Chapter Text
If Billy had to guess, he would say it hadn’t taken long for everyone at Hawkins High to figure out that he wasn’t to be fucked with. One week at the most. Two for the few that were particularly stupid.
All it had taken was one idiot trying to welcome the new kid with an elbow to the ribs and an easy right hook on Billy’s part for the point to be made.
The idiot had been gifted a black eye and a bruised ego. Billy had been gifted a crown and a reputation.
It wasn’t that people avoided him after that; it was quite the contrary. The attitude attracted all types of people, all of them desperate and none of them interesting. It was more that if he happened to be walking down the hall, admirers in tow or not, the path in front of him would clear. Quickly.
It had been months since that first incident. The only incident. Or well, the only incident until today.
Billy wondered if maybe this kid hadn’t gotten the memo. He looked young, couldn’t have been older than a freshmen, small, too skinny for his own good. But kids were prone to stupid shit. They also had to learn the way the world worked.
This kid had been walking straight at him from halfway down the hall. He’d had more than enough time to get out of the way, even if he was walking with his head down like he needed to make sure his shoes hit every tile.
They collided with a smack that sent the kid stumbling back on his heels.
Billy knocked his books to the ground without a word, jaw set, eyes hard, locking immediately onto the other kid’s, which were wide with nerves by comparison. The kid only held eye contact for a second, blinking furiously before he bent down to pick up his books.
Certain he’d made himself understood, Billy decided to keep going, but he’d only gotten a few steps away when he heard the kid mumble, “Fuck you,” towards the floor.
Billy turned on his heel. He reached down and pulled the kid up by his collar, pushing him forward and pinning him against a locker, hands now fisted in the front of his shirt with a white-knuckled grip. Suddenly, the hall had gone eerily quiet, like everyone had stopped dead in their tracks and gone still. He could feel all the sets of eyes on him, on them, waiting with bated breath to see what he was going to do.
Good, Billy thought. Let them watch.
His voice was dangerously low in the now deafening silence. “You wanna say that again?” The kid shook his head furiously, the locker rattling behind him, ringing in Billy’s ears. His eyes were wide again and his breaths were shaky, hot on Billy’s face. “I didn’t hear you.”
“I didn’t say anything.” The words came out in a jumble, his voice cracking midway through the sentence. “I didn’t-I didn’t say anything.”
“Really? Because I could’ve sworn I heard you say-”
“No! I didn’t. I really didn’t. I swear.” The kid sounded frantic now.
“That’s what I thought.” Billy shoved him again for good measure, his shoulders hitting the locker with a solid, metallic pang.
It was when he went to leave again that he learned that apparently this kid’s mouth was always a little late to join the party.
The kid was still panting as he brushed his shirt down and whispered, “Asshole.”
Billy’s fist was in the air before he could even think twice about, connecting to this kid’s jaw with a loud crack and the hall exploded with noise around them. Most of which were cheers for him to keep going and so he did, hitting him square in the nose and then again under his eye.
He was poised to throw another punch when he felt a hand grab hold of his shoulder and another ball in the back of his shirt, trying to stop him.
“Billy.” The voice tugging on him was familiar, enough to make him hesitate. “Billy, it’s not worth it.” Still, he struggled against the hold, trying to surge forward again, but the voice persisted. “Billy, let’s go. This isn’t worth it.”
It only took another half a second of hesitation before he let himself be dragged out through the crowd, turning his head once to look back over his shoulder. Pride burned warm in his chest when he saw the kid crumble to the floor, blood gushing from his nose and face twisted tight with pain.
Next thing he knew, he was being pushed into a dark classroom, the door shutting behind him with a loud click.
He shrugged off the hands gripping at him with a violent jerk, ignoring the voice-Steve, it was Steve’s voice-that asked, “What the hell was that about?” as he walked further into the room. The question had almost been drowned out by the sound of the class bell ringing somewhere above their heads.
His chest was heaving when leaned back against the chalkboard and shut his eyes, too pissed off to care about the chalky, white streaks that were probably now smudged across the back of his shirt. He tipped his head back, trying to clear a path for air to find his lungs, but he felt like he couldn’t catch his breath, jaw clenched, breathing harsh and uneven, in and out through nose.
Steve’s footsteps were loud as they approached him, purposefully so, like he was warning him. He stopped somewhere in front of him, leaving what Billy could feel was a short gap between them, having learned that it was best not to crowd him at a time like this.
Steve’s voice was unthinkably soft when he spoke. “You have to breathe.”
Billy’s nostrils flared. “Fuck off.”
He didn’t flinch when he felt Steve’s hand on his chest, his shirt unbuttoned far enough to give way to smooth skin, Steve’s palm resting flat over his necklace.
His anger receded with an immediacy that never failed to both reassure and scare the shit out of him all at once.
He focused on the way Steve’s hand rose and fell with his chest, up and down, out and back, over and over and over, letting the sensation guide him until gradually his breathing slowed, evening with each exhale.
Billy didn’t know when his own hands had reached out to grab onto the front of Steve’s shirt, but he did know there was something grounding in it. In how soft the fabric was between his fingers. In the way he could feel Steve’s stomach beneath his knuckles. In how different it felt to hold onto Steve’s shirt as opposed to that kid’s out in the hall.
He opened his eyes, not surprised to find that Steve was already looking at him, brow knitted with concern, looking very much like he wanted to say something.
Billy swallowed hard, squaring his jaw. “Whatever it is you’re about to say, keep it to yourself.”
He hadn’t expected Steve to listen and wasn’t too surprised when he didn’t. “What was that about?” he asked, echoing his words from only a few minutes ago.
“Proving a point.”
“To a freshman?” Something in Steve’s tone caused guilt to pull uncomfortably in Billy’s gut, but he pushed it down, choosing not to answer. “Billy, you can’t-”
“Don’t.” Billy could tell Steve was gearing up to give him a lecture, but he wasn’t in the mood. He pulled Steve forward by his shirt, resting their foreheads together and closing his eyes again. “Just don’t.”
Steve sighed. They both knew that a month ago Billy would have pushed him out of the room for trying to talk about it, that he would've screamed and thrown a fit even though he knew deep down that Steve had a point. This was something like progress, even if it didn’t always seem that way.
“Okay.” Steve nodded against his forehead and for that Billy was grateful. He knew he was going to hear about it later, but for now, this was enough.
Steve’s hand moved from its place on his chest to curl around his necklace, tugging on it just slightly.
Billy knew what he was asking for, tilted his head and leaned forward, pressing his lips to Steve’s. Guilt and frustration replaced themselves with something Billy didn’t have a name for when Steve sighed against his lips, soft and content like they weren’t hiding in a Hawkins High classroom on a Tuesday morning because Billy had been in a fight, like there was nowhere he’d rather be than here with him right now.
Steve was in the process of angling to deepen the kiss when the sudden jiggle of the door handle rang through the room like a shot. Steve jumped back a safe few feet, stopping when the back of his legs hit a desk in the front row, his legs almost buckling beneath him at the contact. Billy adjusted his shirt, trying to make it less obvious that Steve’s hand had been in it less than a minute ago.
When the door finally opened, it gave way to a very annoyed looking math teacher that rolled her eyes the second she looked at Steve. “Mister Harrington.”
“Miss F.” Billy watched Steve run a nervous hand through his hair, a pained smile pulling at his lips.
She walked past them and dropped a thick folder on her desk. “I’ve got papers to grade and I know you’ve got a class you should be in.”
“Funny enough, we were just leaving.” He started towards the door and Billy couldn’t think of anything else to do, so he followed. “See you next period!” He called over his shoulder, overcompensating for the awkward moment with a little too much enthusiasm.
Billy could’ve sworn he heard the woman groan as the door shut behind them.
He followed Steve through the empty halls all the way to his class even though he needed to be on the whole opposite side of the building. He was already at least ten minutes late, what were a few more?
They stopped a few lockers before Steve’s classroom, not wanting to be in direct view of the window. Billy was especially glad they’d stopped short when Steve took the opportunity to grab onto his necklace again, this time just holding it gently.
Steve’s eyes were darting between his as he prolonged the inevitable and Billy nodded in the direction of his class. “Go. I’ll see you at lunch.”
“Don’t beat the shit out of any more freshmen between now and then,” he said, tacking on a, “please,” for emphasis.
"You've got nothing to worry about, gorgeous." Billy held up three fingers with a charming smile. “Scout’s honor.”
Steve snorted. “You were never in the scouts.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said with a playful roll of his eyes. He pushed easily at Steve’s shoulder. “Go.”
“Alright, alright. I’m going.” Steve let his necklace slip from his hand and watched it fall back into place in the middle of his chest.
Billy waited until he got to the door before he called out, “Oh, and Harrington?” Steve turned, looking at him expectantly. Billy smirked. “We’re finishing that later.”
The laugh Steve let out made Billy’s head spin. “Later.” And with that, he pulled the door open and quietly disappeared behind it.
Billy turned and headed off in the other direction, but not exactly in the direction of his class. He chose instead to go out the door at the end of the hall so that he could find his car at the edge of the parking lot. He sat on the hood while he lit a long-overdue cigarette, letting the sunlight warm his cheeks as best as it could.
It wasn’t strong, not like California sun that had the ability to turn his skin a raw shade of red in minutes if he wasn’t careful. This was Hawkins sun. It was weak and it was shitty, but it was the sun Steve lived under, too. That was worth something.
He closed his eyes.
Only 3 more periods until lunch.
He could make it that long.