the way billy's character was conceived because they went "okay, we had a jock bully character but he developed away from us into a good guy, so here is the new and improved steve harrington" and then billy also developed away from them and was heading inevitably towards a "redemption" arc except this time they killed him instead is why harringrove is THE pairing btw. they're the same guy. some greek myth style soulmate shit is going on there and the gods had to strike them down

same reason why i'll never take harringrove antis seriously who go like "steve would Never be with someone like that" like that's steve harrington 2.0., that is his mirror, that is a version of himself.

btw after that little get together on the squawk rooftop steve leaves last cuz billy's there and teases him all like "my name's not kristen" and then smooches him and they make out in the audio equipment closet, that really happened, just offscreen, trust!