#ghost.op

Saw a post and it made me think of them <3

(probably a different meeting au?)

Where Steve gets married young and he and his wife have some kids and then his wife dies of some illness/accident.

He's still pretty young, younger still than some people are when they get married for the first time. But now he's a widower and a father and...

And he feels like the life he thought he'd have is no longer possible.

He buries himself in his work and in being the best father he can be, and neglects basically anything that isn't clearly (to him) related to those two things. Principally himself.

His friends (and maybe his family) notice this. They try to encourage him to take better care of himself, to allow himself to do things just for him sometimes, to maybe consider dating again.

Steve's having none of it. He can't hear it.

He does his job. He does everything he can to be a present and loving father. Any suggestion that he should consider himself more, sounds to him like a criticism of his ability to handle those two aspects of his life that are the most important.

Eventually someone (a friend? a group of friends?) get fed up with everything and come up with a (probably inadvisable) plan.

Organize babysitting, set Steve up with a date with an escort, and refuse to let him back out of it.

They figure, Steve goes out with this escort, the experience helps open up his eyes about what he needs and that it's okay for him to consider dating again and then he can go on and pursue an actual partner.

And at the very least getting laid will hopefully help him chill.

It doesn't exactly go to plan.

Something gets a little mixed up in the call to the escort agency, and they end up sending out Billy instead of the blond woman Steve's friend thought they were requesting.

Steve's an absolute wreck. He doesn't want to be on a date. He's fine and he doesn't get why his friends can't see that. He also isn't sure why they set him up on a date with a male escort of all people.

He wants to call home and check on the kids, or better yet just leave and go back home but his friends have told him they are unplugging the phone and/or are holding something over his head to make him at least try the date for a couple of hours.

Billy, a seasoned pro, rolls with it and actually does a pretty good job of turning the night around. He keeps it casual, friendly, doesn't push. While it is a bit of a dig to his ego that one of the hottest clients he's had in a while is so clearly not interested in him, he's not going to complain about an easy job. He's already been paid for the whole package, and his services are non refundable. If all Steve wants is some company and some stranger to reassure him that his kids are probably fine and it's not like, bad or anything for him to go out with someone new even though he still clearly loves his dead wife... Billy can do that. By the end of the night he's even managed to get Steve to laugh a few times.

Both Billy and Steve end the night expecting that to be the end.

But... a few weeks later Billy finds out he's been hired to go out with Steve again, but this time by Steve himself and intentionally/specifically Billy.

He doesn't buy a full package this time, just a date which is one of Billy's cheapest services, but Billy finds he doesn't really mind.

Steve insists he just liked Billy's company and that he decided he did want to spend more time out with other adults, and without his kids, as much as it made him feel guilty. And if he pretends these outings are dates his friends will jump at the opportunity to babysit for him.

And that's how it continues for a while, and they get to know each other better. These outings don't pay the best, but they are easy and Steve is interesting. Billy finds himself looking forward to these bookings more and more as time goes on.

Eventually Steve books him for additional services. Billy assumes that it's a mistake, much like the mistake that got him sent out for the original booking instead of one of the girls.

But when he sees Steve that night Steve confesses that he's been interested in both men and women for forever, but hasn't really had any opportunity to explore these feelings with men because he fell in love with his wife when they were both pretty young and there's been no one else since

and he's really nervous to be trying stuff like this out. because he's never done stuff with another guy before but also bc he's still in love with his wife and he feels guilty for even considering sleeping with someone else and he feels like it wouldn't be fair to whoever he'd try to date next either bc he's still in love with his wife.

but he says he trusts billy, and that billy already knows what a basket case he is

so they try it out. It doesn't go smoothly, but in the end it's a positive experience.

Steve continues to book Billy regularly. Sometimes just for dates, sometimes for something more.

They both fall for each other. But neither feels like they can act on those feelings for a bunch of reasons.

At some point, something happens with the kids and/or babysitters. Some emergency that has Steve rushing home/to the hospital without having time to drop Billy off somewhere first (Billy normally doesn't let his clients drive him anywhere, but he'd started letting Steve be the exception to this and many other rules months ago).

The emergency, while an emergency, turns out to be nothing too serious and everyone involved is going to be fine. At which point Steve finally has the mental space to realize he brought a male escort around his kids and that as much as he likes and trusts Billy that maybe that wasn't the best idea.

It's fine though, Billy is interacting with the kids in a totally normal way, and it's not like anyone is just going to look at him and somehow know what Steve's been paying him for these last several months.

The sight of Billy, cheering up his kids after a stressful/scary event, makes all those too much feelings Steve's been trying to ignore much harder to ignore though.

Probably some more ups and downs and mutual pining in here. Maybe one of them calls off the arrangement they have thinking it's for the best but never actually communicating why.

Eventually they do talk. It's not smooth and is kind of actually an argument. But eventually they both actually say what they need to say even if they don't say it in the best way.

Billy'd left the escort service once their arrangement was called off. It's not that he hated the job or anything, he actually liked it a lot for a while. It's just that he'd always known this wasn't something he wanted to do forever. This entanglement with Steve made him realize it was time to move on and do something else.

After their argument/conversation clears the air on several things Billy and Steve decide to try actually dating. Much like everything they've done together, it doesn't go smoothly, not at first.

But in the end, they are very happy together.

Steve's happier, and his kids are happier too. Turns out taking care of himself is actually a kind of important part of taking care of them.

And they adore Billy once Steve starts introducing them to him (properly this time, the emergency doesn't count).

Where Eddie anonymously writes explicit fanfic. On the surface the fics are about some pairing in some fandom he's in, but just below that he's taking a lot of inspo from his crush on, and fantasies about, Chrissy.

Lots of brave knight/bard/adventurer/whatever saves the princess from her evil step mother and the asshole prince that the princess has been betrothed to. Then the knight/bard/whatever and the princess ravish each other thoroughly and live happily ever after, that sort of thing.