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“Seriously Steve!” Dustin paced back and forth in front of him as he leaned against the Beemer, smoking a cigarette casually. “She’s been super weird lately,” he continued, pausing to put his hands on his hips and shake his head. Steve withheld his chuckle, realizing he and Dustin had grown more alike than he ever thought they would.
“I mean isn’t that fair buddy?” Steve asked, ashing the cigarette and watching the embers flutter to the concrete. He thought of Max as he watched them fall, thinking of how the fire matched her flaming red locks that billowed behind her as she skated around town.
“I mean her brother did…” he felt himself choke on the word, swallowing around it as the pit in his stomach opened. “Die.”
The curly haired, now-freshman, looked up at him, eyes searching his face. Steve tried to school his expression into something more neutral and pitying, but he couldn’t help but worry that the teen saw through him. He didn’t know about them. Nobody knew about them. Nobody but Billy…
“I am aware Steve,” Dustin replied sardonically. “I was at the mall too.”
A chilly late October breeze blew by the two of them and Jesus Christ, was it really already October? Steve scanned The Palace lit up in front of them, paper bats and pumpkins hanging in the window. It felt like just yesterday Steve was carting the kids to the public pool, trying to attract the attention of one particular lifeguard.
Steve huffed before taking another drag off the cigarette, burying the feelings burning in his gut. “Then you know Dustin, that it hasn’t been that long. She lost her brother a few months ago and you guys just transitioned into high school. Cut Max some slack.”
“You’re not listening!” Dustin’s hands immediately went to his curls, worming their way under his hat. Steve glanced to the arcade where Will, Mike, and Lucas were surely burning through their quarters.
He wished Dustin would just go inside and play with them so he could wallow alone in his own feelings of misery. Normally he’d pass this time with Billy, leaned against the brick wall of the arcade, exchanging cigarettes, gossip about their classmates and sometimes, when they were sure no one could see them, pressed against each other—
“She’s more than just weird—I can’t explain it, she’s checked out tons of these books from the library, like even used my account, Steve! I’m maxed out because of her!” Steve observed as Dustin went back to pacing in front of him again.
The kid really was stressed, and why wouldn’t he be? He’d been a part of a group that saved the world now twice from monsters most people didn’t know existed. Just like Steve, he’d witnessed and foiled, a Russian plot to open the gate, and watched his best friend’s brother die saving all of them.
Steve wished he could offer him a cigarette, but he knew Mrs. Henderson would probably lose her mind if she found out her precious Dusty even stood next to him while he smoked.
Secondhand smoke kills, he’d been told in his health class.
“What kind of books Dustin?” he sighed, attempting to placate the nerdy kid. It was the least he can do after all they had been through.
He crowded Steve at the car, looking around before he stared up with those brown almond shaped eyes. “Stuff on dark magic Steve, like rituals and possessions. Satanic stuff, man.”
Steve wasn’t sure why Dustin was whispering, but after what he’d heard of the high school’s response to the kids’ D&D club, Hellraisers, or whatever the hell Eddie Munson had named it, the secrecy probably made some sense.
“Okay, so she’s been checking out books on Satanism, maybe she’s writing an essay for a class. Or like prepping a character for Hellriders Club?” Steve tried with a shrug.
“Hellfire, Steve, it’s Hellfire,” Dustin admonished. “And sure, some characters can perform necromancy, but the game isn’t actually about Satanism, that’s just what the moms in town think.”
He took a drag and tilted his head back to the sky, staring up at the clouds that were rolling in. It would be even colder in a few days on Halloween night. Selfishly he wondered if the kids would want to go trick-or-treating, he figured somehow he’d be in charge of them.
“I just, I don’t get it Steve,” Dustin continued. “She already feels like she’s further away from us. She doesn’t talk to us much, and barely shows up to D&D. We know that she lost Billy and that’s hard on her, Lucas has tried to tell her that we’re here for her…”
Steve let his head fall back down and he stubbed his cigarette on the bottom of his sneaker before flicking it to the asphalt. “You guys are good friends buddy,” he told Dustin with a pat on his shoulder. “Maybe she just needs time. She—We all have been through a lot. And everyone copes differently.”
Dustin stood there, brow furrowed as he stared between their shoes, like Steve’s words were unconvincing. With a squeeze to his shoulder, Steve gave him a smile and flicked the bill of his cap. The boy, now really a teen, returned the expression with a familiar toothless smile.
“Just promise me Steve, if you see her, talk to her, will you?” he tried once more. “We’ve lost enough as is.”
And that was something Steve understood, perhaps more than anyone.
He nodded, motioning for Dustin to go inside and join his friends. “Promise,” Steve told him. And he meant it.
With another smirk, the curly haired kid turned on his heel and jogged up the steps to join his friends and Steve lit another cigarette and closed his eyes tilting is head back. The cigarettes and the location were the same, but without Billy, everything was different.
~
Steve was fussing with his Family Video vest in the front seat of the car when he caught a glimpse of Max zipping up her coat before slapping her skateboard down on the pavement in his rearview.
Scrambling to get out of the car, he threw the vest in the front seat and flagged her down, just as she was about to push off. She frowned, gliding over easily until she reached him, cheeks flushed with the cold. Her gaze was stormy, and Steve’s heart clenched, instantly reminded of Billy.
“Hey Mad Max,” he chuckled. “It’s been a minute.” She nodded, lips pressed together, before tugging on the beanie that pressed down her fiery hair. It looked like something homemade, and Steve chuckled, recalling how Billy complained to him that Susan once asked to take his measurements because she wanted to knit him a sweater.
What would I look like walking around in a knit sweater, pretty boy? he had chided with Steve and the two of them broke into a fit of laughter that had them choking on their cigarette smoke at the thought.
“How’s it going, how are things?” Steve asked, scanning her face as she stood there, one foot on her board like she would rather be anywhere but there. “Don’t see you hanging around with the guys too much anymore.”
She shrugged and glanced at her sneakers, rolling her board back and forth. “Just got a lot going on,” she mumbled into the collar of her coat. “Plus, Neil doesn’t really like me hanging around with them if El isn’t around.” Both of them knew that after the events and almost losing Hopper, she had opted to spend more time with her dad. “It was easier when—” she seemed to catch herself, biting down hard on her lip as her eyes flicked away.
“When Billy was around,” Steve finished, and Max froze as if he’d slapped her. They both seemed to hold their breath in that precarious moment and Steve wanted to reach out, to pat her head, to hug her or something, but he was at a loss himself.
No one knew about him and Billy. The kids recognized that after the events of last October that they had struck what started as a tentative truce. Billy started being nicer to Max and apologized to Lucas and the kids, keeping a wide distance from them otherwise.
He’d cornered Steve in the locker rooms one day after practice and apologized to him too. And thus, the thing he had with Billy had been born.
It didn’t take long for laughter and beers at the Quarry to turn to sideways glances and the electric brush of fingers. It was actually Billy who made the first move one night, volatile and charged from a fight with Neil.
After a few beers on Steve’s couch, cuts on his face covered with peroxide and bandages, Billy had thrown Steve up against the kitchen island and kissed him.
The kiss was gentle, so tender and filled with longing. When Billy pulled away, he had tears in his eyes, Steve swore he saw Billy’s entire world shatter in just that gaze. He remembered being pushed away, Billy trying to escape like a caged animal.
He wasn’t sure what made him pull the blonde back into his arms. He held Billy close, kissed the tears from his cheeks and the corners of his eyes, whispered how much he cared about him, how he was glad Billy made a move.
And it was that simple. He’d fallen for Billy Hargrove. And lost him just as quickly.
“How are things…at home?” Steve felt himself asking, trying to shake the feelings of pain and guilt that gnawed away at him constantly.
Max sniffed and brushed her eyes to prevent the tears before they fell. “Things are fine Steve; you don’t have to check up on me. You’re not my brother.”
Yeah, but I loved him, and I know he’d want me to, Steve wanted to say. “No, I’m not, but I still care about you Max, okay? All the kids do. I know they’re a little worried. Dustin said you’ve maxed out his book count on his library card.”
She rolled her eyes and Steve smiled at the flicker of her old self he was used to. “Henderson will live,” she replied. Max chewed on the inside of her cheek looking kind of nervous. “I just, I couldn’t get all the books I needed with my own account. I’ll return them soon, tell him not to worry.”
Steve nodded, feigning understanding but he could tell something was up. He wasn’t the brightest when it came to school stuff, but Steve Harrington was good at reading other people—particularly teenagers who got into too much trouble. Call it a sixth sense at this point.
But Max was different. She came later than the rest of the kids, and she was a teenage girl, so shoot him for not feeling as confident in his intervention skills when it came to her.
“Dustin said the books were all about uh necro-mania or something. Black magic,” and Steve caught her skeptical gaze. “You working on some hardcore Halloween costume?” he chuckled but the redhead didn’t seem to think this particular line of questioning was funny.
“Sure Steve,” she scoffed. “It’s a project for Halloween,” Max nodded but Steve found it odd how she continued to avoid his gaze.
“Cool, well if you need anything let me know. Even if it’s just a ride somewhere,” he scanned the parking lot as more kids flowed out of the building. “It’s starting to get cold out.”
Max bobbed her head, tugging once more on her beanie before she looked up, giving him the closest thing to a smile that she could muster. “Thanks Steve,” she replied.
He waved and she pushed off on her board, Steve taking a few steps after her. “I know you miss Billy,” he called and she stopped, turning to face him. I miss him too, he wanted to say.
But instead, he gave her a tender smile. “It’s okay to miss him Max. We’re here for you if you need us.”
Her gaze softened for a moment, and she bit her lip once more before nodding and turning her back to him, skating quickly across the parking lot.
~
Steve had just sat down with a fresh bowl of popcorn, thankful that Keith had given him and Robin the night off early from the video store, when a loud banging started at his door. He groaned, hoping that if he sat still that it would pass.
He’d put a bucket of candy out on the porch for the trick-or-treaters and once it was gone it was gone, he figured they’d have enough sense to know that much.
The banging came again and he heard a familiar voice shouting, “Steve!” from the other side. He sighed and set the popcorn down before pushing himself up from the couch and opening the door to find a horde of frantic teens on his doorstep.
They were all shouting frantically and Steve was getting a headache just from listening to them yell at him and at each other. “One at a time!” he snapped.
All of them took a breath and he pointed to Dustin. “You, Henderson, explain!”
“We don’t have time to explain,” Lucas whined. “Let’s get in the car and we’ll explain on the way!”
Dustin, Will, and Mike seemed to agree with this take and Steve was beyond fighting them when they got like this, so he slipped a pair of sneakers on and a jacket over his sweatshirt and grabbed his keys from the bowl.
After all of them had piled into the Beemer, he turned to them. “So where am I going and what the fuck is going on?” he asked as he backed down the driveway.
“Steve this really would have been a lot simpler if you just kept your radio close by like we told you to!” Dustin snapped at him, slamming his hands on the dashboard. Steve rolled his eyes, but Lucas cut in before he could retort.
“We’re going to Starcourt!” he shouted. “Or whatever is left of it, so step on it Steve, this is serious.”
Steve glanced over his shoulder at the three nervous looking boys in the backseat. “Starcourt? What the hell is at Starcourt?” he gunned the Beemer, now more concerned. He hadn’t seen the mall since that night in July. Everything that he remembered was enough to make the bile crawl up the back of his throat.
“Max!” Dustin snapped, fiddling with his radio. “El, do you copy? Over.”
The Beemer leaned left as Steve took a hard turn and static crackled through the car as Dustin’s radio echoed her familiar stilted voice. “I am here,” she said. There was a moment of pause. “Over.”
“Where is she?” Lucas called from the backseat.
Dustin turned and glared at him. “You have to say over when you’re done Lucas. How the hell else will anyone know when you’re done talking.”
“We don’t have time for this!” Mike snapped. Will looked like he was going to be sick.
“What the fuck is going on,” Steve screamed as they braked hard at a red light. He took deep lungfulls of breath before whipping around to look at the boys and then turning to Dustin. Snatching the radio out of his hands, he pressed the button. “El, it’s Steve. Why am I driving them to Starcourt? What the hell is Max doing there alone? Over!”
He tossed the radio back to Dustin and hit the gas as the light turned green, speeding down the thoroughfare that at this hour, well past the town’s Halloween activities was empty. The full moon hung high in the sky, a golden orange color and Steve felt all his frayed nerves light up.
El’s voice crackled through the handheld radio again. “Lucas tried to radio Max earlier to talk to her. She was not responding. She always responds,” Steve listened to the measured way El formed the words, he could hear the nervousness in her voice. “Lucas had a bad feeling and called everyone. They biked to her house. Max’s bike was not there. So, they asked me to find her—I saw her, biking to the mall.”
“Why is she going there?” Steve asked the car. After a beat of silence, “Anyone! Literally anyone feel free to answer.”
Lucas groaned as if it pained him to say it. “We think she’s trying to resurrect Billy!” he burst out.
Steve nearly spun off the road, but luckily, they were almost there, so he gripped the steering wheel tightly. “I’m sorry, what?” he questioned.
Dustin sighed turning toward him. “The books from the library Steve, all the stuff on Satanic rituals. We think that she’s going to Starcourt to try and resurrect Billy!”
His brain was a whirlwind at this point as he tried to focus on driving and what the boys were telling him. The reason Max had been checking out all those books at the library, the reason she’d acted so cagey around Steve the last time he’d talked to her, her project for Halloween—
“Jesus Christ,” Steve sighed as he took another turn and they approached the dilapidated concrete shambles that used to be Starcourt Mall. What remained from the building was crushed rubble, surrounded by tall fences that had been put up after the accident. “Do you think that she’ll really do it?” Steve didn’t even know what he was asking.
“What? You think she’s gonna actually raise someone from the dead?” It was Mike, scoffing in the back seat.
“What, you believe in the Upside Down but not in ghosts?” Will chimed in from his side. Steve swallowed hard, wishing for a moment that he’d never gotten wrapped up with these kids and their troublemaking.
Lucas opened the backseat and climbed out, turning back to face them. “Whether this shit works or not isn’t the point. Max shouldn’t be out here by herself, especially after everything she’s been going through. We have to find her and take her home.”
“Agreed,” Dustin added before kicking the door open. “El we’re at the mall, can you see her? Over.”
Steve sighed and unbuckled himself, climbing out with the rest of the kids. He noticed an abandoned bike by the gaping hole in the wire fence, his stomach falling to his feet.
“She is inside the mall…over,” El replied. “You need to go to her. She is hurting. She misses Billy.” Steve swallowed hard and chewed on the inside of his cheek before he walked around the Beemer and popped the trunk, lifting the nail bat out.
“What the hell is that for?” Mike asked incredulously.
Steve rolled his eyes and threw the bat over his shoulder before pulling out a flashlight and locking the car up. “Never hurts to be prepared.” He turned on his heel and led the teens through the hole in the fence to what was left of the mall.
As they made their way through the rubble, finding a side door that was still in tact, Steve began to feel the thrumming of blood in his ears and felt his breaths shorten. Some aspects of the mall looked the same, all frozen in time at that moment in July.
He was surprised that the government hadn’t blown what was left off the map, but from what Hopper and Joyce had told him, they’d managed to destroy any evidence of the Russians and the Upside Down, so now all that remained was crumbled concrete and rebar and the memories of that night.
He did his best to take a breath as the kids walked in step with him, shining their own flashlights around the linoleum tile, until they rounded the corner and found Max squatting down in an area relatively clear of debris.
She was lighting a small candle with a lighter, flustered as she struggled to get it to light.
“Max!” Lucas called out, running over to her. She whipped her head up, blue eyes startled as she noticed all of them standing there.
Slivers of moonlight poured in through the hole in the ceiling and Steve stepped slowly toward where the teens gathered, realizing as he said it, “T-This is where Billy died.” He saw the remnants of the balcony that he’d been on that night, throwing fire crackers with the boys at the giant flesh monster while it roared down at Billy and El.
Steve had felt trapped there, legs unable to move as Billy stepped forward, mind finally separated from the monster. He’d just watched as the tentacles impaled him, ripping Billy apart so easily before dropping him to the floor.
Now Max was barking up at the boys from her spot on the floor, trying to light candles that were placed strategically around some symbol that she’d drawn on the floor in what looked to be black paint.
“Max we know what you’re trying to do,” Lucas told her gently as he stroked her shoulder. She wouldn’t look at him and instead focused on turning the wheel of the lighter with her thumb until a spark burst free. “And we want you to know that we’re here for you. I-If this is going to make you feel better then we’ll stand by you.”
“It’s not gonna work though,” Mike interjected.
“Shut up Mike!” Dustin, Will, and Lucas snapped in unison. The dark haired boy rolled his eyes but crossed his arms over his stomach and closed his mouth.
“Whether it works or not Max…we’re here for you,” Will added softly.
She brushed her red hair out of her face and set the candle down before pushing herself back up to her feet. Steve stood there, dropping the bat to his feet as he watched her step back and inspect her work on the floor.
“A pentagram…really…” Dustin commented, but Lucas shot him a glare and took Max’s hand in his. “I-I’m just saying, must be standard if that’s really what the books tell you to draw for a necromancy spell.”
Steve made his way over to Max as she leaned over and dug through her backpack, fishing for more books that she’d undoubtedly checked out on Dustin’s library card. “Max,” he said, trying to keep his voice even. “Are you sure you want to do this? Like the boys said, I support you but I just—do you really think this is the solution?”
He didn’t want to tell her that he was worried it wouldn’t work. He didn’t want to say that he was worried to get his hopes up.
Max nodded her head, “I want to do this Steve,” her voice was quiet. The quietest he’d ever heard her. “I—Things weren’t good with me and Billy when he was alive. I didn’t really even get a chance to tell him that I forgave him, and that I-I’m sorry for not stopping Neil, and that I wanted him to really be my big brother,” her voice was choked off by a sob and the book trembled in her hands.
Steve clenched his jaw, unsure of how to comfort her as the tears pricked behind his own eyes. There was plenty that he had never gotten to say to Billy either. He never told the blonde how much he liked that sharky smile of his, how good it felt to lie in his arms or kiss him, how nobody had made him laugh as much as Billy.
“Okay,” Steve conceded. “Then we’ll be here for you while you do it.” He stroked her head gently and she wiped her nose on her sleeve before giving him a weak smile.
He stepped back and let Max approach the pentagon, stepping into it and dropping something gently in the middle. Steve realized as he watched her that it was Billy’s gold necklace, the one he always wore.
One night after the two of them were lying in is bed, sweaty and satiated, Steve had pointed out the gold necklace. He’d rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger, studying the calm face of the virgin depicted there.
Was my mom’s, Billy had told him casually. He never spoke about her. All Steve knew was that she wasn’t around anymore. I never take it off, he’d added, pressing his hand over Steve’s. He remembered the warmth of Billy’s skin beneath his palm, the way he could feel Billy’s heartbeat in his fingertips. The blonde had wrapped his other arm around Steve’s neck and pulled him in, kissing him slowly, like he was licking syrup from his tongue.
“The necklace was his mom’s but Billy wore it wherever he went, even when he was surfing. The hospital gave it to us when we got his things from that night back,” Max said to them as she stroked the necklace reverently once more before stepping out of the symbol and back to the edge. “The ritual needed something important of his and I guess that made the most sense.”
Steve still felt uneasy as Max read through the steps of the ritual she’d found in some old book, walking them through the motions of drawing even more symbols within the pentagon and going over the words in the Latin chant with the boys to pick out the words that she didn’t know.
Before long, she’d consulted all the books to make sure she had all the aspects that they mentioned and she stepped into the middle of the symbol on the floor, the silver from the moon above shining a spotlight down on her and the yellow orange of the candles on the floor lighting her face from below.
The tension was palpable between all of them as she opened the book. Whether or not they believed in ghosts, they had seen plenty of horrifying things emerge from a world just beneath theirs and were not keen on seeing more. Something about toying with the fragile balance in a place like Starcourt didn’t sit right with Steve, even as much as he wished for Billy’s return, but like the boys, he looked on as she began to chant.
He found himself holding his breath as Max stood at the head of the pentagon and continued changing latin from the book. Nothing changed exactly, but Steve felt a chill go down his spine nonetheless.
“Okay, there’s one more part and then another chant,” Max said mostly to herself.
She stepped across the candle barrier into the middle of the drawn symbol, making sure she was in the right spot before she reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled something out, flicking it open. The blade caught the moonlight’s silver and glowed in front of all of them.
“Max!” Lucas called out to her, alarmed. “What are you doing?”
She glanced up at him but then looked back down nervously at the switchblade she’d just opened. “The book said that the ritual needs blood. A few drops from someone who cares about or is important to the person, it’s the only way to finish it.”
The boys looked on stunned as she turned the blade over in her hand and flexed the fingers on her opposite palm, hesitant to cut herself. Steve moved on instinct, crossing the threshold into the pentagon. “Max, I draw the line at bodily harm, I am not letting you do this,” he said firmly.
“It’s not harm Steve, it’s just a couple drops of blood!” she hissed back, glaring at him.
The boys looked on frightfully and Steve shook his head. “Max I’m not letting you cut yourself for this. Give me the knife,” he reached for it and Max pulled back, her other palm still open. Steve held her wrist, taking a step closer to her, feeling the frustration well up as tears clung to her lashes.
“Let go!” she screamed, trying to fight him back.
Steve tightened his grip on her wrist and tried to reach out with his other hand, feeling the tears well up in his own eyes. “Max stop!” he yelled at her, and she froze at the sound of his voice echoing throughout the shell of the mall.
He huffed a breath, his body trembling. “Look, I know you miss Billy, fuck…I miss him too,” he watched the confusion form on her face as the tears streaked across her cheeks. “There was a lot that you didn’t get to say to him, but you were with him in those last moments Max, he knew, okay?” Steve fought past the lump in his throat. “Billy talked about it a lot actually when we were together, about how great he thought you were and how he wanted to be a better big brother to you. So he knew Max.”
She looked at him, full of shock and confusion, her strawberry blonde brows knitted together. “H-How do you—”
“Because I loved him too Max,” Steve felt the words tumble forward as the tears escaped. He couldn’t fight the sob anymore. The puzzlement on her face gave way to disbelief as Steve held her there, his own tears reflecting moonlight. “I-I loved Billy and I never fucking got to tell him,” Steve choked out. “So I get it Max, I do, I miss him so much too. But you can’t do this, you can’t hurt yourself, Billy wouldn’t want that.”
But as he said the words, he realized perhaps that he was too late. Both of them glanced down to find the knife had cut them both where Max had sunk it into her palm and Steve had grabbed the blade to stop her.
He hissed at the pain, but gently did his best to bring Max to her knees where he sat with her. Steve did his best to pull the blade from Max’s trembling palm, and he knew that she was staring in awe at his confession. He could feel the eyes of the boys a few feet away, so he closed his eyes and sighed, flexing is palm.
When he opened them, his and Max’s bloody palms were dripping onto the floor, splashes of the dark red staining Billy’s necklace from when they had been standing. Steve reached out to inspect the damage done to Max, tilting her hand towards himself as he gently held her fingers.
“Did you really love him Steve?” Max sniffed.
He raised his gaze to her eyes and was surprised to find a clear blue, full of what he thought might be understanding, even hope. “Yeah,” he nodded, taking a second to clear his throat. He felt he owed Max this at least, so he matched her gaze, giving her a crooked half smile.
“I did. I was too scared to tell him at the time. What we had was…well it was new. Amazing, but I didn’t want to scare him. He had plans for his life, to go to school, to go back to California. I worried that I would just drag him down. So I didn’t say anything.” He bit his lip, blinking back the tears. “But I know that was a mistake now. I should have told him when I had the chance.”
The two of them looked back down at their bleeding palms, Max sucking in a breath as Steve tilted it this way and that, assessing the damage. The cut was superficial it seemed, but both of them had gotten blood all over their jeans and the floor.
Max gripped his palm with hers, both of them wincing at the pain and before he could say anything to her, she closed her eyes and held the necklace in her other hand, gripping it tightly and squeezing Steve as she said the words: “Reversio! Reversio! Reversio!”
Steve wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light and the pain in his palm but he thought he saw the flames of the candles swell slightly as they danced, and perhaps he wasn’t the only one if the shock on the boy’s faces were anything to go by.
But after a moment of them all remaining their frozen, Steve exhaled his breath and took in Max who was still sitting next to him, holding his hand. She scanned the pentagon, noticing the candles still burning and glanced disappointedly at the necklace in her other fist.
When she raised her eyes to find his face again, a sheen of new tears was there. His heart pounded, because maybe for a second he had let himself hope. That maybe he thought after all the world had taken from him, maybe he’d get something back for once. But it became clear as he peeled his bloody hand from Max’s that they had been wrong.
“It didn’t work,” she cried. At that point Lucas rushed over to the two of them and pulled his bandana from his pocket and began tying it around her palm to stop the bleeding. She curled into herself, tears pouring. “It didn’t work.” Lucas hugged her and patted her head gently, glancing awkwardly at Steve.
Steve sniffed, brushing his eyes, and looking away, willing back his own tears as he bit his lip. He’d have a talk with the boys another time, about what he’d said tonight about his and Billy’s relationship. But now all he could focus on was peeling himself up off the floor and getting the kids home safely.
When he shifted to his knees, Steve stared past Max at what he thought was a shadow he saw shifting a few feet away. His stomach dropped again and he clamored to his feet, startling Max and Lucas and he heard Dustin and Will move closer.
“What was that?” Dustin cried, and Steve knew that he’d seen it too.
There was the echo of a rhythmic sound, and Steve felt the reverberation of it in is bones. He ached to grab his bat, but it was too far away next to all the stuff Max had brought and his flashlight he’d dropped when he’d jumped forward to try and stop Max.
The shadow shifted again, making its way closer and Steve felt his knees buckle beneath him again, and he fell to the floor next to Max as he studied the figure that had made its way underneath the moonlight that lit him up, creating a halo around those golden curls. The same curls that Steve never thought he’d see again.
Max gasped in awe, tears pouring again, but words were too much for either of them to speak. In front of them stood Billy Hargrove, just the same as the day before they’d seen him here. He had on a white beater and button up shirt that was left open, those painted on jeans that Steve had told him many times he loved to see Billy wearing, his boots he usually sported.
He wasn’t dirty, no black blood oozing from the punctures the Mind Flayer had left on him. As if confused himself, Billy stood there in front of them, running those wide palms over his chest and his flanks, in awe when he pulled them away and there was no blood or residue from the flesh monster.
“Billy!” Max blubbered as she stood up.
Lucas seemed hesitant to let her go, but she rushed over to him, crashing into a solid person rather than the apparition Steve was terrified stood in front of him. She cried into his chest, wrapping her arms around his middle and Steve felt his breath hitch at the soft smile he gave her as he bent down and pulled her close, resting his cheek on her head.
She sobbed against him as he held her tightly and whispered down to her, his voice low so none of them could hear.
It was Billy. His Billy. He recognized that smile as the same one he had in the private confines of Steve’s bedroom when they talked about Max or Billy’s dreams for the future when he graduated and moved out of his father’s house.
“Billy?” he asked, his voice far more feeble than he intended. But he couldn’t hope this time and be met with disappointment. It was hard enough to be strong for the kids, for everyone around him. Being with Billy was the only time he ever got to be what he wanted.
The figure stroked Max’s hair back as she sniffed, grinning up at him and he took a step forward once she released him, until he was crouching down in front of Steve.
He felt the warmth of Billy’s palm against his cheek, brushing the tears away and Steve trembled beneath that familiar touch. “Is it really you?” he asked.
The blonde met him with that familiar sharky grin, “Yeah it’s me Harrington, don’t cream your pants.” Steve snorted at the line from a year ago, his heart fluttering in his chest.
And it didn’t matter that the kids were standing there watching them. All that mattered was that somehow, he had Billy back. Steve wrapped his arms around Billy, pulling him tight and reveling in the way his fingertips stretched across the broad expanse of his back and the warmth that seemed to burst from within him like he was made of California sunshine. Steve cried into his neck and Billy stroked through his hair and hushed him gently before pulling away.
Unashamed of the watchful eyes, Billy pressed a gentle kiss to Steve’s lips and rested their foreheads together. “And for the record pretty boy,” Steve basked in the way Billy’s deep voice engulfed him. “I love you too.”
Steve pulled back, staring at him in awe, only for Billy to cup his face and stare him down with those piercing blue eyes that resembled ocean waves. “And I promise, I ain’t going anywhere. At least, not without you.”