(This chapter is kind of long...I don't own Teen Titans or any characters mentioned besides Billy Numerous' family)
The scent of apple pies and possibly pancakes filled Kyd's senses, waking him up slowly as he debated getting up or not. He was far too comfy...Slowly Kyd opened his eyes and took a look at his surroundings, he didn't recognize the room at all. Kyd walked to the window of the room and looked out onto the endless grass and dirt road path winding down it. That's right, he's in Alabama with Billy...Billy must've let him sleep in his room. Kyd immediately felt terrible for having Billy sleep anywhere but his own bed. Kyd looked around the room for his bag before finding it and changing clothes. He quickly changed into a T-Shirt with a skull plastered on its front and a pair of black shorts, putting on black and white striped leggings and a pair of black combat boots under it. He walked into the bathroom, disgusted by his own appearance. He quickly brushed out his messy shoulder-length black hair, pulling it up into its usual ponytail look afterwards. He tried to brush the black bangs out from over his left eye, he really did. He caressed his black choker once before self-consciously trying and failing to cover his ears with his hair. Oh well, he might as well start the day.
Kyd...Elliot, he corrected himself, walked down the hall and then the staircase leading to what looked like the Strayer living room. Going off of the pictures he saw lining the wall, William had an extremely large family. This did nothing but heighten Elliot's sense of nervousness. Elliot made his way through the living room, stopping short when he noticed a large snoring figure splayed across the couch. Elliot felt even worse! Billy had given up his room and slept on the couch so that Elliot could sleep in a bed...Elliot shook his head at the redneck before walking over and covering him with the blanket lining the couch's back. He crouched down and stroked his blonde hair, smiling gently. Before he even realized what he was doing, it seemed Elliot had kissed Billy's forehead. Elliot blushed at his own actions, hoping desperately he didn't wake the other boy up. Thankfully, a good minute had passed and he was still sound asleep. Elliot sighed and stood up from his crouching position and walked into the kitchen, determined to find the source of the strange smell that had awoken him.
Once Elliot was in the kitchen, he spotted a short blonde woman making what he hoped was breakfast. She had her gold and silver tipped hair packed neatly into a bun with strands hanging loosely from it, her attire was strange to him. The woman wore a red and white crosshatch shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just below her elbows, she wore jeans and a pair of white flip-flops. As to not startle her, he quietly knocked on the doorframe to alert her to his presence.
"Oh!" She exclaimed as she turned around, "You must be Elliot!" she finished in a sing-song voice.
Elliot nodded, instinctively going into the 'an adult is near' pose he'd learned as a child. Almost immediately his back straightened, all emotion erased itself from his face to leave one of respect, he folded his hands together neatly in front of him, and his feet came to a perfect sixty degree angle.
"Oh sweetie, you don't have to do all that around me!" She said as she noticed how severely he stiffened.
"I'm Matilda, William's mother. And you're the lovely little boy Will's been talking about for ages" She said excitedly.
"I've just heard so much about you! Will's told me how well you take care of him - making sure he doesn't hurt himself with those stupid stunts, fixing him up when he does, makin sure he gets his rest when he's off fighting sleep...Thank you kindly for that!" Matilda said, slightly rambling.
Once he thought about it, Elliot did take care of Billy a lot...He never had a problem with doing it of course, he just never thought Billy was ever really that dependent on him for anything.
"Ooh!" The older woman cooed as she embraced Elliot in a hug. "I'm just so happy our little Will has finally met someone like you!" She said, obviously implying that they were already an official couple.
"O-Oh no...We aren't...I mean he doesn't...Uhm I-I…" Stuttered Elliot weakly after she pulled away, struggling to admit that they unfortunately weren't a couple.
"Now don't you start with that denial around me!" Matilda said, putting her hands on Elliot's shoulders.
"I've seen the way you look at him...you may not be a couple, but you love that boy plenty enough to be don't you?" She said knowingly.
Elliot couldn't do anything but nod sadly as the woman smiled and patted his shoulder one last time.
"Don't ya worry sweetheart, I ain't gonna let on that ya love him just yet. Love needs to wait, you tell him when you're ready. Just know that if ya don't tell him too soon, he might just find someone who will…" Matilda said to him slyly. If there's one thing she knows about men, gay or not, is that they are always very protective and possessive of whoever they love most. The old woman knew what she was doing, she wasn't crazy just yet. She'd planted the seed, now all it took was a few days for it to grow in the boy's head before he finally told William how he felt.
"So," She said abruptly as she continued her mixing of pancake batter, "Do you know how to bake any Elliot?" she finished. She had a lot of Christmas cooking she was gonna need to do, and she needed all the helping hands she could get. Unfortunately, all the cooking the boys around the house could do was fried eggs and grilled anything.
Soon enough, Elliot and Matilda had a wonderful next few hours bonding through baking and cooking. Matilda was over the moon about Elliot, her heart soaring at the fact that she knew her baby boy was taken care of just find as long as he had Elliot there.
After a few hours of this, Billy finally woke up from his long sleep. He shuffled into the kitchen, still dressed in his clothes from yesterday and not caring about his messy hair whatsoever. Last night after he carried Kyd to bed, Billy finally realized how tired he was from the trip there. He passed out almost immediately on the couch, exhausted from the journey despite all the sleeping he did throughout it.
Once he made it into the kitchen, he found a very startling scene. Elliot was in the kitchen with his mother, baking and wearing a somewhat girly apron. When Elliot turned to wave at Billy from the counter, Billy could feel his heart drop into his stomach. This was it for him. Someone slay him please. The moment he saw Elliot in those shorts, a girly apron, covered in flour and giggling in such a lovely way, he knew for certain there was no more getting out of this. He was in love with this amazing little idiot and there was no more denying it. After snapping out of his haze, Elliot presented him with breakfast to which he gladly made disappear in the blink of an eye. If there was any one-way ticket to Billy's heart, it was through his stomach. Elliot smiled as he tried to flatten down Billy's messed up hair, which Elliot thought looked just a little bit cute.
"Alrighty William…" Came the warning voice of his mother. "What are the rules?" She asked sternly as Billy rolled his eyes dramatically.
"I know Momma, I know. No duplicating, no playing pranks on the lil' kids, no stealing, and no touching any of Dad's stuff." Billy recited all with his mouth full of pancakes.
"And no talking with your mouth full! Did you forget all of your manners young man?" The woman nagged.
"Momma…" Billy groaned as Elliot giggled at his scolding.
"C'mon, I gotta show ya something before everybody wakes up." Billy said, getting up and dragging Elliot out of the kitchen and out of the back door as the screen door made an annoying screech sound.
Billy ran to a barn not too far from the large house, half holding Elliot's hand and half dragging him the whole way. Elliot took a wary glance at it, it wasn't too sturdy looking. Paint peeling off the walls of the faded red barn, weeds sprouting out every chance they got. Billy eventually pulled him inside, the whole structure looking like a haunted house from the inside. Billy began pulling Kyd up a ladder to a large paneless window where they both sat. Kyd more nervous about it than anything while Billy let his legs swing from the height.
"Ain't it pretty?" Billy asked, looking out onto the landscape in front them.
Laid out before them was a large vast area of grass and horses that Kyd didn't notice before. Horses ran and played as the sun beat down on them, even in the dead of winter. A pod of three dogs chased the colts around happily, mimicking their behavior. Lone trees littered the ground, usually with a cow or calf hiding beneath its shade. Elliot was blown away...you could never find a scene like this in the city.
"It...It's beautiful Billy…" Elliot said quietly, not daring to tear his eyes away from the scene to see Billy staring at him in a lovesick way.
"Sure are…" Said Billy, forgetting the landscape he'd memorized as a child and instead getting lost in the amazed look on Kyd's face.
"Uh…?" Kyd mumbled, only slightly aware that Billy had meant him instead of the landscape.
"The view! Is! I meant is! Hahaha...? I uh...I meant the view is...is beautiful...yeah…" Billy covered for himself terribly. Elliot was fully aware Billy meant him, but chose to ignore it to spare Billy his embarrassment.
The oh so beautiful moment was rudely interrupted by Kyd nearly falling to his death by something rocking the wall they were on, mainly his side. Billy caught him just in time, only for them both to turn red immediately. Billy had caught him by the waist, looking like they were dancing. After Billy pulled Kyd down unto the ladder to climb down, he glared at the rude horse that had ran full speed at the wall to knock them down.
"Ellie...I'd like ya to meet Delilah. She's our...diva of the barn. She was probably getting jealous of you getting all of my attention." Billy said, looking at the stuck up white and caramel horse. Delilah whipped her head as if to hit Billy with her mane before closing her eyes and lifting her head to the ceiling. Billy rolled his eyes at the human-like horse before grabbing Kyd's hand and pulling him to pet the bridge of Delilah's nose.
"Go on...She won't bite, I swear. She's just a little prissy." Billy said, one arm holding Kyd's hand while his chest was on Kyd's back.
Kyd finally gave in and pet the larger animal, despite his overwhelming fear of being trampled or bitten. Kyd sighed in relief as the animal seemed to accept the peace offering, warming up to Kyd slightly.
"Good. See she…" Billy began but trailed off as he looked down to see just how close he and Kyd were. Close enough they could almost...kiss...if they wanted to…
"She…isn't…" Billy trailed again as Kyd seemed to step even closer to him, Kyd could practically feel the heat radiating off of Billy. They were so close…
"...hi…" was quietly muttered from Billy. All he could really muster to say at the moment. Billy went from staring deeply into Kyd's beautiful ruby red eyes to staring seriously at his small lips. How soft were they? Because they looked really, really soft. Really tempting. He'd had this thought often but it was never nearly as so strong… At this point Elliot's breathing was ragged and shallow with anxiousness, his eyes conveyed nothing but desperation and love. Just as their lips were so close to making contact...Elliot seemed to wake up from whatever high he was on.
His eyes widened as he softly put his hands on Billy's chest and weakly pushed him away with his eyes closed, he couldn't bare to see the look of despair on Billy's face as they separated further.
"She's...she's really pretty...thank you for introducing me…" Elliot said, swallowing a sob of regret between words. Elliot started turning to leave and most likely return to the house but before he could, Billy's hand was grasping his wrist. Not tightly or angrily like most would, it was soft and saddened...pleading.
"Why...why do you always do that? Why do you always pull away, right when something like this is about to happen…? Don't lie to me Eli...I know very well ya like me. I...I kinda overheard the talking you and my mom were doing...So why do you always stop yourself if you like me so much?" Billy asked him softly, silently begging him to turn around and face him. Elliot himself was on the verge of tears, he hated having to tell him.
Kyd turned suddenly, his glaring face quickly turning into one of despair as he forced Billy's hand to let go.
"Billy...William...you need to stop...you need...William you deserve someone so much better than me...Someone who won't let you down...Someone who can be there for you all the time...You deserve someone who you can love...rightly. Out there somewhere, is a girl or boy just waiting for you. They aren't a criminal, aren't some foolish little nobody with fantastic dreams of grandeur and impossible love. They will give you the life you deserve, where you can be happy and safe. Billy...I don't deserve you...And I'm not going to put you through trying to make something work with me because you pity me…" Elliot said, tears slowly rolling down his pale face one by one.
"I'm...I'm so sorry…" Elliot sobbed brokenly before bolting away from the barn to who knows where. He felt like he was breaking into a thousand pieces with each step he took.
Billy felt terrible...he wanted so badly to wipe away those tears streaming down Elliot's face and tell him just how much he loved and wanted him...how he deserved to feel loved by Billy...why Billy loved him so much...but he couldn't do it. Billy was never one for words...he had these thoughts all the time but he could never put them into sentences. If he'd just said something, anything, then Elliot wouldn't be running away from him crying right now.
He angrily punched the wall of the barn at his own lack of action before sitting down and leaning on it, holding his head in his hands and groaning at his latest screw up. He had to do something...anything. He had to tell Elliot how he'd always felt, no more putting it off. Billy stood up with a new sense of purpose, running back to the house to find somebody who'd help him.
[Final chapter of the day...wow I had a lot of time on my hands to write this...To Be Continued tomorrow hopefully]