[ the last time billy was here, standing at this counter with a handful of tickets and stiles' jackpot draped around his neck like an ugly, useless scarf, he spent nearly fifteen minutes trying to decide what to spend them on before he noticed a cute, mint-green alpaca tucked down near the bottom corner of the prize wall. he's seen most if not all of these prizes already, but he still looks at them again anyway, still just as creeped out by the weird zippery toys as he was the first time. frogger was actually almost tutu cat.
stiles' enthusiastic pointing and snapping of his fingers pulls billy's attention back to him again. he lift his eyebrows slightly, then turns back to the wall, tilting his head back and trying to follow the line of stiles' flailing arm. he leans in a little closer to stiles' shoulder, trying to look from a perspective that's closer to his, but - there are quite a few plush toys stuck up on the wall, so it's difficult to tell which one stiles is pointing at, but billy does quietly note the use of a masculine pronoun. he's has got it narrowed down to maybe four contenders just based on the general area stiles is gesturing at, but. ]
Which—
[ before billy can ask him to be a little more specific, though, stiles is suddenly climbing up onto the counter and billy immediately startles, looking around quickly to see if anyone's watching or around, anybody who could potentially scold them or kick them out before they can even touch a game, but there's nobody, which is more of a relief than it is concerning at this point. billy immediately whips around, one of his hands darting out to curl around stiles' ankle, not to try and stop him, but as admittedly-useless support. ]
Stiles, what are you— you're gonna— Oh my god...
[ billy doesn't even care that it looks like stiles is about to steal a prize off the wall; his main concern is that stiles is standing on glass. he's fairly lean from what billy can tell, but the last thing either of them needs is for stiles to go crashing through a sheet of glass and wind up in the hospital.
in his scramble to grab onto stiles, billy knocks over frogger. he slaps his free hand around until flesh meets soft plush, and blindly stands him back up, his own gaze pointed upwards and focused on stiles. there's no way the glass countertop isn't going to shatter. billy's anxiety spikes a little, and he starts to murmur under his breath. ]
[ as far as spells go, it's relatively tame. the outline of billy's hand illuminates a soft, almost neon blue-white, but it's subtle enough that it could be mistaken for a glint of the light in the display case reflecting upward. the sheet of glass itself just seems... cleaner for a moment. shinier.
as soon as stiles claims his prize and starts to climb down, billy immediately lets go of stiles' ankle, breaking the spell. he takes a step back and holds out his hands kind of awkwardly, like he's offering a hand down if stiles wants it, but also like he's ready to catch him should he fall the very drastic and devastating four feet from the counter top to the ground.
stiles may not be looking at billy while he makes frogger's new sweetheart presentable, but billy just stands there and stares at him like he doesn't know what to think about him, his eyebrows slightly arched, head tilted a little to one side, hip leaning against the edge of the counter. frogger is on top of the glass in the space between them, staring off in some random direction.
the question throws him, mostly because he's already forgotten what they were talking about before stiles decided to scale the display case to take down a prize they haven't even paid for yet. billy blinks, his eyebrows pinching together a little until he realizes what stiles is asking about.
all this time, stiles has been talking about getting frogger a girlfriend. a wife. which isn't really a big deal, but he also kind of blew off billy's subtle suggestion that maybe he wouldn't want a girlfriend, which also isn't a big deal, but it did make him quietly wonder if maybe that's... not... something stiles would be comfortable with. billy's only known him for a little under a month, and he seems like a really cool, down-to-earth kind of guy with good taste in movies and a habit of rambling if you get him on the right topic, just like billy. he likes him, and would even call him a friend, but he'd be lying if he said he hasn't wondered once or twice now if stiles would feel differently about their friendship if he... knew.
they're not talking about frogger anymore. they weren't talking about frogger before, either, but billy understands that this is stiles asking billy. putting out feelers, maybe - or maybe asking for reasons that aren't so great, but billy doesn't let himself think negatively. instead, he shrugs his shoulder as casually as he can manage and nods, offering a somewhat unsure, but mostly easy smile. ]
... Yeah. Yeah, I think he'd be really cool with it. [ billy tilts his head slightly, gives stiles a pointed look. ] But we should probably win some tickets first before we go walking off with his new boyfriend.
no subject
stiles' enthusiastic pointing and snapping of his fingers pulls billy's attention back to him again. he lift his eyebrows slightly, then turns back to the wall, tilting his head back and trying to follow the line of stiles' flailing arm. he leans in a little closer to stiles' shoulder, trying to look from a perspective that's closer to his, but - there are quite a few plush toys stuck up on the wall, so it's difficult to tell which one stiles is pointing at, but billy does quietly note the use of a masculine pronoun. he's has got it narrowed down to maybe four contenders just based on the general area stiles is gesturing at, but. ]
Which—
[ before billy can ask him to be a little more specific, though, stiles is suddenly climbing up onto the counter and billy immediately startles, looking around quickly to see if anyone's watching or around, anybody who could potentially scold them or kick them out before they can even touch a game, but there's nobody, which is more of a relief than it is concerning at this point. billy immediately whips around, one of his hands darting out to curl around stiles' ankle, not to try and stop him, but as admittedly-useless support. ]
Stiles, what are you— you're gonna— Oh my god...
[ billy doesn't even care that it looks like stiles is about to steal a prize off the wall; his main concern is that stiles is standing on glass. he's fairly lean from what billy can tell, but the last thing either of them needs is for stiles to go crashing through a sheet of glass and wind up in the hospital.
in his scramble to grab onto stiles, billy knocks over frogger. he slaps his free hand around until flesh meets soft plush, and blindly stands him back up, his own gaze pointed upwards and focused on stiles. there's no way the glass countertop isn't going to shatter. billy's anxiety spikes a little, and he starts to murmur under his breath. ]
Please don't break please don't break please don't break—
[ as far as spells go, it's relatively tame. the outline of billy's hand illuminates a soft, almost neon blue-white, but it's subtle enough that it could be mistaken for a glint of the light in the display case reflecting upward. the sheet of glass itself just seems... cleaner for a moment. shinier.
as soon as stiles claims his prize and starts to climb down, billy immediately lets go of stiles' ankle, breaking the spell. he takes a step back and holds out his hands kind of awkwardly, like he's offering a hand down if stiles wants it, but also like he's ready to catch him should he fall the very drastic and devastating four feet from the counter top to the ground.
stiles may not be looking at billy while he makes frogger's new sweetheart presentable, but billy just stands there and stares at him like he doesn't know what to think about him, his eyebrows slightly arched, head tilted a little to one side, hip leaning against the edge of the counter. frogger is on top of the glass in the space between them, staring off in some random direction.
the question throws him, mostly because he's already forgotten what they were talking about before stiles decided to scale the display case to take down a prize they haven't even paid for yet. billy blinks, his eyebrows pinching together a little until he realizes what stiles is asking about.
all this time, stiles has been talking about getting frogger a girlfriend. a wife. which isn't really a big deal, but he also kind of blew off billy's subtle suggestion that maybe he wouldn't want a girlfriend, which also isn't a big deal, but it did make him quietly wonder if maybe that's... not... something stiles would be comfortable with. billy's only known him for a little under a month, and he seems like a really cool, down-to-earth kind of guy with good taste in movies and a habit of rambling if you get him on the right topic, just like billy. he likes him, and would even call him a friend, but he'd be lying if he said he hasn't wondered once or twice now if stiles would feel differently about their friendship if he... knew.
they're not talking about frogger anymore. they weren't talking about frogger before, either, but billy understands that this is stiles asking billy. putting out feelers, maybe - or maybe asking for reasons that aren't so great, but billy doesn't let himself think negatively. instead, he shrugs his shoulder as casually as he can manage and nods, offering a somewhat unsure, but mostly easy smile. ]
... Yeah. Yeah, I think he'd be really cool with it. [ billy tilts his head slightly, gives stiles a pointed look. ] But we should probably win some tickets first before we go walking off with his new boyfriend.