Work Text:
Billy's been writing on that yellow notepad for forty minutes. Steve's been watching him the whole time, tense and waiting for something to happen. Some hellhound to launch through the wall, or monster portal to open up right here in the kitchen, because Billy Hargrove does not write.
Eddie's the writer, always elbow deep in some lyrical frenzy or Dorks and Dragons plan, or even leaving little notes on the bathroom mirror that Steve snatches up and throws away (into the shoebox he keeps all the things his boyfriends give him). Steve himself is known to occasionally jot down an idea or dabble in journaling - it helps with his habit of forgetting appointments or babysitting duties (thanks concussions), or when Robin isn't around and he needs to write down his verbal vomit for next time they're together.
But Billy - Steve's not sure he's ever seen him write anything. Never caught him scribbling in a Christmas card or signing a cheque. Hell, Steve's pretty sure Billy didn't even touch a pencil in school, always just sitting moodily at the back of the class, too cool to study. So surely this intense writing session means the world is ending, or Steve's woken up in a parallel universe. He's even considered that his boyfriends have somehow swap bodies while he was in the shower, but the sound of Iron Maiden blaring from Eddie's van as said man arrives home from work proves that theory wrong. Billy doesn't like Iron Maiden.
“Oh, lovers!” Eddie calls, “Guess who's the nicest, most amazing boyfriend in the whole world?”
Steve turns his head in the direction of the front door, probably intending to answer while not taking his eyes off the spectacle in front of him, but whatever he was going to say leaves his brain because not even Eddie and the smell of pizza gets Billy's attention. Wow.
Eddie's pout is obvious even in Steve's peripheral when he comes into the kitchen, two pizzas in one hand and what looks like a six pack in the other. Steve catches him tilt his head quizzically to the side. “Stevie?”
Steve finally looks away, giving Eddie a smile. “Sorry, hi. Hello, best boyfriend in the world.”
“I come bearing gifts.” Eddie flourishes the beer with a grin, coming over to give Steve a kiss. “Where's Billy?”
“There.” Steve nods to the dining room, then louder for the hunched over weirdo, he adds "Eddie's home."
“Ob. Hey.” Billy says distractedly, not looking up. “Pizza?”
“Yeah...your favorite.” Eddie answers slowly, frowning. Steve's relieved Eddie sees it too, it is weird!
Eddie puts the dinner down on the bench, looking at Steve, gesturing with a shrug - what's he doing?
Steve shrugs tightly, widening his eyes and throwing his arms up - I don't know! It's crazy.
Eddie's fingers make a V shape, gesturing to his own face then pointing to the dining room - have you tried to take a look?
Steve shakes his head gravely, frowning a little with a grimace - no, you know what he's like. I'm not poking that bear.
Eddie looks a bit disappointed in Steve for that, hands on his hips to amplify his point. Steve gives in with a nod, turning away to grab a beer; he's not disappointed he didn't ask, if it's private or if Billy is self-conscious about trying something new it'll only end in bloodshed. Eddie decides to brave it though, walking up to Billy casually.
“What'cha up to, handsome?” He claps his hands on Billy's shoulders, giving him a friendly shake as he kisses the blonde crown of curls.
“Writin’.” Comes the curt response, which was honestly tamer than Steve was expecting.
“Oh?” Eddie melts forward, arms pooling around Billy's neck. “What beautiful prose is my baby spouting?”
Billy scoffs at that, flipping the notepad over before Eddie can get a look. “Nothing!”
That's what Steve was expecting. He helps himself to a slice of pizza as a reward.
“Hm, didn't look like nothing.” Eddie continues and Steve watches, shaking his head.
“Well, you don't need to know, got it?” Billy pushes himself to stand, Eddie attempting to cling to him like some needy limpet, but Billy shrugs out of the embrace and heads for the kitchen. Steve ducks out of the way.
Once Billy's grabbed a beer Steve tries too, gently. “You were writing for a while…”
Billy sighs heavily, looking down at the pizza. It's quiet for a minute, then Billy shoves a slice of pizza in his mouth, talking around it. “‘s my bir’day shit.”
Steve and Eddie look at each other behind Billy's back - his birthday. It's not like they'd forgotten, it's just that, well… Billy didn't like his birthday. He didn't even tell them when it was, Eddie had only found out when Max was discussing horoscopes with El. Billy never said he wanted to do anything in all the time they've been friends, or more than, and hadn't even hinted. Had he? Steve didn't think he'd missed any hints, and by the look on Eddie's face, he hadn't picked up on anything either.
“Oh yeah?" Eddie chuckles, a little nervously. "Planning a big birthday bash?”
Billy just shrugs and chugs some beer. “You know.”
“No. We don't.” Steve picks up his third pizza slice. It occurs to him that Eddie definitely didn't envision eating in the kitchen while trying to tiptoe around Billy's hot tempered attitude tonight. He probably wanted to watch cuddled up on the couch. They better hurry whatever this is along before it ruins the chance they can still do that. “You've never brought your birthday up before.”
“Mr Fort Knox.” Eddie chimes in, hopping up to sit on the bench.
Billy finishes his mouthful and sighs heavily, debating his words for a moment. “Yeah well, hard to talk about shit you've never fucking done before.”
“You've -...” Steve feels himself staring. Never done before??
“Excuse me?” Eddie's jaw is practically in his lap. “You mean you've never had a birthday?! How have you -”
“Piece it together, Sherlock.” Billy growls, snatching the remaining pizza slices in one hand and tossing the box in the vague direction of the garbage.
Steve cannot wrap his mind around it. Neil Hargrove might have been one sadistic, racist piece of shit, but was he really so vile he'd never let his son have a birthday party? He'd never had a birthday, did Billy really grow up never being celebrated? It's not out of the realm of possibility, if any parent was so cruel it would be Neil, it's just… fucking depressing.
“No, I'm gonna need you to elaborate, Blue Eyes.” Eddie crosses his arms. “Or I'm gonna have to go digging”
Billy rolls those blue eyes and throws his head back. “I think I had one when I was… four? Then it was just never a big deal, wasn't allowed.”
He shrugs and Steve knows they definitely should stop now, before Billy gets more upset. But he finds himself start to ask: “Did Max…?”
Steve stops when Billy looks at him, brows heavy, unimpressed. It's not that Steve's more interested in if Max was allowed to have birthdays, he certainly cares more for Billy but he wants to know because if she's not been allowed either Steve needs to make sure they both have massive parties, and he might see if Eddie is free later for some light murder.
“No. She got ‘em. Nothing wrong with her.” Billy shakes his head. “Are we just gonna stand around like assholes or we watching TV?”
Billy doesn't wait for them, he just takes the second pizza box and leaves the room. Eddie reaches for him, but hesitates last minute and let's him go. It's hard to know when touch will work with Billy or set him off.
He looks at Steve. “You know what this means right?”
“That we've got less than a week to plan the most badass birthday we can think of?”
Eddie nods, jumping down and grabbing his beer. They join Billy in the den, where he's already flipping through the channels. Steve's content to let the conversation go for now - this is obviously going to be a deep wound for their boyfriend, and there's no sense in starting an argument or anything tonight. It's late, Eddie's tires from work, and besides he's already thinking about all the possibilities. It's the end of spring, not quite hot enough for a pool party… Would Billy want the kids to come? Probably... Even though he argues, he does like their little gaggle of teenagers… could they afford a trip to California? Is that too big for a birthday?...
Eddie plops down beside Billy and pulls the blonde's legs up onto his lap, trapping him, and Steve realizes Eddie's going in a different direction: he's going to talk about it.
“Okay, come on. Tell us what you were writing down. We've got to plan shit.”
Billy tries to get his legs back, unsuccessfully, and scowls. “Just fucking drop it.”
“Now, now. Let us help. Who better to plan your first birthday party with than the loves of your life?”
Billy mutters something that sounds like ‘never said that’, and Steve sits on Billy's other side. If they're doing this, they're doing this together.
“Babe, we just want to help.” Steve massages Billy's shoulders, which he tries to fight out of as well because he knows Steve knows he's weak to a massage.
“I don't want a party, okay!” Billy groans, sounding a bit more relaxed. Eddie's now massaging his feet with a wicked grin - Billy doesn't stand a chance at two on one.
“But, Billyyyyyy,” Eddie draws the name out. “We've got to make up for lost time here.”
“Even if I don't want it?”
“How do you know you don't want it if you've never had one?” Eddie grins wide, mischievous glint in his eye. Steve tries not to chuckle; Eddie's on a mission now, no stopping him.
Billy scoffs again. “This isn't you trying to get me to try some new kink shit. I don't want a party. End of story.”
“Then what were you working so hard on?” Steve hums gently, kissing his shoulder.
He can tell from Billy's silence that he's blushing - he is self-conscious about it. But… not in a bad way. This doesn't feel like a festering, boiling pot set to explode all over the.. It feels like shy, childish quiet. The type of shy that Eddie devours.
“Aw, my sweet baby,” He cooes, sitting closer so Billy is almost in his lap. “We won't make fun of you, promise. On Steve's Scouts Honor.”
Steve gives Billy's shoulders a gentle tug and the blonde leans back, now on both his boyfriends laps equally. Billy crosses his arms and huffs; he gets like this when he's vulnerable, like an emotional teddy bear. Steve likes it, likes to wait him out and be rewarded with the gentle and calm side to the boy who used to hate him. And Eddie loves it: he's s weirdly addicted to making his boyfriends shy - whether that flustering Steve until he snaps at him, or getting Billy all mushy and sulky.
Billy mumbles something, half the words barely making it out of his mouth.
“What was that, baby? I didn't quite catch that.” Eddie reaches up to tilt Billy's chin up.
“I said I want to spend the day with you guys.” Billy tries again, tone sharp. “I don't… I don't want a party. It's not… I don't like the attention, I wouldn't know what to do. I just figured… we could all hang out or something.”
“You… want to spend your birthday with us?” Eddie looks touched.
“Just us three?” Steve wraps his arms around Billy properly. “So what were you concentrating so hard on before?”
It takes Billy a few minutes to reply, curling in on himself a little, head tucked against Steve's shoulder.
“I… needed to do the math. Had some ideas, just… I couldn't think. You both work, and there's only a few hours in a day. I don't - plan well. Unlike some people.” Billy nudges Eddie with his foot. Eddie smiles.
“I would have helped you plan, sweetheart.”
“I wanted to surprise you guys…”
Steve looks up at Eddie, happy to see the metal-head looks as lovesick as he feels. Billy wants to spend his birthday just the three of them?
“...figured, we could catch a movie… or we could go to the lake…See, um… see if Max…” Billy shrugs and curls in on himself righter like it's no big deal. Like he wasn't hunched over a notepad brainstorming his birthday plans to make sure he could spend some of the day with his boyfriends, trying to sneak his sister in too. Like he wasn't hiding the fact this meant so much to him he was plotting and planning before even bringing it up.
“You're so fucking adorable.” Eddie sighs. “We can do whatever you want to do. And we'll take the day off, yeah? Then we can make sure all the hours of your birthday are filled with whatever fun you decide to do.”
“I can cook you something. Tell me what your favourite meal is, and it's happening.” Steve smiles when Billy looks up at him. “We could go see Platoon, I think that's still out. And hey - you can still surprise us on the day if you want, we will be ready for whatever."
“Oo, we could do Lover's Lake. Fool around a little? I've never done the whole parking, and making out, and skinny dipping. I don't care about location, but I am gonna make you come at least three times that night." Eddie smacks Billy's thigh and Billy snorts.
“I don't want a fuss.”
“Too bad. Fuss means people care about you. So toughen up, baby boy. We're going to have an amazing day." Eddie turns to the TV, declaring the matter settled. Billy takes a long slow breath and looks at the TV as well. Steve kisses Billy's head.