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lizard-ratt · 1 month ago

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Just a quick fic that's been rattling around my drafts. I might continue this, I might not. If you find any typos, no you didn't.

Anyway, enjoy!

WC: 1,608

Ellie remembered when she saw him. The day she came back from the city, from her time with Kali. Memories slotted back into place like a missing puzzle piece. It wasn’t a sudden flood of information, just a soft recognition.

She knew what he had done, too. He looked at her, and there was familiarity, a fondness that would remain no matter what, but those memories– what created that warmth– had vanished. She held no anger toward him for it, no bitterness, but it was still lonely. She wondered what was so bad that he would erase his own memories. She didn’t know if she wanted to know.

She still kept a close eye on him, there in the Byers’ living room, still remaining as close as possible. He told her his new name. Steve Harrington. It suited him as well as any name he had told her before. Like a coat to slip on and off, to wear for protection. He stayed close to her, too, but it was clear he had no idea why. He wanted to know, though. He wanted to figure out what that thread between the two of them meant. She worried that he would seek out answers.

She worried that he wouldn’t.

The internal debate was a hefty one, for Ellie. On one hand, she wanted her brother back. She wanted the soft smiles, the warm hugs, the protection. She wanted Seven. On the other hand, she didn’t want to hurt him, and if remembering everything hurt, she didn’t know if she wanted him to remember.

Another major problem arose in the form of the bond between herself and her siblings and her siblings and each other. It had disappeared, but the second they made eye contact, it was back. A single string between Steve Harrington and Jane Eleanor Hopper. He felt it, too.

Two days after that, after she shut the gate, after Steve got a grade three concussion fighting Billy Hargrove, after they went into the tunnels anyway in order to create a distraction, she felt it. A tug down the bond, curious and careful. Not harsh, just a little nudge. After much consideration, she tugged back.

That weekend, with permission, the Party went over to the Harrington Household and El got to see Steve in person again. She stayed close to him again, and he made special care to ask her how she was doing, what she’d been up to, so on and so forth. The Party noticed the warmth that was there, but clearly didn’t even know what to ask, so they said nothing.

Even though he didn’t remember her, Ellie liked being with her brother again.

He kept a close eye on her, and he wore his thinking face, eyebrows pinched, lips tight. Still she said nothing. The question stayed in her mind. Tell him or don’t tell him? Tell him or don’t tell him?

Was she lying to him by not telling him? Was she protecting him? At what point did information become something that someone needed? What if something bad happened? What if they needed his abilities? Back and forth, back and forth. She needed to tell someone, get it out of her head, but what if they told Steve? After the sleepover, back at the cabin, Ellie sat down to talk to Hopper.

“I know something important,” she started with. “I know something about someone that they do not.”

Hopper considered the words. “Are they in danger?”

She swallowed. “They are like me. Like Kali. They do not remember.”

“Put yourself in their shoes,” Hopper said. “If you were them, would you want to remember?”

Ellie thought about it. “I do not know.”

“Do you want them to remember?”

“Yes.” She wanted her brother back. More than that, she wanted someone to understand, to be there and hold her hand and talk her through all that she didn’t know. Someone who knew where the gaps were in her understanding of Outside. She wanted what she was afraid she couldn’t have.

Hopper took a breath, running his hand down his face. “Would it… hurt them more to remember than if they stayed ignorant?”

She didn’t know the answer to that. “He is curious,” she said instead. “He recognizes me. He is looking. I am afraid he will find what he is searching for.”

“And you’re afraid that he won’t.” It wasn’t a question. Hopper just gave her a knowing look.

“Yes.”

He nodded. “I think, if he asks for help, you help him. If he decides he doesn’t want to know? You let him forget.”

For some reason, something sank in her chest. Despite her own best interest, despite what Hopper had just said, she gave her bond to Steve a tug. He hesitated, but he tugged back.

“Okay.”

Hopper worked his jaw. “Are you going to tell me who it is?”

“No.”

Hopper nodded, and they moved on to lighter topics. She kept part of her attention on the tether to see if Steve would do anything else.

He didn’t.

It took Steve a week after that to approach Hopper to ask to talk to Ellie. Ellie knew that Hopper suspected pretty heavily, based on the look he gave her as he left them in the cabin after asking way too few questions. They sat across from each other at the table, and she waited for him to ask.

He stared at her for a while, eyebrows pinched, mouth tight, and then tugged on the tether. She tugged back.

“That’s you.”

“Yes.”

“Why can I…” another tug. She tugged back. “That! Why… Why can I feel that?”

The point of no return, the precipice. If she answered his question, she could be hurting him. She could be helping him. “Do you want to know?”

He must have seen it on her face, or heard it in her voice, because he considered it. “I have a theory, but I don’t know how that theory would work or how… how any of it would make sense. It’s dumb and I- I just need help here and I think you can help me.”

“I can.” She took a breath. “What is your theory?”

He slumped. “Please don’t judge.”

“I will not.”

“I thought about it a lot, and I thought about my past.” He pulled up his sleeve and revealed his wrist, where his tattoo would be. Instead, there was a painful looking burn scar. “I tried to think about what happened, and it felt off. Like, the memory was wrong. Is there any way to, like, have a fake memory? Like, something plasticy and off to cover up… No, it’s dumb, I’m sorry, I’m hearing it and-”

“Yes.”

He froze up, completely stiff. “And is there a way to tell what’s fake and what’s real? Like do the memories feel different?”

“For you? Yes. For others? No.”

His eyebrows drew together, thinking. “Why would I be able to tell?” Something in his voice told her he already knew.

“Yes. Why?”

He thought there, for a long while, and Ellie waited, patient. He stared at the table, picking at his nails, working his jaw, fiddling with his hair. If Ellie were to guess, she would say that he was looking through his memories and discerning real vs. fake. He didn’t like what he found.

“You know me.” A non-question, more sure of himself that time. His eyes bore into Ellie, searching.

“Yes.”

“I know you. Somewhere in here.” He pointed to his head, avoiding eye contact.

“Yes.”

“Do you want me to remember?” Very fitting, that Seven would go after her wants before his own. “Can I remember?”

Ellie hesitated. “You can remember, if you want to.”

His eyes kept burning into her. “Do you want me to remember?”

She swallowed, uncomfortable. If she answered the question, he would do whatever he could to do what she wanted, even at the cost of his own happiness. If she didn’t answer, he would keep pushing until she did.

Decisions, decisions.

“It is not nice.”

Seven Steve nodded. “That’s still not answering my question.”

“... Yes.”

And that was that, the decision was made for him. Would she regret that? Probably. She just couldn’t stand the look that he kept giving her. “Okay. I’m going to need help, I think. Does it- does it work like your abilities? Like, how…?”

“We will try.”

She took him to the living room and sat him down on the floor in front of the TV. “Static helps. So does a blindfold.”

He nodded, taking in the familiarly new information. She grabbed the blindfold from her room, then the box of tissues and she tried not to seem too eager. Anticipation buzzed under her skin, though. She tugged at the bond with Kali, who responded immediately. She sent down what she could of what she felt, hoping it transferred. Excitement, anticipation, good, good, good. Sibling. Found.

Nothing too complex, nothing too big, just enough. Kali sent anticipation back in turn.

She sat down in front of Steve, close enough that their knees touched.

“What do fake memories feel like?” she asked. That is the part she never learned. How her siblings' abilities worked. She just knew what they could do. She wanted to know.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek, frowning. “It’s- it’s hard to explain. Fake. Plasticy, like- like a sticker, covering something.”

“Peel the sticker.” She stood and rounded behind Steve, wrapped the blindfold around his face, then she turned the tv on for static. Just like the others did for her, she leaned Steve into her lap and waited.

#steve harington #stranger things #ficlet #stranger things ficlet #eleven hopper #jim “chief” hopper #chief hopper #steve harrington has powers #steve is number seven #cause im cliche #steve and el are siblings #kali mentioned

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bitchin-and-bustin · 2 years ago

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Operation Demogorgon 2.0

Eddie Munson x fem!oc

Summary; with Will's new vision, the party becomes panicked with the possibility of Vecna returning. Previously unbelieving, you begin experiencing the exact symptoms as someone about to fall under Vecna's curse.

Warnings; blood, nosebleeds, obsessive behavior, mentions of obsessive!eddie, mentions of pervert!eddie, mentions of stalking, reader gets Vecna'd, Neil is out of the picture/Billy's been taken in by Hopper, dead bodies, death, traumatic memories, PTSD, angst

Author's Note; this got way longer than I planned. Apologies in advance for angst, but your welcome in advance for Eddie and Billy being soft with dogs :)

PART ONE | PART TWO

"Okay, Will, start it again, from the top. You lost me at migraines. " Said Steve, holding his hands out to stop Will.

After Will's episode at the Arcade, Eddie and Dustin wasted no time in rushing him to the Hopper-Byer's household. It was a decently sized house - about as big as the Byers' old one in Lenora - that was secluded off into the woods as before. In a lot of aspects, it was just a larger version of Hopper's cabin.

Upon ushering a still shaken Will through the door, they were met with a very concerned Eleven Hopper and a semi-confused Billy Hargrove.

"What's going on?" Eleven asked, seeing Will's state.

"El, get the phone, call the others." Dustin said hurriedly.

"Dustin-"

"EL! We need everyone here, now!"

They all went silent and stared at each other with wide eyes for a moment before Billy came up behind Eleven.

"Go get the phone, El." Billy said. Reluctantly, Eleven ran into the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later, their livingroom was filled with an uneasy atmosphere as Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, Nancy Wheeler and her brother Mike, Will's brother Jonathan, Max Maxfield, and Lucas Sinclair and his sister Erika arrived and crowded together.

Will had done his best to explain what had happened in his episode, but apparently a majority of them were completely lost. They all nodded their heads in agreement when Steve told Will to slow down and explain his episode in more simpler terms.

The younger boy sighed and crossed his arms, slightly frustrated. "Vecna is planning something." Will said. "When I had my vision, he wasn't actually in it - I never saw him. But I could feel him. It was like he was there, hiding somewhere."

"Like he was waiting for someone?" Suggested Robin.

Will glanced over at her. "More like...something." He said. "But the whole time, I wasn't really there either. I mean, I was, but I was...invisible, i guess."

"Will-" Said Nancy, sounding impatient. Will snapped his eyes toward her. "What happened. Did Vecna tell you anything?"

Will stared at her for a moment. "Not verbally. He showed me things. "

"What did he show you?"

"He showed me Y/n." Will quickly glanced at Eddie. "She was in her house, alone. She was looking through her cabinets and she pulled out a bottle of pills; pain killers. Tylenol."

Max's eyes widened. "She's having migraines."

Will nodded. "I watched her take them and she braced herself against her counter. She had this look on her face...she looked like she was going to pass out. She seemed so exhausted."

"If she's been having headaches non stop, then of course she's exhausted." Steve said matter-of-factly. Both Max and Nancy shot him a look.

"There was more though." Will said. "There was a noise from somewhere in her house. Y/n heard it too, because she looked up. At first I thought it was the doorbell, but then I heard it again, and I realized it was a chime. Y/n started following it. She was walking so slowly, though. Like she was moving through honey. Or maybe she was scared. But she followed it to the basement, and the third chime went off as she was going down the steps. It was completely dark until she turned the lights on, but then that's when she saw the clock from Henry's house. It was in the floor - like inside the floor. The concrete was cracked around it, almost like the clock had been forcing it's way out of the ground. Y/n walked to it, and she stood over it - I could see her reflection in the glass staring back. Then a drop of something red suddenly fell onto it ,and then another, and another. I couldn't tell what it was at first, but then Y/n brought her hand up and touched her nose, and her fingers were covered in blood.

"She's been having nosebleeds too." Max whispered.

"That's when the fourth chime went off. I could hear Y/n breathing really heavily - she was scared. I could tell. She sort of stumbled away from the clock after that, and she ran back up the stairs to leave the basement. When she slammed the door, I was back in the arcade."

Everyone was silent for a moment once Will finished. They were all trying to process what he'd told them, and what it all meant.

"Max was right." Eleven finally said. Eveeyone turned their heads to her as she looked up. "One is after Y/n."

She was the only one brave enough to admit out loud.

"We've got to do something." Lucas said.

Steve turned to him. "Like what? We don't know how long she's been under the curse, we don't know when he's going to strike!"

"We need to tell her about it! The Upsidedown, what happened to Will - everything."

Suddenly, Dustin cleared his throat. "She already knows." Everyone that wasn't Eddie, Will, Steve and Nancy stopped their arguing to turn to Dustin with aghast expressions. "We kinda told her...today..." Mike was perhaps the most furious of them all.

"You what?!" Mike gasped.

"We had too!" Dustin exclaimed in defense. "If we didn't, Y/n would've gone her whole life thinking Eddie was a pervert!"

"She believed you?!"

"I mean, no, but-"

"JESUS CHRIST-" Eddie suddenly shouted, causing Dustin and Mike to go silent. "Can the two of you please stop your petty, childish arguing? It doesn't matter, not important. What does matter is finding a way to stop Vecna. Alright?" Dustin and Mike both mumbled quiet agreements. Eddie now turned to Will. "Byers, was there anything else you saw? Any hints or something that would tell you when Vecna's going to make his move?"

Will was silent while he thought. There wasn't anything, really. He thought back to what you been wearing; the brown corduroy sweater you had over your blue arcade shirt that day. But you wore that all the time. But if Will really thought, he could remember the glimpse of the calendar he was able to catch as you left the kitchen. The last day that had been marked off with a red X was June 5th. The current date was June 6th.

"I don't think that my vision has happened yet." Will finally said after a few moments. Everyone gave him questioning looks. "She had a calendar in her kitchen. All the days were marked off up until today." Will paused. "I think I saw the future, and I think that future was later today."

Everyone exchanged looks."Wait, are you sure?" Eddie asked. "On Saturday's her shift doesn't end 'til 9."

"If she's been having constant migraines, Keith might've let her leave early." Robin said quickly.

"Yeah." Steve nodded in agreement.

"Okay, we have to assume Vecna is making his move today, and that he's making it soon." Nancy stated.

"Will, do you know what time this is supposed to happen?" Jonathan asked his brother.

Will furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to remember any sign he'd noticed in his vision that would give him his answer. Then it came to him; the light flooding in from your kitchen windows had been a golden orange - the color of the sunset.

"The sun was setting." Will said quickly.

"Its completely dark in an hour and a half." Billy said. The other's all turned to where he was standing up against the wall behind them all, previously having been completely silent. "Her house is almost forty minutes away. If we're gonna do something, we need to leave now."

"Billy's right." Steve said, surprising everyone with that fact that he'd just agreed with Billy Hargrove. The other boy raised his eyebrows, seeming surprised as well.

"El," said Jonathan. The girl turned to her brother. "Go get your Walkman. Just in case." As the teenager quickly ran to her room, Jonathan turned to Eddie. "Do you know Y/n's favorite song?"

Eddie nodded. "Yeah. 'Mr. Sandman'."

Billy scoffed. "Basic."

"Right? She's obsessed with the Chordettes."

Eleven came running back to the room with her Walkman in hand, and handed it to Jonathan, who stood up from where he was sitting on the sofa with Nancy.

"Someone's gotta stay here with the kids." Said Steve. "And it's not gonna be me this time."

Before the teenagers could attempt to cause an arguement about being left behind, Robin raised a hand. "I'll stay. I don't wanna chance getting possessed as well."

Nancy glanced over at her. "I'll stay with Robin. You boys can go."

"Hey!" Said Dustin, standing up. "Why can't we come with you guys?"

"Because we don't need twenty people to go." Steve said simply. "Besides, this isn't a 'party' thing. Four people is enough."

"But why do we need babysitters-"

"DUSTIN! We don't have time for this! Stop!" Steve interrupted, impatiently. Dustin quickly closed his mouth. Steve sighed and looked up at Billy. "Your car?" He asked.

"Yeah." The blonde pulled his keys out of his pocket. "C'mon."

Eddie exhaled as he stood up to follow Billy, Steve and Jonathan. "Well, looks like it's time for Operation Demogorgon 2.0"

The four men filed out the front door, and Will watched solemnly out the window as they climbed into Billy's Camaro and started pulling out of the long driveway. Will glanced at the sun. The sky was turning yellow.

They didn't have much time.

It was easy to say you hadn't had the best day.

For starters, you gotten locked in a room with your stalker, who proceeded to try and convince you that there was an alternate dimension full of monsters that wanted you dead. Then, your headaches - which you thought had finally gone away - had come back, and you didn't have any pain killers with you. You'd tried your best to ignore the pounding in your head for the rest of your shift, but eventually it got to the point where it felt like you had a horrible hangover. Thankfully, Keith had let you go home a few hours early, so when you got home as the sun was just beginning to set, the first thing you did was change out of your ugly shirt and stumble into the kitchen to find the Tylenol.

Your golden retriever - Louis - sat a little ways away, watching as you shuffled through the dozens of bottles of pills in the cabinets above your sink, before pulling out the bottle of Tylenol. You popped two of the pills onto your mouth before swallowing them try. You sighed heavily after that, and leaned against your counter, closing your eyes.

You were so tired - you had been for a week. And you didn't have a single clue why. Yeah, you were stressed out, but it wasn't anything you weren't used to. Something had been really off the past week, though. You spaced out more often, and these headaches seemed to be making everything much worse.

As you stood there, braced under your arms, you heard something loud and echoing come up through your house. You raised your head, and looked around. Had it been your doorbell? You looked out the window, not seeing a silhouette behind the blinds. You furrowed your eyebrows and stood up straight.

Slowly, you moved into the hallway, and looked down it, your eyes set on the basement door at the very end. The chime sounded again, almost louder than before, as if you were getting closer to it's source. In the kitchen, Louis whined quietly and cowered under the table.

You began walking down the hallway towards the door. It was as if there was some force drawing you to it - like an imaginary string tied to your waist, slowly pulling you along. You didn't blink once as you advanced on the door, too focused on reaching whatever this was.

The doorknob was cold as you set your hand upon it, which was unusual, considering was the middle of summer. You slowly opened the door to your basement, and began moving down the steps, almost robotically. It didn't feel like you were the one walking. It was incredibly chilly in the basement, but you didn't shiver. You couldn't. You were far too lost in this mysterious trance.

As you reached the bottom of the stairs, you heard the third chime. Then you saw the exact source of the noise.

There was a large grandfather clock in your basement. It was brown and expensive looking - probably made of dark oak or mahogany. But this clock definitely wasn't a normal clock. The give away was how it was embedded into the concrete floor of the basement. Around its shape, the floor was cracked outward, like the clock had forced it's way up from under the cement.

You felt fear now as you continued to walk towards it. You walked to turn around and flee, but something wouldn't let you. You were physically drawn towards the timepiece.

Standing beside it, you slowly moved to lean over it and stare. You could see your reflection in the glass - you could see the fear in your eyes.

Then suddenly, something dark red and watery fell from above and landed on the glass. This was followed by another drop, and another, until there was a collection of red droplets on the glass, almost like an evil mosaic. You could feel something hot and sticky dripping down your nose and lip. Shakily, you lifted a hand and felt something wet when you touched your nose. When you brought your hand down, you widened your eyes to see blood.

You almost jumped in your skin when the clock chimed for a fourth time beneath you.

Along with fear, panic quickly found a way into your chest. Breathing heavily, you stumbled away from the clock and ran up the stairs faster than you ever remembered doing. When you reached the door, you fumbled with the doorknob before swinging it open and turning around to slam it closed.

You were left the sound of your beating heart and heavy breathing after that. You stared at the basement door with wide eyes before taking your hand away and turning around.

You expected to be standing in your hallway, but you were instead met with the sight of a grimy white hallway and dim, blown out lights above you.

You looked around frantically, and you realized if you loked past the way it was degraded, you recognized this place.

At the sound of a loud knock on the door behind you, you gasped and jumped in shock you spun around, and found that this was no longer your basement door, and was white and scratched with weather and age.

"Ms. L/n?" Said a strange voice from behind the door. "I have unfortunate news, I'm afraid. It's your parents...they aren't expected to make it through the night." Your breath caught in your throat. You'd heard those words before. "Will you open the door, Ms. L/n?" Asked the voice, only this time, in sounded different, it sounded warped, and deep, and evil. "Hey! Open the door! OPEN THE DOOR!"

You gave a dry sob as you listened to the horrible screaming. Then you were startled as something start pounding on the door. You backed away, and watched as the door started to shake and come free of its hinges.

This time, you were able to run. And you ran.

As you fled down the hallway, the lights that did work started to flicker. Many times you almost tripped over discarded wheelchairs and broken, toppled over stretchers in the way.

"OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOOOR!"

The demotic screaming and banging only continued to get louder as you ran away. Tears had started streaming down your face.

"OPEN THE DOOOOR!"

Gasping, you flung open a door to a room on the left side of the hallway, and rushed inside, locking yourself inside it.

As soon as the door was close, the banging and the screaming ceased. Once again, you were left with nothing but your breathing and quiet sobbing.

Almost relieved, you slid down the wall next to the door, and covered your mouth to stifle your cries. You closed your eyes and you'd attempted to control your breathing and clam your heartrate.

But at the eerie screeching sound of something in the room, your eyes shot open.

On the wall to the left, there was a row of ominous black freezers. But theses freezers didn't hold food, they held dead bodies - you had stumbled into a morgue.

You watched with wide eyes and a heavily heaving chest as one of the freezers slowly slid open on its rusty hinges, revealing that the body inside was a woman's - one side of her face was heavily charred from a fire and her eyes were open and empty and stared at the ceiling above her. Silent tears streamed down your face and you pressed yourself further against the wall as if to stay away from the freezer.

Then with a gasp from you, the woman's head turned. Her dead eyes landed on yours, and her charred lips moved as she spoke in a warped, evil voice.

"Y/n..."

By the time Billy's Camaro pulled into the driveway of your house, the sun was almost set, leaving only a small strip of red able to be seen through the trees.

As soon as the car was off, the four boys jumped out and walked to the front door of the small house - Jonathan with Eleven's Walkman in hand. Anxiety practically filled the air surrounding them.

Eddie was the one to reach the door first. He rang the bell, and waited anxiously for you to answer. But he was waiting for nothing. You never answered. So he rang the doorbell again, and again, hoping you had just fallen alseep.

"Shit." Eddie muttered to himself. He started banging his fist on the door. "Y/n! Are you there?!"

Jonathan put a hand on his arm. "Hey, stop. We didn't make it here in time. See if the doors unlocked."

Eddie glanced at him before reaching for the doorknob. Sure enough, it was unlocked. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.

They were met with darkness. The lights in the living room were off, but there was a yellow glow coming from the kitchen and hallway.

Being the last to enter, Steve closed the door behind them, and found the switch to a lamp, turning it on so they could see their way around.

"Y/n?" Eddie called into the house. "Where you?! Y/n?"

He didn't get a response, and he wasn't expecting one of course, but he did hear a quiet canine whine. He looked around, and saw a fluffy looking golden retriever poking his snout out of the kitchen door way.

Eddie smiled just slightly. "Hey, buddy." He took a step forward, but the dog, whined and shrank back. "Hey, hey, it's alright. I'm not gonna hurtcha." He crouched down to be level with the dog, and held out his hand. Hesitantly, the golden retriever padded towards him, and cautiously sniffed the boy's hand. "Hi, its Louis, right?" The dog looked up at his face, as if responding to the name. Eddie's smile grew slightly and he started rubbing the soft fur on the dog's head. "I'm Eddie."

"Munson, what are you doing?" Billy asked as he stared at Eddie and the dog with a deadpan look.

Eddie glanced back at him. "Shut up." He turned back to Louis the dog and continued petting. "Hey, Louis, I need you to help me out, buddy. Can you do that?" Louis just stared up at him with dilated pupils. "Where's Y/n? Do you know where she is, boy? Huh?"

The dog turned his head towards the hallway entrance, and a low growl built up in his throat, his lips raising in a snarl. Eddie turned his head that was as well.

"She in there?" He asked.Louis just growled louder, but it ended in a whine when Eddie gave his head another soothing pet.

Eddie stood up and turned to the other three, who had been watching him silently. "She's in the hallway." He said. Jonathan held out the Walkman to Eddie as the four of them crept towards the hallway, and he took it and held onto it tightly.

The boys stopped in their tracks almost immediately when they were met with the sight of Y/n L/n standing at the end of the hallway with your head staring straight at them, and your eyes rolled into the back of your head, white and glazed over as if you were blind. A thick stream of blood flowed from your nose and down your lips.

Billy's mouth curved in a repulsed way. "Well that's unsettling."

"Shit." Eddie muttered, and quickly rushed down the hallway, stopping in front of your tranced form. He waved an hand in front of your face - you were unresponsive. "Shit!" He turned around and shoved the Walkman into Steve's chest. "Get these on her, I've gotta find Mr. Sandman."

Steve nodded. "Hurry."

"Y/n..."

You sobbed loudly behind your mouth as the charred corpse of your mother spewed your name in a voice that wasn't hers.

Then you jumped as a new bodies sat up from where it had been laying out on one of the metal tables in the center of the room. This was the body of a man with a burnt face and bleeding eyes. His broken arm shot toward you.

"Y/n..."

You let out a muffled scream into your hand. Shaking, you clawed at the wall as your scrambled to your feet. You jerked the door handle and flung it open, fleeing from the room with frantic sobs.

Once again you were running down the disarrayed hallways, only now you were running the calling of your dead parents.

"Y/n...Y/n...Y/n..."

As you ran, you glanced back, expecting to see the burnt, black bodies for you parents standing behind you, but there was nothing. Before you could turn around, you let out a scream as the floor beneath you snapped like wood and you fell through flames and smoke.

You landed hard on your back and found the wind knocked out of you. As you coughed and gasped for air, you felt your lungs burn as they filled with smoke instead of oxygen. Sitting up, you coughed more. You covered your mouth with your hand to prevent the inhale of ash again, and your eyes widened as you took in your surroundings.

It was your old house, the one that had caught fire and burnt your parents alive.

As the flames flickered and cackled around you, you could hear a new sound rise up over it all. It was the scream of a woman - the scream of a woman being consumed by flames.

Tears streaming from your eyes, you clamped your hands over you ears and closed your eyes. You didn't want to relive this.

"Y/n..."

Your eyes shot open. Something called your name, and you heard it despite your hands covering your ears. This wasn't the warped voice of the doctor and your parents, but this was still voice of something evil.

Taking you hands down, you looked up, and saw that in the fire-illuminated darkness, something was emerging.

It wasn't exactly human, but you didn't know what else it could be considered. It had horribly slimey and mutated looking skin - vines almost seemed to make it up. It had a hole of cartilage where its nose should have been, and its eyes were big and threatening. One of its hands had long, claw like fingers that looked as though they could tear so easily through skin.

Somehow - you didn't know why - you knew this creature was what had been causing your migraines and nosebleeds and your horrible nightmares. You knew it was the one causing this nightmare.

Shaking, you called out to it in an unsettlingly meager voice. "What do you want?!"

The creature emerged from the flames fully, revealing it's hideousness to you. "I want you...to join me."

"EDDIE!"

Eddie ignored Steve shouting his name from the hallway as he stood in your room, frantically going through your drawers in search of Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes.

He cursed to himself as each drawer he pulled open contained nothing but clothes.

"EDDIE! What are you doing?!"

"I'M LOOKING!" Eddie finally shouted back. Closing the drawer that contained pajamas, he moved to the one above it and pulled it open, only for his face to pale when he saw it was full of your underwear.

"LOOK FASTER!"

Eddie cursed and quickly closed that drawer, moving to the next one. He nearly screamed in happiness when he saw the cassettes it was filled with. He frantically shifted through them until he found the one with "Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes" written on the label in curly handwriting.

"I've got it!" Eddie said, out of breath from his panic as he came running back into the hallway.

Steve, Jonathan and Billy turned to him from where they surrounded you. Steve had gotten the headphones of Eleven's Walkman on your hand and over your ears, and held the cassette reader in his hand.

Eddie handed Mr. Sandman to Steve, who slipped it into the case and immediately hit play.

Everyone stood around you, waiting anxiously for something to happen, for you to open your eyes and gasp and show them you were alive and alright.

But they didn't get that. When they got was pure panic when your feet started to leave the ground and your body slowly rose toward the ceiling.

"What the fuck..." Billy whispered as they all stared up at your levitating body. He glanced at Eddie and Steve, whose eyes were wide with fear. "Harrington, what's happening?"

"Its Vecna." Steve said thickly. "We were too late."

"I want you...to join me."

You pushed your back against the charred wall behind you, silently crying as what you began to realize was the other-dimensional creature crowned Vecna advanced toward you through the flames.

You wanted to run, but there was no where to go. Everything around you was on fire.

Vecna stopped walking when he stood in front of you. Even as you weakly got to your feet, he was still a good three feet taller than you. As you stared up at him, he stared down at you, almost like he was studying your tear-stained face.

You grit you teeth as you spat up at him. "Leave me alone."

Vecna smirked, if that was possible. "I'm afraid that's not an option, Y/n. I cannot leave you alone, not until you've joined me. Not until my plan is complete."

Then you took a shakey inhale as the creature raised his clawed hand and held it above you. Some invisible force caused your bead to crane upward at look at the claws. New tears ran hot down your face.

Just as Vecna's hand started to lower itself towards your skin, he was interrupted by a echoing, strangely cheerful - and very familiar to you - noise.

"Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum"

Vecna's hand moved away just slightly as he looked around, trying to find the source of the noise. You'd already found it though.

"Mr. Sandman,

Bring me a dream

Make him the cutest that I've ever seen"

Behind Vecna, in the dark void he'd walked out of, you could see a spot the dream that had faded away, showing you a view of four familiar boys; Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, and Billy Hargrove. All four of them were shouting your name as they stared up at your body, which was seven feet up in the air, unmoving.

"Give him two lips like roses and clover

And tell him that his lonesome nights are over"

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a spike of wood that was miraculously not yet touched by the fire. With as much speed as you could muster, you snatched the spike and let out a cry as you drove it through the slimey abdomen of the demon in front of you.

Vecna grunted it pain and jerked away from you, releasing you from whatever powerly hold his claws had on you. You fell against the wall, gasping for breath.

You didn't waste a second before you were running towards the tear of reality in front of you.

"Sandman, I'm so alone

Don't have nobody to call my own"

Through the smoke and the flames you ran through, you could hear Vecna's cries of anger. Above you, burning ceiling beams fell and attempted to stop you. But you kept running. You didn't stop until you were upon the panicking boys in your hallway, crying their names as they were yours.

"Please turn on your magic beam

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream"

The first thing you heard wasn't even the next lyrics of the song. It was Jonathan Byers screaming "Oh, shit!"

You let out your own scream once you realized you were falling. Thankfully, you were caught by someone before you hit the floor.

Disoriented, you couldn't tell you was holding you until they pulled the headphones of a Walkman off your head and started calling your name.

"Y/n? Hey, Y/n? Can you hear me?"

Rapidly blinking away tears whatever after affect was left of your trance, you slowly came to realize you were on the floor with a familiar long haired brunette.

You sniffed, almost choking on the taste of copper it brought go your mouth due to your heavy nosebleed. You looked up at the face of the boy holding you above his lap.

"Ed-Eddie?" You said, your voice cracking.

He stared down at you, concern coating his features. "Yeah, its me." He said, careful not to be loud.

You let out a choppy exhale. "You goon-fuck," your voice was thick as it cracked. "I believe your story. I believe you now." You started crying for what felt like the hundredth time that day, and buried your face into Eddie's chest, your fists balling around his shirt.

Eddie held you a little closer, letting you stain his clothes with blood and tears. "You're okay now, Y/n. It's okay." He told you. He glanced up at the other three boys before speaking again. "Hey, I'm gonna pick you up now, alright? We're gonna get you out of here."

You didn't respond, but that was okay. You didn't need to.

Taking a deep breath, Eddie slipped his right arm under your knees and carefully got to his feet with Steve's help. He let you cling to his shoulder as they walked out of the hallway, towards the front door. Steve and Jonathan made sure to turn the hallway and kitchen lights off before they held the door open for Eddie.

As he was about to walk out with you, he turned back when he heard a quiet yelp behind him he turned around, seeing that Louis the golden retriever was standing in the kitchen doorway again, watching them almost sadly.

Eddie turned to Billy. "Hey, bring the dog."

Billy glanced at Louis skeptically. "What? Jim's got a pet fur allergy-"

"Just do it." Eddie said before walking out the doorway with you half-asleep in his arms.

Billy sighed to himself and looked down at Louis, who had taken a few pads toward the boy, and was looking up at him curiously.

Billy stared down at him. "You're lucky you're cute." He mumbled, before kneeling down and picking the golden retriever up in his arms, clicking the livingroom lamp off, and closing the front door as he walked out.

Eddie had carefully set you down inside the Camaro in the seat directly behind the driver's. After making sure you were alright, he closed the door softly and walked around to the passenger's seat. Steve and Jonathan were the ones who joined you in the backseat, and Billy set Louis back there with you, where your dog sensed your emotions and curled up in your lap.

As Billy pulled out of your driveway, Eddie looked up in the mirror to see you in the back, hand idly resting on Louis's fur, and head leaning against the headrest with your eyes staring straight forward with a ghosted, far off expression. Dried blood still covered your nose and lips.

Eddie sighed to himself, and looked down at the cassette in his hand. He slipped it inside the Camaro's stereo, glanced at you once more, and then hit play.

"Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum"

As you all left your house, you found yourself slipping out of consciousness and into sleep, no longer worrying that you would wake up screaming of your Vecna induced nightmares.

"Mr. Sandman,

Bring me a dream

Make him the cutest that I've ever seen

Give him two lips like roses and clover

And tell him that his lonesome nights are over

Sandman, I'm so alone

Don't have nobody to call my own

Please turn on your magic beam

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream"

Please like if you enjoyed! Reblogs are appreciated! Comment to be tagged in future parts!

-- bitchin n bustin

Taglist!

@sadbitchfangirl @toobsessedsstuff

@silky-luxes @manyfandomsfanvergent

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spiderking-of-queens · 2 years ago

Text

Chapter Four: The Fight

Summary: Just as you’re beginning to wrap your brain around the Upside Down, Billy Hargrove pays you all a visit at the Byers household and flips your world on its head again. (Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader, 3.2k words)

Warnings: Violence, abuse, language. Reader gets injured in a fight.

Masterlist

November 5th, 1984

You paced back and forth in the Byers’ living room. Steve and the kids were trying to busy themselves by cleaning up the mess left behind from the craziness that had just ensued. You were still trying to wrap your head around all of the information that had been thrown at you in the past couple of hours.

Okay. Breathe.

This is what you had learned so far:

1. The Shadow Monster that had taken control of Will was like The Mind Flayer, a creature from D&D.

God, if you hadn’t already regretted not joining Hellfire on Friday night, you certainly did now. Maybe if you had, you’d have a better understanding of what these monsters were.

You couldn’t help wondering how Eddie would handle all of this. He’d probably be completely in his element. You wished he was there, then shook yourself out of your daydreaming to focus back on your list.

2. Will was like a spy for The Mind Flayer, but he figured out how to use morse code to communicate without alerting it.

3. He told you all to “close the gate.”

4. The phone rang and Will found out where you were all hiding, then The Demodogs found you.

5. Nancy Wheeler was way too confident with a shotgun.

6. Somehow, this “El” girl showed up and saved you. Hence the mess.

The details were still fuzzy on that one. You cleared your throat and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at you.

“Guys? Remind me… El. Who is she, exactly? How did she stop the Demodogs?”

“She has superpowers,” Mike answered nonchalantly.

“She has what?” You asked, dumbfounded. Then after the initial shock wore off, you shook your head. Out of everything you had discovered that night, that was probably one of the least crazy.

“She has telekinetic powers,” Lucas explained.

“She was part of an experiment at the lab and she escaped. She was Number Eleven. That’s why we call her El,” Mike added.

“Jesus Christ, how much were the people in that lab trying to cover up?” You grumbled, rubbing your temples.

“Well, hopefully not much more…” Steve joked.

He was handling all of this remarkably well. You were sort of pissed at him for it.

You shook your head disdainfully at his attempt at humor and continued your list in your head as you bit your nails.

7. El and Hopper were trying to close the gate at the lab, like Will said to do.

8. Nancy, Jonathan and Joyce were at Hopper’s cabin in the woods trying to smoke the Mind Flayer out of Will’s body so it wouldn’t kill him when the gate did close.

You were still having trouble wrapping your mind around those last two.

“The gate.” What did that even mean? What would that even look like? Why would Will die if it closed before the Mind Flayer was gone?

“Okay, one more question. Last one, I swear,” You said, then decided that was probably a stupid thing to promise as you added, “Maybe. Anyways, this gate that Will needs us to close, it’s like a doorway to the Upside Down, right?”

“Right,” Lucas confirmed as he and Max swept up glass from the floor.

“And the Upside Down is where those Demodogs come from?”

“Yes. And the Mind Flayer. It’s like an alternate version of Hawkins. A dark dimension. Everything is pretty much the same, but it’s creepier and there’s no people there. Just monsters, as far as we know,” Dustin explained.

You bit off a hangnail that was on your thumb as you nodded along, pretending like this made complete sense to you and didn’t shatter your view of the world whatsoever.

“Okay. Right. So, El, she’s gonna use her powers to close this gate?”

“Yes,” Dustin sighed.

“And why can’t they just close it while that thing is possessing Will? Wouldn’t it just kill it and save Will?”

Dustin pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed again more loudly.

“Because, with the Mind Flayer controlling him, Will is part of his army now. He’s part of the hive mind. We’ve been over this. How hard is it to understand, Jesus…”

You scoffed at him incredulously, your mouth hanging open in shock. You couldn’t stop the anger rising up within you.

“Excuse me? What did you just say?” You shouted as you stared daggers at him.

“Okay…” Steve mumbled as he intervened, grabbing you by your shoulders. You tried to protest it as he pulled you into the kitchen.

“Did you hear how that little shithead just spoke to me?!” You hissed at him.

“Yes, I did. That’s just how he is sometimes, okay? You can’t let it get to you. He’s a little know-it-all. A kid, right? He’s just a kid.”

He looked into your eyes with raised eyebrows, his hands still gripping your shoulders to try to bring you back down to Earth.

Dustin was just a kid, and he was trying to handle everything the best way he knew how. He was trying to rationalize it all, and he was probably exhausted, too. It was past midnight at this point - officially Monday - and he had been dealing with this shit since at least Saturday.

You took a deep breath. His frustration with you was actually kind of funny when you thought about it.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I just lost the plot for a minute there.”

“I know. It’s okay. You’ve had to deal with a lot tonight.”

You smiled up at him appreciatively, then eyed his hands on your shoulders. He cleared his throat and removed them when he realized he hadn’t let go yet.

“Sorry. You good now?” He asked, his hands now on his hips.

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.”

You nodded at each other during a brief moment of awkwardness before Dustin called Steve to help him with something in the living room.

“Goddammit. Now what?” Steve muttered as he left the kitchen to see what was going on.

You stayed behind and closed your eyes, trying to focus on your breathing to calm down. Then you jumped as you heard a loud clattering noise beside you.

Dustin was emptying the entire contents of the Byers’ fridge, shelves included, as you watched in shock.

“Alright, it should fit now,” Dustin said and looked at Steve who had just reentered the kitchen. Your eyes widened as you realized that he was carrying the dead monster, wrapped up in a quilt.

So much for remaining calm.

Steve gave you a weary look, then sighed and turned his head to Dustin.

“Is this really necessary?”

“Yes, it is, okay? This is a ground-breaking scientific discovery. We can’t just bury it like some common mammal. It’s not a dog!”

“Alright, alright. But you’re explaining this to Mrs. Byers,” Steve grumbled and turned to you again before walking to the fridge. “See what I mean? Know-it-all.”

You snorted and watched in disgust as the two of them argued and struggled to fit it into the fridge. After they were finally able to close the door on it, Steve let out a deep breath and shook Dustin by his head playfully before realizing he had monster goo all over his hands. Dustin groaned in disgust and put a hand on his hat to assess the damage done as Steve grabbed a nearby dish towel to wipe his hands off.

Okay. New fact:

9. There was a dead demodog in the fridge beside you.

You rubbed your eyes as you processed the ridiculousness of this, then winced when Dustin yelled to Mike and Lucas as they were discussing something loudly in the living room.

You groaned and the three of you walked over to join their conversation.

“The chief will take care of her,” Lucas said, trying to talk Mike down. He must have been speaking about El. Mike seemed to really care for her, considering their emotional reunion when she showed up to fight off the Demodogs.

“Like she needs protection…” Max mumbled. She was in awe of her, understandably.

“Listen, dude,” Steve sighed, “A coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. Alright?”

You rolled your eyes. His basketball metaphors were lost on you, and clearly the others, too.

“Okay, first of all, this isn’t some stupid sports game. And second, we’re not even in the game. We’re on the bench,” Mike argued.

You didn’t want any part of the fight and certainly didn’t want the kids to be in danger, but you couldn’t help pursing your lips and nodding at this in agreement. His commitment to the analogy was impressive.

“Right… So my point is…” Steve trailed off and looked around, trying to figure out a way to fight him back on this. You all stared at him and waited.

“…Right. Yeah. We’re on the bench. So there’s nothing we can do,” He stammered nervously. The look on his face told you that he already knew how bad his argument was.

You gave him a mocking smile and thumbs up to let him know just how badly he had done, and he glared back at you.

“That’s not entirely true…” Dustin spoke up. “I mean, these Demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away.”

Lucas snapped his fingers as he realized what Dustin was getting at.

“If we get their attention…”

“Maybe we can draw them from the lab,” Max finished his sentence.

“And clear a path to the gate,” Mike added excitedly.

Steve snorted and threw his hands up.

“Yeah, and then we all die!”

You squinted at him and shook your head.

“Steve!” You hissed, and he shrugged back at you.

“That’s one point of view…” Dustin mumbled.

“No, that’s not a point of view, man. That’s a fact!”

“Steve!” You repeated, yelling this time.

“How else do you want me to stop this?!” He snapped back.

“I don’t know, but you don’t need to threaten them with death!”

“It’s not my fault they don’t listen to reason!”

You were so busy arguing that you didn’t notice Mike beginning to form a plan. Steve overheard him talking about setting the hub of the Demodog tunnels on fire and butted in with a, “Yeah, that’s a no!” Before turning back to you to continue your fight.

“Look, all due respect, you’re new here. You don’t know how to handle these guys,” He said matter-of-factly.

You gawped at him, offended, as he glanced at the kids and yelled, “Hey!” In another attempt to get them to stop. It didn’t work. They continued scheming.

“Oh, really? What, because you’re doing such a good job?” You sneered.

“They’re alive, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, but not for long, apparently. According to you…”

“Only if they don’t listen to me! GUYS! Hey, hey, hey!” He clapped his hands together and shouted when he became too overwhelmed by trying to fend you all off at once, simultaneously shutting you up and stopping the kids from finalizing their plan of action.

He took a deep breath after he got everyone’s attention, putting his hands on his hips for dramatic effect before he spoke again.

“This is not happening,” He commanded, trying to speak more calmly.

Mike began to protest and he put a hand up to stop him.

“No, no, no. No buts! I promised I’d keep you shitheads safe, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. We are staying here - on the bench - and we’re waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?”

“This isn’t a stupid sports game!” Mike yelled back, but Steve refused to relent. He clutched the dishrag he had pulled off of his shoulder in his grip and waved it at Mike like an exasperated mother.

“I said, does everybody understand that? I need a yes!”

The kids refused this order, staring at him disparagingly. Max turned to you for help.

“Y/N, do you agree with this bullshit?”

You glanced over at Steve as he was glaring back at you and sighed.

“Sorry, Mad Max. I do. Steve’s right, we shouldn’t deviate from the plan. We can’t risk you guys getting hurt over something that might not even work.”

Steve snorted at this, far too happy about you admitting that he was right. You rolled your eyes at him.

It truly felt like the two of you were a married couple bickering about how to parent your kids. You tried not to laugh out loud at this thought.

There was only a brief moment of peace and quiet before you heard the sound of a car engine revving outside.

Max ran to the window to take a look and gasped.

“It’s my brother. He can’t know I’m here. He’ll kill me. He’ll kill us,” She said to Lucas in a panic.

After everything that happened since, you had completely forgotten the original reason why you followed Max that night.

Shit. One more for the list:

10. Billy had figured out where you were, and he was probably going to try to kill you all.

Cool. Why not pile that onto the already insane list of things you had to deal with?

“Don’t worry, I got this,” Steve said confidently and walked to the door. You got in front of him to try to stop him.

“Whoa, wait! What's the game plan here? Billy’s not exactly the reasonable type.”

“I don’t know, just keep them inside,” He muttered as he grabbed you by your arms and pulled you aside so he could get past you.

You were terrified for him but obeyed, commanding the kids to get away from the window. You stood on your tiptoes and watched Steve speak to Billy through the frosted glass on the front door.

When Billy eventually pointed inside and Steve turned to look, you tore yourself away from the door to see the kids hiding behind the back of the couch. They had clearly ignored your orders and were watching outside the window anyways.

“Guys! What the hell?! I told you to get back!” You yelled and ran over to them.

“Shit! Did he see us?” Dustin asked nervously as he hid with the others.

You looked outside to see Billy push Steve violently to the ground and kick him in the stomach, then storm towards the front door. You raced to lock it, but you were too late. Billy threw it open and came face to face with you.

“Y/N? You’re in on this, too, huh?” He said with a mocking laugh. “Honestly didn’t expect that from you.”

You stood your ground despite your fear. Suddenly, after what you had been through, Billy didn’t seem as scary anymore.

“Billy, you need to go home. Now.”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Not unless Max comes with me.”

“Well, I’m not going to let you take her.”

He laughed manically at this.

“Right,” He sneered and pushed you out of his way roughly. Your back thudded against the wall of the entryway.

“Well, well, well,” He said as he saw Lucas standing in the hallway next to Max. “Lucas Sinclair, what a surprise. I thought I told you to stay away from him, Max.”

“Billy, go away,” She demanded with a shaky voice. He ignored her plea.

“You disobeyed me, and you know what happens when you disobey me. I break things.”

He grabbed Lucas by his jacket and slammed him up against a shelf of china in the living room. You yelped and rushed forward to try to pull him off of him as Lucas and the other kids screamed at him to get off, but Billy turned around and pushed you to the floor with ease.

“Since Maxine won’t listen to me, maybe you will. You stay away from her.” He said as he slammed Lucas against the shelf again, then bellowed louder, “Stay away from her! You hear me?!”

“I said get off of me!” Lucas screeched and kneed him right in the balls.

Billy grunted in pain and recoiled, and you exhaled in relief as you struggled to get up off the ground.

“You are so dead, Sinclair! You’re dead.”

Then Steve appeared through the door as if by magic, and pulled Billy away from him by his shoulder.

“No, you are,” He retorted and punched him straight in the face, nearly knocking him to the floor.

“Steve!” You cried out in shock without thinking. Lucas ran into Mike and Dustin’s arms for comfort.

Billy just laughed at this like a lunatic as he nursed his freshly bloodied nose.

“Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh? I’ve been waiting to meet this ‘King Steve’ everybody’s been telling me so much about.”

Steve shook his head and ran a hand through his hair coolly.

“Get out,” He growled and pushed him away by his chest.

There was an eery moment of silence before Billy drew back his fist and threw a punch back at Steve. He dodged it and landed another blow to his face, pushing him into the kitchen table.

“Yes, kick his ass, Steve! Murder the son of a bitch! Now! Now!” Dustin screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Get that shithead!” Mike added in support.

“Quiet!” You shushed them sternly (to no avail, of course) and spread your arms wide as you stood in front of them, attempting to shield them from getting in the middle of the brawl.

Then everyone gasped and went silent as Billy hit Steve over the head with a dinner plate, gaining the upper-hand. Dustin ducked out of the way just in time to miss Billy’s fist as he attempted to strike Steve again and hit a bookshelf instead.

“Billy! Jesus Christ! Stop!” You screeched as you pulled Dustin off the floor and into your arms.

Steve and Billy fumbled their way back to the living room where Billy gripped him by his jacket firmly. You could tell that Steve was losing steam.

“No one tells me what to do!” Billy snarled and head butted him to the ground, then pinned him down and began laying into him violently, blowing punch after punch to his face as you watched in horror. It was clear that Steve was no longer conscious, but that didn’t stop him.

“You’re gonna kill him!” Dustin screamed in terror, and the others joined in, too, begging him to stop.

He was right. You were certain that Billy wasn’t going to stop until he was dead.

You decided to make one last valiant attempt to stop him, laying your full body weight into him to try to drag him to the floor.

But his fists were flying wildly and one punched you right in the nose, knocking you straight into a side table. You smacked your head hard against the corner of it and the world around you began to fade to black.

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melancholyink · 3 years ago

Text

SNOW BALL CHAUFFEURS.

» pairing // steve harrington x (hopefully) gn!reader

» pov // second person

» word count // 1.2k

» tw & cw // swearing, short billy hargrove mention, not beta'd LOL

» ao3 link // here

» note // first time cross-posting!!! if you enjoyed this little oneshot, think about giving me a shout out on ao3 too ♡

" Something in the air changed, it was more relaxed than it had been when you first climbed into the car tonight. It was more relaxed than any time you had interacted with Steve before.

Dare you say it—it was nice. "

With every passing day, Hawkins gets colder.

The temperature drops and along comes the cheery holiday spirits and the hope for snow, but each cold breeze just sends shivers down your spine and brings you back to the junkyard full of demodogs. Back to fighting for your life and to protecting the kids that were with you. You look back to your car knowing there was a well-used axe and newly stocked first aid kit hidden under blankets in the back of your trunk--you knew better this time around, you had to be prepared… for anything.

You turn away from your car and knock three times on the front door of the Hargrove/Mayfield household, and smile at the crooked poinsettia wreath that hangs in front of you before quickly returning your hand to the pockets of your jacket.

The door opens and Billy stands in front of you, the bruises from his fight with Steve long healed by now, but the bruise on his neck--passed off as a hickey, surely--from the syringe of anesthesia his own step sister had plunged in to him was still visible, now yellowing.

He takes a drag of the half-smoked cigarette in his hand, "See something you like?"

You frown, unsure if Billy even knew about the Snow Ball. Or if Max even wanted him to know, "I'm here to pick up Max."

Billy rolls his eyes, "Whatever."

***

"Thanks again for the ride," Max smiles as she gets out of your car.

"Of course," you smile back, "I'm taking you home too, so just look out for me when you're ready to leave." She nods before heading in to the school.

You pull in to one of the many empty parking spots; most parents just dropping their kids off and waiting for a phone call to come back and pick them up. Looking across the lot, you see Hopper and Joyce, even Steve; and you know both Jonathan and Nancy are inside, but it still didn't feel right to leave. What if something happened?

Picking at the polish on your nails, you start to think about the junkyard. How nervous--no, terrified you were for Dustin, Lucas, and Max's safety as you got them in the old school bus. How you had stood your ground when Steve tried to get you in too, but you weren't going to let him fight those demodogs alone. You had called him a fucking idiot.

You think about the Byers' house. A place that had been a safe haven, turned in to a madhouse. How tightly your hands had gripped the axe as your heart raced and you wondered if you were going to die that night. How you had screamed as Billy threw punch after punch at Steve, trying to pull them apart.

You shake your head, trying to stop the catastrophic thinking.

Grabbing your keys you slam your door open and closed, hands again finding their home in your jacket pockets, practically running across the parking lot to Steve's BMW and knocking softly at his passenger side window.

Steve is caught off guard, but still rolls down a window, "What?"

"Let me in."

His face doesn't change at your answer, and he repeats himself, "What?"

You sigh, "Just unlock your door and let me in, Harrington."

He shakes his head, but complies and reaches over to unlock your door; you quickly get in.

The prominent purple bruises from his fight with Billy are gone, save for a few along his jaw that were still fading to match his skin tone. And all of the cuts had scabbed and healed, leaving only a ghost of a scar through his top lip. You feel a small twinge of guilt in the pit of your stomach, you haven't spoken to him since that night at the Byers', you haven't bothered to check on him after the beating he took from Billy.

You give him a small smile, "It looks a lot better."

"Yeah, it’s nice being able to see out of both eyes again." he laughs, "What're you even doing here?"

"I drove Max, you?"

"Dustin."

You nod, "Oh, right," you remember, "he was saying something about you giving him--" you hold up air quotes and laugh, "--'hair secrets' the last time I saw him."

"Last time you saw him?" Steve raises an eyebrow, but the small wince from the movement wasn't lost on you.

"Ever since you stole my title as best baby sitter ever, I've been working part time at the library."

"Sorry about that," he frowns.

"Don't be," you smile and shake your head, "the kids love you."

Hearing that puts a smile on his face, one different from any you had seen from him before. But, it wasn’t like you were close, so what would you know?

An uncomfortable silence takes over the car. The sounds of your fidgeting seem amplified, making you too stiff to find a comfortable sitting position to be in.

Steve sighs, “This is weird, isn’t it? Us hanging out.”

“A little.”

“You would think now that we’ve almost died together—“

“Twice.”

“Now that we’ve almost died together twice, ” he amends, “That we could at least sit together in a comfortable silence. We did it in what? Biology?”

You’re surprised he remembers the sophomore year class you shared, “The biology class you slept through?”

“What?” He shrugs, “It was first period! I’m not a morning person!”

The tension in the air lightens as you both genuinely laugh, what feels like the first light-hearted moment you’ve had in a while.

“You’ve changed since then, though.” You twist in the passenger seat, moving to face Steve.

“I have?” he sounds nervous, unsure.

You nod.

“Good change or bad change?”

“Definitely good.” You turn your head, watching as a few snowflakes start to fall from the night sky, “You were kind of a douchebag.”

Steve doesn’t know whether to laugh or to groan, and does a weird combination of the two, “Yeah I know,” he says with a twinge of embarrassment. “It all seems so long ago.” He leans his head backwards, closing his eyes.

You hum in agreement.

There’s a loud bang, and you both startle with your heads whipping towards the sound. A small group of kids laugh, not having meant to push the door to exit the school’s gymnasium so hard and causing it to slam against the brick of the wall behind it.

You glance at each other with a sigh relief--just kids having a nice time.

It takes a few minutes for your heart to stop racing and you wouldn’t be surprised if Steve’s heart was racing too.

“Hey,” you begin, “I’m sorry I never called to see how you were doing after, well, you know...” You’re chewing your lip and keeping your eyes focused on your lap, “I should have.”

“Oh, it’s no biggie,” he brushes it off, “We’ve all got shit going on, it’s fine.”

“No, it’s really not,” you frown, your eyebrows knitting together, “I should’ve been a better friend.”

Steve turns his focus on you, wholly this time, "Friends?" he asks.

“Yeah, we almost died together—“

“Twice.”

You smirk, “We’ve almost died together twice now," you turn to match his gaze, focusing on him, "I think that makes us friends, Steve.”

Something in the air changed, it was more relaxed than it had been when you first climbed in to the car tonight. It was more relaxed than any time you had interacted with Steve before.

Dare you say it—it was nice.

“Yeah, friends.”

#oneshot #reader insert #steve harrington x reader #stranger things reader insert #stranger things

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projectpurple · 3 years ago

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i love you like the ashes in my cigarette box

Link here!

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage

Categories: Gen, M/M, F/M

Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington, Steve Harrington/Original Male Character(s), Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler

Characters: Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrington, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Dustin Henderson, Neil Hargrove, Susan Hargrove, Jonathan Byers, Nancy Wheeler, Jim "Chief" Hopper, Tommy Hagan, Joyce Byers, Carol Perkins, Claudia Henderson, Mr. and Mrs. Harrington, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Original Male Character(s)

Additional Tags: Post Season 2/Pre Season 3, Child Abuse, Forced Sex Work, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Tags to be added, Discussion of Homophobia, Sexual Assault, Grooming, Daddy Kink, Victim Blaming, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Recreational Drug Use, Smoking, Vomiting, Panic Attacks, PTSD, Domestic Violence, mild Self-harm, Allusions to pedophilia, Phone Sex, Discussion of Racism, Developing Relationships, Sibling Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Alcohol, Disordered Eating, Toys, Divorce

Published: 2021-08-31 Updated: 2021-11-20 Words: 95459 Chapters: 14/?

Summary: Steve's dad makes a bad deal and Steve is the one set up as collateral. It's supposed to be just another secret kept locked up in the Harrington's household, like all the affairs and hush money thrown around.

The last person Steve anticipates finding out is Billy Hargrove.

#harringrove #my fic #fiNALLY UPDATED HA TAKE THAT POWER OUTAGES #AND ILLNESS #AND MY WORK #it's been almost a month i am So sorry.#pairing: harringrove

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inthelonelycoolbeforedawn · 4 years ago

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Harringrove April Days 3, 7, & 22: Spring Break, Daisychain, & Yellow

Spring break was Billy's favorite school holiday.

He didn't like winter vacation because that meant Christmas, and Christmas meant mean Grandma Hargrove, and pretending not to be bored listening to all the old people talk, and lots of yelling and his mom crying afterwards.

Summer was okay, because as long as his chores were done he got to play with his friends and spend more time at the beach.

But spring break was the best, because he got to spend time alone with his mom while his dad was at work.

Sometimes they'd stay home. They'd go to the park a few blocks away, then she'd read him his favorite stories and play toy cars and teach him how to make cookies.

Sometimes they'd go to the beach to swim and walk along the sand, looking for shells or rocks or sea creatures. When he started learning to surf, she'd watch, cheering him on. They'd usually stop for ice cream on the way home.

Sometimes they'd go for walks. She would point out the plants and flowers they passed in neighbors' gardens or along the hiking trails. Once they found a meadow full of wildflowers and she taught Billy how to make daisy chains. She smiled when he proudly set the lopsided daisy crown he'd made all by himself on her head, and she wore it the whole time they sat there watching clouds drift lazily across the sky.

No matter what they did it was nice, and every year Billy looked forward to spring break.

Until the day Neil came home early and found them in the yard, laughing as they blew on dandelion puffballs and making wishes on the tiny, feathery seeds.

"Scattering goddamn weeds everywhere," he shouted. "Do you know how hard I work to keep this lawn looking nice?"

Billy snuck off to his room but he could still hear his dad yelling about goddamn weeds and turning the boy into a pussy with that goddamn hippie shit.

His mom stopped wishing on dandelions after that.

And Billy stopped looking forward to spring break.

They moved when Neil married Susan. This house was bigger but had no yard, just a cracked concrete driveway with an old basketball hoop at the end.

Billy spent hours out there, practicing. Neil didn't mind, because real men were supposed to be interested in sports and cars and girls. And he was good at basketball. Liked it even. It was better than baseball at least.

He hated the dandelions that sprang up in the cracks though.

Max ran over them with her skateboard, not even noticing. But Billy noticed every time another little yellow flower popped up, and made sure to stomp on them when he ran and jumped for the net.

Part of him ached every time he squished one. He wondered if they felt pain, if they knew what it was like to be crushed and smothered, yanked up and thrown away.

But a bigger, louder part of his brain sneered that those kinds of thoughts were for faggots and pussies, and he wasn't a faggot or a pussy.

So he smothered those thoughts, crushing them down like his feet crushed the dandelions.

They had a bigger yard in Hawkins, and Neil made it clear that Billy was old enough now to take responsibility for keeping the yard maintained. He discovered he hated shovelling snow, longing for sunny skies and ocean waves as he cleared the walkways and the driveway. But slowly the snow melted, and his next task was raking up all the dead grass and leaves, tidying up last fall's debris to make sure the lawn looked good for summer.

When the first dandelions poked up through the grass, little bits of sunshine dotting the lawn to announce the coming of spring, Billy went out with the weedkiller.

He sprayed the poison over the plants, soaking them in it, making sure not a single one survived.

At the dinner table that night, he blamed his red-rimmed eyes and hoarse voice on the chemical fumes. Luckily Neil believed him.

Spring turned to summer, and suddenly everything he ever knew was uprooted.

It was October when they finally released him from the hospital. By then the world was gray again, the plants and trees and flowers dying off for the long Indiana winter.

There were a few bright spots though.

He was staying at Joyce Byers' house. It was crowded, since Hopper and El had moved in too. But he shared a room with Jonathan, who was a surprisingly understanding roommate and didn't even expect him to talk if he didn't want to.

He passed the days doing his exercises and whatever household chores he could manage. He spent time with El and Will, and with Max, who visited as often as she could.

And sometimes Steve came over.

The entire group had formed deep, lasting friendships as they all healed together, and Billy still couldn't quite believe he was part of that group now. But he'd apologized, and meant it, and they were willing to give him a chance.

At first he'd just join in when Steve and Robin brought the rest of the kids for movie nights. Then they'd started hanging out without the kids, occasionally going to Steve's house, or to a movie, or the diner. Jonathan and Nancy had even come along a few times.

But, as winter turned to spring, there'd been a few times when it ended up being just Steve and Billy. And the more time Billy spent with Steve, the more he realized he couldn't deny his feelings anymore.

He was in love with Steve. And he had to tell him. It might cost him everything - Steve himself, all the people who'd taken him in and given him a home, who he'd begun to trust and care about - but he couldn't keep lying to himself or anyone else.

He got his chance when Steve came over on an unseasonably warm April day. Hopper and Joyce were at work and the kids were at school, so they had the house to themselves.

"Hi," Steve said when Billy answered the door. "I'm off today so I thought we could, um. Hang out. If you want. It's such a nice day, it'd be a shame to waste it, right?"

"Yeah," Billy said. "You want to sit outside for a bit?"

"Yeah, okay," Steve said.

With his sunny smile and a yellow T-shirt Billy had never seen him in, he looked like a personification of spring. He was beautiful.

Billy pulled the door closed and they settled onto the old porch swing that creaked when it rocked. Steve's arm bumped Billy's, and their thighs were almost touching.

They rocked on the swing slowly, not talking.

And then Steve spoke.

"They're kind of pretty," he said.

Startled, Billy turned to him. "What?"

"The dandelions." Steve gestured towards the Byers' front lawn, dotted with the little yellow flowers, some already gone to seed. He chuckled. "I know most people think they're weeds - my parents hate them - but I don't know. I kind of like them."

"Me too," Billy blurted, before he could stop himself. He looked down. "My mom - she always said if you blew on the seeds and made a wish it would come true."

"Yeah?"

Steve's voice was soft. Billy was too scared to look at him.

"Yeah."

"Well, my grandma said if you blow on a dandelion and all the seeds come off, the person you love loves you back."

Billy tried to laugh. It came out as more of a wheeze.

"Maybe they're both right," Steve said. "Your mom and my grandma."

"Maybe," Billy said quietly.

"Do you want to, uh - ?" Steve took a deep breath, lacing his fingers together, then untwining them and laying his hands flat on his thighs. "Find out?"

"Okay," Billy whispered.

They stood up in unison and walked down to the grass. They both plucked a dandelion and faced the road.

Billy closed his eyes and blew as hard as he could. He hesitated before opening his eyes, almost afraid of what he'd see.

He was holding an empty dandelion stalk that matched Steve's, the little white seeds mingling, dancing away on the breeze.

"Did your wish come true?" Steve asked softly.

Billy kissed him in response, just a brief, tentative touch of his lips to Steve's. He drew back immediately, expecting Steve to scrunch his face up in disgust, shove him away, and run.

Instead Steve took his hand and drew him in for another, longer kiss.

Billy didn't even realize he was crying until they parted and Steve's thumb was on his cheek, gently wiping away his tears.

He put his arms around Steve, hesitantly at first, tightening his hold when Steve hugged him back.

"I guess your mom was right," Steve said.

"I think your grandma was right too," Billy said, when he could speak again.

"Yeah," Steve said, eyes soft and smile warmer than the sun. "Totally."

#harringrove #ficlet #my writing #harringroveapril #just me smashing a bunch of prompts together #into this big pile of garbage

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sevensided · 4 years ago

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Fathers in Stranger Things

This recent conversation about family acceptance in ST has made me think a lot about fathers in the show. I believe that a central theme in the story is acceptance. Acceptance of the supernatural, acceptance of differences, acceptance of one another. This dovetails into other key themes - forgiveness, friendship, and love - but in the context of parents and, specifically, Mike and Will, I think acceptance is an interesting way to think about how fathers or father figures play in their eventual relationship.

Every father on the show is an absent figure. This is for two reasons: to illustrate how much more hands-off raising children was in the 80s; and to highlight the role mothers play in the development of our characters. This also links into broader, structural themes, such as heterosexuality, patriarchy, and gender roles. On a simple level, the fathers are absent because it is the mothers who do the child rearing. This absence, however, also reveals the lack of paternal support in the lives of our core characters, and as a result, the supplementation of father figures. This dovetails into a theme that carries throughout the show - that of found families - but when it comes to Mike and Will’s development, together and separately, this relates importantly to how they will come to see themselves as young, probably gay, men.

Fathers

To start, I’ll briefly overview the main fathers of the series. We can largely group them as absent but harmless, or absent and harmful.

Ted Wheeler is an apathetic feature in Mike’s life. He is typically involved in scenes that underscore the domestic discord of the Wheeler household, and his role is primarily to show how unhappy Karen is in their marriage, and how his children do not connect with him. While there are some indications that he cares for his children, these are not carried through onscreen and, for the most part, Ted does not participate in raising Nancy or Mike.

Lucas’ father, Mr Sinclair, is presented once in association with his wife, Mrs Sinclair. Their breakfast table scene is used to show the dynamic of the Sinclair household, and for Lucas to ask his parents abstract advice on how to win Max back after their argument. Mr Sinclair makes some period-typical comments that are intended to be funny, but they also indicate that Lucas was brought up in a fairly stereotypical atmosphere (to paraphrase: “What do you do if mom’s mad at you?” / “Yes, what do you do?” / “Your mother is never wrong”). You could go all galaxy brain and say this is a nod to Joyce Byers - who spends a lot of the show trying to prove she’s right - but as this is the sole scene that features Lucas’ parents, it is our only insight into their familial dynamic, and therefore our only frame of reference as to how Lucas is raised.

Dustin’s father is not mentioned in canon and it appears he was raised in a single-parent household. With no evidence to the contrary, we can go ahead and assume that Dustin’s only meaningful parental relationship is to his mother, with whom he has a strong bond.

Lonnie Byers is an undesirable and unreliable father who left Joyce and his sons before canon. When he does reappear in S01, he is proved yet again to be a grifter looking to take advantage of Will’s disappearance and assumed death. It it subtly indicated that Lonnie was abusive to Jonathan (“You’ve gotten stronger”) and, it’s possible, to Joyce or Will too. He is certainly proved to be homophobic (“Lonnie used to call him a qu**r, said he was a f*g” / “Is he?”). Lonnie may be entirely physically absent, yet his impact on Will resonates through the story, and in a figurative sense, he is very much present.

Steve’s father is, similarly to Ted, indicated to be a work-focused man who is rarely around the Harrington household. In S01 he goes on a work trip and is accompanied by his wife (“My mom doesn’t trust him” / “Probably a good thing”) which indicates he may have been unfaithful to Mrs Harrington in the past. He is a very literal absence in Steve’s life yet appears off-screen as a forceful presence (“My dad is a grade-A asshole”) that shapes Steve’s life, culminating in S03 with Steve’s job at the mall.

The biological father of Billy and Max’s step-father, Mr Hargrove, is an abusive, sexist, and dangerous man, whose impact on Billy is so severe that it renders him vulnerable to possession by the Mind Flayer and eventually results in Billy’s death. When El goes into Billy’s memories in the S03 finale, we see how Mr Hargrove used sports to bully and antagonize his son into performative masculinity, and how he often resorted to physical violence against Billy and his late mother. Our other insight into Mr Hargrove’s paternal presence is through Max, whose behaviour indicates that while she is, possibly, partly protected by her mother, she is not protected from Billy, who takes his anger with his father out on her. Max is cagey about the full impact of Mr Hargrove, but is it subtle and sufficient enough to show that he is among the most dangerous male characters in the series so far, and his onscreen absence, like Lonnie, resonates figuratively in the lives of our characters.

The final father figure to discuss is Dr Brenner. Brenner is cold and remote in that he is the PI of a government-funded underground project modeled on MK Ultra, and thus treats Eleven like the scientific subject she is. Brenner’s acts of care are only figured as manipulation tactics (such as talking quietly yet firmly to El, carrying her from the solitary confinement cell when she kills the guard, allowing her a toy lion) and cannot in good conscience be considered parental kindness. Brenner’s power over El is so potent that Kali draws on their shared memory of Brenner in S02 to capitalise on El’s powers. El perceives Brenner as a father (“Papa”). Like Lonnie and Mr Hargrove, Brenner’s absence lingers and retains a hold over El.

As we can see, you have absent but harmful figures like Dr Brenner, Lonnie, and Mr Hargrove, and absent but harmless figures like Ted, Dustin’s father, Mr Sinclair, and even, to an extent, Mr Harrington. This rough categorisation helps us see that the show’s fathers are painted into a conspicuous binary that reflects the expectations placed on our characters as they learn to become men. Are they jocks or nerds? Straight or gay? In the world of Reaganite Hawkins, society is bookended by the normal and acceptable, or the abnormal and unacceptable. In this context, fathers - and to a larger extent, masculinity - either exist passively or aggressively, and both impact our characters either overtly (Billy and Will) or subliminally (Mike and Lucas).

Father figures

The characters above stand in stark contrast to the father figures presented in the series. These include Hopper, Bob, Mr Clarke, and Steve. Quite by chance, they each represent different elements of masculinity and different figures of power in the lives of our main cast.

Mr Clarke, for example, is representative of institutional power (a teacher) and has a strong influence over the Party in encouraging their curiosity and natural interest in science and the world around them. He is not typically masculine - he is a nerd - but he gently guides the Party through school and is shown to care for them.

Bob is representative of a found father figure in that he steps into the Byers’ life in no permanent sense (“This is not a normal family” / “But it could be”), but his respect of Joyce’s boundaries nevertheless sees him exercise a positive influence over Will (Jonathan, by Bob’s own admission, is harder to crack - understandable, given Jonathan’s past with Lonnie and, possibly, other men Joyce has occasionally had in her life). Bob’s absence - his death - is palpable, and leaves a lasting impression on Joyce, who is arguably in mourning for a good part of S03. In a similar vein, you can also make the argument that Jonathan is a father figure to Will (but that deserves its own post).

Steve represents more of a big brother role to the rest of the Party, but it is possible to see Steve as a father figure to Dustin, particularly over the course of S02. Steve drives Dustin to the dance, gives him advice on girls (a stereotypical “dad talk”), protects him, and supports him. In S03 their relationship has shifted into more of a friendship, but that does not take away from their initial dynamic that had a paternal undertone to it.

These are all examples of father figures. But the most important example of this is Hopper, and it is because he subverts this mold. Aside from the obvious link to El, in that he raises her from S02 and even becomes her “father” (Jane Hopper), it is not Hopper’s absence as a father that is important, but the absence of his daughter. Hopper is therefore an inverted male character. The absence (death) of his daughter stands in binary to the Party’s biological fathers, who are otherwise the absent ones. In contrast, Hopper is very present. Hopper is a father in the literal sense, but he is a father figure to Mike and Will: Mike, through his relationship with El and in the absence of Ted (Hopper gives Mike the “dad talk” in S03); and Will through Hopper’s relationship with Joyce. Hopper’s absent daughter is substituted most clearly by El. But in an abstract way, he also fits that role with Mike and Will too. In sum, Hopper’s absence as a biological father is redeemed when he becomes a father figure to other characters. He is therefore neither harmful or harmless, and can be seen as an outlier - but that is deliberate. It is deliberate because he and Joyce are the only parents/parental figures who know and understand the supernatural in Hawkins. I suspect that by the end of the series, Karen may be drawn into the fold too.

Mothers

I mentioned at the start that the absence of fathers highlights the role that mothers play in the series. This is best understood - and perhaps only understood - with direct reference to Karen Wheeler and Joyce Byers. Karen and Joyce have huge roles to play in how Mike and Will will come to understand themselves. They do this in spite of the male absence in Mike and Will’s lives, because a central theme of the ST story is love, especially maternal love.

Karen Wheeler is introduced as a typical housewife whose role it is to care for her children - Nancy, Mike, and Holly - and take care of the Wheelers’ home. She is in an unhappy marriage with Ted, and is unhappy enough to consider having an affair with Billy in S03. It is her sense of duty that prevents her from carrying this out. Karen is repeatedly shown to reach out to her children and frequently offers emotional support (most potently in S01-2, S03 being the sole exception [“It’s hard to keep track. You know what it’s like - summer!”]). Despite their rebuffs Karen does not give up trying to support her children. She is occasionally successful (Mike comes to her for comfort once per season, and she and Nancy are shown to have a tumultuous but altogether strong relationship, culminating in the S03 kitchen speech scene) yet, arguably, Mike and Nancy’s willfulness and growing up is a point of frustration and another source of unhappiness. While it will blow over - they are both teenagers - in the context of the show their rejection of her emotional support further reinforces her isolation. It is important to note that while Mike does crumble and come to her for comfort, this happens only in times of duress (Will’s disappearance, Will moving away). In other words, Mike does not rely on his mother for emotional support but she is still his mother, and when he does come to her it is during Mike’s emotional high points. These are always linked to Will. This directly ties Mike’s emotional development as it relates to Will to the maternal support given by his mother.

Joyce Byers is, as we all know, the resident PFLAG rep. Her relationship with Will is a central element of the story, and it is strengthened not despite Lonnie’s absence but in spite of it. It is moot to think of how Joyce and Will would have developed if Lonnie had stayed in canon, because Joyce is repeatedly shown to be driven by the love for her children. What is essential to understand about Joyce is that she is an atypical parent. She is a single working class mother whose brushes with normality (e.g. Bob) are taken away by the supernatural. As mentioned before, this further highlights the thematic divide between normality/abnormality and visible/invisible that are staples to the plot. In other words, Joyce has not found her “normal”, because Will has not yet found his normal. Until that happens, her happiness is at stake, partly because it is tied to the happiness of her children, but because Will’s overarching influence over the supernatural elements in the story is inextricably tied to his sense of belonging. Joyce, unlike Karen, has already won her child’s trust and support. Will’s story, therefore, is linked more closely to the absence of his father, whereas for Mike, it is not the absence of his father that is to be overcome, but his aversion to connecting with Karen.

Mike and Will

Taken together, I believe that when it comes to Mike and Will and their respective sexuality, it is not the fathers that will figure in their coming out, but their mothers. The show plays on the absence of fathers and places them in opposition to the presence of mothers. It is maternal love that guides Mike and Will, and it is maternal love that will protect them. This concept is only subverted by El and Hopper’s relationship, for it is El’s mother and Hopper’s daughter who is absent, therefore implying that they are contradictions, or inversions, of the show’s presentation of the familial.

Mike’s relationship with Ted is not a model. Aside from Ted’s general apathy towards his children - he demonstrably leaves the discipline and care of their children to Karen, as evidenced by every family scene in which Karen makes the decisions and Ted remains silent - he appears to have given up in connecting with Mike as his son. I mentioned before how Mr Hargrove used sports to coerce Billy into performative masculinity; the same can be said of Will, who disliked it when Lonnie took him to baseball games, and even destroys Castle Byers with a baseball bat. In contrast, Mike’s baseball bat (picked up in S01 by Nancy, who pretends to be practicing for the softball team) is in the garage, indicating it is not used, if it ever was. Arguably, Mike’s insistent and forceful personality might have bowled the passive Ted over, but Ted’s disconnect to his son is also evidenced in S01 when Ted jokes, “Our son, with a girl?” I have discussed here how this line was a blatant reference to Mike’s “nerd” status. As S03 has proved, the Duffers rely on 80s tropes to sublimate existing themes in their story. With nerds typically understood in 80s cultural discourse as sexually and romantically inexperienced social loners, Ted’s comment betrays three things: how he perceives his son; the failed expectations for his son; and how the audience is meant to understand Mike as a character. Ted does not feature in Mike’s upbringing, and I think this is deliberate for two reasons: to underscore how traditional Mike’s upbringing is; and to foreshadow that it will not be Ted’s opinion of Mike that matters in the end. It will be Karen’s.

Will’s relationship with Lonnie is, as presented onscreen in canon, non-existent. It only plays out off-screen and we have not yet seen Will and Lonnie interact in person. Regardless of where you stand with the theory that Lonnie’s abuse manifested in Will to become the Mind Flayer (I personally agree with it), Lonnie’s eventual presence in the show will be a critical moment and, likely, the climax of the entire series. As addressed above, Lonnie is indicated to be homophobic, if not abusive, to Will in the past. I won’t touch on the abuse as that is largely hearsay at the point of writing this post, however the homophobic language is canon and therefore has a bearing on how we are expected to interpret Will and his relationship to 1) other boys/men, and 2) his sexuality. Both Mike and Will have no meaningful relationship with their fathers. Yet, while Mike’s father is absent and harmless, Lonnie is absent and very much harmful. Thus, the lasting influence of his absence is made more potent by the power of Will’s memories/imagination. Having been subjected to direct homophobic bullying, Will’s sexual identity is tied very much to his relationships with older men, with Jonathan, Bob, and to an extent, Mr Clarke, as positive representations of masculinity, and Lonnie on the other end of the spectrum. To Will, Lonnie may be physically absent but he is figuratively present. As such, it will not be Lonnie’s reaction to Will’s sexuality that is important. It will be Will’s overcoming of Lonnie’s hold over him that will be the defining moment in his character arc.

Parental absence is key to Mike and Will’s development together and individually. Both Mike and Will have to overcome their absent fathers in different ways. The key to this will be breaking free of the societal expectations placed on them, drawing strength in maternal love, and, crucially, finding love and acceptance with each other. The defining point is that despite surface-level indications to the contrary, it is not the fathers who are important: it is the mothers.

#stranger things meta #stranger things theory #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #*#meta

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harringroveera · 3 months ago

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That was one hell of a gummy, Argyle

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shadowcodexx · 5 years ago

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What if— Billy Hargrove

(Edited/added on)

As soon as his body died, the real billy wakes up in the upside down, connected like will had been. The mind flayer made contingencies this time and billy was his most prized puppet.

Hopper had jumped through the portal in the underground lab in hopes of having some chance of getting back to Joyce and El someday. He didn’t expect to find a scared billy Hargrove trying to hide from the monsters.

They bond and hopper tries to help this traumatized kid deal with all of this. They share hoppers remains pack of cigarettes and he realizes this kid has gone through much more than being possessed by an evil entity. His dad is beating him. He only knows this because billy jolts awake from a nightmare and makes a comment. Hopper pieces it together.

“Your dad again?” “He’s not my dad.”

Then they start to see the Demogorgons getting attracted to something. It’s a new portal. They take their chances. They get through the portal and they’re in a Russian base in Siberia. Better than that place.

Somehow, they get out and they’re both scarred. The Russians had figured out that the creatures reacted to Billy’s presence and experimented on him. They put him in fighting rings and whatever was left in him from the mind flayer gave him extra strength. They tested that too. Made him take on some Demogorgons themselves. He had won. Every time.

They find themselves back in Hawkins for whatever reason—idk how they get there—but it’s Christmas and yknow snow. When max sees billy stumbling up their driveway she runs and hugs him. She’s wearing his leather jacket. El runs out a moment later with his denim jacket on like they had been reminiscing. The sleeves are all rolled up. Then she sees hopper. She starts crying and he has just enough strength to hug her. Joyce, will and Jonathan has come up so they could celebrate Christmas and see some of their old friend. They ended up getting one of the best Christmas presents yet.

The people that had been in change of Hawkins lab come back when there’s news of the chief of police and a young man presumed dead, are found. They’re so worn out from the journey and strain they’re passed out for days.

When hopper wakes, mostly everyone is around his bed. Steve has been up from college, so he decided to visit. They all did. He hugged and greeted all of them and they told him of everything that had happened and so forth.

When billy woke up, max was asleep next to him. No one else was there. Hopper made the nurses move him into Billy’s room with him. Billy quietly appreciated that. Steve patted him on the shoulder and el sat on his other side and he educated her on the vending machine snacks.

“What’s....a powerbar?” Billy raise and eyebrow. He looks over at hopper who’s smoking a cig even thought he’s not supposed to—“you have not done this kid justice.” He grabs the bar and opens it while saying, “it’s quick meal—“ Steve walks in saying, “no it’s not Hargrove.” He glares halfheartedly and responds looking at el, “yes, it is.”

Billy father barges in with Susan one afternoon and stands silent and angry. Susan asks how he’s doing and tries to grab his hand, but Neil won’t let her. Then he goes on, very menacingly, how Billy’s a no good son who just decided to up and leave—“with a whore no doubt”—and that all this Russian business is a coverup mean to put him in a good spotlight so he’ll get sympathy etc and hopper just, yeets the curtain separating them away and in his ‘hopper’ voice goes “you ever talk like that again to him, I’m going to have an officer remove you indefinitely from this room.” And Neil leaves in a fit dragging Susan, and trying to force max. But of course she doesn’t budge. He raises his hand and sees hopper in the background. He turns it into a pointing-in-her-face gesture and leaves.

After they get to leave from the special wing of the hospital, billy had to move back in with his dad and Susan. Hopper and Joyce are going steady. She rents back their old place and they all live there for the time being. By then Billy’s missed half the school year, and goes to Nancy’s (who won’t ask questions because she knows) and gets help with tutoring.

Mrs wheeler opens the door and has a look of shock on her face. He gives her a half smirk and says, “this time, I’m looking for Nancy.” She has him wait in the kitchen, asking how he’s doing, she heard they found him and hopper in he woods and that everyone who knew them were overjoyed. But she notices Billy’s not quite himself. He’s not giving her innuendos and his shirt isn’t as unbuttoned. He looks like he just got a haircut. His mullet is shorter now. He’s got a quiet sort of contemplation like he’s grown up too fast. Nancy comes in and is surprised to see him. She agrees to help him.

Christmas Day, billy is beat up again by his father. He hadn’t even said anything. He had just grabbed the remote and Neil slammed him into the wall. And it had to be the worst possible time, too. The doorbell rang. Neil opened it and sees the re-appointed sherif Jim Hopper and his daughter, El. He says they brought a gift for billy and max. Neil tried to take them but el says she wants to give it to them. Max comes out and hugs eleven and whispers one word— “help.”

El looks at Neil and shoves her way past with max leading the way. Hopper notices the blood on his knuckles. He follows. He walks in slowly, surveying the area. Max leads el Into the kitchen, where billy sits, his face bleeding. El grabs his face and makes him look at her. Max grabs some ice and he accepts it. Hopper comes in a few seconds later. “What happened?” Neil answers. “He got in a fight with a kid a few hours ago. Disgraceful to do it on Christmas Day if you ask me.” “I didn’t.” Hopper walls closer. The bruises are fresh. Billy just looks at him.

“See the funny thing about that mr. Hagrove is that your knuckles are bleeding.” Hopper steps closer to Neil, towering over him. “Billy if I take him in will you testify?” Billy looks at him. “Yes.” Neil trues to lunge at him, cursing him out but hopper catches him. He calls it in and shoves Neil into his car.

It turns into a news story and Billy’s at the station a lot. Susan won’t testify, of course. She’s too nervous. Neil tries to use all of Billy’s mistakes against him like his poor school conduct and the speeding tickets. Hopper knows better. He’s stuck with that kid for half a year and he knows him better than anyone. Reminds him of himself in some ways. They tell billy they have to call his mother bc he needs a legal guardian to finish high school. He argues he doesn’t but a little part of him wants to see her. Hopper says he’s sorry, he knows it’s soft spot but it’s good to mend old wounds. Susan tries to take max with her but max refuses. She wants to stay with billy, el and hopper. They have an argument and max throws out, “Your not stupid mom your just a push over! You’ve watched him get beat up every week and didn’t do a thing. I’m staying with him until all this blows over. If you need me I’ll be staying with Hopper and Joyce.”

Billy also lives with hopper and Joyce for the time being. School starts up and he dreads it. Hopper tells him his mother was contacted and she’s coming up from California to see him. Billy starts to lash out because he doesn’t know what else to do and Joyce calms him down. They have a cigarette out on the porch and she talks to him and he starts to break down and she just holds him. And he can’t remember the last time a mother held him like this.

He often gets up in the middle of the night because of nightmares and he finds will in the kitchen. They talk about it and eventually talk about their crappy dads and billy tells him he likes wills mother and that he’s got a good mom. Will mentions he saw some bands that billy had on vinyl and tape and says he likes them. They talk about music until will falls asleep on Billy’s shoulder. Joyce listened to the whole thing from the living room and couldn’t help but smile.

Billy find that his life is much more peaceful in the hopper-Byers household. In the morning, Joyce makes them all breakfast. Max and el share a room so they’re usually the last ones to the table. Billy and hopper both drink black coffee. Billy and Jonathan have a silent respect for each other after Lonny tried to visit one day out of the blue. Billy helped Jonathan get him to leave. Will sits next to billy because there’s always something on his plate he doesn’t eat that billy silently takes after he’s done. The two Hargrove kids have practically moved in. Hopper got two extra beds and max eventually brought everything she owns to the house via the window to her room. Billy moved everything out weeks ago. Jonathan and will share a room and el and max share one. Billy is the only one who doesn’t share a room.

The first day of school, billy takes el and max to school. By now everyone heard of billy Hargrove, the kid who came back to life. Or was captured by the Russians. The facts were a little fuzzy. His cronies and fake friends hound him pretending they were affected by his disappearance. Billy’s tired of high school. He understands why Steve stopped being king. It didn’t really matter anymore. Life has hit him straight in the face and it was time to grow up. And now he had some people who were gonna be there for him. By the end of the day he had so much makeup work, he had to find Nancy. By then, they were easy acquaintances. Not friends per se, just bonded experiences. Tommy started making fun of him, acting as if he were trying to get in Nancy’s pants but he ends up slamming him into a locker.

Tommy and carol and all the other jerks hang around billy as usual, but there’s an air of wariness like they’re waiting for him to do something. And honestly, if it weren’t for max or el, he would have. El understands what makes him, him and she can tell when he’s about to snap. Max is like a similar version of him. Not quite the same, and less corrupted. The middle schoolers have a field trip, or something that causes the high schools to have the same lunch as them. When they come running in, everyone gives a collective grumble. Most of the gang sit with Nancy and Jonathan + Robin. El taps billy on the shoulder and his friends sneer at her. But el asks one question. “What’s a Hershey?” Carol starts laughing but billy silenced her with a look. He looks over at max, a little ways behind and smiles. He jumps up and pulls out a few cents. They follow him to the vending machine and he buys one. This leads to many days of el quietly sitting down and whispering s question in his ear. Billy would then answer.

By the end of the week he was sitting with Nancy and returning student, Jonathan because he was so tired of all the bull. One day he was walking into the middle school to check max and el out early , (because he wanted Mexican and he knew el didn’t know what that was, and he figured he could give her some world experience) he saw max beating up some kid. He shoves in and pulls her off. The kid had called will and el a freak and other slurs she wouldn’t repeat. Susan has to be called in, and it was a mess. She blamed billy but max said the truth and she didn’t seem to want to accept that. Neil had already been put in jail for 20 years so Susan was considerably panicking. Joyce came by after being called and calmed her down. The rest of the gang had been involved bc they wouldn’t stand by either so all of the mothers were called. The ended up supporting Susan and helping her find a place for her and max and finding her a good job she liked and all that.

Billy’s tired of sleeping around. Part of him did it to show that he could and prove he was top dog. But now all the girls except Nancy and robin annoyed him. They always tried to fix him, get him to meet their parents, etc. now it was oh poor billy and pity pity pity. he didn’t get as drunk at parties. He didn’t like not being aware of everything around him anymore. If he were wasted he wouldn’t be as alert. Can’t stand the sound of fireworks anymore.

The next day billy gets called out of class. He’s told his mom is here to pick him up. He kind of freezes up and numbly asks if it’s Joyce and the secretary says no. He refuses to go up and instead leaves and goes to the sheriffs station and barges into hoppers office. “She’s here.”

Hopper calms him down and offers to be there with him. Billy says no he can do this. He walks out and she’s sitting in the waiting room. He hurriedly looks away and sits down near her. She nervously looks at him and asks what he’s here for. He says something about seeing hopper. She says the same thing. She’s looking for her son who moved here with his dad. She says she’s here to see her little boy again. He looks at her and says, “that little boy is gone. He died when you left.” She’s shocked and follows him out and begs him to listen. He turns around and yells “you left me with him!” Tears are streaming down both of their faces. She hugs him and he buries his face in her blond hair.

She rents a place in town and gets to watch him graduate high school. He passed with good grades thanks to Nancy. After the graduation ceremony he picks up Nancy and spins her around, thanking her for the help. He pats Jonathan on the back and messes with wills hair. He and Steve do a fist bump handshake thing. Dustin can be hheard muttering, “not as cool as ours.”

He goes to Cali and brings max and el with him. He teaches them how to surf. Hopper and Joyce come, because, reasons and the entire gang ends up coming. On a completely random chance, their buying snow cones on the pier and he hears his name. It’s his mom. He awkwardly hugs her and she invites them to dinner. She’s married. He’s not too happy about it. The guys nice though and he can’t blame her. He’s just wished she’d taken him with her. Then maybe he’d have had a better father figure, like John. (The guy)

On the beach, he crashed into a girl carrying an icebox. (Courtesy of max) he helps her pick up the spilled drinks and the breath is stolen from his lungs. She’s a knockout. He smooth talks her and she see through the bull. His charm—king billy Hargrove’s charm turned off a girl. He’s internally yelling at himself. She picks up her board and walks to her friends. He asks if she surfs—“duh” and holds up her board. Max is quietly laughing behind him. He asks is they wanna catch some waves. She gives him a long look and says sure.

Her name is Avaline, or ava. She mentions her and her friends are road tripping and she mentions their route. Their going through Hawkins. He tells her they live there and that she should visit. She gives him a brilliant smile and agrees. Max and el love her.

Joyce and hopper ended up buying a house together and Susan got a house coincidentally, near them. It was a street or two over from will and Lucas and a straight shot to Dustin’s. The entire club was back together.

Aveline visits at the most inopportune time. She knocks on the house at the address billy gave her. No response. A crashing sound echoes through the house and she jumps. She tucks her beach blond hair behind her ear and leans in to listen. A beat of silence. She gets thrown backwards with the door. A Demogorgon has flown through the door due to elevens telekinesis.

They all rush out fighting a pack of demodogs. Aveline groans as she touches the blood running down her head. Billy calls her name and hits a demo dog with Steve nail bat. He throws it back to him and Nancy throws him a shotgun. He loads it and shoots one coming behind her. He helps her up and she asks if their being invaded by aliens. Robin comments that she likes how this girl thinks.

Joyce nurses her wound and and they all explain. Ava knew billy was some kind of trouble but she didn’t know he was trouble with a capital T. They load up and try to lead the creatures away from Hawkins. Joyce has to hurriedly call all the kids parents saying their staying with will for a sleepover and she’s sorry about the inconvenience.

“I knew it.” Aveline says holding the ice pack up to her head. “Knew what?” Billy asks, while Duran Duran plays, his hand tapping along to the beat. “You’ve slept with every girl at you high school, haven’t you?” He huffs a laugh and looks at her. “Not all.” She shakes her head. “You can let me out.” “What?” She repeats. She tells him she’s not about to get in a relationship with a guy who has a rep. He says he’s not the person he was when he came to Hawkins. They’re out of the car at this point yelling and arguing and he kisses her. She melts. She hits his chest and jolts back. “Sorry” he says breathless. She pulls him back and hugs him. “You’re frustrating.” He huffs. “That’s a first.”

Of course the Russians weaponized the Demogorgons and all that jazzy stuff and they go on this big adventure and cue a scene where they all end up at s gas station to restock and get a game plan. the cashier just looks at hopper and all the teenagers behind him and raises and eyebrow. Him and Joyce look at each other and Joyce says “our kids” gesturing weakly begins her. He shrugs because he’s not paid enough for this and checks out the tons of stuff they buy.

Steve and billy bond over trying to babysit insane children and Steve is trying to keep them from doing dumb stuff and billy is yelling at them not get killed. Much betting is involved. Robin and billy actually become buddies and it freaks Steve out. Aveline just watches it all.

And after all the fiasco stuff is over, everyone is royally freaks out when Steve Harrington shows up to bring lunch to all these kids and then sits with billy freaking Hagrove and they start chatting like their old buddies.

Billy gets a job at the sheriffs station because he actually has a good head for telling people what not to do and just generally bossing people around. Hopper takes him under his wing and they patrol and keep the weirdness of the town under control. He regularly takes el and max to eat at different restaurants because he’s determined to give el some ‘worldly knowledge’

His relationship with ava is one of his longest they’re going steady. She moves in with him and they go back to Cali every summer to see her parents and his mom. They get married on the beach. Lucas makes a comment on how they’re going to have kids and when el asks billy how they have kids it’s the one question he won’t answer. Hopper was standing next to him when she asked and he gave her the Look. Billy re-evaluated his answer.

The kids think billy is kinda cool now and he keeps them in line while Harrington is off getting a degree. Billy finally has some peace when Harrington gets back and takes them off his hands.

And most importantly billy is happy.

618 notes · View notes

cigtray · 5 years ago

Text

Pull over

Billy Hargrove x reader

Warnings: Cursing, smutty stuff towards the end, abuse, typos prolly (sorry)

Hopper has caught Billy Hargrove parked in his Camaro so many times that at this point it’s just a common occurrence.

A few taps at the window of Billy’s Camaro woke him up, looking up at the light with half open eyes Billy stumbles to get out of the car to meet the Chief. “Yes sir?” Billy mumbled, he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the car. Tonight had been a particularly rough tumble with his dad, or more, his dad had been pissed about something when Billy got home and Billy got the short side of deal.

“You can’t be here, Hargrove. Go home.” Hopper told him, looking at Billy’s black eye. “No fuckin way.” Billy’s eyes shot open to meet Hoppers. “Excuse me?” Hopper met Billy’s eyes, meeting a hard cold reflection of what Hopper only imagines his eyes looked like. “I’m not going home.” Billy told Hopper. Hopper was getting frustrated with these meetings, every time Hopper told Billy to go home it was like watching a little kid wrap themselves around their parents leg so that their parent couldn’t go anywhere. And it was exhausting.

“You are, and I’ll be escorting you home.” Hopper told him. The first few times Hopper caught Billy out he had assumed the asshole kid, as he had heard from his little gang, either had a girl, was drunk or had gotten into a fight. Low and behold that first time Hopper found him Billy had a really shiner. But there were times when Billy didn’t seem like he had gotten in fights. And he wasn’t drunk. And he didn’t have a girl. Hopper never really cared too much why exactly the kid slept in his car. It just made Hopper’s job a little harder.

Hopper sat in his car behind the Camaro, listening to roar as Billy started to go home, the chief on his tail as he had been promised.

Pulling up to his house Billy felt a little sick, and pretty sure that a beating was in order. He could already hear Neil when he stood at the front door, Billy felt sure he could already smell the alcohol on Neil’s breath, and maybe Billy was positively sure he could already feel more bruises forming on his back. This week might’ve been the worse one yet, as soon as his bruises had gone from that purple blue color to that yellow green, more bruises were put there. His sides were pretty fucked up too, and Billy was pretty sure after seeing a cop in the driveway his face wouldn’t be any prettier after tonight.

Before Billy realized what was happening Hopper was next to him, knocking on the door. Billy sharply inhaled as the door was flung open. “Where the hell have you been.” Neil seethed “Well sir he was parked on the side of the road, it’s happened numerous times, so if you could tell him to not let it happen again it may save you a ticket.” Billy could see the anger and the beating brewing in Neil’s eyes. He didn’t understand how Hopper couldn’t see it. “It won’t happen again” and Billy was pulled in the house.

When Hopper next saw Billy it was the next day, Billy was waiting to for Max. He had leaned himself against the Camaro, sunglasses on and a jacket that seemed unnecessary for the weather they were having, but maybe it had something to do with him being from California.

“What happened.” Max asked, looking at the road. “None of your fuckin business.” He hissed. Usually Max would have badgered him a little more, but she heard the beating, Billy knew she had heard it. Sometimes he felt bad that she had to hear it, sometimes he thought maybe he’d get her a record player and some headphones so she wouldn’t have to hear. But they were all really expensive and Billy was trying to keep himself out of the house as much as he could.

When they got home Neil wasn’t home, so Billy sped off. He drove, and he drove fast. Until flashing lights shined through his back window, and much to his dismay he pulled over. Three taps at his window as usual, “yes officer?” Billy asked in the most sickly sweet voice he could muster. Billy let his hands tap on the outer part of the car. “Take your glasses off when talking to me.” Hoppers stern voice told him. Billy gritted his teeth and pulled the glasses from his face. “What the fuck do you get up to? I left you at your house and you already have another damn black eye?!” Hopper was angry, what would it take to keep this boy out of trouble?!

“None of your goddamn business, pig.” Billy spat, a flurry of anger and fear coursing through Billy. “Your knuckles,” Hopper said, “what?” Billy asked, why the hell was Hopper inquiring about his knuckles. “You haven’t been fighting. Your knuckles are fine, and I’ve seen your knuckles after a fight. Don’t lie to me.” Hopper said sternly. “I said, none of your goddamn business.” Billy was terrified that Hopper had got him, he felt trapped, maybe. “Get out of the car.” Hopper softly yelled. He watched as Billy stiffly got out of his car, turning to Hopper with a hard face and a devilish glare. “You’re coming to the station.”

Billy sat in Hopper’s office was he going to call Neil? Was Neil going to be thrown in jail? God he hoped they didn’t tell Max more then she already knew. Would they drag Susan in to question if she knew? If she did know would they take her away? If they took her away what would happen to Max? Billy’s head was swarmed with thoughts. He was scared that Hopper knew what was going on at his home. He was scared that he had just screwed up Max’s childhood. He felt dumb for letting anyone see enough to put any of the puzzle together.

“We’re going to need you to take off your shirt.” Hopper had watched Billy’s demeanor change as soon as Hopper took him to the station. Billy had stopped responding all together, his face blank and his hands were wrapped around himself. “Hargrove.” Billy only stared, he could hear them. He knew what they wanted. They were too close, oh god, they knew, oh fuck.

“Hold him.” Before Billy could try to defend himself two cops had his arms, tugging his jacket off, and then his shirt. Billy wrestled to keep them from getting his shirt off, but with three grown men encircling him, exposing his deepest secret he felt helpless. And so off the shirt came, after the Billy was like a rag doll as they saw the damage his father had done.

Hopper gawked, Billy’s entire back was covered in color, not only did Billy have black eyes but Hopper had missed the bruise around his neck that Hopper could only guess was from being choked. “Who did this to you.” Hopper already knew, but it had to be said. Hopper watched as Billy’s back began to shake, as he began to shake and sink to the floor. Fuck had he broken the Hargrove kid?

Billy sobbed on the floor of Hoppers office, his arms wrapped around himself again. “Billy?” He heard a soft voice looking up to see the Byers mother. He let her get closer then he’d let the men get in the last hour. Her hands soft against his face as she held him in a motherly embrace, and maybe that’s why he let her near, she had an air of motherlyness about her.

“You’ll stay with me.” Hopper told Billy who sat in Hopper’s passenger seat. Billy only looked out the window. Hopper didn’t push any further as he knew the boy had been through too much today, and maybe he should’ve been gentler with the whole shirt thing.

They pulled up to the hut and Billy silently walked behind Hopper, following into the house. What surprised Billy was that two girls popped up from behind a door. “These are my daughters, El and (y/n).” Hopper told Billy. “Hi.” El said and (y/n) gave him a wave.

“You’ll sleep here” Hopper awkwardly told the boy, almost positive that El was spying on them. “Thank you.” Billy said in a stiff tone. “I’m sorry for today, and for the blowup mattress, it was the best I could get from Joyce’s store.” Hopper told Billy in maybe just as stiffly a tone as Billy felt. “It’s okay, sir, thank you.” Billy repeated, standing so straight Hopper could’ve mistaken him for a soldier if not for the mullet. “No problem, goodnight.” Hopper said swiftly walking to his room, leaving Billy in the living room.

Billy cried that night, for the first time in a long time. It seemed like everything he had held back for years flooded in as the fresh tears rolled down his face. The beatings, the move, loosing everything he had known and had, it all came with the tears rolling down his face.

“Are you alright?” The older girl of the two asked, light peaking from behind a door in the hallway. Billy turned to see her, to really focus on her through his teary eyes. She almost looked like an angel with the streak of light pouring out from behind her. Her hair was messy from sleeping, and she wore a large shirt and some shorts as she padded toward him in bright yellow socks.

“I’m fine.” He grumbled, wiping the tears from his face as quickly as he could. “You’ve been crying. I don’t think your fine.” She said stubbornly. “I said I’m fine, little girl.” He hissed through a fresh wave of tears. “I’m not a little girl, I’m your age, dumbass.” She muttered to him as she made her way to the kitchen, reaching for the water glasses that her father had placed on a frustratingly high shelf. As she turned to get a chair she was met with a bare chest as Billy reached over her to get her the glass. “Here you go.” He laughed a little at the wide eyed look and blush slowly spreading over her face. Flirtatious, she thought as she met his shining eyes, tears still welled up in them.

This was one way Billy got his emotions out since Hopper had him on house arrest until the police department sorted things out with his ‘situation’. As Billy was made aware they were currently working on getting Max out of the household, because as often it was for Billy to be missing from the house it wasn’t so common for Max besides the day. They didn’t want to alert Neil. This was one thing that chewed away at Billy, that Neil would be alerted that the police knew and he’d take his little ‘family’ and end up using Max as his new punching bag just in another state.

So, he put all his emotions into flirting with (y/n), chess games with El and chopping wood with fury that Hopper hadn’t seen in someone in years.

“(Y/n), did you know that your ass looks splendid on those shorts?” Billy asked as you walked past him. “Billy did you ever know you ass looks so very smackable in those denim?” (Y/n) returned the gesture, turning to look at him through her lashes. “Goddamn, (y/n).” He practically moaned at the way she always fired back at him, and the tone she used with him whenever she gave her remark to him. “Don’t cream your pants, Hargrove.” She purred to him while she waltzed back to her and El’s room.

“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT.” Hopper howled as the remarks going back and forth between (y/n) and Billy made his ears bleed. Hopper had come into the house to hear the two teens yelling comments to eachother from different rooms. The first Hopper had heard was from (y/n) saying that she would rip that denim off his body if she had to and Billy’s response being not to get him so hot and bothered unless she was going to handle it. To say Hopper was a bit irked was an understatement. Alas he couldn’t much stop them seeing as he was gone most days.

Billy felt her arms snake around his waist as he stood in the kitchen at 11 PM making waffles (seeing as they were overly stocked on them). “Dad is going on a date and El is staying with a friend.” She mumbled into his back. Billy twirled around, looking at (y/n) “you trying to say you want some of this, (y/n)?” Billy mocked as he gestured to himself. She pulled away much to Billy’s dismay. “Saying you don’t want some of this, Hargrove?” She gestured to herself, in those little shorts Billy had come to love. (Y/n) pulled her shirt over her head, letting it fall to the floor, her pretty little black bra on show for Billy. “How bout now, Hargrove?” She purred, taking a few steps back from him. “Oh I want some.” Billy growled, his eyes darkening and tone dropping an octave as he slowly stepped closer to you.

(Y/n) gave him a little smile, eyes piercing as she took a few more steps back, and dropped her shorts. Billy took three large strides eager to press her to him. She let herself turn and pad farther from him to take off her socks and let a bra strap fall from a shoulder. With this action Billy was quick to press her against her and El’s door. “What’re you doing to me, little one?” He lowly groaned in her ear. Pressing his denim clad erection against her thigh. She took her lip between her teeth as she let her thigh grind against him. Billy gave a soft moan in return, his hands digging into her soft hips to still her.

Pulling her up to wrap her thighs around his waist he smashed his lips against hers, biting and sucking at her bottom lip. Her hips grinder into his hands holding her up by the ass. She could feel him flex under her as his hand ran up her back and unsnapped her bra. His mouth trailed down before taking her pretty pink nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue around it and softly nipping at the bud. Her head against the door as she mewled, her own hands running through his hair and over his shoulders, letting her nails scrap against the top of shoulders.

“Oh baby girl,” He hummed letting the nipple go with a ‘pop’ “such pretty noises for daddy.” He hummed into her neck as he opened the door and laid her on her bed. “Let’s see if I can get more out of you hm?” He asked as he closed the door and pulled his shirt over his head. Looking at his tan body towering over her, relishing in the sight of her splayed over the bed waiting for his next move.

He watched as she let one of her hands dip under her panties while looking at him, his chest, his jaw, his eyes. Looking at her like prey. She moaned, her eyes slipping closed “Billy” she moaned her other hand digging into the mattress. Billy grunted as he watched her hand dip into her wet core, grabbing her by the waist her set her on his thigh. “Ride.” He said curtly. She looked at him, her hips rolling on the denim. Bringing her hand up and showing him her wetness still on her hand, he smirked as he licked it away. She moaned, throwing her head back as she bounced on his thigh, rolled her hips, grinded down. “Oh little one, you are so good for me aren’t you?” Billy hummed to you.

You threw your other other leg over her lap, sitting directly on his erection. Pushing him down while you ground down on him, looking at him with false innocence. He threw a hand over his eyes “fuck, baby girl, don’t give me that look.” “Don’t cum in your pants Hargrove, I need more fun then that.” She panted letting herself angle her legs up so he could see just how wet she was through her panties. Wasting no time he grabbed her by the ankles pulling her to sit on his face. Ripping her panties off her body.

(Y/n) gasped as she felt his tongue lick up her slit. Groaning into her as she bucked her hips into his face. “Billy” she whimpered as his tongue entered her, lapping her up. She grinded down on his face before letting her hip thrusts match that of his tongues handy work. “Billy, I, I’m so close.” She moaned, eyes squeezed shut in pleasure. Moaning into her pussy was all it took to send her over edge, cumming in his mouth.

Flipping them over Billy growled “so, so, good for daddy, baby girl. You ride my face so pretty princess.” He threw his pants and boxers off, making himself comfortable between her legs. “You want this?” He asked looking at her, her thighs were trembling and her dripping pussy was so very tempting, but Billy had to make sure. “Yes, Billy, please.” She drawled, her nails lightly slipping over almost healed bruises.

To say Hopper was not happy to find a trail of his daughters clothes leading to the abused boy hunched over his daughter would have been the biggest fucking understatement of the year. In fact Billy was almost sure he was going to have a new addition to his collection of healing bruises (he didn’t end up with one, luckily.). However he wasn’t allowed near (y/n) and was to be removed from the house as soon as possible, and he was.

“Hey doll.” Billy whispered, as he slipped through her window. It was only three days later but Hopper had managed to work fast in getting Billy situated with a foster parent along with Max. This being Joyce Byers, Hopper was helping with payments for things.

“Can I see?” He hummed, El was with Max today so it was just the two of them. (Y/n) nodded, letting her towel drop to put all her marks on show. She had some bruises on her hips from Billy’s hands, she seemed to adore them. Hickies littered her body, and Billy was rather proud. “Wanna add more to the collection?”

#billy hargrove imagine #billy hargove #billy #hargrove #billy hargrove one shot #stranger things #stranger things billy #billy stranger things #billy hargrove smut #billy smut #yeet myself off a bridge

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hawkinsschoolcounselor · 5 years ago

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Mike and Eleven are an unhealthy couple, and other ST relationship notes

Relationships have been shown to be a big part of Stranger Things from the beginning. In Season 1, we’re treated to The Party’s unique dynamic, Nancy’s rocky romance with Steve, Joyce’s interactions with her ex-husband, and Johnathan and Will’s brotherly bonding. We are also introduced to Eleven, who more or less instantly bonds with Mike. These relationships allow us to get to know the characters in a more intimate way, and help drive the narrative. In Season 2, we get deeper into these relationships and also see new ones bloom. We witness the special bond that Mike and Will share, the abusive dynamic of the Hargrove household, Dustin and Lucas spar over Max while she adapts to being adopted by a group of nerds, Steve and Nancy’s relationship fails and Johnathan and Nancy’s begins, and even Karen get frustrated over her boring rut of a marriage. We also see Mike, at least early on in the season, desperately reach out to Eleven, and it’s indicated he’s been doing this for just shy of a year (353 days I believe). In Season 3, a heavy-handed theme is “we don’t understand each other.” This is displayed prominently by multiple relationships. It’s most obvious with Johnathan and Nancy, where I believe it was directly stated. Nancy feels he doesn’t believe in her and her journalistic hunches, while he feels she isn’t considering how badly he needs that internship since he lacks her familial resources. Joyce and Hopper’s relationship goes on a roller coaster stemming from Hopper seeing Joyce as playing around with him as he tries his best to open his heart again, but Joyce still has grief over Bob and understandable paranoia about the lab holding her back. Max and Lucas seem ok, showing some playful banter, but we’re also told they’ve broken up five times. Seeing as how they’ve only been together for about 7-8 months or so. That’s a sign of a lack of understanding, but sadly we don’t get much more out of Lucas this season. Karen is tempted by Billy to bring some excitement into her life, though Ted is shown to be rather content with his boring family life. We’re also treated to the heartwarming friendship of Steve and Robin, which is teased as a romance through yet another misunderstanding. This brings me to the crux of this post (finally), and that is Mike, and his horrible (or horribly written) relationships in Season 3. I can totally buy his attachment to Eleven. She helps him find Will in Season 1, and is traumatized by her disappearance (and apparent death) during the final battle with the Demogorgon. It’s completely understandable that he’d be affected by that, possibly feeling guilty and responsible, and desperate for her safe return. It’s totally realistic for a 12-year-old to develop a crush on a girl in a short amount of time such as the week he knew her. It’s unbelievably realistic for him to be immensely happy and relieved when she comes back in Season 2, safe and sound. It’s totally in-character for him to be a nervous wreck when she goes to close the gate. At no point, however, does this have the appearance of a romantic relationship, at least not a true and healthy one.

In Season 3, however, he is completely obsessed with her. It’s revealed by Lucas that he’s been neglecting his friends. He’s been seeing her every day, at least since summer started, and there are implications that Eleven primarily only sees Mike (Max is shocked to see her, we see no interactions between El and the others, she’s still not allowed to be out in public, etc.). This girl has had no opportunity for social or emotional growth in the roughly year and a half since she’s been out of the lab. Her question to Max (”How do I know if I like something?” or something along those lines) should be jarring. She’s never considered anything for herself. Pre-dumping, she and Mike are shown basically just making out. There’s no conversation, no getting to know each other, no simply enjoying each other’s company. The only time we see them with the others, Mike and El very quickly leave, which the others know means they want to make out. El is supposed to be friends with them too, but she seems equally obsessed with this relationship. It’s been months since the Snow Ball, they should be out of the honeymoon phase even if Mike’s opportunities to see her during the school year were limited. So, unpopular opinion, Mike and El share an unhealthy relationship. He’s more annoyed than upset when she dumps him, while El has a blast hanging out with Max. It’s nice to see her grow with this, but she’s quite honestly depicted as being better off without Mike as a boyfriend. I’m not saying they couldn’t grow into a better couple, but we see nothing like that in this season. They make up in the hospital, and Mike awkwardly tries to talk about feelings in the grocery store, but they just aren’t hearing each other. They don’t understand each other. They still don’t at the end, to be honest. While many people seem to think they rekindle their relationship before the Byers’ move, Mike seems legit confused. He stands there, stock still, as El kisses him. He doesn’t kiss back, he doesn’t close his eyes, he doesn’t put his arms around her, he doesn’t return her “I love you”, and, as she walks off, he doesn’t get a goofy grin, a sad smile, or a hopeful look on his face. He stands there, confused, as if that kiss was unexpected and he doesn’t know how to feel about it. That wasn’t a boy who had been going out with this girl for the past three months post-Starcourt. If they were meant to be seen as a happy couple, tragically being torn apart, then the writers did a terrible job of it. It’s almost too obvious that we’re supposed to compare this to Mike’s strained relationship with Will, though at the same time it’s like we’re meant to forget all of that. There’s curiously no acknowledgement to any of the bonding they shared in Season 2, even through flashbacks. Will is portrayed as being upset at the slightest sign of Mike and El’s romance. He doesn’t show frustration with Max or Lucas, and he’s amused at the prospect of helping Dustin contact his camp girlfriend. If this wasn’t intentional, then it’s either poor acting or poor writing. Both Mike and Will become single-minded, Mike towards El, and Will towards D&D. There’s many possible explanations (besides the aforementioned bad writing) that could explain Will’s change of character, but that’s a post for another time, if people are interested. Will reaches his breaking point in a conversation that reads more like a breakup than anything else. Again, though, it’s clear they don’t understand each other. This is where the “Is Will gay?” speculation hits a crescendo, as he angrily states it’s not his fault Will doesn’t like girls. Will is...devastated, shocked, terrified? It’s hard to nail down. Mike is immediately remorseful, though his apology is severely lacking. Will’s parting words of “I guess I did. I really did.” again seem more like a breakup. I’d like to go on more, but besides Mike tracking Will down in the rain (not unsignificant), we see little between them until the goodbyes. Their scene is shorter than Mike and El’s, but significant in that it’s the only goodbye Will is shown having (apart from all the hugging). They speak in code again, with Mike worried Will may replace him, and Will reassuring Mike that could never happen. It’s worth mentioning that the smile Mike shows in this scene is the most genuine we see all season from him. I’m not sure what to think about it all. Mike and Will’s relationship is somehow portrayed as stronger and deeper that Mike and El’s, but simultaneously less significant. It makes more sense for Mike to be closer to Will than El, and it’s curious that he and El are never shown trying to get to know each other. My ultimate conclusion, drawing on personal experience and someone with degrees in psychology and counseling, is that Mike and El are bad for each other, at least based on how they’ve been depicted thus far. They’re shown to be better outside of their relationship. Ultimately, Mike lost both of these relationships at the end. While we know the three of them will meet again, they simply have the hope of visits and calls. Mike is left visibly upset as the Byers family drives off, but it’s ambiguous as to whether Will or El leaving upsets him more. I don’t think he knows the answer to that either. As he enters his mother’s embrace, he appears in a state of shock. This scene parallels him being comforted in season 1 when Will’s fake body was pulled from the water, even going so far as to include the same song. It’s possible he’s coming to a realization involving Will, which could explain the shock. I think the simplest explanation, though, is that we’re supposed to be as confused as Mike as to what all this means. Mike starting to consider that Will is more than just his best friend would be a breath of fresh air for a story like this, but I doubt it. If you made it this far, let me know if you’d like more posts from me. I have thoughts on the effects of trauma on the characters, theories for season 4, and general opinions about seasons 1-3.

#stranger things #mike wheeler #will byers #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #max mayfield #eleven #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #joyce byers #jim hopper #joncy #byeler #mileven #jopper

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hunnywrites · 5 years ago

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Chapter Four: Lifeguards On Duty

Summary: The town of Hawkins has been turned upside down with the news that Will Byers has suddenly gone missing. Teddi Larsson and Billy Hargrove are gonna get to the bottom of things. Season one AU.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove/OFC

A/N: I guess I’m bumping the rating on this to mature now. I should throw out a disclaimer that I sort of hate writing smut so that’s why it’s so brief. We’re also getting our first glimpse of papa bear Hopper. Trust and believe that if he could legally adopt Teddi and Billy he totally would. Hope you enjoy!

Once Teddi and Billy made sure that Dustin, Lucas and Eleven made it home safe, they headed back to Billy’s place. The lights inside the living room where on. Probably Susan waiting up for Billy and Max to come home. Teddi parked her van a little ways down the street and hurried to the back side of the house to Billy’s window. She rubbed at her arms roughly to try and warm herself up as she waited for him to let her in.

His light flicked on, and Billy quietly opened his window and helped pull Teddi inside. “Sorry,” he muttered. “It’s already on the news about Will. Susan had a million questions.” Teddi pulled her puffy jacket off and plopped down onto Billy’s bed.

“Is Max okay?” she asked quietly.

Billy sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to his chest. “She’s gonna be okay. It’ll just take awhile. Susan’s making her hot chocolate.” he said with a small laugh. Like he thought it was funny that Susan seemed to think hot chocolate could fix the fact that Max’s friend was dead.

Teddi’s eyes burned. Her bottom lip was trembling again. She clasped a hand tightly over her mouth to try and quiet the sob that escaped her. Will was dead. He was gone. She would never see him again. And the last image she had of him was his body being pulled out of the quarry. She felt Billy place a kiss on the top of her head, and his hand rubbing slow circles on her back as she cried. Teddi knew that he hated it when people cried. He would always say that he never knew what to do. But he was better at comforting than he thought. All she needed was for him to sit there with her.

She cried for Will. And for Joyce and Johnathan. She cried for Mike, Lucas, Max and Dustin. Even El. Why did life have to be so unfair? Why did Will have to be taken so young? Why had Benny felt so alone that he had killed himself? Why did she, Billy and Max have to live in such terrible households?

Eventually her crying quieted. Teddi wiped roughly at her eyes and sniffed loudly. “...You want me to get Susan to make you some hot chocolate?” Billy asked lowly, a hint of teasing in his voice. Teddi let out a soft laugh and shook her head.

“I’m okay...god, I should probably head home.”

“Stay,” he said into her hair. “You shouldn’t have to be alone tonight.”

Teddi sniffed again and frowned up at him. “What about Neil and Susan? We’ll get caught.”

“Let me worry about it. We can skip school tomorrow. Go out to the lake or something.” His hand moved from her shoulder to her waist, and he picked Teddi up with ease. She twisted around and settled onto his lap, straddling him. She idly played with the collar of his jean jacket as she considered his offer. Maybe Will’s death had made her realize that life was short. Maybe this was a seize the moment type of thing. Maybe it was because she felt so vulnerable. Or maybe it was the way Billy was softly nipping at her neck, his fingers digging gently into her hips...

“I don’t wanna do this anymore.” Teddi said suddenly. Billy pulled away from her almost as if she had slapped him.

He blinked a few times. “...You don’t want to do what anymore?” he asked carefully.

“This. Us,” Billy only frowned and she shook her head. “I mean...god, what do I mean?” she asked herself, her hands grabbing onto his jacket tightly. “I don’t want to see other people anymore. I want you. Us. I want you to take me out on a real date. Even if it’s just to fool around at the drive in,” she said with a soft laugh. “I mean, I…” why couldn’t she just say the words? She felt it. She knew she did.

“...Are you saying you love me, Larsson?” he wasn’t teasing her. He said it quietly, as if someone was trying to listen in on what they were saying.

Teddi let out a relieved sigh. The fact that Billy knew exactly what she was trying to say solidified her decision to speak her mind. It also gave her the boost of confidence she needed. “I love you.” she repeated.

Billy smirked at her, pressing two fingers behind his ear and turning his head. “Sorry. I don’t think I heard that. You mind repeating it?”

Teddi smiled, rolling her eyes and giving his shoulder a playful shove. “Shut up, dick.” Billy chuckled, pulling Teddi to him and kissing her deeply. There was a small part of her that worried he wouldn’t say it back. She sort of expected it. Billy had grown up with the idea that showing genuine affection made him look weak. And while he had made leaps and bounds in that area, he still had issues every now and then. He didn’t have any trouble with physical affection, but the emotional affection was still a sore subject.

Billy’s hand ran up and under the back of Teddi’s shirt, his fingers drawing circles on her skin. She pulled away from him and took his face gently in her hands. “...And don’t feel like you have to say it back, okay?” she added shyly.

Billy shook his head. He tucked a strand of Teddi’s sandy blonde hair behind her ear. “But I do,” he said. Teddi’s heart was hammering so hard in her chest she was positive that he could probably feel it. There was a second where his guard went up again. He almost looked like he regretted saying it. But it was gone in a flash. He knew he was safe with Teddi.

That casual smirk was back. “Guess it’s you and me ‘till the end then, Larsson.”

“‘Till the end…” Teddi mused with a smirk of her own. “...I don’t know. Not sure if I’ll be able to stand you for that long.” she teased. Billy scoffed and tossed Teddi off of his lap and back onto his bed.

He hovered over her, Teddi’s hands finding a home on his biceps. “If I have to put up with your mouth then you have to put up with me.” he grumbled, kissing her again. “How ‘bout I put that Kate Bush shit you like on and we consummate this thing?”

Teddi fell into a fit of giggles. She covered her mouth to quiet her laughter and nodded. “Took the words right out of my mouth.” she teased.

Something about the way Billy touched her that night was different than usual. It was almost like he was afraid he might break her. Her own hands felt like they couldn’t stop shaking. It was more than just her nerves being shot from the night’s events. It was like the two of them saying those three little words had somehow changed the entire dynamic of their relationship.

Their movements were clumsy. The pair shared quiet laughter each time their heads knocked together or when Teddi bit down on Billy’s lip just a little too hard. The butterflies in Teddi’s stomach were almost overwhelming. Her stomach flipped and turned with every touch, every kiss, and every slow rock of Billy’s hips. Teddi’s fingers wound themselves into Billy’s hair as that wonderfully warm feeling joined the butterflies in her stomach. His fingers dug softly into her hips, his nails leaving small crescent moons in her skin.

Teddi’s eyes still ached from all the crying she had done earlier that night. Her eyelids were drooping sleepily as she curled up at Billy’s side. He was smoking and talking to her about something. She couldn’t really make out what. For the first time in days her mind seemed clear. Empty. Eventually she drifted off into a deep sleep. She didn’t dream that night.

---

Billy woke up the next morning with a start. Someone was knocking on his bedroom door. “Billy?” Susan called softly. Teddi stirred gently next to him. He shot out of bed, quickly getting dressed before popping his head out of his door. Susan smiled at him somewhat nervously, her hands fiddling together as she hovered awkwardly out in the hall. “Could you do me a favor? Max is staying home today, and I have errands to run...could you maybe watch her? I’ve been so worried since we heard the news about Will…” she swallowed thickly. “She’s not speaking much. I don’t think she’ll be much of a bother.”

“Yeah,” Billy nodded. “Sure, Susan. No problem,” Susan could drive Billy crazy on a good day. Now with everything going on and the added fact that he had a naked, sleeping Teddi in his bed made him want to all but shove Susan out of the house. “I’ll see you later, huh?” he shut his door, whirling around to focus on Teddi. He almost didn’t want to wake her up. She looked so peaceful.

He crawled back into bed, wrapping an arm around her middle and burying his face in her neck. “Ted, come on. Time to wake up. Susan’s gone so we’re in the clear.” much like Billy, Teddi wasn’t much of a morning person. Teddi let out a whine like groan and turned over, hiding her face in her pillow.

“Can’t we just stay here?” she asked, her voice muffled.

Billy let out a chuckle. “Yeah, sure,” he pulled his shirt over his head. “But as much as I don’t want you to, you should probably put this on. Max’s is staying home.”

Teddi grumbled, snatching his shirt and slipping it on. As if on cue Max knocked on Billy’s door before slowly peeking inside. “...Can you give me a ride to Mike’s?”

“Now? It’s seven AM.” Billy muttered, his lips clamped around a cigarette as he lit it.

“He says it’s important. Something about Will and El.” she explained. Billy only rolled his eyes. Max looked over at Teddi, who was bundled up under the covers, with a pleading look. “Teddi, make him give me a ride.”

Billy scoffed. “She can’t make me do anything, Max.”

If Teddi was given 900 guesses as to what Mike could possibly have to say about Will and El she probably wouldn’t be able to guess. So she was pretty intrigued by it. Plus, she wanted to check in on Eleven after the way Mike had treated her the night before at the quarry. “Come on, Billy. Let’s give her a ride. What’s the worst that can happen?”

Billy shot her a look. “You honestly have to ask that?” he looked over at Max, and then back at Teddi. This wouldn’t be a fight he’d win. “Jesus, fine. I’ll take you.” Max was out of the room and down the hall to change nearly before Billy could even agree. He looked over at Teddi, who was failing to hide a smile. “...You don’t make me do anything.” he repeated firmly.

“No, no of course not.” she said, crawling over him to get out of bed.

Mrs. Wheeler wasn’t home when they arrived. Mike said she took Holly out to run errands and wouldn’t be back for a few hours. “We have to get El to school. So she can call Will.” he explained as he lead Teddi, Billy and Max down to the basement.

Teddi and Billy shared a look. “...What do you mean so she can call Will?” Teddi asked carefully.

“That body they pulled out of the water last night wasn’t Will.” Mike said firmly.

“Mike…” Max said with a soft sigh.

“No! You have to trust me. Last night Eleven called Will on my walkie. He’s still alive. He was singing that song he likes so much. But she can’t call him for long. So we need a bigger radio.”

“The AV club.” Max said, as if it were obvious.

“Exactly. So we’re trying to disguise El so we can get her there without anyone noticing her.” as the four of them entered the basement, Lucas and Dustin were fitting a blonde wig on Eleven’s head. She smiled when she saw Teddi, Billy and Max.

“Oh yeah, that’s not conspicuous at all.” Billy said sarcastically. Teddi elbowed him harshly in his side. Eleven was hovering awkwardly, her fingers fidgeting with each other as her wide eyes surveyed each person in the room.

Teddi leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees. “What do you think, El? I’m digging the new look.”

El smiled softly and nodded. “Pretty.”

“Very pretty,” Teddi agreed with a smile. “...Has Mike been feeding you?”

Lucas let out a snort. “He gives her half of whatever his mom makes him.” he said. Mike shot him a cold look.

Teddi held out her hand. “Come on, I’ll make you something while these guys finish up their grand scheme. Can’t call Will on an empty stomach, right?” The thing was, Teddi wasn’t much of a cook. She lived off things you could pop in a microwave and fast food. But she figured anything she could make would be better than Mike’s lukewarm leftovers.

“So...how are things with Mike? Did he apologize?” Teddi asked as she started to rummage through the kitchen cabinets.

Eleven nodded. “Yes.”

Teddi looked over her shoulder at the girl and smiled. “...You don’t talk much, huh?” she asked. El shook her head, a shy smile forming on her lips. “That’s okay. I can talk enough for the both of us. At least that’s what Billy says,” she said with a soft snort.

There wasn’t much in the way of microwaveable food. Which didn’t really surprised Teddi much since it was Karen Wheeler’s kitchen. Eventually she pulled out a box of Eggos from the freezer, holding it up to Eleven. “How ‘bout it?”

Eleven noticeably perked up and nodded. “A girl after my own heart. I’ll make you my super special breakfast of champions.” she popped four waffles into the toaster.

“You can’t feed her waffles and coke.” Billy said as he walked into the kitchen.

“And what should I feed her?” Teddi asked, grabbing a can of coke and a jar of strawberry jam from the fridge. Eleven watched the exchange quietly, observing the two teens.

“I don’t know...what do kids with superpowers eat?”

Teddi rolled her eyes. “What do you think they eat? Radioactive rocks?” Billy pulled a face at her. Teddi spread the jam on each waffle, stacking them onto a plate and topping it off with some whipped cream. “There ya go, Ellie Bean.” El looked at the treat with wide eyes before digging in.

Billy groaned beside her. “If you name it you’ll get attached, Ted.” he warned in a sort of sing songy way.

Teddi shot him a look. “She is not an it, Billy. And will you stop it with that already? I’m being nice.” El wasn’t paying attention to them anymore. She was nearly shovelling the waffles into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in days.

Billy opened his mouth to argue, but Max and the rest of the kids came running up the stairs. Max looked between Billy and Teddi, taking in their angry expressions. “...What are you two bickering about now?”

“Nothing.” they said at the same time.

Billy gave Teddi one last look before turning to Mike. “Can we get this over with? Go get in the car.” he ordered, shooing the kids through the kitchen and out the front door. Eleven shoved the last bite of waffles in her mouth, wiping some excess whipped cream away with the back of her hand. She smiled up happily at Teddi before running off to join her friends in the van.

If you name it you’ll get attached. Teddi scoffed at Billy’s words. And why couldn’t she? What was so wrong with that? Eleven didn’t have anyone. Why couldn’t that be Teddi? She knew that this was probably some deep, psychological thing that a therapist would have a field day with. Trying to make up for the shitty childhood she had and all that.

She didn’t really care.

---

Teddi and Billy dropped the kids and their bikes off at the middle school. They promised that once El got in contact with Will they would ride their bikes back to Mikes and call them to tell them what happened. Now the pair were at a diner that sat on Hawkin’s main street.

“You think they’ll find anything?” Teddi asked, absently stirring her strawberry milkshake with her straw. She had her own doubts. Mainly because they had seen Will’s body the night before. If he was really alive, how could anyone possibly explain something like that?

“Nope.” Billy answered firmly. His mouth was full with chilli cheese fries.

Teddi let out a loud sigh and sunk further into her seat. “Can’t you be a little more optimistic?”

“Nope,” he repeated, taking a large swig of coke. He let out a soft sigh when he saw the sad look on Teddi’s face. “...What do you think they’ll find, Ted? I mean, you saw Will’s body-”

“I know. I know...I don’t know what I expect. I just hope they find something. For their sake, I guess.”

Their conversation was cut off when there was a loud knock on the window beside them. Chief Jim Hopper was looking down at the two teens with a stern look, his hands on his hips and his jaw set tightly. “Great…” Billy muttered.

Hopper walked into the diner and over to the two teens. He wasn’t in his uniform, which Teddi found a little odd. “Aren’t you two supposed to be in school?” he asked, checking his watch.

Billy and Teddi exchanged a look. “...We’re sad about Byers.” Billy said eventually.

Teddi rolled her eyes. “We are sad about Will.” she shot Billy a dirty look.

“You know, Powell and Callaghan are looking for you two. They’re over at the high school questioning your friends.”

Billy noticeably tensed up. “Questioning us for what? We haven’t done shit.”

Hopper looked over his shoulder quickly before sliding into the booth next to Teddi. “Barb Holland’s missing. We got a call from Karen Wheeler. She says you’re the last ones to see her.”

Teddi’s eyes widened. “Barb’s missing?” she asked. This was a nightmare. An absolute nightmare. “What do you mean she’s missing? I thought she was sick.”

Hopper raised an eyebrow. “Who said she was sick?”

Billy let out a low groan and sunk in his seat. “Nice going, Larsson.” he muttered.

Teddi glared over at Billy. When she turned back to Hopper her expression softened. Teddi was more confused than she had ever been. There had been so many twists and turns the past few days that she barely knew which way was up. But she knew that Hopper would listen. He might not believe her, but he would listen. “Barb didn’t come to school yesterday. Nancy was worried because I guess Barb left the party early-”

“We were already gone by then.” Billy interjected, earning another glare from Teddi.

“So I told her that maybe Barb was just sick or something. She cut her hand-”

Hopper held up his hand to stop her. “She cut her hand? How?”

“...Shotgunning a beer.” Teddi said, not meeting the chief’s eyes. Now it was Billy’s turn to glare at her.

Thankfully Hopper only gave what passed as a stern look before moving on. “But you two haven’t seen her since this party? Haven’t heard from her?”

Teddi shook her head. “We left to go pick up Max just after she cut her hand. And he probably couldn’t pick her out of a lineup,” she jabbed a thumb in Billy’s direction. He didn’t argue. “Do you think something bad happened? Do you think it’s related to what happened to Will?”

Hopper gave her an odd sort of look. Like somehow they were both in on the same secret and he didn’t want anyone else to know that they were in on it. But it was gone in a flash. “What happened to Will was an accident. It’s horrible, and it’s sad, but it was an accident. We’re gonna get to the bottom of what happened to Barb. And until then I want you two to keep your noses where they belong, okay? No more parties after curfew, and no more skipping school,”

Teddi and Billy both shifted awkwardly. Hopper reached over and took one of Billy’s fries. “I’m gonna look the other way this time. But I want you two back in school tomorrow. And you stop worrying so much, kid,” he put a gentle hand on Teddi’s shoulder. “You’re gonna give yourself a stroke.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling her.” Billy said with a smug look. Teddi rolled her eyes.

Hopper looked over at Teddi with a sort of teasing smile. “See? You know if it’s serious if me and him are agreeing. You two stay safe, okay? I gotta get going,” he rose from the booth, turning and pointing a finger at each of them. “School tomorrow.” he reminded them. Billy gave a mock salute and Hopper was off.

There was a long silence before Teddi finally spoke up. “We need to do something.”

Billy let out a sigh. “Like what, Ted? Go monster hunting?”

“Exactly.”

“Teddi-”

Teddi leaned across the table and looked at Billy with a tired expression. “Did you see Hop’s face when I brought up Will? It’s like he knows something. Maybe he knows what we know, and he just doesn’t want to say it.”

“You mean about the Demo…” he drifted off, clearly not able to remember the name.

“Demogorgon,” Teddi finished for him. Billy gave her a look. One that said ‘do you hear how crazy you sound?’ Of course she knew that. But she was past the point of caring. “They said that Will drowned, Billy. What are the chances that Will drowns and Barb runs away? You know that Quarry. We used to hang out there all the time in middle school. If you fell into it you would be dead before you hit the water. Every single bone in your body would break. You saw his body. Did it look like anything was broken to you?”

Billy couldn’t argue that point. There had been this rumor when they were kids that some guy had fallen into the quarry back in the 60’s, and when the cops dragged his body out of the water he looked like a jellyfish. Will definitely hadn’t looked like that. He hadn’t had a scratch on him.

Billy took another bite of his chili fries before thoughtfully looking over at Teddi. “Well, what’s the plan, Teddi Bear? We’re gonna go camp out in the woods until something tries to kill us?”

---

“This is one of the dumbest fucking things I’ve ever done,” Billy muttered. “And that includes the time we were gonna run away to Disneyland when we were ten.” Billy and Teddi were sitting in Teddi’s van. They had driven a little ways into the woods, not far enough to lose their way from the main road, but far enough in that no one driving past could see them.

“...That was a pretty decent plan.” Teddi defended. It wasn’t. Somehow they had seemed to think they could actually walk to California with nothing but some clothes and their toothbrushes shoved into their backpacks. Hopper had found them about twenty minutes into their grand escape plan. He took them to the bakery down the street from the police station, bought them both donuts and talked to them about what things were like at home before he took them back to school. Steve had been pretty pissed that they hadn’t invited him along.

Billy turned in his seat and pointed back where there was a bottle of kerosene and a can of Billy’s hairspray they had tossed into the back of the van. “How can you say any plan is worse than this?” he asked.

“It was your idea to be Smokey Bear’s worst nightmare, Hargrove. Not mine,” she argued. Teddi shut the van off and hopped out. Billy grabbed the kerosene and hairspray and got out behind her, muttering angrily. “Besides, we have to be able to defend ourselves somehow, right?”

Billy gave her a tired look. “Defend ourselves against the make believe monster? Oh, sure,” he turned to the woods that sat before them. “Watch out, Demogorgons! Lifeguards on duty!” he called sarcastically.

“Be quiet!” Teddi hissed out, slapping her hand over his mouth. “If there is something out there it’ll know that we’re here!”

Billy rolled his eyes and pushed Teddi’s hand away. “Let’s just get this over with.” he muttered.

Teddi let out an annoyed huff and took off ahead of Billy. She hated when he got like this. All grouchy and stubborn. It was rare that it was aimed in her direction, but Teddi was never one to put up with Billy’s attitude.

Billy’s jaw tightened as he watched his girlfriend venture further into the woods without him. He let out an annoyed breath out of his nose and followed after her, nearly stomping like a toddler having a tantrum. Teddi flicked on her flashlight, the bright beam illuminating their path.

Billy was firm in his belief that there wasn’t anything in the woods. But still, he had to admit he felt a little uneasy the further they walked. It wasn’t too far. If he turned around he could probably still see the outline of Teddi’s van. But he couldn’t help but feel like they shouldn’t be there. Like they were trespassing almost.

He felt like they were being watched. The little hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Billy tried his hardest to make his eyes adjust to the dark. He couldn’t see anything or anyone. But there was something out there. He could hear something moving around them. Getting closer.

Teddi jumped a little when she felt Billy’s hand gently touch her arm. He had caught up to her, taking a step or two ahead as if he were trying to shield her from something. She opened her mouth to let out some sassy comment when Billy held a finger up to his lips to quiet her. She frowned up at him, watching in confusion as he surveyed the area around them. He started fumbling for the lighter in his jean jacket.

“Billy, what-” Teddi’s question was cut off by a horrible screech. It was that same horrible sound they had heard the night Will went missing. It was close. Teddi’s entire body started to tingle. Her hands couldn’t stop shaking. The scream had been so loud she could hear a quiet ringing in her ears.

Billy wrapped his hand around Teddi’s wrist and he pulled her closer to him. “We’re going back to the van.” it wasn’t a suggestion. Teddi wasn’t going to argue. There was a loud snap somewhere nearby. Teddi jumped at the sound. Something was coming towards them. Slowly.

Teddi couldn’t help herself. She shined the light of her flashlight to their left. The beam of light was shaky, but she saw a flash of something moving over behind the trees. She let out a small gasp, and Billy’s hand tightened around her.

“What the fuck is that?” Billy asked. He was breathing heavily. He pushed Teddi further behind him and took on a defensive stance. It was an animal, he thought. It was too big to be a coyote. Too thin to be a bear. Whatever it was, he was sure it was stalking them.

There was another loud snap. Teddi pointed the flashlight out in front of them. She’d caught it this time. Neither of them knew what they were looking at. It was...a creature. Nothing they’d ever seen before. It was on all fours. It had paused mid stride. It had a long, thin, almost sort of gangly grey body. It didn’t have a face. It’s head almost looked like a flower that hadn’t bloomed just yet.

Teddi’s hands were shaking so badly she almost dropped the flashlight. She felt Billy’s entire body go tense. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that she almost hadn’t heard him. “When I tell you to run, you run back to the van and you don’t look back.”

The monster slowly rose to its feet before them. It easily had to be seven feet tall. Teddi suddenly noticed the way that its long, thin fingers ended in sharp points. She thought she would be sick. It’s face opened, revealing six red petal like appendages that were lined with rows of tiny, sharp teeth. It let out that horrible scream again. Billy told her to run. She did. She knew that Billy was behind her as she carried herself back through the woods and to the van. The monster wasn’t far behind them. Teddi let out a startled gasp as it screeched again, stumbling over some branches.

Her van was close by. She could see it through her blurry, tear filled vision. Teddi willed her legs to move faster. She couldn’t let herself think about what would happen if that thing caught her.

Billy was telling her to get in the van. He had slowed down behind her. Teddi threw the driver’s side door open as Billy came to a stop in front of the van. He held up the lighter to the can of hairspray, a large flame shooting out in front of him and towards the creature.

It screeched again. Like it was in pain. Teddi started the van, screaming for Billy to get in. He didn’t let up with his makeshift flamethrower until he was safely back inside next to her. “Hit it.” He said firmly.

“What?” Teddi asked helplessly. She felt like she couldn’t catch her breath.

“Run the fucking thing over!” He yelled.

Teddi slammed her foot down on the gas. There was a loud crunch. The entire van lurched forward as she collided with the monster. She was sure the front of her van had been crushed. It felt like she had run into a semi truck. Teddi threw the van into reverse and sped backwards towards the main road before taking off down the street.

She didn’t let up on the gas until Mirkwood was no longer in view.

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove fic #billy hargrove x oc

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slut4supersoldiers · 6 years ago

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Amber (one shot)

Pair: Steve Harrington X Fem Henderson Reader (romantic)

Summary: Steve Harrington: former keg king/ former King of Hawkins high/ former Resident playboy/ current babysitter, falling in love? [For funsies]

Words: 1791

Warning: None, just Soft! Steve

A/n: Just a little something that I came up with. The ending kinda sucks but yeah, have fun reading. xx REQUESTS ARE OPEN!

Steve Harrington, the King of Hawkins High had had his fair share of flings. But it lasted till Nancy wheeler and Billy Hargrove happened. The latter stole his crown and consequently the attention and the former stole his heart (and stomped all over it).

Steve’s father had once sat him down in the Study room in the Harrington household and told him,

“Son, you’re in high school now. A charming boy like you is bound to have a string of ladies batting their eyelids at you hoping to impress you.” Young Steve blushed at his dad’s words but puffed his chest out a little as his dad raised the half-finished glass of cognac to his son and assured him that there’s nothing wrong with that.

“But you be careful, don’t let them break your heart. You’re too young for that shit.” The younger boy did not understand the gravity of his father’s words till his first ever serious girlfriend broke his heart only to find love in the boy he hated for the longest time; Jonathan Byers. (He wouldn’t openly admit it but recently he was growing quite fond of Jonathan Byers’ company. As long as Nancy was happy, right?)

The breakup with Nancy left Steve distraught. The lack of time to recover from the whirlwind of emotions (what with the Demogorgons and all) exhausted him. He found an escape in babysitting.

The former king/ playboy/ bad boy had gone soft. He did not care about the strange looks he garnered from his peers as he dropped off and picked up “the party” from the arcade. Once Billy Hargrove even made fun of him and asked him if he wanted Max’s dresses since he has decided to go “full sissy mode”. (He immediately shut up when the fiery red head gave him a look which reminded him of that fateful night at the Byers’ house.)

It did not however matter to Steve. He enjoyed the kids’ company and they enjoyed his. He loved the extra attention and affection he received from the party’s mothers (since he was devoid of that after his mom moved out post the divorce). Steve Harrington was thankful for the benefits that came with being “a damn good” babysitter. But what Steve Harrington did not realize was the biggest benefit of babysitting was yet to come his way.

Just like he did every Friday, Steve picked up the kids from the Arcade at 6 pm on the dot. As always he dropped off the kids one by one. However, today instead of dropping off Max at the very end Steve was to drop off Dustin at the end. Half way through the ride, Steve thought only the order of dropping off the kids was out of the ordinary. But soon he realized he was wrong.

While the rest of the kids (excluding Will and Jane who were being picked up by Jonathan and Jim Hopper respectively) were chatting excitedly a dead silent Dustin Henderson sat on the passenger’s seat fidgeting with the zipper of his hoodie.

“You okay man?” Steve softly asked Dustin in order to not alert the rest of the kids.

Dustin looked at Steve with wide eyes and gave him a half-hearted nod.

“Yup definitely out of the ordinary.” Thought Steve as he glanced at the younger boy.

After dropping off everyone Steve pulled over in the driveway of the Henderson household. He turned around to confront Dustin about his behaviour only to see Dustin eyeing the yellow mustang parked into the driveway next to Steve’s car. Before Steve could even utter a syllable Dustin jumped out of the car and sped into his house.

Confused Steve climbed out of his own car and shut the door softly. He eyed the unfamiliar vehicle. He had never seen it in town. Sure some people in Hawkins owned a yellow mustang but this one did not have a Hawkins number plate. Shrugging his shoulders Steve decided to get back in his car and drive away but he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Dustin scream loudly.

Without wasting a second Steve grabbed the nail ridden bat from the trunk of his car (he still kept it. Precisely for times like these) and made a run to the door. Thankfully Dustin had left it open when he ran into the house a while ago. Holding the bat above his head Steve was about to smack whatever creature it was into another dimension. But, suddenly he came to a complete halt.

Dustin stood facing a girl whose back was towards Steve. He observed them for a minute. Dustin’s eyes were wide and Steve swore he saw a weird twinkle in his eyes. His smile spread from one ear to another almost like in cartoons. He was holding on to the girl’s arms tightly as if he was scared she would disappear in thin air.

Steve’s eyes slowly traveled to the girl. She had curly hair identical to Dustin’s. Her hair ran past her shoulders down to her waist. The big ringlets almost resembled a waterfall. She was a little taller than Dustin. That’s all Steve could see but he wanted to see more.

“I thought you weren’t going to come. Mom said the flights were cancelled and I thought you bailed out on me and mom was just making excuses to make me feel better.” Dustin gushed at the mysterious girl.

“Well, I told mom to say that. I was gonna drive here and surprise you instead.” the girl laughed as Dustin jumped a little.

Steve had heard in a science class once that the human heart is the size of a closed fist. But he was sure that was a lie. Because the moment her voice fell on his ears, he swore that his heart had inflated to resemble size of the continent of Asia. Sweet and melodious, it sounded like the sweetest song he had ever heard.

“I cannot believe mom managed to keep this from me. What the hell! I have so much to tell you. But first I wanna show you the trophy I won for the science quiz. Wait here.” Dustin ran to his room.

“Hey! No running in the house Dusty!” Her voice sounded soft even when she yelled out at dustin.

The loud thud caused due to Dustin running into his room suddenly brought Steve to his senses.

Steve looked from Dustin’s bedroom door to the girl in front of him who was now looking at him. He could see her face properly now. She was mouthing something but he couldn’t hear a word of what she said. Instead he carefully took in her appearance.

Her hair looked even fuller from the front. Her skin was slightly tanned and a soft blush sat atop her cheeks. Her lips had a tinge of pink to them. She wore a white shirt tucked into a pair of high waist shorts. Before Steve’s eyes (and thoughts) could wander to her exposed legs he looked into her eyes. They were a shade of dark brown almost black but the rogue rays of the setting sun that poured through the open window formed tiny yellowish orange specs in her eyes.

“Amber.” Her voice felt like a soft touch against his skin.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the thoughts he looked at her.

“You said yellowish orange. That’s amber.” As Steve blinked to look at her confused face, he realized he probably said what was on his mind loudly.

With bright cheeks he extended his right hand out, “I am Harrington, Steve Harrington. I babysat… sit… babysitter… Dustin’s babysitter. I am Dustin’s babysitter. Friend.” If Steve was embarrassed before he wanted to dig himself a hole and jump in that now.

“You’re Steve Harrington? Mom talks about you a lot.” She smiled and shook his hand.

Had Dustin not interrupted their conversation Steve was sure he would have died from heart failure because he swore he felt his heart stop the moment their hands touched.

“I see you’ve met my sister. (Y/n) this is Steve. Steve this is (y/n) my older sister.” Dustin said as he stood next to his sister glaring at Steve who was still holding his sister’s hand.

Steve dropped her hand and looked at her once again. Now he finally knew who this mystery girl was and he thanked the heavens for letting him babysit Dustin Henderson.

Speaking of whom, Dustin took a few strides towards Steve and continued to glare at the older boy. Unlike before Dustin wasn’t quite but was now clenching his fists and looking at Steve; almost as if he was trying to look intimidating.

“If you try to pull any of that “don’t care.” “It drives em nuts” and “sexual energy shit” with my sister I’ll whack you quicker than you killed the demo-dogs.” Dustin whispered through clenched teeth and for a moment Steve was actually scared of the curly haired boy standing in front of him. That is until (y/n) (Steve’s new favorite name) interrupted.

“Dusty, where’s your trophy?” on hearing her voice both boys straightened up. Dustin smiled at his sister and walked to his mom’s room muttering about how she keeps on misplacing his things. Honestly, Steve was too engrossed in looking at (y/n) to comprehend what her younger brother said.

“So? Sexual energy? Demo-dogs? Would it be okay if I ask you why these two words came up in the same sentence?” she chuckled (god everything she did was endearing).

“It’s better if you don’t.” Steve scratched at the back of his neck.

“Oh! Shame. I thought maybe you could give me a proper explanation about it over a burger and milkshake, maybe?” The soft blush of her cheeks became more prominent as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Steve suddenly felt at ease knowing that she was just as nervous as he was. So he asked her, “Are you sure?”

“I mean if you think it’s inappropriate or something, I-

“I mean one burger and shake won’t be enough. It’s a pretty long story.” Steve mentally praised himself for not making an utter fool out of himself.

Following Steve’s remark (y/n) only chuckled and sighed as if she was relieved.

“So I’ll pick you up at 7 tomorrow and we can talk about the demo-dogs and eat some burgers?” Steve managed to ask (while holding his heart in hands).

After a moment of painful silence, she gave him a smile and a nod. Mimicking her expression Steve turned around and walked to his car.

Yup, Steve Harrington: former keg king/ former King of Hawkins high/ former Resident playboy/ current babysitter, was falling in love, for sure.

MASTERLIST

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ikolmagpi · 6 years ago

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harringrove fanfic rec

I've been hyper fixated on this ship

¯\_(ツ)_/ ¯

in waves

It’s March and it’s too cold for Billy to be shirtless and wearing shorts, but he hadn’t noticed until Harrington appeared and made him hold still. Harrington can’t seem to stop looking at the bruises. “What’s it to you if I miss a little school, Harrington?” Billy asks. He feels goosebumps rising on his skin.

“I don’t know,” Harrington snaps back, looking uncomfortable. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Plant your feet, Billy wants to scream at him. I’m going to bowl you over.

They Don't Believe In Us (But I Believe We're The Enemy)

“Fuck,” Steve laughed, spilling scotch all over the back seat of his BMW as he tried to refill his flask. Billy leaned against his side and stole the bottle when Steve was done. He took a long swig, gasp on his tongue when he was finished. “I didn’t know you were a light weight,” Billy teased, but his hands wobbled as he put the bottle back on the seat. The glass dinged off Steve’s bat. The liquid sloshed against the glass. “I didn’t know you were full of shit,” Steve replied. “Liar. We both knew that.”

Switchblade

Billy's obsession with his knife has Steve's attention, but then Steve starts noticing other things about Billy Hargrove. Eventually, noticing turns into liking, and liking turns into something he doesn't want to name. Especially since he is sure Billy doesn't swing that way. It doesn't stop them from stumbling into a careful dance around music, though, even if Steve pines for something he doesn't believe he'll ever have.

a prayer for which no words exist

"There's blood on your face," Steve said numbly. He touched his own mouth. His fingers came back dark and slick with blood. Billy threw back his head and laughed. Red stained his teeth. "You gonna still kiss me, darling?" (Or: The one where Steve and Billy find something in each other they couldn't find in anyone else.)

F*ck Me Up (On a Spiritual Level)

He got all of Steve's memories in sharp fragments and horrible pieces. Who knew all this pain would come from Steve 'Princess of All that is Good' Harrington--the perfect golden boy himself? Billy certainly didn't. It wormed deep within him, made Billy hate himself more than he already does, made him want to beg for that Wheeler girl to come wrap her arms around him, made him hate these woods and the demodogs that might be in them. Billy knows what a demodog is now, and it's all thanks to Steve. -- Billy is an experiment, a faulty one at best. When his powers start kicking up again, things get out of control and Steve finds himself being the Mike to his El. (Several chapters have been written already)

Focal Point

Billy half convinced himself that the alien-dog in the forest was a drug-induced hallucination from whatever his bitch step-sister had injected into his neck. But something weird is happening. And he can't control it. Naturally, Steve Harrington get's himself involved.

Don't Tell Me There's No Hope At All/ Together We Stand, Divided We Fall

Billy's used to being afraid of his father, and he knows he's not the only one scared. But it's one thing to know your stepmother gets smacked around every once in a while and another thing completely to find her body on the bathroom floor. He's a mess, Max is even more of a mess, and Joyce Byers is a queen among mothers, she really is.

Mixtape

“Get the hell out of here, Harrington.” Billy was annoyed but Steve couldn’t detect that aggressive note in his voice that he usually had when he was really angry. “And wipe that smile of your face, or I’ll do it for you.” “Fine.” Steve said stepping away. He wondered – was Billy nice or was he batshit crazy? OR: A close look at Hargrove's (and sometimes Steve's) life and slow build romance (starting 3 weeks before the Snow Ball)

All Four Walls Make A Home

Things are supposed to be normal. El closed the gate, and now the shadows Steve thinks he sees in the middle of the night are supposed to be figments of his imagination. But knowing what he knows, can he ever accept that? When it turns out that maybe an evil from another dimension and a government conspiracy aren't so easily silenced, Steve finds himself cornered in a unexpected way: having to balance his new kind-of friendship with Billy Hargrove, and his top secret detective/security guard night job. Thanks, Reagan.

Words Left Unsaid

When he gets drugged at a party with Steve, his absence at home lands Billy in trouble with his old man. The next night, a call from Max drags Steve back into the circus at the Hargrove Household, trying to help. After that, a tentative truce of sorts forms between the two Kings of Hawkins, along with a shaky friendship built around ferrying kids around town. But they're soon reminded that the world is full of monsters, both human and...not. The Upside Down isn't done trying to break into our world.

Who's Gonna Drive You Home?

“Steve,” she says again, with more urgency, and now he’s sure it’s Max. “I need your help.” Steve’s pulse goes into overdrive. “Max, what’s wrong? I can get Hopper- ” “No!” she cuts him off, talking fast. “No cops. There’s no time and, and…it’s so cold out there and—and there’s just no time okay? You have to trust me. Please. You know the road I live on? I need you to come here now, but DO NOT stop at the house, just keep driving past it, but come as fast as you can and…” she hesitates “And—you’ll know when you see. You’ll understand.”

The Last-Ditch Efforts of Wayward Boys

The night that Billy is sent out to find Max doesn’t end when he wakes up on the Byers’ living room floor. Instead, his father’s rage reaches new heights and Billy finds himself at the end of his rope. When his only chance out of Hawkins lands him in counseling and partnered up with Steve Harrington of all people, Billy expects to play his part until he’s in the clear and back in California for good — but his life has seldom ever gone according to plan and, as it turns out, Billy’s not the only boy in town haunted and scarred and desperate for one last shred of hope.

Smalltown Boy: The Ballad of Billy & Steve

Steve Harrington encounters his rival, Billy Hargrove, and is surprised to see a different side of the troubled rebel. Friendship is inevitable, but could there be something more between these two magnificently coiffed high school dandies?

Close It Off. Board It Up.

Because deep down, Billy Hargrove was just a scared little boy with the world on his shoulders and a secret that he was desperate to keep hidden. Starting post-S2 ending. Potentially triggering content inside

Hargrove

“Chief?” “Yeah?” Hopper responded. It was barely eight o’clock; he’d just made it to the office. “Principal Wallace needs you down at the high school. The Hargrove kid’s sleeping in his car again, and they can’t get him to wake up.”

we can't go on just running away Billy gets his camaro back.

Billy Hargrove Sucks Hopper puts Steve in charge of sobering up a wasted Billy Hargrove one afternoon and suddenly things start to make sense. Until they really don't.

John Bender Loves Steve Harrington

In which Billy is trying. No, really.

magic soaking my spine

Steve Harrington survived the apocalypse. Twice. Now he has to survive community service with Billy Hargrove, which is honestly ten thousand times worse.

Yourself or Someone Like You

Maxine looked happy as they parted from Steve and walked down Main Street away from the theater. She slid into the passenger seat of Billy’s car. 'That was really fun,' she said. She looked at him like a gremlin and then smiled real cutesy. 'Did you and Steve hold hands in the popcorn?' 'I hope you had a real good time, I’m going to kill you in your sleep tonight,' Billy told her.

Only The Freaks Come Out At Night

After a long pause, long enough for Steve to think he’s not getting an answer (not that he knows if he wants one anyway) Billy responds, “All the fucking time, pretty boy.” Because sometimes getting hypothermia sounds more appealing than going home. They each smoke another cigarette in silence. Harrington’s face glows softly in the cherry light, his eyebrows furrowed as he stares into the inky water. Aka some sort of character study of Billy Hargrove. (Previously named 'You Make Me Not Want to Die' but that's the name of the series now)

dried up, half full

Steve’s been coming out here searching for a monster in the woods. He’s finally found one. “What do you want, Hargrove?”

knit more nearly together

takes a second to feel relieved he’s not Dustin getting all sorts of arrested in places he shouldn’t be, then he goes back to staring. Steve hasn’t seen Billy Hargrove since high school. Three years ago. The cop is staring at them, looking back and forth. “So uh,” the cop says, “Are you boys…good? If you’re still willing to vouch for him, then I’ll need you to sign for him, Mr. Harrington.” “Steve,” Steve corrects absently, at the same time Billy corrects, "Princess." The cop coughs awkwardly, and Steve walks up to the front, signs for Billy like he’s a package, or he guesses, in trouble with the law.

#stranger things #harringrove #steve harrington #billy hargrove #fanfic rec #fanfiction #angst #h/c #slow burn #enemies to friends to lovers #billy x steve #fanfiction recommendation #steve x billy #screaming into the void

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