ethereal : it oneshots

this close to a kiss

pairing: stenbrough

the four times stan and bill almost kissed and one time they finally did

1.  movie night at bill's house

in his basement, there was very little light except that of the television, illuminating all seven kids in the basement. on the couch bill, stanley, ben, and beverly were squished, richie and eddie on the floor, and mike on the chair. ben and beverly were cuddling, but stanley was still squished into bill as if there was no other room (there was). bill would have been paying attention to the movie (the matrix) but he couldn't help but focus on how close stanley was. his hand was even sitting on bill's thigh open, as if he wanted bill to hold it. bill considered it, tapping his fingers on his other thigh in thought. 

finally as richie whispered something to eddie and eddie snorted loudly, bill took the risk. he took stan's hand, intertwining these fingers. this movement prompted stanley to smile and lean his head on bill's shoulder. the two both moved closer to each other, only slightly worried of what their friends might think. after all, it was so dark that it would have just looked like they were squished next to each other on the couch. 

after the night of movies was over, ben left first, his mom arriving early. beverly went with him to be dropped off. mike left soon afterwards, picked up by his grandfather. this left four of the boys, stanley and bill sitting quite far away from each other as to not arouse suspicion. 

"eddie i'm getting water, come with me!" richie whined, eddie rolling his eyes and walking to the kitchen. the two left, and bill and stanley were left alone for the first time during the night. stan looked at his phone briefly, and saw a text from his mother.

"she's here," stanley said sadly, bill pouting and walking over to stan. stan stood up, coming face to face with bill.

"no, so s-suh-suh-so soon?" bill's hands wrapped around stanley's waist, both their faces reddening. 

stanley nodded, his eyes flickering from bill's eyes to his lips. bill noticed. they moved in and stan's arms began to wrap around bill's neck and their lips got closer and closer--until stanley saw richie coming back around the corner, and out of panic, threw his head over bill's shoulder. bill stood in confusion for a moment, his hands flat on stanley's back. it began to make sense, however, as he heard richie's voice. they let go of each other, pretending it was just a friendly hug. 

"sorry" stan mumbled into bill's ear as he backed away, "i got to go guys, i'll see you later." he spoke to richie and eddie. the two nodded, too deep in conversation to have noticed anything weird going on. bill let out a sigh of disappointment after a sharing knowing smile with stan as he left.

2. the lake trip

with christmas time so soon, the losers club decided to go to the lake. they had a special lights show up, and beverly really wanted to take some good photos of her and ben. and nobody was arguing with that, so thanks to public transit, they all made their way there. it was dark out by time they got there, and the lights looked amazing. that didn't stop stan from staring at bill the entire night. the way the lights illuminated bill's face, making him sparkle. every time he laughed the lights would move along his face, and stan would have to bite back all the compliments he wanted to say. richie and eddie spent the whole time fooling around, and mike would spend his time babysitting them.

both stan and bill hadn't made a move on each other since the night in bill's basement. bill was too scared that stan hadn't kissed him because he didn't feel the same way, even though he knew it was just because of richie. stan was too scared to make a move because what if bill hated him for not kissing him? as far as they were aware, none of their friends had caught on yet.