#also it’s pov joyce

[hargrove-mayfields]

Disabled Billy and Steve Week

Day 4- Personal Heroes

My prompt: the iconic Joyce Byers

-•-•-•-•-

“Oh my goodness, what a surprise!”

Joyce opens her door to a stoop full of smiling faces. Steve, Chrissy, Billy, and Eddie dropped by for a visit to their mother in law. Her warm, inviting home, although no longer inhabited by children, has been a place they can come any time for a nice meal or a trip through old photo albums of either Steve as a little kid, when he was once kindergarten best friends with Jonathan, or of Billy through his recovery when she’d adopted him as her own.

It’s only been a week since their last visit, but since they usually make time for two trips, Joyce, her son, and his three partners, are all overjoyed.

Though Joyce does give a little warning, in between the hugs she gives to each of them, “Before you come in, I have to say, it’s a bit of a mess in here. I haven’t had time to clean.”

Everyone knows who it’s for, because Billy’s ocd has been known to get overwhelmed by things being in places he’s not used to and cause him to start picking his skin to pieces. She doesn’t make a big deal of it or say that directly to her son though, since she knows it’ll make him more likely to react.

Ultimately it must be okay, because Eddie takes the lead and assures her, “We’re just dropping in for a few minutes, Mrs. B. It’s no problem.”

So she steps inside and lets them all in, Steve entering last since he’s pushing Chrissy's wheelchair today. It serves almost as a mobility aid to him too, keeping him upright and stable to lean on Chrissy's chair just a little. His biggest fear is having a cataplexic attack while he’s helping his wife get around, but they all assure him that they can see the signs and help him before that happens.

They settle into the living room, the boys in a row on the couch with Chrissy pulled up right beside them, and Joyce in a soft recliner across from them. Out of nowhere her new baby, her golden retriever, comes dashing into the room, and jumps straight across the three on the couch, demanding pets from all of them.

Joyce chuckles at the puppy she’s been working to train since her nest became empty, “Malty says hello too!”

Eddie taps Maltys wet brown nose, Billy rubs his belly, and Steve tries to catch his wagging tail. It's cute, and reminds Joyce of how young they still are, despite having moved out. Everyday she’s grateful to witness moments like these, after all the hurting her kids had been through.

It reminds her too, that there’s recently been an important milestone in her kids lives she needs to check up on, “So? How is everything at the new place? Tell me everything!”

Something clearly isn’t right when they exchange a look, except for Chrissy of course since she lost the majority of her sight in the accident.

Joyce settles in even more comfortably, “Oh no. I know that look. Don’t hold anything back.”

After a collective deep sigh, Eddie starts, “Stevie got stuck in the elevator on the first day.”

They all grimace, including Joyce. Steve hasn’t done well with enclosed spaces after being trapped underneath the mall. Especially elevators. Joyce can just imagine the panic he’d gone through, and the effects it would have had on his health. Panic attacks make his blood sugar drop, and trying to fix low blood sugar too fast can trigger his narcolepsy. It’s terrible.

Which seemingly reminds Steve himself of another bad fact, as he informs Joyce, “The neighbors have been throwing parties all night.”

This earns a collective nod. At least it’s not life threatening, but it’s still a terrible nuisance. One that Joyce remembers hating when she got her first apartment close to the community college. The affordability was not worth that headache.

It’s sad that this isn’t the end of their list of grievances. One such being a complaint that makes Billy noticeably and visibly angry, as he breaks his silence for today, “There was a fire drill at 3am and no accommodations for Chrissy's wheelchair.”

Now that’s enough to earn a gasp as a reaction. Joyce has had disabled children since Jonathan was born, but somehow it never ceases to shock her just how many barriers of human invention will spring up in the way of her disabled family.

Chrissy decides to change the subject to another issue before Billy gets too steamed about that last one, “And we found a rat's nest under the bed.”

That one is personal. Joyce hates rodents. It’s some sort of phobia she has, where even the thought of one can give her the chills. When Will was seven, he’d brought home an injured opossum from one of his bike rides, and she’d driven the creature straight to Claudia Henderson and her boys to take care of instead of letting it in her house.

Her excuse to little Will and his too big heart was that the Hendersons had more veterinary experience, which was true, but it was still easier than explaining irrational fears to her naive little one.

All of that leaves her unsure what to say, so she is bluntly honest; that’s probably what the kids had wanted coming to her. Joyce sounds sympathetic though, never harsh, “That doesn’t sound like a home at all. You four don’t have to put up with that.”

Steve looks sad as he informs her, probably having already felt the same way, “According to our contract we do.”

But Joyce is not taking no for an answer. Her kids are not going to suffer like that, under any circumstances.

“No, no- I’m married to the ex police chief. I can pull a few strings.”

Sweet Chrissy rushes to assure her, “You don’t have to do that.”

“Oh, I’m going to. My kids are not going to be put in danger because of some shitty landlord.” It was never a question. Joyce takes action right away, planning, and getting them involved, “Billy, Eddie, do you two know if there are any empty trailers near Mr. Wayne?”

Billy looks at Eddie, and Eddie at Billy. This conversation is overwhelming, and she understands when Billy has gone silent again. She even saw him discreetly turn his hearing aids off. He gives little taps and traces lines on Eddie’s hand, while Eddie whispers to him and makes sure they’re on the same page.

Then, as their representative, Eddie brings the conversation back to Joyce to tell her- “Actually the old Mayfield trailer is empty again. An old couple bought it after Max moved in with you guys, but they’re both in care homes now.”

“Good. I have a few phone calls to make. You can stay here until I’ve fixed this. But you four are not going back to that apartment.” Joyce declares, in her ‘and that’s final’ tone only a mother can do with such perfection.

Then she gets up, gives each of them one more hug, and goes into the kitchen to have a little talk on the phone with their landlord.

And on her way out of the room, Joyce may pretend to not see the looks of relief exchanged between Billy and Steve, with an additional smirk on her sons face, or the comforting hand Eddie puts on Chrissy's shoulder, all signs that this was planned, and they knew she’d help them out of a tough situation.

She’s just glad her boy and his partners trust her so deeply. There’s no need to bring it up. Not when she gets to see the joy and relief on their faces when they’re moving into their very own trailer a week later, the delay only because Wayne and Jim had worked together making the trailer more accessible.

From redoing the stairs and building a wheelchair ramp, to lowering a couple of counters in the kitchen and taking out the island, the space was much easier now for Chrissy to navigate, at least, it would be once she got used to the layout and felt comfortable pushing herself again.

So yeah, it was worth it. Joyce hugs her kids one more time, and maybe sends a secret middle finger to the sky, and everyone who told her adopting her Billy would be too much trouble.

~~~~~~

Let’s talk about Disability Foundation.

Focusing on individuals with physical disabilities, this Canadian foundation partners with six other charitable societies, as well as listening to disabled folks themselves, to provide opportunities for accessibility. Their founder was himself a disabled man who realized that he could help other people like him who wanted more from life.

What this means is that they organize activities that are usually not adapted for us. Their goal in doing this is to keep disabled folks feeling involved, active, and free. It can be frustrating being stuck inside a lot of the time, I know from experience, and this foundation tries to help those with physical disabilities have more options of things we can do.

Inspiration and empowerment are just two of the benefits of realizing that something previously deemed impossible for you is now possible. The foundation acknowledges the barriers that exist even in already accessible places, and works to help disabled folks overcome that as well.

They accept monetary donations, which can be applied to all programs, or just those that need it most, and also volunteer work.

If you’re interested in any of that, you can visit the site right here!!

#disabledbillyandsteveweek #hellcheergroveton #metalhamsandwich #chrissy x billy x steve x eddie #my writing #ej writer #they’re all disabled and they’re all in love <3 #also it’s pov joyce

[klausinamarink]

One Kid Gone, Another Up and Vanished (part 8)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 | next: Part 9 | ao3

The meeting we’ve all been waiting for… (also wow it’s already October what the hell. Plus it’s whumptober so this feels very fitting ^^ also sorry for the slower updates, I’ve started work again and it’s hectic to even get the writing energy after shifts, especially when I’m also doing a couple fan events)

Will carefully moves his hand around the drawer, brushing against the items inside and feeling their shapes for something familiar. When he finds it, he takes his hand out all the more slowly as not to brush his elbow against the vines that are keeping the drawer half open.

In his hand is a Zippo lighter. This one is bigger than his palm with a dragon engraving. The sight of it makes Will’s heart skip a beat. This one. This should work too.

He slips it into the pocket of his vest. It clinks against the other Zippos he had collected. On his way out of the trailer home, Will hops over the thickest vines on the ground as the residents chatter.

“Don’t forget about the fish.”

“I won’t, Bella. Are you stopping by the Byers kid’s funeral today?”

“What?” Will asks aloud, stopping in his tracks.

“Maybe, but I’m not sure I can attend the wake after.”

“Why? You and Joyce have a feud I don’t know about?”

“None of your business, Cody. I just don’t feel comfy about apologizing for nothing to a woman grieving her dead son.”

Will stays a moment longer but the couple’s conversation is already over, heavy footsteps echoing across the floor and to the gravel outside. He follows, but not before waving a hand on the light-switch, watching the lights in the living room burst into glittering orange in quick succession.

“Goddamn electric bill…”

He takes that cue to leave.

It’s a stomach-turning daze on the walk back to Eddie’s trailer. The couple had just mentioned a funeral. His funeral. But that can’t be right! Funerals happen when someone dies and their body has to be buried. And Will’s still very alive right now and his mom knows that!

And if Mom knows he’s alive, then she must’ve told Jonathan and the Party. And if they all know, then the school and rest of Hawkins wouldn’t make up a funeral for him.

Right?

He swallows down the urge to vomit. It’s suddenly harder to breathe. Will thinks it’s another coughing bout but nothing happens. It just feels like his chest is being squeezed.

He hurries faster. He doesn’t want to leave Eddie alone for too long.

Once he’s back in the trailer, he tiptoes his way into Eddie’s bedroom. He hasn’t been there before in the first visit, but it’s so full of posters, books, cassette tapes, and a red oddly-shaped guitar hanging on a wall. When he had first stepped in here, Will understood why Eddie didn’t want anybody to know he listens to David Bowie because there’s not a single poster of Bowie or The Clash anywhere. Only scary looking metal bands with similar clothes as Eddie.

Eddie’s still laying on bed, his back to the door. The same position he’s been in when Will had left.

Will slowly comes up to him and gently pats on his shoulder. He doesn’t say anything because touching is enough confirmation to say I’m back.

It’s like when Dad yells at Jonathan and his brother would be completely mute for the rest of the day or even the next day, not liking it when Will tries to talk to him.

“It’s not because I don’t like you trying to make me feel better. I just hate hearing someone talking to me when all I can still hear is Dad.” Jonathan had explained to him gently. Will had understood and hugged him, promising not to talk on Jonathan’s bad days.

Seeing Eddie becoming blank-eyed and not talking after weeping for what felt like hours had brought Will back to his brother’s bad days. So when Eddie couldn’t get up at first, Will made him get up and took him back inside where Eddie had let go of his hand and disappeared into his room.

It makes Will angry. Not at Eddie but at his uncle. Eddie had talked about his uncle Wayne like he was the best guy in the world and he left. He ran and never came back despite hearing Eddie on the phone.

When they get out of here, Will is going to punch Eddie’s uncle in the knees. Maybe. He had never hit anyone before.

Leaning against the bed, Will sits down on the floor and gets out the Zippo lighters he had collected. He has twelve in total so he organizes them in two rows of six. He picks the first one up and tries to catch a light.

It doesn’t work.

He puts it on the side and picks up the next one.

For about every two minutes, Will tries a lighter and sees if a flame can work. Sometimes it catches but only for a brief second. When a lighter does work, he flicks it off and on again to check if it’ll do it again, only for the spark to fail. This happens to Zippos number four, seven, and nine.

Even as the lighters dwindle with no success, Will keeps his hopes high. He has a crazy plan that he’s sure Eddie would love and he really wants it to work.

Number eleven is the one with the dragon design. He sucks in a quick breath and flicks it on.

The flame appears immediately before his eyes.

Will gasps, suddenly unable to flip the Zippo lid on. It looks much more brighter than the others, almost the same glow as the lights. Despite its small size, it illuminates the room, casting shadows as it flickers.

He takes another breath and closes the Zippo. He clamps it tight between both hands. Please come back.

As the Zippo flicks open, its flame returns.

Will can’t help but emit a happy shriek, “Eddie! It works, it works! The lighter works!”

He turns around, hoping to see Eddie sitting up wide eyed and shrieking back in excitement. But he still sees Eddie’s back.

The smile falls from Will’s face. He clicks the Zippo shut. Then he flips it open again, stretching his right hand out enough so it wouldn’t get burned. He looks at the now-orange wall as the shadow of his hand mimics a rabbit’s head.

“Look, Eddie the Elder Traveller.” Will whispers. He “hops” his hand, making it disappear and reappear on the silhouette of Eddie’s back. Then he moves his fingers so it would look like a fox. “The fox is about to get the rabbit.”

Eddie doesn’t move.

A sudden thought strikes upon Will: What if Eddie’s dead?

He lunges himself onto the mattress, barely careful to turn the lighter off. After an ‘whoompf’, he turns on his side to actually face Eddie. He flicks the lighter back on and sighs in relief when he sees Eddie’s pupils immediately dilating.

“See, Eddie? We have light. I can make a real fire to scare the monster off.” Will tells him in a hushed tone. Watches for any more movement or reactions.

Nothing. Even his breathing is too small to notice.

Will closes the Zippo, shivering when the tiny warmth disappears. It’s getting colder the longer they’re here.

Eddie finally moves.

Will almost says something, but Eddie’s face is unchanging even as his arm wraps around Will and pulls him close to his chest, Will’s head tucking under his chin.

This close, Will can feel Eddie’s heartbeat - slow and almost not there..

He gulps, tears pricking the corner of his eyes. He lets himself stay in the hug before he taps Eddie’s arm. He whispers, “I have to get up.”

There’s a small tremor across Eddie’s body. Will feels him slowly shaking his head and tightening his arm.

“I promise to come back. It’ll only be a few minutes.”

Eddie shakes his head again but stops. Then he makes a tiny whistling sound like a sigh before his arm loosens. Will slowly shuffles away, watching Eddie’s face as he gets off.

The only change of expression is the glossy look in his eyes.

Will squeezes Eddie’s hand one, two, three, four times. He forces himself to look away and walks out of the room.

On the kitchen counter, the pile of dirty towels and broken wood pieces remain besides a tall bottle of cooking oil as he had left them. Will takes a deep breath and gets to work.

—

It takes an embarrassing amount of time for Wayne’s courage to come back at his front door. Every attempt to turn the damn doorknob gives him the goosebumps and shivers down his spine. He’s fairly certain his trailer is haunted and the ghost in there doesn’t want him in.

But Wayne has to go back inside. He needs to collect his suit for Will’s Byers funeral later in the morning. It’s a public invite and Wayne wants to give his respects for Joyce Byers.

He cycles through deep slow breathes before he finally twists the doorknob all the way and steps in.

He expects the living room to be a mess, if the ghost is a poltergeist type. But it’s the same as last night. Not even his mugs are misplaced. Though he can practically taste the new weight of the atmosphere.

He hurries over to the hallway closet, which is a corner away from Eddie’s room. There, the weight presses down, slipping into his throat as if he’s choked with the depression. The same feeling he gets whenever Eddie has an awful day and wants to be out of Wayne’s sight.

Wayne’s hands are carefully still as he finds the black suit at the very end. It’s a little wrinkled but he doesn’t want to stay longer to iron it.

As he changes in the living room, the light in the kitchen flickers.

He freezes. Watches the light flicker slowly and than rapidly.

He finishes in record time and gets the hell out before the ghost gets another idea.

—

Will listens to the rumbling echoes of the truck driving away. He kicks at the front door again, imagining it to be Eddie’s uncle’s knees.

It’s really frustrating to get someone who isn’t Mom to do more than notice their lights going crazy and ignore it.

Will closes his eyes, takes more deep breaths, and tries not to get mad. Once he’s feeling more calm, he goes back to packing the new torches. He’s made about five, which is enough to fit the small satchel he found in. It’ll be heavier to carry, but he can do it.

He’s both excited and cautious about using fireballs in real life. He knows it’s going to be different than playing in D&D, but Will the Wise always uses fireball as the first and last chance to finish the fight.

Will the Wise had missed. Will Byers will not.

As he returns back to Eddie’s room, the older boy is still lying in the same position. Will wonders if Eddie had even heard his uncle come in and out.

His eyes fall on the box of tapes, somehow untouched by the vines. Then he looks over to Eddie’s desk where a Walkman lies with dust.

An idea pops up.

He makes a quick move to the tapes. He’s almost overwhelmed by the sheer number of them (Eddie probably has more than Jonathan!) but he lets himself pick one by random. It’s too dark to read the band name but it has three angels sitting and smoking.

He grabs the Walkman next. He pops the tape inside and presses play. It immediately starts to life, a song playing loud through the headphones.

Will pads over to Eddie, contemplating if he should slip the headphones on. He places them in front of Eddie where he could see it, exclaiming, “Walkman still works!”

It doesn’t take long for Eddie to sit up. Slowly and robotically, Eddie picks up his Walkman and slips on the headphones. His gaze remains dull and downcast. Will tries hard not to notice the tear tracks cleaning his dirty face.

He steps closer and gently takes Eddie’s hand, limp across the lap. “We should go back to my place.” Will’s not sure if Eddie can even hear him, through the music or not. But Eddie gives a small nod anyway, although he doesn’t stand up until Will tugs him to move.

Will squeezes Eddie’s hand three times as he leads them outside. The demogorgon isn’t here so there’s a bit more luck on their side. Maybe it’s finally leaving them alone?

He says this aloud to Eddie, but Eddie doesn’t respond or squeeze his hand back. Only shuffles along with a blank stare.

Will keeps a tighter grip on their hands and spears. It all feels too heavy.

—

The funeral goes as expected for a young boy: quiet, heavy-hearted, and carefully neutral expressions. No one wants to be the first to burst into loud tears, not even the Byers.

Wayne looks over at the family during the priest’s readings. Lonnie is carefully sober. Jonathan seems seconds away to crying. Joyce appears almost scowling, no doubt angry at the world for taking her son.

He also notes the three younger boys attending, possibly Will’s best friends. They all look carefully inattentive at the small coffin.

After the initial burial, most of everyone goes to the funeral home for the usual refreshments and murmurs. Wayne didn’t plan to go, not wanting another target of pity on his back. But something on his gut tells him to go there and he’s obedient to himself so he follows the crowd.

He keeps his head down, which does enough of avoiding attention. But the funeral home feels too small and tight. He goes outside to one of the porches.

Joyce is also there, sitting one of the cricketing wooden chairs. She gives out a heavy sigh, “Jonathan, tell your father I’m-”

She stops herself when she looks up and sees Wayne. She looks almost frazzled for a second before her shoulders drop slightly, then they hunch up again. “Oh, sorry.”

Wayne manages to bite the “I’m sorry for your loss” from the tip of his tongue. Instead, he takes out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and offers it to Joyce.

She blinks before she takes one. Then she hesitates and takes two more. Wayne gives no comment to that. Only asks, “You want a light?”

Joyce shakes her head, taking out a lighter from where she stuffs in the two extra cigarettes. “Thanks for the cigarette though.”

“Not a problem.”

They smoke in silence for a while. Wayne peeks over at Joyce, feeling his eyebrows rise to his scalp when he sees her cigarette is halfway done. But he doesn’t say anything about it. Anyone’s smoking habits is their business, not his.

When Joyce finally speaks, it sounds careful, “I noticed another missing poster on the way here.”

Wayne grunts, “Who’s?”

“Yours.”

He stops. He doesn’t look at Joyce. He doesn’t want to see the same goddamn face on her too. Instead, he gives the smallest of nods as he stares out. “He might’ve just ran away to a concert. I’m probably overacting.”

A pause.

Then Joyce says, quiet and hoarse with an undying conviction, “My son is not dead.”

Wayne merely hums. Takes another drag instead of replying back to her.

“Think of me as crazy like everyone else, but that’s not my Will we’ve buried. He’s still alive, I know it.”

Wayne looks at her. She’s staring at the ground as if she wants to burn the grass in front of her. There’s a trembling anger around her outline that threatens to break out and scorch the woods. He gets the feeling this isn’t something Joyce had built up to after her son’s disappearance, but much earlier in her life that she hid well until now.

Her words come over him then and he feels a tug of, well, maybe not sympathy. More akin to understanding. The vague sense of knowing your child is still alive without a doubt and yet everyone already thinks otherwise.

It feels like a curse. That maybe he and Joyce had accidentally walked through some wrong area of land as kids long ago and nature covered their tracks by taking away their boys.

“I get it.” Wayne mumbles around his cigarette. “I know my nephew is out there somewhere but I just don’t know where.”

Joyce hums in acknowledgment. “Maybe they’ve found each other and are coming home as we speak.”

“Careful, wishful thinking is a bad habit.” Wayne jokes lightly. He feels relieved when Joyce snorts and shakes her head. He sighs and looks off to the direction of the cemetery.

“I’ve actually had a call from Eddie last night.” There’s a surprised noise from Joyce. “Yeah. Couldn’t believe it either. But it was so short with lots of static and actually killed my landline. But it was him. And he was calling for me. I just wish I could’ve known immediately where he was so I could drive there as fast as I could to my boy.”

Silence answers him. He worries the pad of his thumb along his jaw. His cigarette is still burning but he lets it drop to the ground, feeling unable to smoke anymore. He stares at the dying embers as if they would tell him off for oversharing like that.

“Did your lights flicker?”

Wayne blinks and looks over. Joyce’s sitting up straighter, traces of anger suddenly vanished and replaced by a wide-eyed expression he cannot place.

“Beg your pardon?”

“Your lights.” Joyce repeats. “Did they, uh, did you have some electrical problems after Eddie disappeared?”

Wayne stares.

Joyce shrinks down, putting out her cigarette. “Sorry, that’s a stupid question. I shouldn’t have asked-”

“No, no, it’s alright. Just why are you asking that?”

Joyce looks back at him with an almost helpless expression. Then she appears to steel herself with a sharp inhale, closes her eyes, and says “The night after Will went missing, I got a call. And I can recognize my baby’s breathing and voice. Even if the other line’s nothing but the static. And every day after that, the lights in my house flickered at random. It happened whenever I called for Will’s name.”

Wayne feels himself leaning forward towards her, his hand lightly grazing his beard. It sends him a little down to memory lane of being ten years old and listening to campfire stories. The ones that scare and intrigue him the most always make him lean forward, as if he can catch the next words from midair and keep them for himself like caterpillars in jars.

“I knew it was Will. It took me a couple of days to figure how to help him speak better through the lights. He told me he wasn’t safe or alone.”

Joyce opens her eyes and meets his. They look almost kindly like a summer’s rain. But Wayne knows how to see through and recognize an approaching tornado.

“Before Will said this, I asked him to spell his name. He did that and also spelled out ‘and Eddie.’”

Wayne catches the air escaping out of his mouth. He turns his head away, looking back down at his dead cigarette.

“I know it sounds like I’m making this up, but I’m not, Wayne.” Joyce continues, her voice firm with a hint of pleading. “If you choose to not believe me and see me as a psychotic bitch hurting your feelings, than that’s fine. All I’m just asking if your lights—”

“Last night.” His voice sounds too calm in Wayne’s ears even though his throat feels rough as sandpaper.

“Sorry?”

“My lights went crazy last night. Then again this morning.” He returns his gaze back to Joyce. Her mouth is open in an ‘o’ shape, almost like she’s in disbelief. She closes it, the unreadable expression returning.

She asks, “Do you… believe me?”

Wayne thinks back to the campfire stories. How the ones that shake his younger bones and skin are the ones with truth to them, no matter how small they were. And Joyce’s story sounds like the truth is too large to be chopped up.

“It feels a hell of a coincidence that our boys vanished almost a couple days of each other and then we get crazy by our house lights.” Wayne answers slowly.

Joyce almost shutters with a sigh of relief before she snaps her head up at him. “Can you take me to your place?”

Wayne blinks, taken aback by the little whiplash of her words. “What-”

“I want to check your lights. See if we can speak to our boys.” Joyce’s tone is no-nonsense. Her eyes are hard with determination. Her outline of fury is shimmering, no longer ready to burn the town down.

Wayne wonders if he’s looking at himself. That he has the same fury and determination that everyone had seen in him since Eddie never came home.

He nods at her. “I’ll drive you.”

—

Taglist: @unclewaynemunson @steves-strapcollection @hellion-child @sidekick-hero @mmmmwaffles94 @hbyrde36 @princessstevemunson @sirsnacksalot @tartarusknight @lyriclight @kodaik97 @plsdontdrinkmylavalamp @bookbinderbitch @gutterflower77 @soaringornithopter @angeldreamsoffanfic @panicatthediaz @renaissan-vvitch @manda-panda-monium @newtstabber @little-trash-ghost @niniel-karenine @tinyplanet95

#wayne and joyce have finally met!!! *throws confetti * #they’re gonna be so awesome together #also will is about to have a mini arson arc - it’s what he deserves <3 #I planned for a Jeff pov here but i think that would’ve clog things little too much so he’s back in the next part #will picked out black sabbath’s heaven and hell album btw. I swear there’s a deeper meaning to it. #eddie and will in the upside down au #klaus writes #eddie munson #will byers #wayne munson #joyce byers #stranger things

[bigboysteveharrington]

Argyle and Jonathan talk on the phone almost every day after the Byers move back to Hawkins

They talk more often than Jonathan talked to Nancy and are better at keeping in touch long-distance, but that’s really more a testament to Argyle’s dedication than anything else

Jonathan expects their friendship to drift away the longer he’s gone, but Argyle’s calling him all the time… Slow shift at work? Better call Jonathan and catch him up on what’s been going on in his life (and get the second hand scoop about people in Hawkins from Jonathan when he runs out of new things to tell him about because it’s only been 20 hours since their last phone call)… Argyle has very important high thoughts that are as deep as they are urgent to share? Better call Jonathan and share every last one of them that exact moment… Someone insults pineapple on pizza? You can bet Jonathan’s going to hear about it

The only problem is Argyle keeps forgetting about the time difference between California and Indiana so he regularly calls when it’s not that late in California, but it’s 3 hours later for the Byers

When Joyce is the one to answer the phone, she tries to politely tell him that it’s nice that he and Jonathan are still so close but maybe he could call back in the morning and try to keep his calls to earlier in the day from now on and Argyle always promises will do, Mrs. B only to forget all over again within a few days so she tries to work on getting Jonathan to convince him to call at more reasonable hours instead

When Will answers the phone, he rolls his eyes at how often he’s calling (while he’s also a little jealous that Jonathan is getting way more calls from Argyle now than he got from all his friends combined while they were in California) but he listens for a little bit as Argyle excitedly jabbers away at him and asks him questions until Will decides it’s getting annoying and either hands the phone over to Jonathan (or if it’s too late, he doesn’t listen to him at all and just says to call back tomorrow and hangs up before Argyle had a chance to respond)

El doesn’t answer the phone, but she’s not so bothered. She thinks it’s nice that Argyle calls so much and doesn’t see why Will rolls his eyes about it so often

When Jonathan answers, he stretches the phone cord as far away from the bedrooms as he can and stays up talking with Argyle with his voice low to try not to wake anyone else up

But Hopper? Hopper cannot stand losing sleep because some idiot from California can’t remember that it’s 2 in the morning for them (and honestly why is he trying to call to talk for an hour and a half at 11 pm his time anyway???) Every time, he forces his exhausted ass out of bed, whether he’s the first to the phone or not because it could be official police business and there could be a crime scene he’s needed at or some other kind of emergency putting them all in danger, but nope it’s just Argyle calling to catch up again

Hopper grumbles about it to Joyce when he gets back to bed and ends up unintentionally making sure that she’s just as awake now as he is with his tired bitching and Joyce is getting a bit fed up with it too, but she plays devil’s advocate and says I know the times he calls aren’t always great, but I don’t know. I think it’s kind of sweet he wants to keep in touch so much. It’s nice that they catch up on everything going on, even while they’re living so far away and Hopper gets back in bed as he grumbles how much could they possibly have to catch up on? They talked for hours two days ago

Argyle unintentionally and unknowingly becomes near Mike Wheeler levels of annoying to Hopper and Hopper grumbles nearly daily about how the phone line is always busy and he can’t get any consistent kind of sleep to save his life and could Jonathan please tell his friend to stop calling so late at night

From the moment it becomes clear that the long (and often late night) phone calls are going to be such a regular thing, Hopper is a little passive aggressive and huffy whenever he’s the one who answers the phone, but Argyle doesn’t mind and just brushes it off

It takes until one night when Hopper’s particularly sleep-deprived and grumpy and he gets to the phone first and full on yells into it that the time zones aren’t that hard to remember and that if he’s going to call, he can’t do it after 8 pm his time for Argyle to finally stop calling so late (but that doesn’t stop him from calling at a reasonable hour and him and Jonathan staying up talking until an unreasonable hour)

#This is going to be a plot point in the multi-chapter Hopper-Byers centric fic I haven’t started posting yet #The one related to my Steddie fic (which also btw that’s not just going to be El and Will‘s POVs anymore it’s going to be Jonathan’s too #Nancy’s a busy woman with things to do and she doesn’t have the time to sit around and talk on the phone that Argyle carves out for himself #Jargyle #Argyle #Jonathan Byers #Stranger Things #ST4 #ST #Jim Hopper #Joyce Byers #Will Byers #Eleven #Hopper-Byers family #Stranger Things headcanon #Jargyle headcanon #Spicy Six #Mine

[eskawrites]

new chapter of our hearts know deeper seasons than our memories is up!

“I’m sorry,” Jonathan says once they’re close to Robin and Steve’s place. “I don’t want to fight.” It’s a low-effort apology, but to be fair, she doesn’t think she’d do much better. And she doesn’t want to fight, either, though she’s not sure this even counts as one. “Neither do I,” she says. “It’s fine. It doesn’t matter.” “I’m sorry we left late,” he says. “I know you hate that.” It sounds like a peace offering. She looks over at him and softens. “It’s okay,” she says. “We’re here now. Let’s just enjoy hanging out with our friends.” “Of course.”

#it's 1995 and our girl is going through it #ronance #ronance fic #stranger things fic #nancy pov #celebrity fake dating au #and here we have another chapter where i have been dying to use these lyrics #fun fact the song is mother by smallpools (stripped version if you want to get specific) #and it also has a repeated line about missing your ex's mother #i never could fit it smoothly into this fic but that is 10000% nancy and joyce in this and every au i write #there's you extra Lore for the week lol

[heavencasteel420]

Okay, I’m feeling more confident about the next Jonathan chapter of Tomorrow’s a Long Way Off.

#we are getting the Gail scene on-page #because it turns out it’s awkward for him to recap it #and a brief overview of his pov of [redacted dramatic event] #and then it’s time for Joyce to fumble the bag!!! #joyce is genuinely trying in this fic #she’s just very tired and distracted #and right now she’s sleep-deprived and probably coming down with something #Jonathan is also very rattled atm #not a good combo

[fayedor]

st4 brainrot

#in the tags #FSKSGVEHEIEGBEBSFEBNW #i'm going feral over hoppers buzz cut #idk if i'm the only one #also enzo???? FUCKING ENZO #he's so fine #if you hate the russian storyline i hate you #anyway each pov ranked from best to worst #joyce and murray #hopper and enzo #dustin and the rest of them #mike and will #eleven/jane #i'm sorry but els pov was hurting me to watch #it's stretched out way too much #anyway #enzo>>>> #also robin #robin buckley marry me challenge #123 go #fayed.op #fayed.txt

[andvys]

Dancing with our hands tied | S.H.

Chapter six ⭐︎ Secrets I have held in my heart

Warnings: weed consumption, mentions of death, mentions of sex, allusions to smut. this is mostly written from reader's pov, Steve's pov is only at the ending

Pairing: Steve Harrington x fem!reader

Summary: You step into a new territory and test the waters that Steve had already been dragged into.

Word count: 5k

Author's note: @hellfire--cult I know you're sick of me constantly saying this BUT thanks for working on this series with me hehe

Series Masterlist ⭐︎ Previous Chapter ⭐︎ Next chapter

♡

The lights that hang above the shelves in the living room illuminate the darkened room, casting a soft yellow glow on everything. The TV screen lights up brightly as the killer in the movie shows up dramatically again. The sound is low and no one is paying attention to the horror movie that you have all seen multiple times already. The rain paddles against the windows and the lightning crashes through the sky every few seconds or so, though no thunder has rumbled yet, making you feel relieved. The room smells like takeout and weed, dirty plates litter the coffee table but no one cares about that yet. 

A big cloud of smoke lingers in the room as Eddie and Robin pass the joint back and forth, the latter talking his ear off about the date she had gone on with Vickie the night before, while your eyes are stuck on Michael Myers on the screen, taking the joint from Eddie when he offers it to you, you place it between your lips, squinting your eyes as you take a drag and inhale it deeply. 

You can feel his eyes on you, you can feel them everywhere, on your face, on your upper body, on your bare legs, they’re burning into your skin and you’re now not as blind as you were days back when you thought that you were imagining things, that every slightest glance and touch from his were feeding you lies – that his touches were accidental and his glances meant nothing. But you were wrong, so very wrong. 

For days, your mind has been plaguing you with thoughts about him, and it’s nothing new, really, but it was different than usual. Because before the dinner at Joyce’s and Hopper’s place, he had never given you anything to overthink about, to make yourself feel delusional over. Steve had never touched you before, at least not like that. He had never placed his hand on your waist, he had never brushed his knuckles against yours, he had never looked at you the way he did that night and he certainly never commented on the clothes you wear. 

It drove you crazy, and it made you believe that he somehow figured you out, that he found out about your feelings and decided to torture you by teasing you with touches that he knew you wished had a deeper meaning. But he wouldn’t do that, especially not after your conversation weeks ago, not when he was doing everything to keep the peace. He wouldn’t do that – maybe King Steve would’ve done something like this, but not this Steve – not even when he still holds hatred for you. 

Steve teased you, not accidentally, not unintended. He did it openly, because he wanted to for whatever reason and you only realized it today, when you walked through his front door behind Eddie who held the bags of takeout, you were met with the same teasing look in Steve’s eyes you saw that night. He licked his lips and let his eyes run up and down your body so shamelessly that it almost threw you off because where was this all coming from? 

When did he go from hating your guts, from arguing every chance he got to whatever this is. 

Not only did he look at you like he was ready to flirt, he also placed his hand on your lower back when he led you into the living room earlier – and as though that wasn’t enough to make you crumble, he also leaned in to whisper ‘cute skirt, Blondie.’ 

Cute skirt!? His husky voice and those words kept repeating themselves like a broken record ever since they fell from his lips, they made you think so hard that you dissociated while eating the fries that you’ve been craving all day, missing the conversation between your friends and half of the movie that you watched before Eddie put on Halloween. Only the touch of Steve’s hand pulled you back into reality, you almost jumped from your seat when you felt his hand on your knee when he very obviously pretended to reach over you to grab the bottle of ketchup with a smirk on his face. That was evidence enough for you to realize that all his touches were intended and he did want to tease you, but not for the reason you thought. 

Why? You still don’t know. 

You’re pretty sure that he isn’t attracted to you, at least not in the way you are to him. 

But if he wants to play this game, then you certainly won’t pass up on the opportunity to tease him back a little, though testing the waters first – because you absolutely won’t make a fool of yourself in front of him. 

You have to take it slow until you’re completely sure that he is doing what you think he’s doing. 

You glance at Eddie, his eyes are rimmed with redness, a lazy smile plays on his lips, his eyes are stuck on the screen but he is so far gone in his mind, he is not paying attention to anything anymore, not Robin’s rambling, not the movie and certainly not to you and Steve. 

Robin’s hair is sprawled across the pillow, she looks up at the ceiling, the joint now back between her lips but she’s still rambling. 

They won’t notice anything. 

You take a sip of your drink, eying Steve from the side, and he is already looking at you, he is looking at you in a way that would drive your teenage self up the wall – you’d be a blushing and giddy mess thinking about it for the rest of the day, daydreaming about things that would never even happen. But you’re not a teenager anymore, his glances and touches still make you blush – but you’re not stupid and you certainly don’t daydream about things that aren’t even there. 

You still don’t know why is he looking at you that way but the little sweet voice in your head is telling you that he might have harbored a tiny little crush after seeing you in a stupid dress while the other voice is telling you that Steve Harrington wants to fuck you. These voices might belong to the ghosts of Chrissy and Billy because in no way would you ever think that Steve could ever feel anything more than hatred for you. 

How will he react if you tease him back a little? 

You don’t even have to make it obvious, you can play it off, you can play anything off. 

“Do you guys want something sweet?” Steve asks, “I got ice cream in the freezer.” 

“What else do you have?” Eddie slurs, something that makes Robin giggle.

“Uh, M&M’s, Reese’s, Sour gummies,” Steve mumbles, scratching the back of his neck as he looks up, thinking of what else he got in his cabinet, “I got some chips too.”

Eddie looks at Steve, pointing at him with his ringed finger, “I want it all.” 

Steve snorts at him and at the dazed look on his face, “alright. I’m just gonna clean this up first,” he points to the mess on the table. 

Perfect.

“I’ll help.” 

His eyes meet yours, a slight smirk tugs at his lips, “you sure you wanna get your hands dirty, Blondie?” 

“Oh, I don’t mind getting my hands dirty,” you smirk and break eye contact, rising up from the seat and swallowing down the nervousness. 

The space between the coffee table and the couch isn’t exactly big, and it gives you the perfect opportunity to make the first little step. With an innocent look on your face, you glance at him one more time, before you turn your back to him, bending over in front of him to pick up the dirty plates. Your heart is pounding and your cheeks are already burning but you pay no mind to that. 

Steve sucks in a sharp breath, you can hear it.

Should you even be surprised? His eyes almost bulged out of his skull when your skirt rode up after you just sat down earlier, his eyes were glued on your bare thighs the whole goddamn time and you saw it and yet your heart skips a beat at his reaction just now. 

You’re aware of how short your skirt is and that all it takes is for you to bend down a slight bit more for him to see more than just your thighs, a little further down and he will be able to see your ass and your panties. 

You bite back the smirk as you stack up the dirty plates, taking your sweet time with it. You can feel his eyes on your body and it takes everything in you not to turn around to look at his face but your little plan backfires when you suddenly feel his hands on your hips and his breath on your shoulder. You freeze. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers into your ear, “it’s so tight in here.”

Blood rushes to your face and your stomach fills with butterflies. His touch and his voice sending shivers down your spine. 

This is bad. This is so very bad. 

You heard the mischief in his voice and his touch still lingers, he doesn’t need to take that long to squeeze past you. 

You don’t know what’s gotten into him or you, it might be the weed in your system or just the spur of the moment but as you pick up all the plates, you take a step back and press yourself against him, only for a one… or two seconds but long enough for you to feel the warmth of his body against yours, long enough to feel his hand squeezing your hip for a single second, long enough to hear him sucking in another sharp breath. 

And then, you step away from him like nothing happened, with innocence in your eyes, you look over your shoulder, “you’re right, it is really tight.” 

You see the way his lips part a little, the way his eyes darken and the way he clenches his jaw. He is angry that you are not falling for his teasing, that you are doing the same to him that he does to you. 

You walk into the kitchen and carrying the dishes over to the sink, you put them down and place your hands on the counter, taking a deep breath as you close your eyes, only now noticing how fast your heart is beating and how clammy your hands are, you give yourself a moment to calm down before you reach for the dish soap and the sponge after you turn on the water.

Flirting is nothing new to you and you’re certainly not shy about it, not anymore. 

Billy was your best friend, and if there’s something he was good at, then it was flirting and taking home girls. He taught you how to be more confident, how to embrace your sensuality and he taught you how to flirt. 

Losing your best friend took a toll on you and you couldn’t stand to be in Hawkins when every place you had gone to, reminded you of him, so you left for a little while. You spent two months in Indianapolis and stayed with your sister. You started going out, parties your sister had dragged you to, clubs and downtown bars and you had fun. For the first time in your life, you were approached by men, they flirted with you and that felt… good. You let your guard down when you were with them, you didn’t feel the need to hide yourself from them, they wouldn’t stay in your life for longer than a night, you didn’t have to fear them leaving or hurting you, there was no attachment, no connection or anything deeper between you than lust, you could be yourself in those few hours you spend with them. 

They made you feel something other than grief, sadness and heartbreak. They were nothing but strangers to you but you felt something in those nights you spent in their beds, their touches brought you back to life… even if only temporarily. 

You are used to flirting, you are used to teasing, it’s an easy game to you… with strangers. But Steve Harrington? He makes you nervous, he makes your heart race like crazy, he burns you with only his glances, and his touches make you feel like you have been kissed by something out of this world. He is different, he is no meaningless man in your life, he is not someone you would kick out of your bed after taking from him what you wanted, he is not someone you could easily leave behind and never look back to again. No, Steve holds your heart in the palm of his hand, he left a tear in your soul, he is the someone you would do anything for and that changes everything. You can’t treat him like you treated them because he is special, every little interaction with him, sets your heart on fire. 

“Jesus, Blondie!” Steve’s voice sounds through the kitchen, making you flinch in surprise, “use less dish soap, one drop is enough!” 

With furrowed brows you look down at all the foam in the sink. It’s not even bad. 

You turn around, glaring at the man and the tone in his voice. 

He shakes his head at you, crossing his arms over his chest as he walks towards you. 

“Are you washing the dishes or me!?” You growl at him, ignoring the tension that still lingers between the two of you. 

Steve chuckles as he stops beside you, raising his hands up in surrender, “you didn’t have to do it, don’t blame it on me.”

You turn back to the plate you were washing, scraping the sponge against it harshly as you try not to look at him, which turns out to be just another challenge – he inches closer to you, breathing down your neck and staring at you. You throw the sponge down and reach for the lever, not noticing the way his eyes widen a little or how he reaches his hand out. 

“Wait careful with t–” he gets cut off by the water that starts streaming from the broken lever. 

“Fuck!” You curse loudly, followed by a gasp when the cold water sprinkles all over your neck and your chest, you throw the plate into the sink and reach for the lever again but Steve grabs your hand, not letting you turn it off the way you want to, he is trying to move to it into a different direction, it only confuses you even more and his touch doesn’t help either.

“Hold still!” Steve snaps at you. 

Your whole chest is already wet from all the water you have been hit with and his angry voice irritates you. 

“Why don’t you get drenched huh!?” 

With a loud sigh, he lets go and you almost start raging. You lean forward, grabbing the lever with both hands when you suddenly feel him behind you, his chest against your back, his whole body pressed against yours as he reaches his arms around you, placing his both hands on top of yours, the water now getting all over the both of you as his now wet fingers handle the broken lever. 

You hear his groan as the water hits him in the face when he leans over your shoulder and he grips your hand tighter. 

And then, the water stops sprinkling and the only sound that continues to fill the room is the rain that still rolls down the windows and your heavy breathing. 

Your chest is rising up and down heavily and so is his, you can feel it against your back, and you can feel his breath on your neck and your shoulder, and you now feel it all by tenfold, thanks to your wet skin, it sends chills all over. You can still feel his hands on top of yours, his much bigger hands that cover yours fully. Your eyes are glued on them and the way their fingers trace your own for a very short moment. 

Your heart is beating so wildly in your chest that you fear that he might hear it. 

You can feel the water dripping down your shoulder, not the one from your hair but the water from his face. 

Despite the nervousness in your chest, you slowly pull your hands away and turn around to face him, only for a gasp threatening to fall from your lips when you notice how close he actually is, how close he had never been before, not even in Joyce’s kitchen, last week. Your chest is almost pressed against his, his face only inches away, lips so close that you can feel his breath on yours. You’re surprised when he doesn’t move his hands away, letting them fall on the counter and your sides. 

His hazel eyes stare into yours so intensely that it almost knocks the breath out of you, the look in them making you feel hot all over your body that you don’t even feel the cold water seeping through your white shirt any longer. 

Strands of his hair hang in front of his eyes, water dripping from them and rolling down his cheek, your eyes follow the drops that lead to his lips, making you gulp when you catch yourself wondering what it would feel like to kiss him or even just to touch his lips with your fingers – you dig your nails into your wet palms.

You don’t even notice how Steve grips the edges of the counter so tightly to the point that his knuckles turn white, but you notice the way his eyes move down to your chest and to your now see-through shirt, the lacy black bra being on full display now… almost. 

You are both breathing heavily, still, whether it’s because of the shock or something else now – you feel the tension, it’s so heavy, heavier than before and it’s making your insides churn in a way that weakens you. 

Neither of you say anything, you are too busy staring at each other, you are too busy wanting him more and more. 

This is not enough. 

How could this ever be enough? 

You have always wanted this, to be this close, to feel his touch, to find out what it’s like to kiss him, to feel him. 

This isn’t fair… This isn’t fair to you. Because this is only making things so much harder for you.

You know you have to snap out of it, even when he makes no move to pull away, to stop staring, to let go of the counter and step away from your body. 

You have to snap out of it or else you will do something that you will regret for the rest of your life. 

You swallow the lump in your throat, you ignore the beating of your heart, you ignore the shakiness in your hands and you blink as you tilt your head up, looking back into his eyes again.

“Lego head,” you whisper shakily, “the water stopped.”

He snaps out of his stupor, blinking and clearing his throat as he averts his gaze. 

He steps away and you make a move to escape this, to escape him but neither of you have noticed just how messy the situation has actually gotten – the water didn’t just sprinkle all over the both of you, it soaked the ground beneath your feet, making the tiles slippery enough for you to lose control and almost take the fall. Almost. 

A gasp tears from your lips when Steve’s hand grabs at your waist and the other reaches for the counter behind you again. Out of instinct, you lift your hand and grab his arm to hold onto him, steadying him as well as he slipped too. He lets go of your waist, gripping the counter with both hands just like he did seconds ago, caging you in completely. He isn’t only close anymore, he is pressed against you completely – his chest flush against yours, his nose bumping into yours causing you to let out another soft gasp. 

And then, you both freeze again. 

You blink. He blinks. Neither of you make a move. 

He looks down at your lips, causing your heart to skip so strongly that you feel it in your whole chest and even your throat. 

“Shit, Blondie.” 

His voice is so low and deep that it makes you shudder, your blood rushing to more than just your face now. 

“I didn’t know you were such a clutz,” he murmurs, shakily as his eyes get stuck on your chest again. 

He is nervous, just like you are, you can tell by the sound of his voice. 

You stare at him, struggling to find your words.

How can you when he looks at you that way? 

As you stand there, caged in by his strong arms, staring up at the man that is much taller and bigger than you, something that makes him all the more attractive, you feel yourself not only longing for his heart but also his body… on top of yours. His much bigger hands on your bare body, his lips on your skin, him inside of you… You are fucked. You are so utterly and completely fucked. 

Steve Harrington could do anything with you, and he is not even aware of the powers he holds over you. 

Footsteps echo through the hallway, causing yours and his eyes to widen and he quickly pulls away from you, careful not to slip again. You pull your hands back, now holding onto the counter yourself. 

Eddie and Robin come rushing into the room just as Steve steps far enough away from you. 

They both halt in their tracks, gasping at the sight of the two of you all soaked from the water. They stare with wide eyes before they turn to look at each other, holding back only for two seconds before they burst into laughter. 

You’re not sure if the sight is really that funny or if they’re just high enough to laugh about anything. 

Eddie bends over, holding his stomach as he continues laughing while pointing between the two of you, Robin holding onto his shoulder as her giggles sound through the kitchen. 

You press your lips together and clench your jaw as you look over at Steve, who nods at the both of them with an annoyed look on his face. 

“What the hell happened!?” Eddie asks through his laughter. 

His voice snaps you out from the daze you were just in… and thank god. 

With a glare, you keep your eyes on Steve, “this fucker didn’t tell me that his sink was jammed and that a little bit of a force can break the lever.”

Steve groans, though not looking at you, he wipes his face as he steps away, “right, blame it on me for your sudden force.” 

He walks out of the kitchen, brushing past Eddie and Robin who stop laughing when he gives them a deadly glare, the one you’re throwing at his back as he leaves to go upstairs, probably to get changed while you stand there with your soaked shirt. 

You carefully step away from the puddle of water in front of you, making your way over to the kitchen island to grab some of the napkins. You dry your face off first, not even bothering with your shirt. 

Despite their amused faces, your friends walk over to you, wanting to help. 

“Damn,” Eddie mumbles as he grabs a napkin, he gives you a smirk, “who got you this wet, Sweetheart?” 

You raise your head up, glaring at your best friend who starts chuckling again. 

“This is porn material right there,” Eddie wiggles his eyebrows at you as he points at your white shirt, but he is not even looking, even though your bra is very visible through the material now – what a gentleman. 

Robin chuckles, “should’ve kept the bra off, babe.” 

Your jaw drops as you stare at them with a stunned expression on your face, “pervs!” 

Robin keeps on chuckling as she walks over the cabinets, searching for clean kitchen towels. Eddie steps closer to you, patting your face dry with the napkins, which only makes you giggle when his brows knit together in concentration. 

Eddie’s eyes flash with amusement as he keeps pressing the napkin against your cheek, shaking his head at your laughter. 

“What’s so funny, smiley?” 

You snort at the nickname, and open your mouth to reply when Steve walks back into the room, his face now dry, hair still wet but no longer dripping. He’s wearing a different shirt now and he holds towels and a sweater in his hands, halting in his tracks, he looks between you and Eddie – his eyes flash with something that you can’t read, his face hardens and he clenches his jaw, you don’t know why but the expression causes your laughter to die down.

“Here,” Steve mumbles, tearing his gaze away from the both of you, he looks at the ground as he makes his way over to you, “those napkins won’t do much.�� 

He hands you the towels and then his sweater. 

“And take your shirt off, Blondie,” he orders, “you can wear my sweater.” 

Your chest warms at his words and your heart flutters, and it only makes you feel irritated – this means nothing, this isn’t special, you aren’t special. He’d give his sweater to anyone under these circumstances. 

“Thanks,” you mumble as you put the sweater on the counter, using the soft white towel to dry yourself off first. 

Eddie steps away from you, throwing the napkin into the trash before he makes his way over to Steve’s snack drawer, completely ignoring the puddle of water. 

“Dude, you could clean this up,” Robin mumbles, pointing at the mess on the floor. 

Eddie scrunches his nose up, “why don’t you clean it up?” 

Steve rolls his eyes at them, “I got this, I’ll clean it up.” 

Eddie starts rummaging through the drawer, picking out snacks as Robin turns around to look at you, and at Steve who stares at you with his hands on his hips. 

The shirt sticks to your body uncomfortably, goosebumps litter your skin from the cold water that seeps through the thin material, you want it off immediately. 

You take the sweater, still holding the towel close against your chest, you look up at Steve, “I’m gonna go change…” 

He nods, “yeah, you can uh… use the bathroom downstairs or mine, whatever you want.” 

You ignore the burning in your cheeks, the pounding in your heart as you brush past him and leave the kitchen, making your way into the bathroom. Your friend’s chatter fades away as you close the door behind you, locking it, a shaky sigh falls from your lips as you press your back against it. You close your eyes, giving yourself a moment to just breathe. 

What the hell just happened? 

With shaky legs, you walk towards the sink, dropping the towel and the sweater on the counter before you finally take a look in the mirror, only to gasp when you see just how much you can actually see through your shirt. You grow flustered knowing that Steve could see you like this. 

You groan in embarrassment, reaching for the hem of your shirt, you peel it off your body, replacing it with his sweater – something that fills you with warmth the moment the soft material touches your skin, your heart skips a beat when you look back at your reflection, taking in the sight of his sweater on your body.

You swallow the lump in your throat, distracting yourself by fixing your hair – you won’t let your mind go there, you won’t let yourself think too deeply about anything. This is just a sweater. And yet, your heart won’t stop racing and you can’t deny how such a small thing can make you feel so… comforted. 

When you return into the kitchen, you find it empty, the water puddle on the floor already gone but the dirty plates are still in the sink – you surely won’t risk getting wet again. You turn around and make your way over into the living room, where Eddie and Robin are back in their previous positions, snacking on Doritos. 

Steve is lying on the couch with his arm behind his back, the remote in his hand as he flips through the channels. 

You tug at the sleeves of his sweater, suddenly feeling shy as you walk into the room, wearing something of his. 

You don’t look at him as you walk past him, you also don’t look at him as you sit down on the couch, all that you’re focused on is the pounding in your heart and the nervousness that you still feel after everything that happened minutes ago.

You don’t notice the way he freezes when he takes a look at you, the way he stops flipping through the channels, the way his cheeks flush red when he looks at the sweater on your body – he knows that the only thing underneath the blue sweater of his, is a black, lacy bra and it makes him feel… flustered.

He sees the way you tug at the hem of his sweater when it rides up, pulling your short skirt along, he sees the way you bite down on your lip, he sees the way you glance at him nervously and suddenly Steve feels his blood rushing south. 

He swore to himself that he would never do what he did last week, and he really tried to resist you.

But how can he? 

How can he resist when you so clearly are doing it too now? 

Or is he reading the signs wrong? 

♡

tagging friends and mutuals

@prettyboyeddiemunson @taintedcigs @mysticmunson @wroteclassicaly @maroon-cardigan @munson-mjstan @sherrylyn628 @munsonlore

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington angst #stranger things angst

[ashmouthbooks]

2023 in books

better late than never, right?

2023 was a relatively slow year for me in bookbinding, but I still made 30+ books. (ask me how much time I spent on my other hobbies and it becomes clear why books were fewer.)

A5 books

the first A5 of the year was an entry for a bookbinding competition (which I didn't win), where the theme was climate change. I had a lot of fun putting it together and it was the first time I made an A5 tête-bêche book - I usually do these A6 or A7 size.

this was also the year I decided to start a collection of menocchio fics, which also led to experiments with printing directly onto bookcloth to get titles on the spine

what's fun about bookbinding is that you can Just Make A Book, but you can also Get Ideas And Run With Them with it. which is how I wound up with this black on black book. destiel necromancy fic, because of course it is

going back to something more colourful...Ulysses. not the James Joyce one, the slowburn 00Q one. named for a Tennyson poem.

final A5 book of the year is my Renegade Exchange book, which I bound for Silent Sun Press - a Crowley-centric genfic with outsider POV, so naturally I went for TV!Gomens colour schemes

A6 and A7 books

I started the year ambitiously - in addition to entering a competition, I started my urchin specials project. thus far I've still only bound these first three books for the project, but I plan to do more. first dustjackets as well!

I continued with the no-glue pamphlets and did three

I joined the Tiny Books Exchange, and as a proof of concept - before I typeset an A7 sized tête-bêche - I did a little tête-bêche of the two Temeraire fics I wrote for yuletide once upon a time

then followed of course the Tiny Book I bound for the exchange - my copy (test & proof of concept, bottom), the giftee copy (green, top right), and the author copy (blue, top left)

I typeset a lot more than I bind - I have plans to bind so and so, so I typeset it, but don't always have the time to bind it right away. so I have folders full of typesets ready to go at a moment's notice. this one was typeset a whole year before I bound it

are these paperbacks or just very slim hardbacks? I call them paperbacks as I used 0.5mm boards and they have no spine, but ymmv

this one definitely is a hardback - with slightly thicker boards, a spine, and two fics in one book. I do love those tête-bêches

at my work we have a lot of deliveries wrapped in this nice recycled brown paper that was just going into the recycling bin, and I thought: why not make books out of it? so I played around with it (and my printer) and came up with a neat aesthetic for paperbacks with breakaway spines (using 0.5mm boards)

will I ever stop with the tête-bêches? no. also this one has endpapers made from SEAWEED. how cool is that?

the last A6 of the year is this little collection of my own stories for a tiny Danish fandom. detectives and trauma, but make it about food? yes. food and cooking themed endpapers and cover papers, and the dustjacket has fake coffee stains on it. perfect

and that is all, folks. I did a lot of different styles and types of binding this year, I had fun with it, I learned a lot, and I'm happy with what I've created.

#2023 in books #fanbinding #bookbinding

[nburkhardt]

Feels Like the World's Gonna End (But I'll Get You Through)

This was supposed to be small, oops. Hopefully it reads okay! Also small warning: panic attacks, flashbacks. Hurt/Comfort, lots of cuddles & kisses at the end ✨ (btw when you see ~ it means a pov change.)

To a regular person, July 4th is a good day. It’s a day to celebrate and enjoy one another.

To Steve Harrington it is everything but.

Getting tortured either on or around July 4th would definitely change your opinion on the day. It would cause panic and anxiety.

He’s kept it close to his chest, what happened behind those steel doors. Kept it minimal with the rest of who was involved with the Russians. Robin especially doesn’t know exactly what happened to him when they separated them. Dustin and Erica doesn’t even know the torture happened, Steve and Robin kept it quiet.

The rest of their group didn’t even believe them about the Russians at first, so he couldn’t figure out how to bring it up. Since at the time Hopper was gone, believed to be dead and Joyce was grieving. Steve felt like he couldn’t speak to her about it, didn’t want to bring it up.

So, close to his chest is where it all stays.

————— July 4th, 1986 —————

Vecna defeated and with that the upside down is no longer around, everyone is finally able to breathe a little easier.

The Byers are back in Hawkins, living in a brand new home that they were able to finally finish putting together to hold the start of a new tradition of get togethers with their group and then some.

Today is the official start of said tradition. Everyone is meeting up and going to enjoy the day together, like normal regular people.

Or make an attempt to be normal regular people, for Steve at least. He’s been more, jumpy lately and luckily not a lot of people have notice. Sure, it’s been a good few months since everything went down and everyone is doing okay.

But the whole first part of July is just not Steve’s favorite anymore. Technically the whole month, if he’s being completely honest.

Which is just shitty, since his birthday is also July 4th.

Not that anyone knows, he kept that particular fact to himself. Celebrates it at the end, so everyone believes it’s the 31st instead. Which is fine, really it is. He’s not too picky when it comes to celebrating, before everything it was stuffy parties full of his parents friends and coworkers. Then it was parties to get drunk with classmates.

It’s been better since Dustin came into his life, since Robin and now with everyone else it’s good. It is.

Just with everything that happened in March on top of his unresolved trauma from last year, he can’t help but feel like something is going to come down.

Something is about to happen and it’s not great that this is going through his head as he’s sitting on the ledge of the Byers’ wall watching the kids run around like the teenagers they are or hearing laughter all around him.

There’s a genuine smile on his face as he watches Eddie spin Erica around and the honest to god joyful childlike smile on her face. It makes his heart beat a little faster, seeing not just Erica be the child that she is but also just Eddie.

He knows he’s in love with Eddie, has for a while. But he can’t bring himself to make a move, even if Robin swears Eddie has to have the same feelings. That there’s a chance but the last time he took one with the L word, his heart got stumped on.

So, he’ll stay right here and watch from his spot, listen to them be happy and enjoy the holiday. All while anxiously waiting for something to happen. His mind is set on it, even if he’s trying not to let those thoughts win.

Before he can even register anything, suddenly his vision is blocked and his heart rate immediately goes up as he’s also picked up and being moved. It’s so sudden that the anxiety he’s been having is loud and clear, telling him this is real.

This is happening. He’s being taken again. The Russians are here or wait- he never left, never escaped and his mind has finally decided to remind him of his new reality. That they’re here to break him more, hit him more, maybe they’ll actually go through and cut his fingers off now.

Still, he struggles and tries to escape. He whimpers out first, a wounded and pathetic sound even to his own ears. Opening his mouth and out comes, “I work at scoops ahoy! I didn’t mean to find it, I swear! You have to believe me, please!”

His mind flashes again to the absolute sinister look the Russian soldier has, shows him the bone saw and he can hear it start. There’s tears going down his face, even with whatever they put on him. Heart beating so fast, he’s shaking and struggling.

“Please, please! I just scoop ice cream!” He’s screaming, his throat hurts and they won’t stop. “I don’t know anything, Please!”

The arms around him are gone, with those gone he hits the ground hard and he scrambles to get away. Sobbing and trying to get away without vision, “let me go, please, please. I just work at scoops ahoy I didn’t mean to find anything! I didn’t see anything, I swear!”

Curling into a ball, he tries to stop but he can’t. He can’t see, he’s stuck under the mall and doesn’t know where Robin is- doesn’t know where Dustin and Erica are, he’s all alone.

Alone with evil people who want to hurt him.

~

Everyone freezes and their face go pale as they watch Steve curling into a ball rocking himself, sobbing into his legs. Pleading to stop hurting him, to believe him.

It’s heartbreaking.

Eddie has to shake himself to get moving, he glares at Lucas, Mike and Dustin as he quickly drops Erica’s hands to make it across the yard to Steve, “what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“We didn’t mean to scare him!”

“It was just a prank!”

He shakes his head and decides they aren’t important here, that the one sobbing is who he needs to pay attention to. Kneeling next to Steve, he doesn’t touch; not yet at least. He takes a deep breath before trying to get Steve out of this, “Steve, Steve, you’re okay.”

Steve only sobs harder, shaking his head.

“Stevie, hey, come on. You’re not there, whenever you are. It’s not real” he hopes his voice doesn’t sound as shaky as he feels, “Stevie, you’re at the Byers house, in the backyard.”

“You’re lying, this-this is a trick!” Steve sobs out, “it-it won’t work, I don’t know anything about any Russian code-”

There’s a few gasps around him and he looks over his shoulder to find Dustin’s eyes widen and Robin’s face pales even more, “It’s- it’s gotta be a flashback, he’s- we- Eddie, he thinks he’s in the bunker, from last year- under Starcourt”

“I don’t know anything, I swear. I work at scoops ahoy, I just scoop ice cream. Please, please let me go!”

All he can do is feel heartbroken all over again, feels helpless as Steve sobs in front of him. Eddie looks away from everyone else and focuses on Steve instead. He doesn’t want to touch yet, doesn’t want to make Steve freak out even more.

“Steve, listen to me. You are not at the bunker, you’re safe. I’m Eddie, it’s Eddie. It’s July 4th, 1986. You are not at Starcourt, you’re safe” his voice wavers towards the end, listening to Steve sob is not what he wanted to ever hear.

All Steve does is shake his head and sobs more.

Taking another moment to breathe, he leans towards him slowly and pulls the cloth off Steve’s head. “Open your eyes, please sweetheart. Open them and you’ll see me, see Eddie.”

Behind him he can hear someone else crying, can hear Joyce and Hopper whispering to each other and hear everyone not in the know try and figure out why Steve is freaking out. It doesn’t pull his attention away though, his vision is just on Steve.

He refuses to look away, actually.

Steve’s tears don’t stop, the rocking though is finally stopping, his arms are still tight around his knees but he moves his head up and slowly blinks. It takes a few minutes and Eddie can see when it finally clicks in Steve’s mind. His face is suddenly white and he tightens his arms again, “Ed-Eddie?”

Nodding, he shuffles a little closer, “Yeah Stevie, it’s me. You’re okay”

“No, no- I” Steve’s eyes are red and wide as his eyes jump from him to everyone behind him, “I need to go- I can’t- I can’t-”

Without any words he moves quickly, gets up and helps Steve up. Tucking him under his arm and pulls close, leading him away from the house and now the shouts from everyone else. Eddie ignores them too, focus on getting Steve away.

They end up at his new trailer.

Eddie takes a moment in the kitchen to calm himself down a bit more before picking up the mugs of tea and making his way back into his room where Steve is. He pushes the door open, a small smile on his face as he makes his way over.

Steve has the blankets pulled all the way to his chin, he’s staring at the wall with tears still streaming down his face but there’s no more sobs.

“I got us some tea” he raises the Garfield mug up, “got your favorite cup too”

It causes a wobbly smile and Eddie’ll call that a small victory. Steve lets the blankets fall down and takes the mug, blowing it before taking a small sip. Eddie follows his lead and does the same. Only moving just to get under the blankets, making sure to rest his legs touching Steve’s.

It’s quiet the only noises coming from outside, from the other residents enjoying the holiday.

Even though the tea is gone, Steve still has the mug in his hands. They’ve been in the trailer for two hours now. Eddie doesn’t want to push, but he’s also very concerned and wants to make sure that he’s okay.

“Stevie, are you okay?”

Steve rolls the mug in his hands as he shrugs, “I don’t know, that um, that’s never happened before”

He nods, tapping the mug and once Steve lets it go, grabs it and places it next to his own mug. Looking at Steve, he’s never seen such a defeated look on his face. It’s wrong and Eddie hates it.

“It’s o- well, it’s not okay. I’m sorry the boys were assholes. You don’t have to tell me, not right now. We can just sit here and skip out on the party.” He won’t make him explain it, not right now.

That’s not important currently, what’s important is making sure Steve feels okay and safe again.

Steve just leans against the wall, a sigh coming out of his mouth before he looks at him. “I, I got tortured last year. Um, I haven’t told anyone. It was-”

He shakes his head and pulls him close to hug him, “Steve- Stevie, you don’t have to talk about it right now. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, right now I just want you to calm down and make sure you’re okay”

Steve looks at him and blinks back tears before nearly crashing them down against the bed. He tucked his head against Eddie’s neck and wraps his arms around him. Eddie does the same and holds him, rubbing his back and squeezing him close.

They stay like that, until the tears are gone and they can hear muffled fireworks going off now. Eddie’s on his back now with Steve cuddled next to him, head on his chest.

It’s a lot more intimate than they normally are, they’ve shared a bed before several times, actually. They’re close and both crave touch, but never this close. There’s something different swirling around them.

“Eds?”

He hums out and continues on with the pattern he’s making against Steve’s back with his fingers, “yeah?”

“It’s my birthday” Steve whispers it, like it’s a secret.

He freezes, hand completely flat against Steve’s back now. His whole body goes nearly stiff under him, because what?

“What?”

Steve shrugs, moves slightly to look at him, “today, it’s my birthday. I um, I’m officially 20”

He blinks and sits up more, confusion all over his face, “You- you got tortured on your birthday?”

The only answer he gets is a nod, Steve shifts back to cuddle him. “Yeah, kept it to myself. They, everyone, doesn’t know.”

It makes his heart hurt hearing that Steve was tortured on his birthday and that they didn’t know. It’s only as that thought goes through his mind, that he goes over what Steve said.

“They know it’s your birthday, right?”

Steve shook his head, squeezing his arms and hiding his face. He can feel his shirt start to get damp, making itself known that Steve is tearing up again.

“Stevie, why don’t the-” he shakes his head, deciding questions aren’t needed right now. He doesn’t need explanations, actually.

Right now all he wants is to hug and keep this man safe.

Eventually the sounds of fireworks die out, soon just chirps from birds and the wind blowing against the trees, muffled sounds of people laughing is all the white noise they need to fall asleep, along with how comfortable they both are.

They’re also emotionally drained, Steve especially.

~

He feels warm, comfortable and safe. He cuddles his pillow more and freezes for a split second when it shifts. It takes another second to remember where he is, who he’s with and what happened.

Steve’s cheeks burn as he shifts to look at Eddie under him, he’s still asleep. Looks relaxed and soft, beautiful. It makes his heart start to beat a little faster.

Eddie starts to open his eyes and he squints at him, “Staring is creepy, Stevie”

Quickly he shifts away from him and looks everywhere but at Eddie. He feels the bed move and hopes Eddie isn’t about to kick him out for staring.

“Hey, I wasn’t ready to give up with the cuddles” Eddie whines, and Steve knows that if he looks he’ll find a pout on Eddie’s face.

He shakes his head and fights back the smile, “I’m sorry”

“Don’t say sorry, I want the Stevie cuddles.” Eddie smiles and moves closer, wrapping his arms around him, “come on, it’s like-“ he glanced at his alarm clock, “it’s four in the morning, let’s sleep, okay? I won’t accept any sorry or explanations until the sun is out and I have breakfast with my favorite person”

All Steve can do is nod his head, slowly moving with Eddie to lay back down.

It’s quiet, Steve can feel Eddie’s fingers doing twirls and lines against his back. It’s slowing down and Steve can tell Eddie’s falling back asleep.

It’s nice, this is wonderful maybe even perfect. Steve wonders if this is what it’d be like if they were in a relationship together. If Eddie is even more touchy, if the nicknames extend past the normal Stevie and sweetheart.

“I can hear you thinking, Stevie”

He freezes and looks up to see Eddie already looking towards him, “sorry?”

“No need to be sorry, just, why are you still awake?”

Looking away, he thinks about it. Really thinks about it and maybe, just maybe, he could be a little more vulnerable with Eddie. Thinks that of all the people to immediately act and help him, was Eddie. That he took him away from all the eyes and took him home, gave him tea and held him.

So, he can be a brave right now.

Moving, he sits up and brings Eddie with him. He’s confused but moves willingly. They’re just looking at each other and he needs another moment to get his mind set. Taking a deep breath, he grabs hold on Eddie’s hands.

“Eddie, I need to tell you something and I don’t want this to ruin anything between us. I really, really hope this doesn’t ruin it. Because you’re important to me. So please, just listen to me and promise you’ll still be here”

Eddie blinks, confused and concerned.

“You can tell me anything, sweetheart.”

He nods and tightens his hands around Eddie’s before blowing out some air, “I, I thin- no, I know I love you. I’m in love with you, Eddie. For a while now but I was scared and worried that if I said that word, that I’d be left alone and you’d leave. But after what you did for me, I- I need you to know that I feel this way for you.”

It’s quiet and Steve can’t keep looking at Eddie as the time keeps passing by, he wants to bolt, wants to leave; needs to leave if Eddie stays quiet longer.

Feels like an eternity has passed before he feels Eddie’s hands on his face, as they move him to look at him. Makes him realize not only was he crying but Eddie’s tearing up now.

“Eddie I-”

“Don’t apologize, if that’s what you were going to do, please don’t apologize. Actually, stop apologizing to me today. I need you to realize I don’t need them, and I don’t need you thinking you have to leave, either.”

All he can do is shut his mouth, another sorry on the tip of his tongue. Eddie’s mouth tips to knowing smile, before he moves his hands down and around his neck.

“Stevie, I’m going to kiss you now. Okay?”

This is not where he thought he’d end up, but as Eddie smiles again before coming in close. He’ll take it.

He’s imagined kissing Eddie, of course. Has had dreams that woke him up needing a cold shower, had a million thoughts and wants, but it has nothing on actually kissing him.

The first kiss is salty from tears, it’s soft despite the chapped lips. It’s everything and more. His favorite part isn’t the kiss itself, though this will become addicting eventually, no his favorite part is Eddie resting his forehead against his own and the quick kiss to his nose before pulling back with a smile and, “I’m in love with you too, honey love”

Steve matches that smile, feeling high and happy. So happy, he immediately wraps his arms around Eddie in a joyful hug with tears and laughter. “I love you so much, Eddie”

They spend the rest of the night curled together. The next morning will be filled with more laughter, kisses and cuddles. Eventually they’ll talk about what happened, those explanations will be needed and heard. Someday, in the future, Steve will be honest with everyone and tell them what he went to.

For now, they’re settled on the couch lazily making out. Everything else put on hold, they deserve a lazy day together.

— —

UH, this was supposed to be a short hurt/comfort thing for the 4th of July, but it uhhhh got away from me? Like really got away. Anyway, i hope you enjoyed it! If you saw any mistakes let me know!!

Quick shout out to @i-less-than-three-you for helping out with this! Thanks for listening to me talk myself into this and then help with some of the plot )she came up with Steve’s birthday idea 😈) so thank you and I love you 🩷

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#steddie #steddie fic #steve harrington angst #nburkhardt writes #Steve x eddie #stranger things fic #Steve Harrington fic #Eddie Munson fic #Steve x eddie fic

[hippielittlemetalhead]

Never Took The Time (To Forget) part 4.1 : With a Capital 'P'

Part 4.2 (Hey Dingus? Idk, the title for that one is up in the air.) will be up as soon as I have it somewhere I like (doing a different character's pov instead of Hop so it's giving me some trouble). Felt really bad that I hadn't updated in a while and this one was getting longer than I expected and I hadn't even gotten Robin really talking yet so... Happy Valentine's Day?

Part 1 (Hop Fucks Up), Part 2 (Pride and Prejudices: Joyce Edition), Part 3 (One of Us)

Family Video and the Arcade were two of the few businesses still operating after the inter-dimensional earthquakes that had tried tearing their town to pieces. Hop knew the kid who used to run the place for his uncle, Keith, had split town with his folks (said uncle in tow) leaving the store and arcade in the care of whatever employees had been willing to stay on payroll while the world fell apart.

He watches as Harrington's (more banged up than never remembers it being) car stops in front of the video store, parked parallel to the curb across at least 3 parking spots, as a wildly gesticulating Robin rolls herself out of the idling vehicle, jabbering loud enough that Hop can hear her voice from down the block. With most cars owned by the folks of Hawkins being commandeered by Owens' government goons to fill the gaps left by lost military vehicles it doesn't much matter but Hop can't help a bit of an eye roll at the kid's audacity.

But then again, he catches himself thinking, Steve was one of the only 'civilians' in-the-know and was well-known for carting around and protecting proven assets to the War Of The Worlds shitshow going on. So was there really an issue if the kid was one of the only cars on the road anyway and because he was even more read-in on the situation than even local law enforcement? If he was not only transporting and protecting people the government had a vested interest in but had proven himself more effective than even Hop and Joyce in wrangling the kids who had basically been saving the world for the last 4 years? If he kept them safe and out of harm's way in the thick of it but also kept them entertained and out from underfoot during the downtime?

Hell, the kid being one of the only employees left at some of the last businesses in town these brats would have any interest in almost guarantees the whole lot of them are continuously stocked in movies, snacks and quarters to distract them from even the most world shaking of calamities.

It hadn't occurred to him until just now what it meant for The Party that Steve and Robin seemed to be the only ones willing to hang around behind the counter at the arcade and sell and rent movies to shell-shocked townsfolk and tight-lipped government goons alike. Fuck, Lucas and Mike were right. He was an asshole.

He's pulled out of the slow spiral of realizing Mike Wheeler of all people had been right about something by Steve hollering one last "Love you, Bobby!" at a grinning and waving Buckley as she flung open the video store door and stumbled inside. He waits for the car and it's driver to round the corner before he gets out of his own government-issued station wagon. Fuck but he missed his truck.

"Welcome to Family Video, I literally just got here so you're gonna have to give me a minute before I can help you."

"I'm uh, I'm not here for a movie." He can tell she recognizes his voice (and it's a little impressive how quickly she clocks him since he's spoken only a couple words anywhere near her maybe twice in his memory. Girl has a good ear) from the way her entire body stills for a split second before whirling back into the hurricane of motion he's come to associate with her.

"Afraid we've only got movies round here, officer. You want any other medium of entertainment I'd suggest the arcade or the distribution yard." She's still not looking at him, hands busy shuffling papers and flipping open VHS cases. "Sorry, guess we'll have to catch up another time."

Hop sighs, running a hand over the short growth he's slowly getting used to again. He'd almost shaved it down again but El had been so happy when she'd realized they were growing out at about the same rate. He couldn't ever say no to her.

"Look, I know you don't like me. And it has been brought to my attention just how much I fucking earned that. But I- I need your help here, to fix it."

The flurry of movement doesn't stop but it's tighter, she's fiddling with something shoved up her shirt sleeve and tapping at the casing of a button connected to a wire leading into her green vest. Bright blue eyes are focused on him and he's almost reminded of the no-nonsense look Nancy Wheeler gets whenever they're faced with the world ending, but the girl in front of him is colder. He has no doubts that where Nancy Wheeler would tear down giants for what she believed is right, Robin Buckley would burn the world if it meant saving her people.

"Fine. He'll be back from his patrol-" He didn't remember assigning a patrol schedule and he's not sure if this is Steve's own initiative or if he's been roped into something by Owens' people. "in about twenty minutes. You have fifteen. Now why should I help you?"

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Tags that are not working on my end. Most of these Tumblr acts like they just don't exist and others I see accounts similar but 1 word, letter or number off. Please let me know if I put any of these down wrong!!

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#rambler writes #Never Took The Time (To Forget) #nttttf verse #hopper adopts steve #but make it sad #codependent steve and robin #robin buckley #platonic soulmates stobin #stobin are soulmates and you can't convince me otherwise #not a Nancy hater just not really a Nancy appreciater #great character but in a #they're a flawed human who makes fucked up personal life choices while making decent/good save the world choices #ANYWHO #stranger things wip #stranger things fic

[skyfallslayer]

Should We Stay or Should We Go? || Chapter Two

-A ST Rewrite Feat. Steve Harrington x Henderson!OFC-

Main Masterlist || Series Masterlist

🎲Summary: On the night of November 6th, 1983, Stephanie Henderson decided to walk her little brother’s friend, Will, back home. However�� they never arrive. Now, Dustin, Mike and Lucas, and soon the exception of the girl’s ex-best friend, Steve, must band together to find out what happened. Meanwhile, Steph and Will must fight for their survival in this nightmarish version of Hawkins, Indiana.

🎲Chapter Summary: Lucas, Mike and Dustin try to talk to the girl they found in the woods; And Hopper questions an anxious Joyce about an unsettling phone call; Steph and Will must continue to survive; And Steve’s eyes get opened in a way he never saw coming.

🎲Pairings: Will x Platonic!OFC; Dustin x Sister!OC; Slow burn! Steve x Henderson!OFC (Ex-bestfriends to Lovers); Slow burn! Byler

🎲Rating: Teen-Mature

🎲Word Count: 11,024 (Oh, my lord)

🎲Date: 5/16/24

🎲Warnings: Angst; Swearing; Implied Broken Friendship; Talks of Kidnapping; Mental Strain/Breaking Down; Implying Sex; Lying; Implied Suicide; Death/Killing; Talks of Corpses; Blood; Gun Use; Steve's 'Asshole Era. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

(And let me know if I missed anything)

🎲A/N: Jesus. This was a tough one to write and edit (Hopefully I didn't make too many mistakes). But, geez. Writing different POVs, everyone's thought was a tough one. But hopefully y'all can understand 😅. Also, I am NOT a D&D player, so some of lore just comes straight from the wiki. Hopefully that's reliable enough. Anyway, sorry for the delay. Enjoy!

|| THE NIGHT BEFORE || 

“What the fuck are you?!” Will heard her scream as the creature tried to outmatch her. The light above them grew brighter and brighter, and he squeezed his eyes shut while gripping her jacket tighter. He prayed this was just another nightmare. Maybe… Maybe he’s getting his wish when he hears the silence. Does he dare open his eyes and see the truth?

He’s scared, trembling, and it heightens when he hears the girl heaving for air. So much so he clenches his grip on the fabric tighter, the strange smelling air going through his nostrils causing him to gasp himself. When his eyes snapped open is when his coughing fit started.

He hears his name being called, and hands coming around his shoulders. He almost jerks away, afraid, until his orbs settle on the silhouette before him. 

“S-Steph?” He croaked, a sense of relief flooding his veins. “What just happened?” He could see the confusion on her face, looking around for clues. He followed her eyes, nose crinkling at the sight. “We’re still in the shed. But it’s… gross.”

She swallows. “Stay behind me.” She tells him, and guides herself through the door. They both shivered at the sudden drop in temperature. “Jesus, It’s freezing.”

Will and her looked around, the outside world seemed to be encased in a blue hue, the places around seemed to be tangled with vines and covered in something sticky. There was also a white powder that looked like snow, raining down from the dark skies above. A sky that didn’t even have moonlight like it did a few minutes ago.

“Did you hit your head when we crashed?” She asked after getting his attention away from the sky. 

He shakes his head, almost sadly. If that had both just hit their heads, would the situation have been better? He frowns, worriedly thinking away as the older girl tries to stay calm.

“Come on.” She says, gesturing to him to follow. “Let’s go inside. I want to see something.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| PRESENT || 

The rain was coming down more intensely than before, followed by the grumbling of thunder and lightning. Somehow, miraculously, the boys, mostly Wheeler, managed to convince the strange girl they found in the woods to return home with them, and hid her in the basement.

“Is there a number we can call for your parents?” Mike asked, worriedly as the girl looked between the three boys, all scared and confused.

“Where’s your hair? Do you have cancer?” Dustin spitted out, genuinely curious.

“Did you run away?” Lucas asked, skeptical. 

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Mike says, just as his friend questions a red sustain on her shirt. He slaps his hand away quickly. “Stop it! You’re freaking her out!”

“She’s freaking me out!”

“I bet she’s deaf.” Dustin suggested, before taking a quick half step and smacking his hands together. The sound makes the girl flinch, and he frowns apologetically. “Not deaf.”

“That’s enough, all right? She’s just scared and cold.” Mike said, silencing the two before running over to the laundry basket and grabbing some clothes. “Here, these are clean. Okay?”

The girl takes them, taking a second to be grateful before she starts stripping– The boys freak out, Mike running up to stop her while the other two look away. 

“See over there?” He points. “Th-That’s the bathroom. Privacy. Get it?” She nods and he shows her inside. Just when he was about to shut it behind him, she grabs it forcibly. “You don’t want it closed?”

“No.” She finally says, surprising him.

“Oh, so you can speak. Okay, well… Um, how about we just keep the door…” He slowly moves it until there’s about three inches of space. “Just like this. Is that better?”

“Yes.”

Mike smiles and leaves her be, rejoining the group who were having a conversation of their own.

“This is mental.” Dustin said, freaking out.

“At least she can talk.” Mike points out, with Lucas shaking his head, replying,

“She said ‘no’ and ‘yes’. Your three-year-old sister says more.”

“She tried to get naked.” Dustin adds.

“There’s something seriously wrong with her.” Lucas said, touching his temple. “Like, wrong in the head.”

“She just went like…” The Henderson boy makes a motion of taking off shirt (and even knocked his own hat off his head).

“I bet she escaped from Pennhurst.”

“From where?” Mike said, eyebrow raised.

“The nuthouse in Kerley County.” 

“You got a lot of family there?” Dustin teased, getting a dirty look. 

“Bite me. Seriously though, think about it. That would explain her shaved hair and why she’s so crazy.”

“Why she went like…” He does the shirt motion again. In his mind this was helping him and Lucas’ case.

“‘She’s an escapee’ is the point. She’s probably a psycho.”

“Like Michael Myers.”

“Exactly! We should’ve never brought her here.”

“So you just wanted to leave her out in that storm?” Mike asks, irritated. 

“Yes! We went out to find Will–” 

“And Phanie.” Dustin pressures. 

“And Steph – not another problem!” Lucas agrees.

“I think we should tell your mom.”

“I second that.”

Mike holds his hand up. “Who’s crazy now?” 

“How is that crazy?” Lucas scoffed.

“‘Cause, we weren’t supposed to be out tonight, remember?”

“So?”

“So if I tell my mom and she tells your mom and your mom–”

Dustin’s eyes widened. “Oh, man.”

“Our houses become Alcatraz.” Lucas frowns.

“Exactly. We’ll never find Will, or Steph.” Mike says, seeing Dustin make the shirt motion once more, silently asking the question about the girl. “All right, here’s the plan. She sleeps here tonight.”

Henderson perked up again. “You’re letting a girl–” 

“Just listen! In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do. She’ll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from. We’ll be totally in the clear. And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will and Stephanie.”

Lucas and Dustin share a look, until one of them finally shrugged. “I guess that works.”  

“Great. We’ll start again tomorrow. Goodnight, guys.” Mike bid them as he went off to start making the mysterious girl a place to rest.

“This is crazy, man.” Lucas said, once they had snuck back out. “What the hell is Mike even thinking?”

“I don’t know. Do you think his plan will really work?” Dustin asked, as they headed over to where their bikes were hidden.

“I’m giving it less than a fifty percent chance of success.” He sighs. “I better get home.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Hey, don’t look so sad.” He pats his curly haired friend on the back. “We’ll find them.”

“I just want my sister back. You have no idea.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

In the following morning, in the Byers house, the eldest seemingly was keeping it together, making the morning meal like he always does and hoping his worrying mother would have just a bite. 

“All right, Mom. Breakfast is ready.” Jonathan said, while placing the plate down in front of her, her thoughts being interrupted. 

“What?” His mother said, before moving some papers. “No, be careful of the poster.”

“Yeah, okay. All right–”

“I can’t eat.”

“I just need you to eat, Mom.”

“Listen, listen. The Xerox place opens in, like…” She looks down at her watch. “30 minutes–”

“Mom–”

“And I don’t want you to go alone–”

“No, I know. I told you, I got it.”

“So I’m gonna have Karen take you, ‘cause I should be here.” She gestures around, all jittery. “Claudia will meet you there, b-but if she’s not, she’ll reimburse us for the copies of Stephanie, I–”

He shakes his head with understanding. “Okay.”

“We need to make, what, 200, 300 copies?” He nods again. “How much is a copy?”

“Mom?”

“Ten cents?”

“Mom?” 

“If we– ten cents”

“Mom, Mom!” Jonathan stops her from counting the cash she had laid out, and squeezes her shoulder with her other hang to calm her. “Y-You can’t get like this, okay?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Joyce replies, taking a shaky inhale of nicotine. 

“No, it’s okay.” He reassures her softly, just before someone comes knocking on their door. The mother rushed over with her son on her tail, busting the door wide open for the exhausted police officer. 

“We’ve been waiting six hours.” 

“I know, I came as soon as I could.” Hopper replies, nearly dead on his feet.

“Six hours.”

“A little bit of trust here, all right?” He slides his hat off. “We’ve been searching all night, went all the way to Cartersville.”

“And?”

“Nothing.”

Joyce made a choking sound and looked away. “God…”

Hopper frowns, sadly. “Flo says you got a phone call?”

“Oh, yeah.” Joyce nods and shows him their phone. 

He picks it, examining the speaker part of it which was charded black. “Storm barbecued this pretty good.”

She took a step back in surprise. “The storm?”

Hopper looked at her like she had two heads. “What else?”

“You’re saying that that’s not weird?”

“No, it’s weird.”

“Can we, like, trace who made the call? Contact the–”

“No, it doesn’t work like that.” He shakes his head, and then looks at her with all seriousness. “Now, uh, you’re sure it was Will? Because Flo said you just heard some breathing.”

“No. It was him, it was Will... and h-he was scared. And then something–”

“It was probably just a prank call. It was somebody trying to scare you.”

“Who would do that?” Joyce questioned, face full of confusion and sickness.

“Well, this thing’s been on TV. It brings out all the crazies, you know. False leads, prank calls, uh–”

“No, Hopper, it was not a prank. It was him.”

“Joyce.” He begins, as she denies him again

“Come on, how about a little trust here?” She laughs dryly. “What, you think I’m– I’m making this up?”

“I’m not saying that you’re making it up.” Hopper looks at her with concern again. “All I’m saying is it’s an emotional time for you.”

“And you think I don’t know my own son’s breathing?”

“Joyce–”

“Hopper, my son’s missing. A-And not only that, someone else’s daughter is missing.” She nervously takes a puff of her cigarette. “And you know what the mess up part about that is? Stephanie didn’t have to! She didn’t have to be the sweetheart she is and take my son home. She could have just drove past him, but she didn’t! She didn’t, Hop. And now I have to live with the thought that I made someone else’s kid go missing because I. Was. Working!” 

She ends with an emotional sigh, tightening the heavy tension it the room. Jonathan worriedly looking at his mother before, locking eyes with the police chief who was trying to find the right words to say.

“You hear from, uh, Lonnie yet?” Hopper asked after the small silence.

“No.”

“It’s been long enough.” He puts his hat back on. “I’m having him checked out.”

“Oh, come on!” She sighs loudly, watching him leave. “You’re wasting your time.” Then the door shuts, and rubs her temple. “Jesus. He never listens!”

Jonathan ponders for a moment, before asking, “Mom, how likely is it that Will would actually go to Lonnie’s?”

“I…” Joyce runs a hand through her messy locks. “It’s possible, but he lives a long, long way. Especially on foot. But… I don’t– maybe he would! I…” She sighs again, overwhelmed. “However, I don’t think he would have gone with Stephanie. He’s… W-Will knows your father’s not the best man, and Will, you know, has that heart of gold.”

That got a chuckle out of both of them. “Yeah.”

“I don’t think Will would have risked Stephanie like that.” She shakes her head. “No. She’s an older kid, and older sister. As much as this sounds messed up, she would have done anything to make sure Will was safe. I know it. So… my question is…” She locks eyes with her son. “What would a girl her age think is a safe place for a young boy?”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| TWO NIGHTS AGO ||

Stephanie flipped the lightswitch on in the kitchen out of curiosity, but finds herself still submerged in darkness. “Just what I thought. There’s no light.” She says with a frown.

“The flash of light we saw–” Will looks up at her. “Do you think it was a power outage?” 

“I don’t think there’s light here, I mean-” She starts walking around, rubbing her shaking hands together. “Look at this place. I don’t think we’re in Hawkins anymore.” She shivers just a smidge. “At least it’s a little warmer inside here.” Then she hears a distressful sound. “Will?”

The boy was pale, pupils blown wide and had a small tremble. “W-What do you m-mean we’re not in Hawkins anymore?” He asked, lip quivering with a slight pant. “B-But th-this looks like my house. D-Did w-we get taken somewhere else? Can we even g-go home? I–”

“Shit… Will–” She rushes over, hands coming up to his shoulders while she gets on one knee. “Will? Hey, bud, listen– hey.” She makes sure his gaze meets hers. “Don’t freak out. I know it’s scary, but we’re going to figure this out. Once we do, I’m going to get us home, I promise.”

The boy sniffles into his shoulder, fighting back tears. “You promise?”

“I promise.” She says it without realizing the fate of those words.

He swallows and extends out a certain finger. “Pinky promise?”

Her breath was nearly taken away by that certain question, taking her far back into a distant memory. But… like hell she’s going to let that memory change her judgment. She interlocks hers with his and repeats, “Pinky promise.”

That got him to crack a smile. “So, what next?” He asks, making her rack her brain for a plan.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| PRESENT DAY ||

He woke up again to his cat’s crying. The young Henderson frowns, heart clenching at how Mews was wondering where his sister was at. For the urban legend of how cats had no emotions, he’s certainly not seeing it. He rubbed his eyes and wandered aimlessly around, the thought of calling sick into school was still fresh in his mind. Should he? I mean it made sense, and it wasn’t like the school won’t understand, so….

Was that a yes?

He walked through the hallway, curls in his eyes as slows in front of his sister’s bedroom. His cat locked eyes with him, sadness and confusion filled the slitted pupils. Mews meows again.

“She’s not back yet.” Dustin says, getting a chirp. “We’re trying. She’ll be back soon.” He starts walking away, hearing him make a sad sound once more. 

“Dusty-bun, I’m going to make some posters.” Claudia said, who were gathering her belongings by the door. “I left you breakfast on the stove.”

His nervous fingers gripped his t-shirt as he tried not to sound so down. “Hey, Mom?” Her eyes meet his gaze. “Is it okay if I… stay home today?”

Claudia’s face softens bittersweetly. “Of course you can, sweety. If you leave the house for whatever reason, just leave me a note where you’re going, that’s all I ask.” She gives him a kiss on his hairline, and is one foot out the door before adding, “Oh! And be back before dark. Okay? Your Mama doesn’t need to worry about another kid.”

“Can do.”

He watches her smile and closes the door, locking it. He frowns at that action, I mean they’ve never locked their door before, and now it was becoming second nature. He was even surprised she told him he could leave the house. Or… did she not expect him to leave this place in the state he’s in? Sounds like something she would do.

He sighs and heads for the kitchen to make himself a plate. He didn’t have much of an appetite, really, but he didn’t want to hurt his mother’s feelings or make her beg for him to eat – he didn’t want to call ‘pot kettle black’ since he was the one that had to convince his mourning mother to eat last night. But it was hard, his fork just picking at the food, cutting it into smaller pieces to stare at before dropping his utensil onto the plate.

Steph… His fingers dug into his pocket and pulled the gold chain out, letting it sprawl out in his palm. He stares at it intensely, thinking. Come on, Sis, give me a sign. What happened to you and Will? What caused you to go off road and run? Run with Will’s shotgun out of all things?

What had got her so scared that they needed a weapon to protect themselves? Both her and Will were the last two people that would resort in violence, so the fact that they decided to arm themselves with a weapon tells him that something sinister was up.

But what? Dustin lays the necklace down next to him, pretending that she was here to eat with him like she always does, before deciding it was time to munch on what was left on his plate.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Hopper struggles to keep his mind clear after that conversation with Joyce. His thought always going back to this particular moment:

.

““Stephanie didn’t have to! She didn’t have to be the sweetheart she is and take my son home. She could have just drove past him, but she didn’t! She didn’t, Hop. And now I have to live with the thought that I made someone else’s kid go missing because I. Was. Working!””

.

Of course the woman felt guilty about everything. I mean, your kid goes missing, who else are you going to blame other than yourself? But she also was chipping away at the idea it was her fault that that poor girl was missing too. Blames herself for working later than usual, and wasn’t the one to come across her own son on the road and pick him up. That’s a lot of guilt for someone who’s holding the family together on her own.

He listens to the volunteers shout the children’s names, hoping that they would shout back. Hopper wishes that too. He prays that one of them would yell back for help and get this nightmare over with.

“Hey!” He shouts at the two officers. “Anything?”

Callahan shakes his head. “You?”

“No, nothing but a dead phone.”

“Joyce?”

Hopper nods. “About one step from falling off the edge.”

“She’s been a few steps for a while now, hasn’t she?” Powell asked, as he’s met with a stern glare. 

“Kid’s missing, man. Show a little class.” Hopper snaps, making them avert their eyes.

“All right…”

He exhales and takes off with the rest of the group, shouting, “Come on, let’s go! We got a lot of ground to cover.” He keeps his fingers crossed that this would be it. That this would be the search that brings them home.

For their mothers' sake.

For his sake.

For every goddamn person out of here’s sake. 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| THE NIGHT BEFORE ||

Stephanie shifted through the last cabinet and frowns. “Well, we can’t cook anything because there’s no electricity. But we can eat the dry goods. Unless we can figure out how to start a fire” She sighs, and wrinkles her nose. I mean, they can go a few days without eating if they didn’t want to touch the box of crackers covered in goo. But water? How were they supposed to have water if the faucet comes out with something they probably shouldn’t drink.

She rubs her temples, thinking. “I guess we’re going to have to look for some bottled stuff to drink.” She makes contact with the boy who just entered the room. “How you feeling?”

“Fine. I got a bit of a chill, but we can still grab clothes out of the closets if we need it.” Will replies, hugging his walkie talkie close.

“And the call?”

“Nothing. I mean I could hardly ever get reception over here anyway, so maybe we can try finding a different spot.”

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea." She says with a sigh. “Where’s the shotgun?”

“Oh, uh– Mom’s room.” He points behind him.

“Alright, maybe I’ll take a peek outside. If it seems clear, maybe we can try to find some reception.” 

Stephanie leaves the room with Will looking back at his walkie. He had to remain strong, hopeful. He has to get through to someone. His friends, his family, one of them has to be able–

Wait.

Was he hearing things? Was his mind playing tricks?

His eyes trail to his living room where he swears he heard someone talking. It was faint, but you can’t miss it. 

It sounds like… His chest tightens at a thought, his brown orbs blown wide as he looks at the yellow phone on the wall. It was probably hopeless, stupid even, I mean… the damn thing didn’t work when Stephanie tried to call for help when they were being chased. But that was the real world, this was… fake? Maybe it different, maybe it’s—

Oh, shit.

Maybe he’s just grasping at straws at this point and hopes it turns out okay.

His fingers latch around the phone, pulling it off the receiver and dials his home’s number, praying with all his might that this ridiculous idea would actually work. 

Come on, come on, come on, come on, com–

Oh, he felt like crying when someone picked up.

[ ‘Hello?’ ]

His mother’s voice broke through and poke him in the heart. He couldn’t breath as relief washed over him like a storm.

[ ‘Hello? Lonnie? Hopper? Who is this?’ ]

Say something, say something, say something– His lip quivers as he swallows. “M-Mom?” He can’t wait till Steph hears about this. “M-Mom, I-It’s me.” 

She can hear me right? She has to. 

[ ‘Will? Will? It’s Will!’ ]

[ ‘Mom, it’s Will?’ ]

He could cry upon hearing the second voice. “J-Jonathan? Mom? M-Me and Stephanie are tr-trap in some weird place! I-I don’t know what t-to–”

Then he was cut off by the dreadful sound of the monster. Will watched as its claws wrapped around the corner, almost like it was pulling itself into the kitchen. He doesn’t even know where it came from. He didn’t even hear it freaking come in! 

He froze on sight, his mother shouting something he couldn’t make out as the beast with no eyes looked directly at him. He wanted to scream but it was stuck in his throat. Is this how he was going to die? Die by listening to his mother’s pleas to answer her?

It shrieked and seemed to get bigger, ready to strike him down before it took a bullet to the face. The shot made it fall against the wall, and Will drops the fried phone and backs himself away. Stephanie looked half scared to death too as she cocks the shotgun again and fires one more when it stands up, sending it flying to the living room. As quickly as her buckling knees could hold her, she rushes over to Will, pulling him behind her as she aims the barrel into the direction the beast was. Shaking intensely, she carefully peeks around the corner to find that it had completely vanished like it did earlier. She gasps in shock before sliding to the ground herself, mentally drained.

“Steph!!” Will calls out with worry. He could see her eyes glassing over, her skin becoming paler as she shouts, 

“Where the fuck are we?!” 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| PRESENT DAY || 

Steve strolls into school, head in the clouds, and an aching feeling in the pit of his stomach. His sleep went to complete shit after the conversation with his girlfriend last night. He still doesn’t understand why it was affecting him so much. It’s not like him and Steph hung out anymore. So why is he losing sleep over this?

You’re not even friends anymore, Harrington. He mentally slaps himself. Get your shit together– 

“Boo!” Tommy yelled, jumping out from behind the corner, startling him.

“Jesus, Hagan.” Steve said, holding his chest while the other teen laughed.

“That was so easy.”

“So–” Carol’s arm snakes around him with a grin. “Did you tell your little girlfriend about your party?” 

“I-I… not yet.” 

“What? You didn’t tell her at her house yesterday?” 

“N-No. Never got the chance to.”

“What?!” Tommy scoffs. “Stealthy Stevie didn’t get to use his skills last night?” Him and his girlfriend laughed, but then grew quiet seeing how distant the King was being. “What the fuck’s going on with you, man?”

“Um…” Steve’s gaze gets caught onto someone else, spotting a certain person posting a certain flier up on the bulletin board. He swallows, and masks a fake smile. “You guys go ahead to class. I got to grab something out of my locker.”

“Oh, we can go with you.” Carol begins, trying to follow him but he shakes them off.

“No, no. Go ahead. I’ll meet you there.” Steve ignores the strange looks they gave him before walking away. Deciding this was the ‘only’ way, he rushes over to the oldest Byers kid, ‘accidently’ pushing his shoulder into his, knocking the papers out of his hand while he was leaving. He scoffs, while saying, “Watch where you’re going!” 

Jonathan says nothing as he bends over to collect the rest, oblivious to the other teenager sliding a paper away with his foot. Once he leaves, Steve retrieves the flier from under his shoe, reading it over.  

  HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Stephanie Henderson Age 16, 5’4” Brown Hair, Blue Eyes, 110lbs. Last seen wearing a brown work uniform, black jacket, white sneakers, and a baseball cap. Reach out to Claudia Henderson or Joyce Byers at #### or #### 

Steve stares with a distant look in his eyes, thumb brushing over her picture. Such a gentle smile for a gentle person. God… why did they have to use that picture? It was right before he–

He frowns, throwing his head back. 

Fuck… 

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Back at the Wheeler’s house, Mike decided to stay home, his parents totally unaware of him doing so. He showed the new girl around his place, acting a bit giggly when they finally got to his room. He was so excited to show off his action figures, and comic books, and anything else that he holds close to his heart. He didn’t even realize she was starting to wander off to where a collection of trophies were. Her brown eyes grew with fascination by them.

“Oh, these are all my science fair trophies. We got first every year.” Mike’s smile drops just a tad. “Except for last year when we got third. Mr. Clarke said it was totally political.”

Yeah, it totally was that. He expected some kind of reaction from her, except for the one where her eyes widened and she slowly pointed to the picture of Will in their fair picture together.

Mike perked up, hopeful. “You know Will? Did you see him? Last Night? On the road? Did–” He pauses. “Hang on a sec.” Maybe he’s getting his hopes up as he grabs another photo after shifting around in his drawer. It was a picture of his friends’ families at the lake, posing nicely for the camera. 

He points to the girl in the right hand corner. “This is Stephanie. She’s his sister.” He points to Dustin who’s hanging out behind her. “She supposedly gave Will a ride the night he disappeared, and we can’t find her either. Did you see her too?”

The girl studies Steph’s face, slowly the same reaction she had from seeing Will returned as she pointed again. “I–”

Her answer was cut short when they heard something from outside. Mike gets up quickly, peeking through his curtains to see his mother’s car pulling into the driveway. He pales.

“Shit.” He rushes to grab her by the hand and strings her along. “We gotta hide!”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| HOURS BEFORE ||

Of course the eldest stayed awake for most of the night, the two of them tucked away in the far corner of Will’s room, her eyes trained on the door just in case that wretched monster appeared again. She kept a good grip on the shotgun, one foot planted on the ground for a quick pop up if needed. Adrenaline was pumping in her blood, she was fighting off her exhaustion and hunger, while a tune played on her dry lips.

“♪ Here we stand

Worlds apart, hearts broken in two. Two. Two

Sleepless nights.

Losing ground, I’m reaching for you. You. You

Feeling that it’s gone

Can’t change your mind

If we can’t go on

To survive–♪”

Will stirred beside her, his head resting on her shoulder that was starting to fall asleep, but she refused to jostle the kid. God knows he needs his rest. Well… so does she, but she’ll get around to that. 

Her mind wanders back to the conversation they had last night, the one where Will admitted he spoke to his mother on the phone. Shock wasn’t the right word, especially when she examined the phone that had been burnt black, and when asking again if he heard that right, the youngest Byers swears he did. 

Is there actually a way to communicate to… well… ‘our world’, I guess. She ponders on that thought, wondering if it’s possible to do so without frying your phone to death. Not to mention Will swears he heard people talking before calling his mother. Can we only communicate to the people we ‘hear’? 

She scolds herself. This hurts my head too much.

“♪ –The tide

Love divides

Someday, love will find you

Break those chains that bind you

One night will remind you

How we touched and went our separate ways

If he ever hurts you

True love won’t desert you

You know I still love you

Though we touched and went our separate ways– ♪”

Will stirred again, this time waking up slowly with a groan. “Was it a dream…?” He whispers, his eyes opening at a snail pace.

“I wish.” Steph says, sadly.

“Did you sleep okay?” He asks, rubbing his face.

Her heart skips a beat and a lie slips out. “Uh, yeah. It was fine.”

“That’s good.”

“We shouldn’t stay here.” She says, surprising him. “We should probably move around, maybe lose that monster for a while. And you’re probably hungry too, I know my mom keeps cans and bottled water down in our basement for emergencies. That should tie us over for a little while.”

“Is it even safe to go out?” He wonders, yet intrigued. He’ll admit… he is a bit famished. 

“I don’t know. But we got to try. Right?”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“Whoa, whoa. Careful, careful.” Hopper says as he snags his partner by the collar. “I need you alive for the next few days, at least.”

Callahan smirked and scoffed as he gestures to the Quarry below. “Oh, hell, I could survive that.” He said, making his superior laugh. “What? George Burness made the jump. And he was drunk as a skunk. He did it on a $10 bet.”

“George is a liar. You make that jump from this height, that water turns into cement. Hits you like a ton of bricks.” Hopper smacks his hands together. “Break every damn bone in your body.”

The youngster pondered on that for a second before shaking his head. “Nah.”

[ ‘Chief, you copy?’ ] 

Hopper grabs his walkie from his belt. “Yeah, Flo, talk to me.”

[ ‘Hey, Chief, we got a call from over at Benny’s. I think you need to get there right away.’ ]

And those were words he didn’t want to hear. So he and his team rushed over there as quickly as they could, and the first they were met with was the smell of a rotting corpse. 

“Ugh, Jesus!” Callahan said, covering his nose.

“Suicide?” Powell asked, after a moment of silence. 

Hopper hummed and stared in disbelief at the man laying on the table, pistol in hand and a bullet wound straight through the temple. There’s no way this can be real.

“Missing kid, suicide.” Callahan frowns. “You must feel like a big city cop again, huh, Chief? 

“Well, I mostly dealt with strangers back then.” Hopper replies, this particular moment he almost broke down. “Benny was my friend.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| HOURS BEFORE ||

Stephanie peeked outside before gesturing to Will to follow. The two of them had backpacks on that they found lying around, going to use them to fill up with anything they could find – But the task that lay ahead was going to be hard. The task was…

Walking back through Mirkwood to the Henderson home. 

No lights, just a few bullets to spare, and their pure will to survive (Or maybe it’s the fear that’s fueling that will).

“I don’t like this.” Will mutters, only a few minutes after they left the Byers’ driveway and down a few feet on the road. “What if that thing spawns in front of us again?”

“Then we shoot it and book it again. That’s all we can do now.” Steph replies, carefully looking around. But what if he’s right? What if thing actually just spawns out of thin air? Then there’s not telling where and when not to go.

He stays silent, shaking a tad as they make it further down the road. It took a hot minute for the older girl to notice this and stop briefly, the twelve year old’s eyes confused just as she held out her hand. Without missing a beat, his clammy hand takes it, squeezing it tight. She smiles just a tad, reminding her of Dustin before they started walking again.

She felt him hang on to dear life as they strolled into the darkest part of Mirkwood, the eeriness that was silence was making their hearts race. She came to a conclusion after facing the monster last night that she had to be the strong one here. She has to act like the older sister again, and remain calm, and to keep him safe.

I made a promise. I don’t know how to fulfill it just yet, but I’m going to get him out of here. Steph casts a glance down at him, the poor boy’s face looked so cold. Does hers look like that too?

She grins after a quick thought. “Hey–” His eyes locked with hers. “What does a ‘Ranger’ do in D&D? That one sounds intriguing to me.”

His face lights up. “You actually want to play D&D?”

“Hey, you suggested it, I might as well. So, the Ranger? What’s that like? The lore?”

“Well, Rangers are warriors that explore different civilizations, and they hunt down the deadliest of monsters. They’re trained in many different combat techniques, survival skills, and even some magic.”

“Magic? I like the sound of that.”

“They mostly reside in the forest, or anything ‘nature-y’.” 

She chuckles. “I don’t like the sound of that. What else? Aren’t there like… classes… or different types?

“Oh, yeah.” He nods. “I guess it depends on what you prefer. Do you want me to tell you?”

“I’m all ears.” Steph said, making a motion. I’m just glad he’s stopped shaking.

“Well, there’s a lot. The most common ones are ‘Beast Masters’, which are accompanied with an animal companion. Then there’s ‘Hunters’, which are mainly just professional assassins that take down monsters of all sorts. Now, even though all Rangers have the capability of taking monsters down, Hunters are strictly made just to do that.”

She hums. “Interesting.”

“Then there’s ‘Gloom Stalkers’, who live mostly in dark realms, and take down the shadowy beasts roaming the territory. They’re pretty good at ambushing their opponents.” He smiles. “Personally, I find that the coolest.”

“Well, I can see why. What else? Do Rangers get weapons?” 

“Of course! The most common is a two-blade or archery.”

“Archery sounds cool.”

“See, I agree. But I know Lucas always says it’s ‘stupid’, so–”

Steph shakes her head with a sigh. “Oh, well. I guess I’ll have to prove him wrong when I play.”

“So you are going to play with us!” Will said, joyfully, like you just told him Christmas was coming early.

“If that’s how I prove Lucas wrong, then so be it. So how does one newbie play D&D?” She asked, hopefully this will keep him occupied. At least I can keep him distracted until we get there.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| PRESENT ||

“Are you out of your mind?” Lucas said, as soon as Mike was done with his explanation for them being here. 

“Just listen to me.” Mike pleads.

“You are out of your mind–”

“She knows about Will and Steph.”

Dustin perks up after being the silent one here. “What do you mean she knows about them?”

Mike grabs the pictures from earlier and holds them up. “She pointed at them, at their picture. She knew they were missing. I could tell.”

“You could tell?” Lucas asked, looking between the pictures and the girl who was on the bed.

“Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood, the same place where they disappeared?”

Dustin nodded, agreeing. “That is weird.”

“And she said bad people are after her.” Mike said, with a frown. “I think maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will and Steph. I think she knows what happened to them.”

“Then why doesn’t she tell us?” Lucas asked, glaring at her direction before stomping over. “Do you know where they are?” He grabs her by the shoulder. “Do you know where Will and Stephanie are?!” 

“Stop it, you’re scaring her!” Mike pulls him away, as his friend brushes him off.

“She should be scared! If you know where they are, tell us! This is nuts. We have to take her to your mom.”

“No! Eleven said telling any adult would put us in danger.”

“What kind of danger?” Dustin asked, his thoughts from earlier about his sister and Will taking a shotgun with them crossed his mind.

Lucas gives him a weird look. “Her name is Eleven?” 

“El for short.” Mike clarifies.

“Mike! What kind of danger?” Dustin pushes, his stomach turning.

“Danger danger!” The brunette makes a finger gun and points it between Henderson’s eyes before moving over towards Lucas who demises quickly.

“No, no, no!” Sinclair snaps, rushing for the door. “We’re going back to plan A. We’re telling your mom.”

He pulls open the door only for it to slam shut automatically. Not even batting an eye at that, he tries again, for it to not only to shut with more force but to even lock itself. The boys look back at the only explanation, and they see El standing on her feet with a drop of blood coming out of her nose.

“No.” She said, with a tone that told them not to push it.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Back at the station, Hopper was questioning an anxious friend of Benny’s. Earl was his name, and he was sitting in a chair, eyes full of disbelief as he lit a cigarette.

“Just doesn’t make any sense, Chief.”

“You, uh, notice anything odd about him the last few weeks?” Hopper asked, trying to keep it professional (even though this case was hurting him the most). 

Earl shakes his head. “No, we’re fixin’ to go fishing down the Etowah next Sunday. I mean, he was lookin’ forward to it. I know that.”

“He got any enemies you might know about? I mean, people who might not want him around?”

“The exes didn’t like him much. That’s for sure, but… nah.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“Yesterday. Lunch, same as always.”

“Just you and the boys?”

“Yep. Me and Henry and…” He pauses. “Well, there was this, uh, this kid. No kid did this.”

“Kid?” Hopper nearly perked up hope. “What are you talking about?”

“Yeah. At lunch, uh, there was this boy that, uh I mean, he was trying to steal food out of Benny’s kitchen. Can you imagine that?”

Hopper locked eyes with Callahan who got the silent message. “This kid what’d he look like?”

“Well, he was about yea high.” Earl raises his arm up and out. “You know, tiny like. I didn’t get a good look at him, though. He was back in the kitchen.”

“He look like this?” Callahan asked, coming back with a missing kid poster of Will. 

He takes the flier, and immediately shakes his head. “Oh, no, that’s… that’s Lonnie’s missin’ kid. No. This was a different kid. This one had really short hair. I mean, it was buzzed nearly down to the scalp.”

Hopper tries not to let his composure break, and continues to hold on to the slimmer of hope. “Yeah, well, let’s… You know, let’s forget about the haircut. I mean, if this kid had a buzz cut… could it be Lonnie’s kid?”

“Well, I-I… didn’t get a good look at him. About the right height, though. I mean, could’ve been. Yeah, that’s… Could’ve been.”

Hopper frowns, taking the poster back from him. “And, you only saw the boy right? No girl? Teenager? Dark hair?”

“No.” Earl shakes his head once more. “No. I didn’t see a girl.”

The Chief mentally sighs. This is not good.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

[ ‘A party?’ ]

Finally! Steve thought, pumping his fist. She finally sounded intrigued. He was hoping this would make up for his weird behavior at school. 

And, no, no, no, It wasn’t because of– well… ‘you know who’. Totally not because of her. Totally, totally, totally not–

[ ‘Steve?’ ]

Nancy’s voice broke through his totally not clouded mind. “Uh, yeah, sorry. Yeah, a party. Well… kind of. It’s just going to be me, Tommy H. and Carol. No parents for the whole weekend, so we wouldn’t have to worry about them coming in and ruining the mo-jo.”

Just my friends and my girlfriend. Just having fun, no worries about–

[ ‘Not much of a party with just four people.’ ]

He laughs. “Okay, I’ll admit, it’s a little sad. But you know, it’s better this way. And, you know, if you want to, you can invite Barbara. If it makes you feel more comfortable. Or not. Or you don’t have to come–”

[ ‘Steve.’ ]

“Yeah?”

[ ‘I’ll totally come. But I’m going to try to convince Barb first if that’s alright.’ ]

“Yeah, Yeah. Totally. It starts at seven.”

[ ‘Starts at seven. Got it. I’ll see you then.’ ]

He smiles. “See you then. Bye.”

[ ‘Bye.’ ] 

“Yes!” He said, once he hung up the phone. “Finally.” He feels his spirits get lifted again. “This is going to be perfect.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| HOURS BEFORE ||

“Welcome to Mi Casa.” Stephanie said, upon entering her home. Just as gross and dark as Will’s. 

“You said the basement, right?” Will asked, the thought of eating something sounded nice.

“Yep.” 

They thought navigating below “sunlight” was going to be hard, but I guess living in darkness for nearly twenty-four hours had its perks. Finding the tote where the emergency supplies were easier than they thought, their stomachs growing when they saw the cans of food. 

“Hang on second.” Steph said, disappearing back up the stairs for a sec, and then coming back with some forks and a can opener. She uses her shirt to wipe it clean the best she could before using. “Pineapple or Peaches?”

“Pineapple, please.” Will said, drooling as she placed the open can in his hands. The two of them plop down criss-cross applesauce, sighing with relief that they could finally take a rest.

“We’ll have to take what we can, but don’t make your bag too heavy in case we need to run again. Got it?” She replies, sliding over a bottle of water to him too. He nods, and takes a second to chug some liquid too.

One can was enough for now, since none of them had any clue how long they’ll be here, they’ll need to ration what they can find. Food, water, a first aid kit, some mittens and hats, an extra jacket, socks (And Will was proud to find a half box of matches laying around).

“Do we need anything else?” He asked, making her think.

She hums, and feels around her pockets. “We need more ammo. Or another gun at least.”

“Do you have any?” 

“No. I don’t.” She closes her eyes. Now where could we get more nearby? 

But the more she thought about it, the more she dreaded. She does know one place they have a gun, and hopefully still does since it’s been so long. 

She sighs. “I know… one place that has a gun. It’s far though. Really far. It’ll take us a couple hours to get there on foot. But it’s closer than going to town.” 

“If that’s what we have to do, then let’s do it.” Will said, sliding his backpack back on, ready to start their journey again. He flashes her a goofy grin. “I hope I can count this as PE for school.”

If that was a joke to cheer her up then it totally worked. 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Now that they might have a lead, the police and its volunteers spread out in the woods behind Benny’s diner, hoping to find some good news (For Hopper’s sake he really hopes so). 

“Hey, you think Earl really saw Will?” Callahan asked, trying to keep up with his Boss’ speed. “I mean, what’s he doin’ with a shaved head? And stealing food from Benny?”

“Tell you what, when we find him, we’ll ask.” Hopper replies, with an attitude. 

“Can’t ask a corpse questions.” Powell said, getting a glare. Suddenly, one of the volunteers blew a whistle. 

“Hold up! You got something?” Hopper shouted and broke into a sprint. “Hey, what do you got?”

“Not sure.” The person said, crouching down next to a drain. “Maybe nothing. I found this. In there.”

Hopper takes a piece of fabric from his hand, before shining his flashlight through the drain, still hopeful that maybe he was lying in there, scared but safe. 

“No way a kid crawls through there.” Powell said, in denial.

“I don’t know… a scared enough one might. His brother said he was good at hiding.”

“Yeah, but, just Will?” Callahan asked, conflicted. “What happened to Stephanie? ‘Cause there ain’t no way a teenager’s going to fit through this drain pipe.”

“Maybe they separated?” Powell questioned. 

“I’m not so sure about that. Claudia said her daughter would never leave anyone behind.”

“Willingly that is.”

“Come on, you two.” Hopper said, jogging again.

This time, they decided to follow the drain pipe that led them further into the forest. Just as their knees were about to give out, they’re met with an electric fence and a keep out sign for the one and only…

.

.

.

Hawkins Lab.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“El?” Mike announces his arrival into the basement. He had just finished having dinner with his family, and even convinced his mom to let his friends stay the night. All part of his plan to figure out what was happening to his missing family.

“No adults. Just us and some meatloaf.” He continues, placing a tray down in front of the makeshift fort, letting her know to come out. Her eyes trail to him and then to the two boys falling behind. “Don’t worry. They won’t tell anyone about you. They promise. Right?”

“We never would’ve upset you if we knew you had superpowers.” Dustin said, before getting hit in the leg by Mike. “Ow!”

“What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared… earlier. That’s all.”

“We just wanted to find our friends.” Lucas admitted, feeling a tad guilty for his actions. 

“‘Friends’?” El asked, confused by that word. It was so foreign to her. What does it even mean? 

“Yeah, friends. Will? Steph?”

“What are ‘friends’?” 

Lucas gave her a weird look. “Is she serious?” Henderson shrugged. “Um, a friend–”

“Is someone that you’d do anything for.” Mike cuts in. 

“You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards.” Dustin adds.

“And they never break a promise.”

“Especially when there’s spit.” Lucas also puts in, making sure she was getting it.

“Spit?” El said, tilting her head.

“A spit swear means–” He spits into his palm. “You never break your word.” He holds his hand out for Dustin to take and shake. “It’s a bond.”

Mike nods in agreement. “That’s super important, because friends… they tell each other things. Things that parents don’t know.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Barbara finally pulls the car over to the side after her friend insisted they stop here. She looks over at the brunette with a strange look. “What are we doing here? His house is three blocks away.”

“We can’t park in the driveway.” Nancy said, making the ginger roll her eyes.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, the neighbors might see.”

“This is so stupid.” Barb shakes her head. “I’m just gonna drop you off.”

“Calm down, Barb. Come on. You promised that you’d go.” Nancy pleaded with her ‘baby doe’ face. “You’re coming. We’re gonna have a great time.”

“He just wants to get in your pants.”

Nancy chuckles with disbelief. “No, he doesn’t.”

“Nance… seriously. He invited you to his house. His parents aren’t home. Come on, you are not this stupid.”

“Tommy H. and Carol are gonna be there.”

“Tommy and Carol have been having sex since, like, seventh grade.” Barb cringes at the thought. “It’ll probably just be, like, a big orgy.”

“Gross.”

“I’m serious!”

“All right, well…” Nancy takes her seat belt off and starts unbuttoning her sweater. “You can be, like, my guardian. All right? Make sure I don’t get drunk and do anything stupid.”

“Ugh.” Barb said, shaking her head. She watches as her friend takes her top off and starts fiddling around in her purse for another one. “Is that a new bra?”

Nancy pauses. “No.”

“So, obvious, Nancy…”

“Hey.”

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•° 

“What’s the weirdo doing?” Lucas asked, watching her sit at their D&D table and close her eyes. 

“El?” Mike said, as they gathered around, waiting.

When she opens her eyes, she slowly gravitates to one of the pieces and picks it up. “Will.” She replies, showing it was the Wizard piece, the one that the boy always plays as.

“Superpowers.” Dustin said, as Lucas rolled his eyes, still not convinced about this whole thing. 

“Did you see him? On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?” Mike asks, just before she brushes the rest of the figures off the board and flips it over. She places the wizard piece on the board. “I don’t understand.”

“Hiding.” She replies, the boys looking at one another. She then places another figure down, surprising them.

“Who is that supposed to be?” Lucas asked, as Dustin perked up.

“The Ranger. Is that Stephanie?” He asked, as she nodded. “Are they hiding?” She nods again. “Together.” Another nod.

“From the bad men?” Mike asked, but she shakes her head in disappointment. “Then from who?”

And without saying another word she places another figure down.

It was a beast with two heads.

.

.

.

The Demogorgon.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| NOW ||

It took a while like she said, and luckily they had no trouble getting there, but what was troubling the young boy was that she wouldn’t tell him where they were going. Was she embarrassed by this place? Did something happen? He doesn’t know, but it’s gnawing at him.

“We’ve arrived.” She said, as they were coming up to it.

It was… a pretty big house, much bigger than his and even his friends’ houses. He wonders if this was one of the rich neighbourhoods or something like that. And sure enough… his questions would be answered when he happened to catch the name on the mailbox. 

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Now he understands why she didn’t say anything. 

“So this is the…” Was he choosing his words correctly? “The King’s house?”

“Yep.” Stephanie said, hand on the doorknob which miraculously opened. She rolls her blue eyes. “They still keep it unlocked.” They stepped inside, still gloomy and covered in vines and goo like the last two. “Let’s go upstairs.”

Will follows behind, observing everything that seemed a bit foreign for him. “I knew they were rich but I didn’t know they were that rich.” He said after observing art piece after art piece that he knows isn’t locally made.

“Yeah, they got crazy money.” She said, and her pace seemed to quicken without her noticing. She hustles into the parents room, opening the closet to find a safe. “Shit.” She forgot about the lock. “Where did that bastard put the key?”

Stephanie starts running around the bedroom, pulling open drawers, looking through trinkets, his wife’s jewelry box too – A curse word after every failed attempt.

“Steph?” Will said, worriedly.

“Just give me a second.” She snapped, and left the room. She starts opening the drawers from the tables in the hallway, visibly getting more annoyed with each second. “For fuck sakes–”

“Stephanie!”

“What?!” She slammed it shut, rattling everything that was on. The force and her tone seemed to shock him, and even take a small step back. She grips the table, closing her eyes to calm herself. “Fuck. I just…”

And when she opens them she finds herself staring at the boy she wanted to forget about. It was a picture of him on his swim team, the frame saying: Championship 1981. She just stares at with emotions the youngest Byers couldn’t figure out what they were.

“Steph?” He asked, slowly.

“Yeah?”

“What happened to you and Steve?”

She continues to stare at the photo for another minute before pushing herself to stand. “I think he still keeps that knife in his room.” Was what she muttered before heading in the opposite direction to another room. 

Will could only wonder what really happened to them…

.

.

.

Just as the lights started to flicker.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•° 

|| PRESENT ||

Inside the most “fabulous” party of the year, Barb laid back in one of the pool chairs, listening to the terrible music that’s blasting in her ear as her best friend watches her boyfriend slice a hole into a beer can and start drinking it all in one go.

“Is that supposed to impress me?” Nancy asked, as he sat down and lit a cigarette. 

“You’re not?” Steve asked, genuinely surprised. 

“You are a cliche, you do realize that?”

“You are a cliche. What with your– your grades and your band practice.”

“I’m so not in band.”

“Okay, party girl. Why don’t you just, uh, show us how it’s done, then?” He hands her the knife and a can.

“Okay.” She says, all giggly.

“You gotta make a little hole right in–”

“I got it.”

“Yeah, she’s smart, you douche!” Tommy said, as he crushes his own can on his forehead. 

Soon, everyone was chanting “Chug” as Nancy down a whole beer in under thirty seconds. Everyone cheered and laughed, proud at the achievement. 

“Barb, you wanna try?” Nancy asked, holding the blade up.

“What? No. No, I don’t want to. Thanks.” She said, shaking her head. But after a quick back and forth badgering she finally gave in. She rips the items out of the girl’s hand, clearly upset. It wasn’t long before her judgment was clouding her mind and accidentally nicks herself. 

“Whoa, Gnarly.” Tommy said, impressed by the deep cut.

“Are you okay?” Nancy asked, worriedly.

“Yeah.” Barb said, trying to push her away. 

“Barb, you’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine. Where’s your bathroom?”

“Oh, it’s– Steve stands up, and starts taking her over to the sliding door. “It’s, uh, down past the kitchen, to the left.” He frowns. Shit of course.

But before he could say anything, Tommy had pushed Carol into the pool and then jumped in after her. Steve then shrugs, and lets a smirk play on his face as he does the same to Nancy before doing a cannonball.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| NOW ||

Steph tries to contain herself as she enters his room. It was taking a lot of strength not to just start flipping things over, and tear those stupid pendants off the wall.

Stupid fucking house. Stupid fucking room. Stupid fucking Harrington. She grits her teeth, fighting back the tears in her eyes as she desperately tries to remember where he hid the blade.

She lets out a groan. “For fuck sake’s, man! Where did you put it?!” She yells, and kicks whatever was near her. She swears something must have fallen out from it, but she doesn’t even want to look. 

God damn you, Harrington. She scolds, and rubs her face. How can he–

That’s when the light in his room flickered on and off scaring her half to death. “What the–”

“Stephanie!” Will’s voice shouted, kicking her into high gear.

“Fuck.” She mumbles, and races to find that blade.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| PRESENT || 

As soon as Barb comes out of the bathroom, she immediately spots a certain someone heading up the stairs. “Nance! Nancy.” She shouts, getting her to stop. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere. Just… upstairs. To change. I… fell in the pool.” Nancy said, feeling like she was on cloud nine. “Why don’t you go ahead and go home. I’ll just… I’ll get a ride or something.”

“Nance–”

“Barb, I’m fine.”

“This isn’t you.”

“I’m fine. Just go ahead and go home, okay?” 

And then Nancy leaves her all alone, confused and heartbroken by her friend’s actions. But despite being hurt, she couldn’t just up and leave her drunken buddy like this. So… 

She decides to wait.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Steve had found her some clothes she could change in, and he was grinning like a kid upon the thought of seeing his girlfriend in his clothes. 

I’m such a dork. He tells himself as she calls out his name. “Yeah?” There was a look in her eyes that he’s never seen before, and honestly was turned on by it.

But ‘Fuck that’, says the universe, and the home phone starts to ring.

He groans, irritated. “Hang on a second–” He proceeds to run out of the room, and shouts, “Hey! Turn the music down in case it’s my parents.”

Nancy chuckles, cheeks flush because she was ready to lose her– wait. Did something just touch her leg? She looks down to find that a box was tipped over and had opened, and wonders when that happened. Did she accidently kick it without realizing? Or was it already like that? Frankly, curiosity got the best of her as she crouched down to try to fix it. But then, her actions slowed when she saw something.

The Wheeler picks up a paper – a flier – to her surprise was the missing poster of Stephanie Henderson. 

“What?” She says, quietly, confusedly. Why was he keeping this? And that’s when she puts two and two together. She starts shifting through the small pile which was made up of photos, movie tickets, receipts from a record store, arcade tokens and– “Oh, my god.”

Suddenly, Steve comes jogging back in, relief on his face. “False alarm. It was just–”

“So who is she to you?” Nancy asked, standing up and flashing the memorabilia at him.

His face falls immediately. “Hey, that’s–”

“Is she the person that was rumored you pushed away?”

“It’s nothing.” Steve replies, trying to take the stuff away from her, but she ain’t budging.

“It’s nothing, or she’s nothing?”

“It’s– W-What? You jealous?” He asked, trying to play this thing off cool, but his girlfriend wasn’t stupid.

“I’m not jealous. I’m just curious.” Nancy replies, honestly. She takes another look at the photos in her hand before looking back at him. “I mean, if she isn’t your friend anymore, then why do you hang on to all this stuff? Or better question–”

“Nancy, stop, it’s just–”

“Why did you break it off?”

His brain short circuits again. “What?”

“I said, ‘Why did you break it off?’ I mean…” She flips through some of the photos he has, memorized. “From what I see, you two remind me of Barb and I. You two look like you were tied at the hip. So why break it off?”

“I…” Why couldn’t he fucking talk all of a sudden? “I didn’t, I–”

“So, she broke it off?” She said, eyebrow raised. 

“No. I-I broke it off, she didn’t do anything–”

“So… why did you?”

“Nancy–”

“Look, I just want to understand you. I mean, every time I think I have you figured out you throw me through a loop.” She gives him a reassuring look as she picks up the box, shuffling whatever was remaining around. “I mean, from what I see, you seem like a completely different person then. I just wonder if it’s a good thing or a bad–” 

Now it was her turn to look lost (and for Steve to lose all the color in his face). She frowns, slowly pulling out a small casing. “Is this a… bullet?”

“That’s nothing!” He manages to snag at least that away.

“Why do you have a bullet in the box?!” She asks, eyes blown wide.

He swallows. “Nancy–”

“Did you shoot her or something?”

“What?!” He scoffs. “No! Why would I shoot her?!”

“Well did she shoot you?”

“No! Nobody shot anybody, it was just–”

“Then why do you have a stray bullet cas–”

“‘CAUSE IT WAS MY FAULT!! OKAY?!” Steve snaps, startling them both (He can’t believe he just lost his cool like that). He swallows again, head spinning at the memories (Why did he fucking leave the box right there?). “I just… there was an incident and… it… shaped my decision, okay? But it didn’t involve me or her with a gun, it was… s-someone else. Someone I know. I don’t know why I’m holding onto it, I…” He sighs and grabs the box, holding it out for her to put the stuff away.

It takes her a moment to process it all, and she does put all the stuff in her hands away, but she remains silent the whole time. She’s never seen him act this way before.

It honestly concerned her.

Nancy breaks eye contact, and only reverses it when she gathers the right words. “Look, Steve, I’m sorry I intruded, I probably shouldn’t have but… I’m just trying to understand you.”

Steve shakes his head, still confused. “I-I…” He shrugs, and crosses his arms defensibly. “What’s there to understand?”

Nancy gestures to him and says, “Well, for starters, you’re an airhead and–”

“So?” He cuts in, as she holds her tongue and continues. 

“And you’re arrogant, snarky, and sweet–”

“Sweet’s fine.”

“Of course. Sweet’s fine. I love how nice you are to me, Steve.” She then frowns for him. “However, that gets overshadowed by your… insecurities.”

He pauses, now it was his turn to take in those words (What the hell did she mean by that? He’s not… no). “I don’t… I don’t have any… any–”

“Steve.” Nancy takes a step closer. “I don’t know why the kid in these pictures decided to change into the one I’m seeing before me, but if that doesn’t have to do with any insecurities, then I’m not sure why you decided to make that change willingly.”

“I… W-Willingly?” He scoffs again. “What do you mean? I never change willingly? What are you even getting at, Nance?” He hasn’t changed. He’s never changed. What is she even getting at?

But Nancy looked at him with eyes full of pity and took another step closer. “I don’t know what the reason was for you two to stop being friends, but all I know, from what I gathered, she wasn’t the one to end it.” She places Steph’s flier on his chest that he subconsciously grabbed, and said one last thing before leaving his room. And that was,

“Maybe there was a good reason for you to end it, but that’s not an excuse for you to stop being who you really are.”

And Steve’s left with an epiphany he’s not sure he can decipher. 

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

|| NOW || 

As soon as the lock was broken, she retrieved the gun from the safe and frantically told her companion to get down the stairs. Will and Steph’s hearts were in their ears, and it sped up when the light above the front door flickered.

“Shit–” She pulls the boy to a halt, and redirects them to the back door. “Go, go, go, go, go.” 

She throws open the sliding door, and out into the backyard, but as soon as they step foot onto the ground, the lights around the empty pool start to flicker. The two of them stopped immediately and held their breaths. They weren’t sure where the beast was at, but it was definitely nearby ready to snatch them up.

They were afraid to even breathe or twitch. What if this thing really does appear out of thin air?

They both jolted when a loud growl came from somewhere inside the pool. Wasting no time, Steph taps Will on the arm and makes a shushing gesture, then waves him to follow her. The boy understood completely, and the two of them move slowly, so carefully that there’s not way–

The both of them screamed when two human hands grabbed onto the top of the pool ladder. 

A girl’s head poked up, face battered and covered in grime, her glasses shattered and splattered with blood. The girl looked so fam–

“Nancy!!” She shouts, as something growls behind her, scaring all of them to their core. And when her eyes landed on the two of them, she desperately yelled for help just seconds before the beast’s claws wrapped around her head and pulled her back. 

Will and Steph matched the girl’s scream, and the beast roared in delight that his prey was just right in front of it. Its claws could be seen grabbing the ladder, like it was trying to crawl out and feast.

That’s when the two of them booked it. 

The guns rattled in their hands.

The tears in their eyes.

Whatever this place was, they knew…

.

.

.

This couldn’t get compared to hell itself.

-Taglist is Open-

@ladygrey03 @poppet05 @tooearlyforthis @lovesfics @lordzzz

@mirkwoodshewolf @sadbitchfangirl @olivewisp

@emsownuniverse @unspecifiedvisitor @smaryamsstuff @kitty49646

#steve harrington #steve harrington fic #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x henderson reader #stranger things fanfiction #steve harrington fanfiction #dustin henderson #dustin henderson x sister reader #dustin henderson x reader #eddie munson #will byers x reader #will byers x platonic reader #will byers #stranger things x reader #jopper #jancy #steve harrington x oc #Stephanie Henderson #my fanfic writing #skyfallwrites

[bigboysteveharrington]

I was thinking about the one shot I’m probably going to write to give more context about information I know that wouldn’t come up in Steve or Eddie’s pov when we get to a certain point of The Things in Life That I Can’t Find

But then I was thinking about all the other related information I have outside of Steve and Eddie’s perspectives and now suddenly I am very close to starting an also multi-chapter fic that takes place in the same world and same time frame that focuses on the Hopper-Byers family side and is possibly just Will’s pov but more likely switching between his and El’s with context on what’s going on with their family and them navigating their dynamic with Will the protective brother but also bitter and jealous of her getting so much attention out of Mike

And the platonic dynamics are what’s making me want to write it, but it would also potentially have El realizing that what she feels for Mike is closer to the way she feels about Will than the way Will feels about Mike with some eventual Byler

And there might eventually be a Ronance one too, but I have to get far enough in the main fic for certain information to come out before I can do that

#Spoilers for future chapters I guess but #Will being her safety blanket while she’s pretending everything’s fine and she’s not terrified to start school and potentially be treated #the same way when she’s able to actually start school and be out of the house is the one shot that started this #But also details before that of how El’s going to end up out of the house before that thanks to Will talking too much about Eddie and #Jonathan complaining about Eddie trying to drag him to see his band and not understanding why while El’s like yeah well at least you get to #go I just have to sit here and here about how great it is and how Max was there and how much fun everyone else is having that leads to #Jonathan talking Hopper into letting him take her just to the Hideaway for one night if he doesn’t let her out of his sight and brings her #right back after (but spoiler alert: Hopper’s showing up there pretending like oh he was going to bring Joyce there #on a date anyway like ten minutes after Jonathan and El and Will show up together anyway and he convinced absolutely no one) #At this rate watch me write a Ronance centered version of it too because I sure know plenty about that side of things too #But I have to wait until after the main fic gets to a certain point so that something can be known before we get their povs #Some burns are going to be slower than others and if I do end up doing Byler it would be the slowest #Jargyle will be the fastest and Argyle hasn’t even shown up yet #Mine

[chirpsythismorning]

Something we should definitely not overlook, because it feels relevant to birthdaygate, is the individual character posters for season 4.

There's actually even an interview with the Duffer Brothers, where they were asked about this theory:

Though, I should clarify, this interviewer got a few details wrong, as it appears Max was actually looking away from the camera, not directly at it. Not only that, but she also wasn’t the only one to do so. She was one out of four total...

Looking directly at the camera: El, Hopper, Murray, Will, Argyle, Steve, Dustin, Robin, (not shown above: Karen, Lucas, Erica, Nancy, Eddie)

Looking away from the camera, to their left: Joyce, Mike, Jonathon, Max

We could deduce that this visual choice was foreshadowing Max getting cursed by Vecna in season 4, and Matt did sort of elude to this in his response to the question, seeing as it was focused only on her. But what could this possibly mean for the other three then?

Initially, it didn’t seem like we got anything substantial enough in s4 that could have possibly paralleled Joyce, Mike and Jonathon to Max's situation, or even being cursed by Vecna like she did for that matter. Well, except—

I do find it interesting that the same episode we see Max slowly discover she has been cursed, in an episode literally titled 'Vecna's Curse', it's March 22nd, Will's birthday, and in real time we are seeing the three people who would definitely never forget Will's birthday, presumably forget.

Because undeniably, the first thing that crosses my mind when it comes to what could possibly connect these three characters with each other, is Will. He's what connects them all. But even more specifically, THIS scene below is what connects them all, a scene which, might I remind you, has a major emphasis on the word 'remember':

Joyce: Do you know what March 22nd is? It’s your birthday. YOUR birthday. When you turned 8, I gave you that huge box of crayons, do you remember that?

Jonathon: Do you remember the day dad left?

Mike: Do you remember the first day that we met?

Vecna:

Not only do I think this means that Vecna most likely took away these three's memory of Will’s birthday, I also think it means he took away this specific memory and all the memories mentioned within it.

If it's all coming full circle and everything leads back to Will, it would make sense that Vecna 'took notes' during this whole incident in 2x08. These memories and these specific people in Will's life played a role in thwarting Vecna's plans last time, so obviously, he's not going to give them the chance to do that again.

This also brings up some interesting questions:

Were those weird POV shots of the Cali gang, that looked oddly stalker-ish, meant to represent Vecna keeping a close eye on them, to make sure his plan was still in motion?

How long will this manipulation (curse) Vecna has on these three last? And to what extent? Will it all just come to a head right away in early season 5, at a moment when they're trying to save Will, but they inevitably fail because all of the relevant things that saved him last time, are now missing from their memories?

And last, but definitely not least, is it possible Mike wouldn’t have gone through with professing his love to El, the way that he did, even going as far as to say his life started the day he found her in the woods (the day Will went missing), if he had remembered already doing the exact same thing with Will…? If he had remembered the best thing he'd ever done was ask Will to be his friend? Because if this theory is correct y’all... MIKE DOESN'T REMEMBER!!!???

Well, that's all (for now)

Please be sure to check out this post if you haven't already, but even more importantly, scroll down to the bottom of that post, because there I have linked all the most incriminating evidence thus far.

And trust me, once you read all of it, it's pretty much undeniable.

I also hope this gives some validation to those of you out there who denied vehemently that Joyce, Mike or Jonathon could EVER possibly forget Will's birthday. Because you were right. Technically, they didn't. Technically it required an inter-dimensional monster for this to be possible at all. So props to ya'll and your faith in these characters! YOU WERE RIGHT!

#stranger things #will byers #stranger things meta #stranger things theory #birthdaygate #stranger things 5 #st5 headcanon #also hate to be the bitch to bring this up... #but you know how we always joked about how jonathon would be the only one to save will bc he knows his favorite song... #well.. in that scene in the shed back in s2... jonathon mentions that memory... #which means he doesn't remember #WHICH MEANS WILL IS FUCKED BASICALLY #yeah it might be good to go back and see everything they mentioned #because it's basically a free for all in terms of vecna swiping those memories right out of their brains #will byers im praying for you #that whole thing about s5 going back to s1 vibes has me scared... #but also there's a lot of foreshadowing that mike is in danger.? #so im not totally convinced he doesn't somehow mess up vecna's plan yet again... #maybe that's how him and will both end up stuck in the upside down together... #yes I will turn this around so it benefits me #what about it?

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Stuck Between a Jock and a Metalhead

Summary: Nancy, on a whim, decides to visit Steve at Scoops Ahoy, which leads to her overhearing confessions from Steve that leads her to think about the decisions she's made. A few days later, she decides to come back. She finds him being hit on by the town freak. What's a girl to do? Oh, get stuck in a freezer with the both of them.

Chapter One - Chapter Two - Chapter Three - Chapter Four - Chapter Five - Chapter Six - Chapter Seven - Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Eddie's POV

Eddie woke up screaming and clutching his sides. He was drenched in sweat and trembling all over. Wayne burst into the room, looking panicked as he dropped to Eddie's side.

"Where does it hurt, son?" Wayne asked. "Does it hurt here?"

"No, it's just a bad dream. Just a bad dream," Eddie whimpered. "I think something bad is going to happen, Uncle Wayne."

"It's okay, son, I've got ya," Wayne said and hugged Eddie tightly as Eddie burst into tears. "I'm here."

Eddie could tell it was early in the morning because it looked like Wayne had just gotten home from work. Eddie sniffled and wiped his face as he pulled away from him.

"I'm good, Uncle Wayne," Eddie said.

"You haven't had a nightmare like that since you were little, and your mama started getting sick," Wayne frowned. "You wanna talk about it, son?"

"No, I just want to forget about it," Eddie said.

He tried to wipe the image of Nancy being cornered by her boss, the fear on her face, and then the image of Steve screaming in pain. . .the image of him lying on the floor covered in his own blood. The dream had ended with Eddie being eaten alive, with Nancy and Steve screaming his name. Eddie refused to go back to sleep and decided to get ready for the day. He settled into distracting himself until it was time to go to the festival. He read Lord of the Rings, worked on his campaign, worked on writing his music, and when Wayne left for work, he settled down in front of the television. The images wouldn't go away, however, and he couldn't get the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

The feeling stayed with him even when he showed up at the festival. It was supposed to be an exciting time, but all Eddie felt was fear. They were going to show up, he told himself as he waited by the entrance. Maybe they showed up before him and went in. Eddie started walking around, trying not to panic and let the fear overcome him. As he was looking for them, he saw a figure slumped over between a couple of booths. Eddie approached the figure slowly and nudged him. He didn't move. There was a bullet hole in his chest. This guy was fucking dead.

"Oh, shit," Eddie said.

Fear shot through him, and he was in full on panic mode. He took off and started running around, calling for Steve and Nancy. When he approached the entrance, he spotted Hopper and Joyce Byers. Eddie watched as Joyce approached the Mayor. . . And slugged him in the face?? Eddie didn't wait and took off after them, heading toward a bright yellow car.

"Hey, Chief!" Eddie yelled.

"What? I don't have time for whatever this is, Munson," Hopper said.

"Well, first off, did you know that there's a dead guy over there?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, we're dealing with it, kid," Hopper sighed.

"Also, where are Steve and Nancy? They were supposed to meet me here, and I got this weird feeling that something fucked up is going on here," Eddie said.

"Look, we're dealing with that, too. Don't worry about it. We'll let you know when we find them. There's nothing to worry about, kid," Hopper said.

"So, I don't have to worry about Nancy being chased by a flesh monster made from her former boss or Steve being tortured in a Russian underground bunker?" Eddie asked.

Hopper and Joyce stared at him before sharing a look with each other. Yeah, it seems like his dream wasn't so crazy after all.

"We don't have time for this!" A balding man yelled.

"Get in," Hopper finally decided.

Eddie hopped into the car, sitting himself next to the balding man, and then they took off.

"How did you know about the Russians?" Hopper asked Eddie.

"Well, this is going to sound weird, but I kind of had this dream last night," Eddie said. "Nancy was being chased, Steve was being tortured and drugged, then it sort of moved forward. I was in this place that looked a lot like Hawkins, except it was covered in vines, and there was this floating dust or some shit. I was on the ground with vines wrapped around my throat, and then these bat like creatures were eating me alive," Eddie said.

"Jesus," the balding man muttered.

Hopper and Joyce stared at each other again.

"Okay, that dream isn't so crazy?" Eddie asked. "Does that place exist?"

"We call it the Upside Down," Joyce said. "Well, the kids do."

"Steve’s kids? The ones he babysits all the time?" Eddie asked. "He brags about them a lot."

"They're good kids," Joyce said smiling.

"They're shitheads," Hopper said, smiling fondly.

"He calls them that too," Eddie said with a grin. "Affectionately."

"So, have you had dreams like this before?" Joyce asked.

"A few times. Once, when I was six and my mama started getting sick. She wanted to keep it from me, but then I had a dream that she was dying, and then she did," Eddie said softly.

"I'm sorry, that must have been rough," Joyce said sympathetically.

"It was," Eddie said. "A couple of years ago, I dreamed that your son got trapped in the Upside Down. I thought it was just a dream because it was all over the news about him at the time, and then last October, I dreamed that there were these tunnels under Hawkins with fucked up looking dogs who's face opened up."

"You didn't have to go to a bunch of doctors when you were a kid, did you?" Hopper asked.

"Well, there was this experimental program my dad put me through to treat my asthma that I apparently didn't have. Honestly, he was only in it for the money. I did see a bunch of doctors, but they told me I didn't qualify for it, which makes sense because I didn't have asthma," Eddie said, and they shared another look. "What?"

They both proceeded to explain to him about a program called MK Ultra where a man called Dr. Brenner experimented on children, giving them powers.

"It's possible that he didn't think you had any," Joyce said. "Especially if you didn't tell them about the dreams."

"Damn," Eddie muttered. "By the way, who the hell is this guy?"

"Murray Bauman," the balding guy introduced.

"I heard about you," Eddie said, narrowing his eyes at him.

"All good things from Nancy Wheeler, I hope," Murray said sarcastically.

"No, I don't like you," Eddie said and glared at him.

"And what did Nancy say about me?" Murray rolled his eyes.

"Well, I believe a creepy asshole who likes to put his nose where it doesn't belong are the words she used to describe you," Eddie said, and Hopper snorted.

They pulled up to the Starcourt Mall a few minutes later and walked into find quite a scene. Steve and Nancy were surrounded by a bunch of kids. A young girl was in the middle, and something shot out of the open wound in her leg. It landed at Hopper's feet, and he squished the slug like creature under his shoe. Steve and Nancy looked at Eddie in surprise.

"Eddie?!"

He shot forward and pulled them both into a hug. They immediately hugged him back tightly.

"Are you the guy who almost killed Steve and Nancy in the freezer?" A curly haired boy asked, his hands on his hips.

"And this must be Dustin," Eddie grinned as he pulled away from the hug.

"You know about me?" Dustin asked.

"Steve only talks about you all of the time, you and his other precious kiddos," Eddie said teasingly.

"He does?!" Dustin asked and beamed.

"What's this about killing Steve and Nancy in a freezer?" A redheaded girl asked.

"Eddie, what are you doing here?" Nancy asked.

"That's a little bit of a weird story," Eddie said.

He glanced over at Hopper, who was tending to the young girl's leg. Turns out it was his daughter, El. The redheaded girl was Max, the pale gangly boy was Nancy's brother Mike, there was Lucas who was dating Max, and Eddie remembered Will from that time in the music store. Will remembered him, too.

"So, you dreamed about us being in danger?" Nancy asked Eddie.

"Yeah, I suppose it's because you two have become very important to me over the last few weeks," Eddie blushed.

"Aw, Nance, I think he's saying we're his best friends," Steve teased.

"Aww," Nancy cooed and pinched Eddie's cheek.

"Excuse me, that title belongs to Jeff," Eddie said.

"Then what are we to you?" Nancy asked.

"You know, you can have more than one best friend," Dustin said, saving Eddie from answering the question.

It was then that remembered the first aid kit in his pocket. He pulled it out and walked over to Hopper, Joyce, and El. He opened it.

"Do you guys need anything in here?" Eddie asked.

"Oh, yes, thank you," Joyce said, pulling out some ointments and bandages.

"You just had that in your pocket?" Hopper asked.

"I'm a professional klutz," Eddie said seriously, and Hopper snorted. "His name is Princess Nigel."

It was El's turn to laugh, showing her dimples, and Eddie flashed his dimples right back at her. El furrowed her brows at him.

"Are you my brother?" El asked.

"You do sort of look alike," Joyce said in amusement.

"We do!" Eddie laughed. "I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if I did have brothers and sisters out there. My dad used to cheat on my mom all the time, even when she was sick. He wasn't very clever with the names he came up to tell the ladies with either. Overheard my uncle yelling at my dad about it. Al Munster was one of them. Allan Smith. Andrew Rich. He actually used Eddie once! I don't know why he bothered. Everyone knew who Al Munson was."

"Did you say Andrew Rich?" Hopper asked.

"Yeah, why?" Eddie asked.

"Because that's the name of El's father," Hopper said.

Eddie stared at him for a moment before looking back at El. He laughed and slapped his knee.

"Well, it looks like I am your brother, after all," Eddie said with a smile, and El held out her arms, grinning. "Ooh, a hug for big brother Eddie?"

Eddie moved forward and hugged his little sister. His little sister. This is not how he expected this evening to go. As he pulled back from the hug, El played with his vest.

"Bitchin," El muttered.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Eddie laughed and ruffled her hair. It seemed like having a sister would be cool. He smiled as he wondered over to take care of Steve.

"I have a sister," Eddie declared as he worked on cleaning Steve’s wounds.

"We heard," Nancy said in amusement.

"So, this is your first time with all of this, too?" Robin asked as she leaned over his shoulder to watch him work.

"Yeah," Eddie said.

"How are you not freaking out?" Robin asked.

"Oh, trust me, sweetheart, I'm freaking out on the inside," Eddie replied.

"Well, you should know that Steve Harrington is actually my new best friend, so you better do a good job, Dr. Munson," Robin said.

"Haha! Dr. Munson! Good one, like that would ever happen," Eddie scoffed.

"Okay, Nurse Munson then," Robin said, and he glared at her. "Candy Striper Munson?"

The best he could do was clean the wounds and spread some antibiotics over them. They would need more tending to later. He hated seeing Steve like this, and judging from the way Nancy was clinging to him, she was worried too. They all gathered around the tables to listen to Hopper go over the plan on how to destroy the machine that was opening a gate to the Upside Down. Of course, Hopper wanted to be the hero and go in there alone. Murray and Joyce wouldn't let him, though. Hopper couldn't navigate his way through without Dustin's help, but he didn't want to put the kid through any more danger. So, Dustin would need to be taken to Mount Weathertop to Cerebro. For a split moment, Eddie thought Lord of the Rings and the X-Men were real, too, until Steve explained that it was a radio thing that Dustin had built. Steve and Robin would be taking him while Eddie went with the others to take El to Murray's bunker.

"This is fucking crazy," Eddie mumbled shakily as he hugged Steve tightly.

"Everything's going to be okay. We'll be right back," Steve muttered softly.

"Don't say that. They sat that in horror films and then they. . . Well, they don't fucking come back," Eddie said.

"That's a horror film, not real life, Eds," Steve snorted softly.

"Well, this fucking feels like a horror film," Eddie said.

He pulled away and looked over to find Nancy hugging Jonathan. He couldn't help the sharp twist of jealousy that fueled his stomach. Jonathan was staying with them, so why was Nancy hugging him? He looked over and saw that Steve looked just as jealous as he was. Steve quickly covered it up when Nancy walked over to them.

"What was that about?" Eddie asked.

"I was thanking him for saving my life," Nancy replied.

"Oh, well, thank God for that, Ace," Eddie said.

"Ace?" Nancy asked.

"Like ace reporter. I thought it would be a cute nickname," Eddie said.

"It is cute," Nancy blushed and then she looked at Steve. "Stay safe."

"You too," Steve said.

Steve and Nancy hugged tightly. Eddie watched with Nancy as Steve walked out of the mall with Robin, Erica, and Dustin. Eddie let El have her moment with her father before approaching them.

"Take care of your sister," Hopper said, nudging his fist against Eddie's shoulder.

"Will do," Eddie said, saluting him and then turning his back to El. "Hop on, no sister of mine is hopping around on that ankle."

El giggled, wrapping her arms and legs around Eddie. He skipped over to Mike and Nancy, El laughing the whole way.

"Mike! I have a brother! This is Eddie," El grinned. "Eddie, this is my boyfriend, Mike."

"We're back together?" Mike asked in confusion.

"Oh. Right. I dumped your ass," El muttered.

"Why did you dump his ass?" Eddie asked.

"He lied about his Nana being sick, but she was not sick at all," El explained.

"Her dad threatened me!" Mike exclaimed.

"It probably had something to do with the fact that you were sticking your tongue down his daughter's throat all the time," Nancy said. "Even I thought it was a bit much."

"Dude, of course, her dad threatened you. That was a test, and you failed. Is she not worth fighting for?" Eddie asked mockingly.

"Yeah, Mike, am I not worth fighting for?" El asked and Mike scowled at Eddie.

"I'm fucking with you, dude, it's none of my business," Eddie said. "Although, I'd rather you actually use your words to get to know my sister."

"You've only known her for like a few minutes," Mike scrunched up his nose.

"And I would throw down my life for her," Eddie said, holding his head held high.

"Do not do that," El said seriously. "Promise?"

"Yeah, kiddo, I promise," Eddie said softly. "After all of this, you can tell me all about being an older sibling, Ace."

"It's annoying mostly," Nancy said teasingly, and Mike scowled at her.

It got kind of scary after that. They tried to escape in Nancy's mom's car, but a part was missing. El tried to flip the destroyed car in the mall to the part they needed, the very car she used as a bowling ball earlier to knock down a bunch of Russians. Eddie's sister was a badass, and she was also exhausted. Of course, that's when mind flayer possessed Billy Hargrove showed up along with the flesh monster. Nancy emptied a gun that she looted from a Russian on Billy's incoming car, which was hot, by the way, but then Steve came out of nowhere in the bright yellow car. He plowed into Billy's blue one, looking just as hot as Nancy did. Once back inside, Eddie did everything he could do to protect the kids from Billy himself while the others worked above them to destroy the Mind Flayer's flesh monster with fireworks. Of course, the other man had supernatural strength and kicked Eddie's ass with each punch. Once Billy got his hands wrapped around his throat, it was lights out for Eddie. Literally. When he woke up, his own blood had pooled into his mouth, and he turned over to cough it up. He saw Max crying over her stepbrother's body, and Eddie cursed. He hated the guy, but that kid shouldn't have had to see that. He felt hands on his back. He turned to find Steve and Nancy looming above him.

"Did we - did the machine get destroyed?" Eddie croaked.

"Yeah," Nancy said sadly, her eyes filled with tears.

"Who - who else died?" Eddie asked as they helped him up.

"Hopper," Steve said, his own eyes filling up with tears.

It was like a punch to the stomach, and suddenly, all of his interactions with Hopper came into focus. One of the rare adults who looked at him and didn't see his old man. The last words he had said to Eddie played over and over again in his mind. Take care of your sister.

"El," Eddie gasped.

He pushed past both of them and past two soldiers, carrying a gurney to wheel Billy's body out. Eddie stumbled into the parking lot filled with large military like vehicles and helicopters. He spotted El clinging to Joyce, and the woman pulled away to point El towards Eddie. She sobbed and started limping towards him. Eddie met her halfway and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. Her body shook with sobs as she cried into his chest, and he couldn't help but think of the day his mother died. It wasn't his father who comforted him but his Uncle Wayne, and he remembered him holding him just like this at Lizzie's funeral. Eddie cupped the back of El's head just like Wayne did for him. Joyce suddenly came up to him.

"Eddie, your uncle is here," Joyce said softly.

Just as she said that, Wayne approached them, looking frantic.

"I was at work, and I had this funny feeling, so I left to check on you. That's when I saw the helicopters heading here. Who the hell did this to you?" Wayne asked.

"That's a long story," Eddie said. "But first. . .El, this is our uncle Wayne. Uncle Wayne, this is my half-sister, El."

"There's no doubt that she is," Wayne said, smiling softly. "Is she okay?"

"Her adopted father, Chief Hopper, he died in the fire trying to get us out," Eddie said.

"You are hurt," El realized, pulling back to look at him. "Hospital."

"No, sweetheart, I think I'm good," Eddie said.

"Yeah, I don't think Nancy or Robin is going to take no for an answer," Steve said, coming up behind him. "The guy up there said not to worry about the hospital bills. Apparently, they've got it covered."

"I go with you," El said firmly.

"Are you sure about that, sweetheart?" Eddie asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"Oh, I got my keys back from the Russians," Steve said, dangling the keys with a smile.

"You got your keys back from the what?" Wayne asked.

"Never mind that, Uncle Wayne!" Eddie exclaimed. "Hospital!"

Wayne, El, and Eddie drove off in Wayne's truck while the others rode in Steve's. As they pulled out of the parking lot, Eddie felt a heavy weight fall upon him as he thought about all that occurred. He never thought that life could get worse than before, but boy, he had sure been wrong. As El fell asleep against his shoulder, he thought how odd it was that life could bring both joy and pain into one's life all at the same time. What was going to happen next?

Chapter Ten

#stranger things #steve harrington #nancy wheeler x steve harrington #stancy #eddie munson #nancy wheeler #nancy wheeler x eddie munson #edancy #eddie munson x steve harrington #steddie #nancy wheeler x steve harrington x eddie munson #stedancy #nessie #bisexual eddie munson #bisexual steve harrington #pansexual nancy wheeler #pan4bi4bi #robin buckley #robin & steve #platonic stobin #platonic ronance #platonic reddie #stranger things fanfiction

[pizzaqueen]

Steve Harrington time stamps

For when you just want to watch Steve’s scenes

I had the idea to do this during my current rewatch thanks to @harmonictechnicality (who was very happy for me to post this) and then @al-ghoul sent me his timestamps so a HUGE thank you there!

Oh, and @faequeentitania has a supercut of all of Eddie's scenes (link is in their bio) so I didn’t add Eddie’s time stamps to this post

My original intention was to not post this until it was completely done, but I honestly don't have much energy right now, so there are only time stamps up to S04E05. But I do intend to finish it one day! (If anyone wants to help out with the remaining ones, that would be great.) You can also see where the formatting changes and that's where I stopped typing up my notes and just used what @al-ghoul sent me, but I do want to reformat it so it's uniform, and add in songs used for his scenes, but I just wanted to get this out there

And I want to say sorry if someone has already done something like this in the meantime! I tried searching but Tumblr search isn't great

SEASON ONE

Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers

14:54 - 16:07 Steve’s first appearance in his rendezvous with Nancy in the bathroom

37:59 - 38:42 Mike sees Steve trying to climb through Nancy’s window

41:04 - 43:12 helping Nancy study

Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street

12:26 - 14:04 asking Nancy to the party at his house (mention of his parents); the scene cuts to Nancy and Jonathan at 13:20 but you can still see Steve in the background until 14:04

38:17 - 38:37 opening the door for Nancy and Barb (song: Raise a Little Hell by Trooper*)

43:06 - 45:39 pool scene with the drinking, etc., with Tommy H, Carol, Nancy and Barb (song: I Melt With You by Modern English)

49:18 - 49:40 drying off and going upstairs

50:22 - 51:18 we see Steve and Nancy through the window from Jonathan’s POV then it cuts to inside Steve’s room

52:36 - 52:50 getting hot and heavy with Nancy (song: tiniest snippet of the opening strains of Hazy Shade of Winter by The Bangles)

*seems to be playing inside Steve’s house because it’s muffled and gets louder when he opens the doors

Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly

00:40 - 1:50 sleeping with Nancy, intercut with Barb being killed (song: Waiting for a Girl Like You by Foreigner)

3:03 - 3:50 Nancy tries to wake Steve, then leaves

10:16 - 11:11 at Nancy’s locker

20:48 - 21:56 cafeteria with Tommy H, Carol and Nancy

30:07 - 32:16 confronting Jonathan about photos

36:01 - 36:43 waiting for the game in the hallway with Tommy H, Carol and Nancy; Nancy leaves

Chapter Four: The Body

13:16 - 14:30 meeting Nancy between buildings; asks her not to tell the cops about the beer (mention of parents)

Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat

25:47 - 27:51 Steve shows up at Nancy’s to say sorry and invite her to the movies (mention of parents; song: Steve singing a bit of Old Time Rock and Roll)

Chapter Six: The Monster

3:29 - 4:45 driving to Nancy’s with Tommy H and Carol; sees Jonathan and Nancy on bed through window (song: Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart*)

30:46 - 33:18 alley fight with Jonathan

* playing on the car stereo

Chapter Seven: The Bathtub

14:21 - 16:00 Tommy brings Steve a can of Coke and painkillers; Steve has fight with Tommy and Carol then drives off

18:40 - 19:21 offers to help scrub graffiti off cinema marquee

Chapter Eight: The Upside Down

14:42 - 17:03 comes to Jonathan’s to say sorry; gets introduced to the upside down shenanigans

18:53 - 22:00 Nancy gives Steve an out; he runs, then he comes back (it cuts to Hopper and Joyce at 21:18 for a couple of seconds)

22:27 - 23:50 following the lights with Nancy and Jonathan that Joyce and Hopper are lighting up as they go through the UD version (intercut with scenes of Joyce and Hopper)

48:01 - 48:24 epilogue snuggling on couch with Nancy in Christmas sweater

SEASON TWO

Chapter One: Madmax

12:13 - 14:02 Nancy looking over Steve’s essay in the car outside the school (song: Talking in Your Sleep by The Romantics)

20:09 - 20:38 waiting by the corner in the hallway to pick Nancy up and twirl her around by the lockers

31:38 - 33:50 dinner with Nancy at Barb’s parents

Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak

15:58 - 19:22 studying in the library with Nancy/Steve is worried about the government if they talk too much about what happened and suggests going to party and pretend everything is normal (between 17:15 to 17:36 it cuts to Nancy thinking she sees Barb)

31:23 - 32:17 Tommy H and Billy come over while Steve is with Nancy at the party; Tommy H: “We’ve got a new keg king, Harrington.” (Song: Shout at the Devil by Mötley Crüe)

42:03 - 44:14 dancing with Nancy (song Girls on Film by Duran Duran)/spills drink on her/bathroom ‘bullshit’ scene

Chapter Three: The Pollywog

19:11 - 21:14 playing basketball against Billy (Song: Go! By Tones on Tail) and talking with Nancy between the buildings

Chapter Four: Will the Wise

16:23 - 17:53 basketball again (Song: Scarface (Push it to the Limit) from Scarface) and the shower scene with Tommy H and Billy

Chapter Five: Dig Dug

35:17 - 35:52 shows up to Nancy’s with flowers and is waylaid by Dustin

Chapter Six: The Spy

00:51 - 3:43 In car with Dustin (song: Hammer to Fall by Queen*) going to kill Dart with bat

12:39 - 13:06 bringing meat with Dustin

24:51 - 27:34 laying trap for Dart with Dustin (meat on the railroad tracks) and talking about girls

31:48 - 32:37 at the junkyard with Dustin

33:10 - 33:21 at the junkyard with Dustin, Lucas and Max

35:27 - 35:38 fortifying the bus/setting stuff up at the junkyard

35:49 - 36:02 pouring gasoline

36:48 - 37:01 going into the bus

37:44 - 38:24 inside the bus; flicking the lighter

40:46 - 45:06 demodogs appear; Steve goes out as bait/to fight them

* playing on the car stereo

Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister

Doesn’t appear in this episode

Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer

08:35 - 10:33 walking from the junk yard with kids at night, looking for Dart on the train tracks

13:27 - 13:56 in front of Hawkins lab; meet up with Nancy and Jonathan

15:15 - 15:45 in front of the lab

16:15 - 16:21 gate opens

21:58 - 22:22 waiting at gate; Hopper picks them up

23:06 - 23:42 at the Byers’

24:43 - 29:03 in Byers’ kitchen; Steve is in and out of the frame/sometimes in the background

29:23 - 29:55 duct-taping the shed with Nancy

31:51 - 32:07 finishing the shed with everyone

33:05 - 33:10 practicing with a bat at Byers'

34:32 - 34:35 blinking lights at Byers’

38:52 - 39:16 morse code

40:31 - 40:56 “close gate”

41:31 - 41:37 hearing demodogs

42:15 - 44:34 preparing to fight/El arrives

S02E09:

00:07:23 Steve (at Byers with everyone) (00:08:03)

00:09:08 Steve (at Byers backyard with Nancy) (00:10:02)

00:10:50 Steve (on the Byers porch with kids) (00:11:06)

00:15:22 Steve (putting demodog in the fridge) (00:15:57)

00:16:17 Steve (at the Byers with the kids / Billy arrives) (00:19:09)

00:19:47 Steve (fighting Billy) (00:21:02)

00:24:41 Steve (waking up in the car with Max) (00:25:54)

00:26:43 Steve (arriving to the tunnels) (00:28:17)

00:30:00 Steve (at the tunnels) (00:31:42)

00:33:40 Steve (torching the tunnels while Will burns) (00:34:43)

00:36:52 Steve (running through the tunnels) (00:36:59)

00:38:00 Steve (freeing Mike / meeting Dart) (00:39:38)

00:40:16 Steve (running out of the tunnels) (00:41:19)

00:43:40 Steve (gate closed) (00:43:44)

00:45:19 Steve (at the Barb's funeral) (00:45:27)

00:48:51 Steve (driving Dustin to the Snow Ball) (songs: Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar and Twist of Fate by Olivia Newton-John*) (00:50:10)

*both are playing inside the Snow Ball Edit: actually the Pat Benatar song seems to be coming from his car on re-watching 😅 it definitely sounded like from inside the building to me before but now it doesn’t

--------------------------------------------------------

S03E01:

00:09:15 Steve (letting the kids through Scoops Ahoy back door) (00:09:40)

00:10:46 Steve (lights go out) (00:11:01)

00:12:12 Steve (lights go back) (00:12:18)

00:24:42 Steve (Scoops Ahoy with Robin, hitting on ladies) (00:26:46)

S03E02:

00:10:15 Steve (Scoops Ahoy with Dustin) (00:12:34)

00:17:52 Steve (translating Russian with Dustin) (00:19:24)

00:35:27 Steve (Robin translated first Russian) (00:35:54)

00:41:26 Steve (mall after hours with Robin and Dustin) (00:43:37)

S03E03:

00:17:23 Steve (spying for spies in the mall with Dustin) (00:19:19)

00:27:12 Steve (found a sport fitness "spy" with Dustin) song: Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go by Wham!* (00:28:32)

00:29:20 Steve (with Dustin returning to Scoop Ahoy) (00:29:26)

00:30:03 Steve (Robin cracked the code) (00:30:12)

00:39:20 Steve (in the rain looking at delivery) (00:40:30)

*playing in the jazzercise class

S03E04:

00:09:04 Steve (Scoops Ahoy, devising a plan) 00:10:08

00:21:14 Steve (Robin brings Starcourt blueprints) (00:22:58)

00:24:32 Steve (bringing Erica into the plan) (00:25:11)

00:34:51 Steve (Erica goes into the vent) (00:35:05)

00:36:22 Steve (Erica got to the room) (00:37:00)

00:40:28 Steve (opening the boxes with the team Scoops) (00:42:08)

S03E05:

00:00:07 Steve (the elevator room falling) (00:01:58)

00:16:25 Steve (stuck in / getting out of the elevator room) (00:19:46)

00:25:19 Steve (walking the tunnel) (00:27:16)

00:34:40 Steve (finding the russian base / fighting the guard) (00:37:01)

00:37:21 Steve (Robin found The Machine) (00:38:21)

S03E06:

00:00:14 Steve (being apprehended by russians) (00:01:48)

00:17:12 Steve (being beaten up / questioned by the russians) (00:20:21)

00:31:06 Steve (tied to a chair with Robin) (00:35:58)

00:45:25 Steve (truth serum kicks in / Dustin saves them) (00:48:50)

S03E07:

00:06:31 Steve (Dustin is driving away through the tunnel / elevator) (00:08:45)

00:13:13 Steve (running from the mall guards into the cinema) (00:14:04)

00:14:30-32 / 00:14:41-44 (tweedldee and tweedledum in the cinema)

00:23:19 Steve (drunk with Robin in the cinema hallway) (00:25:08)

00:28:27 Steve (confesses Robin in the cinema restroom) (00:35:02)

00:39:07 Steve (sneaking out of the restroom) (00:40:03)

00:48:50 Steve (hiding from mall guards under the counter) (00:49:16)

00:49:41 Steve (El defeated the guards) (00:50:51)

00:51:09-14 Steve (El collapses)

S03E08:

00:00:36 Steve (Eleven's fucked up leg) 00:01:25

00:02:50 Steve (El pulls the Flayer out of the leg) (00:03:16)

00:04:28 Steve (everyone is catching up on things) (00:05:11)

00:06:34 Steve (hanging around while everyone prepares) (00:06:43)

00:07:40 Steve (driving away from the mall) (00:08:10)

00:13:32 Steve (driving kids to the radio hill) (00:14:42)

00:17:50 Steve (on the radio hill) (00:18:19)

00:24:19 Steve (on the radio hill, Flayer attacks Starcourt) (00:25:12)

00:26:03 Steve (on the radio hill running back to the car) (00:26:14)

00:32:54 Steve (hitting Billy's car at Starcourt, Nancy's driving away) 00:33:35

00:34:39 Steve (Flayer pursues the car, Suzie appears) (00:34:50)

00:35:49-53 Steve (in the car while Dustin sings over the radio)

00:36:28-31 Steve (in the car while Dustin and Suzie both singing)

00:38:04 Steve (in the car while Flayer goes back to Starcourt)

00:42:29-34 Steve (throwing fireworks at the Flayer in the mall)

00:43:03-04 Steve (keeps throwing)

00:44:16-22 Steve (on the radio with Dustin)

00:50:33 Steve (Flayer disassembles) (00:50:43)

00:54:58-01 Steve (at the ER car in the background)

00:56:44 Steve (arriving with Robin at the Family Video for a job) (00:58:04)

00:58:55 Steve (bumping into the cardboard figure) (00:59:12)

--------------------------------------------------------

S04E01:

00:15:24 Steve (in car with Robin) (00:16:58)

00:54:43 Steve (with Brenda at basketball game) (00:56:24)

S04E02:

00:07:56 Steve (at Family Video with Robin) (00:09:49)

00:28:13 Steve (at Family Video with Max & Dustin) (00:29:06)

00:44:58 Steve (at Family Video flirting / searching for Rick) (00:47:43)

01:01:45 Steve/Eddie (at Reefer Rick's) (01:06:14)

01:07:22 Eddie, Steve (talks about Chrissy / Vecna revealed) (01:12:30)

S04E03:

00:12:28 Eddie, Steve (receiving supplies at Rick's) (00:14:23)

00:15:14 Steve (at Fred's crime scene) (00:15:29)

00:25:29 Steve (with kids and Nancy discussing Vecna) (00:28:12)

00:38:21 Steve (outside shrink's house in the car) (00:39:28)

00:41:22 Steve (driving away from the shrink) (00:41:33)

00:42:00 Steve (driving the car while Lucas radioes) (00:42:43)

00:50:53 Steve (breaking into school shrink's office at night) (00:51:38)

00:55:54 Steve (at the shrink's office) (00:56:53)

S04E04:

00:02:09 Steve (school after Max's episode, Nancy and Robin arrive) (00:04:50)

00:07:29 Steve (the Wheeler's house - Max writes letters, Nancy and Robin arrive) (00:10:44)

00:17:35 Steve (Max finished the letters, wants to go) (00:20:04)

00:31:33 Steve (driving Max to the trailer park) (00:31:53)

00:34:35-49 Steve (Max returns to the car)

00:48:17 Steve (driving Max to the cemetery) (00:49:00)

01:02:32 Steve (going for Max at the cemetery) (01:03:04)

01:03:17 Steve (trying to wake Max up) (01:03:35)

01:04:58-07 Steve (with Dustin and Lucas trying to wake Max up)

01:09:01-12 Steve (Dustin brings music to Max)

01:10:45 Steve (everyone searching for the tape) (01:11:06)

01:11:50-00 Steve (Max flies)

01:13:43 Steve (Max is out) (01:14:14)

S04E05:

00:14:32 Steve (sleeping in Wheeler's basement) (00:14:38)

00:36:19 Steve (arriving at Creel's house with everyone) (00:40:06)

00:49:55 Steve (checking Creel's house with DNR) (00:52:36)

#Steve harrington #stranger things #st4 #steddie #steve x eddie #st3 #st1 #st2 #(steddie is the target audience but it's also for anyone!!) #(reblogs very much appreciated on this one!)

[aemiron-main]

~what the hell is going on the night will disappeared? TIME FUCKERY, PERCEPTION FUCKERY, SOME EXTREME STRANGENESS REGARDING JOYCE BYERS AND TERRY IVES THAT IVE NEVER SEEN MENTIONED ANYWHERE BEFORE~ i dont have all the pieces put together yet but there’s too many strange coincidences. ill make a proper document or smthn abt this theory at some point but for rn im just throwing this together

SO. THIS IMAGE. which i’ve made posts about here and here.  Long story short: im basically certain that this netflix still image, which is not from a scene that exists in the show but IS shown on the s1 ep1 pause/idle screen, is from the exact moment that we saw will disappear/the lightbulb get all bright in s1 ep1.  Which means that this is seemingly an image of Will watching himself disappear inside the shed OR watching whatever ACTUALLY happened when the lightbulb started glowing in the shed. 

Now, my focus for this writeup is going to be pointing out the little discrepancies that indicate that we’re not seeing the whole story in s1 ep1 the night will disappears. IMO there’s some pov/memory/unreliable narration fuckery afoot. SO, i wrote about how the door to the shed is completely different when will’s in the shed vs when hoppers in it in this post. Long story short: outside view of door the night will disappears + outside view of door when hopper goes to the shed + inside view of the door when hopper goes in the shed are all the same door. but will’s inside view of the door the night he disappears is a COMPLETELY different door with no spaces in between the planks- it’s not just a different door from hopper, but it’s a different door than the one we see from the outside the night that will disappears, as from the outside view, the gaps are clearly visible, whereas they’re nonexistent from the inside view.

I also want to point out the LAUNDRY. *charlie kelly voice* “can we talk about the laundry? i’ve been dying to talk about the laundry” This post has a more in-depth explanation of what I noticed with the laundry, but long story short: a.) that scene where will seemingly looks out of the living room window and sees the demogorgon was absolutely not physically shot from the living room window. it is not possible with the location of the clothesline. they cannot put a camera outside of the living room window and get that shot. however, it DOES line up EXACTLY with the location of will’s bedroom window. and b.) the clothes on the line the night will disappears vs the clothes on the line the morning immediately after, are completely different clothes. There is very clearly a plaid shirt with some sort of large, thick towel-like item next to it. However, the next morning, the laundry line has a pair of pants and a polka-dot shirt. This could indicate either time fuckery or perception fuckery, as the laundry could be from another day OR just edited entirely if it’s perception fuckery. I’m not sure which it is, but it COULD be time fuckery if we’re seeing will’s pov from a different time/date somehow in that scene?? 

Since that first screenshot labelled “will pov s1 ep1″ could not physically have been shot from the living room window, and instead aligns exactly with will’s bedroom window, it’s also worth noting that the blinds in will’s bedroom are pulled UP the morning after he disappears, and we don’t know if they’d been closed or opened before he got home, but we DO know that joyce or jonathan didn’t open those blinds since they would have noticed that will was missing if they went into his room. So, there’s a solid chance imo that will opened those blinds and was somehow looking through his bedroom window at the demogorgon- which would align with that still image that we see of will looking into a glowing shed, because both of these things point to a different will POV that we haven’t been shown yet/possibly point towards will somehow watching himself the night he disappeared.

  There’s also the phone. Two things about the phone: a.) will leaves it hanging off the hook the night he disappears, and b.) there’s different writing on the phone the night will disappears vs when joyce uses the phone the next morning. Who put the phone back on the hook?? Did joyce and jonathan just come home that night and go “oh, the phone ringing off the hook, that’s completely normal, let me just put that back and not check on will at all or bring it up whatsoever”?? Or, maybe, did something happen and the phone was never actually left off of the hook- was that scene part of an illusion/warped memory? I’m not sure but it’s definitely strange. And speaking of coming home that night: this is mostly speculation, but why didn’t jonathan check to see if will was home? was he just so tired that he went to bed + didn’t think to check if will made it back? did joyce not think to check on will either? did neither of them notice that his bike wasn’t outside? or that his shoes and coat weren’t at the door? Now, regarding part b.) of the phones- the phone in will’s disappearance scene just says AREA CODE 501, which, I made a post about here, and @byler-4-life​ made a post here about how 501 isn’t even the hawkins area code. The phone in joyce’s scene the next morning, and in the scene where joyce gets zapped by the phone for the first time, the phone has another line of writing underneath it, which is NOT present the night that will disappears.

As well, we’ve got the light switch. The light is already on when will seemingly runs into the shed. And it’s also on when we see him disappear/the light bulb gets all bright and then returns to normal. However, the light is then switched off, not just a dead bulb, but switched off, the next morning, when hopper goes into the shed and switches the light on.

NOW: something ELSE i’ve noticed: the fog. not only is there fog the night will disappears, just like how there’s fog in the upside-down, and fog in max’s upside-down billy graveyard vecna vision, but the fog literally seems to follow will. And it seems to emanate from behind the demogorgon, much in the same way that it seems to emanate from behind vecna in max’s  graveyard vision.  And also- WHERE IS THE SHED LIGHT? In the scene where will’s running into the house, we can SEE the shed in the fog: but we CANNOT see any light coming from it. which is extremely odd considering that when will gets to the back of the house, the door is open and the beam of light stretches across the backyard. We should be able to see it in that initial shot, espeically considering that the gaps in the shed walls allow light to seep through, as seen in that first netflix still image in the beginning of this post, but the shed is dark.

Visually, the image of billy/vecna disguised as billy in the fog is very similar to the demogorgon in the fog the night that will disappears. As well, vecna even sounds like billy in that scene- so there’s a chance that he could have disguised himself to look and sound like a demogorgon (like not actually disguised but rather done the same sort of perception warping/vision stuff that he does to max). As well, max runs into the fog in s4 in order to get away, and ends up in vecna’s mindscape. The fog literally seems to act like a barrier in vecna visions, almost like the invisible walls in a videogame. Will, however, does not run into the fog, so unlike max, he doesn’t escape the weird upside-down vision world. And also, note the lack of weird tentacles or typical upside-down stuff in max’s graveyard, despite the fact that it looks like the upside-down. That indicates that there’s a chance that what we see of the byers house on the night that will disappears COULD be a similar sort of upside-down looking vision situation except without the tentacles and other upside-down stuff??? and that will is going both physically and mentally between the real world and the upside-down on the night he disappears, just like he does in s2 with his episodes (he is able to interact physically with BOTH worlds at the same time in his episodes), which could explain why certain actions like leaving the phone off the hook didn’t actually happen in reality, but other ones like slamming open the back door and leaving an indent DID. (basically, the phone was never left off the hook in the real world because that scene happened when he was in the upside-down/vision/whatever, whereas the door slamming was when he came back to reality and then the shed would be when he went back again into upside-down/vision land) Going back to the fog again, it’s also interesting to me that this imagery of billy/vecna in the fog is blue-toned, whereas for will’s it’s warm and yellow-toned. which seems like nothing until we recall that picture of henry with the mindflayer in the yellow section of the upside-down. I wonder, if like how the red area started to peek through the blue for max + how running through that fog lead her to vecna’s mind lair, that if the fog would have lead to the yellow area for will. It’s an interesting lighting choice that i think is worth noting, at least, because aside from that moment, the fog is always lit in cool/blue tones for Will. 

SO: my conclusion? i don’t quite know HOW this all ties together yet, but something’s not right about the night will disappeared. I don’t think what we saw in s1 ep1 was what actually happened, I think it’s possibly what will remembers, but it’s not the entirety of what happened. I think that SOMEHOW, and im not sure HOW, or WHY, but i think that somehow, will was either watching himself go through what we saw in s1 ep that night, AND/OR will was flipping between dimensions/in and out of a vecna vision like he does in s2/when hes in the upside down using his true sight in s1/ AND OR, something else entirely happened in that shed, and will witnessed it (hopper even mentions at the library in s1 that there’s a chance that will ‘saw something he shouldn’t have’ related to hawkins lab + they got rid of him as a result). Hopper’s comment about will witnessing something becomes even more interesting when we consider the following:

a.) the discrepancy between the s1 article vs the s2 article I’ve written about this more in-depth here, but long story short, the article in the police station in season 1 tells a completely different story with a completely different timeline than the article in will’s locker in season 2. In the season 1 article, it says that will was found as a subject of the hawkins lab after a week of searching, having been subjected to mind control experiments/  In the season 2 article, however, it says that will was missing for eight days (”had gone missing two days prior” and “six days later hopper found him in a cabin”, so according to this article, will’s body was found after he was missing for 2 days, and then 6 days after the body was found, hopper found him, making him missing for 8 days), and claims that hopper found will in a cabin and that the coroner misidentified the body.  Strangely enough, the season 1 article makes no mention of will’s fake body/the one that they found in the quarry.  Both articles are written by the same person, with the same headline, and the same photo. They both seem to have been published at the same time (as i don’t think that they’d publish an article about will’s disappearance in s2), and they almost look like the exact same article except with difference content (again, same author same headline same photo), and part of me wonders if this is some sort of vecna perception warping/unreliable narration, because it really does strike me as strange that there was a whole article about will being tortured at the lab, an article that specifically says that joyce claims that will was taken to the lab and tortured, when the whole stipulation of joyce and hopper being allowed to go into the upside-down and rescue will, was that the lab had nothing to do with it. And why would joyce say that will was experimented on at the lab? Because as far as we know/joyce knows, that’s not true- he was stuck in the upside-down, not found in the lab having been part of mind experiments. So if joyce WAS going to break her agreement and expose the lab, then why wouldn’t she just expose the truth? 

As well, when you look at this uncropped image of the s1, article, there’s something VERY strange when you read further down in the second paragraph: “In a statement issued yesterday mornning (can’t see the other half of the word but ‘morning’ is inferred), Ives mentioned her ‘disgust’ towards, (word ‘towards’ isnt visible but we can infer it) the organziation, saying ‘our own american people are being treated like the enemy (again, with ‘enemy,’ we can only see the last two letters so its inferred), we should be directing out ___tion (not sure what word that is) to the real target, the Soviets, not our own daughters and sons” Wait- Ives? Ives who? What first name? It’s never mentioned.Why’d they just mention an “Ives” out of nowhere with no first name and no introduction, as if Ives was who they’d been speaking about the entire time?  “In a statement issued yesterday morning-” Which ives is even capable of issuing a statement in 1983? We know that terry isn’t, because she was tortured by brenner long before 1983. But we also know that Becky is very unlikely to issue a statement either, as she didn’t even believe terry’s story until El came to visit in s2. So that only leaves terry. But this statement was issued “yesterday,” which means that it’s from 1983. With the way that the last name “Ives” is dropped without a firstname, it almost feels like they’re conflating Joyce and Terry- because Joyce is mentioned with her first and last name, and JOYCE is mentioned as being the one who is making the allegations against the lab, so it would make sense for them to refer to her with her last name regarding statements and allegations in the second paragraph, but instead, they just say “Ives,” and don’t say any first name or give any context to Ives. It feels like it’s absolutely out of nowhere, especially considering what I just talked about with how we only know two Ives, and one of them (terry) isnt physically capable of giving a statement, and the other one (becky) doesn’t even believe in the words being stated.  This smells like time fuckery and perception fuckery, ESPECIALLY time fuckery in regards to “Ives” giving a statement “yesterday” in 1983. It’s very, very interesting to me that things are phrased in a way where it seems to conflate joyce and ives, ESPECIALLY since the story that is being credited to “joyce,” about will being the subject of mind control experiments at hawkins lab, is the EXACT story that we find out that Terry was saying about El at the lab, ESPECIALLY since at no point has Joyce ever said that Will was tortured/found at the lab, because as far as we see in the sshow/joyce sees, he WASNT!! And  that line at the bottom, about brenner issuing no comment- as far as anyone knew, brenner was DEAD at the end of s1. Even owens claims to jonathan and nancy in s2 that anyone involved with will’s and barb’s disappearance is dead. So why are articles being published claiming that he’s declined comment??  What the HELL is going on here?? Why is Terry’s story about El being credited to Joyce as being about Will???? This smells like timeline fuckery. 

b.) the fact that will seems to recognize brenner in s4 I know the 8flix scripts were a contentious affair, but i’m personally of the belief that they weren’t entirely fake, even if they were from earlier in production. And in the 8flix script, it’s mentioned that Will recognizes Brenner when he’s dying in s4. And even the script aside, watching that scene, Will’s reaction/expression towards Brenner is definitely different from Mike’s, and Will’s definitely looks like recognition/realization, imo.  c.) the fact that hawkins lab was able to create a perfect replica of will’s body How on earth did they manage to create such an extremely lifelike version of will’s body?? especially with the technology available in the 80s, compared to what we have today, that’s no easy feat. and it’s even harder, if not borderline impossible, if you don’t have the person to use as a reference or tons and tons of detailed images of that person. Will’s missing flyers were all in black and white, and yet they even managed to nail his hair colour and skintone. And even then, doing that sort of intricately detailed and accurate work based on a few photos from a small handful of angles alone?? I don’t buy it.  d.) the fact that the hawkins lab team, including brenner,  immediately went back to the shed when they visited the byers house.  They didn’t even go into the actual house. They immediately went around back to the shed, and YES they had their little machines that they were using to track, so that could totally be a large part of the reason, but it’s still a little odd to me that they basically made a beeline for the AND were geared up for the upside-down before they even got there, meaning that they knew/highly suspected that some upside-down shit had gone down at the byers household. I also wonder if there’s a chance that THIS is when will saw brenner + why he recognized him, since maybe he was in the upside-down version of the shed at the time, and with his true sight shenanigans, was able to see brenner the same way that he could see the alphabet that joyce painted.  long story short: there’s an absolute metric fuckton of discrepancies between the shed and the byers house the night that will disappeared vs the next day, and this isn’t even all of them. and that still image of will looking into the shed at the exact same moment that he would have been disappearing keeps me up at night because WHAT THE FUCK?? there could be time fuckery at play (i’m looking at you, laundry that’s definitely not clothes from the day that will disappeared), there could be memory/perception fuckery at play, there could be both!! and WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON WITH THE JOYCE AND TERRY STUFF?? IM BAFFLED. I’m probably gonna go compare that Will article to the actual articels written about terry’s comments. Much to think about. 

#stranger things #vanishing of will byers #byler #laundrygate