#also the thought of watching nancy do whatever she's gotta do with jonathan and steve.......... it's a No from me

[biillys]

the thought of a stranger things season five is insane btw. like. how is that shit still going

[apomaro-mellow]

“This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in.” for Stobin please 🥺

Never let it be said that Robin had no flair for the dramatics. Between the two of them, people pegged Steve for the goofy one with odd ideas, but she more often than not, followed him along with it. She didn't just do theatre for the costumes, after all.

Acting was just more fun when they weren't infiltrating a psych facility and trying to interview a convicted murderer. Steve's plan was much more entertaining. It was also idiotic but most fun things were.

"Are you in or are you out?", Steve asked.

“This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in.”

And so Operation: Make Eddie Jealous by Pretending to Date took off.

They'd made rules, the main one being no kisses on the mouth. They were close, but not that close. Robin thought this was a pretty juvenile way to figure out if Eddie liked Steve. But they could use juvenile right now. And it was honestly hilarious watching the guy seethe as Robin sat in Steve's lap and played with his hair.

They giggled to themselves, which only made Eddie look worse. Robin wanted to have mercy. But she also wanted to know how far it would have to go before Eddie would make a move. Then, halfway through a movie night, Robin realized he wouldn't make a move. Not on a guy who was clearly in a happy relationship.

"Steve!", she exclaimed, suddenly hopping off the couch. "We've gotta end this farce!"

"Wha?", Steve sat there as all the other eyes in the room turned to Robin.

"This sham of a relationship can't go on. I know you love another!"

Steve was definitely trying to not look at Eddie, but his eyes betrayed him about three times. Eddie was also unable to keep his eyes off of Steve.

"Eddie", Robin said. "Treat him better than I ever could." And then she dropped back onto the couch like nothing happened. "Okay, you two go make out in the kitchen or whatever."

Steve and Eddie were frozen. Nancy and Jonathan were stiff as a board too. Argyle was as relaxed as ever when government agents weren't on the hunt. Eddie cleared his throat.

"Kitchen?"

Steve stood up and Eddie followed. Everyone else could hear a low conversation under the sounds from the movie. And then nothing at all. And then some odd noises, and then the sound of two men going upstairs. Jonathan turned the TV up.

Send me a pairing and a number for a drabble

[mca-attack21]

Semi-Flayed

Steve Harrington x Reader. Season 3 finale spoilers.

The floor was cold, the atmosphere chaotic. The screams of your friends were drowned out by the fireworks and snarls of the mindflayer. Despite the noise, you clearly heard Billy, or the Mindflayer rather, whisper, “Stay still, it will all be over soon," his words sent ice through your veins. You struggled against his grasp, but it was no use. Realizing the imminence of your demise, you felt an overwhelming sadness, not even for yourself, but for Steve Harrington, the first and apparently last love of your life. As the “flaying” began, he was the only thing on your mind. You hoped that he would survive this, that he would get out of Hawkins, that he would be happy. You hoped-

“Y/N!” Steve screamed as he blew his cover to run to your side.

This caught the attention of Eleven, who managed to use her powers to throw Billy away from you. She fell back against Mike. The rest of the kids were still blasting the mind flayer with fireworks. Steve used the opportunity to pick you up and carry you away from the action.

“Y/n? Can you hear me? You gotta wake up okay? I did not survive being tortured by Russians only to have you be flayed before I could even-” his voice broke, and before he could continue, he was rounding the corner to where Dustin was.

“Shit. Is she okay?”

“I don’t know. Billy - the mind flayer- how do we know if she? What if she was?” Steve tried, but his heart couldn’t even handle the idea of you being lost to him.

“She wasn’t flayed.”

“How do you know?” Steve asked reluctant to be relieved.

“The hive mind is activated, she would be awake and trying to kill us if she was,” Dustin explained.

“Then why isn’t she waking up?”

“I don’t know Steve, but we have bigger problems right now,” he said gesturing to the fact that they were almost out of Fireworks.

Steve hesitantly left your side to help the others and watched in absolute shock as Billy sacrificed himself. It was only moments later that the mind flayer collapsed. It was over. Jonathan hugged Nancy, Mike went to Eleven, Lucas held Max as she cried, and both Steve and Dustin turned towards you.

“Y/n wake up!” Steve tried shaking your shoulders. He lowered his head to your chest to hear your heart beating and feel your breathing, “Y/n, c’mon, I need you to wake up,” he tried again, sounding more desperate.

Before he could continue, the FBI came running in and they were all escorted out. Steve barely managed to convince the EMT to let him ride with you. He was stuck in the waiting room for what seemed like forever, shrugging off the nurses who offered to check out his injuries. Dustin, Mike, Nancy, and Jonathon came in, gathering in silence waiting for any news. The worst part for Steve was when your mother showed up, he had never felt more guilty than when he lied to her about what happened.

Eventually, the doctor came out with a flustered look on his face. He asked for your mom, and Steve quickly stood to join them. The doctor protested, but your mom assured him that Steve should come with her.

“So, I don’t know how to tell you this, but as far as we can tell there is nothing physically wrong with your daughter. She is seemingly in a coma with no cause. As such, there is nothing medically we can do other than sustain her condition if you choose to do so,” he then turned to Steve, “Can you run me through what happened again?” Steve managed to recount his story, trying to ignore your mother's sobs. As soon as he finished, he exited the room in shock, he sunk down to the floor, struggling to breathe, replaying the doctor's words over and over again in his head. His chest was filled with immense pain at the thought of losing you.

He sat there a while trying to calm himself down before forcing himself off the wall and back to the waiting room, where Will, Mrs. Byers, and Eleven had joined the others. All eyes went to him expectantly, but with one look at him Dustin said what they were all thinking, “Shit..."

Steve repeated what the doctor had said, Nancy pulled him into a comforting hug. While the others started brainstorming. There was an hour of outrageous theories until finally, Will realized something, “She wasn’t completely flayed, but the process was definitely initiated.”

“Obviously,” Dustin chimed in.

“But what is flaying? It’s like your identity being ripped away from you and replaced with the host mentality,” Will continued.

“So maybe Y/n’s soul or whatever was separated. Nothing medically wrong with her, because that’s not a physical connection” Mike added.

“So in other words, we have to jumpstart the connection again,” Lucas agreed, and then all eyes shifted to El.

“Do you think you could try to find her? Like you did Billy or Heather?” Mike asked.

“I can try,” El nodded.

Dustin walked over to where Steve was laying with his head in Mrs. Byers' lap. She ran her fingers through his hair like she had for her sons so many times, mind wandering to Hopper. Steve looked so broke, like he had given up any hope.

“We need to get into Y/n’s room, we think we know how to fix her,” Dustin announced.

It was like that swiped a switch in Steve, and he popped up at once, “What do you mean?”

Dustin explained everything to Steve and Mrs. Byers, and then again in layman's terms. From there the whole group formed a plan. Mrs. Byers and Nancy would go distract your mom. Dustin, Mike, and Will would distract the nurses. Steve and El would sneak into your room, while Jonathon kept watch. For once, everything went smoothly.

El was searching the cabinets for something to cover her eyes with, and Steve handed her the red ascot from his Scoops uniform. She went to your side and took your hand, instantly being transported into your consciousness.

It was dark, unlike anything she had ever experienced before. Every step she took was echoing, the entire reality was glitching in and out, but there was no sign of you.

“Y/n?” she called out.

The blackness would flash to a scene of you and then back to the nothingness, “Y/n, can you hear me?” El tried again, “I need you to focus on my voice, and I can bring you back. I’ll bring you back home, back to Steve.”

At the mention of Steve, the glitching stopped and El could see you know for the first time, you laid on the ground folded into yourself. You were pale and shaking, looking only a moment away from death. As she got closer she could hear you softly repeating, “Please don't, I'm sorry.” There was no indication that you knew she was there. She touched you lightly on the shoulder, but it didn’t phase you.

“Y/n? We need to get out of here, I need your help,” she tried, again receiving no response. The glitching started again, each time putting more and more distance between the two of you. El knew that you wouldn’t survive it much longer.

In the hospital room, Steve watched as blood trickled down Eleven’s face. He didn’t know why it was taking so long. He tried to get an idea of what was happening through the one-sided conversation that he was hearing, but even that was being drowned out by his fear of losing you, What if this didn’t work? The lights started flickering, the machines in the room going nuts, and then suddenly Eleven called his name, “I need you to talk to her, to bring her back.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Steve, we don't have time, just talk to her!”

“Okay….Uhm...Y/n? It’s Steve. Your boyfriend,” he started, feeling extremely uncomfortable, before his emotions took over. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to protect you. I’m here now though, and I need you to come back to me. I need you to wake up, cause you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I don’t want to lose you. Not now, not ever. Please Y/n. I love you so much, please wake up." As he finished, everything went black, the entire hospital lost power.

In your head, every nightmare you had ever had was playing through your mind. You were cold and afraid, feeling lost beyond anything you have ever felt. Whatever was happening to you it was killing you, you could feel it draining you. A strange numbness started to overtake you. You weren’t giving up, you were running out of fight. Just as you were trying to prepare yourself for whatever would come next, you heard a familiar voice, “Okay….Uhm...Y/n? It’s Steve. Your boyfriend.” Hearing his voice made everything stop. A warmth filled you, and you forced your eyes open, seeing Eleven.

"El?" you asked weakly.

“You’re going to be fine, I’m here,” she reassured, moving towards you and taking your hand.

The next thing you remember was hearing Steve’s voice, “Are you okay?” he asked, you forced your eyes open to see who he was talking to.

“I’ll be fine,” Eleven reassured him, wiping her nose.

“Everything was going crazy in here and then the power went out...Is she okay now?"

Suddenly Eleven’s face lit up, “Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

You had never seen Steve turn around so quickly in his life, a wide smile on his face as he practically dove onto your bed holding you like his life depended on it. “Nice to see you too,” you laughed. God did he love that laugh, and that smile, and you.

“I am so glad that you are okay,” he sighed, allowing himself to relax a little for the first time since he had found out about the Russian code from Dustin.

“Are you okay?” you asked running your finger lightly across his cheek. His eye was swollen and undoubtedly painful. His lip was busted and his nose was also bruised and swollen. In other words, he looked like he got into a fight with his hands tied behind his back.

He put his hand over yours and pulled it down to his chest over his heart as he had done so many times before, “It’s worse than it looks, I promise. I’m just glad you're okay.”

You were going to ask him what happened but were interrupted by the kids coming in excitedly. They were vividly telling you everything that happened after you were “Semi-flayed” as Will had coined it. You listened to every word, happy to know that it was all over. Their commotion gained the attention of the nurse, who proceeded to kick everyone out. Well, everyone but Steve who was practically glued to your side.

She went back to find the doctor and notify your mother, promising to bring back the ice that you requested for Steve’s eye. There were more happy reunions, followed by another round of tests, and finally, you were discharged. Joyce took Will, Jonathan, Dustin, and Lucas home. Nancy took Mike and Eleven back to her house. Your mom went back to your house and you went with Steve to his.

You both were exhausted but found it hard to sleep.

“What happens now?” you asked innocently.

“What do you mean?”

“How do we move forward from this? I mean nothing can ever really be the same can it?”

Steve thought for a moment, “I think we grieve and heal, then we start looking for the little victories again until this is nothing more than a memory.”

You nodded, “I love you, Steve Harrington,” you spoke softly.

You missed the grin that spread across his face before he kissed your forehead, “I love you too.”

You laid like that for a while, it didn’t take Steve long to fall asleep. You thought about what he said. Tomorrow would be hard, and the day after that too, but eventually your life would become some type of normal again. You shifted to look at his face, careful not to wake him. You felt a sense of relief, knowing that as long as the two of you had each other, you could work through the rest.

[gravegroves]

ace nancy 👀?? from your wips?

I'm gonna preffice this by warning that Billy knows about Asexuality but isn't all that good at explaining it or the nuanced spectrum of being Ace. Also it's the 80's, so please read the following with that in mind. (Clarification comes later in the fic)

So this fic is about Billy being pressganged by Mr Clark into joining the debate team for the State Championships for extra credit. Nancy would rather have a Demodog chomp her left leg off than team up with Billy Hargrove, but things have a way of working out.

A few excerpts:

"Be honest Wheeler, did Harrington make you come even once?"

Nancy blushes.

"Oh, holy shit, he really didn't, did he?" 

"I didn't say that--" Nancy insists, loudly.

Billy laughs, "Oh, you didn't have to, Princess. Your face says it all."

"Shut up, Hargrove, just…" Nancy huffs in frustration and goes back to picking at the label a little more aggressively, "Just don't."

"Hey, I'm not judging you, that's all on Harrington. What a dick."

"He's not really. Not anymore. It's just," Her nail finally catches and she rips another strip of wet, sticky label off the bottle and flings it into the grass, "He was my first, you know? I didn't know what to do or how to - to move, and then it was over and I just remember thinking, is that all it is? And then I thought, maybe I'm just not good at it yet, maybe I just need to try again."

She sniffs, reaches up to wipe her face and Billy realises with a sickening lurch in his stomach that Wheeler is crying. He stares at her, frozen solid with uncertainty about what to do.

"And then I thought maybe there's something wrong with him, you know?" Her voice turns bitter. "Like, why couldn't he make it good for me? It's not like I hadn't heard about the other girls talking about Steve before we got together. None of them had any complaints." 

"But then I got together with Jonathan and I thought this feeling, this is what I was missing. But-- it didn't fix anything! It didn't fix me."

Billy flounders a little, but ultimately goes with the first thing that pops into his head. "There isn't anything wrong with you, Wheeler."

Nancy cackles a little, sways on the spot, the drink clearly loosening her tongue as well as her body. "Yeah? You gonna show me what I've been missing out on, huh? You wanna take me for a ride in your Camaro, Billy?"

Billy gags a little at the thought, luckily Nancy is too preoccupied by taking another swig from her bottle to notice.

"Oh yeah, that'd end really fucking well."

*****

"You literally did an hour long presentation on Nicola Tesla last semester and spent a quarter of it talking about why he never got married. Don't tell anyone I said this, but you're not exactly stupid. Don't fail me now, Wheeler."

Nancy blinks, looks likes she's thinking real fucking hard. Maybe Billy spoke too soon.

"You ever heard of the term asexual?"

"I think so?" She says, slowly, sounding out the words with deliberate care and turning it into a question. A valley grows between her brows in concentration. "The farmers at the spring festival talked about-- about culling a rooster because it wouldn't, like, mount the hens naturally. I'm sure that's the term he used. 

"Jesus Christ." Billy sucks deeply on his cigarette. "It means you don't wanna fuck." Billy frowns, waves his hand dismissively. "Like, you can like it just fine, but you don't think about it like most people do. Something like that."

Nancy straightens of her slouch to lean back and stare at him, jerking a little when she overbalances and steadies herself by grabbing the crook of Billy's elbow. "That doesn't sound normal."

He shrugs a little, takes one last pull from the cigarette before flicking the butt at the ground.  "What the fuck is normal, huh?" He grinds the butt into the gravel and turns to look at her, "Let's get you back on your pea, princess. I think you've had enough for one night."

He holds out a hand.

Nancy takes it.

*****

Billy jerks out of doze when someone drops into the seat next to him. He already knows who it's gonna be before he turns to look.

"Morning Wheeler, you get lost on the way to your seat?"

Billy looks around pointedly, his little nook in the back of the bus cut off from the rest of the group by a good five or six rows of empty seats. Far enough to get the point across that Billy isn't there by choice or planning to socialise with any of these nerds.

"No." She says simply.

"You sure? Seems like an awful lot of empty seats for you to be getting all friendly. How's the head?"

Nancy ignores him. Stares at the back of the seat in front of her like it gave her a less than a perfect grade. She purses her lips in that awful way that reminds Billy of a cat's asshole, but she doesn't run off in a huff like he expects.

"You're right." She says, still not looking at him. He watches a muscle tick in her jaw as she grinds her teeth.

He grins.

"You about to have a heart to heart with me, Wheeler? Gotta know whether or not to turn the volume up on these things." He gestures to the headphones pushed partially off his left ear.

She turns her head and regards him cooly for a beat, before a hand shoots out and bats the thing off his head with a quick swipe.

"Watch it!" Billy scrambles to catch them by the cord before they fall to the floor.

Nancy smiles sweetly, "Don't be a dick, Hargrove."

He rolls his eyes.

"Bitch."

"Slut."

"Whore."

She shoots him a pitying look. "Oh Billy, we both know Christie Otto paid you twenty bucks to let her suck your toes."

Billy guffaws, taken completely by surprise and loving it.

Nancy stares, disbelieving.

"You actually did it?"

Billy grins.

Her face does a complicated thing before settling on a confused expression. "But why?"

"Twenty bucks is a hell of a lot of dough for us mere peasants, Princess."

Billy screws his face up, tries not to squirm uncomfortably in his seat at the memory,  "Maybe I should have warned her that I'm ticklish. Almost kicked her face in, like, three times."

Nancy coughs. Covers her mouth as she laughs into her hands, like she doesn't want him to see that he made her laugh.

"Not that this isn't nice and all--"

"Oh, I'm sorry, you got somewhere to be, Hargrove?" She snaps, deadpan, but Billy can tell she's nervous from the way she wrings her hands and hides them up her sleeves.

"I just wanted to say thank you--"

"Don't mention it, Wheeler." He says, hastily. Actually he'd prefer it if they never spoke about it ever again.

She glares at the interruption, but presses on. "-- thank you and I wanted to know if I could talk to you. More. About it."

And now it's Billy's turn to stare. Nancy meets his eyes with a determined gaze. Whatever shit Tommy and the rest of the school likes to say about Nancy Wheeler, she's got stones, he'll give her that.

"Alright."

*****

The topic is announced.

Gay marriage.

Berkeley for. Hawkins against.

They win by a landslide.

Of course they do.

The team from Berkeley registers a formal complaint with the panel the second the win is announced. Mr Scott and his Berkeley counterpart are waved up to approach the judges table. Billy wants desperately to leave, but he's forced to sit and watch the Berkeley debate coach protest the unfair conditions his team had been placed under.

"No one in their right mind would chose to side with us on such a topic. No matter how well my kids argue their case."

"I'm afraid I disagree." Mr. Clarke argues. "We debate politically and morally charged topics all the time, Mr. Davenport. The judges judge how well you present your side, not their own personal beliefs.

Billy snorts. Feels unclean after having to stand on that stage and tell the world how unfit people like him are to love. To form families. To be allowed to simply be.

Even if it's all hypothetical, Billy knows those words came damn easily out of his team mates mouths, just as the words of support clearly left a sour after-taste in their opponents.

Nancy turns to look at him.

Fuck it.

Billy gets up and stalks out of the hall. Fuck it all to shit.

[bookbinderbitch]

Spoilers for Stranger Things 4V.2

I gotta say, it didn’t blow me away. Some thoughts.

- Max carries the whole season imo. It was great, especially because I didn’t really care that much about her character before, this was a nice change.

- We don’t HAVE to kill someone each season, you know? We could have just kept Eddie?? I get that there was no way he was getting out from underneath those murder charges now that Hopper isn’t sheriff, but cmon.

- Will’s speech about Mike was 1000 better than Mike’s big “I lOvE yOu” moment with Eleven. I don’t have anything against their ship, but if there is one trope I am getting really tired of it is tHe PoWEr oF FrIEndShIp SpEeCh that is in every show these days. I feel like we can do better.

- About that speech, Mike says a couple things there that I didn’t vibe with. Firstly; he says that his life began the day they found El in the woods. Pardon, but that was also the day your best friend went missing. And he’s like right there. Rude. Second; he says he can’t live without El. I am TIRED of media showing us this idea of love where you are so ‘devoted’ to the other person you can’t live without them. No. You live for yourself, first and foremost. You are a person of your own, deserving all the good things life has to offer. Stop this idea that there is a person out there that you are living for. There might be someone out there that you want to spend the rest of your life WITH, but not FOR. Big difference.

- The whole train of thought where the adults in Russia thought ‘hey we don’t know when the fight will take place, but hivemind, so lets go kill the things’. Yeah that was just weird to me. It felt like they needed a reason to keep them in the plot all the way from Russia. 

- Hopper and Joyce getting together. Hell yes.

- Why is Max the only one running in this mindscape we are in. Vecna is just going for a little stroll, he’s in no type of hurry. But Eleven. My friend. Pick up the pace. If you see a cloud of death approaching while in your friends mind, maybe get a move on? Her walking in that skatepark memory LORDD

- I loved the moment between Dustin and Eddie’s uncle. “I never even saw him get mad” really hit me for some reason. I loved Eddie okay. Fuck this

- Hell yeah Robin you go get that girlfriend

- Why did they just kind of bait us with the Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle again and then not do anything with it. (They’re probably getting into it in the next season but uughh)

- Joyce and Hopper finding out that Eleven broke a girls nose is gonna put a damper on the cute reunion. 

- “Lucas is fine, he’s at the hospital. Oh, you don’t know” WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DON’T KNOW?? ELEVEN IS THE ONE THAT BROUGHT MAX BACK IN THE FIRST PLACE. SHE HAD A WHOLE MENTAL BREAKDOWN IN THE MINDSPACE OR WHATEVER. DUDE.

- Wtf happened to Yuri and Enzo at the end? Are they safe in Indiana now?

- I liked that Eleven didn’t give Dr. Brenner what he wanted from her while he was bleeding out. Like hell yes girl you don’t owe this creepy ass anything.

- Speaking of creepy ass. Here’s a drinking game. Watch this season again and take a shot every time Brenner enters a room in a dramatic way that is supposed to make the audience GASP. This dude does not know how to walk normally into a room, seriously.

- I loved the moment between Will and Jonathan. I literally went ‘Good Brother Jonathan’ out loud.

- That scene where Eddie plays Metallica in the Upside Down. Fucking amazing. Top tear TV. 

- Jason’s whole thing. Sigh. I wasn’t born in the 80′s, but if I saw one of my friends get murdered by what seemed a ghost above a lake, my first thought wouldn’t be: “yeah its that guy that was almost drowning there with me, he did this”. I get that he didn’t have his mind right because of Chrissy, and that if you believe something to be true it is very hard to let that go (Chrissy would never buy drugs, Hellfire is a cult, Eddie is guilty). BUT he felt like a plot device needed to make everything just a little bit more complicated so the finaly wouldn’t be boring on the Normal Hawkins side. Because if this dude and his possy of Riverdale Archie knockoffs would have had even a little more chill, a whole lot of annoyance would have gone away. Because yes, that is all that they were. A lot of them dissapear halfway through, the guy with the curls that goes after Erica is never heard from again after she kicked him in the nuts, and Jason just dies. They have no real impact on the plot other than annoyance, and stepping on the headphones. 

- Then for next season. I’m curious what they will do with Will’s connection to Vecna, and if he will actually play a part in the plot again apart from Sad Gay TM. I’m not complaining about his arc about his sexuality, I like what they’re doing with it, but he didn’t do much else. This dude has been terrified of the Upside Down for all of these seasons now, and he deserves to be the one holding the bat with nails for once, beating some creature to mulch. I think Vecna still has a hold of Max’s mind somehow and that is how we see him again next season, because Max’s mind is just 404 page not found right now. It all felt a lot like a setup for season 5. We needed to establisch how scary Vecna is, and that El can handle him but only in the best of circumstances. Then we needed to create a crisis that can haul us over to next season. Check. 

All of this is very random, feel free to add random thoughts

[inkykeiji]

cLARIIIII

first off ty for the wardrobe advice (yes i did maybe go to the aritzia site after and move maybe a few items to my cart)

second of all aRE WE ON THAT STRANGER THINGS SHIT??? i gotta ask how are you feeling abt the current nancy/steve/jonathan situation because me personally i am feelin very not happy about it mostly because i love jonathan but this season is making it very hard to actively love jonathan and prefer him over steve when he’s a) not there and b) on some dumb bitch shit. like literally rewatching s2/3 to remind myself why i love jonathan but at the same time i love steve i just,,, dont love steve with nancy so why are the writers seemingly pushing steve and nancy?? very upsetting to me so i wanted to see your thoughts (also very upsetting that i have to wait till jUly for pt 2 but oh well we cope)

hope you’re doing well!! lots of love to you and lil baby touya 🐟🥺<3

~❄️

snowflake!!!! (´∀｀)♡

omg ur welcome!!! i’m glad to have been of a lil help!! c: yeah aritzia has some really nice stuff!!

oh gosh honestly i’m not a huge fan of it, steve is one of my faves and i hate to see him being almost like ??? jerked around by the writers, if that makes sense??? like he just can’t seem to catch a break especially in the relationship department (my boyfriend rly wants steve to find a good girl and settle down and be happy LMAO) and they’re dangling nancy in front of him like a piece of meat, which is imo disrespectful to nancy’s character, too.

i like her with jonathan. i think they have a really interesting dynamic and that they each bring something to the table in their relationship, and they’re a lot more interesting to watch than her and steve (who is obviously the ‘safe’ and generic choice for somebody like nancy; somebody who comes from a good home and a good family). it’s fun and intriguing to watch her and jonathan try and navigate + reconcile these differences in a way that works for both of them, and i really love that good girl/troubled boy trope (tho jonathan isn’t necessarily what i’d call ‘troubled’, but he’s definitely had a rougher home life than nancy).

so yeah, i agree with you, it’s annoying!!!!! i wish they’d give steve like his own romantic storyline apart from nancy. i get that she was like his first love or whatever and that’s sweet, but i think it would be super interesting to see steve fall for a more ‘troubled’ girl and explore those dynamics there. i think he’d be sooooo sweet 🥺🥺🥺

omg i’m upset we have to wait too!!!! but i’m really excited to see how this season ends, for the most part i’m really enjoying it so far!! AWW HEHEHE isn’t he just the most precious thing!!!!!! <333 ahaha thank you bb, i am always sending love and health ur way!!! ♡(˃͈ દ ˂͈ ༶ )

[yikesharringrove]

hello !! may i request billy trying to "woo" steve but hes oblivious to it ? and it gets to a point where nacy is Tired of billy looking like That when steve plays offs his advances and she just decides to help him out with a relucent jonathan ? robin is there too but she isn't gonna say anything bc she loves a good show. thank you !!!

Ao3

-

Jonathan was sitting on the counter, Nancy leaning on his legs when Billy walked in.

He smiled sheepishly at them, heading towards where Steve was behind the counter, chatting as he rewound tapes. He ducked over into the horror section, re-emerging quickly, obviously knew what he was comin’ in for.

“Oh, Exorcist. I haven’t seen this one. Steve was all smiles as he stood up to help Billy.

“It’s pretty good. Lots a’ gore, and stuff.” Billy side eyed Jon and Nancy, leaning a little further over the counter. “We could watch it together, if you wanted.”

Billy had gotten a nice studio apartment in downtown Hawkins with the government cash out he had gotten from the whole Starcourt ordeal. Steve had helped him move in, hadn’t been back since.

“Sorry, man. Don’t really like horror movies.”

Nancy noted how dejected Billy looked when Steve looked down to punch in the amount on the register. Billy left with a small wave and Nancy reached over to whack Steve in the arm.

“What the hell was that for?” He was pouting at her, rubbing his arm.

“You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

“What’d I do this time?”

“Billy just asked you out!” Steve’s eyes were wide.

“No?”

“Yes.”

“No, he just invited me over. He does that a lot. usually he rents movies I don’t think I would like, though.”

“He wants you to come over and get scared so he can protect you, or whatever.”

“N-no.”

“Yes. He wants to sit on the couch, and put his arm over you, and he wants you to hide your face in his chest when you’re scared literally all guys use that move.” She considered Jonathan for a moment. “Current company excluded.”

“I still don’t think he was asking me out.”

-

“Billy!” Nancy just so happened to be loitering near his apartment building as Billy was returning from his weekend job at the garage near family video.  Billy started when she called his name.

“Uh, hey Nancy.” He was fidgeting with the buttons on his coveralls.

“Look, Steve is sweet, but he’s the most oblivious person on the planet.” Billy tightened his jaw, a shadow of his rough self, his rough pre-Starcourt self.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried to push past her, but she just followed him up the stairs.

“I know you were trying to ask him out yesterday.”

“Wasn’t tryna do shit.”

“I don’t care that you’re into him. I want to help you.” She rolled her eyes.

“Help me?” He raised one eyebrow as they crossed into his little apartment, appraising her. “Help me do what?” She turned to him, grinning wide.

“I’m going to help you get him.”

-

“He likes movies with a lot of adventure. A steady rise and fall of events. So, Indiana Jones, or Conan, or James Bond, all of those. And he loves westerns. He made me watch so many fucking westerns.”

“Sounds like he just likes hot guys.” Nancy rolled her eyes.

“He likes Barbarella, too. He doesn’t have much in the way of an attention span, so things need to be constantly happening. He took me to see Gremlins three times when it came to the Hawk.”

“Okay, so action adventure. Easy enough.”

“Well, he’s also got a big soft spot for sappy romances. And I’m talking the real sappy ones, not like Sixteen Candles, I mean Gone with the Wind, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Cleopatra. He’s a big mushball, and he loves love.” Billy kinda felt like he should be taking notes at this point. “He has all these Italian films from the forties, and he says that’s what he grew up watching, and they’re all very romantic. He loves watching those, because then he’ll translate the whole time, and I think that makes him feel romantic, it’s a whole thing.”

“Wait, he speaks Italian?”

“His mother was born in Italy somewhere. It’s his first language.”

“Shit, I didn’t know that.”

“He’s quite proud of it. He was raised by his grandmother, his nonna, and still knows all of her recipes.”

“That’s cute.” Billy thought for a second. “So, I should invite him over for a movie he’d like, and if I conveniently had all the ingredients for some complicated Italian dish, just like, around, he could be into that?”

Nancy stared at him.

“Wow. You’re just as mushy as he is.”

“Don’t hate.”

-

“You need to help me.”

“Nance, I just don’t feel like we should get-”

“Of course we should get in the middle of this! Our friends have a chance to be happy, together.” Jonathan huffed.

“Nancy, be honest with me. Are you just trying to do this because you genuinely want Billy and Steve to be happy, or because you still feel guilty about everything that happened with Steve?” Her mouth dropped open.

“I, I don’t-no.” She shook her head. “Of course not.” Jonathan raised an eyebrow at her. “No, Jon. I want them to be happy.”

“Okay, but I still don’t think we should interfere.”

“Of course we should. You saw them the other day, they cannot do this themselves. I’ve already talked to Billy.”

“You already-Nancy.” He gave her a look.

“What? I’m helping.” He rolled his eyes.

-

“Nancy’s making me talk to you.” Jonathan kept his voice monotone.

“Um, about what?” Steve was reshelving tapes, Jonathan following behind him with the box full.

“About Billy.”

“What about Billy?”

“She wants to help you two get together.” Steve laughed.

“I know she means well, but he does not like me like that.”

“She seems to think he does. Apparently, she’s already talked to Billy. They’ve got a whole plan.”

“A plan? What do you mean?”

“She told him all of your favorite movies and they’re idea is that you’ll go to his place and you’ll cook dinner together and watch a movie.”

Steve’s eyes were big when he looked up at Jonathan.

“Wait he, there’s actually a plan?” He was picking at the peeling sticker on a Cinderella tape. “What are we gonna cook?”

“I don’t know. Billy said he’s just gonna get a bunch of vague Italian shit, his words, and he’s hoping you’ll take over from there.” Steve smiled to himself.

“Um, you think you could get him a list? So he doesn’t just have to buy stuff.” Jonathan furrowed his brows.

“Wait so, you’re good with this?”

“I mean, it’s kinda, it’s kinda sweet.”

“So, her plan worked?”

“Well, I still gotta go on the date.” Steve returned to shelving tapes.

“But, you’re going?”

“Yeah. If he asks.”

“Get me a grocery list. And believe me, he’ll ask.”

-

Steve had picked one of his favorite recipes, giving Jonathan a list to casually slip to Billy.

He had been waiting all week for Billy to come back, rent some movie he loves, and ask him over.

But it had been days since he had spoken with Jonathan.

And he was losing hope.

“What’s up, Mopey?” Robin was fake pouting at him.

“Billy hasn’t been in in a while. Is all.” Steve shrugged, tried to act all casual.

Robin rolled her eyes.

“Missing your boyfriend?”

“Shut up.” His face was red as he mumbled. “Nancy and Jonathan kinda, they kinda made a plan, and I think he’s just, I think Billy’s not actually gonna go through with it.” She sighed.

“Look, I told Nancy I was not gonna get mixed up in this, but, he likes you, Dingus. He’s not backing out, he’s not blowing you off. Take a breath.”

“I’m just, I care about him, you know? He’s been through a lot. I don’t wanna fuck it up.” Steve was scuffing his foot against the ground, watching it intently. “I always fuck it up.”

“Hey, it’s just one date. And maybe there’ll be a next, and a next, but for now, take the date. Have a good night.”

-

Jonathan was back on the counter, watching Billy psych himself up outside.

He was hoping from foot to foot, obviously practicing everything he was gonna say.

Steve was being very good at not making eye contact with everyone.

The bell above the door made a loud sound as Billy shoved it open.

He stared at his feet as he hid himself in one of the aisles.

Steve gave Nancy a panicked look.

“Breathe,” She hissed at him. He took a few deep breaths in and out of his mouth, his eyebrows scrunched together.

A few minutes later, just as Steve had calmed himself down, Billy came back out of the aisle, a few different tapes in his hands.

He set the tapes down, giving Steve a nice smile, a real smile.

“Hey, Bill.” Steve wasn’t even looking at the tapes.

“Hi, Pretty Boy.” Steve flushed. “What’re you up to tonight?”

It was painful, watching the two of them dance around one another. Billy didn’t know Steve was in on the plan, didn’t know Steve was fucking vibrating and the speed of sound for Billy to ask him out.

“Um, nothing much. Just gonna go home.”

Nancy slapped Jonathan’s leg, pulling him into one of the aisles, spying on the two from around the shelf. Robin stayed sitting behind Steve, snapping her gum.

“You could come over, if you want. Watch one a’ these.” Steve finally looked down at the tapes, brightening up right away.

“I love Barbarella.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re a human.” Steve laughed as he punched in the amount. There were beginning to fall into a rhythm, Steve picking up the next tape.

“Oh shit.” He was holding the Sound of Music tape like it was made of gold. “I used to really love this movie.”

“We can watch it, if you want. I’ve never seen it.” Steve looked at him like he had an extra head.

“You’ve never seen it? Billy, what the fuck? We’re so watching this tonight.” He picked up the last tape.

“That one I got for me.”

“I uh, I didn’t even know this movie existed.” He was staring wearily at the mutant on the front, tracing the font spelling out Forbidden World.

“Oh Pretty Boy, you’d hate it.” Steve laughed. He took Billy’s neat bills, practiced hands made quick change.

Their hands brushed as Steve passed over the coins.

“You want me to bring anything? Tonight?”

“Just yourself.”

“Nothing for dinner?”

“I mean, I got some stuff. If you wanna, like, make something.” Billy was fidgeting with the tapes.

“Yeah, I, uh, I really like cooking. We could, like, cook together.”

“I’d like that.” Steve gave Billy one of his sunshiniest smiles. Made Billy melt a little. “What time you get off?”

“Five.”

“Be over as soon as you can, then.”

“Okay. Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“It’s a date then, Stevie.” Steve was grinning like he had won the fucking lottery. Billy gave him a stupid little two finger salute, nearly ramming into the glass door on this way out.

Steve waited until Billy was safely out of view of the storefront windows before he lost his shit.

He was wiggling around like the happiest little worm, Nancy coming out of hiding to give him a hug.

Robin snapped her gum at him when he tried to get near her, so he hugged Nancy again.

“Hey, thank you guys. For, for everything.” Jonathan clapped him on the back.

“No problem, man. Just do us all a favor, and get laid.”

[willel]

On this day, I’d like to talk about my feelings on Season 3.

I know I know. You roll your eyes. You’ve seen me talk about it before. But actually you haven’t. Not totally. If anything, you’ve just seen my inquisitional frustration now and then on how they decided to write it.

Make no mistake, I think Stranger Things 3 is the worst of the 3 seasons. Is it the worst tv ever? Nah.... though this is someone who doesn’t really watch tv other than Stranger Things (more of a reader myself). I usually watch youtubers rip tv shows apart instead.

So based on that, do I think Stranger Things 3 is worse that 13 Reasons Why, Riverdale, or uh.... hm.... oh! the last seasons of Game of Thrones? Well, no.

So how do I truly feel? Weirdly enough, I feel the same as I did when I finished watching it the whole time. I felt like... I was waiting for the ball to drop, episode to episode. I can’t pinpoint exactly what I was waiting for, but whatever it was didn’t come.

I didn’t.... FEEL as much as I did the first 2 seasons? And I felt like that was by design. They didn’t bring in the heartfelt stuff until literally the VERY end and by then, it was too late for me to feel invested in all these characters I genuinely like.

I never truly felt like anyone was in danger, especially not the Scoop Troop. Even as Steve was being tortured and had his daylights knocked out... it was just a *shrug* like moment for me.

Even when Hopper supposedly died.... I was kinda feeling like “meh. I doubt it.”

And I’m not trying to say someone HAS to die for me to feel something. No one died in Season 2 (except Bob) and I was still on the edge of my seat while they were interrogating Will or when they started panicking cause the Mind Flayer found their location. I was concerned that maybe El wouldn’t be able to close that humongous gate and Hopper would get eaten by demodogs before they even made it there. I was worried possessed Will would get loose before they managed to exercise the Mind Flayer and maybeeee he’d die or suffer more or something.

So for months, I guess more than a year now, I’ve just been debating my feelings on things. I’ve come to this conclusion.

Even though I didn’t really like the season overall, there were too many things in the season I did like to make me actually hate it.

Will’s arc that lasted about 3 episodes was off to a great start. I was really looking forward to it until it disappeared.

Murray’s friendship with Joyce... I dunno. I actually really loved that. They’re kinda similarly paranoid investigative people who bother Hopper in their own little way. It’s cute, like they’re long lost siblings.

Even if they laid it on a little thick, El and Max’s friendship was much needed and I’m glad that even though El was still trying to copy Max a little too much, Max was also doing her best to remind El now and then to find herself and no one else.

I like that El is now living with the Byers and that they’re moving away. It makes TOTAL sense that Joyce would pack up and leave Hawkins. Too much shit has gone down there, she needed to go for her and her kids sake + El.

Even though I wish the resolution had been different, Jonathan and Nancy clashing due to their backgrounds (being a woman vs being poor) was very interesting to me. I would’ve loved to have more of it. Not more arguing, just more talking about it other than the apology.

I love love love, first of all, Lucas reaching out to Will multiple times after the huge blow up trying to make amends. Some of it is in the background. And that CUTE HUG AT THE END. I love Will and Lucas. <3 Lucas is such a good friend even with a few screw ups there and there.

Jonathan for at least a second taking the big brother role for El and trying to cut that thing out of her leg. Trying to reassure her it’s gonna hurt but it’s gotta be done. So sweet even if gross

And then there’s the things I didn’t like that just... brought down my mood. Here’s a few.

Hopper was just... look. I don’t hate his character. I see this solely as a writing issue, not necessarily a character issue. I feel we could’ve ended up with the exact same plot if we cut out about 50% of Hopper’s snark. I get being overprotective of El and the old “Dad hates the boyfriend jokes”. Whatever. Would’ve been better if Mike ACTUALLY screwed up all by himself and Hopper was just enjoying the moment rather than Hopper being the cause of it.

And I get the whole Hopper really wanting to date Joyce stuff, but... I just can’t see how we go from season 1 and season 2 Hopper who was ready to throw hands with his deputies for implying Joyce was crazy. And the Hopper that really truly completely understood what Joyce was going through (anxiety,depression, and loss). How did that guy turn into someone trying to rush Joyce’s mourning along (after he mourned for his daughter for like, 6 years) and him being the one implying she’s crazy? It’s just weird. I can’t deal. It’s WEIRD.

No Jonathan and Will scenes. They’re finally on the adventure together and there’s still NOTHING. In the mall, Will is damn near having a panic attack hardly able to keep quiet and JONATHAN DOESN’T EVEN GLANCE IN HIS DIRECTION

No Jonathan and Joyce scenes. Mother and son who?

No Nancy and Mike scenes. They didn’t do it for season 2. Surely they won’t forget this time and give the siblings some screen time??? Nope. Bet 75% of the fandom forgot they’re even related.

No Max and Billy scenes. Not a fan of Billy, but Billy is her step brother. Why the hell wouldn’t the writing put a little more focus on that? Surely Max would be more suspicious of Billy acting weird or even nice to her? Surely they’d give her more moments of showing... something over the fact that her step brother is the big bad?

No Will and El scenes. Obviously I’d be annoyed at this. But you’d think the monster radar and the psychic girl would be butting their heads together a bit more to figure out what’s going on? This ties into Will’s evil senses only working 5 minutes too late. How did he sense the Mind Flayer smoke from 10 miles away, but now he can’t sense the huge flesh monster until it’s a couple meters above him?? No logical sense.

Complete erasure of Kali. I didn’t miss the fact that when El was having flashbacks of her mom, they pretty much cut out any mention or thought of Kali. Surely after that heartfelt goodbye, El would at least think of Kali for a moment and get distracted. She decidedly hid the fact that Kali exists from everyone else, wouldn’t it be nice if we saw her character still thinking about that secret from time to time??

And the final point that I feel like typing out tonight, too much focus on El. And I don’t mean it in the way you’re probably thinking. I mean that basically NO ONE is able to save El. EVER. She has to do everything up until the final moment. Mike and the gang isn’t allowed to save El from Billy choking her out. She ends up having to save them. No one can save El from the flesh eating vagina monster. She has to defend herself completely. Jonathan isn’t allowed to get the worm thing out of her leg, she has to pull it out herself. Mike and Max can’t do anything to protect her from Billy again. They all fail and she yet again has to save herself.

Ok, that’s all I wanted to say.

ST3 is like a..... 45 / 55 scale for me, and the 55 is the bad part.

[strangerthingsharrington]

Can’t Fight This Feeling

-9-

I was up on the roof of the mall with Dustin, watching the loading dock again. At least it wasn't pissing down rain this time.

"What do you think?" he asked me, with his binoculars up to his face.

I bit my lip and shrugged, "I really don't know," I admitted.

"I dont even think these guys take breaks or anything. I think it's the same guy from last night," Dustin mentioned, I nodded in agreement looking down at the guard with the large gun.

"Look!" Dustin exclaimed, "he's using a keycard to get in! We need to get a keycard!"

"How do you think we're gonna get his keycard?" I asked.

Dustin looked over to me quickly before looking back into his binoculars, "I'm not sure...we'll have to figure it out with Steve and Robin."

I sighed, "We've just got to do it the way Steve said, fast. We just have to get in the room check the boxes and get out quick," I said, turning away from the dock and leaning against the roof ledge.

Dustin turned and leaned against it too, "When did Steve say that?"

"When he was driving me home this morning," I explained.

I looked over to him and saw his little smirk, I flicked his arm but it only made him laugh.

"What?" I asked.

He shook his head, "So Steve isn't too bad all of a sudden then?"

I rolled my eyes and stood up, making sure to keep myself low, "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as I began walking to the door.

"I'm just saying that all of a sudden he's driving you home and you're talking like regular people, and don't for a second think I didn't catch you two holding hands last night," he said as we made our way down the stairs.

"I'm kinda out of options, Dust," I tried explaining it away, "we're dropped in this situation together. I dont have a choice except for being friendly with him. As far as the hand holding, I was freaked out last night," I reasoned, "he was trying to help me calm down."

I looked down at him as we walked down the hallway, he looked up at me quickly before shaking his head.

"I'm just saying that you two seem to be getting along and it's...nice," he told me.

I smirked and walked further down the hall so get to the backroom of Scoops Ahoy, "Nice?"

He smiled widely at me, "I didnt think you'd like it if I said how awesome it was that my big sister and one of my best friends was getting along so well."

I snorted and rolled my eyes as we got to the backdoor, "Whatever you say, Dusty."

I opened the door and smiled at the two sailors in front of me, sitting at the table.

Steve and Robin were sitting on the same side of the table, Steve stood up quickly and took a seat on the other side. I went to site next to Robin but Dustin slid in between me and the chair and sat down first.

"Rude," I scoffed.

He shrugged, "First come first serve."

I lightly smacked the back of my brothers head before taking the seat next to Steve.

"Alright, fill em in," I instructed my brother.

He told them the little information we gathered, the only important note was really about the keycard.

"That keycard opens the door, but unfortunately the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun. Whatever's in this room whatever's in those boxes, they really don't want anyone finding it."

Robin shook her head slightly, "There's gotta be a way in," she said, looking down at the table.

Steve blew into his sailor hat to puff the top back out before tossing it gently on the table, "Well...you know," he began as he leaned on the table, "I could just take him out."

"Take who out?" Robin and I said at the same time.

"The Russian guard," he answered looking between Robin and I.

I smiled and looked away from him, Robin was mockingly nodding her head with pursed lips.

"Steve, have you ever actually won a fight?" Dustin asked bluntly.

I looked over to Steve and saw his face drop, "Okay that was one time," he said leaning back in his chair.

"Twice. Jonathan the year prior," Dustin stated matter of factly.

My eyes widened slightly for only a moment remembering when Jonathan told me about the fight after finding what Steve wrote about Nancy at the movie theatre.

Remembering he did that made my stomach turn. Steve's eyes went from Dustin to me back to Dustin.

"I didn't," he sighed, "I didnt write that about Nancy. It was Tommy and Carole...do you think if I did write it Nancy and I would've stayed together?"

Dustin shrugged and I felt a weight being lifted off my chest. At least he says he didn't write it. I can take that off the list of why I've hated Steve for years.

"Regardless," Dustin interjected raising his hand, "Jonathan still beat the shit outta you."

Steve scoffed, "Yeah but that doesn't count."

"Yes it does," Dustin continued on.

Steve and Dustin began their debate back and forth as I rolled my eyes. I looked over to Robin and she was looking back at me and shaking her head.

The two continued their little argument and I began aimlessly looking around the room. The sharp intake of breath from Robin brought my eyes back to her.

"The vents," she mouthed to me, the second I focused back on her.

My eyes widened, "The vents," I echoed with a nod.

We both stood up and went to the front of the shop where Robin dug her hand into the tip chair, grabbing all the bills at once. We were gonna need money where we were going.

"Hey, half of that is mine!" Steve cried out from behind us.

"I don't have my bike," I told her once I saw her bike helmet with her backpack.

She sharply took a breath and began looking around, "Bus will take too long."

I looked over to Steve and smiled, "Steve?"

He looked to me, still confused over Robin taking the tips, "Lou?"

I took a step towards him, "Can I please use your car? I'll drive super slow and super carefully. I'll put gas in it! I've been driving for over two years so I'm a really care-"

"Of course, heres my keys," he said, effectively cutting me off as he held his keys out to me.

I grinned and walked towards him, I picked his abandoned Scoops hat off the counter and brought it up to his head and placed it on there before taking the keys from his hand.

"Thanks, Steve," I said quietly.

He smiled at me and nodded, "Anytime."

I grinned and turned back to Robin, dangling the keys in front of me, "Lets go!"

She smiled and we walked quickly out of the shop, "Where are you guys going?" Dustin called.

We turned to face them, "Trying to find a way in!" I explained, "A safe way!"

"Yeah so in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don't get beat up! We'll be back in a jif!" she said with a salute.

"And please don't let Dusty pick up any more transmissions!" I said with a smile before running after Robin.

We ran right to his car and hopped in. As promised, I drove slowly so I wouldn't damage his car, because that all I would need added onto this insane past few days.

Robin and I got to the County Recorders office and ran up the steps, we figured out where we were going, spoke to the lady at the desk and she went to get us copies of the malls blueprints and ventilation system.

"That's was nice of Steve to let us use the car," Robin mentioned.

I looked back at her and nodded, "Yeah...at least one of us has a car."

"It was really cute the way he just melted when you thanked him," she said batting her eyelashes at me.

I chuckled and pushed her shoulder, "It wasn't like that," I told her.

"Then what was it like?" she wondered.

I rolled my eyes but kept the small smile, "He's helping out the group."

She smirked, "And how is this all helping with the sixth grade crush you had on him?"

I leaned my back against the chair I was sitting in, "It's...fine."

She barked out a laugh and leaned forward, looking at my red face, "Fine? The way you guys keep looking at each other all googly eyed I'd think you both would have at least, admitted you like each other."

"What?" I scoffed, "I'm looking at it this way, Steve and I are tossed into this situation together. We're getting to know each other on different terms other than high school. He's a completely different person. I like this Steve as a person. Doesn't mean I like him," I exagerated, "I dont think you can help getting along or even possibly flirting with people that you're thrown together with in situations like this."

"Yeah?" Robin asked as the front desk lady was walking over to us, "Well tell that to the dreamy little smile he gets on his face when you're not looking at him," she said before standing up and graciously taking the blueprints from the lady.

She began walking to the door before I even got up from my chair.

That was bullshit, I thought. I wouldnt lie, little hints of a crush had begun popping up in my head about Steve. But I knew he didn't like me. There was no way, I wasn't exactly the normal type of girl he would chase after. As much as I liked Nancy, I was no Nancy Wheeler.

If I was going to take everything Robin said to heart about Steve flirting with every girl to walk into Scoops, then I needed to think that since I was the only other girl that had been hanging around him for a long period of the summer, then obviously he would act differently around me.

Once we went back to our regular lives, it would go back to the way it was. Dustin and Steve being friends, Robin and Steve working at Scoops together and me avoiding him while I fade to a distant memory in the back of his head. And I was okay with that.

I think.

——

Title credit to REO Speedwagon and gif credit to owner

[finnyboywolfhard]

Song That The Morning Brings (Chapter Nineteen)

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader 

catch up here 

summary: The group finds out new information about their problem and face a stepping stone in the right direction.

warnings: cursing, angst-ish, fluff, spoilers ig 

word count: 3.8k 

When she arrived home that night, all she wanted to do was put on some warmer, much drier clothes and to go right to bed. However, Dustin always found a way to change her plans.

“Y/N, we gotta talk.” He said coming into her room after they had both gotten changed. Sighing, she took a seat on her bed and placed herself underneath the covers. She patted a spot on the bed for Dustin and he took that as his cue to say what he wanted to say. “What the hell is happening between you and Steve?”

“What do you mean?!” She exasperatedly said.

“You guys have been different recently. It’s weird.”

“How are we different?” At this point, worry started to flood through her. What if Dustin somehow figured out how she was feeling or even what had happened between the two?

“I mean, you guys have always been close but it seems like you‘re closer. It’s almost like you’re taking your names of Mom and Dad literally. Plus, I saw you guys holding hands on the roof, even if it was for a second. Plus he gave you his sweatshirt after you guys stayed in the car together. So I want to know, what’s going on?”

“Dusty…” Y/N took a second to collect her thoughts. There was a few ways this could go: She could tell him everything; she could tell him some of the truth; or she could tell him nothing. “First off, I had this hoodie from October last year until like a month ago when I returned it to him, he just gave it back to me because I was cold. I hung back earlier in the car, because I’m scared Dustin, and I didn’t know who else to talk to but him, he is my best…he’s my best friend, remember?”

Dustin paused for a few seconds, obviously gathering his thoughts about what she had just said to him. It felt like there was a rubber band being pulled between the two of them threatening to snap.

“But you want to be more than best friends, don’t you?” Dustin said looking down at his hands. Y/N pulled her eyes away from her brother. She knew that he knew, but she couldn’t seem to let herself say yes to him.

“Would you be mad at me if I did?” She said, just barely above a whisper.

“I don’t know. Steve is my best friend and you’re my sister. I care about you both so much, but if something happened, I feel like I’d have to side with you.”  

“Dusty, seriously? You know that I would never make you chose between the two of us if something happened.”

“So there’s my answer. You do want to be more than best friends.” He said, voice edging towards anger. The girls hands started to shake a bit as she reached her hand out towards her brother.

“I don’t want you to be mad at me for that. There’s a lot that has happened between me and Steve that you don’t know about. It’s not like he wants to be more than that either, so it’s okay Dusty. Please don’t be upset.” Wariness laced her voice, as her concern grew stemming from her brother’s silence.

“You have to be stupid to think he doesn’t feel the same way about you, and besides, I’m not upset, I’m just a little scared because I don’t want you guys to lose what makes your relationship so special. You both just care about each other so much, and you’re both so willing to dedicate your time to others. What if that changes if you guys get together?”

“I can pinky promise you it won’t.” She said, reaching her pinky out. Her brothers pinky wrapped around her own. She released her hand and pulled him into a hug. They stayed in that position so long that they eventually dozed off.

The alarm startled them both awake, way earlier than they would have liked to have been woken up. But they still scurried around their house preparing themselves for the day of planning and adventure ahead. The drive to the mall was filled with Dustin’s zany ideas for what they should try to do next, most of which she had shut down as soon as they left his mouth. The only one she agreed to was allowing him to stake out on the roof while they all continued to work back at Scoops, because even though the three ice cream shop employees wanted to focus on the Russians, they still had jobs to fulfill.

Steve was sitting in the back room on his ten minutes off scooping, watching Y/N organize some files and then start to organize some of the toppings so she could restock them in a bit.

“Hey Y/N/N?” He asked, only receiving a hum in response, “Are you feeling any better from last night?”

Memories of her and Dustin’s conversation from last night filled her brain. Although in the moment it stressed her out, she felt at least a bit more relieved to have at least one problem off her chest to her brother. However, the imminent doom of the Russians was still largely at play. She stopped shuffling around to look at Steve, and his eyes were already on her. For some reason, his gaze sent shivers down her spine. She snapped herself back into reality after realizing how silent she had become just staring back at him.

“Um, I guess a little bit. I’m obviously still scared but talking to you helped, and knowing that Dustin always has multiple ideas is also kind of relieving.”

“Your brother is crazy smart. I don’t understand how smart he is sometimes.”

“Hey give me some credit! I’m pretty smart too, I’m not Dustin smart, but the Henderson family isn’t a dumb one.”

“Of course you’re smart Y/N, but Dustin…Dustin’s a full on nerd. Some may even say Dork.”

“I appreciate a good nerd or dork in my life. Don’t say em like it’s a bad thing, and don’t sell yourself short there either Harrington. You’re a dork too.” She smiled at him, noticing his cheeks flush a dimmer hue of red. His breathing became erratic, and he suddenly seemed to have forgotten how to form sentences. “Are you embarrassed Stevie?”

“No…just confused…how am I a dork?”

“You’re pick up lines are so cheesy and dorky, and you also know a lot about the things you are passionate about. You are a dork for things that matter to you. It’s endearing.”  The two kept chatting for a bit until Dustin burst through the doors of Scoops, explaining what he had seen, pulling Robin into the back as well.

“That keycard opens the door, but unfortunately, the Russian with this keycard also has a massive gun. Whatever’s in this room, whatever’s in those boxes, they really don’t want anyone finding it.”

“There’s got to be a way in.” Robin said.

“Well, you know…I can just take him out.” Steve said, leaning cockily against the table.

“Take who out?” Robin and Y/N said in unison.

“The Russian guard.” All three of the other members of the group started to give him confused and concerned looks before he decided to continue explaining his plan. “What? I sneak up behind him, I knock him out, and I take his keycard. It’s easy.”

“Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?” Dustin says, defining the idiocy in his statement.

“Yes, Dustin, I did. And that’s why I would be sneaking.” Y/N was trying desperately to hold back laughter as he continued trying to defend his plan.

“Well, please, tell me this and be honest, have you ever actually…won a fight?”

“Okay, that was one time-“

“Twice, don’t forget Jonathan after the whole Nancy the Slut Wheeler thing.” Y/N interrupted, pulling some angered thoughts from the recesses of her “King Steve” memories.

“Listen, that doesn’t count.”

“And why is that? He beat the shit out of you. You fared far worse that he did.” Y/N said once again.

“It was…” Steve tried to defend and explain how Jonathan didn’t count before Dustin interrupted him this time.

“You got a fat lip, crooked nose, swollen eye, a lot of blood…” Dustin and Steve’s argument started to overlap before Y/N noticed Robin say,

“That just might work.” She stood up from the table and ran out to the front counter. Her hand went into the tip jar to grab the money from it hastily.

“Robin, hey, what’re you doing?” Y/N said, trying to break Robin from her zone however it didn’t work.

“Hey! Robin! Hey! What-What are you doing?”

“I need cash.” She said not fully answering the question asked of her.

“Well, some of that is mine.” Steve said, earning a slap to the arm from Y/N. “Where are you going?”

“To find a way into that room, a safe way. And, in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave and don’t get beat up. I’ll be back in a jiff.”

“God, I really hope she knows what she’s doing.” Y/N said before looking over to see her brother licking Steve’s engraved ice cream scoop.

“Oh, dude! Come on, man, not my scooper.” Steve spun the scooper around his hand a few times before tucking it securely into his side pocket. It was a sight to behold from Y/N’s up close perspective. Their dynamic was hysterical to her.

“Dusty, come back here with me. Stevie, could you please scoop for a bit? I’ll come help you after I finish refilling the toppings.”

“Of course, Y/N/N, I’ve got it.” He flashed a smile, leading her own lips to upturn into one as well.

For the entire time Robin was gone, the three went about their business quietly. Dustin had stolen paper to write out a set of different plans of how to get into the room. Steve stayed out in the store front and scooped ice cream to the oblivious citizens visiting the mall. All the while Y/N was trying to focus on her work, wanting to keep that and the Russians separate. The silence in the backroom was interrupted by Robin pulling Steve into the back room once again, cohesively bringing them together once more. They all shared glances before Robin interrupted the still air.

“It’s fascinating what twenty bucks will get you at the county recorder’s office. “ And with that, she pulled out a set of blue prints for what looked like the mall and set it down onto the table. “Starcourt Mall, the complete blueprints” She said as her hands went across the thin paper to smooth it out onto the surface.

“Not bad.” Dustin said, appreciating her accolades.

“So this is us, Scoops, and this is where we want to get.” Y/N couldn’t quite understand what she was seeing standing across from Robin, so she moved to stand behind Steve, eventually leaning over his chair and shoulder, bringing her face right next to his. She stayed still there for a bit, despite the battling feeling of tension by being in such a close proximity. However, she quickly snapped back up when he began talking.

“I mean, I don’t really see a way in.”

“There’s not if you’re talking exclusively about doors.” She lifted the first set of blueprints up to expose another set.

“The air ducts.” Y/N said, making eye contact with Robin for the first time since she came back. Robin’s smile gleamed when Y/N realized what she had meant.

“Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room.” She walked over to grab a marker from the board before continuing what she was saying. “And these air ducts lead all the way here.” As she was talking, she drew connecting circles from the air ducts at scoops to the vent in the room. All four members glanced up to the vent in the room, all knowing exactly what needed to happen now. Steve immediately found a screwdriver and flashlight so he could give access inside the vent, while Dustin explained that he could fit into it to follow them there. Steve climbed up a ladder and unscrewed the vent cover, passing it down to Y/N before asking for the flashlight. He looked in again, scanning the entire surface area in his vision.

“Yeah, I don’t know man. I don’t know if you can fit in here. It’s like…super tight.”

“I’ll fit. Trust me. No collarbones, remember?” Y/N couldn’t help but laugh at her little brothers off handed remark about his condition. Just as Dustin was about to climb up the ladder, Robin remarked at his comment.

“Excuse me?” Before Y/N could even answer Robin’s question, Steve answered first.

“Oh, uh, he’s, yeah, he’s got some disease. Chrydo- uh, It’s Chrydo-something. I dunno.”

“He has Cleidocranial Dysplacia, basically his bones and teeth had developmental problems. Good try though Stevie.”

“Yeah, I don’t really know. But he’s missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo.” He quipped up once again.

“You mean Gumby?” Robin asked, dumbfounded.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Gumbo.”

“Stevie-“Before Y/N could continue, Dustin’s voice echoed down from the vent.

“Steve, just shut up and push me!” Steve reluctantly agreed to help try to push Dustin further into the vent. Y/N went to stand next to Robin, hopelessly watching the two try and fail to push her brother into the vent.

“Not my feet dumbass, push my ass.” Dustin commanded Steve.

“What?”

“Touch my butt! I don’t care! Come on Harder! Push harder!”

“I’m pushing.”

“Oh my god this is a shit show. Robin, I’m so sorry you have to see this.” The two boys continued to bicker while the girls just sat back and observed, slowly losing their patience for the plight playing out in front of them. The bell obnoxiously started ringing from the front of the store, grabbing both Y/N and Robin’s attention from the boys.

“Ahoy Sailors! All hands on deck!” Erica’s bratty voice resounded to the back room. Both of the workers let out a sigh at the thought of serving her especially as she was continuously ringing the bell. Robin leaned over to Y/N and said, “She is small enough.” Y/N’s eyes widened in shock, although the idea was quite literally the most insane thing she heard all day, she didn’t quite hate it either. It could very well work to her advantage. The girls went out into the store front and asked Erica to come to the back room. The explanation took a little less time than they thought, but they knew it was going to take way longer to convince her to go in for them.  They watched as she climbed up the ladder and peered into the duct. She came back down and turned to face the entire group.

“Yeah, I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know?” Y/N asked first, her brother following a second later.

“You don’t know if you can fit?”

“Oh, I can fit. I just don’t know if I want to.”

“Are you claustrophobic?” Robin inquired from the girl. Steve looked beside him towards Y/N, causing them to make a split second worth of eye contact, both clearly showing annoyance of this situation.

“I don’t have phobias.” Erica laughed off Robin’s question.

“Okay, well what’s the problem?”

“The problem is, I still haven’t heard what’s in this for Erica.” Condescension waded through her tone like ducks in a pond.

“Erica, really?” Y/N asked the brutal little girl.

“Yes really, you’re asking me to risk my life, and for what? You’re the only one getting advantages.”

“Erica, I will literally give you as much free ice cream as you want, Right Now, if you go out there and sit in the booth until we figure out what is in this for you.”

“Thank you, Y/N. You’re the only one who seems to care.” Y/N could hear Steve to start doing his breathy laugh, cluing her in to how angry he was becoming, so she reached her hand over and up, just slightly to place her hand on his arm, this got him to stop, just long enough for Erica to leave the room.  Once the door was completely shut again, Y/N dropped her posture to a slouch and mumbled the words, “Fuck me.” To herself before addressing the group once more.

“I vote we just butter her up until she says yes. The worst thing that can happen is she says no and we have to give up.”

“We can’t just give up Y/N! We are the ones who solved this code; don’t you at least want to find out what it is? We could be heroes!” Her brother quickly defended the plan and its honor.

“Yes Dusty, I know we could be heroes, but there’s only so much we can do safely. We need her help, regardless of how rude she can be, so I think we just try to convince her.” The room went silent for a beat before a voice interrupted the silence.

“Y/N’s right.” Steve agreed with his best friend.

“I’ll go start scooping.” Robin said, showing her agreement. The three workers immediately left to go make all of the treats they could use to bribe Erica. They sat down in the booth and slid each and everyone towards her. As Steve slid the final banana split to her, she looked up into his eyes and uttered the demand for more fudge. It took her demanding twice and for a small plea from Y/N for him to actually stand up to go get the small girl more fudge. Within seconds of Steve leaving the table, Robin immediately picks up and starts explaining the plan to Erica.

“Alright, you see this? This is the route you’re gonna take. Then we just wait until the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door.”

“Then you find out what’s in the boxes.”

“Exactly!” Y/N agrees optimistically.

“Mm-hmm. And you say this guard is armed.”

“Yes, but he won’t be there.” Dustin says way softer than he was speaking to Y/N a few minutes prior.

“And booby traps?” Erica asks, causing Robin to repeat it questioning what she meant. “Lasers? Spikes in the wall? You know what this half baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child Endangerment.” She made sure to pronounce it slowly and articulately.

“We’ll be in radio contact the whole time-“Robin said, trying to make it sound safer and more hashed out.

“Ah, ah, ah! Child Endangerment!”

“Erica? Hi…uh…We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm, don’t you love your country?”

“You can’t spell America without Erica.” She quipped back in response.

“That’s…actually true.” Y/N said dumbfounded before allowing her brother to continue his attempt to convince her.

“SO, don’t do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America…Erica.” He said, completing in a poetic nature. Y/N couldn’t help but roll her eyes at her brother’s attempt to be noble. Clearly, this also hit Erica in the same nature.

“Ooh! I just got the chills! Oh yeah, from this float, not your speech. Know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?”

“Obviously we know what that is.” Y/N responded.

“It means this is a free market system, which means people get paid for their services depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all. So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many, and I’m talking free ice cream FOR LIFE.” Y/N sat back while Robin just looked the girl up and down. Y/N looked at her little brother who was just starting at all the ice cream laid out in front of him. Her gaze fell back to the counter where Steve was helping some customers. She admired how even though he should have been included in this deal, he would want them to do whatever they could to help out as many people as they could.

“I can’t guarantee for life necessarily, but I can guarantee free ice cream the entire time I work here.” Y/N finally broke the tension filled surface of the table.

“And I can add on for the entire time I work here, which will probably be longer anyways.” Robin backed Y/N’s end of the deal.

“I said FOR LIFE.” Erica leaned back and crossed her arms. Y/N once again rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

“Fine, how about this, we each tell one new employee that you get free ice cream whenever we get replaced and that it must be honored by everyone but our boss. That way, as long as employees are here, they know that you get free ice cream. Deal?” Erica pondered it for a second before finally agreeing to it. Y/N excused herself from the table while Robin and Dustin stayed with Erica to go over the plan more in depth. Y/N walked up to the front counter just as Steve was wrapping up with the line of customers.

“Hey Stevie, could I talk to you for a sec?”

“Uh, yeah, of course. Did she agree to do it?” He asked as they passed through the doorway into the back room.

“What?” She asked before realizing that she heard what he asked. “Yeah, she agreed, speaking of we have to give her free ice cream when she comes, for life, apparently.  But that’s beside the point. I just…I really need to know if this is something you are truly okay with going through with. I know Dustin and Robin really want to do it, and I’ll do it if I have to, but I don’t want to drag you into Dustin’s mess,  because I really care about you and I don’t want you, or really any of us getting hurt. I care about you so much Stevie and I am so scared that something bad is gonna be in those boxes. So basically what I’m asking is if you are sure that you want to-“

“Y/N/N?”

“What?”

“Come here.” He opened his arms, which she immediately was wrapped in once she laid her head upon his chest. “ Y/N Henderson, I am doing this if you are doing this. I will not let you go into something potentially dangerous alone. You’re the most important person in my life, okay? Don’t worry about me. I’m right here. I’m gonna be right here.” The girl stayed in his arms for a few seconds, taking in his warmth and his smell and his touch. She cherished moments like these, even though they made her feel so much more confused on where their relationship stood. But in those moments, they kinda felt okay. They felt natural, and peaceful. And that’s exactly what she needed.

taglist: 

@mochminnie  @voidnarnia @queen1054 

[alias-b]

sins of my youth. 008

Billy Hargrove x OC! Evie Fenny~ Also posted to my AO3

Summary: It was common knowledge that Billy Hargrove hated Hawkins. Hated Cherry Lane. Even loathed the strange girl next door. Evie Fenny wasn’t too fond of the chaotic Cali transfer either. An awful high school tradition sparks a chain of events that changes everything, ultimately bringing two frayed souls together.

A/N: New chapter!! Revenge plots, unlikely allies, and a romantic dip. TW: Hints of teen bullying and mentions of pica. Billy's anger gets scary for a hot sec. Enjoy!!  TAGLIST OPEN!!

Chapter 8: Because My Calendar Is Open

   “Wish it was warm enough to eat outside.” Evie grumbled. Picking crust off her sandwich. 

   Ignored Carol’s cackling three tables away. All the clicking of cutlery on plastic trays grated worse.

   “How was that dinner at Billy’s?” Heather looked up from her lunch.

   “Susan had to call and cancel. I guess she wasn’t feeling well.” Evie frowned. Wondered if Neil liked her staying out late with Mona and her friends. “Rain check.” 

   Behind Heather, Steve Harrington was wandering with a tray. Looking lost as he always did this time. No longer friends with Tommy and giving Nancy and Jonathan some space.

   “Steve.” Evie piped up, pressing her lips. “Want to sit with us?”

   He blinked. Crossed. 

   “Yeah...that’s cool.” He slid into the bench next to Evie. Plastered a little charm. “Ladies.”

   “Hey.” Heather’s smile brought pink into Steve’s soft cheeks.

   “Evie, you know Hargrove is staring at you, right?” Steve started to cut into his slab of meatloaf, gesturing with his chin. “What’s the deal with that? He’s been trying to use his laser eyes since school started again.”

   Evie spotted Billy a couple tables behind Heather. Intent. He didn’t look away when their eyes met. Evie just shrugged.

   “I don’t know what you mean, he’s just annoying. Forgot he even existed.” Evie scooped up some mushy peas and gagged them down. Heather studied her.

   “He’s a little prick.” She decided.

   “He’s a dumb guy.”

   “He’s not a guy, Evie, he’s a prick.”

   Steve snickered at them.

   “You reject him or something? Seems like a persistent asshole.” Steve went on.

   “As if Billy Hargrove would ever be into me.” Evie looked away. Said that before.

   “Whatever. Billy and his penis don’t deserve you.” Heather got Steve choking on milk laughing. Some came out his nose. “Oh no!”

   “Here.” Evie was giggling too, pressing a napkin to her friend’s mouth and nose. “Heather, go easy on him.”

   “So much for King Steve, right?” A laugh followed but it sounded weak. Evie only pressed her lips.

   “Royalty is overrated. Steve is fine.” She smiled a little for him. Met his dewy eyes and pulled away. When she faced Heather, Billy was gone. “Heather and I were hitting the movies after school. Want to go with us?”

   “Like hang out?” Steve perked so Heather nodded too. All smiles. “Uh, yeah. I’d like that. I’ll drive.”

   “Perfect. We do this thing where we show up and watch whatever is playing soon. Bad or not... Oh, shoot...I gotta hit the library, I forgot to return something.” Heather winked and got up to dispose of her trash. Left Evie with the pretty boy.

   “You ride your bike in, don’t you?” Steve turned his head as Evie picked up her water. “It’s winter.”

   “Seasons change, my boy.” Evie sipped, beaming.

   “I just wondered if maybe you wanted like a ride to school and back.”

   “Heather usually is able to grab me. The before and after school extracurriculars are starting to pile for her…” She blinked.

   “You live on Cherry, you’re not out of the way for me.” 

   “I so am.” Evie chuckled and shrugged.

   “Just a ride, maybe you can help me graduate.” Steve held out a hand. “Fair?”

   “Sure.” They shook on it. “Thanks.”

   “Well, well, well.” Carol flipped her helmet of orange hair aside and settled palms flat on the table. “Fallen from grace and now sucking up to the ice queen. I hear pretty boys can thaw her though, Steve, so you might get lucky for once. Does Mr. Bowers even speak to other students, or are you just needy enough for the list?”

   “Carol. I already know the answer,” Steve touched his chest, “but, do you really have nowhere better to be?”

   “Looks like Fenny gets around, huh?” Tommy curled an arm around his girl’s shoulder. Flashed that crooked smile. “Just going down the list now.”

   Normally, Evie would have spoken up. Witty comeback. But, she just glared at the ugly cafeteria tiles.

   “How about you get lost?” Steve continued. Evie’s hands curled into her lap. The amusement from their friends just grew louder and she couldn’t stand it. Anger burned white hot and a bark stopped them all.

   “Hey.” Billy crossed back in. Few tables stopped to see him command. “Knock it off, let’s go.”

   “But-”

   “Just leave it the fuck alone, Carol. Yeah? This shit is done to death and I’m over it. You’re being really pathetic. Both of you. C’mon.” Billy flared up, head cocking. “Only gonna ask you idiots once, the fucking cackling is giving me a headache. Leave her alone from now on, unless you want a problem with me. Bye.”

   He pointed toward the door. Not joking. A few students moved to go.

   Carol and Tommy both seemed to sag and follow after them. Their friends at the table decided the fun was over and crossed out too.

   Billy cast Evie one lingering stare, ignored Steve, and went the other direction. Shoved the door to go outside.

   “Did...that just happen? What’s up with him, seriously?” Steve turned back to Evie staring at where Billy had disappeared too. Lips parted.

   “I...I don’t know.” She asserted. “And I don’t care, I gotta...go.”

   “You barely ate anything.”

   “Filled up at breakfast, not much of an appetite.” Evie forced a chuckle. “See you in class?”

   “Sure…” Steve pushed his hands into his pockets. Let her go.

** ** **

   Billy didn’t appear again from all his smoke and stars. Never quipped about those almost heroics from the days before. But, his snapping kept Carol and her gaggle off of Evie completely.

   Like magic.

   More January snow fell with the weekend. Never ending frost with a perfect blanket of peace. Icicles shimmering on every house. The whole street sparkled.

   Evie bundled and slung a bag over one shoulder. Figured venturing into town was better than sitting in a freezing house contemplating what to swallow next.

   She tried to slow. To stop. To let things pass. This habit was eating her right back.

   Evie started to pass the Hargrove house and looked up to watch the new flurries fall. Too delicate upon her cheeks. Like confetti. 

   She thought of the intimate way Billy had touched her lips with two fingers to brush a piece away before kissing her. Again and again. 

   The thought bloomed unwanted roses up her cheeks. 

   She caught a glimmer on the sidewalk right in front of Billy’s car and Neil’s truck parked there. Couldn’t stop herself from shiny things. Bent down and pulled her glove off to pluck something silver up. A chain. And a pendant came with as Evie held it out from her expression. 

   A Playboy charm. 

   Crouched there, she sighed into pure cold. Blinked and let her eyes focus on Billy’s car beyond it. Quiet and undisturbed.

   So, Evie thought.

   Lips parted when she saw the passenger side door. Even with a few splatters of snow, words came into focus.

   Carved crude and angry into the side.

   Prick.

   Bold, ugly letters.

   Evie shot to her feet. Shuddering and alert like someone was watching.

   “Oh, my god.” She puffed, cradling the chain to her chest.

   By some twist of horrible fate, the front door beyond the porch opened.

   Billy stepped out. Cool as a cucumber. Lighting a cigarette. Stunning in a brown, leather bomber.

   Feet shuffled back. She stared at Billy with this clear look of horror when he spotted her.

   “Photo will last longer, Angel, but I charge for them.” He quipped, massaging his front suggestively. Lighter flicking closed. 

   Billy hadn’t seen his car.

   Evie felt adrenaline kick in when the bus passed behind her. Steps hurried up the sidewalk to get on it without glancing back. A hand covered her lips. Evie paid and sat down. Dared to peer back at Billy’s house.

   He was standing between the vehicles. Eyes pointed on the craving. 

   And then he slowly lifted his blaring gaze to where she’d disappeared too.

   Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

   Evie thought she might have a panic attack right there. Tried to catch her breath until the bus rolled onto Main Street before a hand tugged frantically to get off. She went into the first store she saw. Grocery store big enough to hide in. Attempted again to get her lungs working.

   Maybe running wasn't the best idea, but staying to explain seemed impossible. 

   The charm left an imprint in her hand from clutching it so tight.

   Billy thought she did that. Fuck. And he was going to fucking kill her.

   Evie scurried around the aisles. Kept checking the windows for the furious, rumbling Camaro. Pulled a beanie lower and her hood up before creeping back outside to cross the street. Tucked curls aside.

   She could have blamed Heather if the charm wasn’t damning enough. Her friend had used the word prick a number of colorful times.

   Brock Tannen was fucking with them both now.

   “Shit, shit.” Evie muttered. Few residents paced to get their own errands done. The rev of an engine shot sparks up Evie’s soul. She whirled down an alleyway, figured he might just run her over.

   “Fenny!” Billy skidded halfway down the path and curved. Lunged out of his car. “Get back here! You think I won’t recognize that ass anywhere you stick it? What the fuck! C’mere!” His snarling echoed. 

   Evie was sprinting now, but Billy worked out and he was taller so he caught up easily. Two tight hands yanked her coat so hard, she skidded on slush and fell next to some stone steps. Hard thud planked her body.

   Stars burst. A groan pushed from pink lips before eyes focused on Billy Hargrove about to breathe fire and lay waste to her.

   She’d never seen such an expression on a boy before. Pure, burning fury and hate.

   Wild like he wasn’t really seeing her.

   Scrambling, Evie had also never witnessed something so frightening. Billy’s hands were on her shoulders. Pressing his steel weight down so he could snap his jaw. Starving.

   “What the fuck! You fucking keyed my car! My fucking car, you bitch?” Profanities of all sizes and colors were spitting from his lips. Evie just looked shaken and terrified at him. Realized she wasn’t talking so her brain tried to mash words together.

   “I didn’t! I didn’t do it!” She barely spoke over his rage. Hands pushed at his chest with no hope to get him off.

   For a moment, she wondered if he’d try to hit her. He just growled and yelled. Unleashing fury he might have pent up.

   “Billy! Billy, it wasn’t me!” Evie tried again. Brought her palm up so he could see the chain twisted around her fingers. “Tannen! Look! Just look, I didn’t...”

   Billy finally shut down. Went still to narrow on the charm, recognizing it.

   The fingers twisted into her coat were hauled up by bigger hands and a taller figure.

   “Hargrove, it’s too early for this, Jesus Christ.” Chief Hopper had parked his Blazer and was now smacking Billy into the side of it. He turned and noticed Evie pushing herself off the wet ground. “Evie Fenny? Are you okay?”

   Wind blew through the alley. 

   “Yeah, I…” She saw handcuffs and Billy squirmed before she sprang up. “Wait a second. That wasn't…”

   “Looked like this boy had you pinned down.” Hopper was trying to get Billy to keep still. "A new low, kid."

   “Get off me, you damn pig!”

   “Lovely.” Jim gruffed, sighing. “We’ll talk about this at the station.”

   “Wait, we were...fooling around.” Evie hurried and grasped Jim’s arm. Backed off when his head whipped toward her in disbelief. “I fell and took him with me. It was an accident. Please don’t take Billy away.” Hands clasped to plead.

   A curly head tilted toward her too. If Billy had issues with the police, Neil would snap him in half.

   “Please, Chief, just let him go. This is a big misunderstanding. Billy and I will go home. Please.” Evie tugged again and Hopper blinked a couple times.

   “Just fooling around?” He looked to Billy, who was completely simmered again.

   “Uh, yeah. I’m revved, Chief, just look at her.”

   “Okay…” Jim cringed. “Just...get out of here and stay out of trouble, kid. Drive under the speed limit, yeah?”

   “I love law, Chief Hopper.” Billy quipped. Hopper peered at Evie again so she smiled and grabbed Billy’s hand.

   “We’ll be going now. Billy owes me a ride.” She tugged, still breathing heavier. The Chief got back into his car to go, head shaking. Teenagers.

   Evie snatched from Billy and shoved him away the second the older man had gone.

   “Don’t ever come at me like that again.” Her voice tremored lower. One finger poked his muscled torso. Billy only stared. “Never again.” She tossed the chain at his chest. “Your new best friend screwed you over. Not me. Eat that up, prick.”

   Evie started walking again and saw a piece of cardboard duct taped over the nasty carving. Billy caught up with her.

   “That shithead isn’t my friend. He framed you...not very well.” Billy let the chain dangle before his face. “He’s fucking dead. My dad’s gonna ream me when he sees the car. Shit... Fucking shit!”

   Evie paused to peer back at him. Head in his hands, crouched over to curse. She slowed. A beat.

   “Look, I...I know a garage that’ll help you out with a discount. My mom’s friends with the owner and his wife. Perks.” She stuffed her hands away and looked down at her clothing. “Shit, I’m soaked.”

   “Never heard that before.” Billy joked, smirking. “Thanks...for keeping me out of cuffs.”

   “You’re an asshole still.”

   “Yeah.” He agreed, going to the car. “Get in.”

   “Why?”

   “Take me to the garage so I can get my shit fixed. See if I have enough for it.” Billy rubbed his eyes. “Fuck.”

   “Only if I drive.” Evie crossed her arms. Billy did a double take. “I have my license.”

   “No.”

   “Yes.”

   “No.”

   “Yes or I’ll walk.” Evie shot back until he tossed the keys at her to catch. Billy bitched about it, but slid into the passenger side. The engine revved so he hissed.

   “Easy...”

   “That’s rich.” Evie squealed off. Obeyed the speed limit. “Thought Tannen was your buddy.”

   “I think I punched him after the dance. I was still kinda drunk.” Billy gave an agitated breath. Sunk into the seat. “Why’s he hate you so much?”

   “Because I exist in this body with this brain and I breathe, it doesn’t matter.” Evie turned a corner. Avoided his stare. “I think he hates anything that isn’t him.”

   “Well, Tannen hates us both. Framing you and fucking with my car.” Billy paused. Got sly. “So, how are we getting him back?”

   “Revenge? No, not interested.”

   “C’mon, Angel, live a little.”

   Evie skidded to stop at a red light. Head snapping to see him.

   “Yeah, I tried that with you already.” She seethed. Billy studied her. “I’m taking you to the garage and I’m catching a bus home. My clothes are still damp, thanks for that.”

   “Brock’s date was fourteen, did you know that? He’s a piece of shit and he’s asking for it. You don’t have to like me, we can just hate the same person who hates us. Teach him a lesson.”

   “Any bright ideas?” Evie continued down the street. No answer. “Thought so.”

   “I’ll think of something.” Billy paused. “Tannen’s got a cushy little life doesn’t he? Perfect family. Girls lined up.”

   “He’s dating the daughter of a pastor. Sweet cheerleader who goes to Bates. Cheating on her because she isn’t putting out. But, she’s good for the image and for his ritzy Ridgemont family. Heather’s parents run in a similar circle. She always has dirt.”

   “Yeah? What’s Tannen like?”

   “His car and his image.” Evie parked. “Go in and drop my mom’s name. The guy’s sweet, he’ll help you out.” She tossed the keys in Billy’s lap. “See you later.”

   “Wait.” Billy hurried around the car as she got out. “Just, wait. Let’s get back at him.”

   “I don’t care as much as you do, Billy.” Evie passed with snow falling into her long, spiraling curls.

   “Sure you do, you’re just pretending you don’t.” Billy snagged her wrist. “Evie. I am fucking sorry. About the shitty dance. About school. It’s fucked and I don’t blame you for being this upset.”

   The continued groveling made her smirk.

   “Not upset.” Evie crossed her arms.

   “He flashed that money in my face and I just figured I could show you a good time and keep you out of it. But, the whole thing when I saw it...I really thought they weren’t serious about the pool. I wanted out of the deal. I kissed you after midnight. It was still fucked. The other girls, they… You know, I’ve been thinking about them too. We could get revenge for them. Shove it up Tannen’s ass.”

   “Did you fake it?”

   “Fake what?”

   “All of it.” Evie gathered the courage. “The...talking. The smiles. The laughter. Dancing with me. Why did you kiss me after midnight?”

   “I just…” Billy shrugged hopelessly. Lashes fluttering. “I felt like it. I don’t have to bullshit around you. You call me out when I do either way. I don’t know. You kissed me first and I thought...I just wanted to kiss you. I asked you to a fucking motel.”

   “And I was gonna go with you.” Evie shrugged. “But, you lied to get me there. I can’t help but feel that bullshit laced all of it. Do you understand that?”

   “Yeah.” Billy sighed. Stood there against winter. Unafraid. “Fact remains, I didn’t want anything else.”

   Evie gave a breath into the cool air. 

   Neither did I.

   “Let’s get your door fixed.” Evie went around him to go into the shop. She did all the talking to a burly man with a hook prosthetic for one hand while Billy teetered on his feet behind her. “Give him a couple hours to work.”

   “Daddy’ll miss you.” Billy huffed, digging for a cigarette while his precious car was moved away. Evie gave him this scrunched look and shook her head, laughing.

   “Well, see you around.” Evie got the back of her jacket snatched and huffed for theatrics.

   “Nice try, you think I can’t follow you all over this town? Look, grabbing you was... I shouldn't have done that. I won't come at you like that again.” Billy turned her, cigarette dangling from his lips. “Tannen.”

   “Your problem.”

   “He’s gonna be your problem too, Evie.” Billy stood over her, plucking his smoke out to puff. “If you don’t help, I might run off and do something stupid.”

   “All your life.” She cocked her head. Gave another sound of aggravation. “Just because I know I can’t outrun you. Let’s go. It’s too cold.” A hand tugged his jacket until he was walking next to her. Billy felt his stomach bubble with excitement. “There’s this place Heather and I like...up the block.”

   They walked slushy sidewalks to the corner where a little cafe sat. Teens wandered a smoky, dim lit lounge. Evie pulled her coat, beanie, and gloves away to sit. Billy stole an ashtray and followed. Peering around at all the art and empty stage. Hippy sort of place, not like other hangout spots in Hawkins.

   “The co-owned bakery next door supplies all their pastries.”

   “Broke now.”

   “I’m offering.” Evie decided. “Not cause I like you. I just don’t like to eat alone at a table.” Billy’s eyebrows lifted before he tapped his ashes.

   “You pick.”

   “Do you drink hot cocoa?” Evie watched him nod when a boy crossed over. “Jesse, hey.”

   “Fen,” the boy grinned broader, “hi.” Year younger and going to Hill Valley. Family moved a town over but kept the location for their beloved cafe. “Marty was just asking if I’d seen you around Hawkins.”

   “Yeah, let him know Heather and I said hi. First year of college any good?”

   “He likes the Florida weather.” Jesse swept his mop of brown curls aside, a million piercings along his ear and eyebrow caught the light. Broad boy who enjoyed football, painting, and the piano. Peered at Billy and blushed. “Who’s your cute friend?”

   “Down boy. This is Billy, he’s having a day that only your hot chocolate and apple strudels can cure.”

   “Where’d you get your ink?” Billy eyed Jesse’s decorated arms.

   “City, not far. I’ll write it down for you.” A wink. Billy seemed to like the attention today. Jesse turned back to Evie. “My mom tried to dye her hair in the bathroom. Didn’t go well so Mona will be seeing her this week.”

   “Ouch. Again?” Evie chuckled. “What color this time?”

   “What supposed to be strawberry sky and it’s...cotton candy pink. I liked it.” He laughed. “Sprinkle of cinnamon on the cocoa?”

   “You know me too well.” Evie let him go off then faced Billy. “High School running back. Sweetheart. I dated his older brother. Briefly before the move."

   "So, you guys still talk or...?" He faked disinterest and she snorted at the attempt.

   "Not really. I mean, we ended fine, he's just a college kid now." Evie cracked a smile, narrowing. "But, my mom’s friends with his mom.”

   “What mom doesn’t Mona know? Figure she leads the network.” Billy countered. Evie shrugged.

   “Good point, she’s a social nut.”

   “Speaking of, isn’t that her?” Blue eyes turned out the frosted windows. Mona in a short dress, fitted chic coat, and tall platform heels that rode up her knees. Nancy Sinatra would be proud. Walking with a bunch of paper bags, headed back toward her shop. Men stopped to see her bounce. “Damn.”

   “Stop looking at my mom, perv.” Evie reached for his jaw and turned it back toward her. Breath catching as she slipped away quicker. “Why’d Susan cancel on us?”

   “Dad canceled. Not Susan. He just made her do the dirty work.” Billy explained, snuffing his cigarette out.

   “He didn’t like her staying out with friends late?” Evie guessed. “What kind of husband doesn’t want his wife to have friends in a new place? I bet she’s lonely.”

   “You lonely?”

   “I have friends. Are you lonely with your fake fans?” Evie shot back, sitting up. He batted his lashes, undaunted.

   “Dad doesn’t like anything except maybe his collection of belts and a full bottle.” Billy shrugged his jacket off. Played with his ring. Head turning, the little spike hanging from his ear caught the light outside.

   Infuriating, how pretty he was not doing anything.

   “Does he hit her too?”

   “Too?” Billy snapped back in, leaning forward with his arms crossed. “What’s that mean?”

   Evie only stared at him.

   “Sorry.”

   “No, I…” Billy cursed to himself. “You probably get a front row seat. You know, he didn’t start going at Susan until the move here. She’s learning though. Quickly. How to play dad’s game.”

   “Does he go after Max?”

   “No, he’s too distracted with me and I keep Max out of trouble. He will one day when she’s older.”

   Evie looked at his hand and wondered about touching it. Billy seemed to feel it hang in the air so he sat back.

   “Bowers ever hit you?”

   “No, he doesn’t-” Evie caught herself with wide eyes. Got smaller. “He’d never hit me.”

   “So, you’re admitting it.” Billy leaned forth again. Even closer. Some instrumental and chatter covered their voices.

   “No one will believe you.” She repeated, eyes on the table.

   “No, probably not. Won’t tell even if I think it’s fucked.” He screwed his eyes at her. “How?”

   “How’s it possible for someone gorgeous to get with a girl like me?” She sounded wounded.

   “No, just...how?”

   They paused when Jesse returned. A full plate of warm, golden pastries. Two steaming mugs. Evie tipped him with a sudden smile.

   “Thanks, Jess.”

   “Anytime. Don’t be a stranger.” He looked to Billy. “You too, got it? I wrote that address down. They love taking new people if you need ink. Come in here and...show it off.”

   “I just might. Thanks.” Billy sparked with his usual charm as the boy went.

   “You love to flirt.”

   “I love to be desired, don’t you?” Billy stuffed the card away, peered at his mug before drinking. Evie followed. “So. We got time.”

   “Why do you care?”

   “I just do. I think you're interesting, Evie. This town needs a blast of color and I found it.” Billy stared. “Think I’m gonna judge you?”

   “Yeah.” Blunt.

   “Well, I’m not. Not you.” He plucked up a little pastry when she didn’t. “Don’t let me eat this whole damn plate.” Evie scoffed, breathless and took one to chew. Licking sugar from her lips. 

   “Billy, why...why are you here with me still?” She narrowed again.

   “Because,” he sparkled, “my calendar's open.”

   Evie tried to look away. To laugh him off. Couldn’t find the will and locked in.

   “Well, I don’t want to get into it here. So, let’s just enjoy the heater and sweets.” Evie reached for another flaky pastry. Billy grabbed one too. They filled their bellies in silence. Eyes locking then averting ever so often.

   “Let’s get out of here. Walk.” Billy licked his thumb. Arms crossing to lean over and see her drink.

   “You want me to spill badly.”

   “I took you out and you had a shitty time, I don't do that. I want to make up for it.”

   “You don’t like the snow,” Evie ruffled her curls, “don’t know how you’re surviving it, Cali.”

   Billy peered out the window. Let the glow bathe his face. Cool and almost iridescent. Brightening his eyes framed with those sinful lashes. 

   “You like winter?” He asked out of the blue.

   “Actually, yeah. It’s not so bad. Prefer fall. I like tucking in with a warm blanket and cocoa. I like the snow, things always feel...new after." Evie felt a distance quell. He seemed to notice it too. Wistful and vast. "It covers up what came before.”

   “Well, let’s go walk in it.” Billy pushed up. “I’ll meet you halfway and brave it.”

   Evie stared at the table. Watched him start to go before she shoved her hat on. Got up and followed.

   “If I just say that I forgive you, can we part ways?” Evie got in front of him outside. Flecks of snow tumbled into her hair. Melted on strawberry cheeks. Billy was too many colors against white and grey. Ocean blues. Peaches. Cherries. Honey. All sun kissed freckles and golden hair. 

   “We could make a bet.” Billy stepped closer to curl a devilish smile.

   “Another bet?” Her brow lifted. “No thanks, my track record with you and bets is zero.”

   “No fun at all.” Billy puffed. “Evie, the way I see it, neither of us can leave the other alone.”

   “That’s a you problem.”

   “You know you can shake me and you’re not trying too hard, I think you’re just curious enough to stick around.” Billy cocked his head. “So, I’m just saying we should chase that. It was fucked up and...I am sorry. For you and those other girls. I say that you and I hang out long enough to get revenge on Tannen and then, I swear...cross my heart as fuck all...that I’ll leave you alone once that prick gets it. Only if you want me gone.”

   “You tried this.”

   “I didn’t mean it then.” He stuffed hands into his pockets and she exhaled out her nose. Shuffled on the slick sidewalk.

   “But, you magically do now?”

   “Maybe that’s what has us stuck, we want to do something about it.”

   “You swear?”

   “Every damn day.” Cheeky shit.

   Evie’s eyes squinted at him. Sized him up. 

   “I just...I don’t forgive you.”

   “I can live with that,” he said, “for now. I haven’t earned shit. I’ll make it up to you.”

   Promises. Promises. 

   “I don’t,” Evie tried again to disengage, “I don’t think you can.”

   “C’mon.” Billy slid in front of her when she turned. Got lush. “Evie.”

   “Let’s just not make this harder than it needs to be.” Her hands lifted. Evie went around him and Billy’s arms went out aimlessly.

   “What would your Mr. Darcy do to make you feel better?”

   “What?” Evie spun on her heel, almost laughing. Billy peered away.

   “I got his name right. How’d he make you feel better? Listen, Evie...I deserve the cold shoulder. I do. It fucking…” Billy sucked in air and came to her at the corner. “I’ll level with you. I’ve been beating the shit out of myself for what happened and I deserve that. Does that help you? I can’t even get it up...you know what I’m saying? I liked it. Being there with you and I can’t change what happened after-”

   “Ick. I wish I didn’t know what you mean.” Her face screwed up. A beat to break for laughter. “Is this really that important to you?” Billy got close with those wandering eyes. 

   “Yes… It really fucking is.” He hissed lower. "Truth is, I even want more of those signature bad kisses we love to share. If you can still call them that, Angel."

   Evie huffed. Almost aggravated. Not really. Stepped back to look him up and down.

   “There’s one thing you might be able to do to make me feel better.” She crossed her arms. Brought on hands up to tap her chin in thought.

   “And?” Billy gasped out.

   “One question.” She rounded him, eyes wandered to scrutinize. “Do you still have that white button up?”

   Billy turned his head, earring dangling before he narrowed.

   “Uh, yeah....” He looked a little apprehensive when she smiled fuller. Sly.

   “We can work with that.”

** ** ** 

   Three knocks and Heather Holloway was blinking her doe eyes at an odd pair.

   “What’s he doing here?” She pulled at Evie’s arm to get between them. “What did I tell you, Hargrove?”

   “Billy’s trying to make amends, Heath.” Evie said flatter. They stood before her huge mansion on Loch Nora. “Are your parents or the housekeeper around?”

   “Not today.” Heather was still all daggers at Billy. “We don’t need Billy’s amends. He’s done enough.”

   “There’s a bigger asshole to be worrying about.” Billy spoke. “Tannen.”

   “Your buddy? I’m not so sure.”

   “No, he...has a point. But, we’re not here to discuss that. Yet.” Evie blinked. Smiled. “Can we use your pool?”

   Heather looked confused. The curls piled up onto her head bounced a little. No makeup. Lazy sweater dress. 

   “Why?”

   “It’s indoors and heated.”

   “Not heated right now.”

   “Even better.” Evie beamed when Billy’s face dropped. “Sidebar, just us girls.”

   Billy hung out on the snowy steps while they went just in the door. There was a great deal of snickering before Heather returned biting her cheek. Fully amused.

   “You can come in. Shoes off.”

   Billy stepped inside to obey, looking around.

   “Jesus, Holloway, this place… Is daddy the mayor?”

   “He runs the paper.”

   “Explains a lot.” Billy grumbled as her head snapped at him. “Easy. Not here to fight. Just...acting out Evie’s whatever Darcy fantasy to make her forgive me.”

   “Never said I would forgive you.” She noted down the hall.

   “This won’t hurt my chances.” Billy was stepping out of his shoes. Evie looped her arm into Heather’s.

   “This way.”

   He walked slower behind them to observe the place. Cheesy family portraits galore. Too many vases with fake flowers. Floral wallpaper. Rich people.

   “So, what the hell brought you two back together?” Heather had asked.

   “Not together.” Evie piped quicker. “Tannen keyed Billy’s car, framed me for it. I sorta helped him get it fixed.”

   “He, what? ” Heather paused, opening a textured glass door.

   “Yeah, big mess. Tannen’s not quitting.” Evie picked up as they went into the pool room. Odd to be in here while frost covered the back windows.

   “Probably cause I punched him.”

   Heather snorted at that, stepped on a button to bring the cover rolling back over the illuminated fresh water. 

   “You sure this is what your dream freak would do?”

   “So, sure. Don’t forget your line.” Evie flicked a piece of paper she’d written on at his chest. Billy griped when Heather laughed at him trying to get out of his coat and jeans. White shirt and grey briefs. Evie peered at his muscled thighs and looked up at the ceiling. 

   Whew.

   “You can look, ladies.” A sleazy grin bloomed. “You’re both lucky I wore underwear today.”

   “Gross.” Heather came around the pool to her friend.

   “Well, do your thing, William.” Evie giggled, gesturing. “Or should I say: Fitzwilliam.”

   “How’d a guy with that name not get his fucking ass kicked? Instead, he’s drowning in pussy, I don’t get it.” Billy stepped into the water. Bitched about the cold and sauntered to the center holding his paper up. Soaked his shirt through.

   “This isn’t even in the book.” Heather had whispered so Evie hushed her.

   “Yeah, duh, but...Billy doesn’t know that. Look how hard he’s trying. It's almost cute. Almost.” She covered her mouth. “Plus, I dreamed about this once, let a girl live here. It can happen one day.”

   “Is he like...really trying?”

   “Starting to think he is. Won't leave me alone and he...I'm not exactly running either anymore.” Evie peered at Billy turning around. Voice rose. “You look great.”

   “Bite me.” He dunked while holding one hand up to keep the line from getting wet. Came up ruffling his curls like some ethereal merman. Still stunning. White shirt clinging to his rock hard chest. Evie bit her lip with hooded eyes and missed Heather watching her face.

   “Say the line!” She called then. Billy rolled his eyes with the longest huff he could muster.

   “In vain I have-”

   “With a little life, Billy!” Heather laughed at him there. Billy sucked in to pout. Water sloshing all over to prune his fingers. Hair and face dripping. Eyelashes clumped. 

   “In vain!” He just said it louder. Slower. “I have struggled!”

   Evie and Heather had to kneel down because they were laughing so hard. Clinging together on the tiles.

   “Keep going!” Evie waved her hand and tried to breathe. Billy groaned, eyes rolling.

   “It will not do…” He’d already gotten water smudging the page. “My feelings will not be...regressed?”

   “Repressed!” Came the correction. Billy shot the rest out in one swift breath.

   “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you!"

   “How, what?” Evie was all giggles.

   “How! Ardently! I admire! And love you!” He played a total smart ass. Smoldered. Broke. “Can I be done now? My balls are getting kinda high in here.”

   Evie cackled comically, holding her stomach and rolling before she waved a hand.

   “Yeah, yeah, you can get out. Oh, god. I can't...” She wiped her eyes and heard splashing. Scrambled because Billy was marching toward her sopping wet. Heather skidded to get away before Billy dove on Evie and shook himself out like a mad dog. Spraying her with water. “Billy! No!”

   “Billy, yes!” He pushed her shoulders down and ignored the slaps at his chest.

   They both were laughing now. Loudly. Almost free. Almost forgetting.

   Heather grabbed a stack of towels and paused to see. Billy’s infectious grin and Evie Fenny so lost in it that nothing else mattered. 

   Evie caught her friend's confused expression and shoved Billy off.

   “Okay, okay, you’re done.” Evie shot up. Cheeks rosy. “Uh, bathroom.” She got a towel from Heather’s arm and jogged away. Faster than she meant. Billy pulled up to his knees so Heather padded toward him.

   “What are you doing?”

   “Fuck if I know at this point.” Billy felt her drop a towel over his back. Pushed to his feet to see her. “Thanks.”

   “Are you actually trying here or are you going to hurt my friend again?”

   Billy ruffled his hair and wiped his face. Holding the towel over broad shoulders. 

   “Listen, only thing I know for sure is I don’t ever want to hurt Evie again.” Billy stopped after that to let it sink in. “You know her best, what the fuck else can I do here?”

   Heather’s lips turned up. Spread to show teeth.

   “You want to know what Evie likes.” Tables turning.

   “I know some stuff. Give me some more to work with. And don’t lie, we played that game.”

   Heather exhaled to study him.

   “Just because you seem to be trying and that’s the hardest my friend has laughed in awhile.” Heather peered at the door. “Evie’s a hopeless romantic even if she hides it. A regular dreaming Cinderella. She likes people unafraid to show how they feel about her and anything made of chocolate…"

   "That checks out, I can work with it."

   "That dance was cruel. You’re lucky she’s even allowing you the gift of embarrassing yourself in her presence.”

   “Noted.” Billy peeled his shirt off and wrapped the towel around his waist. “I have a change of clothes in my car. Will it be weird if I jet out in this and my boots?”

   “Ahhh, give me your keys. I’ll find it.” They paused to step away from each other when Evie returned. Towel bunched to her chest. Eyes flicking between them. Avoiding Billy’s damp chest rising and falling, his saint chain glittering and stuck to skin.

   “So, this thing about Tannen. Oof. I have an idea.” Evie cleared her throat.

   "Ohh, look at Miss Naughty Evangeline." Billy mocked with a southern twang. "Getting into the spirit. Why, now?"

   "Because my calendar is open." She cocked her head up. Looked wildly pretty there with her devious pride. “Does Tommy still have Bubbles’ number?”

   Billy flashed a smirk. Let it illuminate his face until she matched it. Heather wondered about offering them a room.

   “Angel, I’m really liking the way you think.”

~~~~~~~~

Thanks all for reading!!! I love these two so much!! As always, feel free to chat with me. Askbox and taglist are both open. ^_^

@80sbxtch​ @nottherightseason​ @orxhidshavana​ @alagalaska​ @alongcamedolly​ @kellyk-chan​ @billy--hargroves​ @10blurredsmoke10

[marypsue]

Having an extraordinarily real one lately for no apparent reason, so here’s a more-than-usually self-indulgent ficlet. Enjoy. Or don’t, I’m not the boss of you.

...

The next thing he remembers, somebody’s giving him a sharp poke in the shoulder. “Hey. Are you alive?”

He tries to roll over and go back to sleep, but the prodding continues. And every inch of him’s screaming in protest, so lying here and taking it suddenly seems like the better part of valour. “No. ‘m dead. G’way.”

The weirdly familiar voice – a woman, one he knows, but can’t place – sounds amused at that, for some reason. Like it’s funny that he’s dead. He’s pretty sure it’s not. Sad, sure. Tragic. Bittersweet, a little. Ironic, even. But funny? That’s just rude. “All right, dead guy. Well, while you’re still talking, feel like telling me who you are and how you ended up in a secret Russian lab?”

Now that rings a bell. He bothers to crack an eye, and immediately squeezes it shut again. Neon and flashing emergency lights are a bad combination in an already-pounding head.

“Wh- happened?” he manages. He should ask about the kid, too, Joyce, the others, make sure they’re safe, but those are a lot of thoughts to form into words. And this feels like a good place to start.

The weirdly familiar voice has a weirdly familiar laugh, too. “I was kind of hoping you could tell me that. You just came stumbling out of that crack in the wall, cold-cocked the thug who was trying to stick my head in that big spinning blender, and then passed out all over the walkway.” Her voice goes a little subdued as she goes on, “You…probably saved my life.”

He’s not sure how to respond to that, so he defaults to sarcasm. “ ‘s what I do.”

She snorts out another laugh.

“Listen,” she says, after a beat or two of weirdly companionable quiet. The sounds of distant yelling and helicopter blades fill the silence, but they sound pleasantly like somebody else’s problem. And – they’ve gotta have given him something for the pain, because it’s starting to recede pleasantly too, behind a thick, insulating layer of pink cotton fluff. “You showed up with no ID, in a Russian uniform, in a secret Russian lab. None of us know you. The government’s here to clean this all up and sweep it under the rug, and unless you can tell me something really convincing about why they shouldn’t, they’re gonna sweep you right under that rug too. I don’t want that to happen. You really came through for us back there, I don’t think you’re a Russian operative.”

“ ‘m not,” he manages, around a tongue that seems to be trying to fall asleep in his mouth.

She sounds entirely too chipper as she says, “Great! Now can you tell me who you are?”

He manages to force both eyes open a sliver, turning to face her as he enunciates, as clearly as he can, “Jim Hopper. Hawkins, Indiana chief of police.”

Her face is a blur at first, cast purple in the flashing red and blue lights. But it quickly resolves into wide, stunned blue eyes, a sharp chin and cheekbones, a few dark curls escaping a tight braid. A face that’s familiar. Or would be, if it didn’t look a handful of decades too old.

He squints, but her face doesn’t change any more than her stunned expression does. “Nancy Wheeler?”

Her big eyes get, if it’s possible, even bigger at that. The twist of smile that crosses that foxy face as she nods is entirely unamused.

It’s what she says next, though, that really throws him for a loop.

“Yeah. Nancy Wheeler.” Her smile gets wider and whiter but no less disbelieving as she says, “Hawkins, Indiana chief of police.”

 …

 The stranger doesn’t stay conscious for long after that, whatever painkillers the paramedics pumped him full of finally kicking in. Nancy leaves him in the back of the ambulance and goes looking for that doctor. He’s around here somewhere.

She finds him at the mall’s service entrance, watching with a frown as the military guys he’d brought with him empty boxes and boxes full of tubes of glowing green…stuff out of the hidden elevator. Nancy hopes, vaguely, that it isn’t radioactive. That would’ve been the first thing they’d have tested. Right?

The doctor looks up as she walks up beside him, and lets out a little aggrieved sigh when he sees who it is. Nancy decides she’s taking that as a compliment. “Any word from our mystery man?”

“According to him, he’s dead.”

The doctor huffs a laugh, not taking his eyes off the elevator.

Nancy examines her fingernails. There’s blood dried in the beds. She’s not sure when that happened. “Also, according to him, he’s Jim Hopper. Hawkins, Indiana chief of police.”

She feels the doctor’s eyes on her, looks up, and smiles. “And you want to know the really weird part? I believe him.”

The doctor’s expression is inscrutable. All he says is, “You do?”

Nancy glances down at herself again, at the ill-fitting Russian uniform she’s still wearing. She can’t wait to get out of this stupid thing. She can’t wait to go home and sleep for about a month. The absolute last thing she wants right now is more supernatural weirdness to deal with.

But –

“He recognised me,” she says, slowly, putting her thoughts together as she speaks. “He knew my name. He – if you told me he was related to our Hopper, I’d believe it, the resemblance is that strong. He doesn’t sound Russian. And that – Gate, the place it goes to – that’s an alternate dimension, right? The kids’ ‘Upside Down’. It’s like here…but not.”

The doctor’s kind of smiling at her. Nancy bulls determinedly forward. “That’s one other Hawkins out there that we know about for sure. Couldn’t there be more?”

The doctor’s still giving her that smile. Nancy catches his eye and stares him down, and he sort of chuckles and shakes his head. “Sounds like we’ll make a theoretical physicist of you yet.”

“I don’t want you packing him off to some – secret bunker or lab or whatever,” Nancy says, like there’s anything she could do to stop it if the doctor did. If it comes to that, she’ll figure it out. She’s already starting to work on a few plans. But for now, she’ll give the doctor the benefit of the doubt that he’s actually trying to help, and use her words. “If the uniform’s anything to go by, he’s just had the same night from hell that we all have. Whoever he left on the other side must be missing him.”

“You’re forgetting, Chief Wheeler,” the doctor says, still sounding just a little too amused. “You and your…small army blew that machine down there to smithereens. There’s no way back into the – uh – ‘Upside Down’.”

Nancy glares back into that too-knowing look. Maybe the doctor does know Terry Ives still has the power to rip open worlds. If he doesn’t, and this is a good bluff, then no way in hell is Nancy going to be the one to tell him and start the Ives’ nightmare all over again.

“Well, if he ended up here, maybe things didn’t go so smoothly on the other end,” is all she says. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”

The doctor’s smile gets a little wider. But all he says is, “I’m sure. You’re a resourceful woman, Nancy Wheeler.”

Nancy watches his face, carefully, for any sign that it’s meant to be an insult. She doesn’t find one.

She leaves him to poke through the Russians’ stuff and heads back around the front of the mall. Partly because she wants to see the others – and one specific other in particular – again, make sure they’re all all right. Partly because she doesn’t want that ambulance driving off with the stranger in the back and disappearing forever.

He saved her life. The least she can do is get him home.

Jonathan’s sitting with Steve and the kids, when Nancy picks her way back through the parking lot. He looks up through his bangs, and a slow smile dawns across his face at that sight of her. Nancy feels something in her chest constrict warmly, and realises she’s smiling, too. And for once, it’s entirely real.

Yeah. If the stranger’s night’s been anything like hers – they’ve got to get him home.

Mike’s sitting in the ambulance, on one side of El, holding her hand as a paramedic washes out the nasty wound in her leg. Will, standing on her other side, has her other hand. Based on the faces all three of them are making, she’s probably grinding the bones in the boys’ hands together, but neither of them looks like they’ll be letting go any time soon. 

Karen’s perched on the ambulance’s tailgate with Joyce, sharing a shock blanket. Maxine Mayfield’s got a blanket, too, even in the hot July night, and Lucas Sinclair’s arm around her. She’s got her head on his shoulder and her arm wrapped around his waist, but her other hand is loosely holding Dustin Henderson’s, like she’s forgotten it’s there. And, even though he barely seems to notice and has gotten into some kind of good-natured argument with the crowd of kids Karen hangs around with these days, Dustin doesn’t let go of her hand either.

Everybody seems to be slowly coming down off the night’s adrenaline, still a little giggly and punchy but starting to sober up. Especially Max and Dustin, who are literally starting to sober up from whatever the Russians shot them full of. Little Phil Callahan’s nodding off against Nancy’s old college friend Kali’s knee, and Kali’s even tolerating it, though Nancy knows the eyebrow she quirks in Nancy’s direction is a clear command to get the kid off her before she stops tolerating it. Jill Stephenson also seems to be nodding off, but since she’s doing it against Benny Hammond’s muscular arm, Nancy has a sneaking suspicion it’s a put-on.

And Jim Hopper – thirteen-going-on-fourteen Jim Hopper, somehow-now-Karen’s-other-best-friend Jim Hopper, definitely-not-Hawkins-Indiana-chief-of-police Jim Hopper, is sitting with his back against Joyce Byers’ knees, listening to Joyce and Karen’s animated conversation with a half-smile that, Nancy thinks, looks an awful lot like contentment.

Nancy must have been staring, trying to mentally compare the kid in front of her to the stranger in the back of the ambulance, because he twists to shoot a scowl in her direction. “What?”

“Did you find anything out?” Jonathan asks, and Nancy can’t help another smile in his direction. Good grief, she’s going soft. “About -” He bobs his head in the direction of the other ambulance. “Him.”

Nancy looks the assembled crowd over, and settles on the truth. “He says he’s you.”

It very obviously takes Hopper a second or two to work out that everybody’s looking at him. “Wh- me?”

Nancy nods. “Jim Hopper. Hawkins, Indiana chief of police.”

There’s a moment of silence while everybody processes this, before Dustin Henderson pipes up. “What – there’s another alternate dimension out there? Other than the Upside Down?”

“Like in The Magician’s Nephew,” Will says, unexpectedly. “The Upside Down’s the wood between the worlds.”

Nancy shoots him a blank look. Karen rolls her eyes. “Mom. Narnia?”

“I thought that was about a wardrobe?”

Apparently this question is just too stupid to dignify with an answer.

Dustin, thankfully, steps in, picking up Will’s train of thought. “So you can only get into the Upside Down from any version of Hawkins -”

“But you can get into any version of Hawkins from the Upside Down,” Will agrees, nodding. He catches El’s confused squint, and shrugs. “It’s a theory.”

“Worth testing,” Nancy agrees. She goes to settle her hands on her belt, and is once again forcibly reminded that she’s still wearing the stupid Russian uniform. “Ugh! That’s it. Screw the government, I’m going back in there and looting the Gap.”

She’s not sure if Jonathan’s joking, at first, when he catches her eye and says, “Oh, but I do so love a woman in uniform.”

Joyce rolls her eyes, and Mike makes an exaggerated gagging noise. Steve shuts his eyes, giving his head a tiny shake, but he’s kind of smiling. Nancy considers flipping them all off, but she quickly decides on something else. Something better.

She crosses the distance between her and where Jonathan’s sitting on the asphalt in two big strides, and bends down to catch Jonathan’s chin in one hand. He turns his face up towards hers without her guidance, though, and when she presses her lips against his, they part with no resistance.

Nancy only holds the kiss for a moment before pulling back, but when she does, Jonathan’s red from the tips of his ears to the collar of his shirt. She allows herself a little satisfaction at that. Still got it, Wheeler. “There. Now, if you hyenas are satisfied, I’m going to go make sure the government doesn’t make our new friend vanish before we get a chance to learn anything more than his name.”

With that said, she turns and walks pointedly across the parking lot toward the other ambulance, not looking back.

She deliberately ignores the hoots, her children’s noises of disgust, and Kali’s sigh of “Finally!”

[okaybutlikeimagine]

Hello. Thoughts on Dads!Harringrove??? the boys like in their mid 40s with 3 kids. what type of parents do you think they’ll be??? will their grandpa jim spoil them??? i love harringrove parents w all my heart. they both deserve a big happy family of their own 🥰

Hello, my thoughts are it’s the cutest damn thing ever and i could cry just thinking about it aUGH HARRINGROVE DADS.

Okay, so i’ve read quite a few things talking about the Harringrove Dads and adopting little babies, adopting sweet little girls, etc. and i absolutely live and die for that shit. Like i’m so serious, i think it’s so sweet, it warms my heart, i eat it up, i LOVE it

But also (and i’m sure i’m not the first to say it) I feel like they’re NOT the type to go adopting babies. They’re not getting a surrogate to raise a kid from infancy. They may want to, they may have that inkling, they may see Jonathan and Nancy having a baby and get that infamous Baby Fever, but I just… I really can’t bring myself to write that.

Bc (in my canon) Billy was adopted as a 17 year old delinquent. El was adopted as a 12 year old lab rat. Steve was basically abandoned at home when he got too old to be the “cute little boy” their parents could tote around to promote their Nuclear Family image. They’re two boys who were made very keenly aware that there are shitty people out there who believe kids get less desirable the older they get. Shitty people who think babies are worth more than older kids who probably just come with “problems”.

(i’ve also been rewatching Boy Meets World and GUYS. i see a lot of Billy in Shawn Hunter. Boy who’s taken in bc he’s been neglected and he’s a sensitive kid underneath but he’s got this hard, bad boy shell bc it’s easier than crying every day)(AUGH and just like Will in Fresh Prince goddamnit i fucking LIVE for those kids who think and act all tough and use their pretty looks like a weapon but all they really need is a caring and stern hand who’s gonna keep them on the straight and narrow and help them out along the way i am SOFT.)

So if these boys have 3 kids, it’s 3 kids who were seen as the “worst” of the bunch. 3 kids they fought to connect with bc these kids didn’t see anything in themselves anymore but goddamnit, Steve and Billy saw 3 kids beat and broken by the system that told them the older they got, the smaller their chances were of ever getting out of this place. They came with problems and fears and shells harder than Billy’s steel toed boots but like hell were Billy and Steve going to let these kids go the rest of their lives thinking they were damaged goods.

(god now i wanna write OCs of their children. look what you did to me!)

Okay so their parenting style changes as they grow and adopt more kids, as what happens with most parents. They learn what’s good and what’s not so good and they get better at fixing problems (but of course it’s never quite that easy bc they’re adopting kids of different ages).

And of course i’m saying they adopt the kids everyone has turned away, but for their first kid they adopt a little boy, about 5 years old, bc they gotta start small. He’s very cute and has a bit of a lisp and he mixes up some of his letters and he’s… energetic. He runs and he screams and he tires himself out real quick to the point where he just flops down and takes naps where he is, meaning there has been more than one occasion where Billy or Steve has found the child sleeping face first in the middle of a room (the entry room seems to be his favorite. Billy doesn’t blame him, the carpet is softer there than anywhere else.) One time he even flopped down on the middle of the sidewalk and again in the middle of a department store. Both times Billy scooped him up like a rag doll and carried him around the rest of their trip out.

And i know it’s not the BEST movie but i can’t help but think their parenting at the beginning would be a bit like the movie Big Daddy. Like, a lot of well-intentioned but misguided advice, a lot of “real world” lessons (like how to piss on the side of the road), a lot of hurried and frazzled solutions to things because “kids are messy why are kids so fucking messy why can’t he ever stay clean?”

“He’s just a kid, Steve, c’mon-”

“He’s always sticky! How! How is he always sticky? What’s making him so sticky!”

And I just!! Augh!! Imagine Steve at work all day and Billy has off/maybe he’s inbetween jobs right now so he can be home with the kid/whatever and so he has errands to run and takes their little kid with him and the kid’s like:

“What’s your real name?”

“You know that. It’s Billy.”

“…. why?”

And Billy shrugs with an “I dunno, cuz I couldn’t talk and my parents could and they had to call me somethin.”

“You could’n talk?”

“Hey, you couldn’t either.”

The boy thinks for a second before: “Could too.”

“Could not. Not when you were a baby.” He pokes the boy in the shoulder, still very tentative with how much the little tike can take. “Don’t start attacking me! You didn’t name yourself.”

They walk for a second but Billy chimes in before the kid can.

“Hey, that’s not fair though, is it?”

The boy looks up and shakes his head, but he can see the confusion in his eyes.

“You should be able to name yourself, right? What do you want your name to be? Anything in the world, what do you want me to call you?”

Which is how Steve comes home to their child and Billy eating some baby carrots smothered in BBQ sauce and his husband telling him: “By the way, the kid’s new name is Hot Dog.”

“…. what?”

“He picked it out himself.”

And just imagine Billy and the kid are going grocery shopping and Billy catches the boy reaching for a can of spaghetti-o’s.

Billy reaches for the can and takes it off the shelf. “You like these?”

The kid nods.

“Alright then. Watch out-” he hold the kid back gently before chucking the can at the ground. He turns to his boy. “Dented cans are half off. Y’know, Microsoft dropped 3 points.”

His kid nods in awe.

“Wanna pick that up for me?” Billy asks and the kid follows, before rearing the can back to throw it on the ground.

“Woah woah woah! Watch it there!” Billy grabs the boy’s arm, before aiming it a different way. “Aim away from your feet… there ya go. I know they’re kinda tiny targets but still, don’t wanna give yourself a flat tire there.”

The kid chucks it and Billy laughs. “Nice job, little dude.”

And i just have so many THOUGHTS about this!!! Their second kid being a little 9 year old girl who’s real fucking good at boxing and fighting and also a little too good at sneaking out the window. They’ve caught her a few times in the backyard or the front yard, just sitting around shivering. It always gives Billy and Steve a heart attack.

“What are you doing out here?” Steve asks, kneeling down to look at the girl, Billy taking note of her hands balled up into little fists.

“I heard a… noise. A loud noise.”

“Oh, yeah, your brother just dropped a glass.”

“Oh. Did you… did you… hurt him?” Her fists clench tighter, her shoulders get tighter, closer to her ears. Billy sees himself in it. He wants to ease her shoulders down out of her ears.

“No! No of course we didn’t.” Steve soothes, rubbing the girls arms soothingly. She looks skeptical.

But it becomes a pattern, and they realize it’s whenever she thinks something is going on or someone is in danger. To the point where if any loud noise happens, one of them rushes outside to look for Jordan climbing out a window.

Steve’s out there this time, grabbing hold of her middle and helping her out of the window because they’ve let their plants grow a little wiley and she was having a hard time getting past them. He sets her down gently.

“It’s fine, hun. You’re fine. Your dad just dropped a pan.”

“Oh…”

“Y’know, you can’t keep doing this.”

“What?”

“Ditching out the window like this.” He kneels down to look at her. “It’s not safe. And one of these days it’s gonna be snowing and you’re gonna jump out in your PJs and be all cold.”

“I’ve done it before.”

And if that doesn’t break Steve’s heart. He thinks about Billy when he was a kid. About the stories Billy has told him when he’s tired and a little drunk and feeling a little emotional. Steve loses himself in the sadness of the thought for a second.

He brushes a little bit of dirt off her shoulder.

“Yeah… well you don’t have to ever again, alright? I mean it. Nothing is happening to you here. We’re not gonna hurt you… Now give me a hug.”

She accepts it, which is big for her, and Steve squeezes her as tight as he squeezed Billy that one night he found him with a cut on his cheek and bruises all up and down his arms.

And then they adopt another boy. A 17 year old boy. A boy who’s been in and out of so many homes he doesn’t have a number for it. A boy who’s angry and jaded and… loves poetry and is so gentle with children and animals.

And him and Billy butt heads… a lot. They’re so similar… at least he’s similar to what Billy used to be. And it pisses them both off bc suddenly Billy knows what Hop felt- frustration. Utter frustration at this boy not understanding his fucking potential.

And i’ve written a whole dialogue for this but it’s long and very dramatic and I might just end up writing a fic about all of these little sweethearts (bc i have so many ideas!!!) but basically the boy telling Billy and Steve that he’s fucked up. He’s fucked up and no one will ever be able to change that and Billy is adamant that he’s not until he admits-

“No. You’re right, you are fucked up.”

Steve is shocked. “Billy!”

“No, shut up Steve.” Billy points at the kid. “You are fucked up. You’re a fucked up kid, and you know what? I’m fucked up too. And so is Steve. And so is your aunt El, and your Aunt Max, and your Uncle Will and Uncle Jonathan. And y’know what else? Your grandpa Jim is fucked up too. Hell, even your Grandma Joyce is fucked up. Wish I could tell you she’s not but ding ding ding! She is!”

And they get in a fight. There’s no fists, no touching, but it’s a major fight of Billy telling this boy what Hop told him once: You’re our kid now and we love you. And you can leave and never think about us again but we’re never gonna forget you.

And: “Don’t you dare fucking compare us to those assholes because I’m not giving up on you. We’re not giving up on you. You’re family now and no matter what you do, I’m gonna be there to worry about you and be happy for you because you deserve it!”

And Billy gets frustrated with all of his yelling so he grabs his stress ball and walks away, breathing heavy, and Steve is there to look the boy in the eye and tell him Billy’s right. And that he understands that the boy has a past before they ever met him “but Billy had a life before he met me… and same with me and him, and we can still love each other. So maybe we’re just on an even playing field. We get to learn about you while you learn about us and… and even so, we can still love each other, right?”

AUGH I’M SOFT. ANYWAY.

Hop and Joyce spoil them fucking rotten. It’s really hard to spoil a 17 year old boy as stubborn as an ox (“You were bad enough, now you bring me another one?” “You saying you didn’t like taking care of me, Pops?” “I’m saying I have enough gray hair as it is.” “Oh shush, Hop!” Joyce hits him) but they do their best. They give him love and support. Joyce bakes a shitton of cookies and cakes and Hop buys the kids toys (and the older boy CDs and records and band tees)(“I’m trying! The older I get, the less I know what kids what.”)

And they love all their aunts and uncles too! The little girl has a hard time reading and she reads way below her level, so Aunt El helps her out!

“I understand. I learned to read really late.”

“Really?” The girl’s heart lifts a bit. “How late?”

“I was twelve.”

“Really??”

El nods and gives a kind smile. “Yeah, but I learned, didn’t I? I had a lot of help, and I can help you, too! Just like your dad helped me.”

The girl smiles brightly.

Will’s favorite is the youngest boy (but he would never tell the other two that. Of course not.) because he’s silly and he took to Will almost instantly and he likes to roll around in the grass and catch bugs and those were never really things Will liked as a kid and he… he likes that. He didn’t think he’d ever like that but there’s something about this kid that brings out adventure in him. He reminds Will of Mike when they first met. A bundle of energy and excitement that always dragged Will around on adventures.

The older one hangs out a lot with Max and Jonathan. Jonathan likes hanging out with the kid cuz he reminds him of Billy when Billy was young. (“I don’t remember you being this… exhausting though.” Jonathan tells Billy.) (“You’re just getting old, bud.” Billy says with a laugh and a clap on the back) They smoke weed whenever they can and Jonathan gives the boy some good old 70’s and 80’s music to listen to and tells the boy “Meatloaf is not the best of our decade, don’t listen to your father. Either of them, honestly. Their music taste is shit.”

Max hangs out with the older one too. She gives him advice about girls and how to talk to them and she picks up a skateboard for the first time in years because of him. They go to the skate park sometimes and everyone there is amazed that a twenty something year old girl is here to skate with them until she skates circles around them. (She becomes the hit of the skate park)

She also wrestles around with the little 8 year old girl sometimes! She has a lot of heart to hearts with the kid, giving her advice as well and telling her silly stories of both Billy and Steve so that the girl learns to trust them more.

And overall they’re a big, loving family!! And they’re slightly dysfunctional too and i just! Can’t see it happening any other way!! Bc they’re a little dysfunctional but they’re dysfunctional with LOVE and isn’t that what matters???? It’s a lot of work and a lot of sweat and a lot of tears but it’s their family and in the end their kids love them to death bc they realize their fathers love them to death and!!! Everyone’s heart is full and happy and i’m crying!

[whirlybirbs]

⋆    —--   CARHOP COOL, 2.

summary: you see steve at family video. it prompts some reflection, some questions, and some good ol’ memories of your time at hawkins high. you try to stay frosty but it’s hard when steve harrington is being so nice. pairing: steve harrington x reader, post season three word count: 1.7k a/n: here it is, folks! part two! we have a beach, a movie, and a lotta tension. 

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It’s weird. 

He’s weird.

Steve Harrington is weird and he’s changed and you’re not really sure how you feel about it.

As you pull into the parking lot of the Family Video in your beat-up, slate grey Civic Hatchback, you catch a glimpse of the high school legend in question through the front window. 

He looks the same as he always has. Tall, doe-eyed, good hair... 

Stupidly good looking.

Steve was a mythic figure in grade school. High school just... elevated things. It was like Senior Year came and a throne was vacated just for him -- he was the king of Hawkins High and everyone knew it. 

Then, Nancy Wheeler dumped him for Jonathan Byers and everything changed. 

His title of Prom King was snatched by the grubby, freckled claws of Tommy H. with Carol on his arm that fateful night, then Billy Hargrove walked on and booted him from captain of the basketball team, and then he was rejected by, like, every college he applied to -- or so rumor had it.

(Jenny Larson had told you all about it during the spring production of Oklahoma!... She was obsessed with him. It was like she’d opened his mail or something. You wouldn’t put it past her. She had crazy eyes. You and Robin were always a little freaked out by her. Eugh.)

And, so, Steve Harrington and his mighty hair faded into the yearbook pages of Hawkins Class of ‘85 as a fallen king. 

And now, here he is: selling VHS’s alongside his best friend who was also your best friend. 

(You wonder if that makes him your best-friend-by-proxy? You’d rather not think about it. Best friends don’t launch spit-balls at the back of each other’s heads during Spanish finals and laugh about it and never let it go. Best friends also don’t point and laugh at that DIY perm you did sophomore year, no matter how bad -- best friends, like Robin, help you slather your hair in conditioner and relaxers while you sob in your upstairs bathroom at your fried mane. So, no, Steve Harrington is not your best-friend-by-proxy.)

Narrowing your eyes, you drum your fingers on the steering wheel and snap your gum. 

God, you really don’t want to go in there.

But, then again, you wonder what you have to lose. What, the approval of some washed-up cool-kid? Screw him. He’s dumb anyways. He’s... all hair.

Literally.

Cutting the engine (and subsequently the Donna Summer track playing on your radio), you haul open the door and decide to get this whole thing over with. 

The bell above your head chimes as you walk into the Family Video and Steve Harrington promptly chokes on his can of New Coke upon realizing it’s you. 

It goes up his nose. 

Quickly, he tries to rebound.

“Hey! Hi!” he chirps in an uncharacteristically excited tone, “Welcome, uh, to Family Video!”

You freeze in the doorway and squint.

Steve’s been having some thoughts.

Wild, he knows, but Robin had keyed into how spaced out he’d been since he’d seen you the other night down at Roll-o’s and had decidedly not let it go -- “Just like you never let her whole perm thing go, Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington!” -- in a well-aimed play of well-deserved vengeance. 

For the last three nights, he’s been beating himself up over the sudden realization that he’s got cold feet -- and even Henderson noticed it. 

But, seriously? Could you blame him? He was a grade-A asshole for most of high school and now he’s a huge loser (self-proclaimed, despite both Robin and Dustin’s protests) and you’re super cool. You’re all frosty poise and pastel rollerblades. 

And here he is, working part-time at Family Video, spending the rest of his summer indoors.

Steve Harrington, pale loser.

Not to mention, you had a lot of friends in high school -- maybe not swearing loyalty to any one group, but you fleeted around and blended in and you got along so well with everyone. Everyone knew it was you and Robin Buckley against the world. 

Compare that to his own dumb ass and he’s the world’s saddest pale loser.

At least he has Robin. And you do, too.

Which is why you’re here. In Family Video.

Staring at him.

You pull your sunglasses down your nose, furrow your brow and speak slowly.

“Are you... okay?”

Steve plants his palm on the counter, a sudden flare of nerves lighting his chest on fire as he card a hand through his hair and smiles with the gusto of a man living by the motto fake-it-til-you-make-it. “Me? Yeah -- yeah, I’m good. How’re you? What’s up?”

You push your sunglasses up, snap your gum and shove your hands in the pockets of your jean shorts. Frosty.

“Looking for Robin,” you say curtly, shrugging a bit, “Is she around? She called -- we’re catching a movie after her shift.”

Steve deflates a bit. No invite. Understandable, but ouch. “Uh, yeah, she’s out back with Keith organizing the rental returns.”

You pull a face. 

Steve sees it. He narrows his eyes, lips upturning a bit in curiosity. The expression on your face isn’t so frosty as you toe the carpet with your skate shoes and eye the display of comedies. 

“What?”

“Hm?” you blink back at him, eyes wide, “What?”

“That look,” he says, leaning forward onto his elbows, “What was that for?”

It takes you a second to realize that Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington is trying to make conversation with you. He’s really trying. 

You push your sunglasses back over your hair and move to eye around him. When you speak, it’s quiet.

“Y’know. Keith.”

Steve’s brows raise and he blinks fast. “Oh, yeah, yeah, he’s -- uh...”

He pulls his bottom lip in and waves a hand, searching for the words. 

(They’re evading him because he’s seriously not looking to make himself look like more of an asshole.)

“Creepy?” you offer, turning over a copy of Revenge of the Nerds, “Mad creepy. I’m sure Robin is, like, two seconds from emptying a can of pepper spray in his face.”

“Does she carry pepper spray?”

You shrug. “It’s Robin --”

“-- Yeah, good point.”

“I mean, she could carry a taser --”

“-- And I wouldn’t ask a single question.”

... It’s not weird. Whatever this is isn’t weird.

The laugh you both share is short and quiet but it’s genuine and before the moment can bleed into something like non-verbal peace treaty between warring high school personalities, the girl in question bursts from the back with a big ol’ smile.

“Would y’ look at that!” she claps, “My two best friends! Talking!”

You toss her a wide grin, dropping your sunglasses back down to your nose and as she glides over the counter and leaps into the same handshake you’ve shared since the seventh grade. 

Steve watches with a lopsided smirk. Goofballs. It’s cute.

“You ready for Phenomena?” Robin asks, waving her fingers and cooing like a ghost, “OooOOOooh! Bugs! Psychic powers! Horror!”

“Uh, try drive-in popcorn!” you snort, swatting her hands away, “Took you long enough. I’m starving.”

“You guys are seeing Phenomena?” Steve asks, drumming his fingers on the counter, “I heard it’s good --”

A light bulb bursts above Robin Buckley’s head and you swear you saw it, it was that bright.

“Steve!”

“Robin!” he says with a faux amount of excitement.

“Y-You should come!”

You blink.

Steve blinks at you.

Then at Robin.

Guilt flies across his face. He realizes he’s making you uncomfortable. From the way you tense up and look at Robin, he can tell you’re totally not into that idea.

So, he sputters.

“Uh... I dunno, Rob, I gotta close --”

You decide, in that moment, that Steve Harrington has changed and sure it’s weird but... you’re weird, too. And maybe he wasn’t so... terrible. I mean, he was still stupidly good looking -- and that’s why you’re so tense. Because the one thing you’d believed for all those years is being flipped upside down and you’re about to willingly spending time with The Steve Harrington.

“Why not?” you ask slowly, surprising everyone in the room, even yourself, “It’d be fun. Keith can close up.”

Steve jaw drops. “... Wait, seriously?”

Robin’s whole face lights up.

She blinks between you both. 

You’re glad your sunglasses are on. You try to stay frosty. Can’t let the cool-kid know you have feelings.

“Yeah,” you say, trying to keep your tone even, “I mean -- if you’re gonna launch a spitball at the back of my head during it, don’t even bother, but...”

Steve’s face falls.

You see the real guilt there. It shocks you.

“Listen,” he raises his hands, “I was a dick --”

Robin quirks a brow. “A mega-dick, Harrington.”

“Right, a mega-dick. You... You don’t have to invite me. It’s cool. I get it. I’m, uh...” his words falter off, lost as he drops his gaze and pulls his lips tightly together, “I get it.”

There’s a pause.

And then you sigh. 

“Stop looking like a kicked puppy and just get into my car, Steve.”

Brown eyes light up so bright it’s like you’re smiling at the sun.

“Seriously?”

You start for the door with a grin. “Did I stutter?”

Robin peels into victorious laughter as Steve scrambles faster than light, hucking his vest across the room and leaping over the counter -- he’s grinning as he does, pushing you and Robin out the door before Keith can protest from the back room.

You all pile into your Hatchback and the laughter that’s shared isn’t forced.

For the first time in a week, Steve Harrington hasn’t felt so weird. 

For the first time in years, you’ve felt like you’ve peaked.

[ghostspideys-moved]

All For The Best

Chapter Three

A/N: I’ve been trying to divide up the chapters well enough, so hopefully the cut-offs make sense for each one.

Word Count: 1.6k

Pairings: Steve Harrington x OC, Nancy Wheeler x Jonathan Byers x OC

Summary: River, Steve, and Dustin end up on a stake out. It’s just now occurring to River that Max might have been right.

How River ended up on a stakeout was unclear to her. In hindsight, it might have been smarter to stay behind with Robin, but she figured it would be better to give her some space to think. 

Even with her ability to confirm that their translation was correct, River didn’t know where to start with actually deciphering what it really meant. That felt like a task better left to Robin, anyways.

Which left her to sneak around the mall with Steve and Dustin. Which was fine, really. She didn’t mind. Except the fact that they had absolutely no clue what they were doing.

“Do you see anything?” Dustin crouched beside Steve, peeking out from behind the plant they’d chosen to hide behind. 

Steve scanned the area with the binoculars. “I guess I don’t totally know what I’m looking for.”

“Evil Russians.”

“Yeah, exactly. I don’t know what an evil Russian looks like.”

“Tall, blond, not smiling.”

River scoffed and turned to Dustin. “I’m beginning to think you guys don’t even know what a Russian looks like,” she said. 

Dustin stammered. “Well, that’s why you’re here.”

“I can guarantee you that no one here looks inherently ‘Russian’ without getting stereotypical.” 

“Well, that’s why we also have to look out for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing.”

Steve simply nodded along, and River could already sense how distracted he was. His train of thought was not remotely focused on spies or Russians. “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mumbled.

“What?” Dustin perked up, hoping he might have spotted something suspicious.

“Anna Jacobi’s talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky.”

River and Dustin groaned simultaneously. “Dude, if you’re not gonna focus, just give me the binoculars.”

“Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards?” Steve was hardly even listening at that point, and Dustin had to yank the binoculars from his hands, the strap strangling him for a second.

“Besides, I don’t even know why You’re looking at girls. You have the perfect one right in front of you,” Dustin added. 

River couldn’t help perking up at his words, though she wasn’t sure why.

“Seriously, if you say Robin again-”

“Robin.”

Immediately, River’s hopes deflated. She couldn’t help thinking back to her conversation with Max from the day before. She’d been in such denial, but what if Max was right? And if she was, that meant she was just getting her hopes up for nothing. Because, for all she knew, maybe Steve really did like Robin, and the last thing she needed was to put herself through the pain of seeing Steve with someone else. 

Despite Dustin’s continued nagging, Steve shut him down quickly. “She’s not even my type.” For just a moment, River’s hope returned, but she pushed it down. If Robin wasn’t his type, there was no way she was either. 

“She’s not even in the ballpark of my type,” Steve insisted. Perhaps it had been a bad idea to tag along.

Dustin finally turned to him again. “What’s your type again? Not awesome?”

River sighed and listened to them argue, mostly tuning them out at this point. Max had been right, and now she had no idea what to do. She was stuck helping them, as she’d promised to do, while also battling with herself internally. 

“And she’s weird. She’s a weirdo. And she’s hyper. I don’t like that she’s hyper,” Steve continued, catching her attention again. “And she was in drama. That’’s a bad look. And she’s in band?” Steve shook his head. “No.”

“You have something against weirdos?” River chimed in, refusing to look at him. If she just kept her eyes ahead and tried to look like she was helping, maybe she could push down her feelings and ignore them.

Steve paused, seeming to understand what she was getting at. “Well, you’re...you’re different,” he insisted. 

“Different how?”

Steve stuttered, unable to come up with a proper response. “You just are. You’re my friend, and I’ve known you for a while now. You’re a cool kind of weird.”

His words were equally kind and frustrating all at once. Yes, they were friends, but now that she was having her epiphany, it almost hurt to hear him say it. 

Friends.

“Maybe instead of dating someone you think is gonna make you cooler, why don’t you date someone you actually enjoy being around,” Dustin cut in. “Like me and Suzie.”

It always amazed her how much smarter the kids could be than either of them. He was right, even if Steve didn’t seem to think he needed the advice.

“Right, Suzie. You mean, ‘hotter than Phoebe Cates.’ Yeah, that Suzie.” 

River let them go at it for now. She started to wonder if it was too late to go back with Robin, though that might hurt just as much right now.

It was a long while before anything happened. Far longer than she would have liked. She was already getting antsy every second they spent sitting in the same spot, and there was now an air of tension between her and Steve — though that might have been all in her head. It was hard to tell. 

“Target acquired.” River felt relieved when Dustin spoke up, but she was also curious who he found suspicious enough to look like his idea of an evil Russian.

Steve took the binoculars from him and searched until she assumed he’d found whoever Dustin was talking about. 

“Shit,” he mumbled. “Duffel bag.”

Steve and Dustin turned to each other. “Evil Russian.” 

Before she could comprehend what was happening, they were leaving their hiding spot and calling her over to follow them. River sighed and rolled her eyes before she got up as well.

The boys snuck around, possibly taking this whole spy thing way too seriously. It was funny — that much she could admit — but it was a miracle no one else in the mall had caught onto them. Calmly, and without making a fool of herself, she followed them, spotting the man they must be spying on. 

In a stereotypical sense, yeah, he fit the evil Russian profile. And he did have a duffel bag, which was weird, but she didn’t really see any other reason they’d singled him out. They’d been right before, though, so she went along in the hopes they were finally on to something.

They trailed behind, getting too close, according to Dustin. Both of them scrambled to look casual the moment the guy turned back. If anything, they looked just as suspicious as before, and she tried not to laugh, still refusing to follow their lead.

As soon as he kept walking, Steve dragged them ahead again to follow him. By this point, she’d had the bright idea to simply dig around the guy’s brain a little. Nothing too serious, mostly so he wouldn’t feel her presence in his head. And what she found made her almost laugh. Even more so when they stopped and watched him join the ladies getting read for Jazzercise, of all things.

There was a visible look of confusion on the boys’ faces, and she finally let out the laughter she’d been holding in. “Outstanding spy work, guys,” she teased.

Dustin seemed sorely disappointed, and a bit weirded out. And it wasn’t hard to notice Steve staring at all ladies, unfortunately. Except, she wasn’t doing much better, or she’d call him out for it. It was very possible she also caught herself staring for a little longer than she should have. She shook her head and cleared her throat.

“Hate to break it to you, but your stakeout plan didn’t really work,” she said.

Sighing in defeat, Dustin took Steve, dragging him away. “So, what now?” Dustin asked.

River shrugged and followed. “I guess we check on Robin’s progress. Hopefully, she might have fared better than us,” she said.

It was the best plan they had right now. Instead of finding her in the store, though, Robin was standing outside.

“Robin? What are you doing?” Steve asked.

Robin grinned and jumped down to join them. “I’ve cracked it.”

“Cracked what?” They looked at her curiously, hoping she’d done so much better than they had.

“I’ve cracked the code.” 

Stakeout number two was already proving much more successful. As soon as Steve and Robin were off the clock, the four of themselves headed out in raincoats, perched atop a roof overlooking the mall’s storage unit.

It was almost hard to hear anything over the thunder and the pitter-pattering of the rain against her hood. Dustin was in charge of the binoculars, upon his own insistence. 

“Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes,” Robin said loud enough to be heard over the rain. 

Dustin kept a close eye on the truck where boxes were being unloaded. “There with that whistling guy, ten o’clock.”

“What do you think is in there?” Steve asked curiously. 

“Guns, bombs?”

“Chemical weapons?”

“Whatever it is, they’re armed to the teeth.”

Steve sighed. River could see his hair was flattened and wet by the rain, and he looked exasperated, not that she blamed him. “Great. Just great.”

From here, she could spot more boxes, and when Robin called it out Steve tried to get a better look. Of course, they boys fought over the binoculars, accidentally banging them against them against the rail. 

They ducked for cover, and River could feel her heart pounding. If they ended up being caught, that might just be the end for them. She stayed low, hoping the noise was written off as nothing suspicious. Perhaps she should have been more focused on that than the fact that she noticed Steve and Robin hold hands for just a split second. Not the kind of thing she should have been worried about, but she couldn’t help it. Assuming they got out of this just fine, she would have to find Max and tell her she was right. 

River didn’t have too much time to dwell on it before they were all rushing back inside. They couldn’t risk getting caught with no explanation for being on the roof this late in the rain.

“Well, I think we found your Russians,” Robin said.

//

Taglist: @charmedtenderness​ @jxnehxpper​ @musicalytrashpanda​

[idumpyourgrass]

Always Waiting- Chapter two

Always waiting- Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

Always Waiting Masterlist

Summary: The party introduces Y/N to Eleven, Y/N realizes how much of an asshole Steve Harrington has become, the party, Y/N and El see something they wish they wouldn’t have seen, and Jonathan, Nancy, and Y/N discover something.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

A/N: Hi everyone! I’m so glad that you all liked the first chapter! I have changed the POV from 3rd person to 2nd person, it just seemed more natural. I have finals next week but after that I’ll be on winter break so I’ll be spitting out these chapters like no body’s business. Also sorry if this seems so rushed. All the fun stuff happens later… Also sorry this chapter’s so short, the next couple of chapters are longer and much better I promise! As always criticism is welcomed and if you want to be added to the taglist let me know!

Warnings: Swearing, asshole Steve, dead body? typos probs

Word Count: 1.4K

 ~November 8th, 1983~

You and Dustin pull up at Mike’s house just as Lucas was getting off his bike. All three of you are greeted by Mrs. Wheeler. She tells you that Mike is in the basement. As you all start walking down the stairs you notice a bald girl sitting on the couch. You lean over and whisper into Dustin’s ear, “who’s the bald girl?”

“Oh Eleven this is Y/N, Y/N this is Eleven.” Dustin introduces you two. The girl named Eleven looks terrified.

“Um hey, what’s up?” You greet her. Eleven just looks at you. You smile at her then got to say hi to Mike. All five of you gather around a table. The boys each dump out their backpacks. Lucas has “weapons,” if you count a wrist rocket as a weapon. Dustin empties his backpack and all kinds of snacks fell out. You couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ha! Nice dude,” he looks up at you and smiles, you give him a fist bump.

Lucas and Mike look at him like he’s crazy.

“We’re going to need food for our travels, why do we even need weapons anyways, we have her!” Dustin points at Eleven. Now you were just flat out confused.

“She shut ONE door.” Lucas argues.

“With her mind.” Dustin said.

“I’m sorry what?” You could not believe what you were hearing; Weapons? Closing doors with minds? “travels?” The boys then go into detail telling you everything. They found eleven while out searching for Will, found out she had powers, and how she knew where Will was. Although you were still fairly confused, you went along with their plans.

“Ok so we all need to meet back here at 3:15 to begin Operation Mirkwood.” Mike explains.

“Yikes, sorry boys I’m going to have to take a raincheck, I have rehearsal after school.” You tell them.

“So what? Just skip it. This is important,” Dustin says looking up at you with pleading eyes.

“I can’t ‘just skip it,’ it’s the very first rehearsal.” You couldn’t miss the first rehearsal.

“Pull the ‘Will’s like a brother to me’ card. That’ll get you out of it.” Lucas suggests.

You didn’t like to lie to your director but the boys seemed to really want you there. You cautiously agree and look down at your watch.

“Shoot! We’re going to be late, we gotta go!” You tell the boys. They rapidly gather up all their things.

You all say bye to Eleven and hurry out the door.

  *                     *                     *        

Barb wasn’t in any of her classes today. Nancy was asking around school if anyone had seen her, but no one has. You were getting a bad feeling about this.

At lunch, since Barb wasn’t there, you were stuck sitting with Nancy, Steve, Tommy, and Carol.

“Hey Tommy, did you see Barb when you left last night?” Nancy asks. He said he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. 

“She was probably tired of listening to all the moaning last night.” To which then Carol and Tommy proceed to make sex noises loud enough for the whole cafeteria to hear. Nancy’s face turn red and she was avoiding eye contact with you.

“You know maybe if you guys wouldn’t have left her so you guys could go fuck, she would be here.” You knew if was a wise choice of words but you were so tired and fed up with all of them. And with that, you get up and leave the cafeteria to go talk to your theatre director.

Lucas was right, pulling the ‘Will was like a brother to me’ card gave you the whole rest of the week off from rehearsal. On the way out of the classroom you run into a theatre friend, Robin Buckley. Robin tells you she’s sorry about Will insists you guys hang out soon so you could get your mind off of everything. You agree and went on your way.

*                     *                     *      

After school, while heading to your car, you notice Steve, Nancy, Tommy and Carol, swarming around Jonathan, yelling at him for something. You get there just in time to see Steve drop Jonathan’s camera.

“Steve, what the hell!” You give him a hard shove to the chest

“Stay out of this Henderson.” Steve says coldly as he, Tommy, and Carol start to walk away. Nancy bends over and picks up ripped pieces of a photograph and runs to catch up with the rest of the group. You bend down to help Jonathan pick up the rest of the photographs.

“Jesus, they are such assholes.” You mutter as you give Jonathan the rest of his photos back.

He gives you a quiet thank you, and runs off.

You look down at your watch and realize it was already 3:10. You were supposed to meet the boys at 3:15, you run to your car and shoot out of the parking lot.

 *                     *                     *    

The five of you trail behind Eleven as she leads you to where Will is. You all stop at Will’s house.

“Here.” Eleven states.

“Oh, no sweetheart this is Will’s house…where he lives?” You try to explain it to her.

“Hiding.” Eleven states again. You look up at the three boys who seem to be just as confused as you are.

“I told you she was lying!” Lucas says to Mike, who only argued back.

You could hear the sounds of sirens approaching.

“Guys…guys!” Dustin yells. All attention was now on the sirens approaching. Police cars and ambulances race by.

Simultaneously , the five of you glance at each other.

“Will.”

You all race towards the sirens and arrive at the quarry. You all peek your heads around an ambulance as you watch paramedics pull something out of the water and onto the stretcher. When you see what it it, your heart sinks. On the stretcher laid the body of Will Byers.

“No, no, no.” You can feel your eyes fill with tears.

“It’s him, it’s really Will.” Lucas says.

You wrap your arms around Dustin and Lucas. Mike starts yelling at Eleven.

“You said he was alive! Why’d you lie?!”

“Mike.” You try to calm him down.

“Huh? Why’d you lie?” Mike keeps pressing the question. Eleven starts stuttering trying to find the words to form a sentence. Mike scoffs and walks away.

You can’t believe what’s happening, and you had no idea what was yet ahead.

   *                     *                     *                  

~November 9th, 1983~

The next day at school you can’t focus on anything. You just keep thinking about Will. It’s not until 3rd period when you notice Barb is still not at school.

After 3rd period you find Nancy and pull her aside.

“It’s not like Barb to just run away and not tell anyone. Something bad happened to her, I know it.” You tell Nancy.

“Y/N, I need to tell you something and it’s going to sound crazy”

“Yeah ok, I’m all ears.”

“Yesterday, I went to Steve’s house, to see if I could figure out where Barb went, and I saw something.” Nancy trails off.

“Like what? A deer?”

“No, like, like, I don’t know! It looked like some kind of monster.”

“A monster?” Ok now you were starting to think she was crazy.

“It walked on two legs and it didn’t have a face.” Nancy finishes.

“Didn’t have a face? Nancy this is started to sound like something from one of Dustin and Mike’s games.” You could not believe what she was telling you.

“Y/N I’m serious. I- I just know whatever it was, it wasn’t human.” Nancy looks at you with big pleading eyes, almost begging you to believe her. You are about to respond when the bell rings. You give Nancy a small glance and you go to your next class.

 *                     *                     *  

As you start heading out of school, Nancy and Jonathan pull you into the photo developing room.

“Woah hello! What’s…uh what’s going on?” You question, surprised to see the two of them together.

“We might have discovered something.” Nancy says confidentially.

You all stand over the tub while the picture develops. In the picture you an barely make out what looks to be -and you can’t believe you’re thinking this- a monster.

“What the fuck is that thing.” You ask.

“That’s it, that’s what I saw!” Nancy announces.

“My mom, I thought she was crazy, she said it wasn’t Will’s body, that he’s still alive.” Jonathan adds.

“And if Will’s alive then-”

“Barb.”

  Taglist:

@loulouloueh @nighttwingg @hauntedduckdefendor @l0ve-0f-my-life @labrujaprincess