Content warning: mdni!, suggestive themes, full term pregnancy, back labor, amniotic fluid, contractions, childbirth (explicitly described-waterbirth), precipitous birth, zuko catches the baby
a.n: A Mother’s Day special. Hi guys Atla has temporarily revived me, how have you guys been? Lol, I’ve been working on this for a while and I was nervous to post it honestly. The ending is a tad rushed I was legit fatigued at that point. Anywho…
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there 💖
w.c: 5k
— —
He’s been more clingy now that you could have the baby any day now. He doesn’t want to leave your side, and that means if he has to go somewhere, you have to go too.
You stir in your seat for the fourth time, trying to get into a more comfortable position. Your belly is heavy and low since the baby dropped. So now your positions are limited—it’s either the left side, or the right side.
Zuko glances over his shoulder at you, for the tenth time, physically bothered and uptight by the fact that you’re not comfortable. He wants nothing to do with the throne he currently sits on. You give him a tired, reassuring smile and shift your hips a little. Zuko sighs quietly, nostrils flaring as he looks directly into the Chamberlain's eyes.
“Chamberlain.” Zuko interrupts the older man, a displeased look on his face. “Do you have anything urgent to address?”
“Oh—well, no, Fire Lord Zuko.” He bows quickly.
“Dismissed.” Zuko affirms, being the first to stand and leave.
He comes straight to you, helping you up out of your own overly padded ‘throne’, one hand under your elbow and the other on your hip.
“Up we go.” Zuko waits for you to find your balance, supporting you, his hand shifting from your hip to your belly. “He’s low.”
“How do you know he’s low? What if she’s low?” You reply, out of breath, feeling the pressure bud between your legs the longer you stand. You were hoping you wouldn’t have to waddle out of here in front of so many people. Zuko smiles, but it fades when he sees your face sour with discomfort.
“Where does it hurt?” He asks, guiding you out of the throne room. “Take your time.”
“My back.” You wince. Actually, your entire body aches. But you do your best not to show it.
“A warm bath, shall we?” Zuko suggests and you nod.
He mutters something like, ‘careful’, as he shifts and supports you down the stairs and into your living quarters.
“The avatar arrives in less than an hour.” Zuko regretfully informs you as he draws you a full bath. “We have a meeting.”
“Zuko…” You moan and lower yourself at a painfully slow rate onto the wooden chair in the bath room. You exhale slowly through pursed lips, a hand cradling underneath your bump. “I…I don’t think—I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Zuko abandons the filling tub and comes over to help slip your robe off you, a remorseful expression tightening his face. The moment your belly is exposed, his hands find it, caressing and feeling, his lips pressing into the crown of your head. He pulls back and lowers himself level to you, gently hooking his arms under yours.
“I know.” He mutters in a defeated way. He’s painfully aware that it’s unreasonable to expect you to accompany him everywhere he goes. Not when you’re so close to having the baby. “Come. It’s ready, darling.”
Zuko carefully tugs you up and you allow his strength to do all the work. You follow his movement, throwing your leg over the tub to get inside. He quickly turns off the pipe. The water is so warm and you can’t help the noise that bubbles up your throat when he lowers the rest of your body in. Immediately all that weight, the pressure, the aches, they’re all relieved from the water.
“Yeah? It’s that good?” Zuko chuckles softly, his eyes flicking down to your swollen breasts floating at the water's surface.
His jaw clenches and his eyes trail further down. Just underneath them lays your belly, as big and as round as ever. He's done this to you. Zuko feels pride bloom in his chest. If you’d allow it, he’d keep you pregnant and full with his heir each year that passes.
Perhaps he will.
“A little hotter, please.” You growl the last word, spreading your legs wide enough for the pressure to release from your pelvis. Oh, that position does something to Zuko. His cheeks tinge pink and he has a hard time looking away as you spread.
“Mhh—” He clears his throat and sits up straight, tugging his sleeves up his forearms. His hands dip into the bath, swirling in circular motions as the water heats up around you. You moan a sigh of relief. “It’s not good for you to have it any hotter than this, love.”
“It’s good. This is good.” You whisper as you lean back, resting your head against the pillow on the side of the basin. Your protruding belly button breaks the water's surface, along with your dark, puckered nipples.
Baths are becoming more frequent. They’re the only thing, aside from Zuko’s hands themselves, that are able to relieve some of these aches and pains.
Zuko reaches for the cloth and begins at your shoulders, wiping you down with the warm water. He wipes the back of your neck, dipping the cloth back into the water when it’s gotten too cold.
“Think he’s coming soon, Zuko.” You mumble mindlessly, focus on that little bit of pressure that never fades. The kind that makes you want to settle into a squat and stay there.
“Yeah? He is?” Zuko responds with a similar tone, but then his expression shifts to something less calm. His eyes check you over, narrowing as they graze over your belly that hangs heavily between your legs. “Darling,” His tone hardens, “…how soon?”
“Don’t know.” You mutter, eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of him dragging the cloth across your chest. “Feels like—her—head is right there.”
Zuko’s jaw tightens. How can he leave you now that you’ve said that?
“I’ll reschedule the meeting.”
“No, no.” It takes too much energy to say that, but you think he’s just being silly at this point. “It’s the avatar, Zuko.”
Zuko only laughs. The times that Aang has requested his presence or ‘help’ just for it to be a side quest or some air temple adventure—this is likely no different.
“He’ll survive without me.” Zuko says, shifting behind you now, dragging the cloth down your arms. He feels the water, and reheats it slightly, keeping it at the temperature you like best.
“Go, Zu. I’m going to be fine. I’ll probably be back in here when you’re finished.”
“And who will help you with that?” Zuko asks in all seriousness, as if attendees didn’t garnish this palace like jewels on a crown.
“Anyone.” You mumble, getting comfortable enough to doze off now.
“I don’t want just ‘anyone’ to undress you and put you in this bath, darling.” Zuko speaks under his breath, his tone sharp and controlled. His voice lowers to a hushed whisper, and his soft lips press into the shell of your ear. “That sight…is only for me to see.”
Your body breaks out into a shiver. You didn’t consider it like that.
“Yes, Fire Lord Zuko.” You smile dopily, letting your eyes close all the way. “I expect you will be delivering the baby then.”
There’s a pause, and silence. Zuko tenses behind you, the cloth stopping just on the back of your elbow. Then he answers sternly. “If I must, yes.”
You keep your eyes closed, but give him a smile anyways. “Understood, Fire Lord.”
“You make it sound like a joke.” He exhales harshly, dipping the cloth underwater now, wiping it gently between your breasts. “It isn’t.”
“Mm—I know, but you act as if I’ll vanish if you leave me for an hour.” You say with as little effort you can, you’re tired.
You feel his warm hands make their way over your tight nipples, and you moan softly.
“And if you do?” Zuko asks through a clenched jaw.
“You won’t lose me in an hour, Zuko.” You try to force as much finality into your voice, but your exhaustion settles deep in your bones. If you have to come out of this bath now, you’ll surely burst into tears.
“Logically…but—” Zuko doesn’t finish his sentence. His hand drags further down, and your belly hardens against the cloth. He looks up at you expectantly, just to witness your face tighten with discomfort. “You’re in pain all the time now.”
“It comes,” Your voice strains, and you breathe slowly through your mouth, feeling your body finally relax. “And goes.”
“That doesn’t make me any less…any less—”
“Any less, what?” You peek at him, and see his expression bounce between restraint and panic.
“Any less worried.” Zuko says, irritated with his own inability to find the words to explain his feelings. “It kills me…that I cannot make this better.”
“My Zuko…” You begin, turning your head to look at him properly. He looks tense. Like he has the world and more resting on top of him. “I don’t need you to make it better, I just need you here.”
“I am here.” He says. But being here didn’t feel like enough.
“Exactly.” You let your eyes slip shut, and as the word hangs in the air, he moves down to your thighs with the cloth. “Go meet with the avatar, Zuko.”
“I don’t want to leave you.”
“And I don’t want to leave this bath.”
Zuko almost chuckles, though it sounds more like a scoff. He wrings out the cloth and hangs it on the edge of the basin. “I will go to the meeting.”
“Mm.” You hum lightly, already half drifting off somewhere else.
“But I’ll be back immediately after.” He states earnestly, his mouth partially open like he’s not quite finished talking. “And if anything changes…anything, y/n. Send for me.”
“I’m in a bath, Zuko.” Your lips curl in your last attempt to reassure him.
“I don’t care.” He insists, showing you exactly how serious he is.
“Right. I will summon the Fire Lord from his meeting with the Avatar if my water gets too cold.” Now your smile is beaming, and you peek up at him again.
He is, too, smiling softly, that sweet smile. “Good. And don’t stay here too long. Actually, it’s better if I stay until you're ready—”
“No, go. I can get out of the bath on my own, Zu. Okay?”
Zuko leans in and presses his forehead against your temple. After a few long moments, he reluctantly pulls away. “Okay. I’ll be right back.”
Eventually, Zuko leaves after returning many times. Each time he’d get a little farther, he’d turn back. Say his goodbyes again, give you another kiss on the head. Rub your belly and tell his unborn wa that he’ll be back soon.
By the time he walked through the doors of the throne room, Aang and Katara were already seated and waiting for his arrival. As Zuko walks in, all of the attendees and servants stand and bow. He walks past them, shoulders square and head straight, ready to end the meeting before it even starts. As Zuko approaches the long, narrow table, Aang rises to his feet and turns to Katara. Zuko immediately recognizes the movement, the way he hunches forward to provide his body as leverage, the positioning of his arms—the patience.
So when he sees Katara clutching onto Aang for support with one hand, and the other under the swell of her stomach, Zuko intervenes.
“Avatar Aang.” Zuko greets his long-time friend with a firm squeeze of his shoulder.
“Fire Lord Zuko.” Aang addresses him properly as he helps Katara out of her seat. “Please, sit.” Zuko insists, resting his hand on Aang’s wrist to stop him. Katara sits back down with a warm smile, her small bump nestled high under her ribcage. Zuko notes that she doesn’t seem any further than six months.
“Katara. You look well.” Zuko says respectfully. Has that much time really passed since he last saw them?
Katara smiles, but the exhaustion is evident in the slight discoloration under her eyes. “Thank you, Zuko.”
“Zuko.” Aang’s tone turns grave, and Zuko picks up on it right away. This isn’t going to be one of his fun adventures or side quests, he can sense that much in the pit of his already uneasy stomach.
Zuko finally takes his seat, his eyes glancing over Katara’s bump, and then to the doors before landing back on Aang. He’s distracted. And it’s clear as day.
“This must be very important for the both of you to make the journey here. Please, let’s begin.”
But before the first document is presented, Zuko is already elsewhere mentally. His mind runs on you, how you’re probably—finally—struggling to step out of that bath on your own.
What if you slip?
Or how you’re probably clutching your back as you shuffle into bed with your hair wet.
What if you get sick?
All of his intrusive thoughts drive him further away from where he is. It’s Aang’s voice, which seems to fade in and out as he outlines each concern, that forces Zuko out of his thoughts.
Hours pass like days, and Zuko is more tormented than ever. Every point piles on top of him, like one boulder after the next—the weight of the world weighing heavier on his shoulders.
And the cherry on top is you.
—
You’re still in the bath, but the water's gone cold. And despite your promise, you refuse to call the Fire Lord to come reheat it. You know this meeting is of great importance, and your duty as Fire Lady in this moment is to ensure it goes uninterrupted.
But you didn’t expect it to last for hours.
Another wave of fire floods your lower back and you grit your teeth and breathe through it. Your fingers clutch onto the edge of the tub as your knees settle into the floor of the basin. The pressure worsens each time your back flares up.
The pains huddle closer together, less space and breaks between them. You get to the point where you start rocking side to side, contorting your body as best you can into whatever position that provides a bit of relief.
But relief never comes.
You glance over at the window—the sun is setting and the sky is a beautiful blood orange. Interrupting a diplomatic meeting to complain about back pain won’t be your proudest moment. But now that you’re trying to get out of the tub and can’t, it’s something you’re going to have to do.
Because this might not be just back pain.
“Guard!” You whimper out, voice shaky but strong. Metal footsteps hastily clink towards you and stop just outside of the door.
“Fire Lady—”
“Get my husband! Oh—get Zuko, now!”
“Yes, Fire Lady.”
—
Aang finally introduces the final point—the resistance of some of the fire nation colonies, and how that’s been a significant threat lately to the balance of things. Zuko just nods and glances over at the door once again.
“…if we don’t approach this correctly, it could turn into a war that neither of us want…you do understand that?” Aang follows Zuko’s gaze to the door, “Zuko?”
“Yes. I understand and I agree. We will need to approach it strategically.” Zuko begins, growing more tense as that feeling inside him starts ringing like a siren. “I apologize. My mind is in two places at once, today.”
“If I have to be honest, Zuko. You look like you want to bolt out of your chair.” Katara jests carefully.
Zuko looks away from the door, right at Aang and Katara. He didn’t think it was that obvious. He never wanted to come off as uninterested. He swallows quickly, huffing a sigh.
“My wife is due any day.” Zuko admits, fixing his slightly curved posture. “She was very…uncomfortable when I left her.”
Katara’s expression softens, and Aang goes rigid.
“We understand.” Katara says as she looks over at Aang.
Suddenly, the doors burst open, and a young, breathless attendee stumbles in and onto the carpeted floor. He scrambles to his feet and bows as low as he can.
“Fire Lord Zuko, I—I apologize.” The attendee heaves in a grating breath, and Zuko’s body primes to act, to do, to run. “Th-the Fire Lady—,” He gasps loudly and Zuko immediately stands, his chair screeching behind him, his hands gripping the corners of the table.
“Speak!” Zuko commands.
“The Fire Lady requests your presence at once!”
Zuko is already moving around the table, his voice thick with worry, “What happened?”
“The Fire Lady said only to fetch you, Lord Zuko.”
“My apologies.” Zuko huffs as he hastily passes Aang and Katara.
“Go. We’ll stay here.” Aang projects his voice. Katara’s hand instinctively hovers over her spirit water pouch, like she wants to follow and help.
— —
When Zuko bursts through the door to your living quarters he doesn’t see you in the bed with damp hair like he imagined. His heart slams into his ribcage, and he immediately rushes into the bath room.
There he finds you perched on the edge of the tub, curved back heaving from heavy, uneven breaths, belly hanging tight underneath. It looks bad, worse than usual, actually. Your face is hidden in your crossed arms, and your hips wade side to side half submerged in the water.
Zuko shouts your name, closing the distance between you in a few strides, adrenaline high. You raise your head from your arms, revealing a face screwed with pain, and Zuko sinks to a crouch in front of you. His fingers comb away your sweaty hair from your face.
“You’re back in the bath, my love.” Zuko says it like a question as his eyes search yours, slightly confused and mostly concerned. His hand leaves your face, shaking slightly as it dips into the water. His pupils blow when the horrifying realization hits him the second the water registers as cold—
“This is the same bath I left you in.” Zuko’s voice shakes with restraint.
He quickly strips himself of his robes and enters the tub behind you, water sloshing out the sides and onto the floor. Anger bubbles inside him, anger directed towards himself.
“You’ve been in here for hours.” He growls.
“Zuko…” You sob weakly as heat floods your pelvis in the most excruciating way, and the pressure makes your legs spread further.
“Okay, breathe. Breathe.” Zuko coos as he heats the water with his body as fast as he can without hurting you. “Talk to me darling, is it your back?”
You nod your head desperately, and a deep, lengthy groan erupts from your throat. The sound of it makes Zuko grit his teeth. His hands move quickly to your back, pressing firmly against it, his thumbs massaging deep into the tissue.
“You should have sent for me sooner.” He grinds out a tight jaw, careful and deliberate with his every movement. “How long has it been like this?”
You shake your head, unable to speak during. Zuko waits patiently, massaging your back as he continues to heat the water. His eyes scan you like he’s trying to figure out what is about to happen next. These didn’t seem like the usual back pains you’ve been getting lately.
“F-Few hours…haah, my back—oh, there’s pressure,” you cry softly the second it’s over, and Zuko embraces you from behind, pulling you gently into his chest. You allow your head to fall back onto his shoulder as you reestablish your breath. “I—I can’t get out…”
The thought of you here, trapped and cold, makes his stomach twist. His hands instinctively slide over your belly, yearning to connect, fingers pressing softly as he checks the position of the baby. Much lower.
“I’m here. Does the pain come and go?”
Your eyes slam shut, and your breath catches in your throat. The pain is back, and the pressure is at an all time high. You begin groaning again, even louder this time. Zuko supports you in the water, his body hot against your back. But not even that helps you. Zuko’s fingers splay across your stomach as it pulls closer to you—tightening up.
“Oh.” Zuko breathes, looking down into the warped water to see your stomach seized in a way he’s never seen before. “These are contractions.”
And it hasn’t been long between this one and the last one.
How close are you exactly?
“Wha—aah!” You’re cut off by the pressure morphing into something else entirely. You grab his forearm, using everything in you to hoist yourself up. “Zuko…I need the toilet!”
Zuko’s heart leaps into his throat and he tries to swallow it down. He’s only able to say your name before he finds himself holding you up, bringing you both to a standing position.
Once the cold air hits your thighs, gravity comes into play and the pain concentrates in your pelvis now. The tightening crests, leaving you shaking as you slump back into Zuko entirely.
“I’ve got you.” He says through a ragged breath, securing you properly in his hold. “Breathe darling, I have you.”
Your body jolts against him and there’s a popping sensation inside your pelvis. Once cold thighs flood with warmth, and then there’s the distinct sound of water hitting water. Zuko looks down in awe, and so do you.
“My water…My water broke.” You whisper shakily, that feeling intensifying by the second.
“Yes.” Zuko breathes hard, his hand quickly slipping between your thighs. The world stops spinning when his fingertips catch something soft, yet firm. Instinct drives his hand, tugging your leg to the side as he maneuvers and looks, really looks. And what he sees makes his eyes bulge, confirming what he thought he felt.
“Ohh—Zuko! Zuko! It hurts!” A scream erupts from you, and you give in to this feeling of push.
Zuko acts quickly, lowering you back into the bath. You find yourself settling into a deep squat. Meanwhile, Zuko doesn’t have time to think, to call for the palace physician or even Katara—he only has time to act. He kneels behind you, hands instinctively moving into position between your legs.
With a growl, your body bears down and you topple forward, gripping on to the edge of the basin. Zuko steadies you with one hand, keeping the other ready under the water. He watches as your body shakes and strains with effort, your finger tips white around the basin.
“That’s it.” His voice is rough but raw with emotion, his baby’s head emerging a little further. Zuko feels as you stretch, his mouth agape at the sheer power you’re exhibiting. “Our baby’s coming, y/n. You’re so strong.”
The contraction fades, leaving you utterly wrecked and your breath hitching repeatedly. Mere seconds pass before the next wave crashes over you, sucking you back into the blinding pain.
“I can’t do this.” You barely whimper before your body pushes again. You make a noise you didn’t know you were capable of making, something primal and sacred.
“But you are.” Zuko murmurs, overcome with emotion. He feels the baby’s head transcend further, and your thighs begin to shake tremendously. “Darling, you’re doing it.”
“It burns!” You yelp, trying to shift away from the blossoming fire.
“I…I know.” Zuko grimaces, his instinct screaming protect. But this isn’t something he can protect you from. “Pant for me, baby. Small pushes.”
You shake your head as you pant loudly and quickly, tears streaming down your red cheeks.
With a guttural grunt you feel a sudden release, and Zuko gasps loudly behind you. “The head…the head is out, y/n.”
Shock sputters from you in short gasps, and you reach into the water to feel the baby’s head. It’s the softest thing you’ve ever felt in your entire life— soft fuzzy hair, stuck to their skull. You burst into tears, snotty, sobbing sounds ripping from your chest.
Zuko leans in to sprinkle haphazard kisses on your temple and cheek, and then he quickly settles back and readjusts how he supports the baby’s head.
“One more push, darling. Please.” Zuko pants, and immediately you’re shaking your head. You want this baby out more than anything, but the thought of continuing is absolutely terrifying.
It’s too much.
“It’s almost over. And then we’ll have our baby, okay? Breathe.” Zuko quickly and carefully slides his finger around the baby’s neck, automatically checking for the cord. Relief flashes across his face when he finds nothing there—everything is going the way it should.
A low groan rumbles from you, and Zuko is already bracing himself, readying himself to catch. His stomach lurches when your groan ramps up to a bloodcurdling scream, and your body curves from strain.
“That’s…that’s perfect…” Zuko mutters when he feels the head turn and drop further into his hands, and he begins guiding the shoulders free. “Push, push.” Zuko encourages you, and you do, helpless against the force of it.
You push with everything you have left.
In the next second, you feel a rush that's impossible to comprehend and the baby slips right into Zuko’s hands. You gasp hard for air and your body trembles violently from depletion.
“Oh.” Zuko sucks in a broken, sharp breath, mesmerized by how tiny and delicate they feel in his hands.
Zuko moves fast, purely off instinct, one hand firmly supporting and guiding the baby forward, through your shaking thighs, bringing them up against your chest. His other arm curls tightly around your middle, carefully pulling your exhausted body back against him before you can slump too far forward.
“Oh, Zuko.” The words break apart when you look down to see your baby’s scrunched, slightly blue face. Still. Not breathing. Horror blooms inside you and you panic. “Zuko?…Zuko!”
“I know, come on.” Zuko whispers roughly, his hand rubbing the baby’s back vigorously. “Let us hear you, come on.”
After a second that feels like an eternity, a wail pierces the air. Tiny, but strong. So strong. And loud.
You sob as your body sags in relief and exhaustion, and Zuko lets out a breathy laugh before his own tears burst free like a dam.
The baby slowly flushes to a healthy pink, and their bottom lip trembles. Zuko continues to rub her back, soaking in each moment like a sponge. And that’s when he notices.
“There it is. She’s okay. She’s perfect. Strong like her mother.” Zuko huffs, turning his attention down at you against his chest.
“She?” You barely whisper, smiling weakly. “She’s okay. She’s okay.” Each word comes out a little softer, a little more slurred.
He analyzes every line in your expression, every bead of sweat budding from your forehead. You look exhausted. You had just given everything to bring his child into the world, and it was his honor to witness it.
“You just…you did it, y/n.” Zuko watches as your eyes unfocus, and his chest tightens. “Hey. Stay with me.”
Zuko’s distant voice echoes in your head, and you concentrate to look at him. The pain is constant, an aching throb that stings hotter than venom.
“Tired…hurts.” You manage to mutter, glancing down at your baby squirming on your chest.
“I know, baby.” Zuko whispers, desperately comforting himself with the reminder that the best healer in the water tribe is sitting in his palace now. “You’re okay—Guard!” Zuko shouts the last word, looking over at the door of the bath room.
Hurried footsteps approach and stop just outside of the door. “Fire lord Zuko.”
“Get the physician! Bring Katara!” Zuko gives the order and returns his attention to you.
“At once, Fire Lord.”
Zuko sees your eyes flutter, and jostles you to keep you awake. “Stay awake, darling.”
You move against his chest, heavy eyes flicking down at the baby cooing against your chest. “Zuko. You…did it. Like you said.”
Relief pulses through Zuko when it registers, you’re speaking of what he said earlier. That he’d deliver the baby if he needed to. He smiles down at you, adjusting the hold he has around his entire world. “Yes, my Fire Lady. As promised.”
A slow tightening breaks your concentration, and you find yourself seizing up against him. A soft groan rumbles from you, and your eyes squeeze shut.
A contraction?
“What is it?” Zuko asks, panicked.
“The afterbirth.”
Katara appears breathless in the doorway, one hand braced against the frame and the other resting beneath the swell of her stomach. Aang lingers quietly behind her, relief relaxing his face.
“You’re okay, you did so well,” Katara reassures gently, already moving closer. Her eyes flick briefly to the baby and soften. “She’s beautiful. Just a little more, okay? Then you’re all done.”
The physician follows quickly behind, bowing once before moving to assist. Everything overlaps into one big blur around you.
Katara’s calm voice. Zuko’s hand never leaving you. The tiny warmth of your daughter, squirming against your chest. The physician’s quiet reassurance that she is healthy—her congratulations. But everything feels distant.
Distant but safe.
You focus on Zuko’s touch, and the babe that he’s now fully supporting against your bare chest as your arms fall limp either side of you.
“It was a good thing you were here,” Aang says quietly from the doorway.
Zuko barely hears him, because his attention never leaves you. Nor the tiny babygirl tucked safely against you.
“Yes,” Zuko says softly, brushing sweaty strands from your forehead.
has reader/mechanic seen billy's tattoo? and what does she think of it? feels like she would sas him about it 😌super excited for part 8 of bq its my fave fic!
⊹ ࣪ ˖ pairing: billy hargrove x f!reader
⊹ ࣪ ˖ wc: 3.2k (i got carried away)
⊹ ࣪ ˖ warnings: established relationship, kinda soft, lots and lots of touching and banter, implied sexual content, referenced child abuse
⊹ ࣪ ˖ notes: BQ8 got me feeling some type of way, so I got carried away writing this. formatting on my posts keeps breaking so i've been fighting this thing for the last hour and had to ditch my original aes. hope you enjoy a softer side to those two :3 that steddie/mechanic fic should be dropping tomorrow!
series masterlist.
Billy’s room always smells like smoke, cologne, and whatever detergent Susan uses these days. Tonight it smells like you, too.
You’re half on your stomach, half sprawled across Billy’s bare chest, your thigh tossed over his like you own the place. The cheap bedside lamp is the only light on, throwing soft gold across his tanned skin, catching on the chain at his throat, the sheen of sweat still drying at his collarbones and hairline. You idly trace a line across his hot skin, feeling the vibration of his contentment that makes you want to drag your tongue across the column of his throat again. You can still feel the echo of his heartbeat from earlier, fast and wild under your ear; now it’s slowed, a steady, comforting thud against your ribs.
He’s still burning under you. Heavy, in that way you’ve learned to love—like he’s not going anywhere unless you let him, and you have no intentions of letting him go anywhere right now. His arm rests thrown up behind his head, the curls torn apart by your greedy fingers fanned under his wrist, exposing the skull tattoo properly for once. No shirt, no jacket sleeve riding up for a glimpse. Just the whole thing, right there, ink and muscle and hints of his old bravado.
You’ve seen it a hundred times, but you’ve never really looked.
You prop yourself a little higher on his chest, your stomach sliding against his, and let your hand wander. From the warm flat of his sternum, up over his collarbone, across the slope of his shoulder, until your fingertips find the curve of bone and ink. Billy makes a low, contented sound in the back of his throat, eyes half-closed, cigarette burning between the fingers of his other hand.
“Careful,” he drawls, a throaty rasp gliding like a hand down your spine. “Keep petting me like that, and I’m gonna start purring.”
“You already do,” you hum, your chin propping on his chest. “You just disguise it as a cough.”
He snorts, smoke curling from the corner of his mouth, lazy and crooked. Your finger traces the shape of it, and Billy leans into your touch, eyes hooded as he watches you.
Then you do what you meant to do in the first place: let your fingertips trace the curve of the skull.
The ink is a little blurred at the edges now, softened by time, sun and pool chlorine. The skull’s jaws are half-open, flames licking up the back of his arm toward his shoulder, the whole thing wrapped in old-school black and shadow.
You trace your finger along the hollow of the bone, over the cracks, the flames. Your touch is slow, absent-minded. But it’s not really. You’re paying attention to everything—how Billy’s breath catches when you hit the tender spot near his collarbone, how his arm flexes just enough to make the image ripple.
“What,” he asks lazily, “never seen a tattoo before?”
“Seen plenty,” you reply. “Just never had a moment to ask what the hell you were thinking.”
He lifts his head a little, squinting at you. “That supposed to be an insult, sweetheart?”
“Maybe a little bit.” You’ve never been the sheepish type, but your words almost come out like that now. “It’s very… ‘I’m fifteen and pissed at my dad.’”
He scoffs, his eyes rolling, head angling back slightly to bare the curve of his throat. You spot traces of your mouth and teeth marks across his skin, evidence of your greed laid bare like a roadmap, with a pang of feminine satisfaction.
“I was sixteen, thank you,” he informs you with a chuckle that glides all the way down your body. “And I am pissed at my old man.”
“Shocking,” you say dryly, because the last thing you want right now is to bring Neil into this. “I never would’ve guessed from your sunny personality.”
Billy reaches over and pinches your hip, just hard enough to make you yelp and slap his chest. Billy’s mouth curls into a satisfied little smirk, dragging his fingers across the bare skin and edge of his worn t-shirt, pooling obscenely around your hips and his hand.
“Watch it, sweetheart,” he murmurs, cigarette slotting at the edge of his lips, and you examine how the swell of that mouth curls around the filter, slow and suggestive. “You’re talking to a guy with a skull on his arm. I’m dangerous.”
“Oh yeah.” A soft laugh escapes you, and you feel his grip on you tighten, drinking in the sound. “Terrifying. Real Grim Reaper shit. I’m shaking.”
He grins, smug and too damn attractive, head dropping back onto the pillow as lazy billows of smoke curl past his swollen lips. You go back to tracing the ink, more deliberate now, letting your nail just barely graze the skin.
“Why a skull, though?” you ask curiously. “Were you trying to impress the world or just yourself?”
“Hey,” he protests, shooting you a mock-offended look. “I impressed you.”
You make a noncommittal noise. “Debatable.”
His gaze drags over your face—eyes, nose, mouth—in a way that makes you hyper-aware of all of you pressed against all of him. The little sliver of air between your lips and his throat feels charged. “Liked the way it looked,” he says. “That’s all.”
You arch a brow.
“That’s a lie,” you say immediately.
He tenses, just a fraction.
“Excuse you,” he protests with a roll of his eyes. “I can be shallow.”
“I know you can be shallow.” Your thumb traces the flames, creating a mental map of the shape. “You’re also weirdly sentimental for a guy who pretends he doesn’t have feelings. So. Try again.”
Billy flicks ash into the tray on the nightstand, jaw working. He makes an offended sound that’s mostly for show, then sighs, dragging a hand down his face. The movement makes his abs tighten under your ribs; you feel them shift, hard and warm beneath you, and your fingers tighten a little where they rest on his arm.
“Drop it, mechanic,” he warns.
You keep your hand where it is, stroking slowly over the ink.
“Or what?” you ask softly. “You’ll brood at me?”
His eyes cut to you, examining you for a beat. He’s known you long enough by now to know you’re not going to drop it. He takes another drag, the soft crinkle of his cigarette filling the quietness between you.
Billy traces mindless patterns across your naked skin, and you try not to arch into it like a feline. “You’re real mouthy for someone currently using me as a mattress.”
“And you’re real evasive for someone who never shuts up,” you shoot back.
You hold his gaze.
It’s easy, now, this kind of pushing. In the early days, it would’ve ended in a shouting match, the two of you bouncing off each other’s sore spots until something cracked. Now it’s… familiar. A game with rules you’ve both quietly agreed on, safe and barbed, but only used to work each other up, rather than hurt.
He stares at you for a long moment. Then sighs, long and put-upon, like you’ve asked him to move mountains instead of talk about himself.
“Jesus,” he mutters. “Show a girl one tattoo…”
You smile, just a little, and wait. Billy drags one hand over his face, rubbing at his eyes, cigarette balanced carefully out of the way. When he speaks again, his voice has dropped half an octave, losing some of the lazy shine.
“Fine,” he begins reluctantly. “I was pissed off.”
“Obviously,” you deadpan, eyebrows rising slightly. “Skull, fire, I got that part.”
He ignores you. “It was the first summer in Cali after—” he waves the cigarette in a vague arc. “After Neil declared he wants to remarry.”
Your fingers still on his arm. He doesn’t look at you, peering over your head into the darkness beyond. This is still hard for him, an openness that can come with sharpness and acid if not threaded on gently.
“Mom was gone,” he continues, quieter now, and there’s still a crack to his voice whenever he mentions the woman who left him behind. “Neil was… Neil. I just figured out I was apparently indestructible enough to smoke, drink and drive like an asshole without dying yet. So my genius teenage brain goes: you know what would really drive the point home? Branding.”
There’s something bitter and fond tangled together in the way he speaks about it. You picture him at sixteen, smaller, angrier, sitting in a buzzing tattoo parlour and daring the needle to hurt more than his father’s fists.
“Real nuance, y’know?” He snorts, tightening his grip on you a little bit, like he’s reminding himself he’s here now. “I’d just learned the word ‘mortality’ in English class and decided I was above it.”
You start moving your fingers again, gentler now, more purposeful. Following the line of flame. The pad of your thumb drags a slow line along the curve where ink fades into his freckled skin. Billy’s breath catches, barely audible.
“So you picked a skull,” you muse thoughtfully. “Like a walking warning label.”
“Something like that,” he agrees with a quiet, satisfied hum. Like he never doubted you would understand the choice, understand him. “Part of it was… I don’t know. Control, I guess. So I thought, fuck it. If I’m gonna have death and abandonment hanging over my shoulder, I might as well slap it on my arm and look it in the eye.”
For a second, you just lie there, breathing with him. In and out. The idea of him sitting in that chair, alone, trying to stare down something that big with nothing but ink and stubbornness, makes your chest ache.
“You ever think about not tempting fate quite so aggressively?” you ask, but it comes out softer than you intended.
He finally looks at you again. The half-burned cigarette drops into the ashtray, his hand cupping your face, rough fingers and faint aroma of smoke still clinging to his hot skin.
“Always,” he answers simply, thumb sweeping over the curve of your bottom lip. “Still do. Just… this helped.”
“How?”
He rolls his shoulder under your hand, making the skull shift. “A reminder. That it’s there. That I’m not special. That it can bite me whenever it wants. Kept me from doing even dumber shit than I already was.”
You’re sure your expression portrays precisely how ironic you find those words. “Hard to imagine.”
Billy snorts. He gives you a look that promises future retaliation, his thumb pressing just a fraction harder into that notch above your hip, making your toes curl.
“What, like I’m gonna tell you everything?” he poses, shaking his head. “You’d never let me live it down.”
“I already don’t let you live anything down,” you say sweetly, a biting edge to your smile. “Your crimes are being archived as we speak.”
You smooth your palm over the ink again, grazing the line where the flames curl around toward his tricep.
“Y’know,” you say after a brief lull, cigarette back between his fingers, while your tone stays deliberately casual, “for what it’s worth… I don’t think it makes you look cool.”
A laugh barks out of him, and your entire body vibrates with the sound of his amusement. You don’t chide him for disturbing you, because this is special, this is fragile. Genuine amusement still feels like a rare gift when it comes from him, like he’s learning to permit himself genuine happiness without a shadow of violence hanging over him.
“Oh, thanks,” he drawls, still grinning. “Really boosting a guy’s self-esteem tonight.”
“It makes you look like a try-hard,” you continue, tone entirely deadpan, and Billy groans. “Like a kid who circled the biker tattoos in a magazine and went, ‘That one, because I’m a badass.’”
He opens his mouth, ready to protest. But before he can say anything, you lean down and kiss the skull before he can argue, lips warm on the ink, your nose brushing the sensitive inner line of his arm. You feel him shudder under you, just once, like you’ve hit some hidden switch.
“It’s also hot,” you add against his skin, stroking a greedy hand up the ridges of his muscles. “In a tragic, overdramatic way.”
Billy’s fingers flex on your hip, digging in with calculated slowness. When you look up, his eyes have gone heavy-lidded, pupils blown a little wider. You feel the way his stomach tightens under your ribs, rippling with want, the way his hand on your hip goes from resting to gripping you.
“You’re a menace,” he says, voice rougher now, hungry.
You hum, arching lazily into his body and grip. “You like it.”
He shifts, rolling onto his side to face you properly, forcing you onto your back as he stubs out his cigarette, teeth bared. One of his legs slides between yours, pinning you in place. He brackets your head with his arms, the skull right there by your cheek now, flames licking up toward your ear.
“You’re the only person alive,” he says slowly, close enough to speak against your parted lips, “who could call my tattoo try-hard and still get me this hard.”
“One of my many talents,” you say, trying not to laugh.
His head lowers further, breath teasing your lips.
“Seriously, though,” he murmurs. “You really think it’s stupid?”
You look at him. At the earnest flicker under all the bravado, the tiny crack in his usual armour he doesn’t permit anyone except you or Max see. Sixteen and burning still lives deep in his eyes, like a haunting hand reaching back in time to drag him under.
You slide your palm back to his arm, fingers curling around the ink, the muscle beneath.
“I think,” you begin, serious now, “it’s very you. Skeleton, fire, drama, ‘fuck the world, I’m not scared.’ Except you are scared, and instead of admitting it, you carved it into your skin and pretended you weren’t.”
He huffs a breath that might be a laugh, might be a sigh, or a strangled mix between the two.
“And I think,” you go on, “that if it helped you stick around long enough to wind up here, annoying me, then I’m… glad you got it.”
Billy studies you for a long while, eyes roaming over your face.
Then he kisses you.
It’s not greedy, not at first. His mouth moves over yours in a slow, careful press, like he’s tasting the words you just said. His chest is warm and heavy against your breasts; you can feel the exact moment his breathing hitches and kicks up, syncing with your own. One of his hands leaves the mattress, slides under your shirt from the side, palm hot as it skims the curve of your waist. His fingers leave a fire trail as he drags his hand up your ribs, thumb grazing the sensitive space just beneath.
Your stomach flutters so hard it almost hurts. When Billy finally pulls back, his forehead rests against yours. His nose bumps the side of yours with a soft, stupid intimacy that makes your heart ache again. His arm tightens around you. The skull presses briefly against your temple as he shifts, flames warming your skin, ribs brushing ribs.
“Y’know,” he says quietly, “I used to think it was gonna be the only thing left. If I went out in a wreck, or the ocean decided it was sick of my shit. Skull on a slab, like a punchline.”
You swallow, your thumb stroking down the back of his neck.
“But then?” he huffs. “Somehow, it’s… you.”
Your throat feels thick.
“Me what?” you breathe out.
He shrugs, one shoulder lifting, muscles shifting under your palm.
“You’re the thing that keeps showing up,” he explains with a sort of caution that hints at how often he’s thought about this. “In the hospital. In my car. In my stupid dreams. Skull’s just… decoration at this point.”
“You comparing me to a tattoo?” you ask, trying for lightness and not quite making it.
“Nah,” he says. “Tattoo is permanent.”
You elbow him in the ribs. Billy oofs, grinning a wicked little smile, eyes twinkling.
“I’m serious,” he goes on, wetting his bottom lip. “I got this thing ‘cause I thought it made me look like I didn’t give a shit if I died. Now I’ve got you tracing it every time we’re in bed, and it just makes me think about not wanting to go anywhere.”
Your fingers tighten in his hair, tangling in those messy curls.
“Wow,” you breathe out finally. “That was almost… sweet. Did the ink leak into your bloodstream?”
He groans and buries his face in your neck to hide his expression with an annoyed, quiet laugh. His lips find the spot just under your jaw without looking, teeth and tongue, and he laughs when you gasp at the sensation, the sound breathy and embarrassingly immediate. Followed by his smug, “Shut up.”
You laugh, hand sliding through his hair, the other still wrapped around his arm. Your thumb strokes over the skull one more time, gentler this time.
“Kind of like that it’s on your left,” you say idly.
Billy pulls back enough to look at you again.
“Why?” he wonders.
“Closer to your heart,” you say slowly, deliberately corny.
He groans loudly. “Fuck, you’re impossible.”
“You’re the one who fell for me,” you shoot back, wiggling against him, smugly noting the way his muscles coil at the sensation of you pressed against him.
“‘Fell’ is a strong word,” he retorts, still grinning against your jaw. “Tripped, maybe. Got shoved, definitely.”
Your brows jump up. “By who?”
Billy leans in until his lips brush your ear, teasing and brazen in a way that boils your blood.
“By a mouthy mechanic who won’t stop touching my tattoo and asking me how I feel,” he murmurs hotly.
A shiver crawls down your spine.
“That’s tragic,” you reply, breathless. “Really. My condolences.”
Billy chuckles, low and husky, and kisses you again, deeper this time, greedier if it were possible. His arm shifts, skull sliding against your cheek as he adjusts his weight, bracing himself so he doesn’t crush you. You angle into him, ravenous for the press of him everywhere—his thigh between yours, his chest, his ridiculous warm mouth, devouring yours.
Your hand slides back down to his arm, seeking the ink. Your thumb finds the curve of the skull almost blindly and stays there, like you’re grounding both of you through that old, stupid, meaningful mark.
It’s still a skull. Still fire. Still teenage stupidity needled into his skin.
But with his heart thudding hard against your ribs and his breath breaking against your mouth, with your fingers curled around that ink as if you can hold the boy who got it and the man he’s become in the same palm, it feels like more than that.
It feels like every bad decision he made to survive, every stubborn, reckless choice that led to this: to him here, alive and warm and kissing you slowly in the half-light, letting you drag your fingers over the place he once put death, and replacing it—touch by touch—with you.
Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader; Billy Hargrove x Reader
Summary: As Eddie continues to ignore Bunny at the skate rink, Steve helps talk her down, but when he tries to warn her about Billy, he sends her straight into Billy’s arms. As the two sit outside in the cold, December air, some cold, hard truths come to the surface - truths they can't turn back from.
A/N: I actually can’t believe how much I wrote for this one scene 😅 but I feel like a lot of pieces come together in this part and set up part VI really well! There’s no turning back for these characters now, so buckle up!
Warnings: jealous!Reader, BIG feelings, mention of violence, vulnerability, parental affair, Steve’s absent parents
Word count: 9697
Turning from Billy, she skates onto the rink, searching the faces in the crowd for her friends. She found Nancy and Jonathan, arm in arm, as they tried to skate and hold each other upright. They were laughing as they clinged onto each other. A small smile spread across her face. At least they looked happy.
A little ahead of them she saw Robin and Eddie skating side by side. They were doing better than Nancy and Jonathan, skating on their own. Eddie was smiling, laughing at whatever story Robin was telling. Her own smile faded. While her mind felt more muddled than ever, he didn’t seem to have a problem moving on from their fight. She wasn’t jealous, but the sight left her uneasy. She didn’t understand how he could act like nothing happened after he had said what he said - no matter how funny Robin was.
As she skated forward, she turned to look over her shoulder, seeing Billy helping his date for the evening onto the rink. She was gripping onto him for dear life, giggling as she slipped around. Her eyes narrowed as jealousy - actual jealousy this time - started to course through her blood. Everyone seemed to be having a good time except for her. Even though she turned her head from him, her mind couldn’t stop thinking about Billy, replaying the events of the week in a loop, from their conversation on Monday to the interaction in the cafeteria to just a few minutes ago.
As she replayed their conversations, his emotions made sense - they all connected. The one that stuck out to her was his anger in the cafeteria. She didn’t see how he could go from hurt and his version of gentleness on Monday, to intense anger on Wednesday, to soft smiles and easy banter tonight. It didn’t make sense. But the more she thought about it, the more it clicked.
Billy hadn’t been angry at her in the lunch room - he had been angry that she had shut him out. She could understand that. He had done the same thing to her, throwing her words back at her, putting on a persona just to spite her. It made her angry. It fucked with her head. And by ignoring him and avoiding him, especially after he had been vulnerable, she had made him feel the same way.
But that wasn’t what was interesting. No matter how angry he was or how upset he was, as soon as he saw that she was upset, genuinely upset by something he didn’t even know the source of, he put his own emotions aside, and he made her feel better.
She never would have thought him capable of that. All of the talk about Billy around Hawkins portrayed him in two ways: depending on who you asked he was made out to be either hotheaded, angry, and selfish, or charming, allusive, and arrogant. But she didn’t see any of that. It was like she saw a completely different side to Billy than everyone else. And honestly, it confused her. She didn’t know what side of Billy she would see when she talked to him, didn’t know how he would react. It made her question what was real, which she hated.
But Billy had been honest with her, to an extent. He made it clear he liked her in more than just a sexual sense, and he’s made it very clear he thinks he’s better for her than Eddie. He had tried to make her jealous, and he made it seem that he moved on with girl after girl. At the very least, he had sex with them, whether that meant anything to him or not. And if she was honest with herself, she didn’t like that. If he did care about her, how could he move on so easily?
Billy made her happy when he tried. Hell, sometimes he made her happy without trying. He matched her witty challenges and kept pace with her. It was easy with him. But all the same, it made her uncomfortable how he just gave himself away, like he didn’t value himself. He was attractive. She knew it, he knew it, Hawkins knew it. But she wanted him to see himself as valuable, full of meaning that someone would treasure, rather than to give piece after piece of himself away to girls who only saw his flashy smile and smooth demeanor.
Eddie would never do that. He was sweet and purposeful. She had never seen him wonder even before they started dating. But she also knew that Billy had never looked at her with resentment like Eddie had. She had picked up that Billy’s home life wasn’t great either. Even though he wasn’t open to talking about it, he never lashed out at her like that. He never made her emotions feel worthless or disregarded. In one ten minute conversation, Eddie made her feel small, devalued. Even when Billy was flaunting girls in her face, she knew he was playing a game, his intentions clear. He had wanted her to feel jealous, to regret her words, but he never wanted to diminish her. Which was worse?
So here she was. A Friday night at the skate rink with her group of friends, her boyfriend who had crushed her spirit, and the man who she couldn’t get out of her head, the one who had built her back up. Her emotions were fried, her mind all over the place. She had no answers, more confused than ever.
Steve comes up to her then, skating behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders. “There you are!” She jumps at the contact, lost in thought. He drops his arms and skates in front of her, turning to face her as he skates backward. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“Sorry. The clerk took a minute getting me another pair of skates.” She attempts a smile, trying to get herself out of her head. She has to pick up her pace to keep up with Steve.
He furrows his eyebrows. “Did Billy give you shit or something? Your mood is totally foul again.” He slows down a hair as he does a half circle to end up skating next to her.
“No, he was actually pleasant for once.” She chuckles, smiling at the memory. But when her eyes shift forward, locking onto Eddie and Robin, she frowns again. “Billy isn’t my problem. Eddie is.”
“Eddie? Holy shit.” Steve doesn’t hide the shock on his face. “I thought you all had moved past your problems.”
She scoffs. “So did I. Now there’s a new one. A big one.” She doesn’t hide the frustration in her tone.
“He looked mad when you all walked in. What happened?” He looks at her with concern in his eyes. Steve really was a good friend - her best friend.
“I don’t want to get into it too much, but our parents got brought up and he just lashed out at me. Saying how I needed to be grateful for what I have and how I don’t understand anything about having a hard life.” She throws her arms up. “I know I don’t have a terrible life, and I’m not trying to act like I do, but my parents can be shitty sometimes. Am I not allowed to rant about that or talk about my concerns?”
“Of course! That’s natural for any teen to do. We all know how distant my parents are. I don’t exactly have it bad, but it sucks, you know?” He offers her a smile of reassurance.
She smiles up at him, nodding. “Yeah. He just makes me feel like shit for complaining because of what happened to his parents. Every time I bring them up he gets angry, but tonight was bad, Steve. Like really bad.” She looks down at her skates. “He looked at me with resentment. Like I was wrong for being concerned for my parents.”
She feels Steve’s hand on her shoulder again. “Hey, you’re not wrong.” She looks up at him when he squeezes her shoulder. “He shouldn’t make you feel that way, and I’m sorry he did. You’re allowed to talk about your parents or any other concern you have.” He smiles softly again. “Maybe you need to sit down with him and tell him how it made you feel. I’m sure you all can work through it. If he cares about you, then he needs to be receptive to that. And if he’s not, then maybe you don’t need to be with him.” He shrugs a shoulder trying to keep the mood light even though he dropped a heavy truth bomb.
Her eyes widen slightly. The last thing she needed to hear when her mind was already so scrambled was that her and Eddie might not be compatible after all. If she was truly honest with herself, that thought had slipped through her mind more in the past month than it had their entire relationship. It was a nasty thought - one that scared her more than she wanted to admit.
“Maybe.” She looks after Eddie again, seeing he’s still smiling with Robin. “He just looks so fucking happy after he made me feel like I was worthless. I don’t get it.”
Steve blows out air, shaking his head. “What can I say? Men can be stupid sometimes.” He looks at her with the most genuine, serious look, which causes them to erupt in laughter. She leans toward him, grabbing his arm as they laugh.
In their bout of laughter she catches a flash of blonde hair whip past them, causing her eyes to shift in front of her. She watches Billy look between her and Steve, a quick flash of jealousy directed at Steve, as he passes them with his date. He tilts his head ever so subtly to her before turning forward again.
Steve and her recover from their spell of laughter, straightening as they keep skating. Steve blows out air as he catches his breath. “That wasn’t a very nice look from Hargrove. I thought you said he was being pleasant tonight.”
She catches her breath as well, nodding once, before putting her hands on her hips. “Oh that look wasn’t directed to me.”
Steve rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I caught that.” He frowns, shaking his head slightly. “I don’t know what his problem is with me. He’s been giving me shit ever since he got to Hawkins.”
She chuckles. “C’mon Steve. You practically owned Hawkins before Billy. He thinks he’s hot shit and wanted your spot. That’s it.” She shrugs, thinking it a simple answer.
He looks at her, unconvinced. “I don’t think it’s that simple. He’s ‘dethroned’ me.” He lowers his voice, muttering under his breath. “Whatever the fuck that means.” Shifting his gaze to Billy, he continues. “No, I think he has it out for me for some reason.”
She scoffs. “Why would he have something against you? That doesn’t make sense. It has to be some sort of alpha male bullshit.” She smiles as she speaks, not taking Steve too seriously.
The look Steve gives her wipes the smile off her face. “Do you remember when I didn’t come to school for a week last month?”
She nods. “Yeah, you said you were sick.”
He half rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I lied.” He pauses, almost like he was trying to gather his thoughts. “I didn’t come to school because I didn’t want anyone to see my face.”
She shakes her head, confused. “Steve, that doesn’t make any sense. What does that have to do with Billy?”
“He’s the reason my face was fucked up.” He looks at her, but when it’s clear she still isn’t following along, he continues. “Jesus, he beat the shit out of me! He came to the Byers’ house looking for Max, and when she didn’t want to go back with him, he got violent. I tried to stop him, but I got my ass kicked.” He pauses, grumbling. “As Dustin says.”
Her eyes widen. She knew Billy got involved in fights, but she didn’t know about his fight with Steve. She tore her eyes from Steve’s, processing. As she let her mind wonder, she began to put the pieces together.
“The first night we talked he was looking for Max. He showed up on Gareth’s doorstep during one of Eddie’s campaigns, and I sent him to the Byers’ house. I didn’t know-“ She meets Steve’s eyes again, her own wild, while his were open, letting her think on her own. “When I saw him at school the following Monday his knuckles and his cheek were bruised, but he didn’t say what they were from. But it was you?”
Steve nods. “Yeah.” Pausing, he looks between Billy and her. “So when he gave you shit in the parking lot that one day, I got concerned cause I didn’t want you to be dragged into his shit.” He sighs, pulling her closer to the wall so they could stop without disrupting the flow of the rink. “I don’t know what he’s capable of, but I know how violent he was that night. He was laughing every time I punched him.” His eyes widen in his typical Steve way. “Normal people don’t do that!”
She can’t help but laugh. “Well I never said anything about Billy was normal.” She pauses, thinking back on her interactions with him. “He’s never done anything to make me feel scared or unsafe.” She shrugs. “Even when he was a dick, I never felt like he was trying to hurt me.” She gazes past Steve to look at Billy, finding he was already looking her way. “I don’t know why, but he would never hurt me. I know it.” Tearing her eyes from Billy’s, she looks at Steve again, giving him her best reassuring look.
Steve holds her gaze, not appearing too happy, but conceding nonetheless. “Okay, okay.” He shrugs. “Maybe he just likes fighting attractive dudes.”
She laughs, pushing his shoulder. “Maybe.”
He laughs with her before getting more serious again. “Look, I don’t know what you two are doing, but promise me that you’ll be smart around him, that you’ll be safe.” He looks for Eddie, finding him still with Robin before turning back to her. “Whatever you decide, I just want you to be happy. I want you to make the right choice for you, Bunny.”
She inhales a quick breath, not expecting Steve to get so sentimental on her. She knew he was the only one who knew about her interactions with Billy, but it seemed like he had picked up on more than what she told him. It didn’t really surprise her. Steve was her best friend for a reason.
She lets her eyes drift from Steve, to Eddie, to Billy, lingering on him. Once more, Billy turned to look at her, offering her the smallest smile, the corner of his lips curving up so slightly anyone else would have missed it. Just then his words from earlier in the week when he confronted her in the locker room echoed in her mind.
“You went with the safe option.”
Billy’s words and Steve’s advice paired with her own racing emotions and thoughts struck her at once. She was so focused on stability, on aligning like she had always done, but what about what she wanted for once? Yes, Billy was a risk, a huge risk, but she got the feeling that he was risking his own personal code for her. He had done it over and over.
Every interaction, every glimpse of his eyes directly into her soul, every call out of what she hid from him was a risk of his own personal pillars. He knew she hid, knew she was scared, but he kept pushing the cracks in her mask to expose her. He saw her in the locker room. He looked at her with recognition and an acceptance of the parts of herself she didn’t even want to accept. No one else had seen her so deeply. No one else had fought for her, all of her, like he did. And as it all clicked - his outbursts, his confident facade, his hidden emotions that only she saw, that only he allowed her to see - she realized that she saw him too.
They had an unspoken understanding that no one else in Hawkins could come close to. They both hid, but they didn’t need to hide around each other. They were both scared - scared of letting people in to see who they really were - but they didn’t need to be scared around each other. They gravitated to each other because they were the only other person who could possibly understand the complexities of hiding and simultaneously being in the eyes of so many. Being scared but putting on a brave face to create the lives they deserved. He had sacrificed the crumbling of his own pillars to get her to open up to him, to build her up, to build her new pillars. Through it all, she realized he wasn’t a risk. Billy was safe.
She gasps, looking at Steve abruptly.
“I need you to do me a favor.”
He shakes his head, taken aback. “Yeah, sure. What is it?”
“I need to talk to Billy. If I pull him away from his date, could you distract her so she doesn’t miss him?” She looks over Steve’s shoulder, finding Billy’s date wasn’t paying attention to them like Billy was. She shifts back to Steve. “Oh, and if anyone asks where I am, don’t say I’m with Billy!”
Steve narrows his eyes for a fraction of a second before he nods. “Yeah, I can do that. Wait-“ He turns around before turning back to her. “Vicki Carmichael? Really?” He sighs dramatically. “She’s almost as conceited as Carol, and that’s really saying something.”
She grabs his hands in hers, holding them together. “Please, Stevie. You know I don’t ask much from you.” She gives him her best pleading expression.
He rolls his eyes. “I hope you know how much I love you. I wouldn’t distract Vicki Carmichael for anyone.” He gives her a dramatic look, hands on his hips and all.
“Mhmm. Sure Stevie.” She smirks at him.
“I’m serious!”
She laughs, skating to his side to make looking for Billy easier. Much to her luck, they were skating toward her and Steve. When she locks eyes with him, she tilts her head to the entrance quickly and raises her eyebrow. He nods once before turning to his date, Vicki. When she sees him skate away, leaving her alone, she looks at Steve quickly.
“There’s your cue!” She goes to skate off, but he grabs her arm, stopping her.
“Be careful, alright?” She looks up to his serious gaze, nodding. He nods in return. Before she leaves, she smiles at him.
“Thank you, Steve!” As she skates away, she hears his voice call out.
“You owe me!” She looks over her shoulder with a smile to see Steve approach Vicki, already turning on his charm. Vicki comes to a stop, smiling up at him. That was easier that I thought.
She makes quick work of leaving the rink, taking her skates off, and putting her sneakers back on. Giving the rink one last look to make sure none of her friends are looking after her, she quickly jogs to the entrance. The cool, December air hits her face as she looks on either side of the building for Billy. Thinking he must be on the more secluded side, she jogs over, finding him standing under the shadows.
Just like on Monday, he was biting his nails with wide eyes, but he was pacing and holding a lit cigarette. One hand held the cigarette, bringing it to his lips every so often, the other at his lips. His head snapped up when he heard the gravel shift under her feet. Dropping the mostly unsmoked cigarette to the ground, he walks toward her as she walks to him.
“What is it?”
“What are you really doing here, Billy? Do I just have really bad luck and you just happen to show up where I am, or is it something else?” When she finishes speaking, they stand face to face, both breathing heavily, their breath visible in the cold air.
He furrows his eyebrows, but he smiles. “I overheard you all talking about coming here when I passed your table in lunch. I figured you couldn’t ignore me on skates.”
She sucks in her breath. “You came to see me?”
He nods, putting his hands in his pockets. “Yeah.”
She shakes her head. “But why did you bring a date?”
He chuckles. “It’d be a little weird to show up by myself, wouldn’t it?” His gaze is relaxed, his eyes easy.
“I guess you’re right.” She looks down at her feet, trying to sort out her mind. He really did mean what he said on Monday. He wanted to show her attention, going out of his way and even bringing a date he wasn’t interested in just to see her. Meanwhile, Eddie had barely spoken to her. Her heart flutters at the realization. Billy’s voice interrupts her thoughts.
“Do you want me to leave?”
“No!” She jerks her eyes back to his, seeing a trace of shock. She sighs, shaking her head in an attempt to clear her mind. “I’m just trying to process my thoughts.” She lets out a half chuckle. “I’m more confused than ever.”
He takes his hand out of his pocket, grabbing hers to pull her toward a nearby bench. Sitting so close his knee brushes hers, he faces her.
“What’s going on?” He looks at her so intently - so clearly that she knows he’s trying to understand what she’s thinking. She flicks her eyes between his for a few beats before blurting out-
“You’re intense.”
He laughs at that, dropping his head, before looking at her again in amusement. “Hmm. Not used to that with Munson?”
“Not usually.” She pauses, voice becoming quieter. “Tonight was different though. He got angry in a way I’ve never seen before. It didn’t suit him. It was almost like he resented me.” The words came out before she could really stop them. She didn’t intend on telling him any of that, but she found the words just spilled out around him.
His eyes soften as his hand finds its way onto her thigh, squeezing gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Her eyes shift down to his hand before flicking back up to his eyes. Her own eyes widen slightly, realizing he had just unmasked another of her emotions without even trying. Everything was so easy with Billy - emotions, vulnerability, the way her body reacted to his, she felt she could just be with him, just like she realized in the rink. She didn’t have to hide around him.
Shaking her head, she places her hand on top of his. “No, I didn’t come out here to talk about Eddie.” He looks at her in confusion, but she speaks again before he can. “I want to understand you, Billy.”
He tilts his head. “What do you want to know, doll?”
She looks down at their hands again, tracing small patterns on the top of his hand with her index finger. “I don’t know what to do with you, Billy. You’re hot and cold. You’re sweet and cruel. You’re here and there. I can’t ever read you.” Her eyes meet his.
He chuckles, pulling his eyes from hers. “I have a lot going on in my head. All the time.” His voice gets quieter. “More than most people realize.”
She watches him intently. She knew there was a hidden meaning behind his statement, but she didn’t want to pry past what he was willing to talk about. She recognized her own secrets in the phrase and knew it was something he could only reveal when he was ready. She could at least ask him about something he could answer. Her voice lowers in volume as well.
“Can you tell me what your intentions are with me?”
His eyes quickly shift back to hers, searching her for any sarcasm, any remnant of the cat and mouse game they’ve been playing. When his eyes see her sincerity, his lips part.
“I want to be the one to make you smile.”
Her heart skips a beat. Such a simple answer, but she could see the intensity behind his meaning. Her eyes search his.
“Why?”
His eyes never leave hers as a soft smile spreads his lips. “Because you see me.” Her breath hitches. I was right. His tongue darts out to lick his lips. “You see past all the bullshit, you see past the persona. You see me for who I am at my core. You make me feel good, for once.”
Her brows draw in again. “But Billy you are good.”
He chuckles weakly, breaking their eye contact as he tilts his head down again. “No, Bunny. I’m not.”
She thinks back to Steve’s comment from earlier - I don’t know what he’s capable of, but I know how violent he was that night. There may be more to him than she knew, more than she maybe wanted to know. But she knew one thing to be true.
“I don’t know everything there is to know about you, but I do know how you make me feel.” His eyes meet hers once more. She can see the vulnerability in them, the pain he was holding onto. “I feel safe around you, Billy. Warm. Protected.” She smiles, showing him her reassurance. “You make me feel that way.” She chuckles, tilting her head a bit. “You might get a little angry sometimes.” She brings her other hand to squeeze his jaw, pushing his lips together as he had done to her earlier that week. “You definitely have a mean mouth on you.” She releases his jaw with a little shake, causing him to smile. “But you’re good, Billy Hargrove. You’re good to me.”
He holds her gaze for a moment, squeezing her thigh again. “Thank you, Bunny.”
She nods, a smile still on her face. “Can I ask you another question?”
He nods. “Always.”
She bites her lip as she ponders her phrasing, letting it snap back once she has it. “If you feel this way about me, why did you mess around with so many other girls?”
He shrugs, looking away again. “It was just a dumb ruse to try and get you jealous enough for you to admit how you really felt about me.” He chuckles. “It kind of worked.”
She sighs gently, a stream of her breath blowing in front of her. “But there were so many girls, Billy. You let them put their hands all over you, you kissed them, you slept with them.”
“It was a few kisses in public, that’s it. I wanted you to be jealous.” She sees him roll his eyes. “Not very good of me, I know. But kissing doesn’t mean anything.”
She shakes her head. “But it was more than kissing. They all said that you slept together.” She continues to watch him, but he keeps looking at their hands, busying himself by rubbing circles on her thigh.
“Because I told them to.”
She jerks back slightly. “What?”
“I told them to say they slept with me. They could all use the popularity from the rumor, and I could make you jealous. It was a win-win.” He shrugs again. “But I didn’t sleep with any of them. I didn’t touch them.”
“But you said-“ She pauses, trying to process what he was telling her. “You made all those comments.”
“I lied.”
“Why? They all practically threw themselves at you. You could’ve had anyone you wanted, so why didn’t you?” She tilts her head, trying to meet his eyes, but he keeps his head down.
“Because they weren’t you.”
Her heart flutters as she inhales sharply. No wonder seeing her with Eddie in his van had upset him so much. She had thought she was just doing what he had been doing with all of those girls when in reality he had just been putting on a front. All of that time had been about her. The realization had taken her breath away.
She shakes her head, once again trying to understand this new information. “I don’t- I don’t understand.”
He sits up then. “I like you! Goddamnit, I like you, Bunny.” His eyes finally meet hers with a desperation that captures her gaze. “And I don’t admit when I like someone. I don’t chase after someone. I don’t fucking let people see me how you do. But everything about you makes me want to go against my own rules.” His eyes switch between hers at a fast rate, almost matching his quick words. “You match me. You challenge me. You’re not intimidated by me. You see through it all. You make me want to let you in, and it scares the shit out of me because I don’t do that. I’ve never wanted to do that, but I’d do anything for you to see me, even if you hate me, just as long as you keep seeing me.” He swallows, taking a breath. His voice gets so quiet she almost doesn’t hear him. “I trust you.”
She sits in a trance - her hand still over his hand on her thigh, their legs touching, her eyes completely captured by his. Her lips part, her breath coming out in small puffs of steam between them. She was right. He had felt just as seen by her as she had by him, but his confession of trust went beyond anything she imagined. An overwhelming wave of sadness courses through her then, settling in her chest as her heart sinks and sinks. He must see it in her eyes.
“Why do you look so sad?” His voice is still quiet. His cheeks flushed from either his confession or the cold. He looked so soft, so vulnerable, and she knew she was the only one to see him this way.
“Why do we only ever talk like this when I’m fighting with Eddie?” Her voice comes out in a whisper as she finds herself unable to look away from his gaze. She feels her eyes well up with tears, a single tear falling down her cheek before she can stop it.
He tilts his head ever so slightly, his eyes tracing the tear falling down her cheek. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t want you to be just someone I fall back on when I’m mad at him.” She sniffles, trying to fight back the other tears - not wanting to ruin his confession by crying. His hand cups her cheek, wiping away the tear with a gentle swipe of his thumb. She swears his eyes hold the same sadness as hers.
“Then don’t let me be.”
She closes her eyes, letting the other tears fall. He immediately moves his hand behind her neck and pulls her against his chest. Her arms slide under his jacket to wrap around his waist. He completely envelopes her in a warm, secure hug. She feels his warmth seep through her clothes, warming up her body. She started shaking before she realized it, not aware of how cold she had gotten through their talk. His hand rubs along her back to calm her, the other swirling light circles on the back of her neck and into her hair.
“I’m sorry, Billy.”
He shushes her. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” His body vibrates with a low chuckle. “I’m the one who had to fall for a girl in a relationship.”
Her fingers mindlessly trace the outline of his side under his jacket. “Everything is so complicated. I don’t want to hurt Eddie, but I don’t want to fight how I feel about you anymore. It’s too hard.”
Just like he had in the movie theater, he rests his head against hers with a hum. “Is that you admitting you like me too?”
She giggles, a soft sound. “Yeah, Billy. I like you too.” Even though she can’t see it, she can feel his smile. She shifts closer to him, getting lost in his warmth. “I don’t know where to go from here. Eddie and I aren’t in a good place, but I can’t just leave when things are so tense.”
“I mean, you could, but you’re a good girl.”
She scoffs. “Billy…”
Their bodies shake from his laugh. “Sorry.” He nuzzles his head against hers. “You just need to do what you feel is right, whatever that is.” He squeezes her against him, his voice hitting that same quiet volume from earlier. “Just don’t shut me out again.”
“I won’t.”
They fall into a comfortable silence as they cling to each other, holding onto their newfound confessions just as much as they hold onto each other. After a few minutes, reluctantly, she pulls back.
“As much as I don’t want to, we should probably go back inside. We’ve been out here for a while.” She looks up at him to see he’s still smiling.
“You’re probably right. You look cold.” He cups her cheek, rubbing his thumb across her skin. Without meaning to she leans into his touch, a soft smile spreading her lips. “We shouldn’t go in at the same time. Wouldn’t want Munson and your friends to see us walk in together, right?” He raises an eyebrow, the familiar challenge present in the motion.
“I think I’d like to keep you as my little secret for now.” She winks, which makes him laugh.
“I’d love to be your secret, Bunny.” She fights the urge to get lost in his bright blue eyes - eyes that reflect a happiness she’s not sure she’s seen before.
She blinks, suddenly remembering. “Oh, I had Steve distract your date so we could have some privacy. They might still be together. I’m not sure.” She shrugs.
He tilts his head as he stands, holding his hand out for her. She accepts, letting him pull her off the bench. “I’m sure he’s having fun with that. She’ll go for anyone that looks in her direction.”
“You chose her as your date. You only have yourself to blame.”
He shrugs a shoulder, unbothered. “Whatever it takes to see you.” She smiles up at him, smug. “I’ll let you go first.” She nods, going to walk away, but his hand pulls her back against him. “One more thing.” He pulls her in for another hug.
One hand slides around her waist, while the other coils through her hair, holding her close. His fingers had pulled out some loose hair with how much he had played with her hair in the past few minutes, messing up the bottom of her ponytail. He buries his head in her neck, wrapping her completely with his presence. She melts into his touch, trying to memorize the feel of his back beneath her fingers, the muscles in his chest against her cheek. She inhaled his scent - cigarettes, cologne, and a natural pine scent that made her dizzy in the best way.
“I’ll see you soon, yeah?” She nods against him, and he hums in response. Shifting slightly, she feels his lips press against the top of her head in a sweet, gentle kiss. “Don’t want to let you go, but I know I’ve got to.” She hums in agreement, too lost in his scent and his warmth to think of a response. “You’re cold. I’d give you my jacket, but that would be too obvious.”
She tugs at his jacket, on the inside, against his back. “Would love your jacket one day, B.”
“You can have it, Bunny.” He kisses her head again before bringing his hands to cup her cheeks, pulling away slightly. He leans in, so she closes her eyes, thinking he’s going to kiss her. But her eyes pop open when his lips peck her nose quickly, softly. “Now go before I steal you away.”
He drops his hands, knowing if he didn’t she would let him steal her. And she would. Biting the inside of her cheek to bring her back to reality, she keeps his gaze as she backs away, smiling softly. She didn’t break eye contact until the wall of the building forced their eyes apart. She let out a breath, content as she walked to the entrance.
Making her way back in the rink, she looked around for her friends, finding them sitting at the same booth as earlier with a pizza on the table. Everyone was there, except Steve, who was sitting with Vicki where Billy had sat with her earlier. As soon as Steve saw her, he leaned into Vicki, likely to give her some excuse about how he had to leave. He was up and out of that booth before she could flash him a grin.
Nancy waves her over. “Bunny! There you are! You missed the pizza.” Steve makes it to the booth before her. Nancy turns to him. “You did too.”
She jogs over, sliding next to Nancy, still avoiding Eddie. “Sorry!”
Eddie watches her. “Where did you go?”
“I started feeling sick, so I went outside. I think I got too hot, but once I cooled down, I felt better.” He nods, moving on.
Her eyes dart to the door to see Billy walk back in just as Robin speaks. “Well there’s only two pieces left. You better hurry or Stevie boy’s going to take them both.” She turns to Steve, looking past Eddie who sits between them, with a smile.
“I will too.” Steve eyes the pizza, licking his lips.
“No way!” She grabs a slice, taking a bite before Steve can make a move. As soon as she grabs her slice, he grabs the last one, taking a bite just as quickly.
Nancy looks at Bunny. “So we know where you disappeared to.” She turns to Steve. “Did you enjoy your impromptu date instead of spending time with your friends?” She narrows her eyes lightheartedly.
Steve looks at Bunny before shifting to Nancy with a laugh. “What can I say? I saw a pretty girl all alone. I couldn’t let that stand could I?” Most of the table laughs at his comment. She was so thankful Steve was fast on his feet, able to cover for her with no hesitation.
“You really know how to pick them.” Robin dramatically widens her eyes, looking after Vicki. “Oh, I see her actual date has returned. Sorry, Stevie.” She feigns sympathy toward him.
Steve shrugs his shoulders. “I guess Billy wins again.” Little did he know.
Wiping her fingers from the pizza grease, Bunny throws her napkin on the pizza tray, signaling she was finished. Steve releases a content sigh, finishing his slice soon after her.
“That seems like a good place to call it, wouldn’t you agree?” Jonathan leans forward, his arm still around Nancy, as he looks at everyone else to gauge how they feel. Eddie and Robin nod at the same time.
“All that skating wore me out!” Robin stretches. “But it was fun! Good idea guys!” She smiles at Nancy and Jonathan who seem happy the night had gone well.
“Shall we take the skates back?” Eddie asks.
Everyone nods, shifting out of the booth. All of them had removed their skates already, so they picked them up off the floor. Nancy and Jonathan were the first to head to the counter. Robin took hers and offered to take Steve’s. Eddie looks after Bunny.
“I can take your skates for you.”
She smiles quickly. “Thanks, Eddie.”
He takes her skates, walking off with Robin. Steve turns to her as soon as they are out of earshot.
“What the hell took you so long? Do you know how hard it is to hold a conversation with someone who only wants to talk about herself?” His voice is quiet, but full of his dramatic flair.
“I’ll tell you later.” She smiles up at him, noticing Billy and Vicki walking toward them. They must have returned their skates already because she no longer saw them. “Thank you though. Seriously.” She gives him her best appreciative look.
As Billy passes them, leaving with his date, he makes it a point to show her he’s not touching Vicki, keeping space between his guiding hand and Vicki’s back. Her eyes shift from his to his hand and back to his eyes, lips parting in realization. He winks once she realizes before walking out the door. She lets out the tiniest chuckle under her breath.
“Well, you look happier.” Steve’s voice makes her turn her attention to him again, smiling wider.
“I am.” Their other four friends turn from the counter to join them again. She catches Eddie’s eyes as he walks toward her, lowering her voice. “At least until I have to drive home with Eddie.”
Steve turns to face the group as well, muttering under his breath. “Call me if you need me.” She nods ever so slightly.
“You ready to head back to yours?” Eddie asks her once he reaches her.
She nods. “Yeah, I’m feeling pretty tired too.”
He chuckles slightly. “Same, actually.”
They all say their goodbyes, reiterating how much they enjoyed the night and how they were looking forward to the party next week. Leaving the rink, she steps back out into the cold night air. She didn’t see Billy’s Camaro anymore, so she knew he had already left. She gave one last wave to Nancy and Jonathan before stepping into Eddie’s van.
As soon as he closed his door, tension from their earlier fight filled the space. They hadn’t spoken to each other at all at the rink. In fact, they had went out of their way to avoid each other, keeping as much distance between them as they could. She stared out the passenger window as he drove her back to her house, watching as buildings passed which eventually turned into trees.
The drive home turned out to be just like the rink - filled with silence - except they couldn’t avoid each other in his van. As Eddie pulled into her driveway, she unbuckles the seatbelt, preparing to get out. He clears his throat, which stops her. He looks at her timidly.
“Do you want me to come up with you? We could smoke a joint and talk about what happened earlier?” So he knows he went too far? The thought brought her a shred of comfort, but it wasn’t enough to replace the hurt that he had already caused. She couldn’t really get passed the fact Eddie had reacted that way, looked at her that way, in the first place.
“No.” She shakes her head, a soft smile spreading her lips. “I think I’d just like to be alone tonight.” She meets his eyes, seeing a trace of sadness from her comment. He looked hurt almost.
“Are you sure?”
She nods. No. “Yeah.”
She didn’t really want to be alone, especially at her house, but she didn’t want to be around Eddie either. He pulls his eyes from hers, nodding with a slump of his shoulders as he looks down at his lap.
“Okay. You can always call me if you change your mind.”
She turns her head to look at him. She didn’t want to feel bad for him. After all, it was his actions that caused this riff between them, but she didn’t like seeing him sad. It just wasn’t him. When he doesn’t meet her eyes again, she opens the van door, stepping out. Turning around, she offers him a smile.
“Thank you for driving me home, Eddie.”
He looks at her, nodding with a weak smile. “Anytime.”
She holds his gaze for a moment longer before closing the door and walking away. She knew she should have said “I love you,” but she just couldn’t bring herself to say it. She kept seeing that look he gave her on the way to the rink in her mind. Deep down, if she was really honest with herself, it didn’t feel right to say after her confession to Billy…
Stepping inside her house, she noticed her father still wasn’t home. He had left before she did and still wasn’t back. They were at the rink for a few hours too. She let her mind drift to Eddie’s earlier comments. Maybe I am overreacting. Maybe there is something wrong with the heat pump. But as soon as she thought that, she shook her head. No. He didn’t know anything about heat pumps. Why wouldn’t he have just called someone if that was the case? The same sinking feeling from earlier settled in her stomach as she climbed the stairs to get to her room.
Closing her door, she moves to her window, looking out to see Eddie had driven off. She walks to her bed, collapsing on it with a sigh. What a night. She swore she felt every emotion available to a human in the span of a few hours, and she was exhausted. Her eyes catch sight of her phone, and she felt her heart rate speed up.
Yes, she had been happy with Billy. He had made her happy, had made her forget about Eddie and her parents. But being back in her room, all she could think about was the phone call and what she heard and knew to be true. It made her sick.
Sitting up with a start, she opens the drawer of her bedside table, picking up a small slip of paper - Billy’s number. He had written it for her when he had dropped her off at her house one day, telling her he wanted her to have his number in case she might need it. She thinks it was the third time he had driven her home, back when they had first started getting to know each other and he had given her a glimpse into what he was like away from his persona.
She holds onto the paper, running her thumb across his writing. She debates what it would mean if she called him in her mind, running through the pros and cons. Of course she wanted to see him, but she didn’t want to make it a habit to go to him when she was upset with Eddie. Sighing, she picks up her phone, dialing a number. She puts the slip of paper back in her drawer before shutting it. Her leg shakes as she waits for the other line to pick up.
“Hello?” Steve’s voice comes through the line.
“Could I spend the night at yours?” She pauses, her voice lowering. “I really don’t want to be at mine tonight.”
“Of course. Be there in 15?” He doesn’t hesitate. She hears him ruffling around on the other end, no doubt getting up to leave.
“Thanks, Steve.” She smiles.
“See you soon.”
She hangs up the phone, sighing in relief. She quickly packs a small bag as she waits for him to get there, putting pajamas, a change of clothes, her brush, her toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and moisturizer in the bag. If she needed anything else, Steve should have it. Making her way downstairs, she checks the clock on the wall, seeing ten minutes had passed. She quickly makes her way to the kitchen where she writes a note for her mom, telling her she came back home but decided to spend the night with Nancy. She didn’t want her to worry when she couldn’t find her in the morning.
Leaving the note in plain sight, she hears a car pull up. She quickly leaves the house, stepping outside in the same clothes she had on from earlier. Getting in Steve’s car, she saw he hadn’t changed either. He offers her a smile, which she mirrors, before he backs out of her driveway without a word. As they drive to Steve’s house, a comfortable silence falls between them. They don’t speak until they’ve made their way to his room even though neither of his parents are home.
She plops down on his bed, letting her bag fall to the floor. “Must be nice to have the house to yourself.”
Steve shrugs, leaning against his wall as he watches her. “Sometimes.” She nods, not saying anything. When she starts messing with her fingers, he speaks again, his tone gentle. “Is the reason you didn’t want to be at your house because of your parents or Eddie?”
She shrugs one shoulder, bending her index finger with her other fingers. “Maybe both?” Her eyes shift away from her fingers, but still don’t meet Steve’s. “More so my parents.”
Steve nods, which she doesn’t see. “Do you want to talk about it?”
She looks up at him then, eyes soft, worried. He tilts his head at her look, smiling in reassurance. Sighing, she tells him what had happened before Eddie picked her up - the phone call, what she heard, her suspicions, her concerns about her mom. She also tells him some more specifics about what Eddie said, wanting him to have the full picture.
“And he seemed sad when I told him I wanted to be alone, but he’s the one who made me want to be alone! Why would I want to spend time with someone who could say those things to me and then ignore me the rest of the night?” Her hands fall in her lap when she finishes speaking, her frustrations showing through her hand gestures.
Steve nods once she finishes, pushing himself off the wall to come sit on his bed with her. “No, that’s valid. He was an asshole.” He shrugs like it was simple. “From Eddie’s point of view, it might come across like your concerns aren’t that big of a deal, and he doesn’t understand why it affects you so much when you still have both of your parents in your life. He probably views it as an improvement from his own life.” She nods as she listens to him, his words making sense.
“But,” Steve’s eyes flick to hers. “From your perspective, something I get too as an only child, your parents are all you have. When they’ve been together your whole life and you’ve had this happy family, when that’s threatened, and by your own dad, you have every right to be upset. You have every right to worry, especially when you know what’s going on before your mom does. That’s a heavy weight to bear.”
“But he’s an only child too.” She furrows her eyebrows, clearly trying to understand better. “You would think he would see it in the same way. But maybe where his parents have been out of his life for so long, it’s different.”
Steve nods. “I would say so. I see it like you because I’m in a similar boat.” He scoffs. “Only my mom has started going with my dad on his business trips since she doesn’t trust him to be alone.” He motions around his room with his arms, an annoyed grimace on his face. “And that’s why I’m increasingly stuck here, alone.” His arms drop. “My dad is too concerned about chasing every young intern he sees, and my mom is too paranoid to leave his side for them to actually care about spending time with their son.”
“I’m sorry, Stevie.” She offers him a warm smile, which he returns.
“Our parents suck, but at least we have each other.” He pulls her in for a side hug, squeezing her shoulder with his hand.
“And your empty house that lets us spend the night together.” She chuckles.
“True that!” He stands then. “You can spend as much time here as you want while you work through everything.” He starts to head to his bedroom door, but turns back to her when he’s halfway there. “And if you want to keep talking through it, we can, but I’m going to go make us some popcorn. That one slice of pizza didn’t cut it.”
She laughs before standing as well. “I feel better now, so I’d rather not talk about my parents or Eddie.” Steve nods, turning to go make their popcorn.
She busies herself by getting ready for the night. Borrowing some of Steve’s face wash, she takes off her makeup. She makes quick work of brushing her teeth, moisturizing her face, taking her ponytail down, and brushing her hair out. She had just changed into her pajamas, a matching long sleeved pants set when she runs into Steve in the hallway. He was holding a large bowl of popcorn, several smaller bags of junk food, and two coca-colas. She laughs before grabbing some things to help him carry them into his bedroom.
Once they’re back in his bedroom, they settle on a movie and began digging into all the snacks he brought. After a period of quiet eating while the movie played in the background, Steve suddenly speaks.
“What about Billy?”
She turns to him, confused. “What?”
“You said you didn’t want to talk about your parents or Eddie, but what about Billy?” He picks up some popcorn, turning his head to hers. “I think you owe it to me to tell me if my sacrifice was worth it.” He stuffs his mouth with the popcorn he picked up as he waits for her response.
She laughs at his action, tilting her head in resign. “I guess I did say we would talk about it later.”
“Mhmm.” Steve makes the sound with his mouth closed, still chewing his popcorn.
She pauses, trying to decide how much she wanted to tell him. She told Billy she wanted to keep him a secret, and she did. If she told Steve what they confessed to each other, he wouldn’t be her secret.
“We just settled the animosity between us.” She shrugs simply. It wasn’t a lie. They had definitely done that.
Steve looks at her, unconvinced. “Really? That’s it?” She widens her eyes with a shake of her head. “You’ve got to give me more than that.”
She rolls her eyes, playfully. “Well, it turns out that he had kinda sorta been using those girls to make me jealous.” She risks a glance at Steve, finding he was listening to her intently. She elaborates. “All of those rumors turned out to be rumors. He hadn’t actually done anything with any of them.”
He furrows his brows. “And you believe that?”
She nods without hesitation. “I do.”
Steve looks up at his ceiling, his mouth open as he processes what she had said. “Why the hell would he do that?”
“Is it so hard to believe that he wanted to make me jealous?”
“No, but making up rumors? He’s not someone who seems like he keeps it in his pants very much.” Steve chuckles, looking at her once more.
She feels the back of her neck get hot as she starts to get defensive over Billy. “Well he did, Steve. And I believe him.” Her voice is sharp, making his eyes widen.
“Okay.” He puts a hand up as if surrendering. “I believe you.”
She sighs, her defensiveness easing off. “I’m sorry. I just think he shows me a different side of himself than he shows everyone else. I still don’t really know why.” She shrugs one shoulder with a light laugh. “But I know enough about him to know when he’s being honest. And he was tonight.” She can’t help the smile that spreads her lips. “He told me he trusts me, Steve.” She looks at him, the trace of her smile still on her lips, but her eyes hold a severity that conveys the weight of her words. “The way he said it, how quiet he was, I get the feeling that he doesn’t feel that way about a lot of people.”
Steve jerks his head back. “Holy shit.” He closes his eyes, moving his head to the side. “I had no idea you two had gotten so close.” His eyes open again, realization shining across them. “I get what you mean now when you said you knew he wouldn’t hurt you earlier. You all have this, I’ll say it,” He pauses, holding out a hand for emphasis with wide eyes. “Weird, bond. I don’t understand it, but I do know this.” He looks at her with more earnest intention, dropping his earlier playfulness. “The difference in your mannerisms, your body, your whole being, before and after you talked to Billy was night and day. Whatever he said, he made you happy, Bunny.” He tilts his head back and forth. “I may not like the guy, but as long as he makes you smile like he did tonight, I’ll tolerate him.”
She rolls her eyes, lightheartedly. “Thanks for your permission, Steve.”
He nods once, pleased with himself. “You’re so welcome.”
They turn their attention back to the movie, munching on more popcorn and sweet treats. As the movie plays, she thinks back to Billy’s confession. I trust you. She knew that phrase meant more to him than the average person. She didn’t know why - not yet - but she did know that to be a fact. The same warmth that she had come to associate with Billy filled her chest, squeezing her heart in the most satisfying way.
He trusted her. She might be the only girl in Hawkins who could say that. And she smiled at the thought. Big and uncontained. Steve’s words flashed through her mind then as her cheeks hurt from the persistence of her smile, and she realized they matched Billy’s.
I want to be the one to make you smile.
As she sat in Steve Harrington’s bed, watching a movie and trying to get her mind off of her parents and Eddie, she realized that Billy was already keeping his word.
She was smiling, and she was smiling because of him.
A/N: bff Steve kind of took over this chapter, but I’ve enjoyed giving him a role in the series! Don’t worry though because the next chapter is all about Billy 😏 as always, I would love to hear your thoughts about part V! Are you ready for things to heat up? 😉
A YEAR LATER WE GET ANOTHER FULL DESIGN YIPPIEE!! I made Monty very, colourful, but I like it very much and I'm happy with how i designed him because for YEars I've been unhappy with my anatomy and felt I couldn't draw him properly as I've wanted but NOW HERE HE IS, YES YESS YEESSS-
I ALSO meant to post this on Wednesday but I've been busy, which doesn't help with the fact my new years resolution is to post EVERY WEEK and at least one fully rendered illustration each month, there could be more than one obvs but I wanted goals and I wanna work on bigger things this year! So just like last year, the first post of the year is a FNaF character! And a little life update, yer nail bending backwards is a experience I'd like to never do again!
ANYWAYS, hope y'all like this Monty Wonty, next week will be a Glamrock Chica! Have a great day / night !
Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader; Billy Hargrove x Reader
Summary: The aftermath of the diner goes exactly the opposite of what Bunny expected, throwing her mind in shambles. And when things at home start to unravel, who will help take her mind off of things, Eddie or Billy?
A/N: Part IV gets a bit angsty, I’m not gonna lie. But this marks a real turning point in the series, so it’s all necessary. All of the characters real emotions start to come out, and they’re only going to intensify from here! A lot of the small details that I’ve been hinting at in the previous three parts are going to come to fruition here as well. Thank you for all the love on this series so far! I hope everyone is enjoying it as much as I am! 🩶
Warnings: jealous!Billy, jealous!Reader, vulnerability, masking emotions, underage drinking, Reader’s family trauma, parental affair, Eddie’s family trauma, cruel!Eddie
Word count: 8729
For the first time in two weeks, she didn’t dread walking into Hawkins High. She knew Billy would still have a girl under his arm, but she also knew that he secretly longed to be in Eddie’s place. The events at the diner had left her feeling smug all weekend. He had revealed his true intentions with every flex of his jaw, every clench of his fists, as he stared at her through Eddie’s van window.
He wasn’t just getting payback for her rejection, he was denying his own jealousy of Eddie.
Now that she was armed with that truth, she knew that no matter how many tricks Billy played, she wouldn’t be phased. Just as he had seen through the mask she had put up to hide how she really felt about Eddie bailing on her, she saw through Billy’s mask of hiding his jealousy. Every time she thought about it, she couldn’t help but smile.
Billy Hargrove was jealous of Eddie Munson. Over her.
Billy wanted what Eddie had. Her.
That was why she wasn’t nervous or filled with dread at the prospect of seeing Billy again. Sure, she didn’t like seeing him with girl after girl, but she had always known he never cared about them. They were just a pawn in his game. But Eddie? Billy had to watch her with Eddie knowing she cared about him, knowing she loved him. And she knew that was way worse for Billy.
As soon as Eddie pulled into the lot he had jogged off to his friends - he had told her he had to tell them his newest campaign idea - but she didn’t mind. She walked into the high school with her head held high, not feeling like she needed to rely on Eddie to avoid Billy anymore. She knew Billy had likely had a much worse weekend than she did. Just how bad it was, she would soon find out.
She passed his Camaro on the way into the school. She found it curious because he was usually the last one there and the first to leave, but today, he had beat her to the school. He was also nowhere to be seen, not near his car or the lot. She didn’t think about it too hard as she pushed open the front door and made the short walk to her locker.
Leaning against her locker with his fingers to his lips stood Billy Hargrove. He was staring down at the floor as he chewed on his nails. One arm wrapped around his waist while the other was at his lips. One leg was crossed in front of the other, and he was shaking it so hard she could hear the lockers rattling behind him. His hair wasn’t as shiny as it usually was, and even from where she stood she could see the dark circles under his eyes. He looked rough. But most importantly? He was alone. No girl in sight.
Her smile disappeared as she stopped dead in her tracks. No amount of smugness or confidence could have prepared her for this sight. Never in her wildest dreams did she think Billy Hargrove would be this upset over her, someone he knew he couldn’t have. He was someone who could get any girl he wanted, but he chose her for some reason and this was the result. Her chest ached.
He must have heard the scuffle of her shoes against the floor as she came to a sudden stop because his head jerks in her direction. His mouth was parted as he dropped his fingers, and his eyes were so big, so sad. Her brows draw in and her mouth parts at the sight, shaking her head so slowly in disbelief. This can’t be real.
He pushes off the locker as soon as they make eye contact and walks to her. She doesn't move. He makes it to her side in three strides, grabbing her arm without a word and walking away. She didn’t dare utter a word as she allowed him to take her where he wanted. She found herself in the boys’ locker room again, the same spot she had dragged him a few days ago. Two other boys were in the room, smiling and talking as they changed. Billy’s voice interrupts them - a loud and jarring sound that even made her jump.
“Get the fuck out.” The boys turn to look at him in shock and confusion. When they didn’t move, Billy nearly yells. “Now!” They scramble to get their bags, clothes half on, as they leave the locker room in a hurry.
She watched as he paced the room, not looking at her. His breathing was heavy, loud. She stood, frozen, as she waited for his next move. He ran a hand through his dishevled hair, huffing out a breath as he turned to her, eyes blazing.
“What the fuck was that?”
Her eyes widened. It was clear he’d been thinking about her and Eddie all weekend. She figured he would have, but not to this extent. He wasn’t just jealous. He was angry, hurt. The emotions in his eyes overwhelm her. Like her, he guarded his emotions and kept them close to his chest, but they were on full display right now, bursting from his eyes in an intensity she hadn’t seen before. She had to take a beat before she could respond to process his reaction. When she did speak, she spoke fast.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He practically groans as he rolls his eyes. “Fucking Munson in front of me.” His body faces hers, and just like at the diner, every muscle was tense.
Against her better judgement she throws his own words back at him, just as he had been doing to her.
“Don’t flatter yourself, doll. You just happened to see it.” She crosses her arms, trying to resume her earlier smugness. Billy wasn’t hers. She shouldn’t care about his emotions, especially since he said he didn’t want to be friends with her.
His eyes narrow, recognizing the intent behind her words, her choice of phrasing. He takes a step toward her, his jaw rolling as he grinds his teeth together.
“Do you get off on pissing me off?”
She stood her ground. She had spent two weeks letting him torment her. She wasn’t going to back down now. In truth, she wasn’t trying to piss him off. If he wanted to play games, then two could tango. Still, her mouth moves faster than her mind, speaking before she could stop herself.
“Do you get off on being jealous of Eddie?”
His fists clench. “I’m not fucking jealous of him.” She could see he was speaking through clenched teeth, his jaw so tight she could see the veins in his temples.
“Your actions say otherwise.” She tilts her head to emphasize she was paying attention to his mannerisms.
She had never expected Billy to be this affected. Part of her felt bad, but the other part of her fought to shut those emotions down. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was in a happy relationship, mostly. It didn’t matter if Billy didn’t like it. He wasn’t part of it. He would have to get over it. But even though she knew all of that to be true, she couldn’t deny the strings tugging at her heart, forcing her to feel sympathy, pain, guilt for him - guilt she shouldn’t have, guilt that didn’t make sense.
“Quit playing games with me.” Billy was staring daggers at this point.
“My relationship is not a game, Billy. I can’t help it that you’re not in it.” She shrugs like it was the most obvious answer in the world.
Billy opens his mouth before snapping it shut and turning around. She watches as he paced the room again. He shot her a quick look over his shoulder before looking away. “Why are you acting like this?”
She furrows her brows, taken aback. “Like what?”
He stops dead again, right in front of her, throwing his arms up. “Like you don’t fucking care! Like this doesn’t matter.”
She shakes her head, still confused. “Have you forgotten how you’ve been treating me for the past two weeks?” Billy looks away, clenching his jaw again. “So you’re allowed to parade around with anyone and everyone.” She moves to get in his line of sight again, voice coming out angry now. His eyes hold hers, listening, watching. “You’re allowed to fuck someone under the bleachers at school, while I’m near you. To- to sleep with god knows how many girls all to try and make me jealous. But I’m not allowed to sleep with my boyfriend?” She puts her hand against her chest, patting it twice. “My boyfriend.” She pauses, letting her words sink in before releasing a humorless laugh. “You don’t get to do that.”
“I never fucking did anything in front of you.” His voice sounds pained, but it’s still loud and full of emotion.
She scoffs. “Oh, so all the making out and the handsy shit doesn’t count, right?”
“It’s different.” He closes his eyes, squeezing his eyelids as he tilts his head, as if his next words are painful. “I had to watch you fuck him. In front of me. His hand was in your hair. His mouth on your neck.” He re-opens his eyes then, meeting hers with a pained intensity that takes her breath away. “You fucking smiled at me. Like you wanted me to see. Like you wanted to fucking hurt me.”
She shakes her head. “No, no. You just walked up on us. I didn’t- I didn’t mean for you to see that.” She looks down at the ground - partly to help her get her thoughts together, partly to get some space from his eyes. “I was just so frustrated from seeing you with a different girl everyday and having you throw my words back in my face every time we talked. And then at the diner you got in my head again, and I just needed it to stop.” She stops, taking a breath. Her eyes looking up into his again. “I needed it to stop. And it did, and I finally felt good again. I just wanted to forget it all, so I did, and-“
“And now you’re giving me a piece of my own medicine.” Billy interrupts her rush of words.
“No! Billy-“ She sighs. “Eddie’s my boyfriend.” She’s the one to throw her arms up now. “I didn’t try to do anything malicious toward you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She pauses. “That’s all.”
He nods, repeating her. “That’s all.” He starts pacing again. “That’s it, huh?” He looks at her as he paces. With each step, she can see how tense his muscles still are. “You just forget about that night, forget about what you said, and move on?” His voice gets quieter, like he doesn’t want her to hear him. “Forget me.”
“What do you want me to do? I have a boyfriend. I- I love him!” She tries to hold back her frustration, but she can hear it seep through her tone.
He stops pacing, keeping her eye contact as he speaks. “You might be telling the truth, but you’re fucking lying to yourself if you don’t feel anything for me.” He takes another step toward her. “I could see it on your face every time I had another girl with me. I could see it in the diner when I told you to make a choice.” Another step, his jaw tight. “You went with the safe option, with what you knew, rather than taking a risk on someone who wants to give you attention, who wants to take you out and do all the nice things he doesn’t want to do for anyone else.” Another step brings him directly in front of her, his breath fanning across her face.
As it always did, his proximity makes her head spin. She inhales his scent, her eyes closing briefly before his hand finds her jaw. His grip isn’t rough, isn’t tight, but it’s enough to push her lips together, enough to make her meet his gaze. “And I could feel you melt into me when I kissed you. Your body fit against mine like it was made for me.” His fingers dance on her waist, and her breath skips. “You wouldn’t have kissed me like you did if you didn’t feel what I feel.”
“But we can’t - I can’t.” Her voice is quiet, timid almost.
“What are you scared of? You said it was easy between us.” His eyes search hers desperately, his hand still on her jaw.
“It is. It was!” She closes her eyes, needing distance from his gaze. Sucking in a breath, she can feel her body shake. His closeness, his touch, almost too much.
“Was?” His grip on her waist tightens, causing her to gasp and open her eyes again. “Why are you lying?”
“I- I’m not lying!” Against her will, she feels her eyes well up with tears. This was all too much.
“If it wasn’t still easy between us your body wouldn’t be reacting this way.” His hand on her jaw shifts to her cheek, his other hand leaving her waist to cup her other cheek. “I can see it in your fucking eyes, Bunny. Stop fighting it.”
He was so close. His eyes seared into hers, seeing her, even the parts she didn’t want him to see. She had never felt so vulnerable, so exposed to someone before. He saw everything - emotions she didn’t even know she had, emotions she had repressed, had wanted to forget. Emotions she couldn’t have, not just because of Eddie, but because they threatened the stability she had worked so hard to build, that she clung to. His voice pierced her heart causing it to ache. Every nerve in her body was hot. She fought to keep from giving in, her muscles straining as she prevented her body from getting what it wanted.
“We can’t.” Her hands find his wrists, pulling them from her face. She backs away from him, shaking her head. “This isn’t right.”
He let his arms fall to his sides as his face hardens - all softness fading from his features. “Right. You’ve said that before.”
She continues to back away from him, toward the door, needing to be anywhere but here. “Look, I’m sorry you saw what you did, but you need to understand that I’m with Eddie. That’s not going to change.” Her hand finds the door handle. “Nothing is going to happen between us.”
Her voice was fast, breathless. Her heart raced. Her mind was spiraling, clinging to the feel of Billy’s hands on her face. She needed to get away - away from him, from these feelings, from his eyes. She couldn’t look at him anymore. She could feel he was breaking her, seeing through her mask again, and she couldn’t let it happen. As she opened the door and moved to leave, his voice breaks through the barriers she was putting up.
“I hope you’re making the right choice.”
Two days later she sat with Eddie, Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan at lunch. Every once in a while Eddie and Bunny would sit with their friends instead of the Hellfire table to catch up. They would usually end up making plans after their catch up, and today was no exception.
“What are you guys doing this Friday?” Nancy asks, looking around the table at everyone.
Steve was the first to speak. “Hanging around my house. My parents are going out of town again.” He shrugs lightly. She had noticed this happened a lot. For someone of his reputation and wealth, his parents were so absent.
“I was probably going to bother Steve to watch a movie with me, but no real plans.” Robin spoke next, leaning in as she set her drink down.
Nancy smiles, turning to Jonathan before looking at everyone else. “Good! Jonathan and I were thinking about having a night at the roller rink to try and take a break from how crazy this year has been. We were hoping you all would be able to join us.” She pauses, and Jonathan nods. “Bunny, Eddie, what about you two?”
She looks at Eddie, knowing he had a campaign. He turns to her, eyes widening slightly as his lips parted. “Oh, I- I can move my campaign again. I’m sure the boys wouldn’t mind to do it tomorrow night or Saturday.” She smiles at that.
“So we should be able to come along Friday!”
Nancy smiles before turning to Steve. “Steve, Robin?”
They both confirm they could make it as well. Nancy smiles wider, looking at Jonathan, who smiles in return, before sharing the plans the two of them had made. She mentions the time they were going to meet and how long they thought they might stay.
Bunny listens until a tray slams against a table somewhere behind Nancy and Jonathan, causing her to jump. Her eyes follow the sound to see Billy pulling a chair back to sit at a table. She immediately notices how angry he looks. Nancy kept talking, but she wasn’t able to listen anymore.
She had done her best to ignore Billy after their talk on Monday. She had immediately gone back to her locker and got all the books she would need for the week, carrying them in her backpack - all to avoid going near her locker again. She would rather deal with a bit of back pain than see the look Billy gave her in the locker room again.
Aside from avoiding her locker, she waited long after the final bell to meet Eddie in the parking lot, stopping by the bathroom, talking to her teacher at the end of the day, anything she could do to make sure Billy left before her. Even at lunch she had switched her seats at the Hellfire table to sit on the opposite side. The boys didn’t love the sudden change, especially Gareth since she took his seat, but Eddie had talked them down. It meant she could keep her back to Billy and avoid his gaze.
Even still, she could feel his hot gaze. Just like in the locker room she had to fight her body to keep it in line, to avoid turning her head or meeting his eyes when he was in her line of sight. Every muscle, every nerve hurt, and after two days, her body actually felt tired. But she had avoided Billy entirely. She had completely shut him out. Until now.
His eyes hold hers as he pulls his seat in. He didn’t look as rough as he had on Monday, but he still had dark circles under his eyes. Even from where she sat, she could see the intensity of his anger - whether it was from her closeness to Eddie or from her purposeful avoidance of him, she didn’t know. She watches as his eyes shift to her right to settle on Eddie, his jaw tightening in the process. When his eyes move back to hers he tilts his head.
Her mouth parts at the intentional movement. He had never paid attention to Eddie, never seemed to care about his presence. From that first conversation near her locker where all three of them interacted, he had barely looked at Eddie. But now? His gaze bore daggers into him. She swallowed thickly.
“Wait, wait, wait, what about the party next Friday? Are you all going?” Steve’s voice brought her back to earth, helping her tear her eyes from Billy’s. Steve looked at everyone expectantly.
“A party, Steve? Really?” Robin rolls her eyes.
“It’s the end of the year party that Tina always throws.” He shrugs. “It could be a good way for us all to end the year together.” His bright smile cuts across his face. “You know, let loose and put 1984 behind us!”
Robin laughs, but she shakes her head. “It sounds fun, but I don’t do parties.”
Eddie nods. “Same.”
Steve and Bunny look at Eddie before Steve speaks up. “C’mon guys.” He looks at Nancy and Jonathan. “If we all go, we could have a good time. What do you say?”
Nancy looks to Jonathan who shrugs one shoulder. “I think it could be fun.”
Jonathan nods in agreement. “We don’t all get to spend much time together. Might as well make the most of it.”
Nancy smiles. “We’re in!”
Steve nods once, smiling too, before turning to his other three friends. “Bunny, I know you’re down.” She nods, letting out a laugh. She had been Steve’s plus one more times than she could count for any type of Hawkins party. “Robin, Eddie? You have to. You just do!”
Robin sighs, throwing her head back in a dramatic fashion. “If I go you better not leave my side, Harrington.”
He puts his hands out. “I’ll do whatever you say, I promise.”
She eyes him, narrowing her eyes before slumping her shoulders. “Fine. I’ll go.”
Steve nearly punches the air. “Yes!” His attention turns to Eddie again, where everyone is now looking at him expectantly. “It’s all up to you now, Munson.”
Eddie looks from Steve to Bunny before looking at everyone else. He opens his mouth, almost like he wants to protest, but when his eyes meet hers, he closes his mouth, his features softening. Nodding, he agrees. “Alright, alright. I’ll go too.”
The entire table cheers, and she puts her hand on his thigh as she leans in, nudging his shoulder with her own. She looks up at him sweetly.
“You promise you’ll go?”
He puts his arm around her waist, squeezing her gently.
“I promise.”
“Hell yeah! The whole gang together for two weekends in a row!” Steve’s voice powers over the cheers as the table calms down. Like before, they start solidfying their plans for the next two Fridays.
Before she could think about her actions, she lets her eyes fall back on Billy. The same intensity stared back at her, taking her aback. He hadn’t touched his lunch. He was sitting in the same stance, staring in her direction without breaking his gaze, even to talk to Tommy. She forced herself to pull her eyes from him, focusing on Eddie and her friends again.
But she could feel the weight of his eyes, his anger. No matter how much she tried to ignore him, her skin burned. It was going to be a long two weeks before the semester ended.
She had managed to avoid Billy for the rest of the week, resuming her earlier tactics to help. When she came home from school Friday, neither of her parents were home. She took the opportunity to pour herself a glass of wine. The week had taken a toll on her, and she just wanted to unwind before a night out with her friends.
She had just poured her second glass when she heard her mom pull in the driveway. Hurrying upstairs before her mom walked through the door, she busied herself by slowly getting ready, putting on a tape and sipping on her second glass. As she picked out her clothes, dancing around her room, she felt the wine ease her muscles of their ache, her nerves finally relaxing. It was going to be a good night.
She decided to hop in the shower, relaxing even more under the hot water. As the time passed, she became more and more excited for her night out. She couldn’t remember the last time all six of them had hung out. Given how the past month had gone, she really needed it.
Stepping out of the shower, she did her usual routine of skincare and rubbed lotion over her skin - a warm vanilla scent. She put her clothes on before doing her hair and makeup. Since they were skating, she decided against a skirt, settling on a pair of tapered jeans, a black knit cropped t-shirt, and a denim jacket on top. She put on a pair of sneakers to make sure she had socks for the skates.
She made quick work of her makeup, keeping it simple, and had just started brushing her hair when the phone rang. Not knowing if her parents would get it, she left her bathroom and walked to the phone on her nightstand. Sitting on her bed, she picked up the phone. She didn’t have time to say hello as another voice spoke before her - her dad’s.
“Veronica, I told you only to call this number if it was an emergency.” She paused, holding her breath so she wouldn’t make a sound. She didn’t know who Veronica was, but it was clear she had picked up the phone after her dad and was now overhearing his conversation, one that she wasn’t meant to hear. A woman’s voice cut in, Veronica’s apparently.
“But it is an emergency. I think the heat pump is going out at the office, and there’s no one here to give me a second opinion.” The woman pauses. Okay, so this is one of his co-workers. “I think you need to come in.” Her eyes widen as she picks up on the woman’s suggestive tone. She wasn’t dumb. She knew what that tone meant.
Not wanting to hear anymore, she presses her finger over the switchhook to hang up the phone before placing the phone back on the stand as gently as she could, not wanting her dad to know she overheard anything. She fought off a wave of nausea. Her dad had been increasingly more absent lately, but she didn’t think he would resort to an affair. Her eyes widened at the thought.
It went completely against the reputation he had built and had made her mother and her align with. They were the perfect family. No scandals, no drama, absolutely nothing astray. If ever there was something out of line with his vision, he made sure it was corrected. Every aspect of her life aligned with his vision, even her friends.
But for him to risk his own image over an affair? It didn’t make sense. She was confused. She felt hurt. Yes, because of the potential of his affair - her parents had always been together and were the only family she had in Hawkins - but also because it threatened her stability. It meant imminent change. It was out of her control. All of the pillars that made up how she viewed her life felt like they were cracking.
Her dad’s voice calls from the bottom of the stairs, directed to her mom. “Honey, I have to go to the office. It’s an emergency. I’ll be back when I can!” She sat in silence as she heard the front door close and his car drive off. He didn’t even give her mom time to respond.
She sat in silence as she tried to process what just happened. She couldn’t prove it and it could have meant anything, but she had a sinking feeling in her chest. Deep down she knew what his absences and that phone call meant. Her dad was having an affair. Worst of all, she knew and her mom didn’t. As she stood to finish getting ready, she grappled with what that meant, grappled with what this change might bring.
After putting her hair in a ponytail, she decided to wait for Eddie upstairs, not thinking it wise to sit with her mom. She didn’t have to wait long until her mom called out for her, “Sweetie, Eddie is here!”
Giving herself one last look, mainly to practice her smile, she left her room. Stopping at the bottom of the stairs she smiled at her mom, attempting to show her that everything was normal. “I’ll see you soon, mom!” Her mother hugged her, telling her to be careful and to have fun, before she walked out of the house.
She walked to Eddie’s van in silence, sat down in silence, buckled her seatbelt in silence. Eddie turned his head to her once she finished, facing forward, still in silence. “Are you okay, Bunny?”
“I’m fine!” She didn’t turn her head to his, fearing she would crack if she did. She didn’t know if she should say anything, especially to him.
“Bunny, hey.” She felt Eddie’s hand on her shoulder. “You know you can talk to me, right?” She nods her head, silent. He pauses for a moment, deciding to force her to look at him. Moving his hand from her shoulder to her chin, he turns her face to his. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
Meeting his eyes, seeing his usual look of love and acceptance, she bites her lip. “I don’t know if I can.”
He drops his hand to his lap, drawing his brows in. “What do you mean?”
She winces. “I think I overheard something I shouldn’t have.”
“Like what?” He still wore a look of confusion.
“My dad, he-“ She stops, turning away from him. She couldn’t get out of this now. “A woman from his work called, and I think they’re having an affair.”
Eddie’s face completely changes. All traces of openness gone. In its place is a hardened, cold expression. He sighs, putting his van in reverse to drive off. “I’m sure you’re just reading into things too much.”
“No!” She turns to him, exasperated. “You don’t know what I heard.”
He looks at her, annoyance flashing across his eyes. “Then why don’t you tell me?” She could tell by his tone that he didn’t really want to hear - he was just saying what she expected him to say.
She opens her mouth before closing it. Talking about her personal life with Eddie was difficult. She didn’t like to open up to people, but she had with Eddie. Still, there were certain things that she didn’t tell him, couldn’t tell him, about her parents. And she knew there were things he didn’t tell her. It wasn’t healthy that they kept things from each other, she knew that, but they always focused on the good. Eddie wanted to focus on the good, to not take things too seriously, and they did. But when something major happened like this, the cracks in their relationship were brought to the surface, cracks that turned out to be pretty major cracks that they both repressed.
When she first suspected her father of acting weird and spending more time away from them, Eddie blew her off. He was always receptive and open to her concerns, but he didn’t like to talk about her parents, or the future, for that matter. He had gotten mad and accused her of overreacting. He was nice to her parents when they talked, but anytime she tried to complain or speculate, Eddie got upset. It had become so much of a pattern that she stopped talking to him about them, had mostly stopped showing him an emotion other than happiness. She knew better. She knew not to bring it up, but the phone call had rattled her and she let it slip.
“Nevermind.” She turns from him again. “It’s nothing.”
“No, you want to tell me, so go ahead.” He focuses on driving, not looking at her. She mirrors his stance, looking out at the road instead of him.
“The phone rang, and when I picked it up they were already talking. He told her she was only supposed to call our home if it was an emergency, and she said it was, something about the heat pump messing up. Then she said he should come in and give her a second opinion.” She pauses. “Then he left.”
“Is that it?” She could tell by his tone that he was annoyed.
“Yes, but you didn’t hear her tone. She was hinting at sex. I think that’s the real reason she was calling.” She risked a look at him to see him roll his eyes.
“Some woman is going to call your dad at his house when she knows his wife and daughter are home to hint that he needs to go back to the office and have sex with her?” He looks at her, visible annoyance mixed with that same coldness on his features now. His tone began to come out angry, dismissive. “Do you not hear how ridiculous that sounds?”
“I know what I heard, Eddie! I’m not making this up.” She crosses her arms. She knew she shouldn’t have said anything.
“I believe you. But you also read into that shit too much. It sounds to me like the heat pump messed up and some woman didn’t know what to do. You’re overreacting again.” He waves his hand through the air, dismissing her.
“Why do you always do this?” She glares at him.
“Do what?” He turns to her briefly, glaring as well.
“You never want me to talk about my parents. You always say I’m overreacting and act like I’m making it all up.” Her tone comes out angry - her frustrations from the week manifesting as Eddie pushed on a sensitive area.
“Because you act like your home life is so fucking bad. You don’t know shit about what it’s actually like.” His tone matches hers, angry, mean. Eddie was usually never like this. Normally she would have been shocked, but she looked past it, her pent up frustration releasing into full on anger.
“Your uncle loves you, Eddie. He does everything he can to take care of you.”
“Yeah, my uncle. My fucking uncle, Bunny.” He laughs quickly, devoid of humor. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed in your little la-la land, but my parents are gone. Out of the picture.”
“Eddie, I know-“
“And you have both of yours.” He interrupts her, continuing his rant. “So what if your dad is having an affair? If that’s the worst you have to worry about, then you have it made.”
It definitely wasn’t, but he didn’t know that. And with how he always acted when she talked about her parents, there was a reason she never told him. There was no way she would tell him. In truth, she hadn’t told anyone about what her parents were like behind closed doors. Her dad was overbearing and held her to impossibly high standards - standards that she knew she must meet to uphold their perfect image. And her mom? She just let it happen, justified it even.
But she managed it, dealt with it. She knew what to expect, and she had gotten used to it. She created her routines and upheld her image to align with her father. Things were stable, which they all preferred. But a possible affair? She never could have prepared herself for that. It threatened everything. It threatened her stability, and she was nothing without it.
She scoffs. “My mom doesn’t know, Eddie. I fucking do! I can’t tell her, so what am I supposed to do? Sit there with the knowledge that my dad is cheating on her?”
“You don’t know that!” He turns to her, practically yelling. She jerks back. Eddie certainly never yelled. He throws a hand up. “So your parents get a divorce. Cry me a fucking river. You would still have both of them in your life!”
“I can’t help it that your parents are gone, Eddie, but you’re being mean about it.” She’s still angry, but her voice is much weaker. This is the meanest he had ever been. She was upset enough as it was, with Billy and her parents, the last thing she needed was Eddie to act this way, especially to yell at her.
“They’re not just gone!” He runs a quick hand through his hair, his anger making his hand shake. “My mom died, and I was old enough to remember it. To- to see it happen. And my dad’s in jail. He never gave a fuck about me, but it got even worse after she died. Wayne took me in because I didn’t have anyone else, and now I’m just his fucking burden.”
Her eyes soften. “Eddie, you’re not a burden. Wayne loves-“
“I don’t need a pity party. I’m not asking for your sympathy.” The look he gives her snaps her mouth shut - a look of anger. Not just anger. Resentment. He pulls into a parking spot at the skate rink, slamming the van in park. “I know the hand I’ve been dealt in life. But you don’t. And I’m sorry, but I can’t sit here and listen to you talk about how bad you have it, how hard it is to be you.” His tone has shifted into a mocking whine.
He turns to her with that same look, trapping her breath in her throat. “Who gives a fuck if your dad has an affair? Your parents will figure it out. It’s not any of your business anyway.” He takes the keys out of the ignition and puts his hand on the door handle, turning to her a final time. “Be thankful you have your parents. Let your mom figure it out, if anything is even happening, and just be there for her. I’d give anything to have my mom back.”
He opens his door, getting out and slamming it shut. She sits there, stunned. Out of all of their fights in the past, Eddie had never spoken to her like that, never looked at her like that. She knew his home life was a sensitive subject, but she never thought he would turn on her for own familial concerns. She pinches her nose to make her tears go away before she gets out of the van.
He hadn’t waited on her. She watched as he disappeared into the skate rink, hurrying after him. Inside, she saw Robin and Steve sitting at a large booth with their skates. Nancy and Jonathan must not have gotten there yet. Steve waved at them, but his smile fades as Eddie keeps walking toward the counter, likely to get their skates. He walks away from them so fast his hair whips behind him.
She walks over to Steve and Robin, sliding into the booth next to Steve with a soft smile. He looks down at her, concern etching his features.
“Is everything alright?” He held her gaze for a moment before looking after Eddie. Robin follows his line of sight.
She nods. “Yeah. We just had a bit of an argument. He’ll cool down soon enough.” It was more than an argument, and she didn’t know if he would cool down or not. She didn’t want to talk about it, and to be honest she didn’t really want to be around Eddie after that.
Steve meets her eyes again. “We can leave if you want. I’m sure Nance and Jonathan would understand.”
“No!” She nearly yelps out the word, which makes his eyes widen. “I just don’t want to go back home right now.”
Steve nods, eyes a bit wide. “Okay.”
She sighs. “I’ve really been looking forward to tonight and seeing everyone. I just really don’t want to ruin it, especially over a dumb fight.” She looks over at Robin to see she’s looking at her. She puts her hand on Steve’s thigh to lean closer to him so Robin can’t hear her next words. “And I really don’t want to go back home right now.” She leans back to see Steve’s realization just as Eddie makes it back to their booth, his eyes narrowed as he sees her hand on Steve’s thigh.
“I got our skates.” He sets them on the floor next to the table as he slides next to Robin. His tone wasn’t as angry, but it wasn’t back to it’s chipper usual yet.
“Thanks, Eddie.” She removes her hand from Steve’s thigh once she notices his line of sight. Clearing her throat, she asks, “Do we know when Nancy and Jonathan are going to get here?”
Robin shakes her head. “We thought they would have been here by now.”
She hums. “Maybe they’ll get here soon.”
The table falls silent for a minute until Robin and Steve break the silence with their own conversation. She steals a look at Eddie to find he was already looking at her. His brows are drawn in still and his jaw flexes every so often, but his eyes no longer hold that look of resentment. She lets her eyes shift past him to the door in time to see Nancy and Jonathan walk through. She smiles and gives them a wave.
“Bunny, hey!” Nancy grabs Jonathan’s arm and walks over to their booth. Everyone says their hellos. “Does everyone already have their skates?” When they all nod, her and Jonathan go to the counter to retrieve their own skates, leaving the rest of them to put theirs on. She grabs the skates Eddie got her, but she struggled to slip them over her feet. Once Eddie and Robin left the booth and she noticed Steve was waiting on her, his skates already on, she sighs, bringing the skates closer to her face to check the size.
She rolls her eyes. “He didn’t even get the right size.” She looks over at Steve in annoyance, but he was trying to hold in a laugh. “Steve…”
“I’m sorry. That’s not funny.” He straightens his expression. “Do you want me to go get you the right size?”
She shakes her head. “No. I can go get them.” She moves to get out of the booth just as the door to the rink opens. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Steve leans over her shoulder to see what made her say that. “As if this night could get any worse.”
In walks Billy Hargrove with yet another girl. His hand is on the small of her back, leading her in. They’re both smiling, but when his eyes land on hers, his smile turns into a smirk. She watches as he leads the girl to a booth of their own. She sinks back into the booth with a groan.
“Do you want me to tell him to leave?”
Her head rests against the booth as she turns it to meet Steve’s eyes. “Be serious, Steve. You aren’t going to get him to leave.”
He shrugs, slouching with her. “Well, my offer from earlier still stands - we can leave.”
She closes her eyes as she shakes her head. “No. He can’t make things worse than they are.”
“You don’t have to talk about it now, but you know you can always talk to me, right?” She keeps her eyes closed, not looking at him, as she nods. “Alright. Want me to get your skates for you now at least?”
“No, I’ll get them. Might as well get this over with.” She lets out a breath as she sits up, grabbing the skates and moving out of the booth. “Go skate. I’ll be there soon.” Steve nods, getting out of the booth behind her and skating in the opposite direction.
She makes her way to the counter, passing Billy and his new date on the way. She keeps her eyes forward, wanting to get her skates in peace. Of course, as she suspected, that doesn’t happen. Leaning against the counter to wait for the clerk, she feels Billy slide next to her. Before he can say anything, she turns to him abruptly, catching him with an open mouth, interrupting whatever he was going to say.
“Can you just not do whatever you want to do?” His mouth closes as an eyebrow raises. She holds his gaze as she attempts to get him to see how serious she is. She didn’t care about his earlier anger from a few days ago, whatever excuse he had for acting like he had at lunch. She couldn’t handle anymore resentment, not after Eddie. “I’m not in the mood tonight.”
He smirks, tilting his head. “What’s wrong, did you and Munson have a little fight?” She glares at him, her lips pressed together in annoyance. He jerks back slightly, eyebrows raised. “Oh shit, you actually did.” He leans in a bit, arrogance gone. “Are you okay?”
She rolls her eyes. “Like you care, Billy.” She looks around quickly before looking to him again, shifting her body in frustration. “Can you just leave me alone?”
“I know I’ve been a dick, but you have to know that I do care, Bunny.” His tone is sincere, causing her to pause. She sighs again. She had done that a lot tonight. She didn’t know why he was here, but maybe he wasn’t trying to be a menace after all.
“It’s nothing. It was just a stupid fight.” She shrugs, trying to move past it.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing. You seem upset.” He leans against the counter, settling in.
“Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” She bites out the words, her tone sharp. Her eyes meet his with a plea. “Can’t you just be respectful for once?” He holds her eyes before they sweep over her, narrowing slightly - not in a cruel way, but almost like he was trying to figure her out.
Before he can say anything else the clerk comes over. She asks to exchange her skates for her size while Billy asks for his and his date’s. As the clerk leaves to get their skates, she turns to him again.
“I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just been a rough night.” She chuckles quietly, trying to speak to herself. “More like a rough week.”
“A rough week, huh?” She meets his eyes, one of his eyebrows raised, but she sees amusement more than anything.
“You should know something about that.”
He hums, nodding his head twice. “I would say it’s been a harder week for me.” She’s the one to raise her eyebrows now. “And I think you know exactly why.”
She tilts her head. “Hmm. Maybe I don’t. Care to enlighten me?” She gives him her best innocent look which makes him laugh - the first genuine laugh she’s heard from him in weeks. God, I’ve missed that. She didn’t even bother shutting the thought down.
He smiles, eyes flitting up to the ceiling before meeting hers again. “Well a certain someone has been ignoring me all week and denying me her presence.” He leans against the counter, his elbows holding him up as his back presses against it. “I can’t help but think it was intentional.”
“It was.”
He tilts his head to look at her, head turned due to his stance. “Why is that, doll?”
She shrugs meekly. “I guess I got scared again.”
“You do that a lot, you know?”
She draws her eyebrows in. “What?”
He lifts one hand in the air. “Hide. Run away from what scares you. Shut down your emotions.” His gaze almost holds her in a trance. Somehow he could always see through the mask, especially when she wasn’t aware she had put another one in place. He could read her better than she could - knew the emotions she was feeling before she did. And he was right. She had been denying her feelings and running from their conversation on Monday all week.
She opens her mouth, but the clerk loudly sets the three pairs of skates on the counter, pulling them out of their conversation. She thanks the clerk, taking the skates and sitting on a bench nearby to put them on as Billy pays for his skates. She was bent over her legs, tying the skates when she felt him sit next to her. Rather than respond to his previous comment, she decided to change the subject.
“I thought you were done with the dates.” She doesn’t look up from her skates, tying the strings in bows and tucking in the excess.
He takes his boots off to put his skates on as well, bending down to her level. She can see him turn his head to look at her out of her peripheral. “Since you won’t give me the time of day I need to do something to entertain myself.”
She rolls her eyes, though she’s smiling. “Is that right?”
“Mhmm. But don’t worry doll. It’s nothing serious.” He winks.
She finishes situating her strings, sitting back up. Billy focuses on tying his. She watches as the tendons in his hands flex with his movement, his hair falling against his cheeks. It was silly, but in his position he looked softer, sweet. Perhaps she was feeling less anxious by his presence since their conversation earlier that week so she could notice the small details about him like this, or maybe his actions have changed to show her more of what he actually wanted, his true intentions, and she was slowly, slowly opening herself up to him. Whatever it was, she found herself enjoying their closeness. It reminded her of their drives together. She smiles.
“That’s good to know.”
He sits up, having finished with his strings as well, and he looks at her with such a tender, almost pained expression that squeezes her heart. It’s gone as soon as she notices it, replaced with his usual confident demeanor. She wasn’t the only one good at wearing masks. He smirks, lips curling up.
“You can do with that information what you want, doll.” He leans in, voice dripping with an easy, attractive arrogance. “But when you’re ready for a real man, you know where to find me.” She fights a smile as she pushes him back toward his side of the bench.
“Things were going so well, Hargrove. Don’t fuck it up.”
He puts his hand over his heart. “Ugh. I really don’t love when you call me by my last name, doll.” He brings his hand to her jaw, quickly swiping his thumb across her bottom lip before she could stop him. “It just doesn’t sound right coming from those pretty lips.” He lets her lip snap back in place before putting his hand back in his lap.
She rolls her eyes again, playfully. “You really don’t know when to stop, do you, Billy?” She draws out his name for added emphasis.
“Not when it comes to you.” He holds her gaze for a moment, letting her recognize his sincerity. He shrugs then, easily. “Besides, don’t act like you don’t love it, Bunny.” He matches the drawl of her nickname.
“Whatever you say.” She stands then. “I should get back to my friends before they miss me.”
He grabs his boots and his date’s skates and stands as well. Nodding, he doesn’t break their eye contact.
“Enjoy your date.” His voice is smooth, honest. There’s nothing mocking or cruel in his tone at all. Her heart skips a beat.
“Enjoy yours.” She swallows, something in the easiness of this conversation making her nervous. This Billy felt like the Billy who took her to the movies, the soft, honest Billy that made her head spin.
“I probably won’t.” He shrugs like it’s the most obvious answer in the world, shifting his eyes away for a beat before moving back to hers with that same honesty from before. “Look, I don’t know what happend, but just know if you want an escape from it all, I’m yours.” He smiles then, simple and soft.
She smiles in return, feeling the warmth of his presence seep into her chest. She hadn’t felt this warmth since the movies, since their kiss outside her house. Moving to step away, she speaks softly.
“Thanks, Billy.”
She holds his gaze for a moment longer before skating away, making her way to the rink to rejoin her friends. Stepping onto the rink, she looks over her shoulder where she sees Billy with his date, handing her skates to her. He must feel her gaze because his eyes shift up to meet hers. As his date starts to put her skates on, Billy’s lips curl up into that same soft smile.
Though her mind was grappling with the events of the night - her dad’s call, his possible affair, her fight with Eddie, his look of resentment - one thing became perfectly clear.
Her relationship with Billy had turned over a new leaf.
A/N: The skate rink scene isn’t entirely over just yet! I had to split the scene into two chapters to make sure I didn’t shorten anything or take anything away from these characters. Stay tuned to see what happens now that the vibes between Eddie, Billy, and Bunny have changed completely! Also, I wanted to give a bit of backstory on Bunny’s home life to give some insight into how and why she acts the way she does. I know it’s vague and a bit angsty, but more will be revealed when the time is right. Hopefully it comes across well! As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this part! 🥹
— Gio take great care of Miguel, even when he stubbornly hurt himself for not calling her as a backup. Took a long time and long conversations for him to trust Gio's power and strengh (that even surpasses his own), but the feeling of loosing her still linger deep down, always. Just like the fear Gio feels everytime he went on dangerous missions. —
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