revivalproject | Slide ~ Goo Goo Dolls

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Slide ~ Goo Goo Dolls

WHO: Billy Hargrove, Tommy Shepherd
WHERE: The Beach
WHAT: Celebrating a certain someone’s birthday
WHEN: Evening of Oct. 12th
WARNINGS: Boyfriends

It's taken awhile to get everything set up. The hammock posted up on the beach just out of reach of the high tide; the branches and wood of various thickness tented together at a safe distance from said hammock; a blanket with the edges tucked into the sand with a large tray covered by another cloth held down by rocks; candles he had asked Tommy for a month or so ago to use in the beach house. Billy stands back, observing that everything is in the perfect spot with hands on his hips.

Earlier in the month they had a rough start. A bad day for Tommy with bad words from Hargrove in his anger that was mirroring his boyfriend's. But there was something that stuck out to the blond, something that let him know that what he was doing was right.

'The only one that wanted me. The only one that ever celebrated my birthday!' Billy could do this now, could let his boyfriend feel so damn special on his day. No being overshadowed by accident with Kaplan. No joint birthday. Just Tommy.

And of course he's made sure he's looking good. A fresh shower, a good scrub on his cheeks to bring out the color, and yes, even a spritz of cologne (thank you Munson). He's got on his cleanest jeans and a tank top from his own birthday, but has decided against boots for now. He feels really good about this.

Really good about it. Billy thinks it's really gonna make his boyfriend happy and that just feels the blond with this Good Feeling he can't quite describe yet, even after all these months. He reaches down to check, again, that the little wrapped cloth is still there. It is. It won't go anywhere until he needs it to.

Ruffling his hair as a last distraction, Billy crouches to set a spark to the candle wicks, then moves away to text Tommy.

'Took care of dinner for you tonight. Meet me at the beach. Sunset. No is not an option.'

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"Good, keep that compliment and let it keep you warm when I’m not around to do it myself."

He maneuvers them to steal a kiss against Tommy’s forehead. "I’ll take the firewood inside and a candle before I help you with the cleanup. Which you shouldn’t do because you’re the birthday boy, but I can’t stop you I think."

It takes a moment to gently roll them out of the hammock, and Billy sets to doing what he said. Gathering up some of the wood and a burning candle to take in before jogging back to help clean up. That meant breaking down the hammock and gathering up the blanket to take back in. By then the fire is cozy in the hearth, crackling while Billy resets the blankets and pillows. "If you’re all done going in and out, just push that rock against the door. It’s weighted enough to keep curious lobsters out."

Does Billy not know how charming he is? How fucking heartwarming his words are? It makes Tommy smile. It's so sappy and cheesy and it is all theirs.

"Fuck you, I can do it even if I'm the birthday boy. I make the rules, right? And I want to help. Dating is, like, partnership or something. Please let me help."

He doesn't like doing nothing, okay? So yes, he does help despite being admonished not to. Helps that he's fast enough to dodge any attempts to chide him. And when everything is done, he does indeed push the rock against hte door.

"The lobsters bother you much? Guess that makes sense. Things are stupidly curious. Think everything is food."

Yep, any time Billy tried to stop him, Tommy simply wasn’t there. He wasn’t mad, laughing about it instead. Such joy his Jersey Devil brought into his life. Once they’re safe in the walls of the shack, lock-rock in place, he goes over to curl his arms around his partner.

"Not my idea of a good night to be woken up by those things moving around on the floor." Sometimes the sounds didn’t help when he woke from a nightmare, specially in the days before he and Tommy were together.

Billy leads them over to the bed, pulling the guy down with him with a soft 'oof'. "Alright, birthday boy. What rating do you give your birthday? And you get to pick how we sleep tonight. Barnacle mode, me being your weighted blanket, spooning…?"

"Who says I have to choose one? Why can't I just work my way through them all through the night?" Tommy asks as he settles in. And you better believe he's starting with his head on Billy's chest. Mostly because he's put the rest of the snack board on Billy's chest so he can nibble while cuddling.

He's efficient like that.

Ha! Billy laughs at that, and gets comfortable propped up partially against the headboard while Tommy cuddles up against him. He makes sure to keep at an angle that the platter doesn't tip over. "I know you'll work through them. I'll go to bed with you sleeping on top of me, wake up halfway through with me spooning you, and then in the morning I'll be weighing you down."

It meant so much to give Tommy the choices for sleeping though. He'd definitely shown and absolutely earned Billy's trust that he'd stay. Or, at the very least, come back if he had to leave because of a screaming fucking moon.

Billy ruffles his hand through Tommy's hair, then down to lay against his back.

"I like it when you weigh me down," Tommy admits, perhaps a bit more shyly than he might in another situation. The fact of the matter is that it makes him feel desired. Anchored too.

"Now be a handsome plate and stay still," he teases. "I might not be able to eat cake off of you, but I can sure eat sliced cheese off of a plate that is on you."

"Yeah?" Billy's eyes brighten for a moment hearing that shy sounding admission. Like it's some sort of secret. About to wiggle again and upset the plate of food, all he does is grin. And then lean like he's going to tip the plate over.

He doesn't, but he does tease at it. "Maybe I should flip it off of me and make you eat whatever lands on me. But maybe then you'll loose control of your self-discipline and go wild on me." Okay, this time he does pick up a piece of meat to flick towards Tommy's mouth.

"Geez, kill a guy on his birthday why don't you," Tommy laughs.

That said, there are advantages to being fast. Including always being good enough to make sure food thrown your way, no matter how strongly or playfully, always lands true to its mark. He even smiles as he's chewing.

"Well put in the cards for next year, how about that?" then laughs as Tommy goes from near stillness to chewing. "You’ll beat me at the food throwing thread everything, won’t you?"

Following this, Billy almost upsets the tray anyways leaning over to steal a kiss from him. "I suppose the answer is yes because you don’t let food go to waste."

"Sounds perfect," Tommy grins.

Was it weird that this was the first time in a long while that he was looking forward to the new year? Probably.

"And of course I will, so long as I have my powers. It's what I do. I impress people."

And yeah, he'd never let food go to waste. The very idea of it makes him queasy enough that he's happy to be distracted by the kiss. It gets into his own past traumas after all.

Another slice of meat gets tossed to Tommy. He is impressed. And entertained. He's all soft smiles just watching the guy, seeing how happy he is. He knows that happiness comes from feeling that someone outside of Kaplan loves him so much.

It makes his heart thump that much harder knowing that he did that. He licks at Tommy's bottom lip for a moment, before pulling back so he can continue being the sexiest plate in all of Temba. Even picks up one of the cheese pieces to eat. "You are pretty fucking special. And handsome." A pause. "...Pretty?"

It's a question, and Billy's watching Tommy. Because the guy straddles both adjectives, but the blond is trying to shake off old upbringing. And he's asking before committing in case Tommy doesn't like that word.

Like Eddie's f-word.

"Oh, definitely pretty. Billiam tends to get that one more because of the dark hair making his face look paler, but I'm pretty too. I bet I could rock a miniskirt."

NOthing wrong with being pretty.

Pretty was okay. He could use that word. Alright then. His boyfriend was… pretty. Then oh, how he blinks in surprise at the mention of a mini skirt.

"Skirts are for girls." Because Billy hasn’t even encountered those kinds of things at home yet, so men wearing clothes normally designated for women is… new.

"No, skirts are for people that have killer gams," Tommy counters, looking up and meeting Billy's eyes with a spark of defiance there.

There were still some bumps that they might run into, and clearly this was one.

"There's no such thing as gendered clothes, Billy. Just gendered expectations. David, my almost-boyfriend, wore a killer corset and skirt combination to a big gala. Fucking gorgeous. And you know what? I'd look amazing in a skirt. It's okay to admit that, even if it's not something you'd normally think of or be attracted by."

Killer ga- oh, legs. Billy still looks baffled, trying to process all of that even as Tommy meets that gaze with that defiant one of his own. What was even going on?

Men in corsets? Skirts?

His mind is running with a lot of thoughts - a lot of arguments, because skirts were for girls, corsets were for girls, why would his boyfriend want to wear girl's clothes? Tommy was a boyfriend.

And despite all of the arguments running through his head, Billy also does not want to start an argument on his boyfriend's birthday. Even Billy wasn't that shitty. Or maybe that's just special treatment for Tommhy.

What does come out of his mouth is a very defensive sounding "I'm not attracted by it!" which sounds like a cover for being attracted by it.

"That's okay," Tommy says, calming down. The level of defensiveness might be a hint at something, but he isn't going to push that button. At all.

"People don't all have to be attracted to the same things. Like me? I'm definitely not attracted to really serious full beards. Just not my jam. Something about the roughness of it on my skin is more irritating, which is impressive because of the whole increased friction resistance. I just don't get it. Oh, or excessive eyeshadow. My brain always thinks of those super colorful poisonous frogs in the rain forest and I get nervous."

You're damn straight he's going to do his best to comfort his boyfriend.

"You don't have to be attracted to absolutely everything I enjoy. That's okay, you know that, right?"

Tommy calming down takes some of the tension out of Billy - but there's some still there. This conversation was pressing at some upbringing from his family and society that he was not sure about. There's nothing said and he lets the speedster talk about his dislike for full beards.

"Not a fan of girls wearing a lot of it?" Because again, it's something for girls. It only briefly crosses his mind that Tommy's probably talking about boys and girls and not just the latter. So there's some of that tension in him again.

"Yeah. Yeah, I know that. I guess things are... different in your time back home? That shi—— That stuff isn't the norm for me."

"Or guys," Tommy corrects. Maybe he made an exception for David.

"And it's not the norm for me, either, Billy. People have to fight for the freedom of expression all the time. Like you."

He gestures up and down the stretch of Billy.

"You've got the whole bad boy vibe. And some public schools with dress codes do their best to prevent people from dressing like that. They want to punish you for not conforming, for not being true to yourself. Which I'm always, 100% of the time, against."

Or guys. This was going to be a lot to think about. Guys wearing girls' clothes, and makeup. Girls probably wearing guy stuff and working on cars n' shit.

Tommy gets his full attention at the remark of his freedom of expression, and the gesture to the rest of his body.

"So... you're saying that guys wearing stuff for girls is a freedom of expression?" It might take a little bit to break him off this idea that clothes had gender. Or however Tommy had put it.

"I'm saying that literally anything we wear is freedom of expression, handsome," Tommy says with a chuckle before reaching up to lightly touch Billy's earring. Then he moves his fingers to his own new necklace. "Like these. These express our connection."

So yes, he thinks people wearing whatever they want means whatever they want. Though it's also about history.

"It used to be that girls weren't allowed to wear pants. And swimsuits for men and women covered their whole bodies. Things change. Expression gets to evolve."

His face follows Tommy’s movement, almost getting his chin in that hand that brushes his earring. There’s a lot of conflicting emotions and it’s kind of clear on his face. He wants his boyfriend to be able to express himself how he wants but girl clothes? Corsets? Skirts?

But Tommy was right - because of course he was, the guy is smart - about the old days where women couldn’t wear pants or show ankle and men could only wear one piece suits for swimming.

"It does. I’m just… I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around it."

"Gonna be honest, Sunshine, so did I at first," Tommy agrees with a laugh before moving to put his head down again. "But when I ended up with the Kaplans and I needed a different way to prove I was in charge of my life. That people couldn't control me. I ended up at a lot of clubs, a lot of gay clubs too. Drag shows and burlesques and all sorts of places all around the world. Spent a lot of time talking to a lot of people."

And in the process he learned a lot of things. It opened his mind. But he'd always heard that travel, that meeting other people, was the best way to do that.

"But you're smart. IN your own way you're fucking whip smart too. And I think if you wanted to wrap your head around it, with enough time you could. Which is cool. But you also don't have to think that's your expression. Or be into that expression in other people. All that matters is you let them live their true selves and they let you live your true self."

Tommy will definitely feel Billy relax. Does it help that the guy says he struggled to accept it as well? It does actually. He breathes in and out under Tommy’s head as they relax together in bed.

"I have my car. And fighting. Surfing now, since I got my board earlier this year." He wasn’t as well traveled as his boyfriend, but Tommy won’t hold that against him. Maybe. Hopefully. He lets out an exhale and picks up another piece of meat to toss to Tommy. Boyfriend enrichment tasks while they relaxed. "I probably can. Gotta think it over and untangle it in my head. And I want you to be able to do what you want without worrying about what I think. Just because my upbringing made me a little shitty doesn’t mean you should hide it."

"You think I'd let you keep me from doing whatever I want?" Tommy asks with a smile. "At least when it comes to my self expression? If I wanted to be in skirts, I'd be in skirts. I can show off my legs just as well in bootie shorts, man. Which is what laundry day is for."

"You wouldn't and I know you wouldn't. If I tried, you'd just speed away from me and do it anyways. While I watched, to make a point." He can imagine Tommy doing exactly that, with a smug grin on his face turned to Billy in challenge. A challenge his boyfriend would never be able to meet.

But oh. Right. Tommy had booty shorts. Another future thing, but he's sure he's seen something like what Tommy had in a magazine. It looked like underwear to him.

No, don't think about Tommy in his underwear. Don't do it--

"That sounds like they're just underwear that you can wear in public."

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