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1
After the whole Starcourt mess, Billy Hargrove couldn’t be bothered to mess with anyone else and rile them up like he had previously enjoyed doing before he got possessed by some demon. Not that he did much of anything, anyways. That damn demon had pretty much fucked up any chance Billy had of living a normal life after that. Not that he had a “normal” life to begin with—he was regularly abused, went out fucking girls almost every day to cover up the fact that he preferred the same sex and, on top of that, had a totally hopeless crush on Steve fucking Harrington. Still. It was a dysfunctional way of living but it was still living.
Now, Billy felt that he had little to no control over his life. Everywhere that he turned, he feared that another demon would leap out and inhabit his body yet again. Being so helpless, unable to stop the demon or whatever it was from taking over his body that one fateful night during the beginning of summer, it felt like Neil’s words were finally coming to fruition. Truth be told, Billy usually ignored the hateful words that Neil spat at him when he hit him but he couldn’t really ignore them when they turned out to be true.
Well, Billy knew he was gay. When Neil called him a fag, hurling it at him like it was the worst insult in the world, Billy often dodged the cruel assumption by insisting that he couldn’t be a fag if all he did was fuck bitches during his free time. That seemed to satisfy his father. Nonetheless, Neil still had plenty of other insults to throw at his son. They often involved implying that Billy was a weak piece of shit, someone that couldn’t stand his own ground against Neil even if he tried his hardest.
Though, truthfully speaking, Billy would never dare go against his father. Once, he had tried to when his father had first started beating his mother. Then Neil started turning his fists on him. Billy stopped getting involving when that happened. He regretted it as soon as his mother left because his father wouldn’t stop tossing her around like she was some sort of rag doll whenever he disagreed with her.
When his mother left, Billy definitely a piece of his heart break. At this point, it’s already been many years since she had left now. And Billy’s heart was still broken. There was no glue that could piece it back together.
“Billy?”
Billy’s turned his head urgently towards the noise. He hated to admit it, but any little noise spooked him. Sometimes it only spooked him for a second and other times it seemed like it went on forever. When it went on forever, Billy often clapped his hands over his ears, trying to drown out the noise that he knew wasn’t real but still seemed so real anyways. Every so often, he would scream when these episodes came too. A disgruntled series of yells would pierce his lungs, sometimes forcing the tears out of his eyes that he always tried to hold back.
“What the hell do you want, Max?” gritted Billy through clenched teeth.
It wasn’t her fault that he was like this. Billy knew that. But every time he looked at her, Billy couldn’t help but to think back to the sauna.
The pain written so clearly all over her face was still fresh in his mind. The heat, sizzling his skin, burning his flesh as they turned the heat up higher and higher. It still felt like a fresh wound, Billy always making sure to gingerly touch his skin in order to make sure that there weren’t actually any remnants of the memory burned onto his skin when he recounted the experience in his mind.
That’s why he hated talking to Max. He didn’t actually hate her, he just hated looking at her. When they talked, Max always made sure to make direct eye contact with her older brother and, usually, Billy had been fine with that in the past. In fact, he liked the fierce determination that coated her eyes whenever they spoke. But now it felt like she was burning a hole in the back of his head when she stared at him so intently in the way that she always did.
Billy knew that it wasn’t intentional. She wasn’t trying to force him to back down anything. That was just the way she was and Billy had learned to live with it. Still, if he could avoid it, he would.
“I need to talk to you, Billy.”
The older boy finally turned to face his little sister standing in the kitchen, resting his arm easily on the living room couch. Neil and Max’s mom were gone for the week “on a grand vacation” as Billy grossly recalled Neil saying when he twirled Max’s mom in the air. That left Billy watching Max.
This was the first time that Max had gotten up the courage to talk to Billy since their parents had left a day ago. Yesterday, they had avoided talking at all. Max had left a note on the fridge that she was heading to the arcade for the entire day and was staying over at her friend’s house for a sleepover. Billy silently hoped that it wasn’t that Sinclair kid that she was sleeping with.
Billy knew how young Max was but he also knew that, at his age, he had gotten a head start on fucking as many girls as he could when he refused to come to terms with his true sexuality. He really doubted that Max was the same way but he still worried, as much as she thought he didn’t. Billy didn’t even realize the breath of relief that he let escape from his chest when Max arrived home early in the morning without what Billy liked to call “sex face”.
“Yeah, let it out, shitface,” said the older Hargrove. He tried smiling in order to lighten the mood but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Plus, Max didn’t seem too convinced that Billy was actually willing to talk to her. She wouldn’t look at him. Even for her, this was odd. She always looked at him, even when she knew that she had done something wrong. Something told Billy that this was different, though. Max didn’t look like she had done something wrong. She looked like she thought she had done something wrong—which was different from actually doing something wrong.
“Max.” He said it softer this time, hoping that she would let out whatever she needed to let out. God, Billy just hoped she wasn’t pregnant.
Max sighed, running her fingers through her hair. Sometimes, she reminded Billy so much of his mother that it hurt to breathe when he looked at Max doing things that reminded him so vividly of her. He never told her though.
“I like someone,” the younger girl admitted.
Apparently, Billy had been holding in a gentle whistle. The air escaped from his pursed lips in a small circle like he was blowing a smoke ring rather than just whistling. That hadn’t been what he was expecting, at all.
Though, he didn’t know why that in itself was a big deal. Not only that, but he had no idea why Max had felt the need to tell him. Not that he was complaining, it just felt strange. It wasn’t like they purposefully kept things from each other but it also wasn’t a common occurrence nor was it a habit for them to divulge in gossipy secrets like this one.
Billy gestured his arms towards Max, beckoning her towards the couch. She lifted her chin up just slightly, barely enlightening him by accepting his invitation. Billy’s sister shuffled towards the couch like she was some sort of zombie. Actually, she reminded Billy more of a penguin but he figured that she would rather be described as an undead monster than as some cute animal.
Patiently, Billy waited until Max plopped down on the couch, sitting down on the opposite end. It was almost like she was trying to sit as far away from Billy as possible. Which was understandable. At least she hadn’t chosen to sit down on the beige chair on the opposite side of the room—that was even farther from her brother. Then again, maybe she just didn’t sit in it because it was technically Neil’s.
Thank god that she wasn’t looking at Billy. Billy felt that it was much easier to talk to her like this, without the impending threat of doom looming over his head.
“Look, I know you like Sinclair,” started Billy. “And I know had a couple...concerns about him but really, Max, I’m fine with it now and—“
“—I’m going to cut you off right there, Billy,” sighed Max, almost like she sighing in defeat of herself. “I don’t like him.”
“Oh,” Billy said, trying to hide the sly grin that crept up on his face. It wasn’t that he necessarily hated Sinclair, he just hated the thought of any boy being with his little sister.
“I like El,” wailed Max. The words came out of her in a hurried gasp.
Shit. That was definitely a girl’s name. Well, obviously it was. Then Billy remembered something.
“El as in ‘I’m going to sleep over at El’s tonight’ El?”
For the first time, Max looked at him. She was probably just as surprised as he was that he remembered what she had told her little friend on the phone after dinner, promptly before slamming the door shut and, presumably, going over to El’s. Billy figured that, most likely, she also didn’t appreciate the fact that he had been eavesdropping. He didn’t really care.
“Yes, that El,” Max admitted quietly.
She began to pick at her red flannel. It was very out of character. Everything about the way she was acting was out of character. Except for the whole liking girls thing. Honestly, it didn’t surprise Billy too much.
Not that there was such a thing as a “stereotypical bisexual”, at least to Billy’s knowledge, but Max seemed to fit the description if there was one. Then again, Billy was gay, not bisexual or lesbian. He didn’t know too much about what a “stereotypical lesbian/bisexual” acted like, though he had to admit that maybe there were some signs to Max’s sexuality.
The signs that had been more obvious back in California, where people were generally more accepting. Of course, there were still the everyday homophobes such as Billy’s dad but, for the most part, California was the place that everyone came to for acceptance.
Billy leaned over to become closer to Max. To his relief, she didn’t start curling up in a ball or jump up immediately when he started getting closer. It was progress.
Acting like an actual older brother would, Billy reached to his little sister and pulled her in for a hug. He didn’t think that, in the entirety of their time spent together, that they had ever hugged before. It was a brand new feeling but not an unwelcome one. Billy also realized that this was the first time he had been this close to someone since Starcourt, besides the few times that Neil saw fit to beat him up over stupid shit. Luckily, Neil laid off after Starcourt, noticing that something had definitely happened and deciding to give his son a break from his beatings—at least, while he was sober.
He squeezed her small body against his, more tightly now. Max awkwardly embraced him back. This was her coming out, not his, and somehow she still felt like the one comforting him. It wasn’t a bad thing, it was just funny to her.
And then: “I’m gay.”
Shocked, Max fell back out of the hug. Again, it wasn’t surprising so much as it was confirming his suspicions. Still. It felt like they were in alternate universe, as vulnerable as they were choosing to be with each other. With everything Max had already gone through, being in an alternate universe where this was the outcome didn’t seem to be such a bad scenario.
Once again, Billy started going back to his defense mechanism of meanness. Somehow, he carelessly mistook the look of shock on Max’s face as disgust.
“So you can come out as liking your best friend, but the second that I do the same thing, I’m some fucking fag?”
Max realized what was going on as soon as the insult came out of his mouth like word vomit. She knew she was supposed to be asleep when these things happened, but she had heard Neil saying those exact same things to Billy when he had him a chokehold against the wall. And Billy wouldn’t even look at her now. It was pretty clear that if he was ashamed of anything, it was himself.
She knew now that they weren’t in an alternate universe. In an alternate universe, everything would be perfect. But Billy was Billy and nothing he ever did made sense in the real world.
“Being gay doesn’t make you a bad person,” Max whispered. She didn’t know who she was really saying that to—herself or Billy.
Suddenly he was crying on her shoulders. Max felt the gentle press against her shoulder blades when he leaned in, heavily sobbing against her small frame. Maybe she was going mad. Maybe the world was just incredibly top turvy.
Whatever it was, Max held Billy close. Whether he acted like her older brother all the time was definitely a controversial question but the fact of the matter was, he was still her brother. No matter what. Max felt some sort of strange obligation to protect him, though she hated herself for not being able to do so when it came to Neil.
“Why can’t I just like girls?” Billy cried into her shoulder and Max felt herself starting to cry too.
Sure, Max definitely struggled with her sexuality quite a bit. But it was just different. Her crush on El was unrequited and would probably remain so, at least while El was getting over Mike. Still, Max knew that she could go out and date any boy she was attracted to, no questions asked.
It wasn’t the same for Billy. He didn’t want boys and girls. He just wanted boys. In Max’s opinion, that was completely fine. It just sucked, knowing that her older brother couldn’t go out and love whoever he wanted to love (Max was guessing it was a boy named Steve Harrington) without being spit on, whether physically or metaphorically.
So she just held Billy in her arms. Max couldn’t really do much else but that.
2
It was movie night at Steve Harrington’s house. Again. Every Friday night, for some unexplainable reason, Steve had gotten the pleasure of hosting every single movie night for his group of fresh teenage friends. Then again, the “unexplainable reason” was probably the fact that his house was always empty, especially on the weekends.
Steve hated getting roped into things like this but once it had started, he found himself unable to stop it. Now it was a weekly occurrence that Steve pretended to hate, though he still sat through all the movies, declaring that they could only stay if they stayed off his big couch in the living room—that was only for him. They all got on the couch anyways.
Mike was probably the worst out of all of them in terms of when it came to teasing Steve.
“You really want to watch Ghostbusters with us, Steve? Again? I thought this was a ‘nerds only’ movie,” Mike had said one time, recalling the time Steve had voiced his opinion exactly like that. This had happened during the group’s fifth viewing of the movie.
“Well, someone needs to be here to make sure everything’s appropriate!” Steve had sputtered indignantly, knowing his argument was far-fetched.
Across the room, Steve heard Lucas sighing. Dustin rolled his eyes in response.
“This is our fifth time watching it, dumbass,” Max huffed, next to Lucas and El.
“Hey, language!” Steve exclaimed.
It fell on deaf ears and adamant snickers among the group. Even Will laughed loudly, and he rarely laughed in the presence of Steve. Sometimes, Steve would catch Will laughing at something that Mike had said but then the laugh would be gone just as quickly as it had come.
“Hey, language,” Mike mocked.
Steve’s face was stone cold at the mockery coming from the brand new teen. Will only laughed.
Luckily, Mike had stopped teasing Steve after that, only throwing a popcorn kernel or two in his direction once the movie had actually started. Steve was incredibly grateful that, during that particular screening, the kids had actually behaved and cleaned up after themselves.
Yesterday hadn’t been so great. Mike and Will has come in, as per usual at 7 o’clock on the dot. The only thing unusual about it was that it was usually Will arriving, alone at 7 o’clock on the dot. Mike usually came later with El.
This time, El arrived later than Mike. She stormed in angrily, waiting for Max to trail in behind her before slamming the door shut. Steve opened his mouth to say something when she grabbed Mike by his wrist and pulled him up from the couch but he quickly shut it when she flashed him a rude look. He held his hands up in surrender and allowed her to drag Mike upstairs. Steve mouthed a quick ‘sorry’ at the younger boy and Mike raised his eyebrows quizzically. It was clear that Mike had no idea what was going on either.
Max simply sighed and sat down on the couch next to Will. Her fiery red hair was bright in contrast to Will, who had chosen to go the dreary route in terms of fashion nowadays. Frankly, it surprised everyone when Will wore something other than black. His older brother, Jonathan, insisted that this was just Will’s “teen” phase but Steve wasn’t so sure. He just looked so sad all the time.
“She’s mad because he kissed someone else,” Max explained to her audience of two. Huh. Max just looked just as sad as Will.
Will looked ready to sprint out of the house and run until his legs gave out. His face twisted up like a contortionist, distorting all of his soft features.
“No, he didn’t,” Will said firmly.
This was the first time that Steve had heard Will talking without Mike present in the room. He assumed the kid was shy or something but the way he spoke was deliberately harsh, clearly showing that he wasn’t shy, he just had chosen not to talk before.
On the other hand, Max looked ready to start arguing. As much as Steve loved his kids, he hated when they came over just to fight and that night seemed like one of those nights where nobody would be happy. Especially with Max arguing. She was never one to back down from an argument unless her opponents gave in and decided to agree with her. In Steve’s opinion, that was easier to do than to continue dragging out an argument with a Hargrove.
From personal experience, Steve had learned that lesson. When everything at Starcourt went down, Steve had somehow gotten the courage to talk to the older Hargrove. Not argue, but talk. They had talked long enough to the point where their relationship was finally cordial. Steve hadn’t really followed up on their first conversation. With the way Billy was shaking the entire time that they talked, flinching when he reached out to touch him, Steve figured that he should wait a while.
Max was the complete opposite. She held herself with a brave determination, daring anyone to challenge her. If nothing else, Starcourt made her feel stronger. Then again, she hadn’t been the one used by the Mindflayer like she was some sort of Barbie doll.
“He did too.” They really sounded like kindergarteners sometimes, Steve realized. “She saw him,” stated Max.
Steve noticed that Will’s face was ghostly pale in response. “What do you mean by ‘She saw him?’”
Will drew out the words carefully, almost like he was afraid that they would break if he spit them out too quickly. Max merely sighed again. Clearly, she didn’t like having to explain this all over again.
“I was at her house—,” started Max.
“Why were you at her house?” Steve chimed in.
He just wanted to be included in the conversation. Max didn’t appreciate it and rolled her eyes at him.
“I’m staying over at her place tonight so I dropped my shit off there. Are we all good, Dad?”
Steve muttered a quiet, “Language”. Then he slunk back into the kitchen, barely hearing Max explain that El had just done that weird location thing with her mind and she hadn’t seen who Mike kissed, she just knew that he had kissed someone other than her.
Thank god that Lucas and Dustin arrived when they did. Steve wasn’t sure that he could take any more of Will’s protests coming from the other room. “He didn’t kiss anyone!” he heard Will exclaiming in defense of his friend. For some reason, it reminded Steve of when Nancy had denied sleeping with Jonathan the first time. He didn’t know why.
Nonetheless, there were already plenty of arguments going around the house and movie night hadn’t even officially started.
“Friends don’t lie!” El yelled from upstairs.
Lucas had a stunned look on his face when the door upstairs slammed shut and Mike came sulking downstairs. Immediately, he and Dustin cornered Mike and embraced him in a brotherly hug. When they pulled back, Lucas was the first to ask.
“What the hell happened?” Lucas inquired.
“Um, you guys do realize that this is my house, rig—,” Steve threw in.
“—Yeah, yeah, nobody cares,” Dustin interjected, seemingly choosing to ignore the cross look on Steve Harrington’s face. Both boys turned back to Mike.
“I think we just broke up,” the second youngest Wheeler child said sullenly.
“Think?” Dustin exclaimed. “How do you not know? Either you did or you didn’t, Mike! This is just simple logic!”
Mike sniffed. “We broke up. She said ‘I dump your ass’ again.”
Lucas looked confused yet again. “Didn’t she already dump your ass before? Max used to dump me all the time before we broke up for good.”
Steve hadn’t even known that Max and Lucas were done for good. He had just assumed that they were taking another break. He popped a grape in his mouth, raising his eyebrows in surprise at the information.
The Wheeler boy looked reluctant. “I-I did something. She’s not going to forgive me.”
Max happened to come in at the wrong time. She came rushing out of the living room to go check on El after she heard the screaming. Unfortunately, she happened to hear Mike admitting he had done something (though she didn’t know what exactly he had done and he refused to disclose any further information) and she immediately wrinkled her nose in disgust at the other boy.
“Screw you, asshole,” Max said angrily.
Mike opened his mouth to respond but was abruptly stopped when Max’s fist connected with his face. Steve’s mouth gaped open in response.
“Hey, what the hell, Hargrove,” Steve called out but Max had already fled upstairs to retrieve her friend.
Lucas and Dustin, loyal as they were, went off to fetch the necessary medical supplies to fix up Mike’s face. From the living room, Will finally came running for Mike. Will frowned when Max came down the stairs with El. El looked at Will sadly before she went out the door with Max and Steve couldn’t exactly pinpoint why she had done so.
“It’s okay,” El said, patting Will’s shoulder as she passed by him. She still glared at Mike, who was tenderly holding his sore nose and the bruise that was forming around it.
Will was shocked and, yet again, Steve couldn’t figure out why. The younger boy staggered backwards like El’s words had pierced right through his chest. Still, he wasn’t one to let that deter him from taking care of his friend.
“Mike,” started out Will, reaching out to gingerly caress the older boy’s face.
Lucas and Dustin weren’t back yet and Steve couldn’t help but to notice that Will and Mike seemed to be acting more intimate than they would in the presence of the other boys. When Mike pressed his forehead up against Will’s, finding himself content in being mere inches away from the other boy, this only confirmed Steve’s suspicions that something was definitely going on. Sure, Steve had heard of bromances that went far beyond anything he had ever done with Tommy H., but this wasn’t anything like that.
They were acting like a bunch of schoolgirls. With their foreheads still pressed together like two peas in a pod, Will reached over to comfortingly grab Mike’s hand and envelop it in his own. His thumb started to rub over the entirety of Mike’s own rather large thumb. And, oh! Steve knew exactly what that reminded him of.
“We ruined everything.”
Mike was starting to sob now. He was in some sort of lovesick trance, still fiercely locked against Will’s forehead.
“Alright, someone wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” Steve finally let out.
“What’s going on is that our boy over here is bleeding like a stuffed pig, Steve,” Dustin said in a huffy breath, finally back with the supplies that he and Lucas had taken so long to acquire.
Dustin drew out Steve’s name with an enunciated drawl, like he couldn’t see that Mike had a nose bleed. Of course he did. But that wasn’t what Steve was referring to. Will knew as much, too. He had already pulled back from Mike but he was still holding his hand.
When Will saw Steve eyeing their intertwined hands, he quickly drew that back as well. Then he flashed Steve a pleading look. Steve might’ve been dumb but he knew what that meant. So he silently agreed to drop the subject and let the boys take care of their friend.
Mike, his face stained with dried blood and tears, made a fit all the while his friends were cleaning him up. He whined especially loud when Dustin shoved a cotton ball up both nostrils, frantically insisting that it was “a safety precaution, dipshit!” Lucas seemed to be the handler for the supplies, handing off the supplies as Dustin hollered for them like they weren’t two feet away from each other.
Meanwhile, Will was noticeably gentler with Mike. He swabbed a few moist towelettes and softly dabbed Mike’s face with them, wiping away the dirty remnants of blood on his face. With his own thumb, he swiped away the tears when he thought the rest of the boys weren’t looking. Steve noticed, especially when Mike flashed Will a grateful smile in return.
Within twenty minutes, arguably longer than it should’ve taken to clean up a nosebleed, Mike was all cleaned up and ready to go home. Within twenty minutes, Steve had finished all of the popcorn and eaten all of the snacks that he had prepared for the long forgotten movie night that had been promptly interrupted by a million fights breaking out instead. Nobody mentioned it. Steve was grateful—he was already berating himself for all the unneeded calories that he knew he was going to have to burn off during the weekend anyways.
“Well, uh, I think we’re going to head home,” Lucas said, gesturing to himself and the rest of the group.
“Like hell you are!” Steve almost exclaimed. “You and Dustin, sure. But I’m not letting Mike go home by himself so I can get an angry phone call from his mom later. And Will, I know your brother wasn’t planning on picking you up until later.”
The unspoken part of that last part was “because he’s hanging out with Nancy” but nobody corrected Steve on that. Still, there wasn’t much complaint from the group except for the fact that Dustin flipped the older boy off before leaving with Lucas to go retrieve their bikes in the front yard. It was immature but Steve happened to flip the younger boy off as well.
“Hey, Steve,” Will piped up.
Will might’ve changed his clothing style to fit a much darker mood than anyone was used to him having, (and he had certainly had a lot more mood swings than usual lately) but his voice was still timid and shy. Steve had to admit that he was a lot more approachable when he talked to Will. He always happened to be more considerate of the other boy’s feelings before speaking.
“Yeah, buddy,” Steve said warmly.
“Uh, Mike said I can sleep over at his house tonight. And Jonathan already said I could when he dropped me off.”
Will’s voice was shaky when he spoke. It was almost like he thought Steve was going to say no. Which made no sense whatsoever. Steve never said no to Will. He trusted Will.
“Sure, as long as your mom and Hopper are okay with it,” replied Steve.
Steve figured that the change in sleeping situation had to do with the fact that Will and El lived under the same roof now, what with Chief Hopper and Mrs. Byers getting together. He knew that El had said it was okay as she was going out there but he also hadn’t missed the shame in Will’s eyes when she walked past him. There was definitely some unresolved animosity there.
Will only nodded and behind him, Steve heard Mike sighing in relief. Almost a little too eagerly, Mike hopped off the kitchen counter where everyone had patched him up and raced to the front door.
“Can we talk for a second?” Will asked Steve, a lot more shyly than before.
Steve fished the car keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Mike at the front door.
“Wait in the car, we’ll be right there!” he hollered out. Mike obliged and swung the front door wide open before Steve heard the loud beeping of the car unlocking and the back car door opening.
“Will, is everything okay?”
Steve didn’t think he’d ever seen Will this scared to speak to him, even when the whole Starcourt situation had happened. He had to wonder what was so bad that it made Will look ready to puke after disclosing whatever it was that he was holding in. Steve braced himself for the worst. Instead, Will shocked him.
“Is it okay to like boys?”
Steve Harrington had no idea why Will Byers was asking him if it was okay to like boys. But he wasn’t opposed to the question. After all, teenage boys were curious.
Steve thought back to his conversation with Robin in the bathroom stalls when they had both recovered from being drugged out of their minds. They had talked about it later, just to make sure that it wasn’t some drunken conversation that Steve would later forget. As Robin had pointed out, she would never forget that moment and she would have been extremely disappointed if Steve had forgotten. After all, Steve was the first person that she had come out to.
“Well,” Steve started, clearing his throat, “if girls can like girls then I think it’s okay for boys to like boys. Or, you know,” he dropped his voice to a whisper, “both.”
Will shook his head but he was clearly relieved. “I just like boys.”
“Oh,” Steve responded. “Well, that’s cool too. You don’t always have to like what everyone else does.”
Pondering that word of advice thoughtfully, Will actually smiled at Steve. The older boy didn’t think he’d ever gotten Will to smile at him until now.
“Jonathan said that to me once,” Will shyly let Steve know.
Apparently, it didn’t take long for Will to calm down once Steve had reassured him that it was completely fine for him to like boys and no, it wasn’t weird.
“Hey, Will?”
“Yeah, Steve?”
“I like girls and boys.”
3
After the failed attempt at movie night, things had finally gone back to normal. Of course, there were some minor changes. The group dynamic shifted as the changes came, though Lucas and Dustin were still complaining about their rampant availability in the dating world as they had been before.
As they had done before, Lucas and Dustin sat on the carpet floor in front of everyone else. On the big fluffy chair to the right of the television set, Will and Mike usually sat together. The first movie night after the failed one, Steve had noticed El glaring at Mike. If he had also noticed her purposefully knocking his snacks to the floor that night, he hadn’t said anything. Though, El quickly got over it.
Mike and Will had started out by sitting side by side on the big fluffy chair, their small bodies able to squish by each other with the ample amount of available area on the chair. Soon, they graduated to Will sitting on Mike’s lap. Steve hated when they had done that. He knew what that had done to certain regions of his body when Nancy had done that to him during movie night at his house.
So it also became tradition for Steve to yell at Mike for letting Will sit on his lap during movie night. Mike would always smirk and plant a cheeky kiss on Will’s neck, causing Will to blush and causing Steve to turn an even darker shade of red. Sometimes the kids felt like Steve was mini-Hopper, though they never said it to his face.
El was in great dismay at the parental presence that she couldn’t seem to get rid of, on the other hand. As the two boys moved through different stages in their growing relationship, so did she and Max. Admittedly, she and Max moved much faster than the other two boys. If anything, El was the one with a softer disposition in their relationship and that wasn’t saying much.
Still, Max was the one who started doing risky things once she and El had finally gotten together, about a month after Will and Mike had announced their relationship to the group. Steve found it hard to keep track of the group, especially the two girls. On more than occasion, he had to walk around the house in order to find the two girls, who had usually run off to some other area of the house to lock lips.
Steve knew that they were all in high school now but, frankly, their willingness to grow up so quickly scared him. He also knew that they weren’t doing anything beyond making out but still, it scared him. As frequently as he denied it, these were still his kids.
After about a week, Steve couldn’t take it any longer. It was about three months into the school year and Steve finally decided that he couldn’t handle the children on his own. So he enlisted some help.
“Hey, Max,” he called out to Max when she had arrived thirty minutes before showtime with El on her arm.
She made a face at him and El laughed. Steve merely rolled his eyes and flipped her off. Somehow, flipping each other off had become a friendly gesture throughout the group.
“What?” Max finally laughed.
“Is Billy still out there?”
Max raised her eyebrows. “Yeah. Why?”
“No reason. Thanks, Maxine!” Steve sang out as he pushed past the younger girl to catch Billy before he left.
“You know I hate when you call me that, shithead,” he vaguely heard Max yelling from behind him. He didn’t pay too much attention to it.
As soon as he was within three feet of Billy’s car, he saw Billy trying to start the engine and leave him in the dust. Steve frowned. He had thought they were past that. So he rapped on the driver’s window with his knuckles. He heard Billy sighing from the inside.
“What, Harrington?” Billy grumbled, grudgingly removing the keys from the car and shoving them in his pocket as he stepped out of the car.
Steve dangled his arm over the hood of the car, appearing to be nonchalant until he tripped over his own feet and stumbled forward a bit. In his opinion, it was worth the pain in his ankle if it got Billy to laugh. Which it did. Steve really liked the way Billy’s laugh sliced the air thinly like a steely knife.
“Just thought you’d wanna come in and watch the movie with us, amigo,” Steve retorted with a charming smile.
Billy snorted like Steve had just asked him to apply to clown school. Knowing Steve, that wouldn’t have been too far-fetched of a thing for him to ask. Still, Steve figured that Billy could give him a little more courtesy.
“What movie?” Billy finally asked.
Steve’s smile faltered for a bit and he mumbled a quiet response that Billy couldn’t hear.
“What was that, amigo?” Billy taunted.
“I said it was Ghostbusters, alright.”
Steve looked positively distressed. If he hadn’t known any better, Billy would’ve thought that Steve absolutely detested the movie based on his bum look. And honestly, Steve did detest it quite a bit. But he would still sit through the entire thing without a single complaint.
Billy had to stop himself from bursting into laughter. Steve really looked like he was announcing the death of his grandmother rather than announcing the title of a promising movie.
“You just want someone to help you babysit, Harrington,” Billy deadpanned instead of messing with Steve even more.
“Well, I—“
“—Whatever, I’ll help you but you owe me, Pretty Boy.”
Billy laughed again, reaching over to ruffle Steve’s hair as he blew past him and right into the grand house in front. Steve was stunned, partly because Billy had agreed and partly because he was being so tolerable. Or maybe Billy just liked the look of the cute blush on Steve’s cheeks when he only playfully messed with him instead of actually messing with him.
Within five seconds, Steve heard yelling from inside the house. Max, El, and now, Billy were the only ones inside so Steve had a pretty good idea as to who was fighting. He slapped a hand on his forehead; Steve Harrington had gone through this routine many times.
“Alright, what’s going on?” Steve let out with a tired sigh when he walked in.
At once, Billy and Max were pointing fingers at each other while El sat patiently on the couch.
“He was being a little bitch!”
“So what, I’m not the one who was sucking face with her!”
“I can’t kiss my girlfriend?”
“I didn’t say that, you fucker, I’m just saying! You’re 14, you don’t need to be having sex on Harrington’s couch!”
Suddenly, Steve felt three pairs of eyes on him.
“Harrington,” Billy started dangerously.
Steve laughed nervously, throwing his hands up in surrender for whatever was about to happen.
“You let Maxine and her little girlfriend fuck on your couch?”
Wow. Steve hadn’t been expecting that choice of words in front of the kids. Plus, not that he thought Billy was a horrible person but he honestly thought Billy would be mad about the fact that Max had a girlfriend, not the fact that she was making out with El. It was a pleasant surprise that Billy wasn’t a homophobic jerk on top of everything else.
“Jesus, Billy,” Steve protested, “no!”
Billy let out a satisfied grunt and plopped down on the couch.
“Move,” he barked at Max. “You two.”
The two girls immediately erupted in a series of complaints.
“Why?” whined Max at her older brother.
Billy glared at her. “Because I said so, Maxine. Besides, if I’m staying for your dumb little movie night, Harrington and I get the couch.”
Steve couldn’t argue with that, nor did he want to. It seemed that El felt the same way. She hissed a quiet, “No,” when Max opened her mouth to argue more and dragged her off to the other chair that nobody ever used but Steve when there was no room. Luckily for Steve, they just sat side by side instead of sitting on each other like the two rambunctious teenage boys that happened to arrive at that exact moment.
Mike and Will came tumbling into the living room with their hair all tousled and their clothes all wrinkled. Presumably, Steve assumed, from rolling all over the ground with each other. Will’s face was all flushed too. Both boys were out of breath, basically ready to plop down on their chair and wait for Lucas and Dustin to come biking over.
Mike looked over and, noticing Will’s flushed face, pinched his cheeks lightly. He leaned over and cupped his hands over Will’s ear. Then he whispered something unintelligible that nobody could hear but Will. Whatever it was, Will started blushing even more fiercely than before and hiding his face in his hands as a result. Billy wasn’t having any of it.
“Hey, Wheeler,” Billy shouted from over on the couch. Mike looked over at their new guest with boredom plainly written all over his face at the sight. “What did you say to Byers?”
Steve didn’t know why Billy had such a funny habit of calling everyone by their last names. Was it really that hard to remember everyone’s first name?
“None of your damn business, Hargrove,” Mike snapped back.
That wasn’t a good idea. Even Max, who often fought with Billy, felt her breath hitch in her throat. Will stepped back, trying to drag Mike back with him. But Mike bravely stood his ground.
Billy, on the other hand, rose up from his seat on the couch. He stepped forward, almost like he was going to greet the younger boy. Instead, he grabbed Mike’s collar and pulled him closer until they were nose to nose. Steve felt like stopping it but he ultimately decided that he would only stop it if Billy actually started throwing hands.
“I asked you a question, Wheeler. I expect you to fucking answer.”
Steve admired Mike for keeping a brave face. He knew that he probably would’ve cried if he was in Mike’s position. Then again, Will was there. Even if he wasn’t physically doing there, Steve figured that his presence alone was enough to calm down Mike.
Mike furiously shook his head. “Can’t tell you. It’s between him and me.”
“Him and I,” corrected El from across the room. Mike shot her a pointed look.
“Okay, listen here dipshit, you either answer me or you and your little boyfriend are going to spend the entire night apart from each other. You want that, Wheeler?”
Will caught Mike’s gaze, silently pleading with him. Mike solemnly nodded and turned back to the older Hargrove.
“I said he looked fucked out.”
Max and El burst into a fit of giggles at that. Billy, probably due to shock, dropped Mike against the plush carpet. Steve didn’t know what to say. They were 14, for God’s sake!
“It was a joke,” Mike explained, continuing to talk, “we didn’t actually fu—“
Billy slammed his hand over Mike’s mouth. “Stop talking, Wheeler.”
He waited until Mike’s mouth went still against his hand and actually stopped talking before removing it. Billy rolled his eyes at Steve as if suggesting that Mike’s mouthiness was his doing. Which, in part, it was, since Steve had never done anything to stop it.
“Fuck, just go sit on the chair over there and try not to cum all over the place,” Billy said nonchalantly.
That made Max and El start laughing even more. Steve was even more shocked at Billy’s behavior than he had been before. It wasn’t a bad type of shocked, he was just surprised at how easily Billy spoke to them, acting like he was an older brother rather than a parent.
Honestly, Steve had been starting to second guess his decision to not only allow Billy into his household but to also let him help out with the kids. Three hours later, it turned out that Billy had actually been a huge help. Plus, it was the first time in forever that Max hadn’t dragged off El to go make out somewhere else in the house.
When Billy was there, the worst any of the couples did was give each other a peck or two on the cheek. Even doing that made them wary. Mike and Max both snuck discreet glances at Billy before kissing their significant others, making sure they wouldn’t get yelled at again. That made Steve smile.
At the end of the night, Steve didn’t have to worry about rides either. It was also the first time in a long time that Steve could just relax at home after movie night without having to take the kids home and pick up after them like he usually did when they were carelessly forgetful and messy. Jonathan had offered to take Mike home along with El and Will, seeing as he was going to pick up Nancy later anyways.
Then, to seal the deal with a nice bow on top, Lucas’s mother had kindly offered to take Max and Dustin home because, in Max’s words, “I don’t want to go home with Mr. Celibacy!” Steve didn’t know how Lucas had gotten his mother to accept such a gracious task but he didn’t object. That just left Billy and Steve sitting on the couch together.
During the movie, Steve and Billy had been too busy watching the kids to really talk. At one point, Steve’s heart had fluttered out of his chest when Billy’s hand ghosted over his own but he quickly shook the thought of his own mind. After all, it was Billy Hargrove. Billy wasn’t gay. He was probably just imagining it.
As soon as everyone had left, Steve paused before coming back to the couch. He had been at the door hurriedly exchanging goodbyes with everyone, surprisingly not hearing a peep from Billy back in the living room. Maybe he had already slipped out. Then Steve heard a loud, “Ow, fuck!”
“What happened?” Steve exclaimed, rushing over to Billy’s side.
Billy rubbed his head achingly slow, making it a point to gently nudge the glass table that was next to the couch with his foot.
“I fell off while I was sleeping and hit my head, Harrington,” Billy sniffled.
Steve was incredulous. “You were sleeping?”
The room had been so dark that Steve had started to doze off himself. But he hadn’t noticed anyone doing the same, much less Billy. He had just assumed that Billy was laying down because it was a much more comfortable position. At least, that explained why Billy’s legs were all sprawled out over Steve’s lap, making him feel things that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“No, I wanted to give you a footjob in a room full of horny teenagers,” scowled Billy.
Steve had to admit that it sounded dumb when it came from someone else’s mouth, especially Billy’s. Sometimes he really wanted to shut him up. But today was not the day that he was going to be beaten to death again. He just wanted to talk.
“Hey, can we talk?”
Billy looked almost bewildered at the request. Steve didn’t blame him. It wasn’t like they were best friends, thought they had definitely acquired some level of cordial friendship after Starcourt.
“Are you dumping me, Harrington? King Steve is finally King Steve again! Back to catch all of those bitches in the sea!”
Steve laughed along with the other boy.
“I like you, Billy,” he chuckled.
Billy stopped laughing and looked at Steve cautiously.
“You what?”
Shit. Steve hadn’t meant to let it out and he had thought that Billy would pass it off as some sort of joke or a friendly compliment. He was smarter than that though.
Billy had been all smiles but now he looked like he meant serious business. He looked just as he had with Mike and Steve guessed that he probably wouldn’t leave until he answered him just as seriously. So Steve decided to answer him with as much courage as he could muster without falling to pieces.
“Yeah, Hargrove, I like you. What about it?”
He had meant for it to come out sounding tough but it really came out sounding like a desperate, pitiful attempt for the other boy to like him back. Billy had to admire his effort.
“Steve,” Billy smiled. Then he frowned again. “Are you fucking with me?”
Billy scooted backwards on the couch. Steve scooted forwards and cupped Billy’s face in his hands like he was holding his whole world. Which, in some ways, he was. He immediately took to shaking his head adamantly in opposition to Billy’s fear of him joking about Steve’s crush on him.
“How could I lie to you, baby?” Steve grinned, not missing the blush that crept up on Billy’s cheeks as his confidence built up. He traced his fingertips over the other boy’s striking jawline. “You called me Steve.”
Billy looked puzzled yet again. “What?”
Steve repeated himself. “You called me Steve, Billy.”
“So?” said Billy, though not unkindly.
“So you’ve never seriously called me that before, dipshit,” Steve said playfully, punching the other boy softly on the ground before climbing on top of him.
“Hm. I guess so,” Billy laughed, pretending to think carefully about the whole situation.
Billy was the first one to lean in and capture the other boy’s lips with his own, straining his neck forwards to meet Steve halfway. Steve had been anticipating the kiss, craning his neck down eagerly to receive what seemed like an early Christmas present. Billy’s lips were rough but pleasant enough to match Steve’s gentle movements against him.
“Steve,” sighed Billy contently against Steve’s neck when they finally broke apart, lying down together on Steve’s couch.
Steve chuckled at the way Billy said his name. “Billy,” he mocked, fanning his hands over himself in faux shock. “What are you, a girl?”
Billy looked horrified at the suggestion. “No!” he shrieked loudly. He flipped Steve over on his back and nipped at his neck viciously. “But you can be.”
Steve definitely didn’t feel himself growing hard at the thought. But there was a time and place for everything. He flipped himself back around, trying to ignore the blush that had made its way to his cheeks as he pestered Billy with small kisses all over his face.
“What I can be is sleeping,” Steve admitted, letting a small yawn escape his mouth.
Billy let his head rest down on Steve’s, reminding him of Will and Mike pressing their foreheads together. He smiled at the memory.
“Me too, Princess,” Billy agreed.
Steve was honestly relieved. By some miracle of whatever was up there, Billy had actually returned his affections. Even if Billy was going to leave in the morning, which Steve assumed he probably would do because he was Billy, he was still grateful for this—it was only one night but he would hold it in his heart forever.
Plus, Steve didn’t want to think about tomorrow quite yet. He had never been one to dwell on the past too much (besides the incident for Barb, but that was mainly because Nancy always brought it up) and he wasn’t about to start now. Steve decided to just enjoy whatever was going on between the two of them, no questions asked.
“You wanna sleep upstairs?” Steve asked shyly.
Billy wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Steve from underneath. Steve had to bite back his laughter as he crept off of Billy and grabbed him by the hand.
“I’m serious, Billy! And I really mean it. We’re going to sleep, not hook up,” protested Steve at Billy’s face.
When Billy gave in, allowing Steve to drag him upstairs, he knew he was fucked. There was no one else that could do this to him, that could make his knees turn to jelly and make him do their bidding for them so easily. Steve was the only one. And, like Steve, that was enough for Billy to be content for one night. They would worry about tomorrow later.