19 Smakaroos

But on the topic of the romance part of the PeteBilly relationship -- Rusty hates that he's now miserable and without people to be miserable with. Everyone has, at this point, found a path to be happy or found something fulfilling in their lives and pulled themselves out of their shit. Rusty liked that Pete and Billy were miserable losers like him and Rusty is jealous they get to be happy.

And Rusty ofc lowkey does ship them (let's be honest, Thanatos and Eros are just PeteBilly in his head and Rusty secretly just wishes they'd fuck already) but I feel like Rusty might actually be very/heavily jealous of Billy.

Think about it -- Rusty (our Rusty anyway) had a shitty childhood and had issues with Jonas (he didn't want his dad dead but like...-shrugs-) and Rusty screwed up his life over and over until he became the catty, pill popping, bald inventor trying to fill shoes he didn't want but was plopped into a life too much for him to handle until he just decided to say 'fuck it, we all'.

And then you have Billy "Quizboy" Whalen, who has a loving/caring mother, had a life altering event happen to her, ends up rooming/living with and working with someone she grows so close to this is her best friend on the entire planet, gets to fulfill a bucket list of her dreams (whether voluntarily or not, Billy gets handed a lot of BS in the series) and is beloved by others who spend two minutes with her.

And WHITE CHOOSES BILLY.

I think in some way Rusty did maybe have something for White in college but Rusty also didn't want to indulge the idea because he also thought it was gross and it was the 80's -gestures at homophobia- and maybe at one point Rusty did probably think the friendship important to him but like -also gestures at the activities he and White did in the computer room- And I think Rusty may have said some things to her at one point or another that caused the friendship to sort of start to splinter. "White, I don't want you to get the wrong idea..." (which left White confused af bc White never thought about Rusty like that AT ALL). And you know Rusty was actually pissed off bc White is like "Uhhhh...Rust...we ARE just friends" (Rusty you have no room to be pissed at her...)

So yeah. Their friendship became more or less "nobody is willing to engage in conflict or talk about anything" and it's just easier to act like everything is fine. The friendship is just an accessory nobody is willing to admit is more or less the same five stories everyone has heard but won't admit maybe it's time to move on. And I think White is also easier to manipulate and string along bc Rusty can use the -star fucker- part of White to keep her around and knows White is too much of a coward to cut him loose completely. Also Rusty would use Billy as a way to keep hanging out and would also use the PeteBilly relationship to do group activities, etc.

But yeah...Rusty is not against or for the relationship. I think Rusty is for whatever keeps Pete (and Billy) around. And while I do think this, Rusty doesn't hate the relationship like it existing is not gross or whatever. Like I said, he was one of the ones going, "FINALLY" but also it's not going to stop him from making fun of them, etc. But Rusty is also like "So you guys are lesbians who pay taxes like everyone else. Just get to work on time".

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