I have a AUish headcanon for this one. It messes a bit with the timeline of S2 for when Billy actually moves to Hawkins. Hope you don’t mind! For the record, I know Steve is taller, that Boy just has bad posture!
After the first fight against the Demogorgon, Nancy actually waited for Jonathan to sort out all the things with Will coming back from the Death, in fact, she helped him deal with it. She doesn’t get back together with Steve, because they were good while they lasted, but it’s doesn’t feel real anymore, not after Barb.
Steve, sad but not as heartbroken, goes and gets his status as “King” back because that’s all he knows. He doesn’t try fixing things with Tommy and Carol – he doesn’t want to. Because he has changed. Nancy had been and still is a good influence in his life. But he also can’t unsee that there are monsters in this world, monsters that could get you every moment, so he wants to make it count. He is kinder now, more approachable and a lot of people at Hawkins High actually like him for who he has become, not for his status.
When Billy moves to Hawkins shortly after the start of the new school year, he instantly tries for the alpha position – because come on, that “King Steve” guy with his smiles and banterfull behavior hast to be a joke - but people just don’t let him. They actually support Steve. Who would want to trade Mister Nice Guy against some Californian asshole that looks down on them?
And Steve himself is just so unimpressed with all that fucking posing and baiting. He lets Billy pounce at him whenever, avoids getting into active fights but keeping the blonde on his toes enough so he doesn’t start shit with anyone else. Billys bitchy persistence means he is always around and they slowly learn to tolerate each other, finally becoming friends. Billy fills the position as “The Muscle” to Steves King with ease, a role that had been Tommys before. They become inseparable, getting into a lot of shit together.
Both boys have good influences on each other.
Steve learns to plant his feet. The King get restless sometimes, mostly when his father puts pressure on him about his future. When Billy can sense it, see it in the clenching and unclenching of his fists, he takes Steve out of Hawkins and into the woods and lets him pace around and scream at the trees. They get milkshakes after,
Billy is a lot calmer. If the urge to fight itches too much he knows he can rough Steve up and get it back as good. On days he can’t predict his father’s mood swings in time and gets in the way of a thrown fist, or four, he ends up sitting on the rim of the bathtub at the Harringtons, having Steve fuss over him and bitching about the blood he’s dripping on the rug.
They show up at the Halloween Party together, not in matching costumes, but both in black. People stare at the simple earring Steve is wearing – one of Billys. When the blonde crushes his old keg-stand record, Steve just smiles unbothered, laughing and slapping him on the back, telling him: “So proud of you, Hargrove, really.”
And honestly, what else is there to do for Billy, then dragging his King into the shades of the house and kissing him senseless.
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