Chapter Text
At some point during the evening Billy had migrated out of his chair and into Spencer’s. He kept hiding his face in Spencer’s shoulder to avoid the movie, but then it would go quiet. The background music would taper off and the suspense grated at him until he just had to look, and of course whatever happened when he looked had to be the very worst part of the movie, at least until the next time.
It was all Spencer’s idea to watch that movie in the first place. Evil Clone Dolls from Uncanny Valley, or something like that. Spencer had been talking about ‘uncanny valley,’ anyway. Whatever it was called, it was the scariest thing Spencer had shown him since that music video with the zombies. Because it started with people being sent these dolls that looked exactly like them, and then the dolls would come to life at night and do horrible things and they had sharp pointy teeth and why was that even necessary?
What got to Billy was remembering that not everything in the house bearing his face had been commissioned by him. Things had been sent by fans or even left outside the front gate anonymously. Could such an irony really exist? Could pointy horror-movie teeth really be hiding under his own beautiful face somewhere in this house?
Spencer was no help at all when he confided this fear. “You know, most people would think having a wax replica of yourself was pretty creepy.”
“You take that back! Wax Billy is a work of art!”
“Yeah, sure. Hey, we should totally watch Horrors from the House of Wax sometime!”
“I don’t want to,” Billy pouted. He probably would watch it if Spencer did, but why couldn’t Spencer like movies that weren’t so scary? Some of his cheesy monster movies were so fun, but then Spencer would bring out something like this.
“Okay, Billy, can you let go now?”
“No.” Billy only hung on even tighter, snaking one leg around Spencer’s feet to trip him up.
Spencer sighed, trying to unwind his arms, then tickled along his side, making him laugh and relax his grip just enough for Spencer to wiggle free.
“Spencer!” Billy wailed, abandoned!
“Look, I’m putting the movie away,” Spencer told him. He put the movie back in its case, then put the whole thing in a heavy, black box on the bottom shelf. “That’s better, right?”
Usually that helped, but right now it wasn’t enough to reassure Billy that no monsters could get him. He stuck close to Spencer, lurking when Spencer pushed him out of the bathroom in a fit of fussy teen shyness. He checked everything that had his face along the way with no luck.
“How can I suspect such a beautiful face?” he lamented. “Spencer, help me!”
Spencer just laughed. “You’re on your own with that one. I’m going to bed.”
Billy wavered, thinking of having to check the rest of the house all by himself. No way! He darted after Spencer, clinging close to his back. “But if I go, who would protect you?” Yes, that was it. He couldn’t leave Spencer’s side! No telling what might happen while Spencer was sleeping and defenseless! He was lucky Billy was brave enough to sit up and guard him.
The fact that Billy was too scared to close his eyes right now didn’t really enter into it.
But then Spencer crawled into bed and turned out his bedside light, and that was not okay. How could he watch for scary things in the dark? Billy flicked the light back on.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to stay up and protect you,” Billy announced, settling at the end of Spencer’s bed. “So you go to sleep.”
“Fine.” Spencer turned the light off again.
Billy switched it on again the second Spencer’s hand moved.
“Cut it out, Billy!”
“I obviously can’t watch for monsters in the dark.”
Spencer groaned, throwing one arm over his eyes. Where did he learn to be such a drama queen? “If you’re scared to go to sleep-”
“I’m not! How can you be so unappreciative?”
“Yes you are.”
“No, I’m just protecting you because I know you’d be too scared to go to sleep if I wasn’t.” So there! Billy puffed out his chest with pride, having thought of that. Spencer was just putting up a brave front so he wouldn’t look uncool in front of the great Billy Joe Corba. Deep down he must want the light on at least as much as Billy did.
“Okay, come here.” Spencer patted the bed beside him. “You can sleep with me if you bring your own blanket, ‘cause you always float away with mine.”
Billy hesitated before grabbing a blanket with his ever-so-innocent grinning face and wrapping himself up in it. He curled up on the bed beside Spencer. “But I can’t sleep.” Spencer would know he was only saying that because he was being protective and not because he was scared, right?
“You know nothing’s going to hurt you, right? Everything’s okay,” Spencer reassured him, smoothing one hand through Billy’s hair. Anyone else Billy would have told to watch the hair, but this was Spencer. Best bro privileges and all that. Plus it felt kind of nice.
Billy was silent for a few minutes, enjoying the feeling of warm fingers rubbing the nape of his neck. He didn’t really know it was okay. And the house was too quiet. Quiet could be a bad sign, couldn’t it?
The Spencer started singing softly into his ear. “I’m just too good to believe; Can’t take your eyes off of me. . .”
“Are you singing one of my songs?” Billy wiggled closer.
“Sorry. It was the first thing I thought of,” Spencer muttered, blushing.
“It’s cool. Keep going, though. Sing me the rest.”
Spencer went along with it, singing one of Billy’s old hits like it was meant to be a gentle lullaby.
It distracted Billy until he forgot to be afraid. He forgot why he was afraid in the first place. He just knew that Spencer’s mellow voice carried his music so perfectly he didn’t want to think about anything else.
When Spencer reached over him to turn off the light, Billy didn’t care about the dark. All he cared about was snuggling closer to Spencer and whispering, “Sing me another one, Spence?”