#steve Harrington eddie Munson dustin Henderson billy Hargrove st4 netflix st2 st st3 oc

[tomesandrosebud]

-V I C I O U S !- A Stranger Things Fanfiction! (OC x Steve, OC x Billy, OC x Eddie) Intro: Meet Dani Henderson!

WORD COUNT: 7,379! Sorry it’s so long! The story really starts next chapter, This is more of an intro chapter, SO ENJOY! 

“5 years. It’s About Damn Time.”

5 years was all that Dani could think about, when the plane finally landed and she was told she could stand up from her seat and stretch out her back after a 8 hour flight from California to Indiana. She stretched out her arms and covered her mouth as she yawned while reaching into the overhead compartment that’d been above her seat and contained her only bag, a small backpack holding her barest of necessities. Pulling it out she almost hit herself in the face with it but ignoring that she just slumps it over her left shoulder and joins everyone in walking off the plane.

All that she’d had on her was a couple changes of clothes, some hygienic essentials, a journal and pen, a couple paints and brush, a small teddy bear that she’d gotten as a gift from her dad (he might’ve been a deadbeat most of her life but he was still her dad, and not knowing whether she’d see him again and if not how long until, she’d held onto it, even if she shouldn’t), and then just an old Walkie-talkie.

Whenever she’d looked at it all of this time she’d just remembered Dustin, how young he’d been and how he didn’t understand, couldn’t grasp the idea of losing his sister and in other ways maybe even a better best friend to him than even Mike, Will, or Lucas could’ve ever been. They’d just had a different type of connection. He was just so frail, so upset and crying while their shared father tried to pull her and tug his sister away from him, potentially forever. All Dustin knew at the time was that him and his friends had these Walkie-talkies and between them they could still talk to each other even if they were as far away as being at their own houses. So while Dustin was a smart kid; in a moment like this his feelings had clouded his senses to remember that even that connection had been faulty sometimes so somewhere as far as halfway across the country she wouldn’t really be able to reach him how he’d dreamed that she’d be able to.

But not wanting to give up hope or crush her younger brother’s spirits she’d taken it anyway and every single day she’d turned it on and let Dustin know that she was there even though she knew he’d never been able to hear her with that frequency. But she did it anyway and now it was finally the time she would come home and could give it back to him as she wouldn’t need it anymore. Because once she got back she was never leaving him again.

Dani said goodbye to the flight attendant as she stepped down from the aircraft and walked down the hall to the gate to where she was meant to be meeting Claudia. Now Claudia may not have been Dani’s real mom but she was Dustin’s and with them being half siblings by just their father; Claudia was the only mother Dani ever known. As her entire childhood, up until having been taken away, their father and Claudia had been married so while she never met her birth mother Claudia had taken care of her as if she were her own.

And now with her ex-husband, and Dani’s father, now going to prison for god only knows how long after being caught for yet another huge drug bust, She was going to continue to do so. She didn’t even want to lose her the first time but she’d had no choice in the matter then being that Dani was never really hers. Heck she’s only getting her back now because the mother was never on the record and any other immediate family of his didn’t want her.

That didn’t bother Dani herself one bit though, she never wanted to leave in the first place and California just never felt right for her without her family even though she was able to make some new friends at her new school, but they also never got passed being the type you just hang out with in classes and at lunch but never anytime after. So Dani had spent a lot of time at “home” in her dads small and crummy apartment just wondering why he’d even wanted to bring her here in the first place as he so obviously could barely afford it. She mostly had to learn to take care of herself because he was never home anyway. All she ever even ate was ramen or pop tarts that she would get out of the lobby’s vending machines with the quarters she could scrounge up from helping the neighbors with their chores.

She managed there but had a lot of depression issues being that she never truly felt herself at home so when the apartment was infiltrated by the police, she was paired up with a social worker. She was happy to find out she was going to be sent home back to her small, quaint and comfortable town of Hawkins, Indiana. So small that everyone basically knew each other and nothing crazy ever happened there.

“Are you ready?” The older woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties asked Dani as they were approaching the gate and just on the other side of that door would be Dani’s mom and brother waiting for her. God she couldn’t wait to just be reunited and hug them both to death as they haven’t even gotten to talk even a word since she’d been away. Now that she was thinking of it, would either of them even recognize Dani when they’d see her? That wasn’t the type of thing she’d thought about. She was just so excited that she didn’t think she’d had to, but now she was having some second thoughts.

The door opened.

Taking one last breath of both relief and nerves if that’s even possible to be doing at the same time, Dani took a running start ahead of her social worker and even busting through some people further ahead in the line than herself.

“Sorry sir.” “Excuse me!” “Sorry.”

Her social worker did end up having to run after her a little bit.

But even with all of her excitement it did end up kind of almost being for not, having done all that because the second she got to the front where all the people stood to greet their friends and family members, some even holding up cards of names. She didn’t immediately see Claudia or Dustin and for a second it almost broke her heart. Thinking how she swore; knowing what she thought she did about Dustin, she swore he’d be at the very front of the group just waiting for her arrival to come run up and let himself be taken into his older sister’s arms.

But that wasn’t what she was seeing.

She felt herself just stop in place almost feeling as if she was now frozen to the ground and tears almost flowing from her face when she just sees all the other families reunited, hugging and crying together in the same way she thought that they’d be doing right now as well.

But no she stood just all alone. And she was still crying alright, it just ended up being for a different reason.

Thankfully though it didn’t last too long, her feelings of sadness, as her eyes finally found Claudia trying to break her way through the crowd to find her. And when their eyes finally met for her first time in what felt like forever to her, it was like that exact moment her feet had been melted from the ground as her tears now turned to happiness and she sprints from her worried social worker, sprints to the outstretched arms of her mother to be taken in and loved, to never be taken away from again. 16 year old girl now feeling again like she was just a baby, like when she was 5 and didn’t want her mom to leave her at her elementary school for the very first time.

“Oh my gosh, sweetie!” Claudia gave her the biggest hug Dani had almost ever felt and then reaching out to give her a full once over and see her better, she held Dani’s cheeks in her hands.

“Oh my, wow, look at you darling!” Her voice getting higher and a little squeakier in obvious surprise.

“You’re so big now, you look so different from when we last saw you! Did you lose weight?” Claudia questioned it as a joke but actually a matter of fact in had been true being that she didn’t really get home cooked meals and how little she actually ever had anything bigger than just a couple cups of noodles a day, yeah she was kinda forced to lose a good few pounds.

“Wow!” Claudia responds at the nod of Dani’s head and then turns her attention to the social worker, they shake hands and introduce themselves to each other and with that Dani is now good for them to go their separate ways. So the woman who Dani just realized she hadn’t even gotten the name of was left to go and get herself a returning flight back home, Claudia asks if she needs anything else before they go, if she has any other bags to go grab to which Dani snakes her head.

“Okay then Darling, let’s get you back home shall we? Huh?” She seemed so excited Dani wondered if she was missing something herself.

“Mom?”

“Mom?” Claudia seemed to be in her own little world to where Dani had to ask a couple times to get her attention back.

“Mom? Where’s Dustin?”

“Is he, like, in the bathroom or something?”

***

And this is where some of Dani’s disappointment had managed to settle itself back in.

“Dustin isn’t here?”

Claudia started driving the two of them from the airport just right outside of Hawkins, back to the home that Dani’s been dreaming up almost every moment for the past 5 years. Her old bedroom, she wonders but doesn’t say out loud, does it still look the same as when she’d last left it? How much has any of the town or any aspect of her previous life changed. 5 years is a long time and so far seemingly longer than she’d even thought it was being that Dustin isn’t here right now.

When mom told her that Dustin had some plans with his friends that he assured her he “just couldn’t put off” another piece of her heart having just been mended back up, broke again.

Not a huge chunk being that this wouldn’t be forever, of course it’s only one night, but just the fact that this happened to be the one night where after so long his sister was finally coming home and he wasn’t going to be there to pick her up from the airport, it did sting just a little. The fact that he really couldn’t insist on rescheduling his “campaign” for Dungeons and Dragons? He could do that any night…

But then Dani made herself feel kinda bad. Feeling like she was just being silly and selfish for wanting him to chose her over his friends...so while she sat kind of pouty in the passenger seat of the car, she did try to make herself take her mind off of it and try to instead focus on the positives and all the other things that she’d missed about her home.

For a long while the roads had been almost completely empty of any vehicles except their car, she tried to focus again how quiet it had been and how this was definitely the complete opposite of California. Back there the roads were never clear and even what would be a small walk between places in Hawkins, in California was an hour plus ride in the car to get anywhere. And here where the only sounds were of the birds chirping and the only scenery that of the forests and the trees. California no matter where you were; on the roads, at home, shopping, anywhere. All you ever heard was cars, loud people, and the worst of all the sounds of gunfire. Constantly feeling terrified by the idea of guns. But no need to worry about that now, the only people to need those here are the police.

Thus, Dani had gotten pretty accustomed to falling asleep on car rides when she would get too bored and there typically would be at least a half hour left until their arrival at whatever destination, so she was about to start drifting off with her head hitting the window.

But right at the point when she normally would start to fall, Claudia rubbed her on the shoulder to signal that they had arrived home now.

“We’re here, time to wake up kiddo.”

“Oh, really already?” Dani asked tiredly and started wiping at her eyes to which Claudia nodded.

“Thanks.”

It just didn’t feel real.

Even though she knew she was seeing it, she did have to second guess herself again and thinking maybe she did actually just fall asleep and this whole situation, whole thing about her coming back home was just the result of another one of her dreams again? It isn’t like this would be the first time that’d happened and when it would it would be pretty realistic feeling to her.

But yet again if she was just dreaming Dustin for sure would’ve been here….should’ve been in actuality but that is something else. She decided she’d try to teleport inside just to check and when she wasn’t able to she knew this had to be real for sure now.

So with one last wipe of her eyes she stepped out and slamming the car door behind her she didn’t even wait for Claudia, she ran ahead and digging into her bag for the key to the front door of the house, that she’d held onto all this time. Hopefully they haven’t changed the locks or else she just looked stupid now she thought.

But this is Hawkins there’d be no mean, except for maybe a stupid prank pulled by some high school kids.

“FOUND IT!” She screamed eureka!

Dani pulled the key out and seemingly as fast as the speed of light she’s gotten it in the keyhole, unlocked the door, and thrown it open. Admittedly a little harder than she’d intended on.

“Sorry mom.” She looks back at a still struggling to catch up Claudia. They smile a little awkwardly at each other. Claudia didn’t remember her being this much before. “What did her dad do this poor girl?” She said under her breathe.

And then here came the moment that she’d been waiting so long for to finally get, the satisfaction of stepping back into this house, and knowing it’s real this time, the second that she stepped her first foot back into it, the feeling had actually become so overwhelming.

Usually in her dreams she could imagine the looks of everything pretty realistically to what she remembered, and looking into it right now felt just so good, seeing that she ,for the most part, was pretty accurate as they haven’t redone a single thing since she last arrived.

But what she never really could pinpoint was the smell that it’d previously been. She had like a small idea but it never felt right so in her dreams after a minute of trying something out and it wouldn’t fit; she’d just imagine it gone and not smell anything at all.

But now was it, now she could smell it perfectly what she was always missing to feel, for real, herself at home.

It was like dusty coming off of some vintage, an antique feel, driftwood mixed with that of Mint and the peach smelling shampoo that mom used and the same sent of laundry detergent she’d wash everything in. Mom really liked her peaches.

Dani could even remember a time when dad used to call her that she liked them so much. “Peaches.” And she’d giggle….she remembered when they used to love each other so much and she hopes that’s the type she’d find someday. Now she wondered if Dustin was even old enough to remember them before the constant fighting. Probability says no.

But the smell started to overcome her senses so much even before she stepped past the door frame. Daniella felt herself feeling like a little kid again. Back to before she even started to hate being called out as her full first name. Back before she was even a big sister maybe? She felt almost like her body was taken over from her for a moment. Not in control of her own limbs as her legs buckled underneath their own pressure and she just fell to her knees on the floor, her backpack slumping off her arms and onto the ground.

Before she even realized what she was doing her face fell into her hands and just tears of happiness and feeling so grateful, just flowed all outside of her body, the scents still wafting into her nose. Claudia could hear the sniffles as she stood behind and then coming up to hug this precious and crying, beautiful little girl in front of her from behind her back. Claudia wrapping her arms around the girls neck and Dani reaching up to hold them still so they could never be ripped from her again.

Overwhelmed but in the best way possible, Dani looked up from her hands in her lap, with glazed over eyes she tried to look around her and wipe the tears from her vision when she realized just how much they really blocked her view. She let go of her mom and her mom released her to and she just laughed one solid happy little laugh as she got up from her knees and actually wanted to touch something, anything to anchor her to the ground this home provided.

She put her arms on a cabinet and truly raised herself with it, putting one whole side's weight upon it. Touching all the little trinkets sitting around on the top (mostly cats). And just constantly wiping her eyes and now trying to stop her nose that had started to run just a little bit as well.

And then she heard it.

A meow!

“Mews?” She was truly shocked at this, accidentally basically having screamed the name when she saw her. This wasn’t something she’d always really imagined because while she expected she’d see her family again, just not for a really long time, when she left she’d figured this was the last time she’d ever see her little tabby cat. Except now she’s not so little anymore.

“You’re still alive! God momma’s gotta have been feeding you pretty good huh?” She whispered to her.

“Oh yeah, she’s my little cuddle buddy.”

Dani could just remember the day they’d found her, her and Dustin hearing something rummaging through the trash and then when they’d brought her in, oh my was their dad mad. He didn’t like cats but mom fell in love with her immediately, probably at this point how much her and her husband had been bickering all the time, she needed her. “Girls gotta stick together right?”

And so while dad just hated it and gave them one more thing to fight about. With a lot of begging from their kids the cat ended up staying (since no one else claimed her), now that’s not to say that sometimes she wouldn’t still be outside caught rummaging in the trash, but at least now the cat always had a home to return to. And with that momma named her “Mews.”

***

Seeing her old bedroom again, now this was something else.

It was the same but it was also very different from when she’d seen it last, Claudia kept all of her old furniture and in the same place. All of her old stuff within the room for her but it wasn’t all where she’d left it. And a part of her was happy that redecorating was now going to be a bit easier with the step already taken for her, but also she was a little bit disappointed to not see it all the way she’d have it left. It was like a time capsule for her. Something she’d wanted to run her hands over one last time now that she was older before she herself would’ve done the step her mother already had for her in advance.

She could now do that with her furniture. Furniture that she now is noticing she is also going to want to rearrange and her walls could really use a fresh coat of paint. Change the vibe up a bit. Going to her dresser drawers and to her old television, running her fingers over the old cracks within her childhood mirror, her vanity that she must’ve had a bit of a growth spurt as she stands too big for it now. Almost getting stuck and tipping over the little chair.

It falls onto the floor and Dani goes to sit on the bed instead. She’s now realizing just how much of all this old stuff, as much as she loves it dearly, to really be able to functionally be able to live her, just how much she’s going to have to replace.

Maybe she’d ask Dustin if he potentially would like to have a yard sale? She might have to get a job? But for now she just wondered where some of her extra little trinkets had gotten off to?

Turns out when Dani went to open the closet door that there was a special box on the top shelf inside. The same shelf that she use to have to stand up on her chair to reach before.

But now she can just grab it like it’s nothing.

Throwing the cute little flamingo covered box on the mattress, reminds her of the phase when she used to be obsessed with the birds after seeing them on a nature documentary with her dad; back then she always pretended to be one of them. Obsessed with them just because they were pink and back then she was way girlier and loved all things in the color.

But what really caught her off guard more than anything else; the top two things in this box. Two items she never wanted to leave behind in the first place. But Dani could still remember the exact moment she was made to. Them being ripped out of her hands and thrown back on the bed behind her, and she’d cried about that for days when her dad took her away without letting her go back for them: Steve’s Hawkins High Basketball team sweatshirt that he’d gotten from his dad, and (sitting just on top of it) the friendship bracelet he’d made for her. And she did one for him in return in their shared art class when she was in 4th grade and he was in 5th.

Steve Harrington: God was he the best friend she’d ever had. He was so special not even California could replace him. Dani could remember practically every single moment they’d ever spent together even now.

It was the first day of Kindergarten for her, 1st grade for Steve.

Dani could remember how Claudia for pre-school took her everyday and dropped her off, waiting with her and the hard goodbyes where everyday the young girl would stand crying as she didn’t want her mother to walk away. But she always had to. For the girls' own good. And so it was definitely hard but Dani got used to it as everyday would get just a little bit easier. Eventually she became okay.

But then things changed again when it became time for Elementary school.

Now instead of taking her everyday Claudia had to teach little Daniella how to wait at the bus stop. And seemingly this was going to be the most difficult task ever, for a while. She’d just have to get used to this like she’d gotten used to everything before. Eventually in theory she wouldn’t need to hug onto her mother’s legs for dear life when Claudia tried to leave. But it actually ended up going a lot easier really than they could’ve ever expected.

See, Daniella was SO EXCITED for her first day back to school. Now she was going to her first "big girl school" as her mommy called it. So excited that she wore her favorite pink princess dress with a big tutu, her favorite black converse sneakers, and a cute sparkly gold little tiara. She thought she was a princess back then. She was so excited thinking that her mom was taking her to school again but that excitement got suddenly confused. When Daniella went to run to get into the car and waiting for her mother to open the door so she could get in, but instead her mother had grabbed her hand and led her to start walking down the street.

Dani didn't understand what was going on as they stopped where there were a couple other families of a child or two each with at least one of their respective parents.

"Mommy, we aren't going to school?"

Claudia felt so guilty when she had to explain the bus stop to her daughter and how the young girl just clung to her and immediately started making a scene in front of everyone else there. She started crying and clawed for dear life about how now all she wanted was to be taken home. But for not.

As when the bus got there to pick up the kids Claudia basically had to drag her child, picking Dani up and forcing her onto the steps and the doors closing in her face and the vehicle driving away before she could try to get off again.

Thought she'd be crying the entire way to the school at that point.

But that isn't what happened.

Instead was the beginning of the probably most unlikely of friendships in all of Hawkins, but it was still the best there probably ever was.

Without further options; all that was left now for little Daniella Henderson was to just find a seat. So feeling defeated she just picked the first empty chair she could and put her head into her hands to sob.

But she didn't have to feel sad and alone for too, too long, thankfully..

His name was Steven Harrington; though he just went by Steve.

He was a year older than Dani as he was in 1st grade. And he didn’t even know her. All Steve knew at the time was that he saw this little girl at his bus stop, and he wasn’t sure about how she was dressed. But that maybe she’d just really liked the color pink, or maybe her mom had just dressed her up like that. But either way that if she really liked it, it was cool. And her hair was parted down the middle and pulled into these two pigtails on either side of her head and that he thought she looked pretty. That is until she’d started crying. Then he just felt bad but also understanding as it happened to him too on his very first day last year.

So when Steve saw this little girl sitting, crying all alone on the bus seat that was way bigger than she even was; Steve sat down next to her and just rubbed her back for a little while. He hoped to be able to comfort her until and after she’d stopped crying, he hoped that she would.

Steve really didn’t know what to do in these types of situations, even know being in them he’d just felt extremely awkward but he tried anyway because on that day all he could think was that maybe she’d just really needed a friend too.

“So if you’re a princess, would that make me a prince if we’re friends?”

Daniella looked up to the other voice, to see a pretty funny looking boy sitting right next to her, but he wasn’t like sitting properly. This silly boy sat back to the seat in front of them and legs to the chair they sat on, as if he was aiming for the sky. Dani wiped her eyes and tears away and just couldn’t help but to laugh at his silly ways and the faces he was now making at her.

“No, I think you look more like a troll!”

The both of them joyously laughing Steve gave her a look and a playful punch on the shoulder, and thus the most epic of friendships was born.

Now Dani and Steve were in different grades so when it came to classes they didn't get to really see each other all that much aside from sometimes getting into trouble playing in the library. But at recess and lunch you couldn't separate them, and of course the bus and bus stop!

School went from being something Dani dreaded going to everyday to being something she looked so forward to for anytime to be with her bestfriend, and then within the next year they started playing together after school at each other's houses as they became old enough.

And when Dustin started aging enough to, being 4 years younger than Dani, things did just get altered slightly as they'd adjust whatever game it was that they were playing to try to make room for Dani's younger brother.  Not that either of them minded Dani loves Dustin and Steve could see how happy she was to include him.

For a long while their families thought that they were going to have to end up together, just how they were with each other even though they were kids.

And it was like they knew it too.

You know traditionally; little girls having their sleepovers with all their friends, that's how you typically learned about making friendship bracelets. This is supposed to be the standard.

But nothing about Dani and Steve were standard. Dani never had any girlfriends to have any type of parties with. And so the way that she learned was in their 4th grade art class together: the teacher showed them each how to loop strings together to make a braid and with that and just adding in some beads with charms they made bracelets that they just had to tie together. They each choosing three colors of string that they looped together and using the beads with the letters of the alphabet on them they spelled out their own names.

Steve chose a cherry red for his, along with a dark almost navy but still kind of a royal looking blue, and a forest green.  Dani still being pretty young she was still in her girly phase; really she was kind of always in that phase the whole time living in Hawkins before, she’d chosen a Pink, Purple, and a lighter blue than Steve’s; Cyan.

And after finishing up tying their respective beads onto their craft projects they each tied the one they’d created onto each other's wrist, vowing to wear them forever to signify that their friendship could never be destroyed no matter what comes.

They even had one of those fake childhood weddings where he wore a sweater vest like how his mom would often dress him up for holidays with their more distant relatives. And she just wore another version of one of her princess dresses but in white. Ending with a cute kiss on the cheek and their bracelets actually used again to symbolize the idea of the rings.

The idea was that by the time they were in high school Steve would probably be a basketball player like his father was, from a very young age it’s been his dream and he was given that hoodie because he fell in love with the sport after watching his old man play so often. From the day he got it he constantly wore it even though the material swallowed him up, and thankfully the weather here was accommodating. And Dani everyone figured would probably by now be his girlfriend and on game days she would wear his sweatshirt around to support him, but by the time the game started she’d be on the floor doing her own thing. Probably being the loudest and proudest cheerleader out there; dancing and prancing in support of her man.

It all sounded like a happy image; maybe was starting to head that direction being that she still had that basketball hoodie even now. What about Steve did he ever get on the team?

Almost was enough to start Dani getting teary eyed again from just the thoughts of what might’ve been, but now they’d never know because instead on the same day as Dani and Steve started to try to figure out how far their feelings for each other did reach; the same day as Steve and Dani’s first time experimenting them with their first kiss. It was the same day that she was forced to leave him and without so much as a goodbye and a single word to each other ever since…

But now that could finally change!

Dani didn’t know what she was even going to do or whatever would she even say? But she didn’t seem to really be thinking that far ahead; all she was thinking was how she was back now and had to see his face again. She had to show Steve that she was home and this time permanently! She threw the box and its contents back onto the bed aside from the memories of her best friend as she just bunched them into her hands and without another word to her mother; Claudia beginning to become quite worried about her by now, Dani just ran out the door and down the street to where Steve used to live. Just praying that he still did.

“Dani! Where are you-“ Claudia tried to follow after her but she was too far gone now, her daughter couldn’t hear her so she just stood in the door and watched her go figuring she had a good feeling where she was off to in such a rush.

And she had been right, and their car was still in the driveway!

Dani decided it may be risky but she went with knocking on their door with their old secret knock, if his mom or dad answered they might be a bit confused being that they might not remember it so much, but if Steve was home and he heard he’d have no choice but to remember it and knowing Steve his curiosity would definitely have to get the better of him!

And so she knocked, god she was bouncing off her feet this girl was so excited but also so nervous. She didn’t even know what he looked like anymore and if he’d so easily recognize her how she looked now. Looks wise she wasn’t that different but how she dressed was a complete 180 as now she has had a more developed tomboy style based on California.

No one answered.

“Come on Stevie..” she mumbled under her breath. She knew someone had to be home if not him, at least his parents; there was a car parked in the driveway. So when no one was answering and she was about to give up and move on, disappointed but go back home to wait it out and just see him at school the next day and that would be the big moment of hopeful rekindling, the door then opened.

“Hello?” She was half turned to walk away so they hadn’t seen her face yet, just her dark auburn-brown, wavy, hair.

“Dani?” First of all she was so happy to be recognized so easily right off. Now that had her hopes feeling just a bit higher.

“Hi, is he here?” Hopefully, and cringely grinning.

“Oh no sweetie, we actually don’t really know where he is. So if you find him can you tell him to come home?”

She nodded disappointedly, and with that and walking home she thought this was the end of the idea for night. Again, all it would be was this night and then she could see him at school the next day and everything was great right?

Well now with having been missing practically everyone that she’d been so ready to see for 5 years no end, everyone she basically came home for, she wasn’t feeling so confident that everything was going to go for her the way that she’d planned it all out to be.

And she was definitely right about that but where she was wrong was in thinking they were even close to done.

***

It was nearing about 9’o clock at this point and she’d been home just patiently waiting on something. Anything. Eating and just watching tv with mom in the almost complete darkness now, the only light illuminating off the screen. They’d been doing this since 3 while she awaited her younger brother's arrival, finally so that they could be reunited, but so far to no avail.

Dani was about to lose her patience, so she said “Fuck it.”

“Dani! Language!”

“Sorry mom! It’s just that he should’ve been home by now, I came home today,” she tried not to sound too entirely pissed off. “I’m going to bike over to the Wheelers, is it still in the garage?”

“Should be honey.” Claudia nods while cuddling onto Mews.

And so Dani digs for childhood bike, maybe she’s even too big for it now she thinks but as she hops on finds that it still fits pretty well. Just that the color doesn’t really match her current style. Maybe she’ll spray paint it?

And then she bikes to the Wheelers home.

Dustin had been best friends with Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, and Will Byers ever since they’d all met in the second grade. He was the last to join their friend group but that didn’t mean anything as the second he’d arrived they’d all accepted him with open arms. Dani was the slightest bit jealous of him in that way. The four all bonded over their mutual love of learning to play D&D or Dungeons & Dragons. And they played together all the time in Mike’s basement like they were tonight. Apparently that’s why Dustin couldn’t be there at the airport because the campaign had already taken them a week and a half to plan by the time he’d found out she was coming, it was now 2 weeks at this point.

But Dani arrived in their front yard and threw her bike off to her side not even bothering to try remembering how to do the kickstand and struggling to stand it up properly, she just wasn’t in the mood now.

And knocking on the door was almost a kind of similar experience to that of Steve’s house, except here you could actually hear something on the other side of the door. So maybe the opposite situation? Voices pretty loud, sounding like they were arguing before someone finally came to answer after the second knock.

And then when someone did answer it was Ted, Ted Wheeler very cut and dry asking what Dani wanted and even who she is. Was she one of Nancy’s friends? and upon saying her name didn’t even jog his memory instead he just went ahead and called for a very obviously exhausted looking Karen, his wife. Asking if “she knew who a Dani was?”

Thankfully she did and she came to the door. She was holding a young girl that Dani didn’t even recognize. Did she have another child? She thought she would be done with that after Mike seeing how “great of a father Ted is.” But never mind that now, that doesn’t matter,

“Dani, wow look at you, wow you’re so much bigger now.”

“When have we ever seen this girl?” Ted could be heard from the door as he lounged in his recliner in the living room.

“Ted, this is Dustin’s older sister. Dani, we thought you were in California?”

At least you could tell Karen at least tried to sound genuinely kind and interested.

“Oh yeah, I was but I just got back today.”

“Oh well, then you must be excited to see Dustin, say it’s been how long?”

“5 years actually.”

“Wow, well yeah, you remember where the basement is? they’re just finishing up their game, should be picking up to come back upstairs” Karen said stepping aside so that Dani could come inside and make her way down to see her brother.

Why was she so nervous? It was only Dustin and no matter if she has changed it wouldn’t matter to him because he’d still think she was the most awesome older sister and still love her regardless.

Well while Dani was having a mini panic attack and trying to calm herself down, in the hallway on the way to the downstairs, she passed by what she could only remember to be Nancy’s room.

While Dani was Dustin’s older sister, Nancy was Mike’s and she happened to be the same age as Steve. And Will had an older brother their age as well named Jonathan. Now there was nothing that Dani had against either of the elder teen siblings of her little brother’s two best friends; it just happened that none of the three seemed to really have a connection. They only saw each other in mostly passing being their brothers, said hi every now and then and talked about very little things while they waited sometimes but it never went any deeper than events around town. Nothing ever too personal shared between them. Really they learned more about each other through the kids than themselves. They weren’t friends they weren’t enemies. Indifferent?

But nonetheless when Dani happened to pass by Nancy’s room and could hear a little bit of noise inside she figured she’d at least say hi to her as well, they never were friends before but maybe that could change too. Everything else was seeming to already. She just did a tap with two fingers. Just planning to make herself known as there but not enough to barge in. If the door was closed properly as she had assumed it was by looks; Dani really needed to learn not to assume, it wouldn’t have done that much. But it wasn’t closed properly was it….

The door creaked open just a little bit but enough to make the inside of her room still the least bit accessible for someone to see inside from the doorframe where she stood now. But to be fair, even if it was just a crack there was no way she’d have missed this.

The world seemed to now be moving in slow-motion and there was this really awkward pause for a moment when the two people didn’t realize yet that she’d even been there and continued their actions until they noticed. For them it was only mere seconds but for her it was as if an hour already went by. It was so slow, minutes and minutes of seeing every detail of their mouth movements until they broke apart.

Dani was utterly shocked, there was simply no other way to put it she was just in shock and couldn’t speak and it felt like a nightmare coming true as she stood awaiting, her breathe caught her throat with a tiny squeal that’s what finally got their attention.

Nancy Wheeler was sitting on his lap, him pretty much just holding onto her by her ass, lip locked. Nancy Wheeler was in a very passionate make out session with Dani’s best friend and potentially who could’ve been the love of her life. Would it have gone farther if she hadn’t shown up and stopped it?

“Steve?”

Turns out that Dani’s timing couldn’t have actually been any worse...