BILLIE JEAN ( eddie munson.. ) ✔

022. Now's The Perfect Time..

• mild plot SPOILERS for S4 vol2 from here on •

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By the time they made a true plan, Devin had to hand over the walkman to his sister again and that was how the beginning of their craziest yet march found her. The air was still unbreathable and with a mind as light as a feather, too short inhales and heavy exhales stumbled Billie's breathing into coughing every once in a while. But she wasn't high. Just calm, at peace with how slow her mind moved for once and truly just distracted, through the music blasting over her ears, by thoughts about Eddie.

For all she cared, she wasn't high. Not in the Eddie sense anyhow.

It was not once that he got clingy at her side after smoking and only two strokes into his hair he was so calm that he usually just fell asleep. Depending on what exactly he smoked beforehand he could be overly energetic too, but no matter the case, he was always touchy, always aiming to hold her hand, hold her arm, hold her.

One time, and that's when Billie's mind was truly off the rails with thinking of her boyfriend, even though he was right behind her, and she could turn around and look at him if she wanted to, he had asked her to try and braid his hair, because he has too much of it, but not enough to think of cutting it yet. She obliged, though the physics homework wailed for her attention too, only when he woke up with his whole hair tied to his back in two complicated braids Billie dedicated her entire concentration to weave, Eddie laughed it off admitting he had too little knowledge of what had happened there, with them, to lead to that.

So Billie didn't consider herself high. She simply felt good, in a place which should have scared the living out of her. Was it a crime to feel good for a moment after hell-like days? She doubted it.

Doubts were what they battled as a whole team too, because making this plan they were onto took a lot of convincing. Good arguments were spoken on both sides which ultimately formed out of their group, but at last, it had been decided that leaving the Upside Down without any new information about the enemy would count as a waste of time when pinned against their suffering and hard work to live through this icy world for so long. A few hours felt like an eternity and Nancy felt sick to her stomach to think Will Byers had survived for so very long in this nightmare.

Precautions were taken though, in order to appease everyone, and that could only mean that Barry's backpack suddenly felt lighter. He walked in the front, with Steve and his need to lead. Billie was walking in line with Nancy and Robin, listening to music so loud that they too were keeping the beat with their heads' movements.

Behind the group, Eddie walked beside Devin.

Tension had strangled the sound out of them all to some extent. Clearly, this plan was a close call.

"Billie always said close calls are what makes a story good," Eddie mumbled to himself so quietly that not even Devin heard more than a mutter. Looking ahead, Eddie was simply following Billie, the movement of her loose hair, falling just a little lower than her shoulders, but curling by the second from all the dirt it would require being cleaned from soon.

"Ya know," Devin started, as the sounds he thought Eddie was making helped him unfreeze his mind from the pressure of understanding how to address this. He had decided, on the spot, that he was going to show none of the sincere emotions trapped behind what he was about to say, not to Eddie.

Eddie was reminded in an instant of the days in which he wished his relationship with Billie had been more public, just so he could take off his rings and give Devin a good punch for how he treated his sister. Now, with a shock, he discovered, deep in himself, that nothing about that desire had changed, even though Devin's tone modified and for once, there was a small hunch between them that Devin was about to address the relationship.