saving lucas

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

 Six teenagers pressed their faces to the smooth glass window, their eyes wide as they looked outside to the scene of the crime. Steve, who had taken so many for the team before, had sacrificed himself yet again, volunteering to head outside and confront Billy, Max's stepbrother, even though this was Alina's house. Steve had again spouted some bullshit about how he needed to protect them and that he promised he'd keep them safe and to stay away from the windows and yadda yadda, but as a silent rebellion to his infuriating overprotective nature, the six of them found themselves at the windows anyway, with Skywalker snuggling between them, who'd been drawn to the voices. Alina's cat still didn't seem to really like any of them, but he was getting free pets, so he wasn't complaining.

According to Max, Billy was not only terrifying, he was also racist, which was probably two of the worst things a person could be. During the frantic minute where Max told them all of this, she also added that Billy had warned her to "stay away" from Lucas, saying some bullshit about how "there are certain kinds of people who can't be trusted." Obviously, she hadn't listened, as she was beside Lucas right now, but it would be bad news if her older stepbrother found them together—with two more of that "kind" as well.

Alina was tempted to burn him to show him who was boss, but she resisted the urge for now, watching as the mullet-wearing teenager climbed out of his car, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He wore a leather jacket and tight jeans, and to Alina he was instantly the player type of guy with a side of psychopath. He had tried to run them over with his car on Halloween, and no matter what Max said, Alina was sure he would've done it if he'd gotten the chance.

Her head was pounding, and it made it hard for her to focus as she watched him climb out of the car, the end of his cigarette glowing like a firefly. Her vision blurred, heat flushing across her cheeks, but she locked her eyes on that glowing orange light and watched as Billy caught eyes on Steve.

He took his cigarette out of his mouth, blowing out a stream of gray smoke into the air, and Alina tried to focus her vision. It was getting worse. The whispers were filling her head now, but they were waiting. They told her not to argue with the others, so she didn't. They told her to go to the hub, so she would. She would anyway, but now she had a bad feeling about it.

Alina watched as Billy opened his mouth, his lips barely moving. She wasn't bad at reading lips, but it was never an exact science, so she only caught something like "Am I—or is that—" which, of course, made no sense at all. Biting her lip in worry, Alina watched as Billy took off his leather jacket, revealing a partially opened shirt, and wrinkled her nose. Seeing this asshole shirtless was not something she'd ever wanted to see.

She'd do that sometimes. Pretend like everything was how it was by thinking about mundane things, even though everything had changed. Even though nothing would be the same again.

Steve stepped down the steps of her porch and made his way to Billy, who said something like "What are you doing here?" Alina knew she ought to go confront him—tell him to get the hell away from her house (how had he found the address anyway?), but her leg was throbbing, and she could feel blood starting to leak its way through the bandage. Plus, she knew it would be futile. Even though she had powers, Billy scared her a lot more than the Demodogs did. He wouldn't hesitate to beat her up, she figured.

So she stayed.

Billy was now talking with the stupid cigarette dangling out of his mouth, which made it all the harder to read his lips, and Alina let out an audible groan, causing all eyes to shoot to her. "What is it?" asked Lucas, and she resisted the urge to grab his hand just like old times. She knew it would now only end in pain. Perhaps it would either way.

"I'm trying to read his lips," Alina explained, "but that cigarette is making it hard for me to do so."

"You can read lips?" asked Dustin, sounding awed.

"Yeah." Alina reached an arm out to pet Skywalker, but her cat only hissed and jumped off of the couch. A little twinge of hurt went through her, but she recovered quickly. "Once, I really hurt my ears, and I couldn't hear out of them for a couple of days. I got a lot of practice in reading lips then, before I got my hearing back. And you guys know I have good eyesight. It makes it easier."

Lucas, who was listening closely as he watched Billy and Steve speak, his heart hammering in his chest, thought that was something the old Alina would say. Not this new Alina, this sick one that barely spoke and seemed in her own world half of the time. He knew he should ask her if she was okay. But he didn't know how.

She'd been strange for the first couple of months after her dad's death. Who wouldn't be? She went to school only a month after the accident, but he'd constantly find her rushing off to have panic attacks in the bathroom. No one could go in there, but Lucas would always hang out by the bathroom door, waiting for when she came back out, his chest aching as he heard her sobs. When school ended, Lucas would take her somewhere she liked—the arcade, the deli that made the best sandwiches in all of Hawkins, and sometimes home, where they'd watch a movie together and drink iced tea, then play on the Atari. He couldn't say he missed those days—the days of a broken Alina, a shell of the spunky, courageous girl he'd found in the rain years ago—but he did miss knowing what was wrong. This new Alina, the Alina who'd decided to make an appearance this week, was practically a stranger.

Now, Alina leaned forward, satisfaction coursing through her as she watched Billy take the cigarette out of his mouth. "Now he's saying something like... this whole situation gives him the heebie-jeebies? Did he really use that phrase? That's so lame."

Talking to the party helped their heart rates decline in speed, at least a little bit, Max most of all, who's tanned face was paler than usual as she watched her stepbrother outside. "Okay," she said slowly. "But why?"

Alina squinted. "Uh... he says something about you going missing," she said, tracing the way Billy's lips moved. "And something about Steve. That's all I got." She shrugged. "Sorry. It's not an exact thing."

The party kept watching, letting out disappointed sighs that they couldn't find out more about Billy and Steve's conversation, when suddenly Billy turned his head, gesturing with his firefly cigarette at the window, right at them.

"Get down!" Gabe yelled, and all six of them slid down to hide from the view of Billy, their heartrates upping back to the tense pulse that had become the norm in the past couple of days. Dustin breathed heavily, his eyes looking around wildly.

"Shit!" he cursed. "Did he see us?"

Gabe sounded like he was hyperventilating when he spoke next. "He definitely saw us, Dustin! Did you see how he pointed with his cigarette? We're so done for! I don't want to die at the age of thirteen! I should've gone home to my grandparents!" His body was trembling, the bravery and adrenaline he'd had with the Demodogs completely disappearing when faced with this new threat. He put his head in his hands. "I'm an idiot, I'm such a goddamn idiot!"

Alina's heart was made of hummingbird wings as the party stood, cautiously making their way towards the door. Alina wanted to lock it, wanted desperately to keep that vile boy out of her house, and hoped Steve was holding him off as she made her way slowly towards it. Before she could touch the handle, however, the door burst open, just missing hitting her in the face, and Billy entered the house almost casually. Like it was his.

No. No no no no no. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be here. And despite everything, Alina still felt that chill that had gone down her spine when she'd almost been run over by Billy's car.

Taking a few steps back, Alina rejoined her friends, trembling too much to even think about letting her powers through. Billy stood at the front door, his lip curling when he saw who Max was standing beside. A beautiful boy in a camouflage bandanna. A beautiful boy that Alina couldn't tell how much she missed. A beautiful boy who was being stared down by an unbeautiful one.

"Well, well, well." Billy spoke like a TV-villain, one who would spin around on a chair as the anxious hero entered their secret layer. Petting a cat, too.

The door slammed behind him, and there went Alina's feeble plans of escape. Just as she was about to confront this asshole, pain burst through her, and it took everything she had not to let out a whimper. That's right, the horrible voice said. Be angry. Don't be scared of him. He's an asshole and he's in your house. What are you going to do about it?

Billy took a couple of steps closer to the beautiful boy. His name was foul on his lips. "Lucas Sinclair," he said. "What a surprise." He moved away from him, instead positioning himself so he was now eye-to-eye with the redheaded girl. "I thought I told you to stay away from him, Max," he said.

"Billy, go away," Max pleaded, and she didn't seem like the cool girl who had gone to the arcade with Alina and wrote nice notes for Will. She seemed like a shell of herself, her red hair hanging in front of her bloodless face. Another burst of pain shot through Alina as she watched, and she knew she was running out of time, especially considering the amount of sweat that was building up on her collar.

"You disobeyed me." Billy's voice was rotten, like spoiled milk. If he was good, perhaps it would be a good voice, one of dark chocolate and honey. But his voice was instead like maggots and apple cores and garbage piles as he spoke to his stepsister. "And you know what happens when you disobey me."

Alina clutched her pounding head as Max made one last plea. "Billy..."

He didn't listen. "I break things."

Before any of them could even react, Billy had lunged forward and seized Lucas by the collar, picking him up with almost superhuman strength and shoving him against a cabinet against the wall. Dishes rattled as Billy rattled Lucas, whose face was contorted in pain as he tried to escape the older teenager's grip. And that was all it took.

Suddenly Alina's head was clear. Suddenly what Billy had just done clicked. Suddenly she realized that that was Lucas Sinclair in Billy's grip, the boy who watched movies with her and ate pudding and kissed her in the dim lights of Hawkins Middle. This was the boy Alina had lost the day she realized everything. But she wouldn't lose him again.

"Stop!" her voice cut through the air like a knife, higher and louder than the screams of her friends, who were already shouting for the bandanna-clad boy. Immediately, Alina lunged forward, seeing red, but Max and Mike were too fast. Their hands seized her arms, keeping her from launching herself into the fray, and although Alina knew they were just trying to prevent her from getting hurt, she couldn't help the anger that rose up in her. She let out another shriek. "Lucas! Lucas!"

Letting in the energy was hard, but she managed to let it come through as Lucas was jostled this way and that by the older boy. "Get off of me," he begged, "you—"

Billy brought his face close to Lucas. "Since Maxine won't listen to me, maybe you will. You stay away from her." He slammed him against the cabinet again. "Stay away from her! You hear me?"

Alina sunk her energy into Mike and Max's arms. She kept it light, so as not to hurt them that bad—she'd already burned Max back at the junkyard—but was still rewarded with two yelps, and a slackening grip. Alina jerked her arms out of their hold and immediately ran forward towards Billy. Because no one messed with Lucas Sinclair. No one.

With a feral screech, Alina grabbed onto Billy's neck, her hands burning hot. She tried to pull him back, but she'd underestimated just how strong Billy was, and just how weak her twig arms really were. Still, Billy did look away from Lucas and towards her. So that was a start.

He jerked out of her hold, a cry of pain tearing loose from his lips, and, blinded by pain, like a wounded animal, he struck out, his hands sinking into the soft flesh of Alina's stomach.

Instant pain. Instant loss of breath. The moment of Alina Fairgrieves falling to the ground from the force of Billy's blow seemed to last forever. Tears burned in her eyes. Her leg was on fire. Her lungs were consumed by flames. Her head was caught up by the blaze.

Two Billys stood above her, their lips contorting into smirks. "Well, well, well," they said. "We've got another one."

And that was when Lucas's foot swung, blindly, towards them, and hit the two Billys right where the sun didn't shine.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: idk if y'all are disappointed but alina did attempt to kick billy's ass!! and she did pretty well considering she's possessed and everything!! i thought it was cute because she and lucas were saving each other or whatever <3

also, i did an art collab of alina with my friend (i drew the sketch and she coloured) and it's finally finished!! here it is :)

she did such a good job and i love it so much!! the outfit is adorable and it's just so pretty omg. ahhh it's so good!!

'till next time!