Kiss with a Fist

Chapter 3

A/n: whooo two chapters in a day aren't you lucky. I'm making a playlist for this fic, it's not finished yet but I'll link it. It's a mixture of Billy and Steve's canon music taste, some songs that I think they'd listen to, some modern songs that remind me of them either as a couple or separately, or songs that embody certain cheaters of this fic. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2yPegglqxZdNwbXtujSops?si=lYLe68EjQk6YSN6uM2ttWg&pt=16a7aa1415835a7de4ae0f8fdecdb63c

Steve had decided to make Billy his problem, and Billy was fitting into that role with ease.

It had been two weeks since Billy had showed up on Steve's door step bloodied and cry.

Two weeks since Steve has found out Billy was abused.

And two weeks since they'd sort of-accidentally-unintentionally came out.

It was a lot to process, and Steve was still processing it.

It has taken three days to get Billy's fever to break, Steve had cried four times because he thought the blonde was going to die when he found Billy throwing up blood, the blood had come from Billy biting his tongue because of the pain in his ribs, but Steve had been convinced the other had internal bleeding.

Billy was still hurt, Steve knew that, those weren't the kind of injuries that disappeared overnight. Broken ribs took months to heal, and the gashes he saw on Billy's back were deep enough to scar.

So he was surprised to see Billy in the changing room, already in his basketball gear, looking like he intended to play.

He was also arguing with Tommy Hagen.

"You always play Skins Hargrove! Just take your Jersey off for fucks sake. You can't mess up the whole set up now." Tommy complained.

Steve heard Billy grown in annoyance. "I told you Hagan, I'm not playing skins today, so stop bitchin about it. There's no fucking law that says I have to play skins, so leave me the fuck alone."

Steve debated walking out, but he needed to change so he pretended like he was just now walking into the changing room. The arguing ceased.

"Hey Harrington~" Billy cooed, but it was more playful now, not meant to taunt Steve, it was just Billy being Billy.

Tommy huffed and walked out, once he was out of ear shot Steve looked at Billy. "Do you want me to play skins?" He asked, still keeping his voice low just in case someone was eavesdropping, it was a habit now.

Billy bit his lip and nodded. He was still black and blue and didn't want to show that off to the whole fucking team.

Steve sighed and nodded as he changed into his basket ball shorts and shrugged off his T-shirt. "Should you even be playing-? You have broken ribs, and a pretty nasty head wound, and everything else.." he rambled. He received a small kick to the ankle, Billy silently telling him to shut up.

"I probably shouldn't be, but if I don't I'm going to end up punching someone." Billy muttered as he checked to make sure none of his bruises could be seen poking out from under his T-shirt.

Steve sighed again, he felt like he was doing that a lot, and conceded. He understood the need for normalcy, for some sort of escape, a hobby, anything to keep away your worries, but his worries were inter-dimensional monsters, and Billy's was a human monster in the form of his father.

Steve wasn't sure what was worse.

He decided that while the upside down and it's monsters were terrifying...they were still just monsters. He could kill them without remorse.

Billy couldn't kill his father, well he could, had probably even contemplated, but couldn't bring himself to do it, and it wasn't the same as taking the life of a demogorgon, because while Neil certainly had the heart and mind of a monster, he was still flesh and bone, human.