"What are those 'freaks' exactly?" Steve asks from the back seat of the car. He does have a vague idea but it's not something that comes up in daily conversation or gets covered in classes. He's not even interested in going, but his parents rarely take him anywhere, so when his mom mentioned that a freak show came to town and she wanted to check it out, he backed her up and his father reluctantly agreed to make it a family trip.
“Human curiosities,” his mother answers, which explains nothing to him.
“Mother Nature’s fuck-ups,” adds his father, making Steve frown.
Wasn’t nature supposed to be orderly and thought out? Meticulously crafted by evolution or god’s plan, whichever you believed in? (Steve’s teachers had a confusing beef about it.)
Then again, nature invented spiders, which Steve would consider a fuck-up on its part. He remembers Dustin telling him about a comic about a spider-man. The thought of a human-shaped arachnid makes his skin crawl and he loses all his curiosity on the topic. Suddenly the family trip doesn't seem so fun anymore.
The short drive to the empty fields on the outskirts of Hawkins is filled with the Top 40 playing on the radio. His father taps his fingers to the beat of some of them, proving against all odds that he's capable of enjoying trivial human things. Steve loves to sing along and dance in the confines of his room but here, trapped in a car with his parents, he just bops his head slightly, not wanting to disturb the silence.
The freak show is a lot like the circus his uncle took him to once. There is a scattering of tents and trucks in varying sizes, all in a similar, kitschy theme of a fun fair. The air even smells of popcorn and hot dogs.
His mother scrunches her nose as soon she steps out of the car.
“This is not what I expected,” she comments, eyeing the scattering of kids and families running around.
“Well...” His father slams the door shut, pulling out a cigarette even before locking the car. “These things are dying off because of human rights activists,” he says around the cig he's trying to light. “Guess they had to rebrand to keep the business afloat.”
It's Steve’s turn to scrunch his face. His dad makes everything about business and money, even something supposedly fun, like a Sunday family trip to a fair; freak show, circus, whatever this is.
“It used to be a huge tent with displays. Now each of them gets their own? Who do they think they are?” his mother laments while hanging onto her husband’s arm, while Steve tails behind.
They pass a tent with a Siamese Twins sign hanging from the front, with a man at the front of the line, gathering money and letting people in. Nearby is another tent, occupied by a Bearded Lady, then a Half-man Half-wolf behind it. The line to that one is particularly long.
The Harringtons agree to take a walk around and decide which ones they want to spend money on, and whether it's even worth it. They've already paid an entrance fee that gives them access to most of the attractions anyway.
They pass a couple of smaller booths, a face-painting clown, and a juggler, before reaching the biggest tent in the center. In front of it stands a chalkboard with a schedule of main events. According to it the next show, between 1 pm and 2:30 pm, was a music performance, pricing a dollar per song: The Twisted Jukebox.
Steve decides to stay back, with a couple of bills burning in his pocket, while his parents keep exploring.
The light coming in from the top of the tent illuminates a box in the stage center, throwing a long shadow against the soft glow. As he comes closer he realizes it's a jukebox, and he wonders what could possibly be so special about it to warrant an hour-and-a-half-long performance slot. The sign says 'a dollar per song', but does it even take bills?
He decides that the couple of minutes left until the start gives him enough time to examine the machine. It isn't as close to the edge of the stage as he’d like but he presses against the wooden construction nevertheless, cocking his head to the side. The jukebox looks off, different from the ones he'd see at diners, but he can't exactly put his finger on why.
“Hi! Would you like to request a song?”
The sudden voice to his left startles him into bumping his elbow against the stage. He winces as he turns around.
A blonde girl is smiling at him apologetically. She's wearing a short green dress, with a jacket he's seen on other circus staff thrown over her shoulders. She must be involved in the show, then.
He glances back at the jukebox, the song list unreadable from his vantage point.
“What are my options?” he asks, looking at the girl again.
“Any song works!” she says with a bright smile, and he frowns at her, confused.
"That's not how jukeboxes work," he observes. But her smile only widens.
"This one does," she assures him. "So?"
His mind blanks in when put on the spot like that, but he thinks back to the songs he's heard on the radio today.
"Madonna's Material Girl?" he suggests hesitantly. For some reason, she laughs.
"That's perfect. You're the first one today, so you'll get the honors. Do you have a token already?"
The face he makes must be answer enough because she smiles and produces a coin from her pocket. Or a poker chip painted gold to resemble a coin.
"I hope you have a dollar because I don't have any change yet."
He remembers how gigs work, that you have to pay the performers, and dives into his pocket. He didn't take much with him, but one dollar isn't a problem. He exchanges it for the golden token.
"Follow me." The girl motions at him and turns around abruptly. Stunned, he does as he's told until they reach the steps on the side of the stage. She moves aside as if expecting him to go up there.
He's confused as all hell. Is this how all circus performers were? Freaks in both senses of the word?
The girl chuckles at him and she's too cute for Steve to be offended but it's a close call.
"Hop up there, put the coin in the slot and the show will start. I'll come get you after that."
His confusion triples down but he's used to nodding along when a cute girl talks to him so that's what he does now as well. Blondes are not exactly his type, but maybe he could ask her out and show her around town later.
"Okay," he says before stepping on the stage. When he turns around the girl is gone and he hopes it's not some kind of twisted joke.
The sunlight coming through an open flap on the tent's dome lights the stage, casting the surrounding audience in shadows, which Steve is grateful for. He doesn't want to know what kind of faces they are making looking at the dumbass on stage approaching a jukebox.
It looks almost like any other he's seen before, though the paint job is custom. Twisted Jukebox is written at the top in scratchy letters, and the sides are painted with images of fantastical creatures: dragons, unicorns, and the like. Not Steve's style but someone did a good job on it.
The songs list though, is... peculiar. It has things like:
Anything by Metallica, please,
No Wham! I beg of you,
Country over Pop.
Steve wonders briefly if he had even woken up this morning. Everything from the moment his mother proposed a family outing has been too weird to be real.
Finally, his eyes land on the colorful slot with an arrow pointing to it saying "$1 - 1song". He rubs his thumb over the token he's been given before flipping it sideways and sliding it in.
The coin rattles inside like it just fell through into an empty box. He frowns.
The fic has been out for a few days already, but I can finally make my own post and inflict it on y'all, and nobody can stop me, bwahahahahahah!
*cough* So, I took part in the Stranger Things Big Bang (2024 edition) and was so lucky that @lemonhitsu claimed my fic and made some amazing art for it, and also this banner up here! I'm so honored to have his great art on my fic, and proud to have inspired him even just a tiny bit! T^T Look at what he made! So pretty! So sad! So perfect!
My fic is a story about pining boys, with a big dose of angst and fluff, and a happy ending (and some smut just at the end). It's titled Flesh for Fantasy (thank you for the title, Billy Idol!) and you can find it here on ao3.
It's inspired by a Teen Wolf fic that I have reread a bit too many times and never fails to give me all the feels thanks to so much delicious angst and I'm a sucker for good angst, oh, yes I am! But I digress.
I loved writing my story, and mixing reality and Fantasy was a fun way to stretch my writing muscles. I was very lucky that @dragonflylady77 beta-read it for me, and that she and @medusapelagia patiently listened to me ramble while I was still writing it.
Anyway, here's the link to the story once again, and here are the info about the fic itself:
Flesh for Fantasy
Rated E; 32000 words; no archive warnings
Relationship: Billy/Steve
Characters: Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, Billy Hargrove, the Party, Maxine Mayfield, Jim "Chief" Hopper, Neil Hargrove, Susan Hargrove, Steve's parents
The big tags: no Upside Down AU; Neil Hargrove; Child Abuse; car accidents; hospitals; blood and injury; broken bones; touch-starved Billy Hargrove; fluff and angst; emotional hurt/comfort; Platonic stobin; hopeless crushes; eventual smut; homophobia; non-sexual intimacy
Synopsis:
In a world where if you Fantasize about someone, that person feels it on their skin, someone starts Fantasizing about Steve Harrington. But instead of being sexual Fantasies, it's for cuddles and soft touches, so restrained that Steve has no idea who his phantom hugger is. All he knows is they must have a good reason to keep hidden like that.
I also have a little (?) snippet, but it's under the cut so the post is not too long on the timeline :P
"Do you think I look lonely?"
She's taken aback by what must feel like a sudden change in subject.
"Uh… No. I mean… sometimes, maybe. Babe, what does this have to do with anything?"
"The Dreamer. It's never, like, a sex thing."
"But that's what Fantasies are for. For sex!"
"I know, okay, but this is… It's hugs. This person, whoever it is, hugs me."
Steve gives Robin a couple of seconds to look at him in stunned silence and digest his words, then he asks her:
"Do I look like I need a hug that bad that someone feels it's their duty to provide one?"
"How long has this girl been giving you Fantasy hugs?" Robin asks, her tone poised somewhere between bewildered and worried.
"Aside from the fact I don't even know if it's a guy or a gal, it's been… uh… weeks? A month? Maybe more, I'm not sure."
"And you never told me a thing?!" she shouts, outraged.
"I just did!"
Robin smacks the back of her hand on his arm in an offended gesture.
"That doesn't count and you know it!"
The secrecy ban is over so I can finally announce to the world that I’m going to collaborate with the super talented @mothellie and the fic I'm writing is…
AN OMEGAVERSE METALSANDWICH PIRATES AU!!!
I’m so excited about this and I can’t wait to share it!!!
Hi!! The fic was posted last week but now the ST Big Bang has ended and I can post it myself. ^_^
The harringrove soulmates AU I wrote for @strangerthingsbigbang (this time, with actual smut!)... in which Steve finds out Billy is alive and his soulmate then he goes to get his man, demobats be damned.
13k | Explicit | soulmates, billy hargrove is alive, steve chest hair agenda
Cover art & Chapter 3 art by @bottombillyapologist
Billy didn’t expect to meet his soulmate on his first day at Hawkins High. Not that it mattered, because his soulmate was Steve Harrington and there was no way Neil Hargrove would let Billy anywhere near him.
And Steve didn’t expect to become best friends with the new kid in school, when he asked Billy to tutor him so he could pass English and graduate. He sure didn’t expect to miss Billy this much, after he died to save everyone at the battle of Starcourt.
Or for demodogs to be back in Hawkins.
Or for Max to tell him that Billy was his soulmate and that she was sure he was alive somewhere.
Steve sure as hell didn’t expect to head to the Upside Down to rescue his soulmate.
Billy had always heard that people got their soulmark on their sixteenth birthday, but he wasn’t actually sure when his own had shown up.
He’d checked his body in the mirror on the morning after his birthday but not spotted any new marks, beyond the bruises inflicted by Neil the night before for daring to have made another trip around the sun. Happy birthday to him or whatever.
It wasn’t until over a year later, when Neil was dragging them to Nowhere, Indiana, that he was made aware of it.
He was sharing a motel room with his new stepsister and he had tied up his hair in a bun while he shaved his face, when Max came in to get her hair brush and pointed at the back of his neck.
“What’s that?” she asked. “Did you get a tattoo?”
“What are you talking about, shitbird?”
The confusion on his face must have been enough to prove to her that he had no idea what the fuck she was talking about.
“There’s a feather on the back of your neck. Here.” Max picked up a small mirror from her toiletry kit and handed it to him. Billy turned around so his back was to the mirror above the vanity and looked into the mirror in his hand and sure enough, there was a colorful peacock feather there. Blues and greens with a bit of orange.
“What the hell?”
“Holy shit, Billy! That’s your soulmark! It looks so rad!”
“Thanks, I guess.” Billy put her mirror down and picked up his razor again.
“Why aren’t you more excited?” Max asked as she started brushing her hair.
“It’s not like it matters, is it?”
“But you’ll be eighteen soon.”
“You really think he’ll let me go? Knowing what he knows about me? Come on, Max, you know better than this.”
Max sighed. “It’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair, shitbird. The sooner you accept it, the better.”
I kinda forgot to go with a hero or villain theme. So, um, hero, because Murdaa is very obviously a good girl. There has to be a hero who wears a bottom bikini. Don't worry, she'll actually wear a top at the event!
Hidden Treasure - STBB Proj 7 WIP Wednesday - Steve
This is the last promo banner for my @strangerthingsbigbang fic, featuring my pretty boy: Steve Harrington!
The next time I'll be talking about this fic it will be officially posted!
A huge thanks to my wonderful artists @mothellie and @ghostdeb, and my betas Manu K. and @suometar and see you during posting season!
tagging those who were interested: @katyawriteswhump @lingeringmirth @akichania @v3lv3tf0x @blog4horror
Under the cut a little snippet
TW: storm, injuries, blood
The wood is wet and slippery, but Jeff is old salt, so he climbs down slowly, making sure to find a nice grip before moving a foot or a hand. He holds on to the ropes and his hands hurt from how strong his grip is, but one step at a time he is getting down to the deck, just a few feet and he will not be at the storm’s mercy anymore. That’s when a big wave rocks the Golden Lion without mercy and he loses his grip and falls on the deck, yelling. Jeff doesn't even have the time to understand that he injured his ankle when another wave comes crashing. He has already shut his eyes, ready to be tossed into Davy Jones' locker, when someone grabs him by his belt and yanks him back.
When Jeff turns, the new boy has a rope around his chest and is holding him with all his strength. “Hold on!” Steve yells, crouching down with the other man against the ship’s rail.
They both curse while the salty water wet them till their bones, but they hold onto each other, shivering with cold and fear, until finally the sky starts to clear and the wind starts to die down.
Someone behind them is praying, while some crew members are calling the names of their companions out loud, and in the chaos on the ship, Billy keeps yelling orders until the Golden Lion is in the clear and they find a little cove where they can drop anchor and assess the damage to the vessel and the crew.
The ship has a few damages, they definitely need to search for a closer port to get it repaired, and they lost five members of the crew. The only reason Jeff wasn’t flung in the ocean was Steve's quick thinking, so the lad has finally gained his place in the crew. Their lookout has a sprained ankle and a few bruises but, even if he is not going back to the crowsnest soon, he is fine. Who worries the alpha is the beta man. Everytime they’re close he can smell something coming from him. It’s not exactly a scent, but it makes him uneasy, so he tries to avoid staying closer to the man as much as he can. At least until dinner, when they consume their food in the Captain’s cabin like every night and Steve sits at Billy’s side, waiting for Eddie and their ration. Billy smells the air and detects a stronger smell that he knows too well: blood.
The alpha grabs the man’s wrist and drags him toward his bed, “Strip.” he orders, and he’s not surprised when the beta starts to protest, but the alpha’s grip is strong. “Don't fuss and strip.” He repeats.
“If you need to fuck someone to cool down the steam, Eddie’s just outside!” Steve snarls back, trying to free himself from the captain’s tight grip.
“You’re hurt. I can smell the blood.” Billy finally admits, “I just want to help you.”
“You are the one who is hurting me!” Steve protests, but for a moment Billy sees a flash of fear in the boy’s eyes so Billy assumes that he is scared that they will leave him on some desert island because he is injured. It won’t be a first, but Billy’s crew is his family and he is not the kind of pirate that would do something like that to one of his crew members.
We can finally talk about our stories for the Stranger Things Big Bang and about who we're collaborating with, so now I can say that my partner in crime for this BB is @lemonhitsu! I'm so honored that he chose my fic and I can't wait to see what he'll create for it! T^T
In the mean time, happy WIP Wednesday, or something like that! Here's a little (?) excerpt from Flesh for Fantasy, my story for the event!
It's a Harringrove AU set in a world where, if you Fantasize about someone, they feel it on their skin. And someone has been Fantasizing about Steve, lately.
He stares right at Robin when he asks:
"Do you think I look lonely?
"She's taken aback by what must feel like a sudden change in subject."
Uh... No. I mean... sometimes, maybe. Babe, what does this have to do with anything?"
"The Dreamer. It's never, like, a sex thing."
"But that's what Fantasies are for. For sex!"
"I know, okay, but this is... It's hugs. This person, whoever it is, hugs me."
Steve gives Robin a couple of seconds to look at him in stunned silence and digest his words, then he asks her:
"Do I look like I need a hug that bad that someone feels it's their duty to provide one?"
"How long has this girl been giving you Fantasy hugs?" Robin asks, her tone poised somewhere between bewildered and worried.
"Aside from the fact I don't even know if it's a guy or a gal, it's been... uh... weeks? A month? Maybe more, I'm not sure."
"And you never told me a thing?!" she shouts, outraged.
"I just did!"
Robin smacks the back of her hand on his arm in an offended gesture.
"That doesn't count and you know it!"
Hidden Treasure - STBB Proj 7
WIP Wednesday - Billy
After a little bit of confusion I'm super excited to announce that my fic written for the @strangerthingsbigbang now has two super talented artists: @mothellie and @ghostdeb!!!
I can't wait to see what they will come up with, and in the meantime I made a few banners while we wait for the official posting date! One for each of the boys. (Yeah... I'm totally NOT obssessed with this fic ok????)
And the first one is our alpha: Billy Hargrove!
tagging those who were interested: @katyawriteswhump @lingeringmirth @akichania @v3lv3tf0x
Under the cut a little snippet!
TW: violence, murder, blood
His mother... his mother was trying to get more money... for him... because she knew... she knew that Billy was close to his rut, but Lord Hargrove doesn't know it, or maybe he doesn't care, it doesn't matter, what matters is that Billy is angry and has too many hormones in his body and two things can make an alpha go feral even out of the rut period: extreme lust or extreme anger.
And in Billy's case, it's the latter.
There is a paper cutter on the little desk at Billy’s side, it was a gift the Lord gave her when he was courting his mother: it has beautiful engravings, but what’s more important is that it's really sharp.
It all happens so fast that the young alpha doesn't really remember it: what he knows is that he is standing above Lord Hargrove’s bloodied body, the paper cutter still in his tight grip and his hands covered in hot blood, while someone is scruffing him.
How dare they!
He tries to turn, still growling. People are talking. There are too many people, everything is just too loud and confusing and Billy is angry and hurt and he wants to smash something, preferably Lord Hargrove’s head, but there is a voice that is begging him to come back. A voice that he knows and that he loves.
"Ed... Eddie?" He calls, confused, finally trying to focus on the voice until his eyes land on the dark-haired boy who is cupping his face between his hands.
"Hey, yeah, it's me... Eddie... your friend. Do you recognize me?" Eddie asks, brushing his knuckles on Billy's cheek while staring into his eyes before lifting his stare toward the person who is scruffing him "His eyes are back to blue."
"Fucking finally! My arm hurts from how long I have been scruffing this pup!" The man behind Billy complains, and the boy immediately recognizes the voice: Sam Bellamy.
The pirate lets him go, and Billy falls on his knees, hissing in pain.
"Some pain will help you clear your mind, pup." The Pirate Prince says, before turning toward the people that are staring at the scene, then he asks "Someone here is a relative of this man?" He kicks the dead body for good measure in the thick silence. "Good. If anyone asks, Sam Bellamy killed him with his hands and took all his money."
Billy turns so abruptly that his neck cracks: it's not true! He is the one who killed Lord Hargrove! His hands are still red with his blood, but Mrs. Wheeler nods.
"I saw with my very eyes the pirate Sam Bellamy killing Lord Hargrove and stealing all his gold." She declares and all the girls nod in silent agreement.
The pirate looks at the poor body of Billy's mother lying on the bed "What about her?"
"We'll give her a proper burial," the mistress assures him, "but you have to take the boy with you."
"This one?" Bellamy asks, pointing at Billy. "He is trouble."
