Archive of Our Own

1

Locker Room

Billy always took the shower head right next to Steve’s after practice. It was dangerous. If anyone else on the team were to look over and notice Billy’s eyes straying from the tile to the body next to him, well, Billy would be fucked. If Steve caught him, Billy would die of embarrassment before the older man even had a chance to react. 

So there Billy was. In the locker room, after their last day of gym for the school year. Steve’s last day of gym forever .  He undressed slowly, knew Steve was always one of the last on the team to shower. Grabbed his bottle of body wash out of his locker and made his way over to the showers. 

Steve was already under the spray of his shower head, working conditioner into the tips of his hair, suds of soap were rolling down his body. Something was different.

Billy froze on his way to the shower, nearly dropped the towel that was around his waist. Steve had chest hair . It was short, but it was way more than any other 18 year old that Billy knew had. And Steve hadn’t showered at school in a few weeks, but this, this was unexpected .

If Billy thought Steve was hot before, now he was fucking porn star hot. Billy had a stack of magazines shoved in the back of his closet full of pictures of men that looked like that. The hair made him look older, more masculine. This was definitely an image Billy would be recalling to the best of his ability later tonight. Or in the next ten minutes when he got home.

Billy decided he didn’t need a shower, would just take one at home today. Looking at Steve in the shower was one thing, but looking at Steve in the shower while he was half hard? That’d get him killed for sure.

2

Party

Tommy was throwing a graduation party. One final hurrah as a reminder to everyone that he peaked in high school before going off to college to become a nobody. But hey, Billy wasn’t complaining. It meant free drinks and a night away from home, what more could he ask for?

The party had been going for a few hours, house full of sweaty teenagers way too close to each other. Billy had been in the kitchen refilling his cup of whatever shitty alcohol Tommy had stolen from his dad’s cabinet when Tina had cornered him. They’d been making small talk for about ten minutes, way too long in Billy’s book, before he had the chance to slip away. 

He was sneaking down the hallway back towards the main entrance before hitting something, spilling his cup. 

“Shit!”

Billy looked up. He knew that voice. Why the fuck was Steve here, though? He hadn’t been Tommy’s friend for over a year now. Billy realized he hadn’t said anything or moved for nearly a minute. He grabbed Steve by the wrist yanking him into a nearby bathroom that was, thankfully , unoccupied.

He slammed the door shut behind them, hand fumbling along the wall before finding the light switch and flicking it on. The light cast a dull yellow glow on the room, and Billy was finally able to get a good look at Steve. And he looked… really good . Well, as good as he could look with some unspecified liquid soaked into his polo. The top button was undone, letting Billy see all that untamed, unruly hair just barely peeking out, teasing him.

“What the fuck, man,” Steve said, starting to take off the wet shirt, tossing it on the counter. It landed in the sink with a splat , startling the blond out of his daze.

“My bad… let me umm…” Billy looked around the bathroom for a washcloth, towel, anything . He found a decorative hand towel hanging by the sink, better than nothing . He got it wet in the sink, wringing it out a little before whirling around to face Steve. 

The initial haze of the situation had worn off and Billy was able to take everything in. Everything being a shirtless Steve Harrington standing in a cramped bathroom with him. And Jesus , it seemed like he’d grown even more chest hair since Billy had seen him a few weeks ago. Billy’s brain short circuited again, wanted to clean the drink off with his tongue, subconsciously leaned forward. He reached out to start cleaning Steve’s chest, felt hypnotized. His hand was halfway to Steve’s chest before he realized how weird it would be to clean his chest for him.

Steve snatches the towel from him, getting to work on cleaning off his sticky chest. Billy turned around to busy himself with rinsing out the polo that still sat in the sink. 

“I’m sorry.”

“What? For this? Don’t worry about it man, it’s fine.”

“No. I mean yes but it’sー” Billy sighed, looking up to catch Steve’s gaze in the mirror. And maybe his eyes lingered on his chest for a little too long, but who could blame him? He started over.

“Sorry for like, everything . For what I did to you… that night.”

“Billy, it’s fine, I get it. Iー”

“No. Harringtonー Steve, please justー” the blond took a deep breath, knuckles going white from how hard he was holding on to the counter, “there’s no excuse for what I did. It’sー my dad. He’s a hardass, was especially hard on me that night.”

“Billy, you don’t have to explain.”

“I know, pretty boy, Iー” he paused, felt like he was going to cry, willed the tears back before continuing, “I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t because of you, it wasn’t your fault.”

“I get it, it’s okay. And just so you know, my door’s always open,” Steve said, brushing past Billy to get to the door, going back to the party, sans shirt.

Billy let himself sink to the floor, staying in the bathroom until he sobered up, too exhausted to go talk to people. He grabbed Steve’s polo from the sink before heading back to the Camaro.

3

Scoops Ahoy

“Ahoy thereー Billy?”

Well, that’s not something Billy was expecting to see at the mall. So, Steve worked at an ice cream shop now. A nautical themed ice cream shop.

“Yeah, I’m uh,” Billy jabbed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Max and El, “babysitting duty.”

“Oh, well, what can I get ya?” Steve asked, leaning over on the display case to get closer to Billy, smile playing on his lips.

And Steve sure did have a way to make Billy go fucking dumb. The shift to lean on the case had made his stupid fucking sailor top hang down, putting his chest hair directly in Billy’s line of sight. He couldn’t take his eyes away if he wanted to, and he really didn’t want to. The cold air had raised goosebumps along Steve’s neck and arms, and all Billy wanted to do was warm him up.

Billy brought a hand to his chin, felt like he had to make sure he wasn’t drooling. Ice cream was the last thing on his mind.

“Uhhhh…”

Steve waved a hand in front of Billy’s face. “My eyes are up here,” he laughed. Billy snapped out of it.

“Sorry, what?”

“Ice cream, pretty boy . What flavor do you want?”

“Double scoop of chocolate, in a cup, I guess,” the blond said, fishing his wallet out of his back pocket. And he really didn’t want Steve to stand back up. Wanted to savor this image for as long as possible. Chest hair on display, soft lips drawn up at the corners, cheeks and nose rosey from being in the cold shop all day. But nothing good lasts forever, not for Billy, at least.

Steve turned around to grab a cup, the view of his ass in those shorts was almost as good as the view of his front, before scooping up two massive scoops of chocolate ice cream into it. 

“You don’t need to pay,” Steve insisted, ignoring the money Billy was trying to hand him, “It’s on the house. Really, I know how tiring babysitting is,” he said with a smirk, nodding towards the two girls. He thrust the cup into Billy’s hands.

Just as Billy was about to respond, a girl came barreling through the door to the back room.

“Hey, dingus, your lunch break started like 5 minutes ago.”

“Shit, sorry Billy. I’ll see you around, yeah?” Steve smiled as he headed to the back room, leaving Billy to deal with the girls.

4

Community Pool

Steve was at the pool, because of course he was . Because Billy couldn’t escape him, not that he really wanted to. But the brats had wanted to go to the pool, and now Billy had to watch Steve strut around, in only a tiny pair of speedos, for who knows how long. At least he had on a tank top. Billy could see just a hint of hair peeking over the top of the collar.

He was rubbing thick sunscreen into one of the kid’s faces. The kid was scrunching his nose, trying to get away from his overprotective babysitter. Steve finally let him weasel away, shouting after him to stay safe, sighing when he cannonballed into the pool anyways.

Once Steve got back to the lounge chair the kids towels were on, Billy became very appreciative of his seat in the lifeguard chair. And yeah, maybe Billy should probably be watching the pool and making sure that nobody died, but Steve was right there starting to put sunscreen on himself, and it had been a pretty slow day anyways.

Steve had started at his calves, slowly working his way up his legs to the edge of his suit. His long fingers spread the cream over his arms and shoulders, which were already turning pink from heat. 

Just when Billy had thought the show was over, the tank top came off. The blond pried his eyes away, really didn’t want to be caught ogling his kid step-sister’s babysitter, especially because he was a guy. He tried to distract himself by watching over the pool, doing the job he was supposed to be doing . Cast a few long glances at some of the women in their skimpy bathing suits for good measure.

That lasted all of 30 seconds before his gaze gravitated back to Steve. The brunette was rubbing sunscreen into his stomach, stroking down over his happy trail, the tips of his fingers just almost reaching his waistband. He squirted out another glob of  sunscreen, then his hands trailed back up to his chest. 

Billy felt like his eyes were glued to the scene in front of him. Steve’s fingers raked through his chest hair, taking time to really make sure his chest was all covered. Billy licked his lips. Wanted to run his hands down that chest, through that hair . Wanted to lick it, see if he could taste the sweat on his skin. Steve’s fingers brushed over one of his nipples, and Billy could have sworn he’d seen him gasp, wanted to know how sensitive they are. Billy was probably gaping like a fish out of water, shifted in his seat to get more comfortable.

Then Steve looked over. Billy wanted to die, was considering just leaving, in the middle of his shift. Always planned on moving back to California, maybe now was a good time. Just when Steve was starting to warm up to him, and he had to go ruin it.

“Billy!” the babysitter called out, waving him over.

Time to face the firing squad , Billy thought, climbing down from his chair to make his way to the lounger.

And he didn’t look angry. Maybe Billy had lucked out and he hadn’t even noticed him staring. Steve held out the bottle of sunscreen to him, looking up with his doe eyes, and that was a sight Billy would like to get used to .

“Can you get my back?”

5

Middle of the Night

It was nearly three in the morning, and Billy was sitting in his car, debating the pros and cons of heading to Loch Nora. He’d gotten home ten minutes late, and Neil had kicked him out for the night. Fuck it . Summer was just ending and the nights were getting colder, and Steve had said his door was always open. He put his car in drive and headed towards Steve’s.

Being on Steve Harrington’s doorstep at three in the morning was not something Billy had ever anticipated. The house was quiet, still, lifeless, and only Steve’s car was in the driveway. Billy shifted his weight from foot to foot, didn’t really want to ring the doorbell and disturb the silence. But Jesus fucking Christ it was cold, and he had left his jacket in his room.

Ding dong . The sound echoed through the empty house.

Billy stood awkwardly on the porch, eyes darting around nervously. He could hear the soft pitter patter of feet as they got closer to the door. It creaked open, cautiously.

“Whー Billy ?” Steve croaked out, voice thick with sleep. He opened the door wider upon realizing who it was. 

Billy got a good look at him, at his chest . Because of course he was shirtless, unruly curls on display. Steve wasn’t wearing a shirt, but he was wearing a pair of sweatpants, slung low on his hips, and slippers . His hair was mussed from sleep, and his eyes were all squinty when he looked at Billy, like he wasn’t quite awake yet and the porch light was too bright for him. He was rubbing his eyes, trying to will the sleep away. Billy thought he looked, quite frankly, fucking adorable .

“Jesus, Billy, get inside, it’s so fucking late,” Steve said, pulling the blond into the entryway and shutting the door behind them before leading him to the couch. “Fucking cold,” he muttered under his breath.

He sat Billy down on the couch before slipping away to the kitchen.

The drive over had calmed Billy down some. He looked around the living room. It felt lonely. It was empty besides the furniture and a few empty soda cans on the table.

By the time he was done, Steve had returned holding two mugs.

“I didn’t know if you liked tea, so I um… hot chocolate,” he said awkwardly, setting one of the mugs down gingerly on the coffee table in front of Billy. 

Billy’s brain had finally caught up to him, well, it caught up enough to appreciate the fact that he was sitting in Steve Harrington’s living room. With a shirtless Steve Harrington. 

And honestly, Steve’s chest hair was going to ruin his fucking life. Felt like his eyes were magnetically drawn to it. And it definitely wasn’t very straight to be staring at another man’s chest.

“Do you want to… talk about it,” Steve said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

“It’s nothing, pretty boy, Neil has just been extra hard on me since the move. Called me aー called me a fag this morning, it pissed me off, stayed out past curfew. It’s fine.”

“Billy… he shouldn’t fucking call you that.”

“ ‘S not like he’s wrong,” Billy paused, could feel his throat closing up. Jesus, why did he say that? No going back now. 

“Billー”

“No, Steve. I don’t fucking care anymore. Tell the whole town, I don’t give a shit. I’m fucking tired of it. Getting outta here as soon as I can anyways.” God, he didn’t want to fucking cry right now, could feel it building up. No stopping it.

“What the fuck? Noー I wouldn’tー” Steve stuttered out, moving to sit next to Billy on the couch, pulled him into a hug.

Billy felt the first tear fall the second his cheek touched the coarse hair of Steve’s chest. He wrapped his arms around the taller man’s waist, burying his face in his chest. He felt safe.

“Me too,” Steve whispered into the golden curls, “I mean, sort of. Both. I like both, like Freddie Mercury. He still shouldn’tfucking call you that. You’re okay.”

Billy pulled away when he was done crying. He avoided meeting Steve’s eyes, choosing instead to focus on his chest. The hair was matted from tears. Billy was exhausted.

“Hey, let’s get some sleep, yeah? We can talk more in the morning. You can just take one of the spare rooms.”

+1

Morning After

~Three Months Later~

Billy didn’t wake up to the shrill sound of his alarm, or to Neil pounding on his door. He’d been waking up to that less and less lately, staying over at Steve’s when he could. His hand was laying on Steve’s chest, fingers tangled in the hair there, grounding him. He smiled against Steve’s shoulder where his face was pressed. He felt safe.

Steve shifted under him, waking up. 

“What’s got you so happy down there,” he murmured, hand sliding up Billy’s side to play with his soft hair.

“Nothing. You. This,” Billy said, tugging on Steve’s chest hair, drawing out a curse. 

Steve chuckled. “Jeez, what is with you ‘n my chest hair? Always looking at it, even before we got together. ‘f I knew you’d react like, this, I never would have waxed it.”

Billy rested his chin on Steve’s sternum, looking up into his deep brown eyes. “Why the fuck would you do that? Doing the people of America a disservice.”

“Nancy liked it better. I don’t know, guess I just got in the habit of doing it.”

“Mmh,” Billy sighed, trailing kisses down Steve’s chest, stopping right above his belly button, “I like this better.” He nuzzled into the older boy’s stomach. It had gotten a little softer from Steve’s perks from working at an ice cream shop, but he was still strong . 

“I know, you weren’t very subtle.”

“ ‘s hard being subtle when you kept walking around looking like that ,” the blond said, shimmying back up, pausing to bite at one of his nipples before going to suck and nip at his neck. He drew out a string of groans and curses.

Steve turned his head, smiling into Billy’s hair. “Yeah? Did it for you, ya know? Saw you looking, in the showers,” he smirked.

“Fuck you,” Billy mumbled halfhartedly into Steve’s neck.

Steve grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him up so they were face to face. “Mmh, yeah, that sounds nice,” the older man said with a grin, pulling him into a kiss.

Billy shoved him away with a hand in his face. “Ew, no, I’m not doing anything until you brush your teeth,” he laughed.