#harrringrove ficlet

[yikesharringrove]

so... i’m back because i have too many of these and you asked for more so here we are so this is like a kind of modern au, am also thinking no monsters but i could go either way, i’m thinking like 2012-2015, Hawkins is a small town and because of that it’s views are still pretty conservative, its gotten better over the years but kids still get picked on for their race, sexuality, anything that makes them abnormal, in general it’s just less accepting (pt.1)

(pt.2) So Steve and Tommy are hanging around one day and Steve mentions he thinks he’s bi, Tommy just gets grossed out goes as far as to call steve some slurs and go home, and steve is crushed and terrified, by the time he shows up to school on monday the entire school knows and there are notes in his lockers telling him to kill himself and get out of the school and Nancy, one of the few people who supports him, tries to help, along with Johnathan who explains that they still love him...     

(pt.3) and he even goes as far as to introduce Steve to his brother, with a quick explain that he thinks he’s gay, and that he wants a good role model for him and steve defiantly cries, that’s how he ends up meeting the nerds, when Billy comes into town he almost immediately realizes his dad wanted to come here because it will be hard for billy to be openly gay without him knowing in minutes, on his first day people keep telling him to stay away from Harrington, no one will say why tho...            

(pt.4?) So a few days pass and Billy has yet to meet this harrington kid, but he’s heard stories, used to be too dog but something happened and now he’s labeled a freak. The first time they meet is when Billy comes to practice for the first time, they don’t talk Billy just watches the kid, can’t help but think he’s hot as fuck, but know saying anything about that will probably get him hate crimed, so after practice they all head to the showers...             

(pt.5) Steve seems like he’s trying to get out of there fast, keeps looking anywhere but at the other guys, when tommy comes in he seems to get even more stressed, immediately tommy starts mocking him, talking about how he doesn’t wanna be stuck naked next to steve, some of the other guys join in and billy finally gets it, when he starts listing again tommy has gotten straight up vulgar, asking gross shit and everyone is laughing  and steve looks like he wants to die...             

Okay, so I think I’m gonna write something longer for this because I love this idea, and I’ve had some ideas similar to this. And I may even revisit this for a full fic 🤔

(My ballet fic which will start being posted on Tuesday goes into this, that Steve was picked on for doing ballet and being queer and being femme.)

So, when Steve was like, thirteen, we logged onto the family computer and typed in “how to know if you’re gay” because all he knew was that Indiana Jones made him feel the exact same way Rihanna does, so he did what all us baby queers did, and asked google.

Google tells him that maybe, but there’s also something called the Kinsey Scale, and maybe he’s not gay, but bisexual, or pansexual, or just plain old queer. And all Steve knows is he likes the men on the cover of Sports Illustrated just as much as he likes the women.

When Steve and Tommy are freshly sixteen, and drinking stolen booze, and sitting on Steve’s brand new BMW, staring at the stars over the quarry, Steve tells Tommy that he kinda wants to kiss boys as much as he wants to kiss girls. That he wants to be touched by other boys, to touch other boys. Maybe his drunk tongue slips and says he watched some gay porn and maybe the idea of getting fucked sounds kinda good, kinda hot.

Tommy flips on a fucking dime. He sits there and calls Steve names, tells him he’s disgusting says shit like is that why you’re friends with me? You want me to fuck you? and won’t get back in the car with Steve who cries while he drives home.

And come Monday, there’s the f-slur written on his locker I feel really weird about saying it or writing it out and everyone is pushing him around, and he gets accused of trying to make moves on other guys, and none of the girls will talk to him anymore, and he sits by himself at lunch, until Jonathan Byers, resident weird kid, slaps his lunch down across from Steve and just sits down and starts talking like they’re old friends. Like Steve hasn’t ever pushed him into a wall of lockers. And Steve is having too much fun laughing at this kid’s jokes to actually feel like he’s hit rock bottom.

So he becomes friends with Jonathan. They start hanging out after school, at the Byers’ place, and he meets Will, and he can practically smell the queer on the kid when he gives Steve a once over, goes bright red, and stutters out something about having homework to do.

Mrs’ Byers is kind, and invites him to stay for dinner, and sure, they heard that the Harrington kid’s a f-- but they don’t care, because he’s a sweet kid who helps Joyce with the dishes and plays catch with Will when Lonnie blows him off, and maybe Will blurts out that he has a crush on his friend Mike, and Steve just hugs the kid and wishes to god that it’s easier in Hawkins for this kid than it was for him.

And he and Jonathan get high one day, and Jonathan says he has a thing for Nancy, and Nancy’s been pretty sweet to Steve since he was forced outta the closet, so he helps him out, gets him a date, and they’re happy, and Steve has friends who care about him, who will go to college parties in the city with him, will make sure he keeps his location on his phone shared as he flirts with anyone he likes, has sex with anyone he likes. He has friends that sit with him when he cries in the library after he finds another note in his locker that says something along the lines of kill yourself f--.

And they’re in the parking lot, hanging out before school when Billy gets there, and Billy’s hot and Steve is in love when Billy looks at him across Tina’s Halloween party, smirking and winking. But Tommy's there, yammering in his ear that Harrington was top dog around here, but now, stay away from him. He’s a fucking freak.

And Billy wants to know more, because Harrington is hot, and has a cute kind of deer caught in headlights look about him, but all of his social media is private, and no one will tell Billy anything about him, and he learns to stop asking when Tommy says why do you care so much? You queer for him? because he’s in Hawkins now, and he’s not allowed to be gay in Hawkins. No one is.

And after basketball, Steve stays out of the showers as long as he can, but coach sends him out of the gym, says the school doors’ll be locked past six, so Steve tries to be stealthy, tries to take the shower in the corner, but then Tommy starts running his mouth about not wanting to get too close to Harrington, who is pointedly not looking at anyone, just staring at the drain by his own foot, but then Tommy starts going off about how, maybe he should give it to Harrington, bend him over and take him real good, just the way he’s always wanted, you know, he told me he wanted me to fuck him when we were sixteen and Billy finally gets it.

And Steve looks miserable, so Billy waits after practice, waits til all the other guys are gone, til it’s just him and Harrington in the locker room, and he turns and point-blank asks Steve if he’d want to go out sometime, makes it clear he means on a date. And Steve doesn’t know what to do, thinks this is some joke or something, so he doesn’t say anything until Billy corners him by his car, the same BMW Tommy once said was probably covered in Steve’s AIDs and tells him everything.

Tells him his dad caught him hookin’ up with a guy, that his dad brought him here, to a small conservative town with small conservative people, with the promise that if he acts on his impulses, the people will take care of it before I have to, Billy. He tells Steve that he thinks he’s cute that he wants to take him out on a date.

Steve is so excited he invites Nancy and Jonathan over to help him pick out what to wear, and Billy picks him up, and they go to dinner and a movie in the city, and it’s so nice and fun and Billy kisses him sweetly on the doorstep, and in two weeks, Billy is his boyfriend and they double with Nancy and Jonathan, and go on dates in the city almost every weekend, and they talk to Will about boys, tell him that liking boys is okay that it’s not gross or bad or wrong.

And maybe everything isn’t perfect, Billy’s dad is still a piece of trash, and people still are assholes to Steve, but they have each other, and they love each other, and so things are pretty okay.

Fill my inbox! Send me asks, prompts, or headcanons!

[plistommy]

Imagine if Billy survived in s3 and the opening scene of the next season was this…

It would show them sleeping peacefully at first, until it starts to focus on Billy’s face more and how he’s clearly having a bad dream. There would be flashbacks of what happened to him last year on the screen as his face scrunched up even more.

He’d see something else too, a new vision in his head he hadn’t seen before because he is still connected to the mind flayer and that’s when he’d wake up with a gasp.

He’d look around the room, trying to see where he is and when he realizes it’s Steve’s room and that there’s no danger, he’d slowly look down at Steve who’s still peacefully sleeping next to him and letting out soft hums as he moves closer to Billy in his sleep.

The last scene would be close up of Billy’s face as he looks away from Steve with sweat dripping down his forehead and him trying to calm his breathing with a slighty startled and knowing look and then… it’s cuts to the opening credits.

sleeping together