#billy and max

[rockabye-billy]

Stranger Things meet 10 Things I Hate About You 

[toobusybeingdelulu]

not their “Harrington what in the actual fuck” face being nearly identical this is so fucking funny 😭😭

[wrydd]

today's devastating thought is that billy's last "i'm sorry" is for the future as much it is for the past because he's leaving max with neil like his mother did to him

[imsodishy]

Billy won't stop casting warding bond on Max's rogue before every encounter. it's often the first warning the rest of the party has that something is about to go down.

If I said Billy playing D&D with the party because Max tricks him, thinking it will be funny. After hearing the rules he insists on being a cleric, and everyone's like ??? But lets him because he's got scary dog privileges.

But then everyone notices he seems to be able to anticipate conflict just from the tone of Eddie's voice. He's quick with the healing spells to his own detriment and will put himself in harm's way to help his party.

Now the party has a new mystery to solve. Why the fuck Billy's like that.

[imsodishy]

season 2 canon divergence where instead of just blowing Max off when she doesn’t show at the end of the day Billy does actually go looking for her.

But instead he finds El, fresh off seeing Mike and Max in the gym and nursing that bitter little sting. So when Billy's like, "Hey kid, you seen a loudmouth redhead around?" she lies and says no.

Billy quickly picks up that this kid is pretty odd and he's like, "You good? Where are your parents?"

"Papa's dead. I live with Jim now. He said not to leave the cabin. No one’s supposed to know." says El, and big ol alarm bells go off in Billy’s head.

"Can't belive I'm saying this, but I think we need to go to the police." he says.

"Jim's a police man."

Of course he fucking is. Creepy fucking nowheres-ville, ass-backwards goddamn town. "Okay, what about your mom? Any idea where she is?"

So Billy helps her track her mom down and then goes with her to Chicago to find her sister, because something absolutely fucked is clearly going on, and then he's in on the Hawkins happenings.

They show up at the Byers together and him and Max are like, "What are you doing here?!"

anyway, I think that'd be fun.

[ihni]

In a world where Neil Hargrove does not exist or is out of their lives or is a better man, Billy and Max has a better relationship, like real siblings.

Which means that the first time she has her new friends over at her house, Billy crashes their little party in the most obnoxious way. Maybe they're hanging out in the living room and playing a game or something, and Billy (dressed in workout shorts and socks only, no shirt, and sweaty and gross from yardwork or basketball or lifting weights) barges in like they're not even there, spreading out on the couch and turning the TV on, volume loud.

"What the fuck Billy?!" Max says, angrily, and tries to pull him up.

But of course he won't budge. "What?"

"Get out!"

"Nah. My show's on."

"I have FRIENDS over!"

He watches them with an unimpressed look. "And I see you've somehow managed to find people even more nerdy than you, Maxi-pad. Well done."

She yells in frustration, trying again to pull him off the couch, but she can barely move him. He sticks his socked foot in her face and laughs when she screams in disgust.

"Billy!! You're such an asshole!"

"And you're a shitbird. Ow!" She claws at him but he just laughs even as he tries to swat her away. "Oooh, is little Maxine trying to show off in front of her new friends?"

Snarling, Max grabs a pillow and tries to choke him with it, but he easily pushes her off so she ends up on the floor, red-faced with anger and glaring daggers. Billy grins at her all teeth, and makes a show out of stretching out in the couch in all his barely-clothed glory.

Max turns to the Party, who has been watching with wide eyes, and huffs "Let's go to my room" before stomping off.

Billy smirks at them as the boys give him a wide berth on their way out, and when the door to Max's room slams shut he yells "Keep the door open, Maxine."

"FUCK YOU BILLY!" is the answer.

"Think of JESUS!"

"GO TO HELL!"

He sinks back into the couch and turns his attention to the TV, but only for a minute or so. Then he gets up and goes to take a shower. He only went in there to mess with her, anyway.

(She gets her revenge when he has a boy over, later. And whenever Billy has his boyfriend in the car when she's there. And whenever she runs into any of Billy's friends. She has many embarrassing stories about Billy, after all. No one knows better than her how lame he can be.)

(Or, just, Billy and Max being annoying siblings, without the hate and fear and resentment. I want that for them. Annoying obnoxious needling gross older brother Billy and seething frustrated loud conniving little sister Max)

[strangerthingsquotes]

Max: Hey, can I get some dating advice? Billy: Just because I’m with Steve doesn’t mean I know how I did it.

[smellsliketeenangst]

Billy & Max - Gone but not forgotten

[thissortofsorcery]

I love fics where Billy gets to be soft but there’s something to be said about him fighting tooth and nail through getting better and improving his relationship with Max

[rockabye-billy]

The very first time Steve wears it, he tucks it under his shirt like a secret.

It’s a Saturday, his day off, and it’s been a week since the funeral.

[toobusybeingdelulu]

I can’t get over the fact that Max and Billy had been in that town for barely A WEEK before they started forcing themselves into everyone’s business 😭😭.

They had ears and eyes like A HAWK; like Billy in the showers shutting his mouth for once just to hear Tommy spill the tea about Steve’s love life + “Harrington, right?” on like the day after the Halloween party + him listening to all the stories about King Steve and already knowing Nancy’s name and surname when knocking on the Wheelers’ door despite never talking to her.

While Max forced Lucas and the others to just tell her their most cherished secret about the upside down into just a few days of meeting her + her eavesdropping at school + asking multiple questions about El despite Mike’s MANY refusals + her refusing to back down from the window before the fight at the Byers just to snoop on Steve and Billy’s conversation.

They were icons since day 1 I fear.

[accio-motivation]

I already fixed season 5 and they haven't even started filming yet. You're welcome.

Season 5 includes now:

Billy being alive (+ the scars and the bun and the new tattoos <- very important)

blind!Max slowly recovering from nearly dying

Billy and Max having the great sibling relationship they deserve

Harringrove!!! (because I say so <- mind the ice cream tattoo on Billy's arm)

[deedoop]

[animangalover-writes]

In a world where Max and Billy fixed their relationship, Max would wear one of Billy’s denim jackets and think she was the coolest person in the world.

[imsodishy]

the thing is, by making Max's entire S4 arc about her regrets and guilt surrounding Billy the duffers (accidentally) made it basically impossible for her arc to have a satisfying end without peeling back the extremely complex dynamics of the abusive house they were living in together so like.... lol, cuz that's never gonna happen.

[ihni]

Okay but the Hargroves being in witness protection, and that's why they moved to Hawkins?

Let's say that Max ran away from home because Neil was fighting with Susan, and then of course Neil was in a bad mood so he laid into Billy when it was discovered, because it was Billys job as a big brother to keep an eye on his sister. Billy is sent out to find her. And like, he knows she likes to skate in some abandoned parking garage so he goes there, and finds her just sitting there, and they actually talk a little and are on the same page about how it sucks to be in the family they're currently in.

And then there's a noise, from somewhere in the parking garage where no one should be. Billy goes to check it out even though Max tries to stop him, but he wants to see what it is. They creep closer to see a bunch of bad people doing a major drug deal or something, only one of the parties screws the other over so Billy and Max get to witness an execution. Max makes a noise, involuntary, and someone hears them, and Billy grabs Max and they make a run for it.

They make it out of there, they go to the cops, they do the whole witness thing ... And then, the whole family is placed in witness protection because of the threat to them.

Cue the move to Hawkins, Indiana - the middle of nowhere.

Everyone hates it there. Neil is angry and blames Billy, so he's harsher than he used to be, against everyone but mostly Billy. Max is angry she had to leave her friends and her school and she blames Billy too, for checking out the noise when she wanted them to leave. And Billy is also angry for all the aforementioned reasons, but he blames Max, because if she'd just stayed home - or hell, not made that sound which got them noticed - they wouldn't be here. (And Susan is just doing a bad job at trying to see the positive side of things)

Monsters was not what Max or Billy expected from this boring little town, but like, they've obviously seen some shit too.

And yeah, that's what I've got so far.