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Tommy H thought about Steve alot more than he thought he ought to, with his soft flowy hair and bright smile that makes his stomach flip. His heart has been racing when he's around Steve these days, and then there's an ache when Steve has his girl of the week under his arm. Steve's gaze meets his at parties more than the girl on his arm, and Tommy is caught staring more often than he'd like to admit.
Those drunk and high gazes meeting at parties had a magnetism to them that neither understood, and Tommy is startled the first night Steve pulls him into a room upstairs and closes and locks the door behind him. Tommy's head is replaying every day of the last week as best as he can to think of why Steve is so mad at him that he needed to keep the first swing at him in private, when Steve pulls him by his face to meet in the middle with their mouths.
oh.
Oh.
-
That pain in his heart triples to something Tommy is scared of when the girl of the week is Nancy, and it hurts so bad when it stays Nancy each week.
Steve's gaze no longer finds his at parties. He stops looking to spend time with Tommy like they used to, like they always do. Tommy tries not to feel that same hurt in his chest when Steve forgets his plans with Tommy to chase after Nancy fucking Wheeler.
Then Steve has trouble in paradise with his girlfriend, and he looks like he's about to pull out his old baseball bat from his little league days and bust Mr. Wheeler's windshield in, hopping into the front seat with white knuckles gripping the wheel. Tommy and Carol realize together that Steve /loved/ Nancy, but only Tommy feels his ribs concave and give way to shatter his heart.
Instead of thinking about that ache, he vandalizes the movie theater so everyone knew what Nancy did to Steve. His best friend since childhood Steve Harrington, that he would look out for at the stake of his own reputation.
-
Steve Harrington could drop dead right now and Tommy thinks he'd be okay with it.
Tommy howls until his voice gives watching Steve in his car speeding away, defending Nancy all the way out of sight. Fallen from his pedestal to go crawling back to a chick that cheated on him to sleep with Jonathan fucking Byers.
When Tommy gets home that night, he ignores his mother's worried frantic questions about a call from the police she got. No doubt Byers said Tommy was there when Steve got his ass handed to him.
Now, normally Tommy would sit at the table and reassure his mom that everything is alright, well aware that she's terrified of what would happen to her boy. But tonight he needs to storm into his room, and scream into his pillow, mourning a friend he no longer knows. The ache in his chest feels like when Gregory Burns stomped on his chest back in 3rd grade, mocking his weight and calling him names as he kicked at him.
Tommy falls asleep with a tear stained pillow, still in his letterman jacket and jeans, thinking about how Steve Harrington might be a demon.
-
When Tommy first met Billy Hargrove, it was at a party at the beginning of fall and at Tammy Thompson's house party the weekend before school started. Billy stood out like a sore thumb in his denim ensemble and earring, but he made sure to make an impression before anyone could judge him based off his appearance.
Tommy was in the middle of talking to Carol, griping over how he really wished Steve wouldn't come to these parties now that he's not even King or friends with anyone here. It's insult to injury when Nancy is on his arm, still as vacant and shallow as ever. She never drinks, and now Steve never drinks. He hears a loud, maniacal laugh that turns the air in the room to ice.
His name was Billy Hargrove, and he was here to show Hawkins how to party and forget their miserable little lives in rural Indiana.
While most guys would have noticed that Billy looked like he spent too much time on his hair, Tommy saw fists clenched at his side ready to sock anyone who so much as looked at him wrong. Saw the almost detached, distant look in his eye as he announced his arrival, like it's rehearsed. Saw the way he grabbed the nearest drink and pounded it back without checking what it was.
Tommy saw a bit of himself, albeit better looking in his opinion. Who was he kidding, Tommy wished he was at that stage of not giving a shit. Tommy beelines across the room to meet him, but the crowd beats him to it.
It's not until Tommy is outside, sitting on the hood of his own car to smoke that he hears footsteps joined him. He's frozen still, nerves on edge thinking it was Steve trying to patch things up.
It's the new guy, Billy, holding out a cigarette in the universal sign asking for a light.
Tommy is so relieved that it's not Steve that he falls into an old habit. Leaning forward to press his lit cigarette butt against Billy's to ignite it without taking his out of his mouth.
If Billy thought it was weird, he didn't say anything. But the way Billy's eyes followed after Tommy's mouth when he straightened up has chills sent up Tommy's spine.
Like he was prey.
-
Waking up to find Billy's name and other chicken scratch letters on a strip of paper in his inside jacket pocket has Tommy thinking that Billy gets it. There doesn't need to be talk or connection, just hands on each other and leaving the party house before the sun's up.
Billy fills the open spot in their trio so well, that Tommy can say he doesn't think about Steve all that often anymore.
Tommy, however, finds himself thinking about another boy's soft blond curled hair and a wicked smile, both causing a more primal response. There was no soft almost yearning feeling, no heart racing and no daydreams of tender kisses. There is only messy wet dreams, his heart pounding in his ears as pleasure sent chills up his spine, and fantasies about Billy pining him on his back and kissing him rough.
It's at the Halloween party that things finally come to fruition for them, Billy nearly blackout drunk and high off adrenaline from his keg king win, and Tommy never taking a step away from his side. Tommy is right next to Billy when he crashes Steve's record, when confronts Steve in front of his girlfriend, and when he walks away laughing that wicked laugh.
Tommy is following loyally behind, finding seeing Steve uncomfortable at the party feels so satisfying. When he tells this much to Billy, Billy pauses. Licks his lips, maybe even his pupils blown wide with interest. Then he admits that somebody had to put the guy in his place. Billy doesn't miss the way Tommy looks over his shoulder at where Steve is staring at them, and Billy sends a wicked smirk over his shoulder. Tommy sees Steve duck his head with a red face, turning to Nancy as she chugged that awful concoction of kool-aid and alcohol.
Then, Billy is grabbing Tommy by the back of his neck and pulling him into a room, mouths crashing against each other and Tommy melts into the kiss. The frantic shuffle of removing clothes is ignored by the heat between them. When they part for air, Billy's hair has a halo of light behind it, no doubt from the sole source of light in the room, but to Tommy, it's stunning and strikes him with one thought.
His Guardian Angel.