[voice test]

[theprettymarine]

Billy didn't know how to name the feeling he had when Frank married Maria. He was happy for his friend, for both of them. He did everything a best man was supposed to do, and then some, because he would be damned if Frank didn't have a decent wedding, even if it was a rush job. Because Maria was pregnant. But Frank was happy and that was what mattered.

But something did shift in him as he watched his friend take his vows. No one sticks around. Maybe that wasn't totally fair - Frank was his brother, they were Marines, and they would share things that no one else did, and that was okay. He didn't need anything else from Frank. He didn't deserve anything else.

They had some leave before their first deployment, which was how Frank managed to get married at all. And after Frank resurfaced from his brief honeymoon, Billy was happy to meet him for drinks.

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[onebatch_twobatch]

Things were tumultuous, but Frank was trying to live life honestly, as much as he could. Maria helped him with that, because she refused to take his shit. Billy helped with that, for the same reason. He was a better man for having them in his life.

He went to drinks with a quietly laughed blessing, permission to stay the night over if it came to that, and a single condom in his wallet. He felt a little like an idiot about that one, that little wiggly hopefulness that he wasn’t sure what to do with.

Billy looked good when Frank rolled into the bar, but Frank wasn’t surprised. He came over and bumped him gently in the shoulder, only half disturbing the conversation he was having with a pretty girl that was leaning toward him.

[theprettymarine]

Billy almost felt bad about how quickly he forgot the girl when Frank bumped into him.

"Hey, Frankie." He lit up, inside and out, and he wished he could put a fucking lid on it. "Shit, you do know how to dress yourself."

He gave the girl some apology before he turned his full attention on Frank. It was the kind thing to do. He wasn't going to hook up with anyone tonight.

"Did your new old lady give you a curfew? Do I have to get you home before you get fall-down drunk? Is she gonna get pissed if we get arrested for some drunk and disorderly conduct?"

[onebatch_twobatch]

Frank felt just a little bad about Billy blowing the girl off, but only a little. He smiled and got the bartender's attention to get himself a drink. They were both still too stupid-young to be doing this, but the bartender didn't card him, and so Frank didn't mind.

"I go home whenever you're done with me," Frank said, honestly. "But I think she'd be pissed if she had to bail us out. That's a good way to get the Sicilians paying the wrong kind of attention to both of us, winding up in the drunk tank."

[theprettymarine]

"When I'm done with you, huh?" Billy laughed and shook his head as he picked his drink up. He was going to need a hundred more if Frank kept talking like that, but he could manage. "Okay, okay, so no getting arrested. It's off the list."

He grinned and bumped against Frank. God, he looked good.

"How was your honeymoon? All two days of it." Alright so it had been slightly longer than that, but not much. They were shipping out before long, and they couldn't go too far.

[onebatch_twobatch]

"It was good," Frank said, nodding. "We got a hotel and ate lots of room service and she told me I had to grow my hair out a little, as soon as possible, because she can't abide he buzz."

He knew that Billy had every intention of growing his own hair back out, because they'd talked about it. He didn't think he'd seen Billy before he'd gotten his initial cut, but he could imagine him with a longer look.

"You do anything fun when I wasn't around to keep you in line? For two whole days."

[theprettymarine]

Billy grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Frank. "Oh I uh, entertained. Y'know."

Mostly he had to give Frank some shit, but he'd kept himself busy. "Made arrangements for having shit taken care of while we're overseas."

He didn't have much, and it didn't make sense for now to try to keep much, but he did want something - somewhere - to come back to that wasn't base housing.

[onebatch_twobatch]

"Billy the beaut," Frank said, gentle and charmed, ignoring the little twist of jealousy that came from thinking of Billy with other people. Frank had no right to say how Billy spent his free time. He was a free man, technically speaking.

He grabbed his drink and sipped it, leaning into Billy a little bit.

"It all get taken care of? Anything I could help with?" They were brothers now, after all, and if he could help, then he absolutely would.

[theprettymarine]

"It's settled. But thanks, man. Next time I need to do some DIY shit you're the first one I'm calling."

He grinned and nudged Frank's leg with his. Frank's weight against his side felt good, and familiar, and he'd missed the asshole for the two days he'd been radio silent. Billy found himself wanting to kiss him. What the fuck.

He shook his head and finished his drink, then nodded to the bar tender to get another.

[onebatch_twobatch]

"Sure, man," he said with that gentle smile he got especially around Maria, and around Billy too, he was realizing more and more. "Anything you need."

He clapped a hand on Billy's shoulder, squeezed gently, lingered. It was an obvious touch, with a single swipe of his thumb on the skin just above Billy's collar.

"We just drinking here tonight?" he asked. He finished off his first drink in a rush, and got a second one to match Billy's second.

[theprettymarine]

If Frank kept smiling at him like that, Billy was not going to get through their goddamn deployment without doing something stupid.

Then Frank's thumb brushed his neck. He was gonna need another fucking drink.

"We can go wherever you want, man." Billy wasn't stuck on the idea of staying in one bar until they fell down.

[onebatch_twobatch]

Frank nodded. He was suddenly nervous at the prospect of suggesting a place. He'd never been very good at that, even before things got blurry and complicated in his life, and it was that much more nerve-wrecking now, he supposed.

"Suppose we'll have to see where the night takes us, huh?" He sipped his new drink, but that sip became sort of a gulp with the nerves. "I know a couple decent places up near Greenwich."

[theprettymarine]

Billy lifted his eyebrows. "You actually know parts of this city outside of Hell's Kitchen and Little Italy? When the hell you get so worldly, Frankie? We haven't even shipped out yet."

He grinned and nursed his second drink, but fuck, maybe he was going to need an IV drip of alcohol to get him through tonight. Frank was-- Billy had no idea. Maybe it was all in his head. It had to be. Frank was married now. Everything was different.

[onebatch_twobatch]

"Yeah, laugh it up, Jersey rat," Frank said, rolling his eyes and shoving Billy in the shoulder. "Wild, it's like I grew up running around Manhattan like a fuckin' hooligan or something. You don't know half the shit I used to get up to before I signed up."

But maybe that'd come up at some point, maybe they'd talk about all sorts of shit. They were not the kind of guys that talked about their histories very much, about the boys they'd been before they signed up. But Frank thought he could.

"It's up to you," he said. "The drinks are cheap enough here."

[theprettymarine]

Billy rolled his eyes and knocked back his drink. "You wanna go, man. Let's go." He set money on the bar - enough to cover all their drinks so far.

"Next round is on you, my man."

Billy slid off his bar stool and stretched a little. Summer in New York had him down to a t-shirt and jeans. He still made it look good.

[onebatch_twobatch]

It was flustering, somehow, that Billy could make something so casual look so good. His eye was drawn. He finished off his drink as well, and lingered at the bar for a moment.

Then he nodded, and nudged Billy along with him. The liquor wasn't hitting yet--probably because unlike the bar in North Carolina, those weren't sneaky triples.

They hit the pavement, and Frank easily navigated them to the Blue Line. As they loaded onto the train, he crowded in maybe unnecessarily close to Billy, catching a belt loop with one finger as the whole train swayed into motion.

[theprettymarine]

Billy stayed close on their way down to the subway, and he was trying hard not to think too much when Frank crowded close to him. He shivered, which was ridiculous because it was fucking hot, when he realized Frank's fingers had caught his belt loop.

Fuck. Fuck.

[onebatch_twobatch]

He was watching him, close and careful, because this was a navigation and negotiation that Frank was figuring out how to do as he went, and Billy looked like he was about ready to jump out of his skin. He thought about pulling back, giving him his space. More than that, he thought about kissing him.

His thumb nudged up under the edge of Billy's t-shirt. "How're those drinks treating you, Bill?"

[theprettymarine]

Billy swore all the heat in him went straight to his dick as Frank's thumb brushed over his skin. Shit. Shit. He looked at Frank, and he wanted to fucking kiss him but they were on a goddamn subway train.

"I'm alright." He wet his lips. Frank was close and Billy was forgetting how to breathe. "What's going on, Frankie?"

[onebatch_twobatch]

"We're having a night out," Frank said. "And I'm about to take you to a bar in Greenwich that I've been going to since I was sixteen."

He kept up that slow, gentle stroke of his thumb. "What're you worried about, Bill?"

[theprettymarine]

Billy took a deep breath, and another, to try to keep his head clear. But this close, he could smell Frank's cologne. When the fuck did he start wearing cologne?

"What'm I worried about? You're married, Frank. You remember that part where I was your best man?"

[onebatch_twobatch]

"Yeah, I remember," Frank said. He was wearing his wedding band right now, and he wasn't stupid. But Maria had known since that first liberty weekend during Basic, when he and Billy had gotten a hotel together and spent the weekend shitty and handsy, and things hadn't changed there.

Discretely, taking a glance at the board reading the next stop, Frank shifted his hand a little bit from Billy's hip to brush against the front of his jeans.

"She knows where I'm at," he said softly. "And where I'm at is right here. Okay? So we can keep drinking a while, if you want. If that helps."

[theprettymarine]

Billy gripped the pole near them, swayed into Frank when the car moved. He could feel his hand, and he was pretty sure he'd just fucking die if Frank applied any more pressure.

Maria knew about them, he knew that, but things were supposed to change when someone got married, right? Youthful indiscretions were left behind for-- for whatever came next.

Billy was a youthful indiscretion.

But Frank was here, and Maria knew, still. He lifted his head, looked at Frank as he stayed close. "Tell me what you want, Frankie."

Even as he said it, tucked his fingers into the top of Frank's pants, holding onto him to keep their hips close.

[onebatch_twobatch]

They pulled into the station they needed for the bar Frank had in mind, and if they were getting off, they ought to get off, but Frank stood there. They were tangled up and close, and Frank could feel the heat blossoming from his chest and outward, sinking that heat down slowly.

"I want you," he said softly.

[theprettymarine]

"Fuck," he breathed. Billy tipped his head down bumped his temple against Frank's as he just stood there for a second, fingers tightening on Frank's pants. He didn't move, even when the doors closed again. Only then did he pick his head up.

"Wanna go back to my place?"

Because they could go and drink, or they could hang out in the village, but-- but he didn't want to miss anything in throbbing music or too much liquor. He had booze at home.

[onebatch_twobatch]

"Yeah," Frank said, and nodded, even with their foreheads pressed together like that. He was so, so grateful for their civilian clothes and their distance from a port of call or a base of any mention. They were just themselves in that moment, nervous young men who were trying to figure out how to navigate these things.

"Yeah, let's go back to your place," he said softly, and sort of breathed a laugh. Whatever liquor there had been in those two drinks was starting to tangle in him, and he felt easy and effusive.

His nose nudged against Billy's. His voice was low and gravelly. "Take me back and fuck me, okay?"