Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Would you quit kicking that?” Billy snapped. He was sitting at a large wooden table with two other assfucks.

Group project. Mandatory. Random partner assignment.

“Oh god not again.”

And wasn’t it just Billy’s luck he got stuck with Randy Meeks (who currently had his head in his hands), and the worst motherfucker on planet earth: Stuart Macher.

Stu glared up at Billy and started kicking the leg of the table in earnest. “Make me, asshole.”

“Can we please not do this today?”

“That’s it, you fuck!” Billy growled out as he slammed his pencil down. He launched himself over the table at the boy.

“There he goes.”

See, Billy and Stu had this recurring problem.

Stu’s hands fisted Billy’s shirt as they both went careening. Billy recovered from the fall before Stu, but the other boy was wiley. He threw Billy off of him easily.

They hated each other. With twin burning fires of passion so great, the sun herself would be jealous.

Billy threw his arm to shield his face as a huge stack of papers smacked into him. Billy went up and punched Stu across the mouth.

Seven separate suspensions, thirteen detentions, and more cuts and bruises between the two of them to count.

Billy ate a backhand from Stu before the other boy was on top of him. He got his hands around that skinny fucking neck, only to cry out when he felt a hand fist his hair.

They both screamed.

…Make that eight suspensions.

By the time Billy made it home, he had a busted lip, a bruised jaw and cut up knuckles.

Yeah, that was basically routine for him at this point. This time they’d made it a month and a week since their last fight. A respectable number for them, honestly. Their record was three months and two days, including during the summer, and that was mostly because Stu had a month off school for a family vacation.

Well thanks to that fucking piece of shit, even though their suspension was gonna be way over by Halloween, Hank still took Billy’s ticket to the fucking best haunted house in the entire city! He saved to get that ticket! He wasn’t old enough to go without an adult last year, but now he is! He was looking forward to it all fucking year!

Goddamnit!

Everything was that fucking dipshit’s fault!

Billy didn’t even remember how this whole thing between them got started, that’s how long they’ve literally been at each other’s throats.

All he knew is that he hated that stupid mother fucker.

Every time he saw him in the halls something black twisted in Billy’s guts at the sight of him.

The sound of his voice, or worse; his laugh made Billy want to punch his teeth in. It was irrational, and he didn’t know why, but only Stu invoked such an inherent, visceral rage from within him. It was just… everything about him. Especially his stupid, dopey face.

Well all of that was about to change.

Billy looked up at the sign for the witch doctor’s apothecary with a crooked smile, this time he had the perfect plan for sweet, sweet revenge. He chuckled as he walked in.

Stu wouldn’t know what hit him.

Chapter Text

“Babe?”

That was Stu’s voice.

It was all hazy and distant. Like if Billy tried to reach out and touch it, he’d be too far.

Billy tried to move. Shift his body, sit up, even open his eyes, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do anything.

“Baby, you with me?” Stu was laughing.

Billy groaned as his pulse pounded. His heart was rabbiting a million bpm. Fuck, he needed to get a grip. He was lying down, that was first. On something soft and comfortable, most likely a bed. Stu was with him. And his body was so sludged out, he couldn’t even open his eyes.

He felt like the embodiment of a mudslide.

“Don’t push yourself, Billy,” the more Stu spoke, the less echoic he became. Like a dream becoming a memory becoming real. “Just relax, take some deep breaths, okay? I think you passed out.”

Billy ignored the advice and tried to move again. Ugh it was so hot, every fucking inch of him was aching and sweaty. He hadn’t felt like this since he got the flu last year. His very muscles were arrested in exhaustion.

“Woah, woah, hey. Easy, just relax.”

If Billy had the ability to jump in surprise, he would have when he felt wet lips press to his sweaty forehead.

Because that fucking assclown Stuart Macher, just kissed him on the forehead!

Billy groaned again when he doubled his efforts to move, to kick Stu the hell away from him, to yell, recoil, cuss his brains out, fucking see… anything! All Billy was left with were the scramblings of his thoughts. Especially when he felt a gentle touch petting his hair.

“I’m sorry babe, I know you’re tired,” Stu as always sounded like he was smiling, and not sorry at all.

In the middle of Stu’s apology, Billy’s eyes finally blinked open. Stu continued speaking but Billy had fully checked out. The sight of his current position shocked him so much there was nothing in his mind but a stinging white noise and the vision of horror.

He was not sick. He didn’t have the flu.

He was in a bed, Stu’s bed. In Stu’s bedroom.

Stu was looming over him, they were both sweating, they were both naked, and Billy just realized, out of breath.

And they were having sex.

Billy turned his head to the side, finding the crook of his own elbow. He flexed his arms, hands, but he couldn’t move them very easily. Even if his muscles weren’t totally jellified, he’d have very limited mobility, because his wrists were trapped. Pinned down against the mattress over his head by Stu himself.

When he shifted he could feel it lodged deep inside him. Stu’s dick. Billy unexpectedly winced at the move, freezing all function immediately in a gasp. His hips and lower back sent a shock of pleasure through him. Stiff and stinging.

He could feel his hole constricting around Stu’s dick to the beat of his heart. As well as his own pulsing cock which was erect, dripping precum, red, and curled towards his own stomach.

Fight as he might with all his physical strength, he couldn’t move. His face pinched in desperation, he groaned through clenched teeth. His vision was spotting in black with the more effort he exerted. He couldn’t…he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t move at all.

All he could think past blind panic was how in the fuck did he go from passing out in the middle of the spell, to having sex with Stu in his room?! What could have possibly happened during the hours he was out for this to be what he wakes up to?

A tiny, repeated beeping, a small alarm suddenly sounded, cutting off Billy’s thoughts.

Stu looked at the watch on his wrist. The wrist of the arm pinning Billy down. Billy looked too. It was beeping on the hour. Midnight.

Stu suddenly sat back, all the way back, he pulled his hands away from Billy and sat on his haunches.

Billy groaned when their conjoined bodies ran electricity up his spine, settling in his guts. God Stu’s cock was so fucking huge. It’s all he could focus on, all he could feel. It’s all he was thinking about as he stared, unfocused at the necklace around Stu’s neck. All he could taste when Stu stopped his alarm with a soft smile. So sincere and serene. Like he couldn’t be more at peace while doing the unspeakable to his own worst enemy.

It was in every sense of the word, terrifying.

“That makes it official,” Stu sounded in awe. “Happy Anniversary, babe. One year ago today.”

Wait what?

Stu leaned forward again, bracketing Billy’s head with his forearm and gently holding his jaw with the other. He kissed Billy’s pliant lips softly. “I can’t believe it’s been so long, and yet, where did the time go?” He huffed. He shifted again and pulled grunts from the recesses of Billy’s throat, and unwanted pleasure in his stomach.

It reminded him of the throes he’d feel when he and his ex girlfriends got hot and heavy. As heavy as they ever let it go. Sometimes he’d be grinding, and this spark would ignite, something small, distant. Something he needed more of, something they would never give him. He knew it was only a piece of what he might have, what he could feel. With Stu, when he moved, it was like he was finally reaching it.

“Listen baby, I know you’re shot, but just—fuck, just indulge me for one more round.” Stu pleaded, he looked desperate. He started moving, very slowly, as if to emphasize his point. Pulling his cock back a few inches, and pushing in again. Every drag out, he pulled further than the last time, it was so much, it was too much. Billy’s dick was throbbing.

The pull was unlike anything Billy’s ever felt before. Stu’s enormous fucking cock dragged within him, shooting unending pleasure through Billy’s whole body, straight to his balls. He was only working to further numb his mind, which was already scrambled beyond reason.

“Please, Billy, just stay with me one more time.” Stu kissed him again and retook Billy’s wrists in his grasp. “I’ll be so gentle, I swear.”

Stu’s stomach flexed as he moved, ramping up his pace. Going faster than Billy was ready for. The man started grunting in Billy’s ear, like he was going crazy for it too. Billy forced himself to focus on how awful this was for him, he didn’t want to imagine how his own insides must’ve felt to Stu.

Stu’s pace kept getting faster, until he finally reached the peak, Billy was squirming against the feeling of it underneath him. His legs were numb, he didn’t know what to do.

Billy lay there, helpless as wave after wave of undulating desire crashed over him, body and soul. The only control he had was in his vocal chords and he was losing it with every buck of Stu’s hips. He tried to keep his sounds, his moans, down but the sex-monster above him knew how to hit spots deep inside of him that he never knew he had. He was wailing like a whore.

He found he couldn’t look at Stu while he fucked him. Billy really thought he’d go his whole life without ever knowing what Stu’s pleasure face looked like. What he looked like when he was having sex. His brows were drawn up, he was mostly frowning in concentration. The fucking noises, too. Billy didn’t wanna know what Stu sounded like during sex! And now he was never gonna get these moans out of his head. Every now and then Stu would groan and then chuckle or smile, before trying his best to repeat whatever motion he just made.

Billy could see and hear what Stu sounded like having sex, then Stu now knew what Billy looked and sounded like during sex. It was the most embarrassed Billy’s ever been in his life, and yet, he couldn’t stop moaning. He never would admit this to another living soul, but it felt like every spot up Billy’s ass was an erogenous zone for him, and Stu’s dick was battering through it over and over again. It was the most pleasure he’s ever felt, better than masterbating, better than pussy, by a million, and the fact that Stu was not only witnessing it, but the cause of it, made Billy want to curl up and die. And cum, holy fuck, he wanted to cum so bad. If he could just get to his dick.

What was this feeling?

How could he stop it?

Billy tried wrenching his hands loose from Stu’s grip, the muscles in his biceps strained, and burned. He felt like he may pass out all over again just trying.

Stu chuckled over him and tightened his grip. “Aww, poor Billy needs attention.”

A single finger dragged up his cock, Billy closed his eyes and moaned, his flush of embarrassment doubled, Stu was touching him! Touching his dick, oh god. The finger slowly trailed up the underside of Billy’s dick till it reached the tip, still gushing precum. Billy shivered and moved his own hips, hating Stu’s touch and chasing it at the same time. Two fingers pinched around the head of Billy’s cock twisting it painfully, Billy cried out a loud moan as unseeing eyes went wide. His hips worked overtime begging for more, until the fingers left, and the beautiful torture stopped.

Billy glared up at Stu in his nastiest scowl. He decided then and there that the little fucker grinning over him, eating Billy’s scowl like a wolf, would not be getting away with this. No matter what it took, no matter how long, he’d get his revenge for this. He also realized this is the longest time since he woke up, that he’s looked Stu in the eyes.

Billy blinked and turned his head to the crook of his elbow, biting his lip against any more noises.

Stu said anniversary. One year anniversary. And he wasn’t messing around—fuck, Billy was about to cum, he could feel it—but Stu! He was being serious when he said that crap. Which meant one of two things: One, Stu was more deranged than even Billy had given him credit for. Going so far as to derive an entire fantasy in his head. A fantasy that was a year in the making, that he and Billy were in lo— fucking each other for that long. Or Two, Billy had somehow woken up in a parallel universe where he and Stuart Macher, his worst enemy, were dating.

“That’s it Billy, fuck,” Stu huffed in his ear, Billy must’ve been so enraptured, so lost, it actually sounded good. The roughness of Stu’s voice, his breath ghosting his ear. It only added to his pleasure. “You sound so beautiful, moanin’ for me. Come on, baby, sing for me.”

Stu’s free hand snuck under Billy’s lower back, hiking him up further as he drew in, moving Billy’s body to meet him thrust for thrust, draw for draw. That cock drilling deeper than ever.

When Billy came, he was screaming. He saw white.

And then nothing.

Chapter Text

Billy sighed over his cigarette as he repeatedly flicked his stupid lighter. It was dying, he’d have to buy a new one soon.

He finally got past the initial spark and ducked his head close, cupping his hand over the flame. It wasn’t really windy, but fall’s in Woodsboro were always fucking cold. Hence the cancer stick in the first place, it would warm his insides while his hoodie-under-jean jacket combo warmed his outsides.

Billy snapped his lighter shut and tucked it away. He looked at the barren trees that surrounded him, what few leaves clinging to each branch was either orange or brown.

The wet asphalt out on the road reflected last night's drizzle. Just enough snow to make driving more dangerous, and the day more freezing, but not near enough to linger for anyone to witness its fallen beauty. A little ‘fuck you’ from the heavens, how cute.

The school doors were opening any minute now, till then, most of Woodsboro High’s student body milled together by the open courtyard. Billy assumed there were a few loners like him, waiting on or in their cars. Maybe some doing last minute homework, some utilizing the personal heaters for as long as possible. Billy’s battery was too shitty for him to dare risk it. He’d rather have a shitbox that drove, thanks. Besides, he always had cigarettes.

It was November 3rd, according to Stu, the newspapers, Hank, and any calendar he looked at. Three days after he robbed that Witch shop.

The right day in the week. Everything was normal.

Except…

“Hey baby,” Stu laughed as he popped into view. He hopped up on Billy’s hood happy as sin, even when the metal bowed.

Stu still thought they were boyfriends.

Billy was still trapped in the wrong fucking universe.

Three fucking days.

Three days!

That first morning, after Billy’d woken up aching and exhausted and naked in Stu’s bed, again, he had at least been able to move. It was pitch dark all around and Stu was fast asleep beside him.

Billy had quietly slipped out of bed, gathered what clothes he could feel for and snuck the fuck out of the room. He dressed in the hall where there was better light, and went downstairs to look for his keys.

He’d found Stu’s IROC, what he was assuming was his parents BMW. And the only other set of keys he could find, what had to be his, belonged to a Porsche. His dad had a Porsche, but that couldn’t be right, Billy drove his mom’s old car. He literally went out to look at the driveway to see what car the keys unlocked just to confirm he wasn’t going insane, but no. He was driving his dad’s car.

Driving through the city on the brink of freaking the fuck out, only made everything worse. There were billboards up he’d never seen before put in place of old one’s he was familiar with. There were different store fronts in buildings that he knew used to be a laundromat, or coffee shop, or convenience store. The whole city just looked different. Like his Woodsboro but slightly askew. There were different roads under construction, and the ones he remembered to be under construction in his Woodsboro were clear. There were new potholes on familiar streets that had never been there before.

All of that was freaky, and only one more straw each on the camel that was Billy’s sanity, but what did him in, what actually made him break his disbelief, was going home.

The house he’d driven up to was no longer his. Or his parents. At first Billy thought the wrong cars in the driveway further solidified his theory that he had woken up in a parallel universe. But there was a different last name on the mailbox, and chalk graffiti all down the sidewalk. There were kids' bikes and toys laying scattered over the lawn. In the backyard, his backyard, he saw a trampoline that had never previously existed. No Loomis’ lived here anymore.

Billy drove to the nearest 24 hour diner. A small town like Woodsboro had a few local-owned one’s here and there. The one he knew best was Del’s Diner, at least some things never changed.

He drove up, went straight to the payphone where the yellow pages were waiting for him.

Apparently his dad had an apartment on the other side of town, closer to Stu’s place actually. Much closer.

He wasn’t surprised when the extra key on his ring worked for the lock, but it still freaked him out.

The whole apartment was bigger than Billy was expecting. And it was weird to only think of now, but it was clear the influence of his mother’s taste was completely gone. The posters of the movies Hank’s produced were off the linen closet floor and hanging prominently on the walls. Instead of beige and teal, the dominant colors across the whole space (or what Billy could see in the dark) were hot red, orange, and black. Hank’s old record collection was out of the attic and on an entertainment display next to what looked like a working record player.

Complete with the odd beer bottle, spare pieces of trash on the floor, and discarded coats draped across any given surface, this place looked like the epitome of a middle aged loser's bachelor pad.

Billy went to his room with a sick feeling in his guts. So in this universe, Hank’s completely moved on. Who knows when Nancy left them in this life. When Billy was fifteen? Five? New universe, new rules.

When he eventually found which door was his room, he scoured the entire space. All up in the closet, the dresser, the attached private bathroom was a bitchin discovery, just like Stu’s room, only to stop suddenly as he went through his nightstand. There was a polaroid photo there of him and Stu.

The Billy in the photo was looking somewhat past the viewfinder with a crooked smile, one of his eyes was pinched shut as Stu kissed him on the cheek. Ew. It was so fucking bizzaro to look at. He couldn’t believe the boy in the picture was him. He looked… really happy. Billy felt sick, tossing the photo back and shoving the whole drawer shut before moving on.

As he searched he found his weed stash—at least that hadn’t changed—some illegal movies, his old journal, he didn’t know what he was looking for that night until he’d found it.

Scratched into the wood of his bed frame, in the corner post, he found a message.

For the eyes of the Other Billy

And an arrow pointing down.

He shoved his mattress back, but there was nothing. He looked all around the area below the words. Down the post, looking for anything else. Till finally he shoved the whole bed away from the wall and found it. Under where the foot of the bedpost was resting was a carved star on the floor board.

Billy dug out his pocket knife and pulled up the board. Under the panel he found voodoo dolls of him and Stu, the dolls had matching red hearts embroidered on their chests and they were stitched together at their hands. He also found striking flint, a bundle of dried hay tied together with some red twine, the separate spool of twine, a heavy cloth, and a bright purple vial of some sort of liquid tied to a necklace. The final and most important item he found was a note.

Dear Parallel Billy,

The handwriting was nothing he recognized.

Yes, I know who you are and where you came from. And I can help you get back to your world.

You pissed off a powerful witch, and got your dumbass stuck in the wrong timeline. Fucking idiot, who steals from a witch? In October!

I’ve left these items for you to use when the time is right. On the next blue moon, burn the dolls. Wrap them in the cloth with the dried hazel, use the flint as a starter and the kerosene as accelerant. The last ingredient you need is something called Holly Weed, aka Dog’s Ear. It’s not in season yet, it will be by the blue moon. Burn the items wherever you find some growing wild.

But remember! Parallel Stu, the Stu you met before (how was anal btw? Haha! Bet it blew your little virgin mind, you pent up fuck, bet doing girls wouldn't be half a good as that shit), he can NEVER know the truth about who you are!!! If he finds out, that total fucking doofus will screw everything up, and the ritual won’t work. Repeat: WILL NOT WORK. Trust me. There is NO universe where Stu finds out and you make it back to your time. The second Stu knows the truth, that's mission over, man. Kiss your old life goodbye! So let me say that again:

DO. NOT. GIVE. YOURSELF. AWAY!!!

There is some good news though, even if you get the ritual wrong this time, all you’d have to do is wait for the next blue moon to try again. Just make sure you have all the right ingredients, and wait till the witching hour.

Alright, good luck bitch! Have fun in a new life.

- An invested friend

Billy has since tried looking for the witch doctor shop with no luck. He drove where it was in his life but there was a pizza place in its stead, he tried looking it up in the yellow pages but there was no listing, he even went to the library, tried to look it up in the goddamn Woodsboro Business Registry, but it was like the shop never existed. He couldn’t find any record of it ever being open.

He’d also spent a fair amount of research on Dog’s Ear. Whoever wrote the note, which Billy had a sneaking suspicion it was the parallel version of himself, which was such a weird thought, was right. Dog’s Ear wasn’t in season yet. It mostly grew in the thick forests around moist/damp soil. It got its name due to the natural droopy shape its leaves grew in, and Billy didn’t know if he’d need to harvest the leaves or the tiny black flower for his ritual. He wasn’t gonna risk being forced to wait for the next full moon. He’d use it all.

Which brings us back to present, November 3rd, Billy had to wait till the end of the month before he could even try going back. And until then he was stuck here with a Stu who thought Billy was his boyfriend, and he had to pretend like he was at all happy about it.

“Dumbass.” Billy greeted cordially. He reached back and swatted Stu’s leg. “Get off the hood, it's about to cave in.”

Stu snickered and climbed off, he wrapped long arms around Billy’s waist, totally pleased with himself. And Billy’s whole state of being was screaming to shove the doofus back and punch him square in the mouth.

“Damn babe.”

Billy actually yelped when Stu suddenly grabbed him.

“Your ass is amazing. Can’t believe I get to plow this thing on the regular.” He purred.

And he wasn’t just a cute little pinch either, this degenerate actually had a handful of Billy’s ass, and he was squeezing hard.

Billy breathed through his nose once before he shoved Stu back, “You fucking idiot!” and punched him in the mouth. “People can see!”

“ ‘s nothin’ they haven’t seen before,” Stu whined and wiped his bottom lip. “Besides, there’s no one even out here.”

The shrill of the bell pierced long and loud through the air.

The boys gathered their things and began walking to school together. A few steps in and Stu was throwing a free arm over Billy’s shoulder.

Billy tsked and pinched Stu’s exposed side and caused the freak to flinch, making him weak enough that Billy could successfully push him off. Any other way he tried just ended with Billy in a headlock, while Stu laughed at his efforts to escape.

Three days he’s been fucking dealing with this. Billy had no idea how Tatum, or any of Stu’s exes, put up with him in his world. But Stu was clingy, clingy. The kind of boyfr—person who liked to keep his hands everywhere that wasn’t to himself. And it was driving Billy crazy.

He’d already known this fact about Stu, hell he’d witnessed it enough. But holy shit was it so much worse when he was the one dating Stu.

Which he wasn’t, not really, but he had to deal with all the consequences of it.

Stu moved to Billy’s other side and threw his other arm over his shoulders with a snicker.

Billy just sighed and let it be. Stu wouldn’t stop. He was a fucking physical touch machine.

“You’ve got your make-up test today right?” Stu asked, “I’ll grab us dinner while you're stuck here, so don’t worry about it. Just meet me outside the theater hall when you’re done.”

Oh yeah, that other thing. Apparently the parallel him, and the Stu in this life, were semi-geniuses. They were both in all-advanced classes. Seriously, for every single subject.

Billy’s first day in Wrong Woodsboro High, he’d obviously had a lot going through his mind. Especially when figuring out that some of the kids in his Wrong classes were Wrong themselves, as in, people he’d never seen before. And some kids he thought he knew, were gone entirely like they never existed; all that on top of the fact that he’d had a test in Algebra II that he wasn’t expecting and knew none of the material for, made him bomb. Spectacularly.

It was a major grade too, because of course it was.

The teacher, a Mr. Steve Levy, whom he’d never heard of, was nice or stupid enough to let Billy and the handful of other kids who failed make up the test today after school.

Which got Billy thinking about his situation again.

I mean, should he even try at school? It wouldn't matter to him, ultimately, because he was leaving in a month. But then, if he was here, stuck in a parallel world, with parallel people, living this parallel life, then where was Parallel Billy? The only logical assumption Real Billy could make, is that they had switched lives, and somewhere out there Parallel Billy was living his life right now. And if that stupid motherfucker was going around fucking Real Stu, bombing major grade tests, and ruining his life, he’d be fucking pissed.

So he resolved to make an effort in all his classes, and keep up the facade with Parallel Stu for Parallel Billy’s sake. Even if, on principle, Billy hated his other self. I mean, what kind of fucking idiot fell in love with Stuart dumbass Macher? And on top of everything, to add insult to injury, let Stu shove his dick up their ass?! How could the Billy in this world be such a pussy ass loser? The Billy in any world was the apex. Fucking pansy fag! To let Stu fuck him was nothing less than insulting! Although, with how good Stu was at it, Billy couldn’t exactly blame the guy… completely. He still hated Parallel Billy on principle. The guy went against everything Real Billy stood for.

All that to say, on top of witchy research, Billy had spent the past three days buried in math textbooks. He’d get a fucking A on this goddamn test if it killed him, and that pansy ass, butt pirate, faggot fucking loser better be doing the same for him in his world.

Chapter Text

When Billy walked out of school, he noticed Stu immediately, even way out in the parking lot across the street. Mostly because the second he emerged, Stu started waving his long arm and going, “Hey! Billy!” As if Billy was both blind and deaf or something.

Billy grit his teeth as he watched the steam of air escape Stu’s lips due to the chill in the air. He had a stupid exaggerated grin over his face. He looked… really happy. The idiot just saw him at the beginning of the last period (Stu insisted he walk Billy to all his classes), what did he have to be so excited about? It was extremely off-putting.

So Billy turned away and started walking down the sidewalk. He shoved his hands in his pockets, wondering if he should start wearing his gloves now that it was early November.

He heard Stu’s distant, “What the fuck, babe?!” And pressed on.

He hadn’t even made it up the block before Stu’s IROC came speeding to usurp him.

Billy sighed as Stu clambered out of the driver’s seat, watching as the steam escaped from his own breath in parallel.

Stu jogged up to him and those ever-reaching hands wrapped themselves around Billy, settling at his lower back. “Hey baby, come on, I got hot food in the car.”

Billy grunted as Stu kissed his cheek. “What is it?”

“Charlie’s.”

Billy wrinkled his nose. Burgers and fries from one of Billy’s favorite spots in the city, and exactly what he needed right now. But he wasn’t gonna give Stu the satisfaction of knowing it. “That shit is a greaseball in a wrapper.”

“And delicious.”

“You disgust me.”

“You love me anyway.” Stu laughed with his tongue out before pulling away to open the passenger door for Billy.

Billy stood frozen for a second.

Love.

He supposed… that might actually be true. According to this Stu, they’ve been dating for a year. It was so weird to think that a Billy in any world could really be in love with Stu. And be loved by him.

Something uncomfortable panged deep in Billy’s already twisted guts. Something that felt suspiciously like guilt. Which was ridiculous because there was nothing to be guilty about. It wasn’t his fault that he, a Billy who didn’t love Stu, was trapped in a universe where Stu did. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t reciprocate those feelings.

Billy cleared his throat and stepped up to the car, he couldn’t stand the love sick expression in Stu’s eyes.

Kissing Stu was…weird. Mostly because he didn’t want to, but as his boyfriend, he had to. And Stu only wanted to make out. Seriously, if the guy had to choose between breathing for five minutes or suffocating between Billy’s lips, he’s suck face every time. Worse than that, Stu was a damn good kisser.

“Fuck off of me already,” Billy hissed shoving his boyfriend back. “I wanna watch the movie!”

Everyday in this world Stu insisted they go out on some kind of date. Everyday. And no, no matter what he said or did, Billy couldn’t get out of it. Today was Billy’s ‘choice’ and he found out the Rialto downtown was showing reruns of scary movies. It was better than most of the other date options in this boring ass town.

Stu was completely undeterred. He giggled like a psycho before latching teeth first onto Billy’s neck. Billy’s lashes fluttered as he lost the feeling in his hands. Holy fuck. His most recent ex, Sidney, was such a damn prude she barely kissed him, even without tongue. And they’d broken up six months ago. Needless to say it had been a while since Billy had any kind of action.

Except this past Halloween, of course.

Before he could think, his hands went to Stu, one to the back of his moving head, the other to grasp his shoulder.

Fuck was Stu good at everything? No wonder he never had a problem finding a bitch to fuck at parties.

There was a scream from the chick on the screen. Billy had never seen this particular scary movie before, Stab it was called, it didn’t exist in his world. It was apparently based on a true story, and he wanted to pay attention. But he couldn’t see shit when his eyes closed in pleasure as Stu bit the shit out of the hickey he’d just created.

“Stu!” Billy shoved him back again. “You fucking leech, let me watch it.”

“Come on babe, we’ve seen this one a million times.” Stu stopped sucking, but between whines he pressed gentle kisses over Billy’s neck and cheek.

“You’re not gonna stop, are you?”

“What do you think?”

“I think if you don’t stop, I’m gonna leave your ass here and go sit somewhere I won’t be slobbered on.” Billy seethed.

Stu snorted and pulled Billy closer, even with the arm rest dividing them. “You wouldn’t.”

Billy tsked, and moved to get up. “Alright.”

“What, seriously? No, no! Okay, okay,” Stu backed entirely away from Billy’s body, even his seat, throwing his hands up. “Okay, fine you win.”

“What I thought.”

“Can we at least hold hands?”

Billy scowled, without looking at Stu. “No.”

But when those long fingers intertwined in his, he didn’t fight the hold. They continued the movie like that, just holding hands. Stu’s hands were big, and comfortable, at least not clammy—Billy didn’t put up with that shit. They were a little cold, actually, which was fine because Billy naturally exuded heat, and it might’ve… not been… that horrible.

Occasionally Stu would reach over and pull popcorn from the bucket in Billy’s lap, but other than that, he was finally keeping his hands to himself. Except the one time he leaned over offered to feed Billy the popcorn from his lips, to which Billy tossed a handful of kernels in Stu’s face, and they both just went back to watching the movie after that.

Billy sighed as he knelt in the dirt, pressing on the ground. He couldn’t tell if it was wet enough for Dog’s Ear. Or maybe it was too wet? Going out into the woods and actually trying to look for the stuff was becoming a habit for him. So far he couldn’t find any clusters of it. He knew they weren’t ready yet, but did they even exist? Billy still didn’t know where that note came from, whoever wrote it could just be jerking his chain.

And yet, in his backpack he carried a cigar box of all the items on the list, and a spade he stole. All he needed now was to find the weed.

“Damn it,” he’d seen the stuff enough in books, and now he was doubting all that work. Would he even recognize it if he saw it in real life? He continued looking, moving over to the other side of the brooke.

No luck. Though twice he almost thought he found it, but the flower buds were wrong, and the leaves were too thick. It was probably the same weed but a different type of it or something. Wasn’t there like more than one kind of mint?

He went up and down the same twenty yards of creek looking, it was the largest stretch of landscape he could go without the trees blocking his view of the sky. He didn’t want to take any chances on any aspect of the spell, even being somehow visible to the moon itself.

And then he found it.

Billy let out a laugh of disbelief. He triple checked every part of it. The stem shoot was about six inches tall, the buds of the black flowers that had yet to bloom were the right color, the leaves were the exact fucking shape. Looked exactly like a dog’s drooping ears. He found it!

Billy gauged about a foot away from the plant, not wanting to disturb its roots and started digging. He pulled out the box to properly measure the size— “Billy?”

The kneeling boy jumped, accidentally kicking up more dirt than he meant to as he looked ahead. “Stu?” His heart began thudding in his chest. Shit. No, no, no, of all the people in this world! He had to act, how could he hide the box sitting in front of him without looking suspicious? Fuck, fuck, fuck. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Billy watched, panicking as Stu only drew closer. He took the single long step needed to cross the brooke, keeping his eyes on Billy. He looked extremely confused.

“Me?” He somewhat chuckled, “what the fuck are you doing here? I’ve been calling your place the last hour.” He knelt in front of Billy, looking at the stuff around him. The spade in his hand, the hole, the open back pack, the cigar box, “...Your dad finally just told me to try the park, have you been coming here a lot?”

“No.”

Stu snorted and reached. “What the hell are you doing?”

“None of your business—hey! Don’t touch that!” Billy was a second too late.

The box was in Stu’s hands.

Billy’s panic usurped his whole body when Stu opened the damn thing. He jumped up, reaching for it.

“What the fu— hey!” Stu laughed and held it high above their heads, before moving to stand, “Oh no, no, it’s too late baby, the secret’s out.” He closed it suspended and kept it far away from Billy.

“Stu! Give it back!” Billy couldn’t get it as he tried, “Fucking asshole, seven foot freak!”

“You’re making a little time capsule aren’t you?” Stu was oozing giddy, “that’s so adorable! I wanna see what you put in it.”

“Stu!”

With one arm busy trying to keep a struggling Billy away, Stu opened the box way up in the air. “Come on, what are you burying? Got any good pictures?”

“Goddamn it, Stu!”

“What the fuck?” Stu got too curious upon seeing the first item, which was a spool of red twine. He tilted the box to better see and all the ingredients spilled out. “Oh crap!”

They both went to grab at the items, Billy caught the kerosene as it fell, and thank fuck. The fucking thing was glass. The grass here was plush and the ground soft, but his heart still damn near fell out of his ass at the thought of it hitting the ground.

Unfortunately, taking the time to save the accelerant meant sacrificing the rest of the items for Stu to go poking at. He picked up the dolls, because of course he did.

“D’aww babe! This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! Did you make this?” Stu laughed, “we’re holding hands, oh my god, I’m gonna die.”

“Give it back,” Billy growled as he shot forward to snatch the dolls. Once in his hands he shoved Stu back for good measure.

“Hey—” Stu landed on his ass away from the items as Billy knelt to grab the rest. He was desperate to put them back in the box as quickly as possible, his blood was singing. “Ouch, touchy.”

“Goddamn it Stu! Why are you here?!” Billy shouted. He roughly stowed the box in his backpack and tossed it out of Stu’s reach.

Stu’s smile faded some. “Yeesh, just wanted to know why my boyfriend was dodging my calls. There’s no need to get embarrassed, baby, I think it’s cute.”

“I’m not dodging your calls, asshole, I’m busy,” Billy seethed. “So just get the fuck out of here, give me some goddamn space for fucking once. Take the hint!”

“Hey, hey,” Stu sat up and shifted to his knees, “there’s no need to be hostile—”

“Yes there is!” Billy argued, “cause you either refuse to listen to me, or actually can’t fucking understand that I want to be alone right now! So get the fuck out!”

“Billy—”

“Leave!”

“Okay,” Stu stood again, “okay, geez,” Billy rose with him. He turned away dusting himself off, before turning back. “Look, I didn’t mean to piss you off, I was just—”

“Fuck off, Stu! Get the fuck out of my sight.”

“...are we still on for later? The arcade?”

“I don’t give a fuck!” Billy seethed. “Go!”

Stu nodded and turned away, finally leaving Billy alone.

“Fuck!” 

Stu still didn’t know a thing, that was key, and Billy could only hope that him interacting with the items wouldn’t change anything.

Billy buried the damn box, still pissed. The note was right, Billy was sure now, if Stu ever found out the truth, he’d just screw everything up.

Billy stood from the fourth step up, looking at goddamn fucking mess awaiting him in complete disbelief. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

“Billy!” Stu popped up from somewhere behind a tall shelf. “Thank fuck you’re here! Jesus fuck, I need some help… shit.”

“Yeah…” Billy slowly took the next two steps before stopping abruptly. Noticing Stu’s shoes which were left behind on the stairs, as well as the socks tucked into them. “Over the phone, when you said ‘busted pipe’…” he looked at the about inch layer of water that flooded the entire concrete floor, “...I honestly don’t know what I was expecting.”

Stu had called him about a half hour ago in a panic about the basement, Billy was in the middle of witchy research. He was He was about half way to the blue moon, largely used to this life. He more or less felt like he knew what to expect. At least, he thought he did.

On any given day he’d wake up, get dressed, go to school to be endlessly groped, slobbered over, and irritated by his boyfriend. Go on a date after school. And go home to passively ignore Hank’s existence until the next day. Weekends were tedious because Billy was running out of excuses not to stay over. Having sex with Stu again was not on his agenda, and he couldn’t risk giving Stu access to him for more than eight to twelve hours.

“I’ve just been trying to get everything off the floor.” Stu chuckled but in a way that said he was extremely overwhelmed.

Billy sighed before taking off his shoes, socks, and rolling his jeans as high up his shins as they could go. The things he’d do— he froze, catching his thought before it could be complete. Nope.

“You’re making this up to me, Stuart,” Billy winced as he stepped into freezing water.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll buy you a beer,” Stu promised, “can you just put this box over on that desk?”

Together the boys got to work and cleared what they could off the basement floor. The big furniture pieces like the wooden secretaries desk in the corner, every large standing shelf, the unused chairs and the couch, were all piled and cluttered upon.

Neither Billy nor Stu knew how to fix a busted pipe, the furthest Stu had gotten before Billy came was at least shutting off the waterline.

“You might have to replace this section of the pipe,” Billy surmised as he inspected the damage. He couldn’t really tell if it was that bad. It looked like a crack in a pipe, that was the extent of his knowledge. “Other than that, you could check your folks’ address book and see if they have a plum—”

Just as Billy turned to Stu, shrugging his solutions to the boy, he was hit with a face full of basement water.

An uproarious cackle erupted from Stu.

“You asshole!” Billy growled and lunged for him.

Stu screeched, dropped the solo cup he found, and took off running.

“Come here, you little shit!”

“Ah!” Stu laughed somewhat deliriously as he ran, barely evading Billy’s hands at his back, “Baby-baby wait! You gotta admit, it was funny!”

“I’ll admit you’re a walking assclown with a death wish, who’s gonna regret that real soon!”

“I already regret it, I already regret it!” But he was laughing as he said it. Running this way and that, kicking up cold stagnant water, dodging his boyfriend. “I already regret it, please!”

“Too bad!”

Stu ran around a chair that Billy just toppled over, he no longer gave a fuck that he and Stu had spent the last hour trying to keep things off the ground. If Stu wanted dry keepsakes, he shouldn’t piss his boyfriend off. Billy barrelled straight into Stu, who yelped upon contact and they both went down.

“Ah shit!”

Billy moved quickly, dry clothes be damned, he clambered on top of Stu, splashing water in his shouting face from the actual floor. He got him pinned and wouldn’t let him up.

“Ah! Okay, okay! No! Fuck!”

Billy’s jeans and shirt were wet from the initial fall, now his knees propped on the floor were getting further soaked. He didn’t give a fuck. “How do you like it, you little prick?”

“I give! I give!” Stu scrambled to shove Billy off and wipe his face.

Eventually, Billy stopped and let Stu recuperate. Not that the fucker deserved it.

Stu chuckled up at Billy, “you got me.”

“Asshole.” Billy grumbled.

Stu hummed in delight and wet hands pulled Billy’s face in. Stu’s lips were all consuming. Any time they kissed, as slow or hesitant as Billy was at first, Stu always knew how to draw him out. Make him give as much as he was given. Stu’s warm tongue caressed Billy’s and the boy quietly moaned. He couldn’t get used to the feel of it. Wet and hot and mind-numbing. Really. Billy always felt this weird buzz in his brain when Stu’s tongue played in his mouth. It was like his inhibitions turned to jello at the slightest touch.

Stu’s hands slipped from Billy’s face, down to grope his ass. He gave a generous squeeze before moving Billy’s hips over his crotch. Together they moaned at the friction.

There it was, that zing of total electricity. Addicting. Dangerous.

Billy pulled Stu’s hands off him, humming into his mouth before he pulled away. “I hope you learned your lesson, you little shit.”

Stu’s hands grasped Billy’s as they pushed his off, held them tighter, pulling them in to kiss the knuckles. “Not really, but maybe we can go up to my room and work on it some more?”

A jolt of panic rushed through Billy’s heart. Fuck, fuck. He tried to school his expression against his warring emotions. He might’ve been a little too forceful when he declined with a sharp, “No.” He closed his mouth. Too much. He laughed, “we can’t go upstairs and work on anything, stupid.”

“Aww baby, why not?”

“Stu!” Billy couldn’t help the real smile that the idiot inspired, one from complete disbelief. “There’s no water running in your house! Quit chasing ass and fix your damn pipe!”

In the end, Billy had to threaten to leave twice during the process of Stu actually dealing with the problem. He just called a plumber (like Billy had been trying to suggest) and set an emergency appointment for later in the afternoon.

After that, he took Billy down the street to this tiny taco stand to get some food for a job well done. Billy almost choked himself to death laughing when Stu dropped his first one the moment he got it and then a swooping seagull attacked the second, making off with half of it and letting the rest fall again. Stu gave up eating after that and—still laughing so hard he couldn’t speak—Billy shoved his extra chips and salsa over to Stu.

Not a bad way to spend a shitty afternoon.

The live music was so loud, Billy could feel it in his bones. He checked his watch, fifteen past four. He put his fist against his mouth and tried not to worry.

The bar was a little fish n’ chip shop right across from Woodsboro’s minor league baseball field. Stu had gotten the tickets a week ago, to apologize to Billy for pissing him off in the park. Billy still hated to remember that day, it wasn’t Stu who should be apologizing. But whatever, the matter was behind them, and Billy wasn’t gonna say no free food and a good game.

He pulled the drink menu again, wondering if he should order some beers for them yet. This was the kind of place where peanut shells littered basically every flat surface. The tables were all propped up on these giant wood barrels, and the walls were covered floor to ceiling in pictures, road signs and neon. The band on stage was fine, Billy was used to country, and the air was warm. A good alternative to the biting chill outside.

Billy checked his watch again. Twenty-two days and never once had Stu been late for a date.

The plan was to go home from school to change, eat here, kill a little time, then hop across the street at six to catch the game. 

Well plans change. Billy left a tip on the table for the waitress and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair.

With the field being on one end of town, practically at the ocean, Billy could drive through checking all the usual spots for Stu; school, the 7/11 on Truant, the arcade, and the Blockbuster, while slowly making his way to Stu’s house as he eliminated each of them. Halfway through he had to crank up the heat, he hated to do it cause the shitbox he drove didn’t like to run two things at once (in this case the heater and the engine), but he’d been driving around town for the better part of an hour and the snowfall was only getting worse.

The taco stand right down the street from Stu’s house was his last hope, Billy even looked on the road as he drove, hoping that every Camaro he saw was Stu’s. But none were.

They couldn’t have been. Because when Billy finally pulled up the Macher Mansion driveway, he found Stu’s Camaro waiting for him.

He didn't even leave his house? What the fuck was going on?

Billy used his key to get in, “Stu!” The immediate foyer and drawing rooms that greeted him were empty, silent. He moved on, slightly jogging, reveling in the heat of the house, “You’re officially an hour late, asshole! Where the fuck—”

He found Stu in the back study.

With his parents.

Stu was leaning against the far wall, Stu’s dad was standing over him holding a piece of paper in his hands. Stu’s mother was closest to Billy but still feet away leaning her hip against the large wooden desk.

Billy had only caught one word from Stu’s dad before the shock of his intrusion silenced the room.

“...unacceptable—!”

Stu’s mother gasped, uncrossing her arms.

His father stopped leaning over his son to glare at Billy. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Who are you?”

Billy ignored them, heart thudding. “Stu! There you are, you goddamn asshole, we’re late! Come on!” He kept his eyes on his boyfriend.

Stu looked between Billy and his parents with wide eyes. “Billy.”

“Young man,” Stu’s dad turned to fully face Billy, even taking a step towards him. “Now, I don’t know how you got in my home, but I’m having a conversation with my son. He can’t come with you for whatever you need, please leave now.”

“We’re dealing with a…family matter,” Stu’s mother nodded. “Stuart won’t be going anywhere this evening.” She pursed her lips and looked Billy up and down, “You can try again tomorrow, but you know you should call first, it’s very rude to barge into someone’s home.”

Billy scoffed and walked further in the room, right up to Stu. Stu’s parents reacted one moment after him, getting closer.

“Excuse me, we’re asking you very politely to leave now.”

“Yes,” Stu’s father nodded, “and if you don’t comply, we’ll be forced to call the police.”

“So call ‘em.” Billy snatched Stu’s wrist and turned away, dragging the boy behind him.

Stu didn’t need to be told twice, quick steps kept up with Billy’s pace.

“Stuart!” His mother called. “Don’t you dare leave this house!”

“I’m leaving ma, I’m going with Billy…” he muttered.

Billy grit his teeth against the meekness in his voice. Since when was Stu ever subdued?

Billy yanked Stu around and shoved him to walk in front. Stu only stumbled a second, then switched to hold Billy’s hand and didn’t look back.

“Stuart! We’re not done talking—”

Billy slammed the door in his fathers face and the boys took off running down the hall.

They didn’t stop till they made it to Billy’s car, the adrenaline kept them warm under the snow.

Billy drove them all the way back. No voices broke the chill in the car the whole time.

He parked in the lot of the fish n’ chip shop and just sighed. Stu’s sigh mirrored his and he slumped back in his seat.

They both stared out the windshield watching white fluffy flakes collect on the glass and car hood.

Billy swallowed a thick gulp, remembering all the times he’d ever been jealous of Stu. Jealous that Stu’s parents were still together. Everyone knew that house was mostly empty, Stu had way too many parties for it not to be. Billy remembered all the times he’d voiced it, all the times he used their absence to get the better of Stu in fights. He felt like the biggest piece of shit on earth.

Billy suddenly snapped over to Stu and pulled him into a hug.

Stu grunted and shifted, “Billy come on, what are you doing?” He didn’t reciprocate the hug. “Billy, don’t do this, you don’t have to.” Stu’s hands awkwardly landed on his shoulders, he was gently trying to push Billy away, the attempts were pathetic at best. “I know you hate hugs, just get off of me, I’m fine.” Billy held him tighter. “Billy…” Stu’s voice tightened. “I’m…”

“It’s okay.”

Stu threw his arms around Billy, and squeezed tightly. Billy matched his force, putting a hand to his hair and pressing his face into his shoulder.

“It just… it sucks, man.” Stu’s voice was pretty damn muffled, but Billy still heard the warble. “It really sucks.”

Billy nodded and rubbed Stu’s back.

Stu gasped and buried himself further against Billy, who shifted to climb over Stu. Full contact.

Stu’s arms couldn’t get enough of him. Held him close, squeezed his body hard, Billy didn’t say a word. He kept Stu’s head pressed to his chest and his hand running over Stu’s back.

The sun set under the horizon line and the two held together still. The heat was off. It was so warm.

When Billy finally pulled away, after what had to be an hour at least, Stu was giving him a watery smile.

Billy gently wiped the tears from his face. “Cry baby.” He softly admonished.

Stu laughed with a sniffle and nodded.

It was the first time in twenty-two days that Billy kissed Stu first.

They made the game after all, because fuck Stu’s parents, and ate a semblance of dinner in one of the over priced consession bars. They shivered in their seats, huddled close to each other. Stu bought them huge hot chocolates, Billy bought them ridiculous matching team beanies and together they watched Woodsboro lose 5-3 against the other team. It was a good game.

Chapter Text

Billy’s hands were shaking as he opened the large doors. He was immediately assaulted with the sounds and worse, smells of a bowling alley. It was dark, with mostly lowlights or neon strobes. The carpet clung to the bottom of Billy’s sneakers as he walked in, but he let it slide when the heat of being indoors cradled his whole body.

Billy walked up to the front desk to be greeted by a peppy desk greeter. He let the man know he was looking for the Lahey party and was immediately directed to lanes eight and nine.

Billy passed the bar with wary eyes. Honestly, he could take a drink right now. Anything to kill the nerves shooting off in his blood. Numb hands twitched.

He found Stu pretty easily. As expected, he was the one being the loudest most obnoxious asshole in the lane.

Billy went up to the railing on the upper lever. “Stu.” The idiot was busy negging one of the other guys, had him in a headlock. Billy tsked and cupped his hands over his mouth. “Hey dumbass!”

The whole party stopped and looked at Billy.

Stu let go of the poor whelp under his arm. “Babe?”

One of the boys snickered.

Billy hated to have the attention on him, he was fired up as it was. “Can we talk?”

Stu turned back to the guys. “Sorry gents, duty calls.” He got a few wolf whistles and some return jabs as he walked out from among them. “Get off me, you worthless punks,” he laughed, soaking up the attention, “hey nobody but Peterman touches my ball, ‘specially you Harper!” He made it up to Billy, laughing all the way. “Hey baby.”

Billy barely felt the kiss pressed to his lips, “Hey. Come on, let’s go.” He took Stu’s hand.

Stu followed along without protest, “I thought you’d be gone by now. Where’s your old man?”

“He’s waiting in the car,” Billy lied quickly, “I told him to give me a second so I could talk to you.”

“Fine by me, I was wanting another goodbye kiss.” Stu giggled.

Dumbass. Billy didn’t say anything else until they were through the crowd, through the whole building and outside.

It was fucking freezing, but quiet at least. The snow came in further away from the entrance doors, salt crunched under their footsteps as they stayed on concrete. Billy pulled them off the beaten path to the little sidewalk running along the perimeter of the building. It had long stopped snowing by now, so the air was both stale and cold.

“Alright, you got me, what’s this all about?”

Billy swallowed, grateful for the frigid air. The tangle in his chest expanded and folded within himself, made his skin hot, made his words stutter.

“Stu–Stu, you know my dad and I are,” fuck, “my dad and I are taking a stupid fucking weekend trip, but-but I’m trying to get out of it so,” he looked the boy up and down. Shit, there was this horrible swoop in the pit of his stomach, he felt like the sidewalk was falling out from under him. “So if-if you see me, you know, before Monday, then that’s why. But like, I might still be pissed and just want to forget about it, so probably don’t mention it.”

“Sure,” Stu laughed, his brow furrowed in confusion, “what the fuck are you talking about babe?”

“I don’t know, don’t-don’t listen to me,” Billy sighed. He rubbed a hand over his face, willing his nerves to settle. “I’m… just–just be good, okay? While I’m… gone. Don’t be too much of a dumbass without me. And,” Fuck, he was such a fucking pussy, he was such a goddamn pussy. Billy blinked his eyes and swallowed the frog in his throat. “Don’t forget about me, okay?”

“Billy,” Stu pulled his hips in and brought their bodies close. “What the fuck are you talking about, seriously, you act like you’re leaving forever. It’s just the weekend, calm down. Less! You just said you’re gonna try to get out of it.”

Billy smiled weakly and nodded. “Yeah, well,” he took a breath and kissed Stu’s cheek. He wasn’t gonna miss these dimples, he was about to see them again. “See ya later Stu.”

Stu snorted. “That better not be your goodbye kiss, that was lame as fuck.”

“Then why don’t you show me how it’s done?”

“Gladly.”

Billy put all he couldn’t into the kiss. All he couldn’t admit. All he couldn’t explain. The missing goodbye. The tangle in his chest. He let it all go.

“There we are,” Stu ran his tongue over his bottom lip as he pulled away. “Now that’s a goodbye kiss.”

Billy allowed the boy his self-assured smirk with no come back. Just this once.

“Go have fun, babe.” Stu encouraged as they separated.

Billy nodded, he felt so cold out of Stu’s arms. “You too, tell Lahey to kick rocks for me.” He slowly backed away.

“I think you mean ‘Happy Birthday’.”

“No.”

Stu just shook his head as he watched Billy go, “I love you.”

Billy blinked again as his heart stuttered. He nodded. “I know.”

He turned away after that, he couldn’t stand the sight of Stu a second longer. His throat felt tight, his chest constricted. This was right. He was doing the right thing. This was how it was supposed to be.

It wasn’t his fault he was the only one who knew that.

Billy made it to the park in no time, he’d maybe gone a little too fast on the dangerous, icy roads, but he wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. More than ever. He was ready to never see it again. He’d said his goodbye’s, now it was time to get gone.

This was good. Stu was getting his boyfriend back. A Billy who could love him, appreciate him, and treat him like he deserves. He couldn’t be that Billy.

And Billy, he was getting his whole life back. He and Hank would still be living in that damn house. He and Stu… he and Stu were… whatever they were. The way it was supposed to be. He’d get his old, stupid classes back, with his old, stupid classmates.

Billy nodded resolutely. This was right.

He cut the engine, grabbed his spade and walked out.

He left the keys to his dads Porsche on the hood and pinned a folded letter to the windshield.

Dear this world’s Billy,

Congrats you pansy fuck. Take your stupid life back.

If you hurt Stu, I’ll come back here just to kick your ass.

 - An invested friend

That taken care of, he trekked into the woods.

The Holly Weed was snow capped and in full bloom, the pitch black flowers looked beautiful compared to the winter wonderland scene around it.

He picked a single stalk and took it apart. Flower, stem, leaves. He then took another and kept it whole. He cleared a way in the snow, and one by one brought the items from the box to the clearing. He arranged them how the note said. Fixed voodoo Stu’s hair before wrapping the dolls, doused them in the accelerant, and struck the flint.

It took a couple of tries for the sacrifice to catch, but eventually the spark became a flame. Billy watched it burn down all the way through to ash.

He closed his eyes and breathed…

When Billy opened his eyes again, he didn’t feel any different.

In fact he felt so unchanged that when he saw snow surrounding him, he wasn’t shocked. It was still cold. He thought when he went back, he’d go back to the day he left; Halloween. But he supposed that didn’t make sense.

He was just in the middle of a park, on his knees in the snow. He had no way of determining what reality he was in. Except. When he looked down, the clearing was gone. The small patch of snow he’d pushed away to make his sacrifice was gone, there was no evidence of it ever being there. At Billy’s knees was only an even covering of snow and nothing more.

Further, there was no dug hole of snow and dirt. No cigar box, no spell ingredients at all, and no digging spade. Just Billy.

He huffed a breath of relief and bowed forward. Fuck. Finally. It only took a month but he was back.

He was back.

He sat up again as his smile faded.

Yeah.

He stood and dusted the snow from his knees, wondering how the hell he was gonna get out of here. Other Billy must’ve done something similar to him and left his mom’s old Mercedes parked somewhere—

What the fuck?

Billy cleared the park, walking up to the only car in the whole lot.

His… dads… Porsche?

Maybe Other Billy convinced Hank to let him drive it around?

Just like he predicted, his other self had left the keys and a note like he had.

Dear this world’s Billy,

Congrats you pansy fuck. Take your stupid life back.

If you hurt Stu, I’ll come back here just to kick your ass.

 - An invested friend

Billy gasped and dropped the note. What the fuck?

What the fuck?!

No, no, no. Not again. Not again!

Billy got in the car and drove like a madman to the apartment.

Nothing looked different from the road, it was hard to tell for sure, but it all looked the damn same!

When he arrived he bored straight up to see if his keys opened the unit door. They did.

“You’ve gotta be fucking…” he looked around the apartment. The record player, the Popular Mechanics magazines, the movie posters. It was his dads depressing ass bachelor pad, “kidding me!”

He ran to his room and checked under the floorboards. Everything was back. The twine, the flash paper, the flint, the dolls. Everything he’d just burned, it was all there and completely untouched by flame. He threw them back and shook his head. “No.” He denied. “No!”

“Billy?”

Billy gasped and snapped his head towards his open door. Stu was standing there, a little stymied, a little worried. One of his hands was still on the door handle, the other carried a bouquet of flower stems wrapped in a huge black bow.

“Stu?” Billy questioned, “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, I’m looking for you,” Stu chuckled, as he stepped in. “It’s Monday, you know. You missed like half of school.” Billy’s eyes widened, unseeing. He cast them to the floor as he tried to process that instead of going back to his reality, he’d somehow managed to jump forward in this one by a couple of days. “Guess your hunting trip ran a little long. What are you doing over here?” He gestured to the ritual items and the open floorboard.

Billy nodded, “Yeah, you could say that.” His head snapped to the stuff. “Oh nothing. I, uh, pulled the things. From my… time capsule.”

“Good call,” Stu joined Billy, kneeling on the floor, “Better wait to bury it till after winter. Hey baby.”

Billy’s shoulders relaxed and all the tension left his body when Stu pulled him in for a hug. He rested his forehead against a strong shoulder. “Hey Stu.”

“I missed you.”

Billy returned the hug after a beat, linking his hands together behind Stu’s back. “I missed you too.” Billy couldn’t even bring himself to deny that it was the truth.

The blue moon lasted three days and two nights. Despite the apparent risk of losing time, Billy tried the ritual twice more. Once at midnight, and once again the next morning at three am. The failed midnight attempt cost him a single day, the failed three am attempt cost him twelve hours.

He had no choice but to wait for the next one, and he had no idea when that was going to be.

He kind of just let go after that, nothing really changed. Stu still regularly called Billy gross nicknames, he always complimented his body and his looks, usually emphasizing those areas with his hands, and he stayed constantly attached to Billy's side.

But more than that, now that Billy wasn't constantly thinking about his deadline, he found he could relax around Stu in a way he wasn’t expecting. Maybe relax wasn’t the right word, because it wasn’t a pleasant relief. It was worrisome. What was he gonna do now?

Stu was a good distraction from that harrowing thought. Aside from being the universe's apparent perfect boyfriend, he was just a good person. Even a little sensitive. Just sitting around talking with Stu, doing nothing at all, was so easy it made Billy question their rivalry in the first place. Did they really hate each other in his own life? Why?

Nothing made sense anymore. Certainly not Stu, and Billy didn't even know where to begin with himself.

That first week in December was the coldest yet, and not just weather-wise. Billy could feel his hopelessness pulling him away from Stu. Before, when he had a time frame, structure, and plan, he felt he could keep up the charade with relatively little imbalance to the universe at large. Now that his anchor was gone, he felt adrift. Up the creek without a paddle. Everything turned meaningless to him.

Why should he attempt to keep up appearances? For the Other Billy’s sake? At this point Real Billy wasn’t even sure if that rat fuck was ever coming back. He was lost with no purpose. What next? He didn’t have a clue.

Right now he was burying his feelings in sex. Not actual sex, mind you, but making out with Stu was a whole lot easier than answering his stupid questions. A lot more fun, too.

It wasn’t that Billy was unwilling to try sex again. Firstly, he trusted this Stu with his body, and secondly, what he remembered of his one experience was that Stu was a fucking sex god and he was kind of curious to try that shit again. Fuck it, right? But it wouldn’t be fair to Stu at all. Anytime Billy thought of going any further with him, his conscience fucking cock-blocked him. His conscience of all things!

The furthest they’d gone since Billy lost the moon was mutual hand jobs, and while it was a great experience, Billy had guilt about it for days afterward. He didn’t cherish, love, or care for Stu the same way that Stu cared for him. Stu was lovingly jerking off his boyfriend in an act of desire and intimacy. Billy was using Stu as an outlet for his depression. He was a scumbag of the highest order. So, he refused to fuck Stu when they weren’t on the same page. Stu didn’t even know who he was.

Oh, and on top of feeling hopeless and worthless, Billy also had the biggest case of imposter syndrome ever. He was stuck here enjoying the spoils of Stu’s love and affection, while Stu himself had no idea that the Billy he was wasting his time and energy on, had spent the entirety of last month tricking him and trying to get away from him.

Scumbag of the highest order.

He should kick his own ass.

“Babe, I can hear you thinking from here,” Stu frowned as he pulled off.

Billy chased his lips, “Then get me out of my head.”

“I’m trying my best here, but I think that beautiful mind of yours is winning.”

Billy sighed. He was right, of course.

They were crashed together on some loser's couch with Stu crushing Billy into the cushions. Someone's cousin’s best friend’s baby sitter’s dog was throwing a party or something and a friend of a friend of Stu’s friend invited Stu, who dragged Billy along with. To be fair, he probably, definitely, did need to get out of his room. But so far it wasn’t really helping.

Billy hiked his leg further up Stu’s hip and pulled him back in. His tongue, his lips, his breaths. Amazing.

Stu pulled away seconds later. “Listen, wait baby, wait. I’m gonna go get us some shots okay? You need to get out of here,” he leaned up and kissed Billy’s forehead meaningfully.

It wasn’t a bad idea. “Get me like four of them.”

“I think I heard the jello shots were made with Everclear?” Stu offered.

Billy shivered at the thought of ingesting pure battery acid and nodded. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”

Stu giggled and pulled away from Billy with one last kiss. “Be right back.”

“Hurry.” Billy could already feel the thoughts invading.

And then Billy was left alone on the couch, at a party surrounded by strangers, in a world where he literally didn’t belong.

It wasn’t long before he was approached, he usually was at these types of things. All it took was for people to get a little liquid courage in them. He entertained a girl named Staci with an ‘i’ for a while before gently slipping in how he came to this with his boyfriend. She politely left the conversation very quickly after that.

Then it was a dude named Kyle who practically had DWI stapled to his forehead. Billy had to lay the hints on pretty thick with that one, but eventually he too understood that Billy wasn’t about to give him anything for his troubles.

Another guy named Chris also tried his shot and after admitting that he had no problem with Billy being in a relationship, Billy told him he didn’t date any members of startup garage bands and the guy called him a bitch and left.

And at that point it’d been like fifteen minutes, so where the fuck was Stu?

Billy got up and pushed through the bodies to get to the kitchen.

By the time he made it, he found where the fuck Stu went. He was trapped in the very far corner of the kitchen counter by some chick who was practically hanging off of him.

“Jesus fuck,” Billy sighed, “Send a guy to get shots, he picks up a girl instead.”

“Billy!” Stu shoved the girl away from him, “It-it– this wasn’t what it looks like! I-I told her to piss off l-like ten times, I swear nothing happened.”

“Excuse you?” The girl huffed, “You don’t tell a girl like me to piss off, fucking prick.”

“Maybe I should put it so you understand,” Stu flipped her off, “I don’t fuck easy sluts who can’t take no for an answer. So piss off!”

She returned the finger at both of them and sauntered away with her drink.

Billy wordlessly went over to Stu, reaching for a jello shot. He’d collected like six of them already. “Fuck, how could you stand her perfume?” Stu hated the overly sweet, bubble gum scents, and where she was just standing reeked of it.

Billy downed a shot.

“Billy, baby, I fucking swear to you, I was trying to shake her. I had just set down all the shots so when you came in— and please, please believe me when I say—”

“I don’t care.” Billy shot back another, shivering at the fucking abysmal sting of alcohol. God, it really was practically jet fuel. Ugh. Anyway, he knew Stu would never cheat on him.

Stu scoffed. “You— you what?”

Billy picked up the third one. He should get some water after this, he hasn’t thrown up since the eighth grade, and he wasn’t planning on doing it now just because he wanted to go numb. He looked at Stu and shrugged before taking the third shot. “Ugh, fuck. I said I don’t care, Stu.”

“What do you mean you don’t care?”

“Just that.” Billy opened the cabinets around them, getting three or four before he found a glass for his water. “You don’t have to worry, I don’t care if she was flirting with you.” After all, no less than three people approached him just outside, it wasn’t a big deal. Woah, he steadied himself when he wasn’t preparing to spin around so hard to get to the sink. Fuck, this stuff was strong. He belatedly wondered what the proof was as he filled up.

“You don’t.”

Billy turned to look Stu in the eyes and shrug again, as he drank some water. Stu was a big boy, perfectly capable of scaring away anyone bothering him without Billy being an asshole. He shivered as the water went down, it was clean, but he could still taste the Everclear in the back of his throat.

“What the fuck?” Stu frowned. He then asked again, this time stressing each word, “What do you mean, you don’t care?”

“I don’t know.” It wasn’t like Stu could control when others approached him. He was a piece of ass. They both dealt with it, and Billy, of all people, completely understood.

“It–it doesn’t bother you that I might have been flirting with someone else?”

With the water gone, Billy sighed. “Nope.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and reached for another shot.

His blood was getting loose, and just barely starting to feel a little hot under his collar. His thoughts were already slowing down. Fucking finally. He lifted the new cup to his lips.

“Babe if you take another fucking shot right now, I swear to god,” Stu warned.

Billy’s eyes widened, “What crawled up your ass?” He questioned, he thought being an understanding boyfriend was a good thing? “You were getting them for me anyway, and there’s plenty for you still.” He slurped back the shot anyway, shaking his whole head, and pounding a fist to his chest. The worst one yet. Yeesh.

“Yeah, I don’t give a fuck about the alcohol, Loomis.”

Woah, what the fuck? What the hell was going on? Why was Stu scowling so hard? God, right when Billy’s mind was slowing down. “Then… what’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me is my own goddamn boyfriend just admitted that he doesn’t give a fuck if I cheat on him or not.” Stu seethed. “How fucking dare you? Do give a fuck about anything at all?”

“Um… yes?”

“Oh my god!” Stu shouted, “That’s fucking it! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Stu, calm the fuck down, you’re not even drunk. What are you doing?”

“No, Billy, I mean it! You’ve been acting so weird lately, and I wanna know what the fuck is wrong. What’s been going on with you?”

Oh nothing, other than the fact that he’s an alien trapped in the wrong fucking universe! Billy drew back. “I don’t know what you mean.” Fuck! Why was lying effectively like the first thing to go after balance?

“Yes you do, don’t give me that bullshit!” Stu insisted. “You’ve been acting weird for a long time Billy, and I don’t just mean this past week.”

“No, I haven’t.”

Stu ignored him. “I didn’t want to push you, I know you don’t like that, so I shut the fuck up. Tried to let you figure shit out for yourself, but it’s been long enough, okay? I’m not a fucking idiot!”

“There’s nothing wrong, Stu.” Billy insisted. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do!” Stu slammed a cabinet door shut, Billy jumped in place, “Goddamnit, I’m not an idiot! You’ve been weird for weeks, Billy. Fucking weeks! Sometimes things are normal and then out of nowhere, you’ll do something or say something and it’s just off!”

Billy said nothing. He couldn’t. Stu’s been on to him this whole time.

“This past week though, holy shit, it’s been the worst yet.” Stu shook his head, “I don’t know what the fuck happened on that hunting trip with your old man, but you’ve been fucked up.” Billy winced again. “And I’ve just been dying. Waiting around like a dope, like a fucking loser for my own boyfriend to confide in me. To tell me what’s wrong so I can hold him close, and tell him, ‘Don’t worry baby, everything will be alright’ and now I’ve come to learn that he doesn’t give a fuck about me at all.”

Wait what? “Of course I give a fuck about you.”

“Oh you do? Well you just told me you didn’t,” Stu put a finger up and continued counting as he spoke, “you’ve barely touched me, sure haven’t fucked me in almost a month, and you haven’t said you love me either. You think I just wouldn’t notice? The goddamn love of my life suddenly won't say ‘I love you’ back, and I’m just gonna let that slide?”

Well... shit.

Stu lost his scowl, and the second it was gone, Billy wanted it back. Because the look of Stu’s anger was a hundred times better than watching the heartbreak settle in his eyes. “Do you wanna break up with me, Billy?”

“No!” Billy drew close to Stu, who only stepped away. “No, no, I don’t! I never wanted to… to break up with you.” Fuck! He was screwing this all up, he didn’t even know how they got here. “Okay, goddamnit, okay. You’re right, Stu. You’re right, I’ve been… dealing… with something… heavy the last few weeks.”

“What?”

Billy closed his eyes. “I can’t tell you.”

“Goddamnit!”

Billy flinched when another cabinet door slammed shut.

“Fuck, Billy,” Stu snapped up, “you can’t keep me in the dark forever! Just talk to me!”

“I can’t!” Billy repeated. “This is something I have to deal with on my own.”

“But you’re not dealing, Billy! You’re a mess! And you keep pushing me away—you’re just hurting us both!”

“I have to Stu!” Billy tried again, “I have to figure this out myself, okay?”

“No you don’t,” Stu argued, those crystal blue eyes started tearing up, “We’ve always dealt with shit together. You and me and us, together, and now it’s like I can’t even speak to you and I don’t understand why! Billy please!”

“I can’t, Stu! I just can’t!”

“Billy,” he implored, finally moving towards him. Stu put his hands on Billy’s arms, “Billy,” He reached up to hold his cheek, “Please, baby, please tell me. I’ll help you. We can figure this out, we can do anything, you know that.”

Billy shook his head watching Stu’s tear slip over his cheek, “Stu,” and he hated himself for it, “You wouldn’t even believe me.”

Stu blinked, “What–what the fuck?” He drew a sharp breath, looking completely thrown, “Of course I… Of course I would! HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW THAT?!”

Billy shook his head. “It’s not about knowing or not knowing you Stu! it’s just the truth! It’s not even about you!” I’m a Billy that came here from another world. He turned away, thinking about how crazy it would even sound, “No one would believe it. No one.” He put his hands on the counter and hung his head, “I can hardly fucking wrap my own brain around it.”

“Okay,” Stu breathed harshly and blinked. He nodded as his lips trembled. “That’s okay.” He leaned up and pressed a quivering kiss to Billy’s hair before fully pulling back. He looked Billy in the eyes. His face was all red and blotchy, and Billy wanted to kill himself for making Stu cry. “People fall out of love all the time, right?”

When he said he wanted to feel numb, he meant the warm, blissful numb, the kind of numb that rolled over the body, and quieted the brain. But as Stu pulled away, all he felt was a total, chilling numbness. Frozen as the snow. One that pierced the skin to sink into bone. “Stu…” his voice was gone. He felt a salty streak of warmth burn down his own cheek.

He thought about his life, about how this one wasn’t much different from it at all, it might… even be a better one. The thought of moving from the stupid bachelor pad, back to that sinking black hole of a home that the pieces of his broken family had already left behind felt like an icicle to the guts. The thought of going back to a Stu who didn’t love him… Billy couldn’t even describe the emptiness. There was just nothing.

Other Billy vs. Real Billy, who was he kidding? It was always him. He once questioned how a Billy in any world could want to choose this life. There was only one thing, one person, who could possibly be the answer. The Billy he used to be was gone. He lost himself and he knew it the first day of the blue moon. Maybe that’s why it didn’t work. He was the Other Billy now, that world wasn’t his anymore. He didn’t belong there.

Stu’s love for him was too big, too influential, too impossible. He couldn’t fight it, or deny it, or even run from it, like he’s been trying to do since he was faced with it.

“Okay, Stu,” Billy nodded, there were silent, hot tears streaming down his own face, and he couldn’t feel more at peace, “you win.” He smiled. “I’m not the Billy you think you know.”

Chapter Text

The drive back to Billy’s place had been mostly silent. Traffic being so unusually bad this late at night, helped dampen the silence, Stu had to concentrate on the roads. But he still took any moment he could to stare at Billy. “But you’ll tell me, for sure?”

“If you ask me that one more time, I’m jumping out of this fucking car.”

“I still don’t see why we have to go to your room.”

“Not just there.” Billy reminded.

“Right and the park,” Stu muttered, “how could I forget…”

“Smart ass, do you want to know or not?”

“Driving, driving.”

When Stu finally parked, Billy opened the passenger door with an order to stay in the car. After some protest and a stern look from Billy, he complied with a pout.

Billy was in and out in less than a minute, and they were off again.

“So… this has something to do with your time capsule?”

Billy ignored him as he shifted the contents around, stealing the note away. “It’s not a time capsule.” He put it in his pocket. “They’re the ingredients for a spell. I got them from a witch doctor’s shop that doesn’t exist.”

Stu snorted, “Alright.” He cast his smile over to Billy, only for his own to fall at the stone cold stare he received back. “What, seriously?”

Billy said nothing.

Stu scoffed again, “Billy…”

“We’re off to a rough start on the ‘of course I would believe you, babe’ train, I’ll tell you that Stuart.”

“Hey, it’s not like I was expecting witch spells, and voodoo doctors.”

“ ‘How could you question me’? ‘I’ll believe you no matter what’!” Billy mocked.

“Alright, alright,” Stu conceded. “No, you’re right. Witches and magic. Sure, okay, I’ll buy it.”

“See, now because I don’t make empty promises, I can say: I don’t believe you, you lying fuck. Without you getting all pissy at me.”

“No, I’ll still get pissy,” Stu pouted.

“Cry baby.”

They bickered like an old married couple all the way to the park.

Once there, Billy led Stu to his clearing, the ground was still awash with a thin layer of snow.

He knelt down and re-created his altar with practiced effort. Before tossing the box to Stu, “Open it.” When Stu did, with hesitation, Billy took note of the time, “Take each thing out one at a time.”

As Stu did so, he took the time to examine every item carefully. The purple glass vial, the twine, the cloth, the witch hazel, the flint and of course the dolls of he and Billy. “So you didn’t make these?”

“No,” Billy confirmed, “Like I said, I stole them from a witch doctor. Actually I was trying to curse you with them.”

“Curse me?”

“Yeah, put them in,” Billy held out the cloth filled with witch hazel.

Stu looked at his boyfriend very warily, “What are you gonna do?”

“Burn them.”

Stu gasped, “No!” He tucked them close to his chest, “They’re so cute!” He kissed the Billy doll on its head.

“Don’t worry, after I burn them they’ll just end up back in my room,” Billy sighed.

Stu only looked at him and didn’t move. He was still holding the dolls to his heart.

“Trust me Stu, I’ve done this three times,” he admitted, “Plus, we need the light of a blue moon for the spell to even work, and the blue moon’s gone till who knows how long.”

“Well… okay…” he slowly handed them over.

Billy wrapped and tied them and put them in the dirt. “So, here’s where thing’s get a little… unbelievable.”

“Here?”

“Shut up and pay attention,” Billy then pointed at him, “you promised.”

“I’ll believe whatever you say, Billy.” Stu nodded. “You can trust me.”

“If you don’t, I’ll understand; it is crazy after all, but I’ll blame you anyway because you’re stupid and you made me an impossible promise.”

“It’s not impossible,” Stu insisted. “It’s true love.”

Billy froze for a second in totality. Even his heart skipped a beat. His outward appearance took on no visible change. “Yeah whatever.” He tried. “Look, Stu I’m gonna explain this by telling you a story. Of something that happened to me on Halloween. You’re gonna listen to my story all the way through without interrupting.” He looked Stu eye to eye. “If you cut me off even once, I’m not telling you shit, and I’ll punch you in the dick. All good?”

Stu nodded, and slowly moved to cover his crotch. “Whatever you say.”

Billy nodded with him, satisfied. He took a deep breath and stared at the altar between them. Well, might as well start from the beginning, “I’m not—I’m not the Billy you know…”

Stu, as promised, stayed silent throughout Billy’s whole story. Billy often liked to say, because often enough it was perfectly true, that Stu wore his heart on his sleeve. His obvious expressions and blatant body language easily laid out whatever was on his mind in any given moment. Most people couldn’t translate Stu language as well as Billy had always been able to, even when they were enemies. But now, as he told his story, he found himself as completely clueless to whatever Stu may be thinking as the next guy.

Stu’s expressions were just as animated, his body just as twitchy, telling the truth of his thoughts. But as Billy periodically looked up at him, he found he couldn’t read him for the first time since they met.

Maybe it was his nerves, maybe it was his concentration as he tried to find the right words. But by the time Billy was done talking, and Stu was just sitting there, silent for once, he had no idea where they stood anymore.

“So you… performed a spell.”

“Yes.”

“And when you woke up we were having sex on our anniversary.”

“Yes.”

“And in the world you left… we aren’t dating but instead fucking hate each other,” Stu blinked, “and make each other’s lives a living hell.”

“Yeah.” Billy confirmed. “Trust me. There is no way the you that I know, and I, would ever be dating.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Stu put a hand to his mouth as he muttered to himself, “that… might not be right.”

Billy wrinkled his nose. “What do you mean? I’m telling you that it’s true.”

“No, I know it’s true,” Stu tilted his head, his eyes were a thousand miles away, “Even… even in a parallel world like that,” he shook his head, “I’m sure… Yeah,” a slow, crooked smile took over his face as he looked over at Billy. “I’m sure I’d still be in love with you.”

“What?” Billy could almost laugh. “What makes you say that?”

“Because you’re exactly like the Billy I already know, silly,” Stu hummed. “Same cute grumpy face, same stubbornness, same great ass.” He whistled sharply in appreciation.

“What… Stu can you be serious for two fucking seconds please?” Billy scowled. “I just told you I’m from a goddamn parallel world.”

“Hey wait, come to think…” Stu nodded, “wait yeah, the fact that you and the me that you know are still fighting might be your problem actually.”

“What,” okay, multiple things to process, “what do you mean still fighting?”

“Well me and the Billy I fell in love with used to hate each other too, you know. Before we ever went out,” Stu divulged. “Well he hated me. I had the biggest, fattest crush on him, and thought he would kill me if he ever found out.”

“What?!”

“True shit.”

“You mean I wasn’t always in love with you?” Billy gaped, “even though…”

“What?”

“What about all the pictures?”

Stu furrowed his brow and tilted his head again. “What pictures?”

“The one’s of us in my drawer.” Billy clarified. “I found them my first week here. There must be like fifty of them or something, it just sort of looked like– like we’ve always been in love.”

Stu gasped like the air had been knocked out of him. “Y-you have a bunch of… in your…” he looked away with a flush of red on his cheeks, “adorable!”

Shit. He definitely just betrayed a secret of himself on accident. Oh fuck, Stu was gonna be fucking insufferable now– wait a minute, “What do you mean about a problem?”

Stu took a second to look back over at Billy. “Hmm?”

“You said something like, us hating each other might be the problem?”

Stu shrugged. “Sure. For why you got sent here.”

Billy stared at him blankly.

“Look, as far as I can tell, the only difference between your world and mine is that me and Billy are together, but you and Stu are not.”

“So?”

“So your world clearly wants to right this terrible, horrible, egregious mistake.” Stu smiled. “You and I are destined to be, my Billy. Fucking soulmates!”

“Okay stud, I wouldn’t get carried away.”

“Billy!” Stu laughed, “what do you want? The universe to beat it over your head? You were sent to a different universe to fix us! We’re each other’s destiny!”

“...That can’t be the reason.”

“We’re fucking soulmates!”

“You’re not.” Billy denied. “At least the Stu that I know. That useless fuck isn’t secretly in love with me, or whatever you want to think.”

“Yes I am.” Stu sang. “He’s just too scared to tell you.”

“Yeah, well, even if that were true, now he never can,” Billy sighed. He pulled out the note and handed it to Stu, “I found this the day I got stuck. I know you’ve been humoring me about this whole thing, and I almost admire your efforts, but this is indisputable proof. I am not from your world Stu.”

Billy watched as the other boy unfolded and then began to read it.

Faster than could’ve been possible, Stu’s eyes were wide with shock. But why? He couldn’t have read the whole thing in three seconds.

“This… is… my handwriting!” Stu exclaimed.

“What the fuck?” Billy snatched it back, “I can’t tell.”

Stu retook it and looked it over again. “This is absolutely my handwriting, what the fuck? How is this possible?”

“Do you believe me now?”

“Billy… this isn’t possible. I didn’t write this!”

“I know it’s not,” Billy agreed calmly, “and yet, there it is.”

“Holy shit,” Stu gasped. “So parallel world’s do exist.”

“Read the note Stu.” Billy encouraged. “There’s one key piece of this you still don’t know.”

Billy watched as he, again, took to the words. His own words.

“Wait, wait, what? Wait a minute, what?” Stu looked up at Billy in horror, “Billy, no…”

“That’s why I know the ritual won't work.” Billy nodded. He struck the flint and checked his watch, preparing to lose six hours. “I think that time you caught me in the woods did it. When you thought I was burying a time capsule.”

“What? But…” Billy watched as Stu took to his own panic, “but I didn’t even know the truth!”

“But you still knew.” Billy shrugged. “You knew about the spell in your own way. You knew about it’s existence.”

“Oh my god, oh my god!” Stu put a hand to his head, “So… so you’re stuck here? Forever?”

“I think so.”

“Billy… how could you tell me?” Stu looked as helpless and lost as Billy felt just this morning. “You knew what it meant… why? Why would you do it?”

“You mean besides you begging me to?”

“Fuck me! I don’t matter! Not in the grand scale of this!” Stu shouted. “You should’ve kicked my ass and left me in the dark! At least you might have a chance of going back to your own life! How could you do it? How could you give it up?”

Billy took the letter and tossed it away, he kept his eyes on Stu as he then took his hand. “Very easily, actually.”

Stu swallowed. He shook his head. “Not for me,” he pleaded, “you didn’t give up your whole world for some worthless fucking asshole like me.”

“Of course I did,” Billy cupped Stu’s cheek and held him close, “I love you, Stu.”

Billy kissed him tenderly and received his efforts back in bliss.

Stu pulled him close, held his cheeks. His lips were shaking. Billy was finally, totally, completely at peace. He fell into the bliss of those lips. This was right.

“You know,” Stu laughed, pulling back a little. A very little. He was still so incredibly close. Close enough that Billy could count the faded freckles in the corner of his eyes. Close enough that he had to pick either watching Stu’s eyes or his mouth when he next spoke. “I could never get tired of—”

Billy blinked as his hand fell through air, no longer holding Stu’s face.

No longer holding anything.

Billy blinked and Stu himself entirely disappeared.

There was a sudden woosh as an unnatural warmth cast over Billy’s body.

Billy blinked and the snow was gone.

He was in the middle of a green and brown wood.

“S-stu?” He whispered. “Stu?!” He looked around him, there was no one.

Nothing but dirt and rocks and trees all in their right colors. Thick piles of leaves and nuts littered the ground in hues of red and orange.

“Stu! Can you hear me?! Stu—” His panicked cries came to a harsh stop with his gasp.

At his knees there was a burnt offering.

A chard remnant of a black cloth wrapped in twine. “Oh god no! Please no! Stu please answer me!” His vision went blurry in seconds. Shaking fingers unwrapped the cloth very carefully to find two dolls blackened beyond recognition, and the ash of witch hazel.

“Oh god! Oh god!” He held them to his chest as he cried out. “What did I do?! What did I do?! Stu please, please don’t go! I take it back! I take it back!” He put the offering back on the ground, “Please, please! I take it back, please! No, no!” He sobbed. “What did I do?! Stu, Stu!”

Billy lifted his face to the crystal clear sky, and screamed.

Chapter Text

When Billy eventually left the park, still gently cradling the voodoo dolls in his arms, the only car in the lot was not a black Porsche, but a maroon Mercedes. His mom’s old shitbox.

He cried further at the sight of its familiarity.

He tried the apartment, just in case, none of the keys on his ring worked. He tried all them twice pleading for them to just open it. For the first time in over a month Billy went home, home.

Parking in that wretched driveway made him sick to his stomach. His key worked instantly and Billy hiccuped, wiping his face again.

He took Billy and Stu to his room and set them on his dresser. Everything looked exactly the same.

He checked his nightstand for no reason. Rifled through the whole thing, finding exactly no pictures of him and Stu. No evidence of what must have been the best year of his whole life. Nothing.

Billy curled on his bed, clutched his pillow as tight to himself as he could, and just cried.

It was more than heart ache. He didn’t just break up with someone. This was grief. Billy had a taste of it already. It made his blood thick and his heart beat in pain with every pump. It twisted his stomach in a way where he felt it may never be unfurled.

“Please, let me go back.” Billy cried to no one, anyone, whoever sent him there. “He’s my soulmate.”

When Billy woke up, he didn't have a plan. He found out that it wasn’t Halloween, to his surprise. It was October 3rd, the day he and Stu got suspended. The day he discovered the witch doctor’s shop and started planning his revenge.

Driving back there, Billy only had one goal; reverse the curse.

Only when he got there, once again, the shop was gone. In its place was a different store entirely. “No! Goddamnit why?” Billy got out of the car. He went down the strip checking all the shops, none of them were for a witch doctor’s apothecary. “Fuck!”

Heading back to his car, he was already thinking about where he should check next when he suddenly noticed one of the five other cars parked at the strip. A Camaro IROC.

He gasped.

Then as if fucking summoned, Stu Macher stepped out of the Radio Shack that was right there.

Holy shit.

Billy’s eyes stung at just the sight of him. It was him. All gangly fucking limbs, and freak height. Same stupid face stretched in a perpetual grin. He lost himself in that moment, “Stu?” Hope rose in his chest.

Stu took notice of Billy pretty quickly, the boy was standing in front of his car after all. Blue eyes widened in disbelief. An ugly snarl took over his features in an instant.

Billy was now so unused to seeing such a cruel stare from Stu he actually took a step back. It wasn’t him, not the Stu he meant. This was Real Stu. Other Stu would never glare at him like this.

The pain in Billy’s chest, which had thus far only been dull, fucking radiated. Billy put a hand to the front of his shirt. Fuck.

“Hey!” Stu stepped up quickly, “What the fuck are you doing?! Get away from my fucking car!”

Billy shook his head. His voice was gone. “I–I wasn’t doing anything…”

Stu shoved him back. “You can’t just leave it alone, can you? Fucking twerp, we already got suspended, so just fuck off okay?!”

Billy’s lip quivered as he nodded. “Okay.”

Billy wished he could enjoy it, the pure shock on Stu’s face was priceless, he’d never looked so thrown before.

“What the fuck?” Stu took a step back, total bewilderment filled those eyes.

But Billy couldn’t appreciate a second of it. Instead, he walked away with a sodden sigh as and pulled out his own keys.

“You already did something, didn't you?!” Stu questioned. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”

Billy closed his eyes tight, fuck he sounded so angry. He didn’t, couldn’t believe this asshole was secretly in love with him. No way. Stu… hated him too much for such a terrible thing to actually be true.

Billy unlocked his door and opened it, only for it to be slammed back shut.

Then Stu was pulling his shoulder back, making him turn around. “What’d you do?” Billy was silent. “What the fuck did you do, you little shit?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t do anything.”

“How stupid do you think I am? You just happened to be walking by—” he suddenly stopped. “Oh, wait, I know what this is.”

“I can guarantee that you don’t.”

“No, I do.” Stu nodded. “Unfortunately you’re too easy to predict, Loomis.”

Okay, ouch. He guessed he should’ve expected to start hearing that name again. After all, what else was Stu gonna call him?

“Hey, baby.”

“What the fuck, babe?”

“Baby, you gotta see this!”

“Babe! I found it!”

“Right, baby?”

“It’s so cold, baby.”

“Here babe, let me do it.”

A hundred times over and a hundred times again, Billy’s mind remembered what had once been. He pressed the heel of his hand harder against chest as the pain tripled.

“Go away, Stu.”

“You were waiting for me, right?” Stu guessed. “You wanna go again without all the fucking teachers. Fine.” He backed up from Billy and got ready. “Show me what you got.”

“I haven’t got anything.” The extra room Stu gave him meant he could get in his car uninterrupted this time.

Stu yelled at him as he started the engine, even started walking up to him still shouting as Billy pulled away. Everything hurt.

He went through suspension without further incident, including in the witch hunting department. Much like in the other timeline, the apothecary had up and disappeared; there were no records of it ever existing. He’d gone to three different libraries, including the one on the community college campus, and City Hall to go through public records. Nothing. As he went around the city, he also stopped at every apartment complex that advertised leasing and pulled their pamphlet. He started leaving them around the house in places he knew Hank would see them.

Hank tried speaking to him about it, but Billy only pretended like he had no idea what the old man was talking about, and went out of his way to avoid him.

Billy only saw Stu one other time during their suspension week. Kind of. He saw Stu’s car parked at the grocery store and immediately turned right back around and left. He got groceries the next day.

And then came Monday.

Billy sat in his shit box until the bell rang, until he had to go inside. The whole walk up to the entrance doors he was looking over his shoulder. If he was in the other world, Stu would already be with him, an arm slung over his shoulder, or stuck in his back pocket, talking about their upcoming date.

“Babe it’s so romantic, you’re gonna love it.”

“I don’t give a fuck about romance Stu. Are the burgers good?”

“No burgers baby, I’m trying to spoil you here, fucking work with me.” Stu’s laughter filled the air. “It’s italian. Not too fancy.”

“Then is the pasta good?”

“Don’t know, we’ll find out tonight. I got us a candle light table right by a big ass window.”

“Ugh, that does sound romantic.”

“I know right? I can’t wait!”

Billy sighed as he opened the doors for himself. Alone.

He pushed through kids in the halls absentmindedly, worried that every slightly tall boy he saw was gonna be him. None of them were.

By the time Billy made it to the hall his classroom was on, he immediately had to turn around again, because this wasn't the hall his class was on. Algebra II wasn’t his class anymore. He made his way back to Algebra I as he reminded himself; English I instead of II, Chem instead of Bio, Government rather than History, they were all different again. He wasn’t there anymore.

The number of students in the halls waned the closer it got to the late bell. Billy found himself irritated on principle at the hurried steps of his fellow near-tardy peers. He deliberately began walking more leisurely as if to defy the turning of time itself. Fuck it, if he was late, he was late. He wasn’t gonna run just to try and make it on time, fuck that. He was just turning the corner, trying to remember where the fuck he left off in Algebra I, when he froze.

Great, this was just what he needed right now.

Stu was there talking casually with two other guys Billy didn’t recognize.

Okay, so Billy had a choice here. His class was on the other side of them.

He kept walking forward.

Fuck it again, it was only pain. It was only heart ache. It was only Stu. The ugly truth was, Billy would rather see him than not, even if everytime he did, it felt like drinking knives. And he wasn’t gonna turn tail and take the long way around for anyone. Fuck that.

As Billy walked, his eyes kept glancing over to the group of them the closer he got. He couldn’t help himself. He flexed his hands, his heart started thudding, nothing was even happening.

Stu looked entirely normal, all relaxed and chatting amiably. He and his friends seemed completely oblivious to the empty hall and their impending deadline. It was hard to imagine the scowl Stu gave him the other day, if Billy called his name right now, he’d expect a giant goofy grin.

When he directly passed by, he firmly looked straight ahead, too nervous to do anything else. The door to his classroom was open.

“Loomis!”

Billy didn’t look back. His blood sung in his veins.

“Hey, don’t ignore me!”

He walked into class, heart pounding.

Billy took his spot at his table, setting his tray down softly. What a fucking shitty day. In the other world, Billy and Stu ate lunch outside by the fountain with a weird blended combo of their friends. But now, he was inside and half the bodies he was used to seeing were gone. At least the faces were the same.

“Hey Billy,” smiled one of his exes, Christina. They’d dated back in middle school, and she had a long time boyfriend now, “Welcome back.”

“What?”

“From your suspension.”

“Oh,” He nodded, “yeah, thanks.”

“Must’ve been nice to have a break.”

“Absolutely, you should try it sometime,” he snarked, “I heard Tina Cohen call you a bitch the other day. Kick her ass and get out of here.”

“No!” Cried Sidney, another ex of Billy’s, his most recent. “That kind of thing goes on your record forever, you know. Billy, you should really stop fighting that Stu Macher, you could be damaging your future.”

“Trust me,” Billy grit out, “I’m done with Stu. If I ever speak to him again, it’ll be too soon.”

“Yeah right,” piped up Tatum, Sidney’s current girlfriend. They were the kinda couple that had been friends forever and in love exactly that long, but too stupid to do anything for years. Sidney finally broke up with Billy to be with her. Billy didn’t give a fuck, so there was no bad blood. “Call me when it happens and I’ll personally buy you INK tickets.”

Billy figured that was fair. He took a bite of his lunch without protest.

“You didn’t get your milk?” Sidney noted as she opened her grahams.

“No,” He answered out the side of his mouth, “they were out. Strawberry’s always the first to go.”

Billy fucking hated the regular milk brand the school bought. To him it tasted like plastic and chlorine, though no one else seemed to have that problem. If he could, he always tried to grab a strawberry. But no one really got that one when white and chocolate were options, so the school only had a limited supply.

Stu used to get them for him.

Billy’s class was too far away for him to be early enough to get any. There was always one waiting for him by the time he got there. He never even had to ask.

“They’re not out,” Joined the final member of Billy’s table, Chrissy Cunningham, Christina Carpenter’s best friend. She was on the cheer squad, “I just saw one in the machine.”

Billy perked up, “Which one?”

She pointed across the room to the row of vending machines against the wall. “The second one from the left.”

Billy instantly got up.

“Better hurry,” She encouraged, “need some change? You can pay me back.”

He shook his head, “I got it, thanks.”

Once there, he checked out the vendor, digging out his wallet, but he didn’t see any. Second from the left, right? He couldn’t have been that far behind Chrissy.

“You know, you almost make it too easy for me.”

Stu’s voice startled Billy out of his frustration.

“Looking for something, Loomis?”

Billy tsked quietly to himself, “Fuck me.” He turned to find Stu standing a few feet back, shaking the last strawberry milk in front of him. Taunting him with it.

Any other day it would have worked. Any other moment Billy might actually be bothered.

But here, now, in the flashes of his vision he could so clearly see Other Stu, with a big stupid grin on his face, holding out Billy’s milk to him genuinely, because he was happy to get it for him. Because he loved him. Billy couldn’t be bothered to snap back. It just wasn’t worth it.

He put a hand to his chest, grit his teeth, and walked away.

“What— h-hey!’ Stu sputtered. “Don’t you want it? Damn it, Loomis, face me!”

Billy hunched his shoulders and kept walking. Unexpectedly finding Tatum right there, glaring at Stu. Behind her was her girlfriend with an expression of worry, then Chrissy.

“Pussy!”

Sidney looped her arm through Billy’s and walked with him to their table. Chrissy stepped forward to flip Stu off and joined them.

“No Stu, you’re the fucking pussy!” Tatum stepped up, “Just leave him alone and eat your goddamn lunch…” she kept going but Billy tuned it all out.

“Billy, that was great!” Sidney praised as they all retook their seats, minus Tatum. “I mean, Stu’s a dick, but you were awesome!”

“Not awesome, Sid,” Billy tried to smile but it hurt so bad, “I just really can’t face him anymore. He’s right, I am a pussy.”

If Billy could have it his way, he’d probably try to completely avoid talking to Stu until he got over his feelings. Sixth period really put a wedge in that unfortunately. English I, the class they were forced to do that project together in. Billy was walking there now, anticipating every step.

Due to the project, class was taking place inside the school library until winter break.

Inside it smelled like books and moth balls. The vast carpeting muted the echoes of the linoleum hall the second Billy stepped inside. He passed through the metal detector trying to see out over the tables, was Stu here already? Did he beat him?

He went down the long ramp in anticipation, before eventually relaxing when he saw only Randy sitting at their table.

“Fuck me,” Randy groaned as Billy sat down, “It begins.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen,” Billy sighed, for once feeling Randy’s pain. It had never come to mind for him, because who gave a fuck about Randy Meeks? But it really must be pure torture getting between the two of them. Their own quote-unquote ‘buffer’ so they might fight less. So far, it hasn’t worked. “Not if I can help it.”

“Fuck you, nothing’s gonna happen," Randy snapped. “You’re both gonna cost me my whole grade! For what! Just take out your dicks and measure at this point, whatever shuts you the fuck up.”

“Feisty. Gonna take that, Loomis?” Stu smirked as he took his seat. Of course, instead of sitting across from Randy, he chose to sit across from Billy.

“Yep.” Billy nodded, before turning to Randy. “Switch?”

The kid blinked over at him, “Uh,” he seemed like he didn’t know what to do for a second before he was eagerly gathering all his stuff, “Y-yes! Yes! Whatever man, go for it.” Whatever gets him and Stu away from each other.

Billy slid his stuff across to where Randy’s used to be, and the two switched seats. Stu’s self assured grin became hard. He knocked against the wood of the table with a scoff. “Pussy.”

“So I was thinking we could incorporate the themes of chapters six through fourteen, they had some good talking points and I think seeing the fall of her character is actually pretty interesting. It’ll be enough material for what Mrs. H is looking for.”

Randy looked wide eyed at Billy. “S-sounds good—great, actually. Holy shit, we might not fail after all.”

“Sounds like bullshit.”

Randy closed his eyes.

“Do you need to share with me?” Billy asked Randy directly, pulling out his copy.

Again, Randy looked floored. He glanced over at Stu before quickly snapping back to Billy and shaking his head. “No, I’ve got mine right here. Chapter six right?”

“Yeah,” Billy nodded, “I’ll open from fourteen so I can show you what I mean. Like with parallels—”

Billy was cut off as Stu reached over and stole his book. He waited till Billy’s eyes were on him before he tossed it on the floor.

“Whoops.”

Billy turned back to Randy calmly. “Actually, can we share after all? I seem to have misplaced mine.”

Randy only nodded silently and drew his seat closer to Billy’s. Billy did the same and they ducked their heads close.

“So at the beginning of this chapter,” Billy flipped a page over, “we see her start to—”

“Hey!” Stu slammed his hand on the table and Randy flinched but Billy didn’t move.

“Can you shut the fuck up,” Randy glared, “Some of us are trying to work here.”

“Alright I’ll bite, what the hell is this,” Stu leaned back. “So you’re ignoring me now? What’s the angle?”

“There’s no angle, Stu,” Billy looked at his scowling face. His nerves flared when the stupid bastard opened his big mouth. Billy was quick to cut him off before he could start, “Come with me.” He demanded, then he stood and walked out towards the back entrance.

Stu stretched his neck and popped his knuckles, as he stood, “Fucking finally.”

Randy just sighed and tossed his book on the table.

Stu followed Billy out.

When they made it out the double doors, Billy immediately shoved Stu back. He kept pushing and pushing till Stu was grunting when he hit the opposite wall.

Keeping his hands on Stu’s chest, Billy leaned in close. “Back off.” He hissed. Then he took a quick step back. It was far away enough that any teachers who walked by wouldn’t get the wrong idea. No fighting around here, “I’m fucking serious. I don’t want anything to do with you anymore.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“We’re strangers from this moment on, alright?” Billy seethed. “I don’t mess with you, and you leave me the fuck alone. I’m done with these stupid fucking fights, I’m done with your stupid fucking face. I just want to be left—”

Billy grunted when Stu shot up and back handed him across the face.

“You’re done, huh?” He laughed without humor, and lifted his hands. “Wanna bet?”

Billy kept his head turned, his lip stung. He brought his hand up to prod around the wound.

His tooth cut across his lip.

He was bleeding.

A hundred bruises, a thousand cuts, a million fights.

Billy didn’t know how many times he’d cut Stu’s lip in one of their brawls.

“Damn it, baby, I told you to be careful.” Stu tsked as he kissed Billy’s newly wrapped finger.

“I was being careful, your knives just have it out for me— stop kissing it! Fucking idiot.”

“I’m healing you with my love, you can’t reject the power of my love!”

“I just did. Now back off, I wasn’t done yet.”

“H-hold on, wait. Just let me do it, okay? Leave it to me.”

“I’m perfectly capable— Wait Stu don’t—!”

“Shit!”

“Damn it, now you've done it.”

“Babe look! Matching cuts!”

“Goddamn stupid, careless… come here! Let me see…”

“Make sure to kiss it better.”

“Not on your life.”

Billy felt a single tear slide down his cheek, it’s funny, he didn’t feel the heat of distress or the sting behind his eyes or the build up of crying at all. His heart was hollow, his face was blank.

He just missed him. He just wanted it all back. He couldn't stand this fucking place, he couldn’t stand this fucking Stu.

Keeping his head down, he turned away and walked back into the library.

“Hey! Stop walking away from me!” Stu tried. “We got unfinished business… Loomis!”

Billy didn’t wipe his face until he was back inside and sure that Stu couldn’t see.

The rest of the week went by pretty much the same. Billy would do his best to avoid Stu, only for the fucking bastard to come out of nowhere ready to piss him off. He never engaged in any of Stu’s games, the more he tried, the more Billy’s friends defended him.

Billy didn’t know why he wouldn’t just give up, the little shit was unusually determined to fuck with him, no matter if Billy acknowledged his existence or not.

By the end of two weeks of that, they were both pretty fed up. And Stu in particular had finally had enough.

He’d stopped Billy on his way to school.

The first bell had just rung out, signaling that it was safe for Billy to leave his car, except it wasn’t.

Stu was standing up at the top of the concrete entrance steps. Billy had yet to take the first one.

Billy just stared at him for a moment, wondering for the hundredth time if it was worth it getting a tardy notice to avoid him, or if he should risk it. Before he could make up his mind, Stu spoke.

“Why?” He shook his head, looking unusually lost. His face was pinched in anger. Confusion.

Billy sighed. “We got class, Stu.”

“Not till you tell me what happened.” Stu tried. “Something changed, you’re different. Been acting weird since we got suspended.”

“You’re seriously wondering why I don’t want anything to do with you?” Billy scoffed, “You, the asshole who’s made my life hell since I met you.”

“It was never a problem before!” Stu pointed out. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Why do you give a fuck?”

Stu’s angry eyes widened. Billy was sure he imagined the red over Stu’s cheeks. It was a chill October day. The sun was overcast this morning. Who knows how long he’s been standing out here waiting. It was the cold weather, that’s all. “Because!”

“Yeah, super compelling.” Billy rolled his eyes. “Well I don’t give a fuck what you do anymore,” he started making his way up the stairs, “freeze to death out here for all I care. I’m going to class.”

When he moved to brush past Stu, the other boy stopped him.

“What are you doing? Let go dipshit, the bell’s about to ring.”

“What happened to you, Billy? Why are you acting so weird?”

Billy stared at him. Blinking away the memories again. Why wouldn’t they just die? “You wouldn’t believe me.” He then yanked his arm free of Stu’s grip and jogged to catch the doors.

Stu stopped messing with Billy after that. All negging, all teasing, all of his stupid little pranks, he stopped trying to provoke anything from Billy but an answer to his question: Why?

Finally Stu caught Billy one morning, smoking on the bleachers.

One more tiny piece of Billy’s soul died again when Stu sat next to him.

The sky was blue and the sun was rising, but was so early they were still cast in the shade. The bite of a cool fall chill brushed over their exposed skin, cheeks, ears, hands.

Billy smoked to keep himself warm.

“I’m sorry.” Stu began. “...For a lot of it, but… mostly for how I’ve been acting since you changed. It’s not cool. Especially for hitting you when you were really asking me to stop, I apologize.”

The tightness in Billy’s chest eased some. Despite the smoking, he started taking deeper breaths.

The two of them looked straight out in silence.

Billy wordlessly handed over his light. The forgetful fuck never had one on him when he wanted a smoke.

“Hey, thanks,” Stu said in awe. He pulled out his own cig and lit up.

They both sent the morning adrift in puff clouds.

“So… where does that leave us?” Stu asked quietly. “Friends? That’s weird.”

Billy sighed very deeply, “No Stu, I don’t think I could ever be your friend. I meant it when I said I don’t want to be around you anymore.”

“You don’t forgive me,” Stu nodded, “I don’t blame you.”

“I forgive you fine. I offered my light, didn’t I?”

“But then, so we’re cool right?” Stu questioned, “so let’s just start over.” He sat up and faced Billy, giving him a crooked smile. “Hi, I’m Stu, nice to meet ya. What’s your name?”

Billy looked at Stu’s outstretched hand, then at his grinning face. All he could see was a Stu who loved him, the one who already knew him inside and out. The Stu who drove him crazy in the best way, the Stu who broke him, and made a monster like Billy fall in love.

Billy stayed silent.

Stu’s crooked smile faded. “Why do you… do that?”

Billy blinked. “Do what?”

Stu pointed to Billy’s chest. “That.”

Billy looked down to realize that his fist was pressed against his heart. He dropped his hand.

“You get this horribly sad expression,” Stu observed, “and you put your hand over your chest like it physically hurts. Billy,” Billy blinked up at Stu in shock, “what happened to you?”

He said his name. Not ‘Loomis’ or any sort of insult. Stu called him Billy.

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

“You gotta talk to somebody,” Stu tried. “Is it because of the suspension? Did your old man say something? I tell you when my parents found out,” he chuckled, “oh boy.”

“I’m sorry.” Billy frowned, and he really meant it.

Then it was Stu’s turn to look at Billy surprised. “Thanks.”

The silence became them once again.

“I was… trying to curse you.” Billy could laugh at himself thinking about it now. “The week we were suspended I found this witch doctors shop, stole a spell box, and I tried to curse you with it on Halloween.” He began. “Only, I ended up cursing myself. The spell sent me to an alternate universe, a place where you and I are in love.”

Stu laughed out a startled, “What? What the fuck?”

Billy pushed on with a sigh, not really knowing why he was talking, but accepting it anyway, “A world where you and I are in love. I was trapped in that world for a long time, trying to get home. But the parameters of the spell were very specific, I had to wait for the exact right time. Worse, I had to keep the truth about who I was a secret from the other you, the Stu who was in love with me, and thought we were a couple.” Billy sighed, he didn’t even want to see the look on Stu’s face right now.

“I was there for so long, that other Stu,” Billy smiled, bittersweet, “wore me down. I think I just went crazy, I don’t know. However it happened, I fell in love with him. And I told him the truth of our situation, how there was no way in hell we’d ever date.” Billy chuckled, and gestured between the two of them still not looking at Stu, “He assured me that him in any universe, even the Stu that I knew, you, would still be in love with me. Don’t worry, I didn’t believe him. Anyway, it didn’t matter because… I-I was gone before… before we— I—” Billy dropped his head, “I was back before we could ever be together.” Billy sniffled and wiped his nose. “But you don’t have to worry about any of this,” he cleared his throat and reached for his stuff, “I’m not gonna ask you out, or bother you or anything. I just… need to be left alone while I try-try to get over you. I just need time.”

“You…” Stu swallowed. Billy finally looked back at him ready for the 'you're batshit for sure' stare. Only to find an uncharacteristically serious expression on Stu’s face. “You woke up in a... you said you loved him? The other me?”

He was asking seriously, not making fun of Billy. Even though he did look a little scared. Billy decided to grant him that in all fairness.

There was no point in denying anything. Stu thought he was crazy anyway. Billy nodded firmly. “Yes.”

Stu looked like he wanted to say more, ask something else. He looked torn. Billy waited patiently for a moment while he gathered his thoughts.

“If you could go back again today, right now to be with him,” Stu looked Billy right in the eyes, “would you?”

Billy’s lips quivered, he felt the tears quietly slip over the ridges of his cheeks. “Yes.”

Stu’s hand reached out automatically to wipe Billy’s hot tears.

And Billy was weak.

A fucking pussy.

It was the first bit of tenderness he’d received from any Stu in three weeks. He leaned into the touch. “That other Stu you met…” Stu looked all over Billy’s face and swallowed, “he may not have been wrong about me.”

Chapter Text

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Billy shoved Stu’s hand of comfort away from him.

“I mean he wasn’t.” Stu clarified, “you know, wrong about me. He’s right, Billy.”

Billy laughed, though he felt no joy. “That’s low, Macher, even for you.”

“I’m not kidding.”

“Jesus fuck, I just told you I’m in love with you,” Billy winced as he admitted it. Felt like he was grinding his own heart down with a rock, “and you’re making fun of me, I don’t give a fuck who you are, that’s messed up, what the shit?”

“I’m not making fun of you Billy, I mean it,” Stu sighed and turned away. “What he said—”

“Don’t say it again,” Billy threatened. “You can’t even say it,” he chuckled, “you can’t even say it out loud! Of course your fucking lying. You think I’m that—”

Stu leaned over, quick as lightning, and pressed his lips to Billy’s.

The pain in Billy’s heart roared.

He shoved Stu back as hard as he could. “What the hell are you doing?!” His internal panic was through the roof, “Get the fuck off of me!”

Stu fell back on his arms, despair over his face, “I love you, Billy,” he admitted. “The Stu you met is right. I’ve loved you since like the fourth grade.”

“No,” Billy shook his head. “No!”

“It’s the fucking truth!” Stu shouted, “You know it!”

“I don’t know shit!” Billy pressed his fists to his chest, “I know it hurts!” he gasped wetly, “I know he’s gone!” The hot tears he couldn’t fight anymore broke free, “You don’t love me! You can’t, I can’t take it anymore! I can’t do this again!”

Leaving all his things, leaving Stu behind, he ran.

“Billy!” Stu shouted after him, “Damn it, please!”

He couldn’t hear this, he couldn’t hear anything but his own gasps as his beating heart drowned out the world around him. He ran down the metallic steps of the bleachers, not really knowing where he was going.

“Billy!”

Fuck! Stu was chasing him!

Billy pumped his legs harder, shaking his head more as his tears blurred his vision.

He literally hit the ground running, and he didn’t know why for the life of him, but instead of going towards the school or the field dead ahead or even the parking lot, Billy took a sharp turn and ran around the bleachers, going along behind them.

Stu followed, fuck, his legs were much longer. He was gaining.

And then Billy was falling. Belatedly, he registered a pain over his ankle, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it before he had to scramble to catch himself.

Imminent danger was right behind him.

He spun around to face it, using his arms to drag himself backwards, he kicked the fallen branch that had tripped him up for good measure.

He watched as Stu came charging around the corner, only going faster when he saw Billy down. Like if he didn’t catch him now he never would. He wasn’t wrong.

Billy stopped moving. It was useless. He just put his head over his knees.

“Billy!” Stu gasped, throwing himself in front of the boy.

“Don’t,” Billy shook his head against his knees. His breath came in heaves. “Don’t do it. I can’t–I can’t. I don’t want you anymore. I don’t want anything to do with you! Stay the fuck away from me!”

“Don’t say that,” Stu’s hands found Billy’s arms. He flinched upon contact. “I can’t lose you before I ever had a chance to have you, please. I’m-I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry.”

“No,” Billy denied, “you’re just gonna go away, too.”

“I wont, I wont.”

“You already did!”

“I’m not gonna leave,” He very carefully, put his arms around Billy, hugging as much of his as he could, “you can’t think that when you’ve been telling me to fuck off for three weeks straight and I haven’t let up even once.”

Billy cried harder at that, because it was true. If anything he kept coming back worse. Stu Macher was a bad rash. Billy truly fucking hated him.

“It’s because I couldn’t stand it,” Stu confessed, “I need you. I’ll always need you. I couldn’t accept that you didn’t want to see me anymore. I love you too much to let you go without a fight.” He pet his hand over Billy’s head.

For a very long time, neither boy moved. Billy’s silent tears caressed the soft skin of his cheeks, Stu’s arms wrapped awkwardly over his hunched frame. Billy could feel a gentle hand carding through his hair.

“Don’t worry baby,” Stu whispered low, “everything will be alright.”

Billy gasped, hiccuping. He pushed Stu off of him to stare at him wide eyed.

Stu kept his arms off, but hovering. “Give into me, Billy,” he pleaded, “I’ve got you, I swear. You’re in love with someone who loves you back, okay? I love you.”

Billy took three breaths, before he was throwing his arms around Stu, and Stu caught him. Those long arms wrapped around his middle so tight, his spine popped. He squeezed as good as he got, arms around Stu’s neck, hand in his hair. It was much shorter than the other Stu’s hair for some reason. But he wasn’t really thinking of that.

“I’m–I’m holding you to this, you know.” Billy sniffled. “If you dis-disappear again, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, baby.” Stu promised. “If you’re not with me, I don’t want it.”

Stu and Billy left school together, not caring if they got another fucking suspension for it. Throw it on the pile. They went to Stu’s place to talk and be together.

“You know,” Stu giggled. He felt like he was made of sugar cream, there might as well be cartoon hearts floating up from his head. “I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”

Only when Stu blinked, his smile fell.

The warmth holding his face suddenly evaporated.

There was the wood surrounding him. The falling snow. And nothing else for miles.

“...Billy?”

The clearing before him, right where Billy had been kneeling was flat and completely undisturbed.

Stu lost the feeling in his fingers as this chilling high pitch ringing filled his ears.

Spells don’t work.

Spells don’t exist.

So where the fuck…

“...Billy…” His voice was so soft, it didn’t disturb the drifting snowflakes.

His breaths shortened.

He waited in silence.

His breaths heaved.

“Billy?!” Stu was so numb he couldn’t feel the first tear drop slip over the slope of his cheek. “Billy, where are you, baby?! You’re scaring me, okay?” He called to open air. “Billy!”

He shifted quickly, a combination of blurred vision and flurrying snow made it near impossible to tell tree bark from what could be a figure standing beside him.

“Baby please! Okay, okay! I believe you, I believe you, just please come back!” Stu gasped, “oh geez— fuck— Billy! I wasn’t ready for this! Baby please!” Stu’s breath sputtered as he hiccuped. He shook his head. “I wasn’t ready!”

“He’s gone, Stu.”

Stu choked as his head whipped around one last time.

There was a young man standing there. Worn boots, tough jeans, band shirt under a flannel, under a brown suede jacket. His face had the barest hint of a stubble. His hair was shorter than it had been just a minute ago. He looked so forlorn.

“Billy,” Stu gave a watery smile, “is that you, baby?”

“Use your eyes, asshole.” Billy smiled back. He didn’t move.

That was fine, cause Stu did for him. He got to his feet in sharp relief. “Holy shit you almost scared the fucking crap out of me!” He laughed, sniffling. “I thought you were—”

Billy held a hand up, and snapped back half an inch just as Stu came close enough to throw his arms around him.

Stu halted.

He dropped his arms.

“Babe, what the fuck?”

“I just need you to understand something first,” Billy pressed carefully. “He is gone, Stu. The other me. He left. That Billy…” he gave a crooked smile, “you won't see him for another year, actually. Not till our first anniversary.”

“What?”

“Everytime I tried to explain it to you as the year went by,” Billy sighed and shook his head. “No matter what happened, you always forgot by the next day.”

“Forgot what?”

“I think it’s because you’re the last ingredient.” Billy pushed on like Stu wasn’t talking. “Or me getting my ass in gear. Whatever the reason, you can’t know the truth, even if I tell you. Even if I keep trying to prepare you for what’s coming. Even if I tell you a million times, you just can’t know. Not until he tells you himself and you finally experience it.”

Stu just blinked at his boyfriend, dumbfounded. “Babe I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“I know,” Billy shook his head. “Maybe the next time I feel like explaining the whole thing again, it’ll stick now that it’s all over.”

“So… what now?”

“Now,” Billy yanked Stu close by his collar, Stu loved the way snowflakes collected on his eye lashes. “Now we leave the future to those fucking dumbasses.”

“They’ll figure things out.” Their smiles matched as Stu leaned down.

Right before those lips caught up with Billy’s own, he had to agree, “Eventually.” The slow taste of Stu overwhelmed him in all the warm ways. Then Billy remembered something extremely important and broke their kiss early. “Oh! You owe me a good dicking down, mister.” He glared.

Stu snorted. “What the fuck? I mean, hell yeah, babe, but why the hostilities?”

“The last I remember we were in the middle of it and then poof! I woke up alone in your fucking bed!” Billy grabbed his hand and turned tail. “You’re making it the fuck up to me right now!”

“Your wish is my fucking command, babe.”

Billy chuckled as he tugged Stu along. “You’re like a month pent up right?” He smirked. “Good. It better be so mind blowing I pass out again.”

Stu cackled.

“Although,” Billy second thought, “how about you do us all a favor and make sure I’m still me if that happens?”

“Oh boy.”

“You have no idea.”

Billy gasped as he felt Stu pull out. His face was squished against sheets he hadn’t seen in way too long. If it wasn’t for the hands holding his ass up, he’d have fully collapsed.

He found himself already missing the December snow. It was much hotter in this room than it should be. Maybe they should crack open a window.

Well, at least he only had to wait about a month for snowfall again. He still had to wrap his time frame around getting to witness the end of fall twice. Talk about travel.

And then Stu came crashing down on top of him with a grunt, interrupting his musings. “Fuck! You’re a thousand pounds! Get off me!” He was still out of breath, and Stu was only making it harder to breathe.

“Holy shit that was amazing,” Stu, huffing and puffing, only wrapped his arms around Billy’s whole body, tipping the both of them to lay sideways. “Best sex ever. We win.”

“You can’t say that after every round dumbass— get off me, it’s too damn hot,” Billy tried to squirm away but Stu wouldn’t let him.

The harder he fought, the better Stu held him close. He tried twisting away, but only ended up facing him, face squished up against Stu’s sweaty chest.

He gave up.

“Fuck you,” he panted, “fucking… wore me out…”

“Good.” Stu hummed. He adjusted their positions and began kissing down the side of Billy’s face.

“Couldn’t have gone easy,” Billy complained, getting a better grip over Stu’s ribs. He closed his eyes. “Had to keep going at it.”

Stu caught the hand going under his ribs and curled it together with his against his chest. He was softly kissing the sweat from Billy’s cheek. “Your fault.”

“How?!”

“Eight years you’ve been teasing me.” Stu answered happily, “ ‘m pent up.”

“I’ll say,” Billy grumped. “Even the other guy didn’t rail me so hard.”

Stu froze.

Billy didn’t have the brain power to realize what he said.

Stu leaned back, Billy still had his eyes closed. He didn’t realize Stu was looking at him.

“What?”

Billy blinked. That was loud. Not really a shout, but too loud for the post-climax cool down. “You know, the other Stu. In the other world.”

“Uh huh.” Stu’s hard expression and the tone of his voice didn’t change.

“Well I already told you I woke up and his dick was up my ass,” Billy said, “but I was so fucked out, I couldn’t move right? Then he railed me, being all ‘just one more time’ and ‘I swear I’ll be gentle’ the fucking liar.”

“He fucked you.”

“Yeah.”

“He fucked you.”

“Stu, I just told you this. Like not even two hours ago.” Wait how long have they been going at it again? “Not even six hours ago.”

“I know but I’m just realizing this, what the fuck,” Stu sat up going to his knees. He looked extremely upset. He maneuvered Billy’s hips around throwing his legs over on either side of him. “He fucked you. Like you went all the way?”

“Stu, stop making me repeat the same damn thing: it was their anniversary, he didn’t know shit about anything, so yes.” Billy answered.

“It was your first time, wasn’t it?”

Billy blinked, cheeks going red. “...yes.”

“I– That fucking prick!” Stu shouted. “He took— that was— EIGHT YEARS! I could kill that son of a bitch!”

“Stu,” Billy snorted, “wait, wait, are you fucking jealous?” He burst out laughing, “of yourself?” He laughed harder.

“He took your virginity!” Stu defended, “My boyfriends virginity! I got a right to be pissed here, babe.”

Billy stopped laughing. “Boyfriend?”

“Well…” Stu rubbed the back of his neck, “yeah. I was kinda hoping… right?”

Billy nodded, reaching his hands up, “Yeah.”

Stu went down with a soft smile, kissing his question away.

Billy sighed, he missed this.

When Stu pulled back, he was still frowning. Billy nudged him. “What?”

“You said you loved him.” Stu pointed out. “You said you’re in love with him.”

“Stu,” Billy smiled, “he’s you. Stop being ridiculous, you’re the same fucking person.”

“Do you love him?”

“Yes!” Billy gladly clarified, “because he’s you! Stupid shit.”

“But… he isn’t,” Stu argued. “Everything he said and did, I didn’t. I don’t have his memories. It’s not the same.”

“It will be,” Billy assured. “They’ve got a head start on us, I’ll grant you, but we’ll get there.”

“You miss him." Stu said obviously.

"He's you." Billy reminded. "I love you."

Stu closed his eyes. "Say that again."

“Stop making me repeat myself."

"Please?" Stu nudged his nose with Billy's before kissing him.

Billy rolled his eyes. He pushed Stu gently, making sure he was still close. Close enough that Billy could count the faded freckles in the corner of his eyes. “I love you, Stu.”

“I'm sorry I hurt you.” He apologized. “After you woke up, when you thought I didn't love you back. When you thought you were alone. I'm sorry, Billy.”

Billy shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. You eventually got your head on straight."

Stu still didn't look happy, but he didn't comment on it anymore, “okay.”

“Can’t believe you’re jealous of yourself.”

“He took my special gift.” Stu whined. One of his hands came up to cup Billy’s face. His thumb ran over Billy’s lips and he nodded to himself. “I’m just gonna have to make up for it…” he reasoned. “Hope you’re good, baby.”

“Mm? What?” Billy felt Stu shifting around. “Already? Th-that was like twice as short as the last time!”

“Yeah well, it’s like you said,” Stu lined up and breathed, “we gotta catch up.”

“Oh god,” Billy groaned as Stu entered him again, he was still loose. “Fuck me… you’re so fucking… fuck you…”

“Keep talking dirty, baby, I’m all fired up,” Stu grunted.

Billy whimpered, seriously it was like he could never derive pleasure from anything else, nothing else compared. “Fuck,” He gasped, he was gonna cum embarrassingly fast.

“Me too, babe, shit,” Stu hissed, “you’re so fucking tight.”

“If I pass out, just make sure I’m still me before you keep going, huh?” Was Billy’s only request.

Stu chuckled, “hold onto me, I’ve got you.”

“Billy, baby, wait,” Stu whined under those lips.

Billy had a fist in Stu’s shirt and was using the other to keep his head turned as they kissed.

But Stu was resisting. “Baby, damn, hold on…” he dragged his face away to look at the giant movie screen.

Billy growled and pulled him in, going tongue first this time. Stu melted like putty in his hands. Their kiss was heavy, producing slick sounds that Billy made sure could be heard by the movie goers around them. Fuck ‘em! He loved showing Stu off.

“B-babe!” Stu laughed as he pulled away. “Can’t fucking breathe.”

“Since when has that ever been a problem?”

“Since I really, really wanna see this movie,” Stu cried leaning into Billy’s chest. He shook his head back and forth.

It’s new this December. A slasher film based on a true story called Stab.

“Too bad,” Billy smirked, he pulled Stu up again and kissed him hard. Revenge tasted so fucking sweet.