The weather had turned colder and wetter as of late, and Billy, Eddie and Steve hadn’t felt much like walking the block across to the laundromat through the rain. So, they had been scraping the bottoms of their cupboard until the trip could no longer be avoided (somehow this had seemed more reasonable to them than just using Billy’s car to avoid getting wet). Steve was down to his last pair of boxers, and he was pretty sure that Eddie had stolen one of Billy’s last pairs this morning because he’d run out a few days ago. As such, their dirty clothes pile had grown especially large over the last two weeks.
It was this pile of clothes that had caught Steve’s attention now. At first, he thought he’d imagined it. Just a trick of the eye in his peripheral vision, probably caused by a long day in his contacts. But as Steve turned towards the pile of dirty clothes, inspecting it a little closer, he saw it happen again. It was small, barely visible unless he really focused, but Steve could swear that the pile was rising and falling… Almost like breathing.
Well, Steve thought, that answers the question of where Billy was.
Even more telling than a breathing pile of clothes though, now that Steve was looking for it he could see the ginger and white fur littering the garments in little tufts. It wasn’t uncommon for there to be a fine layer of fur over most of their apartment at any time, but it had been long enough since Billy’s last shift that they hadn’t needed to lint-roll their clothing nearly as often in the past few weeks. Now the pile of clothing was covered in fur.
Steve stepped up and crouched down beside the clothes. Reaching out, he shifted a few fur-covered shirts out of the way. As he did, a low warning rumble started up from inside the pile. Rather than letting it deter him, Steve used the sound to direct himself towards where he guessed Billy’s head was located.
After a few moments of searching, Steve pulled a soft green knit off the pile that he was pretty sure he’d borrowed from Robin last month and finally uncovered the edge of an orange ear. Smiling a little, Steve brushed his fingers lightly over the soft fur, causing the ear to flick in annoyance at the touch. The growling got a little louder.
“Hey there, kitten. Bad day?” Steve moved to sit more comfortably cross-legged next to the pile, digging his hand a little deeper into space he’d exposed until his fingers were buried in the fur at the top of Billy’s big head. He then slid them down, following the bridge between Billy’s eyes until he slipped over his nose and reached Billy’s mouth, where his lips were pulled back from his sharp teeth in warning. Unconcerned by the objectively terrifying sounds that Billy was making, Steve proceeded to stick a few of his fingers into that snarling jaw.
Billy’s growling immediately came to a halt, stuttering out with a choked noise that sounded affronted. Just like Steve knew he would, Billy started to suckle on the fingers, as if he couldn’t help himself. Billy’s oral fixation in his human body translated across to his tiger form, and Steve knew exactly how to take advantage of that fact. The eye that Steve could see peering through the fabric gap looked baleful. Billy knew what Steve had done, but he was allowing it. Billy as a tiger was a lot more accommodating than Billy as a man, that was for sure.
Now that Steve had effectively stopped his boyfriend’s protests, he took the time to take in what he could see of Billy, using his free hand to expose more of his furry body. Billy had buried himself as far as he could into their dirty clothes, and Steve was pretty sure that was a wet patch he could see on the front of a pair of dirty boxers under Billy’s golden chin. He’d probably been licking at them for comfort. Chances were they had been worn by both Steve and Eddie at some point before they’d made it to this pile.
“Do you want to change back and tell me why you’re upset and are trying to bury yourself alive in our laundry, or…?”
Now that Steve could see all of Billy, it was clear that he was upset. Even snuggled up surrounded by the musky scent of their mixed clothes, Billy was abnormally tense. The thick striped muscles across his shoulders and flank were bulging from how clenched up he was, and the tip of his tail was shifting some shorts up-and-down with its metronome motions. His claws were even nudged out from their sheaths, digging into the carpet underneath him. Steve thought he was probably pulling at the threads… yeah, they were definitely not going to get their deposit back on this place when they eventually moved out. Damn.
Billy seemed to be thinking Steve’s question over for a long time. The rough scrape of his tongue on the pads of Steve’s fingers was starting to hurt, but it seemed to be helping slightly so Steve figured he could hold out a bit longer before there was actually a risk of Billy’s tongue taking off skin. After a few more minutes of near silence, the only sounds in the room being the wet suckling coming from his boyfriend and the shuffle of clothing, Billy let out a quiet huff and his body made the shift between animal back to human, sitting naked on his knees in the middle of the pile, legs still tangled in the clothes.
Steve’s fingers were still in Billy’s mouth after the change, more tightly packed due to the smaller and softer space. Some drool had escaped at the edges, leaving Billy’s mouth shiny and red. Billy gave Steve’s fingers one last suck before he reached up to pull his hand back by the wrist. He pressed a kiss to the red-raw digits before dropping Steve’s hand, wiping the back of his own over his wet lips and chin. Steve could feel how his own expression had turned sappy at the affectionate gesture; Billy was always so much gentler and more honest straight after a shift, and Steve and Eddie often treasured those moments where they could get Billy to be so open with them.
“Hey,” Billy murmured, his voice thick and rumbling as it usually was after he’d spent any time in his other form. Now changed back, Steve could also see the tension in Billy’s face, his eyebrows furrowed in an unhappy line. Even more concerned, Steve reached out and cupped Billy’s cheeks, brushing the pads of his thumbs against them and uncaring that he was spreading some of Billy’s spit against his face and neck.
“Billy, are you okay? Did something happen?”
Billy shook his head between Steve’s hold, shutting his eyes and taking in a shuddery breath. He seemed to be gathering himself, mouth twisting somewhere between anger and anxiety. What happened today? Billy had been fine this morning, rough-housing with Eddie as they all got ready for work and drinking milk straight from the carton just to gross Steve out, trying not to laugh at his expression and spray the milk back out his nose again. Everything had been normal . Something must have gone wrong since then.
“I got a phone call after lunch while I was doing a filter change on some old shit box,” Billy explained after another moment, not opening his eyes to look back at Steve. “It was Max.”
Billy getting a call from his little sister wasn’t abnormal. Max was in her first year of college now in Chicago, much closer now that she was in the same city than when she’d still been back in Hawkins with her mother, but she and Billy still talked on the phone almost weekly. Usually they would just set up their next hangout, some awful smoothie bar or hole-in-the-wall 80s inspired hipster arcade that Steve couldn’t understand their attraction to. But sometimes it was just to chat, if whatever they had to say couldn’t wait or Max was going to be too busy with classes to catch up that week. If this was just a normal call from Max, Billy wouldn’t be as upset as he was right now.
“Is Max okay?” Steve asked hurriedly, brain immediately turning to the worst. Perhaps she’d been in an accident? “Is it Lucas? El?” If any of those little shitheads from Hawkins had got themselves hurt, Steve would kill them. Well, no… he’d probably panic. And maybe cry a little (lot). But then he’d definitely kill them.
Steve had babysat those kids for years; they were practically the only family that Steve had, outside his boyfriends (Steve definitely didn’t consider his parents worth that title), and their group of friends. Each one of them was like a little brother or sister to him, despite the fact that they were all on their way into adulthood by now. If something had happened to one of his kids… But Steve surely would’ve heard from Dustin by now if it had, right? They’d been texting just as Steve had left work. Dustin had been happily rambling about some new video game he’d picked up over the weekend, not panicking about his friends. No, if something was going down with the party, Dustin would’ve at least given Steve a heads up.
Still, just as Steve was about to spiral into his own anxiety, his fingers digging just a little too hard into the sides of Billy’s cheeks, Billy shook his head again. “No, it’s not the shitheads…” He assured Steve roughly, finally opening his eyes again to look at him. “It was about Neil.”
Steve couldn’t help the way his jaw immediately clenched and his teeth started grinding at the mention of Billy’s father. He even let out a little growl of his own, a habit he and Eddie had picked up from Billy after all these years as a way to express their own displeasure. That guy was an absolute asshole . Steve didn’t think he’d ever met anyone he more wanted to repeatedly punch in the face as he did Neil fucking Hargrove.
It had taken Steve and Eddie literal months to break Billy of some of the self-destructive habits that monsters’ abuse had left behind. In fact, it had only been the last few years of living together that Billy had even felt comfortable enough to shift into his tiger form at home in front of them, or to give into some of the more animalistic tendencies that carried over to his human body.
Before that, Billy had always waited until he’d been left alone to shift. As if it was some dirty secret he’d needed to hide or be ashamed of. Or they would only see it happen during the full moon, when he had no other choice and there was a ‘reason’ for the shift; not just because he ‘couldn’t control himself’.
Aside from the full moon, the only time Eddie and Steve had seen him shift back then had been when Billy was overwhelmed by strong negative emotions. That shift, the one where he lost control and the animal form was ripped out of him forcefully by his own anger or hurt, was painful. It burst through Billy with the cracking of bones and skin and left him crying out and aching with pain. On the flip side, when the shift was brought about by intense but good feelings, or he gave in and made the choice himself, there was no pain at all, only a gentle stretch and a feeling of release.
But Neil had filled Billy’s head with so much negativity growing up over the birthright he had inherited from his mother, treating it as some sort of weakness that Billy should be ashamed of not being able control, that it had taken Steve and Eddie a long time to finally convince Billy that there was nothing wrong with him, and that he should embrace that part of him. It was them that had finally made Billy see that Neil had just been trying to control him; to keep him feeling small and weak, so that he was too scared and beaten down to use his abilities to fight back and break away from Neil’s abuse. Steve didn’t think he’d ever been more in love, or turned on, than the day Billy had finally told his dad to fuck off once and for all, with snarling, sharp teeth and the threat of claws.
These days Billy would still occasionally slide back into that negative headspace Neil had fostered and seek out solitude for his shift, but for the most part he was secure enough in his own skin, at least around Steve and Eddie and their found family, to just give in to the urges as they came. He also knew logically that his boyfriends loved every part of him, since they made sure to tell him as much as often as they could get away with. Seeing Billy padding around their apartment as a large golden tiger was not such a rare occurrence, and Steve and Eddie valued every chance they got to spend with their kitten.
“What about him?” Steve finally said, when he was sure he’d be able to control the anger in his tone and he wouldn’t just start growling again.
“He wanted to talk to me. He’s been asking Max for my number. She’s been telling him to fuck off, but he keeps getting Susan to ask.”
Steve quickly tamped down on the immediate thought of no fucking way that went through his mind.
Obviously, Billy was upset about this. Steve’s hatred towards Neil wasn’t going to be helpful right now. Instead of giving in to the urge to shut down the idea at once, Steve leant into Billy until their foreheads were bumped together, nuzzling at him the comforting gesture they’d also all adopted from Billy’s tiger form.
“Do you want to talk to him?” Steve asked softly, trying his best to adopt a supportive tone. God, he wished Eddie were here. He was so much better at this sort of thing than Steve; he would know exactly what to say to make their boyfriend feel better. Steve was the one who was quick to throw punches, even though historically that had never worked out too well for him.
Billy choked out a miserable sound, something that tried to be a laugh but fell far short of anything close to amusement, and he shook his head.
“Fuck no, he just… Even hearing about him just makes me so angry . I just want to forget, and every time I feel like things are getting better…” Billy trailed off, fingers were wrapping in the back of Steve’s shirt, flexing and clenching as if he was trying to pad at the fabric and comfort himself.
Steve sighed, partially in relief that Billy wasn’t thinking about giving into Neil’s request, but mostly in annoyance that he was trying in the first place. He wrapped his arms around Billy’s body and pulled him in to bury his face in Steve’s neck. Immediately, Billy nuzzled his face into the skin there, lips parting to suck in shallow breaths that Steve knew meant he was tasting Steve’s scent on the air.
“Then the rest of the day I was just in a bad mood, you know? Stuck in my head. The boss told me to fuck off early when I maybe threw that piece of shit torque wrench with the broken lock across the shop. But like, really? Can’t we get a new one that doesn’t come loose every five seconds?” Billy grumbled, and Steve could feel where his pout was pressed into the space at the base of his throat. “Ugh, anyway. I came home early, and it was hours before you guys were gonna be home too, so I just…”
Whenever something about Neil came back up in their lives, Billy seemed to slide a little backwards from all the work he and Eddie had put into getting him to come out of his shell. He would become self-conscious about all the little instincts that he’d started to give into in his daily life, things like how he always wanted to rub his body against Steve and Eddie’s after they had a shower to make sure that the scent of them hadn’t been completely washed off. Or the way he’d seek out the patch of sunlight that always came in through the window in the kitchen on late sunny afternoons, napping on the floor there as both human or tiger, getting underfoot when Steve was trying to make a start on dinner. But the distance from Neil and the love that now surrounded him meant that as time went on, those backwards slides had become smaller, and that self-consciousness would dissipate faster.
Steve knew Billy just needed to move on from the phone call today and forget, so he chose not to comment on the admission that he had been ‘stuck in his head’. He could guess what thoughts he would’ve been having. It was obvious Billy had chosen to shift the moment he got home so that he could take advantage of the tiger’s more simplistic instinct-based thinking; it was a positive sign that he’d chosen to do so, the trail of disposed clothes rather than ripped ones telling Steve that Billy had made the shift willingly.
Steve didn’t want to bring attention to the things that had necessitated him turning in the first place, or make Billy think about Neil more than he already was. Instead, Steve decided to gently tease Billy for how he’d found him.
“You missed Eddie and I so much you thought the pile of our gross clothes - that are totally your turn to wash by the way - were a good place to have a cat nap?”
Billy’s face had heated, and Steve thought he was probably blushing that cute annoyed pink across the tops of his cheeks. “Shut up, Steve, they’re comfy and it’s cold.”
“You totally could have turned the heat on or got into bed. You chose to dig a nest in sweaty socks and jocks instead. You just wanted to smell us. And don’t think I didn’t notice the wet patch on those boxers. If your tongue has put another hole in a pair of our underwear… I’m starting to run out, Billy!”
Steve noticed that Billy’s shoulders had smoothed out a little from their tense line, and when the blonde pulled back to look at him, he had that small smirk on his face that Steve knew meant Billy was about to be a little shit, the hints of the flush still lingering.
“I keep telling you, if you just went commando like me…”
“You don’t even go commando all the time! You’re just a thief and won’t buy your own underwear. I’m gonna start buying really embarrassing ones, and then maybe you and Eddie will finally get your own. I’m talking like, full on grandpa underwear here Billy. You’re pushing me to this.”
Billy grinned wide, head thrown back as he laughed. “As if, Princess. You’re too much of a diva. You wouldn’t be caught dead hiding your ass in anything that saggy. You could maybe convince me if you said you’d replace them all with more of those skimpy lace things Buckley made you wear for Halloween this year that you pretended to hate, but not that.”
“Hey now, don’t turn this back on me! We were talking about your embarrassing boxer-licking habit. You know what? I liked you better as a cat. When you couldn’t talk. ” Steve pushed at Billy’s cheek, shoving him away from Steve’s body by his face, trying to keep a stern face while holding back a grin of his own.
Despite his earlier complaints about how disgusting their dirty clothes were, Steve didn’t hesitate much before climbing onto the pile with Billy. The smell wasn’t really that bad, just a mixture of the three of their body scents; sweat, traces of cologne and and now the distinct smell of Billy’s tiger musk.
“But there’s other ways of stopping you from talking, and if you like our boxers so much…” Steve quickly grabbed up another pair of underwear, these ones definitely Eddie’s – they had those weird shaped dice from his D&D game printed all over them – and proceeded to try and shove them into Billy’s laughing mouth.
They wrestled for a few moments, Steve taking advantage of the element of surprise and the way that Billy was still slightly caught up and couldn’t use his legs. He stuffed the boxes between Billy’s lips, the blonde spluttering and wiggling, managing to dislodge Steve’s advantage by grabbing onto his wrist and squeezing until Steve had no choice but to let go, falling back breathless and gasping from his laughter.
“Fuck you Harrington, you trying to suffocate me? Let’s see how you like it, bitch.” Billy tried to play dirty like usual, between one second and the next changing back into a tiger. Usually this move would work, Billy’s already thickly muscled body even stronger when he turned. He would usually lay on top of him or Eddie and force them into submission simply by using his heavy weight against them. But now shifting shapes only wrapped the clothing further around Billy’s body, and rather than slump over Steve’s chest as he’d intended, Billy lost his footing and fell snout-first into the clothes.
There was a brief moment of surprised silence, where both of them registered what had happened, before Steve started crowing in laughter even harder than before. Steve wished fervently that he could have caught the whole thing on camera to show Eddie later; Eddie always loved making Billy do dumb shit in this form and he would have appreciated how ridiculous their boyfriend looked in that moment.
When Billy started to growl and squirm, obviously playing up his annoyance at Steve laughing at him, Steve finally moved to help him untangle from the mess. One of his claws had got caught in the hole of one of Eddie’s many ripped black jeans, and Steve carefully extracted it before lifting the large paw and placing a kiss to the largest pad before letting it go. Billy’s claws flexed a little as he did, as if he was ticklish, but he was careful not to let them clip Steve’s face, even despite their roughhousing moments before.
In retaliation for Steve’s his amusement at his predicament, Billy licked a painful line up the side of Steve’s face and into his hair. His tongue was both slobbery and dry at the same time, scratching Steve’s skin instantly pink. Before Billy could go in for round two, Steve grabbed onto the fur at the sides of Billy’s cheeks and pulled his face away.
“Alright, alright! I’m sorry for laughing! You are a very dignified, very scary beast.” Billy snarled at Steve, offended at the patronising. Steve danced out the way of the swipe Billy half-heartedly sent towards him, climbing off the pile of clothes and standing, patting some of the loose fur off his work pants.
“I’m gonna go get my phone, let Ed know he needs to pick up dinner on his way home. Thai sound okay?” Steve asked, starting to head towards their living room and watching out the corner of his eye as Billy padded at the clothes and turned in a little circle to get himself back into a comfortable position.
Now that he’d shifted back, Steve got the feeling that he’d probably stay like that for a while. As much as their joking around had made them both laugh, Steve knew that Billy was still feeling a little off kilter by his bad day. He probably wouldn’t feel entirely better until he had both Steve and Eddie curled up next to him and he could put the last of the day behind him. Getting their scents off old clothes was probably good, but nothing beat the real thing.
Billy made a noise that sounded vaguely agreeable when he had settled, and Steve took that as his go-ahead and went to retrieve his iPhone from the coffee table. He picked up Billy’s on the way, even though Billy couldn’t use it right now, and brought it back with him to sit on the charging mat beside their bed.
Steve moved back to the clothing pile, resigned now that this was where they were probably going to spend the rest of their evening, and typed out their usual order to Eddie in their group chat, deciding to go for the spicier option for himself in the end. He also sent through a private message, giving Eddie the heads up about Billy’s mood and how Max had told him Neil was trying to reach out.
Hopefully Billy saying no to her would be the end of it and they’d not have to deal with him, but there was a chance that Neil could find out Billy’s phone number or address from other means. Who knew what he wanted? Nothing good, Steve was sure, but he wouldn’t put it past the asshole to just turn up on their doorstep one day.
Steve waited until Eddie had texted back, sending through a series of black and purple hearts to the group chat in response to the food request and a bunch of angry faces, skulls and fists to Steve’s private ones. Eddie’s use of excessive emojis said to Steve he was probably session with someone and couldn’t type in full words. Steve held his phone in front of Billy’s face so that he could see the hearts Eddie had sent, before throwing his phone across onto their bed and settling in next to Billy. Almost immediately Billy slumped down until his head was resting on Steve’s lap.
Art by Celebillustrate ♥
Steve caught Billy’s ears between his fingers, massaging circles over the little white spots on the back of them. After a few moments of silence, the two of them just enjoying the contact, Steve spoke up in a soft voice: “Hey kitten… You know we love you, right?” Billy had shut his eyes at Steve’s attention, but he cracked one open to look up at him with a little glare and a huff of acknowledgement.
“Our friends love you too. Your sister loves you. Hell, even the other shithead kids love you, even if you’re such a dick to them.” Billy made a grumbly noise, amused and annoyed in equal turn. Steve gave a little laugh, poking at Billy’s nose before continuing on, “You’re definitely a dick. But they still love you. Neil? Who cares what he wants, he’s nothing; he doesn’t deserve to talk to you. You should just forget that Max told you, let her handle telling Neil to fuck off.”
Billy didn’t usually let Steve say these sorts of things out loud, preferring to show his feelings with actions and getting prickly the moment anyone started talking too much about their emotions. But Billy didn’t stop him or tense up like he usually would. Perhaps it was the way they were wrapped in their combined scents, always so soothing to Billy when he was in this body. Or maybe he just needed to hear this today. For now, Billy seemed to be willing to let Steve provide him comfort and support, though Steve didn’t push it too much further.
It only took Steve a few more minutes of gentle scratches through his thick fur before Billy had started up a rumbling purr, snuffling his face into Steve’s belly until he’d pushed Steve’s shirt up and could get his nose pressed against the skin and hair on his belly. He shut his eyes, breathing in a huge deep breath that expanded the barrel of his chest, before sighing all at once, any remaining tension seeping out of his body.
Almost an hour and a half later, Eddie walked into their bedroom to see Steve and Billy passed out on the pile in the corner of their bedroom. Billy’s tiger form was draped fully over Steve’s body by that point, his head tucked into Steve’s armpit as Steve snored loudly from the compression of his lungs. He was cradling Eddie’s skull-print Oodie up by his face with the hand that wasn’t still resting on top of Billy’s stripy head. The visual was so cute that Eddie set the bags of food down on the floor nearby and took a few moments to take some photos for posterity and blackmail material.
Once Eddie had made sure to get enough photos of Steve and Billy snuggled up together he pulled off his outer layer of clothing until he was left in just Billy’s dark blue boxers. He was going to leave them on, but they had been falling down annoyingly low on his hips all day since they were much too large on his skinnier frame, so Eddie shrugged and let those drop too. He picked up the bags of food and climbed not-so-carefully over Steve and Billy’s sprawled bodies.
Steve snorted himself awake at the movement and Billy let out a whiny noise that ended in a jaw-cracking yawn, exposing all his sharp teeth and blowing his tiger breath into Steve’s face. Steve’s nose wrinkled in disgust as he opened his eyes and Eddie cackled, flopping down on top of them both ungracefully and getting a yelp and a silent hiss in response.
“Oh my god, get off! You’re both so heavy!” Steve wheezed, flailing his arms and legs.
Eddie took mercy on Steve and slid off, wrapping his arms around Billy’s belly and pulling him off too. He pressed his face into the side of Billy’s head and kissed his whiskers before leaning over and pressing a kiss to Steve’s lips too.
“Hey baby, hey kitten,” Eddie sat up and grabbed the bags of Thai food. “I got dinner, as requested. Sorry I was caught up at work so long. This is comfy though! I guess we are eating here in our own filth then?” He was smiling his typical shit-eating grin, shaking the bags at Steve and Billy.
Billy headbutted Eddie roughly in the stomach in response, winding Eddie and making him laugh breathlessly, even as he flinched his naked junk away from Billy’s face so he didn’t get accidentally clipped in the nuts.
“Can’t we move to the bed?” Steve whined, even as he rearranged himself into a more comfortable position to eat. Billy certainly didn’t look like he was intending to move any time soon, settling back into the clothing nest.
“No can do, baby,” Eddie started to unpack the bags and pulling out a single pair of disposable chopsticks. “You two got to cuddle here without me, it’s my turn now. It’s nice and warm and it was freezing riding the bike home.”
He ignored Steve holding his hand out for his own food, setting all the cartons up in front of himself instead and using the chopsticks to grab a piece of tofu from the vegetarian noodle dish he’d got for himself and popping it into his mouth.
“So, are you going to change back to eat?” Eddie asked Billy, speaking disgustingly through his mouthful as he chewed and still ignoring Steve as he tried to grab for the food. He smacked his hands away whenever they got too close to grabbing anything, and ignored Steve’s bitchy grumbles about it and how gross Eddie was for talking with his mouth full.
Billy seemed to consider Eddie’s question, but ultimately decided that the answer was no , because he licked at his lips dramatically instead as if to say ‘just feed me like this’.
Eddie shrugged and picked up a piece of chicken, holding it out in front of Billy’s nose. Steve immediately protested, “Hey! At least feed me first before you get cat spit all over those! Why are you both the worst ?” and Billy and Eddie ignored him.
The thing about tigers is that they, like all cats, can’t exactly see clearly when something’s within a foot of their faces. So, Eddie holding the chicken in front of Billy, balanced between the two ends of the chopsticks, meant that Billy had to focus in on something very subjectively very small, going almost cross-eyed in the attempt. He tried to grab the piece of meat delicately between his front teeth, but predictably completely missed the trajectory. The chicken hit Billy’s nose and the tip of one of the chopsticks jammed a few millimetres up his right nostril, causing him to pull back sharply and give an enormous wet sneeze.
The chicken dropped onto the dirty clothes beneath them, and Steve copped most of the fallout from Billy’s sneeze directly in the face, something he was very unimpressed about. Spluttering and wiping frantically at his face, Steve thankfully missed the moment that Billy looked down at the chicken he’d dropped and back at Eddie before giving the tiger-equivalent of a shrug and licking it up from where it had fallen. Eddie laughed again, not caring in the slightest but knowing that Steve would’ve had something to say about that.
Eddie hoped that the sauce stain would come out of whatever it was that had fallen onto for Steve’s sake, but had to admit that most of his and Billy’s clothes were darker colours that wouldn’t show it up and it was mostly Steve’s things that would cop that particular problem. Oh well. Their boyfriend was a little bit of a neat freak sometimes (dirty clothes pile non-withstanding), he probably had some little trick to getting stains out of delicate fabrics. He knew so many things like that; Eddie liked to call him their little housewife. Steve always blushed so red every time.
Finally, Eddie took pity on Steve and held up some of his own food to his pouty mouth. Steve was playing up his annoyance but took Eddie’s offerings, and their dinner continued much like that. Billy ending up eating the rest of his food out of Eddie and Steve’s fingers when he’d failed one too many times at eating from utensils, and Eddie alternated between feeding himself and Steve off the chopsticks.
When they had finished eating they stayed laying on the floor with the clothes, cuddling up together with Eddie and Steve talking over Billy’s head about their days. Steve talked about how his classes were going, and Eddie shared pictures of the tattoo he’d been working on that had him home later than usual and how it had given him a new idea to add to his sleeve. Billy was purring loudly in no time, any remaining tension trickling away while his boyfriends spoilt him with scratches while they conversed.
By the time it was getting late and they had to get ready for bed to sleep for the following workday, Billy was in a much better mood and happily changed back into his human body to join his boyfriends in the shower. If he picked a slightly ripe and fur-covered shirt from the pile they’d spent their evening in the next morning, Steve and Eddie didn’t comment. It wasn’t like they had many clean options left.
It was also conveniently ignored by Billy and Eddie when Steve didn’t take the whole pile of dirty laundry to the laundromat two days later when the desire for clean clothes finally won out over the cold-weather laziness. Instead, he had skimmed a few items off the top. Yeah, they had to do washing more frequently this way… But Steve could privately admit to himself that coming home from a long day and surrounding himself in soft things smelling of the men he loved, only to have them join him there later? He guessed he could see why tiger Billy liked it so much.
Even if it was a little gross.