#jonathan is friends with nancy and is aware of her reasoning

[heavencasteel420]

Steve, Tommy, Carol, and (I think?) Billy being one year older than Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, etc. has caused me NO END of problems in plotting fic. For example:

I just realized that, in Tonight, Tonight, I made Steve, Tommy, and Carol seniors in fall 1985, when they would have graduated in spring 1985. So then I had to choose between making them all high school graduates who have moved on (like, Steve could definitely still be dating Nancy in that scenario but he wouldn't be hanging out with her in the local Tragedy House with his buddies, so the whole first chapter is different), making them all high school graduates who haven't moved on (doable, maybe? But that would require either making Barb's disappearance a lot more impactful to them as a group, which means Nancy is in a really different place, or creating separate reasons which would probably be too busy), and changing the setting to fall 1984 (which means Nancy and Jonathan are both dealing with much rawer trauma, but they are the main characters of the fic so that seems like a better avenue to go down, and also it might actually make more sense with how I planned the dynamics between Jonathan and his New Jersey relatives). I did choose the third option ultimately.

I have an idea for a no-Upside-Down fic that's basically Nancy, Jonathan, Mike, and Will dealing with the conflicts I think they might've had in the absence of all that death and supernatural horror, and (for plot reasons) it bugs me so much that Mike can't be in high school at the same time as Carol.

I've had a couple Stonathan ideas where there's no Upside Down and Steve and Jonathan both end up at the same state college (Steve makes it because his academic/athletic performance is better when he's not dealing with constant physical and psychological trauma; Jonathan's dealing with a more stable family situation so he feels like he can leave home, but nothing ever really changed at home to allow him to consider an out-of-state school as an option). And it would be so much simpler for the set-up of these fics (as I conceive them) if Steve graduated the same year as Nancy and she broke up with him right around graduation before going to a different college.

[stevesgother]

The 4th - S.H

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader

WC: 2.2k

Warnings: SMUT 18+ MDNI NSFW, cursing, drinking, characters are all of age, takes place after the events of ST3, slight exhibitionism only bc they’re technically outside, it’s that slightly awkward but endearing sex you have when you fuck someone you like for the first time. It's realistic. Sue me.

AN: first time writing smut, i'm so nervous. fast times au?? If you squint?? the last half isn't proofread bc i simply cannot bring myself to read my own smut

‘American Woman’ by The Guess Who blares loudly from a twin pair of Hitachi speakers stationed on Steve Harrington’s back deck. On the hottest day of the year, The Party had decided to congregate at the only non-public pool they had unlimited access to.

To his relief, Steve had been assigned to grill duty again. The cherry red bikini you had sauntered through his sliding glass door wearing was starting to seriously inconvenience him. He had his Ray Bans on, albeit low on the bridge of his nose, to disguise where his gaze had been lingering all afternoon; the large propane grill hiding his lower half.

Lounging poolside on your towel, you hear before you feel a large ‘SPLASH’, and suddenly you’re soaked head to toe in overly chlorinated pool water.

“Ugh! Henderson!” you scold as you stand to replace your now drenched towel. The cheeky boy looks up at you from where he floats in the pool and mouths a half-hearted ‘Sorry’. 

“Steve! Would you happen to have an extra towel?” you shout to him as you hold up your ruined one, shooting him a deadpan expression. “Yeah, ‘course,” he sets down the grill tongs and awkwardly shuffles his way inside, keeping his back to you. Weird, you think.

Steve caught one look at you, hair wet and dripping, water beading down your neck and disappearing among the curve of your breasts; nipples taught from the sudden shock of cold water and visible through the fabric of your swimsuit, and he was grateful for the reprieve inside would offer him.

After close to 15 minutes of no Steve and more importantly, no towel, you decide to venture into the spacious house yourself. “Steve! – Oh!-” you startle as you run chest to chest into him, both turning a corner. “You scared me,” you say with a hand to your racing heart, “I was just wondering where you went,” you chuckle awkwardly.

“Yeah no, sorry, I just uh- got distracted,” he says, avoiding contact and handing you the fresh linen. You glance down, and notice the slight tent in his maybe too-tight swim trunks. You feel the heat of a rosy blush crawl up your cheeks, and a sudden flip of your stomach. Were you really the reason why he was acting so strange? That felt incredibly presumptuous of you.

“Well um…” you trail off, trying to keep your cool, “thanks. For the towel, I mean.” Steve had never made you feel so bashful and uncertain before. Something about the newly exposed skin and the salty smell of sweat mixed musk that radiates off of him from this proximity making your mind short circuit.

 –

When the cookout had dwindled down to just the adults and the sun dipped just below the trees, a joint had started to be passed around your small circle. “Well, we should probably head home,” Nancy announces in her usual demure tone, grabbing Jonathan’s hand helping him to stand. A chorus of goodbyes echo throughout the group, eventually leaving just you, Steve, Robin and Eddie.

An exaggerated yawn escapes Robin as she declares she’s exhausted and needs Eddie to drive her home in his rinky dink van.

“C’mon man! I just rolled this joi-”

Robin cuts him off with a harsh clear of her throat and an even harsher jab to his ribs.

“I. Really think. We. Should. Go.” She punctuates each word with a forced smile. Why was everyone acting so fucking odd today? You try to send her a panicked glance, fearing the potential awkwardness of being left here alone with Steve.

Being best friends with both of you, she was well aware of the searing crushes the two of you had on each other. This barbeque was her opportunity to light a fire under your asses to do something about it.

“That’s okay, Rob. Go home if you’re tired.” Always the gentleman. Right now you could kick him for it. If Robin notices your glaring, she doesn’t acknowledge it as she rises to her feet and heads toward the gate leading to the driveway.

“Bye losers!” She waggles her fingers at you as they make their exit, sending you a subtle wink that sets your cheeks ablaze. You now know without a doubt that this was intentional.

A hand on your knee as he says, “I can walk you home if you want.”

“No, that’s okay. We can finish the joint at least,” you smile timidly at him. Free weed wasn’t easy to come by these days, what was the harm in staying just a little longer?

–

2 hours later, you’re lying shoulder to shoulder on the rough concrete surrounding the Harrington’s pool. The joint had been snuffed out on the ground between you an hour ago, but with your thoughts dulled like this it was becoming increasingly easy to bask in the space you two had created for each other. The desire to turn heel and run with your other friends had long fizzled out.

“Hey, what was up with you today?” you ask after a few minutes of comfortable silence, “You just seemed really off,”

He looks suddenly nervous, “Oh I uh– I don’t know. Julys’ always a weird month for me, I guess,” he lies, carding a hand through his hair.

Taking the hand that’s not in his hair in your own, you ask, “Are you doing okay?” When he turns his head to meet you, your sincerity makes him blush - neck to ears. Your faces are closer than he thought they would be. He can count every eyelash from this proximity.

“Yeah– you know what,” He clears his throat, “I’m actually really warm,” he sits up clumsily as he pulls his shirt over his head by the collar, ruffling his hair and exposing the constellation of freckles and moles he has spattering the skin on his toned back.

“Okay–” You go to stand with him but he’s already dove into the pool. When he breaches the surface, he shakes his hair out like a dog and grins at you. You can’t help your eyes wandering to the dark patch of hair covering his chest. You’re starting to feel that warmth he had been complaining of.

“You gonna come in? Or just stand there and gawk?” He laughs as he floats over to you.

So you peel your shirt off and watch him stare intently as you unbutton your shorts, letting them drop to your feet. A less than elegant swan dive and you’re disappearing under the artificially blue water. The sudden coolness of it shocks you, sobering you up a bit.

You’re much more graceful than the boy when it’s your turn to come up for air, gently pushing back the hair that sticks to your face. He swims over to you unsuspectingly, then in the next breath and with a mischievous grin he lifts your body over his shoulder and essentially bodyslams you back under the surface.

More than the gesture itself, what shocks you the most is the warm expanse of his broad shoulders caressing you. You both emerge laughing, “Asshole!” you swat at his chest playfully.

When the laughter dies and fizzles out into an anxious energy, the air is filled with a sort of anticipation. The two of you are bobbing in the pool, faces no more than an inch apart.

“You have got to stop looking at me like that,” you whisper, breathlessly.

Just then he surges forward and presses his lips firmly to yours. The kiss is close-mouthed and chaste at first, giving you a chance to pull away. When you don’t take the opportunity, he deepens it. Your wet hands move to hold his face, breaching the water with a small splashing sound and his strong arms hug you at the waist, bringing you impossible closer. Pressed up against him like this you can feel all of him. The scratch of curls on his chest, the bulge of his biceps around your middle, the hard length of him pressed against your thigh.

Gasping into the kiss, you give him the opening he needs to lick hotly into your mouth, eliciting a breathy moan from your chest that sends Steve reeling. He starts to slowly kick his legs, swimming to push your back up against a vinyl clad wall.

Your lips move to lick the vein that runs down his neck, then up to a spot just below his ear. He groans when you take his earlobe gently into your mouth. Grasping your cheek in his hand, he forces your face out of the refuge his neck had provided from his intense gaze.

“Can I touch you?” He shudders when he speaks, having dreamt about this exact moment for years. Your response is an enthusiastic nod and another searing kiss to his lips - plush and pink and made for your own.

Steve’s knee moves to rest bookended between your thighs, keeping you open for him. In the water, he can’t feel how pathetically wet you are beneath your bright red bikini bottoms. You’re thankful for that, but even so, the whine that you release when his swift fingers push aside the fabric and start slowly massaging your clit is enough to give you away.

Your grip on his shoulders tightens, leaving small crescent shapes in his perfect skin. “Oh!-- God, keep doing that,” you pant.

“You like that, baby?” Steve tries to sound suave. Mr. Confident. King Steve. Honestly, he’s terrified. He has half a mind to stop and ask you to pinch him, not entirely convinced this is even real. But the sweet, sweet sounds you’re making are enough to persuade him otherwise.

“Yes! Ah– please, don’t stop,” you beg, even though you don’t have to. Steve’s positive he would do just about anything you asked of him right now. You have the sudden urge to return the favor, reaching down between your two bodies and palming him through his swim trunks.

“Oh -- my God, don’t,” he warns, the sheepish smile on his face signals to you that he’s not actually uncomfortable, “I’ll come in my pants like a damn teenager,” he gives an embarrassed chuckle.

Growing desperate for more, you say, “I want you to fuck me.” with an impossible finality. It makes Steve’s breath hitch in his throat.

“Wh-what?” He needs to make sure he heard you correctly.

“Steve. I need you to fuck me. Now.” Your voice is slightly muffled as you begin to press open-mouth kisses to his neck again.

“Oh my God,” The boy sounds absolutely wrecked already, barely able to contain himself. His hands fumble blindly for the ties on your bikini bottoms and he pulls when he finds them. Unwrapping you like his very own Christmas present.

You pull his trunks down and over his hips, just enough to fish his red and swollen cock out, careful to not let them fall to the bottom of the pool lest someone have to dive and retrieve them. You line him up hurriedly with your entrance, but he stops you with a hand on your wrist.

“Are you sure about this?” His brows furrow in that way they always do, when he's unsure. He has a crinkle above his nose.

“Yes” you half moan before getting a look at his face, “Wait, are you?”

“Yes! Yes– of course. I just– want you to be sure,” He kisses you softly after he asks

It’s so tender, you feel so safe with him like this. You fear you might be falling in love.

“I promise, I’m su–Oh!” he slides into you without warning, nearly knocking the breath out of you. He lets out a guttural groan into the space where your shoulder meets your neck as he starts to keep a steady rhythm.

“God, you feel so good,” he pants into your open mouth, “i’ve wanted this for so long,”

His words have you keening. He wraps his broad arms fully around you now, hugging you close as he pistons his hips into you. Repeatedly hitting that spot inside your walls where you need him the most.

“Oh, Steve!” you moan loudly, no longer concerned about the neighbors hearing you. The pool water begins to form waves from Steve’s thrusting and splash up onto the concrete beside your head.

“Fuck, say my name like that again,” you can feel his hips stuttering slightly.

“Steve!” He whines directly into your ear when you say it, you never would’ve thought he’d be so vocal.

“Touch yourself baby, I’m close,”

You do as you’re asked and start to keep a frenzied pace on your sensitive bud. Having both kinds of stimulation, mixed with Steve’s sweet praise, is sending you closer and closer to your edge.

As you reach your high, Steve can feel your warm pussy clench around him, making him hurtle towards his orgasm with you.

With a strangled cry, “fuck- I'm cumming,” You finish together as hips slow and he rides out his orgasm with you. His body curls in on itself and he trembles slightly. You run a warm, soft hand through his hair and down his back, soothing him through the intensity of it.

“Shit- my parents are going to kill me,” he laughs and kisses you again.

Maybe you did like swimming. Just a little bit.

tags: @daisy-munson, @megxplryxb

[cherrychilli]

18+

Steve Harrington x AFAB reader, grumpy dom! Steve, established relationship, PIV sex, car sex

A/N: I haven't written for Steve in a minute so I pulled this out of the wip vault and dusted it off.

The time to back out had passed.

Steve knew he couldn't disappoint the whole group now when it had already been decided that he would drive them out to the lake that Saturday afternoon. With Eddie's license suspended and Jonathan's car in the shop, there was no other option.

For someone who, on a regular day, looks golden in every possible way under a perfect cerulean sky, he stuck out like a storm cloud today.

Steve sat out on the dock with his shades on to shield his annoyed squint and a soda pressed to his lips to conceal his scowl, wishing it was a beer instead.

Those of you who weren't driving picked frosty bottles out of the cooler Eddie had stocked for the outing, bottle caps coming loose with a pop, the nutty aroma of grain and barley fizzing into the wind. It was more than a little amusing to you as you eyed Steve from over your beer, watching the poor boy stew.

On the surface you appear oblivious but you're well aware that your boyfriend's eyes are trained on you too, a heated, razor sharp stare behind those reflective lenses.

His simmering displeasure goes unnoticed by the rest of the group but when you start to strip down to your swimsuit with the others and head for the water it's only a matter of moments before they notice one less member wading in the water with them.

Inevitably, what he'd been dreading begins and he has to deal with it all day. Everyone takes turns asking Steve why he isn't getting in the water with them and each time he's forced to mutter out some vague excuse that only lifts more eyebrows.

It's obvious to everyone that he's hiding something and the stubborn way he tries to refute is comically adorable. Some lighthearted teasing ensues and you can almost see the steam rising off his skin.

Robin gets the ball rolling with a quip about him spending too much time on his hair to risk getting it wet. Eddie joins in on the teasing too. Nancy and Jonathan are too polite to add to it but they laugh off to the side and try to suppress their giggles all the same.

None of it is cruel. it's all harmless, well meaning fun between friends and it's all the more enjoyable for you because you're the only one who knows the real reason why Steve wont just peel off his shirt and get in the water.

If he did, then your friends would get to see the result of all your hard work last night. They'd see the messy, lengthy scarlet scratches that rawed the skin all down his back, the half moon indents turning violet on his triceps and shoulders and the many hickeys like splashes of merlot you sucked onto his chest and his stomach.

You've got a few marks on you as well but you're saved from suffering the same torment as Steve thanks to your waterproof concealer. He endures it all, forcing the occasional dry, humorless laugh until the sun begins to wind down and the rest of you towel off before lugging your belongings back to his car under a cotton candy sky.

It's a little snug inside the BMW but you make it work. You buckle yourself in the front seat and the others pile into the back. Nancy finds room in Jonathan's lap while Eddie's somehow been strong armed into the middle by Robin so she can have the window seat. He doesn't concede quietly and the resultant commotion in the back is enough to distract the backseat occupants from noticing the tension between you and Steve. Well, more so the tension that's emanating from Steve because you look no more unbothered than you had all day, humming to yourself inconspicuously. Waiting patiently.

Nancy and Jonathan are the first to be dropped off. Next is Eddie, and then Robin. You wave goodbye to her as Steve slowly presses down on the accelerator to begin the journey to your apartment, twenty minutes of being alone together starting now.

"You really put me through it today", he spoke, breaking the moment long silence.

Your lips form a pleased smile as you fiddle with your fingers in your lap. It was obvious where all of this was heading but riling him up was part of the fun and you didn't want it to end just yet. You wanted a little more before it's all teeth and ripped clothes when he gets you inside your apartment.

"I didn't make them say all those things, Stevie sweetie", you turn your head towards him and bat your lashes, the illusion of sweetness thick on your features.

His eyes stay fixed on the road, the vein near his temple more noticeable now. "You wore it on purpose, didn't you?", he sidesteps your comment like you hadn't even said it at all.

This time when you blink at him it's with confusion. "Don't play dumb, baby", he warns you with a laugh so mirthless that it draws a shiver out of you. "Oh..", you utter when you realize that he's referring to your strappy yellow bikini. The one he really really liked, because he made you keep it on all throughout riding him on on his sun lounger the last time you went over to swim in his pool. Not that you did much swimming in the end.

You'd been so wrapped up in all the teasing and what hid beneath the layers of his clothes that you'd paid little attention to what you'd been wearing all day.

"Wasn't bad enough that I had to deal with the others today. You had me fighting off a fucking hard on top of it all too."

Your gaze instantly drops to his lap. By the looks of the thick imprint of his cock underneath his jeans he seemed to be done fighting it off.

The car slows into a turn and you realize that you don't recognize your surroundings, much more greenery around than what you're familiar with. You'd had your eyes off the road long enough for him to divert from the route to your house, detouring off a backroad and into an unfamiliar clearing thickly nestled by trees and forestry.

You bite down on your lip to stem the grin that threatens to erupt on your face. This was much better than you'd been hoping for and happening much faster than you could stand to wait.

Pulling into the isolated space, he cuts the engine, car going completely still. "Come here", but he's already pulling you with forceful a hand curled around the back of your neck before you have a chance of following through yourself. It's ungainly how you fumble with unbuckling your seatbelt as it presses uncomfortably against your chest but you manage to unfasten it, leaning further over the console to get closer to him.

You whine when he latches onto your neck, sucking at the skin there not at all gently. If the taste of lake water and sunscreen still lingered on your skin, he showed no sign of it. At least not any sign of disliking it as his tongue licked over your skin and his teeth dragged close to your pulse. When he pulls away you can feel the wet warmth of the fresh hickey blooming on your skin and your heart beating in time with the subtle throbbing there.

It wasn't hard to imagine what it looked like. Deep and dark and reminder of who you belong to. "You're not covering it up this time, understand?", he tells you and you nod. As if you'd want to hide it.

He leans over you then and you retract into your seat to make room for him, back pressed firmly against leather. Steve's intention becomes clear when he pulls at the lever to adjust your seat. You squeak when it reclines abruptly and he climbs over you to push it all the way down.

"Get these off. Now", he orders you, not unkind but firm, pulling at the hem of your damp t-shirt and the waistband of your shorts. He's impatient but so are you, wiggling around and maneuvering your limbs messily underneath him as he helps you to peel the clothing off.

You manage to toe you shoes off as well, elbows and knees bumping Steve and parts of the interior until you're left in just your bikini. The frantic rush suddenly halts and things slow down when he runs a finger down your sternum until he reaches the little strap just below your breasts, hooking his finger into it. " 'Played dirty all day, didn't you honey? had your fun while I all I could do was sit back and watch?", he tugged, the bottom curve of your breasts becoming visible as the material slips.

"Couldn't help it", you breathe out, hands sliding up his biceps. " I like it when you get mean", you confessed softly, eyes all big and glossy and wanting. He laughs, hair falling over his forehead. "I know, baby. Gonna take my time getting back at you". He's done with the gentle interval, yanking your bikini down to expose your tits. You yelp, not because it was unexpected but because he'd done it a little harder than you had expected. A welcome roughness that made your core feel sticky.

He's all over you, weight pressing down on you as you writhe under him, gasping as he marks you up. More fresh bruises to match the one on your neck are peppered across your breasts first before his lips trail hot on your stomach and then your hips and your thighs. The noises he's forcing out of you are needy and pathetic, high pitched, breathy whimpers and mewling cries of his name all tumble from your lips until he pulls away to look over his work.

You're left panting as he appraises you, eyes raking all over in search of more space to fit another hickey or two. "Never looked better, babe", he sits back on his knees, grinning happily. "On second thought...", he grips your waist, encouraging you to turn around and get on your knees. You scramble to get into position, pulling loose the knot on your bikini top and tossing it towards the back seat so that it no longer hangs limply on you in a tangled mess. You grab at the headrest, bare tits pressing against leather as you arch your back for him and present your ass. "Now you've never looked better", he scoffs, open palm landing on your left cheek with a swift slap.

"Shit! please just fuck me already, Steve", you whine, beyond the point of playing dumb and coy.

He pulls your bottoms to the side, thumb brushing against your soaking entrance as he lets out a low whistle. It's a little strange being almost completely nude in his car like this. You usually had a little more clothing bunched around you on the off chance the rocking vehicle might attract any passersby's attention. It makes you feel that much more vulnerable. Hidden but still technically in public. Still at risk of being discovered.

It's all so terribly exciting.

The distinct jangle of his belt being undone makes your spine tingle and the crude sound of him spitting onto his palm before he tugs on his cock a makes you clench.

"Not gonna go easy on you", he warns, catching your eye when you look back at him over your shoulder.

"I can take it", you challenge him and you can tell by the way the corner of his mouth twitches against the smirk he's trying to force away that he liked it.

He places one hand on your hip and the other on the foggy window pressing his cock into you in one slow thrust.

"That's my girl"

---

The next day you anticipate Robin's reaction when she pretends to barf at the sight of the hickeys on your neck and you giggle, amused because you know never to take it seriously.

Eddie's slower to notice because the first thing he does is climb into the back seat of Steve's car after it's been parked, claiming to have dropped his lighter there yesterday.

"Did you find it?", Steve calls out behind him when he joins you and Robin as you get ready to head into a nearby burger joint for lunch.

There's a suspicious pause and some rustling before he finally yells out an answer.

"Nope! Found something better though"

Kicking open the door, Eddie barrels out with your bikini top sloppily thrown on over his shirt, batting his lashes at Steve like some kind of parody of a lovestruck cartoon.

You're too entertained by it to be embarrassed though you can't say the same for Steve who's turned completely red, placing a hand over your mouth as you snicker.

Puckering his lips, the metalhead makes eyes at your boyfriend and you double over with laughter while Robin rolls here eyes and makes her way inside, having had her fill of Eddie's theatrics.

"Come on big boy, fancy another round in the back seat?"

[morganski-19]

Nancy’s not sure what led her to drive over to Steve’s house. All she knows it that it was something she needed to do. She had let her mind wander too far in a place it wasn’t meant to. Something was wrong with her and she needed to fix it, and it had to be with someone she trusted. So now she’s here, standing in front of Steve’s door, skin buzzing off her body, waiting for him to answer it. 

Because she can’t be like this, she knows she can’t, and this is the only way to prove to her that she is. 

"I need you to sleep with me," She blurts out before he's even fully opened the door.

"I'm sorry, what?” Steve asks shocked, frozen in his doorway. 

"I need you to sleep with me,” she repeats, staring at him with wide eyes. 

"Are you ok?,” he asks, looking concerned. “You seem a bit frantic."

Nancy almost groans with how fast he saw right through her. "Yes I'm fine, I just need you to sleep with me. Why does there have to be something about it?''

He looks at her for a moment, arms crossed with a disbelieving look. Almost like he’s considering what to do, making her more aware of what she just asked him to do. And how she doesn’t want it at all. 

"Come in," Steve shuts the door behind her. He leads her to the kitchen and motions for her to sit down. "I'm not going to sleep with you, I'm just saying that right now."

Nancy can't deny the weight that was relieved off of her shoulders. "Why?"

"For a few different reasons. But right now, because you're obviously upset about something and you're shaking, like a lot. So we're going to go sit down and once you feel better, you can leave if you want. Or, we can talk about it."

Nancy sits down and takes the glass of water he places in front of her. She takes a long sip, seeing what he means by her shaking. "What are the other reasons?"

For some reason, she can’t seem to think about anything else other than how he didn’t just jump at the opportunity she gave him. How he brought her in and said no when he should have just done it anyway. It was what she needed him to do, not whatever this was. 

"That I won't sleep with you." He scratches the back of his neck. "Well, I don't really like you like that anymore. I'd still like to be your friend, and sure there were some feelings that I harbored for longer than I should have, but I've gotten to a place where I'm over you. And I'd like to not revisit that if I don't have to."

Nancy swallows, her mind starting to calm down as she fully starts to realize what she just did, what she was about to do. "That's fair. I shouldn't have asked you too."

"I'm honestly glad you did, other guys would have taken advantage of this situation."

Nancy bites at her lip. "I know," she can feel the tears forming in her eyes. 

“Hey,” Steve leans on the table, “What’s wrong?”

"When I, when we were together, and we would have sex, did I ever seem off to you?"

The question has been plaguing her ever since her break up with Jonathan, ever since she realized that this isn’t her. 

He takes a moment to think, careful to choose his words. "Looking back, a little. I thought it was because you had a lot of things going on, you know with everything. And the fact that I was your first. That's why I never pushed for it, really. Just let you initiate it when you wanted it."

"Did it ever bother you how much we didn't have it?” The questions just keep pouring out of her mouth. “Like we were together for a year and we only had it like once a month, maybe more."

He shrugs. "Maybe, but there's so much more to a relationship than sex. And I liked you, a lot, for other reasons than sex, so I didn't care."

"But when we did, did I seem like I liked it? Did it seem like I was forcing it?" She can’t help the tear that rolls down her cheek, or the way her voice starts to shake. 

"Were you forcing it?" He asks, a little in fear.

"No, yes, I don't know. I just, don't feel like-. Whenever we did it, I thought that was what I wanted. I thought I wanted to have sex with you, to have sex with Jonathan. But every time after I felt so wrong and I just-." Her words get stuck in her throat. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Hey," he says soothingly, reaching across the table to gently cup her hand. "Nothing is wrong with you, ok. Nothing is wrong."

"But there has to be," she chokes. "How could I feel like this for so long and just think it was normal, and then-. And then I start to really feel it for someone else, and for the first time, I want it. Like the puzzle fits in my mind and I get it, I get what it's supposed to feel like. But feeling it for them is wrong."

"No, no it's not. Not if it makes you feel like this. Well, not like this right now. But like wanting to have sex with someone, that's good. You and me, you and Jonathan, we weren't the right fit for you. So you didn't feel it with us."

Tears stream down her face. "But I can't feel that with-, with her."

"Oh," he says, realization setting in. "Nance, you know it's ok for you to like a girl, right? There's nothing wrong with that."

"But I'm not supposed to."

It’s the whole reason why she’s here, why she has to prove herself wrong. Because she can’t possibly feel the way she does about another girl. She can’t feel more alive than she’s ever had and fantasize about this. This isn’t who she was, it can’t be. 

“Why aren’t you?” he asks as if it’s nothing. 

Nancy laughs through her tears. “Because I’m perfect little Nancy Wheeler. Gets the grades, gets into schools, dates the guys she wants to, has a promising future. Her family likes who she is, everyone likes who she is. I’m supposed to be normal, not this.”

“You know there was a third reason that I wasn’t going to sleep with you. Actually my number one reason, and he happens to be sleeping upstairs right now.” Steve admits.

“He?” she clarifies. 

Steve nods. “Yeah. We’ve been seeing each other for a few months now, kept it to ourselves because of this town. But yeah, it’s good.”

“But you, with me, and other girls. Was that all fake too?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “Not with you, or with most of them. It was the same way it is with him. I like both, guys and girls. Just didn’t know about the first part for a while.” He takes a deep breath. “But, why I brought it up is because I kinda did what you wanted to do. I thought that my feelings for him were wrong, that I wasn’t supposed to be that way. So, I slept with a few girls and thought I was fine, until the feelings never went away. Then I finally bit the bullet and found out that, yeah, I definitely liked guys.”

“And do you think that could be me then? That I like both, too.” Nancy’s heart starts to pick up again. 

He shrugs. “It could, but it also couldn’t. What I’m trying to tell you is that sometimes what we want is repressed without us really even noticing it. And when we finally figure it out, it freaks us out. It took me a while to understand that this was ok for me, that I was still the same person that I was before. I just happen to also like guys.”

Nancy leans back in her chair and thinks about what he said, about what it could mean for her. How everything that she’s been feeling is just years of ignoring it building up and finally breaking out. How this realization she’s had is her reality, and she can’t avoid it anymore. 

“I’m not really sure I like guys at all,” she says quietly, silently hoping that he doesn’t hear it. 

“And that’s ok,” he reassures. “You’re still the same badass Nancy Wheeler I know. That doesn’t change anything.”

“It doesn’t really, I guess,” she says, smiling just a bit. Letting the idea of who she is run through her mind, and finding that she doesn’t actually hate it at all. 

[rainydayathogwarts]

congrats on 1k!!! could you please do steve harrington with dialogue #3 and prompt #4? that would be amazing :)

Steve Harrington

Thank you bae :)) Join my 1k celebration here!

"It's not a double date, we're just third and fourth wheeling." & Realising you don't hate each other at all.

You felt as though your eye was nearly twitching, playing with the fries in front of you as you stared at Nancy, cuddling into Jonathan's shoulder and giggling at the unfunniest thing he was saying. You fake laughed along with them, eyeing Steve, who sat stiffly next to you. He caught your eye and you both shared an awkward smile, immediately turning back to face the flirtatious couple. Nancy put a hand on Jonathan's chest, who looked at her proudly, as though he had done something to impress her. You made a face at them, only for Nancy to finally look at you and Steve, noticing the lack of chemistry you shared. Why did she think that of all people, Steve would be your perfect date for the night? King Steve, who always made it a point to flirt with your friends whenever you were around, or who always tried to one-up you no matter the situation. King Steve, who would always scoff at you since you befriended the enemy. Or at least, Billy Hargrove.

"Oh come on, this is a double date, I'd expect you guys to try to make some better conversation here." Both you and Steve scoffed at the same time, muttering things under your breath. "It's not a double date Nance, we're just third and fourth wheeling." Steve let's out a half-hearted laugh, nodding along before adding "Yeah and I bet if I took a look under the table right now, we'd be doing a lot more than just that." Both you and Nancy gasp, but for different reasons. She's becoming red in the face and shuffling away from her boyfriend, but you've turned to look at Steve with raised eyebrows in admiration of his boldness. "Gross! But he's right, we should leave you guys alone." You're glad for the excuse, and you both quickly slip out of the booth, ignoring Nancy's attempts to call you back to the table.

You and Steve stop when you're outside the diner, chuckling slightly. "What kind of hosts are they, am I right?" You say, trying to fill the silence in the air. "Hosts who were probably interrupted while having sex today." You cringe, looking back to see Nancy's in Jonathan's arms again, this time uninterruptedly kissing in the otherwise empty booth. "Good thing we left when we did." A hum of agreement comes from Steve, who returns his attention to you, running a hand through his hair. He notices how you shiver when a gust of wind hits you, your hands digging deeper into your pockets. "You're cold, take this." he hands you his jacket "Least your date can do." You both grin, and you take the denim jacket from his hands, pushing your arms through the holes.

The denim fits loosely around your shoulder but you sigh in satisfaction, welcoming the warmth. It's only when you see that Steve himself is trying to warm himself from the breeze that you remember an important detail. "Hey, I have the keys to Nancy's car!" A devilish grin spreads on Steve's face and he puts his hand out once again, and before you know it, you're getting payback on your friend, even though you know she'll be going home with her boyfriend. Steve immediately turns the car heater on, and adjusts the radio before he's driving away in a direction you're not very familiar to.

You can't help but stare as he sings along off-pitch to some bad music from a local band, smiling to yourself before you join him, opening Nancy's car compartment to steal her mint gum. "Ooh, me, me!" You laugh at Steve, who's waiting with an open mouth, and drop the piece of gum into it. He hums as he chews it, savouring the flavour. As though he could feel your eyes on him, he turns his head to face you, a glint in his eyes you haven't seen before. "You know, you're not too bad Harrington." You state, turning back to face the road ahead. "Yeah, I'm pretty aware of that."

[heyitspersephone]

Thinking about stranger things again now that the strikes are over and how, narratively, it would be way, WAY cooler to have Mike get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5

It’s just something about the way Mike’s trauma is never addressed or handled in any way?? Like, he hugs his mom twice and then when he was depressed in season 2 and 4 nobody did anything (his parents scolded him for his behavior in s2 ig but that’s not support). His best friend went missing leaving from his house, he watched his body get pulled from the quarry, watched El (in his eyes) kill herself stopping the demogorgon, watched Will be possessed, saw Bob die, was in Star Court when everything went down, saw Billy die, had his best friend move away, was SHOT AT (and really too few people talk about the shooting in Cali bc omg??), buried a body, and watched the apocalypse start. And that’s just off the top of my head.

(And yes I’m aware that the other characters (especially Will) are traumatized too but I will get to my point in a second just hold on)

The plot is geared towards this idea that Will and Henry have to have some big face off (and they should, in my opinion, but I don’t think it should be in a possession, or at least not the the Vecna kind of possession, yk?) but that makes it all the better, writing wise, to have mike be the one in danger. Will was helpless and hiding in s1, I think Will should get his big strong moments in s5 where he gets to be the hero of the story.

It would just be a lot more fun to work with Mike being Vecna’d than Will, because what are we going to bring up with Will’s visions? His dad? His sexuality? The events of s1 from his perspective? It would be cool to see, for sure, but we already know most of that. Mike, on the other hand, has a number of untapped things, like jumping off the quarry, why he’s so hesitant to tell El he loves her, how someone who was smart and kind enough to take El in in s1 and come up with the spy and sauna plans in s2 and s3 could turn into the oblivious asshole that he was in s3 and s4 (he needs therapy, ik, I still love his character but I want to explore the reasons he went from his s2 characterization to his s3 one)

It would be a very interesting parallel, I think, to explore Mike’s thought processes in this way, especially with all of Mike’s repression business (bc whether you ship byler or milkvan he is repressing his feelings HARD. Like, beyond his inability to say I love you there’s the fact that he doesn’t bring up the apparent many times he called pre-s4 during the Rink O Mania fight?? That literally would’ve absolved him of guilt in that argument since he WAS reaching out to Will the whole time? Hellooooo????).

Anyways, this all brings me to my main point: Vecna targets isolation as much as he targets trauma and guilt. The whole party was traumatized by the events in s1, s2, and s3, but Max was the one targeted. Plus, Henry went for Fred, Chrissy, and Patrick (I think his name was Patrick) instead of going for the perceivably easy targets that the mcs would make (ik narratively that would’ve made it more boring but shhh), so why Max and those three specifically? They were isolated. Lucas and Erica have each other, Dustin goes to Steve and Robin, Will and El have each other and Jonathan and Joyce, Nancy probably goes to Jonathan, and who does Mike go to?

No one. And don’t say Nancy because if those two have heart to hearts then I’m the next coming of Christ. Max separated herself from the Party in the aftermath of her grief and guilt over Billy, and it feels quite obvious that Mike was doing the same (like I said, he has repression issues). So Mike is traumatized, alone, and guilty (be it Will getting taken from Mike’s house, losing El in front of him multiple times, the many deaths he has witnessed, or the internalized homophobia angle), which makes him more of a target than Will, in my opinion (or at least an easier one, especially given his tendency to put himself on the line during fights (quarry, most of s2, s3 mindflayer fight), which would set him up on the suicidal ideation path)

Furthermore, as I’ve seen a few other people point out (and I can’t find the posts but one of them had eight screenshots of the various moments), Mike is always the one getting in the way, so it would be a strategic move for Henry to target him to get him out of the picture. Mike was the one that found El and got her involved in saving Will s1, he was the one who came up with the spy plan and called out the ambush in s2, he was the one to monologue Will out of his possession s2, he was the one with the sauna plan for Billy in s3, he was the one trying to help El get the strength to fight s4 (even if the monologue sucked ass it’s the intention that counts). As much as people like to hate on Mike, he is in the leader position most of the time when the party is grouped up (barring his mental health struggles slowing that down beginning of s3 and throughout s4, but he’s still capable of it). He’s the idea man, and he’s the one whose character’s foundations were built on the desire to keep his friends safe, so it would be a very fun plot line to watch him be the one targeted in s5. Like Will said, as lovestruck and cheesy as he was, Mike is the heart of the party when he’s on his A-game, so Henry should 100% be trying to keep him in the issues he’s been struggling with.

Obviously, Will and El are the Targets with a capital T for Henry since they’re the ones that got away or whatever, but I think Mike is a weakness of Will’s (and El’s tbh but also I think they need to have separate character arcs and I don’t exactly ship milkvan) that should be exploited.

TL;DR: Mike should get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5 because it would make sense in lore and be a very cool way to resolve his character arc

[theladycarpathia]

@hellcheeranniversaryweek Day Six - Third Date

“You look like you’re gonna puke,” Dustin says and Eddie resists the urge to thump him. 

“Isn’t this your third date with her?” Jonathan asks, playing with Eddie’s still incomplete Rubix cube. Eddie shrugs. He thinks that maybe it won’t matter if it’s third or thirtieth, he’ll always have butterflies when he knows he’s going to see her. 

“Yes,” he says shortly, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt. Jonathan shrugs. 

“Okay, so shouldn’t you be less nervous?” he points out, twisting a little in Eddie’s desk chair. 

“What I should be doesn’t really matter here,” Eddie gripes. He’s still half convinced that he’s going to fuck this up at some point. She’s perfect, she’s the best thing he could ever have dreamed of and when he inevitably makes a mess of it and she leaves, it’s going to crush him. 

“He really looks like he’s going to puke,” Dustin says bluntly, looking a little fascinated and horrified. “Is that normal?”

“No,” Steve says, without looking up. 

“You’ve had practice at this though,” Eddie retorts. Steve’s dated so much that he could probably write a manual about it but Eddie’s got maybe a paper napkin’s worth of experience. And he has even less on dating people like Chrissy Cunningham. 

He’s always liked Chrissy, even though he’d never admit it to himself. Even in middle school, she’d been amazing. Definitely not made for someone like him. But then high school was over and he ran into her outside the florists where she worked. 

And she agreed to a date. And a second. And a third. Which was kind of the problem. 

“Did he look this bad before the other dates?” Jonathan asks, abandoning the Rubix cube. He can’t have made it any worse than Eddie’s attempts at it. 

“He kind of looks worse,” Dustin says, scrutinizing Eddie carefully. Eddie looks down at his jeans and jacket, feeling mildly offended. 

“Face wise,” Dustin clarifies, prodding at Eddie’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer figurines. “Otherwise you look pretty good.”

“Thanks,” Eddie says and takes another look. He looks…a little not like himself. At least from waist to neck. His hair is the same mess, and the jeans and converses haven’t changed. But he’s taking her to a nice Italian place and he figures that he should look the part. 

“It’s just…” Eddie starts and then feels embarrassed. He shouldn’t be talking about this, especially not with them. Dustin’s a Goddamn child, for pete’s sake, Jonathan and Nancy have been dating for like six years and Steve is a little bit of a whore. They’re not going to understand. 

He’s had sex before, that’s the ridiculous thing. It’s not like he’s sixteen, with no idea of what to do. He’s twenty-two. He’s a fucking adult and his knees shouldn’t be shaking like this. 

“It’s our third date,” he explains and Dustin wrinkles his nose. 

“What has that got to do with anything?” he asks and Steve guffaws. 

“So that’s why you’re worried,” he says, from where he’s lounging on Eddie’s bed. Dustin twists anxiously between the two of them.

“What?” he demands and Eddie immediately regrets bringing it up. 

“Three dates,” Steve says, looking gleeful. Eddie’s…still not quite sure how they became friends. There are times when he can’t quite believe it either. “There’s a rule that you have sex after the third date.”

“I thought it was fourth,” Jonathan chimes in and Steve just rolls his eyes. 

“Either way,” he says, propping himself up on his elbows. “It’s not a strict rule. But a nice restaurant, third date…there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen tonight. Which is why Eddie looks like he’s going to hurl.”

“I just want everything to go well,” Eddie insists, even though the exact same thought had crossed his mind. They’ve kissed - polite pecks at the front door, when he’d dropped her off - but he’s aware that this is becoming something more serious. They text each other every day, they call each other every night and have done since their first date. And while their first date had been coffee and the second date had been a movie, tonight’s dinner and an evening walk definitely sets the stage for more. 

“Then don’t worry about it,” Steve says practically. “Trust me. The more you stress about it, the worse it will be. And she’ll pick up on it too.”

“Great,” Eddie says miserably. He has no idea how to calm down, even though he knows he’s putting too much pressure on himself. “I’d better go pick her up. Lock up when you leave and so help me, Henderson, if even one of those figurines is out of place when I get back.”

“What if you don’t come back?” Dustin asks, hands still wrapped around Giles. Dustin may envy Eddie's collection but they'd been his mom's from the nineties. He's not about to hand them over to Dustin so he can lose Giles' little sombrero.

“If I don’t come back tonight, you’ll have more time to make it to Mexico,” Eddie says bluntly, giving himself one last check in the mirror. He catches Steve’s smirk as he lets himself out of the door. 

But when he returns home the next morning, wearing the same clothes as the night before, every single figurine is still in place.

Because this is Hellcheer, honestly amazed they managed to wait until the third date they're down so bad for each other. I ran out of time to actually write the date. P.s. Chrissy was totally aware of the rule, kicked her roommate out for the night and wore her best underwear. Eddie never stood a chance.

[sarcasticassian]

please Wayne would love Nancy Wheeler, she believed him when he mentioned Creel and didn’t call him or Eddie crazy, she clearly didn’t think his nephewson had murdered an innocent cheerleader and he later finds out she was part of the group that saved Eddie’s life and she’s ready to burn Hawkins to the ground if they don’t believe Eddie is innocent, so yeah he likes her

Eddie and Nancy (along with Robin and Steve) are a little inseparable after Spring Break and Wayne finds Nancy hanging out at their new apartment a lot, Robin and Steve and the kids are around a lot too, as well as the Corroded boys, especially at the start when Eddie is still bedridden but Nancy comes around the most, she brings Eddie’s schoolwork and Wayne once watched them work on it together and she never got frustrated with Ed, she’d huff at him when he tried to distract her and he’s succeeded more than once but she whips his nephewson into shape and Eddie passes with flying colours

the two of them gossip as well, bringing Wayne up to speed with all the drama, Nancy delightedly tells him about the love affair between the not so dead police chief and Joyce Byers and she and Wayne fall into that weird friendship you have with your friends parents, you chat and get along and Wayne is protective of her even though they both know Nancy is very capable of looking after herself and you keep each other up on the gossip you both know and your friend complains that their parents like you more than them (Eddie dramatically announced this when they were having breakfast one day because Wayne had told Eddie to take the couch and let Nancy have his bed when she stayed over the night before and despite Eddie trying to pull the ‘I nearly died’ card Wayne sides with Nancy who smirks and trots off to her bed as she flips him off)

so it stands to reason that Wayne is immediately suspicious when Nancy starts bringing Steve Harrington up in conversation more, she’ll praise him and mention how much of a good boyfriend he was and she just didn’t really see it at the time and now after he’s got his head screwed on right he’ll be even better but she’s definitely happy with Jonathan so Steve will have to be someone else’s boyfriend, Wayne’s suspicion increases tenfold when Nancy mentions Steve at the dinner table once during summer when she’s around (Wayne will always invite her to stay because he knows Ted Wheeler and he’s here to rescue Nancy from suffering at her own dinner table) and Eddie will not make eye contact with either of them so when Eddie is distracted on the phone talking Dustin down from burning his new character sheet Wayne rounds on Nancy

she whispers that Eddie has a crush and don’t worry Steve absolutely likes him back but they both have rocks for brains and Eddie would also never seriously date someone Wayne didn’t like and so far Wayne has been affectionate with the whole party but never specifically mentions anyone by name other than Nancy, maybe that’s because the older teens hang out in Steve’s empty house when they’re all together, who knows, but Wayne wants his son to be happy so once Eddie flops back onto the couch Wayne casually suggests that he invite his other older friends round some time, he never sees them outside of a gathering full of children and Dustin and Erica like to talk to and around Wayne so he never really gets to chat with anybody else

Eddie is now also suspicious but he slowly agrees (once Steve and Robin get invited Steve spirals because this is it Robin I must impress Uncle Wayne or I’ll die) and Wayne welcomes Nancy’s car full of older teens with a smile and to make sure Eddie isn’t too aware Wayne plucks Robin out of the group first and let’s Eddie and Steve circle each other, Robin rambles and babbles and Wayne listens politely until she naturally brings up Steve, which took about 5 minutes and Wayne will later learn that that is surprisingly long, and he straight up asks her if Steve has a crush on Eddie, Robin dithers for a second or two before she nods and Nancy slides into the conversation and the three of them roll their eyes at how useless those two are, they all agree that Wayne making it known that he likes Steve might push one of them into make a proper move, Steve is tucking his hair behind his ear as he laughs at something Eddie has said and Eddie has the world’s biggest heart eyes 

Jonathan and Argyle are just vibing on the couch totally oblivious and entranced by a film playing on the TV

eventually Wayne finds himself seated next to Steve, who is very obviously nervous around him, and they strike up a conversation, Wayne starts easy, asks about the kids, then slowly moves towards talking about Steve, who is not used to an adult being interested in what he has to say and gets entirely too personal but Wayne doesn’t make him feel bad about it and they find out they both like to watch sports on the TV and Steve lights up because for once there’s someone around that actually likes what he likes and gets it when Steve is talking about team rankings and players and isn’t just indulging him to be polite, everyone is a little taken aback by how Steve has blossomed in the middle of the Munson’s living room but it’s sweet and they all say to themselves that they’ll try harder to understand what Steve is saying next time he tentatively mentions the game he caught on the TV last night

Eddie is so enamoured that it just takes Nancy hissing ‘now’ in his ear and he’s politely interrupting Wayne and Steve and pulling Steve away to his bedroom to talk to him in private, Nancy settles next to Wayne and they decide they shouldn’t go and press their ears to the door and Nancy catches Robin’s wrist who was already making her way to the corridor and instead they just chat, Robin manages to slot herself just below Nancy in his ‘Eddie’s friends’ rankings, which puts her equal to Jeff and later that night when he mentions this to Eddie he shyly asks where Steve is and Wayne smirks and says ‘I can’t rank a boyfriend alongside friends Ed, that’s just not fair’ and laughs when Eddie turns red and mumbles something about Steve not being his boyfriend yet, they’ve not even gone out on a date properly, then watches him splutter and start to complain when Wayne adds ‘nobody outranks Wheeler though, she’s still my favourite’

[oceanic-sunsets]

S4 and Its Role Storytelling Wise: The GA’s (lack of) Understanding of The Show

[Warning: long post ahead]

So I stumbled across two videos on youtube about season 4 of Stranger Things, analyzing it from a storytelling standpoint. As one does, I watched them, because I was intrigued about what people thought outside our bubble or places like reddit and fb. And I wanna talk about it because it’s intriguing how the answers are right in front of us, but most people, even people with knowledge about storytelling and media analysis, don’t consider more possibilities, too blinded by heteronormativity and how we’re used to the same formulas, the way most stories unfold. 

The first video, “Why Stranger Things 5 (Probably) Won’t be Good”, considers that the show is dragging on too long because all the characters have solved their conflicts and the entire main cast of characters are perfectly fine with each other, which means s5 won’t be a compelling story because you can’t separate the character development and inner conflicts from the plot. And I was genuinely surprised because this is the complete opposite of how most of us perceive s4.

 If anything, I don’t like rewatching s4 for this reason, because everything feels too open, too unresolved, with some clues and some key reveals but no real answers.

Mike and El are far from okay, they ended up the season not talking to each other. Will lied to Mike about the painting. Nancy and Jonathan haven’t had a real conversation about their future and how they really feel about it. Dustin is grieving Eddie and Mike isn’t even aware of his death. Lucas and El are grieving Max but not giving up on her.

And the most important one that upset me to no end for a while after I finished s4, before I sit down and analysed it: the characters come together to try to save Max, and Mike and Will do the same for El, and then they reunite… But they don’t have any real moment that reminds us that they’re friends, or why they are. This is hard to do when there’s so much action going on, but there’s always time to show us where these characters stand with each other. And this hurts me to write, but they don’t feel like a group of friends anymore, haven’t, for a while, since s3 probably. And this is intentional because they purposefully show us the party drifting apart in the beginning of s4, as soon as the first episode. 

The fact that they’re all back in Hawkins and working together again isn’t enough to show us that they’re back to being best friends. We need moments that show us why these characters are friends and stick together because they love and care for each other, choosing each other, not only because the circumstances force them back together. 

And in that sense, s4 lays the foundation for it to be something touched upon next season, but these characters are far from completely fine with each other. It’s going to be good and rewarding to have them all reunited and working together again and rebuilding their friendship at the same time, but it has not happened yet.

To say there’s no more “personal drama” to add on is a complete misunderstanding of where our main characters stand. When I heard that I was just thinking, did we just forget Will lied to Mike about the painting and he was only able to say “I love you” when he was pushed by Will, and we got no explanation for his weird behavior?!

The second video (Stranger Things 5 is NOT the Redemption You Think It Is) analyses several aspects of the show and brings up very important points about what makes a story feel real and compelling. This is a very good video, however, I found myself disagreeing once more with most of it. I’ll divide it into sections so it’s more organized, and I’ll talk about their arguments and my counterarguments. Keep in mind this is how most people perceive the show, and this person in the video is someone who does have some sort of knowledge about storytelling. 

*They see the Cali plot as useless. 

It is a fact that Mike, Will and Jonathan have been sidelined this season. While I don’t like this or agree with the amount of screen time they were given this season compared to other characters, they are far from useless. A lot of people seem to think they didn’t know what to do with them, so they put Mike and Will together in a van with Jonathan in Argyle just for funsies, and gave Will a crush on Mike as a last-minute decision. They perceive Will’s plot as simply being the “sad gay best friend who is obviously getting rejected”. 

Their reasoning is quite simple: They aren’t looking at the bigger picture, failing to consider how these characters all have a purpose and how the Duffers always say that each scene adds something to the story. Even seemingly insignificant moments have weight in the story and are used to help us understand the how and why’s, or as callbacks, parallels, or even to reveal future plot points. 

So what IS the purpose of the Cali plot? First I’m going to say what is NOT their ONLY purpose: saving El.

Yeah, that’s what we see them doing the entire time, but it’s not like El had an issue getting out of there by herself. I’m sure she would’ve been fine, ultimately doing the same thing we see her do: find a way to try to save Max when she’s miles away from Hawkins. 

So, if their purpose (storytelling-wise) is not to save El and help her get to Hawkins… What does the Cali plot add? 

CHARACTER CONFLICT that is going to BE IMPORTANT LATER. It’s, again, part of the FOUNDATION for the climax. Even with their little screen time, the Cali plot is KEY for future events. It builds lies upon lies that ended up inadvertently killing Max. 

Mike wasn’t being himself, incapable of having an honest, open conversation with El, not being able to tell her I love you. Mike’s inner conflict, his tumultuous relationship with El, isolation from his friends, and awkward behavior towards Will drove Will to lie to him, presenting his feelings as El’s. Will’s lie pushed Mike to rush a love confession in a life-or-death situation and instead of helping, it contributed to Max’s death and Vecna not being defeated. 

It serves the purpose to show the audience: 

The characters are lying. They’re not being honest with each other, and this has BIG consequences. 

They’re acting that way for a reason, but we don’t know why yet. It’ll be important later.

Mike and El do not understand each other and don’t work as a couple.

It sets Mike and Will’s relationship apart from the rest. They’re not just our usual friendship story, because if they were, their conflict would’ve been solved when they made up in s3. But their story is not over. This is the writers telling the audience: look here, we’ve established this pair and dynamic, it’ll be important. 

And the thing is, if Will was supposed to be your usual “gay best friend in love with the straight guy” story, why bother with the points we just went over? It was a choice to have Mike act that way, not being able to hug Will and tell El I love you, it was a choice to have Will lie about the painting making it impossible for the truth not to reveal itself eventually, it was a choice to establish them as a pair who has multiple hearts to hearts, and it was a choice to have El not speaking to Mike by the end of the season. 

It was a choice to have THIS as the final shot of the season. 

*Mike’s Character

Next, let’s talk about Mike, one of the least liked characters by the general audience right now.

To be honest, it’s easy to understand why, and even some of us were worried about how they’ve been handling his character. The GA perceives Mike as a supporting role, El’s incompetent boyfriend who went from this smart kid that acted as a leader, to an oblivious, mean character. He feels DUMB to the audience, because how could he not notice El acting weird and how upset Will was in the van scene? They think it’s a shame because he used to be a perceptive kid and now he apparently lost his perception. 

But this isn’t true at all. 

Even in s4, when Mike is not his best and focuses too hard in pretending to be someone he’s not… He has shown us

Again

And again

And again

That he is still his smart, perceptive self. He just struggles when it comes to emotional awareness and communicating his feelings, which, you know what? it’s completely fair for a teen boy whose best friend went missing, discovered an alternative dimension, saw multiple people die, and… Do I have to keep going? And he still managed to figure out the number was inside the pen, that Nina was a computer, and had the idea to ask Suzie for help. But they don’t read him as a three dimensional character, which brings me to the next point.

*Mike being “The Heart” feels undeserved

Honestly, my first reaction right after finishing s4 was the same. I thought they had murdered his character, and how could someone who is a bad boyfriend, a bad friend, and mean be the heart of the group, the leader? (I’m so sorry, he’s my favorite character now and my resentment lasted like two days) 

I get them. This is what happens when you don’t consider the bigger picture and the clues for the character arc they’re clearly setting up for him. 

In the video, it is said that “S4 doesn’t do a good job of conveying his emotional growth”. This is true. That’s why the monologue doesn’t feel genuine, it’s unsatisfying and just overall weird. Not to mention the deathly (literally) consequences. But that’s the thing. S4 doesn’t try to make his love confession a sudden, magic solution for his individual issues and his relationship with El.

Because it’s not a resolution. It’s not growth. There’s nothing in S4 that made him suddenly realize how much he loved El, nothing that inspired him to want to tell her those words. It’s the opposite: he has to be pushed by Will, who lied to him and put words and feelings in El’s mouth that weren’t hers. The grand love confession that saves the day was prompted by a lie.

So again, they DON’T try to fit into the “love confession saves the day” trope. They make a POINT of showing us the indirect consequences.

And while this season Mike was distant for both the audience and the characters (for a reason), we have to remember the role he has always played: he’s the friend that cares too much, who doesn’t give up on the people he loves, who is always there supporting and trying to protect others (mainly Will and El). 

And this season finally has him as the one receiving emotional support, it shows us someone else looking out for Mike the way he always does for other people. This was said by Finn Wolfhard himself! and the Duffers, I’m sure, I don’t remember where right now, but if someone knows, please link me:).

Besides, these are Will’s feelings. His words show us how beautiful and intense they are. It’s how he sees Mike, despite their fights and the tension that seems to follow them everywhere. And Will has a lot of reasons to feel that way: Mike has always been kind and a good friend to him, it’s only recently that the complexity of growing up and feelings shifting into something new changed their dynamic. 

*”Max mourning Billy feels undeserved”

I’m gonna be honest, this is what annoyed me the most. It completely brushes over the real message and the source of a lot of Max’s trauma and the reason why she’s the one who got cursed: Max isn’t suddenly sad because she lost her step-brother who sacrificed himself to save them. She isn’t sad because the bad guy turned good in the end and died to redeem himself. She feels guilty because she wanted him to die, wanted him gone, and when it actually happened she feels like it was her fault. Billy didn’t redeem himself, one single good action resulting in his death doesn’t absolve him of all the bad. And Max knows this, that’s why she feels so guilty. It’s the mixed feelings of sadness, relief, and guilt. 

The last thing the video touches upon that I’ll address brings me again to something I mentioned before: 

*"Even in the same town, the characters feel a mile apart" 

This is something I agree with. No counterargument here, because it’s true. What tends to be overlooked, however, it’s the fact that it’s intentional. The Duffers themselves have said that you’re supposed to feel like the characters lost, like it’s hopeless. 

This is because Stranger Things as a whole is written using the Five Act Structure. You can read a post by @dinitride-art that explains this better here, but in summary, this is how stories are structured if you divide them in five acts: 

That’s why s4 feels the way it does. I love what it adds to the overall story that is unfolding, but I really don’t like it is as its own season. That’s because you’re meant to interpret the show as a whole, and yeah, last seasons tried to sort of give us a good and satisfying ending, but as we’re nearing the end of the show, s4 couldn’t do that.

It’s the second to last act, the moment we feel everything is lost and can’t be fixed. That’s why the characters even back together in Hawkins do not feel like a group of friends again (yet). That’s why the truth about the painting hasn’t come out. That’s why El and Mike aren’t talking. That’s why Mike and Will still have unresolved tension despite being friends again and a team. That’s why Max is in a coma. That’s why the Jonathan/Nancy/Steve love triangle was left unclear. That’s why Hawkins is falling apart, Vecna is getting strong again, and the Upside Down is starting to leak into the real world. 

There are many things I didn’t like about s4. There are things I think could’ve been done better and clearer to the entire audience. But I’m excited about what’s to come, and after seeing the effort and details put into the show, and how much care and love they put into their characters, I’m choosing to trust we’ll get a good, satisfying ending for the characters we love.

And with that, I’m done here! If you made it this far all I have left to say is thank you and sorry lol.

[cha-lii]

I don’t know I think the character development was what we saw in season 1 which was ditching friends who were dicks to others and bullied his gf at the time. And season 2 was about dealing with problems instead of ignoring them. And season 3 was about finding long lasting friendships. Setting up season 4 for him to try again with the girl he’d been in love with but wasn’t in the right place maturity wise to give her what she wanted and needed.

I think both of their character developments made perfect sense with where they got to in season 4. It was all about experiencing loss and trauma, breaking up when the feelings were too overwhelming and both weren’t what the other needed at the time, then growing up while apart, and coming together when their goals were more in the same place.

i really agree with almost everything you’ve said actually! i guess the thing about steve’s storyline that pisses me off is that they still felt the need to push steve x nancy. i think the only reason that won’t happen in s5 is because they got backlash from fans, s4 gave me the vibes they were seriously considering pursuing that relationship again and i just don’t think it’s right.

i think steve has been infatuated with nancy since season 1, but she’s only ever liked him and not really loved him. and honestly both of them deserve better than that? i am fully aware that steve’s character has matured so so so much since season 1, but i think nancy and jonathan make the better couple, and steve should be allowed to move on and find someone who will be as devoted to him as he would be to them.

that’s why i think the writers really missed a trick with not making steve, nancy and jonathan friends/a team, because that would have allowed for so much more growth and development in the friendship between steve and nancy, instead of this devotion/obsession he has from afar for her, that she does not at all reciprocate.

i really like steve’s friendship with robin though, and i in no way think it was a bad decision. the one criticism (that’s barely a criticism and more just something i think would have been nice) is that i wish he had some more development from steve calling jonathan “queer” (as a slur) to accepting robin with barely a blink of an eye. i’m not saying that was a bad thing - it’s the way everyone should be - but wtiting and development-wise it felt a bit like ‘oh hey everyone loves steve so let’s make him as flawless as possible without any more drawbacks or flaws’ and they just kind of ignored his previous bigotry. but that is really me just nit picking, i LOVE steve and robin’s friendship!

no hate against steve’s character - my current mindset is more bemoaning the lack of good jonathan content and development and sadly steve will often get caught in the crosshairs 😩

[fastcardotmp3]

Five times Max sees Robin Buckley through Nancy’s eyes, and one time she sees them both through her own. 

read chapter 1 ▪️ rated T ▪️ Ronance & Elumax

an excerpt from wish on an eyelash chapter 1:

“How’s Jonathan?” 

Prodding. 

They’re outside, feeding Mrs. Miller’s dog through the fence, and Nancy doesn’t look at Max, but her eyes get bright in a way that feels mostly the same. 

“Oh! He’s— he’s good.”

“Are you two still… together?” Max knows it might be a sore subject, an awkward thing to have to ask at all. If she can’t tell because Nancy never talks about it, then that’s gonna make them both aware of a certain sort of situation present in that relationship, but Max asks all the same. 

She asks all the same because sometimes she thinks about Lucas, about how much she misses him, about how excited he looks when he wears his basketball uniform and how sad he looks every time the two of them end up sharing a handful of stilted sentences. 

“What? Yes! Of course, I mean, yeah, yeah,” Nancy says, too-quick and defensive and making Max’s brows lift on instinct at the way she stumbles over the assurance. 

Nancy’s not a word-stumbler. She doesn’t always think before she speaks, but even then her words are clear. 

“You sure about that?” 

Nancy shoots her a look, exasperation to it as much as any sort of genuine annoyance, and Max just meets it head on with a challenge.

“It's just tricky,” Nancy relents with a shake of her head, bringing her attention back to the fluffy ears waiting for the pleasant scratch of her long nails through the fence. “He's so far away and— I guess I just realized I don't even know anyone else in my grade all that well. And definitely not anyone who— knows.”

It's kind of the opposite problem to the one Max has been dealing with, her too many friends who know too much for her comfort. These kids she can't be in the same room as without feeling the weight of their concern, no matter how well-intentioned.

Because their concern is still hers to carry, even if it's meant to help her. Their concern is as heavy as her guilt, because they're all born from the same place inside of her.

They're not talking about Max today though. Max is horribly grateful they're not talking about her today.

“You know, um, Steve's sailor friend, right?” Max suggests, sliding another small slice of cheese through the fence and letting the tips of her fingers get slobbered up. “She's in your grade.”

“Robin?” Nancy says it like maybe it hadn't even occurred to her. “Yeah,” Max snorts at the twist-up of Nancy's mouth, the sort of bafflement that Max is even suggesting such a thing as if the reason most of the people in their little monster hunting team aren't as close as they are because they got dragged into the aforementioned monster hunting. “That's the one. What's wrong with her? You guys could be friends.“

[girl-next-door-writes]

Until Then We'll Have To Muddle Through Somehow

Characters: Steve Harrington x Reader

Summary: Eddie and Robin try their best to help Steve make a move but not everything goes to plan.

Word Count:  1184 words

Prompt: #21: "Oh look, mistletoe." "Oh look, a distraction!"

A/N: the fabulous @tenaciouszombiewombat requested this prompt for Steve and I thought it was so super cute!

Everyone was coming over to Steve’s for a movie night. The main arguments for the venue were, no parents, biggest tv and there was more room for everyone to sit comfortably. Now that the craziness of Christmas Day was over with and they had reached that weird period of time when nobody was entirely sure what day it was, things like movie nights were a good way to pass the time. The only thing needed from his guests was to turn up and bring food and drinks.

“You should totally make a move.” Robin bounced on the balls of her feet as she leaned against the kitchen counter in the Harrington house. Her and Eddie had been trying to convince Steve that his feelings for you were not one sided for the past twenty minutes, but they weren’t getting anywhere.

“Yeah! Tonight, you should do it, just go for it.” Eddie grinned, reaching over and grabbing another beer.

“You can turn on that Harrington charm that seems to work for some weird reason and tell her you like her!”

“I am not taking love life advi- “Steve began to protest once more, only to be interrupted by his best friend’s squeals of delight.

“So, it IS love! Oh, this is so exciting!”

“Our boy’s all grown up.” Eddie put one hand on his heart, giving Steve a look of mock pride.

“I hate you two, you are aware of that, right?” Steve pouted, folding his arms across his chest and fighting the urge to roll his eyes. He was beginning to wish he had never relented and told these two idiots that he kinda liked you. Not like they hadn’t already picked up on his feelings, but for him to actually confirm them had led to this.

“Look at him trying to be all scary, it’s adorable.” Robin leaned against Eddie with a grin.

“You’ve got this, big boy.”

“Fuck off.” He huffed, turning to pull the pizza from the oven.

“Come on, she’s in there right now. We could go tell her you need her help in here and then you could tell her how you loooovvee her.” Robin grinned.

“Or, and I’m just thinking out loud here, I could cut up this pizza and we could get back in there for the next movie.”

“Coward.” Robin scrunched her nose at Steve as Eddie meandered back towards the den with beers for Nancy and Jonathan.

“Nope. Smart.” He countered, concentrating on the pizza. There was no way he was going to put himself out there like that, not when he didn’t stand a chance.

Sinking back onto the sofa between you and Robin, Steve tried to stop the slight shiver he felt when you pressed your thigh against his. Stealing glances at you from the corner of his eye, he was so glad that he’d had to take that stupid book back. Even if this never became anything more than a friendship, he was grateful to have you in his life.

He had been so busy trying not to get caught looking at you that he entirely missed Eddie’s not so stealthy movements until he popped up behind him on the sofa with a manic grin, holding something up in the air.

"Oh look, mistletoe." The room had fallen silent, and Steve felt everyone’s eyes on him, the pressure was so intense, and he hated it.

"Oh look, a distraction!" he mumbled, leaning forward and grabbing the remote, turning on the film and staring intently at the screen.

Robin and Eddie exchanged a look, they had given him the perfect opening there and he hadn’t taken it! Perhaps he really was that hopeless.

Steve spent the majority of the movie cursing himself and his friends in turn. That was not how he wanted your first kiss to be, witnessed by everyone, the pressure for you to kiss him even if you didn’t want to. Had he just ruined any chance he might have had with you? Had he come across as too grumpy? Did you think he had rejected you? What if you had liked him and he’d just done that and now you thought he didn’t like you and you went off with someone else and he never got to have that first kiss because he had spoilt everything! His thoughts were spiraling, and then he felt your head rest against his shoulder.

The simple gesture made his entire body still. Slowly, he leaned his cheek against the top of your head, not wanting any sudden movements to push you away from him. A soft smile played on his lips as the back of your fingers brushed his. Suddenly, he felt he had made the right choice. He wanted the chance to vanish in your kiss, to melt into you, and that would not be possible with an audience. He adored you, and he wanted to put all those feelings into a kiss because god knows he couldn’t put them into words.

When the second movie finished, the group decided to have a break, grab more food and drinks, maybe use the bathroom, before putting on the last of the videos. People had headed to the kitchen and the bathrooms, leaving just you and Steve sitting on the sofa, neither of you wanting to move.

You could hear the loud laughter echoing from the kitchen, Eddie obviously up to something which caused groans and amusement in equal measure. One phrase drifted above the noise, "Oh look, mistletoe."

Your chuckle caught Steve’s attention and he shifted slightly so he could look at you. His breath hitched when he found you already gazing up at him, your expression so soft.

"Oh look, a distraction.” You hummed, and Steve swallowed thickly, his eyes focused on your lips.

“Yeah.” He whispered, instinctively leaning into you, his eyes fluttering closed a fraction of a second before he felt your lips meeting his.

It was everything he had hoped for and so much more, because this was real, you were really kissing him. His hand came up to cup your cheek as he slowly deepened the kiss, holding back his growing passion because the last thing he wanted was for someone to walk in on the two of you mid make-out. Your fingers wound through his hair, and he knew he was lost as a low moan fell from him. Wrapping his arm around your middle, he pulled you closer.

He was just losing himself completely when he heard a rather loud cough from behind him. Breaking the kiss, Steve rested his forehead against yours, gazing into your eyes. “Fuck off, Munson.” He growled, though you were very aware of the grin on his face.

“Knew you had this, big boy.” Eddie patted his friends shoulder before disappearing back to the kitchen.

Steve was about to kiss you again when he heard Eddie announcing, “You might wanna keep out of there, Harrington’s finally getting some!”

“Fucking Munson.” He leapt up and stormed off to murder his friend, leaving you laughing on the sofa. “I’m gonna kill you, Eddie!”

[atlantablack]

you know i swear i'd give you anything

Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley | 2,080 | no archive warnings apply

on Ao3 or continued under the cut

Robin doesn’t really consider herself a jealous person. In general, she thinks she’s fine sharing people’s attention. She’d shared Steve’s attention with the kids for nearly a year after all. 

But then Vecna happens and in the aftermath, Steve starts hanging out with Nancy and Jonathan occasionally. He starts going to Eddie’s nearly every time he’s not with Robin. And sure, he’ll still drop everything if she calls, which is gratifying in and of itself, and it’s not like they don’t still hang out an obnoxious amount but she’s sharing his affection with other people their age and she kind of fucking hates it. 

And look, Robin knows it’s irrational, of course she knows. But there’s some part of her still waiting for Steve to get tired of her and leave. The same part of her that still can’t believe he stuck around in the first place. Because she’s a girl who turned him down and no matter how good the reason it doesn’t change the fact that she said no. She hadn’t expected him to stay her friend after that. 

She hadn’t. But Steve loves to throw her expectations for him out the window so maybe she should have expected it. Except now, of course, she’s gotten so used to having him around all the time that sharing him seems to be some kind of injustice. 

She tries to keep it secret though. She smiles at Nancy, which isn’t really a hardship. She jokes around with Eddie, which is honestly so much fun. But then she has to go home and Steve will drive off smiling while Eddie, badly, sings along to some song she doesn’t know and the jealousy roots even deeper in her lungs. 

Like, sure, she can forgive Nancy and Jonathan. She can justify them, if only to appease her own jealousy. Nancy and Jonathan were, technically, here first. They were there for the monsters before Robin ever was. But Nancy broke Steve’s heart and left him, Jonathan her willing accomplice, so really, Robin thinks she’s entirely fucking justified in wanting them both to stay the fuck away from Steve. 

She’s ignoring the part of her brain that also wants Steve to stay away from Nancy because handling one case of irrational jealousy is already bad enough. She refuses to juggle two. 

So, Nancy and Jonathan, she can almost get (except for all the way she really really can’t). But sometimes she sees Eddie leaning into Steve’s space and making Steve smile so goddamn wide and she wants to go pull his hair out of his skull. 

There must be something seriously wrong with her to resent that Steve has other friends now. She just really really really doesn’t know what to do about it. 

Eddie is the worst though. Is the reason the jealousy burns so hot in her throat it feels as if it’ll burn the whole town down. She’s blisteringly aware of why Eddie makes Steve smile so wide. Is aware of why Eddie monopolizes all of Steve’s time when he isn’t with her or the kids. She’s so aware of it that she wants to be sick. 

And see, here’s the part that makes her want to curl up into a ball of shame. The part that keeps haunting her, dogging her footsteps. She should be happy that Steve is like her. She should be over the goddamn moon. And she was, she is, but—

But, she keeps thinking about how one day, because she knows it’s an inevitability even if Steve is convinced it’s hopeless, Eddie is going to steal him away. Steve is going to fall more in love than he already is and they’re going to move in together and be even more sickening than they are now and then he just won’t have time for Robin anymore because who puts their best friend over their boyfriend right? Like, Robin knows how this goes, okay? She knows and she wants to claw Eddie’s eyes out until he goes away and she also wants him to never leave because Steve would be devastated if Eddie left now. 

The jealousy bubbles up her throat more and more now that summer is upon them. Graduation is a memory in the dashboard mirror and Steve spends as much time with Eddie as he does with her. Her throat won’t stop burning. 

She spends a lot of time with Nancy when Steve is with Eddie. And it helps, some days. Other days it makes the entire thing worse. Because she doesn’t want to be hanging out with Nancy. She wants to be on Steve’s couch watching stupid movies or next to his pool sun-soaked and safe. She wants them to be flat on their backs in Steve’s bedroom dreaming about their future apartment in San Francisco because of course Steve is going to follow her out there as soon as the kids graduate. She used to be sure this was an inevitability. 

She’s not sure of anything anymore. She blames Eddie, but mostly she blames herself. 

———

She keeps it under wraps for a few more weeks though. Nearly makes it to July. 

They talk about her gap year and make road trip plans for the fall after the Byers are back so that Steve can leave the kids without feeling guilty. She doesn’t burst into angry tears when Steve suggests taking Eddie and Nancy with them. 

And god, she still thinks she’s doing so well hiding all the ugly emotions bubbling up her throat. But she forgets sometimes that Steve knows her just as well as she knows him. 

“You don’t want them to come,” he says an hour after she’d begrudgingly agreed that having the other two along for the ride would be fun. 

“I never said that,” she says, not looking away from the tape she’s carefully winding back into place with a pencil. He hums doubtfully from where he’s perched on the counter watching her. 

“Pretty sure you were more excited about making molotov’s than you are about them maybe coming with.”

“What can I say, molotov’s are fun,” she says lightly, shrugging like it’s really just that simple. 

“Rob, come on, look at me please?”

She doesn’t. She can feel her shoulders trying to hike up, desperate to shield her. If she looks at him she’ll start crumbling apart. “It’s fine,” and her voice comes out too stiff for him to believe her but she pushes on regardless. “I’m fine with them coming.”

“But you don’t want them to come,” he insists, hopping off of the counter to crouch in front of her. “Rob, come on, what’s up? You’ve been acting weird for ages. I was waiting for you to talk to me about it but…Just, tell me what’s wrong. Please?” 

He looks so stupidly serious, eyebrows furrowed in concern, and horrifically she can feel her eyes burning. She wants to go back to when it was just them against the world. Wants to go back to pointlessly complaining about never knowing what they want or who they want it with. Wants to go back to the certainty that he was never going to leave her side. 

She doesn’t know when he wiggled so far under her rib cage that the idea of losing him became this insurmountable promise of grief. Maybe that had been inevitable the moment she’d stepped into that elevator. Like, if she didn’t know the taste of fear at seeing him limp and unconscious on the floor, covered in his own blood, if she hadn’t spent hours terrified he was going to be tortured while strapped against her back, if she didn’t know the way it felt when his breath hitched when he was terrified — maybe if she didn’t have that knowledge carefully boxed up and hidden between her bones, maybe she could be normal about this. 

“Are you still going to move to San Francisco with me?” She asks instead of answering his question. “When the kids graduate, are you still moving out there with me?” 

He frowns even harder. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” 

“What about Eddie?” It sounds even uglier when put out into the air between them. 

“What about him?” His voice trips up an octave, carefully light in that infuriating way he has about himself now whenever Eddie is mentioned. 

She swallows hard, can’t look him in the eye when she asks, “What are you going to do about him? If he doesn’t want to move out there. If you have to choose.” 

It’s silent for a long minute, the ticking of the clock grating against her ears. “Eddie and I aren’t dating,” he says finally, each word slower than the next. “You know that. And even if we were, Robin, I’m always going to choose you.” 

The tape slips out of her finger as she curls in on herself, arms over her head as she tries to tuck herself into the smallest ball that she can possibly be. Her chest feels like it’s shattering, like there’s going to be shards of bone lodged in her lungs for the rest of her life. 

It’s irrational. She knows that it's all irrational, and she thinks that makes it hurt even worse, but in the deepest recesses of her mind, there’s still a little girl, ten years old, braids swinging out behind her as she spins and spins and spins, all alone on the merry-go-round. She kept thinking, all throughout elementary school, that if she just kept trying, just kept waiting, eventually, her bestest friend in the whole world would appear. Like if she dreamed hard enough, wished hard enough, this imaginary person would step out of her head and be real. 

There had never been a best friend. There had been Barb, brief and bright before she’d left as well. She’d seen something in Nancy that had been lacking in Robin and that had been that. It feels like the cruelest turn of fate that after the monsters, after the nightmares and the freezing fear that Nancy was going to be Vecna’s next victim, after all of it – Robin can’t even blame her. Because she sees it too. 

She thinks part of her is still waiting for Steve to go running back to Nancy’s arms because surely he sees it too, that spark that Robin is missing. It’s just, she knows he won’t, of course she knows this. Just like she knows that he won’t abandon her just because he starts dating Eddie. 

But she’s never had anyone stay this long and she keeps thinking, there has to be a line somewhere, right? She keeps thinking that, but Steve is still here.

“Robin,” Steve’s voice is so achingly gentle, littered with remnants of a mall bathroom, and the crack in his voice as he’d said, oh. “Robin, is that what’s this been about?”

“No,” she says to her knees, voice choked and muffled. “No, I’m fine. It’s fine.” 

He laughs, hand curling around her ankle and squeezing tight. It’s more grounding than it has any right to be. “Come on, Rob. You know you’re always going to be my number one. End of the line you and me.” 

“End of the line,” she agrees, uncurling and slipping down onto the sticky floor so she can press up against his side. “You can make fun of me for this in an hour.” 

“I’ll hold you to that,” he says quietly, leaning his head against hers and tangling their fingers together. “I’m going to follow you everywhere, Buckley. You’re gonna get so sick of me.” 

“Yeah, probably. Guess you’ll have to never stop since you love annoying me so much.”

She untangles their fingers and holds her pinky out. “I’m calling dibs on getting buried next to you,” she says solemnly. “I don’t care what Eddie says.” 

He makes a choked snorting noise, cheeks flaring red, but he loops his pinky with hers. “I’m not great at math but I’m pretty sure there are two sides to a grave. You can both be buried next to me.” 

“Pinky promise?” 

“Yeah, I pinky promise.” 

[turinspeachjam]

Steve drove for a while after ditching Tommy and Carol.

He should have realized saying that shit about Nancy and Jonathan wasn't okay. He shouldn't have let his anger get the best of him. He acted like his dad and the more Steve thought about it, the more obvious it was that Tommy and Carol had always encouraged him to behave like that. They constantly were egging him on, making him angrier and angrier until he lashed out.

He didn't want to lash out. He didn't want his so-called friends to encourage that shit. He used to be kinder, gentle. He used to be more like his mom.

It was that thought that made Steve pull over. He couldn't really see the road anymore, his vision completely blurred both by tears and the shiner Jonathan gave him. Steve couldn't remember the last time he cried like this; tears streaming down his cheeks, snot dripping from his nose, his breath growing quicker and more panicked. He felt like he was drowning.

Then someone knocked on his window and scared the shit out of him.

He turned his head to look at the intruder, hastily wiping the tears from his eyes only to wince when he accidentally touched his bruised face. It was some girl he vaguely recognized. They probably went to school together. He thought she might be in band, but he had no way of knowing unless he actually asked her. Then again, that might make the fact that she was an apparent witness to his emotional breakdown even worse. God, he did not need rumors of "Crybaby Steve" circulating the school, especially after his fallout with Tommy and Carol. Desperately trying to calm his breathing, with varying degrees of success, Steve rolled his window down.

"Can I-- Can I help you?"

His voice cracking nearly sent him spiraling again, tears welling up once more.

"Is there a reason you picked my front lawn to shatter to pieces or am I just that lucky?"

He couldn't tell if it was the bluntness of her words, the deadpan delivery, or just the fact that she had the audacity to joke about the whole thing. Whatever it was, Steve burst out laughing. He sounded hysterical to his own ears, but it was a hell of a lot better than crying. He tried to reign himself in when she started looking nervous, but he could only taper his cackling down into breathy giggles.

"S-sorry. I don't know why-y I'm l-laughing."

The girl snorted at him, shaking her head in exasperation that seemed both irritated and fond.

"That's fine. We'll start with something easy. Why are you on my lawn?"

Steve glanced away from her and out the window and, sure enough, his car was halfway on her lawn. He turned back to her, sheepish.

"I, uh, I couldn't see the road. Sorry."

She blinked for a few moments, her expression betraying nothing on how she was feeling. There were a few instances where she looked like she was going to say something and decided against it. To say the least, her silence made Steve increasingly nervous.

"Do you want to sit on the grass for a bit?"

She seemed hesitant to make such an offer, but he could tell it was genuine nonetheless.

"Yeah."

So they sat on her lawn.

They sat on her lawn for hours. Talking, tearing up bits of grass and throwing them at each other, just simply existing in the moment. It was the most calm Steve had felt since he started high school.

"I'm worried that I went too far. That it won't matter if I apologize to them or not."

"It doesn't matter if they forgive you or not. It's important that they know you are aware that you fucked up. Acknowledge that you were in the wrong and don't want to make that same mistake. It sucks, but it's what you have to do if you wanna make it right."

"Yeah. Thanks Robin. You're really cool."

"That's quite the complement coming from The Hair."

Steve groaned, knowing full well what that nickname indicated. He laid back on the grass, gaze fixed on the darkening sky.

"Hey Robin?"

"Yeah Steve?"

"Would you maybe want to be friends? I don't really have any real ones."

And what a depressing thought that was. It was true, though. Tommy and Carol have never been real friends, not in the way he needed them to be. The closest thing he had was Nancy and look at how that turned out so far.

"Are you for real?"

Robin sounded bewildered and it made Steve wonder how isolated he made himself out to be that anyone would question why he might want to befriend them. God, popularity ruined him.

"Yes?"

Now he was anxious that Robin was only humoring him. Of course she wouldn't want to be friends with him. He was a complete loser, just like his dad always said.

"Okay. Yeah. We can be friends, Steve."

The warmth that spread through Steve was lightning fast. It felt almost as good as when Nancy would sneak away with him to make-out at school. Maybe even better.

"Cool. Thanks, uh, for all of this. I didn't mean to just kind of dump my shit on your lap, but I'm glad we met. Yeah. Anyway, I've got apologies to make. I'll see you later?"

He glanced at her from the side, a shy grin taking over his face. She smiled back and gave him a playful shove.

"See you later, Harrington. Tell me how it goes!"

Steve rushed back to his car, determination settling in his gut. He'd apologize to Jonathan first. It was only right.

***

Robin wouldn't go as far as to say that she was worried, but she was definitely curious. A tad concerned maybe. It was just that Steve hadn't been to class for the last three days. Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers hadn't either and perhaps that was why Robin found herself anxious. After all, Barb Holland and Will Byers went missing recently. Who's to say the same thing couldn't have happened to those three?

Robin smacked her cheeks a few times. There was no sense in getting worked up by worst case scenarios. She'd get the facts, one way or another, even if it meant venturing all the way to Loch Nora to find Steve.

That plan turned out to be wholly unnecessary because Steve walked into class right as she had that thought. He looked a little twitchy, his eyes flicking across the classroom like they anticipated danger. It wasn't long before he clocked Robin. She waved and the smile that blossomed on his face was so bright she thought she was going to need sunglasses.

He went straight for his seat right in front of hers and immediately situated himself so that he was facing her.

"Hey Robin!"

"Hey yourself! Did everything go okay? I haven't seen you in class."

He studied his hands for a moment, a distant look passing through his eyes like he was remembering something, before he smiled ruefully at her.

"Yeah. Everything went okay. I would've come in yesterday, but my mom wanted me to rest at home. Wasn't feeling too good. I'm here now though! Ready to actually pay attention for once."

Robin snorted right as their English teacher entered the classroom. Steve spun around quickly to face the front, but every so often he turn his head halfway toward hers and make faces at her. She shoved him every time, a smile playing across her face.

Steve Harrington was a wild card, but Robin had a gut feeling that they'd be good for each other.

***

Happy Platonic Stobin Month! I have no idea how much I'm actually going to participate, but I did write this thing! So I hope y'all enjoy! (Prompts 1 & 20: Alternate Meeting/1983)

[starlightshadowsworld]

I love the idea of the monster hunting trio becoming best friends.

Because look at them.

You've got Jonathan, the social outcast who's just trying to protect and look out for his little brother.

Steve, the former prom king who's had his whole world turned upside down. And despite everything steps in and helps Jonathan out.

The same guy who's camera broke and had a fight with.

Nancy who's the idolised girl next door who's mourning her best friend. The one who brings both Steve and Jonathan together.

And they have reasons for not liking the others.

Nancy dumped Steve and said their whole relationship was bullshit.

Everything Steve did to Jonathan.

Jonathan not liking Nancy because of Steve.

And maybe they all want to forget it.

Forget each other.

But they can't.

Because Nancy helped Jonathan.

Because Steve came to apologise.

Because Nancy threatened Steve with a gun to get him to leave.

Because Steve jumped in anyway because he couldn't leave them behind.

Because Jonathan grabs Steve and Nancy's hands to get them out of harms way.

This is their troll in the dungeon moment.

All of them alone.

Steve falls from the social ladder to rock bottom.

Nancy lost the person she loved the most.

Jonathan has always been alone. He has his brother back and his mum but he can't talk to them.

Will's suffered enough and Jonathan has always been Joyce's pillar of strength not the other way around.

And finds himself with 2 people who are as drawn to him as he is now drawn to them.

It suprised them all, even himself when he made the first move.

Sitting beside Steve at lunch.

Steve who was poking at his lunch in the corner alone. Startled looking up at Jonathan, who asks if he can sit.

Steve nods, baffled.

Jonathan puts his tray down, they both eat in silence for a bit before.

"I forgive you."

Steve blinks, but Jonathan stared down a demogorgan so he's not put off at all.

"You said you came to my house to apologise, right?"

Steve nods.

Jonathan looks at him, really looks at him. He doesn't see King Steve, just... Steve.

"So, I forgive you."

Steve blinks, processes it before chuckling. Shaking his head as he does so. "... You are definitely something Byers."

He frowns "and I'm sorry for... Everything."

Jonathan smiles "I forgive you. And I'm sorry for... Everything too."

Steve smiles, "I forgive you."

That's when Nancy walks up to them.

She barely gets a word out before Steve's getting up and both walk away to talk in private.

Jonathan hums to himself, eating his lunch abd not long later both return.

There's tear tracks on both of their cheeks that have been brushed away.

But, as Steve re-takes his seat with Nancy sitting beside Jonathan.

The tension is gone.

They both look lighter and happier.

"So... Did you do the essay for Mrs Clicks class?" Asked Jonathan.

And the world continues on.

It's werid because they all fit like they've always been together.

Jonathan is very aware Steve got him his new camera.

He's suprised when he doesn't feel embarrassed for getting a newer model that definitely didn't cost much for Steve.

Instead it's, thankfulness.

Steve seems happier than he does when Jonathan goes out and about with it, snapping shots here and there.

Even asking about it and while Steve looks much like Jonathan does when Will is on a D&D rant, he listens intently.

Steve starts taking up drawing, he mentiond off handedly he used to but his dad thinks it's for girls.

Jonathan, mentally putting Mr Harrington in the same category of men as Lonnie, offhandedly mentions how Will loves art.

And if he leaves an unused sketchbook at Steve's house one time that he sees him carrying with him everywhere now.

Than that's his buisness.

It's not until one day where they both somehow end up in a conversation about lighting, that Steve thanks him.

Jonathan merely shrugs and says he really just got him it to get free doodles.

Steve bumps shoulders with him and snorts "in your dreams, Jonathan."

And where there is Jonathan and Steve, their is Nancy.

She's always got a point and sometimes Jonathan likes to throw out random scenarios just to see the cogs in her brain work.

She's endlessly passionate and was halfway through ranting about the school system before she realised and fondly swatted his shoulder.

Nancy doesn't fancy herself artsy like them but she adores her books.

She writes little notes in the margins, dog ears pages and even hallowed out an old textbook to store snacks.

They both attend Steve's basketball and swim events abd despite no longer dating Nancy wears his letterman.

Steve jokes that she staked her claim on it.

Neither of them have any idea what's going on but cheer loud and obnoxiously whenever Steve gets a point.

Steve's given up explaining sports to them but he doesn't care because their his best cheerleaders.

Jonathan actually had to hold Nancy back from throwing hands when the referee when a certain blonde pushed Steve over.

Speaking off... Things aren't always so great.

Jonathan ends up taking Steve's offer to stay over more often than not.

He gets uneasy being in his house for too long.

Nancy comes over, at first twice a week when she lied to her mother about sleepovers.

To just sneaking out and staying over when the nightmares are bad.

She and Steve both drained his pool.

Steve is relieved with their company because he hates being alone.

More so now than ever.

They all end up with walkies with their own channel, checking up on each other whenever they are apart.

Signing off before bed in the rare times they're all in their own.

Most of the time they're at Steve's, crashing in his room.

Sometimes on sleeping bags or a blanket nest but at this point they just curl up in a pile on his bed.

Steve is absolutely touch starved.

Nancy is also but not as bad and they both end up clinging to Jonathan who's a hugger.

They all know the sound of each others screams at 3am.

Nancy cries out in her sleep.

Steve is near silent but his whole body freezes up.

Jonathan wakes up with a horrified gasp.

Billy refuses to leave Steve alone and so he comes back with bruises and minor injuries that Jonathan takes care of.

Steve sleeps with the nailed bat in reach.

Nancy has a gun nearby.

Jonathan has a knife.

They all patrol at night and in random hours of the morning when they can't sleep.

They hold each other through fear and nightmares like their the only things that feel real.

All 3 of them are parentified and all bond over feeling like they are in their mid thirties rather than teenagers.

Everyone's failed them and they only have each other.

[angel-wings-and-tattoos]

i am, in fact, in a steddie mood today. however, if you look at my account for more than 2 seconds then you're aware that i'm incapable of writing anything without stonathan in some way, shape, or form so today! we will be looking at platonicbff!stonathan. i love stonathan with my entire heart and its to the point where i like literally any dynamic you can put them in. like i think i'm into platonic!stonathan equally as much as platonic!stobin. which is saying something bc i am actively head over heels in love with robin.

what i want to look at today is protective jonathan when it comes to steve. in a perfect world (correction-in a somewhat plausible perfect world bc, let's be honest, in my perfect world we actively get footage of jonathan and steve fucking but that's neither here nor there) season 5 develops steve & jonathan's relationship, him and nancy break up amicably, and steve and jonathan become best friends.

but back to the steddie i promised earlier.

----

eddie doesn't know how it happened. one day he's accused of murder, alone, and stuck in a boathouse and less than a month later here he is. staring at steve fucking harrington sleeping less than five feet away from him.

the very same steve harrington that apparently is the sole reason he's even awake in the first place. when the trio had stumbled onto dustin and eddie, steve had gone into full action hero mode. using his lifeguard cpr training he had managed to get eddie breathing long enough to haul his ass back top side, breaking one of eddie's ribs in the process.

eddie doesn't remember any of it.

that isn't for lack of trying on his part. eddie is approximately two seconds away from breaking into the hospital's security footage because, if robin's story is true, he wants to keep the video for the rest of his life.

according to her, it was awesome, munson, you should have seen it! he had you in a bridal carry like a godamn rag doll. he burst in the front entrance and started yelling at them like i've never seen him yell before, ever! even that one time dustin fucked up the paint on his car. the nurses recognized you and for sure didn't want to help but apparently there's only so much you can do in the face of steve harrington throwing the mother of all shitfits. the second he started threatening to call his dad they all kicked into gear. it would have been funny if i didn't actively think you were dead at the time. sorry! but you really were super still and you weren't groping steve, like at all, so i assumed that we'd lost you forever.

(eddie pretends to be offended by that last bit, but he also concedes that if steve picked him up right now he can't promise he would keep his hands to himself)

after eddie was taken away on a stretcher, steve had nodded, mostly to himself, and promptly passed out. onto the cold, hard, tiled floor of the hospital entryway. they hauled him on a stretcher as well and he was put up in a room somewhere down the hallway.

that lasted for about four hours.

or, more accurately, that lasted until steve woke up again. after throwing what robin called less a shitfit, more a temper tantrum this time, he managed, even in a pain-induced haze, to convince the hospital staff to put him in eddie's room.

that fiasco was 3 days ago.

currently, steve wasn't unconscious anymore but his injuries were pretty badly infected. turns out nancy's shredded t-shirt wasn't exactly the most sterile thing on the planet. they had him on a steady stream of antibiotics and pain meds. eddie himself hadn't been awake for more than 15 minutes or so at a time (each of those times, robin had excitedly looked up from her vigil at steve's side and recounted new things she decided he had to know at that exact second).

until now.

as eddie blinks awake, he is aware of three things.

he's never been this thirsty in his entire life. it feels like he decided to dive mouth first into a container of sand.

if he didn't know any better, he would say that jim hopper is standing by a chair near steve's bed. but he does know better, jim hopper is dead. so. great. now he can add hallucinations to potential side effects of evil upside down bat bites.

directly next to the mirage of a police chief, sits jonathan byers.

that last thing wouldn't be as weird if said byers wasn't holding one of steve's hands and sitting far closer to the bed than the nonentity behind him.

(eddie isn't sure why the hand holding is more distracting at the moment than the fact that robin is actively laying in steve's bed with him, burrowing herself into his side like she's attempting to meld them into one person.)

he blearily watches as jonathan softly tucks a stray piece of steve's hair behind his ear on the side of his head that's not currently resting on the top of robin's.

eddie decides that he is on far too much pain medication to be thinking this hard.

groaning, he attempts to sit up enough to reach the water pitcher next to his bed.

"whoa, munson. take it easy," the ghost of legal trouble's past shuffles over to help eddie by pouring some water into a small paper cup. eddie watches him, wearily taking the cup from him. the water was cold to the point that it almost hurt, but it still beat the hell out of having a dry throat.

"ar'n't you 'posed t'be dead?" eddie slurs. his tongue feels like it weighs about ten pounds. the (poltergeist? revenant? wraith? eddie's mushy brain can't think of a better word for a dead person that can pour him water) figure before him scoffs.

"nice to see that you're still charming as ever. it's a long story, kid, i'm sure someone else will fill you in later. besides i'm guessing you have maybe 5 minutes of peace before one of those kids finds out you're awake and, inevitably, starts screaming about it loud enough to break glass," hopper sighs, hands coming to his hips in a remarkably similar echo of steve. eddie has absolutely zero thoughts about that, thank you. the chief moves towards the door, placing a hand on the handle.

"however, buckley hasn't left harrington's side for the last 4 days. if anyone scares her awake now, i don't think she'll ever go back to sleep. i'll hold them off for the night, but the second the sun comes up, you're on your own."

hopper looks from eddie to jonathan, who nods in acknowledgement without looking away from steve for more than a second or two. eddie watches as he closes the door behind him and disappears from view, leaving jonathan and eddie sitting in silence.

eddie coughs.

fidgets.

looks at byers.

coughs again.

okay, let it be said that eddie isn't great with awkward silence. but, in his defense, what the fuck is he supposed to say to jonathan byers? he didn't even know that him and steve were friends, much less holding-hands-in-a-hospital-bed-friends.

"so," eddie starts, regretting opening his mouth the second jonathan looks at him.

"so," jonathan repeats quietly, looking like he's holding back a smile as he does, "you're eddie munson."

eddie doesn't like the way jonathan is saying his name. it has an odd tilt to it, like he's mimicking what someone else has said to him. eddie admits that it's not the worst way his name has ever been said, but it makes him swallow uncomfortably.

"gu'lty 's charged, man." eddie's voice comes out considerably clearer than before, shifting from sounding completely shitfaced to minorly tipsy.

there is an extremely awkward moment where eddie has no idea where this conversation is going. jonathan is back to staring at steve, still practically cradling one of his hands between the two of his.

"he talks about you a lot, you know," eddie doesn't know, but he also doesn't interrupt, "it's always 'eddie said this', 'this is eddie's favorite song', 'eddie rented that movie'. he talks about you almost as much as he talks about robin."

jonathan takes a breath, drumming his fingers on the back of steve's hand. his gaze stays on steve as he talks, still quiet enough to not wake up either of the teenagers sleeping next to him.

"he's a good guy, you know. underneath the whole asshole jock façade. i don't know if you remember, but he almost killed himself trying to save you. i'm not sure how he was even able to stand when you guys came in, much less march in here like he did carrying you in his arms."

still idly toying with steve's hand, jonathan's gaze moves back to eddie. his fond expression dims into more serious territory as he visibly contemplates the second part of his impromptu speech.

"i'm not the greatest at talking about my own feelings, i'm more than aware of that, but i won't hesitate in saying that steve is important to me. no idea how, why, or when it happened, but he just is. somewhere along the line he decided that your opinion is important to him and i need you to understand the weight of that. steve has been independent his entire life, sometimes to the point where it's detrimental to his own health. i don't know if he realizes it completely, but he's basically imprinted on you like a baby duck."

eddie swallows nervously as jonathan maintains steady eye contact. the two men are quiet for a moment before jonathan seems to mentally switch tracks, "you seem like a good guy. steve obviously adores you and it sounds like the kids do as well. from what i've heard, you almost died to save dustin's life. i appreciate all of it, i really do. that being said, if you do anything to hurt steve then none of that matters anymore. i think i'm speaking on robin's behalf as well when i say that we really do like you as a person, but steve's wellbeing comes first."

as stated earlier, eddie is on far too much pain medication to be thinking this hard. if his head wasn't so foggy, eddie would think he's getting a shovel talk.

by jonathan byers.

about steve harrington.

who apparently "obviously adores him".

yeah, it's definitely the pain killers.

eddie clears his throat again as he heavily sinks back against his pillows. "i'm not entirely convinced that 'm not hallucinating this entire conversation, byers. but yeah, i understand. kinda owe him my life now, i guess, so it'd be pretty shitty of me to hurt the guy's feelings or whatever ya think i'mma do," his speech was improving the more he talked, but it was getting harder to keep his eyes open.

jonathan seems content with that statement for the time being, if his attention switching back to steve and off eddie is any indication.

eddie falls back asleep shortly thereafter, leaving jonathan as the only person awake in the small hospital room.

________

i think i'm going to add more from jonathan's pov but for now just be aware that jonathan and steve both know that steve is practically in love with eddie. jonathan is very protective of the people he loves and steve is in that circle. as far as this little snippet goes, i don't think stonathan was ever a romantic thing, and there was never any hard pining involved but they do care about each other deeply. i like to think they kept in contact when the byers moved to california. it started with jonathan and nancy getting into a fight and the only other adult person he could call to check on things was steve. he wasn't sure if steve would even respond, but he ended up not only answering all of jon's questions but seemed to genuinely want to know how the rest of the byers' clan was doing.

this turned into weekly phone calls, which turned to twice a week, which eventually turned to calls at all times of day all week. they're basically besties who gossip and talk shit on the phone all the time. when the byers get back to hawkins it shocks everyone but robin when jonathan parks his ass next to steve's bed and refuses to move.

i just love stonathan ok!!!! i will die on this hill. steve deserves people who love him and care about him!!

Edit: now on ao3!! <3