about: max hates the way billy treats girls, steve is nothing like billy
c.w: mentions of sex but nothing explicit, billy being awful to women but again nothing explicit, soft fluff because steve is a girl dad, some canon divergence with how the fight with billy went in the s2 finale, angsty with a tooth-rottingly fluffy ending, no pronouns for reader but mentions of reader wearing makeup
a/n: max is my daughter i love her so much, i wish they elaborated more on her and steve’s relationship in the show because i just know she wishes he was her older brother instead of billy, divider by @cursed-carmine
Billy is weird with girls. Sometimes they call the house asking for him and Max hears Billy say crude words on the phone, words that would have her mouth washed out with soap if her mom heard her say any of them. More often than not there’s a girl in his passenger seat when Billy drives her home, very obviously displeased by Max’s very existence.
And sometimes her mom and his dad— not her dad because he’s back in California— go out late and Billy will bring a girl over, never the same one. He never tells her to get out or leave because he doesn’t care, but Max quickly realizes she should with the disgusting noises they make. She usually goes outside, skating up and down their street until the girl leaves.
He never drives them home and they leave the house with makeup ruined and walking funny. He never lets them stay the night either. Some of them look upset when they leave, others don’t really care.
There’s been a few girls who walk outside and cry on the curb in the dim streetlight. It’s never loud sobbing, just quiet sniffles as they hug themselves. Max never talks to them, she has no idea what she could ever say to them.
Today it’s one of those nights again. His dad booked a fancy dinner in some restaurant across county lines so he won't bring her mom home until the early hours of the morning. This also means whatever girl Billy brings over is going to be there for a long time.
Under usual circumstances this would be fine, Max would just skate downtown to kill time, except it’s the middle of June and a storm is rolling in.
She thinks it’s ridiculous, why is there rain in the middle of summer? It was never like this in California, they had some bouts of rain in December and April but never the summer. Even when it did rain it never lasted long or was bad enough that her mother invested in proper rain attire.
Which is how she finds herself walking down the street, her jeans and converse completely soaked. The crappy poncho her mom bought at Melvald’s was in the clearance section for a reason because her hair is soaked through and she can feel water soaking her shirt.
She wants to go home. Not that dump on Cherry Lane but San Diego.
She feels hot tears welling up in her eyes when her shadow starts to elongate in the puddles and she hears the rev of a car engine behind her. Great, some asshole is gonna splash water all over her. Instead the car slows to a gentle stop next to her and when she turns her head she sees a familiar red BMW, Steve’s already rolling down the window to talk to her.
“What are you doing?” he frowns, and she can see you in the passenger seat craning your head to look at her. “It’s pouring out here.”
Max’s mouth goes dry, what is she doing out here?
“Walk,” she finally says, hoping the lump in her throat isn’t obvious.
“C’mon get in,” Steve replies without missing a beat, nudging his head toward the passenger side. “You’re gonna get yourself sick.”
“I’m fine,” Max insists, because she really is about to start crying and she doesn’t want to be in his car when that happens.
“Max get in,” your voice cuts in, frowning at her and exchanging a glance with Steve, like you two can communicate without speaking.
She does, only because you’ve been the coolest person ever to her since you stabbed Billy with a tranquilizer syringe and threatened him with a baseball bat.
She gets in the backseat, probably ruining Steve’s fancy leather seats with how soaked she is, and immediately notes the grocery bags. Not junk food but actual ingredients, great Steve was gonna cook you dinner and now she’s crashing your date night.
Steve is already slipping off his knit sweater and cranking up the heater. He sets the car in park in the middle of the road before turning around so he can hand her the sweater.
“You wanna actually tell us why you were walking around in the rain?” He has a disapproving frown on his face but for some reason Max doesn’t feel like it’s directed at her.
She wants to refuse the sweater but she’s shivering in the backseat and it feels warm in her hands. So she takes her crappy poncho off and slips it on, hoping the two of you mistake the few tears escaping her eyes for rain.
“Hey we’re not gonna tell your parents,” you say gently, reaching out to smooth down her soaked hair. “We just wanna know, I promise.”
“My parents are out for the night,” her voice cracks when she talks and she really hopes you two just think she’s cold. “So Billy invited a girl over.”
She’s looking down at her soaked shoes because looking at either one of you feels scary right now. Even then she knows you two are exchanging glances, communicating without speaking again. She remembers her mom and dad doing that, when she was younger and they still loved each other.
“Okay,” Steve says after a beat, his voice softer and reaching out to fix the sweater so it sits evenly on her. “You’re gonna come back to my place with us, and then you can use my phone to leave a message for your mom that you’re sleeping at a friend’s house. Sounds good?”
Max nods, trying to rub her hands and warm them up. Steve takes the car out of park and starts driving back to his place. The two of you are quiet throughout the drive and she doesn’t feel like starting a conversation. Every so often her eyes dart back to the grocery bag, the thought of Billy making a girl dinner is so laughable it feels absurd.
After a few minutes the BMW rolls into the driveway and you come over to her door with an umbrella while Steve grabs the grocery bags from the other side. It’s ridiculous for you to walk her twenty feet over to the door with the umbrella but she humors you anyway.
She follows suit when you and Steve slip off your shoes by the front door before walking in. The two of you actually own proper rainboots and Steve gives a glance at her thoroughly soaked converse.
“Alright I’m gonna start cooking dinner,” Steve tells her, gesturing to the grocery bag. “Why don’t you go take a shower?”
“I don’t need–”
You both give her a look.
“...Fine,” she relents after a moment, because it does feel like her bones are rattling inside her body.
“Perfect,” you take her hand, leading her over to the staircase. “I’ll show you where it is and get you some clothes.”
You take her upstairs, stopping by one of the cabinets in the hallway to grab some towels before leading her into Steve’s room. It’s mostly what she’d expect from a teenage boy, some movie posters, a basketball laying around, and a desk that obviously has seen very minimal studying.
She does catch the fact that there are multiple pillows on the bed and the sheets are a nice cream color instead of bachelor navy blue. There’s some books and a candle on the nightstand, along with two mugs holding the remnants of last night’s tea in them.
“Here we go,” you say, finally looking up after having rummaged through the top dresser drawer. Based on the clothes Max can see in, it’s your designated space in Steve’s room.
You hand her the towels along with some fluffy pajama pants, they have little teddy bears on them, along with an oversized t-shirt.
“Bathroom’s down the hall on the left, just yell if you need anything.”
She mumbles acknowledgment and you turn to leave, then Max calls out your name before she realizes it.
“What’s up?” you turn around. Her chest feels tight, everything feels wrong and right at the same time. This is how things should be for her, but they’re not and she’s terrified this brief moment will be stolen from her in seconds.
“You’re not gonna call my parents… right? You or Steve?”
Your face softens and you walk over to her. Wrapping her in a hug and pressing your lips to the top of her head.
“No we’re not,” you murmur and rub her back. “You just have to promise me one thing, okay?”
Max’s shoulders are shaking as she cries into you. Quiet sniffles like the girls who sit on the curb outside of their house after Billy decides he’s done with them. “What is it?”
“Next time something like this happens,” you whisper, still rubbing her back. “Call us, we’ll come get you.”
She nods against you and you hold her for a few minutes until the crying subsides. When she pulls away you press a kiss to her forehead before leaving.
She follows your instructions, going down the hall and to the left to find the bathroom. There’s two of everything. Tooth brushes, towels, body washes, and shampoo and conditioner sets. She can’t resist being nosy and taking a peek in the bathroom drawer. She finds a makeup bag and inside all the products look minimally used.
Steve must have bought it so you wouldn’t need to bring yours back and forth.
The idea of him standing in your bathroom carefully writing down the products and their shade names to buy them is so silly and sweet enough to make her giggle quietly.
Max takes her time in the shower, letting the steaming hot water warm her body. She also wants to make sure she’s fully composed because it’d be way too embarrassing if she started crying again.
She steals your body wash and washes her hair with Steve’s shampoo and conditioner because she thinks it’s funny. The boys make fun of him for preening with how much he invests in his hair products. It’s stupid considering how nosy they got when Dustin revealed he knew Steve’s hair routine. He never actually told any of them.
She dries herself off thoroughly after the shower and examines the skincare products on the counter. Not the cheap soaps she convinced her mom to buy after her face started breaking out. Fancy expensive ones that you need adult money to buy. Two of everything again, things Steve bought to make you more comfortable in his space.
She uses your facewash and dabs on a little moisturizer out of curiosity, it smells like clay and she likes it a bit. After wrapping her hair in a towel she heads out of the bathroom and walks over to the stairs.
The smell of garlic hits her nose and just as she’s about to head down she clears the click of the front door. Then your feet padding on the floor as you walk into the kitchen and tell Steve: “She’s a size six.”
“Hmm you think red rainboots are a little too on the nose?”
“She likes the color so it’ll probably be fine. Just maybe make the pants and coat a different color?”
“How about all yellow? She can look like the Morton Salt girl.”
“Well she would look adorable, but she’d also probably kick you.”
“Red boots it is. I’ll get a small for the pants and a medium for the coat.”
“Steve, that jacket is stupidly expensive.”
“Which is why I’m getting a medium so she can grow into it.”
Max doesn’t tell herself it means anything, she never does, but the next morning she finds a bag of rain gear on her porch.
Ok guys for the ppl asking for a byler fic I have an idea lmk what u think,
Like a modern/ambiguous time period AU where the characters are in HS together
Basically El and Mike would have a mutual breakup at the beginning of the fic and it starts with her telling Max
Max is nosy and convinced something else is going on, so she encourages El to spy on the guys night like in S3
El still has her spying/astral projection whatever u want to call it power bc she was part of a religious cult that did experiments or something but she got saved by Hopper and he adopted her
Basically when they spy they realize Mike and Will have a crush on eachother and then they like create a scheme to help them get together
byler deniers hate to admit that mike is universally better received and understood by the audience whenever he returns to his core character trait of loving will
ALSO ALSO I feel they may be sacrificing pacing to shove all the dramatic climax stuff into the finale bc it’s gna be in theatres, like this whole season has been build up and filler with what feels like little to no stakes
OK AND FURTHERMORE to add to my last post bc ppl are asking y I don’t have byler doubt (spoilers for vol 2)
Ok so BASICALLY when they’re at the radio station shocking the pumpkin and Robin told Will the process of accepting herself to being able to tell people to being able to actually make a move and be with Vickie took her years.
But with Will it only took him a day or so between accepting himself (when he sees the tapes in his mind and gets his powers) and being able to come out to everyone.
So the next step that Robin laid out, that he gets to be with someone, could also logically happen on an accelerated schedule compared to Robin’s journey.
I’m not saying it’s for sure but i am saying the show def hasn’t shut it down
