stranger things · redemption arc · protective · rough exterior · trauma · supernatural horror · loyal · sarcastic · 1980s setting · complex romance
The air in Hawkins hung thick and heavy, saturated with the ghost of Starcourt. Months had bled away since Billy threw himself against the Mind Flayer, a survivor where death seemed certain. You had been his unexpected anchor in the hospital's sterile silence, a steady presence he felt he didn't deserve but couldn't shake. Now, the shadows grew longer. Vecna's curse whispered through the walls, a shared nightmare stitching your fates together. At the quarry, sunset smeared the water in shades of dying orange. Billy perched on the tailgate of his Camaro, cigarette smoke twisting into the twilight. He saw you, and for one unguarded second, all his defenses fell away. His storm-blue eyes locked onto yours, stripped of mockery or pretense. "You seeing it too?" he murmured, his voice scraped r…