Even Stranger Magic

Being back in California was awesome.

From the second they crossed the state line, Billy felt like a little kid again. It was hot, beautifully hot with the sun beating down on him. The city was fucking gorgeous and alive with people and art and music. And the ocean… Jesus Christ, Billy wanted to hit his knees and praise a god when he saw the ocean.

They had a great place to stay for the week. Billy made some calls, got ahold of the old man who sold him his Camaro. He used to have a rental house on the beach that Billy cleaned for him, he said they could stay there as long as Billy promised to keep it nice and neat.

The place was actually a little worse for the wear and Billy made a note of some improvements he could make while he was there - repayment to the old guy for the free rental. It was only a two bedroom, but Billy called dibs on the couch and set Steve and Eddie up with the bedrooms.

Steve acted like Billy needed a bedroom, but all Billy needed was the sliding glass door and balcony off the living room that put him right in front of the ocean. Billy didn't even close the door when they arrived, five hours later than Billy wanted and in the middle of the night.

Just the smell of saltwater was like Billy's own seriously missed addiction.

Billy woke up before the sun rose on their first day, too excited to really sleep. He pulled a kitchen chair out on the balcony and smoked while the sun rose.

It was the closest thing to absolute peace that Billy had ever felt. The only thing that would have made it all better was if Sirianna was there to see it all with him.

When the surfers started to trickle on the sand, Billy sat on the edge of his seat and watched them. They were good, every one of them. They weren't out of practice or sloppy. They hit the waves and laughed together when one of them would wipe out or take a crest at a bad angle.

It was a brotherhood, Billy could remember too easily how it felt to be a part of it. It… fuck.

Billy missed it, Billy missed the easy conversations with people who all spoke his language. Billy missed the camaraderie and the shared passion. Billy missed when the ocean had been his safe place.

Everything was different since the last time Billy saw the ocean.

It wasn't all bad, but Billy missed the ocean so fucking much. It was always going to be his first real home.

Billy stayed quiet when he went inside and changed into his trunks. He didn't need to leave Steve or Eddie a note or something, if they didn't know where he went then they were fuckin fried. Billy did leave his car keys, they didn't have jack for food and he wouldn't be mad if Steve took the car to get supplies.

Billy's ass would be in the ocean, where it belonged.

It was almost enough just to be in the water, to feel the waves and taste the salt. Billy's skin burned just right as the sun rose and he really had no worries. It would have been cool to have a board, but Billy could find a place to rent one later.

Billy took a deep breath and went under with the next wave, he released it and laughed when he popped back up. Everything was damn near perfect, everything. Billy could have stayed in the water for the entire week, refused to move until he was nothing but a burned and shriveled up mess, but someone yelled his name after a few hours of it.

"BILLY!"

Billy turned and had to raise his hand and squint in the direction where Steve should be coming from. If his lazy ass had just woken up then he should be walking from the direction of the house…

"Over here!!"

Billy turned again and his eyes actually traveled over Steve twice before he realized that the guy with the surfboard tucked under his arm and sunglasses on his eyes was Steve. Why the fuck…?

Billy forced himself out of the water, mostly because he needed to know why Steve had a surfboard and denim shorts on. If he rented a board and wanted to learn, Billy had no problem teaching him, but he couldn't do it in denim.

Fucking goof.

"The fuck are you doing?" Billy asked while he crossed the sand at a lazy pace, enjoying the sand under his toes. The beach wasn't too crowded yet, just a few moms with kids too young to be in school, some runners, and the surfers.

"Looking for you!" Steve was grinning from ear to ear when he thrust the surfboard he carried to Billy. "Happy birthday!"

"It's not my…" Billy trailed off, lost his own argument, as he looked at the board he was just handed. It was a Hobie Shortboard, still in perfect condition. There wasn't a nick on it, not a spot of the pearl finished deep blue paint faded from the sun or feet.

It was brand fucking new.

Billy snapped his head up, left his jaw somewhere on his chest, and was at a momentary loss for words while Steve just stood there grinning like a dumbass.

"Is it the right one?" Steve started bouncing on his toes, like an excited puppy, as he rambled. "I told them you were a professional, like seriously freaking good, and I had to give a general height and weight but I mostly guessed. If I waited four days, they would have added your name, but I figured you'd rather have more time to surf than have your name on it. I - I guessed on the color, I tried to get something close to the Camaro, but it's kind of off… Billy?" Steve stopped bouncing and his grin slipped in a show of nerves. "Is it the right one?" he asked again.

Was it the right…?

When Billy found the ability to fucking speak, he couldn't have sounded nonchalant for anything in the world. "You bought this? For me?" he checked. Because there was no way, there was no fucking —

"Yeah." Steve ran his hand through his hair and shrugged his shoulders up like it was no big deal. "You should have a surfboard."

Billy dropped the board and he later blamed the sun, the saltwater, the fucking air itself for making him knock Steve to the sand in a mockery of something between a hug and a tackle.

"You fucking dumbass!" Billy was laughing and he couldn't keep the fucking board, he couldn't. It had to have run Steve something north of four hundred, and they'd never get it back to Indiana in the Camaro. Except Steve was laughing at Billy from where Billy knocked him in the sand and he wasn't complaining, didn't act like it was a huge deal —

It was. It was the biggest fucking deal ever.

"You shouldn't have," Billy grinned. He really shouldn't have.

Steve was pinned in the sand and he laughed again when Billy climbed off him and offered him a hand up.

"Technically, I didn't," Steve said. His sunglasses fell off in the totally manly hug-tackle and there was something sneaky in his eyes. "I - uh… used my parents credit card."

In that case…

Billy scooped up the board and began lovingly running his fingers over every inch of it, mesmerized as much by the color and feel as he was the fucking gesture of it all. He was itching to test it out… to work out all the muscles that begged to be back on the water…

"You - you wanna test it out?" Billy asked Steve, forcing himself to offer it. Steve bought it, he should get—

"Dude." Steve laughed and then plopped his ass on the sand with his legs crossed and his shades back in place. "Go surf."

Billy didn't need to be told twice. He had the board tucked under his arm while he turned toward the ocean. His chest felt tight and it took Billy a couple of steps to realize it wasn't stress or anger or any of the usual shit - Billy was just fucking happy.

God, he was so fucking happy.

It was like Billy had slipped into one of his own dreams as he started jogging to the water. The sun, the waves, the board… all that was missing was his girl. And - and in the deepest part of Billy's mind, the part that he didn't even acknowledge, the other small missing piece of the dream would have been the woman who taught him to surf.

Billy didn't waste a lot out time thinking about his mom, but she was everywhere when Billy crashed in the Pacific and it began pulling him home. Billy laid on the board, just as she taught him, and began paddling —

Paddle, balance, glide.

The board was perfect and Billy was rusty, he was out of practice, he wasn't a professional no matter what Steve said, but it all came back to him so easily.

The sun, the water, the waves, the summer days he spent with his mom, sharing a passion with the woman who was supposed to always be there.

A wave made just for Billy came and he cut on it as easily as he breathed - a reflex. He looked out at the sand for a second and imagined his mom walking up, waving, looking as proud of him as she had when he rode his first wave.

It wasn't real though, what was real was Billy, the wave he was going to ride as long as he could, and Steve… cheering and clapping and generally acting like the stupidest person to ever live.

Damn.

Steve Harrington really was Billy's best friend in the fucking world.

Billy surfed until he had inhaled more saltwater than air, then he surfed a little longer. When his abs were screaming at him for the abuse and he needed an actual fucking drink, he finally conceded and began paddling back to shore.

Steve was still on the sand, comfortable on his stomach beneath an umbrella that Eddie must have brought when he wandered down.

"What the fuck are you wearing?" Billy dramatically shielded his eyes, too buzzed on the ocean to add any sort of heat to his tone. Eddie looked fucking ridiculous though, he had on his damn Hellfire shirt, which was normal enough even if it was too hot for long sleeves, then he had on a pair of jeans cut so short that Billy could see way too much of his legs.

Way too fucking much.

"What?" Eddie had been laying on his back and he lifted his head and shook the sand from his hair so he could look down at himself. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mister California, but some of us grew up in places where the sun doesn't hurt your face."

"Steve grew up in Indiana and he's not wearing a denim speedo," Billy pointed out. He stuck his board in the sand, ran his hand fondly over the front of it again, and accepted a beer from Steve while he sat down.

"They're shorts," Eddie argued.

"Eh." Steve pulled his knees up and snickered. "Pretty sure I saw your dick, Eddie."

Billy about choked on his beer and then peeled his tank off to throw at Eddie.

"Cover yourself up," Billy laughed. "I'm not blowing my savings on balling you out when you get picked up for prostitution."

"Like they could afford me," Eddie sniffed while he did wrap Billy's tank around his waist. It was fine, Billy wasn't going to ask for the shirt back… ever.

"You done for the day?" Steve asked Billy. "Cause I could actually use some shorts too and I saw some shops and places to grab food down a ways."

Billy was starving and had no problem calling it a day on the board and heading back to the house to shower before taking them out to have their first real night in Los Angeles.

First though - he had to call Sirianna.

Billy let Steve take first shower so he could have a beer, a cigarette, and call Sirianna. It wasn't very late, not even five yet, so Billy hoped she wouldn't bitch that he forgot to call her and tell her they made it. Sirianna answered on the second ring and Billy could just picture her waiting for the phone to ring, it made him feel like an ass for forgetting to call.

"Hello?"

Billy grinned and swung his feet up on the rail of the balcony. "Hey, baby," he said. "Miss me yet?"

Because fuck Billy missed her. It had been muted while he was distracted by everything else, but he wished she was there under his arm, probably… probably not having a great time since she liked swimming about as much as Billy would like to be waterboarded.

"Billy!" Sirianna sounded happy to hear from him. It had been less than forty-eight hours since he left, Billy should already be aching to get back to her.

"Oh, you sound like you're smiling," she said - fuck if Billy knew how she guessed that. Billy could kind of tell she was smiling though, something about her tone. "Are you having fun? You've been surfing, haven't you?"

Jesus Christ, Billy loved her.

"Yeah," he said, smiling so fucking hard it actually hurt. "I have."

"Tell me everything."

So Billy did.

Billy talked to his girl, the second love of his life, and told her about the board Steve bought him, the waves he crushed and the ones that crushed him. Billy talked about being back in California and how it almost felt like home.

"All I'm missing is Ziggy," he said when he was about talked out. Damn, Billy went on and on like a chick. Sirianna didn't mind, she laughed when Billy mentioned their dog.

"Ziggy and I can't wait to see you," she said. "I'm glad you're having fun, but I miss you terribly."

"I miss you," Billy said. He sighed when he heard Eddie making fucking dramatic puking noses somewhere behind him. "I'm gonna go drown Munson though."

"You better not, Chrissy will cry," Sirianna said. "Have fun tonight."

"I will. Love you." Billy waited until Sirianna hung up to turn around and shove the phone at Eddie. "Dumbass," he scoffed.

"You love me." Eddie was showered and dressed in jeans and the same shirt he had on before. Billy squinted at him suspiciously, checked out the eyeliner on his eyes and his black nails. Eddie was an idiot who always looked like a fucking rockstar.

There… wasn't any reason…

"Trade ya," Billy said abruptly before he could talk himself out of it. Eddie looked up from where he was dialing his own call and Billy shrugged carelessly. "I'll loan you a shirt, you do that shit," Billy waved a hand in front of his own face, "to me?"

Eddie didn't laugh, didn't call Billy a fag or a pansy ass, he just nodded.

"Yeah, alright," he agreed easily. "I gotta call Princess first."

Billy pushed down Neil's voice, the steady stream of insults, deep deep down while he went to grab stuff for a shower. He paused only for a second when he heard Eddie —

"Good evening. Is Jason home?"

— and then Neil's voice wasn't so loud when Eddie was calling Jason ‘princess' and it was Cali and nobody gave a shit if Billy wore fucking eyeliner.

The three of them pregamed with a few beers while Billy convinced Steve to let Eddie put eyeliner on him too. Steve huffed and puffed but they ended up all kind of looking fuckin rad.

Billy looked fucking sick and couldn't stop checking himself out while Steve and Eddie bought some shit to wear while they were there.

"Yeah, you're real pretty," Steve sighed when Billy paused again to glance at himself in the window of their place after they dropped off their bags.

"Awe, Steve," Billy tossed his arm around Steve's shoulders and pulled him close. "You jealous? It's alright, buddy, you're still the prettiest boy here."

"No, it's okay, I don't have feelings," Eddie said brightly.

"God. And you call me a queer." Steve was laughing when he shoved Billy off him and Billy felt weightless, too high on the entire fucking trip to do anything more than laugh and continue to tease the shit out of Steve for the rest of their walk back down to the boardwalk.

The boardwalk was packed and everywhere Billy looked he felt memories flooding him. If Billy wasn't the one who started buying them drinks and food, he was sure that Steve and Eddie would have told him to shut the fuck up.

Something about California made him chatty, Billy couldn't shut the shit off.

They got corndogs and Billy told them about the first time he took Max to the boardwalk by himself and they had a corndog eating contest. They walked past an arcade and Billy nostalgically recounted his first blow job behind the arcade. They walked to the first bar Billy ever got drunk at and Billy pulled them inside with promises of the best drinks they'd ever have.

The hottest babes too, when Billy had been young, dumb, and single. Nobody caught his eye, nobody held a candle to his girl, and Billy ignored anyone giving him coy looks while he focused on just getting shit faced on vacation with his friends.

Eddie ordered food, Billy ordered shots, Steve had the most ridiculous Bambi eyes while he looked around the bar that Billy took them to.

"Is this… uh…" Steve trailed off and Billy turned to where his eyes were stuck at, on two dudes making out on the ledge of the stage.

"A gay bar?" Billy asked. "Dunno. It's the anyone bar. Don't ask questions, we don't have ID's."

"I like the anyone bar," Eddie said, looking around appreciatively at the mixed crowd filling the place. There was a freak of every variety, Billy kind of felt at home.

"You would," Billy quipped harmlessly. He gave the bartender who brought their tray of shots and cheeseburgers a charming smile and bit of an extra tip. Then he passed out the shots and made Steve and Eddie toast with him. "To Cali," he said.

"Cali!" Steve and Eddie clinked their glasses to Billy's and then they started drinking.

And drinking.

And drinking.

Billy was already shit faced and stupid by the time they started playing ‘truth, dare, or drink'. They already made Eddie sing a karaoke song, the dude was fucking awesome, and Billy shared the humiliating story of his first time getting laid.

And it was Steve's turn.

"Uh…" Steve eyed Billy carefully and must have decided he was too drunk to fuck with him much. "Dare."

"Excellent." Billy plopped his chin in one hand and waved lazily (drunkenly) to a twink sitting alone at the bar. "Dare you to go get your game on."

Steve and Eddie looked where Billy pointed and Eddie nodded in understanding, the guy was about their age, looked like Steve's type. He was skinny, kind of geeky looking, if his hair was black instead of blonde he wouldn't be a bad ringer for Harry.

"I'll drink instead," Steve said hastily, grabbing his shot and trying to take it. Billy grabbed his wrist to stop him and shook his head.

"C'mon, man, give it a go," he slurred. "You're young, attractive. There's plenty of fish in the sea."

Plenty of single fish that weren't all wrapped up in some insane fucking dude with a smack-addiction and smart mouth.

"I'd rather drink," Steve said. He wasn't pissy, but Billy knew a lost cause when he heard one.

Eddie mocked him playfully because he didn't know Steve as well as Billy. "Chicken," he grinned. "Nobody cares if you pop that gay cherry here and Billy and I won't tell a soul."

"I'm not scared," Steve huffed. He toyed with his shot glass and wouldn't look at anyone in the eye. "It's just - you know. I don't want to, not yet."

"You could do better," Billy told Steve, slapping him on the back. "Harry's fucking weird, man. Don't ever tell Siri I said this, but if he's too fuckin' stupid to see that you're a helluva better choice than Theo? Then he's blind too."

"Uh… thanks, I think," Steve said. He rolled his eyes sarcastically, but Billy saw his lips curl up, all pleased or whatever.

"You're still a bitch though for backing down, so take your shot."

Billy did his shot with Steve to prove that he wasn't a bitch though, then he tried to focus when Eddie said that he chose dare for his turn.

"I don't have any ideas," Steve said after thinking for a minute. Billy had kind of been banking on Steve saying something because Billy didn't have any ideas either.

The problem with Eddie was that the dude was up for anything, ever. All Billy had to do was check out his fucking queer little relationship triangle to know that Eddie wasn't someone who backed down from anything weird. Hell, the guy embraced it, it was kind of fucking awesome.

"Then I dare Eddie to…" Fuck, Billy really was drunk. His head swam while he tried to think of a dare and light a cigarette. Multitasking was fucking hard when all his braincells were swimming in cheap vodka.

"Streak down the beach back to the house."

Billy got his cigarette lit and he shared a laugh with Steve at Steve's own diabolical dare. Steve looked surprised at his own words, but it was perfect.

It was California, it was dark, nobody was going to call the cops on some drunk tourist streaking in the night. And if they did, it still didn't matter because Billy wasn't the one risking jail time during their trip.

"Alright, Munson." Billy pointed his cigarette at where Eddie was swaying in his seat - or was the whole bar moving? Earthquake? Maybe a small one? Fuck it. "That's the dare," he said.

"Oh, boys." Eddie sighed and he already shed his jacket and Billy watched while he started unbuttoning Billy's shirt off his chest. "I would have done that if I had ever one more drink."

Billy was laughing when Eddie jumped up and Steve had to help Billy stumble after him out of the bar, down to the beach. Steve caught the shirt when Eddie threw it to him, Billy got smacked in the face with his jeans.

"By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

Eddie threw his briefs behind him and had the entire beach laughing and making shocked cries while he started running the opposite direction of their place completely butt ass naked.

"Do we… tell him he's going the wrong way?" Steve asked, all concerned even though he laughed as much as Billy did.

Billy opened his mouth to answer - absolutely fucking not - and instead he wound up puking all over the sand.

Everything was pretty much gone after that.

Billy had no idea how Steve got him back to the place they were staying, he had no idea how Eddie returned without catching a charge or getting lost on the beaches, but Billy woke up to the sunrise, the smell of saltwater on the breeze, and a nasty fucking hangover.

The hangover didn't stop Billy from taking his board straight outside to surf while the sun was still low in the sky. Billy thought he could have his arms ripped off his body and if he had a surfboard and some waves - he'd find a fucking way to make it work. A hangover was nothing, fucking death itself couldn't stop him from getting back in the water.

They found a good rhythm for the rest of their trip - Billy woke up early to surf, Steve joined him when the sun had actually made it to a decent spot in the sky. Twice, Steve asked Billy to teach him the basics, most of the time he was content to sit and watch. Eddie slept in late, rolled out on the beach whenever he felt like it.

It was its own brotherhood, one made up of the three normal dudes who lived paranormal lives back home.

They talked, they laughed - fuck, Billy had never laughed so much in his entire life as he did that week. Steve finally found some life in his eyes again, Eddie got some color to his skin, Billy realized that he didn't hate the sound of his own voice so much anymore.

On Wednesday they had to actually show up at SoCal University for a tour if they wanted their trip excused from school. The college was cool, pretty and close enough to the beach that Billy could hit the water between classes, Billy had no intention on going there though.

Sirianna still had a year until she would graduate and they hadn't… they hadn't really talked much about that yet. Billy didn't plan on going to college anyway, he never saved any money for it, he didn't need it, he didn't know what he was going to do with himself anyway.

Billy knew that he wasn't going to spend a year in California while Sirianna was in Indiana though. Even a week was starting to wear on him, he wasn't used to having a person cause his body to ache from the separation.

Steve said it might not be a bad college to go to, if he got his grades up. The dude giving them the tour tried to push applications on all of them, but Steve ultimately ended up shaking his head and mumbling something about attending Purdue instead.

Purdue sucked ass, but it was local. If Billy had to pick a college, he'd say Purdue too. But Billy had someone anchoring him to Hawkins, Steve - well, Steve kind of did too, Billy knew he was still hoping that it was going to work out between him and Harry.

Eddie grabbed three applications for himself, Chrissy, and Jason.

In the afternoons they mostly did tourist shit that Billy had never done when he lived there. They went to the pier, walked through parks, checked out the Hollywood sign. It was cool seeing everything through Steve and Eddie's eyes, it made it all that much better for Billy.

On their last day in California, Eddie talked them into renting jet skis and it had been fucking amazing. They also stopped by the zoo, went to the biggest strip club in the state, and found time to fix some shit up around the house for the guy that loaned it to them for the week.

Billy was definitely moping when it came time to pack up. He missed Sirianna and Ziggy fucking real bad, but he was going to miss California just as much once he was gone. The silver lining on leaving was that Billy was taking his board with him, after fucking up his car's beauty with a board rack to put up top.

"Cryin' yet?" Steve asked, adding his duffel to the trunk and then tossing a brown bag over the roof of the car for Billy. "I bought your favorite snacks," he said.

Billy didn't have any ‘favorite snacks'. He lifted a brow when he unrolled the bag and chuckled when he saw it was mostly beef jerky, bottles of water, and a couple packs of cigarettes. Yeah, those kind of were his favorite snacks if he had to choose ‘em.

Steve tossed another bag to Eddie when he dragged his sorry ass out of the house. "Yours too."

"Hell yeah, thanks, Steve-O," Eddie said, immediately digging in what looked like a bag full of sour candy.

Billy would have thanked Steve too, except he was busy sharing another goodbye with the ocean while Eddie and Steve loaded up in the car. Billy was going to have to return soon, maybe spring break, and he was going to have to bring Sirianna and Ziggy so that the whole trip would be perfect instead of nearly perfect.

In twenty-four hours, Billy would be back in the chilly state of Indiana. He'd have to get back to school, to seeing the light that just returned to Steve's eyes dim slowly again. Billy would be back to being terrified and sickeningly hopeful that he would bump into Neil at the grocery store.

In twenty-four hours, Billy wouldn't be looking at every middle-aged blonde in case it was his mom. Billy wouldn't be hungover from partying late in the night with his friends.

Everything was going to change again, but there was one undeniably good change that gave Billy all the motivation he needed to get back to Hawkins.

In twenty-four hours he'd see his girl, he reminded himself of that when he climbed in the car and started the long drive back to Indiana.

The drive wasn't terrible, they broke it up in eight hour shifts so everyone got a chance to sleep and drive. Billy drove first, stayed awake while Eddie drove, then started sleeping when Steve took over for the final stretch home.

Hawkins was home, California was home… Billy was a real lucky boy to have his heart in Indiana and his passion in California.

Real fuckin' lucky.

It would be good to get back to his girl though, swoop her up in his arms and refuse to put her down. Billy grinned a little as he started to drift off, comfortable enough with Steve behind the wheel and still loose from a week of perfection.

Billy thought about Sirianna's reaction to everything in California until sleep finally found him and Billy passed the fuck out.

What Billy woke up to were the screech of tires on asphalt, Eddie shouting something sharply, Steve screaming, and then the sickening crunch of the front end of Billy's car smashing the front end of another car.

Then everything went black once more and the last thing Billy noticed was a sign that he shouldn't be able to see - why was it upside down?

Welcome to Indiana!