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Eddie rolls his eyes as Billy slides a hand over his denim-covered thigh and taps out a rhythm. “I’m fine.”
Billy grunts his acknowledgement, but his fingers drum over Eddie’s skin, and it’s annoying, but it’s also reassuring.
Steve’s whistling off tune as he makes way too much noise in the kitchen. He said he was making them sundaes or smoothies or some kind of ice cream treat, but Eddie would rather have Billy and Steve on either side of him again, squishing in tightly on a couch made for two.
Billy’s lips find Eddie’s neck, and he sucks a kiss just under Eddie’s left ear. Eddie can’t help but smile, his dick completely uninterested because of how fucking strung out his nerves are, but the touch is soothing and grounding.
“Real?” Eddie asks, brushing his fingers over the ring on his thumb that matches the ones on Steve and Billy’s thumbs.
Billy cups the side of Eddie’s face and turns his head so he can see and hear his response. “Real. I’ve got mine, and last I saw, Steve’s got his unless he forgot it in the bathroom again.”
Eddie smiles, his lips twitching and feeling weird in that position, so the smile drops all too quickly. “And I still have two wishes left for my birthday?” he asks, looking Billy in the eye even though it’s hard to do that sometimes.
Billy nods. “Real.”
The smile hurts this time, but it stays a little longer than the previous one. “I get to eat everything Steve’s making?”
Billy snorts. “Definitely not real. Unless you wanna use that as one of your wishes.”
Eddie flinches at the harsh grinding noise from the kitchen. Steve’s using the blender, and it sounds awful. It’ll be worth it when Steve brings in whatever concoction he’s creating.
Billy wraps his right arm around Eddie’s shoulders and pulls him impossibly closer as they turn and watch the latest horror flick Steve brought back to the trailer. The acting is bad, the monster is laughable, and the music doesn’t fit the scenes, but it doesn’t matter.
“Sorry,” Eddie says, keeping his gaze on the TV screen so he doesn’t have to see the look on Billy’s face. “Such a fuckin’ baby.”
He hates being vulnerable. Sounding small. Hates the pity in some people’s eyes and the fear in others. Hates the way nothing is easy. He likes being different, but times like these, he feels so different that he’s sure he isn’t even human. It’s scary as shit.
Billy reaches up under Eddie’s worn and ripped band T-shirt and pinches his nipple so hard that Eddie gasps and squirms against him. “Did that feel real?” Billy asks.
Eddie winces as he nods. “Yeah.”
“Remember that, because if you ever try to get through one of your freak out episodes alone again, I’m gonna beat the shit outta you. You’re supposed to call us, and you did, so quit whining like a little bitch about it.”
The smile is so big it hurts more than the last one, and Eddie swears his lips touch his ears, it’s so big. At last it feels that way when his senses are fucked up and messing with him.
Billy’s all bark and no bite, especially when it comes to Eddie, but with the emotional intelligence of a five-year-old, his threats of violence are his way of saying he loves Eddie and would do anything for him.
“You should be nice to me,” Eddie teases. “I’m in a fragile state.”
Billy grunts and shakes his head. “Fragile, my ass. You almost took Steve’s head off when we came in. Where did you get that thing anyway?”
Eddie shrugs. “Found it at the junkyard. It was rusty and bent, but Uncle Wayne helped me fix her up, and now she’s fuckin’ gorgeous. Who the fuck throws a broadsword in the trash?”
“A complete idiot,” Billy says just because he knows it’ll make Eddie smile again.
“Dessert time!” Steve announces as he makes the short trip from the tiny trailer kitchen to the living room area holding three bowls piled high with all sorts of sugary goodness.
He flops onto the couch to Eddie’s right, the three of them crammed in together like they’re supposed to be, and hands each of them a bowl. There’s three scoops of ice cream in each bowl, blender blitzed M&M pieces, sprinkles, chocolate sauce, and so much whipped topping that it’s already starting to slide off the side of the bowl.
Eddie sucks the whipped topping up before it can make a mess and digs in, groaning with pleasure as a cacophony of flavors bombard his tongue. When he’s like this, too little sensory input leaves him overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of it all. But with so many flavors and textures in his mouth, his brain must just give up and roll with it, because it’s the best thing ever.
The warmth and weight of Steve on his right side feels like the last piece of the puzzle, and Eddie sighs through his nose, his mouth full of ice cream and chocolate. He looks down at the gray eyes peering up at him from between his legs and nudges Steve with his elbow.
“You forgot Cinder,” he says around the food in his mouth.
Steve huffs, an offended look on his face. “I did not forget the most important stomach in the trailer!”
The gray and white mutt rests her chin on Eddie’s leg and patiently waits for the treat Steve pulls out of his pocket. He patiently waits while she sniffs the chicken jerky treat and murmurs a soft “good girl” when she takes it.
Eddie’s head spins for a moment, and a terrible intrusive thought takes his breath away. He swallows the food and stares down at Cinder, scared to ask, but doing it anyway. “Is she real?”
Steve cups the side of his face, a mirror to what Billy did just minutes ago and looking him in the eye. “She’s real, and she’s awesome. Just like your amazing boyfriends,” he says with a wink.
Eddie lets out the breath his body was holding onto just in case Cinder was another one of his hallucinations. He reaches out, running his fingers over her head and rubbing that spot on her forehead right between her eyes that always makes her relax against him.
He doesn’t bother asking if the lights outside the trailer are really flickering or not. He doesn’t ask whether the couple in the next trailer are engaged in a screaming match. He doesn’t ask if the rug is cold under his left foot.
He knows the answer to those questions, and he doesn’t want to hear it right now. Those things aren’t important. And Eddie only asks whether the important things are real.