#nancy wheeler x friend! reader

[liyliths]

౨ৎ ⋆ ｡˚ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎: 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎

summary: your first few weeks in your new town, hawkins, are honestly anything but normal. you quickly find yourself caught between making new friends and keeping your distance, all while dodging the king of douchebags, steve harrington, and his clumsy attempts to get to know you, all on your first day. and, with a cherry on top, a strange figure in the woods makes you question if hawkins has a wildlife problem—or something much stranger. spoiler alert: it's not just deer.

“I’m throwing a party at my house this Friday. Food, drinks, pool, no parents, all the fun stuff. I wanted to invite you… it could be good for you, meeting new people and all!” Steve raised his eyebrows in that signature way of his, the one that usually made it hard for people to say no to. Y/N turned to look at the boy, her eyes narrowing with a hint of defiance in them. She deliberately reached into her back pocket to play her music again, looking forward to the parking lot—completely unbothered. “---Sha la la, la la, la la, la la, l-la te-da Just like that” “Jesus, this girl’s got a stick up her butt.” Steve thought to himself.

pairings: steve harrington x reader

warnings: cursing, steve's horrible friends, otherwise none!

word count: 4.1k

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𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 “Uptown girl She’s been living in her uptown world I bet she’s never had a backstreet guy”

Music blared through a girl’s headphones as she made her way onto the campus of Hawkins High. Different voices strung through the air as she walked through the chaotic parking lot, with some students parking their cars and others being dropped off by parents. It was lively, with skateboarders tipping their boards and walking into school, bikers putting their bikes in the designated rack, while others got off the yellow school buses, making their way onto campus.

The girl clutched her school books to her chest, walking toward the main entrance to meet her campus guide. Her hair was styled in a voluminous fringe, wearing a white top paired with blue jeans, and a brown belt to add color.

“I bet her momma never told her why I’m gonna try for an uptown girl She’s been living in her white-bred world”

“Are you Y/N Smith?” A soft voice sounded faintly through the sound of music, coming from a girl with glasses and a short light red hairdo. Y/N glanced over to the girl and paused her Walkman, taking her headphones off and putting her attention on the girl.

“Sorry?”

“You’re Y/N Smith, right?” The girl repeated herself, looking at Y/N before looking down at her clipboard. She had a friendly demeanor, but didn’t quite seem the popular type.

“Yes,” The girl nodded. “And you are?”

“Barbra Holland, but you can just call me Barb. I’ll be showing you around.” The sweet girl smiled.

“Nice to meet you.” Y/N offered a tentative smile.

𝐀 𝐅𝐞𝐰 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫

As the lunch bell rang signaling the midpoint of Y/N’s first day at Hawkins High, she found herself navigating the bustling cafeteria. The girl was on the search for her guide from this morning, hoping she could sit with her instead of being a loner, not wanting to sit by herself. Or even worse—eat in the bathroom stalls, which was usually where she found herself at a new school.

The cafeteria smelt of hamburger mixed with other scents, alive with chatter and laughter, with students jostling for seats and trays laden with food. Other students were in line for lunch while some found their seats with their friends, the cafeteria growing louder with conversation by the second.

As Y/N spotted the girl who showed her around school earlier in the day, Barb, she made her way over to her table. She noticed she was sitting with another girl with mid-length brown hair. It was styled in a half-do, with a pretty flowery top and skirt, making her look neat and put together. 

Summoning her courage, Y/N made the final approach to their table, a tentative smile on her lips. Barb and her friend looked up, their expressions warm and welcoming as they gestured for the girl to join them.

“Hey Y/N, glad you found me. Would you like to sit with us?” Barb smiled at the girl, inviting her before she even had to ask.

Grateful for their invitation, Y/N nodded and took a seat across from Barb and her friend. “I’m Nancy, it’s nice to meet you.” Barb’s friend introduced herself, reaching out her hand to shake the girl’s.

“I’m Y/N, thanks for letting me sit with you guys.”

As Y/N settled in and quietly listened in on the girl’s conversations, she couldn't help but feel a pang of self-doubt creeping in. They’re probably just letting her sit by them to be nice, they’ll push her away eventually if she doesn’t herself.

What’s the point of getting close to anyone right now?

Putting aside her doubts, Y/N hesitantly joined the conversation, listening intently as Nancy and Barb chatted animatedly about their classes and upcoming plans. They were warm and inclusive, making Y/N feel more at ease in their presence.

“Y/N, how are you liking Hawkins High so far? We don't usually get very many new students,” Nancy questioned, observing the new girl. 

“It’s been okay, definitely different than what I’m used to. Thanks to Barb, I’ve found my way around alright.” Y/N politely smiled, fidgeting with her fork.

"Well, if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. Barb and I are here to help." The brown-haired girl smiled across from her.

“Thank you, Nancy.”

After some more light conversation, Barb showed Y/N the way to the rest of her classes, but her brain scrambled and she forgot where to go for sixth hour after lunch. She looked around the halls, lost, glancing at the number for her class on her paper schedule, looking back up to read the classroom door numbers to try and find a match.

“Hey there, new girl, you lost or something?” An unfamiliar masculine voice echoed in the girl’s ears, glancing up to see a tall, brown-haired boy, whose hair was styled fancily, falling almost perfectly in front of his face. 

He had light brown eyes that reflected golden in the sunlight—wearing a nicely fitted navy button-up shirt with jeans and Nike blazers. He had slightly tan skin, and if you looked close enough, you could see a few moles that complemented his face. He stood across the hall from her, hand on hip, watching her gaze land on him.

“Not exactly lost, just—finding my way around.” Y/N shifted uncomfortably, clutching her books to her chest, not wanting to ask anyone for help, let alone talk to any more people.

“Well, lucky for you…” The boy leaned against the lockers in the hall, practically beaming with confidence. “I’m an expert navigator. The name’s Steve, Steve Harrington.” 

Cautiously, the girl replies. “I’m Y/N, Y/N Smith.”

“Smith, huh? Sounds mysterious. You hiding any secrets?” Steve raised an eyebrow at the girl before rudely being interrupted, by what seemed to be a friend.

“Preying on the new chick now, huh King Steve?” A boy with fluffy hair smirked as he slung his arm around Harrington. He looked smug and had pale skin, with dark hair and freckles covering his face. 

“Get off me Tommy,” Steve shoved him off. “I’m just trying to help show her around,” He rolled his eyes.

When Steve finally stopped bickering with his friend, he turned to see the new girl nowhere to be found. Frustration flickered across his expression.

“You scared her off, Tommy!” He pushed his friend’s shoulder, slightly irritated—mostly disappointed.

Tommy snorted, unfazed by the reprimand. “She doesn’t seem all that worth it anyway, man. I mean—did you even look at her? She looks like a total priss anyway!” His words dripped with derision, a smug grin spreading across his face as he continued to mock the girl who had piqued Steve’s interest.

Steve’s frown deepened. “No, douchebag, there’s something about that girl…” He spoke with a mixture of curiosity and determination, a spark of intrigue lighting up his brown eyes. There was a challenge there—something different from the usual girls he encountered.

Tommy rolled his eyes and laughed, the sound grating on the brown-eyed boy’s nerves. “That’s what you say about every girl, man. Get a grip.” He shook his head, clearly dismissing Steve’s fascination as another fleeting whim, losing interest in the conversation.

“We’ll see about that,” he muttered under his breath, ignoring Tommy’s dismissive attitude. He couldn’t help but feel that this girl was a puzzle worth solving.

Y/N had turned her back on the commotion from the two boys, her steps deliberate as she made her way into the bustling school halls to find her own way to class. The fluorescent school lights above cast a harsh glow, reflecting off the polished floors.

The girl weaved through the crowd, her hair catching the occasional draft from the overhead vents, causing loose strands to brush against her face. She reached up to tuck them behind her ear, her fingers brushing against the cool metal of her Walkman clipped to her waistband. Music still played softly through her headphones, a comforting barrier between her and the overwhelming noise of the high school.

As she walked, Y/N couldn't help but notice the cliques forming in the hallways—the jocks congregating near the gym doors, the popular girls giggling by the water fountain, and the band kids chatting animatedly near the music room. Each group seemed to have its own territory, and Y/N felt like an outsider navigating through a maze of established social structures, knowing most of these kids had known each other since grade school.

Filing in with the crowd, she kept her head down, avoiding eye contact with others as she ventured her way to her next class. The hallway seemed to stretch endlessly before her, a labyrinth of identical doors and bustling students. 

But despite the noise and the crowds, the girl felt a strange sense of calm. She was alone, but in that solitude, there was a certain freedom—a chance to observe, and to slowly, cautiously—find her place in this new town.

𝐀 𝐅𝐞𝐰 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫

The bell rang, announcing it was the end of Y/N’s first day at Hawkins High. She liked Barb and Nancy, and she hoped they would like her too. Yet the same question lingered in her mind; was it even worth it to make friends when she didn’t know how long she’d be in Hawkins?

But she could see right through that boy from the passing period—the typical, arrogant, rich white boy who messes with any girl he could get his hands on. He was cute, but too full of himself and wrapped up in his own world.

Y/N pressed the play button on her Walkman in her back pocket as she finally made her way out of her last hour, putting on her headphones for her ears to be met with the comforting sound of music.

“My brown eyed girl You my, brown eyed girl Do you remember when We used to sing”

As the girl made her way through the school's exit doors, her music suddenly stopped, and she felt a button on her Walkman on the side of her waistband click. She was quick to turn around to pin down who or what paused her music, visibly annoyed—only to be met with a familiar face.

That boy from the hall—more like official douchebag now, Steve Harrington.

“Why would you do that?” She snapped, agitated—with the boy immediately getting defensive, throwing his hands up to the side.

“Sorry, sorry, I was calling your name in the hall, but you didn’t hear me.” Steve gestured to her headphones with his hands.

“Right.” She walked off with a flat expression, but the brown-haired boy was quick to follow her.

“I was wondering—” he paused, unsure if he should continue due to the girl's uninterested face as she made her way toward the parking lot, her headphones still on, but no music playing. 

"I'm throwing a party this Friday at my house. Food, drinks, pool, no parents, all the good stuff. I wanted to invite you… it could be good for you, meeting new people and all!" Steve raised his eyebrows in that signature way of his, the one that usually made it hard for people to say no to.

Y/N turned to look at the boy, her eyes narrowing with a hint of defiance in them. She deliberately reached into her back pocket to play her music again, looking forward to the parking lot—completely unbothered.

“---Sha la la, la la, la la, la la, l-la te da Just like that”

“Jesus, this girl’s got a stick up her butt," Steve thought as the music from her headphones blared once again. He glanced back at his friends, who were a little behind him, shrugged, and kept walking beside her. He reached into his jeans pocket, grabbed a note with his address written on it, and handed it to the girl.

“At six, I’ll see you there.” He raised his eyebrows, his voice muffled through the girl's headphones as she reluctantly grabbed the note from him, watching him retreat to his group of friends.

Shaking her head, Y/N glanced forward, being met with the familiar appearance of Hopper’s vehicle pulling up in the parking lot in front of her. The girl was relieved, quick to open the door, setting her things down in the foot room of the passenger seat, and climbed into the car. 

“How was your first day, kiddo?” Hopper was quick to ask as the girl closed the passenger door.

“It was alright… the people were nice. I’ll survive,” She shrugged, to which Hopper gave a small chuckle. 

“You’ll survive, huh?” He mocked in a joking manner.

“Yeah,” she gave a small grin, proceeding to hold up a note to the man, waving it around. “I got invited to a party.” 

“It was by that boy that was walking with you, huh,” Hopper noted his observation, his tone covered by a sense of protectiveness.

“You already know the rules though, kid. No parties. No boys. Especially at my house.” He eyed the girl, his eyebrows raising as he put the car in drive.

“I know, I don’t want to go anyway.”

After Hopper dropped the girl off from school, the chief continued his day back at the police station. Y/N was seated on the back patio of the trailer that sat on a lake. There was a slight breeze as her hair danced with the wind, her eyelashes fluttering at her sketchbook on her lap. Beyond the lake, trees covered the land, and the sound of cicadas chirping filled the girl’s ears. It was cooling off, and sunset was in a few hours.

Her pencil glided across the sketchbook page, detailing the lake and the landscape around it. She added a few finishing touches, looking back up to see details of the trees, but her eyes went wide, a bit frightened—as she was met with the same sight of the ethereal orange and red glow in the woods she had seen at the trailer park in her father’s backyard.

The girl sketched the sight with curiosity, adding the orange and red hues to the drawing. As she looked up again to continue sketching, a tall figure—similar to the one in the woods before, moved in the tree line.

A bit unsettled, she closed the sketchbook and watched as the colors began to fade from the woods, with the figure nowhere to be found. She rushed inside to read the time on the clock, 5:41 PM. Hopper should be home by six-fifteen. She’ll be alright.

Probably just deer anyway.

She brushed off what she saw, ignoring how unsettled she felt, making her way into the kitchen. “Shit,” the girl cursed at herself, realizing she left her toast in the toaster when she got home from school after getting dropped off.

She sat her sketchbook down on the kitchen counter and cleaned up the toast. She truly did consider going to Steve Harrington’s party on Friday, but she knew how it would turn out. He and his friends were douchebags anyways, and all they’re probably going to do is drink and smoke.

And then she began to remember the rules Hopper had set in place when she moved in with him. “I get off work late usually, it depends, but I always want you home no past 9. And no boys, no drugs, no parties…  you already know. And don’t answer the door if you don’t recognize the person there. Most importantly, no lies. If you’re going somewhere, write down where before you leave so I know. That’s all I ask of you.”

It was frustrating, having limitations and rules as she’d been used to her independence—taking care of herself during the decline of her father.

After her mother passed away, she was practically on her own. Of course, her father also made up rules along the way and would punish her for whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. But she knew she had to respect Hopper, whether she liked it or not.

As the girl sat in thought doing dishes in the sink, in the corner of her eye, she was met with a dark figure moving past the trees outside the window in front of her. Startled, she dropped the dish she was cleaning on the floor, seeing glass shards cover the floor. She let out a strained sigh, trying to shake off the fear nagging at her, assuming it was some sort of wildlife, beginning to pick up the mess.

While she cleaned up the kitchen, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling rising in her system. The glow from the woods again, the figure… suddenly, she heard a car engine pull up. 

Footsteps approached the trailer, and she heard the familiar sound of keys jingling to open the front door. She watched the door open as the familiar sight of Hopper entered the trailer, taking off his chief hat and throwing it onto the couch with takeout in his hands.

“Got Chinese for our movie tonight. Won’t be able to do it on Friday like usual this week,” The chief announced, setting down the food on the coffee table in the living room. 

“You’re home early,” Y/N announced, reading the clock, 5:51 PM, watching as Hopper gave a small nod, busy ridding his uniform jacket. “Quiet day.”

“Have you been seeing any animals around lately? Like deer or something?” She questioned, still uneasy from what she saw.

“Sometimes they come around. Why, did you see one?” Hopper questioned, plopping down on the couch, leather squeaking.

“Yeah, I’ve been seeing a lot lately,” Y/N hesitantly responded, knowing there was no explanation for what she saw—which was most definitely not deer.

𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲

“So you’re telling me, the Steve Harrington invited you to a party, and you’re not going?” Barb emphasized her words as Y/N walked through the high school halls, passing peers toward the cafeteria.

“Yeah, he invited me on Monday actually, but I think his friends convinced him to do it.” Y/N looked over at Barb, shrugging. “It’s not that big of a deal. I can’t even go… not that I want to anyway.” She continued, opening the doors to the lively cafeteria.

“You’re really going to turn down King Steve?” Nancy chimed in, her tone sharp in her sarcasm as she emphasized the silly nickname. There was something about the way she said it that made Y/N pause, but she quickly brushed it off.

“I don’t know why you guys are making it seem like such a big deal. He’s probably invited so many other people anyway… and why does everyone keep calling him that? It’s ridiculous,” Y/N shook her head as she grabbed a food tray.

“It’s what everyone calls him!” Barb answered, trailing behind Y/N. “If you went, imagine how popular you would get, and you’re brand new to Hawkins!” She added, trying to convince the girl.

Nancy, however, gave a half-hearted smile, her eyes not quite meeting Y/N’s. “Yeah, because apparently, Steve Harrington doesn’t have enough girls following him around already,” she muttered, her voice carrying a hint of annoyance.

“I don’t get why ‘the Steve Harrington’ is such a big deal. And I’m not interested in the popular crowd anyway,” Y/N mocked. “He seems like any other popular, rich, arrogant douchebag. I mean, look at his friends, and his hair!” She continued, watching as Nancy’s eyes flickered over her shoulder, suddenly widening along with Barb’s.

“Oh my god, what is it now?” Y/N turned around, only to be met by Steve Harrington—and his hair. God, his absurd hair.

“What about my hair?” Steve asked, his eyebrows furrowed together in question, his hands automatically reaching up to smooth it as if he could fix whatever she was criticizing.

“Oh, nothing…” Y/N shook her head, looking up at the boy, a bit startled by his sudden appearance.

“Well, you’re still coming to the party tonight, right?” Steve asked, his gaze fixed on her. Y/N’s heart skipped a beat, and she prayed that he didn’t hear the rather harsh words she’d just said about him and his friends.

“Uh,” she started, “Yeah, I can’t go.” She continued, watching as the boy's expression fell into utter disappointment.

“What, your parents won’t let you?” Steve questioned, slightly pouting, his lips formed into a small frown.

“I guess, and I’m not exactly the party girl anyway,” Y/N shrugged, glancing to the side where she caught Nancy staring at the floor, her lips pressed into a thin line.

“Well, if your friends went, would you go?” The boy came up with an idea, with Nancy’s eyes flicking up to Steve’s. “I’ll go,” She chimed in, lightly elbowing Barb as she hesitantly nodded. 

“I’m not going either way, sorry.” Y/N shook her head, confident in her answer.

“Just consider it! You can always sneak out.” Steve winked, turning his head to the sound of his friends calling his name, getting distracted.

“Okay, I’ll see you guys tonight, at six!” He pointed toward the girls, shuffling off to his lunch table.

“Y/N, you should really go to the party,” Nancy suggested, but there was something off in her tone, almost like she was trying too hard to sound casual. “I mean, it’s Steve Harrington. Not everyone gets that kind of invite.”

“No—no way,” Y/N refused stubbornly, insisting on not going.

Nancy forced a smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Fine, have fun missing out!” She mocked Steve’s words with a hint of something Y/N couldn’t quite identify—was it jealousy?

Barb, noticing the tension, chimed in. “I’m sure it’ll be fun… or not. I’m not really a party girl either, but I think I’ll sit this one out,” she said with a light laugh, but Y/N could feel Nancy’s lingering gaze, making her wonder if there was more to this than just a party invite.

“You guys can go without me, I’m sure you’ll have fun if you end up going,” The girl gave a slight shrug to her friends, walking past them to grab her lunch.

“Steve Harrington, rejected by the new girl? No way,” a girl sitting next to Tommy at Steve's table scoffed, her voice dripping with disbelief. 

Carol, with her light red hair styled to perfection and a face full of makeup that highlighted her icy blue eyes, leaned in closer to the conversation, clearly savoring the moment. Her fair skin contrasted sharply with the dark eyeliner that made her stare seem even more judgmental.

“Stop it, Carol,” Steve muttered, trying to sound nonchalant as he waved her off, but there was an edge to his voice. 

He slouched back in his seat, attempting to brush off the sting of rejection. He hated how it was becoming a topic of discussion, especially with Carol and Tommy around. They thrived on gossip, and he wasn’t in the mood to be their next punchline.

“Come on, Steve,” Carol pressed, her tone teasing but with a sharpness that cut through the cafeteria noise. 

“There’s got to be something up with her. Maybe she’s just playing hard to get, or maybe she’s not interested at all. I mean, who could turn down you?” The sarcasm in her voice was thick, as if she found the very idea ridiculous.

Steve sighed, rubbing his temple with frustration. “Maybe she’s worth getting to know, you know? I want to see what she's really about,”

There was something about Y/N that intrigued him—her guarded expression, the way she wasn’t immediately taken in by his usual charm. It was different, and maybe that was what kept her on his mind. 

“Yeah, if she actually wanted to talk to you,” Carol cut in, a smirk playing on her lips as she leaned back in her chair, clearly enjoying herself. 

Tommy, who had been listening with an entertained grin, decided to jump in. “Or maybe King Steve finally met someone who isn’t falling at his feet—"

“You just don’t quit, do you?” Steve snapped, and the outburst caused a few heads to turn their way, but Steve didn’t care. He was tired of the mocking, tired of everyone acting like they knew him better than he knew himself.

“Touchy, touchy,” Tommy scoffed, raising his hands in mock surrender, though his smirk remained firmly in place. “Just saying, man, maybe she’s not into the whole ‘King of Hawkins High’ thing. Maybe you gotta' try a different approach.”

Steve didn’t respond, just stared at the table, lost in thought. He hated to admit it, but Tommy might have a point. Maybe Y/N wasn’t impressed by his usual tricks. Maybe, just maybe, he’d have to be someone different to get through to her.

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[unamused-boss]

California Dreaming

Another Billy Hargrove fanfic... yes I know what a surprise...

Billy Hargrove x reader

Summary: Max and Billy could only agree on one thing in common.... and that was you. You were their neighbor when the lived in California and Billy had the biggest crush on you. Plus it helped that you babysat, more like hangout with, Max. You were his California dream.

Part 2 is out! Go to my page pls

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When Max and Billy were moved to Hawkins Indiana they knew they were loosing one of the few best things they ever had. You. Ever since Max moved into Billy's home in California, she had the pleasure of having you as her neighbor. From what started as a babysitting gig turned into a friendship.

Billy on the other hand. Having lived next to you for a majority of his life was absolutely in love. He'll admit love is a strong word but you were just breathtaking to him. When his mom was still around she always tried to get him to talk to you. Finding it absolutely adorable watching him try to talk to you at the nervous age of eleven. As he grew up, and more handsome, he found it much easier to talk to you. Still fumbling here and there though. Now in Indiana all Billy could think about was you.

"So you guys are really moving." You said. You and Billy were currently sitting on your front porch over looking the street.

"Yeah... to some shit hole in Indiana." Billy spit out.

"Hey it won't be that bad." You comforted. "Once you graduate you can come here with me." Hearing you say those words made Billy's heart leap. You've done so much for him.

"You mean that." He smiled.

"Definitely." You replied. Having grown up with Billy you have seen many fazes of his life. You remember how sweet he was, well he's still sweet but only to you, and how he got flustered over small things sometimes. You saw the destruction that his dad had caused upon not only him but also his sister. There is so much you wish you could do. Now Billy and Max is being taken away from you.

"What am I going to do with out you?" Billy questioned. "I don't like anyone else as much as I like you."

"You'll make new friends B." You laughed. Billy just rolled his eyes at you.

"With who cows? Rednecks?" Billy stated. "I wanna stay here so bad."

"I know you do Billy but things happen." You rubbed his arm.

"Well it feels like shitty things only happen to me." He retorted. You knew Billy had a short fuse. It came with his vulnerability and constant state of survival.

"Shitty things don't happen to you." You reassured. "Plus does that make me being one of the shitty things in your life." You tried to joke with him. He chuckled lightly at the attempt.

"No you're not. You are the greatest thing to ever happen to me."

"Well don't give me to big of a head Hargrove." You giggled. "Enjoy what you got right now Billy, you leave in a week. And I don't know when I'll see you next after you move." You scoot closer to Billy. Looking out at the pink and orange sky as the sun set. It was like a dream.

Your words had stuck with Billy. After next week he will never see you again. He'll be on the other side of the country, you'll be gone. Your smile will be gone, your laugh, the conversations, coming over to "watch Max", movie nights, all of it. He can't just leave you. He has to tell you how much he cares about you. At least take you on a date. You've seen him with multiple girl as he's you with guys. Which he hated. If being your boyfriend will only last for one week he will grab that opportunity by the balls.

Billy stood up abruptly to face you, you look to hime with confusion and shock. He took a deep breath in and "Y/N. I have known you my entire life, and you are by far the most beautiful person I know. I have been to chicken shit to tell you but I like you. Damn... maybe even love you. But even if it only for a week I would love to take you out on a date and be your boyfriend." It was done. He said it. Billy Hargrove finally confessed his feelings to you. You sat still for a minute then... you laughed? Oh no, you think he's a joke now don't you. 'Good job pussy, now she thinks you're an idiot' Billy thought embarrassingly.

"I would love to Billy." You said.

"What?" Billy snapped his head to you.

"I said yes." You said once more." Jeez, I thought you were proposing for a moment."

"Oh, well it might have been much." Billy felt the heat on his cheeks rise. Just then you stood and walked over to Billy. Placing your hand on his shoulder; leaning up to place a kiss on his cheek.

"How about tomorrow at seven." You said.

"I would love that, we can get dinner then go to a drive in if you want." Billy suggested.

"I would love that. Don't be late." You said as you walked up and into your house. Billy has never been more happy. He probably would have skipped home from excitement. When he entered his house Max saw the smile on his face. Well everyone in the house could, it was not like it was going away anytime soon.

"Did you do it?" Max asked.

"What?"

"Did you ask Y/n out or not?" Max said, elaborating.

"Shut up Max." Billy said before going off to his box filled bedroom.

"I am taking that as a yes." Max concluded. She was happy for him, but sad at the same time. He just told his crush his feelings then has to leave them. She is going to miss watching Billy fumble in front of you at times. At least he'll be a bit nicer to her in the next week. 'I'm gonna miss Y/N...' Max thought sadly.

Now being in Indiana, Billy was right it is a shit hole. His dad has been more on his case about watching Max and everything else in his life. The kids at school already cling to him; from being both new and from California. As Billy pulled into the high school parking lot for him and Max to get out at, he looked to Max.

"Alright shit-bird. Be out buy 3:45 or you're on your own." Billy pointed to her. She rolled her eyes to him.

"Fine." Max sassed to him as she got out of the car and slammed the door shut. Billy looked to his watch and saw he had a few minutes before he had to go in. He pulled his cigarettes out to take a quick drag. With said cigarette hanging from his lips Billy hastily looked for a lighter. Looking everywhere, then grabbing his sun visor in hopes he stashed it up there. Once the visor was flipped down and out something hell out of it. A polaroid. Not just any but the Polaroid you took on your first date with Billy. You took as many as you could in the week you and him had together. This polaroid being the only one he took with him when he moved. It was a picture of you and him in a booth at the restaurant he took you too with you giving him a kiss on the cheek. He remembers it like it was yesterday. You asked your waitress to take the photo for you; as Billy stood for the photo you grabbed his collar and placed the kiss on his cheek. The act causing both of you to bust in a fit of laughter right after. Billy wonders what you're doing right now. He wishes he was with you. Billy didn't realize that he was staring at the photo for to long till the first bell rang for school. Billy huffed carefully put the picture back into place, put his cigarette away got out of his car to make his way to school.

You'll always be his California dream.

[xspeter]

TIME AFTER TIME

Chapter three ❣︎ that boy is mine

i’m sorry that you, seem to be confused

he belongs to me, that boy is mine

❧ warnings: reader gets a drink thrown on her, but that’s really all! some mentions of sex (but nothing happens)

❧ wc: 3.6k

❧ Note: sorry for the long wait guys !!! school was kicking my butt, but i’m on spring break now!!

❧ masterlist

♥︎

You feel stunned for a moment. Which, honestly, you’re not sure if it’s because you so boldly asked Steve to fake-date you with barely any forethought, or if it’s because Steve agreed to it almost immediately.

“So you’re, um, you’re sure?” You stammer, cheeks beginning to flush.

Steve just shrugs, “Yeah, I guess. I mean it’s like you said- I wanna show Nance I can be the guy she wants.” He rubs the back of his neck, eyes avoidant.

You hum, nodding your head. So you were doing this. Okay. Great.

Suddenly there’s a crash followed by a harsh yell, and you’re reminded of the fact that you’re quite literally at a raging highschool party. You clear your throat, “We should probably..”

Steve nods more aggressively, “Yeah, okay, let’s go.” He doesn’t even hesitate before he’s grabbing your wrist and forcing you inside the house, and you wish you’d never gone in.

It’s so loud, people scream way too explicit songs, girls dressed in the tiniest short-shorts and baby-tees (practically the opposite of your purple dress), and the boys are shirtless and downing bottles of alcohol like it’s apple juice.

“Jeez..” You mutter, unconsciously standing closer to Steve.

He chuckles, a knowing smirk tugging on his lips, “You okay, princess?”

You resist an eye roll, the nickname was anything but new to you. “How many times do I have to tell you to not call me that?”

He furrows his brows and points to his ear, not so-subtly leaning closer to you, he says, “What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

You scoff and shove past him, taking the lead confidently. Where you’re going, you’re not sure, but you figure your best bet to fit in is to head towards the kitchen where all the drinks are being served.

You cautiously make your way through countless sweaty bodies, praying Steve is still following you and didn’t leave you stranded.

You turn around to make sure he’s still there and - he’s not. “Oh my god.” You grumble, eyes darting across the room, but there’s so many bodies you can’t even spot Steve in the crowd. “Shit.” You whisper. Suddenly you feel self-conscious. You weren’t used to being at a party like this with Steve let alone by yourself.

You take a breath and continue on your path. You assume if Steve wants to find you he’ll meet you there, and if not then… well, you’re not very sure.

There’s multiple boxes of canned beers along with a giant punch bowl. You aren’t sure what your chances are that the punch isn’t spiked, but the atmosphere is making you feel dehydrated, so you take your chances and grab a cup.

You swirl it in your hands for a few moments, before you finally decide to just down the whole thing. You immediately wish you hadn’t. It tastes bitter and you shiver as it slides down your throat. “God,” You cough, “What's in this?”

“I heard some guy earlier say ‘pure fuel’. Not sure how helpful that is though.” You whip your head around and are met with the sight of the very man you’d been hoping for. Jonathon.

You feel your lips subconsciously twitch into a smile, “More like pure vodka.” You joke. Jonathon chuckles and stuffs his hands into his jacket pockets, and you honestly have no idea how he’s even wearing that thing with all the body heat in the house.

“I didn’t think you’d show.” He says, and you shrug and lean against the counter, “Were you waiting for me?” You nearly surprise yourself with your boldness. Maybe you should go to parties more often.

“Of course I was,” Jonathon says casually, “We’ve barely seen each other since I moved back.”

You hum, cheeks flushing a little at Jonathon’s casual answer. It’s like he doesn’t even know the effect he has on you.

“Yeah.” You hum. The conversation goes silent after that, Jonathon sips on his beer casually while you stare at the ground. It’s weird, you’ve imagined yourself in this exact scenario so many times. You’d always know what to say to charm him, but now that it’s actually reality you find the words getting stuck on your tongue.

“Oh,” Jonathon nods his head to something behind you, “there’s Steve.” You turn around and promptly find the said man to be in what looks to be a very uncomfortable conversation with Tina Tarsden, a girl who was very well known for her obsession with Steve.

Jonathon walks past you silently, most likely on his way to attempt to save Steve from the conversation, and you awkwardly follow behind.

Steve clearly looks relieved once he catches sight of Jonathon. You’re hidden behind him, which means neither Steve or Tina are aware of your presence.

“Hey, man!” Steve says, “I’ve been looking for you all night.”

Tina scrunches her nose at the interruption and takes a bitter sip of her beer. “Jonathon,” She drawls, placing a hand on his bicep. It makes your blood boil. “How’re you and Nancy?”

Jonathon shifts uncomfortably on his feet, “Uh, fine. I guess.” He mutters. Tina just hums, clearly uninterested in the conversation. “Have you heard about Steve’s latest whore?”

Suddenly you feel like this is a conversation you’re not meant to be present for, but you need to know if news about yours and Steve’s “relationship” has really already spread that quickly. Jonathon laughs awkwardly, “Uh, no. I haven’t heard about Steve’s latest… fling.” His voice jumps an octave at the end.

Steve runs a hand through his hair, clearly annoyed, he says, “Tina, i’ve told you this a thousand times! Who I date isn’t any of your business.” He sighs, “I'm sorry I'm not into you like you’re into me, but you just need to get over it.”

Tina grips the plastic cup in her hand tighter, cheeks flushing with rage. “I’d agree if you weren’t dating that prude Y/N L/N!”

Now, after her very rude and untrue comment, you think it’s a good moment to make yourself known. You move from behind Jonathon, arms crossed over your chest as you shoot Tina an icy glare. “This whole jealousy thing really isn’t a good look for you, Tina.”

Her jaw drops tightly but she’s quick to pick it up. Her eyes are burning with a rage you'd rarely ever seen pointed at you. “You bitch.” She mutters, taking a step closer to you. Steve watches her cautiously, clearly ready to step in at any moment. Jonathon on the other hand is shocked. “You guys are dating? Since when?” He asks.

You exchange a look with Steve over his question. Neither of you had really discussed your timeline or even how this fake relationship had started yet. Steve makes up a quick excuse, “Uh, I'll tell you another time, man.” Jonathon accepts this answer, but Tina does not.

“I mean, you can do so much better than this… child!” Tina growls, pointing a manicured finger at you. “Look at that dress she’s wearing!”

By this point a small crowd has begun to form around the four of you, and you shift uncomfortably under the weight of everyone’s stares. You look down at your dress, “What’s wrong with what I'm wearing?” You mutter to yourself. Sure, you’ve always known your style to be a little different to most kids your age, but you’d never been criticized about it before.

Tina scoffs, “You dress like an eighty year old grandma!”

You shrug nonchalantly, “Well, last I checked Steve chose this grandma and not you..” You spit back.

Steve laughs at this, but covers it with a cough as soon as Tina turns around and shoots him a hard glare. “I doubt Steve chose you,” She says, voice dripping with venom, “He probably just needed a quick and easy fuck. You guys are neighbors aren’t you?”

Her implication makes you angrier than you were before. To have Tina Tarsden, the biggest slut in Hawkins, imply that you were putting out so easily is laughable.

You step closer to her, “If Steve wanted a quick and easy fuck, all he’d have to do is whistle and you’d come running.”

Tina does not like this reply at all. Actually, she dislikes it so much that she throws her drink at you. The cold liquid soaks through your dress and ruins your hair and makeup. You stand there dripping onto the hardwood for a couple seconds in pure shock, and by the time you come to and go to retaliate you find that Tina has already walked away. Instead, both Steve and Jonathon are in front of you.

“Shit, are you okay?” Jonathon asks, hand reaching for your bicep to hold you steady. Your eyes shine at him, but if it’s because of the oncoming tears or the lighting you’re not sure.

You know you pushed Tina. You stooped to her level and caused her to become so enraged she threw her drink at you. But, still, you loved this dress. You loved it more than you loved yourself. And now it reeked of alcohol and had a large light brown stain right on the front of it.

“Uh, yeah, I’m okay.” You mumble, hands shaking slightly as you ball them at your side. “Here i’ll take you home-” Jonathon begins, but Steve stops him. “I got it. Besides, you’ve been drinking. I haven’t touched any alcohol tonight.”

Jonathon nods, “Yeah. Right. I forgot you guys were dating now.” He says it questioningly, like the idea had never crossed his mind as even being a possibility, and honestly, it’d never crossed your own before tonight either.

Steve shoots him a tight smile, before he’s gently reaching around your middle to cup your waist and lead you out of the house. You blindly follow him, mind too preoccupied on the night's events to even notice how large Steve’s hands feel on you. How warm they are against your now freezing skin.

As you walk through the weaves and weaves of people, you aren’t sure if the girl you see walking in Jonathon’s direction is Nancy or just your mind playing a trick on you. You’re hoping and praying it’s the latter.

You barely even register Steve softly ushering you into his car, not until it’s already in motion and the heaters blast onto your cold skin. You wince at the coldness, and reach forward to turn them away from you. Steve mumbles a sorry from beside you, and you turn to look at him and the smile he’s very clearly holding back. You sit in silence for a few more moments, before he glances at you from the corner of his eye and suddenly you’re both bursting out in laughter from the situation.

“She- she dumped her drink on me!” You say between breaths, holding your stomach as you cackle. Steve does his best to keep his eyes on the road as he does the same, “I seriously didn’t know you had it in you, princess! I mean, ‘he’d whistle and you’d come running’ that was comedy gold!”

Your giggling dies out slowly, and silence replaces it. You know there’s so many things you need to talk about, but you’re not sure if now is the right time. But before you can speak up Steve’s already pulling into your driveway.

You swallow, “So, when should we, um, talk about… this.” You gesture between both of you awkwardly.

Steve clears his throat, “I’ll come by tomorrow, okay?”

You smile, “Okay.” And then you bid him goodnight.

🝮

Your dress was ruined. You’d spent a good portion of last night attempting to get it out with Monica’s help to no avail.

You stare at it sadly now, wondering if there was anything you could do to save it. After a couple more moments of contemplating you decide there isn’t, and promptly throw it in the garbage. You’ll have a funeral for it soon.

“I’m sorry, babes.” Monica murmurs from beside you, rubbing your arm comfortingly. You shrug her off, “It’s just a dress. There’ll be others.”

Monica nods, and you pretend you don’t see the disappointment in her face at your subtle rejection. “Yeah. You’re right. I’m glad you’re being so level headed about this, I definitely wouldn’t be.” She jokes.

You give a strained chuckle, hoping to break the awkward tension that fills the space between the both of you. Newsflash, it doesn’t.

Monica looks as uncomfortable as you feel. “Look, Y/N, I know I’m not-”

Suddenly the doorbell rings and you practically jump up to answer it. Monica sighs but doesn’t say anything as you walk away from her. You subconsciously thank god for saving you from an awkward conversation you lost definitely did not want to have.

Unsurprisingly, Steve waits on the other side of the door. His hair is slightly messy and he’s wearing a hoodie and jeans, and compared to his usual school clothes this is much more casual. You on the other hand had stuck with a pretty white dress and a pair of black converse.

“You should’ve called before you just showed up.” You mumble, but still step to the side and let him in.

Steve just shrugs, “I’ll remember that next time.”

No, he won’t. You just roll your eyes in response.

Steve stumbles into your living room and plops himself onto the couch, where you had laid out a single notebook and two pens.

“What’s this for?” Steve asks.

You take a breath and sit next to him, “This,” You say, smoothing your dress over your knees, “Is our contract.”

Steve raises a brow, “Contract?”

“Yes, contract. Because I’ll be damned if we say one wrong thing and expose ourselves to the whole school.”

“I think you’re being a little over dramatic about this whole thing.”

“You say that, and then at our twenty year reunion people are going to be asking you about that one time you faked a relationship and it totally backfired.”

Steve rolls his eyes, “Okay, whatever.”

You smile approvingly. If only Steve was this complacent all the time. “I think we should start out with some ground rules.” You say.

Steve nods and leans forward to grab a pen, “Okay. I’ll write down the first one.”

You’re a little surprised by his initiative, but allow him to do so.

You soon regret it though, because the first rule he writes says “must change wardrobe”.

You immediately go to take the notebook and scribble the rule off, but Steve snatches it away from you. “Hey, hey! A rule is a rule!”

“We’ll, that’s a stupid rule!”

He scoffs, “It is not!” He winces, “Look, as much as I hate to admit it, Tina was a little bit right about your outfits. Then make you look like a grandma.”

You scoff out a laugh, your jaw dropping. “Was this seriously a thing that no one had thought to tell you before? Were they just gonna let you love the rest of your life dressed as a ninety year old woman? You’d never let Steve know that his words got under your skin, so instead you retorted with, “Well, it’s not like you have the best style known to man either.”

Steve shrugs, “I never said I did.”

You stare at him, hoping that at some point he’ll break, but he doesn’t, instead he just stares back.

After wait feels like forever you finally just throw your arms up and say, “Fine! I’ll go shopping.”

Steve tuts, “I don’t trust you to do that by yourself, so I’ll be going with you.”

You scoff, “No way! I’ll just take Robin.”

Steve grimaces and thinks about Robins denim jackets and platform shoes, “Yeah, that’s a no.”

You groan and flop back into the couch, “You suck, you know that?”

Steve just grins, “And yet, you asked me to date you.”

“Fake date, get it right, Harrington.”

Steve doesn’t say anything, and instead puts the notebook in your lap, “I think it’s your turn.”

You didn’t know this turned into a turn-taking thing, but you don’t argue.

For the second rule you write down what you think is the most obvious one, no one can know. Not even your families.

Steve doesn’t argue with this one, he just hums and practically snatches the notebook from you to write down the third rule. Must drive to school together. You find this one to be a little odd, but seeing as you’ve never been the biggest fan of driving, you don’t object.

Now it’s your turn, and you have a weird feeling this one might be a little controversial with Steve. No kissing.

Steve immediately disagrees, “How's anyone gonna believe we’re dating if I can’t kiss you?”

“We’ll just say we’re taking things slow!”

Steve gives you a pointed look, and you sigh. “What if.. you only miss me on the cheek?” Another look.

“You’re not going to make me change my mind.” You say.

Steve groans, “Fine! We’ll stick to.. cheek-kissing or whatever.”

You smile gratefully and hand the paper back to Steve, but he just shrugs and hands it back to you. Since neither of you have anything else to add, you scribble to lines at the bottom and sign your name.

Steve snorts, “This is so dorky.” But he does the same.

“Alright, now we need to get our stories straight.” You sigh, arms crossing over your chest.

Steve just shrugs, “Well just say we decided to start dating on a random tuesday afternoon. There, easy.”

“What’re you gonna say when people ask what led to the conversation, or when we realized we didn’t hate each other anymore, huh?”

Steve groans, “Fine. What do you think we should say?”

You smile, “I’m so glad you asked. I thought about it last night, and I think we should say you realized you had feelings for me a couple weeks ago and then ran to my house in the pouring rain and confessed your love for me.”

“We’re not saying that.”

You frown, “Why not? It’s cute!”

Steve shakes his head, “Because this ain’t one your cheesy rom-coms. Why don’t we just say you were helping me out with a project and we realized we didn’t hate each other and decided to give a relationship a try.”

You hated to admit it, but Steve was right. That sounded way more believable. “Okay. Fine. Whenever. We’ll stick with your boring story.”

Steve just grins, “Atta girl.”

You both sit in silence for a few moments, the paper sitting idiot in front of you. Suddenly, you smack your hands on your knees, “This has been so much fun but I think it’s time you went home!”

Steve furrows his brows, “What do you mean? We’re going shopping together.”

That's how you find yourself in your current position, following Steve as he pushes a cart through Kohls.

Every piece of clothing he’s pointed out to you has been completely out of your comfort zone, but you allowed him to stuff them into the cart anyway.

You draw the straw at a tank top covered in yellow sunflowers. Not like, just one in the middle, no. There was not a single space without a sunflower on it.

“I will never wear that.”

Steve wiggles it in front of you, “Come on, it’s cute!”

“It’d be even cuter in hell.”

Steve just chuckles and tosses it back onto the rack, “We probably have enough stuff already anyway.” You sigh, hoping Steve takes it as a signal that you’re ready to be done with this and just go home. While yes, he does understand that the overflowing cart is most definitely enough stuff, he doesn’t understand that you’re ready to go home. Instead, he leads you to a dressing room.

“I’m not trying on all of that! It’ll take me hours!”

Steve just shrugs, “You better get started then.”

You go to argue, but he just shakes his pointer finger at you, “Rule number one, sweetheart.”

You hate that he’s right, and you hate yourself even more for even agreeing to that stupid rule.

You dramatically grab a handful of clothes, two pairs of jeans and three crop tops, and walk into the dressing room with them.

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t like the way the jeans made your ass look, and two of the crop tops actually aren’t that bad.

You yell at Steve to hand you another set of outfits, but he tells you to just get them yourself. God, why are men so lazy?

You exit the dressing room still wearing the jeans and a black, off the shoulder crop top.

Steve looks up from the floor once he hears the door open, and he nods. “Yeah,” He lets out a wolf-whistle, “You look great.”

Your cheeks flush at his compliment, something you’d never expected to hear from Steve Harrington. “Funny you think I care what you think.” You retort.

Steve just shrugs “I never said you did, I was just saying,” He eyes you up and down, brown eyes lingering on your curves, “You look good.”

You just roll your eyes and slam the dressing room door in his face, hoping and praying he doesn’t see the way your cheeks and ears had tinged a soft shade of red.

Besides, Steve Harrington is still that annoying kid you’d met all those years ago. There’s no reason for you to be blushing at some compliment he didn’t even mean.

And yet, you are.

♥︎

taglist! (dm to be added!): @carinacassiopeiae

[thaliagracesgf]

Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly

wc: 5.7k

divider from @saradika-graphics, images from pinterest

general CWs, not necessarily all in this chapter: drinking, alcoholism, drug abuse, smoking, cancer, hopper being kind of a deadbeat, usual canon violence. not entirely proofread.

masterlist (incl. series)

a/n: wow. this chapter took so much out of me. it was intense. it’s been in progress for over a month (thank you for bearing with me! i was on vacation!) and i had a lot of important scenes in it that i wanted to do well. truly what got me through the last bit was chapter one of season four of @stevie-petey’s “come home” coming out last night (which you should go read, if you haven’t yet!). i hope you enjoy this!

You are absolutely fucking dead when you wake up. “Tina,” you groan. “Does your head also feel like a million nails are being drilled into it?” You look around her room, feeling absolutely attacked by the pink and the sparkles that you’ve seen a trillion times before. 

“Yes! How did you know?” She gasps sleepily, and you’re so sure she’s still drunk. “Owwww,” she moans, “that hurt.” 

“What, speaking?” you reply, and yes, it really does hurt. “Fuck me, I need to either drop dead right now or someone needs to feed me, like, all the food in Hawkins.”

“Ughhhhh,” she responds, your faces still in your pillows. “That sounds so good.” 

“We have to get up.”

“No, no no no no no no,” she cries. “We can skip today. Can we skip today?” 

“You can knock yourself out. My dad would actually lock me in jail, probably.” You don’t let yourself fall back asleep, because if you do, you know for a fact that you will not wake up again in time for class. You shuffle painfully to the edge of the bed, swinging your legs off as you continue to lay down, and eventually muster up the courage and strength to sit upright. The pain in your head gets a million bajillion times worse, and you moan again. 

“Don’t do that. Don’t do what I just did. It was so bad.” 

“I’ll suffocate you if you suffocate me,” Tina mumbles. “Then we definitely don’t have to go to school.” 

“I really, really like that plan.” You push yourself to your feet, fighting through the throbbing pain that feels like your brain is too big for your skull, and walk the two steps to your duffel bag before collapsing on the floor again. 

“I’m wearing your jeans,” you mumble to her. “I can’t wear my red pants two days in a row.”

“Wonderful,” she responds. You’re pretty sure she’s asleep again. You pull on a sweatshirt you’ve had since second grade—you can’t even remember where it came from at this point. 

You make it to school alive, by some miracle. And you definitely still look like a corpse when you walk into class, taking your seat behind Nancy. The bell rings, and your head starts to throb again. You take note of her concerned looking face, and assume she must be suffering similarly. At least you aren’t alone. 

That is, until she leans forward in her desk, “Hey Ally,” she gets the girl’s attention. “Where’s Barb?” 

“Um, shouldn’t you know?” the girl responds, turning back around.

“You haven’t seen her, anywhere?” Nancy continues. “At all?” 

Ally shakes her head, and Nancy slouches back in her chair, noticing you. Before she can ask you, you shake your head, biting your lip. This cannot be good. You don’t know Barb well, but she definitely doesn’t seem like the type to skip. 

You look ahead, forcing yourself to pay at least some attention to class, because you cannot for the life of you figure out the difference between antiderivatives and integrals, but you’re still running through possibilities of how or when Barb could have left Steve’s last night in your head.

You walk into the cafeteria, making your way over to your table in a headache-induced haze. You almost don’t notice the interesting look Steve gives you as you sit down, but you can’t figure out what it means. You manage to drown out a bit of the conversation as you think about Barb, Will, your Dad, Will, your grades, your headache, until Tommy raises his voice. 

“That’s why science doesn’t make any damn sense to me,” he says with food in his mouth, gesturing at Carol’s foot up on the table. It’s got some nasty thing on the ankle, and she’s decided that the best place to examine it is your lunch table. It’s making you nauseous the more you see it. You’re trying to avoid looking, but that’s only so possible when it’s next to your applesauce. 

“Nothing makes sense to you, dude,” you roll your eyes, and Steve snorts. 

“I swear, look at this. It’s totally frostbite,” Carol whines. 

Steve passes his applesauce over to Tommy, who thanks him before returning to his girlfriend. “It’s a heated pool,” he says dismissively.

“Well if it’s not frostbite, then what is it?” 

“Ugh,” Steve interrupts. “I don’t care what it is, it’s disgusting! Get it off the table. We’re eating here.” 

“What he said,” you add. 

Tommy touches it with his spoon, and Carol smacks him away. Much to the rest of your disgust, he continues to use the spoon for his applesauce. 

“Hey Tommy,” Nancy cuts in, trying and failing to ignore the spoon disaster, and narrowing her eyes. “When you left, did you see Barb?” 

“What?” 

“Barbara. She’s not here today.” 

“I seriously have no idea who you’re talking about,” Tommy snickers, and you roll your eyes, leaning back in your chair as he leans across the table. You’re trying to keep as far a distance between yourself and that spoon as possible. 

“Come on, don’t be an ass, man,” Steve says. “Did you… Did you see her leave last night or not?” He doesn’t actually look all that concerned with what Tommy has to say. 

“No. She was gone when we left,” Tommy says, as though he’s annoyed at Nancy and she’s asked him a million times. 

“Probably couldn’t stand listening to all that moaning,” Carol adds. The pair of them start mocking Nancy, loudly, turning heads in the cafeteria. You kick her across the table.

“Come on, that’s so disgusting, guys.” 

“You say that because you got out of there, Y/N!” she laughs. “It was bad.” 

“Can you… can you just cut it out?” You glare at her, and she gives you a puzzling look back, smirking at you. 

Your friend is trying to hide his smile, though. And it’s extremely troubling for you. Why are all your friends turning into extra special assholes this week? 

“Listen…” he turns to Nancy, not doing anything about how uncomfortable she looks as Tommy and Carol die of laughter across from them. “I’m sure she’s fine. She’s probably just… she’s probably just, like, skipping, or something.” 

“Yeah.” Nancy replies, totally unconvinced. You catch her eye. “Yeah, probably.” 

You sit on the brick ledge just outside after Chem as Nancy tries to call Barb’s mom. You made the suggestion after class, after watching her skittish looks and jittery vibe for an hour, and offered to come with her. Now you fiddle with the fraying edge of your hoodie as she stands by the phone. 

The line rings. “Come on, come on, come on…” Nancy mutters.

You’re not sure what to do with your eyes, whether you seem uninterested and bored if you stare at the ground or a creep if you watch or check up on her as she calls. As you kick a rock on the pavement, you think about driving by Dustin and the Sinclairs’ houses tonight. You realize you haven’t seen the boys since Will went missing. Since you let him go home on his own. You blink back sudden tears in your eyes. You’ve been trying not to vocalize it in your mind, knowing it would send you over the edge, but you know Will’s disappearance is your fault. If you had just driven him the rest of the way, seen that Jonathan had eyes on him before taking off…

“Hello?” You startle at the faint voice of a woman who must be Barb’s mom through the phone. 

“Hi!” Nancy also jumps. “Hi, uh, Ms. Holland, it’s Nancy.” 

“Oh, Nancy, how are you?” the muffled voice returns. 

“Good… I’m good. Um, I was just wondering, is, uh, is Barb there?” her voice sounds a little higher than normal. 

“Mmm… no…” you can’t hear the rest of the sentence, but Nancy winces, so you assume she’s not there. A growing pit makes you sick to your stomach. Are you cursed? Are people you sort of hang out with doomed to go missing? Are you being incredibly narcissistic by thinking about that right now instead of Will and Barbara, their families? 

“But she did come home, right? After the vigil?” You can’t hear Ms. Holland anymore over a ringing in your ears. 

“Right. Yes. She did, sorry. I meant, did she come home this morning? I think she left some textbooks and she was gonna go pick them up.” 

“Oh, um, no, I haven’t seen her,” Ms. Holland’s voice comes back through. You fiddle with the edges of a food drive poster on the side of the phone box. 

“Do— do you know what? I just remembered… she’s at the library.” Nancy is not doing a great job at this, you hate to say it. You make eye contact with some sort of leopard or cheetah on a Battle of the Bands flier, and wonder briefly if Eddie Munson is doing it. You can hear his fucking guitar every single night at home. There was a point when you thought about starting a band together, when you were in fifth grade, but your music tastes were completely different. You argued for hours on what your band’s sound would be before finally calling it quits. You sort of drifted from Eddie, after that. He always thought you were trying too hard to fit in around Steve and Tina, trying to convince you to hang out with kids “like you.” I.e.: other poor kids.

“Yeah. Yeah, I will,” Nancy responds to something you missed. “Sorry to bother you.” She hangs up the phone and sighs. You bite your lip again, and the end of school bell rings. You grab her hand, in an attempt to comfort her, you guess, and the two of you start walking up to the parking lot. 

The pit in your stomach grows again when you see your friends at the top of the hill, leaning on what you recognize as Jonathan Byers’ car. Although, even if you didn’t know the car, you’d probably have been able to figure it out. Jonathan shuffles uncomfortably near them; his presence, especially, is the concerning part. Steve, Tommy, and Carol are rifling through some papers, and you hear Steve’s voice, sounding harsher than usual.

“No.” He rolls one and waves it at Jonathan. “No, this is called stalking.” 

“What?” You exclaim, and their heads turn to you and Nancy as you come up the slope. 

“What’s going on?” Nancy asks, a little hesitantly, observing Jonathan and furrowing her brows.

“Here’re the starring ladies,” Tommy jeers. 

“What?” Nancy adjusts her bag. 

“Jonathan?” you can see Steve grit his teeth as you address the other boy. You’re about to stop yourself and start on him when Carol interrupts. 

“This creep was spying on us last night,” Carol looks a little too happy to illuminate the pair of you. “He was probably gonna save these for later.” She passes you photo sheets, and the picture she passes you might honestly surpass all of the shitty things that have happened to you this week. It’s you, sitting on the edge of the pool, lifting your arms in the air as you shotgun a beer. 

Your red bikini top, here in black and white, is pushing up your chest, and to be honest, your first thought is that it’s a great photo of your boobs before you remember why it exists, and the world seems to come crashing down on your shoulders. 

Your headache worsens, and the tears you’ve been holding back throughout the day threaten dangerously to spill over, and you have to fight not to let them. You’re not going to cry in front of Tommy and Carol, and you don’t think you want to cry in front of Jonathan Byers right now, either. 

You glance at Nancy’s, and it’s somehow worse. It’s her, from the back, at least, pulling her shirt off in the window you know is Steve’s room. It’s sick. You knew they had sex last night. Jonathan Byers is a creep. You knew he liked her. You never want to see Jonathan Byers again in your life. You knew it was going to happen. You think you’re going to throw up, or cry, or both. 

“See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but…” Steve starts, clicking his tongue, “man, that’s the thing about perverts. It’s hardwired into them.” He ruffles Jonathan’s collar. He looks like a total douche. You don’t know what’s going on right now, what you’re thinking. You can’t breathe. “You know, they just can’t help themselves.” He tears up the photos left in his hands, and Tommy laughs. Nicole, the girl you’ve really only just noticed, crosses her arms smugly. You want to yell at her, of all people, right now. Why the hell is she here? Why is she pretending she cares about any of you, any of your friends? Who gave her the right to look at Jonathan the way she is? You want to slap her. 

“So… we’ll just have to take away his toy.” 

For some reason, that’s what snaps you back to reality. “No!” You think you shout but it comes out as a murmur. Steve looks at you incredulously, and Tommy and Carol snicker. 

“Steve…” Nancy starts. 

“No, please, not the camera,” Jonathan almost begs. It’s pathetic. You hate him. So much. He moves for the camera, and Tommy blocks him. 

“No, no, wait, wait,” he holds out his hand. “Tommy, Tommy.” The other boy backs off, and Steve turns from Jonathan to look at you. “Are you serious, Hopper?” There’s so much in the way he says it. You can read his voice like the back of your hand, now, after ten years of being his best friend. You hear him asking you what the hell has come over you, why you’re taking this pervert’s side. 

Then he addresses Jonathan again. “To be honest, man, you’ve got some balls, taking these of her.” Your heart is beating out of its chest, and the ringing is coming back around you. “I mean, do you know who her dad is?” 

“Steve,” you warn. 

“Oh,” he clicks his tongue again. “That’s my bad. I guess you’ve been spending a lot of time around him lately, huh?” 

“Steve!” You shout. 

“It’s okay,” he holds his hand out at you for a second, offering the camera out to Jonathan. “Here you go, man.” He reaches for it, but Steve drops it on the pavement, and you watch as the lens, and probably all the machinery you don’t understand inside, shatters. 

“Steve!” You cry out as it happens. You don’t really know what else to say. 

Will bought him that camera. Will bought him that camera. Will bought him that camera. 

“Y/N, do you have any quarters?” Lucas’s voice ringing in your head. “Will’s got nothing, he’s totally saving everything for this dumb Christmas present for his brother.” 

Steve Harrington is a rich asshole, and you don’t know why you ever thought he could be a good friend. 

The realization hits you like a million bricks, and you bend down to desperately scoop camera pieces up, in part to cover the tears that have actually started rolling down your face. He’s not a good person. He’s not a good person. And there’s nothing you can do about it. And you don’t have any other friends, because at this point your only other option is a pervert who was taking pictures of the boobs you’re never going to be able to look in the mirror at again. 

As Jonathan bends down beside you, it takes a lot of strength not to shove him on his back. Let him know you don’t care about him. You care about the bits of her paycheck that Joyce Byers put aside for Will’s small allowance, all of which went into that piggy bank for that camera. You care about the quarters that Dustin, Lucas, and Mike sacrificed at the arcade when he showed up with nothing because he had saved it all for that camera. You cared about the hours you had spent at the grocery store with Lucas as he rolled his eyes at Erica, who was berating him for being picky over lemons for the lemonade stand they were building, where all the profits were going to the stupid fucking camera. 

And now it was laying in shards in the Hawkins High parking lot, and your best friend in the entire world was responsible for it. 

And he was walking away. 

You make a split second decision to abandon the camera, chasing after Steve down the hill. As you get up, you kick a bit of what was the lens, and you hope it cuts Jonathan open. 

“Steve!” You bark, turning the heads of your friends up ahead. You storm up to him and shove him backwards. 

“What the hell, Hopper?” He stumbles back. You’re almost stronger than him. You’re certainly a better swimmer. 

“You’re such an asshole, Harrington!” You shout.

“I’m sorry,” he shakes his head in disbelief, “did you not see the photos he was taking of you? Or of my girlfriend?” You think the last sentence hits you kind of hard, but you don’t think about it. You’re too angry.

“You don’t think! You don’t think about anyone except your fucking self, Steve.”

You can see in his eyes that he genuinely doesn’t understand why you’re angry at him. And of course he doesn’t. He doesn’t know about the camera, or Will. But he has to know the Byers don’t have money, right? He has to know that Jonathan can’t buy a new camera, right? He has to know the sacrifices someone in that family made to get him that, right? He has to know that you’re just like Jonathan Byers. Right?

You don’t realize at first that you’re hyperventilating. Or that you really are crying, now. You can’t breathe. You’re vaguely aware of being lowered to the ground, and of Steve crouching in front of you, rubbing your arm. Of him calling Nancy over, and of her stroking your back, and telling you you’re okay. Of your breathing slowing down, and of them helping you back to your feet. Of trudging to the gym as Nancy helps you walk, and Steve looks at you from her other side as if for the first time in his life, he can’t figure you out. 

You sit with your back against the lockers, staring at the side of the bench Carol’s laying on. 

“So,” she laughs from Tommy’s lap, “I told Mr. Mundy, the solution of ten plus Y equals… blow me.” Tommy snickers. 

“Bull,” Steve calls. “If you did that you’d be in detention right now.”. You realize you’ve ditched Nicole somewhere on your way back in. Good riddance, you figure. She was probably just trying to get in with the four—five?— of you. You realize you probably sound like a narcissist. You don’t entirely realize that you’re definitely projecting your anger about this from Steve onto this random girl. 

“Saturday,” Carol replies.

“I bet Mr. Mundy’s still a virgin.”

“Oh, he’s so a virgin.” 

“Maybe you should blow him, Carol. Help your grades a bit.”

“Nice, Tommy,” you mutter. Tommy gives you a look, as if to say, “She speaks!” Carol smacks him.

You can’t see Nancy from the floor, but as she walks away your eyes follow her. 

“Hey! Nance, where you going?” Steve calls. 

“I totally forgot,” she stammers, turning back. “I told my Mom I would… do something with her.”

“Well, what do you mean? The game’s about to start!” 

“I’m sorry,” she winces as she walks down the hall.

You watch Steve watch her go. Good for her, honestly. You’re thinking about doing the same thing, and the only thing stopping you is still that raging headache.

“What the hell’s wrong with her?” he turns back to the three of you. 

You shrug, sinking deeper into your hoodie. 

“Maybe she freaked out when you went all psycho on the psycho,” Tommy jeers, looking over at you as he says it. You jeer back at him, silently. 

“Oh, give me a break,” Steve dismisses him.

“What’d you expect, dating Miss Perfect?” Carol’s bubble pops loudly, echoing in the cinderblock hall. 

“Can you guys just…” you trail off. “Shut up?” 

“Okay, what the hell is going on with you?” Carol rolls her eyes.

“I just… stop making this into such a thing. I don’t want my dad finding out about this.” 

“Yeah, no shit,” Tommy chortles, and you look at him, surprised. 

“No one’s telling your dad,” Steve says. “None of us were supposed to be there, not just you and Tina.”

“Really, Steve?” you raise your voice. “I don’t want him to get mad at Mrs. Byers, or anything that’s going to stop him looking for Will,” you scoff at him. “To be honest, I could care less right now whether he finds out about your stupid fucking party.”

Tommy whistles. “She got you, man,” he reaches out to push Steve, and you glare at him, too. 

“Jesus Christ, Y/N, I just—” he trails off. “Can we just go to the game?”

You look up at him, meeting his eyes. For the second time today, you don’t think you understand each other at all. “I think… I think I’m gonna go home,” you say, and confusion passes through his eyes. 

“What?” 

“Yeah, I just… I don’t feel great. And I probably have to make dinner, or you know, my Dad won’t eat anything, and…” 

“Yeah. Fine. Whatever. Just go, Y/N.” He waves his arm at you, dismissively. 

“I… I’m sorry.” 

“Yeah.” 

Tommy and Carol are watching the interaction, Tommy almost wide-eyed and Carol blowing another bubble, bored. You scoop your backpack off the floor, looking for Steve’s eyes one last time, but he’s not looking at you. He stares at the ceiling instead, so you turn and walk down the hall, between the green and orange striped cinder block, the same way Nancy’s just gone.

You feel like the empty roads of Hawkins are closing in on you. Empty branches reach across to close in on you and your car. You swear you keep seeing shadows pass among them, and you jump at every one. You’re scared that you’re going to swerve and crash your car, but the thought of pulling over, any closer to these woods, is unthinkable. So you speed along towards the park, trying to keep your eyes on the asphalt as opposed to the forest, and think about anything other than Will or Barbara, and the serial kidnapper that’s lurking somewhere around this town. 

As you drive into the park, the lights from the trailers around you provide some small comfort, but you curse your father for choosing a spot so far from everyone else, and by the open water that seems to absorb all the light for twenty yards around your house. The sun set in the short while it took to drive home. If there was a graph charting the correlation between the amount of sun and your level of fear, it would have an approximate slope of negative one. Or negative ten. Or negative ten thousand. 

Gravel crunches under your tires as you pull in, and you turn the car off as soon as possible. You think you’re hoping that if you’re completely silent, and completely invisible, that whatever monsters are lurking around town won’t come for you. You sit in your car for what seems like hours, but is probably closer to twenty minutes, before you decide that you don’t want to get out of it. It’s warm, and your house is definitely freezing. So you dig the walkie-talkie out of the bottom of your bag, and fumble with the dials, tapping into the police office’s main line. 

“Flo?” You start. 

It takes a moment, but her voice crackles back through. 

“Hi, sweetie.” Her voice sounds strained. 

“Is something wrong? I was just wondering if you knew where my dad was.” 

“Oh, sweetie. He’s… he’s heading down to the quarry, but you shouldn’t go down there—” You tune her out. Why would you go down there? You never follow your dad to work. Why would you…  

“Will,” your voice creaks. 

“Oh, sweetheart, would you like to come over here, and wait for your father to finish up?” You know she’s nervous, you know she’s looking out for you, but the way she says “finish up”, as if Will is some menial task, makes your stomach drop.

“No, Thanks, Flo,” you mutter. You can hear her responding to you, but you’re not listening. You toss the walkie into the passenger seat, and before you can think about what you’re doing, you reverse your car and fly back out of the trailer park. 

You race back down the tree-lined streets, no longer caring that they’re closing in on you. It’s only five minutes or so to the quarry, but it feels like twenty with the way your heart is pounding out of your chest and you feel your breath leaving you again. 

You hear the sirens before you see them, but as you turn the corner your eyes are assaulted by the flashing red and blue of what must be every law enforcement, firefighting, or ambulatory vehicle in Hawkins. 

You let out a strangled cry as you park your car and jump out, starting towards the water before you see the boys peeking out from behind a fire truck. There’s so much going on, there’s so much happening. Will. Why are they here, how can they be here? Will. You need to get them out of here. 

“Hey!” You shout and they all jump. “You guys need to get out of here, come on— who is this?” There’s another boy with them,  or at least you thought at first, but now you’re pretty sure it’s a little girl with her head buzzed. None of them answer you, all watching your father storm past officers at the quarry. 

You all watch as a small body is pulled out of the water. Your hand flies to your mouth, and you cry. 

“It’s not Will,” Mike says, holding the pole on the back of the truck for support. “It can’t be.” 

You can’t find words to respond to him. Officers pull a stretcher further up the shore, and you would recognize that little red vest anywhere. But Lucas shakes his head, and tears start to fall from his eyes. “It’s Will. It’s really Will.” 

Mike straightens, turning away from the sight. You’re holding Dustin’s shoulders from behind him, as tightly as if you can stop this from happening if you hold on to him like this. 

“Mike…” the girl says, but he slaps her hand away. 

“”Mike”? “Mike,” what?” He shouts. “You were supposed to help us find him alive. You said he was alive!” You’re so confused, so lost, and staring at the water. You don’t know what the hell is going on with these kids, but you know that their best friend is dead on that stretcher, and Mike is distraught, and he’s taking it out on this girl, possibly in the same way you were taking out your anger at Steve on Nicole. “Why did you lie to us?” His voice cracks. “What’s wrong with you!? What is wrong with you?” 

“Mike…” 

“What?” The girl shakes her head, and Mike prods her for an answer with his eyes, before he turns and storms off. 

“Michael!” 

“Mike, come on,” Lucas protests. “Don’t do this, man.” 

“Mike, where are you going? Mike!” Dustin shouts.

But Mike ignores all of you, picking up his bike and getting away as fast as he can.

You don’t know what you’re supposed to do here, left with two of the kids you babysit and some random girl that you think they might have kidnapped from a cancer ward. But you have to pull yourself together. They can’t be here. You can’t be here, but them especially. You think this might be one of the worst places for them to ever be. 

“Come on, guys,” you manage. “Get in the car.” 

Dustin and Lucas nod solemnly, and carry their bikes to your trunk. The girl stands awkwardly back, until you look between her and the boys and gesture for her to hop in. 

The car is silent, except for the few seconds where you ask where you’re supposed to drop this girl off. Some sad whispering and hesitation determines that you should take her to Mike’s, and you do, watching her climb in through the basement window. 

“Okay,” you start, as soon as she’s inside. “I realize that this is one of the worst times for this, but one of you needs to tell me what the hell is going on with her.” 

Dustin and Lucas argue muffledly in the backseat.

“Today,” you drum on the steering wheel. You’re trying to distract yourself—one problem at a time. 

“She has superpowers,” Dustin mumbles, as Lucas says:

“We just found her.” 

You try, and fail, to make sense of their words. 

“Okay…” you look at Dustin in the rearview mirror. “What do you mean, “she has superpowers”?” Lucas gives him a look that you interpret as warning him not to say anything else. 

He talks anyway. “She lifted Mike’s Millenium Falcon with her mind.” Jesus Christ. 

“Dustin, I’m being serious here,” you sigh. “I just want… I just want to help.” 

“I am being serious!” 

You sit in silence, mind reeling. Obviously this is some bit that he and the others have made up, and he’s confused. Surely. But how would you feel if you were bringing something like this to your dad, and he didn’t believe you? But you have no reason to believe him. Superpowers don’t exist. The kid’s best friend has just been found dead in the quarry you’ve all swum in since you were kids, and he’s been reading too much X-Men. 

“He’s not lying,” Lucas says quietly. He’s staring out the window, tears still rolling down his cheeks, but he mumbles at you as you drive. 

“We found her in the woods the night of the storm.” 

“You were out at night in the woods? In a storm!?” You almost crash your car. “Are you guys insane?” 

“We were looking for Will!” 

“That’s not for you to do, Lucas! That’s what the police, and the adults who are volunteering are for! And you certainly shouldn’t have been alone!” 

“Yeah, well, look at what a great job your dad did,” he snaps. 

You purse your lips and stare at the reflected traffic lines ahead of you. 

“I’m not… I’m not saying… Look, you guys just have to be safe, okay? Will isn’t the only kid who’s gone missing.” You realize as you say it that Will’s body doesn’t solve the mystery of Barb’s disappearance. Impossibly, a sliver of hope rises that there’s more to this than meets the eye, but you shove it back down. You’ve just seen Will’s body raised from the water. The water. Barb was by the pool. 

“What?” They ask together. 

“I… forget I said anything,” you rush. 

“Who’s missing?” 

“Friend of Nancy’s.” Dustin rolls his eyes. 

“Who, Steve Harrington?” Lucas scoffs. 

“I— no.” Why would you ever introduce Steve as a friend of Nancy’s? “Barb. Red hair? Nevermind.” 

“What if…” Dustin turns to Lucas. 

“No, dude. He’s dead. Dead!.” Lucas crosses his arms, going back to his position at the window. 

“Okay,” you mutter, and startle the boys as you pull the car over to the side of the road. “You both need to tell me exactly what the fuck is going on here.” 

They do their hesitation and bantering dance again, before the mumbles all rush out, and you can’t make sense of who’s saying what. 

“She’s psychic, or something.” 

“She tried to get naked in Mike’s basement.” 

“She said she could find Will.” 

“She said he’s hiding.” 

“Okay, okay, okay!” Now this is making a little more sense. A skill at guessing what people are thinking, or something, is much more reasonable than telekinesis. And they must have let their minds run a little amok. 

“You find this girl, and she says she knows something about Will?” They nod. “And you don’t take this to the police?” They shuffle uncomfortably. “Chill. I’m not a spy for my dad. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here.” 

“She said bad men were after her.” A chill runs up your spine.

“What do you mean, bad men?” 

Dustin raises his hand, holding it like a gun, and starts to point it at your head. “Dude!” Lucas shouts. “You’re going to freak her out.” He turns to you. “Guns. Basically.”

“Military, maybe?”

“Why would the military care about some kid?” Lucas asks. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know.” You stop to think for a second, but your mind is exhausted. You’re so, so, tired. And the boys must be as well. You’re glad, at least, that you seem to have distracted them from the body for a moment, even if it’s with more of this weird situation. But you need to sleep, and so do they. You tell them so, and they try to protest at first. “I’ll come by in the morning, okay? We can talk more then. Just… radio if you need anything, okay?” 

“Yeah, okay,” Lucas murmurs. Dustin nods in agreement. You drive them back to their houses in silence again. You’ve all resolved to your quiet mourning, but at least in you, something is stirring. Something that wants to get to the bottom of this, to find Barbara if you can’t find Will. And to at least find out, for sure, what happened to him. Hold someone accountable, if there is anyone. In a strange way, you hope there is someone. 

As you drop each boy off, you watch as they walk in through their doors. You know you won’t be making that same mistake again. 

a/n: thank you for reading! as always, all reblogs, shares, comments, asks, etc are so so appreciated! let me know what you think!

taglist (just ask if you'd like to be added!): @thisisourlovestory, @ladygrey03

[sweet-villain]

Rough Patch~  Fruity Four Ft Dustin Henderson 

Anonymous asked:

Love your blog! I was wondering if I could request something angsty and fluffy?

My idea was the reader has depression and she's been doing better for years then she goes into a deep state all of the sudden but she is refusing to slip. The gang can all tell something is wrong but she is refusing to tell them cuz she wants to be "strong".

Maybe Robin is the one who notices she always have tears in her eyes even when she's smiling and laughing and maybe it's Dustin who notices she stares into space all the time again. Eddie and Steve notices she isn't doing her hobbies or enjoying music anymore.

And I was wondering for the fluff how everyone would help her through this tough patch.

If it's too deep I completely understand don't even worry about it especially if you're busy 🖤

Author's Note : I'm never busy for any of you loves. I'm here for you always, my inbox is always opened <3

You sat in the middle of Steve and Robin as everyone talked to each other what movie they wanted to see, arguing that the other wasn't what they wanted, while you stared at the small coffee table in front of you with your arms wrapped around your stomach and you were hunched over staring into nothing.

The words around you were like one big blur. No one has taken noticed yet how you became so quiet. You weren't the usual type to suddenly shut down. They never took note how there was a look of happiness in your eyes and suddenly it wasn't there.

" Hey Y/N!" you heard Dustin call out to you as he sat near the coffee table you have been hopelessly staring at with such interest. You were too busy in your own thoughts with a deep frown on your face to notice the little nudge from Steve as he sat by you. Then there was another nudge, this time it was from Robin from the other side.

Both look at each other with concern on your face. Eddie sat in the chair nearby closer to Steve as called out to you.

" Sweetheart?" you snapped out of your thoughts as your eyes rose to meet his. His brown doe eyes were filled with concern and worry. His eyebrows were knitted together as his eyes searched your face for answers. You weren't giving him any as you stared back with the hallow empty feeling growing inside of you.

" Are you okay? Where did you go?" Dustin asked as he leaned forward in his seat. You shrugged, giving him a soft smile that doesn't seem to reach your eyes. You were convincing enough to show that you were okay, deep inside that was lie. A big lie.

" Just was thinking about something, I'm sorry. I just spaced out" you leaned back into your seat and looking down at your hands. You couldn't help but pick at the skin near your nails, a habit when you felt uneasy. Steve laid his hand on top of yours as his thumb ran across your knuckles.

" If something is bothering you, you know we are here for you?" Steve says as you turn to look at him. His gaze soften when you look over to see him, searching your face to see if there was a crack somewhere. He knows you don't usually express how you feel and it doesn't come easy to you. He knows the walls that you build around yourself.

" I know. Thank you" you sent a gentle smile at him, then looked over to Eddie seeing him nodding his head as if he's telling you what Steve said is true. He was there for you too, even if the two of you haven't known each other far too long. You looked over to Nancy as she munched on popcorn and nodded her head. You looked over to Dustin who leaned on his hand, supporting his head as he send you a gentle smile. You looked over to Mike, El, Will and Jonathan as they all smiled softly at you. El and you weren't too close, but she wanted to get to know you and be there for you.

You looked over lastly at Robin who sat by your side. She wrapped her arm around you, kissing your clothed shoulder.

" You can talk to us, whatever it is. You're our best friend. You can trust us. Okay?" you nodded.

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Robin watches as you giggle, shielding your mouth with your sleeve but it's your eyes that give you away. You were tearing up and when you drop your sleeve from covering your mouth, your mouth is in a thin line. Your eyes lock with hers for a moment, she sees the way your eyes blink more than once trying to hide away your tears.

" What's wrong?" she mouths, asking you. You shook your head side to side telling her you were okay. Robin being Robin doesn't believe it one bit.

Dustin nudged into you as he laughs, his eyes crinkling near his eyes as he shake his head at something that Steve had said. Your shoulder shook too, with a small smile on your face as you giggle inside.

Robin doesn't seem to join the laughter as she motions with her head to the back room of Family Video. Her eyes are filled with concern once again. You silently follow to her to the back with your hands in the pocket of your hoodie.

She turns to you once she knows she's in the clear from everyone else.

" Are you okay?" you nod averting your gaze from her.

" You don't need to hide, you know?" you nod once more.

" It's not good to hold anything in, I'm here for you. Steve is here for you. Eddie is here for you. Dustin is here for you. You're not alone in this" she takes a hold of both your hands in her from the big pocket of your hoodie and swings yours and her arms off the side and back, squeezing as giving you a reassurance that she isn't pushing you to talk to her. But she's is there.

The middle of your eyebrows are in a crease as she watches your eyes filled with tears, fighting an unknown battle inside your head.

" Hey" she leans down with her head as she peers into your eyes. " Don't fight too hard in that pretty head of yours. We need you here. Okay?"

" Thank you" you softly tell her, giving her hands a small squeeze.

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A knock comes to your door startling you from where you stood near the stove with a pan on the stove. The knock on the door happens again, it's three times this time and you know who is knocking on the door.

You don't need to utter a word as you opened the door seeing Dustin standing there. He looks off to the side of the house seeing your shoes everywhere and not in the order they should be, there are specks of dirt on the floor from them. Usually you would clean them up and there weren't anything but lined up nicely by the door. He takes notices the bags underneath your eyes and the way your skin is paler than usual.

He notices the dazed off look on your face and you aren't really there as you should be.

" Can I come in?" he asks. His voice is soft and filled with concern. For the last couple of days, Dustin was taking notes of the way you were smiling and laughing less. The way you weren't paying attention to anything else. The way you were skipping the movie nights and the way you looked like you were off somewhere else.

In his hands he has a couple of comics as you let him through your door. Your parents aren't home as usual, off on a business trip rather than staying home and looking after you.

Dustin looks around at the living room, seeing a few opened snacks on the coffee table. He sees your hoodie on the couch with a blanket that is half on the couch and half on the floor. He notices some dust picking up on the pictures and on the TV.

Usually you were the one for cleanliness and the type to have everything in order. Nothing looked right to Dustin. He hums as he walks into the kitchen seeing the unused pan on the stove, there are dishes in the sink that seem to be piling up. The counter tops look like there are a few spots to what looks like from some sort of sauce.

He turns around to face you once you follow him into the kitchen.

" Everything alright? Are you feeling okay?" he says as he sets the comic books on the other side of the counter near the fridge. There was an unopened box of pop tarts there.

" Yes" you answered, lying through your teeth. You weren't doing so well, barely sleeping and feeling like yourself. You haven't showered in a few days either and nothing look good to eat to you anymore.

You stood with your hip next to the counter as you look down at your curly friend.

He put his hand against your forehead to feel if you were sick and he doesn't find your head hot, he frowns as he over looks what you are wearing. Your shirt is wrinkled and there is a stain on it, your pants are bunched up on one leg while the other is fully down. He sees the miss match socks on your feet and this concerns him.

" I know you haven't been yourself lately Y/N, but you aren't alone in any of this. We miss you. I brought some of these comic books hoping you'll read them and they would help. I want to help Y/N"

Your eyes fill with tears at how much he's trying. Comic books were one of your favorite things you shared in common with Dustin other than being part of the Hellfire club. You have missed a few campaign sittings.

" Eddie misses you. Steve misses you. Nancy misses you. El misses you. Mike misses you, I miss you. We miss our friend"

He lays his hand on top of yours in comfort.

" Whatever it is, you aren't alone in it. I know you hear it before, but there is no need so struggle on your own. You have us"

"I-I" tears run down your cheeks as you don't know what to say but feel arms wrap around you as Dustin holds you in the middle of your kitchen.

▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄

You stepped outside for the first time awhile and squint at the sun beaming down at you as you look around your neighborhood. Your next door neighbor, Mrs. Jacobs waves to you as she is planting some flowers in her front year. Her dog, Ivy is barking at the sight of you and wags her tail as she runs over to you almost knocking you down.

" Hi there" you greet her as you scratch behind her ears, you don't notice that Steve had driven up to the front of the house with Eddie sitting the passenger side. They both get out watching you interact with the dog.

" Nice to see you out and about Y/N" you hear Steve says. You rose your feet as you looked over to him, seeing Eddie too as the both of them walk up to you.

Eddie takes the state your in and his heart pulls string seeing the lack of color on your face.

" Sweets when was the last time you ate?" he asks. You avert your gaze from him to the ground, rather than at him. Steve nudges him telling him that wasn't the right thing to ask even though he's concern too.

" I don't know" you respond. You feel a hand go into yours as fingers lace with yours. You see that familiar yellow long sleeve that belonged to Steve as he gently pulls you to the house.

" I know what we can do" Eddie has a hand on the small of your back as the two of them lead you back into the house. The only sound you hear is the jingle from Eddie's pants and the front door opening as Steve continues to lead you inside.

You end up being in the kitchen where Steve props you up on the counter as he moves some hair away from your eyes.

" There, we can see you better now" a small smile appears on your face as Eddie rummages in the fridge to see what you have. Steve makes his way over to the fridge too, pushing Eddie to the side knowing Eddie doesn't really cook too much.

Your heart swells up at the thought of them taking care of you.

Eddie goes to look into your cabinets and takes out some spaghetti.

" I think she'd like this" Steve looks back over at Eddie and then to you. " You want some spaghetti?"

They didn't really need an answer from you as your stomach gives you away with a growl.

" Sit pretty, sweets and we will take care of you" Eddie says. Steve whispers something to Eddie as Steve start cooking. He has this while Eddie walks towards you and wraps his arms around you.

His brown doe eyes look at you, " How would you feel after you ate, I run you a bath sweets?"

Your eyes fill with tears as you look down at him seeing his caring gaze as he offers you a small shy smile.

" you don't have to" you whisper enough to let him hear you.

" I want too" your heart swells and he reaches up to wipe your tears away, and reaches up on his toes to kiss your forehead. Steve offers you a plate of spaghetti as he sits besides you on the counter watching as you eat. The both of them smile watching you take small bites and it's enough to let them know your trying.

Small circles on your thigh eases you in comfort from the two.

" Thank you" you mumbled through a mouthful of spaghetti. This small action from your friends makes your heart swell up with happiness.

" I'm going to get that bath ready" Steve says as he gets off the counter and makes his way upstairs to your room. Eddie takes the plate from you once your done and leaves it besides the sink. He returns and grabs you and you wrap your arms around him and your legs around him as he carries you to your room.

He moves away to give you some privacy when your hand reaches out to stop him. He glances down with worry.

" I'm right here, sweets" Steve comes back from the bathroom.

" It's all ready for you, pretty"

" We are just going to be downstairs, you take all the time you need. Okay?' Eddie says leaning down and kissing your forehead. You look between the two. They already did some much for you.

" I-I" was all you managed to say, the both of them understood what you wanted to say. " No need pretty, we are always here for you. Right Eddie?"

" Of course sweets, we just miss you"

"...I miss you too.." they leave you to take your bath. While you sit in and think of all small gestures they all done to show how much they care, you never had that in your life until now. Your friends were your rock.

A knock comes to your door, Nancy peeks her head in as she asks if she can come in.

" Yes" she walks in with El trailing behind her. El has a fuzzy towel in your arms along with some clothes. Nancy kneels down before the tub with her hands on it as she looks at you.

" I heard you weren't feeling your best, let me wash your hair for you. El brought you some clothes with the towel you love. It's warm and ready for you"

You look between the two girls as they gently smile at you with their now tears in their eyes. You all had them worried about being distant and it hurts them to see you like this. They want to help and this was a start.

As Nancy took her time to wash your hair, El had sat by the tub as she took your hand in hers and held it.

" You're okay" she kept saying to you. Three small squeezes was her way to tell her she loves you. They all loved and adored you.

When you were done getting dry and getting dressed, you walked out of the bathroom in shock seeing new sheets on your bed. There are fresh set of flowers on your bed side table, the trash is gone in your room and your clothes are folded neatly on the small chair you had.

There was a small teddy bear on the bed with a little strawberry in his hands. You took it in your hands knowing this was from El.

You walked out of the bedroom and made your way downstairs into the living room where they all sat around and waited.

" How are you feeling?" Robin asks as she comes over to you, she knows it's not a question to ask right away and hesitate on wrapping her arms around you.

" Better" you respond. El notices the teddy bear in your arms as she runs over to wrap her arms around you. She has tears in her eyes. You were surprised by her sudden hug, but wrap your arm around her as you lay a kiss on top of her head.

She pulls away as you entered the living room looking around at your friends. There are three pizza boxes on the coffee table, there is your favorite candy on the side too with a bowl of popcorn, there are comic books that Dustin brought, there is a few movies too but more importantly the gentle looks on all your friends faces as they take you in.

" Thank you, thank you all for everything" you say.

[harringtonhurst]

best kept secret / steve harrington

part one here

“They honestly don’t think we’re buying this right?”

Dustin strained his neck turning back, trying to look for where the two of you ran off to. “It’s kinda cute, honestly.” Max shrugged, Robin’s arm clutching hers, eyes glued to the screen even though she had the most objections in horror to begin with. “When you do think they’re gonna tell us?” Asked Lucas. Robin finally shut her eyes away, turning to the conversation, trying to tune out the shrieks and bloodbath.

“Don’t know, I say this week. You know how long I had to listen to him pine? Now that he’s got her, no way Steve’s gonna take not touching her all the time for more than a day.” Robin groaned, but she was eternally happy for her bestfriend. After flings and Nancy and one failed target, endlessly looking for the one, now he’s finally found it. Found you. Her eyes widened and signaled the others to stop their speculations as you came in sight. It became hushed, too quite for any of them, out of character. Your eyebrows knitted as you took your seat.

“What’d I miss? Why’d you guys get so quite when I got here?” Everyone simply scrambled for anybody to say a word, reaching for anybody to quit their hemming and hawing and say something, until everybody looked to Robin. She raised a brow, reluctant, lips curved down and blurting out the first thing in her mind.

“Oh, uh Dustin let one rip.”

Dustin pursed his lips, ultimately accepting the humiliation as you looked to him, puzzled and amused. “Yeah. Too much popcorn.” You stifled a laugh, turning back to the movie.

/

“I wanna tell them.”

Steve turned to you, a mouthful of whipped cream, mildly shaking his head for comprehension. “Really?” He exclaimed, muffled, spitting some for you too. Your tongue brushed your gums, choosing to ignore what had happened as he brushed the residue off your cheek. “Sorry. Really?” He spoke, much clearer now. “Yeah, I do. I think I’m ready.” Steve’s gaze softened, a grin from ear to ear as he placed a short lived kiss on your lips.

“Alright.” He sung, falling into your arms. He pressed his cheek against your shoulder. “How shocked do you think they’ll be?” He looked to you, as you tried to picture each of your friend’s faces when you walk in hand in hand with your now boyfriend in front of them. After all the insults, be it lighthearted you’ve thrown and him and the amount of stupid arguments you had in the worst moments. “I don’t know, but I’m excited. They’re gonna be so surprised.” You laughed. “Yeah, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces.”

/

You inhaled a sharp breathe, glancing for reassurance as Steve brushed his shoulder with yours, tilting his head down. The door creaked as you pushed it open, your friends gathered around a board game only Dustin seemed to be enthused to play. “Hey guys?” Steve’s voice granted the attention to the two of you, standing side by side with an uncontainable, slightly unsettling smile. Robin tilted her head, “Hello, creeps. How may we help you?” She quiped, bringing her hands forward like a welcoming gesture. You turned to him again, signaling for him to take the lead.

“We… have something to tell you guys.” He placed a hand on the small of your back, slightly nudging you forward. The others sat, unamused, awaiting for continuation, for the most part already suspecting what was gonna happen. Seems like Max, Lucas and Mike owed Robin 5 bucks. Steve turned to you, one last look of are you sure, and you answered with a smile. He slipped his fingers into yours, lacing them together as Robin turned to Max, eyebrows raising as an I told you.

“We’re dating.”

The room fell silent just as it did before, the two of you looked to one another, confusion sinking in. Lucas sighed, rustling in his pocket and reluctantly handing a five in Robin’s extended hand. “Why aren’t you guys saying anything?” You finally say, Steve’s grip tightening in your hand. “Cause we already knew, lovebirds.” Nancy laughed, shaking her head. Steve’s eyes widened, “What? How? We didn’t—huh?”

“Dingus, your constant oogling made it so obvious.” Robin looked around the room, earning hums and nods in agreement. “Seriously?” Your frown and confusion broke into a smile, slightly disappointed there was no surprise. But in a way this was quite a nice reaction. They received the news like you and Steve just quoted an obvious weather forecast of some sort. You rolled your eyes, dragging him with you to join the others. “It was easy for me to spot when his pining look to you turned to blissful heart-eyes.” Robin shrugged as Steve pushed her shoulder.

“Wait, how long has he had a thing for me?” You took Robin’s hand and her eagerness to tell you lit up.

“Oh, let me tell yo—“

“Robin!” Steve interjected and you grinned as Robin continued to ramble on. Sure, you had wanted some sort of reaction from them, shock or fainting or questions or whatever, but in a way this was just as fulfilling, even better in some way, they accepted and teased the two of you and turns out they were sharper than the two of you anticipated.

Or, Steve was simply that horrible in hiding how he felt about you.

[starynightcreator]

It's Not All Bad

Chapters: 7-8

Characters included: Eddie Munson, Nancy Wheeler, and Steve Harington

Word Count: 4,887

No use of Y/N

18+! May be triggering to some!

Contains: Fluff, Angst, Kissing, Shy/ Anxious Reader, Sweet/Protective Eddie, Jealousy, Cursing, Alcohol use, Yelling, Heartbreak, Betrayal, & Friends To Lovers.

Summary: After a betrayal from your best friend and boyfriend, you find comfort in the arms of eddie.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. This is my first story and I'm a little nervous.

!Must give credit when re-sharing/ sharing. Don't take credit please and thank you!

PART SEVEN:

“They never deserved someone like you in their lives and karma will kick them in the ass so hard they won't be able to sit for years. I’m sorry they did this to you, they are awful people. Wait, if you hate parties then why’d you invite me to this one?”

“You’re sweet Edd’s, you always are to me. Also thank you for that, you are always being so kind to me, honest, real, and what not..Haha well they definitely deserve it. Oh Umm. Because I wanted to spend time with you.”“ Don’t thank me Star, I'd do anything for you and I mean it. Star you didn’t have to go to a party to spend time with me. I would have come over here for a movie night or done something you enjoyed too.” “Well it’s probably good we went anyways. Even if I got hurt. I needed to find out at some point right? Besides parties aren't all bad there is music, it’s dark enough people don’t pay attention to you jamming out, and it’s fun if you got someone there you know. Wait, you would have?”“I guess you are right. Yeah that’s true, well we can jam out here if you want I don’t plan on leaving. Of course I would have.” You thought for a minute and remembered you installed color changing light bulbs and you had a few funky light things. “Okay but i’ll be right back.”“Okay i’ll be here.” You then come back smiling with a small box. “I got the goods!”“Is that so?” You then start taking things out of the box and plugging them in throughout the room. “Yes. FUNKY LIGHTS!” You then dim the lights and switch the lights to where they change colors with the beat of the music. “Wow, fancy setup you got here.”“Thank you.” You then hand your phone to Edds to pick the first song. “Hmmm let see.Let’s go with this one.” He had picked the one he caught you jamming to earlier but stopped when you got caught (Talking In Your Sleep by The Romantics) “You did not just do that.” “Do what?? I just started a song.” You were gonna say more but you'd rather just jam. So you’ll just sass him later. “Fineee. Turn it up then pretty boy.” The next song was your turn to pick and you picked Just Dance by Lady GaGa, Colby O’Donis. You started to forget you weren’t alone and you just started having so much fun. At one point Eddie just stepped back and looked at you as if you were the only thing he ever wanted to look at again. You eventually turn around and notice which made you blush. You’ve never seen that look on his face before. Sure you caught him staring before but you couldn’t really pin why tho. So you went to your phone to pick another song (Song now playing was So Sweet I Could Die by Lucia & The Best Boys) as Eddie seemed to zoned out. But all of the sudden. “Star?” “Eddie?” You turn around smiling thinking he was going to point out it was his turn but instead. “Can I be honest with you?” “Always.”“I know this may not be the best time to say it but I don’t know when it will. Smack me if you must but I'm going to do it anyway.”“Ok Edds and i’ll listen.”“I like you Star yes as a friend but I also like you more than that. I want to be able to call you my girlfriend…My Star. You are my world and you deserve more than the world. You don’t deserve to be treated like trash ever.” Eddie started to walk up to you until he was just close enough where you would have to look up a bit, but he still didn't get in your face. You were looking down tho due to nerves but Eddie wasn’t going to settle for the top of your head this time. So he grabbed your chin and gently guided your face to look back at his. Which is where he saw your red cheeks. Which made him smirk almost instantly. “Star? Are you blushing at what I just told you?” You swat his hand away and look to the side doing everything to avoid eye contact. “No. It’s just the lighting.”“Oh Star, you've never been good at lying just tell me.” You thought for a moment and you thought why hide it anymore your single and have no intentions on getting back together. You had fallen for Eddie pretty much since you met him. So why keep hiding how you truly feel. So you look down but at Eddie's hands and you just go before you back out…

[nykie-love-anime]

Cheating

Y/N: - looking at her friends while they are in the cafeteria busy eating - Y/N: I love cheating Y/N: If you don't cheat then what the hell is wrong with you Eddie: - nods his head agreeing - Nancy: Have you ever been cheated on? Y/N: Right I forgot some people are in relationships Eddie: - giggling like a school girl at his best friend - Nancy, Robin, Steve: - shaking their heads - Y/N: What I meant was I love to violate academic integrity on exams

Source: fandsart

Masterlist

[thewritersaddictions]

First Kiss: Nancy Wheeler- TextBooks

Pairing: Nancy Wheeler x Fem!Reader

Pov: Reader

Warnings: Fluff, study session, studying, friends to lovers trope, slight teasing, LGBTQ+.

Summary: Nancy can’t help but love the way your nose scrunchies up when you can’t get a topic.

A/n- firefly-graphics for dividers

WC- 1.9k

Stranger Things Master List // The Adults Master List // Series Master List // First Kiss Master List

“Y/n’s here” I heard Mrs.Wheeler shoutout from where we stood at the front door. The door stayed wide as Mrs.Wheeler stood there waiting for her daughter to come down the stairs. “So, you guys are gonna work on some school stuff?” Mrs.Wheeler asked. Her hair is pulled up into a high ponytail. My backpack is slung around only one of my shoulders and the weight is pulling down my shoulders. “Just working on some projects, Mrs.Wheeler,” I say wanting this uncomfortable conversation to end before it can even start. 

“Well, you know what the kids say nowadays…” Mrs.Wheeler says, but her sentence is cut short when Nancy comes running down the stairs. “Alright Mom, thanks for whatever you were doing. The two of us are gonna go upstairs now.” Nancy said pulling me into the house by my wrist and dragging me up the stairs.

She shuts her door after nearly throwing me into the room. “Shit, Nancy. What’s with all the throwing and dragging me around for?” I ask trying to catch my breath as I drop my bookbag onto her floor. 

She giggles but turns around with a smile on her face. “Just didn’t want my mom being weird like she always is,” Nancy commented, before reaching into her own bookbag and grabbing any school book material she could.

She pulled out the many textbooks and all other sorts of pages and books that were stuffed into her bag. Laying them all out on her bed, I stood by her bed with my own books in my hands. I didn’t want to invade her space, so I moved to sit on her window bench. It had a few throw pillows from her bed and a throw blanket on it. 

I had watched her in class, and let’s be honest with each other. I knew that Nancy was ten times smarter than me, and so with us being friends, I had if she would tutor me. Just to help me get a little further in the class not like I was falling behind or anything, but I sure could be doing better. I asked, and of course, Nancy was more than willing to help. 

I remember asking her in lunch. She was sitting down with Robin swirling food around in her Tupperware container. “Hey, Nancy do you think that you can help me study for our upcoming science test? I’m just not understanding the topic.” I said, exposing myself to be rejected but there was a happy lopsided smile on her face along with Robins. Almost like Robin had just known that I was going to ask. “Sure of course I can help ya, Y/n.” She said with a wink and I walked around with a happy smile on my face, and as I walked away I heard Robin say. 

“I told you if you didn’t make a move she was gonna do it sooner or later. You can’t just be walkin’ around and teasing the shit out of her without her noticing.” Robin said, but I didn’t hear anything that Nancy said. So, I waited until the day I drove down to Nancy’s house. 

I was still standing caught up in my thoughts and my head. “Y/n? Are you alright?” She asked. I shook my head leaving my trance, “Yeah I’m fine. I just..” I went to sit down on the window bench. “Hey, wait don’t you want to sit down next to me?” Nancy asked, patting the bedside. I mumbled a small “yeah” I could feel the blush cross against my face and kept my face looking downwards as I made my way towards her bedside. “Just take off your shoes, sweetheart,” Nancy said. I shuttered at her words and stubbed my shoes off with my toes.

My socks slid a bit down as I climbed up onto her soft and cozy bed. “Are you comfortable?” Nancy asked, she was looking at me with such contentment in her eyes. I shook my head, not really knowing what to say. I could hear her younger brother from the other side of the door. “Is he always that loud?” I asked, not even answering her question. She scoffed and rolled her eyes before getting up and opening her bedroom door screaming in the large house for her brother Mike to shut up. 

When she turned around she asked the same question again. “Yeah, your room is pretty.” I commented like a fucking idiot. I was so stupid, she probably didn’t care that I noticed how pretty her room was. “Oh well thank you. I decorated myself.” Nancy said proudly, as she came back to her bed. 

“So what was it that you needed help with Y/n?” Nancy asked me. I flipped through my papers, quizzes we had taken before the end of the last week. I had taken the time and grathereed all my materials before ending over to Nancys house wanting to be prepared. I brought out my quizzes less afraid of showing off my horrible scores to Nancy. “Look normally I get a great grade on most of my quizzes and struggled through the tests that Mr.Hansen gives us, but this time most of my quizzes back looking like shit. All of his stupid little red circles around most of the numbers.” I said in a frustrated huff. 

Nancy touched my shoulder gently before she took the papers from my hands and gave them a short look over. Before she rolled her eyes and laughed a little, “Mr. Hansen got half of these circles wrong. You see here.” Nancy said looking over at me, dragging my attention to her nicely pampered nails. Painted over with pretty pink shellac.

“Okay,” I said before watching as Nancy moved her fingers all over the paper telling me that only half of the ones that Mr.Hensen circled were actually wrong. “And it seems to me that the ones that are actually wrong, are wrong on both quizzes we took so that narrow do what we have to study for,” Nancy said with a beautiful smile plastered on her face. 

Like an idiot all I said was “oh”. Was I sad that maybe todays study session would run short and I wouldn’t get to spend the time with Nancy that I wanted. All I wanted was to tell Nancy about my feelings, and all my brain was able to think about was hearing Robin at lunch nearly a week ago. What was Robin talking about? I wondered just how blind I might be towards Nancy’s advancements. 

“Y/n? You still here with me?” Nancy asked her hand resting on my criss crossed thighs. I looked down and back up at her. “I’m fine, just wanted to get to work.” I said sharply. Reaching into my own bookbag from over the edge of the bed to grab a pencil, and highlighter. “Alright why don’t we just work on the vocab, for right now. I’ve got flashcards for us to use.” 

We worked this for a while. Nancy would name off a vocabulary word, and I sit there scrunched up next to her as I guess the words definition. Some where good, I would get it right away, and on others I was stuck. But instead of being mean about not being able to get it, Nancy would sit there with the prettiest smile on her face and encourage me to look through my notes, quizzes, and any other thing I had resting infront of me. 

An hour later when I was finally able to get through all her flashcards did we move on. “What about if I write down the word, then maybe you write down the definition,” Nancy suggested. “Sure we can do that,” I said softly into my shoulder. For an hour I listened to her speak. Voice smooth and soft, a voice you would use with a newborn baby. It was so calming that I hadn’t even noticed how fast time had gone by. “Here you go, sweetheart.” She said, handing me a piece of paper.

In her persistent and cursive handwriting was written every single word that we had just worked through. "Write the definition and we will see how many you get right. Maybe I’ll even a surprised if you’re okay with that.” My brows furrowed down at her comment but my brain was already working to give me the answers. I worked and wrote down in cursive a little sloppier than Nancy’s definition. As I worked my nose crunched up, and I was getting more and more trusted by the ability of not being able to understand the words or their meaning. 

When I handed back the paper our fingers brushed and it shot a tingle up my back. “Alright let’s see how good you did sweetheart.” Nancy said, as she glided her finger down the side of the paper. Looking through her own flashcards she marked every single one. I thought I had done good, but the marks that Nancy were making where on single number. “Alright here you go, Y/n. I’d say that you did perfectly.” She said. With shock I looked down at the paper. Every single mark was a green check mark, all of them had been right. 

I turned out of instinct. “Do I still get my surprise?” I asked, not as timid like before. She a smile on her face, turned and looked over at me. “Only if you say yes.” Confused I conunited to look at Nancy. “Would you be okay with me kissing you? Just a soft little kiss on your lips?” She said her hand raising up to my lips and a finger brushing down my top and bottom lip. I swallowed hard. My heart beating faster and faster then I think it had ever beat before. 

I shook my head, but then said, “Only if you’re okay with it Nance.” she smiled once more before leaning in close to my lips. “Of course I’m okay with it silly.” She said. Once her lips press into mine I can’t help but stop breathing. My eyes close half lidded by the buzzing feeling I was getting all over my body. Nancy was so gentle with me, her hand coming up to cup my cheek. I had never felt so much happier then right then in that moment. With Nancy pressed up into me, her hands keeping me close to her as we kissed until we were out of breath. 

When we finally broke away from each other. There was a slight layer of blush brushed over Nancy's cheeks, and the tips of her ears were bright red. I could feel my own skin burning, but I didn’t care. “How was that for a first kiss?” Nancy asked. I smirked, “How about how was that for a first kiss?” I asked changing her question only a little. She smirked back at me, “Your first huh? I’m your first kiss Y/n?” Nancy asked. I shook my head and reached over the pile of papers and writing utensils. Kissing her back for the first time. I moaned into the kiss and kept my hands above her head. Nancy moaned into the kiss, her hands wrapping around my waist, and when we broke away for the second time. We battled for the small space between the two of us. “You’ve got the best-tasting lips!” Nancy said, with a suggestive wink, “Well you’ve got the most kissable lips.” I said giggling.

Completed on: 02/07/23

Posted on: 02/08/23

The Adults- @yourfavdummy

[unamused-boss]

California Dreaming pt3

Billy Hargrove x Reader

Last part! Warning: Kinda short, but I still hope you love it!

Summary: Max and Billy could only agree on one thing in common.... and that was you. You were their neighbor when the lived in California and Billy had the biggest crush on you. Plus it helped that you babysat, more like hangout with, Max. You were his California dream. And sometimes dreams come true.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You couldn't stand the time you had away from Billy. Your best friend and boyfriend were gone all in one on the same day. You've been writing to Billy which is a plus. Turns out he joined the basketball team. He's been to every party thrown in town, but he says they're all a bust. Met a guy named Munson that gets him weed, but Billy quotes "It's nothing like the shit in Cali...". You can't help but laugh at his sarcastic tones through the letters.

You know he misses it here. He tells you in every letter the love that he holds for you, that nothing will change. He admitted to going on some dates with girl to get you off his mind. He felt guilty, he wanted your forgiveness even though you told him to try an move on to at least have fun. Billy said ,once again, in his letter that he wants no one else but you. Your eyes were something he missed most of all. He said that you had a light in them that he felt only he saw. You always giggled when it came to the gushy stuff in his letters. Billy was a flirt with girls but he was a romantic with you.

Since graduating high school early you've had a lot of time on your hands. You were still gonna walk at graduation, you just weren't going to do anything else. Cause by god you are getting that dumb piece of paper in front of everyone. It was a couple of days before the week up spring break but for you it was a regular working Wednesday. You currently work at some clothing store in the mall and oh so excitedly deal with mother's trying to get some sort of deal out of you.

The time was 5:00pm you are now pulling into your driveway of your house for the night. Happy that your got off early you notice your parents aren't home yet. You make your way down to the mailbox to check for anything. Which you find a bunch of letters piled onto one another. You begin to sift through it.

"Bill, Bill, Coupon, post card from Aunt Shelly, Bill...y." You stop at, what you thought was another bill but was actually, a letter from Billy. You rush up to your front door to be able to read the letter. Throwing everything onto the kitchen table an make your way to your room. You bounce on your bed at tear open the letter...

Hello Y/N, I hope you are happy with what you're doing. I just read your letter. God I wish I could graduate early to get this shit hole. Anyways, Max is doing good. She still with those little balls of snot for friends. Hopefully you wrote her, so she can stop asking me to check the mail for your letters. I miss you very much. Spring break is about to start, since the public pool opened I got a job there. Hopefully I can get enough money to be able to come an see you and to stay with you. You probably already know me, I'm not really good at this writing shit. But if it's for you, I'll do it. I love you, -Billy

You smiled down at the words on the paper.

"I love you too." You said down to the paper. That feeling came back again. The feeling of wanting to see him. You can't help it, you miss him so much. You go over to your landline in the kitchen to lunch in a number you have memorized by heart now.

"Santa Monica airport, what can I help you with today?" The droned out employee said.

"Hey, I wanna know if you have any direct flights to Hawkins Indiana?"

"Hold on, let me check..." You hear a faint typing for a few seconds.

"Anything?" You question.

"None to Hawkins but we have one to Indianapolis flying out this Friday at 5:00am." They said.

"Perfect!" You shouted. "How much?"

"That will be a hundred an thirty dollars..."

"I've got that!" You race around to your purse to fish out your debit card to pay for the ticket. You give them the info to send the ticket via email for you to print out. It would be thirty more dollar but you didn't care.

"Alright, thank you choosing Santa Monica airlines tod-." You didn't even let them finish. You hung up the phone right away to go pack an call off work for the next week or so. You couldn't stop giggling the whole time. Seeing Billy and Max is going to be the best thing to happen to you in the past few months. Then you hear your front door open and shut. Then you realized something...

"Hey mom, I gotta tell you something!" You shouted running out of your room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were honestly shitting your pants the whole way to Hawkins from Santa Monica. You currently stand outside of Hawkins High School waiting for Billy. You slept during your flight over at 5 am but once you were on the ground you couldn't hold still. Your stuff is at the motel just outside of town for the next week.

You passionately waited for Billy to walk out of the school. You could see his car from a mile away. Plus with is reputation it wasn't hard to find out about him. You turned your wrist to look at your watch, 3:15 it read. the bell rang and school was out for spring break. Students passed by you, giving you weird looks.

"Who is that?" "Does Billy know them?" "Probably a desperate Ex." Were some of the things that were thrown around you. As if you couldn't hear the. 'Geez do these people know how to shut up...'

"Billy. Who's that?" An oddly pitchy voice said breaking you out of your thoughts.

Billy ripped his head around to you. You being the last person he would see by his car. The girl he, once had his arm around, was with was now forgotten. Billy thought he was gonna vomit at the sight of you.

"Shit.." You mutter.

"Holy fuck..." He said.

"Billy who is this?" The girl said once again getting annoyed. Billy turned back to her.

"Why are you still here?" He questioned. The girl now looked perplexed. She thought Billy was gonna take her out but now he wants nothing to do with her. Before she could say anything Billy spoke, "Go the hell away. Ya stupid cow..." He muttered the last part.

Billy walked up to you, star struck. He now had you trapped between him and the car with his hands on your hips. Holding you gently. You were smiling up at him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I wanted to see you." you said. "Is that so bad?" You teased him. When you both could call one another you would constantly tease him over the phone.

"No!" He answered quickly. "It's actually great, cause I was loosing my damn mind being away from you." You giggled at him. He his lips down to your temple, kissing you gently. To the students around you it was shocking to see Billy Hargrove be gentle with anybody. But to you this was your Billy.

"Y/N!!" A familiar voice shouted out to you. You turned to her direction to see Max running full speed to you. You part from Billy momentarily to hug Max.

"Hey MadMax!" You exclaimed. Even though Billy thought Max was a pain in the ass most of the time; he loved seeing you two together. He was happy that she got to see you.

"How long are you here for?" She questioned.

"I'm here for all of spring break." You smiled. They both looked at you dumb founded. You were gonna be with them for a week.

"Yes!" Billy said excitedly, pulling you into a hug. You laughed as he squeezed you.

"How about we go on a date tonight?" You asked him.

"Hell yeah!" He shouted. Crashing his lips onto yours. Desperation and love pouring into the moment. He missed your lips. How soft they were and smooth. He missed you so much.

"ew..." It was faint but you both knew it was from Max.

"Get in the car shit bird." Billy said.

"Hey be nice." You sternly said, mighty sapping his arm. He huffed at you, looking at you with soft eyes. The eye you fell in love with.

"Let's take Max home and we can go on our , much needed, date."

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Billy smiled.And that's how it went for the next week. You spent your time with Billy and Max, well more so Billy. Billy held you so close not wanting to let you go when you both cuddled. You met Max's friends and some more people around Hawkins with your small time there. You had some sleepovers with Max, trying to make up for lost time. Neil wouldn't do anything while you where here in town, so that meant a safe environment for Max and Billy even though it was for a week. You found the town cute, but you prefer Santa Monica.

Most of all, you and Billy got time alone. To be with each other in each others arms. Going on cute dates, walks, drives, everything. You became the envy of the town. The one that swooped Billy Hargrove off hid feet the spring break of 85'. He wouldn't have it any other way though. He would stay in this shithole town if it meant being with you.

When it came time for you to go home, it was full of tears and heart felt kisses. You didn't want to leave them again but you had to.

"Once I graduate I'll be back, I promise." You said.

When it came time for you to go home, it was full of tears and heart felt kisses. You didn't want to leave them again but you had to. 

"Once I graduate I'll be back, I promise." You said.

That promise was made two months ago. In those two months you also visited Billy three more times over the summer. In your last visit you brought him back home with you. To California. You got him far away from his pain. 

You both have an apartment near the beach, like you both wanted. You stared college; while Billy started work at a car restoration shop. Billy could surf everyday while you laid in the sun. You both loved each other even more with every day that passed.

A California dream come true.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know its a cheesy ending but I hope you like it.

@capitanostella

@maackiimoo

@mystargirl-interlude

[lilacliquors]

Could I please request being childhood friends with Nancy Wheeler headcanons??

as kids, you and nancy were practically inseparable. joined at the hip, essentially sisters, forever partners in crime

you two enjoyed playing all sorts of games together, like house and school, but also enjoyed playing with dolls

as you grew up, you stayed close, having similar music taste, but even where you differed, you still found ways to share common interests

you two always sat together in the cafeteria when it was lunch time. even if you were in separate classes, one of you would always sneak over to the other's table

you often bonded over annoying younger siblings, too. it was just one of those universal things you could agree on

[starynightcreator]

It’s Not All Bad

Chapters: 1-8

Characters included: Eddie Munson, Nancy Wheeler, and Steve Harington

Word Count:4,861

No use of Y/N

18+! May be triggering to some!

Contains: Fluff, Angst, Kissing, Shy/Anxious Reader, Sweet/Protective Eddie, Jealousy, Cursing, Alcohol use, Yelling, Heartbreak, Betrayal, & Friends To Lovers.

Summary: After a betrayal from your best friend and boyfriend, you find comfort in the arms of eddie.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. This is my first story and I'm a little nervous.

!Must give credit when re-sharing/sharing. Don’t take credit please and thank you!

This last month has been so strange. Your almost-year-long boyfriend, Steve, and long time best friend, Nancy had been acting so differently towards you. You thought you had done something wrong. It started to get to you, and of course Eddie picked up on your sad attitude today as you barely acknowledged him in any way. That wasn’t like you. You always smiled, laughed, talked, and etc with him even when you looked/felt like death. It was confirmed when you didn’t answer him by his little nickname he gave you and always called you (Star. But he has yet to say why he chose it). “STAR!” You can hear it but it’s almost like it didn’t feel real. You were just too sad to fully process your surroundings or care that you honestly didn’t even know how you got to school or if you’d stay for the full day. “STAR!” You hear it again but this time closer but again you don’t do anything but just sit there and stare at your shoes (black boots with white tie dye laces). Next thing you know you feel hands on your shoulders but they don’t scare you as you know it’s Eddie due to his cold rings. “Star..” You hear more softly now but this time you are actually listening. But instead of speaking you just lean back and look up. It’s very clear you had been crying and that you were sad. Eddie thought "Where the hell was Steve and why were you sad…”"Star, do you wanna talk about what's wrong?” You looked back down. “We don-”“We can but could you sit down you giant. I’ma need a neck brace if I gotta keep looking up.”“You are so dramatic but sure I guess I could sit.”“So what’s going on?”“Steve and Nancy have been acting so differently towards me all month and I guess all my feelings about it just came out today…I mean like what did I do wrong? Do they hate me or something?” Just as Eddie was going to speak they both walked up. *Steve Rudely Addresses Eddie “Eddie I see you didn’t hesitate to sit next to MY Girlfriend while I wasn’t here.”“Babe Eddie and I are friends and he, unlike you, could see I was upset.” “You’re upset?” *Nancy gives Steve a dirty look “I think a toddler could tell she was sad Steve are you that blind?” There was silence for a moment before you threw your hands in the air with anger “Ugh I can’t do this today.”(You then storm out pushing past Steve). As you storm out Eddie just looks at Steve and Nancy with such anger. He may not be the brightest but he sure isn't stupid either. He can see what is going on and nothing angers him more than someone hurting his Star. *Eddie then speaks to them angrily “Some boyfriend you are and you're supposed to be her best friend. You think you two are slick. I know what’s going on and you two are awful!” Eddie wanted to say more, do more. But helping you right now was more important. “ Star, wait up!” As Eddie runs to catch up Steve yells out to Eddie. “STOP CALLING HER THAT!!!” (Steve tried calling you Star once before and you put a stop to that so quickly. Even you were shocked at your defense. But hey he never tried to say it again. But he constantly tries to get Eddie to stop. Basically following the whole if I can’t you can’t crud). “We should say something Steve…” “Yeah Nancy like what? Hey babe me and Nancy have been seeing each other behind your back for the past month.”“Well wouldn’t it be better for us to tell her. Then someone else or her to walk in seeing us kiss.”“ It will be fine Nancy now, let's go.” Eddie couldn't find you anywhere in the school. He even checked all your little secret places you liked to go to get away during free periods or lunch. But nothing, you were…gone. so as a last ditch effort he thought outside of the box and went to his van where he then heard music quietly playing. You didn’t wanna deal with anyone. Eddie though was the only exception. So you remembered he told you the one door on the van was always unlocked, “but only for Star” his words of course. Next thing you knew you heard a knock that scared the daylights out of you and of course you didn’t wanna answer but before you made a full decision you heard. “Star it’s me, may I come in?”

[sadieshairbrush]

Stranger Things: Clementine

Summary: Clementines friends ain’t shit, and Steve is lowkey an asshole. This one is a struggle, the kids are facing some major heartbreak. Clem finds herself putting some distance between her friends and herself.

Chapter 3: Holly Jolly

Who would have believed, even a couple of days ago, that I’d be doomed to spend an eternity in a 12 year olds basement? Who would have believed that I’d assist said 12 year old and all his friends into certain mortal danger? Willingly.

I wouldn’t have.

“I can’t believe she’s still down here,” I spoke. If the government are after her, isn’t that all the more reason to stay away? Instead, she’s tucked away in her fort.

I expressed this feeling, but was only met with Mikes famous glare.

“I’m just saying, we don’t know what kind of danger she poses. And what if keeping her here is doing her more trouble than sending her back would?”

“We can’t do that!”

“We have a child whose parents, or guardians or whatever –– the Government –– are probably searching for at this minute!”

I’d heard all sorts of nonsense since setting foot down here this morning. The craziest of which was that this kid knows where Will is, and that she has powers.

“We don’t know it has anything to do with the Government,” he argued with a sharp tone. “You never wanted to help us from the beginning.”

After all the manipulation to get what he wants, after all the lies I told to keep the shithead safe, after all the times I bit my tongue to spare his stupid little baby feelings.

Now it was my turn to glare.

“Listen, you moron. If I wanted to leave you to figure this out yourself, I would have. I’d have done it long before now, and I still could. You think I’m scared of being caught sneaking out? Think again. If I open my mouth, it’s your asses, I’ve been grounded for worse,” I warn with a prompt pop of the lid off the Vicodin I’d been clutching. This is the last thing I needed on top of this hangover.

“Clementine’s right,” said Lucas, finally coming to my aid. He was willing to defend Mike to the death before this kid with a number for a name came into the picture. “But the fact remains, if she can help find where Will is we gotta do it.”

“Except she’s not a magician!”

Sure I’d been fed some bullshit about how she can do some party tricks, and even then I don’t believe it. But now we’re talking about using the kid to find Will.

“Trust me, Clementine!”

I look at Mike whose eyes are suddenly pleading. He’d gotten his own spoilt way entirely too many times in the past couple of days. And I suppose I should put a stop to it. Maybe just not today.

“Shit, what’s the plan?”

With a new grin, he flattens his board game on the tables surface. “Us three can say we’ve got D&D after school. Your dad thinks you walk us home, then get picked up by my sisters new, ugly boyfriend ––“

“Affirmative.”

“–– so we each have an alibi that’ll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood.”

And it has a name, of course. This could only mean this has been floating around in his head a lot longer than he’d dare to admit to me.

“You seriously think that the weirdo knows where Will is?” Lucas tries, but Mike cuts in before giving himself a chance to explore this idea.

“Just trust me on this, okay? Did you get the supplies?”

“Yeah.” Lucas turns to fish from his open backpack at his feet. A pair of binoculars, army knife… from ‘Nam. A hammer, camo bandana… and the wrist rocket.

“Does your dad know you take his shit from his military days? I don’t want you with a knife on you.”

His cheesy smile drops suddenly, and he’s pulling his supplies closer to him protectively. “Obviously, he does.”

The Sinclaires have always been the smiley, friendly neighbours with the white picket fence. Nothing about that family screams “we let our son take our weapons!” So he can’t exactly blame me for the expression I pull.

“Forget that!” Dustin cries, leaning over the table. “You think you’re gonna take out the Demogorgon with a slingshot?”

Glad to know I had someone on my side, I find myself nodding along to Lucas who insists the creature isn’t real. I mean, come on, everything including its name is straight from a D&D manual. Literally.

“But if there is something out there, I’m gonna shoot it in the eye… and blind it!”

The motion of the slingshot makes me jump, and I push his hand down with an approving nod. “I like that. Did anyone else bring supplies?”

Dustin is ready for his time to shine.

But when he pours a tonne of snacks from his backpack I can’t tell if I’m disappointed or amused. All I know is that I’m getting my hands on one of those nutty bars one way or another.

“We need energy for our travels! For stamina,” Dustin explains when he’s met with disapproving looks from the boys.

“And besides, why do we even need weapon anyway? We have her.”

I feel bad when I spare a glance at the girl, curled up on the couch with Mikes walkie-talkie in her hand. She looks up at Lucas’ loud voice.

“She shut one door!”

“With her mind!”

“That didn’t happen!” I butt in, folding my arms over my chest. “She’s just a lost kid, not some magical being who closes doors with her mind.”

“She can!” Dustin answers back. “How couldn’t you believe us?”

I’m a little stuck for an answer here. Would any of them believe me if I came to them with a story that could easily be debunked by a breeze from an open window?

“I- Well, I don’t know, it’s just stupid.”

On a mission, Dustin springs into action, determined to prove me wrong. I preferred it when I barely knew this kid.

He darts around for a moment, digging out some stupid spaceship toy of Mikes before holding it out to Eleven.

“Concentrate, okay?”

He releases it, and it falls to the ground with a light clatter. But he doesn’t give up that easy.

Much the his friends’ dismay, he tries once more only to be met with the same result.

I can’t help the “told you so” expression that I pull as Mike scoops up the toy.

“She’s not a dog.”

“Clementine!” Karen’s voice comes, snapping us into action, packing Lucas’ ‘Nam weapons back into his bag. “Time for the boys to leave!”

“Yeah, coming! C’Mon, I’ll end up late.”

I ushered the boys along and, as always, Lucas and Dustin are racing up the stairs before Mike has made a move to leave at all.

“Stay down here. Don’t make any noise, and don’t leave,” he whispers, kneeling in front of Eleven. I watch from the bottom of the stairs, anxious of raising any suspicions with his mother. I hadn’t known her long, and I hadn’t known her well. The trust I had with her wasn’t unbreakable.

“If you get hungry, eat Dustin’s snacks, okay?”

Against our agreement, he instructs Eleven to meet us behind his house at 3:15, and gives her his watch. When he runs back to me, I lightly hit the back of his head, growling into his ear.

“You just tell me where to go now?”

He pushes me away, and runs ahead of me. Before I can bring myself to leave, I spare a quick glance over my shoulder at the girl who sits there, analysing the watch on her wrist with great interest. She’s so weird… and I really, really want to understand why…

I arrived late for school that morning, apologising on my arrival. When I’d explained I got the kids I babysit through the door of their middle school before coming in, I was given an understanding nod.

“Given the circumstances, I can let it pass. Take your seat.”

And I took it next to Tommy who looked at me with wide eyes, and a million unvoiced questions.

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what? You just disappeared on us last night,” he complained, leaning his elbows on his desk as the usual chattering picked up around the room. “Steve’s pissed.”

“Well, he can get unpissed,” I bit, shrugging out of my jacket and flinging my bag at my feet. “I didn’t feel right, and I got Barbara to tell you.”

“Well, she didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to stick around after Steve took Nancy up to his room.”

“So they did it, eh?”

The thought of Barbara leaving early didn’t sit right in my mind. She wouldn’t leave Nancy without a ride unless she decided to stay over.

“I feel kinda bad.”

“If she wanted to stay, she could’ve, alright? Me and Carol stayed down stairs but she decided to stay outside. Then I guess she just left.”

As expected, Steve wasn’t too happy to see me.

We sat together at lunch, Tommy greeting Carol with a sloppy kiss before he plopped down next to her.

Recovering from her love-sick laughter, she turned to me with a near evil look of teasing.

“Well, well, well, look who actually showed up.”

“Oh my God, I leave early from one party and I don’t hear the end of it,” I huffed, exasperated.

Even if they had any idea of what was going on, I can’t help feeling that what happened isn’t a crazy big deal anyway. “I told Barb to tell you.”

“Well, she didn’t,” Carol said, itching her ankle.

“What’s wrong with you?” Steve speaks, playing with his food.

“I think I’m, like, dying or something.”

As if forgetting he was mad at me, Steve shares a look with me. Carol has always been the biggest hypochondriac on the face of planet Earth, so we were accustomed to being subjected to the same old spiel every time she coughed.

“It’s a bug bite,” I told, shovelling some of my fries into my mouth.

“No, it’s all red.”

“It’s a bug bite.”

“It bled a little.”

“Because you’re scratching the bug bite.”

With a loud sigh, she scoots her seat back, and props her foot onto the table as if to display the evidence that I was wrong.

“Science says otherwise.”

“See,” Tommy starts, leaving his plastic spoon in his mouth as he assesses her exposed ankle as if we weren’t all trying to eat lunch. “How could a doctor even look at that and know what it is? That’s why science doesn’t make any damn sense to me.”

“No, I swear. Look at this, it’s totally frostbite!”

I can’t help but to scrunch my nose, whacking her foot with my hand.

“That’s disgusting, I’m trying to eat, you wench.”

As Nancy approaches, I move up to give her the chair between Steve and I. But she seems like she’s miles from us, like she’s barely present.

“It’s a heated pool,” Tommy mutters through his next bite, thanking Steve who passes him his open jello container.

“If it’s not frostbite, then what is it?”

“A bug bite! Now move!”

“Yeah, come on, it’s disgusting!” Steve agrees, welcoming Nancy with a sideways glance.

She takes her seat but still seems off, looking straight to Tommy to ask if he’d seen Barb.

“I seriously have to idea who you’re talking about.”

At Nancy’s kicked puppy look, Steve swoops in to assist her.

“Come on, don’t be an ass, man. Did you see her leave last night or not?”

He looks from Steve then to Nancy, giving in.

“No. I already told Clementine she was gone when we left.”

“She probably couldn’t stand listening to all that moaning,” Carol joined, throwing her head back as Tommy chuckled. She lets her eyes flutter closed, and she lets out a whimper as she begins moaning Steve’s name in mimic.

Ignoring the thought of Barb being alone during this, I click my tongue to get their attention.

“You laugh at your girlfriend moaning another dudes name? that’s weird, you’re weird.”

He doesn’t seem to care, but joins in as if playing the part of Steve, letting out exaggerated grunts.

Steve ignores this, trying to hide his smug smirk as he assures Nancy that Barb is likely just skipping.

Even I know that’s out of character, and probably isn’t doing much to soothe the girls obvious anxiety.

I wonder what going on there, but I don’t give myself much time to think about it when Tommy puts his tomatoes on my tray.

By the end, we’re all giving each other the food we hate, everyone collectively dropping the infamously repulsive meatloaf onto Carols tray.

At the end of the school day, Steve finally asks me what my problem was last night when he catches me in the hallway. And for the third time that day, I found myself explaining a very simple story.

“Okay, but it came outta nowhere. You were having fun, and you just left.”

Steve may have sounded hurt and whiney, but I knew better.

Me leaving irritated him because he was used to us all flocking around each other, acting like glue.

“Sorry, alright? I promise, I’ll tell you myself next time since you were so concerned,” I jabbed. You’d think atleast one of them would have thought to ask if I was okay if they insisted on going on about it.

“I knew you were fine,” he snapped, pulling my backpack a little harder than usual. “Come on, those two are waiting for us.”

Routinely, whoever gets out of class first waits by Steve’s car, and we all go home together. Normally, especially these days, it was restricted to our usual four. But today, we planned to stay for the basketball game.

So I was a little confused to see Nicole leaning against, not even Steve’s, but some rando car, whispering to the couple frantically.

They watched our approach, and Carol pushed Nicole towards us, urging her to share with us what she’d just told them.

We were all pretty close with Nicole. She was a nice girl, never really picked on anyone the way some others did.

So when the news spilled from her mouth I hadn’t doubted her.

“I’m sorry, Jonathan Byers?”

“Yeah, I saw them in the photo lab.”

Jonathan taking pictures of girls changing through the window? Really?

I wasn’t sure how to respond, honestly. Had the rumours about his creepy nature been true the entire time? Or was this some manic coping mechanism that came with losing his brother?

Either way, a shiver ran down my spine when I realised just whose car we were waiting by.

Is this what Nancy gets for displaying kindness?

“That definitely what you saw?” Steve questioned.

I tried not to notice the harsh swallow that made his throat bob, or the stony look in his dark eyes. If he acts now, he might do something stupid.

When Nicole nodded, I turned to him, prepared to calm him down, but he shook his head.

“Goddamn creep-“

“Steve, I’m not going to tell you not to be mad, but you know what happens when you confront people angry.”

Of course he knows what happens.

He winds up with bloody fists and a head filled with regret. I know this because I’m the one who has to hear about it each and every time it happens. Which is more often than you’d think.

I could only hope my words stuck in his head because he was pouncing forward the second Jonathan Byers tries to get to his car, stopping him in his tracks.

The confused, darting eyes that I might have held sympathy for suddenly felt different.

“What’s going on?”

“Nicole here was, uh, telling us about your work,” says Steve, stalking ever-so-close to the boy whose shifty eyes dart to Carol.

“We’ve heard a lot of good things.”

“Yeah, sounds cool,” Tommy adds.

“And we’d just love to take a look. You know, as… connoisseurs of art.”

I feel sick as Jonathan brushes off the confrontation. Surely that must be guilt nagging at him to run away as fast as possible.

Just the other day I had defended this guy to Carol, and now I couldn’t even bring myself to feel bad when Tommy rips his bag away from him. I just watch on as he desperately tries to snatch it back, but faces a loss when it’s passed over to Steve.

He was trembling, which Steve pointed out only proved he had something to hide.

He watches on, helpless as Steve grabs the fully developed photos, and begins to shift through them.

Not only were there the pictures of Nancy we’d been warned about, but we were all here, minding our business with no clue we were being watched.

I feel a little uneasy about him capturing me in all the moments I’d zoned out, all the times I felt 500 yards away.

But the others seemed none the wiser.

“Yeah, this doesn’t seem creepy at all,” Carol spits, her usual level of sarcasm spilling past her lips.

“I was looking for my brother,” Jonathan excuses, stiffly.

“No. No, this is called stalking.”

Again, Steve was right. Nothing about what happened is okay, I know that. But the mention of Will managed to make me silently splutter.

I remembered just as Nancy arrived that I’d made a commitment to the kids to meet them today, not exactly by choice but even then I checked my watch. 3:03.

“What’s going on?” Nancy demanded, voice thin with uncertainty at the scene.

Now the man of the hour was shaking like a leaf as Nancy is filled in on his antics.

As he hangs his head in shame, I note the look in Nancy’s eyes. Whether it was hurt, fear, even just general discomfort, it agonised my very being.

Steve, upon seeing her discontentment, clicks his tongue, eager to make a point.

“See, you can tell he knows it was wrong, but… that’s the thing about perverts… it’s hardwired into ‘em, you know, they just can’t help themselves.”

Steve’s hands are on Jonathan, adjusting his collar almost casually. Steve somehow appears bigger than usual, his shoulders squared next to the others slumped ones.

Tommy can only laugh as Steve tears the photos apart.

“So… we’ll just have to take away his toy.”

I can just barely make out Nancy pleading with Steve over Jonathan’s new-found voice begging.

Her arms are crossed, and she’s drawn into herself.

Of course Steve, with his own revenge to reek, doesn’t take notice. His territory has been moved in on.

This is war.

When he hands the camera back to Jonathan, I almost believe he might give it back. But he lets it fall to the ground, smashing to pieces.

It’s in tens of pieces, scattered across the parking lot, it’s completely unfixable.

“Come on, let’s go, the game’s about to start.”

He leads us away, back towards the gym building like a rather disturbing event hadn’t just taken place.

About half way to the gym, I stopped, announcing out of nowhere that I had places to be.

Steve, brows knitted in his pre-established fury, reels on me, expression cagey.

“Again? Clementine, really?”

“Seriously, you’ve been a huge flake lately,” Carol piles on, gum smacking. “Now you’re leaving again?”

“I left one party!”

“Yeah, and you’ve been weird as hell since Monday,” she argued, leaving me to look to Nancy for help. I’m not sure why, but seeing as my friends couldn’t understand, maybe she would.

But, again, she seems like she’s not even here as she runs back to us, torn photos being stuffed into her bag. I can only hope if she opens up to them about what’s going on with her, they’ll give her the time of day and listen. “Yeah, whatever, I’ll- I’ve just got somewhere to be.”

Then I took off, trying not to huff and puff as I left a mess behind me.

It’s hard to push the look in Nancys eyes out of my head when I’m making my way towards her house.

Why were these things happening to her?

The others could play in traffic for all I care. Although part of me is glad that they didn’t care enough to concern themselves – we can’t exactly have them clued in – another part of me was way too bitter that they’d jumped to their own conclusions. That I don’t care about them, that I’m turning weird. Is it so hard to just accept that I might be tired, that I might have homework to finish? Or something more plausible…

I just have to push it out my mind. These fish were currently frying are way bigger than highschool.

As I approached the power lines behind the Wheelers house, I almost expect to meet Mike in his most exasperated form, so I’m surprised to see his small face looking relieved and nearly, if it’s not pushing it, happy to see me.

“Clementine, we were scared you wouldn’t come.”

I mightn’t have, had the situation not been so bizarre. Had the kids invited me out to ‘play’ or ‘hang out’ any other time, especially when there was a game on, I know I wouldn’t have bothered to show up. Lucky for me, these kids are able to keep themselves occupied.

Speaking of occupied, my eyes fall quickly to the boys chin where he sports a newly forming scab. It looks nasty, blood drying around the edges of a fresh patch of wounded skin.

“What did you do?”

I lean down, motioning him to allow me better view, but he subtly tucks his chin into his chest.

“It was-“

“Nothing. It was nothing,” Mike interrupts a confused Lucas. When Mikes eyes dart to the small girl who encircles his torso from the back of his bicycle, now sporting a jacket that was presumably one of the boys, Lucas seems to understand. He rolls his eyes, but lets it go.

I suppose I should too.

“It’s not fair that you all have bikes, you know.”

“I’ve got you covered,” Dustin chirped, motioning to the back of his own bike. There’s no way he’s serious.

“My butt’s gunna swallow the seat!” I squeaked, still moving towards the boy anyways. It was either this, or I’d have to race alongside them, and I hated that idea even more than sitting slightly uncomfortably.

As we rode, Dustin would swerve slightly, making comments like, “God damnit, Clementine, how much do you weigh?”

“shut up!”

By now, the game would be starting any minute. Instead, I’m here being bullied by children, and we’re about to use a random little girl as a guide dog to find another kid.

Thankfully, the woods became too difficult to ride through, and we’d headed the rest of our journey on foot.

As soon as I’d gotten off the bike, I pushed Dustin with barely any restraint.

“…call me fat.”

“I didn’t! You’re just really heavy,” he excuses, rubbing his arm.

“I think you’re just weak,” Lucas teased, smirking to himself. “If it was me, I’d have gone way smoother!”

And there they go, bickering again.

I’d never paid much attention to them while babysitting, never had much interest as they always managed to keep themselves occupied. Sure, I’d make sure they ate, make sure they were safe at all times, but otherwise they could do what they wanted.

“Stop, you’re so annoying!”

They listened, dropping silent, only sharing a deadly glare. “Why is it always the woods?“

“Because Will cuts through here on the way home and he’s not been seen since, obviously. She must be able to sense him.”

I’m very thankful for daylight the further we venture into the trees. The night before, I might have experienced cardiac arrest, but everything was a million times less scary when you could see every empty hiding place a psychopath might take.

I felt better with the kids beside me, Mike and Eleven in front of me, in plain sight.

I do wonder what’s going on there, if it’s healthy. Their bond appears strong, thinking about it. He’s the first to jump to her defence, he’s soft spoken around her. That’s not Mike Wheeler. If it were any other girl, I’d think he had a crush, but who knows what life she’s lead until this point. Who knows what’s next for her once we figure out where she belongs. Still, maybe it’s not my place to say anything. Afterall, I’m not even sure I understand it.

But the pair continue that way as the sky darkens, side by side as we arrive at the Byers.

I stopped for a minute, brain shutting down. Am I just not keeping up with what’s happening or are we not supposed to be here?

The boys seem to share my thoughts, exchanging curious looks amongst each other.

But she stops in front of the house, seeming certain.

“Yeah… this is where Will lives.”

“Hiding,” she whispers, but Mike is ready to shut down the notion that he’s been cowering under his own bed for two days.

“No, no, this is where he lives. He’s missing from here, understand?”

He seems to exercise patience even now. Voice light through the inconvenience.

Of course, Lucas didn’t have a reason, like Mike, to display this kind of understanding, and kicked up a bit of a fuss.

He and Dustin seemed to think it was all for nothing, and though I agreed, what did they expect out of this kid?

“Do you two ever stop whining? What are you, nine year old girls?” I turn to the girl, who stares intently. “Why are we here? If you’re making all this up, you don’t have to.”

She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She’s stammering and spluttering, but she’s unable to process as she’s shut down before she can continue to try.

“Don’t waste your time with her.”

“What do you wanna do then?” Mike snaps at Lucas.

“Call the cops like we should’ve done yesterday.”

“I agree,” I admit, throwing my hands up in the air. At Mikes incredulous gaze, I motion towards the girl. “If someone bad is after her the cops won’t send her back to them! They’ll be investigated, she’ll be safe, and she’ll get better help than us!”

“What, you think the bad guys are her parents?”

Not only are the bad guys probably her parents, but we’ve kept her around longer than necessary, and that’s looks bad on us. Especially me.

But Mike doesn’t want to hear it and begins to bicker.

It’s all we seem to do. We squabble and fight and disagree because we’re a horrible team that doesn’t know what we’re doing.

So we talk over each other, and we bitch and moan so adamantly that we don’t even hear the sirens until Dustin reels us back to reality.

The awful sound of the screeching alarm flies past us, blinking lights illuminating the words on the side of the massive van behind to police cars. Expecting the van to be an ambulance, I’m surprised to see the words “Fire Engine” painted along the side.

We must follow it. If Will is found, and there’s a fire engine, he must need serious help.

So he must have his friends there with him.

If Will is found, he mustn’t be alone.

And so we do, path illuminated by the flashing lights until we come to a clearing.

The body of water is familiar, and it makes my heart sink as deep as the Quarry. Sattlers Quarry.

The memories of breaking in and messing around with friends are soon replace with a full-body-crushing fear that makes me sick as we take cover behind the fire truck.

A small group of people and at the shallow end of the Quarry, and they’re working their hardest to pull something to the surface. I try ignoring my hearts unwelcome presence in my throat but I can’t seem to swallow it.

Not now. Not when the object they’ve pulled from the water takes shape, the shape I feared it would.

A tiny boy, unmistakably Will even from where we stood. It seemed so far away, but in actuality we shouldn’t have ever been this close.

I ache.

I know it’s too late when I see Jim Hopper, chief of police turn away from the scene.

He was a tough man, one I’d run into more trouble with than I’d like at Wills age. One that was relentless and unforgiving. And he can’t bear to look now. It only could confirm what we all knew.

It’s too late.

“It’s not Will… it can’t be…” Mike breaks us from our heartbroken silence.

“It’s Will,” Lucas confirms, eyes dropping to the ground. “It’s really Will.”

We’re looking at his body. Lifeless and small, being hauled to shore. Really, truly, that’s Will Byers…

El reaches out to Mike, seeing his pain-stricken face, his breath shallow. But he slaps her hand away making a sound loud enough for me to flinch at.

“You were supposed to help up find him alive! You said he was alive! Why did you lie to us? What’s wrong with you? What is wrong with you?”

For the first time, he’s angry at her. This strange child who lead us here with a promise of finding the missing boy whose body was discovered before us. All this time he trusted that she possessed the abilities she claimed to, believed she knew where his best friend was.

Now she stands in front of him, eyes brimmed with tears, looking lost.

“Stop it, Mike. She’s a lost kid, and we’re using her as a guide dog,” I tried, assessing the full situation up until this point. But he wasn’t having it, reeling on me with furious eyes.

But he didn’t say anything, just took off on his bike, leaving his friends to call after him… and for me to get Eleven to Lucas’ door.

It was a silent walk through the woods, leaving the blaring ambulances behind us, but eventually I made it home, thanking every deity that all the lights were off before I pushed the front door open, quiet as a mouse.

It wasn’t my first experience sneaking home in the middle of the night, but I didn’t normally have my heart in my throat or my stomach in my bladder. And I’d never been unlucky enough before tonight to have been caught.

There’s a first time for everything, evidently.

Before I even close the door behind me the hallway light switches on, and my dad stands before me with his night grown tied tight, and a look more stony than I’d even seen from him as he stands, arms crossed, by the phone.

“I didn’t think you’d be up,” is all I could get out at first. “I was with Carol and Steve–

His fingers move to the answering machine where Steve’s voice rings out.

“Clementine, you missed the game. And Nancy left, too. If you have a problem, say it to us.”

And then another.

“It’s been three hours. You could at least let us know you still give a shit. Bye.”

Really, I couldn’t bring myself to care about his whining. Not right now.

“Wow, he’s so concerned.”

“Do you think this is funny? While they’re out there searching for that little boy, you think you can run around in the dark by yourself, and lie to me?”

I didn’t even realise how much his voice rose, that this is the first time he’d raised his voice at me at all. Because he still didn’t know.

“They found Will.”

And just like the world fell apart.

Because even though I seen his body with my own eyes, I’d just spoken it out loud. To my dad. In my own house. It was part of our reality. It was all real.

“Oh my God, Joyce…”

Joyce who is about to learn that her baby boy is gone forever.

I feel my dad’s arms wrap me in a hug, and I feel the reality come crashing down as all bad blood is momentarily forgotten.

Will Byers is dead.

[munsonsreputation]

I SHOULD HATE YOU

steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: [22.3k]

warnings: warnings: no use of y/n, enemies to lovers, reader and steve use foul language towards each other (bitch, asshole, ect). blood (one of them gets hurt...but not bcs of each other), eventual smut (oral: both m and f receiving, fingering, piv, multiple o's,) minors gtfo before i superkick you!!!

summary: You and Steve Harrington hate each other’s guts…or at least you should, that is until a camp outing reveals everything that you both have been trying to hide.

You desperately wanted to see what everyone else saw in Steve Harrington that you didn’t. All those words of how he changed so much and had this entire redemption arc when he decided to finally stop giving shit about stupid high school social orders and commit his life to be the esteemed and reliable babysitter.

Hell, even Robin Buckley, the one girl who really couldn’t stand him a few years ago, was now his best friend, and Nancy Wheeler, his ex-girlfriend, could actually stand to be in his presence without wanting to cringe and vomit because she actually dated him. 

You just couldn’t see it in him no matter how hard you tried, not even the kids could convince you that Steve wasn’t all that bad anymore. If anything they gushed about how much they admired him. How he was the cool older brother figure that they all wanted and had wrapped around their fingers ready at their beck and call.

Everyone loved Steve, but to you it was just bullshit.

“Why the sad face, doll?”

Steve pouted feignedly, causing you to roll your eyes, slapping the flies away from your skin as you watched him pitch his stupid tent.

“I’m not sad. I’m more so annoyed.” You grunted out with a glare. 

“I told you to bring bug spray.” He reminded shaking his head, clearly amused seeing you get angry at the innocent flies.

“I did, but it doesn’t fucking work and for your information, I’m annoyed because you’re here.” You said through gritted teeth, slapping your neck as another one landed but flew away before you could kill it.

Steve snapped the poles into place, engrossed with his task.

“Well if it makes you feel any better,” he chimed in, standing with a straight smirk across his face, “I’m not particularly happy with your presence either seeing as though you’re not doing shit besides standing there being a bitch.”

Your eyes widened, arms crossing over your chest as you stared at him in disbelief. But by this point it shouldn’t have been so surprising granted that you and Steve never stopped bickering, even when you both should have known to ignore each other. 

“Oh, go fuck yourself, Harrington!” You shouted, turning on your heel and flipping him the bird as you walked away.

“Tell that to my right hand, sweet cheeks!” He called out with a whistle, reveling in the art of getting under your skin.

Nance and Jonathan exchanged amused glances, painfully familiar with how much you and Steve despised each other yet somehow got here alive without slitting each other's throats. But that didn’t seem like it was going to be lasting long seeing as though this was now the beginning to a very long night.

You plopped down onto the foldable chair, still wearing a scowl that didn’t seem to want to cease even with the distance you created between you and him.

“We barely got here and you’re already at each other's throats.”

Nancy shook her head not understanding why you both couldn’t be adults about this whole thing.

“He started it!” You insisted, pointing your finger in his direction.

Jonathan couldn’t help but jump in with a chuckle, feeling as if this was payback for all those times he and his brother Will gave his mom a hard time. Seriously, dealing with you both was identical to watching two toddlers tattle tale on each other for every little thing before toys and fists were thrown. 

“So now you’re playing the blame game?” He suspected.

You clicked your tongue, sitting up straighter, shoulders pulled back as you crossed your legs and placed your hands on top of your knees, ready to mock Steve and his privileged life that he just had to leave behind for the day. 

“Why couldn’t he just have stayed home in his stupid mansion, driving around in his stupid Beemer, where he could be stupid all by himself and leave us out of his stupid stupidity.” 

You seriously looked like you could end him with your bare hands — and if they didn’t know better they’d let you have a go at it just to see how far you would get. Surely Steve would put up a good fight too, probably make it quick and easy so he didn’t have to hear your voice anymore, but you would definitely be taking your time with him. 

“He’s the only one who’s ever been camping and if something happens then he’ll know what to do.”

Nancy attempted to reason with you, hoping you could see it through just this once, for just a couple hours.

You shrugged your shoulders, watching him in your peripheral vision.

“Whatever, as long as he stays away from me then I can make it through the next 24 hours.” You waved off. 

But Jonathan lugged up a box, plopping it before your feet with a loud clatter coming from inside of it, staring at you with a smile. 

“If you want to make it to at least tonight, I’d suggest you start getting to work.”

Cursing under your breath, you were beginning to rethink your choices of saying ‘yes’ to trip when you had not one outdoorsy bone in your body and surely no bone, not even a cell that could stand Steve Harrington.

But getting it pitched up yourself wasn’t all that bad considering the fact that the instructions were self explanatory and had images to make it easy to follow. It was that nagging, infuriating voice that belonged to Steve that was getting on your last nerve. Like a mosquito in your ear, he kept buzzing and buzzing and—

“Try again, you’re holding the pole backwards, smarty pants!” He called out, smirking to himself when you tried to ignore him by shutting him out and doing it at your own pace.

But ignoring him only fueled his determination to keep going, poking and prodding at your patience that was withering away by the second. Every snarky smartass remark was like nails on a chalkboard, causing your eye to twitch, teeth to grind, and self-restraint to grow weaker. 

“Your tent is gonna fly away in the middle of the night if you don’t make use of those stakes!”

“You shoulda listened to me, I told you that pole was in the wrong slot!”

“How about you put a little elbow grease into it and stop trying to put it together like you’re the goddamn princess of the camp ground!”

Your blood was damn nearly boiling, knuckles going white as you shoved the stupid pole into the other side, trying to get the frame to stay together. But your anger and rushing only made it worse, the wobbling frame threatening to give out on itself if you tried to force it in anymore than you already had. His whiny voice and every taunt that came with it just made you want to take the pole and use it for something else — silencing him.

Nancy and Robin had scolded Steve multiple times, knowing that your fuse with him was ridiculously short. Eddie and Jonathan, well-acquainted with your dynamic, kept their distance, observing from the sidelines not wanting to be caught in the impending storm between you two.

Eddie watched you carefully,  your jaw clenching, air pushing out of your nostrils and he was sure that if it was humanly possible there would be a hot steam coming from the top of your head. 

“Knock it off, man, she’s getting pissed.” He warned his friend, taking a swig of his beer, while he darted between you both.

Steve however, wasn’t threatened in the slightest, continuing to provoke you with another snide comment. 

“She won’t be pissed for long if a bear comes and mauls her in the middle of the night because she doesn’t know how to pitch a damn—”

That was the last straw.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you!” You screamed, ripping off the pole and storming towards Steve not caring how insane you looked.

Eddie quickly got on his feet, dropping his beverage and intervening just in time. 

“Not so fast!” He lifted you off the ground holding you back as Jonathan managed to wrangle the pole out of your hands.

Steve was having a fit of laughter, hunching over himself and grabbing at his midsection.

“You’re so easy to piss off.” He cackled, shaking his head at you and giving himself an imaginary point for already getting under your skin in the first hour of being there.

“You’re such an asshole!” You fumed, continuing to struggle in Eddie's grasp.

He kept his hold tight knowing if there was any room left for you to get away, it would most likely end with warfare. And while he and your friends never liked to come in between your tumultuous relationship, they knew letting you both rip each other apart wouldn't do anyone good – even if it gave them some peace.  

Nancy had had enough — the trip was supposed to be peaceful, getting to be one with nature and finally getting away from the kids for once, but of course, that wouldn’t happen seeing as though you and Steve acted like children possessed.

“Enough!” She shouted, bringing temporary silence as you both could feel the seriousness in her voice.

“You’re right, Steve is an asshole and because he feels so sorry, what he’s gonna do is finish pitching up your tent while we go to the lake to cool off. Got it?”

She turned towards him, her eyes widening, signaling Steve to comply for the sake of peace just this once.

But instead, he protested, standing up defiantly, “Hell no! I wouldn’t even pitch her tent if—”

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.” Nancy interrupted, not leaving any room for negotiation because at this point it was futile.

Robin gestured to the partially completed frame with a small shrug.

“It’s the least you can do, half of it is already done.” She said, hoping to lighten his mood about it. 

Reluctantly Steve huffed, glaring as he made his way over to you, faces only inches apart as everyone began to sigh, seeing as though you’d both be starting again. Eddie gripped you tight, not even giving you any wiggle room to try anything.

“You’re lucky Robin’s staying in your tent because if she wasn’t, I wouldn’t even think about finishing it.” Steve rasped begrudgingly smirking because you were a prisoner in shackles.

But you jutted your neck forward as if you were about to headbutt him which caused him to flinch back, holding his arm out front of his body. That alone made you cackle, just a taste of what you could have done to get him to shut up.

“Get to work, boy scout.” You sneered. 

Throwing Eddie’s arms off your midsection, you brushed right past him going towards your bag to get out a bikini to change into while the rest of them whispered their scoldings, particularly punctuating the importance of Steve not messing with you anymore because they couldn’t stand it.

Jonathan nudged Steve’s shoulder, a pleading expression on his face.

“Would it kill you to not be such a dickhead to her for one whole day?”

Steve dramatically gasped, wrapping his arms around his own neck pretending to suffocate, “Y-yes… I-I can’t breathe, no oxygen!”

His best friend rolled her eyes, unimpressed with his childish behavior “You’re such a dweeb, I swear.” she said, smacking the top of his head as she walked past him and followed you to the bathrooms.

“You heard her, get to work.”

Nance snapped her fingers, pointing sharply at the tent hoping that for once he’d listen.

Jonathan and Eddie decided to serve as watch guards knowing that if no one was here to watch him and make sure he did what he was told, he would probably let you sleep with a half assed tent while Robin stayed with him and Eddie. 

Maybe all you needed was to get as far away as possible from him… for as long as you could.

Stepping into the lake, the water felt nice against your skin, cooling down the sizzling blood still rushing in your veins and easing your body to a state of relaxation. If you closed your eyes hard enough and let the sun bask down on your face, you could pretend as if he wasn’t just a few feet away from you, grumbling like a whiny child forced into time out to write a hundred sentences.

You honestly should’ve known better than to agree to come along the trip knowing Steve was going to infect it with his existence, but your friends had convinced you otherwise, selling it as an opportunity to get out of Hawkins for a weekend and just enjoy each other’s company.

If you had known that Steve was going to be even more of a pain in the ass than usual, you would have never even thought about getting into Eddie van and driving all the way here with no other means to leave.

“I just don’t understand how he’s nice to everyone but you.” Robin pondered aloud, trying to understand the mystery between your relationship.

“It’s because he wants me dead, Robin, simple as that.” You deadpanned, seeing no other explanation to it other than pure hatred.

“Don’t be ridiculous, he doesn’t want you dead.” Nancy laughed, brushing off your comment knowing that Steve didn’t hate you that much.

“Oh my bad, I meant that he wants me to suffer a long excruciating death by letting his ego take up all the space in the room.”

Your voice leaked of sarcasm, eliciting laughs from the girls who found humor in what you saw as the truth.

Robin and Nancy knew there was no way the both of you could really hate each other as much as you both liked to think you did. If you really did hate each other for real, then you wouldn’t even dare to tolerate each other's presence but you both did — and while sure most times it was for the sake of your friends, by now one of you should’ve been fed up enough to leave.

Their laughter faded, Robin staring at you with a mischievous smirk as you waded in the water, enjoying the temporary peace. Perhaps she could be out of line with the thoughts brewing up in her head, but it was just a theory — a possible reasoning for you and Steve’s differences.

“Did you ever stop and think that maybe you two might get along better if you liked each other in a different way?” She wiggled her brows before biting her lip. 

And like that, the peace was gone.

“Absolutely fucking not!” You shouted, rejecting it with clear disgust as you began splashing her in retaliation.

She giggled some more, trying to shield herself from the large splashes as Nancy swam off to the side, happy that at least you were having some fun now, even if the conversation still revolved around Steve. Robin swam through the splashes, wrapping her hands around yours to make them stop before you both began laughing, letting her hug you as an apology for her words.

“You’re so lucky I love you.” You grumbled, leaning closer to her to rest your cheek against her shoulder.

“Opposites attract, you know.” She continued to tease and you poked at her side, glaring half jokingly.

“Not him and I.” You declared sternly, gaze moving back up to the shore where the men still gathered near your tent.

It was nice not having to watch you stick your nose up and complain about the flies as if it was the end of the world. Without you in his ear and sights, he could finally enjoy just a smidge of the day, even if it was pitching his mortal enemy’s tent. If he didn’t think about it too much, he’d forget that it would be keeping you safe and you’d wake up the next morning, living another day to make his life miserable.

Tugging the tarp into place, he zipped it up and down making sure it slid smoothly before dusting off his hands and taking a step back to examine your his work. He tilted his head, shrugging his shoulders not in the mood to fix the lousy frame.

“Besides the crooked roof, it’s not that bad.” He announced, more so glad that his punishment was over.

Jonathan grinned, patting him on the back with a hopeful look as if this was the turning point.

“Well you should tell her she didn’t do a bad job then! Say something nice to her for once.”

Steive chortled looking over to him in disbelief before wagging his finger mockingly.

“Over my dead body.”

Jonathan sighed, sliding away from him and going to grab another beer for himself. Slowly but surely he was giving up on the idea of trying to get you and Steve to get along for the weekend. At this point, he and Nance’s plan was failing terribly, seeing as though neither of you said one good thing to each other all day and it probably would never happen.

Eddie rolled his eyes, resting his back against the tree as he watched you and the girls spinning in the water enjoying yourselves.

“Why can’t you both just put your differences aside and get along?” He wondered, seeing as though you were both capable of being happy, just why not with each other.

Steve darted his eyes up to his obviously, “She’s had it out for me since day one. Never liked me and never even tried to.”

Walking over to your bags, he picked them up along with Robin’s placing them in the tent, but he more so threw yours in, not giving a damn if the tent shook with it.

Eddie sighed, going over to fix it nicely into a corner when Steve turned away.

“To be fair, you haven’t tried to like her either so the odds were never going to be in your favor to begin with.” Jonathan pointed out truthfully.

How were the both of you ever going to get along if you held so much against each other without trying to see it through?

“You sure you don’t have a thing for her deep down? They always say that people who hate each other really just have to settle their differences in bed so they can see eye to eye.” Eddie snickered, patting his back stiffly. 

The thought alone made Steve sick. Kissing you? Hugging you? Actually enjoying your existence? That sounded like a nightmare from hell if he’d ever dreamt one. Eddie and Jonathan found it a bit comical, even taking notice of their friends silence, his mind thinking up all the dirty and—

A hard smack landed on Eddie’s arm.

“I don’t know where the hell you heard that from, but I wouldn’t even sleep with her if we were the last two people on Earth.” Steve sneered, nose sticking up with disgust.

Edide rubbed at the skin, he and Jonathan watched as Steve walked away, tugging his shirt off and beginning to make his way into the lake without another word. They knew it was inevitable, the hatred that was brewing in his bones for you, was just a ploy for something else — something you and him didn’t see quite but everyone else did.

“Twenty they finally kiss?” Jonathan challenged, turning to him with an open hand.

Eddie cackled, smirking smugly.

“Twenty-five they end up hooking up tonight,” he added to the wager and to the lines that you and him would cross.

“Deal.”

You rolled your eyes, detaching yourself from Robin catching the sight of Steve inching his way into the lake. Soon after Jonathan and Eddie followed suit, running in like chickens with their heads cut off and splashing all of you with their boy-ness.

It frustrated you more than the way it should have made you angry — the way all your friends could seamlessly get along with him as if he wasn't the worst person you ever met. He even embraced Jonathan in a bromance hug as if at one point in their lives they didn’t despise each other for the girl they both liked.

It was so… confusing?

You let them bask in the presence of Steve, knowing that while you didn’t enjoy time with him, you would never try to rob the rest of your friends from it. Instead you went off on your own, going in just a bit deeper for some privacy as they lingered a few feet behind you.

“Don’t go too far out!” Nancy called out to you knowing you weren’t the best swimmer.

“I know, mom!” You singsonged, looking up at the sky and taking it all in — random cloud shapes and the birds that flocked above.

The camp ground was two hours out from Hawkins, tucked away in a nicer part of town, of course, Steve was the one who suggested the place. Nevertheless it was actually breathtaking, a nice contrast to the small town that you all came from which didn’t have a lake that compared to this, just good ole’ Lover’s Lake and Sattler Quarry.

This would probably be your first and last time camping, so you were trying to make the most of it, not letting the little scuffle totally ruin your experience. You had wished you brought your polaroid along, wanting to snap photos of the view to remember it by but in hindsight it was better to live in the moment.

“Let’s play sharks and minnows!” Robin announced cheerfully, wanting to seize the moment and do something fun she remembered from childhood.

You didn’t pay them any mind, your silence serving as an answer that you’d be sitting that game out and enjoying watching them instead.

Steve cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting loudly, “I call shark!”

They erupted in shrieks, splashing their way farthest from Steve, getting a head start since he was a skilled swimmer. 

Eddie, who was a distance away yelled out, “Ready, set, go!”

Steve didn’t even bother mapping out everyone else, they weren’t his prey, you were.

“Better get moving, princess!”

Steve wore an irritatingly smug look, catching your eyes before he dove under the water and made his way towards you.

Your eyes widened, flaring your arms back as you attempted to doggy paddle away from him but it was obvious that he had the upper hand with his skill set. The tips of your toes started to slip from the ground, water pushed up to your collarbones as you still tried to get away from him without drowning.

It was futile trying to lose him, you didn’t even dare to inch further back knowing by then the water would submerge you fully. Instead you opted to sweep the water against him the closer he got to you, though he was unaffected by it still swimming with ease.

“Steve, stop! Go away!” You shouted, kicking your legs trying to get him back.

“Gotcha!” He grinned, popping his head out of the water to stand up straight and wrap his arms around your midsection

You pushed at his chest, trying to get away. “You dickwad! I wasn’t even playing!”

“Too bad!” He stuck his tongue out at you, gripping your skin just a tad tighter and hoisting your legs around his hips.

“Steve put me down, I swear to fucking…oh my god!” You exclaimed, quickly moving your arms around his neck when you felt the woosh of water against your back when he moved you both deeper into the water.

You watched your friends over his shoulder become smaller and smaller, until they were little specks on the shore waving with shit eating grins on their faces knowing that Steve wouldn’t actually do anything to hurt you.

Despite how disgusted you were being so close to him, you had no choice but to hang on for dear life. Steve gave you a bit of height with you over his hips, and had it not been for that, you’d be drowning by now.

“S-Steve, please I can’t swim!” You begged, eyes finally daring to meet him and for once you weren’t looking at him with such disgust but with desperation.

His face contorted with surprise, eyebrows raised and mouth held wide open before tugging up into a lopsided smirk.

“Never thought I’d ever hear that word come out of your mouth… let me hear it one more time?”

His grip barely went slack as you whimpered, using your legs to jerk him back to you before you slapped his chest, fingers gripping his biceps under the water and letting your nails dig painfully into his skin.

“Get me back to the shallow! Right now!” You growled, watching as he winced a bit hissing in a sharp breath feeling the sting.

Seriously, if you were a better swimmer, you’d be out of his grasp by now and holding his head underwater until he floated like dead weight. He had the advantage over you, but you’d be damned if you didn’t at least put up a fight.

“What’s the magic word?” He teased, exhaling as your nails eased out of his skin yet somehow you still held on to him not wanting to take a risk no matter how revolting he was.

“I. hate. you!” You screamed, starting to thrash around in his arms hoping that your struggle would annoy him so much that he’d bring you back to the shallow just so he wouldn’t have to deal with you.

But instead, he loosened his grip again, using it against you because just as he suspected, you seized your movements immediately, looped your hands around his neck, clinging to him like a koala.

“Still waiting on that magic word.” He singsoned, not being too cruel this time around, wrapping his arms securely around your frame, not actually thinking he’d ever let you go.

You hoped your friends couldn’t read your lips from there or else you wouldn’t hear the end of it.

“Please.” You gave in, whispering it against his neck.

The hair on the back of his neck stood tall, shivers creeping up his spine feeling a twinge of sympathy for you, but not too much to spare, when you cursed his name right after the fact. Satisfied, he spun around, guiding the two of you back to the bank where you were more comfortable.

Letting out a breath of relief, you relaxed your arms and slightly loosened your legs from around his waist, a little surprised at yourself for being able to stand his skin sticking to yours for so long. This was the most contact you and Steve had ever endured with each other. All of the previous encounters consisted of you smacking him and him chasing you with something gross like a dead roach.

“You didn’t think I’d actually let you drown, did you?” Steve asked, looking down at you.

You rolled your eyes, staring up at him past your lashes. “I don’t know, you’re quite the asshole so I thought so.”

He ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek, tsking disapprovingly.

“Such a shame you think so lowly of me,” he said acting hurt as rolled your eyes yet again, “here’s payback for earlier.”

His arms abruptly left your body, letting you actually slip out of his hold watching as you went down with a screech that quickly died. You shut your eyes tightly, arms pushing yourself up to the surface where you coughed roughly, his stupid laughter filling your ears when you came to.

“I still hate you!”

You huffed, splashing him once more before trudging towards your friends who watched with glee, thankful for the five minutes of free entertainment that didn’t involve them.

Steve stood where he was, arms crossed, face dripping with lake water, but still wearing a wide smile, more than happy with his little stunt and the fact that he got your blood pressure rising. Something about riling you up, filled him up with a sort of satisfaction, yet he wouldn’t ever admit that you were the only person who could get under his skin the same way he did you.

Surprisingly enough, he stayed away from you during the rest of the time in the lake. Instead, he bothered Eddie and Robin with his stupid ideas to race across the lake and find the biggest pebble to see who could skip it the farthest.

Thankfully for you, you got the bathe in the sunlight, enjoying conversation with Jonathan and Nancy who at first bothered you about the whole you in his arms thing, but eventually gave up when you gave them the death stare. You obviously were holding back something considering you never missed a beat to berate Steve, but this time around, you didn’t even want to get into it — they wondered why?

As the sun slowly began to tumble, casting oranges and pinks in the sky, you felt your fingertips becoming overly pruney, cueing your desire to get out and get freshened up for the evening.

“I’m gonna go wash up.” You announced raising a hand over your forehead to block the light as you stared out at them in the water.

“We’ll be out in a bit!” Robin called through her laughter, continuing her fun in chasing Eddie and Jonathan around in the water with a stick she had found.

You carefully tiptoed through the rocks, making your way up to the camp ground. The tent wasn’t half bad, and to your surprise Steve had actually followed through on his task of finishing it. You’d guess that if he wasn’t so intimidated by Nancy and her threats, he wouldn’t even think about doing it, nevertheless at least now you could say Steve did something useful for you for once, even if it was against his will.

Your bag was already conveniently placed in your tent, so you grabbed your toiletries, a clean towel, and your change of clothes before you walked over to the communal bathrooms where the showers were also located. Thankfully it was just you and your friends on the grounds, so it was fairly clean and had more privacy than usual which was always nice.

You pulled the curtains to one of the stalls back, assessing the area before putting your things down on the shelf and hanging your towel on the railing, stepping in and pulling the curtains closed. Stripping off your swimwear, you wringed out the excess water and hung them on the adjacent wall letting them air dry for the time being.

Cranking the lever, the shower head spritzed alive, letting semi-warm water sprinkle across your skin, rinsing you free of the lake water. You hummed to yourself, raking your fingers through the knots and tangles of your hair, doing your best to get them out before rubbing the skin over your neck and chest.

“You really should have picked the stall away from the sunlight.”

Steve’s voice echoed, halting his footsteps in the doorway as he stared at the figure behind the curtain, the only other person in here was you and he could definitely tell by your pedicured toes peeking under the gap of the shower.

Clenching your jaw, your hands stopped its movements over your body, turning your head over your shoulder as you were met with Steve’s shadow staring right on the other side. If you squinted hard enough you could make out the smirking features on his face, but to your obvious surprise all you could do was shriek.

“Oh my god!” You shielded yourself with your arms as if that would help, seeing as though the curtain alone wasn’t doing its job of saving you your dignity.

He held his hands up, gesturing his arm up and down at the curtain.

“Relax, I can only see your shadow because of the sun.” He explained nonchalantly, walking into the stall beside yours and switching the water on.

You swallowed, still not trusting him completely as you stepped forward, peeling back the curtain a bit to see if anyone else was coming that way.

“Are the rest of them coming? I need to save myself the embarrassment and move to another stall if they are.” You asked rapidly, really hoping that neither of your friends or any visitors would be greeted with your naked silhouette the second they stepped in there.

“They’re playing chicken in the lake so no, they won’t be coming any time soon.” He responded, sounding actually sincere for once, because while he enjoyed messing with you, he still respected your privacy enough to know setting you up like that wasn’t cool.

See… there were boundaries between your hatred, probably ones so low the bar was on the floor...but they were boundaries.

“Thank god.” You sighed, tugging the portion of the curtain closed and walking back into the stream of the water, squeezing some shampoo into your hands as you began lathering it through your scalp.

“By the way, are your tits pierced or were you just excited to see me?”

Your eyes widened, a gasp leaving your mouth while your fingers stopped. His incessant laughter bounced off the walls and rang in your ears like the worst kind of pain, wishing you had taken your chances earlier and at least tried to drown him.

“You’re such a pig!” You said, banging your hands on his side of the wall until his laughter died down scoffing.

He grunted, tapping your wall back harder. “Learn how to take a joke and stop getting your panties in a twist.”

“What’s a joke is that rumor about you being so largely endowed.” You began pretending to gag.

“I heard Stacy Burnham asked you if it was even in and when you said yes she was so disappointed.” You sassed sharply, hoping it would embarrass him enough to shut up.

“I didn’t even hook up with Stacy Burnham!” He retorted ridiculously, knowing that rumor was so absurd and untrue.

You rolled your eyes and wished he could see you, “Not surprised, it probably didn’t feel like much for you either when you’re packing less than three inches.”

Steve scoffed loudly, knowing that was definitely not true and it wasn’t just his ego talking. 

“Oh trust me, you wouldn’t even be able to take half of what I’m packing.”

“A half inch? Yeah, cause I’d be too busy crying with disappointment.” You faked sobbed, flipping him off though he couldn’t even see you. 

He didn’t have a comeback, clearly not in the mood to argue about what he was packing because truly you’d only believe him if you saw it for yourself. And trust him, he’d burn himself alive before ever thinking about seeing you naked or letting you see him naked.

That was just totally out of the question… and like he told Eddie, it would never happen even if you both were the last people on Earth.

“Let me borrow some soap.” Steve muttered knocking on your wall, hand dangling above your stall waiting for you to pass it over.

“No.” You chuckled, smacking his hand before you grabbed your body wash and rubbed it against your palms to create bubbles.

“Why not?” He coaxed, not putting his hand back down into his stall as you sighed and went on about washing your body.

“You tried to kill me earlier and let me drown.” You reminded him.

“And what would you call that little stunt back there when you tried to stab me to death?” He retorted.

You were quiet, rolling your eyes knowing that he wouldn’t let this go any time soon, so in order to save both of your energies, you simply picked up the bottle of shampoo, thrusting it up into his hand as he chuckled to himself and grabbed it.

“See! Sharing is caring, now, if you need to borrow some brains you know where to find me.”

“Shut the fuck up.” You snapped, trying to enjoy the rest of your shower despite knowing that the only thing that separated you both was a wall.

You showered in complete silence, only Steve knocking on your wall to give you back the products, fingers tapping against his palm to silently ask you for the next. After a few minutes you had finished, finally shutting the water off as you dried down.

You slipped your legs through a fresh pair of underwear, letting it snap against your skin as you worked the fitted cami over your torso and then slipped on the shorts that you rolled over your hips to stop them from falling.

Whipping the curtain back, you didn’t wait for Steve to finish, simply leaving him as you went back towards the tents to hang your still wet swimsuit over a tree branch and stuffing your things back into your bag.

After a few minutes he came out, walking over with his towel around his neck, sporting a loose t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. 

“Well you’re definitely getting eaten alive by mosquitoes tonight.” He shook his head at your rookie mistake, laughing along with it. 

You looked down at yourself, much of your skin left exposed for the same flies that badgered you earlier to feast upon.

“Give me a break, I didn’t know there would be so many flies.”

He walked over to his stuff, plucking out the aerosol can and tossing it over to you, “Here.” 

You caught it, looking over the bottle label as he spoke, “It’s the only brand of bug spray that actually works.” 

“Thanks.” You mumbled, twisting the bottle open and misting it over your arms and legs, letting the product coat every inch with a light sheen.

You tossed it back, working it into your skin as Steve took his turn to spray it on his exposed arms and neck knowing from experience that waking up to a hundred fly bites was the most uncomfortable itchy pain to be in.

“How were the showers?” Eddie huffed, water dripped off his body as he made his way up to you both, the rest of them following behind.

“Fine, just don’t pick the stall directly at the entrance. Wouldn’t want anyone getting an eye full.”

Steve smirked as you turned beet red, tucking your face into your chest and walking to your bag to pretend to search for something.

Nancy wrapped her arms around herself, biting back the cool air that was coming in from the day winding down.

“Why don’t you guys get started on the fire so that way we can have dinner soon.”

Sunset was just nearly finishing up, only about a half hour of sunlight left before darkness would set in. Steve knew from experience that keeping the fire overnight would be the best bet at having means to some light and warmth.

He nodded, looking around for the items to get it going, “Yeah, sure, where’s the charcoal?”

“Charcoal?” Jonthan asked, confused, scratching the temple of his head, not remembering seeing it when you were all loading Eddie’s van that morning.

Steve nodded his head obviously, looking around at the group. “For the fire? I told you guys to pick it up.”

You sighed, standing up to face them with your hands on your hips. “Don’t tell me you guys forgot it.” 

“Are we doomed if we say we did?” Eddie spoke, a guilty inflection in his voice, because he was totally in charge of that but it had slipped his mind.

Steve shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “Just means that now we have to find some sticks and leaves. Do it the old fashioned way.”

Robin the ever so considerate one, starting snapping her fingers, pointing between you and Steve biting back her sneaky smile.

“So stop standing around and start searching! We don’t want to lose daylight before then.”

Taking a deep breath in you held back your comments of how you didn’t want to go anywhere alone with Steve since he obviously had a death wish for you. However it was obvious that this was going to be a group effort, and if you wanted to make it out of here alive, you would just have to suck it up and follow Steve’s lead.

He stared down at your bare feet, pointing at your tent.

“Put some shoes on and let’s go.” He said, before the others smiled contently, running off to the showers and leaving you both alone again.

“This is the last time I’m ever camping.” You grumbled sliding on a fresh pair of socks and slipping your shoes on, bending to tie them up.

Steve tapped his foot against the grass, shaking his head at you and your ability to nit-pick every little thing.

“You know, it would be more enjoyable if you’d stop making every minor inconvenience a big deal.”

You finished off the ties with a tug, walking over to him and glaring at his hypocrisy with an instance you were all too familiar with.

“Are you really one to be talking Mr. I got mad at Dustin Henderson for using up all my hairspray even when my date flaked on me?”

He hated that you remembered that even when it had been months ago since it happened. Neither you nor Dustin let him live it down because it was the first time he let a girl get in between his extraordinary ability to be the charming babysitter he made himself out to be. Dustin, so annoyed with his attitude, didn’t ask Steve for any rides to the arcade nor did he visit him at Scoops for a whole two weeks.

Instead, you took on the babysitting role, driving him to the arcade, dropping him off to school, and even picking the kid up at Star Court when all his friends caught a ride with Steve to be dropped off back at their place. Steve thought Dustin was being ridiculous about the whole thing until you pulled up in your car, wearing the biggest smile as you rolled down your window and sent him a cold smirk.

“Not such a great babysitter anymore, huh?” You laughed, watching as his face fell and Dustin got into the passenger of your car, waving goodbye to his friends while you sped off.

Safe to say, Steve apologized to the kid, terribly sorry and embarrassed by his behavior and even throwing in a bottle of hairspray and a free banana split every time he came into Scoops as an apology gift.

The two of you followed the trail a few feet out from the campground, trucking through an uneven rocky path and outgrown bushes. He was clearly more familiar with the area given his experience, knowing exactly where to go, taking a shortcut that passed cut through the bumpy trail and led you to a small area of dirt and trees.

“We’re looking for sticks about this size, but really any twig or stick will do.” He spoke, reaching down to pick up a large stick and show it to you.

You looked around, eyes peeled out for the sticks that were scattered in the area.

“And what about leaves?” you asked.

“Those too, but they’ve gotta be dry, almost crumbly.” He specified, walking off to start the collection process.

“Got it.”

You and Steve worked the best when there was no talking involved, perhaps that's why your friends always suggested going out to see a movie at the theaters instead of at each other's homes where you both would clearly not give a damn about causing a disturbance. But despite that, right then you both were going a whole ten minutes without insulting one another or making threats to see the other dead.

When you picked up the wrong stick of a leaf that wasn’t crumbly enough, he just grunted, shaking his head until you dropped it and found another that would suffice. That system was working well so far, so maybe that was the key: limited talking.

“Go drop that pile off and come back for more, we’re gonna need a whole bunch to last until morning.” Steve instructed, noticing that you had already gathered quite a bit in your arms.

You peered into his arms, his pile about the same size as yours, maybe a little smaller.

“Want me to take some of yours?” You suggested, wanting to save you both a few more trips up there.

He nodded, carefully stacking them on top of what you already had, steadying the pile and removing the bigger ones to ensure it didn’t tumble over while you were walking down. When you got all that you could carry, Steve gave you a cautious look.

“Be careful and walk slowly, the path gets rocky when you get closer to the camp. If you fall, just scream and I’ll hear you.” He was so serious about it, like a true camp counselor, or as you liked to call him...

“Heard you loud and clear, boy scout.” You hummed, turning around and making your way carefully down the trail.

For once you actually listened to what he said, taking your time and not rushing your way down knowing it wouldn’t do you or him any good if you ended up taking a spill and losing all the fire starter then scratching yourself up in the process. You remembered the shortcut he took, a right turn that he conveniently marked with a X in the dirt. Just a little more walking before the campsite came back into view and still no signs of your friends being done yet.

You dumped the sticks and leaves near the outside of the fire pit that was in the center of the camp. Dusting your hands off and taking a deep breath, you looked back up the hilly trail where Steve was somewhere up there waiting for you to come back.

“C’mon, princess.” You muttered to yourself, feet taking you back there with fast steps trying to beat the sunlight.

Clearly the outdoors just wasn’t your thing, easily becoming winded despite the fact that the trail wasn’t that steep. But you were trying to cut yourself some slack because for a rookie, you kinda got the hang of keeping your balance and not getting lost through the unknown woods.

“H-how many more piles do we need? I can’t do this five more times.” You huffed, hands on your hips as you caught your breath watching Steve dump a few more sticks in a pile on the ground.

He peered over at you, wiping the sweat that beaded on his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Probably one more, will do.” He answered, strolling further up, just to grab a bit more in case.

You honestly didn’t know how a small town city boy like him was so good at things like this — usually he was only good at picking up girls and making a doofus out of himself when he didn’t know how to talk about anything else beside him. 

Maybe it was those annual Harrington trips he took when he was a little boy or maybe he really was secretly a boy scout and been hiding it all along, either way, thank god it was him doing most of the dirty work and not you.

“Should I bring these down or do you want me to wait?” You shouted loud enough for him to hear glancing over at the piles he made while you picked a few more sticks up.

“You can— fuck!” He winced, clutching his palm in his other hand, starting to feel a sharp pain shoot in around the area. 

Hastily you dropped the sticks, abandoning the pile and racing to where he was while trying not to fall so that you could see what exactly was going on. There was a pained look on his face, teeth biting into his bottom lip as he turned away and tried to shake it off. But alas you reached for his wrist, bringing his hand towards you to access.

“Shit, you’re bleeding.” You whispered, bringing the injured hand closer to see if the gash was deep or not, but you couldn’t quite tell with the small pooling of blood in the way.

Steve jutted his chin downwards, showing you the jagged stone responsible.

“I didn’t see it when I went for the stick.” He explained. 

You nodded, releasing his wrist gently. “C’mon, we need to get it cleaned and bandaged before it gets infected.”

“I gotta grab the—”

“No!” You yelped, pulling him up by the collar of his shirt when he attempted to bend down for more sticks despite his injury.

He stopped, visibly stunned at your sudden attentiveness that was usually never present when it came to him.

“I’ll carry those, but you don’t pick up or hold anything else. If a splinter gets in there I’ll be the one needing to dig it out and it'll only hurt more.” You said sternly, shaking your head at him like he should have known better. 

“I thought you liked seeing me in pain.” Steve smirked somehow still able to be a little shit even with a fucked up hand. 

“I do,” You tilted your head, but sighed, “But I really don’t need the one person who actually knows what they’re doing to be the first one dead.”

“Fine by me.” Steve shrugged, forced to watch you pick up all the sticks and leaves by yourself, he followed behind you as you occasionally looked behind your shoulder to see if he was okay.

When you both finally made it back to the tents, you dropped the pile, pointing at the foldable chairs a few feet from the pit.

“Go over there.” You instructed, brushing past him with vigor as you went to your tent to retrieve the first aid kit you packed for emergencies like this, though you were really hoping you didn’t have to use it.

You flipped the case open, taking a look at all the materials it contained while you walked over to him, kneeling in front of him and deciding what you were going to do. Grabbing an alcohol wipe, you disinfected your hands before you tapped his knee.

“Show me.” You demanded, holding your hand out, until he reluctantly placed it in yours giving you a closer look at the gash.

The blood had stopped so you knew it wasn’t that deep of a cut that would require stitches or staples, but it most definitely needed to be wrapped up to prevent an infection and trip to the emergency room.

You reached into the kit for a fresh alcohol pad, ripping it open with your teeth as you steadied his hand in yours.

“Just get it over with already.” He muttered, head turning away anticipating the sting that was going to be worse than your nails digging into him.

“Don’t be a wimp.” You joked, swiping it gently over the area to get it clear from the drying blood and any outside contaminants. He didn’t pull back, only sucking in a deep breath from the mild burn but after a few seconds the worst part was done.

“See, not so bad, right, big boy?” You laughed, patting his knee again before throwing aside the bloodied napkin as he swallowed thickly, waiting for your next steps.

He watched you carefully, grabbing some sort of ointment, squeezing a small dollop onto your finger before you dabbed it over the cut making sure to coat it evenly. Then you placed two pieces of gauze over the top to keep it extra clean and enclosed. 

You repositioned his arm, letting his elbow rest upright on his knee.

“I’m gonna tape you up now, so try not to get it wet, but if you do I can always rewrap it.” You told him, getting the tape ready.

Steve was surprised by your skill, expertly maneuvering the tape through his fingers, across his palm and over his wrist, repeating it a few times to ensure that the gauze wouldn’t budge and would keep the cut sealed tight.

“Where’d you learn how to do this?” He asked curiously, watching as you smoothed out the creases as you went.

You shrugged, doing one last wrap around for good measure, “I had a phase where I thought I wanted to be a nurse.” You grinned, teeth wrapping around the excess tape to rip it off before you flattened the remainder over his wrist.

He nodded slowly, stammering out,“T-thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” You brushed it off, cleaning up the bloody wipes and putting the first aid kit back in your bag after disinfecting your hands once more. 

The sun was nearly covered by the clouds, painting the sky a darker orange shade as nightfall threatened to spill over soon. At this point, the fire needed to be started, now — no more distractions and no more arguing.

“So?” You shot Steve a look, then back down at the fire pit, “Wanna tell me what I need to do to get this thing started or what?”

Steve was more than capable of getting it done himself with one good hand, but seeing as though you were pretty stern in his efforts to not carry a single stick, not even a paper light leaf, he knew this would be no different. Instead he moved to stay beside you, acting as supervisor just so he could make sure you were doing the right thing.

“You’re gonna wanna start by making a bed with the leaves.” He instructed, watching as you dropped down on your hands and knees to get low enough into the pit as you threw them in, trying your best to make it as leveled as possible.

“It looks good,” He praised, giving you a tight smile when you looked up at him waiting for the next steps.

“You want to do it the old fashioned way or do you want to use Eddie’s lighter?” He chuckled, knowing he’d pick the easy way just like you were going to.

“Fuck that, I’m not a cave woman, where the hell is the lighter?” You strided towards his and Eddie’s tent, rummaging through the metal heads duffle bag until you felt the familiar body of the lighter.

You went back into place, flicked it on and looked at Steve cautiously until he nodded, granting you permission to set the bed of leaves on fire. Blindlessly you passed the lighter up to him, watching as the flames slowly engulfed the leaves and began to crackle.

“Now start adding a few sticks. We’re gonna need to add more throughout the night to feed the fire.” He said watching as you carefully threw some in, doing your best to cover the bed beneath it until only a little of the fire was exposed.

“Alright, that’s good enough.” He bent down patting your shoulder and feeling the warmth of the fire starting to get hotter.

“Well that wasn’t so hard.” You grinned to yourself dusting off your hands and knees, happy with your outdoor accomplishments thus far.

“Technically the lighter made the fire.” He shot back, flicking it between you both as you rolled your eyes and blew the flame out.

“Oh shut it.” You muttered, going to busy yourself with something else while Steve put the lighter back where it came from.

You propped open the rest of the chairs, randomly placing them around everyones tents and two extra ones right in front of the fire pit. Steve was watching the fire, making sure it didn’t get too big or burned too slowly — so far the bed of leaves you built were holding up and it didn’t seem like it’d be going out until morning tomorrow.

After a few minutes the voices of your friends came tumbling out of the bathrooms, seeing them all dressed in their PJ’s that somehow showed they were more prepared than you. All of them decked out in long sleeves, hoodies, and sweatpants — god, you wished you got the memo.

“Damn this is cool! I’ve only ever seen a campfire in movies!” Eddie enthusiastically ran closer, peering into the bright orange pit.

You looked over at all of them, dramatically holding your arms wide open.

“Were you guys having a foursome or something?! Steve and I did all the work and he even got banged up in the process.” You said, walking over to him to lift and show them his injured hand.

Robin gasped, running up to his side to check up on him, obviously worried for her best friend, “What the heck happened.”

Steve shrugged looking over at you with a somewhat grateful look, “Grazed a sharp rock, but it’s fine. She wrapped it up and we’re all good to go now.”

“Well shit, sorry we took so long,” Jonathan apologized half-heartedly, while his mind was celebrating that you both actually seemed to work well together when it was needed. 

“Eddie and Robin thought they saw a spider in the showers so we all had to take turns using one stall.” Nancy rolled her eyes, giving you an apologetic look, the both of you knowing Robin and Eddie were a tad bit dramatic at times.

“It’s fine, but you can make it up to us by cooking.” You grinned, you and Steve giving each other a sly look before you pointed at the icebox of food waiting to be cooked.

So you and Steve finally got to kick back… in silence of course.

You both sat in the foldable chairs, watching as the four worked diligently over the fire — Nancy holding skewers of hot dogs over the flame, Robin prodding at the potatoes wrapped in foil with a pair of tongs, Jonathan toasting the hot dog buns one by one, and Eddie feeding the fire with a few more smaller sticks.

He peered over at your silent figure, watching the way you zoned off into your own world, somehow right beside him yet a world away. You were probably thinking about something else, either all the remarks you wanted to snap his way yet were held back or maybe you were making a list of new ones to call him tomorrow. 

But he cleared his throat, attempting to get you back here with him, “Do you uhh, want a drink?” Steve asked, breaking the silence.

You blinked, turning to watch him flip open the cooler to grab himself a beer while he looked back at you waiting for your request. 

“Water, please.” You said, watching as he dug his non injured hand into the ice box to pull you out an ice cold water bottle, shutting the box closed.

“Thank you.” You said softly twisting it open to take a sip.

While doing so, you furrowed your brows, noticing the way that Steve struggled with the twist off since he was using his non-dominant hand. He almost went to put the bottle in his mouth to use his pearly whites as an opener before you quickly capped off your drink and stepped in.

“Give it here.” You said, taking the glass from his hand, and tucking the lid under your shirt to stop it from pinching your skin as you effortlessly twisted it open.

“Thank you.” Steve nodded with a small smile, taking it from you as you shook your head with a grin and went back to watching your friends.

Steve couldn’t wrap his head around how you could be so selfless but at the same time so selfish. You’d do anything your friends asked of you at the drop of a hat, maybe even without them asking to begin with — you’d just jump in and do it. But when it came to him, half the time you didn’t give a damn, ignoring every warning or piece of unwarranted advice he’d thrown your way.

It was utterly confusing, considering that you were the most selfless person to him today than you’d ever been before. You could’ve left him to deal with the cut by himself seeing as though he still had one good hand left, and honestly you could’ve left him to do the stick and leaf collecting all by himself… but you didn’t.

On a regular day if he even dared to ask for your help, the answer would be “no,” with no explanation other than the fact that you just didn’t want to have anything to do with him. So it struck a chord in his mind, wondering why now? It couldn’t just be because you both were in the middle of nowhere, he knew that much. 

Why all of a sudden was there this shift, the one where you helped him without receiving anything back?

“How is the food coming along?” You whistled towards your friends.

Nancy smiled widely, holding one of the skewers up, “It’s almost done! Maybe two more minutes!”

Robin pouted, snapping the metal tongs to get your attention, “The potatoes need a bit more time, they’re still hard as rocks.” she huffed, resting her chin on her knees.

“Did you poke them with holes?” You wondered as she frowned and shook her head.

“Was I supposed to? I didn’t know, I’m sorry.” She apologized ridiculously for something that wasn’t a big deal.

You shook your head shooting her a reassuring smile.

“S’okay! They’re gonna cook through, but sometimes poking holes just speeds it up a bit… It's okay! If anything, we can have them for breakfast.”

“Okie dokie!” She smiled, happy that she didn’t entirely sit there for nothing. 

He hated himself for watching you so carefully, taking notice of the bright smile you flashed against the moonlight and how your voice was so syrupy sweet. He never took notice of it before, but you had a radiance about you, something that everyone seemed to catch except him.

Maybe it was because half the time you were shooting daggers through him and screaming your lungs off, but now, for the first time, he felt like he was seeing a different side of you — the one he tried to fight off knowing for so long.

“Are you okay?” You furrowed your brows, waving your hand in front of Steve’s face.

He shook his head, snapping out of it and nodding awkwardly, “Y-yeah, I’m fine… you?”

“I’m okay.” You told him,  turning your attention back to your friends. 

Maybe it was your tiredness that was preventing you from being the bitch that you usually were to him or maybe you felt a little bad for him because of his injuries, but whatever it was filled the air with some sort of calmness that usually wasn’t around when he was in your vicinity.

Really, on most days, if you’d caught Steve staring at you, which most times he wasn’t unless it was full of revulsion, you would have snapped and told him to take a lap, but it was almost as if you could feel what his eyes were doing.

His gaze drinking you in slowly like the beer in his hands and trying to understand your craft. He didn’t stare through you, nor at you, but to you… trying to get under your skin in a way he hadn’t done before.

It felt…weird, so awkwardly weird. On a regular day the both of you could barely go two minutes without cursing each other out the second either of you spoke a word to each other. Now all of a sudden you both had your P’s and Q’s ready for each other along with genuine concerns about the other’s wellbeing?

God, you both couldn’t wait for it to go back to normal.

“Food’s ready!” Eddie called out, slicing through the unspoken tension.

You and Steve stood up, heading towards the food knowing you were both dying to have something in your systems after a long day. Beating him to it, you plated him a hot dog swiftly moving on as if the little gesture meant nothing.

“Condiments?” You asked, picking up the ketchup bottle, giving it a good shake before squeezing a dollop on your plate.

“Huh?” He asked confused, too wound up about your niceness.

“Do you want any condiments on your hot dog?” You clarified once more, raising your brow up at him.

He needed to stop reading into things so much.

“Oh, y-yeah” He nodded, watching as you squeezed some for him, “and mustard please,” he said, and you nodded, reaching for the yellow bottle and doing the same before you capped it off and left him in the dust when you went to sit with the girls.

Eddie snuck up from behind him, just nearly whispering into his ear lowly, “Aren’t you two being friendly for once?”

He smirked, wiggling his eyebrows when Steve looked back at him a bit startled. He rolled his eyes, walking over to the chairs near their tent and plopping down.

“She’s pitying me because of my hand.”

“Or she just genuinely wants to help you out?” Jonathan chimed in taking a seat beside him.

Steve shook his head, picking up his food, “I doubt that. She’s probably gonna use this against me for the rest of eternity.” He replied before taking a bite.

“I don’t think so man, I think she actually cares, and I think you like that she cares.” Eddie waved his finger in the air before poking at his cheek.

Steve snapped his teeth, pretending to bite the finger that Eddie quickly pulled away. Jonathan laughed at the banter because of course Eddie had to be the one to stir the pot when things were staring to cool and settle.

“She doesn’t give a damn about me….”

Steve started, trailing his eyes to where you were, watching you share whispers to the girls before you met his eyes for a split second.

“She still hates my guts.” He said as you snapped your eyes back to Nancy and Robin.

“Did we miss something while you guys were gone?” Nancy raised her brows, glancing back at Steve and the boys who were engrossed in their own conversations whilst they ate.

You shook your head towards her, swallowing your food before speaking.

“Nope, why do you say that?” You buzzed, wondering why all of a sudden she thought something had happened.

Robin chimed in swiftly, nudging your arm with a weak punch, shooting you a more than obvious look.

“Cause you guys haven’t tried to kill each other for the past hour and a half and you actually could stand to sit beside him without arguing.”

You tilted your head at her incredulously.

“I thought you guys wanted us to get along?”

“Oh, we do…” Nancy nodded enthusiastically, “we’re just wondering what made it happen considering you both tried to kill each other a few hours ago.”

Letting out a deep breath, you tried to give your best irritated look under your tiredness.

“We’re just tired that’s all. We’ve run out of insults and to be quite honest, I need to recharge my battery with some sleep before attempting to murder him tomorrow. Before you know it we’ll be at each other’s throats again.” You explained hoping they would drop it.

But of course they didn’t.

“Would it kill you to, I don’t know, be a little more positive on the outlook of you and Steve’s relationship.” Robin beamed hopefully.

You rolled your eyes, shaking your head as you glanced over at Steve’s figure.

“He still hates me,” you said, meeting his orbs split, “I know it,” you muttered, tearing your eyes away.

Neither Nancy, nor Eddie, or Jonathan, and Robin didn’t believe a goddamn word that came out of your mouths when it came to each other. Clearly things were starting to unfold and whatever it was that happened when they weren’t around to see it was obviously just the catalyst.

So many things that went unspoken for way too long were lingering in the air and they all knew you needed the space to confront it.After a while of eating, Nancy dramatically yawned, gesturing her boyfriend over to her with wide eyes silently telling him to go along with what she was doing, without you or Steve taking notice.

“We’re gonna head to bed now.” She announced, tiredly clinging to her boyfriend's side.

Jonathan nodded, wrapping his arms over her shoulders.

“Yeah, we’ll see you guys in the morning.” He said, the two of them beginning to get into their tents while calling out their goodnights to you all.

“Wake us up if you need anything.” You called out as they both hummed and zipped up their tarp for the night.

You were going to turn in too, really you were more than tired, just needing a good night's rest so that you’d be ready to go in the morning. Throwing out your plate, you walked over to your tent to grab your toothbrush and other nighttime necessities.

“I’m gonna go brush my teeth.” You said, walking towards the bathrooms.

“Wait up,” Steve called out, grabbing his own brush and jogging towards where you waited so you guys could go together.

Robin tilted her head towards your tent, as Eddie nodded, swiftly grabbing his lighter and pre rolls from his duffle bag and joining Robin inside the structure. That honestly wasn’t a part of the plan, seeing as though he was going to keep the blunt to himself, but now it was just convenient and would make the perfect excuse.

Steve didn’t bother to settle to the empty sink beside yours, instead he switched the water on letting you run your brush under the faucet first before he did his. You squeezed a strip of toothpaste over your bristles before doing the same to his guessing he forgot to pack his own which he totally did.

The both of you stood in front of the mirror, brushing in silence with the water trickling weakly. Your eyes drifted from his face to his hand that rested at his side stiffly. You knew it was probably still a little sore, but by tomorrow morning the pain should subside enough for him to move it a little more freely. 

“Do you want me to rewrap your hand?” You offered, mouth still full of toothpaste as you spoke mumbly. 

He met your eyes in the mirror, lifting his hand towards you, trusting your opinion rather than his own. 

“What do you think?”

You stopped your brushing for just a second, leaving the brush between your cheek and teeth as you picked up his hand and gave it a good look to see if there was any oozing blood or loose tape — which there was neither.

Putting his arm down gently, you shook your head. “Looks fine, I’ll just clean it and change the gauze in the morning.”

“Okay.” He mumbled, smiling softly.

Steve let you rinse first, leaning up against the wall as he watched you spit out the residue and wipe your mouth clean. You stepped away, letting him have his go while you reached into your small toiletry bag, placing your brush back inside and twisting open your lip balm to smooth over your lips.

“Want some?” You raised your brow, seeing him watch you while he swigged some water in his mouth.

He spat, turning off the water and looking at the tube, “Birthday cake?” He questioned the flavor on the label.

“Tastes like vanilla and strawberries.” You said as he shrugged, puckering his lips towards you as you applied a thin layer before capping it off and throwing it back into your bag.

He smacked his lips together, a bit of his tongue coming out to lick at it, “I can’t taste it?”

“You’re not actually supposed to eat it, Steve.” You chided, shaking your head as you both walked to the tents.

“Then why would they advertise it as birthday cake if I can’t taste the cake?” He retorted, still trying to lick at his slimy lips to taste it.

You didn’t want to get into with him over some stupid lip balm flavor so instead you held back, listening to his lips smacking, persistent on getting to try the artificial taste while you tried not to laugh. As you got closer to the tents, a different smell lingered in the air along with the smokey aroma of the fire.

“Do you smell that?” You sniffed the air, turning to Steve seeing him do the same.

He sniffled in a few times, deciphering the smell and after a few seconds, he knew exactly what it was, an unmistakable likeness to the back of Eddie’s van.

“It’s weed.”

You looked around, realizing the absence of Eddie and Robin who were just sitting near the campfire before you went to the bathroom. Now, you noticed your tent that was half unzipped was completely sealed and if you listened close enough you could hear the whispers being spoken from inside.

You stomped over to them, unzipping the tarp, pulling it roughly.

“Are you guys insane?” You hissed, tossing in your toiletry bag while staring at them in annoyance.

“Insanely hiiiigh.” Robin hiccuped with a giggle joined by Eddie’s snorts while he took another hit.

Steve peered in from behind you, his expression stern. 

“You’re not even supposed to bring that stuff onto the camp ground, you’re gonna get us kicked out, dumbass.” Steve scolded, ripping the joint from Eddie and putting it out against the ground.

“Hey! That was a special strain!” Eddie argued, attempting to reach for it but Steve pulled it behind his back, not letting up.

“I don’t care.” You said dryly, “you need to get out and go to your tent so I can sleep.”

You attempted to pull him out by the arm but he didn’t budge as easily as you thought he would.

“No, wait! Ten more minutes!” Robin whined, smacking your arm away from her friend, “You guys are letting all the good stuff out!” 

Zipping up the tent, you and Steve backed away defeatedly. You ran your hands through your hair, closing your eyes briefly trying not to let their little antics tick you off despite your exhaustion. 

“Ten minutes and I’m counting!” You warned, thumping the top of the tent before you flopped down onto the chairs hoping time would fly faster.

Steve looked at you apologetically, holding back his joking comment about how it didn’t matter that he built your tent, seeing as though you were locked out, but he didn’t want to make you more irritated than you already were… surprising right?

“Night?” He said, shooting you a remorseful smile when he stopped in front of your chair. 

“Goodnight, Steve.” You yawned, waving him off as you hugged yourself to bear the cold clad in nothing but your tank and shorts.

He nodded walking to his tent a few feet away, toeing off his shoes before giving you one last look until he zipped his tent closed. He reached for the small flashlight he packed, putting it on its lowest setting so that Eddie could see when he came in. Giving his pillow a pat, he laid back pulling his blanket over himself and attempting to close his eyes and rest.

Sleep should have come easy seeing as though he had been up since seven in the morning, yet he still couldn’t fall into slumber no matter how hard he tried. He knew it wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t in his bedroom because he’d been camping times before and sleep naturally came easy but tonight it just wasn’t budging.

He shifted uncomfortably, aware of the passing minutes that stretched beyond ten, and Eddie still hadn't joined him. He was totally sure he didn’t even hear you give them another warning from the outside, meaning that you were definitely asleep on that chair.

Sitting up to peek through the small gap he left open, there you were — head tilted back, eyes closed, arms hugging your body, seemingly oblivious to the bitter cold that was going to leave you with hypothermia. If he was really feeling like being an asshole to you, he would’ve left you out there to suffer the consequences of your actions, but he couldn’t.

Quietly stepping outside, Steve approached, bending down to gently nudge you awake.

“Psttt, wake up," he whispered, cautious not to disturb Nancy and Jonathan nearby who were dead asleep by now.

You responded with a sleepy mumble, lips curling up as you somehow shifted deeper into the chair that was not designed to sleep in like that no matter how tired someone could be.

He tried again, this time more rigid in his efforts by grabbing your hand and squeezing it, “Wake up.”

Feeling his toasty hand in yours, you groggily opened your eyes, dazed orbs looking into his.

“What?” You grumbled, eyes opening to be met with Steve’s filled with confusion.

Without much explaining, he squeezed your hand again, pulling you up, “You’re crashing in my tent tonight.” 

You had no choice but to let him pull you along, stumbling behind him as sleep still clouded your senses. 

“Why?” You groaned, rubbing at your eyes while he guided you to his tent where he widened the tarp, gesturing for you to enter.

“Because that special strain Eddie was talking about was for sleep. Neither of them are gonna budge till morning.” He informed you, resting a gentle hand on the small of your back to keep you up right as you lazily toed your shoes off.

“Well fuck me.” You muttered under your breath crouching when you stepped into the small space.

He snorted behind you, “In your dreams.” He said before zipping it up.

“Shut up,” you groaned, crawling towards the empty space beside him.

Now it was starting to feel like things were going back to normal.

You settled into what would have been Eddie’s side, a half fluffed pillow under your head and nothing else. Though their overall set up was way more comfortable than what you and Robin had going on in yours. Steve had layered a sleeping mat beneath the comforter, making the surface a little more plush that way no rocks or gravel could be felt under the tarp — plus it added an extra layer of warmth, something you desperately needed right now.

Laying on your back, you left a good distance between you both, wrapping your arms around yourself once again hoping that now you’d be able to sleep comfortably even if it was beside Steve. Closing your eyes, you focused on breathing trying to not think so hard about the shivers in your bones knowing you wouldn’t be able to feel them once you fell asleep.

“I can hear your teeth clattering.” Steve sighed, casting a glance towards you where you laid beside him, starting to rub your hands up and down your arms in an attempt to generate warmth.

“I obviously wasn’t prepared for this, and my blanket is in my tent.” You muttered, eyes still closed and tucking your knees into yourself to find some semblance of comfort.

He made a thoughtful noise, lifting up his blanket and turning his body towards you. You could feel the space tighten, the fuzzy material of his blanket skimming your bare skin.

“Get under here.” He whispered, nodding his head when you finally opened your eyes looking at him with uncertainty and confusion.

You didn’t know what to make of it, if this was some kind of cruel joke he was playing on you, where he was actually going to hog it for himself and let you spend the rest of the night with your teeth clattering. 

But deep down he wasn’t all that bad, sure he poked fun at you and made your blood boil like no other, but when it came down to morals, he had some saved for you… at least for now it seemed like. 

Steve raised his brow at your hesitance, lifting the blanket up higher.

“What’re you waiting for? Do you want to freeze to death because by all means let me know.” He challenged pretending as if he wouldn’t care. 

You swallowed thickly, turning your back towards him as you cautiously scooted under the blanket, feeling its comforting weight draped over your body. His fingers funneled you over more of the material, letting you have most of it as you quietly thanked him, tucking the throw under your neck where your fingers held it tight.

This was totally out of character coming from Steve knowing it would’ve hurt his ego a lot less if he’d just given you the blanket for yourself and spent the night with no covering. But for some reason you couldn’t place the gesture, not knowing why he would go out of his way for you or if this was some ulterior motive to hold against you in the future.

“I thought you wouldn’t mind me dead.” You said, trying to find a way to ease the awkwardness that you felt in your mind when he was just inches behind you. 

“I don’t,” he laughed, his breath grazing the back of your neck. “But I don’t want to haul your frozen body in the back of Eddie’s van.” He added with a playful glint.

There was your old Steve, back.

“C-can we just go to bed?” You stuttered, clearing your throat as you rested your head deeper into the pillow just wanting to dream off somewhere, anywhere but right there in reality. 

“Sure.” He agreed, shifting slightly before settling down and closing his eyes.

Silence enveloped you both, just the sounds of crickets from the outside and gentle crackling of the fire that burned slow in the air.

Part of you wished he maybe would have left you out there to fend for yourself or maybe just threw his blanket over you for good measure, but somehow, being in here with him, tucked away from the rest of the world made you feel even more awake than before. It was obvious, neither of you were going to be falling asleep so easily, the tension so thick you could barely breathe through it.

Steve at least tried to fall asleep, focusing on something to dream about but you were overwhelming his senses making his nerves go into overdrive. Sure he already reeked of all of your products that he had borrowed in the shower, but now it was a combination of their scents attached to your skin and hair that was filling his nostrils. It didn’t help that you unconsciously let out those soft noises, as your body shook, not fully taking in the warmth just yet.

Shifting slightly, your back unintentionally met his forearms that rested behind you. His eyes snapped open, feeling the coolness against his skin, shifting up slightly just enough to see your face.

“How are you still freezing?” Steve yelped, pulling his arm back from your frosty skin. 

You sighed heavily, repositioning your body to face him with a grunt, throwing all caution to the wind and not caring about how intimate this was. Both of you had already crossed so many lines that defined your hate fueled relationship… one more thing couldn’t hurt.

“I’m a-always cold.” You whispered, jaw wobbling through the shivers taking deep breaths to try to relax yourself. 

Steve raised his eyebrows and stared at you worriedly, “So you dying is just inevitable tonight, that’s what you’re saying?”

It came out a bit too sarcastic than he meant it to be since he was just genuinely curious to know if you were going to make it out alive tonight or if you needed to get into Eddie’s van and crank up the heater. 

You rolled your eyes, whispering in frustration.

“I can’t help it alright! Had I been in my tent, I’d be fine!”

Steve brushed your irritation off, instead moving his arms under the blanket, hovering his hands over your waist.

“Well you’re not, so I’m gonna swallow my pride and do something about it alright?” He said slowly letting his hands slide over your cold skin, watching as your face twisted with confusion. 

“What are you… oh god.” You groaned realizing exactly where this was going – a mirror to earlier in the lake, but this time you weren’t so disgusted. 

He was practically a human furnace, pulling you closer into him barely leaving inches while the warmth from his body cascaded onto yours. You tried not to tense or move abruptly, aware that his bad hand was weakly grasping your back and the last thing you wanted was to make it worse.

Instead you froze, breathing stopped for a second as you searched his face trying to see how he was feeling about this whole thing. He didn’t look displeased or annoyed that he was doing this for you, instead he was calm, cool, and collected as if he wasn’t holding the girl who tried to stab him a few hours ago.

“Do you have a better idea?” Steve suggested, looking down at you awaiting to see your next moves: either telling him to fuck off or staying silent for the rest of the night.

To his surprise, you eased into his hold, hooking your own arms under his and closing the rest of the space between you. Your chest was pressed up against his, one of your legs fastened over his hip, while the other knocked against his thigh. It was a definite contrast to the hours earlier where he practically lugged you through the lake, if only you knew things would be so different now.

“We are not to speak about this after tonight. Not even a peep.” You warned, squirming impossibly closer to him before shooting him a  serious look.

He nodded, eyes shutting tightly like he was trying to dream it away.

“I’m erasing this from my memory as we speak.”

“Goodnight.” You whispered, closing your eyes, hoping that would be the end of it.

“Night.” He muttered back.

Third times a charm… or maybe not.

In this position you could feel everything and there was no way to escape it.

His warm breath fanning over your face, his chest rising and falling against yours, the soft thumpthump of his heart echoing beneath your ear, and the hair on his arms delicately brushing against your exposed skin — everything was him wrapped up in your arms. Literally.

Steve could feel it, the way you tried to control your breathing by taking a breath in when he breathed out. But you were trying too hard to time it perfectly, overthinking and making sure he didn’t notice when it’s all he could really do, your back heaving against his hands was all it took for him to speak up.

“Relax,” Steve murmured gingerly digging his fingertips into your skin with his eyes still closed

“H-huh?” You opened your eyes watching his serene features that showed he wasn’t as edgy as you.

“I can feel you…” He started, voice low and silky as he spoke, “you’re nervous.”

You shook your head as if he could see you, swallowing the lump in your throat.

“I…I’m not nervous, it’s just—this is different, we don’t do this.” You explained only partially truthfully considering you were more than just nervous.

“It’s just for tonight.” He said trying to iron out your worries the best that he could.

“No, I know, it’s just that—”

“I can feel your eyes on me, you know?”

Steve chuckled, peeking one of his eyes open, catching you in the act of trying to pinch them closed before he noticed.

You crumbled, letting out a weak laugh as you just opened them, finding him doing the same. The two of you staring at each other, the only sliver of light from the small beam in the corner of the tent, accompanied with the moonlight seeping weakly past the tarp.

Steve lifted his head just a bit, gesturing back to his bag just a few feet away from where you both were in the middle of the area. 

“Do you just want to take the blanket? I have a hoodie I can use in my—” His arms ever so slightly loosed and you stopped him.

Your fingertips squeezed tenderly into back, your leg pushing down on his hip to stop him from moving any further.

“No, its fine, this is fine. I don’t mind sharing.”

“You sure?” He laughed quietly, resting his head back down on the pillow.

“Cause you don’t have to pretend you want to share? We hate each other so I’m very familiar with our dislike when we’re forced to be around one another.” He reminded you, his tone light hearted not exuding any malice this time around.

You swallowed, nodding your head reassuringly as you let up your tense hold on him.

“I know…I-I still hate you, but I can deal with this for one night.”

“And you’re okay with this? Us… cuddling?” He asked, just wanting to be extra sure because cuddling didn’t have to be a part of it if you didn’t want it. 

“Positive.” You hummed, giving him one last look before you fluttered your eyes closed.

“Okay… good, good.” He hushed, nodding more so to himself content that you seemed to relax a bit more.

He should’ve closed eyes and went off to sleep, but now it seemed like all he wanted to do was watch you. Make sure that you were comfortable enough in his arms and warm enough to brave the night until morning and then you’d never have to be this close to him again.

He never took his eyes off your face, taking all of you in at once — long lashes kissing the skin under your eyes, cheek cozily pressed into the fluff of the pillow, lips relaxing in a straight smile and under his touch your breathing was stable, synchronized with his. He couldn’t believe he was holding you right now, getting the chance to see you like this — it was his biggest privilege.

You could feel his eyes, he obviously sucked at taking his own advice and he was clearly proving your point that he was a hypocrite… but you already knew that. 

You knew a lot of things about Steve, mostly all of the bad and annoying parts about him, but you also knew the good parts. The ones you blocked off and stored way back in your head because you never wanted to associate them with him. 

The fact that he wasn’t all that bad under those preppy button ups and head of hair.

He loved your friends, just as much as you did, treated them with kindness and savored every moment he spent with them. He knew how to take care of six rascals all by himself while also being the one they ran to when it came to all their teenage problems. He never showed up empty handed to any hangouts, always doing his best to bring anything whether it was a plain bag of chips or the camping equipment he had hidden in his garage.

Steve knew how to push your buttons, and perhaps that was the very thing that frustrated you the most — the realization that he had an undeniable effect on you. And at the same time, it was the very thing you were terrified of knowing — that if things would have been different, maybe the irritation you both had felt for each other could have just been affection from the get go.

The thick and imposing walls of animosity you’d built up for each other, was just a defensive mechanism. A weak hollow barrier that tried to disguise what you really felt, something so strong that only now broke through the bounds and unleashed a flood of emotions.

What was one more line crossed, when you both already jumped bridges?

“Steve?” You called out to him, hoping he wasn’t pretending to be asleep.

“Yeah?” His reply came swiftly, and his eyes flickered to watch your lips form the next set of words.

“You still hate me right?” You suspected, running your tongue over the bottom of your lip as you waited.

He nodded his head obviously though you couldn’t see him.

“Y-yeah. Why?” He furrowed his brows puzzled by the sudden question.

“What do you hate about me?” You pressed on.

A deep breath fanned across your face, followed by the tsking of his tongue, “I don’t think we should—”

“Tell me, Steve… please?” Your hands pressed firmly against his back, a silent plea echoing through the touch, not because you wanted to hear the words coming from him, but because you needed them.

He swallowed thickly, watching as you waited with your brows raised up yet eyes still closed. He didn’t understand why you wanted this from him all of the sudden. Why now when all his mind could do was fill up with the parts of you that he wanted to forget? The parts of you he silently spent hyperfixating on because you thought more about the people around you rather than yourself and he wished he could be half the person you were.

He liked to joke that you were his competition, his rival of sorts, but in actuality, he could never measure up to your level of compassion and he was more than fine with that. Settling for watching on the sidelines with a convincing snarkiness on his face, while on the inside his bones weakened and his brain went haywire wondering how you could ever exist in the same lifetime as him.

There was nothing he truly hated about you, he didn’t think there ever could be.

Mindlessly his fingers moved along your back, rubbing small circles and sweeping across your soft skin before he cleared his throat from the roughness and finally spoke into the millimeters between you.

“I umm, I hate the way you never forget about something I did.” He started, mind wandering to the afternoon where you reminded him of such instances with Dustin. 

“Hmmm.” You hummed, nodding your head along and relaxing your features now that he was working with you.

“I hate the way you always remind me to slow down when I’m driving around with the kids.” He admitted, guiltily confessing to his occasional speeding when they were running late and so was he.

You grunted, snickering weakly, “I need them all in one piece.” 

He agreed, a faint smile tugging at his lips, acknowledging your concern.

His fingers stalled against your back, taking a sharp breath in, letting the words rest on the tip of his tongue whilst he gave himself a moment. A moment to take you in, to see you as such, to give himself a little longer with the mystery hanging in the air wondering if you could feel what he felt and understand what he was about to say.

“And I hate the way you look at everyone except me.” He said it so quietly that if you weren’t listening close enough you would have missed it.

But how could you ever let something like that float away so easily?

You flickered your eyes open, looking up at him past your lashes, staring into his orbs for all he was worth. Like he was the only thing to ever exist before your eyes and all you wanted to do was memorize him. 

“Like what?” You whispered, never breaking eye contact.

“Like this…” He proclaimed, pulling his injured hand away from your back and bringing it forward to cradle your face ever so gently.

His thumb traced your cheek, your breath catching in your throat, letting him gaze at you in a way he never had before. It was concerning how quickly you established that from this moment on, Steve was the only person who would ever have the privilege of seeing like this. Stripped down in the confines of a stupid tent, that somehow felt like its own little oasis away from the rest of the scary world right outside.

It was just you and him and your own world.

“You look at everyone with these eyes, so eager and happy.” He said, trailing down to the corner of your lips, brushing his thumb across delicate skin.

“You smile at them like they’re everything to you.” he said, nearly letting his hand slip away as if he was unworthy of such a feeling.

But before he could, you brought your hands up, wrapping gently around his wrists to keep him there like your life depended on it. Wanting nothing more than to show him that he could — he was willing and able, and had all the permission from you to stay here, as long as you could get him to.

“I hate that you don’t look at me like that.” He swallowed, shaking his head more so himself, because all he ever wanted was this and for so long he pushed it away.

“I am right now.” You finally spoke, almost breathlessly, trying to reassure his anxieties about the past, the same ones you were feeling. 

“Hate that it took this long.” He confessed with a weak laugh.

You smiled half apologetically. “Me too.”

It was all the confirmation you both needed.

No more lines.

No more bridges burnt.

Nothing keeping you both from the truth.

He had bit the bullet and you had jumped into the deep end and there was no going back from here. Time wasn’t stopping for either of you despite the intensity of the moment. There was clearly a beginning, you and him having a rough one, but that didn’t mean that your ending had to be so treacherous. 

The gentle gesture of him pushing the strands of hair that fell over your face, sent shivers down your spine, a sort of electric touch that should have had you running away but all you felt was the need for more. He didn’t miss the way your eyes shot down to his lips, staring at them wondering his next moves before you met his again. 

“I’m gonna kiss you now, if that’s okay.” He whispered the words ever so quietly, leaving them to linger in the space as a delicate invitation hoping it was one you’d accept. 

“More than okay.” You nodded, closing your eyes, feeling his face inch closer to yours.

The first touch of his lips upon yours felt like sparks flying, holy ground beneath you both as you took your time, exploring everything in between — what you imagined it would be like and the unexpected that had you both going down the twists and turns just trying to familiarize yourself with each other.  

His lips moved against yours unhurried, gentle but deliberate, not daring to miss even an inch of you. You felt as if he was taking your breath away, leaving you to succumb to a sort of poise that usually never came this easily. With every press and swipe across your lips, you were jumping and falling into somewhere you never wanted to leave. 

You nearly wanted to cry when he pulled away, leaving you only to catch your breath, his chest moving up and down deeply, while you were ready to go again and again and–

“W-was that okay?” He asked, fighting the urge to kiss you again and make you go dizzy. 

You smiled like an idiot, lips blushing with a pink as bright as your cheeks.

“Perfect. Can we do it again.”

“Yeah.” He beamed, moving to hover up on his elbows with his face above yours, giving you the access to wrap your arms around his neck and pull him into you. 

The second kiss was filled with hunger, the both of you trying to make up for the lost time you had spent at each other's throats when you could've been glued to each other's mouths. But you were positive you would both be able to make up for it eventually, and tonight felt like it was going to be the first of many. 

His teeth barely grazed over your bottom lip, prompting a moan to rip through your throat before you pulled away breathlessly. 

“I—I want you.” You spoke, voice full teetering between desperation and confidence. 

Steve wasn’t expecting it at all despite the circumstances that just took place with the kiss. He’d be fine if all you wanted to do was spend the rest of the night making out like depraved teenagers or if you wanted to cuddle until you fell asleep. 

He swallowed, looking into your eyes searching for any hesitancy on your features but you were positive that there wasn’t anything you wanted more than Steve.

“Are you sure?” He implored, desperately wanting to hear the words fall from your lips. 

“With everything inside of me.” You nodded with a smile bringing your lips back to his once more, not being able to help yourself. 

You could feel his grin against yours, a self indulgent one that still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he was kissing you with every fiber of his being hoping that with each press and slide it would compensate for how much of an asshole he’d been to you. 

He moved his lips, creating a trail of kisses over your jaw and down your neck, gently sucking the skin to pepper you in love bites. 

“P-please, Steve,” You moaned, moving your head to give him more access to the sweet spot on your neck, “Need more.” 

He licked over the hickey, pressing a quick kiss to the developing bruise before he unwrapped your arms from his neck, placing them on your sides. Nudging your shoulder a bit, you laid fully on your back while he moved onto his knees, staring at you with a look so promising and true.  

“You don’t have to beg, at least not for tonight. I swear.”

His fingers smoothed over your sides feeling the warmth coming to you quicker now. 

“I want you…so so bad.” You pouted, reaching for his hands to intertwine in yours. 

“You have me.”

He brought yours up, placing a chaste kiss on the back of your hand before he let go and hovered above the waistband of your shorts.

“Can I?”

You nodded, lifting your hips slightly as he glided them off your legs, stripping away one layer of clothing yet revealing another — a black, lacy, number that definitely wasn’t planned for tonight, but he wasn’t complaining, in fact he found it a little humorous taking into the account the occasion. 

“You packed a thong for camping?”

Steve snorted lightly, kissing the inside of your thigh as you blushed, tucking your cheek into your shoulder.

“I…I was rushing and packed it accidentally.” You told him, silently thanking the universe and your horrible planning that somehow got this perfectly. 

“Lucky me.” He rasped, toying with the lace around your hip bone, peppering kisses across your thighs, not making any move to strip you free of them yet as he wanted to worship all of you first. 

You sat up slightly, running your hand over his covered shoulder blade.

“C-could you take your shirt off?”

 “Course I can.” He nodded quickly, sitting up just enough to work his arms through the shirt.

The garment was quickly pulled off his body, thrown off the side wherever he had flung your shorts. 

“I can take mine off, too—” You started, moving up a bit more as you pulled at the bottom of your cami but before you could get any farther, he stopped you, squeezing your wrist gently.

“Only if you want to, s’okay if you don’t.” He assured you, wanting to know this was all about you being comfortable.

You smiled warmly and shook your head at his politeness, still trying to take all of him in, not just for the body before you, but for how attentive he had been towards you. 

“No, I do… I just—just wanted to feel more of you, that’s why I asked.” You explained with a light laugh. 

“You’re cute.” He chuckled, rubbing his hands up and down your thighs as you pulled the material over your head discarding it.

Absentmindedly your arms wrapped around yourself, bashfully trying to hide away as if that would make Steve forget that you were topless in front of him. Finally he got to see what the slivers of skin that was hidden away beneath clothing or in this case, made an appearance just hours ago.

“Don’t hide. You’re so beautiful.” Steve spoke softly, reassuring you of whatever nervousness you were feeling, slowly lowering your arms down letting him see you completely. 

You could see and hear it in the way his breath hitched in his throat, eyes stuck on your chest before a smirk played on his features and he finally trailed them back up to your eyes. 

“So you’re always excited to see me, then?” He teased, reaching up to run his hands along your ribcage, feeling your laughter rumble beneath his skin.

“Shut up.” You chided, pushing playfully at his shoulder. 

“You got just the thing for me to do just that.” He tilted his head down and you nodded, giving him the green light to do what he pleased.

His lips wrapped around your sensitive skin, peak hardening in this mouth while the other was met with the flick and roll of his fingers. You were sure by the end of it, your chest would be littered with love bites of all shapes and sizes. Steve made the extra effort to glide across your chest, showing both breasts the attention they so rightfully deserved with his mark left behind. 

“Mmm, S-steve.” You moaned, arching up into him and nails grazing at the nape of his neck. 

“Gotta make up for lost time.” He mumbled against your, sucking another hickey but this time right above your sternum, completing the other half to make a lopsided heart that you’d see in the morning. 

“I want more.” You begged, finally getting the courage to pull him away, eyes peering down at him. 

He smacked his lips, nodding as he leaned up and pecked your lips, murmuring against them.

“I got you, princess.”

His kisses trailed down your body, taking his sweet time leaving your skin with a plethora of hickies, some small and subtle, and others that would settle darker by morning. Something about it, the possessiveness of it all added to the longing, knowing he was marking you as his — and he was the only person you wanted to belong to right now… forever even. 

Placing a final kiss above the waistband of your intimates, he looked up at you, toying with the fabric. 

“Let me get these off you, yeah?”

You hummed, letting your feet sit flat on the comforter, slightly lifting your hips up to help him. His fingers slipped under the lace, tugging them away from your core and off your legs, putting them off to the side. 

“So fucking pretty.” He murmured, gently pulling your knees wider apart enough for him to slot himself between them and lay on his stomach. 

His eyes were fixated on your core, taking you in with such hunger but at the same time awe, as if he was admiring the most beautiful work of art just before he would dig his claws into it. No ones had ever looked at you like that, taking their time and drinking you in, it almost made you want to shoo him away with all the attention he was giving you. 

“Steveeee.” You whined, laughing behind your hands that covered your face. 

“Why’re you hiding?” He puffed out a short laugh, splaying his hands over your stomach rubbing gently. 

You pulled fingers apart, staring at him timidly. “I—I don’t know, I just never thought that we’d… you know.”

Stop pretending like we hated each other and confessed our feeling then deciding to fuck in a dingy tent in the middle of nowhere? Yeah he totally knew what you meant. 

“I know what you mean,” He placed a reassuring kiss on the inside of your knee.

“We can stop whenever you want okay? No questions asked, you say the word and I’ll stop and we’ll put our clothes back on and—”

“I don’t want to stop. Promise, just a little nervous.” You assured him, sitting up slightly to bring your hand to his cheek, thumbing the freckles peppering his skin. 

“Don’t be, I’m gonna make you feel so good. I promise.” He smiled, leaning into your touch and kissing the pulse point on your wrist. 

Steve nodded, silently telling you to lie back and let him fulfill his promise which you were sure he was going to over deliver on. And god were you right. 

His tongue swiped between your folds, shuddering beneath him you couldn’t help pinch your eyes closed trying to bottle up the feeling and keep it in your memory forever. 

“F-fuck,” You moaned, relished in the feeling of each pass and kiss, “Feels so good, Steve.”

His thumb swiped over your clit, breath fanning over your skin as he watched your back arch with a smirk on his face.

“Told you so, princess.”

He dove back in, tongue flicking over your sensitive button while he worked two fingers into you slowly. The stretch of his thick digits and the mixture of his warm tongue sent your hands flying, in search of something to grab and immediately you went for Steve’s hand. 

Somehow through the pleasure you didn’t feel the tape on his hand, that is until you squeezed and felt the layer blocking the contact of skin on his. The tape slightly crumpled in your hold causing your eyes to fly open, staring down at him. 

“S-shit, I’m so sorry!” You whispered, quickly letting go of his hand nearly backing away from Steve thinking that you hurt him.

His fingers abruptly left your core, quickly slinging his arm over your hips stopping you from moving away from him. The bad hand immediately reached out for yours, intertwining your fingers together despite your uncertainty that didn’t want to immediately hook between his. 

“S’okay, I’m okay, promise.” He assured you, kissing your mound before shooting you a wink as he squeezed yours.

“You can grab my hand, squeeze as tight as you want. The nurse who wrapped it up did a hell of a job, thing isn’t gonna hurt me.”

It made you giggle, kissing his knuckles, murmuring against them,  “Hmm, still, I’m sorry.”

He shook his head, lips brushing against your center as he got back to work.

“Shhh it’s okay.”

Steve was always more of a giver, something he usually bragged about and you thought was absolute bullshit, but now you understood seeing as though he was definitely giving you something to come back for, in more ways than one. 

His tongue dipped lower, dragged up from your aching hole to your sensitive clit.

“You like that?” his voice vibrated across your sensitive skin, sending your body into squirms. 

“Yes…p-please, right there,” You moaned, gripping his hand tightly as he repeated the action. “Just like that, baby.”

“Say it again.” He demanded though it more so came out as a desperate plea. 

“Baby?” 

He let out a groan, nipping at the inside of your thigh, “I love hearing it from you…c’mon, let me get you there, baby.”

It was the end of the beginning from then on out with one goal in his head. Feasting on you like you were his last meal trying to savor your sweetness and all at once engrain the image of your blissful face in his mind and those addicting moans that dared to get louder with every second that passed. 

“I’m so close.” You whispered, trying to keep your voice down,  “I—I, Steve, baby, please.” 

Your thighs began shaking around his head, stomach heaving in deeper and twisting tightly, teeth digging into your lip trying to muffle the sounds of pleasure that wanted to escape, and your hand clutching onto his for dear life – the only thing grounding you while his mouth sent you into ecstasy. 

“Cum for me.” He vibrated against you, lips wrapped around your bud as he sucked and watched you explode. 

“Baby, f-fuck.” You gasped, looking down to meet his eyes before it was too much for you to handle. 

Euphoria washed over you, similarly to the colors of the sunset. Bright oranges and pinks flashed across your vision, painting your skin with the feverish warmth before it fizzled out into darkness, specks of white making their appearance as your body buzzed.

Steve didn’t pull away until you stopped moving your hips into and away from him, trying to chase and escape the pleasure all at once until you came down. Even then he didn’t dare to leave you just yet, taking his time to wait until you came down from your high. He pressed gentle kisses over your inner thighs, making his way up to your midsection, resting his chin there, your chest moving beneath him as you caught your breath. 

“Hey pretty.” He murmured, your eyes peeking open to see him — lips and chin coated with a sheen of you in the best way possible. 

You swallowed, giving his hand three squeezes and you cleared your throat from the hoarseness, “H-hi Stevie.”

Stevie. It was a stupid nickname you used against him all the time because he hated it, but right now it seemed to have the same effect on him as you calling him baby just a little while ago. 

Using his elbows as leverage, he scooted up to you chuckling as you pulled him down bringing his lips to yours as you tasted your essences on him. Your legs hiked up around his hips, bringing his clothed crotch down to your core, just a piece of fabric separating you both, but even then the tent in his pants wasn’t hard to pick up on. 

“Lay down for me, please.” You mumbled against his lips, poorly attempting to roll him on his back despite his sheer strength. 

He pulled away only slightly, furrowing his brows at you. “Baby, baby, we don’t have to if you—”

“I want to, so bad,” You pressed your hips up into him, inducing a moan to rip from his mouth, though still he didn’t roll over just yet. 

You frowned, loosening your legs, hoping you didn’t cross the line,  “Do you not want to?”

Quickly he shook his head, moving to hold your face in his hands. “I do, sweetheart, you don’t know how badly I want to have you. But I kinda feel horrible here,” He grimaced, face twisting with embarrassment. 

“W-was hoping to have our first time together in a bed, preferably mine but yours could work too, but–”

“Wait!” You cut him off with surprise, lips curling up.

“You thought about this?” You suspected with a grin, teasing him with a poke on the cheek.

He tried to play it off with an unconvincing scoff that didn’t cover the croak in his voice, “M-maybe?” 

You beamed, running your thumb along his bottom lip, batting your eyes up at him. “Well if you’re okay with it, we can totally use your bed the next time, and the next, and then the—”

“Of course.” He agreed quickly, making you laugh as you pushed his chest away

“Lay down for me, baby.”

He did as you said, taking your spot as you sat up on your knees pulling at the waistband of his sweats, working them off his ankles. His cock sprung up, the tip blushing with a bright read, aching and throbbing to be inside of you. 

“Commando? And you want to call me naughty?” You teased, licking the palm of your hand and wrapping it around his length, pumping slowly. 

He let out a shaky laugh, cursing at himself, “Kinda was regretting it earlier.” 

“Why’s that?” You began shifting to lay flat on your stomach. 

“Was worried you’d notice.” He mumbled. 

His hands reach out to run up and down your back, soothing your skin desperately wanting to touch you despite the closeness already. 

“Notice what?” You hummed gazing up at him. 

“How hard I got when y-you wrapped me up.” He admitted, shuddering when you licked a stripe from the base to his glistening tip. 

“Me serving you do it for you?” You half-joked, pepping kisses back down. 

“Fuck no, that wasn’t it…” He shook his head, sitting up slightly to watch you. 

“You just—f-fuck, you knew what you were doing and you took control and you…you fucking called me big boy and t-the way you bit the tape off.”

Clearly you wounded him up so much, something you never thought was capable, but alas the hate you both supposedly shared for each other had no bounds when it came to this sort of tension. 

“Make a mess for me big boy, and I’ll clean it up, yeah?” You winked, finally giving him what he wanted, wrapping your mouth around him. 

“S-shit, baby.” He hissed moving your hair towards one side to see you clearly. 

“Making me feel so good, princess.” His hips resisted the want to thrust up into your mouth, controlling himself knowing that good things always took time and you were already making him feel great. 

“So big.” You murmured, messily kissing the tip of his cock, giggling at the way his hips stuttered up knocking closer to your lips. 

“Just right for you though right? Only yours baby.” He groaned, throwing his head back onto the pillows. 

“Mhmm,” you hummed, wrapping your lips around the tip, sending vibrations up his sensitive length.

“Pretty too.” You whispered, pulling away teasingly. 

He let out a hoarse laugh, shaking his head ridiculously. “Can’t be when I’ve got the prettiest sight right here.”

The compliment went straight to your core, the need to make him feel good was the motivation in your movements. Your wrist moved over the part that you couldn’t quite fit in your mouth. 

“That's it baby, taking me so well,” He praised lowly trying to keep his voice quiet enough for just you to hear. 

His fingers threaded through the roots of your hair, neither pulling or pushing, just holding you there and letting you go at your own pace. 

“Shit, babe, y’gotta stop.” He hissed, tugging you off his length as you moaned, pouting up at him.

“Want to taste you…please Stevie?” You begged, mouth trailing down to his heavy sack, taking one of them in your mouth, before popping off only to mumble against them, “Let me taste you, please baby.” 

How was he going to deny you, then?

“F-fucking shit, yeah, okay doll, I’ll give it to you.” He moaned, nodding more so at himself, trying to starve off the orgasm as long as he could knowing he was going to burst any second now. 

You grinned, releasing his balls with a pop, quickly taking him into your mouth again. 

“I’m c-cumming, fuck—” 

He let the rest die in his throat, knowing that if he went any longer he’d wake up your friends and cause an even bigger mess that he nor you wanted to clean up right now. 

“How was that?” You grinned, swiping your thumbs over the inner corners of your mouth, sucking off the remnants of him. 

The act alone made his cock twitch, somehow springing back up ready for you. 

“C’mere, you minx.” He whispered with a smirk, threading his hands towards the back of your head to gently tug you up to his face. 

“Hmmm, Steve.” You giggled, letting it get cut short with his lips pressing deeply onto yours.

“You’re making it very hard for me to hate you.” He accused, pulling away from you with a playful smirk. 

“You or your dick?” You wiggled your brows, eyes lowering between the both of you where his hardness rested against his thigh. 

“I’m kidding… about the me hating you thing, not you making me hard.” He clarified, holding your chin between his forefingers. 

It was clear that the both of you couldn’t really hate each other. 

“You wanna be on top? I think it’ll be easier for you to control it at your pace.” He suggested, giving your hips a squeeze before letting his hands roam across your bottom. 

“Okay.” You whispered, forehead resting against his as he snuck a hand between you both, pumping his length one, two, three times before slowly lowering yourself on him. 

Taking in a deep breath, your eyes pinched closed, a gasp leaving your mouth feeling his breach your walls. 

“S’okay, baby, take your time.” He murmured, kissing the tip of your noses while his hands rubbed comforting circles over your hip. 

“Y-you’re so deep already.” You whined, chest heaving as you tried to catch your breath, overwhelmed by the stretch. 

His bottom lip jutted out, pouting at you with his eyes so soft, though his mouth spoke a tune so condescending and downright filthy.

“Aww baby, I know, but you’re taking it so well right?” He went a step further, resting his palm over your cheek, prompting you to look him in the eyes as you nodded quickly, wanting nothing more than to feel all of him.

Your fingers wrapped around his wrist, pulling it away from your cheek, “Touch me, please? I-I just need a little—” 

He understood immediately, dropping the cocky facade for just a moment to make you feel the most comfortable knowing the first time was always the most intense. 

“Shhh, I got you, I’m right here.” He swiped his tongue over two digits, working them between your bodies until he found your clit, rubbing gentle circles over the bud, just enough to help distract you from the initial stretch. 

“O-oh, fuck, Steve.” You keened, focusing on the pleasure and stretch jumbled all in one. 

“That’s a good girl.” He praised lowly. 

You tightened around his girth, eyes shutting blissfully at the overwhelming feeling and the praise that spilled past his lips. He noticed it right away, chuckling more so at himself because all of the times he had called you pet names for fun, perhaps you liked it more than you let on. 

“You like being called a good girl?” He challenged, his free hand tightening around your hips to stop you from rocking against him. 

You whined through a nod, opening your eyes and pleading for him to let you keep up the movements. 

“Words.” He urged, still not giving into you until he heard what he needed to hear. 

You swallowed thickly, lips parting as you whispered softly. “Y–yeah, like when you call me that.” 

He smirked, leaning up just enough to peck your lips, mumbling against them as his arm loosened from your hips and he settled comfortably on his back. Slowly but surely your hips proceeded where they left off, moving experimentally taking the time to adjust to his sheer size. 

“Atta girl, gotta tell me what you like so I can make you feel good baby.” 

“L-like it when you talk to me.” 

“You do?’ 

You hummed quickly, nodding your head, “So much.” 

Growing needier you lifted your hips up slightly before fucking yourself back down onto him. Your lips parted with a pleasurable moan while he growled, throwing his head back against the pillows. 

“Oh, there you go sweet girl. Fuck, already taking me so good.” He said, digging his fingertips into your hip bone. 

“F-full, m’so full of you.” You sighed, slowly repeating your movements trying to make it last as long as you could. 

“But you love it right?” He murmured, words soothing and arousing at the same time. 

You nodded admittingly, “Please don’t stop…S-steve please,” 

The shake of your thighs and the uneven grinding told him all he needed to know, and he was more than happy to let you sit back and give you your second fix of the night. 

He pressed himself off his back, arms wrapping around your body and hugging you close. Your limbs enveloping his neck while you rested your forehead against his, breathy moans leaving your lips as the new position pushed him deeper within you if that was even possible. 

Steve’s lips brushed yours, an oath tumbling past them, “I won’t baby, promise. Just wanna make you feel good okay? Be a good girl.” 

It was all you needed to hear before the waves of pleasure came crashing down with no breaks. You were practically putty in his hands, your hips moving against him the way he wanted you to. He set the pace and found the rhythm that had you nearly slumping against him. 

“So fucking tight, your pussy’s squeezing me baby,” He muttered, lifting your hips higher as his own thrusted deeper from below.

“Making me feel so good, princess. Does it feel good for you too? Just what you need right?” 

If you weren’t so blissed out with pleasure, perhaps you would have the ability to actually give him the words he wanted to hear, but you felt an entire universe away, so caught up in Steve and everything he was making you feel. His words were only taking you higher, adding to pleasure and bringing you closer to the end. 

You managed to take a sharp breath in, jaw shaking as your teary eyes blinked at him, “J-just need you now…only want you.” 

He moaned darkly, his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he tried to starve off his own orgasm that was teetering the edge. The only thing keeping him from letting go was making sure that you got there first, just so he could watch you unravel and hear the sweet sounds that could never be erased from his memory. 

“C’mere, sweetheart,” 

His thrusts slowed just enough for one of his hands to snake up towards the back of your neck, pulling you in for a kiss before guiding your head into the juncture of his neck. 

“It’ll go deeper this way,” He murmured, placing a quick peck to your cheek before continuing the onslaught of ecstasy. 

“Oh God…Steve….” You whimpered, nails digging into his skin. 

“You’re mine now.” He said through gritted teeth, fingertips practically bruising your back, “no one’s gonna get you like this except me, got that?” 

All you could do was nod against him, humming out an agreement as you tried to keep your voice down, finally aware that your friends would be able to hear you both if you didn’t try to get a semblance of control. 

“Fuck, shit babe, so perfect, just taking all of me inside you huh? You’re the only one who ever made me feel this— shit, so good.” 

He was just making it harder for you to keep quiet at that point. 

“O–only want you…I–I only want you like this.” You murmured, pulling your face away from his neck just enough for his eyes to catch yours. 

Steve couldn’t help himself, thrusting up into you with a slow yet deep vigor, bringing his lips to yours and stealing your breath away. He never quite imagined that this was the way you both would be confessing your feelings and begging to finally be each others’ but he wasn’t complaining — he just wanted to seal the deal and show you how real it was to him. 

“Cum for me, baby. Be a good girl and do it for me…just me.” He mumbled against you, feeling the tightening around his shaft, the convulsing of your walls signaling your release. 

“F-fuck! Oh my god, Steve.” 

Your body shook, eyes shutting tightly as your hips rutted against his stilled ones letting you ride out your orgasm as he held your tight and shushed your moans soothingly. 

You slowly opened your eyes, staring at him dazingly, “Wanna feel you cum, give it to me, please.” 

He nodded, letting your face untuck itself from his neck and instead grabbing his cheeks to keep his eyes on yours. Eyes silently begging for his release while your lips parted with shallow moans still feeling the aftershocks of your orgasm followed by a small ripple of pleasure that came again. 

His thrusts became frantic, nose flaring with a deep breath taken, pushing his hips as far as they could go forcing you to collapse against him as he filled you.

“That’s it, baby…hmm, so deep.” You smiled lazily into his chest, nails raking down gently across his shoulders and down his arms as he came down. 

His heartbeat rang through your ears along with the uneven breathing the both of you were sharing, letting the 

“Well,” He huffed, staring down at you, smoothing your tousled hair down, “That’s one way to warm up.” 

You rolled your eyes playfully, smacking his cheek with a soft pat, “Hypothermia wasn’t gonna kill me. You almost did.” 

“Did I really fuck you that good?” He smirked smugly. 

“Don’t make me start hating you, again.” You threatened with a yawn, eyes fluttering shut and relaxing into him. 

“Kidding babe,” He said, kissing the top of your head before patting the small of your back, “Let me get some clothes on you.” 

He pulled out of you, quietly apologizing for the emptiness before cleaning you and himself up. His t-shirt covered your body and he managed to slip your underwear back over your legs. Steve settled for his sweatpants, no shirt, just letting the blanket and your body heat keep him warm throughout the night. 

“We’ll talk about this more…in the morning? O–or when we get back home?” You proposed sleepily, snuggling deeper into his body, weakly throwing one of your legs over his hips. 

His big hands came down under the blanket, caressing your skin with soft passes as he hummed pulling you closer, “Yeah baby, we’ll talk about it, then.” 

There you and Steve Harrington were, spending your first night together but not as mortal enemies — you guys had practically fucked the hatred out of each other, but really... it never existed in the first place. 

BONUS SCENE: 

You did a one over at the trunk of the van, mentally ticking off every item and looking back at the campsite to make sure you all didn’t leave anything behind. Steve was busy checking the tires making sure they all had enough air for the drive back that way there would be no issues. You shut the trunk closed, making your way over to the passenger door that was kicked open with Eddie smoking a cigarette. 

“You’re in my seat.” You cross your arms over your chest, foot tapping against the asphalt as Eddie stared at you confused.  

“You’re mistaken…this is my seat.” He retorted with a chuckle, gesturing to himself before blowing out a puff of smoke into the air.

“Not anymore.” 

“It’s literally my van.” 

You rolled your eyes, lamely gesturing back to the site where the tents were once set up, “And you literally kicked me out of my tent to almost freeze to death, therefore you owe me. Now get out of my seat.” 

“I’m not moving.” He said, standing his ground. 

“Move.” You commanded, reaching to tug him by the arm though he didn’t budge. 

“Nope.” 

“Fine,” You huffed, dropping his arm before calling out, “Steve!” 

He came around the front of the van, dusting his hands off and jutting his chin towards the both of you.

“What’s going on?”

You pouted deeply, eyes sulking towards your friend who tsked and rolled his eyes at your feigned innocence. “Eddie won’t let me sit in the passenger seat.” 

“My van, my rules.” Eddie smirked, tapping the hood of the car. 

Steve stared at you both, shaking his head in amusement before turning to his friend, “Dude, c’mon, just let her sit up front this once.” 

Eddie’s face twisted in betrayal, obviously Steve was already wrapped around your pinky and he just couldn’t believe he was this easy. “You’re shitting me right? I thought I was your right hand man Harrington?” 

You snorted, eyes glancing up at Steve with a blush coating your cheeks, “Oh trust me he doesn’t need a right hand anything when he has me—” 

Eddie faked a gag, finally relenting and stepping out of the seat. He stubbed out his cigarette on the gravel and waved his hands in surrender. 

“Take it for all I care! Just keep your goddamn hands to yourself, and I mean it Steve, both hands on the wheel!” He shouted, whipping the back door open and cramming himself between the rest of your friends who laughed at him for thinking that Steve was going to save his ass. 

“You must be proud of yourself, huh?” Steve chuckled, giving you a hand as you stepped up the siding and slid into the seat comfortably. 

“Very.” You responded, bending out an inch to peck his lips not caring that your friends saw the act.

Steve smiled against your lips, hands coming to rest over your waist, practically lurching himself across your body as you whispered quietly for only him to hear. 

“Now come on… you promised we would use your bed the next right, remember.” 

His eyes widened, cheeks turning red as he swallowed and finally pulled himself away from you, “Oh I remember.” He smiled, tapping your knee before he shut your door, “Buckle up, princess.”

💌 reblogs, tags, comments, + likes are greatly appreciated! leave a comment and let me know if want to be added to my taglist!! 💌

a/n: so this is my very first enemies to lover fics...(at least i think it is????), this was actutally supposed to be very short and brief, almost a one shot/blurb kinda thing but it turned into a feature length fic...is anyone surprised hahaha. anyways, i hope you guys like this!!! i don't usually write smut because I feel like i suck at writing it and describing it but i hope i was able to do this fic justice -- let me know what you guys think and thank you so much for sticking around &lt;;3

taglist: @translatemunson @kennedy-brooke @manda-panda-monium @tvserie-s-world @givemeth @steveharringtonswife @the-alchemys @loving-and-dreaming @awkotaco24 @engenelxver @elfiaaaa @pbs-theundeadmaggot @johnricharddeacy @gaysludge @keerysfolklore @micheledawn1975 @ihatepeanutss @bakugouswh0r3

[runningupthatvecna]

get the peach(es)

bestfriend!eddie munson x reader

it's the day after chrissy got vecna'd and you and the gang decide to check up on eddie at rick's. he's still in so much distress that you can't help but selflessly stay with your best friend (who you've been harboring a crush on for quite some time) and keep him company. 6k words, not proofread.

cw: the good old friends to lovers trope, eddie is an anxious bean who just needs to be held (by you, ideally), mutual (and not so secret at all) pining, i wrote this with fem!reader in mind (she/her pronouns) but can also be read as gn i guess, fluff, hurt/comfort (for eddie), pet names, mentions of chrissy's death, there shall be kisses and a lot of softness. nothing too explicit but minors are still advised to LEAVE

a/n: totally not self indulgent, that scene of him being so terrified in 4x02 ripped me to shreds so this is my fix-it attempt, trying to still my need to hold him and scratch his head. disclaimer: this piece of writing is based on the ending of that episode, meaning all credits for the setting go to the respective writers. sources to the header images here, here and here. lovely divider by saradika. ok thank you so much for reading byeeee love y'all <3

–––––

The overwhelming need to befriend the satanic metalhead found you at that party at the Wheeler house. You had almost said no to Nancy when she invited you, knowing damn well how the night would end. Steve passed out with a girl on his lap, Robin silently pining after Vickie from some corner of the room while clinging onto the red plastic cup in her hand, Jonathan getting higher than a kite with his old school mates, the younger kids asking you every five minutes if you could give them a ride since you usually were the one staying sober.

Additionally this time, there would be Eddie Munson. This familiar stranger Dustin, Mike and Lucas had met and somehow befriended over the last months, due to them joining his DnD club. "He might come off as a bit intimidating ... but I promise he's super chill and easy going!", Mike had tried to convince his sister, poking the tip of her shoulder repeatedly with a bunch of pleases during lunch break in the editing room of the school's newspaper. Until she rolled her eyes theatrically and agreed to let the ambiguous stranger, which the whole town collectively perceived as not really fitting in (and who you both certainly knew under the not so chill reputation he carried around), attend the celebratory events at Casa Wheeler. Occasion: Karen, Ted and their youngest leaving the house for more than one day, off on vacation.

You'd always kinda stayed out of his ways, used to observe his antics back at school with a silent laugh and this .. intrigue poking at your guts. To you he always stood out, and if anyone asked you'd be hesitant to admit it, but his willingness to go against the flow and not conform to the acceptable standards set by society was honestly impressive. And besides, surely this whole mysterious drug dealer rockstar image must just be a fassade and deep down he's just a dork, right?

His eyes follow you through the living room, an echo of your name crossing his mind repeatedly after having pulled Dustin into a corner for a brief interrogation. He finds it endearing how quickly and almost bashfully you look away every time your curious gaze meets his. As you redirect your focus to the conversation you're becoming engaged in, there's a soft smile creeping onto your lips. Little did he know it would soon start to haunt him in his dreams at night.

"Anything specific you're looking for?"

God, his voice. The close proximity invites your nose to inhale a mix of fresh cigarette smoke, bergamot and sandalwood, allowing you to sense what can only be him standing behind you as you skim through the cabinets of the Wheeler kitchen. You turn your head for your eyes to confirm your assumption and what they find is the deepest brown of round baby cow eyes they've ever met, up so much closer now. The paring of his gaze and plush smile somehow manages to dissolve every little prejudice you've been involuntarily harboring about him. Eddie Munson, the town's freak. Prime reason for the existence of the satanic panic. Drugs. And then you realise that you should probably do the polite thing and give him an answer. "Yeah uh, I was just trying to find the peach syrup", holding his gaze with a small lopsided smile, lost in its warmth which you wouldn't have dared to expect from it, before facing away from him again. He snorts a little, "peach syrup?", pauses to bring a thumb to his upper lip, lightly scratching the skin above as if to wipe something away, before he removes it again and the dimples appear around the corners of his mouth, "that is oddly specific." His response spreads a smile over your face, and the next thing he says widens it, "looks like you have taste though."

You move one step to the side, about to investigate the insides of the next cabinet, the kitchen itself almost empty of people with only three others chatting away in the corner across the island. He follows, undoubtedly trying to stay close, and the heat from the fire he just ignited somewhere inside of you rises to your cheeks. "Thanks, I really like peaches. Especially in my drinks. It adds a little ... kick to my sobriety", you explain, Eddie now quirks an amused eyebrow paired with a lopsided smile at you, and as you get to the last cabinet it dawns on you (and also Eddie) that this household severely lacks peach syrup. An atrocity. Thanks Ted.

After he helped you rummage through the entirety of the kitchen without success but under a lot of small talk, the metalhead vanishes from the function for an hour or so. At least that's what your brain concludes when your vision fails to spot him among the people who are in attendance. Maybe he's selling out of Nancy's bedroom. Maybe he's puking up his insides in the bathroom because he had too much of that weird beer he's been downing all night. Maybe he's banging some random girl in the bathroom upstairs. Or summoning a demon. Or both. At the same time. You once again try focusing your attention back to the conversation you are involved in. Munson already feels so dear to you that the lack of his presence is starting to form an ache in your heart. It's tugging on those strings with how much you already want him near you. Yeah. You're gonna be in trouble with this one.

And then he stumbles into the room from the direction of the front door, an event you're totally unable (and unwilling) to miss. He doesn't look like he just puked, nor sold a whole lot of the stash since you notice it still bulging out the left ass pocket of his black jeans. Instead, as he pushes past the small groups of people socialising – and towards you – while you notice a red net of round fruits dangling from his right hand, and you start to think that his disheveled hair and that rosy tint on his cheeks might actually not be from shagging either. He meets your gaze again as he approaches you with a grin and your heart dares to swell at his attentive gesture (you think you might as well pass away on the spot).

"Have some, peach."

It's not syrup, but you'll take them anyway. And with your next drink, you swallow down not only that peachy sweetness on your tongue, but also whatever this tingly feeling in your chest is.

"Chchhrhch.."

Pause.

"Hey, uh– chrhchhr.."

Silence in your bedroom, the only thing illuminating the space is the moonlight softly falling through the window.

"Chrch– a-are you there?"

You stirr awake from dozing off in your bed, trying to piece together the information your senses are giving you.

Eyes gone dry, you have to blink a few times. Figure out which year it is and so on.

Confusion lies between the static crackle for a moment. That nap after your shift at the diner was necessary. God, you need to fucking quit.

"No I'm sure she'll pick right up, just– hey pleeease b-be awake, goddamn it!–"

Is it already past midnight?

You don't know and you can't tell, the clock on your nightstand still broken. What you do know though is that the familiar voice belongs to your friend Dustin and it's desperately trying to get ahold of you.

They must have found him.

"Dustin? I copy, where are you? What's going on?", you finally grab the device from the nightstand, fully awake and aware of your surroundings now.

You need to know. If he's okay.

There's that all too familiar instant tingle in your chest again, an ache that made itself familiar to you for the first time when he was introduced to you at the one and only Wheeler party several months ago. The dungeon master of Hawkins High's Hellfire club, the lead guitarist of Corroded Coffin and a super chill and easy going guy, to put it in Mike Wheeler's words.

What you didn't expect back then was your heart starting to develop that feeling, that tingle you'd always get to feel when you were in his presence, or like now, when his name is threatening to spill from your friend's lips on the other side of the connection at any moment.

"Aha! See? I told you she'd respond in no time."

You can practically feel Dustin's shit eating grin through the frequency, basking in being correct over Steve Harrington once again. It never gets old between these two.

"Oh my god", Steve's muffled voice is what you can make out vaguely from the off, he's probably palming his face.

"Dustin!", your voice disappears into the device, and your impatience grows with every passing second, hoping he gets the hint.

There's the sound of a door falling shut, leaves rustling under shoes, he must be outside now.

"Alright, okay yeah, so we found him at Rick's and he's really upset and he's been asking for you. I know it's late but can you meet us out here? And maybe, uh, stay with him?"

It's not even worth questioning. You're already wearing shoes. Your biggest hoodie in tow, you stumble into your kitchen with the intention to raid your own snack drawer. Pulling out Eddie's favourite, which you of course had stocked up on ever since hanging out with him at your place had become more of a weekly routine for the both of you.

Ten minutes, you told him. You'd be there in ten.

The drive feels like forever. The longest ten minutes of your life, you think.

You know the route like the back of your hand, having driven along the gravelly road leading from the last intersection before Hawkins' border to the outer world, to the serene woods surrounding Lover's Lake countless times. Eddie would take you here ever so often, for picnics, an occasional smoke after picking up a new delivery from Rick's, cloud or star gazing, listening to Metallica and Tears for Fears on Wayne's old walkman.

The gravel crunches underneath your white reeboks as they land on the ground. You close the door to your car as quietly as possible after you've taken out the bag and your hoodie.

Dustin and Steve are stood outside the boathouse, waving like madmen in the darkness once you come into their periphery.

The younger boy hugs you tightly.

"So glad you could make it", he gets out, the relief palpable through his voice as well as the grip he holds you in for a brief moment.

You look at them both after Steve presses you against him cordially, and breathe out through your nose, making your nostrils flare.

Dustin cracks open the case to you as he starts to ramble about the state in which they found your best friend, "well first he attacked Steve with a broken bottle, we had to put in great effort to convince him that we'd be on his side, and we came to the conclusion that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, basically."

What you want right now goes without saying. Everyone here knows how close you and Eddie are. As friends, of course. No one would think anything different.

Without wasting another second, the boys lead you inside where Max and Robin are knelt on the wooden floor. Heads turning towards the entrance of the room where you're now standing.

The sight of what's offered to your eyes, sitting opposite of them, breaks your heart.

You can see that he's slightly shivering, eyes glassy in the dim lit room. A small smile tugs at the corner of his lips though once his brain grasps your presence, and he can't help anymore but let the water fall once his eyes lock with yours.

The pain that is swimming in those two deep warm brown oceans hits you like a dagger to the chest. Over the months of being friends with him you'd seen him various different states, none of them comparable to this.

"Peach", his shaky voice announces your arrival and the sound of your nickname spilling from his lips cracks through your bones. The bag that's slung around your shoulder drops onto the wood with a dull thud.

Wobbly legs carry him towards you with a gentle shove past Robin and Max. You're once again reminded of your best friend's sheer physical strength as he wraps his arms around you, instantly burying his face into the crook of your neck.

One arm of your own sneaks around his torso, pressing him against you as tightly as your own strength allows you, while your other hand comes up to bury itself underneath the mane and to end up scratching soothingly over the scalp above the nape of his neck.

Eddie lets out a muffled sob, sniffling into the collar of the sweatshirt you threw on in a haste. He doesn't really want anyone to see him like this, certainly not Steve Harrington, so he clutches onto you so tightly that he thinks you might just feel his heavy heart beating anxiously against your chest.

And you do. How could you not with the amount of world he means to you? Like an automatism your other hand rubs slow circles over his back. Comforting him in the best way you could. Not a conscious decision you make.

"Okay so, m'not meaning to ruin the party, in fact I'd love to stay for another round of doom talk, but I really should get home soon, guys", Robin scratches the back of her head after she gets up from her huddled position next to the wooden crate Eddie had been sitting on. Max joins in and agrees, mumbling something about having to move her mom from being passed out on the couch again into her bed.

"Yeah me too, actually. My dad's gonna be fucking pissed. We'll see you tomorrow, yeah?", Steve's voice echoes through the room and you can tell he's already shoved Dustin back outside, itching to drive the kid home.

As Eddie processes having to stay in hiding, added the possibility of everyone leaving without him, his grip on you tightens even more.

"It's okay, Eds", you speak softly, head slightly tilted so your cheek rests on the dark frizzy mop you could call his hair. The skin on his neck and scalp so warm underneath your fingertips as you keep scratching it, emphasizing your presence, "I'll stay."

A soft muffled whimper is what you get as a response, and the way he lets you see him in this state melts your insides to a puddle.

You just need him to be okay.

They wave their goodbyes behind your back, accompanied by mumbles of "see you in the morning", and you can't even bring yourself to turn your head around, fully focused on making the young man in your arms less terrified of the world. A world he was sure was now going to come for him with all its force – in deep conviction of him being responsible for Chrissy's misfortunate end.

The door falls shut and Eddie muffles a quiet thank you into the fabric of your sweatshirt. The skin on your neck is damp with his tears, wet eyelashes tickling every time he blinks.

"It's okay, Eds", you softly keep repeating your words to him while continuously rubbing over the denim of his signature Dio vest in a slow motion, when he feels the urgency to claim the truth into the collar of your sweater about what has happened, "I– I didn't do it, I swear."

As if you would need any convincing.

"Oh no of course you didn't, I know that", you're looking for a way to ease the distress this entire situation is causing him, his quivering voice adding to your desire to soothe him to inner peace, "can I make a suggestion?"

Eddie nods with another sniffle against your collarbone, the round wet tip of his nose brushing against the column of your throat lightly. To his ears, your voice sounds like silk right about now.

"How about we head over to the main house and get ourselves a little more comfortable? Since we're gonna be here for a little longer? My god you probably haven't slept or eaten at all, have you?"

You can feel him nod his head again with a hum this time, and you start to think that the tears might not just be pouring because he just witnessed someone suffer a gruesome death right in front of him, but also due to physical exhaustion.

It makes your heart ache even more, that tingle still present, even more so now. It hurts to see your best friend hurt.

He just needs to be okay. And in that heart of yours there's that little spark of hope that leads you to believe you could be the one helping him with that.

You'd really want that. Be all his to find comfort in, to hold close, to kiss stupid

Stop.

A sigh escapes your lungs at the thought. That tingle, that longing, it's selfish. It familiarly pools in your belly and slowly drips downwards. You push your brain aside. This is about soothing your best friend now.

"C'mon then", you utter softly, encouraging him with your hand to lift his head from where it leans against your shoulder.

For your heart it's almost too much to look at, the hurt still swimming in the glassy big brown irises, his waterline red and puffy. The soft smile returning to his lips causes the wet apples of his cheeks to push up slightly, reflecting the dim light coming from the one torch Robin left you, placed on one of the crates.

He really hadn't been able to close an eye for a single second since he he'd gotten up for school the day prior.

You smile back at him almost bashfully as you slowly create space between your bodies.

Eddie is grateful that it's you who grabs his ringed hand next.

He squeezes yours, hoping to get the message of this meaning something to him across.

And he closely trails behind you as you lead the way.

The house feels empty, like no one's really been here in months. You'd never been inside. The few times you'd accompanied Eddie grabbing stash you'd stayed in his van, waiting. But as far as you now can make out in the darkness, there's a couch with knitted blankets, a little TV with a whole stack of VHS almost rising as high as the screen itself, spilled and spluttered empty cans and papers and wrappings littered all around. Maybe this is why he never let you come inside with him. Keeping you out of this definitely not sterile mess. Along with keeping you out of the business.

In the middle of the living room, you let go of his hand and shuffle one step away from him. He's inside now. Safe. Job done. Doesn't need physical contact. You shouldn't, he's your friend. You feel like something between you would break if you'd go there.

Eddie thinks otherwise, regarding close proximity at least. He promptly follows you into what you believe to be the kitchen where you hope you might find a tea bag or two. He comes up behind you and encases you in his arms as you rummage through the cabinets (feels familiar, hm?), not at all ready to say goodbye to the warmth of your body pressed against his own just yet.

You giggle at the silliness of him putting weight on you just to make it harder for you to reach into the cabinets. It's endearing. And very Eddie.

Twenty minutes later and there's two mugs – cleaned to your best ability – with steaming hot liquid on the sixties wooden coffee table. Next to them a plate filled with the almost equally hot insides of a ravioli in tomato sauce can. Thank Rick for a still functioning microwave.

You drape the knitted blankets over both you and Eddie as you settle into the cushions. The only light existent coming from two lit candles on said coffee table. It wouldn't be too wise setting up the torch you think.

The side of Eddie's face glows in the orange yellow, his wide brown bambi eyes dried after the first grand storm, and there's this tug on the corner of his pink plush lips again. He exchanged his leather jacket for the freshly washed hoodie for comfort and a small part of you hopes he doesn't spill his dinner onto any of it.

You lean back into the backrest of the worn out couch and watch as he eats, a domestic thing you've done a thousand times already, yet you still find comfort in knowing that he's nourishing himself.

Or well, in this case, inhaling the raviolis.

"Thank you Peach", he moves to put the empty plate back on the coffee table and it makes the spoon chink and glide along the edge, "I really needed this."

His voice is a little hoarse, probably from the emotions of the hours behind him. Maybe he has indeed calmed down a little. His hand moves down to your thigh, squeezing.

You give him the most empathetic smile you can bring yourself to display, painfully aware of the blaze that is transpiring through your leggings and seeping into your bones, "it's no big deal, really. I mean it is– uh, being there for you, is."

And he can't bring himself to look up at you. Instead, he stares at the empty plate on that coffee table in front of him.

"And to me as well. It really helps that you're here."

He doesn't bother moving the calloused warmth of his hand from the soft warmth of your thigh. It lights your entire nervous system on fire. In a good way.

And that's when you begin to wonder if everything that has just happened and is still happening right now changes anything.

"I'm so glad it does", is all you're able to get out.

Eddie decides that it's time to lean into your side and wrap his arms around your torso once again, drop his head back to its favourite place with a soft content little hum.

He just needs physical comfort. Of course. Just that. Nothing more, nothing else.

The words are redundant but your mouth articulates them anyway, "try to get some sleep, yeah?"

His back already lifts and falls evenly. You place your hand on the back of his head that rests in the crook of your neck again, scratching through the curls lightly, searching to help him shut off even deeper.

–––––

The candles have gone out by the time your eyelids slowly open. It takes you a moment to recall the location you fell asleep in, and you hope that the nightly darkness the whole room is now filled with hasn't invited any stranger to take advantage of your unconsciousness.

There's a warm hand holding your face, the pad of a thumb tracing over the apple of your cheek softly. It makes its way from the bridge of your nose to the outer corner of your eye, and back. And forth. And back. And forth.

You must have moved to lie down on your back in your sleep, with Eddie's weight still on your body, legs entangled. It's not the first time you've slept like this, there had been movie nights that had ended similarly.

His hand caressing your cheek though, yeah that is new. There's something unspoken in the air this time around. Your stomach is doing flip flops when you realise that he is propped up on his elbow, just .. looking at you. With eyes that don't require light to hint at whatever it is he is trying to say, or maybe not trying at all.

"Eds, what are you doing?", you ask almost in a whisper followed by a lopsided smile, expecting an unserious answer, because he always tends to make a joke whenever he tries to avoid conversing about emotions regarding his heart.

His thumb stops its acrobatics on your cheek, comes to a halt.

"I'm–", he takes a deep breath before he continues, "I'm just so grateful it's you that's here right now."

Your hand comes up to cup his. Brush over his rough knuckles with a thumb of your own. Enjoying the warmth that is seeping from his palm into your skin.

"Yeah, I figured you were gonna be a little opposed to spending the night with Harrington", you laugh, an attempt to turn your nerves into humour.

Eddie snorts a little, "yeah right, it's almost like you know me", he grins and pushes himself even closer to your face than he already is. It doesn't necessarily help in extinguishing the fire that's consuming you whole at this point.

"It's almost like we're best friends and I know what you think of him because every time Dustin or literally anyone else mentions his name around you, you're not necessarily secretive about it."

"Hey, my own worldview is not my fault, it's just– ... he just kinda seems like a douche of the highest order."

"He's quite alright, Eds. Try giving him a chance, I think he'd look great as Coffin's tambourinist."

He snorts again and you feel his breath on the column of your neck next when he dips his head down, nose pressing against the soft skin, his small giggle being swallowed by the collar of your sweatshirt.

Your favourite sound. Ever. Followed by the relieved moan Eddie lets out at the way your other hand is softly rubbing over his shoulder blade. The vibration against your neck makes you twitch as much as being pinned into the couch cushions by his body allows you.

It's soothing as much for you as it is for him.

When he lifts his head, the soft gaze he eyes you with is enough to let the goosebumps erupt. Even in the darkness of the room you can still make out those round buttons that could melt the entire north pole.

"Thank you, Peach, really. I'd be goin' mental right now and probably tryin' to counter that by smoking an equally mental amount of the stash I've been hiding here."

Your heart aches.

"I'm just glad I can be that kind of comfort to you, Eds. You don't have to go through whatever the fuck this is alone."

"I know I'm never gonna be alone as long as you are there."

You almost cry yourself now, his words making your hand travel from his own to his cheek, almost passing out from the way his eyes bore into your own once again.

Eddie isn't sure what it is that is making him feel lightheaded right now. The whole rollercoaster of events of the past hours. Or your words of affirmation. Or mayhaps it is your cute soft hand with that little ring on your thumb which is gently swiping over his damp skin.

That cute soft hand he'd been imagining countless times at night, silently yearning for your eyes to look at him differently, to finally see him in a different light the next time you'd hang out.

Probably a combination of just everything.

You reciprocate his soft half-lidded gaze, hand moving from his cheek to tuck some of his hair behind his left ear, revealing that delicate silver hoop earring you'd gifted to him for his birthday, after having talked your ear off about getting his ear pierced for literal months.

He'd insisted you join him for the appointment, "another metal moment for the books", as Eddie had called it, the need to have his hand held during the stab comically urgent in the way his voice sounded when he called you that day. And in the pace in which he picked you up.

"I'm here no matter what", you respond to his sentiment, that hand that brushed his hair away resting on the side of his neck while leaning the weight of your head into his palm that is still attached to your cheek.

Eddie's confidence reaches a new all time high with the admission of your unconditional support being stirred into the cocktail of hormones and emotions that's been circulating in his bloodstream for a generous amount of time now.

Because then he goes on by saying impossible things.

Impossible things with a slightly less platonic undertone.

"You're so fucking sweet, has anyone ever told you?"

You smile as you shake your head, heat rising to your cheeks once again and you're sure he won't be able to see just how flustered he's getting you (joke's on you he does).

You're also sure he's out of his mind for saying that. Now.

"A shame, honestly. You should scold your best friend for not telling you sooner. Tell him what a fucking idiot he is."

Eddie earns another giggle from you. Music to his ears. Better than Metallica. Okay maybe not but .. pretty fucking close.

"I'll let him know next time I see him", you say with a grin, playing along with pleasure, and you ask yourself why it is only now that you realise just how fucking close his face is to yours.

There is a moment of silence in which Eddie hesitates articulating whatever is seemingly bugging his mind.

"Do you, uh, still like him?"

If you lifted your head just a little your noses would be touching. A silly and utmost redundant question, and yet, Eddie dreads your answer. If the circumstances were different, less dystopian and tragic, you'd seriously wonder what would spark the doubt in your friendship in him, but considering that everyone else would be going to pour their judgement over him, you understand.

Every word exchanged between the two of you at this hour is soaked in mutual infatuation, something the idiots in both of you are slowly starting to fathom as well.

"Of course I do, he's everything to me."

As you say it, you can't help the grin which reappears reliably each time you finish verbalizing your thoughts. It's contagious, you notice.

"And do you think – just hypothetically of course", it's only then he breaks eye contact to clear his throat, "of course", you interrupt him still smiling and cocking an eyebrow at him, "d'ya think it would be okay for this best friend to, uh, maybe...", Eddie pauses, internally watching the ship containing his confidence set sail slowly and ultimately letting the irrational thoughts win for tonight, "would you let him..."

Eddie generally wasn't someone who lacked confidence. It showed in the way he boisterously wandered the halls of Hawkins High, the way his demeanor never changed, his mask never faltered no matter who was around. Except for you. You who he had always granted a look underneath the impulsive, extroverted surface.

"Eds", you try everything in your power to stay calm even though everything inside of you is screaming right now and you're certain you can feel your pulse in your earlobes.

"Would it be just insane of that best friend to kiss you right now?"

You want to squeal and kick your feet, pull him into your face, pinch your own forearm, pass away, leave the house and never return, and stay right where you are forever, buried underneath your favourite metalhead, the parts where your bodies are touching practically on fire, cosy and content.

Instead, the most fond smile spreads over your lips as you try to contain your internal overwhelm.

It's still dark, the only light source being the full moon outside. Eddie's so hopeful of your reciprocation and even more terrified of ruining his entire life at the same time, those deep doe eyes at this point pretty much resemble the shape of the space rock orbiting earth. Rejection from you, his pretty Peach and the Bonnie to his Clyde, would be unbearable.

"I think so," you almost whisper, the hand that's been rubbing over Eddie's back coming up to lightly trace one of his eyebrows with your index finger because you just can't seem to not touch him in some way, "but you should know that I love his insanity."

Your small giggle is being silenced by a soft and cautious kiss from Eddie Munson. Like he doesn't want to break you. Or he's afraid you'll snap out of a haze, slap him and leave if he starts kissing you like he really wants to.

And then it's you who goes for it, you feel at home, right where you belong, you don't think you've ever felt this good. The hand on his jaw tugs him closer softly, pressing your lips to his with a bit more urgency.

It gives him all the confirmation he could possibly need.

That tingle, it grows and fills up your chest and shoots through your entire being, goosebumps and all. Eddie moans and breathes against your lips, tongue dancing over the thin skin, asking for permission.

His ringed hand digs deeper and slowly moves to the nape of your neck, intending to hold you in place, afraid you could slip away from him if he didn't. This blossoming thing between you could slip away from him. If he didn't.

It's so soft, the way his lips touch yours, and before you know it they move to your cheek, to your jaw, down your neck before Eddie comes up again, smiling from ear to ear, to gently bump his nose against the tip of yours and his lips return home with a soft and deep hum escaping from his lungs into your mouth.

Relief floods his veins along with whatever it is you're doing to him. The ability to shut out the insanity of the past hours is what he so desperately wants to cling to for as long as you allow him, even if the dawn will remind him of the horrid reality he's involuntarily become subject to live through now.

"You're making things so much better, Peach, you're so sweet, so fucking cute, so fucking good for me, do you even know for how long I've been dreaming of this?"

Eddie greedily pulls your face into his again, not even giving you a chance to reply and not nearly getting enough of your affection it seems with how fervently his tongue searches for yours.

A gentle collision of skin.

The soft whimpers you let out only spur him on. You not backing away from him, staying with him, letting him be this close to you?

You, the only constant source of consolation Eddie's ever really had.

Life changing.

Soft touches follow soft touches, your thumb traces his jaw repeatedly.

"You don't–", kiss, "for how long–", kiss, "I've been dreaming–", kiss, "of you as well", you breathe against him and Eddie thinks he might be about to resort to sniffling into your collar again with the amount of relief he is experiencing.

You'd let him.

"Yeah?", he presses his nose into your cheek with his eyes closed, smiling from ear to ear, relaxing his entire body into yours as you let him slide inbetween your legs.

"Yeah, you know how much of a sucker I am for peaches", you grin, another peck to his cheek, his jaw, his neck, your hips slowly finding a rhythm against his own.

Eddie groans at your allusion with a wide grin on his face (and the feeling of your warmth against his dick), before pressing his lips against yours again lovingly, "me too baby, me too."

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