Sometimes I think about writing a Billy/OC fanfic, and usually when I think about that I end up having to put on "Little Red Riding Hood" by Sam The Sham The Pharaohs. It makes me think about how Billy might follow a girl around that he found more interesting than the rest of the girls in Hawkins.

And when that's over I listen to the song by The Sham-ettes called "Hey There, Big Bad Wolf" because it's the girl's side of the whole thing and it seems like the exact response the OC would have.

But that's an idea I'll probably never follow through on.

Speaking of music:

I use music to help myself feel things properly and I think I'm projecting that onto Lilith...

And maybe Steve too. He knows Lilith does that, so he does it too and that's kinda how the two of them communicate sometimes.

*nervous smile*

But that honestly has nothing to do with this chapter, I just needed to rant about it for second because I've recently been sucked into the world of Harringrove and that has made me just a little obsessed with Billy Hargrove of all characters!

Also, sorry for how long I was gone. I've kinda been working on the Reveal Chapter, which will be a few parts. Just Like Steve's birthday was.

So... yeah. Here's a little thing to maybe make up for my absence!

There are times when Lilith loves Nancy Wheeler, really, there are. Nancy can be great company and it's always nice to have a girl friend that isn't four years younger than you. But that's only ninety percent of the time to be honest, because there are also times where she wants to wring the girl's neck like it's a wet cloth.

Like right now, for example.

At the moment Steve is looking at Lilith likes she's crazy, and it's all because she had decided she needed to tell him something. Three simple words that meant a lot to her and were proof to her that she was getting better at trusting people. Proof that she was feeling good things again.

I love you

It came out so easily, but only because she wasn't looking at him when she said it. She was focused on a sketch of Mike that she had promised to do for El forever ago.

She just had to look up, though.

Wide eyes, slack jaw, eyebrows pretty much in his hairline.

Not good, not good, not good...

Then he snorts and her heart drops into her stomach.

"You don't believe me?"

"Wha- no, that's not it. I ju-"

She doesn't hear the rest of it. Knows it's all just a rambling excuse that wont mean anything. She knows he doesn't believe her and she knows why.

It's mostly due to his parents and how neglectful they are. The few things she's heard about them from him have been rants about them being passive-aggressively shitty people. They don't hit him or outright tell him they don't care, but they show it and imply it and it's made it hard for Steve to trust what people say.

They have said I love you to him many times, but they never mean it and they probably never will.

But the one who really fucked it all up was Nancy.

Lilith knows that somehow Nancy got through to Steve, made him believe it when she said it to him, knows he loved her too and said it back only because he believed her. Then she had to go and mess it all up, bring those Goddamn walls of his back up by breaking his heart. She doesn't know the whole story and she refuses to listen to the rumors, but she knows that Nancy Wheeler screwed Steve Harrington up royally with however she dumped him.

"Whatever." She mutters as she goes to get off the bed.

"What?"

She's standing now, so she turns to face him and give him a deadpan expression hoping it might help him get it.

"I meant it, I mean it, and now I'm guna leave for a bit to let it sink in."

"Wait, don't g-"

"I'm also guna find Nancy and bash her face in-"

"What the actual fuck, Lilith!"

Oh, so we're back to my full name now?

She holds her hands up in surrender, "Kidding, kidding. But I'm not stupid, Steve, and I can tell there are Nancy related things that make you think I'm playin' a cruel fuckin' joke, but I'm not."

"Nancy has noth-"

She puts her hands on her hips, the pose he does when the brats when they're pissing him off. "Who spent two months being creepy, watching you like a hawk, saw everything?"

He doesn't respond.

"I did. And I'm observant, Steve. I see things people don't want me to because it's what I'm best at."

Also because I've literally been inside your head.

"I know you've got trust issues when it comes to this-" She gestures... everywhere. It's just them in the room with awkwardness in the air around them and she feels like that's the best example of 'this'. "-and I've got trust issues with everything people say or do, but I would believe anything you told me. Anything."

Still nothing but an open-mouthed stare from Steve.

"But, hey, I'll say it as many times as it takes because Lord knows I've always wanted someone to say it to me."

He's got eyes like saucers again and she realizes just how loaded that last part of her sentence had been. She slaps a hand over her mouth and her own eyes widen.

They stare at each other.

"I- I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say it like that. It sounds like I'm trying to pressure you into saying it and I don't wanna do that. Don't wanna force you to say anything. It just came out and-"

"Lil, calm down, it's fine."

Steve practically jumps over and off the bed to get to her. Wraps her in a hug that doesn't even let her squirm. Rests his chin on the top of her head and sighs. She can feel his breath on her scalp and she knows it's kind of creepy, but the feeling of it calms her down a little bit.

"Okay... so you might be a little right." He tells her.

HA!

"But that doesn't mean you can go kick Nancy's ass."

"Why not?" She asks, voice muffled because her face is burried in his shirt.

"Because she's my friend."

"But-"

"No. It's a firm 'no', Lil."

She huffs, but snuggles into his chest and sighs contentedly because this closeness is enough. She's okay with never hearing him say those three little words if he does this every now and then.

"Still though," She starts, tilting her head so she can peer up at him past her hair and his jaw. He pulls back a bit so they can properly look at each other. "I do."

He smiles and it's like fireworks go off in her heart and stomach.

The smile is a good sign, but also-

Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty.

Yeah... that.

They sit back down on his bed and cuddle while one of her tapes plays in the background quietly, and she absentmindedly wonders if what just happened counts as a fight. Not that it really matters considering it was resolved so quickly, but does it count? She gives a mental shrug and tells herself that fights are healthy once in a while and that this fight got them to talk, so it's not a big deal.

Er, they sort of talked.

Lilith did most of the talking, but feelings got across and they made up and everything is okay.

For now...

She frowns and tells the taunting foreign voice to shut it's trap, then gets back to her promised drawing.