#steve and tommy having made out in the past is also very important to me

[asbealthgn]

wrote this goofy thing as an expansion of this post

It’s very surprising when the door to Eddie’s trailer opens and Eddie is standing there with flowers.

It’s even more surprising when he says, “Happy one month!” with a big grin.

Steve looks back and forth between Eddie and the flowers—wildflowers by the look of them, probably picked around the edges of the trailer park. “Uh, one month of what?”

Eddie gives him an uncertain smile like he’s not sure if Steve’s being serious or not. “Of our relationship,” he says, the last syllable tilting up almost like a question.

Huh. Kind of weird, but at the start of summer Steve and Robin had an ice cream party to celebrate the year anniversary of when they started at Scoops together. So it’s not like this is completely unheard of. Except—

“You and I have been friends for longer than a month,” Steve says, “It’s been like—” he tries to count the months since spring break in his head “—at least four? Unless you don’t count when you were unconscious in the hospital, but that was only a couple weeks, so—”

“I mean one month of our relationship,” Eddie says, putting emphasis on the word. And now his eyebrows are drawn together. Face concerned. And Steve is clearly missing something here.

Did something significant happen a month ago? Some moment where they moved from friends to best friends or something? It was probably about a month or so ago the first time Steve spent the night at Eddie’s trailer, but that wasn’t a huge deal. Steve has spent the night at the Byers’ house before and it’s not like he and Jonathan are breaking out the balloons to commemorate it. 

Steve feels guilty, because clearly there’s something that Eddie thinks he should know that he doesn’t. He doesn’t like this nervous look on Eddie’s face. Steve tries to think like Nancy, tries to put the clues together. But he’s not Nancy. So he’s lost. 

“I’m sorry, dude,” Steve says, “I don’t get what you mean.”

Eddie deflates.

“I know we haven’t necessarily defined it.” His voice is wavering, eyes getting watery. Shit shit shit, what did Steve do? This is so completely out of nowhere and Steve doesn’t know how to fix it. “But I didn’t realize it was actually that insignificant to you.”

Steve shoots his arm out to stop Eddie from closing the door on him. He needs to figure out what’s going on so he can make it right, and that’s not gonna happen if Eddie shuts him out. “Eds, seriously, you’re gonna have to fill me in,” he says, “‘Cause I honestly don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Seriously?” Eddie asks, anger over taking the sadness in his voice, “You’re gonna act like you don’t know?”

“I don’t!” Steve nearly shouts, desperate. “Please, man, I’m not trying to piss you off here. Whatever it is, I wanna make it right. You just have to tell me what you mean.”

“You and I,” Eddie says. Looking at him like it should be obvious. When it’s so, so not. It makes Steve want to scream. “We’re—I thought we were together.”

“Together? Like…together how?”

Steve doesn’t think he’s ever seen Eddie look this pissed off. “Use your goddamned brain, Harrington,” he spits, “Like together.”

Oh. Okay. That’s…something. It’s not that Steve would necessarily be opposed, or even that he hasn’t thought of it. It’s just not true. They’re not together. And he’s not sure why Eddie thinks they are. Yeah, they’re close, but it’s not like they’re closer than Steve and Robin. It’s not like they’re closer than Steve was to Tommy back in the day. He and Eddie haven’t done anything that feels outside the realm of friendship to him. And he definitely didn’t realize that Eddie saw it any differently.

“Um,” Steve says, aware that he’s standing like an idiot on Eddie’s doorstep and needs to answer. “Why?”

“Oh my God,” Eddie says, making as if to close the door again. Steve barely catches it in time. It makes Eddie glare at him. “There’s no way you’re being serious,” he says.

Keeping one hand on the door, Steve throws up the other one in a gesture he stole from Robin. “I really am,” he says, “You know what the kids say. I’m an idiot. You really have to lay things out for me.”

That at least makes Eddie soften a few degrees. “You’re not an idiot, Steve,” he says, “You’re just—oblivious, apparently.”

“Yeah, that too.”

Eddie sighs. “Just come in. We can talk about it.” He steps back and lets Steve come inside. The flowers are still clutched in Eddie’s hand, starting to wilt. Eddie sets them on the table before joining Steve on the couch. 

“A month ago is when you stayed over for the first time,” Eddie says. Steve nods. “And you kissed me.” Steve nods again. Eddie lifts his eyebrows significantly. “You’re not seeing the connection?”

Steve shrugs. “I mean, I guess there’s other ways you could construe that,” he says, “But I thought it was, like, a friend kiss. A goodnight kiss.”

“A friend kiss,” Eddie says flatly. “You kiss a lot of your friends?”

“Sure,” Steve says, “Well, Robin prefers forehead kisses and Jonathan’s more of a hug guy, but I used to kiss Tommy and Carol all the time.”

Disbelief is the main emotion on Eddie’s face. And a whole lot of other ones that Steve can’t quite parse out. “So—everything we’ve done,” Eddie says, slowly, like he’s trying to come to terms with it. “It’s all just…been normal friend shit to you?”

Steve thinks back over the last month, trying to think if anything stands out in his head as non-platonic. Maybe there’s been a time or two when he was kissing Eddie or cuddling up to him in bed or sitting on his lap during D&D where Steve’s felt a sort of stirring deep in his belly. But he figured that was one-sided. His body’s reaction to whatever was happening and not a manifestation of, like, feelings or something. After all, the same thing used to happen with Tommy when they’d do similar stuff. And clearly they were just friends.

After a full twenty seconds of Steve not answering, Eddie drops his head in his hands. “Holy shit,” he mutters. Then he lifts his head. “This—you—the other day. You slept over. We made out. You—you took my fucking shirt off, Steve.”

Yeah, that did happen. And Steve doesn’t have a great explanation for it. “I don’t know,” he says, “It was the heat of the moment or whatever.”

“The heat of the moment,” Eddie repeats, and Steve can’t tell if he’s on the verge of tears or the verge of laughing. Eddie puts his arm on the back of the couch and leans toward Steve. “Can you honestly say that you’re not attracted to me at all?”

Annoyingly, Steve can feel his face start to heat. “I never said that,” he mutters.

For the first time, Eddie looks triumphant. “So you are attracted to me?”

“Yeah, man,” Steve says, squirming uncomfortably. Of course he’s attracted to Eddie. What’s not to be attracted to? He’s smart, funny, hot, good with the kids, good on the guitar, good at kissing. Helped save the world. “You’re, like, it for me. I definitely think about you that way. I just didn’t think you thought about me that way.”

Eddie laughs, the sound containing more disbelief than humor, but still overall a good thing. “I can’t believe the guy who’s been sharing my bed for the past month didn’t think I was into him.”

“Hey, you’re not the only person whose bed I’ve shared.” Shit, that was a bad way to put it. “Platonically.”

Shaking his head, Eddie laughs again. “Clearly, your idea of platonic does not line up with mine,” he says. “But you mean it? You’re into me?”

“Yeah, Eds,” Steve says, “I’m into you.”

“So, does that mean you’d want to be my boyfriend?”

“Apparently I already have been for the past month,” Steve says, grinning.

Eddie grins back. “Doesn’t count if you didn’t know.”

“Then we can count from today,” Steve says, “Starting now, I’m your boyfriend.”

He hasn’t finished saying the last word before Eddie is surging forward and taking Steve’s face in his hands. He shifts onto Steve’s lap, kissing him deeply. 

And it doesn’t feel platonic at all.

#oblivious steve is like a son to me #steve and tommy having made out in the past is also very important to me #steddie #steve x eddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #ficlet

[myersmaniac]

~ wish I would’ve~

Pairings: Eddie Munson x Henderson!reader, mentions of past relationship with Steve Harrington x Henderson!reader ( she/her) pronouns.

• no use of y/n

CLIFFHANGER!!!

Flash backs written like this lol💕

Part 1

——————

YOU’RE SO CAUGHT UP IN THIS SOCIAL STATUS BULLSHIT YOU NEVER HAVE TIME FOR ME!

You screamed at Steve as he sat looking completely emotionless, all that mattered to him was keeping up his title of “ king Steve”.

What the actual fuck are you talking about, all I ever do is spend time with you if you ask me we might even spend TO MUCH TIME around each other. Steve replied.

Your jaw almost hit the ground then you began to speak. “ TO MUCH TIME??? THATS WHAT YOU THINK? DONT START WITH ME HARRINGTON; WHEN WE ARE TOGETHER IM NOTHING MORE THAN AN ARM REST, A PROP BESIDE YOU WHILE YOU SIT SHIT TALKING WITH TOMMY.”

THAT ISN’T TRUE, IM TRYING MY BEST. Steve said in his defense.

“ WELL TRY FUCKING HARDER” it might come off a bit harsh but you’ve had enough, when you and Steve first got together it was amazing, you were both so very in love but lately it’s all been feeling one sided. Steve’s taking this king Steve stuff way to serious, he barley even talks to you.

“ NANCY WOULD NEVER HAVE SAID SOMETHING LIKE THAT” Steve screamed, instant regret followed. The silence in the air said more than words ever could. Steve stumbled through his vocabulary trying to figure out how he could fix this. “ baby you know I didn’t-” he started but you quickly cut him off with a simple “we’re done”.

——

It took a few months for you to pull yourself together but you finally came around with the help of Eddie Munson. You had met him through your little brother Dustin, he dropped him off from a hellfire meeting one night and his car broke down right as he pulled up to your house, thankfully they made it there safely but Eddie ended up having to stay the night and the car got fixed in the morning; you spent that night talking to Eddie and you both grew closer by the day and eventually began to become a little more than friends.

Steve knew what he said was wrong, he knew it was all a mistake. Even though you left months ago he still can’t get you off his mind. He’s let go of the whole “ king steve” childish nonsense. You were much more important to him than that but it’s a little to late now.

———

Eddie reached for your hand as you both walked into school. “You look gorgeous today as always m’lady” he said in his cute little accent he does that you love. “ and you as well my prince” you both giggled and pecked at each others lips. Little did you know Steve was watching from afar his heart breaking at the sight of you with another guy. He knew you deserved to be treated well, he didn’t blame you for leaving, he knew he was an asshole but now he’s changed. His heart felt heavy and his eyes fluttered fighting tears. All he could do was walk the other way.

———

Later that day he began his shift at family video which means he also began his ranting about you to Robin. “ I just wish I would’ve listened or said more or done better” Steve spoke. “ ughh” robin said rolling her eyes “ you know Steve this is getting old. You messed up dude, we all do but you’ve seriously got to move on.” “ don’t you think I would if I could? I can’t Robin, I love her.” Steve replied. Before Robin could get any words out the door opened “ welcome to family videos!” Robin said, she picked up her head to greet whoever had came in but that’s when she was met with Eddie. Robin knew you and Eddie had been seeing each other, Steve had mentioned it one, two or a thousand times. All she could give was a soft smile to him. Steve panicked. He didn’t know if you were behind Eddie or if Eddie came to start a fight, every possibility was running through his head except for the fact that he could just be coming to get a movie. So Steve hid behind a cardboard cut out and made a complete fool of himself.

———

Eddie knew you and Steve had dated but he didn’t know to much, he though things ended peacefully and you two didn’t really have that much history but boy was he mistaken.

“ uhhh why did Harrington just run behind a cardboard cut out?” Were Eddie’s first words. Steve swiftly came out from behind the cut out trying to play it off “ not hiding, just cleaning” he was beyond confused right now. Robin just shrugged with embarrassment. “ anyways” Eddie began, “do you guys have sixteen candles?” Steve’s heart was shattered all over again. He knew that was your favorite movie which was probably why Eddie was asking for it right now. “ uhh yeah, I actually have a copy right here, here you go” Robin pulled a copy out from behind the counter that had just been returned earlier that day. “ Thanks” Eddie replied. There had been intense awkwardness in the room the entire time and Eddie honestly didn’t have a clue as to why. He awkwardly waved the movie a little then turned to walk out the door. As soon as he did “ THATS HER FAVORITE MOVIE ROBIN” Steve said “ JESUS CHRIST HARRINGTON ENOUGH!” Robin replied throwing her hands up in defeat. “ they’re probably watching it tonight doing God knows what, I can’t take it any more. That should be me on her bed watching it with her, me holding her not that freak!” Suddenly a cough came from the door. It was Eddie “ I forgot to pay and no one mentioned it but keep your fucking movie.” Eddie tossed the movie and walked out the door.

#stranger things #Steve Harrington #steveharringtonxreader #Eddie Munson #Eddie Munson x reader #stranger things reader #Henderson reader #st #y/n #steveharringtonfanfic #eddiemunsonfanfic #fanfiction #x reader #x y/n #strangerthingsfanfiction #firstfic #part1

[dontcallmenans]

Captain Steve, Pirate AU (Steddie)

Reposted because I had A LOT more to say.

Don't get me wrong, I love BAMF pirate king/captain Eddie and poor defenseless Steve.

But can I bring to you today the idea of pirate captain Steve Harrington 'King Steve' and his rag tag group of brigands?

THIS IS LONG, AND I'M NOT SORRY

Steve's parents no longer enjoyed a life by the sea and their "beloved" son is more than capable of running the day to day of the plantation on his own by now. So they leave back to... Wherever it is they came from, it's not important because they're gone and Steve is free.

There is no one to stop him from using his weighty inheritance to build himself a lovely seafaring vessel. One he's dreamed about since he was a boy and heard the first siren call of the sea.

His advisors beg him to rethink his decision. He knows nothing of sailing or the true realities of being out on open water. They don't even know he intends to use the ship for pirating... But Steve's mind is made up.

And while he may know very little of sailing, he knows the perfect crew to take a long to help him learn the ropes.

It wasn't just his dream he was fulfilling.

Living on remote islands in the Caribbean leaves much to be desired in ways of socialization.

There were the hoity toity types his parents wanted him to rub shoulders with. But they were dull and superficial, and most couldn't see Steve past the Harrington name.

While he loved and trusted Tommy enough to stay behind to take care of the business in his steed, he couldn't venture to have ever called them friends.

That title belonged to an unlikely array of people from the town proper that he'd grown to consider his family.

Dear Nancy, a friend since childhood, an almost betrothed, was the gateway to them all.

She and her brother were as rebellious against their birthright as Steve. At a point, the boy was still young enough for no one to question when he hung around the "rif-raf".

All of them coming together was just a natural progression over the years from there. Steve followed after Nancy one day to see the group they both kept going on about.

The tailor and shop-keeps sons. The daughters of the captain of the guard, a tanner and a local drunk. Both children, a son and a daughter, of a local banker.

He was welcomed with open arms by a group of children (and a couple of ones his own age) and never looked back.

It caused quite a stir around the upper-crust the first time Steve was seen leaving the jungle with the others, dirty and clothes torn. His parent's banned him from ever going near any of them again, but they were never around enough to actually check.

But they're gone for good.

The rest of them are grown and ready. They've spent years learning all they can by the docks, scrounging up what books they could on the subject of sailing.

As the final touches were put on the affectionately named Bad Hair Day, a crew was called to arms.

Captain Harrington had a difficult time choosing a first mate. So he chose two.

The ever reliable Robin, of course. He couldn't imagine doing this without her by his side. She mostly took over the role as bosun, her voice being the only one loud enough to carry all the way across the deck.

But there was also Will, the most steady and sound of the bunch. He was quiet, but it seemed to bring more authority to him than Robin and Steve could ever muster... even combined.

Dustin was an obvious choice for navigator. He was whip smart and absurdly clever and a master of the charts. If there was anyone Steve wanted to be forced to spend hours in close planning-proximity with, it was Dustin.

Maxine and Nancy gravitated towards taking care of the weaponry. They run drills on clear days, showing the rest of the crew how to properly throw knifes or clean their guns.

Lucas and Erica team up and spend their time in the crows nest as their barrelman (and woman), being the second most knowledgeable on the charts under Dustin. Lucas even had an additional proficiency for star charts, and Erica knew all of the stories behind the constellations.

Mike and El took eagerly to bosun mates, being the lightest and quickest up the masts.

Johnathan was just happy to be there, filling in the gaps where he was needed.

They were... Well, they're terrible pirates. Still a bunch of children playing pretend out on the open sea, really. They had the practical knowledge, but none of them had the practice.

But their chaos and wildness works out in their favor most of the time. They gain a reputation for being a touch unhinged, led by their King Steve, and no one can tell if it's all an act or not.

They raid frequently, always with the intention of making a profit and avoiding violence.

But it's always something.

An overeager crewmate taking a shot at King Steve. As long as it doesn't actually hit him, he isn't ever too bothered. Too bad for that guy, though. Steve's crew are all feral enough to start shooting back without hesitation. Gods help anyone who takes a shot at one of his kids, though.

There were several seamen out there with missing fingers after trying to take grabs at any of the girls. Most of them were curtesy of Max. Though King Steve doled out plenty himself.

One time they didn't board fast enough when Robin wanted to go up first and fell off the ladder, knocking down everyone under her in the process. It gave the captain a chance to throw the manifest overboard. They walked away with only the contents of the galley, and the first few boxes that were below deck. Robin was not allowed up ladders first anymore.

Someone (they suspect El) smuggles a cat on board after they make port for supplies. It wouldn't have been an issue, would have been a benefit even, since they were getting a rat problem below decks. But the cat had fleas. So everyone on board also got fleas. They're too busy dealing with being itchy to pursue any passing ships for over a week. Thankfully Dustin and Nancy eventually come up with some sort of noxious concoction that kills all the fleas on board. Turns everyone orange for a day, though.

There are plenty of successes, of course. They do work well as a team after all. They just really don't quite know what they're doing yet.

They don't make much in the way of money or loot for the first few months, but they're all having too much fun being free to care.

This was the life they had dreamed up together as they escaped into the jungles to hide from the lives their home had offered them. Steve built this for them, just as much as himself. They could never turn a profit, have to turn into a passenger vessel, crash and burn... doesn't matter to him. He just wants to be on the water with his family.

He never wants to go back.

*

It's been a few months at sea when they come across a rowboat with a single sun-singed inhabitant.

They've just left the closest port, within the last day or so... so they assumed he followed them from there. But he was woefully unprepared. He didn't bring water or proper sun protection, but had a stuffed bag and a disproportionate amount of food.

They know for sure he was rowing towards them when the Sinclair's noticed him. They'd called down to Steve who'd called for immediate action on turning the ship around. Still, it was a whole ship and it took awhile for them to get to the little boat.

Poor man was mostly just floating by the time they got there, slumped over in his seat and waving blearily from below.

Nancy was livid with Steve's lack of caution on immediately bringing the man on board.

"Look at him, Nance. You think a man stupid enough to follow us like this is a threat?"

There was no time to question him as Johnathon and Argyle practically had to carry him up the ladder. He immediately passed out on the deck from dehydration and exhaustion.

Nancy took pity on him then.

Steve was rubbing his decision in Nancy's face before they even had him nursed back to full health.

He had been quick to tell them that his name was Eddie, and he wanted to join their crew. He'd been hearing stories about The King and the crew of Bad Hair Day for months and had been just waiting for them to pass through.

Unfortunately, he'd missed his chance to meet them at the port. He'd been hungover, of course, but knew this was his destiny. He had to make chase.

They allowed him to watch from the sidelines as he recovered, and he watched the daily goings on with rapt attention. Where he found a lute was anyone's guess. But it was nice to have some entertainment for once.

No threat to be found.

But it was another mouth to fill, and they were still just beginners themselves. Could they really take on another crew member that was more green than they were?

The crew meeting a week later to decide his fate devolved quickly. Nancy was pretty much the only dissenting voice, the only one applying reason to the situation.

But the kids loved Eddie. Dustin and Will in particular were pulling out some serious puppy-dog eyes as Nancy repeated "no" over and over again. Even Robin, usually a hard sell, was particularly smitten with the curly-headed man.

It was Steve's choice in the end. Unfortunately for Nancy, King Steve had already been lured in by the siren-charms of the bard.

Where Steve went, Eddie followed.

When they first pulled him on board, Steve had agreed that since it was his choice, he would be the stranger's personal watch-dog on the ship. If only to get Nancy to leave him alone. It meant that they spent a significant amount of time together.

He'd been set up a cot in Steve's cabin (it was a particular 'fuck you' from Nancy) Once he was conscious enough to do so, he bombarded Steve with questions.

Something about the stinky, crispy, ill man on the other side of the room brought his guard so far down, he practically gave his entire life story on the first night. Eddie listened carefully, and Steve almost thought he'd fallen asleep when he started lauding how 'bad-ass' that was, choosing his own destiny like that.

It was pointed like, 'look at us', but Steve knew he wasn't wrong. It was stupidly endearing. They spent the entire night, and the rest of the ones after it talking. Eddie never talked about his past, though.

In the days following, Steve got to watch first hand as Eddie endeared himself to the crew. He had an astounding sense of humor that seemed like it was almost personally curated to each person, while still being entirely his own.

He was a quick learner, too.

It only took him a few days to almost entirely memorize every part of the ship, and how they each worked with each other.

He gave Mike and El a run for their money as he chased them up the masts. Dustin and Lucas each lauded his natural sense of direction. He became the first person Argyle allowed into the galley, citing having spent some time in kitchens before. Erica even let him join her in retelling the story of Orion at the end of a long day.

They didn't need to vote in the end as everyone pleaded their cases as to why Eddie should join the crew of Bad Hair Day.

So he did, and they were better for it.

He kept spirits high, a song always ready on his lips. He was an endless fountain of stories, and Steve was never sure if he was making them up as he went or not. Story time became a nightly event.

Their raids started going well, too.

Eddie was good at a lot of things, learning more every day, but he had a particular knack for being a tactician. He knew which ships were good pickings for what days, and how best to approach them in the first place. Everyone on board was given a specific role for each attack.

They walked away with less injuries (on both sides) and more loot.

Steve loved Eddie's company. Every moment where their attention wasn't needed elsewhere was spent together. Eddie's cot never left Steve's cabin, though it did eventually get shoved into one of the storage spaces instead.

Things were going better, but pirating was not a perfect science and something had to go wrong eventually. As far as it went though, a year without a disaster had to be some kind of record.

No one had been expecting a hidden compartment full of weapons under the deck of the Spanish vessel they raided. They were working on corralling the crew to tie them up when the maelstrom started.

It took them too long to react and resulted in a retreat rather than a victory, but everyone came away unscathed. They thought so at least. King Steve had a special skill of his own, after all. He had long ago perfected the art of stuffing every single pain (emotional and physical) deep inside himself if need be.

He just didn't want anyone to panic until they were safely back on Bad Hair Day. His crew was more important than the shot he'd taken to the gut during the first volley.

Eddie, of course, noticed when Steve couldn't get up from his seat when they got back to the ship. He had been planning on being the last up, like always... but he just couldn't move.

He didn't remember much past Eddie's panicked face coming close to his, and then some yelling.

He finally came to several days later. It was dark outside and he had a mouthful of ratty brown hair. There was no question who had crawled into bed with him. If Steve had been able to, he would have pulled the man closer.

He'd been in and out of consciousness for days, slipping quietly between wakefulness and dreaming. But Eddie was always at his bedside, and the first thing in his minds-eye. He dreamed vividly of his whole crew, his family. But it was always Eddie.

Steve wouldn't say he'd been pining, though Robin and Nancy would insist that he was. But he was tired of waiting. He'd almost died without the chance to tell Eddie everything.

He couldn't raise his cracked voice over a whisper as he called out Eddie's name. Thankfully, he was a light sleeper, jumping quickly to action. He rolled out of bed with an apology, and said he was getting the others.

Steve was still too weak to call him back.

He knew Nancy and somehow Johnathon noticed the way his eyes were tracking Eddie around the room as everyone swarmed the cabin. They tried to corral everyone, but Steve still had to suffer through an hour of everyone fussing over him before he and Eddie were alone again.

He tried to tell him as he worked on cleaning Steve up. He had just enough energy to let himself be sponged down, and his bandages changed. Eddie even let him clean his teeth, but he wouldn't let him talk.

Eddie sure had a lot to say, though, about "stupid heroics" "you could have died" and "how dare you"-s

He even retreated back to his cot when he was done. Steve could stand for the rest, but that wasn't going to work for him.

But the damn man was stubborn when he wanted to be, and wasn't responding as Steve tried to get his attention. It was not how he wanted the moment to go, but he had one last hail Mary.

He just bit the proverbial bullet and said it.

"Eddie, I'm sorry I almost died. And I'm sorry I haven't told you sooner, but I love you, so please get back over here because I do not want to waste any more fucking time"

He was reminded of their first time alone in this room together as the silence lingered. Maybe Eddie had fallen asleep and Steve had wasted his breath. Maybe it wasn't what he wanted to hear after all.

-then Eddie fell out of the cot in his scramble to get to Steve.

They couldn't do much more that night than carefully hold each other, but they made sure to never waste their time together again.

It took a few years, but King Steve and his crew became one of the most well known set of pirates there were. It was a dream. Their dream, each of them.

He'd tried explaining this dream to his parents one of the few times he went into check on the business. Mostly, they were there so that the kids could see their families, but he usually checked in on his own property at the same time. He wasn't expecting them to be there when he showed up, and wasn't surprised when he was immediately banished from the property.

He was told he had no family anymore and to not return. That was fine, he was making a name for himself and they were wrong. He defiantly had a family. He didn't even need anyone to tell him as much.

He didn't worry so much after that day.

*

Everyone trusted Eddie with their life, especially Steve. But there was one thing that always rubbed them all as weird. Every so often when they made port, Eddie would manage to slip off on his own. He wouldn't find his way back until morning, usually still drunk, looking like he'd swallowed sunshine. He refused to answer any questions on the subject, and managed to shake them off his trail every time they tried to follow.

But Steve trusted him. Especially after a particularly weak moment when he'd confronted Eddie thinking he was sneaking off to brothels. His fear's had been thoroughly and astutely assuaged then, after several hours, and he knew Eddie would tell them when he was ready.

In the end it wasn't a decision of his own making.

Eddie was with their crew for three years when they boarded the Coffin Maker. Eddie was up first as their showman, putting on a performance to introduce the rest of the crew. Will was the one that pointed out that some of the crew were looking at Eddie weird.

His side still twinged from time to time, and there was no way that he was letting Eddie get hurt. He was ready to rush over to his Eddie when the captain of the Coffin Maker's crew spoke up.

"Ed?"

That drew him and everyone on deck up short, weapons lowering in confusion as the fluffy haired captain kept going.

"Eddie Munson, I'd know you anywhere you dog. Thought you took over The Revenge when your Uncle retired. What are you doing here?"

It was the first time any of them had seen Eddie speechless. The idea that this was still a raid dissipated as the stranger walked up to him and greeted him with a warm handshake, shaking him until his stupor was gone.

"Gareth. No- Wayne sold the ship and I was landlocked with him for awhile. I've got a new crew now"

He stepped to the side and indicated to Steve and the others with a sweeping gesture. Gareth finally noticed the tension and took a step back.

That was when Nancy broke. Loud peals of laughter rang out over the entire ship, startling several of even her won crew.

"You're Edmund Munson, you were first-mate to Wayne Munson of Chrissy's Revenge. I should have known" she gasped and pointed as each member of their crew slowly came to the same realization. She nearly choked when she looked over at Steve's shocked face.

Everyone knew of Captain Wayne Munson. He's what people described as a gentle pirate. Master of tact, refusing to come to violence unless absolutely necessary. Most of what he pillaged ended up in the hands of those who needed it, rather than his own pockets. His first mate had been wild, and untamed waif with a penchant for theatrics. No one was very sure where he'd come from.

Then they had just disappeared.

"I was practically a kid" Eddie had tried to deafened himself, looking to Steve, face as red as the day they pulled him out of the sea. It just made Nancy laugh harder.

Gareth looked uncomfortable as Eddie visibly debated throwing himself overboard. Someone produced a bottle of rum and pressed it into his hands.

That broke the rest of the tension and the two crews called a truce of sorts over the odd introduction and started mingling.

Dinner was a joint effort that night as the two crews shared in the woes and joys of pirating. Gareth, and a few others who greeted Eddie in a less obvious fashion, smartly kept his mouth shut about their time on Chrissy's Revenge.

Steve was quietly livid, though he did see the humor everyone else did. But he didn't like being lied to.

He eventually let Eddie pull him aside when they got back to Bad Hair Day, and listened as he explained that he'd planned on being honest from the start, but he'd heard Steve and Nancy arguing about how he was a threat. He kept putting off telling the truth until it was far too late to admit anything.

He apologized wholeheartedly, and finally told Steve where he went when they made port.

They kept their travels very well planned. Enough so that he was always able to get word to his uncle a whole port ahead so that they could see each other when he was close enough.

Steve asked if he could meet him the next time. It was the closest Eddie was getting to forgiveness for now.

It only took two days of apologizes to Steve and the others before all was forgiven, though it was in no way forgotten. He took the hazing in stride.

It was another year before Steve got to meet Wayne. The man wasn't what he'd been expecting, but he obviously fiercely loved his nephew. He'd settled down with a nice lady, and they had opened a bar together. He wished the best for Steve and Eddie. Said they were much better suited to the life than he ever was.

They made it in time to be at his bedside a few years later.

He was still mostly kicking around by the time they got there and the decision to take an indefinite shore leave was unanimous. Turns out the bar was in rough shape, and in desperate need of some attention.

Steve's crew was more than willing to help out.

They fit into rolls here as easily as they had on the ship, and with just as much of a learning curve. But it was a nice reprieve.

Eddie got to hold Wayne's hand as he slipped away.

Steve had never bought into the idea that someone looked like they were sleeping once they'd passed, but Captain Munson looked quiet and peaceful as Eddie wept.

They only stayed for two weeks after Wayne's small funeral. There were still a few things left to be put right, and Eddie didn't seem ready to say goodbye yet. Everyone was respectful of the fact, but eagerly agreed when the idea of shipping back out again came up.

Wayne's Lady slipped Eddie the deed to the bar as they went to the docks, saying she was happy to take care of it until he decided to sell... or come back if that was his prerogative.

They didn't touch it for a very long time. But being on the sea was hard on the body, and eventually wears down on the mind.

They weren't the only ones slowing down, either.

All the "big kids" were getting up there. Only a little over 43 wasn't that old in the grand scheme of things, but they were tired.

The kids were still wild things, though. The decision to leave Bad Hair Day in their capable hands (under the direction of Captain Will) wasn't difficult, though saying goodbye was. It took days for Steve to stop crying after the ship disappeared over the horizon without them.

The kids still came back often. Truthfully, maybe too often to be good business. Steve wasn't going to complain, though.

There were even a few times where each of them went back out for a stint or two.

It was everything and so much more than Steve could have ever wanted from any of them. They'd plotted and planned this life in their secret fort in the jungles of what was once their home. But now he knew freedom, it wasn't just a dream. He knew love, he had a family. He had Eddie.

He didn't go down in history as another little boy with all the advantages in the world handed to him on a platter.

He went down in history as King Steve, first captain of Bad Hair Day. Predecessor to Will The Wise and so many more to follow. He was father, mother, brother and captain to his family.

More importantly, he went down in history to them, those who mattered the most, as beloved.

#I can't keep things brief #ofmd inspired #stranger things #stranger things au #pirate au #stranger things pirate au #steve harrington #I know nothing of sailing #pirate captain steve harrington #oh look #the whole gangs here #Edmund Munson supremacy #eddie munson #steddie #but mostly just pirates #long post #stranger things fanfiction #steve x eddie #I made this so soft im sorry #found family

[chloelucia13]

It’s Nice to Have a Friend

Pairing: Steve Harrington x platonic!Henderson!reader, Jonathan Byers x reader (mentioned)

Prompt: After Jonathan had abandoned you so he could go god-knows-where with Nancy, you found comfort in the boy who had also been ditched and a beautiful friendship began to bloom.

Warnings: this is some nice comforting fluff, maybe a tiny bit of angst, some language, pretty chill

A/N: So this is a sort of deleted scene that I couldn’t fit into the Stranger Things rewrite, but I felt like it was still important to the character development with the reader and Steve, so I’m deciding to post it separately. You don’t need to read the whole rewrite in order to understand the plot (it’s based in season 2, so if you haven’t watched it then there will be some spoilers), but I would appreciate it a lot if you did read my rewrite! As always, requests and tag lists and my inbox are all open!

“Y/N, hey!” a voice shouted to your right, prompting you to turn your head and look at who was speaking.

Steve rushed over to you, his backpack hanging on one shoulder and a couple of crinkled papers held in his hand.

You furrowed your brows slightly in confusion, stopping at the side of the hallway and waiting for him to catch up. “Hey, Steve,” you drawled out, slightly confused by his presence.

Steve had sat at the bleachers with you that day after both of you had been ditched. Steve was ditched by Nancy and you by Jonathan, both of whom were now attached at the hip.

It was nice to talk to Steve about everything that was going on and, frankly, it was nice just to have someone there. You two seemed to have more in common than you once thought, and though some of that common ground was the fact that you both were abandoned by the person you loved, it was still something.

However, you thought that lunch was it. It was surprising that Steve Harrington, the former King of Hawkins himself, wanted to spend time with you.

"What’s your next class?” he asked, nervously shifting from one foot to the next. 

“It’s, uh, English. Why?” You tugged on the strap of your backpack.

“I was wondering if you maybe wanted to help me with something?”

A look of hesitation washed across your face for a moment. “I don’t know, Steve. I really can’t miss class-”

“Please? I just need help on this essay for my college applications and I have no one else woh can help me. I just... Please?”

You let out a sigh, glancing around as you mulled it over in your mind. “I... I guess. Should we just go to the library and rent out a study room?”

He let out a sigh of relief, all of the tension leaving his shoulders. “Thank you so much. And I already did.”

“Oh, so you were planning on me saying yes?” You squinted at him and tilted your head.

Panic crossed over his features. “No-no, I didn’t mean it like that-”

“Steve, I’m kidding. Chill out.” 

He let out a chuckle, nodding as the two of you began to walk to the library. His actions were clearly fueled by anxiety, with his shifting gaze and his hands constantly going in and out of his pockets.

“Why are you so nervous around me?” you asked, glancing up at him as the two of you stepped through the entryway to the library.

“What do you mean?” he scoffed. “I’m not nervous.”

You arched an eyebrow at his response, falling behind his step so he could lead you to the study room he reserved. “You’re fidgeting and you won’t look me in the eye. You weren’t acting like this earlier at lunch.”

He pushed the door open and waited for you to step inside before he also entered the room, closing the door behind him. A small sigh left his lips as he set the papers down on the table. “I don’t know, maybe... I guess I’m just not used to spending time with anyone other than Nancy. Especially when other people see me.”

You gave him a sympathetic look and nodded, sitting down at one of the chairs and taking the papers in your hand. “Well, there’s no need to be nervous around me. You know that. I’m not exactly some cool person that you have to act perfect around.”

Once again, he scoffed. “You are a cool person.”

You let out a laugh, shaking your head as you searched in your bag for a pen. “Come on, Steve. I’m already helping you with your essay, you don’t need to butter me up.”

He sat in the chair next to you. “But you are cool. You don’t give a fuck what people think about you, and I think that’s pretty damn cool.”

You sighed, beginning to scribble a few notes on the paper. “If only you knew, Steve.”

“What do you mean?”

“God, I care so much about what people think about me all the time. It’s exhausting.”

He was silent for a moment, watching you mark the paper as he thought. “Do you care about what other people think about you, or do you care what Jonathan thinks about you?”

You were about to argue with him, but once you realized that he was right, your mouth shut. Instead, you lifted your pen from the paper. “Did someone else edit this already? There’s pen all over it.”

He stiffened awkwardly in his chair, his lips pursing into a fine line. “Nancy was, uh... She was helping me out with it. Until, ya know, everything happened.”

You nodded slowly, slipping the cap on the pen before setting it down on the table. “But why are you having me check the draft that Nancy already checked?”

He let out a sigh, a hand combing through his hair as he stared at all of the markings on the paper. “I think Nancy wasn’t being honest with me about it. I thought that you would be more blunt about what you think about it.”

You searched his expression, leaning back in your chair and taking the papers in your hands. “You want me to be honest about it?”

He gave you a nod. “Please.”

A heavy breath fell past your lips. “Steve, it’s awful.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Geez, at least sugarcoat it a little!”

“You told me you wanted me to be honest!”

His mouth opened so he could retaliate, but no words came out. Instead, he huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “What-What’s wrong with it?”

“It... It just seems very disingenuous. Shallow.”

“What’s shallow about it?”

“You wrote about a basketball game for one of your biggest struggles that you’ve overcome.”

“And then I said it was like how my Grandpa fought in the war! That’s genuine and powerful!”

You stared at him for a moment, completely at a loss for words. “At least you’re pretty, Steve.”

“Okay, fine. What should I have done instead?”

“Steve, we’ve fought literal monsters. There has to be more to talk about than a basketball game.”

“But I can’t write about that. Can you imagine how crazy they’ll think I am?”

“That’s just an example. We’ve gone through a lot this past year. There has to be something from that time that you can write about.”

He nodded, silently thinking over what had happened in the past 12 months. “Do you think that leaving your bad friends and becoming a better person is a good example of overcoming a struggle?”

You gave him a kind smile. “Absolutely.” You crumpled up the papers you had in your hands and tossed them in the trash can before pulling out a few clean pieces of looseleaf paper and sliding them over to him. “Let’s get an outline going. What made you realize that you should change?”

He thought for a moment, a sad look settling on his features. “Last year. I uh... I did something really mean to Nancy.”

Your head tilted in confusion. “What do you mean? What happened?”

He leaned back in his chair, his eyes flashing from left to right as if he was reading from a script, when in reality he was trying to find the right words to say. “After Nancy had ditched me for Jonathan, Tommy and Carol thought that it would be funny if I spray painted ‘Nancy the slut Wheeler’ on the marquee sign at the theater. So I did it.” He risked a glance over at you, noticing the look of disappointment on your face that you failed to disguise. “Nancy and Jonathan saw it, and it escalated.”

His words slowly sank in, and your eyes widened in realization after a few moments of silence. “That’s why you were all beat up? Because Jonathan fought you?”

Steve nodded, his lips pursing closed as he didn’t know what else to say.

“Well, I can’t say you didn’t deserve it.” Again, he nodded. You reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. “But I can say that you’ve gotten a lot better. And ditching Tommy and Carol definitely helped a lot.”

“So should I write about that?”

It was your turn to nod, a kind smile on your face. “Absolutely. Should we get started?”

He mirrored your smile, leaning forward and pulling a pencil from his backpack. “Let’s do it.”

#Steve harrington #Steve x reader #Jonathan byers #Jonathan x reader #Nancy wheeler #oneshot #drabble #imagine #stranger things #st imagine #st fanfiction #st fanfic #Steve x platonic!reader #Steve x henderson!reader #Steve x you #Steve x y/n

[instasiswetrust]

Cherry Lane Challenge Day 3 - Crow

A flutter of black, out of the corner of his left eye is what first catches his attention. His hand raises, signaling his party to stop in their tracks. There's some shuffling and a few annoyed huffs which he ignores in favor of taking careful steps towards what caught his eye in the first place.

All is still for a second and then- There. The dry sound of feathers brushing together.

Silently, he steps closer to the source of the sound. When he sees what it is, he relaxes minutely allowing himself another breath. It is but a crow, its left wing dragging over the dewy grass of the clearing. He sees no blood so he assumes it must be broken.

Another careful step takes him even closer to the scared bird, his fingers nearly brushing its feathers, so close-

"Steve, what's the hol- Is that a bird?"

Tommy and the rest of the hunting party burst into the clearing with too loud steps and raised voices, startling the bird into a frantic state once again. It squawks in its fear, broken wing fluttering pitifully as it tries to escape what it assumes to be a predator.

"I almost had it, Tommy!" He turns to his companion, features set into an angry scowl. He may only be seventeen but he was the Crown Prince and they should've listened to his orders! "Why did you break position?"

Instead of answering his question, Tommy walks past him as crouches right by the bird, poking it with a stick and laughing at its resulting squawk. "Can't believe you stopped a hunting party just to save a bird, Stevie. What are you? Snow White?"

Heat rises to the prince's cheeks and he smacks the stick out of Tommy's hands. "Leave it. It's already hurt enough without you making it worse."

Tommy quirks an eyebrow, teeth bared into a nasty smirk. He gives a mock bow that makes Steve's eyes narrow.

"As you wish, milord."

And then, making sure he's got Steve full attention, he gives the injured bird a sharp kick sending it smacking against a tree with a feeble squawk.

The bird struggles to upright itself, collapses, and tries again, before eventually just laying there. Unmoving if not for the minuscule shifts of its diaphragm. All Steve can do is watch, knowing full well that if he so much dares make a move to help it again, Tommy might outright try to crush it under the sole of his boot.

Under the raucous laughter of the soldiers, he follows the hunting party back to the deer trail they were following, the back of his neck red with poorly contained rage. All thoughts of injured crows and helpless birds are stored at the back of his brain where he no longer has to think about them again.

---

So that night, when he walks into his chambers half-drunk on too much ale and a hearty roast, the last thing he expects is to find a girl sitting on his desk chair. Her vermillion hair is cropped short and would help her pass for a man were it not for her curvaceous figure, so distinctly female even under the black robes she wears. On her head, a crooked hat sits adorned with what he thinks are feathers.

As he steps inside, she stands up and he notices her eyes appear yellow behind her spectacles.

"Who are you?" He tries to sound authoritative, like the prince he's supposed to be, but he's too drunk to manage anything more than slurred inquisitiveness.

"Don't you recognize me?" Her lips barely move as she speaks and yet her voice comes out as a shrill squawk, not too different from the frantic sounds of the crow in the forest. It makes him flinch, taking a step back. "Maybe this will help jog your memory."

Under his watchful gaze, he sees her shift into the same crow he saw that morning. His eyes follow the bird as it flies around the room once, before landing on the chair. A blink later, and the girl from before is sitting in the same spot.

No. Not a girl.

A witch.

Because of fucking course the crow had to be a witch. That was just his life.

"Look, I'm sorry for what Tommy did to you earlier today and I truly wished to help you but if I did-"

"But if you did, your companions might've killed me while you watched." She hums, inspecting her sharp nails with clear disinterest. "Those are but excuses and we both know it."

"They are not-!"

The witch clicks her tongue disapprovingly and he finds the words he meant to say dying on his tongue. Fear rises in him, and only then does he consider that the reason she's here and not with Tommy is that he's the one she's planning to hurt.

"It is an excuse, darling." She fixes him with a sharp glare. "You're Steve Harrington, Crown Prince of the kingdom of Hawkmond. They should respect you and yet your own foot soldiers treat you like you're below the sole of their feet."

A feeble protest rises in his throat but she only has but to look, before silence descends upon him again. The worst part? She is absolutely right.

"You're weak-willed. Spineless. A disaster in the making." She huffs, taking the few steps that separate them until they are standing almost nose to nose. "I shall not allow a person like that to ruin what this kingdom could become."

In her yellow eyes, he sees rage flash however briefly, and he wonders what sort of circumstances led a witch to care this much for the outcome of a whole kingdom. It is but a split-second judgment, yet it's all he manages.

For the next thing he knows, pain radiates from every single nerve ending in his body. He falls upon his knees, writhing in agony, and through his anguished screams, he swears he can hear the witch croon in a sticky-sweet voice.

Scion of swords and kings

A curse of feather and blood

Placed upon thee

For thine will is brittle as bone

This shape thou shall keep

Til’ the day thy soul’s to pass

Unless thy lesson is learned

And thee flies with thine own wings

By the next morning, every single person in the Capitol knows Crown Prince Steve Harrington has gone missing. None a single clue left behind to find him.

---

He finds out pretty quickly that the best way to find food in the forest is to follow the wolves.

It's been two months since the night he was cursed, and Steve's come to the conclusion that while sometimes annoying, being a bird wasn't as awful as he first assumed it would be. Flying was nice once he managed to get the hang of it, and messing with the occasional villager while he indulged in the instinctual desire to steal shiny things was something he hadn't expected to enjoy so much.

But he really could do without the feeding.

The first few days he had outright refused to take part of any rotten bit of meal he found, no matter how appetizing it might've seemed to his new instincts.

By day four he had to give in and eat, or he risked worse injuries.

It had been a distasteful ordeal up until he had found the wolf pack during his first full moon as a crow. Night had fallen, and as he made his way through the thick trunks on unsteady talons, he had heard the first howl. For a second, he had almost considered leaving. Retaining this half-human form was still something he struggled with and he wished to enjoy the little time he had before he once again had to return to his feathery prison.

But the call of the wolves ensnared him, and he had to find them.

Except none of them were normal wolves, as he found out once morning came.

From what he has observed in the last month, most members of the pack preferred to stick to their wolf forms as much as they could. Occasionally, one or two of them would venture into the closest town for certain necessities but that was about it.

It was weird.

It was also fascinating.

They didn't seem to mind his prolonged stay, in fact, it almost looked like they welcomed him among their midst without so much as a second thought. He didn't question it, just enjoyed it for the time being although he always made sure he only shifted into his halfling form where the wolves wouldn't find him.

At least, that had been the plan.

But now, staring into the ice-blue eyes of the blonde wolf he had started thinking as his wolf, he realizes that he overlooked one tiny but very important detail.

Wolves tended to have a keen sense of smell.

Well, shit.

Silence pervades the small nook between the trees he had taken as his hiding spot away from the pack, as he simply stares back at the wolf. Waiting for something, maybe a shift, a lunge. Anything.

Except a whole minute passes with nothing happening, and Steve is starting to feel foolish.

"So is this the part where you try and eat me? Or warn me to stay away from the pack?" He chances, hoping for a reaction.

The wolf cocks its head to the side, blue eyes looking almost mocking before there's a ripple and a human is crouching in its place. A very blond, very handsome, human with ice blue eyes. Who's also kind of naked.

Huh.

"The fact that you think nobody knew what you were as soon as you hopped into the clearing that night is telling." At Steve's confused look, the wolf (the man?) chuckles. Guess he was right about the mocking part. "You reek of magic, little bird. Magic and human flesh."

"Well, how was I supposed to know?" He snaps, the small feathers that cover his neck fluffing up.

"Common sense?" There's a smirk this time, along with a flash of fangs. "Did your mother not teach you about magical signatures once you came out of the egg?"

"I- ah" He falters, unsure if he should explain that he wasn't born like this but rather turned into this. He runs a talon through the feathers that have replaced his hair before sighing. "I'm a human, actually. Just got cursed to look like this."

The man-wolf hums, giving him an appraising look. "That explains a few things."

Steve scoffs, ready to stand up and leave this guy alone to go bother somebody else when suddenly he feels a heavyweight drop onto his lap. When he looks down, he's met with a pair of ice-blue eyes looking back at him.

He wonders, not for the first time, why he picked this particular wolf to stick close to out of all the others.

"Does the little birdy have a name?" That smirk is back again and it almost makes him blush. Makes him glad that his whole skin is now covered in black fluffy feathers.

"If I tell you, will you stop calling me that?"

"Nope. But I might give you my name too."

It sounds like a fair deal at least. And that way he could stop calling him man-wolf in his head.

"Steve."

"Steve. Hm. Not quite what I expected." It's been so long since the last time someone said his name, it feels weird hearing it now from someone that is not himself. "Mine's Billy, by the way."

"And what did you expect, Billy?" The name feels foreign on his tongue but he figures time will make it easier. After all, it's not like he ever can return to Hawksmond unless whatever conditions the witch placed upon the curse are met.

Billy shrugs, stretching languidly across Steve's lap in all his naked glory. Something that Steve's doing his best to steadfastly ignore. "Some fancy bullshit like Stefano or Guillermino."

He snorts at that, covering his mouth with a clawed talon. "Why would you even think that?"

"You look the part, little birdy."

#CherryLaneChallenge #steve harrington #barbara holland #tommy hagan #billy hargrove #harringrove #fantasy au #i have no idea what this is but enjoy #shotout to my friend who helped me with the curse bit #you're a lifesaver vani <3 #werewolf!billy hargrove #crow!steve harrington

[hawkinsindiana]

i want to talk about it

ALMOST PARADISE: PART THREE - CHAPTER TWO OF ELEVEN (?)

pairing: steve harrington x henderson!reader

word count: 2.8k

a/n: you asked for it! guess what - the anGST IS BACK!!!! i have also decided not to include gifs until we get to s3 content okay? okay. enjoy!

masterlist

You think about that night often, even though there have been plenty of others like it since. It was the breath of fresh air you so desperately needed. And while your relationship with Steve has made certain aspects of your life better, not all of them are so positively affected. 

The lump that forms in your throat every time you lie to your baby brother is especially difficult to swallow. You wonder if it will get any easier. Hopefully you won’t have to keep up the charade in front of the kids for much longer.

Especially now that Mike knows, that little shit. 

It had only been four days since Steve had suggested the idea of keeping the status of your relationship a secret. Four days. You still can’t believe it. 

The group was in the middle of a rather rousing round of Monopoly; Will had just sworn never to speak with Lucas again after a painful double mortgage incident. Steve, bankrupt from Max’s hotels and exhausted by their shenanigans, decided to leave a bit early. In traditional fashion, you made sure to see him out. 

Moments after the pair of you disappeared from the room, Dustin sent the Wheeler boy to grab extra sodas from the fridge in the garage. You’re lucky Mike closed the door when he entered; no one else heard him shout in surprise when he witnessed Steve give you a quick kiss goodbye. 

Your face flushed beet red in record time. Steve could’ve sworn his heart sank to the pit of his stomach. Mike has a habit of catching him in the act.

Thankfully it didn’t take much to convince Mike not to tell the others. He could tell how much it would mean to you to keep this quiet - a part of him understands why. It also helps that the boy would never want to disappoint you. Like all of the kids, they would hate to be the cause of grief in you. 

But keeping this from your brother is the toughest part. Mike knows first hand just how much Dustin wishes you two were together. It’s unfortunate he hasn’t figured it out himself yet; Mike thinks he probably never will.

But of course, now that’s the least of your worries. 

Billy Hargrove gets bored easily; it explains much of his behavior. When something, or someone, becomes a bit too dull for his taste, he feels the need to stir the pot. You are no exception. 

You’ve learned to ignore his posse’s comments in your direction when they walk by; Tommy’s sting a bit more than the rest. Normally, you’d love to fight back and embarrass him - it’s one of Steve’s favorite things about you. But now, Billy’s involvement makes you think twice before saying anything. After what happened at the Byers’, you never know what it could be that sets him off. 

Considering what happened last week, you’re certain something similar could occur again. 

Billy cornered you at your locker, spewing his usual comments. You were unnerved by his presence but able to keep your emotions in check as he leaned in closer; it was impossible not to catch the stench of cigarette smoke off his breath as he spoke. The hand he had broken months prior twinged in pain. 

In a moment of rage fueled by your silence, Billy fisted the collar of your sweater in his fingers. The fabric tightened against your neck as he said the damning line, “I could do it again, you know.”

The delicate knit of the yarn was stretched when he finally let you go. You threw that top into the dumpster as soon as you got home. You couldn’t bear to look at it anymore.

Steve wishes that you’d let him do something about Billy; you’re too frightened about what could happen if Steve confronted him. You would never risk letting your dream become a reality.

All that kept Billy from killing Steve that night was Max, had she not intervened. You’d thank her everyday if you could. 

Even though the little moments you do get to spend with Steve help calm your mind, your experiences from November still hang over both of your consciences. Steve just tries his hardest to make sure your conversations are Upside-Down free. He wishes you both could be normal teenagers again without these traumatic experiences haunting your every move. He misses not having to worry about that.

Looking for a way to blow off some steam and relax, you suggested a horror movie marathon to the kids. Since the final semester of your senior year began, you haven’t been able to spend as much time with them as you would like.

Max’s face lit up when you mentioned the idea; Dustin scowled. He hates scary movies. It seems ironic to you considering everything the group has been through. 

After sitting through Alien, the red-headed girl’s favorite, everyone decides to take a quick break before continuing. You and Steve are goofing off with Lucas and Max in the kitchen as the microwave’s working on the popcorn. Max just smiles as she watches you two interact. 

The pair of you are approaching almost three months of your relationship. In that time, your comfort with each other has grown exponentially. While you don’t express your feelings for each other in front of the kids, it becomes very apparent to Max how drastically different your dynamic is compared to when she first met you both. 

“I’m really glad you guys were able to sort things out,” She says before grabbing another bowl from the cabinet. 

“What are you talking about?” You ask, the smile on your face drooping slightly at her words, exchanging a quick glance with Steve before speaking again, “Sort out what?” 

Lucas continues before she can, leaning back against the counter, “Just... back when you guys were fighting. It must have been for something dumb if you got over it quick.”

That has Steve’s mind spinning for the rest of the night.

In your giddy excitement with one another, you both had completely forgotten about what happened between you two that week. It all seems like background noise compared to what followed.

But whatever it was that had you angry with him, it must not have been something dumb, he thinks. Not with the way you reacted.

The kids decide to move the activities over to the Wheelers’ after finishing The Shining - and you’re thankful they do. You and Steve don’t know how much more of Dustin’s unnecessary screams you could take.

“It’s not even that scary!” Will says as he opens the front door, turning back to your brother as the rest of the kids file outside. You throw Max’s coat to her before she forgets it.

“Did we watch the same movie?” Dustin answers as he pulls his backpack over his shoulder, his face stunned as he looks between you and Steve, “And he’s the one who looks like Danny Torrance!”

“Alright, alright,” Steve grabs the door from Will and he ushers them out, “Go on, get out of here.”

Mike runs back before it’s shut, looking over his shoulder to the others to make sure he wasn’t followed. His eyes peer through the crack as he steps onto the porch, a smug grin over his features as he lowers his voice, “If you two do anything weird in there-”

“Oho, that’s enough out of you,” Steve slams the door before Mike can continue, making an effort to lock it immediately after.

Your muffled laughter reaches his ears, turning to see where you’ve disappeared behind the couch to grab a pillow you’d thrown to try and silence your brother.

“You think his antics are funny, huh?” Steve asks, placing his hands on his hips as you pop back up, your eyes sparkling, “Clearly I enjoy them much more than you do.”

“He’s lucky we haven’t killed him yet.”

“Steven!”

“What?” 

You scoff lightly at him, tossing the pillow onto the couch before plopping yourself down, “You’re ridiculous, you know that?” 

Steve’s expression flattens as you look away from him, gaze not focused on anything in particular. The thoughts he’s been having about the rough patch you two experienced begin to overwhelm him. The unanswered questions regarding your aggression towards him make him anxious - Steve can’t stand it when you’re unhappy with him. 

It comes out before he can stop himself.

“You know, uh, what Max and Lucas mentioned earlier? About us?” Steve’s words make your brow furrow, confused as to why he’d bring it up. That seems like something he’d want to keep in the past, “Yeah, why?”

“I mean-” Steve exhales before sitting down next to you, his knee grazing yours, “I was mad ‘cause I thought that you’d been the reason Nancy...”

He stops for a moment, shaking the memory from his mind. He has no desire to bring his previous relationship into this one, “I don’t know, I guess you never mentioned why you were angry.” 

He just shrugs after trailing off, eyes focused on the carpet; Steve’s not able to look directly at you while he admits it, “It just doesn’t make any sense to me, that’s all.”

Your jaw clenches as you remember the cause of your anger and how it transformed you. It seems so stupid now, that his behavior towards you meant that he’d rejected your feelings. Turns out, it couldn’t have been further from the truth.

You push those thoughts away; you’re not interested in furthering the conversation any more.

“It’s not important,” You state plainly, also not able to meet his gaze, “Lucas was right, it was dumb.”

Tucking a piece of hair behind your ear, you re-adjust on the cushion, “Let’s forget about it, yeah?”

Steve shakes his head - he’s quickly growing tired of you dodging his questions, “No, I want to talk about it. I want to know.”

“Why do you care so much? It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Because I was an asshole to you and you just…” He trails off as he leans away, arm draping over the couch, “You just took it! You accepted it like nothing had ever changed, like nothing ever happened between us.”

You huff, back pressed against the arm rest, voice quiet, “Damn right nothing ever happened.”

You freeze, surprised at your own comment. You didn’t know that you were still holding onto aggression directed at his obliviousness to your true feelings. But Steve doesn’t catch on, he only grows more concerned at your response, “What the hell are you talking about?”

You take a deep breath, thankful that he didn’t seem to understand, effectively saving your ass from whatever this revelation could’ve caused. The room is silent as you move to the edge of the seat, “Like I said. We should forget about it.”

Steve scoffs, his fingers pressed against the bridge of his nose as you stand up, “I can’t believe you’re not going to tell me.” 

You don’t turn to look at him as you take a few steps, instead opting to push both hands through your hair as you answer, “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“Maybe I do! What - is it so horrible that I want to know what made you mad at me?” He raises his voice and you turn towards him, desperately trying to calm your temper, “Steve-”

“So we’re keeping secrets now too, huh?” Steve says as he gets up too, arms crossed over his chest, “This whole thing’s under wraps anyways, why not bring that into the relationship? What a great idea. You’ve really outdone yourself this time, truly-”

“Oh my God, Steve-” You interrupt him, growing so impatient of him that you don’t even register what happens until it does, “Fine, you want to know?”

“Yes!”

“I thought that Nancy told you everything! Everything about how I felt.”

Your lip gets caught between your teeth as you cast your focus to the ceiling, hating how you can never seem to keep your emotions bottled up anymore - you used to be good at that.

“I must have been more obvious than I wanted because she had figured it out. That night at Tina’s party was when she finally felt confident enough to confront me about it. And I just…” You swallow the lump in your throat as you feel the tears start to burn behind your eyes. There was a reason you wanted to keep this away from him.

“I couldn’t take it anymore. I screamed at her, Steve. I just screamed at her,” Your tone softens as you remember the words that you spit at her, guilt flooding you all over again, “I was so sick and tired of watching her pull away from you when you deserved someone who actually cared about you and I was right there! The whole fucking time!” 

“I thought that she told you about how I felt,” You mutter, shoulders slumping with embarrassment and shame, “I thought she told you and you had decided to reject me.”

Steve used to think that seeing you bloodied and beaten by Billy was the saddest he’d ever seen you. But seeing the look on your face as you realize what you’ve said - he’s not sure which one is worse. And it’s all because of him. 

He should have listened to your protests; you were right.

Steve doesn’t know what to say. 

Even though it’s only been official for a short amount of time, getting to be with you has been an absolute joy. It’s been perfect knowing that the sparks are mutual. He doesn’t think he’d be able to handle it again if they weren’t. Steve can tell there’s something different about why being with you feels so amazing and terrifying at the same time.

But the idea that you’ve kept your feelings locked away and hidden from him longer than he thought? That brings about a pain in his chest that’s greater than he’s ever had before.

“How - um, how long had it been since…” He doesn’t know how to finish - he’s not entirely sure if he wants to. He’s not sure he wants to know.

One tear hits your cheek, then another, “A year.”

Even though it’s whispered, it’s enough to make him dizzy. He sinks back onto the couch, his head in his hands as the information overwhelms him. The entire time that Nancy was lying to him, you were right by his side. 

You heard everything. 

He can’t believe that you just swallowed it - all the times that he gushed about her to your patient soul, telling you the plans on how he was going to ask her to the junior prom, mentioning how he thought she was the one for him. He can’t take it.

You still can’t look at him, it would be too much. Instead, you opt to pick at the sleeves of your hoodie, waiting for Steve to finally address what you admitted.

You grow impatient yet again, emotion scratching your throat, “Please just… say something.” 

It seems like hours pass although it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. 

“I can’t do this,” The sound of Steve’s keys being pulled from his pocket catches your attention. Your eyes finally snap up and he’s already moving quickly to the exit, and you brush hair from your face before following him, “Where are you going?”

“I don’t-” He pauses as he pulls on the handle, briefly looking over his shoulder in your direction - still not able to directly catch sight of you, “I don’t know. I just need to think.”

The photos on the wall shake as he slams the door; you force your face into your palms. 

It’s ruined, you’re sure of it. He can’t even be in the same room as you anymore. Maybe you’re not as good at keeping secrets as you thought. 

Steve’s filled with regret as soon as his fingers leave the doorknob. What the hell is he thinking?

His mind quickly flashes back to the argument you two shared that night on the train tracks; he had forgotten all about it until now.

“You’re the one who caused this mess in the first place.”

His jaw clenches.

“This whole time, I knew you never liked her.”

His exhale stops short. 

“You feel so threatened by her that you had to do something about it!”

His stomach churns.

The thought of you interpreting those words as further evidence of his rejection completely fills him with regret.

And then Steve remembers how willing you were to separate from him - it hits him that you didn’t believe he’d ever see you as anything other than a friend. The very notion of him being aware of your feelings had you shutting yourself away from him completely.

He has to go back in. He can’t leave you to believe those things. And although he doesn’t think apologizing would be enough this time, he at least has to give it a shot. For your sake

Steve’s about to shove the door back open when it locks from the other side. You’ve accepted that he’s not coming back in. Why would he want to?

A shallow breath gets pushed through your lungs; it doesn’t help to calm you. At he sound of the engine of his car running, a whimper passes your lips. You’re certain you’ve lost him again.

—

taglist: @stevebabey / @mrsukai / @hannarudick / @crazycookiecrumbles / @hellisateenageheather / @alewifex / @l0ve-0f-my-life / @naomiiiiiiiiiii04 / @daddystevee / @thecaptainsgingersnap / @let-the-imaginationflow / @asianravenpuff / @im-a-stranger-thing​ / @mikariell95​ / @pilunb​ / @harringtherin​ / @royalestrellas​ / @ultrunning​ / @buggs177 / @poutfull​ / @yoheyyosup​ / @duchessdaisybat​ / @janieavalos / @sassisaluxury​ / @beththebubbly​ / @i-bitch-you-bitch​ / @captainstilinskis​ / @juliebean247​ / @im-nada / @whatabeautifulsurrender​ / @rexorangecouny​ / @pass-me-jeez-it / @ahoy-scoops-troop / @halefirewarrior​ / @jointhehunt67 / @peanutem / @ketchuplukehemmo​ / @m-a-r-i-n-t-p / @fangirl485 / @emmegirl827 / @lookalivesunshine-x​ / @elite4cekalyma​ / @marjoherbo​ / @just-my-fandom / @idumpyourgrass​ / @alafolieee​ / @mochminnie​ / @phantomalchemist​ / @dustyblueboo​ / @alonewolfsblog​ / @ggclarissa​ / @hufflepuffing-all-day-long​ / @bippityboppitybabe​ / @readinthegarden12​ / @bakugouishusbando / @stxtch72 / @random-girl-army / @wisdaemon

wow there are so many of you

if you wanna be added to the taglist (of if you’ve changed your url), just lemme know!

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x henderson!reader #st fic #steve harrington fic #steve harrington imagine #st imagine #my writing #almost paradise

[bird-in-a-cage]

Frenulum

Apparently, according to Suzie Carmichel, Billy Hargrove had a dick piercing.

Steve had overheard it at a party, when he was busy in the kitchen making up a drink concoction that was mostly hard liquor and very little mixer. Usually he just ignored gossip, especially at parties where everyone is in a constant state of being somewhat drunk and because he had been the subject of a lot of gossip himself in the past, but that one. That one small line, half slurred over the kitchen sink and a now empty bottle of malibu, made Steve’s ears burn. Made his mind run a million miles an hour, self control long gone a few cups ago with whatever drink Tommy had given him when he’d first arrived. 

Tommy’s jungle juice was lethal but it got the job done. Fast.

With his own strange mixture Steve wandered through the party, brushing past bodies in different stages of sweat and sobriety, all bumping to the music that was loud enough to rattle the family photos on the walls, until he found the man in question outside in the yard. Sucking on a cigarette and nodding his head from side to side at the echo of the music. He had his own cup filled with god knows what, the leather jacket he came in long lost somewhere inside. Someone else was probably wearing it like a trophy.

Lucky them. 

Steve stood on the back porch, a little higher up from where Billy was stood in the grass nearby by himself, and pointed a finger with the hand that was holding his cup at the back of that dirty blonde mullet.

“You! I’ve heard a rumor about you.”

Billy just turned his head, eyebrow cocked, eyes glassy like blue marbles. They were both as gone as each other. Maybe Tommy had given them the same warm welcome even though it wasn’t his party. At least Steve didn’t think it was. He’d lost track of who’s house this was and on what street about an hour ago. Billy hummed around the cigarette between his lips as Steve made his way down so they were standing shoulder to shoulder.

“Suzie Carmichel knows your secret...”

Billy blinked heavily and stared at Steve. A curious expressional mix of confusion and I don’t care crossed his face at the same time.

“Who the fuck is Suzie Carmichel?” he spoke around a nearly burnt filter.

“You know. Suzie Carmichel. Big hair. Has that bag. Horses.” Steve explained with his hands, mimicking her blown out perm she always had. It was huge. Like a blonde cloud made of hairspray and hope. He couldn’t believe Billy didn’t know who she was. Everyone knew who Suzie Carmichel was. It was Suzie Carmichel. Billy just continued to stare blankly, took a swig of his drink in the silence before Steve waved his hands again to move onto the next subject, the more important one in his mind. “Did it hurt?”

“Wha’? This conversation? Yeah it’s pretty painful, pretty boy,” Billy grinned, flicking the spent filter towards a covered up trampoline pushed up next to the flowerbed. Probably to stop drunk party guests trying to bounce on it and hurting themselves.

“No! It. Did IT hurt?” Steve didn’t imagine it was a pleasant thing to get done. In the half hour it had taken to find Billy in kind of a small house it was pretty much all he could think about the entire time. A whole barrage of questions. What did it look like? Did it hurt? Why?  

Billy blinked again and sighed, glanced a look down at his cup as he rolled the dark liquid around inside, clearly contemplating a top up. “One last chance amigo and I’m headin’ back inside...”

Steve sighed frustrated. He didn’t want to actually have to say it in case it wasn’t true and then he looked insane, thinking about Billy Hargrove’s dick. Not that it would be the first time he’d thought about it but still, Steve didn’t need to admit it out loud if he didn’t need too. He squeezed his eyes shut and let the drink warm in his veins talk for him.

“Did it hurt getting your dick pierced?”

Billy’s grin was wild and hot when Steve opened his eyes again. The same look he got during a particularly rough basketball game, where everyone else playing was just prey waiting to be caught. It made Steve’s blood feel impossibly tropical, especially when Billy leaned closer, muttered into the shell of his ear deep and sultry. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Yes. Steve would like to know, that was the point in asking. But Billy was gone before Steve could follow up, disappeared back inside the house alive with the whole senior year. Steve felt abandoned in the backyard, answerless and alone. That had neither been a confirmation or denial and it just made the thoughts in Steve’s head worse and harder to hold onto. Especially in his inebriated state. No. He was finding out the real answer to this tonight even if it killed him.

Which if he was wrong, probably would.

The music changed from one synth track to another. Eurythmics making themselves known. Making the walls shake. Making bodies bump and grind. Making it harder for Steve to get through. A riptide of hormones. But Billy was nowhere to be found. Wasn’t downstairs anywhere either in the kitchen, or the makeshift dance floor of the living room that had spilled over into the dining room adjacent. Wasn’t in the basement getting high with whatever terrible weed was getting passed around the few stoner kids. And as far as Steve knew he wasn’t upstairs occupying one of the few bedrooms that seemed to be permanently engaged. Someone probably would have bragged by now. He tended to hear that type of gossip now he wasn’t in the highest levels of Hawinks hierarchy anymore. There may as well have been a ticket system in the hall with couples waiting to find one to use, so he might have at least seen. 

Whomever's house this was had better air the place out in the morning.

Steve didn’t want to seem desperate. But he was. He was also several cups of whatever was going deep and needed to piss pretty badly.

In his own defence, the bathroom door wasn’t locked when he pushed it open and saw Billy standing over the bowl finishing up, shaking out the last few drops. Steve would have been pretty mortified usually but Billy just glanced back and laughed before looking down at himself again.

“Didn’t realise you wanted to know that bad Harrin’ton,” he chuckled. “Should’a been clearer in askin'.”

“I’m not,” Steve lied. He couldn’t help but stare a little at Billy holding himself. Holding the answer to a million new questions. “You didn’t lock the door.”

“Maybe that was on purpose...” Billy rolled his head on his shoulder and smirked something wicked. Steve felt warmth pool in his gut that had nothing to do with the alcohol but had everything to do with those lips and darkening eyes. “You wanna see then? Since ya’ found me.”

Steve made sure to lock the door behind him when Billy cocked his head, beaconing him over. He leant back against the smooth tiled wall, still holding his cock and okay it was bigger somehow than Steve remembered. He’d only seen it in the showers though. And he wasn’t really looking. More a haphazard glance in the wrong direction than anything else when temporarily blinded by shampoo. Steve stepped closer in the small bathroom, eyes dragged down as Billy just lifted his cock up like it was no big deal to show off like this. To show off a three rung ladder of small black balls, clearly attached to bars, living either side of his shaft just under the head.

Seeing it made all common sense leave Steve’s head immediately. He’d never seen anything like it before. At least Suzie Carmichel wasn’t lying.

“Did-did it…?” Steve couldn’t get the end of his sentence out, just mesmerized by what was in front of him. Unable to take his eyes off it. Maybe sober it would have been a lot more awkward but here, in the cramped bathroom, there was nowhere else Steve wanted to be. Even if it did smell like piss and too much cologne and some weird floral perfume from coming from somewhere.

“Hurt? Yeah,” Billy chuckled, moving his hand so his thick fingers caught a little on the piercings, rolling them with his knuckles. It was impossible to ignore the way his cock twitched in his hand. It was impossible to ignore how Steve felt his mouth water. He blinked, trying to shake that thought away somehow but impulse was in control, no longer burdened by sense and a public filter. “Worth it though. Feels good.”

“Yeah?”

Billy nodded in that self satisfied way, just stroking himself now in a drunken haze. And Steve couldn’t stop watching as he got hard, somehow got thicker. It was nice to know Hargrove didn’t suffer from whiskey dick. Steve set his half empty cup on the edge of the sink and let curiosity take over, reaching across the short gap to brush his knuckles over one set of metal. They felt cool against his skin. Billy muttered out a shit at the small touch, so Steve did it again with his fingertips this time, rolling the smooth metal and brushing against the hot velvet of Billy’s cock, now completely hard as he let go and let Steve take over. He wrapped his hand around and gave a few tentative strokes, noting how the piercings felt against his palm, how he could feel the connecting bars if he squeezed a little, being careful not to drag or twist too hard. Whatever Steve was doing was clearly working, Billy’s eyes were hooded and heavy, his head rolled back against the white tile of the wall.

"Knew you had pretty hands for a reason," he muttered breathless, filled with lust, starting to rock his hips into Steve’s fist.

Steve couldn't help but chuckle a little, changing his grip again to roll his palm over the head that was quickly getting slick, spreading it back down to Billy’s thick base to make everything go easier. He made a point to really press his thumb between where the balls were connected to each other, rolling over the bars that lived under his skin. That had Billy practically purring, gripping Steve's shoulder with one strong hand, moans echoing throughout the room.

"You been starin' at my hands Hargrove?" Steve spoke with a grin. It felt good to have both the upper hand and to have the other boy so pliant for once. All bark and bite completely dissolved. Like he had found a secret ‘off’ switch in those tight jeans. In return Steve’s own jeans had become incredibly tight, his hard dick pressing up painfully against his button fly, almost threatening to pop the buttons free.

"Fuck-ah-h-hard not too. You talk with 'em a lot."

Billy practically melted when Steve swept his thumb through the weeping slit, gripping the opposite shoulder harder so there would be a bruise under Steve’s shirt in the morning without a doubt, letting out a noise that would surely be heard through the door by someone. Not that Steve cared anymore. Or really cared to begin with. He'd never admit it, but he thought about this a lot. Not just having Billy in his hand and falling apart so easily, but being able to shut that smart mouth up for once. But now with the piercing discovery he had something new to add to the little fantasy, well, memory now. They were hard not to play with every stroke up or down. Just there to apply pressure too, to see what new noise he could get out of Billy’s pink mouth. 

But there was still one question left, bubbling up in Steve's mind and popping out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"Anyone ever blow you with 'em?"

Billy chuckled around a moan, both noises getting confused in this throat, but it sounded amazing. Made Steve’s dick kick harder. "You wanna try suga’?"

Not an answer. But Steve would take this one. Even as drunk as he was, he doubted any of this would leave the bathroom. The same way things never left the locker room. His knees hit the floor with a heavy thud as he settled between Billy's legs. Another set of bruises for the morning. He rolled the tip of his tongue around the little metal balls first, to see how they would taste. Musty. Like Billy’s smell. But not unpleasant. Like licking over a ring. A fist was heavy and tight in his hair in an instant. Not pushing or pulling. More bracing. Holding something that wasn't smooth so could be held.

Hargrove was a tight fit. Or Steve was out of practice since Carol came along and took up all Tommy’s time. Probably both really in all honesty. Steve's lips stretched something obscene taking down as much as he could, using plenty of spit cause Billy looked like he was into anything but clean and neat, pressing his tongue wide and flat over the piercings, rolling them with a little swallow that had Billy barely able to stand. Steve could taste his tongue getting more and more coated.

Billy didn't taste half bad, surprisingly. Not good, but not bad.

Duran Duran started coming through the floor. Hungry Like the Wolf. It seemed appropriate. Steve pushed Billy's hips back flat against the wall to stop him from moving, he was rolling on the balls of his feet within his boots and it was threatening to become an issue.

Not that he would mind Billy's thick monster destroying his throat, but breathing was still important. Maybe another time. If that would ever be a possibility.

It was less than a minute before Billy's fist got tighter, pushed Steve back so just the head of his cock throbbed on the taller boy's tongue as he came in ropes. Painted the inside of Steve’s mouth, threatening to bite through his own lip to contain some of the guttural noise that erupted from his throat just watching it happen with laser focus. Steve swallowed most of it, but there was a lot, some dripped down his chin and into the collar of his polo, leaving a strange stain. He nearly popped being used in such a way. His briefs felt damp.

It had been a while.

Billy panted as Steve got back to his feet, took a swig of his drink to wash the bitter taste out of his mouth, getting his hand batted away when he reached out to keep playing with the piercings like he was magnetized. 

"God, give a guy five would ya?" Billy tucked himself away, zipped up his jeans loudly, but didn't sound annoyed. It sounded more like a proposal.

Steve shrugged with a grin, biting the rim of his plastic cup and leaning up on the sink. He still needed to piss after all, just now it would be a lot harder. Billy patted his shoulder and went to leave, just unlocking the door before saying something over his shoulder that was definitely a proposal.

"If you’re still hard in twenty you can find out how they feel gettin' fucked."

#harringrove #billy x steve #billy hargrove #steve harrington #dirt #my writings

[msmarvelwrites]

The Winter Ghost - Part 14

Info: A Devastating car crash causes you to lose your memory and start over. The only thing left in the wreckage was the horrific nightmares which plagued your mind. If you knew what today would entail you would have just stayed in bed. But you didn’t and because of that, everything you knew was about to change.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Warnings: Swearing, angst, gun violence. 

w/c: So close to 2k that I’m going to call it that. (I really tried)

A/N: 14?? This feels crazy, but here we are. I definetly also just posted, but I was excited to keep sharing with you guys. As always, any and all feeback is welcomed! 

You had spent the last hour or so exchanging song suggestions with Bucky. Most of his music was from the seventies, claiming it was the best decade for music. You didn’t protest as you hummed along to something by Fleetwood Mac. 

This was different. Maybe it was the impending danger of the mission or the way his words were a hushed whisper against your ear. Either way, you felt the shift. It was visceral, the way he made you feel. Like debating the best pump-up jam was the most intimate thing you'd ever done with a man. 

“We’re approaching the drop off.” Sam announced from the cockpit. 

“Everyone ready? Sam and Wanda, you take the back, Bucky and I will lead Nat and Y/n through the front, after that you're on your own. Collect intel, and get the hell out. After I set up the timer we’ll have fifteen minutes before the place blows. Everyone clear on the plan?” Steve spoke through our coms. There was a collective ‘got it’ and a series of thumbs up’s before the jet began to near a clearing. Everyone seemed to still as the wheels collided with the earth, reality settling in. This was it. 

“You got this.” Bucky’s whispers as his large hands on either side of your shoulders sent you back to the situation at hand. 

“Lets go kick some Hydra ass.” You smirked, pulling your pistol from your thigh holster and loading it with a loud click.

“Damn, that's gotta’ be one of the top hottest things I’ve ever seen,” He chuckled, helping you out of the aircraft and onto the ground.

“Oh, yeah?” You quirked a brow, unsure where this witty banter was coming from. Was he flirting with you? If he was you were definitely flirting back.  Before he could answer, you heard Nat’s voice behind you. 

“You guys ready to go?” She asked, eyeing Bucky carefully. You nodded, pulling your hair up into a tight ponytail on top of your head. 

Bucky brushed past you, “You got my six?” He spoke, sending a wink your way. 

“We’ll see.” You retorted causing him to chuckle. 

“Let's head in, team.” Steve spoke through your earpiece, leading the rest of the group towards the Hydra base. 

“Hey,” Wanda's voice beside you, taking your hand in hers. The silver sing on your middle finger glowing with her power. “For good luck, okay.” She smiled, before running after Sam towards the back of the seemingly abandoned warehouse.

Mentally thanking Wanda for her borrowed magic, you looked upon the large building. The outside lights were shut off and it looked to be uninhabited. But you knew better. Steve suspected Hydra was experimenting with a messy version of your serum. As far as you knew, they hadn't been successful. You weren't sure what was going to be worse. An army of super soldiers like you, or a pile of mutated, radiation filled bodies. You shivered at the thought. Most definitely the latter.

“Entering the south side of the building now.” Bucky spoke, a few passes ahead of you and Nat. 

“Front entrance is unlocked.” You heard Sam's voice through your coms. “No guard. Just dark and empty.” 

“Keep an eye out. We know they're home.” Steve said. 

“You got it Captain. Wanda and I are going in.” 

You neared the back entrance of the building, watching as Bucky used his metal arm to tear the door from its hinges. You tried to refrain from moaning at the sight.

As you entered the building behind Nat, you noticed two dark hallways headed in opposite directions. 

“Cummon, we're going left.” Nat nudged you while you followed her. “See you on the other side, boys.” She spoke. And with that, your group split, while the two of you ran down the hall towards your mission. 

When you reached two large metal doors, you knew you had made it. A large silver padlock hung from the handle. You lifted your hand, your ring glowing a deep crimson as the lock turned to dust, flaking off onto the ground. 

“I’m never going to get used to that.” Nat muttered, yanking the door open and holding it for you. 

“Me either.” You spoke honestly, propping your body against the door. “I’ll keep look-out, grab the files.” Nat nodded, pulling open the first file cabinet and rummaging through different folders. 

“Y/n” a deep voice ripped through your mind, causing you to stiffen. For a moment, you thought you had imagined it, looking at Nat still flipping through files. 

“Y/n.” the voice spoke again. Something about it felt so familiar. Like you had heard it say your name like that before. A strange murky memory rang through your mind. 

“Did you hear that?” You asked. Nat froze, listening for something. When nothing came she shook her head. 

“I don't hear anything.” She shrugged, hacking into the computer on the desk, and watching the screen come to life.

“I’m just going to go check outside.” You mumbled, as the voice echoed around you once again. Nat nodded, typing on the keyboard, reminding you to stay close. You motioned an okay, opening the door and stepping into the dark hallway. 

You looked around, letting your eyes adjust to the dim lighting. The moon streaming in through the broken window, the only thing illuminating the dark concrete walls. You held your breath, waiting for something to jump out at you, but nothing did. 

Suddenly there was a cracking noise in your coms, followed by Sam’s broken voice as he shouted, “They know were here. We’ve been ambushed!”

“Get out, now. Nat, Y/n, do you have the files?” Steve yelled. You heard Nat shuffling inside the room behind you but before you could answer, the voice echoed through the empty hall. 

“Y/n, did you miss me baby?” Their words made you shiver. You spun around and what you saw sent a wave terror through your whole body. A gasp escaped your lips as you tried to speak. The man took a step forward, his face illuminated by the moonlight. This wasn't real. He was a ghost.

“T-Tommy?” You sobed. A small smile pulled at the corner of his thin lips. It was so familiar. His fluffy hair, unkept and in need of a trim hung loose around his face. His green eyes, sparkling with flecks of gold around his iris. Those freckles, you swear you had counted at least a dozen times. You knew where each one marked his straight nose. But how could this be the same man from before. Your Tommy. You were half expecting to look down and see three gruesome bullet wounds in his chest. But there he stood, alive and very much not shot.

“You're not really here. You're dead. I- I watched you…” You tried to understand. This wasn't right. How was he here right now? How wasn’t he dead? You wanted desperately to be thankful, but there was a sickly feeling in your gut. 

“It’s okay, baby. I’m here now. I’ll explain everything.” His words were so inviting. So warm and homey you couldn't help but launch yourself into his arms. He paused for a moment before wrapping himself around you, holding you close. You breathed him in, his familiar sent washing over your body and sending you into euphoria. You could have stayed in the moment of ignorant bliss, but the loud banging from the door behind seized you. 

“Let's blow this dump we gotta-” Nats voice was cut off by the image before her.  You turned around, noticing the fear in her eyes. Panic washed over your body as the reality of the situation hit you like a ton of bricks. This wasn't right. This wasn't supposed to be happening. 

Within the second it took you to turn back to Tommy, he had pulled out his gun, aiming it dangerously close to Nats head. Two lethal shots echoed through the empty halls as the bullets ripped through her chest, sending her backwards. 

“No!” You screamed, trying to push away from Tommy, but it was no use. 

“Y/n. Nat, what's your status?” Steve shouted through your coms. You looked up at Tommy, who only seemed unfazed by the situation at hand. Natshas only groaned in pain on the floor below. She was losing blood, and fast, but you could tell she hadn't been hit anywhere deadly.

“Tommy, let me go. Let me help her ” You started, but he only shook his head and signed. 

“I’m sorry, baby. You know I can't do that. I loved you. I really did.” The past tense sent a sharp pain through your heart. “But this is more important than you. More important than us” He lifted his hand, the small needle shimmering in the light as he plunged it into your neck. When he pulled it out, it was empty, just like his eyes. 

“What are you-” You tried to start, but your body felt weak. Your eyes, heavy as your legs began to wobble beneath you collapsing into Tommy’s arms once again.

“I've got you now. Everything is going to be okay.” He whispered, as you gave in to your exhaustion. The world around you began to spin until everything went dark.

“Y/n come in!” Bucky’s voice boomed through your coms but your mouth was so dry you couldn't form words. 

“We’ve been compromised, Buck.” Nats voice rang.  “I’ve been hit. They got Y/n.”

“Dammit. What's your location? I'm coming to you.” He shouted. 

With every ounce of strength you had left, you let Wanda’s power surge through your body, sending a pathetic zap into Tommy’s chest. It wasn't strong, but it was enough to shock him and pull yourself out of his grasp. You tried to run, but whatever was coursing through your bloodstream had its nails deep in you. You got half way down the hallway before your legs gave in, sending you hurtling down, face planting into the concrete floor. 

Tommy laughed behind you. What once was a sound you ached for, now seemed tyrannical and revolting. “You always were a fighter. Right till the bitter end.” He cooed, words dripping with hatred. 

You choked on the blood pooling in your mouth from the fall, and tried to form a sentence, but everything burned. Instead, you forced out a whisper. 

“Bucky” You breathed. 

The sound of Bucky’s worried voice echoed through your com but you couldn't make sense of what he was saying. You tried to fight it, you really did. But it was no use as Tommy dragged your limp body down the hallway and away from Nat banging on the door. 

The last thing you remember seeing was the passing street lights. They illuminated the cobblestone as you peaked out the window of the van. 

This was your fault. The plan was solely based on your weakness. They knew it, so shouldn't you just accept whatever fate they had planned for you? You certainly deserved it. You had gotten Natasha shot for god's sake. You just prayed that wherever the team was, they would leave you to rot. They didn't need to be swept up in your mess. 

This was your end. It was inevitable. At least now it was over and you could stop pretending you didn't care. At least now, Bucky was safe.

................................................................................................................................

A/N: Thats it! Thank you to everyone who is still reading this mess lol. As always, I am eternally greatful to @cutie1365​ for all her help! If you havent already checked out her writing, what are you even doing? GO NOW! And reblog and like if you enjoyed! 

@projectcampbell​

@kalesrebellion​

@calwitch​

#marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic idea #msmarvelwrites #marvel smut #marvel imagine #marvel fanfic series #marvel fandom #marvel fanfic #bucky x reader #bucky barns imagine #bucky barns x reader #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes reader insert #bucky fluff #bucky #bucky barns x y/n #bucky barnes x reader smut #bucky barnes #bucky barnes reader #bucky fanfic #marvel #marvel civil war #wintersoldier #winter solider fanfiction #thewinterghost #winter soldier x y/n #the winter solider x reader #bucky angst

[writeroutoftime]

march fic recommendations

hello! so I think we all know that sometimes we don’t appreciate writers as much as we should here on tumblr. they are amazing people that write some wonderful stories for us (for free) and they put a lot of time and effort into doing so. to honor that, each month, I’m going to be posting a fic rec list with a whole bunch of stories I have recently read and loved, and that I want to share with you all. and if you find some you like? let that author know their work is appreciated!! (let’s all support authors more!)

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Hold My Girl by @captain-ariel-barnes - this one HURTS let me just tell you. it is absolutely beautiful and does a wonderful job at not only portraying bucky, but also the feeling that I'm sure a lot of couples who were split up because of wwii felt. like I said this story is amazing but it left me crying and my heart hurting - in the best way possible! 

Soft by @chillingbucky - oh my goodness did this story hit home for me. for the most part, I’ve been pretty confident with my body but also have wanted to change to boost that confidence even more and then felt worse when I didn’t stick through with my new plan.this story perfectly encapsulates those feelings and it nearly brought me to tears over how incredible bucky was at comforting the reader. when I read this it was the first story I read that day and it put me in such a great mindset!!

Lifelong Love Song Series by @suz-123 - even though this is not a bucky x reader (it’s an oc), this story is beautiful and the way it portrays bucky just feels so right and so spot on. there is fluff, angst, hurt, comfort, love, everything in this story. you should definitely read this series! 

The House by @softlybarnes - ahhhh!! that is what I have to say for this story because it is so darn cute! bucky just makes me swoon (as always) and there is a great relationship between him and the reader! also, now I really want to fall in love and buy a fixer-upper house with the guy I marry. overall, if you want something fluffy that is extremely well written, this is one of those stories. 

Truth Hurts by @ussgallifreyfics - this story is so different than other fics that tackle this same topic, but it the best way possible! the beginning hurts, but slowly bucky starts to come into the story and it is so sweet. not only that, but there is a lot of power from within the reader, which is AWESOME! heck yeah we can rescue ourselves (but if Bucky wants to help as well, I won’t be mad lol)

Lemon Pie Series by @nacho-bucky - I have reread this series like three times already, and it is just perfection! not only do we get 40′s bucky, but we get a HAPPY BUCKY WHO SURVIVES THE WAR AND GETS TO START A FAMILY! Each chapter/snippet is just so beautifully written, and I get pulled into the story each and ever time. bucky just makes me want to swoon, and if I don’t find someone who treats me the way bucky treats the reader in this series, I do not what I will do. but, this and all cait’s stories are amazing so please go read this, it will make your day! 

Thomas Shelby x Reader

If Only You Knew by @im-not-looking-for-forgiveness - while this is technically a tommy x reader story, it really focuses on the friendship between the reader and lizzie stark, which I absolutely loved! it is such a healthy change to see lizzie portrayed in a nice way instead of a bitch as she often is written in stories. we love girls supporting girls, which is this story! 

My Dear Charlie by @kadwrites -again, another story that is technically tommy x reader, but focuses on a different relationship, and this time it is between the reader and charlie! what I love about this story is, it highlights the love that one can feel for a child that isn’t biologically theirs, which is just a reminder of how important it is to show our love to others and to demonstrate our appreciation to those who do love us. also, I love that this story focuses on an older charlie, which is something I haven’t really seen yet. 

Matches by @rhxegals - now this one really does focus on tommy and the reader, and I adore it! we get to see the reader confront tommy and I love when the reader is his equal in the sense that neither of them stand for being lied to or being left out of things. not only that, but we also see a more vulnerable side of tommy, and we get to understand his protective side a bit more which I am also a fan of! 

this drabble by @connerkennt - it is short and sweet but powerful! it really shows (again) how protective tommy is over those he loves and I adore protective tommy! (alfie also plays a role in this drabble, which is always a plus!)

John Shelby x Reader

Something Unexplained by @justauthoring - man do I love john shelby, and if you do too, this is the story for you. just the way that olivia describes how john loves the reader makes my heart absolutely gush! I don’t want to spoil anything, so you just have to read it! (and there are so many other wonderful stories on this blog to check out after you finish this one!)

Steve Rogers x Reader 

Beauty and the Beast AU by @kayteewritessteve - I am so so glad I found this story when I did so that I can include it on this list! au’s are some of my favorite stories to read/write, and the fact that this is beauty and the beast and mob!steve is absolutely amazing!! kaytee does such a wonderful job with drawing you into the story and really making you feel the power and emotions of the scene! only the first few chapters are up now, but they are great! 

Peter Parker x Reader 

Moving On by @midtownpetey -  my goodness, this one really hits right in the feels! I was tearing up throughout this entire story, because it is so beautifully written and really highlights the process of moving on when losing a loved one. it is not a graphic story, but the healing aspect, learning to move on when you feel like you can’t, that’s really what got me! 

Harry Potter x Reader

Under the Stars by @lvmosity - this story is just pure fluff and it’s an actually harry potter story, which I feel like is so rare here on tumblr. anyway, I love how it’s just the reader and the golden trio worried about getting dates for the yule ball! there’s no underlying threat, just teens being teens, and harry being adorably awkward!

Scott Lang x Reader

Blue Dresses and Daises by @mypassionsarenysins - I just want to take this moment to appreciate the heck out of this story because it is absolutely amazing! not only is it a scott lang story (who is severely underappreciated! which why? he’s a dork and it’s paul rudd!) but this story is just filled with so much love that it makes me so happy and smiley. definitely a good one if you’re feeling down or you just want something extra fluffy!

Bonnie Gold x Reader 

Ring Girl by @blinder-secrets - okay so I recently just got into bonnie gold stories, and man am I glad I did because this one is wonderful! bonnie is just so cute but he is also so protective over the reader, and it makes my heart swell! I love when you can feel how intense a relationship is through writing, and that’s what this is. 

Roger Taylor x Reader

Hold Me Close Before I Go by @queenrogah - sobbing, just pure sobbing! well first of all, this story is slightly inspired by the song ‘so close’ from enchanted and I LOVE that song, so I was hooked from the beginning. but this story is very angsty but also mixes together so beautiful to tell this story of lost love between roger and the reader. it combines the past and the present so well, that truly tugs at your heartstrings for an emotional roller-coaster that is so worth it!

Long Distance by @dreamer821 - alright this is super long, but I promise it is so worth reading!! from the beginning, I was hooked and I got to witness this amazing story and all the love there is between roger and the reader. there is a bit of smut in this story, but the whole story really goes to show how powerful love is even when two people aren’t always near each other. it’s one of those stories that can restore your faith in love!

Laurie Laurence x Reader

Lost Love by @lotsoffandomimagines - ever since I saw little women in theaters, I have been looking for a laurie story, and this is the first one I found. oh my goodness, it is AMAZING, and I truly hope that there is a second part. but this story just draws you in and makes you fall for laurie, then comes there with that ending! I know I’m not describing this as best as I could, but trust me, the writing is beautiful and it wonderfully emotional. go read it! (also the gif of laurie is perfect!)

What I Wished I Said by @lillie-writes - do you want an angsty laurie story? well, here you go! this story is the form of the letter, and it made me tear up by the time I reached the end. it is so simple, but so heartbreaking. you can just feel how much laurie loves the reader and how much he wants to apologize, and I just wanted to find a way to hug him and comfort him. you will not be disappointed with this story! 

Ransom Drysdale x Reader (Knives Out)

this drabble by @terry-perry- oh my goodness!! alright, first, I love knives out, and second, I love chris evans as ransom drysdale in that movie even though he is an asshole. however, this drabble does a wonderful job at showing a different side of ransom and how dedicated he and the reader are to their relationship!

Haunted by @et-lesailes = this is such a powerful story! now there is a trigger warning for this one so please be mindful of that but this story does a wonderful job at tackling such a difficult topic and how sometimes opening to another person can be exactly what you did. (and we also get to see more soft, non-asshole ransom which is always great!)

#march fic rec #fic rec #bucky barnes x reader #peaky blinders imagine #roger taylor x reader #peter parker x reader #laurie laurence x reader #marvel x reader #steve rogers x reader #scott lang x reader #ransom drysdale x reader #harry potter x reader

[yikesharringrove]

the fic you wrote for my last prompt was amazing, ty 😭 can you do 50 + 56 this time please? and if you want to work in dyslexic!steve too that would be awesome! 🥰

You are speaking my fuckin’ language, dyslexic Steve is my ABSOLUTE jam. Honestly, whenever I write Steve, he’s dyslexic, although sometimes it’s not mentioned because it’s not important to Harry’s journey @ jk rowling

Thank you for your request! I’m really glad you liked the other one I wrote! You’re anonymous so I don’t know which one that is but I really enjoyed writing them all! Sorry for my manic energy rn.

Something a little different, it’s modern au! This is probably nothing like what you were thinking so I’m sorry, but I kinda love it ngl.

50: Secret Admirer

56: “I don’t know if I should be flattered or offended.”

Prompt list!

Billy spent three and a half hours reading through every single tweet on the account.

There were so fucking many of them. The earliest one was timestamped from four days ago, so obviously, this person had no life outside of tweeting.

Tweeting about Billy.

He had a few personal favorites. He had retweeted them to his account, figuring may as well play it up, make a joke outta everything.

@ImHardForHargrove: sorry WHOMST gave you the RIGHT to have eyes that fuckin blue im YELLING

@ImHardForHargrove: watchin u play basketball is a religious experience y are ur arms so BIG hhnnnng

And Billy’s absolute favorite, which he pinned right at the top of his account

@ImHardForHargrove: ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass

Billy knew he looked good. Knew he turned heads wherever he went. He did that on purpose. But realizing someone at Hawkins High had set up a thirst account for him, well.

“I don’t know if I should be flattered or offended.” Billy had explained the situation to Robin, letting her go through the account on his phone. “Like, It’s kinda nice, whoever this guy is, he’s got a crush. But also like, It’s kinda creepy. Plus he’s objectifying me,” Billy was talking through his sandwich.

Robin made a face of disgust. “Why do you keep saying ‘he’? All of the girls in this fucking school are practically drooling for you.”

“Hard for Hargrove, Robin. I know you’re like, revolted by the peen and whatever but that does not excuse a lack of basic sexual education and anatomy.” She gagged at him. Honest to God, gagged. He thought she was gonna spew all over the table.

“If I ever hear you call it a peen ever again, it’s on sight Hargrove.” Heather plopped herself down next to Robin, kissing her cheek before zeroing in on Billy’s phone, still in Robin’s hand.

“Have you guys worked out who it could be yet?” Her eyes were wide at Billy.

“Billy says he thinks its a guy even though people with penises aren’t necessarily men.” Robin gave him a pointed look.

“Yeah Robin, I know that, but, I don’t know I just think it’s a guy penis-having person.”

Heather narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you actually think that, or are you just hoping in that goblin little brain of yours that this account is Steve Harrington’s.” Billy could feel the heat spread down his neck.

“Billy, I know Steve is like, the only out guy in this whole fucking town, but you can do way better than him.  PLUS, I feel like it makes more sense if the person running this account wasn’t out and had to channel their gay yearning through social media.”

“First of all Robin, you have this vendetta against Steve that I don’t get. He’s a nice guy. He’s kinda dopey, kinda dumb, but he’s like, sweet and shit. Second, I’m not out, so it still could be him because he doesn’t think I would, like, accept his advances or whatever. Hence, gay internet yearning.” The chime of the bell sent them packing their lunches, Billy’s phone vibrated in Robin’s hand. She rolled her eyes when he realized he turned on notifications for the account

“Get a fucking life you loser.” She slapped the phone into his hand. He opened the new tweet with embarrassing zeal.

@ImHardForHargrove: i saw u talking with ur mouth full and it was yucky but i was still  🥺🥺

His head shot up, trying to see who would have been facing him during lunch, but the cafeteria was almost empty.

The rest of the week Billy took deliberate care of every interaction he had with anyone. Observing who was in his surroundings, and making note of everything he did and said. He took extra caution around Steve, wanting to spot any minute detail that could give away who ran the account.

The account started blowing up. People were retweeting like fucking crazy. Everywhere he went, he was being asked if he’s seen it, like he doesn’t regularly retweet the good ones. The search for the owner of the account had spread throughout the whole school. A few girls even tried to claim the account was theirs, but every time that happened the account would tweet out something to discredit whoever made the claim, proving them a liar.

Billy was starting to lose hope it was Harrington. The tweets were coming at all different times, posted whenever the person thought about it, so Billy was losing track of who was near when he said or did something. And the tweets were always about stupid stuff Billy didn’t register doing. On Wednesday night the account said

@ImHardForHargrove: hi when you chew on your pencil and it makes me 🥴 that is all thx for comin to my ted talk

Friday afternoon gave them all:

@ImHardForHargrove: walked past ur classroom and u were asleep ive never wanted to CUDDLE someone so bad in my LIFE

But Saturday, Saturday renewed all hope for Harrington Billy could possibly have. Lauren Kranz was throwing a party. It was the first real rager in a while, so everyone was there, and everyone was sloshed. Everyone but Billy, who’d agreed to be designated driver for Robin and Heather like some kinda idiot.

He was brooding on the back porch when his phone went off. The account was active, and the owner was drunk.

@ImHardForHargrove: I can seeeeee u oyt the windw I wan u 2 FUC ME. RAW DOG.

@ImHardForHargrove: srry ur so beauitiful nd THICCC

@ImHardForHargrove: I wana shoot my shot but idk if u lik bois

@ImHardForHargrove: (ys i am boi)

@ImHardForHargrove: nd i dont wana get my heart broken agin 😥

He was right about it being a guy. He was right about him being too nervous to approach him outright. His brain was screaming stevestevesteve at him. Hawkins was shook when Steve came out as bisexual in his sophomore year. He was the golden boy, a real jock. He was NOT the kind of guy people would assume queer in a small midwestern town.

He was kind of a douchebag, dumping one girl for another, sleeping with her and never calling again. But then he settled down with this guy from the University of Indianapolis for a few months until Steve caught him cheating. Apparently, he had slashed the guy’s tires. Billy was impressed.

The next year came Wheeler, who only stuck around long enough to make sure Steve was nice and whipped before she fucked off on him too. So Steve retreated. Spent more time with middle schoolers than anybody else. Didn’t want to put his heart on the line anymore until he knew it wouldn’t be stomped on.  Billy could respect that.

Billy couldn’t risk being out in a town like Hawkins. Word always had a way of getting right back to his dad, and in a tiny hick town with nothing better to do than gossip, it was usually only a matter of hours before Neil heard something he didn’t like.

@ImHardForHargrove: srry 4 bad typing rn. drunk nd dysl exic ren’t a happy combo

Billy’s heart stopped. The drunken idiot was giving himself away. Maybe if he sat here staring at the account long enough, enough would be revealed he could figure it all out like a shitty drunk episode of Blue’s Clues.

He was so focused on Twitter, refreshing his feed, again and again, he didn’t notice a very drunk, and very unsteady Steve Harrington stumbling out the back door towards him. Until he crashed into his back.

“Sorry, Bill!” Billy had Steve by the shoulders trying to keep him upright. “Heyy I have a question for you.” Steve grabbed one of Billy’s hands and veered over to the table and chairs arranged neatly on the small patio. When they were sitting, Steve kept ahold of Billy’s hand.

“Hi.” Steve was smiling like a little kid. Billy was in fucking love.

“hey, Harrington. What was your question.”

“So-oo. I have this friend. A very good friend. Super close. And he has a big ol’ crush on you but he’s too scared to ask you himself because he keeps getting his heart fuckin’ broken so he wanted me to ask. Are you into guys?” It’s a miracle Billy understood any of that, every word blending into the next.

“That depends.” Billy leaned in, running his tongue along his bottom lip. He saw Steve take in a sharp breath, following the movement with his glazed eyes. He knew Steve was talking about himself, he just wanted to rile him up a little. Make him blush first. “This friend you’re talkin’ about. He’s our age? Like you’re not trying to set me up with one a’ your kids, right?” Steve physically recoiled.

“NO, you fuckin’ pedo. I’m NOT trying to set you up with a fuckin’, fuckin’ middle schooler. My friend is, uh eighteen. He’s a senior.” Unless Tommy fuckin’ H. suddenly had a penchant for dick Billy didn’t know about, Steve was 100% talking about himself.

“Well, if he’s as pretty as you are, I’d love to go out with him sometime.” Billy winked. Steve went red.

“Okay, but like, does that mean you’d go out with me? Like I’m as pretty as me, right? Because I was talking about me. Not ‘a friend’ I was talking about me. Steve.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out. You know, I was hoping it was you running that Twitter. Any time you’d tweet out something you wanted to do with me, I was always picturin’ doing it with you, Baby.” Billy was practically purring. “Especially all the shit you wanted me to do TO you.” Steve gave something between a whine and a groan and flopped himself onto Billy’s lap, straddling him with very little grace.

“Thank God. ‘Cause you’re so fucking hot I’d let you do anything to me. Anything, Bill.” Billy smiled softly at him.

“Then let me take you home. Let me put you in bed to sleep off all this. And let me take you to breakfast tomorrow. Something nice and greasy for your hangover tummy.” Steve was a puddle in Billy’s lap. “C’mon, Drunky, git your ass up.” Steve just giggled and muttered Drunky Skunky under his breath.

Billy sighed and stood up, hefting Steve up with him.

“Bil-ly,” Steve whined. “You’re so strong, this is so fucking hot. I gotta tweet about this.”

“Tweet it later, Sweet Thing.”

It took Billy for-fucking-ever to find Robin and Heather (they were making out in the basement with the stoners). But Steve chirped and cooed into his ear, so happy Billy could lift him and hold him like it was nothing.

The last tweet from the account was timestamped from Sunday evening.

@ImHardForHargrove: Hi this is Steve. Billy’s my boyfriend now 🥰#ThirstWorks

#I'm gonna reblog this in the morning too #Im v proud of it I want people to SEE IT #harringrove #steve harrington #steve harrington x billy hargrove #billy hargrove x steve harrington #billy hargorve #modern au #modern harringrove #yikes writes #harringrove prompts #Harringrove Prompts list #harringrove prompt fill #prompt fill #prompt fic

[sgtbbarnes107]

Come Home

Who: Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers ( @fightbattlesthatmatter )

When: November 2nd, 2020

What: Bucky returns to Star City after taking his break and goes to see Steve for the first time in two months. 

Steve: Steve had started getting letters shortly after the mission against NOVA. In truth, it had taken him a few days to read the first one. Not because he didn't miss Bucky, but because he was afraid of what it might say. Wanda had been pulling him along by the metaphorical front of his shirt since he had moved in but, for the most part, he stayed in his room when he could. He'd stopped sketching about a week and a half ago and he'd stopped really feeling like doing much of anything beyond work and the League far before that. He had a beard again and he was just thinking he should shave it but thought the better of making the effort as he pushed from his bed to pad into the kitchen.

Wanda's house was so different from theirs. Full of knickknacks and smelling thickly of incense and tea and Wanda's characteristic spiciness. Tapestries on the walls and pillows everywhere that were rich colors were so different from their simple little home that looked like New York suburbia on the inside. He hadn't gone back there even once since he'd left. That was far too much. Oftentimes, a lot of this felt too much. He hadn't really gotten over feeling like he'd failed at something, even if Bucky's letters had been quick to tell him it wasn't like that.

Now, as he made his way into the kitchen, there was another envelope sitting on the counter. Bucky had lost the boy he had all but adopted, last he had heard. It seemed like he had started to figure out something he wanted to do. Steve hoped that Bucky could facilitate it when he got back. He had said it wouldn't be long, but the nebulous "a few months" continued to gnaw at Steve, who didn't get his hopes up anyway. After all, even if Bucky came back and wanted him around, he wasn't sure he wouldn't put his foot in it after everything. What if it went right back to where it was before? He'd been doing some soul searching and maybe he just needed to back off more. He had wanted badly to be a good man for Bucky, but things had fallen apart. Maybe being a good man meant being less all over him. He wasn't sure. He just knew that it might not fall back into place as easy as breathing this time around. He wondered if Bucky would have taken two steps forward only for Steve to be in the same place or even one step back. Who knew at this point?

He read the final letter about twelve times as he drank his tea. Wanda and Billy were gone and Steve hadn't seen Tommy. So presumably he was alone in the house. It gave him quiet enough that he could sit on their plush couch. At least he hadn't started in thinking he was a massive imposition on them yet today. Come home with me. Well, he missed his house. His things. But the house also held a lot of pain now, too. Would it taste more bitter than sweet to go home? Come home with me. If this had come to him a few weeks ago, he might have sprung to his feet and immediately started packing. Now, he sat with the letter, sipping from the mug. Come home with me.

He didn't want to be inadequate. He didn't want to be the partner Bucky had to hide from and separate from in order to feel better. He knew that Bucky didn't want him to feel like that, but it was hard to feel any other way. Sip. Come home with me.

When he heard the door, Steve didn't get up at first. It wasn't his house. He didn't feel right answering it. Not at first, anyway.

Bucky: In total, he’d been out of Star City less than two months after the League mission, and when he returned it was one day shy of those two months since he’d asked Steve for some time. Eight weeks. He’d left to try to find something and he had, or at least he’d found the beginnings of something. All of it hadn’t been suited for letters - he didn’t want to tell every word of a story and wonder if it was lost in the mail, or if it would wind up in hands besides Steve’s. He’d told him the important things. He’d tried to get across to him what he hadn’t managed to get even close to doing in person, when he’d still been frustrated at himself and confused and pointing it in directions it didn’t need to go. Given that he didn’t stay in one place, there was nowhere for Steve to send a reply to. He’d never included a return address because there wasn’t one. For the just-shy of two months, Bucky had only been hoping that the words got where they needed to go and that at least some of them were understood. 

He wasn’t even sure if the last one would get there in time. He might beat his own request back to Star City. Moreover, even if he didn’t, he didn’t expect Steve to just go back to the house on his own, not even if he did read the letter. Bucky did return there first, just to get a few things together. He showered, changed, put away the few things he’d taken on his trip. He’d said hello to Brooklyn and Alpine and nearly been mauled by the former as she tried to lick his face. In turn, he’d had to ignore her whining when he’d left again. 

There was one more stop between their house and Wanda’s which he made quickly enough. When he parked his truck in her driveway a couple of hours after getting back to the city, he stepped out holding two dozen roses that took up so much space he could practically hide behind the bouquet of them. Indeed, when he knocked on the door, he held them in front of his face. He’d already messaged Wanda and knew Steve was there.

He knocked again a second time and brought the flowers back up. When he finally heard the knob turn and knew the door was standing open, he eased his face around one side. 

“Special delivery for Steve Rogers.”

Steve: The voice from behind the door was undeniable as he pushed to his feet and made his way to open it. His heart thumped in his chest and he couldn't blame the caffeine from the tea because it couldn't account for the way his stomach went strange as he answered it. Swallowing, he took in the bright red blooms and felt his throat tighten up as Bucky's head appeared from behind the explosion of color. He would not cry or act up, though. So he didn't speak for a second, even if he wanted to. Even if he wanted the roses on the ground and Bucky in his arms. Maybe to Bucky it had only been eight weeks. Maybe they had felt short to him. To Steve it had been two dredging months of uncertainty filled with embarrassment, feelings of abject failure, a deep sadness and then just the state of melancholy. Add on a big helping of a lot of people getting hurt, NOVA getting blown up and him not able to feel a proper victory from it, the departure of several teammates, and Dick crying to him over his apparent failure like he'd fall right apart, and it had been an exceedingly difficult and dragging two months where the only reprieve was at the bottom of a bottle of Asgardian ale on Halloween, where he wasn't entirely sure how the night ended because he didn't remember a lot of it.

He swallowed again and took a breath. "Bucky," he said quietly, voice still strained from pushing down the flood that was building in him just because the other was here. "Let me get those." Reaching out, he was quick to unburden the other, taking the impressive weight of the roses into his arms. "Wanda probably has a big vase somewhere. They're beautiful." His heart still thumped and he was already aching to just forget it all, but he didn't think that was the best call.

Bucky: Despite everything that had happened with RJ, he wasn’t going to let that color the time with Steve. He’d taken something from it that he intended to keep, even if it had been hard earned, and that was the important thing. What mattered was that he’d not wasted the time he took from them, and the way forward for him was to show that to Steve. Prove it to him, even. Like he’d told him - he planned to spend all the rest of their years making up for the first one. 

“Can I come in?” It was Wanda’s house and Steve was a guest, so he wasn’t going to just waltz in the door either way. He let Steve take the flowers, half wishing he’d just laid them on the floor instead. He could buy fifteen vases later if they needed them. “Why don’t you just...lay them on that table right there,” he nodded past him toward one just beyond the door. “For now.”

Steve: Steve swallowed again before looking down at the roses again. Biting the inside of his cheek, he gave a nod before setting them down as Bucky had asked. They had a lot to talk about, he knew, but he already realized that Bucky wanted to touch him. Why else would he want him to put the flowers down? Steve wanted that too. He just needed to keep his shit together. 

“I made some tea,” he said, on the off chance that he was wrong. He didn’t think so.

Bucky: “Never cared much about tea,” he said, more as an after thought than anything. Once Steve had the flowers put aside, Bucky took the non-answer as an invitation anyway and stepped aside. He wasn’t completely sure that Steve would accept an embrace right then, but if he pulled back then Bucky would let him lead from that point forward. He wasn’t going to just stand there, though, or have a cup of tea he didn’t want. It had been two months, and too many before that. 

He stepped close enough to catch Steve at the waist and pull him close until he’d slid both arms around him. Steve could lean into that or back off, and he wouldn’t blame him if it was the latter.

Steve: It felt... so good to be back in Bucky’s arms. This was where Steve belonged and he knew it. His eyes burned, but he didn’t pull away. God, Bucky had hurt him. He knew he had had a reason to do what he did and Steve hoped it worked for him because all he wanted was for Bucky to be happy, but he had hurt Steve enough that it ached down to his very core. Steve would forgive him, because there was never a shadow of a doubt in his mind that he belonged with Bucky, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t still hurting. 

He pushed that aside. No need to bother to say it as he dropped his face into the bend in Bucky’s neck to breathe in the scent of him. Like coming home in so many ways. His Bucky. Steve’s eyes slipped closed and he just stayed there, still and trying to reorient himself after weeks of being unsure, of feeling so gross. He would stand there until Bucky pulled away, because Steve sure as hell wasn’t going to.

Bucky: It was several, several long beats that Bucky stood there with his arms around Steve. He breathed in the scent of him, ran his hands along his back and sides to feel the fabric of his shirt. Wanda had, if nothing else, made sure he continued to eat. Bucky owed her many thanks that he’d get to later. Maybe another bookshelf or six. Whatever she wanted. In the meantime, all he wanted was that moment and the wash of gratitude that accompanied Steve actually letting him have it. Of course they’d have to talk. The letters hadn’t just eliminated that. He knew there were things that would have to be discussed, things he should let Steve say if nothing else, but he was glad to just hold him first. 

By the time he finally did pull away just a few inches, his hands had wandered enough for one of them to nearly be in Steve’s hair. “Hi, Stevie.”

Steve: The feeling of Bucky's hands on him had Steve letting out a shuddering breath before he swallowed down his emotions to keep himself level. He'd watched Nat do it plenty of times and he could emulate. Bucky even did it himself. As the other pulled back, Steve lifted his gaze to the other's face and hoped that he didn't look as crappy as he felt. "Hey, Bucky," he said back. There was a lot to address, but he wasn't sure he wanted to. Part of him just wanted to push it all down and keep moving. It would all be fine, surely. It had to be, or he wouldn't be back, right?

Steve had always felt comfortable making calls and taking control, but he didn't really know what the hell to say or do anymore. Last time he'd given it his all, it had blown up in his face and he was still trying to figure out where to go from here. "I've been staying in one of the guest rooms," he said awkwardly. "I'm sure you probably want to... go home right?" Come home with me.

Bucky: “Depends. Are you coming with me?” Because, like he’s said in that last letter, it was only home if Steve was in it. Otherwise it was just a house - some walls and floor. Granted, it was very nice walls and floor that he’d put a lot of work into, but it was still just a thing without Steve. “If not, maybe Wanda won’t mind another guest.” If being on more neutral ground made it easier, he could stay there, if Steve would have him. 

It wasn’t as though he’d expected to walk in and everything to fall into place again. He knew it wouldn’t. He knew that he’d hurt Steve by leaving, even if he’d needed to do it, even if it had helped him. The necessity of it didn’t erase the consequences or the fallout - he’d just weighed them against each other and known that he had to go anyway. As Steve took that breath, more obviously and less effectively than he or Natasha might have done, Bucky’s brows knit together. “Don’t do that. Alright? You don’t have to do that.”

Steve: "I'm not doing anything," he said reflexively, even if it tasted wrong the moment he said it. Steve wasn't really a liar. He didn't like it and his shoulders slumped a little bit. "I don't want to make a problem, Bucky. I've made a lot of 'em, so I just want it to be fine." Was that such a crime? Was that such a bad thing that he just wanted them to have a break? When things had supposed to be getting better, it had all fallen apart and Bucky hadn't gotten better at all, leaving Steve to stupidly think things were improving. Natasha had been observant enough to see it, but not Steve. And then it had all come down to what Steve needed was too much when Bucky needed things too. He probably needed to let it go, but how could he? "I'm figuring it out."

Blowing out a breath, he slipped a hand into his blond hair. "Yeah," he said finally. After all, wasn't this what he had wanted? To go home and be normal? He couldn't keep hiding out at Wanda's house when he didn't even really want to be here. "Yes," he repeated. "I just gotta get my stuff. It's through here." He wondered if Bucky would be able to tell that it was the middle of the afternoon and he had just gotten up. He hoped not. Or if he did, he hoped it didn't make things tense. "I never really unpacked so it won't take that long."

Bucky: “Sure you are.” He’d watched him do it, saw it in the lines of his body even then, but what Steve said next got him to drop it. He wasn’t going to back him into a corner and force him to talk about one thing or another or even any of it. He’d expected him to want to or even need to, but if he didn’t...if they could move forward and past it, Bucky would follow him and do exactly that. He was skeptical, but skepticism wouldn’t keep him from trying it if Steve wanted it. 

As he followed him to the guest bedroom, his gaze moved briefly to the unmade bed but he said nothing of it. He’d never expected Steve to just shake it all off and be fine. He’d hoped that he would be functional, that something or someone would give him a reason to be, and so far it seemed about half and half. “I brought the truck. You hungry? Maybe...lunch?” They didn’t have to rush back home, unless Steve wanted to be there.

Steve: When Bucky didn't push him, he was glad. After all, he didn't think he had it in him to really start anything here in Wanda's house. Not on their first day back together at the very least. Perhaps not at all. He didn't want to make things more difficult for Bucky than he already had. However, he was aware that he couldn't actively push Bucky away and become a self-fulfilling prophecy to send them right back to where they had been before Bucky left. He didn't want to go back to that. They had had plenty of crap to wade through. He just, as he said, was figuring it out. Bucky didn't need to be privy to it for Steve to deal with it. He wouldn't put a wedge.

Hungry. He supposed he was. Wanda wasn't here to cook and force him to eat, and he wasn't the best at remembering to care about it when he was alone. "Yeah. I could eat. Sorry I didn't shave. I didn't know that you'd be getting in today. I only just got your last letter."

Bucky: “Wasn’t sure if I’d beat it here or not. I just stuck it in the mail three days ago all the way in Indiana, so,” he shrugged. It did answer a question he hadn’t asked yet, though. “So you read them? The letters?” He’d hoped he would, but it wasn’t like he’d had any way of knowing. Snail mail didn’t come with read receipts. 

He shrugged off the comment about shaving. “Doesn’t make a difference to me. I know you’ve got a chin under there somewhere.” He waited until Steve had his bag together and reached out his hand to take it from him. With his free one, he reached to touch the other’s elbow. “Ready?”

Steve: “Indiana? What were you doing in Indiana? Did Rebecca move out there from New York?” Or had that been where the kid had gone? He didn’t remember Bucky mentioning either way. He nodded his head after a minute. “Not at first,” he said simply. “I had gotten two by the time I read the first.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You hurt me, Bucky. Real bad. I didn’t want to see anything else. I was trying to deal with it. But yeah. Eventually I read them.” He had ended up less hurt and less angry, but still uncertain as to where he stood. Why shouldn’t he be? After all, things had been good. He had been stupid enough to believe things were good, only to find out every single step forward had just been bullshit. The night of his birthday when he had finally been ready to get back to normal and had made love to Bucky like he used to, Steve had thought he and Bucky would be okay. And then it had been wrong and then Bucky had had Steve leave. He wanted to go back to normal, but Bucky had hurt him just as he had said. “I just hope you actually found what you were looking for.”

If he hadn’t, all that was left was Steve. And Steve hadn’t been enough to help Bucky and would likely continue not to be unless he figured it out on his own. But he had made contact with a therapist that didn’t know Bucky. That could just be Steve’s doctor. Maybe that would fix everything.

Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have my bike here,” he said. “Maybe I lied and it would just be better to go back to the house. We could order something. I haven’t been there in months. Rain check? I can follow you behind the truck.”

Bucky: "New York had too much going on, so I just picked a place for a little while. I figured the Midwest might fit the bill." And it probably would have, but he'd found RJ instead. Or rather, RJ had found him. It didn't really matter right then. The rest of what Steve said made his chest tight, but it was nothing he didn't already know. He wasn't going to try to talk his way out of it, not that he'd have been able to anyway, or tell him that he shouldn't have been hurt. There wasn't anything he could do about that part. Would he have felt the same in Steve's place? Maybe, maybe not. Steve wouldn't have handled it the way he had, wouldn't have asked for space, but they didn't deal with things the same way. He'd explained as best he could in the letters, and nothing he said after he was already back was going to suddenly grant newfound understanding if it wasn't there. In the absence of that, which he'd also come to terms with, there was only finding a way to move past it and make up for it. "Yeah, Steve. I found it." He'd found something, anyway, and it had felt like enough. It was his to tend to and hang onto. 

Bucky dropped his hand back to his side. "Sure thing. I'll take this stuff." He headed toward the door and stopped to pick the flowers up again along the way, figuring they'd be better off in the seat of the truck than on the bike with Steve. "See you at home."

Steve: It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to go to lunch. It wasn't that he didn't want to just be normal. It was that... he was stuck in what had happened and what he was worried about would happen again. Steve hadn't ever thought he wasn't good with people before. He hadn't ever thought that he couldn't help. After all, that had been his modus operandi. He helped people. Wanted to save them or at least make them feel better and he was struggling with the knowledge that, in spite of his best efforts, he hadn't been able to do that for Bucky so completely that the other had had to leave him two months just to get his head on straight. Steve had twisted him up so badly that he couldn't even be around him.

He'd read the letters, just like he had told Bucky. He knew that, hypothetically, Bucky didn't want him to change anything. But it didn't mean that he wasn't feeling uncomfortable with it. Things had fallen apart. How could Bucky not want him to be different when he had failed him so many times already? It was all just going to end up back in the same place. And it hurt Steve over and over and over to think about it and he still couldn't figure out what the hell he could have done differently besides feeling less. But then when he tried to do that, Bucky told him not to do that. Nothing Steve did was right and it was eating him up hard.

So when they got back to the house, Steve lingered in the yard for a minute. Bucky had beaten him home and Steve just stood there for a moment. This was their house. Their place that they had built. It had to mean more to him than just the bad times inside. There were good times, too. And further... this was the dream. Growing old with the great love of his life in a house with a dog and a cat and having essentially built it from the ground up. He just didn't want to bring more turmoil to the walls. Still, he had to. He wasn't going to stand out in the yard for hours. Bucky was still his sweetheart. He was still Steve Rogers. When had Steve Rogers ever backed down from anything?

When he stepped inside, he was hit with overpowering nostalgia for his home and the good moments. And that was good. It didn't feel like a punch in the chest to walk in here. And the sounds of claws on the floor as Brooklyn half slid out of the sunroom in her excitement to see him made Steve laugh as the pitbull planted her front paws squarely on his chest and tried to lick his face. He greeted her with a kiss to the head and some pets before pushing her off to make his way into the house. He wanted it to be like this all the time. He was so sick of the heaviness. When Steve and Bucky had moved here, it was supposed to be the start of their future, not the time to get caught up in the horrors of the past and stagnate there. He knew Bucky had taken his time for himself and Steve didn’t necessarily resent that. How could he? It was just the impossibility of moving forward right now with the knowledge that Steve couldn’t provide anything for Bucky. How was he supposed to rely on Steve for anything at all?

It was too much and he just needed to lay it all out there. Because if Bucky couldn’t give him a tangible reason to stay with him after everything, beyond the ‘I love you’ at least, then why force it? Why would Bucky want to be with anyone who required things but couldn’t give them back? And try as Steve might, he still couldn’t figure out what the hell to do about himself to make it better. So hashing it out might at least give him some clarity. And if it didn’t… he couldn’t really feel more like a failure than he already did, at least. 

So it was just a matter of figuring out how to bring it up. How to say to Bucky ‘I have no security in what I bring to this relationship after these past two months’ without saying it just like that. His eyes tracked over to the other and he swallowed hard. 

“I think we need to talk.”

Bucky: Bucky was already waiting on the couch by the time Steve got there. He'd heard the bike roar into the driveway, but hadn't missed the space of time between that sound dying away and when Steve actually walked in. Of course he didn't think that everything would be just peachy when he got back, not after how he'd left and probably not because he'd needed to leave at all, and Steve's everything at Wanda's had confirmed that. He'd been prepared, just like he was prepared to deal with it. 

They didn't have a vase for the roses, so Bucky had found a water pitcher and plunked them down into it for the time being. That could be remedied later. Until then, they were sitting in the middle of the coffee table, the plastic wrapping removed and the stems soaking up a drink. He smirked as Brooklyn lunged, much like she had when he'd come in the first time, but the joy of that seemed to be quickly wiped off Steve's face so he adjusted with it, too. 

"Yeah. I figured that much. I think...I said what I knew to say in the letters, so maybe you start this time." And he could go from there.

Steve: Well... he'd started it, hadn't he? Asking that they speak at all was a good start, but now he had to follow through on a conversation he didn't really want to have. But if Bucky didn't give him anything to go on, he wasn't sure this was going to work out. That was the first time he had really felt like that, as he had always been sure they could get through anything together. But they hadn't even gotten through this together, so now Steve wasn't sure that they could get through anything at all together and that didn't sit right with him.

"What's the point of a partner, of having a partner I mean, if they can't do anything for you?" He asked. It was the first thing that came to his head and so the first thing out of his mouth. But it was a good start because apparently he wasn't done. "Why would you come back to me at all, considering I can't seem to provide you with much of anything? I tried over and over and nothing worked and then you were so messed up at the end because of me that I had to move out so you could figure out how to even feel like a person." He ran a hand through his hair, tightening his fist there as he sucked in a breath. He didn't look at Bucky, more frustrated with himself than ever.

Bucky: He had tried to explain and thought that he'd done it better in the letters than he'd even managed to attempt in person, but apparently the message still hadn't been clear. Given that he'd expected to talk, it didn't much matter to him if the talking looked like just figuring out how to rework what he'd already said. "Who said you don't do anything for me? Not me. Not ever. I'd choke on the words." Of all the people that Steve had helped in his life, and that number was in the millions by then given some of his deeds as Cap, were there any that he'd helped more than him? No. Surely not. 

"You couldn't help me with this because it wasn't a problem with you, Steve. It was a problem with me. I had an issue with myself, and you could try from now until the day we die and you couldn't have fixed it, because it didn't have anything to do with you. Me staying, and me letting you throw yourself against a wall over and over, was only making it worse. Nothing that's wrong with me is because of you, or who you are, or how you are. None of it."

Steve: “But I made it difficult for you to just live your life,” he countered, remembering what Bucky had said the conversation before the break off or separation. I’m just trying to figure out how to live my life, he said. And he couldn’t without pretending for Steve’s benefit. “You said you don’t want me to be different, but what if something else happens? Are you gonna have to have me move out whenever something happens because you can’t lean on me?” He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t feel like this over and over. And Bucky didn’t deserve to have to go on grand pilgrimages every time something went wrong. “I tried to be less... but every time I do it, that seems to be worse. I just...” He shook his head before sinking into the chair behind him.

“What kind of worthless is a partner who can’t appropriately stand with their sweetheart when things are hard?” He meant it seriously. Steve had no idea how to possibly affect change in a way that made Bucky more secure as Steve was sure he must be feeling. He also had no idea where he stood right now after everything. Bucky had said in his letters that things might be good for him right now. But when Steve started being himself again? He didn’t know.

Bucky: “The reason I left to figure things out was because I needed to learn how to lean on myself, Steve. You can’t shoulder everything. I’m not your responsibility, I’m your partner, and a partnership takes two people involved. If you’re trying to fix everything and bending yourself backwards to do it, that’s not a partnership.” And that was doubly true when it wasn’t something Steve had any way of remedying, regardless. He could bend backwards ten times over and that wouldn’t change. “I want what you give me. All of it. The feelings, the support, the concern. But there are going to be times when that isn’t a perfect fit, and I needed something in me that I didn’t have and had to find. That was on me. I had to take care of myself so that none of this ever has to happen again, and I wouldn’t have to pull back or push you away because I was missing something.”

He leaned back against the couch cushion and raked a hand through his hair. It was long enough by then to gather up again. “Think of it like patching a roof. You can keep treating it after every leak and it’ll hold for awhile, but a patch is just a patch. Eventually you have to replace the thing, right? So I replaced the roof. You couldn’t do it for me because it wasn’t yours, but now we can both stand under it. Nobody gets wet. You deserve the roof, too, and I wasn’t able to give it to you before because we were both just trying to add more patches. All the things you do...I don’t want them to just be for stopping leaks, Steve. I want them because they’re you.”

Steve: Steve could see what he was saying, though he wasn't sure he was capable of just evaporating this feeling. However, hearing it explained like that did help alleviate some of the tension. It wasn't what Bucky said before, when he had all but told Steve that he was too much for Bucky. That was the real problem here; Steve was holding onto that even though Bucky had come to realize whatever else he had realized. Why? Was it because he needed to have a more tangible reason that he could fix? In general, Steve thrived on caring for the people he loved. He knew that. And Steve had a massive capacity to love a lot of people. 

He was quiet for a long moment. Just thinking. Because the fact of the matter was that he could let this eat him up over and over and never let either of them move forward. That wasn't something he was prepared to do. So he swallowed hard before sinking down onto the couch next to Bucky. Reaching out, he caught the other's hand and just sat there for a while. 

When he did venture to speak again, he lifted a shoulder. "I just don't want you to never be able to tell me things, I guess. Or feel like I take work. I never meant to be that guy."

Bucky: “I’m the one that takes work.” All kinds of work. Knowing that in theory and experiencing it in practice were two very different things, and neither of them were going to get it right every single time. “The only difference is that I realized I needed to find a way to do more of it myself in a way only I could do. You said you read the letters, so you know that I’m just...playing catch up. You’re worried about not being able to give me anything, but the problem was just that I was too screwed up and too stuck to know how to accept or believe what you do give me. I know nobody else,” he ran his tongue out between his lips and shifted, “loves me like you do, or cares as much as you do. I just had to find a way to feel like I deserved it that wasn’t just because you said I did.” 

He curled his fingers against Steve’s as their hands touched and gave him a soft, fleeting smile. “I wouldn’t change a thing about you, Stevie. I mean it. I’m sorry that I had to leave and hurt you to figure myself out, and I’m more sorry that I couldn’t even explain it worth a damn before I went.”

Steve: He didn't want to call Bucky screwed up. Or call him really anything negative at all. Bucky had issues, but he didn't want to sit there and watch him put all the blame on himself. But it wasn't worth derailing the conversation to argue with him. There was no need to. He just wanted to move forward. He didn't want a 'you did' or 'I did' anymore. He just wanted it to go back to the way it had been right at the beginning. Even during HYDRA's resurgence, it had just been them against the world rather than Bucky against himself or Steve trying to pull out Bucky's demons and failing.

"Okay," he said quietly. He'd believe him. There was nothing else to do if they wanted anything to get better. "I love you," he said before lifting their joined hands to press his lips to the back of Bucky's fingers.

Bucky: “I know,” he turned his hand enough to press his palm against Steve’s cheek and scratch the tips of his fingers into his beard, “I love you too. I’m glad we’re home.” Even if the time had passed fast for him, it hadn’t meant he didn’t miss him, or their house, or their bed, or Brooklyn and Alpine...of course he had. It was a relief to come back to it all.

#discord; come home #end of the line; steve

[cottontail20]

Ballet Shoes

Summary: While being babysat by Natasha, Viv finds Nat's ballet shoes. This Brings up some memories for the Black Widow

.Companion piece to 'Dance, Dance' , set in the 'Nothing is Impossible' Universe. One-shot.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21745003

It was relatively early in the Morning, a little earlier than Natasha Romanoff would usually wake when she had most of the day off, but awake she was, and once she was awake, there was usually no-changing the situation until the following night, so she might as well just get up.

She was just making her morning coffee, when her phone rang. Seeing Wanda's name flash on the screen, she answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Nat. Are you busy Today?"

"I have a meeting at five" Natasha replied, though it was not exactly a traditional meeting. "I'm free until then, though. Why?"

"Is it really just a meeting?"

"If I told you that, kiddo, I might have to kill you" Nat was joking, of course.. But no-one else had ever been able to tell when the Black Widow was joking.

"Right.. Uh, would you mind watching Viv for a few hours? She's got a bit of a sniffle. We wouldn't usually ask, but we already promised the twins a trip to the Arcade for bringing home good report cards. We promise to pick her up before your, uh, meeting.."

"Sure" Natasha's eyes lit up. She would never turn down the chance for a bit of one-on-one time with her beloved Goddaughter. "Just give me some time to get the floor ready, and let me know when you're on your way.." -- By 'the floor', Natasha meant the floor of the compound in which the Avengers' bedrooms and all their living areas were located. This was also the floor that they tried to keep any visiting children confined to, as it was the safest. However, there were still a few extra precautions Nat wanted to take before six-year old Vivian Natasha Maximoff arrived for her visit.

Steve, Bucky, and Sam were out for the day at a Veterans event, and Carol was visiting her friend Maria, leaving Bruce to help Nat with her child-proofing. Most of what she needed to do involved hiding her many hidden weapons, mostly those in the cupboard containing her undercover outfits, which she often let Viv use for dress-ups when she minded her.

Bruce, waiting just outside the room, eyed two boxes already loaded with various forms of weaponry, while Nat had almost finished filling a third.

"You have that many weapons in your Bedroom?" He asked, more nervous than surprised.

"You're never more vulnerable than when you are asleep" Natasha murmured in reply, speaking almost as if by rote. "Never let the enemy catch you unprepared in your weakest moments.."

"What?" Bruce frowned.

"Nothing.. Red Room stuff, hard to shake" Nat shook her head, then pushed the boxes towards Bruce, while having kept just a few small items hidden on her person in case of emergency. "Go lock these up in the armoury for me? Wanda's dropping off Viv in a few minutes."

"Sure" Bruce very carefully picked up the boxes, holding them slightly away from himself. "I'll be in the Lab if you two need anything.." --

Soon, Wanda arrived to drop off Vivian, with Vision waiting in the car with the twins.

"Thank you so much, Nat" Wanda smiled at her, Viv at her feet. The little girl was still in pyjamas, wiping her nose on a handkerchief, but managed a smile for her Auntie Nat. "We wouldn't usually leave her when she's ill, but we already promised Tommy and Billy.."

"It's fine, go enjoy your time with the boys while they're still early enough in their teen years to not be completely embarrassed by you" Natasha smiled, then turned to her Goddaughter. "Viv and I will have fun, won't we my little Babochka?"

"Uh-huh" Viv nodded.

"Still, thank you. We'll be back in a few hours" Wanda crouched to kiss her daughter's forehead. "Be good for Auntie Nat, Fata dulce."

"I will, Mama."

Once Wanda had departed, Nat crouched to her Goddaughter's eye-level.

"I heard you had a little sniffle."

"Yes" Viv nodded. "And my throat's a little bit sore.."

"Ah. Well, you know what Auntie Nat prescribes for sore throats?" Nat smiled and scooped her up, heading for the Kitchen.

"What?" Viv giggled.

"A nice big bowl of ice cream. And after, if you're feeling alright, we can play dress-up.."

"Yay!" --

A short while later, after stuffing Viv full of ice cream, Natasha was letting Viv dig through the now weapon-free undercover/'dress-up' closet. Of course everything was too big to actually fit, swimming on the little girl's six-year old form, dresses dragging metres behind her and tripping her up, but that didn't matter. It was all for fun, and snapping a few cute pictures that Nat could send to Wanda.

However, in the midst of Viv's digging, she found something Nat wasn't expecting her to come across.

"Ooh, ballerina shoes!"

Natasha snatched the shoes from Viv rather quickly.

"I didn't know I put those there.." Ballet was part of her Red Room training, teaching her to be disciplined, and eventually, turning the graceful movements into something deadly. While it had been one of the least unpleasant parts of her life in the Red Room, she had, for very good reasons, tried to keep anything about the Red Room away from the children in her life.

"They're very pretty, Auntie Nat" Viv made no comment on Natasha's slightly odd behaviour, as the Avengers were a slightly odd extended family. "Where did you get them? Ooh.. were you a Ballerina?"

"Well.." Nat paused, thinking for a moment. "You could say that."

"Can you show me a ballet dance, Auntie Nat? Please?" Viv grabbed her hand.

Suddenly, Natasha was transported to the past, somewhere different, somewhere dark. With another young blonde, quite a bit older than Viv, but younger than Natasha, with soft brown eyes instead of green. --

"Please, Natasha.."

"Let go, Belova.." Natasha remembered scowling and tugging her hand out of the younger woman's grip.

"Please" Yelena had repeated. "Everyone knows you are the best. I just need help getting my steps straight in ballet.. If you work with me, just for a bit, I could be good too.. I know what happens to the girls who fall behind.. I don't want to disappear."

Natasha had hesitated. Helping the younger recruit could be a slippery slope towards getting attached, and getting attached was a big no-no in the Red Room. But.. Yelena did show promise.

"Only until you get your shit together" Nat had relented. "And no-one can know about this."

"I wouldn't want them to.." --

"Auntie Nat?" Viv poked her arm.

Natasha shook her head, breaking out of her memory. Of course it would come up Today, of all days.

"Yeah.. I suppose a little dance couldn't hurt."

As Natasha cleared a space in the Living Room, and tugged on the ballet slippers that miraculously still fit, she found herself quite glad that all three soldier boys were out for the day, and Bruce was happily ensconced in the lab, as little Vivian Natasha was probably the only person in the world that she felt any where close to comfortable doing this for.

"Okay, I think that's enough space.." Nat turned to Viv. "Ready?"

"Uh-huh" Viv, settled comfortably on the couch, wiped her nose again, then nodded. "Dance, Auntie Nat!"

"Alright.." Natasha took a breath, almost nervous. She hadn't truly danced in quite a while. She wasn't even entirely sure she remembered how to do it without turning the movements into deadly attacks.

She closed her eyes, taking another breath. Fighting was calculated, but dancing, even dancing as calculated and regimented as ballet, came from the heart. Maybe she shouldn't think about it quite so much. She should just 'do'. So she did.

Natasha played the music she'd chosen, and she danced. She leapt, she pirouetted, all with her eyes closed.

And Natasha remembered. --

"Watch me for a bit, and follow along when you're ready.. When you do follow, make sure you keep up.."

"I will."

Yelena, determined, had kept up, and it hadn't taken long for her to catch up to, and soon surpass, her Red Room classmates. But she kept practising after hours with Natasha, long after she needed the extra help. They never really spoke about why.. never suggested that they might actually have come to enjoy each other's company. It was just something they did.

Later, they would spar together, practice weapons, somehow always trusting that the other one wouldn't actually hurt them. And later still, sometimes they would just talk. Usually not about anything important or meaningful, but when Natasha grew nervous as her 'Graduation Ceremony' approached, Yelena was the only one she told.

"Don't be silly, Sis" Yelena had replied. Neither one of them knew exactly when they had started calling each other that, it was just another thing that had happened. "This is everything we work for.."

"I suppose.." said Nat. "But.. Sometimes I wonder if 'This' is all there is.."

Yelena had hesitated for a moment before she said:

"So do I.."

After Natasha's 'Ceremony' was over, Yelena had come sneaking into her quarters, letting her cry into her chest so no-one else could hear. --

As the music ended, Nat's eyes opened. She was breathing quite heavily for a moment, still caught in her memory, until Vivian's applause brought her back to the present.

"That was a really good dance, Auntie Nat" Viv grinned as she ran over to her, taking her hand. "Can you teach me ballet too?"

"Well.."

"Please?"

"Please, Natasha?"

”No-one can know.."

Nat smiled and crouched to her Goddaughter's eye-level, running her fingers through her soft blonde hair.

"Of course, Babochka. I'll teach you when you are feeling better."

"You will?" Viv grinned.

"I will" Nat nodded. "And when you've practised enough, we can show everybody."

"Everybody?"

"Everybody."

"Yay!" Viv hugged her tightly. "Thank you, Auntie Nat!"

Natasha chuckled. When she held her little namesake, it was almost like the red in her ledger had never existed. But some parts of her past, some people, could not be forgotten.

—

Sometime later, after Wanda had picked-up Viv, Natasha headed to her 'meeting', at a usually quiet train station. There was a small room full of lockers, and inside one of them, Natasha stuffed a duffel bag, full of clothes, a few sets of new identity papers, money and coupons for food.. Then she hid herself out of sight.

It was a while before a blonde-haired figure, a little scruffier than Nat remembered her, arrived to retrieve the bag. As the figure rifled through the contents, Nat revealed herself, and was almost immediately greeted by a pistol aimed at her face.

"Hey, Sis" Nat smirked, raising her hands in surrender. Usually they would spar, but the location didn't exactly provide ideal sparring conditions.

"You are not supposed to be here.." Yelena lowered the gun.

"I know. But you know I try every time" Natasha replied. "You don't have to keep running. If I vouched for you.."

"I don't think I fit in your big happy American Family.." Yelena frowned.

"I don't think I fit" Nat chuckled, "But here I am with four Godkids. Sometimes life throws some pretty unexpected curve balls. So.. Offer's always open."

"Thank you.." Yelena paused. "Maybe someday."

"I'll be waiting" said Nat. "Even if you just want to check in more than once a year, that's fine." Yelena was already gone, but Natasha felt quite hopeful. 'Maybe someday' was a lot more promising than the previous flat-out 'No'. She headed home with a smile on her face. --

On the roof of the station, Yelena finished sorting through the bag. Amidst the clothes and papers, she found a brand-new pair of Ballet slippers.

For the first time in a while, Yelena Belova smiled.

Notes:

Translation:

Babochka: Butterfly

#natasha romanoff #yelena belova #black widow #red room #MCU #women of mcu #marvel #Avengers

[hello-justawriterofthings]

A Rocky Thanksgiving - Billy Hargrove

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Hi Everyone, I'm back ( Even though I haven't been gone very long ). I hope you all have been well, I had a spark of inspiration with the Holidays coming up and since I love some Angst, I wanted to make it an angsty Holiday season. Christmas is coming next, with Steve, so be ready. I hope everyone enjoys and I hope you all have an amazing Day! [ Warnings : Angst, Language and I'm sorry if there are any die hard Nancy fans that read this. { Y/N = Your Name }

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[ Past ] 

Billy and I went to Hawkins high together and damn, was it hard to deal with sometimes. His attitude was annoying, he thought he was a hot piece of shit, because every girl in school wanted him between their legs. I was to busy to pay him any attention, I was basically taking care of my younger brother because my parents worked their butts off to support our family. When they weren't working, I was. Working at the local pizza place, waiting tables. Only taking home tips and saving up, so I could make something of my life. The first interaction I had with Billy, was when I was at work. He came in with his friends and some girl from school, I didn't know the name of, nor did I care. I didn't want to wait on them, but since we were understaffed, I had no choice. They ordered a few slices, sodas and that was that. Or at least, that's what I thought. While they ate, I cleaned up a table near by. Secretly listening to their conversation, Tommy offered Billy $20 to get the waitresses ( Me ) number. I chuckled to myself, knowing how things were going to turn out. So, when I returned to their table. Billy  started off with the charm, sending me a flirty smile and a wink, which I returned, adding to the game. Once he put out the whole " Can I get your number, so we can hangout later " line, it was game over. " I don't think so, I'm worth much more than $20 " I stated with a smirk, collecting the bill ad then walking away. Hearing Tommy laugh loudly and Billy scoff. I knew he wasn't going to let this go, I was the first girl who turned down, he was gong to be on a mission now.

School started to get harder and having Billy constantly on my ass now, was even worse. He was always around my locker, following me to my classes, trying to find a way into my life. He offered me rides home after school, which I turned down. He spent more time in the library, hanging around me. I started to open up to him more, but still kept my distance. He still hung out with Tommy and Carol, but ignored every girl that shook their ass his way. He and I became close, so close that he started inviting me to parties and never left my side. I don't even know how it happened honestly. He'd hangout with my brother and I after school, drove me to school and work. On one Wednesday afternoon, I was exchanging books from my locker, when an ex friend of mine approached me. " Are you really dating Billy? " Nancy asked with a brow raised, I only shrugged because I didn't want to talk to her. She scoffed " Well, good luck with that... He's going nowhere in life and I thought of all people, you would be smart enough not to get involved with him. I guess you're just desperate ", I closed my locker " At least I'm not a dick hopper... Only started dating Steve because he was popular, then quickly moved onto Jonathan... ". " You don't know what happened! " she stated, " And I don't care, just leave me alone and keep your damn opinions to yourself Wheeler! " I spat while walking away. Billy quickly walked up behind me, draping his arm over my shoulder " What was that about? ". I shrugged " Nothing important, are you still coming over tonight? ", he nodded " Are you still going to make me watch Back to the Future? ". I chuckled " Absolutely ", And I'm sure you can see where it went from there. 

A couple of months went by before there was a first kiss between Billy and I exchanged. We were out one day, just driving around. We were closer now then we were back then and my feelings were growing stronger for him by the day and not in a ' Friends ' way either. We parked by a small beach, watching the sunset. That's when he suddenly placed his lips on mine, it took me off guard at first, but didn't take long for me to realize what was going on. The little make out session lasted for a while, but that's all that happened that night. When he dropped me off afterwards, he really didn't speak of it, we said our goodbyes and that was how the day ended for me. The rest of the week went on as normal, other than the kisses in secret between Billy and I. Things ended up going further about a month later, when he and I were in my house, alone. I was ready for it and I definitely enjoyed, it eased the sexual tension between us. And it continued... We never really spoke about being in a relationship, nor did we we need to. I figured he may have feelings for me and I felt the same, as long as we were together, we didn't need to define things titles. That's where we are now, this is when the real story starts...

[ Now ]

Closer came the Holidays. First Halloween, where Billy and I attended a costume party. A week after, my mom instructed me to invite Billy to our Family's Yearly get together. And even though I didn't want to put him through the torture of listening to my Aunt Sam talk about her 12 cats, even though she brought most of them along. My Uncle Pete always got drunk and started a fight with someone, his Wife Shirley was always trying to take care of their three pudgy children, who were spoiled brats. The only family members I ever looked forward to seeing, was my grandparents. Who loved to slip me 5 dollars and let know know I was their favorite Grandchild. They weren't rude, nor judgmental. On a Saturday night, I had invited him and he agree'd, that is until Sunday came around. 

Billy and I were on our way to yet another party, I was quiet, just wondering about things. My parents had already alerted the family that ' Y/N's boyfriend was coming '. Hell, my parents and brother loved Billy, no doubt about that. What I did doubt was the whole ' Boyfriend ' thing, he wasn't my boyfriend, was he?." What's up babe? " he questioned out of the blue, " Just thinking " I stated because I didn't really want to bring this up now. " Thinking about what? " he then asked, I groaned deeply while shaking my head. Billy placed his hand on mine " C'mon Y/N, tell me ", I sighed deeply " I was just thinking about us ". " What about it? " he asked while retracting his hand and started drumming on the steering wheel again, I didn't know how to say it, so I paused for a few seconds. " What are we Billy? " I just spat out, probably extra loud. He thought for a few seconds, just as we pulled up to the party spot. " We're friends Y/N " he stated seriously, I sighed deeply.  Let down, would be the emotion I was feeling. " I don't date Y/N... I thought you knew that, I was actually meeting someone tonight. Don't ruin it for me " he stated rudely as he got out of the car, slamming the door after. Reminded me of the old Billy. I followed, but kept my distance from him. I didn't want to be at this party, I didn't want to be around these people. I felt used and embarrassed, I was stupid to think that he and I could ever be anything other than fuck buddies. I stood outside, trying to stop myself from shedding one single tear. Moments later, I heard someone approach me and I was a little nervous as to who it was. " Y/N, you okay? " I heard Steve ask, I shrugged not knowing what to say. " Want me to drive you home? " he asked as if he just knew, which caused me to nod. So, I followed Steve to his car and climbed in.  I guess this was the end of anything Billy and I had, which according to him was nothing.

Monday arrived earlier than I had hoped, I spent all Sunday in my room, only leaving to get food and let my parents know I was still around. I walked to school, even though the weather had changed and was now very chilly, the leaves had changed colors and had fallen off the tree's. It wasn't anything I couldn't handle though. I walked slowly to my locker, noticing a note fall out, as soon as it was opened. The first trash can I saw, I threw it away. I avoided any conversations with anyone, Billy was also ignoring my presence as well. Like an eye for an eye, if you're going to ignore me, then I'm ignoring you back. The week went on like that, until it was the day before the break. That's when the silence got to him, apparently he could take it any longer. He approached me in the hall, trying to act like everything was normal, but clearly everything was nowhere near normal anymore. I still kept my mouth shut, because I was great at ignoring people, but it just annoyed him more. " Stop ignoring me Y/N, Why can't we just go back to normal? " he asked with a slight scoff, I slammed my locker " Because things aren't normal anymore for me, I have feelings for you. Which you obviously don't return, so I need to move on. Leave me alone and go back to fucking random girls and I'll go back to pretending you don't exist ". I then made my way down the hall, feeling good about my words. I'd get through this, in the end. After school, I went straight to work. Not my usually spunky self, I was actually polite for a change. Mainly, I just wanted to go home. I think my boss realized that too, because he let me leave two hours early. I ended up walking home, which wasn't to far away, I ignored my parents as soon as I entered the house. Mom was cleaning up dinner dishes, dad was in the family room, TV on and newspaper in hand. I ran up to my bedroom, throwing my things down and changing my clothes. Then i made my way downstairs grabbing some food that had been prepared for dinner. " Billy's called, a few times in fact " my mom stated as she stood at the sink. " Don't care " I sighed stuffing my face, so I could get away from this conversation. " Oh sweetie, tell me you didn't break up.  The relatives were so excited to meet him " she stated with a sigh, I shrugged slightly, not ready to tell her the truth yet. " Not a big deal mom, just had a fight " I stated honestly, she nodded but didn't say anything further, she must've sensed that I didn't want to talk about this any longer. And once I finished Dinner, I went upstairs ans started on my homework. If I got it done now, I wouldn't have to worry about it later in the school break. 

The morning of Thanksgiving, I slept in. It was very overdue. I woke up at noon that day, after being bothered by my younger brother and cousin, charging into the room, pretending to storm the castle. Two little knights, waking a sleeping dragon. I pushed them out of the room, before slamming and locking my bedroom door. I could already hear Aunt Shirley trying to tell my mom how to cook the turkey right and Uncle Pete, who was already shouting at the TV. Today was going to be a long day. I jumped into the shower, then put on some makeup, before doing my hair. I didn't know why I was putting so much effort into my look, I was just spending time with family. Then I got dressed and made my way downstairs, into the kitchen. " Y/N! There's my beautiful girl " My grandmother yelled as she pulled me into a hug, " About time she got her lazy ass up " my oldest ( and most disliked ) cousin Juliana scoffed as she shoved chocolate into her mouth. " Hey Jul's, still obsessed with food I see " I stated with a smile, a scowl growing on her face, before she stomped into the living room. I sighed deeply, hugging my grandma once more. Then I hugged my Aunt Shirley, it wasn't her fault her kids were horrid. " I'm excited to meet your boyfriend tonight, what's his name again? " Aunt Shirley asked, I sighed deeply while sitting down on a bar stool. " His name's Billy and I don't think he's going to make it " I stated honestly, " Aw, honey why not? " my mom gasped. I shrugged " Family things ", my mom nodded, but I know my grandma knew better. She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me outside, away from everyone, towards the patio swing. Once we got settled, she smiled sweetly at me " Now, tell me what's really going on with this boy ". I sighed deeply " I can't, I'm embarrassed ", she laughed slightly " Sweetheart, you know yo can tell me anything ". I nodded, but still kept my mouth closed. " Okay, well if you're not going to talk, I will. Did I ever tell you that your dad almost wasn't your dad " she asked, knowing what it was going to cause. Her storied were always over an hour long and all of her grand kids were impatient ( Including me ), so now she uses that to her advantage. " No, I'll tell you " I sighed deeply, " He's not my boyfriend, never was... It's stupid, I haven't even known him that long, but I already fell for him. I spent a lot of time with him, he was over a lot and mom just assumed we were dating ". She nodded " So then, what's the problem? ", " He doesn't feel the same, he's a playboy. Only uses girls for one thing and I just got caught up in it, thought I was different. Thought I could change him, but I should've known better... He doesn't do relationships and I need to accept that, need to move on now " I stated honestly. " Y/N " she sighed pulling me into a hug, " No, it's alright. I'll get over it and I'll know better if this ever happens again " I smiled. " You are a strong girl, but I'm sure that boy will regret his decision soon enough. You're a gem Y/N " she stated, I rolled my eyes " You're only saying that because I'm your grand kid " . She scoffed slightly " You're my favorite Grand kid, but I'm telling the truth. And one day, I'll tell you about a similar situation I went through when I was your age ", I groaned deeply while standing up and helping her up as well. " Don't tell mom about this, you know how she is " I stated, " Over dramatic, yeah she was like that as a kid too. Took after her father. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me " she smiled pressing a kiss to the side of my head as we entered the house once more.

Around 5pm, the whole family was sat down at the table, ready to stuff our faces. We said our Thanks and then quickly dug in, but not before there was a knock on the front door. My dad sighed deeply while standing up and walking to it, everyone continued eating, drinking and talking obnoxiously loud. Dad returned seconds later, " Y/N, it's for you " he taking his seat once more. I looked at him confused " Who is it? ", I only got a shrug in response. So, it was now my time to sigh deeply and stand up. Making my way slowly towards the door and saw the blonde standing there, with that damn smile on his face, I wanted to slam the door in his face ( But, I didn't ). " What the hell are you doing here? " I questioned as I stepped out onto the porch, I also took Billy's appearance in. He had his normal jeans and jean jacket combo on. A white button up shirt, that he never knew how to button all the way up. Also had a tie hanging loosely around his neck, he looked all dolled up. " Well, I was invited " he stated with a sigh, I ran my hand through my hair " I figured you were smart enough to realize that with us not talking, the invitation was revoked ". " You're the one not speaking to me " he smirked, causing me to roll my eyes " Because I'm pissed  off at you ". He sighed deeply " You're only mad at me because of something I'm not ready to give ", " I don't even know why I'm talking to you, go home Billy and don't come back " I stated sternly. I then started stepping towards the door, to make my way back inside. He stopped me though " Y/N, why can't we just go back to the way things were? Why complicate things by attaching titles on us? ", " Because I don't want to be fuck buddies! I don't  want to be doing things with yo and then you go fuck other girls... That's how diseases are spread and I won't stand for that, not with the feelings I have for you. I'm trying to move on, if you don't feel the same, let me move on " I stated honestly.  " I wasn't seeing anyone behind your back Y/N, you were the only one I have been fucking lately " he smirked again, " Then why did you say you were  meeting someone at the party we went to " I asked. " I was angry at the time, but I didn't meet anyone. I actually left 20 minutes after you did, I was going to come by, but because you left with Steve, I was even more angry "  he sighed, " All he did was drive me home, so I could cry over your dumb ass " I the muttered. Things went quiet for a minute, even though it wasn't totally quiet, because I could hear my Uncle Pete shouting at one of his kids inside. I could also tell that Billy was thinking, trying to think of what to say next. " I don't want you to move on with out me, I miss you " he then stated quietly, " What? " I asked shocked. " Don't make me say it again " he stated, I cracked a small smile. " I'm not saying that I'm willing to be in a relationship yet, but I can promise that it'll just be you and I. No other girls, no more bullshit. No titles, yet. You and I " he stated with a hopeful look, " And your sure you weren't screwing around with anyone else " I asked again. He smirked" Trust me, once I got a piece of you. No one could ever compare ", I rolled my eyes while grabbing his hand. " Come on, let's go feed you to the wolves " I stated while pulling him int my house, him sighing deeply behind me. 

I pulled him into the dining room, hoping we could pass my family without any drama,  but I should've known better. Eyes were on us as soon as we entered, my grandmother was wearing a large smile. " Who the fuck is he supposed to be? " Uncle Pete spat through a drunken haze, pointing his finger at Billy. " I'm her boyfriend, who are you supposed to be? " Billy asked with an eyebrow raised, I furrowed my brows at that boyfriend word. " He has an attitude and I like him! " Uncle Pete then stated with a chuckle, " Y/N, take him into the kitchen. Billy get yourself some food, relax, I'm glad you could make it " my mother stated with a smile. Billy nodded while returning the smile, I pulled him into the kitchen with me. 

He and I stood in the kitchen, he was scooping different foods onto an over sized plate. " What's with the boyfriend word, you literally just said you didn't want titles " I asked with a smirk on my face, he sighed deeply " Yeah, so? " . " So, What changed within a few minutes? " I then asked, he shrugged his shoulders " Just thought, it wouldn't be that horrible if I were to be in a relationship. I like you a lot and I guess I'm willing to try for someone like you ". I smiled " You need to make up your mind boy! I don't want to force you into anything ", he laughed softly " I know and you're not forcing me into doing anything, so do you wanna be my girlfriend? ". " I don’t know, you put me through some shit and Steve's been looking good lately " I chuckled, causing him to roll his eyes " Y/N ". " I'd love to be your girl " I stated, he put his plate down and pulled me into a tight hug. " My girl, it has a nice ring to it " he sighed, making me smile as I watched him pick his plate back up. " Y/N, bring that extremely handsome boy back in here! " My Aunt Sam shouted, " Oh god " I mumbled. My Aunt Sam was single and ready to talk about her 12 cats with an attractive young man. He chuckled walking into the dining room, I sighed as I followed. 

The rest of the night went along okay, considering the fact that my family members were crazy at times. We ate a lot of food, talked about the most random things. Uncle Pete, Aunt Shirley and my Father all got in a fight. Which resulted in them to walk out, taking their three kids with them. As long as I didn't need to deal with Juliana anymore, because I could only deal with her attitude for so long. Things were okay between Billy and I, that's all I knew for now. I didn't know what was going to happen in the future, but what I did know, was that Thanksgiving was coming ti a close and Christmas was approaching Fast... Oh Dear... 

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Thank you all so much for Reading, I hope everyone Enjoyed. This is my first Holiday piece and when I first started it, I planned for it to be a completely different story, but I'm so happy with how it turned out! You're all so Amazing and Thank You again for Reading <3<3

#Billy Hargrove #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove angst #billy hargrove fanfic #billy hargrove fanfiction #dacre montgomery #stranger things #stranger things fanfic #stranger things angst #stranger things imagine #fanfiction #fanfic #angst #Thank You #thanks for reading #Thank you for reading #your amazing #hope you like it #hope you enjoy #thank you for the support

[fanwarriorfictions]

One-

A Stranger Things 2 Fanfic

Chapter Four- Part Three

   When Phina had gotten home from Steve's house, it was 10 o'clock. And her mother had been waiting for her.

   As soon as the door to the garage had closed behind her, Karen's voice rang out, "where have you been?"

   On the way home, Phina had thought of the perfect lie, and she didn't even look at her mother to deliver it, "Lisle's. We have a chemistry project due tomorrow and we lost track of time."

   "No you weren't," Karen snapped, "I called Lisle, she doesn't even have chemistry this semester. How many times have you used that lie, ten, fifteen? Well I'm done letting it slide, where we're you?"

   "Nowhere important," she replied.

   "Look at me Seraphina," Karen snapped again, "do I look like I'm in the mood for this?"

   Phina's head snapped towards her mothers, "and do I look to be in the mood for this!"

   Karen instantly saw the redness to her daughters eyes, the puffiness. Her daughter had been crying, a lot. Karen was in shock, Phina hardly ever cried, ever. The last time she did, was when they thought Will Byers had died.

   "Phina? What happened, are you hurt?" Karen's anger had dissipated as she hurried over to check her daughter for injuries. "Did you crash your bike? What.."

   "I'm fine mom!" Phina pushes her mothers hands off her. "I just want to go to bed."

   The tone of her voice told Karen that she wouldn't get any answers from Phina tonight, but she knew her daughter well, when she was ready, she would.

   "Ok sweety," Karen sighed, "please come get me as soon as you're ready to talk."

   Phina gave her mom a halfhearted smile as she made her way to the stairs. The weight of the day pressed down on her, so heavy that she almost crumbled beneath the pressure. She almost didn't make it to her door.

   Phina pushed open the door and stopped. Like her mother had been waiting for her down stairs, Mike was waiting for her on her bed.

   "Where have you been," he asks, sounding exactly like their mother.

   "What are you doing up? You should be in bed, you have school tomorrow," she says.

   "So do you," he fires back, "you ran away earlier."

   "Yes."

   He gives her a look, "why? Where did you go?"

   Phina sighs, this is a conversation she wanted to avoid more than the one with her mother. She takes off her shoes and her jacket, taking her sweet time before she has to answer. Mike moves over so she can sit down next to him, turning her body to face him. They watch each other in silence, both of them waiting for the other to speak.

   "I was scared," she finally whispers.

   The look Mike gives her is one of confusion, "why?"

   And the one she gives him is sad, "because I saw the way you all looked at me. Because I looked in each one of your eyes and saw fear, of me. Because I saw what I did. I could have hurt you Mike, I could have hurt all of you. I don't know if I could live with myself if I had."

   Mike's shook his head, "you would never hurt me."

   "Not on purpose," Phina argues, "never on purpose. I lost control Mike. Everyday I find my powers becoming more and more unchecked, and I'm terrified."

   "Stop it," Mike chides her, "if you're scared of yourself, how are you supposed to learn to control it. You can't push it away, that'll just make it worse."

   Phina let her head fall, "what if I can't control it?"

   "You will," Mike argues, "because you are my sister and you never give up, ever. You are the most strong willed person I have ever met and you'll find a way, I know it."

   Phina smiles, "glad to know someone believes in me."

   He smiles back, "of course I do. You're my superhero."

   "And you're mine."

-

   "Phina? Have you seen your brother..."

   Karen opened the door to find her two kids fast asleep. Mike was cuddled into Phina's side, her arms wrapped around him. They had fallen asleep last night before either could think of getting Mike to his own room.

   Karen smiled at the two, who looked peaceful in sleep. She walked over to the bed and gently started to shake Phina awake.

   "Time to get up hun," she said warmly.

   Phina's eyes slowly blinked open, taking in the blurry image of her mother, "hmmm."

   "Good morning," Karen chuckled.

   "Mornin'," Phina mumbled, poking her brother's side.

   He grumbled something inaudibly and turned over to the other side of the bed, out of Phina's arms.

   "If I have to wake up, so do you," Phina chuckles.

   "Not necessarily," Mike mumbled.

   Karen smiled at the two of them, "well breakfast is almost ready."

   Mike turned his head slightly, "breakfast?"

-

   "Do you like those grapes Holly," Mike asks.

   Phina and Mike had both gotten ready quickly after their mom had mentioned breakfast. Phina hadn't eaten since yesterday at lunch, so she was starving, and toast with strawberry jam never sounded better.

   Phina was making her toast now, probably a bit more than necessary but, whatever.

   "Hey mom," Nancy said as she stood up, "I was thinking about staying the night at Stacy's tonight? We were gonna have a girls night."

   Nancy came up behind Phina and stole a piece of toast from her.

   "Hey!"

   "Romantic comedies, do our nails, gossip," Nancy carried on with a little smirk at Phina.

   "Make your own Nance," Phina grumbled halfheartedly.

   "Sure! That sounds fun," Karen said, ignoring Phina.

   Nancy sat down in her spot next to Holly, "toast?"

   Phina whirled around, she was giving Holly the toast she stole from Phina, "really?"

   "You made four pieces of toast," Nancy laughs, "you'll live."

   "You don't know that," Phina jokes, "I could die."

   "Sure."

-

   To say Steve Harrington wasn't focused today was an understatement. He'd been known to the school as King Steve, star basketball player, a womanizer. Well, things changed. And the jean everything wearing, mullet having Billy Hargrove was here to ruin his reputation.

   Steve could vaguely hear the coach yelling but, he wasn't focused on that. He was focused on Hargrove, who had been making a fool out of Steve's team.

   Billy laughs as he gets the ball, again, "all right! All right, all right! King Steve! King Steve everyone, I like it, playing tough today."

   Steve was getting annoyed very quickly, "Jesus! Do you ever stop talking man? Come on!"

   Billy lazily dribbles with one hand, laughing again, "what? You afraid the coach is gonna bench ya now that I'm here? Huh?"

   He suddenly moves forward quickly, not giving Steve any time to prepare. Billy shoulder checks Steve as he runs past him to score. Steve grunts and falls backwards, definitely not the first time he'd been knocked down today.

   A hand reached down in front of him, Billy's. Steve warily grabs it, bad idea. Billy pulls Steve halfway up to him.

   "You were moving your feet," he says, "plant them next time, draw a charge."

   Billy pushes Steve back down roughly, walking over him to get back into the game. Steve couldn't tell if the advice was somewhat friendly, or threatening.

-

   Steve let the lukewarm water run over his face, trying to somewhat come off the adrenaline from the game.

   "Don't sweat it Harrington," Billy said from his right.

   Steve's annoyance shot through the roof just at his voice. The prick had been showing him up in every way since he got here.

   "Today's just not your day man," he continued.

    "Yeah. Not your week," Tommy butts in, "you and the princess break up for one day, she's already running off with the freaks brother."

Steve gave Tommy an annoyed look.

"Oh shit, you don't know," Tommy chuckles, "Jonathan and the princess skipped yesterday. Still haven't shown. But that must just be a coincidence, right?"

Tommy smirks, "I'm mean, you don't seem to be to beaten up about it, considering Carol saw the Freak of Hawkins leaving your house last night. Switching Wheelers, huh? Classy."

Tommy laughs loudly, annoyingly, as he leaves the showers. Steve glares at him as he goes, starting to shampoo his hair

"Don't take it to hard man," Billy interjects, "a pretty boy like you gots nothing to worry about. Plenty of bitches in the sea."

Billy slowly turns off Steve's shower, "am I right?"

He claps Steve on the shoulder, turning to leave the showers as well, "that Phina chick? That's a real nice catch right there, sad I didn't make it first."

Steve's anger flares at the comment. He harshly turns the water back on, his hand stingy when it makes contact with the metal nob.

-

Phina walked briskly to her bike after school, wanting to escape the place as quickly as she possibly could. All day she had been hearing little comments about her. She was used to this type of stuff, and had dealt with no shortage of rumors in the past, but this, this was different. People had been making comments about her, and Steve. Someone must have seen her at his house last night, and assumed the worst.

She had also heard little comments about Jon and Nancy, who had not been at school at all today and has apparently skipped yesterday as well. Again, the worst had been assumed. This is why Phina hated this place, because everything you said or did was turned against you.

Phina got to her bike and was out of there in less than five seconds. She flew past people who stared and whispered to each other. The lies that spread between them like wildfire gripped at her, trying to bring her down. She drove to the only place that didn't have the pressure of judgement, where she was happy, the forests.

She went out far, parking her bike behind a few trees so any cars that passed wouldn't see it. Then, she went farther. Walking at least a mile into the trees. With her connection to the forest, she would never get lost, for the trees whispered directions to her.

The stress that plagued her lifted with each step farther.

That is, until she felt it. The sickness that infected the earth around her. It was like she had entered a quarantine zone, the sickness abruptly starting.

Phina turned her confused gaze to the trees, which were turning a strange gray color, some sort of weird liquid seeping from them. She took a step towards the nearest tree, her hand reached out to touch it. It was a gooy substance that made her face scrunch in disgust.

The color, the goo, it was all to familiar. All to like the upside down. It was happening again.

"Shit."

-

   The sun had faded awhile ago, leaving Phina in the dark. She had followed the path of the disease, which lead back towards town, but not quite. She had left the forest and was now in the farm areas outside of Hawkins. An entire patch of pumpkins had been destroyed by this disease.

   She carefully placed her steps as she walked through the field. The rotten pumpkins were full of that goo and she did not want to get that all over her.

   The sound of an engine in the distance simultaneously drew her in and made her aware that she was trespassing. She drew closer to the noise and a sigh of relief shot through her, it was Hopper.

   In front of the car, was a very large hole, which had dirt flying out of it in small increments of time.

   "Hopper," she asks as she gets closer to the hole, seeing him digging.

   He whirls around, "Phina? What the hell are you doing here?"

   "I could ask you the same thing," she pointed out, "what are you doing?"

   He sighs, "investigating."

   "Does it have something to do with why all my trees are dying," she asks, gesturing around.

   "Possibly," he answers, throwing another shovelful of dirt out of the hole.

   "Why are you digging a hole Hop," she asks.

   He sighs, she wasn't gonna leave without the answers she wanted, "because of Will."

   Phina's heart stops, "is he ok?"

   "He's fine, for the most part," Hopper sighs again, this time, more defeated, "whatever happened to you two yesterday has caused him to, act different. He's been drawing non-stop. I've got a theory, and unless you're gonna pick up a shovel and help you can go on home and wait for me to prove it or not."

   Hopper goes to dig again when he sees it, the goo. He shovels out a little bit of it, looking at it with strange curiosity.

   "What the hell?"

   Phina slowly climbs into the hole, to get a closer look. It seemed like there was a thick layer of this stuff, almost like how a portal to the upside down looked like before it opened. Hopper digs at it again, yelling a little bit as if it'd make him stronger. The small hole opens, some dirt falling through it which meant that there was an opening below it.

   Hopper hits it again and again to make the hole bigger. He looks up at Phina who has curiosity written all over her face.

   "Stay here," he says.

   "No chance in hell," she snaps.

   He'd fought her on a subject like this before, he knew he'd lose, "fine. Wait for me to yell before following."

   He sat down on the ground and slowly went through the hole. Phina looked on worriedly, what was down there. Hopper fell all the way through, giving Phina a heart attack before he yelled for her to go down. Phina lowers into the hole, Hopper helping her down. When she hits the ground, he takes out his flash light and they look all around them.

   "Holy shit," Phina whispers.

-2328 words-

Did y'all like that little Steve pov, good way to introduce the rumors about Steve and Phina, which will have a roll later on.

-Morgan

#steve harrington #steve harrington x oc #stranger things #stranger things fanfic #strangerthingsfanfic #strangerthings #slow burn #one #romance

[angelfiume]

Mouth Like A Sailor Part 1

Hey so I have no idea how to publish a fanfic on tumblr besides just putting it up like this so hopefully this goes well.  I was posting on qoutev but it kept crashing my computer so tumblr it is.

Marlena Curtis May 1965 5 months before    "I hope all of you will take this summer to exercise your minds... You wouldn't want to go into your senior year with a head full of nothing, would you?"  Mr. Mays shouted at the class, he wasn't angry, just obnoxiously loud.  I looked across the room at my brother's best friend, Steve, hoping to have someone to smile with or pass a note too, but he obviously was not interested and instead was tracing the hand of a short girl with bobbed hair.  She was giggling as he made ugly monster claws out of her manicured fingers, it was kind of sweet honestly.  I sighed and leaned back in my chair, looking around the room for anyone else that might be alright with me.  Mr. Mays voice quieted as he saw no one really cared about his speech on polishing the young mind, he resulted to letting us free for the rest of the period.  I rested my head on my arms and decided to spend the class just sleeping instead of awkwardly trying to make conversation with the dry, ginger soc next to me.  She seemed like she wasn't very interested anyways.    The bell rung two minutes in to my daydream, which couldn't have made me happier, I jumped out of my seat and yanked my bag with me out the door.  Finally I could just do jack-shit and paint my nails instead of listening to the same monotone creeps lecture for hours and hours.  I nearly ran down the hallway towards my friends, Sophie and Jean, they were talking fast and smiled big when they saw me running down to see them.    "MARLI, tell your brother you're gonna be at my house tonight baking cookies or some sweet shit, Gene Vincent is gonna be at Sophie's cousin's bar tonight in Oklahoma City!  Her cousin said we can all get in no sweat."  Jean said, she was so excited her heavy eyeliner was creasing from smiling so wide.       

  "Holy shit, Sophie did your cousin really say we can go?  How much money?" I asked with a small twinge in my stomach, the past few months have been pretty tough on my wallet, I really wanted all my money to go into my younger brother's secret college fund.   

 "None baby!  That's a perk of having friends with connections, just pitch in two bucks or so for gas, my daddy is letting me take the Malibu, ain't that exciting?" Sophie cooed, she had this soft voice that could have sounded polite even if she was telling you where it seemed your head was stuck.  She was   rich too, man her family did well.  But she was still my friend, because she didn't care if I lived in a hollowed out coat closet my brother set up for me, she didn't believe in the social class war going on.    

  "I'm in man!  I'll tell Darry I'm going to have a sleepover with ya'll, he won't ask questions, he's too wrapped around the axel with Soda right now."  I grinned at them and listened quietly to the rest of their chatter.  They could get awful excited about something real fast, it was damn cute.     

 We walked out to Jean's boyfriends car, he was a doll, always chauffeuring her and her friends around Tulsa.  Speaking of the devil, Tommy came sprinting down the concrete steps and bear-hugged tiny Jean, making her scream and laugh.  

    "Hello sweetheart, ready to be done with the bullshit for a whole 2 months?" he was another one of those guys that seems to really just shout instead of talk, he nodded to Sophie and I and smiled nicely, "ya'll hangin' or goin' home?" 

   "I can stay a little, we're supposed to be in the City by 9 and we gotta leave at 7 or so.." Sophie chirped    

   "Just straight home for me, thanks, I gotta make an appearance so Darry doesn't get suspicious"  I knew full well that he would expect the worst if I never showed up at home.    I jumped down from Tommy's pick- up and yelled to Jean I would be at her house at 630.  I smoothed out my black corduroy skirt and re-tucked the ratty pink shirt I had owned since 9th grade.  My sneakers crunched down the gravel covering the alley behind my house as I walked towards the backward, where I heard my brother and their friends.  Not even the whole gang was there, but it was still loud as hell.     

          "Hey Marls how was the last day of school?  I  miss anything important?" laughed Two-bit, the rusty haired boy lay lazily on our back steps.      

           "Ha, it was fine, you didn't miss anything important.  Just that Mark guy offered me a whole year supply of marijuana if I would flash the principal at the assembly this morning"  I told him as I took a carton out of my bra and lit a smoke, I giggled a little when I saw him cock an eyebrow.  The nimrod probably thought I went through with it.     

           "So ya did it right?"  Demanded a bored looking Dallas Winston.  He sat next to my twin Soda, who was laughing quietly to himself, he probably knew I was too much of a wimp to leave school one some crazy note like that.   

           "Nah," I took a long drag, "I could get that shit for free by just winking at some of the squares in this town... But anyways, where did Darry go?  He working late or something?"   

           "No, he should be home in ten minutes or so, you gonna bail soon?" Soda asked   

            "Around 6ish I'm going over to Jean's, Sophie and I are gonna spend the night with her."  I told him without much worry, I was used to making up white lies at this point, Soda would likely not even care that I was going into the big city tonight, maybe he'd even think it was tuff I was sneaking off to a high class bar with my socy friends.   

             "Ain't Jean that middle-class broad with the giant jugs?" Dally half-joked, it was almost a long running gag that we had, since he couldn't make a move on me, being three of the gangs' sister, he has always tried his best to get at my friends.    I just rolled my eyes and took another drag of my cigarette, lettings the boys' conversation go this way and that and just listen.  That's kinda been my go-to lately, when my mom and dad died three months ago I lost a lot of my talkative edge.  Shit it's been three months already... I pushed my body lightly off of the side of the house and dragged myself inside.  My room really was just a scraped out coat closet.  I ain't gonna complain too bad about it though, Darry really did make it alright and it wasn't even too small of a closet to begin with.  Hell, if we were able to fit my little mattress and even my record player I bought when I was 11, it can't have been that bad.  My stomach was beginning to feel a little green, I had been smoking like a chimney since I got home, and my room ain't too breezy so that tobacco stench really liked to hang around.   

           "Marlena?" I heard my oldest brother knocking at my door, he opened it and immediately looked a little peeved, "Oh lordy!  Did ya just set a whole carton of marbolos on fire?  It's a goddamn wildfire in here, you keep smoking like this and I'm gonna have to start checking what you buy at the store now, ya dig?"    

           "Yeah, I know.  Hey Darry?"  I said, without the slightest intention of cutting down on my habit, "I'm gonna go to Jean's tonight, Sophie will be there too, that cool?"    "That's fine" he said walking back to the kitchen.  I followed him out and just followed suit, he got a glass of water, I got one too.  We didn't even talk the whole time,  he's kinda been quiet lately too.  When our parents died in that accident everyone took on a different kind of burden, but sometimes I think Darry feels like he took the whole load, and maybe that's why he's so damn stressed. Coming home from the funeral with my brothers felt like I had just taken a few strangers from the graveyard and said "you'll do."  Darry used to be that real fun, hilarious older brother.  We used to go out all the time and just talk about everything.  We would talk about how mom was a little too harsh sometimes on people and that it was pretty funny that dad would just push her buttons when she would get annoyed by the little things.  My youngest brother, Ponyboy, well he just downright terrifies me the way their deaths changed him.  He didn't use to be so dreamy all the time, he always had a big imagination, but this time it's different, he tried to follow mom and dad's souls up to heaven and got stuck somewhere between space and the East Side.  Sodapop though, he seemed to take it the healthiest, he wasn't shy about bawling and howling like an idiot at the funeral.  He had to express how he felt, so he did.  But one thing that did change was the side of him people usually forgot about started to rear its ugly head just a little more every once in a while.  Soda is charming and nice, but he's also reckless and clumsy and he won't look before he just starts running.  I'm not trying to  but my brothers in  a bad light though, I certainly haven't been perfect since the accident either.

             Jean's dad was in the army, and her mom was a nurse, so they got along pretty okay.  She wasn't by any means rich, but she surely never had a shortage of cash by the end of the month.  Her house was just a quick bus ride from my neighborhood, it was two stories, well kept, and all the bathrooms were pink.  I knocked on the door and not even a second later it was the bermuda triangle of "can you answer that?" between her and her parents.  It was her mom who came to the door, she was a real neat lady.  Joan's mom was actually real tough, she had a hard life as a kid and she don't have the easiest job in the world.

    "Hello Marls!  Don't you look like a doll tonight?"  She smiled up at me, I am pretty tall for a girl and I usually tower over most ladies I meet. 

   "Thank-you Mrs. Massey, it's just my school clothes, but I figured it would be alright for tonight, ha," I tried my best to sound like a nice girl, but she was just so damn down to earth I really don't think she'd judge me too harsh.  She let me in and walked me all the way to Jean's room, asking about my brothers and if Pony was proud of himself that he came in 2nd at his last track meet.  It was nice talking to a mom.

      Jean popped up from the floor when I walked in, "You ready to leave soon?  I just gotta find my lipstick and Sophie will be here soon, we're gonna get burgers at Dairy Queen on the way out of  town, my mom gave me food money if any of us need."  she spoke briskly and with a butt-load of excitement. 

   "Yeah I'm all set" I giggled quietly as she threw tubes of makeup to the floor trying to find her token lipstick. She got it and we tumbled down the stairs just as Sophie was pulling up to the house.

#the outsiders #Dallas Winston #curtis sister #Ponyboy Curtis #darrel #darrel curtis #Sodapop Curtis #two bit mathews #Steve Randle #cherry valance #S.E. Hinton #Johnny Cade

[thespectralvision]

Twelve Days - 9. Snowball Fight

Happy Holidays! This is my Wanda x Vision holiday countdown consisting of twelve interconnected stories exploring their changing and evolving relationship and family at Christmas time. It starts with the first holiday after Age of Ultron and will go through the post-WandaVision domestic setting found in my Flufftober series featuring Tommy, Billy, and Viv.  

You can also read this on Ao3 HERE

Rating: G

Pairing: The Vision x Wanda Maximoff, implied Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes

Characters: The Vision, Wanda Maximoff, Tommy Maximoff, Billy Maximoff, Viv Vision, Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers

Warnings: N/A

Other: This story takes place after WandaVision and my other story “Working Theory.” It also references my friend @ser-charlemagne story “Blue Orchids” which can be found HERE

Summary:  Wanda and Vision visit New York City to attend a Hanukkah celebration with some friends and their children find a fun way to spend the afternoon.

* Full disclosure, I am not Jewish but I do headcanon Wanda as having Jewish heritage (per the comics), and Ser-Charlemagne loves the Jewish Bucky headcanon. I did my best to research this story and ask friends about a Hanukkah celebration, but if I messed up something important please let me know because I want to ensure this is respectful!*

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December 5, 2026 – 160 State Street, Brooklyn, NY

Coming to New York City had not originally been Vision's plan for the weekend, but it had been a good idea. Adjusting to a third child has had its difficulties over the past few months but seeing the normally awkward Vivian coming out of her shell has been one of the highlights. Despite his initial apprehension at adding a third child to their home and the unsettling nature of her creation, Vision can’t deny that she is his daughter. Wanda adores her, having felt a little outnumbered by all of the boys, and the twins seem to enjoy having another sibling to get into trouble with. Getting into trouble  is exactly what has Vision worried when he and Wanda return to the brownstone owned by some good friends they’re staying with and find it empty. If he has learned anything in the past year and a half since really becoming a father, it is that silence often means something is afoot.

Wanda gives him a questioning look as they come up the walkway with shopping bags in hand, and Vision wonders if perhaps she senses something is off too. Or maybe she’s just worried about him. While he’s doing so much better these days than when she found him on a street corner in Eastern Europe, they both know the horrors Vision went through will never stop haunting him. These days he just hopes that their children will never go through anything like what he and their mother had. The twins at least don’t seem much worse for what has already happened, aside from the occasional nightmare. Vivian on the other hand sometimes struggles. Vision has spent many a sleepless night with his synthezoid daughter, holding her close and wishing he could erase the memories of her creation. He knows from experience that it would not help, however, and instead he and Wanda do what they can to help her heal.

When Vision had been created a decade ago he had never imagined this would be his life. It’s a pleasant surprise to be sure, but he’s known since his first days back online that he was not programmed to be a parent. It’s been a learning experience for both himself, and for Wanda. He always appreciates the support of his wife, and the understanding of those involved in their lives when he feels inadequate. This time of year sometimes is especially difficult for him. There is such an emphasis in parenthood that he sees in the media of passing down a legacy, or of sharing long standing family traditions. As a synthetic being, Vision has very little of that to share, and Wanda’s own colourful past has often made it feel like they are starting from a blank page. Over a decade ago when Vision had asked her about family traditions she had told him she didn’t have any. Her childhood had been taken from her at such a young age that she had tried to forget what it was like to have a family. Becoming a mother had shifted those feelings though, as little experiences with their children would dredge up long forgotten memories of her own parents and brother and happy times together in Novi Grad.

A renewed desire to connect with her past had led to Wanda sharing a number of late night conversations with her good friend, the man known as the Winter Soldier - James “Bucky” Barnes. Vision had been familiar with the super soldier by name and reputation until he and Wanda had come out of hiding to rejoin the Avengers line up. In the months since they’ve gotten a chance to get to know one another, and Vision has grown to like and appreciate his friendship. He could relate to the man with a vibranium arm who’d had his identity stripped of him and mind reprogrammed to become a weapon, as much as they both wish it had never happened.

Bucky and Wanda had a lot in common as well, beyond just being weapons utilized by HYDRA for a span of their lives. Vision had been pleased to learn that much like his wife, Sergeant Barnes shared a Jewish heritage. His mother had been a Russian Jew, though like Wanda his parentage was mixed. He shared stories of his family celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah, and of later carrying on the traditions with Steve Rogers before the war. 

The conversation had given Vision an idea. While he had been aware of mixed families sharing celebrations, he had never thought of doing it with his own. Wanting to impart a sense of family to their children however left him thinking they deserved to know more about where they had come from. After discussing it with both Wanda and Bucky they had agreed to bring the Mini-moffs to the city for the weekend and celebrate the first nights of Hanukkah together.

The idea had been a success. The boys and Viv had been excited to spend more time with the closest thing to an extended family they had, and Wanda had been looking forward to sharing another part of her past with her family. Bucky had made most of the plans – he’d purchased plenty of chocolate gelt and donuts from a local family-run bakery like he remembered doing as a young man. The rest of the menu he had planned himself, taking recipes from an old family cookbook that had been brought over from the old country by his grandmother. It had been passed to his sister before ending up back in the Winter Soldier’s possession, along with his family home. Vision was just happy that they were all happy and always enjoyed adding a new experience to his life. It’s taken some time but even after what was done he’s managed to find the beauty in humanity and all of the little things they do once more.

They arrived to a warm welcome yesterday in the early afternoon. Vision had been glad to see that Bucky finally seemed to have settled in. He knew how much the man had struggled after being pardoned, and how much the guilt of what he had done while under HYDRA’s control had kept him from seeking a life like this. It was a combination of Sam Wilson’s friendship and time that helped the process along but even more than that it was the returned presence of Captain Steve Rogers.

Learning that the former Captain America had gone under the radar, much like Vision himself, had been unexpected. Vision himself had been dead when Steve made his final official mission – using the technology curated by Scott Lang, Dr. Banner, and Tony Stark to travel back in time and return the Infinity Stones before their branch of the multiverse collapsed around them. When he hadn’t returned it was assumed that Steve had decided to remain in a time that had felt more like home. That had been the official story, at least. Aside from some tabloid rumours that he had been taken to the moon to assist in some secret government plan, the world accepted that and moved on. The truth had been far less sensational – while Steve had made it back to a more familiar time a very smart and brave woman, in his words, had reminded him that he belonged here. After Thanos the world needed more Avengers, and Captain America had always existed as a beacon of hope. Unfortunately the multiverse had fractured when he attempted to jump back, stranding him in a limbo in the far off corners of time and space. Vision still doesn’t fully understand – the realms of magic and other dimensions are Wanda’s speciality, not his, but regardless how it happened he was brought home and has remained at Bucky’s side ever since, finally getting a slice of the quiet life he’d dreamed about.

They’d all enjoyed the evening together as a group in celebration. Bucky had taken the lead, with Wanda filling in what she remembered from her own childhood as they enjoyed home-made latkes and Sergeant Barnes’ traditional brisket recipe. When Steve had smiled across the table with a comment of “Tastes just like I remember, Buck.” Vision had smiled. He hopes that maybe in the future his own family will be doing the same thing, passing on a legacy. As a synthezoid he thinks sometimes that he should not think about such things – they are illogical, he has no need for traditions – but especially now that he has a child like himself it’s only made that desire to experience life like the humans surrounding them even greater. He can never forget what he is, but he hopes that Vivian may be able to connect with others in a way he no longer can.

After dinner Bucky lit a candle in the antique menorah, another treasure inherited and passed down from his past. It had been beautiful, Vision thought, hearing him read the traditional prayers read aloud. When Wanda had to step away for a moment to hide the tears it brought to her eyes, he had been there to hold her. Even so many years after losing her brother, and their parents, reminders of her family often pull at her heartstrings in unexpected ways. She had assured him that it was a good kind of crying, and he thinks he understands what she meant.

The tone had shifted after that, Bucky pulling from memories of his own family celebrations as a child and young man. It was nice seeing a different side of him, Vision had thought, watching as he smiled and laughed while teaching the kids to play the dreidel game. It went over well, even if Vision himself was unsure how he felt about teaching them to essentially gamble. Wanda had laughed and rolled her eyes and assured him this was a long-standing tradition and reminded him the winnings were only chocolate coins. Over the course of the evening they concluded that while fun, playing with a family of enhanced individuals was likely not something initially intended. When Tommy managed to spin the wooden top fast enough Vision suspects it would be considered a projectile weapon and sent it flying off into a bullet-proof glass window then embedding itself there, they decided that perhaps it was time to call it a night.

The following day had been planned in advance as well, and Vision had been looking forward to it. Knowing that the two super soldiers who shared the home would ensure their children were safe also meant Wanda and Vision could enjoy some time together in the city. As much as he loved their family, Vision did miss having his wife to himself. They’d enjoyed lunch at her favorite place and an afternoon of shopping for gifts. It was perhaps less exciting than the dates they used to take but neither he nor Wanda had any complaints as they walked back hand in hand with bags looped around their arms. At least, that was until they opened the door with the borrowed key they’d been provided to find an empty house.

Vision’s first instinct is worry – three enhanced children, one of whom was rescued from a lab, would be an easy target. Even now, three years later, the memories of being trapped and used by the corrupt former SWORD director sometimes haunt Vision. Knowing that the same thing could happen to his daughter was one of his worst fears.  He and Wanda had agreed that Steve and Bucky would likely be able to ward off any attackers but they were not invincible. If someone had known and prepared they could have incapacitated all of those present in the house-

Wanda seems to sense Vision’s anxiety and turns to him with a raised eyebrow. “I wonder what they are up to.” Her calmness helps him to steady his thoughts. He manages to run a quick scan of the premises and concludes that while there is no one indoors, there are also no signs of a struggle or break-in to indicate something happened. A soft noise and furry white head bumping against Vision’s hand as the Winter Soldier’s cat Alpine jumps up on a counter to rub against him is further evidence that things are alright. He smiles as he scratches her ears, and Wanda looks to the window revealing the backyard with a smile.

A shout from outside startles the cat who jumps back down and Vision turns to look. It’s followed by a scream, but one that seems to be out of enjoyment rather than terror.

“I think I found them.” His wife says, pointing. Vision follows her towards the back door and outside to find a war zone but not the one he had expected.

“Billy, he is to your left but I have lost sight of Steve-HEY!” Viv’s usually calm demeanor is betrayed as a ball of snow arcs up to where she’s hovering before it passes through her phased body to land somewhere below. It seems a mound of snow has been constructed on either side of the yard, and a blue streak dashing around the corner of one confirms the location of Vision’s eldest son.

From the other side a familiar laugh gives away the Winter Soldier’s location, and soon his dark head pops up, the flaps of his ushanka style hat blowing in a comedic manner as he tries to catch Tommy off guard. It’s not a success and instead he ends up ducking a lightning fast retaliation. Vision continues watching to finally catch sight of the other adult present as Steve attempts to crawl through what appears to be a snow-trench with another attack only to have it repelled by a shimmering blue force field.

“Hey, cut it out for just a second.” Wanda intervenes, catching sight of his twin already preparing another orb of weaponized snow in his hands to retaliate. “Do NOT throw that snowball, Billy, or else.” Vision doubts his wife would actually do anything but he knows better than anyone to than to test Wanda’s patience. Billy lowers his hands, glancing at his parents sheepishly. Vision has no doubt that as soon as the adults have finished talking he’ll send it flying towards his brother with his abilities but he appreciates that the boy listened.

The appearance of Wanda and Vision seems sufficient to pause the game they’ve stumbled into as both super soldiers and two Maximoff children come into sight, bundled in winter wear.

“Hey, Wanda, Vision. Have a nice afternoon?” Bucky asks, leaving the safety of his wall of snow to approach the other adults.

“We did. It looks like you’ve been having fun here too.” Wanda answers, smiling at the scene.

“We have. We didn’t intend to start a war in the backyard but it’s been a good way to spend the day. For the record, your kids are pretty good at working as a team.” Steve says as he joins them, smiling. It’s nice to see – retirement seems to suit the man, Vision thinks. He knows that Captain Rogers will never really retire - he still assists from an advisory capacity - but it seems his days of Avenging on the front lines are over, barring another Thanos.

“Hi mom! Hi dad! We’ve had a fun time.” Billy comes over, grinning with snowflakes sticking to the fringe of hair peeking out from his hat. 

Vivian also lowers herself to hover just above the ground, mirroring Vision’s usual stance as she grins at her parents. “We have. Though I do not like when the snow balls phase through me. It feels...odd.”

Vision smiles at that – he knows exactly what she means. While he’s been told the sensation of being phased through is uncomfortable he wishes humans knew that it can be just as strange for him, even if it’s a reaction as natural (or perhaps more natural, in the case of a synthezoid) as breathing.

“Yes, it is rather cold.” He agrees. As he’s speaking he catches another motion from behind as the final child reappears from the safety of his snow fort, but there is a mischievous gleam in Tommy’s eyes Vision doesn’t trust. He watches as the boy prepares another throw, either not hearing or not caring that the game was taking a quick recess, and releases the globe of snow at the direction of his sister. Viv’s reflexes are sharper than Tommy had anticipated though and Vision watches as she phases at the last moment for the snowball to pass through her once again – only to end up hitting the side of Bucky’s head.

If looks could kill, Vision would worry for his son’s safety. He knows Sergeant Barnes would never hurt the boy – but the look on his face is a reminder why the Winter Soldier has such a fearsome reputation. Steely blue eyes narrow, honing in on Tommy who at least has the decency to look scared. It’s a subtle shift of expression that Vision just barely catches as Bucky’s lip quirks upward, nearly a smirk for a split second as he reaches for another handful of snow himself.

He never has the chance to throw it as he’s hit again, a burst of white powdering his hat and Steve Rogers laughing from a few feet away, not even trying to feign innocence.

“Rogers, you punk! I’ll get you for that-”

With that chaos breaks out once again as both boys unleash their prepared ‘weapons’ in the direction of the super soldiers and Viv ducks, laughing then taking to the sky again.

“I...I suppose we will discuss dinner plans later then.” Vision sighs.

Before he can get a response he’s hit with a handful of snow, and the synthezoid looks around to try and determine the source. It’s Wanda’s laughing that gives it away as he watches her still-glowing red fingertips twitch and she bites her lip playfully. Vision watches as she conjures up a scarlet psionic shield with one hand as she twists her fingers to create more ammunition with her other.

Two can play at that game, he thinks. Vision crouches down, joining into the game and phasing to replace his outfit with his white uniform with a smirk.

“Vizh, you cheater.” Wanda teases as he joins the fray, pulling her down into one of the snow banks that had been created earlier and capturing a kiss before revealing his own, albeit hastily formed plan. Wanda smiles up at him, green eyes sparkling in the light and snowflakes now glittering in her hair.

“I suggest we team up to defeat the others. I thought perhaps camouflage would be beneficial.”

“Mmm, or...maybe we can wait here and let them take each other out, then just fight whoever is left.” Wanda suggests, something suggestive about her tone. It’s a sound plan, Vision thinks as he listens to the renewed shouting of the others as Tommy is hit.

“Uncle Bucky HOW do you do that?”

“Lots of practice, kid. I wasn’t HYDRA’s best assassin for nothing. Clint Barton wishes he was as accurate as me.”

The banter continues as Wanda pulls Vision down on top of her, his white and silver cape fluttering over them both to help them blend in against the snow. They’ll be found soon enough – the snow isn’t that deep and the yard isn’t that big, but as his wife kisses him and wraps snow-cold fingers around his head Vision can’t find anything to complain about.

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