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lesbianrobin · 3 years

Note

What do you think are the good and bad aspects of each season of ST?

ok 1. thank u for this question omg and 2. this answer may or may not be a mess, but either way it’s long (almost 7k words lmao) bc i’m insane, which is why it’s under a cut. it’s still by no means an exhaustive list but these are the things that just kinda came to mind.

also i realize you asked “good and bad” and i wrote this whole post as “strengths and weaknesses” which um. is not Exactly what you asked. but close enough <3 i also ended up including a lot of au ideas ksjdckmn bc like i personally hate when people say a certain plot or whatever was bad without suggesting anything that could have improved it yknow so whenever possible i tried to provide Some idea for fixing the issues i had with the show!!

season 1

strengths (this is probably gonna be the longest section but that’s because a lot of these strengths also apply to s2/s3 by default)

nostalgia and authenticity

this one’s pretty simple, but i think that season one did a good job of blending classic eighties media homages (such as the many many e.t./el parallels) with explicit pop culture references (such as mike’s yoda impression, mentions of the x-men, etc) to create a show that’s essentially dripping in early eighties nostalgia without it feeling too forced. before st, i think the most popular depiction of the eighties in mainstream media was that overly exaggerated neon scrunchie aesthetic from the mid to late eighties, and it was usually done in a comedic sense first and foremost. st took a different approach, instead focusing on the early eighties, a time that’s often ignored in favor of going either Full Seventies or Full Eighties, and i think that this choice likely resonated with adults who lived through the eighties and hadn’t yet seen something that felt quite so accurate to their own adolescence. a lot of young people who watched st were totally unfamiliar with this period of time, unfamiliar with books/movies like “stand by me” that st borrows from heavily, and i think st lent more seriousness to the eighties than most young people had experienced so far, and this was refreshing and interesting!

the use of dnd in the show is also quite genius in a way i’m not sure i can articulate?? it isn’t something Everyone would have played at the time, but it’s something that existed within a different context back in the eighties than it does today, and it really lent a sort of authenticity to the naming of the show’s sci-fi elements. like, of course these kids would name parallel dimensions and monsters and superpowers after these similar things in their favorite game! it just feels so real and it grounds st in our reality moreso than you might expect from the typical sci-fi or horror universe.

utilization of existing tropes

almost every single character in st clearly originates from some popular trope. the plot itself is riddled with classic eighties movie tropes. almost every single element of stranger things can be clearly traced back to some iconic eighties film or just to, like, overused horror/sci-fi/mystery/coming-of-age movie tropes in general. this might sound like a bad thing, but it really works in st’s favor! starting off with familiar tropes gives st the ability to easily create a lot of complexity and make a big impact by selectively deviating from those familiar, comfortable tropes!! while el’s whole plot, hopper’s character, etc, are all examples of this in action, i think the steve/nancy/jonathan plot is the greatest example. even from the start, the fact that good girl barb dies while nancy is off having sex with her asshole boyfriend is an incredibly thorough inversion of the most well-known horror movie trope in the book. how often do girls in horror movies have sex for the first time, walk home alone in the dark of night, and live to tell the tale? nancy and jonathan’s dynamic at first glance is a sort of classic “good girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, discovers he’s actually got a heart of gold” thing, but instead of following this well-trodden path, st diverged. nancy is brash, impulsive, and at times downright insensitive. jonathan is angry, bitter, and actually a bit of a creep at first. while they have the capacity to emotionally connect and support one another, they can also bring out each other’s darker side, which is not what we’ve come to expect from that initial tropey dynamic.

in addition, steve, the popular rich asshole boyfriend, is actually... a human being! unlike the cartoonishly evil jocks that we’ve come to expect (especially from eighties movies), steve has complexity. despite his initial immaturity and selfishness, he’s also kind to barb, he backs off when nancy says no, he’s gentle and sweet when they sleep together, his first big Dick Move of the season is in defense of nancy, he realizes the error of his ways after the fight and does what he can to fix it, he’s worried about nancy when he sees that she’s hurt at jonathan’s house, and to top it all off, he ends up saving both nancy and jonathan’s lives when he could have just walked away, and the three of them all work together to fight the demogorgon. like... steve began as the most stereotypical character of all time, and by the end of the season, he had one of the most compelling and unique arcs among the whole cast!

finally, at the very end of the season, instead of dumping steve for jonathan as expected, nancy ends up getting back together with steve, and they’re both on friendly terms with jonathan. i realize that i just kinda. summarized s1. but my POINT is that i don’t think the dynamics between the monster hunting trio would be nearly as fun and interesting had the characters of nancy, steve, and jonathan not been set up to follow certain paths that we already had charted in our own heads. like, within the first couple episodes of s1, it’s pretty obvious that nancy and steve are gonna break up, nancy will get with jonathan, and steve will either die or go full evil or just never be seen again. like, duh! you’ve seen this story a million times! you know that’s how it’s gonna go! so, when the story DOESN’T go that way, the impact of each character’s arc and the relationship dynamics become stronger due to their unexpected complexity and authenticity.

distinct plotlines separated by age group

this one’s rather obvious, but the way that the adults in s1 were essentially in a conspiracy thriller while the teens were in a horror flick and the kids were in a sci fi power-of-friendship story and all three converged at the end... wow. brilliant showstopping etc. not only was it just really well done and unique, it also gave stranger things near-universal appeal. like, there’s genuinely something for pretty much everyone in season one!

casting

obviously this applies to every season sorta by default, but when i think about what made season one So successful, i always think about the cast, and not just winona ryder. yes, she’s absolutely amazing in the show and it’s very doubtful that st would be as big as it is today without her name being attached to it from the start!! however, i think the greatest determining factor in st’s success is the casting of the kids, particularly millie bobby brown. like... el is just absolutely incredible. she’s amazing. this has all been said many times before so i won’t harp on it, but millie and the other kids are all So talented and charismatic and i think their casting has been instrumental to the show’s success.

strong visuals

the way that multicolored christmas lights which have been around for decades are now kinda like. a Stranger Things thing. jesus christ. those lights are probably the biggest stroke of stylistic genius on the show.

atmosphere and setting

this is probably like. the least important one here for me sdjncdsc because i think s2 and s3 both had like Even Better atmospheres and shit but s1 was good too and it laid the groundwork!! i know a lot of people would have preferred st be set somewhere more Spooky with lots of fog or giant forests or whatnot, and while i do enjoy thinking about alternate st settings and how they might alter the vibe, i think hawkins indiana was a good choice. as the duffers have said, placing stranger things in a fictional town allows them more flexibility than if they’d gone with their original plan of using montauk, new york. besides that, i think the plainness and like... flatness... of small-town indiana just Works. like, the fact that hawkins is never really scary on the surface is a big part of the horror in the lab’s actions and their impact. hawkins isn’t somewhere that people just disappear all the time. it isn’t somewhere known for strange occurrences (prior to s1, that is). it isn’t somewhere shrouded in mist and secrecy. hawkins on its surface seems like the sort of place with no secrets and nothing to fear, and that’s the point! the lab is out in the open! it’s right there! everything is so close to the surface, yet so far out of the public eye, and i think that really works.

the byers family’s whole deal (specifically the joyce/jonathan dynamic)

this is going here bc i miss it so bad in s2 and s3. i’m not one of those people who believe The Byers Are The Whole Point of the show, because st is and always has been an ensemble, and el, hopper, and the wheelers are just as instrumental to the plot as the byers, but ANYWAY, i do think the byers were one of the most interesting aspects of s1. joyce’s difficulties with supporting her sons as a poor and (implied mentally ill) single mother, jonathan’s stress as a result of having to earn money, care for his brother, and keep the house in order when his mother is unable to do so, and the resulting tension between them when will’s disappearance and supposed “death” brings the situation to a tipping point? holy shit! it’s so good! that argument after they see will’s “body” is just incredible and gut-wrenching. their relationship feels so real and messy and i think it’s just... good. also winona ryder REALLY acted her heart out and she carried a lot of s1 which i think people often forget to mention so i’m saying it here.

weaknesses

pacing/timing

ok so pacing is probably going to go in each season’s weaknesses, to be honest, because i think they all had a blend of some good and some bad pacing. good pacing is invisible pacing, though, so i probably won’t be putting it in any of the strengths sections and will only be focusing on it in the weaknesses. i’m also probably not going to talk about weird day/night cycle things, just because i don’t want to get nitpicky on timelines because that would require going back and rewatching things to double check timing which i don’t wanna do at the moment lmao. anyway, when i think of bad pacing in season one, i primarily think of two things: nancy’s little trip into the upside down and subsequent sleepover with jonathan, and the sort of staggered nature of the climax in the final episode. the latter is simple so i’ll explain it first: while i understand that each group’s respective climax is like part of a chain reaction and that’s why each big moment happens separately and at different times, i think that st is strongest when the whole group is together, and i think that makes the stakes feel higher too, so i’m not In Love with the way s1 separated everyone and gave each group their own climax.

okay, now on to the nancy/upside down thing! idk if i’ve ever talked about it before, but i think the worst decision made in s1 by far is the inclusion of nancy’s brief trip into the upside down, wherein she dives headfirst into another dimension with absolutely no backup, watches the demogorgon chow down, freaks out and runs around for a minute, and then leaves. like... what the fuck? even putting aside what an idiotic decision this was (because i do think nancy’s tendency to rush into things headfirst is an intentional and consistent character trait), it just kind of destroys any remaining suspense surrounding the demogorgon and the upside down, and it accomplishes basically nothing besides scaring nancy enough to have jonathan sleep over, which is lame. i will break it down.

like, first of all, nancy just getting to waltz in and out of the upside down and get a good, long look at the demogorgon makes the entire thing far less mysterious, and by extension far less scary. like... before this scene, we the audience haven’t got a good look at the demogorgon. we’ve seen its silhouette briefly and we’ve seen a blurry picture of it, but nothing more, and i think that is far more effective at building fear than this jaunt nancy goes on which gives us a full view of the thing and makes it into less of a horrifying nightmare and into more of a humanoid animal. like, maybe this is just me, but i found the demogorgon far less intimidating after that scene than before. it also lets nancy and jonathan know For Sure that they’re right without providing any crucial information that they need to fight the demogorgon (aka it’s unnecessary to the plot), which removes a very compelling story element (the faith nancy and jonathan need to have in order to keep going against a vague and poorly understood enemy, the doubt they might have about each other and their own sanity, the possibility that they might be wrong, the trust they need to have in each other) a bit earlier in the plot than i believe is ideal. at the end of episode 5, nancy goes into the upside down and jonathan doesn’t know where she is and it’s intense!!! you’re thinking like, oh fuck, not only is nancy missing and fighting for her life now too, jonathan might be implicated in her disappearance!! some people already think he’s the one who killed will and people know that he took creepy pictures of barb and nancy before they both disappeared, maybe this is gonna cause some serious problems for him!! maybe nancy will find will in the upside down and she’ll help him survive!! fuck, maybe she’ll actually die!! this is huge!! and then episode 6 starts and they’re immediately like oh nevermind jonathan found the tree and got nancy out and she’s fine. my point with all of this is that nancy entering the upside down could have done A Lot in the grand scheme of the plot, but all it did was just... get jonathan to sleep over so he and nancy could have some awkward romance moments and steve could see them together and pick a fight. which could have honestly happened at Any point while nancy and jonathan were working together to hunt down the demogorgon, without ruining the demogorgon’s and the upside down’s mystique. so yeah <3

weird behavior and dumbass decisions that make no sense (aka the whole camera thing)

gonna go off about the teen plot again sorry but: why was nancy so unbothered and quick to forgive jonathan for taking those pictures? girl what the fuck are you doing? why wasn’t that a bigger deal? why was jonathan’s motivation for doing it so weak and why did they just kind of forget about the whole thing? why did nancy TRACK HIM DOWN AT THE FUNERAL HOME while he was PICKING OUT HIS BABY BROTHER’S CASKET to be like hey can you tell me what’s in this creepshot you took? it’s insane. it’s so insane. i mean i think the funeral home thing is hilarious and i don’t mind it being in the show necessarily but like my point here is that i think a lot of character decisions in s1 just kind of.. happened because they Needed to happen for the plot. like, they wrote this plot that required jonathan to be secretly taking pictures of the party and required him and nancy to work together after seeing something odd in the pictures, but they didn’t like... really consider what that event would mean for their characterization and relationship. the whole thing was sort of just dropped with minimal discussion and i think it did both nancy and jonathan’s characters a disservice and was really mishandled.

lighting and saturation/color grading

i am literally begging horror/sci-fi shows to let me see shit. i GET IT okay i understand that when you’re doing cgi effects it helps to keep the lights down and i’m not mad at any of the lighting in the demogorgon/upside down scenes!! i’m really not i think the demogorgon scenes in s1 all look sick!! but like... dude. the colors. where are they. why does everyone look like a vampire. i know blah blah this was probably an intentional stylistic choice intended to mimic film at the time blah blah but dude a lot of old movies are very colorful!! please just let people have color in their faces so everyone doesn’t look like a sheet of paper!!! also i’m white and not a professional lighting designer so yknow grain of salt but i think lucas was kinda poorly served by the lighting sometimes in s1. not Hugely so, not to the degree that i’ve seen poc be poorly served by lighting in other shows, but there were some times where it felt kinda like the lighting setup was just not designed with darker skin in mind.

horror

i just personally don’t find s1 very scary like... ever. i don’t think they were really Trying to be extremely scary yknow so i’m not counting this as a big deal, but i do think that each season has improved on the horror aspects. i think s1′s horror lies more in the mystery and the unknown than in what’s seen onscreen, and as i’ve said already, i think s1 kind of fumbled that suspense ball.

season 2

strengths

the possession plot

i’ll warn u rn this whole s2 strengths section is probably gonna be really short bc idk like. how much there is to really say i feel like it’s all so self-explanatory skjncmn. anyway yeah the possession plot!! eerie as fuck, and noah OWNED. so did winona tbh and finn and sean etc but like. noah. wow! i think the possession plot helped the show maintain a good amount of tension and suspense throughout the season, and a lot of scenes with possessed!will are flatout disturbing to watch. in a good way. i think the mindflayer and will’s possession were far more genuinely frightening than s1′s demogorgon, and it provided a new layer of depth and intrigue to the antagonist besides just “bad monster want eat people.”

tone and aesthetics

halloween season... literally halloween season. halloween season. that is all.

actually i will elaborate a bit and just say that i think s2 did a good job of having the sort of foreboding vibe that s1 was often going for, but without the annoying darkness and desaturation. so points for that.

also st2 is like one of the best Autumn pieces of media ever like it just. like steve and dustin on those train tracks with the fallen leaves all around them.... god. god the vibes are unparalleled. all of the halloween stuff also really contributes to the nostalgia st runs on yknow it makes you think about childhood and trick-or-treating and you kind of get transported like damn... i remember going to the rich neighborhoods to score the good candy..... idk i just think the whole thing is incredibly effective.

“babysitter” steve

by sending nancy and jonathan off together, the show created a problem: what to do with steve? this problem pushed them to create the unconventional and unexpected duo of steve and dustin, and the world is so much brighter for it. seriously though we all know steve and dustin are great i don’t need to argue that point. all i’ll add is that i think allowing steve to grow in this way, serving as a mentor figure and becoming genuine friends with someone so unexpected, really took the originality of his character to the next level. no longer content just to defy his archetype, in s2 steve begins branching out in ways that never would have been considered in s1, creating an incredibly complex and interesting person from the sort of character that most shows would have simply written out or killed off for convenience’s sake. and it works and steve and dustin are such a joy to watch and i love them. <3

the lucas/max plot

so first of all max mayfield is the most perfect baby girl on god’s green earth and idk what i would do without her but anyway. i think lumax is the best romantic relationship in the show and not just because they’re the only ones with like an age-appropriate approach to the whole thing. it’s also because their relationship accomplishes more than just putting the two of them in a relationship!! lucas and max spending time together motivates billy to do his evil shit, providing more conflict in the narrative, and it also helps establish max as part of the group in a relatively natural way while giving both her and lucas a great subplot. lucas (and dustin) has a crush on the new girl, they start spending some time together, and lucas ends up needing to decide whether he’ll keep the secret of the upside down and lose her, or risk both of their lives by telling her the truth. that’s a pretty big, character-defining decision that he gets to make!! max has to choose whether to trust this boy she barely knows and endanger herself, or to walk away and stay safe, yet another great character-defining choice that also contributes to the sense we get as an audience of max as somebody who’s incredibly lonely and desperate for love and connection. this post is way too long already and i have a ton more to say so i’ll stop now but yeah i think lumax really Works in the show without ever distracting or detracting from the overall plot and narrative in the way that some other ships (coughjancycough) often do.

balance between the normal and abnormal

s2 i think did a pretty solid job of melding daily life with more fantastical sci-fi horror elements. i enjoyed seeing so much of the kids at school in the first few episodes!! you really get a strong sense of where they’re at in life, what their daily lives are like, and you get a sort of gradual shift into madness that makes everything feel more grounded than i think it would if they had just leapt straight into the horror shit, yknow?

the el and hopper dynamic

go back and rewatch s2 and tell me that’s not one of the most moving portrayals of parenthood and trauma and growing up that you’ve ever seen. you can’t. or well you can but i won’t listen. i really can’t imagine stranger things without el and hopper’s relationship, and it’s my absolute favorite part of s2. their whole dynamic is so beautiful and complex, and gives them each amazing personal arcs in addition! the black hole scene is literally one of the show’s greatest moments of all time. any given scene between the two of them in s2 is just guaranteed to be heartwarming as well as heartbreaking, and i think that makes for an incredible show.

weaknesses

flashbacks

okay this applies to Every season they All have too many flashbacks but in s2 specifically... please stop showing me shit from season one. i watched it. i know what happened. you don’t need to spoon feed everything to me!! flashbacks can be a really helpful way of delivering information to an audience, but st has a bad habit of not only being kinda demeaning in how often they flash back to shit that the audience already knows, but they also have a bad habit of using flashbacks almost as a crutch to avoid having to deliver information subtly and naturally.

you know i gotta say it... the lost sister

this is so sad. the lost sister really is like a great concept for an st episode, and i’m not mad about the idea of st taking a break from the normal action to focus on one story for a full episode, but the execution of it was just dreadful. kali and her crew feel very over-the-top and stereotypical, and its placement in the season totally kills the tension and excitement that was built in “the spy.”

i think the lost sister honestly could have gone over far better, even with the stereotypical fake-feeling gang kali has, if they had just swapped it with “the spy” like... ok, the end of episode five has el setting off to find kali and will collapsing on the ground seizing. right? imagine if, instead of immediately following will to the lab, we’d followed el. we don’t know what’s happening with will, but it’s a very simple cliffhanger that leaves us on edge without making us feel cheated by the show cutting away. we follow el on her little journey, everything happens much the same as canon, and then at the end, el sees hopper in scrubs. she sees mike, screaming, sees that they’re both in danger. holy shit!!! what the fuck!!! what’s happened since we left will seizing on the ground??? we feel el’s fear and confusion. she decides to go home. and then... boom. “the lost sister” is over. now, we rewind, right back to will seizing on the ground, and “the spy” commences. we learn how they got into the danger that el saw in the end of “the lost sister,” and we sit on the edge of our seats all through “the spy” and “the mind flayer,” KNOWING that el is on her way back to save them but not knowing when she’ll arrive!! idk i don’t think that would have necessarily saved lost sister but i think it may have alleviated some of the issues that i and many others have with it, timing-wise.

the nancy/jonathan sidequest

once again, the idea of nancy going off on her own little mission to find justice for barb after s1 is like. amazing. genuinely i love that plot for her and i can’t imagine anything better for her to have focused on in s2. unfortunately though i think her and jonathan’s little trip to see murray was just kind of... lame. the whole thing just felt like an excuse to get the two of them alone together, yknow? which is fine i guess people contrive all sorts of situations to get characters alone together for romance reasons but in this case i think it just really doesn’t work for me because of what it’s juxtaposed with. like, will is POSSESSED, and jonathan is just off on a mini road trip and sleeping with his bestie, and jonathan never seems to communicate to joyce/will that he left town, and joyce never like... thinks to tell him that will is like sick and fucked up and they’re looking at him in the lab??? like it’s so weird i know joyce always forgets about jonathan when shit’s happening with will but jfc you’d think at some point in that like... 72-ish-hour period where jonathan was out of town she would have thought about him. like at least once. maybe i’m forgetting something and she mentioned him sometime and i missed it but even still, i hate the juxtaposition of nancy and jonathan just like cheers-ing at murray’s place and sleeping together and whatnot while everyone else is dealing with possession or trying to hunt down dart yknow? it feels really boring in comparison and i think it could have been done far better. like it was SO insanely easy for them to get into the lab and get an admission of guilt and escape with it!! i think it might have been a lot more engaging if maybe someone from the lab tailed them to murray’s place and they had to like lose the tail and race to get the recording out to as many news outlets as possible before they got caught, or something like that. the tension in their plotline is completely resolved in episode four!! episodes five and six are just them screwing around and addressing envelopes. while there were a lot of strong ideas in this plotline (i really enjoy nancy going out of her way to get justice, and the fact that they have to water down the story to make it believable), i just think the focus on nancy and jonathan getting together hindered it a lot without adding a ton to the plot or their individual characters.

season 3

strengths

starcourt mall as a setting

while i don’t think the mall was utilized quite to its full potential (something i could make a separate post about if anyone’s interested), i do think that starcourt was a genius addition to the series. i’ve said this before, but building a new mall is a literal Perfect in-universe justification for a significant leap forward in fashion and aesthetics, and it provides a great location for characters to just... be characters. idk how else to articulate this i just think that the mall is a great setting to let people interact with each other and to bring people together who may not have been otherwise (i.e. scoops troop). not to mention how sick it was to see the mall get wrecked toward the end kdjncdkm like they were able to do so much more with the mall in terms of like The Finale than they could with just the byers house or the cabin or the school or even the lab. i love all the back tunnels they run through it’s such a fun like acknowledgement of how this glitzy eighties mall is just a real place where employees get shipments and take out the trash and shit idk it’s all about the perfect facade and what’s hidden what’s underneath what’s hiding in plain sight etc etc i’m just saying words now. anyway.

willingness to experiment and go against expectations

gay robin. neon aesthetics. giant fucking meat monster. i know some people hate both the neon and the meat monster but i personally think they were kind of amazing and like. yknow regardless of personal tastes i think it’s impossible to deny that s3 had a lot of incredible visuals, and they’re all visuals that just wouldn’t have been possible if the show were too afraid to stray from its s1 aesthetic. robin being canonically gay (and her resulting friendship with steve) and the season’s striking visuals are two things that most everyone (besides like homophobes skjncdknm) can agree were great, right? and they were both departures from where the show began and what we all expected!! so yeah i think while some of the experimentation in s3 wasn’t ideal it was also that experimentation that allowed for some of the season’s strongest elements to come about.

the hospital sequence (and the season’s action/horror scenes in general)

this one is fairly self-explanatory. while they may have underutilized the “body snatching” element of the season, the hospital sequence with nancy and jonathan fighting off their possessed bosses did an amazing job of building tension and creating a genuine sense of really intense and personal danger.

in general i think that s3 melded action and horror rather well, particularly in the sauna test, the hospital, and when the mindflayer busts through the roof of hop’s cabin. horror can come from many things, and in this case, st elicited horror largely from the feeling of helplessness, and it was really effective for me personally. i think it worked better for me than s1′s brand of horror because it doesn’t rely so much on a lack of knowledge or a sense of suspense that inevitable disappears upon a second viewing.

the body horror we got in s3 was also really fun! that’s it i just think all the blood and guts and slime were fun and i would like more of them. once again, the impacts of body horror are less dependent upon the viewer being in the dark or unsure as to what’s happening, and as such i think it tends to be a little more effective at eliciting reaction in the long term.

timing and mechanics of the battle of starcourt/finale

i think the battle of starcourt is just fucking awesome, and beyond that personal opinion, i think it’s the most high-stakes and intense finale of all three seasons, and this is for two main reasons! 1. el is out of commission, and 2. (almost) everyone is in the same cental location. this means that (almost) everyone is in danger all at once, and they are all working together at the same time to fight the same threat. s1/s2 have their groups more fragmented for the finales, and while i understand why in each case and i wouldn’t call either season’s finale necessarily weak, i do think the centralized nature of the s3 finale just Works on another level. in s1 and s2, large segments of the cast are already perfectly safe by the time el dispatches the primary threat. in s3, however, everybody save for dustin and erica is still in danger up until the last moment, and el is seemingly (you can def debate how much power she still had in her when she peeked into billy’s mind and whether the memory broke the mindflayer’s hold on him or if she was actually controlling him to some degree) completely vulnerable. this increases the tension and raises the stakes, making the finale a real crescendo to fortissimo as opposed to a series of little mezzo forte moments. i hope everyone reading this knows music idk how else to phrase that my brain is stupid.

emphasis on friendship and adolescence (but in a different way than s1/2)

this is definitely a controversial one but i think that s3 really did like... show a side of friendship that had been more or less unexplored thus far in the show. el and max were amazing, and i think it’s really nice that we got an opportunity to see the kids have some growing pains as well as see them support each other through Normal Adolescent Stuff like boyfriends and breakups instead of just like. death and trauma. this is maybe just a personal preference, but i think it can be really enlightening and provide a lot of depth when you get to see how characters respond to normal everyday conflict and not just how they respond to giant world-ending conflict!! letting el use her powers for goofy teenage shit like spying on boys and messing with mean girls at the mall is not only fun for her and the audience, but it also really emphasizes just how much those powers are a part of el, making it that much more devastating when she loses them at the end of the season.

weaknesses

tonal dissonance

so this is like. obvious. but it must still be said! i won’t go on and on about it since we all know this so i’ll try to like talk about it from an angle people don’t usually? anyway. it seems to me like they were maybe a little worried about s3 being too dark. while the choice to really lean into humor was definitely driven by the sorts of eighties teen films from which s3 drew inspiration (like fast times at ridgemont high), i think it was also done in an attempt to alleviate the more troubling implications of some events in the season, particularly the russian bunker plot. like, yeah, st can be incredibly dark, but if they’d played the whole “children being stuck inside of a foreign military base, tied up, tortured, and drugged” thing completely straight without the humorous elements that exist in canon, it had the potential to be like... disturbing on a new level. steve and robin don’t have powers like el yknow their kidnapping/torture doesn’t have any sci-fi elements to sorta soften the blow. they’re just innocent teenagers being brutalized and traumatized by grown men. so anyway yeah i think maybe the writers were concerned about this storyline coming off as too dark and they wanted it to be a little more whimsical but they ended up pushing way too hard in that direction and creating extreme dissonance at times. this goes for joyce/hopper/murray/alexei too, but to a lesser extent. i think the ridiculousness in that group felt a lot more like... realistic. but still.

newspaper plot

once again i feel like i don’t even need to say this skjdncmn we all know it was insane how the show basically ended up delivering the message “while misogyny is a serious problem poverty and classism are not” and i’ve said it on this blog a million times so i don’t need to repeat myself. i’ll focus on another weak point of this plot: the fact that it completely separates nancy and jonathan from everyone else. once again, the show’s preoccupation with j/ancy held them back! like... can you imagine a version of s3 where nancy and jonathan both worked in the mall? i have a lot of ideas about this possible au and like how the plot could play out differently if they worked in the mall but first of all it’s just more realistic, second of all it further utilizes the mall as a central setting, and third of all, it would bring everyone together. as it is in canon, nancy and jonathan were unnecessarily isolated from the rest of the group, and this isolation was detrimental to both of their characters. like, they only ever get to interact with each other! if they’d gotten summer jobs in the mall, they could have had more interactions with the kids/steve/robin, and they absolutely still could have had a similar argument! maybe in this case, nancy notices the rat thing (or something else odd) herself when taking out the trash behind the mall, and she wants jonathan to ditch work with her to check it out bc she thinks it may be related to the lab. jonathan doesn’t want to ditch work because he needs his job, nancy argues that they’re working shitty mall jobs anyway and who cares if they get fired, and we get more or less the same thing as s3 without the cartoonishly over-the-top misogyny. i mean honestly i think the rat shit could have been cut entirely it didn’t rly... accomplish much of anything. in my opinion. like imagine s3 without the rat plot you literally would not be missing anything except it would be more surprising when the dudes melted into goo at the hospital. so yeah i think it would have been better if nancy and jonathan had jobs at the mall, weren’t isolated from everybody else, and were maybe absorbed into the party’s plot or the scoops troop’s plot from very early on, allowing them to interact with more characters and have a less... dumb.... plot. like god splitting up nancy and jonathan between the party/scoops troop would have been So Much better i just. sdkjcnksdmn anyway yeah.

briefness of group reunion/separation of groups

remember in s2 at the beginning of “the gate,” where mike and hopper had a confrontation and max and el met for the first time and el hugged everyone and steve and nancy had their sad little moment together outside... where’s that energy? obviously the s2 reunion wasn’t that long either, but it made space for some significant emotional moments to take place. s3′s reunion had some hopper/el/mike resolution, but besides that... there was nothing, really. i just think that the whole group getting together in s3 was SO exciting and powerful the way they did it (with both the scoops troop and the adults having their own Big Moment reconnecting with team griswold family), but the emotional potential was more or less squandered.

i also think in s3 at times they were really stretching to keep everybody separated even though it made no sense. and like... in s1 the separation worked bc nobody else knew that (x group) was experiencing weird shit too, and beyond that, each group (as i mentioned in the s1 section) was sort of operating within their own genre and bringing something unique to the season. they’ve stopped doing that though! now, the groups aren’t separate bc each plot is tonally/structurally different, the groups are just separate bc... they need to be, because it’s a big ensemble cast and you can’t just have them all be together for a whole season or it would be way too difficult to coordinate things and keep the show dynamic. all this is to say that i’m excited for s4 because the location differences make it so there’s a Reason for each plot to be separate at the beginning, and i think that’ll work better.

general ridiculousness

i dont mean like i think it’s bad that they made jokes this is just me lumping in all the dumb shit like hopper not worrying about el and not wanting to check on the kids, him and joyce bickering long after they both know they and their children are in danger, max seemingly forgetting that billy is a racist abuser, etc etc. i think many of these are just a symptom of the show 1. trying desperately to keep the groups split up a certain way even though it may not make any sense, and 2. trying to fit into a certain genre/trope mold when their actual characters are more complex than the tropes they’re imitating. this is so fucking long already i am not gonna elaborate further rn but i trust u all know what i mean.

soooo... yeah, that’s about all! i mean it’s not all there are definitely many more things i could talk about and i know i focused sorta disproportionately on the teens which is my bad :/ but i’m done for now. thank you for asking, and apologies for the delay in responding!! i’m sure some people reading (if anyone read this far) will disagree with some of what i’ve said and that’s alright like i’m not The Authority on st or anything i’m just trying to talk about like my own thoughts yknow? so yeah luv u all i hope someone enjoyed reading this!!

#asks #em talks #lesbianrobin.canon #stranger things #if u actually read all this i love u and im sorry #these r just my opinions!! and im sure i misremembered some shit my brain is swiss cheese #i did my best tho

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hawkinsschoolcounselor · 3 years

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Hi! Love your blog. Like you, I’m cautiously optimistic that Byler could pan out, bc otherwise why have the Duffers bothered to craft all the noticeable subtext & backstory? I’m queer, and invested in stories about queer youth, especially love stories - it would have meant so much to me to have them as a kid. So I’m optimistic but unsure. My question is: what are some of (or 1 of) the best arguments you’ve seen on the Mileven side of things, and what would be your counter points? Thanks! :)

Thanks for reading! Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond to this.

Yes, the Duffers seemed to go out of their way to set up Mike and Will’s relationship. It would be very jarring for it to not come to fruition at this point. My biggest fears now aren’t that it won’t be addressed, but that something will get in the way. Bury Your Gays is still a thing, apparently, as shown most recently with Supernatural. I don’t watch that show, but the fury that spawned from the last episode is evident. This is a great opportunity for the Duffers. A happy resolution for Mike and Will could be a very uplifting moment in popular media, and it could help show that gay characters are more than just drama fodder.

Honestly, when it comes to Mileven arguments, I don’t really see many good points being made. Most of the points I’ve seen brought up have been related to the facts that Mike and El have kissed and been in a canon relationship. This is true, of course, but the relationship has never been portrayed in a positive way. In Season 1, you could argue that it was a puppy love-type crush, which could always develop into more, but still wasn’t “real love.” Season 2 started showing it as unhealthy, with El spying on Mike, and Mike obsessing over El. Still, both of them more or less forgot each other once the plot kicked in. Mike became focused on Will, and El became focused on her side quest.

Another big argument is that Mike said that he loves her during his outburst in season 3. I have trouble with this, too, because that interpretation doesn’t really fit in with anything else we see from him after she dumps him. He doesn’t try to apologize to her, choosing instead to deny any responsibility. Max assures El that Mike will come crawling back to apologize, but no, it doesn’t happen. Instead, we see him fight with Will, feel terrible about it, and run to him to apologize. I’ve argued before that Mike uses El as a safe outlet for his feelings for Will. It’s likely subconscious on Mike’s part, as his mind is protecting him from the unwanted desires by sublimating them onto someone more acceptable. The things Mike says to El apply to Will as well. “I love her and I can’t lose her again!” Change “her” to “him,” and you have a statement that easily applies to Will, who Mike has lost or nearly lost multiple times.

The “they say it makes you crazy” speech in the store is cited, as well. This is a clear parallel to “crazy together” only without El getting it. Mike probably doesn’t even realize he’s using similar terminology to what he said to Will. This scene shows us that Mike has love to give, but El isn’t the one it’s meant for. See the scene at the end of the season where Mike is confused and awkward in response to El’s declaration of love for further evidence.

Now, this was all from Mike’s side. El isn’t even really in love with Mike. She bonds with him due to trauma. I’d say the Snowball was the only real genuine scene they had. At that point the danger was gone (as far as they knew), but even that scene shows, on Will’s part, that Mike and Will have something brewing. Aside from that, we see season 1 where they bond while both are under a lot of stress. Season 2 has them not reuniting until the point of highest tension where Mike is most terrified of losing Will. Then in Season 3, things looks ok at first, and they have a relationship without danger, but it’s not healthy. All they really do is make out, seemingly because it’s what El wants. When Mike breaks off to dorkily sing to the music, she stops him. They are also never shown doing so much as talking. The most we see is them lounging on the bed reading, but that was seemingly just because they knew Hopper was about to come in. It’s not until they break up that they have any real conversations, and even those are awkward. They don’t know how to talk to each other. Finally, we see El want to get back together with Mike, but only after she lost Hopper. She’s back to needing Mike for comfort and a sense of control.

I honestly believe that a lot of fans like Mileven for one of two reasons. First, they’re young girls with crushes on Finn Wolfhard, and they want to fantasize themselves in El’s place. Second, El is a young, powerful female character, and they want her in as much of a prominent role as possible. In the end, we all get emotionally invested in these characters, and that’s why we support ships as much as we do. On my own part, I really need to see more positive depictions of gay relationships, especially among younger gay characters. I can only imagine how much better my own experience would have been if I had such a depiction of gay teens in a hit show as a teenager. It’s a similar thing on the part of Mileven fans, but I have little sympathy here because they have representation is almost every other show imaginable. They’ll be fine if (when) Mike and Will end up happy together. Our opportunities are far less common.

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #eleven

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urdearestmom · 3 years

Text

brain damage

i’m back again y’all and just wrote this piece... a bit of a scene study from that scene in 3x06. basically what i wish mike had said

also the middle part is mostly conjecture but some of it is bits that you can hear in the actual scene if you strain your ears and ignore nancy and jonathan talking over it

also DISCLAIMER i do not hate max!! i really like her actually but she was really pissing me off with this whole bit because she just does not have any basis for understanding mileven's relationship and so her advice doesn't always directly apply. she had good intentions but BRUH. anyways i could go on a whole rant about max vs mike in season 3 but i'm not gonna do that right now lmao

It’s pretty silent in here, El thinks. It always is, but tonight it’s… strange. Almost as though it’s empty. Why can’t she find them? She’s been sitting in her room for the last half hour trying to locate any of the flayed and although she can’t see it, she knows there’s a growing mountain of bloody tissues next to her on the floor. She’s starting to think that she might need to give herself a break for a little bit.

Her friends are in the living room waiting for her, and she knows they’re all anxious to find out what she might see. So far, absolutely nothing. The only thing that happens is that every so often she hears a bit of a voice. It’s just there, tickling the edges of her consciousness, and she could tune into it if she wanted to… but she’s already identified it by the cadence of the noise as Mike’s voice, and she’d said she wouldn’t spy on him. She’d done it once and he was clearly upset by it. Although they aren’t really back to how they were before, El misses him more than she lets on, and she doesn’t want to make things worse by spying again.

Outside, Mike is getting close to yelling. He sincerely hopes El can’t hear him because he is once again fighting with her new best friend.

“It can’t be good for her to be in there for this long,” he exclaims, pacing in front of her door.

“Mike, you need to relax,” says Max, looking disdainfully at him.

“What if she gets brain damage or something?!”

“Oh shit,” interrupts Lucas, looking between them. “Is that like, a real thing?”

Max scoffs. “No, it’s not. He made it up. Mike doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” she adds, raising her eyebrows defiantly as if daring him to refute her.

“Oh, and you do?! ” He retorts. Her facial expression alone is pissing him off. It’s so self-righteous, as if she knows anything at all about him or how he thinks and feels.

“No,” she says quickly. “But I think El does. See, that’s the difference between you and me. You think you know everything!”

“I don’t know everything,” he fires back. His hands are balled into fists and he’s starting to shake. “But I know her.”

Max snorts. “You’re just mad she wants to be her own person. You can’t deal with other people not doing what you tell them to.”

“What do you think this is, Russia? I’m not some dictator, okay? I’m just trying to protect El!” He says angrily. This is getting more and more ridiculous by the second. Max doesn’t know the first thing about what he can or can’t deal with and acting like she does is striking his last nerve. Mike can feel the familiar boil of rage deep within him coming to a rise.

“The only person who knows anything about El’s powers is El,” says Max, with an air of finality.

Mike crosses his arms in an attempt to get himself in control of his emotions. “So if that’s true, what makes you think you have any more of a say than I do?”

She splutters for a moment and it’s so satisfying that Mike almost smirks, but it drops quickly when Max rises from her seat and stalks over to him.

“I don’t,” she seethes, poking him forcefully in the chest. “But she does, and you need to back off .”

“I’m not even on! ” He yells, throwing his arms up and pushing her away. He realizes his statement doesn’t actually make any sense but… whatever. At this point, it’s not like it matters. “She won’t listen to me! Because you put ideas in her head! You know she absorbs every new thing people tell her and you pressured her into dumping me!”

There it is. It’s out. It’s what he’s been thinking since it happened. He knew he’d messed up big-time by lying to El, but he never would have expected her to dump him over it. And the look on Max’s face as she stood by and watched had said everything he needed to know.

Max’s face is turning an alarming shade of pink and Mike thinks that he probably matches her. “I didn’t pressure her into anything, she decided! What is your problem with letting El decide things for herself?!”

“I don’t have a problem! At least I didn’t before you inserted yourself where you didn’t need to be!”

“All I did was give her choices!”

Mike takes a deep breath to retaliate, but then lets it go and turns away. “You don’t understand. Just- fucking leave me alone.”

Lucas is still staring at them; Mike can feel his friend’s eyes on his back. Why isn’t he agreeing? He was there when El- he knows what she can push herself to.

Max makes an angry noise. “Fine! It’s not my fault you can’t be wrong!” She walks toward Nancy and Jonathan and Mike follows, preparing to convince everyone else that this is a stupid idea. “Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?”

Nancy looks hard at them, her eyes searching Mike quickly before flicking back to the girl next to him.

“Who do you think should decide El’s limits… Mike, or Eleven?”

He sees red. “The way that you framed that is such bullshit. ” Why is he the villain here?!

Her braids whip around her face as she turns to him. “It’s not bullshit, Mike, this is your whole problem! And it’s also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass!”

“El dumped you?” Nancy asks incredulously.

Mike throws his arms up again. “Yeah, because she’s conspiring against me! She’s corrupting her!”

“N- enlightening her!” Max throws back. “The fact is, she’s not yours. She’s her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions.”

“She’s risking her life for no reason!” He shouts.

“No reason?” Says Nancy. “Mike, the flayed are out there doing god knows what-”

“Killing, flaying,” interjects Lucas.

“Transforming into monsters,” adds Will.

Mike glares at them. Not helping.

“And El’s not stupid,” Nancy continues, shaking her head. “She knows her abilities better than any of us.”

“Exactly, thank you,” Max says victoriously. Mike closes his eyes. He cannot believe this is how this is going.

“And she is her own person-”

“Exactly!”

“With her own free will-”

“Exactly! El has saved the world twice and Mike still doesn’t trust her-”

At that he has to interrupt. There’s no way he’s letting Max flip this around. “You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?!”

Max looks down, giving herself away.

Lucas stands up behind him. “Wait, what?”

Mike whirls to face him. “Oh, she didn’t tell you this?” He says sarcastically.

“No!”

“Your girlfriend used El’s powers to spy on us ,” he spits.

“No, no, no,” Max interjects. “I did not make her, it was her idea. And why are we even talking about this, seriously?”

“Yeah,” says Will. “Who cares?”

And now Mike’s annoyed at Will too. Will has no idea what is going on in Mike’s head and he’s not ever going to understand why he feels the way he does. Just the same as the rest of the Party will never really relate to Will’s struggles because they weren’t there, Will wasn’t there for theirs either. He didn’t see what she did-

“I care!” Says Lucas, and finally Mike is glad someone seems to be on his side. Thank God for small blessings.

“Yeah, I guess girlfriends don’t lie, they spy,” he says, turning back to Max at the last moment so she can truly see his ire.

“We were just joking around,” she defends.

“Would it have been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?” He asks.

She wrinkles her nose. “You weren’t!”

“But what if I was?!”

“Then gross!”

“Seriously, Mike?” Interrupts Nancy, and all of a sudden this has become like one of those moments where he just wants to strangle her for talking before he’s done. She does it all the fucking time and like, he guesses it’s probably part of being siblings but it leaves him fuming more often than not.

“I’m just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven’s powers,” he says carefully. This is where he needs to get his point across. He desperately needs someone to understand that he’s not trying to be controlling or police what El does or doesn’t do, he’s just trying to save her from herself. He couldn’t do it the first time, but by God if he isn’t going to try now.

“Have any of you noticed Lucas is the only one not disagreeing with me?” He asks.

Max huffs. “Lucas doesn’t have anything to do with this. This is your prob-”

“Lucas has everything to do with this!” He roars. Mike has absolutely had it up to here with her and turns on her a final time, shaking again. “You weren’t there, Max! None of you were. Except Lucas. You don’t know what she’ll do..” His voice trembles.

Lucas seems to understand what he’s getting at and lays a hand on his shoulder. Mike flashes him a grateful look. He still has a hard time thinking about that night, much less talking about it. “She vaporized herself in front of us. I tried to stop her and she did it anyway.”

The room is silent now, the only sound being the TV static from El’s bedroom where she’s still holed up. Mike takes a breath.

“It’s not that I think El doesn’t know her limits,” he says. “I just know that she doesn’t care about them. She’ll die overexerting herself before she lets something hurt one of us.”

He looks up at everyone, Jonathan and Will looking oddly similarly out of place and Nancy with her eyes trained on his face as she listens. Max isn’t looking at him. Good , he thinks. Maybe that made her feel guilty.

“How would you feel if you knew firsthand El didn’t care about dying to save her friends, huh? Wouldn’t you be worried about her?” He directs this at Max specifically, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “You guys are treating her like some kind of machine, and she’s not a machine. I still have nightmares about that day all the time.”

The room stays silent, almost as though everyone is holding a breath and waiting for him to start yelling again, but he’s not going to. He doesn’t have any energy left to expound on this topic. If Max wants to keep making him the bad guy, then whatever. He has more important things to worry about.

“I just-” He starts and stops, wondering if this is the right thing to say. “I don’t want her to die looking for the flayed when they’ve obviously vanished off the face of the Earth, so we can we please just come up with another plan because I love her and I can’t lose her again.”

Now it’s almost as though all the air has actually been sucked out of the room. Maybe this wasn’t the right time to reveal the depth of his feelings, but Mike really didn’t know what else he could say that could possibly make them understand his position. Lucas’ hand on his shoulder squeezes for a quick second and then lightly taps him as Lucas moves his arm back.

Nancy shakes her head. “I get that you don’t want her to hurt herself, Mike, but she’s already in there. There’s not much else we can do.”

“What’s going on?”

Everyone whips around to face El coming out of her bedroom doorway. Holy shit, did she hear what he said? Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit-

“Nothing. Nothing!” He says quickly.

“Just… family discussion,” adds Lucas from behind him. Mike can feel the smirk in his voice without even having to look at him.

“Oh,” says El, and suddenly Mike really wants to hug her. But this isn’t the time. He looks away.

“I found him,” she continues.

“Found… who?” Nancy asks.

“Billy.”

#stranger things #stranger things 3 #stranger things fanfiction #urdearestmom #brain damage #reimagined #3x06 #mileven #mike wheeler

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willthecleric · 4 years

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Hey I love your blog and your analysis, I wanted to ask you something related to byler, I have started to think if byler will make canon ... how would they do it exactly so that the message is captured? Guy wanted to know your thoughts or if they would meet at s5 at the end or at S4? Or the public would say that it is forced is my biggest fear that the audience will have a negative reaction ... and what would be the perfect ending for them according to you? I wait your answer:)

Hey! Thank you! :) Well, based on a number of movie hints as well as the show itself, I think Mike is going to come out as gay and state how he never loved El and used her as a beard to project Will onto. His talk with Karen in S1E2 was very much like a coming out scene, and I think he comes out to her and she is supportive of him (I do not at all believe Karen will be homophobic towards Mike). The Fisher King (one of the S4 movie) hints that Mike becomes close to Robin and Steve (probably working with them at the video store) and confides in them. They probably help set Byler up. In that movie, the couple who works at the video store (I know Stebin is not romantic but still it applies) tries to get the characters who represent Byler to get together, and the woman who represents Robin literally says ‘STRANGER THINGS have been known to happen’ in reference to the Byler characters getting together. I honestly think the main reason why they added Robin in the show was so that she and Steve could fill those roles and that they went with her being gay to both hint at another gay character being revealed, and so that she can be someone he confides in who he can relate to. Maya said that she wants Robin to interact with Mike for a reason. It was a hint. 😉 And I think Mike also tells El he is gay and was projecting on her the whole time. Movies hint at this as well. I also think Mike gets jealous of Max like he was in S2, but this time they make it very clear that Mike’s issues with Max were jealousy over Will. Basically what I’m getting at is that I think they will work to recontextualize stuff from previous seasons so that looking back the audience sees that this stuff was there from S1 as well as explain what was going on with Mike the entire time. And anyone who has issues still after that is homophobic and can die mad about it lmao. The Duffers have already let it be known what they think of homophobes when they had Troy: be pushed by Mike (who is gay), be forced to piss himself in front of the school who laughed at him, have his arm broken, and just look like a fool/joke. 😂

Based on several movies, I think there is a lot of Byler in S4. I think we see Will visiting Mike and also Mike visiting Will and staying with him. My guess is that Will moved to Chicago (based on movies, as well as El going to Chicago in S2 and Joyce going to Illinois with Hopper in S3). Point is they are probably only a few hours away from each other. I think we see Mike proving just how much he loves Will, both to Will himself and to the audience. Because Will loves Mike deeply too, but does not think that Mike loves him (for valid reasons). And at the end it’s revealed that Stranger Things the show is actually a book written by Mike for Will sharing his story and their love story. There is a reason why they have it known that Mike is the writer and the episodes are called ‘chapters’. 😉 Multiple movies have the Mike character writing a book for the Will character, who the Mike character is ‘crazy about’.

I don’t want to get too far into the ending I see for things because it goes into controversial grounds, but I will say that I think they end up traveling various places before setting somewhere by a beach. My guess in Europe and getting married when they can. Multiple movies hint at it. I suppose they could go back to the US at some point, but I don’t know really. I like the idea of them being somewhere that they can marry sooner. They deserve it.

Sorry if I’m not clear or making much sense. 😬🤣

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jinxthequeergirl · 4 years

Text

Lipgloss

Steve Harrington x Hopper! Reader

Summary: the reader has always been steves cooler half but he notices that you start making little changes.

Warning: swearing, none, this is kinda wack it didn't come out the way I wanted it to

~~~~~

You where in fact your fathers daughter in every way possible, tough as nails, quick witted the whole nine yards. And everyone knew it.

The only issue was Steve Harrington, he was your best friend but lately it seemed like he was the only one who could make your cool deminor falter. And everyone seemed to notice it.

You watched Will attempt to follow your steps and skate down the street before turing to stared at Steve as he and dustin made the large order from the ice cream truck. He glanced back at you with a goofy smile making you chuckle.

"Y/n!" Your head snapped forward just in time to see will plow you down on your skate board. "Ah...shit..." You groaned.

"Are you guys alright!?" Steve asked running over to you with the rest of the kids. Dustin helped pull will up as steve helped you up. "Yea...yea I'm fine." You chuckled.

"Sorry kid." You ruffled Will's hair. "It's alright, I'm fine. I'm gonna go again." He said excitedly. Taking the skateboard from the ground and running back to the starting point with Mike and lucas by his side.

"You sure you're fine?" Steve asked again looking you over. "I'm...I'm fine harrington, are you fine?" You asked him nervously. "Yea, yea I think I'm ok." You nodded dusting your hands off on your shorts. "Good, good...oh uh hey wheres my choco Taco?" You asked attempting to save yourself from the conversation.

He looked back over to the Ice cream truck. The man inside was looking impatiently back as the diffrent ice cream bars sat on the counter.

"On it's way." He said jogging back over.

"What was that!?" Max asked coming up beside you with El at her side.

"What was what?" You asked walking to sit on the curb. "With steve! I've never seen you act like that!" Max laughed. You furrowed your brows. "I wasn't acting any way..." You trailed off when Even El gave you a look that said you where acting diffrent.

"C'mon You where totally starting at Steve! And then what was that conversation!?"

"Do you like steve?" El asked cutting in on Max.

You laughed. Both because hearing it outloud made it sound absurd but also out of nervousness.

"Do I..Do I like steve? Me? Liking Steve!?" Max crossed her arms. "I've seen you around boys...it usually ends up with them scared of you...not the other way around."

You opened your mouth but instantly closed it as steve came back over. "Ladies, one orange dreamcicle, A cotton candy swirl and a choco taco." He said handing the ice cream bar to you.

"Thank you kind sir." You winced as the words left your mouth, he laughed and sat next to you digging into his own Ice cream order.

Max and El chuckled at you as you struggled to act normal next to him. "Hey! Y/n?"

"Yea?" You croaked out. "Is it alright if I sleep over at your place tonight?"

You cleared your throat and took your eyes from steve to look at her. "Yea...of course." You smiled lightly.

You winced at the loud crash and steve yelling through the phone. "Sorry about that..." You laughed pouring another bag of candy into a bowl. "No need to apologize...boys will be boys right?"

You could hear him give a light hearted chuckle through the phine making your heart do a little jump in your chest. "How are the girls?" He asked. "Oh you know..doing girl things...painting nails, talking about boys...usual girl stuff."

"Ooh I wouldn't have happened to have been brought up in your boy talk would I?" He asked cheekily. Your face grew hot and you cleared your throat trying to keep cool.

"Why on earth would we talk about you?" You joked. "Ow I'm hurt."

You looked up hearing the girls squeel with joy from the room over. "Ok well sounds like the girls are having fun without me."

"Ok. Hey, I'll see you tomorrow afternoon after I get off of work."

"Of course, Night Harrington."

"Night." You hung up the phone and grabbed the tray of snacks.

"Ladies! Snacks are served!" You announced as you pushed El's bedroom door open. They both looked up from their magazines and ran over to it as you set it down.

"And then Later I picked up some movies from Family video-"

"We had a better Idea!" Max said. "What?" There was knock at the door that El quickly got up to answer as Max sat you down.

"Well me and El wanted to help you with your steve problem."

You shook your head. "I don't have a steve problem." Max rolled her eyes at you.

"Yea sure."

"I heard we where having a girls night, and you needed help with Harrington!" Robin said as she stepped into the bed room.

"Oh god...They got you two involved!?" You asked looking at Nancy and Robin.

Nancy shrugged. "I didn't have anything better to do..."

"Me neither." Robin added hoisting herself ontop of the dresser.

You looked between the four girls and fell back into the bed throwing a pillow over your face and groaning.

"I..i dunno about this guys..."

"We'll just start with small things...like lip gloss!" Max said As you sat infront of the four of them

"Yea! And then we can work up to the bigger stuff!" Nancy said taking the lip gloss from Max.

Their big idea was to give you a make over, 'round out your sharp edges' Nancy had said.

"C'mon guys don't you think Steve should like Y/n for y/n? And if he doesn't then maybe he's not the one for her?" Everyone looked at Robin.

"Actually...actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea." You spoke up. Robin held her hands out to you. "See!"

"C'mon just give this a try, then we can try Robins way." Nancy said holding your chin in her hand to apply the lipgloss. And El held up the mirror to you so you could see yourself.

You frowned slightly at yourself and looked at your glittery lips. "This is kinda stupid." You mumbled wiping it off. "It's not! We can even do your hair a little bit!" Nancy said trying to convince you to go through with it. Max flipped through a magazine and landed on a page.

"We should go with this! Subtle but with a pop!"

You all glanced at the page then at yourself through the mirror. "Have at me if you must."

Robin laughed at the sight eating a handful of popcorn. "You are very helpful." You said to her as El helped do your hair. "Stay still." El said from behind you.

"I just think, maybe you should let things work out on there own..." She said along with pointing at a shirt that Max held up from your closet.

"Ok, ok leave your hair like this tonight...and tomorrow morning take it out and it should look like that." Nancy said pointing to the magazine picture.

You bit your lip and nodded. Thinking about what Robin was saying.

"Ok do this." You followed max's lip motion after you put the lipgloss she had picked last night as you stood outside the mall.

"Ok, ok! You look good! Like yourself but...better."

"Thank you, really." You smiled sarcastically at her.

"You know what I meant!" El rounded the corner quickly. "He's coming!" She said grabbing your wrist and pulling you forward.

"Be yourself! Be flirty!" Max yelled as they basically flung you around the corner into steve.

"Oh hey!"

"Sorry! Hey!" You laughed, Nervously.

"Uh hey! Since you're here do you wanna go...get...food?"

He chuckled. "Yea..I was actually Going to ask you the same!" You nodded and started walking beside him back into the Mall,smiling to yourself.

"Where the hell is steve going!?" Dustin asked coming up beside Max and El.

"A date I think." Max said.

"He was supposed to take us to The arcade!"

You walked scilently beside steve but you could feel him glancing at you.

"What?" You finally asked looking up at him.

"What?"

"Well you keep looking at me so...you must wanna say something or is there something on my face?"

"No! No! Nothing on your face, but Are...are you wearing Lipgloss?" He asked looking closer at you.

You moved from his gaze brushing your fingers under your lips.

"What? N..no!" You laughed nervously.

"It is isn't it! Your wearing something girly!" He laughed. you scowled and punched his shoulder and rubbed the stuff from your lips.

"Ow! C'mon y/n i was kidding." He said rubbing his arm. "Why are you wearing that stuff anyways? You constantly say how much you hate it. "

"It was just a stupid Idea..." You muttered the response and quickly grabbed a seat in the food court.

"No, hey c'mon! It looked good..if thats what you want to start doing I'm not gonna stop you! I'm not saying it was bad just suprising." He said sliding into the seat across from you.

"And hey for what It's worth I think it looked pretty on you, but...but I think you look good no matter what!" He said trying to cheer you up.

"Really?"

It was Steves turn to be the akward one. "Uh..ye..yea..." You smiled turning to him.

"Thanks Harrington...I think you're pretty too." You said jokingly. "Shut up." He said laughing.

You sighed. "Ok...shit..Imma be honest with you...I was wearing it because Nancy and Max thought It would give me a better chance of getting with you...Robin said to just let things happen...I should've just listened to her. " You laughed.

"Yea...really she knew what she was talking about...cause I planned on asking you out this weekend." He said almost nonchalantly.

"You..you where?" He nodded watching you amused.

"I feel kinda stupid now.."

"No! It was kinda funny to watch you be the uncool one for a change."

"Whatever...when should I be ready?" You asked.

"For?"

"Our date. Or did you already forget?"

"Oh uh Saturday like seven-ish?"

You nodded. "Ok..I'll be there."

#steve harrington x reader #stranger things x reader

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argyleandjonathansmokingajoint · 4 years

Photo

Say Me, Say You

Will’s skint knees are on display; his rolled up jeans bare a new tear in the right cuff. Hazards of a skateboarder. He’ll just try to sneak it by his mom without her noticing later, then pass it off as an old pair. His red sneakers squeak against the pavement as he hops back on his board. Just as he flips an ollie, there’s the sound of shoes walking up behind him, startling Will out of his focused state.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Will’s back is still turned, but as he hears the voice his tense shoulders deflate.

He faces the other person and smiles, face breaking out into a huge grin. “Mike!”

The other boy is tall, lanky and has a smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose, with wild, dark curls, ever since he let the untamed mass of swirls grow out. He has dark, smoldering eyes, a soft, but intense brown Will would say. Mike is still growing into his teenage features, his ever growing body and Will is completely in love with him, regardless of the fact.

“Hey! I- Oh, ouch! Did you wipe out? Bring bandages?” Will blushes as Mike starts fussing over him, making him sit and get out his emergency pack.

“You do know my mom, right?” They share a look and a smile. “Of course I did. Kinda ruins the whole bad-ass skater image, but-”

“Aw, come on, I think you’re bad-ass!” Mike nudges his shoulder then reaches into the pack, grabbing band-aids and antiseptic ointment.

“This might sting a bit. Or, uh a lot.”

“Ha. Ha.” Will rolls his eyes and pretends to be unamused.

The first bit of ointment that Mike presses into his skin does, in fact, sting. He doesn’t wince or grimace but instead looks to Mike’s face while he diligently applies it, then carefully places bandages over the scrapes. Mike looks thoughtful while he works on the task, his administrations ever so meticulous and gentle. Will waits patiently, in awe as Mike seems to take such a small thing to heart.

Why? He’s always patching him up, always there when Will needs to vent through some emotion he’s feeling. He’s just always there beside him with a smile on that stupid, pretty, freckled face. Will’s starting to get mixed messages. Or is he? Because the signals Mike’s been sending since they were thirteen seem pretty clear, actually. Maybe it’s just Will who doesn’t know how to read the messages Mike’s been trying to send. Maybe he’s been too scared to.

“Ok, all done.” Will is broken out of his thoughts by the sound of Mike, looking up to see him flash his pearly whites, almost a bit self consciously. He looks handsome in this light, the sun behind him casting a glow around his body and turning his cheeks slightly pink, or perhaps something else is the cause of that. His hand is still on the side of Will’s knee and he make’s no move to remove it now.

“Thanks. What would I do without you?” He almost tacks “man” onto the end, but he makes a conscious effort not to. He’s trying something new this time. And if it works, then great! And if not, well it’s only his entire lifelong friendship he could be ruining, right?

“Oh, probably be completely lost, duh.” It’s said as a joke, but Will knows more than anything how true that is.

“Yeah y-

“I-”

They both chuckle awkwardly for a moment.

“You go!”

“Oh, no you!” Mike looks slightly nervous and maybe a little scared now, so Will decides to spare him. He’s gonna do it.

He takes a breath. Releases. “Mike, I- Well, I guess I just wanted to talk about how I’ve been feeling.” Mike’s face changes from embarrassed to concerned now, but Will just holds a hand up and he waits. “Don’t Worry. It’s not like that or anything.” A small smile lifts the corners of his cheeks. “For a long time, really long- I think since third grade maybe even, I’ve felt this way. It’s just hard-” here, Will loses courage and Mike, feeling his friend in need of some bravery, puts his hand on Will’s, squeezing.

“Sorry. I meant that... It’s hard for me to tell you-” Mike tilts his head to the side, almost like a puppy and Will can’t help himself, he has to smile. “That I like you.”

Nothing happens for the first five seconds. Mike doesn’t yell or punch him or call him names or run away, which should be a good sign. But he doesn’t say anything and Will holds his breath for the whole five seconds. He just keeps holding Will’s hand, but then those five tortuous seconds are over (Will counted) and he does something strange and altogether lovely. He squeezes Will’s hand, and then in Will’s pure and radiant joy, he does all he can think to do, which is of course to squeeze back.

Mike looks up at him and his eyes are definitely wet. Is that a good or bad sign? Will can’t decipher it because of the way Mike’s looking at him. He’s never looked at anyone that way, but those eyes are for him only in this moment. Then there’s the fact that they’re still grasping at each other's hands, somehow even tighter now.

And then, Mike’s mouth finally opens and words just start flying out. “Well, it’s about time.”

Will does a blink. “H-huh?”

“I’ve been waiting around long enough, don’t you think?”

“Uh-”, Mike doesn’t give him time to answer though.

“Since we were thirteen! Thirteen, Will! I’ve been throwing out feelers to you left and right! I tried stepping up my game, even. You just asked me if I was sick or somethin’!” He pauses to take a breath. Will is mesmerized. How had he never seen it before? He was so caught up in his own self-loathing that he couldn’t see the pain that his best friend and love of his life was going through.

“I’m so sorry, Mike. I never saw what you were dealing with. I mean, I thought it was jus-”

“Thought it was just you? No way, dude. I’ve been in love with you since fifth grade. All I ever wanted was for you to notice me in that way, but I hated it at the same time, hated myself for feeling that way. You know my dad.” Will does. Will’s dad may be a prick of the first-degree, but at least he isn’t around to say and do the kind of things that hurt Will anymore. The same can’t be said for Mike. His dad voted Reagan for goodness sake! He was always on about ‘Those jeans’ll turn you into a queer’ or ‘I’ll have no son acting like a damn hippie’. Will squeezes his hand again in what he hopes to be a comforting gesture.

Mike grabs his other hand in return. “Why do you think I tried dating El?” he snorted and kept going. “’Tried’ being the keyword. Didn’t exactly work out, you know with me being-”, He looked around before leaning in and whispering conspiratorially, “Gay and all.”

“I love you!” Will shrinks again, realizing what he’s just said aloud, no matter how true it may be.

Mike’s eyes are wide as they stare at him, round and globe-like. “Really? I love you too.”

It’s a soft moment and caught in it as they are, they both lean forward slowly with hands held tightly. Will can just feel the slightest graze of Mike’s lips against his own when they hear the sound of a motor rattling its way up the road. Their eyes jolt open and they scoot apart as fast as they can, looking at each other and bursting out in mirth as the car rattles past them an on down the road. When it’s quiet again and they’re sure no one is around, they push themselves back together until their feet are touching. Mike interlocks his pinky with Will’s and all feels right again.

Mike starts to hum some tune. It’s a familiar one and it makes Will ache in a heart-stopping kind of way. Their cheeks are both tinted. They could lie and say it’s the sun, but it seems the only lie they’ve ever told each other is no problem any more and why start now? The tune Mike hums is picking up now but it slows again and just because he can, because he’s in love and he’s happy, Will sings along.

“Say you, say me say it for always That's the way it should be”

#byeler #byler #stranger things #stranger things aesthetic #stranger things moodboard #byeler aesthetic #byeler moodboard #byeler mbs #st mbs #will and mike #mike and will #my stuff #st fic #byeler fic #fics #my fics #i had a lot of fun making this so i hope you guys like it!#the song is say you say me by lionel richie #a great 1986 jam!

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addictofsupernatural · 4 years

Text

Emotions (pt. 3)

Billy Hargrove x reader

Summary: Billy helps y/n make a list of what she needs to do and learn in her life.

Word Count: 2305

Chapter 1 • Series Masterlist • Chapter 4

"So what are we gonna do next?"

"I don't know. There's a lot of things that I've never done." You said. You both decided that he would come over tomorrow. After the call ended you buried your face in a pillow from excitement. Your face was hot and you couldn't stop smiling. You don't fully understand this feeling; it's one that you've never had before, but you love it.

The next day you heard a knock on the door and practically flew to it. You opened it with a big smile on your face, but your smile quickly faded as you saw a bruise on Billy's jawline. You reached for it, Billy looking down and watching you. "Billy, are you okay?"

He put his hand over yours as you gently grazed the purple patch of skin. "Course doll. Can I come in?"

You sadly smiled and nodded, although not too convinced that Billy was okay. He came in and looked around. It was small and old, but also cozy and had a home feeling to it. You both passed El's room, seeing her make out with some kid. You looked at Billy mischievously before kicking the door, causing the kid to shoot up and hit his shin on the bed. "Not cool five!"

You snickered as Billy tried his best to contain his laughter. That kid's face was just too priceless. You both get to your room and leave the door a crack open. You then get out a piece of paper and a pen, writing down all that Billy insists you have to experience. You were both laughing together when Hopper opened the door. "Hey. Just uh, checking in. Making sure everything's okay." He said, then muttering, "Y'know, keeping it PG and all."

Mike then passed by Hopper, stopping right behind him. You saw the time, and knew Mike would have Hopper take him home right about now. "I don't know Hopper, I think you might have to be careful. Billy Hargrove is the town's bad boy."

You stared at Mike, wide eyed. You then looked at Hopper and smiled. "That's strange, because his tongue has been in his mouth the whole time he's been here, but I can't say the same for Mike. Isn't that just the strangest thing?"

Billy bit his lip to hide his smile, although failing miserably. Mike had his mouth hanging open as Hopper gripped him by his shirt and dragged him out the door. "Y'know, for a sweet little thing like yourself, you got a wicked mouth on you doll."

You looked at him, uneasy. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Hell no. It's badass." You beamed and giggled, scooted closer to him. "Alright, now we gotta do all the things on this list."

You both agreed on what to do that day, leaving a note and grabbing the things you needed. You said goodbye to El and went to the car. Before Billy could start the car, you put a hand over his. "Um, I try to be honest with you about my life." You two stared at each other for a moment, before you gently ran your hand over the bruise on his jaw. "Friends don't lie."

He stared into your eyes, and though he didn't know why, he felt safe to talk to you about this. Friends don't lie. Billy couldn't recall if he actually had a real friend then. "Just a small fight with my old man, that's all." He muttered. "Saw Damien on my bed and called me a fag. He tried to throw it away and I wouldn't let him."

You took your hand away and stared at him with sad eyes. "This is my fault." You stated.

"Sweetheart no." He grabbed your hand, kissing your palm and settling it on his cheek. "I chose to fight him. That's on me. From now on I'm gonna hide him in my room. Right now I just wanna have a nice day with my favorite girl, okay?"

You gave him a small smile at the compliment and nodded. As Billy drove you quietly said, "Hey Billy," He nodded his head to show he was listening. "I think you're my favorite guy."

He flashed you a big charming smile. "Think, huh?" You giggled.

You looked down at yourself, uncomfortable. You weren't used to showing this much skin, and you certainly weren't used to wearing something without anything under. You stepped out of the Hawkins pool locker room and timidly walked towards Billy. "Maybe we shouldn't do this. I feel people staring at me."

Billy turned around after getting two towels to look at you, and he wasn't prepared for what he saw. You had your hair up in a high pony tail, letting him be able to see your face clearly. Your cheeks were flushed and your eyes sparkled in the sun. You were hugging your body, in a one piece that was snug in all the right places.

"Well would you look at that?" He leaned against the counter, smirking as he looked you over again. "Aren't you just the prettiest thing? People are staring because of how great you look. Lucky me, I got to you before anyone else could snag you."

You bashfully looked down and smiled. Billy took your hand and led you to a pool chair where he sat you down and applied sunblock on you. As he did this, he listened to you babble on about how you almost went to a pool with El's friends before but then canceled because something happened with El that led to a lot of bad stuff that you didn't elaborate on.

"So you don't know how to swim then?" Billy asked. You shook your head. "All done. C'mon, you're gonna learn today."

You both went into the water, and Billy had you hook your arms around his neck while he swam to the deep end. At first you were nervous and didn't want to let go, but Billy insisted that it was okay and that he had you.

You got the hang of it fairly quickly, and the two of you were enjoying yourselves at the pool. A group of moms were glaring at you, and you caught bits and pieces of what they were saying.

Billy...girl...freak...ugly...body...

You could hear their snickering. You suddenly felt weird about your yourself. It was a new feeling, and it made you want to hide yourself from everyone. You suddenly felt a pair of hands under water bring you to Billy's muscular chest. "Don't pay attention to them." He murmured. "They ain't got nothing better to do."

You hung out at the pool for about another hour before you both went back to your home. He then told you that there was a party tonight, which was also on your list. Later on as you got ready, Billy called you with a gruffy sounding voice. You heard yelling in the background. He asked to come over, and you said yes.

About ten minutes later you heard a knock at the door and opened it. Billy had a leather jacket on and a dark red button down shirt with a few buttons undone. He looked down at your outfit, with your red skirt and cropped white long sleeved shirt. It looked perfect and adorable on you. "Billy!" You hugged him. "Are you okay?"

He looked down at you and smiled. "Yeah, just my old man again. Don't worry about it."

You frowned. "That won't stop me from worrying. But come in, I made food for Hopper and El." As he stepped inside your house, he couldn't help but feel warmer. This house had warmth in it, the type of warmth that Billy's house could never have. Billy was pulled out of his thoughts as you gently grabbed his arm, coming closer to him. "Um, I think you should know that we're a bit strange. And El is a little shy."

He nodded, completely understanding. You didn't want him to be offended if your little sister was not as instantly warm as you. You called out that dinner was ready and served yourself. The other two came out of their rooms to serve themselves, all while staring at Billy. "You can serve yourself too." You smiled as you handed him an empty plate. You made meatloaf with mashed potatoes and red rice.

Hopper took out another small table and pushed it with the one that was already there, pulling up a chair as well. You and Billy sat on one side while Hopper and El sat on the other. When they weren't looking, Billy buttoned up his shirt some more. "It's nice to meet you both." Billy said politely, knowing how to act in front of others. He's had practice.

"Yeah, you too." Hopper forced out.

The conversation was not going anywhere, so you stepped in. "El, Billy's from California." Eleven had a map of the country in her room, secretly wishing she could go travel somewhere other than Hawkins.

She looked up, interested. "Ocean?"

Billy nodded. "Lots of ocean."

"Pretty?"

Billy flashed a grin. "Real pretty, sunshine." Eleven smiled.

You stared at your plate and smiled. El liked him. Hopper couldn't help but feel less tense at the way Billy was making an effort to make them like him. He began to tell El about the times he's gone to the beach with his old friends.

Everybody at the table enjoyed what Billy was saying. The one who enjoyed this the most was Billy. He's never had this. He's never had a nice dinner, where everyone talks to each other comfortably. It's always quiet, with Susan going on and on about her day. He felt wanted here. And the food was actually fucking good.

After everyone was finished you began to wash the dishes. As you did, Hopper took Billy aside. "So, um, I just wanted to let you know that I'm trusting you with my daughter, and that's kind of a big deal."

Billy felt a twinge of pride. "Thank you sir."

"Just, uh, be back by 10, and," Hopper scratched the back of his head, worried about entrusting his daughter's safety to someone else. "Keep her safe."

Billy nodded. "I will sir."

You slipped on your shoes and told Billy that you were ready to go. As the two of you walked outside and to his car, Hopper and El came out. "Bye Billy." El said, waving with a small smile.

"Bye sunshine." Her smile grew a bit wider.

When you got to the house Billy took your hand and led you inside. He then got the two of you drinks. You took a swig, wincing. "This tastes horrible."

Billy nodded, chuckling. "It's for the effect, not the taste. I'll get you something a little less grown up." You understood the joking mannerism in his voice, and gently pushed his shoulder with a smile before letting him go off again.

As you waited you felt a heavy hand on your shoulder. You turned around and saw an unfamiliar drunk face. "Hey, what are you doing by yourself?" He slurred.

"Um, waiting for Billy to come back." You said wearily. You considered using your powers to knock him out. You knew you shouldn't use it in a public place, but you had a bad feeling about him.

"Billy Hargrove?" He took a step forward, to which you took a step back. "What are you doing with him?"

"He's good company." You said in a monotone voice. He kept on walking towards you.

"I bet I can be better company sweetheart."

You backed up into a hard chest. You turned around to see Billy, drinks in hands and staring straight at the drunk teenager. "You don't get to call her that."

"Billy-"

"Get behind me y/n." He didn't take his eyes off the guy, handing the drinks to you and stepping forward.

"You think you're the shit, huh California? You think you could just steal all the bitches, huh?"

Billy wiped his mouth, pointing at him. "What the hell did you just call her?"

You quickly set the drinks down on the counter and stepped in between the two. "Forget about it, please. It's my first party, remember?" You smiled and wrapped your arms around his neck. "Let's dance."

He glanced at the drunken teen before looking back at you. He stared at you for a moment before chuckling. "Whatever you want doll."

The two of you left the frustrated, drunk teenager and went to the living room, where he pressed your body to his, putting his hands to your hips as you rested your head on his chest.

"You should be more careful." He said after a moment of silence.

You lifted your head. "I know. But I'll have you, so I'm not worry." He happily looked down at you, making a mental note to kick the crap out of that guy another day.

After you danced you two talked to other people, Billy snatching you every time a guy got too friendly. Later you told him that you wanted to go, and so the two of you drove off, you telling him which way to go.

You parked in a field, where there was a pond on the other end. "Is this the part where something bad happens?" Billy joked.

You smiled and shook your head, looking out at the view. "When I escaped with El, we found this place, and just sat down to take in everything." You got out of the car and opened up his car door, grabbing his hand and leading him into the field, sitting down with him.

The two of you were sitting together, just talking about random things. He told you that he'd never had a trust worthy friend before, and you told him that you've never been around someone who was so focused on you. You both taught each other on this day that this was what having a true friend felt like.

---

Tag List:

@roxytheimmortal @shane-isa-shame @actuallyazriel @tanovic54321 @chipster-21 @jula-bear

#billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove fanfiction #billy stranger things #stranger things billy #billy hargove imagine #billy hargove x reader #billy hargrove #stranger things fandom #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things #stranger things billy hargrove

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stevesnailbat · 4 years

Text

fear of the (un)known | steve harrington

chapter four : keep your distance

summary: Grace, or 007 as she had been called, finally escaped Hawkins Lab after seventeen long years. But, freedom is a lot harder than she thought it would be to maintain.

warnings: angst, mentions of death kinda?

word count: 2.3K

After delving into Steve’s mind by accident, Grace decided that it’d be best to keep her distance from him. She didn’t want him to know that she had done it, it felt wrong to her to intrude on his thoughts like that. Along with keeping the accidental mind-reading a secret, she was dealing with the fact that he had called her so beautiful. It was on her mind constantly, but she didn’t want him to fall for her—she’d hurt him and she knew it. The only problem with distancing herself was that he had begun to come around more than before.

Of course, Steve did his typical duties as chauffeur and babysitter for the kids, but now he’d make a point to come inside when dropping El off. He’d always talk to her, but he noted her distant stare as she’d reply. She didn’t dare to look at him anymore, like she was afraid that she might be compelled to read him again. Steve hadn’t stopped thinking about that night since it happened, his thoughts wandered to what was actually happening when he came into the house every time he saw her. He wanted answers, but he knew it’d might be impossible to get them.

There were only special places that Hop would let El go before Grace came, and those rules applied to Grace once she inhabited the cabin. The difference between the girls was that Grace never asked to leave. She had only bad memories of what she’d been through outside, she wanted to stay in the cabin forever. She felt safe, it was in her comfort zone.

Snow had finally started to fall in Hawkins and El was downright ecstatic about it. She wanted to leave the cabin and play in it so badly, but Hop would tell her no every time.

“You’re not going out there alone!” he snapped one day at breakfast, making Grace flinch at his booming voice. “No supervision, no leaving this house. Got it?”

“Grace can come.” El suggested and Grace nearly dropped her fork out of shock at the girl’s words.

“Still no. You two are not safe on your own, you know that.” he responded, eyes narrowed as El wracked her brain for ideas.

“Steve?” El interjected, knowing he would be less likely to say no if he would come.

“I’m assuming that means you want your friends to come over too, isn’t that right?” he asked, El smiled at him hopefully and nodded. “We’ll see.”

Grace knew what ‘we’ll see’ in Hopper terms meant, she knew El would get her way. From what El had told her, Hop had loosened his reins slightly after she closed the gate. It was still dangerous for them to go most places, but at least he’d let her leave the cabin now. Soon enough, a few phone calls were made and Steve was pulling into the driveway with a car full of the young teens.

Seeing that amount of people come to the house made Grace’s fear shoot through the roof. She hadn’t been around more than three people since she left the lab, she had no idea if she could trust any of them. El saw Grace sitting on the couch tapping her foot and chewing her lip, she could tell she was afraid. Grace nearly bolted off the couch when she felt the hand on her shoulder, but calmed when she saw it was just El.

“Friends, the Party.” El said simply, pointing to the kids outside as they piled out of the car. “You can trust them.”

“Do they all know about everything you’ve been through?” she asked, and El nodded.

Steve was opening the cabin door and piling in with the five kids in tow before either girl could say anything else. Everything happened very quickly after that moment, they all introduced themselves to Grace and were talking over each other as they tried to ask about her powers. She could barely think to fit a word in, let alone comprehend what they were all saying to her.

“I’m a telepath.” Grace said calmly, watching the way each of the kid’s faces lit up. “And I can control people’s minds.”

“No shit.” the boy named Dustin said, a dumbfounded expression on his face. “Would you show us?”

“Alright shitheads! Quit asking her so many questions. I’m sure she doesn’t want to use them right now. Let’s go, the sun will set if we don’t get out soon.” Steve called, earning a collective groan from the kids as they worked to put on their cold clothes again. “You coming with, Grace?”

“I—I don’t think I can.” she said, shaking her head quickly. “I don’t have a coat or anything.”

“Extra.” El said, pointing to the clothes sitting in the recliner next to her. “Please?”

El was too sweet for Grace to tell her no, honestly. Begrudgingly, Grace put the winter gear on and followed the group out the door. She fell behind everyone as they walked through the woods, becoming hyper-aware of everything around them. Steve noticed her concerned expression and slow walking soon after they started. Mike and Dustin knew where they were going, they could lead the way.

“Are you doing alright back here?” Steve asked, giving her a small, sheepish smile as he approached her.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” she said softly, shrugging her shoulders.

“Have you had anything happen since that night?” Steve asked abruptly, like he couldn’t stop his curiosity; it seemed inappropriate to blurt out, but he couldn't stop himself. “I’m sorry, I mean like, are you feeling better now? No more bad nights?”

She only shook her head in response. She knew exactly what he was talking about, he was asking if she’d damn near ruined herself again. Thankfully, she hadn’t had any episodes of terror since that night, but the thought of it still ran through her mind all the time. Steve was so perplexed about the situation, but she could tell he was catching onto something and she didn’t like it. She didn’t want him to know that she knew what he’d thought about her, so she’d keep that part tucked away for herself.

Most of the walk was quiet after that, and they eventually made it to where they were walking. There was a creek covered in ice and snow, but that seemed to excite the kids. They all ran towards it and left Steve and Grace to watch them run around. Grace found a fallen tree next to the creek to sit on and Steve followed suit, giving her the distance she wanted.

“What—What happened, exactly? On that night, I mean.” Steve questioned, still stuck on the last time they had spoken. “You don’t have to tell me, I guess I was just curious—“

“Brenner designed me to be a killing machine.” she stated bluntly, wanting to get straight to the point staring at the trees across the creek. “If I’m not using my powers at all, wether it’s to hurt someone or just read someone’s thoughts, I’ll start to self-destruct.”

“You were destroying yourself?” he questioned, she nodded slowly as she avoided his gaze.

“I’m trying to fight the urges, but it’s hard. I can’t be alone really, it’s dangerous. I—I honestly don’t know what would’ve happened if I would’ve been there by myself for much longer.” she said, shuddering at the thought of forcing herself into insanity. “It usually goes away if I use them just once, though.”

“So you did use them?” he asked, eyebrows quirking up as he saw her pained expression.

“I—I didn’t mean to. It just happened.” she said softly, looking up at him finally with guilt in her eyes.

It took seeing the sadness she was holding for Steve to realize what she meant. The guilt was eating her alive damn near as much as the itch to use her powers was now. She had read into his mind, but he was unsure of when she did and what she’d heard. Grace looked like she was on the verge of breaking down at this point, she was afraid that he’d be upset.

“Hey, I’m not mad about this, alright? It wasn’t like you did it on purpose. I was the first one you saw, and you didn’t want to drive yourself insane.” Steve said reassuringly. “Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“I’m sorry. For—For scaring you and El like that.” she said meekly.

“Don’t be sorry, Grace.” he assured her, smiling over at her. “What was I thinking anyways? I’m sure it was chaotic.”

“It was right when I realized you were even in the room with me, when I read your mind. You were really freaked out—you kept telling yourself to be calm because you didn’t want El to get scared.” she said with a bitter laugh, lips quirking up into a weak smile. “I’m glad you were there to freak out, because I was on the verge of something more.”

Steve scoffed at the thought of how scared he was, but knew she wasn’t telling the whole truth. He knew what he’d thought that night, and he knew that she’d heard exactly what he was thinking. If she could remember everything else, that definitely would have stuck with her. But he didn’t press on, he didn’t want to force her to talk about it.

Truthfully, Grace knew that he had some sort of crush on her and that she had developed something similar. Him calling her so beautiful had stuck in her mind and she wished she could hold onto the feeling forever. It was painful to think about, really. She knew that she’d have to do something about it, that she’d end up hurting him if she didn’t make the crush go away.

“Y’know, I meant what I said about helping you. We all want to help, I can teach you how to read like you wanted. I don’t mind, I want to help if I can.” Steve offered, smiling at her once more as he saw a look of sadness cross her face.

“Thank you, Steve.” she replied.

“And I’m sorry if I was an ass to you when you showed up that one day, I didn’t know what to expect. Especially after fighting those monsters from hell a couple days before.” he admitted, shrugging casually. “I’m glad you’re here and safe, Grace.”

She faked a smile as she looked up at him, a pang of sadness and guilt rushing through her. He was glad she was here, he wanted to know her better. She was a hidden gem that he discovered at the time he needed it most. Steve knew she’d be tough to break through, but he’d put in the work if he had to.

They hadn’t known each other for too long, but she knew his intentions were pure. Grace saw the determination that Steve held, she knew she’d have to break it somehow. She knew she couldn’t let him fall in love with her, she was unlovable and dangerous and he deserved better than someone who’d only cause him pain. Steve couldn’t understand that she was a monster, but she’d make him understand soon enough.

“Hey, get your asses up!” Dustin called to Steve and Grace, packing a snowball in his gloved hands. “We’re having an intense battle over here and need some assistance!”

The kids were throwing snowballs at each other and screaming back and forth about what the others were doing. It was entertaining to watch, but Grace was hesitant to join. El and Max coaxed her out, saying that they could kick they boy’s asses. They spent nearly an hour packing and throwing snow while hiding behind trees and making tactical plans. There wasn’t really a point to the game, besides hitting as many people as they could. It felt nice, for a moment, Grace was able to forget about the real world and just have fun.

The Party made her feel welcomed, like she wasn’t some freak or some monster like they did at the lab. She had just met them, but knew that she could trust them and they’d understand her struggles better than anyone else would.

It was sunset by the time they came in, but the kids were still hesitant to leave. Coming inside afterwards seemed like the worst part, honestly; they wanted to stay out there forever. They were cold and wet, but none of them seemed to mind too much. Steve looked to Grace every once in a while, seeing the genuine smile fade from her lips as they got back inside. She was brought back to reality and Steve could tell she was hesitant about something.

“You alright?” Steve asked her as she sat at the kitchen table while the Party chatted in the kitchen, he sat down next to her with a concern-laced smile.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” she lied, shaking her head assuringly.

The smile Steve gave her was so genuine that it hurt her, really. He seemed so invested in everything she said, like she was the most interesting person he knew. Honestly? He kinda thought she was, too. Grace tried to ignore the way he looked at her, to save herself from falling deeper into the hole that was her crush on Steve Harrington. She knew she’d have to hurt him in one way or another to keep him safe from herself.

She knew she’d eventually resort to driving him away in a way that he’d never know about, a way that would spare him the pain of heartache that she’d soon feel.

tags: @sourapplebaby @harringtown @jxnehxpper @hystericalmedicine @charmed-asylum @queenofthehairharrington @a-magey @lemonypink @daddystevee @karasong @heart-eye-harrington @batbatsupermanme @used-avocado @letscici @igotmadskills @mikariell95 @anerroroccurrrrred

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straighttxhell · 3 years

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Your post about Courtney's race was very interesting. I guess you probably think the same about Alejandro and Mike canonically being from Spain and Italy respectively, I think that Fresh probably think that Spain and Latin America are the same thing, same goes for Italy, another mediterranean country that they seem to confuse.

Thanks for appreciating my previous bible, here's another one!

I actually don't have a very strong opinion on Alejandro's and Mike's nationality since I didn't really watch those seasons hee hee.

While I do see Alejandro being from Spain, I also see him being latino lol. But I see him being spanish, because as latinos, we can spot very obvious spanish stereotypes trying to be passed as "latin" cough cough DESPICABLE ME 2 cough cough,, no, actually, let me explain more, this character, el macho, was said to be mexican when there was very obvious spanish stereotypes like the red shirt (I cant explain, its just from Spain), the fact he said "olé" referencing bullfighting which is actually a thing from Spain, not from Mexico and the fact that not a single mexican celebrates 5th of may but him, in the movie he throws a huge party for it when, let me tell you, NO ONE DOES THAT HERE. Literally no one. Not a single soul. The 5th of may is to commemorate a battle in Puebla the tropes won against France. I think they do celebrate it in Puebla but it's not like something huge like gringos paint it out to be, the whole country takes a day off but that's it.

I am part of the latin fandom, and this community has had HUGE debates over Alejandros nationality lol It's something we can't agree on, because Alejandro is a mix of stereotypes that fit different countries. Although the ones I've seen the most is people agreeing on is headcanoning him being as Peruvian and Salvadoreño, I can't remember the reasons between him being Peruvian but it made sense and I think they did come to a conclusion on that one, I have a peruvian friend whos fan of td, I'll ask him to tell me about it so I can post it if you're interested. The reasons behind him being Salvadoreño are that in one episode he offered "pupusas" to Heather, which are a typical food from El Salvador. I don't know if he's canonically spanish so I owe you that, but I do know he fits a lot of stereotypes that I can totally see him being from Spain, I get it, but they're also the stereotypes that media will try to say are from Latin America and since fresh rarely bothers to do research, I can totally see that they just applied spanish stereotypes and said "wow we just created the most latino character ever!!!" Yes, Alejandro is brown and I like to defend character's ethnicities from being erased but the fact that he's a mix of stereotypes makes him very very complicated. We once came to the conclusion he was mixed and fuck it lol, he's just complicated that way, we as latinos don't get so upset with Alejandro being headcanoned as spanish because WE GET IT. I'd really like to get an input from my peruvian friend to keep talking.

I honestly don't have an opinion over Mike, I didn't watch that season and didnt even know he was canonically italian, but I would have guessed he wasn't european lol, if he's italian, I kiiinda get it you know? Fresh just said "omg italian boi,, thats cool!". The problem with this is I havent seen it, so I dont really know about the stereotypes in his character that might denote he's from a certain nationality.

I don't see the harm of him being italian and people ignoring it and headcanoning him as another nationality that embraces his race, because it's not whitewash, it just tries to give more idea about his roots and make it more geographically accurate.

While italian is a language that does derives from latin, that doesn't make it latino lol which can sometimes be a confussion for some people, and maybe to fresh it was too lol. Italy is simply not brown and I don't understand why they said he was italian but look, sadly, it's canon :||| it's done,, yikes.

I am a little mad that fresh grabbed these two brown characters and said fuck it they're both european,,, it was wrong, but it's not like we can change canon, we can make our aus and represent them better with other nationalities, I fully support that.

But if canonically, which is Courtney's case, they're from a specified ethnicity and the fandom goes "fuck it, they're european" that's when it bothers me the most.

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paceypeternathanslawyer · 4 years

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Top 10 Male TV Characters (In No Particular Order)

Gilbert Blythe (Anne With An E)

What’s there to say about Gilbert Blythe that hasn’t already been said? He’s one of the most iconic literary leading men ever. And been adapted amazingly by Jonathan Crombie and most recently by Lucas Jade Zumann. I think one the reasons that Gil’s character has still held up so much, is that he was a guy who was attracted to Anne partly because she was smart. They were both at the top of their class, and Gil never really felt threatened. He respected Anne, and loved her for who she was. In Anne With An E, they really gave the character some more depth that I really appreciated. Lucas makes you feel so much sympathy for that character cause of his amazingly real performance.

Lenny Bruce (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel)

Seriously, I don’t know too much about Lenny Bruce the real life comedian, but Luke Kirby’s characterization of him is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The charm!! The charisma!! The beauty!! Every single time he’s on screen, it’s absolutely captivating and he elevates every episode he’s in. Also Luke Kirby has such respect for Lenny and you can tell any time he talks about him, the amount of care and research he put into this role. There’s a reason he won a freaking Emmy for this role!!! He’s by far the best part of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.

Stanley Barber (I Am Not Ok With This)

Stanley Barber!!!!!!!!! He’s another character who brings so much to the show. I Am Not Ok With This would be good without him.... but would it be a show that I would be a fan of... probably not. Wyatt is such an amazing actor, he can play the drama and the comedy so equally well. Stanley should be protected at all costs!!!

Luke Danes (Gilmore Girls)

Luke is such a good guy. So strong not just physically but also emotionally. He’s such a rock, and a dependable guy. A fantastic dad to both April and Rory!!! An amazing husband (not perfect.... but then again who is) to Lorelai. A great uncle to Jess. Luke is an indispensable presence in Gilmore Girls.

Mike Wheeler (Stranger Things)

I think out of all the characters in Stranger Things, I relate the most to Mike. We are both extremely loyal and would die for those we care about. We are both passionate people, and very emotional (though I would say that Mike is a little more moody than I am). I also relate to being way ahead of my peers in certain ways. I recall being a little girl and crushing hard on the boys around me, while my peers were still in the cooty stages. That’s really Mike is S1, where he’s all into El and all his friends are like forget girls, let’s play D&D. All this to say... an attack on Mike is an attack on me!!! So come at me bro!!!!! :)

Steve Harrington (Stranger Things)

Steve “The Hair” Harrington. King of Hawkins High himself. Mr Cool. Mr Funny. Ninja. Babysitter. I love Steve so much... words can’t even describe. I can even boast of being a Steve defender since S1. I knew the moment he called himself “Ninja” after stumbling through Nancy’s window, that he couldn’t be all bad!!!! It’s all thanks to Joe’s charm, charisma, and sense of humor that we have the Steve we know and love.

Jim Hopper (Stranger Things)

Hopper is such an fantastic and well rounded/interesting character. I love how protective and caring he is. Total badass, and I am indescribably happy that we will continue to see his beautiful face in future seasons. David is such an underrated actor, the fact that he hasn’t won an Emmy is a travesty.

Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)

LOGAN!!!! There is no greater TV character arc than Logan Echolls, he went from being a completely deplorable character in S1 to Season 4 where he’s one step away from a saint. In S1, he’s one step away from being a psychopath, and then they start to peel the layers and you see that his dad is abusive, his dad is also an actor so he has papparazzi on his back all the time cause he’s the son of a famous actor. His mother then commits suicide.... and SPOILER ALERT..... his dad turns out to be a psychotic murderer who killed Logan’s ex girlfriend and then his dad proceeded to attempt to murder his current girlfriend. This kid has been through more than anyone ever should. But Logan realizes his flaws and works to be a better person. He goes into the navy (which leads to Logan in a uniform.... need I say more). He also goes to therapy and betters himself. Every time he came on screen during S4, I couldn’t help but swoon. He’s such a hero and such an amazing man, who bettered himself and made himself worthy of Veronica. Even though, Veronica was not her greatest during S4 and could have benefited from therapy herself.

Burton Guster (Psych)

Gus is so funny. Yes, a lot of Psych centers around Shawn, but the show would be nothing without Gus. He’s funny, dynamic, and a sensible figure. Which Shawn desperately needs. Also Dule Hill is an tremendous actor and the fact that he is able to get into that character so easily for the movies, years after the series ended is so unique.

Shawn Spencer (Psych)

I kind of went into Shawn in Gus’ section. It’s hard to think of different things to say about him, cause over the years Shawn and Gus kind of become like one unit. Shawn is hilarious and dynamic. I love what a talented investigator he is. He could have been a police officer if he wanted to be. After all, he did get 100% on his detective exam. I love the trope of a guy who doesn’t really take a lot seriously or really apply himself and then you peel the layers and find that he’s really an elite detective or whatever (you can fill in the blank).

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stealthy-like-a-ninja · 5 years

Text

A Silent Vow

Where Steve reflects on what has happened and what’s to come.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Henderson!reader

Steve laid back down beside you and let out a sigh. Although he was ridiculously tired, he just couldn’t fall asleep.

The lamp on your bedside table flickered a few times beside him, indicating its need for a new light bulb sooner rather than later, while Sting’s soothing voice played quietly from the record player that sat on top of your dresser. He lost count of how many times he’d gotten up to restart your vinyl copy of Synchronicity by that point but didn’t really care as he mindlessly tapped along to the rhythm and stared at the ceiling.

He was pretty sure that he was the only one awake in the house, seeing how late it was. Ms. Henderson had gone to bed fairly early that night while you and he were cuddled up on the couch watching Grease with Dustin. It was your turn to pick the movie so neither he or Dustin really had a choice in the matter, but your little brother still made sure to express his annoyance in not being able to watch A New Hope again as he flopped into the lazy-boy recliner and grumpily stuffed his mouth full of popcorn.

Once the movie concluded, Steve was reluctant about not waking you from the peaceful slumber you had dozed off into so that the two of you could go up to bed. Dustin, on the other hand, was less considerate and wasted no time in throwing a pillow at your head so that you’d get up.

“We’re helping the Byers’ and El move tomorrow, and I don’t want to listen to you complain about how sore you are because you slept on the couch all night,” your little brother grumbled as he climbed out of the chair. Steve was about to scold him for being a dickhead, but didn’t get the chance to before Dustin muttered a quick goodnight to the two of you and made his way upstairs to his bedroom because she was tired; even though you all knew he was really just calling his girlfriend, Suzie.

You and Steve, however, followed suit and made the trek up to your bedroom as well, deciding to call it a night with just how exhausted the two of you were.

It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep with how drainingly busy you had been. It was your last year at Hawkins High School along with Nancy, and you had been up to your ears in homework and extracurriculars. However, even with all the time you spent studying and doing other things, you never let Steve or any of your friends fall under the radar. You helped him create a new resume that he was to use to apply to jobs with Robin the following day, drove Dustin and the rest of the party to and from school almost every day, and insisted that you’d help with whatever the Byers’ would need as they prepped for their departure from Hawkins in the upcoming weeks.

Although you tried to hide it, Steve (and everyone else) was able to see right through your facade of not being too upset over the Byers’ and Eleven moving away. Jonathan was one of your oldest friends, Will and Eleven were two more little siblings you never had; as were the rest of the party, and Joyce was very much a motherly figure to you and always had been. It was only natural that you’d see them off despite how tired and worn out you truly were.

As the next song started playing from the record player, you unconsciously snuggled closer to your boyfriend, and he couldn’t help but grin warmly. You looked so peaceful. However, Steve couldn’t help but think about how that was a completely different story leading up to the events that occurred three months earlier. Soon leading him to let his thoughts begin swarming.

To say that you and Steve had been through a lot would be an understatement. In fact, the two of you had basically been dragged through hell and back, but still managed to function as if nothing had happened. Well, almost. A lot occurred since the two of you started dating around Christmastime the year prior, not to mention everything that happened before that too.

Soon enough, Steve was overcome with the fresh memories of his entire relationship with you.

The two of you always knew each other, Hawkins was incredibly small after all, but you were never really close. However, that all changed in the fall of 1983 when Will and your friend Barb were sucked into the Upside Down, and the first Demogorgon wreaked havoc on your beloved town... The stupid thing almost got you too, but Steve came out of nowhere with that nail-filled bat of his during that fight.

After that, things were quiet, and life resumed as regularly as it possibly could. Steve started seeing you a lot more, thanks to the budding friendship you formed with Nancy after losing Barb, Dustin’s friendship with her younger brother Mike and fighting the monster from the Upside Down together. You, her, and Jonathan grew insanely close after everything, which naturally led to Steve being around much more often as well since he and Nancy were still dating.

After what Nancy said to Steve at the party, he was crushed, but you were there. You went out of your way to try to cheer him up because you refused to pick sides when it came to him and Nancy. He appreciated it more than he could explain, and couldn’t help but notice a warm fuzzy feeling that formed whenever he was around you after that.

He never acted on those feelings, though. Instead, he tried to bury them deep down in hopes they would never surface; but, things changed once Dustin unknowingly brought home a cat-eating, future Demogorgon called Dart.

Steve soon got a firsthand look at just how badass you were when the two of you fought off the demodogs in the old junkyard after you demanded that the Dustin stayed on the bus with Max and Lucas. You naturally had each other’s backs during the whole thing and him fighting with his bat, and you with your trusty crowbar sure put a dent in those bastards from the Upside Down.

Billy showing up at the Wheeler’s house after the junkyard was probably one of Steve’s least favourite memories that you were involved in. It wasn’t because of how he got royally beat up, even though that sucked, but because of how helpless he knew, he made you feel. The sounds of you sobbing and screaming at Billy to stop as Dustin, Mike, and Lucas held you back was on a sickening loop in his mind for days after that, but he really couldn’t think about it at the time seeing he was only barely conscious.

The rest of that night happened in a blur. Steve woke up in the back of Billy’s car while Max was driving, and you nowhere to be found. He soon figured out that Dustin and Mike somehow locked you in the trunk because they knew you’d try to put a stop to their plan, and although they could all hear you yelling and thrashing in the back, none of the kids answered when Steve asked where you were.

“She’s fine, we’re almost there anyway,” Dustin assured while Steve just shook his head, that was until it dawned on him that Max was driving the car and he started freaking out.

He remembered how livid you were as soon as the car came to a stop, and kids opened the trunk again. But, even that anger was short-lived when you looked over to see him awake and basically falling out of the car. You were by his side in an instant, helping him stay upright, and joining him in telling the kids that they were not going down into those tunnels. Brave of both of you to assume any of them would actually listen.

Down in the tunnels, Steve led the group, and you went to follow at the end of it. However, Dustin said he’d go last; and despite your protesting, your baby brother was firm and did not take no for an answer.

“As the man of the family, it’s up to me to make sure you’re safe,” he argued.

“But Dusty-.”

“No buts, Y/N. Follow along.”

Steve watched as you smiled before reaching over to take of Dustin’s hat so you could ruffle his curls, even though you knew he hated when you did that.

“My hero.”

“Whatever,” he grumbled as he snatched his hat back before following behind you and Max.

Once the group was further into the caves and the six of you were a bit more spaced out from one another, Steve was still able to notice your distressed reaction to Dustin yelling from somewhere further behind. The commotion instantly caught his attention, and when he quickly whipped back around, he was able to see, from was what was visible, of your face go pale before you took off in the direction of your brother while he and the rest of the kids followed. When you all reached Dustin, and he started coughing and claiming he was ok, you immediately thumped him in the head and gave him shit for scaring you like that, something Steve couldn’t help but smile at before continuing on again.

As soon as the hub was on fire and everyone was running back to the entrance, you were so focused on getting the kids out first and making sure that they were ok. When a tentacle type thing wrapped itself around Mike’s ankle, you ripped Steve’s bat from his hands and used it to free the youngest Wheeler, and almost started swinging again at Dart once it showed up; but Steve held you back as Dustin took control of the situation. You instinctively gripped onto his hand as you watched your brother interact with the demodog out of fear, which Steve would tease you about after the fact, although the gesture secretly made him a little flustered.

Your little group passed Dart and started bolting back towards where you entered the tunnels originally, you were all aware of how fast you’d have to move based off the screeching of more demodogs approaching. Once everyone reached the rope used to get down there, you helped Max, Lucas, and Mike get out as soon as you could. Just as you were about to help Dustin up, Steve’s arms wrapped around you and started lifting you up so you could climb out.

“You’re next,” he muttered as a surprised yelp left your mouth, but you were quick in recovering as you grabbed ahold of the rope and climbed the rest of the way.

As soon as you were above ground again, you immediately went back to the hole and looked down to help the other two, but much to your dismay, they were frozen as a massive pack of demodogs came rushing at them.

“No!” You yelled as the other kids called for Dustin to come on before watching in horror as Steve stepped in front of your brother to keep him protected from the oncoming heard, but then, the demodogs started running past them without attacking. Steve pulled Dustin close just in case one did attack, but you all knew they wouldn’t because they were too focused on something else. Eleven was closing the gate.

Steve and Dustin were quick in getting out of the tunnels after that, and you wasted no time in pulling Dustin into a bone-crushing hug and repeating the same thing over and over again.

“Thank god you’re ok.”

As soon as Dustin assured that he was indeed ok, you let him go and stepped back so his friends could take over.

Steve lingered nearby, watching the exchange happen between you and Dustin with a small smile as he patiently waited for the next step. But before he knew it, a pair of arms wrapped around his middle, and he was met by you crashing into his chest in a tight embrace.

“I’m so glad you’re ok too,” you stated, shaking your head as Steve instinctively put his arms around your waist, pulling you closer. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if something happened.”

“Hey, it’s alright,” he soothed as he started rubbing small circles on your back, his heart clenching when a choked sob left your mouth. “You’re ok, no one got hurt. We’re safe.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” you replied as you started pulling away. Steve could tell you were embarrassed about breaking down like that as you reached away to wipe away the tears spilling from your eyes, and that made him feel even worse. “God, I’m such a mess.”

“No, you aren’t, Y/N. You are one hell of a badass, though.”

A small gasp left your mouth as Steve gently placed his hand under your chin so that you’d be facing him. He didn’t say anything else as he used his thumb to wipe away a few of your stray tears before eventually meeting your gaze, and feeling himself soften. An unfamiliar feeling started swarming in his stomach as you two stood there, staring at each other. Although he had yet to admit it, you caused him to feel massive amounts of butterflies whenever you were around, and that little predicament was no exception.

Slowly, his gaze moved to your lips before fluttering back to lock eye contact with you and letting out a sigh.

“I might regret this,” he started. “But fuck it.”

His grip on your waist tightened as he started leaning down towards you, and you gulped. There was no denying that you had feelings for Steve by that point, but was he really about to kiss you? Your brain screamed at you to move away. He was your brother's best friend and mentor, not to mention one of your best friends exes, but still, as you watched his eyes flutter shut again while he moved to brush his lips against yours slightly, there was no way you were going to stop him.

However, something else did.

The headlights from the car parked only a few feet away grew extremely bright, causing you and Steve to move away from one another just so you could shield your eyes from the beam. You both stepped closer to the kids, confused as to what was going on as the brightness increased, but then it all clicked once the headlights shut off on their own. Eleven closed the gate.

After that, life went on to somewhat resume normally, well, as normally as it could in Hawkins.

Will ended up being ok for the time being after El took care of the Mind Flayer, and before anyone knew it, a month had passed.

During that month, Barb’s funeral happened, which was tough, but you all powered through it. Eleven officially became Jane ‘El’ Hopper, and you continued life as a high school junior. Fall soon turned into winter, and although it was hard to just forget about everything that happened, everyone tried their best to do just that. And to top it all off, you and Steve had barely spoken.

It was awkward as hell. You’d see each other in the hallways at school, and just avoid each other. Neither of you was sure how to even initiate a conversation after the almost kiss you shared, and it was obviously eating away at the both of you.

Jonathan, Nancy, and Dustin were the ones to pick up on how weird you and Steve had gotten to be around each other, not that it was tough for them to tell either. Dustin approached Steve about it (even though he wasn’t too keen on the fact that the girl his friend was fawning over was his sister at first) and told him to man the hell up (even though he didn’t), while subtly trying to get you to hang out with them; to which you consistently declined. You felt really bad about it all and continued avoiding Steve until Jonathan and Nancy called you out on it.

The first thing you did was apologize to Nancy for being a shitty friend, but much to your surprise, she just chuckled. She explained that it was ok if you liked Steve, but what wasn’t ok was how mopy you were because you hadn’t talked to him. Jonathan backed up her on her statements and explained how they were pretty sure Steve felt the same way, but still, neither of you spoke to the other.

When it came time for the snowball, Steve dropped Dustin off at Hawkins Middle School and was completely not expecting to see you all dressed up and helping out Nancy at the punch bowl. Sure he knew you were going to be there. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been needed to drive Dustin, but still, just the sight of you allowed the familiar feeling of a weight being placed on his chest form, and he just simply could not look away. As he watched you, he couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at his lips as you smiled at whoever came up to get some punch, or how you stuck your tongue out at Dustin once he entered the gym. He became entranced. So focused on you, that he actually jumped when you moved your head to the side and ended up locking eye contact with him through the window.

He froze instantly, as did you, but once Nancy noticed what you were gawking at, she smiled a little and nudged you to snap you back to reality. Steve watched as Nancy said something to you before you nodded in response and started walking towards him, almost as if you were on a mission. He remained parked in his spot as you pushed through doors and right up to his car.

“Uh, hi.” Was all he was able to blurt out as he got a better view of how good you looked in your dress.

“Hey,” you replied back and crouched down so you could be eye to eye with him. “We need to talk.”

Slowly, he nodded, not having it in him to avoid the situation any longer. “Yeah, hop in.”

You did as he said and climbed into the passenger seat, not saying anything else as he pulled away from the door and into a parking space on the other side of the building.

Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time started blaring from the gym as you and Steve got out of his car and moved to sit on the hood. Neither of you spoke up, but the silence was deafening, and you knew you’d lose your mind if you didn’t speak up sooner or later.

“So…”

“We almost kissed,” Steve finished, and glanced over at you. Your cheeks instantly flushed red, and you were extremely thankful it was a bit chilly out because it helped mask your blush a bit better.

“We did,” you replied, unsure of what to say next.

“I’m not sorry about it,” he blurted out and caused your gaze to snap to him.

“What?”

“I said, I’m not sorry about it,” he repeated, as you shook your head.

“Steve-.”

“I like you, Henderson. A lot. I’m not going to apologize for wanting to kiss you, regardless of how shitty that makes me seem for doing such a thing to Nancy…”

He trailed off on the last part of his sentence and slowly dropped his gaze to the ground. You blinked twice, wanting to make sure you processed the fact that he actually said those things before speaking up again.

“Is that why you were avoiding me?”

“Yeah,” he answered with a nod. “And I wasn’t too sure how Dustin would feel about the whole thing at first.”

“What do you mean, at first?” You questioned while furrowing your eyebrows.

“Pretty sure he’s been spending the last couple of weeks trying to set us up,” Steve laughed and looked back to you. “But I was still too nervous to actually talk to you.”

“Well, you had no need to be.”

“What?”

“Cause I feel the same, Harrington,” you explained and could’ve sworn you saw his eyes light up. “I was chicken too. I didn’t want to hurt Dusty or Nancy, but in actuality, they were the ones pushing me to not be such a coward and just speak to you.”

“Oh, wow,” he replied with wide eyes and let out a breath. “So, what now?”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind if you actually kissed me this time.”

He smiled at that before facing you again and shaking his head. “Don’t need to tell me twice.”

You didn’t have time to react before Steve was leaning in and crashing his lips against yours. Although you always expected to like the feeling of kissing him, you didn’t think you’d miss the sensation so quickly when he moved away. The two of you stared at one another before immediately reaching out and pulling the other closer than you already were. His arms wrapped around your waist, and your hands tangled into his hair as your mouths collided once again.

The two of you made out for a minute or so before the song in the gym changed and was replaced with the familiar riff of Every Breath You Take, causing you to moan slightly before slightly breaking away from the kiss.

“I love this song,” you mumbled against his lips with a smirk.

He let out a laugh before kissing you again and slowly leaning you back onto the hood of his car. “Sure sets the mood, alright.”

Before things could get any steamier, a deep voice called out and caused the two of you to instantly move away from one another.

“Is that you over there, Harrington?”

Of all people that could have noticed the two of you, it just had to be Hopper. Turned out, he was only a few feet away talking to Joyce, who was giggling as she realized what had just happened. “Oh, leave them, be, would you?”

Hop just shook once he saw you slowly stood up beside Steve and tried not to laugh. Steve could tell the sheriff wanted to say something but didn’t as he looked to Joyce and started walking in the other direction.

“Just stay out of trouble, you two.”

“And have a good night!” Joyce chimed in before following after Hopper.

Once they were out of sight, you and Steve glanced at each other and burst out laughing. After a few minutes of trying to catch your breath from laughing so hard, the two of you agreed to go get some food at the diner before having to come back and pick Dustin up.

And that was how it all began. As Steve looked down at your still sleeping figure, he smiled as he thought about just how hard and how fast he fell for you. It’d been a year since then, and he didn’t even have words to describe how happy he was just with you, even on top of what happened during the summer months.

It was supposed to be an uneventful summer. Steve started working at Scoops Ahoy, and you were working at a clothing shop on the upper level of Starcourt. Seeing as there wasn’t anything ever really going on in Hawkins anymore, and Dustin was away at camp, you and Steve tried to make the most of it, and spent what free time the two had together; even planning to save up and take a little weekend trip together before you started school again up to Chicago or Detroit, you guys hadn’t decided yet. However, that never happened.

Instead, your summer was filled with Russians, the return of the Mind Flayer, lots of death, and just overall a ton of traumatic experiences. You were kidnapped, and had to witness Steve get beat up, again; although he did win one fight, which you did give him credit for. The two of you, along with Robin, were injected with a truth serum that just created a mess of things when your boyfriend told your captors your brother's full name and resulted in you almost taking matters into your own hands by murdering him yourself.

Along with all that, many people you knew actually did die. Whether it had been because of the Mind Flayer and his army made up of people you knew (like Billy and Heather), the fall of Starcourt itself, having to fight off the Mind Flayer and face the possibility of losing any of the people you cared for most, or how everyone had to accept the loss of Hopper after he closed the gate to the Upside Down once again to prevent anything like that to happen again. It was sure one bitch of a summer, but still, somehow, you and Steve managed to survive.

It truly amazed Steve what the two of you had been through together when he thought about it. It’s been a shit show of a ride, but the two of you, Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, Erica, and the party, all ended up being ok, which is all either of you could have really asked for.

The sound of the record coming to an end once again brought Steve back to reality from his thoughts, and he let out a sigh. He glanced over at the alarm clock to see that it was almost three in the morning and let out a groan. With a roll of his eyes at himself for staying up so late, he sat up so he could reach over to turn off the lamp and call it a night, but froze when you started whimpering and moving around beside him.

You were having a nightmare. Steve had them too. He knew first hand how terrifying they were, filled with images and memories of all the things he’s had to face, and he absolutely hated the thought of you going through that.

Your whimpers turned into pleas. You were begging for your boyfriend, Dustin, and the others to be left alone so that they could be safe, but with the way, your movements got more aggressive, and your breathing came more sporadic; Steve knew he couldn’t let you suffer through that.

“Y/N,” he whispered and started shaking your shoulders gently, not wanting to scare you even more. You began thrashing by that point, and his heart broke. “Y/N, I need you to wake up. Please babe, just open your eyes for me.”

After a brief moment, you gasped loudly and finally woke from your dream. Steve watched as you took a few deep breaths to calm yourself and blinked as your eyes adjusted to the light-filled room. Once your heart rate steadied, you finally looked to him and sent him a small smile.

“Hey,” he said softly and reached out to hold onto your hand.

“Hey,” you replied with one more deep breath and squeezed his hand. “Did I wake you up?”

“No, I couldn’t sleep as it was,” he explained before moving to brush some hair away from your face. “Nightmare?”

You nodded tiredly, tears welling up in your eyes. “The Mind Flayer almost got you in that one.”

“Hey, it’s alright,” Steve soothed as he shifted his position so that he could lay back down beside you and pull you into his chest. “I’m right here. Not going anywhere, ok?”

You nodded again.

“But what if something happens again, Steve? What if it’s worse next time?”

Your voice was barely a whisper as it was drowned out by a few sobs, killing him just a little bit more inside as he thought about what you said.

“You can’t think like that,” he told you firmly before placing a kiss to the top of your head. “We’re going to be just fine with whatever life throws at us. You know this.”

“I do,” you replied softly. “As long as we’re together.”

“Exactly. Now try to go back to sleep, you need rest.”

“Aye aye captain,” you chuckled before cuddling up even closer to him. He just smiled in response and reached over to turn the lamp off. Once he was done, he returned to his spot next to you and wrapped his arms protectively around your waist again.

It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep again, Steve even stayed up a little while longer just to make sure you didn’t have another nightmare. As soon as he was sure you were resting peacefully, he let himself drift off into sleep, but not without mumbling a quick ‘I love you’ while making a silent promise to himself to keep you safe from what life could possibly throw next at the two of you.

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