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It was a late Halloween evening, the sun having just dipped below the horizon, and Steve was once more driving down to Nancy’s house. They’d made plans to attend Tina’s halloween party, and usually the prospect of a party and time with Nancy would easily put Steve in a good mood; however, lately the topic couldn’t spark the same enthusiasm. Even now, he found himself sluggish, and not at all in the mood for drinking, at least not in the presence of others. This was for a multitude of reasons: the new kid at school—Billy Hargrove—was stealing his hard earned status, his old friends were also ganging up on him lately, and Nancy was feeling especially down after Barbara’s death. She felt guilty all the time and Steve didn’t know how to help despite literally being able to sense emotions. In summary, Steve was tired.
But he still had to show up for his girlfriend, and so only a few minutes later he was at Nancy’s house honking his horn. He waited patiently, the only sign that he felt otherwise were his flicking eyes and attentive hands. When she finally came out she was mad, something which Steve could feel mellowing out into annoyance and the ever present guilt; most likely she’d had a bit of a chat with her mom, but he didn’t comment on it even as she greeted him stiltedly and then remained silent for the ride over. He was really beginning to regret dragging Nance to some stupid party, really, what was he thinking, drinking was no way to resolve emotional turmoil. It certainly hadn’t done much good for him.
The couple arrived to the party already in full swing: music blaring, people dancing, and more importantly, people drinking. Though loud and rowdy, parties were often a reprieve for Steve’s powers and part of how he’d fallen into his ‘King Steve’ persona. Sober people tended to project their emotions more sharply with a clear head, something that used to make it challenging for Steve to block them out when he’d first escaped—the real world had been completely new and overwhelming back then. In comparison, a drunk person projected more of a mist at him and it was usually very mellow floaty emotions. As an early teen just out of homeschooling, these parties had given his head a break.
At the moment though, the party was just a point of more stress, since it seemed Nancy wanted to take his previous words very literally.
“You wanted to act like stupid teenagers for the night, wasn't that the deal?” She hissed at him as he tried to stop her from taking yet another cup of unnamed alcohol. He couldn’t really blame her, after all he had said exactly that, but of course he’d never expected her to fully act the part. Because of this, and the fact he couldn’t really control her, he let her do whatever—under his watchful eye at least. He’d let her have her fun, but he wouldn't so easily abandon her.
He himself drank a fair amount as well, citing exhaustion and general stress over the current state of their fragmented relationship. He wasn’t particularly having fun, but the alcohol is good and he plays up his act for the sake of dignity if nothing else. He knows Hargrove is around somewhere, and it wouldn’t do any good to let the guy belittle him so easily.
Settled at the edge of the party near a corner, Steve places his hand on Nancy’s waist as he watches her chug another drink. Mostly, he’s holding Nancy to keep her on her feet, but it also has the positive side effect of making their relationship look fine and not like it’s falling apart. To any prying eyes, the two would look as close as usual.
So far everything was going just fine, and Steve was beginning to think now was a great time to leave quietly. They’d been there long enough and with how drunk Nancy was, it was a great idea. Unfortunately, just as he was about to make his intentions clear, Billy Hargrove finally made his presence known to Steve—his old lackeys in tow. Tommy and Carol stank of hazy glee, clearly drunk.
“So you’re this ‘King Steve’ I keep hearing about.” Hargrove says it so smugly and his eyes rove up and down Steve’s body as if to size him up. But that’s not right. Steve can sense his emotions, and with how piercing they are he knows the guy isn’t all that high yet, he’d probably only had a couple of beers before confronting him. The action that is meant to look like sizing up a new enemy, Steve knows, is actually just Billy eyeing him up—eye fucking him, to put it crudely. And really, Steve never would have seen that coming. He’s so astounded that he only absently notices Nancy had wandered off, leaving a few words to slip out of his mouth.
“What the fuck.” He says dumbfounded, because how else is he supposed to realistically react to another guy getting aroused by him. It was wafting off the guy like some crazy mating call, one that only Steve could answer.
“Awed at just my presence, Harrington?” Billy says smugly at his expression, the words reeled Steve back into the present and reminded him to close his mouth, rather embarrassingly. More than that, though, were the emotions that were only becoming more sharp as they wrapped around Steve. Sure plenty of arousal, but there was now pride, amusement, smugness, and even one that stood out; hope.
“No, I just never thought you’d have the guts to talk to the guy you’re trying to replace.” He replied, but he knew it was a lousy excuse for his odd reaction. Hargrove takes a long drag from his fresh cigarette and blows the smoke in Steve’s face before speaking again.
“I’m not replacing you if you were never all that.” He says simply, even leaning forward as if to blow the words directly into Steve’s ear. And with the context Steve has, the action comes across way too sexual for his liking, and it sends a shiver down his spine. He scoffs to mask his wrongfootedness and takes a step back to escape the situation. He can’t realistically run from this unimaginable situation every time, but he’d prefer to at least gather himself and be prepared for such a masked conversation.
More importantly, he needs to get ahold of Nancy again who he can see circling the punch bowl again. However, before he can even take two steps a firm hand is gripping his left wrist and yanking him back. The contact startles him, and the proximity of the hand to his watch and the etched number seven below it causes a shake to begin in his fingers and he whips his head back to come face to face with Billy. Of course. It's only a momentary scare, luckily, as he feels the hand moving away. Although, it's not very relieving as the hot hand only travels up his arm and below the sleeve. The skin on skin contact feels like a rough caress of his arm, and paired with the sheer want pooling out of Hargrove Steve can feel a light sweat beginning to form. Despite knowing it wasn’t possible, Steve felt as if his own body were soaking up Hargrove’s emotions like a poison—the lingering desire in the air seemed to become his own.
“Hey!” Steve yelps indignantly, as he is further brought close to Hargrove’s face.
“Come on, Harrington, why don’t you entertain us a bit?” With the way he says it, Steve knows he’d have preferred to say ‘me’ instead of ‘us’.
“My girlfriend,” he emphasizes, “looks like she needs a ride, I don’t have time for this.” There's a tense pause as he says this, and Steve is hit with a new round of pesky feelings. Resentment is the most prominent, and there's no doubt in Steve’s mind that it’s for Nancy. Billy patronizingly pats his cheek before pulling away with fake cheer.
“Surprised any girl would do more than fuck you.” He snaps with only half of the anger he truly feels.
“Hypocritical of you to say.” Steve replies quickly, before making his way over to Nance, this time unhindered. He can feel the heated eyes following him however, accompanied by a flurry of complicated feelings, but he ignores it in favour of helping Nancy. Despite the outward ignorance, he’s left reeling and with no idea of how to handle it later on. This, expectedly, would only further fracture their delicate relationship.
Mere minutes into trying to convince Nancy away from drinking, turn into the entire bowl of punch all over her white blouse. He cringes and wilts under the staring eyes around them but persists in following Nancy into the privacy of a nearby washroom. It only went further downhill from there, and with the reveal that Nancy didn’t love him anymore, Steve had stormed out in a rush. It was one of those rare moments that he was overcome with his own emotions, rather than others, and it was so distracting that Steve hadn’t even noticed the eavesdropper outside the door until he’d hurried past him. And who else could it be other than Hargrove, Steve wouldn’t be surprised to hear the rumors the very next morning, but for now all he wanted was to let out a few tears in the comfort of his car.
—
Billy Hargrove is a creep, a very gay creep. With how much he touches Steve it’s a miracle no one has outed him. They're in Phyes Ed, a class that Steve usually excels at, especially with their current sport: basketball. It would have been just dandy, if Billy wasn’t constantly getting all in his personal space and feeling him up. In fact, Steve swore the guy had grazed his butt at least once. Maybe, if he was some average guy he would have chalked it up as some play to distract and humiliate him—he was playing badly, after all—but with his abilities he was left no room for doubt. Billy Hargrove, was literally sweating arousal just watching Steve play, and somehow none of that showed outwardly.
The whole thing was making Steve go crazy, and not to mention the sort of break up with Nancy last night, Steve was feeling very simply, like dog shit.
“Steve!” He heard a soft yell from the gymnasium doors, and a quick glance revealed Nancy. He didn’t even need to use his powers to know she was irritated. Steve would have loved to ignore her and continue with the game, but he knew the conversation was inevitable. So, despite his own anger, he called off the court and jogged over to her. They began a tense argument just around the corner.
“Where were you this morning? I missed the first period!” She nearly yelled.
“Where was I?” He replied, affronted. “Do you even remember last night?” Nancy didn’t even take a moment to think on the question.
“Yes. It’s a little fuzzy but I wasn’t that out of it.” A clear understatement in Steve’s head. “We had fun, I got a bit drunk and you took me home at the end of the night.”
“No, that was your other boyfriend. Your boyfriend Jonathan.” He’d seen him wandering around like a lost puppy last night, and knew no one else would have taken Nancy home.
“What—” Steve didn’t let her talk, instead interrupting her to remind her exactly what she’d told him. All bullshit, and now she was calling bullshit on her own words, citing her drunken state.
“Say you love me then,” her eyebrows shot up at his request, “say it.” Steve waited, somehow still holding onto hope, but she stayed quiet and Steve returned to his class.
He was hurt, of course he was, but he’d already cried most of his tears out last night, and so he entered the gym with only a tenser jaw. He was quickly greeted by more insistent touches which—if Steve were to be honest with himself—were somewhat comforting in the knowledge that someone actually liked him. However, he would prefer a bit of a break, especially when he’s in the shower.
Steve was a well built man, and he was proud of his body, so the regular shower after class was never a big deal, other than the awkwardness of covering his wrist in various ways. But now, stripping his clothes with his back to Hargrove and feeling his eyes yet again made him uneasy. It wasn’t even so much the fact that Hargorve was looking him up and down, it was just the jarring fact that it was a guy. A girl was expected, but a guy was almost unheard of, and Steve had no idea how to react let alone examine his own feelings.
Regardless, Steve stepped under the spray of water, closing his eyes and relaxing as the layer of sweat was washed away. However, this lasted only a moment, as he opened his eyes and found his greatest annoyance stood directly next to him. He was under his own shower head, but he stood awkwardly close to the low divider between them. A position that Steve quickly realised afforded him the opportunity to hide his manhood whilst still being able to eye all of Steve. Billy was probably the most forward and inconspicuous person he’d ever had hit on him, and technically the guy hadn’t even said anything to suggest it.
Steve didn’t let any of his awkwardness show, and really he was used to nudity around others, partly because of his life in the lab. Not to mention he’d already made it clear last night that he had no interest, Hargorve could look all he wanted.
“Harrington, trouble in paradise? Looks like you’ll have to find a new bitch willing to fuck you.” Hargove suddenly said smugly, and when Steve glanced his way he saw Billy unabashedly staring at his dick. Steve hadn’t realized his sudden break up might come across as an invitation to Hargrove, but somehow Steve felt a bit of a thrill run through him at the forbidden thought.