#mels were harmed in the making of this gifset
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anjelicawrites · 3 months ago
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I bring a potentially angsty question based on that drunk Billy gifset you just reblogged:
How does Billy react if/when reader and Michael ask about his family?
💜
Mel, you can come with all the angsty questions whenever you want!!! I love them!!!
Short answer? He doesn't have two significant others, he has two guard dogs now. Longer one? Let's dive under the cut!
Warning for reference to medications and nightmares. They/them used for reader where needed.
I think he would dodge the questions and be vague about it. Yes, he has an older sister in the police force, yes, his mum and dad still live in London and call him randomly. And that's it because, if he starts opening up about his family, he'll have to explain everything that happened to him. His face was on the papers, after he was extracted from the bombed car but neither you, nor Michael, made the connection and know the actual reason why he moved to Oxford, since the photos were old and in terrible quality, plus his story was sidelined by the bigger sensation that was the whole alt right movement fallout, and the murders connected to it.
As long as the relationship was simply based on sex, it was easier for him to give you both the least information possible, most of the time you two didn't stay over and didn't see his medications, the times he would wake up screaming from his nightmares or realize that Billy never goes back to London, not for love or money, or that his family doesn't come to visit him from time to time.
Things changed tho, like they always do.
You saw his medications by mistake, Michael almost got an heart attack when Billy fell asleep on the couch, only to wake up screaming. You didn't want to press him for information, you wanted to give him time to open up, Michael, and his big mouth, couldn't help but firing questions, Billy, obviously, clammed up and refused to say anything. If the relationship had made a step forward, thanks to Michael, it went back ten steps because Billy wasn't ready to show you two nerds who he had been and what he had done, being so ashamed of it himself.
The three of you didn't meet for weeks, Billy avoiding you on purpose, until you cornered him and made sure he told all that happened.
Talking about his family happens organically at this point.
Michael has to bite his tongue when Billy tells you the ways his family tried to tough him up, comparing him constantly to his sister who, seemingly, was amazing in every aspect of her life. He was embarrassed to admit how this constant reminder of his failures had taken a toll on his mental health, catapulting him into the waiting arms of the alt right group that used him. When Michael, finally, explodes, saying that they're all cunts, you are ready for the fallout.
"They tried their best. They failed, but tried the only way they know." Billy says, his head hanging a bit. "And that's why I can't meet them, because they'll never admit they were in the wrong." "Still cunts." "A bit, yes."
It shines in the way Billy talks about Lana, that he loves her and that love wasn't enough to salvage their relationship: she saved him but was the reason Billy kept falling and falling into the depths of depression; it wasn't her fault, she was the unwilling catalyst though, and you can't forget it. You hug Billy tight and he makes himself as small as possible to fit your frame and feel your hands in his hair, while Michael is grumbling about the whole situation in the background: he's not one for forgiveness. Not that you don't agree: Billy can do whatever he wants with his relationship with his family, you're never going to forgive and forget, even if Billy does. Someone needs to look into these people's eyes and remind them of what they did to him, the harm they caused to Billy, and still to this day.
That his parents and, to an extent, his sister did it believing they were doing right by Billy doesn't truly matter on the long run, not when Billy is still suffering and believes himself to be less than what he is, simply because he doesn't meet their expectations for him.
You don't have the luxury to express your rage as outwardly as Michael is doing right now, someone needs to anchor Billy, and that's your job, but by God you're fuming as you keep him in your arms and are already planning how you're going to show him how great he is, how important he is for you: that's your goal, Michael's? He will never let his family off the hook, it's a promise; if you know someone who never forgets a slight, who is capable of holding a grudge to his grave, that's you math genius boyfriend.
You two will need to coordinate your efforts and you two will succeed in helping Billy truly flourish, and if his family tries to have say in it? They will never know what will hit them, and that's your silent promise to Billy.
Cringefail throuple taglist: @fan-goddess @moris-auri @lexwolfhale
Ewanverse taglist: @vhagar-balerion-meraxes @zaldritzosrose
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