His smile was one that was forced-easy. Billy wasn't looking great, and Argyle knew too much about interdimensional beings and monsters and girls with super powers now to be able to pretend that it wasn't connected.
"You were in the mind fight, right? With Jane, uh, Eleven. You wanna tell me I should see the other guy now? I mean... Dude..."
He gets his answer quickly enough, though, when Argyle mentions El. It's a small fucking world that Argyle ended up knowing her, or more specifically, Jonathan freakin' Byers and getting dragged into this shit too. "You know El? Of course you know El, you know the Byers, but you know about her powers?"
"Yeah, I mean, she's Jonathan's sister, right?" He knows, vaguely, it's not blood relation, but she's been his sister for as long as Argyle has known the family. "I didn't know she was all special, but then-"
How does he even begin to explain his last few days? He doesn't really understand them, they just happened to him, and he was along for the ride.
"-these secret agent dudes took her away and then these other guys shot up the Byers place, and we had to find Nina and Jane pulled a chopper out the sky with her mind, and then she had the mindfight." He paused and nodded at Billy. "Which you were in too."
"Oh! And she clocked this chick with a roller skate! That was gnarly! Moral is; don't fuck with Jane, man, she'll git yeh!"
"Ah... yeah, something like that? Mrs Byers and El's dad, Chief Hopper had some kinda thing going and then the Krauts blew him up and she moved away with the Byers." He leaves out the whole thing about El escaping the lab and Hopper adopting her and shit because he doesn't know all of what Argyle knows and honestly, Billy still doesn't really get it all.
Probably because he'd been high off his ass on pain killers with freshly installed metal plates holding his sternum in place so it didn't crush his heart any further than it had during the brats' story time.
"We don't... call her Jane? It's El. But yeah, she crushed me with a weight bar and then threw me through a wall once. I was possessed by Vecna's lacky at the time. It's a whole thing." He waves his hand as if to say don't worry about it.
Argyle listens to Billy talking about being possessed and Jane -El- throwing him through a wall. If Billy could see more clearly, he'd notice the uncharacteristically drawn and worried look on Argyle's usually carefree face. It's a little bit ingrained now, worn in far too fast over the last week of events.
Billy had been forced to move away. They didn't really talk about shit like that when they hung out, but Argyle's empathic soul had felt it anyway: The pain of being torn away from the sun and the sea. Indiana was no place for the likes of Billy and himself. They needed the sun and the surf to power their souls, Argyle felt. And then on top of that, Billy went through all this when he got here? It wasn't right, man.
"I'll tell you who Nina isn't; she isn't a very petite chick," Argyle nodded, as if that help answer Billy's question at all. Then he leaned forwards, his hand falling on the bedsheet close to Billy's. He grinned. "But you should be asking me who Eden is, my dude."
“How am I supposed to ask who Eden is if you don’t mention her, dumbass?” Billy rolls his eyes, wincing slightly at the ache that accompanies the action.
There’s a pang of something that’s maybe jealousy at the idea of Argyle having someone else but he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on given he’d fucked his new dealer here and would gladly have fucked Harrington if the chance had come up. Maybe Argyle would feel some kind of way if he knew that Billy had been fucking someone else.
“Who’s Eden? You may as well fill me in on this too.”
Completely oblivious to any kind of jealousy Billy might be feeling, Argyle leans in over the bed, his voice taking a husky tone to it.
"She's only the most bodacious chick you've ever met. She's all gothy and intense, and totally down for getting lit. And brutal," Argyle's eyes get big, "oh man, is she brutal!
Completely free with his love, Argyle is aware that others tie themselves up in knots with relationships and monogamy. That's never been part of his household and wasn't part of the arrangement he had with Billy, to his knowledge. Talking about chicks seems like a fine topic to entertain his old friend with.
"She reminds me of you, in a way, but also the total opposite. Like, you're the sun and she's the moon."
They’d never been official and Billy would never expect Argyle to change who he was by tying himself to one person. He just had an unhealthy thing where he enjoyed being the center of someone’s attention and he had no intention of ever looking too deep into why that was.
Of course, Billy has zero interest in this chick, no matter how bodacious and brutal she is because Billy has no interest in girls. But Argyle seemed pretty fucking stoked about her.
"Utah!" Argyle burst that out with excitement that he didn't hold for the majority of the trip. There was good reason, between so many guns and dead guys, and the rest of the van's occupants being pretty mopey for the majority of the week while stuck in the vehicle, which was getting to the level of stinky even Argyle could pick up on, it hadn't been the kind of road trip he'd hoped to one day have with his best friend. His buzz had been killed so bad, man.
"Uh, I think she's the sister of Dustin's girlfriend or something? We didn't talk much to be honest." There was a pause, one long that Billy could have assumed that it was because they were busy fucking, but he eventually continued. "We needed a distraction so I took her to the van and we got so baked, man."
"Why the fuck were you in Utah?" Seriously, what the fuck did Utah have to do with some bitch named Nina and El and the monsters? "Henderson has a girlfriend in Utah?"
Billy chuckles softly because of course Argyle managed to find the one person along the way that would wanna sit around and get fucked up with him. He just had that way with people. Fucking lit up a room or some shit. Well, either that or he pissed them off because he was so fucking weird. "So you were, what? Visiting Henderson's girlfriend in Utah and got baked with her sister while a monster was trying to end the world?"
Ignoring the question about the validity of Dustin having a girlfriend, Argyle nodded back at Billy. Some people would take the blond's tone as aggressive, and sometimes it was, but Argyle understood that was just how Billy talked a lot of the time - like the existence of people in his vicinity was a massive inconvenience on his life. Argyle didn't mind, that was just Billy's way, and lots of other people talked to him like that anyway. Besides, Argyle had also heard Billy mewling and rumbling like a kitten on occasion, had drawn that from him himself, with his fingers. He could always get beyond tone of voice.
"Yep, pretty much, my man. Basically we got this secret agent's digits out of his pen, but when we called they connected to a computer, and we needed someone who could speak computer to tell us where to go to find Nina."
Billy stares at Argyle for a long moment. The guy is still kinda blurry even when he's focusing on him the way he is right now but Billy knows his face well and he doesn't actually need to be able to see it to know exactly what expression he has on his face.
"Fuck, man, I still don't know who Nina is but it sounds like you've had a crazy week. Welcome to the fucking club. It's actually batshit insane."
Argyle pauses, a frown knitting his eyebrows together as he thinks. Then he shakes his head. "Me neither! But we found Jane, and she was with Nina, so..."
He hopes that Nina didn't burn when Jane-El pulled that helicopter out of the sky. She was probably a hot chick, and that would have been a sad waste.
Leaning forwards on the chair and tipping it up, so he was balanced on two legs, and his own, Argyle looked Billy over. "Yeaaaah... What happened to you? I thought you said the place you were moving to sounded dull as fuck."
Edited (because I'm incapable of proof reading until the second I hit "post") 2023-05-07 10:37 (UTC)
"El was with Nina? Who is Nina?" No one else had mentioned this Nina and, as far as he knew, pretty much anyone else that could want anything to do with El was one of those shitty scientists that turned kids into weapons or killed people.
Billy offers a one shoulder shrug, his right arm the only good limb he had at the moment. "It did. Except apparently it's the entry point to a dimension that was full of monsters controlled by some psycho dude El blasted out of our world with her mind. Thankfully, Harrington, Buckley and Wheeler stopped him before he was able to suck my eyeballs into my head like he did the others and open a gate between our world and their world."
There was nothing Argyle could answer except with a shrug of his own at the question. He had no idea who Nina was. They were looking for her and then once they found Jane, they no longer cared about Nina's fate, apparently. He'd probably missed something at some point. None of the guys he called his bros were that callous.
Argyle listened intently to Billy's explanation. It kinda made sense, only because he'd been getting weaved into so many explanations that alone made exactly zero sense on their own, but were now finally starting to form a bigger picture for him, piece by piece. When Billy was done he exhales heavily and tipped back onto all four chair legs on the floor with a heavy thump.
"Oh, Bronco... I'd have hunted him down myself if he'd stole the Cali sky from your eyes." He folded his hands over the chairback in front of him and rested his chin on it. "Need something to remind me of home while I'm stuck here."
Honestly, even if someone sat down and explained it all in detail, Argyle still probably wouldn't get it. Billy had lived it and he still didn't always understand it all. There was just so much that seemed to be completely irrelevant but somehow tied in. "If you wanna know, ask Henderson. That kid seems to know everything about it all."
Billy snorts a soft laugh. "Oh yeah? You gonna take on inter-dimensional monsters for me? My hero." He reaches out his hand, suddenly needing physical comfort but not knowing how to ask for it. "It's good to see you, Argyle. Well, as much as I can see fucking anything at the moment."
"'m not saying I'd fair as well as you. But I'd try." He'd probably have a breakdown and then die horribly, truth be told.
Billy raises his hand and Argyle doesn't even hesitate, dismounting the chair and pushing it aside, so he can sit on the bed next to Billy and grasp his hand. He holds their hands close to his chest as leans in to touch his fingers to Billy's cheekbone, carefully checking the swelling. "It's good to see you too, man. Honestly thought you'd rode off into the sunset, and I'd never see you again."
"Maybe you coulda calmed Vecna the fuck down with some Purple Palmtree Delight." Or pretty much anything he tended to have; Argyle always had the good shit. Munson's was good quality but the options in Cali shit all over it.
Billy sighs softly at the gentle touch, eyes falling closed. His cheeks don't hurt so much as his eyes themselves but Argyle's hand is soft and he realises how much he's missed a tender touch as soon as he has it and he leans into it with another sigh. Fuck he missed Cali. "Nah, I'd have come back. Even before I knew about the monsters."
Argyle laughs at that. Purple Palmtree Delight could fix any problem, as long as the problem is receptive to trying it. "You think? I dunno man, this Vecna dude strikes me as some grade A square."
Would he have come back? It's a couple of years since he left now, easily. No phone calls or letters to say he was swinging out that way in the wake of all the rich kids on Spring break or whatever. Not that Argyle was expecting anything, but...
"Sure. You'd be chasing the surf though, not looking for me."
"The dude's a tentacle covered psychopath intent on world domination. Not sure you can call him a square." Of course, Argyle had never actually seen the monster that haunted Billy's nightmares, a fact that he was thankful for. The less people that saw that guy, the better.
Billy snorts and rolls his eyes, groaning at the ache. "Can't a guy be chasing surf and good dick."
"Tentacles? Like Cthulhu?" He was a monster after all, and the way folk talked about the guy, it was like some dumb thralls had raised an elder god or some shit. "More like those porn cartoons from Japan?"
Argyle smiled and leaned in. "I hope it's better than good, man."
"Aren't they like squid-like? Because not like that. Nah, this thing was a giant thing made of flesh with, like, teeth at the end of each tentacle that it used to skewer me like a fucking kebab."
Billy smiles and turns so that his nose brushes against Argyle with how close they are. "You know it is."
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His smile was one that was forced-easy. Billy wasn't looking great, and Argyle knew too much about interdimensional beings and monsters and girls with super powers now to be able to pretend that it wasn't connected.
"You were in the mind fight, right? With Jane, uh, Eleven. You wanna tell me I should see the other guy now? I mean... Dude..."
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He gets his answer quickly enough, though, when Argyle mentions El. It's a small fucking world that Argyle ended up knowing her, or more specifically, Jonathan freakin' Byers and getting dragged into this shit too. "You know El? Of course you know El, you know the Byers, but you know about her powers?"
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How does he even begin to explain his last few days? He doesn't really understand them, they just happened to him, and he was along for the ride.
"-these secret agent dudes took her away and then these other guys shot up the Byers place, and we had to find Nina and Jane pulled a chopper out the sky with her mind, and then she had the mindfight." He paused and nodded at Billy. "Which you were in too."
"Oh! And she clocked this chick with a roller skate! That was gnarly! Moral is; don't fuck with Jane, man, she'll git yeh!"
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Probably because he'd been high off his ass on pain killers with freshly installed metal plates holding his sternum in place so it didn't crush his heart any further than it had during the brats' story time.
"We don't... call her Jane? It's El. But yeah, she crushed me with a weight bar and then threw me through a wall once. I was possessed by Vecna's lacky at the time. It's a whole thing." He waves his hand as if to say don't worry about it.
"Either way, that girl has saved me twice now.
"Wait. Who's Nina?"
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Billy had been forced to move away. They didn't really talk about shit like that when they hung out, but Argyle's empathic soul had felt it anyway: The pain of being torn away from the sun and the sea. Indiana was no place for the likes of Billy and himself. They needed the sun and the surf to power their souls, Argyle felt. And then on top of that, Billy went through all this when he got here? It wasn't right, man.
"I'll tell you who Nina isn't; she isn't a very petite chick," Argyle nodded, as if that help answer Billy's question at all. Then he leaned forwards, his hand falling on the bedsheet close to Billy's. He grinned. "But you should be asking me who Eden is, my dude."
no subject
There’s a pang of something that’s maybe jealousy at the idea of Argyle having someone else but he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on given he’d fucked his new dealer here and would gladly have fucked Harrington if the chance had come up. Maybe Argyle would feel some kind of way if he knew that Billy had been fucking someone else.
“Who’s Eden? You may as well fill me in on this too.”
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"She's only the most bodacious chick you've ever met. She's all gothy and intense, and totally down for getting lit. And brutal," Argyle's eyes get big, "oh man, is she brutal!
Completely free with his love, Argyle is aware that others tie themselves up in knots with relationships and monogamy. That's never been part of his household and wasn't part of the arrangement he had with Billy, to his knowledge. Talking about chicks seems like a fine topic to entertain his old friend with.
"She reminds me of you, in a way, but also the total opposite. Like, you're the sun and she's the moon."
no subject
Of course, Billy has zero interest in this chick, no matter how bodacious and brutal she is because Billy has no interest in girls. But Argyle seemed pretty fucking stoked about her.
“And where did you meet her?”
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"Uh, I think she's the sister of Dustin's girlfriend or something? We didn't talk much to be honest." There was a pause, one long that Billy could have assumed that it was because they were busy fucking, but he eventually continued. "We needed a distraction so I took her to the van and we got so baked, man."
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Billy chuckles softly because of course Argyle managed to find the one person along the way that would wanna sit around and get fucked up with him. He just had that way with people. Fucking lit up a room or some shit. Well, either that or he pissed them off because he was so fucking weird. "So you were, what? Visiting Henderson's girlfriend in Utah and got baked with her sister while a monster was trying to end the world?"
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"Yep, pretty much, my man. Basically we got this secret agent's digits out of his pen, but when we called they connected to a computer, and we needed someone who could speak computer to tell us where to go to find Nina."
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"Fuck, man, I still don't know who Nina is but it sounds like you've had a crazy week. Welcome to the fucking club. It's actually batshit insane."
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He hopes that Nina didn't burn when Jane-El pulled that helicopter out of the sky. She was probably a hot chick, and that would have been a sad waste.
Leaning forwards on the chair and tipping it up, so he was balanced on two legs, and his own, Argyle looked Billy over. "Yeaaaah... What happened to you? I thought you said the place you were moving to sounded dull as fuck."
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Billy offers a one shoulder shrug, his right arm the only good limb he had at the moment. "It did. Except apparently it's the entry point to a dimension that was full of monsters controlled by some psycho dude El blasted out of our world with her mind. Thankfully, Harrington, Buckley and Wheeler stopped him before he was able to suck my eyeballs into my head like he did the others and open a gate between our world and their world."
no subject
Argyle listened intently to Billy's explanation. It kinda made sense, only because he'd been getting weaved into so many explanations that alone made exactly zero sense on their own, but were now finally starting to form a bigger picture for him, piece by piece. When Billy was done he exhales heavily and tipped back onto all four chair legs on the floor with a heavy thump.
"Oh, Bronco... I'd have hunted him down myself if he'd stole the Cali sky from your eyes." He folded his hands over the chairback in front of him and rested his chin on it. "Need something to remind me of home while I'm stuck here."
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Billy snorts a soft laugh. "Oh yeah? You gonna take on inter-dimensional monsters for me? My hero." He reaches out his hand, suddenly needing physical comfort but not knowing how to ask for it. "It's good to see you, Argyle. Well, as much as I can see fucking anything at the moment."
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Billy raises his hand and Argyle doesn't even hesitate, dismounting the chair and pushing it aside, so he can sit on the bed next to Billy and grasp his hand. He holds their hands close to his chest as leans in to touch his fingers to Billy's cheekbone, carefully checking the swelling. "It's good to see you too, man. Honestly thought you'd rode off into the sunset, and I'd never see you again."
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Billy sighs softly at the gentle touch, eyes falling closed. His cheeks don't hurt so much as his eyes themselves but Argyle's hand is soft and he realises how much he's missed a tender touch as soon as he has it and he leans into it with another sigh. Fuck he missed Cali. "Nah, I'd have come back. Even before I knew about the monsters."
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Would he have come back? It's a couple of years since he left now, easily. No phone calls or letters to say he was swinging out that way in the wake of all the rich kids on Spring break or whatever. Not that Argyle was expecting anything, but...
"Sure. You'd be chasing the surf though, not looking for me."
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Billy snorts and rolls his eyes, groaning at the ache. "Can't a guy be chasing surf and good dick."
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Argyle smiled and leaned in. "I hope it's better than good, man."
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Billy smiles and turns so that his nose brushes against Argyle with how close they are. "You know it is."