#and steve blushes and looks so embarrassed that billy rents it anyway and invites steve to come watch it with him

[cherrydreamer]

Steve definitely assumes that The Count of Monte Cristo is a vampire movie and, when Robin realises this, she is torn between laughing right there and then or stifling her giggles and letting him carry on recommending it to Family Video customers looking for something scary to watch on Halloween.

[mediocre--writing]

Billy reconnecting with his mother somehow, whether she hears about Starcourt, they get in touch through letters, or maybe even Neil’s funeral - your pick! You can also come up with a new scenario.

Maybe it’s before him and Steve are actually friends. They’re still a bit hostile but seeing Billy with his mother changes things, even if just a little.

steve wasn’t quite sure what to think.

all through his life, he’s been told by his parents that when someone dies, it is a time for reflection and sadness. you will move on eventually, but it can and will take time to adjust.

which is why he was so confused when, after hearing about the heart attack that killed neil hargrove, why max didn’t seem to be all that sad.

she was hanging around the boys the same as she always did, she didn’t seem all that affected by his disappearance from the world.

the only exception was how she was with billy.

she doesn’t yell at him when he comes early to pick her up or when he honks rather than coming up to knock on the door.

they’re not as tense.

come to think of it, steve doesn’t think he’s seen max’s shoulders slouch around billy until just this week.

but steve’s been picking max up the past few times, the hargroves finalizing the funeral plans and all.

but there was a new car parked on the street. it was the same blue color of billy’s camaro but it was an older, chunkier model, though it shined as if brand new.

steve honked for max twice, waited about five minutes total, then decided to just go knock.

he and billy had made “amends”—enough to be civil—and he was kind to susan and knew max had to be there (her bike was on the front lawn)

after knocking, steve waits another minute and a half before the door opens, susan is tearing up a little, but invites him inside anyway.

steve’s thinking about how aggravated dustin is going to be about steve being late to pick him up.

but once he comes into the house, he forgets about dustins wrath and focuses on the uncomfortable atmosphere in the house.

max has a cup against a door in the hallway and susan is cleaning up pots and pans in the kitchen. he assumes billy—and possibly the mystery car owner—are in the room max is spying on.

steve mouths a ‘who?’ referring to what she’s listening in on.

she looks as though she’s going to respond before her attention is drawn away by a noise inside the room, one that could be heard without the glass.

it doesn’t take but a few seconds for max to scramble up and quickly seat herself at the dinner table steve was standing near and the door opened to reveal two people.

a woman, tall and blonde and had crows feet around her eyes, though it didn’t deduct from her obvious beauty.

behind her, linked by their hands, walks billy, who looks happy despite the tear tracks on his face.

“you’re a very bad spy, max,” she smiles and winks at max, who blushes at being found out. “but you can always improve. don’t wear shoes, they make noise. try socks, instead,”

max just nods and messes around with the glass as she tries to force the blush away.

steve thinks his presence just goes unnoticed because billy has draped his arms around the woman’s shoulders, resting his head next to hers and she rubs his arms in response.

“and who’s this handsome boy?”

“babysitter,” max offers. “not that we really need one, but he drives us around,”

“how sweet,” she smiles (it seems as though you can never adapt to how shockingly kind her smile is, no matter how much she does it). “do you go to school with boppy?”

billy, gently, knocks his head into his mother’s with a groan, whispering something about her ‘shutting up’ and she responds with a light, tapping slap on his arms.

“he’s embarrassed, let me rephrase. do you go to school with billy?”

steve, storing the nickname ‘boppy’ for later ammunition, nods to her question, “yes, ma’am,”

“carrie, nice to meet you,” she smiles, again.

“well, me and steve are gonna head off now!” max says as she jumps from the table and dragging steve out of the house.

“what was that about?” steve asks once they’re buckled in and he’s started the car.

“so... neil died,”

“i’m aware,”

“and carrie—billy’s mom—had heard through a newspaper back where they used to live that he’d died and found the address for the funeral and figured out where we lived by asking around and—“

“you’re allowed to take a breath, max,” steve joked, but max just looked lost in her own thoughts.

“he’s been all clingy and—and different now that she’s here,” max said, quiet and off handed.

“well, he hasn’t seen her in—“

“i think he was 7 or 8 the last time he saw her,”

“so 10 years,” steve was trying to pay attention to the road and keep an eye on max. “he’s bound to miss his mom,”

“what if he leaves?” max ponders quietly, “what if he doesn’t want to stay here and he goes back to california with her. he has no obligations to me or my mom, so why should he stay?”

“max—“

“no! he should go! if he doesn’t care enough to stay then he should just leave!”

“has he even said he wanted to leave?” steve asks, a little amused at max’s overreaction.

“a million times,” max looks around the car and out the window. “it was all he could talk about for months when we first got here,”

“what about now? recently?”

max shrugs, “i don’t know... not really?”

so steve does some thinking. while he picks up the other kids and when they’re off playing around the arcade.

he thinks about how stressed max is. thinks about susan’s tears that afternoon. thinks about how at ease and gentle billy looked while hugging his mom and whispering with her. thinks about how gentle billy has been this past week or so... right since neil was hospitalized for complications after a heart attack.

after all his thinking, steve makes a plan.

billy looks up from the hood of his car to a knocking on the garage wall. he’s interested, however, upon seeing steve standing there.

“yea, harrington?” he asks with a little eyebrow quirk.

“i just wanted to talk to you,” steve offers a half smile, “about max,”

“go right ahead,” billy leans against the counter along the wall across from steve, relaxed and wiping grease from his hands.

“she’s afraid you’re going to leave. she thinks your mom coming to see you means your leaving her,” steve looks around the small garage, “it might be true, i don’t know and i have no right to your life, but please talk to max. i think she’s really scared you are going to give up on her now. thinks you have nothing holding you here, but i know that the two of you have been getting closer and more civil, if not friendly,”

billy stares at steve for a minute, uses a blank stare—not threatening, but not kind, just blank. “i’ll talk to her, thanks,”

billy smiles at steve before he goes back to working on the car.

steve sees this—this something in his face. the smile wasn’t teasing or flirtatious. it was warm and showed actual thoughts behind it, almost made him glow. mad him look like his mom.

and—let’s be honest—the town of hawkins isn’t by any means large. people knew neil hargrove wasn’t the kindest man and max had alluded to his acts of aggression without explicitly stating anything numerous times, but billy is completely different now.

that’s not to say neil hargrove deserved to die—had it coming, maybe—but this was most definitely not the same billy hargrove that steve had seen screeching into the school parking lot.

and wether it was neils absence, carries arrival, or a mixture of both, steve could see a california glow wrap the boy in rays of sunshine, even on the dull, cloudy days in hawkins.

“you gonna stand there for a while or what, harrington?”

steve hadn’t realized he was staring at billy, who was smirking (though not maliciously) in his direction.

steve stuttered, finally excusing himself from the garage and going out to his car, going home.

he attended neils funeral. many people showed up, just out of a neighborly obligation, and it was a quick, run-of-the-mill service.

the highlight of the funeral, in steve’s opinion, was turning around just in time to see billy and carrie leering over the hole that neils casket was in, and sharing a sly smile before, at the same time, spitting into his grave.

and the next week, after steve had noticed carries car missing from they mayfield-hargrove house driveway, and was delighted to see billy snapping at max to not be late as he dropped her off at the middle school.

he was even happier to hear, from max and the party, that carrie had rented an apartment in one of the complexes by the center of town, applying for a few jobs so she could hang around for a little longer. apparently, her and susan had a lot of shared interests and a mutual dislike for how neil treated children.