WHO: Billy Sinclair & Luka Romanov WHAT: Billy has been thinking about graduating high school a year early and going to college, so he's been setting up his plans for the future. However, Luka's plans to help Billy don't line up with what Billy had expected. Gifts are offered and Billy reluctantly accepts.
_______________________
It wasn’t that Billy had been avoiding discussing his college plans with Luka, really. He was going to talk about them, but he’d been waiting for a good time, waiting until he had the details hammered out and knew how he wanted to approach things. As far as Billy was concerned, Luka really didn’t have anything to do with this decision. He wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible so he didn’t have to rely on his mother, and so he wouldn’t be a student for another year while he had an older boyfriend.
All right, so he had something to do with this.
Billy slipped into Luka’s room after texting him to say he’d be by. He had a folder full of papers marked with tabs and colored flags. “So, I’ve been researching college options, and financial aid, and I think that if I continue to live here I won’t have to worry about room and board, or groceries, and I’m sure other people will be going to Greymalkin so I could hitch rides with them at the beginning and end of the day.”
Luka was sitting cross-legged on his bed behind holographic screens and a keyboard. It helped to visualize if he could. Chess had given him a decent painkiller that had mostly staved off his headaches, but focusing could still be a problem. He was in soft pants and a button-down, unbuttoned far enough to expose the screen over his glowing heart that projected the holograms. Glancing up when Billy slipped in, he said, “Do you really think I’m going to make you hitch rides with other people?”
“Make?” Billy laughed briefly. “No, Luka, I’m sure you’d insist that you hire a driver or something to take me everywhere I need to go, or to be modest you’d buy me a car so I have some autonomy and pay for my driver’s ed lessons. Something extravagant like that.”
Luka blinked. “So is this you saying you want the car or you don’t, because I already ordered the Bentley...”
Billy raised his eyebrows, and then a knowing look passed over his features. “Oh, you son of a … Luka. I should have known that car wasn’t actually for you. Are you----Luka!” He was sputtering, barely able to get words out. “Do you have any idea how much a Bentley costs? Do people as rich as you even look at the price tags anymore?”
“Of course I look at price tags. Just because something doesn’t put you out doesn’t mean you don’t check the price.” Luka reached for his screens and flattened them out, making a table instead. “You’ll get mugged in that thing, though. It’s a little conspicuous, I figured I’ll give it to you outright once we’re public with everything outside the school.”
“I think you’re missing the---you’re missing the point. You can’t buy me a car,” Billy said. He set down his folders on Luka’s desk and crossed to the bed. “You can’t buy me a Bentley. I... that’s-----Are you insane?”
“I also bought you a used Ford?”
Billy tipped his head to the side and made a little whining noise. He looked every inch the confused puppy. “You what?”
“I don’t want people to make fun of you or say stupid shit that they shouldn’t.” Luka shrugged. “It’s a good first car. You’ll really appreciate a Bentley after you spend some time driving something else. It’s a luxury car for a reason, and nobody’s going to call you a gold digger when you drive it.”
Billy had the wind knocked out of his sails, and he wasn’t quite sure how to argue this. “You can’t buy me a car,” he said weakly. “Luka, you can’t buy me two cars.”
“Billy.” Luka waved away his holograms so he could reach for Billy. “First, the Bentley is still mine. Second, you made a lot of important decisions recently, but those decisions mean that you lost support that you needed. Your mom’s not going to come around and take care of you, and you wouldn’t have done it when you did if we hadn’t been involved. I want you to be independent. Especially in a smaller town, being able to drive yourself will help with that.”
Billy shifted from foot to foot, his ears twitching before lowering a little. He didn’t take Luka’s hands; instead, he stayed almost frozen where he was. When he spoke again, he was almost crying. “You bought me a car?” Touched.
“It gets too cold in New York to get you a bike.” Like that was the only reason.
To avoid crying, Billy crawled into bed with Luka and curled up against him, burying his face against his shoulder. “Luka...” He felt bad accepting it. He felt bad relying on Luka for anything. It was like he was taking advantage of Luka’s money, like he was using him----but he needed the support; he had to get it from somewhere. “Thank you, I...” He pulled back, carefully wiping his eyes. “I don’t know how to say yes without looking like you’re my sugar daddy. I already let you take me to your cabin in Aspen.”
“What kind of asshole would I be if I went on vacation without my boyfriend? Or if I let him hitch rides while I drive around in brand new Bentley? Or, hell, if I let him rack up student loans when I could take care of it without putting a dent in my bank account? Money’s just a tool. I don’t gain anything by keeping it away from you when it helps you more than it helps me.” Luka leaned over and kissed Billy’s cheek. “The car is a gift. One hundred percent, it’s a gift. It’ll be in your name, and if you leave me tomorrow, it’s still yours no matter what.”
Billy hesitated. “So that folder about financial aid information...”
“Totally useless. If you want.”
“You want to give me a car, and you want to pay for my college tuition.” Billy repeated it, just to make sure he was completely clear about this. Paying for tuition was even more extravagant and expensive than the Bentley, and all that research he’d done meant that he’d absolutely crunched all the numbers and had a little panic attack about it.
“I want you to have the best chance you can. And it’s not like you’re going for an expensive degree, so you have extra reasons not to feel guilty about it.”
Billy swallowed hard and looked down at his hands. He gathered his tail into his hands. “Okay,” he said, with a nod. “I can’t tell you not to. It would be stupid of me not to take advantage of it.”
“Tell you what.” Luka scooted a little bit closer and kissed Billy’s neck, getting comfortable against him. “When you get rich and famous, you can pay me back.”
“Mm.” Billy let his eyes drift shut and tipped his head back. He lifted his tail and let it brush against Luka. “I want a contract.”
“Mmhm. Figured you would.” Luka nipped at his throat and rested his arm over Billy’s waist. “New science teacher’s a lawyer. Bet he would do you a favor.”
“Look at you, not raising a fuss about it...” Billy smiled and nuzzled him, tugging Luka in by his open shirt. “Good boy.”
Luka reached back to tug on Billy’s tail. “I have no intention of misbehaving. Signing some paper won’t change that.”
“I know. But it’s to protect you as much as me. If something happened, and … I don’t know, if something happened and it got ugly, I wouldn’t want you taking the rug out from under me and leaving me in a situation I couldn’t handle without your help, and I wouldn’t want to be able to demand more from you than you’ve offered.”
“Billy. You talk to Walter---or anyone else who can make this legal for you---and I’ll sign whatever you need me to. I mean, technically it’s not binding for you until you’re eighteen, but it’s just as real for me no matter when it happens.”
Billy pulled back, frowning. “It’s not binding for me?”
“You’re seventeen.” Luka didn’t seem all that bothered by it. “If you choose to break the contract, I can’t do anything about it because you’re under eighteen. It’s not like you’d be obligating yourself to anything but not asking me for more, right? So there’s nothing to be worried about. It’s not protecting me from much in the first place. It’s protecting you from being left out in the cold.”
“Well, that’s not... fair,” Billy said irritably, “but I guess I can work with that.”
“It’s the situation we’re in right now. I don’t have a problem with being told to put my money where my mouth is.” Luka ran his hand down Billy’s chest and gently rubbed his belly. “It won’t even matter in the long run. When I commit, I commit, and I’m telling you right now that I want to support you until you can support yourself.”
Billy gently kissed Luka’s ear, gingerly touching the glow in Luka’s chest. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now shush.” Luka took Billy’s chin in his hand and made him look him in the eye. He leaned in, kissing Billy solidly on the mouth. “I’m doing it because I love you. You would do the same for me.”
“Yes, darling, if I had billions of dollars I would absolutely do the same for you.” Billy nuzzled him gently. “And I’m accepting it because I love you.”
Nipping at Billy’s jaw, he trailed his fingers down over his throat, growling a little when he said, “And because if you didn’t, I’d have to spank you.”
Billy sucked in a breath, his eyelids fluttering as he tipped his head yet. “In that case, I don’t accept. You’re going to have to break me, and make me accept it.”
Luka grinned. Another kiss, and he was grabbing Billy by the back of the neck so he could drag him over his lap. “I’ll have to teach you not to be so stubborn.”