#filled with this slimy Lovecraftian shit

[bebethsas]

@dopeasspancake​ @vivika-ka​

...see what I’m seeing here is an opportunity to re-write this scene where there’s no fight at all.

Like, Billy full-on glares at Steve, looks him dead in the eye, drops his cigarette to the ground to stub it out, and says “look, either my sister’s coming with me, or I’m not leaving.”

And Steve sees the intense protective look in Billy’s eyes, recognizes it as the same look he gets when talking about his kids, turns around to look back the kids’ scared faces in the window, looks back at Billy, looks up at the sky with the biggest most dramatic beleagered sigh with his hands on his hips, and goes

“fine.”

he pointedly ignores the chorus of shoked/ outraged/ alarmed/ upset WHAT?! from the window, as well as Billy’s smug face, and adds:

“but you gotta behave yourself in there dude, I mean it. First hair you hurt on any of their heads, and I won’t hesitate to drag you out by your mullet.” (said smug look falls off Billy’s face when he realizes that Steve wasn’t agreeing to let Max go with him, but to let him stay.)

or he says something like this instead: 

“Because I don’t trust you any farther than I could throw you.”

“I could say the same thing, Hair-ington.”

“look Max is terrified of you, alright? She said you’d kill her when you pulled up, and she sounded like she meant it.”

Then he turns his back to Billy to walk into the house, and makes pointed eye contact with the kids in the window, silently telling them ‘don’t worry, I still don’t trust him, I’m just appeasing him. I won’t hesitate to kick his ass if he tries anything.’

(And yeah, a part of Steve is probably nervous/ guilty about potentially dragging another person into this mess, but y’know what? Billy’s an asshole! ...So he tries not to feel very guilty. Who knows, maybe this shit will blow over, and El the Magic Girl--and the actual adults--will take care of this, and all he’ll be on the hook for is babysitting duty.)

So, Billy walks inside the Byers’ home. And Max is already trying to shield Lucas from him, b/c it’s true, she’s terrified of her step-brother (and she’ll gladly punch anyone—except Steve—who points that out, b/c she’d rather get hurt than admit weakness duh), but she likes Lucas. She might not be quite ready to admit it out loud yet, but she does, and she’s willing to put herself in harm’s way to at least temporarily slow her step-brother down.

Billy’s gaze zeroes in on her the second he steps through the door. “c’mon, Max--Neil sent me to fetch you.” And there’s a lot of implications in that statement, further driven home by the fresh bruises on his face that she doesn’t remember seeing before she snuck out. [I know Neil shoved him into a wall, but for this ficlet’s sake, Billy’s got visible bruising, alright?]

She still digs in her heels, looks back at the boys—her new friends—and goes “No. I’m staying with them.”/ no, they need me/ I’m not going anywhere with you/ I’m not going back home (right now). [I couldn’t decide which fit best, so I’m leaving all the options I thought of here.]

(And Neill told Billy to bring Max back or don’t come home, so, the way Billy sees it, he’s in the clear either way.)

Billy looks at her, looks at the boys (all staring at him in terror—understandably so, since it was only a few days ago that he tried to run them down with his car), snorts and replies “whatever.”

And Steve’s frowning disbelievingly at him (behind his back) with his arms crossed, kinda rolling his eyes a little, because: ‘Like yeah, sure dude, posture all you like, we both know that you actually care.’

 Then there’s another chirp from the walkie-talkie, and Dustin lunges for it. Some kind of sound/ message comes through that motivates the kids even more to go to the tunnels, and the kids burst into a cacophony of pleas to Steve, that ‘they can help’ and ‘they need us.’

And Steve goes back into Mama Bear Mode, and says something like “no, absolutely not, you heard Hopper, we’re staying here.”

And Mike—the contrary little shit that he is, especially in season 2—shoots back “you’re not our mom!”

Billy—who’s relaxed a fraction once he heard that an actual responsible adult put Steve in charge of these kids, and his sister is not really in a sketchy situation (well, the usual kind of sketchy situation, anyway, because something’s clearly up)—smirks and echoes “yeah, Harrington, you’re not their mom.”

And Steve looks at him witheringly, like ‘oh, don’t you even—.' Meanwhile Billy’s already got a fresh cigarette between his teeth and is smirking/ grinning at him.

Cue the kids begging Steve to drive them, and Steve refusing some more, then Billy holds up his keys, jingles them, and says:

“my car’s pretty fast.”

“no, no, no—absolutely not!” Steve protests, pointing first to Billy, then Dustin, then Mike.

Mike ignores him, and either he or Dustin asks how many people can fit in his car. Max looks alarmed because there is no way she’s going anywhere with her explosive short-fuse of a stepbrother, and starts to protest herself, when Steve lets out this loud, frustrated groan and goes “FINE! But we’re not going there unprepared or unarmed, and you stay behind me at all times, understood?”**

They grouse a bit, and he repeats “understood?”

And they grumble a ‘yeah, yeah, understood.’ And if Mike calls him ‘bossy’ under his breath, no one comments on it.

**[Note: the wording of this depends on if he’s agreeing to just drive them there, or they’re already planning on descending into the tunnels too; if just the former, then he’d probably insist on protection, *just* in case (because he knows these kids), but also insist that *they* are staying in the car, and *he* is going to take a look inside.]

They’re all wary to let Billy have a weapon, but they also know that things would be…’complicated’ if anything happened to him, and he should at least have a fighting chance to protect himself beyond just his fists.

So he gets a can of hairspray to use with his lighter as a make-shift flame-thrower.

In the car, Billy rides shotgun, because honestly none of the kids want to sit next to him, and Steve would prefer Billy stay where he can see him (even if he’s the driver, and can’t really divide his attention from the road).

When they descend into the tunnels, Steve still insists at being at the front. Billy automatically enlists himself as the last person, and Max enlists herself as the second-to-last person, because she obviously still doesn’t trust Billy not to hurt her friends.

Cue Max and Billy having an actually fairly nice convo as siblings (well, nice for them).

“…so, how pissed was Neil when he found out I was missing?”

“you got me in a lot of trouble, you little shit.” He growls.

She actually looks a little guilty, and doesn’t make eye contact when she asks quietly “how bad was it this time?”

“Nothing he hasn’t done before,” he grumbles begrudgingly.

“He’s a damn tyrant,” she snarls.

He snorts. “nah, --he’s an asshole.” She snorts and smirks at that, and for a second, there’s a temporary truce between them. Then she eyes his bruises and looks apologetic. He looks at his bruises, looks at her dead-panning-ly (??***), slips his mask back on and snaps “move your ass, I’m not gonna carry you if you fall behind.”

She flips him off as she jogs to catch up with the boys, muttering “yeaaah, yeah, yeah…”

But behind her back, he smiles.

  Cut to ~10 minutes of exploring the tunnels later, when he has to use his make-shift flame-thrower to save Steve’s ass (b/c of course the protective/ heroic dumbass put himself in harm’s way first; he’ll always gladly put himself first in the line of fire (metaphorically) before he’ll let anything hurt his kids). This action also builds a tentative truce between Billy and Steve; the former respects Steve’s selfless actions for the kids, and the latter is grateful to have another Older Teen who he can (tentatively) trust to have his back. They’re not exactly gonna become friends at school or anything, but down in these tunnels, he knows what side Billy’s on.

 ...And that was Billy’s 1st introduction to the Upside Down, and the demo-creatures.

***look, I’m 99% sure that’s not a real word, but roll with me here.

every time i look back on steve and billy’s fight, i can’t understand people who straight up will talk about it like billy was planning a murder. he was willing to get his sister back home and be done with it. that would’ve been the end of it. was he pissed? yeah, rightfully so. his little sister sneaks out and it’s doing god knows what in a new environment she and their family knows shit about. [i’m not even getting into the scene with neil because plenty of people have, and they are certainly more coherent than i am lol]

an 18-year-old lies to billy about where his little sister is and when confronted about the lie, responds with an insult (“were you dropped as a child” comment). steve offers no explanation as to why his sister is there, and has the audacity to expect that billy will just, what, leave his little sister with strangers? respond with “aw shucks, i guess you know better, harrington. you know my little sister already, even though she is a middle schooler and we’ve been in this town for a week…i suppose it’s normal for a person your age to be around 13-year-olds who aren’t related to you. i’ll just leave you to it.”

[i wonder if people who vilify billy in this moment have siblings. because if you think leaving a sibling behind in a clearly shady situation would’ve been reasonable and ok…i’m concerned for your siblings lmao i’m sorry but i am]

but anyway. the point of the post is: when it gets to the climax of the fight, he has the upper hand after being on equal footing (because hey, steve punched him first, remember? steve is not a saint in this situation, and many people [antis most of the time] talk about this fight as if steve wasn’t throwing punches).

i don’t know if anyone has ever been in a fight, i unfortunately have been in a handful, i have been where steve is, and let me tell you, this doesn’t look like someone who enjoys having the upper hand. dacre could’ve very well acted this part with billy’s ah ha ha ha laughter, maybe a hint of smug satisfaction, maybe continuous taunting.

but he didn’t for a reason. billy isn’t enjoying any of this. in this supposed triumphant moment for billy, anguish overcomes anger. this isn’t what he wanted. he didn’t go to the byers’ house looking for and planning a fight, he was looking for his god damn little sister.

i just…idk. dacre puts out this complex performance in a matter of seconds, accomplished the definition of “show don’t tell.” but i guess the audience needed to be told. (although, they love to ignore neil’s scenes. so at this point it’s just plain denial).