#thats gonna be my talky tag from now on <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

satoruvt · 4 years

Text

for now; forever

pairing → kwon soonyoung x reader

word count → 9015

genre → mostly fluff, angst ↳ tags: ooh boy. firewatch au, banter, like a little bit (a lot) of pining, strangers to friends to… something, FLIRTING, reader’s kinda fucked up but its ok, hoshi’s weird and endearing (as always), a tiny bit of hurt/comfort, minghao best boy, soonyoung is very sweet it makes me want to cry

synopsis → after an unfortunate burnout that lands you in every critic’s negative and all-seeing eye, you decide to take a break from the one thing you know. you’re not sure if you’ll find what you’re looking for out in the middle of the woods - if you’re looking for anything at all - but at the very least, soonyoung will make the hunt a little less lonely.

warnings → there’s eventually a forest fire (starts on day 64 and is mentioned throughout the rest of the fic) that leads to an evacuation but it’s not super detailed, mentions and descriptions of creative burnout/breakdown

a/n → IT’S FINALLY HERE!!! i made a fancy banner nd everything <3 i know 9k isn’t a lot to some people but this is probably the longest one shot i’ve ever written LMAOO so i hope it’s paced ok and everything <33 PLEASE let me know what yall thought about this i am insanely proud of it. ok thats it hehe. hope you enjoy!!! see u on the other side!!!!

btw here’s a fun playlist of songs i listened to while writing mixed with some songs i think reflect the fic super well <33

DAY ONE.

So. You’re… out here, now.

Save for the bugs you have to swat at every fifteen seconds, the outdoors doesn’t seem that bad. The weather isn’t too hot (yet, your mind reminds you) and there’s something about the color of the sky that makes your heart constrict in your chest. You can’t tell if it’s good or bad, but given your luck recently, you’re hoping it’s not a warning for the coming months - God knows you need a break. The weight of the journal in your bag feels heavier than any of the camping gear you brought with you.

You debate texting Minghao that you’ve made it to the park safely, but when you check your phone after deciding yes, you see the words no service instead of the familiar lines of a signal. It’s not that big of a deal - you’d told him when you left that you probably wouldn’t have service at all - but a little part of you feels the tender shake of anxiety at the thought of not being able to contact your best friend.

He was the most worried out of everyone when you told him you were leaving for the summer. You can’t really blame him - it was abrupt, you saw the flyer at the grocery store and took it - but after what happened… doing something felt, feels, better than sitting around and waiting for nothing to happen. Waiting for a healing you aren’t sure will ever come, at least not completely.

“Is this really…” Minghao had started upon first entering your apartment after getting your text. Clothes were thrown all over your bedroom floor in an attempt to pack. “Do you need to do this?”

The tone of his voice told you he wasn’t going to try to stop you, that he just wanted to make sure this was what you needed. You had only nodded, sitting down on the edge of your bed to fold clothes and pack them into your suitcase.

“I just don’t want you to run away from it all,” Minghao said softly, sitting next to you. “You’ll need to face it eventually.”

“Is escaping really such a bad thing?” You asked, looking at Minghao. He gave you the look he did when you said something stupid, and if you weren’t still so wired from everything, you might have laughed. Instead, you sighed, placing a pair of pants into your suitcase. “I just need some time.”

Before you can face it, before you can come back, before you can write again… you still don’t know. Minghao had placed a kind hand on your shoulder to tell you there was no rush.

It’d taken no more than two days for you to get everything ready - including buying some apparently necessary survival equipment from Target. In a matter of a few hours you had gathered everything up, texted some other friends and your family that you might not be available the next few months and then… you left.

(Your manager was pretty pissed off that you left so suddenly, but she was also pissed off at you when you told her you needed a break for at least a few weeks, so you’re not really offended.)

You take one last longing look at your car before locking it, pocketing the keys, and starting on your hike.

The hike takes almost the whole day.

You think you almost cry when you finally see the watch tower you’re supposed to be staying in, your legs barely able to hold the rest of your body up. The hike wasn’t hard, really - long, though, and for someone who usually spends a work day sitting at a desk, you’re surprised you’re still alive. You find the little lock that holds the keys to the tower at the bottom of the stairs, fastened onto the railing. It takes a few seconds for you to enter the code you’d been given earlier, relishing in the soft breeze the cools the sweat on your face and neck. The sun is just barely starting to set beyond the mountains, a beautiful sight that you can’t properly focus on because all you want to do is pass out. You’re pretty sure you almost do on your way up the stairs.

The cabin at the top of the tower is pretty scarcely furnished, save for a few basic necessities (a gas stove rests on one wall, a small desk opposite to it by the door, a mini-fridge, and a bed in the corner plus what looks like a map table in the center of the room). It’s a little weird, a feeling caught between the nostalgia of moving into a new place and something you can’t quite name, but you figure you have a few months to make it all a little more comfortable.

For now, though, you feel like you’re on the last leg of your energy. Your mind is saying eat, sleep, eat, sleep on repeat and you have to agree with it, so you change the sheets on the bed, take down the boards over the windows while you wait for the macaroni from the Kraft box to cook. You end up eating a few forkfuls of poorly-made mac and cheese before crashing.

When you wake up, it’s to gentle static and a semi-clear, unfamiliar voice. It takes you a minute to remember where you are and what you’re doing, too disoriented to even think about the voice, but then - oh. Forest. Watch tower. Escape. Okay.

“Yo, Cottonwood! Am I coming through okay? Pick up your radio!”

Right. The voice. Radio?

“Come on, I saw you get in yesterday, I know you’re there. Unless,” a gasp, “you died! Oh my God, this is like a horror movie… and I’m next!”

You manage to wake up enough to locate your radio (a walkie-talkie resting on a charger on the desk) and, after a few seconds of gentle struggle, work it. “Not dead,” you say, then clear your throat because your voice does not sound good right after waking up. “I mean… almost. But not dead.”

There’s barely a moment of hesitation before the person on the other end hoots, apparently excited. “Arisen from the dead! Brought back to life by none other than the legendary Hoshi!”

A brief thought crosses your mind about having to listen to this guy all summer, but you quickly shoo it away. You won’t have to deal with it for the whole three months, right? “Who… who is Hoshi?”

“Me!” The voice answers, sounding a little too smug. “But it’s really just an alias. You can call me Soonyoung. I’m at Twin Peaks tower, west of yours!”

You spin around your cabin, looking through the windows cluelessly - how long have you been asleep, it’s practically afternoon - until you see a very small silhouette of another tower in the distance. You nod, then realize Soonyoung can’t see you. “Oh. Cool.”

“Aren’t you gonna tell me your name?” Soonyoung asks, but his tone is light, breezy. You blink, reciting your name to him in a daze. “Pretty! So, what brings you out here?”

You weren’t expecting that question. “What?”

Soonyoung giggles into the radio. “Everyone comes out here for some reason. Like… Jihoon says it’s ‘cause it helps him write music. And Joshua loves the outdoors, so… what’s your reason?”

“You…” you start, not exactly wanting to tell a stranger the reason you ran away from everything you know. “Do you normally ask this many questions?”

“Yeah!”

You feel yourself sigh, already tired again.

“I… just wanted to get away for a while,” you end up saying. A half-truth. “I live in the city.”

“No way,” Soonyoung gasps excitedly. “Me too! I wonder if both of us have ever been walking and, like, passed each other without knowing…”

This isn’t exactly what you had in mind when you thought of escaping.

DAY TWO.

The next morning, you dedicate time to getting a little more settled into your home for the next few months. You didn’t bring a lot of decor - you didn’t think you needed any - but even seeing your blanket on the bed and a few books you need to catch up on reading stacked on the desk makes the place feel a little bit more like you. You eventually reach the journal you packed (that Minghao made you pack) and stare at it like it might do something. Like it might tell you to write again, or like it might tell you to leave everything behind. You don’t really know what you want from it.

A sing-songed version of your name comes from your radio and you blink away from the journal, set it down on the desk. “Good morning!” Soonyoung says from the other end, and you feel yourself take a deep breath as you pick up your radio and press down the button so he can hear you.

“Morning, Soonyoung,” you respond, calm compared to his excitement.

“So… what are your plans for today?”

“Um,” you pause, brows furrowed, looking towards the direction of his tower even though you know he can’t see you. “Looking out for fires?”

“That’s boring,” is Soonyoung’s immediate response, and you laugh a little.

“Kinda my job for a while.”

And listen, you’ve known Soonyoung for less than a full 24 hours, but even before your brain really comprehends what he’s saying you know you’re not going to like it. “Wait, that reminds me,” he says, tone of his voice a little less overexcited puppy. “What did you do before this? Or, like, what’s your career? I mean, you don’t have to answer, I just thought it could be a way for us to get to know each other…”

His voice fades away for the split second you remember a little too much all at once, but somehow your voice still sounds put together when you speak. “Nothing special,” you say. There’s a pause when you don’t elaborate any further, but instead of asking about it, Soonyoung changes the subject.

“Okay!” he says, back to a more playful tone. “Anyways, I asked about your plans ‘cause I kind of need you to do something for me.”

“Already asking favors?” you tease. “We just met, Soonyoung.”

You hear him laugh, loud and hearty, and it’s contagious even through a radio line so you feel your own smile pull at your lips. “One of the other lookouts found some teenagers with fireworks,” he informs you. “I need you to meet him and get the fireworks from him.”

Your feet are already in your shoes, one halfway tied. “You can’t do this?”

Soonyoung’s voice is strangely thoughtful, but you catch a hint of mischief at the end of his sentence. “I would, but Jihoonie said he’d eat me if I tried to see him again and I think he’s serious this time.”

He tells you where the other lookout - Jihoon - should be and gives you a quick lesson on how to properly use your map to get there. You’re not really excited for another hike this early on (you’re still sore from even getting up here) but by the time you meet the halfway mark you’re convinced it’s not that bad. It’s neither long nor challenging, and… well, Soonyoung’s insistent on keeping you company the whole time.

When you see what looks like a guy at the edge of a now-abandoned camp, you tell Soonyoung you’ll radio him when you’re on your way back to your tower. “Hey,” you call out as you get closer. The man looks up at you, his eyes sharp but not unkind. “Jihoon?”

“Yeah,” he replies. Under his cap you notice that his hair is a gentle silver, almost purple. He’s dressed casually, like you, and you suppose it’s a given since there’s no exact dress code for this job. “You’re the newbie?”

You didn’t know people knew about you. “I.. I guess,” you say, then tell him your name.

“Cool,” Jihoon says, voice flat like he’s distracted. He picks up the bag next to his feet and hands it to you. “Take these. Thanks.”

He starts to walk away, down a trail opposite the direction you came, but you think of earlier, when Soonyoung asked about your job (or when he didn’t). You call after Jihoon, hesitate, but then opt to make this quick since he looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here. “Have you and Soonyoung… known each other for long?”

Jihoon turns around. He shrugs, then nods. “We met in college, a few years ago.”

“What kind of person is he?”

You watch in vague amusement as Jihoon’s nose scrunches up, but the small smile on his face refuses to hide and it makes you giggle. “Really annyoing,” he tells you, then pauses for a second like he’s looking for the right words, “kind of overwhelming sometimes. But he’s good. He’s someone you want around.”

Someone you want around, your brain repeats to you. You nod with a friendly smile as you haphazardly stuff the fireworks in your hiking bag. “Okay. Thank you.”

Jihoon offers an acknowledging nod of his own before continuing on his way back to his tower. You’re about five minutes into your hike back to yours when your radio sounds from your pocket with a now-familiar voice.

“Are you on your way back?” Soonyoung asks. “You forgot to tell me!”

“Sorry, yeah, I am now. I was talkin’ to Jihoon for a second.”

“Really? That’s weird. He rarely talks to anyone, especially strangers. What’d you talk about?”

You can’t help the small smile that lands on your face as you speak. “Stuff to blackmail you with.”

You think you hear Soonyoung’s groan all the way from his tower, and your smile only grows when it turns into a laugh.

DAY FIVE.

The clouds look dark today.

They haven’t covered the sun completely yet, but they’re closing in fast. You hope that it rains, already sick and tired of the disgusting heat, but also. Something else.

Rainy days always used to be the best to write, your brain supplies to you. You brave a glance at the still-unopened journal on the desk, thinking that maybe…

Your radio turning on drags you away from the crack in metaphorical door, coming at the perfect time as if to tell you that you’re not ready yet. You listen to it, grab the radio, murmur a greeting to Soonyoung.

“It’s getting pretty dark out, huh?” He says. He must be looking at the sky, too.

“Yeah,” you hum. “Hopefully the storm isn’t too bad.”

The line goes quiet, but you know that Soonyoung’s still there even if he isn’t saying anything. The knowledge comforts you, just a little.

“Well... got any rainy day stories?”

DAY SEVENTEEN.

“So, Soonyoung,” you call into your radio as you step outside. You’ve taken advantage of the small balcony around the entire cabin, setting up a few chairs you found in the storage unit at the bottom of the tower (just in case someone stops by, you tell yourself) and a small table you weren’t using inside. The nights are hot but still relaxing, and you find yourself sitting outside often, catching up on reading or taking in the stars.

“I can’t believe you radioed me first,” Soonyoung responds, and you hear the smugness in his voice. “I’m so happy!”

Soonyoung somehow almost always manages to be with you in the nights, too, even if not physically. Being away from the urban civilization you’re used to has been a little difficult to adjust to, but you feel significantly less alone whenever you hear him calling you. You tell him to be quiet even though both of you are laughing. The distant crickets make your chest warm.

“What do you do? You didn’t tell me before,” You ask him after a second. There’s a small wave of anxiety that rushes over you at the idea that he might call you out about when he asked you the same thing. That was two weeks ago, though, you think, and Soonyoung wouldn’t. You’re sure he’s been able to tell that it’s a touchy subject. You’re not as discreet as you think you are, even if (and you’ve learned this the past few weeks) Soonyoung’s a bit more on the oblivious side sometimes.

“I dance!”

Somehow, despite having not even seen what he looks like, it’s fitting. “Like… teach, or choreograph, or…”

“A little of everything,” Soonyoung tells you, and then starts elaborating. His voice echoes through your radio and you look up at the stars as you listen to him, trying to map out constellations from memory. He sounds so excited to simply talk about it, you can’t imagine what he must look like when he’s actually on stage. You hope you get to see it one day.

“You’ll have to teach me something sometime,” you say once he’s finished, voicing your thoughts. With a giggle that sounds like the stars above you, he tells you he’d love to.

A moment of quiet passes, spent focusing on the tiny specks of fireflies you see in the field around your tower and feeling the summer breeze as it passes. The words slip out of your mouth with much less resistance than you thought they would.

“I used to write,” you murmur into your radio. It takes you a moment to register the heavy beat of your heart, like you just got back from a run.

“Used to?” Soonyoung asks, curious but soft.

“For now,” you answer. The ache you’ve become familiar with throbs in your chest. “Hopefully not forever.”

It’s not the whole story - not even close - but you figure you might be able to tell him with time. The thought stresses you out even when you have nothing to stress about, and you think Soonyoung is psychic because he says, next, “the stars are really pretty tonight.”

You’re not looking at the sky when you answer. Your head is tilted in the direction of his tower.

“They really are,” you say.

DAY THIRTY-THREE.

You’ve fallen into a bit of a routine with Soonyoung.

Not a day goes by where you don’t talk to him - the one day you radioed and he didn’t pick up you genuinely thought something happened to him, seconds away from calling a park ranger. Right before you actually did it, though, he picked up his radio and said he had been taking a nap.

(His voice was a little groggy from sleep, sounded like he was pouting whether he meant to or not and you’d be lying if you said the thought didn’t make your heart skip a few beats - but if anyone asked, you’d definitely lie about it.)

One of you calls the other around the same time every morning and you don’t put down your radio until the sun is well behind the mountains. You’ve grown used to his presence, in a way, even if you can’t really feel him with you (though sometimes you swear you can). It’s comforting to have him out there with you, and it’s been so long since you’ve talked to someone the way you do with Soonyoung… you find yourself looking forward to every morning, waiting for when you hear him over your radio.

Today is no different.

Well, in an unrelated way, it is - you have to hike to a supply box to get your surplus of food for the next month and a half you have left. But even as you’re doing inventory of what you have left in your cabin on a piece of paper, you’re waiting for Soonyoung’s usual good morning. It comes as always, makes you smile when you hear it.

“Good morning!”

You leave your scratch paper on your desk and reach for your radio. “Morning,” you say after you’ve pressed the button down.

“So…” Soonyoung trails off. “Supply drop day.”

“Yeah,” you reply, sitting on your bed.

“Both of us are getting crates of food today…”

What is he getting at? “Uh-huh…?”

“Both of us… getting supplies… from the same place.”

A confused laugh leaves your lips. “Soonyoung, what is your point?”

Even for as often as you talk to him, you’re still always surprised when he starts yelling. “Let’s meet up!” he exclaims, obviously excited, and it clicks in your head.

“Oh my God, can we do that?”

“Yeah!” Soonyoung sounds like he’s grinning, smile palpable in his voice. “If we pull some strings with the other lookouts and get hiking at the right time, it’s totally possible.”

Holy shit. Your heart is beating wildly, butterflies swarming around it at the thought of meeting Soonyoung in person. “Okay,” you tell him, noting that you sound a little breathless. “Okay, yeah, let’s do it.”

It takes a few minutes to work everything out - the supply boxes should be dropped off by midday, so you can leave your tower around then and get to the drop location in a little over an hour. Soonyoung has to leave earlier than you since he’s farther away, but if everything goes well the two of you should get to the drop location close to the same time, margin of error small. You radio Jihoon to cover for you while you’re out, and he agrees, although he sounds a bit miffed.

When you finally leave for your hike, you’re not expecting how quiet it is. Soonyoung’s usually there to cover it up with his voice - you don’t hike often (you’ve not had to, given your job for the summer is to watch for fires) but whenever you have he’s been there to keep you company. You plug in your earphones about halfway through your trip just to drown out the quiet, something more to listen to than just trees and the sound of your own footsteps.

Eventually you make it to the supply box, and, well. There’s a guy. Standing in front of a long, green box - you think you see lookout tower names engraved ever few inches: Thorofare, Cottonwood, Twin Peaks. Packing some ready-to-eat meals into his backpack.

Holy shit, Soonyoung? your brain automatically asks, and it sends your heart spiraling up and down. You’re not sure what you thought he looked like, but it wasn’t this. Tall, lean - wait, you don’t even know if this is actually him yet.

Before you can think too much about it, you call out, voice tentative. “Are you… Soonyoung?”

The man turns around, shakes his head with a kind smile. “No,” he says. “I’m Joshua.”

You think about throwing yourself into the river by your tower when you get back for absolutely no reason. Somehow you manage a polite smile and a gentle sorry.

“No, don’t apologize, you’re fine!” Joshua chirps, adjusting the cap on his head. “You’re looking for him?”

You pause. Those aren’t the exact words you would use, but they’re not technically wrong, so you nod. After all, you don’t know what he looks like (you probably should have asked him before both of you left, but you weren’t expecting another person to be here).

“Please don’t tell me he got lost again,” Joshua says, suddenly looking tired, and you look back at him wide-eyed because... again? Has this happened before?

“No,” you tell him. “No, I mean, I don’t think so. I don’t know. Since we both have to pick up supplies he thought it’d be cool if we met up in person.”

Joshua sighs, seemingly relieved, then continues packing what’s left of his supplies into his backpack as he hums. “That’s weird.”

“What is?”

He shrugs. “Soonyoung likes the outdoors, yeah, but the supply box is a pretty far hike from his tower. I think the last few summers he’s had them delivered.”

Oh, you think, and maybe say out loud, because then Joshua’s looking back at you, a mischievous smile on his face.

“He must really like you to come all the way out here,” he tells you, and you laugh like it might get rid of all the thoughts popping up in your mind that you keep telling yourself to stop thinking about.

“And yet,” you say wistfully, looking towards the horizon. “I still come second to Jihoon.”

This time Joshua laughs, a friendly sound, and the two of you fall into a playful conversation. He’s somewhat a superior of yours, though not by a far gap - as the lookout who’s been on the job the longest, he oversees the rest of you (which is you, Soonyoung, Jihoon, and a few others you have yet to come across). You get along with him easily and it’s weird to think that if you hadn’t gone through what you did a few months ago you wouldn’t be here talking to him, establishing what could be a new friendship. You wonder if that’s a new step towards healing, finding a way to be grateful even if it was horrible.

You talk to Joshua for a while until he says he should get back to his tower. You nod, tell him goodbye (and thanks for his company) and he starts to walk away -

“Shua!”

A burst of platinum blonde hair rushes past you from the opposite direction you came from, heading for Joshua. The new guy drops a bag at his feet and almost softly crashes into Joshua, who has this look on his face you can’t really decipher.

“Hey, Soonyoung,” he says, and you blink.

Soonyoung, like… your Soonyoung? The Soonyoung you’ve been talking to for weeks?

You watch as the two hug, Soonyoung excited to see Joshua and completely ignoring you (though you’re not sure he’s doing it intentionally). All you can do is stand there. This is him, your brain keeps telling you. This is the guy.

“I haven’t seen you in forever!” Soonyoung exclaims, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly. “How are you? How have things been?”

Joshua shrugs, a small smile on his face as he puts a gentle hand on Soonyoung’s head and starts… petting. “I’ve been good, same old deal. I know that you’ve been doing good too, though, as far as I’ve seen from your reports.”

Soonyoung beams at the praise and you take note of it in the back of your mind (you also note the way Joshua’s treating him like a toddler and how it’s working). He opens his mouth to say something else but looks around and meets your eyes - for a second there’s nothing at all, but then you think you see an exclamation mark actually pop above his head.

The yell of your name is so loud it makes you jump. “Oh my God,” Soonyoung whines, falling to his knees dramatically. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you!”

“This is the first time you’ve seen me,” you say. You can’t seem to hold back your smile.

Joshua excuses himself (again) and finally moves on his way, says he’s in Thorofare lookout if anything happens. The sun is mellow on your skin as you look at Soonyoung, take him in - light hair, warm eyes, tan skin. His smile matches your own. A breeze shifts by, slow and sweet.

“Hi,” you say.

Soonyoung grins.

“Hey.”

So the bag you saw Soonyoung drop on the ground before was, in fact, for a picnic.

He didn’t bring a lot of food (the whole point of the hike was to get supply boxes anyways) aside from a few candy bars he’d saved for today. He did bring a blanket, however, and the two of you set everything up on the edge of a rock not too far away from the drop location, under some trees. It looks over a small ravine, a stream cutting through at the bottom.

The time goes by like it was never there in the first place, spent talking and laughing. Soonyoung is just as animated in person as you thought he’d be, telling stories wildly as the two of you snack away a portion of your supplies. You know the two of you don’t have much time together, given how late it already was when Soonyoung arrived and both of your hikes back to your respective towers, but it’s still… refreshing, almost, to be with him like this, to finally get a piece of him you didn’t before. To hear him without the crackle of the radio and to see him.

To see him.

Something stirs in your chest when you look at him lying back on the blanket, arms supporting his head with his eyes closed. The sun lights up his skin in a golden glow, like honey, and the dark roots growing into his blonde hair are somehow endearing. The breath leaves your lungs when you finally label him as pretty. You hope you can blame the heat in your cheeks on the sun.

“I wish we could stay like this forever,” Soonyoung sighs, still not opening his eyes. You almost reach out to brush the hair away from his face, but a breeze comes by and does it for you. You hope it’s not a sign.

“It would be nice, huh,” you murmur in response. You finally break your gaze from Soonyoung and lean back on your hands, soaking up the feeling of the blue sky.

It’s now that you remember what Joshua had said earlier about Soonyoung usually getting his supplies delivered, and you turn back to him. “Hey, before you got to the supply box, Joshua and I were talking.” Soonyoung hums in acknowledgement. “Is the hike from your tower to here really that bad?”

His voice strains as he stretches, opening his eyes to look at you. “I mean, yeah, it’s a bitch of a hike to take sometimes. But it’s not really hard except for a few spots, just long.”

You furrow your brows. When you agreed to meet him, you didn’t think it’d be this much trouble for him. “And you came all this way so we could… what, sit here and eat? Like we do most of the time anyways? Just separately?”

Soonyoung pouts at you and you feel personally attacked. “Food tastes good when you’re with other people.”

You give him a soft, semi-playful glare, and Soonyoung offers a small giggle. You turn back towards the view in front of you.

“Did you not want me to come down?” He asks, and he doesn’t sound… sad, really, more observant. Like he wants to know where you’re at.

“No,” you answer almost immediately (Jesus, your brain says). “I just… it’s a long trip. It doesn’t really seem like it’s worth the effort.”

Like I’m worth the effort, you think to yourself.

You hear Soonyoung shuffle behind you and turn around to look at him again, finding him sitting up straight. “It is to me,” he tells you, and there’s something in his eyes that holds you in your spot. The tips of his fingers brush against yours on the blanket. You’d look down if you didn’t think you’d miss something. “I wanted to.”

In a second, it clicks.

It’s not much longer until Soonyoung needs to start heading back. The two of you get your things together, and you help him pack up the picnic supplies he brought. When everything’s said and done and the two of you are back by the supply box, there’s a second of uncharacteristic quiet that falls over you.

“Let me know when you get back,” you say after a moment. Soonyoung grins.

“You’re worried about me!” he swoons, and you hit him on the shoulder playfully, but don’t deny it. It can be dangerous out there, and even if Soonyoung has been out here longer than you, anything can happen.

“Just radio me, okay?”

Soonyoung smiles, something a little softer from before. He nods. “I will. You be safe too.”

You nod in return, taking a few steps back towards the trail that leads back to your tower. “Talk to you later, Hoshi.”

The last you see of him before you turn around is the grin on his face.

DAY THIRTY-FOUR.

It feels like forever since you’ve been here.

A window is open and welcomes a distant ambiance of the forest around you, trees and birds and animals. The journal you brought with you is open to the first page, but remains untouched - nothing on the pages. At least, not yet.

(The not yet you always tell yourself seems closer, this time, not so far away. Within reach, or at least within reason.)

Soonyoung had called in that the hike from yesterday had worn him out and he needed a nap. You had laughed fondly at how tired he sounded, told him to sleep well and that you’d be waiting for him. And you feel the words, right at your fingertips, the way the rest and wait to be written. Their presence is both terrifying and reassuring.

You don’t think they’ll be able to bleed out correctly, not the way they used to since it’s been so long. But they’re there, in your mind, in your heart.

You pick up the pen you got out, feel the weight of it as you click it a few times. You tap it on the desk once, twice, and then.

You take a deep breath and start to write.

DAY SIXTY-FOUR.

“Are you lookin’ at the fire?”

Your eyes leave the page of your book at Soonyoung’s voice crackling from the radio, looking around your cabin windows to see that, oh, there is a fire. You’d kind of forgotten that it’s… literally your job. At least there are multiple lookouts.

You fold the corner of the page you’re on as a makeshift bookmark before closing the book and setting it down on your bed as you stand to get your radio. You grab a can of soda from the mini-fridge you’ve started to utilize (as best you can, given it does a mediocre job at keeping things cool) before walking out onto the deck, sitting in one of the chairs you set up. “Now I am,” you tell Soonyoung as you adjust the chair so it faces the direction of the fire. You think you’re the closest lookout to it - which makes the fact that you didn’t notice it even worse - but not in any danger. The smoke paints the evening sky red-orange, washing over the purples and blues the sun used earlier as it set. “You’ve called it in?”

“Yeah, told Josh, who told the higher-ups,” Soonyoung responds, voice strangely… solemn? He sighs his next words. “They’ll probably send a crew in for suppression by morning.”

“Is there a reason you sound sad about putting a potentially dangerous forest fire out?” You tease, cracking open your soda and taking a sip. The carbonation feels good in your mouth, pops on your tongue.

“I’m not!” Soonyoung denies after some sputtering, and you laugh. “Just… ugh, looking at it - I’ve worked here every summer for the past, like, five years, and I’ve only ever seen two fires. Three, counting this one.” His voice gains a certain softness, like he’s lost in thought. “I don’t want the place to burn down or anything, but… don’t you think it’s kind of beautiful?”

It’s a little morally ambiguous, but as you look at the distant, licking flames you have to agree. In the dark, it’s vibrant, more than just ashy smoke and the smell of burning - it glows red, flushes out silhouettes of the trees in between it and you.

“I guess it is,” you hum into your radio as you stare at it.

“So. What should we name it?”

“The fire?”

“Yes,” Soonyoung says, dramatic as always. “She needs a name! I’ve always given them names, but I’ll let you do the honor this time.”

There’s something sweet in the way he offers you the chance to name it, and you try not to dwell on it too much. “Ah,” you start, thinking for a moment. “Barbara. The Barbara Fire.”

Soonyoung howls out a laugh and it’s infectious; you feel the tugging of your lips into a grin. “That is the worst thing that has ever come out of your mouth,” he says, and you roll your eyes. “We are not naming it the Barbara Fire.”

You huff out a fake whine. “Come on, it’s just Barb! She’s beautiful.”

“But deadly,” Soonyoung adds in a voice that sounds like it came straight out of a crime documentary. It makes you giggle, the two of you throwing around silly, stupid names.

“Okay, okay,” you say after a few minutes. “Then… hmm, the Hoshi Fire.”

There’s a long, long pause, and you hold down the button to your radio again. “Uh oh, is he broken?”

Soonyoung’s voice comes through, joking, but you sense a pinch of sincerity. “You want to name a raging forest fire after me… I feel like I shouldn’t be happy but I kind of am.”

You remember to push the button as you laugh, looking directly at the fire and shouting, “I hereby dub thee… the Hoshi Fire!” as loud as you can.

After the laughter dies down, for a second, there’s quiet - not awkward or for the sake of a bit, just quiet. Soonyoung’s not telling a story, you’re not giving witty comebacks. It’s just the two of you and the fire, alone in the forest.

It breaks eventually. Soft, gentle. “I’m glad you’re out here, you know,” Soonyoung says.

His words make you stiffen and relax all at once, and almost on instinct you look in the direction of his tower. You can’t really see the silhouette - the sun too far gone, taking the last of its light with it - but you know it’s there, can pinpoint exactly where it should be. You hope Soonyoung’s looking over at you, too.

And even if the reason you’re here in the first place is still a tender bruise to be pressed, you find yourself recovering a little more every day. “I am, too,” you respond. “I… I wish you were over here.”

It’s a roundabout way to say I miss you, but a part of you thinks neither of you are ready for something that explicit. You reach a hand out in the direction of Soonyoung’s tower, grasping at it like it might bring him to you. It’s not as if you can’t meet up with him again, but… between the distance and the fact that there’s an actual fire to keep your eye on, it certainly wouldn’t be easy. This is the closest you can get for now.

“I wish I was too,” Soonyoung says. You close your eyes to picture him, pretty smile and fond eyes. “We could hang out, like last time.”

“Without the radios,” you add.

“We could, um… you know.”

His words make you giggle, and you feel a little lucky that you’re not holding down the button. Your heart is pounding in your chest, nervous but stable, secure, as you reply. A welcomed beat, even if startling.

“No, I don’t,” you tell him. Your soda sits forgotten, half-empty, on the floor of the deck by your feet. You don’t bother paying attention to the fire. “What could we do?”

Soonyoung groans and this time you laugh pushing the button so he can hear you, warm and affectionate. “Don’t tease me! You know what I’m talking about.”

You do. “What could we do, Soonyoung?”

There’s a pause, but you know he’s still there.

“Well,” he says eventually. “Let me tell you.”

DAY SEVENTY-SIX.

The fire’s gotten big.

You feel like you shouldn’t be surprised by it - it’s a wildfire, they’re not exactly easy to contain, but seeing it up close like this is vastly different from being in a city and barely even noticing the smoke. It is larger than life out here, consuming more and more of the forest each day. The last few days you’ve spent inside due to the low visibility (though it’s not as if you take a hike every day anyways). It makes you wonder if it’s safe to stay out here.

“...Hey,” Soonyoung radios in. “I have a question for you.”

Rationally, you know whatever it is, it can’t be that serious. But your heart picks up pace anyways, beats a little harder as you pick up your radio to respond. “Look, it was Jihoon’s idea to use the fireworks, I promise neither of us knew it would start the fire.”

Soonyoung sputters out a laugh and you match him, feeling yourself calm down. “I’ll… I’ll ask Jihoon about that later, but - I really do have something to ask you.”

You lay down in your bed, unmade and messy. “Is it… bad?”

“I don’t think so,” Soonyoung responds. “Maybe?”

“Okay…” you say, timid. “Shoot.”

“When you first got here, I asked why you took the job,” he says, and you nod to yourself, remembering the first call you got from him. “You just… never really responded. I get it if it’s, like, a touchy subject, I don’t want to pressure you at all…”

“No,” you interrupt before you realize what you’re saying. You take a deep breath, Soonyoung waits. “No, it’s probably… it might be good to talk about it. I’ll tell you.”

He murmurs an okay, tells you to take your time and you do. It’s not like you’re scared to tell him - you’ve come to trust him, you know he won’t judge you for anything that happened or think any differently of you. You’re not even sure that’s why it’s hard for you to talk about - rather than any sort of outside force that might affect you, it’s more… more of a part of you that you felt you lost. It’s more coming to terms - even after these months - and going through the motions. It’s scary to talk about disconnection, especially from the one thing you loved (love?) more than anything.

“I… write,” is how you start, looking at the ceiling of your cabin as you speak. “Or wrote, maybe? I’m an author. I have a few books published. Writing is something I’ve loved since I was so young, it’s… a part of me, really. It’s special to me.

“When I finally got a manager and a publishing company and all that official stuff, I was so excited. It was like I was finally living my dream. I wrote my first book and got it published and it did really well, so my management asked me to do another, and I did. Then they asked for one after that, and I didn’t… it felt too soon, in a way. Rushed. But I guess I did it because I had to, because I figured this just came with being a writer and not everything is what you want it to be - and I didn’t want to risk losing what I had wanted almost my entire life.”

You take a moment to steady yourself, note the tremble of your fingers and take a few deep breaths. Soonyoung waits for you, patient and kind. “It went like that for a while, and I lost touch with writing. I stopped loving the only thing I knew how to love. I was so detached from it. A few months before I took this job my manager set up a press conference for me, and I… kind of… had a breakdown. At the conference. So I’m out here to run away for a second. Be away from it all.”

The quiet that follows doesn’t make you nervous, really, but you’re still waiting for a reply of any sort. Even if it’s the common oh or it’ll be okay that you got from distant friends and relatives who didn’t know what was really going on. But Soonyoung was patient with you, so you can be patient with him.

“Have you written since?” He asks after a minute, and your eyes flash over to the journal on your desk. One page has the familiar strokes and loops of your handwriting, written after you met Soonyoung in person.

“Only once,” you respond, truthful.

“When you start to write again… will you show me?”

And for some reason the question is so tender, filled to the brim with something you want to name. It makes tears spring to your eyes as you look out over the rising fire, trying not to let your voice shake too much as you reply.

(Maybe it’s because he said when and not if, maybe it’s because he didn’t tell you it’ll be okay, maybe it’s because it’s him and not someone else telling you the same thing.)

“Yeah,” you say, letting go of the button to sniff. “Yeah, I will. If you let me see one of your dances.”

You hear Soonyoung’s smile through the radio as he tells you it’s a deal.

DAY SEVENTY-EIGHT.

For the first time since you started working, someone who isn’t Soonyoung calls you through the radio (not counting the time you radioed Jihoon to make sure he was still alive, because you only saw him once and hadn’t heard from him since then). You hear the familiar click that tells you someone’s on the station, and you’re fully expecting Soonyoung’s voice to light up your cabin the way it always does. Instead, Joshua’s voice rings through.

“You there?” He asks after a comfortable call of your name, and you pick up your radio.

“Yeah, I’m here. It’s been a while,” you respond, and Joshua hums. “How’ve you been?”

“I’ve… been,” he tells you, which earns a small laugh. “Anyways, I called in to let you know that they’re having trouble controlling the fire -”

You take a look at the giant flume of smoke north of your tower, nodding to yourself. “I can see that.”

Joshua tells you to be quiet. You hear the friendly smile in his voice.

“There’ll be an evacuation team here within the next two days,” he says. “Maybe less, shouldn’t be more. They’re gonna get all the lookouts evacuated.”

Oh. Evacuation? That means… the city. Your apartment, back to your family and friends. You’d forgotten an entire world exists outside of the bubble you created for yourself.

“Okay,” you say slowly, still looking at the fire. “I assume you’ve told the other lookouts?”

“I’ve got a few more to call, but other than that, yeah, everyone’s covered. I told Soonyoung and Jihoon first,” Joshua tells you, and you blink at the fact that you didn’t even have to ask. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

“Yeah. Stay safe, Josh.”

You sit for a while after that, trying to cope with the feeling in your chest. You… you feel better about everything, about writing, for sure, but. But. It’s cut short, even if only by a little over a week. You haven’t even started packing anything up - so much of you is strewn around the cabin, in the field around your tower, in the trees of the forest you hiked through. You don’t think you’re ready to say goodbye to the place you’ve made your home and the people (person, your heart whispers) with it.

The sun starts to set and the fire grows. You sit on your bed and look at the things you’ve made your own, a sunken, unfinished emotion spreading through you. Eventually it is Soonyoung’s voice that comes from your radio, low and humorous.

“The Hoshi Fire can’t be stopped…” he murmurs, and you laugh despite the loss you feel.

“Please,” you groan into your radio after you’ve grabbed it. “We’re getting evacuated!”

Soonyoung giggles, something mischievous that makes your heart warm with slow appreciation. “I can’t believe it’s ending so soon,” you say, standing up to walk around aimlessly.

“Yeah, the summer went by super fast, huh?” Soonyoung replies. “I’m kind of excited, though. I’ve missed a proper dance studio.”

That’s… oh.

A current of mild surprise rolls through you and you think you physically feel your jaw drop, just a little. That - that hurt. More than you want it to, more than you think it should - but it’s... fine. You’ve only known Soonyoung for a few months, it’s not like…

You realize you haven’t responded and open your mouth on purpose this time. “I wish we could share the sentiment, Hoshi,” you joke, hoping it doesn’t sound too stiff.

If Soonyoung notices anything, he doesn’t say it. Only laughs, sweet and genuine. “I’m sure you’ll find something to yearn for just as I yearn for dance,” he says dramatically. You laugh, forced, because yeah, you will. Maybe you already have.

DAY EIGHTY.

Evacuation day.

Last day in your tower. Last day in the forest. Last day of the job you took to escape, to heal. It’s spent packing up the things you brought with you, throwing away everything else. Joshua said helicopters would be touching down at two points - Twin Peaks lookout and Mule Point lookout. Twin Peaks is Soonyoung’s tower, and if you planned it out right, you could probably get there and leave with him.

You tell yourself that the reason you can’t is because Mule Point is closer. Safer. They’re evacuating you for a reason.

“Hey.”

Speak of the devil, you think, grabbing your radio from its charging port. “Hi.”

“So,” Soonyoung says. For the first time since you’ve known him, he seems awkward. “Evacuation day.”

“Yessir…”

“What evacuation point are you hiking to?”

You pause, hesitate like you’re about to say something you shouldn’t. “Mule Point,” you manage to get out. “It’s closer,” you say after, your brain telling you to justify it, explain.

“What did the Hoshi Fire ever do to you?” Soonyoung huffs out through a laugh, and it sounds so unaffected that you feel that ache from before again. After a second, he adds, “so… this’ll be the last we talk. At least for a while.”

That realization hits you like a brick and the sting behind your eyes seems normal - regardless of whatever was built between you and Soonyoung or what lead you out here in the first place, it’s so sad that it’s ending. “Yeah,” you say quietly. Everything is packed, you just need to get hiking. “I, um. Is it cheesy to say thank you?”

“Maybe,” Soonyoung chuckles. “But it’ll also make me feel really good, so…”

You feel yourself calm down and let out your own small giggle. Maybe it was always meant to end this way, a little too soon, a little too sad. “Really… thanks, Soonyoung. I think it would’ve been worse for me if I got the silence I came out here for. I’m glad I had you to talk to.”

“Thank you, too,” Soonyoung says back. “I hope… you write again. I’ll talk to you later.”

The mention of it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to, and you feel the smallest of smiles on your lips. “Yeah. Later.”

The radio clicks off and that’s the last you hear from Soonyoung.

EPILOGUE.

It’s hard to come back.

From nature, from Soonyoung - everything, really. To go from trees and fires and talking every night back to car horns, busy sidewalks and your own apartment. It’s weird to wake up and not see the immediate shine of the sun through your windows. But you come back, slowly get used to the life you had before.

And you start writing.

Given - you get back in August only start writing again in October, but you write. Little by little, page after page. Maybe not every day, like you used to, but the words are back and they are eager to get out, leave their mark as your work. You stand up to your management (with Minghao’s support) and take control of your own writing schedule. The pressure from before leaves. Writing becomes special more than ever, returns as the one thing you never get truly tired of.

Minghao asks about the job, your summer. You tell him it was easy and peaceful, and that you’re thankful for the time. You mention the other lookouts. You mention Soonyoung. Only in passing, though.

(Minghao definitely suspects something, but even if he asked, you wouldn’t tell him much.)

Sometimes you allow yourself to think of him - when you got back, you looked for a Soonyoung in the multiple dance studios in the city, but since you didn’t have a last name or any proper title, nothing came up. After that, you gave up, but he still shows up in your thoughts from time to time, bright blonde hair (the roots growing in) and glowing smile. It’s cold out, now, so you hope he isn’t getting sick and that he’s staying warm.

You’re reminded of just how cold it is when you have to brace the outside world to get your mail. There’s not even any wind, just an undeniable cold, and it makes your nose burn and eyes water as you walk the short trek to your mailbox. You find your slot and push your key in, unlocking it and gathering your mail. Most of it is junk, but you could have sworn something you ordered was supposed to come today -

“Excuse me?”

You turn your head to the voice and find a man walking towards you, his head turned down towards a small piece of paper. His voice sounds familiar, but you figure it must just be a neighbor you haven’t spoken to in a while. You turn your body to him, waiting for him to look up from the note so you can place a name on him. “Do you know where I can find an author…”

He looks up.

It’s Soonyoung.

He looks a little different - his hair is shorter, dyed black instead of the platinum you remember from last July. But it’s definitely him. The longer you stare at each other the wider his smile gets, and you stand, speechless. He’s looking at you like you’re the only thing in the world. Your heart starts to race, warms you up beneath your jacket.

“Found you,” Soonyoung grins. You can’t take your eyes off of him.

“Yeah,” you breathe. “You did.”

#caratwritersclub #kdiner #CRIES I'M SO EXCITED #THIS FIC IS MY BABY I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY IT!!!!#seventeen x reader #seventeen imagine #svt x reader #svt imagine #kwon soonyoung x reader #kwon soonyoung imagine #svt hoshi x reader #svt hoshi imagine #seventeen hoshi x reader #seventeen hoshi imagine #hoshi x reader #hoshi imagine

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just-my-fandom · 4 years

Text

Over and Over (Steve Harrington x Byers! Reader)

Title; Over and Over

Pairing(s); Steve Harrington x Byers! Reader, Jonathan Byers x Sister! Reader, Will Byers x Sister! Reader, Joyce Byers x Daughter! Reader, Robin x Platonic! Reader, Billy Hargrove x Enemy! Reader

Season place; Season 3

Request; Maybe one with Steve (Harrington) where Reader is the oldest Byers sibling and is dating Steve (it’s after Nancy and Jonathan got together) and reader is kidnapped with Steve instead of Robin, and reader breaks down explains that she keeps dragging Steve into danger with the upside down and stuff (maybe she got taken into the upside down around season two?) and Steve reassures her that he’s staying to keep her safe. They escape the Russian base and end up fighting the find flayer and reader protects El from Billy which ends up getting the reader hurt, and Billy ends up protecting the reader and getting killed by the mind flayer and Joyce lets reader choose between staying in Hawkins with Steve (because shes 19) or move out with her mom and brothers (you choose)(I’m sorry it’s so long but I wanted to include as much detail asp!)

Warnings; Reader and Steve are beaten up, reader suffers from trama of the Upside Down, mention of blood, way too much fluff, angst

Tags; (okay, so I went back to the post I made for all my stranger things posts, and saw all of you wanted to be tagged in either all the Steve shots, or all of the stranger things shots, if you would like to be removed from the tags or added, please let me know!) @irreplaceable-ecstasy @rexorangecouny @fraeppuccino @spider-boyparker @itsfangirlmendes @tellmyselflies @xkotkuu @scarletmeii @krazykatkay456 @idumpyourgrass @strangerpotternatural

Upcoming One Shot; Leonard Snart x Reader

Note; At the moment I am only taking requests for Stranger Things and Marvel! This has a very long introduction so I apologize in advance! But I’m honestly super proud of this (very long) story so please enjoy!

Amount needed for 2k followers; 322

Gif(s);

The Byers family has been through a lot. It was obvious if you looked at any of the four members. In the last three years, one of the Byers siblings went missing, came back only for the other sibling to disappear, and when they were both safe at home, they had begun to see hallucinations.

Joyce Byers knew what she was doing, but people thought she was crazy. When Will first went missing, her Christmas lights flickered, she heard a voice in her phone that then burned itself out, and some thing came out of the wall.

Jonathan and Y/N thought their mother was going nuts. But it wasn’t until both of them, plus Steve and Nancy, saw the Demogorgan in their home and then put it to flames.

Will was safe, officially, after near months. But the family was still shaken. Seven months after Will had been found by Joyce and Jim, Y/N never met up with Jonathan at his car after school, and she was reported missing when she never returned home that night.

Then Joyce started getting the signs again. The Christmas lights that hadn’t been touched in seven months flicked occasionally, their new bought phone was burnt to the touch, but, thankfully, there was no thing in the wall.

Y/N was found in a short time span of three weeks. With the experience and knowledge everyone had from Wills disappearance, they knew how to handle the Demogorgans, and get you out of the Upside Down as quickly as they could.

Eleven succeeded in closing the Gate, bringing us to 1985. Your day in Hawkins was normal, or as normal as it could get. Jonathan had dropped you off at the Hendersons house on his way to work, Claudia calling you in to announce that Dustin was home from camp,

Then it progressively got weirder. Dustin claimed to have a girlfriend out of Hawkins and dragged you and the party to the hills, with a stereo in an attempt to contact this Susie. The party was quick to not believe his antics, which left you to feeling bad and stating you believed him (but did you?)

Then a Russian code was found on the stereo, which led you to Scoops Ahoy to break the code and figure out what secrets it beheld,

Now, in the time span of twenty four hours, you had snuck into a Russian base (with Lucas’ younger sister that took you a lot of convincing to join), been spotted by said Russians, and now you and Steve were probably going to die by Russians,

“Let me go!” Your hand had freed itself from the Russian guards grip, and you had ended up shoved into a wall, threatened, then dropped and tied to a chair, back to back with your boyfriend of ten months, Steve,

“I knew we shouldn’t have come here,” Steve hears you mumble this three times, before his hand, that too, were tied back, grabbed yours, holding it tightly,

“Hey,” His spoken words cause you to fall silent, “We’re gonna get out of here, yeah? Dustin, Robin and Erica are probably thinking of a plan right now,”

Your head falls back so it knocked against his, lightly, eyes shutting in an attempt to calm your racing heart and steady your breathing, “I can’t believe I let Dustin sneak into a Russian base, God, Ms. Henderson’s gonna kill me,” You drop your head forward, eyes pinching shut before you place your head in the before position, “This is my fault,”

“How is this your fault?” Steve turns his head, your own turning so your cheeks almost touched,

“I dragged you guys into this mess, since the beginning,” You tilt your head down, as your eyes began to burn from hidden tears, “The demogorgans, the hospital, now the Russians trying to open the gate, my family was envolved with it all. I don’t know why you stuck with me all this time,”

“It is not your fault, do you hear me?” Steven demands, bumping your shoulder so you lifted your head, “And I’m always going to stick with you, Y/N. I’m not going to let something like this tear me from you, I’m always going to keep you safe,”

“That was so cheesy,” You murmur, Steve grinning as he facer forward and leans his head back against yours,

“You do things to me, Byers,” He mutters, and you inhale a deep breath, ignoring the taste of blood on your tongue from where the Russian leader punched you in the mouth,

“What if we don’t get out of here?” You ask, quietly, almost hoping that Steve couldn’t hear you. You would only bring his confidence down,

“Then we’ll be together,” Steve answers, not seeing the smile your lips pulled into as your eyes shut in exhaustion,

You almost find yourself dozing off with Steve’s fingers linking through yours, for any search of physical contact, but the way the hidden rooms door throws open startles you to sit up straight, eyes snapping to the three people huddled at the door,

“Thank God!” Dustin hisses out a whisper yell, running forward to untie Steve’s hands as Robin does yours, pulling you to stand straight,

“Are you okay?” She asks, worriedly, eyes flicking to the blood at your lip, “You’re bleeding,”

“I’m fine,” You raise the sleeve of your plaid shirt to rub away the mix of dry and fresh blood, turning to Steve and holding a hand up to hover your fingers over the black around his eye,

“It looks bad,” You whisper, Steve taking your hand, and quickly kissing the back of it, he smiles,

“I’m fine,” He mocks, and you squint your eyes before following Dustin out into the halls, “Now how the hell do we get out of here?”

“Good news,” Dustin starts, “We found a way out. But it’s a bit of a walk,”

“Anywhere as long as it’s not here,” You grumble, and look down the hall that Dustin had pulled you into. The end was narrow, and it looked to be, without exaggeration, over a mile away, “Holy shit,”

“Told you,” Dustin waves a hand, and you share a glance with Steve, shrugging and walking after the young teenager,

. . .

“I can’t believe we made it out of there,” Robin throws her hands up and exhales an exaggerated breath, Erica scoffing beside her,

“I don’t know how you fools survived,” She crosses her arms, looking at Dustin then Steve, “He barely did with that black eye,”

“Hey,” Steve warns, eyes shifting to you when your walking seems to pick up, and he looks forward towards the group of nine in the food court,

“Y/N!” Joyce shouts, her figure moving away from Jim to run up to you, her hands coming up to your face protectively, “Baby what happened?”

“There’s a secret Russian base underneath the mall!” Dustin speaks up, as Joyce looks to him, and you step away from your mother to embrace Jonathan,

“It’s a long story,” Steve waves off, and you let Will tuck himself into your side,

“You okay?” You ask your younger brother, who nods meekly and smiles up at you, but frowns at your busted lip,

“Okay, we all have a plan,” Mike steps up to the new group, eyes flicking between everyone, “We’ll be going in groups, each group needs to take one of these,” In his arms are four talkies,

“Whoa whoa, where will everyone be going?” Steve asks, as you release Will to take a talkie,

“Someone still needs to go and stop the gate from reopening,” Lucas informs, and you furrow your eyebrows,

“Thats back at the base, we have to go back there?” You point to your lip, then to Steve’s eye, “We were kidnapped by Russians, we’re not going back,”

“That’s why your mother and I will,” Jim snatches one of the talkies, looking at you, “You and your brothers will be somewhere where it’s safe,”

“No one is safe right now!” You remind,

“Y/N’s right,” Mike swallows, “The Mindflayer is on it’s way here now. Billy too, so we gotta get in positions, quick,”

“Okay, fine,” You sigh, rubbing your temple, “Where’s everyone going?” You ask a repeat of Steve’s question,

“We have fireworks that will be able to slow down the Mindflayer,” Mike points to the box at Nancys feet, “All of us will stay up here and distract it long enough for the gate to remain closed. Once Billy gets here he’s going to go after El, so we need to keep them separated,”

“Think we can do that?” You frown, looking at Steve,

“I fought him once I could do it again,” Steve shrugs, and you squint your eyes,

“You lost that fight, Steve,”

“We don’t talk about it!” Steve protests, and takes your talkie, “We should spread out through the food court in case one of us is cornered,”

“We’re going down below,” Jim informs, and when he turns to El, Joyce is pulling on your wrist and pulling both Jonathan and Will against you,

“Please be safe you three,” She pleas, almost sniffling, “Take care of each other, do not let one or the other out of sight,”

“Yes mom,” You smile, sliding an arm around her shoulder, “Dont worry about us, help Hopper with the gate,”

“I will,” Joyce nods, hesitantly releasing her only daughter, looking up at Jonathan, “Please keep an eye on them,”

“Mom,” You groan, “Who’s the older sibling here?” Joyce steps back, waving as she follows Jim and Murray in the direction you came in,

“Okay,” Nancy claps her hands, heaving a deep breath, “Lets do this,”

“Steve, Robin, and Y/N, you guys can go behind the counter,” Mike lifts one of the boxes, handing it to Steve and giving you a lighter, “It’ll give you the front view. Max and I will find a way to get El out of here, Dustin, Lucas, Erica, Will, you guys take upstairs. Nancy and Jonathan, work on the car and see if you can get it working, then we all get the hell out of here,”

“Got it,” You nod, looking around when no one moves, “Go! Go, come on!”

Everyone darts to their designated spots, Steve leaping over the counter and squatting beside Robin, as you pick up a firework, inhaling quick, deep breaths,

“If you need us to take over, tell us,” Steve orders, watching you nod and raise to look over the counter, jolting when the glass roof above shatters, and a large -thing- jumps down into the middle of StarCourt Mall

You hear Robin whisper shout a rushed “Holy shit!” before Steve is shoving a firework into her hands, and he stands up beside you,

You fumble with the lighter in your hand and set the firework off in Steve’s grip, ducking in time for him to draw his arm back and chuck the firework at the MindFlayers front,

It explodes on one of the tentacles (thing) the MindFlayer shrieking out loud as the four kids on the second floor rush to the edge, all dropping their own fireworks onto the top of the monster.

“We’re already running out, quick,” You heave a deep breath, leaning up on the counter after a full five minutes of tossing firework after firework,

“What’d we do when we do run out?” Robin panics, moving to Steve’s other side, “Just stand here?”

“El can’t hold that thing or Billy off,” You wipe a layer of sweat from your forehead, watching in alert when Billy jerks Eleven to the floor and pins her. Billy was basically radiating anger. “Steve, give me your bat,”

“What?” Steve narrows his eyes, eyes flicking between you and the two feet away, “No. No way,”

“Steve, dammit, give me your bat!” You demand, hand out, “I’ve fought way worse things than Billy, I can take him,”

Steve clenches his jaw, lifting his nailed bat from its place leant against the counter, and he shifts it to hold out the handle, “Be careful. Beat his ass,”

You inhale a deep breath, stepping out from behind the counter and holding up the bat, eyes shifting between the MindFlayer growling and Billy snarling at El,

“Hey! Hargrove!” Your shout drags Billy’s eyes away from the young girl beneath him, his fury blown eyes instantly landing on your figure, “Get the hell away from her!”

“No, (Y/N/N),” Eleven begins to sit up, Billy putting a large hand against her face, slamming her head down onto the tiles so she shut her eyes in surprise, and remained on the floor when Billy stood up, his fists causing his knuckles to burn white,

“Come at me,” You mutter, swinging the bat the same way you’ve seen Steve do, “Come at me!”

Billy grins, booted feet stomping towards you, guiding you to walk backwards twice, startled,

“This is gonna hurt like a bitch,” You warn, Billy beginning to hurl at you, causing you to pinch your eyes shut and swing, the loud thud of his body forcing your eyes back open, shocked to see Billy holding his side, with multiple holes leaking blood from the nails of the bat,

“Holy shit,” You step back, looking up at the MindFlayer as it shrieked, “Holy shit. I did it,”

“Y/N!” Steve and Robin both call in a startled panic, and you lower the bat to turn to them, “Get out of the way!”

You look forward to find why they were freaking out, gasping when Billy grabs the bat, unharmed, jerking it from your hands and tossing it behind him, eyes narrowed,

You bite your tongue and slowly step back, Billy reaching out and grabbing the front of your shirt, shoving you onto the ground so your head, too, knocked against the concrete, forcing you to release a pained groan,

“Get me a firework!” Steve rushes, eyes wide as he waves a frantic hand to a fumbling Robin, “Come on!”

“Wait, wait!” Lucas and Dustin run up to Steve, Dustin holding up one hand, the other pointing, “Look,”

Billy had physically loosened his strength on your shirt, and his eyes now bored into yours in a mixture of confusion, surprise, and fear. You gasp in a deep breath as you stared back, eyes burning from the tears that threatened to spill

The roar of the MindFlayer jerks Billy’s head up, seeing that the MindFlayer was now leaning over Billy, who hovered over you, and Billy pushes away from the ground to sit back on his knees, standing up to face the MindFlayer,

You sit up onto your elbows, Steve running up behind you and grabbing your arms, pulling you back to hide behind one of the concrete posts and cover your head with a hand,

You’re not quite sure what happened after that. Billy was dead, for sure, being murdered by the MindFlayer straight to the chest. Jim Hopper was dead, too. The portal had exploded, your mother claimed that Jim was no where to be found. Two lives were lost that night.

“You okay?” You and Steve sat in the middle of your bedroom, piles of folded clothes, boxes, and little accessories litering the carpet floor,

You look up from where you folded a pair of jeans, Steve lowering the shirt he was folding to stare at you,

Your lip had begun to heal, the paramedic claiming that a scar could be possible where the cut split into your chin,

“Yeah,” You nod, setting the jeans into the box and picking up the picture frames beside you, dragging a box labeled ‘Fragile’ up to you, “I’m just thinking,”

“About what?” Steve move the box of jeans to scoot up closer to you, waiting for you to close the fragile box before taking your hands,

“Everything,” You release a breathy laugh, swallowing down the lodge in your throat, “Everything with the Upside Down, losing Bob last year, us. We’ve made so many memories here in Hawkins, so many fights, so many sleepovers with the party. I’m not ready to leave it behind,”

“I know,” Steve sighs, your head looking down before raising when he curls a hand beneath your jaw, “Hey, we’re gonna be okay,” Steve smiles, “We got this. Just you and me, Y/N and Steve,”

“That rhymed,” You snort, Steve rolling his eyes,

“Move in with me,” Steve murmurs, and you almost don’t hear it even though his nose is touching yours,

“What?” You lean back, slightly, meeting his eyes for any signs of a joke,

“Move in with me. We’re both over eighteen, you’re an adult now, and my parents love you, they’d love for you to live with us,” Steve suggests, standing at you,

“But what about my mom?” You breathe, shakily, “My brothers?”

“Y/N, you can’t always depend on your brothers to be there,” Steve admits, honestly, “Jonathan’s gonna want to move out soon, too. Your mom needs to remember you’re not a baby anymore,”

“Do you really think your parents will let me stay?” You ask, Steve smiling and shrugging a shoulder,

“I already talked to them. It’s all up to you and you mom, babe,”

You inhale a deep breath, looking around at the boxes surrounding you. You nod, standing up, “I’ll be right back,”

You step into the hallway of your now empty house, making your way to the kitchen where you knew your mother was packing silverware, “Mom?”

Joyce looks up from lowering glass plates into a cushioned box, smiling softly at your figure, “Hey, sweetie. You and Steve almost done packing?”

“We have a couple more boxes left,” You answer, quietly, stepping further into the kitchen, “Mom, can I talk to you?”

Joyce closes the box with tape, scribbling ‘fragile’ on the cardboard before looking back up at you, “Sure, sweetheart, what is it?”

She notices your jaw shift from biting down on your tongue, a habit of worry you’ve gained when you were younger. You fiddle with your hands, before meeting her eyes, “I think I want to move in with Steve,”

Joyce blinks, slowly at your words, and you can see the gears in her head moving, “Are you sure?”

You suck in another breath, nodding, quickly, “I’m sure. I really love him, mom. I don’t think I could handle leaving, and I love Hawkins so much. I’m nineteen, I think it’s time for me to leave the nest,”

“I know,” Joyce blinks again, wiping away the tear that escaped her eye, “I know you’re not my little girl anymore, and I guess I need to accept it,” She smiles, nodding, “You can move with Steve,”

“Seriously?” You gasp, Joyce laughing when you round the table to embrace her, “Thank you, so much,”

“I love you sweetheart,” Joyce wraps her arms right around your back, sniffling, “I better get phone calls weekly,”

“Yes mom,” You lean back, Joyce cupping the side of your face delicately,

“I need to tell your brothers,” Joyce sighs, looking towards the open door where Will and Jonathan were loading boxes into the Uhaul with the party,

“I’m going to let Steve know,” You pull away from her, almost skipping back to your bedroom at the end of the hall,

Steve notices your wide and teary smile, standing up so he was eye to eye with you, “So...?”

“I’m moving in with you,” You walk up to him, Steve smiling and pulling you against his chest, lips pressing to your temple, longingly,

“I love you,” He whispers, hearing the footsteps of your brothers, “I know it’s going to be hard leaving them,”

You smile, leaning back in time for Will to stand at your bedroom door, eyes watering, “You’re not coming with us?”

“Hey buddy,” You tug on Wills arm to sit him beside you on your bare mattress, your arms sliding around his shoulders and pulling him against you, “It’s time for me to go out on my own,”

“But what about,” Will looks at Steve and Jonathan, then back to you, “What about when I have nightmares from the Upside Down?”

“Then you can call me, always,” You squeeze him tighter, sniffling, “I’ll give you the number to Steve’s house phone, if you ever need me, no matter what for, call me,”

“It’s gonna be weird with only one girl around the house now,” Jonathan presses his lips together in a tight smile, looking at Steve, “Hurt her and I’ll drive back how many hours to beat your ass,”

“Don’t doubt it,” Steve grins, and looks over when Joyce steps into the bedroom,

“We’re set to leave,” She informs, quietly, noticing Wills tears, “Oh honey, I know it’s hard not having Y/N come with us,” She moves forward, arms wrapping around you and her youngest, “But it’s gonna be okay, we’ll always come down for holidays and vise versa,”

“Love you mom,” You sigh weakly, leaning into her shoulder. Her arm around you tightens, before she leans back and wipes her cheek,

“I set the keys on the kitchen counter,” She looks at Steve, “You two can finish packing your things, lock the door when you leave,”

“No problem Ms. Byers,” Steve plays a salute, and Joyce smiles, standing up to her feet,

“We should get going,” After fifteen minutes of constant hugs between the party, you wave to the car and Uhaul driving off, your waves becoming more frantic before they turn a corner, out of sight,

“Ready?” Steve extends his hand, to lead you back into the house to finish packing. Your eyes look down at his hand then up to your childhood home, before you take his hand in yours, to the beginning of a new life in Hawkins.

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