#max is the kind of guy to watch snap fighting videos

[chrzannekk]

kiss and make up you guys

[aloneinthehellfire]

Chapter 17: Mad Fools

Season One | Season Two | Season Three | Season Four

[Raining Hellfire: Season Four]

Word Count: 4216 words

Warnings: swearing, mentions of death, fluff (like sweet-tooth kind of fluffiness that i love so no one can hate it), angst

[A/N: you are all going to go absolutely ballistic on me and i completely understand. half of you are gonna love me tho. *disappears menacingly into the shadows*]

Mad Fools

The RV was parked in the middle of an empty field, away from the public, and with enough space to make weapons.

Fighting Vecna wasn’t going to be easy, nor would it ever be a fair fight, but you sure as hell were gonna try.

You sat with Steve and Robin, helping them create Molotov cocktails, something Robin insisted upon. She was right, of course. What easier way to set fire to Vecna than being able to throw fire?

Across the field, furthest away, Dustin and Eddie worked on their shields, taking inspiration from the bats you and Steve wielded a couple years back by adding an assortment of nails into trash can lids.

Max sat with Nancy, watching as she sawed off her shotgun. Nancy needed it to be close range, and to create enough damage if need be.

The Sinclairs were sat together, creating spears to the best of their ability. And by that, you meant to Erica’s ability since Lucas had no idea what he was doing.

You fiddle around with the fuel-filled bottles, shoving in material and placing it beside you once complete. You sat cross-legged in front of Steve and Robin, watching as they poured the gas in through a funnel, careful not to spill.

“It just doesn’t make sense.” Steve says and you remove your headphones for a moment, resting them around your neck.

“What doesn’t make sense?” You ask and he sighs.

“That was Dan Shelter.”

You frown, looking to Robin for context. She shakes her head slightly.

“So, uh…” She begins, setting the gas can upright so she could tell her story, “You remember that girl I told you about?”

“Vickie?” You suggest and she nods.

You kept in touch with Robin occasionally when you were in Florida. She always called you whenever she had a break, or, more often than not, whenever she was bored during her shift at Family Video. At the beginning of your move, she called almost everyday. Then it became every week, slowly turning into every month. You didn’t blame her for it; you both just got busy. So, it was many weeks she had ranted about the girl of her dreams to you; Vickie.

But considering how homophobic the time you lived in seemed to be, she never had the courage to express herself. You related to that, heavily. You could laugh about it now that you were both close friends, but the crush you had on her years back was a terrifying experience.

It only took one misjudged confession to make you a town pariah.

“She was at War Zone.” She nods, avoiding your eyes and your heart drops.

“I’m guessing that this Dan…” You don’t finish the sentence, merely watching as she nods and continues her task. “Wait, Shelter? Didn’t that guy graduate?”

You remember seeing the name in one of the display cases, a blonde haired boy holding up a trophy for some sport you weren’t interested in. You vaguely recalled seeing him in your English class.

“So?” Robin shrugs and Steve raises his eyebrows.

“So he’s in college.” He explains, “Which means he was visiting on spring break. Fast Times was returned, like, I don’t know, a week ago?”

“Oh, she watched Fast Times?” You catch on and Steve nods.

“Yeah, and guess where it kept being paused at?” He questions and you purse your lips.

“Paused at?…” You think for a second before realisation spreads across your face and Steve gestures an arm towards you.

“See?” Steve tries and Robin tilts her head at him, squinting her eyes. “Unless she’s got some horn-dog brother we don’t know about. Which is possible.”

“Or she’s just really into Judge Reinhold?” You offer and Steve snaps his finger at your suggestion.

“Guys!” Robin interrupts. The equipment was now on the grass beside them and she looks down, fiddling with her hands.

“What?” Steve frowns and she whips her head up.

“I don’t care.” She shrugs, looking to you both. “And I don’t understand why you do either with everything that’s going on. Honestly, this feels like a perfect time for that little pull of the rug because… in the face of the world ending, the stakes of my love life feel spectacularly low.”

“Yeah,” Steve nods, looking at his hands, “I mean, I get you there, but… I still have hope.”

“Me too.” You add and Robin raises her brow, ready to object, “Look, Robs. We don’t know the full picture here. Yeah, okay, she has a boyfriend. But… that doesn’t mean there isn’t something else going on. Believe me, I know first hand.”

She ponders this for a moment before shaking her head. “No, no. I doubt-”

“Come on.” You stress as Steve hands you another bottle, shoving in the white cloth. “Free will still exists, even in this suffocating town, which means people don’t have to subject themselves to one lifestyle for the rest of their lives. She could like guys and girls. Yeah, she’s with a guy right now but those feelings will still be there. And she’s probably just scared because people always expect one or the other, not both. They hate anything out of the realm of their 'normal', so imagine how they'd react to a girl that chooses both. And… I don’t think she has anyone to talk to about that. So, if it turns out I’m right, then you’re gonna have to suck it up and keep trying because you just won’t know unless you are there with her.”

Robin smiles at you as you hand her the finished bottle.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know you’re right.” She sighs. As she speaks, you notice Steve looking at you with an unreadable expression.

You feel a little lighter, somehow. After all the monsters and gates, you didn’t realise how much baggage you were holding onto from your own feelings.

“Y/n’s definitely right.” Steve finally says with a small smile, eyes never leaving yours. “You never know until you try.”

Something is shared between you, a look neither of you quite understood. It goes unnoticed by Robin however when she grabs the fuel can again.

“Not everything has a happy ending.” She states and you let out a sigh.

“Yeah, yeah, believe me, I know.” Steve admits, handing you another bottle. He looks off to somewhere in the distance and you don’t need to turn around to see who he’s staring at.

“I don’t think she’s talking about failed romance.” You say softly.

Robin lets out a breathy laugh, “No, I’m not. I just… I have this terrible, gnawing feeling that… it might not work out for us this time.”

As if on cue, the tape in your Walkman stops and you pick it up, squeezing it tightly.

“You think we shouldn’t be doing this?” Steve asks, brows furrowed.

“I think we’re mad fools, the lot of us, but… if we don’t stop him, who will?”

“Here, here.” You suddenly say, holding up a bottle and Robin laughs, clinking her own against it before you both set them to the side.

Steve keeps staring out at the field, at all your friends.

“We have to try, right?” Robin says.

After a moment, Steve nods slightly, glancing between you both. “Yeah.”

He grabs another bottle, holding it up with a smirk. “To killing Vecna.”

You and Robin reclaim you bottles and hold them up.

“Slash Henry.” Robin chuckles and you tilt your head.

“Slash One.” You finish and you all tap the glasses, smiling.

When you put the bottle back down, however, your face drops, glancing back down at your Walkman.

This moment right here, all of you on the field, is the last time you’ll ever feel safe. Even if you do succeed, even if Vecna is gone for good, those nightmares and terrifying memories are going to live with you forever.

You’ll constantly be wondering when the next gate will open, always on edge at every creak and breath you may hear at night. This’ll never truly be over, not in your mind anyway.

And, if you fail miserably, that meant that this may be the last time you will see eachother.

“We’re out of bottles.” Robin suddenly notes, standing up. “We got any more?”

“In the back.” Steve gestures to the RV behind him and she nods, saying she’ll be quick.

As she moves around the vehicle, you take the opportunity to free your mind.

“Hey, uh, Steve?” You start and he raises his head to you, testing how much fuel was left in the can.

“Yeah?”

“I, um…” You frown, trying to find the right words. You weren’t really sure what you were going to say, either. All you knew, was that you wanted to talk to him.

“Is everything okay?” He sets the object down beside him, sliding off his seat so he could sit on the grass opposite you, meeting your height with a soft frown.

“I’m really glad I met you.” You finally say and his frown turns to surprise. “Seriously. I… I never thought I’d enjoy Hawkins, let alone make friends. When… when my parents sent me away I was so convinced that I’d hate this place. And then you almost hit me with that basketball.”

You let out a small laugh when Steve grimaces before continuing.

“Even if it got rocky for a while there, you were always the one person truly on my side.” You nod, finally meeting his eyes again, “I never really appreciated that as much as I should have.”

“Where is this all coming from?” Steve asks quietly, reaching out to take your hand in his.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” You admit shakily, taking a breath, “But I’m just really glad that you’re there by my side. That I was there in the gym that day, that I met you when I felt the shittiest I ever felt because… you really made my life better, even for just a moment.”

“You know,” He shuffles forward, eyes drifting to someone behind you before finding your eyes again, “I was thinking about hitting my head a while back.”

“I’m sorry, what?” You laugh in surprise and he shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut.

“That’s not… okay, let me try again.” He smiles, composing himself. “I lost myself for a while there in high school. And… I guess, I thought that was who I really was, you know? Just some douchebag jock with a girl who deserved way better. And everyone seemed to accept that about me. No one questioned it, or tried to tell me I was an asshole. Everyone… but you.”

“I am always great with compliments.” You joke and he chuckles.

“You were the only thing reminding me of who I really was, who I could be. And I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am about that. You didn’t give up.”

“I wasn’t really ready to admit that I lost you.” You shrug, twisting grass together with your free hand, “Especially not to Tommy and Carol, I mean, that’s just embarrassing on my part.”

“You’re right.” He suddenly nods, sitting back up and you raise an eyebrow. “About what you said earlier. We have no idea what’s going to happen next. And… I guess now’s the perfect time to get things off our chest, right?”

“If you’re expecting more from me, I’m afraid that’s all the emotion I can show today.” You smirk but he takes a deep breath.

“I was an idiot when we were friends.”

“Agreed.” You grin and he throws a cloth at you.

“Shut up, I’m pouring my heart out here.” Steve laughs, running a hand through his hair and leaning forward again. “No, I… I was so caught up with what everyone else thought of me that I never paid attention to what you thought of me.”

Your heart stops, eyes widening. “Uh… what are you-”

“Robin.” He winces and you lean back on your arms, exhaling. Why you continued to tell her secrets, you didn't know.

“Of course.”

“No, it’s not- it’s not a bad thing, I-” He dips his head to make you bring your eyes back to his, smiling. “I really liked you, too.”

“Steve.” You sit back up, “I know there’s a chance it could really happen, but I’d rather die than make you feel like you have to show me pity-”

“No! No, I’m not kidding.” He says and when you stare him down, his expression never changes. He was serious.

“Seriously?” You raise an eyebrow just in case and he nods.

“Seriously.”

You think for a moment, seconds flying by, until you grab the cloth and hit him with it.

“Hey!” Steve protests with a confused laugh.

“Why didn’t you say something?” You exclaim, dropping the cloth, “My god, I remember feeling like such an idiot for ever even liking you. Oh, and the cherry on top, you ended up dating my best friend anyway and I had to hear about how great of a kisser you were, and how cool your hair was, and-”

“Y/n!” He grabs both of your hands, laughing. “Calm down.”

“Sorry.” You laugh with him, tilting your head. “Why are we like this?”

“I wish I knew.” He smiles, shaking his head. He lowers his head for a moment before looking back at you with a knowing smirk. “This is it for us, isn’t it? What we have right now.”

“I…” You let out a breath, gently tightening your grip on his hands. “Complete honesty?”

“Always.” He nods and you sigh.

“I hope not.” You whisper out and he smiles softly.

You hear laughter behind you, eyes drifting to the noise and seeing Eddie play-fighting with Dustin, a big grin on his face as he waved around his shield.

“But you’re not ready to move on.” Steve concludes and you look back at him.

“No, I am. I was? I-” You stop, shaking your head. “God, I don’t even know. I mean, when I left Hawkins I got the opportunity to think about everything, to actually deal with my feelings for once and now…”

“I get that.” Steve’s gaze flickers from yours to the grass. “Jesus, I really get that. One minute, I’m fine. The next…”

“We’re in the Upside Down.” You frown and he raises an eyebrow. You remembered Eddie's earlier query, the small thought lingering in the back of your mind. “What if… no, it’s stupid.”

“Nothing you have ever said in your entire life has been stupid.” He laughs and you smile.

“I just wonder that… with everything we’re learning about the Upside Down, what if there’s something more to it?” You lower your voice to a whisper, “It’s literally stuck in ‘83, is it so impossible to think that maybe time is more of an influence down there than we think?”

“How does that link to our doomed relationship status?” Steve questions with the purse of his lips and you shrug.

“I… don’t actually know. What I do know is that I finally healed and then ever since I stepped foot in that place again, all these feelings popped back up and the wound tore open. Metaphorically, of course. And literally.”

“Yeah.” He slowly nods and you tilt your head. “No, seriously. It makes sense.”

“You don’t have to agree with everything I say, you know.” You laugh and he lets go of your hand to run his through his hair before returning it back to its rightful place.

“Yeah, well get used to it.” Steve chuckles before really focusing on you. “Honesty, right? I… I don’t want this to be all there is for us either.”

“Then what now?” You ask, bringing your clasped hands to rest just below your chin and he leans in, forehead against yours. “There’s so much going on right now. I mean, from the curses to the exes, how do I even- I don’t know how much I can deal with right now.”

“We wait.” He finally suggests and you pull back to look at him, “We kill Vecna, we save Hawkins, again, and… we see where it leads us.”

“So… we’re friends. For now.” You add with a smile and he grins at you.

“For now.” He nods. The look he gave you set butterflies in your chest. But not the fluttering mess of it all, but rather a beautiful warmth of wings around your heart.

Then, he glances back at the RV and tightens his lips. “We, uh, we’re not telling Robin about this are we?”

“God no.” You shake your head, blinking. “I love her to pieces but... no. We need to kill Vecna, not blast confetti cannons and hear Robin’s speech on true love.”

“Confetti cannons?” Steve repeats your words.

“I don’t know, seems like a Robin thing to me.” You shrug.

“Agree to disagree.” He retorts and you make a surprised sound.

“Wow, what happened to always agreeing with me?” You joke and soon fall into a comfortable silence, feeling the breeze gently brush your hair.

After a moment, a laugh leaves his lips and you raise your eyebrows.

“What?”

“I’m gonna take you to Skull Rock.” Steve smirks and you let out a breathy laugh.

“Don’t you even dare.”

“Yep, we’re gonna smooch.”

“Oh my god, don’t say that.”

“Smooooch.”

“Stop.”

“What are you guys-” Robin rounds the corner with various bottles, eyes widening when she sees you both leant in to eachother, hands clasped together. And, with a happy gasp, she drops the bottles and you both wince, glad the grass was enough of a cushion to stop them from shattering.

“Finally!” She squeals, doing a little happy dance before she abruptly stops. “Oh, shit. I forgot my glitter.”

“Glitter?” You question while Steve looks baffled.

“What- glitter... what?!”

“I was saving it for when you two finally happened!” She declares with a pout and you and Steve stop, turning to eachother slowly.

You both look down at your hands, gently letting go with a laugh. Your heart raced a little. If you and Steve were meant to be keeping this on the down-low, you were failing pretty bad at it.

“Robs-”

“No, I know it’s here somewhere.” She ignores you, patting down her pockets.

“Seriously, Robin-” Steve tries this time and she grins.

“A-ha!” She celebrates, pulling out a packet of glitter and you groan.

“Okay, that’s cute and all.” You comment as she pours it into her hand, “But what we’re trying to tell you is-”

Your words were cut short when Robin blew glitter at you, the shiny little dots covering you and Steve.

“… we’re not together.” You finish, spitting out silver glitter that had clung to your lips.

“What?” She slumps her shoulders.

“Yeah.” Steve nods, wiping down his face with a cloth. “But, uh, nice try.”

“That sucks.” Robin shrugs before looking at you both and wincing. “Sorry, I got carried away.”

“You think?” You laugh and she crouches beside you, grabbing another cloth to help clean you off.

“Wasted glitter, too.” She huffs and you deadpan her, earning an apologetic smile, “I’ve just been carrying this thing around since Scoops, you know?”

“Why?” Steve stares at her like she’s insane but all she does is shrug again, gently wiping pieces of glitter from your eye.

“Could have been a confetti cannon.” You mutter under your breath, Steve smirking at you.

“I was just so sure you two would be a thing.” Robin admits with a sigh, sitting back onto her heels, “I mean, you both seemed so close when I met you, never not talking about eachother.”

“That’s because neither of us have that many friends.” You share and Steve goes to object before nodding in defeat.

“Yeah, I started thinking that but…” She sits back on her heels, shaking her head. “Then I saw you two in the ambulance after Starcourt- which, by the way, was adorable considering everything- and back at the Creel House, you told me how you and Steve kissed last year, and how you guys love eachother, it just… I don’t know why you guys won’t give it a-”

When she stops speaking, Steve merely sighs, deciding through his words. “We decided not to, okay? And why are you so obsessed with us being together? Weren’t you just saying how our love lives are the least important thing right now?”

When he looks up, however, he realises his question wouldn’t get answered. Because your face had dropped, Robin looking queasy.

He turns his head to see what your staring at and his heart stops. Oh no.

“I was just…”

Eddie tries to speak, an unreadable expression flickering between you and Steve before he ultimately decides on avoiding your eyes and shaking his head, moving around your trio and heading into the RV.

And he had heard it all.

You enter the RV after your soft knocks were ignored, shutting the door behind you with a sigh.

After Robin had apologised until she turned blue, you told her it wasn’t her fault. Excusing yourself from your friends and following Eddie, your heart was beating louder than it should.

This wasn’t a talk you wanted to have. Especially when it involved Steve.

“Eddie?” You call out quietly before noticing him sat at the back, trying on a new vest the others had grabbed from War Zone, trying to ignore you. “Eddie, please. Talk to me.”

“It’s fine.” He says, clearly not fine. You watch as he grabs his bandana from his back pocket and ties it around his head, jaw set tight as he stared out of the window, facing away from you.

“Don’t lie to me.” You plead, walking closer.

Eddie lets out a bitter and shaky laugh, “That’s ironic.”

You stay silent and he turns around, shaking his head.

“I thought…” He sighs, biting his lip, “… we were…”

“We-”

Your word is cut off with a sharp laugh, his hands reaching to rest on top of his head as he paces the small space.

“This whole time I thought I was a fucking idiot for ever believing anything was going on between you two.” He never raised his voice but you still felt all the anger radiating from him, “Turns out I was right all along.”

Your face drops. “No. No, that’s not fair.”

“How isn’t that fair? You kissed him, Y/n! After you told me he would only ever be a friend.” He finally starts to yell, voiced pained with sadness, “You told him you love-”

He can’t finish the sentence.

“Because I do.” You say quietly and he physically stills. You take his silence as an opening to finally say what you've been holding on to for two years.

“I was ready to forgive you. To move on from what I thought that girl was doing in your trailer, but you broke my heart, Eddie. You didn’t trust me and that... that hurt more than anything. Because I’d never do anything to hurt you. Not willingly. And I didn’t think I’d ever feel again after you. But I did. And I’m not gonna apologise for that when you broke up with me.”

Eddie squeezes his eyes shut, looking to the window beside him with a frown.

“It’s not my place.” He sighs, eyes set on the glass pane. “And I regret it. Not telling you what really happened, for not- for not trusting you. For ending things when for past three years I’ve been kicking myself for ever leaving.”

Your silence isn’t built from surprise, but from reflection. If you had just ran after him, told him the truth… would things have been different?

“You wanna know what really hurts?” Eddie questions after a while and you whip your head up, heart thumping against your chest. “That all it took was for us to break up before you realised you were in love with your best friend. That those feelings had to have been there the entire time you were with me.”

“It’s not like that.” You shake your head, frustration finally hitting and you take a step forward.

“You were my best friend, too, Y/n.” He declares and you bite your lip. “I- I don’t feel safe around that many people, but I did with you. And now… was I just some kind of replacement for the guy you couldn’t have?”

Your face drops, a shaky breath leaving your lips. “You were never a replacement. Steve had nothing to do with how I felt about you, okay? We would have always been best friends, at least, Eds, I want to be your friend-”

“Yeah, right.” He mutters and you frown, eyes misting over.

“Yes, Eddie, I love him, but it’s so much more complicated than that right now, we-”

“If you love him so much then why did you kiss me?” He counters and you freeze.

His question struck you hard. Why did you kiss him?

“Can’t make up your mind? Or do you just not care?" He continues, and you can only shake your head.

"Play with the freak’s heart, right?” He challenged, stepping closer until you were finally face to face. His breaths were shallow, eyes misted over and you knew he was panicking. “… maybe they were right about you.”

Your heart stopped for a long second. You’d seen Eddie put up his defences before, usually from bullies in high school. He would always spit out whatever he could to show he didn’t care. But you knew he did, deep down. After all, you’d led with him on his bed, holding him until he felt better about himself.

You just never thought you’d be the one to bring out this side to him.

“Don’t say it.” You whisper, tears streaming down your cheeks.

He didn’t want to. You could tell. But you also knew Eddie Munson would do whatever it took to protect his heart.

“Whore of Hawkins.”

He expected you to slap him. To scream, to fight. And he was sorely mistaken.

Instead, you turned away with a lowered head and started walking, looking back only one time to meet his teary eyes.

“For what it’s worth… you’re one of the only people on this planet I ever felt safe with.”

And then you left, leaving him stood there.

Stepping out of the trailer, you almost fell down the step, heart hammering in your chest. You did nothing wrong. Right?

If that was the case, then why did you feel so guilty?

You try to wipe the tears away desperately, knowing that your heartbreak wasn’t what your friends needed to see right now.

But, with the crunch of a leaf, you turn your head to see Robin and Nancy staring at you, both their faces rising to surprise when they see you stood there. Nancy must have seen what happened earlier.

When they finally take in your appearance, their faces fall, moving closer and you close the distance, allowing them to catch you in a hug when you break down to tears.

Chapter 18: One Last Fight ->

[A/N: ... come on did we really think i wouldn't add some angst to this eddie x reader situation? STEVE STANS RISE]

[i'm also disappearing because this was a word vomit of a chapter, pls bear in mind that i am attempting to fit a lot into these last few chapters, and i'm terrified of the responses i'm gonna get to it okay bye... for now.]

taglist: @gnnnne / @beepisbeep / @paintballkid711 / @eddiesbirdie / @livasaurasrex / @darktimelegends / @jackierose902109 / @mvrylee / @chervbs / @eternallyvenus / @nervouscatsuit / @f1nn-wolfhard / @hereiamhereigo / @ladybug0095 / @fangirling-4-ever / @astrolockley / @mothmanatemycat / @sheisjoeschateau / @champagnejoker / @umidktbh / @fallinginlovewithqueue / @ilovetaylorswift132006 / @live-the-fangirl-life / @sadbitchfangirl / @cherrymedicine13 / @engenelxver / @sagaonpandora /

[love-toxin]

this may seem outlandish.. foolish, even… but i bring you, as an offering, the concept of SCARYASS SUB YANDERES!?!?!?! i’ve had this idea in my mind for sooo long and my god it’s been driving me insane. i think it works well just because of the inherent obsessive, frightening nature of yans in the first place? it’s scary, the way they’d do anything for you. kill people for you, abandon everything they know for you, die for you. it’s terrifying. and sooo fucking hot.

specifically eddie and steve…. my god. My God. they’re both just drooling over you, and grovelling for even an ounce of your attention. whimpering and begging by your feet like dogs… its food for thought, eh?  

at first you’re scared of them. they’re always lurking somewhere, far away that they think they won’t be noticed, but they are. you know they’re there. creeping around the bushes, just out of the corner of your eye. they’re always there. changing their schedule when they don’t have any classes with you. they’re a permanent pest that’re always ogling over you. nasty ass stalkers <3. it’s even worse when you notice them beginning to team up. it was bad enough when it was just one of them cornering you, eddie offering you a spot in hellfire every day after class and steve flirting with you every chance he gets or when you stop by the family video store. but both of them? absolute menaces. 

the king and freak of hawkins?  a surprising duo! it’s unheard of. nobody would’ve ever thought of it. nobody would even believe you, and nobody does. and they have their eyes on you. watching you, following you, bothering you, and you’re just so scared. they won’t leave you alone, and nobody seems to believe you, either. they’re just so big, and you’re so small. steve’s always been strong, you know that, and you’ve seen it too. playing on the sports team, roughing around and fighting constantly, you know what he can do. and just because eddie’s thin doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have height. he’s so fucking tall. and not to mention his reputation? even before the whole chrissy incident, he’s had a reputation of being a monster with connections outside of the school. (it’s only reefer rick, but he’s not gonna tell anybody that.)

you try your best to avoid the two of them, but you can’t. not anymore, at least. one of them is always shepherding you into the other. eddie padding behind you after school, and steve always so conveniently positioned. and one day, eddie’s hounding you after school. he’s not stopping either, chatting you’re ear off. you’re not even talking back, just trying to get away from him. schoolbooks clasped tight to your chest, looking at the ground, and he’s just bouncing behind you. you don’t even realize where, and it’s dark out now, how long have you been out? 

you’re immediately snapped out of your thoughts when you hear steve. eddie’s laughing, of course he is, and steve’s cooing at you. you back up, but there’s nowhere else to go. let’s say you’re in the woods, right where eddie does all of his deals, and you have nowhere else to go. you’re trapped in between the both of them, their eyes dilated to the max, and you’re about to cry. 

they’re going to kill you. that’s your only thought, and you start to sob. you close your eyes and wait for something to happen but… nothing does? they back up and give you space. steve’s freaking out, instincts kicking in from having to watch the kids for years, and eddie’s the same, if not worse. 

they’re… pampering you. it’s weird. eddie’s on his knees, grasping at your hand and kissing at your hand trying to make you feel better- to fix his wrongs. steve’s rapidly shooting out questions, “are you okay?” “what’s wrong?” “who hurt you?”

and honestly… you kind of like it. both of the two biggest, baddest guys in hawkins reduced to simpering little idiots? it's a nice change.

Holy shit this is long as fuck. apolocheese.

A-ANON, ANON!!!!!!! YOU......YOUR BRAIN........SUB YANDERE STEDDIE + ANGELFACE.....IM ON MY KNEES.....

ok. breaking this down. the individual stalking aspect: fucking gold. you have both men constantly in your peripheral, Eddie and Steve both fighting for as much time as they can possibly spend with you, and being absolutely nasty stalkers in the process. coming home after a long day of avoiding them both and finding your drawers raided, your cassettes out of order with a couple missing, maybe even your sheets wrinkled and smelling a bit of sweat like someone's been laying in your bed.

maybe one day you walk through the halls at school one day and see Eddie with a bloodied nose, Steve with bruises around his neck and his wrists, and the two guys who usually don't even acknowledge each other are glaring daggers at each other the whole day. but when the marks fade and heal, you start seeing them get a little closer....and they often do so while watching you. when they start sharing those smarmy grins and whispering to each other as they pass by the other in the hallways, that's when you start to really worry.

and you're right, nobody will believe you. the only noticeable change is Steve flirting with you whenever he sees you at school or when you're at the video store, and you should consider yourself lucky. why don't you just go out with him? give the poor guy a chance at least, since he's so nice to you? but the people telling you that don't know how invasive he is, they don't know that you've spotted him hanging around your house late at night and seen him glare down anyone who talks to you. and they don't know that when he leans in close to whisper into your ear, the dirtiest things come out of his mouth that only you can hear. "I just wanna rip that little top off you" and "wish I could fuck you over this counter, sweetheart" and "meet me in the back and I'll make you fall in love", things that make you scurry away from him as fast and as soon as you can manage, leaving him shaking his head and smirking at the back of your head because you're so, so cute when you're playing hard to get. but obviously he needs to be a little more direct.

Eddie, at least, is slightly more believable. but he's much, much sneakier, and way more subtle about his advances than Steve. he's more of a menace--always on your heels every perceivable second of the day, running you ragged with questions and mindless chatter that you never can seem to get away from. and it's not just talk, either--he's always using his stature against you, boxing you against your locker or the picnic table out by the woods, drawing his lips close to yours like he's gonna force a kiss out of you, only to breathe softly against them as he asks you again if you'll join Hellfire. don't you wanna spend some more time with him? he'll even give you a private lesson on D&D, just for you, the cutest student in the whole school. you have to push on his chest to get him to even lean back, before you duck out of his reach and dash away, and he's too giddy from having you touch him to even worry about you getting away and telling someone he was being a creep.

and when he gets you back in the woods after school, corraling you like a little lamb towards the jaws of the wolf, Eddie can't help but have a spring in his step. he can't wait for this one.

when you see Steve waiting there by the trees, leaning against the trunk of one, you immediately back up. but you come to a stop when you hit Eddie's chest, and with a quick glance over your shoulder to make sure he's not gonna get out of the way, you turn your gaze back to see Steve approaching you and fear starts knocking your knees. Eddie holds your shoulders from behind to keep you from running, and when Steve gets close enough to lean down real close to your face, his hand on your chin, the tears spill out of you and you hiccup those choked-up words: "please don't kill me..."

the air changes almost immediately. Steve shakes his head like he can't believe you just said that, his eyes soften, and a "never, baby" escapes him. meanwhile, Eddie turns you around by the shoulders so you're facing him instead, and drops to his knees so he's tilting his head all the way back to look up at you. he grabs your wrist in a strong hand, and pulls your arm closer--and he nuzzles your palm with his face, kissing along each knuckle and all five fingertips while his other hand is braced on your thigh. Steve wraps his arms around your midsection from behind, and coos those sweet words in a reassuring tone "are you okay? did someone hurt you? sweet thing, don't have to be scared of me, okay?"

it shouldn't be so comforting, so satisfying to have them both whimpering for your approval, but it is. they'll do anything to pull that smile out of you, and as soon as they get one, they'll both relax and get even cuddlier in your presence. even though they're the ones who scared you in the first place, and they're the ones who have such an unhealthy attachment to you....but you've been suffering under their thumb for so long, would it be so bad if you took a little bit back from them? torture them a little to get what you want? that seems like more than a fair exchange for the hell they've put you through.

[grey-sides]

Prompt: “how many times are you going to look me in the eye and lie to me?”

Howdy, anon! I know this came from the angst section but I think I kind of turned it into the funny section. Whoops! Prompt came from this list! Minor characterization spoilers for S4.

“What’s going on with you and Wheeler?” Billy snarls as soon as he gets the door to Family Video open. He stalks up to the counter, eyes ablaze and Steve has to step back. 

“What?” Steve asks stupidly, putting his hands up like that would ever stop Billy from coming across the counter if he really wanted to. 

“You and Wheeler,” he repeats. “Thought you were over her. Thought you had moved on, to other pastures, blonder pastures.” Billy looks furious, arms crossed over his chest, something simmering beneath his features. He’s still quick to anger, that hasn’t changed about him when so much else has. 

“Nothing is going on between me and Nancy!” Steve insists, shaking his head at Billy. “Can we talk about this not here? Someone could walk in.”

“Put the closed sign up,” Billy dares and Steve looks at his watch. He’s going to get fired or at least written up. But Billy is staring at him like he wants to murder him and Steve is not above begging for forgiveness. Although he’s not quite sure what he needs forgiveness for. 

Steve walks around the counter, brushing past Billy. He’s not sure what could have happened in the six hours since they last saw each other when Steve was dropping Billy off at school. He flips the closed sign over and promises himself it’ll be less than an hour. It’s the middle of the day, no one really comes in at this time anyway. 

“Why do you think something is going on between me and Nancy? We barely talk, we’ve just been spending a bit more time together since her friend died!”

Billy rubs his hand over his chin and shakes his head. “How many times are you going to look me in the eye and lie to me?” he demands. “How many times?”

Steve throws his hands up and he turns around a couple times. When he steps in front of Billy, he touches the heels of his sneakers together and looks around. “Okay so we’re not in some weird fucking wonderland. What are you talking about? I’m not lying to you!”

“Then tell me why Buckley and fucking Munson are sitting at lunch and talking about your true love story!” Billy yells, throwing his arms out. 

Steve’s eyes go wide and he throws his arms out too. “I don’t know! Maybe they smoked too much or something!”

“Does Robin even smoke?” Steve retorts, but this is a dumb argument to be having. Because apparently Billy is a bit insecure about what they’re doing. Steve hasn’t thought about Nancy like that in like a full year now. He’s fast approaching not wanting to be with her lasting longer than their entire relationship. 

Steve pinches the bridge of his nose and he sighs as he drops both hands to his hips. “I think they’re both just dumbass hopeless romantics. I think they saw me comforting Nancy because yet another one of her friends has died from some freaky Upside Down shit and they made assumptions,” he decides. 

Billy goes quiet at that, mouth snapping shut. He looks away and his jaw sets. “Don’t you tell Buckley like everything though? Aren’t you best friends?”

“Yeah, I tell her a lot, but she doesn’t…know about us,” Steve mutters, the fight bleeding out of him too. “She doesn’t even know I like guys. So she’s probably just…projecting or something.”

Billy knows Robin doesn’t know. Steve drives both of them to school in the morning with Max and Billy always sits in the back with Max. Steve hasn’t told Robin anything yet because he’s a little superstitious these days. Worries that if he says too much it’ll be ripped away. Keeping it between them keeps it safe, except when Billy gets inadvertently hurt by gossip. 

He steps away from the counter to wander through the stacks. Shoves his hands into his pockets and hunches his shoulders up near his ears. “So nothing’s going with Wheeler?”

“Nothing,” Steve confirms softly, leaning against the counter to watch him. “Robin just…thinks she’s the girl of my dreams and wants me to settle down with Nancy. Or follow her to Emerson or whatever.”

“And you don’t want that?”

“Billy, of course I don’t fucking want that. Nancy is great, she’s cool and smart and talented, but I am over her. I have been over her for a long time now,” Steve assures him. 

Billy turns to him and his face is less angry. He just seems a little defeated instead. That’s what Steve never knew about him before they embarked on this relationship, that for all his bluster, he’s terrified of someone really seeing him. Of opening himself up to get hurt by someone he wants to stick around for a long time. Steve gets it. Has learned that opening up is the only way to really feel. 

“It’s just hard, you know? When it seems like the people who know you best are saying one thing and you’re saying another,” Billy tells him, looking away again. Trust doesn’t come easy for Billy. 

Steve chews on his cheek for a moment, thinking about how to approach this. How to not get hurt at what Billy is accusing him of. He’s not a liar. “You know how Tommy H was stoked when you beat my keg record? Even though the guy can’t go up there for like more than five seconds and it didn’t really impact him at all?”

Billy nods slowly, turning back to Steve with narrowed eyes. 

“Right well, I think it’s the same for Robin and Eddie. Neither of them have been on a date or had a relationship at all, so I can be like a vicarious experience for them. They see Nancy and me getting along and they think, hey isn’t this great? Highschool sweethearts who end up making up and getting back together. It’s like a romance movie or something,” Steve explains with a shrug. 

Billy’s eyes dart down and he swallows hard enough that his Adam’s apple bobs. “Okay.” 

Steve walks over to him and puts his hands on his shoulders, giving them a tight squeeze. “Besides, Robin is lost in her mind about Vicky and Eddie smokes like just so much weed. You can’t trust anything either of them say.”

Billy looks back up at Steve and instead of saying anything, he curls his arms around his waist. Billy hooks his chin over Steve’s shoulder and squeezes him tight. Words rarely come easy to Billy if he wants them to matter, but a gentle touch means the world. Means Steve’s said the right things to settle his mind. 

“Pick out a movie,” Steve offers, pulling back with his hands on Billy’s waist. “Whatever you want, we’ll watch it later.”

“Guy gets a job at a VHS store and thinks movies solve everything,” Billy mutters, but his voice is fond as he beelines for the horror movies. 

Steve flips the open sign back over and settles back behind the counter, waiting for Billy to bring his movie over. They’re going to have to tell Robin eventually because Steve knows opening up is the only way to feel. 

Billy brings over Christine and a bag of gummy worms. He raises his eyebrows in a challenge and Steve scans it in under his employee account. He gives Billy a smile as he hands it over and looks around once before leaning over the counter to give him a soft kiss. 

“I mean it, don’t worry about Nancy, okay?” Steve warns him as Billy turns to head out of the shop. 

“Yeah, yeah, my tits are way better than hers anyway, Mr. Boobies,” Billy chuckles, throwing Steve a wink as the door shuts behind him. 

Steve groans and drops his head into his hands. He’s fairly certain he’s never going to live that one down. 

[amberpriceenthusiast]

The quarry group + fav video games

ACNH and Minecraft are both games that the entire group plays together, most of the group doesn’t have much of a preference but Max and Laura prefer ACNH while Dylan prefers Minecraft

This could be seen as platonic or romantic, I prefer them platonically, either way Nick and Abi spend a lot of time on both games together. On Minecraft Nick starts to build like a town square and some shops in the group server with the help of Abi. Dylan causes problems for everyone in the server, and he usually gets Nick to help him. Dylan continuously fucks with Jacob and destroys most things he builds, so they get into many petty fights. Kaitlyn is just trying to build a cool cave house with Ryan and Dylan will not stop hitting her, Ryan is surprised she hasn’t snapped yet. Emma and Max are working together to make pretty houses for themselves and their partners while Abi is out trying to tame every animal she can and Laura is just out exploring, she likes caves a lot

Outside of the group, Abi really enjoys LIS. She doesn’t have a favorite out of the games because she loves all of them so much, but she’s made the most LIS: True Colors fanart. She gets Emma into the games and Emma begins to post play throughs on her channel, she had to take a few days to recover from the first game

Both Dylan and Ryan had a FNAF phase. Ryan doesn’t talk about it, Dylan has gone on multiple rants about why it should have ended with pizza simulator (and he’s fucking right that was such a perfect ending I hate fnaf sm, can you guys tell I’m projecting). Ryan was also definitely an undertale fan at one point and would probably play strardew valley

I could definitely see Kaitlyn and Jacob playing a lot of first person shooters together, they’ve been playing them since they were kids and now it’s just kind of their thing. They’re actually both pretty good at them, but surprisingly Jacob is better if they’re playing 1v1. Kaitlyn may know how to handle a real gun, but that doesn’t mean she knows how to play videos games with guns. Jacob had an Xbox so whenever Kaitlyn comes over they almost always play call of duty zombies

I feel like Max would like games like bioshock and portal but I don’t have much reason to believe that, I just think he would. Dylan is still actively obsessed with Portal but he tries not to talk about it unless someone else mentions it first

Speaking of Bioshock, Kaitlyn would absolutely love that game. It’s a shooter with an amazing environment, she’s obsessed. Laura would like it too but she likes watching Max play more than playing herself

Emma isn’t really a gamer but she does enjoy hearing about all of her friends interest in these games, Laura’s pretty much on the same boat but she does play ACNH religiously

Abi told Emma abt Detroit: Become Human and she ends up playing it with Dylan, they both really enjoyed it, Emma’s actually pretty obsessed with it now

[luimagines]

Hi! I have a request, but first i wanna say your writing is absolutely amazing! The length + amount of time you put into these prompts is insanely good. Now! Onto the request, how would the boys react to a reader from a more modern era? Maybe a more modernized hyrule or our current point in time?

Masterlist

Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm happy to see the response even if this blog is still relatively new.

I hope I do your prompt justice.

I probably could have done a headcanon list but I was hit with inspiration.

I also might have given Reader some backstory.

Scenario below the cut! It’s long, take caution.

It was a cool night, but you didn't mind. Your bed was warm, the WiFi was fast and even if it was three AM on a school night, you managed to keep yourself giggling with cat videos and blursed memes until the words and colors merged.

A night well spent.

But it led to questionable decisions.

Even if the shredded cheese in the fridge was beginning to seem a more and more enticing snack, your body was tempted to succumb to slumber.

Until a large purple light encompassed the entirety of your window.

Something was in your backyard.

Aliens. Your tired brain supplies and you sprint to the glass and push away the curtains. Is this it? Is this where I'm kidnapped and never seen or heard from again?

You pull out your phone and open up the camera.

"Pics or it didn't happen." You remind yourself and snap a few before showing your face.

What you see isn't what you're expecting. Instead of a flying saucer in the sky beaming down a laser or a weird pear shaped space craft on top of the grass, there's a single panel of glowing light, swirling with black accents that creeps in a circular motion.

"Cheese and crackers...." You gasp and begin to blatantly stare at it with no regard to whether something may be coming out of it.

You wait and nothing happens.

You wait some more and nothing happens.

You spend an hour watching this portal that has appeared out of nowhere, waiting for something to happen, willing for something to happen. But you get nothing.

The unknown stares right back at you, unblinking and unchanged.

Go through it. A voice tells you. What if there's something on the other side?

"I'm going to die." You gulp and take a deep breath.

Who else gets a chance like this? The voice talks again. This could be a grand step towards a more modern society. A whole new world could be on the other side, waiting, reaching out, calling to humanity!

You think you a see a shadow move behind the portal and out of sight but it’s gone before you can even process it.

"Should I call the police?" You step away from the window, ignoring the thoughts, the voice- you're too tired to know if it's your own any more. What's the plan? How does one go about something like this?

Where’s your sense of adventure? Pack a bag and go! What if it goes away?

That last thought seems to get through to your tired brain and for a reason beyond your understanding, it latches onto it.

Now you’re excited.

You run to the closet and take out your old backpack. It used to be for school but it was fancier since it was the only one you could get. The bag had a replaceable water bag with a plastic straw connected through the back of it and the straps have just worn down enough to where they’re actually comfortable. It doubled as a hiking backpack and came with its own insulated lunch box that clasped on the back of it.

It’ll finally serve its purpose.

You quickly roll up your favorite blanket and strap it in tightly beneath the lunch box. You’re quick to take out two extra outfits and pack them as well as change out of your pajamas.

Ok. What would you need? You don’t know where you’d be going so this has to a catch all kind of deal.

You pack away your swiss army knife first for good measure. A solar powered charger for your phone and an extra pair of socks follow suit even after you’ve picked out the extra clothes.

You take out the water bag and run to fill it all the way to max capacity as you think of any other necessities.

You’d need food. You have a small jar of peanut butter and granola bars that can fit in the lunch box. You can bring your extra water bottle and put in the side pockets of the backpack, and maybe bring some of those powered flavor packets your brother loves so much. You think he has lemonade and some green tea ones.

Those would be great. He won’t mind, hopefully.

You let the bag overfill momentarily before running back to shove it in your bag. with the lid screwed tight.

Next you run to the kitchen, grabbing the first things that you thought of already and begin to look around for more.

You grab an unopened pack of beef jerky, a bag of veggie sticks and a half eaten bag of dried mangos.

During your search you grab the water bottle and fill that too.

You return to your room with your bounty and begin to carefully put everything in the box. With some more deliberation, you run back to the kitchen and make yourself a quick sandwich, eat it, make another one and pack that as well.

You look out side the window and the portal is still there.

The sun is beginning to rise now so you’re trying to go as fast as you can, unless you want to neighbors to think something is going on.

Even if it is.

You’re about to leave but in a stroke of brilliance, you run to pack sunscreen and bug spray as well. You see a small first aid pack that was bought recently for when you would take your family vacation but you reason that it might one of the most important things you’d have if you got hurt.

Into the bag it goes.

You grab your hoodie before you leave the door, wrap it around your waist and pocket your phone, your headphones and your wallet.

You feel immediately under packed when you step outside and see the portal up close.

It’s weirdly triangle shaped, you think and step closer.

You reach your hand out and try to touch it. It feels as if you put your hand through a humidifier but it’s not wet. It’s misty and cold but not necessarily unpleasant.

An idea hits you right before you take your first step through.

You pull up one of the earlier photo’s you took and send it to your friend’s group chat. It showed up in my backyard. I decided to make a bad late night decision and I’m going through. If you never hear from me again, I want you all to fight over my electronics. Winner takes all. Godspeed.

And you step through.

You had first assumed that it would merely take you tot he other side but very quickly realize that you have to walk through it.

The first part still had a little light but with time, it got darker. So dark that you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face.

You kept walking.

As fast as the light disappeared, it came back and you stepped into the light of an open field, right in front of one, two, three, four, nine males that had appeared to be traveling towards you or rather, towards the portal.

The portal disappears in the process.

“Oh so we didn’t have to go through it! We had to gain another member!” One of them yells. “Would have been nice to know before we packed everything up!”

“Ho boy, where am I?” You ask and tighten your grip on your backpack. Why didn’t I bring a weapon?

They all had long tunics and swords on their backs. Old fashioned leather boots and hand bracers were the norm in this group and you realized very quickly that your jeans and t-shirt had wildly missed the memo.

“Dang, I didn’t think I’d walk into a LARP group. Sorry about that.” You sheepishly smile. “I had no idea where the portal was going to take me. But if you would be so kind-”

“Wait, what’s LARP?” One of them speaks up. He was a dirty blond and somewhere in the middle of the group height wise. He wore a white cape like thing with blue designs on the back but you didn’t recognize the symbol.

“Live Action Role Play?” You tilt your head. “It’s why you’re all dressed like that? Right?”

“This is just our clothes.” What appears to be the youngest bounces up to you. “What are you wearing?”

“First I could grab in my closet.” You admit and look down on it. It’s one of your comfiest shirts and best looking pants. You’re a little proud of yourself for finding those in the dark.

“Weird.”

“We’re heroes. We’re all named Link.” Cape guy speaks up again. “Is it safe to assume that you’re in the same boat?”

“Heroes?” Your eyebrows furrow together. “I’m not a hero and my name’s not Link.”

You’re quick to tell them your name and you watch as the confusion covers their faces. “My brother’s name is Link though if that helps anything.”

“Oh we needed him!” The youngest groans and it instantly irks you.

“What would you need with a five year old?” You deadpan and cross your arms. 

The information stuns the group.

“The portal showed up in the middle of the night and I’m the one that went through it. I’m pretty sure I was the only awake to even see it. Are you telling me that it was for my little brother?” You’d be lying if you said that you weren’t a little pissed. “My baby brother was supposed to go through it? He was asleep! He’s five. What kind of logic is that?!”

“Well...” The biggest and oldest of them runs a hand over his face. You think he has some cool tattoos and sick scar going across his eye but he looks about as angry as you feel, so you don’t say anything. “It appears the gods truly do not care for the hero’s maturity, only his existence.”

“Ok...What’s with all this hero talk?” You bite back. “What did... Where am I?”

“Hyrule.” The second with cool face tattoos speaks up. He’s got a large fur pelt around his shoulders and you have to tighten your grip against your backpack again to keep from reaching out to touch it.

Even so you feel yourself deadpan even more. “Hyrule? Like the ancient empire? The one that collapsed more than two thousand years ago? That Hyrule?”

You’re inclined to not believe them and write all of them off as crazy... but you also walked through a portal. And your grandma did say that magic existed in the strangest forms.

They all share looks of concern and some begin to murmur quietly amongst themselves but you’re too far gone to even notice.

“Did I time travel?” The idea hits you like a bus and you feel your eyes widen as you stare beyond the group. You quickly take our your phone and unlock it.

No signal.

“Is that a type of Sheikah slate?” Someone asks you.

“I don’t know what that is.” You reply automatically. “Wait, hold on, what year is it?”

“Why don’t you tell us what year you’re from and we can start from there?” The darkest brunette of the group speaks up.

“202x PC” You say robotically, not really processing the world around you anymore.

“That’s...” The blond with a long blue scarf speaks up with a slight hiss. “...Beyond any of our timelines. You see, we all come from different worlds and eras of Hyrule’s history.”

“I don’t think you’re the farthest down anymore, Wild.”

“This would then make them my successor, right?”

“It would make their brother your successor.” Someone amends. “I think they just jumped in his place.”

“Leave my brother alone.” You snap back into the present, pocketing your [hone again. “Ok, you know what, screw it. I don’t know what you’d want my brother for but I’m here now. I’d gladly take his place if it means he gets to stay home!”

“Hey.” A boy with pink hair stalks up to you looking a little more serious than you’d like.

“Nice hair dude, way to defy the gender norms.” You smirk a little before genuinely grinning, hoping to quell the tension. “What product do you use? It looks like Artic Fox but not every place sells their brand.”

“...I have no idea what you’re talking about but what happened to Ganon in your world? How have you been handling it?” He snaps and places his hands on his hips.

“Ganon? Like my old principle? That’s a name I haven’t heard in forever.” You’re confused again. “Last I heard he joined the police force only to be reassigned out of state. I don’t know what’s happening with him. Kinda hope he gets fired though. He’s not a bad guy but he’s not someone you’d want in that kind of position of power, you know.”

“Police force?”

You blinked and look them all over. They look very medieval. “Oh... You don’t have that...”

You begin to think about your history lessons and what they might be familiar with if they’re telling the truth about being from Hyrule.

“Ya’ll got knights?”

Many, almost all of them nod, a few with face of despair already on them before you finish speaking.

“It’s kind of like that. Mixed with a towns guard position... kinda. They enforce laws... at least they’re supposed to but the whole system is flawed and racist and really needs to be dismantled for the abuse of power that they have-”

“Abuse? Of power?” You have their attention again.

“It’s stupid and it won’t really make any sense if I try to explain because I doubt you have anything similar but it’s basically a group of people given the right to treat the public in anyway they like for their own benefit because they have no one telling them that they can’t.” You groan and slowly begin to feel your lack of sleep catch up to you. 

You slowly reach to behind you and sit down on the dirt, looking at all of them. “Mr. Dragmire wasn’t like...Demise or anything but he was a huge jerk. No one liked him. He liked me though. I remember that. I was the envy of the whole school because I somehow got on his good side while everyone else wants to strangle him. I think he was transferred for some misdemeanor or something like that... like he might have been throwing hands with someone he wasn’t supposed to. I never heard all the details. I didn’t really care for it when it happened either. I’m pretty sure he lost that fight though. The dude looked like a blast of wind could have knocked him over let alone someone’s knuckle sandwich.”

“I would love to hear more about this.” The youngest sits next to you with a large grin on his face. His eyes are bright and his body language reminds you of your cousin Zelda. You instantly think they’d get along like a house on fire. “What are your monsters like?”

“Monsters?” You tilt your head. “Be a little more specific bud, it depends on where you’re from.”

“You have that many?!”

“It depends on if you believe they’re real or not.”

“Speaking of monsters, can you fight?” The shortest walks up to you. You like that his tunic is stitched up with multiple colors and designs. It gives it personality, you think. “Do you have a weapon you’re more comfortable with?”

The question throws you off your rhythm and you don’t fight your wince. “What would happen if I say that I do not, in fact, have any sort of weapon on me?”

“I wouldn’t believe you.” Pink guy speaks up again. “That pack is huge, there has to be something in there.”

“It’s food, water and extra clothes my guy.” You lean back against said backpack since it won’t let you lay down with it still on. “Not a lot of space for anything else. I’m pretty good at hand to hand combat though. Karate’s a good way to fight out stress.” 

“Your bag’s not magic?”

“Why the hell would it be magic? ...Are you trying to tell me magic actually exists?” You raise an eyebrow as your eyes begin to close against your will. “I know my grandma said it does but I thought she meant like fairies and shadow demons.. and bigfoot. Can’t forget him, he’s the real MVP... You know...Children’s bedtime stories and stuff like that, it’s not real. But like magic magic? Magic items and the like? Find me Tinkerbell and I’ll show you Neverland, that’s what I say.”

“Are you serious?”

“Second star to the right, straight on till morning.” You respond.

There’s a moment of silence as the group in front of you processes your words. It’s hard to tell their reaction since you’re not looking at them but you no longer have the energy to do anything else.

“Are you falling asleep right now?” It’s the one they called Wild.

“I...” You try to open your eyes. They don’t budge. “I haven’t slept in nearly 20 hours... I think. I might have past 24 hours a while ago actually. Portal showed up at like four in the morning... I had to get up at six and I didn’t sleep at all before then.”

More silence.

“Great another one.” Someone scoffs.

You snort.

“Why did we pack up camp again?”

“No one kill me.” You say right before you lose consciousness. “Please and thank you.”

“They’re doomed.”

“Have some faith Vet. They stepped in for their little brother. That has to mean something?”

“They’re in for a rude awakening, and that’s all I have to say about it.”

[j4gm]

Obsidian lore thread!

Sharing this thread of lore, episode connections, and Easter eggs from Adventure Time: Distant Lands: Obsidian, originally written for my Twitter.

SPOILERS AHEAD, WATCH OBSIDIAN ON HBO MAX IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY

Keep reading for the full thread!

1) We've seen bombs scattered around the Land of Ooo before, but this is the first time we've seen the word "fission", confirming that they are nukes. Although we have seen the radiation roundel plenty of times so it's pretty obvious.

2) The "magic lightning" that created the Glass Kingdom could itself have been one of the nukes. Alternatively, it could have been the catalyst comet, although Finn has no connection to this place so that's probably not the case.

3) The subtitles for the first four minutes video suggested that Glassboy was saying "crap" here. However, the HBO Max subtitles confirm he is actually saying "crack".

4) All of Marceline's classic furniture is present, but Bubblegum's influence is very visible; a doily on the couch, a flask underneath, new barstools from the Candy Kingdom, and the pink lamp in the bedroom, just to name a few examples.

5) Lady Rainicorn slippers. That is all.

6) Chocoberry on the cover of a magazine. Looks like she's been dipped in white chocolate for this shoot.

7) This is the first time we've seen Choose Goose since he appeared as "Achoos Goose" in the Elements miniseries. Last time we saw his normal form was all the way back in season five's "Blade of Grass", nearly seven years ago. Is it weird that Choose Goose was the first thing in the episode to make me cry?

8) It appears that Princess Bubblegum has not rebuilt the Gumball Guardians since they were destroyed in the battle against GOLB.

9) There are lots of familiar candy people in and around the tavern, from a variety of seasons, including Kenneth, Dirt Beer Guy, Cherry Cream Soda, a Banana Guard 500, Lollipop Girl, and Smudge.

10) Simon is of course singing "Remember You". He is also using the omnichord that was used in that episode. Interestingly, this suggests he might remember some of his experiences as the Ice King.

11) This isn't the first time Dirt Beer Guy's tavern has hosted an open mic night. He also held one in "Son of Rap Bear", and even used the same banner, although it's looking a little tattered and worn out now.

12) Simon doesn't look any older than he did in the finale. This might mean that Betty's wish made him immortal, or it simply might not have been long enough for him to visibly age.

13) This is the oversized shirt given to Marceline by her father in the episode "Marcy & Hunson". It's looking a little faded these days.

14) Bubblegum's outfit is of a similar style to the one in "The Vault", but it's not the same. The fact she's not wearing her amulet might suggest this flashback takes place after "The Vault", but nothing is known for certain.

15) There are gravestones outside Marceline's house, but these actually aren’t new. They previously appeared in “Go With Me”. So don’t worry, these don’t belong to Jake or anything like that.

16) Simon's coping mechanism would be funny if it wasn't so sad. It's going to be a long time before he fully recovers. On a lighter note, the magnets on the fridge say "M PB" which is pretty cute.

17) This is our first time seeing the outside of Elise's van. We previously saw the interior in "Everything Stays". Also, we learned from the credits and subtitles that her name is Elise!

18) Previously, it wasn't known whether or not Elise survived the Mushroom War. Turns out she did... but not for long. It's also now unclear whether the flashback from "Everything Stays" happened before or after the war.

19) A nice little timeline detail: Marceline travelling with her mother for a while explains the awkward two year gap between the Mushroom War and the events of "Simon & Marcy".

20) Here's a comparison of the parts of Marceline's song that got corrupted into the current version. The Glass People got really obsessed with the idea of the song being about coconuts for some reason.

21) PB yelling "Scree!" to summon the Morrow is a callback all the way to the season two episode "Death in Bloom", which is when the Morrow made their debut.

22) Disease is added to the long list of things that helped wipe out humanity. I wonder if this disease is related to the one that Hugo and his crew gave to the grays in the BMO special. I also wonder if Marceline is immune thanks to her demon half.

23) The mutant puppy was able to say the word "wassup". Perhaps this is a halfway stage to the talking animals that now populate the Land of Ooo.

24) Turns out Marceline discovered her demon powers before she defeated the Fool. This is the first appearance of these kinds of soulless husks since "It Came From the Nightosphere" in season two.

25) This is the first new candy power we've seen Princess Bubblegum use since she learned how to create mints and soda in "Jelly Beans Have Power".

26) Marceline not caring about the glass people is very in line with her personality in the early seasons, such as when she was happy to let her father suck souls as long as she got her bass back.

27) No Easter egg here, just an extremely good image.

28) Here's the screenshot leaked by Adam Muto last month. Like the gas station in "Bonnibel Bubblegum", the graffiti here tells an interesting story. Seems like the Land of Ooo had a bit of a Mad Max phase while the humans were still around.

29) This is (as far as I know) only the second time an Adventure Time character has ever been shown bleeding. The first was the heart monster in "The Enchiridion", but that was a lot less realistic.

30) The fact that humans survived long enough to construct a whole Fallout-style bunker confirms that the near-extinction of humanity wasn't a quick process. It makes you wonder whether any other groups made it, besides the Islanders.

31) Apart from this being one of the darkest scenes in the entire show, I like the background detail of bank notes being used as toilet paper.

32) Marceline grew up blaming herself for her mother leaving, and says she is like her dad. It sounds like Elise has told Marceline a bit about Hunson Abadeer, and is scared and angry at him.

33) This actually isn't the first time Marceline's bass has been broken. She also snapped the handle during her fight with the Vampire King. However, it's never been completely shattered like this.

34) This might be a reference to the Hall of Egress. That's the only other time we've heard Bubblegum use that word.

35) Confirmation that Princess Bubblegum doesn't have bones. I guess that counts as lore?

36) The gag of the Banana Guards slipping over each other was also done in "The Thin Yellow Line" and probably some other episodes I'm forgetting.

37) Jake’s granddaughter Bronwyn is certainly an unexpected appearance. I wonder what affiliation she has with the main cast now?

38) And of course... FINN! I would estimate he's aged about five to ten years since the finale, but it's hard to tell with Adventure Time's style. He looks younger than he did in Puhoy's alternate future.

39) Lots of people have been theorising that the tattoo implies that something unfortunate has happened to Jake. Perhaps we'll get to know more about that in Together Again. Let's not dwell on it for now.

40) A canon origin story for the shirt, plus a Bubbline first meeting! This overrides the P.B. & Marcy comic, and re-contextualises a whole bunch of the old Bubbline episodes!

That’s all for now! Let me know if you can think of anything I missed!

[mcheang]

Phone Hiatus

This is a draft inspired by the Victorious episode Phone Bet.

Mendeliev dares the class to go a week without using their phones. If they succeed, she will include an extra credit assignment. For those who don’t need that assignment, she will allow them to skip class. And to make sure some people (aka Chloe, Max, Sabrina and Alya) don’t give up so soon out of disinterest, Mendeliev makes this a group dare. You all pass, or you all fail.

If they fail, they have to waste a weekend helping Mendeliev set up another class project in the forest. It would be a buggy, sweaty trip.

Since Markov can be used as a phone, Mendeliev will be borrowing him for the week, and having him check to see if the kids were using their cellphones.

Computers are allowed for the sake of schoolwork and general info. iPads are not.

For some people, this bet was no problem.

Marinette sketches on paper and doesn’t spend much time in front of the screen except when watching Adrien coverage.

Adrien was living the Dream. No more calls from Nathalie. Though she did buy him an alarm watch to remind him of his appointments.

For others; they were dying.

Chloe lived for gossip. How was she supposed to check her channels if she couldn’t use her phone. How was she going to flaunt her wealth if she couldn’t access her blog? And she was about to collect a gem for her Miraculous Crush account!

Alya loved technology. And she constantly fretted about the chances of an akuma happening when she didn’t have her phone! And it’s not like she can record the battle on her laptop. There was the school digital camera but they would never let her drag it around with her for a whole week. And her father would never let her use his camera, knowing how she likes to run into akuma sites.

Max consoles himself with a video game, driving Alya and Chloe insane to see him tapping his fingers away at what could almost pass for a phone.

By the middle of the week, the latter group were a mess. Max misses Markov. Chloe’s fingers kept twitching. And Alya snaps at anybody who moves.

Mendeliev smirks. “It’s sad seeing you all like this. Are you sure you don’t want to just give up now and save yourselves the misery of the next few days?”

To tempt the weak ones further, Mendeliev flaunts their phones in her phone bucket.

Chloe snaps. She could hire people to do the grunt work, but she needs to text now! And her grades were stellar, so no worries about that.

The class stops her. Some need that extra credit!

Nathaniel: I knew the girls would crack first

Max: logically speaking, they were the ones most likely to lose us the bet.

Nino: and i don’t want to lose my chance at a better grade just because they give up so easily.

Alya: watch your mouth, boyfriend.

Alix: and you guys are just as desperate to use your phones as us.

Chloe: I doubt that.

Mendeliev: shall we change the bet? Instead of a one week deadline, the contest ends when one gender loses and the other wins.

Marinette: bring it!

Ivan: good luck, you’re going to need it.

A few hours later...

Marinette: what was I thinking?!!!!

Alix: you were defending women!

Marinette: yeah, without considering our odds. Max survives with video games while we have to handcuff Chloe and Alya!

Mylene: then it looks like we have to gain an edge

Rose: how?

Lila: simple, really. We just need to get Max to break.

Marinette: it’s time to see whether the gamer is ready for a rematch.

Marinette challenges Max to a game. She wins, he can’t play anymore video games. He wins, she will uncuff Chloe and Alya.

Marinette wins.

Max shrugs. He has computer games.

Except for once, Lila and Marinette are on the same team. Lila used her silver tongue to convince Max’s mother that it might be good for her son to spend time away from tech and enjoy nature at its best. He’s just exaggerating about the cons of Mendeliev’s project set up.

Max is cut off from any screen. He begins to twitch like Chloe.

The guys restrain Max as they try to figure out how to free Alya and Chloe.

Adrien offers. The guys agree; thinking Marinette will easily give Adrien the key just by asking.

But Adrien was just going to send Plagg over.

Plagg was happy to cheat.

Tikki caught him. What do you expect? The girls’ base is Marinette’s bedroom.

Plagg is sent home, bruised in the rear from where Tikki kicked him out. He claimed to have been mistaken for a rat.

Kim: ok, new plan. We lay out a temptation bait so strong, the girls will overpower their bindings by mere force of will.

Nathaniel: what kind of bait?

Kim: how about “Ladybug announces opening for new permanent hero? Chloé will go nuts thinking she has a shot. And Alya will fight anyone who stops her from reading the scoop.

Adrien: i don’t like that scoop.

Kim: got a better idea?

Adrien sulks. “No.”

The next day, before the boys could enact their plan though, Max lost the game.

Everyone’s phones had been returned to their tables and Chloé and Alya could be seen typing onto their phones. Max instantly sprang free and started opening phone apps.

Kim: What happened? The game isn’t over.

Marinette: oh yes it is.

Alix: you lost!

Ivan: what?

Nathaniel: how? None of us used our phones till today.

Chloe: true, but while Dupain-Cheng sabotaged my phone and Cesaire’s...

Alya: Max was the first one to use his phone.

Boys: WHAT???

The girls turned their phones around to show black screens. Or in the last 2 girls’ cases, their phone screen were covered with cardboard.

Kim: this is cheating. How did you even get the phones?

Marinette: oh, i just wanted to use them to test my hypothesis. Miss Mendeliev was willing to loan them for the sake of science.

Kim: and what hypothesis would that be?

Miss Mendeliev walked in. “Whether the prolonged absence of a constant would remove all trained caution once the constant was brought into sight.”

Kim: this isn’t fair. Miss Mendeliev, you should have told us about this.

Mendeliev: all’s fair in war. I honestly didn’t plan for this to be a gender war, but since you boys started it, I had to side with my own female species.

So while the girls got to enjoy extra credit or free period, the boys lost their weekend. Don’t worry, some of the girls volunteered to help them anyway

[claraswritings]

I fell in love (with you) in stages - CH20- FINALE

Pairing: Steve Harrington x HendersonReader

Warnings: Series typical violence, language and spoilers for all seasons

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I have just been through a break up (my choice but still a hard choice) and it kind of put everything else on the back burner for a while.

**

Tags: @hannarudick @felicityofbakerstreet @sledgy14 @kiara-uwu @lookalivesunshine-x @loulouloueh @loco-latte @mikariell95 @queenofthehairharrington @lovelydaydreams15 @anonymousonion23 @mochminnie @prettysbliss

**

A few seconds later and the car collided with the side of Billy’s Camaro t-boning it and stopping it in its tracks before it reached the others. You felt yourself lurch forward then slide sideways into Steve.

The car came to a halt and Steve looked up, loosening his grip on the steering wheel

“You okay?” he asked, concerned turning to you almost immediately. He reached over to push your hair back. The worry over you was evident , the last thing he wanted was for you to be hurt due to his crazy idea.

“Never better,” you gave him a wry smile. “Are you?”

“Are you sure,” he asked again

“Steve.” you pressed. “I promise i’m fine, i’m just glad your idea worked, you are...amazing” You cupped his face with your hands and gave him a quick kiss.

The two of you sat for a second, catching your breath, before the smell of smoke coming from the Camaro, diverted your attention. Jonathan pulled up beside the now immobile Toddfather and gestured for you and Steve to get in. You didn’t even hesitate, scrambling in with your boyfriend following. He’d barely pulled the door shut before the creature leapt down with a roar and took off after the car, advancing after you.

**

You had barely taken your eyes off that...thing in hot pursuit of the vehicle. It was only the crackling of the radio made you jump and the sudden sound of an unfamiliar girls voice and your brothers perky tone told you it could only be one person.

“Wait. She’s real?” Steve turned to look at the radio too, clicking on at the same time. “Huh...gotta say I thought he was making her up,”

“I wish,” you rolled your eyes “He’s got some imagination but not enough to go on about her for as long as he did,”

If Steve thought hed had to listen to Dustin’s “Reasons why Suzie is great” monologue, he was in for a surprise. He had only heard the start of it. In the car journey back from the camp, you’d had hours of it. Not that you’d begrudge him, his first ever teenage romance. You were happy for your brother, after Max and Lucas had got together and Mike and El, you’d worried he’d be left behind.

Steve looked to be considering your reply “Eh yeah makes sense,” he shrugged. As a surprisingly melodic voice began floating through the radio. Steve wondered for a second if he was still drugged. It wasn’t until you spoke that he realised...nope, that really was Dustin singing.

“Is he singing? The song from Neverending Story?” your jaw was slack at the sheer madness of the situation. Being chased by some huge monster, in a car with your best friend who’d become your boyfriend in the past hour, his ex and your brother who had chosen now of all moments to start serenading his girlfriend over a radio.

“Is that one with the big white dog?”

“I think it’s supposed to be a dragon, Steve” you bit your lip, pointing out his mistake quietly. He was adorable when he was oblivious.

“Really” his brow knitted as Suzie began to join in with the singing. “They’re still going,”

“Are they going to do the whole song,” you remarked. “Don’t know if Dustins forgetting it’s kind of urgent” your face pulled into a grimace, and for a second your eyes flickered back to the monster.

Stomach churning, you looked away again, deep down, you feared the car would run out of fuel before you reached your destination and there was absolutely no way you’d outrun it on foot.

“Do you want me to sing to you” Steve offered casually. He sensed your discomfort and worry and even though he was freaking out himself, he hoped his lame attempt at humour would make you smile.

You snorted “Absoutely not...If you even try I’m throwing myself out of this car,”

“Even with that,” Steve gestured at the creature from the back window, pulling a face, as the love struck duo finished their song.

“I’ll take my chances,” you teased.. as Steve took his turn to scan out of the back window.

“Erm....” he poked you in the arm after a second “Why is it stopping, why is it turning around?” Before you could speculate, Steve leant forward tapping the others and sticking his head through to the drivers side to alert Jonathan.

“Guys that thing is turning around, It’s stopping, it must be going somewhere else,”

Jonathan eyed you both in the rear view before sighing, spinning the car, making a lurching U turn and following it back

“I can’t believe we’re actually going back, we must be dumb” You remarked under your breath

“Yeah i’ve been coming to that conclusion myself” he replied

“We should take Dustin to see her,” you commented as Jonathan began tailing the monster being careful to keep a reasonable distance from it. “We can make a road trip out of it, we’ll stock up on the nougat for Dustin and we can get a big bag of sours for us, we’ll get a motel along the way, obviously we’ll get a room to ourselves, i’ve got enough from working at the video store flat out, we can take your car, it’s nicer than mine and it’ll make Dustin look cool in front of Suzie. He’s probably told her all about you, y’know”

You were aware you were rambling but it was anything to take your mind of the idea that you might not have a tomorrow to think about as soon as you got to where that thing was going.

Steve nodded, he couldn’t quite say how much he liked the idea of getting a road trip with you, about how much he’d love to drop Dustin at Suzies for the day to let the young love birds catch up and for you and him to go out somewhere just the two of you, maybe even stay in a motel, order room service and make out. Instead he just leant over and gave you a kiss. In that moment he decided, If you were about to rush into probable death he wouldn’t let it happen without telling you.

He didn’t care anymore that Nancy or Jonathan could see if they glanced over their shoulder.

“I love you, I’ve been in love with you for ages” his tone was low, just enough for you to hear.

“I love you, Steve,” you kissed him again. The way you said it was different to how Nancy used to say it. You didn’t hesitate to return the sentiment, your eyes met his when you said it and you gave him a smile in spite of the beyond dangerous situation you were barrelling towards.

“We go together right,” you asked.

You didn’t need to ask. Steve knew.

“What? The road trip or certain death?” he quirked his eyebrows.

“Both,”

**

Lucas had briefed you all outside of Starcourt on his plan, and handed you all a fair amount of fireworks each. You’d break into sections; and surround the creature on the top, meaning El, Max and Mike wouldn’t be stuck fighting from the lower mall. His plan was basically “light, throw, grab another, throw again”.

Being completely to the point, you weren’t sure it would work but hell. It was the best you had.

Together you’d crept up the metal stairs of the fire exit, trying hard to stop your legs shaking. You could hear the low frequency roars of the monster from where you stood. It sounded like it was coming from all sides.

Once you made your way out of the door and on to the top level, there’d be no turning back.

You took a breath before resting your shaking hand on the door handle. The others had headed to the other entrances to the upper floor.

“Hey, we’ve got this” Steve who was only one step behind you, sensed your apprehension “Remember what you said. We stick together. You’ll have me with you the whole time, I promise I won’t let anything happen to you,”

You nodded and as you pushed open the door and crept to your positions, you could see the monster climb down through the wide open ceiling and advance towards El, who was trying to edge away from it as Billy watched expressionless.

Steve caught Lucas’ eye and nodded. The monster stilled, it’s mouth expanding.

“Okay [Name.]. Now” Lucas called over to you both, standing up and lobbing the firework directly into its side.

The creature let out a pained growl

“Flay this, you ugly piece of shit,” the younger boy called, his next firework hitting it directly in the mouth as it snapped around to the source.

“Nice aim” you called over

The mall lit up in a series of greens, yellows and reds as you broke away from taking turns throwing from different sides to bombarding from any direction.

“Erm guys,” Steve shouted over the crackling of the fireworks “We’re almost out over here,”

“I know” Will shouted back, his voice loud over the exploding “So are we!”

You threw one of your last large fireworks, and whipped around to Steve “It has to be now,” You told him, tossing your radio over before turning back to the dwindling pile. “I’ll keep throwing, call it in,”

Wasting no time, Steve forgone the call signs and scrambled for the radio “Dustin! We’re out of time!”

You could only vaguely hear your brothers reply. The crackling and banging from all ends plus the blood thumping in your ears was overwhelming everything.

Beneath you, you could see Billy had wrestled El to the ground and despite her struggling, hed gained the upper hand.

You fumbled back to the bag at the same time as Steve and you both reached inside, but your hands only found one firework left.

Shit.

His eyes met yours. “You or me,” he asked, a little breathless.

“You. You’ve got better aim” you rushed back, grabbing the lighter and lighting the fuse for Steve to lob the final firework.

From your glance over to Jonathan and Nancy you could see they had also ran out.

“What now?” you shouted, over the noise. The smoke trails of the fireworks were clearing and through the wisps and sparks, you could see Billy grapple with El as the monster inched forward.

“It’s not enough, we haven’t done enough,” you pressed your hands to your face. “Shit we need to do something,”

Steve glanced over at the floor below, he could see Billy stand up, as the creature let out a deafening roar.

“Come on come on come on, close the gate already” he muttered.

Billy’s arms shot out in an attempt to stop it, only to scream out in pain when it latched on to him.

“Fuck” you cursed. “What the hell is he doing? Should we help him?,” you turned to the others, your eyes wide. Jonathan looked pale white and Nancy shook her head

“I don’t think we can,” she bit her lip. “I don’t think we can do anymore,”

The monster took one last stab at Billy before dropping him, leaving him bleeding heavily on the floor of the mall. Max let out a loud scream that you could hear from your positions above even over all the chaos and you felt your heart break for her. Billy had never been the nicest brother to her but he was her brother nonetheless and he’d clearly sacrificed himself to save El. In spite of everything, he’d given himself up to save one of the kids.

Only a moment later and you heard an almighty screech and saw one of the many limbs flailing towards you, careening into the railing beside you.

“Get back” Steve turned towards you and pulled you back towards one of the walls and away from the edge, just in time.

With a groan and a thud that shook the whole mall, it fell to the ground with a weak snarl.

“Did...they? did they...” Steve couldn’t get the words out, as they fumbled over his lips unable to quite form a full sentence. One hand was still gripping the radio so hard you were surprised it hadn’t cracked, the other holding on to yours.

You could hear your brother and Erica on the other end but your ears were still ringing, and you could barely make out what they were saying.

You could only nod. “I think so”.

**

By the time, you were checked over, things had slowly started to set in, you’d been asked by about three men in uniform

what the hell had happened, and given the same version of events each time.

After that they’d given you a blanket and you’d joined Steve on the back of the ambulance, who wrapped in his own blanket had rested his head on your shoulder.

The two of you sat in silence, watching everyone mill around in the wreck that once was Starcourt. The skies had opened to rain for what felt like the first time in ages and you couldn’t help but turn your face up to the cool mist.

“I think I’m ready to go home,” you muttered to him, after a few moments. “We should get some sleep”

“Don’t. I... uh-,” Steve paused “I don’t want to be alone, not after all that,” he grimaced. “My dads out of town and...l”

“You won’t be alone, silly, you’ll be with me...and Dustin,” you reached for his hand in a small comforting gesture. “You didn’t think I’d leave you alone after all that, did you,”

Steve lifted his head off your shoulder and looked at you, taking in every detail of your face, the way the rain had plastered your tussled hair to your face, the wide eyed gaze focused on him, the curve of your nose and the tweak of your lips. You were without a doubt, in his mind, the best person he had ever known.

“What?” you eyebrows piqued.

“What did I do to deserve you?” he leant in pressing his forehead to yours.

Your heart broke a little at that. Your brave, bright, upbeat Steve didn’t even see how wonderful he was. How sweet he was, how kind he was to the kids, how dorky he was and how much you loved when he just embraced it. He looked completely drained.

You moved your hands up to cup his face. His cuts had been cleaned by one of the paramedics but he still sported a fairly nasty black eye. You kicked yourself mentally for having left him and Robin to the Russians, even though you knew if you’d attempted to take on a Russian soldier, you’d likely have gotten into a lot worse.

“Steve...”

“I seriously don’t know what I’d do without you,” he carried on.

“You’d be fine,” you traced his cheekbone, softly as not to put pressure on the bruises. “You’re better than you give yourself credit for”

“I really wouldn’t,” he broke your gaze for a second before you tilted his face back up to place a kiss on his lips. “Even still I wouldn’t want to ever be without you,”

“Well you don’t have to be without me, I’m not going anywhere,”

Steve offered his hand up only holding up his pinky “Promise?,”

“Forever and ever,” you kept one hand on his cheek before linking the pinky on your free hand with the one he had held up to you.

[aliypop]

When I First Met You (Part 2)

Word count : 1,765 

Warning : Language , Angst, Fluff

A/N : This is part 2 of  When I First Met You, But this time with Vampire Michael! cause why not! so I hope you guys enjoy it! Dedicated  to @a-supernatural-writer and @pitiful-anonymous-vampire​

Santa Carla 1987, the murder capital of the world, was what they called it. As the bustle of motorcycles and people fled the beach city streets, there stood on a cliff the remains of a hotel that had the view of the ocean. Standing in front of it all was Tiffany, her locket around her neck dressed in the finest leather and her signature black beaded corset. 

"David! Paul, Marko!" she shouted, "We're going to be late!" she sighed, standing next to her dark pink motorcycle with Dwayne beside her. "I took off work for this concert, and Star and Laddie already beat us there to it, now come on!" Tiffany shouted as she mounted herself on her bike, a dark pink Harley that she stole in 1955, Summers in Santa Carla were usually hot, humid, and magical but, most importantly, a time for fun chaos for the boys.  

"Tiff...baby, only I give the orders around here..." David snarled, a cigarette in his mouth, 

"Well, you're not doing a good job of it..." Tiffany plucked his cigarette as she stepped on it, "Now let's haul ass kitten..." she growled. The sounds of crowds cheering miles away from the cave only riled up Tiffany and the boys more for their blood lust of chaos,

 " Hey, Tiff! the last one to the video store owes everyone dinner," Marko said,

"Then I guess dinners on you!" Tiffany laughed as she revved her engine, speeding past Dwayne, David, and Paul.  The video store was like a second home to them, parking their bikes a few blocks away, taking a drag from his cigarette. David only rolled his eyes, pretending not to notice the fight between Marko and Tiffany. Besides, she could handle herself as she showed him early,

 "You fucking cheated!"

"You're just mad cause I beat you short stack!" she stuck her tongue out. 

"Paul!"

"Hey, if Tiffany won, she fucking won!" Paul smirked, putting his hands up in surrender: he laughed, taking her by the waist. As they began to walk into the crowd of people, Tiffany felt a hand grope her. As she tried to undermine the action, she could hear the faint mumbling of one of the Surf Nazi's saying,

 "Probably too dumb for a real man anyway..." 

Drawing back her fist Tiffany was ready to strike until she felt David pull her close to him and Dwayne, "We'll kill them later ..." his laughter cut short. From the corner of his eye stood Star and Laddie talking to someone new, which he didn't like. Besides, Santa Carla was a proclaimed murder capital, and you never knew who could be a vampire hunter. 

" Star..."  David nearly growled, a bit jealous. 

"See you tomorrow, Michael?" she asked, watching as the other guy smiled and nodded. 

Standing behind the counter was Tiffany, who, as usual, had to work. "I'm just saying that girl stiffed you, Mic!" a young boy about 13 said, 

"Whatever... You guys happen to have the new Bowie or Queen album?"  Tiffany only rolled her eyes until she turned to face him, dark brown fluffy curls and the most charming smile she had ever seen,

 "Anything for you, sweetheart..." she winked, heading towards the back of the store. 

"See, Mic if, that other girl stiffs you again, why not a record store, babe!" Michael only rolled his eyes at his brother as Tiffany giggled, "We have Queen, but we ran out of Bowie... She uh took the last one." Tiffany pointed to Star, who was waving from the doorway. She then took him by the chin, "But she's a good friend of mine, so if you ever wanna hang out and listen to Bowie, let me know..."  Sam only blushed, watching as his brother went speechless. 

"Yeah, sounds good. I'm Michael Emerson, by the way."

" I'm Tiffany, but you can call me anytime," she responded as she looked up at the clock. It was finally time for her to leave and be amongst the crowd.  Grabbing her keys to her bike, she waved out towards Michael and made her exit.  

"You didn't tell me he was hot!" 

"Because you didn't ask." Star laughed, "Hold on... " she saw Michael looking at the ear-piercing booth.  As Star worked her magic on the new boy, Tiffany wandered into Max's Video Village. 

There stood David, Dwayne,  Paul, and Marko, who was stealing yet another movie  E.T.  "You kids get out of here!" Max growled, watching as they "Terrorized" the tiny bit of customers, as the four left Tiffany waited outside with their bikes laughing 

"Kicked out again huh..." 

"Shut up Tiffany." Paul growled.

"Make me." she laughed, the laugh of Tiffany was like a sweet venom once it was in your veins you wanted more of it. Suddenly the sound of a motorcycle was heard , as the five looked they saw Star riding with Michael, "Star..." he sighed as she looked at David, 

"I was going to ride with..."

"Star..."

Star only sighed as she got on David's bike. Tiffany looked at Dwayne as she rolled her eyes, 

"Hey Michael, you wanna ride with us?  she asked as both Paul and Marko laughed. "I don't want to race you guys..." 

"It's not a race you just have to try to keep up..." David wink, "You think you can do that Michael?" he asked as Michael nodded. Engines revved as bikes raced across the California night sky like shadows in the night. "Hiya Dwayne." Tiffany grinned, blowing a kiss at him from her bike. Paul and Marko were neck and neck while Michael kept up with David, which was something that only a few people could do. The destination was the cave, which either meant they were going to feast on Michael which would have been a pity or they'd turn him. As they arrived in the cave Marko was with one of his many pigeons while Paul like usual was enjoying a nice joint, not that it had any effect on him. 

 "You know this used to be a hotel..." 

"Here we go again..."  Dwayne mumbled as he sat on the sofa shaking his head.  Tiffany laughed watching the scene unfold, which was just David going on about the history of the 1906 Santa Carla hotel. As the night progressed so did David’s and Stars intentions, standing with a bottle in his hand was Michael, The boys and Tiffany watched as he nearly drank every drop of David's blood, he was going to turn him, which wouldn't be a bad idea if they weren't currently dangling like loose ear rings on a train track bridge chanting his name. Paul had dropped first, then Marko and then Dwayne which only left Tiffany, David and Michael.  "Welp it's been a long night. I think I'm gonna drop out now." Tiffany untangled her index finger from the bridge as she waved at the two and fell amongst the thick fog 

"Marko look! No hands!"

As time passed on Michael started becoming a regular around Santa Carla, As the sun was up he'd help Tiffany in the music store as a new trainee. " See Michael, this is the bargain bin." her hands on top of his, as she looked into his eyes, "They usually go for about a dollar or so." she giggled, walking away showing him more of the store, she knew he was watching her every movement, they all did. From the switch in her walk in the giggle in her talk. "So what about Elvis where do those go?" 

"Next to that stupid Elvis statue." she sighed, as silence fell between them as the two stocked records and priced them. It was nice until he asked her a question that had never seemed to come across your mind.

"Did you always want to be this way?" he gestured to his canines with his tongue. 

" I didn't really have a choice, Michael could you take these to the back." she snapped at him shoving an empty bin at him, Vampires kind of were like people when it came to emotions, they had walls up that they didn't ever want torn down.  As Michael came back, he kept quiet, besides he had never seen her snap like that unless Paul or David used the last can of hairspray. 

"I didn't mean to -" 

"It's fine..." she leaned in wearing one of her many jean jackets and Guess pants to match. "You wanna know these things, cause Davids not gonna tell ya and Hell Max is gonna-" 

"What's he gonna do Tiff..." 

"I said too much..." she tried to walk away, as Michael held her wrist, "Tiffany tell me..." his hand rubbing circles on her cheek, "He's gonna have you kill or be killed..." she whispered, "What's so bad about that." 

"You couldn't kill a fly if you had to." she shrugged, "You'll die out there... " Tiffany pulled away from his touch. 8' O'clock on the dot like blood work was when the boys showed up, usually all four but tonight it was just Dwayne. "You told him didn't you..." he mumbled, watching as she turned her back to him, something that she'd never done specifically to him. "Next customer." she smiled ringing up their merchandise, "Tiffany..." he sighed, "Whatever you told him... just know I trust you."  Tiffany only tensed up, Dwayne never threw the word trust around, and for him to say that he trust her, only made her ache in the sorrow for what was yet to come. 

“Dwayne, wait…”  she turned to face him,

“It’s too late Tiff…” he shrugged walking out of the shop. 

Santa Carla 1987, the murder capital of the world, was what they called it. As the bustle of motorcycles and people fled the beach city streets, sitting at the beach in the night sky sat Tiffany alone sighing in melancholy. Waves crashed against her toes as she remembered the good times she shared with her boys. “HEY CUT IT OUT MICHAEL!” Star laughed as he splashed her with water. Paul and Marko were building a sandcastle as David stared at the night sky, pointing out stars to Laddie. 

“Is this spot taken…” 

“I was saving it for you.” Tiffany giggled, holding Dwayne's hand,  it was a serene sight all was right with The Lost Boys until they heard the sound of a familiar voice calling out to them. 

“Mom said it’s bedtime!” Sam shouted from the boardwalk.

“ 5 more minutes!” Paul shouted. 

“But it’s not even 5am yet!” David pouted. 

“Hey I don’t make the rules…” 

[v0n-butch]

whipped

Billy Hargrove x fem reader

“can you do something with billy where like she has to babysit the party but it’s also date night so she drags billy with her and they all pile up on the couch to watch a movie either scary or romantic and everyone is shocked how gentle and caring billy is because they’re used to see him in a scary way thank youuu” requested by @allabouthargrove​

word count: 3,554

warning(s): swearing

a/n: I loved this idea! thank you for letting me write it, and I will sorta admit I got a teensy bit carried away? c’mon tho we need Billy bickering with the kids, that would’ve been so adorable to see. had trouble since there’s so many characters, I chose to have just 4 out of all of the kids to be there since writing that many characters was a little daunting to me. enjoy:)

—

“Babe, I’m just saying that they’re old enough to fuck off and do whatever they want while their folks are gone. When we were their age we never had a sitter that read fuckin’ bedtime stories and cuddled us all night,” Billy reasons, grumbling as he rips apart the third bag of popcorn he’s made so far for tonight’s movie night with the kids. He shoves the movie snack in the microwave and slams it, huffing more complaints under his breath about hating the children for not allowing him his one-on-one time with his girlfriend.

You’ve of course noticed by now this far in the relationship you’ve shared with Billy how high his temper can elevate to. Maybe it’s directed to someone else, such as his dad (whom infuriates him the most, and rightfully so). However, his anger has never taken a tole on you. Ever. Maybe there’s a sprinkle of a disagreement between the two of you here and there, but he’s proven himself more than worthy of your trust. Thick and thin, he has been outstanding at comforting you and never lashing out at you if he had a hard day.

With that being said, his relationship with the kids is a different story.

Billy blatantly shows his disapproval and not to mention distaste for Dustin and Lucas in particular, whom have shown interest in his little sister. Nothing’s escalated to a full on fight before, he’s never stooped that low to throw hands on a kid. Although Billy vows to protect what’s his and he knows what goes through their heads, given that he was once their age and in awe of girls. So you could imagine the internal battle the teen is going to be fighting, having to sit pretty and stay calm for the sake of his girlfriend. Yes, he could have just skipped the ordeal entirely, maybe reschedule their date for when things could be a little more private. But when you offered that he could still come over while you babysit, with your goddamn puppy eyes and gentle pleas of desperation, fuck him if he can’t say no, alright?

Billy promised to be on his best behavior, but his patience has already worn thin and none of the kids have even arrived yet.

You sigh before sauntering over to where he stands, idly watching the transformation of the popping corn in the microwave with his hands on his hips. Turning his chin so that he meets your eyes, knowing that eye contact always seems to force him to snap out of it, you speak lowly in his ear.

“Listen, I get that they’re not your favorite to hang out with, but I promised you a little something if you play nice, didn’t I?” you pet his dirty blonde curls, another tactic for persuading Billy that you’ve learned. His pout fades a little, and he turns away before muttering a moody “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Hey, look at me. Billy,” you request, turning his head gently once more. His blue eyes meet yours.

“Things’ll be just fine. You’ll do great, I know it. Because I didn’t fall in love with an asshole, I fell in love with you.”

How the fuck is Billy supposed to argue that?

—

All at once, the kids come as promised at seven, riding their bikes to your garage. It’s Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Will that have been put under your wing for the night. Max has been on vacation to visit her side of the family, and El is spending her night watching Miami Vice with her dad. Steve wasn’t available either, working tonight at Family Video, which makes the perfect coincidence that you and Billy were to watch them together.

Dustin and Lucas were equally weary about Billy’s attendance at your movie night, shakey and worrisome about getting into it with your boyfriend. Will, however, could really care less. Billy never had any beef with him, probably because he never tried hitting on his sister.

“I’m just saying, Lucas, it would’ve been a good idea if we brought protection! We know he won’t hesitate to fucking murder us, so we need to be prepared!” Dustin whisper-shouts, his anxiety clouding his proper judgement. Lucas rolls his eyes and pushed the curly haired boy’s shoulder, knowing how ridiculous and sensitive he can get. Yes, Billy scares him shitless too, but he has faith in Y/N to tame the wild beast.

“You guys are idiots. God, Dustin, just shut up already. He would’ve killed us a long time ago if he planned on it, he’s had like a hundred chances already,” Mike complains, thinking that that’s somehow going to serve as reassurance to his friends. Dustin’s eyes grew impossibly wider than they already were, and Lucas curses under his breath before the door is ripped open in front of them.

Billy is the one to greet them at the door, chest puffed out as he eyes the shorter boys. He then leans on the side of the door, mocking them with one hand on a hip and a smirk playing his face.

“Well well well,” the older boy says. Without turning around and breaking eye contact with any of the middle schoolers, he shouts to get your attention. “Babe! Your Goonies are here!”

From inside the house in the living room, you squat in front of the television as you continue attempting to set up the film you chose.

“Yeah? And are you gonna let them in?” you ask, already smelling his alpha male behavior from a mile away. Billy reluctantly gives in, knowing he couldn’t deny you of anything you want, and opens the door wider to let the dorky dwarfs in. One at a time, they all rush to get inside, with a quiet Will being let in first by Billy, then come Mike second, and Lucas third. Dustin swallows audibly and keeps his eyes glued to his shoes as to not give the older boy any reason for trouble, and nearly loses it when he’s stopped by a hand on his chest.

“It wasn’t me, I swear! It was all Lucas’s idea, he was the one who was gonna hit on M—“ Dustin is quick to throw Lucas under the bus to save his own ass, and Billy would be lying if he said it didn’t make him wanna laugh for days. Of course this one kid in particular is the narc of the bunch. Makes sense.

“You agreed that you’d be civil, Billy! Ten seconds, you lasted not ten seconds!” you scold him as you march over to the door, livid enough to scare Billy back to being nice again. Without any further stalling, Billy looks down in what the kids see as shame, which they didn’t think he was even capable of feeling, then allows the ballcap wearing kid inside. Like a completely different person than he was not even five seconds ago, has he been fucking possessed, he walks over to where you stand and look knowingly at him. With a kiss on the cheek, and a whisper that none of the younger ones are able to hear, you’re back to normal and Billy is unusually quiet.

All the boys watch the show, seeing him go from alpha dog to obedient puppy instantaneously. Dustin mouthed ’what the fuck was that’ to Mike, baffled by the affect you had on the malicious blonde.

Mike rolls his eyes as he takes off his coat before muttering, “Love makes people crazy. And weird. But mostly crazy.”

—

“Billy was oh so very kind enough to make all you guys popcorn for the movie we’re watching tonight,” you squeeze Billy’s hip when you refer to him before he yelps and blushes. All the kids have no fucking idea how this monster has transformed, blushing because a girl touched him.

“Uh, thanks,” Dustin awkwardly reaches for one of the bowls of popcorn, hasty when he takes a piece and puts it in his mouth, trying to play detective to see if Billy put something in it.

When you and Billy walk to the kitchen he starts a dramatic coughing fit and lets out a string of curses, spitting it out then warns Lucas that he thinks it was poisoned.

“Everything okay out there?” You check in after hearing odd commotion, pulling away from the kisses that Billy was sprinkling all over your neck.

“Yeah, Dustin just choked on a kernel. He’ll be just fine, won’t you, Dusty?” Lucas harshly pats the boy’s back in an effort to cover up his stupidity as an accident. Will shakes his head at his dumb friends, but offers to eat it if he doesn’t want it.

“Hey Y/N, when are we starting the movie? We didn’t come here to sit and wait around, you know!” Mike calls out, all four of them going to the kitchen to see what the hold up was before peeking at quite a sight. It was you sitting on the kitchen counter, Billy between your legs, exchanging kisses and whispers of promises for what’s to come later as he softly combs his fingers through your hair keeping it out of your face. All four of their jaws dropped at the nauseating poster of pure tenderness being displayed in front of their eyes. The other hand that wasn’t in your hair was rubbing your waist, and it didn’t even look that sexual, instead looking just so goddamn loveable that it nearly made them all simultaneously hurl.

“I’ll — We’ll be out there in a minute, guys,” you stutter and laugh when Billy makes a face then traces a sweet line down your jaw with his thumb. “We’re making more popcorn!”

“Okay, no they’re not. That’s not what making popcorn looks like,” Dustin shakes his head and fakes a gagging sound.

“No shit, doofus. Who the hell would ever think Hill-Billy Hargrove could ever be that in love with someone who’s not himself,” Mike mumbles, before wordlessly throwing a pillow that lands directly at Dustin’s face.

When you and Billy finally emerge from the kitchen after whatever gross activities that high schoolers do, nothing but bickering is to be heard. You surrender with a shrug and an empty apology before pressing play on the film.

“So what is it that we’re watching, exactly?”

“Nightmare on Elm Street,” Billy answers the curly haired boy, not taking his eyes off the screen or his hands off Y/N. You two have somewhat of an unspoken language, communicating with nods and gestures that none of the middle schoolers can wrap their heads around. You’d nod your head to the bowl if you’d like to be fed a piece of popcorn, and without any protests on his end, your boyfriend feeds it right to you and then grabs a handful for himself. Mike wants to throw up, Dustin wants to die because of the horrible movie choice, and Will simply sits tight and kicks back his feet, somewhat enjoying himself.

“Uh, who the hell picked this garbage for us to watch?” Dustin asks, shoving his toothless mouth full of the buttery snack.

“The lady gets to pick whatever we do and whatever we watch, because she was sweet enough to even let you come over in the first place,” Billy spits, before earning a certain look from you that says ’you know better’ making him shut his trap. He nestles his face into your neck as a sheepish way to say he’s sorry, that he’ll try better before you get excited when asking him for another one of his heavenly massages. Billy is the number one champion at getting all the knots that sit in your shoulders and your neck out, and he never complains about doing the job either. He loves pleasing you. Turning to the side to give him a better angle at your back, he gets right to work and even puts his elbow into the mix. He always loves the soft sounds you let out from how pleasant the sensations are.

“Mm, you like it here? Want me to go up higher?”

“No no, it’s perfect right there. Wait, little lower. And harder. Yeah, that’s it,” you guide him and he follows your directions flawlessly, ignoring the glares from the dwarfs that have to sit and listen to this shit.

“Should’ve brought those barf bags that they use on planes,” Mike grumbles, turning his head back to the television where Johnny Depp is talking on the phone in a crop top. Freddie Krueger has yet to fuck shit up and kill people, but Dustin still covers his eyes and hides in Lucas’s shoulder.

Halfway through the movie, after Billy had given up massaging you given the cramp that started up in his hands, he gets bored. So bored, in fact, that fucking with the kids sounds like the perfect entertainment for right now. His girl is still nestled under his arm, and he’s sure as shit proud that you barely even flinched while watching Freddie slit numerous bodies open, cheap scare after cheap scare. And then the perfect idea comes to him.

“You know, I actually read somewhere that this movie’s based on a true story.”

Dustin snaps his head to the teenage blonde and gasps aloud, hiding further into the blankets. You on the other hand laugh at the absurdity and his attempt at scaring the kids, but allowing him to continue. It’s the first time he’s actually spoken to them without making a threat or ridiculing the boys anyway.

“You’re shitting me.”

Billy shakes his head, somehow in some way keeping a straight face as he stirs up even more complete utter bullshit. “Nope. They say that there really was a guy in a fedora that would come to you in your dreams, and if he killed you in your sleep, you’d die for real.”

The kids begin to outrage.

“Alright, that’s just—“

“Nuh-uh, no way, man. I’m never getting a second of sleep ever again!”

“Now WAIT a second, that can’t possibly be possible!”

And that’s where you draw the line, deciding they’ve had enough. “Okay, guys, GUYS! He was joking. That was his attempt at a joke,” you silence the chaos, while Billy sits there with a shit eating grin at the gasoline he poured into the fire. He could rile them up without even lifting a finger, and he was happy about that.

“You’re a goddamn demon! Jesus!” Dustin roars, pointing a finger at Billy as he sits and stares, not intimidated by the Little Red Riding Hoods that threaten him.

“Demon Jesus? Never heard of that one,” he smirks, getting up and throwing a blanket over the kid’s face. Dustin scrambles to shove it off him, annoyed at how Billy is Mister Nice Guy to Y/N but a fucking asshole to everybody else entirely.

“Shut up you guys, I wanna finish the movie already,” Will objects, trying to turn the sound up on the television to tune out the dispute. After the whole house finally seems to settle down and finish it up, you end up asleep and cuddled into Billy’s entire side as he pets your arm as to soothe you even though you’re not even awake, Will’s knocked out on the floor, same goes for Dustin and Lucas. The only ones left that haven’t yawned once are Billy and Mike.

It’s somewhat awkward when the credits begin to roll, giving the two boys no more room for something to do as they uncomfortably lay in silence. Mike almost wants to pretend to be asleep just to ditch any attempt at conversation Billy may potentially try, but it’s too late when they accidently make eye contact.

“Um, I’m gonna tuck her in to her bed real quick,” Billy whispers, holding up a finger to his lips to make Mike stay quiet. The younger boy nods in understanding, and then Billy carefully gets up from the couch and grabs you bridal style before carrying you to your room. When he comes back, Mike is still staring at the ceiling, thinking loud enough for Billy to want to say something to the kid.

“I was just messin’ with you kids, uh, about the movie being real and all. I didn’t know it’d piss all you off that much,” he scratches the back of his neck. Mike nods again, assuring him it didn’t freak him out nearly as much as it did his other two dweeb friends.

“Um, would it be cool if I asked you something?” the younger boy whispers after he gets up to join Billy in the kitchen, thankfully more private and away from all the sleeping figures in the living room. Billy stays standing but nods at the chair, signaling Mike to sit. He complies before awaiting an answer.

“Depends on what you ask.”

“Um, you seem really good at like, how to treat a girl. You’re usually terrifying but tonight I witnessed you hand feeding Y/N and giving her a massage for like an hour, not to mention the kissing and other gross stuff, but I just don’t get it,” he finishes, not knowing if he worded any of that right. And also worrying about getting punched for even asking.

“What don’t you understand?” Billy furrows his brows, unaware of what he was being asked here. “I love her and respect her. Which is what you’re supposed to do,” he answers, opening the fridge to grab a beverage. He looks back at Mike, then back to the fridge, then wordlessly snatches a Caprisun and throws it at Mike who barely catches it in time.

“No! No I know but I just—“

“Shh,” the older boy scolds, whispering for Mike to keep his voice down. He shakes his head then beckons the boy to come out back with him. Mike, somewhat frightened and confused, follows his lead not knowing where this conversation is leading. Billy takes a seat on the lawn chair before pulling a pack out of his back pocket, taking a stick out and putting it between his lips.

“Wanna elaborate then, please?” he scoffs with the cigarette in his lips, searching every pocket and even the outside table for a lighter. Mike stands stiffly as he fumbles to do as he was asked.

“I wanna know how you did it, y’know, got all that ‘feelings’ stuff down and then get to the good stuff,” Mike stumbles.

Billy, having found a lighter, pauses as he burns the top of his cigarette then takes a puff before letting out a laugh of disbelief.

“You’re comin’ to me for advice on how to get with my own goddamn sister.” Billy concludes. “Well, I’ll have you know that if you or any of you twerps lay a fucking finger on her I’ll—“

“Woah woah woah, no. That’s not what I want, okay! Your sister is annoying and gross,” Mike defends himself, even holding his hands up in some sort of pussy way to protect himself.

Billy pulls another face, huffing smoke out his nose akin to a dragon before getting even angrier.

“Don’t you dare call her that either, motherfucker!”

“So you don’t want me liking her or hating her. Makes perfect sense,” Mike gives him attitude, seemingly forgetting who he’s talking to.

“Hey, shitbird. I don’t want any of you piss-for-brains even near Maxine, but if you’re not talking about her, who the hell are you talking about?” Billy wonders, finding himself actually curious for once about middle school gossip.

“Wait, it’s not that little girl named after a number, is it?”

Mike’s avoidance serves as a confirmation.

Billy chuckles as he blows out more smoke, then even offers the middle schooler a hit, raiding his brows. He knows how bad the girl trouble gets, especially at that age when you have no idea what’s going on and why girls are hot and make you nervous all the sudden.

Mike’s face scrunches up in disgust.

“Dude, Y/N would kill you if she saw you offering me that.”

“That’s... yeah, you’re right. Pretend nothing happened,” Billy agreed.

“Okay. So were you just planning on making fun of me and then suggesting I smoke, or—“

Billy puts his hand up to silence him.

“Kid, I learned through bad experiences. But it takes the right girl that forgives and forgets when you fuck up. A special girl, not just the first one that walks by,” he explains, ashing the last of his spliff and putting a hand on Mike’s shoulder.

“Y/N did that? Forgive you and forget all the messed up shit you pulled?” he asks.

“Well, yeah. Only ‘cause she loves me. And she keeps me in line,” he fiddled with the ring on his middle finger as he speaks, still giddy and lovesick even after all this time he’s been with you. Mike doesn’t find it cute in the slightest, he snorts at it even, but takes his advice and keeps it at heart. He mutters ”whipped” on his way back inside, before gasping as a hand yanks on the back of his shirt, forcing him backward.

“Good luck with the girl, kid. But I’m holding you responsible for keeping your friends the fuck off my sister.”

—

had to put a dash of mileven in cause adorable, and when I pictured Billy offering the kids a smoke I laughed and knew it had to be written. hope this didn’t suck!

[if-the-crown-fits-translate-it]

Discord pt 92

[Date: 17/03, 07:42 PM GMT - 17/03, 09:29 PM GMT]

jayyyyyyyy: “fetch, come on, cant you see this isnt doing anything to help?

just take the damn ointment”

Little-K1ng: “he... what?”

Marcus: “I back read a little bit”

Marcus: “Just not here”

fetch: “fine. you want me to be honest huh. go on look at the fucking doc. just another place where my problems turned into everyone else's.”

Little-K1ng: fetch.... you really, really need to stop lying to me. im doing my best here, im trying so hard to let things slide in the name of giving you what you need. but you are far from making it easy on me”

fetch: “we're gonna forget all this happened in 3 days time anyway. it doesn't fucking matter what i tell you or what i dont.”

Little-K1ng: “you get angry when you're stressed, you stop responding, you stop listening to reason

but-.. wait, whats going to happen in 3 days?”

Maxwell: “....prince told us that faer family is coming back in 3 days”

fetch: “the beginning of spring.”

Maxwell: “spring officially begins then”

jayyyyyyyy: “we'll get you guys back, if you somehow go back in the first place”

Little-K1ng: “so.... so i get warning, this time,

thats.... almost too cruel”

fetch: “whatever. i honestly can't be asked to care at this point.”

Marcus: “You’d really say that to Mona of all people?”

Little-K1ng: “i..... i wouldnt ask that of you”

Marcus: “...three days huh”

Little-K1ng: “i would simply fucking EXPECT IT FROM YOU. HOW THE FUCK. AM I MEANT TO FEEL. WHEN I CANT STOP GRIEVING SOMEONE. WHOS RIGHT IN FUCKING FRONT OF ME, FETCH?”

donti (e): “... mona u alright...?”

Marcus: “Is that really a question you’re asking right now?”

donti (e): “ah.. sorry.”

jayyyyyyyy: “honestly at this point im willing to chuck a bucket of weedkiller at fetch's head”

Marcus: “Jeight.”

donti (e): “hey hey lets not get hastyy”

Little-K1ng: “i... [huff] i .... [sniff] i just.. i shouldnt have yelled i....”

Marcus: “This isn’t helping”

fetch: “i... you're expecting too much from me. i mean. you expect me to care at this point? when death is coming to our door and all we can do is throw on a little sprinkler? when all we can do is sit in a huddle and wait until these vines in our skulls fully bloom?”

donti (e): “... we discussed possible solutions to the buds if you.. want to change subject.. or not”

jayyyyyyyy: “fetch, the thing about this is that we have a fighting chance

we lose that chance if you stop fighting”

Little-K1ng: “im expecting you to fucking try, fetch. im expecting you to understand that we're all going through this, and every time you lie to me, to us, you cost us more time we could have spent trying to fix it”

fetch: “how would it help, by piling on more and more to the shitheap we have already? you're not supposed to worry about me. ive always been able to handle myself.”

Maxwell: “please ⌇⏁⍜⌿arguing....why are we arguing.....”

Marcus: “..”

Void: “...”

Little-K1ng: “wh... what did you just...?”

Maxwell: “....what....”

fetch: “...”

Maxwell: “why are...”

Marcus: “Max..”

Maxwell: “why are you staring at me what”

Marcus: “Can you say what you just said again”

Little-K1ng: “that sounded like...”

donti (e): “max...”

Little-K1ng: “say that again, max”

Marcus: “Please”

jayyyyyyyy: “actually maybe dont”

Marcus: “Max say it again”

jayyyyyyyy: “that. i think fighting is causing the process to speed up”

Maxwell: “please stop arguing....why are we arguing.....?”

Little-K1ng: “i... thats not what i heard”

donti (e): “... lets stop arguing”

Marcus: “That’s..that’s what I thought you said

You just

Didn’t say it like that”

Maxwell: “but i did”

fetch: “...yall still think I need to be priority right now?”

Maxwell: “thats what i said”

jayyyyyyyy: “you, uh, said "stop" in enderspeak”

Maxwell: “what no i didnt”

Marcus: “Fetch. This is going to be you so kindly shut the fuck up about not being a priority”

Little-K1ng: “fetch, you fail to recognize that you're always my priority, even if you're kind of an ass”

Marcus: “Max it’s okay

I told you it would be okay”

Little-K1ng: “max, hug?”

Maxwell: “why....why are you all acting so weird?”

Little-K1ng: “its alright, max”

jayyyyyyyy: “we're all just stressed mate”

Maxwell: “are yall okay?”

donti (e): “weere fine its fine..”

Maxwell: “its?

look im not a child you can tell me whats going on”

Marcus: “We told you”

fetch: “you spoke in ender.”

Marcus: “You denied it”

donti (e): “you spoke ender.”

Maxwell: “you....youre kidding right?”

jayyyyyyyy: “nope”

Maxwell: “ha funny joke”

jayyyyyyyy: “we're not joking”

fetch: “for once im not lying.”

Marcus: “You told us to tell you.

We told you.”

Little-K1ng: “here, come in for a hug, wont you?”

Maxwell: “no no no no no”

Little-K1ng: “ive got you, max”

Maxwell: “i couldnt have no”

jayyyyyyyy: “hold on, hes panicking”

Little-K1ng: “its the stress, max

its alright, im here”

jayyyyyyyy: “mona, give him a little space”

Maxwell: “no no no stay please”

jayyyyyyyy: “i never said for anyone to leave

are you okay with being given hugs, or would you rather not?”

Maxwell: “im okay with it”

LLyr: “they’ve kind of established max likes the contact at this point i think”

jayyyyyyyy: “yeah, but you can never be too careful”

LLyr: “fair enough”

Little-K1ng: “i appreciate the concern for max, jayx8″

fetch: “I. i would offer a hug but I'm not feeling up to it. i think I'm just gonna go for a walk.”

jayyyyyyyy: “its

Little-K1ng: “fetch...”

jayyyyyyyy: “​hm”

Maxwell: “i dont wanna go back no no please no”

Little-K1ng: “i would rather you not go out where the court roams

you got in one good bite, let it be enough”

fetch: “i'll stick nearby.

i just need to get out of the house.”

Little-K1ng: “stay where you can see the road, alright? text me if you need a pickup”

jayyyyyyyy: “stay near the neighborhood. go to the mineshaft if you need to”

fetch: “yeah. got it. later.”

Maxwell: “I'm scared”

donti (e): “...”

Little-K1ng: “oh, max...”

Maxwell: “oh no oh god oh merde”

donti (e): “sh shsshshh max its fine.

calm down its alright.”

Little-K1ng: “tell you what, we can destress with some hot cocoa? with the tiny colorful marshmallows you like?”

Marcus: “I can go make it

I don’t think max wants to be alone right now”

jayyyyyyyy: “maybe watch some movies? ones that uh, dont have kidnapping in them, too. moana would be good?”

Little-K1ng: “i dont actually.. own any movies

i dont watch them”

donti (e): “youtube videos ?”

Little-K1ng: “that works”

[They watch a video of an otter for a while, and discuss the events from earlier this day. Max thinks that the wreathe mayn’t be as bad as everyone thinks it’ll be, as it will have calendula marigolds which are good for helping to heal.]

Little-K1ng: “....ah.. they are, but maybe..... nah, nevermind.... ill let you enjoy the thought”

Maxwell: “they may be fully metal but still...maybe then can help the family....”

Marcus: “...”

Little-K1ng: “.........”

Maxwell: “what?”

Marcus: “..yeah max, that’s a nice thought”

Maxwell: “i thought so too!”

Little-K1ng: “i cant believe.... im staring down the barrel of either losing all 3 of you... or going with you and not remembering any of this... that hurts, and it hasnt even happened yet”

Marcus: “Well

I don’t know if this will comfort you or not

But you might not entirely forget this”

Little-K1ng: “true! this is honestly the happiest thing to happen to me in an incredibly long time, there is a chance itll stick”

Marcus: “Baron and Prince remember their childhoods a little bit”

Maxwell: “stick...sticky...ha honey is sticky but not good

tastes yucky”

Marcus: “...I remembered Elizabeth and I learning codes

....max?”

Maxwell: “hm?

something wrong?”

Marcus: “What was that about honey just now?”

Maxwell: “oh!

well mona said stick

and stick is one letter off from sticky!

and hony is really sticky

but i dont like honey”

Marcus: “...got it

Maxwell: “bleh”

Marcus: “Okay yeah that

That makes sense”

Maxwell: “yeah!”

Little-K1ng: “i wish i hadnt snapped at fetch like that... maybe when he comes back i can give him a proper apology”

Maxwell: “hm perhaps that would be good

family should get along”

[this message was deleted shortly afterwards]

Marcus: “....”

Little-K1ng: “i...?”

Maxwell: “what?”

Marcus: “M..ax?”

Little-K1ng: “max?”

Maxwell: “god damn it did i speak fucking ender again or some shit???”

Marcus: “N..no”

Little-K1ng: “n..no.....”

Maxwell: “the fuck happened then? yall look freaked out”

Marcus: “Um”

Little-K1ng: “nevermind! :)!!”

Maxwell: “hm.....if youre sure...”

Marcus: “I must be tired, it’s fine Max! :)”

Maxwell: “youve been sleeping a lot man you sure?”

Marcus: “Yeah, gotta be tired to sleep a lot right”

Maxwell: “I guess”

Little-K1ng: “are you guys...... hungry?”

[The conversation switches to the topic of making brownies and other baked goods. There was also small talk about methods of removing the growing wreathe buds that had been suggested earlier in the day. Mona suggests cutting one of the buds off, if Max could handle it. Jack and Marcus argue over their priorities: their concern for Max and their family respectively. After snipping off a small part of the buds, the following conversation ensures:]

Marcus: “...he’s not bleeding”

donti (e): “can you guys take a look at what mona cut off?”

emuhlee: “well, that part is good?”

Maxwell: “theres some time of fucking liquid ow”

Marcus: “It looks like that...cellulose that comes out of dandelions”

Little-K1ng: “Hhhhhhhhh”

Marcus: “Mona?

donti (e): “is max alright??”

Marcus: “Uh..in pain?”

dreaming: “uh get a towel?”

Marcus: “It’s not a lot”

Maxwell: “that really hurt jesus fucking christ”

Marcus: “Have you never picked a dandelion?

It’s like that”

Little-K1ng: “That's kinda. Gross”

Jack the Observer: “it's not blood though, right?”

Maxwell: “my headache is much worse....”

Little-K1ng: “No not blood”

Marcus: “It’s..

Huh”

donti (e): “blood substitute?”

Marcus: “It stopped”

Jack the Observer: “huh.”

Marcus: “......”

donti (e): “hey what happened to the bud”

Marcus: “Mona

Mona look”

Marcus: “Mona there’s two more”

Maxwell: “God damn it is this fucking Hercules or some shit”

Jack the Observer: “pft”

donti (e): “well.

we can at least look at the bud that was cut off.”

Marcus: “It’s just sitting there”

[The conclusion from this experiment was that the buds have nerve endings, which is why it hurt Maxwell and worsened his headache when it was cut, even after being numbed with ice prior to cutting. People ask about Fetch’s whereabouts. This was his last known update to the document:]

[With this information, people begin to speculate that Fetch might not be back for a while…]

[thankskenpenders]

Yeah, this is the big one. Grab your popcorn

Sally finally gets a moment to talk to Sonic after being ignored all day, and tells him what’s up. With her being put in charge, and Sonic being her royal consort (basically, the guy who’s committed to marrying her someday but isn’t quite her fiance yet), Sally wants Sonic to stop going on away missions and lead Knothole by her side

Look. Let’s set aside all of our preconceived notions about what a Sonic comic should or shouldn’t be. Ignore the fact that we obviously want to see Sonic go on adventures. Forget it. Let’s look at it from Sally’s perspective for a second

Yes, this is the post in which I explain that “The Slap” isn’t that bad. It’s certainly not great, but it’s not The Worst Thing Ever like it’s been made out to be. I wish I didn’t have to spend my evening writing this, but 15 years of hyperbolic fan outrage (note: some Wikia rando added that “reception” section this year) have forced my hand

First of all, again, Sonic is formally committed to marrying her and ruling alongside her someday. This was established ten issues ago. He was already committed to this. Then, Sonic went and died. Sally still spent an entire year of her life thinking her basically-fiance was dead, and had to deal with shit in Knothole without him as things continued to get worse and worse. No one can just bounce back from that unscathed. After his return, she WANTED to help Sonic and go be a Freedom Fighter on the last mission, but her parents forbade her and the royal guards kept her in the castle. (That SUCKS, but is a whole ‘nother conversation.) She wants to fight by his side and keep him safe, but her parents are forcing her to stay home and be the princess, which only makes her more distraught. Last issue, she broke down into tears when she saw Sonic get shot by M over Eggman’s video feed, and her mother had to console her and reassure her Sonic wasn’t dead

Sally very clearly has PTSD over Sonic’s “death” a year ago. She doesn’t want to lose him again. She’s outright said as much

And also... when she says Sonic isn’t the only hero around, she’s got a point?Sonic barely did anything in the last arc! Tails was the one who outsmarted ADAM. Shadow dealt with Eggman. Bunnie did most of the damage to M and took out an entire fucking aircraft carrier on her own. Knuckles, the Chaotix, Rouge, and Amy took out the robot horde. All Sonic did was land the final attack on M--which, honestly, someone else could’ve done. And he got his arm injured in the process

Add on to this all of the chaos of the last few days. Sally’s barely had a free moment to see Sonic since she found out he was alive. They nearly got nuked by Eggman. They’re being harangued by the paparazzi. It sucks. And hell, it goes back WAY further than this! She spent years as a kid trying to save her parents, and now all they do is belittle her. She found out she had a secret older brother, and then her parents decided he was the more important child. She went through all sorts of relationship drama. She nearly died a few times herself. And now, her parents have decided to leave her in charge of their whole kingdom at a time of war, while she’s still a mess from the trauma of losing Sonic. The idea Bollers had was apparently that Sally had been bottling up her issues for years (which she totally had been), and this was just the breaking point

I know Sonic’s desire to keep being a hero is understandable. I know he’s right. That’s all he really knows how to do, and he feels useless in times of peace. And obviously, we the readers want to see Sonic go on adventures. But Sally’s concerns are valid. We don’t have to agree with her plan to have Sonic rule by her side for her emotions to be understandable

Sally’s been on the verge of a breakdown for who knows how long. She should be mad at her parents, but they’ve worn her down to the point where she thinks she’s unable to confront them. (It would be very, very easy to make a case arguing that Sally’s parents are emotionally abusive. Max especially.) She thinks that Sonic is the one person who will listen to her and have her back. They’re betrothed, after all. This is literally what he signed up for. After trying to get his attention ALL DAY, she finally gets a chance to talk to him. But he wants other things in life, and refuses. In front of a crowd, no less

So she lashes out at Sonic and slaps him

Then they both start yelling at each other and crying. Sally asks Sonic if she’s more important to him than fighting Eggman, Sonic can’t answer, and Sally runs away in tears. For all intents and purposes, Sonic and Sally are now broken up. (For now.)

Should Sally be lashing out at Sonic? No. Could this scene be done better? Oh, absolutely. This is not the direction I would want Sally to go in as a character, and if you ARE gonna have them fight, this wasn’t written with the care required to make fans sympathize with both parties. The fact that we’ve seen everything from Sonic’s perspective with barely any insight into Sally’s certainly doesn’t help. But as the several lengthy paragraphs above explain, this does not come out of nowhere. It’s easy to find lots of fans online calling Sally all sorts of names (sometimes very misogynistic or ableist ones) because they think she just flipped out on Sonic out of nowhere. But she didn’t. Sally having some sort of breakdown had been foreshadowed for several issues, and the reasons why make sense. No, she shouldn’t have lashed out at Sonic, but this isn’t just her going “Oh no, my period! Let’s nuke England!” as so many have made it out to be. (And hell, the comics already had a lengthy history of treating Sally even worse than this, with Gallagher making her the nagging girlfriend who bickered with Sonic all the time and Penders sympathizing more with her shitty dad.)

Again, this was supposed to be a turning point in which Sally bottling up all this crap and carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders finally leads to her breaking. It’s a dramatic low point to build back up from. The problem is that Bollers left the series only a few issues later, and Penders and “Chacon” never did much with this. So in hindsight, many view this as her randomly snapping “for no reason,” because the followup stories that would have explored how she’d been bottling up her feelings were never actually written. But it’s not hard to figure out what’s supposed to be going on in her head if you actually go back and look at the preceding Sally scenes

For the most part, this is just run of the mill relationship drama for Archie Sonic. You see this kind of shit all the time in serialized media. Characters date, but the writers need to keep things ~spicy~, so they break up, see other people... then inevitably end up back together, and the process repeats ad nauseum. You ever watch Scrubs? You know how JD and Elliot are obviously love interests from episode one, but they had to do that will they/won’t they shit for years and have flings with other characters to keep up ratings? Yeah, it’s just that. For Sonic, there’s also the added pressure from Sega, who never allowed Sonic to be in any stable relationship for very long. Several writers have talked about how this limited what they could do with Sonic and Sally. Do I like that this cycle of drama is the norm? No. But after over 200 of these comics, I’m used to it

(And hell, at this point in the comics, they had literally just broken up Bunnie and Antoine, and Rouge was starting to get in the way of Knuckles and Julie-Su’s relationship. Between Julie-Su and Knuckles’ first kiss and them actually dating, Penders had Julie-Su get mad at Knuckles and go out with some random other guy. They do this shit all the time)

The worst you can really say about this scene is that Jon’s art is a little too goofy and undermines the drama a bit. In his own words from his website’s FAQ: “I’m sorry. Like I said, I was an overeager noob and I drew what I was given.” But really, he had been drawing these sorts of exaggerated, frantic expressions throughout the entire issue. Not just with Sally. Look at all the panels of Sonic wigging out in the previous pages. I still think his work is fantastic. If anything, it was a bad call on Archie’s part to give this somber scene to a brand new artist with a very exaggerated, silly art style. He just drew what was in the script

You know what really blows about this whole thing, though? Jon Gray is still, to this day, over 15 years later, getting harassed for drawing The Slap

That is so utterly ridiculous and shitty. People have made up all sorts of conspiracy theories about the slap, saying that Jon had some sort of “anti-Sally agenda” and that it wasn’t in the script. (This is completely false.) People are so stuck in the past and bent out of shape over this one panel in a pretty run-of-the-mill Archie Sonic issue that Jon has to block people who come into his Twitter mentions accusing him of “sabotaging” the series on a regular basis. Y’all, Jon’s a good guy, and he doesn’t deserve to be treated like that

And lord. There’s so much nastier shit within this series. Penders hooking a 15-year-old Sally up with a dude in his 20s (and later saying that he wanted her to lose his virginity to said dude). Gallagher making Barby Koala have a creepy crush on Tails. Penders rephrasing a poem about the Holocaust to be about hedgehogs. Penders having Sally rationalize her dad’s attempt at genocide. (I could go on and on with Penders, can you tell)

This whole thing is just, so blown out of proportion. It’s not a great scene, but it didn’t “ruin” Sally’s character. Neither Jon nor Bollers had some sort of “anti-Sally agenda.” They weren’t out to ruin your fucking ship. And for god’s sake, quit yelling at them about it. This was 15 years ago and all parties involved have moved on. It’s just more melodrama in a series that’s always 90% melodrama

It’s a single panel in a comic about Sonic the Hedgehog. Can we move on

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

Share a Lair 07 || Share a Char

Henry shook his head slowly, his arms folded and hair pulled into a small little curly tail. Jasper licked his lips, nodded in appreciation, and took a sip of water. Charlotte approached them and asked, “What are you two doing?”

Henry said, “Training,” but Jasper said, “Looking at Max,” which Charlotte now saw was the more honest answer, and she looked and understood why. He had on a VR helmet and was apparently either training or playing a very intense fighting game. Either way, the drool about to drop from Jasper’s mouth - relatable. Charlotte blinked out of it though. “Umm, are you going to train today?”

“Just got finished running around the track,” Henry said. “Waiting on Max to finish up here.”

“I thought you two had very different training schedules as to not overlap,” she said.

“Char. Shh! What if you distract him?” Jasper said. “We want him to be able to get all of the training he needs to keep the world safe!” Then, after a little while, more to himself, he said softly, “Look at that… bulge…”

“GROSS!” Char practically squealed. Max turned in that direction at the sound of her voice and lifted his helmet. He checked his watch and realized that he had run over his time. He deactivated the training helmet, summoned his bag, water and towel to himself and began to walk in their direction.

“You’re lucky,” Jasper said to her.

“For what?” She asked.

Henry laughed, “That bulge!”

She cringed and shook her head and hands, “I have nothing to do with that!” She accidentally glanced at it, though, thanks to Jasper mentioning it in the first place! “Stop pointing it out!” Her voice was high pitched and anxious.

Max practically vacuumed a jug of water into his mouth, but paused to say, “Didn’t mean to go over. There’s a button on the post for when that happens, or you can just get Charlotte to yelp. That worked too.” Jasper looked at the post in front of him and pressed the button.

“Alert. You have succeeded your training time. Please be courteous and vacate the training field.” Max narrowed his eyes at him.

“I wanted to see how it worked,” Jasper explained.

Max wiped his face and hung the towel around his neck, “Hello, Miss Page.” He was twinkling with perspiration and breathing kind of hard, but was… still everything and that smile always tripped her up.

“Are we… doing last names, now, Mr. Thunderman? No. I hate it. That didn’t feel right.” They started walking away while Jasper watched and Henry went onto the training field.

“Jasper! Come on, Dude. He’s not THAT good looking.”

“First off, he definitely IS. Second off, where is Charlotte going? I thought she was helping with training.”

“I’m coming back!” she called over her shoulder and shook her head. “Nosy..” Max smiled. Charlotte huffed and said, “Okay, SO - I am here, as, I guess a liaison.”

“What’s Henry’s problem now?” He asked.

“He’s really feeling like you treat him like an outsider, in what is supposed to feel like his own home. He’s ready to file a request for a new placement.” Charlotte said. Max furrowed his eyebrows, scoffed, and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, yeah. I know. You don’t like Henry. You don’t care about him.”

“It’s not even that. I don’t dislike him and, well, yeah, I don’t care about him. Honestly, I feel like I don’t do anything to make Henry uncomfortable.”

“The snide comments? The nasty looks? The house rules reminders?”

Max rolled his eyes, “He should man up.”

“Maybe. Or maybe you could give him a little break?” She rubbed his arm and for that reason, he began to consider it. He didn’t feel like he gave Henry a hard time, but maybe he could put just a little more effort into it. Charlotte was tracing his muscles and got a little bit lost in the definition of them. He watched her eyes follow the tracks her fingers made and stopped walking. She stopped too and looked at him. He was… amused. She realized that she was being kind of touchy.

“Should I flex them for you?” He teased.

“Don’t be silly,” she said, laughing and folded her arms, then thought for a moment and said, “I mean, go ahead, if you want, but that’s not important.What’s important is…”

He smiled and flexed his arms, “I’m getting more solid!” he practically cheered. She rubbed on his arm, squeezed the bicep, nodded in agreement. He was slightly bigger than he had been when they moved in, but only someone who was paying extremely close attention might notice that. She pulled her hand back and snapped out of it, “Focus, Charlotte!”

“It is perfectly fine if you focus on these. This is my DREAM, having a really hot girl openly fawn over my muscles. It’s what I deserve.”

Back on task, and ignoring all of what he said, she resumed her concerns, with her hands clasped together to keep from touching him again, “If he files for a new placement, it’ll be paperwork, interviews, and all of that, and a bunch of bull… and if they grant it to him, who knows where we’ll wind up next…”

“We,” he said, dropping his flexed arms to his sides and slumping his shoulders, like he had just realized that Charlotte would definitely be part of an exit made by Henry. She was one third of the Henry Hart package. “Ugh. Fine. What do you want me to do?”

“Well, I was thinking that we could start with a little morale booster. He wanted to do the video game tournament, but I told him that you’ve already got the living room for that… What if you let our friends come too, and hang out with your friends for a night?”

Max looked very not pleased with that idea. She thought out loud, “Of course, I’ll have less than a week to Ray and Schwoz proof the house, but I’ve done more in less time, before.”

“If either of them gets out of line, I will freeze the entire room, I swear to God.”

She smiled and threw her arms around his neck, “Thank you! Henry’s gonna feel a lot better knowing that you’re gonna do this for him.”

His hands held her waist and he looked down at her, “Not doing it for him.” They stared at each other for a while. Charlotte felt… like she was in some type of trance. She was tempted to kiss him again, and that was what broke it!

She smiled and removed his hands and said, “Well, thank you anyway, I mean. Thank you… Just thank you, please. Not please. JUST thank you. Okay, bye.” She wrung her hands and practically ran back to the training field.

.

Ray and Schwoz arrived earlier than any of Max’s friends. Charlotte told them to come through the tower entrance, but Ray decided that to establish dominance, he needed to barge in through the front door. So, he tried it and got zapped. Max first heard “Alert, Dumbest Hero Alive and his unfortunate science slave approaching,” from his monitor watch. His parents had a big one in their home. He had a small one in his chambers and he connected a system to the front entrance, but instead of a monitor, he simply programmed it to his watch. He was about to disarm the alarms when he heard the zapping noise and Ray scream. He laughed and disarmed them before the poor little science guy got hurt.

Max opened the door and Schwoz looked absolutely terrified, but also intrigued. What might happen next? Max said, “So, you guys must be Henry’s friends. Charlotte said you’d be coming in through the tower, and also, you’re like 2 hours early. This is how you wound up electrocuted.”

“What type of security system is this?’ Schwoz asked curiously.

“Kidding me? So that you can hack into it? No. You’ll have to work hard like Charlotte did,” Max said, with a smile as he texted her to let her know that they were here, in case she didn’t already. He resumed setting up the living room to accommodate everyone.

“Is… is that a pit couch?” Ray asked.

“Yeah. Had it transported it from my T Force office for tonight. Trying to organize our sectionals around it. There’s gonna be quite a few people here tonight. Exceeding my 9 person maximum for comfort, but… morale.”

“This is something that Charlotte forced on you, isn’t it?” Ray asked.

“Charlotte asked me to allow Henry’s friends to partake tonight.”

“She’s the worst,” Ray said, shaking his head. Max paused and looked at him with the most disdainful expression that he could muster. Ray stared back at him, confused, then glanced at Schwoz to see if he saw it too. Schwoz was inspecting different things in the room, though. Trying to determine what was simply furniture and what served as one of Max’s things.

“You realize that she’s the only reason that you’re here tonight, right?” Max asked.

Ray scoffed, “I was comin’ whether or not you wanted me to. I’m indestructible. Nothing scares me. Least of all some kid… with… hair that I have to admit is very nice.”

Max smiled, “Nothing scares you. Cool. Tonight’s not about fear. It’s about respecting others. Umm… Everybody is gonna respect Charlotte tonight. That’s a house rule. Non-negotiable.”

“You have a house rule that everyone has to respect everyone on the night of a video game tournament?” Schwoz asked, from near Max’s hammock.

“I have an everybody respect Charlotte house rule on every night.”

Ray laughed, “What is she like… your girlfriend or something?”

“Just. Heed the rule. Thanks,” Max said. He didn’t add for your own benefit. He wasn’t going to explain himself to this man, especially after saying something mean about his… friend… less than 10 minutes of being here.

She came into the living room and shook her head, “Sorry. Max. Hope they haven’t been bothering you.” Then, to the two of them, “Umm, why aren’t you in the tower? We’re pregaming up there. Come on. Max has a lot to do here.”

“He’s just rearranging furniture!” Ray pouted and she took him by the elbow and waved Schwoz along too.

Schwoz cheered to Max, “See you soon!” Then, whenever he followed Charlotte, he said, “Good job, Charlotte. He’s very skilled with technology.”

“What do you mean, ‘good job’?” she asked. Max smirked. He knew what he meant. He always knew what they meant. Every single friend that she had now had tried to let her in on the facts. She was still in denial obviously, and he wouldn’t make it difficult for her. But… That was his lady. He knew it. They knew it. She was the only person who didn’t know it yet. He’d had a similar sort of ignorance whenever he first fell into feelings with his first serious girlfriend. Technically, no… they weren’t “together.” Nobody had officially made any declaration or asked the other for a title or anything like that, but… he knew how he felt and he was pretty sure she was somewhere along the same lines. It was nice to not have to really acknowledge it, though. It made it easy to avoid the deeper topics and to bond through interests and stuff while she figured out her emotions on her own. No pressure. As for him… He was taken and he knew that, and he wasn’t necessarily patient, but smart enough to know that rushing someone as reserved as she was would be a terrible route to winning her over.

.

Max had Oyster, Gideon, Wolfgang, someone named Angus, who Charlotte hadn’t met before, Billy and Nora (who she had only sort of met), and he was unsure if girlfriends were going to be stopping by sporadically. Henry had his usual - Jasper, Ray, Schwoz, and Char, but said that Piper might stop by. Max got in front of everyone and said, “Okay, listen up! This tournament goes on for the entire weekend. You all know those deets, I’m sure. What you will have to understand about this gaming site - Henry and I live here, but our chambers are off limits, unless permission is given. I will be giving none, so bathrooms this weekend are,” he pointed, “The one in the laundry room, or if Henry lets you into the tower.” Henry scoffed. But… his guests were welcome to go to his bathroom, though.

“Charlotte has been gracious and kind enough to make sure that there are little hygiene favors for everyone and set us up a nacho bar.”

“Charlotte’s the best!” Oyster roared in excitement.

“Awww,” she said with her hand over her heart. Ray rolled his eyes and laughed a little. Max heard it and turned very suddenly to glare at him.

“I cannot stress this enough - Charlotte gets respect in this house. I expect everyone to respect her, whether or not I’m there to see it.”

“What kind of a MONSTER would disrespect Charlotte?” Gideon wondered. She crossed both hands over her chest and let out a little squeal.

Ray asked, “Is this one of your pranks that I hear tell of?”

“I… don’t play about that. Charlotte is a valued member of this house’s wellbeing. She works hard and takes care of a lot. We respect her here, and you will too. Invitations will be rescinded if I catch on to any disrespect.”

She stood up and walked over to him, with her finger raised, “If I might… Say something?”

“Of course.”

“Okay… He’s not talking about if we’re playing against each other. That’s understandable trash talk and I dish it out, too. He’s talking… rolling your eyes and laughing if someone pays me a compliment when you can just shut your old head ass up.”

“WAIT! Does SHE get to talk to us like that?” Ray asked.

Max said, “I think she was just giving an example,” very innocently, pretending not to realize that was directed, rightfully at Ray.

Ray pouted and said, “Can we get on with the games?”

“Last few rules and concerns,” Max said, then saw two bunnies walking to the couch and made a gesture at them to Charlotte, then mouthed Thank You when she went to collect Colosso and Balfour. “Um, last few things - My 19 year old brother and 17 year old sister are here. Neither of them can have alcohol, because this is mixed company. If you have given them alcohol in the past. Don’t try that this weekend. Oyster… no matter WHAT Nora says, give her zero alcohol.” Oyster nodded his head. “You know what… if Nora asks you for anything, check with me, to see if it’s okay.”

“COME ON!” Nora cried out.

Henry noticed that Charlotte had vanished, but as Max was wrapping up, she came out of his restricted area. Oh. So he WAS allowing access, just to her. She came to sit in between Jasper and Schwoz and Henry asked, “Hey, where did you go?”

“The rabbits were loose,” she said.

“What… rabbits?” He asked. There were rabbits in this house??? Max was done talking, so his friends rushed to the nacho bar while Nora and Billy made sure they staked their claim on the pit couch and Charlotte got up to talk to Max. Henry let out a frustrated groan and threw his head back. “She acts like I don’t even exist anymore,” he said, shaking his head.

“Hey. So… Balfour really wanted to watch the game tournament. He was like crying. So, I told him that I’d ask you about some way that could possibly happen?”

Max folded his arms and said, “I guess we could link a signal into Penelope and let her put it on her projector in real time? They can’t come up here, though. They’ll start trouble.”

“I really wanted Penelope here with me tonight. What if ONLY Balfour comes up and…”

“No. He’s the worse one.” Max said, chuckling. “Char, these are supervillains. They aren’t innocent bystanders who became bunnies.”

“He loved video games and he can’t play anymore. He just wants to watch. I believe him,” she said, playing with his pocket. Henry watched them.

Max sighed and pointed at her nose, “Anything that goes wrong as a result of him being up here will be on you.”

“I accept,” she said and bit at his finger, “Get that out of my face!” She laughed. He moved it around her face until she swatted it away and took hold of his hand, playing with his fingers. “I’ll go get him.” Max watched her disappear through his chamber door again and Henry narrowed his eyes at the entire thing. Whenever Charlotte returned carrying a white bunny with glasses, he was confused. She sat him next to Penelope as she took her seat again.

.

Charlotte began the night cozied with her friends, but wound up by Max, with the bunnies and Billy… closer to where Max’s friends were. Billy and Max were the only ones currently awake. Oyster was in a nacho eating food coma. Angus and Gideon were resting until their next matches, and Gideon had already been eliminated. Ray and Nora had somehow began a rivalry and were trash talking as they played against each other. Henry and Jasper were watching in entertainment that this was the second teenaged girl that he couldn’t beat in a video game. Henry was going to point this out to Char, but whenever he looked over, she was talking to Max again. Their faces were close together and he was looking all soft at her like he often did. She looked exhausted. “Hey, Char!” Henry called. She jumped. Max frowned as she pulled her face away from him to turn to Henry. “This girl’s giving your old records quite a run!”

“I never even played this game,” Charlotte said, shaking her head.

“FINISH HIM!” Jasper yelled and then moments later Nora jumped up and got into Ray’s face, “That’s what I’m talking about, MAGGOTCHESTER!” A few of the sleeping ones stirred, but remained sleeping. They either had ear muffs or plugs, for such scenarios.

Charlotte began talking to Max while Nora was screaming, so that whenever she stopped everyone heard her say, “So, I’m just gonna be in your bed…” Her eyes grew wide and she looked around the room. Billy, Nora, Henry, Jasper and Ray all turned and looked right back at her. “Not like that!” She said and shook her head.

“Where’s Balfour?” Max wondered. She gasped and began to frantically look around.

“Where’s Schwoz?” Ray wondered. Schwoz came from the bathroom, holding Balfour.

“Schwoz! What were you doing with him?” Charlotte asked and took the bunny off of his hands.

“He needed to go to the bathroom and you hadn’t brought any of his papers out,” Schwoz explained.

Max collected him and told Charlotte, “I’ve got him. Go on and get some rest. I’ll bring him whenever I come down.”

“Okay. Thanks.” She wanted to give him a kiss on the cheek, but the others were already watching them kinda closely. He didn’t care about that obviously, because he gave her one and told her goodnight. She was all fluttery inside as she headed for his chambers.

She was asleep when he did retire for the evening. Billy and Nora came down to wash up and took their sleeping bags to the landing mat. Max climbed into bed and figured he could stay on one side with Charlotte on the other. She definitely woke up wrapped completely around him from behind.

Charlotte gasped and sat up. Of course, he needed to sleep in his own bed tonight. He had two siblings staying over and friends sprawled all over the couch. She went into the bathroom to wash up and get ready for today, then crept out to get started on at least ordering breakfast to be delivered.

Jasper and Henry had retired to the tower, while Ray and Schwoz camped out in the van. Angus was the only person awake whenever Char surfaced. “Hi… Angus, right?”

“Right,” he said, with a smile. He was doing some stretches.

“I’m gonna order a bunch of breakfast stuff. I’m more familiar with Max and my friends’ stuff, but do you know about those guys?” She pointed to the sleeping men on the couch.

“Haven’t been around them a huge amount recently, but I’m almost certain that Oyster still will eat just about anything,” he laughed.

“Bless him. He’s such a sweetheart.” She began to make an online order and also to start on fruit prep, for juice and/or smoothies.

Henry came, groggily through the double doors, being pushed from behind by Jasper and yawning. Charlotte hoped that they had brushed their teeth. “I’ve got breakfast on the way and at least one of you needs a smoothie, doesn’t he?” She smiled at Henry.

“Is she speaking to me? Does Charlotte Page see Henry Hart standing here?” He asked, sarcastically. She looked confused as she threw in the ingredients for a wake up smoothie into the blender for him. “Oh, right… Max isn’t around. So, I’m visible. Cool!” She turned off the blender, rolled her eyes and poured his smoothie. “Wonder how much time I have before my nemesis appears and my best friend loses knowledge of my existence.”

Angus asked Jasper, “Is… this awkward for you, as well?”

“It is,” Jasper said.

“Wanna go for a walk with me?”

“No, but I surely don’t wanna stay here for this,” Jasper said and they both headed out of the front door.

“Got it out of your system?” Charlotte asked, handing Henry the smoothie.

“He’s not even that good looking,” he said and nodded once, “Now, it’s out of my system.”

“Okay. Now that it is, let me say this… Whenever you don’t want to have to hang out with me, you think Max is the perfect candidate to take up my time. Whenever you don’t want to listen to me, I have to talk to Max. Whenever you can’t help me out with something, Max does. But, the moment that you have a want or a need and I’m occupied with Max, then you feel a way. Henry, I don’t know how else to tell you this, but Max and I get each other. I know you and me have been friends a long time, but those parts that didn’t make sense, they never started to. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t friends anymore, or that I don’t care about you, hence the reason you are drinking a smoothie from my heart. Thank you for giving me the push that I needed to find another friend. Max was a great choice. You did this, and you did well. Now, appreciate and respect that.”

“It’s not just Max, Dude. I mean, he’s your… cool half or whatever…”

“Wow…”

“But, like… You’re not even hardly chilling with us at this thing. You’re hanging out with his friends and his siblings. You slept in his bed? And.. that didn’t sound like the first time.”

“Probably like the 4th time these past couple of weeks. Usually, he sleeps elsewhere, but his siblings took that, so my options were out here on this super couch with those strangers or in a bed that I’m welcome and comfortable in.”

“You are comfortable in my bed? Me, you and Jasp used to do this all the time.”

“Henry!” She said it snappier than she intended. “You started this year out wanting a little bit less of me, and that’s what you’ve gotten. I would’ve thought you’d be relieved to be able to escape me.” She didn’t want to bring up NYE, because it still hurt, but she had been less engaging with him since then, with both he and Jasper, quite frankly.

“Nobody wanted to escape you, Charlotte. One night, was all it was and I’m sorry we handled it the way that we did. But, we got karma, remember? We got deserted.”

“And I rescued you. Henry, maybe the reason that it’s hard for you to share your friend is because your friend has always been a major resource to you. And maybe the reason it hasn’t been as hard for me to branch out is because my friend hasn’t always been a major resource.”

“You think I… don’t deserve your friendship?”

“I didn’t say that. I think that our friendship has positively impacted your day to day a little more vigorously than mine.”

“So, really it’s you escaping me.”

She frowned and sighed. “This is me getting comfortable with another friend, Henry. I’m still here for you. You only feel like I’m not because I was giving you WAY too much energy before now. I’ve been really happy,” she said, with a guilty look in her eyes, “And I thought that you had been too. This… event is supposed to bring us together. That’s why I was talking to other friends. You can try it too. You and Max should be trying it, because you live together. You share this space, and your both my friend. I’m not… picking. I don’t have to, because I know that I enrich both your lives, so I don’t believe either of you are cutting me off.”

Max came into the room, strutting, shirtless, carrying a shirt in his hands and preparing to put it on. Charlotte was relieved to see him. She thought she’d be awkward after how she woke up, but this talk with Henry had just rocked her and fortunately, as unpredictable as he was, Max was a calming presence for her. “Morning, Max,” she said, with a smile. He threw the shirt on, noticed her eyes, looked at a moping Henry and moved closer to Charlotte to give her a hug.

“Good morning. You okay?” he asked softly. She nodded, with her head against his chest. “What about you, Henry? You alright?” Max asked. Henry shrugged his shoulders. He hated seeing them… like that. She keeps insisting that they’re friends, but they keep doing… this kind of stuff. The doorbell rang and Charlotte went to go answer it. Probably the breakfast. “How are your friends enjoying the tournament?”

“Pretty good. I think you and me are up against each other tonight.”

“That should be fun for me… embarrassing for you.”

“You can’t beat me in everything,” Henry declared.

Max laughed. “That’s absolutely false. Of course I can.”

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

S.T. REWRITE - S2:E3; Chapter Three, The Pollywog - [Pt. 4 - FINAL PART]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

Dustin adopts a strange new pet, and Eleven grows increasingly impatient. A well-meaning Bob urges Will to stand up to his fears while Y/n’s powers grow stronger, bringing to light many questions about her past.

A/n: HOLY SLEEP DEPRIVATION, BATMAN. I wrote most of this at like 3 am. Ok, now THIS is a long chapter. I would advise you to take some breaks but I don't know how many of you will actually listen so... yeah, happy reading and count this your daily reminder to drink some water! :D

||3rd Person POV||

El marched through the woods. She had been walking for several hours. Finally, she reached the edge of the woods, and her attention was drawn to the sounds of giggling.

She followed the noise and found just up the hill was a mother pushing her child on the swing.

"Pump your feet," The mother encouraged, smiling.

El couldn't help but feel saddened by this. More memories of Hopper came flooding back.

[FLASHBACK]

"I would feel so sad if I was a disappointment to her,"

Night had fallen and El had been tucked into bed. She listened intently as Hopper read Anne of Greene Gables to her, much like he did for his daughter before her passing.

"because she didn't live very long after that, you see. She died of a fever when I was just three months old. I do wish she'd lived long enough for me to remember calling her mother. I think it would be so sweet to say 'mother.'"

"Do I have a mother?" El asked timidly.

"Yeah, of course you have a mother. You couldn't really be born without one."

"Where is she?"

"She..." Hopper's face fell. "She's not around anymore."

"Gone?"

There was a pain in his eyes as he told her this.

"Yeah."

El's eyes began to water, and Hopper felt a weight on his heart.

"I'm sorry about that, kid." He said sincerely.

There was a moment of silence, and Hopper continued as El quietly wiped the tears from her eyes.

[END OF FLASHBACK]

"Is your mom here?"

El was still staring at the new empty swing set, lost in the memory.

"Sweetie?"

El tore her gaze away to the mom who now stood before her, holding her child's hand. A concerned look was etched on her face.

"School." El croaked. "Where is school?"

The mother only looked more concerned and confused. Reluctantly, she replied.

"The school? It's, uh... it's about a mile that way. At least." She gestured.

She offered El a kind smile.

"Where are your parents?"

El shifted her attention to the swing and the sound of chains rattling grabbed the attention of the younger girl.

"Look, Mommy, look."

The woman looked behind her to see she swing her daughter had previously occupied was now wrapping itself around the structure of the swing set.

Astonished, she looked back to El, only nobody was there. She had vanished.

+++

All Joyce could think about the rest of the day was those mean nasty boys.

The second she walked in the door, she went straight to the video camera. She recalled it being in Will's room. She threw open the door and scanned the messy room.

She recognized the device laying on Will's desk and she made a beeline for it.

After much turbulence and a confusing call with Bob, she got the tape hooked up to the TV and pressed play.

She saw a clip of Bob teaching the boys how to operate the camera. She frowned, as she looked at the buttons on the device. She found the fast forward button and pressed it, scanning the screen carefully. After a considerable amount of time, the camera shifted and was angled up at the sky.

She immediately pressed rewind and then play, right before the incident must have happened. It was the view of Y/n Henderson running after someone, Mike she gathered from her distant voice in the video. When sure enough, just as Bob had said, out of nowhere three teenagers in masks and makeup appeared.

"Watch it, Zombie Boy!" A boy dressed as a werewolf said, before disappearing.

"Trick or treat, freak!"

"Boo!"

As Joyce watched the tape, carefully trying to identify the boys, her face contorted in disgust. She could feel her blood boil at the sight.

By now the camera had fallen to the ground and was angled at the sky. For a moment nothing happened, that was until she heard a familiar voice.

"Will?" It was Y/n, and she sounded worried.

Joyce heard shuffling and then soon enough, Y/n came into view, and her voice rose as she yelled at the fleeting bullies. Her arms waving in her fit of anger.

"Hey, piss off! You leave him alone, you hear me? You leave him the fuck alone!"

Joyce never bothered to fight the small smirk that made its way onto her face. Those pricks had it coming to them. She reminded herself to thank Y/n later.

Her small moment of relief was immediately replaced with heartache when she heard Will begin to call out, frightened.

"Y/n! Mike!" She saw him wander carefully and cautiously into view.

Suddenly, she noticed a pause and then Will running away, followed by a very concerned Y/n.

The screen flickered ever so quickly and she paused the tape when she noticed the faint outline of something.

The screen flickered once more before it stopped. Her eyes caught on the mysterious invisible shape the camera had picked up. Something clicked in her head and she stared at the thin wispy outline in horror.

She jumped to her feet and ran to the kitchen. She ripped open one of the supply drawers and grabbed a sheet of parchment paper, and one of Will's crayons.

Joyce ran back to the television set and put it against the screen, and quickly traced it. When she finished, she knew she recognized the shape and ran it back to the table, comparing it to Will's drawing of the giant monster.

It was an exact match. And her worst fears had been realized.

||Reader's POV||

"This is the reason I was late for class," Dustin assured.

School had just ended, and Dustin, Max, Lucas and I were all gathered around Mr. Clarke's desk. Will and Mike hadn't joined us yet, they were still at their lockers and Will insisted he had to talk to Mike.

Dustin placed the trap on Mr. Clarke's desk, as he began explaining.

Mr. Clarke ran a hand over the closed trap.

"Pretty neat. These doors function?"

"Well, yeah, obviously. But it's not about the trap. It's what's inside. Now, this very well may change your perception of the world."

Mr. Clarke shrugged lightly.

"Consider my interest piqued."

"All right, first, let's just clarify that, this is my discovery, not yours."

Lucas began flailing his arms.

"Dustin, Jesus! Just show him!"

"I'm just trying to clarify--"

"Dustin!" Max insists.

"Okay, fine"

He reaches to open the trap, but before anything can happen the door swings open. Mike comes sprinting in, Will behind him.

"Stop!" Mike yells frantically.

"What is it? What's going on?" I ask.

"Nothing." Mike quickly squeezes in between me and Lucas and grabs the trap, holding it tightly to his chest. "I'm sorry, Mr. Clarke. It was just a stupid prank."

"What the hell are you doing?" Dustin asks angrily.

"I told him to stop. We need to go. Right now."

Max and I share an equally concerned look.

"Mike!" Dustin pleads.

"Right now!" Mike screams, sprinting back into the hall.

+++

Mike had dragged the original party back into the AV room, forcing us to leave Max outside.

"I'm really, really sorry Max. It should only take a minute." I quickly stepped back and explained to her.

The boys shut her out with no effort of explaining so once again, I was trying to undo some of the damage. Hoping she'd still want to be my friend.

"Wait, seriously Y/n?"

The guys were already shutting her out, and now I had to. I hated this.

"I know, I'm so sorry, but I wouldn't be doing this if wasn't absolutely necessary."

"Y/n!" Mike called from inside the AV room, and I huffed.

"I'm really sorry." I started to close the door, but then I met her eye and just before shutting it I lowered my voice. "Please trust me."

Before I had closed the door, she seemed to relax in the slightest. As if considering my words.

I walked over to stand next to Lucas and looked to each of them.

"You better make this quick..." Their expressions all shifted to that of concern at what I said next. "I have something I need to tell you too."

Now that we were all gathered around the trap, Mike caught us up.

Will had said he saw Dart last year. We were all trying to process this, and I guess some time had passed since Max began pounding on the door.

"Hello? Hello?"

I barely made out a sigh from the other side of the door.

"Guys, come on. Can I come in yet?"

I was about to reply when Mike answered her.

"No!"

I glared at Mike's behavior.

He rolled his eyes in response.

"I don't understand," Lucas said finally, ignoring our silent argument.

"What do you not understand?" Mike asked.

"Will saw something that looked like Dart last year?"

"Kind of, but there was no tail," Will answered timidly.

"But then he heard it yesterday. The exact same sound." Mike explained quickly.

"What, the screeching?" I ask.

"Doesn't matter, why didn't you tell us before?" Dustin asked.

"I wasn't sure," Will said quietly.

"So it's a coincidence," Dustin confirmed.

Mike countered. "Or not. What if when Will was stuck in the Upside Down, he somehow acquired True Sight?"

"Remind me what True Sight is again?" I asked.

"It gives you the power to see into the ethereal plane."

Lucas sighed and gestured for Dustin to continue. "Elaborate."

It clicked in my head.

"The Upside Down," I say, in shock.

"Exactly. Maybe these episodes that Will keeps having aren't really flashbacks at all. Maybe they're real. Maybe Will can somehow see into the Upside Down."

"So that would mean..." Lucas trailed off.

"Dart is from the Upside Down." Mike clarifies.

Dustin sighed heavily.

"We have to take him to Hopper," Lucas stated, and Mike quickly agrees.

Dustin, of course, jumped at the chance to defend Dart. "No way. If we take him to Hopper, Dart's as good as dead."

"Maybe he should be," Mike snapped.

I roll my eyes.

"How can you say that?" Dustin asks shocked.

I raise my hands, signaling them to stop.

"Guys, come on." I sigh and turn to Dustin. "Look, Dustin. It's sweet that you care about Dart. But you have to realize what's at stake here. This is exactly what I was talking about before, we don't know anything about him or what he is capable of."

"But that doesn't automatically mean that he's bad. Besides, we have a bond."

Mike scoffs. "A bond? Just because he likes nougat?"

"No, because he trusts me!"

"He trusts you?" Lucas asks slowly, sounding concerned.

"Yes, I promised I would take care of him," Dustin exclaimed.

Suddenly, the trap began to rattle violently and we all stepped back.

There was more pounding on the door.

"Guys, what's going on? Come on."

We could all hear Dart from inside the trap as it shook.

"Dustin, what the hell's wrong with him?" I asked, my pulse quickening.

"I-I don't know!" He stuttered.

The ghost trap shook so much it vibrated and then it was tipped on its side.

Mike grabbed the speaker from one of the radios and held it high, ready to strike.

Dustin threw his hand up, pointing at Mike.

"Don't hurt him." He warned.

"Only if he attacks," Mike argued, eyes never leaving the trap.

"Just open it already." Lucas urged.

Dustin reached for the attachment that opens the device, and after a brief moment of hesitation, he opens it.

We all stare in disbelief as Dart comes rolling out. He was twice his previous size, and several shades darker.

"Holy shit," Lucas stated, sounding disgusted.

Dart dragged himself along the desk. When he stopped, thin webs of skin where we had seen movement from earlier, were stretched out until they sprouted two new legs. And what looked like watered down jam splattered around the desk.

"Oh, my God," I mumble horrified, and sick to my stomach.

Everything went by all too fast after that.

"Oh, shit!" Lucas exclaimed, jumping back.

He looked in the direction of Lucas and me and screeched for the third time.

Mike launched at Dart, but Dustin interfered.

Dart, in an attempt to escape Mike, suddenly launched off the desk and right towards me not caring that I was in his way.

I scream.

The next thing I knew, my arms were outstretched in front of me, shielding myself and it almost felt as if a wave of body heat had rolled off me. Dart let out a painful screech and hit the edge of the desk before tumbling to the ground.

Everyone began yelling at once.

"Shit, Y/n! Did you just-?" Lucas screamed.

"I don't know!" I cried out, scrambling back. "That's kinda what I wanted to tell you guys about but I didn't know I could do that!" The words tumble out of my mouth quickly, in a weak attempt to explain as I scramble after Dart, the others after him too.

"Grab him! Grab him!"

"What do you thinkI’m trying to do?!" I yell in frustration as I scramble after him.

He had made a quick detour under the desk and around the legs of the desk, completely out of my reach.

"Wait, where did he go?"

I had almost had him, but then I lost my footing and stumbled to the ground. I looked up just in time to see Dart make his way towards the door.

It swung open to reveal a confused Max, who must have picked the lock.

"Wait, no, no, no-!" I attempted to get up, only to get trampled by the boys in the process.

The boys spilled out into the hallway, who had also managed to knock down Max.

I finally scrambled to my feet and stumbled into the hallway, my heart pounding against my ribcage.

"Where'd he go?" I asked, looking around frantically.

Max got to her feet, ignoring the question. "What was that?"

Mike whipped around to face her, his face going red with anger.

"Dart!"

"What?"

"You let him escape!"

In turn, Dustin got in Mike's face, jabbing a finger in his chest. "Why did you attack him?"

Mike pushed him aside and ran off. "Come on."

I followed after Mike, and Dustin called after us.

"Don't hurt him. Don't you hurt him!"

||3rd Person POV||

El waited patiently, in the safety behind the trees until the last bus left before she stepped out into the open.

Spotting the bike rack, she quickly sprinted across the parking lot, coming to a stop when she recognized the wide outstretched handlebars of one particular bike.

It was unmistakable. The single light that rested in between the handlebars, the seat that was so worn down, it had been taped back together. And of course, the extra seat attached to the back.

It was his bike.

And it meant he was still here.

+++

Mike made a left turn, walking swiftly down the hallway.

He waited until he passed the few stragglers that were still in the hallway, to clear the area.

"East is clear. No sign of Dart."

He trudged up the stairs, muttering angrily to himself.

"Where'd you go, you little bastard?"

He made his way to the gym, passing several hallways in the process.

El, who sensed movement, reached the end of the hallway, where he had just been. Contemplating which way to go, opted to take a right. Unknowingly growing further and further from Mike with each and every step she took.

+++

In a separate wing of the school, Dustin was scanning his area. He had donned his headset during his search. Dustin turned a corner near one of the exits and had run into Mr. Clarke, who was leaving for the day.

He plastered on his most innocent looking smile and sent his teacher off with a salute, to which he returned and Dustin got back to work.

"West is clear too. Will?"

+++

Will exited the last classroom he had checked. "South is clear. Lucas? Anything?"

Lucas ran down one of several hallways in the north wing, coming across a classroom door, just slightly ajar.

Assuming Dart was behind the door, he ran towards it, kicking it open.

Only to find his math teacher packing up for the day.

"Excuse me! Mr. Sinclair!"

"S-sorry!" He spluttered. "I was looking for study hall. Bye."

He chuckled nervously and backed out into the hallway, his face dropping and he spoke quickly and sternly into the walkie.

"Nothin' here, man. Y/n?"

She was constantly on the move, all over the school. Sweeping the halls in case Dart had narrowly escaped before any of the others had seen.

Her voice crackled over all of their comms.

"I've got a lot of ground to cover, but so far so clear," she quipped. "I'll keep you guys posted though,"

+++

Mike entered the gym, and his attention was immediately brought to the creaking noise across the room.

He noted it was the door to the locker rooms swinging back and forth.

He frowned suspiciously. Quickly and quietly he walked across the gym.

He walked into the tight hallway, most of the lights had turned off and he was starting to feel less confident.

He saw a mop to his left and grabbed it just in case. Slowly but surely, he crept through the locker spaces, and he heard something clatter. His heart pounding, he hid behind the locker, readying himself to attack.

He jumped out from hiding, yelling as he did so. Only for his voice to catch in his throat when he saw Max, board and all, looking at him like he'd grown a second head.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What are you doing? Why are you in here?" He snapped back.

"I'm looking for Dart." She defends.

"This is the boys' room."

"Yeah, so?"

"So you should go home." He threw the mop to the ground and stormed out.

Max started after him, fuming.

She trailed him all the way out into the gym.

All her anger had finally bubbled over and she raised her voice, allowing herself to scream at the boy.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you. How can I hate you? I even know you." He threw the words over his shoulder, not bothering to look at her.

"Yeah, but you don't want me in your party." She argued.

"Correct." He spits.

"Why not?"

Mike whirled around to face her, releasing all his anger.

"Because you're annoying." Max recoiled at his words, but he only continued to yell. "Also, we don't need another party member. I'm our paladin, Will's our cleric, Dustin's our bard, Lucas is our ranger, Y/n's our druid, and El is our mage."

Max's face scrunched up in confusion. "El? Who's El?"

Mike shook his head. "Someone. No one."

She raised her eyebrows. "Someone or no one?"

"She was in our party a long time ago. She moved away, okay?" He sighed, hoping she would drop the subject as quickly as possible.

Max, who had other plans, set her skateboard down and began to glide around the gym.

"She was a mage?" Genuinely interested. "Well, what could she do? Like, magic tricks or something?"

She jumped off the board and planted herself in front of Mike.

"Well, I could be your zoomer," she offered.

Mike rolled his eyes. "That's not even a real thing."

"It could be," Max insisted, not refusing to give up.

She got back on her skateboard and began to skate in circles around Mike. He just stood there in annoyance, watching her. She had her arms outstretched and smirk on her face.

"See? Zoomer,"

"Mind-blowing," He deadpanned.

"Come on, you know you're impressed,"

+++

El walked quickly passed the gym. The memories flooding back to her all at once every time she turned a familiar corner. She stopped suddenly when she heard a distant voice.

"I don't see any tricks. You're just going around in a circle,"

She knew that voice. Her pulse quickened, and her palms began to sweat.

Granted his voice was slightly deeper but it was his. Mike.

But then she heard a female voice.

"If it's so easy, you try it,"

El didn't know that voice and it scared her.

Nevertheless, she poked her head around the corner, and she saw the gym doors. The voices continued.

"No,"

"Why not?"

"I don't know how,"

"So, then you admit it's kind of impressive,"

"I think if I spent, like, all day practicing, I could do that,"

"I would give you a million bucks if you could,"

"Okay, you're making me dizzy,"

El crept towards the gym doors, terrified of what she might find.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

"Please just stop,"

"I'll stop when I join your party,"

El made it to the gym doors and she saw him. He was taller, much taller but he was still himself. But there was a girl. A pretty girl with long red hair with him. Smiling at him.

"It's a simple question. Am I in or out?"

And there it was. He smiled at her. The way he used to smile at El and the girl was just as happy. El felt her heart grow heavy, she hated this feeling. And after all the excitement for seeing him, everything she had risked to see him.

And yet, for some reason she could not explain, it was hard to stay mad at him. She felt herself getting angry at this girl. Like it was her fault. Like this girl was intentionally replacing her.

Her jaw clenched, and her hands balled into fists as she focused her attention on the front two wheels of the girl's board, and ripped it out from under her.

The girl was thrown off her board, landing on the gym floor with a grunt.

El's face fell as she saw Mike jump to the girl's aid. "Jesus! Are you all right?"

Nothing about what El did made her feel good.

The girl began to sit up, grasping her side. "Yeah, yeah. I think so,"

Mike grabbed her hand and helped her up, and El began to water as she watched the exchange.

"What happened?" Mike asked, his hand lingered on the girl's wrist, hurting El even more.

"I don't know. It was like a magnet or something pulling on my board," The girl explained, quickly shaking her head. "I know that sounds crazy,"

Max walked after her rollaway board, and Mike's eyes widened in familiarity.

He looked over his shoulder, from where he had entered the gym and made a run for it.

It had to be her. It had to be. Right?

And yet, his heart fell when he was met with an empty hallway, no one else in sight.

+++

Will could have sworn he heard noises coming from the bathroom, and he hadn't heard from anybody over the comes for a while.

And so, gathering all his courage, he pushed open the door and crept inside.

He hadn't realized he had been hoping to find nothing until he heard the all too familiar chittering from the furthest stall down and his stomach dropped.

He tiptoed towards the noise, not wanting to scare him off. He reached the stall closest to the windows, slowly reached out a hand and cautiously opened the stall door. Sure enough, there sat Dart.

He was curled up in the corner, where the two walls met. He looked up at will and chittered.

Will raised his walkie slowly, and spoke calmly into it, taking every precaution not to scare him away.

"Guys... I found him,"

"Where?" It was Dustin.

"In the bathroom by Mr. Salerno's," Will whispered.

"Copy that," Mike relayed.

"I copy. I'm on way," Y/n responded.

Dart began to slowly recoil, and Will tried his best to seem as unthreatening as possible.

"It's okay," he said softly. "I'm not gonna hurt you,"

Dart looked at Will before letting out an earsplitting scream.

Startled, Will dropped his walkie and ran out of the bathroom in fright.

He stopped once he left the bathroom to catch his breath, not wanting to let the others down.

There was a loud thud that came from down the hall to his left, and he froze. The lights began to flicker. This wasn't happening again, he didn't want to believe it. He looked at the lights and when his gaze returned to the hallway to his left, the hallways were covered in vines, and everything was slimy. He was back.

An exit. There was an exit just his right. Out of nowhere, a black fog oozed out of the hallway in front of it, heading straight for him. He turned on his heel and ran.

He reached the painted paw print on the wall. He made another right. He quickly looked over his shoulder as he ran and it was still gaining on him. It wasn't relenting.

There was another exit. But he was beginning to believe he wouldn't make it. The farther he ran the quicker it seemed to get. He was panting heavily now but this fog had formed its own tendrils that were reaching out for him.

He finally made it to the doors and he threw them open as hard he could. He was now on the field but he was still in the Upside Down. And that that thing was still after him.

+++

BAM

Dustin threw open every stall door of the bathroom.

He sighed in relief when he opened up the last stall, and even Dart made a noise in contention, having recognized Dustin.

Dustin smiled at his small companion. "Hey, buddy,"

Dustin knelt down and held out his hands, Dart quickly scurried over to him.

"Come here. You know I won't hurt you,"

Dart happily jumped into Dustin's open palms and he calmly stood up. "It's okay. It's just me. You're okay,"

"Let's go. Down here," Mike's voice echoed from the halls.

Lucas could be heard soon after.

"We're coming!"

Dustin panicked, knowing his friends would try to get rid of Dart so he knew he had to buy some time.

Holding Dart in one hand, he moved his headset to hang around his neck, and took off his hat, and put Dart on top of his head, before putting his hat back over Dart.

"Stay low, and keep quiet."

Mike came marching in, Lucas and Max behind him.

"Where's Dart?" Mike asked.

"I don't know. He's not here. Where's Y/n?" Dustin countered, changing the subject.

Mike began looking for Dart and he checking the stalls when he heard he wasn't there.

"We don't know. Figured she'd got here before us," Lucas said.

"He said by Salerno's, right?" Max asked.

"Yeah, maybe Will has him," Dustin quickly lied.

Lucas crossed his arms and looked at Dustin skeptically, while Mike went pale.

"Where is Will?"

+++

Will pumped his arms as he sprinted through the field. He struggled to keep his breathing check so he wouldn't have to slow down.

He could feel the presence getting closer. And the memory of that morning's conversation with Bob flashed in his head.

"Only this time, I didn't run."

His legs came to a stop. Will's eyes widened, his heartbeat quickened, and his palms began to sweat. He grew pale. But he knew it was worth a shot.

He told himself he needed to do this.

"This time, I stood my ground."

Will was panting heavily, but he slowly turned around coming face to face with the monster. It towered over the school, looking directly at Will.

"I said, 'Go away. Go away!'"

Will gathered all his courage, tears brimming his eyes and he cried out.

"Go away!"

It got closer. It was swooping in like vulture but Will didn't give in.

"Go away! Go away!" Tears were streaming down his face, and the monster got closer. "Go away! Go away! Go away!"

The monster bellowed, and one large tentacle began twirling down onto the ground, the size of a small tornado. The swirling gust of black fog engulfed Will.

He stood frozen, now trapped in the swirling fog. Several black tendrils spawned from the mass and invaded Will and he could feel the evil presence as it possessed his body and settled in his very soul.

He felt every essence of warmth cease to be, and all that existed was icy darkness.

"Easy peasy, right?"

"Easy peasy."

Will was gasping for air but every breath he took felt like hundreds of daggers were being plunged in his lungs.

"Just like that."

||Reader's POV|| -MINUTES EARLIER-

I turned yet another corner, my eyes scanning the floors. They flew to my walkie when I heard it crackle. I didn't need any confirmation from the voice to know it belonged to Will.

"Guys... I found him,"

I stopped in my tracks. My ears perked up.

"Where?" It was Dustin.

"In the bathroom by Mr. Salerno's," Will whispered.

"Copy that," Mike replied.

I briskly turned on my heel and began speed walking where I came from. I raised the walkie to my lips.

"I copy. I'm on way,"

Salerno's. I was close.

I turned the corner, releasing the speaker button on my walkie. I passed by countless classrooms in my rush to the bathroom, mindlessly making turns. My mind began to wander to Dart and just how much convincing Dustin is going to need seeing how attached he already was.

'But in all honesty, how can one find that-'

My legs stopped carrying me forward, and my body failed me, I just stood there, glued to the floor staring at what I had accidentally stumbled upon. My breath hitched, I gasped and I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.

"Oh, my God," I breathed, my eyes welling up with tears. "Eleven?"

+++

Tag List: @dickkwad @aimee-lucass @iblesstherainsdown-in-africa@miscellaneoustoasts @happyandlonely

DM me if you want to be added!

[neshabeingchildish]

Share a Char

This turned out longer than I expected. I wrote it in two long sittings, before and after I banged my head hard enough to leave a freakin’ knot on it. There’s some domestic kinda stuff here, but there is also a little angst. I’m sorry. I just got it in me, friends. I go back to work tomorrow, so I had to push out whatever I could get to my loves. @chenoahchantel @adorkable-blackgirl @kiddangers @henryhearts I have no idea if y’all will get your notifications or why you haven’t been. Sorry and hope that eventually y’all find it. I still only got one review and a a one sentence message about the last PW chapter. I don’t know what’s being read and what’s not until y’all tell me.

Share-a-Lair 7

Henry shook his head slowly, his arms folded and hair pulled into a small little curly tail. Jasper licked his lips, nodded in appreciation, and took a sip of water. Charlotte approached them and asked, “What are you two doing?”

Henry said, “Training,” but Jasper said, “Looking at Max,” which Charlotte now saw was the more honest answer, and she looked and understood why. He had on a VR helmet and was apparently either training or playing a very intense fighting game. Either way, the drool about to drop from Jasper’s mouth - relatable. Charlotte blinked out of it though. “Umm, are you going to train today?”

“Just got finished running around the track,” Henry said. “Waiting on Max to finish up here.”

“I thought you two had very different training schedules as to not overlap,” she said.

“Char. Shh! What if you distract him?” Jasper said. “We want him to be able to get all of the training he needs to keep the world safe!” Then, after a little while, more to himself, he said softly, “Look at that… bulge…”

“GROSS!” Char practically squealed. Max turned in that direction at the sound of her voice and lifted his helmet. He checked his watch and realized that he had run over his time. He deactivated the training helmet, summoned his bag, water and towel to himself and began to walk in their direction. 

“You’re lucky,” Jasper said to her.

“For what?” She asked.

Henry laughed, “That bulge!” 

She cringed and shook her head and hands, “I have nothing to do with that!” She accidentally glanced at it, though, thanks to Jasper mentioning it in the first place! “Stop pointing it out!” Her voice was high pitched and anxious. 

Max practically vacuumed a jug of water into his mouth, but paused to say, “Didn’t mean to go over. There’s a button on the post for when that happens, or you can just get Charlotte to yelp. That worked too.” Jasper looked at the post in front of him and pressed the button.

“Alert. You have succeeded your training time. Please be courteous and vacate the training field.” Max narrowed his eyes at him. 

“I wanted to see how it worked,” Jasper explained. 

Max wiped his face and hung the towel around his neck, “Hello, Miss Page.” He was twinkling with perspiration and breathing kind of hard, but was… still everything and that smile always tripped her up.

“Are we… doing last names, now, Mr. Thunderman? No. I hate it. That didn’t feel right.” They started walking away while Jasper watched and Henry went onto the training field.

“Jasper! Come on, Dude. He’s not THAT good looking.”

“First off, he definitely IS. Second off, where is Charlotte going? I thought she was helping with training.”

“I’m coming back!” she called over her shoulder and shook her head. “Nosy..” Max smiled. Charlotte huffed and said, “Okay, SO - I am here, as, I guess a liaison.”

“What’s Henry’s problem now?” He asked.

“He’s really feeling like you treat him like an outsider, in what is supposed to feel like his own home. He’s ready to file a request for a new placement.” Charlotte said. Max furrowed his eyebrows, scoffed, and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, yeah. I know. You don’t like Henry. You don’t care about him.”

“It’s not even that. I don’t dislike him and, well, yeah, I don’t care about him. Honestly, I feel like I don’t do anything to make Henry uncomfortable.”

“The snide comments? The nasty looks? The house rules reminders?” 

Max rolled his eyes, “He should man up.”

“Maybe. Or maybe you could give him a little break?” She rubbed his arm and for that reason, he began to consider it. He didn’t feel like he gave Henry a hard time, but maybe he could put just a little more effort into it. Charlotte was tracing his muscles and got a little bit lost in the definition of them. He watched her eyes follow the tracks her fingers made and stopped walking. She stopped too and looked at him. He was… amused. She realized that she was being kind of touchy. 

“Should I flex them for you?” He teased. 

“Don’t be silly,” she said, laughing and folded her arms, then thought for a moment and said, “I mean, go ahead, if you want, but that’s not important.What’s important is…” 

He smiled and flexed his arms, “I’m getting more solid!” he practically cheered. She rubbed on his arm, squeezed the bicep, nodded in agreement. He was slightly bigger than he had been when they moved in, but only someone who was paying extremely close attention might notice that. She pulled her hand back and snapped out of it, “Focus, Charlotte!”

“It is perfectly fine if you focus on these. This is my DREAM, having a really hot girl openly fawn over my muscles. It’s what I deserve.”

Back on task, and ignoring all of what he said, she resumed her concerns, with her hands clasped together to keep from touching him again, “If he files for a new placement, it’ll be paperwork, interviews, and all of that, and a bunch of bull… and if they grant it to him, who knows where we’ll wind up next…”

“We,” he said, dropping his flexed arms to his sides and slumping his shoulders, like he had just realized that Charlotte would definitely be part of an exit made by Henry. She was one third of the Henry Hart package. “Ugh. Fine. What do you want me to do?”

“Well, I was thinking that we could start with a little morale booster. He wanted to do the video game tournament, but I told him that you’ve already got the living room for that… What if you let our friends come too, and hang out with your friends for a night?”

Max looked very not pleased with that idea. She thought out loud, “Of course, I’ll have less than a week to Ray and Schwoz proof the house, but I’ve done more in less time, before.”

“If either of them gets out of line, I will freeze the entire room, I swear to God.”

She smiled and threw her arms around his neck, “Thank you! Henry’s gonna feel a lot better knowing that you’re gonna do this for him.”

His hands held her waist and he looked down at her, “Not doing it for him.” They stared at each other for a while. Charlotte felt… like she was in some type of trance. She was tempted to kiss him again, and that was what broke it! 

She smiled and removed his hands and said, “Well, thank you anyway, I mean. Thank you… Just thank you, please. Not please. JUST thank you. Okay, bye.” She wrung her hands and practically ran back to the training field.

.

Ray and Schwoz arrived earlier than any of Max’s friends. Charlotte told them to come through the tower entrance, but Ray decided that to establish dominance, he needed to barge in through the front door. So, he tried it and got zapped. Max first heard “Alert, Dumbest Hero Alive and his unfortunate science slave approaching,” from his monitor watch. His parents had a big one in their home. He had a small one in his chambers and he connected a system to the front entrance, but instead of a monitor, he simply programmed it to his watch. He was about to disarm the alarms when he heard the zapping noise and Ray scream. He laughed and disarmed them before the poor little science guy got hurt. 

Max opened the door and Schwoz looked absolutely terrified, but also intrigued. What might happen next? Max said, “So, you guys must be Henry’s friends. Charlotte said you’d be coming in through the tower, and also, you’re like 2 hours early. This is how you wound up electrocuted.”

“What type of security system is this?’ Schwoz asked curiously. 

“Kidding me? So that you can hack into it? No. You’ll have to work hard like Charlotte did,” Max said, with a smile as he texted her to let her know that they were here, in case she didn’t already. He resumed setting up the living room to accommodate everyone. 

“Is… is that a pit couch?” Ray asked. 

“Yeah. Had it transported it from my T Force office for tonight. Trying to organize our sectionals around it. There’s gonna be quite a few people here tonight. Exceeding my 9 person maximum for comfort, but… morale.”

“This is something that Charlotte forced on you, isn’t it?” Ray asked.

“Charlotte asked me to allow Henry’s friends to partake tonight.”

“She’s the worst,” Ray said, shaking his head. Max paused and looked at him with the most disdainful expression that he could muster. Ray stared back at him, confused, then glanced at Schwoz to see if he saw it too. Schwoz was inspecting different things in the room, though. Trying to determine what was simply furniture and what served as one of Max’s things. 

“You realize that she’s the only reason that you’re here tonight, right?” Max asked.

Ray scoffed, “I was comin’ whether or not you wanted me to. I’m indestructible. Nothing scares me. Least of all some kid… with… hair that I have to admit is very nice.”

Max smiled, “Nothing scares you. Cool. Tonight’s not about fear. It’s about respecting others. Umm… Everybody is gonna respect Charlotte tonight. That’s a house rule. Non-negotiable.”

“You have a house rule that everyone has to respect everyone on the night of a video game tournament?” Schwoz asked, from near Max’s hammock. 

“I have an everybody respect Charlotte house rule on every night.”

Ray laughed, “What is she like… your girlfriend or something?”

“Just. Heed the rule. Thanks,” Max said. He didn’t add for your own benefit. He wasn’t going to explain himself to this man, especially after saying something mean about his… friend… less than 10 minutes of being here. 

She came into the living room and shook her head, “Sorry. Max. Hope they haven’t been bothering you.” Then, to the two of them, “Umm, why aren’t you in the tower? We’re pregaming up there. Come on. Max has a lot to do here.”

“He’s just rearranging furniture!” Ray pouted and she took him by the elbow and waved Schwoz along too. 

Schwoz cheered to Max, “See you soon!” Then, whenever he followed Charlotte, he said, “Good job, Charlotte. He’s very skilled with technology.”

“What do you mean, ‘good job’?” she asked. Max smirked. He knew what he meant. He always knew what they meant. Every single friend that she had now had tried to let her in on the facts. She was still in denial obviously, and he wouldn’t make it difficult for her. But… That was his lady. He knew it. They knew it. She was the only person who didn’t know it yet. He’d had a similar sort of ignorance whenever he first fell into feelings with his first serious girlfriend. Technically, no… they weren’t “together.” Nobody had officially made any declaration or asked the other for a title or anything like that, but… he knew how he felt and he was pretty sure she was somewhere along the same lines. It was nice to not have to really acknowledge it, though. It made it easy to avoid the deeper topics and to bond through interests and stuff while she figured out her emotions on her own. No pressure. As for him… He was taken and he knew that, and he wasn’t necessarily patient, but smart enough to know that rushing someone as reserved as she was would be a terrible route to winning her over.

.

Max had Oyster, Gideon, Wolfgang, someone named Angus, who Charlotte hadn’t met before, Billy and Nora (who she had only sort of met), and he was unsure if girlfriends were going to be stopping by sporadically. Henry had his usual - Jasper, Ray, Schwoz, and Char, but said that Piper might stop by. Max got in front of everyone and said, “Okay, listen up! This tournament goes on for the entire weekend. You all know those deets, I’m sure. What you will have to understand about this gaming site - Henry and I live here, but our chambers are off limits, unless permission is given. I will be giving none, so bathrooms this weekend are,” he pointed, “The one in the laundry room, or if Henry lets you into the tower.” Henry scoffed. But… his guests were welcome to go to his bathroom, though.

“Charlotte has been gracious and kind enough to make sure that there are little hygiene favors for everyone and set us up a nacho bar.”

“Charlotte’s the best!” Oyster roared in excitement. 

“Awww,” she said with her hand over her heart. Ray rolled his eyes and laughed a little. Max heard it and turned very suddenly to glare at him. 

“I cannot stress this enough - Charlotte gets respect in this house. I expect everyone to respect her, whether or not I’m there to see it.”

“What kind of a MONSTER would disrespect Charlotte?” Gideon wondered. She crossed both hands over her chest and let out a little squeal. 

Ray asked, “Is this one of your pranks that I hear tell of?”

“I… don’t play about that. Charlotte is a valued member of this house’s wellbeing. She works hard and takes care of a lot. We respect her here, and you will too. Invitations will be rescinded if I catch on to any disrespect.” 

She stood up and walked over to him, with her finger raised, “If I might… Say something?”

“Of course.”

“Okay… He’s not talking about if we’re playing against each other. That’s understandable trash talk and I dish it out, too. He’s talking… rolling your eyes and laughing if someone pays me a compliment when you can just shut your old head ass up.” 

“WAIT! Does SHE get to talk to us like that?” Ray asked.

Max said, “I think she was just giving an example,” very innocently, pretending not to realize that was directed, rightfully at Ray.

Ray pouted and said, “Can we get on with the games?”

“Last few rules and concerns,” Max said, then saw two bunnies walking to the couch and made a gesture at them to Charlotte, then mouthed Thank You when she went to collect Colosso and Balfour. “Um, last few things - My 19 year old brother and 17 year old sister are here. Neither of them can have alcohol, because this is mixed company. If you have given them alcohol in the past. Don’t try that this weekend. Oyster… no matter WHAT Nora says, give her zero alcohol.” Oyster nodded his head. “You know what… if Nora asks you for anything, check with me, to see if it’s okay.”

“COME ON!” Nora cried out. 

Henry noticed that Charlotte had vanished, but as Max was wrapping up, she came out of his restricted area. Oh. So he WAS allowing access, just to her. She came to sit in between Jasper and Schwoz and Henry asked, “Hey, where did you go?”

“The rabbits were loose,” she said.

“What… rabbits?” He asked. There were rabbits in this house??? Max was done talking, so his friends rushed to the nacho bar while Nora and Billy made sure they staked their claim on the pit couch and Charlotte got up to talk to Max. Henry let out a frustrated groan and threw his head back. “She acts like I don’t even exist anymore,” he said, shaking his head. 

“Hey. So… Balfour really wanted to watch the game tournament. He was like crying. So, I told him that I’d ask you about some way that could possibly happen?”

Max folded his arms and said, “I guess we could link a signal into Penelope and let her put it on her projector in real time? They can’t come up here, though. They’ll start trouble.” 

“I really wanted Penelope here with me tonight. What if ONLY Balfour comes up and…”

“No. He’s the worse one.” Max said, chuckling. “Char, these are supervillains. They aren’t innocent bystanders who became bunnies.”

“He loved video games and he can’t play anymore. He just wants to watch. I believe him,” she said, playing with his pocket. Henry watched them. 

Max sighed and pointed at her nose, “Anything that goes wrong as a result of him being up here will be on you.”

“I accept,” she said and bit at his finger, “Get that out of my face!” She laughed. He moved it around her face until she swatted it away and took hold of his hand, playing with his fingers. “I’ll go get him.” Max watched her disappear through his chamber door again and Henry narrowed his eyes at the entire thing. Whenever Charlotte returned carrying a white bunny with glasses, he was confused. She sat him next to Penelope as she took her seat again.

.

Charlotte began the night cozied with her friends, but wound up by Max, with the bunnies and Billy… closer to where Max’s friends were. Billy and Max were the only ones currently awake. Oyster was in a nacho eating food coma. Angus and Gideon were resting until their next matches, and Gideon had already been eliminated. Ray and Nora had somehow began a rivalry and were trash talking as they played against each other. Henry and Jasper were watching in entertainment that this was the second teenaged girl that he couldn’t beat in a video game. Henry was going to point this out to Char, but whenever he looked over, she was talking to Max again. Their faces were close together and he was looking all soft at her like he often did. She looked exhausted. “Hey, Char!” Henry called. She jumped. Max frowned as she pulled her face away from him to turn to Henry. “This girl’s giving your old records quite a run!”

“I never even played this game,” Charlotte said, shaking her head. 

“FINISH HIM!” Jasper yelled and then moments later Nora jumped up and got into Ray’s face, “That’s what I’m talking about, MAGGOTCHESTER!” A few of the sleeping ones stirred, but remained sleeping. They either had ear muffs or plugs, for such scenarios.

Charlotte began talking to Max while Nora was screaming, so that whenever she stopped everyone heard her say, “So, I’m just gonna be in your bed…” Her eyes grew wide and she looked around the room. Billy, Nora, Henry, Jasper and Ray all turned and looked right back at her. “Not like that!” She said and shook her head. 

“Where’s Balfour?” Max wondered. She gasped and began to frantically look around.

“Where’s Schwoz?” Ray wondered. Schwoz came from the bathroom, holding Balfour. 

“Schwoz! What were you doing with him?” Charlotte asked and took the bunny off of his hands. 

“He needed to go to the bathroom and you hadn’t brought any of his papers out,” Schwoz explained. 

Max collected him and told Charlotte, “I’ve got him. Go on and get some rest. I’ll bring him whenever I come down.”

“Okay. Thanks.” She wanted to give him a kiss on the cheek, but the others were already watching them kinda closely. He didn’t care about that obviously, because he gave her one and told her goodnight. She was all fluttery inside as she headed for his chambers. 

She was asleep when he did retire for the evening. Billy and Nora came down to wash up and took their sleeping bags to the landing mat. Max climbed into bed and figured he could stay on one side with Charlotte on the other. She definitely woke up wrapped completely around him from behind. 

Charlotte gasped and sat up. Of course, he needed to sleep in his own bed tonight. He had two siblings staying over and friends sprawled all over the couch. She went into the bathroom to wash up and get ready for today, then crept out to get started on at least ordering breakfast to be delivered. 

Jasper and Henry had retired to the tower, while Ray and Schwoz camped out in the van. Angus was the only person awake whenever Char surfaced. “Hi… Angus, right?”

“Right,” he said, with a smile. He was doing some stretches.

“I’m gonna order a bunch of breakfast stuff. I’m more familiar with Max and my friends’ stuff, but do you know about those guys?” She pointed to the sleeping men on the couch.

“Haven’t been around them a huge amount recently, but I’m almost certain that Oyster still will eat just about anything,” he laughed. 

“Bless him. He’s such a sweetheart.” She began to make an online order and also to start on fruit prep, for juice and/or smoothies. 

Henry came, groggily through the double doors, being pushed from behind by Jasper and yawning. Charlotte hoped that they had brushed their teeth. “I’ve got breakfast on the way and at least one of you needs a smoothie, doesn’t he?” She smiled at Henry. 

“Is she speaking to me? Does Charlotte Page see Henry Hart standing here?” He asked, sarcastically. She looked confused as she threw in the ingredients for a wake up smoothie into the blender for him. “Oh, right… Max isn’t around. So, I’m visible. Cool!” She turned off the blender, rolled her eyes and poured his smoothie. “Wonder how much time I have before my nemesis appears and my best friend loses knowledge of my existence.”

Angus asked Jasper, “Is… this awkward for you, as well?”

“It is,” Jasper said.

“Wanna go for a walk with me?”

“No, but I surely don’t wanna stay here for this,” Jasper said and they both headed out of the front door.

“Got it out of your system?” Charlotte asked, handing Henry the smoothie.

“He’s not even that good looking,” he said and nodded once, “Now, it’s out of my system.”

“Okay. Now that it is, let me say this… Whenever you don’t want to have to hang out with me, you think Max is the perfect candidate to take up my time. Whenever you don’t want to listen to me, I have to talk to Max. Whenever you can’t help me out with something, Max does. But, the moment that you have a want or a need and I’m occupied with Max, then you feel a way. Henry, I don’t know how else to tell you this, but Max and I get each other. I know you and me have been friends a long time, but those parts that didn’t make sense, they never started to. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t friends anymore, or that I don’t care about you, hence the reason you are drinking a smoothie from my heart. Thank you for giving me the push that I needed to find another friend. Max was a great choice. You did this, and you did well. Now, appreciate and respect that.”

“It’s not just Max, Dude. I mean, he’s your… cool half or whatever…”

“Wow…”

“But, like… You’re not even hardly chilling with us at this thing. You’re hanging out with his friends and his siblings. You slept in his bed? And.. that didn’t sound like the first time.”

“Probably like the 4th time these past couple of weeks. Usually, he sleeps elsewhere, but his siblings took that, so my options were out here on this super couch with those strangers or in a bed that I’m welcome and comfortable in.”

“You are comfortable in my bed? Me, you and Jasp used to do this all the time.”

“Henry!” She said it snappier than she intended. “You started this year out wanting a little bit less of me, and that’s what you’ve gotten. I would’ve thought you’d be relieved to be able to escape me.” She didn’t want to bring up NYE, because it still hurt, but she had been less engaging with him since then, with both he and Jasper, quite frankly.

“Nobody wanted to escape you, Charlotte. One night, was all it was and I’m sorry we handled it the way that we did. But, we got karma, remember? We got deserted.”

“And I rescued you. Henry, maybe the reason that it’s hard for you to share your friend is because your friend has always been a major resource to you. And maybe the reason it hasn’t been as hard for me to branch out is because my friend hasn’t always been a major resource.”

“You think I… don’t deserve your friendship?”

“I didn’t say that. I think that our friendship has positively impacted your day to day a little more vigorously than mine.”

“So, really it’s you escaping me.”

She frowned and sighed. “This is me getting comfortable with another friend, Henry. I’m still here for you. You only feel like I’m not because I was giving you WAY too much energy before now. I’ve been really happy,” she said, with a guilty look in her eyes, “And I thought that you had been too. This… event is supposed to bring us together. That’s why I was talking to other friends. You can try it too. You and Max should be trying it, because you live together. You share this space, and your both my friend. I’m not… picking. I don’t have to, because I know that I enrich both your lives, so I don’t believe either of you are cutting me off.”

Max came into the room, strutting, shirtless, carrying a shirt in his hands and preparing to put it on. Charlotte was relieved to see him. She thought she’d be awkward after how she woke up, but this talk with Henry had just rocked her and fortunately, as unpredictable as he was, Max was a calming presence for her. “Morning, Max,” she said, with a smile. He threw the shirt on, noticed her eyes, looked at a moping Henry and moved closer to Charlotte to give her a hug.

“Good morning. You okay?” he asked softly. She nodded, with her head against his chest. “What about you, Henry? You alright?” Max asked. Henry shrugged his shoulders. He hated seeing them… like that. She keeps insisting that they’re friends, but they keep doing… this kind of stuff. The doorbell rang and Charlotte went to go answer it. Probably the breakfast. “How are your friends enjoying the tournament?”

“Pretty good. I think you and me are up against each other tonight.”

“That should be fun for me… embarrassing for you.”

“You can’t beat me in everything,” Henry declared.

Max laughed. “That’s absolutely false. Of course I can.”