#stonagrove

[cicadasmoth]

stonagrove sketch before i go to bed

[bowiebond]

Mafia AU but it’s byerharringrove 👀

“Nobody disrespects the family. It’s mine.”

• Jonathan is the bodyguard to Will who’s only taking the family business because it was in their grandfathers will.

• Lonnie didn’t want Will to be the head because he’s gay, and Joyce didn’t want either boy to take it because she was married into the life and always wanted out (after Lonnie’s death she starts dating a police man who she has to hide the business from to keep her boys safe).

• Jonathan had an out once Lonnie unfortunately passed (an accident with a loaded shotgun he didn’t handle with proper care. Untimely, really, Jonathan would say with dead eyes and a smile on his lips when people asked at the funeral, shaking their hands with a terrifyingly firm grip). Will was to take on the role after all. Lonnie tried to undo it in his own will, but he was the second son to his own father and had less power even in death.

• Unfortunately he wasn’t able to leave his younger brother in the cage with tigers and stayed with the intention of keeping him safe since he was dethroned from the position he would have taken as the first born. Keeping Will alive and happy was his duty, always had been, and kept him from the throne himself. Kept Will from dirtying his hands when Jonathan was his weapon of choice.

• “Those Byer brothers…” People would say in shushed voices. “They’re psychotic. Ruthless. The Psycho Byers all were. Someone oughta put a bullet in them before the eldest catches you.”

• Billy is the next in line to be the head of the family. The Mad Dog who blew his expenses on women and alcohol, who got into bar brawls and laughed after spitting blood in his own bodyguards face, appointed by his father. Despite his frivolity, he was not to be toiled with. He’s Mad Max’s keeper, the step daughter from Neil’s second marriage after Billy’s own mother left the life of crime in the middle of the night. Billy was willing to spill blood at Max’s feet if given a whiff of ill intent towards her, on his fathers orders.

• Unfortunately, Max is intent on making a name for herself. Hates being babysat by her older step brother when she can take care of herself. She has every intent of stealing his crown and becoming head of the family herself, but she’s unable to bring herself to kill him. Mostly because of the treatment Billy receives from his father, especially when she messes up.

• Neil suddenly goes bye-bye during a gang shoot out with the Carvers, ‘taking a hit for his boy’ they would say, not knowing Billy put the bullet in him himself with one of the dead Carvers goons gun left on the ground.

• The title is supposed to fall to him, and everyone expects him to take it. And he does. But he wears it as a figurehead. A target for people to shoot at. He’s got the ability to lead them, but he doesn’t intend to. He’s leaving it to Max who actually wants the job and reaping the benefits as he keeps his nightlife alive and out of sight. Max accepts the condition, but she still intends to seize the business for herself while Billy’s not looking. She doesn’t care if it paints a target on her. She wants everyone to finally respect her like they should have when her mother married Neil.

• Steve is the prince of his family, the Harrington’s. King Steve, his friends/lackeys would joke. He’s used to getting what he wants, when he wants it, and everyone feeds into it.

• Except his father, who’s been adamant about him not taking over the business since he was a teenager. Steve sucks at finances, hates getting his hands dirty, and despite having a mean mouth, rarely won the fights he got into despite the years of self defence his father forced him to take.

• (Jokes on him, Steve fucked his teacher and didn’t learn anything. No, he doesn’t like to think about the fact that he was fifteen and they were much older, he’d rather assume he had the upperhand).

• Mr Harrington wants Steve to be in the background. Tells his members that Steve does work overseas for the family when in actuality he pays Steve to go and have quiet fun away from them. Because he’s an idiot and a disappointment, and he’ll never be good enough to run the family.

• Mr Harrington’s already training up his ex-girlfriend Nancy Wheeler to take over because of how ‘intelligent’ she is. Steve’s only getting the figurative throne if he marries her and Nancy has refused more than once because she intends to run things alone and will not be stuck in a ‘political marriage’.

• Steve doesn’t really want to marry her either, not after how things ended. Plus, his best friend Robin wants Nancy’s cousin, Heather, even if she doesn’t tell him to avoid hurting his feelings.

• Steve spends daddy’s money on booze, cigarettes and prostitutes since he doesn’t see any future in the business now. He may as well mooch off his old man and send himself into an early grave.

• It only makes sense that the two party animals of the trio would bump into each other eventually. Billy’s got most of his buttons undone, a blonde in his lap that he’s paying little attention too as he watches the dance floor where Steve is. He doesn’t have to know him to know he’s pretty, a really pretty boy in bell bottom jeans and a cropped top that barely skims where his pants are up around his waist. Expensive and chic and maybe a tad outdated. It works regardless.

• The light brown fabric of his shirt clings to Steve’s skin as he raises his hands up, rolling his hips, his blue jeans showing off his ass as he throws his arms around a short haired woman, singing along to the music and grinding against her as she laughs and grinds back. There’s no tension between them, just drunk giddiness, and Billy’s walking towards them without a second though.

• He comes up behind Steve and slots himself against his back, grinning at the woman, Robin he later finds out, who waggles her brows at him and excuses herself. Steve doesn’t hesitate to rub up against him, turning his head and raising a hand to cup his face, grinning against Billy’s cheek as the music pounds.

• By the end of the night, they’re tumbling into Steve’s suite and going at it like animals, Steve tearing up Billy’s back and ordering him to keep going like the spoilt prince he was. Billy’s good at taking orders, makes a good dog that’s willing to bark when told to and to lick when something tempting is put in front of him.

• Billy leaves before Steve wakes, but leaves his card. He can’t skip out on an ass that fine. A pretty boy is a pretty boy, bratty or not.

• Billy and Jonathan meet during a meeting. Business casual, of course, and Billy isn’t sure what to make of Will Byers. Has heard stories. Will is very smart, but there’s a touch of naivety to him, one that his bodyguard and brother makes up for when he places a hand on Will’s shoulder and whispers in his ear what to say next when stumped. He’s leader material, but he stays behind his younger brother without a sliver of contempt on his features. It makes Billy curious.

• He offers Jonathan a drink. No, no plus one. Just him. Jonathan’s eyes are killer when he meets Billy’s, seeking out ill intent. Sizing Billy up. In the end, he gives a curt agreement and Billy is brimming with satisfaction. Jonathan makes him curious and he demands to know what’s going on inside that head, inside their family.

• It starts with a drink. And then there’s another. And slowly Jonathan is getting looser, eyes drooping, softening. He’s resting against the bar, head on his folded arms as he looks up at Billy who talks in a low murmur about being the new king of his fathers legacy. He doesn’t mention how he kind of hates it, how he wishes his mother took him with her so he could leave it all to someone else, but that someone would be Max and he couldn’t let Max have a target on her back. If he died in this business, that was his birthright as the son of a Hargrove. That was not Max’s destiny as a Mayfield.

• Maybe it does slip from his lips though. Accidentally, a quick line that catches Jonathan’s attention, draws a gleam into them.

• “I could have left.” He mentions, slightly slurred around the edges and hair falling into his eyes as he raised his head and rolled his shoulders with a soft pop and a few cracks. He’s weathered despite his young age from his childhood, and Billy feels that. Feels it in the ache of his knees, the tension in his shoulders and back, the constant bruise of his hidden pistol pressing into his waistband.

• It’s the first time either of them really open up about it, drinks flowing as the night progressed. Jonathan reacts like he hates every sip, and he does, he doesn’t like drinking but it’s apart of the life really. Drinks with clients. Body guarding means he gets away with not doing it. But there’s an ease to being with Billy, and he doesn’t react so awfully with every taste when Billy and him are linking arms and throwing back shots; Billy with ease and Jonathan with a dribble down his chin, chuckling.

• Billy thumbs it from his chin and it’s like gravity when Billy falls into Jonathan, but it’s force that Jonathan leads with when he throws his arms around him and they topple against the private lounge.

• They don’t fuck, too drunk to figure out the mechanics, but there’s something equally satisfying about making out sloppily, grabbing at each other, their clothes, and grinding like they can’t get enough yet it’s also slow rolls, deep pressure. It’s magic and alcohol and neither really regret it.

• Well, Jonathan regrets it a little. He shouldn’t be fraternising with the leader of another gang like that. Even if he was purely a figurehead and didn’t seem to want to pull the strings, he still could. Getting in close with him would make people question his loyalties to Will, to the family. Could get them both in trouble.

• Doesn’t stop him from accepting his invitation every time. The first few times they do drink well into the night, talking about everything and nothing, about shitty childhoods and siblings and mothers and fathers, but it becomes apparent what their meetings are. They’re almost dates, with the intention of gratification.

• Billy almost forgets about Steve entirely with the new brunet he’s got in his lap once a week, but when the phone rings and he asks him to come by the same room as last time…well, Billy’s not a good guy. He’s selfish, actually.

• He sees Steve again and they fuck and it’s good. Good to get his dick wet after weeks of blow jobs and handies because Jonathan apparently never learnt how to hold his liquor and getting any further is a hassle. It’s not like he’s dating Jonathan, so it doesn’t matter if he sleeps with Steve.

• Jonathan met Steve a few years back; they were after the same girl you see. Jonathan won, but the relationship quickly fell apart due to Jonathan’s higher preference for men and loyalty to his family above all else. Steve wasn’t proud of the way he fought dirty for Nancy, and Jonathan couldn’t help holding grudges.

• So when Will decided to hang out with his best friend Mike and Steve was put in babysitting duty since Nancy was still ‘learning the ropes��, they were forced to see each other for the first time in years.

• Jonathan got better looking with age, and so did Steve. And maybe there was always a bit of tension they never let themselves give into in the past…

• Steve presses Jonathan against the bathroom door while Will and Mike play video games in the next room and Jonathan complains that he’s supposed to be guarding his brother, but it’s hard to think rationally when the guy who made you realise you’re not straight due to hate fucking fantasies is on his knees, sucking your dick like his life depends on it.

• Steve starts willingly babysitting Mike just to see Jonathan, and Jonathan is a weak, guilty man. Because he’s pretty sure he has a steady thing going with Billy but he’s here fucking the spoilt prince (*cough* King *cough) Harrington against a bathroom sink, face pressing against the fogging mirror, while his little brother plays video games with the kid he’s been crushing on since he was like five.

• Steve’s still seeing Billy fairly regularly too. Jonathan still gets drunk with Billy and fumbles with his zipper because there’s an unspoken rule that Jonathan has to be a tad tipsy to do such things even in his off hours (not that he really had any) but he’s doing so with Steve, so why keep pretences?

• Jonathan is completely sober when he arrives at the bar one evening and point blank asks Billy to fuck him. He’s got a room upstairs, champagne if Billy really needs it, but he needs to be sober for this before he makes it habit to only indulge in the blond when he’s drunk. Maybe fucking him while sober will remind him it’s a bad idea.

• it doesn’t. God, it doesn’t, because Billy’s hands still feel amazing, and for the first time, neither have a weapon on them or in reach, don’t have a drink in hand, too lost in each other to protect themselves from each other. Jonathan rides Billy the way they’ve both been wanting for months, and it’s exhilarating to feel Billy’s thumb press against the dip of his throat when he leans down to kiss him, messy and panting hard. Feels holy, like divine intervention to feel Billy’s hand in his hair, fisting the strands and tilting his head to kiss deeper, to feel his fingers dig into the meat of Jonathan’s thigh to remind him to keep moving.

• Billy smokes afterwards, and despite years of telling himself he’d never pick up the nasty habit like his parents, Jonathan wraps his lips around the filter when Billy offers. Breathes in, holds, and releases the smoke along with all his concerns. He’s been worried about everyone but himself since he was a kid. He wanted to savour this glitter of something good.

• The kiss after that feels like something more than sex, than companionship, and neither think of Steve then, but they do after. Steve who’s pretty and a bit mean but so soft around the edges when he’s got lips against his. When his spoilt bratty exterior melts away to something small and needy. Something that needs love and touch. Needs affirmation that’s he’s good.

• Jonathan and Billy are something of an unofficial couple after that night. Billy takes Jonathan out to dinner with his dead daddy’s money that’s now his own, and Jonathan has a growing album dedicated to Billy’s hands, to his lips, to his mirthful eyes and pristine curls. People talk, but nobody says too much too loudly. The Mad Dog and the eldest Psycho Byers have reputations stained with blood and nobody wants to be next.

• Unofficial is definitely the term, even between them. Maybe that’s why they’re still seeing Steve behind each other’s backs. Jonathan tries to protest after that sobering night, saying he’s seeing someone, but Steve has a way with words, with touch. And a mean set of doe eyes when he says, “Not like you’re official right? We can still play. You don’t gotta be guilty. Or you can be, whatever eases your conscience because we both know you’ll come back.” He does. He does and he’s guilty and maybe that’s the part that makes it better.

• Billy has some reservations. Says he’ll fuck Steve but he won’t kiss him like he used too, but it only takes a few meetings to change that because Steve has the most kissable lips and makes the sweetest sounds he wants to drink in and swallow.

• Steve doesn’t know they’re dating each other. He doesn’t ask who when they mention it. They couldn’t compare to him, surely (but they could and he knows and maybes he’s a little scared to lose either of them at this rate. Maybe he kind of loves them, maybe he wants them to whisk him away like he’s a princess instead of a prince).

• Steve calls Jonathan when he gets shot for the first time. He never expected anyone to take a shot at him, nobody cared enough to try taking him out, but he caught a bullet in the side, taking a small chunk out of his waist as it grazed by, before Robin ran them both out of the club, Tommy and Carol staying behind to find their mystery shooter. Robin and him lost each other in the crowd and all Steve could think except for ‘I’m going to die’ is ‘I need a bodyguard’.

• He calls Jonathan in tears, holding his side and curled up in a phone booth. “Please, I-I know you never l-liked me, but you— you gotta h-help me. Gotta know how, you- you’ve been shot, I know, Will- Will said- he said-“

• Jonathan arrives with Billy in tow ten minutes later, staying on the phone with Steve the whole time as Billy drove. They had been out at the time and Jonathan had planned to explain Steve away as a friend if Billy asked. Or maybe be honest. He hadn’t been sure, too worried about the whimpering brunet on the other end.

• Steve clings to Jonathan when he arrives, shivering, and when he sees Billy, his first words out are, “Billy, you remember her, my friend, Robin, the first time we met, did you see her? You had to see her, we- we lost— we lost each other, I- Jon, I lost Robin,”

• Jonathan is confused to how they know each other but quickly asks Billy to drop them at his place and circle back to look for Robin. Billy agrees and Jonathan sits in the backseat, comforting the exhausted Steve who curls around him like a inconsolable child. Kisses Jonathan’s neck because it’s the closest skin available and murmurs “thank you” and “I love you” over and over through sniffles and hiccups. Jonathan’s not entirely sure he means it because he seems delirious, but he can’t turn him away in his state, repeats “it’s okay” as he pets his hair.

• Billy drops them off and Jonathan spares a moment to lean over from the backseat to kiss him and promises to talk later before he takes Steve inside and Billy drives off to find Robin.

• Thankfully the damage wasn’t too severe, but the angle would leave a nasty scar, and his shirt was unsalvageable. Steve drops off to sleep pretty soon after being wrapped up and laid down, his adrenaline flatlining.

• Jonathan waits for Billy to come back but it isn’t until the next morning. He had found Robin, that she was okay, but she had found Carol bleeding out with Tommy, in his arms as he tried to put pressure on her wounds even as he choked on his own blood, and spent three hours arranging them to be taken to emergency and cared for. Billy only found her because she went looking for Steve around 4am, looking on the verge of tears.

• Robin and Steve reunite, holding each other tight and whispering in Jonathan’s bed about Tommy and Carol, silently crying. It’s then that Billy draws Jonathan away to talk.

• They talk over coffee, both with dark circles under their eyes and weary, and Jonathan admits to his infidelity. That he had been sleeping with Steve. That he might have feelings for him, that Steve’s call had been a wake up to how much he did care for him. Jonathan says he loves Billy, for the first time, and that he intends to be faithful this time if Billy ever forgave him.

• “there’s nothing to forgive.” Billy explains his side of things, that he had known he felt something for Steve for a long time but didn’t want to lose Jonathan because their connection is special. It was a rarity to have someone who understands him so fundamentally. Understands why he can never leave the business even if he wanted to.

• With the air cleared, Billy suggests that they keep seeing Steve. Separately, together, he didn’t care. Because Jonathan and him had something Steve could never tarnish or replace, but he was also something special they both wanted and perhaps even needed. That maybe Steve needed them too.

• Jonathan agrees, and from then on, their guilt is abolished. The secret between them is gone and with the space gone it’s like they’re closer. Steve is no longer between them, a hurdle, but besides them.

• Jonathan takes care of Steve through his healing alongside a Robin who brings back info on the recovering Tommy and Carol who barely made it through and are being insufferable about it. Meanwhile Billy looks into the shooter and pays someone under the table to take care of it. He’d do it himself, but he wasn’t dirtying his new boots with the blood of trash that low. As long as Steve can rest easy, he’s happy.

• Steve quite likes having both of their attentions on him. Liked watching them together too, but he especially likes being cradled between their bodies, Billy pressed as close as possible so he could wrap his arm around the both of them. Jonathan’s arm curled under Steve’s so his hand is between Billy’s chest and his back, nose to nose with Steve as they snoozed. It’s softer than anything the bodyguard has felt, gentler than anything the mad dog has experienced, and it’s richer than any amount of cash to the abandoned prince.

• None of them know where this will go, but for now, they’ll take the glimmer of hope that’s entered their dark life. They can be their own, small family. And nobody hurts family, not in their business.