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harringrovetrashrat · 3 years

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Tagged by @disdaidal !!! Thank you! Omg I’m like 🥺💖🥺💖

So, I figure since I have so many things I’m working on, and no idea when I’ll actually finish them (outside of my Big Bang Project), I should share the bits of them that I do actually have dhfoiahfiosh

What we have are these:

A fic where Billy meets some older queer people while kicked out, and learns from them how to love himself

“So I’m guessing you’ve never met a queen before,” they said. Billy shook his head.

“I’ve never met any royalty.” Juicy laughed and it made Billy feel like he’d said the wrong thing until she looked at him again, practically beaming.

“Well honey, there’s queens abound in here. Drag Queens, specifically.” Billy’s mouth formed a small ‘o’.

“So, you’re a… man?” Juicy shook her head.

“Personally, I find man and woman too limiting. All gender is a costume, darling. I just think dresses are prettier than suits.”

“You haven’t been in the right suits,” Cindy said with a smirk. Juicy gave her the finger without looking.

“It’s called taste, sweetie.” Cindy just laughed. Billy stared at Juicy, feeling awed by them. They were so tall, toned and beautiful. Their skin was dark and glistened with the glitter they’d spread over it. “I’m sure you have taste, don’t you munchkin?” Billy couldn’t help it and he pouted.

“I’m not short, I’m average for my age,” he snapped. Juicy just smiled.

“I like you,” they said, pointing a long nailed finger at him.

A Cheesy Summer Camp Horror fic, with romance and comedy because Like. Y’all know me.

“Let’s stop talking about her,” Heather cut in. “Let’s talk about this weekend.”

“This weekend?” Billy asked, perking up. “What about it?”

“Well, I was thinking we could celebrate the end of the first week with a skinny dip,” she said, eyes sparkling. Billy didn’t miss the flush that crossed over Robin’s face, though he wasn’t entirely sure who it was directed at. He definitely had a guess.

“I’m game!” Tommy piped up, grin wide, anger disappearing from his face. Billy rolled his eyes and snorted, but raised his hand, tongue running over his top teeth.

“Why not,” he said, giving his eyebrows a quirk. “I ain’t no pussy.”

“Of course,” Adam muttered, rolling his eyes. Billy’s eyes snapped over and narrowed. “Isn’t it a little, I dunno, juvenile?”

“Oh come on,” Steve chimed in, munching on the cookie now, relaxing with the change of topic. “Maybe so, but it’s summer, it’s camp, why not, right? Start it off with a bang?” His smile was teasing, bright, and Billy found it hard to look away, hard to deny that smile what it wanted.

The Reverse AU where Steve moves to Hawkins with his father and step family, Claudia and Dustin, and Billy was adopted into the Mayfields

“I’m not--! It’s just midterms! That’s what has me all out of sorts.” He opened his notebook and tried to will his blush away. There was a soft thud and Nancy joined them.

“What has you out of sorts?” She asked.

“Mid--”

“Billy so has a crush on that new guy from New York,” Heather said. Billy made a noise of protest when Nancy smiled, leaning over.

“Oh he’s so cute! Truly impeccable taste you have,” she teased. Billy rested his head on the table.

“I hate both of you so fucking much,” he hissed.

“No you don’t,” they chorused.

“I do, I really do,” Billy replied.

Mermaid AU where Steve and Billy were young friends before being separated. Steve tries to reunite them obviously

“I can show you a bunch of cool stuff,” Billy said, feeling oddly proud of himself. And well, the ocean was his home. And he never got the chance to really show it off to someone who didn’t already know it. “If I show you the ocean, will you tell me more about humans?” Steve nodded. “Like, why are all the ships girls?”

“Huh,” Steve said, tapping his chin with his finger. “I don’t actually know… Usually I think ‘cause a guy names them. I’ll ask my tutor. He knows everything.” Steve wasn’t a huge fan of Professor Owens, but he was nice enough. He let Steve find things to bring in and ask questions about, he didn’t get mad like Steve’s other tutors had when he had trouble reading. So even though Owens still pushed for Steve to focus more on his future, he was better than the other adults in Steve’s life.

“Tutor?” Billy asked. “What’s that?”

“Like a teacher,” Steve replied. “But like… Different.” In fact, Steve wasn’t totally sure what the difference was. Billy just squinted, looking confused.

“Different… how?”

“Uh, tutors are… are taller,” Steve replied matter of factly. Professor Owens was taller than Ms. Joyce had been, so there wasn’t anything to argue against that. Billy nodded seriously, making a note.

There was a ringing bell and a distant voice calling Steve’s name, making him sigh dramatically. It was already time? Billy’s ears twitched a little and he looked at Steve.

“What’s that?”

“That’s my nanny,” Steve said, mopey and pouting.

More of You’ll Find Me Looking Over the Edge of the World

“Oh, King Steve thinking about skipping?” Billy tugged him down, making Steve stumble as a fist started rubbing against his scalp and messing up his hair.

“Fuck, dude!” Steve cried, nearly dropping his tray. Billy just cackled, letting him go and shoving his hands in his pockets.

“No,” Nancy said through grit teeth. “He’s thinking about staying and taking--”

“He can’t go around looking like that,” Billy said with faux concern, eyes all worried as he leaned on the table with one hand and used the other to point at Steve’s, now fully messed up, hair. “I think Steve’ll have to take the afternoon, don’t you?” Billy turned to look over his shoulder, not seeing the way Nancy rubbed at her temples as Jonathan very obviously tried not to snicker. Steve almost felt bad. Billy knocked on the table with his knuckles, pushing up with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll get him home safely.”

“Get me home--” Steve began, but before he could finish his sentence, Billy was shoving him around and out of the cafeteria. Nancy sighed, shaking her head, giving Steve a look he knew would turn into a talk later. “Sorry guys!” Steve tossed over his shoulder.

Billy with a rat he named Max to piss off Max (he calls her human Max and she hates it)

“And what the fuck are you doing here?!” He asked her. Max, the little trouble maker, just squeaked at him, wriggling in his grip. “No fucking wonder I didn’t see you in Barbie’s house this morning, you decided to be a fucking Houndini, didn’t you.” She squeaked again, tail swirling and dragging along his wrist. He heard footsteps behind him and moved to shove her back into his jacket sleeve when Steve approached.

“You okay-- Oh!” Steve blinked, brows raised as he saw Max reach with her small, cute little pink hands to grab for Billy’s hard nipple again. “So…”

“Cut that out!” Billy hissed, moving her down to cradle her against his stomach. She settled in, but she was definitely hungry and would get restless again quickly. “I didn’t see her this morning but just assumed she was hiding in her little pile.”

“Me too,” Steve said, checking around the hallway for anyone who was late. Luckily, there was no one around to see them trying to hide a rat in Billy’s jacket. “How’d she even get out?”

“I mean, we are keeping her in a Barbie dream house instead of a cage--”

“Really? You’re gonna sass me now? After you insisted that she ‘live like the princess she is’--”

Stranger Than Fiction AU

“Billy, I swear to fucking god if you don’t get out there right now--” Billy stumbled out from the back, head turned to glare at Max, who was pushing him from behind. She pushed until he was at the counter, face to face with Steve. He glared, though his face was flush. Max crossed her arms. “Like we fuckin’ practiced.” Billy shot her another angry glance, but then looked back to Steve. Who was so confused.

“Max may have, uhm, brought it to my attention that I may have overreacted just the tiniest little bit.”

“That’s not at all right,” Max said under her breath. Billy swatted behind him without looking, missing her completely.

“Anyway,” he pressed on, “I just,” he sighed, pushing an errant curl behind his ear. Steve watched the movement before snapping his eyes back to Billy’s. “I don’t often take the chance to be nice, so I got maybe a little offended.” Max scoffed. “Okay a lot offended,” he said with an eye roll. Steve couldn’t help it; he snorted. Billy’s eyebrows shot up and his eyes lit up, like a kid who just learned Santa was real. Steve blushed, looking away, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

“It’s okay,” he replied, turning back to look at Billy. The sun lit up the stray blonde hairs poking out of his messy bun, making a light halo around him. Steve had to catch his breath.

It was like looking at an angel, vengeful and dangerous, but exciting all at once. His eyes seemed to shine, bright and gleeful, but also full of mischief.

“It’s okay,” Steve repeated, feeling his face heat up more. “I would have taken them if I could. They were amazing.” He smiled, nodding towards the stairs. “I should get to it though. Last day and all.” Something sad briefly flickered over Billy’s face, but it was gone as soon as it was there, and Steve thought he must have imagined it.

“Yeah, good luck,” Billy said. Max was smiling, smug, and she punched Billy’s shoulder.

Leverage AU

“Well,” he said slowly, letting the trio shake off their shadows. “The lab closed.” This isn’t about the kid was the underlying message. “But, what’s happening now is that Mayor Kline accepted a lot of weird bribes. They’re from a company called Starcourt Industries. Now, that’s the name of the mall that opened, Starcourt, but what’s weird--”

“--Is that they didn’t exist for very long before suddenly popping up in Indiana,” Alec cut in. “It reads like one of our companies. General background, seems legit, but I did a lot of poking around most of this stuff leads to loose ends. It took a while to get there, so at first glance…” The group nodded. At first glance everything checked out, and even a little digging would provide a general cover that most people wouldn’t think to look past.

Of course, none of them were most people.

“So who are they?” Eliot asked.

“All of the loose ends lead back to Russia,” Alec said. “But nothing concrete or connected, just more companies that do really general stuff. It goes real deep.” The implications there were discomforting. Alec was a genius, and excelled in his line of work, but this kind of grand scale cover up meant one thing: this was bigger than just a few bad apples in a company. This was a plan.

“So who’s the client?” Sophie asked. Nate pulled up a picture of a grumpy looking man, mustache groomed and eyes hard, but kind.

“Chief Jim Hopper.” That got Parker’s attention, bringing her out of the funk she’d been in since the mention of San Diego and Billy.

“Like, Police Chief?”

“Yep,” Nate said, popping the P. “He’s the one who found the kid, found out there was something going on at the lab. Now, he’s positive something weird is going on. Knows he’s done everything he can to legally take the Mayor down, but the man has a lot of friends in high places, and Jim can’t do anything. And that’s,” he smiled, “Where we come in.”

That’s still merely some of what I have going on, but that’s what I’ll share rn. Anyway, tag me in ur WIPs! I’d love to read them :) tag ur it

#harringrove #tommy h #stranger things #angst #fluff #aus #tag game

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kaypeace21 · 4 years

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ignoring the fact that they sound like a married couple arguing, mike and will are also bickering over whether or not el and mike are still together. it was written in the script, rehearsed, performed, and kept in the final cut that will OUTRIGHT SAYS “she said she dumped your ass, that doesn’t sound like a break.” and max yells “it wasn’t!” :@;$:@/&$:&:??!?! they literally said they’re not endgame. they aren’t endgame.

i KNOW right! Based on the s4 movies I think things are reversed and it’s El who can’t accept they are broken up. A lot of films said to inspire s4 have ex gfs refuse to accept the break up -one even hits on her gay ex-bf ( ‘birdcage’ ). Similar scenario in ‘clueless’ with girl hinting on gay guy who just wants to be friends. Max in s3 having to correct El that Mike is her “ ex boyfriend” and Will saying “that doesn’t sound like a break”. And Max agreeing “it wasn’t!” is foreshadowing they never actually got back together. IT WASN’T A BREAK! But El may not accept this.

It’s similar, to the random telemarketing joke where they had Mike say on the phone “El, sorry not interested “ and hang up . It was foreshadowing.

In the films the exes constantly call . Mike telling El “i’ll call so often you’ll have to turn your walkie off” was also foreshadowing of what Mike will do to her in s4. Since ,he hung up on her in s3 when she called demanding to know where he was at 9:30 in the morning. In ‘swingers’ the guy name mike (whose friends call him ‘gay’) hangs up on his ex gf who wants to get back together . He hangs up on her so he can talk to his new love interest (Will) . Specifically, Hangs up on his ex as she says “I love-“. Then in ‘splash’ he breaks up with his gf on the phone and says “do I love you?well what about you?” To dodge the question (then yells at a family member ease dropping on the other line -Karen). And they break up on the phone. And he tells a friend later he never loved her.

2 movies the ex says they’ll get back together and their new relationships are “just phases” etc ( waynes world, high fidelity, dumb and dumber). Saying they’re still together when they aren’t (wayne’s world). Loads of movies had the crazy ex sabotage new relationships, call constantly, stalk, and flirt despite the exes discomfort and repeatedly saying it’s over (despite the ex not loving them and just be possessive and not wanting them with other people).

The exes are cray in the films (el stalking and never apologizing for spying. And mileven dancing to the song ‘every breath you take’ a song about a stalker ex who doesn’t take no for an answer -after their ex hooks up with their friend, wasn’t a coincidence). Along with El watching ‘days of our lives’ where she mimicked erica who was in a relationship with Mike roy. And it ended messy with one of them sabotaging their new relationship, stalking them, and claiming the stalking victim still loved them. (Although, they eventually accepted that wasn’t true).

El stalked Mike in s2 (all that stuff milevens found romantic- El watching him without him knowing. Mike said he was not ok with it in s3). And in s3 (like the song) she stalks him after their breakup, and when he said not to do that she just says ‘i make my own rules’. I think s4 shows just how ‘un-cute’ this behavior can get.

I’ve already talked about that awkward kiss scene to death. But i think it indicates Mike assumes they’re broken up and el assumes they’re back together.

FIrst he LIED AGAIN (the cause of the breakup)- and pretended he didn’t confess to her at the end of s3. And never said “ I love you’ back! He even tries to take the words back and says about the prior love confession “ “Oh! Oh, yeah that.Man, that was so long ago. Um…” and starts to scratch his head and says everything he said at the cabin was “in the heat of the moment stuff and we were arguing…”

They even frame the scene right before the kiss strangely, making El look larger and imposing, as she approaches. Mike feels cornered (you the viewer subconsciously are supposed to feel claustraphobic/trapped/cornered/stuck along with Mike).

We see him furrow his brows (uncomfortable and confused ) when El initiates the romantic moment, saying “I love you too.”

And cue most awkward kiss in history- where he keeps his eyes open the whole time and doesn’t kiss back. (In Will’s room, mike in front of an open closet, as el holds Will’s s1 bear.)

During the kiss, the song ‘the first i love you ‘played. The only other time they played that song in s3, was when Robin rejects Steve’s romantic confession and she comes out as gay . Interesting choice for that awkward mileven kiss/confession shown later where El says she loves Mike (and mike keeps his eyes open, doesn’t kiss back or return the ‘I love you’). It’s foreshadowing of Mike rejecting El (in the future) cause he’s gay.

We even see El’s reaction first (happy, smiling and giddy). Assuming they’re back together. But then we blur the screen to see Mike’s opposing expression. He looks confused, bewildered and even furrows his brows again.

Then we see El initiating all the romantic stuff outside.El seems to be the one trying to make it romantic- like Mike hugging el and lucas with one arm identically (hand on their upper back), but El caresses his chest.

And as Mike stops the hug El shoves his head into hers (it actually looked like it hurt honestly XD)

the byler centric ending with the Hopper monologue reinforces this theme. Mike while looking at both cars driving away was thinking of Will . They show this by having Mike be sad as Will drives away (alone) twice as Mike sadly watches him leave- this was done to show that he’s actually upset the 2 later times where Will and El leave at the same time -because of Will. I showed it in one of my vids here, at 23:11

When we first see Mike during the Hopper monologue , it continues to pan to only Mike and Will (not El) cause what he says is mostly about them. “I’ve been feeling distant from you. Like you’re pulling away from me or something” (Will does this both figuratively/literally). I miss playing board games every night (d &d)”. Then Mike looks back at the Byers house (he just lingers there and looks back as his friends leave without him) like how Will turned to watch Mike leave and hold hands with El (as the crew go up the hill without Will). “But I know you’re getting older, growing, changing. And I guess, if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change.”

It pans to both of them on “i don’t want things to change’ cause that’s how they both feel. Mike , ‘doesn’t want things things to change’. He doesn’t want their friendship to change as they ‘get older’ because he’d have to and acknowledge his feelings for Will are romantic and if he’s “being honest” that “scares” him (especially in rural 80s conservative-Indiana at the height of the aids epidemic). Why we see Mike trying to act like a adult while dating El, and Will trying to act like a kid- they’re both trying to escape growing up to be gay in different ways. Will reverting to childhood activities and saying he’ll ‘never fall in love’ (after his double date with lumax). And Mike trying to act like “old people’ saying “we’re not kids anymore... what did you expect that we’d never get girlfriends?” Cause he equates straight romance with being an adult and his feelings for Will as something he has to grow out of . Which he learns in the very end isn’t possible.

Right after that scene it switches from Will crying, to Mike entering his house. His face is visibly red from crying and he looks shocked (almost as if he realized something) before he hugs his mom- to mirror the time he thought Will died in s1.

And the dialogue in this scene says “So I think maybe that’s why I came in here, to try and maybe stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were.” He goes back to his mother for comfort, like he did the 1st time he lost Will. But also to reverse back time, to s1, before he realized his feelings for Will are romantic. When things were simple. I think the last episode is when Mike truly realizes he’s been in love with Will this entire time and he can’t fix it and transfer his feelings for Will on to el (something he’s been trying to do all of s3). El said he loved him and he felt nothing-and he was heartbroken over Will leaving (not El). Which is why he just seems almost shocked/numb as he’s processing this fact. This whole scene only showed Mike and Will transitions- el was never there, cause Mike wasn’t upset over her.

In the last ep (in s3) Mike mirrors the scene in s1, hugging his mom, since he feels like he’s losing Will all over again. In s1 the romantic/queer coded lyric from the song ‘We can be heroes’ plays as he hugs his mom “And we kiss as though nothing could fall. And the shame.”. And during the s3 move (‘we can be heroes’) plays again! And David Bowie wrote this song and Jonathan even said to Will in his ‘being a freak is the best speech’ “who would you rather be friends with David bowie (a queer singer) or Kenny Roggers?”

It’s why finn wolfhard after s3 liked this byler pic. cause s3 was all about Will and Mike denying their feelings for each other.

Not to mention,After s1 Finn quoted the Duffers saying Mike thought of El as a “puppy’ (dart) or “et” , and then said Mileven was a “first summer love thing”- foreshadowing mileven’s downfall during the Summer (aka s3). He repeats this “first summer love” phrase 2x. Millie when he mentioned what the duffers said rightfully thought the puppy thing was “awful”, but Finn was clearly told mileven doesn’t last -very early on- and most likely the Duffers told him “it’s like a first summer love thing”.Summer love” by definition fails-as it only lasts during the summer.

#byler #byeler #anti mileven

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send-me-your-hcs · 4 years

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Forever Ch20

Collab fic with @ceratonia-siliqua (check their blog next week for the next chapter!)

Read on ao3

Warnings: Unhealthy/codependent relationship, possessive behavior, dark themes, check ao3 for additional warnings.

This had been the longest twelve days of Bucky’s entire life.

And that was really saying something, considering he’d spent ten years in prison, most of it confined to an 8 by 10 windowless box. Bucky wasn’t unfamiliar with the arduous, monotonous dredge of just plain existing. But for some reason, the sting of being away from Peter - of his lover being out of his sight for so long - made Bucky’s skin crawl, his teeth ache. He felt like an addict going through withdrawals. He couldn’t keep his cool, which was an absolutely necessity for a hitman on a mission.

Thankfully, he was a pro. He took out three of the targets on Pierce’s list without a hiccup, crossing five states by the time he’d finished all the clean-up. He called Pierce on his way back to Indiana, stoically accepting the man’s brief approval, before he was urged to carry on with the rest of his list, whilst being assured that more names would be added soon.

Bucky brazenly informed Pierce that he would be spending some more time at home before heading west to take care of the other dozen names on his list, and hung up before Pierce could so much as comment on it. He wasn’t in the mood to face the man’s ire.

He couldn’t be bothered.

Because he was heading home, to Peter.

—

His excitement and joy lasted right up until the moment he drove around the last sharp turn in their driveway and saw another car parked out front. He almost hit the brakes in his shock, but the feeling was quickly replaced with dread. Whoever was here, Peter had let him in.

Bucky cursed himself as he hastily parked the car. He should have listened to his instincts. He should have locked the doors when he left. Even if it would have been tough explaining the situation to Peter afterwards, at least the boy wouldn’t have been able to let someone into their goddamn home.

He didn’t bother stopping to grab his bags as he bolted from the car and leapt up the porch steps. His heart was racing, half-panicked and half-enraged to think that he might be too late; that someone might have ratted them out and taken this from him, this life he had literally killed for. His heart was in his throat as he threw the door open, a torrential ocean raging underneath the calm guise he wore on his face.

He stopped dead when he stepped inside.

Steve’s back was obscuring his view, taking up almost the entire width of the narrow mudroom where he stood. He turned to look at him as the door opened, and there, behind Steve in the open doorway to the rest of the house, was Peter. The boy looked distinctly uncomfortable, but thankfully, that was all – no panicked tears, no pleading sobs, nothing. Bucky almost sighed with relief until he noticed the way Steve was staring at him.

“What are you doing here?”

If possible, the stink-eye on Steve’s face quadrupled. Bucky could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen his friend look so offended. “What am I doing here? Bucky.” Steve reeled back with one arm and pointed at Peter, accusingly. “What is he doing here?”

“He lives here. We live together, Steve.”

“Do you,” Steve said, a question with no punctuation mark. “Well thank God for that, because the rest of the world is in knots convinced that Peter was abducted by a rapist.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow at the other man. “Would you rather he was?”

“I’d rather you weren’t involved at all!”

“Steve,” Peter called, placating. “Please, give us a chance to explain. I swear this isn’t what it looks like. Why don’t you come in? We can sit and talk this through, just give us a chance.”

Steve turned and looked at Peter like he was seeing him for the first time, and in a way, Bucky supposed he was. He had only ever known the boy as the son, the baby Stark, Tony Stark’s prized and private little prince. He never knew him as a person, an adult, someone old and wise enough to make his own decisions and handle the consequences that came along with them. Some of the doubt lessened when Steve looked at Peter then, and Bucky’s heart swelled with how much he loved this perfect boy.

“Fine,” Steve said, after a long and tense silence. “Let’s sit and talk.”

Peter led them down the hall, into the finally fully-furnished living room. Bucky snuck glances at the finishing touches Peter had applied while he was gone; the art he had hung, the plants he had re-potted and placed here and there for decoration. It looked good. Homey. It looked like the opposite of what he imagined Peter’s living room looked like growing up, and something about that made his chest feel warm.

Peter took a seat on the couch and smiled as Bucky sat next to him. Steve’s jaw clenched as Bucky wrapped an arm around Peter’s waist and pulled him flush against his side, kissing his temple below his unruly curls, and pointedly looked away as he took his own seat on the armchair by the window.

“Okay,” he said, sharp and authoritative and every bit the cop he should have been. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, fixing them with a cold stare. “Start talking.”

Bucky kissed Peter’s hair again to let him know everything was okay, then pulled back and said, “We didn’t have a choice, Stevie.”

“Don’t Stevie me. Not now. And don’t bullshit me either, Bucky. There are millions of other ways you two could have handled this. Tony is out of his mind with worry!”

Peter flinched at that, and Bucky took his knee, rubbing slow, gentle circles into the top of his thigh to soothe him. “I know. And neither one of us is happy about that. You know me, Steve. You think I wanted to cause a nationwide panic? That wasn’t our intention.” He wrapped his arm around Peter’s shoulders, drew him in. “But Peter wanted to come with me and his dad – his dad would have used every one of his multiple-billions of dollars to stop us if he knew that. We had no choice.”

“You don’t know that,” Steve argued. Bucky could tell he was doing everything he could not to yell. “You never gave him a chance to do anything else, Bucky. You just took his son without a word to anyone and ferried him 800 miles away. You’ve condemned yourself – how can you not see that?”

Peter’s body went from tense to rigid as Steve spoke. Bucky could feel him coiled tight, like a spring ready to shoot up at any moment. He barely caught the cold, steely look on the boy’s face before Peter was near-shouting, “Steve, this isn’t Bucky’s fault!”

Steve wasn’t one to balk during an argument. His ability to remain stoic in the face of backchat was one of his most admirable features, especially in their younger years. But something about Peter snapping at him seemed to take him aback, and he straightened up his posture and tore his gaze away from Bucky, looking laughably lost for words.

Peter, on the other hand, looked wound tight and ready to blow. Bucky’s heart clenched at the hurt look on the boy’s face. He never wanted to see his boy look like that, it crushed him. He gently pulled Peter into his side and stroked his leg with his metal hand, soothing him. “Baby. It’s okay.”

“No it’s not,” Peter said, before Steve got the chance to. “He’s just like my dad. He thinks – he thinks I’m a child. He thinks you took me, Bucky. He doesn’t even know us.”

“I know,” Bucky said, comforting. “But that’s why we’re talking it out. Right? Steve is my friend, baby. I’ve known him since he was smaller than you. He’ll understand.”

Steve didn’t bother trying to hide the doubtful look on his face, but he politely said nothing as Peter took a deep breath, in and out. Bucky just kept holding him, trying not to be openly resentful of the fact that Steve was here, thwarting him from having Peter right on this very couch.

After another deep breath, Peter’s shoulders relaxed beneath Bucky’s arm and he said, “I know you and my dad are friends, but you don’t know him as well as I do. Even if Bucky wasn’t…even if he hadn’t been released from prison less than two months ago – even if he was closer to my age or, or a girl, or, or whatever – he still wouldn’t have been okay with it. My dad is really overprotective. I mean, you should know that – you didn’t even know I existed until a few months ago. Why do you think that is?”

The look on Steve’s face shifted. Bucky watched, carefully, as the doubt turned inwards, turning on itself. Steve looked like he was momentarily at war with himself, which went right over Peter’s head as the boy kept talking.

“I know my dad loves me. I love him too. And I hate that I’ve hurt him so badly. But I was so isolated, Steve, and it…it was on purpose. My dad doesn’t trust other people, especially when it comes to me. Do you have any idea how many things I’ve never done or, or never gotten to try, just because my dad didn’t think letting me out – with a bodyguard! – was safe enough? And then I met Bucky, and, and – ”

Peter turned to look at him, hurt, overwhelmed, and let Bucky hug him tighter against his side, his hands sweeping down Peter’s arm and up his thigh.

“ – And I knew he wouldn’t get it,” Peter finished, quieter. “He wouldn’t have wanted to get it. He would be against it immediately, without knowing anything about Bucky. He wouldn’t have cared. He…he wouldn’t have cared that we can tell each other anything, or that Bucky would never let anything happen to me. He wouldn’t have cared that we love each other. He wouldn’t have cared that Bucky is – he’s – he’s the best thing that ever happened to me. My dad wouldn’t have cared.”

“But you never gave him a chance, Peter,” Steve said, remarkably gentle, to his credit. “And that isn’t fair. He’s your dad. He deserves better than that.”

“Steve, I know he’s your friend, but from what Peter tells me, this guy was one bad day away from microchipping Peter like a dog. If he knew so much as my name Peter wouldn’t be here. He’d be in New York, in that tower, locked away like a Disney princess, and you know it.”

Steve looked like he had a lot he wanted to say to that, but before he got the chance, Peter said, “If my dad ever bothered to actually talk to me and was open to the idea of me having a relationship with anyone other than himself, this wouldn’t have happened, Steve. Neither of us wanted it to. We wanted to stay in New York. I want to talk to my dad and have a good relationship with him. I miss him. But he was the one who didn’t pay enough attention to me to even realize I had met someone and fallen in love.”

The tears Peter had been fighting to keep in this whole time suddenly overflowed, and he wiped them away, messily, sniffling. “He’s my dad and I love him. But the thing everybody needs to understand is that I’m an adult, and he wasn’t good for me.”

Pride bloomed in Bucky’s chest like a flower opening up for the sun. A few weeks ago, Peter couldn’t even admit that his father had neglected him, let alone that their relationship had been unhealthy. Even after all the conversations they’d had about it, curled up on this very couch, or in bed, or at the dinner table or picnicking by the lake – not to mention the countless conversations through their letters – even after all that, Peter still hadn’t been able to say the words aloud, and here he was, brave enough for the both of them, speaking it into the world for the very first time.

Sniffling again, Peter wiped the mess from his face, leaving dried tear tracks clinging to the flawless skin of his cheeks. “You can love someone and still not be good for them. I know how much my dad loves me and how badly he’s hurting, but I’ve already done as much as I can about it. I wrote him a letter telling him I’m okay, and that just has to be enough for right now Steve, because legally, nobody can make me do anything I don’t want to do, but that wouldn’t stop my dad from trying, or paying someone who doesn’t care. When you love someone, you have to be willing to let them go. I can’t have the relationship that I want with my dad until he understands that.”

Steve was quiet for a moment, stoic, processing, until he finally sighed out a long, frustrated breath and asked, “You wrote him a letter?”

Bucky was glad Steve asked so that he didn’t have to. He knew Peter would, eventually, and supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised that Peter used the boredom and solace of Bucky being away to finally find the courage. He was dying to know what the letter said. But that could wait until he left for his next mission.

Peter nodded. “It’s hanging by the front door for Bucky to mail the next time he leaves for work. I tried to tell him as much as I could to ease his mind, because I really don’t want him to hurt anymore. But I’m not leaving Bucky. I love him. And he loves me. And we’re happy here and my dad has no right to take that away.”

Steve ran a hand across his face, looking terribly earnest in his distress. Whatever decision Steve came to, right here, right now, would decide whether or not their lifelong friendship had run its course. He loved Steve - as much as he could love anyone who wasn’t Peter - but the man was lawful in the worst of ways, and worst of all, Tony Stark’s friend.

The thought made Bucky’s throat close up. He hated the thought of losing Steve. But he would not lose Peter. “I asked Peter to come with me, Stevie. That’s all. That’s the only crime I’m guilty of.”

“Jesus, Buck,” Steve half-said, half-sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and unable to even meet his gaze. “I don’t know about this. This is – it’s messed up. I get where you’re coming from Peter, I do, but you’re eighteen years old. And Tony isn’t going to let this go.”

“Exactly,” Bucky said, holding Peter tighter when he whimpered. “He isn’t going to let it go, that’s the whole point. Peter deserves to have a life. He deserves to be with the person he loves, the same as you and me. And until his father can come to grips with that and accept it, this is the way things need to be.”

“Please don’t say anything to him,” Peter added, begging. “Please, Steve. He will follow you everywhere. He’ll find out where you’ve been, by whatever means necessary. He’ll drag me back against my will and pay off anyone who tries to help me. I’m not exaggerating.”

Guilt and shame covered Steve’s face. But eventually, he gave one firm, quick nod, said, “I know you’re not.”

It was like a dam breaking inside Bucky’s chest, releasing all the tension he didn’t know he was carrying. He jostled Peter against his side again and said, “So you won’t tell anyone?”

Normally, a verbal promise wouldn’t be nearly enough for Bucky. But he had known Steve their entire lives, and if there was one truth to Steve and who he was as a human being, it was that he kept his promises, always.

Steve eyed him for a long moment, then looked to Peter, his line of sight following the arm across Peter’s shoulders, bridging their bodies together. The fight seemed to leave him slowly and all at once at the same time, seeping from him and disappearing.

“I want to go on the record and say this is a bad idea and it could go very, very badly, for both of you. I want you to understand that in my opinion, Peter – you should go home and face the music and tell your dad the truth, and give him a chance to screw things up instead of just assuming he will. That’s my two cents. But,” he paused to take a breath, eyes sliding shut, like he didn’t want to face whatever he was about to say. “But, you also have a point, and I know Tony isn’t exactly the most…functional, at times. Peter, you’re only eighteen, but yes, that does make you an adult. And Bucky may be an idiot, but he’s also the best person I know, so at the very least, I know you’re safe here and I believe you when you tell me you’re happy. So in conclusion - though one of you should - no. I won’t tell anyone.”

Peter’s face broke into that gorgeous, dazzling smile, and he looked like he was one beat away from jumping to his feet and launching himself at Steve in a grateful hug. Bucky held him a little firmer, just in case. “Steve, thank you, God, thank you so much.”

Steve returned the boy’s smile, though it was tight-lipped and half-assed. Whatever. It was good enough. His word had always been good enough for Bucky. “You’re welcome. I, um. I had planned to crash on Bucky’s couch for a few days, but…I think I’m going to head home instead. No offense, Buck. This is just a bit too much for me.”

“I get it,” Bucky said, giving his friend a small smile as he stood from the couch. “I know this is a lot, Stevie. You don’t have to explain.”

Steve nodded as he stood as well, letting Bucky lead him through the house and to the door. He stopped to eye the envelope pinned beside it, at Peter’s messy, boyish handwriting scrawling out Tony’s name and address, but with a shake of his head, he let it go, let Bucky politely usher him out the door.

“You be safe, Buck,” Steve said, for just about the millionth time in the course of their friendship. “I’m in even less of a position to help you now than I was back then. Be careful where you plant your feet.”

“I know,” Bucky said. He clapped the other man on the shoulder, sensing Steve really wasn’t in the mood for a full on hug right now. “He makes me happy, Stevie.”

A look washed over Steve’s face that was probably as close to happy as he’d been since Peter answered the door. “I’m glad,” he said, genuinely. “But I’m also worried as all hell.”

Bucky nodded. “I know. I’m keeping us as safe as I can, Steve. You’re just gonna have to trust me here.”

“I do trust you,” Steve said. He headed down the porch steps, not looking away from Bucky as he said, “I’ve always trusted you.”

—

After watching Steve drive away – confirming, to some primal part of himself, that they were alone and safe at last – Bucky went searching for Peter, and found him in the bathroom, washing his face at the sink. He strolled up behind his young lover and drew him into his arms, squeezing him nearly as hard as he could, bending down to bury his face in that soft head of curls.

“I missed you so much,” he said, swaying them side to side a little. “Are you alright, sweetheart?”

“Yeah,” Peter said. It wasn’t fully convincing, but he smiled at their reflections and met Bucky’s gaze in the mirror. “I missed you too, Daddy.”

Heat surged through his veins. Bucky felt his chest rumble like a lion getting ready to roar as he sucked in a low, pleased breath. “God, baby. We’ve got quite a bit of lost time to make up for, don’t you think?” He bent and kissed Peter’s slim neck, nipping at it lightly just to feel the boy squirm. “You still want me to take you dancin’?”

Peter giggled and writhed in his hold, but was totally, effortlessly caught. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night,” he said, turning his head to leave sweet, chaste little kisses across Bucky’s jaw, up to his cheek. “I just want to be alone with you right now.”

Bucky smiled, looped an arm beneath Peter’s knees and lifted him from the ground in one swift motion. Peter wrapped his scrawny arms around his neck and clung to him adorably as Bucky pressed their lips together, carrying him from the room and up the stairs.

#winterspider #bucky x peter #bucky barnes x peter parker #ceratonia-siliqua #winterspider prison fic

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flohamilton · 5 years

Note

Hi love ❤️your work is amazing and I was just wondering if you could write a Steve Harrington x Byers!reader where the reader is Jonathan and wills middle sister and she’s in the house when billy shows up and instead of Steve fighting billy the reader does and she puts up a good fight but billy beats the fuck out of here and when Steve gets to billy he freaks out and fights billy and wins and admits he likes the reader sorry if it’s so specific thank you love ❤️

Protect You

Steve Harrington x Byers!Reader

Warnings: Fluff, cursing, mentions of blood

hi anon!!! I’m so sorry this took so long, I just really wanted this to be accurate with the actual episode! I really enjoyed writing this and I hope you love it! (I kinda got carried away oops) and thank you so much for sending in a request!!

It seemed to you that all hell was breaking loose at the moment. As if your family hadn’t already been put through enough with your little brother Will’s disappearance a year ago, this year was somehow even worse, as Will was now possessed by this shadow monster thing, and you were too terrified to even question it. Your mom, brothers, and Nancy were currently in Hopper’s cabin, trying to expel the demon-like entity from Will’s body, Hopper and El were closing the gate at the lab, and you were at your house, along with Steve and four very chaotic children.

You had offered to stay at your house, because it was where you felt most safe, and also because dealing with four kids would have been too dangerous anywhere else. Steve had offered to stay and help hold down the fort, which you were thankful for because to be quite honest you were scared shitless and could use a little company from someone your own age. You also weren’t complaining because you had been crushing on Steve for a while now and having another opportunity to spend some time with him sounded pretty good to you. Well as good as things can be when you are fighting an inter-dimensional monster and all of its spawns. But nonetheless, you were glad Steve was here with you.

You had always seen Steve around school, and sure you thought he was cute, but his ego was always too much for you to handle. He was so concerned about his title as “King Steve” that you knew he would never give you the time of day. Then Nancy and Steve began dating and you shut off all of your feelings toward Steve for the sake of your friendship with Nancy. You two weren’t the closest of friends, but your brothers were best friends so you saw a lot of each other and you enjoyed her company from time to time. Now that Steve and Nancy had broken up, you felt the familiar feelings coming back, and you knew you were in for trouble. Now that Steve had become involved in this whole demogorgan thing, you got to see his true character. He was a really sweet guy, he enjoyed being around the kids, and you realized he wasn’t the duchy “King Steve” you thought he was. Now it seemed like he was just Steve.

But crushes and love were not what you were concerned about at the moment. The kids were all a little nervous, which was expected, but especially Mike. The poor kid just saw the love of his life for the first time after almost an entire year and she had just been swept away to complete the potentially most dangerous task of any of your lives. You felt bad for the kid. Steve and Dustin had just finished arguing about where to put the demodog, and the general consensus had somehow become your fridge.

“Is this okay?” Steve asked whilst shoving the creature into your refrigerator, “who am I kidding of course this isn’t okay. Jesus Christ Dustin, why couldn’t we just bury the damn thing!” Steve said shooting you and apologetic look.

“Because Steve! This is a scientific breakthrough and we can’t just bury it like a dog!” Dustin shouted passionately.

“I am so sorry, y/n” Steve said once the dog was successfully stored in the fridge, “We will buy you a new fridge.”

“Don’t worry Steve, we’ve got bigger issues at the moment,” You said, chucking slightly, still mind-blown that you were even in this situation. Not only were you nearing the apocalypse but your crush Steve was in your house with you, helping you babysit four kids.

Meanwhile Mike, Lucas and Max were orchestrating an elaborate plan to storm the tunnels and light a fire to distract the dogs and lead them away from the lab in order to protect El and Hopper.

“This is not happening. y/n and I promised to keep you shitheads safe, do you understand me?” Steve said, his inner babysitter coming out strong, making you swoon.

Before anyone could say a word you were interrupted by the sound of an engine revving furiously. Max jumped up and peered out the window. “That’s my brother! He can’t know I’m here, he’ll kill me. He’ll kill us!” She said, a panicked look forming on her face

“Don’t worry Max, Steve and I will take care of this,” You said, putting on your brave face. The apocalypse was literally looming over Hawkins, how bad could Billy Hargrove be? “He’s on my property now and I’ll make him leave. He can’t tell me no.” You said defiantly.

“No y/n,” Steve spoke up, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, you should stay in here with the kids.”

“It’s okay Steve, what’s the worst he could do?”

Max opened her mouth to speak against you, but before a word could come out you saw the bright headlights of Billy’s car pull into your drive way. Before anyone could stop you, you were opening your front door and walking out to meet Billy in the drive way. Steve followed behind you anxiously.

“Can I help you?” You asked, your attitude making an appearance. Billy snarled at your words and you suddenly had major regrets about coming outside.

“Yeah, what are you doing here, amigo?” Steve asked, now standing protectively in front of you.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Billy said. Tension becoming so thick you could practically cut it with a knife.

“We’re watching a movie,” You said, improvising, “Indiana Jones!”

Billy scoffed, “I’m looking for my sister.”

“I didn’t even know you had a sister Billy, what makes you think she would be here?” You asked, playing stupid.

“A little birdie told me she was here.”

“Huh, weird. No one’s here but me and y/n. You’re kinda interrupting movie night, so if you don’t mind…” Steve said, waving his hand off, motioning for Billy to leave.

“I don’t appreciate being lied to.” Billy snarled.

“Well she’s not here.” You spoke up.

“Then who is that?” Billy asked pointing behind you. You turned to see the four kids, looking our from the living room window.

Billy stormed past you barging through your front door. “Hey asshole, you can’t just barge in my house like this!” You shouted at him. Billy swiftly pushed you to the ground, knocking the wind out of you.

“Oh shit are you okay?” Steve asked, helping you up.

“I think so, just knocked the wind out of me.” You said standing and rushing into your house where Billy was currently holding Lucas against the wall.

Your inner motherly instincts kicked in and you suddenly had no fear of Billy whatsoever. “Don’t touch him!” You shouted, and suddenly you felt as if you soul had left your body and you were now functioning on autopilot as you punched Billy square in the face.

Unfortunately, your punch had virtually no affect on Billy, “Big mistake.” He said, a maniacal laugh coming from his lips.The next few moments were a blur to you. Billy threw a punch directly to your nose and you were sure it was broken as you felt a tremendous amount of blood gushing from it. Once you were on the ground he repeatedly kicked you in the ribs. He even kicked you in the side of the head and your ears began to ring, the pain becoming too much for you to handle. You heard shouting in the background, but it was only faint.

Suddenly you saw Steve come up from behind Billy. With one swift punch, Steve had knocked Billy on the floor, and was on top on him, repeatedly punching him in the face over and over again, Billy’s face becoming bloodier and bloodier by the second. A few moments passed before Billy was knocked out cold.

Steve got off of Billy and rushed over to where you were on the floor, a bloody and whimpering mess.

“Hey you’re okay,” Steve said, taking your face in his hand, “That asshole isn’t gonna hurt you anymore.” He whispered softly, eyes wide at the destruction Billy had caused to your body.

“Steve,” You whimpered, tears flowing liberally at this point.

“No, no y/n don’t cry, you’re okay, I got you.” He said, bending down and softly placing a kiss on your forehead. “I need to get you cleaned up. I’m going to take you back to your bedroom, okay y/n?” Steve said, gently picking you up and carrying you in his arms back to your room. He carefully placed you onto your bed making sure to be extra gentle.

“Just stay still okay, I’m going to get some bandages.” Steve said. You nodded your head slightly and closed your eyes, trying to focus on something other than the extreme pain you were in.

While Steve was in the bathroom gathering first aid supplies, you heard him talking to the kids. “She’s not good. There’s no way I’m leaving her to go into those tunnels. No way. It has to wait.”

“But Steve this is our only chance!” Dustin said.

“And what about Billy?” Lucas asked, “We can’t just leave him here?”

“I can drive us.” Max said, followed by protests from everyone else. “No I’ve done it before when Billy was drunk. I’m pretty good! Anyway, we can get Billy and drop him off at our house, he’ll be out cold for the night so there’s no chance he will wake up and try to find us. Then we can go to the tunnels ourselves while you stay here and take care of y/n. It’s a great plan!” Max said.

“Absolutely not.” You heard Steve say in his babysitter tone again. “A. I’m not letting you drive a car, you’re literally 9 years old. And B. I am definitely not letting you go into the tunnels alone.”

“So what, we wait here with Billy’s useless body and put El and Hopper in even more danger than they already are? I don’t think so Harrington!” Max yelled. You had to admit, Max was mature for her age and you didn’t doubt that she could drive a car. The thought of your favorite kids entering the terrifying tunnels alone made you shiver, but you also had to admit that it was better than leaving El and Hopper for dead.

“Steve please,” Max begged.

Steve huffed, “Fine. But please do not speed, and don’t forget to turn your headlights on. Also bring a walky-talky and make sure you radio in if anything happens. Okay?” He asked, and you heard everyone agree. “Please be careful. I’m trusting you guys.” Steve paused. “Let me put Billy in the backseat before you go.” You heard the sound of Steve lifting Billy’s unconscious body off the the floor and go outside, followed by faint voices from the kids. You heard an engine rev and you knew the kids had left.

“Hey sorry to take so long,” Steve said, and you saw that he hand an arm full of various towels, bandages, and rubbing alcohol to clean you up with.

“It’s all my fault.” You said, voice cracking and tears flowing again. You couldn’t handle the guilt you were already feeling at the thought of Mike, Lucas, Max, and Dustin in danger.

“Hey no its not, shh, you didn’t do anything wrong, y/n.” Steve said, sitting next to you, wrapping his arm around you as you leaned into him.

“I had to go and pick a fight with Billy and now you can’t even go with the kids to help them in the tunnels. I could have stayed behind, I would have been okay.” You cried.

“No, y/n I’m not leaving you.” Steve said, tightening his grip around you. “And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I have faith in the kids. They’ve been through a lot. They can handle it.”

You began to cry harder now, “I’m just worried about them.”

“I know. I am too, but they’ll radio in if anything goes wrong.” Steve said, looking down at you, wiping a tear from your cheek. “Let’s get you cleaned up, alright? Just lay back okay, I’ve got you.”

You nodded, sniffling. The pain in you body was still debilitating, but you had become more aware of your surroundings. Steve was being the kindest person ever and you were in shock that you were in this crazy situation with Steve.

“This may hurt a little,” Steve said as he dabbed your nose with a wet towel, and you flinched. “I’m sorry, I’m almost done,” he said wiping away the rest of the blood from your face.

“I also brought you some ice to hold on your ribs, you got kicked pretty hard.” Steve said, handing you an ice pack.

“Thank you for taking care of me. You really didn’t have to… Will you come lay with me?” You asked, scooting over in your bed, whimpering at the pain your ribs were causing you.

“Of course,” Steve said, climbing onto the bed next you to. You leaned into him and he put his arm tightly around you shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re alright. I care about you so much and to see you get beat up like that hurt me a lot. I never wanna see you get hurt again, y/n.”

You began tearing up yet again at the thought of Steve being so kind to you. Never in your life had someone been as nice to you as Steve was being now.

“You look so beautiful when you cry. I mean it makes me really sad when you cry, but you’re so pretty.” Steve said, his face turning slightly red.

“Even after I just got pummeled?” You asked, giggling.

“Yes. Always, y/n. Actually,” Steve paused, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” He took a deep breath, “These past few weeks I feel like we’ve gotten so close and I love it. I love being around you. I mean I always saw you in school and thought you seemed nice, but getting to know you has really made me see how awesome you are. You’re so kind to everyone, you’re a great friend, and you might even be a better babysitter than I am. But that’s beside the point. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I like you. Like a lot. And I can’t wait anymore, I had to tell you. I just care about you so much and seeing you hurt makes me realize that I want to be there to protect you forever.”

“Steve,” You said, not much louder than a whisper. You were so shocked and your emotions were already all over the place that you could help but let the tears flow again.

“I’m sorry if that was too much, you don’t have to say anything back. I’m sorry if I made this weird-“

You cut him off, “I like you too, a lot actually.” You signed a breath of relief, finally getting it off of your chest. “I’m kinda embarrassed to tell you, but I’ve kinda liked you since sophomore year.”

“Really?” Steve asked, a shocked look on his face, followed by a goofy smile, you nodded. “This is amazing. I can’t believe this is actually happening! The girl of my dreams likes me back!!” Steve said, more to himself this time, making you blush.

You snuggled closer into Steve, if that was even possible.

“What do you say when all of this is over, and if we actually make it out alive, you let me take you on a date?” Steve asked.

“I would love that.” You said, sighing. Despite the current situation your heart couldn’t be more happy.

“Good. So would I.” Steve said, looking down at you, staring into your eyes. He slowly began to lean in, you did as well, almost like you were a magnet being pulled towards him. Steve’s lips gently landed on yours, and you depend this kiss, leaning into him slightly for a few seconds before pulling away.

“Wow.” Steve said with wide eyes.

“Yeah, wow.” You said.

“I’m never leaving you, y/n. I’m always going to be here to protect you. I promise.” Steve said, and eventually the two of you drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later you were woken by the sound of people entering your house. You sat up quickly, worried you may be in danger.

“Don’t worry,” said Steve who was awake next to you, “it’s you mom and brothers, and everyone. Everything’s okay. Its over.” Steve said, pulling you into a tight embrace, not letting you go for anything, and knowing he would continue to protect you and never let you go as long as he could help it.

Send in your requests!

#Steve harrington #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #stranger things #stranger things 3 #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #max mayfeild #Lucas Sinclair #will byers #jonathon byers #Nancy Wheeler #Joyce Byers #jim hopper #eleven #eleven hopper #Billy Hargrove

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thecreelhouse · 4 years

Text

beautiful stranger

Paring: Robin Buckley x Original Female Character

Summary: Olive Lane, a witch in training, leaves home and relocates to an unfamiliar town, a tradition among witches her age to start fresh. Blissfully unaware of the bizarre and gruesome history Hawkins, Indiana holds, she settles on the small town, and seemingly blends in to her surroundings to its citizens. Everyone, except Robin, who is highly bothered and paranoid by the new, mysterious stranger, and needs to know who and what this girl is all about.

Word count: 4,835 (??? I added some things last minute whoops)

Warnings: language, some angst?, mostly a whole ton of fluff though!!

Author’s note: hi! I’m still working on the last few chapters of kill the lights, and I most certainly did NOT need to write a one shot now, but here it is anyway. Title is from halsey’s ‘finally//beautiful stranger’ (because I cannot stop listening to manic lol). The witchy backstory is (loosely) inspired by Kiki’s Delivery Service- but you don’t have to be familiar with the movie to read this! Honestly, I’m not thrilled with how this came out still, but I haven’t been happy with any rewrites.... so I’m gonna post this and hope at least one of y’all enjoy it? 😅

Autumn had softly fallen across the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. The trees were ablaze with their stunning annual colors; reds so deep and yellows so bright and orange tones that immediately wrapped nearby admirers in it’s natural warmth. The crisp air and the scent it brought with it trailed all around the woods at the edge of town, slowly flooding into the streets. The night sky appeared clearer with the cool temperatures, with stars so sharp, they felt just within reach.

It was the tail end of September, 1985, when Olive Lane flew across the night sky, letting a full moon guide her along the way. She had no absolute destination, still searching for a new place to call home for the next year.

“Oh, Sage, you can just feel the changes in the air!” Olive squealed, giving her cat, Sage, a quick rub behind the ears. He purred, delighted at the contact more than anything. His paws held him perfectly perched on the broomstick as Olive continued to soar through the air. Clutching onto the stick with one hand, she used a free hand to tighten her oversized scarf closer to her face. The tip of her nose stuck out, a bright berry red against the chilled air.

Sage meowed up at Olive, and she giggled back at him, understanding him easily. “We’re not stopping until I feel it’s right! I know it’s chilly, little man, but we’re almost there. I can feel it!”

Sage replied with more meows, carrying on a conversation that outsiders would be completely lost to. Olive and Sage had no problem communicating, though, just as if they were two average human beings. It was a witchy thing, most people didn’t get it.

“What’s that little place down there?” She wondered out loud, gazing down below past her dangling feet.

Sage meowed in response, almost sounding annoyed by Olive’s wonder and optimism.

“Listen, Mister Meows A Lot, I think this could be a good place to try! It’s small, seems quaint and quiet. I like that, and I know you do too.” She argued with the precious ball of fluff, and he huffed out, turning away from her. Olive just chuckled at his stubbornness.

“We’re stopping here, that’s final. If you wanted somewhere flashy like New York City, you should’ve found another witch to become a familiar to!” Olive joked, slowing the broomstick’s speed.

As they hovered and gently lowered closer above the town, she passed a sign that said “Welcome to Hawkins!” But the sign had been defaced, probably by some bored kids, she assumed. ‘Hawkins’ had been written over in red spray paint with the word ‘HELL’ instead.

“Some people need a hobby, huh?”

Sage growled in protest, sensing otherwise.

“Oh, c’mon, what’s the worst this town has seen anyway? Don’t give me bullshit about monsters or something.” Olive joked to herself, flying lower, now car level in the sleepy town’s streets.

It was well beyond midnight, and in a town like this, the coast was clear this time of night to fly freely. Not like people are clueless to witches, but they certainly have a worse reputation than they deserve. Olive kept to herself, so it was easier to keep her secret.

Olive flew down a street, only to do a harsh U-turn back to face an old, dilapidated, standalone apartment building. The bottom level had a store front sized window; must’ve been someone’s small business they lived above back in it’s heyday. No signs in sight for the property being up for sale or rent. Too rundown for anyone to even want to take on the burden of fixing it.

“We could fix this up, no problem! What do you think, Sage?”

Sage glared at her in response, “It’s not like you’d take my opinions into consideration anyway.”

Olive rolled her eyes, ignoring his attitude before gently settling her feet onto the ground. Sage hopped off the broomstick before she followed. They stood in front of the door, gazing in through the dusty windows, lined with cobwebs.

“We’ve only got a handful of hours before sunrise, let’s get to work!” Olive enthusiastically said, forcing the door open with a flick of a wrist. She and Sage entered, setting their things down on the dusty floor before beginning to quite literally work their magic on their newfound home.

———

“Steve?”

“Hm?”

“Has that building always been there?”

Steve groggily picked his head up from the checkout counter of Family Video, gazing out the front windows with sleepy eyes.

“What building?”

“The one that just magically appeared overnight?”

“Robin, buildings can’t just grow overnight.”

Robin scoffed, annoyed that it was too early for any of this shit and her best friend’s sarcasm.

“Yeah, Dingus, I’m well aware-“ Robin snapped, rubbing her eyes before taking another look out the window, “- But I swear that building was not as clean and bright yesterday.”

“Maybe someone finally bought it, cleaned it up while you weren’t here. Mind your business, Robin.” Steve joked, settling his head back down onto the counter. “Why are you so worked up over it anyway?”

“That looks like much more than a spit shine, Dingus. Hours- no- weeks- of fixing is showing on that building, and we’re just seeing it now?” Robin pointed out, absolutely bewildered.

Steve picked his head up again, glancing around to double check the store was still empty, and for a Monday morning, it sure was dead as expected. “This isn’t an Upside Down-related thing, you know. Relax. It’s okay, Robin.”

“No I-“ Robin hesitated before finishing her response. Was that why she was panicked? It could make sense; everything had her on edge these days after Starcourt fell to hell. What once made logical sense to her, was thrown out the window after her experiences being stuck in an underground Russian base and fighting off some of the scariest monsters only stories could spin up.

So of course any slight changes could throw her off track and cause her mind to create more conspiracy theories waiting to come to life.

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, Steve.” She said quietly, shaking her head. Steve patted her shoulder, understanding.

“No worries, just try to take it easy, yeah?” He responded sincerely. Robin nodded before heading off to a shelf she was restocking moments before, hoping to lose herself in her work.

———

A few weeks had passed, and Robin was still stumped over how the building across the street became so lived in overnight. There were no logical explanations, no matter how hard she racked her brain for one. She saw that building every day she was at work, and never paid much attention to it, only because it was worn down. Cobwebs littered the windows, there was trash and random belongings left behind inside, the paint was chipping off the window and door frames, and some of the building’s bricks were beginning to crumble off the outer walls.

But now? Now, now, the bricks were fine. They appeared as if they were just laid yesterday. The windows were clean and clear, gleaming in the Autumn sunlight. The painted spots were sporting fresh, glossy paint.

Now, now, now- a little sign hung off and above the doorway, indicating it was now a used bookstore. Bright green plants and vibrant petals on flowers were scattered about the windowsills both in the shop window and the space above. Through the windows, the space above seemed well lived in, too. Lace curtains hung among the windows, and she could see furniture in some spots.

It’s like one day she left work, and it was abandoned, and came in the next day to a completely different property just dropped out of the sky. There’s no way this could all just have happened overnight, but Robin was stubborn to see otherwise. It seemed like everyone else in Hawkins just... accepted it. Robin wouldn’t rest until she had answers, though.

“Steve, I’m taking my break now.” She called out, eyes locked on the building still. She watched people filter in and out; for a small, brand new business, it sure had a decent amount of shoppers already.

“Alrighty, Rob.” Steve responded, not looking up from the magazine he was casually leafing through.

Robin stomped out the door with a determination- determination for what? What the hell could bother her so much about this? Why does she care, anyway?

Her determination for answers, perhaps, carried her quickly across the street and to and through the door of the little bookshop that had her so worked up. A soft chime carried through the air behind Robin as she slammed her feet down into the shop, frustrated now.

Robin barely even noticed how the shelves were stocked with well worn, once loved books, practically spilling out onto the floor. It was a little messy, but still calm; a hideaway from the rest of Hawkins, the rest of the world, even.

A cat with a dusty light and dark brown spotted coat crossed her path, stopping Robin short in her tracks. Startled by the sudden movement, she gasped and stumbled back, trying to avoid stomping on the cat’s tail.

The cat let out a loud, but friendly meow towards her.

“Sorry ‘bout that! Sage doesn’t have the best of manners.”

Robin’s head snapped up to see feet away behind the counter, a girl around her age, holding the cat in her arms, smiling a soft, gentle smirk. Robin’s face grew red, not expecting someone so pretty to be running the shop, not expecting someone close in age to be the root of her frustrations around the mysterious shop.

“I- uh- I’m sorry-“ Robin couldn’t seem to string words into a comprehensive sentence, for once. Her sarcastic edge and determined attitude to get to the bottom of this mystery seemed to have melted away instantly.

“No, it’s fine, Mr. Sage is the one at fault, aren’t you, my little troublemaker?” The girl spoke up, scratching under the cat’s chin as she tried reassuring Robin that all was well.

Robin was completely stunned by the presence of this girl, speechless over the way her green-grey eyes shimmered as their eyes connected with each other. The girl’s hair flowed freely like a waterfall, a shiny blue-black with a naturally silver stripe among it. She was shorter than Robin, not by much, and curvier. Robin noticed how similarly she dressed to someone like Stevie Nicks, in a flowing shawl and skirt, and plenty of layers. She was different from most of the girls around Hawkins, and Robin figured she couldn’t be from here. She would have noticed someone like this instantly among everyone else in the small town.

“Helloooo?” The girl called out, pulling Robin from her thoughts and from staring so blatantly at the girl. Robin felt her face heat up again.

“Sorry, I- are you-“ Robin paused, thinking out her sentence fully. “Who the hell are you?”

Robin instantly cringed as the sentence fell out. Nope. No, Robin, that was not the way you wanted to get that out, but oh well.

“Excuse me?” The girl questioned, confused by this entire exchange even more now.

“This building has been empty for months, and then I show up to work one day and see it’s practically brand new! A brand new shop in a brand new building with a brand new person running it and living above it- what the hell is going on here, huh?” Robin continued, word vomiting at this point. The girl’s brows furrowed together.

“You’ve got some nerve barging in and being so forward before we even exchanged names, hm?” The mysterious girl smirked, and it wasn’t with ill intentions. Robin could still see her soft nature shining through. No, she was just amused at this point. “It’s cute.”

Robin felt the heat in her face rise up to her ears, and crossed her arms before looking down, trying to hide the blush.

“I’m Olive, but if you’re a little bit nicer to me,” Olive set Sage down gently on the floor, bending back up to meet Robin’s gaze. “I’ll let you call me Ollie like everyone else does when they’re not, y’know, yelling at me.”

“Shit. Shit, I’m sorry, Olive.” Robin shook her head, embarrassed by her actions. “A lot of weird shit has happened around here, it’s kind of hard not to be suspicious anymore.”

“You don’t say? Here I thought this was a cute, quiet small town to get a fresh start in. Fuck me, huh?” Olive laughed and shrugged. Her laugh, her voice was pure bliss to Robin’s ears.

“It’s a lot, like, a really long story, one that I just recently got caught up in. You definitely are better off not knowing about it.” Robin said, running her hand through her hair nervously. “I’m Robin, by the way. Sorry, really, I am-“

“Robin. It’s okay.” Olive reassured softly, that smile creeping back up onto her face. “Listen... I’m all ears to this wild story of yours if you’re so interested in mine.”

That was certainly not the response Robin expected, but out of disbelief, she nodded quickly. She was still determined to find out what the hell was happening here, but now she was more intrigued in this sweet girl; who she was, where she came from, what she was all about- Robin was instantly infatuated and wanted to know more, more, more.

Olive giggled at the taller girl, a blush forming across her own face now. “When are you done work?”

“Nine. Tonight. PM. Not like, tomorrow.” Robin mumbled out, realizing how foolish she sounded, but didn’t mind because it brought a giggle out of Olive’s lips once more.

“I would hope you weren’t working nearly 24 hours straight, Robin.” She teased, and Robin loved the way her name sounded when Olive said it. “If you wanna come by again after, maybe we could hang out, yeah? I make a really mean cup of tea, or so I’ve been told.”

“Yeah, absolutely. I’ll come back over then.” Robin said, tucking her hair behind her ear, backing up slowly. Nervously, she shifted her hands up into a sort of wave, not sure where to put them, “I’ll see you later, Olive.”

The chime softly rang out again as Robin opened the door. Olive thought the coast was clear, assuming the sound meant Robin left, and went back to watering her plants in the window, moving the watering can with a flick of her wrist, never actually picking it up.

Robin took one last glance in the store before leaving, and her breath hitched in her throat at the sight of a watering can floating midair. She rubbed her eyes as she began walking out.

No way, no fucking way. I’m tired. I’m wired. Tired and wired? They’re the same thing, anymore. It’s just my mind playing tricks on me. Chill out, Robin.

As she walked back into work, she didn’t dare glance back towards Olive’s side of the street.

———

9 PM came and left, 9:15, 9:38, 9:51 following with still no sign of Robin, and Olive was worried she said something wrong. She could see across the street, but made it a point to busy herself and not look like a total weirdo staring over at Family Video, anxiously waiting to see Robin again. Maybe she missed Robin head home instead.

“Sage, do you think I scared her off?”

Sage meowed, weaving in and out between Olive’s ankles, purring to reassure her. Olive knew, though. She had a feeling Robin was unsettled about something, she just wasn’t sure what. Maybe she came on too strong?

Olive glanced over to the store across the street, lights off, parking lot empty, and sighed.

“C’mon, Sage, let’s go to bed.” Olive whispered, and began climbing the little winding staircase in the back of the bookshop. Sage began to follow closely behind, both making their way to her apartment just above. Olive hoped she would get the chance to see Robin again the next day, at least.

———

Morning came and went, only moving slowly as Olive only had a few customers here and there. She glanced out the window and saw Robin walk into work, not even shooting a glance in Olive’s direction. Olive felt something had to be off, but still couldn’t figure out what.

By noon, she had decided to take a book over to Robin, as a peace offering. She left a little note inside, hoping Robin would read it, and maybe they could talk. Maybe they just got off on the wrong foot. Maybe Robin didn’t like girls like that, maybe she didn’t even like the possibility of new friends.

“I’ll be back, Sage!” She called out into the store, flipping the ‘open’ sign to ‘be back soon’, and headed across the street to Family Video. Before opening the door, she took in a deep breath, not sure why she was so nervous. Because she scared off a new friend? Assumed this girl could even want to flirt with her? She wasn’t clueless about how the world thought about anyone who identified as anything other than straight, but she could have sworn she picked up vibes that said otherwise. Olive was usually spot on with those vibes.

When she walked up to the counter, she saw a boy, probably near her age, trying to balance a stack of VHS tapes on the top of his head. She noticed his name tag said ‘Steve’.

“Hi-“ Olive started, startling Steve, causing the tapes to fall and clatter on the floor, caught off guard by Olive’s voice.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” She exclaimed, feeling bad. Steve laughed.

“No, you’re good, I really shouldn’t be doing stupid shit on the job. Just a slow morning. What’s up?” He asked, beginning to smile up at her, but his jaw dropped at his first sight of her.

“Um,” Olive suddenly felt shy, twirling her hair in a giant braid, trying to do something to occupy her shaky hands. “Is Robin here?”

“I- yeah, give me a second.” Steve said, still stunned at the pretty girl in front of him. Olive nodded, moving her hand to her bag to grasp the book she brought for Robin. Steve walked off to the back room, and Olive could hear hushed talking, but couldn’t make out specific words. A few minutes passed before Steve came back to the counter.

“She’s uh- she’s really swamped with work back there.” His eyes shifted off as he tapped the countertop, looking uncomfortable on what to say. “Do you want me to pass a message along?”

Olive sighed, pulling the small book out of her bag, and handed it towards Steve. “Could you just give this to her, please?” As soon as he grabbed it, Olive ducked her head down and quickly headed out the door before he could respond. Lost by what just happened, Steve watched her rush across the street before heading to the back where Robin was. She was sitting on the floor of the stock room, surrounded by empty VHS cases.

“Hey,” Steve said, nudging Robin’s shoulder with the small book. Robin looked up, hesitantly taking the book. The cover was tattered and worn, and was titled ‘All About Birds’ with a tiny paper sticking out from one of the pages. She opened it, letting it fall to the chapter about robins. Robin’s mouth quirked up in a tiny smile at the clever little gesture, before noticing the note.

Robin,

I’m sorry if I came off too strong yesterday. If you don’t want to be friends or anything, I totally get it. I wasn’t sure what your interests are, but this made me think of you. Get it? Because your name is Robin? Okay, maybe that was lame.

Anyway... my door is always open, even to cute girls who like to yell at me.

-Ollie

Robin’s eyes fell over the last line, and a blush crept up her face.

“So, you wanna tell me why some mysterious, stunning girl comes in here, wants to talk to you, and you tell me to send her away?” Steve asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe.

Robin’s eyes were glued to the note before she responded with, “Because I’m a fucking idiot.”

“Well, she seemed nice, maybe you could redeem yourself.” Steve said, shrugging, before walking back out to the store’s counter, muttering, “and you call me the dingus.”

Robin sighed loudly, flopping back onto the floor, mentally beating herself up for avoiding the sweet, mysterious girl, and not giving her a chance.

Hopefully it’s not too late to start off right.

———

The end of the day had come along, and Olive began cleaning and closing up shop. Just as she finished sweeping the floor, the door chime went off.

“I’m sorry, we’re closed now-“

“Ollie, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for ditching you and avoiding you since.” Robin cut her off, out of breath from sprinting across the street. Olive spun around to see Robin, and her eyes lit up.

“I got scared. You’re really nice, and sweet, and pretty- a-and I want to get to know you, I really do.” Robin began word vomiting, words tumbling out rapidly. Olive was genuinely surprised, having given up most hope of figuring out what went wrong between the two of them.

Olive placed the broom against the wall, walking a few steps closer to Robin. She laced her hands together, fidgeting her fingers around nervously. “Why did you get scared? Did I do something wrong?”

“No- no way. I’m just- I’m an absolute dingus and either saw something I shouldn’t have, or imagined it completely, and freaked out for no goddamn reason.” Robin admitted, biting her lip.

It’s then when it clicked for Olive, and she lightly smacked her forehead with her palm. “Oh no, you saw me- you saw me use my magic, didn’t you?”

Robin’s eyes grew wide, “So I wasn’t going crazy. That really happened? You- and the watering can-“

“I’m so sorry, Robin, I really didn’t mean to spook you! I swear, I only use magic for good, I’d never harm anyone with it-“

“So, what, are you like, a witch or something?”

Olive tucked her lips in and looked down before nodding sheepishly. “If that weirds you out, I totally get it- I didn’t mean to upset you-“

“And that’s why this place just- literally, magically changed overnight then?”

Olive began playing with the ends of her braid, still looking away, “I can leave town, if you’re uncomfortable by that. I’m sorry, Robin. I can pick up and train elsewhere-” Robin let out a sigh like she’d been holding her breath.

“What? That’s all?” Robin asked, expecting worse. “Olive, I don’t want you to feel like you have to leave, that’s ridiculous. You’ve made a home here.”

Olive’s head cautiously peeked back up at the taller girl. “... What do you mean, that’s all? You- you’re not afraid of me?”

Robin began to giggle uncontrollably, confusing Olive. “Afraid? No! I- look. I told you I’ve been through some shit. I’ve seen a lot of shit that still keeps me up at night. I thought I was going insane when I saw you use your magic. Trust me, this is a piece of cake compared to what I’ve seen.”

Olive’s shoulders relaxed a bit. “So why did you avoid me then?”

“I was a little nervous, that the bad stuff would be happening all over again. No way there’s a bad bone in you, though. You’re too sweet.”

“And that’s why you stomped through here yesterday, all suspicious and paranoid?” Olive asked, smile peeking out just a tad. Robin laughed, embarrassed, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Yeah... about that, I’m really sorry. That was rude of me. My defenses were just high-“

“It was rude, Robin.” Olive interjected, and Robin’s face fell. Olive cracked though, fully smiling up at her. “Make it up to me by hanging out tonight? If you’re not busy, of course.”

Robin nodded, grinning. “I’d like that. I heard you’re like, this world renowned tea maker, too.” Earning a giggle out of Olive before she gently reached for Robin’s hand, pulling her towards the staircase.

“C’mon then, I’ve got all the black tea in the world to keep us up all night while we share stories.” Olive joked as she climbed the stairs. Robin’s shoulders relaxed as she eased into the surroundings with Olive, instantly feeling comfortable around the odd girl.

It was the start of something new and beautiful, something Robin desperately needed these days.

———

Months had passed since Robin and Olive’s rocky start, but it only continued to bloom from the start, the real start. What was once cautious curiosity and paranoia for Robin, transformed into an honest and trusting friendship. Nights spent hanging out and getting to know one another became a routine, happening like clockwork. Long nights turned into long nights spent together, sometimes waking the next morning tangled around each other. Some nights, sleep was lost as Olive was caught up counting the freckles on Robin’s face, or when Robin watched Olive with anticipation as she practiced her spell work. Sometimes, Robin awoke from the same nightmares that have plagued her for months, and Olive was quick to bring her comfort in the form of soothing hugs and a cup of tea.

The bond, created by fate or whatever you’d like to call it, continued to only grow stronger as they shared stories and their time with one another, magically, naturally letting their lives mesh together. What was once harmless flirting, became feelings showing their true colors, but they just continued to dance around it, both too hesitant to make the first move.

“Robin, it’s snowing!” Olive tugged at Robin’s shirt sleeve, trying to drag her out of bed. Olive grunted, frustrated at how her favorite person could sleep like a rock.

Robin hummed, rolling over to the other side of the bed and away from Olive. “Ollie, it’s winter. Of course it’s snowing.”

Olive scrambled back into bed and on top of Robin, determined to wake the girl up.

“I’ve never seen snow before, Robin. We don’t get it back home.” Olive’s voice was soft and small. Robin’s eyes shot open, fighting the sleepiness, and her hands grabbed Olive’s hips, pulling a giggle from her lips.

“You what?!” Robin gently shoved Olive off of her and rolled out of bed. She began throwing layers of clothing on while Olive bounced on her heels impatiently, already bundled in her own warm clothing. Robin barely had her shoes on before Olive grabbed her hand and dragged her down the stairs.

They ran past Sage, cozily tucked into himself on an armchair in the shop, and out the backdoor, into the small yard behind the building. Snow was falling in heavy, fluffy clumps, and piling up quickly.

Olive’s jaw dropped as she saw it falling in front of her, amazed by the pure beauty nature could hold.

“Do you see this?!” She yelled, easily impressed. She tossed her gloves off, out stretching her fingers into the cold snowfall. “So beautiful!”

Robin didn’t give a damn about the snow, not taking her eyes off of Olive as she continued to ramble on about how amazed she was. This girl- who had never seen snow, but could fly a broomstick with ease, communicate with her cat like two friends chit-chatting, and perform spells with confidence - was the real sight of beauty to Robin. She couldn’t keep that to herself anymore. She didn’t want to keep her feelings to herself anymore.

Like magnets attracting, Robin walked up behind her, arms gently winding around Olive’s waist, and she could hear Olive’s breath pause for a second, surprised. The shorter girl turned to face her taller friend, biting her lip while a blush bloomed across her cheeks. Robin’s hands moved up to cradle Olive’s face, pulling their foreheads close together.

Softly, Robin asked, fighting off the nervousness, “I- is this alright?”. Olive’s head wildly nodded before leaning in first, impatient, lips meeting and her heart bursted with joy.

Olive tasted as sweet as she sounded and felt as soft as she appeared, and Robin felt herself melt into the kiss. Snow continued to fall around them as they pulled each other closer, falling into the safety of one another.

Smiling, Olive pulled back a bit, pressing their noses together. “Who knew you yelling at me months ago would lead up to this?”

Robin laughed, gently nudging Olive’s arm. “Shut up! I still feel so bad for that.”

“Make it up to me?” Olive smirked as she spoke her favorite playful words to tease Robin with anymore. Reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind Robin’s ear, and Robin nodded, grateful the universe gave her a real chance with Olive. Robin smiled back as she leaned in to kiss Olive again, and again, and again.

#robin buckley x reader #robin buckley x oc #robin buckley x you #robin buckley fic #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fic #stranger things x ofc #stranger things x oc #robin buckley x ofc #robin buckley fanfiction #beautiful stranger

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okaybutlikeimagine · 5 years

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What if Joyce and her kids and Hop and his (including Max if you want cus I can’t get enough how you write her and Billy’s relationship) all went on a road trip together?!

(okay i know i have other asks before this that i need to respond to but) I LOVE THIS SO MUCH AND I’M!!!! CRYIN!! (also thanks so much for the lovely compliment ohmydear♥i love writing them too it’s so fun)

Okay so i read this and i was like: ohman they’d have to take 2 cars or something bc there’s Joyce + Will and Jonathan and then Hop + El and Billy and then Max?? That’s 7 of them! But tHEN

IMAGINE THEM ALL IN A VW BUS!!!

Joyce is a hippie in my headcanon bc I love that shit and she could show the boys hippie music and help them through life w/ it and so anyway I’d like to think she’s aLWAYS wanted a VW bus. they’re just… cute as hell and so damn cool and she could decorate the inside w/ cute curtains and i just love that so much. so now imagine Billy and Jonathan knowing she’s always wanted one and Jonathan never having seen one but Billy having seen them everywhere in Cali and knowing exactly what Joyce is talking about and they both save up a SHIT. TON. of money (bc i dunno how expensive they were back then but they’re pretty cool cars that a lot of people wanted and they’re big, so) and Will and El even help out by mowing lawns for people or picking up a paper route (Jonathan doesn’t like the idea of them working but they insist) and they buy a used 1968 Kombi VW bus and Billy fixes it up a bit and it’s a faded light blue color and it’s definitely not pristine, it definitely looks a little loved, but it’s perfect and they all help fix up the interior and it’s??? The most beautiful thing. And they give it to her for her birthday or Christmas or something and Joyce cries an absolute RIVER and would hug them all for hours if Hop hadn’t torn her away to let them breathe

So anyway, when Billy and Jonathan graduate from high school in 1986 (i don’t wanna do all the math on when Billy’s birthday would have to be and when school cut offs are but Jonathan and Billy were both born in ‘67 sooooo) Joyce wants to go on a road trip w/ everyone!!!!! Bc how exciting!! and really it’s Joyce’s idea bc Jim doesn’t really like dealing w/ lots of people in one place but Joyce knows all the kids love Disney movies and she’s also always wanted to go to Disney World so they go! And they bring Max along bc El begs and pleads and Billy thinks it’d be good for her to get out of the house and Joyce 100% agrees bc even though Neil hasn’t done anything, the energy is negative and that shit affects a kid, y’know?? Plus they all love Max and would so adopt her if they could so she’s able to convince her mom and she goes w/ them and! just!

Imagine them all packed into a big VW bus w/ little floral curtains and funky retro seat covers, on the road at 7:30am and Joyce agreeing to drive the first few hours bc Hop is useless in the morning and conks out immediately once they get in. El and Will do too, El on Max’s shoulder and Will on Jonathan’s as Jonathan and Billy and Max start arguing for like, a good half hour about what music they should listen to on the trip down until there’s a lull in the fight and Joyce says she only brought her tapes of 60s and 70s music. so they all get educated on good hippie music.

and Billy and Max love each other, they do. they had a bumpy relationship when Billy was living at home before but they’re a lot closer now and they’ve been siblings for years now. but they’re just both such fiery personalities that they bicker more than half the time down. It’s a 16 hour drive (maybe even more??? If there are more roads now than in 1986) so it takes them 2 days and they’re so bratty towards each other.

So they’re all trying to explain what Disney World is to El who is still rather confused.

“We’re going to…. Another world?”

“What’s a… roller… coaster?”

“You mean Mickey Mouse is real??”

And that one makes Max giggle and shake her head.

“It’s like… Santa. People dress up as him and other characters and you can take pictures and stuff.” she gives a dangerous smirk then, turning around to look at Billy. “Billy’s afraid of them.”

“I am not.” He growls, kicking at her seat but trying not to kick too hard bc they worked too hard to get this van looking nice.

“You totally used to cry at anyone in a costume. We barely got to go trick or treating that one year because you were so freaked out.”

“Because our asshole neighbor was dressed as Jason and chased me down the fucking street!”

“Language!” Hop yells at the same time as Jonathan snorts. Billy reaches over Will to pinch Jonathan hard.

“Is that why you were shaking when we saw Mickey Mouse that one time?”

“That was on the Walk of Fame. Everyone is afraid of those guys because they’re all a bunch of coke addicts!”

“Coke… addicts?” El asks and everyone pauses, Jonathan letting out another snort.

“Like Coke and Pepsi?” El asks, and everyone immediately agrees while Jonathan laughs a bit.

“Yeah! Coke and Pepsi!” Joyce agrees, while Hop turns and gives them a harsh look to stop this conversation.

Joyce asks what character El is most excited to see. Joyce says that she herself hopes that they have Winnie the Pooh bc he’s her absolute favorite.

“I like Alice.” she says with a smile. It had kind of scared El when she first saw it, but she thought the colors were cool and Alice is just as curious as El is.

“I hope they have Peter Pan.” Max says a little dreamily.

“You just like him because he’s a ginger like you.” Billy snarks, to which Max sends him a harsh look.

“You like him too! We used to watch that movie all the time when we were little.”

And she’s right, they did. It makes him smile. Maybe there’s some psychological reason- the idea of a cute boy coming by to take him away from his terrible life and whisk him away to a magical world is pretty fucking nice -but he’s not about to overanalyze himself. And if anyone were to ask what he’s most excited for, he definitely wouldn’t admit that it’s Peter Pan.

“I like Peter Pan too.” Will admits, to which Max turns to look at him.

“Isn’t he cute?”

Will nods with a slight blush.

“Who’s Peter Pan?”

Max is distraught at El’s question.

“You haven’t seen Peter Pan???” She turns to Jonathan. “What are you guys doing depriving her of Peter Pan?”

“She’s with you more often than us!” Billy is indignant. “What have you been doing, not showing her Peter Pan?”

Max sticks her tongue out. Jonathan says he’s looking forward to Tomorrow Land and all of the parade floats. When Billy is asked, he mumbles something about wanting to ride all the big rides like Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain.

“What about you, Dad?” El asks happily.

“I’m just excited for the food.” Hopper grunts.

So yes, lots of bickering with the occasional break to listen to whatever song is playing. And you fuckin bet they bicker over where to stop to eat, too, until Hop decides for them all.

And i was trying to look up different, more obscure theme parks or attractions for them to go to but I just… couldn’t get over the idea of all of them getting matching Mickey Mouse ears. bc just… think about it. Think about a picture of all of them gathered in front of the castle wearing their Mickey Mouse hats, Hop and Joyce w/ an arm around the other, Joyce leaning up against Hop, El and Will smiling the biggest and cheesiest smiles with El’s arm around Will’s shoulder, Jonathan giving a little shy smile bc he feels pretty dumb, Max getting the biggest kick out of Billy freaking out over ruining his hair but giving him an expectant look until he puts the hat on, Billy yanking a strand of her hair out right before the photo is taken and Max shrieking so they have to take another one and when they do Billy rests his arm on Max’s head and max is stepping on Billy’s foot but they chuckle about it afterwards, giving irritated looks that break into smiles.

And i just?????? Jonathan buys Nancy a little bracelet with a Minnie Mouse charm on it and a stuffed version of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh and Billy gets Steve a little stuffed Bambi and a shirt that says “Princess” in big letters and gets himself a matching one that says “Prince Charming”. Steve pretends to be less than impressed but he blushes when Billy mumbles something about how he couldn’t stop looking at the castle and thinking of his princess back home and i just??? I have so many ideas about this Hopper Family Vacation to Disney World AUGH i love this.

(and if you want their Road Trip Playlist just ask me bc i just?? imagine their little van driving back up to Indiana on a calm road through a little patch of tall trees while Harvest Moon plays and its golden hour and Jim is driving and Joyce has her head leaning back against the seat, humming along and the sun is making it look like she’s glowing and Jim is a little worried about swerving bc he just wants to look at her. And Billy is leaning back in his seat all the way in the back, arm out the open window next to him as he waves it around in the soft air. Will and Jonathan are asleep on each other next to him and Max turns around from where she’s sitting in front of Billy to ask him something and sees her brother looking so damn calm. Just so serene and happy, a content smile on his face and golden sun hitting his blond hair gracefully as he blinks slowly. And she can’t think of what she was going to say bc it feels surreal to have this kind of moment w/ a family that feels so oddly whole. And Billy notices her staring and turns to her and she just sticks her tongue out and makes a funny face. Billy swipes gently at the air in front of her a few times w/ his left hand, chuckling a bit. She tries to kick him but she can’t reach and he just huffs a big, sharp breath in her face and she reaches to smack him as they both start giggling. then a soft click comes from their left and they see El has taken a picture of them on her little disposable camera she got on the way there and Max turns back around to talk to El and ask about how many pictures she thinks she’s taken and Billy turns back to look out the window, watching farms pass by in a haze, colored by the soft orange light of the sun, as he hugs the little Bambi plushie he bought for Steve and thinks about how comfortable happiness feels.)

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hillywooddestiel · 5 years

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Stranger Things Have Happened- Chaper Twelve

Chapter Twelve: Scatter and Run

Characters: Y/N Winchester, Hopper, Joyce, Nancy, Jonathan, Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Eleven, Steve, Sam, Dean

Warnings: angst, language

Word count: 1.7k

Series description: Hawkins, Indiana, November 1983. The Winchesters got out of hunting and decided to settle down in a small town. The youngest of the three, Y/N, just wants to get on with her somewhat normal life and go to a good college. But that’s a little tricky when disappearances start occurring, including her friend Barbara Holland, and there’s reports of a mysterious new girl in town. Can she balance boyfriends, teen drama and monster hunting?

A/N: What’s this? STHH? A new part? Who is she? Since the new series I am on a bit of a Stranger Things kick so I hope to finish this series soon. How good is S3??? Love it!!! Obviously this is S1 so this is a safe series to read. Enjoy xx Series Masterlist Masterlist

Story:

We empty bag after bag of salt into a kid’s paddling pool then fill it full of water. Dustin and Lucas take charge of the temperature until we reach exactly 93.5° Fahrenheit, yelling to Nancy to change the taps every minute. I go to source towels from somewhere, eventually finding a couple in the coach's office. They smell a little funky but seem clean so they'll do the job. When I return, Eleven is talking to Joyce. The poor girl is trembling, eyes fixed on the large pool of still water in the same way Sam looks at clowns- true fear. I do wish my brothers were here. They would be a great help in this crazy situation. Sam would read up on alternative universes and missing people cases in the town. Dean would prepare all of the tools we need for the hunt and lecture me about staying safe, following his rules and, most importantly, not going off on my own. I would do anything and everything I was allowed to do when Dean was watching (and a whole lot more when he wasn't). It would be just like old times.

Socks rolled down and goggles in hand, Eleven wades into the water holding on tightly to Joyce's hand. Her dress billows around her as she takes a seat, adjusting the goggles on her face to block out any light. The lights flicker and the gym goes dark. Eleven floats on the surface of the salty water while the rest of us sit in silence. The static from the radio is almost deafening, it keeps me on edge.

“Barbara…” Eleven mumbles, the lights pulsating.

“What's going on?”

“I don't know.” Mike replies to Nancy's question.

“Is Barb okay? Is she okay?”

“Gone. Gone.” Eleven says, tears building in Nancy's eyes. Jonathan pulls her for a hug, whispering small comforts in her ear. Barb is gone. Dead. My friend, who was still getting to know, is dead just like many other people before her who got close to me or my family. Of course, I can't pin the whole situation on myself; as far as we know this parallel universe has appeared here as a coincidence and has nothing to do with Sam, Dean or myself.

“It's okay, it's okay honey. I'm here, it's okay.” Joyce holds onto Eleven in the water while keeping her in her trance. “It's okay, I'm right here. I'm right here.” Everything calms once again and we return to silence around the pool, all hope pinned on Will still being alive. Nancy sniffles, the tears falling quietly now and I reach my hand out to hers. I smile weakly as a show of support; she's going to be grieving her friend unable to tell the truth to anyone outside of this room.

“Castle Byers.” Eleven says making Joyce and Jonathan perk up, “Will?”

“You tell him… you tell him I'm coming. Mom is coming.” Joyce gasps, full of relief.

“Your mom, she's coming for you.” Eleven communicates to Will. The radio crackles and the voice of a scared little boy comes through,

“Hurry.”

“You tell him, tell him to stay where he is. I'm coming.”

“Your mom, she's coming. Just hold on a little longer Will. Will! Will!” Eleven stirs herself back to full consciousness, ripping the goggles from her head and clinging to Joyce for dear life.

“It's okay. It's okay honey, I've got you. I've got you.”

Wrapped tightly in several towels, Eleven sits shivering on the gym seats with Mike, Lucas, Dustin and myself. For someone so small, she is incredibly powerful. Mike tells me of how she rescued him at the cliffs from a group of bullies while she hugs into my side to keep warm.

“That's incredible!” I exclaim. Eleven looks to me with sleepy eyes with a slight smile, resting her head on my side to take a well deserved nap. Hopper and Joyce having a domestic outside tears my attention away from the boys’ stories.

“He's my son Hop! My son. I'm going!”

“‘Scuse me a second guys.” I deposit Eleven on Mike's shoulder and jog to catch up with everyone outside.

“Joyce! Let's go!” Hopper yells from his car, “No! You're not coming.” He points a finger harshly at me before getting in.

“You've got to be kidding me! Who says you get to go and not me?”

“I do! You're staying here where it's safe. Joyce is already coming, I can't risk you too kid.”

“But-”

“I said no! Get back inside.” And with that, Chief Hopper floors it out of the school. I watch the car disappear, deliberating running home for my own car and chasing after them. Sam and Dean will probably ask questions if I leave the house with a bunch of guns and gear- maybe that's not such a good idea. Then again, they could be a great help here. No. They chose to leave the life, this isn't on them; just because they know about this stuff doesn't mean they should be forced to jump in and save the day. I just happen to be wrapped up in it a little bit.

Jonathan is gone when I turn back around to head into the gym and he's nowhere to be seen inside either. I go over to the kids and ask them where he went.

“He was with Nancy.” Mike explains.

“Well I can't find either of them.”

“What?!” Mike jumps up and speed walks outside, myself following quicky behind. He looks around the grounds, releasing an exasperated sigh before going back in.

“They're gone!”

“What?”

“Nancy and Jonathan. His car's gone.” Mike explains. Ah, I didn't notice that small detail.

“They're probably just sucking face somewhere.” Dustin comments, being delightful as always.

“No. No way.” Mike argues and he's probably right; those two are just friends that have been mixed up in a case. Nothing more.

“Did they go with the Chief?”

“I don't know.”

“No.” Eleven says taking us all by surprise.

“What? Did you see them? Do you know where they went?” Mike asks frantically.

“Yes.”

“Where? Where did they go?”

“...Demogorgon.” Shit! No time to even think, I take off in a run.

“Y/N, where are you going?” Dustin shouts after me.

“To go stop them!”

I have not run like this in months so by the time I reach the end of my street, I am close to passing out- maybe I should have taken Sam up on his offer of joining him running last week. Dean pokes his head out of the kitchen when he hears me come through the door, his face contorted in annoyance.

“Umm, where have you been?”

“Nancy's. Is it cool if I stay over there tonight?”

“You've been out all day without a word to either of us. No, clean up and come have dinner.”

“But she’s been super down about Barb all day. She really needs me to be there for her.” The words taste sour, using Barb like this to manipulate Dean. I’m so sorry Barb, I can only hope you understand.

“Can’t you call her?”

“What’s going on?” Sam joins the party. Great. Just great. “I need to be there for her in person Dean, she is upset and needs someone. Don’t forget Barb was my friend too.”

“Dean, let her go.” Sam sighs, looking sympathetically at me.

“But she-”

“Dean.” Sam gives Dean a look I can only describe as a mother scolding her child, “Tell Nancy we said hey.”

“Fine, you can go. But you better be back for dinner tomorrow.”

“I promise. Thanks Dean.” I smile as best I can before hurrying upstairs and grabbing my emergency hunting kit from under my bed. I have a feeling I know where Nancy went with Jonathan. I hope I'm right.

Jonathan's car is parked outside his house when I finally pull up- why they choose to live so far out of town I'll never know. And Steve's car is here. Steve? He gets out and scuffs his feet all the way to the front door, bashing on it and leaning against the frame. What is he doing here? Seriously, what the hell? Nancy answers the door, opening it very slightly. She looks stressed out; she looks even more stressed than when Ms. Amon sprang that surprise history quiz on us that would contribute to our final grade. I thought she was going to vomit at her desk. So why would she be looking like that towards Steve? They better not have come up with some stupid death wish mission to help the chief. Steve pushes his way inside and I can hear them all raise their voices from the car. Go time.

Taking Dean's gun from my duffel bag, I stalk my way to the house (yes, I took it again but he doesn't need it right now). The walls are super thin so their conversation is loud and clear from here.

“Okay, is this a joke? Stop! Put the gun down!” Nancy what the fuck are you doing?! Hastily, I kick the door down with my booted foot, the wood splintering and smacking the wall. Steve, Nancy and Jonathan swivel their heads to look at me, eyes full of fear and shock.

“Is that gasoline?” I sniff the air.

“Y/N?!” Steve screeches, his face still a bloody, beat-up mess from earlier.

“Y/N what are you doing here?” Nancy asks and I'm sure it's accidental that age ends up pointing her gun at me.

“Nancy…” Jonathan mutters, going unnoticed in the cacophony of confusion.

“You two just left me behind with the kids, what was I meant to do?”

“What are you guys talking about?! And can you please put the guns down.” Steve stresses, arms raised at each of us as though they'll stop bullets.

“You need to leave, Steve.”

“Nancy.”

“No no no no wait no!”

“Nancy!”

“What, Jonathan?”

“The lights!”

STHH Tags

@marslovesme @bluedefundead @elenavaldez09 @mysanityisgone27 @adridedong @princess-of-erebor1992 @coffeeandwinchesters

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pinkykitten · 5 years

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bruise

Stranger Things

Steve Harrington x Hargrove! female reader

Warning: abuse, violence, cursing

Specifics: angst, fluff, romance, one-shot, hargrove! reader

People: steve harrington, billy hargrove, max mayfield, susan, neil

Words: 1,741

Requested: By anon Hello! I'm literally in love with your blog and the way you do it. It's amazing. I was wondering if I can request one with Steve Harrington, where the reader is Billy's sister and one time, he hits her because they were arguing so in school Steve noticed the bruises and ask her what is going on and make it kinda angsty but with a fluffy ending? I understand if it's too much or if it's too weird but I had this dream about it and that. Love you so much!

Authors Note: agghhhh this is so nice! tysm darling! i swear dream requests r like the best because i can tell u i have the most mundane dreams or they r like they dont make sense and im like high lol. this has violence and abuse in it so just beware and just a warning. also one scene i got inspiration from a star is born where they go to the supermarket and he patches her up with frozen pears i luv that scene. anyway im gonna be opening up my requests so requests r open again!

Being Billy’s sister wasn’t easy. He had a temper on him, and where there were good times with him when he didn’t get what he want his anger would consume him. After your mother and your father split life wasn’t easy. It was difficult with them together but now it was just impossible. Billy didn’t want to move, he didn’t want to leave his friends. And your father found someone new. Her name was Susan, she had red hair and she was timid to your father’s actions. She was the quiet housewife. She brought some baggage with her though it may seem to others but to you, she was a gift. It was a little girl, around 13, her name was Maxine, but everyone called her Max. She was a joy. You and her found to spend the most time together. You both understood one another. She felt compassion for you with your brother and father and you felt sorry for her with your brother. He was a jerk to his stepsister, you tried your hardest to stop him but once Billy hates someone, he most likely will hate that person forever. So you intervene when they have their arguments, almost always picking Max’s side.

From California all the way to Hawkins, Indiana you all went to enjoy or try to live a new life, with the new family.

“This place looks and smells like shi*,” Billy whined as he smoked a cigarette and placed his hands in his jean pockets.

“C’mon Billy, it can’t be that bad. Trust me you’re gonna make a lot of new friends, I just know it. Things are going to work out for all of us.” You tried to sound enthusiastic because your father and his new wife were right next to you but you had your doubts as well. “Yeah see, y/n knows what she’s talking about,” your father laughed as he wrapped his arm around your shoulders.

Your father was abusive towards you and Billy, sometimes you wondered if that’s what made Billy that way towards people. Its uncomfortable to hang out with your dad. He was nothing like a dad to you. A father doesn’t smack his child in the face leaving them a bruise, a father doesn’t belittle his children. You just felt stuck.

Then you met Steve. Steve was probably the best thing that’s ever happened to you. He was your best friend at first but then you started to grow a little crush on him. You think he doesn’t like you back like that because you’re Billy’s sister, and you know Billy bullies Steve. You always try to stop Billy from doing so.

“Billy would you just give it a break man!” You shouted. You were alone with Billy, the family out for dinner. You and Billy were having an argument about where they currently live, Steve, and about Max.

“Oh you wan’t me to give you a break, y/n I hate living in this shi*hole!”

“Oh my god Billy, shut up! You complain about everything, Max is not a nuisance, not even Steve is either,” you muttered the last part as you sat on the couch.

“I don’t want her as a sister! Dad keeps forcing this life on me, but I don’t want it. He doesn’t even deserve happiness.”

“Sometimes Billy things happen in life that we cannot change, but in the end you make do with what you got.”

Billy frowned at you then raised a brow, “yeah just like you’re doing Steve. Tell me, how does it feel to be in bed with the king of high school?

With that you stood up, furious. You felt like punching Billy, your fist raised in the air, but you stopped your actions and considered the consequences. “Don’t ever talk about Steve like that again.”

Billy walked closer to you, his face mere centimeters apart, “no one, tells me what to do.” With that he hit you on the face. It was so hard that you fell back and hit your head on the plush couch. Your eye stung and so did your cheek. As you looked at Billy’s face you could already tell he regretted what he did.

“Y/n, I’m sorry, I,”

“I hate you!” You screamed, tears running down your face as you ran to your room. You locked the door and cried on your bed for the rest of the night.

When you woke up you looked in the mirror to see that it now became a bruise. You tried covering as much up as you can with makeup. It was time to go to school and you walked there, not wanting to ride with Billy.

“Hey y/n,” a smile appeared as Steve walked to you. He put his arm up on your locker and saw that you weren’t your usual cheery self. “Hey what happened?”

You took your books out and shook your head, faking a grin, “nothing. I’m fine really.”

Steve knew how Billy was and was always on your side. All he wanted to do was protect you and to make sure you were safe. “If anything were to happen between you and your brother, you would tell me, right? I do care about you a lot y/n, I don’t want to see you hurt.”

You closed your locker and placed your hand on his cheek, “I’m fine Steve, you have nothing to worry about.” As you spoke you scratched where the bruise was at. You winced and looked away.

“Wait, you’re hurt.” Steve turned your face so you can look up at him and thats where he saw the bruise. His jaw clenched as he saw the purple wound. “Who gave you this?”

“Steve its nothing really I-”

“How did this happen?” Steve was getting angrier and angrier by the minute. You didn’t deserve to be treated this way, you deserved way more.

“Funny story actually, I fell down the stairs and I got this.”

“Bull shi*, its your brother isn’t it? Its Billy?” Steve asked but in reality he knew it was either your father or your brother.

Tears started to form in your eyes again, “yes, it was Billy. We had an argument and he got mad.”

Steve was so irate, he almost ran to the entrance of the school but you stopped him by pulling his sleeve, “no Steve please. Don’t leave me, I, I need you.”

Steve saw the desperation in your eyes and that you did need him at this moment, you were hurting and he knew that he needed to be there for you.

“C’mon we need to get that taken care of.”

Steve grabbed your hand and he led you to the cafeteria. “Steve we’re gonna miss class.”

“Screw class, right now I’m only worried about you.”

He led you to the frozen area and brought out frozen bag of mixed vegetables that they serve at lunch. “Those things are pretty disgusting,” you chuckled as Steve looked for tape, he laughed as well, “yeah they kinda taste like as* to me so I’m glad I’m not the only one.”

Once Steve found the tape and brought the frozen vegetables he stopped by the refrigerator. “We also need these.” He then stacked up on chocolate pudding.

“Oh my god Steve! My sister’s friends love those!”

Steve grinned and still holding your hand managed to hold all the items, “they are essential to making you feel better.”

“You do know there is a clinic near by that I could of gone to at the school?”

Steve shrugged, “yeah but all they would of done was dab some hand sanitizer on that and call it a day. I can’t have them doing that to you, you need more work done.”

You lightly bumped into him playfully. “You’re so silly Steve Harrington.”

“I try to be for all the pretty ones.” He gave you a playful wink. Your heart was beating fast with him. You liked Steve a lot but you thought it was just not meant to be.

He brought you to the science class. It was empty and it would be since it needed remodeling done.

“What are we doing here Steve? We’re not supposed to be here!” You tried to knock some sense into him but he just held onto your hand and brought you to the desk. You sat beside him. You two sitting next to each other.

“We need to take care of the bruise.”

Steve brought the frozen bag out and lightly placed it on your bruise. You winced a little at the pain and Steve apologized. He was so close to your face! Then he taped it. You looked up and saw what he did, making you laugh, “I look ridiculous!”

“I think that kinda suits you.”

You shook your head and the vegetables in the bag shook, “Oh my god why are we doing this? Why are you doing this?”

Steve placed his hand on yours and lightly brushed it, “Because you were hurt, and you don’t deserve that.”

Your eyes twinkled to him, they were like stars. You couldn’t handle it no more. With a leap of faith you moved closer to him on the chair and planted your lips on his. At first he was surprised but then he deepened it himself. It was a passionate kiss, you walked forward and placed yourself on his lap, deepening the kiss. When you two separated your breathing was harsh.

“Wow, that was amazing,” Steve was breathless, looking no where else except your face. “God you’re beautiful.”

You looked away bashful, “even with this ugly bruise?”

Steve kissed you again, “nothing could ever make you any less beautiful.”

You, still sitting on his lap, wrapped your arms around his shoulders, “you don’t know how long I wanted to do that.”

Steve kissed your bruise, or more like the frozen bag, “I’m so glad you did, I’ve wanted to be with you ever since I saw you.”

You two missed classes that day and he told you to stay at his house for a little bit until you’re ready to face Billy again. You were now the king’s girlfriend but none of that mattered, all you cared about was Steve and your love for him.

You two enjoyed chocolate pudding in that empty science room, talking about everything. You were finally happy and thankful for all that Steve had done for you.

Tag list: @harrington-lover, @angelgl16, @perfectlybeautifulsuit, @hyehoney, @haven-prelude (wont let me tag), @leasly, @totally-alexa21, @creamy-pasta-boi, @multireese, @fanfictionrecommendations-com, @prentisskelley, @malereaderforkpop (wont let me tag), @guardian-of-cookies, @justafangirl-97, @teenageshitposts (wont let me tag), @andreaoreas, @dippergravity (wont let me tag), @some-booty, @fromfoolishpeopletodeadpeople, @collectiveyou, @wtfisalltherandoms, @fangirl-4-life415

wanna be tagged in my crap? comment!

#stranger things #fanfiction #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #x reader #steve harrington x hargrove! reader #x hargrove! reader #steve harrington imagine #requested #bruise #OMG i need breakfast lol #i havent had breakfast yet!#get ready for requests to be opennnn #im readyyyy #also this is so fluffy u may die #WOULD ANYONE LIKE SUM STEWWWW

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bad-puns-and-even-worse-magic · 6 years

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The Phoenix of the MCU: How Tony Stark’s Character Rose, Fell, and Rose Again

The Tony Stark of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a different breed from the Tony Stark that’s seen in the comics and while that’s a good thing in its own right, the movie genre creates an alternate universe compared to characters that exist on the printed page. Similarities between the comics and the MCU exist, but the characters, the stories, and their interactions have just enough familiarity to them to draw in old fans and new ones.

Just like the comics, the movies are written by different people, they’re directed by different people. The MCU is a sandbox that multiple kids are playing in which means that there will be a great influx of characterizations—especially when movies are being completed near or around the same time. For Tony Stark, this means that there is a major rise, then fall, to his characterization that is rebooted in time for Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

In 2008, the superhero genre received a massive shock to the chest with the release of Iron Man. Despite any feelings directed towards the plotline of the story, Tony Stark not only is a major key factor about why the story works, but also was just flat out fun to watch. The armour was badass, his banter with Jarvis was fantastic, and Iron Man was easily the coolest superhero on the big screen.

Until Captain America.

Part One: The Fall of Tony Stark aka How to Bucher a Character in Two Hours or Less by Joss Whedon

The First Avenger wasn’t the best movie—nor was it the worst—and it relied heavily on Chris Evans being incredibly charming, touching, and so impossible not to love that he distracts the audience from its almost cheesey Indiana Jones style plot (looking at you ‘Nazis searching for magical objects’). Evans, as Steve Rogers, proceeds to carry the character through The Avengers and beyond but while his character rises, Tony Stark’s falls.

The Avengers was a cinematic feat that still manages to hold up plot wise with its pacing and story. Its major pitfalls are with the characters. Instead of focusing on the characters as a whole, each of them is given a defining characteristic and then that characteristic is emphasized, expanded, and blown up enough that it becomes nothing more than a balloon waiting to pop.

Take, for example, Steve Rogers suddenly becoming a thundering dumbass who constantly reminds people that he was born in the 1940’s. “I understood that reference”, while funny in the short term, is just a long list of tally marks to make everyone remember that Captain America is Old Fashioned. He says things like “there’s only one god ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that”, wears clothes that look straight out of some grandfather’s closet, and constantly looks confused by the tech around him. This is a far cry from The First Avenger where he learns how to use the Hydra weapons, figures out that he was probably kidnapped based on a baseball game playing on the radio, and immediately disrespected authority to go save Bucky. In the Avengers all that is pushed to the side and Steve Rogers becomes less of the three dimensional character the audiences knew and more one dimension and a half.

In contrast, Bruce Banner benefited from such a tactic by becoming more intense, more regretful, and more nervous. Seeing the guards on the helicarrier, he immediately ducks away as the instinct to hide kicks in despite the fact that he’s allowed to be there and was actually invited by Nick Fury. This is a moment that establishes the character; he feels uncomfortable, he doesn’t want to be there. After The Incredible Hulk, Marvel was looking for a rebound and this was it.

That rebound was not intended for Tony Stark. The same Tony Stark that already had two movies that established his personality and laid a basic groundwork for his character. In The Avengers, Tony is a straight up jackass. This isn’t about his normal asshole-ness where he is sometimes brass and difficult to work with—because that’s just who he is—but The Avengers takes that quirk and runs a marathon with it. He was never a bully in Iron Man and Iron Man 2 so his line to Steve Rogers (“You might have missed a couple things. You know. Doing time as a Capsicle”) is completely out of character, the way he says “I’m a big fan of the way you turn into a giant green rage monster” despite Bruce banner clearly not being comfortable with it, and mocking Nick Fury’s disability in front of the rest of the ‘team’ shows a lack of understanding of what this character has gone through and the growth he’s already had.

Fans at this point would argue the point of Howard Stark. ‘But Tony hates Cap because of Howard’s relationship to Rogers!’ and they can argue that point until their blue in the face but at this point of time—when The Avengers first came out—there was no Agents of Shield to build a backing on and there was no Agent Carter. Iron Man 2 didn’t set up the reasoning for Howard’s neglect; just that it happened. For the Audience simply watching the movie at that time with no comic book background, Tony Stark is being a major jackass.

The mischaracterization doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t even stop at The Avengers. Tony becomes ignorant (“I have a plan: attack”) and rushes in despite stating that he’s a genius and the other movies building up that his mind is his greatest advantage, not the Iron Man suit itself. There’s also the fact that he’s just so rude to people. This is, apparently, the same man who was spooked and horrified by the fact that he was letting people come to harm in Iron Man to the point that he dedicated the rest of his life to righting that wrong. In Age of Ultron he creates a killer AI and his first reaction to when Helen Cho asks “why is it trying to kill us?” is to laugh.

Thor: Do you think this is funny?

Tony: No. It’s probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible.

The same guy who wanted his company to have nothing to do with weapons, who halted all manufacturing immediately and was so betrayed by the knowledge that Obadiah Stane was still selling them to both sides, laughed at the threat on other people’s lives. It’s almost as if he’s going out of his way to be a douche bag in this movie.

In Age of Ultron Tony Stark is a jerk who is actually playing with lives. He laughs about the situation he and Bruce banner have put the Avengers in, constantly uses his past trauma as an excuse to be forgiven for all misdeeds (“Does anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?”) and while Tony’s intentions are to fight the Big Bad that he believes is coming, the creation of Ultron is not the problem; it is how he reacted, as a character, to the idea that people’s lives were in trouble. Compared to Iron Man, where he is almost visibly brought to tears, the Tony Stark in Age of Ultron is a heartless bastard.

On the same note of comparing Iron Man and Whedon’s Avenger movies, Tony Stark is suddenly ridiculously overpowered. The idea of the Superhero Genre is to take characters who are Good and place them against the Bad. Playing around with the grey area between is where the audience gets to see remarkable character interactions but having a hero who is strong enough that they aren’t challenged by the big bad Baddie means no interesting interactions, means no fun rise of that character overcoming their struggles, and basically means that Tony Stark can apparently overpower the Hulk and blow Ultron into itty bitty pieces.

Granted, blowing Ultron to pieces doesn’t fully work in the end, but there is a massive difference between how Tony has a breeze fighting both the Hulk and Ultron while Steve has to get up again and again and again despite how the odds are against him.

Steve Rogers: Welp! He’s definitely unhappy! I’m gonna try and keep him that way.

Clint Barton: You’re not a match for him, Cap.

Steve Rogers: Thanks. Partner.

That’s what a superhero is. When Tony is so efficient that no other characters can compare and is never getting a good asswhooping he has to rise up against, it’s boring. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely a waste of the superhero genre. If I wanted to watch billionaires overcome all the odds so easily I could turn on the TV and watch the news. When a hero is so ridiculously overpowered that you know they’re going to win anyway, it’s hard to root for them. The Nuke scene in The Avengers is probably the closest director Joss Whedon ever manages to get to actually playing with this concept but it’s still not as impactful as the scene in Iron Man where Tony is crawling across the floor of his garage to get to his old Arc Reactor before he goes into cardiac arrest.

That is the kind of moment that has the audience on the edge of their seats, where they are truly rooting for the main character to succeed. Not in a battle with the Hulk where the only actual danger is maybe the Hulk Smashing Armour is damaged. And that’s a big ‘maybe’.

Between the two Avengers movies is Iron Man 3 and while the movie does try to humble Tony Stark through his PTSD, it falls short of actually doing the mental condition justice as he just seems to think his way through those panic attacks. It’s a good example of the after effects of heroism, how something like flying an active warhead through a portal and into space can have an effect on people, but after the last panic attack in the car he just seems to get over it and there’s no mention of it through the rest of the movie.

It seems, however, that Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron have the same issues plot wise, however, and that’s having a villain that doesn’t necessary challenge Tony Stark in a meaningful way. Killian kidnaps Pepper, but there are no actual challenges to Tony fighting him besides a visibly cool scene involving the different armours and a guy that can regenerate limbs and breathe fire. Obadiah Stane and Vanko challenged Tony in a way he never had before while Killian did not.

Beyond Killian, the only major part of this movie that would have raised the stakes for Tony Stark would if Pepper Potts had died during the climax. While this falls into the glaringly gross trope of Women in Refrigerators, it would have added the emotional baggage that just hasn’t existed for Tony since Iron Man.

Between the area of The Avengers and Age of Ultron, there was no growth for Tony Stark. He suffered (a little) became a douche bag (a lot) but he wasn’t really challenged in the way Steve Rogers had been challenged on the other side of the MCU.

Part Two:

The Foil of Steve Rogers, How Captain America Stole the Spotlight, and the Build Up of Tony Stark

Compared to Tony Stark, Steve Rogers went from strength to strength and none more so than in Captain America: Winter Soldier. In Iron Man 3, Tony falsely loses things (his house which he can rebuild because he has that kind of money, his suits which he doesn’t so much as lose as blow up, and Pepper who is still alive after “[falling] thirty feet”) While in Winter Soldier, Steve loses a lot. Peggy Carter, his one last connection to the past, has Alzheimer’s and her body is failing, Shield—perhaps the one true stable point in his life—ends up being a front for a Nazi organization he fought to eradicate in the 40’s, and, perhaps most importantly, he loses his faith in authority. Throughout the movie he’s challenged both ideologically, emotionally, and physically to his limits.

The way this is done is through a triangle of supporting characters. Unlike in The Avengers, Winter Soldier doesn’t depend on inflating characters into caricatures to establish differences between the cast. The supporting characters—Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and Bucky Barnes—play off of Steve and, in return, help to move the story forward.

Natasha Romanoff forces Steve to broaden his look at the world. She challenges him ideology, teaching him that the world isn’t black and white. The good guys can do bad things and the bad guys can do good things. The world is too grey for the thought of a true Right and Wrong philosophy. Steve Rogers has to choose between doing the good thing and breaking the law or doing the bad thing and not breaking the law. Of course, Winter Soldier is a superhero movie, so doing the good thing while breaking the law wins out in the end.

On the other hand, Sam Wilson fills the role of a new best friend. He’s similar to Steve and they have shared experiences, but his wit and humour plays off well against Steve’s no-nonsense 20th century temperament. Finally, it’s a return back to The First Avenger where Bucky and Steve joke just before getting on that all important train.

Last is Bucky Barnes. He’s a Terminator style antagonist who not only has the very real chance of killing Steve but almost succeeds in doing so. He challenges Steve emotionally and physically to the point of almost breaking the hero, opening a harrowing window to the past that no one else in the movie can quite understand. For the audience it’s watching Tony Stark crawl through his garage all over again except worse because the watchers don’t exactly want Steve to win the fight (as that would mean losing Bucky again) and they don’t want him to lose (which could possibly end in death for Steve).

This triangle of characters forces Steve to experience challenges and emotions in a new and fresh way and it’s what happens to Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. He becomes bolstered by a triangle of characters that challenge him, change his views, and force him to think about things differently.

The first of these characters is Steve Rogers himself. While most of the driving force between their relationship in the movie is based around the Sokovia Accords, Tony is convinced to support the law due to a run in with Miriam Sharpe. Her son, Charlie Spencer, died in Sokovia and she asks Tony “who is going to avenge my son, Stark? He’s dead and I blame you.” Compared to the scene in Ultron, Tony’s attitude is remarkably different. Rather than laughing about the danger he’s created, bragging about his achievement in making a murderous AI, Tony takes responsibility for his actions and even makes a concerted effort to try and keep the team together. When he says “I’m trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart” at the airport, it’s clear from the look on his face that he doesn’t want to fight the people he’s come to respect and doesn’t want to see his friends behind bars looking at him with disdain and hatred.

At the same time, there are two different stories happening in Civil War that are part of the same coin. Steve Rogers is trying to save Bucky Barnes from wrongful imprisonment while trying to bring the actual terrorist to justice, and Tony Stark is struggling with looking Mariam Sharpe in the eye and realizing that there is not justice to be done for the people who died in Sokovia. In fact, for both characters, nobody except for the audience actually know how Tony and Steve feel because we are the only ones who witness both moments.

This is a storytelling trick that helps the audience align with both characters and see both points of view which is why it is so hard to actually choose a side in Civil War and why the argument could be made that the audience was never meant to actually pick one in the first place. Whether or not there is agreement on their stance on the Accords, the movie makes it clear that both Steve and Tony have a point.

Civil War takes it a step further with Tony and forces him out of his comfort zone in a way that he hasn’t been challenged since Iron Man or Iron Man 2 in order to keep the peace. While the movie was about Captain America, it had to do a lot of major patch up work for the character of Tony Stark. He is morose after finding out that his actions directly led to someone getting killed which is a return back to the whole point of why he became Iron Man in the first place: to save people’s lives.

Even when Steve and Tony argue, there is no direct bullying from either side that happens in the posturing in The Avengers and even Age of Ultron. Neither side resort to insults and, even in their disagreements, never resort to the needle-like jabs that Joss Whedon seems to think should be the basis of their ‘friendship’.

Steve Rogers: Protection? Is that how you see this? This is protection? It's internment, Tony.

Tony Stark: She's not a US citizen—

Steve Rogers: Oh, come on, Tony.

Tony Stark: And they don't grant visas to weapons of mass destruction.

Steve Rogers: She's a kid!

Tony Stark: Give me a break! I'm doing what has to be done to stave off something worse.

He��s listening to Steve and they both respect each other to hear the other’s point of view. In this single scene, Tony is far more measured than in both of the previous Avenger films combined. It almost feels like he’s grown up. Steve Rogers and the situation at hand is forcing Tony to look at himself and become better from it.

This isn’t to say that Civil War doesn’t take Tony Stark to his lowest point and possibly the closest we ever will get to the almost villainous Tony of the comics, but it’s a moment that feels, for once, truly earned.

Steve Rogers: Tony. Tony.

Tony Stark: Did you know?

Steve Rogers: I didn't know it was him.

Tony Stark: Don't bullshit me, Rogers! Did you know?

Steve Rogers: Yes.

As a character who is never supposed to lie, this moment is a breaking point in the relationship between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. As a character who has always told the truth, no matter how big that truth is, Steve keeping a secret means that the information is incredibly important to him. Bucky is enough for Steve to bend his morals and is something that is, understandably, shocking for Tony as he is directly involved. While Bucky was controlled by Hydra, Tony Stark goes through a massive amount of revelations all at once; finding out his parents were murdered instead of dying in a car accident (watching them being beaten and choked to death on a monitor), finding out Bucky was directly involved, and then also finding out that Steve, a man he trusted, kept that a secret from him. All of this is the cataclysm that begins the fight at the end of Civil War and everything leading up to that one key moment make perfect sense.

The fact that the fight gets so out of hand that Tony Stark would have been willing to murder Bucky, the fact that he cowers underneath Steve when the shield is raised thinking that he’s driven Steve to do the same to him; that is what ruins their friendship in the end. The trust is gone and he doesn’t even get to take the high ground in the situation as Steve leaves the shield of his own, free will and walks away leaving Tony completely alone and abandoned by the team he once surrounded himself with.

Suddenly all that humbleness, all that struggle, all that loss that was missing from 2012 onward is dumped across Tony in the biggest way imaginable. Civil War patches up the holes in Tony Stark’s character and refuses to use the frilly Hello Kitty band aids of Iron Man 3 but instead use a whole tub of quick drying cement and sand him down so it’s polished. While I’m sure a lot of his fans would like for him to not have gone through the entirety of Civil War at all, the movie was completely necessary to not only fix Tony for future instalments in the MCU but it’s simply just good writing.

Part Three:

The Unstoppable Force Meets an Immoveable Object

In Avengers: Infinity War, the introduction of Thanos becomes the epicentre of Tony’s entire focus. He now knows the name of the Big Bad he’s feared since the end of The Avengers. Tony Stark, realizing the threat, goes into overdrive. There is an influx of sudden physicality and panic where he stretched against Doctor Strange’s cauldron and argues about what to do with the infinity stone.

During his argument with Doctor Strange aboard Ebony Maw’s ship, it’s clear that, for the first time since Obadiah Stane, Tony has met his match. Out in the universe, there is an entity that can drive him to obsession, give him PTSD, and leave him designing the ultimate nano-tech suit just in the hope that maybe he is prepared enough to face this colossus on the horizon. Up to this point, Tony Stark has suffered from having good, but not great villains. They never actually ever manage to leave their mark on Tony despite having all the right ingredients. The closest would be Ultron, but it’s still Miriam Sharpe who directly impacts him, not Ultron himself.

After so long, after a grand total of nineteen films, the final fight on Titan between Tony and Thanos feels like a culmination of all that waiting and there is finally a villain that can match Tony Stark step by step. Both of them dread it, both of them have to face it, and, when Tony is the last one standing, giving everything he has; Thanos wins.

Every hero failed in Avengers: Infinity War but no one failed as much as Tony Stark. His story was built up around this battle. His suffering after New York, his PTSD in Iron Man 3 and his desperation to keep the team together in Civil War has all led up to the single moment on Titan where Thanos stabs him and walks away with Doctor Strange’s time stone.

While Civil War marked the rise and the beginning of the rebirth of Tony’s character, Infinity War was the fire that set the phoenix ablaze. It was a rejuvenation, a cultivation, and the beginning of a new start for Tony that simply wasn’t there during The Avengers and Age of Ultron. It brought back new love for the character and an appreciation of who he is, what he could do, and why all of this, the entirety of the MCU, started with Iron Man.

#analysis #i put this entire thing behind a cut #so if you had to scroll all the way through i'm so sorry

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itsiotrecords-blog · 7 years

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For decades, sociologists have been trying to understand why certain people rise to the top of their fields. A number of theories have emerged, so if you’re struggling on the path of success, perhaps these will give you some new insight.

#1 Being an Underdog Can be Advantageous You’re probably familiar with Malcolm Gladwell, who writes and researches on the topic of success. In his book David and Goliath, he examines the concept of the underdog and argues that they actually have a greater advantage than the so-called “Goliaths.” When the Goliaths win, it’s often because the underdog is playing by Goliath’s rules. However, if “David” looks at the situation from a completely different angle and approaches it with their own unique take, then the underdog has a better chance at winning. According to Gladwell, the underdog can substitute effort for ability under the right conditions. Using the titular biblical example, Goliath was expecting hand-to-hand combat. David approached it differently and used a sling to fire a stone at Goliath’s head. David essentially brought a gun to a fistfight. This wasn’t against the rules, and David won because he didn’t go along with Goliath’s expectations. For an additional example, see that famous sword “fight” scene in Indiana Jones. History is full of underdogs beating the favored opponent simply because they were innovative. The Spartans held off the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, and T. E. Lawrence led the Bedouins across the desert to fight the Turks. Innovation and thinking outside the box can be more advantageous than being skillful. So if the odds are against you, perhaps you just need to stop playing by everyone else’s rules and embrace your strengths.

#2 Society Has Built-in Obstacles There are certain obstacles in our lives that are hard to overcome. It can be as simple as when and where you’re born — in Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book, Outliers, he gives the example of hockey players that are drafted to the NHL. As children, all hockey players who are born in the same year play in the same division. However, if you compare an eight year old who was born on January 1 to a player who was born December 31, there are drastic differences. The player born in January has had almost a whole extra year to grow and develop, meaning they could be faster, stronger and simply better than a player born in December. Then when it comes time to pick players for more competitive teams, the older and more developed children will have an advantage. They’re more likely to be chosen to go on for more training and play against other elite players. That cycle will continue, and the players born in December will always be playing catch up. Between 1980 and 2007, 36% of players drafted into the NHL were born in the first quarter of the year, while only 14.5% of the players that were drafted were born in the last quarter of the year. This shows that there are always going to be challenges in life, but it also presents an interesting idea. What would happen if youth hockey had one league for children born in the first six months and one for children born in the last six months? This would possibly change the playing field and double the amount of great players. Hockey is far from the only field that uses rigid timetables. School, which often builds the foundation for success, is also structured so children born earlier in the year have more time to learn and mature than those born later in the year. What would happen if schools had enrollment times every six months instead of once a year?

#3 No One Succeeds on Their Own While it would be nice to succeed simply because we work hard, life doesn’t work that way. We need help and support from friends, family and teachers, and then we need chances from employers and other key figures in the fields we choose to pursue. To illustrate this point, in Outliers Gladwell talks about two men with genius level intellect — Christopher Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. Many readers may know Oppenheimer as the “father of the atomic bomb,” but Langan is much more obscure. Langan was born in 1952 and has an IQ between 195 and 210, which is higher than both Einstein and Stephen Hawking. However, Langan isn’t teaching theoretical physics at Harvard — he’s a rancher in Missouri. While there’s nothing wrong with being a rancher, it’s an odd profession for one of the smartest living people. Gladwell points out that the men grew up in two different environments. Langan was born into a poor rural family and attended public schools that didn’t recognize his brilliance. After high school he attended Reed College, but had to drop out in the second semester because his mother had failed to fill out scholarship forms. A year and a half later, after working in construction and as a forest firefighter, he enrolled at Montana State University. However, he was having problems getting to school because his car broke down. He asked the school if he could change from two morning classes to afternoon classes because he could get a ride later in the day, but the university refused. Langan became increasingly frustrated and eventually dropped out. Oppenheimer, on the other hand, was raised in an environment where his gifts were cultured, he was encouraged from a young age, and was given the best education possible. While at Cambridge, he tried to poison a professor he was envious of. He was caught but only put on probation, and was allowed to continue studying. It’s amazing that both brilliant men went down such different paths based on the help they received. Langan was frustrated by a lack of support, while Oppenheimer committed a serious crime and got away with a slap on the wrist. The lesson is that in order to succeed, the gifts and interests of a person need to be encouraged, especially at a young age. Then as they grow up, people need to be given opportunities, breaks and second chances. Without help from other people, it makes it impossible to succeed because as Gladwell points out, “… no one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone.”

#4 IQ is Overrated In the business world, it always seems like the smartest guys are the most successful. After all, firms hire the best and brightest from schools. However, while people with high test scores do have more opportunities, that doesn’t necessarily mean that smart people are more successful. In fact, in many fields the link between success and intelligence is often weak or non-existent. Intelligence is a complicated thing with many different facets, yet society still measures intelligence with IQ tests, grades in school and exam results. That ignores critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence. Sociologists performed a test that involved betting on horses, which is similar to picking stocks because you’re given little pieces of information on performance and then it’s up to you to pick a winner. What they found was that people with lower intelligence performed better. When a person with higher IQ did do better, it was only for a short time. While a person with a higher IQ may do a new task better than a person with a lower IQ, the more they practice the gap decreases and they perform at a similar level. Hard work and experience can overcome the perceived advantage of a high IQ level. So while having a high IQ doesn’t hurt, it simply isn’t the driving factor for why some people are more successful than others.

#5 Your Name Matters One of the things that has the biggest influence in our life is something we have no control over. Studies have shown that your name can play into your success, for better or for worse. One interesting theory is a phenomenon called “nominative determinism,” which is that your name can actually influence which way your life goes and which profession you choose. Probably the best example of this is Usian Bolt. We tend to like things that remind us of ourselves — for example, someone with the last name “Smith” is more likely to marry another “Smith.” Usian Bolt may have been attracted to running because it reminded him of his name. People may have also wanted to encourage him because his name made him sound fast. Subconsciously, when choosing a runner to train, who would the coach be more inclined to choose — Usian Bolt or Steve Molasses? Your name can have a profound impact on what you pursue and how people treat you. Names can also imply social class, and teachers pick up on that. Some don’t feel that children with names that indicate a lower socioeconomic class are worth investing their time in. This would start a lifelong problem where the child might not be able to get caught up, simply because teachers, either consciously or subconsciously, didn’t like their name. As people get older, there have been studies that show bias against people with “ethnic” sounding names when they apply for a job. Keep all that in mind if you decide to have kids.

#6 Child Prodigies Don’t Exist In Geoffrey Colvin’s book, Talent is Overrated, he claims that there really is no such thing as a child prodigy. His argument is that no one is born innately talented, but that everyone who is “great” practices and develops to that skill level. When people claim that prodigies exist, they point to Mozart and Tiger Woods as examples. However, those two were actually seasoned pros by the time they were famous. Mozart’s father was a music teacher who taught Mozart from the age of three, and then he trained with other professionals. By the time he was 14 and wrote his first opera, he had been studying music every day for nine years. He continued to study music until he was 17, and he then worked as a pianist after completing school. So by the time he was 25 and wrote his first masterpiece, he had been playing music daily for 22 years. As for the argument that he wrote music as a child, none of that music was done in his handwriting. His father was making a living off the fact that Mozart and his sister were prodigies, so there’s a very good chance his father wrote the music himself. As for Tiger Woods, his father was a retired teacher and a golf fanatic that had an expert handicap. He started training Tiger at seven months old by giving him a putter and making him watch while he putted for hours and hours. As a child and into his teens Tiger was constantly training, often with professionals. By the time that Tiger was 19 and a member of the Walker Cup team, he had been practicing golf for 17 years. That isn’t to say these two men weren’t tremendously talented and masters in their own discipline. It’s just that they trained for years and simply weren’t born with innate talent.

#7 The 10,000 Hours Theory A Professor at the University of Colorado named Anders Ericsson decided to look at what separates amateurs from professionals. In 1993, he released a paper that found on average amateurs only got about 4000 hours of practice, but professionals had practiced for at least 10,000 hours. Besides Tiger Woods and Mozart, another example of people who put in 10,000 hours were the Beatles. Before they were famous, they played full time for two and a half years in Hamburg, often for eight to 12 hours a day. It was at this time that they developed their signature sound. Then there’s Bill Gates, who went to a preparatory high school that was one of the few in the country with a computer terminal. He spent more time on the computer than any other student, and was even allowed to miss math class to work on it. It was during that time and his years in university he earned his 10,000 hours. While there’s some debate over whether 10,000 hours is a rule or just a theory, many experts agree that a significant number of people who are considered “great” have, on average, 10,000 hours of experience.

#8 Deliberate Practice If no one is born talented and you need 10,000 hours of practice, what’s the most effective way of using those hours? One theory is something sociologists call “deliberate practice.” Essentially, there are six elements. The practice needs to be meant to specifically improve performance, and is even more effective if there’s coaching. It needs to be repeatable, and feedback on a regular basis is crucial. It also has to be demanding, either physically or mentally. If you’re doing all of this correctly, it shouldn’t be a fun experience. An example would be a basketball player who isn’t very good at free throws spending hours and hours just doing free throws while being coached. Not a great time no matter how big of a basketball fan you are. Deliberate practice is important because practicing specific activities over and over again will get you more comfortable with that action. When you compete, you’re simply using those repetitive tasks in a different environment. The practice needs to be difficult, because that’s the only way someone can improve. If it’s too easy, you never leave your comfort zone and never grow through challenge. As for the feedback portion, Steve Kerr, the former chief learning officer of Goldman Sachs, said that practicing without feedback is like bowling with the pins behind a curtain. Without feedback, you won’t get better and you won’t care. So while it is possible to be amazing at something, you have 10,000 hours of hard work ahead of you.

#9 The Third Grade is The Most Important Year of Your Life Sociologist Robert K. Merton first coined the Matthew Effect in 1968. Simply put, it’s the idea that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The reason this is such a big deal when it comes to success is that experts think the third grade is the most pivotal year of someone’s life (no pressure, huh?). In the fourth grade, the learning model changes and it becomes incredibly important that children know how to read and learn independently. Children who don’t have these skills began to avoid reading and start to fall behind. But to move on and do well in school you have to learn cumulatively, because school doesn’t get easier as the years go on. If a student falls behind early, the gap would just widen over the following years. The kids that can read keep getting ahead, and the students who had problems keep falling behind. Studies have shown that if someone had problems reading in grade three they are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

#10 You Have Amazing Potential On average, the human mind can remember a sequence of seven to nine numbers. After that it becomes incredibly hard to remember all the numbers in the right order. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University wanted to know if someone of average intelligence could break that barrier with practice. One test subject, who practiced two or three times a week for over two years, was able to remember 82 numbers before deciding to stop. Another subject hit 102 numbers when he stopped. It’s not that they couldn’t push further — the study just came to an end. Both of these test subjects did better with practice than people who said they had photographic memories. Through these tests, researchers discovered what they called “the remarkable potential of ‘ordinary’ adults and their amazing capacity for change with practice.” Their research showed that even “ordinary” people have the potential to be great by challenging themselves. If you work hard, your goals can be more attainable than you thought.

#IoTRecords

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