#I’m so done with Stancy

[unfinishedslurs]

do u love the colors of the comphet

When it’s over, when Henry Creel is dead and dust and they’ve emerged battered and triumphant. When she and Jonathan have ended things. When there is no more fighting to be done, she and Steve give it another go. 

She knows he’s going to ask the same way she knew in ‘83. There’s no waiting this time, no need to wonder if Jonathan might want her too. They gave it the old college try (He lied to her. He was lying to her for months, and she knew something was wrong before that. She thought they could work it out. She’s so fucking sick of lying to herself being lied to). 

He asks with wide, hopeful eyes, running a nervous hand through his hair. He doesn’t have anything to be nervous about. She made up her mind before he even asked. 

She can do it right this time. She can love this boy the way she wants to. The way he wants her to. They’ve both grown in the years since. She’s going to do this right. 

That’s the mantra she keeps in her head when he picks her up and spins her. I can do this. 

She can’t do this. 

It’s somehow the same and different from when they dated the first time. They’re going through the same motions, but there’s something lacking. They’re both older, more jaded. They’re not kids anymore, and it shows. 

They rarely kiss. He hesitates now in a way he didn’t before. Sex is something they don’t bring up at all. Eddie makes a crude joke once, something or other about what Nancy is like in bed, and she and Steve make eye contact. There’s something there, something like mutual understanding, before Robin smacks Eddie upside the back of the head and the moment breaks. She keeps thinking about it long after. Whatever it is that they shared, they don’t talk about it. 

Maybe they’re lying to themselves, both of them. Puppets going through the motions, too stubborn to admit they’re play acting as real people. Still, she can’t give this up. She can’t make the same mistakes all over again. 

Robin corners her two months into the relationship. Part of Nancy is surprised it took her this long. The rest of her is angry she brings it up at all. 

Saying she’s cornered might be doing her a disservice. They’re having a sleepover, painting their nails and talking about boys. Everything a girl is supposed to do. Except Robin is awkward and fumbling, and every name she brings up sounds like a question. Nancy only has Steve to talk about, and barely talks about him at all. 

Finally Robin sighs and puts down the nail polish. “I feel like this subject is making us both miserable,” she declares. “I don’t want to talk about boys, I was just doing it because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do at girl sleepovers. I haven’t actually been to a sleepover since I was in middle school and the other girls decided I was weird, but I’m pretty sure the point is to have fun. This is not fun. This is agonizing. We should talk about something else.”

“Steve isn’t making me miserable!” She snaps, before realizing she sounds way too defensive. 

Robin peers at her. “Yeah, see, that’s not what I said. That’s not even a little bit close to what I said. Maybe we should talk about this instead. What’s the deal with you and Steve?”

“What deal? There’s no deal.” She turns around and rummages through the nail polish selection. Robin doesn’t exactly have a variety. Her options are red, dark red, and black. She chooses the brighter red with the absent thought that the black would look good on Robin, with her long fingers and dark eyeliner. Then she banishes that thought away. 

“There’s definitely some kind of deal.”

“There isn’t.”

“Nance.” 

She can’t help but turn around then, drawn in by the tone of her voice. There’s a glass wall inside of her, and someone is pounding on it, trying to get out. She wants Robin to see it. She wants someone to see behind the glass. There’s something in her trying to get out. 

“Nancy,” she says again, eyes searing into her soul, “are you happy?”

She smiles, fake and fixed on her face. The glass stays firmly in place.  “Of course I am,” she replies. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

The next time Robin wants to hang out, she’s busy with college preparations. 

It’s not just Robin. She thinks everyone can tell something’s wrong with her. Eddie gives her these looks every time she and Steve are in front of him, like he’s putting together a puzzle. Her mom keeps trying to talk to her. Jonathan keeps trying to talk to her. 

They know, she thinks wildly, every time. She doesn’t know what it is they know. She doesn’t want to find out. 

She avoids them all. 

When she and Steve go to dinner, the waitress captivates her. 

Long, dark hair in braids. Long fingers tapping against the notepad. Dark eyes in a dark face. She’s always loved brown eyes. Nancy has never been one to be jealous of other girls (lie, lie, lie), but suddenly heat floods her body. She wants to be as gorgeous as this woman. She wants her full lips, popping gum. She wants the woman’s swaying hips as she turns and leaves their table. She wants— she wants—

She tears her gaze away to find Steve already looking at her. 

The heat is dosed by the ice that fills her veins. All her senses go on high alert until she realizes he’s actually staring past her. She turns around to see the bartender. He’s handsome, she thinks, tall with tan skin and brown hair carefully styled. He’s talking to a customer, teeth shining as he laughs. 

When she turns back, Steve has firmly fixed his eyes on her. She could almost believe he’d never been staring at the bartender at all. 

There’s something there. Something just out of reach, something she could put a finger out and touch if she were braver. She doesn’t. There’s no gun in her hand here, no adrenaline to keep her going after it all falls apart. 

“What did your dumb boyfriend do this time?” Mike demands, storming in her room. Nancy has half a mind to yell at him to knock first before she registers his words. 

“Steve is- Steve is fine,” she says, startled. “He’s great, actually. Nothings wrong.“

“Then why are you so miserable all the time?” Mike accuses. 

“I am not miserable!”

“You are! You both are, and neither of you will tell anyone what’s wrong, or why-“

“I don’t know why!” She shrieks. Mike falls silent, eyes wide, and Nancy suddenly realizes she’s crying. 

“I don’t know why,” she repeats. “Everything is fine. He’s like, the perfect fucking boyfriend. It’s me, I’m the problem. There’s something wrong with me. There’s a beautiful boy who loves me, and I’m- I’m trying. I’m trying so hard to love him back, but I can’t. I can’t. There’s something wrong with me.” She’s desperate now, wiping away tears as she curls into a ball. She feels pathetic, crying in front of her little brother. She’s the oldest, she should be keeping it together, she shouldn’t let him see her like this. But she can’t help it. There’s something in her screaming to get out. 

Mike, with all the grace and bewilderment of a newborn deer, gingerly pats her shoulder. 

“Have you…talked to Steve about it?”

She gives him a cutting look. It’s probably not as effective as she wants it to be, with her red eyes and tear streaked face. Mike holds his hands up. 

“I’m just saying! He’s your boyfriend, you should talk to him. And if you don’t want him to be your boyfriend, you should really talk to him.”

“I want him to be my boyfriend, I just need to get past whatever this is—“

“Nancy,” Mike says. “It’s not just you. He’s miserable too.”

“Because of me. I just need to—“

Mike shakes his head. “I don’t think it is. If it were because of you, he’d be acting different. More…kicked puppy, or whatever. He’s just being weird,  and won’t tell anyone why. Dustin said he asked Robin, and she doesn’t even know.”

Nancy doesn’t have anything to say to that. 

“I think you need to talk to him,” he says again. “I think you need to talk to each other.”

“When did you get so smart?” She asks, instead of crying again. 

“I’ve always been smarter than you.”

She kicks him for that blatant lie.

“Are we holding onto a dead thing?” She asks out loud. 

He rolls over and looks at her. She’s worried she’s hurt his feelings, broken his heart again, killed any chance they have at a relationship, romantic or not. Then he snorts. 

“Robin got to you too, huh?” He asks, flopping back onto his back to look up at the sky. 

“Mike, actually.”

“Mike? That shithead? What does he know about relationship problems?”

“Are we having relationship problems?”

“I mean,” he says, wry twist to his mouth, “we haven’t had any arguments.”

“Nope.”

“Or general drama.”

“That might be debatable.”

“There’s no need to spice up our sex life.”

She snacks him for that one, and he laughs. She props herself up to look him in the eye. His face is more open than she’s seen it the entire time they’ve been dating. 

“I think you have to be in a relationship to have ‘relationship problems,’” she tells him. “Are we in a relationship?”

He visibly considers this. “I mean, I asked you out, and you said yes. And we never broke up.”

“We haven’t kissed in at least two weeks.”

“Did you want to?”

She takes a moment to think about it. “Not really,” she admits, and his face splits into a grin. 

“Not that you’re not still wonderful, Nancy Wheeler,” he says, teeth shining, “but I don’t think I want to kiss you either. Isn’t that weird?”

When they dated in high school, it was like he couldn’t stand being away from her. He spent every moment he could kissing her, wherever he could. Sometimes it felt almost like a performance he put on for the people around them, lifting her up and spinning her just so everyone would know how in love they were. It was stifling at times, feeling like something to prove. Still, it was how he was, so in love he could burst with it. 

Now, she wonders if it was always a performance. Maybe they’ve both been on a stage, and neither of them noticed the lights blinding them until now. 

“It is a little weird,” she says finally.

“Right?!”

He holds out a hand to shake, the other one firmly in his pocket. God, she wishes she could love him. “Good go, eh Wheeler?” He asks, smile crooked and shaky. 

She snorts. “We made ourselves and everyone around us miserable,” she points out. But she takes his hand. 

[worth-the-chaos]

Adventures in Babysitting - Steve Harrington x female!reader - Chapter 3

Chapter Summary: Billy is still hitting on you, Steve’s still mad, and Dustin’s still a pain in the ass to babysit. When he tells you and Steve that there’s a massive problem of upside down proportions, the two of you have no choice but to drop everything to help the boy, reprising your roles as badasses who eradicate the supernatural in Hawkins.

Content Warning: swearing, upside down shit, billy being an ass, stancy, anxiety and tense moments, fluff, protective!steve

Word Count: 7.0k

Author’s Note: Still a slow burn but Steve and the reader’s relationship is slowly starting to develop in this part! More of this chapter also represents Steve’s perspective on things, which was really fun to write. I also got to write more interaction with Dustin, which more is obviously yet to come, but I hope you guys enjoy!

Series Masterlist | Part 2 | Next Part

***

While your conversation last night had helped him calm down a bit about Nancy’s comments about their relationship, Steve was still trying really damn hard to keep his cool about it. After all the years of being an asshole and putting himself first, he knew he didn’t deserve for things to go his way. But it was his senior year. He had hoped at least something could go according to plan, but shit seemed like it just kept finding new ways to hit the fan.

This turned out to be especially true when he was in his P.E. class, playing basketball against the same ass who wouldn’t leave you alone at Tina’s last night. Gym was the one class he didn’t usually have to worry about, his athleticism allowing it to be a distraction from his other responsibilities. In other words, it was a piece of cake. Besides, outside of study hall, it was the only class he was taking that you were also in. He would be lying if he said that it didn’t give him a bit of an ego boost to know that you were always there to watch him show off with whatever sport they played. He happened to excel at all of them.

That was until this asshole Billy showed up. Steve was pretty sure Billy was still mad about the way he interfered in his futile attempt to seduce you last night, and it was showing on the court with the way Billy was shoving at Steve every chance he got.

“Alright, alright, King Steve everyone,” Billy taunted, laughing as he dribbled the ball, “I like it, playing tough today.”

“Do you ever stop talking, man? Come on,” Steve rolled his eyes. He was just about done with this dude’s shit.

“What? You afraid that coach is gonna bench you now that I’m here? Huh?” Billy asked, getting closer and closer to Steve. He shoved into Steve, causing the boy to take a hard fall, hitting the ground pretty hard, before Billy tossed the ball effortlessly into the hoop.

You rolled your eyes from the bleachers. Boys are so fucking stupid. You were glad coach didn’t care what the girls were doing during class, more focused on the extra practice that his team was getting in; the one time sexism paid off. Most of the time you just brought homework to work on, using the class as an additional study period.

You saw Billy grab Steve’s hand to help him up, saying something to him you couldn’t quite hear, before shoving him back down to the floor.

“Alright, let’s take five everyone! Go get water, stretch, whatever, just be back in here otherwise I’m marking you absent,” your coach yelled out the empty threat, and you hopped off the bleachers and made your way over to Steve.

“So, today doesn’t really seem like your day,” you teased, offering your hand to help Steve up. He gladly took it, happy that at least through all the (as Nancy would word it) bullshit, you were still there, something he couldn’t say for his girlfriend at the moment. He shoved the thought down.

“Evidently not. You know, that Billy Hargrove kid is a real pain in my ass,” Steve fumed, “I mean first he shows up driving like a mad man in the goddamn parking lot, and now he won’t stop fucking shoving me. Like hello? Is that not a fucking foul?! And don’t get me fucking started on him coming on to you at Tina’s last night and refusing to leave you the hell alone until I had to get involved. What if I wasn’t there? What would he have done to you? I swear if he talks to you one more—“

You cut him off, “woah, woah, woah, Steve. You need to calm down. He’s just an ass, it’s not worth your time. Plus, you know I can handle my own and he’s left me alone since then, so I’m sure it’s all going to be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“That’s what you don’t get, y/n. I’m always worried about you,” he sounded exasperated and his tone was angry, but you knew it was misdirected. You tried not to flush at the sentiment. You knew that he cared but sometimes it still surprised you considering a year ago you were largely blissfully unaware of each other’s existence.

You decided it was best to give him a few moments to calm down. “I swear it’s all going to be fine,” you promised as you headed back to the bleachers. As you turned around, you suddenly realized that Nancy was there, gripping her purse strap as she made eye contact with you. She smiled a half smile and waved, and you wondered how much of last night she really remembered. You waved back as you took your seat.

She motioned for Steve to follow her outside and he hesitantly obliged, clearly not super excited about the conversation they were about to have. As soon as he cleared the doorway, you noticed a presence to your left turning to be met with the face of Billy Hargrove. You felt your heart stop in your chest. Even though you told Steve you could handle things on your own, it was a lot easier said than done.

“What do you want?” You demanded, facing forward to avoid giving him the satisfaction of your full attention.

“I just feel like we got off on the wrong foot is all,” he said, and you could hear the fake charm dripping from his lips like poison. You knew there were girls here that would fall for this shit, but you certainly weren’t one of them.

“I don’t know, I’m pretty partial to abiding by the first impression you set and I’m not feeling so generous as to give you a do over.”

He chuckled, “you’re feisty. I like that, you know.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you do or do not like. Now if you could kindly leave me the fuck alone, I think your dumbass game is starting back up,” you nodded towards the court and the boys who had started to pass the ball again.

“You’ll see. You’re gonna give me a second chance, just wait,” he predicted as he hopped down the bleachers to join his classmates. Once he hit the court, Steve made his way back into the gym and you were thankful for the timing. The last thing you needed was these boys trying to kill each other. Steve looked a little bit defeated and you couldn’t help but wonder what Nancy had said.

Gym went on per usual for the last fifteen minutes of class: girls largely sitting in the bleachers, boys trying to show off for them, until the two groups finally parted ways to change and clean up in their respective locker rooms before the bell rang in ten minutes. You waved at Steve as you made your way out of the gym, and he offered a half-hearted one in return.

Steve’s conversation with Nancy had gone just about as bad as he thought it would. Of course she didn’t remember the shit she said last night; that would be too convenient. Steve was still hung up on the fact that she couldn’t even tell him that she loved him. Was it all just a lie?

Steve headed over to the showers and undressed, hoping that the hot water could wash away some of the anger he was feeling. He had a tendency to be hot headed at times, but he was trying to turn over a new leaf. He was trying to be better, and he wasn’t going to let his temper get the best of him.

He watched as Billy made his way over to him, picking the shower to his right as turned the water on, “don’t sweat it Harrington. Today’s just not your day, man.”

Perfect, this was just perfect. Steve ignored him, continuing to run shampoo through his hair.

“More like not your week,” Tommy H added as he stepped up beside the two boys, “you and the princess break up and she immediately runs off with the freak’s brother.”

“Bullshit. I just talked to her.”

“Oh shit, you don’t know,” Tommy smiled, happy to have found more shit to throw at Steve today. “Jonathan and the princess ran off after your little conversation. She got in his beat up old car in the parking lot and it looks like they’re ditching the rest of the day. But that must just be a coincidence, right?”

Tommy laughed as he turned the water off and walked away.

“Don’t take it too hard, man,” Billy spoke up, “a pretty boy like you has got nothing to worry about. Plenty of bitches in the sea.”

Steve continued to ignore him, not having the time or energy for his shit, when Billy reached over to turn off the shower, leaving Steve soap covered and angry. He patted Steve on the back before walking away, adding “I’ll make sure to leave you some. Not y/n though. I’ve got my eye on her.”

Steve glared at him before aggressively turning the water back on. He hadn’t known about Nancy and Jonathan running off together, and frankly right now he didn’t’ care. He had always gotten weird vibes from their relationship. Hell, if he was being honest, they were probably the same vibes that Nancy got from his relationship with you. He didn’t really have time to think about all of that though, instead fuming over Billy’s persistent obsession with you.

Billy had only been here for a few fucking days and he was already causing problems Steve didn’t need. He could put up with the snide comments and taunts, but the second he came for you again, Steve’s patience would be out the window.

What a hell of a senior year.

***

It was a Saturday afternoon. Normally you didn’t babysit on Saturdays because Mrs. Henderson was off work, but she had called you the night before, saying she needed you. It was kind of hard to tell what she was saying because she seemed very upset, her emotion leaking into her voice and making her extremely difficult to understand. Something about her…cat being missing? Either way, you were headed toward the Henderson household, frustrated that you’d lost one of your only free days of the week, but you needed the extra cash, so here you were.

Before you could even make it up the porch steps to knock so that Dustin could let you in, he was flying out the door, bumping into you and knocking you off balance in the process.

“Code red! I repeat this is a code red!” He yelled into his headset as he darted past you, heading to grab his bike from the front lawn. You rolled your eyes and pivoted.

“Dude, what the hell?” You were ready to yell at him, to lecture him to be more careful, but he was mounting his bike and pedaling down the street before you could even conjure up the words. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going? You can’t just leave!”

“Y/n, I’m sorry! It’s an emergency! My mom’s bike is in the garage and I’m headed to the Wheelers’, but I have to go, now! Please don’t kill me!” He yelled over his shoulder as he got farther and farther away from you.

“I don’t know how to…ride a bike,” you started off yelling before going back to a normal speaking volume as you sighed, realizing your shouting was futile. With no other options, you thanked the universe that you had worn your tennis shoes today, and took off sprinting towards the Wheelers’.

Simultaneously, Steve was headed to the same location. He’d stopped to pick up a bouquet of roses for Nancy on the way, feeling the need to sort things out with her before it was too late. He wasn’t ready to give up on them just yet and he hoped that the gift would work like a bit of a peace offering to reset the balance and make everything okay again.

He parked his BMW in front of her house, rehearsing what he would say when she answered the door as he got out of his car.

“Listen, I’ve been thinking, I love you, I’m sorry….I’m sorry? What the hell am I sorry for?” He muttered as he made his way towards the front door.

“Steve! Are those for Mr. or Mrs. Wheeler?” It was the Henderson kid. Steve didn’t have the time for this, looking at the boy in annoyance.

“No?” He replied, confused at the boy’s line of questioning.

“Good,” Dustin replied as he grabbed the flowers and made his way towards Steve’s parked car. A rose fell from the bouquet in the process and Steve leaned down to pick it up before following the child.

“Hey! What the hell?”

“Nancy isn’t home.”

“Where is she?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Dustin started, “we have bigger problems than your love life.” He opened the passenger door. “Do you still have that bat?”

“Bat? What bat?” Steve asked. Why the hell is this kid getting in my damn car?

“The one with the nails?” Dustin clarified, throwing his hands up in a way that irritated Steve. Of course that was the bat the kid was talking about. How could he possibly have not known that considering the fact that it had been sitting in the trunk of another vehicle for a full calendar year, untouched?

“Why?”

“I’ll explain it on the way,” Dustin replied as he sat down. Steve was a bit thrown off by how immediate this had to be, not really in the mood to chauffeur the Henderson boy around. He felt anxiety creep up in his chest as he thought back to the last time he had to use the bat in question.

“Now?” Steve clarified as he jogged towards his car.

“Now!” Dustin confirmed as he slammed the car door shut. Steve quickly slid into the driver’s seat, starting the car and putting it in gear. He was about ready to pull away when hands slammed against his window, causing him and Dustin to scream out, alarmed by the sudden noise.

There you were, huffing and puffing from your impromptu run through the neighborhood. The anger on your face was glaringly apparent, neither boy recalling a time that you’d looked that mad before. And Dustin especially had done enough to make you pretty damn mad. You yanked the car door open and collapsed in the backseat of the BMW.

“What the hell y/n? You scared the absolute shit out of me! I could’ve run you over or something! Where the hell’d you even come from? Why are you even here?” Steve turned around to yell at you. You glared up at him with fire in your eyes, continuing to pant as you aggressively pushed a strand of hair aside that had fallen out of your ponytail and into your face.

“Do you want to tell him or should I?” You growled as your gaze shifted to the Henderson boy, who was attempting to shrink into nothing in the front seat.

“I-I told you that you could take the bike?” He squeaked out, clearly afraid of your wrath. You were usually so calm all of the time, so the rage permeating through the car was borderline terrifying.

“I don’t know how to ride a goddamn bike!” You screamed as you squeezed your eyes shut. It was embarrassing, but you were too frustrated right now to focus on that.

“That….well, that was an oversight on my part,” Dustin replied.

“Wait, she’s fucking babysitting you and you took off on a bike and left her behind? What the fuck dude?” Steve interjected, angry on your behalf.

“Yeah, I could have walked you to the damn Wheelers’ house! Leaving me like that was way out of line, asshole.”

“It is an emergency!” Dustin attempted to defend himself, “I’m sorry I left you by yourself to walk—“

“Run.” You corrected.

“—to run after me. But I’m not going to apologize for leaving because some crazy ass shit is going on and I need help. Big time.”

Looking at the boy it was clear that something was very wrong. Normally he was pretty happy go lucky, but now he was pretty damn stoic. Your anger slowly faded as you thought to what the boy could possibly have meant by the code red earlier.

“It…it-it’s not…it’s not what I think it is, is it?” You whispered, unable to really get the words out.

“It’s probably exactly what you think it is,” Dustin pinched the bridge of his nose. Despite the fact that the boy had left you behind, you could understand his reasoning. This Upside Down shit was not something to be taken lightly, and you were glad you and Steve were here now to help him so he didn’t have to figure it out on his own.

Before either of you responded, Steve put the car in gear for a second time, pulling away from the Wheeler residence. You guys were already losing light and Steve’s house wasn’t super close, meaning that time was of the essence.

“So…it’s the demogorgon,” Steve finally spoke up, saying what you had been unable to earlier.

“Well, not exactly,” Dustin started, “on Halloween, I found this…thing in my trashcan, really small you know—non threatening and the like—and I did some research and thought it was a pollywog—“

“A polly-what?” Steve interjected.

“A pollywog. Kind of like a tadpole, but that’s not important. Anyway, I kept it and I named it D’Artagnan, Dart for short, because I thought I had discovered a new species. Turns out I wasn’t entirely wrong because it molted last night and it’s definitely a precursor to a full blown demogorgon.”

“Shit,” you whispered and your right hand instinctively went to grasp your upper left arm, shielding your wounds from your previous encounter with the beast.

“How big did you say this thing was again?” Steve asked, not entirely convinced that this was as large a threat as Dustin was making it out to be.

“It started out like this,” he held his hands close together, “and now it’s like this,” he added as he spaced them significantly farther apart. You shuddered; if Dustin wasn’t exaggerating, this thing was now closer to the size of a small dog. It had only been a few days since he found the thing, how long did you guys have until it was the hulking nine-foot monster that had attacked you last year?

“Dude, it’s probably just some little lizard, man,” Steve began trying to brush the boy off.

“It’s not a lizard!”

“How do you know it’s not just some lizard?” Steve shot back, annoyed at the fact that this could potentially be a false alarm. Throughout Dustin’s explanation Steve kept looking at you in the rearview mirror and he could tell you were starting to get worked up over the potential of another supernatural threat.

“How do I know it’s not some lizard? Because his face opened up and he ate my cat,” Dustin deadpanned, bothered by the fact that Steve wasn’t believing him. This answer seemed to be acceptable as Steve dropped the subject, nodding, not really sure what he could say.

“Wait, Mews is dead?” You asked, your heart dropping a bit. You loved that cat; she was such a good study buddy when you were killing time at the Henderson household. Dustin just nodded quietly from the front seat.

None of you really knew what to say, so you sat in silence as Steve drove the rest of the way to his house. You all needed time to process this; time that you didn’t have. As he pulled up, you paused to take in the sight of the Harrington household. It was huge, an elaborate display of wealth that almost made you sick to your stomach. He unlocked the trunk of another vehicle, most likely an extra one that was used on occasion, pulling out the bat that he had used to save your life last year.

“Alright. Let’s do this,” Steve sounded confident, not allowing his voice to waver in the slightest. You all went to pile back into the BMW, Dustin heading for the passenger seat again when Steve grabbed him by his collar, stopping the boy in his tracks. “Nice try, pipsqueak. You’re in back.”

You chuckled as Steve opened the door for you. You spent the ride back to Dustin’s focusing on what potential horror may lie ahead of you. At least it’s smaller this time, you kept telling yourself. If you could take on a monster several feet taller than you last year, you could kick the puppy sized equivalent easy, right?

Dustin took you around the back of his house to the cellar. Despite the fact that it was locked shut, you still approached it with caution, not entirely sure of what the monster inside of it was capable of. The three of you stared at the closed doors, not really sure what you were waiting for.

“I don’t hear shit,” Steve finally spoke up, referring to the silence coming from the cellar below. If there was one thing that you knew from your supernatural encounter last year, it was that this thing was far from quiet. Sometimes you would wake up in a cold sweat, the memory of the low growl, the chattering, the screeching, coming back to you in your most vulnerable state.

“He’s in there,” Dustin promised. Steve began to hit the metal doors with the bat, still not entirely convinced. When there was no response, Steve turned to the boy.

“Alright, listen kid, I swear if this is just some Halloween prank, you’re dead,” Steve looked him dead in the eye. He knew from Halloween night how much this still affected you and if he was being honest, the experience still took a toll on him as well, so if this punk kid thought he was going to prank the two of you by forcing you to relive the most terrifying experience of your lives, he had another thing coming.

“Woah, woah, woah, how about we calm the fuck down? I get paid to babysit this damn kid, and I’ll be damned if I let you touch a hair on his head,” you got between the two boys, glaring up at Steve. Even though he had changed, you didn’t trust that his hot headedness wouldn’t return in a momentary lapse of judgment. Steve thought you looked entirely too maternal, and it made his heart skip, but he put his hands up and rolled his eyes. You turned toward Dustin.

“That being said. If this is a prank, I’m going to be pissed the fuck off,” you shot the boy a warning glance before adding, “now, do you have a key for this thing?”

Dustin tossed you the keys, but Steve intercepted them before you could catch them. He unlocked the doors, pulling them open to reveal a very dark and uninviting looking cellar. It was the kind of darkness you would have been afraid of as a child, worrying that the shadows housed imaginary monsters. However, this time you weren’t a kid and those monsters were far from imaginary. You and Steve pointed your flashlights down there, illuminating the cellar floor to display the nothingness. It was almost more unnerving than if the monster had just been there…almost.

“He must be farther down there…I’ll stay up here in case he tries to escape,” Dustin was quick to add, being so kind as to volunteer to stay far from the potential danger. You and Steve stared at him in disbelief. The nerve of this kid.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding, dude. It’s your problem, and you’re gonna be an absolute wimp about it after we’ve spent our afternoons chauffeuring you around town?” Steve fumed, about done with Dustin’s shit.

“I’m still in middle school! You guys are at least a modicum closer to being adults than I am, so it only makes sense that—“

You cut him off, swiftly grabbing the nail bat from Steve’s grasp. “You both are a bunch of cowards,” you sighed as you started making your way down the stairs. Behind you, you could hear the sounds of arguing between the two of them, each one shaming the other that they had let you, a woman, go down there alone.

“What the hell man? You’re really gonna let her go down there by herself? Not cool”

“She wouldn’t have gone in the first place if you hadn’t immediately wimped out.”

“I’m in eighth grade! You’re a fucking senior! You go down there! Man up!”

Chivalry is dead, you thought as you pulled the string to turn on the overhead light.

Your heart stopped when you saw the slick pile of shedded skin sitting in the middle of the cellar. This thing was bigger now. You felt the anxiety creep up in your chest and you swallowed the lump in your throat as you readjusted your grip on the bat, struggling to grasp it as your hands trembled. That’s when you noticed the gaping hole in the side of the cellar. You cautiously approached it, realizing it was tunneled out farther than the light from your flashlight could reach. The thought of what was lurking in that hole made you shudder.

Meanwhile, the boys finished their futile argument, not realizing you had completely disappeared into the cellar, now out of view. Steve and Dustin, stared at each other, wide eyed and panicking, realizing how gravely they had messed up.

“Y/n?” Dustin yelled hesitantly down the steps.

Upon hearing no response, Steve’s heart rate picked up and he spoke up as well, “y/n, what’s going on down there?”

Suddenly, you popped around the corner without warning, causing the boys to jump. “Get down here,” your tone was serious and the boys swiftly made their way down the cellar stairs, finally joining you as they should have done in the first place. You picked up the molted skin of Dustin’s discovery, showing it to the boys.

“Oh shit,” Dustin whispered, but when you pointed out the gaping hole in the cellar, he repeated it more emphatically, “Oh shit!”

“Yeah, ‘oh shit’ is right. We need to find it,” you turned to look at the boys. You wouldn’t let it roam Hawkins again. You wouldn’t let another Will get taken or another Barb get killed.

“It’s too dark out to do anything about it tonight,” Steve reminded you. There was no safe way for you to catch this thing. You had no game plan, no supplies, nothing.

“Steve,” you begged, looking up at him through your lashes. Even though you knew he was right, it made you nauseous to think about leaving this for tomorrow. You didn’t know how you would sleep tonight knowing that that monster was unaccounted for.

“Y/n, I’m sorry, but we just can’t. You know that. Think about how awful it was last time and we knew where the damn thing was and had a whole ass warning system for when it showed up. We can’t just walk out into the woods in total darkness expecting to find it and come out unscathed. We just can’t,” Steve replied, looking at you with sympathy. He didn’t want to leave this for tomorrow either, but you were just going to have to settle for that. There wasn’t another option.

You took a deep breath and nodded. Dustin turned to head back up out of the cellar, exiting the main room, out of sight as he bounded up the stairs happy to be out of there. When you turned to follow, you felt a gentle hand on the small of your back. You turned to face Steve and he moved his hand to your upper arm, placing his other hand at the nape of your neck. You looked him in the eye and swallowed the lump in your throat. This was the most sincere you had ever seen him.

“Hey, everything is gonna be okay. I’m gonna make sure of it, I promise,” Steve said quietly. You breathed in deeply and nodded, trying to trust him even though all of this was wildly out of your control. He let go of you reaching his hand between you, pinky extended, just like it had been in the library.

You felt a pang in your chest. That was how your lives should be; just two dumb high school students studying, thinking about what colleges you were going to go to, making stupid promises about parties that were more fun in theory than they were in actuality. Not whatever this was. But nonetheless you took his pinky in yours and you hoped with all your might that he’d be able to keep his promise; that everything would be okay.

“Hello? Are you guys coming? Did the demogorgon come back and eat the two of you alive?” Dustin’s voice rang out, sounding annoyed as it echoed in the open cellar.

“Not funny!” You shouted back, the moment between you and Steve fizzling out, as you dropped each other’s pinkies, making your way out of the cellar. You shut the heavy metal doors, triple checking that they were locked before standing to draw up a game plan with the boys.

“Alright, how about I pick you both up around 10:00 tomorrow morning?” Steve asked, looking between you and Dustin.

“That works. Dustin, your mom’s home, right? Her car was in the driveway, yeah?” You asked, making sure that Dustin wasn’t alone.

“Yep, everything should be fine here. Well, other than the whole Dart-ate-my-cat thing but yeah, I’m good. Your babysitting services are no longer needed for the evening.”

You walked him to the front door and thanked Mrs. Henderson as she paid you for watching him on a weekend. You could tell the poor woman was still distraught about her cat, and you couldn’t help but feel a pang in your chest. You and Steve made your way back over to his car and he opened the passenger door for you once again. He started driving towards your subdivision when you spoke up.”

“Steve, stop.”

He was getting flashbacks to Halloween, when the discussion of Barb had been too much for you to handle. “Woah, y/n is everything okay?” He asked, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder.

“I just…I-I don’t want to be alone,” you stammered, “my parents work nights and I just have a bad feeling about all of this, and I’m not quite ready to be by myself. Can you just give me a minute to calm down a little?”

You looked up at Steve innocently, your facial features twisted with worry. It was a look that could break him. He remembered his promise to you; that everything would be okay. He decided that this is where that promise started. He didn’t say anything as he turned down a side street with a cul-de-sac, making his way back to the top of the street before turning in the opposite direction of your house.

“Steve, what are you doing?”

“You can stay at mine tonight. My parents aren’t home this weekend anyway so it’ll be fine,” he assured you.

“Are you sure? I really don’t want to intrude,” you asked quietly, hoping that he didn’t change his mind.

“‘Don’t want to intrude’ my ass. The first time you came to my house you practically almost knocked down my door!” Steve laughed.

“Hey! It was an emergency! What was I supposed to do? Clearly I had exhausted all other resources by that point. The Henderson kid is a problem, you can blame him,” you defended yourself, giggling as you recalled the first time you sought Steve out.

“Nah, I’ll just thank him instead. It turned out to be a really good thing for me, you know?” He smiled at you. He was right; Dustin being a hellish child to babysit ended up turning out pretty damn good…aside from all of the paranormal, supernatural bullshit you were both knee deep in.

But that didn’t matter right now, as Steve turned on the radio, the two of you singing out of key to the latest hits as he drove off towards his house.

***

Sure, it was dark out, but it wasn’t too late yet, so Steve took you out back by the pool. You couldn’t imagine living in a place like this. In theory it would be awesome, but then you thought about how often his parents were gone, not to mention how hard they were on him, and you decided that you were better off in your small but loving home.

“So, yeah, this is the pool. I would say we could go for a swim, but it’s a little too cold for that,” Steve chuckled.

“Not too cold to sit out here, though,” you smiled as you took a seat on one of the lounge chairs.

“Be careful, you might get a sunburn,” Steve joked as he took a seat in the chair next to you. He thought about how the two of you had gotten to this point. Before you had knocked on his door that fateful day last fall, he had noticed you around school, but mostly just enough to know that you were a bit of a loner and you made good grades. Hell, he had almost reached out to you once or twice when his parents were on his ass about his poor performance in his classes, but he had always scoffed and rolled his eyes. Because how could he, King Steve, ever reach out to you?

He wished he had. He wondered how different things would have been. If he would have fallen in love with Nancy or if he would’ve been spared the heartache. He’d never know but he couldn’t help but contemplate how different your relationship would have been if you hadn’t been brought together by trauma. Maybe she wouldn’t have even wanted to speak to me, he reasoned.

“You know, if you told me a year ago that I would be hanging out one on one with Steve Harrington at his house, I would’ve called you crazy,” you had gotten up, moving to sit by the side of the pool, kicking your legs back and forth in the cold water.

“I was just thinking about that actually,” Steve admitted, “do you ever wonder how different it would be if we met before all this shit happened?”

“I mean, to be honest, not really. I think we both had some growing to do before we were ever going to get along. Last year kind of forced us to grow up a little faster than we really needed to. Maybe that’s a bad thing, but right now it seems pretty good to me,” you looked at him with sincerity. You meant every word of it.

“What do you mean both of us? I was the one that was an ass, you were perfect all on your own beforehand.”

You flushed with the praise, “no, seriously, I had some growing up to do too. Back then I thought I had you all figured out. I was confident that you were just some asshole jock, and I wouldn’t have guessed you had the capacity to change. I kind of stuck to myself, and I didn’t have a lot of friends, so I guess in a way, I was a bit jealous of you. People just gravitate towards you; I blend in so much I might as well not even be there.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Billy sure is noticing you,” Steve muttered, and you couldn’t contain your laughter. You wish he’d stop being so focused on that, but you knew how protective he tended to be, so it made sense that it would still be on his mind after how Billy had treated you on Halloween.

“Yeah, that definitely doesn’t make me feel better; actually quite the contrary,” you chuckled, “you know, on paper you both should get along.”

“That’s so not true.”

“Think about it! You’re both athletic, flirt too much for your own good, have pretty good hair, popular beyond my wildest imagination, and you guys are both chick magnets. Forgive me for seeing some similarities,” you smirked. You knew it would set him off, which is exactly why you said it. If you were being completely honest, his frustration was a bit amusing at times.

“Yeah, but he’s like a complete asshole! I would never have just grabbed you like he did at that party. That was not fucking cool. Like yeah, of course he’d want to talk to you, look at you, but couldn’t he have just introduced himself and struck up a damn conversation instead of immediately getting handsy and shit? Like fuck!”

“What do you mean of course he’d want to talk to me?” You asked, baffled. You hadn’t really dated at all because no one was really interested in the weird alt girl who, despite all stereotypes, was killing herself to make good grades.

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re pretty. And you’re not like every other bitch. You’re different and you stand out because of it. In a good way. Now stop being self deprecating and get inside, we’re going to have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn so we can pick up your damn kid,” he offered you a hand to help you up from the ground, which you gladly took, trying and failing not to flush at the compliment.

He led you upstairs after giving you a tour of the main level. “Here is the guest room, you can sleep in here tonight. Wait here a second,” he added as he darted across the hall, disappearing into what you assumed to be his room. You took in the sight of the guest bedroom. It was perfectly set up, and though it was pristine and tastefully decorated, something about it felt cold and lonely; impersonal.

Before you could think about it too much, Steve returned with a stack of clothes in his hands. “You can wear these. I-I assumed you didn’t want to sleep in jeans. It’s just, um, it’s just a pair of my sweatpants and a t-shirt, but I can take them back if you’d rather just you know, keep those on,” he said as he gestured to you and your outfit. You chuckled as you took the stack of clothes from him.

“Thanks, Steve. I really appreciate it,” you smiled up at him through your lashes.

She’s gonna be the death of me, Steve thought, as he felt his cheeks heat up from your gratitude. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem. Um, well…I’m right across the hall if you need anything. Sleep well, y/n,” he smiled at you.

“Sleep well, Harrington,” you replied, entering the guest bedroom. Once Steve was no longer with you, you felt all of your fear and anxiety invade your consciousness again. You swiftly changed and looked at yourself in the full length mirror hung on the wall. I could get used to this, you thought, feeling butterflies in your stomach from the fact that you were in Steve’s clothes. It all felt too domestic. You were beginning to blur the line between friends and something more, and the thought made you a little nauseous. You weren’t sure you were ready for that.

But as you laid in the big bed in the very empty and lonely guest room, fear crept up in your chest, and you decided that none of that mattered as you quietly crossed the hall, knocking softly on Steve’s door. He answered almost immediately, a concerned look across his face.

“Is something wrong?” He quickly asked, his hands hovering around your frame as he scanned you up and down to make sure nothing was amiss.

“I-I just…I still think I’m not quite ready to be by myself,” your voice was small and you looked down at the floor, embarrassed. You felt weak and wished that you were strong enough to face this without needing someone to lean on. But that’s what friends were for.

“Of course! Yeah, um I can sleep on the floor and you can take my bed, I have an extra pillow in the—“

You cut him off, “Steve! You are not going to sleep on the floor.”

“Uh, yeah I am?”

“Over my dead body,” you shot back, “I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“You’re a guest!”

“Yeah, a guest that’s being difficult!”

“Y/n,” he warned.

“The way I see it we’re either both sleeping on the floor or we’re both sleeping in the bed, so take your pick Harrington,” you replied, pinching the bridge of your nose. Nothing could be easy with this boy.

“I sleep on the left side,” he sighed as he flopped onto the bed. You flopped down next to him, and you both turned to face away from each other. You felt your heart rate slow as the fear dissipated from your body, your shoulders finally being able to relax. Steve made you feel safe, and you wouldn’t trade that for anything else.

If only you knew that Steve felt the same way about you, and that you were the only one keeping his panic at bay. There was so much uncertainty in his life right now; Nancy, college, demogorgon-upside-down bullshit. Everything felt like it was going to shit, but you were the one thing that was going right.

You were the only constant he had right now.

As the two of you drifted off to sleep, it was the first time in a long time that either of you felt truly at peace. As the night went on, the distance between you began to disappear, as you slowly shifted towards each other, your legs tangled together under Steve’s soft sheets. Tomorrow would likely bring more pain, uncertainty, and problems, but right now that didn’t matter. All that mattered was the two of you, in Steve’s bedroom, sleeping so soundly that for a moment things seemed right with the world.

***

a/n: Thanks so much for reading! Please let me know what you think! Also, if you feel so inclined as to reblog, I would not be mad ;)

[ronnieratsdoodles]

also credit to some sources!

byler proof:

1. Will’s sexuality has been an aspect since episode 1

if it wasn’t a major point, the duffer’s wouldn’t have any reason to subtly and continuously remind the GA throughout the entire show. they never were bold about it until season 4, because of foreshadowing, which they do a lot throughout the show; with many relationships.

season 5 is when build up finally reaches its peak.

2. “i’m not gonna fall in love scene.” coming from Will Byers, breakfast scene, joyce and Will Byers conversation. season: three. episode: chapter 1: susie, do you copy?

one tiny thing they added into the scene was Will pouring syrup on his eggs, which Mike also done, meaning they likely introduced each other to it. just tiny fact.

ultimately, this scene had to have significance, it couldn’t have been written without a point, why else would they make a traumatized boy have built up longing for his best friend? to end in heartbreak? that would just be a waste of writing, planning, foreshadowing, and most importantly their frequency of slow burning. they knew what they were doing.

3.smalltown boy being the first song on Mike’s official playlist:

spotify used to have a official character playlist up for each character, before being took down (if i’m right) either that they liked or that represented their character! (what creators felt was correlated)

(taken down 2023)

small town boy is by a artist named bronski beat, that is about a young gay man bullied, deciding to run away from home. we don’t even know exactly the reason why Mike is bullied, other than his supposed ‘frog face’

5. couples being paired up on the last episode of season four, while El stood alone. many reasons why this could have happened, but it was no mistake, lay outs always have a reason film wise. 

6. multiple parallels to stancy:

again, not much to say about it, BUT stancy was a unsuccessful relationship, and Nancy ended up going with a byers, wheeler + byers. the hospital scene with the two second shoulder lean. (stancy parallel!)

7.byler funko, not mileven funko. hmm super suspicious 🤨

8.”i need you mike, and i always will” - Will Byers, van scene, stranger things four. Will is not going to fall for anyone else. he always needed Mike. while El was shown more to needing Mike, she never did as much as Will. there’s nothing satisfying about Will being with another boy, not to the audience or Will. 

9.stranger things writer quote from twitter “let’s start a new party, you and me.”

10.mikes encounters with Will being focused/zoomed in on is for a REASON.

11. at the season four reunion, why did Mike not kiss El? their foreheads touched, they were inches apart, yet he looked back at Will. that would have been a perfect scene for a kiss, so why would the creators not include it?

12. Mike and Will had the first meaningful one-on-one conversation in stranger things.

13.in both arguments, the rink-o-mania they were wearing blue and yellow. their colors. when blue meets yellow in the west. they met in california. the west. 

14. “Karen, where’s our son?!” Ted yells, in season 2. 

“Will’s!” karen yelled back, holding a blue and yellow pen. totally on accident.

15. Crazy together being one of the most romantic scenes in the entire show.

16. the multiple scenes of Mike saying “boys only” and getting kicked out by girls. and his grossed out expression in season four, episode 1, the hellfire club, by a sign in the background saying women. 

17. i love you is either platonic or lies in strangers things so far, we haven’t gotten a single i love you that wasn’t either. Will’s i am not gonna fall in love implying an actual process, it’s happening in season 5.

18.when mileven tag duffers to complain about byler, they never respond, only to byler shippers, even if it’s just a small wave emoji.

19. lighting, the creators confirmed that the lighting in each scene has a meaning. the lighting either means that it could be a way of symbolizing mikes deep care and empathy for Will in the next season, (them being on a upside down couch also empathizes/foreshadows something)

20. the creators once again were planning since the first season. season four was written in a way to begin the root Will and for byler. so, when their endgame, we will know why.

21.mileven is star crossed, (not endgame)in march, millie talked about being unhappy with El’s ending, it doesn’t show that byler is endgame, but it does show mike and El are not. in one of the season 3 scripts they referred to mileven as ‘star crossed’ in the field scene. 

if any of this doesn’t make sense i apologize, it was written for my best friend<3333

[lucystark12]

GUYS holy shit i am literally obsessed with this app good god because your theories have given me faith in good writing again AHH just like AHH hello!?!

here’s what is cannon to me about stranger things season five as of three days ago when i made my tumblr account (this is some stuff i riffed on from other theories and some things i came up with by myself):

- vecna has been singling out will from the beginning because of his connection to joyce when he was still henry creel as seen in the stranger things play

- vecna won’t be using will for the same purpose he did max and chrissy and others, he’ll be using him to turn into a second version of him, because it was henry who got sent into the upside down randomly as a little kid and got powers. will was kidnapped by henry and will be getting powers.

- vecna is going to drive will fucking insane. SO many reasons to believe this. he isn’t even going to be remotely like himself anymore, he will be so far gone. he’s not going to be evil, just like a shell of what he once was

- some of this insane driving will be done during episode four when we get the little will flashbacks.

- the reason will wont succumb to vecna is because he’s got a community of love and support. however, joyce and jonathan and el and the party won’t be quite enough to do it- it’s going to be byler that really gets will out of his trance. it’s going to be essentially a true love’s kiss situation because that’s another thing henry never had

- said kiss or confession will be done “on the other side” (a.k.a the upside down) per what was said in the bowie lyric in heroes. heroes acoustic always plays when mike loses will, and i have serious reason to believe that the actual bowie version of the song will play when we get the confession

- the painting is literally the most important part of mike and will’s entire season because the truth about it is going force mike to confront the situation in a deliberate, intentional way that he’s never had to before because before this point he’s never had will say to him specifically anything about his feelings

- as far as stancy vs jancy goes, i’d prefer jancy of course because i adore my girl nancy (look at my pfp for goodness sake), but i’m starting to think stancy is more likely. jonathan spent most of season four a little bit dumbed down by the writers unfortunately. i think they’re doing this to try and get our heads as the viewers around him not being there. i can see jonathan’s death as another way for vecna to fuck with will, and then there maybe being some kind of reconciliation plot between nancy and steve at the end of the season. i don’t know nearly as much about stancy/jancy as i do byler/mileven, so if anybody has a different perspective lmk!

- i saw a post saying alone by heart and listen to your heart by roxette will play in in this season and i kid you not both of those have been two of my favorite songs since i was like nine (emphasis on alone by heart) so like i would literally die

anyways these theories have just made me more excited for season five so it’s like omg

[sky-neverending]

my taste in ships for Stranger Things is so fun because for some people there’s multiple options i ship them with, for example Robin. I prefer Ronance, but I don’t mind Robin and Vicky or Robin and Chrissy. it’s like yeah just let the girl do whatever fits best for the story.

But then I look at Steve and I’m like “yeah there is now only one person I ship you with, and it’s Eddie.” Like i’m just not a fan of Stancy or Harringrove. Steddie is the only one that really appeals to me personally. (it’s fine if you do ship one of those though!! more power to ya!!)

Or like with Max. I can go down the Elmax route, or I can go down the Lucas x Max route and in that case I make El some form of aro/ace. But I can’t ship El with Mike.

It’s just something that I thought of recently is that it’s so funny how my brain accepts some ships but not others, like where the line is drawn at the flexibility of the matter.

share your ships in the comments or in your reblog! are you a multishipper, or are you one and done? i would love to know!

[1lostsoul0fishbowl]

I really want Kali to make an appearance in Stranger Things 5. It would be great if she would be in more than one episode. I'd even accept a reference or mention of her. The dream would be for Stali to happen, lol.

If Kali is in S5, what do you think her role would be?

I want her to come back, too!!! I honestly haven’t done much speculation about s5 and I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but… it would be great if she came back. El couldn’t defeat Vecna by herself, but maybe the sisters teamed up together could knock him out once and for all?

I’d imagine that what happened in Hawkins at the end of s4 probably made national news, so maybe that’s how she would hear about it and think she ought to go check on her sister. Canon Kali was full of anger and thirsting for vengeance against people who’d hurt her and her friends, so I don’t imagine she’d take it lightly if she found out that her sister, and her sister’s friends and family, were all in danger. Especially once she learned that it was because of 001. I’m not sure exactly how her powers would be useful in defeating Vecna, but I definitely feel like she should get to have a role in the final battle.

Stali of course would be fun (and would conveniently resolve the stupid stancy-vs-jancy triangle) but I HIGHLY doubt that’ll happen in canon. But hey that’s what ao3 is for! 😜

[daydreamingfuel]

Freak Like Me

Chapter 7

Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

AO3 // previous

Y/N has just moved to Hawkins from England with her parents and is starting at the high school in the final term of her senior year. Eddie immediately takes a liking to her and they become fast friends, deciding to take her under his wing and falling to her charms. This is Hawkins however and things are never quite as they seem...

WHOLE FIC TAGS & WARNINGS: gratuitous use of Y/N (I'm not sorry), friends to lovers, slow burn, mutual pining, eventual smut, semi-fix-it-fic, angst, injury, canon dialogue and events used, canon graphic violence, no main character death :)

Chapter Tags & Warnings: Arguing, bickering, banter, mentions of readers dad's job...cause that's not important at all..., the whole gang is in this one so that's fun, platonic Stobin, hints at Stancy, Eddie gets jealous of Steve, slight possessive Eddie, a fuckton of swearing, Dustin is a little shit, as per usual, Steve gets sucked into the Upside Down,

Chapter Word Count - 6.5k

A/N - so this one is up only a week following the last one cause I had a burst of inspiration and confidence in my writing so go me! this is, however, the only good thing to come of this week - my front door lock to my house completely fell apart so I've been dealing with that, and my girlfriend moved back to uni so I'm sad af. But my favourite Dungeon Master always helps.

She was paralysed by fear, déjà vu washing over her as flashes of the argument following Chrissy’s death flickered in her mind. The world blurred around her as she swam after Eddie, who had immediately started to swim back to the boat as soon as Jason dived down to get Patrick's body. Her entire body ached as she moved, catching up with Eddie, who paused momentarily upon hearing her come after him.

“Y/N we need to go, right now, come on!” He called out to her, the panic strong in his shaking voice as he pulled himself back onto the boat.

Still willing her arms to move and her legs to kick as hard as they could, her thoughts spiralled, going through every possible outcome and what she should have done differently before. She had a chance to do it right this time and, whatever the outcome, she would stay by Eddie’s side. Once she was back at back at the boat, and clambered back into it with Eddie’s help, the pair each picked up a paddle to get themselves away.

“We could still plead our case! Jason has seen that you didn’t lay a hand on Patrick - they have no evidence!” She pleaded, in a last-ditch effort as they rowed for their lives towards the shore, but Eddie was practically vibrating in frustration as they pulled themselves and the boat up onto the bank, covered the boat in the tarp and disappeared into the tree line. Eddie tried desperately to call Dustin on the walkie, but the water had seeped into the electrics of the radio and completely broken it.

“Jesus Christ!” Eddie exclaimed, the rage spilling over, “Y/N, come on, it doesn’t matter if there’s no evidence, they’re still going to pin this on me!”

“On us.” She corrected, making him stop in his tracks ahead of her, “I’ve been caught red-handed at the scene of the crime, just like you. If I wasn’t a suspect before, I definitely am now.”

He shook out some of the water from his hair and clothes as he processed how much trouble they were in. Stood between the trees with sirens echoing in the distance, but growing louder with each second, he stared at her in bewilderment, unable to conceal his worsening aggravation, “So what are we supposed to do, huh? Got any bright ideas?”

“Hey!” She snapped, “No need to get all pissy at me, it’s not like I’m the one killing people.”

“No! It’s not you or me - it’s a homicidal wizard from an alternate dimension. Let’s go tell that to the police, and get ourselves thrown in the loony bin in the process!” He snapped back, which made her pause to take a breath.

Y/N closed their eyes in thought, calming herself down somewhat. It was a meaningless fight; she knew that she couldn’t go to the police now or she’d be arrested on sight. They both would. She took a few deep breaths and rubbed at her clothes in a futile attempt to get warm, shaking out her hands afterwards in agitation. “Fine. Fine! You win.” Y/N said sharply, letting the ire seep into her words, “But if we are Bonnie-and-Clyde-ing this shit, I need to get a message to my mum.”

As they walked through the forest, night creeping into the early morning hours, they bickered about how exactly they were to get Y/N’s mum a message. At one point they considered finding their way to the house and leaving her a physical message, or talking to her in person, but quickly decided that it would be too risky for everyone involved. She didn’t want her mum to get in any more trouble. Ultimately, as they found a spot to rest for the night, they agreed that they would find a way to contact the others and ask that they deliver the message to her themselves in the morning. Shaking, Y/N slumped against the giant rock formation that Eddie had led her to and passed out, right as the birds started to sing.

Sunlight splintered through the trees, hitting her face in the morning glow, and soon the light was too much to bear, her eyes fluttering open. She woke to discover that she had been covered in Eddie’s battle vest for warmth at some point during the night and the man himself was nowhere to be seen. Panic settled in the pit of her stomach, twisting horribly as thoughts of her abandonment ran wild in her head. She clutched the vest tightly in her hands as she paced the clearing for any signs of his disappearance. The embellished denim was in desperate need of a was, much like everything they were wearing, but she cradled it to herself nonetheless. Subconsciously, she knew that he would never just abandon it or her, but her mind was too clouded with fear to think straight. A snapping twig alerted her to someone's arrival. She spun on her heels to see Eddie emerging through the trees, a new walkie in his hands.

Receiving his vest to his face as it was thrown at him, Eddie was greeted hostilely by Y/N, “Where the fuck did you go?”

“Good morning to you too, sweetheart. The walkie was drowned, I found us a new one,” He held it up as though it wasn’t already obvious in his hands, “I wasn’t gone that long, I was gonna wake you when I got back.”

“Next time, wake me up before you go.” She mumbled as he settled on the floor next to her, in the shade of the giant boulder formation. Finally cognitive, the fear that fogged her mind subsided somewhat, she was able to take in her surroundings and see where it was Eddie had brought her in the early hours of the day “Where are we, anyway?”

He fiddled with the buttons on the walkie as he spoke, eyes laser-focused on tuning into the right channel, “Skull Rock. It’ll do as a hiding spot for the moment, but it’s kinda infamous as a hook-up spot.”

“Oh really?” She questioned and he hummed in confirmation, tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration, not looking away from the walkie in his hands, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered, but it’s kinda bad timing.” She teased, though her body did heat up at the thought, from both the exhilaration at the wild thoughts running through her head and the jealousy that plagued her at the possibility that he had been here with other people. She quickly pushed away both feelings, it was neither the time nor place to deal with either of those thoughts.

He snorted and allowed a small smirk to grace his lips, but it fell as fast as it appeared, as he finally found the right channel and pressed the call button on the walkie, “Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?”

“Eddie. Holy shit. Are you okay?” Dustin's voice immediately answered through the radio, the worry coming through strong, and Y/N sighed in deep relief.

“Nah, man,” Eddie confessed easily, his nerves still rattling him, Dustin's voice after so long causing the man to crack beside her. He ran a stressed hand over his face as he talked, “Pretty… Pretty goddamn far from okay.”

There was a pause on the line briefly before Dustin asked, “Where are you? Is Y/N with you?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Y/N answered, huddled up to Eddie’s side, and leaning on his shoulder to talk, “we’re at Skull Rock. Do you know it?”

“Uh, yeah. That's near Cornwallis and-” Dustin started but was cut off by Steve.

“Garrett, yeah. I know where that is.” His voice was hushed like he wasn’t right next to the speaker, but standing near Dustin. Knowing he was there, and presumably would be driving, she called out to him, grabbing the walkie.

“Steve wait!”

There was silence for a moment before his voice came back through, “Y/N? What’s up, we don’t have much time.” His voice was dripping with concern and confusion, almost familial in tone – like a stressed dad, so she spoke as concisely as possible.

“Before you come to us, I need you to get a message to my mum.” Before she could be cut off, she continued, “And yes, I know that’s reckless, but I need you to do this for me, please, Steve – tell her to call my dad and his lawyers. And that I’m sorry.”

“Y/N, I’m not sure that’s the best-”

She cut him off, desperate, squeezing the walkie, “Steve, please!”

Her voice echoed slightly, as Eddie pulled the walkie from her hands to grip them tightly, until Dustin’s voice finally responded, “Hold tight. We're coming.” Y/N took a shaking breath, “We're coming.”

The static that followed echoed in the small space beneath the towering rock formation, they would be alone again for a while. Still very much shaken from the previous night, Eddie placed the walkie in the leaves at their feet and re-laced his fingers with Y/N’s. She immediately squeezed back, letting her body melt into his side, head nestled in the crook of his neck, arms wrapping around each other protectively. Eventually, she muttered, “My dad’s gonna kill me before Vecna gets a chance to.”

“Do you think his lawyers will be able to help?” Eddie fretted and Y/N nodded softly, “What does your dad even do anyway? You never talk about him.”

She sighed and sat upright, picking at her clothes that had half dried and were fitting uncomfortably, “He’s not really allowed to talk about his job, I know the project he was working on was pretty big though, had him staying late and stressed all the time. He had barely any patience or attention left for me or mum, but she got to see him more than I did at least. I know it’s something technical and sciencey, for a subsect of the Government - all very secretive.” She flourished her hands dramatically, before letting them fall back into her lap, “I know he’s good at his job, whatever it is. We were told when he was recruited by this Doctor, that they might need to transfer him temporarily without notice and it wouldn’t be negotiable, which put a strain on my parents' relationship - they’ve barely been apart in 20 years.” Finally, she turned her head to look at him, crossing her legs and resting her cheek on her hand propped up on her knee, “But the security incentive helped. Not just financially but the insurance and the lawyers should anything happen, in case of an emergency.”

“And this counts as an emergency?” Eddie asked her, not quite believing in his own importance. He didn’t need to say what he was really asking, as their eyes locked Y/N could see every emotion swimming in the dark chocolate irises – the distress, the anger, the exhaustion, the anguish. But also, the desperate relief, that she cared about him enough to take his side and stay there. To call in reinforcements on his behalf.

She gazed at him, hoping that he would understand, “Of course it does.”

An hour, then two, crawled by. Hungry, tired, and scared, Y/N and Eddie huddled together under the shade of Skull Rock. They barely talked, too preoccupied with listening out for any signs of life nearby. Steve wouldn’t be able to drive his car into the clearing itself, so their rescuers would be coming to them on foot. But the pair were acutely aware that foes as well as friends were on the hunt for them too. At the sounds of bushes rustling and twigs snapping close by, they tensed and scrambled to their feet, hiding behind the rocks and in the trees. However, their instinct to take cover was quickly deemed unnecessary as familiar voices were soon relieving their fear.

“Oh, boom! Bada bing, bada boom.” Steve, confidently strolled into the clearing, Dustin following close behind, “There she is, Henderson. Skull Rock. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face.”

Dustin checked something in his hand, and looked up at the rock formation in bewilderment, “Doesn't make sense.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Steve rolled his eyes and started lecturing the young teen, “Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. Can't admit you're wrong, you butthead.”

“I concur.” Feeling safer amongst friends, Eddie made his presence known, jumping down from the rock he was hiding behind, “You, Dustin Henderson, are a… total butthead.”

Dustin smiled in relief and immediately went to hug Eddie, “Jesus, we thought you were a goner.”

“Yeah, me too, man.” Eddie hugged back, avoiding his backpack, and looking over his capped head past Steve, to where Y/N was emerging from the trees behind Steve, “Me too.”

Scurrying over, Y/N poked Steve in the side, the yellow fabric of his jumper soft under her hands, “Hey stranger.”

“Hey,” Steve wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into a warm hug, “I knew you staying was a bad idea, but I’m glad you’re safe. You are okay, right?”

“As okay as I can be, Harrington.” She assured him with a half smile.

As Steve and Eddie gave each other a cursory nod and smile, Dustin pulled Y/N away for an embrace themselves, and she squeezed him tightly, rocking from foot to foot gently. They laughed lightly, as they expressed their relief at each other’s safety. Robin, Nancy, Lucas, and Max all wandered into the clearing, making Y/N smile more. Calling Lucas over, she gave him a quick squeeze before greeting the others, checking to see if they too were okay. Max had her headphones hanging around her neck, leading to the Walkman clipped tightly to her jeans, just as it had been the last time she had seen her, a look in her eye telling Y/N that she was too deeply aware of the danger they were all in. Robin in her endearing awkwardness, gave Y/N a wave and Nancy stood next to her, gave a polite ‘hello’ before she handed Y/N a grocery bag.

“Thank you, so much, I’m starving- Ed’s!” Y/N interrupted herself, and Eddie perked up at her call, scampering over to her, “Food.”

Eagerly, Eddie reached out and took some of the stuff that the group had brought for them, quickly taking the six-pack of beer that Nancy had, in fact, bought. As Y/N sat to eat, Steve rummaged through a large backpack, pulled out a Tupperware box and wandered over to sit by her. He handed her the tub with a folded-up piece of paper reading ‘For Y/N’ taped to the lid, “Your mom gave me this to give to you. I haven’t read it, swear, but she was shaking a little when she was writing it so I don’t think you should read it just yet. You know, with everyone around?”

“Yeah…thanks, Steve,” Y/N carefully pulled the note from the box and pocketed it, “How was she? Just, like…generally?”

“She definitely believes in you. She was terrified, of course, but, yeah she, uh…she didn’t really question it when we said what you asked, just thanked us, wrote the note, gave us the food and told us to be safe.” Steve seemed baffled by the interaction, standing up to leave her in peace, but Y/N just nodded and laughed lightly to herself.

Lost in thought, she could only reply, “Classic mum.” Eddie plonked himself hip to hip with Y/N as she opened the tub, finding disposable cutlery inside along with Y/N’s favourite family recipe, which she happily shared with him.

The group at Skull Rock gathered to debrief on the events of the past few days as Eddie and Y/N devoured Mrs Y/L/N’s cooking. Steadily, they told their fugitive friends that they had figured out that Vecna was linked to the infamous Creel murders in the 1950s, all the victims killed in the same manner by a mysterious force that was ultimately pinned on an innocent man, Victor Creel, who had been locked up for decades, driven mad by the memories. The previous night while Eddie and Y/N were hiding and running from Jason, they had been exploring the abandoned Creel house. In turn, Eddie and Y/N explained as best as they could what had happened and what they saw, the friends around them hanging on to every detail trying to piece it together with what they had been up to.

“When we got to the shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh…my walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently.” Eddie gave a cynical smile, “I ran.”

Y/N chuckled dryly, “And I followed. Though we kinda figured, it was that or be arrested for murder.”

Eddie hummed in acknowledgement of their brief spat the night before, before taking a huge gulp of the beer that Nancy had ultimately brought him before passing it to Y/N who too, took a swig.

“Do you know what time this was? The attack?” Nancy asked deep in thought, going over all the details. Y/N had heard about her particular proclivity for the details and piecing things together by Dustin, talking about how good his older friends would be at Dungeons & Dragons if they just gave it a chance.

Eddie nodded, “Yeah, no, I… I know exactly what time it was.” He fiddled with the strap of his busted watch, “My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked.” He threw it to her once it was off and she caught it easily.

“9:27,” Nancy confirmed her thoughts to the group.

Robin immediately got the hint and added, “Same time our flashlights went kablooey.”

“Which means what, exactly?” Steve, much like Y/N and Eddie, was still rather confused about the perceived link between the events.

Nancy, putting the pieces together, explained, “That that surge of energy, was Vecna attacking Patrick.” She threw Eddie back his watch, and despite it being broken he put it back on, the feeling of it not being there having weirdly unsettled him. It seemed as though a lightbulb turned on in Y/N’s mind as their combined events of the past few days clicked into place.

“Well, we're one step closer.” Robin said, seeing the silver lining to the situation at hand, “We know how Vecna attacks.”

“And where he attacks from,” Lucus added. A small ray of hope started to shine through the cracks, but wasn’t quite bright enough to wash away all of Y/N’s fear.

Max, having been cursed by Vecna herself, and already had an attack attempted on her, finished the thought, “So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart.”

“If he even has a heart,” Robin added, doubtful, as though she could read Y/N’s mind.

Steve, who was standing by the rock where Y/N was sat, with arms folded across his chest, thought out loud, vaguely confused, “Stake? Is he like a vamp- Is he a vampire?”

Y/N could tell that his question was somewhat genuine, and also felt vague amounts of frustration from the others, so not wanting to add to that, answered, “I think it was a metaphor, but at this point who knows, he could be.” She reached up and squeezed his elbow softly, as she spoke without condescension, which Steve appreciated greatly.

Eddie tried not to pay any mind to how gentle Y/N was with Steve - refusing to let it bruise his ego as he recalled the frequent vulnerable moments she chose to share with him over the recent days - as he suggested, “A bullet should work on him, right?”

“I say we chop his head off.” Lucas offered bluntly, making Y/N nod in agreement.

“I’d say all of the above,” Nancy interjected, trying to stay logical, “but we can't do any of that 'til we find a way into the Upside Down.”

Max, aggravated at how complex the problem they needed to solve was, wished, “We need El to get her powers back.”

“Everything was way easier,” Steve emphasised, then looked down to Y/N and Eddie, “We had this girl. She had superpowers-”

“Superpowers. Yeah, you mentioned her.” Eddie replied, slightly cutting him off as he was distracted, watching Dustin – who had been pacing back and forth behind the little circle the group had formed as they talked, barely paying attention to what had been said. Deeply confused by the young teens' behaviour, Eddie asked, “Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?”

And Steve answered, with an annoyance only known to that of older siblings, at their wit's end with their younger relation, “Cursed? No, no. He's fine. Mental? Absolutely.”

“Boom!” the teen in question finally shouted, turning to the rest of the group at long last, his voice echoing in the trees startling everyone except Steve. As he spoke, he stalked towards his surrogate brother, pointing a knowing finger at him, “Bada… bada… boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north.”

Steve was incredulous, “Seriously? You're serious?” and Dustin hummed in response, nodding with a smug little smirk, so Steve continued, “This is Skull Rock. Okay? You're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. Right now.”

“Yes. And no.”

“Oh my God,” Steve ran his hands over his face, having to walk away from the boy.

Y/N, holding back a laugh at the brotherly rapport between the two boys, asked in confusion at the sudden outburst, “Dustin, what’s the point of this?”

Immediately, Dustin launched into an almost patronising but still endearing explanation of why he wasn’t wrong, “This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'. Correct when we got in the car on Kerley. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now, it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was.”

“So, you're using faulty equipment. You're still wrong.” Steve rebuked.

“Except it isn't faulty.” Dustin insisted before asking, “Lucas, remember what can affect a compass?”

Lucas seemingly understood exactly what his friend was trying to tell them, in a roundabout way, “An electromagnetic field.”

Dustin smiled and confirmed, but Robin asked, needing more explanation, “Sorry. I must've skipped that class.”

“Compasses work through magnetism, they’re built to point towards the magnetic north pole,” Y/N answered, her childhood days of performing little science experiments with her father coming in clutch, and receiving a few surprised looks from her peers as she continued, “But, in the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, as Lucas said, the needle will deflect towards that power source instead, meaning the compass is technically ‘wrong’.”

“Exactly.” Dustin was practically beaming, “So either there's some super big magnet around here, or…”

“There's a gate.” Lucas realised, and Dustin nodded. A heavy weight settled in the air around them, Y/N feeling as though she should know what that meant with more certainty than she did. As the group theorised how and why this gate may have come to fruition, Eddie nudged Y/N in the side to get her attention. They shared a look that asked if the other was understanding the conversation, only to be met with equal confusion, which made them feel more at ease with their lack of inter-dimensional knowledge. They were broken out of this exchange however by Steve.

“Where are you going?” The question snapped them back to the group, seeing Dustin walking away from everyone, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!” He paused at Steve's protests, “Eddie's still a wanted man. And now Y/N is a suspect too. We can't just go for a hike in the woods.”

Dustin, clearly agitated made one final plea, “This little steel capsule might be the key to saving Max, Eddie and Y/N.” He turned to the pair on the ground, gesturing to them as he propositioned them, “What say you, Eddie the Banished? Y/N the Exiled?”

“I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea.” Eddie paused, thought for a moment, before looking over at Y/N, “But, uh, the Shire…the Shire is burning.” As Eddie took Y/N's hand and helped her to stand, Dustin jumped in place excitedly, happy that they were going to test his theory. “So, Mordor it is.”

Steve, bewildered by the exchange and still peeved about Dustin's instance to be right, asked nobody in particular, with only Y/N picking up on it, “What is Mordor?”

“It’s the dark land from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings- incredibly nerdy, don’t worry about it,” Y/N reassured him with a smile.

Once again, and growing fonder, Steve was grateful for Y/N’s patience after the constant teasing from his younger compatriots. “Thanks.” He whispered, before gesturing to the remainder of the food by her feet, “Get your stuff. Let's go.”

Trekking through the woods, playing follow the leader with Dustin - Eddie right behind him with a torch - Y/N found herself hanging back to talk to Steve, who was bringing up the rear of the party to make sure none got lost or left behind. Steve was familiar in some ways, a reminder of her past, with his previous ‘kingly’ reputation for being a bit of a teenage asshole, but Y/N was more deeply fascinated by his seemingly innate desire to protect the group – particularly the younger teens. Listening intently as he explained as briefly as he could, Y/N quickly learned that, much like herself, he had been caught up in the supernatural by accident, time and time again. He had only been trying to apologise to Jonathan when the Demogorgon attacked the Byers house, he didn’t intend to fight it off with a nailed baseball bat. And win. He had only been bringing Nancy flowers when he was roped into hunting a baby Demogorgon with Dustin, not knowing he would have to fight off an army of them to protect Dustin, Max, and Lucas. Of which he was successful. And he had just been working with Robin, “slinging ice cream”, when Dustin came to him with a weird message he had picked up – it definitely wasn’t the plan to be trapped in a secret Russian base and tortured, whilst still in uniform. Then live to tell the tale. Every time, he fought and tried to protect those around him, regardless of his own safety and how insane the situation was. Y/N decided that not only did she like Steve, but she deeply respected him.

In turn, she reminisced about her family and life back in England, glossing over the trauma quickly before circling back to the past few months since the move. Just as she was starting to gush about how Eddie and Hellfire had made her feel so welcomed, and why the stigma was so frustrating, they came to a standstill. Taking in their surroundings, Y/N felt a cold chill run down her spine.

“Oh, man. You gotta be shitting me.” Steve huffed and Y/N reciprocated the feeling.

“Yeah.” Y/N scoffed humourlessly, “I thought these woods were familiar.”

The sun had set whilst they were walking, and the moon high in the sky was once again reflecting on the soft waves of water in Lovers Lake. Y/N, glared at the water, trying silently to control her breathing so as to not alert the others of her rising panic, though it seemed her nerves were felt as Eddie moved to stand beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist, and pulling her into his side.

Tuning back into the conversation, she heard Nancy offer up a theory, “Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening. Maybe Vecna's the same way.”

“Yeah, only one way to find out,” Steve said conclusively, then turned to Y/N and Eddie where they were huddled together and asked where they had stashed the boat. With Y/N leading the way, they traipsed along the bank until they found the boat, haphazardly covered in the tree line. Pulling it off, they looked at the available seating, then at each other in confirmation of shared ideas. The older teens and young adults of the group quickly realised it would be up to them to test Dustin’s theory.

Steve and Eddie bickered slightly as they got the boat half in the water before each offering a hand to Robin to help her into the boat. Instead, she elected to use their heads for support as she stepped into the small vessel, thanking them as she passed. Eddie then stood up as Steve kept the boat grounded, both again offering their hands to Nancy as she too stepped in, though she did not notice Steve's offer, only taking Eddie’s hand.

“Sweetheart,” Eddie then gave a saccharine smile as he flourished his hand out to Y/N, trying to ease her obvious panic with theatricality.

She took his hand graciously and winked as she passed him, “Thanks, honey.”

Dustin, who had been watching, gagged, “You two make me sick,” he muttered to himself as he tried to gain access to the boat, but was very quickly stopped by Eddie.

“Hey, hey, hey, you trying to sink us?” He pushed Dustin back to land with a hand on the forehead, “This thing holds four people tops, okay?” Eddie didn’t want to upset Dustin or patronise him, but he also wanted him safe.

Seeing Eddie’s tactic to keep the children on land, Nancy assured him, “It's better this way, okay? You guys stay here with Max. Keep an eye out for trouble.”

“You keep an eye out.” Dustin snapped back at her, “It's my goddamn theory.”

Robin piped up, trying to establish some form of authority, “You heard Nance.”

“Who put her in charge?”

“I did.”

Nancy held her hand out to Dustin, “Compass.” He huffs in a small tantrum for a moment before handing it to her, with Nancy passing it to Eddie to hold as she got resettled on the bench. Once the four on the boat were sat somewhat comfortably, Steve stood up, threw Dustin's backpack at him, and pushed off from the bank, taking his seat next to Nancy as Robin and Eddie started to row.

“You said four!” Dustin called out, annoyed.

Steve whisper-shouts “Sorry,” back at him as they drifted further from the bank.

“Bedtime at nine, kiddos,” Robin shouted, baiting those still on land. Dustin flipped her off as Max rolled her eyes, Lucas just watched in vague amusement, “Miss you already!”

The row out to the middle of the lake was slow but steady, as Nancy watched the compass to make sure they were still heading in the right direction. Once they were far away enough from the shore that the young teens who stood on the bank looked like toddlers, Nancy called out for them to slow down. Stopping their rowing, the group turned to look at Nancy and the compass in her hands, which was flicking back and forth crazily.

Their stunned silence was interrupted by Dustin over the walkie, “Guys, what's going on? Come on, talk to me. What's going on?”

“Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from kinda wonky to wonky with a capital ‘aah!’” Robin, hesitantly answered, awestruck.

Y/N emphasised, “It’s like the needle doesn’t know where to point - like it’s overwhelmed with electromagnetic energy. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

As Y/N talked, Steve started taking off his shoes and socks, confounding his friends in the boat. When questioned by a concerned Nancy, he replied, with a certain authority, “Somebody's gotta go down and check this out. Unless one of you four can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then… it's gotta be me. No complaints, all right?”

“Hey, I'm not complaining,” Eddie reassured him, “I do not wanna go down there.”

Y/N nodded in agreement, peeking over the edge of the boat to stare at the water and shuddering, “Yeah, I’ve already been in this lake once in the last 24 hours, I’m not exactly desperate to do it again.”

Eddie reached into his pocket and pulled out a shopping bag with only a carton of cigarettes and a lighter in it, and emptied it into his lap as Steve stood up and took off his jumper, revealing his toned and hairy chest. Y/N glanced up at him from the movement, looking away before registering the sight. Once she did, her eyes widened slightly as she did a small double-take, and slowly blinked to fully process it. Having clocked the cogs turning in Y/N’s head, Eddie cleared his throat to snap her out of it, possessiveness bubbling up under his skin. He raised an eyebrow at her in question, which she vehemently ignored, not wanting to give him the satisfaction, and just shrugged in response. Nancy, however, was outright staring in awe at Steve’s body, despite having a boyfriend herself, which only Robin noticed, though she said nothing, smiling to herself instead.

Eddie, slightly aggravated, wrapped the now empty shopping bag around the torch he had been carrying through the woods and handed it to Steve, “Hey. Good luck.”

Steve took the not mostly waterproofed torch, looking over his shoulder at him, the light hitting his handsome features just right, eyes intense and focused, “Thanks.”

‘Damn.’

‘Wait, are you attracted to Steve?’

‘No…surely not.’

Slightly hating how the moonlight making Steve look ethereal made her feel, her heartbeat picking up somewhat, she looked over at Eddie as a welcome distraction. And though she should have expected it, Y/N shocked herself with how it didn’t help much with her heart rate, but instead increased it. Eddie had a cigarette hanging from his lips, the light reflecting on the water casting a beautiful shadow over his cheekbones and jawline. Y/N reached for the lighter in his hand and ignited the flame, reaching up slightly so he’d have to lean down to her if he wanted his cigarette lit. The glow of the fire shone in his eyes as he stared at her through it.

“Gross.” The moment was broken by Robin as she took the cigarette from Eddie's lips and threw it into the lake. In sync, Eddie and Y/N turned their heads to stare at her, mystified. As her eyes locked onto Robins, she tried to send a telepathic ‘what the fuck dude?’ her way and knew she had succeeded when Robin rolled her eyes with a small, victorious smirk.

Steve stood at the edge of the boat, breathing steadily and mentally preparing himself to dive down to the lakebed.

“Steve?” Nancy called softly, making him turn his head to look down at her, “Be careful.”

An apprehensive look flashed in his eyes, almost like guilt, as their eyes locked, but he nodded nonetheless and dove gracefully into the dark water. They sat in tense silence as Steve swam further and further down, with Nancy counting the seconds on her watch to make sure that he wasn’t submerged for too long.

Robin, growing more and more agitated, asked, “Where we at, Wheeler?”

“Closing in on a minute.” She replied, not taking her eyes off the watch.

Robin nodded, “Okay.” She made a noise of discomfort feigning ambivalence, obviously very worried about her friend. Y/N offered a hand for Robin to squeeze, which she grasped tightly.

Just as Eddie cleared his throat, uncomfortable in the silence, it was broken completely when the water gushed loudly as Steve resurfaced, making everyone on the boat exclaim in surprise, even more surprised when Steve said, “I found it.” He panted through his confirmation when Robin asked for it, leaning on the side of the boat as Nancy pulled wet strands of hair from his forehead with deep care.

“Dustin, you are a goddamn Einstein.” Robin said excitedly into the walkie, “Steve found the gate, we have a way to Vecna.”

“It's pretty wild.” Steve said through pants, still trying to catch his breath, arms holding him up on the edge of the boat, “It's more a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still, it's pretty damn big.”

Right as he stopped speaking, he dropped off the side of the boat momentarily, like something was pulling him down. Everyone lurched forward in shock, but they all regained composure quickly and waited with bated breath to ensure he was okay and wouldn’t happen again. For a moment all was calm as they scanned the water before Steve was fully dragged under without a second to react. The group dissolved into chaos, all shouting after Steve, but it was pointless. He was unreachable.

“No! No!” Eddie protested, deeply stressed, “What the hell was that man?”

Robin was intensely distressed, staring back and forth between the dark water and Nancy beside her, leaning over the edge of the boat “Nancy, really, what happened?”

Nancy, however, ignored all questions and stood up, determined to go in after Steve, much to everyone else's panic. At the sounds of protests, Nancy could only tell them to wait where they were before diving in and swimming down to find Steve.

“Fucking hell!” Y/N cursed loudly, shaking, and running her hands up and down her temples as Eddie loudly swore to himself. Unbeknownst to them both, Robin quietly and carefully sat backwards on the edge of the boat, preparing herself to search the lake herself.

“No, no, no, no, no, no.” Eddie faced her, hands held out to stop her if he had to, “What are you doing? She said wait.”

Robin stared back at him, dismissively, her mind already made up, “Yeah, I heard her.”

“She's in charge,” Eddie tried, grasping at flimsy straws.

Robin scoffed and shook her head, “Are you kidding me?”

Y/N placed a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, “Eds she was bullshitting, and you know it. Nobody’s in charge.” Her voice was trembling slightly, barely more than a frustrated whimper.

“Don't you go. Don't you—” Despite his thinly veiled threats, Robin fully ignored Eddie and fell backwards off the edge of the boat and into the water.

Eddie immediately stood up in anger and fear, “Goddamn it! Son of a bitch!” he paced the small space of the boat as much as he could, staring at the water and contemplating what fate was worse, “Oh, this is so stupid.”

“This is really fucking stupid,” Y/N could only agree.

‘Don’t be a pussy.’

‘I’m definitely gonna regret this.’

In his blind panic, Eddie didn’t notice the cogs turning in Y/N’s mind until it was too late. She was standing, prepared to dive. “Y/N! No, not you too. Sweetheart, please!” But she was gone with a loud splash, “Shit!”

Swearing profusely as he questioned his own existence, Eddie’s mind was filled with paralysing fear. Thoughts of her drowning, being pulled apart, sucked into an alternate hellish dimension, tortured, and broken, flashed through his raging mind. Before he could register his own actions, Eddie dove beneath the water, his only tether to reality being the hope that she was still alive.

previous

[wroteclassicaly]

First off, I wanna thank every single one of you that has helped my blog get to this point over the years! I’m honestly speechless that this many people give two fucks about me or my trash writing, haha. But you do, and I can’t fathom it, nor can I thank you enough! 💘 However, what I can do — is host a celebration! Starting tomorrow night at 7PM, I am inviting y’all to join me for my 7K party!

Minors are NOT allowed at this celebration, and will be blocked on the spot! I also reserve the right to reject any asks that I don’t feel comfortable writing for/publishing. Please follow the rules below!

I will announce a reminder for the event, so that time zones will not be confused! And the event will go on all night, maybe even further? Here’s what I have come up with (see below, on what you can choose from to submit), and I hope to see you there?! Love y’all! ❤️💘💘🥹🥹 And thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

My navigation, My Main Masterlist

Fandoms you can choose from for the categories below:

Stranger Things

Supernatural

American Horror Story

Shameless US

The Walking Dead

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (including the Angel verse)

~*~

Characters/ships you can choose from:

ST: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove, Nancy Wheeler, Hopper, Jonathan Byers, Argyle, Chrissy Cunningham, Henry Creel & Robin Buckley

Ships for ST: Ronance, Steddie & Harringrove (all ships can be done with a reader). I don’t write for Stancy or Hellcheer, but I will if it includes a reader to balance said ships out.

SPN: Jack Kline, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester & Castiel

Ships for SPN: Destiel (ship can be done with a reader)

AHS: Any Cody Fern character, namely Michael. Will also do most Evan Peters characters.

TWD: Negan and Rick Grimes. I’m not opposed to Carl, but he will be over 21 in anything that I write!

BtVS: Faith Lehane, Angel, Spike, Buffy & Connor.

Shameless: Lip Gallagher ONLY!

~*~

The activities: (please use the emoji in your ask)

🚢 Select a fandom and submit a little info about yourself, and I will ship you with a character!

💘Use this and I will write a paragraph on why I adore you!

📓Go for this one, and choose a character you’d like to have a personalized letter from.

❔Select this one, and I will post a snippet of a WIP that I currently have!

💌 Pick a theme and a character, and I will write a short drabble/blurb on it! Dark themes, plus sized readers, and physical/mental/chronically ill readers are also okay to request!

✍🏻 And finally, if you select this one — please choose a character and a prompt. You may also make a request with the prompt!

Prompts to choose from:

Smut:

Smut

Smut

Angst

One, two, three

Love:

Love

Love realization

Other:

Pining

Enemies to lovers

[nakianshuri]

I keep seeing well-meaning posts about wanting Steve and Jonathan to be friends, and I might have felt that way at the end of season 1. But since then it’s been a no for me.

I think Argyle is a great friend for Jonathan to have. However, Jonathan has only ever been interesting to me in his family relationships, which the show has neglected since that first season. Would have been interested to see his reaction to Bob’s death and confront his biases about people since he seemed to have dismissed Bob as being too normal or whatever in S2. He probably also resented him for dating Joyce and perhaps inserting himself in their family dynamics.

Would in theory be interesting to see his reaction to Jopper, which I assume would also be met with hostility for similar reasons, or how he interacted with El being around.

So there are interactions that I think could be enlightening to see that center Jonathan.

Jonathan and Steve, however, feels like it could be repetitive? Every season, Steve has to redeem himself to someone or show that he’s not at heart an asshole. It would have been great if in a very different season 2, Steve’s redemption arc started with Jonathan and if the show established some kind of basis for mutual respect and perhaps friendship between them that would have been an nice wrinkle to the love triangle at that point.

That’s not what happened, and instead we see Steve grow through Dustin and being the “babysitter,” and with Robin and learning to deal with rejection while becoming a good friend to her. We even seen this a little with Eddie, who explicitly says Steve’s a better guy than he thought, and with Steve learning to get along with Eddie after thinking he’s a freak. We’ve seen this arc 3 times in really compelling ways imo.

Some people say Stancy is character regression, which I disagree with because both characters were in a way reintroduced to each other after being apart and changing.

However exploring Steve and Jonathan after 4 seasons of no interaction feels like regression to me bc I don’t think Jonathan has changed, nor has his point of view of the world. It potentially leaves Steve in an atoning position we’ve already seen him in, and although he loves Nancy, he hasn’t exhibited any hostility toward Jonathan for season 2. So potentially any animosity that arises might be from Jonathan’s side, and I’m just not interested in that at this point. I’m not interested in him realizing Steve’s changed either because we’ve done that already three times already with other characters, too. So it’s St*nathan not Stancy to me that feels regressive.

I hope I’m wrong and there’ll actually be some great interactions between the two (bc the actors might have some great on screen chemistry) or that they mostly stay in their corners as usual and engage with other storylines.

[thestobingirlie]

i looked at the tags of a post that basically just said "i don't like r*nance bc steve deserves to have his best friend in his corner" and ppl in the tags are relentlessly whining about how ppl villainize nancy and woobify steve (ppl do woobify steve but a big part of that is writing him as an eternally repenting former bully who is treated like shit by everyone in his life so). there are probably ppl who do that to nancy to some degree but like,,, from what i've seen most ppl treat nancy like an untouchable all-knowing girlboss. esp in fics that are widely popular they are not critical of nancy and do not bring up fucked up things she's done. not to mention all of the ppl trying to play off stancy's issues as they both made mistakes when only one person in that relationship emotionally and physically cheated then never apologized. i've repeatedly seen ppl say "steve's actions hurt nancy too" as an equalizing statement and, even if i disagree w their reasoning (which i often do - specifically w ppl acting like his coping mechanisms traumatized nancy and he actively silenced her when she tried to talk about barb/the upside down which we are shown is not the case in the library scene), that is not the imbalance ppl are addressing when they talk about stancy - even if steve also hurt nancy, he addressed it and apologized. nancy never did which means the unresolved issues in their relationship are all stemming from her side of things. ik you've talked about this alot but it is so frustrating when bringing up something a character has canonically done is treated like defamation and blind hatred.

well said. yeah, with stancy, it’s really in nancy’s hands to take the steps and have a conversation with steve about what went wrong because steve has already done that. but the emotional cheating has never been talked about. steve doesn’t even know that nancy wanted jonathan for the duration of their relationship!

i think that nancy has quite a few unresolved issues in the show, though the duffers only ever really seem to address them in regards to barb. which is disappointing, because nancy is such an interesting character, if only the duffers would acknowledge it.

and yeah!! it’s crazy that people accuse us of woobifying steve when every bad thing he’s ever done is over-dramatised and thrown in our faces whenever we bring him up. and yet, if i ever dare to speak about anyone else’s flaws, i’m accused of just blindly hating their character. it’s fucking annoying tbh.

[callme-dickmaster]

Sweetheart - (eddie munson x reader)

Ch. Seven - Because of Her

summary: steve and nancy's story seemingly comes to a close while y/n finds out burgers are a great bonding food. cw: 18+ (minors dni) this is obnoxiously long, unfortunate use of y/n, always projecting yes i am, language, inhaler use, feelings of anxiety and guilt, stancy breakup, burger bonding -i think thats all- author's note: this chapter and the ones coming make me smile. don't worry ya'll we're like halfway there. this turned into an accidental slow burn :/ sorry. love you <3

<<Part 6 --- Part8>>

To say Nancy was a little confused would be an understatement. Steve brought her home, but he didn’t pick her up. And he refused to look or speak to her. Y/n was also acting strange, but Y/n was kinda strange herself so nothing too out of the ordinary.

Y/n gave her a stiff smile and a forced goodbye before running outside to Billy’s car. With the five minutes she had between second and third, she ran full force to the car, dug in the trunk, grabbed her spare outfit, ran back into the school, changed as fast as she could, and ran into third period with two seconds to spare.

Y/n leaned against the wall, panting heavily, and holding her chest. She dug in her bag for her inhaler and puffed on it as she sat next to Eddie.

“Fuck!” she panted, leaning on her elbows.

Eddie pat her back lightly, laughing once she could properly breathe. “You never told me you have asthma!” Eddie giggled, nudging her arm. Y/n smirked, “I don’t.”

Eddie gave her a deadpanned look and she smiled sweetly, pulling out a mini-Hershey’s bar before popping it in his mouth as he went to speak. Eddie chuckled around the chocolate before eating it.

Y/n was fidgety all class. What if Nancy finds out? Will she hate me? Will she freak out? Would she tell everyone I’m a slut or something? Shit! I never should have done that!

“Y/n!” she jumped at Eddie’s voice, “You ok?” he asked, genuine concern on his face. Y/n couldn’t handle the fucking tension anymore. It was driving her crazy. She had to tell someone. Even if it was Eddie fucking Munson.

“I slept with Steve!” she blurted. She pulled her lips up into a thin line, giving him the most anxious look Eddie had ever seen. “W-what?” Eddie breathed. “I-I slept with Steve… Harrington,” Y/n replied. Eddie smiled and his jaw dropped. This was too good. “No. Fucking. Way,” he said. Y/n cringed and nodded, hiding her face in her hands. “Dude, that is fucking hilarious! No way you let Steve hit!” Eddie exclaimed, hitting her shoulder. “Yeah… I did,” Y/n sighed, looking like she would rather be anywhere else but there.

Eddie let out an excited laugh, jumped up, and did a lap around the back of the class before he sat right back down. “This is great! Y/n, I’m sorry, but this is golden!” Eddie laughed. Y/n groaned, dropping her head down. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone? Please?” she asked, holding out her pinky. Eddie smiled softly, linking their fingers together with a nod. Good. Eddie left it alone and didn’t bring it up the rest of their time in third.

Though, Y/n wasn’t completely off the hook with Nancy. While Eddie Munson thought it was great, Nancy personally didn’t think it was very funny. She hunted down Steve in the gym and had him call a time-out so they could talk.

“Where were you this morning I missed first period!” she exclaimed. Steve shrugged, trying to put Y/n’s advice to some good use. He deserves better.

“I figured Jonathan would take you,” he replied. “What are you talking about?” Nancy asked, pure confusion on her face. Steve scoffed, “Jesus, you really can’t handle your alcohol… You remember going to Tina’s party last night, right?” Nancy sighed, “Yes…”

I deserve better… I deserve better…

“And then what?” Steve prompted. Nancy practically rolled her eyes as she recalled the previous night’s events. “You got mad at me because I was drunk… and then you took me home,” she said. Steve actually rolled his eyes, surprising Nancy at this newfound attitude towards her. “See, that’s where your mind get a little fuzzy. That was your other boyfriend, that was Jonathan!” Steve said, holding the towel over his neck.

Nancy looked side to side nervously. “I-I don’t understand…” she stuttered. Steve shrugged, “It’s pretty simple, Nancy, you were just telling it like it is…” he mumbled. Nancy scrunched up her nose, “What?” Steve shifted his weight, “Apparently uh… we killed Barb? And I don’t care, ‘cause I’m bullshit… and our whole relationship is bullshit, and pretty much everything is just bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Oh yeah! Also, you don’t love me!” he replied. “I was drunk, Steve! I don’t remember any of that!” Nancy exclaimed incredulously.

“So that makes everything you said… it’s what? Just bullshit too?!” Steve replied, groaning in annoyance at Nancy’s ‘yes!’ Enough was enough. One man can only take so much. “Then tell me!” Steve replied, “Tell you what?” Nancy snapped.

Really girl?

“You love me!” Steve begged. He was trying so hard, but it’s even harder to try in a one-sided relationship. He waited for her to say it. Nothing… Absolutely nothing. “You can’t even say it. Well, don’t worry about it because while Jonathan was tucking you in, Y/n took me home,” Steve said. “What does- yeah, that’s great. I’m glad you guys are friends or whatever…” Nancy scoffed.

Steve looked at his feet with a smirk, “Yeah, we went to mine and hung out… You know, studying,” he sneered. Nancy’s stomach dropped. “Y-what?” she gasped.

“Yep. She taught me a lot. She’s a great teacher. Taught me a lot more than what she showed me in bed. She taught me that I deserve better! She helped me see all the little manipulative; status-climber shit I missed when you were leading me on! So, you’re free to go fuck around with Jonathan or whatever weird shit it is you guys do… because I’m done. I can’t do this anymore,” Steve said, shaking his head as he started to walk back into the gym.

“S-s-so, that’s it? Just… break up because of that? Because of her?” Nancy stuttered, looking like she might cry. Steve scoffed. He didn’t care anymore…

“Yeah. Because you’re the one who’s bullshit… Not me,” he said, walking back into the gym with his head held high. He couldn’t wait to tell Y/n later.

Y/n was still nervous for the inevitable talk she and Nancy would have but spending time with Eddie was a nice distraction. Neither one of them ended up going to fourth period, too distracted with their game of “20 questions, but neither one of us can remember what question we’re on so we’re just gonna talk until we run out of ideas” to go to class.

“Shit! We missed fourth!” Y/n sighed, looking at Eddie’s watch. Eddie groaned, checking the time too. “Fuck! No lunch? Damn!” he sighed, hitting his legs. They sighed; mad they missed lunch. Y/n slowly grinned mischievously, an idea popping into her head.

“You like Burger King?” she asked, Eddie being completely distracted by her painted black lips being poked by her tongue. “I do like Burger King!” Eddie smiled. “You got gas?” Y/n asked. Eddie shrugged, starting up the van and nodding in confirmation. Y/n smirked, “I’m buying if you’re driving,” she said.

Eddie grinned, throwing the van in drive, and zooming out of the school parking lot. Y/n honestly didn’t care. Eddie was turning into a bad influence on her, but it wasn’t like she really had to try super hard in school. She took all the easy classes, so she didn’t have much to worry about. So, she didn’t mind missing one or two of her last classes of the day to hang out with her cute new rocker friend.

She jumped out of the van the second he pulled up to a stop in the parking lot. Eddie laughed, putting it in park and following behind her. Y/n smiled up at him when he joined her in line and looked back up at the big menu.

The cashier sent her and Eddie a weird look but took their order as nicely as he could talking to Eddie “The Freak” Munson. Y/n let Eddie go first, smiling weakly when he stepped back to let her order. He stood right behind her, shooting a glare at the older guy that had been staring at them (her) since they walked in. Eddie took her hand to pull her over to a jukebox the restaurant still had from the sixties.

Y/n gasped excitedly, nearly shoving her face into the glass as she quickly ruffled around for some coins to put into it. She smacked a song button, smiling brightly as Things We Said Today by The Beatles crackled out of the speakers. Eddie furrowed his eyebrows, half expecting Ozzy or Black Sabbath to bang out of the old thing. Shaggy smiled timidly, “Sorry, I know it’s not the coolest, but I love The Beatles. Gotta start somewhere right?” she asked, sitting in a booth.

Eddie shrugged, nodding as he sat across from her. “So, what music do you like?” Eddie asked, twisting his rings around. He knew she wouldn’t say something lame like Madonna or whatever. With a look like that, she had to be cool. Eddie was hoping he was right.

“Oh, I like just about everything. I mainly just listen to Ozzy and stuff like that. Pop is okay, but it’s not metal at all so, it’s kinda lame,” Y/n shrugged, fiddling with her own jewelry as she spoke.

“Hell yeah! You like Iron Maiden?” Eddie asked, bouncing his leg. Y/n grinned, nodding happily now that they could talk about something she knew a shit ton about. Eddie smiled, knocking his rings on the table.

“I was convinced for the longest time that my parents named me after the dude on all the covers, but I was around way before Iron Maiden,” he snickered. Y/n shrugged, "My mom wanted to name me after a Beatles song," she huffed. Eddie snorted, jumping up to grab their food when their name was called.

"I don't remember a Beatles song named Y/n," he said, passing her burger and fries. Y/n scoffed, "I wish! No, she would've if my dad would let her, but I got the name I got," she laughed, biting into a fry. Eddie smirked, picking the onions off his sandwich, and taking a bite. "I like Y/n more. It fits you better," he said.

Y/n and Eddie giggled and subtly flirted with each other. Eddie ended up liking her more and more and Y/n was just happy she had someone like her to talk to. Someone she could talk to about metal bands and weird stuff and not be laughed at. She liked Robin and Steve, and Nancy was cool too, but they would never really get her like Eddie could. Because Y/n used to be "The Freak" in California.

taglist: @sisgotdemons @tlclick733 @deafeningmoontragedy @marjoriea13 @playfuloutcast @twosluttychains @leetaeilsnecktattoo @lil-quinnie @razzles-bottom-lip @originalstar1 @yessargeantbarnes @bebe0701 @shotgunhallelujah @uselessastheginlasagnaa @mynameismothra @niragis-right-hand-rabbit @shecagobaby @moviefreak1205 @munsonmunster @chonkzombie @sadbitchfangirl @screaming-blue-bagel @urdad-hot @kjaxm @xxaestheticboyxx @ok-boke @coffeeaddictednymph @ohmeg

<3

[ronance4life42]

heyy! (this is me wanting to talk nancy wheeler and being too lazy to post an analysis or anything of that sort in the tag lmaooo)

What’s your favorite nancy arc? Like, which season? And your most controversial ronance take (or maybe just something that isn’t super talked about, take your pick lol) ?

Anyway, I hope you’re having a nice day :)

thanks so much for this ask @cascade-ocean-waves! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply :). I really like season four Nancy because I think she really grows into herself. I know she’s still dating Jonathan, but he’s elsewhere and she’s not chasing any boys or being tied down. She’s much freer. She can explore and she becomes friends with Robin, obviously I’m a massive ronance Stan, but even without that, it’s a great friendship for her. It’s equal and calm. And she needs that.

Controversial Ronance take? I’m not sure. One thing I should say, is that lots of ronance shippers seem to be particularly anti-stancy, and aren’t as bothered about jancy. But I really don’t like either. I don’t think either work with Nancy’s character. She complains early on about her parents. She doesn’t want to end up like her parents. And I think ending up with her high school boyfriend, who she’s been with for years and everyone kinda expected her to be with, doesn’t work. That applies to both. Steve was a crappy-ass boyfriend, and he’s hugely improved by season four. But I think he needs to find someone new who he treats right from the start in order to both Nancy and Steve’s characters justice.

Jonathan and Nancy have kinda fallen out of love. Or something. But there’s nothing there any more and at this point I feel like they just feel obligated to be together. Spending time apart has let them free themselves as individuals, and I think they could realize than now they don’t lean on each other, there isn’t something much keeping them together.

More about Ronance though, I think that not enough is done about how smart Robin is. Robin falls first. How could she not? Nancy is obviously smart and cool and Robin just looks at her and thinks “goddamn this girl just shines”. But Nancy? Nancy has no idea what to think at first. And then she starts talking to her, and it Robin is so interesting to talk to, and Nancy gets so drawn in. She’s fascinated. And she falls so hard.

sorry that was so long! Well done for getting to the end. :)

always happy to answer stuff, fee free to ask me anything.

[ronanceautistic]

WIP Tag Game

Tagged by @goonflower

Rules: In a new post, list the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Okay so literally my only WIP is trapped between two lungs but I’ll list a few ideas I’ve been thinking about

- trapped between two lungs (duh), I’m almost entirely done with chapter 22 but I’ll hold off on posting for a few days because it’s literally been a day since Ch21

-i’ve been watching Dimension 20 Sophomore Year which is kinda making me think about Ronance fantasy/D&D esque thoughts. High elf Nancy, Pirate Robin maybe, see the vision

-Ednancy siblings. Karen dating bad boy Al and golden child Ted almost back to back, finding out she’s pregnant and choosing the well respected option, never truly knowing for sure if Nancy is his or not. Nancy is too curious for her own good and bam she’s got an older half brother.

-Platonic stancy A Silent Voice. It will Never get written but I’m kinda feral over the idea of (movie spoilers) Steve being Nancys ex bully (canon), turned friend, turned the guy that literally saves her life. But again, never getting written because I don’t know the logistics of it because I’d either have to make Nancy deaf (not against the idea but I am not deaf and don’t know how to approach writing it well) or take away a huge part of the movie, so yeah.

-There was a fic I planned in Aug 22 that had a huge ass lore dump on the Wheelers family tree that I’ve kept in my head ever since, in which Vecna and Nancy are… give me a second… third cousins once removed. It’s like the weakest family connection known to man but you Know Nancy is gonna obsess over it for the rest of her life.

-Post S4 Nancy finds a stray cat, takes it home, Karen makes her take it to a shelter, but Mike convinces her to let Nancy keep it. It’s cute but I’ve never had the motivation to do anything with it.

-Guitarist Nancy but this is PURELY because I am completely feral over the concept of Nancy in Prince’s Purple Rain outfit. The only way this vision could satisfy my brain is with fan art and I suck at drawing

Can’t be bothered to tag anyone so you are all tagged!

[mzsugarpink]

So I saw this thing abt Mike and El having “sm narrative build up” yada yada yada then I found myself explaining it with a graph. (All imo🙄🙄)

Like so

What I mean basically is that they grow/ go up in S1 but stay at a certain point then fall with their fights and stuff but when they make up they aren’t going past that previous line. There isn’t a lot of growth between them is the main pt I’m trying to make. Even where s4 ended with them to me it’s not a very good spot for their relationship if anything they’re at a meh spot. Even with mikes supposed “I love you” it’s just not giving what it needs to give to feel right or at a good place for them.

Then I made one for Lucas and Max

They have a rocky start at first before they started rly bonding then they fight have their makeup back together stay that way before fights again (and this isn’t every single instance either just like a shorten basic img IK Lucas Said Max dumped him 5 times) but I feel they come back stronger together every time . Then s4 they start off not speaking a whole lot (the last graph dip ) but throughout the season they’re just getting better together I would have had it end with it keep going up but we know where max is by the end of the szn. 😭

Now we get to Mike and Will

So I have them going up within the first two seasons before remaining constant at a pretty good spot. Then they drop in s3 especially w the rain fight. They come back a little bit but not like before. Then they drop again at the start of the latest szn. But spend that szn repairing their relationship with one another and that’s where we leave off w them like their cabin talk the last episode.

Overall I don’t rly think Mike and El bring out the best versions of each other as opposed to other relationships.

YK what I could’ve done a graph for Jancy and stancy too😪but I don’t feel like it.

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

4, 15, 22 please

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

Oh jeez. Okay, so I’ve got two for The Untamed, two for Naruto, one for The Penumbra Podcast, one for Sweet Home. I’m not going into detail on those because you guys don’t care. And also, “in progress” is generous for them, since I haven’t worked on any for well over a year. I’ll go into more detail about the uhhh, nine Stranger Things Ones?? -Steddie Upside-Down AU - this is almost done!!! So close! I’ve also partially written four smaller fics from other people’s pov’s, so those could be argued as separate! But I didn’t count them that way lol. -Platonic Stobin Mind-Reading AU - this one!!! I’ve been thinking of it <3 the name says it all. The Russians gave them mind-reading powers, but only for each other. I have no plans at all for this fic. I just want hijinks and mostly fun. -Aro4Aro Stancy AU - this one’s almost exclusively just for me <3 and the premise is, wouldn’t it be both funny and tragic if two aro people were dating each other, had never heard the word “Aromantic before” and couldn’t figure out why they were so fucking weird about each other once they broke up? -Christmas - I’m going to be honest, this was supposed to be posted LAST christmas, but it’s a character study on Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve’s relationship with each other post Stancy break-up, and the weird in-between world where you’ve fought monsters together, faced traumas together, and also hurt each other irreparably <3 Or, it’s about their reactions to Christmas lights! -The Crash Bang Incident - Max crashes the car into Eddie’s van on the way to the tunnels in season 2 with Steve passed out in the back seat. Enough said.  -There There - Steve goes back in time, but Robin DOESN’T. He has a mental breakdown about this and makes it Robin’s problem, whether she likes it or not.  -The Red Strings of Crazy - character study of Robin just sort of, spiraling about trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Steve Harrington post his introduction to the Upside Down. She admits to being virtually Obsessed with him in season 3, so I totally think she has a murder board and stalks him about it because come on. She WOULD.  -Carol/Nancy - this is just porn…..I’ll probably never post it because I’ve never written porn. But! Carol sees Jonathan’s creeper photos of Nancy, and feels a certain way about them.  -Stobin Body-Swapping AU - this has no actual words of the fic written, but I’ve got like thousands of words of contradicting world-building. Pretty much, something happens in the future that kicks them back into the past in each other’s bodies. But not at the same time??? So Robin in Steve’s body will go confront Robin in Robin’s body, and she’ll be like, dingus…is that you??? And no, it’s past Robin. And Steve does the same thing. And they completely fuck up the timeline, because by the time they GET to the inciting incident in the present, Steve and Robin have both thought the other was crazy for YEARS because of all the yelling and accusations. This one may never get written, or if it does, I might say fuck the logistics and just go for the vibes because I cannot figure it out. 

15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters? 

Almost always, I start with a theme that’s prevalent in the work. For example, for the Steddie Upside-Down AU, I was ruminating on survival, and hope through adversary. Usually, I spin through my mental rolodex of poetry/songs, find one that fits both thematically and has something I like as a title (either in the lyrics/verses or the title of the work). In this case, it was “A Litany For Survival” by Lorde which is an excellent poem. I think used lines from the poem as chapter titles. This doesn’t always work, but it’s my favorite method! One of my other favorite titles I’ve found this way is an unpublished au where the main character can see ghosts, which I titled “with feet that make no sound,” from the poem “Haunted Houses” by Longfellow. Sometimes, a title just comes to me without this method, but creating chapter/fic titles is like my least favorite part, so this is the go-to method. 

22. Do you know how your fic will end before you start writing?

Sometimes, but rarely! I know how the Aro4Aro Stancy AU is going to end. The Steddie Upside-Down AU was entirely a wild card. Often, when I’m writing, I’m telling the story to myself at the same time as I’m telling it to any readers. So, if something wild happens, we’re experiencing it together!

[maladaptive-day-dreams]

Think of Me

Steve x gn!reader, angst, 1k words Inspired by the song Think of Me by Madi Diaz (song lyrics are bolded in the fic!)

CW: cheating (Stancy), mention of s3x/infidelity, yelling and fighting, angry reader, despondent but also undisturbed Steve (he’s accepted what he’s done and doesn’t care at this point)

Author's Note: omg wow I'm posting again whaaaaat. First person bc I didn't feel like going and changing it to you/yours, soz. I got a lil sad at this as a relatively new Stevie gal, but pls enjoy (also imagine this as the angsty kind of sad boi to follow...but don't feel too bad for him bc he cheated).

I know that something is wrong. Steve has been off for the last few weeks but I don’t know why and he hasn’t said anything. He’s been distant, less affectionate, only brief kisses on my cheek when he’s leaving versus the usual heady lip-locking. I can’t remember the last time he initiated sex, but I can remember the last time I heard him jacking off in the bathroom even though I told him I was up for it. Or the last time I heard him leave the house and come back three hours later smelling clean, but sweet.

It has me anxious. Like all of my atoms are under attack. But I don't wanna say nothing so I don't react.

I’ve been silent, haven’t brought it up or made it known that I felt him pulling away. No, I don't even notice him.

He’s in the kitchen and I’m in the bath.

“Yeah, I can't play normal and you can't pretend,” I say through the open doorway. I know he can hear me. I see his back tense as he pauses washing the dinner dishes.

“What are you talking about?” he scoffs.

“I can’t pretend that I don't know where you go, anymore.”

He turns, his face marred with a question but his eyes know what I’m saying. He wipes his hands with a dish towel before closing the distance between us and leaning against the bathroom door. I lean on my arms atop the side of the bathtub.

“Am I not enough?” I ask. Before he can interrupt I keep going. “Is it because of what happened last spring? With Vecna?”

He tenses. His eyes focused on the tile floor in front of him.

I continue.

“I know where you go,” I laugh, throwing my hands up and sinking back into the lukewarm bathwater. “I know where you go. Do you think I don’t notice? How you leave in the middle of the night? How you only to come back to bed hours later with damp hair and smelling like Mike?”

He looks at me at that.

“Are you that daft? I buy your body wash. It’s always the citrus one because you can’t stand any other scents, they give you headaches. But when you come back to bed you smell like Irish Spring. I know that’s what Mike uses because that’s what his mom buys him when she comes through my line at the grocery store.”

“You’re crazy. I go to the park and run and then sneak into the pool showers and that’s what people leave there. You know I have nightmares and that running helps.” He starts to turn around, back towards the kitchen

“Then how do you explain your clothes smelling like her room.”

He hesitates. And I stand up in the bath.

“I’ve been in her room before, I know her perfume. For fucks sake we made out for the first time on her bed two years ago at her Halloween party, of course I know what that room smells like. We made one of my favorite memories there that night.”

He doesn’t say anything. I dry myself off and put on my pajamas that were sitting on the toilet lid.

“I hope you fuck her with your eyes closed. And think of me.”

“Y/N,” he whispers, hand reaching for mine when I pass him as I leave the bathroom.

“No. I hope you love her with the lights low and think of me. Think of me waiting here staring at the ceiling, checking the clock for when you come home.”

“Please. You know we have history, you know that.”

I turn and face him. His eyes are watery, red, sad. “Yeah, yeah I do. But I thought you loved me? I thought you were over her? I thought you were just friends now?”

“We’re bonded,” he says grabbing my arms. “With everything we’ve been through, there’s no way I can live without Nancy in my life.”

I stare at him, waiting for him to continue his attempt at redemption.

“We never expected it to happen. We didn’t want to fall back into it but it just— We just did. It was familiar, it was comfortable, it was comfort for us.”

“Being with me wasn’t comfort enough? You had to go back to her?”

Angry tears dampened my cheeks. I ripped my arms from his grasp to wipe them away.

“I hope you fuck her with your eyes closed," I repeat. "I hope looking at her makes guilt burrow into your stomach. Put the shame off with some Benzos, swallow the feeling while you walk home. And think of me. Always.”

Steve’s staring at the floor again. Refusing to look at me.

“You aren’t even denying it anymore. All of the color has drained from your face.”

Nothing. No apology.

“I’m sorry and I love you is noise that you make now. Nothing more, they don’t sound like they used to. Like any feeling you had behind them has disappeared."

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Y’know at first, no, I didn't even notice you stayin' out—Stayin’ out all night. I didn’t think you’d be in her bed, running your fingers down her thighs. Lickin’ your lips in the low light. No, I didn't even notice you come home and kiss me with her chapstick on your lips. I didn’t think you’d do that to me. To us.”

“I-”

“We talked about marriage, Steve!” I yelled, storming into our shared bedroom. He doesn’t follow. “Kids! A life outside of this hellhole!”

I’m throwing as many clothes and things as I can into my duffle bag.

“But now?” I ask, slinging the bag over my shoulder and shoving my feet into my sneakers.

I walk back to the kitchen. He looks defeated. He’s not even trying to save this, to fix this.

“Fuck you, Steve.” I spit, anger mixing with heartbreak. “I can’t-I hope you fuck her with your eyes closed and think of me.”

It’s all I can think of now. I have no words, no defenses, no pleas. Just: “I hope you love her with the lights low and think of me. I hope you fuck her with your eyes closed, put the shame off with some Benzos, swallow the feeling while you walk home and think of me always. Think of me, think of me always.”

I slam the door behind me as I leave and head for anywhere but here.