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The kids didn’t knock. The hallway was just full, suddenly, of voices and the door slamming and hands banging against the walls as shoes were kicked off.
Steve lifted his head from Eddie’s shoulder, looked groggily in the direction of the noise. They’d fallen asleep upstairs then wandered down and fallen asleep again on the couch, TV buzzing softly.
“You didn’t lock the door?” Billy asked, thumb stroking absent-mindedly against their linked fingers.
“Dustin has a key,” Steve admitted, giving Billy a sheepish smile.
“Nice, that’s not gonna be a problem,” he muttered.
Eddie laughed. “Dustin asked me for a key to my trailer once. For ‘Hellfire Emergencies’.”
“Did you give it to him?” Steve asked. The noises had moved into the kitchen, scraping chairs and rustling bags.
“Hell no. He’s a total snoop.” Eddie knocked their knees together. “Last thing I fuckin’ needed. Henderson fiending.”
Billy snorted. “That is not funny,” Steve reprimanded, smacking at Eddie’s chest.
“Okay, mom,” Billy rolled his eyes.
Eddie caught Steve’s hand, pouted at him. “Sorry, mom.”
Steve flushed. “Assholes.” Eddie kissed the hand he was holding. Billy watched, bringing the fingers in his grip up to his own lips. “Okay, but it wasn’t funny,” he repeated weakly.
“What’s not funny?” Dustin asked, eying them from the kitchen doorway. “That you and Eddie are…” He spluttered a little, gesturing, “and with him?” His eyes narrowed at Billy. Steve turned, watched Billy narrow his eyes back at Dustin. Between Will and El finding out and Max suspecting, it seemed like the news had spread. Steve was distantly aware that his hands were held up on either side of him, had had two sets of lips pressed to them when Dustin had walked in. So that may have also factored in. “And why did everyone else know before me?”
He gave both sets of hands a warning squeeze. “Shh.” He said, before whatever mean comment could finish forming on Billy’s tongue. He didn’t know what to say, just sat there, his eyes locked with Dustin’s. “Uhh,” he said finally, when Dustin tried to speak again. “You probably have a lot of questions,” Steve said slowly, trying to buy time until his brain unfroze.
“Dustin,” Eddie started, standing and untangling his hand from Steve’s. Steve watched Dustin’s eyes fall to the collar of Eddie’s shirt, bugging at the dark mess across his throat.
“He’s a psycho!” Dustin said, voice rising. “Look what he did to you!”
Steve shifted, uncomfortable, as Eddie tried to figure out what Dustin was talking about. “Dustin, uh, that was…” Dustin’s eyes were on him, big and upset, and Steve felt his face redden at the memory of pinning Eddie down earlier. “I did that, I’m sorry. But it’s not - Eddie’s not hurt, it just looks kind of scary.”
“Steve-” Dustin started.
Billy groaned next to him. “He’s, like, fifteen, Steve. He shouldn’t be scared of a hickey.”
“Sixteen,” Dustin shot back.
Steve could feel the meanness in Billy’s retort before it left his mouth, could see the cold smirk forming. “That’s even-” Steve thumped him hard in the chest, turning to look at him.
“I said ‘shhhhhh’!”
“Gag me, Harrington,” Billy spat back, glaring at him. “Whatever,” Billy stood. “You two talk to this reject. I’m gonna be outside.” Steve watched him walk too close to Dustin, watched Dustin take a step back instinctively as he passed. Billy huffed out a laugh, reaching past him for the pack of cigarettes on the dining room table.
Dustin waited for the glass door to slide shut before he launched toward them. “He’s the worst! How can you guys like him? How can you-” Dustin was turning pink, dropped his voice. “How can you like like him?” Eddie laughed and fell back to the couch.
“Well,” Eddie paused. “Where are the others? It’s suspiciously quiet in there.” He glanced toward the kitchen.
“I cast commune,” Dustin mumbled. “Fact finding mission.” Steve took that to mean the others were listening. Pictured Lucas and Mike trying to hold themselves back from storming in here. Pictured Max with her head on the table. El and Will hopefully hadn’t let on just how much they knew.
“Ah. Well, then, what are your questions?” Eddie asked, voice serious.
Steve looked at him. “What does that mean?”
“He can ask us three yes or no questions,” Eddie explained in a stage whisper. “Dustin, why don’t we drop the yes or no. I feel like that’s not going to get us anywhere. You can ask us three questions, and we’ll answer them.” Dustin leveled an unsure look at Eddie, like he was breaking the rules that Dustin was relying on. “Your divine proxy is feeling talkative,” Eddie added, waving off Dustin’s look. They jumped a little at a loud thwack outside. “It’s okay,” Eddie said, glancing toward the pool. “Billy’s just chopping wood.” Dustin looked horrified, clearly picturing it. Steve pictured it, too, Billy out in the cold in his t-shirt, cigarette hanging from his lips, angry chest heaving as he swung the ax.
“Okay, fine.” Dustin took a deep breath, gave them both a severe look. “Eddie - Question one: when did this start?”
“Well,” Eddie thought about it. “I guess I knew it was bad when Steve put on my vest…” Eddie trailed off, eyes on the ceiling, thinking.
Steve turned to stare at him feeling like he was going to get more out of this conversation than Dustin.
“Like…” Dustin’s face was scrunched up, trying his best to understand. “Like because his gross chest was out? Like you thought he was hot?”
Eddie laughed, “Well, I do like looking at Steve’s gross chest.” He pinched Steve’s leg lightly. Steve just stared at him, having an out of body experience as he waited for Eddie to talk Dustin through how their relationship started with the Party listening in from his kitchen. “You know, Dustin, buddy, back before all this. You would mention Steve at Hellfire sometimes. I had no idea what the fuck you were talking about. Like what is this kid on. King Steve was coming to pick you up? He was cool, actually?” Eddie waved his hand around dramatically. “Nonsense. Sorry, Stevie.”
“Whatever,” Steve said, wanting Eddie to continue.
Eddie noticed, grinned at him with a glint in his eyes. “You enjoying this, Steve?” He threw a loose arm around Steve’s shoulder. Steve leaned into it more than he meant to.
“Son of a bitch. This blows,” Dustin muttered. “Is this how you guys are going to act all the time now?”
“Probably, buddy,” Eddie admitted solemnly.
“But…you’re not going to be all…like this with him, right?” He pointed out toward the pool.
“Oh, kid,” Steve snorted.
“Anyway,” Eddie continued, quickly. “You and Lucas and Mike were friends with Steve Harrington, and I couldn’t picture King Steve hanging out with you spazoids. But then, when we were on our, you know, adventure, quest, what have you, he was hanging out with me, you know, the biggest spaz. And I still couldn’t believe it. I was just waiting for him to say something to piss me off. And he didn’t and then he was wearing my vest and he was all filthy and he didn’t even look like King Steve anymore. And I had to wonder if King Steve was just a figment of my imagination.”
“No, Steve used to be a dick,” Dustin said helpfully. “He got cooler when we let him hang out with us.”
Eddie just shrugged. “Maybe.” The hand on Steve’s shoulder shifted to play with his hair. It was getting long, flipping past his ears and around the nape of his neck. Steve’s eyes were stuck on Eddie’s. “But, alas, our time together was cut short. And it hadn’t really seemed like a good time to do something dumb like try to kiss preppy here while we were deep in our dungeon crawl. Plus,” Eddie paused, meeting Steve’s eyes. “Stevie was too heart-broken to think about anything like that.” He didn’t say it glibly or sadly. Just smiled at him with those bright eyes. Steve stared back, getting lost for a minute. He realized belatedly that the others had snuck into the room, perched around his dining room table. Their original plan had been three yes or no questions - Eddie monologuing must have affected their willingness to listen through the walls. Steve realized Jonathan was here, too. He must have driven the kids over. Steve remembered distantly he’d invited him to come swim.
“What?” Dustin asked. “What do you mean, heart-broken? Because of Nancy?”
Steve couldn’t help the laugh that came out of him. He shot a look at Mike. “Sorry.”
Mike pulled a face. “Why would I care, dude?” Jonathan laughed next to him.
“No…” Eddie said slowly, looking back to Dustin. “We’ll get to it.” He clasped his hands together, sighed deeply. “So that was the death of my first life with Stevie.” Steve made a face, but when he looked around no one else seemed to be phased by the theatrics. “Now, Billy and I weren’t friends. I don’t…I’m not sure he could have told you my first name. But he used to come by a lot.” Eddie frowned at Dustin, looked at the rest of the kids. Pointed at Dustin and snapped his fingers. “Cassettes.”
“What?” Dustin asked, face blank.
“He used to buy tapes from me. But he always stayed a little longer than he needed to, poking around the trailer. I’d give him a smoke and a sample…of whatever new cassettes I had. And he’d sit on the couch and glare at me, or pace into the kitchen and back, complaining about Hawkins. He was so easy to piss off, and I got a little obsessive about it. I wanted to know what got under his skin. What would really set him off. The different ways he’d get mad.” There was a dark, gleeful look in Eddie’s eyes as he thought about it. “Sometimes I’d say something I was sure would work but he’d just laugh it off which really fucked me up. If I gave him-played him, uh, fast music, he’d really lose it. He’d shove me around a little. And then the slow music-” Eddie cut himself off, looking at Dustin’s uncomprehending face. “Anyway. That was it. And then I saw him down there, and he looked…he was just scars and demon blood. Just haggard - just fucked on adrenaline. I don’t think he could sleep. When it was just him.”
“He didn’t just start swinging at you? Like, automatically?” Lucas asked, frowning.
“No, he just stood there for a while. And then he dragged me off the street. Got us back here.”
“Here?” Will asked.
“Yeah, we’ve been here the whole time. Just…” Eddie pointed at the floor. “Down there, I guess.” Steve looked down at the floor, felt his breath get further away from him, had to inhale hard to get it back. The hand in his hair was rubbing down his neck, over his shoulders. “He brought me here and dragged me up to Steve’s room. I was like holy shit look at this house. Steve lives here?” Eddie knocked their knees together. “He didn’t talk a lot at first. So I did for the both us of. I guess I would have done that anyway. I thought he hated it, but then eventually he started, too. Would actually answer the questions I asked him. I would think about those times at my trailer when he’d roar in in that fucking car, all dolled up for a date and push me into a wall…” Steve watched Eddie lose the thread a little, lost in these memories that Steve had a lot of questions about. Questions for later.
“Eddie,” he muttered.
Eddie flashed a bright smile at him. “Right. So I pestered him about girls. To my surprise, he just kept talking about one girl.” Steve flushed. “And, you know, it just didn’t make a lot of sense to me. They had to sneak around? His dad would have put him in the hospital if he’d found out?” Steve watched Max sit up at that, send him a startled look. “Why would Billy’s dad care if he dated some girl in Hawkins. And the biggest problem - he just wouldn’t tell me who it was. Dustin, do you know who it was?” Eddie turned an expectant look at him, eyebrows raised.
“Why would I know who Billy was dating?” Dustin asked, frowning at Eddie. “The guy is not friendly, Eddie.”
Eddie just hummed, amused. “I just couldn’t stand it. I’d gotten him to tell me so much. And I was getting so jealous of this mystery girl because he just wouldn’t let me in. It was driving me crazy. But - I had a lot of time to think about it. And a lot of time to test out theories. And I thought about my trailer. Billy pushing into my space, hanging around carousing with me when he should have been heading to his dates. So maybe there was no girl.” Dustin gasped, eyes sliding to Steve.
“Steve was the girl.” Dustin murmured.
“Bingo, buddy.” Eddie beamed at him. Steve rolled his eyes.
Dustin turned to the others, but they looked unimpressed. “Yeah, duh,” Lucas muttered.
“So,” Eddie continued. “I didn’t realize all that. But I thought the mystery girl was maybe a mystery guy. So I thought a good way to get Billy to open up would be to tell him I had this big dumb crush on Steve Harrington.”
Max laughed at that and shot Eddie a pitying look. “Oh boy.”
“Oh boy is right, Mad Max. Billy did not speak to me for two days. Just dragged me around while he bashed in demon skulls. Refused to talk. Wouldn’t look at me.”
“Did you…” Will started. “Did you think he just had a problem with gay guys?” Steve caught Jonathan’s eye.
“Well,” Eddie looked up, choosing his words. “From some of the things Billy had said to me when I’d get him all pissed off at my place, I knew both that me being gay was probably not a surprise to him and that he definitely did have some type of issue related to knowing that. And that was a button I was always pushing back then. I guess I felt very invested in what the source of that was.”
“How did he know you were gay?” Will asked, surprised.
Eddie laughed. “Probably from the pathetic way I couldn’t stop fucking twirling my hair and batting my eyelashes every time he spoke to me. Jesus Christ. He definitely brought something a little psycho out in me.”
“Past tense?” Steve asked under his breath.
Eddie laughed, fingers finding their way back into Steve’s hair. “Okay, Stevie, you’re right. Billy brings something psycho out in me.”
There was a disgruntled sound from the table. “Finish your story already,” Max said.
“Well, I thought about why Billy might be mad at me. And I had tried a lot of things. I basically talked at him the whole time he wouldn’t talk to me. But I thought about Steve being heart-broken, and I thought about that dumb Judas Priest shirt he’d been wearing when he brought food by the cabin. And I thought no fucking way. But, still, I told Billy that my crush on Steve was ridiculous. That Steve was just this sad mess who barely even looked at me. That I had no chance with him. And he finally looked at me. And he said, ‘Jesus fucking Christ’, and then he lay on the ground for a while. And I sat down next to him, and eventually he told me all about Steve. And then when we got here…” Eddie shrugged. “Next question.”
Dustin was silent for a while, processing everything. “But how did you start…with Billy, Steve?” He asked finally. “You hated him.”
“No.” Steve shook his head. “Next question.”
“Steve! That’s not how the spell works,” Dustin argued.
Eddie shot him a look “Just give them the PG version.”
“There is no PG version,” Steve hissed at him. “Have you met Billy?”
Max made a gagging sound from the table. “Dustin, I don’t want to hear this. Next question.”
The glass door slid open and Billy froze in the doorway, taking in the kids and Jonathan at the table, Dustin interviewing Steve and Eddie by the couch. “What the fuck?” He dragged the cigarette out of his mouth and lifted his shirt to wipe at the sweat on his face.
“Ew, can you both control yourselves?” Max huffed. Steve glanced at Eddie, saw his glassy eyes and open mouth. Steve snapped his own jaw closed, realizing he was probably making the same dumb face.
“Steve was just refusing to tell us what happened when you first got together,” Will supplied helpfully.
Billy caught Steve’s eye, swiped his tongue across his teeth. “Yeah, he was pretty pathetic. I can’t imagine he would want to tell you anything about it.”
“Billy!” Steve whined.
“What, you giving them a reenactment, baby?” Billy raised his eyebrows, shooting Eddie a smirk.
“Gross,” Max muttered.
“Okay,” Mike said, closing his eyes. “So you guys like Billy even though he’s a a total asshole, because…you like that he’s mean to you?”
Billy narrowed his eyes. Eddie laughed, surprised. “No! That wasn’t the point-”
Dustin interrupted. “But you said that you were into Billy because when he would come to your trailer-”
“Eddie.” Billy held up a hand. “I’m sorry. What exactly were you telling them?”
“I-” Eddie started before Dustin broke in.
“He said that when you came to buy cassettes, he would try to make you mad and then you’d, like, stand close to him and…” Dustin frowned, trying to explain something that he hadn’t understood in the first place. “Bully him about being gay. Or something.” Steve choked out a laugh at the blank look on Billy’s face.
“Cassettes?” Billy asked dumbly. “Wait, what? Bully him about…?”
“He’d play fast music and you’d get mad,” Dustin tried to explain.
“What?” Billy asked again.
“Forget it,” Eddie laughed, rubbing his eyes. “I’ll tell you later. Mike. Dustin. Okay, thinking Billy is hot when he’s mean was like…” he looked at Steve for help. Steve had no idea where he was going or how to help him. “Maybe that was like a gateway drug…like it got us in the door. But then once we were through the door, we wanted Billy to be nice. Or like mean sometimes but we know he’ll be really nice also.” Eddie shrugged a little at Dustin. “Make sense?”
“No,” Dustin answered.
“Okay,” Steve tried, thinking he got what Eddie was attempting to say. “So at first, it’s kind of hard to get to know Billy. And maybe if we weren’t so attracted to how he acts, like, outwardly,” Steve gestured out with his arms. "We wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to fall in love with who he is in…” he brought his arms back toward his chest. “…Inwardly.”
“Jesus Christ,” Billy muttered, leaving for the kitchen. Steve heard the fridge open and a beer being cracked.
“In…love…” Dustin strung the words together slowly like they were in another language. “With… Billy…?”
“What did you think was going on?” Steve asked, laughing.
“We thought you were just like freaks who thought he was hot for some reason!” Mike said incredulously.
“They’re definitely freaks,” Billy said, leaning against the doorframe.
“One to talk,” El said, pointedly. “I have a question.”
Steve let out a started yelp. “No more questions!”
Eddie stood. “We’ve got work to do, anyway. Enough of this.”