"So things are good between you two?"
"Things are fine. Did you really think we were going to move in together and start warring with each other?"
"No, it's just that you haven't lived together in a while…" Billy trailed off, looking to Machiavelli for help.
The Italian immortal leaned forward out of his chair. "You know that Billy just worries about all of his friends' happiness. He cares."
"I suppose," Black Hawk said, but Machiavelli was a little off put by the appraising look that the Native American immortal was giving the two of them. Sitting in Billie's apartment, he was under the impression that the warrior still was suspicious about the two of them. Abruptly, Black Hawk changed the topic. "What do you think the girls are talking about?"
"Dunno…" Billy muttered.
Machiavelli shrugged. He had a feeling he knew.
Black Hawk was like a hound dog picking up on a scent. Sitting forward, he glanced at Machiavelli again, then at Billy, looking at them with a keen expression on his features. The Italian immortal wondered if Billy was picking up on this and if it was making him as nervous as it was making him.
The two female immortals came back in from the kitchen at this point, Scatty still clutching a Chinese food container. Billie took one look around the room and swore. "Jesus, what's wrong with you guys?"
"Just missing our lovely ladies," Machiavelli told her, trying desperately not to sound ironic or sarcastic. He felt genuinely relieved that they were back, hoping that they would start a new conversation to dispel the awkwardness that had descended in their absence, but-
"I was just telling them how good things were going here."
Machiavelli observed Billy wince ever so minutely out of the corner of his eye; for a minute he wondered if this was provoked by jealousy, but a minute later, he realized that the Kid was foreseeing a somehow even less comfortable conversation.
"I miss my freedom," Billie declared.
The Italian immortal thought he might bite through his tongue, trying not to say anything, anything at all, in response to this statement of facts. I like Billie, Billie is my friend, he chanted in his head, hoping beyond hope that the Native American immortal wasn't secretly sensitive.
Black Hawk leaned back and huffed at her, but he seemed amused. "I'm not that bad."
"It's been a while since you've gone anywhere with just Billy- you know, this one- maybe you should have a guy's night out," Machiavelli suggested.
The Native American looked at him. "You don't want to come?"
"I didn't consider it," Machiavell said, surprised.
"Aren't you a guy?"
"Well, yes."
"So why wouldn't you come out with us on a 'guy's night out'?"
God damn it, Machiavelli thought crabbily. I was trying to help you. "I thought you'd enjoy it more with Billy, since he's your best friend."
Black Hawk seemed to realize that he was being something of an ass because he relented a little. "You're fun to spend time with too." He gave Machiavelli a wolf smile. "Like that night we went to the bar, we should do that again." He slapped Billy. "This time you can compete against him. See who gets more girls."
Billy laughed, but it was a hollow kind of laugh. Black Hawk, taking a sip from his beer, didn't seem to notice, but Machiavelli picked up on it. He fretted a little where he was sitting; Billy had been acting funny all week. For the thousandth time, he wished the Kid would just tell him what was going on.
Lady Day leaned forward. "You know what would spice up our relationship is to have more interesting sex."
Billy laughed, and Black Hawk frowned. "Come off it," he protested. "The sex we have is fine."
"Yeah, but it's boring making love in your own apartment day in and day out," she argued.
"Missing my bathroom, are you?" Billy said, taking the cardboard carton from Scatty and using her chopsticks to pop a piece of chicken in his mouth.
"You did have nice… draperies," she said coyly, smirking at him. "You could make up for it by lending us your car," she added. Billy choked on the piece of chicken. Coughing a high, unpleasant cough, he grimaced and shook his head. Grabbing her food back, Scatty edged off the couch and sat with the Italian immortal instead.
"No, Billy would actually kill us if we messed around in his car," Black Hawk commented.
Billie leaned forward. "You're trying to tell me you've never done anything in that car of yours. Honey, I remember people who bought that car just to have sex in it."
"Nothing sexual happens in my car."
"Nothing at all? No hand stuff? You really want me to believe that you haven't bent some-"
"I mean to say that I've never done anything sexual- of any kind- in that car and never will," Billy interrupted stiffly. "And Black Hawk's right. Either one of you screws around in the backseat, I'll find a way to kill you. I don't care what I have to do." He pointed at both of them, giving them the evil eye.
"Tough luck, Niccolo," Scatty whispered in his ear, leaning in so the others couldn't hear.
Machiavelli waited until the other immortals were too distracted by their argument. "Minor setback," he murmured back and she grinned. "I'll find a way." But he sounded more optimistic than he really was.
It was a few days after Machiavelli and Billy's impromptu date. The two immortals were still skirting around each other, not quite at odds with each other, but perhaps both sensing something odd in the other one. Scatty must be getting tired of it, Machiavelli thought, for her to suggest that we come over to Billie's apartment. From what he could tell, the two female immortals still did not consider each other 'best friends'; it was a very tenuous tolerance between the two.
"When's the last time you had sex?" Lady Day asked loudly, interrupting Niccolo's thoughts through sheer volume. She poked Billy between the ribs. Machiavelli couldn't help but wait for the Kid's answer.
Billy didn't answer though- not right away. Rubbing his ribs, he deflected. "What makes you think I haven't had sex recently?"
"I don't know what happened to you, but you've gotten whipped somewhere along the way," she decided. "I remember that skinny boy in the sixties who went to bed every night with a different girl. Where'd he go?" she demanded.
Billy flushed. "You're making me sound like a real womanizer. It wasn't a different girl every night."
"Maybe a different girl every week, then," Black Hawk drawled, not really helping the American immortal's cause. He grinned at the outlaw, relishing Billy's discomfort.
Billy glanced over at where Scatty and Machiavelli were sitting. "It wasn't that bad," he told them, pleadingly. The Italian immortal fancied himself that Billy's eyes lingered on his, but he was probably imagining it.
"I believe you," Machiavelli said, though his mind raced back to the photo album currently hidden in his bedside table. Scatty gave him a little side glance, but he fixed his eyes on the American immortal.
"You haven't answered either of my questions," Billie reminded him, flopping down beside the outlaw.
"What questions?" he asked, trying to play dumb.
"I asked you when you last had sex and where the real Billy the Kid went."
"Well, recently," he revealed unwillingly and Machiavelli felt his heart clench, "and hi! I'm right here." He smiled at her charmingly.
"What's recently?" she asked suspiciously.
"I don't have to answer that," he said politely, but firmly. She sighed. He shook his head, but continued to smile at her. Machiavelli realized that he'd been squeezing Scatty's hand; he was unsure as to when he'd started holding it. She squeezed his fingers just slightly and he let go. Luckily, nobody had seen them in the semi-darkness of the room.
"Well, the good news is I'm going to move over to Nora's apartment permanently. Despite what she says, we have fun over here," Black Hawk said lazily. "That'll give you more room again."
"Things are working out good for the two of you, then?"
"He's a fun fuck," Billie said dismissively. "It's just when he starts getting too attached that things stop being copacetic."
"I think I've learned my lesson this time," he told her wryly. Looking over at the Kid, he began to ask after some items he'd apparently left over at the Rittenhouse apartment. Billy had apparently brought it over; he remarked that it was in the trunk of the Thunderbird.
Watching them, Machiavelli couldn't help but feel a little sad for the Native American immortal. He couldn't imagine living their arrangement and he wondered if Black Hawk was really as okay with it as he made himself out to be. Still, he had greater concerns at the moment. What had Billy meant by recently? Brushing his nose against Scatty's hair, he whispered in her ear, "Can you find that out for me?"
She must have understood because she squeezed his hand again and muttered out of the side of her mouth, "I can try."
~MB~
"I want to ask you something," Scatty said to Billy, following him down the stairs.
He waited for her on the next landing, looking apprehensive. "Okay?"
"You said that you've had sex recently," she said directly, almost accusingly. "How recently is recently? I'm not asking for the sake of gossip, I'm asking because of what you told me Saturday night," she added in response to the look he gave her. "And you have to be honest with me, because I'm trying to help you."
"Probably not as recently as Black Hawk took it, but I had to get him off my back," Billy explained, heading down the stairs, Scathach on his heels. He quelled under her look. "In May. Before I met Machiavelli. Her name was…"
"I don't care what her name was," Scatty whispered harshly. She smacked his arm and he yelped, but didn't bother protesting, feeling that he probably deserved it. The chill of the night was a shock to them both as they exited the building, though more so for Billy than the Shadow. "You're a grown man. What are you doing? You've got Machiavelli thinking that you're out having sex with a bunch of women. No wonder-" She caught herself at the last moment.
Billy paused by his car, looking hurt. "No wonder what? This is all very new, Scatty. I know I'm making mistakes," he whispered. "But I always do. Do you think I deserve to be alone?"
"No," she said immediately, backing off a little. Drawing her sweater around her, she glanced down the deserted street. "No, Billy, but you've got to figure out what you want and stop shooting yourself in the foot. You're never going to get Niccolo if you don't. If you want him to start looking at you in a new way, you have to act differently, you've got to stand up to Black Hawk, you are your own man…"
Billy considered her words. What she was saying wasn't mean, but he still felt some hesitancy in doing what she was suggesting. He could go sit down with Machiavelli… but what if Mac didn't feel the same way? He'd rather have the daydream that his friend might someday feel the same way about him than to find out for sure that he would never love him that way. "I'll try," he ventured, at last.
Ducking into his trunk, he shifted around some of the boxes that had never been unpacked. "Here's those things Black Hawk left," he said, pulling out a bag. He glanced up at the street light above them and then sat on the fender of his car, patting it so that Scatty would sit with him. "Scatty can I ask you something now? Do the things I feel make me a gay man? I've never been gay. I always liked girls."
"You're still the same person, Billy. You're quick to love and fiercely loyal. You laugh a lot. You make the people around you very happy. I wouldn't… I wouldn't limit anything that might make you happy."
"I just wonder about it. I never thought of myself as a gay man," he repeated. "It's kind of strange, isn't it, to go over a hundred years thinking you're one way and then you find out you're not? I'm not sure that I'm gay," he said, sounding a bit desperate even to his own ears. "I think it's just Mac that I love."
"You're Niccolosexual?" she asked, making him laugh.
"Yeah, I think I might be."
Scatty seemed satisfied with that. She cuffed him gently on the back of his head. "Hey, Billy?"
"Yeah?"
"Since we're being really open with each other, can I ask you something?"
Mac would hold out for a deal, so hold out for a deal, he thought, amusing himself. He shook his head. He couldn't bring himself to do it. "Sure. What do you want to ask?"
"Are you just in love with Niccolo or do you also want to have sex with him?" she asked immediately, tilting her head as she studied him.
He blushed. "Why does everyone want to know about my sex life?" he asked, half exasperated, but also laughing a little. The Kid ducked his head, pondering it to himself. Looking up again, he gave her a shy smile. "I knew it," she crowed, punching the air. He laughed self-consciously, hurriedly messing up the back of his hair with his hand.
"He's an attractive man," he said defensively.
"Do you ever picture him naked?" Scatty asked, laughing. She slipped backwards into the trunk, watching him closely, he noticed.
"No!" he yelped. "…Not consciously."
"But now you are, aren't you?"
"Little bit," he said, holding his fingers about an inch apart. "I've seen the tip."
"I've seen the whole package," she teased.
"He's got to be pretty big," he said searchingly to her, giving her a fleeting look. "Cause on the rare occasions he comes down in his boxers, he hangs out of them a bit, have you noticed that?"
"I've noticed you encouraging him."
"I don't necessarily encourage him," Billy protested feebly, but she gave him an arch look.
"Our thermostat is normally set at 65, but somehow magically, it creeps up to 78 right about the time he's getting out of bed?"
"He's Mediterranean, I want him to be warm."
"You want him to be hot so he's half naked," she accused.
"But don't you think he's sexy?"
She considered it. "He's good looking," she agreed dubiously. "But I'm not sexually attracted to him, no."
He gestured to his own crotch. "But you've seen him naked, how can you not be attracted to that?" he said, stammering, but laughing also.
"I couldn't be attracted to him any more than you are to me. He's my friend. So are you. And you're both-," she stopped again and he wondered what she wanted to say. He looked at her keenly, but she just ground her teeth a little. "I couldn't be in love with Niccolo, knowing that you are meant to be with him."
He brightened. "Do you really think that Scatty?"
"Of course I do. Watching the two of you moon at each other is right up there with watching those two idiots," she jabbed her thumb in the direction of Billie's apartment, "spar emotionally with each other."
"I think Black Hawk's coming on too strong again and she's feeling smothered," he said. "They're not good for each other in that way. And the more Billie pushes away, the more he's going to try to win her over."
"Have you ever talked to him about it?"
He looked uncomfortable. "Tried. It didn't go well. Now I've just resigned myself to letting it happen. Who knows? They might change." He kissed her cheek, hopping down to the street. "They're going to wonder where we are," he said, puffs of cold air forming with each word. "We should go back up."
"I've got the bag."
Walking up the stairs, Scatty seemed to want to get a few more questions in. "You're not just going to have sex with him, are you?"
"No, of course not," he exclaimed, looking scandalized. "I could have sex with anyone. I want to be with him cause- cause it's like he's the last piece to me and I didn't know I was even missing that part of me."
She bumped shoulders with him and, looking over at him, he realized that she'd purposefully refocused him. He gave her a tiny smile. "Tricked me again. You were always very smart."
"You're going to have to tell me what you want to do with him," she teased.
They were at the first landing. Billy lingered. "I don't know what to do," he confessed. They started up the second flight of stairs. "I'm a little nervous about the thought of- of-you know."
"Having gay sex?"
"I'd look like an idiot," he whispered harshly. They were on the third floor and almost there. He grabbed her arm, needing to talk about it. "When I think about him, I… I want- you know- I want to be with him," he said very fast, willing himself not to turn red. "But what if I'm not… good? I've always been good with women, but that's completely different."
She smiled. "Billy, you've wanted to screw him since you saw him fingering that girl."
That sobered Billy up. "I'd forgotten about her."
Scatty shook her head, wincing. "Sorry," she apologized, a rare admission from her. "That's not what I meant. I was just trying to say that you might be nervous, but you also know what you want. Everyone's nervous the first time. And face it, this wouldn't definitely be a first for you. So don't focus on that other time."
Billy felt like the happy balloon in his chest had just popped unexpectedly. He didn't want Scatty to feel bad though; hitching on a smile, he nodded. "No, I won't focus on it." But, he thought to himself, perhaps I was better off being ignorant about my feelings.
"Kid, you're not fooling me."
"I never could fool anybody," he admitted. "I have a very expressive face."
"Don't think that you don't have a chance with Niccolo," she told him.
"You're being very nice to me," he said, moving towards Billie's door. "But I have to think about what I want to do with this… What am I going to say to him when I go back in there?"
"Why don't you just give him a big kiss," she said, prodding him in the back.
"Nah, I don't think so."
She studied him. "You'll be fine, Billy. Weren't you just telling me that Machiavelli hasn't had sex in like four hundred years?"
"Except for that time with that girl."
"Ignore that time. I wouldn't read a lot into it. He was drunk and a bit… upset."
"Maybe…" But Billy wasn't sure he wanted to take her advice. They went back in the apartment and the first thing he noticed was the absence of the immortal they'd just been discussing. "Where is he?" he asked Black Hawk.
"Who, Niccolo?" The burly man pointed in the direction of Billie's bedroom. "That girl called him. He's in talking with her."
"Oh. Oh, okay. Well, I'm getting tired," Billy said softly, suddenly. He looked desperately over at the Shadow. "Want to go in and see if he's ready to go home?"
"Sure," she sighed. Moving past him, she touched his back gently. "I'll go get him."
