Wouldn't It Be Nice ~ The Beach Boys

[playingtough]

WHO: Billy Hargrove and OPEN
WHERE: Beach
WHAT: Surfin' USA
WHEN: Daylight hours
WARNINGS: N/A



It should be a crime that he hasn't really used his board here in Temba until now. The pretty white board with green coloring around the edge really popped against his figure and the waves as Billy Hargrove rode them. It was clear there was skill, as he did well in the waves more often than not, with only a few wipe-outs. His board shorts are soaked through, along with his tank top - both gifts from his birthday ordeal Tommy gifted him with back on the spaceport.

If you know Hargrove, and how angry and prickly he is, this seems like a completely different side of him. One that Hawkins doesn't get to see because there's no surf. There's no sand, no sun, nothing that he has in his beloved California back home. And the aliens seemed to understand that giving him the board for the New Tick.

He goes out again, riding through the curl of a wave before he wipes out, coming back to the surface with a laugh before finally swimming back to shore and walking back up the purple sand with it under his arm with the free hand combing through wet curls to brush them out of his face.

Comments

[faceguy]

Leo comes out of the water laughing, rolling onto his back into the surf.

“Oooh, that was funnier than I thought it would be!”

[playingtough]

"Oh great, this weird freak again," Billy grumbles out loud. He doesn't even realize that there's two, Donnie and Leo, and that this character here is the one Billy denied entry into the ship's cockpit. He's just thinking Leo switches his blue out for purple when he's feeling ~quirky~.

"What the hell do you want, reptile?" he demands with some bite and an angry look on his face. How dare this guy touch his board!

[faceguy]

The aggressive comment makes Leo falter. He knew this guy was a prickly jerk (who wouldn’t let Leo see the cockpit of the ship!), but being called a freak, by someone who so clearly means it, still catches him off guard.

He’s been called a lot of derogatory things in his life, but this one still feels… different. And hits at a vulnerable place inside himself that Leo tries to keep shielded.

(At least Hargrove knows he’s a reptile and not an amphibian, though.)

“…Sheesh,” he says when he has his voice back. “Learn how to take a joke.”

[playingtough]

It's the laughter going into faltering that tunes Billy into it quickly. Maybe a year ago he wouldn't have noticed it at all, but now? And that little bit on Leo's face that might've been something hurt?

Shit.

Billy curls his hands against the board, making sure his nails don't bite against the surface. "Shouldn't have called you that." An apology without outright saying it, as Billy had a habit of doing.

[faceguy]

The quick turn around is unexpected. Leo isn’t quite sure what to do with it. He feels a little embarrassed he was even caught having a feeling.

He can’t really say it was okay, but accepting it like an apology feels weird, too. Moving on like nothing happened feels like the cool guy thing to do, but faceman that he is, it’s still hard.

“…Yeah, well, at least you got right that I’m a reptile and not a frog or something,” he ends up saying. A joke to brush it off. He swims a few feet further away.

[playingtough]

Don’t worry, he can already hear Tommy barking at him inches mind that you don’t just call people that. Not without repercussions that is. It’s easier to notice how Leo puts distance between them.

"Well, yeah, you’re obviously a salamander of some fucking kind," he jokes back with his own uncertain smirk.

"Got bad memories of being grabbed and I can’t see what it is. You didn’t grab me, you grabbed the board, but I didn’t like it and got angry. Shouldn’t have said that word or… or yelled."

[faceguy]

Leo actually smiles a little at the joke. Maybe this interaction is not a total train wreck. And the explanation makes him feel a little guilty.

“Oh, my bad.” He rubs the back of his head. “Guess not everyone is cool with being messed with.”

He grew up with his three brothers and April and basically no one else. It’s easy to forget sometimes that there are boundaries in normal social interaction. Leo knows better than to touch someone, but he should extend that to people’s stuff. Especially since Hargrove seems to like his personal space.

[playingtough]

If Leo had done this kind of prank a year ago, Billy would've immediately gone into attack mode (and probably lost in the water against the turtle), but he was doing better now on not lashing out as quick with his fists. He still had some ways to go with his words at least. And with directly apologizing instead of alluding to it.

A foot kicks out to splash water at the other.

"Do turtles go out surfing with boards or just swim?" C'mon, he can salvage this situation, right? Right?

[faceguy]

That question surprises Leo a little, and he quirks his head.

“Only board I’ve ever been on is a skateboard. But I never saw a beach until I came here.” He didn’t get to go to Tahiti with his brothers. “I bet I could do it, though.”

He’s Leonardo, good at everything, after all.

[playingtough]

"Oh great, another skateboarder. I bet you and my sister get along great." There's a little sarcasm in there. Billy doesn't know if the guy's met Max yet or not, but if he likes skateboarding? They've probably het.

Billy let his gaze linger out on the water, almost feeling homesick for California and her waves. "You were missing out then. No one has a coast and surf like California. I'm glad we've got this beach down here, but it just makes me miss home when I get to thinking about it."

[faceguy]

"No idea. Who's your sister?" If she likes skateboarding then he's down for hanging out.

"Oooh, so you're a Cali boy." Said with only a touch of East Coast Disdain. "I'm from New York myself. This place is nothing like it at all."

He gets pretty homesick too, actually. He misses the city... though not as much as he misses the rest of his family.

[playingtough]

"Max Mayfield. Little bitch with red hair and attitude to keep up with me. And if I hear you call her that word, I’ll beat the shit out of you."

It’s hard to tell if he’s kidding or not.

"Max and I are both from San Diego," he replies with his own pride because he knows his city is far better than whatever the east coast can provide. "Yeah probably doesn’t feel like home for you without all the people yelling at each other and congested roads."

A smirk, because he likes making dogs at east coast city slickers.

[faceguy]

"Oh, Max! Yeah, I know her. She's cool."

And he gets it. Donnie is an egg-headed weirdo and Leo would clock anyone who said so. But he would never use that word! He's terrified of what his best friend April would do to him if he did (and she'd know, alternate universes be damned).

"Hey, the yelling is just part of the music of the city! At least we have pizza and not whatever bland health food you hippies eat."

[playingtough]

"Health food? What're you on about, Turt?" Billy scoffs at the idea of health food being something California is known for. "And just because I was born during that stupid hippie movement doesn't mean I am one. Hippies don't like the car I drive, or the loud music I play."

And it's good that Leo seems to take his threat about harassing Max seriously. As he should, because Billy Hargrove isn't against putting people in their place. If it sent a message, he'd do it in a heartbeat, reformation be damned. Don't mess with his younger sister.

"And if yelling is your idea of music, you have got to get a better set of ears."

[faceguy]

Coming from the late 2010s, California being known for health food and hippie treehuggers is totally valid!

Though he does quirk an eye ridge at that, and then he grins and gestures at the sides of his head, where he notably does not have any visible ears. "Better pair of what?"

(He is being very silly.)

[playingtough]

Coming from the mid 1980s, you're weird! You're also a really sentient turtle on two legs, so there's a lot more weird going on then just that at least.

He kicks water back at Leo again before paddling his way back towards the shore. "A better pair of whatever kind of ears you have, since you have to have some if you're listening to someone as awesome as me."

[faceguy]

“Awesome!? Hah! You wish you could be as awesome as me, man.”

He’s just going to let himself float back in on the waves.

[playingtough]

"What? Why would I want to lower myself to your level when my awesome level is clearly better?" He lays back on the board, letting the waves push him back towards the shore without the extra effort from himself.

"You're a turtle from NYC. That automatically makes me better than some reptile from the east coast."

[faceguy]

“Reptiles are cooler than mammals, east coast is better than west.” He holds his hands up. “It’s just the truth, man. Don’t shoot the messenger.”