Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Even as a new alpha to town, when Billy Hargrove first rolled into Hawkins High, he knew how to establish himself in the pecking order. Maybe especially because he was new to Hawkins. Asking around about the top dog in school yielded one answer and one answer only - King Steve Harrington.

Billy didn’t “meet” the guy until the party at Tina’s house. Half-drunk, a little feral, and ready to fight his way to the top, he spotted Harrington across the party and stalked over.

Just based on first impressions, Billy was kind of surprised that such a small, shit-smelling town like Hawkins had an alpha who looked that good, with those long legs, that creamy skin, and those big, pretty eyes that Billy only saw when the guy took off his sunglasses. Billy didn’t really ascribe to the bullshit Adam and Eve rhetoric - wasn’t religious in the slightest, just wore the medal around his neck to remember his mom by - and so not only did Billy like other men, but he also liked betas and alphas in addition to omegas.

Billy was ready to have some banter and put the guy in his place until Harrington turned tail to follow his drunk girlfriend into the bathroom.

It was weird, to say the least. Seeing another alpha turn away a fight to chase after some beta bitch. Weirder still that no cloud of scent was left behind in warning.

Because… Billy had heard so much about this guy. Girls in class tittered about how flirty Steve was; boys shrugged and made lazy comments about Harrington being the most popular guy in school. Some people talked about his hair and others about his money. Tommy called him a stuck up asshole who turned into a whiny little bitch for prissy, primadonna Nancy Wheeler.

No matter how pretty this alpha was, though, taking him down a peg had to be Billy’s number one priority if he wanted to be top tier at school.

So he came up with a plan: observe this alpha in action, take note of his weaknesses, strike at just the right moment to topple that crown from his head, then become top alpha of the school. Easy as pie.

He already won Keg King status. Surely the the last step would be just as easy.

Then came their first basketball practice together.

The guy’s head was in the clouds, nowhere near the court, and that was before his girlfriend came by to completely screw with him.

There was something about her that niggled his brain and rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe how dainty she was, maybe how she left Steve wrecked and unfocused once he returned to practice. Maybe how she’d kept them from their first confrontation at Tina’s because she’d been drunk.

Billy had heard the rumors that Harrington’s girlfriend - basic beta Nancy Wheeler - was cheating on him with the resident weirdo, Jonathan Byers. Byers didn’t seem so bad, in Billy’s opinion; just another beta, sure, in a town full of betas, but a beta with a good taste in music and who took cool photos. Billy could appreciate that.

But, Billy really should have taken the distraction for what it was to really shove it in Harrington’s face and take over the school.

He told himself this day was for gauging the alpha, seeing what he was capable of... And that wasn’t much, far as Billy could tell. No flexing of his scent, no baring his teeth, no overt aggression in his approach to the sport. Billy was kind of a traditional alpha in those respects, and so Steve’s behavior deeply confused him.

How could such a prime alpha like Harrington could be so terrible at normal alpha posturing and still be top of the social hierarchy?

Billy asked Tommy where Harrington had gone when they were washing up in the showers.

“Probably drove home so he could cry in peace,” Tommy chuckled, as if taking pleasure in Harrington’s pain. “He’s gotta know what’s going on with Nancy and the freak, right?”

“Dude, just call him Byers,” Billy snapped and rolled his eyes, scrubbing soap under his arms.

Tommy held his hands up in supplication and rolled his eyes. “Whatever, man. Steve’s fucked. But it’s all beta bullshit, right? You’ll never have to worry about that.”

“Beta bullshit? Harrington’s a beta?”

“Yeah dude. Just like me. We never presented.”

The new information made sense why Steve never flared his scent. Didn’t do posturing when contested by a real alpha like Billy. Riding home that evening after practice, Billy decided restructuring his plan wasn’t in his best interest. In for a penny, in for a pound, right?

So, just as he’d planned, Billy really went hard during their next practice that week. He ran Harrington all over the court, made the most ostentatious baskets, even stayed on Harrington to guard and talked the most shit he could. He wanted Harrington’s attention, needed it. Wanted the guy to look at him and do something, say something - Billy had been flexing his scent to get a reaction since they first met, leaving his scent all over in little clouds of dark-chocolate and sea salt - even just once. Billy didn’t even know what he was saying at that point in running his mouth. Something about Steve running the school, calling him King Steve like everyone else had told him.

“Then you turned bitch,” Billy said quietly, just for the two of them to hear, blocking Harrington from making a shot as he pressed in close behind him.

He could imagine Harrington squirming against him for quite different reasons, but kept those images to himself, tucked them away for later use when he was alone in his room. The grunts, the wriggles, the feeling of the length of his body - the warmth, the weight, the tone of his muscle… God, Steve’s body was incredible.

Billy couldn’t help but thrust his hips a little against Steve though he tried to hide it.

But, when Harrington turned his head, face flushed pink, Billy smelled it. That slight sugary sweetness in Harrington’s scent.

If Billy was scenting correctly, which he always did, there was a ripple of desire threaded through Steve’s faint smell. Not the clean beta scent, but sweet like an omega. All salted caramel and apple, warm and sweet and a little tangy.

It smelled utterly divine. He wanted to roll himself in the scent for hours, breathing in deep lungfuls of it, wanted to breathe it in through his mouth like he could taste it on the air.

Billy was only distracted by the revelation of Steve’s real scent for a mere moment, but Harrington took advantage of it and stole around him to make the shot. He let out a pleased groan from finally sinking a basket today that sent heat down Billy’s spine.

Billy firmly told his libido that the groan was for the ball swooping easily through the hoop, not that his dick paid much attention to the scolding.

Especially when Harrington tossed him a cocky grin and licked his lips.

“Finally got your head out of your ass, Harrington? Good job. Now hustle!” the coach barked from the sidelines.

Now that Billy had the scent of him, he wasn’t going to soon forget it.

And driving home that afternoon, with Max in the passenger seat, Billy couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The thing about omegas was, until they hit their first heat, they smelled like betas - neutral and clean, barely anything to pay attention to. Nothing that would attract an alpha, nor an omega. Then once their heat came, omegas would smell faintly sweet, but only close family would really notice the change in scent. Though, certain alphas who could smell it, too.

Alphas who were compatible.

Otherwise, everyone would smell beta on them. No one would be any the wiser. Most omegas presented with their first heat by their early teens, when they went through puberty, but that didn’t mean late bloomers didn’t exist.

The thought lingered in his mind as he drove them home from school and barely even talked to Max. He didn’t give her any shit, didn’t torment her little friends riding their dumbass bikes on the road - outright avoided them - and just kept driving fast and quiet until they arrived on Cherry Lane and Billy could lock himself in his room to think.

The top dog he tried all week to take down wasn’t even a beta, but an omega. An omega ran the school.

It was unheard of, especially in a small town like this. There was no way anyone else could smell him or else Harrington would truly have been laughed out of his role as King of Hawkins.

Billy wondered how that even came to pass. Harrington had a really smooth scent before today. Like- like a lack of a scent, really, not even the clean laundry that Susan’s scent took on, nor the slight baby powder scent of the Wheeler girl, nor the fresh-cut grass of Byers. But everyone must have assumed Steve was a beta because of the lack of scent, and with no compatible alphas around, Billy guessed he was the only one at school who knew.

Dinner came and went, and Billy returned to his room to think some more with a Scorpions cassette playing in the background. Thought about pink lips, long hair under his fingers, the miles of pale skin dotted with moles that were begging for licks and bites and kisses. Imagined Steve himself begging for licks and bites and kisses, turning those big eyes on Billy and pleading, then smiling that cocky, victorious grin when Billy caved and gave him what he wanted…

Another two thoughts floated through his mind as he drifted off to sleep.

Maybe Harrington didn’t even know it himself. And even if both of Harrington's parents were betas, which was rare, why hadn’t they said anything to Steve?

Chapter Text

The next day, Billy knew he had to reassess his initial plan to run the school. And he did indeed need to run it. Because where he lacked control at home, Billy sought that control socially.

His last school counselor had tried to help when Billy started coming to the office more and more often, having gotten into fight after fight. Tried to get him to talk to someone from CPS. She actually got Billy to open up for probably the first and only time in his life. And then, just as CPS was sniffing around to help him, Neil moved them across the country.

Until he could leave, control over his high school would have to do. And controlling that small pond would be almost too easy since he was the biggest fish around.

He watched Harrington from a distance; the guy seemed more alone now than ever before with his girlfriend still missing. If Billy was honest, he kind of pitied Harrington.

They didn’t have any classes together, but practice after school and passing each other in the hallways was enough to impart Billy with some observations. Like how Harrington didn’t really have any other friends. He spent his lunch hour in his car, alone, eating a sad sandwich and some chips if he ate at all. It didn’t sit well with Billy, knowing what he knew about the other’s designation. Omegas were supposed to be taken care of, kept fed and happy, and the alpha in Billy was overwhelmed with the need to take care of Steve.

Harrington. Harrington, Billy reminded himself.

He couldn’t afford to get too personal with anyone here when he planned on speeding back to California in his Camaro the moment he graduated in the spring. He turned 18 at the beginning of the month and, honestly, he couldn’t wait to get out of this small town. To get back to the coast, to go surfing every week, to lay on the beach and soak up the sun and regain his tan all year round. He missed the heat and the sand and the water.

Couldn’t afford to get personal, even with a pretty omega who he could smell was coming up on their heat. Probably their first heat.

Still…

Billy clenched his jaw one afternoon when he saw Harrington stalking out into the parking lot with a lousy brown paper lunch bag. He wondered idly if Harrington was going out to chain smoke until the bell rang again like he had the day before. It couldn’t be good for Harrington to not eat. Billy followed him out, keeping his distance, and just like he expected, he saw Harrington lighting up a cigarette already.

Grumbling to himself, Billy stomped over to the driver side of Harrington’s door. The omega was mumbling to himself, almost like he was practicing a speech or something.

Billy sighed and rapped his knuckles on the window.

Harrington visibly startled, jumping in the driver’s seat as his eyes flitted to the window to investigate who had interrupted his lunch. His mouth dropped open when he spotted Billy.

Slowly, as if waiting for Billy to bolt, Harrington rolled the window down. “Uh… Hargrove…?”

“Harrington,” Billy grunted. Couldn’t look him in the eye as he held out a paper bag, not Steve’s tiny, crumpled one but a tall, fully packed one that Billy had carefully creased. It looked like the kind of lunch bag a parent would give their child for school.

So what if Billy had packed Steve a lunch this morning, just in case? No one else needed to know besides Billy and the brown paper bag.

Harrington, Billy told himself again.

Harrington looked at the bag with his eyebrows furrowed together in what Billy could only assume was confusion. “What… is that?”

“What does it look like?” Billy snapped back, rolling his eyes. “You can’t keep coming out here and smoking for lunch. Eat something.”

Harrington frowned and looked at the cigarette between his fingers, then tapped off the end into the ashtray. “I have a lunch,” he mumbled petulantly.

Billy scoffed.

“Is it a bag of chips? Or a cheese sandwich?” He leaned his hip against the side of the car. Raising one eyebrow pointedly, Billy only smirked when Harrington started murmuring unhappily in the kind of way that told Billy he’d guessed right. Billy gestured with his chin at the bag. “Eat something, man. I left out the poison this time.”

That dark gaze darted back to Billy’s bright blue one, frowning at first before something on Billy’s face must have given him away - a twitch of his lips, or maybe the curve of his eyes. “You’re teasing me.”

“I am.”

Harrington reached out of the car window as slowly as he’d rolled the window down and took the paper bag. His fingers traced that perfect crease at the top for a moment before he turned back to Billy and asked, “Why?”

Billy shrugged and looked away, crossing his arms over his chest as if to affect indifference. “Because you’re the team captain and if you start going down the shitter, we all go down with you.”

Steve shrugged back and looked down into his lap before taking a long drag from his cigarette.

“Also I’m a decent person,” Billy continued, tongue pressing against the inside of his lower lip against all the words threatening to spill out. God, this was like getting his teeth pulled. Billy clenched his jaw against the urge to bring up the change in Steve’s scent. He leaned down, one arm atop the car, and got close to Steve’s face. Closer than he should be, but not as close as he wanted to be. “Listen, man. You need to take care of yourself. Alright?”

“What do you care?” Steve asked and his voice was full of suspicion.

“Like I said. Decent person.”

He watched Steve open the bag and peer inside before pulling out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a bag, an apple, and the little foil-wrapped cube that constrained some of Susan’s brownies. Okay, three of them, because Billy hadn’t thought one would be enough to treat the omega, and two looked lonely. Why he wanted to treat Steve was a completely different story, one that Billy refused to allow himself to look into.

With everything in his lap, Steve glanced at the lunch spread - it’s not really that much, Billy knows, because Billy and his family don’t have all that much either - but seemed overwhelmed by the offering. Like no one had ever made him lunch before.

The thought from last night echoed through the back of his head. Where were Steve’s parents?

Billy almost growled out loud when he realized he’d taken to calling him Steve in his head again.

Eyes scanning the parking lot, Billy sighed and clenched his own lunch bag tighter in his hand. “Well, enjoy lunch, Harrington.” Billy knocked his knuckles on the roof of the car.

“Is this… some kind of alpha thing?” came the question. Harrington’s eyes were on Billy’s face, scrutinizing and intense, and Billy flushed because… well, the omega hit the nail right on the head with that.

“It’s- the decent thing to do.” Billy swallowed thickly as he avoided answering the question and shifted on his feet. “Listen, Harrington-”

“Just call me Steve,” he said, rolling his eyes, but his tiny smile lessened the effect. Billy kind of wanted to throttle him for it, kind of wanted to kiss him.

He was going through a lot of emotions and urges in that respect.

“Whatever,” Billy said instead. “It’s just lunch. Eat the damn food and finish your cigarette and stop looking like I bought you a puppy.”

Steve nodded slowly and inhaled more nicotine. Billy was just about to finally leave when Steve said, voice so quiet and small, “It’s hard to eat alone.”

Billy stopped, blinked, and ducked his head back down.

“Are you asking me to eat lunch with you, Harrington?” Billy smirked, tongue flicking out over his lower lip. Couldn’t stop the delight fluttering pleasantly through his stomach when he caught Steve’s eyes darting down to watch it.

“Steve.”

“Are you asking me to eat lunch with you, King Steve?”

Steve laughed and rolled his eyes again. But those eyes leveled on him again and Billy softened. Just a little, but enough that Steve smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Unlock the passenger door, pretty boy,” Billy barked out, strutting around the car and slipping inside after Steve leaned over to pop the lock. He stretched his legs out and rolled his shoulders. It smelled like cigarette smoke, but at least it was clean. Plenty of legroom. And a pretty boy driving. “Nice car.”

“...Thanks,” Steve replied hesitantly. Like he was waiting for the butt of the joke to hit him right in the face.

Billy held back yet another sigh, because this guy was a little pathetic in a way Billy found undeniably cute.

They ate in relative silence, Billy watching from the corner of his eye to make sure Steve was actually eating and not picking it apart to make it look like he was. But no - he practically inhaled the sandwich in a way that really shouldn’t have gotten Billy shifting restlessly in his seat, but it did. In part, Billy was pleased because he was taking care of Steve and Steve accepted the offering of food, obviously liked the food itself; Billy blamed that on the alpha part of his biology. The other part, however, was due to the way Steve’s mouth had opened wide and took so much into it, the way his lips wrapped around his finger when a bit of jelly blurted out of the sandwich and onto his finger.

Billy blamed that 100% on being a horny teenager.

After Steve finished the apple and was picking at the foil around the brownies, Billy reached out to fiddle with the radio. Finding a station in Hawkins that he could actually listen to had been a goddamned feat of extraordinary proportions. Mostly, Billy stuck to his tried-and-true cassettes - Ratt, the Scorpions, Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden - but he'd managed to find a station that played some of the harder hits out there, sprinkled in with more mainstream rock.

When the station came on, Billy winced because of course it was Foreigner.

“Ohhh, I love this song!” Steve crowed from the driver’s seat and started bobbing his head along to the music.

Great. So, Steve was a Foreigner fan. Probably liked Journey too. It was right then that Billy realized he’d started calling him Steve in his head, and, leveling a glare at him, Billy sat back in his seat and angrily tore a bite from his sandwich.

How did he get here, again?

Then, the warm-caramel scent of Steve’s happiness wafted towards his nose.

Oh yeah.

Stupid alpha brain.

Chapter Text

After school, Billy managed to catch Steve before he left for the day. The guy was in a hurry, said he had plans for the afternoon - that he had to go speak with his girlfriend, the same girlfriend who Tommy had said was cheating on Steve.

“Your girlfriend,” Billy repeated, voice an incredulous monotone. “The Wheeler chick? The one who’s been running around absent with Byers?”

“Yeah,” Steve huffed. It was obvious from how he shuffled next to the car, taking his time to open the driver’s side, that he was embarrassed by the admission. “So, like, I can’t hang out or whatever. Tomorrow, okay?”

“No, not okay,” Billy practically growled back. It took everything in him not to really growl, not to let his scent flare and flex through the air around them, not to let his alpha fangs drop and not to bare his teeth in anger.

Because, even though Billy’s alpha side thought about Steve as his, as his omega, Steve didn’t even seem to know that he was an omega at all. No matter how much Steve smelled like his, no matter how much his instincts screamed at him to take and claim, Billy had to hold himself back until he found out more.

Like, why Steve was still chasing after a beta girl who obviously didn’t want him. Or why Steve acted like a beta, why he didn’t know he was an omega.

Steve frowned over the roof of the car, waiting for Billy to stomp off in a frustrated huff, but Billy just glared as Steve slid into the car, and continued to stand there glaring until Steve relented and opened the passenger door for him.

Billy tried not to focus on the girlfriend part. On the rumors that had gone around school about Byers and Wheeler, and Steve. The photos he heard that Byers took of Wheeler and Steve in Steve’s bedroom, through his window, while they undressed. He tried not to think about the way Wheeler seemed to hover on the edge of being with Steve for the last month that Billy’s been in Hawkins, and now how she’d been absent alongside Byers, which could really only mean one thing.

“Don’t cramp my style, okay?” Steve said, cutting through Billy’s thoughts as they pulled up to a flower shop.

Billy looked at him incredulously, mouth parted in surprise. “You’re… buying her flowers?”

“Yeah, to say I’m sorry,” Steve replied and searched through his jacket pockets to find his wallet.

“Sorry for… what exactly? What do you have to be sorry for?” Billy turned in his seat and his blue eyes narrowed in on Steve’s face. “Isn’t she with the Byers guy now? Hasn’t she been cheating on you?”

Steve clenched his teeth and took a deep, slow breath in through his nose. “It’s… complicated.”

“So un-complicate it for me, Harrington,” Billy tossed back, tongue poking his cheek with an irritation he himself didn’t understand.

He just didn’t get why Steve would be fighting for a girl who gave up on him. Didn’t understand why Steve would continue going for someone who wanted someone else when he could- he could have anyone. If the rumors were even a little true… how could Steve handle it? He could have what was right in front of him, if he only knew about what was going on.

“I can’t.” Steve swallowed thickly and looked out through the dashboard. His fingernail picked at the seam of his wallet. He was silent for a long moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was quiet, bordering on a whisper. “I just… It’s really- Billy, you don’t get it. I signed non-disclosure agreements with the government. I told you - it’s complicated.”

Billy’s eyebrows raised at that admission. He raised his hand and made a rolling gesture towards the store. He didn’t need Steve to lie to him just to say that he didn’t want to tell Billy what was going on. Why he kept hanging around boring beta Nancy Wheeler.

“Well, then... Whatever. Go buy the stupid flowers and let’s be on our merry way.”

“Why did you come with me again?”

“Because we’re friends now, Steve,” Billy jeered, his smile sharp and mocking. “And we’re hanging out tonight.”

He expected Steve to get angry again. Expected Steve to demand Billy get out of the car. Expected Steve to leave Billy’s sorry ass behind like everyone else did in Billy’s life. It would be the least he deserved being such an asshole to someone with whom he just claimed to be friends.

Instead, Steve surprised him with laughter.

“Yeah, guess we are after you made me lunch,” Steve commented. He shot Billy a smile, dark eyes sparkling, and Billy flushed red-hot in the face.

“I didn’t make it, Harrington, don’t get any-”

“Billy, your scent was all over the food,” Steve told him slowly, matter-of-factly, and his lips twitched against another smile. “I could practically taste it. Like… like chocolate.”

Steve licked his lips as if trying to taste it again, then looked away. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but Billy swore he could make out a blush on Steve’s cheeks. Swore he could smell that same warm-caramel scent in the confines of the car.

Billy’s face went even hotter at the call-out, but couldn’t stop his scent from flaring again, this time with a tinge of warm-sunshine-happiness-contentment in it. Bright, sweet chocolate.

“Whatever. You didn’t have to eat it.”

“It was nice,” Steve shot back, holding his hands up. The low-grade sweetness in his scent makes Billy want to breathe in deep lungfuls just to keep it in his nose all day. “And that means we’re friends now, right?”

Giving him a glare that melted into something softer, Billy sighed and shrugged his shoulders before glancing back out the window. “Yeah. Guess so.”

“Listen,” Steve started, and he unbuckled his seatbelt to turn to look at Billy. “Let me… let me get the flowers. Apologize to Nance. And when that’s over, you and I can go do something fun.”

“The fuck kind of fun is there in a tiny ass town like this?” Billy huffed his question. He was incredibly skeptical of the prospect while at the same time yearning for more contact and time with this omega who, Billy was coming to suspect, didn’t even know he was an omega.

“You’d be surprised, man. Just wait and see.”

~

Steve was mumbling to himself as he exited the car and shut the door behind him, practicing what to say to his ex. Billy rolled his eyes because he still didn’t get why Steve was apologizing to Wheeler, but whatever. At least he and Steve had plans for after, so if Steve tried to ditch him for his dumb girlfriend who dumped a catch like him, Billy could have a real reason to beat his ass in front of the whole school.

Not that he would, because his alpha instincts would keep him from hurting his mate, but still.

Bill squeezed his eyes shut against the phrase that had popped into his mind unbidden. Not his mate.

Yet.

Billy closed his eyes only for a moment before they flew back open when the passenger door creaked and some kid stood there holding the bouquet of roses Steve had just purchased.

“...The fuck?”

“Who are you?” the kid asked, eyebrows furrowed.

The driver’s side door opened and Steve slid in with a sigh. Without looking at either of them, Steve gestured back and forth between them. “Billy, this is Dustin. Dustin, Billy.”

“Since when did our plans include a pre-teen?” Billy asked, and he turned to glare at the kid, who had since shut the passenger door and slid into the back seat.

“This is a matter of the utmost importance. It’s a matter of life and death. You don’t even know-”

“Dustin,” Steve snapped, glaring through the rear-view mirror. “Explain.”

“To him?!”

“He’s coming with us,” Steve said like there was no other option. Like it was obvious.

It made something pleased and warm curl low in Billy’s gut, something that felt all alpha. Made Billy’s scent turn warm again, and Steve must have smelled it because he shot Billy this small smile.

God, Billy was such a sucker.

“Ugh,” Dustin groaned from the back of the car, flinging himself against the seat. “Do I need to catch him up to speed on everything?”

“You didn’t sign non-disclosure agreements with the government, so I’d say yes, that’s gonna be on you, buddy.”

By the time they got to the butcher’s in town, Billy blinked slowly as he tried to piece everything together in his head.

“So the government opened up a portal to another dimension,” Billy started, recapping to make sure he understood. “And a girl with superpowers-”

“Telekinesis,” Dustin emphasized.

Billy shot him a glare. “Telekinesis is a superpower, numb-nuts.”

“I don’t have to take this shit from-”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Steve interrupted them both, holding his hands up to stop them both. He turned in his seat and pointed at the kid. “Dustin, watch your mouth.” Then he pointed at Billy, whose blue eyes went wide with fake innocence. “Billy, don’t call him names.”

They both huffed and looked purposefully away from Steve.

“Whatever. She helped get rid of the monster the government let out of the portal. And disappeared. Then on Halloween, Dustin,” Billy emphasized using his name, glaring at the kid again, “found some creature.”

“Yes,” Dustin affirmed, voice filled with exasperation. “He gets it. Finally.”

“I don’t believe either of you,” Billy admitted and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Well, it gets crazier,” Dustin says, repositioning the hat atop his head.

“Is that why we’re at the butcher?” Steve asked, looking like he wasn’t even sure he wanted to know the truth.

“Yes. We need meat chunks to lure it somewhere we can capture it.”

“Meat… chunks?” Steve looked at Billy, who gave him a look back of apprehension. “...Dustin, what exactly is it?”

“The creature is a baby demogorgon. A demodog.”

Billy’s mouth dropped open and Steve just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

What the hell kind of fucked up alternate reality had Billy moved into?

“Is this the kind of fun you were talking about, Harrington?”

Chapter Text

“Alright, so let me get this straight,” Steve started, tossing chunks of meat onto the railroad tracks with a gloved hand.

Dustin walked in front of them while Billy took up residence beside Steve, refusing to get his hands dirty and sending Steve a look of betrayal anytime the meat hit his shoes. At least Steve gave him an apologetic pout and leaned their shoulders together whenever he did, so Billy felt mollified.

“You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl, who you just met?”

“Sounds about right to me,” Billy offered unhelpfully, smirking when Dustin turns around to glare at him.

“That’s grossly over-simplifying things.”

“I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?”

Billy hummed his agreement and knocked his shoulder back against Steve’s supportively.

“An interdimensional slug,” Dustin corrected, sounding smug. “Because it’s awesome?”

“Well, even if she thought it was cool - which she didn’t,” Steve continued, and Billy couldn’t keep his laughter in. It bubbled out and Billy didn’t even feel bad for it when Steve slid a grin sideways at him. “I don’t know, man. I just think you’re trying too hard.”

“Not everyone can have your perfect hair, alright?” Dustin grumbled and ducked his head down.

And, like - Billy didn’t like this kid at all, right? He definitely didn’t want to get caught up in any kind of relationship with some little nerd. But… Billy still felt a little bad for him. Everyone was insecure about their first real crush, and this girl - whoever she was - was obviously Dustin’s first real crush.

“It’s not about the hair.” Steve stepped up to walk next to Dustin, and Billy hung back to watch. “The key with girls is just… acting like you don’t care.”

Dustin stayed quiet, processing the statement, then asked, “Even if you do?”

“Exactly.”

“Drives ‘em crazy,” Billy tossed from behind them, sending them both a sharp grin when they looked back at him.

“And then what?”

“You just... wait,” Steve shrugged, tossing more chunks onto the tracks.

Billy carefully stepped over them.

When Dustin looked back at Billy curiously, as if wanting a second opinion, Billy nodded and shrugged too. Steve wasn’t wrong; girls were easy to read, easy to give them what they wanted. Boys were infinitely more difficult.

“You wait until you, uh…” Steve smirked as he looked back at Billy and waggled his eyebrows. Billy’s lips twitched, trying not to give into the urge to smile back. Trying and failing. Then Steve nudged Dustin’s arm. “‘Til you feel it.”

“...Feel what?”

“It’s like before it’s gonna storm, you know? You can’t see it, but you can feel it.” Steve licked his lips and tilted his head to the side. “Like this, uh, electricity.”

Suddenly glad that he was behind the two walking and randomly tossing meat onto the tracks, Billy swallowed thickly. Because that electricity… that special something... that was what he felt with Steve. And he realized that he was waiting for Steve to show that he felt it, too.

“You mean the electromagnetic fields, when the clouds in the atmosphere-”

“No, no, no.” Steve shook his head and held his hand up to stop Dustin’s nerdy rambling. It’s a wonder to Billy that the kid has any libido with a brain so big. “Like… sexual electricity.”

Billy’s stomach dropped somewhere between his knees when Steve glanced back at him. For a moment, Billy thought that maybe this tension between them was reciprocated. Just maybe.

And Steve didn’t look away from Billy even as he continued speaking to the kid. “You feel that… and then you make your move.”

“So, that’s when you kiss her?”

Billy snorted. “Slow down, Romeo,” he called from behind them.

Steve grinned at Billy, those dark eyes sparkling in amusement, and turned back to Dustin.

“Sure, okay, some girls like you to be aggressive. You know?” Steve said. “Strong. Hot and heavy. Like… like an alpha.”

Dustin looked back at Billy, who flexed his muscles and grinned and tried not to feel any amount of achievement when Dustin gave him a reluctant smile.

He definitely was not coming to be fond of this little nerd. Definitely not.

...Okay, maybe just a bit fond.

“But others, you have to go slow. Stealthy. Not like an omega, really, but…”

“But kind of,” Billy offered up. “You gotta be willing to meet them where they are. Not rush things. Not everything is about kissing.” He smiled roguishly, belying his own statement. “Though, the kissing’s good too.

“Alpha, beta, or omega, you gotta feel the other person out and be able to gauge where they are. What they like and don’t like. Sometimes, you gotta ask them outright if something’s okay.”

“Doesn’t that, like, kill the mood or whatever?” Dustin tossed more meat at the ground. “Ground the electricity?”

“Nah, man,” Billy answered, a bit of swagger in his step as he dodged the chunks. “Sometimes it makes things better. Shows you, like, care or whatever.”

When Billy glanced at Steve, trying to be subtle, he caught Steve looking at him already and smiling in approval. Then, Steve tossed the meat over his shoulder and laughed when Billy squawked loudly and dodged it.

“What type is Nancy?” Dustin asked Steve.

Steve shrugged his shoulders, hair flopping into his face when he lowered his gaze to his feet. “Nancy’s different.” He swallowed. “She’s different than most other girls.”

“Yeah, she seems special I guess.”

“I guess,” Billy hissed from behind them.

“She is,” Steve agreed.

Billy hated the forlorn tone in his voice. The defeated quality that still somehow sounded smitten. Heartbroken. It made Billy want to punch something.

Instead, he kicked a fallen branch off the tracks.

“This girl… she’s special too, you know?” Dustin hedged carefully. He glanced up at Steve and then back to the ground. “She’s an omega.”

Billy frowned; from what Max had said, there weren’t many omegas in this town, and the only other omega in her grade was a boy. This kid looked to be about Max’s age. Eyes narrowing on Dustin’s form, Billy slowed his pace to listen attentively.

“Oh yeah?” Steve asked, perking up with interest. “That is special. Omegas are cool. But you gotta treat them with even more respect because they get looked down on a lot. Look at Will.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Dustin nodded, sighing. “There’s just… something about her.”

“What’s this girl’s name?” Billy called from behind them.

Dustin leaned his head back to look up at the sky and sighed. The boy was smitten.

“Max…”

Billy’s scent turned sour behind them and both Steve and Dustin looked back, matching frowns of confusion on their faces.

“Max is my little sister, you nerd. Keep your grubby paws off of her.”

Billy stalked forward, shoving between both of them and knocking them both apart as he walked ahead down the tracks.

The longer he walked, the more embarrassed he was by his outburst. But, between that charged talk about sexual electricity, Steve singing Nancy’s praises, and Dustin liking his little sis- liking Maxine, Billy didn’t really know how he was supposed to feel. The alpha side of his brain was still thinking of Steve as his omega, even though all fingers pointed to the fact that Steve had no idea that he was an omega. That everyone in town had no idea that Steve was an omega.

That, at the very least, made him feel a bit better, since no other alphas seemed to be compatible.

Just Billy.

It didn’t take them long after Billy’s warning to arrive at the junkyard, Billy’s irritated anger cooling down by the time they got there.

Steve and Billy surveyed it with narrowed eyes, Steve’s behind his Ray-Bans and Billy behind his aviators. Beside Billy, Steve’s scent was growing stronger. The alpha knew his first heat would be coming within the week, maybe in the next few days.

Tugging at his brown leather jacket, Billy couldn’t help but feel like they were on the precipice of something. Something very important.

Something very dangerous, too.

Instinct was everything to an alpha, and his were screaming at him to his omeg- to get Steve and the kid to safety.

“I’m calling for backup,” Dustin announced, grabbing a walkie-talkie from his bag and pulling the antenna up and up - and Billy’s eyebrows creep up the longer the antenna goes.

“Who’s he calling? The police?”

“No,” Steve sighed, obviously fighting back the urge to rub his face or put his hands on his hips. Something equally silly and endearing.

Billy could relate. This whole thing was crazy and Billy still didn’t know if they were simply pulling his leg or being genuine.

“Lucas, come in!”

“Guess we’re not hanging out after this,” Billy commented, hands searching through his pockets. He taps a cigarette out of his pocket and lights it, takes a deep drag and raises his face to the sun to exhale a cloud of smoke. “You owe me, Steve.”

“You called me Steve,” Steve said in a delighted voice. “Without me reminding you!”

Something in his voice had Billy’s gaze cutting over to Steve’s face, and he curled blunt fingernails into his palms to stave off the urge to lean in and kiss that smile on Steve’s lips. It was something warm and small and utterly delighted, much like the feeling that continued to flare through his stomach and purr contentedly like a big cat.

It took all of Billy’s strength not to purr, too.

“Whatever.” Billy sniffed and immediately regretted it because Steve’s scent flooded his nose.

He smelled like… like caramel, heating up on the stove. A little like apples, too, with a hint of coconut. The more it came out, the more Billy came to crave it.

Tommy had said Steve was fucked. But, really, Billy was the one up shit creek without a paddle.

Chapter Text

As the sun set and they returned after grabbing food and water, Billy, Steve, and Dustin found their way back to the junkyard. Billy managed to grab a thick length of pipe earlier from a pile of junk to act as his own version of a weapon. It was no nail-bat like the one held firm in Steve’s hands, but it was enough to defend himself and whatever nerd ended up coming.

He and Steve spotted an old bus to hole up inside of, but they leaned against it as they waited for the cavalry to arrive. Billy pulled out another cigarette while Steve fiddled with his Zippo.

“Need a light, tiger?” Steve asked with an amused twist of his lips as he shook the lighter.

“Sure.”

He went to take the Zippo from Steve’s fingers only to close around air when Steve pulled it away. Billy raised a single eyebrow, questioning, and Steve just smiled and flicked the lighter on. Billy leaned forward, eyes locked with Steve’s and lips wrapped firmly around the butt of his Marlboro, and his cheeks hollowed out as he inhaled deeply. With only the silence of the junkyard backgrounding them, he could hear the way Steve’s breath hitched in his throat. Could smell him growing lusher with arousal.

God, Billy wanted to get him alone. Wanted to tell Steve what he knew. Now wasn’t the time, not at all, but it would be so much easier to lean in and kiss Steve the way he so desired if Steve just knew.

He pulled back, the spell broken, and breathed out a small cloud of smoke like a dragon. Neither looked away.

“Thanks,” Billy said, voice husky, and took another drag.

“Yeah,” came the breathy response from Steve. Billy licked his lips and watched the way Steve watched him back. Steve cleared his throat, pulling his hand away to close the lighter. “Welcome.”

Dustin whooped from the other end of the bus before his whooping tapered off. “Wait… why did you bring her here?”

Billy wasn’t about to get involved in some nerd battle, but when he glanced around the corner of the bus, he saw a familiar shock of red hair.

“I told her about everything. She didn’t believe it.”

“Still don’t,” Max said in that sing-song mocking tone that Billy hated so much.

He barely keeps himself from crushing the cigarette in hand as he pushed away from the bus, ignoring Steve’s look of confusion and curiosity.

“Max,” he greeted his sister, coldly regarding her with a look of disdain.

Max met his look with one of her own, irritation and disbelief twisting her features just as surely as the embarrassment that colored her cheeks. “Billy.”

Dustin winced as the other nerd, the new one, gestured between the two. “You two know each other?”

“Stepbrother.”

“Stepsister.”

And yet, so alike in how they spoke and the way they grimaced like it was going out of style.

“Steve, this is Max,” the kid introduced. He held his hand out to Billy. “I’m Lucas.”

“I’m Billy. Don’t fuck with me,” he introduced himself to the new little nerd, taking another long drag from his cigarette. He looked pointedly at the kid’s hand before rolling his eyes and shaking it a lot harder than necessary. “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but… are we here to chit-chat or are we gonna get that demo-whatsit?” Billy, all bravado and affected-exasperation, rolled his eyes as he moved back to the doors of the bus.

As if he’d called it out directly, Billy heard an inhuman screech vibrate through the foggy night air. Dustin and Steve weren’t simply playing a joke on him and his little sister - they were telling the truth. It sounded like nothing he’d ever heard before. Like no animal Billy had ever heard of, but that was the closest he could compare it to. Some kind of animal.

An unearthly beast.

His blood ran cold as ice through his veins.

Crushing the cigarette on the ground under his boot in a practiced, fluid move, Billy then grabbed Max’s arm harshly, fingers curling a little too tight around it as he tugged the doors open with his free hand and dragged her onto the bus and closer towards safety.

“Get on the bus,” Steve instructed hurriedly, pushing Lucas and Dustin in first before shutting the door behind them.

“You can let go, Billy,” Max said quietly, and he snatched his hand back like she was on fire.

His eyes fell to the white-turning-red mark on her arm, pale flesh coloring bright pink from Billy’s rough treatment. He’d been actively trying not to hurt her ever since the skateboard incident back in California. He didn’t want to follow in Neil’s footsteps, and as much shit as he gave Max, as much as he buried his feelings deep down beneath ten feet of concrete and steel, he really did care about her. Now, he felt sick to his stomach knowing he’d hurt her somehow. That he’d carried on in his dad’s footsteps, no matter how much he tried not to.

Lucas popped out the top with a pair of binoculars in hand, scanning the yard for any signs of the demodog while Billy, Steve, and Dustin looked out the boarded-up windows. Max moved to join Lucas up top when Billy curled a hand on her shoulder, gentling it at the shaken look she sent him.

“Where are you going?” Billy asked in his usual gruff way.

“Let me help,” Max insisted, tugging her shoulder out of his grip. She tilted her chin up and looked at him in that defiant way that was a mirror image of himself. “I can’t just stand around like a damsel in distress. And you can’t make me.”

With that, she glared hard at Billy, only for him to sigh and relent.

“Whatever. But you get right back inside if things go south, do you hear me, Maxine?”

“Yeah,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes at his concern.

But Billy wasn’t going to let it drop. He raised his index finger and pointed it in her face. “Say it.”

Max swallowed and looked at her feet. “I’ll get back inside if things go bad.”

“Good.” Billy ruffled his fingers through her hair, mussing it up until it fell into her eyes, and his lips twitched against a grin when she pulled away with an irritated huff.

When he looked up, he caught Steve’s eyes on him, a small smile on his face. Billy’s nostrils flared as that coconut-caramel scent drifted over to him.

“There it is,” Lucas breathed out in wonder. “It’s coming!”

Billy and Steve snapped their gazes away from each other and dropped their heads down to peer out the window.

The alpha groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose when the creature refused to take the bait. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“Maybe it’s sick of cow,” Steve said aloud, but when Dustin and Billy both turned to him his eyes were focused outside. Steve gripped the bat tighter in his hands. “Wait here.”

“Wait here? Wait here, Harrington, really?” Billy growled and stalked forward to throw the door open. He pointed the pipe at Steve. “You’re fucking crazy if you think I’m going to let you go out there by yourself.”

Stepping out, Billy shivered. It was cold out for an October evening compared to what Billy was used to back in California. The rusted husks of cars and stripped-down machines made for the eeriest background on which the cold and fog only compounded on Billy’s unease.

Steve stumbled out behind him, tossing his lighter at Dustin and telling him to get ready as Billy twirled the pipe through the air. Billy tamped down the urge to shove Steve back on the bus and lock him up where it would be safe for him. Where Billy could protect him. It would be too much of a statement, too questionable, and besides that, Steve had actually fought these things before. So instead, Billy just moved closer with a good hold on the metal. He wished he’d grabbed his fingerless leather gloves to have a better handle on it, but he’d make due with what he had.

The pile of meat at the center of the yard, right in eyesight, seemed to have worked as the monster came into view. Goosebumps broke out over his skin at the very sight of it. It did kind of resemble a dog - it was a four-legged creature, at the very least - but as it went to feast on the meat, its mouth opened like a flower lined with sharp, needle-point teeth. Billy held the pipe tighter and carefully moved forward, Steve backing him up from behind.

“Steve! Billy! 3:00, 3:00!” Lucas and Max screamed out from the top of the bus.

Billy turned around to look in that direction only to see another.

...And then another. And another, as more came out of the shadows.

“I thought you said there was only one,” Billy hissed out, glaring at the bus before looking back at Steve.

“Guys, abort! Abort the mission!” Dustin shrieked, throwing the door to the bus back open. “Run!”

One of the creatures leaped at Steve and Billy rushed forward to knock it straight across the head with a sickening, slightly wet thud of metal to slimy, grayish-green skin. He cringed as the creature shrieked and its body slammed into the side of a junked car.

“Move that ass, Harrington,” Billy demanded, pushing them both forward until they were stumbling onto the bus and falling onto the floor. Billy turned around just in time to slam the door closed with his foot, flinching back against Steve when the demodog threw its body against the bus.

Steve panted heavily against the back of Billy’s neck, and Billy couldn’t help but shiver a little and try to keep his scent from turning from flaring with pleasure despite their very dire situation. Shifting to their feet, Billy watched as Steve grabbed a sheet of metal to fortify the door while Dustin screeched into his little headset.

“Who are you calling? Are you trying to bring more children out here?” Billy snapped at him as dusted his ass off from falling on the floor.

“Who else am I supposed to call for?! No one else has the radio frequency needed for-”

Billy just held his free hand up, the one not gripping tightly to the pipe, to stop Dustin’s words and shook his head. “Can it, nerd.”

Dustin opened his mouth to make some sort of rebuttal, but everyone shut up at the sound of the heavy body and clicking claws of a demodog walking over the roof of the bus. Their eyes slowly crept along with the creature above them, jumping when its long claws dented the metal. Billy’s blood ran cold at the terror etched into Max’s wide eyes where she stood at the bottom of the ladder leading up to the bare emergency hatch. When she screamed, he and Steve both rushed forward.

“Max, move!!” Billy’s voice boomed through the cramped space.

He pulled Max away from the ladder and shoved her into Steve’s arms before brandishing the pipe, ready to protect every goddamn person on the bus with his life if necessary. It was his alpha instinct kicking in, he knew, but it overwhelmed his head with a single-minded need to take care of his omega and these weak, vulnerable kids. Without consciously trying to do it, Billy could smell his scent flaring dangerously around him, dark and bittersweet from his fight instinct.

“You wanna fight?” Billy screamed up through the hole in the roof. “Come and get me, asshole!”

Just as the flower-mouth of the creature peeled open and emitted a disturbing growl that made the hair on Billy’s arms stand on end, it looked up as if summoned by something, roared loudly, then jumped away. Shrieks echoed throughout the junkyard and grew fainter and fainter, which brought Billy’s guard down just enough so that his shoulders fell from around his ears. When he turned around to see if everyone was okay, he found Max holding hands with Lucas.

His scent flared again and a glower stole over his face, eyebrows pinching together and nose curling in violent aggression. He was ready to growl and fight this little beta for holding his sister’s hand, but Max quickly dropped it and Steve’s hand fell onto his shoulder. Almost immediately, Billy calmed down and his scent stopped oozing from his gland.

He’d have been embarrassed by it, if not for the slightly dazed look on Steve’s face.

Billy fought back a smirk. He still had it, even with the dry spell recently caused by the very man in front of him.

Steve squeezed Billy’s shoulder and licked his lips before he glanced away and grabbed the bat again. Hefting it up, he held it out in front of him as he slowly opened the door to the bus, exposing himself to attack. Billy was about to drag him back inside but the kids crowded behind him as he stepped into the junkyard, once again empty of any supernatural creatures.

Any doubts Billy may have held before were firmly and utterly destroyed after tonight.

“What happened?!” Lucas whispered, sounding confused and scared all at once.

“I think Billy scared them off,” Dustin said, looking back at Billy with admiration on his face.

And Billy was not growing fond of this nerd, okay? If his chest puffed up a little at the compliment, then Billy was going to blame the adrenaline from the fight. Not the compliment from the little nerd. Even if he wasn’t so bad, after all.

“No, I don’t think so…” Steve called from outside.

Billy pushed around the kids to step outside as well, pipe in hand, and furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the tension in Steve’s shoulders. He turned back to them with a look of trepidation on his face, eyes flickering to Billy almost as if in deference. Fear. Billy didn’t like the look of that.

“What is it, Steve?” Billy asked, reaching out to brush his fingers over Steve’s wrist.

The tension in Steve’s body seemed to melt away with the touch, but he still looked nervous. He took a deep breath and looked at Billy again. “They’re going somewhere.”

Chapter Text

Billy wondered (for probably the dozenth time that night) how in the hell he’d managed to end up where he was — at the Byers household helping Steve shove an otherworldly creature into the fridge “for science,” as Dustin claimed. Billy wasn’t exactly sure what kind of alternate reality he’d stepped into, but his car was now parked in the driveway right behind Steve’s. And he was practically babysitting with Steve, who wasn’t a babysitter but more like the de facto authority figure put in charge due solely to being the eldest among a troop of middle schoolers.

Billy needed a cigarette and some time alone to talk to Steve, and time to process everything that happened that evening between the junkyard and the old laboratory. Instead, there he was with a bunch of kids and the omega he’d been obsessing over for the last two weeks.

An omega who didn’t even know he was an omega. An omega who was smelling better and better with every hour that passed.

Fuck.

He needed a cigarette, a lot of alcohol, and maybe something more to take the edge off. He’d kill for some weed to help him mellow out.

“We need to be out there doing something,” Mike whined again. Billy wasn’t sure how this kid hadn’t gotten his face punched in yet. If he was that kid’s age, Billy would have given him a swirly every day at the very least.

“There’s got to be something we can do,” added Lucas, the one who was too close with Max.

Billy frowned at him.

“She’s in trouble,” Max agreed, biting her lower lip. “But… what can we do that Hopper and Joyce aren’t already doing?”

They shared a silent look that Billy raised his eyebrows at before rolling his eyes and glancing away. Great. His sist- stepsister! His stepsister got herself a boyfriend.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Steve clapped his hands, demanding the attention from the room. “It’s not happening. Hopper told us to stay here, so we’re staying here!”

Mike pouted. Literally pouted, like it would make any difference to the outcome. This kid’s parents had to be the biggest pushovers between Mike and Nancy.

“We’re leaving and you can either come with us or not,” Mike sniped, eyes narrowed on Steve. Challenging him. Billy wouldn’t be surprised if Mike presented as an alpha soon. Billy knew exactly what it was like to be a tiny alpha with too much energy and too much instinct.

Still, Billy gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw. No one got to challenge his omega except for him. “You don’t talk to Steve like that. Apologize.”

He flexed his alpha scent a little to assert his dominance, musk flooding the room with the smell of bittersweet chocolate. Mike furrows his eyebrows, huffed, and opened his mouth as if to start protesting but snapped it shut at the last moment. Glowering at Billy, Mike crossed his arms petulantly over his chest and looked away. Pouting again.

Steve looked at Billy with surprise, and his scent grew a little warmer — happier, pleased. Something like that.

Billy wanted to roll around in it.

“Sorry,” Mike finally mumbled. Even if he couldn’t look Steve in the face, and even if Mike was pouting like the child he was, his one-word apology did sound genuinely remorseful.

“I know you guys want to help,” Steve acknowledged, letting out a sigh. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.

Billy's eyes went straight to the pale expanse of his throat. A throat where he wanted to bury his nose and memorize every note of Steve’s scent. A throat he wanted to sink his teeth into. Wanted to claim, mark up with his tips and tongue and teeth. Wanted to feel Steve’s mating gland swell in his mouth as his omega clenched around his—

Billy tore his eyes away from Steve’s neck with a deep, steadying breath and then glared when he caught Max staring at him with her nose scrunched up in distaste.

Christ on a cracker, fuck tonight.

Billy continued to glare at her even as Steve continued, “But… what could we even do?”

“We could go for the tunnels,” Lucas offered, pointing to all of the drawings wrapping around the walls. “It’s all a hive mind, right? If we go to the tunnels, maybe we could distract them long enough.”

“Long enough for El to close the gate,” Steve finished, the words just above a whisper as he talked to himself. He rolled it around in his mind. Looking at Billy, Steve tilted his head to the side. “What do you think, Billy?”

Billy’s stomach clenched on the knowledge that Steve was deferring to him, whether he knew it or not. It was a satisfaction Billy hadn’t experienced before. Billy really needed a cigarette, if only to keep himself cool and collected and under control, because his control was about to snap under all the tension. Instead, he swallowed thickly and tilted his head back to stare up at the ceiling as he pondered the situation.

Sucking in a loud breath through his teeth, Billy clicked his tongue and weighed the options. Going to the tunnels and helping tonight end faster, or waiting here like a good little bunch of babies? He glanced over at Steve, who stared back him with those big dark eyes. Eyes that Billy could never get out of his mind when he laid in bed at night trying to fall asleep.

With a small smile, he turned back to the kids.

“As long as you brats do what we say, when we say it,” Billy finally conceded, narrowing his eyes on every one of his sister’s friends before landing pointedly on Max. “If you don’t, I’ll beat your asses myself.”

“Yes, alpha,” they all chimed before their faces took on surprised and chagrined expressions in equal turn. Like they hadn’t expected to call him that, to acknowledge Billy’s authority. As if they were all a pack.

Billy couldn’t help the smirk that pulled at the corner of his mouth.

“You heard them, Bambi,” Billy drawled, spreading his arms wide before clapping his hands together loudly. The kids all startled at the sound. “Let’s get this party started.”

They loaded into Steve’s and Billy’s cars, with Max and Mike in Billy’s and Dustin and Lucas in Steve’s. Steve had tried to offer his own car for everyone, but when that left Max to sit in someone’s lap, Billy snapped that they’d take separate cars.

Was he protective of his sis- stepsister? Absolutely.

“Besides,” Billy had reasoned as they stepped outside the Byers’s house. He reached into his pocket to grab his cigarettes and lit one up, inhaling deeply. Steve held his hand out to take it, and something warm blossomed in his stomach. Billy easily handed it off and fixed his eyes on the sight of Steve’s lips wrapping around the end where Billy’s lips had just pressed. “If something happens, two cars are better than one, right?”

“Whatever,” Steve mumbled around the cigarette, taking a drag. He passed it back to Billy while the kids gathered up supplies - handkerchiefs, towels, scarves to wrap around their faces to keep from breathing in the spores, some goggles, baseball bats and shovels and an axe.

Billy was quick to take a drag after Steve passed the cigarette back, chasing the phantom taste of Steve’s lips on the filter. It was overpowered by burning tobacco and paper, but Billy swore he could taste the caramel of Steve’s scent somewhere in the smoke.

Steve gestured with his chin to the kids and Billy glanced with him at the way they were raiding the Byers’s shed. “Do you have a weapon, Billy?”

Billy rolled his eyes and took another drag to keep the small laugh building in his chest from slipping past his lips. His omega- Steve was looking out for Billy. This strong, beautiful, capable omega was accepting him.

“Got the pipe from the junkyard,” he noted with a raised eyebrow, mouth going dry. “But I think I’m going to grab the axe. Don’t want anyone hurting themselves.”

“You’re a good alpha,” Steve murmured, a tiny smile curling up the edges of his lips. “Keeping us all safe, huh?”

Billy felt warmth spreading through his gut at the compliment. But, he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the knowledge he knew and wasn’t sharing, knowledge he had because he was an alpha. Knowledge of Steve’s true status as an omega.

“You keep us all safe too,” Billy was quick to note, licking his lips. He hesitated on his next words, trying to figure out how to say it. “Listen, Steve, I think you should know something. Something really important.”

Steve furrowed his eyebrows together with questions -ones Billy didn’t know how exactly to answer- about to trip off his lips. Billy’s mouth opened with a deep inhale at the same time as Steve’s opened to ask, “What is it?”

“You know I’m an alpha, right?”

Steve laughed and rolled his eyes, but they flickered back to scan lingeringly over Billy’s body. “Duh. Couldn’t miss it.”

Fighting back the urge to lick his lips and flash a sharp, seductive grin at Steve, Billy rolled his own eyes right back at Steve. “Well, as an alpha, I can smell when… compatible omegas are about to present.”

Steve paused and flashed his eyes back towards the house. “Which one?”

“Which one?” Billy repeated back, confused for a split moment before he realized that Steve thought it was one of the kids. “Steve.” When Steve finally looked back to meet Billy’s blue eyes with wide, dark ones, Billy sighed and pursed his lips. “It’s not one of the kids. It’s… you.”

Steve’s eyes went impossibly wider, shock obvious on his pretty face, but then it cracked and he laughed. “Very funny, Billy, but now is not the time.”

“I’m not joking, Steve.” Billy reached out to touch Steve’s elbow. “I can smell it on you.”

“You can-” Steve’s smile faltered and he swallowed, face morphing into something nervous. His scent spiked sour, and Billy’s own amped up with soothing pheromones. “You’re- how long have you known?”

“I suspected it a while ago, but I couldn’t be sure,” Billy haltingly admitted. “But it’s become— didn't your parents tell you that your scent changed?”

Shoulders slumping, Steve dropped his eyes to look at the toes of his sneakers. “They’re… not around much. We always just assumed I was a beta since I never… until now, I guess.”

That explained— a lot, actually. How Steve had missed all the signs, how no one who knew his base lack of scent would be able to tell that it was changing. How Steve wasn’t prepared for what was soon to come.

“How are you feeling?” Billy reached out carefully and pressed the backs of his fingers to Steve’s forehead. Steve’s eyes fluttered shut and Billy bit back a fond smile at the sight of him.

“Okay. Maybe a little warm.”

“Keep an eye on it,” Billy advised, letting his hand fall to cup Steve’s chin in a move that was probably closer and more affectionate than their friend-status warranted. But the way Steve grinned at him, soft and secret, made it all worth the potential faux pas. “If you start to feel weird, let me know, okay? I’ll get you to the hospital.”

Hospitals were outfitted with emergency heat rooms for omegas of all kinds - mated or single, newly presented or seasoned - and surely that’s what Steve wanted. Right?

“Unless you have, uh, an alpha who-”

“No,” Steve interrupted immediately. “I don’t- there’s no compatible alphas in my life other than- well. Other than you, Billy.” Fighting back the urge to preen at that knowledge, Billy tilted his head to the side and watched as Steve bit at his lower lip. There was obviously more he wanted to say. “I mean… that wouldn’t be the worst, right?”

“What wouldn’t?”

“Helping me through my heat,” Steve replied in a quiet voice, eyes glancing up at the dark night sky. “Unless you-”

“Steve.” Billy smiled gently and tweaked Steve’s chin. “I’d like nothing more than that, but we have other shit to attend to, right?”

As if on cue, the kids spilled back into the driveway, all of them sporting weapons and face coverings. Billy dropped his hand from Steve’s chin to his shoulder, cupping it gently.

“We’ll talk more about it later,” Billy promised, his gaze level and intense, serious as he’d ever been before. Probably the most serious he’s been in his life, because this had never happened to him - he’d never been around for a compatible omega’s presentation. Never knew how good a virgin omega on the cusp of their heat could smell. Billy squeezed Steve’s shoulder to distract himself before offering Steve an encouraging smile. “We’ll get through whatever tonight brings.”

“Together,” Steve added, raising his own hand to cover Billy’s and squeeze softly.

“That’s right, Bambi,” Billy laughed softly, then flipped his hand over to squeeze Steve’s in return. “Together.”