[ stiles' awkwardness is palpable, but fortunately for him, billy has a lot of experience with feeling awkward or embarrassed in front of people, and he knows how he wishes people would act in situations where he doesn't know how to transition back into something less uncomfortable. he brings just enough attention to it so it doesn't seem like he's uncomfortable or trying to ignore whatever just happened out of secondhand embarrassment (because he's not embarrassed, really, just relieved stiles didn't drop through a glass countertop), but not enough to make things worse. or so he hopes. ]
I'm impressed. Truly.
[ and he laughs quietly, mostly under his breath, just to show that he's unbothered by whatever stiles is getting flustered over.
billy's not expecting the t-rex to come equipped with a little squeaking mechanism, but as soon as stiles gives him a little squeeze and he lets out a sad little squawk of a sound for a dinosaur, billy looks... immensely pleased. frogger's boyfriend just got so much better. and also so much stupider, but as he looks at the little bowling ball of a toy, he just... laughs at it. god, he loves it already.
as stiles moonwalks away, billy gives the little dinosaur an affectionate pat on the head, reassuring it that he and stiles will come back for him, and then he grabs frogger up so he isn't accidentally given away to someone else as a prize. not that there's anyone else in the entire arcade, but billy doesn't want to risk it. he jogs a couple steps to catch up to stiles, falling in beside him with a stuffed alpaca tucked under one arm and a quiet, unexplained excitement starting to buzz in his veins.
billy eyes the air hockey table as they start to pass and opens his mouth to say something, probably suggest that they play, but he quickly closes his mouth, seeming to share stiles' thoughts about the potential for something gross. billy still hasn't forgotten about the teeth he found in the coin return of two different machines he tried to get his coins back from the first time. it's a no for him - of course, if stiles said he wanted to play, billy would probably just suck it up and play and hope to god or whoever that the machine didn't dispense like - a cutaway of someone's skull, poorly shaped into something resembling a puck, or something equally messed up.
stiles keeps going though, so billy keeps following, content to let stiles lead him wherever, to play whatever. he wanders closer at stiles' nod, already starting to take off his backpack to put frogger away as stiles drops a quarter in (he refuses to put him down on the floor, where it's probably sticky and gritty). billy hooks one of the bag straps over the yellow steering wheel, frogger facing toward stiles, and steps up behind the red wheel. ]
No, this is good. I think I've played this maybe... once? Not here. [ back home. it seems vaguely familiar, anyway. billy taps one of two buttons on either side of the wheel, progressing to a screen that prompts him to add a name, and enters 'BTK'. he enters a random date for his birthday, and then waits for the game to start, his hands on the wheel at ten and two, just like everyone says they're supposed to be. when the race starts, billy... floors it. which doesn't make him go any faster than everyone else, but he's here to win, not to play.
he's here to lose, apparently, because the first turn absolutely takes him out. his little red car takes a nosedive straight into a wall, bounces back, stalls for a second before he can get it turned around, and by then, three cars including stiles' have pulled ahead of his. how embarrassing.
billy tries to distract from this by asking something he meant to ask the last time he hung out at stiles' place. ] Uh, hey, so...
[ he trails off for a second, distracted and digging his teeth into his lower lip as the yellow car, played by a computer, wipes out. billy tries to pull ahead, and only continues once he's overtaken the computer. ]
Sorry. What was the, uh. The grizzly bear thing about? You have a dog I completely missed or something?
no subject
I'm impressed. Truly.
[ and he laughs quietly, mostly under his breath, just to show that he's unbothered by whatever stiles is getting flustered over.
billy's not expecting the t-rex to come equipped with a little squeaking mechanism, but as soon as stiles gives him a little squeeze and he lets out a sad little squawk of a sound for a dinosaur, billy looks... immensely pleased. frogger's boyfriend just got so much better. and also so much stupider, but as he looks at the little bowling ball of a toy, he just... laughs at it. god, he loves it already.
as stiles moonwalks away, billy gives the little dinosaur an affectionate pat on the head, reassuring it that he and stiles will come back for him, and then he grabs frogger up so he isn't accidentally given away to someone else as a prize. not that there's anyone else in the entire arcade, but billy doesn't want to risk it. he jogs a couple steps to catch up to stiles, falling in beside him with a stuffed alpaca tucked under one arm and a quiet, unexplained excitement starting to buzz in his veins.
billy eyes the air hockey table as they start to pass and opens his mouth to say something, probably suggest that they play, but he quickly closes his mouth, seeming to share stiles' thoughts about the potential for something gross. billy still hasn't forgotten about the teeth he found in the coin return of two different machines he tried to get his coins back from the first time. it's a no for him - of course, if stiles said he wanted to play, billy would probably just suck it up and play and hope to god or whoever that the machine didn't dispense like - a cutaway of someone's skull, poorly shaped into something resembling a puck, or something equally messed up.
stiles keeps going though, so billy keeps following, content to let stiles lead him wherever, to play whatever. he wanders closer at stiles' nod, already starting to take off his backpack to put frogger away as stiles drops a quarter in (he refuses to put him down on the floor, where it's probably sticky and gritty). billy hooks one of the bag straps over the yellow steering wheel, frogger facing toward stiles, and steps up behind the red wheel. ]
No, this is good. I think I've played this maybe... once? Not here. [ back home. it seems vaguely familiar, anyway. billy taps one of two buttons on either side of the wheel, progressing to a screen that prompts him to add a name, and enters 'BTK'. he enters a random date for his birthday, and then waits for the game to start, his hands on the wheel at ten and two, just like everyone says they're supposed to be. when the race starts, billy... floors it. which doesn't make him go any faster than everyone else, but he's here to win, not to play.
he's here to lose, apparently, because the first turn absolutely takes him out. his little red car takes a nosedive straight into a wall, bounces back, stalls for a second before he can get it turned around, and by then, three cars including stiles' have pulled ahead of his. how embarrassing.
billy tries to distract from this by asking something he meant to ask the last time he hung out at stiles' place. ] Uh, hey, so...
[ he trails off for a second, distracted and digging his teeth into his lower lip as the yellow car, played by a computer, wipes out. billy tries to pull ahead, and only continues once he's overtaken the computer. ]
Sorry. What was the, uh. The grizzly bear thing about? You have a dog I completely missed or something?