Part 33

                                    

                                          

After Steve's and Hopper's 'talk' the day went by quick. Steve felt quite at peace and kind of happy knowing Hopper at least wasn't going to murder Billy for being in his cabin with his two children unsupervised. Hopper pretended as if actually apologizing to Billy would be torture for him but in reality, Hopper now felt the need to do so. Steve had said Billy helped calm him down without his medicine. Without. Hopper, even El hadn't had such an affect with Steve. They hadn't been able to calm him down enough without a single drop of medication. Hopper honestly had thought it might've been impossible to get Steve calm without his pills. But... Billy of all people, had done it. 
And Hopper now felt bad for yelling at him to get out so he needed to... apologize. 
Steve had agreed to invite him the next day. It was now around noon, Steve sat on the couch, lazily watching TV. El was doing who knows what I'm her room. Maybe asleep. Steve switched through the channels on the TV. He wore a long sleeved orange, knitted sweater and his regular old jeans as always. Hop had gone to his office to work for the day, most likely coming back home at night but for now, Steve was in charge. 
Any other teen would have spent their day going out with friends and such but Steve now had something even more important to do. 
Plan for Halloween. 
He knew Halloween was a... pretty big thing for the party and he definitely did not want to miss this spooky season with his children: 
Hop had already given permission to El for her to go trick-or-treating with the party. On one condition though. 
Steve had to tag along. 
Steve knew the party wouldn't really mind him and if it was for him, he would leave them alone to do whatever they wanted but Hop trusted him to take care of elk in this night. So that's what Steve would do. 
But if he was gonna tag along he might as well dress up to not seem boring, right? He didn't want to go to extreme, he still wanted to hang onto some pride. But something casual and small could always be like, a vampire or such. Steve was still planning.
Steve abandoned the TV and went to search for paper and a pen. He soon began to write down ideas for his costume. After all, he only had around 3 weeks left to plan. 
//——————//
"Hm. So you got caught." Max muttered. Billy sighed and shrugged trying to seem nonchalant. "Y-yeah I guess..." 
"What'd Hop say?" Max snickered. She knew Hop was extremely protective and now that Steve was basically his son, he most likely was as protective with him as with El. 
"He just called me a douche and after a few questions asked me to get out. Nothing big..." Billy mumbled. "Then how's you get the bruise?" Max questioned. Billy looked down at his elbow that had a forming bruise now. "Tried getting out through the window. Wasn't a good idea. Fell twice." Billy muttered. Billy laid down on his bed while Max sat down on the floor beside him. 
Billy had never had a good relationship with Max but if he was being honest... Billy was having a few issues right now. A few issues with his 'feelings' you could say. And Max said she could probably help him. Without another choice, Billy accepted Max's 'help'. Right now he was giving her as much information as he could about these feelings. "Okay.... Why'd you even go in the first place? Last night" max asked. It felt strange taking normally to Billy but she knew how a difficult love life felt from experience so she decided she could somewhat help, hopefully. 
"Steve asked me to. Why else?" 
"So now you're taking orders from others?" Max asked suspiciously. "What? No, no! It was just a small request and after what happened the other day I couldn't just leave Steve alone to himself" Billy quickly defended himself. "So you were worried? Since when is Billy Hargrove worried about others" max continued to press on. Billy bit his lip "he trusted me at least somewhat if he wanted me to stay" Billy repeated. He had already described the whole situation to Max. Johnathan included. 
"Since he trusted you, you were worried for him? How's that work?" Max was pressing further. She's be lying if she hadn't thought about the strange little teasing relationship thing Billy and Steve had before. So now she was curious about it, maybe even more than them. "I-I was just worried, Max! Maybe he could've had another nightmare or something..." Billy shrugged. He glared at Max. Last night Max had spent the night with one of her friends. Billy couldn't really keep up with names. Will, was it? He didn't really care to remember. 
And since Max wasn't there... of course she wouldn't now about Neil's little rage yesterday. "That was the only reason then?" Max asked. She new she might be close to Billy's breaking point. She could see by the way his stare changed. The way he began to fiddle with the bottom of his shirt and how he would start moving his leg every five minutes. "Neil" Billy whispered in a hushed tone. Max stayed quiet for a minute or two.
"Neil?" Max matched his hushed voice. She had turned to look at the boy that laid on top of his bed. His eyes averted to the wall making his back face her. "I got kind of... mad and... I thought maybe... maybe Steve could help. H-he looks like he'd be good at... comforting people so..." Billy mumbled. 
Max felt a small smile reach her. "Did he? Did he comfort you when you got there?" Max questioned. Billy had kept out most of the details with Johnathan. He had just said something in the lines of 'that Byers guy. The older one. He was there but uh... somethin' happened and he just kind of headed out' something vague like that. Billy stayed quiet. "Not at first. Something kind of stupid happened first with that Byers guy. But after that... yeah. It turns out that comforting others is actually very calming for me. It makes me feel...." Billy stopped. He didn't really know what it made him feel. What rigged at his heart whenever he held Steve. 
"Needed?" Max piped up with an even larger smile. Seeing Billy, the one who was emotionless, barely even shot a look at you and had barely, perhaps never, genuinely smiled at someone, so soft and  emotionally open when he talked about Someone so unexpected as Steve really made Max feel strangely happy. Seeing a hint of emotion in that closed off barrier that laid in front of her.  Billy bit his lip to keep in the small smile he wanted to release. He felt so strange talking like this to Max, talking like this in general. But he kind of liked it. Of course he'd never admit it. 
"Yeah. Needed" 
(Helllooooooo!!!! I have uploaded! What a miracle! So lord of stuff has happened this week! Good and bad but I'll focus on the good! Well, I got a new puppy named Eddie :3 and today's my mom's birthday. This day brings a lot of negative memories for me. A whole day 'celebrating' the person I'm not very fond of. Who's always drinking and never has time to do anything around the house. But I mean, there's cake so... either way, I hope your week has been a whole lot more better than mine!<3 this chapter was more of a filler I guess? Next chapter it should be about the little apology Hopper needs to make and maybe, just maybe you'll see a little talk between Hopper and Billy. Hopper basically threatening Billy to do so many unimaginable things if he ever hurt his son kind of talk. It should be fun to write! And then there's also the Halloween chapter I want to do so there's that! And the little fluff chapter that I want to do about Steve and the party on a camping trip is basically my idea. We'll see how it goes. Either way, have a wonderful day and I'll post again next week!!! <3)