Billy tugs his phone out of his pocket, clumsy fingers swiping notifications from the home page.
He’s got four emails from Cosmo, a missed call from Maxine, and a message from Joyce that lights up his screen with the same sprawling, letter-esque type that all people born before 1983 seem to use.
Billy, Joyce says, and Billy imagines her index finger tapping furiously, glasses perched on the tip of her nose, Hop ate some bad seafood. Won’t make the party. I’m sorry, kid. Love you so much. Breathe in, have fun, breathe out. Love, Joyce Byers.
Billy hadn’t noticed the time.
“This is fun,” Eddie says, suddenly.
Billy looks up, startled out of his swirling little daydream. “Sure,” he says distantly. Things have settled in the dust. Soft, intimate conversations flutter around the room like butterfly wings, brushing Billy’s skin and sticking to the sweat on his brow.
He’s relieved to be out of the spotlight. A good meal can take the edge off of things, sending people into a heady, comfortable space where nothing matters as much as it did before.
Scarecrow is asleep on the couch. Everyone else is gone.
Billy considers the clock on his home screen and the prickly meaning of 10:23 shining over the last picture he took with his mom before boarding the plane last Christmas. His feet hurt, his throat’s dry, and really what would it matter if he took off?
It’s not like Steve would toss a rock through his living room window. He might send someone after him, like. Chrissy or Eddie or Dustin, who Billy learned spent every summer at a camp not far from Mammoth Lakes. He’s been gathering information all evening, building his arsenal. No matter the case or the friend or the scenario, Billy could take them–
“Should we go check on Steve?”
Billy looks up from the empty pit of his cell phone screen. It’s gone dark. The room has cleared out, with art majors and registered nurses running back to whatever warehouse Steve keeps them in, and it’s down the the bare bones.
Billy. Scarecrow, asleep on the couch. Robin and Chris, probably, sitting on a bathroom floor somewhere misty-eyed like El and Max are when they’ve had too much to drink, doing each other’s hair and throwing compliments at each other like confetti. And Munson.
Always Munson.
Eddie wags an eyebrow, patting at his shirt pocket for a packet of cigarettes. “Want?”
“No,” Billy says, wrinkling his nose at the bright orange package, “Thanks.”
Apparently, people still smoke Dosal’s.
Apparently, this is 1982.
“Suit yourself, Blondie,” Eddie fishes a pale slim between two fingers and pinches the butt with his teeth, patting around all over again for a lighter. Billy wants to play the Hypocrite, insisting that smoking real cigarettes is bad, even though his lips are lightning pricks of jealousy.
“They’re having a moment,” Billy says finally.
“Who?”
“Nancy and Steve.”
“Awful long moment, if you ask me.”
“Nobody did.”
“Gee, thanks,” Eddie quips back. He gets a flame started. Smoke pouring from his nose like a dragon, “You should go up there,” Eddie says, eyes bright with mischief.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t just go up there–”
“Don’t wanna cause a scene?” Eddie blows smoke through his nose, the flat, sweaty face of his palm lining circles through the air, “Dude. Party’s dead. It’s not like anyone’s around to see and even if they did, they won’t remember or care once the hangover kicks in.”
“Oh, and you don’t count?”
“‘Course not, Blondie, I’m just stirring the shit. Besides,” Eddie smirks, “You go up there and find out what’s keeping him, and I swear I’ll punt the Wheeler kid over my shoulder and we’ll be gone in time for Nancy to storm, broomstick flying, out the front door.”
The edge of Billy’s cell cuts into his palm, its corner pressing deep enough that Billy feels his pulse thumping through centimeters of metal and plastic. “Where’s Chris?”
“Went for a sleepover with Robin and the baby. Chrissy loves kids.”
Billy doesn’t remember that. He doesn’t remember much of anything–
“Are you serious?” Eddie rolls his eyes, “That’s what you get for staring at your phone for twenty minutes, Hargrove.”
Billy starts. “Twenty minutes?”
“It’s true what they say about radio signals and microwaves and cell phones frying your frontal lobe, you know–”
The ceiling starts thumping overhead. “Wait,” Eddie says to himself. To Billy. He holds his palm upward, cigarette smoke curling up through his fingers like fog from a sewer grate.
Someone slams a door.
And then someone else comes thundering down the stairs, their footfall so heavy that Billy glances at the knick-knack shelf with mirth.
He holds his breath, terrified and suddenly, heart-wrenchingly sober–
And then Nancy rounds on him.
She’s crying.
Eddie says, “Wheeler,” like he knows something they don’t know.
Nancy ignores him. Her eyes somehow catch and tear open on Billy’s smooth, concerned gaze. He wants to say something to her. He wants to apologize and scrub the thundering sound of her footsteps from the stairwell.
She stalks to the foyer, snatching her purse off the now bare antique table that had bags and jackets piled high not even twenty minutes ago. “Mike,” Nancy says, her eyes glued to the floor as she digs around for her keys.
Scarecrow doesn’t rouse from his spot on the sofa. He’s drooling, a little.
Billy clears his throat, “Is everything–”
“Michael Wheeler,” Nancy says, with all the pissed-off, righteous terror of a girl who spent too long at her mother’s knee.
Mike sits with a startled sound, “What, what happened? Is everything–”
“Get up so I can drive you home.”
Mike stares wildly around the room, dimly lit like all rooms are at the end of a monumental evening. “Where is everybody?” Mike’s wide, nervous eyes land on Billy. “Hey, do you have any more of that tater-tot casserole?”
“I–”
Nancy grabs her brother by the scruff of his neck, “You don’t need more casserole, I can get you McDonald's on the way home.”
“Home,” Mike repeats, scrubbing sleep from his eyes, “What happened to you and Steve–”
Nancy hauls Mike to the front door, shoves him through, and slams it shut behind them.
The house falls silent like someone hit the mute button. Like Nancy ripped the button out of the wall and they’re stuck in this weird, floating space between alive and. Something else. Radio silent.
Eddie clears his throat, “Anyway–”
“Mike told me he doesn’t like tater-tot casserole,” Billy says thickly. Feeling. A little bit like a tiny ceramic figurine in the center of a snow globe, full of wonder as emotions swirl brightly all around him.
Maybe he’s just drunk. “He said he wouldn’t eat it.”
“Right.”
“But he did,” Billy tries heavily. “Mike was the first person I met when I got here and he made me feel like shit, but then. He ate the casserole.”
Eddie nods, taking a languid drag from his still-lit cigarette. Billy thinks that Steve is going to throw a fit when he comes down here and finds his vintage, 1970s furniture smelling exactly like the decade they were manufactured in.
Billy shakes his head, willing it to clear. “It doesn’t make sense. Nothing makes sense anymore.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I just mean that. Why would Mike eat the casserole if he hates it?”
Eddie shrugs, “Maybe he was lying?”
“But why would he eat my casserole if he hates me?”
“Maybe he was lying,” Eddie says again, flatter this time. He puffs on his cigarette, studying the drunken flush on Billy’s cheeks. It goes on forever and forever and then he ashes his cigarette in the tray Steve uses to keep loose change in, leaning forward on his elbows.
Eddie’s head gets huge and wobbly like a bobbledummy. “Can I be honest with you, Billiam?”
“--Billiam–”
“Can I, though?”
“Sure?”
“You’re a great guy,” Eddie says lightly, full of feeling, and Billy starts to shake. “I’m being serious. You’re the best guy Steve’s been with in longer than I can remember, you just. I think you judge people too harshly.”
“Me?”
“You.” Eddie determines. He leans back, cool as a frizzy-haired cucumber. “I just think, like. You’re getting all misty-eyed over the drunken realization that maybe Mike didn’t hate you as much as you thought he did, and earlier you seemed surprised that Nancy didn’t try to kill you with a paring knife, and you’re attributing it all to some garlic bread and a fucking tater-tot casserole.”
Billy’s ears feel hot. Red hot and sunburned, under the weight of Eddie’s scrutiny. Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong– “What should I attribute it to, then?”
“You,” Eddie says, lighting another cigarette. “I’ve known you for half a day, Hargrove, and I can tell. You’re cool. Way cooler than you give yourself credit for.”
–
Eddie makes up some bullshit lie about needing to go home. I work in the morning, he says, so Billy lets him go.
And then he climbs the stairs, two at a time while flickering memories of the party-set-up dance just out of reach. He’s never actually been anywhere beyond the landing on the second level of Steve’s house. The attic drawstring dangles in a lazy, barely-there breeze, and Billy’s surprised to find more doors than he anticipated, stamped along the hallway in calm, quiet darkness.
He imagines them leading to spare bathrooms. Closets that span the entire floor. Libraries and knicks that lead to the unpolished servant’s quarters.
It’s magical like the Brothers Grimm stories his mom used to read to him, and Billy has the foreign, intense urge to open every single door and peer into the darkness like Nancy Drew.
Nancy Wheeler.
But the door on the farthest end of the hallway spills gold onto the carpet from a tiny, amber sliver, and Billy’s heart thumps wildly, battering against his ribs at the thought that Steve’s in there, Steve’s just down the hall–
Billy knocks twice with the hardest part of his knuckle. Just like his mother used to before Neil went missing and before Susan made her laugh at the grocery store, back when Billy had huge feelings but couldn’t put a name to them. Back when his bedroom was a fortress.
“Steve?” Billy says. Someone shuffles behind the door, their shadow casting long enough to reach like phantom fingers into the hallway. “I think I’m gonna head out–”
The door swings open.
Steve’s been crying.
Right away, Billy’s heart skips a beat and starts thumping backward, eager to turn back time and retrace every step until things start to make sense again. “Oh, you didn’t have to open the door,” Billy says, shyly, “Sorry. I didn’t want to bother you.”
Steve shrugs. He won’t meet Billy’s eyes when he says, “Is everyone else gone?” Like he hopes they’ll come thundering up the stairs, one right after the other, to save him from this.
Billy tries to push the thought away and fails. “No, they’re all gone.”
“Did you have an alright time?”
“Yeah,” Billy says softly, surprised to feel his heart opening like a flower in the light of that truth. “Your friends are really great, Steve. Chrissy was a doll and Robins–”
“Robin.”
“Yeah. Dustin actually knew where Mammoth Lakes is on a map, like. I was so surprised. And he’s been hiking near the mountains at that nerdy little summer camp–”
“--Camp Knowhere–”
“Right. Science camp,” Billy smiles, feeling hot all over from the booze, “And Eddie was great, too, y’know. For a nosy piece of shit.”
Steve starts at that, his spine going ramrod straight like maybe Billy’s words electrocuted him. “You. You spent most of the night with Eddie?”
“Yeah, he’s cool,” Billy chuckles, and. Steve makes a face, like. A trademark, Big-eyed-terrified-jealous-asshole kind of face. It’s adorable. “Steve. Are you jealous?” Billy asks, amused.
Steve turns beet-red. “No.”
“Oh my god, you are.”
“I’m not jealous of Eddie Munson,” Steve spits, rolling his eyes so far back Billy thinks they may never be brown again, “He’s a nice guy, I just. Can’t believe you found anything he said so interesting that it took you an hour and a half to come up here.”
Billy falters. “I thought he was one of your friends.”
“He’s a work friend,” Steve says sharply, “That’s not the same thing. Nancy said he was making eyes at you all night.”
And.
For the first time since Steve started turning Billy’s heart on its head with the sound of a shovel on his driveway, Billy wants to knock Steve’s teeth in. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Steve looks bashful, staring at the floor. “I don’t know. Nancy said that–”
“Fucking Nancy,” Billy spits. His arms burn, and his muscles pull tense. “She has no right to run up here and tell you that anything was going on, Steve, because she’s full of shit. Eddie’s a cool person. He was just being nice.”
“Like how he’s been ‘nice,’ to every other guy I’ve–”
Billy tries to put a lid on the fire that sentiment starts, burning through his stomach. That Billy’s not special. He’s just like every other guy Steve’s ever brought home. “Eddie loves his girlfriend,” Billy reasons, “Chrissy, remember her?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” Billy says, crossing his arms over his chest. “What does it matter who I spent the night with, anyway.”
“Billy–”
“I still had a good time. I thought that’s what you wanted?”
“It is what I wanted.”
“Then why are you acting so weird?” Billy's jaw aches. He wants to hinge it shut. Yearns to fold himself into Steve’s arms and forget everything. Nancy and the kitchen, Nancy and the Hallway–
But.
He’s drunk. And when Billy’s drunk, his mouth runs away with him. Steve’s hurt him, whether or not he meant to is inconsequential, and Billy’s suddenly pissed off. Furious. He bares his teeth. “It’s not like I could’ve spent any time with you.”
Steve picks up on it immediately, his eyes blowing wide with regret. “Bill–”
“When you weren’t saddled up in the next room, smoking until your eyes dried out and ditching me so I could bake bread in the kitchen like your little kept boy, you were locked up in here with Nancy.”
Steve’s baby browns flash red with anger. “Like you were, with Munson?”
“What are we talking about?” Billy snaps. “Where is this coming from?”
“Nancy just said–”
“You’re throwing a fucking fit because I was spending time with one of your friends?”
“To be fair,” Stee quips, smiling softly, “Eddie’s pretty cute.”
“I’m not in the mood for this,” Billy shakes his head, driven crazy with sorrow, “That’s bullshit, Steve. You don’t get to be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you, baby.”
“Don’t call me that,” Billy says, “I’m pissed at you.”
“Alright, Jesus–”
Billy feels his fuze stop, ready to detonate. “Why are you rolling your eyes and acting like this isn’t a big deal? It is.”
“I know.”
“I come up here and you start bitching at me about Eddie Munson. I’m not the bad guy, here. I wasn’t the one who disappeared for an hour to talk to a girl I once called ‘baby,’ on the phone.”
Steve doesn’t say anything.
His mouth opens and closes, working around a comeback, but Billy isn’t in the mood to give him that chance.
“For months, Nancy’s been this huge thing hanging over my head. Ever since we got snowed in that last time, and. Steve, I didn’t ask to be a bigger part of your life. I didn’t ask you to scrape my driveway, or bring me ice melt, or grow flowers to decorate my classroom with. I didn’t want any of it. I don’t deserve–”
What Nancy said to me. Robin’s kindness.
This.
Love.
You.
Billy takes a deep, steadying breath. “I’m sorry,” He says, tugging a hand through his hair. When their eyes meet, Steve’s are warm. Sad. Billy wets his lips, “I don’t want to bitch back and forth. Tonight was really fun. Really. I loved it.”
I love you.
Billy turns, grateful that the world is less of a dreamscape, now. He’s ready to go home, ready to disappear, But then–
“Nancy said she overstepped, tonight.”
Billy stops. His hand clutches the banister.
“She told me she opened her mouth and ruined what we had, and. To be honest, I’m not really surprised. I should’ve expected that she would say something fucked to you because she does that. Always has. It’s one of the reasons we broke up in High School and never got back together again, even though–”
“--Steve–”
“I just. We’ve never really stopped caring about each other, and it’s unhealthy. I was living in denial because it’s always been platonic on my end. But I think in some weird, step-ford wives kinda way, maybe Nance–”
Billy whirls, his body catching on fire, “I don’t want to hear that she’s in love with you, Steve.”
Steve watches him like a bear caught in a trap.
Billy’s voice cracks right down the middle. He hates it. He’s going to drown. “I swear to god. If you tell me that she’s in love with you and after all this time, all this shit you’ve done to make me like you. Steve, if you stand there and say you love her–”
“I’m not in love with Nancy Wheeler, Billy, I’m in love with you.”
Billy blinks, shocked when tears cling to his lashes.
He’s grateful that Steve isn’t close enough to see them, poised and ready to break like waves over his freckles. “No,” Billy says, not. Believing it. He can’t. He won’t. Billy shakes his head, “No–”
“Look–”
“--This is insane,” Billy says, “We’re fighting. We’re having our first fight.”
“Yeah,” Steve says sheepishly, “It sucks, but. It’s kinda nice, too. Refreshing to have it all out there.”
“Stop,” Billy says, breathless. “This isn’t right. I’m supposed to call you an asshole, and you’re supposed to kick me out and I’m supposed to not sleep, and. Cry to my sister on the phone. I’m supposed to realize I fucked up big time, and come back tomorrow with flowers and apologize for getting so drunk and ruining our lives–”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Steve says. He tucks his hands into his pockets, gaze steady on what he wants. “What’s happening is my fault.”
“It’s not,” Billy says thickly. He wants to stand on the stairway banister and say it’s his fault. All of it. His insecurity, his depression, his brain bullshit, making everything difficult since that first January day–
“It is, though,” Steve says, taking one step closer. “I shouldn’t have invited Nancy tonight. I should’ve done more to make you comfortable, and even though I knew all the shit with her was tearing you up inside, I didn’t do anything to stop it. I should have.”
“It’s okay–”
“It’s not okay, Billy, you’re supposed to throw shit and call me an asshole because I deserve it,” Steve says. “We’re having our first fight, remember?”
He’s on the verge of smiling, but.
Billy can feel heartache like an incoming rainstorm, emotions like clouds gathering somewhere neither of them can see but when the rains come and wash away everything that was there before, they can start over, bathed in the light of the dawn.
“I don’t know what she said, exactly, but Bill,” Steve looms closer, his eyes swamped with emotion, “You’ve gotta believe me. It’s not true.” When his hands cup Billy’s neck, they’re warm. His thumbs brush lightly over Billy’s jaw. “I’m so in love with you, Billy.”
Billy presses into them, like a cat, “Okay.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t say it earlier. I’m sorry–”
“That’s the thing about a first fight,” Billy says, grinning softly, “I think we get to have makeup sex, now.”
Steve holds terrifyingly, shockingly still, and then.
He moves.
Billy kisses him. He presses all his weight into Steve, pushing and pulling until their bodies meld into something new.
Steve sucks on his tongue, hands scrambling to touch every part of Billy he can find. They stumble, unsure on love-drunk legs, knees knocking along the hallway and into the bedroom.
Billy hums low in his throat. Steve’s tugging on his shirt, pulling the starched fabric downdown down until the blood stops pulsing up through his brain.
“Off,” Steve says, panting into his mouth, “Off, baby, please–”
“Buttons,” Billy grunts, and they go flying, a handful of tiny stars that leave scratch marks on the wallpaper.
This is the shirt Steve picked out for him. So they could match. They’re matching right now, two halves of a whole, and Steve gets him on his back, says, “Let me eat you out, baby. Please–”
“Yes.” Billy’s mouth chokes around a half-baked thought, that. Good boy. Steve, Billy, both of them.
“Thank you,” Steve says, like a prayer, and it’s ridiculous.
Billy wonders if it’s the start of something. Of love. Fifty more years draped button-downs and pressed khakis and Steve, salt-and-pepper gray around the temples and everywhere else.
He gets Billy’s pants off.
Billy moans because he wants to see it. The room is cold, and Steve is warm, and Billy tucks into it like an animal fending off the winter, and then he’s hot.
On fire.
Steve gets his mouth on Billy. Licks up his balls and swallows his cock down to the root, nose buried in the curly blond husk that pillows him. Steve gives head like someone’s told him he’s got ten minutes left to live. It’s break-neck. Harsh. The world is drowning and the sky has been torn open, and this is Steve’s dying wish.
“Shit,” Billy says to the ceiling, “Shit, Steve, I’m gonna–”
Steve pulls off with a wet, satisfying pop. “I’ve got lube in the drawer,” He says, voice hoarse through the fog of pleasure surrounding them.
He doesn’t ask.
He licks a stripe from Billy’s balls to his swollen, pink head, and says, “Open it for me.”
Billy doesn’t have the wherewithal to think so he gets on his knees and crawls, starving, to the beside table.
“Jesus Christ,” Steve says. He follows Billy up the mattress. Steve’s cupping his ass, petting it, spreading it open.
He spits on Billy’s pucker, and.
There are fingers, pressing lightly at his rim. Steve says, “I’ve wanted this for years,”
Billy drops the lube, says, “Years?” But then he’s being split open. Fucked open on Steve’s tongue, strong and sure and slick, in all his most tender places.
His face hits the mattress. He’s suffocating, and death smells like cedarwood and vanilla. Billy’s dripping a puddle onto it, ruining the duvet and the sheets too, probably, but.
It feels amazing. It’s amazing–
Billy’s radioactive. Steve’s got him by the kneecaps, keeping him open and receptive, and Billy’s cock hangs heavy and swollen when Steve pressed two fingers in alongside his tongue.
Billy’s makes a noise, like.
His lungs are giving out. His heart has grown lips to speak, after all these years, and–
“Is it okay if I–”
“Want you,” Billy gasps, tasting cotton on his tongue. He can’t manage more than that.
Steve pulls away, pressing a soft, sweet kiss to the base of Billy’s spine. “Lay on your back, okay?”
Bily does as he’s told.
His shirt is tangled frustratingly around his elbows. Billy twists onto his back, anyway, watching as Steve tugs his own pants down just far enough for his cock to bounce free.
It’s perfect.
It’s long and thick, pink at the tip next to a pretty brown freckle, and Billy wants to get his mouth on it. He tries to sit, obeying when Steve keeps him pinned to the mattress with a strong, gentle arm across his chest.
His pupils are blown wide, eating up all the honey-brown Billy loves so much. “I want,” Steve starts, gasping when Billy’s fingers tug at his length. “Fuck–”
“Where’s the lube?” Billy demands.
Steve fumbles for it. When his fingers close around the bottle, he squirts a generous amount onto Billy’s waiting palm and sits back, watching through eyes half-lidded as Billy’s fingers tease and play with him.
“You’re big,” Billy says softly.
“Jesus, you’re gonna give me a complex.”
“It’s a fact,” Billy twists his fingers and Steve lights up like Times Square. He wants to do it again, “You’re gonna feel so good, Stevie.”
Steve drops his forehead to Billy’s chest, tongue laving hot over his collarbone. “You talk way too much,”
Billy tugs on his cock a little harder, relishing the little ah ah ah’s Steve can’t hold back. He’s got Steve where he wants him, that pretty pink head bumping softly against his hole, and Billy needs this.
Steve’s heart and body and love, more than he’s ever wanted anything in his life.
It’s terrifying.
It hurts and it really, really doesn’t when Steve slides home. Kisses all over Billy’s face and says, “I love you,” like he’s a virgin who’s just seen God for the first time.
Then he moves, sliding out and back in, out and back in.
Thrusting and then pounding, folding Billy in half until Steve is all he can feel inside of himself, all he can see staring down from above.
“I love you,” Steve says. Keeps saying, when Billy whimpers that he’s going to come. Steve quickens his thrusts, “You’re gorgeous. You’re so tight, baby, so perfect. Come for me, alright? C’mon, let me see you–”
It’s all the gentle reverence Billy could never, ever deserve.
He has no choice but to lie there and take it.
–
“I like your ears.”
It’s hot, under the duvet cover. Billy’s covered in sticky, warm sweat. It’s Steve’s and it’s his and it’s theirs, making it difficult to stay put but impossible to pull away.
Steve’s got a leg thrown over Billy’s waist.
He’s propped on his elbow, gazing down at the soft, rounded shell of Billy's ear, fingertips tracing up and around until he tugs on the lobe.
“Ow,” Billy swats his hand away. “Dick.”
“You’ve got Dumbo ears.”
“Is this the best you can come up with in terms of pillow talk?”
“Freckles and pink cheeks and perfect lips. Long eyelashes and wonderful hair and now the ears, took?” Steve ignores him, leaning down to ghost the shell with his lips, “You’re like a cartoon character. It’s like God wanted to make everyone else feel bad about themselves because of how detailed you are.”
His breath tickles.
Billy laughs, high and bright, “God, you’re insane.”
“What do you expect? You’re the main character and I’m just a supporting role–”
“--shit, what time is it–”
“--I’m not even a supporting role, I’m a cameo. An NPC–”
Billy pats around under the covers for his phone, realizing that it’s probably still lying face-down on the coffee table.
“--It’s really only a matter of time before you find some other person who’s as perfect and detailed as you are, and then you can have perfectly detailed babies and live in your perfectly detailed house–”
Billy sits, drooping his legs over the side of the mattress, “I live in an IKEA showroom, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that.”
“Hey, where are you going?” Steve demands. “I thought we were gonna have a sleepover?”
Billy’s stomach swoops.
His brain kickstarts, trying to think of a reason he can’t sleep over tonight, but his synapses fumble the ball and he sits there, starched button down dangling between two fingers.
Suddenly, he can’t breathe.
The walls are closing in, and Steve says, “Billy, what’s wrong?” And Billy thinks no one should ever want anything from him. No one should ever get this far–
“Hey, why are you breathing like that?” Steve sits, palms spreading warmly over Billy’s stomach where he slots in behind him. “Where’d you go?”
Billy’s mouth dries up. Outside the window, the sky is starting to gray, a little, dawn slowly and softly approaching. Billy has no idea how long they’ve been here, lying like this together, but he knows he never wants to leave.
Won’t survive it ever ending.
But it will.
It will–
Steve presses a kiss to the back of Billy’s neck. “Talk to me, Billy. Please.”
Billy shakes his head.
“Let’s lay down,” Steve tells him, and before Billy knows it he’s tucked under the covers again, folded in and around the soft, supple places Steve has made for him.
Billy counts to one hundred, then.
Listens to Steve’s breathing for as long as it takes his own to go calm. Finally, he sits with his back to the headboard. Steve watches him, patient.
Always patient.
Billy takes a deep breath. “When you were up here with Nance–”
“--Billy–”
“What did she tell you?”
Steve’s fingers play with the knobs of thread on his duvet. Like the rest of his house, it’s old. Quilted. Probably a hand me down from his mother, and her mother, and hers before that. “She told me you were afraid of me.”
Billy waits. Listens.
“You know you don’t have to be, right?” Steve looks up at him, eyes thick with worry, “You know I would never do anything–”
“It’s more than that,” Billy says. “My mom. She wasn’t always gay. Or, maybe she was, but she wasn’t always married to Susan.” His knuckles turn white on the lip of the duvet cover. This is stupid. This is so fucking stupid. “Before our family was like it is now, there was. My dad.”
Steve nods. Waits.
“He was an angry man,” Billy swallows and his throat clicks. “He liked. Blood.”
“Baby, if it’s hurting you, we don’t have to talk about this.”
“I have a lot of problems, Steve,” Billy says. “Something’s wrong with me.”
Steve shakes his head, “You struggle with mental illness. That doesn’t mean something is wrong with you, Billy.”
And.
Steve’s shaking. His jaw is set, strong and resolute, ready to argue Billy’s case for him. Ready to lay these things to rest because they’re in love.
Steve says he loves Billy. He really believes it, and.
Billy toes the edge of a cliff. “I’m gonna tell you something I never say out loud,” He whispers, “Is that alright?”
“Of course, you can tell me anything.”
“I know, but,” Billy sits up straighter, tugging a hand through his hair, “I need to say it because. Look, Steve, I.”
Billy’s going to throw up.
He closes his eyes. “I love you, okay? I fucking love you, too, and I can’t. Goddamn do this, if you don’t know the whole story–”
“Alright.” Steve sits, taking Billy’s hands in his own. “Tell me. Go slow.”
Billy opens his eyes, and all he can see is Steve.
Beauty.
Kindness.
He realizes, then, that he’s shaking. That he would do anything to keep this.
It makes him brave.
“Okay,” Billy starts, staring down at their hands because that’s easier. “I moved out here because I knew there were kids that needed someone to care about them, but I miss my family. I haven’t unpacked my house because I can’t see myself fitting in here, but. I never really fit anywhere, except for with my sister.” He stares out, to the foot of the bed. He counts the shadows, seeing his father’s face in every single one. “Steve, I. I didn’t expect to fall in love with you.”
Steve laughs, “Same, you’re way too cool for me.”
“No, I’m serious. I didn’t expect to fall in love. Not with anyone,” Billy says, “Ever.”
Steve’s smile falls away. “That’s not possible,” He says valiantly, “Someone would’ve come along and loved you. You’re a beacon for it.”
Billy gasps, “I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Steve, I used to be a piece of shit–”
“--So did I–”
“--I have panic attacks,” Billy admits in a rush, like he’s ever been good at hiding them. “I overthink things, and I spiral–”
“--I love you, Billy–”
“--I have to go to therapy two times a week. My favorite color is gray. Well, blue and gray, but–”
“--I love you, Billy,” Steve says, again. He rubs his thumb across the back of Billy’s hand, smiling softly. “We were neighbors before this. I know you.”
Billy watches Steve’s thumb, timing his breaths to its careful, loving swipe. “There was something else Nancy said,”
“What?”
“That I can’t keep stringing you along if fear is what I feel.”
Billy realizes, half a second too late, that he’s dropped a bomb. Steve pulls away from him, brow furrowing. “Stringing me along?”
“No, not, like, in the literal sense–”
Steve gets out of bed. He’s naked, and it feels wrong to look when the roof is caving in, but Billy can’t help it.
“Nancy said that? I can’t believe Nancy said that, that’s so–” Steve’s eyes close like doors. “I don’t understand why you’re afraid of me.”
“Not you,” Billy says sharply. “She got that part wrong.”
“Then what? Tell me what I can do–”
“You can’t do anything!” Billy snaps. The room is silent. Outside, there are crickets. Night birds. Billy’s chest aches, pain springing fresh in his voice. “The fear is mine. It’s inside me. Ever since I was a kid, and. With my dad, I just.”
Steve watches him.
Billy shakes his head. “I feel like I have a lot of work to do before I can love somebody.”
A dam breaks.
Billy doesn’t realize he’s crying until Steve crosses to him, pulling Billy to his chest. “Love isn’t something you have to work for, alright? You don’t have to spend years working on yourself until you think you’re perfect enough to love someone, you’re perfect now.”
Billy hiccups, his throat closing just a little.
“Billy, please believe me,” Steve says.
Billy wants to. More than anything, but.
He pulls away, scrubbing at his face with the back of one hand. It takes everything in him to say it, but he has to. He owes it to himself and to Steve and to this brand new, perfect, fragile thing growing between them.
“I love you,” Billy says gently, “I do. I’ve loved you so much for so long but I feel like I don’t know who I am. I haven’t known since the second I moved to Hawkins, and I just. Need to see my mom. And my sister. I need to go home and be with my family before I can–”
“When does your spring break start?”
“I don’t know,” Billy says, “What day is it?”
“If I knew, I’d tell you,” Steve smiles in spite of himself, thumb lifting to wipe the tear tracks from Billy’s face. “I could’ve guessed, you know? You’ve never really been happy, here. I thought I was helping.”
“You are.”
Steve nods, threading their fingers together. He watches their hands for a moment, and then sighs, his neck rolling his eyes to the ceiling. “I think you should go home early.”
Billy frowns. “But–”
“If you need space, I can give it to you,” Steve looks at him, smiling small and sad, “It hurts that you don’t see yourself here and I’ll miss you like hell for those two weeks, but. If that’s what you need to feel sure about this–”
“--I’m sure about you, Steve–”
“--Then yourself. Take care of you first,” Steve grows serious, eyes tracking the curves of Billy’s face, “I want you to feel okay. That’s the most important thing.”
Steve presses a kiss to their hands, and Billy loves him. It rumbles down through his bones, spreading like wildfire until his skin catches aflame.
It hurts.
It hurts, and it really, really doesn’t when Billy lets out a deep, trapped breath. “Okay. I’ll miss you,”
“I’ll miss you, too.”
“You won’t run away from me when I get back?”
Steve leans forward, his breath ghosting the shell of Billy’s ear. “Where else am I gonna go?”
–
Billy sleeps in Steve’s bed that night.
When he wakes and the room is empty, his phone charging on the nightstand, he opens his Southwest App and buys a ticket.
One way, home.
--
from the new chapter of if snow loves the trees and fields
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Let's play ✨Poker✨
Small tw for drinking (For the bots it's gas, but it acts like alcohol for them) and cursing
Greaves walked into the kitchen, bored out of his mind. Who knew the 21st century would be this dull? A few days of being reactivated and he had nothing to do. He didn’t know if any of his old haunts were still open, or even still in use. Also, he had the suspicion that the others didn’t trust him.
Hare slunk into the kitchen, his good eye scowling at the taller automaton as he hopped up on the counter, opening the can of gas he had entered with. Yeah, they definitely didn’t trust him. “You going to be my nanny now?” Greaves asked cooly, trying to hide his growing frustration as he leaned back against the table.
Hare made a sound that was half snort and half growl, taking a sip. “You going to wreck anything else?” He shot back, his vocoder rough with ages of soot buildup and use.
“It was one window,” Greaves said, his grip on his anger quickly dissolving.
“Yeah, one window that I had to clean up after,” Hare hissed, his green optic full of irritation and the clear desire to punt Greaves through the nearest window.
Greaves closed his eyes and sighed, rubbing the strip of metal that took up the space between his kinda-but-not-really eyebrows. “The hell do you want me to say? ‘I’m Sorry’? Well then, I’m sorry,” He said, lightly knocking his fists against the table in a rhythmic manner.
Hare snorted, taking another swig of his gas. “That’s cute. You’re still a dick, but thanks,” He said, his tone slightly dismissive.
“Look, could we not fight about this for once?” Greaves asked, frustration burning up beneath his furnace.
Hare gave him a look and Greaves wished desperately he had his own can of gas to guzzle. “Yeah, I know, you don’t remember, but still. Could we do something else? If you’re gonna watch me like a hawk, might as well not be staring at each other until we rust,” Greaves griped, glaring at the smaller automaton.
Hare seemed to consider it for a second, looking off into nowhere in particular with a look of slight consideration on his face. Finally, he answered, “Yeah, sure. Fine. Now, pray tell, what are we gonna do?”
Greaves thought for a moment, trying to rule out things. He knew that both he and Hare probably still liked butting heads with Skully, just to rile him up, but that was when the old man was still alive. Now he wasn’t, and Skully had seemed to mellow out a bit. Not much, mind you, but enough that he wasn’t a mindlessly obedient weapon like before.
“Poker? Do you still play poker?” Greaves asked.
Hare snorted again, this time in amusement. “You mean, do I still win Poker? Yeah, nobody’s beaten me in a while,” He said, sounding proud.
Greaves heard the silent challenge in his statement and he smiled. “Ready to get beat?” He asked, grinning slyly.
Hare grinned right back cockily. “The fact that you even think you can is hilarious, but fine, I’ll humour you,” He said, leaning back on the counter. “Got cards?”
“I hope so,” Greaves snorted, “Yours are so dirty that I could take them to be cleaned and I would be surprised if they came out actually clean.”
Hare mumbled under his breath, shooting the taller automaton a glare as he pulled out a pack of cards from his pocket. “I wanna shuffle,” Hare said, his tone insistent and leaving no room for arguing.
Greaves shrugged and passed him the cards, now leaning against the counter. Hare put the cards down beside him and shuffled them quickly, moving them in a way that humans wouldn’t be able to track. He was just about to deal when Greaves said, “Put that ace back.”
“What ace?” Hare asked, his tone innocent but with an undertone of surprise.
“The one you put up your sleeve,” Greaves replied.
“Damn it!” Hare growled, slipping the card out and slipping it back into the deck.
Greaves took the deck and shuffled it simply, short and fast. He then dealt a simple five-card draw, taking care not to accidentally flash any cards up. “Twos are wild and regular home game rules- no bottom dealing and no joker. Also, no fudging misdeals,” Greaves said.
“What? Me? Fudge a misdeal? I would never,” Hare said, picking up his cards and scanning them.
“Mhm,” Greaves said, looking at his own cards.
A three of clubs, a queen of diamonds, a five of clubs, an eight of spades, and a seven of clubs. Not too bad of a hand. He could get a flush with that; maybe even a straight flush, if he was lucky. “What’re we betting with?” Graves asked, going over his cards again critically.
“What’ve you got?” Hare replied.
Greaves paused for a moment, shifting his cards into one hand while he dug around in his pockets with the other. He pulled out the contents and listed them off. “A few bolts and screws, an old pen nib, a dried-up leaf, about three euros from 1942, and three bucks in quarters.”
“Okay, the quarter’s will work. Wait- where’d you get the euros from?” Hare said, looking puzzled.
“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Greaves replied, sliding a quarter in between him and Hare. “Ante.”
“Ante,” Hare said, digging up a quarter from and slapping it down next to Greaves’.
And then the game was on.
⛀⛂🂠⛂⛀
“You’re cheating,” Hare hissed, scowling at Greaves over his cards.
“Nope,” Greaves said, surveying his cards and his winnings so far.
As of now, Greaves had won from Hare seven dollars, five cents, and the rest of Hare’s gas. Now they were betting on the last few dollars Hare had on him and Greaves had the winning hand- four Queens and one ace.
There was no way that Hare could beat him unless he had a straight flush, and judging from the look in his eye, he didn’t have that. Greaves was just about to skip his turn and go straight to the final betting when he felt smoke clogging his throat and choking him, whatever dark smoke that could escape through his neck vents darkening his already-grey collar. He coughed hard, putting his cards face-down as he hacked into his hand, trying to dislodge the ball of soot in his throat.
Hare paused, an unreadable look on his face as Greaves coughed roughly into his hand. Finally, the smoke let up and it rushed out of his mouth in a dark river, curling through the air with the scent of burning coal. The vents in Greaves’ throat lit up as he inhaled deeply, trying to get his breathing back to normal. “… the hell was that?” Hare asked none too gently.
Greaves cleared his throat before speaking, but his voice sounded hoarse and rough. “Design flaw. Now put that extra card back in the deck so we can get along with this,” He said, picking up his cards.
Hare groaned and slid the extra card he had picked up back into the deck. “Two cards,” He requested, looking sullen.
Greaves gave him the cards and he hissed in anger. “Damn it!’
“Ready to show your cards?” Greaves asked, grinning.
“Shut up- I fold,” Hare said sourly, throwing his cards on the table. “Damned game…”
“You’re just mad I won,” Greaves said, picking up Hare’s last three dollars and slipping them into his pocket.
“Wow, how couldya tell?” Hare asked sarcastically.
“You could never beat me, Hare,” Greaves said teasingly, grinning at Hare as he picked up the smaller automaton’s can of gas.
“Well that’s the one thing that I’m glad I don’t remember,” Hare said sarcastically, his angry tone unignorable.
Greaves felt like someone had stabbed him in the core. He knew Hare was just being a dick because he lost, but the thought that nobody missed remembering him was horrible. They were asshats, but Greaves actually liked them. Well, they were more tolerable than anyone else that he had met and for him, that passed as him liking them.
“Yeah, sure. Have this back if it upsets you so much, you big baby,” Greaves said sourly, slamming the half-empty can down next to Hare and leaving the room.
Hare watched in silence, confused, but he didn't go after him. Why would he do that for anyone, much less an almost-stranger?
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