Chapter Text
Freddy was a mess, and yes, he knew that. It was just that it had never bothered him before. Until now. Now that he lived under the same roof, in the same room, with Billy Batson. Now Freddy was not just a mess, he was a disaster, he realized.
He knew he shouldn’t be this self-conscious around a roommate—a boy, but he was and it made him feel more pathetic if possible. He was even surprised at how bothered he felt when Victor told him he smelled, which never happened before.
Sometimes it felt so unfair. Why Billy always looked so cool, with his weekly-washed jacket and hands in pockets and long legs, and even his ragged sneakers looked cool? Why his hair always seemed in control even after he pulled off his beanie. Why he smelled so nice, like a sandalwood teabag? Why Freddy knew how he smelled?
Freedy, on the other hand, was the epitome of weirdness. He wore colorful clothes. His hair was unruly. He stank. He talked weird shit. And man, he had a crutch on his side. He was bullied for God knew how long and always got pitiful or judgmental eyes on him at school and he got used to them, but he sweat bullets when Billy rolled his eyes at him. Was he that weird?
So Freddy tried to be a better man.
He decided to take showers daily and he only skipped when he was busy testing and recording Shazam’s superpowers or uploading Shazam’s vids on Youtube or writing analysis on Shazam (which kinda took half his day). So yeah, practically he took showers twice a week. Don’t judge him, he is a teenage boy, he could just go on with taking showers only twice a month, really. He brushed his teeth twice daily, like a normal person, not just once like before. And sometimes, he even took time to comb his hair, which actually didn’t help, but at least he could say he had tried.
And his hard work was indeed paid off.
“You smell like soap today,” Billy said as they snuck up into the back seat of the van, waiting for all the family members to settle before driving to school.
“Yeah?” Freddy breathed out. Why did he breath out? He didn’t run or anything. He swallowed, feeling his face burning.
“Freddy took a shower? No way.” Darla turned around on her seat to look at him, her eyes widening before narrowing suspiciously.
Billy huffed a laugh. “That’s why you woke up so early and spent like fifty minutes in the bathroom?”
“Hey,” whined Freddy, punching Billy on the arm. “And don’t tell me that you counted.”
Is that, is that Billy is blushing?
Billy said nothing at that, just snorted and turned his head away from Freddy to look out the window. His ears were still pink. Freddy fought back a smile. True or not, Billy acknowledged the fact that he took a shower. Despite the strange look that Eugene threw at him from the seat beside, Freddy purposely accidentally creeped closer to Billy until their arms touched, just so Billy could smell the soap on him.
—
“Can’t believe you made me do the dirty work. Again!!” Freddy hissed right after he left the principal’s office. He tried to sound like an angry cat, but couldn’t help the wolfish grin that plastered on his face at the memory of how stupid Brett and Burke looked when there was a huge-assed dumpster on top of their car. “And I can’t believe how they believed I could even lift that thing and it’s dirty, you know, literally. I’d never do that.”
“Since when you care about hygiene?” Billy asked as they made their way to the lockers to grab their stuff before dropping classes again.
Since spring came and I abandoned the beanie and you picked up a habit of ruffling my hair after each mission of punishing bullies at school and letting me take all the blames. And it’s alright because I like it. I like you.
But Freddy didn’t say that. No. So he just smiled and rolled his eyes, limping beside his best buddy, trying to keep pace with his long strides because he knew what was going to happen.
And here you go.
Billy reached up and ruffled his hair. Freddy ducked down and smiled at his sneakers. Moments like this didn’t last long, but if that was all he could get, he cherished it. Though this time Billy didn’t draw back his hand right away after a three-second brotherly affection like he usually did, he kept running his fingers through the tumbles of hair, which made Freddy stop in his track to turn and look oddly at him.
“Your hair feels so soft lately, you know,” said Billy, finally stopping the soothing movement of his hand to rest it on Freddy’s nape.
“Yeah?” Freddy breathed out. Jesus, why he always breathed out at times like this? He gulped a sudden lump in his throat, darting his eyes around to see if they were alone in the hallway. When he was done checking, he reached up to touch Billy’s wrist, idly making circles with his fingers against his skin. “You often ruffle my hair lately, you know.”
Billy seemed startled at this. He withdrew his hand hastily before stuffing it into his jeans pocket, despite the warm weather. He turned away and resumed his way to the lockers, leaving Freddy behind fighting back a smile at how pink his ears looked when he strode away.
—
It was summer time and they were at the pool when Freddy got his first kiss.
Darla had screamed with joy and flung her tiny arms around Rosa when their parents turned up at the kitchen after breakfast, hands dangling with colorful floats and life vests. Freddy, on the other hand, wasn’t really fond of the prospect of swimming.
“I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to a swimming pool,” said Billy, his hands on his hips, standing on the edge of the pool and looking down into the water.
Freddy was busy curling in on himself, trying to be as invisible as possible. God, why did he have to be so skinny-looking? He must look horrible in those swimming trunks. He looked up at Billy at the statement. He shouldn’t be surprised. Billy had spent his whole life chasing after his mother, he hadn’t had time or given his previous foster parents an opportunity to take him to a pool.
“So let’s just take full advantage of this one then,” said Freddy, tilting his head towards their family members who were splashing water at each other like those cliché characters in movies.
“Oh ho, I will,” said Billy before he suddenly had an arm around Freddy’s shoulder and tackled him into the pool.
When he emerged above the surface, he spluttered the water out of his mouth and nose.
“You asshole,” he hissed at Billy, who was laughing like a maniac, probably at how disastrous Freddy looked with hair all over his face, his eyes puffy and water and snot still running out of his nose. “Lucky for you my leg healed or you would’ve been convicted of murder of drowning your so-called buddy.”
“Though I’ve always caught you, haven’t I?” Billy shrugged, smirking. God, he looked good in his swimming trunks—tanned skin exposed and all. Even his smile looked brighter. And it was true that a beautiful man looked way more beautiful when he got wet, not like Freddy’s throat, which suddenly went very dry despite him being in the water.
Before he could dwell on it for too long and made a fool of himself by getting a boner, he flung himself at Billy and plunged themselves deep into the water. When they emerged, they both laughed. Freddy’s whole body was tingling with the memory of Billy’s skin against his. His head was dizzying, and he blamed that on the sun beaming over their heads.
When he came into the restroom area to take a shower, it was so crowded that even skinny Freddy had trouble weaving through body after body to get to a room. Billy had left him right after the thirty minutes’ time of playing in the pool. He had no idea whether Billy didn’t like pools or just didn’t like him in a pool in general. Freddy didn’t know how to swim so he was not a fun person to play with at a pool after all.
Absentmindedly he dragged himself into a restroom and flailed wildly when he realized there was a boy in it.
“I’m so so so sorry, the lock is green and I thought it was empty and—” he babbled miserably when he attempted to retreat and closing the door.
“Come here,” the boy said, whose voice was so familiar Freddy looked up and breathed out an Oh when he realized it was just Billy. Jesus he was naked, so nope, not just any Billy, it was that fucking Billy boy that he had a huge crush on.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” He flailed again and still attempted to creep back outside but Billy got his grip around his wrist and pulled him inside.
“The lock is broken,” Billy cleared his throat, grabbing a tower and dried off quickly when Freddy pressed himself against the door, as far away as possible from Billy and kept his eyes on anything except his friend.
“I’m done, you can use it now, but be careful with the lock.” Billy snorted a laugh before pulling on his clothes.
Freddy was still motionless against the door. When Billy approached him—ah no—when he approached the door, he ruffled Freddy’s hair.
“Now, will you step aside so I can get out?” Billy smiled fondly at him as his hand, again, stroke Freddy’s matted hair. Freddy was blushing so hard he ducked his head quickly to hide his undoubtedly red face.
“Oh,” said Freddy stupidly and took a step away from the door. He should have take a step aside, not forward, and he ended up smashing his face straight onto Billy’s collarbone.
Billy huffed a laugh and put both his hands on Freddy's shoulders to push him away. It should be hurtful, but he did it so gently that Freddy looked up to gauge his reaction.
“You’re a mess, you know?” Billy frowned a little, but his eyes was still smiling.
“Yeah?” Freddy breathed out. God he needed help.
Billy said nothing and just shook his head. He was still smiling as he closed the gap between them and kissed Freddy on the lips. It was light, like nothing in his wild fantasies which were always so heavy because yes, he liked Billy that much and wanted to do very pervy things with him, but it still made him gasp. Billy’s lips were soft and wet, and his tongue was sweet. But before Freddy could get more of the taste, Billy had pulled away and disappeared behind the door that he had opened when Freddy was too busy being shocked at the kiss to notice.
Freddy stood there for how long he didn’t know or care. But when he finally got on with shower and got out to the parking lot, he saw the rest of his family had already been there, waiting for him. He should feel very embarrassed at how red he must look, but when he caught side of Billy’s back and his pink ears, he could just feel very proud of himself and smiled broadly at all of his family members who all threw him odd looks.
—
“Why you ran away from me this morning?” Freddy asked as he lay on his bed, gazing up into the upper one that resided Billy, the boy he had a crush on, who apparently also had a crush on him.
Only the silence answered his question. When he told himself to accept the fact that Billy had fallen asleep, he heard movements from above. His heart was pounding. Billy was still awake.
“I had a boner, you know.” Billy’s voice was quiet, almost inaudible, lacing with embarrassment.
Freddy choked. So he was not the only one.
“So, er, what are we now?” He wondered aloud when he found his voice. Would their comfortable companionship change? Would it become so awkward they couldn’t look each other in the eyes? And why was he so concerned about all this feeling stuff, God, he was a mess. He was a disaster falling in love with this silly Billy Batson boy.
The silence consumed them again. Freddy fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. Shouldn’t have asked that, should he?
“You’re my family, you’re my best buddy, and you’re also my boyfriend if you like that,” whispered Billy. He was not good at sentimental stuff like this, Freddy knew. And hearing him saying this made the butterflies in his stomach flew more wildly than they had ever done these past few months.
“Yeah?” Freddy breathed out again. This time, he didn’t call for God, because this time he knew he got the appropriate reason to feel this breathless.
Billy said nothing. A moment later, Freddy looked up to see Billy climb off his bed and pull back Freddy’s comforter to sneak up beside him.
“Yeah,” he breathed against Freddy’s neck, and Freddy giggled like an idiot in love that he was.
“For how long?” Freddy asked. He knew he didn’t need to elaborate his question because Billy would know.
“Since the day you argued with me in front of the entire world after I did catch the bus,” said Billy, mirth in his voice. “You kinda said everything you do is like some desperate attempt to get people to notice you, and I realized that I did, I do, always notice you.”
“God, I was a mess back then, wasn’t I?” Freddy groaned, covering his face with his hands.
“And I liked it.” Billy patted his stomach comfortingly. “I know you started trying to look cooler and smell nicer around me, but you know I like you no matter what, right? I don’t care if your hair is all over the place, or sometimes, uh, occasionally you smell sweaty, or you drool when you drift off doing your analysis on superhero stuff.”
Freddy felt his face burning against his palms. He groaned some more. God, Billy knew. He knew how much he had tried.
“Though I kinda appreciate you brush your teeth twice a day, so kissing you is more bearable.”
“You asshole.” Freddy huffed, nudging his elbow onto Billy’s ribs, which made the boy moan in pain and pinch him hard on his tummy.
And despite the twinge and the crazy butterflies in his stomach, he leaned in and kissed Billy, again and again.