Running Through Storms, Chasing the Lightning - Harringrove

2. ice cream parlor blues

Steve can't help but feel like he's being watched, as Max stands off to the side of the counter, with El beside her, ice cream dripping off her cone and onto her wrist as she lets it melt.
Even inside Starcourt, it gets hot in the summers, in the crush of people, with the sunlight beating down through the, aesthetically beautiful but structurally impractical skylight.

Robin, blessing that she is, steps in, obstructing Steve from view, hands on her hips as she says, "Can I help you girls with something else?"

Max shakes her head, leaning down to lick the ice cream off her wrist, gross little heathen that she is, before looking up and focusing her gaze on Robin.

She shuffles in place for a moment, glancing at El who gives her an encouraging nod, before blurting out, "I just think that anomalies should be studied in their natural habitats!"

El nods solemnly next to her, and tacks on a, "Max said that Steve got replaced, like that movie 'invasion of the body snatchers'."

Robin glances between the girls for a moment, before directing a scrutinizing gaze towards Steve, then looking back at the girls.
She turns her attention to Steve one last time and raises a quizzical eyebrow, as if to say, 'what the fuck, dude?'.
They haven't quite gotten to being able to communicate with looks alone, but they're getting close, Steve thinks to himself, as he shrugs lightly, replying 'I have no clue.'.
Max huffs out a frustrated sigh, apparently quite over whatever their telepathy was before rounding to stand in front of the counter, El hot on her heels, and actually wait a damn minute, El was always with the little Wheeler brat, so this was a development.
But before he could voice any of his thoughts out loud, Max crosses her arms, mindful of getting ice cream in her hair, a charm bracelet on her wrist, that she didn't have the day before, catching in the light.

"Was Billy harassing you? Because I can talk to him," She finally says, looking like it took no small measure of courage to utter the words.

Steve furrows his brow, recoiling slightly.

"Wait, wait," Robin's interjecting now, curse her penchant for drama. "Which Billy are we talking about?"

"Billy Hargrove, my step-brother." Max answers, drawing  her eyes away from Steve to look at Robin as she responds.

"No way, that asshole?" Robin turns her gaze to Steve, utterly enraptured with whatever turn of events could be occurring now. "What happened? Was he harassing you?"

Steve pauses, biting his lip.
This would require some… Finesse.
He could confess the truth, lord knows Max would love to have dirt on her brother, but another part of him, the one he thought was reserved for the kids and Nancy and Jonathan, the people that he went through hell with, is telling him that, obviously, whatever shit was going on with Billy was a secret and Steve should keep it that way.

"Nothing major," Steve finally settles on, with a breezy sigh. "We just got into a scuffle."

Max frowns, pursing her lips for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to speak, before she says, "Well, why was he wearing your shirt? I thought he stole it,"

Steve freezes, then forces himself to relax, hoping it wasn't noticeable as he flounders to come up with a good enough, bullshit lie to cover his own ass and Billy's.

"Dunno, really," He manages to say, still feeling thrown off-kilter. "He got blood all over his shirt and I guess I felt bad about it, so I let him borrow a shirt. Never happening again though," Steve wrinkles his nose in mock disgust to really sell it. "He's probably stretched it out and drowned it in his shitty cologne."

That's a lie.
Steve doesn't think Billy's cologne is shitty.
He thinks it smells like salt spray from the waves, carrying on a sharp, summer breeze and he loves it, relishes in the fact that his pillows and sheets are covered in it, at least for now, clinging onto the comfort it offers like a lifeline, like he can pretend Billy is still there in the bed next to him, and isn't that something he should be repressing.

+++

Billy stares at Max, through the glass windows of the Scoops Ahoy.
He doesn't know what the fuck she's doing at the mall, but he does know he's going to avoid her like the plague, just in case she tries to badger him into giving her and her little friend a ride home.
But then, behind the counter, he sees him.
Steve Harrington in a stupid little sailor uniform, laughing at something Max's said, and Billy is still wearing his shirt.
He pulls his leather jacket a little closer around his chest, to hide the Hawkins High swim team logo.

But y'know what, fuck it, Billy's confident, he's got this, so he tucks his hands into his back pockets and saunters right through the doors.
Steve looks up and sees him, eyes softening for a moment, before he remembers himself and crosses his arm.

"Hargrove? You here for another tussle?" He says, only sounding slightly aggressive.

It's like a kitten, trying to playfight and Billy wants to laugh.

"The hell are you talking about, Harrington?" He says instead, forcing the laugh that was bubbling up in his throat back down.

Steve laughs, a little too high and a little too loud. "Did I knock a couple screws loose? We got into a fight yesterday, remember, dumbass? That's why you have my shirt."

The girl, with the name tag reading Robin, raises an eyebrow at his strange behavior then turns her attention back to Billy, pursing her lips, as if waiting for an adequate response.

"Oh yeah, now I remember," Billy says, keeping his voice even, even as a strangely sympathetic tone tries to bleed through, against his will. "You could barely fight back, so I didn't know what you were talking about."

Steve scoffs, turning his head away, because of course, even when being extended kindness, Billy can't help but snap, be crude, take the kindness he's given and turn it around like a weapon.

"You'll win a fight one day," Someone calls from the back, as the windows push open, revealing Dustin. "Now please stop arguing with Billy Hargrove and help me?" He freezes then, wrinkling his nose, staring at Billy's chest. "Is that your shirt?"

Steve lunges through the back window and covers Dustin's mouth, hissing something about 'Russians' and 'translating' that Billy probably should care less about, but part of him is fascinated by this whole ordeal, the fact that Steve Harrington, the guy he almost killed last year, was so willing to extend a gentle kindness to him the night prior, but doesn't believe that could've changed their relationship in the slightest.
Well… He was wrong about that.