Re: Comic Book Heroes: Alex/Holly/Billy
It was kinda impossible not to notice Alex was kinda of shrinking violet? Holly didn't remember the guy's counterpart doing that, but he also remembered Alex having a pretty supportive boyfriend, and Holly knew that kinda thing did wonders sometimes. I mean, Holly had never done the truck stop thing, and he wasn't a shrinking violet, but he'd been stealing and cajoling and camming his way through life since he was way too young, and he knew something about surviving. Quiet, yeah, and he didn't trust people much or let them in, but it was just survival instinct. He got the feeling Alex making himself small? Was the same thing. And he got the feeling that Billy over there, being Billy? Was just another way of getting out of life alive. So, right, the point was that he noticed, even if not even a flicker of it reached his gaze, and even if he seemed entirely unaware of all of it as he separated comic piles.
Something else he noticed? The way Alex went red in the cheeks. He smiled a little, did Holly. A bit of a smirk that just touched one corner of his mouth, but it was a knowing thing, entertained in a good way, and here Holly did shoot a glance at Billy, you know, to see if the other guy had noticed too. Now, Tandy? Had given Holly this entire 'I'm not gay like you,' speech, which Holly had only, like, partly acknowledged, because he had a feeling Tandy had no clue what Tandy was. He was pretty sure the guy hadn't known back home, and this whole gender-flip thing? Probably didn't help. Anyway, he liked Alex... the Alex he knew, and this one seemed pretty okay too.
Too, he noticed Alex's wide-eyed reaction to the comic gift, and he noticed that Billy kinda didn't know what to do with that. It was, quite possibly, the most likable thing he'd seen Billy do. Not the gift giving, nah, but the, like, humble reaction? He didn't still want Billy touching Noah in any flirty capacity, but it did win the guy some points. Anyway, right, comics.
"Tandy and I go way back. We can throw down for them," Holly said easily, with his usual lack of inflection. Okay, okay, neither he or Tandy were the 'thrown down' type, and they didn't entirely go way back, but the joke was still valid and offered with a grin that said it was just that, a joke. "You're taking him home from the pound, huh?" he continued, asking Billy about the 'moving in' thing. He thought it was good. "He told me you wanted to go dancing, and I was pro-that. I'm pro rooming together too." For Holly? That was downright ebullient kindness. Noah would be so fucking proud. Not that Holly would tell him, you know, because he was cool, chill, liked no one, and etc. and etc., you know. "Throw a housewarming party. You'll make bank," he added practically.