Chapter Text
“No. Absolutely not.”
“C’mon, Bills, it’s just one night where the squad-”
“I’m not spending my night watching the Nerd Herd. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, Harrington, but I’m not exactly their favourite person.”
“I mean…. I don’t know what you expect after almost killing them.”
A sigh left him as he pushed himself off of the couch. He ran a hand through his hair as he started to pace around the Harrington living room.
All he had wanted was to hang out with his- whatever Steve was to him. He hadn’t signed up for the babysitting bullshit that was being thrown at him right now. He couldn’t babysit. It was hard enough looking after Max when she had an attitude, never mind all of them in one place. Why Steve had even thought to bring it up to him was beyond him. Billy was not the kind of guy that hung around with them. He didn’t care about Dungeons and Dragons and whenever he was around more than one of them at a time the conversation seemed so stunted because they were clearly trying to hide something from him. Even Steve was involved in that awkwardness but he already knew he was going to get nowhere if he asked them what the fuck they were hiding.
“Not that that even matters anymore because you’re on your way to making it up to them, right? They’re slowly starting to like you a little more. This could be the thing that breaks the seal! Or- no- that probably wasn’t the right way to phrase it…”
The rambling from the other had made Billy pause in his pacing, waiting for him to get to the point so that he could come up with something in rebuttal. He was just so cute when he rambled- no. That wasn’t the time or the place to be thinking that. He was supposed to be arguing against the kids coming over and if he let Steve’s cuteness get into his head then he was never going to win.
“I know that tonight was meant to be our night. I thought I was only going to be looking after Dustin but then Will invited himself which meant Mike invited himself then Lucas and cause Lucas is coming Max has to come and I don’t want this night to be wasted and have you go back and have to spend time with your dad cause I don’t like you round there anywa- oh.”
To put an end to the seemingly never-ending rambling of Steve Harrington, Billy dropped himself down into the teen’s lap, cupping his face to pull him into one of those kisses. The ones where it was slow and gentle. where it was more than just ‘a kiss’ because there was a meaning behind it. The meaning for this one was something close to ‘shut the fuck up, you know I’m going to say yes cause you’ve got me wrapped around your little finger’. As soon as he felt Steve’s arms wrap around his waist and lean into the kiss he was pulling away. If he was going to make him spend his evening with kids then he was definitely going to make Steve’s life difficult, even if the kids hadn’t turned up yet.
“You owe me, Harrington,” he pointed out as he pulled back, smirking as Steve started to lean forwards, eyes still shut from the kiss, “How long we got?”
The question had him opening his eyes and it was difficult for Billy to ignore the pout on his face. But he was dragging Billy into the babysitting business for a night apparently, meaning he refused to give into every whim of King Steve. Where was the fun in that?
He tilted his head back a little as he felt Steve start to tuck himself underneath his neck, arms tightening around his waist. “About thirty minutes. Should probably order pizza or something for when they get here.”
“Wow. Way to give a guy some warning, King,” he groaned as he pushed himself up off of the teen’s lap, ignoring the little whine that he heard coming from him as he did so, “Go order pizza, I’ll pick our shit up and clean or something. I’d rather not deal with them falling over and hurting themselves… especially if you’re going to yell at me for laughing.”
*****
“Fireball!”
“Protection!”
“Fireball!”
Billy groaned as he flopped back onto the couch, rubbing a tired hand over his face as he tried to quell the annoyed anger that was slowly bubbling. It had been hours since they’d turned up and they were still going. He’d taken to hiding in the living room whilst the kids played whatever dumb nerd game it was that they played in the kitchen. To literally no one’s surprise, Steve was hanging out in the kitchen with the kids, leaving Billy to mope and lay around on his own.
He couldn’t exactly blame him. The kids didn’t know that their thing was a thing yet and, even with the apologies that he’d dished out to them, they were all still a little wary, which really was understandable. He couldn’t be mad at them for that. He was trying to be less of a piece of shit and so far it was going pretty well.
In the back of his mind he knew that it would have been a wiser choice to try and get involved, to prove that he was actually making an effort and did want to make up for the shitty things that he had done in the past, but he just didn’t have the energy for that. They’d be screaming about dragons and trolls and all sorts of shit that would just end up going over his head before it started to irritate him and Steve wasn’t going to let him drink any beer around them when there was still so much that he hadn’t told him and there were still to many moments where he’d almost flipped.
So, yeah. It was definitely safer for Billy to stay stretched out on the sofa with some bullshit program playing on the tv on the other side of the room than try to get involved with whatever was happening in the kitchen. Soon enough they’d be leaving and Billy would be able to bother his sort-of-boyfriend a little more.
*****
The next thing he knew, he was blinking his eyes open and was greeted by the sight of Steve crouching down next to him, slowly pulling a blanket up over his body.
“Well hey… welcome to the land of the living. Good nap?”
Rather than giving Steve a spoken response, he just hummed and smiled softly before shuffling a little further down on the blanket. He took a couple more seconds to just look at Steve, take in ever little feature of his face before he let his eyes slip shut again.
“Kids gone?”
The silence that meets him in place of an actual answer speaks volumes and he’s already expecting the worst. He’s got his fingers crossed under the blanket but he knows that it’s going to be no help whatsoever.
“Steve. Are the brats gone? ”
“Well…”
“For the love of fucking God, Harrington.”
“Okay, okay, calm down.” As Steve started to explain himself, talking about goblins and trolls and everything else that Billy had predicted would go over his head earlier, his hand slowly travelled up to Billy’s hair, twirling the curls around his fingers, tugging lightly on the strands, “... and yeah. It’s too late to take them home now so they’re going to crash here.”
As much as the playing with his hair was working as a decent distraction, the frustration was building in his stomach again because this wasn’t what they agreed on. They’d agreed on the night, yeah, but he didn’t think that meant through the night too because that definitely meant that sex was off the table. It wasn’t that big of a deal but after not being able to actually spend time with him without having a bite of paranoia in the back of his mind he was looking forward to it more than usual.
“You’re lucky I kind of like you,” he huffed, turning to press his face into the arm of the sofa.
“Hey.” The quiet whisper had him turning his head back to face him, “I kind of like you too.”
Billy was going to come up with some sort of scathing remark, something sort of dumb rebuttal but Steve apparently wanted to recreate their moment from earlier because a soft brush of lips against his own was enough to short circuit his brain and stop any arguments from coming.
“Yo Steve, I was just-”
The sound of Dustin walking into the room was enough to make them both freeze in the worst position possible.
It took them a good few seconds before they were finally coming back to themselves and shoving each other away, Steve hitting the floor like a sack of fucking potatoes.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Billy’s eyes were darting between Dustin and Steve, trying to come up with any way to explain what was going on but he was floundering. He’d been through this shit before - people finding out about two guys being together - and it never ended well. Dustin may just be a kid - Steve’s kid - but he could tell anyone and that could lead to so much more.
He couldn’t be the reason that someone got hurt.
He couldn’t be the reason that Steve got hurt.
Not again. Not ever.
The second thought that slapped him was the fact that Neil could find out. If Neil found out then the whole family would be uprooted again, not when he found something worthwhile in the town and not when he was finally starting to have a relationship with Max. He couldn’t lose the two really good things in his life. Not again. Not to mention that the punches would be sent with so much more force, ‘respect and responsibility’ wouldn’t even come into play and there’d be nothing he could do to stop him.
“-illy. Come back to me, dude.”
Back in the present, and Billy was looking up. Somehow, Harrington had managed to sit him up without him noticing. There were warm hands cupping either side of his face, forcing him to lift his eyes to lock his blue with the rich brown eyes of the other, taking his cues on regulating his breathing from him. God, this was so stupid and it was so embarrassing to be in this situation. It was only awkward because he kept catching sight of Dustin in his peripheral vision. Steve had seen him at his worst and managed to drag him back from that dark place, much like Billy had dragged him back from his nightmares, but the kid was just stood there, staring, waiting for some sort of explanation.
“I can’t-”
Steve didn’t ask him to carry on, he knew him too well. Billy watched, exhausted and on edge, as Steve left him and escorted Dustin out of the room and back to - where he assumed was - the kitchen.
Before long, Billy heard the sounds of the game being packed away, the kids trudging upstairs in a single file line as Steve wandered back into the living room.
“I promised Dustin I’d talk to him - to all of them - tomorrow. Said that I needed to sort you out after your little freakout. You okay now?”
“I’ve been better but I’ll be fine,” he promised, trying to ignore the quivering in his hands, rubbing and clutching them together in the hopes that he’d be able to quell the movement. “I’m sorry for that… by the way. I’ll- I’ll explain it all at some point, I promise.”
Steve’s hand was back in his hair, combing through it and pushing his back out of his face once he had finished speaking, giving Billy all the comfort that he knew he was desperate for but too nervous to ask for. “No rush. Just tell me when you’re ready.”
All Billy could do was gulp and nod his head a little before basically collapsing forwards against Steve’s chest, exhaustion hitting him tenfold. The panicking along with the boredom and the long day had left him way more tired than he had thought he was.
“Can we just… go to bed?”
“If that’s what you want, Baby, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Billy simply nodded his head again and allowed Steve to pull him to his feet. Before they could start to move, though, he was wrapping his arms around the taller teens waist, tucking himself up against him, head finding its usual place underneath his chin, nose tickling the skin of Steve’s neck. There was no telling how long they actually stood there but Steve didn’t push to move them until it became pretty obvious that Billy was starting to fall asleep again.
“Alright, B. Let’s get up to bed, yeah? Face the Dragon and his Lair tomorrow.”
“You’re a fuckin’ nerd, Harrington. Dragons ‘n’ bullshit. Stupid.”
“Yeah, and I kind of like you too, Loser,” he grumbled as he pushed Billy back.
Billy wasted no time in reaching down to lock their hands together, fingers intertwining as Steve led them upstairs. He had the sinking feeling that he’d be facing Dragons and Monsters a lot sooner than the next day. That wasn’t an issue, though, as long as he had his King beside him.