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strawberryspence · 1 year

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happy birthday, @stevesbipanic! i am glad you were born, you amazing human being. I hope you get to drink the coldest, most delicious, bougiest milo you can have. ILY broccoli! 💛

Steve has never had a birthday cake. He doesn't count the first six cakes his parents had for him, because he's pretty sure it was only for appearances.

He remembers his seventh birthday. How badly he wanted to have a Flintstones themed birthday party, and how his parents called it tacky. Instead, Steve had a lavish tea party with all of their investor friends. He remembers hating it.

After that, there's— nothing. There were Nannies or Babysitters that tried to make him feel better by bringing him to Benny's and he's thankful for that. But there's always that heart wrenching rip in his system when he sees a child. Surrounded by family, singing happy birthday as they wait to blow on a cake.

And the thing is if Steve never gets to have that, it’s okay. It’s really, really, really, okay. That also means he’ll do his best to give all the kids the best birthdays they can have, so they can never feel what he felt. If El wants a day just full of craft making? Sure. Dustin wants to visit this damn planetarium in Indianapolis? Okay. Mike wants to dress him like him for an entire day? Alright.

Steve is happy that way, until Eddie Munson comes crashing into his life with a broken bottle. And okay, maybe it’s not a great idea to lie in the biggest and probably the most important relationship he has right now, but he’s not going to tell Eddie his little sad secret.

What he forgot to account for is the fact that his boyfriend is the biggest snoop to ever exist.

“Wha�� What’s this?” Steve stammers as he enters his house. It’s almost always dark when he comes home, the house dull and empty.

Tonight, it’s different. After having his birthday dinner with Robin, Steve drives them back to his house so they can have movie night. Supposedly.

Instead, Eddie’s standing behind the long wooden dining table that never gets used, with 20 different cupcakes, all lit with a candle. There’s food and banners and balloons with streamers.

Robin pushes him forward with a smile, “So…” Eddie walks towards him, “I found some of your childhood pictures.”

“Oh.” Steve breathes out.

“Look, maybe I am wrong. Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe your parents just weren’t the kind of people that liked taking pictures and having to develop them. Maybe someday, you’ll tell me why you only have one childhood photo album or why there’s no pictures of your birthday parties past the age of six.”

Eddie says, hands nervously twisting around his hair, “But, on the off chance that I am right,” He shakes his head in disbelief, “On the off chance that you haven’t had a birthday cake or a birthday wish in 14 years, I got you 20 birthday cupcakes.”

Steve can barely hold himself anymore, tears threatening to spill from his eyes, “Why 20?”

Eddie smiles at him, and his eyes sparkle at Steve like he hung the damn moon and stars, like he fucking created the whole universe, “One for every year my favorite person has been alive.”

Steve chokes down a half sob, half whine as he slaps a hand on his mouth.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Eddie whispers as he wraps Steve in a comforting hug. They stay like that for a minute before Eddie says, “I am so happy you were born. There’s a few more people that are happy, they’re all hiding in the kitchen right now.”

“What?” Steve pulls back, hastily wiping his tears.

“The kids are all here. Nance, Jonathan, and Argyle.” Eddie tenderly wipes a stray tear off his cheek, “Even Wayne, Hop, Joyce, and Mrs. Henderson is here.”

Steve’s not sure if he wants to know, but he still asks, “Why?”

Eddie visibly softens, but before he can answer Robin answers for him, “Because we all love you, Dingus.”

“So, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to sit behind the cupcakes and they’re going to come out from where they’ve been eavesdropping.” Steve laughs when Eddie emphasizes the word, and there’s a clatter in the kitchen followed by whispering, “They’re going to act normal. And we’re going to sing you a song. Okay?”

Steve smiles, nodding, “Okay.”

“Okay.” Eddie says as he runs to the kitchen and as Robin ushers him to sit in front of the cupcakes. She forces a birthday hat on his hair, and he doesn’t even argue.

They all come out from the kitchen, all smiling and wearing ridiculous birthday hats. Even Hop and Wayne are wearing them and it might actually be the funniest thing he’s ever seen. The kids have blow horns that fill the silent house with joyous sounds.

They sing him a birthday song. It’s loud and it doesn’t exactly sound good. Dustin’s trying a new other pitch and Lucas has never been a good singer. Max is drumming on the table and El has a small tambourine. Mike and Will are trying to do some kind of duet in their own little bubble. But it’s the most beautiful, harmonious sound to Steve.

And as they all urged him to make a wish, Steve is struck with awe and disbelief, a feeling of realization sparking in his veins. Steve’s got everything he’s ever wanted right in front of him. He just wants all of them to be safe and sound.

He smiles at his family, as he lets his eyelid flutter shut.

And for the first time, Steve makes a birthday wish.

Edit:

Steve smiles, happy and content, as everyone chitchats around him.

"Hey, Eds?" Steve calls out for his boyfriend who's busy stuffing his face with bread rolls.

"Yeam?" Eddie replies, still chewing on the bread.

"Can I have a Flintstone themed birthday next year?"

Eddie swallows his bread with water, before turning to Steve with a smile so bright it could blind him. He moves closer to give his temple a light kiss.

"You got it, sweetheart. I'll be Fred, you'll be Wilma. It will be perfect."

#tw child trauma #tw child neglect #happy birthday b! ofc i got you angst for your birthday. are you even surprised??????#i hate the harringtons sorry #hope you enjoyed this #steve goes on and has 70 more wonderful birthdays #with his husband and family #steddie #steve harrington x eddie munson angst #steve harrington x eddie munson #steddie headcanons #steddie ficlet #dae writes #daeheadcanons

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ragingbookdragon · 8 months

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It’s only the fifth time that he comes in that she realizes the man is obviously going to be a regular. He orders the same thing, a single black tea with a buttered croissant, then proceeds to sit in the booth in the corner, the one that faces away from everything but also gives the best view of the entire café. It takes him exactly thirty minutes to finish the entire breakfast before he leaves, always dropping two pounds into the tip jar and gives her a tight smile before he exits.

“You’re a creature of habit,” she notes, and he looks up from his phone, blinking at her in shock.

“Pardon?”

She smiles. “You order the same thing and sit in the exact same place every morning. A creature of habit.”

“I guess I am,” he replies, looking down at his cup and plate. “Can’t go wrong with simple things.”

“You’d be surprised.” Her eyes trail up his arms, pausing on the fancy but tactical watch, then to his face. “You know we offer military discounts for active duty and retired, yes?”

At this, he pauses and meets her gaze, brows furrowing in what one could only describe as surprised satisfaction. “How’d you know I was military?”

She gestures to the seat across from him and he nods, watching as she takes a seat. “My dad was retired USN. You carry yourself like he did. Punctual, clean cut.”

“Good senses.”

“Eh, I try.”

He smiles as he takes a sip of his tea. “How’d you end up this side of Birmingham?”

A bit of sadness crosses her face as she lets out a soft sigh. “Dad died from cancer a few years ago. I just needed a change of pace.” She shrugs. “Flying halfway across the world and starting new will do that I guess.”

“Sorry for your loss,” he murmurs. “Where was he laid to rest?”

“Arlington.” Her smile is one of pride. “I don’t think I’d ever seen so many retired and active-duty members come to his funeral. It was…really something.” She shakes her head. “But back to my original question. You get a discount for being a military service member.”

“Don’t need it,” he says, shaking his head.

“Just because you don’t need it doesn’t mean you’re not getting it,” she fires back. “You fight for freedom, you get it.”

“Quite an American way of putting things,” he jokes, and her smile is wide and bright.

“The American way of life extends far.” She rises from her seat. “I have to get back to work though.” She turns but pauses and spins back around. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

He smiles, heart fluttering a bit in his chest at the fact that she wants to see him. “Of course.”

“Good,” she says holding out her hand to shake. “You never told me your name though.”

“Jon,” he answers, taking her hand. “Jonathan Price.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jon,” she answers, flushing when he presses his lips to the back of hers.

“The pleasure’s all mine, love,” he smirks, chuckling when she laughs and pulls away, practically tripping over herself as she hurries off.

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steddieas-shegoes · 1 year

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for the request :D

i need more eleven and steve with a sibling bond and hopper as steve's adoptive dad pls! steve deserves to have a loving family and steve hopper just hits different yk? plus i love steve and eleven being protective over each other 🤧

tysm !!

UGH I LOVE IT!!!! This is from Hopper's point of view, hope that is okay. It just felt like it needed to be? This was so good to explore. I definitely want to explore Steve and El being overprotective siblings more in the future, even if it's just in the background. I hope you love this! - Mickala ❤️

--------------------------------------------------

Hopper was at the door. Again.

This was the third party he busted at the Harrington residence in as many weeks.

Steve just didn’t seem to get the picture that he was watching over him.

See, Jim Hopper was far from an idiot.

He knew that Steve was left alone a lot since the too-young age of 11.

He knew that Steve was popular at school.

He knew that rich, popular kids with empty houses usually threw parties.

And it was kind of like Steve wanted him to break these up at this point.

He wasn’t changing the time, the location, the invitees, anything.

All it took was Hopper driving by the first time, and he was in on it all.

Steve was expected to throw these parties, Hopper was expected to break them up. So it goes.

And if that’s what Steve needed from him to keep up his appearances as a “cool kid”, then he could do that.

“Steve.”

“Chief! You wanna come in?”

Steve was slurring his words, his eyes unable to focus on anything.

He was drunk.

He hadn’t been the last two times Hopper broke up the parties. In fact, he’d been in complete control and sober.

Something was wrong.

Steve throwing a party he shouldn’t be was one thing. Steve being wasted at said party was another entirely.

“Uh no. I’d like everyone to leave though.”

“I can’t! This is my house,” Steve giggled.

God, he didn’t get paid enough for this.

“Alright. I’m gonna get everyone out of here. You go shut off the music and drink some water.”

“But then I have to think about stuff.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

He was well aware of how neglected Steve was for most of his life. His parents threw money at nannies that barely did their job, and then threw money at Steve like that was the equivalent of love.

The only person who showed him love was Nancy.

“Where’s Nancy?”

“Oh she broke up with me. Said I was bullshit and we were bullshit and then she left with Jonathan because he’s not bullshit.”

That was. A lot to unpack. He didn’t have time though.

“Steve. I need you to focus okay? I need you to shut the music off so I can tell everyone to go. Then you need to go to your kitchen and drink at least a full glass of water. Make sense?”

“Sure thing, Chief!”

He stumbled away, possibly in the wrong direction, but Hopper didn’t really care so long as he got this shut down.

As he walked through the living room and dining area, he told kids they had five minutes to be gone or he was calling their parents.

They scattered quickly; They knew he wasn’t messing around.

He did the same with the kids on the stairs, the kids in the hall, and the kids in the kitchen.

Finally, the music shut off and more kids came running downstairs. When they spotted Hopper, they kept scampering right out the front door.

He figured the rest were probably in bedrooms or hiding in the backyard, and he needed to check on Steve again first.

Steve was standing at the back door, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

“Steve?”

“Just need a minute.”

“Okay, kid.”

Hopper took the chance to open the back door and yell to everyone that if they weren’t off the property in two minutes, he was arresting them all for trespassing.

It wouldn’t hold up, not with how many of these kids had parents with money for good lawyers, but it scared them.

He walked around the house, checking each room to ensure it was empty.

By the time he got back to Steve, he was passed out on the couch.

Hopper made sure he was on his side, blanket covering him, and a glass of water on the coffee table in front of him.

As he did the bare minimum to make sure Steve stayed alive, he had to wonder when the last time someone actually took care of Steve was.

————-

Steve started coming around to pick up and drop off El.

He was the designated soccer mom apparently, always bringing the kids where they needed to go: the arcade, the mall, the movies, the park.

He seemed to do it every day, no complaints.

El loved Steve.

She came home with a skip in her step, a smile on her face.

If he asked her how everyone was, her first response was always “Steve’s great.”

He’d be worried about it being a crush if she wasn’t stupidly in love with Mike. He’d almost prefer Steve.

But El just latched onto Steve in a different way. Like he was a protective older brother who made stupid jokes to make her laugh, but also argued with her over the radio.

Hopper was still worried about Steve. He graduated, but he was starting a summer job soon. A job that would leave him unavailable most days.

Hopper wasn’t a fan of this, and if he were rich, he probably would have offered Steve money to just be the kids’ chauffeur all day every day.

Within a week of his new job, El was barely leaving the house.

Hopper offered to drive her places before his shifts and she refused.

She didn’t even want to visit Steve at work.

Hopper didn’t mind paying him a visit, though.

“Hey, Hop. Everything okay?” Steve greeted.

“Just fine. You?”

“Any day in this uniform is another day I lose dignity, so.”

Hopper hid a smile.

The kid was funny, even if he didn’t mean to be.

“Got a favor to ask. El’s been pretty bummed about you starting this job and not spending much time with her and the others. Think you could take them somewhere your next day off? I could give you gas money.”

“Oh! Yeah. I don’t need gas money, though. The fair’s in town in two weeks, so I figured I’d take them all.”

“Great! Uh,” he cleared his throat, worried he seemed too excited. “I’ll tell El.”

“Awesome.”

But if Hopper knew what the fair had in store for all of them, he would have made them all stay home. He would’ve stayed home.

—————

After Vecna, Hopper had a lot of clean up to do.

He knew he left a mess, but he had no idea how much that mess exploded while he was gone.

El would barely leave his side. She sometimes sat at Max’s bedside in the hospital, but only if Steve sat with her. Then, she was right back home sticking close to his side.

He was grateful for Steve, truly.

He would show up every other day at the same time, give El a long hug, tease her about something stupid that made her crack a smile, and then bribe her to leave so Hopper could have some time to himself.

You’d think spending so long away would make him want to always be surrounded by the ones he loved, but not quite.

When Steve brought her back, she seemed lighter. Not relaxed, but like she’d been able to experience being a teenager. Just regular things.

Steve told him he brought her to get ice cream sometimes, sometimes they’d just drive around singing to songs on the radio, sometimes they’d walk around the quarry trail and try to find butterflies and birds.

He didn’t care what they did.

He knew she was safe with Steve.

—————-

When Eddie Munson’s name was cleared, they all had a party at Steve’s house.

A party that happened during daylight hours and was mostly children and their parents.

Quite a turn of events for Steve Harrington.

But most importantly, he let El help plan the whole thing.

She needed a distraction since Max was still not awake, and the only person who knew what would help was Steve.

They planned board games, and food, and they cleaned the pool together in case anyone wanted to swim.

“Steve. You are being very silly,” El said with a frown as Steve put a party hat on his own head.

“It’s a party! We’re supposed to be silly,” Steve replied, leaning over to place a party hat on her head.

Hopper watched fondly as El smiled.

“Purple is my favorite color.”

“I know. That’s why I picked it.”

Steve was a good kid. He was a good adopted brother to El.

And Hopper could admit now that he was beyond just seeing Steve as a kid he watched out for the best he could.

Steve was more like a son to him than he probably was to his actual parents, more like a brother to El than even Will or Jonathan were.

He watched as Steve pulled El into a hug and started swaying back and forth, dancing.

El was laughing. Steve was laughing. Light and carefree were words seldom used to describe either of them, but when they were together, Steve and El were like the children they never really got to be.

“Steve, can I talk to you?”

Hopper wasn’t really big on emotions. He felt them, just like everyone did, but he didn’t talk about them.

But Steve needed to hear this, he needed to know that someone loved him and believed he was good.

El smiled and went outside to see if Robin and Nancy needed any help with anything there.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I just…” Hopper pulled Steve into a hug.

It was awkward, maybe a little forced at first, but the moment Steve sank into it, Hopper pulled him in tighter.

“I love you, kid. You know that, right? I’ve been takin’ care of you, watchin’ out for you the best I can for years. You don’t have to be the strong one all the time, okay?”

Steve let out a sob against his chest and Hopper felt the telltale burn in his throat that he was not far behind.

“You and El are my kids, you got that? I’m always gonna protect you both. El and I love ya so much.”

“Love you both,” Steve gasped out.

Hopper didn’t let go. He knew Steve needed this. He kind of needed it too.

But El walked in, frown on her face.

“Steve? Are you okay?”

Steve sniffled and tried to wipe his tears away without her noticing that he was crying, which just wasn’t going to work. She was too perceptive.

“I’m fine, El.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No! I’m really fine.”

El glanced at Hopper, his eyes red, but his face trying to remain strong and passive, like Steve had just started crying on him, not that he’d been the one to initiate the hug.

She looked back at Steve, who was starting to pull away from Hopper’s arms.

She quickly ran to them, Hopper’s arms pulling away to wrap around her now as she wrapped her own arms around Steve.

“Steve is our family, too?”

“Yeah, kid. He is.”

“Like my brother?”

“If you want me to be,” Steve said as he turned slightly in their arms.

“Of course. I love you like family.”

“I love you too, El.”

Hopper cleared his throat and pulled away.

“Alright, alright. Party’s starting soon. Guest of honor should be here any minute unless he got himself into trouble.”

“Do not be mean about Eddie. He is a very nice person to me and to Steve.”

Steve was blushing, looking down at the floor.

Uh oh.

Hopper knew that look.

“We’ll talk about that later, Harrington.”

“Yes, sir.”

El giggled and ran out the back door, dragging Steve with her.

Hopper sighed.

What did he get himself into?

#steddie #steve harrington #stranger things #el hopper #jim hopper #request #anon request #ficlet #hurt/comfort #protective hopper

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runninguplenorahills · 1 year

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I just wanted to remind everyone that no matter how much better Lenora objectively was for Will than Hawkins, he was not happy there!

Will might’ve not been bullied in Lenora but he had no friends either which was not a deliberate decision btw. I see a lot of people claiming that Will could’ve made friends if he wanted to but didn’t because he rather spent time with El and I just don’t think that’s the case. Will is not an extroverted person who makes the first step when it comes to making new friends. He’s introverted in general and shy when he’s surrounded by people he doesn’t know so making friends is a struggle for him in general and has nothing to do with him sticking with El in Lenora. And while we don’t know anything specific about if Dustin and Lucas sent letters or called Will, we do know that Mike did not. Furthermore it’s canon that Jonathan wasn’t really there for Will during the time spent in Lenora either and while it is never specifically said it is heavily and obviously implied, it’s shown, that Will was in utmost need of his brother’s help and support! And El did not replace Jonathan in that aspect! Jonathan being distant from Will does not and did not equal Will and El becoming close on the level that Will and Jonathan are. I know I talk about this a lot (that willel isn’t as close in canon) but I just had to say it again because to me it seems really clear that a lot of people think that Jonathan not being there for Will somehow led to Will and El sticking together. Like it’s them against the world while that was never the case ever! Will did not once seek comfort in El because Will didn’t simply need a sibling, he needed Jonathan. Jonathan and Will have a close and deep bond and it’s unique because Jonathan isn’t just fulfilling the role of a sibling for Will. So Jonathan cannot just be replaced by another sibling or anyone at all. Point is, when Will realized Jonathan was being distant he started bottling up everything he wanted to talk about. He did not talk to El instead because quite frankly, they don’t have that kind of relationship (El also didn’t tell Will about her and Mike’s problems and the lying).

So Will had no friends in Lenora, he almost lost all connection to his closest friend whom he’s also in love with and his big brother whom he could always count on for support wasn’t really there for him either. Mike and Jonathan are literally the two people Will always knew he could trust with anything because he knew they’d understand in one way or another. But then neither of them was there for him anymore for reasons unknown to Will which lead him to feel as though he can’t talk to either of them anymore. He wanted to talk to them! Desperately! But he just couldn’t. And all of a sudden Will was all alone. Lenora wasn’t fresh and happy and so much better than Hawkins. Lenora was lonely.

Did Lenora allow more room for personal development due to the lack of the upside down and bullying/rumors? Of course it did. Will’s willingness to make and present a project about Alan Turing is hinting at some positive development. In that aspect Lenora was better for Will than Hawkins but in every other aspect it wasn’t, simply because Will was on his own.

The fact that Will felt lost and alone in Lenora is also important for byler’s love story btw. Will telling Mike that he felt lost without him throughout the months he’s spent in Lenora is so significant because it’s a reply to Mike telling Will: “It’s Hawkins. It’s not the same without you.” Mike has called Hawkins his home throughout his entire life but once Will wasn’t there anymore the feeling of being at home left as well. And Will could move anywhere with his family but if Mike’s not there he feels lost nonetheless. The place where they feel like they belong is not a place at all, it’s the state of being together. Will feels found with Mike and Mike feels at home with Will. Mike makes Will feel better for being different and Will makes Mike feel like he’s not alone. Hawkins, Lenora, that doesn’t matter because it’s not about the place!

Will not being happy in Lenora without Mike is exactly as important as Mike not being happy in Hawkins without Will. Erasing that creates a different narrative, destroys the story they’re trying to tell. Simply because people are making it seem like Will can do just fine without Mike while Mike loses his mind without Will which is just not the case. The whole of s4 showed us that Will is not happy without Mike and that he needs him! Will literally tells Mike that he’d fall apart without him and still there are people that try to depict Will as having a good time in Lenora without Mike. Feeding into Mike’s insecurities and undermining Will’s love for Mike! And this is honestly something that makes my blood boil! People who constantly feel the need to undermine Will’s feelings for Mike are completely missing the point.

And this is kinda a different topic but I’ve seen this trend where people headcanon Will to have been on a sports team in Lenora and I just think that these people are once again missing a point that’s been made in the show. Will not being into sports serves a purpose in the telling of his story, It’s a story telling device. And while I do of course know that the focus is on baseball specifically, baseball seems to stand as a symbol for sports in general which then again are a symbol for conforming to society. Being into sports is what society thinks you should be into as a boy. “You shouldn’t like things just because people tell you you’re supposed to” is what Jonathan tells Will in s1 in regards to Will going to baseball games with Lonnie. Will does not like baseball = Will does not like sports = Will does not conform to societal standards. And Lonnie dragging him to the baseball/sports games is him trying to force Will to conform to societal standards. And Basketball was this big symbol of forced conformity in s4. Therefore being into sports and joining a team in Lenora totally defeats the purpose of a rather important story telling device in canon and therefore just isn’t compatible with the character. I’m of course well aware that Will wore a letterman jacket in the stranger things experience clips but owning a letterman jacket doesn’t automatically equal being on a sports team. It was a popular fashion item in the 80’s just like it is today. And I think it’s more likely that Will wore the jacket because he liked the jacket and not because he’s on a sports team because, again, that’d be missing the point. And as I said, the Alan Turing project hints at positive development while Will joining a sports team would hint at negative development so it simply doesn’t make sense for Will to have been on a sports team in Lenora.

#byler #time for lenora’s opinion #will byers #mike wheeler #stranger things

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navnae · 1 year

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The party finally got together for a movie night after weeks of putting it off. Everyone thought it was good idea to meet up at Steve’s house because it was in fact the biggest. All kinds of snacks were bought and a few blankets from Steve’s closet was put in the floor as the kids gathered close to the tv. The older teens sat down on the couch and ended up being crammed but overall comfortable. Steve didn’t realize that was last to the seating arrangement and there wasn’t a place for him to sit or there wasn’t a good spot for him to see the movie well. While he was trying to find a place to sit the group noticed that he was just standing near the wall.

“Don’t just stand there, Steve. Sit down and enjoy the movie.” Dustin said waving his hand towards himself. Steve took a step forward observing the floor and the couch and just like he thought there really wasn’t a place for him to sit.

“I guess there really isn’t a place for him to sit.” Lucas also took a look at all the seats that were filled up and the floor was completely packed.

“I’m sure we can squeeze you in somewhere.” Argyle said happily. Jonathan, Robin, Nancy, and Eddie were taking up the couch along with the big buckets of popcorn that were on their laps. Steve pressed his lips together, this entire situation was stupid.

“Guys it’s fine I’ll just stand up.” Steve shrugged. He didn’t think having a seat was that big of a deal.

“There is no way you’re standing up the whole movie. I’m willing to bet money on it.” Robin joked. That caught all of the kids attention immediately.

“I’d like to be apart of the bet!” Mike chimed in while raising his hand. Obviously he was betting against Steve and that didn’t go unnoticed most of the time when Steve is involved with anything. Mike made sure that he knew that.

“All my money is on Steve!” Dustin yelled with excitement. He gave Steve a wide smile showing him that he believed he could win the bet even though Steve wasn’t going to be apart of it.

All the kids were talking about how they were on Robin’s side or on Steve’s side when it came down to the silly bet that’s been created in the last second.

“Alright guys no one is betting on anything because I’m sure Steve can sit down on the couch with us.” Nancy slid over slightly creating a little bit of room for Steve.

“He’s not going to be able to fit in that tiny little spot.” Jonathan said while shaking his head. Nancy frowned slightly realizing that he genuinely wouldn’t fit. Steve ran a hand through his hair, never thought in all his years of living that he would be stressing over a seat during a movie night.

Five minutes past of everyone deciding where Steve was going to sit and how they could make arrangements for him to get comfortable with all of them. He tried to tell them that he was perfectly fine with standing up but his words went in one ear and out the other. It felt like years was being taken off his life when the discussion was finally out to an end, sparking up a new one.

“Why don’t you just sit on my lap?” Eddie was casual when he asked the question. Everyone’s eyes widened as they turned to Eddie then looking at Steve who was still processing the question. The image of him sitting on Eddie’s lap made him blush a little too hard for his liking.

“Well, that is an open spot for you Steve.” Nancy said in between a laugh. The whole room was filled with giggles as Steve’s face turned a light shade of pink. Eddie didn’t make things better by leaning back into the couch and patting his knee with a smirk on his face.

“Looks comfy too.” Max teased. She’s definitely been hanging out with Robin for too long because that was something that had Robin written all over it. Steve rolled his eyes and waved everyone off.

“For the love of god I’m fine with standing up. Can we just get to the movie already.” Steve blurted out. Felt his entire body getting hit from everyone looking at him especially the way Eddie was looking at him, Steve couldn’t describe the way Eddie’s features changed in that moment. All of it was overwhelming.

“Steve are you okay?” Will asked worriedly. Now everyone was observing like he was under a magnifying glass.

“His face is really pink… max told me that meant-“ El was interrupted instantly by Steve grabbing the remote from off the table and fumbling with it as he tried to press the start button.

“Hey! Would you look at that, everybody let’s focus on the movie. That sounds like a good idea.” Steve started the movie before anyone could say anything else and all of their attention was focused on the tv screen. Steve silently thanked his that the conversation had finally come to an end.

Thirty minutes into the movie the kids were already drifting off to sleep and the older teens weren’t that far from it themselves. The movie had another hour to go but realistically no one was going to be up to watch it. In reality Steve and Eddie were the only ones up keeping their eyes on the tv and they were actually interested in the storyline. Steve made quick glances towards Eddie when he started to feel himself getting sleepy and he started leaning back against the wall with his arms folded. Eddie laughed to himself as he watched Steve desperately trying not fall asleep while standing up.

“You’re so stubborn.” Eddie said getting Steve’s attention from across the room.

“What?” Steve couldn’t focus on what Eddie was talking about because sleepiness was starting to take over him.

“You rather stand against a wall fighting sleep instead of sitting on my lap. Which I would argue is comfortable or at least I think it is.” Eddie made a confused face and that made Steve laugh lightly at how silly he was. He hated to admit but Eddie being apart of their friend group added something extra he never knew he needed. “Did I just make the king laugh? Oh what an honor it is to be in this position.”

“Is it really that shocking that I have a sense of humor?” Steve asked, now he was fully awake and he wasn’t leaning against the wall anymore.

“Kind of, my offer still stands if you change your mind. I’ll be here all night and I’m not going anywhere.” Eddie left the offer in the air just in case Steve wanted to sit down after standing up for almost an hour.

Eddie closed his eyes slowly and prepared himself to go into a deep sleep. He’s woken up by the feeling of something heavy weighing on his legs and the feeling of it pressing against his chest. He opened up his eyes to see Steve’s head laying back on his shoulder, Eddie could see Steve’s eyes fluttering closed when he made himself comfortable on his lap. Eddie smiled softly as he wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist and pulling him closer. Surprisingly Steve didn’t protest against it he just leaned into Eddie’s embrace. Eddie nuzzled his nose against Steve’s shirt then proceeded to close his eyes while snuggling up to Steve. Both of them fell asleep in each other’s arms letting the movie become background noise to them, neither of them knew what that they liked this feeling of comfort from one another. This was something that both of them needed and hopefully this wouldn’t be the last time.

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see-arcane · 2 years

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In hindsight, the thing that really gets me about how things worked out during Dracula’s time playing host to Jonathan is that he could have been completely normal about, like, everything

Sure, sure, play up the eccentric elderly gentleman act, but just skip the whole ‘invade Jonathan’s privacy and give away the No Reflection problem followed by throwing his mirror out the window’ thing.

Maybe don’t actively entrap your nice solicitor friend who had, up until recently, been surprisingly chill with your general weirdness despite all the locals wailing at him to Beware Your Freaky Castle

How about using your own front door to go grocery and victim shopping instead of going scuttling in your lizard fashion? Or! OR! Turn yourself into mist like all your vampire lady friends can clearly do so as not to risk Jonathan seeing you act like a gecko on the cliffside

All these giveaways and his general spooky bullshit were entirely avoidable! Even being caught doing the housework by Jonathan could be explained away; or better yet, turned to his favor. Just say all the locals who were moaning about monsters are just so superstitious that he cannot pay anyone enough to stay on as staff (bar a certain carriage driver, but he does not have to live on the grounds). And he is not so feeble an old man that he cannot manage the company of his new friend, who has forgiven so many eccentricities of his already

Cue Jonathan ‘I Will Put Work and Manners Before My Own Life’ Harker immediately folding back on his suspicions like a deck of ashamed Victorian playing cards. To think he’d thought so ill of some lonely old man doing his best to keep up appearances for pride’s sake, his money only good in a faraway land because the place around him is so fearful of bogeymen! It would have flowed so easily from there--Dracula would’ve suckered (ha ha) him into redoubling on his social allowances, maybe even wheedled a proper introduction from the good solicitor on his return to England

Here is Count Dracula, who played attendant to a young man so below his station, simply for the sake of being a proper host. A noble! Taking care of the needs of a commoner just a half-step into the middle class! It’d read as eccentric bordering on endearing, if nothing else

But no. He had to pull the monster card at every turn. Had to play mind games. Had to actively fuck around and be a big obvious bloodsucking jerk about it.

Now, the obvious reason he decided to imprison, toy with, and ultimately promise Jonathan to his ladies as their new blood bag/boytoy is that the guy’s a sadist. Just plain old Capital E Evil. Just for giggles. Which doesn’t make sense when compared to his actions as a host.

Because this is fucking Dracula. He could’ve broken every bone in Jonathan’s body but his right hand, forced all the information and paperwork he wanted out of the guy, and chucked him in his Girlfriend Cellar. The End

The fact that he does go out of his way to be charismatic, chatty, and caring of Jonathan’s needs and wants suggests something like a very warped earnestness. He doesn’t just want Harker for his plans. He wants Harker. Whether we go all the way down that homoerotic road with that want or not, it’s made clear in later chapters (and his own covetousness during the scene with the vampire babes) that Dracula isn’t just out to kill people off, he’s cherry-picking new members to add to his harem/collective/colony/Hematophagous Club

However bizarre or cruel or friendly*** he is about it, Dracula wants Jonathan in his thrall too.

Which, again, could have been done in a less obviously, pointlessly traumatizing way. Seeing as the Count is clearly not an idiot, this must have occurred to him too. So what the fuck happened, Vlad? My theory:

He might--might!--have originally planned to be much more lowkey about the vampire business. Maybe he even planned to let the dude go back to England, make his friendly intro of his good buddy the Count, and then get on with the biting. Instead, he got hit with the same impulse that will inevitably strike him when he get’s an eyeful of Lucy and Mina. Namely...

Dracula, pre-Jonathan: Okay, everything’s in order. No windows for the girls to get through, doors locked, rooms ready, kitchen full. Good, good. I’m ready to be extremely normal about this transaction.

Jonathan, handsome and winsome, warily trusting, radiating the hopeful good vibes of 1000 golden retrievers: Hi? <:)

Dracula, rewriting his entire game plan on the carriage ride back: Ohhh I can’t not be weird about this

#in which I ramble #honestly it could also just be about the power trip of it all #playing with a target while he's still considered a target #before the girls get to him and force him into their club #regardless he could've played it all out so much smoother #anyway #dracula #jonathan harker #dracula daily

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dwobbitfromtheshire · 4 months

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Stuck Between a Jock and a Metalhead

Summary: Nancy, on a whim, decides to visit Steve at Scoops Ahoy, which leads to her overhearing confessions from Steve that leads her to think about the decisions she's made. A few days later, she decides to come back. She finds him being hit on by the town freak. What's a girl to do? Oh, get stuck in a freezer with the both of them.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Steve was screaming as Nancy pointed the gun at him. Her finger was on the trigger. BANG! It went off, the bullet hitting him directly in the heart.

"You shot me," Steve said.

Blood poured out of the hole in his chest. He collapsed on the ground. He gasped for breath as the lights flickered all around them.

"Like we're in love?" Steve asked. "You don't love me?"

He went still as the life blinked out of him. His beautiful hazel eyes turned into blue gray, the color of a corpse. The demogorgon came lurking out from the darkness of the hallway and sniffed the air. It grabbed Steve around the ankles and started pulling him into the darkness. Steve’s dead eyes stared at her the entire time, they were weeping. Suddenly, Jonathan pulled her into his arms.

"It's okay, Nancy," Jonathan said. "Forget about him."

And then his face opened up.

Nancy stared at Jonathan as she waited for something to happen, for him to say something or for his face to open up. It's been a week since she visited Steve at Starcourt and a few days since she had that horrible nightmare. Now, she was sitting on Jonathan's bed, ending their relationship.

"Did I do something or say something?" Jonathan asked.

"What? No!" Nancy exclaimed.

"Then what's changed?" Jonathan asked.

"I have or well, not really," Nancy said. "I think I just let things in that I've been keeping locked up because of my guilt."

"Like what?" Jonathan asked.

"Like the fact that I'm still in love with Steve," Nancy said.

She hated the way he looked like he got punched.

"Why?" Jonathan asked. "Why Steve?"

"Because he's wonderful, kind, and so funny. It doesn't matter how many times he gets the short end of the stick. No matter how many times he gets screwed he doesn't expect anything in return. He loves those kids, one of them your own brother, like they were his own siblings. And despite what we did to him, despite it all, he still loves me, and he's willing to take whatever he can get. I think if I asked him to be, he would even be friends with you, which is more than what you were ever willing to do," Nancy said.

"I have a right to not want to be friends with someone," Jonathan said.

"Yes, and I have a right to not like it," Nancy said. "We both want different things. I know we don't want to admit it but I think we've always each had one foot in this relationship ever since it started."

Jonathan stared at her as if he wanted to argue with her. He sighed and flopped down next to her.

"Yeah, I think you're right. I think a part of me always felt a little weird with how we started," Jonathan said and paused. "I think it's why I always felt a little guilty whenever I even thought about being friends with Steve. It's easier to run away from it guess."

"That I understand," Nancy said.

"Is it bad that I feel a little relieved?" He asked.

"No, I feel it too. Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it means we can go back to what we were always meant to be: friends," Nancy said.

"I'd like that," he said.

"Me too."

After breaking up with Jonathan, she decided to stop by Scoops Ahoy. She needed to see Steve and tell him about the latest development. She mostly just wanted to talk about it and she felt like he should be the first to know. He needed to be given a choice. Of course, she wanted to do things differently and not jump into it right away but he needed to know that the minute that she was ready, Steve would the guy for her. But maybe him doing everything for her is something he's always done so it really isn't anything different. Maybe she should ask him what he wants first and then if he's on the same page, they take their time.

Nancy smoothed her yellow dress down. He always loved the color yellow, especially on Nancy. She held her head high even with the thought that he could possibly reject her. It's probably what she deserves. When she walked into Scoops Ahoy, she didn't expect to see Steve leaning against the counter, talking to Eddie Munson. No, not just talking but flirting. Huh. It looked like Eddie was flirting back. Nancy wasn't as jealous as she thought she would be, not like she had been with Robin. No, the sight of Eddie and Steve so close. . .they looked good together. Huh, that was weird. Before she could question it further, Steve’s eyes landed on her, and somehow, he looked even happier.

"Hey, Steve," Nancy said, suddenly shy.

"Hey, Nance, are you here for business or pleasure?" Steve grinned.

"Can it be both?" She said coyly.

"Absolutely," Steve said.

"Oh, I didn't realize that you two were, uh. . . ," Eddie started to say.

"Oh, no, we're not together. She's dating Jonathan Byers," Steve said.

"Actually, we broke up," Nancy said.

"Really?!" Steve exclaimed, a little too enthusiastically, and he coughed. "I mean, really? Man, that sucks."

"Don't strain yourself trying to hide all that disappointment, man," Eddie said with a grin, and Nancy laughed.

She always had been a little curious about Eddie Munson, especially when he started making speeches in the cafeteria. He always seemed sort of charismatic to her and kind with a mean streak to match. He never seemed like a freak that everyone says he was. She always thought it was unfair that they called him that. They didn't even know him. Hell, she didn't know him, and she didn't think he was a freak. He was just a guy. Funny too, it seems.

"That's actually what I came here to - ," Nancy started to say but was cut off by someone banging loudly in the back.

"That would be the inventory shipment. They did have to come today, of course with Robin being sick and all. Sorry, guys, I have to close for lunch since I need to get this stuff put away before they melt," Steve sighed.

"Well, I've got two hands. I could help," Eddie said.

"Me too," Nancy said.

"Everyone wants to be like Eddie," the metalhead cackled.

"Does Eddie usually talk about himself in the third person?" Nancy asked.

"Eddie does not," he said and Nancy laughed.

"I'm not sure that's allowed," Steve said.

"I don't think it's illegal to talk about yourself in the third person," Eddie frowned and Nancy laughed again.

"No, I mean letting you guys help," Steve sighed.

"Who says anyone has to find out?" Eddie asked, grinning wickedly as he leaned into Steve’s space.

Nancy watched in amusement as Steve’s cheeks turned pink.

"Fine. It's not like the new delivery guys are going to help. I'm not entirely sure they speak English," Steve said. "But I can't pay you, not even in free ice cream."

"Well, it's a good thing I didn't come for free ice cream," Nancy grinned and Eddie laughed.

He led them into the backroom, where he opened up a door that led to a large hallway. A stony faced man stood outside, looking rather annoyed at having to wait. He held out the clipboard and tapped on it. Steve sighed and signed. As soon as he was done, the guy stomped off, leaving the deliveries in the hallway. He propped the door open with a chair, and with the help of the others, he started to haul them inside.

"My God, Wheeler, you're freakishly strong," Eddie said.

"I know. She once picked me up. . . It was great," Steve grinned.

"He also like being the little spoon," Nancy said.

"Nancy!" Steve exclaimed.

"Hey, man, nothing wrong with that. I do too, by the way," Eddie grinned.

Once the boxes were inside the room, Nancy grinned at Eddie's back. She thought about Steve and how he used to twirl her around. She snuck up behind Eddie, wrapped her arms around him, picked him up, and twirled him around. He let out a shriek, clutching his stomach.

"Nancy, you stole my move!" Steve mockingly scolded and she laughed.

Eddie stared at her, his eyes narrowed, as his face turned red by the minute.

"Well, I never!" Eddie exclaimed, looking appalled.

"Man, you look so flustered," Steve laughed.

"No, I think it's just something that I ate man," Eddie said. "My stomach feels a little weird."

"Yeah, butterflies," Steve scoffed.

"I would NEVER eat butterflies. That is sick," Eddie said, looking offended while Nancy giggled into her hand.

"No, it's - ," Steve said started to say.

"Just let it go, Steve," Nancy said in amusement.

Steve opened the walk-in freezer door and started kicking at it until it stayed open. They soon started bringing in the ice cream, Eddie singing about a magic dragon named Puff as he worked. Steve was finishing up putting the last of the ice cream on the shelves when Nancy saw Eddie bending down to look at something near the door.

"You've got something wedged under here. . .I'll get it," Eddie said.

Steve finished just in time to catch Eddie.

"Eddie! No!"

Eddie yanked the object out and held it in the air triumphantly. The freezer door slammed shut.

"What just happened?" Nancy asked.

"Eddie locked us in here," Steve said. "There's no handle on the inside of the freezer. That's why I use a pipe to prop it open," Steve sighed.

"Sometimes I really hate being an idiot," Eddie sighed. "On the bright side, all the ice cream is inside, so it won't melt now."

"Yeah, neither will we," Steve scoffed.

Suddenly, Nancy burst into laughter. Steve and Eddie looked at her in concern.

"Is she okay?" Eddie asked.

"I'm not sure," Steve frowned.

"After everything that we've been through, it's going to be accidentally locked in a freezer by Eddie Munson that does us in," Nancy laughed.

Suddenly, Steve started laughing as well, and Nancy leaned against Steve, her head against his shoulder.

"Okay, you guys have both lost it. I think the cold has already gotten to you," Eddie said. "Do you think that delivery guy will come back?"

"Probably not," Steve said.

"Damn," Eddie said.

They slid to the ground, curled up next to each other. They were already shivering. Eddie rolled his eyes. He took off his vest and jacket before sliding beside them. He pulled them in and tried to spread the material as much as possible. It was Nancy who worked it out by pulling herself into Steve’s lap and had Steve scooch closer to Eddie. Nancy shoved her hands underneath Steve’s shirt causing him to yelp.

"Sorry," Nancy said.

"It's fine," Steve said.

"You stopped waxing your chest," Nancy said. "It's nice."

"Probably once he quit the swim team," Eddie said.

"You noticed when I quit the swim team?" Steve asked.

". . .No," Eddie said quickly. "Let's just say I had to make sure of something."

"What does that mean?" Steve asked.

Nancy looked at Eddie, smiling and wondering if he was anything like Steve.

"I always thought that I just liked girls for the longest time, but it wasn't until I saw you that I figured out that I also liked men," Eddie said. "To make sure that I still liked women, I busted out one of my regular magazines, and well, you know. Of course, I wasn't sure how I was going to test out my theory. I didn't have access to one of those magazines, and lurking in the locker rooms seemed like a good way to get my ass kicked, so I started going to the swim meets. Just like when we bumped into each other in the hallway, it was like music started playing in my head when you walked out in that speedo. I thought my head was going to explode, that and. . .something else. So, yeah, I like both."

"Do I still make your head explode?" Steve asked.

"Please, not anymore. . . I'm cold as ice," Eddie said grinning.

"Very funny," Steve said, rolling his eyes. "Just so, you know, I like both too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"That's - "

"Do not say that's cool! No more cold jokes," Nancy scolded.

"That's really great, man," Eddie said, smiling at him softly. "Thanks for telling me."

"And Nancy," Steve said, and Nancy looked sheepishly at him. "What?"

"Don't get mad at me, but I kind of already guessed," Nancy shrugged, and Eddie laughed.

"I'm not mad," Steve laughed. "How?"

"Tom Cruise," Nancy said.

"Yeah, I was kind of obvious," Steve blushed. "Why didn't you say anything at the time?"

"Because I wasn't sure if you were aware of it or not, and I didn't want to push you," Nancy said.

"And you don't have a problem with it?" Steve said.

"You and me both having the same celebrity crush?" Nancy asked with an affectionate grin. "Nah."

The three of them giggled, the coldness seeping deeper in as they did so. They snuggled together even closer.

"So, did you keep going to my swim meets even after?" Steve asked Eddie.

"How do you think that I noticed you quit? You were really good," Eddie said.

"Well, I'm glad someone was rooting for me," Steve said. "My parents never showed up to any of my games and stuff."

"Damn, that blows. Yeah, my dad was the same way. It was always my Uncle Wayne who was always there for me. It took me a while to realize he's always been the dad to me that I've always wanted," Eddie said.

"The kids that I babysit for, a couple of their parents are starting to feel that way for me," Steve said with a smile.

Nancy smiled, glad to know that Steve didn't feel totally alone. They fell into a momentary silence. Nancy stared at Eddie curiously.

"Not that I mind, but out of curiosity, why did you tell us?" Nancy asked. "I mean, you barely know us, right? At least, I barely know you. I'm not sure about you and Steve."

"He came in right before you did so, yeah, we barely know each other," Steve said.

"Because. . .I think we're going to die here," Eddie paused, his bottom lip trembling. "And it's all my fault."

Nancy sucked in a breath, and she thought back to her dream.

"I almost shot Steve," Nancy admitted.

Steve’s eyes widened, staring at her as well as Eddie. Steve shook his head at her.

"Come again?" Eddie asked.

"I almost shot Steve. It was a while ago when Will Byers went missing. Everyone was on edge, and there was a monster. Let's just leave it at that. Steve came over to the Byers' house to apologize for something shitty he said that day. Honestly, with what was going on, it really didn't matter oncr you put it all in perspective. I wanted him to leave, to get somewhere safe. So I pointed the gun at him with my finger on the trigger. I didn't even realize that my finger was on the trigger. I just wanted to scare him into leaving. He left, but then he came back even with the monster, even knowing that I could have killed him," Nancy said. "He came back for me."

"Damn," Eddie whispered.

"It wasn't my intention to almost kill Steve, just like it wasn't your intention to trap us in here. Someone is going to come for us. We're going to get out," Nancy said as she snuggled into Steve and Eddie.

They went quiet again for a little while. Nancy and Steve went still as the bulb above them started to flicker.

"Hey, guys, I'm getting a little sleepy here. That's a bad sign, right?" Eddie asked. "I can't believe that I'm going to die without having kissed a boy yet."

"Do you want to?" Steve asked.

"Yeah," Eddie said.

Steve shifted them around until he was face to face with Eddie, Nancy only inches away herself. Steve moved forward and pressed his lips to Eddie's while Nancy looked on with wide eyes. She couldn't help but think about how beautiful they looked. It was quick but sweet at the same time. Steve pulled back, and they settled against Eddie again.

"Now, you have," Steve said.

They fell into silence again until Eddie let out a whimper as he shivered.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to leave Wayne all alone," Eddie whispered softly. "I'm sorry."

Their eyes slid shut, and Nancy could feel herself slowly falling asleep. Suddenly, she could hear voices outside the door. She heard it open, and then she felt her body being dragged out the door. She saw Eddie and Steve being dragged out as well. When Nancy woke up, her head was in someone's lap, and she had a nice warm blanket over her. She was looking up into the kind face of Joyce Byers. Chief Hopper was leaning over her as well.

"Hey, I need to know who the asshole is that locked you in that freezer," Hopper said softly.

Nancy burst into a fit of giggles. She knew it was slightly serious but she couldn't help it. It was just so funny.

"I think she's still out of it," Joyce said.

"It's me, I'm the asshole," Eddie muttered weakly.

"What?" Hopper asked.

"I'm the asshole who stupidly pulled the pipe from underneath the door and who didn't know that there wasn't a handle on the inside," Eddie said. "Why wouldn't there be a handle on the inside?"

"So, the ice cream wouldn't escape," Steve said seriously.

The three of them burst into laughter while Hopper sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This would have been the dumbest way for you kids to die. Do you realize that?" Hopper asked.

"The dumbest!" The three of them exclaimed before laughing again.

Maybe it was the euphoria from surviving, or maybe it was being in close proximity with these two, but Nancy couldn't stop laughing. When she finally did, she looked up at Joyce.

"How did you guys find us?" She asked.

"El," Hopper explained.

"That means nothing to me," Eddie said.

"And it isn't going to," Hopper replied.

"Fine," he said. "I didn't want to know anyway."

The three of them were soon left alone with steaming mugs of hot coffee.

"We should do this again," Nancy said.

"Almost die together?" Eddie asked.

"No, I mean, hang out," she said.

"Is that what you call hanging out?" He asked incredulously.

"Well, actually - " Steve started to say.

"You almost died with people you barely knew. I know I'm interested in getting to know you," Nancy said.

"Me too," Steve grinned.

"I almost killed all three of us because of my own stupidity, and you want to spend more time with me?" Eddie asked.

"Yes!"

"I am curious to know why the two of you have a death wish," Eddie said. "Fine. Let's hang. Name the time and place."

Nancy and Steve shared a look. Her stomach fluttered with excitement. This was going to be interesting.

Chapter Three

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lowkeyed1 · 3 months

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great interview, definitely some info i haven't seen anywhere else... ----- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I don't think you could end the show without losing someone, but how did you decide it would be Graydon as opposed to Airk, Boorman, or anyone else who's life was in imminent danger?

JONATHAN KASDAN: There was some conversation about that. But we all felt that there was something beautifully tragic about Graydon, and as a character, he is our Dark Prince. We always called him the Dark Prince in our construction of the show. One of the questions we always had and hoped to keep alive to some extent throughout the season was, "Is he good or is he evil?" As the show progressed, he's pretty definitively good. His devotion to Elora was so pure, and the way he played those scenes was so lovely and tender. It felt like the thing that would most impel Elora into this final stage of her development was the loss of this completely devoted person. As is often the case with these decisions, and they're sometimes unpopular, sometimes you want the most devastating possible thing. And for her, he felt like that.

Now that Airk has come back to himself, is there any chance he and Elora would reconnect? Or is her heart fully with Graydon at this point?

She's not with either of them, frankly, at the moment. She's intent on taking a little break from the dating world entirely, and we'll see how she does with that. But conversely, Airk is not at all over her. In fact, she's only more attractive to him now that she's empress of the world and the most powerful sorcerer ever and has come into her power so fully. But I definitely think the bloom is off the rose for Elora.

If Elora hadn't changed her mind during that wedding ceremony, how bad would that have been for everyone else?

It would've been bad. One of the things that the movie set up that is a helpful bit of storytelling is this idea that this baby, they couldn't just like chuck her out the window and kill her, and that would be the end of it. There was something about her spirit that needed to be either extinguished or transported or moved in some way that made killing her not a good option, which is convenient as a storytelling device for the movie. They've got to get her back to the castle. She's going to be okay a little longer. But it's really helpful for us here in the series that there's something more at stake than simply, "Will she live or die?" There's something about her that is spirit. It's in line with George Lucas' philosophical, quasi-religious stuff about the Force. There's a great speech in Empire Strikes Back that I was just thinking about last night — that I'm sure my father wrote — which is that we're more than just this crude matter. We're celestial beings. There's something of Elora that is pure light, and it would've been really bad if he'd been able to suck that light out of her mouth.

Boorman gives his own reasoning for it, but why is Kit finally able to use the armor?

Kit's journey is about embracing responsibility. It's a very personal idea to me because I myself struggle with this very question of, "How much responsibility do I want to have? And family and who do I take responsibility for?" She's running away from that responsibility all season. In the end of the season, she finds herself moved by Elora and devoted to her, and above all the other characters, she is the one most equipped to protect her, spiritually and emotionally. Metaphorically, Elora represents the natural spirit of the world, and Kit represents our human role in that. She goes from being very selfish to very generous. It's that journey that makes her worthy of the armor.

We do see Willow and Elora defeat the Crone, but I take it, if you have your druthers that their fight is far from over?

Absolutely. It was always designed to be a three-act story. These things have to have a finite end to them. Because as a fan of these stories, I don't want to think that creators are just continuing it as long as they can to make a buck. It's nice in this day and age where there's an appetite from these streaming services for stories that do continue but aren't endless. This was very much designed and intended that this would be the first part of the story about Elora coming into her power, and then she would have to contend with darker forces beyond that.

They do end this with the charred remnants of Willow's staff and Elora's wand broken. How much is that going to be an obstacle to them? Will they need to repair those things?

You really hit on something with the staff question, and it's been something we've talked about a lot in the writer's room. It was a very intentional decision for Willow to sacrifice the conduit for his power to save Airk. We wanted him to give something up that was meaningful. It felt like a fun way to enter potentially future stories where he doesn't have that way of expressing the magic in himself and to have that be a challenge that he has to overcome.

Early in the show, we see Willow say a prophecy claims Elora Danan has to die. We saw her make it through this time, but should we still be worried about that?

Absolutely. The Crone is the Wyrm's agent. She's this talent agent, she goes out, she makes the deals, she tries to recruit the people. She's the producer, but she's not the talent herself. The Wyrm is the thing. And that dark force that presses against the light is still very much out there in the world to be contended with.

When we get to those final moments of the season, Graydon seems to be waking up on this battlefield that we've seen in Willow's nightmares. Is that accurate?

It's so accurate that the moment we finished shooting Warwick standing up in that battlefield, we were like, "Okay, get Warrick out of there, throw Tony in." We were racing the clock to do it. And Tony was in position not 10 seconds after Warwick had vacated it.

The final battle really reminded me visually of the Harry Potter wand duels. How much of a visual reference point was that for you?

Huge. There's the promise of a lot of things in that final scene. But the big one for me is that in a character like Elora, much like Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter, there is the potential for incredible good and incredible darkness. We wanted to complicate the meaning of that a little bit over the course of the season and not have such hard and fast concepts of good and evil. Particularly Star Wars has a very clear bad guys-good guys thing, and we've made it much more in our series about desires versus ideals and the conflict between those two forces within ourselves. Certainly, that conflict is alive in Elora. The temptation of what the Wyrm represents is powerful. Ellie communicates it in this almost ecstatic way that she plays out the battle with the Crone. It's terrifying and hard, but it's also clearly getting her off a little bit (laughs). We really wanted to play on that and unequivocally with that final scene, stay with the fact that the potential for something really bad is in her too. Something really rather destructive is in her too.

Should we interpret that final version of Elora that Graydon sees as her potential alternate path?

Yes. And as the clear statement of intention by the bad guy.

You said before you'd like to have Val Kilmer appear in a second season.

There's nothing I would like more. The world is unpredictable, but certainly the runway has been laid for him, and we'd love it.

But you did have Christian Slater as a guest star. Is there another 1980s heartthrob you'd love to have on the show?

I'm a huge Billy Zane fan. If I could find a way to use that man in Willow, I would be very pleased. He's under-appreciated, under-loved and brilliant. I'm not the only one who feels this way. He's done some great stuff lately. So I'm hopeful that he's someone we could use someday.

Hulu and Disney+ are a package deal, and with Reservation Dogs, there are now two Elora Danans in the Disney family. Is there some crossover potential there?

(Laughs) No, but we invited them all to the premiere. They weren't able to make it, but we are still fighting for an opportunity to have a coffee between our two Elora Danans. They need to sit and do a photo shoot together or something. It's too perfect. That show is unbelievably great. I would love to have Devery Jacobs guest star on the show. That would be a really fun idea.

Is there any news you could share on a potential season 2?

Only that I'm sitting in my office and continuing to plan and scheme. It's a strange time in the business. It's a transformative time for Disney. So, I couldn't tell you anything that felt certain, except that we're continuing to work on this with every intention of doing more.

Can you tease where you envision it going from here?

The events of the finale have to be dealt with in a meaningful way at the top of wherever the story goes and the implications of the trauma those events caused to our characters and where it lands each of them. I'd love to get these characters out of that desert. Beyond that, they're all looking at very clear conflicts that were deeply positioned in season 1. Specifically, with Jade, the question of her loyalties and where her politics are going to land her is at the forefront in our minds in terms of where that character can go and, and how she's torn between love and country a little bit. There's no shortage of directions that we'd love to explore, but at its core, it is about this conflict between this otherworldly entity and our heroes. And that's far from over.

#willow 2022

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jamdoughnutmagician · 1 year

Text

Daring to be truthful (Eddie Munson x Reader fluff)

Thanks to this text post from @mcbeanzontoast I had to write a little something about it so here it is.

Word Count:1,584

Warnings:Badly written fluff, games of truth or dare, nosebleeds (but nothing graphic don’t worry), confessions of love, best friends to lovers, don’t think I’m missing anything? but let me know if I am so I can tag it

It was Steve’s idea to host a get-together for the group, shared trauma brought people together or something like that, you reasoned. The drinks had been steadily flowing as the group settled down in front of the huge tv that resided in the Harrington’s spacious living room. Steve had brought a few tapes home with him after his shift at family video and somewhere between Top Gun followed by Labyrinth, which was an odd route to go down for a movie night, but everyone seemed to go along with it nonetheless. Nancy and Jonathan had snuck away after she had climbed down from her space curled into him on his lap. It wasn’t long before he was hot on her heels, quietly tip-toeing out of the room with a blush rising to his cheeks.

With the happy couple now gone, it was only you, Robin, Steve and Eddie in the living room. The sounds of the movie now going largely ignored, fading into background noise.

Robin downs the last few sips of beer from her bottle as she speaks up

“Let’s play truth or dare” she suggests, her freckled features rosy with the buzz of alcohol.

“What are we, twelve years old or something?” Steve scoffs, taking a sip from his bottle.

“Scared of a little game, Stevie?” Robin teases.

“Alright then, I’m game if everyone else is. God knows I don’t have anything to hide.” Steve professed.

“Okay then, Steve..” you turn to look up at him from where you sat on the floor. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth”

“Is it true that you use Farrah Fawcett hairspray?” you snickered as you asked him the question.

“Jill? from Charlie’s Angels?” Robin squawked out between laughs.

Steve’s face burned bright red, how did you know about that?

“I bet Dustin told you, didn’t he. That kid couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it” Steve started.

“Actually, I told her.” Eddie speaks up. “Admittedly after Dustin told me. You know I can’t be keeping secrets from my best friend, right?” he chuckles, a cheeky grin spreading across his face.

“So it’s true?” Robin asked.

“Yeah..Yeah laugh it up, alright. It’s true” he confesses, ducking his head down with a small laugh of his own.

“Truth or dare?” Eddie asks you from where he’s lounging in one of the living room’s big sofa chairs.

“Truth.” Eddie practically knew everything about you anyway, this was going to be easy.

“What was the worst date you’ve ever been on?” he asks you, his grin stretching across his lips. Fucker. Eddie knew all too well of the story of the worst date of your life, remembering how you told him how your date had not only showed up 20 minutes late with no explanation or reason why, and that he then proceeded to talk all about his ex-girlfriend, and how he’s probably still be with her if she hadn’t found about the other girl he was secretly seeing behind her back. Needless to say there wasn’t a second date.

“Oh my god! That’s awful! Sounds like you dodged a bullet there, y/nl” Robin chuckled.

“Yeah it was all downhill from the moment he opened his mouth” you joined in, laughing at your own story.

____________________

The night went on like that, swapping stories, like how Robin was almost late for band practise because she had been making out with Vickie in the school’s auditorium, or the fact that Eddie on more than one occasion had been completely wasted whilst performing on stage at the hideout.

As well as challenging each other to do increasing stupid dares. Watching Steve try to swallow an entire spoonful of cinnamon had been a particularly amusing highlight of yours.

But Robin, who, at this point was not handling her drink very well, had dared Eddie to show-off his best metal head-banging, things had taken a turn.

The force with how much Eddie was showing off his best head-banging air guitar routine, had caused Eddie to have a nose bleed.

By now Robin was stumbling around and Steve had made the executive decision to wrangle her from where she was standing on wobbly legs on the couch cushions of the sofa.

"Are sure you guys are gonna be okay down here whilst I try to get this one to bed?" Steve asked as he held up Robin's swaying frame.

"I've got it from here Steve, you go look after Robin" You assured, watching as Steve carefully manoeuvred his friend up the stairs, before taking Eddie by the hand and leading him into the Harrington’s kitchen.

“Here..” you say, handing him a bunch of tissues. “Tip your head forward and pinch your nose. That should help stop the bleeding” you say.

“Thanks, you don’t have to help me, I’ll be alright.” he muffles from behind the tissues scrunched up under his nose.

“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t help and look after you when you needed it, huh?” you smiled at him.

After a while, Eddie’s nosebleed seemed to have stopped. With a cool damp cloth you begin to clean away the dried blood from his face.

“Y’know I never got to ask you the truth question I wanted to ask you” you say whilst dabbing the cloth against his skin.

“I don’t think that’s quite how truth or dare works, sweetheart.” Eddie teases. “I think I’m supposed to choose?”

“Okay, I know but can I ask you my question anyway?” you ask hopefully, bright eyes looking up at him.

“You can ask me anything, no secrets between us, right?” That wasn't strictly true. He did have one secret, one that he kept very close to his heart. That secret was just how big of a crush that he had on you. You two had been friends for as long as he can remember. Wherever Eddie went you followed and vice versa. It wasn’t often one of you was seen without the other. He never wanted to ruin the friendship that you two had, that relationship was one of the most important things in his life, but he couldn’t help his heart ruling his head, and the thoughts of holding you close and kissing your lips came to mind more often than he’d care to admit to.

However, what Eddie wasn’t aware of was that despite all his pining over you, and trying to keep his affections for you hidden, you very much loved him in the same way.

Maybe it was childish to think of your best friend like that. Daydreaming about holding his hand, going on dates to the movies and kissing his lips whenever you wanted, but you couldn’t help it. Eddie Munson had been it for you ever since you’d first laid eyes on him all those years ago.

“What’s something you would do if you knew there would be no consequences?” you asked.

Maybe it was the buzz of the alcohol, or the comfort of being in such close proximity to you, but as usual, Eddie’s mouth was moving faster than his brain could keep up with. Without hesitation, he blurts out,

“Kiss you.”

The boldness of his answer shocks you for a moment. That’s all you’ve ever wanted to hear from him, your heart racing from the thrill of it all.

“I dare you.” you whisper, not quite yet trusting your own voice. “Kiss me.”

He leans down to you, cupping your cheek in his large hand, his clunky metal rings are a welcomed chill against the flush of your heated skin. His big brown eyes look deep in yours before he closes the gap between the two of you.

He tentatively presses his lips to yours in an delicate exploratory kiss, the tip of his nose slightly bumping against yours. His lips are surprisingly soft, with just the slightly bitter tang of beer. You can’t help but smile against his lips, having dreamed about kissing for so long and now it was actually happening, setting the butterflies in your stomach fluttering. You never wanted it to end.

He pulls away from you, his brown eyes are soft on you as his smile spreads across his lips.

“Y’know, since we’re being all truthful and shit..I’m gonna be honest here and say I’ve always wanted to do that.” Eddie confesses.

“Well I suppose I owe you the truth, too. I’ve always wanted to kiss you too...” you say looking down to your feet, shyly. “..But more than that, I’ve been in love with you for the longest time, Eddie.” you finish, looking up to him hopefully.

“Well you know I don’t just go around kissing girls without it meaning something to me, sweetheart..” he says with a smile. “I love you too, have been ever since I laid eyes on you.”

“So what does that make us now? Because I don’t think I can go back to being just friends.”

“Well how about we try being boyfriend and girlfriend?” Eddie offered. He’d wanted to call you his girlfriend for so long that the only title felt natural to him.

“Yeah I like the sound of that, Eds”

“Only if we can still be best friends too. Don’t think that because you’re my girlfriend now, that doesn’t mean you’re not still my best friend.” he assured.

“I’d like that Ed.” you perch up on your tip-toes to press one more quick kiss to his lips. “I’d like that a lot.”

@penguinsandpotterheads @i-me-mine @harringtons-cupid @seatnights

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x reader fluff #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x female reader fluff

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ronancexists · 11 months

Text

Things I would like to see in Stranger Things 5:

- Since Robin has done quite a few doodles on her red converse, I like to think she's quite good at drawing, so that can be a way for her to start up a conversation with Will

- And then Will confides in Robin about being gay and being in love with Mike because he had a feeling that she was like him and Robin confirming she was indeed like him and becoming his gay mentor (like you don't understand I NEED ROBIN AND WILL TO HAVE A CONVO ABOUT BEING GAY)

- Will (finally!) tells the party that he's gay (and Byler becomes a thing) but not before Robin comes out to the party in order to make Will feel more comfortable and to show him that they will accept him because that's totally something she would do as his gay mentor

- More Steve and Robin being "Platonic with a Capital P" cause we didn't get enough in st4

- Hopper and Joyce trying to corral the kids and control the situation as best as they can

- Joyce being a mother figure to Robin like she is with the rest of the kids and Robin becoming better acquainted with El, Jonathan, and ESPECIALLY Will because she didn't really get a chance to get to know the California crew before they packed up and moved so ya

- El traveling into Vecna's/Henry's/One's mind in order to be able to wake Max up and free her from his control because he said his victims stay with him in his mind so like 👀

- Max wakes up after El successfully rescues her from Vecna/Henry/One but she is severely incapacitated, like she's probably blind in one or both eyes and is going to need assistance walking for the rest of her life and is going to be stuck in the hospital for a few more weeks (possibly months)

- How and when the Upside Down was created

- What Will's connection to Vecna/Henry/One and the Upside Down really entails and how that could affect both him and The Party during this final stretch

- Vecna/Henry/One, the Demogorgons, the Demodogs, the Demobats, the Mindflayer, and the Upside Down along with whatever other monsters are down there get destroyed once and for all because I don't think shutting the gates is gonna do it this time

- Kali comes back to help El defeat Vecna/Henry/One

- Murray tries to figure Steve and Robin out but he can't because he's never seen anything like the two of them and it frustrates him to no end

- Then when he tries to psychoanalyze Robin she does it right back to him because she's a freaking genius and everyone is in awe of her because they've never seen Murray speechless before

- KAREN WHEELER DESERVES TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT'S BEEN GOING ON IN HAWKINS!!!!!!!!

- And I hate to say it but if Steve dies Robin dies too because despite the fact that she is my favorite character (close seconds are Nancy and Will) Steve is her platonic soulmate and they are codependent on one another and one just simply cannot survive without the other

- Like it would absolutely break my heart to have to see Robin try to live without her dingus of a best friend and to have to see Steve try to live without his wing woman of a bestie so if one dies both of them die

- Lucas defending Max's unconscious body with Erica from whatever creatures from the Upside Down want to try and take and/or kill her

- Mike and El break up because El realizes she needs to be her own person and because Mike is in love with Will

- Dustin is even more protective and stubborn about Steve heading into danger because of what happened to Eddie and he absolutely refuses to leave his side through the entire season

- RONANCE RONANCE RONANCE RONANCE (i know it's probably not gonna be canon but a girl can dream)

- Robin finally getting an onscreen kiss with her girlfriend or a girl she really likes (cough cough Nancy cough cough) (sorry Vickie but I feel like ur just too similar to Robin)

- And if Steve doesn't die (hopefully🤞) then please please please DO NOT have Steve and Nancy get back together after she breaks up with Jonathan when she finds out he lied to her about Emerson along with everything else that's been piling up between them

- Instead Nancy decides she's better off not being in a relationship (or better yet she gets together with Robin) and focuses on what she's absolutely sure she wants which is getting her journalism degree at Emerson (and Robin decides to go there too if they become a thing 😊)

- Because Nancy Wheeler is a smart, strong, fierce, badass, independent woman and she does not need to be kept in a cage by becoming a housewife who gives birth to SIX KIDS

- NANCY WHEELER DOES NOT WANT SIX KIDS

- I REPEAT, NANCY WHEELER DOES NOT WANT SIX KIDS

- Steve and Robin move in together and attend a community college together (Steve's either getting a teaching degree or a child psychology degree while Robin is doing something with linguistics) or they follow Nancy to Boston because Robin and Nancy are absolutely smitten with one another :)

- Meeting Steve and Robin's respective parents

Ok I think that's all for now 😅

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stevie-petey · 4 days

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It's a little sad that Jonathan thinks the kids don't like him anymore 😭 would you be open to talking more about Jon and the kids dynamic and how it changed. (Even though it's mainly Dustin who's a little shit)

yes !!! i based jons relationship with the kids on how its portrayed in the show and how i think bug would change some aspects :)

in canon, we dont really see much of jon and the kids tbh. in season 1 hes close with them and knows where to find them thanks to will, and he adores his brother, so naturally hed know his friends. at the end of 1 we see jon teasing the party in the basement and they seem to like him, but apart from that we truly dont see jons interactions with the kids whatsoever after that. he gets with nancy and it seems like he starts spending more time with just will and his fam and her.

so for come home, bug is a HUGE reason for jons relationship with the party. not only is will involved, but bug is too. she adores all the kids and jon always tagged along when they were growing up to hang with her. they were her adventures with the kids, jon just joined in because of his crush n love for her. bug went to all their campaigns (that they allowed), she loved babysitting them, and she genuinely formed friendships with each of the kids in the party. as we know, she became their big sister as well <3

all this is to say that for come home, jons relationship with the party is more an extension of his relationship with bug. when youre friends with bug and have her in your life, the kids are just naturally apart of the deal. either you take her and the party, or you can kiss that relationship goodbye tbh (hence why she loves steve, he immediately takes those cute lil fuckers in)

jumping to now in season 3 of come home: jon IS bummed that the party seems to no longer like him. however, its not entirely their fault. when jon pulls away from bug and gets with nance, he by proxy pulls away from the kids. in a sense, he moreso mourns the fact that hes growing up and so are the kids and that his relationship with bug is different now as well :( i think with dustin, that one stings a bit more because he grew up at the henderson house just like bug grew up at the byers house. he had his own lil friendship with dustin, something between the two of em, but the second jons indecision between bug and nancy hurt his sister, dustin immediately severed any ties to the guy. bug comes first, always, and dustin will always take her side.

in saying this, i guess all the kids took bugs side in the Divorce lmao. they all truly love her and see her as family, shes their favorite person, so when they see bug crying over jon in season 1 (despite how much she tried to hide it) they all were kinda like :/ dude wtf. not cool.

for jon, this is a reminder that he hurt bug. this, ultimately, is why the kids pulling away makes him so upset. they remind him of what he did, of how his confused feelings hurt the person everyone loves the most, and jon can never escape that

hope this made sense i am rambling sm but i love talking about jon <333 im proud of how i managed to characterize him and how his character is a reflection of bug and bug a reflection of him <33

#ask #anon #m speaks #ch insight #jon u are my baby

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batmanie · 4 months

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Gunpoint therapy

The sound of a not-so-distant gunshot woke him up from his restless slumber, feverish and weak Scarecrow snapped his better eye open. A moment later, someone was banging at his door. A GCPD? No, impossible. His shabby, little safe house in Chinatown shouldn’t be on their radar just yet.

With some effort, he pulled himself up from his green, tattered couch and limped to the door. Rapid banging continued, giving him additional reason for a headache.

“Coming…,” he muttered hatefully under his breath at whomever was on the other side of the door.

The sight of a long, dark gun barrel pointing directly at his face greeted Scarecrow as soon as he cracked the door open.

“Edward, what a pleasant surprise. Is that a gun? Or are you simply happy to see me?”

“Don’t play with me, Crane,” the man on the other side hissed with pure rage. He pushed at the door, trying to get in but the door chain stopped him from doing so. “Open up! We need to talk!”

Unfazed by the fact that the gun in the other man’s hand was obviously loaded and ready to be used, Scarecrow took a long, judging look at his guest. Riddler’s face was partially covered by the green hood of a tacky raincoat. The man was angry, soaked by a pouring rain, dripping water and hatred. There were blood stains on Edward’s cargo pants and on his heavy-duty boots but from the man’s entire posture, Scarecrow could tell that he wasn’t injured. And if it wasn’t his blood, then…

“Did you shoot my bodyguard on your way here?”

“Mind if I did?”

“Not entirely,” Crane admitted with a cruel honesty. “It seems to me he wasn’t too competent anyway,” he added, and removed the door chain.

Riddler stood at his threshold, glaring at him intensely, his finger twitching on a trigger.

Scarecrow took a steady step back, making space for the other to enter the room. Edward stepped in, not lowering his gun for an inch, aiming at Crane’s head.

“What did you do, Crane?”

“You have to be more specific.”

Nigma slammed the door shut with his free hand and pulled off his hood with a rapid motion, spilling raindrops all over the carpet. Scarecrow could see his whole face now, his tired eyes burning with dangerous flames of despair and madness.

“What did you do to me the last time we’ve met?” Riddler demanded, the hand in which he held the gun shaking a little.

“A lot of things,” Scarecrow mused at the memory of their previous hookup, “but nothing you didn’t agreed to.”

“Liar!” Nigma yelled outraged, his face red and twisted with a flush of fury.

For a split second, Crane thought the man was going to fire, but no, he only pressed the gun hard to Jonathan’s left temple, forcing Jon to look directly into his hate-drunk eyes.

“Did you, with your tiny brain, forget who I am?,” the man spat out the insult, grabbing Jon by his collar. Both their faces so close now, that Jonathan could basically smell Edward’s breath. “I am The Riddler! The most brilliant criminal mastermind of all time! I am the one who asks questions. And when I do, I expect you to answer!”

“Fair enough,” Scarecrow’s ever collected demeanor never betrayed any signs of discomfort. “Let me elaborate on my answer then. The last time we’ve met, and it was a week ago, you asked me to fuck you and I kindly agreed.”

Riddler’s right eye nervously twitched at that description, which amused Jonathan to some degree.

“Was I too rough with you, my dear?” he purred, only to mock the oh-so-smart Riddler, “If so…”

“Stop it!” Edward blushed like a virgin. He pulled away, letting go of Scarecrow’s coat and increasing the distance between them. “I’m not talking about… that…”

The ridiculously timid way he articulated ‘that’, made it sound like one of the most shameful things he’d ever done in his life, alongside homicide, terrorism, and joking about mutilating babies. It only reminded Jonathan of how much of a man-child Edward really was, never being able to deal with mature topics.

“Then, what seem to be the problem?” Doctor Crane gently inquired, now genuinely intrigued what was laying on a bottom of this visit and causing Edward’s paranoia. “You wanted to speak with me, Edward. Perhaps, I could help you?”

He pointed at the couch, the same one he had been resting on earlier that evening, encouraging his guest to take a seat.

Riddler didn’t take the invitation, he only eyed him suspiciously, despairingly clutching at his gun.

“I know what you’re doing,” his words came out a little shaky, most likely from an extreme amount of stress he must have been experiencing lately. “You want to exploit my attachment toward you and use it as a leverage against me. But I’m not a fool. I am immune to your poor manipulation techniques!”

“A genius like you feels attached to someone like me? I’m flattered, Edward. Truly.”

“A mere effect of us spending time together, that’s all, but don’t think it will stop me from shooting you dead!”

Any other man would take Riddler’s death-threat to their heart and flee. But not Scarecrow. No. Scarecrow decided to push the armed madman even further. He wouldn’t call himself the Master of Fear if he passed the perfect opportunity to poke at Riddler’s insecurities just now.

“I’m not doubting your capability of killing me, Edward. I’m simply stating that a dead man answers no riddles. Let’s assume you shoot me. Then what?” He stepped forward looking Edward straight into the eyes, slowly but surely pouring his poison into his victim’s mind. “You will be left with never finding out the truth about what I did or didn’t do. Is that what you want? A question without an answer? An equation without a solution?”

“No, I-I…,” Nigma stuttered and paused, seemingly going through the horror behind that scenario inside his brain.

“A frighting thought, isn’t it, Edward? That you might end up not knowing…”

Crane saw the man’s lips quivering lightly, and how he had to bite at the lower one to stop it from trembling.

He used that moment of weakness to close the distance between himself and the Riddler, his bony chest now pressed to the barrel of the gun as it was the only thing separating the two of them.

Edward turned his head away, escaping with his eyes, clearly declaring his own defeat. His grip on the gun had loosened, giving Scarecrow an opening.

“As much as I enjoy our little gunplay, it’s getting a bit old now, don’t you think?”

Nigma’s hand was sweaty, his skin warm, almost hot, to the touch when Jonathan’s slim fingers freed it from the gun.

As soon as the weapon was taken away from him, both Edward’s hands sprung up to his head, fingers clutching onto his own hair in a desperate grip.

“No no no! I-I need my answers,” the man wailed, his shaky voice showing his internal torment. “Why? Why are you doing this? Getting into my head, haunting my dreams? It is not how it was supposed to be!”

Riddler started pacing around the room, his gaze unfocused, and his fingers frantically running through his hair.

“I know you did something to me! You must have drugged me when I was asleep! You used that stupid toxin of yours, don’t you, to mess with mt head, to make me feel this way?!”

Scarecrow observed this scene with both, a sense of intrigued and glee. All the symptoms were there – trust issues, suspicions, intrusive thoughts, even a good old conspiracy theory – it was a classic paranoid personality disorder which was a new and interesting addition to Nigma’s narcissism, OCD, and his delusions of grandeur.

Doctor Crane briefly wondered, if he was the one causing this state, after all he had experimented on Edward once or twice, giving him a taste of the fear toxin. It had been months ago, however, in some cases his toxin could have changed a brain chemistry of a patient permanently.

If so, why didn’t he notice it earlier?

Perhaps, it hadn’t been the toxin after all but simply the pressure of living the life of a criminal, the constant discomfort of never besting the Batman, never proving his superiority to the people of Gotham.

“And how exactly do you feel, Edward?” Voice almost soothing, Jonathan attempted further investigation.

“Cheated! It’s not what I’ve planned,” still pacing Riddler rambled on, spitting the words hastily and wildly gesticulating. “I was supposed to work on my masterplan but I cannot concentrate anymore! And this is all YOUR fault!” He pointed his finger at Jon, who by that time had already found comfortable place in his armchair with Riddler’s revolver laying safely on his lap.

“You were supposed to be my ally,” Edward shouted his unfounded accusations, anger, anxiety, and hurt contorting his features, “my partner in crime, a fellow rogue to share a mutually beneficial relationship with. But you tricked me, you did something to me, and I cannot work, or sleep, or eat! I wake up at night to that reoccurring dream and YOU are always in it!”

“It's called infatuation, Edward,” Scarecrow offered dryly.

“Absurd!” The other was quick to deny. “Who in their right mind would fall in love with a creep like you!?”

There was a short pause as they both stared each other down, Riddler panting with anger and emotional exhaustion, and Scarecrow contemplating the sheer absurdity of this whole situation. And suddenly, a quiet chuckle broke out from Scarecrow’s throat.

“Of course, Edward,” he agreed with an audible amusement. “You are right. As always.”

“I am?” This seemed to please the raging madman, his tantrum starting to die down like last rays of the light at the winter sunset. “I mean, of course I am!” The man corrected himself quickly. “So you admit you intoxicated me?”

“I did not. I simply agree with your previous statement – who in their right mind could possibly have fallen for the likes of me,” Crane chuckled again, this time with dark satisfaction. “I know you won’t believe me but I didn’t poison you, nor did I plot anything else to harm you. I suspect, my presence alone might have subconsciously spooked you, which has affected your dreams. And if that’s the case, I’m sorry.”

Edward didn’t look like he fully trusted that far-fetched explanation, nonetheless, he calmed down.

“Well…” he crossed his arms. “I guess, I will accept your apology, Crane. At least until I find the evidence against your testimony.”

“I’m glad.”

“And for the record,” Nigma through in, eagerly. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“Good,” Scarecrow nodded. “Then, I believe you wouldn’t mind taking off your coat and sitting with me for a little while.” He got up from his chair, left the gun on a coffee-table, and limped toward the kitchen. “Can I fix you something? Gin? Vodka? Morphine?”

“What? Are you crazy?,” Edward called after him from the other room. “Why would you offer me morphine? It is highly addictive! I don’t need anything to drink.”

“Suit yourself.” He returned with two glasses of tap-water and a little, green box of aspirin tablets. “I, on the other hand, definitely need something for my headache.”

Jon sat himself down, dropped two tablets into his glass and placed the other glass in front of Edward who hesitantly joined him on a couch.

“Don’t worry,” he added, seeing the suspicious look that Nigma gave the water. “It’s not fear toxin. You know very well that my concoction has a bright orange color. You also know how I hate to dilute it.”

He put a straw inside his glass and took a sip through a gap in his mask, it was a preferable way of having any liquid in a current condition of his face.

“Now, would you mind telling me about these dreams you had?” He asked, hoping the man would not take any offense at this request.

“Well,” Riddler grabbed his glass and glanced at its content, deep in thoughts. “In that dream, I am walking out through the main door of the asylum. But when I’m about to leave, a sudden flood bursts inside and washes over the corridor, a strong current carries me away, deeper into Arkham. And then,” the man licked his dry lips, he took a sip of water to sooth his sore throat. “Then, you appear. You take my hand and tell me we should hide. We slip into a locker room, and everything is so bright there, but there is a guard about to notice us. You ask me to kill him, putting a gun in my hand. But it feels all wrong, I know I shouldn’t do that for some reason.”

“Most interesting,” Crane allowed himself to make a small comment, letting Edward know that he had his full attention. At the same time, he reprimanded himself internally for not recording this interview. Catching such a unique glimpse of Riddler’s psyche was something that many psychiatrists would pay a little fortune for. “Please, go on.”

Nigma half-emptied his glass with a solid gulp, and cleared his throat before continuing. “I know it sounds absurd, but in that dream I just have this strange feeling that killing this guard will do us no good. But I do it anyway. And when I look down at his lifeless body, his face is all blurred out. It is as if he looked familiar but I cannot recognize him. You congratulate me for the deed, and lead me through the maze of Arkham corridors. It’s a real maze in my dream, nothing like in real life, you know,” Edward paused and yawned widely, small teardrops forming at the corner of his bloodshot eyes. “I’m tired, I should be going.”

The man tried to get up but before he could, Crane’s hand caught his wrist. Nigma faltered and fell back down onto a couch, his face expression rather confused.

“What the…” He touched his forehead, shocked by what had happened. “Why is my head spinning?”

“It’s nothing,” Scarecrow’s velvet-smooth tone of voice was eager to assure him. “You’re sleepy, you haven't slept in a few days, that’s all. But please finish your story.”

Edward yawned once again, too weak to protest when Jonathan’s hands pulled him in to rest his head against Jon’s bony shoulder.

“So we find our way out of the maze, and we stand before a dark staircase.” Riddler’s voice was hushed at this point but Scarecrow could hear him well, cherishing each and every word. “We choose to go down, right into the Arkham depths. Then I usually wake up, panting, cover in sweat...”

“There, there.” Scarecrow’s hand patted his head lightly. “I promise you: No dreams tonight. You can get some rest now.”

It didn’t take long for the sound of Nigma’s snoring to reach Doctor’s Crane ears. The valium he had given to Riddler in his glass of water must have worked its wonders.

It would have been awfully easy to inject the man with fear toxin. Or he could even kill him right here, if he only wished to.

The strange thing was, he didn’t want that, instead, he brushed Eddie’s hair with his slender fingers.

Sitting on his couch with Edward sleeping on his shoulder made him feel outlandishly peaceful. And that feeling filled him with a sense of dread.

“What did you do?” he questioned the snoring man, his tone lacking the usual malice.

There was no answer, of course, but he didn’t really care for any.

“What did you do to me, Edward? Why do you make me feel this way?”

He never would have thought to be this crazy to fall in love with another madman, but if they were going to succumb to the darkest depths of madness, just like in Riddler’s dream, at least they were going to do it together.

#batman #bat-mania #temarcia #riddler #edward nygma #jonathan crane #batman fanfiction #my story #batman fic #scriddler #long time no writing #riddlerxscarecrow

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jgroffdaily · 7 months

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Your intrepid team of JGD-ers are currently in the Big Apple, the home of Broadway, New York City! And, as if that wasn’t exciting enough, tonight we got to watch our very own reason for (online) existence, Mr Jonathan Drew Groff, strutting his (*frank*ly awesome) stuff in Merrily We Roll Along, at the Hudson Theatre on 44th Street, NYC!

For those who are unaware, Jonathan Groff Daily is made up of a team of two who live on literally opposite sides of the world - one in Australia and one in the UK. And while that allows for excellent coverage of breaking news (there is always at least one of us awake!), it has somewhat hindered our attempts to meet in real life - not helped by the pandemic that was raging at the time that we first “met”, three years ago.

Until now! In fact, until Wednesday of this week, when we both checked into the same hotel (all meticulously planned; not serendipity), into rooms directly above/below one another (that bit was serendipity), and began our NYC adventure together!

After a great deal of chatting, and far too much walking (and one inadvertent trip to Long Island City - nobody should ever leave me in charge of navigation!), tonight was the night for us to see the show together (in fact, my partner in crime had already seen it, last week, but this was our first time as a team).

First I should mention the theatre (this particular one is spelt that way, despite being in America - I’m not 100% sure why). It is so beautiful and elegant, and provides a wonderful setting in which the show can unfold.

And oh my goodness, what a show it is! As you will have all seen from the various glowing reviews online (with more surely to come next week, once the press embargo is lifted) this is an absolute tour de force and it was a such a privilege and a pleasure to watch this fabulous cast being utterly and completely fabulous.

First, of course, our boy. Well, we knew he could act. We knew he could sing. We knew he was prone to spit a little while doing both of those things. And all of that was also 100% true tonight!

I won’t include any spoilers in this review/ramble, as I hope that many of you will also get the chance to see it in person.

As you may have noticed, we try to keep this account relatively sober and professional (well, as sober and professional as a fan account on Tumblr can truly be, I guess!). However, as the more emotional one in our pairing, and in deference to this very special occasion, I don’t mind admitting that when Jonathan first came on stage I was all a-flutter. I haven’t seen him live and in person before, and I think I spent the first 8-10 minutes with the knuckles of my left hand in my mouth.

As you will all have seen in the press photos, etc, he spends almost the entire show wearing black trousers and a white button down shirt, and it’s a great look on him (but then, what isn��t?!). Without getting too excited here in “public”, on this jointly-run account, I will just say that his legs go on for miles and miles, and his giant hands stand out beautifully against the monochrome outfit.

And, again without spoilers, as he walked down to the very front of the stage and stared out, unseeing, over the heads of the audience, the drama behind him crescendoed and tears glittered in his eyes. At less than ten minutes in, I knew then that we were in the safest of safe (giant) hands, and yet, at the same time, our emotions were going to be played like fiddles.

(Speaking of which, the orchestra, tucked away in an “upstairs room”on the set, were absolutely sublime.)

The show rocks along really well, with honestly no weak performances at all. The ensemble are incredible and one thing that we really admired about this version was the way in which they all seemed to have been given permission to allow elements of their personalities to shine through. Although most of the supporting actors play multiple characters, and those are by no means interchangeable, I still felt that, to a good extent, I was also watching individuals who I knew and cared about from the start.

I must confess that I found that I couldn’t take my eyes off Lindsay whenever she was on stage (which did feel a little like a betrayal, when I was literally wearing a “Jgroffdaily” pin badge 🙄!) - she is just mesmerising: funny, sad, expressive, sympathetic and just a tiny bit broken by life and love. For those who have seen the full London version of the show on YouTube, I felt that this Mary was far less brittle, even from the first scenes, when she could otherwise come across as hard to love. The warmth, humour and humanity of the character came out in spades in Lindsay’s performance, and I was truly floored by her - to the extent that, during the whole of the one song that she sings with Jonathan and Katie Rose, I got to the end and realised that I had been watching solely her throughout, despite the fact that my reason for leaving my family behind (for five days, not forever!) and flying 3,000 miles to NYC, was 12 feet to the right of her on stage. (We are going again on Saturday - I need to make sure that I keep my eyes on Jonathan next time!).

Daniel is also just so good. His American accent is (to my British ears) impeccable, and he has great comic timing and physical comedy. His voice is fantastic, too, and he does an outstanding job with Franklin Shepherd Inc. All in all, I was incredibly impressed by Dan and thought that he more than held his own in the show.

My only slight criticism of the show (which is no reflection whatsoever on the actors) is that I would have liked a little longer to sit with one particularly tragic moment in Act One. Despite being a person who is shaky, giggly and butterflies-in-the-stomach-y at the simple sight of her hero stepping onto a stage, it takes me a few minutes to build up to proper crying, and I felt that I was jolted out of that feeling a little too quickly by the friends’ singing in an attempt to cheer up their heartbroken friend.

Katie Rose and Krystal Joy both had really difficult jobs to do, particularly Katie who is dropped into the show immediately before having to act in a very challenging, emotional scene. Both were stunning and their voices just soared, although Katie’s also cracked with emotion when it needed to, which was incredibly effective and moving.

The little boy who played Frank Junior at tonight’s performance was excellent, and got a lot of love from the audience. As the parent of a seven year old myself, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for him and his family to be juggling these late nights and, to be honest, quite a bit of sitting around during the show itself - and all at the age of only just five. They are all doing a great job.

And now for Jonathan. My (our) lovely Jonathan. Well, he absolutely smashed this whole performance right out of the park and over the East River. His voice was impeccable. His acting, as always, was moving, deft and brilliant - and that in a show where, although he is undoubtedly the “lead” character (whatever the order of the names above the title may suggest…), he spends a lot of time staring off stage or standing, stunned, as various other characters shout at him / flirt with him / cry hysterically over him. He does that so well (and if that doesn’t sound like damning with faint praise, I don’t know what does - in my defence it is now past 1am and my body clock thinks it is 6am!).

Potentially controversial point here: I felt that, during a-song-that-will-remain-nameless-for-spoiler-related-reasons (in Act One), Jonathan was not playing the piano himself (ie it was being played by the orchestra, and other instruments then come in behind it), but during Good Thing Going and Who Wants to Live in New York in Act Two, it *was* him playing. It is, however, incredibly hard to tell due to the placement of the piano on the stage, and I would be very interested to hear what others think on this topic.

Overall the show was just stunning. The audience seemed very engaged throughout, and it seems that they were also paying attention, judging by the gasps and laughs at later call-backs to earlier scenes. As he was signing autographs after the show, Dan said that it had been a great audience tonight (he might say that every night, of course!).

I am so glad that I will get to see it again at Saturday’s matinee, as I am sure that there were so many details and nuances (and entire performances of beautiful songs - sorry, Jonathan!) that I missed this time around.

Just a note on the stage door situation. It was all very organised and calm; much more so than I had expected. Dan came along the line to his waiting car, autographing playbills and taking selfies with people as he went, and he seemed just adorable and so pleasant and friendly with everyone. From what I could see, everyone was very respectful and polite, and everyone who wanted something signed seemed to get it. At one point someone shouted out that Merrily is their favourite ever show, and Daniel took time to pick her out of the crowd and thank her personally, saying that they all find it a privilege to be in the show.

Jonathan and Lindsay did not stage door tonight, but apparently “sneaked out the front” (as, of course, they are fully entitled to do). As I don’t think he is likely to come to see the fans at the stage door following a matinee performance, I suspect that I won’t now get a chance to show Jonathan my “jgroffdaily” pin badge - which he may think is for the best!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Steven Sater was in the audience tonight, sitting behind and to the right of us. I’m sure that he was bursting with pride, to see Jonathan shine as bright as he does.

#merrily we roll along #jonathan groff #daniel radcliffe #lindsay mendez

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willbyerssupremacist · 2 years

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“the wheelers can’t love”

i feel like most people view ted and karen’s relationship affecting mike in the sense that it made them unable to express their love, however, i think otherwise.

don’t get me wrong, they were definately affected by ted and karen, just in a different way. the way i see it, they can and have expressed their love for others multiple times in the show.

nancy not only said that she loved jonathan in season 4, but we can tell that she meant it because she pointed out every single thing about him that made her fall in love with him in the first place.

mike has also expressed his emotions on the show. though he didn’t say the words “i love you”, mike’s season TWO monologue is a clear example of mike genuinely expressing his feelings, and we can see that he does it without hesitation.

the way i see it, it isn’t that the wheelers can’t show love, it’s that they are trying to express their love to the wrong people. they are putting on a facade, they are settling for people who they know deep down that they truly do not want to be with, just like karen and ted’s relationship.

in fact, murray even explains this to jonathan and nancy, so i’m not sure why so many people are hooked on the idea that the wheelers cannot express their love at all.

“nancy couldn’t tell steve she loved him” because she didn’t! which is the same reason i believe mike can’t tell eI that he loves her, because he doesn’t, not in the way she wants him to.

the wheelers were affected by their parents because they have this distorted idea of what “love” is meant to be, they conform to what is expected of them in a relationship and suffer in silence, just like karen.

there is such a drastic difference between jancy / stockholm syndrom and byler / malignant tumor.

with steve, nancy was trying to be someone she wasn’t. even barb said it, she was acting different. with jonathan, nancy was able to actually be herself. they didn’t have a superficial relationship. their relationship actually had a build up, they fell for eachother naturally. they can be their true selves around eachother, there’s no pressure. they can talk to eachother and comfort eachother. that is why nancy can so easily express her love for jonathan, because it is real and she isn’t forcing herself to be someone that she isn’t.

the same exact thing can be said for mike and eI vs him and will. it’s genuinely scary how similar these two situations are. we’ve seen that eI (bless her soul, this isn’t her fault either) has shown no interest in the things that mike likes. she ignored his toys in season 1. she didn’t like it when he burst into song in season 3, which was him showing his true personality. at the end of season 3, we even see that he holds back from getting excited over presents and dnd. and don’t even get me started on how mike tried to be a completely different person in lenora. not to mention the fact that these two never seem to be able to tell eachother the truth or sit down and have a rational conversation about their feelings.

with will, it’s different. will already knows mike. will and mike have been best friends their entire life. will loves mike for who he is, which is why mike is so comfortable being himself around will. the amount of heart-to-hearts these two have had this past season, let alone all the other seasons, shows that mike is able to truly open up to will. in fact, mike pretty much only opens up to will. mike is always the first to apologize to will and he has stated how much he truly cares for him multiple times without hesitation.

“i’m the only one who cares about will!”

“if we’re both going crazy, we’ll go crazy together. right?”

“it was the best thing i’ve ever done.”

“he’s quiet today.”

“i feel like i lost you.”

“it’s hawkins, it’s not the same without you.”

i mean, why do you guys think everybody says they miss season 2 mike? mike didn’t randomly start being an asshole in season 3, he just started to hide his feelings and conform to what he thinks he needs to be in a relationship.

“It's forced conforming. that's what's killing the kids. thats the real monster.”

honestly, he needs to get murray’d next season. someone tell this poor boy that he does not need to suffer in an unhappy relationship and pretend to be someone he isnt for the rest of his life...

#mike wheeler #will byers #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #jancy #byler #the wheelers #byler tumblr #byler canon #byler endgame #jancy endgame #fuck ted wheeler #byler proof #byler analysis #jancy analysis #stranger things #stranger things 4 #mike wheeler i know what you are #mike wheeler is gay

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madneedshelp · 2 years

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Jealous Much? Part Two- Steve Harrington x Fem Reader/ Billy Hargrove x Fem Reader

Part Two:

(Read part one here)

The day after the party, Steve cornered you at school.

“Billy? Really? You hooked up with Bill fucking Hargrove last night?” He stood before, arms crossed.

You sighed and shut your locker door. “So what, Steve? Why is that so wrong?”

Steve looked at you in disbelief. “He’s a total dick! You’re…fraternizing with the enemy here, Y/N!”

“Oh my God, are you kidding me? Who I choose to hook up with has nothing to do with the little pissing match you all have going.”

“I just don’t trust him, okay?”

You looked at the concern on Steve’s face. It was genuine. “Relax, it was a one time thing and it won’t happen again.”

At that very moment, Billy walked down the hall, flanked by Tommy H and some other assholes. He gave you a wink as he passed by, scanning you with a seductive gaze.

“One time thing, huh?” Steve raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, now shut up. Where’s Nancy at?” You changed the subject.

Steve’s taunting grin immediately dropped. “We broke up.”

Your mouth gaped. What had happened last night after you and Billy went upstairs? How could things have went so south that quickly?

“What? Steve, what happened?”

He chuckled bitterly. “She just, uh, doesn’t love me. Thinks it’s all ‘bullshit’ or whatever. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine! Want me to beat her up for you? As your best friend, I’d do that,” you asked, half joking.

He shook his head with a small chuckle. “No, no, I think she’s just moved on. Maybe we both have, we just felt like we had to keep going. Honestly, I feel like she has a thing for your brother.”

“Jonathan? No way in hell! I’m pretty sure they’re just friends,” You assured him.

“Whatever you say.” He shrugged.

You parted ways with Steve and went to class. You truly felt bad for him, you knew he really liked Nancy. But a small, selfish part of you was glad that you might have him back now. That was horrible of you, wasn’t it?

Part of your problem about not being able to get Steve out of your head was the fact that he really cared about you. Your family did love you, but they always had other focused. After Will disappeared, your mom poured all her efforts into making sure he was okay. You couldn’t blame her for that. Jonathan either was with Will or hanging out with Nancy, so he barely talked to you. You knew they were just busy, but sometimes it was kind of lonely.

Steve was always there for you, though. He worried about you being safe. He cheered you up when life was shitty. He had your back.

That’s why you had to talk to Nancy. See why she did that. Even though you loved Steve, you knew he was happy with Nancy. Nancy was good for him, and you not helping him would be selfish. Right?

———————

It had been a few weeks since the break up, but Steve and Nancy were talking again. You weren’t sure if it was talking as in dating or just being friends, but they were on speaking terms and that was progress. Steve had seemed more joyful because of it.

You couldn’t lie, it did hurt a little bit. You had found ways to make that hurt less painful, though. They might not have been the best methods, but they seemed effective. It was Billy.

You told yourself it would never happen again after the Halloween party, but then he happened to run into you at a party the week after. One thing led to another and you ended up spending the night together. Then it happened again three days after. And again. And again.

You couldn’t help it. He was the perfect distraction. Billy definitely wasn’t the relationship type, and he was good in bed. The ideal partner for meaningless sex to get your mind off of Steve.

Last night, though, you swore you were done with that game. Billy merely gave you a grin and said, “Sure, sweetheart.” You flipped him off and left, entirely set on never meeting up again.

But that was until Steve made you go flower shopping with him for Nancy and help him plan a date. He asked you all the details that a perfect date would include, and pleaded for advice on how to win her over.

“So that’s what you would want in a date? You think that would be the perfect night out?” Steve inquired for the fifth time.

“Yes, Steve,” you rolled your eyes. “Take her to get dinner there, go for a walk at the park, and talk to her. Tell her you’re sorry and all that good shit. I’m sure she’ll take you back.” You forced a smile that you hoped he’d buy.

That whole ordeal was how you found yourself on Billy’s doorstep that night. You drove past to make sure his parents weren’t home, and pulled in when you only saw his car there. You couldn’t believe yourself as you stepped up and knocked before you could change your mind.

A shirtless Billy answered the door after the second knock. He gave you a shit-eating grin once he realized who exactly was at his door.

“Miss me, Byers? What happened to all your ‘never again’ talk?”

“Let’s call it a change of heart. You busy?”

“I could be.”

You really didn’t feel like playing this game tonight. “Are we going to fuck or not, Hargrove?”

His gaze turned hungry and he pulled you inside. The door hadn’t even closed before his lips were crashing into yours.

You hated it a little bit. The fact that he was so addicting. The fact that you never seemed to hesitate in kissing him back. The fact that he was the best sex you’d ever had. You hated that all of it was true.

“You want to know something?” Billy asked you as the two of you lay panting on his bed.

“What?”

“You’re full of shit,” he chuckled.

You shot him a glare. “What the fuck does that mean?”

He rolled onto his side to face you. “Every time we do this, you say it won’t happen again, but it does. I think you’re lying to yourself. You want this.”

“Well I think you’re full of yourself. I mean, this was great, Billy, but don’t get confused. This is a means to an end,” You said, propping yourself up on your elbows.

“Then why do you always come back. If you really wanted someone to fuck and forget, you wouldn’t keep picking the same damn guy, and I think you know that.”

You wanted to make a retort, but you fell silent. He might’ve been a little right. As much as you didn’t want to admit it, you wanted to see Billy. He made you feel an electric desire that you couldn’t help but want more of.

But then there was Steve. You wanted him too. You had wanted him since the 7th grade. He’d been your first kiss, even though that was something the two of you had done when you were 11 and simply curious. He’d went from your best friend to being someone you could see yourself with.

Billy was also becoming someone you could imagine being with. They were both overrunning your thoughts, and now you had absolutely no idea what you wanted.

“I have to go.” You stood abruptly and dressed yourself.

You were gone before Billy could get in another snide remark.

———————

You spent the remainder of the night in your room. Even listening to your favorite cassette couldn’t get rid of the unwanted thoughts. You had never been this confused.

It had always been Steve. He’d been who you wanted for years. He was good, and kind, and funny. He truly and completely cared about you.

But then there was Billy. He was an asshole and not really a great person, but he excited you. Being with him was…thrilling.

You pictured yourself, standing with someone, happy. The person you saw didn’t shock you.

Now you had to muster up the courage and talk to him. You grabbed your keys and headed for the door.

———————

Billy Ending

Steve Ending

#fanfic #stranger things #imagines #writing #x y/n #billy hargove x reader #billy hargrove #billy hargrove x you #billy stranger things #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington #jealousy

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