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011
The first thing 011 sees is Robin.
She's standing behind the counter at Scoops Ahoy and frowning at Billy through bored, half-lidded eyes.
"Steeeeeve!" She calls over her shoulder, "Your arch nemesis is here!"
The window behind the counter slides open and Steve peaks his head through, glaring. "Ugh. You again?" he asks with disgust.
"Yup," Billy smirks, licking his teeth. "Time for my double scoop on a waffle cone. And this time don't fuck it up Harrington, or no tip."
Robin rolls her eyes. "You never tip, anyways." She walks through the door to the back and as soon as she's out of sight, Steve's glare falls and he shoots a wide playful smile at Billy
"Come on, then," Billy urges. His voice is low, teasing, and... Something else that 011 can't really describe.
Steve looks Billy up and down very quickly, then slides the window shut.
When he does, it dissolves into smoke. Water suddenly laps at 011's feet, fast and harsh. It crashes into her ankles, then pulls back even higher at her calves. It comes back at waist height, crashing into Billy as well and he dissolves into smoke just like the window. It laps against her again one last time and it's too much, toppling her over completely and erasing the entire scene before her.
The current drags her under, turquoise waves rolling and swooping feet over her head. It rapidly retreats and deposits her harshly onto a sandy beach. She sputters and coughs for a moment, struggling to catch her breath. Finally, she stands up to take in her surroundings just as a little blonde boy comes running out of the water excitedly.
"El!" A voice calls to her from outside of her head. It’s Mike. He’s sitting beside her in Hop’s cabin. In the real world. "Can you see him?” he asks. “Where are you?"
"A beach," she answers with her real voice.
Inside her mind, 011 watches the boy as he runs up to his mother. She can’t help but smile when she sees the joy on his face as he eagerly tells her about the seven-foot wave.
It's Billy. A memory of California, according to Max’s voice. His face is so open and unguarded, smile wide and scrunching his blue eyes. He’s so bright, exuding happiness like sunshine. It’s unrecognizable compared to the lifeless cold stare of the flayed Billy that brought her there, or the agonizing fear of the Billy who cried as he begged Max's forgiveness in the sauna.
This was the real Billy, unsullied by the darkness of a difficult life or the poison of the Mind Flayer.
011 spots a giant stormcloud, looming in the distance and sparking with the red light of the Upside Down. That is where she needs to go. She almost doesn’t want to leave Billy and his mother there on the beach, but it’s only a memory. She’ll have to through more. She walks past and leaves them behind.
The deeper she gets into the storm, the more of Billy’s childhood memories she passes through. Some are good, but mostly they are getting progressively worse.
Neil Hargrove is a common feature. The more she sees of the man the more angry she gets. He was bad. He was hurting Billy's mom. Hurting Billy.
He is like Papa, she decides. But it’s worse because Billy never gets away like 011 did. There is no Mike or Hopper to help him. Offer him compassion and a safe place to stay. The more he suffers at the hands of Neil, the more trapped he becomes.
So he lashes out too. As he grows older, he copies his father's awful words and actions, becoming more and more like him, turning him into poison.
It makes 011 furious. She wishes she could reach into the memories and pull Neil away. She walks close to his form as he straddles Billy, punching him back and forth with both hands. She grits her teeth at him in rage, shouting wordlessly. She wants to stop him. To punch him back. She wishes that she could tear him apart! But it’s just a memory and she can't change it.
The storm grows stronger, a thick fog muddying her vision and the wind whipping at her still soggy clothes.
The memory shifts so now it’s Billy on top, punching back and forth. First, he was a child, punching a boy 011 had never seen before. Then it shifts again and he is much more like his current self, punching Steve.
It makes her heart ache. It’s Steve. The same Steve Billy was just smiling at in Scoops Ahoy.
She can't bear to look any longer and she still has further to go, so she leaves that memory behind as well, forging deeper into the storm. She sees a young Billy watching fearfully as his mother breaks a plate over Neil's head. In a flash of red lightning, the image changes and it's now older Billy breaking the plate over Steve’s head.
She presses past them and through a thick wall of fog. On the other side, Billy is in the parking lot of the high school, approaching Steve who is leaning against his car.
Steve launches forward and punches Billy in the face as soon as he gets close enough and Billy just lets him. Steve only throws one punch, then stops to glare at Billy balefully. Billy doesn’t react other than to lick the blood from his teeth. After a moment, he throws his arms out to the side in surrender.
"I'm trying to apologize, asshole!" Billy shouts at him.
"I don't want your apologies!" Steve spits back.
"Fine!” Billy scoffs. “I don't give a fuck! But you're gonna tell me what you were doing with my stepsister in that house or I'm telling the police you're a pedophile!"
"What?" Steve is so shocked by the accusation that all the anger slips right out of his body. "What are you talking about?"
"What were you doing in that house with my stepsister?! She won't tell me, so you are!"
They devolve into an argument and 011 continues walking past. The swirling clouds and fog have gotten so thick she can barely see, but the memories are getting stronger, more recent, so she must be going the right way.
Steve is dragging Billy through a large double door. Billy is limping, his face is bloody and he's clutching his side. Most noticeable of all is that he's soaking wet. There's snow dusting both his and Steve's hair, but Steve is dry.
Steve drops him on an upholstered bench near the door and immediately goes to work stripping Billy's clothes off. Billy tries to fight him off weakly and Steve smacks his hands out of the way.
"Shut up, asshole! Let me help you before you freeze to death!" Steve snaps. He gets his shirt and jacket over his head, then rushes to peel off Billy's socks and shoes, letting them hit the ground with a plop. He helps Billy to shimmy out of his jeans then runs into the clouds. He comes back a moment later with a big blanket.
The blanket is cream-colored and heavy, very expensive looking. It’s super fluffy and looks softer than anything 011's ever seen. She wonders if she would be able to feel it through the memory if she reached out to touch it.
She resists the urge and Steve wraps it around Billy, not bothering to leave room for his head. The blanket is getting wet and bloody, but Steve doesn’t seem to care. He goes to work rubbing Billy’s arms and legs through the blanket to try and warm him faster. "I can't believe he did this to you and then just left you out there. What kind of person can just treat another human being like this?" Steve mutters to himself.
"N-n-n-noth-th-thing I don't d-d-deserve," Billy stutters through the fabric.
Steve grabs the blanket and rearranges it so that Billy's face is sticking out. He looks Billy in the eyes with a fierceness that 011 had never gotten the chance to see from him before. " No one deserves to be treated like that." The way he says it, it almost sounds like a threat.
Billy doesn't say anything back, just looks back at Steve in confused wonder. Watches his face as he reaches into the blanket to grab Billy's hands and rub them between his own, going back to work at warming him up.
011 leaves them at the bench and the clouds are so thick she can taste the acrid Upside Down water on her tongue. The wind is blowing harder than ever now, she can barely stand straight against its force. She has to be close now. She has to be almost there.
She briefly passes an older memory of Billy with a very young Max. They're being introduced and neither of them seems happy about it. They get left alone, staring at each other awkwardly. Billy has no idea what to do or say, so he scratches the back of his head and stiffly asks, "You uh... You like to... skateboard?"
Max's head pops up and she smiles at him with big wide eyes. "Yes!" she chirps excitedly. At that age, she has to be lying because most skateboards are probably bigger than her. But she's excited and she looks happy.
The memory fades and turns into Max standing outside of a door. She’s older, closer to her current age, but the door and the wall aren’t the same as the house in Hawkins. This must be from California before they left.
“I’m sorry!” Max pleads through the door. Her face is red and she’s crying. “I- I didn’t know! If I knew I wouldn’t have said anything! I’m sorry! I didn’t know he would-”
On the other side of the door, Billy throws a boot at the door, cutting her off. His room is on the other side. It’s been destroyed. Most of his things were torn to shreds and thrown onto the floor. His shelves, the closet. Even his bed is askew. There’s a surfboard in the corner that’s been cracked in half.
Billy sits in the middle of it with his hands over his face. His shoulders are heaving up and down as if he’s sobbing, but he’s not making a sound. There are hand-shaped bruises around his neck and on his upper left arm. The only reason she can even see his arm is because his shirt has been torn open from the collar down in three straight lines like fingers. It’s dangling in pieces from the cuff where it’s still connected.
“I’m sorry Billy,” Max whimpers into the door, pressing her forehead against it. “I really am.”
In the distance, keys jangle loudly and a door can be heard opening. Max stands at attention when she notices. She wipes her face quickly and rushes into the next door in the hall, a bathroom.
A shadow looms down the hall before she gets the door closed. “He didn’t come out, did he?” Neil’s voice cuts down the hall. It’s harsh and sharp with anger. Max stiffens up at his presence but shakes her head. “Good. He can stay in there and rot .” He says it with so much hatred in his voice that 011 could more readily believe he was talking about his worst enemy instead of his own son. “Hurry up in there and get back to packing,” Neil orders. Max nods again, then slams the door shut. When she does, the entire memory dissolves into a dark gray cloud.
011 continues through the storm. The fog is so oppressive and thick now that, combined with the wind, she feels like she's trying to wade through a solid wall.
Lightning cracks above her and bathes her in red light. A moment later, a bone-rattling rumble echoes through the storm. She's right there, she can feel it!
She makes it into another memory and she’s in a room. It's a large room with plaid walls. There's a pair of windows to her left, through them the sky is dark with streaks of red lightning flashing intermittently. It's not the storm, just the Upside Down in its regular form.
Before her, is a bed. Steve and Billy are tangled in the sheets with Billy's back pressed closely into Steve's stomach and Steve's nose buried in Billy's hair. This is an intimate moment. She doesn’t want to see this one. It feels more like an invasion of privacy than any of the memories before.
She turns her head to the right and sees a door. Beneath it she can see the shadow of the storm clouds swirling around. She goes to leave but, before she can reach the handle, Steve calls out quietly, "Don't leave."
A jolt of fear shoots through her. Is he talking to her? How? This is supposed to be a memory!
She slowly turns back to the bed and sees that Billy has tugged the blanket back as if to climb out. He closes his eyes pensively for a moment then pulls the blanket back up. He opens his eyes, then turns around so that he and Steve are face to face, inches apart.
"Don't say that," Billy whispers back. Steve frowns.
"Why not?"
"Because you don't mean it."
"What?"
"You don't mean it,” Billy sighs, voice heavy with disappointment. “But you look at me with those big brown eyes and I can't help but believe you. You look at me like you want me,” he scoffs. “Like you love me or something. But you can't. You don't want me. No one does. I'm broken. I'm a monster. No one wants a monster. You'll eventually leave me too. So don't say that. Just let me go."
"Billy..."
A moment passes where Steve just stares at Billy with wide-eyed incredulity, but Billy can’t meet his eyes. He’s staring at Steve’s chin, but he’s breathing a little too hard. Like he’s trying to suppress tears. 011 thinks she might see them welling up in his eyes.
"You're not a monster,” Steve declares. He’s definitely crying. The tears are thick in his throat, but his voice is resolute. “I've seen monsters and I’ve seen you. You are not a monster."
"I'm broken..." Billy breathes a protest between quiet gasps.
"So what?" Steve strokes his hair. "I still want you. I want every broken piece of you. Every sharp corner and jagged edge. I want you Billy. I know who you are and I want you. I look at you like I love you because I do."
"You love me?" Billy finally meets Steve’s eyes, looking up at him in shock. Like he can't believe what Steve is saying.
Steve kisses him, tender and heartbreakingly gentle. "Of course I do. I love you, Billy Hargrove. I love you. Please don't leave. "
“I love you too, Steve.” Billy’s voice is impossibly soft when he says it. His tears must have finally fallen because Steve reaches to wipe them away, lingering his hand there as he strokes Billy’s cheek with a thumb.
Billy wraps an arm and a leg around Steve, pulling him into a tight embrace. "I’ll stay," he promises. Steve sighs contentedly, pulling him even closer and settling into place.
011 can see Billy's face peaking out from under Steve's chin. He's smiling. His face is so open and unguarded, smile wide and scrunching his blue eyes. He’s so bright, exuding happiness like sunshine.
This was the real Billy, unsullied by the darkness of a difficult life or the poison of the mind flayer.
011 has to save him.
She turns back to the door with renewed vigor. She doesn’t know what memories she’ll find next, so she opens it and steps through, braced to continue pressing through the storm. But when she gets through, there is no storm. No wind. No fog. The clouds have opened up above her and everything is crystal clear, but bathed in Upside Down Red. She's made it to the eye of the storm. This is it! This is where the Mind Flayer is!
She sees a large building with Billy's car crashed outside of it. “Brimborn Steel Works” She reads the name of the building aloud to the others in the real world, then retreats from Billy’s mind and back into her own. She’s back at the cabin, but when she looks around for her friends, the cabin is empty.
Instead, she’s greeted by the Mind Flayer who is wearing Billy's face again and it enrages her. He is hurting Billy, and now he's threatening to hurt her friends and destroy the world. She wants to tear him apart.
Unfortunately, she gets her chance to do so, all too soon when he locates her and sends the giant flesh monster crashing through the forest. After the vicious fight, it's satisfying to see the two sides of the monster's face swinging in opposite directions. But as their group makes their escape, she knows it is not dead and will return for her again.
Later that night, once their group has been reunited, and then separated all over again, she finds herself face to face with the Flayed Billy.
He follows 011, Max, and Mike down one of the back corridors in the mall and into a room with a freight elevator. Mike mashes on the up button while 011 rests against the wall. They hear a door open down the hall and Max tries to step away to check, but 011 reaches an arm out to stop her. They have to stay together. They’re trapped and 011 isn’t strong enough to protect them, but the elevator still hasn’t come back and the room is a dead end.
They hear heavy footsteps as Flayed Billy stalks down the hall and through the doorway. Even limping on one knee, he looks terrifying with the black veins webbing up his arms and face. He’s got that lifeless flat look in his eyes again and she hates it. It’s almost scarier than seeing his face contorted with rage and screaming. At least that’s something. But like this, there’s nothing behind his eyes. It’s not Billy at all.
The little boy at the beach with a bright smile like sunshine—the real Billy—flashes through 011's mind very briefly and she knows she has to save him.
"Billy!" Max cries frantically, trying to slow his approach. "Your name is Billy Hargrove!" Max tries to get through to him, but Flayed Billy continues toward them undeterred. 011 grabs both Max and Mike by their arms and pulls them backward away from Flayed Billy, but they eventually hit a wall. Mike and Max close ranks in front of her.
"You live on 4819 Cherry Lane! I'm Max! I'm your sister!" It’s not working. It’s not enough to reach him. They need to get to not just Billy, but the boy with the sunshine smile.
Flayed Billy has them cornered and he reaches an arm back to strike Max down and silence her-
" Steve !" 011 shouts. "Steve!" Flayed Billy freezes mid-punch, whole body jolting as if shocked.
"What?" Mike gasps. Neither he nor Max understands the reaction, but 011 keeps talking, knowing she's on the right track.
"Steve! He- he looks at you like he loves you. Because he does, Billy. He does love you."
Flayed Billy takes a couple of steps back and lowers his arm. It’s working!
"What is she talk-" Max shushes Mike, swatting his arm and gesturing toward the elevator. It dings behind Flayed Billy.
"He saved you from the snow, do you remember?" 011 continues. She tries smiling at Billy but it's watery and her voice trembles because she's on the verge of tears. It almost feels wrong to use his stolen memories against him like this, but it’s working and she has to save him. "He wrapped you up in a big blanket and it was so soft."
Flayed Billy takes a few more steps back and the black veins on his face begin to retreat a little. Yes! Good! A bit of focus returns to his eyes and he looks a bit less lifeless.
Mike and Max waste no time, they both grab 011 and tug her toward the elevator door while Flayed Billy is distracted and giving them room to take back. A few more steps and they’ll be able to walk right past him and get in.
011 keeps talking. Flayed Billy’s got his eyes locked on her but he's just watching with a bewildered look on his face as Billy fights to return to the surface.
"You would visit him at work," 011 continues. "You would tease him about the ice cream you got. Do you remember?"
"Double scoop on a waffle cone..." Billy mumbles. The black veins have almost completely retreated and tears start rolling from his eyes. His entire posture shifts as Flayed Billy loses control.
"Exactly." 011 heaves a sigh of relief. She doesn't know for how long, but they're safe now. "He would pretend to hate it, but then you'd share secret smiles."
Billy forces a smile just then. It's a bittersweet one that only lasts for a second before it dissolves into a tear-stained grimace. "Steve," he sobs.
Mike and Max had gotten the elevator doors open, and they pull 011 into it, slowly closing the doors back so Billy can't follow. 011 stops them from closing all the way. She doesn't want to leave him. He’s shaken and lost. She's afraid the Mind Flayer will take over again and he'll be alone.
"Where is he?" Billy asks.
"Safe," Max tells him. 011 hopes it isn't a lie.
Billy nods. "Max, I'm so sorry."
"I know, Billy. I know."
"I hurt all those people..."
"No, you didn't. He did."
"Who is he?" Billy slumps against the wall wearily and Mike reaches to push the button for the 2nd floor.
"The Mind Flayer," Max explains. "We're going to stop him. We have a plan, but do you know anything that can help us? Do you know where he is? How we can defeat him?"
Billy nods again, head sliding against the wall. "Yes, he-"
In the distance, an explosion can be heard. At the same time Billy grunts in pain and falls to the ground, clutching his side. There's another explosion and he shouts again, sobbing as he curls into a protective ball.
011 can't stand to see him hurting like that, so she leaps out of the elevator and rushes to his side. "Billy! It's okay! Billy!" she cries.
The elevator doors are closing quickly and Max jumps out behind 011.
"El! No! Max!" Mike tries to go after them, but the doors swing shut on him and he jerks back to avoid being smashed. The elevator lurches upward and takes him to the second floor.
More explosions ring out and Billy continues to scream. "Please!" he sobs, begging the pain to stop. "Help me!"
Mike
On the second floor, the elevator doors open up and Mike is immediately greeted by the sound of shouting and more explosions. They're much louder here and he can clearly tell that they're fireworks. This means Nancy and his friends have come back for them. Thank god !
He runs out of the elevator and takes off down the hall, toward their voices. He slams through a pair of doors that lead to another hall with a restroom and some payphones. This hall empties into the main walking area of the mall, where he can see Will and Lucas pitching fireworks over the balcony at the Mind Flayer. He’s so happy to see them he almost wants to throw up. Or maybe it’s all the running.
He runs right up to Will and hugs him. It makes Will scream and smack him in the face. It actually really hurts, but Mike’s not even mad about it. He didn't mean to scare Will—hadn’t even meant to hug him really—but he did just come up and grab him from behind, so he supposes that’s fair.
Will sighs in relief once he realizes he isn't being attacked. "There you are! Wait, where's El and Max?"
Mike lets Will go, remembering that he’s on a mission. "I don't have time to explain!” he rushes. “Where's Steve? Please tell me Steve came back too!"
Will points over Mike's shoulder. "He's over there, by the escalator, but what do you need-"
Mike doesn't have time to explain. He spins around and bolts in the direction Will pointed.
Will lights the firework in his hand and tosses it at the Mind Flayer, making another loud boom and bathing the area in purple light before the same happens on Nancy and Jonathan's side, but in orange.
As soon as he lets it go, he takes off after Mike, leaving a shouting Lucas behind him.
Mike rounds a corner and there Steve is. He goes right up to him, snatches the lit firework out of his hand, and throws it over the balcony. He gives no explanation before grabbing Steve's wrist and dragging him toward the elevator.
"What the hell?" Robin screams, but she makes no attempts to stop them, now working double time to throw the fireworks.
Will catches up to Mike and Steve just in time for Steve to snatch his hand away. "What are you doing?" Steve asks.
Mike scoffs. He doesn’t have time to explain!!! He goes to grab Steve again but he dodges it. "We need to get downstairs!” Mike snaps “It's Billy!" Mike grabs him by the shirt instead and tries again to tug him toward the elevator, but the mention of Billy catches Steve’s attention.
"This way's faster!" Steve gestures for Mike and Will to follow him as he runs toward the escalator. The idiot! It isn't even on! How will that be faster?
Steve climbs onto the platform between the two of them and sits down before kicking off. It’s smooth, so he goes down it like a slide. Oh! That is clever! Will goes right behind Steve, then Mike takes up the rear. They reach the bottom floor in seconds.
It immediately feels less clever when they land near the Mind Flayer's legs as it stomps and thrashes about in pain. They have to duck and dodge around them to avoid being trampled.
Mike starts to lead the way toward Scoops Ahoy so they can get back into the maintenance hallway where he'd left the girls and Billy, but they aren't there anymore.
Something must have happened while Mike was gone because now they are standing in front of the store. Billy has El in a chokehold, raising her up as if in sacrifice to the Mind Flayer while she kicks her legs, and Max is tugging futilely at Billy’s other arm.
He’s too strong. El couldn’t stop him with her powers in the sauna before, there’s no way they can stop him now that she’s drained them.
Mike runs to help, and he can feel Will behind him.
"Billy!" Steve shouts frantically. He’s sprinting toward them and quickly outpaces Mike and Will.
When Billy hears his name, he freezes, just like he had when he heard El say Steve earlier. The spider veins on his face retreat almost instantly and he turns to Steve. A moment later, he lets El go.
Three things happen at once.
Just as El hits the ground, Max’s foot connects with Billy’s knee. She had swung it back to kick him while he was distracted with the hopes of taking him down, but Steve had snapped him out of the Mind Flayer’s grip just in time. It was too close to notice and stop herself, so down Billy went, buckling onto his other knee, right next to El.
While Billy had El suspended in the air, he turned to look at Steve as he sprinted toward them. So did Mike. So neither of them saw that one of the Mind Flayer’s clawed tentacles had been poised and ready to attack. It surged forward to stab El through the stomach, but when Billy dropped her, she was no longer in the strike zone. Billy dropped down to his knees a moment later, so now his face and neck were in the strike zone and the tentacle kept going.
Steve had his eyes trained on Billy as he ran at top speed to go help. So he saw clearly as El fell out of the way and the tentacle continued on its path and right at Billy. But he cleared the distance quickly and was able to jump in the way at the last second, protecting Billy and taking the blow instead.
Mike sees as El hits the floor and Max is there to tug her out of the way in an instant before Steve and Billy land on top of her. Mike goes straight to El’s side, not really noticing what else has happened at first.
The Mind Flayer screeches above them, thrashing around wildly for a moment. A tentacle retreats from Steve’s back where he’s collapsed on top of Billy before it suddenly stops and slumps to the ground limply.
The gate must have closed! But it was a moment too late. Steve’s been hurt!
Steve has knocked Billy flat onto the ground, slumping over him while Billy clutches him close. “Steve! ”he sobs while Steve’s blood spills between them.
“No,” El whimpers, struggling to sit up. “No! Steve!” Mike helps her and she tries to crawl closer to where Billy is carefully rearranging himself so that he’s sitting with Steve cradled in his lap. Mike and Max help El up to stand and bring her closer.
“Steve… No..” Billy sniffs quietly into his hair. Steve groans at him wetly.
This is bad. This is so fucking bad!
There are no more explosions or flashes of light, but Mike can hear the crackling of fire and he can feel his lungs growing tighter as the mall fills with smoke. They are going to need to get out soon.
“Nancy!” Mike calls. She must still be upstairs. “Nancy! Help!” There has to be something she can do.
Billy holds Steve to his chest, burying his face in Steve’s hair as he sobs. In turn, Steve is gripping him hard . His knuckles are white where they’re wrapped around Billy’s arm and his fingers are digging into his skin, leaving little half-crescent marks.
“B-B-il-lly…” Steve forces out, weakly. Blood spills from the corners of his mouth as he talks and his stupid blue sailor uniform is far more red than anything else.
Jesus Christ! Are they about to watch Steve die? “Nancy!”
Billy pulls his head back and looks Steve in the face. “Why would you do that? Huh?” He asks, soft voice broken by tears. “I’m not worth it. I’m not worth it.”
“Y-y-yes. You. Ar-re.” Steve is staring at Billy, eye contact unbroken. There’s a ferocity in his gaze that Mike has never seen before. He’s never found Steve to be particularly threatening, but he imagines he’d flinch if Steve ever looked at him like that. He hopes the idiot lives long enough for him to get the chance.
Where the hell is Nancy?
“I don’t understand,” Will mumbles from very close behind him. His voice is trembling and Mike can see that he’s crying too. He suddenly wants to reach out to him, but he’s holding El up and he doesn’t want to drop her. “I thought they hated each other.”
“I guess not,” Mike offers.
He hears a gun cock to his left and Nancy appears in his peripheral vision. She marches right up to where Billy and Steve are sitting, gun pointed directly at Billy’s head.
“What’d he do?” Nancy shouts viciously. “Let go of him!” She’s got unbridled rage and panic in her eyes. Mike doesn’t doubt for a moment that she’d empty the clip into Billy’s skull.
Mike almost drops El as Max rushes out to block Billy from Nancy. “No don’t shoot!” she cries. She stands between them with her arms out protectively.
“Please don’t!” El adds. “He’s okay. He’s not flayed anymore!” Will steps in to take Max’s place on El’s other side, and Mike reaches his hand out to grab Will’s arm behind El’s back. It’s silly because he’s standing right there and he’s been fine this whole time, but he just needs to touch him to know he’s okay. It doesn’t make sense, but he does it.
“The Mind Flayer did this!” Max explains. “He was going to kill El, and Steve helped break the Mind Flayer’s hold. Then he was going to kill Billy and Steve jumped in the way.”
“Steve jumped in the way?” Lucas asks, incredulous. He and the others had come behind Nancy, but were steering clear of the pathway of her gun. “On his own? I don’t believe it!”
Jonathan cut in, the voice of reason. “Unless we’re just going to watch him bleed out on the floor, we don’t have time to debate about it. We need to get out of here.”
“Also,” Robin adds. “This place is actually on fire. I mean like… literally on fire. Which is slightly less directly threatening than the giant-monster-” she gestures toward the Mind Flayer’s corpse “- thing! But is definitely life-threatening. So I suggest we relocate and quickly.”
Robin is rambling again, but they both have a point.
Nancy doesn’t look like she’s convinced that Billy isn’t going to try and kill them again, but she puts her gun down anyway and stows it in the band of her pants.
She searches for something to tie around Steve’s waist to put pressure on his wound, but no one really has anything that would fit. She winds up using Jonathan’s shirt, leaving him in just a tank top, then she gestures for him to come and help her lift Steve.
The entire time, Steve is maintaining eye contact with Billy and his grip hasn’t loosened. Even when Nancy and Jonathan try to lift him, he doesn’t let Billy go.
“Come on, Steve,” Nancy tries to reason with him. “You gotta let go.” She plucks his hand off Billy’s arm, and only then does he look away. He closes his eyes and starts to cry.
It’s offputting to see. Of course, he’s gravely wounded and likely dying, so if ever there was a time to cry, this was it. But Mike has the mental image of Steve being bossy and dumb and brave and kinda mean and a little bit cool—but don’t ever let him know that. Seeing him emotional and crying and clinging to his… to… to Billy… It was just something he never anticipated he would see. Even with how fucked up and weird all their lives were.
“B-b-illy,” Steve whines, reaching for him again.
“I’ll do it,” Billy croaks, throat raw and voice cracking.
“Billy, your leg-” Nancy tries to discourage him, but he wraps Steve’s arms around his neck and puts him in a bridal position before getting his legs beneath him and standing up.
He lets out a pained groan as he stands. His leg does not look good. Max’s kick didn’t do him any favors. But he gets to both feet with Steve in his arms and he manages to limp his way to the nearest exit.
“I don’t get it,” Nancy says to herself, hanging back beside Mike, El, and Will as everyone else sticks close to Billy and Steve.
“Me either,” Mike agrees. “But they’re like… in love .”
“In love?” Will asks shakily. “But… they’re both…” He doesn’t finish his sentence, but Mike knows what he’s getting at. It’s weird, right? They’re not supposed to do that, right? It’s not allowed, right? He grips Will a little harder where he is already holding his arm. He doesn’t do it on purpose, but kind of he does.
“They can’t be.” Nancy states plainly.
“They are.” El’s voice is small and tired, but she states it as confidently as if she were stating that the sky is blue or that the mall won’t be open tomorrow. “I saw it when I went inside Billy’s head. Steve loves him and Billy loves Steve. It’s real love.” She pauses a moment, staring after their retreating forms. “I don’t think I ever knew what love was until I saw how much they love each other.”
Something on the second floor above them falls and lands noisily near the Mind Flayer’s body, spreading more flames around them. With that as their cue, they head outside too. Hustling to catch up to the others and get away from the smoke.
Something about El’s statement makes Mike’s chest flutter. He can’t immediately pinpoint why. Honestly, he doesn’t have the energy to focus on it. There’s just too much going on. Right, now he needs to worry about getting El and Will out of that damn mall in one piece and making sure that self-sacrificial idiot is still alive.
But as he hears the words echoing in his head a second time, he realizes that Will is holding onto his arm just as tightly as he holding Will’s.