#metalsandwhich

cuddlepile

(2024 art)

Metalsandwich (Billy/Steve/Eddie) | 982

♾️

This time, they’re leaning against Eddie’s van, sharing a joint in the middle of the forest. It’s been eighteen days, and it’s their most successful run so far. They have managed to avoid him completely, and it hasn’t been easy. They’ve seen him, of course. It’s dangerous sometimes, and incredibly stupid, to risk it all by sneaking a glance at him… But they need to know he’s okay, to make sure with their own eyes that he’s unharmed. 

They fucked it up many times before, in so many different ways that it’s hard to remember them all. They still try to, working together to prevent them this time. They’ve been caught staring many times, no matter how subtle they’ve tried to be. The kids have messed it up for them on countless occasions, Robin too, so now they try to stay away from them as well. They bumped into him in the halls, in the mall, in the grocery store. One remarkable time, his car crashed into Eddie’s van in the high school parking lot. Another, he stumbled into Billy in the showers. Last time, they were hanging out at Eddie’s when he drove by. His car was full of kids and he had gotten lost on the way to pick up Max. He thought he’d ask for directions.

It didn’t matter. Once he saw them, it was game over. Everything unravelled. And they had to start over. Again. 

Eddie takes a long drag of the joint before passing it back, head resting against the van as he exhales. 

“I’m so fucking tired.” He says, rubbing the crease between his eyes with the back of his hand. “It’s been a few days, do you think we should…”

“No.” 

He meets Billy’s eyes through the smoke. They’re strikingly blue, and unsurprisingly firm. 

“It’s been too long, we need to know everything’s okay.” He argues, although weakly. He’s been feeling restless for days. 

“If we don’t hear anything, it means nothing has happened. You know how news fly in this shithole town.”

Eddie’s favorite quality of Billy is how solid and determined he is, no matter the circumstances. He’s disciplined and headstrong, and Eddie always feels grounded by him. Right now though, he kind of wants to scream at him until he finally breaks. He doesn’t. It’s been hard, on both of them, so he just takes a deep breath and tries to put into words the anxiousness he’s been feeling, thrumming under his skin. 

“I just don’t know if I can keep doing this… How long do we have to do this for?” He asks, hesitates. “Do we keep doing this forever? Do we have to give him up entirely? How can we know what we are supposed to do?”

“Do you want to see him die? Again?” 

Eddie flinches. Billy doesn’t raise his voice often anymore, not at them. 

“Is that what you want?” He pushes. His jaw is clenched and his eyes are icy. “Because it’s going to happen, if we fuck this up again. It’s what always happens. He dies, right in front of us. Because of us. Do you want to go through that again? For the… Fuck, I don’t even know what time this would be. Don’t you see it? We lost fucking count of how many times he has died!”

He’s panting by the end of it, face red, eyes shiny. He’s right, of course he is. It always ends in the same way, no matter what they do or don’t do. 

It’s their fault, they know that. Or at least, it was the first time. The real one. They were the ones who went after Steve Harrington when he crossed their paths. They liked his big brown eyes, warm smile, and soft hair. They fell for his sweet disposition, his courage, his big heart. They held him, kissed him, and loved him for months. And then he died, right in front of their eyes. He died for them, right in their arms. He sacrificed himself to save them.  

The next time they woke up, they had gone back to the beginning, to the before. It was months before the tragedy, and Steve was alive and well, back before he even knew them. They were the only ones who remembered what had happened. They vowed to protect Steve this time, to honor the opportunity they had. They found him, and watched him fall in love with them again. They tried to be careful, to save him. But it was useless. He died again. 

After that, they woke up in the past again. And again. And again. It took them a while to realize they were stuck in a loop. They tried everything they could think of. But no matter what they did, the ending was always the same. He always died. 

It’s exhausting, but mostly, it’s heartbreaking. Eddie can’t get the sight of Steve’s face out of his mind. Billy has developed a habit of wiping his hands on his pants, and he knows it’s because he can still feel Steve’s blood on them. They both have nightmares. 

Eddie knows Billy’s right, but sometimes, the weight of missing Steve is heavier than the guilt and the heartbreak. It’s the longest they’ve spent without him, and it’s torture. He just wants to hold Steve, to feel his warm skin under his hands, to lay on his chest and listen to his heart. He wants to make sure he’s breathing and smiling and safe. He wants to never let him go.

“Billy…” 

He can’t say more, as the unexpected sound of rustling leaves and footsteps reaches them. Billy lets the joint fall to the ground and puts it out with his shoe. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Says Billy.

Idk even know what I'm doing with these anymore but here's another snippet of an idea. Also- this is super freaking long. Sorry not sorry I guess.

There's no Upside Down, right? And for reasons, the Hargroves/Mayfields stay in Cali and my boy Eddie is in, like, Kentucky. Or Georgia, maybe, but I vibe with the Munsons having Applachian roots. So save for those people (Max, Billy & Eddie), everybody who would be in Hawkins is.

For the most part, nothing is super different except everything is. Because it's the 21st century so that means, like, Tiktok and Insta and even Youtube. Means that social media exists and the kids that Steve babysits are of course gonne have accounts.

You know who doesn't bother with anything like that though? Steve Harrington. Because he's busy doing other stuff like sports and studying and trying to pretend like his home life is normal. Tries to act like the only reason he's hanging on at this point is because of the kids he ended up babysitting.

Steve can't even tell you how it starts, exactly. Well, he can and it's cause of Dustin who then introduced him to his friend Lucas which meant that Mike and Will and Jane followed. The rest is history, honestly. Long enough ago that he doesn't remember when Dustin and Mike and Lucas didn't have a camera in his face. Which is weird, he knows, but the kids are weird so it's whatever.

It's not until everything blow up in his face that he realizes that it actually started before Dustin.

Back when he was, well, just a kid himself. That he remembers how there was one day when he was pulled out of baseball practice because he had a piano recital and he was pissed. Pissed off enough that when he sees a man try to force a kid into a car, Steve doesn't hesitate to pull out his bat and tell him to back off.

And Steve doesn't recognize the man until it's just him and the, what, kindergartner? It's not until he comes face to face with stripes and a bowl cut that he's reminded of a boy a year younger then him and- Byers.

Hawkins is a small town and Steve realizes and accepts that he'd just told off Lonnie effing Byers pretty quick. Puts it out of mind even quicker; but he does somewhat recall sitting on the swing set with the even littler kid as he waits for his brother to get out of whatever is keeping him. He remembers Will asking him why his dad hated him and Steve said that it's just how dad's were.

But then Dustin moved in and, well, life.

Junior year was pretty rough and by the time his senior one starts up, Steve's just about exhausted. Hasn't seen his parents in god knows how long but dreads the weekly phone calls. He's tired to say the least. When Jon Byers, backed by all of his kids, ask him if he'd be willing to act in a film Jon's putting together for an NYU application, he wants to say no but can't because the kids won't let him.

The film goes completely over his head but it's fun to do with the kids. He gets to swing around a studded bat and pretty much play make belief with all the kids. Something about monsters and it's equally about Will and Jane -the Wonder Twins on their on media accounts- in the way of him getting kidnapped and she'd gone through some messed up experimentation. Again, over his head but it seems to do well.

Jon gets accepted into NYU but more than that, it ends up getting submitted to some Indi-movie festival or something by a teacher. Than some legal shit happens that causes problems. Steve doesn't know- he'd done his part but now he's distracted by spring sports and the fact that he ends up going to community over any ivy or even state and it's a lot so-

But here's the thing. Life, right?

While that's happening in Hawkins, you have Eddie Munson -head man for Corroded Coffin- having followed this StevieCHarrington Insta account since he first got a phone. Most of the photos are of this pretty-eyed boy with freckles and another kid with curly hair and a grin bigger than his face. So Eddie follows him before he's anybody at all and very casually understands that the majority of the songs he writes are about someone he has no hopes of ever meeting.

And out in LA, you have a young(er) teen Billy Hargrove who isn't able to really connect with his stepsister. In between auditions for modeling and acting, Max introduces him to horror movies while he tries to teach her how to skateboard. Billy comes to learn that he loves the genre but especially those of the b-c rank which- no. The Upside Down -only watchable via grainy Youtube quality until something happens- is top quality and nothing short of amazing in his mind. He especially loves the hot guy who swings a nail bat at the monsters that are only seen in flashes.

Time passes and it takes a while for anybody to really connect the fact that the guy credited in The Upside Down is the same one with thousands of followers on Insta and only ever tagged in Tiktok. All of his profiles have a bio that refers to an @ Dusty_ Buns and an @ Robinsnest. The guy never answers DM's and his posts have gone from cutesy and sweet to more aesthetically pleasing. Which kind of makes sense because a) Steve's accounts are all run by kids (mostly Dustin and closely followed by Mike) and b) he has no idea that his social accounts are, like, actually a thing.

Check mark certified and everything.

So it's great.

Until Corroded Coffin starts... falling apart. One member wants to go to college and another wants to settle down even if they're just young. They hit fame pretty quick, multiple Emmy's and even hosted a time or two at the AMA's. They'd gone on two world tours with a plan of a third and have done US tours several times. So it starts falling apart and Eddie is still so, so committed.

He goes back to his roots.

Watches a video of a younger StevieCHarrington who sits behind a piano and sings Dancing Queen. It's something of a guilty favorite of his so when he finds out that his band -his family- is disbanding, he needs to relax somehow so he hits record not really knowing what to do or think.

Across the country, Billy initially swipes past the video Eddie posts because he's sitting in his makeup trailer only to swipe back up multiple times until he finds it again because-

He doesn't even think as he'd comment 'howd you know about the babysitter???' on his official accounts until his phone just blows up with notifications.

Billy's not sure how to take the musician dming him until he realizes that oh, yeah. He'd just broken the unspoken agreement between people who connected the babysitter in The Upside Down to the same one with the guy who had as many followers as he did. And Billy was in the finalizing agreements for a movie sure to be big and just got back from modeling for Milan so his follower count isn't exactly small.

And then the kids -all of them, ones that Max started following and ones that she's loosely collaborated with across state lines- all post.

There's the Wonder Twins, Dusty _ Buns, Mike, Lucas, Erica, Robinsnest and even Jonathan Byers, the director of The Upside Down, asking people to chill out before-

But it's pretty big news, actually. This mysterious guy from the middle of nowhere somehow gets pulled between a world re-known musician and an actor who is said to quickly be on the road of the best of the century.

And Steve- shit.

Poor, poor Steve Harrington who wakes up one day to go to the school where he works only to come face to face with cameras and flashes.

In a way, everybody gets what it wants about some sort of answer surrounding StevieCHarrington aka (insert acting alias) aka Steve Harrington but it's not the one they would have expected. You have people from the music, acting, fashion and however many other worlds just wanting to know what exactly is going on between Eddie Munson, Billy Hargrove and Steve Harrington.

Heyoooo I have a few WIPs pretty close to Ready To Post so cast your vote on which you want to see NEXT Sunday! (9/29)

Triangles are the strongest shape

Love Bites, But so do I

Alpha Dog and Omegalomaniac

HOT TO GO

other SS updates, I am hard at work on the Pup!Gavin chapter in Brothers and the poker party chapter in Plenty to go around

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*minors don't engage*

Khalasars Blessing

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5a, Part 5b, Part 6, Part 7a, Part 7b, Part 7c, Part 8, Part 9, A03.

Rating: Explicit/Mature /Ship: Steddie, eventually Metalsandwich, Gareth/Jason Carver/CW: Dubious consent, Under Age, Biting, Forced Bonding/Mating /Tags: Game Of Thrones inspired, A/B/O, Alpha Eddie Munson, Omega Steve Harrington, Feral Steve Harrington, age difference, Underage Sex, Steve Harrington has a Biting Kink, Steve Harrington has a Blood kink, First meeting, First time, Knotting, Sexual scruffing, Khaleesi Steve Harrington, Khal Eddie Munson, Clueless Eddie Munson, Terrified Eddie Munson, Alpha Gareth, Omega Heather Holloway, Omega Billy Hargrove, Beta Robin Buckley, Alpha/Beta Jason Carver, Alpha Neil, Possessive and jealous Steve Harrington, Public sex, Deliberate voyeursm, None sexual scruffing, A+ parenting Neil Hargrove, Neil Hargrove is his own warning, Hurt Billy Hargrove, Switch Billy Hargrove, Billy Hargrove is overwhelmed, Hargrove has a big Cocklet, Forced Marriage, Arranged marriage, Kidnapping, is it considered rude to Kidnap your mate and force them to adjust and live by your customs? Because we now have two people pulling that stunt.

*sorry for the long wait for this update. I hid a song lyric in this chapter, happy hunting*

Chapter 10

Billy shuffles closer at Steve's prodding, he's transfixed watching Eddie thrusting into the other omega. It still fills him dread, he can't imagine it feeling nice or really fitting. But judging by Steve's soft moans it must feel good. He looks down at his lap when the other omega lays his head on his lap. He strokes his head softly.