Steve's got enough of anything supernatural on his lifetime. So he fucked off to New York and decided to forget all about Vecna and all the other fuckers that ruined his hometown and his life. At least they never got to his hair.
It's been five years, five years of a rent that's way too high and Dustin bugging him to join the annual "Hawkins Monster Fighters" reunion. No way he's gonna get back.
It's midnight, because of course it is, when it happens. Steve watches Twin Peaks and munches on some stale leftover fries.
There's someone cursing. Loudly. He thinks it's on the street at first, it's New York after all.
"Motherfucker."
Steve frowns. That sounded like it came out of his bedroom. His hands start sweating and suddenly he feels five years younger again.
With a pounding heart he grabs the next best weapon he can think of - a pan. Because his stupid baseball bat is under his stupid bed.
He tiptoes to the bedroom - right when the door of his closet bursts open and Billy Hargrove, of all people, stumbles out of it.
Steve gapes at him, because for someone who died six years ago Billy's face is way too flushed. Hopefully that means no zombies. Or sadly? Maybe if someone just ate Steve's brain he wouldn’t have to worry about shit like this.
Billy blinks, eyes darting from the closet to Steve and back. "Was I in your fucking closet?"
He's wearing all black, fabric torn and dried bloodstains on them. His sides are shaved, but the mullet is still there. It suits him. Fuck.
"Apparently," Steve says flatly.
"Kinda messy." Billy grins at Steve crookedly and he wonders if all of Hawkins girls felt like this too, heat rising in his cheeks after one wink of Billy's blue eyes.
Shit, he needs to go on a fucking date.
"I made it back." Billy laughs. Wetly. Like he wants to cry.
"Back from where?" Steve asks. He knows he shouldn’t ask questions he doesn't want to know the answers to, because most of the time the answers is "Vecna", "Russians inside the Mall" or "the Upside Down".
"From the other place," Billy says. All of a sudden looks small and scared. "It was like this… but not."
So the answer is option three, Steve announces hysterically in his mind.
Billy has been lost in the Upside Down. For six years. Jesus fucking Christ.
"You made it out," Steve says, because he has to say something, otherwise he might hug the guy.
Billy nods, still smiling, faint disbelief in his eyes. "I really need to shower."
"Sure." Steve is not thinking about Billy naked.
Billy winks at him as if he knows the truth. Steve is so screwed.
Interview With The Vampire AU piece for @harringroveweek
My favourite moment with my other favourite boys and a Billy kills Neil ficlet below the cut (TW: Mention of abuse, violence)
Billy let out a harsh laugh. Far too loud for its purpose but there was no one there to hear it apart from the terrified man pressed against the wall on the other side of the room. The same man who held Billy against many a wall throughout his life, his human life. Now, it was his turn. His turn to scare the man he once called his father, who he feared and begged for acceptance but now he saw him he truly was. A pathetic excuse for a man.
"Get out!" he demanded but his voice lost its volume as the vampire stepped closer ever so slightly. "Please."
"What was that?" Billy asked with a mocking shocked expression. "Begging are we?"
He shook his head as the grown man trembled, his legs weak but his fingers gripped tight around the fire iron in his hand but he seemed too scared to actually use it until Billy got close enough to attempt a swing. With a smile and a simple step to the left, he missed completely but stumbled sideways at the shock of his son being suddenly beside him.
Fumbling for purchase on his desk, he slipped and landed on the floor but continued to move back towards the door. Billy watched him with pure amusement as he listened to everything running through his mind.
"I would never hurt Susan or Maxine. Especially, Maxine but you?" he laughed just as he did before. "I've waited too long."
With little effort he moved too quick for the man he called father to see, appearing behind him to block the door before leaning down to grab his face with one hand and lift him to his feet with it. He held him there as he reached out to try and grab him which was of course a useless attempt until finally, he started to kick.
"Let...me...go," he groaned unable to open his mouth properly and so Billy did. He slumped back onto the floor but somehow he fell wrong and with a snap and a scream Neil Hargrove broke his left leg. "Why are you doing this?" he cried.
"Do you really need to ask?" Billy shook his head, his blond curls slipping forward from his shoulders. "Do you remember when I was seven and you slapped me so hard I fell down the stairs but instead of helping me up you left me there alone with a fractured wrist?" Billy asked kneeling down to lean into his face.
He didn't dare answer but his mind did and what Billy saw, his recollection of that moment made him sick to his stomach. The way he smiled at the sound of his cries for help, he still thought Billy deserved to be taught a lesson for what he had done but Neil couldn't even remember what that had been.
The vampire grabbed his hand and snapped it backwards until his fingernails were touching his arm. "I'd left a toy in the study," he said as the man howled in pain. "You can't even remember why you hurt me? Your own son?"
"Stop!"
"What about when I had stayed out a little too late?" he backhanded his father just hard enough to do damage but not enough to kill him. "Or when you saw me with Thomas in town getting all close?" Slap. "Who could forget when I dropped my knife at dinner?" Slap. "Oh and of course when I apparently let Maxine sneak out?"
He blinked before coughing blood right into Billy's face but to Neil's horror, he didn't flinch. No, instead he licked his lips and let his teeth extend as he smiled right into the face of his father who had almost lost his mind at this point. "You're...you're a monster."
"Like father, like son."
In one final attempt at escape, Neil reached for the fire iron he had abandoned moments ago and swung it at Billy's head but the vampire stopped his arm from even getting close. His fingers tightened until he dropped the poker and stared up at Billy. A silent moment began as Billy saw what he had done, the blood covering both of them as his nails cutting into his arm. Just as a wash of sympathy came over him he saw what his victim was thinking and it was far from what he was himself.
Some of his thoughts moved too quickly, intermingled with each other but there was one that he caught perfectly and it hit just the right nerve. "That Italian freak has ruined my son."
"I've been fucked by more men than you can even imagine. Men from all over the world who come to visit this city looking for fun and they found it," Billy grinned at the shock on his face. "It wasn't Stefano. I was ruined well before he arrived."
"You pervert," he spat more blood in his face.
Billy was already hungry and that final taste was enough to make his instincts kick in properly. To make him reach out and push his hand right through his father's stomach, making sure to watch it all in his eyes. Just before he could slip away, finally drop to the deepest point in the underbelly of hell itself he moved his tilted his head to the side and drank from his neck. Just enough until his heart gave out and his body went limp.
Stained with the blood of his own father, Billy closed the front door to his new home and thought of what would happen when Susan and Maxine return home from the theatre Billy had bought them tickets for. Would they connect it all or stay silent as the ownership of the Hargrove name and business fell into his hands? Something that he did not want in the slightest and planned to hand over to his sister the moment he could.
"Tesoro Mio!" the brunette vampire exclaimed rushing down the stairs to wrap his arms around Billy's waist. "Did you eat well tonight? You are a mess. I love it."
"I did it," he replied rather quiet.
"What?" Stefano smiled as he waited to know what he had done to result in such a bloody mess.
"I killed him," Billy let a smile slowly grow on his lips. "I killed my father."
The other vampire paused before letting out the most joyous of laughs. "Baciami!"
So, Billy did. He gripped Stefano tight and kissed him, the taste of the blood igniting once again as he melted into his companion in a way he never had before. A moment of true understanding meshed the two of them together as they smashed into the wall with such force the painting hanging above the stairs fell to the floor.
Suddenly he pulled away before lifting his hand to push a curl behind the blonde's ear and look deep into his eyes. "You never fail to surprise me, Billy."
Overwhelmed Billy kissed him again, this time pushing him away to tackle him onto the sofa in the next room and lean over him in the lamplight. "Ruin me," he breathed.
sometimes I sit and remember that the only time steve’s beauty was explicitly acknowledged in the show, the comment came from billy hargrove’s mouth. Like that’s insane, right? He was the only one to tell him TO HIS FACE, ON SCREEN, that he was PRETTY. that he would have no problems finding someone else after Nancy because he was just THAT BEAUTIFUL. Like what the fuck.
titsay
ellievsbear
tangentwithtanner
andulkaphoto
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