More Than a One Time Thing (Harringrove)

Pretty

Billy spent that weekend at Steve's house. He woke up early Saturday morning and kissed Steve's forehead as he slept. He went to his part time job at the garage in town and tried not to seem too happy. It was hard because he'd never been that happy before in his life. His boss didn't seem to care though as long as he got his work done.

For the first time he wasn't thinking about what his dad would think or anyone else, and it was freeing. He let himself wonder what they'd do later on if they worked out. He'd been saving up his money for awhile, so maybe by graduation they'd have enough to move away from this little town.

Billy knew if they did end up working out as a couple, it would just get harder and harder to keep it a secret. Because at some point you'd want to move in with the person you love, and that might look weird to the inhabitants of Hawkins. Two grown men living together? Just wouldn't look right here in Billy's opinion. He doubted there'd be riots or anything like that, he just felt like it'd be better to live somewhere with a little more acceptance of people like them.

His old home in Los Angeles was at least a little better than Hawkins in that regard, still not as good as San Francisco. His mom isn't in San Francisco though. As far as Billy knows, she's still in that asylum where his dad dropped her off, back in Los Angeles.

Billy wondered if she'd remember him if he visited. He also wondered if she'd be happy for him.

He came out to her at fifteen. He had picked a day where she had been pretty lucid and said those words he'd probably never be able to say to his dad. I like boys, mom. She just smiled and hugged him. That's fine, baby. Momma loves you.

"Hargrove, your shift is over."

And with that, he left, his thoughts ever present in his mind. He drove to his place first to get the essentials: Clothes, deodorant, toothbrush, lube. The basics. Luckily for him, Neil and Susan were at work and not at the house. Max wasn't there either, but he assumed that she was at the arcade with her little boyfriend.

He found his mind wandering again as he went to get a pizza for him and Harrington. Well firstly he lamented his life trying to imagine anything better than the pizza near his old house, but chose to deal with it once he got it and realized it didn't smell or look too bad. He knew that Steve liked it so that was good enough for him.

He was hesitant at first to get out of his car when he saw bikes lined up near Steve's BMW. He knew Harrington was sort of like a babysitter, but he still wasn't sure if Steve wanted his boyfriend to just pop up with all those kids there.

Billy shook his head at the word boyfriend. They didn't have a label at that point. As far as Billy knew they were just friends who happened to fuck sometimes.. but they were also two guys that just confessed their love for each other, so there was that. Not to mention Steve hadn't gotten around to breaking up with Nancy.

Billy just sighed as he shut the door behind him with pizza box in hand. That little detail about the Wheeler girl put a damper on his mood. He forgot about that though once he reached the front door and saw that it was already open.

He slowly stepped inside and walked toward the kitchen to set down the pizza, but what he definitely didn't expect to see, was a kid in the middle of the room with blood running down her nose pouring milk in a glass.. With. Her. Mind.

Billy cursed as the box fell from his hand.

"Pizza!" A curly haired boy screamed as he saved the box. Luckily it stayed perfectly in tact. Another boy who looked a little like Nancy Wheeler stared yelling his head off, asking who the hell Billy was and that he saw something he wasn't supposed to.

"Billy? Are you okay?" It was Steve. He walked over to the blonde and put a hand on his back. Hargrove looked over the crowd of kids in disbelief. The only two he recognized was Max and Lucas. He didn't know the one eating the pizza he just bought, and same with the boy yelling at him. He definitely didn't know the girl with the mind tricks, who just stared at him like she was trying to find something. It made his head hurt.

"Yeah, I'm.. I'm okay. You told me about the girl." Billy said through a humorless laugh. Billy had a weird, haunting feeling come over him as he realized the rest of Steve's story must've been true too.

"Calm down, Mike! He's my brother." Max screamed in Billy's defense. That was heart warming to see. There was also another boy, a smaller looking one in the corner behind the Wheeler look alike. He stared at Billy too, his pale cheeks turning a little pink. This was way too weird for Billy Hargrove. He turned to Steve with pleading eyes, in an attempt to ask for any type of help.

"Alright, guys, you're in my house. Either calm down or go home." And so they did, but not without a little pouting. And then Steve finally introduced all of his kids. The boy with the curls who was already on his third slice was Dustin Henderson, kinda like his sidekick, Steve added in a whisper. The blushing boy was called Will Byers, and apparently he came with a pretty wild story that Harrington promised he'd tell him later. The kid who had been yelling was named Mike Wheeler and that just made too much sense to Billy.

And finally, the girl with thick, short curls coming from her head was called Eleven. A weird name but Billy didn't feel like questioning anything at that moment.

"And guys, this is Billy Hargrove. He knows about everything and he's cool, so don't be a dick to him. He's.. he's important." Steve informed them with a light blush coming from across his features. Billy felt real good after hearing him say that, even if it was in front of a bunch of kids. The group just shrugged their shoulders except for two. Max and Eleven both stared intensely at them and that had been awkward.

What had been more awkward was Eleven walking up to him, tilting her head as she studied his face.

"Uh.. hi." Billy smiled down at her.

"Pretty." Was all she said before taking a slice of pizza and walking back to Mike. The group laughed and so did Steve. The hand on his back wrapped around his waist as the brunette leaned against him.

"You are really pretty." Steve whispered in his ear and Billy smirked. He wished he was alone with Steve so he could have his way with him. Dustin asked if they could finally get in his pool and Steve said sure, and all he kids went outside except for Max.

Billy was about ninety percent sure she knew. Despite all the dumb shit he'd said about Max in the past, she was a smart kid. She leaned against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest.

"My brother and my babysitter? I'm pretty sure that's a title of an erotic novel somewhere." Billy rolled his eyes at her and practically shoved her out the door. Steve's laugh wasn't far behind as he followed them.

For the moment, things were good. Things were happy. Billy wondered how long it was gonna last.

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