‘Well we got no choice. All the girls and boys. Makin' all that noise. 'Cause they found new toys. Well we can't salute ya can't find a flag. If that don't suit ya that's a drag. School's out for summer. School's out forever. School's been blown to pieces’
Billy’s radio rattled with the song that Steve now recognized by heart as ‘School’s out, by Alice Cooper’.
“Robin, I’m going to kill him. I swear to Christ, if you don't control your friend I’m going to throw him in the lake.” Steve groaned as he rolled over in his bed, pulling his pillow out from under his head and putting over his ears.
“He’s not my friend before dawn, Stevie.” Robin muttered as she flopped over in her bed and mirrored Steve with her own pillow.
“Wait, Billy’s from California.” Robin said she'd pulled her head out from under the pillow and looked up at Steve’s bunk.
“So?” Steve yelled from under his pillow.
‘No more pencils no more books. No more teacher's dirty looks yeah. Well we got no class. And we got no principals. And we got no innocence. We can't even think of a word that rhymes. School's out for summer. School's out forever. My school's been blown to pieces’
“Do you remember when Tommy and Carol pushed Argyle into the lake? He had been fully dressed for, like, mountain climbing or hiking the rocky mountains.”
Steve poked his head out from under the pillow and groaned. “Robin, you know my brain doesn't work till at least 7:30am.”
Robin sighed, heavy and loud. “Argyle swam laps, in boots. Jonathan said that they practice holding their breath and walking under water by swimming with rocks in their pockets. Apparently they also use vests with weights in the pockets.”
“So?” Steve yelled over the music, clearly not seeing the correlation.
“God, your brain really isn't running this early.” Robin rolled her eyes. “They're both from California.”
“Wait, I thought they were just best friends.”
“Oh, my God. How did you think they knew each other?”
“I don't know, Robin! I thought that they just, like,” He flailed his arms around. “I don't know! Everyone likes Argyle!”
‘No more pencils no more books. No more teacher's dirty looks. Out for summer. Out till fall. We might not come back at all. School's out forever. School's out for summer. School's out with fever. School's out completely’
“Robin!” Steve all but whined. “Go tell him to turn it down!”
“Steve, I don't talk to him before daylight. You're lucky I talk to you before daylight. If you want him to shut up, then you go tell him to shut up.” Robin rolled over onto her side and put her pillow back over her head.
Steve tried to ignore the music. He tried desperately to will himself back to sleep, but Billy’s voice boomed through the wall as he sang along with the last few lines of the song.
“Okay, where’s the rope?! I’ll tie his arms, you get his legs and we’ll throw him in the lake together.”
“Oh my God, Steve! I’m going to throw you in the lake if you don't shut up. I can sleep through the music just fine.” Robin yelled at him.
“Fine!” Steve huffed as he tossed the blanket off his body.
Climbing down from the top bunk Steve muttered and mumbled. Robin had gotten used to Billy’s morning routine by day three, but then again Steve knew she could sleep through just about anything. Lawn mowers, chain saws, fire works, partys, hell he was pretty sure she could sleep through a murder.
Steve stormed out of his cabin room, the screen door slammed shut behind him and the song ended. Steve marched over to Billy’s door as the next song roared to life.
‘We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teacher, leave them kids alone. Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone’
Steve couldn't name this one, it had just been added to Billy’s line up a few days ago. Banging on the door Steve was starting to lose the sleepy feeling, it was almost too late to even try to go back to sleep.
“It's called Another Brick In The Wall, part 2. By Pink Floyed.” Billy flashed his best melt your heart smile, wide and warm as the summer sun as he opened the door. “Anything else, pretty boy?”
‘All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall’
Steve’s brain hadn't started working just yet causing the too sugar sweet smile to stall him in his tracks. Confused and disorientated Steve stuttered, trying to remember the words that had been so ready on his tongue just moments ago. Billy was staring at him with an intense gaze, he was shirtless, clad in a pair of dark purple swim shorts that hugged him a little too well, and a pair of old faded chucks that used to be black but now looked more gray than anything.
“I-I” Steve shook his head looking away from Billy’s face. “I…”
“You?” Billy asked, taking a step closer to Steve.
“Too early.” Steve yawned, covering his mouth and turning away from Billy.
“Okay, so why you here, princess?” Billy asked, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
‘We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teachers, leave them kids alone. Hey, teachers, leave those kids alone’
“Have mercy, it's not even daylight Hargrove.” Steve said with a heavy sigh, his eyes half closed.
“Did I interrupt your beauty sleep?” Billy snickered.
Steve’s face flattened out, he glared back at Billy feeling the snap of irritability from lack of sleep. “Just turn the goddamn radio down, some of us are trying to sleep.”
Billy shifted from the sugar sweet smile to more his usual anger set face, Steve straightened up as Billy puffed up to him. Standing chest to chest Steve felt under dressed, bare footed, gray sweatpants, and a muscle shirt that was cut low from under the arms down just past his ribs.
‘All in all you're just another brick in the wall. All in all you're just another brick in the wall’
“I liked it better when you begged.” Billy growled up at Steve, his breath hot and minty fresh against Steve’s face.
Steve was about to open his mouth, angry and done with Billy’s bullshit when a hand appeared on Billy’s shoulder and pulled him away.
“Alright, alright big boy we get it you're a big strong man.” Eddie pulled Billy back into their shared cabin and smiled at Steve. “Let's turn the tunes down and give the king a few more hours of beauty rest. What do ya say?”
‘Wrong, do it again. If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat? You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy’
Eddie slid his arm around Hargrove’s left shoulder, his chin resting on Billy’s right as Eddie smiled wide and bright up at him. Steve was taken aback by the whole situation, he’d never seen anyone beside Argyle brave enough to even attempt to defuse an angry Billy Hargrove.
Billy took a sharp inhale. “What have I told you about calling me ‘Big boy’?”
“Do it as often as I can.” Eddie laughed then pulled away, he walked between Steve and Billy.
“Munson,” Billy growled.
Eddie patted Steve’s back by his ribs, he gently pushed Steve back toward his own cabin. “Off you go, handsome. Go get your sleep. We’ll keep it down over here.”
Another song clicked on and Steve faintly remembered it from the line up Billy had played last week. If he had to guess he would have said another Alice Cooper song, ‘Be Cruel To Your School’ maybe or something close to that.
‘Be cruel to your school 'cause you may never get another. Be cruel to your school in the name of rock 'n' roll. Be cruel to your school just like a sister or a brother. Be cruel to your school in the name of rock 'n' roll’
Steve looked back at Billy who didn't look at all like Steve had expected him to. Billy had a little smirk pulling up at the corner of his left lip, his eyes watched Steve like a predator watched a bleeding animal. Steve let Eddie send him on his way.
As he crawled back into bed Steve questioned everything he’d ever known about Eddie. It was the first year Steve had ever been to the camp, but he’d heard about it plenty from Dustin. Eddie attended every year, he went from a kid in the camp to a counselor and he went to the same high school as Steve; but Steve had never paid attention to the metal head.
Now Steve wished he would have met him sooner. Maybe if he knew whatever beast soothing magic Eddie had he wouldn't have been beaten into the ground last Halloween. Once Steve settled into his bunk he turned to face the wall he shared with Eddie and Billy, he smiled at the peaceful sound of silence.
“Thank you Eddie Munson.”
Two hours later and the playlist started up where it had stopped. It was louder than before, Steve would have sworn that Billy moved the radio closer to the shared wall just to spite him.
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can’t talk about it
[ID: Black and white comic of Vash and Wolfwood from Trigun Maximum. The comic starts with the sounds "thud, thud, click". Vash, mid-action of peeling an apple, turns to the sound, noticing who it was that entered, and says, "Oh, Wolfwood, you're back." He resumes back to his apple in the next panel as he speaks, "Where'd you go? You snuck out of bed quickly this morning..." Wolfwood's hand then enters the panel, hovering over Vash's cheek and Vash looks up as Wolfwood asks, "Can I?" Vash responds, "Not going to talk about it?" while using a hand to gently hold Wolfwood's hovering hand and presses a kiss to his inner palm.
Vash then gets up fully, setting down the knife down on the table and the apple onto a plate, He leans into Wolfwood as Wolfwood explains, "Had to meet someone. Nothing interesting to talk about." Vash kisses Wolfwood's left cheek and a hand moves to cup his other cheek while muttering, "You're being vague." Wolfwood says neutrally, "If yer really that curious, keep askin'. We can talk about that instead of doing this." Vash leans back and responds, "Let's talk after, since... You look so tired."
The panel pans to a close up of Wolfwood's downcast eyes, bags heavy underneath his eyes. He doesn't allow Vash to sit in that moment for long though, then saying, "Yer not helping, Spikey. Being all slow with it... I could fall asleep right now." He moves his hand to start unclasping Vash's coat, starting from his collar. Vash with red cheeks, responds briskly, "Oh, shut up. I'm worried about you. I can't be worried?"
The final shot shows Wolfwood's back to the viewer while Vash's softened expression can be seen as he holds gently onto the side of Wolfwood's face and a hand firm on his waist. Wolfwood responds, "I'm fine, seriously," pausing for a moment before continuing, "Is it okay to still..?" Vash responds, "Yeah, it's okay."
The next image is a shot from later that night after the previous comic. Vash and Wolfwood are now in bed, half naked. Wolfwood's buries his face into Vash's chest, his arms wrapped around him, while Vash is petting at his hair. Vash reminds him, "Hey. You said we'd talk about it." Wolfwood pauses for a moment before piping up, "In the morning? I'm sleepy." Vash says, "Okay..."
The next two pages start from the morning after. Wolfwood is already fully awake, pulling on his outer jacket as he says to Vash, whos' still bundled in his blankets, "Breakfast is on the table. Make sure to eat it. I'm going to grab some things in town and then we're leavin'. Got it?" Vash says, "Mh." Wolfwood responds, "Good. See ya in a bit." The dialogue starts to shift into Vash's inner thoughts now, as he gets up and eats toast, thinking, "Wait. Weren't we supposed to... talk about it?" The next shot then shows him fully up, meeting Wolfwood in town. He carries a half worried expression with him while Wolfwood slides on his glasses for him. A quick panel shows Wolfwood's tired expression from the night before and quickly juxtaposes with Wolfwood in front of him who's smiling gently, the shades covering his eye bags. Wolfwood asks him, "Still not awake yet?" Vash pauses, his thoughts stirring, thinking, "Oh. I guess I was getting ahead of myself... thinking you owe me that kind of honesty." He smiles at Wolfwood and responds, "I'm awake!" His thoughts continue, "Maybe one day, you'd trust me enough to share your burdens."
The final image shows Wolfwood pulling at Vash's cheek and Vash complains, "Owwwww why..." Wolfwood quickly says, "You were thinking something stupid, right? It's all over yer face." Vash mutters, "Nooo, I wasn't..." END ID]
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