#aka make everything harringrove take 1million

[withoneheadlight]

ok but billy and steve both getting summer jobs at the local aquarium yeah i know there isn't one let’s act like there is and steve works at the gift shop and billy’s working with the dolphins as some kind of caretaker’s assistant, making sure things around and inside their tank are nice and clean, making them company, feeding them and— the dolphins are the cutest thing, to be honest. there are three of them: flipper (originality what’s that?) and happy and james and they know all these tricks and they love attention so it’s just normal that ‘i used to be hard and cold-blooded but now i spend 8/6 with the equivalent of three little kids and i’ve melted quicker than a popsicle left out in the sun’—billy hargrove ends up having the time of his life and feeling like he’s not working at all while he swims with the dolphins and lets them carry him around and plays with them and jokes with them and talks to them and—

aside from that, working in a little town aquarium is kind of lonely, more so at the gift-shop, so steve goes visiting every day. talks with billy and pets the dolphins and claps and laughs and ‘whuhuuu!’s delighted at their tricks even when they splash him soaked and maybe, just maybe ‘i used to be the big bad wolf but now i spend all my days giving kisses to dolphins' —billy hargrove might find it endearing when steve’s eyes crease at the sides, seeking for billy’s like for some kind of connection and uhhh, that’s really dangerous territory but billy spends all his summer wandering into it anyway, having lunch with steve, throwing him into the tank when he can't seem to decide whether or not he dares to swim with the dolphins, getting blinded at how pretty he looks, wet and with all that hair turned into a wild mess after drying up in the sun and, wrapped in billy's towel and then dressed in billy's emergency clothes all day.

so, one day he’s talking with his the dolphins, absently cleaning the tank with a net, trying to make them understand that “no, there’s no way i’m gonna tell him how i feel” and “no, flipper, he doesn’t want me back you’re wrong” and ‘oh, that's so easy to say when it's not you who’s gonna have to deal with the consequences aka he hating me” and “yeah, i am in love with him that’s why i don't wanna go and risk losing him, you giant tuna!” and

that’s when steve suddenly shows up, brows furrowing and asking:

“who are you in love with?”

and that’s when, all three dolphins rise up on their wiggling tails, move their left fins in unison,

squeak and,

point to steve.

and billy

nononono

covers his face with his hands and wishes they had a shark tank to go and be devoured in but then steve’s hands are trying to pry apart his and billy can see he’s smiling that fucking heartbreaker smile he has in between his fingers and he’s asking something, not to billy but,

to the dolphins. he's asking:

“do you ladies think i’m in love with billy too?”

and the little shits nod nod nod and they’re clearly so much more clever than humans because billy still hasn’t gotten it when steve says, palms closing firmly around his wrists and tugging,

“hey, i can’t kiss you if you're hiding”

and there’s nothing of that ‘hard, cold-blooded, big bad’ —billy hargrove left, no really, so he let's steve spread apart his hands and then

wow, just. WOW.

the dolphins start clapping.