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Hopper, after adopting Billy: No! I don’t want to hear another word about this!
Billy: But dad-
Hopper: You are underage! I could barely stand one adult boyfriend but three? No!
Billy: But dad, I love them!
Hopper: If they love you, then they can wait the eight months until you’re legal.
Neil cuts Billy's hair.
Billy doesn't want to be seen like this, but he has to go to school. Everyone's staring at him, and he wants to disappear. He's lost control of the one thing he can control in his life... his image.
Now he's got nothing.
But then King Steve actually sends a golden smile his way during Gym, tells him the new haircut suits him.
And Jonathan Byers, the stalker he's very much aware of, still has this look in his eyes that tells Billy he'll always want him.
Maybe his stupid hair is growing on him.
Billy starts to realize that in Neil cutting off his hair... the man he calls father has added fire to the smouldering flames in his belly. Billy's not angry at himself anymore.
Neil can't stand that he's reclaimed the haircut... He'd throw an even bigger tantrum if he knew it got Billy two boyfriends.
That knowledge is what keeps Billy going.
Sleepy boys.
Most likely to reveal an embarrassing secret when they're asleep?
Billy
Steve
Jonathan
Let’s be honest. The reason why Joyce and Jonathan don’t interact with Billy in the series is because they would clock his abuse the second they talked to him and the reason why Hopper has an intense dislike of Billy is because he used to be just like Billy and he hates the reminder of it. I like to think that in another universe, Jonathan befriends Billy before he becomes popular and Joyce realizes what’s going on when Jonathan invites him for dinner. She gives him the first motherly hug he’s gotten since his mom left him and she tells him that she’ll handle it. She then proceeds to ream Hopper out because he promised her that he wouldn’t let any more abusers slip through the cracks when he became Sheriff and he deals with Neil before properly combing Hawkins out for other abusers and getting rid of them.
Billy’s practically adopted by Joyce and he helps them realize that Will is acting weird thus preventing the trap from being set. Imagine Jonathan bringing Billy along with him whenever he went anywhere with Nancy and Billy being hated by Nancy since he took her place as top student in their year which infuriates her endlessly. They tell him all about the Upside Down and he helps the team at the lab with keeping everyone alive. He is extremely surprised to see Max with the other kids and while they fight, it’s only because they care about each other. Billy doesn’t meet Steve Harrington properly until that night and he doesn’t get how everything is connected until Jonathan tells him what happened and he laughs at the image of Steve being beaten in a fight by Jonathan before helping them with a monster called the Demogorgon. He’s a lot more chill with Jonathan’s influence so it’ll be so fun for him to literally whale on the demodogs as a form of anger management. He also doesn’t really dislike the kids since he knows for a fact that they’re Will’s friends so they must be somewhat okay since Will was okay.
Unsurprisingly, Billy and El get along like a house on fire after everything that happened which forces Hopper to change his opinion on Billy rather quickly. With either Billy or Max taking up her time, she doesn’t have time for Mike who the siblings both dislike. Billy and Max convince her that she could do better and much to Hopper’s delight, dumps his ass. Billy’s also a lot more comfortable talking to Joyce about what he went through so when the middle-aged mom brigade starts staring at him for too long, practically objectifying him, he’s willing to tell Joyce who tears into them with fervor. The kids spend equal amounts of time bothering Billy at the pool and begging Steve for free samples which Billy complains about to Jonathan who tells him that he signed up for it so he needs to just deal with it.
The events of season 3 still happen with the mindflayer but weirdly enough, it’s with Tommy and Carol who were heading to the motel to have some fun. They immediately target Steve when coming back and he realizes that the mind flayer has Tommy pretty fast and he gets El to take care of it with Billy’s help in holding Carol back without killing her. Later on, Billy helps Steve with the Russians too and he manages to distract the guards well enough for them to escape untortured so they could get back up in the form of Hopper and El.
Weirdly enough, Steve starts to see Billy in a new light while Jonathan has been slowly falling for his new best friend for a while now. Billy’s had crushes on both boys at different times but he’s pretty sure they’re both straight and into Nancy so he doesn’t bother. Cue The Byer-Hoppers deciding to move to California for a new start and Jonathan inviting Billy to come with them with the promise of bringing Max and Susan too if he wanted. Steve tries to convince him to stay. Billy doesn’t know how to choose between the temptation of freedom and a newfound familiarity.
Family Finds Us In the Darkest Corners // (an original poem)
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I was kind of inspired by a post of @officialjoekeery about pre-byergroveton but I wanted to have some slight Billy angst and some Christmas festivities so here’s my take on it.
Imagine instead of Jonathan getting together with Nancy, he ends up together with Steve after the whole demogorgon beat down and Billy comes riding into town, with his eyes set on Steve only to find out he’s already taken by the town creep. Billy can’t understand what’s so amazing about this guy until he ends up partnered with him an English project, forcing him to get to know Jonathan and to end up falling for him too.
Steve was all charm and wit and admittedly, looks while Jonathan was heart and understanding and kindness. Billy knew deep down he didn’t deserve anything as good as either of them so he was resigned to just lonely pining for the rest of his time at Hawkins before he moved back to California. To add to his pain and suffering, Jonathan took their tentative working relationship as a sign of friendship and Billy had a permanent spot at their table and he was often dragged into their shenanigans like shooting the shit by Lover’s Lake or smoking by the quarry.
As Billy fell deeper and seemingly hopelessly more in love with the two, Jonathan was growing more and more concerned over the bruises and scars Billy liked to hide. It didn’t make any sense, the frequency of his injuries and the stories he told and Jonathan knew what it was like to cover up for an abuser. Since Joyce was dating Hopper, he brought it up one dinner only to have his mom share the same suspicions, forcing Hopper to look into things.
Hopper’s uncanny ability to be at the right place at the right time paid off once again because the first time he patrolled past the house and snuck a glance through the windows, he saw Neil Hargrove with a belt in his hands and a tapestry of scars and wounds laid open on Billy Hargrove’s back. Hopper didn’t hesitate before rushing through the front door to arrest that son of a bitch who started raving on and on about beating respect and responsibility into his bastard of a son who should have died instead. Since Billy was still a minor, Hopper was able to get Neil away long enough for both Max and Billy to be legal adults and he was able to spin it into a premeditated murder case so he would be long gone.
While Neil was taken away in handcuffs, an ambulance had been sent to the scene and Billy Hargrove had been carted out and witnessed by the neighbors, bruised to hell and back, looking every inch the battered and bruised 16 year old that he was. It became the talk of the town over Thanksgiving weekend, especially since no one had expected that at all.
Joyce immediately went over to help Susan, knowing exactly what that woman had gone through and more than willing to help Susan figure out how to make things right with Billy since her inaction had inadvertently hurt Billy. Joyce had been the one to convince Susan to testify in Billy’s favor and to stop living in fear of Neil.
Jonathan had very quickly volunteered to get Billy’s homework and bring it to the hospital for the week or so that he was kept in the hospital. Jonathan had given Billy a safe space to confess about all of the horrors his father had put him through because Billy knew that Jonathan would understand. The slightly older and definitely taller boy had nothing but kind listening ears for Billy and a warm hand to hold onto to ground himself.
Of course, as soon as Steve heard, he was there with Jonathan, bringing all sorts of gifts for people recovering from injuries brought forth by an irrational guilt of not noticing how badly the younger boy had been hurting. Steve had silently resolved to protect the smaller boy the first time he saw him dwarfed in a hospital gown, asleep and for once looking his actual age.
When Billy had returned, he didn’t bother with showboating anymore because that had been to keep himself safe from being hurt in the obvious places unless he’d really messed up and gotten his dad really angry. Billy had returned a quiet shell of his former self, focused on just making it through high school complete with a broken wrist and ankle from them being stomped on by Neil Hargrove upon being arrested as well.
Jonathan and Steve were his perpetual guard dogs in protecting the smaller blond, not letting anyone badmouth him and helping him with his day to day things since he wasn’t able to drive for a while, leaving him reliant on Jonathan and Steve for rides because he was unable to walk the mile to school. The boys were more than happy to help Billy since he not only helped them with their classes but because he’d slowly carved out a place in their hearts as well.
Steve had been the one to broach the conversation about it, telling Jonathan in no nonsense terms that he loves Jonathan but that he also grew to love Billy as well. It had been a huge relief to find out that Jonathan had felt the same about the younger blond and they decided to see if Billy would be receptive of their advances so that they could all be together.
Max had been the first to threaten the two if they ever hurt her brother after she had noticed them starting to be more obvious with their flirting to their purposefully oblivious brother. Max had grown incredibly close to Billy in his hospitalization, finally learning the truth about his punishments for her actions and how Neil had pitted them against each other from the start. She had promised to be a better sister while Billy had promised to be a better brother in return. They’d spent afternoons playing like they hadn’t done since they left California and post-hospitalization, Max was Billy’s biggest crutch since she’d guessed about his feelings for Steve and Jonathan and he told her about how he felt he’d never be good enough for either of them.
It had taken a lot of begging and pleading for Max to let Steve and Jonathan anywhere near Billy as she monopolized his time after school asking for help with homework or in figuring out a new dish since Max was learning how to cook while Billy was injured. It had also taken a greater amount of begging, pleading and bribery before she helped them in getting together with her brother.
She’d been the one to give Billy some of Steve’s old sweaters in preparation for the winter after the two had noticed Billy didn’t have any proper winter clothes since they knew that Billy wouldn’t accept any charity from Steve but would happily accept a gift from his sister who’d won them in a bet. Neither Steve nor Jonathan were prepared for how absolutely adorable Billy looked dwarfed in Steve’s old oversized sweaters.
It also didn’t help that they were there to witness the blond’s reaction to seeing his first real snowfall and the absolute child-like wonder that crossed his face was permanently burned into their retinas. As days passed, they literally couldn’t stop themselves from falling deeper and deeper in love with the blond who was slowly learning to allow himself to just be himself and not have to be the man that Neil wanted him to be.
It all comes to a head when the boys trap Billy at a Christmas Party/Welcoming Party to the Mayfield-Hargrove’s new home, right beside the Byers. They’d connived with Max to place some mistletoe all over the house, allowing them to trap Billy under the mistletoe between them. After an initial kiss for both boys, Steve and Jonathan clarified their intentions with Billy, making the younger blond blush at the praise heaped on him and the care he felt radiating from the boys.
They end up spending most of the Christmas party in Billy’s room, not even doing anything too wild but just enjoying each other’s company and proving their feelings to the blond who still couldn’t believe that the boys he loved loved him back. Max had already told the rest of the people in the house about what was going on and everyone just felt happy that for once, things were going great for Billy Hargrove.
