#and the answer is simply: Joyce Byers wants this

[morganbritton132]

Look, I love every fic that has Hopper adopting Steve but I think it’d be really funny if:

(1) Hopper is bad at it. He didn’t gradually get to learn how to parent a teenager. He was thrown into it and he’s already struggling with a pre-teen.

And

(2) Steve also doesn’t want this. He’s been taking care of himself his entire life and now there’s a guy telling him to stop watching movies with a head injury? No thanks.

[stranger-feathers]

The Byler miscommunication in Season 4, and why I find it so interesting

This is a continuation/inspired by what I said in this post, you can think of it as a preview of this.

Miscommunication plots are usually hated in fiction, and it's easy to understand why. They're often trite and uninteresting, only existing by chance and contrivances to create pointless conflict. We all have seen that scene where a character walks in or out, at the exact wrong moment, and ends up making up a completely outlandish scenario, or completely misinterprets someone's intention while we're left sighing and hoping for the end. It's annoying, everyone hates it, but we all live with it regardless. You may then ask : why do I like the miscommunication conflict used in ST4 so much if I normally hate them ?

At its core, it is a miscommunication conflict, there's no real denying it. Mike and Will are somehow both convinced the other doesn't care anymore, despite the audience knowing that this assumption doesn't make much sense. The interesting part though is why they end up thinking so. Buckle up, and let me tell you a story of why this conflict was actually very well done on the part of the writers.

1) Backstory : Mike & Will's relationship before the conflict (S2 and before)

Mike and Will are presented as a special pair from the beginning of the show, I don't think this needs to be demonstrated here (there are countless analysis that have done so better than I ever could). During Season 2, we are shown a Mike who is constantly looking out for Will, and reaching out in ways that others do not. He tries to call the Byers' house to check up on Will when he misses school, and, most importantly, he's the only one who actually goes there to find Will when calling does not work. Put a pin on that, Mike going to see Will when calling fails will come back. This motif of Mike reaching out to Will is so fundamental that it is highlighted as being the very way they became friends. They were both alone and Mike reached out : "And I just walked up to you and… I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend."

(he's such a sweetie pie sometimes).

Mike is the leader of the group, and it really shows in this tendency to initiate things. It's easy to realise that, early in the series (and presumably before as well), Mike makes the plans to hang out. The writers use the D&D games to showcase that fact : they happen at his house, and he is the DM. He prepares them for weeks and clearly puts efforts into them, all so his friends can have fun with him. He initiates things and expect others to answer present : that's simply how he prefers to communicate. But what does that have to do with Will ?

Will as a character is reached out to in a lot of his interactions. The plot of Season 1 is heavily focused on reaching out to Will stuck in the Upside Down, be that with Joyce's lights or with El's powers (the talkies and the void both). Here, Joyce and El are allies in communication, and El particularly so where Mike is concerned. Put a pin on those two, they'll also come back (less positively unfortunately). However, Will as a character rarely initiate interactions. Will seems to strugle with opening up if the people around him don't make an active effort to reach out, which is why we so often see Jonathan and Mike actively asking him if he's okay and initiating their scenes. That's why Mike is such a good fit for Will : he knows how to coax him out of his shell and reach out, which Will treasures immensely.

The other side of the coin then is : why does Mike treasure Will ?

Will seems to be one of the rare characters to react positively to Mike being vulnerable, and one of the rare characters Mike opens up to in the first place. After all, most of his overtures of closeness with Nancy are rebuffed, his relationship with his mother is in an awkward middle ground between apparent care and lack of good worded communication, his friendship with Lucas tends toward confrontation in early seasons... Mike apparently struggles with expressing himself and his vulnerable emotions fully. Or well, he would, if it wasn't for Will, or so the show implies.

If we take the crazy together scene as an example of their usual friendship (which is up for debate, but I usually assume it to be the case), Mike feels comfortable enough with Will to calmly express his feelings towards El and her death, and they manage to meet each other in the middle, ending the scene with the mutual declaration that they'll go crazy together. This is a question initiated by Mike : Will is simply the one answering it. However, this exchange still puts Will in a pretty restricted and cherished category for Mike : someone who answers positively to Mike's overtures of closeness and vulnerability.

Interestingly enough, Mike asserts in that scene that El would understand too : after all, she's the one who understood him in Season 1, when Will was unreachable. Sadly, we see that understanding diminish with time, leaving Mike more and more isolated : two examples that come to mind would be the "blank makes you crazy" scene (where El fails to answer Mike correctly) and the complete shutdown of his attempt to empathise about being bullied during their Season 4 fight. (This is mostly a tangent, but it fits the overall theme of this analysis so I'll let it stay here)

Will answering positively to Mike's reaching out is also the one thing Mike chooses to highlight about their dynamic during Will's possesion, proving how deeply appreciated Will's answers are : "And you said yes. You said yes."

As Mike says : "It was the best thing I've ever done". Letting himself be vulnerable with Will, and Will reacting positively, was the best thing ever for 13 year-old Mike.

Do note that I'm French and the French version is specifically "[you saying yes] was the best thing that ever happened to me", which supports my point here even better. That probably colors my perception of this scene, but the underlying idea is still there in English in my opinion.

And Will rewards Mike being vulnerable again by responding extremely positively : he starts tapping in Morse code, an answer to Mike's desperate reaching out.

Now that we've layed out the ground work for how they work at their best, let's see what happens when this dynamic falls apart.

2) The big conflict : Season 3's fallout

It's summer of 1985, and Mike spends most of his time making out with El. He seemingly stopped reaching out to Will, or at the very least, doesn't do it half as much as he used to. Will, feeling left behind, decides to be the one to reach out this time : he plans a D&D game, the same way Mike used to do. This is Will attempting to clumsily replace Mike in their usual dynamic : if Mike doesn't want to initiate things anymore, then Will will try to do it instead. He quite literally replaces Mike's role as the DM (aka the initiator and planner in D&D), but the game still happens at Mike's : this is, after all, Will's way to reach out to Mike specifically. The others are never really accused of leaving Will behind, and rightly so since they seem to have kept up with him much better.

Unfortunately for Will, that plan does not go smoothly at all. Freshly-broken-up-with Mike is not in the headspace to answer positively to Will's reaching out, and they end up fighting, presumably for the first time in a long time (or ever) if Mike's surprise is anything to go by. Mike digs his grave more and more before realising that he truly fucked up, and decides to try to fix things by, you guessed it, reaching out to Will. He bikes to Will's house under the pouring rain, profusely apologises (not that Will actually hears it, but the intent is there), and keeps looking for Will until he finally finds him at Castle Byers. Unfortunately for Mike, this is too little too late : we never get to see Will's answer, nor do we know what Mike did to apologise once he found him. The conflict is slipped under the rug rather than resolved (as Lucas' discussion with Will in the next episode highlights). What Will learns from this interaction is that reaching out to Mike when Mike fails to do so isn't a solution : it simply seems to make things even worse.

Fast forward to the end of the season, and Will uses D&D to get this point across : "I'll just use yours when I come back. I mean, if we still wanna play." Whatever happens next, Will leaves it to Mike to reach out.

Mike reaches out to Will one last timen before he leaves : "What if you want to join another party ?" And Will answers the exact thing Mike wanted to hear : "Not possible." Both of them end up seemingly on the same page : back to their usual dynamic, smiling brightly at each other with an unsaid promise that things won't change. Unfortunately, things do change, and not for the better.

3) Post-conflict : THE miscommunication (Season 4)

It's March of 1986, and Mike is on a plane to California. We know from the first episode that Mike and El sent each other letters, but we have no information on the communication between Will and Mike. Then comes their first meeting on screen and it is more than awkward.

Will is prepared for a big hug, yet Mike is keeping his distance for unknown reasons. It's obvious something happened on Mike's side between their last conversation and this, but what it exactly is is left up to our imagination for now.

The start of an answer is given in their fight at Rink-O-Mania : "[Mike] called maybe a couple of times [...] meanwhile [El] has like a book of letters from [him]". Whatever happened on Mike's side isn't a one time thing, but a continuous issue in communication between them. Mike seemingly doesn't want to reach out to Will anymore, leaving Will hurt and feeling abandoned by one of his favourite persons. (Jonathan's behaviour in California also does not help remedy that fact, since he has never been as distant from Will as he is this season)

However, a few episodes later, we are given a very strange piece of information by Dustin : "Joyce has this telemarketer job, she's always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it." Now why would Mike whine about the phone, if he barely even called Will ? It's not like Mike was calling El, we established both at the end of Season 3 and at the start of Season 4 that they communicate by letters (as Will confirms) and talkies. A plausible conclusion for those two pieces of information is then that Mike did reach out to Will more than Will thought, but just couldn't get through. (this is the conclusion I use in this analysis, even if it has not been confirmed to be the case)

But wait, remember that pin about what Mike does when phone calls don't work to reach Will ? He goes directly to his house. A shame that the Byers moved to the other side of the country then, wouldn't you say ? Mike is therefore left to stew in his hurt feelings, convinced that Will doesn't want to answer like he used to. With that, Mike loses one of the rare persons that he can be fully honest to (and as we've established, El's understanding of Mike is also looking worse and worse as time passes).

The move is an obstacle to the very premise of their communication, and that's what makes it a great conflict. Will feels like Mike doesn't want to reach out anymore, and Mike feels like Will doesn't want to answer. This isn't a conflict that exists in spite of the characters, but because of them.

Speaking of external obstacles to communication, remember that pin we put on Joyce and El being allies in communication ? Well, it's certainly not the case anymore. Here, Joyce is the obstacle that prevents Will from answering Mike's calls. And El is the obstacle that prevents Mike from reaching out by letters. As he puts it himself, "[El] has a book of letters from [him] because she's [his] girlfriend". And Will, who obviously isn't Mike's girlfriend, doesn't need letters.

And with those informations, we can now reconstruct what happened on Mike's first day in California.

Mike is feeling out of touch with Will ("I feel like I lost you") and is therefore awkward as hell. This makes Will think Mike doesn't want to talk to him anymore ("you're not interested in anything I have to say"), which means Will doesn't answer the way Mike wants ("you were rolling your eyes, you were moping, you were barely talking"), which leads to their fight. That whole day at its core is Mike failling to initiate correctly, which makes Will freak out and answer incorrectly : this is them not being on the same wavelength anymore, and a clear indication that their usual dynamic has been deeply disturbed by the last few months (or year, because as Joyce says, we're all time travelers, but especially if you're gay pining for your best friend).

Another very interesting detail to me is the implication that, while Will clearly still cares about Mike, wanting a big hug at the airport, we hear very little about Will's own attempts at reaching out. Mike points out the same thing when they fight : "Well maybe [Will] should've reached out more. Why am I the bad guy ?". And he isn't wrong per se. Will could/should have reached out more. But given their previous conflict in Season 3, and their history of communication before that, Will didn't feel comfortable reaching out. He tried last summer, and it ended up blowing up in his face : once bitten, twice shy. He's waiting for Mike to make the first move, even if that means not communicating at all. Will won't let himself ask more of Mike than Mike is willing to give him, or so he tries to convince himself as a deeply ashamed gay teen in the 80s (he does still get pissy about being the third wheel, which is understandable). It's a very juicy and dramatic series of events, but it still manages to feel very organic to me, and deeply in character. Will is more than understandable, despite being somewhat in the wrong and unknowingly self-sabotaging. Another interesting part is that Will himself does seem to come to the conclusion that he wasn't being entirely reasonable. When Mike comes to apologise, Will attempts an apology as well (quickly shut down by Mike though), because Mike's words made him recontectualise the situation.

In that same apology, they manage to make the first step towards fixing their relationship. Now that the situation allows it, they go back to the exact dynamic that worked out so well for them before : Mike initiates and seeks Will out with an overture of friendship, and Will answers gratefully (even grabbing his painting, the very proof of his love and understanding of Mike).

Later down the line, Will covertly apologises for not reaching out more : "if [I] was mean to you, or if [I] seemed like [I] was pushing you away, it's probably because [I'm] scared of losing you". Since this comes from his speech about the painting, Will's name isn't on those words, but it's still progress for Will to admit and word it aloud, even if it's only to himself.

Besides, feelings don't always need to be said (as they put it themselves "I didn't say it." "You didn't have to"). The painting itself is proof enough for Mike that Will thought about him despite the distance. Mike really needed to know that, more than he needed an apology. Will finds the right answer to reasure Mike in the van scene, and they truly fix their friendship there (for now at least, since Mike has yet to realise Will broke their other rule of communication : "friends don't lie").

This plot is very dear to my heart because both of them have fucked up and hurt each other (and themselves) without meaning to. They acted out of carefully built familiarity with the other's behaviour (but also informed by their unresolved fight) even when the situation itself didn't allow their usual communication to work. That's why it blows up in their face, leading to the Rink-O-Mania fight. But this deep familiarity is also why they're so quick to build their relationship back up, seemingly stronger than ever. This is miscommunication done right folks, take notes.

[runninguplenorahills]

So sorry for putting this in the byler tag but I need to take you with me on my delulu-voyage about Dr. Owens!

The show is kinda playing a game of good cop/bad cop with Brenner and Owens. They’re putting them into contrast by showing Brenner to be more reckless in what he does while Owens is shown to be more understanding and sympathetic. The guy who wants to help. The good cop. But at the end of the day the good cop is never actually on your side either.

Owens has been working with Brenner on NINA. He’s deeply involved in the making of that project! Sure, him and Brenner have different opinions on what is the right way to use NINA and execute their plan but it’s still their plan. Brenner did not force Owens to participate. They were working together.

And the thing is…. Owens is the one who showed up to starcourt mall after El lost her powers. Owens is the one who relocated the Byers and El to Lenora. And doesn’t that also mean that Owens is the one who told Brenner about the fact that El lost her powers in the first place? Because how else would Brenner have known?

And you don’t just build NINA in one night! NINA has been in the works for months which means Owens probably told Brenner immediately after he found out himself! And if Owens thought it’s of importance that Brenner knows that El lost her powers….. well, that means:

He knew that El didn’t simply lose her powers. It was more significant than that which is why he told Brenner (‘Cause Brenner knew that her powers were stolen and I imagine that’s why Owens told him in the first place).

He knew why Brenner needed El’s powers in the first place.

Owens knew Brenner isn’t dead (obviously)

Owens kinda kick started the NINA project.

And well…. Doesn’t that also mean Owens knew about Henry first hand?!

Owens: “What I understand is that something’s going on in that town that no one fully comprehends! And what I also understand is that military strength is not the answer!” (“You cant just shoot this with guns”)

Sullivan: “It’s men of science. Men like you who created this problem in the first place!”

Mike: “So what? Where just supposed to trust that you’re the good guys? Whoever you are?”

Agents: “We’re friends of Owens.”

Mike: “You don’t trust Owens?”

Will: “No no, I mean, I don’t know. He’s been good to us and good to El… but he wasn’t able to protect me. That was you guys who saved me! That was you guys.”

And that’s the thing. If Owens knew about Brenner being alive and deliberately kept that information to himself (which he did), and if Owens knew about Henry and everything that happened (which seems to be the case too)……. Well….. doesn’t that make Owens’ inability to help and protect Will in s2 a deliberate choice? Doesn’t that mean he deliberately refused the idea that Will’s true sight aren’t just ptsd flashbacks? He knew what was going on but pretended like he didn’t? Like he’s the good guy who’s trying to help despite “not knowing what’s going on”?

And you wanna know something else?

Right after the scene in s2, ep.6 in which Joyce questions why she should trust Owens and yells at the doctors: “CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY BOY?!” we don’t get an answer, but you know what we do get? The recording Nancy and Jonathan made of Owens saying:

“You see why I have to stop the truth from spreading? […].By whatever means necessary.”

Immediately after Joyce’s question. Immediately!

I personally think Owens knew what’s wrong with Will and he knows way more than he’s letting on. He’s the good cop. He’s good to our main characters but he isn’t actually on their side. He cannot protect them because he’s got a reason not to.

[thetargaryenbride]

Nail To The Coffin - S3 - Chapter 2

Warnings: drinking chemicals, drugs, possession

Pairing: Steve Harrington x f!Byers!Reader

Word Count: 2909

A.N: Now this is the reason why I had reader take drugs occasionally. Because I wanted to insert her into Billy’s plotline of season 3 and make her a victim of the MF. But she would have had to drink chemicals and let’s face it, that is a certain death. That’s where the drugs come in as a loophole because she can suffer a fate just as bad as the other flayed without actually dying in the aftermath ;) As always, please do make me know if I’ve written certain characters OOC and if you think there is something that can be corrected within the story. Thank you for reading. Hope you like it! 🖤 🥀

Masterlist || Chapter 1 || Chapter 3

“Steve!” yelled Robin from the front, wishing he could be more responsible and come lend her a hand in dealing with the children who were pestering her for more free samples. However, the boy in question barely even heard her. He had shut down temporarily, robotically munching on a banana while his mind raced with thoughts.

He was thinking about too many things since last night.

He was thinking about you and how you didn’t show up at Hideaway. He waited for hours and at one point Eddie’s performance ended and the boy went to join Steve and talk to him. The two of them theorized why you hadn’t shown up but came up with no plausible reason. By the time he went back home, it was already way too late and he didn’t want to call your house and disturb everyone in the middle of the night. He waited until morning came and then ran to your home to ask your mother and brothers if they knew anything about what happened.

It would have worried him less if they had told him that you chose to stand him up. But they said that they haven’t heard from you since you left for your date with him. Joyce told him that a friend had called you, asking for help, and you had rushed out immediately after, saying it was urgent. But she didn’t know who the friend in question was which left Steve with more questions than answers and he had begrudgingly bid the Byers goodbye and had gone to work.

Ever since, he couldn’t stop thinking about the oddness of this situation, simply because he knew you would have called to tell him and cancel the date. You weren’t the kind of person to leave him hanging like that so his mind immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion which was that something bad must have happened to you.

He decided to give it some time despite his worry because he didn’t want to turn into a paranoid maniac but after everything you two went through, he couldn’t help but jump to worst-case scenarios.

“So what do you think?” asked Dustin, snapping Steve out of his thought trap.

“It sounded familiar,” he hummed as he popped a piece of banana in his mouth and Dustin furrowed his brows.

“What?”

“The music. The music right there at the end,” he pointed out and Dustin deadpanned.

“Why are you listening to the music, Steve? Listen to the Russian! We’re translating Russian!”

“I don’t know! I’m just…I can’t concentrate, dude, don’t hassle me,” groaned the boy. “I’m trying to listen to the Russian, but-”

“Alright, babysitting time is over,” snapped Robin as she threw open the door and stormed inside. “You need to get in there…Hey, my board! That was important data, shitbirds!”

“I guarantee you, what we’re doing is way more important than your data,” sassed Dustin and she strolled towards the table he was occupying.

“Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?”

“How does she know about the Russians?” mumbled Dustin with wide eyes as he looked at Steve and the boy shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

“Ok, I think it’s high time you call Y/N and bring her in. She is amazing with languages. She has to know Russian!” exclaimed the boy and Steve shook his head.

“She knows some Egyptian and a little bit of Latin. Nothing in common with Russian, though.”

“I can’t believe you just said it as a matter of fact,” Robin shook her head in disbelief and Steve looked at her weirdly.

“But it is a fact!”

“Ok, whatever, the point is, I can hear everything you guys are saying. You are both extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you’re trying to translate, but haven’t figured out a single word because you didn’t realize that Russians use an entirely different alphabet than we do,” she rambled on and the two boys slowly looked at each other before back at her. “Sound about right?”

After that, Steve, Dustin, and Robin struck a deal and she got to help Dustin with translating while Steve headed back outside to work.

But his mind kept being occupied by one thought and that was you.

Billy felt like a wreck.

A shipwreck in the midst of a raging sea that was chomping away at him, taking bit by bit with every wave that crashed against him, slicing, eroding, fractions of his soul, his very essence, until he was left with scattered scraps he could not piece together even if he desperately wanted to.

He stumbled his way to the pool, not even being able to remember how and when he had gotten to his workplace in the first place. His memory was ever-changing. Some things he could remember, others were a blank spot.

He felt stifling hot, his head was a victim to splitting headaches, he was sweating profusely and everything was burning inside him.

“Billy? Are you ok?” asked one of the staff and he barely nodded.

The sunrays were devastatingly scorching.

He breathed heavily as his eyes darted between the cool pool water and the multiple people. All the noise was making his ears ring.

Then suddenly, everything got muffled as if he was listening from underwater and the only voice he was able to hear clearly was yours, calling out to him, begging him, screaming.

And memories from last night flooded his foggy brain.

Your eyes fluttered open and at first, you were extremely disoriented and your vision was blurry. Everything around you was so dark that you could barely make out if you were in your own room or locked in a dream.

Then you felt dull stinging and throbbing in your cheek, head, knees, and arms, and all began returning to you.

The cemetery.

The chase.

Billy.

You shot up in a sitting position only to fall back down because when you tried using your arms to lift your body, you realized they were bound tightly by ropes. You grunted as you tried to sit up again, this time using and balancing your strength properly so you could succeed without the help of your arms. You looked around, your breathing picking up nervously when you were finally able to take a better look at your surroundings, realizing you were in some kind of abandoned building and there was nothing in sight.

That is until you heard the sound of footsteps bouncing off the walls, making it seem like they were coming from everywhere.

“Who goes there!?” you yelled as your head darted from side to side, trying to take a look at the person. “Billy! Are you there!?”

“Shh,” sounded a familiar voice right behind you, and you felt a hand bury in your hair and grasp the locks gently. “Don’t make a sound,” he drawled in your ear and your heartbeat increased rapidly.

“W-what do you want? Why are you d-doing this?” you stuttered out, trying to calm down your wrecked with tremors body.

“I’m not doing this for me…A special someone wanted to have you real bad,” he whispered and you gulped.

“I don’t understand,” you cleared your throat as you tried to steady your voice.

“Try not to move. Be very…very…still,” he mumbled before releasing you and that’s when you heard something you hoped to never hear again – growling.

And when you looked up, you saw the most skewered, sickening, horrendous-looking monster you’ve ever laid eyes on. This one put the Demogorgon to shame.

You tried moving backwards, only to fall on your back. You began crawling, eyes unable to tear away from the approaching monstrosity and filling with tears of utter terror.

“No…Please!” you sobbed as the thing got closer to you and you turned to look at Billy who was simply standing there, looking on monotonously at the unfolding scene. “Billy, please! Please, help me!” you cried out with tears streaming down your cheeks and a trembling voice. “Whatever this thing is forcing you to do we can stop it! Please!” you bawled and you jumped in fright, letting out a strangled yelp, when you felt the monster stop at your legs, eyes snapping to look at the vine it was extending from its mouth before you looked back to the boy. “Billy, please!” you shrieked before the vine was forcefully shoved onto your mouth and you felt your body being invaded by shadows before everything faded into darkness.

Billy’s eyes watered at the memory as a sickening feeling clutched at his insides, seizing him in a chokehold, and he found it difficult to breathe as he clumsily made his way down the pool, bumping into a couple of people in the process, and towards the staff rooms. He all but fell through a couple of doors, staggering through the turns and brick corridors, before getting into the backroom and shutting the door with force.

A feeling of dread washed over him and he felt nauseous as he kept hearing you screaming and begging. His hands flew to grasp his head, palms going flat against his ears in hopes to deafen himself to your cries but nothing helped. He felt like he was about to explode not only from the physical pain but from the mental and emotional turmoil that was eating him from the inside out. 

The feelings of guilt, regret, shame, fear, and hopelessness were off the charts.

Then all of a sudden, a sense of calm washed over him and for a second everything he previously felt was pushed to the very back of his mind as he straightened up and made his way towards the shelves full of cleaning chemicals. He felt like he was being pulled by an invisible force as he grabbed a bottle and unclasped it as if in a trance. He wanted to stop but he was stuck. The spider has got him in its web and was tearing off his wings so he couldn’t escape from its sticky prison and had to suffer a slow death. He could only watch his body do the unimaginable. He brought the bottle full of toxic liquid to his mouth and took a couple of big gulps.

It was as if burning flames licked at his insides but at the same time, it made him feel more alive and stronger than ever.

“Billy?” came Karen’s voice from behind him and he slowly left the bottle down, the feeling of calmness and strength slowly beginning to chip away like the paint of an old rusty car as the previous emotions of dread, regret, guilt, and fear began creeping back up on him.

“I,” she sighed. “I understand if you’re angry with me. I just…I wanted to explain why I didn’t come last night… It’s not you, it’s just…I have a family. And I can’t do anything that will hurt them. You can understand that, right?” she asked hopefully with a bit of guilt lacing her voice and all he wanted to do was crush her head against the metal shelves. In fact, the urge was so strong that for a split second, he vividly imagined and felt himself doing exactly that.

“Billy, please!”   

He heard your sobs once again and the feelings of dread, regret, guilt, and fear that had been slowly creeping back in, suddenly hit him full force. They were so powerfully overwhelming that the force felt almost physical, like a strong Californian wave crashing against him, hurtling him back into that nauseating state he was in before he had been compelled to drink the chemicals.

I don’t want to do this again. I never want to do this again is what he cried out in his head at the thought of you and he was able to regain control and stop himself from doing something bad to Karen.

“Billy? Please, will you talk to me?” she spoke softly.

He exhaled sharply as he turned to face the woman and mumbled lowly, “Stay away from me, Karen.”

And then he left back outside, once again falling into the torturous embrace of the sun and the dreadful feeling of something bubbling up inside him that was taking control of his body and mind bit by bit. 

Later this afternoon

“Jesus H. Christ! What do you want!?” yelled Eddie into the phone once he picked up because the device hadn’t stopped ringing for what felt like hours and Eddie was extremely groggy and pissed at being woken up by the shrill sound, interrupting his much-needed rest after last night’s tiring performance. 

“Munson, you son of a bitch! Pick up your damn phone, will ya!?” his eardrums got busted by no other than his drug dealer Reefer Rick.

As if that hadn’t been enough, he had spent the majority of the night brooding at home, being worried about you and the way you had stood up Steve which was something you would never do even if you were pissed at the boy. He had been up and about, smoking weed and pacing until morning before passing out from exhaustion.

“Why are you calling me here? Are you crazy!?” bit the boy angrily.

“Am I crazy? I’m the one who should be asking that question, dude! Once I get my hands on you, you’re dead meat!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Eddie barked confoundedly and the man let out a short mocking laughter.

“You really wanna play that game? Fine, I’ll tell you what I’m talking ‘bout. Someone broke into my house and stole all my stash! And I’m talking all the special, heavy stuff too! Do you know how many I had and the money I was gonna make outta them? I’m distributing not only to Hawkins but to all smaller towns in the area!” growled the man and Eddie did a double take.

“Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on! You think I stole? From you!? Are you kidding me right now? It’s like you don’t fucking know me, man! I’d never steal!” yelled the boy.

“Oh, yeah? And how can you prove that to me?”

“I don’t know! Come check the trailer if you want! But I swear I’m telling the fucking truth! You can ask at the Hideaway if you want! I was there last night and stayed until after twelve am then I came straight home!” he tried to explain himself and Rick huffed.

“Then who would come steal from me!? There’s probably only one person in this godforsaken town that knows I deal and that’s you!”

And then Eddie’s blood ran cold.

He wasn’t the only person who knew about Rick.

His friends knew about him too because Eddie had told them and that included you.

And now his mind went to places he used to be too afraid to explore.

He was beginning to put two and two together and he didn’t like the outcome at all.

He had to find you and he had to do it fast because something very horrible was grasping at him, suddenly choking the air out of him, and he wanted to make sure he was wrong about it all.

But first, he had to deal with Rick because he didn’t want to get himself into further trouble.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!? I swear if this is some kind of fucked up way to get back at me for doing what I did-“

“Shh,” you put a finger to your mouth as your hand brushed the bangs away from the boy’s clammy forehead.  

“Wasn’t it enough for you that I spent time in Juvie? I paid for my crimes!” snapped Nathaniel angrily but there was fear that could be detected in his voice.

“Be quiet,” you hushed him gently as you took a big package of white powder and poured a big pile onto your palm. You brought your nose to your hand and snorted as much as you could. The rest – you licked.

“What is wrong with you?” stammered the boy in utter shock as he watched you inhale what he supposed was cocaine. You crossed your arms on top of your knees and laid your head on them, looking at the boy through half-lidded, red-rimmed eyes.

Then he heard the sound of growling and he froze, more sweat forming on his forehead and dripping down his cheek.

“Try to be very, very, still,” you whispered monotonously as you watched him turn around slowly and face the monster.

Your face was devoid of emotion as you watched him scream and writhe while getting flayed.   

Deep inside, you were screaming.

You felt as if you were in the backseat of a car that was hurtling towards the edge of a cliff. An unknown force was driving, increasing the speed with each passing second and you couldn’t take control of the wheel. You writhed and trashed against the belts but they only grew in number and wrapped even tighter around you, choking you. You could only watch as the car flew off the cliff, the sinking feeling in your stomach growing exponentially and swallowing you whole. Your heart flew out of its bone prison and then you were submerged underwater.

You couldn’t move.

You couldn’t breathe.

And there was no one to pull you out.

[ace-for-eddie]

Part 4

Eddie and Hopper sat on the porch waiting for Wayne to arrive. 

“Listen Munson. I know we haven’t always been on the best of terms.” Hopper started.

Eddie hummed, feeling himself tense up.

Although Hopper had been instrumental in getting his name cleared of the murder charges, they hadn’t really had many conversations since. And any before usually involved Hopper reciting the Miranda rights and Eddie being shoved into the back of the police car. 

“But uh… while I won’t hesitate to arrest you again.” Hopper pointed his finger in Eddie’s face. The front door swung open as Joyce walked out onto the porch.

Hopper cleared his throat and continued. “I can tell that you’ve grown up a lot, kid. And the shit this town has dumped on you isn’t right. I will do everything I can to help you in this. And if you aren’t sure what to do with this little girl… your little girl, you can… you can always come to me one Dad to another.”

Hopper placed a strong hand on Eddie’s shoulder, sniffed then nodded before walking back inside.

Eddie was stunned and simply nodded in shock. 

Today was getting weirder and weirder, and given Eddie’s standard, this was next level intense. 

Joyce smiled warmly and took Hopper’s place pacing a soft hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”

He took a deep breath, “...okay.”

Wayne arrived in his beat up pickup concerned that Eddie was sick, hurt or had gotten into trouble somehow. He was not expecting the news that he was basically a grandfather.

He teared up a little, then started laughing. Loud. 

“Shit Eds, I didn’t think you…” he stopped realizing Joyce Byers was beside them. “I didn’t think that girl… was your type,” giving Eddie a knowing look.

Eddie huffed a laugh. “She wasn’t. But I was still figuring things out 3 years ago. And it’s okay Ms… I mean Joyce already knows I’m gay. She’s safe.” 

Wayne smiled at Joyce. “Thank you for being here for my boy Ms. Joyce.”

“Of course! It takes a village right?” She smiled. 

“Speaking of which. When can I meet my grandbaby?” He asked. “Is it okay if…if I call her my grandbaby?”

“Wayne, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Eddie smiled and hugged his uncle. “You’re gonna love her. She’s amazing…” Eddie led the way to introduce Evelyn to her Grand-deddie Wayne. 

Of course, Wayne instantly fell in love with the sweet child, reading her another book as she nuzzled against his side on the couch.

Eddie found El and Will at the table in the small kitchen and pulled up a chair.

“Hey guys, uh thanks for helping so much. Wow, this is so weird.” He ran his fingers through his hair. 

“She is very sweet. And she likes you a lot. You are a good Dad Eddie.” El smiled. 

He just smiled and stared at the table. “Thanks Supergirl.”

“Have you told anyone else?” Will asked curiously.

“Uh…no not yet. Please don’t tell anyone though okay? I want it to come from me.”

“Of course. It’s not our story to tell.” Will smiled at Eddie using the same phrase Eddie had used when Will came out to him in recent months. Eddie offered to be there to talk if he ever needed anything. He knew how hard it could be to be gay in such a close minded town. 

“I should probably tell Henderson soon though, so he doesn’t shit himself if everyone else knows first.” Eddie sighed. “Can I use your phone?” 

“Of course.” Will stated.

“Are you going to tell him on the phone?” El asked.

“Yeah, why not?”

“It seems like something to tell friends in person.” She replied. 

“Uh… yeah I guess so. I’ll see if he can come over.” Eddie didn’t know if he’d have the energy to deal with Dustin Henderson and a toddler today, but figured it would be worse to wait.

The phone rang a few times before Claudia answered and brought Dustin to the phone. Eddie invited him to come over to the Hopper-Byers house and waited on the porch with Will.

While Eleven and Joyce took to washing Evelyn’s clothing which reeked of smoke and something like cat urine. Joyce threw some of the pieces away immediately and decided she’d be making a trip to the children’s section at Goodwill the following day. 

Dustin Henderson was dropped off at the cabin and took the steps two at a time.

“So what is so important you need to meet me at Hopper’s cabin?” Dustin rolled his eyes.

“Well, Henderson. I just wanted to congratulate you on becoming an uncle.” Eddie smiled his snarky grin while Will tried not to laugh and choke on the soda he was drinking.

“Eddie, what the hell are you talking about? I’m an only child.”

“Ouch man, didn’t know you thought so low of me. Wow. Okay nevermind.” Eddie put his hands up in defense.

“Oh, well, yeah you’re like my brother. But what do you mean… uncle? Did you get a dog or something?”

“Ew, no. That’s too much responsibility.” Eddie grimaced. “I got a kid.”

“You got a kid?”

“I got a kid.”

“Where did you get a kid Eddie?” Dustin was starting to get tired of this bullshit.

“Well DustyBun, when a guy and a girl…” Eddie started and Will just about fell off his chair.

“Shut up. What the hell did you drag me out here for?” Dustin stomped.

“No, I wanted to tell you I have a kid. A daughter actually. Her name is Evelyn.” Eddie beamed. 

“You’re… you’re serious.” Dustin started to smile. Eddie nodded.

“How? When?”

“That’s a longer story…” Will stated from behind Eddie. “Sit down.” 

Dustin peeked through the cabin window to see Eddie’s uncle Wayne sitting on the couch napping with a toddler and his eyes grew incredibly wide along with his smile.

“You want me to be… her uncle?” He teared up.“Yeah, man. Just feels right.”

“Holy shit…tell me everything.” Dustin plopped down to hear about Eddie’s news.

[akire-echo]

It’s Simply a Henderson Thing-Season 2, Chapter 8

(Here it is! The final chapter of season 2, after all this time. Season 3 will only be in mentions so won’t be by chapter at all, probably just one post with different characters lamenting reader’s absence. Anyways, without further ado, enjoy the final chapter below the cut.)

For a moment, you couldn't comprehend what you were looking at. You knew it was Eleven, of course, but you didn't know how in the world she was here. Looking towards Mike, you could tell he was just as shocked to see her after the events of last year. In fact, disbelief showed on everyone else's face too. Mike took a careful, tentative step towards her, as if afraid she would vanish at any moment.

“Mike.” She gasped out his name before he stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her. She held on tight.

“Is that-“ Max began to ask.

Dustin and Lucas nodded their answer.

“I never gave up on you.” Mike told the girl in front of him.”I called you every night. Every night for-“

“353 days.” She cut him off.”I heard.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were there? That you were okay?” He asked her.

“Because I wouldn’t let her.” Hopper piped up.

Your turned your head to look at the Chief. What was going on?

“What is this? Where you been?” Hopper asked Eleven.

“Where have you been?” She asked him back. They shared a small hug, which seemed odd to you.

“You’ve been hiding her.” Mike stated, then got angry.”You’ve been hiding her this whole time!”

He shoved the officer.

“Hey!” Hopper grabbed him by the shirt.

“Let’s talk. Alone.”

They went off to one of the empty rooms to have a conversation. Dustin and Lucas went to El immediately, hugging her and telling them how much they missed her. It was completely adorable, seeing friends reunited after a year thinking she was gone for good. Eleven completely side-swept Max in favour of hugging Joyce.

As they spoke, you reached out to grab Nancy’s hand, needing to ground yourself. She looked up at you and smiled a little.

“Close call.” You said.

“Didn’t have to use this again.” She chuckled, motioning to the gun in her other hand.

“We’ll definitely need to catch up after all this.” You suggested.

She blushed a little.”Yeah, there’s a lot to catch you up on. And you too apparently.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” You smirked.”It’s certainly been..interesting, to say the least.”

A roar sounded in the distance, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

“Might want to hang on to that gun.” You suggested.”This isn’t over yet.”

———————————————————————Gathering around the Byer’s table, much like you all had several times before, you all began to form a plan. Hopper explained about the gateway, the one Eleven was supposed to close. But it was different now, not as accessible as it once had been. Plus apparently now it was crawling with every little demo-dog.When Eleven volunteered, you felt your heart squeeze. She had just gotten back to all of you and there was no telling on what would happen down at the Gate.But she was adamant. Yet, you all knew the consequences of closing the gate. Will was connected to it, connected to the weird hive mind that seemed to exist in the upside down.

Dustin looked over at you, worried.

Luckily, there was a collective idea. As Joyce reminded, the thing liked the cold and you were all just giving in to its demands. It needed to get much hotter, so Will could sweat out the virus. Hopper began to coordinate a new location, hidden from anyone else and not known to Will.

You stayed with Dustin as Nancy went out back with Steve to find supplies.

“You gonna be okay out there?” You asked her before she headed out the door.

She sighed.”Yeah, I just…I’ve been pretty shitty recently, especially to him.”

“He’s…tougher than you think Nance. Believe me.” You reassured her.

She nodded.

A few minutes later Steve came back in alone, looking at you.

“She’s gonna head out and stay with Jonathan’s group.” He informed you.

You clenched your jaw a bit but you understood, and you were even a little proud of Steve.

“You cool with that?” You asked.

He shrugged.”I kind of have to be.”

“Yeah, not many people in this town have been through what we all have, makes it kind of hard to find those who understand.”

“Exactly. Commonality.”

“Fancy vocabulary there Harrington.” You teased.

“Gotta keep up with you, smarty-pants.”

“That you do. Now let’s gather the others, we’ve got to hold down the fort.”

You headed outside with the others and watched as the cars pulled away.

It was up to you and Steve to make sure that Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Max were all safe and out of the danger. You didn’t mind hanging back but you knew your skills would be better utilized defending El or even making sure demo-dogs didn’t get to Will.

———————————————————————

“Y/N, can you help me gut out the fridge?” Dustin asked as you were cleaning your knives.

“Uh, what? Why?” You asked.

“For the demo-dog.”

“The dead one?”

“Yeah. We need to preserve it.”

You sighed.”I am not really following your thought process here but there’s nothing better to do. And if Joyce asks, it was your idea. I ain’t taking the rap for you.”

“Noted.”

You got up and began taking things out while Steve wrapped the dead beast in a blanket to place it in the empty fridge.Steve manoeuvred the gross demo-dog into the fridge with a little help from you and Dustin. When it was closed he sent you a pointed look.

“Yeah yeah. He’s my brother, I know.” You rolled your eyes.

As you rounded the corner you could see Mike pacing.

“That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs.” He reasoned.

“Demo-dogs.” Dustin corrected.

“The chief will take care of her.” Lucas responded to Mike, trying to offer hope.

That’s when Steve interjected.

“Listen, dude, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?”

“Okay, first of all, this isn’t some stupid sports game. And second, we’re not even in the game. We’re on the bench.”

Mike had a point on the first thing, it wasn’t a game. But you took offence to inadvertently being called a benchwarmer.

“So my point is…” Steve began. He stammered for an answer as you looked upon him, waiting for whatever bit of stupid was about to come out of his mouth.

“Right, yeah, we’re on the bench, so, uh, there’s nothing we can do.”

“On the bench?” You levelled back.”Really Steve?”

“That’s not entirely true.” Dustin pitched in.”Y/N surmised that the Demo-dogs have a hive mind.” He looked at you to explain with him.

“Right.” You snapped your fingers.”They ran away from the bus because they must’ve been called away.”

“So if we get their attention…”Lucas thought aloud.

“Maybe we can draw them from the lab.” Max finished his thought.

“Clear a path to the gate.” Mike nodded.

“Yeah, and then we all die.” Steve raised his voice.”

“That’s one point of view.” You scoffed.

“No, that’s not a point of view, Y/N. That’s a cold hard fact.”

“Really? You don’t think you and I can take a few of those demo-dogs? With my skills and your…I dunno, self-preservation?”

He glowered at you before Mike had an idea and rushed passed you.

“I got it!”

He pointed at a place on the underground map, the tunnel system. His suggestion? Set a fire in the main hub to draw all the dogs away, ensuring an empty lab.

Steve was still protesting even as they formulated a plan quickly.

“Hey. Hey! Hey!” Steve clapped to get their attention.”This is not happening.”

“It’s a good plan Steve.”you offered.

“But-“ Mike began.

“No, no, no, no, no. No buts. I promised I’d keep you shitheads safe, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.”

“Steve, we can keep them safe and kick ass at the same time.” You crossed your arms, annoyed at his sudden ridiculousness.

“No, Y/N. We’re staying here. On the bench. And we are waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?”

“Starting team?” You growled.

“I said does everybody understand that?” Steve repeated himself, looking pointedly at the kids.”I need a yes.”

He had been doing so well, but damn he was strict.

An engine revved outside, cutting off all conversation.

Max rushed to the window and gasped.

“It’s my brother.” She said.

Your face paled. Oh god, you were supposed to be on a date with him right now, but instead you stood him up and were with his little sister. Yeah, this wasn’t going to be fun.

“He can’t know I’m here. He’ll kill me. He’ll kill us.” She panicked.

You shared a look with Steve.

“He can’t know I’m here either.” You whispered to him.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ve got this.” His chest puffed up a bit.

You nodded and looked at the kids.

“Get down and stay away from the window, we must be quiet.” You instructed, sitting next to them on the floor while you all listened to the exchange outside.

“Am I dreaming, or is that you, Harrington?” Billy asked, with his cocky little voice. God, why’d you ever agree to go out with that vile man?

“Yeah, it’s me. Don’t cream your pants.” Steve retorted, nearly making you laugh at his sarcasm.

“What are you doing here, amigo?” Billy asked.

“I could ask you the same thing. Amigo.”

“Looking for my stepsister. A little birdie told me she was here.”

“Huh, that’s weird. I don’t know her.”

“Small? Redhead? Bit of a bitch.”

You frowned at that. Sure she had a little attitude but who wouldn’t with an asshole of a brother like Billy? In your opinion, she’d be much more pleasant if she didn’t have to hang around him.

“Doesn’t ring a bell. Sorry, buddy.”

“You know, I don’t know, this…This whole situation, Harrington, I don’t know. It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

“My 13-year-old sister goes missing all day. And then I find her with you in a stranger’s house. And you lie to me about it.”

Steve had to get Billy off the scent soon or you’d have to intervene and you really didn’t want to, you could really hurt Billy.

“Man, were you dropped too much as a child, or what?” Steve scoffed.

You tried not to smile as you looked over the kids. They were raptly paying attention to the conversation, just as you were.

Steve continued.”I don’t know what you don’t understand about what I just said. She’s not here.”

“Then who is that?” Billy asked.

You gasped when you looked over to see all the kids at the window.

“Seriously?” You whisper-yelled and pulled them down.”You can’t listen to me for five minutes?”

“Did he see us?” Dustin asked.

“Of course he did, dummy!” You hissed.

Now you were really gonna have to intervene.

“Stay here.” You demanded as you got up and opened the front door. It was just in time to see Billy kick Steve in the stomach as he was already on the ground.

Billy’s eyes met yours.

“Ah, so this is what you ditched our date for.” He sneered.

“Billy, I can explain but you need to-“

He pushed you back into the house and pushed the door open along with you, looking for Max.

You’d fought tougher assholes than him, but he was a human so you couldn’t rely on swords.

“Well, well, well.” Billy slammed the door closed behind him.”Lucas Sinclair. What a surprise.”

“Don’t touch him.” You breathed.

He ignored you.”I thought I told you to stay away from him, Max.”

“Billy, go away.” Max stood up to him.

“You disobeyed me. And you know what happens when you disobey me.”

“Billy…”

“I think you should listen to her, Billy.” You strongly suggested.

“I break things.” He grunted with effort as he grabbed onto young Lucas.

“Billy!” You screamed and ran to follow him.

He had the kid pinned to a corner when you reached to pull him off.

“Get him off of me, Y/N!”

“Stay away from my sister-“

You pulled Billy’s arm away from Lucas and punched the older boy straight in the nose.

Damn that hurt, you were pretty sure you’d broken a bone in your hand with the amount of blood produced from Billy’s nose.

He reared back in pain and Lucas kneed him in the groin, a double whammy.

“You’re-you’re so dead.” Billy was still doubled over, looking at the two of you.

Just when you thought you’d have to get your swords, Steve was back.

“No.” He stated.”You are.”

And he punched Billy in the face, much like you had done.

Instead of taking it, Billy laughed.

You urged Lucas to stand with the other kids so that you and Steve could handle Billy the bully.

“Looks like you’ve got some fire in you after all, huh? I’ve been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody’s been talking so much about.”

“Get out.” Steve said calmly.

“Leave, Billy.” You added.

Billy looked over at you, scoffed, and then swung to punch Steve back.

Harrington ducked and reared back with another punch, sending Billy back. He got in a few more swings before Billy grabbed a bottle and smashed it over Steve’s head.

“Steve!” You gasped and grabbed the kettle off of the Byer’s stove.

As Steve held onto his head you smacked the back of Billy’s with the heavy kettle.

He stumbled momentarily but was up again to hit Steve, following the man.

“No one tells me what to do!” He head-butted Steve, making the other man fall to the floor.

“Billy! Fucking stop this!” You yelled.

Billy got Steve on the ground and was going for punch after punch.

“Screw this.” You couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, so you went for your knives. You didn’t want to do this but you were left with little to no choice.

Before you could move to stop Billy, Max was running towards him.

“Max!” You tried to stop her but she had already stabbed Billy with something.

He stopped hitting Steve and stood up.

You could see him swaying.

Ah, she’d stuck him with sedative.

“What, what the hell is this?” He asked, words sounding slurred.”You little shit, what did you do?”

Before anyone could answer, he collapsed.

You were left with a sedated Billy and a completely beat up Steve, plus four kids.

You sighed.

Billy was chuckling on the ground, so Max grabbed the nail-covered baseball bat and held it up to jinx

“From here on our, you leave me and my friends alone. Do you understand?”

“Screw you.” He answered.

She swung the bat to land right between his legs. You were honestly impressed at her bravery.

“Say you understand!” She yelled.”Say it! Say it!”

He took a moment, still falling under the sedation.”I understand.”

“What?” She asked for clarification.

“I understand.” He repeated.

Then he was out like a light.

You put a hand on Max’s shoulder, making her flinch a little before she turned her head to see it was you.

“Proud of you, kid.” You offered a small smile.

She smiled a little too, before dropping the bat entirely and going over to her brother.

She fished out his keys and sent you a look.

“Y/N, Steve is out so you’re in charge.” She said.”What do you think?”

You looked around at their young faces and then smirked.

“Off the bench, boys, we’ve got a tunnel to set on fire.”

———————————————————————You piled the kids in the car and Steve as well.Against your better judgement, you had Max driving her brothers car. You were the responsible one but you really needed to take care of Steve, so you put your trust in her.

“Don’t crash us.” You had said before she got in.

“I won’t. I promise.”

So that’s how you had Steve’s head in your lap, pressing ice to his temples while Max raced off to the hub.Lucas was in the front seat giving Max directions as you tried your best to clean Steve’s bruises just a bit. He was coming out of it faster than you wanted. Ideally you wanted him to wake up as you got to the tunnel, that way he couldn’t protest.But he was slowly becoming lucid.

“Oh my god, what’s happening?” He grumbled.

“You’re okay. Well, you got the shit kicked out of you but you’re okay.” You told him as softly as you could.”Everything is fine, you protected us, Steve.”

But it wasn’t working. He was freaking out.

“Oh my god; oh my god! Why aren’t you driving?”

“Max, step on it!” You urged.

“No, slow down!” Steve begged.”Stop the car!”

“Calm down, Steve!” You held him down.

Everyone was screaming, you could barely hear yourself think.

“Max! Turn left! Now!” You shouted.

“What?!”

“Now!”

More screaming ensued as she made the correct turn, albeit sharp.

You sighed in relief and looked down at Steve.

“See? Everyone is just peachy.” You assured him, earning you a bitch face.

Luckily you weren’t too far from the dig site so in minutes you were all pouring out of the cramped car.

You helped Steve out as he groaned, leaning on your shoulder.

“Tell me again why you weren’t the one driving?”

“Someone had to take care of you, Steve, and Max did a fine job.” You looked at Dustin.”You got my babies?”

Your brother nodded, handing over your prized Kukris. You set Steve against the car while you got ready.

Steve was protesting the entire time but you thought it best to just ignore him, it was too late to turn back on the plan now and you would leave him above ground if he didn’t agree. Dustin explained the situation to him while you went ahead with the other three, needing to be at the head of the pack in case something was down there. You went first, climbing down the rope before doing a quick search with your flashlight.

“Coast is clear.” You called up to the gang and kept watching out for any unwelcome guests. Mike made his way down after you, and you were ready to stabilize him. Lucas was next, followed by Max, Dustin, and finally Steve.

“Holy Shit.” Steve let out as he landed in the cold, dark tunnel.

“Yeah.” You looked at him.”Holy Shit is right.”

Mike had the map but Steve stepped up.

“Any of you little shits die down here, it’s me and Y/N who get the blame. Got it, dipshit?”

You blinked behind your goggles. He cared. Not just about the kids not dying, but about you too. It was a side of Steve you hadn’t seen before, not even when you thought he was at his best with Nancy.

“From here on out, I’m leading the way. You cool with that, Y/N?” He asked you.

You smiled underneath the cloth covering your mouth.

“Yeah, it’s completely fine with me. Lead on.”

“Come on then, let’s get going. Hold up the rear.”

You nodded and motioned for the kids to follow. This, this was real teamwork.

———————————————————————The tunnel went on and on, it was quite the little hike under the town of Hawkins. Even with all the layers too, you were still a bit chilly. You all got to a more open area and looked up.

“What even is this place?” Max asked you.

You shrugged,”Probably just an easy way for those creatures to get around.”

“They’re called Demo-dogs.” Dustin said.

“I know what you’ve named them, Dusty, but they are still evil little creatures.” You sassed back.

“I swear to god, Hendersons. Keep moving.” Steve said.

Dustin wasn’t following you anymore, he had stopped to look at the tunnel’s ceiling.

“Dusty?” You asked before something exploded from above him, showering him in some kind of particles.

“Dustin!” You yelled.

“Help! Help me!”

He got some in his mouth. You scrambled to pat the particles off of him and then he seemed fine.

“What the hell, dusty?”

“I’m fine.”

The others grumbled. Various “oh my gods” and “stupid idiots” were exchanged as they continued down the tunnels.

You sighed at Dustin and punched his arm softly.”Don’t scare me like that.”

“Won’t happen again.”

“Keep close to me. I’d never hear the end of it from Mom if something happened to you on my watch.”

“I know, I know.”

So he went ahead and you brought up the back again, that way none of them would be left behind.

A few minutes later you were at a bigger open area. Steve seemed to think you’d made it to your destination.

It certainly looked that way, what with the multiple tunnels branching out and a weird thing on the ground.

“Right. Let’s torch it.” Lucas clapped.

“Flame on.” You chuckled, reaching for a gas can.

It was simply a matter of dousing the whole place in gasoline and setting it on fire. It would make sure that all the demo-dogs would be sent your way. If each team played their part, Will would be free of the Mindflayer, El would have her best chance to close the gate, and the demo-dogs would either be burned to a crisp or die when the gate was finally closed. A lot of moving parts, but you believed in your rag-tag group.

“You good?” Steve asked.

“You kidding? Who doesn’t want to blow off a date for this?” You smirked.”Would rather torch a tunnel than have to spend any time with that asshole ever again.”

He chuckled.”Yeah. I know what you mean. Why’d you agree to one anyways?”

“Oh my god, this is really not the time for that, Steve.”

“But you’ll tell me later?”

You shrugged.”If all goes according to plan? Sure.”

“Okay, we’re finished.” Lucas told you.”Pretty sure we’ve covered every inch of this place.”

“Nice work.” You said.”Then it’s time.”

You all stood back, far away from the areas you’d doused.

Steve threw his lighter and you watched as the vines shrivelled and died.

“We need to go-now!” You rushed.

“Go! Go!”

Everyone began to run from the fire, heading back to the entrance.

“Keep going!” You encouraged, not knowing if what you did made any difference at all. Did Nancy and the Byer’s manage to save Will? Were Hopper and Eleven close to the gate yet?

You couldn’t think about that stuff yet, you all needed to make it out of the tunnels.

“Run, Dustin!”

“This way!” Steve urged.

Mike was just behind you when he fell, yelling out for help.

You saw a vine try to crawl up his body.

“Help! Help!”

“Not today!” You chopped it and it shrieked. Mike scrambled to get up but you held out your hand.

“Go, Mike!” You pushed him away.

Steve came back and smashed another vine with the bat.

That’s when you heard the distinct growling of a demo-dog. You turned to see that is was Dart. You all froze.

Dustin began to move.

“Dustin…” you said slowly.”Don’t you even dare to-“

He stepped forward.”Dustin, get back.”

“Trust me, please.” He said as he made his way closer to his former pet.

“I swear to god, Dusty.” You said, holding up your swords in case Dart tried to attack. You’d already let too much happen to your baby brother. You weren’t about to let him get hurt down there.

Dart walked over to Dustin as Dustin spoke to it, placating the demo-dog.

Your brother offered it candy and it was definitely placated. The others passed by quietly and you had to hand it to Dustin, it was quick thinking on his part. You were just relieved that it even worked, yet not relieved enough to let your guard down.The creature ate candy while you walked away, scot free. When you were far enough away you began to run back for the entrance again. Roaring sounded from behind you, causing you to turn momentarily.

“What is that?” Max asked.

“Oh hell.” You panicked.”Run!”

“Let’s go! We are nearly there!” Steve hurried the kids along.”come on, come on!”

He began to lift them up to the rope, one by one.

But it was too late for you. Dustin, Steve, and you were all still in the tunnel with demo-dogs right on your tail. You breathed and held up your swords, waiting for the onslaught, just praying you’d be able to protect your brother.

Yet, the onslaught never came. It was like someone you were Moses and the demo-dogs parted on either side of you like the Red Sea.

You looked up to the kids.

“Eleven.” Mike said.

She was doing it. She was closing the gate. Which meant Will must’ve been saved.

“No time to dwell.” You said.”Let’s get out of here.”

You and Steve grabbed Dustin, lifting him up so the kids could grab him.

“Your turn.” Steve told you and slid his hands together to make you a step.

“You sure?” You asked back.

“Get up there.” He nodded.

Once above ground, you turned to offer your hand to pull Steve out, which he accepted.

Finally out of there, you had to squint as the lights on Billy’s car got impossibly brighter.

Eleven. She was getting close to closing the Gate, you could tell.

And when the lights dimmed you let out a breath you didn’t know you’d been holding all this time.

“It’s over.” Mike said.”It’s over.”

You grabbed Dustin and held onto him tight, nearly smothering him.

“Thank god.”

———————————————————————-A month passed and things were getting back to the new normal. Nancy had filled you in on what she was doing with Jonathan, sparing no detail as she recounted everything from the Halloween Party to when she had seen you back near the lab. You, in turn, had filled her in on the whole Steve situation plus the Billy thing. She wasn’t too proud of you for that but understood when you explained how you were trying to protect the kids. Thanks to her efforts though, the Holland’s finally had answers for Barb’s death. Even though a small amount of people knew the real story of Barb, everyone else would have closure for her death.

You attended the funeral with Nancy, holding her hand the entire time. It was nice to put it behind you. You’d never forget Barb.

The night of the middle school dance was upon you. The Snowball was really fun, you’d remembered attending it when you were in middle school. You volunteered along with Nancy and Jonathan, figuring it’d be a good way to keep an eye on your siblings. Plus it was a chance to dress up a bit, seeing as you hadn’t worn a real dress in a while.

When you were finished getting ready, you helped Dustin get ready for the dance while your mom did what she usually did, sat on the couch and pet the cat.

“Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch!” He cursed as he stormed out of the room.

“Dustin, I swear-“ you had just finished tying his bow tie.

“Where did you see it last?” Your mom asked him.

“Right here. Where I put it.” He showed her the empty space on the counter where a bag was supposed to be.

“What’s so important about it anyways?” She asked him. To be honest, you weren’t so sure yourself.

“Yeah Dusty, you look great. Although part of it is my doing.” You tried to make him smile.

He found the bag and ran back to his room.

“Don’t need you to help anymore, Y/N.” He told you from the other side of the door.

“You sure?” You asked.

“I’m fine. You should head out, Steve is coming to pick me up.”

“Alright. I’ll be there when you arrive.” You said and stopped by your mom before you headed out.

“Take care of him, okay?” She asked.

“Always do, Ma.” You smirked.”Someone has to.”

You gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before grabbing your bike keys. Who said you couldn’t drive it in a dress?

“Hey, I’m going to go go see if Dustin is here yet.” You told Nancy, stepping away from her side near the punch bowl.

She nodded, but her thoughts were far from it as she was staring wistfully at Jonathan. You chuckled at her but headed outside before you could dwell more on your love-struck best friend.

When you got outside you saw Steve’s car at the drop off, Dustin in the front seat.

You smiled, seeing his cool new hairstyle as he got out of the car. His hair was up and sprayed to high heaven, a Harrington special if you had to guess.

You headed towards him, patting his shoulder instead of his now perfectly quaffed hair.

“Looking pretty cool, kid. Head on in, I’ll just be a minute.” You told him.

He smiled back, looking a little nervous.

Steve hadn’t left yet, so you leaned up against the open window.”

“Just wanted to say thanks.” You told him.

“It’s fine; I was on the way.” He shrugged.

“No, not about the ride. You really came through for Dustin and everyone. You’re not such a bad guy, Harrington.”

He smiled.

“So thanks for everything.” You said.

“Yeah, no problem.” He shrugged.

A smile graced your face before you turned around with a wave.

“Oh, and Y/N?” Steve said.

“Yeah?”

“You clean up nice.” He commented.

You could only chuckle.”Keep it in your pants, Harrington.”

Nancy was running the punch station while Jonathan took pictures for the kids. Your were helping Mr.Clarke with tickets at the entrance, smiling and talking to him while the kids were inside having fun.

But when you looked back into the gymnasium Dustin was by himself on the bleachers, looking dejected.

That was until you saw Nancy walk over to him, holding out her hand and pulling him to the dance floor.

You smiled widely. You loved Nancy dearly, and would thank her profusely for helping him out. He looked happy dancing with her, and you just knew he was going to remember this.

After everything you’d all been through, they’d remember the quiet moments like this. And so would you.

[expldn]

last-standing-byers​:

Jonathan’s eyes narrowed on the linoleum floor. He sucked in his bottom lip, fully aware that his plight for White Cheddar was pitiful. The taunting roused a small smile from him. “Guess I upgraded to White Cheddar after I left Melvald’s … Thanks, but I think I’ll survive a night with the regular stuff.” He played into the teasing to lighten the mood, huffing a short laugh. Mike’s nudge was appreciated and he understood the gravity of it considering that he wasn’t an overly affectionate guy. There wasn’t a chance in hell, however, that Jonathan would let Mike buy his groceries. That’s a line they simply wouldn’t cross today - or ever. “No - no, that’s … um - thank you, but that’s alright.” He sputtered, sensing that Mike was trying to be helpful. It made him reconsider the proposition to come over, mostly to put Mike’s mind at ease. Stopping by their place wouldn’t kill him - Plus, it would be nice to see Luke. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen the kid. “You know what - maybe I can stop by later … for some white cheddar, say hi to Luke while I’m there - I’ve been meaning to drop off some boxes at your place …” He paused for a second, treading with caution. He chose his next words wisely.

Jonathan was always careful bringing up Will, especially with Mike - mostly after the institutionalization. “I’ve been sorting through boxes in my mom’s basement to prep for the house sale …” He explained, shifting the grocery basket higher up into the crook of his elbow, “there’s a lot of games … and uh, old d&d stuff that I figured you might want to take a look at - Luke might even be interested in some of it.” He figured that Mike would appreciate some of the vintage items. His mom refused to throw out anything after Will and Eleven’s funerals, basically down to the dust under their old beds. She preserved their teenage lives in boxes that remained virtually untouched until now … And now that Jonathan was going through it all and deciding what should be kept or donated, there was more stuff than he could ever stash in his own basement - not to mention all of Joyce’s furniture.

.

jonathan wobbling made mike fumble around in conversation too, “oh! okay, yeah, alright, mhm, sure, i just thought i’d be...helpful.” the conversation dwindled down to silence, which was fine. mike was comfortable seeing jonathan in grief. sometimes he felt like he had a gift for saying the right thing, and other times mike just felt like he was constantly missing. it felt like a small win that jonathan was willing to come to dinner and mike laughed before honestly telling him, “he might ignore you, or insult you so just...prepare?” but luke was hardly of importance when jonathan started talking about these boxes. his brows threaded and he leaned in slightly so he could listen closer, mike was really focused on what jonathan was saying. 

somehow, the thought of will’s old stuff, his old games, mike felt his stomach churn. he played it cool, nodding pale faced. “yeah, yeah, sure bring it over.” mike failed to seem casual and he really showed his cards when he demanded an answer from jonathan, “you’re selling the house? why? you can’t?” as soon as he’d said it, mike realized that had been a selfish ask and amended the statement, “i’ll be sad to see it sell.” 

@last-standing-byers​ 

“white cheddar, huh?” mike taunted. he’d seen jonathan on much better days, but then again, jonathan had seen mike on worse. he gave him a friendly tap with his elbow, “hey.” it was mike’s subtle nudge that if jonathan had anything he wanted to get off his chest, he would lend a listening ear. it wasn’t an expectation, but mike figured that with the amount they had talked about will and el way back in the day, death might be one of the few things it wasn’t weird for them to talk about.

he paused a moment, then picked conversation back up, “i think we have some at the house.” he glanced at the pasta aisle, “if you really need it that bad i mean.” mike clicked his tongue and shook his head, “white cheddar, didn’t know you were becoming so bougie, jonathan.” he was only teasing, but it was followed by a stiff, but sincere offer, “seriously, come over if you want…” an afterthought, “you don’t even have to stay and luke can survive being down one back and cheese box.” he rolled his eyes, then sighed. mike proceeded to pluck the classic cheddar off the shelf and give jonathan a look before starting to walk slowly down the rest of the aisle. mike couldn’t help but glance at jonathan like he was something to be studied. how could he endure so much loss and still be standing? feeling guilty, mike abruptly offered, “let me buy your groceries!”

[un-named-thing]

I wanted to request a will byers x male reader! Basically where y/n and will have already been dating for about two years(set in season4) and mike gets annoyed at how close y/n and will but like will tells mike that hes not just gonna stop loving y/n bc hes annoyed?(also imagine that will never moved to cali)

'I dont care what you think' Will byers x male!reader

Summary: you, your boyfriend will and mike are hanging out and after you have to abruptly leave, Mike has a talk with will

Cw: mike being a slight dick,

You sat on will's living room couch with Mike as a movie was playing. Will almost ran back into the room and plopped on the couch, cuddling into your side.

You gladly threw your hand around him and pulled him closer, giving him a quick peck on the forehead. However as you did that you could feel mike throw daggers at you with his eyes.

You shifted slightly trying to focus on the movie instead of Mike glaring at me. For some reason Mike always got hella annoyed when you got real close with will. You never understood why tho.

You simply ignored Mike and focused on the movie while your hand played with will's hair. You where calm. Will was calm. It was kinda peaceful.

Suddenly the house phone rang startling all three of you. You all glanced in the direction of the phone where you saw Joyce answer the phone. "Hello..... yes he's here..... okay" she looked over to the couch and at you. "Y/n this is for you" she smiled.

You got up and walked toward Joyce. She handed the phone to you and left to what ever she was doing. "Hello" you simply answered before hearing a familiar voice on the other line.

The two guys watched you from the couch, wondering who you where talking to. "Yes okay......okay I'll be there in like.. 20 minutes" you said getting will's attention.

You hung the phone back up and turned around to see will walking towards you. "Where you going?" He asked looking up at you "family emergency, or something like that" he pouted slightly "Ya I know I'm sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you will" he smiled. "Okay, you can make it up to me by calling me after your emergency Is over"

You chuckled and kissed wills forehead. "Okay will I won't forget". You pulled on your shoes and looked up at will one more time. "Promise you'll call me when you can?" "I promise will I won't forget" you hugged him tightly before heading out the door.

Will walked back and plopped on the couch next to Mike. He looked over at his friend who seemed to be pissed. "Hey you okay mike?" Mike looked over at him. "Not exactly will" will instantly got concerned. "What's wrong mike?

Mike stayed quite for abit before speaking up. "Your always so damn close to y/n, it's kinda annoying" mike said looking away from will. Will's expression changed into an annoyed one.

"Well it annoying when you and eleven get all close too ya know, but I don't say anything" "Hey look I'm just saying, you and him are really fucking close" mike said slightly turning to look at will.

"Well sorry Mike but I'm not gonna stop loving y/n just cause you find it annoying how close we are... get over it" will said turning away from Mike. Mike graoned in annoyance before turning away. "I'm just saying"

[hawkinsp0st]

in my head this is mike’s realization scene:

joyce and hop are engaged. it’s byers-hopper moving day, and the wheelers are helping them transfer everything from hop’s cabin and the byers’ moving van to the blended family’s new, more size-accommodating house in hawkins.

in the commotion, with everyone else on their way to bring a load to the new house, mike is able to get a private moment with el, sitting on her bed in the cabin.

the breakup is amicable. she leans her head on his shoulder and says, “thank you for saving my life in the woods, and bringing me to my new family.” she pauses. “and especially for not lying. about your feelings for me.”

mike gives a soft smile. “friends don’t lie.” he thinks for a moment. “so, friends?” he sticks his hand out playfully for a handshake, and el laughs, extending her hand, shaking his and then pulling him in for a hug. she smiles. “friends.”

they pull away from the hug and mike moves to stand up from her bed, so he can head out and give el some space, and go meet the others. but first, he remembers something, and sits back down.

“oh, el!” she looks at him, surprised at the urgency in his voice. “el, i totally forgot. thank you so much. for the painting.”

“the… painting?”

“yeah, the one, you know, that will painted. from you, for me. the one where you told him… what to draw? he gave it to me when we went to get you from NINA.”

“mike... i don’t understand. will was very secretive about his painting. he never told me what was on the painting or who it was for.”

“so you didn’t—never said anything about… me being the heart of the group?”

el shakes her head no, equally confused.

mike looks down at his shoes. there’s no way el could be lying, he thinks. she’s probably the most sincere person on the planet.

el senses how perplexed he is by her answer and elaborates. “remember, in my last letter to you? i told you that he was painting something and was keeping it private.” she took a breath. “i thought he was painting it for someone he…”

mike doesn’t hear the rest of her words because something has shifted and his ears are ringing and now it’s a perfect game of tetris inside him, mismatched pieces that were once clunking inside his chest now sliding together perfectly and releasing the immense pressure he’d no idea had been building.

everything falls into place perfectly and paints a picture that isn’t, can’t possibly be, real.

“el… i don’t…” mike swallows. “he told me that you asked him to paint it.”

el simply shakes her head and continues to let mike process verbally.

“i think he lied to me.”

“i’m sorry to hear that,” el frowns, heartfelt.

“it just doesn’t make sense. he draws me things all the time… or, he used to, before you guys moved to lenora. why wouldn’t he just tell me the painting is from—“

realization hits mike in the fucking throat.

i think there is someone he likes.

these past few months, she’s been so lost without you.

you make her feel like she’s not a mistake at all… like she’s better for being different.

so yeah, el needs you, mike. and she always will.

mike feels tears begin to prick at the corners of his eyes.

“he lied to me.” his breath is starting to come in sharply, like his body is struggling to adjust to the new homeostasis created by this information.

el looks out the window, thinking. she looks back at mike and shrugs. “that’s strange. will is a good friend. and friends don’t lie.”

mike sighs, trying to take deep breaths and not show el how distraught he is, his brain still catching up with what his heart, pounding violently against his ribcage, has already pieced together.

but el is perceptive as ever. “mike?”

he looks at el. she blinks at him, like she’s unsure if what she’s about to say will help at all, but she still wants to try.

el continues. “friends don’t lie. but max told me…”

mike is confused at what max has to do with this. “huh?”

“max told me that boyfriends do.”

mike’s eyes widen and an invisible force within him pulls him into a standing position.

“fuck,” he breathes.

“fuck?”

“fuck. fuck.” he turns toward el. “el, i’m sorry, i have to…”

“go to him. tell him i’ll be there in a few minutes with the last of my things.” she smiles, knowing.

mike storms out the door and toward his bike. it’s pouring rain but it couldn’t possibly matter less. he has to get to will right. fucking. now.

part two

[belovedwhore]

jonathan byers x reader smut

- this is my first ever smut writing so if it’s bad i apologize

warnings: purely smut, fingering, handjob

you guys were home alone at jonathon’s, will slept over at the wheeler’s so he wouldn’t be back until later in the day and joyce had already headed off to work. after eating breakfast the two of you settled down on the couch to watch tv. movie after movie, with each one you’d focus lessening. your head laid in jonathan’s lap. he was intrigued by the tv even after the countless films you’d already watched while you were in the mood for something a little different. you danced your fingers across his thigh, hearing his breath hitch each time you came near his dick. you started to drag out your motions over his crotch, focusing on his bulge, adding pressure as you heard jonathan’s heart stop. jonathan hummed into your touch, shifting his hips, looking for more friction than he was getting from your mere touch.

“a little eager, are you jonathan?,” you asked him, sitting up, taking your head off his lap.

“please, please touch me,” he quietly moaned.

you climbed onto his lap placing each of your legs outside of his own, sitting right on his clothed cock. he let out a stifled moan, shocked by the sudden friction between the two of you. you began to kiss him, leaving a light, feathery trail up and down his neck all while hearing his desperate moans in your ears, which only spurred on your actions. finally you reached his lips, foreheads touching inching closer and closer. in efforts to close the gap between the two of you jonathan leaned forward. you turned your head quickly to the side, leaving him to kiss your cheek. he grabbed your chin and turned it back towards him,

“please, need to feel your lips,” jonathan pleaded.

“well since you asked nicely,” you smiled finally leaning in to kiss him.

the kiss started off gentle, small pecks with little pauses the catch some air. you began to take the lead, poking your tongue through in hopes jonathan would let you through, which he did. it became more heated, eager, you leading the pattern and jonathan following. both of you moaned into the kiss as jonathan hands began to wander your body, slipping under your shirt, he groaned into the kiss, reaching up to your tits to find you weren’t wearing a bra.

“you drive me wild,” he whispered into your ear as if you two weren’t alone in the house.

“love making you feel good, love love love…,” you spoke to him, trailing off as you shifted back on his lap allowing you enough room to reach his cock.

you pulled down his pajama pants just enough to free his painfully hard dick, earning a hiss from jonathan as it hit the cold air. dragging your finger along the top of his dick, tracing his precum made his squirm. jonathan moaned louder now, feeling a new sensation as opposed to you simply sitting on his cock.

“holy fuck, i, i cant,” he whimpered, hiding his face in the crook of your neck.

you loved when he squirmed under your touch, getting to watch him experience every emotion possible during your times together.

wrapping your full hand around his cock you began to move it up and down at excruciatingly slow pace, drawing out jonathan’s pleasure.

“jonathan,” you said.

“mmhmm,” he answered, struggling to contain his moans.

“i want you to look at me, i wanna see how you’re feeling,” you told him.

“ok.” he said uneasy.

jonathan lifted his head out of the crook of your neck to meet your eyes, all while still undergoing to effect of your steady hand job. you increased the speed of your stroking until eventually he became a panting mess.

“i’m gonna cum , holy shit” he moaned as he finished on your hand, “oh my god.”

“you’re so cute when you cum,” you whispered to him, kissing his cheek.

turning your head back to face him, he takes charge for the moment, grabbing you with one hand and kissing you with eagerness. you give into the unexpected act of passion, moaning into the embrace until suddenly you gasp and moan loudly as you feel two of jonathan’s fingers deep inside of you.

“oh, jesus fuck jon oh my god,” you moaned loudly.

he smiled into your skin, kissing your neck and leaving little marks around your chest. he loved when you moaned his name. using your words as encouragement he began to curl his fingers inside of you, pushing them against the roof of your cunt.

you gasped loudly into his ear, “holy shit oh my god faster please.”

without noticing, you had began to grind yourself on jonathan’s figure, riding them to find some kind of release. this nearly made jonathan cum right then and there for the second time.

“please take off your shirt,” jonathan asked you which you wasted no time doing.

“jesus you’re beautiful.”

“keep saying my name,” he whispered in your ear, “love when you say my name”

“oh, mmm, jonathan,” you moaned as he began to pick up the pace.

he took his free hand and reached for your tits, capturing one of the nipple between his two fingers and lightly squeezing and pulling it. you jolted forward at this unexpected feeling, making jonathan’s fingers to hit you at an brand new angle.

“oh. my. god.” you breathlessly moaned, “please jon, i’m so close”

jonathan was soon rapidly fingering you, the sounds of the air purely made up of your moans and the sounds of his fingers in your pussy. he starts to kiss your neck again, this time more aggressively, bound to leave marks that’ll stay for a few days. traveling down your chest he captured one of your nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue the bud then heavily sucking. that spurred you over the edge.

“oh my-,” and your words were cut off by the violent orgasm that ripped through you, leaving you breathless with your head buried in jonathan’s neck.

he turned his lips towards you and whispered, “you’re so pretty when you cum.”

[chirpsythismorning]

You can't expect people to take you seriously if you're not providing any proof? If Will and El are twins and Joyce and Hopper are their bio parents, why don't any of them know about it and why haven't there been any hints about it? I'm not even trying to be rude here I just haven't seen any evidence. Let alone strong evidence

I've gotten a few confused asks about this theory and how it just doesn't make any sense..?

I'm not saying that I completely understand the ins and outs of how it works, in fact I'm still completely immersed in theorizing and not being certain of anything! Quite frankly, I don't understand it (how time works/the rules of the game), though I think that's necessary because otherwise everyone and their mother would have guessed this surprise by now if it was any more obvious than it already is.

I also just feel kind of bad about spoiling what could possibly be going down, especially bc this would clearly be a series long surprise.

I've been theorizing for months now with @shippingfangirl013 about this. It started with us sharing thoughts about Twelvegate and just sort of piecing together s4 lab scenes and then eventually going back to the beginning to see what we might have missed from this new lens, that being the possibility that Will is Twelve. And that's when we realized A LOT of stuff has been overlooked from the very beginning, which provides not only answers to certain questions we had, but also brings forth even more questions that we wouldn't have come up with, had we not looked back further into the details in the first place.

She has a bunch of posts that are severely underrated in regards to this whole theory, so I urge you all to check those out:

Twelvegate Theory: Drowning in the Quarry and Will & El (Part 1)

Twelve Actor Resemblance to Young Will Byers

Stranger Things S5 Conglomerate Twelvegate Theory (Part 1)

Conglomerate ST S5 Theory Parallels

Also be sure to keep an eye out because she has some really big brain analysis in the works that you dont want to miss. I can honestly say she plays a big role in why I feel fairly confident about this theory, because I myself didn't really believe it at first. But now, after everything I've seen, it's kind of hard not to.

Even if you don't like this the idea of this theory or just simply don't believe the evidence presented that you've seen thus far, at the very least looking at this could expand your ability to look further at other details on the show and even pick up on evidence of your own. I find that more often than not, knowing about the existence of certain overlooked details allows you to find even more overlooked details that others missed.

For the sake of your doubtful ask, and for anyone else who isn't even considering this theory because it seems too far fetched, I'm going to share some of my favorite unhinged evidence for whatever the hell gate we're calling this...

But first, here is some basic context for the chaos that follows.

Something important to note, is that we don't meet Hopper, El or the Byers the night that Will went missing. We only met Will and the party. Instead they saved the rest of the main character's introductions (his family, mind you) for the following day, after Will had gone missing. This also means they saved their introductions for AFTER the big power outage that happened that night right before he disappeared.

I find this interesting because this choice allowed them to make those introductions feel arguably 'starting point'/reset-like (like in a video game).

You'll also note there is a 'Pizza One' box in that first scene when the party is in Mike's basement playing their campaign, moments before that power outage. This could have been a hint that the very start of the pilot episode at the Wheelers may very well be the OG timeline, that we've been straying from ever since. And so let's say hypothetically, if we had met Hopper, El and the Byers BEFORE that power outage, whose to say their lives wouldn't have looked slightly different...?

The first time we are introduced to Hopper is in the scene directly after the opening credits, which was right after the scene of Will disappearing in the shed. Hopper is sleeping on the couch in his trailer, wearing both his daughter's blue bracelet and his watch. We also get 3 references to keys in this scene (a 2 ft long key decal in the literal opening shot). And if that's not enough, what follows is Hopper getting ready for work, putting a yellow pen in his pocket near a painting of an owl, before grabbing his keys and walking out the door.

The first time we are introduced to Joyce (the Byers), follows directly after the scene with Hopper, where Joyce just so happens to be looking everywhere for her keys, Where the hell are they?, followed by finding them on the couch, despite already looking there previously with no luck (interesting Hopper was sleeping on the couch with Willel symbols on his wrists only moments before this hmm). We then get a shot of Joyce showing concern over Will not eating breakfast, followed by scolding Jonathan for forgetting to wake Will up, adding I've told you this a thousand times, before she walks past an owl on the wall in the hallway and opens the door to another owl on the wall in Will's (unoccupied) room...

Let me just say, for the sake of this fictional family, I hope to god they haven't been through this thousands of times. Though I fear they might have. At least more than once...

There are a lot, A LOT of scenes that go down like this. As the show progresses, we get a lot of references to time passing and confusion and impatience and it almost feels like they themselves know deep down this isn't their first rodeo, and yet they're still playing along bc how exactly can one question their reality?.

The problem right now for me, is that I don't understand the rules of the game. How does time work? What even is the goal of the game (to win, I presume?)? Maybe Vecna's having to keep reseting the time loop, to get the results he wants, and over time he's getting closer and closer to the results he wants, but it will ultimately (predictably) lead to him failing once and for all in the final season, when all is inevitably revealed?

Hypothetically, if this is all some game/pocket universe Vecna has thrown our core characters into, essentially surrounding them with 'fakers', then how do we know what is/isn't real? Or I guess whether or not we're in a timeline/loop either closest to, or furthest away from the original timeline? That's why it's hard for me to go further in terms of definitively piecing everything together time wise. Not only that, but we also don't even know for sure what Vecna wants from Will and El, truly.

But I do think that a lot of the answers to the truth are hidden in plain sight.

If you're genuinely curious, I encourage you to rewatch the show for yourself to see if you can pick up on things! Be sure to keep an eye out for keys and owls in particular. Also, El's flashbacks of Mama/the rainbow room might prove to be important... like, literally slowing down and pausing and screenshooting every single frame level important...

Who knows, you might even stumble upon a completely different undiscovered theory in the process!

On that note, here is just a slice of my favorite evidence in regards to this theory, that will hopefully open your mind to the possibility:

When Hopper asks about Lonnie's whereabouts, Joyce insists TRUST ME HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. They made sure to keep the keys on the wall OUT of the frame in those shots referencing Lonnie by name specifically. However, when the conversation circles back to Will, and then follows after with Joyce telling Hopper to find her son, the keys are once again visible in both of their shots.

This scene right here is pretty epic. We all interpret Hopper's investigative skills throughout the series as him just being good at his job. But I would argue this scene in particular gives off very intense deja vu. It's as if Hopper knows where to look, because he's done this before. It's as if he's getting a gut feeling in certain areas that actually could be close to the truth, because this is his thousandth time doing this (Jesus, for their sake, I hope that's not the case).

Still, Hopper showcases a lot of unbelievable detective work throughout the show, and I think it could very well be hinting at him drifting in and out of awareness over the fact that he has done this before, which allows him to make such incredible guesses that lead him to the answer sooner than he would have in any normal situation (and yet, never too close...)

Has this always been here? That's what Hopper asks about a dent in the wall. We interpret it as maybe Hopper trying to figure out if this could be connected to Will's disappearance. But what if it's more than that? What if it hasn't always been there? What if this is a glitch in the matrix of sorts, and he noticed that glitch, bc this isn't his first time doing this? (Also peep the owl that shows up at the very last second in the shot directly below, with Joyce and Hopper in the frame, just as he gets the urge to check the backyard...)

This scene... This fucking scene ya'll. It just doesn't make any sense. This is one of several scenes throughout the show that have so many unanswered questions. I think it's because something else is going on that weren't not supposed to understand yet. That shot with Hopper encased in a rainbow is cool and probably means something... Hopper intensely walking into the frame as he steps towards the shed, with the upside down horseshoe above the door also probably means something...

Hopper literally walks up straight to where Will was in the shed the night previous, bc he's just that good of a detective. Yeah, okay... Suddenly the light overhead is blinking dramatically, only to switch off completely, which leads Hopper's eyes to catch this makeshift fort in the corner of the shed. Before he even gets a good look at what he's seeing, he's interrupted by Callahan, pulling him out of his deja vu state, followed by the light switching back on instantly, as if the occurrence was all in his head.

This also happens a lot, where our main characters are being interrupted by other characters, only seconds before they were close to solving something. And I just find that interesting...

This one is kind of peak comedy because, all it's doing on the surface is implying that Joyce and Hopper have a romantic history, but it also sneakily involves Will in the joke, as evidence that they have been intimate... The Chief and her, they've screwed before huh? ...WILL! That a 'yeah' or did they...

To be honest, I was really doubtful about Joyce and Hopper being El and Will's biological parents at first, even despite believing twelvegate and the possibility of them being twins. And this doubt mostly came from the scenes we get with Terry aka El's 'Mama'.

Initially, I had convinced myself it would be too sad, considering how much backstory we got about Terry. But @shippingfangirl013 made me realize that there is something very off about these scenes with Terry, that I think kind of went over all of our heads.

First of all, Mama is essentially the equivalent to the name Papa, and so we should start by unpacking that. Why didn't the writers have El distance herself from that exact association she links to Brenner, by just having her call Terry 'mom' like most kids call their mother? It doesn't seem that serious on the surface, but again this is a choice the writers made... Maybe it's because they wanted the audience to subconsciously associate those two with each other (Papa/Mama)? Also peep Jim giving Will Byers vibes, all lit up by the sun like Jesus (or I guess... God?) below!

The main thing I want to talk about though, is that despite Terry's vegetative state, she's still managing to give us hints about how she feels and what she thinks, with very subtle micro-expressions.

When she meets Hopper and Joyce in s1, Terry looks completely unsurprised. You could say she looks the same all of the time, because of her vegetative state, and while I mostly agree, there are some outliers in the mix.

When Joyce mentions El being her daughter, what we get is a reaction shot of Terry dramatically closing her eyes for an extended period of time, almost like she's experiencing frustration over them woefully misunderstanding the truth behind what's going on.

And I think that's kind of the whole point of the vegetative state here, that perhaps if Terry could say what she wanted to say, it would give away the truth that has been hidden all along, AKA Joyce and Hopper are El and Will's true parents. When Joyce then mentions her missing son, showing Terry a picture of him, this woman LITERALLY turns her head to the right, looking straight up annoyed... Why? Why would she do that unless this is her ?/? time meeting them, hearing this same old silly charade?..

But then here... THIS moment when Hopper asks about Brenner and Terry's relationship with him, that's when it gets interesting. Terry doesn't look exhausted over their ignorance anymore like she seemed to be in the moments previous. Now, she's back to her stare of nothing, and yet seeing this in contrast to her micro-expressions, almost adds a new layer to what this could possibly mean... Perhaps this could be hinting that Hopper is a lot closer to the truth than he realizes, warranting a knowing look from Terry, with her almost impressed, thinking Damn Jim, maybe you'll figure it out this time and I can finally be released from this hell...

This might seem like a reach to assume Brenner and Terry had any sort of relation beyond her being a lab volunteer, but something I think you might be interested in knowing, is that Terry has a little collection of Bonsai tree books beside her chair... Bonsai... does that remind you of anyone...? (If you check out those posts by @shippingfangirl013, you might know what i'm referring to...)

The fact that Hopper even mentions Brenner and Terry's presumed connection to him is just one other example of Hopper subconsciously picking up on things he discovered in previous loops that are close to the TRUE truth, allowing him to narrow things down quicker this time around, without needing to take all the steps to get to that point.

An owl behind both Joyce and Hopper here, while they talk about what allegedly happened to Terry and her daughter Jane.

And there you have it folks, the acknowledgment that the truth could have been covered up, the moment Hopper stands in front of the owl artwork (literally covering it up). Owls, which have been tied more than anyone else to Hopper, Joyce, Will and El (tying them together?).? Also the crib between them... Nothing to see here.

This one is pretty self explanatory. We even get a parallel to this in s4 with El AND Will, though next time they'll confirm Hopper's role in the equation. So, be ready for that...

These scenes are so important to this theory because despite them all being separated (who knows how many times now), they have this epic finale of coming together. We get these really heartfelt scenes with El and Joyce and Hopper, Will and El, and then Will and Joyce and Hopper, and it's all very emotional and just so much deeper knowing that the truth could be that they're all tied to each other more than we (or even them) realize.

11 & 12 between the two hands on the clock, in a moment that parallels X-Men and also the lab massacre (which presumably had both 11 and 12 in attendance...). Mike calling out to El emotionally the moment that Joyce and Hopper are reunited with Will. My heart can't take it!!!

Someone actually noticed this shot of Hopper recently, I can't remember who! But it made me want to go back to see what shot is right before it. And low and behold, it follows directly after a shot of the Byers family reuniting. Kind of interesting they made the choice to have this shot right afterwards, of Hopper sitting next to Ted (aka a dad), while looking lost in thought as he stressfully bites his nails, with his arm sporting his daughter's blue bracelet...

Not suspicious at all. That creepy shadow behind Owens as he makes an almost knowing comment about Joyce and Hopper being 'Mom and Pop', followed by Hopper looking like he's missing something...

And for this scene to follow shortly after? Hopper literally acknowledging Owens whose waving at him politely, and yet choosing to not wave back at him?... He KNOWS something is off, but he just can't quite put his finger on it...

As you probably know, most of the scenes with the birthday mug in Mike's basement involve either El (in s1) or Will (in s2-3), which is interesting considering the other few notable birthday references we get in the show, including this really cryptic sequence above, involve Joyce and Hopper...

Now, if you still didn't believe me about Terry's behavior being off, I think this piece of evidence might help support our claims a little bit more for you to consider. Because, why, WHY when El approaches Terry in the void and says I'm home, is Terry's response No..? Why would that even make any sense? Why would El's biological mom say No to her missing daughter implying that she is her family? Unless, she's not of course...?

Something interesting about the flashbacks that Terry shows El, is that they're very sporadic and hard to understand. Not only that, but we STILL get callbacks to these memories heavily even in s4, which tells me there is still something there that has yet to be picked up on, by both the audience and El herself, which is why they keep resurfacing in different forms. My favorite moment out of the s2 flashbacks though is probably this moment where it looks like a baby is born, only for Brenner to look back, like there's more to come (another baby?? TWINS?). But this type of twin imagery, only gets stronger in s3-4...

After 2 seasons of building up this meeting of these two characters who have been mirroring each other since the very beginning, here we are... Also, why even hold back for so long in introducing them? Maybe because them finally interacting properly is going to cause some things to resurface... And you definitely don't want to overlook these shots of Hopper and Joyce in Melvald's with two baby's in between them, followed by a shot of keys... Hmmmm.

Remember when I said to pay attention to the Terry/Lab flashbacks El experiences over the seasons?

Well this particular flashback below comes from 3x06: E Plurbius Unum aka the episode that was originally titled The Birthday, might prove to be important...

Jonathan and Will in a scene prior to El's flashback, has them situated interestingly between this Lucky Charms box and this Spill & Spell game, which is then followed by this scene with El experiencing flashbacks... And...

Rainbow? Lucky (Upside down horse shoe...) Enter flashback

I'm not going to be able to show each frame of this flashback, because in total there are over 30 different quick images shown and repeated...

And so, If you want to find out why this is the strongest piece of evidence for Willel twins in my opinion (brought to you by @shippingfangirl013's big brain), go back and rewatch to see how many times they show the image of baby El and young El in the rainbow room... Also take note of how shots of Kali (008) are interspersed consistently within this flashback, aka a character that is known for having powers to make people invisible, and to also make people see things that aren't actually happening...

Here's that parallel I mentioned earlier making a return, but instead tying El (and arguably Will) to Hopper being their biological father. Also peep El's bracelet and Will's watch being prominent in a lot of their shots together throughout s4, now that they share the screen a lot more.

The Wright Bros...

No, but seriously, Willel's bracelet and watch mirroring each other often in their scenes together, and by association also paralleling Hopper wearing one of each, dramatically showcased in his introduction to the series, can be something so personal to me...

THEY'RE TWINS YOUR HONOR!

This one really goes off. A car passes by a couple times during this flashback El has (IN S4), causing a shadow to cast behind Will, almost creating this duplicate-like effect... This is literally happening while El is having a flashback to her 'birth mother', while staring at a family (with their faces warn out/blurred) on a billboard, with an arrow pointing towards where Will, aka her twin, is standing to the right of her...

This one below has gotta be my favorite though. And it's because I literally remember watching this scene the first time and being confused?

Tbh, that's when you know something is more complex than it appears. Whenever something feels off within the context provided in the moment, it's probably because there's something deeper going on and there are multiple meanings at play. This means they're using this small moment as an opportunity to provide dual meaning in plain sight, that we wont understand the dual meaning of until later on down the line.

Are you ready..

Hmmm. I wonder what this could possibly be alluding to? Could it perhaps be the writers hinting at Hopper unintentionally projecting his own situation onto Dmitri? Is it possible who Hopper believes to be his child (daughter... son(s?)?) and his (ex)wife, are not actually who he and everyone thinks they are...?

Well. There you have it! These are just some of the many, many hints hiding in the details that point to the possibility of the Byers actually all being, Hoppers...?

For now, this is just a theory! So even though it's cool and there is a serious amount of evidence pointing to it, it will most definitely continue to transform and look different over time, the more we look deeper and discover more. Nothing is set in stone, for now it's all just theories and speculation.

Again, if you're curious about what else there is out there in regards to this theory and other possibilities surrounding it, please follow and check out @shippingfangirl013 posts! She was way more on board with this theory than me in the beginning and arguably still is, because I do still experience occasional doubt about it, for sure.! And so without her I would not have come to half of these conclusions! I look forward to you guys seeing other stuff she's discovered bc seriously... Her poor storage ya'll.

And also, if you're interested in the time-loop aspect specifically in regards to this, I encourage you to check out two recent posts I did about this. Part I actually starts with those first scenes introducing Hopper and the Byers and how other scenes later in the show parallel it. VERY VERY cool stuff, and tbh if you've made it this far, I think you'll be intrigued...

Time Loop Fuckery in Stranger Things Part I

Time Loop Fuckery in Stranger Things Part II

[dckweed]

OMG DID YOU JUST SQY THAT A JEW PART IS VOMING OUT SOON FOR I JUST FEEL SO STUPID !?!? 🥹🫶🏻

hi love here it is :) i lied earlier when i said you would need tissues, save them for part three you guys okay? bc that will be up by the end of next week. as someone who's been pregnant, i had a completely different one than most people do, it was very intensely tumultuous and life threatening on my end towards the end. this in no way reflects my pregnancy.

3.777k words.

warnings: pregnancy, morning sickness, mama Byers, brotherly jonathan idk what else to put.

part one

"..I'LL BE THERE.." billy hargrove x female!hopper reader

It had been only a couple of days since your confession and subsequent break down in front of Joyce, the woman had been amazing, you had to admit. She had kept true to her word and hadn't said a word to your father, she had picked you up from school the next day around noon and had driven you straight to her gynecologists office, she had thought about buying you a test kit from the store, but she needed to be sure about this, and so did you. 

The ride there was silent and tense, though she had asked how you'd been feeling and if you were okay. You had given her simply a meek nod of your head, ready to just go home and hide in your bed. She ushered you inside the building, walking up to the reception desk with you. 

"My daughter has a 12:30 appointment with Doctor Parsons," She says, and you can't help but feel warm at the mention her calling you her daughter, you can't help the small smile on your lips at the notion. She talks to the lady for a few more moments before being handed a clipboard and a pen, ushering you over to the waiting area. "Alright honey, just need to answer some of these.."

Once you fill out all of the papers, using her address instead of yours Incase they mailed anything that you didn't want your father seeing, you hand her the clipboard and she takes it back to the receptionist. Before she can even sit back down an overly chipper blonde headed lady pokes her head out of a door that leads to a hallway and calls your name. 

You stand, holding your hand out for Joyce. "I don't want to do it alone." You say, and the woman gives you a warm smile, rubbing your back as she squeezes your hand, walking next to you. 

"You're not alone." You knew she meant the words in more ways than one, and for that you were more than grateful. 

The nurse that had called your name hands you a small plastic cup with your name on it before taking your weight, sending you off to the bathroom. Thankfully you had managed to keep a whole bottle of water down this morning, and hadn't peed since before you left for school. 

The patients room was small and cold, and you couldn't help but shiver in the thin dressing gown they had given you to put on, incase they needed to do more of an exam, incase the test was positive. 

The pair of you sat in a tense silence, you perched on the edge of the exam table, her in one of the hard plastic chairs to your left. You picked at your fingers, a nervous habit you had picked up over the years, one you did mostly when you were thinking deeply about something, much as you were right now. 

Your mind was a swirling mess, you don't remember much of the last couple of days, much less today. You had gone through the halls like a zombie, not speaking or even looking at people, your body on its own kind of auto pilot. You hadn't noticed the worried glances from Jonathan or Nancy, the hushed whispers of El and your father this morning, you hadnt even noticed Billy shadowing you through the halls, trying to catch your attention. You don't even remember hearing any of your teachers talking, your brain nothing but one big buzz of a blur as you thought about what was possibly growing inside of your uterus, your future. 

God, this was terrifying. How were you going to do this? How were you going to tell your father? Jesus, how were you going to tell Billy?

"Joyce," Your voice shakes and the woman looks up at you, she had been staring intently at the white tile floor, her leg bouncing nervously. She hums, bottom lip in her mouth as she chews on it. "my dad is going to be so mad at me.." 

Joyce stands, shaking her head. "Hey now, don't think like that, Y/N," She says, taking your hands in her own. They were warm, and comforting as she rubbed her thumbs across the backs of your knuckles. "Your dad is by no means a gentle hearted man at times but he is your father, and he loves you. Hop might be a bit upset, but he'll come around, and i know he'd support you in whatever you decide to do..even if he doesn't like your decisions." You nod at her words, knowing she's right, but you don't feel the least bit comforted by them, your whole world was changing, you didn't need the doctors to tell you, you already knew. "Now what about this Billy kid?"

You swallow thickly, lifting your head up to meet her eyes. "What about him?" Your voice is quiet, small as you grimace, thinking back to the night that had lead you to this moment. 

Joyce opens her mouth to speak, eyebrows furrowed, but is interrupted by the light knock on the door, followed by the doctor poking his head in. He gives you a smile, walking in. 

"Joyce, good to see you.." He says, giving the woman a friendly handshake. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but i believe birthed all of your children with you, i don't recall there being any girls.." 

"She's not mine by blood, Doc, but she's as good as." She says, giving you a squeeze in your shoulder. You reach up to grab her hand, enjoying the comfort of brought you to hear those words. "So..are we.. expecting?"

The doctor purses his lips, looking at the two of you as he leans against a machine you hadnt noticed before. "You are indeed, yes. Urinalysis picked up levels of the pregnancy hormone.." He says, you feel a slight sense of relief at the news, because at least now you knew for sure. "I'd like to have you back on Wednesday for an ultrasound and some basic measurements so that we can find out exactly how far along you are..give you a few days to think about your options.." 

You don't know what to say, eyes wide and mouth slacked. Joyce does the talking for you, before helping you down off of the table to dress, you going through the motions as she helps you back into your clothes. 

"What the fuck am i going to do?" 

Joyce was amazing to say the least. She had taken you home to her house that afternoon, and held you in her arms as you cried on her couch, sobbing into her lap as you blubbered about how this wasn't what you wanted to do with your life, how you hadn't ever meant to be pregnant at your age, let alone by losing your virginity. 

She had let you stay the night, and saturday night as well, taking the whole weekend off of work to be with you. Jonathan had protested when she kicked him out of his own room for you to have somewhere quiet to rest, especially once the morning sickness got to you, but he had gone quietly none the less, eyes narrowed as he wondered what the hell was going on. 

On Sunday, around noon you called Joyce into the room, you had just finished throwing up everything you had managed to keep down throughout the night, which was mostly just water and some saltine crackers. She was kind enough to bring a fresh glass of water with her, and you groaned softly when she climbed into the bed behind you, brushing hair away from your forehead. 

"It gets better in a few months honey, i promise." She says softly, and you feel the motherly love flow through her fingertips. You relished in the feel of it, your body relaxing even if only for a few minutes. 

"That's a few months too long.." You groan, pulling Jonathan's blanket farther up your body. She chuckles and you sit in silence for a minute, before you breathe out a tense breath. "I want to tell dad tonight..I'm scared, but he needs to know first." 

Joyce hums. "Im scared too baby, but you're right, he needs to know." She knew Jim might possibly fly off the handle, she knew that he might raise his voice and stomp around, but she also knew that he loved you, and he would support you, even if he disagreed with your choices. "Well, he gets off early today, so I guess I'll go ahead and start on dinner..what sounds good?" 

After a few hours, you had finally gotten dressed, throwing on an old sweater that Joyce had given you and your pants that she had washed for you. Your father was off work early, much as she had said, and you gave him a tight hug, thankful for the time you had while he wasn't mad at you.

When it was time for everyone to sit down for dinner, you stayed next to Joyce, feeling the most comfortable. Will and Jonathan were on one side, El and your father on the other, talking about how their weekends had been going, what their dungeons and dragons campaign had been like. It was a normal, happy dinner. You pushed your pasta around your plate, taking a few bites here and there, the food being the one thing that didn't make your stomach roll at the sight or smell of it. 

"Y/N, honey? You've been awfully quiet.." Your father says, you look up at him quickly, your eyes wide. "What's on your mind?" 

You stammer over your words for a moment, before Joyce gives your hand a gentle squeeze, calming you enough to be able to spit it out. "Um, actually dad, I do have something to tell you, everyone actually." He sets his fork down, still chewing his food and he looks at you ecpextantly, the whole table goes quiet, eyes on you. "I know you're going to be upset, and I'm upset at myself as well, but i can't change what's happened.."

He looks at you, brows furrowed as his expression changes into one of anxiousness. "Y/N…" He says, voice low, your name slow to come off of his lips. "What's going on?" He glanced at Joyce too, not liking the soft look she sends his way. 

"Dad, guys, I'm..pregnant." 

Tables hadn't exactly flipped, but they were close to it. Your dad's hand squeezed around his fork as his face paled at your words. Did i hear that right? He wondered, eyes wide as he slowly turned his head to look at you. "What did you say?" The entire table had gone silent, still. It was almost as if everyone was afraid to move incase if brought his wrath down upon them.

You rub your lips together for a moment, your leg bouncing up and down under the table in nervousness as you squeeze Joyce's hand tightly, trying not to outwardly convey your fears. "I'm pregnant, dad.." You spit out once more, feeling bile rise in the back of your throat. "I'm gonna be sic-" You rise from the table quickly, hand over youe mouth as you sprint to the bathroom, just barely making it to hover above the toilet, and not nearly in enough time to keep it from spewing down your clothes. 

You vaguely hear footsteps coming after you, and feel someone's presence move your hair back from your face as you vomit the contents of your stomach, your anxiety and morning sickness mixing together to push it all out. You groan as you sink down to your knees, and almost jump through the window when you realize it's your father's hand rubbing your back now, trying his best to soothe you. "I'm sorry.." 

He doesn't say anything for a few moments but you see his face soften, some of his anger, or maybe fear ebbing away at your complete look of panic and fear. "This why you've been staying here the last couple days?" He asks, his voice tight, you know that that's a sign that he's trying to avoid his emotions, to control them and push them down. You nod, his hand stops rubbing your back. "Alright honey, why don't you go lay down okay? I need to talk with Joyce.." 

He helps you to Jonathan's room, pulling the blanket up around you as you curl up into a ball on the bed that was surprisingly comfortable and welcoming warmth after having stripped yourself of your sweater that had been ruined by your vomit. 

"Don't be mad at her dad..she was only trying to go what i asked.." You murmur, stomach still rolling, causing your face to blanch before you gag. You father grimaces as he holds up a trash bin for you to barf in, turning his head as he rubs your back again. After a minute or so you raise your head up, eyes drooping with exhaustion. "She was only trying to be a mom.."

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Monday rolled around faster than you had wanted it to, Jonathan waking you by shaking your shoulder gently, holding a cup of water out to you. You take it gratefully, the taste of vomit and bad breath lingering in your mouth. 

"Did they argue?" You ask, voice raspy as you watch him go through his dresser for clothes. "It's my fault if they did, i shouldn't have had her keep a secret like that.." 

Jonathan shakes his head, rolling his eyes at you. "I know it's just you being emotional because you're pregnant, but you're an entire rollercoaster to be around the last couple of weeks, you know that?" He asks, looking over at you. He grind and ducks as you throw a pillow at him. "They didn't fight..well, they did, but mom put your dad in his place and they came to a stiff agreement before they kissed and made up." 

You hum, sipping the water slowly. "Good, he needs her to humble him." You say. "You driving me to school?" He looks back up at you as he finally digs out some clothes. 

"You going today?" He asks, looking at you. "Do you even want to be around Billy right now?" You narrow your eyes at him. "Oh come on, it wasn't that hard to figure out, he's been staring at you for weeks now, and i know it wasn't Steve that took you to that party, he wouldn't have left you on the front porch drunk like that." 

You swallow thickly, suddenly nervous. "He needs to know, might as well confront him about it now, it would be rude of me to suddenly show up one day with a baby belly and just be 'hey, Billy, you're having a kid soon!'." You push the blankets off of you, slowly getting to your feet. You were queasy, but not overly, and for that you were grateful. 

The drive to school was thankfully not horrible, Jonathan being kind enough not to take turns too hard and swerving so as not to cause your stomach to roll. He even walked you into school, making sure you had your sweater because you seemed to be so cold all the time that you shivered. 

The day had been long, your exhaustion washing over you as you moved from class to class, smiling and talking to your friends and teachers as you did, feeling somewhat like yourself again with the weight of your affliction off of your shoulders now that you had at least told your family about it. Billy plagued the back of your mind the whole day, you had caught glimpses of him in the halls, but hadn't made any moves to talk to him, you figured it'd be easier to corner him after basketball practice, when he would be in a decent-ish mood and more willing to talk. 

That was where you were now, your bag on your shoulder and the sleeves of your sweater tucked up around your hands, you were cold. "Jonathan, really, I'm okay." You say exasperatedly, he had been on your heels all day between classes, asking if you needed anything, practically being over protective as if he were the father of the baby you were carrying. "Go home.." 

He looks at you, and then glances out at Billy on the on the floor, he was sweaty and shirtless, much too good looking, you thought. "You're going to need a ride home, and what if he acts like a total dick, huh?"

You groan, turning to face him. "Jonathan, go home. Let me do this by myself, this is between him and I, it's not your mess." You say a little too forcefully. "I appreciate you being so sweet, and for letting me take over your room this weekend..but really, im okay." 

He's hesitant still, but he finally concedes, hanging his head as he sighs. "Well, call me when you get home at least, just so I know you're safe." He kisses the top of your head before grabbing his bag and getting his keys from his pocket, you can't help but adore the way he had adapted to being a brother to you. 

Practice goes on for another good long hour, and you're grateful when it's finally over, making your way down the bleachers as the boys head to the locker rooms. You sit on the bottom row, foot nervously tapping and subconsciously, a protective hand on your stomach as it rolled in nausea. "Woah little one, hold your horses on that.." You mutter, and after a moment, it goes away almost as if it had understood you, even if it still wasn't more than just a clump of cells at that moment. 

A while longer passes, and you grow impatient as you wait, pulling a book out of your bag to entertain your overly worried mind. You don't hear the locker room door open, or his footsteps approach you, and you jump in fright when you hear his voice. "Are you sick your something?" He asks, taking you in cautiously. He noticed that you were awfully pale, and you looked queasy most of the day, particularly at lunch. 

You swallow, looking up at him. "I wish.." You murmur, putting your book away. "Billy, we need to talk.." You stand, face to face with him, mustering all the courage you could. 

He cocks his lips into a smirk, looking at you with those devilish eyes. "What? Are you pregnant?" He asks jokingly, completely expecting you to roll your eyes at him, he chuckles for a moment until he sees your pursed lips, and an unsettling feeling wells up in his stomach. He feels about as sick as you look. "Oh..you aren't..are you?" 

You look away, unable to find the words. Slowly, you sink back down onto your spot on the bench, looking down at your feet. He's silent, and as a large group of boys comes barreling out of the locker room, he sinks down next to you, hands on his thighs, an odd expression on his face. 

"Are you okay?" You ask, he looked like he was feeling every emotion all at once, and it made you s little nervous. "Billy?" You ask, nudging his shoulder gentler with your own. 

He snaps out of his trance and glances at you, eyes wide as he turns to fully face you. "Am I okay? Are you okay?" He asks, and you sense actual concern in his voice, something that surprises you to no end. "Like..does it hurt or anything? Oh god are you actually sick? Is that really a thing?" 

You chuckle for a moment, taken aback by the concerned side of him. "Billy, im fine..sick constantly, I threw up after lunch, and all weekend..i can't keep anything down but Joyce says that that happens.." You see him tense as you speak. "Cold too, and god im exhausted..but anyway, i just wanted to tell you..i figured you had a right to..what are you doing?" Before you had finished speaking his leather coat was off of his shoulders and swung over yours, you stare up at him, shocked. 

"You're cold. My jacket is warm. Why are you only in that sweater? Don't you have anything warmer?" He asks, he wasn't exactly thrilled by the situation, but he wasnt stupid, he was just as much a part of this fuck up as you were, except he didn't have to deal with as many consequences as you did. The least he could do was not be a dick. 

"I spent the weekend with Joyce, this was all I had with me.." You say off handedly, though you snuggle up into the coat. It really was warm. You could tell he had more questions, but you honestly were shocked that he was being so…not him, and the stress of the anticipation has you more tired than anything. Maybe you should have had Jonathan wait for you. "I know you probably have alot to say, or maybe you don't, but..can we talk about all of it tomorrow? Im exhausted, and stressed and probably gonna throw up soon..I just want to go home.." 

And home you went, he had insisted on driving you, careful not to drive so erratically, and even turning the heat on for you even though it wasnt too cold out yet. He had even offered to walk you to the front door, but seeing your dad's car in the drive you figured that wasn't such a good idea. 

"Thank you, Billy.." You say, slipping out of his jacket. You hesitate before going to open the door, and you feel him shift towards you as if to ask if you're okay. "If you're interested, I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday for an ultrasound to see the..baby.." That was the first time you had said it out loud, and to be frank, it was quite weird coming from your lips.

Billy swallows, your words making it sink in just a bit more. Holy fuck, he thought, i really knocked her up.. "I'll be there." He says definitively, nodding at you as you give him a small smile before climbing out of car. He sits for a moment, head back against his seat as you walk up to your front door. He watches you disappear before driving off himself. 

[willthewise7]

Will Byers Potential Powers:

There is something more to the vanishing of Will Byers on the night of the 6th of November, 1983. The first image shows what is a clear image of a demogorgon, which could be seen as Vecna. What I want to note however is how demogorgons hunt prey by smelling blood, yet Will wasn’t shown to be bleeding. So how did it hunt him and why did it pursue him so desperately? Once Will runs into the house you can see the figure lurking beyond his front garden. As it approaches the door the latch unlocks itself, yet we know they haven’t been shown to have telekinesis powers. So how did it do this? One answer: Vecna. Additionally, demogorgons often brutally assault their victims and so why did it just not kill Will right there? He may have shot it but we know that doesn’t really work, mainly heat works. Unless it was told to keep him alive? We did see him being hooked up like he was being harvested by the Upside Down. So maybe he’s just a vessel ready for them to utilise?

At this point I think it’s plausible to theorise how Vecna is probably a “general”, as Dustin says, to the mindflayer and therefore is in control of the creatures of the Upside Down. So if Vecna was invovled in Will Byers going missing, why is he targeting Will so prominently? Why was the mindflayer instructing this to happen? The answer is Will has immensely hidden powers that can either be used for good or bad. If the mindflayer and Vecna can capitalise on this power and use Will as a vessel for Vecna to enter the real world, they can cause havoc.

Another solid point pointing towards the importance of Will is the date the Upside Down froze on, the day Will went missing. Whilst this is still hard to work out, the date links back to Will and this just hints further at his importance and potential powers. Additionally, if the Upside Down is frozen on the 6th of November, how did Will see which letters to light up? Joyce put the lights up to try to speak to Will after the 6th. What about the portal opening up in the wall near the front door? I’ll explain the portals later.

Now I’ve explained the backstory behind the origins of Wills potential powers, season 4 gives some really interesting subtle clues. In the roller rink Will is seen carrying two skates, both a size 10. What is interesting to note is 10 plus 10 equals 20. At this point you’re probably asking, why is this important?

I’ve included images of both of the rolls landed in the Hellfire Club campaign scene. A roll of 11 was not good enough to beat Vecna, which potentially foreshadows that El is not enough by herself and needs assistance. What roll did beat Vecna though? A number 20. Will is number 020? You may think this is a stretch but remember everything in the show is intentional. Or perhaps simply it’s used to show in the skate scene and to foreshadow Will is instrumental in beating Vecna with his potential powers, not necessarily a number 020. Although, I’ll explain close parallels with Henry Creel next.

This part will analyse how closely linked Will is to Henry/001/Vecna. Henry was described as a sensitive child the same as Will, drew like Will did and just generally seemed different. Note how flashing lights have been used to symbolise both Henry and Will? No coincidence there I don’t think. Whilst Vecna is a dark wizard, I see Will as being the light wizard and the one that fights the dark. Which is why Vecna wants to use Will and to corrupt him into joining him. They would be unstoppable.

Linking back to portals, Vecna is able to make portals once he has claimed a victim. He feeds on a life force and uses that energy to open portals. Interestingly in season 1 a portal opens up with Will trying to get through, when Joyce tries to break through it. Does this subtly hint Will can do the same as Vecna but almost has no clue about it? Remember 001 had a chip in his neck preventing his abilities? Will always touches the back of his neck? Maybe that’s a stretch but again, everything is intentional. I don’t think it would be as obvious as 001 either, it would be buried deeper so it was not visible. I know he touches it with the mindflayer but maybe that’s his link with 001 and the Upside Down? Time will tell on this one. Additionally, remember Joyce saying about Will having a birthmark on his arm? Imagine if it was on his wrist. Because don’t you find it odd that even the government and the lab knew how to replicate Wills body in every exact detail? Including a birthmark? Maybe, just maybe, he was a number after all but got his mind wiped in the fear he could use his powers for the worst.

It seems like Will could be the extra link needed, alongside El, to defeat Vecna and the Upside Down. Remember, El is labelled as a mage in the party, alongside Will The Wise could defeat the dark wizard (Vecna). Sounds like the game of Dungeons and Dragons really has come to life, linking with my Neverending Story theory. Will is the answer to the Neverending Story. Perhaps Mikes love is enough for Will to unlock his true powers and put an end to this story, alongside El. Vecna was defeated with love before, so it’ll take even more next time. That’s why 011 and 020 (or just Will) are needed. Note that I’m not saying love is simply enough needed to end this, it needs El and Will with their powers (a roll of 11 and 20) to beat Vecna, mindflayer and the Upside Down. But Mike could have an equally as important part in unlocking Wills powers, so maybe Byler does play a part in the main storyline potentially? Time will tell.

[coldninjaruins-blog]

if Jonathan dies, then I'd go on a mad killing spree. heck if it comes to Jonathan vs byler, I'd choose Jonathan without hesitation. Jonathan deserves so much love

Hi, first of all sorry for the delay in answering this!

While I too would be super upset if Jonathan dies in the show (mainly because I think it would be lazy writing and lousy ending for his character) but don't make me choose between byler and anything because my decision makes me even dislike myself lmao.

Anyway, I don't understand why we can't have both, why so many bylers are dead set on Jonathan dying, unpopular opinion but I don't think it's as foreshadowed as some of you think it is.

Maybe it's because so many want that angst for Will and kinda copy Max's arc in season 4 for Will in s5? But I don't see the narrative point to it and Will doesn't need Jonathan to die to have his emo phase.

Plus the fact that many want Jonathan to die simply because they think it would be more interesting for Will's development rubs me in the wrong way...

Look, I love Will too, he's my baby and I think everything revolves around him okay? But Jonathan is his own character outside of being Will's brother. Like is obviously a primary and important part of his character but he's not just that.

I already said in my other post how bad it would be for me if Jonathan, the parentified child, who even seems to give up his dream since he was 6 years old to go to NYU to choose a college where he can be close to his family ends up dying sacrificing himself to protect his younger brother.

Also let's think for a moment how Jonathan's death would really affect all the characters close to him.

I think many ignore is that if stranger things is serious about anything it is grieving and the death of its characters. Barb's death is something that still has a major influence even after 3 seasons, Joyce couldn't date Hopper in season 3 because she still wasn't over Bob's death. And I can say many more examples.

We all know is that this is why the Duffers don't permanently kill off their main characters and create characters specifically to sacrifice them for him sake of the plot. They said it themselves “When Barb dies, it’s two seasons of grappling with that”.

The Duffers said that even Eddie's death is going to have major repercussions in season 5 and I believe them, especially I think it's going to have major repercussions on Dustin's character.

Now imagine Jonathan is killed off, how would this affect Will? Joyce? Joyce who said she is not having any more funerals? Joyce who spent season 1 and 2 looking for her son and trying to keep him alive? Joyce who lost Bob in season 2 and lost Hopper in season 3? How would it affect her to lose a loved one again?

How would this affect Nancy and would this mean that all the drama about which colleges they are going to was unnecessary? Because dead people can't go to colleges.

This would have repercussions even on Argyle.

Killing Jonathan at the end of the season wouldn't make sense to me because how are they going to do that and have the Byers have a relatively happy ending and killing him off at the beginning of the season would feel out of nowhere and cheap and you really think a single season would be enough to encompass the repercussions of his death? To tie up nicely the problems his son-mother relationship with Joyce has? (I'm sorry but their relationship has problems that need to be addressed and even Jonathan's death wouldn't be good closure).

And not to make this about Byler again but what would be the point of having Jonathan as an observer of Mike and Will's situation in s4, not only in the van scene but especially in the van scene and if this in the end had no reason to be?

I hope this was a good answer and at the end of the day this is just my opinion so feel free to disagree with me.

Sorry for the rant and thanks for the ask!

[erikiara80]

Will, Sarah and Hopper (Part II): curses, galaxies and black holes

Here Part I

I wanted to see if there could be more connections between Hopper and Will (for my Sarah could be Will theory) And I found something.

Season 1. The first time Hopper talks about Sarah

@chirpsythismorning​ talks about the possible Byers kids-Hopper connection in her analyses. For example, she noticed that when Officer Callahan asks Powell if Hopper and Joyce had sex, Powell starts yelling Will’s name, and Callahan says: is that a yes? That could simply be foreshadowing of Jopper getting together. Or maybe a hint that Will is their kid.

Now, about Will and Sarah.

In the woods, Mr Clarke tells Hopper that Will is a good student. A great one (another mention of One) And Hopper says:  

Sarah, my daughter... The galaxies, the universe, what not, she always understood all that stuff.

Maybe she’s one of Mr Clarke students? Hopper says no, Sarah lives with her mother in the city (hm). Then a woman tells Clarke that Hop’s kid actually died. And then there is this interesting transition. Hopper, then Will the Wise.

So, both Will and Sarah were good at science

But does this information come back in other seasons? And is it still connected to Will? To my surprise, yes. It does. And yes, it is.

Season 2. Hopper and El talk in 2x09

That’s such a beautiful scene, I love it. But then I noticed something. 

This is the second time in the show Hopper says that he’s cursed. But it’s a bit different. In S1 he asked the librarian if she felt like she was cursed (this reminds me of One/Vecna curse)

In S2, he compares himself to a black hole. When El asks what a black hole is, this is his answer:

It’s a thing in outer space 

It sucks everything towards it and destroys it. Sarah, my daughter, had a picture book about outer space. She loved it.

El asks who Sarah is and where she is. And when Hopper says: She left us, El says: Gone.

In 2x06, Joyce asked Owens what happens when Will is gone. And when El and Hopper have that conversation, Will is still possessed by the Shadow Monster. Something dark that is erasing (destroying) everything he is.

Hopper: Yeah. Black hole (dark thing from outer space) Got her.

Also, if Will is connected to another dimension and could be the key to defeat Vecna/Mind Flayer, couldn’t this mean that 

he understands the galaxies, the universe and what not?

BONUS:

S1 flashback: Joyce sees Will's green fireballs and says she doesn't know who's been raising him (interesting) he needs new red crayons. Next scene, close up of Hopper.

[buggyzwrld]

m.o.m.l (highschool au! henry creel/reader) chapter 5

*quick a/n: thank you all so much for the support omfg! like my heart is so happy especially when you all tell me the aspects and stuff you want to see like aaaa.

also i changed a few things about the living situation for henry & el. instead of them living with just hopper, i decided to have a byers-hopper household (pictured above, what i imagine their house too look like, ignore the toyota car lol) so will, jonathan, el, and henry, are all siblings.

will and henry share a room, el has her own cause she's a girlboss (duh), and jonathan has his for.... reasons.

i hope you all enjoy this chapter, i hit many blocks writing it, and i twisted henry's backstory some for this au. tell me what you think of it so far. italicized words indicate flashbacks.

previous chapters here.

chapter 5: best to you

chapter namesake: best to you by blood orange.

-

Your call never came. 

Several hours passed when Henry got home from school. He immediately slung his backpack onto his bed, not even changing out of the clothes he wore, he didn’t even draw in his sketchbook or continue working on the art project he and Will had together for class.

He simply waited, waited, and waited by the phone in the kitchen. The times it did ring Henry would rush to the phone like it was his lifeline, only for it to be a call for Joyce, of course.

Now it was dinnertime, everyone was gathered around the table, Henry was simply by the phone, and Joyce began to become concerned as she laid the bowls out for everyone to grab the portions out of.

“Hen, are you gonna come join us for dinner?” She peeked her head around the corner of the parlor, seeing Henry’s lanky body slouched against the wall by the phone. 

No answer came, she called again, “Hen?” 

Henry turned around with a frustrated look on his face, but tried to convey his speech to not seem the emotion was aimed at her, “In a minute..” 

Joyce took notice of the stressed emotion on his face, coming closer, “What’s wrong, Hen? Did something happen at school?” However, before Joyce could utter out “school,” Henry stomped off upstairs, embarrassed at the loudness of her tone, now everybody else could hear something was wrong with him. Joyce walked back around to the table, sighing in defeat, as everyone stared at her with questionable looks. 

“What’s wrong with Henry?” Will asked, looking at his mother with concern as he poked at his food with his fork. Eleven, too, giving a bothered look at Joyce and the expression on her face. She knew her brother to be a peculiar one, however many things didn’t bother him as much as they have lately. 

“I don’t know,” Joyce began, stammering a little, “I mean, I’ve tried everything. He’s been by that phone all day, like he’s glued to it, I couldn’t even get him to help me with the chores like usual-” 

Hopper intervened, knowing she was about to go off on one of her small tangents, “He’s a teenage boy, Joyce, you have two, you know how complicated they can be.”

“I know, Hop. But Henry…” She trailed off, looking at Eleven, hoping the incoming statement wouldn’t offend her, “Henry’s… not a normal teenage boy..”  Eleven simply stared at her, arms crossed, she knew there was some truth in that matter. 

Will sighed, fed up with his mind wondering about what was wrong with Henry, and got up from his seat and went upstairs. 

“Will!” Joyce cried. Eleven sat picking at the peas on her plate with her fork, and soon she got up, following Will upstairs to his room. She, too, felt the overwhelming urge that something was up. 

“Guys! Wha…” Joyce just flung her arms up, looked at Hopper and Jonathan, who both just simply shrugged as they continued eating.

“Let them handle it, sit down and eat.” Hopper pointed to her seat with a fork, and she sat down, a heavy head in her hands. “If anyone knows how to handle it, it’s those two right there.” 

                                                                    -

In between those moments, Henry laid flat on the bed, his face into the pillow, clutching the blankets rather tightly. He’d never felt like this before, it was so frustrating to him. He couldn’t wrap his head around the concept of why he’d care so much about your issues, sure, your mom missing was a big deal… and the flashing lights, well… 

Maybe it was a big deal in the physical sense, seeing as what all him and his sister’s gang had to go through in the past few years. However, the concept he couldn’t wrap his head around was different from this. He couldn’t understand why he cared for your emotions so much, there was a time he could rarely remember caring slightly for anyone’s emotions other than Eleven’s. He was indifferent to others, even thinking he wasn’t capable of the action of “caring.” Living amongst other people morally diverse from him must have caused this, he’d been living on and off with several different people since the past 4 years him and his “sister” had escaped the lab. 

He’d seen and experienced different things, people, ideas. Things One in the lab could only think about outside those sterile walls. Something he didn’t think had existed. He was experiencing humanity in its rawest form. Not amongst white sterile walls, hospital gowns, and authoritarian figures that dictated his whole life. Now, here he was, experiencing an emotion he’d never felt rise in his chest before, and with it came hurt. Yes, he was hurt. Hurt that you didn’t contact him, he could say he even felt betrayed. It felt funny, his whole body felt funny with emotion.

“If they actually cared about our conversation.. They would call..” He grumbled into his pillow, “Stop worrying about it….” 

Before he could finish his come together talk, his door burst wide open, Will coming through first, then Eleven, looking at him with a distressed look. Henry popped his face from the pillow, turning head with the expression of a madman. (Who bursts through doors like that? They knew slamming doors was a pet peeve of his.)

“Henry.” Eleven stated with slight emotion in her voice, “What is wrong?”

Henry sat up from his dormant position, and criss-crossed his legs together on the bed, “What are you talking about?” He was going to play innocent today. 

Unfortunately for him, Will and El were more emotionally capable than he was. They stared at each other, knowing he was lying, then back at him. Will went to his side of the room and sat on the bed, looking at Henry with his hazel eyes, sensitivity pouring through them, “Look, you’ve been having Mom worried all day standing by that phone. We know something is up.” 

Will looked over at Eleven, hoping she would back up his claim. Noticing this, she nodded, folding her arms and leaning against the door, “You don’t usually do that, Henry.”

Henry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, keeping up his act, “So… I can’t stand by the phone?”

Will sighed, putting a hand on his face to squeeze his nose bridge in small frustration, “Not all day, no!” Henry looked away ashamedly, was he really by the phone all day? 

When he came to think about it, he was. He didn’t even say hello to Joyce when he came in, or tell her about his day at school, which were usually small responses, but to her it still mattered. He didn’t help her with dishes, laundry, or starting dinner like he usually did. He didn’t even ask Will if he wanted to continue on their art project. He simply was back and forth, upstairs and downstairs, pacing back and forth, awaiting on your call like a family waiting on a doctor to give them news in an emergency room. This realization embarrassed him. You made him act out of his character, he couldn’t have that.

His silence caused his siblings to ponder if he caught the memo, and wonder if he would spill his guts to them. Will and Eleven looked at each other with a small hope, maybe they did it, maybe they finally broke him to express an emotion other than his usually neutral one.

But, this was the almighty Henry, the master manipulator, couldn’t they remember?

“I don’t understand why both of you are so concerned.” Now they were back to square one, Will, however, was fed up with his act. 

“Look, Henry,” Will fidgeted around with his hands a little, but his tone was serious, “You’re not in a lab anymore, okay? Your old life is gone. You don’t have to put on a front for your sanity anymore. You can feel emotions. In fact, it’s okay to feel them. You can talk to people, okay? It’s okay to admit and feel things, I was once apprehensive too, towards others. El was too, you both know this. But, it’s time to open up, you can’t keep people outside of you like that forever.It’s not healthy.” 

Henry’s mouth fell open slightly at Will’s speech. Never has anyone told him before that it was “okay” to feel the way he felt. Part of him felt guilty, he knew Will was right. El and him had been gone from that godforsaken lab for four years, and Henry was still like a cocoon, barely even close to blossoming, like his sister. El had friends, hell, even a boyfriend, people who actively conveyed love and cared about her. Henry could say, maybe her friends cared about him too, but he never made an effort to really know them like she did. El had learned, despite it all, to accept her humanity, she cared for others, and others cared for her back. Even when mistreated, Eleven had such a grace about her to understand others. Something Henry oddly lacked inside himself, if he could admit truthfully, he was jealous of her ability to practice such empathy to others. He still felt the pain he endured from the lab, and this closed him off from the desire to understand others. He hated it. He was still that hurt little One, in that lab years ago, abused and drained by Brenner, taunted by the other children, lashing out his inner pain, because he felt the world didn’t understand him, but he didn’t understand the world, either. 

He stared down at the floor, he wanted to deny everything Will said but he couldn’t. He knew the front he put up to make himself feel deserving and mighty over others, but in truth, on the inside, he was still hurt from the things he endured. He was still that weak, pathetic Henry Creel he once knew, and he hated it. 

It made him think back to you. He was quite angry at you for allowing this moment of humanity to dawn upon him. His humanity began to reveal itself at the surface when he was around you. The day you told him what had scared you behind the pizza parlor, he held his hand over yours, attentively listening to you, although this was a manipulative ploy to get information out of you, at first. Then, it became much more serious. A realization hit him, realizing how similar you both were, emotionally, at least. You cried in his arms, but around school, you were mean to him, to say the least. He remembers trying to go through your memories the day you confessed to him about the dead animal you found, with what time he had, he saw what lay behind your facade everyday. Henry felt a little guilty for going through such personal memories, because he knew there were so, so many deep, dark secrets of his you hadn’t even scratched the surface of yet. 

Will stared tiredly at the deep-thinking Henry, looking towards Eleven, who took it as a sign to beckon him to talk. She sat beside her brother, looked at his side profile, and added, “It is okay, Henry. No one is going to hurt you for telling you how you truly feel.” 

Henry looked up at his sister, who wore a small smile, but it wasn’t enough to get him out of the woods, he now felt he had to think through his thoughts before speaking them. 

“Just give me some time, please.” With that, Will and Eleven simply nodded, and walked out of the room, knowing Joyce was probably upset that they hadn’t eaten dinner yet. 

Will whispered with a low voice, “Do you think my speech worked? He sat there in silence for a while…” 

Eleven sighed, looking through the small crack in the door, “He’ll tell us, eventually. Just give him some time. Henry…” She didn’t want to say that he was “different,” it sounded negatively-connotated, but she knew he was ‘unique’ from all the other children in that lab, even her. 

“Just don’t push him too hard, okay?” She looked Will directly in the eyes, she knew the consequences of his unchecked emotions. She knew the side of her brother that he had spent the last four years, lying, hiding, and struggling with. 

She broke out in a slight cold sweat remembering that day. 

“Will, El, Hen!” Joyce yelled from downstairs, “I’m about to put this food up! If you’re not eating, at least help me clean up!”

“Coming!” Will scoffed, stomping downstairs. 

Eleven stared at the door to Henry’s room for a few seconds, an uneasiness building in her stomach.

                                                                      -

That night, while Will laid peacefully asleep in his bed, Henry was still up, his mind running thousands of miles, retracing the same thoughts over and over again. Along with the thoughts, came memories of farther times. Times he thought were long behind him, times he thought his identity didn’t depend on anymore. 

Henry remembered the day his parents gave him away. He remembers the sound of his mother’s voice on the phone with the man he would soon learn to hate, Brenner. He noted the trembling of her voice, signaling how scared she was of her own son. The way she would look back at Henry out of the corner of her eye, seeing him simply analyze the glass jar in his hands that held a black widow spider. It disgusted her. Everything about her son disgusted her, she couldn’t figure out where her and  Victor went wrong. 

He had known it was the final straw. After he broke his sister’s arm while they were playing, after she had called him a name, he knew that was a final for them. They had already gotten plenty of calls of Henry hurting children at school. However, he was only simply defending himself from the teasing, the means he went about doing so, though, scared the teachers. He would lift objects in the air and throw them at children, push them back with the simple force of his mind. Henry could not understand why his parents were so angry, he was simply doing what normal human beings would do when provoked. But, he realized shortly after they dropped him off at that lab, that he was not a normal human being. The ride from Indianapolis to Hawkins was one that felt like a forever and a day, not knowing what awaited him on the other side of the paved interstate roads. He would find out later, he would regret ever stepping in that car, he would regret ever trusting his parents. When they entered the building, he was greeted by the evergreat Dr. Brenner, one he had only heard by name. There was no tour of the building, no exchanging of words if he would be “okay” by his parents, they simply dropped him off, and left. 

They never came back. 

Henry clutched the pillow that he held in his arms tightly as he remembered the memory. A bitter feeling rose up in his throat, preventing him from swallowing. He tried to push the memory back from where it came from, but his mind was too far gone in the abyss to let its canvas clear. Frustrated, he got up, heading downstairs to fetch a glass of water to hopefully blow the steam off, when he noticed Joyce sitting at the kitchen table writing in her notebook, he always presumed it to be a journal.

Joyce heard the scuffling of feet from the other side of the kitchen, lifting her head when she saw the tall shadowy figure of the blonde boy, “Hen…” 

Henry looked over at her as he was filling his glass of water from the sink, he then went over to the table and sat down across from her. 

“You look like you can’t sleep.” She smiled warmly, “Something keeping you up?” 

Henry looked off to the side, not trying to make eye contact with the sweet woman’s eyes, Joyce was good at prying things from him. Eleven and Joyce were the only two who could really do so. 

“I’m just thinking about… life…” He mused vaguely, not sure if he wanted to tell her about your failure to call, or his past memories. 

“And that life is?” Joyce looked at him questionably, her head cocked to the side as she tried to look in his eyes. 

“My past life.” Joyce’s stomach dropped, a feeling of solemness washing over her. She knew of the envadors Eleven had endured in the lab, and she barely hinted at Henry’s experiences. Joyce knew, though, that it was rather tragic. What she didn’t know is that Eleven spared her the digestible parts. 

Henry remembers how he had warmed up to Joyce faster than the others, she almost could get to his squishy interior faster than anyone else.

He remembered the day he first laid eyes on the small woman. Hopper told him he was taking him over to be in the care of someone else, as Henry and El could not get along or live together. Hopper was tired of supernatural telekinetic battles, at least from El, and tired of treating Henry after he would get the living shit beat out of him. Henry had lost his powers, shortly after escaping the lab, for reasons he would not tell. Reasons only him and Eleven knew. It put a dent in Henry’s pride, he was weak, just like the old him all those years ago.  

“I don’t know what you did to that kid,” Hopper started as he looked over at Henry, who was gazing outside the passenger window, “But she hates your damn guts, man.” 

Henry offered no response, the ride awkwardly reminding him of when his mother and father took him to Hawkins Lab. Was Hopper going to leave him too? 

It wouldn’t be a surprise, he thought..

“We’re here.” Hopper gruffly stated, opening the door, Henry doing the same, putting his hands over his eyes to shield his eyes from the bright sun. They walked to the porch of the small house, Joyce coming to the door as she heard a car pulling up. 

Joyce's eyes lightened up as she saw the young Henry, he oddly reminded her much of her son, “Will,” who he later learned had gone missing. 

“Henry, Ms. Joyce,” Hopper introduced him, “Ms. Joyce, Henry.” 

“Hi, Henry,” Joyce smiled, she looked up at him slightly, Henry was quite tall for his age, “I heard you had been making some trouble.”

“You’re damn right, both of them really,” Hopper took Henry by his shoulders and shook him slightly, “Listen, son, do not make trouble here alright? Joyce already has enough on her hands. Since you and your….. Sister cannot get along, you will stay here for a while, okay?”

He simply nodded, he could care less, there was not much trouble he could make, he didn’t have his powers. (Plus, he was 13 years old, he could not understand why they were talking to him like that.)

Soon, Henry became accustomed to Joyce’s…. Rather odd living conditions. She had Christmas lights up in her living room, with the alphabet letters sprawled across each individual one. Soon, they were all over the house, flickering on and off, here and there. He couldn’t complain, though, Joyce took care of him like he was one of her own natural-born children. She would talk to him a lot about Will, specifically breaking down crying one day when she saw Henry drawing with crayons, something Will would do a lot, apparently. He was awkward to her breakdowns, her care, she would brush his hair after his shower, he was not used to this kind of nurture. Not from a womanly figure, anyway. His mother consistently rejected him, but Joyce offered something more open, accepting. Sometimes, she would feed him with her own hand.  He was allowed to go to Hopper’s cabin once or twice a week to see Eleven, usually when Joyce was at work, and the other boy “Jonathan,” was at school. It didn’t matter, Henry might as well have been invisible, she never talked to him, or even acknowledged his existence. He would go home in a rather sour mood after that, Joyce asking him how things with El were going. He would meekly respond with a shrug.

 Henry frequently studied the lights flashing, as it eerily reminded him of the experiences he had braced in the lab. Joyce’s frequent emotional outbursts when the lights would go off startled him at first. She would talk about Eleven, and how she was going to help her find her son, it hurt Henry slightly, he wanted to help too, even if he didn’t have his powers. He gravely realized just what the lights led to, back in the lab, as he remembered Brenner forcing him to try and open holes in the wall. He slightly succeeded one day, remembering the slimy crack, the slight guttral noise the hole made, liquid squelching from the wall. 

Brenner proposed it as something “great, new, unseen,” and how Henry was going to help bring this about, as much as he protested. He was the strongest, he had to, Brenner’s life depended on it. Everything depended on him.

A thought then came to his head, he didn’t have to help her through his long gone supernatural powers, but there was another way he could help Ms. Joyce. 

“Hen, have you heard of this saying?” He looked at her in question, as if she was about to tell him a riddle, “‘Our past does not define us.’”

Henry’s heard it before, specifically from the mouth of old Brenner, but with Joyce’s it felt she genuinely meant what she said. Not hogwash motivational talk for the benefit of a man’s ego.

“You are not your past, Hen,” Joyce took his big hand in her small one, “I know there’s a lot I don’t know about you, even after all these years, but, I do know one thing. You have the power to move on, because you deserve to live life just like Eleven is. You can do it, Henry, I believe in you.” 

He smiled slightly, wishing he could believe her, wishing he could believe in himself.

                                                                  -

The next morning you awoke with a huge migraine persisting in your head. The night of crying yourself to sleep in your pillow is the culprit of it. 

“Ugh… fuck..” You sputtered, looking over to yourself in the vanity. All you recognized was a shell of your former self, you put your hands on your face, still feeling to see if you were real.

Yep, you were still real, and this was all happening. 

Looking over at your clock, you sighed deeply, remembering, amongst all life-changing tragedies, you still had school. There was too much on your plate, and Powell had told you that you needed to call the nearest relative to come stay with you, as you were still unable to live on your own. He wasn’t wrong, you didn’t have a job, and your mother’s pizza parlor had been closed for a day now. Last night, you had called your Auntie to come stay with you, explaining the situation, her immediately bursting out into tears and sobbing, “I’ll be there soon, honeybun!” 

You couldn’t blame her outburst, it still all felt unreal to you, and you were still wracked with grief. Though, another thought filled your head, and brought about a different feeling. 

Your mother had been missing for 24 hours, you knew it was due to go public soon. Dread filled your stomach, you knew all the looks, stares you would get from those in school. People offering fake sympathy,pretending they care. People asking questions, people teetering and tottering in and out of your business… it just made your…. Migraine worse. You just shook your head, trying to prepare yourself for school, even though you didn’t feel like it.

Throwing on a rather plain shirt and jeans, you went into the bathroom to finish what was left of your routine, only halfly practicing it. There was no hairspray, expressive hairstyles, or even a bit of touch-ups you’d like to throw on. You were just…. Tired, defeated, you felt pathetic. Not only had you confided in Chrissy yesterday after you swore not to get her involved in your whole business, you cried in Henry’s arms. Cried. Ugly tears.

A look of realization crossed your face.

“Henry…” You looked in the mirror with wide eyes as you were brushing your teeth, running out of the bathroom into your room, digging at your backpack to find the crumbled up note he had put in your locker yesterday.

“Fuck!” You forgot to call him last night, you had too much going on. Fixing your own dinner, you then answered the door to an upset Steve and Robin, wondering why they showed up for work, and no one was there. You had to explain the unfortunate circumstances to them, to which they offered their deepest sympathy. They even gave you a group hug, to which you began to cry, and then the kitchen light began to flicker wildly, like always. Steve and Robin both gave each other a worrying look, as if they had seen a ghost, which they probably did. (The damn lights were flickering like wildfire in your house with no seemingly real world connection.) On another note, Luster hadn’t come back yet, and your mind was just… going too fast for your own good.

You sighed, sitting down on the couch, and turning on the TV, eating a piece of toast with butter and cinnamon smothered all over it. 

Your breath hitched. There she was. Beautiful and graceful as she always had been. Her smile bright and eyes glittering, the woman could make any man fall at her feet. A problem you always had to protect her from. The news anchor on screen provided information about her last whereabouts, details, everything, putting the police department’s number at the end. Your heart sunk, and you felt tears beginning to form in your eyes, you turned off the television and quickly threw the remote to the other side of the room. You held the half eaten toast in your hands as you hung your head down in defeat, appetite slowly fading. 

You really, really wanted to disappear. This was the only thought you could think of. Snapping your head up, you saw the lamp at the other side of the room flickering on and off, as if sending you some type of message to keep pushing. At least you still had the lights, you supposed, even though they scared the living shit out of you.

You got up, ready to walk out of the house, when you saw your mom’s light beige cardigan jacket she would always wear hanging over the chair. You put it on over your shirt, your outfit was rather plain anyway. 

Looking back at the lamp light,you pondered, somehow, deep inside, you truly believed your mom was watching over you.

                                                                  -

As you entered your faithful biology classroom, you sat down, taking note of the blonde boy beside you as always. However, something today was different, off about him. 

“Hey, Henry.” You greeted rather plainly, though you were met with no response, this made you snap your head over to his direction. 

“Hey, Henry.” You said with a rather sneering tone, you were not in the mood for games today, or for the rest of your life, if you were to be honest with yourself. 

No response came. Oh, you were already fed up and the day hadn’t even begun. You bit your lip to keep something you would regret from slipping out, at this point you knew the force of Jesus himself couldn’t keep you back, though. 

Class continued, you and Henry at the back table dissecting the frog, in silence. He still hadn’t uttered a word, and your anger began to build, build, until you felt it boiling over. How could you sit and cry in his arms yesterday, and him not even acknowledge your existence today? What kind of logic or thought process does one have to go through to reach such a conclusion and produce this kind of reaction?

Much to your dismay, Henry still wouldn’t talk, even when he sensed your anger. It excited him a little, he wanted to let you know how much your miscall from last night dented his pride. He wanted you to suffer the consequences of your actions. (It’s your fault, you know.)

You could see the ghost of a smirk forming slightly on his face as he tore into poor little “Henry,” the test subject, taking it apart slowly, while Mr. Brown went over which parts of the body you would be reviewing today. 

Oh, god, that did it, you couldn’t take it anymore, you grabbed his shoulder and jerked him over to look at you.

“Hey, dipshit,” You whispered under your breath so attention wouldn’t be drawn to your table, “I don’t know what idea you have going on in your geeky brain, but it isn’t funny.”

“Idea?” Henry turned to you, playing an innocent face, he withered excitedly in your angry reaction, though, “What idea, (Name)?” 

This was funny to him, despite everything, he always loved to be petty. Especially to you.

“You know what the fuck I’m talking about,” You spat, sounding harsh, “Why are you ignoring me after what happened yesterday?”

“You care about talking to me now?” It took everything in you to not slap the living daylights out of him, your brows so furrowed on your face they would surely fall off.

“What the hell?! Is this about the fucking phone call?!” You exclaimed a little louder, drawing attention to your table now. Everyone looking back caused embarrassment to build in your chest.

“Oh, look, Chrissy,” Eddie pointed lazily over to your table, and stated half loudly, “The lovebirds are fighting.” 

Chrissy looked over to see you awkwardly close to Henry’s face, pointing a finger all in his face. 

“Oh god..” She muttered under her breath, seeing you turn your attention to Munson now as you overheard his snarky comment. 

“Shut the fuck up, Munson!” You yelled, you were finally becoming unhinged, this was it, you felt it.

“Oh? Do we have a problem, (Name)?” Munson smirked, standing up out of his seat, “I’d sure like to handle it. I wouldn’t mind kicking a prep’s ass.”

“Eat a dick!” Henry was surprised at your use in language, looking up at your tense form, he surely didn’t intend for this to go so far. He only wanted to be petty, that was all. However, it was too late for him to tell you to calm down. Mr. Brown had screamed at you to step outside the classroom, much to the class’s amusement, they were laughing. At you. (Or maybe the situation, but your mind wasn’t going to allow you to think that.)

                                                                  -

Lunch time begrudgingly rolled around, and you sat down at the table, Queen Angela sitting across from you in her throne, the same seat as always. You looked around, Chrissy wasn’t there, again, but she wasn’t at Jason’s table either.

Great.

“Oh, look who decided to join us.” Angela sneered as she looked at the others, who looked down on you judgingly. 

You looked up from your meal, wondering why everybody was giving you such looks, stomach bundling up full of nerves. At first you smiled, thinking she was only playing. (You were wrong to suggest Angela would do such a thing.)

“I heard you were having lunch with one half of the orphanage,” She smirked, gesturing over to Henry, who sat at the table with Jane and the others. 

“From who?” You questioned, who knew besides you two that you talked in the courtyard?

Chrissy… you thought.

“That doesn’t matter,” Angela got straight to her point, “Are you dating him?”

“No, what?” You stammered. Angela caught your nervousness.

“I guess… you need someone to relate to about your situation, I suppose,” She smiled cunningly, “you both being orphans, now, you know.” Everybody laughed, or gasped, “Angela!”

You choked on your drink, half spitting it out, she was talking about your mother. Being missing. Your mother. Your missing mother. Your brain connected the dots to the rising anger building throughout your body.

Your brain was completely turned off for the next couple of minutes, the words spilling out of your mouth not being processed through before they came out of your mouth. 

“What the fuck did you just say?” You couldn’t understand why she was turning on you so quickly, but you forgot, this was Angela. She’s not exactly Ms. Peace, Love, and Happiness.

“You heard me, (Name).” Angela twirled her hair playfully, “You heard it come out of my mouth loud and clear, right?” She produced the reaction she wanted from you.

You stood up, slightly thinking about the next actions you were about to do carefully. 

“Oh, (Name), are you going to hurt me?!” Angela exclaimed, taunting you to beckon and come assault her, hands over her chest dramatically. Everyone turned their heads to the loud voice from the center of the lunchroom. 

How funny she guessed correctly, because that was exactly what you were going to do. You didn’t even care anymore about your status, how you were viewed to others, she talked shit about your mother. Now she was going to pay the price of what she purchased. Unfortunately for you, you took her bait.

You went over to the trash and dumped your lunch tray, hearing Angela over your shoulder, “Look at them, running away, what a tease.” 

“Oh shit, guys, look, 5’ o clock.. It’s about to go down,” Munson directed his table’s attention to your form winding up your lunch tray for assault. Henry and Jane staring in disbelief at your upcoming action, too late to stop you.

Gearing up the lunch tray for action, you stomped over to her table with the fortitude of a thousand gods. You smacked her right upside the head, the entire lunchroom gasping in “Oh shits!” and other phrases alike.. Eddie particularly being the loudest voice you heard.

She fell over out of her seat in her chair, her servants rushing to her side, asking her if she was okay. You noticed no one was by your side, a feeling of hurt residing in your heart. You looked out of the corner of your eye and noticed Henry staring at you with his eyes wide and mouth agape, Jane producing the same reaction as well, she was slightly laughing, with Mike, though.

Among the chaos of everyone egging you on to fight, you threw your lunch tray on the ground, realizing what you just did.The lunchroom crowd still going on, you turned around stomped out of the cafeteria, tears threatening your eyes, despite the situation that occurred, you immediately regretted it. What was happening to you? Your life was falling apart in a matter of days.

Angela had gotten you right where she wanted much to her sick pleasure, faking tears, but she knew she had quickly transformed you into the unhinged freak of Hawkins High who assaulted people outwardly because their mother was missing. She never truly liked you anyways, glad to have you out of her “circle.”

You put your hands in your head as you sat on the closed toilet seat in the bathroom. You finally cracked, this was it. 

This was your clumsy fall from grace. 

                                                           -

Of course, you were served with detention, and of course, you went, like the obedient student you were. It consisted of nothing but writing sentences over and over again of some unexciting phrase, and cleaning the bathrooms, which you didn’t mind, although high school bathrooms were absolutely disgusting. 

Upon coming outside of the school, you were met with a concerned Chrissy, she waited for you, but she was the last person you wanted to see. You were quite angry with her, truthfully.

“(Name), I heard about what happened today, I… I’m sorry I wasn’t there to-”

“I’m sure you did,” You remarked smartly, “Like I’m sure you heard about everything else. Like I’m sure you’ve overheard Henry and I’s conversations in the courtyard.”

“What? (Name), what are you talking about?” She stammered, her words caught up too fast with her thoughts.

“You know what I’m talking about, Chrissy,” You went over to open your driver’s door, “Why else would Angela know those things about Henry and I? Meeting in the courtyard?”

Chrissy looked down, she knew it was true. She had told Angela, well, one of her friends, but not out of malice. She just genuinely thought you and Henry would’ve made a cute couple, not realizing the weird vendetta Angela had to his sister, Jane. Not realizing she would use it against you. She should’ve known, it was Angela of all people.

 Well, it all spiraled out of my control, was all Chrissy could think. 

She stood there in silence, with her head down as you drove off, an empty feeling consuming her entire body. 

                                                                -

That evening, after you got home, after crying your eyes out for the 20th time, you crashed into sleep on the couch watching television. However you quickly woke up at the sound of lights flickering, again. Though, this time, it was the type of lights you didn’t like. They were all going off in a harmony, and it scared you. You were alone, scared whatever, whoever took your mother was going to take you too.

You balled up in a fetal position, crying, praying the lights would stop, your heart beating as if you had run a track race. You prayed, whispered to yourself, to calm down, you just couldn’t take it anymore. You couldn’t be alone anymore, your Auntie was taking too long to get here.

Tomorrow was just not quick enough.

Stumbling to your room, wiping tears from your face, you dug around in your drawer for the sacred paper. There you found it, the crumbled up note that Henry gave you a day ago.

The lights stopped, though, you were still scared, you just couldn’t be by yourself anymore. You were throwing your pride and ego on the shelf, setting aside for more important matters for now.

 Reluctantly, you dialed the number on the note. The line rang three times, as you prayed for divine intervention to let someone answer the phone.

Finally, the line picked up, however a man with a gruff voice answered, and it was not Henry.

“Byers-Hopper residence…. Listen, it’s la-”

“I need to speak to Henry.” Cringing at how shaky your voice sounded, you gripped the phone as your hands sweat from how nervous you were.

“Okay, listen here, kid. Henry is asleep, but, you can speak to him tom-”

“Please, I need to speak to Henry. It’s an emergency.” You began to cry again, shaking.

“Oh, goddammit.” You heard the man grumble, hearing him put the phone down as you assumed he went to get Henry up. 

Henry wasn’t asleep, though. He was up, thinking, pondering, contemplating as he looked up at the ceiling, partially lightened up by Will’s blue nightlight. He felt guilt in his chest as he caused one of your lash outs today, but also that he didn’t intervene between you hitting Angela. (Although she deserved it, she had been bullying his sister.) He was being petty, childish, a behavior he adopted a long time ago to justify certain actions, but now, it felt wrong. 

His thoughts were interrupted by Hopper opening the door, and leaning in, “Henry, somebody on the phone wants to speak to you. They said it was ‘urgent.’” He sarcastically uttered the last part.

Henry sat up quickly, who would want him this late? Then his mind clicked.

You.

Rushing to the phone without much care to others in the house, possibly sleeping, he picked it up, uttering a shaky, “Hello?”

You recognized that voice almost immediately, nearly breaking down, stammering, “Henry, please. The lights, I’m scared..”

“The lights? Are they flick-”

Before he could get his words out, you cried, “Please, please, come stay with me, please… I’m so scared, Henry, what if somebody takes me? I’m so, so scared…”

Something at your tone tugged at his heartstrings, what little he had left at least, a mix of surprise and concern overtook him, and he replied back.

“I’ll be over in a minute, stay put, okay?”

-

will: henry its ok to be human, feel empathy, its ok

henry: i would rather shit in my hands and CLAP

also i just picture henry to just be soooo incredibly petty and childish, especially with reader. i mean in canon he is a literal 40 year old man beefing with children. he fought a CHILD as a grown ass man, he is PETTY.