#on today's episodes of ''why are steve's parents''

[sluggrr]

not the right time of year but steve spending thanksgiving with dustin and his mom november ‘84?

probably

[southelroydrive]

the tide is in, it will go out.

pairing: robin buckley x f!reader summary: your girlfriend helps you through a depressive episodeword count: 1.9k title: restless moon by maya hawke warnings: reader suffers from mental health problems, reader talking bad about themselves. a/n: half written during a depressive episode cause why go to therapy when you can write fanfiction instead?

you knew the world was slowly slipping away from you. as the days turned into weeks, you knew that it was getting bad again. the ache in your chest grew heavier and heavier with each day that passed, a burden on your shoulders as time dragged by. so overwhelmed by emotion that you were numb. feeling everything at once but yet nothing at all. emotions too complicated to put into words.

and when the numbness pulled you into its embrace, your energy drained with it. you pulled away from the people you loved, isolating yourself to preserve what little energy you had to designate it to simply existing. everything became too much.

this wasn’t the first time robin had witnessed you go through something like this. in your years of friendship and eventual relationship, she knew when to give you the space you craved and when to step in. and today was that day.

after a gruelling shift at family video, the only thing your girlfriend wanted was to see you. with one of your favourite movies in hand and some snacks she hoped to persuade you to eat, she waved goodbye to steve as she walked up to your front door. his voice carried through the evening breeze as the car drove away, a reminder to say hi to you from him when she got in.

after opening the door with the spare key you gifted her not long ago, she made her way up the stairs to your bedroom. coming face to face with your door, she raised her fist to knock on the wood softly.

no response.

“baby?” she calls, her voice gentle and dripping with worry.

no response again. she almost considers turning back, thinking maybe she was wrong this time and you weren’t ready to see her. but she knew. she knew you needed someone, and she’d rather be tortured by russians again than leave you when you needed her most.

gently cracking open your bedroom door, she peers inside. her muscles relax, a deep sigh of relief leaving her lips as she takes in the sight of you asleep. fully stepping into your room now, she can see your features illuminated by the soft light on your bedside table.

she steps closer to the bed, the mattress dipping under her weight as she sits beside your sleeping form. from here, she can make out the small crease in your forehead, lips downturned into a grimace. even in your sleep, you’re not completely at peace.

her own lips twist into a frown as she takes in your appearance. your eyes are puffy, tinted red along with the tip of your nose. cheeks pale and void of colour, wet with fresh tears that she brings a hand up to wipe away.

she can’t bring herself to wake you just yet, not when it’s likely the only sleep you’ve been getting given the dark circles beneath your eyes. instead, she heads downstairs. knowing your parents wouldn’t be home until later that night, she sets up the movie in the living room along with the selection of food and drinks she had gathered on the coffee table. she had just come back from the kitchen with two glasses in hand, when she hears your voice.

“robs?” it’s a meek, shaky call of her name. it makes her heart clench in her chest as she looks towards the origin of the sound, gaze landing on you.

you’re bundled up with a blanket clutched tightly over your frame as you descend the stairs, the fabric dragging across the steps behind you. she hears the soft thud of your feet meeting the wooden floor, the sound padded by the fluffy socks she recognises as the ones she bought you the previous christmas.

she remembers the bright laugh that left your lips when you uncovered the socks, complete with a cat’s paw print on the bottom. a ghost of a smile spreads across her lips when she remembers you smacking her over the head with a pillow, unimpressed with her response of “you are what you eat” when you asked what made her think of such a gift.

but those sweet smiles and angelic laughs are but a distant memory when she looks at you now, almost a shell of who you normally are.

“hey.” she offers you a sheepish smile, putting down the glasses on the table. “i hope you don’t mind, i uh-“ she scratches her arm nervously, looking down at the ground. “- i kinda invited myself in…”

“it’s fine.” your lips form into a tight-lipped smile, one that doesn’t quite meet your eyes. your gaze finally land on what she had set up in the living room, expression softening as you take in the sight. “what’s all this for?”

“oh! well…” she makes her way over to you, placing a gentle hand on your back to guide you towards the couch. she sits you down, quickly slumping down beside you with an arm slinging over your shoulders. “i just thought i’d do something to make you feel better, you know? remind you that i’m always here for you.” a warm smile rests on her face as she looks down at you, gaze filled with adoration.

“robbie…” your eyes grow misty, a small but genuine smile spreading across your own lips at her sincerity. your heart warms, turning to putty in your chest under her loving gaze. “you didn’t have to do all this.”

“maybe, but i wanted to.” she chuckles softly, gently wiping away stray tears from your cheek. her fingers graze over your cheekbones, carefully tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “gotta make sure you’re taking care of yourself, don’t i?”

you hum quietly, eyelashes fluttering at her feather-light caresses. “you’re too nice to me.” you murmur, head dropping to rest your cheek against her shoulder.

“hey…” she whines in offence, brows furrowing. she takes your chin between her thumb and pointer finger, tilting it upwards till you meet her gaze once more. “look at me… none of that, alright?”

“i’m serious, robs. i-“ you sigh shakily, tears brimming your eyes once more. “i really don’t deserve all this and i-i…”

“oh, baby.” she mumbles, reaching up to cradle the back of your head as she pulls you close to her chest. her other hand wraps around your waist, rubbing soothing circles on your back. you sniffle, a small sob escaping you as your walls begin to crumble. your emotions overflowing, spilling through the cracks.

a “let it all out, it’s okay…” from your girlfriend is all that it took to let those walls finally collapse. violent sobs wrack your body, hands balling into fists around the fabric of her shirt as your tears stream down your cheeks. her grip around you tightens, whispering sweet nothings into your ear as she holds you closer to her. she strokes your back, up and down, fingertips dancing across your spine in an effort to soothe you.

and she continues to hold you as you sob and you sob until your tears eventually dry. your body trembles in her hold with every shaky breath, her soft whispers and touches of comfort lulling you into a relaxed state.

“i’m sorry.” robin could almost feel her heart crack at the sound of your voice. it’s pained and dripping with guilt, like you were convinced that your vulnerability was a burden to her. “what’re you apologising for, love?”

“i just- i know i can be difficult, a-and i know that it can be frustrating when i get like this and i just- fuck i don’t know, i’m just a lot to deal with and i d-don’t know why you put up with me-“

“hey, hey, hey- look at me.” she cups your face in her hands, effectively stopping your rambling. you reluctantly glance up at her, swallowing a lump in your throat.

she tilts her head down, pressing her forehead against yours. she takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly before speaking.

“i don’t ‘put up’ with you, okay? i do this because i love you, and i care about you.” she whispers, voice cracking as she gazes down at you with a sympathetic smile. “and i know it’s difficult but i’m always gonna be here for you. you know that. you don’t have to do this alone.”

silence follows as she gently caresses you, wiping away your doubt with every soft stroke of her thumb over the apples of your cheeks. only the sound of your quiet sniffles being heard.

“okay.” your voice is a mere whisper, barely audible. but she hears it, making her lips curl into a tender smile.

“okay?”

“mhm.” you nod, looking up at her with a weak smile of your own. but it’s there. and she can see the glimmer in your eyes returning, knowing her girl is back.

“good, because now we have a movie to watch.” she chuckles, patting your cheek affectionately before getting up from the couch. you watch her move towards your tv, holding up the tape of your favourite movie with a grin, which only widens when she sees your face light up in excitement. she makes quick work of getting everything ready before returning to her rightful place beside you.

“c’mere, sweet girl.” she coos, leaning back against the arm of the couch. her arms are wide open, legs spread enough for you to comfortably sit between them. you let out a small laugh before quickly shuffling over to sit right where she wanted you. her arms wrap around your waist, pulling you back against her chest. your heads tilt to the side to gaze at the screen, her cheek pressed against the top of your head.

as you lean back against her, engulfed in the comforting warmth of your girlfriend’s embrace, you let yourself finally take in everything she had done for you. your heart fills with gratitude and appreciation for the freckled girl behind you.

you tilt your head to look up at her, admiring the way the screen lights up her features or how her brows furrow in concentration as she watches the movie, a remark about the plot on the tip of her tongue. and you watch the way her pretty blue eyes snap down to look at you when you mutter a “thank you.”

a soft smile spreads across her lips, her gaze just as soft with love. “i know, i’m the best girlfriend ever.” a small chuckle escapes her lips, you feel the vibrations from her chest against your back. you’re familiar with the sarcasm dripping from her words, yet your quiet hum of agreement is entirely truthful. to you, there is no doubt that she is.

her smile widens, creases appearing at the corner of her eyes. your smile mirrors her own, before returning to the movie. one of the hands around your waist laces with your own, her thumb tracing over the dips and valleys of your knuckles. she leans down, pressing a tender kiss to your neck. her lips graze over your skin, barely touching. a kiss as sweet and adoring as her love for you.

and as you bask in the movement, surrounded by the warmth of robin’s love, you know that she’ll always be there.

[artiststarme]

Just A Minor Crisis…

Well, I woke up today and had the genius idea of Steve sharing in my crisis. Bon Appétit! Warning: a brief mental breakdown and some mentions of depression

~*~*~*~

Steve was having a midlife crisis. Honestly, it was a long time coming. Over the past three years or so of dealing with the Upside Down and all of its drama, Steve had only broken down like this one time before. It had been right after the events of Starcourt and losing Hopper. He’s fallen into a weeks-long depression that was only appeased by Robin pulling him out of bed to find a new job where they could work together. There may have been a brief sexuality crisis a few weeks after Spring Break too when Steve had seen Eddie with his hair in a bun but that was neither here nor there. 

In the past 24 hours, he’d gotten a tattoo that he was hiding from his friends, quit his job, and made out with a random guy at a gay club in Indy. His life was going off the rails and he didn’t know what to do about that. He needed the money from work to be able to move out of his parent’s oppressive house, probably sooner rather than later. And while the spontaneous tattoo and random making out wasn’t a death sentence, it certainly wouldn’t make things easier on him in the future especially if his parents or friends caught wind of it. 

He wanted to ask for help, so someone could assist him in not flying off the edge without a parachute, but he didn’t want the questions that were sure to accompany it. So, he suffered alone for the first week. 

He practically dropped off the face of the earth, just wallowing in bed at home with his curtains drawn and doors locked. No one was getting through his defenses, not if he could help it. One thing he neglected to consider though was how savvy his friends were. On day eight of becoming a hermit, Eddie and Robin showed up in his room and yanked the comfy covers off of him. 

“C’mon man, get out of bed. What’s going on? We haven’t seen you in like a week,” Eddie said with concern coating his voice. 

“Are you okay, Dingus? Keith said you quit over the phone and no one has heard from you since! Do you know how worried we’ve been? We didn’t even think you were in town because your car isn’t in the driveway otherwise we would’ve broken in sooner!” Robin ranted, poking at his shoulder to get his attention. 

“How did you get in?” Steve whispered, not having enough energy to speak any louder. 

“I picked your lock. It was ridiculously easy by the way, almost concerningly. You might want to get that checked out. Now, why are you avoiding everyone?” Eddie asked him. 

Steve didn’t have the energy to argue with them or field their concern so he just groaned and rolled over. Stupidly, he forgot about the new tattoo on his forearm that was exposed when he flipped. 

“Dude, did you get new ink? I never thought I’d see the day that Steve Harrington would get a tattoo. What the hell?” Steve heard a smacking noise and a whimper of pain before he felt Robin climb in his bed to curl up with him. 

“Steve? Please talk to me. Is this another depressive episode? It’s okay if it is but please don’t shut me out. We’re really worried about you. The tattoo looks great by the way! It looks just like your real bat!”

Steve’s tattoo was an image of his nail-bat on the outside of his right forearm. He’d wanted to get something spontaneous but still meaningful and there was nothing more meaningful than protecting the kids that have looked up to him for years. The pain of getting the tattoo was addicting too, he was already planning more despite the suffocating depression threatening to choke him.

“Yeah?” Steve cleared his throat harshly as he tried to speak after his days-long silence. “You like it?”

Robin nodded exuberantly while Eddie took a seat at the edge of the bed. “It’s totally metal, dude! It makes you look even more handsome, Stevie.”

When his eyes widened, Eddie backtracked. “Not that you weren’t handsome before! You were pretty, still are pretty! I just really like tattoos and it like, it adds to your prettiness! Because you’re pretty!”

Steve watched him flounder until eventually, Eddie cut himself off with an aggrieved hand to his mouth. “Thanks, Eds.”

He gave him a stilted nod before Robin took pity on him and pulled Steve’s attention away from Eddie’s reddening cheeks. “So are you having an episode? We can go downstairs to cuddle and watch movies. Munson and I took time off work for a couple of days to spend time with you.”

Steve felt tears spring to his eyes but nodded nonetheless. “That would be great. I missed you guys and I’m sorry I pulled away, it’s just-”

“No apologies necessary, Stevie. We’re here now and we can help you out. Now c’mon, I want to judge your movie selection,” Eddie said, offering him a hand out of bed. 

They would deal with Steve’s coping skills and shaky mental health later. The rest of their night was spent watching crappy movies, eating junk food, and cuddling with each other. If Robin saw Eddie and Steve holding hands, well, that was no one’s business but her own.

Permanent tag list:@doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @carlyv @pyrohonk @straight4joekeery @trippypancakes @conversesweetheart @estrellami-1 @suddenlyinlove @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @perseus-notjackson @anaibis @merricatty @maya-custodios-dionach @grtwdsmwhr @manda-panda-monium

[smolwritingchick]

The Bangtan Gal Chapter 83- I Need You On This

Chapter Summary:  BTS rent out a movie theater to watch Captain America Civil War. Jennie's dream which she had been talking about for years finally comes true. Jen has the honor to film with Yoon Mirae for the first episode of Celebrity Womance. Jennie and Jungkook spend time with his family. Jennie supports AGUST D's mixtape

Words: 9,000+

Author's Note: Bon Voyage Season 1 is next after this chapter! Also, don't panic, things will be fine :)

-------

The following morning, Jen received a phone call from one of her sisters while she was gaming with Jungkook.

"Awesome! Thank you, we'll be there! I'll make sure of it! I have been waiting to see this movie!" Jennie happily got off the phone and turned to Jungkook excitedly as he chilled on the bed. "Oppa, let's watch Civil War, today! My sister's friend hooked us all up for a rented movie theater to watch the movie, today! We'll be alone with no one to bother us!"

Jungkook's ears perked up and he quickly turned to her, Jungshooked.

She finally said it...

Jennie realized what she had just said as her entire face flushed. It just slipped out, she meant to say his name but it just flowed naturally to call him that despite her not being a fan of saying the word often.

"Did you..." he trailed off as a huge smile came across his face. He stood up and walked over to her. "Did you say what I think you just said?"

Smiling softly, she nodded. "Yes, I did."

"Can you say it, again?"

"Oppa, let's watch civil war, today."

Jungkook immediately wrapped his arms around her and gently lifted her off her feet as she laughed. "Okay, Jagi. Let's watch Civil War, today!"

"I'll tell the others," she said after getting set down.

"Am I the first guy you said oppa to?"

She pondered for a moment. "As a matter of fact...yes, you are the first guy."

Jungkook smiled triumphantly, already planning to brag to his hyungs. "Good."

At the theatre, JenKook wore Marvel shirts for the special occasion and sat in the back while the rest of Bangtan sat further down, scattered around. Her sisters sat near the members.

"I hope y'all won't be doing anything dirty back there!" Vienna teased the couple.

"Hush and watch the movie!" Alani replied.

"Would y'all be quiet!?" Jen shouted as the previews finished.

As they watched Captain America Civil War, JenKook freaked out and spoke during the movie which amused the members.

"Look at this, look at this! Look at this perfection! Iron Man wishes he could do this!" Jen said as Captain America was shown fighting at the beginning of the movie.

During the scene where Tony gives the students a grant, Jungkook goes on to brag about Iron Man, "Captain America wishes he could give students a grant like Tony,"

"Oh shut up," she rolled her eyes.

"Be jealous~!" he teased.

The rest of the members laughed at the debate JenKook had rows behind them including her laughing at Tony getting beaten up and hit by cars.

"That wasn't funny!" Jungkook huffed.

"Yes, it was,"

The scene with Steve and Bucky talking about whether Bucky was worth it made Jennie tear up.

"You see the mess he made!? All of them are in cells! Captain America is better." Jen debated with him later on in the movie.

"They brought this on themselves,"

"How!?"

"Would you guys be quiet!?" Jin shouted.

"We knew this was going to happen," Namjoon laughed.

During the plot twist of Bucky being the one to kill Tony's parents, Jennie and Jungkook were shooked.

"No..." she covered her mouth.

"I hate him, I hope he dies," Jungkook furiously stared at the scene.

"No! I don't want Bucky to die-"

"He killed Iron Man's parents!"

"He was brainwashed! It wasn't him!"

"I don't care!"

"Well, I care!"

The final fight scene between Bucky and Captain America going after Tony got them hyped as they both cheered on their favorite superheroes.

A scream left Jen's lips when Bucky's arm was destroyed by Tony.

"NO! WHY!?" she yelled.

"NO!" Jungkook yelled in horror when Cap hit his shield in Tony's heart.

Jen covered her mouth again and started tearing up at the defeated Iron Man. He really got hit in the arc reactor.

"Jungkook..." she murmured, not knowing what to say.

"Do you see the destruction your Captain America has done!? He ruined everything!" he angrily said.

"Hey! Don't blame him! He was protecting his friend!" she snapped at him.

"People are hurt! He almost killed Tony! That's unforgivable!"

"Tony tried to kill Bucky! He blew out his arm!"

"He deserved it!"

"No, the hell he didn't! He's a changed man!"

"A-are they actually angry with each other? Are they really fighting?" Jin asked with concern.

"Nah, they do this all the time when they watch Marvel movies," Taehyung answered, calmly.

"Yeah, they're just bonding, no need to worry," Jimin reassured with a chuckle.

Near the end, Jennie laughed at Stan Lee's cameo, calling Tony, Tony Stank.

"Ha! I told you it was true! Tony Stank for the win!" she laughed.

"At least Tony is richer than everyone," Jungkook quipped.

"Oh ho ho...no the hell he ain't! Black Panther is richer! Um, hello he is a whole prince. He has almost 100 trillion! Don't get me started on my brothers,"

"Blah, blah, blah,"

After the movie finished, Jennie sighed in contentment. "Gosh, I hope they have a Black Panther movie soon! Like that'll be so lit. I can only imagine how awesome it'll be. What I wouldn't give to be a part of a Marvel movie. That would be a dream. Even if it's just a song or something or a small role, I don't even care,"

------

After the movie, Bangtan went shopping at the mall. When splitting up into groups at the mall, the members found their way back to each other after shopping at Forever 21. Everyone but Jennie had bought some things because all she was looking for was a certain brand of perfume that she could not find anywhere. That was until she finally spotted Victoria's Secret.

"Oh my gosh, finally! I gotta get something real quick!" she eagerly rushed in, surprising the guys with her enthusiasm. "Man, oh man, I hope they have it."

"Jennie...what are you planning on getting from here?" Jin's heart dropped as he walked into the store with fear, quickly following her.

"I think we all know exactly what she is going to buy from here." Hobi chuckled with Yoongi.

"Hey, hey, Jungkookie, do you think Jennie is going to buy something to wear for you?" Jimin teased, wrapping an arm around him as they walked deeper into the store.

'I-is she going to get some lingerie now? I-in front of the Hyungs? Is she ready for THAT??' Jungkook thought with wonder and astonishment as he began to blush.

Did she want to do THAT already?

His imagination was already beginning to wander...

Did she want him to go crazy?

Why couldn't she do this when they were alone? Not with the rest of the guys around them.

Jungkook's thoughts were interrupted by a large pat on the back by Namjoon. "I'm surprised she would be this bold. Don't you want to help her pick something out? We can wait out here."

Before Jungkook could answer, he peeped Jennie walking past all the underwear.

'Wait...why is she walking past the lingerie? Even the red underwear?? No...no, no, why?' Jungkook thought.

"Finally!" she happily announced and grabbed a few bottles of the perfume she wanted. "I have been trying to find these everywhere!"

Namjoon let out a laugh, looking stunned. "W-wow...perfume. Would you look at that? She came here for perfume."

Jin sighed out of relief. "I'm glad it was just that!"

"Yeah, of course. What did you think I was gonna get in here?" Jen stared at him like it was the most obvious thing she would get in the store.

Meanwhile, disappointment was clearly shown on Jungkook's face while the rest of the members felt salty that what she bought wasn't what they were expecting.

"Darn...I really thought she was going to get a set for Jungkook." Hobi whined.

"Bet the kid is upset, right about now," Yoongi added.

"Aw...tough luck, Jungkookie." Jimin giggled with Taehyung.

Back at the hotel, Jungkook decided to speak up about it and ask her about the stunt she pulled at Victoria's Secret.

"S-so you weren't planning on getting anything else?" he asked.

"Nope, just the perfume. Why?" she watched him as he averted his eyes.

She then realized what he had meant and felt her face heat up. "O-oh." she nervously laughed. "Well...the stuff in that store is not even what I would want to wear for you when I'm ready for that."

That sparked his interest as his ears perked up. "Well, what do you want to wear?"

"I guess you'll have to wait and find out one day." she teased, grabbing the controller to finish her game.

"When can I find out?" he eagerly asked.

"Shh."

"Can I at least know the color?"

"Shh."

"Can it be red?"

"Shh!"

-------

The next morning, all packed and ready to leave America, Jennie met with the rest of the members on the first floor.

"Jen," Diana, her manager called out.

"Yeah?" she turned to face her.

"You won't be going back to Korea just yet,"

That caused Jennie to furrow her brows. What did she mean? She was planning to go back with the members so what could possibly be left on her schedule? It made her nervous but decided to stay positive about it.

"Okaaaay. What else is on my schedule?"

"Last minute meeting Bang PD and I scheduled with some important people that want to meet you. Come on. They're waiting for us,"

Important people? Meeting? That she and Bang PD scheduled? What was going on?

After telling the members she'd be staying a while longer in America and saying her goodbyes, she went to follow Diana in a car that took them to the location of the meeting.

"You keep looking at me. What is going on?" Jen asked after she caught Diana staring at her longer than usual.

"It's nothing. Just relax. The meeting shouldn't take that long, anyway." she replied, trying to change the subject.

"Who am I meeting anyway?"

"You'll see when we get there,"

After arriving at the location, Diana escorted her to a meeting room to see two caucasian people. A man and woman in suits with welcoming smiles.

"Ah, Jennifer Walker. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person," the man spoke first shaking her hand.

"Hi, nice to meet you as well," she politely replied.

The two introduced themselves and informed her that they were looking for potential musical artists to endorse Macy's. The idea did interest Jen as she thought it would be a good opportunity since she already endorsed Puma with BTS. 

"Any brands you enjoy wearing?" she was asked.

"Nike!" she beamed. "That's my all-time favorite brand,"

"Nike? Why that brand?"

"Oh, a lot of things. I have a whole collection of Nike sneakers. I just love everything about it. Their style, their clothes. It makes me feel empowered as weird as it sounds. Let me show you the collection of sneakers I have," she took out her phone, showing them the large collection of shoes.

Diana refrained from laughing while the two others looked impressed and pleased to see her so passionate about a brand like this. The exact passion they want to endorse a brand. 

Jennie rambled on and on about Nike as she showed tons of photos and stories about wearing the brand.

"...and these are the sneakers I wore on the night I debuted with BTS," she rambled on.

"If you wanted to create something, what would you want?" she was also asked.

"I'd love to create a whole line of Nike shoes for dance and Nike dance clothes. Sneakers, ballet shoes, everything Nike dance shoe related. Comfortable and cute clothes to dance in for Nike. I strongly believe dancing is a sport and I feel like dancing should have some representation. It would be a dream to create something like that for Nike one day."

"Hm...I see," the lady nodded and looked over at her partner.

The man took out a folder and placed it on the table with a smile, "Well, Nike would love to see this vision come true,"

It took a few seconds for his words to register in her brain as Jen stared at them in astonishment. Her heart dropped and her mouth went dry as words couldn't form in her head. 

Did he just say Nike wanted to see her vision come true?

Diana couldn't help but laugh and had to be the one to open the folder to reveal the Nike Endorsement contract waiting to be signed.

"We've had our eye on you for quite a while Miss Walker. Your passion for our brand is infectious. We would love to have you on board and put your vision into action."

"I had to talk to them to try to make something up. I didn't want them to go straight in and say they were from Nike," Diana giggled and turned to Jennie. "Wow, the look on your face. Are you going to say anything? I'm sorry, she's still trying to process all of this,"

"We understand. We've watched all those videos of her talking about Nike. We heard her passion loud and clear," the woman replied with a giggle.

Nothing came out of Jennie but tears as her chest felt heavy. Looking down at her lap, her sight was blurred with tears.

Was this another dream about Nike? It wasn't like the others.

"Y-you want me? To endorse Nike? You really want me?" she managed to speak, looking back up at them after wiping her tears with her sleeved arm.

"We've wanted you for quite a while now. We're pleased we were able to get to you due to your busy schedule. When we heard about Adidas wanting you, we were a bit worried that you would join them." they told her.

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Jen turned to Diana.

"I already looked over the contract. Bang PD discussed it with me as well. This is what you always wanted, although Puma will have to go away,"

Jen understood about Puma and was prepared for it as she tried to process that a contract from Nike was waiting for her.

"Will you do it?" Jen was asked.

Looking up at the Nike representatives, she smiled happily with tearful eyes, opening up a pen.

"Yes! Heck yeah, I will!" she answered proudly, signing her signature.

Diana could feel herself getting emotional as she watched Jennie sign the contract. She was so proud of her having this moment.

"Great! We will keep in touch, Ms. Walker. We are looking forward to working on this vision of yours,"

"Thank you so much! Thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me! Thank you for giving me a chance! Thank you for noticing me! Thank you for everything!" Jennie rambled on about her gratitude for this blessing.

After they left, Jen hugged Diana as more tears escaped.

"Thank you so much!"

"I got you. Always remember that. You deserve it," Diana beamed.

Pulling away, she took out her phone, still shaking from what just happened, "I-I gotta call my parents," she said, calling her mom up.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" her mom asked on the line.

"Are you all right?" her dad asked.

"I'm crying because I'm happy," Jen sniffed.

"What happened?"

"I got it..."

"Got what?" her dad asked.

"An endorsement deal with Nike."

"Aw, baby I'm so proud of you! I told you, prayer is a powerful thing!"

--------

After returning to Seoul from her meeting with Nike, Jennie still felt her body shaking from the news that Nike wanted HER. She was about to endorse the company that she dreamed of endorsing for many years. She couldn't wait to tell the guys.

"I'm finally back!" she announced, shutting the front door.

When she turned around, the lights went on and she was welcomed with loud cheers. She looked around in wonder, genuinely surprised as she saw a large banner that said 'Congrats on the Nike Endorsement' with various balloons and confetti around the room.

There were the boys who were patiently waiting for her arrival as they had bright smiles on their faces.

"No, you didn't," she covered her mouth as a smile grew on her face.

"Congrats Ennie!" V ran up to her, scooping her up in a hug.

"She's finally endorsing Nike!" J-Hope yelled proudly, jumping up and down

"A dream come true~! Jennie and Nike 2K16!" Jungkook shouted happily.

"I knew you were going to get it one of these days! I'm glad you remained patient," Namjoon praised.

"Nike X Jennie! Finally~!" Jimin yelled

"Wow, I feel like a proud father," Jin rambled, "I can't wait to ask my friends, is your daughter cool enough to get an endorsement from Nike? No? Well, my precious Jennie scored one and is going to break barriers with it!"

"We're proud of you smartie," Yoongi praised. "You deserve this. We're glad you went with your heart,"

"I wish we could have seen the look on her face when she found out," Hobi laughed with Namjoon and Jimin at the thought.

After being set down, she walked further into the room to see pizza and plates waiting at the table, along with a large cake that said congrats on the Nike endorsement. 

It took her a moment to realize that they all knew that she was going to get it. 

"Wait...you guys knew?!" she asked, taken aback. "That I was going to get it!? And you didn't drop any hints!?"

"Of course not! That eliminates the element of surprise," Jungkook giggled.

"Guys..." she said as she looked at them with tears falling down her cheeks.

"Aw, she's crying! I told you she was going to cry!" J-Hope laughed and pulled her in for a hug. 

The rest of the guys joined in, saying that it was all right. After pulling herself together, she smiled and thanked them for supporting her.

"Wow, Nike really has you now. How did the meeting go?" Jimin asked.

"I was nervous, I didn't know what I was getting myself into," she said and explained to them what happened.

In response, they teased her for her reaction.

"Finally that company opened their eyes to see a gem they have for an endorsement. They're going to be happy they chose you," Yoongi said confidently.

"If you need us to model for your brand or anything, let us know," V added.

"Free promo," Namjoon grinned

"Thanks, guys. Really. This is just so surreal. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. Frickin' Nike...and Jennie of BTS. Bangtan is moving forward. V and his drama, our comeback we're working on. K-Con headliners, Yoongi's mixtape. I feel like as we progress, we're only going to be chasing more bags and success. Let's keep working hard," she high fived all of them as they cheered.

"That's the energy to have! How soon can you start designing what you want to do?" Jin asked as they all sat at the table.

"For now, they'll be in touch with me," she answered.

"Wait until ARMY finds out. They'll be ecstatic," V said.

"Are you going to tell them soon or wait a bit?" Jungkook asked.

"I want to wait a bit. Let it be a huge surprise when I announce it," she replied.

"Cool. Now dig in!" Jimin laughed and pushed her face into the cake with Jin.

--------

As a few weeks went by, Bangtan was back in America for LA's K-Con. The group went through a series of interviews to promote it. News about Suga's mixtape that he was working on had got out and he expressed his enthusiasm that Armies were excited about it.

"Jennifer has been the biggest supporter out of my journey working on the mixtape," Suga announced proudly as she looked at him in shock. "I would find her trying to peek in my studio to see if I'm working on it. I am happy to have a strong support system for my music. ARMY, I hope you like the finished product,"

She didn't expect him to acknowledge that and it made her feel good. The huge smile on her face did not go unnoticed by viewers and the members as Suga glanced over at her to give her a soft smile.

Fans commented on the YoonJen moment and expressed their excitement for his mixtape:

'Awww YoonJen!'

'Keep in mind Yoongi said, Jennifer. Not smartie. You know he serious af about her being supportive of him! I'm soft!'

'My heart! I can't wait for him to release it!'

After the interview, Jennie went out to roam around K-Con with Sejin and a bodyguard with her. She came across fans performing dance covers of BTS songs. It appeared to be a local dance group and she watched as they performed fire. What took her by surprise was the black male dancer performing her part.

'Wow!' she thought, mesmerized as he nailed her mannerisms. It was like she was looking at herself perform.

"Yasssss!" she shouted, which caught the attention of fans who began to scream. "Y'all killing it!"

A large portion of fans tried to get her attention for photos and autographs but she kindly told them that she wanted to watch the rest of the performance before any interaction. They respected it and watched as she happily danced to the beat of fire, enjoying the performance.

After the group finished, Jennie approached them and clapped.

"That was amazing! You guys killed it!"

"Oh my gosh, thank you! We can't believe you came out here!" one of the dancers said.

"I'm still a K-Pop fan at heart. I just wanted to drop in and say hey. How long have you been in a group? The synchronization was extremely good,"

"That means the world to us coming from you. We wanted to do it justice. We've been performing since 2014!"

"Wow, keep dancing, please! Don't ever stop. All of you are gifted,"

As more fans gathered around, she tried to take as many selfies as she could.

"Jennie! What do you think of NCT?" a fan asked.

"I tweeted about them! They are lit! Sooo many members. Firetruck is a bop," she beamed.

"Do you have a bias?"

"Not yet! Hard to choose,"

"I love you and Alex Reid. Have you met Alex yet?"

This had been a common question. Unfortunately, she still hasn't met the girl but eagerly wants to. Someone to relate to in this industry.

"Sadly no. But I really want to! I hope we can meet up one of these days,"

After going backstage, Jen felt like she could breathe easier since Bangtan wasn't until the end of the show. She spent time with Ailee and watched backstage as she performed. She had some mic trouble but she nailed the performance without music as the queen that she was. Her A cappella was on point and it blew her away.

"Jen!"

Her name was called out and she turned around to see Zico waving and walking over to her with Dean.

"Zico! Long time no see! How are you?" she pulled him in for a hug.

"Doing good. How you been?"

"Everything has just been blessings upon blessings. I got my Nike endorsement!"

"No way, you finally got it?! About time! They have a gem on their hands! I can't wait to see what you create with them!"

"Aw thank you!" she turned to Dean. "Hi! I'm Jennie! It's so nice to finally meet you, Dean! Your music is so dope. I love your sound,"

Dean was pleased to hear how much she praised his music and thanked her.

"Your vocals are like so soothing and I admire your work. I hope you get a ton of awards for your EP," she added.

"Thank you, Jennie. How does it feel headlining K-Con with BTS?" Dean asked with a smile.

"Surreal. I am so grateful,"

After talking with them, she stayed in BTS' dressing room.

"Hello! Is Jennie Unnie here?" a female voice asked.

Jennie turned around, pausing her conversation with Jimin to see the IOI members walking in.

"Ah! There she is!" the voice belonged to Somi.

All the members of IOI had walked in with bright smiles, dressed in their outfits to perform.

"Oh my gosh, hi!" Jennie rushed up to them.

She hadn't seen them in a while but watched closely at the survival show's results and their journey as a group. 

Sohye with a cute smile presented the large basket to her. "This is on behalf of us,"

"F-for me? Oh my gosh, thank you," she graciously accepted it and placed it on the table.

"A thank you for supporting us," Pinky added.

When Jennie opened it, she squealed in glee when she saw it was filled with packs of smarties. Her happy sound effect made the girls giggle, proud that she liked the gift. Meanwhile, Bangtan watched with amusement.

'You're becoming a great role model, Jennie,' Namjoon thought as he watched IOI look up at her in admiration.

"My smarties! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she went on to hug all of them. "How does it feel to be a group? Hard work paid off, huh? I see bright futures for all of you,"

"Yeah, we love it. It's so exciting to be here, too," Chungha answered.

"I'm glad. Make the most of everything. And if you need anything, I'm here for you,"

-------

Back in Korea, with the short amount of free time that they had, Jungkook wanted Jennie to join him to eat with his family. He thought it was the perfect time to tell them that they were dating, too. There was no doubt in his mind that they were going to be thrilled.

Once they made it to his parents' house, Jungkook turned to her with a smile.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Butterflies are increasing as we get closer to the door," she admitted and took a deep breath.

"You'll be fine. I have a strong feeling they're going to be pretty excited to hear the good news," he grinned at her, making her mellow out.

Suddenly the door opened to reveal his mom smiling brightly at them.

"Jungkook! You're here!" she pulled him in for a hug. "Look at you. Are you eating well?" she pulled away.

"Always, Mom,"

"Good," she turned to Jennie as her smile got wider. "Jennie! I'm so happy you can join us!"

"Hi, Mrs. Jeon. Thank you for having me. This is for you and your husband," she presented her with a gift basket she created for them.

"Oh, thank you very much. Come on. Both of you. Your father and brother are in the backyard, Jungkook,"

"Okay," he responded and let Jennie walk in first. He followed her inside and closed the door.

'You okay while I go to the backyard?' he gave her a look, initiating a brief nonverbal conversation.

'Yes, go on ahead.' she nodded and returned the smile that he gave her.

As she watched him leave, Jennie turned her attention to his mom placing the basket on a table.

"I've been so excited to see you again!" she heard his mom say.

She has?

"Really? That means a lot, thank you!"

"Jungkook can never stop talking about you. It made me miss you more than I already have,"

"He talks about me a lot to you?" she chuckled softly, feeling her heart soar as she heard about her missing her.

"Oh, all the time. It was the cutest thing. Since you came along, I have seen a positive difference in his character. I'm not sure what is going on but whatever it is, I hope it continues,"

'Wow, all from us dating?' Jen thought optimistically.

A lot of people have been saying this to her lately. That Jungkook had been more lively and open. Was it really because of her?

"I hope so too," she smiled. "May I assist you?"

His mother looked at her with appreciation as she was preparing to finish up dinner. "Yes, I would love that. Please set up the table,"

"You got it,"

After finishing it up, she helped his mom put the food on the table.

"Jennie is here," she heard Jungkook as he walked inside with his brother and father.

"I'm glad that I finally get to meet her. You talk about her so much, it made me anticipate her arrival even more," his brother, Jung-hyun said to him.

"Hi! It's nice to finally meet you, Jung-hyun," Jennie greeted kindly.

"Likewise. It's nice to meet the 'most precious person' to my brother,"

That made her face heat up while he giggled at her and his brother's flustered reaction. He could easily tell something was going on and was happy his little brother found a significant other. He approved of Jennie right away just from Jungkook chatting about her and showing their photos over their years in Bangtan.

"H-hey! Cut it out!" Jungkook smacked his brother's arm for putting him on blast like that. 

His face turned slightly pink as he planned his revenge.

"Jennie! It's good to see you again, how are you doing?" his father asked.

"Very well! I'm happy to be here, Mr. Jeon,"

As they sat down for dinner, Jen sat next to Jungkook while they were across from his parents and brother.

"Jung-hyun, Jungkook showed me some of your art. It's amazing. You know my sister Alani likes to create DIY items,"

"Oh really? Cool. Thank you. I'd like to see them sometime," he grinned.

"She has an Instagram about it. I'll show you later,"

"How many siblings do you have?"

"Just two! Both sisters. Alani and Vienna. Alani is into communications and Vienna is starting to lean more into acting. Lately, she's been wanting to get into Broadway and been auditioning quite a bit,"

After more small talk, Jennie felt comfortable and relaxed further. Jungkook noticed and was happy that his family warmed up to her so easily.

"Are your sisters gamers, too?" his brother asked.

"Not as much as me. I'm more of the gamer out of the three of us,"

"She sucks at Overwatch," Jungkook laughed. "She died as soon as the match began. I wish we recorded it for our channel. It was hilarious,"

'Wooooow. Roasting me in front of your family?' Jennie thought, amused as her nervousness melted away completely.

"Hey, I'm still learning. And you show no mercy in these games. Whenever we play against each other you don't give me a chance to try to hit you," she pointed out.

"Of course not, I want to win," he teased.

"I think you should at least go easy on me so I can learn and then go full out,"

His parents watched them cutely bicker about video games and gave each other knowing looks. She definitely fitted right in. Her genuine smile towards their son was another significant factor. And how she praised him throughout the entire dinner touched their hearts.

"You game as often as Jungkook?" his dad smiled.

"All the time. You should watch our channel sometime. It's really funny," she grinned.

"She gets competitive a lot, Dad," Jungkook laughed. "Just like me. There are games that she's better at and tries to teach me,"

"Well just know that I will be rooting for you, Jennie," his father promised her.

"Dad, you're not going to be cheering me on?" Jungkook looked offended, while his girlfriend and mother giggled.

"It's nice to see you get beat once in a while in games,"

"Jennie, how is your family doing?" his mom asked her.

"Really well. There hasn't been much going on at home. Just working and enjoying summer,"

"One day it would be nice to meet them and have dinner together," his dad suggested.

That made her get butterflies in her stomach as she appeared Jenshooked. Was it obvious that she and Jungkook were dating because throughout this entire meal, they'd been talking a lot about the future and how Jungkook had changed happily because of her.

"Dinner with you and her family?" Jungkook looked Jungshooked for a moment.

"Of course! We're eager to meet your girlfriend's family!" his dad blurted out with a large smile.

"Dad..." Jung-hyun groaned. "We were waiting for them to announce it themselves,"

"Surprise ruined," his mom sighed.

His dad laughed nervously. "Whoops. Sorry. I mean look at them. Adorable. They've been holding hands under the table the entire meal. I had to say something,"

Jungkook and Jennie looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh. Jennie had nothing to worry about. Things were just fine.

"Wow, was it that obvious?" Jungkook smiled bashfully.

"Your body language, little brother," Jung-hyun pointed out. "And your lingering gaze towards her. It's cute,"

"Ah..." Jungkook looked down, feeling his face heat up.

Meanwhile, Jennie felt happier than ever at how excited they were to see them dating.

"How long have you two been together?" his mom asked.

"Since January. He's so good to me," she answered sweetly.

"Ah, beautiful. I for one am very happy to see my son with someone that brings out the best in him. You are a wonderful, sweet girl. I fully support this,"

That made Jennie tear up and blink the happy tears away. Wow. They approved. All of them. 

After they finished eating, his mom came out with a small cake. It was mouthwatering as Jen devoured it. After eating a second slice, Jennie asked if she could learn how to make it. The surprised expression on Jungkook's mom's face made her smile as she agreed and asked if Jen could teach her the recipe for the baked goods she baked for them a while back.

"I just wanted to say thank you for welcoming me with open arms and for your hospitality," Jen smiled.

"Of course. I'm so happy it worked out between you two. We are looking forward to having you over again soon when your schedules allow it," his father grinned.

--------

As summer went on for BTS, Jennie, and Jungkook were invited to film a variety show. With Jungkook, he was on Celebrity Bromance and paired up with Shinhwa's Minwoo. They spent the entire day together and even rock climbed as Jungkook began to feel more comfortable and open around him as the day went on.

After the cameras were off them for a brief period, Minwoo asked if there was any special young lady that caught his eye. His question earned an immediate smile from the Golden Maknae as he thought about Jennie.

"That's the smile of a man in love," Minwoo said with a light chuckle while noticing how his eyes shined brightly. "She must be exceptional,"

"She is. I kind of think of us as soulmates," Jungkook smiled shyly as a blush grew on his cheeks. Taking out his phone, he showed him a photo of them together, "This is my girlfriend. Her name is Jennie,"

"Wow, she's beautiful. You two are in the same group, too. Bangtan is very protective of her, I'm sure?"

"Absolutely. She is very precious to us,"

"Good. I bet she has quite the admirers. How did you two start dating?"

"She does. I wanted her so I was persistent for her to be my girlfriend. I made the first move to express my feelings and kissed her before her flight back home to America. Ah...I felt like my mom because she made the first move and went after my dad," he laughed with him. "She's the best...I'm very happy with her,"

"Treasure every day of your beautiful relationship. And don't let anyone, not even the media ruin what you have,"

"I will treasure it. Every day,"

---------

Meanwhile, when it came to Jennie, she starred in a new show called Celebrity Womance. A spinoff of Celebrity Bromance. Jen was honored to be in the first episode of this new show. She decided to meet the woman she was paired up with at a bubble tea shop, ordering tea for both of them.

"I am excited that they asked me to be a part of the first episode of Celebrity Womance. There's already a bromance version of it so it'll be fun to see who I am going to be paired up with. I have no clue who it might be," Jennie said on camera for a brief interview with the staff of the show.

She then went to sit back at her seat in the café to wait for the woman.

"I'm a little nervous..." she murmured and contemplated chewing a piece of gum to relax. 

But then chose to sip on her milk bubble tea instead, chewing on the bubbles that came up through the straw.

'Someone Appeared!'

Jennie turned in the direction of the door opening to see Yoon Mirae walking in with a bright smile.

"Hello!" Yoon Mirae greeted with a wave.

"Holy crap," Jennie blurted out in English under her breath as she stared at her, bewildered. 

She covered her mouth and felt embarrassed at the sudden statement while Yoon Mirae giggled. 

She stood up and bowed at the highly respected artist, "H-hi! Oh my gosh, it's an honor to meet you! My name is Jennie!"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Yoon Mirae. You can call me Natasha Unnie,"

'Unnie already?! Whoa!' Jennie thought in amazement.

"Wow. I...wow. I was not expecting this. You worked with my leader and now I'm sitting with you today,"

The show showed a montage about Yoon Mirae and said that she is one of the most highly respected artists. To Jennie, it was a dream come true.

"I've been watching you," Yoon Mirae smiled.

"You have?"

"You've caused quite a stir when BTS was announced. A black girl in the group. I bet you had to deal with a lot of negativity,"

"Yes. I don't even know where to start. It was ridiculous,"

"What has it been like for you as a black woman here?"

"When I first started, they tried to make me look paler. The makeup they would use would be lighter. It was embarrassing and so disrespectful because I was like hey, this is not my shade. Why do you have to try to make me look lighter? There is nothing wrong with my skin. I had to start talking with the stylists and educate them. I remember some started reading articles and watching YouTube videos on how to style my hair,"

"Have they stopped making you look pale?"

"Yes, thankfully. It took a little while but now my makeup looks more like it should for my skin. And before that, I started bringing my makeup and gave it to them to use instead. When I first started in BTS they always seemed to prioritize the boys and their make up but when it came to me, not so much. I'm happy to see the growth in my hair and makeup being a priority in BTS. You've been bullied a lot too, haven't you?"

"Yes, I have. Growing up I experienced a lot of racism and bullying. When my dad was in the army, we moved a lot when I was young. People would tell my dad that he was a sell-out because he married a Korean woman, why marry a Korean,"

Jennie frowned at that and shook her head. "I get so frustrated with that. If you love someone, you love someone. Whatever race you are or what you're into. I don't like it when people judge who you're dating, especially if they're biased towards people dating within their race. There is nothing wrong with interracial dating and I'm a full supporter of that,"

The two shared a long conversation about their time living in America and then coming to Korea. Jennie was amazed by her story. The fact that she had to deal with so much as a mixed woman and how traumatizing it was for her devastated Jennie.

When asked about the pressure of being the black girl in BTS, Jen broke down.

"Sorry," she tried to laugh away her pain but the tears were too much to stop as they ran down her face. "I'll admit it's been extremely hard over the years. All those hate comments, it was so hurtful to see them coming from the fans that were supposed to be supporting the group. All members of the group. I thought I would be protected by them, y'know? From all the rest of those hating on me. They would defend the rest of the members from the hate but when it came to me, I was just an afterthought. I'm just as important as the rest of the guys. I work just as hard as them and I love our fans just as much as them,"

Yoon Mirae reached out to hold her hand, listening to her as she expressed herself.

"Sometimes it can be overwhelming. And I used to feel like a burden being the only girl in the group. So many high expectations, being an African American in this country, people wonder if you can keep up with the guys, making sure the company is impressed with your work and doesn't think you're slowing down. It's something that was always on my mind," she went on.

"And you're still here. Still strong and performing," Yoon Mirae smiled. "I was happy to see you in BTS. And I was worried about the negative feedback you would get. But you've overcome a lot and you are still standing. You should be proud of that. And what I've dealt with as a kid made me stronger too,"

"Thank you. It definitely has. Things have been much better now. A lot of positives outweighed the negatives. And your music helped me a lot. I love your song Black Happiness. You are such an inspiration and I do hope I can become a well respected and influential artist. To have people look up to me and be a positive role model as a member of BTS is a big dream of mine,"

"I would say that you already are. Keep doing what you are doing, Jennie. Keep singing and working hard. You're a bigger inspiration to others than you think,"

After drinking bubble tea, the two decided to spend the day roller skating. There were a lot of laughs between them as they got to know each other. Both fell quite a few times and helped each other up. After skating, they ate at a booth by the roller rink.

"Do you have a significant other?" Yoon Mirae asked after the crew took a break from filming.

A bright smile came across Jen's face as she thought about Jungkook. 

She nodded happily, "I do! I'm happily dating Jungkook. We've been dating since early January,"

"Ah, your group member? That's cute. Who liked who first?"

"Well, he," she chuckled, "He did. He liked me for a long time and we became best friends. One night he confessed and kissed me hours before my flight back to America,"

"Wow, how bold,"

"Very. But I'm glad he did because it made me realize how strong my feelings were for him. And even if we weren't dating, we would always be best friends. I'll always have love for him. I feel like we're soulmates because I feel such a strong and deep connection with him. He makes me so happy,"

The smile didn't leave Jennie's face as she went on, "I'm still learning about love. I'm still young and experiencing a lot of things. I'm happy it's with him and I wouldn't change anything about it,"

"There's nothing like being with the one you love. That's how I feel about my husband,"

"Right? And I recently met his parents and brother for dinner to announce that we were dating. They were so happy and welcoming. It made me cry that they accepted me so quickly,"

Yoon Mirae smiled at that. She was proud of Jennie. Things were looking up for her and she hoped it continued for this young artist.

"There are days when I watch you and your husband together, being a strong duo in music, it makes me think of Jungkook and I. I want that. To be able to perform with him on stage, and have songs together. I'm not sure when we'll tell our fanbase about our relationship but for now, we are just trying to keep things private and away from Dispatch as much as possible," Jen added.

As the evening progressed, the two sat at the park to enjoy the summer night while eating water ice together.

"Time flew so fast and now our time is about to end," Jen sighed.

She truly enjoyed her day with her. She learned so much and got a lot of advice on performing and life in the industry. The two planned to keep in touch and exchanged contact information.

---------

"Jennifer," a deep voice called out.

Looking up from her phone, she turned her head to see him leaning up against the door of her studio. He appeared nervous as he wondered how he was going to ask her what was on his mind.

"Hey, what's up?" she kindly greeted.

"I want to talk to you...privately. Meet me in my studio when you're ready. I'll be here all night. Take your time," he said and walked away.

His studio...?

"I wonder what he wants to discuss," she murmured as she finished her break.

After she finished her work, she made her way down to his studio and shut the door. She watched gleefully as she noticed that he was working on his mixtape.

"Ah, you're working on it! I'm so happy!" she beamed.

He acknowledged her words with a soft smile and gestured for her to sit next to him.

"Yeah, about time, right? It's almost ready," he said proudly.

He had worked so hard. It was going to be worth the wait.

"I'm glad. I can't wait to hear it. So, what did you need from me?"

"I want you to listen to these two songs," he said and pressed play.

She checked out his computer screen to see that the first track was called The Last. He had played the song near the end as his raw lyrics and intense instrumental had her nodding her head to the beat. He then played So Far Away for her.

"Wow, these are..." she couldn't think of the right words to how powerful his music was.

"It's missing something," he stated.

She turned to him, confused. "Missing something? How? It sounds perfect,"

"Not without you,"

Her heart skipped a beat at his words. "What are you saying?"

"These songs are missing something. And it's you. No matter what I do, I don't feel like they are complete. I want something more on these tracks. And that's why I asked you here today. I want you to play the guitar for these two songs on my mixtape,"

'You want me...? On these?' she thought in astonishment.

"I want..." Yoongi stopped and shook his head, "I need you on this. The way you express your emotions through that instrument, I need that in these two songs. No one else can play the guitar like you. Your sound is what I need for this. Please,"

He gazed at her and held her hand, nervously waiting for her answer. 

Many thoughts went through his head. Was he being too forward? She could always decline the offer. But was he prepared for that?

"When do you want to get started?" she spoke, interrupting his thoughts.

His eyes widened slightly at how quick she was to accept his request. "You'll do it?"

"No one has ever asked me to play the guitar like this for their music. It's usually just my voice and a little feature. So, doing something like this for you will mean the world to me. And the fact that I'm the one you thought of for such an important project, how could I say no to you? I'd be honored to play."

"Jennifer...thank you,"

"Always, Yoongi,"

When they got situated, they spent a couple of hours on the songs. Jen was amazed at his story. He is a reserved person and the fact that he was letting all of this out in his mixtape got her emotional.

"H-hey, Jennifer, are you okay?" Yoongi stared at her with worry as he noticed tears running down her face.

"Sorry. The Last is just getting me worked up. What you've gone through I...I'm feeling it. All of it is from your lyrics. I'll play the guitar right and do it justice. Let's record,"

"Are you sure? You want to wait until you pull yourself together first?"

"No. My sound on the guitar is enhanced when I'm feeling the emotion. If I cry, I cry. Replay it from the beginning. And when it's my cue, press record. I don't need to wait,"

Her demeanor turned into work mode as she remained focused and listened to The Last with her guitar in her hands. She listened to every lyric he rapped in song as her fingers twitched in anticipation against her guitar.

Yoongi couldn't help but feel slightly concerned as she waited for her cue.

"Hey, if this is too sad for you or-"

She raised her hand, signaling him to be quiet as she continued to listen.

Deciding to do as she said, he watched her in her work mode. Lately, Jennie had been mirroring the emotion of whatever she played on her guitar on her face. This was a vulnerable song. And she couldn't help but shed tears as she listened, preparing to play.

Once she heard the drums, she began to aggressively strum through the strings as his rap played against her ears. He watched her astounded as it was everything he wanted in this song and more. The way she played sounded perfect against his voice. The powerful chords she played against his voice were going to leave a huge impact on the mixtape for sure. After she was done, she exhaled sharply and set down her guitar.

"Now I need a moment," she said, wiping her tears. "I felt that. All of that,"

"What you just did was amazing. I don't know what happened but it sounded perfect. Thank you," he praised.

"I try," she smiled and he went to check it out on the computer to fit it in the song.

Once he had done some finishing touches to the song, he replayed it for them to listen. Yep, he was right, it did sound perfect. Fully complete.

"Hey, before we work on So Far Away, can you play AGUST D? I've been staring at it and I'm curious about how it sounds," she requested.

"Sure," he clicked on it twice.

"Oh!" she shouted out after the first few beats. "Oh! Oh okay!"

He laughed at her reaction as she danced in her seat while they listened to the song.

They call me new thang

Shinbyeong watda jimeul badeo

"Whew! Okay!" she cheered, nodding her head to the beat.

Oh, this was lit! This song was going harder than she anticipated.

A to the G to the U to the STD

I'm d boy because I'm from D

Nan michinnom biteu wiye runachik

Raebeuro hongkongeul bonaeneun

My tongue technology

Jennie almost fell out of her seat from that lyric. "OH! Tongue technology!?"

Nan bekkineun geol bekkineun nomeul jabadaga

Hubaedeun seonbaedeun jekkineun nom

"Oh shi-okay!" she jumped up and down in her seat during his second verse. He was rapping so damn fast as she stared at him in disbelief. "Yoongi~!"

Hyeongdeure shigi jiltu deoge saenggineun soeum

"OOOOOOOOOOO~!" she shouted, covering her mouth against the side of her fist. "Yo replay that back! You going crazy right now! The delivery! The delivery of that! Replay it back please!"

Yoongi's stomach began to hurt from the amount of laughter he was doing from her reaction. She was adorable. Accepting her request, he scrolled back to the second verse after the chorus.

"Yoongi! Bro! Why are you going off like this? Like damn!"

He grinned bashfully at her praise. "Ah..."

"No, that second verse! How fast you were rapping!? Come on! That's amazing!"

-------

Once his mixtape was finished, Yoongi prepared to film two music videos. Once Jennie found out about it, she made plans to visit him during his AGUST D music video shoot. As soon as he left the dorm, she went to work to bake Agust D themed cookies for him.

"Yo yo yo~!" Jennie walked on the set with a box of cookies in her hands.

'AGUST D gets a visitor!'

Yoongi turned around and saw her smiling at him. A wide grin appeared on his face as he couldn't resist expressing how extremely happy he was to see her. He wasn't expecting anyone to come by during his shoot but the fact that Jennie came made his heart jump for joy.

"Smartie! What are you doing here?"

She laughed, "You know your biggest fan had to be here! You support me, I support you! Here. Your batch of Agust D cookies. It took forever to try to get the boys to not eat them,"

"You made me cookies? Smartie..." his gummy smile appeared on his face as he accepted them. "She baked me cookies. Her cookies are the best. If you get a chance to eat them, you won't regret it,"

"Aw, you flatter me," she smiled bashfully. "How's filming?" she asked as he took a cookie out of the box and ate one.

He sighed in joy at the deliciousness before answering, "Exhausting. This is honestly more tiring than BTS' music videos. But it's going great. I'm almost done and then tomorrow I film the rest of my music video,"

After visiting Yoongi and staying to watch him record, Jen was called to Big Hit's building for an urgent meeting and came back to the dorms visibly upset. It was abrupt that this happened but she was told by the company that she had to go home due to some visa troubles. She honestly thought things were fine with her paperwork and she could continue to do what she does but now she needed to pack and go home until everything got situated.

When Sejin arrived at the dorm with Jennie, the boys sensed something was wrong and immediately asked questions. Once Sejin gave everyone the news, the mood in the room went down and everyone was stunned by the abruptness.

"What!?" Jungkook exclaimed in disbelief as he shook his head in denial.

"You can't go home!" Jimin exclaimed.

"I think they messed up on some documentation or whatever. I don't know but all I know is I need to go home for a little bit until they fix the issue. Maybe it won't be for that long," she tried to stay positive about it.

"No way," Jin shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe this,"

"We need you. We need all 8 of us here. We're working on our comeback. Everything," Rapmon began to ramble.

She frowned. "I know...I'm annoyed. This is so poorly timed. I thought everything was straight with my stuff,"

"When are you leaving?" Yoongi frowned.

"Tonight," she sighed, which did not sit well with any of them as they tried to ask Sejin if there was anything to prevent it.

Meanwhile, Jen went to go pack as she was told while Jungkook accompanied her to her room. He sat on her bed as he watched her take out a suitcase and go through her clothes.

"Stupid visa..." she grumbled.

She tried to keep her emotions in check. She had plans to chill tonight and now had to spend it on a plane. With Jungkook, he was still trying to wrap his head around her leaving soon.

"Jagi, do you really have to leave...?"

Hopelessness and sadness were evident in the Golden Maknae's voice as he helplessly watched her pack.

He knew the inevitable.

She had to go home. And that meant they'd be apart for an unknown amount of time as Big Hit handled her visa situation. Sure there were times when she would go to America and then come back to Korea but from everything he was hearing, it seemed like this was going to take longer than usual.

On top of that, it was comeback season. That meant more stress as she wouldn't be there to be in his arms to cuddle when both of them felt overwhelmed from working on their comeback. She wouldn't be there to massage him whenever he stayed later from dance practice. Or nap with him after a long day. They wouldn't be showered with kisses, tickles, and derp faces from one another if they needed a good laugh to escape the stress. Finding out that she had to leave so abruptly made his heart shatter and frustrated him. Sure it was temporary but it bummed him out that it had to be this circumstance.

Their dog Tony, whimpered sadly, observing his parents. It was hard to watch Jennie pack up as he was lying in the middle of her bed with a sad expression. No special smartie belly rubs for quite some time. No JenKook bathing him like the family they were. This was going to be new to JenKook but perhaps this would make their relationship grow as they adjust to this brief long-distance relationship.

When Jennie turned to face Jungkook, she smiled sadly at his pouting expression. It was going to be difficult to leave him.

"You know I have to," she answered softly.

"I don't...want you to go," he murmured, looking down at his feet.

"I don't want to go either but it's just for a little while. I'll be back before you know it, Kookie,"

"Can I just come with you?" he looked up and asked as the idea popped into his head.

"As much as I would love that, you know you have to stay here,"

He frowned. It was worth a shot at least.

"It's just...I..." he hesitated.

He just wanted her to stay. She always knew how to make him feel at ease during the comeback season for Bangtan. Now that she was about to leave, it just wouldn't be the same. 

Sensing him overwhelming himself with negative thoughts, she strolled over to him. Standing in front of him as he continued to sit on the edge of the bed, she cupped his face.

"Hey," she softly called out, looking down at him. "No matter the distance, we'll make it work. We're the Golden Duo after all. This long-distance thing won't make us tap out. We can do it,"

He smiled at her words. "You're right. We will,"

He reached out for her as he pulled her into his lap. Smiling, she leaned down to kiss him slowly, trying to enjoy his lips as much as she could before she had to leave. She'll miss this.

"Don't do that..." he murmured against her lips and pulled back, panting softly.

"What?"

"Kiss me like that when you're about to leave. It'll drive me crazy," he admitted.

ARF! ARF!

Tony's barking caused them to turn in his direction. The dog happily jumped around after watching them. He jumped on them, causing JenKook to laugh at the sudden movement and break apart. She took a seat next to Jungkook instead. 

"I think our son is happy to see us trying to think positively about the situation," Jungkook giggled loudly as a bunny smile appeared on his face.

"Very happy. Hey, how about a belly rub before I leave? Would you like that, Tony?" she cooed.

She giggled softly as Tony eagerly barked and she moved to sit in the middle of the bed. The dog rolled around and exposed his tummy for her while she went to work on her affectionate belly rub. He soon began to relax and eventually dozed off. 

"It's going to suck when he wakes up and I'm gone," she frowned as she watched Tony sleep with Jungkook.

"We'll Facetime you," Jungkook promised.

"Please do. And make sure to send me memes and funny filter pictures of the guys,"

"I will. And I'll make sure to send you my progress on my song,"

"Good," she gave Tony one final look as she gently petted him and got off the bed to finish packing, "Make sure you don't feed him too many snacks while I'm gone. You know how you like to spoil him,"

"I won't. Our son is in good hands. I got it," he stood up and helped her.

Once she finished packing, she zipped up the suitcase. She was then gently grabbed by Jungkook and pulled in for a tight hug. Jennie sighed in contentment as she held onto him, enjoying his warmth. Their final hug for who knows how long.

[eddiernunson]

Trapped | Eddie Munson | Epilogue

Prev Part | Master List | Prequel

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader (reader grieves Eddie)

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: a lot of talk about grief.

Author's Note: I didn't think I'd get emotional while preparing this post, but boy did I. I had a lot of joy writing these characters. But, guess what? I'm not through with them! I have a prequel planned that takes place when she works at Scoops Ahoy and I have a long form sequel planned (that is very different from this but an intriguing concept nonetheless.)

I gave the story an ending that could either A) Lead you right into the sequel or B) let her story finish on a higher note.

If you enjoyed this story enough to keep reading thank you, I appreciate you.

As you close the door to your apartment behind you, tossing the keys onto the counter, the sound of the TV on in the living-room greets you. You weren’t expecting it, your roommate out of town for the week visiting family in Florida. When the bathroom door from down the hall opens and Steve Harrington walks into your line of sight everything clicks.

Steve greets you with an open smile on his face, opening his arms as you walk into them comfortably. “Don’t you have a home you don’t have to pay rent for?” You mumble, half joking.

Truth is, you weren’t looking forward to spending the night alone.

“Don’t you?” Steve shoots back as he always does.

You sigh, the polyester of the grocery store uniform shirt feeling gross against your skin. You make your way to your room, a downsized version of the one you had sitting at your parents’ house. You quickly get dressed into some pajamas as Steve waits for you on your couch. Having given him a key, you supposed you should be used to him coming and going as he pleased.

It still startled you every time, though.

You land onto the couch right next to him, watching an episode of The Golden Girls. “How was work?” He asked, and you notice one of your bags of chips right in front of him, nearly empty.

“Shitty.” You comment, snatching the bag from him. “You know, for someone with a full pantry at home you sure steal my chips a lot.” You glance into the reflective bag, only a few handfuls and some crumbs left.

“Good thing I brought more.” Steve says, gesturing to some of the grocery bags on the floor.

The same one you worked at. “When did you go to Kroger?”

“This morning before you worked.” Steve says dismissively. “Vickie asked me to pick up something for a surprise for Robin.”

Your stomach grumbles, and you get up to make some instant noodles, too tired to make anything else.

“Why was your day shitty?” He asks you tentatively. For the record, a shitty day sometimes meant your grief overwhelmed you out of nowhere while restocking shelves. Sometimes, it meant you had a panic attack in the bathroom. Sometimes a shitty day just meant shitty people. Luckily, it was the latter.

You gulp, filling the cup of noodles with water. “Uh, there some girls talking in the break room today and one of them said the uh…” you pause, you can say it, “Munson Murders.” You place it into the microwave, the beeps loud in the silence that follows.

“Are you okay?” Steve asks you, absentmindedly eating the rest of the chips.

“I’m used to them, by now.” Unfortunately, with this job came new coworkers. Some of whom believed the media when the ‘truth’ of the earthquake came out. You’ve gotten used to attempting to ignore them, but they had their moments when they got to you.

As you take the noodles out of the microwave, Steve says something, and the conversation is like clockwork. “You know a way to avoid that—” he starts.

“Don’t say it.”

“The way to avoid his name or reputation altogether—”

“Steve.” You plead with him, your mind tired.

“Is to move, yeah?”

He tells you to leave town at least once a week at this point.

“As soon as you’re able to tell me that you guys have successfully gotten rid of Vecna.” You answer him, a version of what you say to him every time.

“If—” Steve sighs, running his hand through his hair. “if you left town you wouldn’t have to be the girl with the dead boyfriend anymore. You could talk about him without any fear of someone asking his name.”

“And what, be okay with Eleven risking her life on a semi-regular basis? Nancy? Robin? You? Dustin? Mike? Lucas? Erica? Will? Jonathan? Hopper and Joyce, for Christ’s sake? You guys are out there, fighting the good fight and trying to prevent Vecna’s vision to Nancy from coming true, while I’m working at a cash register and restocking aisles every day. I’m on desk duty. Worse. You won’t even tell me what’s going on anymore.”

“Last time you convinced us you were ready you had a panic attack.” Steve emphasizes, his voice stern. “You’re clearly still affected by it.”

You look down to your right hand, the ring Dustin had managed to grab for you providing a great deal of comfort.

He relaxes into the couch, his heavy heartbeat calming down. “If the panic in your eyes when I say his name out loud has any indication, you need the distance if you want to be helpful.”

You roll your eyes to this, ignoring the gnawing feeling you’ve had for about a month that distance from Hawkins might’ve been exactly what you needed.

Problem was, it was already September of 1987 and colleges weren’t accepting any applications until the spring term. Another problem was that it’s October next month, and last October was so hard for you that you could barely recall it.

Memories of Robin, Nancy, and Steve finding you with a tear-streaked face surrounded by tissues and a tape inspired by his taste in music was playing on your stereo. You were fast asleep on your couch, polaroids you’ve been too scared to look at finally seeing daylight again.

You had cried yourself into a coma that night.

This upcoming October had you apprehensive about your tendencies to self-destruct that you’ve developed over the last seventeen months.

“Get out of Hawkins for a bit. When you can say his name, or better yet, tell a story about him without crying, you’re good to come back and help us out.” Steve tells you, rubbing your shoulder absentmindedly. “We want your help and trust me when I say I wish I could tell you about what we’ve learned but.” Steve stops suddenly, and it doesn’t need to be said.

You thank him for attempting to speak it into existence for another try but let him know you weren’t going anywhere. At least, that was the plan as you showered and made your way over to your bed that night.

The next day you had plans to go to your mom’s house to see her, a rare visit back home. You sat at the kitchen island, watching her cook as she continues to ask about your life. She really attempts to hide the fact that your life is killing her from the inside at the moment.

You weren’t going to school. You weren’t planning to, as far as she knew. No plans for the future, and she was sure if she wasn’t careful you would end up working at Kroger for over 30 years and become a shell of the girl you once were.

“Are you sure you want to stay in Hawkins?” she asks, her voice soft as she leans forward to you on her elbows against the island counter.

Usually, a resounding yes would’ve left your mouth. This time, however, you hesitate in your answer.

Something about what Steve had said finally started to get through. Truth is, you were tired of feeling like this.  All of your emotions, everyone’s voices, the weight still sitting on you, pulling you down and denying you energy to even muster the want to care felt like you were stuck under water. You weren’t sure if it was your body telling you the grief had become too much to carry or if Steve had finally gotten through to you but something about yourself felt different…like you…wanted to get better.

“Where would I go?”

-

You knew you shouldn’t have let her talk you into this. You sit at a restaurant from down the block to your dorm, twiddling your thumbs as you wait for the person your college dorm-mate set you up with to walk in. The pictures she’s shown you were…decent. He wasn’t a bad looking dude, but you found yourself comparing him to Eddie, anyway.

Getting into college and into normalcy felt like coming up for air after being stuck underwater for so long. It felt so nice you wondered why you didn’t want to in the first place.

Grief had a hold on you that you finally managed to wring yourself out of, and now it’s just a creature on your shoulder. Sometimes the creature is loud and obnoxious, but most of the time he just sits on your shoulder swinging his legs.

Finally, someone pulls out the chair, bringing you to the present. “Hi! You must be y/n.” He says sitting without so much as a handshake.

“Hi. Nice to meet you. Mark, right?” He nods his head politely, the brown curls reflecting a shine in the overhead light. “So how do you know Nadine?” you start the awkward small talk.

Mark gets into it, describing how he met Nadine on his first tour of campus, and they just seemed to be kindred spirits. He goes on to describe how Nadine showed a picture of you to him and he begged her to set up a date for the two of you.

As this was your first date in over two years, it took a lot of convincing to get you to even consider a date.

“So, what brings you all the way to Montana State?” he asks you, starting up the conversation with some small talk.

“I needed some space.” You answer, and you knew the only reason you haven’t gone to Washington was the rainy weather it was notoriously known for.

“Shitty break up?” He asks you, and you’re nearly surprised Nadine didn’t disclose it to him already.

You take a minute to consider how to respond. “Is it considered a shitty break up when one ends up six feet under?” You ask, your hand fiddling with the black ring that found home on your right hand.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” He apologizes, and it’s nice that you can tell he genuinely feels bad.

You shrug. “Honest mistake.”

The small talk continues, Mark talking about growing up in New York and why he had chosen to be a teacher instead of a doctor like his dad had planned for him. You listen to him, slowly finding comfort in his expressive story telling.

Something catches your eye and you flicker to it and you suddenly wished you hadn’t, the little demon on your shoulder now shouting in your ear obnoxiously. You attempt to blink back the tears threatened to fall and Mark falters out his story, worry invading his features. “It-it’s ok” You breathe, wiping away the one tear that succeeded.

You exhale slowly, and close your eyes, allowing yourself to sink into the memory that was triggered by the happy couple in the faraway booth sitting a little too close to one another.

An image of Eddie flashed across your face, the vague reminder of the nervousness you felt just being so close to him, and the knowledge that he wanted you to be there with him and his dimpled smile.

It’s a quick memory, but you find the more you allow yourself to think them through than push them down, the less likely you end up in a full-on meltdown.

You open your eyes again, now relaxed, and the sight of the happy couple didn’t make you want to throttle them. Progress.

Mark is staring at you, and you can’t decipher the expression on his face. You smile closed mouthed. “Sorry. If I don’t process the emotion in the moment, it just gets worse.”

“Does it have to do with—”

“Yeah.” You interrupt him, wanting to move passed it.

“You want to tell me about it?” Mark asks, and you give him a bewildered look. The fuck?

He laughs, taking a sip of his water. “You’ve been letting me talk about myself this whole time, and I’ve come here to get to know you.” He starts fiddling with his napkin. “It seems this…loss you feel is something you’re still dealing with and therefore a part of you. I want to get to know you, so tell me about it.”

You squint, afraid to give in to his bizarre request. “Isn’t talking about an ex on the first date a bit of a red flag?” You ask, and it occurs to you this is the first time you’ve ever referred to Eddie as an ex.

“On the normal occasion, yes. But this doesn’t seem normal. Tell me about it.”

You sigh, and for the first time in over 2 years, you tell a story about Eddie Munson that doesn’t end in tears.

In fact, you were laughing at his antics with Mark, remembering his dimples as he laughed and the animated movements of leading his club in another night during Hellfire.

The date with Mark does end on a good note, him still asking questions about Eddie conversationally. As he walked you back, Mark insisted he didn’t mind talking about him. “I think you needed to talk about him more than you needed a date, if I’m gonna be honest.”

You smile gratefully to him, a relief hanging on your chest. It might’ve felt crazy, but the demon on your shoulder felt smaller. “I don’t think I’m ready for dating yet.” You admit, and Mark accepts it so gracefully, you felt bad for thinking he looked like he would’ve bullied Eddie earlier in the evening.

As you close the door to your dorm room Nadine pounces on you, asking how your date went. “I think it went pretty good. It established I’m not ready to date again, yet, but Mark was so sweet it was worth it.”

Her face breaks out in a smile, ignoring what you said about not ready to date yet. “That’s so amazing! Tell me how it went!” You open your mouth to tell her when the phone rings, a personal landline for your room. Nadine answers it, closest to the phone. “Oh, yeah she’s right here.”

Nadine’s eyebrows waggle as she passes you the phone, and you know who it is before she even tells you. “Hi, Harrington.” You answer, all love in your voice.

“Hi, there, y/n.” He responds, sound of laughter in your voice. “Hows it?”

“Actually,” you put the receiver away from your phone, asking Nadine to go for a quick walk so you can tell Steve something. She nods her head quickly, leaving the room with the door closing quietly. “Sorry, I just wanted to say I had a really good night. I just got back from…from a date.” You admit out loud.

You could hear his jaw hitting the floor. “Oh shit. How-how’d it go?” Steve was failing to hide how excited the prospect of you going on a date apparently made him feel.

“It was ok…at first. We talked about him for a good first part because the moment someone decides to ask about me I have not much to say except I’m dealing with a loss that has affected every day of my life until about three months ago.” You pause, pursing your lips. “Then I saw this couple, and they looked just like me and him back at the fucking Chef’s Table on our first date and I just…” you inhale, the same feelings bubbling up to surface. “I let myself feel it, think about it, then I was ok.”

“How did he react to that?”

“Better than you would think.”

“Oh? Explain?”

“He insisted if I didn’t talk about myself then what I had gone through must’ve been enough to be who I was for a bit. Which, granted, feels reductive to amount me to my grief but he was right.”

“Damn.”

“I’m not finished. I talked about Eddie, Steve. I told him probably about six stories I haven’t thought about in years and I didn’t shed a single tear.” You find yourself tearing up right now at the mere prospect of being able to remember Eddie happily. “Mark is a good guy because he said at the end of the date, I was clearly not ready to date again but I did need to talk about him. He was right. Steve, I want to talk about Eddie again.”

“Holy shit. If I knew sending you out on a date would’ve pulled that trigger, I would’ve taken you out years ago,” he jokes.

There’s a knock on your door, Nadine wanting to know if she could come back in. You call her in and turns out she had a package. “Hey, this just came in the mail for you.”

“I actually called to talk to you about that. I found something I’ve been looking for and I sent it to you the moment I got my hands on it. Take good care of it, will ya?”

“But Steve, you haven’t even told me what it is.” You protest, holding the package delicately, noting it was compact but had some weight to it.

“You’ll know.”

He hangs up, letting the mystery of the package settle in. “What did he say?” Nadine asked, already had checked the return address from Steve.

“Just that he’s been looking for it and I’ll know when I see it.”

“Then open it!”

You shrug, following her orders, using the tab at the top of the plastic to rip it open. As soon as you pull the light blue denim out, you’re hit with a wave of emotions.

Holy shit. His vest he lent to Steve. “For your modesty.”

You hold it out in front of you, and the brown tint to it tells you Steve didn’t even wash it. You breathe it in, and a smell you have long forgotten hits your nose, and you wondered how it stayed all this time. “Smells just like him.” You mutter, giving Nadine a teary smile. “I thought I’d never be able to smell him again.”

That night, you end up exchanging funny stories from high school. The relief cascaded you as you both laid on your beds staring at the ceiling because you were finally able to tell stories about it without feeling like the earth was being ripped open. Thank God.

-

Spring Break was right around the corner, and as you told everyone you were coming home, most were hesitant on your decision, wondering if his death anniversary was a good time.

For once, you knew it was the right call. In fact, if the situation still seemed dire enough, you had no plans on returning to school and planned on giving Vecna the hell he deserved for wringing you through the grief that he did.

The road trip is a long one, but you had wanted to take it regardless.

Maybe you could even stop by Eddie’s grave. Visit Wayne. Whatever the occasion, you were somehow finally ready for it.

Home.

-

Please reblog/leave comments on what you thought I love reading them and they help support me.

Taglist: @emturtles @yourthebrokengirl @steeldaisies @skrzydlak @thirddeadlysin @sammararaven @bebe07011 @prettylovley

[allfandomxreader]

Back to You | 3

Pairings: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader

Summary: Eight months ago, you swore you would never step foot in Hawkins again. When Robin begs for you to come home for spring break, you find yourself agreeing despite better judgment. You’ve missed everyone, you could endure one more week in Hawkins if that means you can see your friends again.

Words: 8.5k sorry

Part: 3/9

Warnings: Language, alluded depression and anxiety, I think that’s it?? 

A/N: ahhh I just love this series so much and I have been DYING to write episode 4 so I will start on it asap. This part is loosely edited sorry but I’d love to know your thoughts and opinions on it so far :)) 

Series Masterlist // Main Masterlist  

You slam the door to your childhood bedroom cringing at the loud bang it sends throughout the home out of habit. Your mother’s shifts changed from morning to night in the early years of middle school. She griped for months about needing her rest during the day. You grew accustomed to tiptoeing and whispering around the house in an effort to make your presence unknown. You learned how to make your own meals and set the table for one at a young age.

Sure, in high school it made things easier. You never had to sneak out or people in. She never bothered to ask about where you were going or whom you were going with. Curfews didn’t exist in your household and because of that, fellow classmates said they envied you. You didn’t tell them how she never came to science fairs or spelling bees, and that you stopped asking her to come to any event because you already knew her answer. Maybe that’s why you were adamant about supporting the kids. You’d be the first to volunteer to drive them to or from. You always sat front row in the audience at whatever it was they were doing. You knew how it felt to look into a crowd of faces and nobody was there to cheer you on.

You always wished it had been different. You couldn’t help but wonder how life would’ve been if she were present. Steve understood this, his own lack of parental guidance started around the same time. You often wondered if loneliness was the foundation of your friendship. You would find yourself on his doorstep when the silence of your house grew too loud at night. He’d spend weeks at a time sleeping on your bedroom floor when his parents went on vacation and he wasn’t invited. The two of you always had each other.

Six weeks into the first semester of college your mom took another job. An almost constant 9-5, no weekends, no holidays. You felt like you had been ripped in two at the news. She missed the most crucial years of your life and as soon as they were over, she could finally be the mother you needed. It’s been hard trying not to hold it against her.

Your body deflates with a sigh of relief at the emptiness of the house. You rush towards the living room, throwing your backpack strap over your shoulder with haste. Picture frames clatter to the floor, glass shattering onto the hardwood.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” You grumble. You’re already running late. Everyone decided to meet at the corner of Shirly Street at ten o’clock sharp to check on Eddie. You didn’t mean to oversleep, and you definitely didn’t mean to knock down pieces of your mom’s beloved memory wall. It was only for show of course, at least to you. Documentation that she was there when it mattered, even then, it never felt like enough.

Delicately, you pick up the photos, careful not to cut yourself on glass. Staring back at you were two children with toothy grins. You were ten at the time, Steve had just turned eleven. His arm was thrown around you and you held a fish in the air, proudness written across your features. It was the only thing you caught that whole vacation all those summers ago. Steve argued for years that it was technically his fish; he was the one who baited your hook after all. You’re certain he’d still argue that point if it were brought up today.

Your mother always adored Steve. He had her wrapped around his finger ever since he walked you home from the bus stop after the first day of kindergarten. Even after what he did eight months ago, she still believed he could do no wrong. In her letters, she’d update you on his life despite your pleading for her to stop. You reminded her that you didn’t care, deep down, you think both of you knew that was a lie. It was always small things of course; she was only ever informed through their conversations while she rented a movie or when running into him at the supermarket. On the rare occasion when she called, she’d ask if he wrote before hanging up the phone. The answer was always no.

You shouldn’t have been surprised to see Steve hanging proudly on the wall, there was almost as much of him as there was of you. You hadn’t realized until now just how inseparable the two of you truly were. It only made sense that he was present in so many moments frozen in time, he was a big part of your life, maybe the biggest. Even so, you wish your mother would take them all down.

You place the first picture back in its rightful spot, kicking the glass toward the wall and out of the way. It’s crooked but you decide to straighten it later, you don’t want to keep the others waiting longer than they had to. You quickly grab the second frame, lazily hanging it back on its nail.

Your breath hitches as you step away. It was the last picture the two of you took together, one you thought your mom never got developed. Steve stood behind you with his arms awkwardly wrapped around your waist, careful not to crush the corsage on your wrist. It was the nicest either of you had been dressed up.

You didn’t want to go to prom. The first time Steve asked you to be his date you laughed. You didn’t understand the appeal of it all. The thought of spending an evening in a gym that’s too hot in a dress too tight was not by any means your ideal night. The second time prom was mentioned he promised it wouldn’t be lame, that he’d try to make it the best night of your life. The third time, he told you that he just wanted to be normal, to go to a shitty high school dance and see his girlfriend in a fancy dress. You finally relented.  

Back then, Steve was true to his word. He had bought your favorite flowers, requested your favorite song, and spun you around on the dance floor until you were dizzy. He didn’t take his eyes off you the whole evening. He had a way of making you feel like the only girl in the world. It wasn’t the first time the two of you had danced together, no, that happened the year prior. To this day, that was the best night of your life.

Max stood on the pavement before you, rocking back and forth on her heels. It wasn’t often that you saw her nervous, quite frankly, you thought she wasn’t capable of that emotion. And yet, there she was, biting her lip and twiddling with her fingers.

“Do we really have to do this?” She groaned.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, but I promised your mom I’d get at least one picture of you.” You lifted the polaroid to your eye, centering the lens onto her. “Can you at least look like you’re not in pain?” She rolled her eyes and forced a smile, squinting when the flash went off. You hoped it’d be good enough for Susan, you knew Max wouldn’t let you take another. “Now was that so hard?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll see you later.”

“Oh, wait, before I forget.” You dug into your jean pocket and pulled out your lucky tube of strawberry-flavored lip gloss. “I brought this for you.” Her eyes grew wide as she took it. She complimented it the night before while you practiced her makeup for the dance. You had told her that it was your secret weapon, that every time you wore it you ended up kissing a cute boy.

“Think it’ll work?” She asked, applying a thin layer.

“Only one way to find out.” You laughed. She tried to pass it back to you, but you only shook your head. “Keep it, it’s yours.” With one last smile, you jerked your head toward the school. “Knock ‘em dead.” She grinned before she spun around and jogged away. “I’ll pick you up at 9:30!” You called after her. She flashed a thumbs-up behind her, not bothering to turn around before she reached the school doors.

“They grow up fast, don’t they?” You heard Steve’s voice and the rumble of his car beside you. Your body froze. You thought you had a few more days before you had to see him again. You weren’t planning on seeing him here, the middle school parking lot was the last place you expected him to be that night. “Guess we’re both on babysitting duty tonight, huh?” It hadn’t occurred to you that Dustin would ask Steve to drive him. You would’ve been lying to yourself if you said that hadn’t stung.

“She’s nervous” was all you could say, “just trying to make it a little better.” You willed yourself to face him. He stared at you through his open window, smiling when he caught your eye. You thought he looked as handsome as ever in that maroon sweater you always loved, and you kicked yourself for it. Without a word, you watched him pull into the empty spot next to your car and hop out.

“Hi,” he said once he stood in front of you. He was so close you could smell his cologne. “Long time no see.”

“Yeah, I guess it has been a while.”

“Thought you might’ve been avoiding me.” He forced a chuckle, but his eyes pled for you to reassure him otherwise.

“I’m not avoiding you, Steve.” You were. You were still scorned by his actions from Halloween, but by then that night had become an afterthought. You knew it was a stupid grudge to hold onto, especially since everything that happened with the Mindflayer the month before. Even in the midst of that, you saw how he looked at Nancy every time she came into his view. His yearning for her was evident through the way he talked and the way he moved. It was painful to be around almost twenty-four-seven for a week straight. On the nights he called, he only spoke of her, spilling his heart out to you while you listened with tears in your eyes.

The pain that came with loving Steve Harrington almost consumed you. You needed space, you needed time to grieve a relationship that never happened, to move on. So, you kept him at arm’s length. You ignored his calls here and there and made up excuses to not hang out. You weren’t sure what hurt more, being there to pick up the broken pieces of his heart or not being there at all.

“I’ve missed you.” He admitted sheepishly.

“Missed you too.” There was a beat of awkward silence that hung in the air. “I should probably get going.” You said finally. You noticed the frown that tugged on his lips before he spoke.

“Well no, wait, what are you doing right now? We could go grab dinner or watch a movie back at my place before they need to be picked up.” He offered.

“No, that’s okay. I was just gonna wait here and read until it let out, I have a feeling she’ll want to leave early. Wouldn’t want to make her wait in the cold.” Another lie.

“I’ll wait with you then. Who says the babysitters can’t have some fun of their own?” Before you could protest, he offered his hand out to you. “May I have this dance?”

“We can’t even hear the music out here.” You laughed. He ran to his car quickly, turning up the radio until you could hear the vocals bleed out from the windows. “Problem solved.” He said walking back to you, his hand still outstretched. With an eye roll, you placed your hand into his and he pulled you close. You swayed in the parking lot in silence. You had missed his sporadic ideas, the comfortableness in the quiet, but above all, you truly missed him.

“Look, I know I haven’t been the bestest of friends to you lately,” he began. You could hear his heartbeat quicken under the fabric of his shirt. “I don’t know what happened, it’s like ever since Nancy I completely pushed you onto the sidelines and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, I just got so wrapped up in trying to be the best I could be and…” He trailed off and shook his head as if to rid the words on his tongue. “I feel like I don’t even know you anymore and that’s completely my fault. I just hope you’ll forgive me someday.”

“It’s okay, Steve.” Was all you managed to say, your words muffled by his shoulder. As much as all of that hurt, you just wanted your friend back.

“It’s really, really not, and I know that.” He chuckled but there was no humor behind his laugh. “Could we just start over? Pretend that I haven’t been a complete loser of a best friend for the past year?” You pulled away from his embrace to look at him fully. His eyes searched your face trying to read your features. Even after the things you’ve been through together, he never looked quite as scared as he did at that moment.

“I don’t ever want to start over with you, Steve. We can pick up right where we left off.” You said with a smile. The look of relief washed over him, his muscles relaxed in your arms.

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.” He whispered and pulled you into him tighter. Your breath was knocked out of your lungs when you realized how close the two of you were standing. His eyes darted from your own to your lips. He slowly leaned in. His eyelids fluttered closed.

“What are you doing?” You snapped, shoving his body away from you.

“Oh, come on,” Steve groaned, “don’t act like you haven’t thought about it.” You scoffed, shaking your head. Your blood boiled as you looked at him.

“I have thought about it every day for the past year and a half, Steve. I have wanted nothing more than for us to finally be together but not like this. I’m not ruining fifteen years of friendship just because you’re lonely.” You spat. “I know you’re hurting right now after Nancy and I’m sorry, but you do not get to use me to fill that void. I will do a lot of things for you, but I won’t do this. I’m not going to be second best to her anymore, and I’m certainly not going to be her rebound.”

“You think you’re second best?” His voice was softer than before. He stepped forward, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “I think I have been in love with you since we were eight years old.” You stopped breathing. You swore your heart was going to beat out of your chest. “It took me so long to finally realize it and by the time I did, you were flirting with Thomas Morrison or Craig Tolliver. I never thought we’d get the timing right but we’re here now and I don’t want to waste another second not being with you.”

“You love me?” You said breathlessly.

“God, I am so in love with you it’s almost unbearable.” He laughed, taking steps to reach you. “And I know I’m not the greatest person and I haven’t always done right by you, but I promise, cross my heart and hope to die, you have never been second best.” When he said it, no matter how hard you looked for a sign of dishonestly, you only found sincerity behind his eyes. “Can I kiss you now?” And you could only nod.

Loud bangs on the front door pull you out of the past and back into the present. You shake your head to rid the memory as you move towards the sound. Dustin, Robin, Max, and Steve all stand on your porch. You look at them in confusion before checking your watch. You still had five minutes before the designated meeting time.

“Change of plans, we’re raiding your fridge,” Dustin says with a grin. You step aside to let the group in, Max following Dustin toward the kitchen.

“Dingus here thought it’d look suspicious if someone saw us all buying groceries,” Robin explains with an eye roll but continues down the same path after them.

“It would!” Dustin shouts already tearing through your mother’s cabinets. “Anything off limits?” he asks, peaking his head out from behind oak to look at you.

“Uh, no, help yourself.” You say. You’ll tell your mom you’re stocking up for your apartment, she won’t bat an eye. You turn to Steve who still lingers in the doorway. He looked at ease taking in the familiarity of your home, almost nothing had changed since the last time he had been inside. He looks like he belongs here.

“Sorry,” he says, finally looking your way. “He wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“It’s fine.” You sigh, pursing your lips together. Steve’s head tilts in confusion looking you up and down.

“Is that my sweater?” He asks staring at the maroon fabric that hangs off your limbs.

“No,” it is. It was the one you wore each night you found yourself sleeping beside him. You finally stole a few months into dating. At first, it was a keepsake, a reminder of the night when your love story finally began. You’ve had it for so long now it lost his scent and the memory of him went with it. You had forgotten it never belonged to you in the first place. “I do have my own wardrobe these days.”

He doesn’t get the opportunity to respond before the others join you back in the room, each of them holding a bag full of food. “Okay, now we’re ready to roll.” Dustin states and leads the rest of you outside and to Steve’s car.

Dustin gives no warning as he kicks the door to Eddie’s hideaway open. You flinch at the sound, too paranoid that someone lurking in the woods will see you out there. Even though Reefer Rick’s abode resides in the middle of nowhere, the main road is still too close for comfort.

“Delivery service.” Dustin says trudging through the doorway. You spot the broken bottle clutched in Eddie’s hand. His fingers are wound so tight around the glass that his knuckles are white. He relaxes at the sight of the five of you, his breathing already starting to slow as he makes his way to Dustin, snatching the bag of food out of his grasp and taking a seat inside the boat.

“So, we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?” Dustin’s voice is cautious as he begins.

“Bad news first, always.” Eddie says between mouthfuls of Honeycombs.

“Alright, bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they’re definitely looking for you. Also, they’re uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy.” Dustin continues.

“Like, 100% kind of convinced.” Max chimes.

“And the good news?” Eddie asks, looking between the two youngest.

“Your name hasn’t gone public yet. But if we found out about you it’s only a matter of time before others do too and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you.”

“Hunt the freak right?” Eddie asks, staring off into the distance.

“Exactly.” Robin finishes.

“Shit.” Eddie mumbles. Your heart breaks for him. You wish more than anything that this could all be over, that you could put your days of saving the world behind you. As much as you hate it, you don’t care that you’re up against an unknown creature again, at this point you should be used to it. You’ve made peace with the fact that your life is forever tainted by the Upsidedown, it’s taken everything from you already you don’t have much else to lose. Eddie doesn’t deserve this though, and neither did Chrissy. You wish that they both could’ve been left out, blissfully unaware of what grows in Hawkins beneath them.

“So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence.”

“That’s all, Dustin? That’s all?” Eddie snaps.

“Yeah, no, that’s pretty much it.” Even you roll your eyes at that.

“Listen, Eddie,” Robin sighs, “I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we’ve actually been through this kind of thing before. I mean, they have a–a few times,” Robin rambles. Eddie’s eyes lock with yours, softening as she speaks. “And—and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this.” Robin smiles.

“Yeah see, we rely on this girl with superpowers, but, uh, those went bye-bye so, uh,” Steve trails off.

“So, we’re technically in, in more of the—" Robin moves her hands looking for the right word to finish her thoughts.

“The brainstorming phase.” Max nods.

“Brainstorming.” Everyone agrees.

“There’s, there’s nothing to worry about.” Dustin tries his best to be reassuring but he’s never been a good liar. Eddie looks at you then, you stand a little straighter under his gaze.

“You’ve been quiet.” Eddie points out, everyone’s attention lands on you.

“It’s nothing.” You shrug.

“Look, I know I’m new to this whole thing, but I’d like to know the full picture, at least most of it, the good and bad.” Eddie pleads.

“It’s just this is so different. Yes, we’ve been through this kind of thing before but not like this. We’ve dealt with possession and weird slimy dogs, and–and Russian labs. This feels so much bigger. And we’ve always had El, she has saved us every single time, how do we do this without her?” You look at your friends, each of their faces crumbling at your words. They know you’re right. “And whatever it is, it wants to be known, it’s not hiding anymore. It’s not taking people and killing them in the Upsidedown, it’s out in the open. It’s not contained in one spot like the lab or the mall so how do we know where it’ll be? And let’s say we do kill it, even though the entire town isn’t looking at Eddie a few people are. How do we convince them without telling the truth? They won’t believe anything we say about what we know.”  

Before anyone could answer sirens blare in the distance. Everyone scrambles at the sound. “Tarp,” Robin exclaims, “Tarp, tarp!” You hear the rustling of Eddie disguising himself as the rest of you run toward the window. Your heart races watching the cars. You can see it now, they’ll turn into the driveway, and one group will search the house while the other searches the boat house. They’ll find Eddie, place him in cuffs and take him to the station. They’ll take the five of you there too, questioning you for hours until inevitably, you’re behind bars as accomplices.

They all keep driving, not giving this place a single thought. Even though you’re relieved, you know it’s not a good sign.

“Let’s go,” Steve says, keys already in hand. Eddie’s head pokes out from under the tarp at the commotion.

“You’re safe for now, don’t leave until we get back!” You say, running after them and into Steve’s car once again. Steve drive’s through the backroads quickly, an eerie silence settles in the air.

“What do you think it is?” Dustin asks quietly from the other end of the backseat. He bounces his knee while staring out the window.

“Someone else is dead.” You say. You don’t have the energy to sugarcoat it.

“How do you know?” Max whispers, though deep down you think she knows it too.

“Because the last time I saw that many first responders was Starcourt,” Max gulps beside you, still haunted by the memory. Maybe you should’ve sugarcoated it. “And the time before that was when Pastor John had his stroke two years ago. This is too much of a coincidence to need that many people. Someone else was murdered.”

“I hope you’re not right about this.” Steve glances at you from the rearview mirror.

“Yeah, yeah me too.” Was all you could say before looking back out the window.

“Holy shit is that…” Steve mumbles pulling the car to a halt. All of you pile out of the car, taking in the scene. Nancy Wheeler stands in the midst of it all surrounded by police. Her face brightens at the sight of everyone. She offers a small wave, forcing a smile.

You lean on Steve’s car, all of you in silence watching her movements from a distance. You see Chief Powell flip his notebook shut. A lump forms in your throat as you take in the beige uniform, the one you’ve grown used to seeing Hopper in over the years. The constant reminder of the people you have lost is growing more unbearable by the second. With a final nod, Powell releases her from his questioning. She walks with her head down, clenching her fists together as she makes her way toward you.

“What are you guys doing here?” She says standing before the group. She looks each of you over waiting for someone’s answer.

“What are you doing here?” Steve responds. You watch as Nancy gulps, looking at the pavement before speaking.

“Fred was killed.” She whispers, unable to look anyone in the eye. “He was right there, and then he was just gone.” She shakes her head, trying to understand how it happened. You know she’s already blaming herself. Nobody knows how to fill in the silence.

“Shit,” Dustin mumbles. “I’m assuming that’s not a coincidence.”

“What do you mean?” Nancy looks up then.

“We should probably go somewhere a little more private to explain.” Dustin nods to the police, already making his way back into Steve’s BMW.

“I have to get my car, it’s back at the trailer park,” Nancy trails off, glancing at the five of you. “And it looks like you guys are out of room… I’ll walk back and then I can meet you anywhere.”

“I’ll walk with you,” you blurt. “I need some air anyway.”

“Whoa, another person just died out here and you just want to skip through the woods right now?” Steve asks looking between the two of you.

“Not like we really have another option.” You shrug. “We’ve fought off literal monsters, I think we can handle a two-minute walk, Steve.”

“I just don’t like the idea of you out there all alone.” Steve sighs, shoving his hands into his jeans.

“Since when do you care about sending me places alone?” You snap, unable to stop the words before they came. Steve’s face falls, heat rising to his cheeks out of anger.

“That’s not fair.” He bites back.

“Isn’t it?” You cock your head to the side, waiting for him to argue.

“You know what, forget I said anything.” He throws his hands into the air. “If you end up dead, that’s on you.” He seethes, yanking the door to the car open and throwing himself inside. You wince hearing the slam echo through the trees. Robin shoots you a glare before getting in herself. Steve starts the engine, his tires screeching as he peels off down the road.

Awkwardness settles over you and Nancy as you begin the short journey. You didn’t mean for an argument to happen, especially not in front of everyone. You really are trying to keep things civil between the two of you for Robin’s sake, Dustin’s too. You can’t help it, you’re already on edge, and being around Steve only made it worse.

“Sorry you had to see that.” You say. You don’t know why you felt the need to apologize, maybe it was out of embarrassment, or maybe you just want someone to be on your side.

“Don’t be, I totally get it.” The two of you are quiet again, only the sounds of your shoes scuffing the concrete fill the air. “I heard about what happened.” She says softly, as if asking permission to continue. Surprisingly, you’re relieved at the news. Even after all these months, you’re still not ready to tell the world what happened from your point of view. You’d rather them assume, to hear through the grapevine and write their own conclusions than relive your heartache. “It was fucked up. You’re allowed to still be angry.”

“Thank you, I needed that.” You say with a smile. Her words are nice to hear, you just wanted someone to justify your feelings, to be given the space where you don’t have to pretend that being around him isn’t sucking the life out of you.

“You know, I always thought the two of you would get married straight after graduation. Even when we were together, I never understood why he wasn’t with you.” She admits with a shrug. “When the word got out, I couldn’t believe it,” she shakes her head, “Still can’t. I don’t know how you’ve held it together so well.”

“Believe me, I am far from holding it together.” You admit.

“Oh, of course, I’m just saying if it were me,” she sucks in a breath, “I would’ve egged his house, or keyed his car, put Nair in his shampoo, something.” this makes you laugh. “You’ve always been good at that though, never showing weakness I mean.”

“I definitely thought about it, but it wouldn’t have made me feel any better.” The two of you are venturing into new territory, you’ve never talked about anything beyond surface level, and you’ve certainly never talked about Steve. “How are you and Jonathon?” You ask, desperate to think about something else other than your past.

“We’re good.” Her pitch changes but she says nothing else.

“Real convincing.”

“Honestly?” She sighs, “I don’t know how we are. He was supposed to visit over break but bailed at the last second and wouldn’t give me a real reason why.” Nancy folds her arms around herself as she talks.

“What the fuck?”

“I know, that’s weird right?” You nod in agreement. “And he’s been so distant lately and I don’t know if it’s because he’s nervous about his acceptance letter or if it’s the distance or if he’s found some other girl out there or what.”

“Have you talked to him about this?”

“I’ve tried but he always brushes it off, he’ll give one of his typical Jonathon excuses then hang up the phone. Now he won’t even answer.”

“That’s bullshit, I’m sorry.” You try to think of something better to say, to help comfort her in the same way she did you. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s found someone else. There’s nobody better for him than Nancy Wheeler and he’s known that from the moment you got together. And if he has, fuck that and fuck him.” She chuckles giving a slight nod. “I’m sure he’s just scared. Everything has changed so quickly, and it’ll change even more once you both graduate. But right now, he’s supposed to be here and he’s not and I know how much that sucks. You don’t have to pretend to not be upset, not around me at least.” For the first time since you’ve started walking, you look at each other.

“I wish we could’ve been better friends,” she admits. “I feel like we’ve never had a chance to really talk.”

“Never too late to start.” Each of you smile, yet again bonding over pain.

“There they are.” She nods to the group of four, all of them sitting at a lone picnic table. Dustin waves at the sight of the two of you emerging down the path.

You slide into the edge seat next to Dustin, Nancy sits across from you as they fill her in on what you know. You can feel the tension in the air that falls over the six of you. Nobody can look you in the eye. Maybe you shouldn’t have snapped.

“So, you’re saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it’s from the upside down?” Nancy asks, trying to process the new information.

“If the shoe fits.” Steve mumbles.

“Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell. Or curse?” Dustin explains. “Now, whether or not he’s doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don’t know.”

“It’s like Y/N said earlier, this is something different. Something new.” Max says.

“Doesn’t make sense.” Nancy shakes her head.

“It’s only a theory.” Dustin tries.

“No, Fred and Chrissy don’t make sense. I mean, why them?” Nancy questions.

“Maybe they were just in the wrong place. They were both at the game.” Dustin shrugs.

“And near the trailer park.” Max adds.

“We’re at the trailer park.” Everyone looks at the surroundings at Steve’s words. “Uh, should we maybe not be here?”

“There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here.” Nancy says. You can tell she’s reliving their final moments in her head, slowly piecing things together.

“Acting weird as in...?” Robin trails off.

“Scared, on edge, upset.” Nancy lists.

“Max said Chrissy was upset too.” Dustin says.

“Yeah, but not here. She was crying in the bathroom at school.”

“Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman—" Robin begins.

“Vecna.” Dustin corrects.

“I don’t know about you guys but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I’d mention it to someone.” Steve looks around the group at his confession.

“Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley’s office. If you saw a monster, you –you wouldn’t go to the police. They’d never believe you.” Max explains, “But you might go to your—”

“Your shrink.” Robin finishes. Max nods in her direction.

“Let’s talk to Ms. Kelley and see what she knows.” Max says, throwing her legs over the bench to stand.

“That’s completely violating patient privacy,” you say following her lead. “She’s not going to tell you anything.”

“Better than nothing, which is what we have right now.” she shrugs.

Everyone marches toward the cars in silence lost in thought. Nancy breaks from the group first, heading to her own vehicle.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Nance!” Steve calls after her. “Where are you going?”

“There’s just something I want to check on first,” she waves her hand in dismissal.

“Something that you maybe want to share with the rest of us?” Dustin shouts from beside you.

“I don’t wanna waste anyone’s time. It’s a real shot in the dark.” She shrugs. “And I really don’t want to squeeze into your backseat. It makes more sense this way. You guys go, I’ll tell you if I find anything.”

“Yeah, no, it’s too dangerous. You need… You need someone too…” Steve trails off, you scoff at the scene. “Here. You go, I’ll stick with Nance, alright?” Steve says, tossing his keys to Robin. “You guys take the car, check out the shrink.”

“I don’t think you want me driving your car.” Robin says.

“Why?”

“I don’t have a license.”

“Why don’t you have a license?” Steve snaps, growing more irritated by the second.

“I’m poor.” She shrugs.

“Give me the keys.” You demand taking the keys just wanting the conversation to be over with. “I’ll try not to crash your car.” You flash him a snarky grin.

“Okay, no. Enough of this.” Robin snatches the keys from your grasp and takes a flashlight from Dustin’s backpack. “I’m going with Nancy,” Robin says, shoving the keys back into Steve’s hand. “You both are exhausting. You two need to figure your shit out, especially after what happened back there. I get it, you hate each other, whatever, get over it. We have bigger problems right now and we’re never going to solve anything if you two can’t get along for even two seconds.” She spins on her heel and heads straight toward Nancy’s car before you can even get a word in.

“Sorry.” Nancy whispers before following Robin’s lead.

“Be careful!” Steve calls after them.

“You just gonna stand there and gawk, Harrington?” Dustin giggles.

“Oh, shut up. Get in the car.” Steve groans, “Wipe your feet.” He demands as Dustin climbs into the front and rubs his feet on the floor mat. “On the outside, not the inside!” He starts the car with rage. “Always the babysitter, always the goddamn babysitter.”

Nobody utters a word as Steve drives. You busy yourself looking out the window watching the trees pass. It’s a weird feeling being sat behind Steve. Once upon a time, nobody dared to take your spot beside him. It was almost second nature sliding in through the passenger door and everyone else taking the back. Once, Dustin got into the front just to see how you’d react, it really didn’t faze you, you honestly didn’t care where you sat. He stood outside the car for five minutes straight demanding that you take back your seat because “it messes up the system!”. Now, you understand what he meant. Granted, so much more has been messed up since then.

“Be right back,” Max says, hopping out of the car before it even comes to a complete stop. She lingers in the doorway waiting for Ms. Kelley to answer, anxiously tapping her foot. When the door opens, Ms. Kelly seems surprised to see her standing there, you don’t really blame her for that. You try to make out what she’s saying but come up empty-handed, too far away to read her lips. Max throws a glance over her shoulder before stepping inside and shutting the door behind her.

“Okay, she’s in.” Steve says.

“I’m missing collar bones, not eyes.” Dustin comments. You smirk at this. You’re happy he’s found a way to joke about it after all these years, you know how insecure it made him growing up. “So, we gonna talk about it?” Dustin’s eyes are trained on Steve’s.

“Uh, sorry, talk about what?” Steve asks, tearing his head away from the counselor’s house.

“Your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at Nance.” You’re glad you’re not the only one who noticed, even so, a knot festers in your stomach.

“Okay, first of all, that’s not what happened.”

“Pretty sure it’s what happened. It was pretty public. There were like a lot of witnesses.” Dustin’s nose scrunches, fake embarrassment spreading through his features. “He threw himself at Nancy, right? You saw it too?” Dustin asks, turning around to look at you.

“Oh, I saw.” You want to throw up. You’ve spent years trying to force yourself into believing Steve had no feelings left for her. You’re starting to think you were wrong this entire time.

“Are you implying I still have a thing for Nance?” Steve snaps, looking at Dustin.

“No, I’m not implying. I’m stating. And, as it relates to your steadfast refusal to date Robin, it’s pretty much the only logical explanation.” Dustin says, looking back out through the windshield. You bite the inside of your cheek in an effort not to laugh.

“That’s not the only one.” Steve grumbles. “And as for Nance, I was just trying to protect a friend.” He explains but’s clear Dustin doesn’t buy it. “A friend, Henderson. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“I don’t wanna find her in the morning with her eyes sucked out of the front of her skull by this Vecna creep.” Steve defends. Even if his words hold truth, you can tell he’s coming up with it on the spot.

“You’re like bright red in the face right now.” Dustin teases.

“No, I’m not. I don’t wanna talk about it.” Steve says rolling his eyes. “Why does everyone think I haven’t moved on from her.” Steve mumbles shaking his head.

“Uh, maybe because she was your first love? Everyone knows you never really move on from that.” Dustin says. Steve glances at you through the rearview, holding your gaze with soft eyes.

“That’s not true,” he says quietly, forcing himself to look away. “I’m done talking about this. Not another word or I’ll punch you so hard in your face that your teeth will fall back out.”

“Steven James!” His name tumbles out from your mouth faster than you could stop it. It was like second nature, as if you fell back into the role of the girl you were eight months ago. He knew he’d said too much.

“Whoa. Too far.” Dustin warns. They stare at each other for a beat.

“Not cool. Sorry.” Steve apologizes.

“Not cool. It’s okay.” They bump fists to solidify their peace. “So, uh, Y/N, how’s your boyfriend?” Dustin says in a poor attempt to change the subject.

“Oh, we broke up.” You admit quietly. It had been a brief relationship, it started towards the end of September. You weren’t looking to date at the time, still tending to your wounds from Steve. You fell hard and fast despite being convinced you’d never fall in love with another man. That’s the thing about love, it has a way of sneaking up on you without you realizing it and disappearing just as fast as it came.

Even though the months you had spent together were limited, you had never felt more alive. It was so painfully normal, how you wish every relationship could be, how you wish your relationship with Steve could have been. You didn’t have to worry about saving the world, you only cared about whose turn it was to pay for dinner and which apartment you were spending the night at.

“What? Since when?” Dustin asks, turning around in his seat to look at you fully.

“New Year’s Eve.” You force a chuckle, shaking your head. You haven’t thought about him much since. You think you liked who you were while you were together more than you liked him. It was easy being with him, there was no shared trauma or a history of friendship. He was new, exciting, and you loved every second of it. You almost forgot Steve existed entirely for those four short months. “He had the worst possible timing for that one. Must be a trend.” You look back out the window, ignoring the look Steve sends your way through the mirror.

“If you’re trying to make this even more awkward Henderson, you’re succeeding. Stop talking.” Steve huffs looking back toward the house. “Here she comes, here she comes, here she comes.” He says sitting up straighter in his seat, watching as Max bolts from the backside of Ms. Kelley’s home.

“What’d she say?” Dustin asks the second she throws the door open.

“Nothing, just drive.” She demands breathlessly sliding next to you.

“Nothing?” Steve questions.

“Steve, drive!” She shouts.

“Okay.” Steve’s wheels screech for the second time today, speeding down the road and out of the neighborhood. “Where am I going?” He asks, eyes trained on the road.

“The school.” She answers.

“The high school?” You ask, watching her dig in her jacket pocket.

“Yeah, she didn’t tell me shit.” She rolls her eyes.

“Told you.” You mumble.

“So, let’s find out for ourselves.” She says, holding up a keyring labeled ‘office’. With a single glance at the keys, Steve makes a sharp left turn, rerouting towards Hawkins high.

“What happens when we get to the school and there are cops everywhere?” Steve asks no one in particular.

“Why on earth would there be cops at the school, Steve?” Dustin laughs.

“No, that’s actually a valid question.” Steve gestures to you with a thankful motion, glaring at Dustin from your agreement. “As far as we know, the cops don’t know Reefer Rick is Eddie’s dealer, that’s why they haven’t found his hiding place yet. He has no other family besides his uncle, and he can’t go back home for obvious reasons. Where else would a kid still in high school have to go?”

“But why would he go back there at all?” Max asks.

“Maybe they think he’d go back for his drugs.” Steve shrugs.

“That’s ridiculous. Where would he even keep them, his locker? Eddie’s not that stupid.” Dustin says. Your lips turn into the faintest of smiles, it’s touching to see how quick he is to defend a friend despite not being in their presence. He’s always been that way to the people he loves. He told you once that he learned it from you.

“Yeah, not anymore.” Steve grumbles.

“Our senior year, someone tipped off the police that he was dealing at the school. They came and raided his entire locker and everything. They found all sorts of stuff in there. It was a pretty big deal.” You explain to the younger two. “They let him off with a warning but held him for back another year.”

“So stupid,” Steve scoffs. “why would anyone choose to deal drugs.” He shakes his head thinking out loud.

“People who don’t have the luxury of mommy and daddy paying for everything.” You snap. You’re not defending the way Eddie earns his income, but you understand. You know how it feels to be desperate enough to do anything just to afford to scrape by all too well.

It’s dark by the time you pull into the school parking lot. You scope the surroundings, there’s no sign of anyone around. You peek through the trees to get a glimpse of movement to make sure police aren’t hiding in the shadows.

“Safe to say there are no cops.” Sarcasm drips from Dustin’s lips.

“Unbelievable,” Steve says looking around the abandoned schoolyard. “I mean what do they even do? We found Eddie in less than twenty-four hours. We do their jobs better than they do.”

“Is that a surprise to you, Harrington?” You laugh, leading the way to the entrance. “Since when has anyone on the force besides Hop done their job? Even he didn’t do much before all of this shit happened.”

“Who knows how to pick a lock?” Dustin asks once in front of the door, leaning down towards the handle.

“Why would any of us know how to pick a lock?” Steve rolls his eyes.

“I know how.” Max admits. Both of their heads turn to her in disbelief.

“Or,” you trail off, reaching for the knob and opening the door with ease. “After you.” You say to Dustin, gesturing for him to enter.

You and Steve reach for the flashlights stuffed in Dustin’s backpack, hands brushing for only a moment. You snatch your hand away as if you’ve been burned. Steve hangs his head, pulling the flashlights out himself. You don’t look at him as he hands one to you. You start walking, sweeping the light over the floors and walls. You’ve always hated this place, you hate it even more in the dark.  

“Dustin, do you copy?” Robin’s voice pierces through the silence. Dustin reaches for his walkie and brings it to his lips as everyone rounds a corner.

“Yeah, I copy.”

“So, Nancy’s a genius. Vecna’s first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull’s eye.” Even through the static you can hear her excitement.

“Okay, that’s totally bonkers but I can’t really talk right now.” The walkie beeps.

“Wait, what are you doing?” She asks.

“Breaking and entering a school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files.”

“Can you repeat that?”

“Just get your ass over here, stat. We’ll explain everything.” He orders, jabbing the antenna back into its rightful place.  

Max shoves the key into the locked office. With one final look over her shoulder, she pushes the door open, and everyone trails in behind her. She makes a beeline for the file cabinet in the corner of the room, you’re hot on her heels.

“It’s like a mini Watergate or something.” Dustin whispers looking around the room. Max pulls open the drawer filled with manila folders. “Hawkinsgate.” He murmurs somewhere behind you. You pay no attention to his words as you hold the light for Max. She combs through files passing over Chrissy Cunningham’s name. Your heart stops when you spot your own.

“Wait a second, didn’t those guys get caught?” Steve whispers.

“Holy shit.” Max mumbles. Her hands stop moving. You look closer, her fingers hover over a file labeled with Fred’s name.

“You found it?” Dustin walks closer, abandoning his conversation altogether.

“Yeah, and not just Chrissy’s file.” She says pulling out Fred’s. “Fred was seeing Ms. Kelley too.” The four of you look at one another, trying to piece together a puzzle that doesn’t yet fit. Max turns, taking a seat in Ms. Kelley’s chair, flipping open Chrissy’s file. You peer over her shoulder, skimming through the notes. “Can I see Fred’s file?” Max says after a few minutes have passed.

“Yeah,” Steve whispers, passing her the folder, leaning down to get a closer look. Max looks up from reading and stares at nothing in particular on the table before her.

“Max, what is it?” Dustin asks, attempting to follow her gaze. “Max!” He tries again. “Max!”

You come out from behind her, turning the chair so she can face you fully. “Max, hey, look at me.” You plead. She doesn’t blink. She’s staring right through you as if you aren’t even there. “Max?” You call out to her. Frantically, you look between the boys, both of them just as worried as you.

“Max, come on.” Dustin urges.

“Max?” Steve shakes her shoulder in an attempt to wake her. Tears sting the back of your eyes, threatening to spill at any moment.

Without warning she jerks, coming to. Her eyes are wild as she looks between the three of you. She throws her arms around your neck, choking back a sob. Instinctively, you hold her tight, rocking her back in forth to calm her down.

“Hey, shh, it’s okay I got you.” You coo. Dustin and Steve share a collective sigh of relief at the sight. “You’re okay, you’re safe.” Though when you say it, it feels like a lie. You aren’t sure what just happened, what you witnessed, what Max saw, but you know whatever it was, it’s not good.

And even though you hate this town after everything it has done, after everything it’s taken from you, you’re happy to be here in this moment for Max’s sake. You know she wouldn’t cling to Dustin or Steve. She’d wear her confidence like a mask, her walls would become so high and she wouldn’t show a moment of weakness. She knows she doesn’t need to be brave, not around you. So, you’ll sit here, hold her, and let the mask fall as she weeps in your arms for as long as she needs.

Forever tags: @superfrankie111 // @rueinn // @lemonadeorange73 // @simplechicwithacrazedheart // @youshutthefuckupville // @captainpeggy40 // @alexdamereysmith // @llatpdnmm // @dummiesshort // @quaksonhehe

Steve Tags: @empathetic-vibrations // @loulouloueh // @soulmatecashton

Back to You Tags: @p-rspective // @gloryekaterina // @boomitsallie1​ // @sundarksposts // @themyththelegendthenerd​ // @gengen64​

[damn-stark]

Ch.13 Let’s be heroes. Again

Chapter 13 of Strange

A/N- it’s gonna be a ride :) and definitely don’t listen to Mary by Big Thief

Warning- Angst, swearing, FLUFF!! Talks of murder and death, grief and guns, just sweet wholesome makeout scene.

Pairing- Steve Harrington x Hopper!fem-reader

Episode- 4x02, 4x03 (half)

(Let me know if you wanna be tagged)

————

The dream always starts off the same every night; you’re with Steve and Eleven, you see Joyce and Bauman walking out, but rather than having your father missing, he walks out talking to some old Military friend.

When you and your sister walk out of the ambulance to meet up with him, he spots you both and meets you halfway to take you in for a big group embrace, making sure neither of you feel left out. He kisses the top of your heads and whispers a nickname he’s adapted to the both of you now. “My little valentines.”

If someone were to ask to describe how he smells like, you’d be able to name every scent from the top of your head; sweat, blood, cigarettes, but under that lays his unique smell, cigarettes of course, cheap man cologne, pinecones and wood. It’s so comforting now when he’s gone.

When he pulls away he has his hands on your shoulders and takes a minute to check on the both of you. Eleven didn’t get any more physical injuries but he sees the bright red bruise around your throat and quickly worries. “What happened?”

“The guy you warned me about, the one from the diner,” you let him know. “You were right, he was bad news.” You scoff in amusement but neither of them find it so amusing.

“My fault,” Eleven interjects out of guilt. “I couldn't help her when she needed me. She helped me and she got hurt.” More tears stream down her cheeks, but you quickly turn to assure her without any complaint.

“No, it wasn’t your fault, it was just the monster. You tried, that's all that matters, I don’t blame you.”

Hopper would smile at the interaction, at his daughters comforting one another. He'd be proud.

“You,” Eleven then focused back on him. “Are you okay?” She’d grab his face to look at the blood better.

“Nothing some painkillers won’t help,” he’d tried to comfort the both of you. “And a good night's rest.” He’d cup your cheeks and smile a soft smile that made you cry and spill out the truth you had withheld for later but seemed right to say now.

“I forgive you, you know that dad,” you swallow thickly and muster a wobbly smile. “I was scared I’d never see either of you again today, I can’t go on not telling you. I’m sorry for being so mean, I’m sorry for being such a bad daughter.” You cry and he quickly hugs you tightly, he’d whisper something, but that’s where the dream always ended, you’d wake up in California, in the darkness of your room.

The tears stopped spilling after a while, but the disappointment that your dream isn’t real, that you now have to live without saying that you forgive him never leaves your heart. It’s why it’s easy getting angry at him for breaking his promise to you, for leaving again, because of guilt.

——

“Okay, wait, wait, where are you planning to stay for the week?” Steve finally asks you. “You,” he begins to suggest with a smirk and his eyebrows raised as he walks over to you by the desk inside the back room. “Want to stay with me? I mean my parents won’t care anymore.”

You grab onto the edge of the desk and tilt your head with a smile decorating your features. “Well, I don’t know, I agreed to stay with Robin already.”

“I mean,” Steve sighs, “yeah, sure out of respect for the Chief, may he Rest In Peace….”

Your smile falters and you blink.

“…but come on, you’re eighteen, almost nineteen, I think it’s more than alright, I give you permission.”

You snort and narrow your eyes. “Are you my daddy now or something?”

Steve rests his hands beside yours, letting his body hover over yours and letting his eyes hold yours while he offers you a sly grin. “I absolutely can be your daddy, it says so on the mug!”

You look into his eyes as you stay quiet for a few seconds before you burst out laughing. Steve of course rolls his eyes and instantly shoots you a remark. “Oh come on, really?! You know…” he scoffs and pushes himself back. “I’m done. I’m done. I can’t even flirt with you without having you laugh.”

“What?” You exclaim. “It’s funny, Steve! Come on! I think laughter is the greatest form of intimacy. I…love that you can make me laugh.” You push yourself off from the desk and walk over to him to grab him by the collar of his shirt and pull him back to where you were. “I’ll stay with you if it’s really okay. I wanted to since the beginning but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. I’ll let Robin know.”

Steve smiles at you and tilts his head to continue talking. “Good, I didn’t trust the two of you together.”

“Oh,” you breathe out, “why not? You scared she’s going to win me over with her funny jokes, or her boobies?” You laugh.

“Both….Yeah, both.”

“Don’t worry,” you tell him as you wrap your arms around his neck and he grabs you by the waist. “As funny as Robin is, you will always be funnier to me. Besides, I….” You pause and want to tell him what you feel, what’ve you held yourself back from saying, but everytime, every single time you want to utter the words to him or anyone else….a memory from a few years ago, one from eight months ago re-emerges, it haunts you and makes it impossible for you to utter those three simple yet meaningful words.

“….I think,” you chose to say instead, “your hair alone out beats her boobies everytime.” You shrug. “Just saying.”

Steve brushes his hair back and hums. “Yeah, I can see why, it’s a killer with the ladies.”

“Is it?” You press him. “Well they have not seen what’s underneath your shirt,” you smirk and bounce your eyebrows. “I love the hair on the chest too,” you whisper. “Or how incredibly sappy you—”

“Shut up and just kiss me already,” Steve cuts you off and leans in to kiss you, but right as he pressed his lips against yours the door slammed open.

“Hey!” He instantly snapped back as he swung his head in the door's direction. “Knock! Knock!”

“Steve, no, I don’t care! We need to—” the familiar voice you instantly recognized as Dustin’s pauses to quickly change the subject. “Hey, who the hell are you with?! You better not be—”

You poke your head past Steve’s arm and shoot Dustin a smile that cuts him off and makes him smile widely.

“Y/N!” He exclaims with glee. “You’re here!”

“I’m here!” You shout and push Steve’s arm away to walk over to Dustin and do your non-complicated handshake. “How are you doing?”

“Right now,” he scoffs and places his hands on his hips, “not good, definitely not good. It’s a good thing you’re here actually, we need the entire team for this.”

Your smile slowly falls but you manage to add a tightlipped smile and a nervous breathless chuckle. “For what?” You ask nervously, knowing what Hawkins liked to throw at you from time to time.

“Something that could be incredibly dangerous,” Dustin strains.

You scoff and really want this to be a joke, you really wish it would only be a fucking joke…

But of course it isn’t, or really that’s what Max and Dustin tried to convince you when they said that there's a possibility that someone didn’t kill the high school student from the news, someTHING else did. Something that made the lights flicker in Max’s house more than usual and got Dustin’s friend, Eddie so terrified that he just ran out of his own house.

“And just to make this perfectly clear,” you really try to make things clear. “You guys think that something sinister is behind this murder because the lights flickered and Eddie ran out?”

Dustin looks over from the computer and shoots you a pointed glare before he snaps back at you. “You don’t believe us? Why don’t you believe us?”

You shrug and lean back on the counter with your arms over your chest. “I don’t know maybe because sometimes, some events don’t have to have some sinister motive,” you imply. “Sometimes people can be shit for no reason. There doesn’t need to be some other reason behind it. Your friend Eddie could just be a killer. He was so scared of what he did that he ran out. Look at Ted Bundy, I mean he had friends, people would say he’s a nice guy, but look what happened.”

“She’s got a point,” Steve backs you up.

“No, I know that,” Max further tries to convince you and the others. “But if he was a killer then why run? Why not hide the body?”

“Between me and you four, Eddie is a…” you lean your head forward and whisper. “A drug dealer, he deals to people at school. He could’ve been high, got paranoid and ran. Easy.”

Dustin eyebrows furrow and he fully turns around on the chair to probe. “Yeah, and how do you know that?”

You smirk and shrug, choosing to leave that unanswered and continue. “All I’m saying is, Eddie is like, a super super senior, he’s weird, and well there's a real possibility this was just a simple tragic small town murder. Nothing we can do about it.”

Dustin scoffs and rebuttals sharply. “Well I’m telling you Eddie would never do this. You’re judging him before you can even know him. It’s not fair. It seems spending too much time in the sun fried your brain.”

You blink and part your lips, feeling your face fall from surprise at the angry and annoyed tone of Dustin’s voice.

“Hey!” Steve interjects in your defense.

“Let’s just talk to him,” Max directs at you in a much kinder voice. “See what he has to say. Could be just what you’re saying, or something else. We can’t know if we don’t talk to him, so….could you help us? I know you came for vacation but if it’s nothing it’s just one day wasted.”

You draw in a deep breath and share a quick look with Robin and Steve before you exhale and give her your answer without even trying to think about it, because the truth is, you really can’t say no to them. “Fine. Fine, but if I am right, I’ll gloat.”

With a bit of dread, you slowly pull yourself away from the counter and help them call Eddie’s friends for any possible clue about where he’d be. But, if you have to be honest you really didn’t help them that much, you tried! You really actually tried, but well there was a distraction that would drift your attention away from time to time.

“You come here often?” Steve messed around with you from in front of the counter since he had been attending the customers while Robin made calls.

You push your sunglasses up and offer him a sweet smile as you reply in a sweet voice. “Well I try to, you see, there's this cute guy that works here, he’s got a killer smile and very nice hair.” You begin to trace circles on the countertop with your finger and smirk. “I’m just too shy to take things further; and what if he’s a douche who’s just messing with me? I’ve had my fair share with assholes so, what do you think I should do? Should I go with it? Or should I run the other way?”

Steve leans in and answers you a bit cocky. “I say you should go with it, who knows this guy might, I don’t know, be the complete opposite of a douche and want to, I don’t know, take things further with you too.”

A grin slowly spreads on your lips and just before you could add something else Max cuts you off, causing Steve to grumble, “Godammit.”

“Hey, guys, I might have found a lead,” Max shares with the group, making you turn around to face her with your elbows propped on the counter and your hands hanging off the edge.

“Seriously?” Dustin says with excitement.

“Yeah,” Max confirms and continues. “Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there.”

“That sounds promising.” Robin interjects, “where does Reefer Rick live?”

“See, that’s the thing. No one knows. He’s more of a…a legend than someone that people actually know.”

“What about a last name?” Dustin questions Max.

“I don’t know that either,” she admits.

“Bet the cops know the last name,” Steve adds as he’s putting things away.

You scoff, “what?”

“Cops. I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he’s been busted at some point. Means he’s in the system.” Steve explains while he returns to the spot he was before.

Dustin gets up from his seat and repeats in kind of a rude manner, “the cops? Really, Steve? That’s your suggestion?”

Steve shrugs and continues to further explain his suggestion. “I think they should be filled in with on what we know, what’s going on.”

You fix your stance and can’t help but nod along. That though, gets you a glare from Dustin.

“You think Eddie’s guilty, don’t you?” Dustin directs at Steve and pushes you aside to confront Steve closer.

“Whoa, whoa.” Steve protests. “I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit. I just, you know think y/n’s right, and” he claps his hands and begins to rub them together. “I just don’t think we can rule it out.”

“That’s precisely what we’re trying to do here, Steve,” Max rebuttals him.

“And maybe,” Dustin bounces off Max. “We’d have a little bit more luck if you spent less time giggling, flirting and gazing into your girlfriend’s eyes and more time trying to find Eddie.”

You scrunch your eyebrows together and quip, “hey!”

They ignore you and Steve tries to defend himself instead. “Well first, it’s my girlfriend's first day back, okay, I missed her. And second, I’m also working because someone has to attend to the customers.”

“Especially if they’re babes, right?” Robin teases and looks between Steve and you to shoot a wink.

“Hey, no, not true,” he points at you and then focuses back on the group. “I'm in a committed and loving relationship, I don’t even look at girls. I attend to all the customers equally, babes and non-babes alike. We got a very big selection in here, okay. It can be super overwhelming for people.”

Robin pushes herself away from the counter as she agrees with Steve almost breathlessly. “Yeah, it can be.” She turns and sits in front of the computer, getting an immediate interrogating question from Max.

“What are you doing?”

“She’s just joking, you know that right,” Steve tries to assure you in a whisper as he leans towards you. “I don’t even look at anyone in any way. I don’t—”

“Steve,” you interrupt him. “I know, I trust you.” You offer him a smile before you walk up behind Robin and Max to look at the computer screen with them.

“Maybe we don’t need a last name,” Robin begins to explain as she types quickly and ends it with one last loud tap that makes different accounts begin to pop up on the blue screen. “Twelve Ricks have accounts here.”

“That’s a lot of Ricks,” Max muses.

“So,” Robin continues and taps on more keys. “Let’s narrow it down. Rick Alderman’s latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo. What are the chances our drug dealer has a family?” She turns her head to direct her question at Max; who quickly turns her down.

“Not likely.”

Robin then continues to tap on more keys that brings on more information. “All right. Rick Conroy. Sixteen Candles, Teen Wolf, and Romancing the Stone.”

You all disagree at the same time so she continues.

“Okay. Rick Joiner. Mask, Footloose, and Grease.”

The other three disagree but you simply just express, “meh, maybe.”

They all look at you and you look at them and shrug. “What? I mean we can’t judge right? People have different tastes.”

Dustin shakes his head and just mutters, “I highly doubt a drug dealer watches Footloose.”

You shrug again and mumble, “don’t judge.”

“Just ignore her,” Steve interrupts your argument to let Robin continue.

“Rick Kimbrough. The Blue Lagoon and Splash.”

Steve and Dustin laugh and Max answers, “definitely not.”

“Okay,” Robin continues with another account. “Rick Lipton. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie. Cheech & Chong’s Nice Dreams and Cheech & Chong’s up in Smoke.”

Dustin chuckles and finally comes to a conclusion. “Bingo.”

“Lipton?” You query and lean in closer towards the screen.

“Spelled like the tea.” Robin explains. “2121 Holland Road.”

“That’s out by Lovers Lake.” Dustin points out.

“Middle of nowhere,” Max adds on.

Robin grins and agrees with pride. “It’s a perfect place to hide.”

Without further deliberating, Robin and Steve wait for the customers inside to leave the store so you could all leave and drive out to the address given.

“Oh my gosh,” you grin as you bring up a suggestion. “Can I drive?!”

Steve opens the driver's door and stops to look over at you with his arm on the top. “No. You can not.”

“What?” You quickly quip. “Why not? Joyce has been teaching me! And need I say! She’s an excellent and patient teacher, and I like to think I’m pretty good now!” You drum your fingers on the car roof and shoot him a grin and bat your eyelashes. “Please!”

Steve pretends to think about it but gives you the same answer. “Nope, but here, you can pick the music.”

It’s not what you wanted but it’ll work, so you get in the passenger seat and it doesn't take long at all to pick the first song—“Are you ready, Steve?” You tell Steve as you insert the cassette with a very nonchalant expression on your face.

Steve puts his own sunglasses on, and when he’s about to reverse out of the parking spot he meets your own gaze, covered by sunglasses and nods with his own face expressing nonchalance. “Uh-huh. Put it.”

“Oh god,” Dustin groans in disgust. “Please stop.”

You press play and the song instantly starts, letting Steve turn it up once he’s out of the parking lot.

“They’re so annoying,” Dustin complains over the music loud enough that Steve and you catch him.

And that only ends up making Steve and you look at each other to share a grin before he turns up the music louder so you both could jam out together a lot more chaotically, just to annoy Dustin.

*LATER THAT DAY*

Yeah, sure this freaky house by this eerie lake isn’t creepy whatsoever. Definitely does not scream out danger in any single way….

Damn, why does it have to happen this week. This is all shit.

You turn your flashlight away from the tree line and flash the bright light on the front door instead since Dustin has no hesitance whatsoever alerting the potential murderer you’re here.

“Okay,” Steve says after Dustin repeatedly keeps hitting the doorbell since no one was reacting inside. “Well, that’s settled. I guess he’s not here.”

Dustin then continues to repeatedly knock on the window and shout out, “Eddie! It’s Dustin!”

You huff out in annoyance and mumble, “great.”

Dustin continues to try and lure his friend out very loudly so you just choose to leave that annoying scene to slowly wander off on your own, even if this place gave you the complete chills, especially the small shed near the house. That especially grew goosebumps on your arm; but yet, you still slowly treaded towards it with your light shining in your hand.

“Hey, guys!” You call out for the others' attention when you stop just a few feet away from the shed that had a single light shining over the door, all scary like.

“Won’t hurt to check, right?” You suggest to the group when you know they’re behind you. “I mean we’re already out here.”

Steve sighs and pushes past you to lead the group forward. You don’t falter behind him, but Dustin makes sure to break you guys away so he could walk on ahead. And once you reach the metal shed, you only grow more wary when your light shines through small holes that appear to be made out of bullets.

“Hmm,” you hum and stroke your hand over the hole. “Bullet holes.” You peer over your shoulder and see Steve slowly pass you by, catching the same thing—“Not at all strange,” you murmur to him.

Steve quietly hums in agreement and points his head forward so you’d follow them towards the door, however, rather than following behind him you break off from the group that slowly stepped inside so you can continue to search the outside of the shed. Sure, there was nothing but dirt, twigs, trees and more dirt but well your curiosity got the best of you, and well who knows, Eddie could be hiding outside.

Or in the water…

You flash the light over the water but see nothing besides the gleam of your own light; so you tread on ahead, hearing the mumbles of your friends inside and then catching a wooden panels on the ground that was partially covered by dry leaves.

“Hmm.”

First, you make sure that no one unknown is behind before you crouch down, next you push all the leaves away and see that it's a wooden hatch, and that it’s closed with a rusted lock. Now, it isn’t your business, but locked things are sometimes important, and well their is a potential murderer around so you do the only logical thing and break the lock with end of your flashlight; it creates some noise, but between your lights and Dustin’s screaming earlier, anyone around is already alerted of your presence, and well, you aren’t disappointed by the shotgun inside even considering the noise.

Which is why you pick up the dusty shotgun to check it out with a partial sly grin.

Yet, neverthefuckingless! The shotgun has no bullets inside or within the hatch that was actually some kind of additional storage unit, great!

“Just fucking—”

As you’re about to finish your complaint the sound of twigs snapping behind you steals your attention. You freeze out of fear and slowly position the gun in your hand to push yourself up and spin around to face the noise, yet nothing was there, at least not when you turned. You try to keep searching between the trees but nothing. It was nothing.

Fuck.

You draw in a deep breath and when you’re about to exhale, the sound of people shrieking and screaming in terror traps your breath in your lungs and steals your attention towards the shed. You want—hope it was just your friends getting scared by something stupid they found, but you then hear Dustin yell something that contradicts that.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Eddie! Eddie! Stop!”

You glance back at the shotgun, and even if you have no bullets you hang onto the gun and turn to rush towards the door. The only reason why you slow down and turn off your flashlight is to sneak inside as you keep hearing that they’re distracted trying to calm Eddie down from probably trying to kill someone—just based on how panicked Dustin sounds.

“Eddie! Eddie! It’s me! It’s Dustin! This is Steve. He’s not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?”

At the sound of that comment you put your flashlight away and properly hold the shotgun to sneak past the door with a bit more haste. And as soon as you’re able to catch what’s going on, you notice Eddie pinning Steve to a wall with something pointed at his throat.

“Steve, why don’t you drop the oar?” Dustin commands, and Steve listens, however when the oar hits the ground Eddie just presses the weapon closer to Steve’s throat, making him groan and making your annoyance with Dustin heighten. It’s just, why does he bother not listening to you, of course Eddie’s dangerous, it doesn’t matter how much Dustin knows him.

“He’s cool. He’s cool,” Dustin continues to try and calm Eddie down, but that’s when you have had enough and push past Robin with the gun raised.

“Hey, asshole,” you sneer at Eddie without showing the fear you currently felt as you saw how close the knife was to Steve’s throat.

The young long haired man instantly snapped his eyes towards you and seemed to fix his grip around the knife.

“Drop the weapon or I'll put a bullet through you.” You warn him and pump the shotgun even if it’s empty, and that only makes Eddie’s eyes pierce furiously on you and forces Dustin to calm you down now too.

“No, no, y/n! Put the shotgun down!” Dustin tries to lower the gun for you but you slap his hand away and take a step closer.

“Let. Go.” You warn Eddie through gritted teeth as you keep holding his glare.

“What are you doing here?” Eddie asks in what sounds to be a shaky voice, but that emotion is barely heard.

“We’re looking for you.” Dustin answers him and steps beside you.

“We’re here to help.” Robin tries to assure him before Dustin continues.

“Eddie…”

Said man finally slides his eyes away from you and your shotgun to look at Dustin.

“…these are my friends. You know Robin, from band.” Dustin points back to said girl who imitates a trumpet sound. “And you know Y/N, you know, Chief Hopper’s daughter, remember,” he giggles nervously and points at you too, “Chief’s princess.”

You huff out in response and keep the shotgun pointed at Eddie.

“This is my friend Max.” Dustin finally points at the red head behind him. “The one who never wants to play D&D. Eddie, we’re on your side. I swear on my mother. Right, guys? Y/N?!”

You slowly roll your head to the side and just narrow your glare on Eddie when he keeps glancing back at you.

“Yes. Yes,” Max backed Dustin up nervously. “We swear.”

“On Dustin’s mother,” Robin interjects.

“Yeah,” Steve stammers to say too, “Dustin’s…Dustin’s mother.”

“Tell her to put the shotgun down,” Eddie directed at Dustin whilst his eyes drifted back to Steve.

“You put that knife down first,” you remark sharply.

Eddie looks back at you and he challenges your glare for a few tense seconds that keep your heart pounding and start to make your hands shake.

“Please,” you add in the nicest pleading voice you could muster since he wouldn’t let your boyfriend go.

The corner of Eddie’s lip twitches seconds before he lets Steve go and backs away, causing you to quickly lower the gun and rush over to Steve as he walks towards Robin and you.

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” You quickly ask as you hold his shoulder and lower your head to try and take a look at his throat while he stays crouched, and looks down as he gasps for air.

“No, no…” Steve breathes out, “not even a knick.”

“Just scared you,” Robin tried to ease the tension since she felt nervous and fearful for his well-being too.

Steve nods while he keeps his hand on his throat.

“Here,” you say as you help him sit down. “Are you sure, Steve?”

Said man lets his eyes finally meet yours and he nods as he grabs your hand that stays on his shoulder. “I’m fine. Thank you,” he assures you. “Where you get the gun though?” He points at the gun hanging from your shoulder.

You scoff lightheartedly, but you still can’t shake your fear. “Outside. It’s empty though. I just wanted to help you. You’re okay, really?” You keep asking.

“Yes, babe I’m fine.”

You draw in a deep breath and nod before you slowly release a bit of that anger and fear when your breath unfurls out of your nose. “Okay,” you whisper and put the gun down to step aside and focus back on Eddie and Dustin as they talked not so far from you.

“We just want to talk.” Dustin tells Eddie in a calmer voice.

You keep your hand on Steve, but slide your hand to the back of his neck to gently caress his skin with your thumb when he lets go of you to rub his face and brush his hair back before he sits up straight.

“Okay?” Dustin continues seconds after he notices that Eddie seems to be lost in his own mind.

You can admit as you look at him, that he looks actually shaken up, but that could also be because of what he did—could’ve done.

When Robin notices what everyone else could see she approaches the duo and crouches down beside them to try and talk to Eddie too. “We want to know what happened.”

Eddie’s sniffles and finally looks over at Dustin to answer to Robin. “You won’t believe me.”

“Try us,” Max encourages him.

Eddie looks down and stays quiet for a bit longer, letting Steve stand up from his seat once he feels better so he can join you, and the other three huddling in front of Eddie before he began to slowly explain the reason why the girl, Chrissy was at his house, and all the events that led up the moment it all went strange.

“….Her body, just like, lifted up into the air and, uh…” Eddie slowly continued to say. “And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones…uh, she…” he pauses again and whimpers as it gets hard to say what he saw. “Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It…it was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I…I didn’t know what to do, so I…I ran away. I left her there.” He looks up at the group and scoffs before turning his head away. “You all think I’m crazy, right?”

Uh….a little.

“No,” Dustin assures him, “we don’t think you’re crazy at all—”

“No, don’t bullshit me, man!” Eddie cuts him off sharply. “I know how this sounds.”

“We’re not bullshitting you.”

“We believe you,” Robin adds on after Max.

A little…

Eddie exhales from frustration and Dustin just continues. “Look, what I’m about to tell you might be a little…difficult to take.”

Eddie looks up at him and slowly utters, “okay.”

“You know how people say Hawkins is…cursed?” Dustin continues saying. “They’re not way off. There’s another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours.”

“Like ghosts and shit?” Eddie questions Dustin without seeming to find any of what he’s saying amusing. He seemed to be believing him.

Max shakes her head and answers for Dustin, “there are some things worse than ghosts.”

Dustin nods and keeps his eyes on Eddie before he adds on more to his explanation. “These monsters from this other world…we thought they were gone. But they’ve come back before. That’s why we needed to find you.”

You want to add to the conversation, but you’re still pissed Eddie threatened to hurt Steve, so you stay quiet and keep glaring at him instead.

“If they’re back again,” Max says instead, “we need to know.”

“That night,” Robin begins to probe, “did you see anything?”

“Dark particles, maybe?” Max adds onto Robin’s comment, causing Eddie to shake his head and let Dustin explain more explicitly.

“It would almost look like dust, swirling dust.”

“No, man,” Eddie denies him and shakes his head, “there was nothing you could see or, uh…or touch. You know, I tried to wake her, man. She couldn���t move. It was like she…she was in a trance or something.”

“Or under a spell,” Dustin suggests.

“A curse.”

You furrow your eyebrows and swallow thickly at Eddie’s comment, in that moment going unaware of Steve stealing a glance at you since you slowly looked down at the floor.

“Vecna’s curse,” Dustin comments right after Eddie.

“Who’s Vecna?” Steve breaks his silence to question Dustin.

“An undead creature of great power.” Dustin shares.

Eddie tilts his head and slowly says, “a spell caster.”

“A dark wizard,” Dustin corrects him, leaving the room in a long tense silence.

Amazing…just truly amazing. Just what you needed for spring break.

Damn. Just when things were going okay.

“Great,” you whisper after a deep exhale. “Welcome back to freaking Hawkins,” you murmur to yourself before you turn to head back to the car, knowing that the others would follow soon.

You just—it was all just too much, too difficult and frustrating. The gate is supposed to be closed, Eleven closed it once after you first got here, Joyce and…Hopper closed it the second time, this can't be happening again. It’s not supposed to be happening again. No matter how much you doubted Hawkins' peace….it's just, this spring break was just supposed to be Steve and you, Robin and Dustin too when they’d visit...

It’s just not supposed to be happening again.

“Fuck,” you sigh and rest your head on the cars glass window to proceed to shut your eyes and release another sigh again, ignoring the twigs snapping this time and just taking a moment in silence all to yourself.

Just to think really, to wish…he’d be here too.

*8 MONTHS BACK*

“Now if his daughter would like to step up and share a few words?” The new Chief of police Calvin Powell spoke, and looked over at you. “Y/N? We’d love to hear from you.”

You clench your jaw and swallow thickly as you hesitate, as you sit at the front row frozen, numb with no tears in your eyes.

You had to do this again, in a span of two years.

It was tragic at your mothers funeral, but now, it feels worse, you did, you can’t even describe how exactly you felt now though. You didn’t even want to go up, but as you glanced at Eleven, you knew you had to at least share a few words, for her sake.

“Okay,” you mutter quietly, and then take out the letter you had written for today to slowly stand up and slowly head up the stage.

However, when you saw all those people looking up at you from their seats, when you saw the big picture of Hopper at the other side of the stage, you froze again, you wanted to run off stage and run home, listen to your music and just hide under your blankets. But…you can’t, she was here, waiting to hear what you had to say about your…dad at his funeral, you can’t let her down.

So you grip onto the edges of the paper and clear your throat, sparing one last glance at the front row where Steve offers you a sweet and assuring smile, and sweet Dustin offers you an encouraging thumbs up.

“Chief Jim Hopper,” you say in a voice that contained none of the emotions that tugged at your heart, you just sounded serious, nonchalant, almost unbothered. “He was a hero, not just to my sisters, but everyone here, everyone he saved from that mall fire.” You lick your lips and glance at the silent crowd. “He loved his job, he loved being the hero. Sure sometimes, just like everyone else, he got tired of his job, he’d complain after long days, but he loved being a hero to everyone in this town, and to us…to me…” you pause and stare at the rest of the speech you had left.

You want to finish what you wrote, you really want to, you have so much to say….but you can’t, you can’t even look at the words.

“And I know he’d be grateful to see how many people are here to thank him for his service,” you say instead and crush the letter in your hand. “I’m also grateful that every single one of you came in support of my…father,” your voice quivers. “Thank you, everyone. And I’m sorry to those he couldn’t save, I truly am.” You finish with a sniffle and stay put for a few seconds before you turn and head down the stage, seeing Robin and Steve waiting for you the moment you stepped off.

“That—that was good,” Robin complimented you softly, “very good, better than anything I could’ve written, you—”

You cut off her rambling with a hug and offer Steve a smile.

“Thank you,” you whisper to Robin as she slowly hugs you back. “Thank you for coming.”

“Of course, we went to hell and back together, you’re my friend, I wouldn’t think of missing this.”

You don’t let yourself cry, even if your face shows that sadness, you refuse to cry. You just let your body be enveloped in embraces, let your mind take in words; some empty, some full of pity, guilt, or sorrow. It was easy since it wasn’t new.

The one thing that wasn’t easy, or new was seeing Eleven be so stricken by grief, so heartbroken, it left you confused on what to do. You did have a sister before, but you hardly spent time with her, you never dealt with grief together, you weren’t left with the responsibility to take care of her like with Eleven.

You did try to provide comfort in hopes it was enough, but overall, you just didn’t know what to do with her…you hardly knew what to do with yourself.

——

“Hey, Joyce,” you greet through the phone, “I know it’s getting a little late, but can you check if Eleven is awake?”

“Yeah, of course,” she doesn’t hesitate to give in to your command, leaving the other end of the line silent for a little while.

When you do hear shuffling from the phone, you expect to hear your sister, but it was Joyce again. “I’m sorry, sweetie but she says she doesn’t feel like talking, I’m sorry.”

You sigh and turn to sit on the corner of Steve’s bed. “Okay,” you sigh with concern. “Is she okay? Did something happen?”

“I’m not sure, she left dinner today, she hasn’t come out since and hasn’t talked to anyone.” Joyce tries her best to give an explanation to Eleven’s silence. “But don’t worry, okay, I’m sure it’s just some teenage drama, nothing to worry about.”

You bite the inside of your cheek and nod as if she could see before just asking for one more thing. “Well at least put her on the phone so I can say goodnight, she doesn’t have to talk.”

“Okay,” Joyce agrees without protest.

And a few minutes later she gives you the okay to talk.

“Hey, El, it’s me, I know I promised to call earlier, so if that’s why you’re upset I’m sorry,” you mutter to the phone. “I’ll try and call tomorrow, okay? There’s just well,” you release a breathless chuckle. “Some stupid shit going on here, so if you don’t hear from me I’m just dealing with that…” you pause and sigh as you slouch down, catching Steve walking out from his bathroom in just grey joggers.

“If it’s what’s going on at school then….I guess you know, to make you feel better you can share your presentation with me, I’d love to hear it. And then we can make an Eggo extravaganza, I can’t say I’m as good as Hopper, but I’ll try,” you chuckle and continue. “We can watch whatever you want, okay? We’ll have a girls night, just you and me. Okay? I….” You swallow thickly. “I miss you. Goodnight.”

There’s silence on the other end besides the rustling, you expect maybe just a simple and dry good night, but nothing, just silence. That is before Joyce speaks up right when you planned to hang up.

“Y/N! I need to tell you something.”

You lift the phone again and slowly knit your eyebrows together when you hear the urgency of her voice.

“Okay,” you whisper. “What is it?”

“Uh, I’m going to Alaska…”

What?

“For a work trip!” She exclaims to the phone, making you sit up straight and blink in confusion before you stand up and cross your arm over your chest to hold your arm that held the phone. “It’s just, the Britanicas are there, in Alaska, and they asked me to go.”

“Oh, was it just now? Or before?” You ask her. “Because if it was planned you could’ve told me, I could’ve canceled my trip and stayed home.”

“It’s new, they asked me after you left, so don’t worry. Besides, Jonathan is in charge.”

Oh, amazing, Jonathan and a side of Palm Tree Delight.

You muster a fake smile and share a look with Steve as he walks close to you at the sound of your conversation.

“Oh, well, good,” you tell Joyce sarcastically. “As long as we’re not moving to Alaska,” you say with a nervous laugh, earning one just the same from her.

“No, no, just a trip! And actually I’m…” she pauses and leaves your lips parted and leaves you waiting. “I’m…”

“What?” You try to press her to continue as she was leaving you in anticipation. “Is everything okay?”

There's a bit more silence before her voice suddenly cuts in. “I’m going to be out of touch for a few days, okay? So this will be my goodbye for now, I’ll try and call when I’m back home. I’ll hopefully, just hopefully have something for you then.”

You huff out in amusement and smile. “Really? Well consider me excited for your return then! Have a good trip, I’ll wish for a promotion. Goodnight Joyce.”

“Goodnight sweetie.” Joyce then hangs up the phone, letting you put the phone back in its place and finally letting you exhale deeply before you fall back on the bed to stare at the ceiling.

Part of the mattress behind you sinks and from the corner of your eyes you see Steve lay down behind you with his head beside yours. “Is everything okay?” He asks you.

“Well,” you sigh, “hmm, Joyce is going to a sudden trip to Alaska,”

“Alaska?” Steve quips with just the same amount of confusion as you.

You hum and rub your face to then continue. “And my sister didn’t want to talk to me, she’s having trouble at school with some pack of bitches and she says that she’s okay, but I know she isn’t, but I don’t know how to help her…I don’t know what I’m supposed to do…she’s a teenager and I’m stuck.”

Steve sighs. “Well…that’s a lot to unpack.”

“Yeah,” you groan. “I just needed to let it all out though. I’ll be okay, I’ll figure it out.” You turn around to lay on your side and smile at him before you brush his hair away from his eyes when he turns on his side too.

“Hey, hey,” he repeated while he held your hand in his. “Sure it’s a lot, but I’m here to hear it all, so let it all out.”

You smile softly and shake your head. “That’s all, really, besides I don’t want to stress out anymore tonight. I don’t want to talk about what happened, or what’s going to happen with this Vecna creep, let’s just please forget it exists for tonight. Just one night before it all goes to shit.”

Steve scoffs and rests your hands on his chest, causing his chest hair to tickle your knuckles. He then seems to want to talk but you cut him off abruptly when a thought visits your mind again..

“Actually no! No, I was so busy stressing out on our way here after finding Eddie, that I never got to ask how you feel about all this shit,” you mention while you use your hand to stroke your fingers through his damp hair. “What do you think?”

Steve sighs and looks away from you to watch the ceiling. “What can I feel? I mean it’s stressing sure, is it fucking scary that some dark wizard is cursing people, yes, but well, we’re in this shit already so we have to be okay with helping.”

You hum and glance up too. “So you believe Eddie?”

“With all we’ve dealt with, with how scared he sounded, how can’t I. You?”

You shrug. “I don't know. I should, a part of me does believe him, every logical part of me, but I don’t want to believe him…it may sound selfish but I just want him to be some freak so we can move on with our life, so I can enjoy my spring break with you and just take it easy.”

“Yeah,” Steve whispers in agreement. “I feel you. On our way back, when the car was silent, I wished it was just a joke, some lie he made up so we didn't have to deal with any of it, so I could enjoy my time with you….”

“But it’s…real,” you finish for him in a whisper. “Yeah.”

On the way back from Reefer Rick's place there was nothing to do but think of what Eddie said. It was too silent in the car not to. All that was shared between that tension was that you’d return tomorrow to keep Eddie updated, to check on him and brainstorm. There was no debating whether you’d all help, it was a given, even if you wanted to spend spring break oblivious to all of it you didn’t try to back out either.

“Well!” You bring up suddenly. “Actually, we’ll see if it is, he could be lying, you know. I’ll keep trying to read him tomorrow when we go back to visit him. Which,” you begin to complain, “why are we going so early?” You groan and get up to switch sides so you could lay beside him and rest your head on his shoulder.

Steve scoffs. “Ask Dustin, he was real bossy about it.”

You groan but muster a smile and sweet words. “I guess that as long as I’m with you, it isn’t that bad.”

Steve flips to his side to caress your cheek. “You guess? Wow. How romantic.”

You giggle and sit up to look down at him with a sly smile. “It isn’t bad at all! Happy?”

“Way to sound happy about it,” he grumbles and sits up too, letting you lean forward to press your forehead against his and keep grinning.

“It isn’t,” you assure him. “Truly. I enjoy being your partner in this hero shit.” You smirk.

Steve cups your cheek and smiles. “Yeah I do too,” he agrees in a soft and calm voice.

You look up from his lips to meet his gaze with a smile. It’s then that you see that he wants to lean in to close the gap, but you pull away to tease him by getting off the bed when you hear the melody of ‘Nothing Can Change This Love’ by Sam Cooke playing from his boombox.

Steve complains with a groan and an eye roll, but you simply ignore him for now and run to turn up the volume so he’d hear too.

“This is our song,” you make up, “want to dance?” You offer him your hand and he just looks at you with his eyebrow quirked and a tightlipped frown—“Please?”

Steve sighs and shakes his head. “I can think of something else we could do instead.” He shoots you a smirk, and you scoff and step towards him to grab his wrist to pull him off the bed.

“Oh please get your mind out of the gutter, we can do that later, just for this once entertain me and dance with me.” You smile at him and bat your eyelashes so you could convince him.

Steve does pretend to think about it but he then walks over to rewind the song so it’d play from the beginning again. “Fine,” he breathes out, “fine.” He grabs your hand and your waist to press you against him.

“This is still so embarrassing by the way. And our song?” He scoffs and shakes his head as he meets your gaze. “No, our song is, ‘Can’t Take My Eyes off You’, duh. You should know this. I can’t believe you forgot.”

You beam at him and just when you part your lips to add something, he cuts you off.

“I forgive you because I love you, so it’s okay this time.”

Your smile falters at his choice of words, and luckily he spun you out so you didn’t have the chance to say anything in that regard.

“Wow, you got moves Harrington, who’s been teaching you?” You tease him as you spin back in his arms.

“Well, there was Tracy,” he says in a teasing manner. “And Emily, but Rose was the better dancer.”

“Ah, I’ll thank her then.”

Steve tilts his head and smiles as his eyes roam your face—“I missed you,” he admits after a while.

You exhale deeply and smile sweetly at him before you share too, “I missed you too, more than you know.” You then press yourself closer against him to lay your head on his shoulder while you continue to sway to the music.

“Tell me,” Steve slowly says after a while of silence and letting the music just move you. “Dream house, how does it look like?”

You sigh but can’t help your smile. “Well. I did want to live in a sandcastle when I was young.”

“Sandcastle?” He mocks you and pulls his head back.

“I was like three okay? Five maybe,” you giggle as you share the truth.

“No, no, sandcastle sure, the stability would be amazing…”

“To be fair,” you add as you pull your head off his shoulders to meet his gaze, “my sandcastles were just made from my little red bucket, so like a single circle, y’know?”

Steve nods and then his eyebrows furrow deeper. “All I’m worried about is all that sand on our clothes, in our shoes, in my hair! In our eyes! Or imagine, a strong wind just blows, we’ll get crushed and die,” he chooses to keep entertaining you. “What then?”

You suck in air between your teeth and shrug. “True. Well a house by the beach then. Or by a lake surrounded by those big pine trees, some place not so secluded, a big yard, a lot of rooms for all of our child friends. Two living rooms, one for our huge tv, and the other can be a music room so we can dance and just jam out when we want.”

Steve hums before he softly says, “is that all?”

“I want the roof to be blue like the one I had in Oregon. And big windows so we can overlook the forest, or the ocean? What about you?”

“It doesn’t matter as long as I’m with you,” he doesn’t hesitate to share, making you look at him with your lips parted in disbelief.

“Wow,” you whisper, “wow, okay, now I feel a bit bitchy.”

“No don’t, I’m just a romantic, cant beat me,” he says with a shrug.

You snicker and move your hands to his neck to surprise him with a deep kiss before you turn him around to push him on the bed.

“Okay, well we’ll see about that,” you murmur against his lips before you begin to kiss again, feeling his hands travel to your hips as he leaned in for a more intense and hungry kiss that kindled a heat all over your body, and made your heart do somersaults.

There had been too much time apart between winter break and spring break, and every kiss showed that longing for one another, especially the ones you’d share when you’d be alone when you knew you wouldn’t be disturbed. Steve, especially showed that desperation for you, he’d try to be tender at first but he’d grow too impatient and take over, he’d be quick to get things heated and wouldn't be afraid to be rough with each kiss.

Yet, you love it, he drives you crazy, he makes you feel incredible euphoric things that make you see stars. Especially when he’d make those throaty sounds, like now as you grinded against him and tugged his hair, he let out a deep throaty groan that made your warmth burn more fiercely.

Every fluttery touch on your skin was more fuel.

Steve flipped you over when he got too impatient and made sure to slip off your shorts and the shirt he’d let you wear before he continued to take you in, letting you slide your hands up his chest to then snake them to his cheeks so you can pull him closer as you wrapped your legs around his waist.

A smirk appears on Steve’s features when he pulls away to catch his breath.

“I missed you,” you repeat to him between breaths. “So much.”

Steve shoots you a half sly grin and whispers against your lips, “I know,” before he gently bites your bottom lip and takes you in again.

*THE NEXT DAY*

The music in the car was quiet, the tension and impatience to get the early morning started was high, and it was especially noted in Dustin since Robin was taking a long time to get out of her house; and well he was a little too eager to get to his cerebro and then return to Eddie.

Max was nonchalant about the whole thing, she seemed annoyed, but maybe that's how she usually looked. Steve was just annoyed that Robin was taking long after the second honk, and you, well you still wished this would all be some scheme Eddie made, so you just tried to be as nonchalant as possible; you just turned up the music a little bit and continued to put on some light makeup whilst you waited with no desire to get things started.

“Could you,” Dustin grumbles from the backseat before he leans forward and honks at Robin again, causing you to pull your lip gloss wand away from your lips to slowly twist your head to shoot him a pointed glare.

“Do you mind? We’ve honked, she’s coming.”

“Not fast enough,” he grumbles again before he presses the honk and keeps the heel of his hand against the wheel, making Steve swat his hand away and complain.

“Hey, hey, enough! I think she and the rest of Hawkins heard you.”

Dustin huffs and sits back to continue bouncing his leg and stare out the window to watch out for Robin.

“Don’t worry,” you tell Dustin with a bit of spite whilst you finish putting on lipgloss. “I’m sure your friend won’t go anywhere, it benefits him having us help him.”

Suddenly Dustin leans forward again and makes you notice his glare that pierced into you. “You know, if you don’t believe him you're welcome to stay. But just know your dad would believe him.”

You put your lipgloss away but keep looking at yourself in the mirror while you argue back without hesitance. “Would he? This “curse” happened once, Hopper was more logical than that, even if he’s seen a thing or two.” You close the mirror and shift to squint your eyes on him. “He’d probably wait for a pattern, so I’m waiting for a pattern. If what Eddie said is true it’ll happen again, you can count on that.”

Dustin parts his lips to argue but you left him baffled so he stood speechless, letting Steve and you share a fist pump right before you caught Robin walking out of her house in a hurry.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” you hear the muffle of her voice as she approaches the car. “Sorry!” She opens the car door and Dustin huffs out.

“Finally! Jeez, you’re worse than y/n!”

You roll your eyes and turn around to look at Robin over your seat. “Hey, goodmorning, sweetheart.”

Robin smiles at you after she buckled herself in and greets you back after she takes a peek at your outfit “Good morning sweetheart, you looking good.”

You glance down at your halter neck denim jumpsuit and smile at her.

Robin then smirks and shoots, “break the bed?”

You mirror the gesture and catch Steve looking back with the same smirk. He looked like he was going to reply, but Dustin cut in all dramatically. “Eww, gross, we don’t need to know that. Keep it to yourselves!”

Robin and you share a look after Dustin’s remark before she lifts one paper bag and says, “strawberry poptarts anyone? I made a bunch.”

You smile and nod. “Please.” You sit back down as Steve drives towards Dustin’s cerebro and stretch your hand back to receive the warm poptart in your hand. “Thank you.” You look over at Steve and break the poptart in half. “Want some?” You offer him.

“Thanks, I guess,” Dustin whispers to Robin out of shame for being just a bit mean.

“Yeah,” Steve agrees to your offer, sparing a glance at you and opening his mouth as he looks back at the road. “Just put it in.”

You snicker and push yourself towards him to carefully place the piece of food in his mouth, instantly earning some groans from Max, and Dustin mainly.

“What man?” Steve argues with his mouth full of food. “First you’re basically begging me to get with her, now you’re complaining because we’re together!”

“No,” Dustin protests and takes a bite of his food. “It’s not that. You guys are together, great! But please stop being so…so.”

“Gross,” Max finishes for him.

Robin scoffs. “I think it’s kind of cute, you know, our friends are like, happy and in love, it’s adorable.”

“Unless you’re jealous,” you throw at Dustin as you look back at him with a playful smirk. “I mean, your girl is miles away, all you can do is talk to her through the radio, you see Steve and me and you just wish you could be this cute. It’s okay.”

Dustin's eyes narrow on you and he shakes his head. “No,” he deadpans. “That’s not it at all.”

Steve scoffs, “sure.”

Robin coughs out, “jealous.”

The smile on your face turns wider and prouder. “See,” you tell Dustin. “Easy, but it’s okay. It’s okay, you’ll see her again, and when you’re all sweet with her just know I’ll be happy for you.”

Dustin stares at you with his lips parted but he doesn’t say anything, his eyes are just squinted, but he stays quiet, leaving the rest of the car ride to his radio in that silence.

After arriving is when thick tension mixed with the silence, hearing the chatter about the ongoing investigation put a stress on everyone, even on you, no matter how much you wanted to deny it all. They didn’t say more than you expected, but they said enough to put everyone on edge.

You can’t imagine how the number one suspect is going to feel hearing what you learned. No one suspected it’d be easy to hear, which is why Dustin decided to buy him a lot of junk food. He said it’d probably make him feel better as he heard the news.

“So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news.” Dustin began to tell Eddie as he scarfed down a bag of dry cereal. “How do you prefer it?”

“Bad news first, always,” Eddie responded before taking a drink of his yahoo.

“All right,” Dustin continued, “bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they’re definitely looking for you. Also, they’re, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy.”

Max nods along and also decides to strengthen that claim. “Like, a hundred percent kind of convinced.”

“Yeah,” you scoff with a bit of callous, “I wonder why.”

Eddie’s eyes slide over to you and then to Dustin. “She doesn’t believe me, does she?”

Dustin opens his mouth to assure his friend but you talk first. “She is just being logical. I mean Chrissy walks into your house and never walks out, so, yeah.” You feign a smile and nod stiffly. “It’s hard to really trust what you’re saying.”

Eddie looks over at you and his face twists, but he doesn’t get a chance to respond because Dustin interrupts him. “Just ignore her, her anger issues get the best of her sometimes, and well it’s the Hopper within her. She’s cool when she warms up to you, promise.”

You roll your eyes, and sigh before putting your sunglasses on and leaning back on the old wooden pillar with your arms crossed over your chest and your foot pressed against it.

You catch Eddie spare you one last glance before shifting in his seat and returning his attention back on Dustin.

“And the good news?” He finally is able to ask.

“Your name hasn’t gone public yet,” Robin answers him. “But if we found out about you, it’s a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you.”

“Hunt the freak, right?” Eddie muttered.

Robin nodded. “Exactly.”

Eddie hisses, “shit.”

“So, before that happens,” Dustin tries to assure him. “We need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence.”

Yeah, you still don’t know how you’re all going to execute that. It’s a lot easier said than done, especially because in order to prove that Eddie is innocent you need proof, you can’t imagine it’d be easy convincing a town that some upside down dark wizard did it. Unless of course you use the same tactics Hopper’s Military friends use to hide truths to the town.

They’d be great right about now too

“That’s all, Dustin?” Eddie snapped. “That's all?”

“Yeah,” he nods, “no, that’s pretty much it.”

“Listen, Eddie,” Robin chimes in, “I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we’ve actually been through this before. I mean, they have a…a few times, and…and I have once. Mine was more human-fleshed-based and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this.”

“Yeah, see,” Steve adds, making Eddie look over. “We usually rely on this girl; my girl's sister,” Steve points at you. “who has super powers. But, uh, those went bye-bye, so…”

“So,” Robin interrupts Steve. “We’re technically in more of the—”

“Kinda,”

“Brainstorming phase,” you interject to stop their rambling, making Steve snap his fingers at you and nod along to confirm your comment.

“Brainstorming!”

“There…” Dustin splutters, “there’s nothing to worry about.”

Steve scoffs along and puts on his best assuring smile that doesn’t seem to convince Eddie, at all.

And who would believe you, it all sounded so messy right now. You knew you wouldn’t be comforted by what your friends were just saying.

Eddie seemed like he wanted to express the same thing, but before he could, the sound of the sirens that began to sing in the distance stole everyone’s attention, forcing Eddie to hide under the tarp and causing you and the other four to run to the nearest window to watch as Police and ambulances drove right by, too many of them. It piqued everyone’s curiosity.

“Do you think?” Robin began to ask what you were all thinking.

“Yeah,” you agree without waiting to hear what she had to say. “There's a lot of them, could be.”

“Well, there’s your pattern,” Dustin mumbled to you as the last car drove by.

You scoff and pull away. “We’ll see.”

Not long after that you and the others, except for Eddie of course, rushed out of the shed to get in the car and drive towards the crime scene. Luckily enough it wasn’t far, however, when you all climbed out of the car you caught the barricades, all the police swarming around, and finally the cover over the body. That could mean one thing.

And funny enough Nancy was in the middle of it all.

——

“So you’re saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it’s from the Upside Down?” Nancy asked after you had all caught her up on the latest information you had learned in the past few hours.

“If the shoe fits,” Steve says.

“Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell, or a curse,” Dustin shares. “Now, whether or not he’s doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don’t know.”

You shift in your seat on the wooden bench that was close to Max’s trailer house and lean in to add, “all we know is this is something different. Something new.”

“So you believe it now?” Dustin pesters you, making you swallow thickly and shrug.

“There was a pattern, right? I needed more evidence. I got that today…” you pause and look over at him after you sigh to murmur, “Sorry.”

You can’t deny it now, it wasn’t Eddie. No matter how much you didn’t want any of this to be real again.

“Tell that to Eddie.” He snaps with a smirk on his face.

You shift your eyes away and just respond with a sigh that let Nancy continue.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

Dustin shakes his head and remarks. “It’s just a theory.”

“No, Fred and Chrissy don’t make sense. I mean,” Nancy continues and glances over at Steve and you. “Why them?”

“Maybe they were just in the wrong place,” Dustin suggests. “They were both at the game.”

“And near the trailer park,” Max adds.

“We’re at the trailer park,” Steve points out, making you draw in a deep breath as you grow uneasy—“uh, should we maybe not be here?” Steve says.

You exhale and look down at the wooden table to hear what Nancy had to continue saying, something that just made you feel worse. “There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here.”

You look up at her and press her to finish her sentence. “Acting weird as in?”

“Scared,” she mentioned, “on edge, upset.”

“Max said Chrissy was upset too,” Dustin brings up.

“Yeah but not here,” said girl corrects him, “she was crying in the bathroom at school.”

Robin leans in and adds her comment right after, earning your attention. “Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman—”

“Vecna,” Dustin corrects her.

“Dunno about you guys,” Steve interjected as he scratched his cheek, “but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone.”

“Maybe they did,” Max says. “I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley’s office. If you saw a monster, you…you wouldn’t go to the police. They’d never believe you. But you might go to your—”

“Your shrink,” you finish for Max, making her nod in agreement—“the one question I have is…why them though? I mean a serial killer for example, in some cases have specific qualities they look for in their victim. Chrissy and Fred were completely different.”

“Maybe It's not physical qualities,” Nancy helps you out.

You meet her gaze and share a faint smile. “Maybe they’re mental,” you finish her sentence.

“Exactly.”

“We can go to the school shrink,” Max suggests. “I go with her sometimes, so she’ll let me in after I say I need to talk.”

“Okay,” you nod in agreement for everyone else, “it’s safe so okay, let’s go.”

Without hesitance everyone stands up to head towards the car, however right when you were reaching Steve’s car, Nancy drifts away from the group and Steve is the first to say something about it.

“Whoa, whoa, Nance. Nance!” He goes after her and it causes her to stop, along with you and the others. “Nance, where are you going?”

“Oh,” she says and turns to face him. “There’s just something I wanna check on first.”

“Something you wanna share with the rest of us?” Dustin quips.

“I don’t wanna waste your time,” Nancy assures the group. “It’s a real shot in the dark.”

“Yeah, okay. Are you out of your mind? Flying solo with this Vecna creep on the loose? No, it’s too dangerous. You need…you need someone to…” Steve tells her, causing you to blink repeatedly in a bit of confusion to how insistent he was being.

It could be nothing, it’s just your jealousy acting up over nothing, he’s just looking out for her.

Steve turns around after he pauses to throw Robin his keys.

“Here. I’ll stick with Nance all right? You guys take the car, check out the shrink.” Steve continues to say.

It was nothing…

But he didn’t even ask you to go or tell you anything about his sudden plan to volunteer himself to be Nancy’s partner, he didn’t even look over at you, he just threw himself at her without question.

But it’s…nothing, right?

You can’t be jealous over nothing, he’s with you now, he doesn’t have feelings for her anymore, he’s told you he’s loved you even if you haven’t told him.

It’s not because you don’t, it’s just…it’s…just you can’t…

Maybe that’s why he wanted to go with her…he feels like you don’t love him…and she once did…

But no! No, it’s…nothing….

“Don’t think you want me driving your car,” Robin protests.

“Why?” Steve queried.

“I don’t have a license.” Robin tells him.

“Why don’t you have a license?”

“I’m poor,” Robin simply says. “Y/N, you want to drive?”

You shake your head and share the same thing she did. “I don’t have my license either.”

“I can drive,” Max chimes in, causing Steve and you to deny her right away at the same time.

“No.”

“Never again. Please.” Steve continues to tell her. “Anybody but you. No.”

Dustin shares a look and a shrug that Steve understands and

chooses to turn him down. “No chance.”

“Come on,” Dustin pleaded.

“No.”

“All right, okay. This is stupid.” Robin interrupts their banter and walks to take Dustin’s walkie from his backpack and then walk over to Steve to hand him back his keys and finally look over at you.

“Us ladies will stick together. coming?”

You look over at Nancy, and no matter how much you’ve been trying to convince yourself that it’s all stupid jealousy, you can’t help but feel a bit of anger ignite in the pit of your stomach. That’s what makes you backup and give a dry answer.

“No, someone has to watch over them.”

“Okay, good then.” Robin answers and walks towards Nancy. “Unless you think we need you to protect us.” Robin directed at Steve.

However, Steve didn’t answer Robin and it made her laugh before she turned to walk off, causing Nancy to share one last look with Steve before she turned to walk off too—you didn’t know if it was lingering, longing, or what, but they shared a look before she turned to walk off, leaving him gawking at her retreating figure, and leaving you to just watch….

Just watch how he looked at her leave.

This couldn’t be nothing any more. At least it didn’t look that way to you.

And apparently your anger, the hurt was obvious because Dustin looked over and noticed the look on your face that you failed miserably to hide. He didn’t say anything about it though, and well you did look away and walked towards the car to wait inside before he could say anything to you. Instead he did snap Steve out of his stupor.

“Just gonna stand there and gawk?”

“Shut up,” Steve retorted. “I wasn't.”

“Why don’t we go? Okay?” Dustin continued to tease him with a bit of hostility behind his words.

“Shut up and get in the car.” Steve scolded Dustin as they made themselves to the car. “Wipe your feet.”

You hear Dustin do as he says but inside the car and it makes Steve instantly remark that.

“On the outside, not the inside.” When he closes the car door and begins turning it on he continues to complain. “Always the goddamn babysitter. Always the goddamn babysitter!”

When Steve drove outside of the trailer park and noticed that the car was still quiet, he glanced over at you and reached for your thigh as he asked you a question. “Want to put on some music?”

You quickly shift your thighs away and scoot closer to the door to be as far away from him as you could whilst you answer flatly. “No.”

You didn’t hide your anger—no, not anger, it was….no yes, you were angry, and you didn’t hide it well.

But how could you not be bothered? You saw the way he just looked at her, and you might not tell him how you really feel, but you do love him, he’s seen it, right?

You just can’t say it to him or anyone anymore, but you do, you do love him so much. You can’t afford to lose him like you lost…Hopper.

Steve knows that doesn’t he?

.

.

.

.

Tagged- @felicityofbakerstreet @lanatheawesome @deepdownangel @mserynlarsen @m-blasterrr @lookalivesunshine-x @slvtherinseeker​ @mochminnie @beepbeephargrove​ @peterwandaparker​ @train-wrecc​ @truthdaze​ @ioonatv @leahseclipse @preciousbabypeter @cevans-winchester @criminalyetminimal @ttae-yong @distinguishedmakerpandapatrol @geeksareunique @addisonnie @khaylin27 @seolaseoul @tomspidertingle @tye-dyemango @hehehehannahthings @gyros-cum-sock @the-local-toast

[vennussy]

Ronance Fic Idea #2: Single Mom Nancy x Soccer Coach To Her Child Robin AU

hi welcome to another episode of its currently 1am and venny is self projecting, in today's episode we have the second part to my ronance ideas yipee!! here's the link to the first part [tw: mentions of torture and murder there] and sit back and relax since this one is more wholesome 🥰

edit: i started this at 2am and finished at 3:30am so pls beware there will be mistakes and i'll reread it tmrw when im not dying. im sorry who has to suffer through this now tho, may the lesbian goddesses be with you

set in a modern-ish time (I'm still not sure when this fic would take place in but definitely not the 80s) with no upsidedown or anything like that, and because of this nancy doesn't end up with jonathan.

nancy and steve were young and experimenting when steve accidentally gets nancy pregnant at 17. nancy's dad doesnt allow her to abort and practically disowns her while karen, the sweet angel she is, helps nancy with little max so she can learn how to take care of a child while still being able to go to school.

at some point steve and nancy breaks up mutually due to the fact they started to fall out of love and that raising max wasn't making their collapsing relationship better. but to this day, steve still stays in hawkins, working multiple jobs to send money to nancy for max's welfare and college. (ik he was an ass in s1 but idc, i want him to be a good dad)

after nancy finishes her college (let's say she doesnt go to emerson but another high level college in indiana), a year later, nancy gets a job and boston where her and max officially move to at the age of 23 for nancy and 6 for max.

HERE COMES THE SELF PROJECTING WOO!!

since nancy was practically away all the time due to her studies, she didnt really got to raise max that well and have a distant relationship with her. after they move to boston, nancy tries to fix her ralationship with max. and though max loves her and understands why she practically wasnt there for half of her life, she just doesn't know her own mother that well anymore, so she distance herself and nancy having a family who are also distant, didnt know what to do.

(i am totally not self projecting my own mother's neglection when i was younger only for her to try harder around my peak teen years and being absolutely successful bcs i love my mom so much and she's still trying her best)

ANYWAYS !! who else to save their relationship than Robin "I Will Love Someone And I Will Show It In Every Way" Buckley!!!

nancy is 31 now and is the chief editor for the popular boston bugle papers (hehe fallout 4 reference), whereas max is 14, starting her first year in highschool. they're relationship is still a bit strained but if not improving little by little until one day max comes home eagerly and tells nancy about a new friend she met in school that asked her to join the soccer team after seeing her kick the ball during her gym class (said friend was jane hopper). nancy was nothing but supportive of the idea and asked her how she could join.

apparently for freshmen newcomers, they have to go to this initiation with a parent or guardian just to get direct permission for their child but if not then a signed form is plausible. ofc nancy chooses the former option wanting to watch her daughter play in a school team for the first time as she was interested in sports like softball, volleyball, basketball and skateboarding but never commiting to it through a school team until now.

SO INITIATION DAY COMES !!!

nancy is sitting along the outside bleachers just people watching and looking at max with jane and all that shit when the presentation comes and the official gym teacher introducing herself. thats when the most beautiful woman comes in looking distressed and interrupts her during her introduction to the parents and children. nancy finds out that the woman was the soccer coach who only part-times as a coach for the school soccer team. robin buckley.

obv robin looked distress bcs her ass woke up late and was almost late to the intiation.

now the pining insues, nancy practically staring at robin the whole intiation and only looking away once in a while to watch her daughter beat the shit out of everyone else in the team along with her new friend like holy shit bro.

during the intiation she meets a nice woman named joyce where nancy can finally be friends with and tells nance that she's actually the mother of max's new friend. and yadda yadda plot plot.

SO thats the most of it now on to the little fun facts of the story !!

max is ginger bcs karen's parents and her are ginger but she dyes her hair blonde so dont be confused

steve is practically besties with nancy now and has the same distant relationship problems with max too, but she still loves him

"mom, why is my second name mayfield?" "bcs you decided that you wanted me to have a miserable time while i was out on the field with your dad and left my stomach. it was may at the time too" "oh-"

nancy has dated people in the past but none of them stayed that long due to nancy's distant personality and max's evil gremlin one

max def got her sarcasm from nance. who else? steve? yeah no.

robin is 28 in the fic and is not the sweet innocent robin we know 🥺 i mean she is still sweet and caring but not so innocent if u know what i mea- *gunshot*

joyce was very sweet at learning that max was a teen pregnancy and even often invites her and nancy for dinner

nancy meets jonathan and they become friends

fun fact will was there for el's intiation bcs he could never miss a soccer game for el as el could never miss any of will's award night for his paintings!!

robin and max get along well through soccer AND their sarcasm towards the boys

nancy is unlabled and doesnt care who she dates as long she likes them and can love max too

nancy teaches max all of about sexuality and gender respectfully thats why max is so open minded

nancy doesnt fall for robin at first sight, she was mostly intrigued and attracted to her but the more they talk the more she fell for her

gonna uni reverse this shit and say nancy fell first but robin fell harder

robin part times as a soccer coach and full time as a barista in a coffee shop

thats how they officially met

robin is new to boston, she only moved a few months ago from france, her parents are american tho

max loves hearing robin's adventures while traveling around europe

robin is very physical and bcs of this, she teaches nancy (indirectly ofc) how to express love through simple gestures and she starts doing this to max

when max was hugged tightly for the first time than what she can remember from nancy, she freezes and nancy thinks she made a mistake before max hugs back

max soon realizes that she loves physical affection

robin calls nancy the sweetest things and tells her that a compliment, even small, to max wont hurt

"hey max?" "yeah?" "good job during the game today, im proud of you" "........*sobs*" "MAX?!"

safe to say max and nancy's relationship started to heal and they often even joke around now, something they almost never do due to nancy's reserve personality and max's distant one

"mom pls tell me you weren't looking at coach buckley's ass today" "okay fine i wont!" "...." "*whispering* i do it everyday-" "MOM PLEASE"

robin then shows nancy the beauty of quality time love language, something nancy lacked with max

anyways thats all for now, i hope yall know i started writing this at 2am and its now 3:39am

I HAD FUN THO!!! this one was a woozy to write but i hope yall enjoyed it, maybe i will write a fic of this since i loved it sm

we'll see 👀👀

[box-of-chaooos]

One of my silly little stories

After hours

It was the end of the school day, finally. A tall cloud looking fellow was finishing up a bit of tidying in his office, it had gotten a little messy after a bit of an event with none other than the wattersons. Putting the last piece of crunched up paper into the waste basket he grabbed a colourful tie dye jumper (sweatshirt) and popped it on seeing as it was raining. He left the building sighing softly happy to be able to go home. Today one of his and his partners,Larry, favourite show was on and he couldn’t wait for this episode as it was said to be a celebrity episode and the two where excited to see who they recognised. Stepping out into the gentle rain mr small didn’t expect to see a young blue cyclops sat out in the rain on bench. He looked like he’d been sat there for a while as he was dripping wet. It was like an hour after school what on earth would a kid be doing out still and all alone too.

Walking over to the cyclops mr small knelt down a little to see him better. It was rob, one of the kids he’d counsel from time to time. “Oh rob, what are you doing out here?” He asked softly. Rob sighed sitting up a little from a slumped position on the wet bench. “My parents where meant to pick me up but.. they didn’t” he said sadly. Steve frowned sadly “how long have you been sat out here?” He asked rob. “Since school ended” he replied looking up as Steve stood up fully. “Well.. why don’t you come with me?” He offered extending a hand out for rob to take. “Wha, are you sure?” Rob asked a little surprised. “My parents said I had to wait for them to get me.. what if they just really… really late? They’ll be upset” he said worried about upsetting his parents. “Well.. I can give them a call for you if you’d like to” “no.. they’re probably still at work” rob have a sigh “I’d like to go with you if that’s okay” he nodded. “Of course Cmon, I’ll make some tea for you to warm up you must be so cold” “yeah a little least I don’t need a shower now” he chuckled. Steve smiled sadly at the boy trying to bring a little light to the situation he was In. Once again, his parents had completely forgotten about him. He’d told him about it, how they’d forget to pack a lunch they’d missed many of his school plays and by many he meant all. He was always picked up late or like this time not at all and would end up walking home but his parents usually insisted he stayed put so they’d pick him up and take him home since he didn’t live that close to the school.

As the two walked Steve noticed how gloomy the youngster seemed, rob was shy he knew that but he was still quite the bouncy happy kid none the less and it was a little off to not see him happy like usual. He supposed rob may be faking the happy act and really be feeling down with how often people didn’t remember him. He felt the need to cheer him up, bring a little life back to him. His show wouldn’t start for a while and he has some baking stuff back home, Larry liked to bake once in a while maybe they could all bake together. “Hey rob” he said looking down at the boy. Rob looked up. “Hm?” He hummed. “When we get back how’s a bit of baking sound?” He asked. “Oh that sounds like fun” his happy smile returned. “ you know larrys gonna be happy to see you again!” He said. “Really?” “Yeah he loves when you visit” steve smiled. Robs cheeks went warm and his smile soft and embarrassed. People didn’t usually remember him it felt blissful to know he wasn’t only remembered but was even looked forward to being seen.

They where soon at mr smalls and larrys house, they headed inside rob stood on the welcome mat as he was still soaked. “Larry” Steve called. “Hey hun!” Larry called back and walked through. “Oh rob hello good to see you” he smiled. “Hi Larry” rob waved with a smile. “You two are drenched what in earth where you doing? Splashing in puddles?” Larry said. “No poor robs parents didn’t pick him up again..” steve looked at rob sadly “but, he’s agreed to some baking” he said with a more happier tone of voice. Larry put his hands together “I do enjoy a spot of baking” he chimed happily. “Come on rob I’ll get your hair dried and some spare cloths” ���oh thank you” he said and slipped his shoes off and whilst Larry went into the kitchen to get the stuff for the baking out. Steve and rob went upstairs both needing something a bit drier on. Steve leant rob a baggy shirt with some cool trippy looking mushroom patterns on it with a peace sign on it and a pair of shorts. “Thank you again” he said “of course it’s no problem” steve smiled whilst he grabbed the hair drier. He turned it on and blew it in robs face making him laugh. Steve chuckled and dried off robs hair it went light and fluffy. “There we are” he said ruffling the boys brown locks. “Thank you” rob smiled giving his head a shake. “Your welcome, now, let’s see what there is to bake shall we?” “Oh yes!” Rob said excitedly. The two went downstairs “Heya who’s up for chocolate cake” Larry said holding up the ingredients. Rob made a small gasp and smiled excitedly. “Haha yesss” he said raising his arms in the air. Steve and Larry chuckled “perfect choice than, let’s get started”

The three baked together steve ended up putting on some songs and busting a few moves leaving larry an embarrassed partner giggling to himself whilst rob was in hysterics. He cheered him on with a “yeah! Go steve!” The cake was soon in the oven to bake set on a timer that looked like a ladybug, rob sat infront of the oven peeking inside the glass watching the cake, he was welcomed to watch the show with them but he was happy to watch the cake baking he claimed he enjoyed it. He switched between watching the cake and the dryer which his soaked cloths had been placed in the dry.

When the timer rung loudly with a loud BRIIIIING rob jumped slightly and looked over at the oven. His look of shock and curiosity soon turning to joy. Larry walked in. “Wow look at that! Your a master baker” he smiled seeing the cake. He put on a pair of oven mitts and took it out placing it down to cool off. “Whoa, that’s a good cake” rob said impressed “Larry your really good at baking” he looked at Larry. “Ah nonsense you did most of the work! This is your special cake bud” he smiled. Rob smiled happily. “Can I make the icing?” “Of course! Go ahead and decorate it how ever you wanna” Larry could practically see the light in robs eye as he was given permission to decorate. “Thank you!” He said happily with a little happy jump. “You welcome” Larry said giving him a ruffle and going and sitting back with Steve. Rob grabbed the icing sugar and some butter to make buttercream. He grabbed a few small bowls and piping bags and began baking his colours. There where quite a few of them. Blue, pink, brown and yellow red and orange green and grey and black. He got the cake and filled the piping bag with some of the buttercream piping it onto the cake, he spread it out with the back of a spoon the base was a layer of light blue. He got to work focusing hard on what he was doing and finally, when he was finished on the cake was a the three of them, he Larry and Steve in little icing characters. He smiled and cleaned up after himself eating any left over of the sweet buttercream he’d made. He even washed up the bowls he’d used. Once he’d finished that he noticed a buzzing in his backpack. His phone was ringing. He went and picked it up unzipping the small bag and getting his phone out. It was his mum. He answered it instructed to come home now she sounded displeased asking why he wasn’t waiting for them. “Sorry.. I’ll come home now” rob said quietly. The called ended he gave a soft sigh and put his phone away again. His cloths had dried to he grabbed them and changed in the toilet he folded up the cloths he’d been leant and popped them ontop of the dryer. He walked in to the sitting room “thank you for letting me stay and bake with you it was amazing!” He said happily. “Aw you gotta leave bud?” Steve asked “yeah mum wants me home” “alrighty it was awesome having you” Larry agreed “indeed it was! Hopefully we can bake together again another time” rob smiled softly “I’d like that very much” he said.

With they’re final goodbyes rob headed in his way home. Larry and Steve’s show had ended and they went into the kitchen seeing the cleaned up area and than the cake. They both smiled at it happily. Taking a picture before leaving the icing to set up better not wanting to ruin such a lovely cake. They felt bad for the small boy but couldn’t help but smile widely at the design of the three of them with big happy smiles on they’re faces.

[ear-worthy]

Open To Debate On TikTok; Unbreakable Podcast With Former Baseball GM; Scripted Emo Prom Night Podcast

Today we have three podcasts that span the genre universe of podcasting.  First up is Open To Debate, which is the superb debate podcast that teaches the media how to hold civilized and informative debates instead of partisan screaming matches. Then, one of the best podcasts dealing with mental health issues, Unbreakable with Jay Glazer talks with the former General Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team about his mental health journey. Finally, the very creative Audio Up studio offers listeners a unique scripted fiction podcast. 

***************************************************

  With the Senate currently poised to take up the just-passed House bill forcing China-based parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or face a national ban, tying it to a broader package sending aid to Israel and Ukraine to speed its passage, nonpartisan debate podcast Open to Debate recently shared a debate on a very timely question: "Should The U.S. Ban TikTok?"

Foreign policy and defense expert Kori Schake argued Yes. Director of the Internet Governance Project Milton Muellera argued No. Emmy-winning host John Donvan moderated. And several journalists including Forbes' Emily Baker-White, whose data was improperly accessed by ByteDance employees, joined to ask questions.

Kori Schake, arguing Yes, said:

“There are two concerns about TikTok. The first is the data being amassed and potentially used as surveillance by China. Second is the potential for it to be a propaganda tool by what its artificial intelligence and algorithm bounce into our feeds. As people increasingly use it as a media platform, China has the ability to censor and boost content on it, which it did during the Hong Kong protests and which it does over Xinjiang repression. What TikTok has said is, ‘We won’t do it anymore.’ I don’t think we ought to take that as a definitive answer. I think we’re right to be concerned about the potential for that kind of manipulation. I think there is the basis for legitimate concern about the Chinese government, manipulation of media content, and collection and use of data.”

Milton Mueller, arguing No, said:

“This is really a political case, a foreign policy case. There are people who believe in decoupling from China, and they’re going to interpret any Chinese company, any economic connection between the US and China as a threat. This is exactly what I’m challenging. I think TikTok is a perfect example of how a foreign company can come and introduce competition and valuable services into the American market. They can provide a form of platform communication that Americans love and benefit from and they can create economic value. There’s really no evidence that this is harming the United States.”

Listen to the Open to Debate episode "Should The U.S. Ban TikTok?" wherever you get podcasts, via WNYC, or at opentodebate.org.

**********************************************

On Unbreakable with Jay Glazer: A Mental WEALTH Podcast,” host Jay Glazer welcomes former Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim, who opens up for the first time about going to rehab while serving as G.M. of the team, and the issues he was battling that led him to make changes in his life.

On why he’s telling his story now:

… “it's funny because when I walked into the room to do this podcast, I felt that sort of, not anxiety, but sort of that little bit of excitement, actually, to be able to tell my story, and hopefully, my story helps someone …maybe somebody else out there, maybe another general manager, maybe another athlete can say, ‘you know what, here's just another guy that has had his issues along the way and was able to talk about it and to be open and honest.’”

On what led him to go to rehab during the season:

“Here I am making the most money I've ever made in my life. You know, more than I could ever imagine making as a young man, living my dream as a general manager, and I was still unhappy. …I'm sitting there trying to ask myself, what's wrong with you? Just get out of this funk. And it was not easy to do, and I couldn't get out of it, and it just got darker and darker. I got more depressed. And really the culmination of what really happened, it probably was the worst part of it, was my inability to sleep. I got to a point where I couldn't even shut my brain off. So, I couldn't sleep. I was taking Xanax, I was taking Ambien just to sleep…”

 On the darkness he felt:

“…one thing I learned… which was a great learning lesson for me in the treatment centers, sometimes for guys like ourselves or ‘Type A,’ alpha males, guys who are so driven to be the best, you know, it can become a real predicament whenever you get into a situation where when is it enough?  And you know, that's kind of how it was for me. …Money is not enough. How many cars do I need? How many houses do I need? How many things do I need? How many suits do I need? How many watches do I need? Just nothing was gratifying anymore either.”

On what he’s learned as he continues his mental health treatment:

 “…the day I walked into the treatment center as the General Manager of the Arizona Cardinals. Knowing that that changed everything in my life. Could have been for the good, bad, or whatever anybody else thought about it. But when I walked out that other end, 45 days later, I found out who Steve Keim was. I liked who he was. And I embraced the things that he did in the past. I forgave him for the things he did in the past. And more than anything, I found a way to love him again.”

On former Arizona Cardinals executive Terry McDonough’s accusations against the team:

“Oh, it's just unfortunate to me, you know, because again, as I said, the stress that I carried that I was trying to keep people happy in every sort of compartment. And that really would tear at you whenever you knew that people couldn't get along. And there were things that went on behind the scenes that maybe only I knew about, or some others knew about, that they were just tough to know that I couldn't fix certain things. Because I always felt like I was the kind of guy that my mentality was always, you know, be part of the solution, not part of the problem, and keep everybody's attitude in the right direction, and roll your sleeves up at the door and check your ego there, and that sort of thing. But it's unfortunate, you know, we had a good run and, you know, I'm still rooting for the organization because again, a lot of people there that I care about.

 On whether he’s happier now or when he was a GM:“Oh, I mean, much happier now. Much happier. Yeah, I mean, you know, when the paychecks stop coming in and fans stop screaming, there's certainly an evolution of life that changes for you. Things slow down, and you miss certain parts of your life in the past. But at the same time, you can finally, again, appreciate the small things. As we said, you know, at a point in time, how many cars, how much money, whatever it is, how many watches. Now, you know, to go on a walk and to see a beautiful day and appreciate that, it changes everything.”

On whose decision it was to get help:

“Leading up to it, you know, I had enough people, again, friends, family, coworkers, Cardinals Owner Michael Bidwill even came, our owner came and sat with me multiple times and said, ‘hey, you know, you don’t seem like yourself.’ And I didn't know what it was, but I'd also didn't try to hide from it. I told him straight up, ‘yeah, I'm not doing good. I don't know what's wrong with me.’ And you know, he was great and supportive. There's a difference between acknowledging and saying, ‘hey, I don't know what's wrong with me and I'm not perfect,’ versus ‘I really need some help.’" Listen the full conversation HERE.

Below are some highlights from the conversation, and the full interview can be accessed HERE.  

*********************************************

 – SiriusXM and Audio Up Inc. are taking listeners back in time to 2005 with their new scripted podcast series, Emo Prom Night.  The launch is part of a new slate of podcasts set for release throughout the year, with Emo Prom Night being a raunchy, coming-of-age scripted series that will debut May 8th on the SiriusXM app and wherever podcasts are available.

The series was written and created by Audio Up CEO Jared Gutstadt, and stars recording artist Mod Sun and rock group Beauty School Dropout. Emo Prom Night will also feature new original music from both. The series revolves around three best friends; Dallas (voiced by Beauty School Dropout lead singer Colie Hutzler), Cos (voiced by Beauty School Dropout guitarist Bardo), and Tyson (voiced by Beauty School Dropout bassist Beepus Burdett), who embody the emo music culture from the mid-2000s, and make an Emo pact and vowing to not drink, do drugs or lose their virginity during their senior year of high school. This all changes when prom night comes around, and the cast of characters is challenged to keep their emo vows intact. The series stars Mod Sun as the narrator, and music contributions from Grammy winning and multi-platinum songwriter Sam Hollander, known for his collaborations with the likes of Panic! at the Disco, Weezer, Blink-182, Boys Like Girls and Gym Class Heroes among many others.   Check out the first official trailer HERE.

"The episodes arrive just in time for prom season,” notes Gutstadt. “They series is heartfelt and hilariously entertaining, and the music is absolutely incredible. It's one of our best examples of integrating music and storytelling, and we can't wait for the world to hear it."

 The announcement marks an expansion of the creative programming and strategic agreement between Jared Gutsatdt’s Audio Up Media and SiriusXM, an alignment that was originally announced in October of 2022.   “Emo Prom Night” is set for release on May 8th and will be available on the SiriusXM app and all other major U.S. podcast platforms.

 Audio Up has built an ecosystem of premium entertainment content within the music and audio space. The company is led by Audio Up CEO Jared Gutstadt and produces and releases fictional scripted podcasts, a Marvel-like universe of musicals, and one-on-one interview formats.  

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

AUOGH this review is already killing me xD

Hey at least there's Parknik xD

And baby Steve :DD!!

AAAHHHHHHH FIRST NEW CONTENT :DDD I'M NOT OKAY!!

Hmm I bet it's like changing the baby's diaper or something huh

YEP LOL

Iconic <3

Slay Shawn :D xD

Lol Steve's just vibing xD

OH and of course!!

Hi Shawn :DD!!!

Hi Lea 🥰!

Hi Steve :')))!!!

(tears bc he's so adorable)

Aww 10 minutes of snuggles :')) very nice is such a mood

Okay Shawn you will have to relax eventually bc it'll be hard to multitask but yeah I get it xD

Aww reading a medical book together xD

AAHHH yes I am also ready to say hi to everyone lol :))

Awww "I will miss you both" 😭😭❤️ y'all I'm not ready for this

It just makes me think of this season ending aaaahhh xdd 😭

AAAOUGHAUOGH THEM WALKING PAST EACH OTHER

Hi Glassman :D

Just btw xd but AAHHHH THAT HURT ME 😭😭

AAAHHHHHH THE INTROOO 🤩🤩😭😭❤️

First last/last first intro xdd anyway I love them <33

Hi Morgan :)!!!

Hi Park :D!!

Hi Eden 🥰

(that is her name right xd)

Aww uh oh :(( poor bb

Oop y'all 😳 remember equal parenting if that's what you're gonna do xd

Hi Jordan :DD!

AAAHHHH IT'S MY BOY

Sorry I'm fine lol

(I'm not sorry)

Hi Asher 🥰🥰!

"It's been today for like a whole 8 hours" dang XDD

Oop okay!! Good for them, glad they're still texting :))

Ayyy my besties hanging out :DD

Please no TOOO questionable decisions

What surgery xD

SFLGHDKHGS "No longer joined at the hip" J O R D A N that was illegal. slay girlie

Anyway AAHH Jerome mention :D lovely <33 (as in he is my lovely)

But yes besties :))

These two cannot get through a conversation without destroying each other. Love that for them

Yes thank you less questionable decisions xD

No don't call it that lol

Hi Kalu :)!

Ope xD I bet he'll go out with them eventually

Or he has a good reason

AAHH yes Papa Murphy :DD

AWWW immediate and hardcover (ykwim, physical) photos of Steve :'DD stop that's so cute <33

Slfkghsk the theme

Slay we love the books <3

Oop is he not on the schedule?

Ayy slay for Marcus :D

Hi Lim :))!!

Hi Dalisay!!

Happy for y'all Dalisay 🥰🥰

I hope it's not Lim girlie goes through enough xdd

Oop hopefully it's not a guy who sucks

Carefullll Shawnnn

Aww okay but don't rub it in Shawn xdd

Aww I hope he's okay :((

Uh oh

I hope he can get the transplant D:

OPE hi guys o.o

I mean at least it's only been two weeks though

Aww the whole name thing xd 😭😭

Not okay tyvm <33

Like Shaun being impressed the Lea revealing the middle name :')) I think Glassman suspected even if he didn't believe it though <3

Lol yeah he has nothing going on xD

He is beautiful 😭😭

Oh no Eden D:

Poor baby :(((

Didn't mean the baby part too literally but yk xd

Aww bb :((

Why are y'all looking so fashionable btw lol

I mena they always are but yk xD

Anyway hmm Park's being quieter

Hopefully Morgan doesn't cut him out-

OPE

Uh oh 😳

This is gonna become a thing at some point xd

And you're letting someone who knows you do it lol?

Oop of course yes Glassman! He can't operate anymore so might as well :D

Agh glad Glassman doesn't like this O'Brien guy either xD

Hmm I wonder how he'll solve it

I figured he'll end up doing it or put someone in but we'll see

Oop hi guys :))

Bb <33

So many babies this episode I'm gonna die xdd especially when they start being in danger 😭

Oop he's refusing her again 👀 I wonder if it's bc of Perez?

Oh no D:

oPE gosh xD

Maggots lol

Aww the comparison/the way it was phrased is sweet :')

The mom is beautiful btw

Aww guys :'((

Park please don't bring up the decision making thing now though xd

Phew

OH NO

THEY'RE GONNA END UP GOING FOR THE SAME HEART

I SAW SOMETHING ABOUT TWO BABIES NEEDING A NEW HEART IN THE DESCRIPTION AAAAHHHHH-

They wouldn't dare kill Eden but. . .

Probably xd

Aww glad they're good for now at least though <3 there for each other :')

Introducing themselves aww <3

I hope they don't end up getting torn apart :((

OOP didn't introduce Park 😬

Awww hi guys :D

Again Shawn, chill xd

Knew it would need to happen lol

Love you though <3

WHOOPS this post is way too long lol

[strangerficsx]

CHAPTER FOUR | WILL THE WISE

gif not mine. credit to owner.

WC: 1,002

Jennifer, Max and the boys walk down the hallway before running into Joyce Byers. 

“Dustin!” She calls, 

“Mrs. Byers?” 

“What’s going on? Where’s Will?” 

The door opens as a panicked Lucas rushes in as everyone looks toward him. He pants. 

“The field!” He shouts. 

Everyone follows Lucas out to the field, seeing Will and Mike. 

“I just found him like this. I think he’s having another episode.” 

“Will! Will! Sweetie, wake up! It’s Mom!” Joyce shouts. 

Jennifer stands there worried. Will is in a trance like state, his eyes rolled to the back of his skull. She begins to sweat, worried about Will. Suddenly, hes gasps coming back to reality. After he comes out of it, they follow the boy and his mom out of the school standing on the stairs above, watching as they leave.  

“Okay, that totally freaked me out. Did that not freak you guys out?” 

“It freaked me out. Poor thing.” Jennifer says. 

“Two episodes in two days.” 

“It’s getting worse.” 

“You think it’s True Sight?” 

Everyone looks at Lucas.

“What’s True Sight?” Max asks. 

“I–it’s nothing,” Lucas says. 

Mrs Byers starts her engine before driving off, leaving everyone there. 

——

The next day, Jennifer arrives at school and enters the gym watching Steve and Billy play against each other. She keeps quiet as the sounds of a whistle blows and shoes squeak on the floor. She can’t seem to understand what’s exactly happening as Steve guards Billy. Billy catches the pass, facing Steve. He laughs. 

“All right, all right. King Steve, everyone. I like it. Playing tough today.” 

“Jesus! Do you ever stop talking? Come on!” Steve shouts. 

Jennifer sees Billy as she rolls her eyes, annoyed and remembers what happened at Tina’s party, feeling like an imbecile. Billy laughs again. What is with him? Why is he always laughing? Stupid bastard. 

“You afraid the coach is gonna bench you now that I’m here? Huh?” 

Billy shoulders Steve, knowing him down before scoring. The ball lands in the hoop as Steve takes Billy’s offered hand. The newcomer leans in close, he says something to Steve that Jennifer can’t hear very well. He then shoves his hand before leaving him on the floor. She leaves too, waiting outside the gym as Steve finally enters the hallway, greeting her. 

“Jennifer?” 

“Steve, hey. I wanted to, um, see you.” 

“For what, exactly.” 

“No reason.” 

He nods as they walk down the hall together, stopping by his locker. They continue walking after and talk some more. Some time later, Jennifer enters her next class. 

——

???’s point of view

At a park, a kid jerks forward and backward on a rickety spring rocker painted like a duck as Nancy and Jonathan wait nervously on a bench. Nancy checks her watch. 

“It’s 15 past.” 

“Yeah, I know. Just give him time.” 

Nancy spots a bald guy in a covered area reading a newspaper, he talks to himself as Nancy notices. The male notices the teens looking at him. Jonathan shifts his gaze to a man feeding birds. Nearby, parents push kids on a mary go round. Looking over their shoulders, they see a group of kids playing Duck Duck Goose while two women supervise. By a large tree, two ladies in workout clothes cool off. When Jonathan looks again, he finds the male feeding the birds staring at him as Nancy notices one of the moms watching the group of kids looking at her. A guy walking a dog eyes them. Both of the women in workout attire give them a glance as they run by. A man with a briefcase peers their way, fear taking over. 

“I think we should go.” 

The teens rise and begin walking off. Nancy clutches her purse as they cross a bridge. The male in the trench coat trails them. They reach the parking lot as they approach Jonathan’s car, climbing in.He turns the key in the ignition, but the engine sputters. Suddenly the bald man from earlier knocks lightly on Nancy’s window, startling her. 

“Trouble with your car, miss? I can give you two a lift if you like.” He offers. 

The man in the trench coat stands on Jonathan’s side as the male with the dog positions himself in front of the car. They teens whirl around to find a woman standing behind the car, the guy knocks again. Jonathan remains still with his hand on the key as the guy flashes an unnerving grin. 

——

When Jennifer arrives home from school she sees her mom pouring cat food into a bowl. She greets her mom.

“Where are you? Mew-mew! Dinner.” Claudia calls. 

Suddenly Dustin enters, closing the door behind him. 

“Hey, Dusty!” 

“Hi, hey. Hey, Mom.” 

“Everything okay?” 

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Yeah.” 

He walks past her and enters his bedroom. Jennifer busts through the door, standing there as she shuts the door. She locks the door behind her, startling Dustin. 

“What are you hiding, dipshit?” 

He ignores his sister. 

“Dart, I’ve gotta talk to you, buddy. It’s about Will.” 

Dustin pulls the sheet of the terrarium and notes the glass broken as slimy substance drips off the remaining shards. Jennifer furrows her brows, stalking closer. His mouth agape, he reaches inside and picks up a translucent dead skin from a puddle of mucus. The sound of screeching catches their attention as he whirls his head around to face the corner of his bedroom. The sound of grunts come from behind the chair as Jennifer notices crimson splattered on the orange chair, stalking closer as Dustin follows. He notices splotches of blood on the carpet, following the trail to his orange chair. They peeks over as blood drips down the wood’s back, finding Dart the size of a small dog eating Mews. His head is buried in the cat’s stomach. Dart turns to them, his flaps open as they surround the opening with rows of sharp teeth. It screeches at them. 

“What the hell is that?” Jennifer asks. 

“That’s not good.” 

“No shit, Dustin.”

[bruisedbabe]

“[…]. «You pulled me out of the river...» Steve whispers, still amazed albeit after so many months «... why?» Because I can no longer hate you. Bucky seems sincerely lost when «I don't know» he whispers back in a shrug. But Steve «yes, you do» replies and, as he’s about to pull his body into a hug, the police break into the apartment, forcing them to escape. Steve has never been so afraid of a fight like he is today, where he finds himself chasing the Black Panther that chases Bucky, also hunted by the Bucharest police and the Hydra. A lot of things could go wrong, and Steve absolutely fears the moment when there will be a bullet, just one, too much in that fight and it’s gonna stick itself in Bucky's body. But Bucky, Steve realizes as he looks at him fighting, isn’t inexperienced. He knows how to look after himself. But this doesn’t mean that he can’t have one of his episodes, lose his mind and disappear forever. And perhaps it would have been better: if Bucky had disappeared, Steve would have even climbed on top of the world to go and bring him back... but now, all of them caught as outlaws by Rhodes... Steve is experiencing fear yet one more time. The cops deal with Bucky as if he were the most dangerous criminal, they force him to the ground to cuff him, they carry him into an armored van all the way to Berlin, chained down by inexpugnable straps, looked after, and then there’s T'challa, who Steve knows that will never stop until he pokes Bucky's body with his damned claws. And then there's Bucky. Fleeing his gaze. Who, when their eyes finally meet, tries not to lose his poker face. But the truth is that he must be feeling going crazy in those straps, and Steve knows. He knows. Because the straps restraining him are invisible, but he still feels going crazy at the thought of not being able to move a finger to save Bucky.”

-

STUCKY canon compliant but not really

This work goes all the way through the Marvel movies (The first Avenger, Winter Soldier, The Avengers: Infinity War, The Avengers: Endgame) up to a post-Endgame sort of future

Missing moments!AU

Not TFATWS compliant

Stucky!Shuri’s parents AU (kinda)

Past!Steve/Tony (kinda)

But also: past!Bucky/Steve like in slight mutual pining and love letters writing during the war

Alpine the cat mentioned

Angst, hurt/comfort, lots of fluff

Trigger warnings for n1ghtmares, dr1nking, depressi0n, lo$$ of l1mb, t0rture; depictions of bl00d, injurie$, vi0lence, PT$D, m0urning, lo$$ of a loved one, h0m1cide, de@th. You can find all the details in the notes, so please be careful

Reader’s discretion is advised

[faithiegirl]

⚠️ WARNING!! Spoilers for S4 pt. 1 of Stranger Things so read at your own risk!!

Also this is not my gif all credit goes to @id4ni3

So I just finished the first part of season 4 and let me tell you…

Before I start let me tell you that I’ve decided that I’m going be doing much more of Faithie’sCorner where I tell all my theories on all kinds of different shows and movies. so be on the lookout for more after I watch Obi-Wan and when pt. 2 to S4 comes out.

Also should I do episode by episode on my opinions on here as well? Would you guys be interested on my ideas?

Anyway…

Oh my gosh 😱 S4 pt. 1 was so good!!

So If you haven’t seen my old post about Billy I suggest you read that one first, because this is going to go into big detail on it and on a few other things that I have talked about before on my page. If you’d like to read it, you can read it here.

Here is a few of my other posts on stranger things:

Billy character analysis

Billy character analysis #2

Billy vs. Steve analysis

I’ll come and find you

So as I have said before:

I know I’ve talked about how mad it makes me that we will very possibly never get to see Billy get his character arc and see him be good kind sweet loving Billy {which I still FULL heartedly believe we will be seeing him come back in S4}, but I had a thought today when making my parents watch the show with me.

And this:

I think I was wrong before, in a way he did already have a character arc. It may not have been a big one… but it was still a hint at one {hence why I think 100% we will be seeing Billy alive again}.

And like I did say before:

In a way we did get to see him start to change, we got to see it when he looks at Max for that split second then decides to save her and her friends from the mind flayer. If he was such a monster then why in the world would he have done that?

I also said before hand:

But I 100% think the body that got killed was NOT Billy…

And again you can go read the rest of what I said and I still fully hartley believe that at some point we can see Billy come back. I mean if Hopper can why not Billy to? 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m still connected to the idea that the body we saw “die” wasn’t really Billy’s Body, but a cloned version.

I mean in a way we did get him back. We had the scene where Max gets taken by 001, but that’s NOT the real Billy. I guess you could also assume that Eddie (who I came to love) is a lot like Billy.

Which made me question why didn’t they just keep Billy in the first place? Like they killed him off just to give us another very Billyesk character…

Nope that did not make me happy at first, especially as a huge Dacre Montgomery fan I hated it with a passion, but as I said I came to absolutely love Eddie to death.

Just for the Love of God please don’t let it be that they are “replacing” Billy with Eddie. Cause I like them both. I feel like Eddie is just a nicer crazy yet sweet version of Billy that we didn’t get a chance to see. I feel like if Billy had the chance he would have eventually been a little like Eddie if that makes sense at all?

Even though we did in a way get Billy back in more ways then one kinda… He still was essentially “evil” because it was 001 pretending to be him. Therefore it wasn’t the real Billy we all know and love.

So that’s not the Billy we all want to see. We want to see him and his little “shitty” sister be the cutest brother and sister ever. I whole hartley still believe that they way he treated her was the only way he had to showing her he did care even with the facade that’s he didn’t.

I still think we have an amazing chance at getting him back. Also it’s been revealed there will be a season 5! And most likely a season 6!

🤷🏼‍♀️so you never really know. I still 100% believe the real Billy is just trapped in the upside down.

I also believe that Steve will be the one to find him, especially seeing as where we left off with Steve and Nancy they’re still simi stuck in the upside down as well because 001 stopped Nancy…

I have a huge feeling that if Steve doesn’t wake Nancy up they will get stuck again only making them have to go find another way out and what do they find along the way?

They find Billy… and it’s a shock to both, but they both quickly decide that with how he helped they too should help him get home to his “shitty” sister.

Anyway I still 100% think this is a possibility, but I swear to everything in me that if the Duffer brothers don’t give Billy more of a story…

Don’t get me wrong I LOVED the scene where Max openly talks to him…

But wouldn’t it be even cooler if he does come back and when he sees Max tears just comes to his eyes.

While she’s confused at first never really seeing Billy be emotional like this, but then he rushes over to her and picks her up in a hug and whispers into her ear: “I heard you. I heard you and I want that to so badly…” as he just hugs her close while refusing to let go cause that’s his baby sister.

Like BRO!!!! The feels!!! 😩 it would be such a beautiful and cute reunion and I so badly want to see it.

So if the Duffer Brothers refuse to let me have that cute Billy and Max moment again all I have to say is:

[majahu]

Scream: Ski Trip

Chapter 3: Blue’s Your Color

Chapter 2

Word Count: 1,332

You didn't go to school the next morning, still shaken up from your encounter with the masked killer the previous night. You rolled over, rubbing your eyes and trying to make out the numbers on your alarm clock: 10:35 am. You yawned, sitting up. You weren't sure what time you feel asleep, but surprisingly that was the last night in a while you hadn't woken up terrified from a nightmare. Walking into your bathroom and flipping on the light, you stared at your face in the mirror, mascara had settled under your eyes and you had a severe case of bed-head. You squeezed a blue and white swirl of toothpaste onto your toothbrush and stuck it into your mouth. You weren't sure what time Billy left last night, but you were thankful he stayed until you fell asleep, sure that if he wasn't there thoughts of ghostface would've kept you up all night. You spit into the sink and, spiraling down towards the drain you noticed some red spots in the sea of foam. You must've bit your cheek while you slept last night.

Pulling on your green Gap brand sweatshirt, you went downstairs to the kitchen, grabbing a container of rolled oats out of the pantry. As you boiled water for your oatmeal, you noticed a bright pink sticky note on the counter—a note from your parents:

Try to relax today.

We love you; call if you need anything.

- Mom and Dad

You knew your parents were worried about you but there was nothing you could do now. You had answered all the questions the police asked you last night and had given them a statement. Now, all you could do was wait for the blood sample to be processed and hope to God they found a match.

Pouring hot water over your bowl of oats and stirring, your thoughts drifted to your friends at school. Would they wonder why you weren't there? Did Billy tell you what happened? You were sure you'd get a phone call from Tatum or Sidney as soon as school let out.

When your oatmeal was done, you brought a tray over to your couch, flicking on the tv and scrolling through the channels. Purposefully ignoring the news channels you settled on one that was airing old episodes of Saved by the Bell: College.

That's how you spent the rest of your day, curled up on the couch watching reruns of shows you had already seen, trading one snack for another. It was boring, but still better than being at school considering how Casey and Steve's killer was still at large and was, potentially, one of your fellow classmates. You weren't sure why the killer had chosen to attack you, but then again you didn't know why he had killed Casey or Steve either.

You looked over at the clock: 3:45 pm. You were sure you'd get a call from one of your friends any time now. As if on cue, the phone rang.

Your heart pounded and an anxious feeling stirred in your stomach. Come on (Y/N), it's not gonna be him.

It's probably Sidney or Tatum or Randy, hell, it has a better chance of being Dewey than that masked lunatic.

Exhaling, you picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Hey, (Y/N)." The voice on the other end said; unmistakably Stu Macher. “Um, hey Stu” you hadn’t talked much to Tatum’s boyfriend the past couple of days, still kind of mad about how casually he treated Casey and Steve’s deaths. “You’re not still mad at me, are you?” Stu frowned. “No. I’m just processing a lot.”

“Billy told me. Are you okay?” You weren’t sure how to respond to this question. Physically you were fine, but mentally your encounter would be a lot to come back from. Every time you thought about it, a chill ran down your spine. “I’m just shaken up is all.”

“Well,” you could practically hear Stu smile, “do I have some news to cheer you up or not?”

“Yeah?” You said, curious now as to what the wannabe jock was planning. “No school!” He hollered through the phone.

“What? Why? Did something happen?” “Oh, well uh- Sidney ran into our little friend in the bathroom today. Made an epic escape though!” “Stu!” You gasped in shock. “That isn’t something to joke about, is she okay? Did she get hurt?”

“She’s fine.” Stu drawled, already seeming bored of the topic. “Is- is the ski trip still on?” You said, feeling kind of stilly to still be asking about it, but you and your friends really needed an escape. “Yep! But they’re checking everyone’s bags before we get on the bus, making sure the killer isn’t one of us” Stu said in a mock-spooky voice. You rolled your eyes, “enough with the jokes, Stu.”

“Hey, I can’t help it, humor is my coping mechanism.”

“I’ll see you Friday.” You said, hanging up the phone.

Maybe you’d invite Sidney and Tatum over tonight; you were sure it would be comforting for all of you to spend some time together. Hopefully uninterrupted by your ‘little friend’ as Stu had affectionately referred to the killer.

Sidney and Tatum were laying on your bedroom floor reading a magazine you had picked up at the store as you sat at your desk, painting your toenails baby blue to match your freshly done manicure.

“I can’t believe this is happening” Sidney said, burying her face in her hands, “school isn’t even safe!” Clearly your ‘girl’s night’ had not been enough to distract her from what happened this morning. “Which is why we’re getting away for the weekend!” Tatum said, smiling, “no more psycho killers! Just us and our boy toys,” she winked, “Hey, maybe (Y/N) and Meeks will even get together!”

“Oh shut up!” You rolled your eyes, throwing a cotton ball at her head. “We all know he has a thing for Sid anyway” you grinned. With all the trauma you three had been through, it was nice to laugh for once. For a second it seemed like you could forget you were being taunted by your classmates’ murderer.

And then the phone rang.

You and Sidney jumped, wincing slightly at the sound. Tatum stood up, “I’ll get it”. She walked over to your desk, picking up the receiver and holding it to her ear. Someone said something on the other end and she held the phone out so you and Sidney could hear.

“Having a sleep over?” The low raspy voice sounded from the receiver, “without me, I’m offended!”

“What do you want?!” Tatum shouted, more fed up with the situation than afraid.

“I don’t want anything from you girls, not tonight anyway. Don’t worry, I won’t be checking in on you. Besides, I don’t wanna put my Sid through too much in one day; where’s the fun in that?” he laughed.

“Fucking creep.” Tatum murmured.

“And (Y/N). That nail color looks great on you. Really makes your veins pop!” the voice laughed one more time before Tatum hung up the phone, ending the call.

“Tatum!” You grabbed onto you friend’s arm worried. “What if you made him mad?”

“(Y/N), Sid, don’t you understand this is exactly what he wants? He wants to scare you, he wants you to feel unsafe in your own homes. That’s why we’re getting the hell out of dodge this weekend.” She gave the two of you a reassuring smile. “It’ll be okay. Maybe they’ll even catch the guy before we get back.” You hadn’t heard back about the blood sample yet, but you were sure the police would be in contact with you soon.

As empowering as Tatum’s speech was, you couldn’t help but let the phone call rattle you. You spent the next few minutes vigorously running the blue nail polish off of your nails, all the while feeling like you were being watched from outside of your bedroom window.

[yelena-bellova]

Safe Haven: tfatws!Bucky Barnes x fem!reader - Chapter Two

chapter one -Chapter Two: According To Plan - chapter three

Series Masterlist

Plot: Y/n and Sam leave for Munich, gaining the surprise addition of Bucky Barnes to their team. 

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x fem!reader, Sam Wilson x platonic!reader

Warnings: spoilers for ep.2, language, violence, squint for fluff in between all the chaos, Y/n and Bucky ain’t feeling each other yet, protective big brother Sam, nobody likes Walker

Word Count: 7.5k (ya’ll, we had to split episode 2 into two chapters because I use too many words lol)

A/N: OKAY, thank you to everybody for supporting the first chapter. I didn’t really think anything would come of it but I was clearly wrong. Hopefully you enjoy this one just as much, each episode will probably be divided into two chapters if the rest of the season continues on like it is. 

----

The government hadn’t just failed Sam, they were rubbing his face in the fact that they thought their knockoff Captain America was a better candidate than him.

I followed my brother down the halls of the New Orleans air force base, trying to ignore the paraphernalia that hung on the walls. John Walker was everywhere you looked; the internet, televisions, posters were plastered all over the city announcing his new appointment. Each time I had to read the words ‘Cap Is Back’ I became a little sick to my stomach. Sam stopped in front of me once we’d reached the hanger to stare at one of the posters. Though he tried to keep his face neutral, the sadness bled through in his eyes.

“Seems like a good guy. You met him?” a man who I assumed was Sam’s military contact asked.

“No,” Sam answered before changing the topic, “Thanks for doing this on such short notice.” “Yeah, no sweat. I’m just finishing up the checklist, you two’ll be all good to go once you land in Munich,” he looked to me and reached a hand for me to shake, “Joaquin Torres.” “Y/n Y/l/n. Thanks for not making any noise about me coming along for the ride.”

“Hey, I trust an Avenger’s judgement on who to bring to a fight,” he smiled, stopping at the top of the steps to allow me to go before himself.

I elbowed Sam as we descended the stairs side by side, “Hear that? You’ve got good judge- why’re you making that face?” Before he could answer, a foreign voice announced its presence. “Shouldn’t have given up the shield.”

My eyes fell to the floor below us and climbed the looming figure waiting at the end of the staircase. I didn’t need to have any history lessons on who he was or why he’d come to talk to Sam about such a subject. James Bucky Barnes, the second 100+ year old man to walk the earth without a single wrinkle. The tragic tale of HYDRA’s bloodthirsty history. The man Sam had fought to protect and been sent to prison for.

“Good to see you too, Buck,” Sam passively greeted the man, swerving around his body to continue on our path to the jet. The hint wasn’t taken. 

“This is wrong.”

“Hey, hey, look, I’m working, alright? So all this outrage is gonna have to wait.” Bucky fell into step on the other side of Sam, pointing towards yet another poster of John Walker, “You didn’t know that was gonna happen?”

“No, of course I didn’t know that was gonna happen,” Sam’s tone became more emotional, “You think it didn’t break my heart to see them march him out there and call him the new Captain America?” “This isn’t what Steve wanted,” Bucky pushed. Sam was growing tired of the questioning, “What do you want me to do? Call America and tell ‘em I changed my mind? Huh? Yeah, right. It’s a great reunion, buddy, be well.” “You had no right to give up that shield, Sam.” I could no longer stay silent and let him try and make a good man feel guilty. “Okay, you’re out of line with that one, Barnes.” Bucky finally took a second to register my being there before looking back to Sam, “Who the hell is this?” “She’s none of your concern, but let me tell you what you’re not gonna do,” Sam stood in front of Bucky, “You’re not gonna come here in your overextended life and tell me about my rights. It’s over, Bucky. Besides, I have bigger things to deal with now.” Emotions I couldn’t fully understand took over Bucky’s face, “What could be bigger than this?”

Sam fished his phone out of his back pocket and held it up to the Super Soldier, “This guy. His connections with rebel organizations all over Eastern and Central Europe and he’s strong. Too strong.” “And?” Bucky asked, unimpressed.

“Well, he’s been connected to this online group called the Flag Smashers. Now, Redwing traced them to a building somewhere outside of Munich so that’s where I’m going,” Sam turned to me to signal we were walking again.

“Well, I don’t trust Redwing,” Bucky continued his pursuit, “Hold on a minute.” “You don’t have to trust Redwing,” Sam said firmly as we paused again, “But I’mma go see if he’s right. ‘Cause I have a feeling they might be a part of the Big Three.”

Bucky’s eyebrows lowered in confusion, “What ‘Big Three?’”

“The Big Three.”

“What Big Three?” “Androids, aliens and wizards,” I answered before Sam could. “That’s not a thing,” Bucky shook his head. “That’s definitely a thing,” Sam nodded. “No, it’s not.” “It really is,” I set my bag down on the ground and crossed my arms, there was no indication we’d be leaving any time soon.

“Every time we fight, we fight one of the three,” Sam insisted.

“So who are you fighting now, Gandalf?”

Sam inhaled to continue arguing before snapping his head back in surprise, “How do you know about Gandalf?” “I read The Hobbit,” Bucky answered confidently, “In 1937 when it first came out.”

“So you see my point?” “No, I don’t. There are no wizards.” I pointed to Bucky and tilted my head towards Sam, “Now there, I agree with him.” Sam looked offended that I didn’t automatically back him up, “You both are wrong…Doctor Strange.” “Is a sorcerer,” Bucky finished.

“Aah!” Sam laughed and poked Bucky’s firm chest, “A sorcerer is a wizard without a hat. Think about it, right? I’m right. I just came up with that, it’s crazy.” Bucky’s face read that he was thousand shades of done with Sam’s childish argument, even if he’d fought just as immaturely. I was beginning to see why Sam didn’t recount his brief time spent with the ex-Winter Soldier that fondly but I’d also forgotten how easy it was to push Sam’s buttons sometimes. There was some unwitting dynamic between them that I didn’t want to be in the middle of. “So glad we’re wasting valuable time on arguing over whether or not Harry Potter’s real,” I spoke up, tapping my foot out of impatience.

Sam was the first to snap back to reality, “That’s not the point. These guys aren’t magical, alright? They use brute force just like you, the incredibly annoying guy in front of me with the staring problem,” he reached down to grab my bag and hand it to me, “Let’s move.” “I’m coming with you,” Bucky called, the sound of his combat boots hitting the hanger floor behind us. “No, you’re not,” Sam answered harshly. “Oh my gosh,” I groaned before dropping my duffle bag again on the tarmac and spinning around to face the two men, “I don’t know how you two could have possibly saved the day as much as people say you have if you’re always like this! You,” I pointed to Sam, “Stop trying to do this on your own. You,” I moved my finger towards Bucky, “No more talking about the shield. If anybody needs me,” I wiggled my fingers and let the blue energy lift my bag into the air, “I’ll be waiting in the jet.” ——

Bucky and Sam stood speechless as they watched Y/n march across the tarmac, her bag magically floating behind her. “Who is she?” “My sister, Y/n,” Sam answered, “I didn’t know she could do that till today. She twisted my arm until I agreed to let her come.” Bucky’s eyes hadn’t left Y/n since she took control and ended Sam and his bickering. There weren’t many people who met him for the first time and didn’t give him a second glance. If she was Sam’s sister then she sure as hell knew about his past. Yet here she was daring to order him around and advocate for him to join Sam and her on their mission. It also went without saying that she was gorgeous. But she had proven that she didn’t understand the seriousness in which the situation with the new Captain America needed to be treated with, and that irked him. Still, his feet automatically wanted to carry him to the jet once she’d headed up the ramp and he’d lost his view of her. “Can’t decide whether I like her or not.”

——

Not having a suit to wear, I had changed on the jet from my sweater, capris and sneakers to a black shirt, jeans, booties and my favorite blue leather jacket that matched the blue that flowed from my fingertips.

When I stepped out of the jet’s bathroom, I expected to find Sam and Bucky fighting again. The whole flight so far has been filled with the same tension that had begun in the hanger and we’d been sitting in uncomfortable silence ever since. I was sure that the second I left, they’d be going at it again like children when a parent disappeared. Instead, they were quietly sitting on opposite sides of the jet with their eyes trained on one another.

“Can you guys quiet down for a second?” I sarcastically remarked as I walked across the room, “I can’t hear myself think.”

I deposited my bag in the corner of the jet near where Torres was climbing down the ladder, “One minute to drop off, Sam.”

I expected to turn around and see both Sam and Bucky up and preparing themselves, but the two men were still embroiled in a stare down. Sam and I had always cheesed each other off in a typical sibling fashion, but Bucky and his relationship seemingly consisted of nothing but that. 

Sam finally rose from his seat and Bucky quickly did the same, I brushed past him to stand on the other side of Sam. “So what’s the plan?” Sam ignored the question and handed me a small black device, “This is your comm, don’t lose it.” I nodded and placed the small ear piece in my ear, the faint hums of the jet coming through it.

With no direction from Sam, Bucky sat back down unhappily. “Great. So no plan?”

“Thirty seconds,” Torres shouted over the wind coming in from the open hatch.

“Enjoy your ride, Buck,” Sam remarked from beside me. “No, you can’t call me that.” “Why not? That’s what Steve called you.” “Steve knew me longer and Steve,” Bucky tilted his head to Sam, “Had a plan.”

I shook my head to shake off the ridiculousness of arguing nicknames at the moment. “I’m sorry, are we really playing the name game when we’re literally about to jump out of a plane? I get this is my first mission and all but- Bucky’s eyebrows shot up his forehead as he looked to Sam, “This is her first mission? What the hell were you thinking, bringing her?” “She,” I took a step towards Bucky, “Is more than capable of handling herself. First mission or 100th, I know what I’m doing, Barnes.”

“Fifteen seconds to drop!” Torres’ announcement ended any further arguing between me and Bucky.

“Listen to the woman,” Sam smirked as he put on his goggles, probably thinking back to a few hours ago when I’d body slammed him into the roof, “And I have a plan.”

“Really?” Bucky spread his arms out as we watched Sam walk away from us, “What is it?” Sam had already told me that he’d drop in first and I was to follow once he’d cleared the area. Bucky had not been privy to hearing that discussion and Sam had made no effort to fill him in. Without giving Bucky a second look, but winking at me, he dove headfirst out of the hatch and activated his wings, flying gracefully downwards towards the forest. I had never gotten to see him fly and felt a sense of pride as I looked out to see him glide above the trees.

“Where’s the chute?” Bucky called out.

“We’re at 200 feet, it’s too low for a chute,” Torres stated.

Bucky stalked towards the door, “I don’t need it anyway.”

“Neither will I,” I said, taking a step forward to see just how high we really were. I was confidant in my ability to keep up with Sam and wanted to prove my capability, but I was human. It went against every natural instinct to step out into the air and catch myself. Bucky moved to stand next to me, the two of us turning to face each other. This was the first time we’d actually made more than fleeting eye contact and I was finally able to get a good look at him. His features were sharp, his cheekbones and jaw were extremely prominent. Something more than scruff and less than a beard covered the bottom half of his face. His eyes were cerulean blue, just nearly matching the shade of my energy. Complete with a short, scruffy haircut, I wasn’t sure if handsome was a strong enough word for just how good looking James Barnes was. 

“Ladies first,” Bucky nodded towards our exit, never breaking eye contact, “Sure you know what you’re doing?” I smiled smugly, matching the amount of sass radiating from his words, “Do you?”

Not wanting to give him the opportunity to think up a come back, I turned away from him and threw myself out of the plane. An unavoidable scream flew from my lips as I free fell, somehow managing in the chaos to threw my arms out at my sides and expel my energy to control my descent. Once I got a hold on maneuvering the winds, the act actually became almost enjoyable. I found myself laughing as I weaved between the trees, until my laughter was accompanied by a fast approaching scream above me. A shower of branches began to rain down around me forcing me to swerve to the side just in time for Bucky’s figure to come crashing through. He landed harshly on his back, limbs spread out and a pained groan escaping his lips.

I floated directly above him, “I stand corrected, you definitely know what you’re doing.” “I have all of that on camera. You know that, right?” Sam’s voice came through our comms. Redwing flew up from behind us and zoomed in on Bucky’s face. 

“Get out of my face, Sam, or I’ll break it,” Bucky uttered, exhaustion filling his voice.

“Okay, head north. Come on.” I snickered at the exchange and lowered myself to the ground close enough to Bucky to extend him a hand. He accepted it and I helped pull him to an upright sitting position, trying to hide the fact that I struggled with his weight. “Thanks.” “Well, my mom taught me to always help my elders,” I said with a smirk, earning myself a scowl in response. “You’re as bad as Sam, aren’t you?” he moaned as he rose to his full height.

“Okay, okay,” I ceased my soft laughter, “I’m sorry. Seriously, are you okay? I know you’re a super soldier but still-” “I’m fine,” Bucky confirmed quickly, brushing the dirt from his jacket and turning north, “Let’s go.”

The two of us fell into a silence that wasn’t necessarily uneasy but certainly not relaxed. We weren’t enemies, we weren’t coworkers and we definitely weren’t friends. We’d spoken all of about five sentences to each other since meeting and none of them had been particularly chummy. “Sam only mentioned one sister,” Bucky broke the non-verbal spell.

“Sarah,” I stated, “We’re not technically related but they’re family. Sam told me he reached out to you and never got anything back. I think he was wondering how you were doing.” “Yeah, well…” he mumbled, stepping over a particularly large boulder and avoiding my gaze. 

I decided not to push the subject, not only were we nearing the warehouse, Sam could hear us through the comms and Redwing. But I made a note of the lightning quick wave of emotion that crossed Bucky’s eyes. Sam was definitely a trigger for him, but I had a feeling this was something much more complicated. Something I didn’t have time to get too curious over.

We made it out of the forest and Redwing led us to the back entrance to the warehouse. The graffiti and wrecked roofing made me want to believe that nobody had been there in ages, but Sam’s intel contradicted the setting. My brother, the esteemed military man, was also contradicting his age as he maneuvered Redwing just above us to provoke Bucky into taking a swing at him. “Oh-ho-ho, don’t hurt him,” he teased as Redwing quickly avoided the assault.

Sam stood in the next room staring down at the screen on his wrist, scanning the building through Redwing’s camera. He took a quick look at me to assess that I hadn’t been injured in the fall before turning back.

“You’re doing the staring thing again,” he commented without looking up. That one I’d give him, Bucky’s smoldering stare game was intimidating especially when he wasn’t saying anything. “They’re in there,” Sam tilted his head towards the nearest open doorway and stretching his arm out so Bucky and I could see what Redwing was seeing. There was a truck with two people loading in containers of something.

“Where’s the guy?” Bucky asked.

“I don’t know. I think they’re smuggling weapons though.” “Well, I think you could be right,” Bucky’s voice lowered. “Hmm,” Sam nodded.

“But there’s only one way to find out,” Bucky turned towards the doorway, “I see a clear path, I say we take it.”

As soon as his boot hit the ground in its first step, Sam reached for his arm. “We’re not assassins.” “Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, observe from a distance rather than attack straight away?” I offered.

Bucky’s eyes flicked to me when I spoke and promptly back to Sam, throwing away my suggestion. He probably thought me naive. “I’ll see you inside or not.”

He pulled his arm out of Sam’s grip and went ahead, leaving Sam chuckling to himself. “Hey, come on, man. I’m just messing with you, come back,” he called softly. “‘I’m just messing with you,’ the Avengers’ official slogan,” I dryly jested, “Here I was thinking we were doing serious work. Is Redwing still surveying?” “Yeah,” Sam was still smiling to himself as he turned to watch Bucky stalk down the hallway, “Look at you. All stealthy. A little time in Wakanda and you come out White Panther.” 

“It’s actually White Wolf,” Bucky responded in our ears.

“Huh?”

When we lost visual on Bucky, Sam snapped his fingers and nodded towards the hallway. We made our way through the various openings until we’d caught up, Sam held up a finger to his lips as we caught sight of Bucky and our steps became even softer.

“All right, I’m inside. Therefore way ahead of you,” Bucky bragged, turning back to where he thought we waited, “It’s not great but very doable.” His peripherals must have caught the red and white of Sam’s suit, he turned to see the two of us at his side. “Hello. How are you?” “Good. What did we miss? Nothing,” Sam replied.

“All right, let’s go,” Bucky moved to step forward again.

“No, wait,” Sam protested.

Bucky held up his prosthetic vibranium arm I had heard so much about. “I got a vibranium arm, I can take them.” “And I can fly, she can make things float, who gives a shit? Wait. I want to see where they’re going.” Bucky pointed towards the truck that was still being loaded, “There’s two people.”

“You only see two?” Sam started. “That’s what I saw,” Bucky confirmed.

“Let me see what Redwing sees.” “All right…” “Let’s see what Redwing sees…”

I held two fingers to my temple and rubbed, “My gosh, it’s like working with children.”

Sam fiddled with a few controls on the screen and activated the x-ray feature on his beloved drone, “Oh, look at that. How many people you see now? One, two…Oh, here it comes again.” Bucky sighed, unhappy to admit he was wrong, “Four. Five.” “Yeah, five.” “So they’re strong, whatever,” Bucky brushed off not only the math but our group’s capabilities. “Let’s go.”

“Barnes, wait,” I hissed as Sam reached out and took hold of his arm, his elbow hitting the metal shelves we were hiding behind and rattling something.

“Shit!” Sam whispered, he pulled me to his side to block me while Bucky ducked down. The group turned to investigate the noise but disregarded it at the lack of visible culprits. The trucks started and their doors were closed, each person getting into their designated vehicle. Sam started tapping on Redwing’s controller again, “There’s an eighth person. I think they have a hostage.”

With one look from Bucky, the three of us snapped into action. I raised myself into the air ahead of Sam who took off slightly behind me, looking down to see Bucky running impossibly fast. “Y/n, with me,” Sam called through the comms, I listened and hung back until he’d caught up. Bucky continued on his way until he’d climbed onto the back of the truck. I followed Sam’s lead as we flew to the side of the road.

“Shouldn’t we be helping him?” I asked as the two of us landed.

“They’re stealing medicine, vaccines,”  Bucky’s voice filled my comm.

“He’s got it, we’re staying here and waiting for him to come back with the hostage. Then you and I are gonna keep following the trucks and see where they’re heading,” he explained, “I’m trying to keep you out of as much of the fight as I can.” “That’s the whole reason I came, Sam,” I argued, gesturing towards the road, “To help, to fight.”

“Bucky, talk to me,” Sam favored to ignore my desire to do dirty work, “What’s goin’ on?” 

“Found the hostage,” he reported, followed only seconds later by a loud exclaim of “Shit!”

Adrenaline set every nerve alight in my body, something had gone wrong. Without asking for Sam’s permission I took off running down the road. I used my energy to lift towards the sky and flew the same way the truck’s had gone. Distantly, I heard Sam yell my name but made no effort to stop. “Barnes, talk to me,” I yelled over the winds I was flying against. As I spotted the trucks I saw the small silhouettes of figures standing atop one of them. Once I got closer, I could see that the one being aggressively pinned by two of them was Bucky. I landed on the vehicle’s roof just in time to see someone leap into the air, grab Redwing and break him with their knee. Between my want to help Bucky and my second hand protectiveness over Sam’s gear, I was pissed. The masked figure looked up at me, two brown eyes peeking out of eyeholes and marched forward, making me their next target. I created a ball of blue energy and aimed it at her, knocking her down but only for a second. She leapt towards me and landed a punch across my cheek, I went down with a groan and cradling my cheek. Now I was really pissed…

I opened an eye to see the shadow of Sam’s Falcon suit above me, he touched down on the truck and landed a kick to my assaulter’s abdomen. He quickly helped me to my feet as our enemy rose again and took a fight stance. 

“Good of you to join the fight, Sam,” Bucky yelled before kicking one of his captors in the leg. 

The person who had given me the shiner threw Sam aside to the second truck like he was weightless. She was far too small to be that strong, it was inhuman. I decided to hold back a little less and raised my hands toward her, extending waves of the blue energy and raising her up into the air. She struggled to try and escape my hold, grunting and groaning as she flopped around in the air. I was about to throw her into the trees when I was tackled from behind. We skidded towards the front of the truck till the boot of one of the thugs holding Bucky down hit me in the shoulder. Another masked figure, this one I suspected to be a man, had his arms wrapped tightly around my abdomen. He flipped me over and raised his head to slam into mine. Luckily he hadn’t thought to pin my arms down and his mistake allowed me to throw them in front of my face and create a force field that even the thickest of skulls couldn’t penetrate. I looked briefly to see Sam being pinned down as well on the second truck but couldn’t free myself to go help him. 

And then, in a conflicting twist of events, a red white and blue shield came flying through the air.

As I struggled to keep the force field up and my arms locked, I made out an equally patriotic suited man throw the shield at the one who had punched me earlier. A second figure swung in from a helicopter and kicked her off the truck, leaving her clinging to the edge of the roof. The shield flew in the direction of the people holding Bucky down and hit one square in the back before bouncing back to its wielder. The guy holding me down was struck next and rolled right off of me, I sent a significantly bigger blast towards his chest that sent him flying off the back of the truck. Bucky reached down and helped me stand up, he pulled me out of the way when the shield came flying by our faces to hit his other attackers.

“You gotta be kidding me,” I panted.

John Walker stopped briefly to introduce himself to Sam, like he hadn’t been living rent free in our minds since that damned tv broadcast before sending the shield flying past Bucky and I again. As it bounced off our enemies and back towards Walker, Bucky’s metal hand snapped up to grab it only for Walker to retake it. The time for anger or sadness wasn’t now, though the forlorn expression on Bucky’s face said otherwise. I broke from him and launched myself across the gap between trucks to land near where Sam was being attacked. Bucky followed suit and we began taking out each person one by one till Sam stood and turned too fast, hitting and sending Bucky plus one of the masked thugs over the side of the truck. Sam and I turned to face our last attacker who was stalking toward us, Sam glanced over his shoulder quickly before looking back ahead. “When I say ‘now,’ you shoot up,” he ordered, “Now!” I blasted upwards and over the overhead road sign he’d known would hit our attacker. I was too high to drop down suddenly but watched as Sam touched back down on the truck to be punched off the truck, activating his wings and catching himself in the wind. I flew downwards and lined up with the side of the truck, searching frantically for Bucky while trying to dodge the cars to my left. Bucky was clinging for dear life to the underside of the truck. His attacker stomped his metal arm with his boot till Bucky lost his grip with it and it dragged along the road creating a flurry of sparks. 

“Sam, what do we do?” I yelled into my comm. “Now when I say ‘drop,’ you drop.” “Are you insane?!” I screeched, looking down at the asphalt and trying to calculate how fast I may be going. “DROP!”

Putting the most trust I ever had in Sam, I stopped the energy flow and was tackled mid-air by him. I twisted in his arms to wrap my legs around one of his and my arms around his back. Without warning, he flew us under the nearest truck before letting go of me with one arm and tackling Bucky. I readjusted my grip to have one arm around both of them. We dropped out of the air and crash-landed, rolling like a grunting and groaning wheel through a field of yellow flowers. Eventually we ceased our tumbling with Bucky on top of Sam and me to the side still clinging to both of them.

“Could have used that shield,” Bucky ground out tauntingly in Sam’s face.

“Get off of me,” Sam strained, shoving Bucky off with another loud grunt. I rolled to his other side and coughed loudly, having had the wind knocked out of me during the crash. The three of us lay on our backs trying to regain our breath, Sam and I more than Bucky but I chalked that up to the fact that he was just as strong as the people we’d just gotten our asses handed to us by. “Those were all Super Soldiers, Sam,” he stated in awe. 

“I know,” Sam confirmed, “You’re welcome, by the way.” He pushed himself up painfully on an elbow to lean over me, “Are you okay?”

I was finally starting to feel like I could get some semblance of a normal breath in. I’d have wished it was running around with AJ and Cass that would have showed me I was out of shape and not losing a fight to Super Soldiers. “‘Big Three’ my ass, Wilson,” I wheezed, making no effort to sit up yet.

“I said ‘might be’,” Sam weakly fought, “‘Might be.’ Clearly I was wrong.” 

“Will wonders never cease?” Bucky winced as he sat up, “We need to get to the airport and reformulate.” “Oh, do we now? Do we need to reformulate?” Sam mocked from the ground, “I hadn’t thought of that yet, Bucky, what an incredible-“ I groaned loudly and forced my torso up, “Dear God above, if you two don’t stop acting like twelve year olds, I’ll catch a Delta flight home.” “Good, that’s where I wanted you,” Sam reprimanded as he rose to join me, “I told you if you took some stupid risk, you were going back home and what did you do? You took off on your own towards those trucks!” “I was trying to help him,” I threw my hand out towards Bucky, “One way or another I would have gotten hurt, Sam, whether I’d have waited for you or not. And now that I’ve actually seen what we’re dealing with? No way am I going home.” I rolled onto my knees and got to my feet, my muscles aching with each movement I made to stand in front of the two men. “When you two decide to start acting like adults, I’ll meet you back at the jet.”

Holding in each groan that wanted to escape my mouth, I started my trek back towards the road, not making it very far until I heard two pairs of footsteps behind me.

We walked that way for most of the way, Sam and Bucky muttering something every once in a while to each other and me ahead of them trying to wrap my head around the situation. I had gotten myself tangled in the world of super soldiers, ones who weren’t using their advanced capabilities to save the world from one of the actual Big Three. Not only that but we’d had the displeasure of being rescued by the person the three of us had wanted to see least in the world. I had started the day out having coffee with Sarah on our back porch and by eastern standard time zone’s definition was ending it in Germany mid-afternoon with a killer bruise developing on my cheek. Whatever I had expected to come from joining Sam, it sure as hell wasn’t this.

A car honk summoned me out of my thoughts, an open roofed vehicle came up beside me and I was quick to identify the passengers. John Walker and the helicopter soldier. 

“So that didn’t go as planned, huh?” Walker attempted to make friendly conversation, specifically with Sam and Bucky but I could sense I was also welcome to answer. I didn’t cease my movements and neither did Sam and Bucky which only caused Walker to instruct the driver to get ahead of us again. “Look, at least we know what we’re up against now, huh? And we’re pretty sure it’s one of the Big Three, so…” “Aliens, androids, or wizards?” the unnamed soldier double checked with Walker, who responded that he was still almost certain.

“There’s no such thing as wizards,” Bucky grumbled from behind me, sounding like the old man he biologically was.

“Then it’s aliens, or androids,” Walker shrugged. “Or Super Soldiers,” Sam corrected.

“Shit, Super Soldiers, for real?” Walker’s sidekick asked before turning in his seat to face, “Do you believe that?” “I believe that you two don’t know how to take a hint,” I frustratedly smiled at him, “But yes, I do.”

“Wow. All right, well, then we gotta work together,” Walker said. Bucky scoffed, “That’s not happening.”

“I think we stand a much better chance if we all just-“ Bucky finally lost his patience and said the thing we all were thinking, “Just ‘cause you carry that shield, it doesn’t mean you’re Captain America.”

Walker was quick to defend himself, “Look, I’ve done the work, okay?” 

Bucky was equally as quick to prove him wrong, “You ever jump on top of a grenade?” “Yeah. Actually, I have. Four times,” Walker explained, “It’s a thing I do with my helmet. It’s a reinforced helmet. It’s a long story, but, look…It’s 20 miles to the airport, you guys need a ride.” A sudden cramp tore through my shin causing me to sharply inhale and grab the leg. Through the pain I managed to exhale and begin limping back along the path, “We’re good, thanks.”

“At least let us take her, she’s injured,” I heard Walker attempt to convince Sam and Bucky, knowing that I was probably a means to an end to get them in the car. 

I didn’t get very far before I felt Sam’s arm wrap around my waist, “C’mon…” As much as I wanted to fight him on it, I knew I wouldn’t make it more than a few steps before I was bent over again in pain. The adrenaline had worn off and my whole body was starting to ache deeply in a way that made even breathing hurt where it shouldn’t. I dropped my head in frustration and nodded, putting my arm around Sam’s shoulder to let him brace me. He helped me limp back to the car where Bucky gently handled my other side, the two of them lifted me into the vehicle where Walker and his friend tried to help me sit down. I shrugged off their unwelcome hands and used the roof’s poles to lower myself into a seat. Sam jumped in and sat on one side of me, gently lifting the leg that was really bothering me onto his lap to try and massaging my shin. Bucky climbed in on my other side and gave me a once over, trying to assess if I was in any further pain that I wasn’t letting on to.

“Okay,” Walker began as the car rocked to life again, “So we’ve got eight Super Soldiers on a bulk supply run. Why?” “They say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during The Blip,” Sam explained, “Maybe they’re just trying to help.” “They had a funny way of showing it,” Bucky commented.

“That serum doesn’t exactly have a great track record,” Walker quickly looked to Bucky, “No offense.” I tried not to judge people too harshly upon first meeting them, but I had no problem deciding right away that Walker was an asshole.

“We need to figure out where they’re going,” Sam spoke up before an argument could break out, “How’d you track ‘em here? The Flag Smashers?”

“Uh, no, we didn’t track them. We tracked you, uh, through Redwing,” Walker’s friend answered, dipping his head down to avoid Sam’s stony gaze.

“You hacked my tech?” “Sorry,” Walker laughed, “It’s not exactly hacking. It’s government property,” he gestured to himself, “Kind of the government.” My lips parted and I tilted my head, ”Are you kidding me?”

“I’m sorry,” Walker extended his hand out to me, “John Walker, Captain America. And you are?” I glanced between his hand and him, “Not impressed.” He awkwardly retracted it and turned away from me to Bucky, “Does he always just stare like that?” “You get used to it,” Sam replied, suddenly he had no problem with Bucky’s habit.

“Okay, look,” Walker cleared his throat, “You know things have gotten kind of, uh…” “Chaotic,” his friend finished for him.

“Yeah. The GRC, they’re doing the best they can to get things up and running smoothly, post Blip.” “Reactivating citizenship, social security, healthcare. Basically just managing resources for the refugees who were displaced by the return.”

“The Global Repatriation Council does all that, I get that,” Sam said impatiently, “So why exactly are you two here?”

“Well, they provide the resources and we keep things stable,” the soldier answered.

“Yeah, violent revolutionaries aren’t usually good for anyone’s cause,” Walker said. “Usually said by the people with the resources,” Sam looked up from the work he was doing on my leg to look dead at Walker.

“We got a lot of resources,” he stated confidantly, “If you guys, if you joined up with us, we could-“ “No,” Bucky and I said in unison, now having agreed on two things. Walker was a phony and wizards weren’t real.

“I got mad respect for both of ya’ll,” Walker’s friend complimented, “You too, ma’am. But you were kinda getting your asses kicked till we showed up.” Bucky finally dragged his stare off of Walker, “Who are you?” “Lemar Hoskins.” “Look, I see a guy hanging out of a helicopter in tactical gear, I need a lot more than Lemar Hoskins,” Sam commented.

“I’m Battlestar,” Lemar reintroduced himself, “John’s partner.” “‘Battlestar?’” Bucky echoed the ridiculous nickname, snapping his head suddenly toward the driver, “Stop the car!”

The driver obeyed and quickly halted in the middle of the road, giving Bucky the opportunity to jump out of the car. He raised his eyebrows expectantly, waiting for me to join him but I wasn’t about to leave Sam’s side. I held a hand up to him to which he responded by closing the back door and starting down the path that veered off the main road. 

“Look, I…I get it, okay? I get the attitude, I do,” Walker started, he couldn’t come close to understanding how insulted all three of us were for one uniting reason, “You don’t think that the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky,” even the call of his name wasn’t enough to make him stop, “And I’m…I’m not trying to be Steve. I’m not trying to replace Steve.” “Could’ve fooled me,” I snorted, removing my leg from Sam’s lap as he’d stopped rubbing it long ago. “I’m just trying to be the best Captain America I can be, that’s it,” Walker focused his eyes on my brother, “It’d be a whole lot easier if I had Cap’s wingmen on my side.” Sam scoffed and looked out of the corner of his eyes at me as if to make sure he hadn’t heard incorrectly. He hadn’t, and I was about two seconds away from putting my powers to good use and beating Walker with his own shield that he could never truly hold ownership of. “It’s always that last line…”

Sam climbed over me and hopped out first before helping to lower me to the ground. A defeated Walker ordered the driver to leave and we watched to make sure they actually left for good. “Torres said he’s nice?” I asked sarcastically as we resumed our familiar posture of Sam helping me walk. “Torres is young, impressionable and follows every order he’s given. Guys like Walker have a problem with anyone who doesn’t take their every word as gospel.”

“Well, your mom made us attend enough church when we were kids for me to know that right there,” I pointed back to the car that was now a dot in the distance, “Is a false prophet.” 

I trained my eyes ahead of us, Bucky hadn’t gotten too far and it looked like he had actually slowed his pace for us to catch up easier. While I was angry with the government for appointing Walker and the man himself, I knew that the pain Sam and Bucky were feeling was exponentially heavier to deal with. They’d already lost their friend and Walker was the salt being rubbed in the wound.

When we did eventually make it to the plane an hour later, I was biting back tears at how much pain I was in. Sam took notice of how I was trying to conceal them as we approached the tarmac and carried me the rest of the way. 

“I gotta check for any internal bleeding,” he said as he set me down gently on the seats of the jet, “And you’re going home.” “No, I’m not,” I moaned. “Yes, you are,” he scolded as he lifted up my shirt to the bottom of my bra so that he could get a clear view of my abdomen, “Sarah’s gonna pound my ass into the ground as it is for bringing you back bruised.” My eyes could no longer stay opened, further fluttering shut as I didn’t hear Sam state that he saw anything concerning. “Get some sleep,” he ordered, “I’ll take care of anything I find.” Just before I drifted off, I heard a second body kneel down next to Sam. “She okay?” “Yeah, she’ll be fine,” he answered Bucky, “I just should have never brought her.” 

————

When I did wake up, the plane was dark except for the minimal lighting towards the cockpit. I attempted to sit up, biting back a groan as I did. There was a blanket draped over my bottom half and my jacket was now folded underneath my head as a makeshift pillow. Sam was sleeping upright near my feet, arms crossed and snoring quietly.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” a quiet voice startled me, I turned to see it was Bucky. “A little out of my depth,” I remarked, rubbing one of my eyes, “But yeah, okay.” 

Bucky nodded and looked back down at his folded hands, for some reason the contrast of the gold and black metal meeting the pale flesh fascinated me. He must’ve sensed I was staring because he peered up at me through his lashes. I quickly looked away, “I’m guessing we’re on our way back to New Orleans.” “Baltimore, actually,” he replied.

“What’s in Baltimore?” I whispered, trying not to wake Sam. “Someone that Sam needs to meet.” “Okay,” I slowly swung my legs off the seats to properly face him, “Who’s in Baltimore?” Bucky gave me a tired look, “Just someone, you’ll meet him too.” I bristled slightly at his answer, shooting him a half smile. “You don’t trust people, do you, Barnes?”

I wouldn’t call what his lips did was a smile, but maybe a sarcastic knock off of one. “You ask a lot of questions, you know?”

“Only when people don’t give me any answers,” I fired back in a contradictorily easy tone, “Look, you don’t have to trust me. That’s fine, I’m going home after whatever surprise you have for us anyway so you won’t have to deal with me slowing you guys down anymore.” “Sam was endangering you by bringing a civilian to an Avengers level fight,” he quickly said, “That’s on him, not you. And none of us were exactly at our best today.” A supercut of the three of us each getting slapped around silly on top of the trucks played in my mind. He was definitely right, nobody could have predicted that we’d be thrown for such a loop. Not even the man pretending to be Captain America. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about Walker,” I offered as softly as I could, “I’ve watched him parade that shield around on tv for days and I’ve gotten angrier each time. Not saying it’s the same as what you’re feeling but…I’m just sorry.” Bucky didn’t respond, he actually looked away from me and back down at his hands. “You should get some more sleep, we’re still a ways out.” It was clear I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him, not that I felt any burning desire to try to get him to open up. I’d only tried out of politeness and the slight glimmer of curiosity I held when it came to what lay beneath his hardened surface. “Goodnight, Barnes,” I said, laying back down and rolling over so I didn’t have to look at him any longer.

----

A/N: Let me know what you thought and/or if you’d like to be tagged! There’s still a lot of surprises that are coming...

Safe Haven taglist: @tanyaherondale​ @wanniiieeee​ @asoftie4bucky​ @edencherries​ @i-reblog-fics-i-like​ @ttalisa​ @gcfty @withyoutilltheendofthismess​ @rinaispunk​ @weirdowithnobeardo​ @felicityofbakerstreet​ @godlypotterwhodiaries​ @eternalharry​ @voguesir​ @mizz-kraziii​ @okayline​ @smellmymisunderstoodfluff @wanderin-stories​ @nicklet94 @intricate-melody​ @aesthethickks​ @stumbleonmywords​ @simplybarnes​ @21bruhs​ @lostinwonderland314​ @superbookishhufflepuff​ @themaddies-obx