#au ​Billy was never flayed and this is before the vecna crap

[lostlimerence]

“It’s happened. I’m batshit.”

“No listen…”

“I’m crazy,”

“Stop..”

“Finally lost it..”

“Sunshine, please just wai…”

“Eds please stop pacing for a second.”

“Stop pacing?! I don’t know if you’ve noticed but California’s stopped working Stevie?!”

“I know, I know! I’m trying to think, your manic energy isn’t helping!”

“My manic energy?!” his voice hitches up an octave as he gasps, feigning hurt, he stops pacing and crouches down to gently wave a hand in-front of Billy’s face. The blonde clocks him, gives him a little dopey smile and whispers “ hey Eds, it’s finally happened I’ve gone insane,” Eddie smiles back at him, gives him a little pat on the head before standing back up and turning to Steve “yep, broken.”

Steve frowns, “he’s in shock Eddie, remember how you were when you first came across…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie flaps a hand, as if trying to waft away the memory. Steve walks over, giving Eddie’s arm a little squeeze as he goes to crouch in-front of Billy “hey baby,” he whispers gently “we really need you to get up,” Billy chuckles and reaches out to stroke Steve’s cheek “hey Stevie! Guess what, I’m finally in the madhouse, don’t worry though Munson’s in here with me!”

Eddie gawks “what did he say?!”

Steve laughs a little “you heard him Eds, looks like you’re an inmate too, I’m just a visitor,” he pushes back up and takes in the scene.

Billy cross-legged on the forrest floor, Eddie wide-eyed and restless glancing between their seemingly catatonic boyfriend and the lifeless demodog that lies a few feet away from them.

Eddie chews at the corner of his thumb nail, stares at Billy and says “we probably should’ve told him about this sooner…”

“I mean yeah no shit Eds, it’s not like we haven’t tried, it’s just, you know a little hard to bring up…”Steve trails off on a sigh as he strolls over to the body, looks down at its grotesque meaty flesh and grimaces “we need to get rid of this.”

Eddie hmmms his agreement as he goes to stand next to Billy, placing a protective hand atop of his golden curls. “Ugh we have no spade, no bat, no nothing, arghh we should’ve brought the beamer, it comes equipped with all the monster battling shit we need!” Steve nods, fists his hand in his hair as he thinks.

“Ok, maybe if you wait here, while I….”

“Nope, nuh-uh, not happening baby! What am I supposed to do if another one comes?! How am I supposed to protect our beautiful, but quite frankly currently useless, boy down there if another one comes?! What if they’re like wasps and this dead fucker is like emanating a stink that says avenge me avenge me! Oh gods Stevie what if this thing is….”

“Stop! Yeah, yes I get it, I get it bad idea, bad idea, we can’t just leave it here though…” Steve looks at Eddie, glances down at Billy “we’re gonna have to put it in the Camaro.”

Billy’s head snaps up “No way.”

Eddie gasps hand flying to his mouth like some offended Victorian lady “really sunshine?!! You finally come back to us and it’s for that stupid car?!?”

Billy cocks a brow, rises to his feet dusting off his jeans “it’s my baby,” he says completely serious, Eddie, if it’s possible, looks even more offended “I though WE were your babies,” he shouts frantically waving his arm between himself and Steve.

Steve presses his thumb and fore-finger to the bridge of his nose, inhales, exhales, ignores Eddie’s theatrics and turns to Billy “we’re putting it in the Camaro.”

Billy looks him dead in the eye and squares his stance “not happening pretty boy.”

….

Billy stares at the demowhatevers body in the trunk of his Camaro.

His eye twitches slightly. Eddie pats his shoulder “close her up California, it’s time to hit the road,” he flashes him a steady grin. Billy slams the trunk, climbs into the passenger seat and thinks about how calm Eddie and Steve are.

“So errr, what the fuck?” he says raising his brow glancing between Steve, who is driving and Eddie who’s leaning forwards in the middle of the backseat.

Steve catches Eddie’s eye in the rear view mirror and that’s all the musician needs before he’s off describing demogorgons, spider monsters, mindflayers, and some place called the upside down to a frankly astounded Billy.

He takes it in, tries to place it in his reality, fails to do so repeatedly, but then he remembers the stinking corpse in his trunk and he knows this isn’t Eddie’s wonderful, yet overactive, imagination. It’s real, concrete, they have the body of a demodog in the trunk of the car and they’re going to put it in a fucking freezer until they can bury it, not only that but Steve has done this once before.

He has too many questions, so he asks none of them and instead opts to zone out for the rest of the journey. Tries to let his mind process the immense amount of information he’s been given in peace, mumbles a promise to Eddie that he’s not going to ‘go catatonic’ again when the man starts voicing his concern.

….

Later he lies in bed staring at the ceiling, Eddie mumbles one last sleepy gripe in his ear, something about him loving the Camaro more than them, he just chuckles and presses a kiss to the side of the man’s head as he drifts off to sleep.

On his other side Steve, whose head is settled on his chest, whispers “you ok baby? I know, I know this is a lot to take in…” Billy takes a deep breath and mumbles softly “yeah it is, but don’t worry about it sweetheart, it’s fucked sure, but I’m an expert at fucked up situations, this is just another one, gotta roll with the punches right?” Steve snorts quietly “I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

“It’s the only way of looking at it pretty boy,” Billy smiles up at the ceiling, feels his eyes drooping with sleep, whispers “goodnight,” hears Steve say it back.

It’s been a long-ass day and they need their sleep, besides they have a demodog to bury in the morning.