Chapter Text
It was a stupid idea, Steve knows now, to try to fool the system. He shouldn’t have bothered. Standing in front of the Wheeler house on Christimas Eve in 1990, with a primly-wrapped present in shiny green complete with a little white satin bow, he can’t help but feel utterly stupid for trying to make things work out for himself. It was selfish, and foolish, and just plain dumb -
The door opens and Nancy giggles and drags Steve in with a hand curled in his sweater. She presses her face to his chest and hugs him, and above her spicy alpha scent of allspice and campfire is the smell of eggnog and rum, and farther in the house the smell of turkey and pine. Five years ago, it would have hurt his heart, smelling her backgrounded by the smells of Christmas, but now his heart is set on someone else so Nancy’s hug is merely comforting in the way she intends it to be.
He moves an arm around her to hug her back before Nancy pulls away, still giggling, and Jonathan pops up in the hallway behind her with a hesitant smile on his face.
“Hey Jonathan,” Steve greets, waving a hand and smiling back.
“Hey Steve!” Jonathan’s eyes go wide when Nancy turns and flings herself at him. She hangs off his body as he struggles to curl his arms safely around her to keep her from falling over.
“Johnny!” she coos, reaching up to pinch his cheek. “My perfect lil’ Johnny boy!”
Steve hides a smile behind his hand, but his eyes twinkle in amusement. As exasperated as Jonathan looks, he smells like freshly baked sugar cookies - like happiness and contentment. Jonathan usually smells sweet.
It’s something Steve is jealous of.
Most omegas smell sweet, but Steve usually smells tangy - sometimes sweet, sometimes fruity, but mostly kind of sour. Citrusy, like lemon-lime. He’d smelled sour to Nancy most of the time, apparently. But Steve’s happy for them; really, he is.
He can’t help but wish for a match for himself. The present in his hands is a testament to that wish, perhaps the longest shot of all time.
No one knows that he’d rigged the Secret Santa from the beginning, right when he started asking their little group of friends if they wanted to partake. No one knows that he’d drawn Billy’s name purposefully. That he’d assigned himself to getting Billy as his Secret Santa so he could try this out.
So he could make his move.
He’s half-resigned to leaving before they open gifts, and entertains the idea of just dropping his own off and leaving as quickly and quietly as possible. Imagining Billy’s reaction makes Steve’s palms sweat because there’s no other way to think of the present than how Steve intends it. There’s no talking his way around it or out of it once it’s opened.
He places the green-wrapped bomb of a gift on a lace-draped table Nancy had pulled out of the dining room, then plods forward into the living room where the rest of the party and their group of friends is busy watching Christmas movies. There’s jeering from in front of the television, where Dustin, Lucas, and Mike have all spread out, and relative silence form the couch, so Steve heads there.
He flops down between Robin and Will, sending a smile to the latter and pressing his wrist to Will’s hand to mingle scents with the younger omega, a familiar and platonic gesture. Will smiles and rubs his cheek against Steve’s arm, leaving behind a little cloud of plum-and-pomegranate - fruity like Steve’s, but sweeter than Steve’s citrus. Will, right behind Dustin, feels like a younger brother he never got to have.
Steve is smiling so much and is so distracted, because he hasn’t seen Will in months, that he barely ducks a noogie from Robin.
“You get it all together, dingus?” Robin asks in a low voice, trying to be subtle with the other alphas in the room.
Heather sits next to her, hand on Robin’s thigh, smelling like roses and jasmine - a perfectly sweet, floral scent for an omega.
Steve’s only a little jealous.
Steve leans back and turns his head towards Robin’s ear. She smells like most betas do, tinged with something crisp and clean and warm, her scent like the forest after a storm. “Yeah… I should have gotten a back up. I don’t know if I can-”
“You can,” Robin says encouragingly, pulling back to smile and pat his knee. “You got this. I’m telling you, everything is going to be fine.”
Shrugging a shoulder, Steve wishes he could feel the same level of confidence.
He glances around the room and lets his eyes linger on Billy, solitary in Mr. Wheeler’s armchair and quiet in a way he never was back in high school. But then again, getting possessed by an otherworldly creature, bleeding out on the floor of the mall, nearly dying, getting held in a military hospital for months during recovery, having your family think you were dead, and getting out a year later with a hefty government payout and an equally hefty amount of trauma would do that to a person.
Steve had known the moment he stepped through the front door that Billy was already there just by his addictive smell. It’s like clove and cardamom and black pepper, and something deeper and earthier that Steve can only place as Billy. It’s not just that Billy smelled good, but the more they’d gotten to know each other, the more Billy himself became a beacon of good beyond saving the life of everyone in that room, of everyone in this town, if not the whole world.
The blue eyes that haunt Steve’s dreams are cast downward, fingers playing along the edge of Max’s braids which Billy had undoubtedly woven into his sister’s bright red hair. She sits by Billy’s feet with Eleven on her other side, and Steve tries not to stare and smile dumbly at the little Alphas with their pinkies linked in between the space in front of Billy’s ankles. They have the scent of happiness clinging to their skin, like nutmeg and cinnamon in hot chocolate. He’s happy for them, really he is.
Because all Steve wants is a little piece of happiness for himself. Tonight is his shot at that.
But Steve starts to get antsy when the movie starts to wind down and he takes a yawn and moves to stand. “Well, guys-”
“You’re so right Steve!” Robin says loudly, sitting up tall and smiling widely. There’s mischief in her eyes that make them sparkle and make Steve’s stomach twist with dread. “We should start the gift exchange!”
His mouth drops open in disbelief but everyone around them agrees and starts for the table. Even if Steve wants to distance himself as far from the exchange as possible, doesn’t want to give away his own gift for fear of rejection and utter humiliation, he knows that no one will put any kind of order to this if he doesn’t. So Steve claps his hands loudly.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he interrupts. “If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this right. One at a time.”
He strides over to the table and starts with a little red present. “To Max, from Dustin!”
“Aww, you were my Secret Santa, nerd?” Max coos and lets out this tiny giggle. She rips the paper off and holds up the necklace Steve had helped Dustin pick out.
When Dustin had come over, fingers practically ripping at his curls, his distress trying to choose the perfect gift for Max had come through his usually even-layered beta scent, staining the smell of fresh-cut grass with a metallic bitterness. They’d settled on the necklace in her hand, a silver chain with a tiny rainbow on it, something subtle enough but still a nod to her recent coming out.
Robin had helped her in coming to terms with being a lesbian, and Steve of all people had helped in coming to terms with liking the same secondary gender, though Steve is an equal opportunist and isn’t particular about primary nor secondary gender.
Max’s mouth purses and Steve can see emotion welling up in her eyes. It’s an overture of acceptance more than anything else, and now he’s happy that he’d encouraged Dustin to get it for her. “It’s- it’s perfect.” She looks at Dustin with those intense baby blues of hers, her pale skin and red hair more in contrast as she pinkens in fighting back her emotion.
“Thank you. You big fucking nerd,” she chokes out, scrambling up from where she’d been sitting by Billy’s feet and drags Dustin into a hug.
He embraces her with equal fervor. “You’re welcome, Mad Max,” Dustin mumbles into her shoulder.
Steve is definitely not tearing up. He’s just got something in his eye.
So he clears his throat and calls out the next: “To Nancy, from Robin.”
It’s a medium-sized present wrapped in bright blue paper with silver ribbon wrapped around it, little curls at the end that Steve had watched her make by scraping scissors down the length of it. He’d been jealous because every time he tries that technique, he somehow ends up cutting himself. Nancy peels back the paper carefully, tipsy and yet still dainty, and exposes a new pair of high heels.
“For your new position at the station,” Robin explains with a smile. Nancy had started working at the local news station; she’d always thought writing would be her ticket to doing something she loved, and she’d applied at other newspapers too. But when the position opened at the station and Jonathan and Steve and Robin had pushed her to apply, Nancy found that she had an affinity for writing interesting news segments. “I know you were saying your old ones are starting to look scuffed up.”
“I didn’t think you’d remember that,” Nancy says, grinning ear to ear. “Robin, thank you so much!”
Steve calls out the next few - Max got Will a couple of canvases since Will’s recently started painting; Lucas wrapped up a bottle of perfume that actually made Heather’s eyes go wide in pleased surprise. And round and round went the presents until Eleven’s for Dustin, a bunch of random parts for his new radio system, and then the final two.
Because apparently, just as Steve had gotten Billy for Secret Santa, Billy got Steve in return.
The thing is… whatever Billy got him will probably be thoughtful and practical. And it makes Steve’s stomach ache just thinking about it.
They’d spent more time together in the last few months since Will, El, and Max went to college, especially since they’re really the only people Billy can stand to be around from the Party. And with Robin and Heather dating, Billy and Steve often played the third and fourth wheel on group dates with them and, even worse, with them and Jonathan and Nancy. He and Billy are the only single young adults in their group so they end up commiserating with each other more often than not.
They make jokes at the expense of their friends walking hand in hand ahead of them. They get each other lunch and bring it to each other at their respective jobs - Steve started working as a receptionist at an elementary school, and Billy started working at the library because he got in good with Ruth-Anne Jenkins, the director, after he was released from the government hospital.
He and Billy started spending evenings together out by the quarry or, to Steve’s pleased wonder and overactive heart, Lover’s Lake.
And they talk a lot. About everything. As the months rolled on, they would get caught up in their conversations, losing track of time until it’s late and they’re both yawning.
One time, maybe three weeks ago, they went back to Billy’s tiny trailer on the edge of town and stayed up talking for hours until Steve fell asleep next to his friend on the couch. When he woke up tucked under several blankets smelling like Billy, in Billy’s own bed. Steve laid there, trying not to roll around in absolute joy from the spicy scent of alpha all around him. Billy had taken the couch instead.
So, like, Billy knows him. Billy listens to him.
And now Steve has a courting gift waiting for Billy to open in front of all of their friends, and he can’t help but feel anxious sweat beading along the back of his neck.
It’s not something that omegas are supposed to do, giving the first courting gift. Alphas are supposed to give the first courting gift, to show their interest, and omegas respond to the alpha they want to court. That’s how things are done, traditionally speaking. Steve had waited months for a courting gift from Nancy, one that never came.
Steve swallows thickly. He can’t get out of this, now.
Both of them seem nervous but Steve is determined to have his gift be opened last. So he picks up a box the size of his fist inexpertly wrapped in newspaper and red ribbon. It looks an absolute mess but it still makes Steve’s stomach flop with pleased excitement that Billy got him a gift for Christmas.
“Mind if I go first?” Steve asks Billy, sending a shaky smile in his direction, and Billy shrugs his shoulders and nods, quiet as ever.
Anxious, just like Steve is about his gift for Billy.
Steve picks the present apart, pulls the paper off one piece at a time. Underneath the paper is a little black box and, curious about the contents, he opens the lid. Seeing the present nestled inside, Steve snaps it shut again. His mouth drops open in surprise.
He opens the box slowly once more, dark eyes intent and wide on the gift he’s been given.
Inside the box is a thin silver ring with a small red gem. It’s simple and understated, but it’s obvious, too. Because this couldn’t be anything other than a courting gift. Anyone in western society would recognize the significance of this gift.
Because alphas don’t give jewelry, and especially not rings, to omegas they aren’t trying to court.
It’s a completely inappropriate gesture from Billy, and Steve frowns for a moment. Inappropriate, unless-
Unless he means it.
Unless it is a courting gift.
Steve’s eyes dart up to look at the other man, and he’s sure that his blush matches the deep pink of Billy’s ears that spreads over his nose and cheeks. “Is this…?”
Billy hesitates for a moment then shrugs noncommittally, looking away and scratching his nose. It’s such an affected level of unshakeable confidence, a mask of bravado like he couldn’t care less about Steve’s reaction despite the way his gaze is fixed on Steve from the corner of his eyes. The entire room has gone silent around them.
“It is. Um. It’s a… y’know.”
“You want to?” Steve asks, swallowing past a thick lump in his throat.
It’s the same lump that made it hard to talk about his own insecurities - that same lump that convinced him he’d never find an alpha let alone a beta or even another omega who would be interested in him. Sure, he dated a lot in high school, but after it? Steve’s got very little going for him besides a steady job and a car that still runs and a nice smile when he turns up the charm.
He looks from the ring to Billy, who is staring at him with that intense, familiar gaze. It’s the gaze that makes him shiver when it’s leveled at him - when their eyes meet across the lobby when Billy comes to drop lunch off and Steve is helping a little kid call their parents, or when their eyes meet across the room when the other shows up on one of Robin’s and Heather’s dates.
Steve breathes in and drops his eyes back to the ring. His thumb grazes the cool metal and brushes over the red stone set into it.
Back in the day, among higher class families, family crests were inscribed into rings and exchanged, alpha to omega. These days, family crests were a thing of the past - the Harrington family certainly have one, but have no alpha heir. These days, gems and stones are used in their stead. Something that makes a statement… a claim.
Somehow, Steve knows this ring has a tiny ruby for Billy’s birth month of July. Staking his claim on the omega who wore it.
On Steve.
It’s unmistakable, but Steve has to make sure. His voice is embarrassingly small as he asks, “You want to- you want to court me?”
“Yes.”
Billy stands and walks up to Steve, reaching out to curl his fingers around Steve’s wrists. They don’t fit all the way like another omega’s might. Steve is… not like a normal omega. He’s tall, taller than Billy, and he’s wide-shouldered, and he has muscles from playing sports. He looks more like a beta, maybe a slender alpha.
But Billy’s thumb rubs over the soft spot of skin right above his pulse anyway. Grazes the very edge of Steve’s scent gland on his wrist with his nail.
Steve takes a deep breath and turns his hand over in Billy’s grip. “Will you put it on me?”
Everyone around them erupts in whoops, money passing from hand to hand from apparent bets that had been made. El and Max share a giggling kiss, unable to stop smiling, where they sit on the floor in front of the armchair.
Meanwhile, Billy fumbles with the box at first, eager as he is to comply with the request. Steve helps him hold the box steady and then holds his right hand out - the one used for courting - and lets the alpha slip it onto his ring finger.
Once the ring is nestled onto his finger, Billy kisses Steve’s knuckles softly. Kisses Steve’s finger after, right over the ring. It makes Steve visibly melt and a dopey smile curls at his mouth.
“Open yours,” Steve says breathlessly, handing over the brightly wrapped gift.
Billy rips into the present much like his sister had. For not being related, they acted a hell of a lot alike. Steve winces because the basket inside is only loosely wrapped. When the lid of the box opens, Steve holds his breath as he watches Billy’s face for a reaction.
Inside is a basket full of homemade goods of cookies and candies and chocolates.
Steve had made batches and batches perfecting everything for this gift. Only Robin and Dustin had known that this was to be his gift for Billy. As much as Dustin doesn’t understand why Steve wants Billy to be his alpha, Dustin is surprisingly supportive. Maybe it’s all the sweets that smoothed the way.
Food from an omega to an alpha is a gesture as much as jewelry from alpha to omega; it’s a way to show an alpha that the omega can provide. Historically speaking, omegas used to forage for the best offerings of berries and fruit, nuts and seeds. Later, the best offerings of the harvests, and these days, homemade meals or treats.
Steve had gone the baked goods route, made them himself after a lot of trial and error.
This is as unmistakable as the ring.
And so Steve waits, breath held in his chest, because he hadn’t known about Billy’s gift. This is bold for an omega... but then again, Steve is bold for an omega.
He’s not some shy, brittle creature who would snap under pressure. He’s no simpering damsel in distress. Steve rises to a challenge and meets it head on.
His stupid fight with Billy is a testament to that. He still has a little scar near his hairline from where Billy broke a plate over his head before beating in his face. And they’ve come a long way, okay? Billy’s a completely different person than he used to be.
Steve’s mouth drops open when Billy shoves a cookie in his mouth, messy and sudden in his movement. Everyone knows what it means to eat the offering.
It’s an acceptance.
It’s a reciprocated courting.
They’re courting now. Like, officially.
“Tastes good,” the alpha mumbles around the snickerdoodle.
Little crumbs spray out of his mouth and fall into his lap. They land on the bottom of Steve’s sweater, too. Billy is a goddamn mess and also the best thing Steve’s ever seen, makes his stomach swoop and his cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
“Good,” Steve murmurs, and everyone around them has moved on to the next movie, leaving them in their own little world.
Steve’s thumb presses over the ring on his finger, notes the difference between cool metal and warm skin. He can’t help but smile even wider, if that’s even possible, when Billy stuffs another cookie in his mouth. When Billy goes to sit in the armchair again, Steve’s smile falters right up until Billy sends him a curious look, head tilted like a puppy. He’s so fucking cute.
The alpha pats his hand on his thigh, giving Steve an expectant look, and Steve’s stomach swoops for a completely different reason this time.
He takes a small breath and carefully walks over, depositing himself carefully atop Billy’s thighs. Once he settles, Billy curls a casual arm around him and tugs him back into Billy’s chest. Presses his hand to Steve’s stomach, rubbing gently there. It makes Steve relax into the hold, relax into his alpha.
God, the phrase sounds so good in his mind. It gives him so much pleasure just to think of it, and makes him grin to himself, makes him turn his smile into his shoulder to hide it.
Max turns around and reaches for the basket of goodies.
Technically, it’s not bad manners to share this kind of gift with family. And Steve tells himself this even as he tenses, because Max is Billy’s family but Max is also an alpha and Steve doesn’t want anyone else but Billy to eat the goodies he spent so much time perfecting. He bites his lip, though, tensing up beyond his own control as he waits to see what happens.
But Max only gets her hand smacked away by Billy.
“These are mine,” Billy says, glaring over the curve of Steve’s shoulder at his little sister. He pulls the box away from her, the hand on Steve’s stomach turning into an arm sliding around his front to hold onto the omega just as possessively as the basket full of sweets.
Steve is sure that Billy’s trying to look menacing, but it’s probably difficult to look menacing when Billy is radiating happiness, smells like a spiced chai latte, and has the omega he’s courting in his lap.
Max relents with a huff and pouts until El offers to help her put on the necklace Dustin had bought for her.
Billy stuffs one of the peanut butter cups into his mouth and lets out a groan of pleasure that has Steve shifting in his lap. Steve presses his hands over the possessive hand pressed flat against his stomach, rubbing gently.
“Billy, why don’t you slow down on eating those?” Steve suggests quietly, smiling and turning his head slightly towards Billy.
“I can’t help it,” Billy murmurs, licking his fingers clean of chocolate, tongue and lips messy and noisy in the process. It shouldn’t be hot. Why does Steve find it so hot? “They taste amazing, Steve. What did you put in these?”
It strikes something deep in his gut to hear that, strikes what feels like a match inside him by the way he sparks and warms from the inside out. Steve ducks his head and grins, even feels his cheeks pink up in a small flush.
He read something in his search about how sometimes scent can transfer to cooking from touching them, from being around them, from infusing love and care into each treat. Steve had certainly tried to. He couldn’t stop thinking about Billy when he had made the final batches that created the treats in the basket.
“Just the ingredients,” he laughs softly. “I’m glad you like them. I spent a lot of time trying to make them perfect.”
“They’re perfect. Kinda taste like you,” Billy mumbles into his ear. Steve shivers again. Billy is quiet for a moment before he speaks once more with his lips brushing the shell of Steve’s ear. “Think you could drive me home?”
“What, do you want to leave now?” Steve teases, wriggling in Billy’s lap until the hand on his stomach presses tight against him and keeps him still.
“And if I do, pretty boy? You gonna take me?”
The double entendre makes Steve’s scent bloom, more like fresh, sweet oranges than lemon-lime. El turns her head just a little to look at Steve out of the corner of her eye, smirking when she looks back to the television. Steve fights down a blush and the urge to shift even more in Billy’s lap when he feels BIlly’s lips stretching into a smile where his mouth is still pressed near Steve’s ear. Steve clears his throat and looks around the room but no one is paying them any attention.
“What about Max and El?”
“Robin and Heather picked up me and Max. They can take ‘em back.”
Steve pauses for a moment and turns to narrows his eyes at Billy’s face. He takes in Billy’s shifting gaze. “Billy Hargrove... Did you have this planned out?”
The creeping blush over Billy’s cheeks, making the lighter freckles disappear and the darker ones stand out starker, says more than Billy actually does. Steve hides a pleased smile by biting his lip, then glances up to find Robin staring over at them with a smile of her own on her face before she waggles her eyebrows and locks her eyes on Billy pointedly. One eyebrow raises in a silent question.
He’s pretty lucky to have a friend where an entire conversation happens with just the use of facial expressions and nods of the head. Somehow he manages to communicate that yes, he is taking Billy home later.
Robin smirks knowingly. No wonder she’d been so supportive of his gift. She probably knew all about Billy’s from Heather.
Cheater.
Billy’s arm squeezes around his waist again, so Steve looks down to see Billy gazing up at him.
“D’you… maybe want to get out of here?” Billy asks, reaching up to push a lock of hair away from Steve’s eyes only to laugh quietly when it flopped back down.
“Yeah. Yeah, I would like that.”
Billy smiles one of those rare real smiles, the kind that make Steve feel so warm inside, makes him lemon-sweet in the air.
Steve grins and stands up, stretching, and even tacks on a yawn for effect. “Well, I’m beat. I think I’m gonna call it a night.”
“Sure, yeah,” Robin jeers from the side, but Heather puts her hand firmly over Robin’s mouth to shut her up.
“Drive safe,” Heather says for the both of them, grinning and rolling her eyes in exasperation at her girlfriend. “We’ll see you tomorrow for dinner, right?”
“You betcha,” Billy grins as he answers for Steve. Answers for both of them, really, as he stands up as well.
No one asks why Billy is coming with him… it’s kind of expected at this point. They’re courting after all. The concept still hasn’t sunk in, that Billy accepted his gift. That Billy had wanted to make the first move. That Billy reciprocated wanting to court Steve.
And, like, most people brushed off courting traditions these days.
Most people didn’t court, but they “dated.” Steve has tried dating. He dated Tina and Hannah and Abby; he dated Georgia and Sarah and Vicky, too. He dated Nancy, years ago now. Dating, for Steve, is aimless - as much as he hated the saying, it feels a lot like sampling the milk before buying the cow. And most of the time, people found his scent too sour and his personality too sweet. He was too much for anyone to want anything serious. Long term. Special.
Courting, though, courting has intent. It’s a commitment towards mating. And while not every couple who courted ended up mating, the statistics shared on the nightly news point to higher trends of mating from courting than from simply dating. Not that Steve watches the nightly news, but... Courting is serious and it’s something Steve has never done prior to this.
They say their round of goodbyes to everyone, exchanging hugs and promises to see each other soon. Dustin, Robin, and unsurprisingly El all give Steve harder squeezes, wishing him whispered congratulations. Once they’ve gathered their things, Billy’s basket of treats tucked safely in its box under his arm, Steve leads the way out to his car.
Steve is quiet as he starts the car up, gesturing vaguely to the stereo.
“You can choose,” he offers with a tiny smile at the corner of his lips.
Billy grins and flicks through the stations as Steve backs out of the driveway and starts the drive for Billy’s trailer. He finally settles on a hard rock station, and it’s more shrieking than Steve cares for, but Billy looks happy. Really, truly happy. It’s all Steve could ask for for Christmas.
That he got a courting gift, too, is the icing on the cake. The star on top of the Christmas tree, given the season.
Steve grins over at Billy when the alpha reaches for his hand and twines their fingers together.
It doesn’t take them long to pull up to Billy’s place, the drive comfortable and filled with the same easy conversation that always fills the silences between them. Steve takes silent pleasure in the feel of his alpha’s thumb brushing soothingly over his knuckles, and over his wrist just shy of his gland. It makes Steve shiver each time. Pulling into the little gravel parking pad next to the Camaro, Steve idles for a moment, putting his car into park, before he turns the car off.
He’s silent, trying to gather his words, and Billy squeezes his hand.
“You wanna come in?” Billy asks him as his thumb brushes against the scent gland in his wrist, hardly any pressure in it, but it’s enough for a burst of lustful sweet orange to leak out. Billy grins but quickly turns it down to a pleased smirk. “We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”
“What if I do want to do something?” Steve asks, looking over at the Alpha.
His Alpha now, he supposes. The concept is still new enough that it still hasn’t sunk in.
“Then we do something,” Billy replies, tongue flicking out over his lower lip while he peers over at Steve. His eyes drag down the front of Steve’s body and the Omega feels every inch of that gaze upon him. “But only what you want.”
Steve nods and squeezes Billy’s hand back. “Let’s get inside then. It’s getting cold out here.”
Steve knows that Billy’s trailer doesn’t have the best heating, so when they cross through the doorway and kick their boots off, Steve doesn’t immediately shed his coat. Billy turns around, reaching for Steve’s hands again.
“Do you mind if we… if we go to my bedroom?” Billy asks, and instead of his thumb, he brushes his forefingers over the glands in Steve’s wrists, both of them at once. It knocks the air loose from his chest and Steve exhales shakily. He practically feels his pupils widening, can smell the air going orange-creamsicle sweet. Billy’s spicy scent rises up to meet it and their scents mingle into something that makes Steve’s mouth water.
“Yeah, yes,” Steve forces out, blinking against the way his heart beats fast in his chest. “It’s warmer in there.”
Billy grins and nods, but doesn’t turn around as he leads Steve back towards the bedroom. Steve’s been here dozens of times since they started hanging out. He recalls sharply waking up in this room, warm and safe. Steve pulls one hand away to softly close the door behind him without looking away from Billy’s blue eyes drawing him in.
“Listen,” Billy starts, reaching up to cup Steve’s chin between his thumb and forefinger. “You tell me to stop and I will. I promise.”
Steve has to fight back the emotion swelling in his chest.
“I’ve been with an alpha before,” Steve scoffs, looking away for only a moment until Billy’s fingers gently squeeze his chin to urge him to look back. He does so reluctantly.
“I don’t care, Steve. I want to take care of you. Will you let me?”
Steve fights back the nervous laughter threatening to bubble up in his throat, because no one’s ever wanted that before. Not even Nancy with all her sweetness. Not any of the alphas before her, and none of them after.
“Yes,” Steve whispers, nodding. It’s a no-brainer. He wants his alpha to take care of him, too.
Billy smiles, the kind that reaches his eyes and makes Steve want to take a photo to keep it close to his heart at all times. “Alright, then. I’ll take care of you.”