#joyce yelling at hopper to NOT BREAK ANY BONES

[snowangeldotmp3]

The chaos of flayed Robin probably teasing hopper while they are fighting. How probably can’t feel anything he’s doing and just undermining him and his strength.

When Robin finally isn’t flayed she’s just wondering what happened and why is she broken and bruised in different places on her body

LMAO flayed robin fighting hopper and going, "is that the best you've got, old man? come on, you can do better than that."

[steddieas-shegoes]

Request: Hop & Joyce don't really like or trust Steve & he knows it. He can tell by their behavior towards him. Post spring break from Hell, Steve tears into them both after they insinuate that it's his fault for the kids being hurt. Steve YELLING at them in front of the party bc he is injured more grievously than the kids & he once again protected them, to the detriment of himself.

Joyce & Hop are forced to acknowledge that their behavior was cruel. And they have to apologize but Steve doesn't accept their apology straight away.

I am usually such a sucker for Hopper adopting Steve and treating him as his own that this was really difficult. Like, maybe top 5 most difficult things I have ever written. It's kind of short, but I wanted more of the focus to be on people standing up for Steve and Steve standing up for himself than the actual angsty part. My darling, I hope it lives up to expectations! -Mickala ❤️

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“I guess I just don’t understand how Max ended up like this if Steve was supposed to be protecting them all.”

Joyce’s words echoed in Steve’s head.

She was whispering to Hopper in the waiting room, but it was surprisingly quiet, and easy to hear just about anything.

The kids were asleep on the couches, waiting for any news on Max or Eddie, but the nurses told them it could be hours. Hours were a long time to wait when someone was bleeding out and the other someone had multiple broken bones and was unconscious.

Steve felt untethered, his connection to the earth cut the moment he saw what happened to Eddie, pushed into a dangerous orbit when he saw what happened to Max.

“He’s never really let me down like this. Did you hear Dustin say he thinks he was distracted by Eddie?” Hopper asked quietly.

“What did he mean by that?” Joyce paused. “Oh. Do you think so?” Steve couldn’t see their faces, couldn’t see the way they were having a silent conversation within a conversation. “It wouldn’t be the first time Steve let his romantic feelings get in the way of their safety.”

And that really wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair because he always put these kids who weren’t even his first whenever he could. It wasn’t fair because it wasn’t his job to be perfect. It wasn’t fair because they were the adults who should have been here to help and they weren’t.

He could feel tears building up, his vision getting just blurry enough that he knew he needed to walk away or he would start actually crying, and he couldn’t let anyone see that.

Especially not Joyce and Hopper.

Apparently, they already thought so little of him, he couldn’t possibly show them that he was struggling now.

“I think we’ll have to have a talk with the kids about trusted adults. They seem to rely on him for a lot and maybe if we just explain to them that Steve can’t handle it-”

“Excuse me, Mr. Hopper?” A nurse, thankfully, interrupted them.

Steve turned to see a young nurse, probably barely older than him, standing in the entranceway to the waiting room.

Hopper walked over to her, actually whispering this time, as if what was being said right now was a secret, but not the way he felt about Steve.

He glanced over at Steve, then nodded to the nurse. He called Joyce over to them, whispered something, then they both looked at Steve.

He hated what was happening. He was used to being a disappointment to adults, but in a silent way. His parents weren’t really ever around long enough to show their disappointment for long. Seeing it now, on the faces of people he respected and wanted to impress, hurt.

Hopper started walking over to him, his face serious.

“They have Max stable. She may not wake up from the coma, but they’re hoping she makes a turn for the better soon. Eddie woke up a few minutes ago while they were trying to stitch him up and he kept yelling for you. He isn’t quite stable yet. He passed back out as they were trying to put him on oxygen.”

“But they’re both alive?”

“For now.”

“Can I see Max?”

“I don’t think that’s a great idea right now. They’re trying to reach her mom, but the phone lines keep going down. I’m standing in as the adult responsible until she can be contacted.”

“So now you want to be the adult responsible? Not any other time when we needed you?” Erica said from behind them.

She’d been asleep with Lucas and El only a minute ago.

“Erica, it’s fine. I’ll just wait with you guys.”

“No, Steve, it’s not fine.” Erica put her hands on her hips, scowled up at Hopper and Joyce, who had just joined them. “Steve looks out for us every day. Even when the world isn’t trying to end. He drives us to school or from school or to the arcade, he pays for our food at the diner all the time, probably spends all his paychecks on us. And where are the parents? They don’t even know where we are most of the time.”

“But-” Joyce started to interrupt until Erica held up her hand.

“You left your kids to fly to Russia when you knew something weird was going on. You could have died, and then what? You know who would have stepped in? Steve. Because that’s what he does for us. Do you know one of his worst concussions was because he was protecting Lucas and Max from Billy? You know he drove Max everywhere she needed to go all year because she didn’t wanna be around anyone else? How about the fact that without him, we wouldn’t have even been able to get Eddie back here? But sure, blame him for this. It totally makes sense to point the finger at the one person who has protected us over and over again.”

Steve was crying.

The other kids were starting to wake up from her voice getting louder as she spoke, and it didn’t take long for them to realize what was happening.

El and Dustin surrounded Steve, cuddling into his sides to comfort him. He needed it, and he was always willing to accept love from the kids. They so rarely gave it, not because they didn’t love him, but because they were at that age where they didn’t want to.

These kids were his in almost every way that mattered, and he was just grateful that they weren’t hesitating when he needed them most.

“You kids could have died. Steve should have never allowed most of this to happen. He’s the adult, and he let you all go into this without even considering you could die.”

“You think we were just gonna sit around and wait for the adults to handle it? When have we ever done that?” Dustin asked incredulously.

“It’s what you should have done. Steve knows that.”

“Mr. Harrington?” A different nurse was standing in the doorway now, older, definitely less nervous.

“Yes?” Steve responded, wiping his tears away quickly.

“Mr. Munson is in a recovery room. He’s woken up a few times for a minute and each time he’s asked for you. Are you family?”

He was pretty certain hospital policy meant only family could go back, especially during natural disasters, so he lied.

“Yes, he’s my cousin. I can’t reach anyone else yet.”

The nurse smiled, though she probably didn’t quite believe him.

“Right this way, then.”

Dustin tugged on his arm.

“Can I come with you?”

“Sorry,” Steve shook his head. “Not yet. Let me check on him, and I’ll come right back out for you.”

“See? This is what I meant about letting his feelings get in the way! What if we weren’t here? Would you just leave the kids to sit out here alone?”

This time, El spoke up.

“Steve is always putting us first. He can put himself first sometimes. That is allowed.”

Steve wanted to hug her again, but the nurse looked like she was going to walk away, and if he didn’t follow her, he wouldn’t see Eddie.

“Go see him, we’ll be here,” Lucas said from next to Erica.

He nodded at them all, giving them a smile before he followed the nurse without looking back at Hopper or Joyce.

Eddie was asleep when they entered the room, so the nurse whispered to him at the door.

“He’s on a lot of morphine, and he’s still receiving a blood transfusion. He may wake up off and on, but he probably won’t make much sense until they lower the dose. Just be here for him,” she smiled before leaving the room.

Steve turned to Eddie and couldn’t hold back more tears.

He’d let him down. He’d let all of them down.

He was supposed to be the hero, despite the jokes about it all, they all knew he was.

But not this time.

Eddie almost died. Max almost died.

He could feel the bat bite on his stomach burning and itching, like it was already getting infected, but he ignored it.

He could wait.

He sat down on the side of the bed, slowly so he wouldn’t wake Eddie up.

But Eddie’s eyes fluttered open once, then twice, then a third time before they managed to stay open enough to see Steve.

“Stevie?” His voice rasped out, a small smile hidden under his oxygen mask. “You’re here.”

“I’m here, Eds.”

He had to be strong, but his brain was so focused on everything he’d done wrong and if he’d just been faster or got out of the vines quicker, Eddie probably wouldn’t be here and Max would be awake and-

“Stop.”

“Hm? Stop what?”

“Bein’ mean.”

Steve’s brows furrowed. He hadn’t even said anything else, had he? Was he so exhausted that he was actually talking without realizing it now?

“I’m not even saying anything.”

Maybe it was Eddie hearing things. He knew morphine was pretty intense.

“To yourself.”

“What?”

“Bein’ mean to yourself. In your head.”

“I-”

“‘S okay. Me too sometimes. Just gotta stop.”

Steve couldn’t help but smile at the way Eddie’s eyes kept drooping closed as he spoke. He would probably fall back asleep any second.

“I’ll be nice. You get some sleep.”

“You rest?”

“Not yet. Maybe later.”

Steve couldn’t really rest until he knew everyone was home, safe, and sleeping off some of the worst of their injuries.

“Yes yet.”

Steve snorted. Eddie was so high. He knew it was better than whatever pain he would feel when they eased him off of everything, but hopefully he wouldn’t remember all this.

“Sleep,” Eddie said, his hand managing to find Steve’s and tugging weakly on it.

“I can’t sleep here, Eds. This is your bed.”

“Our bed.”

Steve’s cheeks were hot, he knew if he touched them, they’d feel like fire. Eddie just had that way of completely rendering Steve speechless. He’d done it so many times over the last couple of days, Steve lost count.

“I’ll stay right here until your uncle gets here, okay?”

“And after?”

It probably wasn’t smart. It would look weird for him to stay in general, but he also had to get the kids home, try to patch himself up at home, maybe shower before he did some rounds and made sure everyone was taken care of.

“I have to take care of the kids.”

“But they have parents.”

“Yeah, well.”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Hopper walked in, face as serious as Steve had ever seen it.

“I was able to contact your uncle, Eddie. You can go now, Steve.”

But Eddie gripped his hand harder, frowning at Hopper. He seemed more awake all of a sudden, but with the way his eyes kept trying to close, Steve could see it was a challenge.

“I want him here.”

“Eds, it’s fine. He’s not too happy with me right now, so-”

“What? Why? You helped save the world.”

Eddie was looking between Steve and Hopper like an answer would suddenly make itself known, but Hopper was just staring at Eddie, and Steve was just staring at his feet.

He didn’t want to get Eddie involved in this. He just wanted to pretend it never happened, maybe try to look Hopper in the eye again someday, and apologize to Joyce for not keeping the kids as safe as he could have.

But Eddie apparently took the “no running” thing very seriously now.

“Steve? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just. I kinda let them down, didn’t keep everyone safe.”

Steve shrugged it off, but he knew he wasn’t very convincing, or really even shrugging it off. He still felt the ache of disappointing people in his chest.

“Hold the fuck up. You’re serious?”

Eddie sounded as outraged as someone high on morphine could. His voice was barely distorted by the oxygen mask on his face, and his eyes were nearly at their normal size.

Steve couldn’t look at either of them.

“Steve is trusted by all these parents to keep their kids out of danger, and he brought them headfirst into it. It just made Joyce and I wonder how often they were doing stupid things,” Hopper explained, though he didn’t even sound convinced he believed his own words.

Joyce was walking in just as Eddie was about to speak.

“Steve, I think you should bring Dustin home. Claudia is going to get worried.”

He didn’t need to look up to know that Eddie was glaring at Joyce and Hopper.

“Let me get this straight. Steve provides free rides, and babysitting services, and meals, and fun for your kids damn near every day. He protects them during this shit every time it happens, literally puts his body on the line to keep them alive. Tried to somehow keep them as safe as possible when it seemed like the world was ending this time, did keep them alive, and you’re still finding reasons to blame him?”

They both had the decency to at least look like they regretted it.

But they still didn’t say anything.

“Fuck this. I’m not gonna pretend to know everything about your little Upside Down Club, but I’m in it now. None of us wanna be here, but we are. Steve’s been doing his best for years, since he was a kid, and all you can do is complain that your sweet angels aren’t completely unscathed? This is a team effort, you know that. They volunteered. Steve would have had to lock them in a prison cell for them not to help.”

Steve looked up at Eddie, watched as he started to lose the fire that had overtaken him temporarily, his eyes dulling as the morphine dripped into his veins and flushed through his system.

“Best damn babysitter…” Eddie mumbled as his eyes fell closed.

Steve watched him for a moment, waiting to see if he suddenly woke up again. When he didn’t, he stood up slowly, didn’t want to risk him feeling the bed move, and made his way to the door.

But something hurt in his chest, something he knew wouldn’t go away unless he said something.

He turned to see Hopper and Joyce staring at each other, having a silent conversation.

“I’m used to disappointing people. I’ve been disappointing my parents my whole life. Disappointed friends, Nancy, bosses. But I have never let those kids down. I do my best with them. I try to be there for them the way I wish someone had been there for me. I make sure they’re kids because life handed them a shitty card or whatever and they deserve to still be kids. You can be mad at me if you want, but I know I did my best. They know I did my best.”

He didn’t wait for a response, didn’t want to hear them say anything else about how wrong his decisions were.

But Joyce stopped him from leaving the room, hand on his arm.

“Steve, wait. Honey, I’m sorry. I think…I think we got caught up in the moment and just needed someone to blame.”

“You do the best you can. We know you do a lot for them.”

It was nice to hear, but he couldn’t get over the uncomfortable itch in the back of his head that he deserved more than that.

“Thanks, but I don’t think I can accept the apology right now.” And then the anger really set in. It came over him so fast, he could feel his hands shaking. “A lot of things are out of our control. We all wanna blame someone for this stuff, but it just boils down to the same people over and over. Max is in a coma because of Henry Creel, not me. Eddie is in the hospital because of demon bats, not me. Eleven and Will are connected to the Upside Down because of the government, not me. I’m just trying to be whatever they need, and that’s better than I can say for either of you at this point.” Steve left this time, Joyce dropping her hand from his arm halfway through his loud speech.

Okay, he was yelling.

But Eddie slept through it, and it felt good to get all of that out.

He made his way to the waiting room, hoping everyone would still be there so he could check in.

Everything felt too fresh, too much like Vecna could show back up and take any of them at any moment.

But the waiting room was empty, not even Dustin remained.

Steve did his best not to panic. Their parents had all been contacted, so they most likely had just been picked up and brought home.

“They’ve all been picked up, sugar,” an older nurse said from the front desk.

“Oh. Thanks.”

“They left you a note, though.”

He recognized her as the woman who had been here the whole night, handling phone calls and people walking in like she’d been doing this for decades. Maybe she had been.

He walked over and grabbed it from her, giving her a small smile in thanks.

He walked outside before he opened it, not sure why he was suddenly nervous.

But as he read, he felt tears in his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that night.

Steve- Go home and sleep. We’ll be okay for a day while you rest. You don’t ever do that. We don’t agree with Joyce and Hopper, and we hope you know you’re the best damn babysitter ever. Love, Dustin, Lucas, Erica, El, Will, Mike, and Max (if she could)

He folded up the note, put it in his pocket, and walked to his car.

He ignored the blood in the backseat, rolled his windows down to ignore the stench of iron.

Knew he would be spending most of his day tomorrow trying to clean the stains out, but figured it would be a good mindless task.

He thought about Eddie, about how quick he was to defend him. About how he’d gripped his hand like it was a lifeline.

It felt that way to Steve.

He hadn’t let Eddie down. He’d saved Eddie.

If he didn’t do anything else right, he’d done that, and nothing Joyce or Hopper said could take that away.

[tibby]

do you have any stonathan hcs specifically w/r/t will or even just the younger teens in general?

i wouldn’t say these are stonathan hcs persay and mainly just steve or jonathan with the party, but here you go:

steve ADORES will and the feeling is mutual, and they become very close when steve starts spending a lot of times at the byers house. steve does not have an artistic bone in his body but spends hours drawing with will - sometimes in complete silence, sometimes will talks about what’s going on at school or gives steve Exclusive jonathan info and even opens up about his trauma every now and again. steve is a good listener and he knows the byers family have been Through It, especially will, and he wants to be there for his boyfriend’s little brother.

since joyce never fully loses her paranoia about will’s safety and jonathan works a lot (and later goes to college), steve is always happy to drive will around to wherever he wants to go or just like, chill with him. will never feels like he’s a freak around steve or being patronised, because steve genuinely enjoys his company and never treats him like he’s a fragile child. it’s a good thing that jonathan never has any intentions of dumping steve because will would never quite forgive him.

when the party first finds out that steve and jonathan are dating, dustin takes it upon himself to have a Serious Talk with jonathan about What Will Happen if jonathan ever dares to break steve’s heart. jonathan does not take it seriously because a) he’s not planning on it b) he’s known dustin since he was a literal child and does not feel threatened c) figures he could win that fight if it came down to it. but he thinks it’s sweet that dustin cares so much and he has a nice laugh about it with steve later.

el and jonathan bond A LOT when she starts living with him, especially since hopper is ~gone~ and jonathan is used to taking on the role of a father figure. he learns to braid her hair once it gets long enough for it and helps her with homework and is very good at reassuring her that there’s nothing Wrong or Bad about her. even when hopper reenters the picture, jonathan is still always there for her whatever she needs. she also really likes steve when he becomes more involved, because he knows more fun hairstyles than jonathan and will let her paint his nails before returning the favour.

after some help from joyce steve realises he is dyslexic and goes to get help for that, upon which he does actually enjoy reading if he’s given the chance to find a method that works for him. so he’ll help el out with her reading and writing because it’s good for him too and they never make the other feel stupid.

steve is so fucking thrilled that both lucas and max are sporty like he’s kind of annoying with how much he asks them if they wanna go throw or kick a ball around. it’s not that he DOESN’T love the other kids it’s just...he’s a jock at heart and refuses to learn anything about d&d. just let him play basketball with lucas and baseball with max once or twice a week.

steve and jonathan don’t really Come Out to anyone except joyce/hopper/robin/nancy/the kids while they’re still living in hawkins, so nobody knows about them, but people have been calling jonathan gay behind his back since middle school, and steve gets dragged into it when they start spending more time together. they try not to let it get to them even though it does, but the kids are NOT above getting into fights with anyone at hawkins high with anyone who says anything slightly homophobic about either of them. it’s very sweet and honourable, but they have to beg them to stop doing it, given that max is really the only one of the gang who can put up any kind of a fight.

mike, unlike the other kids, refuse to admit to caring about stonathan in any capacity, and has a weirdly vitriolic relationship with steve. mike doesn’t really mean any of it and is just being a brat, but steve will say that she’s homophobic for yelling at them for making out on the couch.

when max comes out as a lesbian and breaks up for lucas for good he’s fine about it because he’s a sweet kid and wants her to be happy, but he does go to steve AND jonathan for advice on “getting dumped by a lesbian.” they are both useless at being comforting but they make a genuine attempt and it’s the thought that counts.

this isn’t really stonathan related but i think steve should get dustin into weed and then like thirty years later dustin’s kid gets stonathan’s children into weed. the circle of life <3

[finnyboywolfhard]

Song That The Morning Brings (Chapter Twenty Three)

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader 

catch up here

summary: the groups converge and try to make a plan to stop the monster 

warnings: cursing, violence, angst, spoilers ig 

word count: 4.4k

They all began to find their way out from behind the counter and over to where the other group was standing. Mike was practically carrying EL.

“Ha! You flung that thing like a hot wheel!” Dustin cheered while rushing to give them all hugs! Smiles took over everyone’s face.

“Lucas?” Erica shouted to her brother that was walking closer.

“What are you doing here?” He pleaded out in response.

“Ask them, it’s their fault.”

“True, yeah. Totally true. It’s absolutely our fault.” Steve agreed with Erica’s statement.

“Yeah, it may be our fault but the little nerd helped us a lot.” Y/N said with a joking laugh, only just realizing her hand was still in Steve’s. She let go of his hand and started rocking back and forth on her heels. Snapping up to make direct eye contact with Nancy, who only smirked and winked at her in response.

“I don’t understand what happened to that car.” Robin confusedly said.

“El has superpowers.” Dustin replied.

“I’m sorry?”

“Superpowers, she threw it with her mind. Come on, catch up.” Steve said, sounding done with the situation.

“That’s El?” Erica spit out after realizing what was just said.

“Who’s El?” Robin asked before being interrupted by Nancy’s slightly condescending question.

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

“I’m Robin, I work with Steve and Y/N.”

“She cracked the top secret code.” Dustin said after the introduction.  

“Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians.” Y/N said, following her brother.

“Russians? Wait, what Russians?” Jonathan asked. Both groups were both so confused of one another. Two polar opposite things happened to them both.

“The Russians!” Steve shouted out.

“Those were Russians?” Max asked looking at the men who were down on the floor.

“Some of them.” Erica pointed out.

“What are you talking about?” Lucas spoke, looking directly to his little sister.

“Didn’t you hear our code red?”

“Yeah, we couldn’t understand what you were saying.” Mike angrily said to Dustin.

“God damn low battery!” Dustin yelled.

“How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?” Steve also yelled back towards Dustin smacking his hands together to show how truly upset he was.

“Stevie, calm down, it’s okay.”

“Well, everything worked out, didn’t it?” Dustin declared.

“Worked out? We almost died!” Erica said to him.

“Yeah, but we didn’t did we.”

“There’s still time.” Y/N whispered to herself. She had more hope than before in regards to living, but she wasn’t entirely hopeful. The rest of the group kept bickering but also explaining what happened over the course of a few days. Y/N kinda blocked them out. Thousands of thoughts were rushing through her mind at once. Some good, some bad, some really good and some really bad. The sound of Eleven collapsing onto the floor a few feet away snapped everyone away from the conversation.

“Whoa whoa whoa” Steve started to mutter beside Y/N.

“El! El!” Mike said, rolling her onto her back to look at her. His voice was filled with fear. Y/N could tell by looking at the two they were in love. But that was beside the point.

“What’s wrong with her?” Erica said.

“El, what’s wrong?” Y/N said in a much calmer, gentler tone than everyone else.

“My leg…my leg.” She whimpered out in response. She was seething in pain.

“Her leg, her leg, okay.” Jonathan said as he slowly lifted the bandages from the wound sitting on her calf. As soon as it was off her skin, everyone groaned at the sight of it. There was a massive gash, filled with blood and other oozes, but there was also something moving around in her leg. As it sharply moved, her pain grew increasingly obvious. Eleven let out screeches and grunts. It was the weakest any of them had ever seen her. Mike leaned over to look her in the eyes.

“El! El! El!El! El! El, are you okay?” He said, begging for her to answer him. He kept repeating her name, to no avail. The only response that he got was her screaming in agonizing pain. It was harsh and cut the cold, stale air around them. She was wailing and crying in pain, whatever was in her leg needed to come out and it needed to come out now. Her flesh was beginning to sizzle. Either from her body heat or from the creature inside her leg.

“What is that?”

“There’s something in there.”

“Jesus Christ.” Dustin exclaimed in response to her leg.

“Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?” Jonathan said to the group before standing up and rushing over to one of the food counters nearby. The group continued talking to her. Some of them trying to distract her from the pain, others just talking to her to keep her awake.

“Hey, hey, hey. Stay awake, stay awake. Let’s get her on this side, on this side.” Mike commanded the group, taking charge of the situation at hand. Steve helped Mike roll her over to her side.

“Easy, easy, easy, easy.” Steve said, making sure that Mike was being gentle with the already pained girl in front of them.

“It’s uh…you know it’s not actually that bad. There was a…the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg.” At this point everyone was looking at Robin, who wasn’t helping the problem. “And the bone came out of her knee like six inches or something, it was insane.” She was about to keep rambling before she was cut off.

“Robin.” Steve stopped her.

“Yeah?”

“You’re not helping.” Y/N and Steve said in time with one another.

“I’m sorry.” At this point, Robin sounded like she was panting for breath. Her fear was evident. Fight or Flight was an interesting body response, because for the past few days Robin has seemingly been a fighter, but now she was being flighty. Jonathan came running back from wherever he went. He got right down onto the floor and began speaking at a quiet, calming volume.

“Okay, Alright El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?”

“Okay…” was all El could croak out through the pain.

“I need you to stay real still. Here,” he lifted a wooden spoon and gave it to her, “you’re gonna want to bite down on this, okay?”

“Jesus Christ.” Dustin exhaled out. Eleven clamped the wooden spoon between her teeth. She was propped up against Mike and Max, her eyes fluttering closed every few seconds. Jonathan pulls out a knife and holds it to her leg. He looks around to check that everyone is okay, the knife hovering centimeters away from her skin.

“Do it.” Mike demanded him. Jonathan ran the blade along the wound, breaking open the bubble that was forming on her leg. Blood, pus and other mysterious liquids seeped out of the wound as the blade made contact. Eleven’s scream of pain were flooding the room, unable to hear anything else but that. Y/N began to feel queasy and leaned her forehead onto Steve’s shoulder, so she wasn’t looking at the wound too intensely.

After a few more seconds, the clink of the knife hitting the floor sounded through the screams. The entire group was set on edge by the wound. Jonathan took his hand and stuck it through the opened gash, attempting to pull out whatever was inside her leg. Her screams had somehow gotten louder, signaling how much pain this was truly causing her.

“Jonathan!” Nancy yelled to him as he continued to dig through the cut.

“Stop talking!” He yelled back to her. He became slightly more aggressive, and her screams became more and more pained. “God damn it!”

“No! Stop it!” El shrieked out amidst the pain. “Stop! Stop!”

Jonathan pulled his hand out and way, and looked down at Eleven.

“I can do it.” El said, trying to choke back some of her tears. She tried to push herself up, eventually getting help from Max and Mike. “I can do it.” She lifted her hand, close to where the wound was. Her hands were flexing as hard as they could, and her anguished grunts showed how awful this was for her. The movement in her leg became slightly more prominent as she continued wailing in pain. The glass behind them shattered from her screams and the energy she had built up from her powers. As the group shielded itself from the glass pouring around them, the small creature was yanked from her leg, being held in the air by her powers. Her screams had not stopped once. She lifted her arm and threw it across the mall. It landed a bit farther away, and began to slink off only to be squashed by a black boot. Y/N’s eyes went from the boot up, terrified that it was another Russian. Her fear was released when she saw Hopper standing there.

They all stood near the fountain recounting all of the information the two groups had gained over the past few days.

“The mind flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world.” Mike told Hopper.

“And it almost did, that was just a tiny piece of it.” Nancy spoke out.

“How big is this thing?” Hopper said in his usual disheveled tone.

“It’s big. Thirty feet at least.” Jonathan responded.

“Yeah, it sorta destroyed your cabin.” Lucas said, being the bearer of bad news. Hopper looked upset, but he also looked tired. He looked like he was ready to tap out of this and just accept defeat. But that wasn’t like him, and he wasn’t going to forfeit a fight.

“Okay, so just to be clear, this…this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it’s some kind of gigantic…weapon?” Steve asked. His confusion was based, especially considering that it wasn’t something that he had witnessed yet.

“Yes.” Nancy affirmatively said.

“But instead of, like, screws and metal, the mind flayer made its weapon with melted people.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Oh great.” Y/N muttered out before allowing Steve to voice his response.

“Yeah, okay. Yeah, just making sure.” After Steve spoke, Joyce began to ask questions just the same.

“Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?”

“El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it’s still alive.” Max gave Joyce her answer.

“But if we close the gate again-“ Will said before being interrupted by Max.

“We cut the brain off from the body.”

“And kill it.” Lucas finished her statement. “Theoretically.” They all looked around at one another, reaching a point that they didn’t know what to do.

“YooHoo!” Murray exclaimed flailing his arms that held papers, breaking the group away from one another and towards him. “YooHoo!” He made his way over to the group, and over to where he could set his things down. He placed down papers that had drawn on maps.

“Okay, this is what Alexei called, ‘the hub’. Now the hub takes us to the vault room.” He said while pointing out different sections of the map.

“Okay, where’s the gate?”

“Right here.” Murray said, smacking his finger down on a space on the paper. “I don’t know the scale on this, but I think it’s fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so.”

“More like 500. What, you’re just gonna waltz in there like it’s commie Disneyland or something?” Y/N and Hopper made the exact same shocked expression at Erica’s remark.

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Erica Sinclair, who are you?”

“Murray Bauman.” He said, seeming almost timid for once. It was two strong energies combating one another.

“Listen, Mr. Bunman. I’m not trying to tell you how to do things, but I’ve been down in that shithole for 24 hours. And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you’re all gonna die.”

“Erica-“ Y/N was about to cut her off before Murray took control once again.

“I’m sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?”

“Um, I’m ten you bald bastard!”

“Erica!” Lucas reprimanded his little sister.

“Just the facts!”

“She’s right. You are all gonna die, but you don’t have to.” Dustin explained. Y/N decided to take authority, stealing the spotlight from Dustin.

“Excuse me, Sorry, may I?” Y/N said asking Murray if she could point something out on the map.

“Please.” Murray let her have it.

“Okay, so you see this room right here? This is a storage facility. There’s a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system, that will lead you to the base of the weapon. The fans have been stopped, so it will take significantly less time. It’s a bit of a maze down there, but between Me, Dustin and Erica, we can show you the way.”

“You can show us the way?” Hopper said, voice dripping with condescension.

“Hop, you can do all of the fighting and all of the dangerous heroic feats, but we can be your navigators.” She responded, looking at him.

“No.” He stated blankly toward the girl. “Nope.”

“Hop, come on.”

“No, absolutely not.” The girl groaned at his response. “it’s too dangerous and I can’t and won’t let you do it. You need to stay safe.”

“Hop! I have been down there, you could die.” Hopper began walking over to a bag of guns left by the Russians, loading and checking them. At this point, Erica and Dustin left Y/N to try convincing him.

“I don’t care Y/N. You are not going down there. If one of us is going to die, I’d rather it be me than you. And I won’t die, I haven’t kicked the bucket yet. I will be okay. But you need to stay here and stay safe, I won’t let you do it.”

“Hopper, please.” Y/N pleaded once more, sadness and fear evident in her voice.

“Y/N, I love you like a daughter, I won’t let you risk it. Now please, I need to prepare myself.”

“Fine. I love you too, stay safe.” Y/N said admitting her defeat and walking over to where Steve was sitting on a counter. She jumped up beside him and huffed out a breath. He knew these moods, and knew that she needed a moment to sit with her thoughts before he could ask her how she was doing. She leaned against the wall and stretched her legs across the counter, tapping Steve’s hip with her foot. She gave him a small smile.

“So you gonna tell me what the hell happened to your face or am I just supposed to ignore it?” Y/N let out, causing Steve to laugh to himself for a little bit.

“Oh you know, typical hero stuff.”

“Oh yeah? Heroes often get drugged and beat up by Russians?”

“All the time.” He said with a smile, watching how Y/N’s eyes crinkled in the corner as she laughed. How pretty her smile was when it was a genuine in the moment smile. He adored every part of her. “Essentially, they would hit me whenever they assumed I was lying, but I’ll be okay. Not anything I haven’t experienced before.”

“How do you always end up injured? Every time we’ve dealt with this shit now, you’ve ended up with a fucked up face.”

“Wow, thanks Y/N, I feel so good about how I look now. Thank you.” He responded sarcastically. “I don’t know, I pick fights I can’t win I guess.”

“Hey, that’s not entirely true. You won the fight against that one Russian dude.”

“I did, didn’t I?” She smiled at him once again, and they just looked at each other for a few seconds. It wasn’t awkward or weird or anything. It was somewhat peaceful. She couldn’t help but admire him for a few moments. She loved him, and it hadn’t hit her yet that he loved her back.

“Oh, Stevie?”

“Hey! Heads up! You can navigate, just from someplace safe.” Hopper yelled to Dustin, tossing him a walkie. Y/N was thankful that Hopper was giving Dustin some control. His shouts led the others to start paying attention once more, drawing them away from their conversations.

“It’s not that simple.”

“The signal won’t reach.”

“Not with this, you need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians’ radio tower. But for that to work, you need someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super-powered handcrafter radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh wait.” Dustin took a beat, “That’s me.” Dustin looked at Hopper with a cocky smirk as Hopper inched closer to the young boy. “If you want us to navigate, you got us. But we need a head start.” At this point, the groups were all converging. Dustin had a point, he couldn’t just stay here and be able to contact Hop. “And a car.” Dustin said after getting a whisper from Erica.

“Fine. Get your sister and anyone else who was with you.” Hopper fished a set of keys from his pocket and tossed them at Y/N who finally was in Hop’s line of sight. The “Scoops Troop” ,as they had been so graciously been named,  gathered up and walked out of the mall.

“Y/N/N can I drive?” Steve asked the girl who was holding the keys.

“Is that the best idea?”

“Come on, maybe not but it would be an adventure.” He looked at her, “Please.” The girl eventually gave in and tossed him the keys just as they were making their final exit through the doors. The air felt nice, it was slightly warm but not overwhelmingly hot. And it was nice to have some fresh air.

“Oh, man, now this…this is what I’m talking about.” Steve said as soon as he saw the car he was about to drive. His voice sounding the most happy it had in days.

“Toddfather?” Robin said reading off the specialty license plate.

“Oh, screw Todd! Steve’s her daddy now.” Y/N choked out nervously as soon as Steve said that sentence. She quickly became flustered as she was finding her way to sit shotgun.

“Did you just refer to yourself in the third person, Stevie?” Y/N asked, regaining at least a little composure.

“Did he just call himself daddy?” Erica asked while Y/N could feel her cheeks getting slightly more red.

“Alright, where are we going?” Steve asked, unsure of where Cerebro was.

“Weathertop.” Dustin answered his question for him.

“Weather-what?” Steve asked with a confused tone.

“Just drive!” Dustin yelled at him.

“Okay! Jesus!” Steve revved the engine and began to drive away.

“It’s okay Stevie, I can tell you how to get there. I went once with Jeremy Powell.”

“What? You did? When? Why didn’t I know that?”

“I went on a few dates with him the end of summer before junior year. You didn’t know for reasons we’re not gonna talk about.”

“Did you like…ya know?”

“Steve!! I’m not gonna answer that with my brother and a child in the car. We can talk about this later or never talk about it again. The point is, I know where to go and so does Dustin.” Y/N snapped at Steve. His jealousy was one of the worst things about him sometimes. It was almost two years ago and it never went anywhere, yet for some reason he was still envious of the kid. The drive was silent for the most part, aside from the directions being given to Steve by both Henderson siblings.

“Jesus, how far is this place?” Steve said, yelling over the wind that was rushing through the convertible car.

“Relax, we’re almost there.” Dustin yelled back.

“Suzie must be pretty special, huh?” Robin yelled back. “I mean if you built this thing and lugged it all the way to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her?”

“I mean, nobody’s scientifically perfect, but Suzie’s about as close as to being perfect as any human could possibly be.” Dustin said, a smile spreading over his face.

“She sound made up to me. She sound made up to you?” Erica shouted up to the front seat. Steve and Y/N both glanced at one another. Steve trying so hard not to make eye contact through the rearview with Dustin. They both stayed silent after the question, not wanting to make Dustin upset.

“Why are you hesitating, Steve?” Dustin yelled to the driver.

“I’m-I’m not! I’m not! I think she sounds real. You know, totally, absolutely real.” Steve said allowing his voice to trail off till the end.

“What about you? Why are you hesitating?” Y/N now under the same heat as Steve.

“I don’t necessarily think she’s fake! I don’t know! I just haven’t met her.” She became flustered, not sure how to answer her little brother. They let the conversation end as Y/N turned back around to the road.

“Turn left!”

“What?”

“Turn left! Turn left!” Y/N once again shouted.

“There’s not a road here.” Steve yelled back to her.

“Turn left now!”

“Jesus! Hang on!” Steve screamed out as he yanked his steering wheel to the left. The car spun slightly before breaking through a fence and zooming about a third of the way up the giant hill. Steve was almost screaming but not quite. “Where are we going?”

“Up!” Dustin yelled from the back seat.

“Jesus!”

“We’re not gonna make it!” Robin yelled from the back seat!

“Yes we are. Come on baby! Come on baby!” The engine strained slightly as it rose higher up the hill. “Come on! Come on!” He kept shouting at the car while pressing his foot on the gas.

“Guess the Toddfather has some limitations.” Y/N joked when they were sputtering in their stopped position. Steve removed his foot from the pedal and let out a sigh. He pulled the car into park and removed the keys from the ignition. They all got out and began the hike up the hill to Cerebro.

“Hey, I’m sorry about in the car. I shouldn’t have been worried about it. I just- I shouldn’t have given you shit for it. I’m sorry Y/N/N.”

“Stevie, it really isn’t a big deal. I don’t care, and I mean that genuinely.” Y/N said reaching out her pinky to pinky promise she was telling the truth. He gracefully took her pinky into his, locking the swear in. They were nearing the top of the hill when Dustin rushed over to Cerebro.

“Bald Eagle, do you copy? This is Scoops Troop, bald eagle do you copy?” Dustin yelled into the talkie. They waited a moment before static cut through the silence.

“Yes, I copy.” Murray said hoarsely into his end. The entire group let out sounds of relief.

“Call sign?” Dustin asked excitedly.

“Bald eagle.” Murray said.

“Please repeat.” Dustin egged him on.

“Bald eagle! This is Bald Eagle!” Murray yelled, his rage starting to shine through.

“Copy that! Good to hear your voice, Bald Eagle. What’s your 20?”

“We reached the vent. I’ll contact you when I need you. Until then, silence.” Murray said with an angry ease.

“Roger that, Bald Eagle. This is Scoops Troop, going radio silent. 10-10, over.” Dustin announced to those on the receiving end. Steve gave Dustin a few taps on the shoulder once he went silent. Dustin took his place beside Cerebro and Erica sat beside him. Robin and Y/N started to pace together, walking in around in circles. Steve just kinda stood and looked out upon the landscape.

“So, uh. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that your Steve’s Suzie.” Robin whispered to Y/N.

“Oh, you think?” Y/N said sarcastically.

“All I’m saying is that the feeling is mutual, and the tension between y’all could snap at any moment.”

“Shut up.” Y/N said with a laugh and gentle shove to Robin’s shoulder. The two kept light conversation for awhile, Steve eventually joining it. It was mainly Robin talking about school and what she was taking for senior year. As Murray navigated through the tunnels, he would occasionally ask the Scoops Troop for their assistance.

“Scoops Troop, this is—Mmm---Bald Eagle. I’ve reached another junction.” His voice echoed out into the open air.

“This is what?” Dustin clarifying the junction.

“The fourth junction.” Erica answering rather than Murray.

“Alright, so if memory serves, this is right after the My Little Pony thesis.”

“We went left so he would have to go-“ Y/N began to answer, only to have her sentence completed alongside Dustin and Erica. “-Right.”

“Fly right Bald Eagle. Fly right.” Dustin spoke into the walkie.

“Roger that, flying right.”

“What’s the My Little Pony thesis?” Robin asked looking around the group.

“Don’t get him started.” Erica blankly stated.

“Get him started? Just tell me—“ Robin began to say before being interrupted by Steve.

“Hey, guys?” his voice sounded scared. The group all rushed to their feet and over to where Steve was standing. As they looked out across the landscape, they could see the lights of Starcourt flashing and glitching like crazy. It looked like everything was going haywire. As soon as they saw what was happening, they ran back to Cerebro to get in contact with the Griswold Family.

“Griswold family, this is Scoops Troop! Do you copy? Over!” Dustin shouted into the walkie talkie. He repeated it over and over again, only to be cut completely off from them by the creature snagging the walkie. He shouted their call sign a few more times. The group was on edge, all of them were staring, scared at Cerebro. The roar of the monster into the walkie startled the receiving group. They no longer heard any static, but yet Dustin was continuing to call out for them and the confirmation of their safety. Never once did they answer past the shriek. It was terrifying, they could be dead for all they knew. Y/N began to feel an urge, an urge to go back and help them.

“Steve keys.”

“What?”

“Steve, give me the keys.”

“No, if you’re going, I’m going too.” The two stood up and began running back to where Toddfather had been stuck in place.

“Where are you going?” Erica yelled out.

“To get them the hell outta there!” Steve yelled back in response.

“Stay here! Contact the others!” Y/N yelled to her brother as well. A little bit farther down the hill, Y/N noticed that Robin was coming with them as well. They needed to help the others, and Dusty and Erica would be safe here together.

 taglist: @mochminnie @queen1054 @prettysbliss @voidnarnia

[okaybutlikeimagine]

What if when Hopper first adopted Billy he was mentally preparing himself for a mess of clothes tossed about, dishes left everywhere, general teenage chaos? Instead, it's the complete opposite. Billy's had responsibility literally beaten into him, so he takes over all the chores thinking if he doesn't Hopper will toss him out. He cleans, cooks, drives El (and Max still) everywhere, etc while going to school and working part-time. How would Hopper react when he realizes why Billy does it all?

Oh I so agree with this, 100% feel like he was!! Like… I don’t think anyone expects Billy to be as super considerate and clean as he is. Bc he really is! He lived his whole life w/ a man who very obviously carried his military service through his life into his adulthood in a very dangerous away and so I believe Billy was scared as all hell to ever let himself slip. He keeps everything he can immaculate bc if anything isn’t Just Right, he’s the one getting punished every time.

When he was younger, Neil would put him through random, weekly checks of his room to make sure everything was clean and orderly. (when he got “old enough to be called a man”, Neil stopped with those, but still yelled at Billy for anything disorderly in his room.) When Max was really young and would accidentally break things, Billy would absolutely always take the fall. Even if Max admitted to it being her fault, Billy would be hit for not watching her close enough/for letting her reach for that glass herself/for giving her those permanent markers/etc.

So I think Billy feels responsible not only for his things but for everything. This is his house now too, after all; his space, and he’s gotta make sure it’s perfect.

And Billy moves in with very few things. Billy just doesn’t have a lot of stuff in general. I dunno if we’ve all seen the pictures, but some people on here have analyzed the little makeshift nightstand + mirror thing that Billy has. Like, he piled a bunch of things on top of each other to make his little vanity. I’ve talked before about how I don’t believe Billy was ever the type of kid to share things bc he just doesn’t HAVE a lot. He doesn’t own a lot of things and he KNOWS the cabin is small so he doesn’t bring a lot of the things he does have with him either. He gives his stereo to Max. He leaves all the furniture and his mirror. He only brings his clothes in a duffel, a couple of trinkets he holds dear to his heart, and his hair stuff.

And it’s definitely not what Hop was expecting at ALL. he was expecting absolute chaos. Like you said, clothes strewn around the place, etc, so before Billy moves in, Hop goes out and picks up a dresser he finds at a yard sale. It’s not much, but it’s something for Billy to keep his things in and on. And he’s fully prepared to have to give him a real hard lecture about keeping his shit where it belongs, which is inside the dresser or hamper and nowhere else, but he doesn’t even need to. Hop gestures to the dresser and Billy thanks him quietly before immediately folding up all of his things neatly and placing them where they belong. He doesn’t have enough clothes to even fill the dresser. Hop has to tear himself away from watching bc Billy can feel Hop’s presence and looks over his shoulder every now and then as Hop stares.

It’s just that… this isn’t what he was expecting. This isn’t the same kid he agreed to take in.

He also 100% takes over literally every single chore! Some he does out of feeling of necessity, like cooking. He didn’t cook all the time at home bc Neil felt that was a “woman’s job” but the thing is, Neil and Susan would leave Billy and Max at home all night or even all weekend sometimes and they’d leave so few leftovers that Billy had to learn how to cook to feed the both of them. (I also like to think about little Billy cooking dinner with his mom or grandma ♥ anyway)

So the boy has been cooking for years and when he sees that Hop feeds himself and El frozen dinners or freezer waffles or take out, he realizes he needs to be the one to cook. His biggest fear about it is Hop having the same mentality as his father, AKA “this is a woman’s job and you shouldn’t even know how to do it”.

But he doesn’t! Hop is honestly amazed at Billy’s knowledge of a kitchen, esp because he 100% does not share that same knowledge. And yeah, Billy tends to make very simple, very easy dinners, but they still taste a whole lot better and do a whole lot more than the frozen dinners that they’re eating every night. So Hop lets him cook and supports it very much. There’s no underhanded comment there. He tries to tell Billy how much he appreciates it, but he’s not sure if the boy hears him.

And Billy does more than just cook. Bc some chores he takes on bc they just seem necessary, and others he takes on bc he’s always had them. Bc he feels obligated. Bc he feels fear bubbling in his chest over it. Bc the more he did around his old house, the less anger would be directed at him. Doing chores kept him busy, kept Neil from getting angry, and kept everything calm. For the most part. It was like a saving grace.

He carries that feeling with him.

So he does the laundry. Everyone’s laundry. He’s always taking out the trash as soon as it gets full, and he’ll check it religiously, even if he doesn’t need to throw anything away. He picks up everyone’s dishes and washes and dries them. It takes him a few days to remember where they all go, but he gets it down quickly and Hop finds himself never washing dishes again. And it takes a few weeks to realize but suddenly, on his designated Chore Day (which is the second of every month, bc I’m sorry but Hop really can’t be fucked to do any kind of chore unless he’s designated a day, not even with El here now. He tried for about a month and it didn’t work.) Hop finds himself with nothing to do. Like absolutely nothing. The shelves are dusted, the floor is swept, the trash is empty, the cabinets are full bc the dishes were washed this morning and when Hop goes to question Billy with a:

“Seriously kid? Is there anything you didn’t do?”

Billy’s eyes flash with fear. It’s a bit longer than a flash, actually. He’s scared. Hop doesn’t like how often he sees that look when he addresses the boy.

Billy starts to pull at a curl on the nape of his head, elbow against his chest, closing himself off even if it’s a little bit. Hop has been working hard to pick up on all of the little nervous habits Billy has. This is one of them.

“I dunno… is there?” Billy asks like he’s serious. Like either of them are serious about Billy needing to do more.

But Billy is serious.

Bc Billy is fucking terrified. Every day he feels it in his chest: Today is the day Hop realizes what a mess he’s gotten himself into. Today is the day Hop recognizes the tornado that is Billy Hargrove and he’s gonna realize how fucking far from worth it he is to keep here.

So he worries. And he does absolutely everything he can think of to prove to Hop that he isn’t going to be a nuisance in the “living under the same roof now” department. That he isn’t going to be the “typical messy teenager”. It’s before he lashes out at the niceness because right now, nice isn’t what scares him most. Everything just feels… tenuous. Uncertain and downright frightening. Even a speck of dirt or food or whatever on the floor strikes something in Billy and Hop sees how tense the boy is about it but doesn’t comment.

Until now, bc now Hop is catching on. Now Hop’s getting a peek at what’s happening. And it’s kind of completely breaking his heart.

“No. I was just joking around.”

Billy blinks hard, looking away and moving his tongue around in his mouth in deep thought.

“Yeah… course.”

Hop eyes him carefully as Billy heads out of the house with the lame excuse of “seeing a friend.”

And Hop realizes pretty quickly that Billy isn’t in the house too often in those first few months. If he’s not at school, he’s at practice, if he’s not at practice, he’s with “friends”, if he’s not with “friends”, he’s driving the kids to the ends of the Earth or something bc he’s literally just never home.

It’s not until he’s on call somewhere that he sees Billy, across the street, lugging boxes around the local warehouse and sweating like a pig.

And he watches him work and struggle and sweat and groan. He watches this boy, very visibly tired, and it really starts clicking. Bc Billy is always stressed out, tired, dragging himself around. He’s always falling asleep on the couch or just sitting at the dinner table. (he also always freaks out when he gets woken up)

It’s just that… yeah of fucking course this kid has a part time job. Of fucking course this kid is working himself to the bone. Now that Hop thinks about it, he reminds him of Jonathan, who always looks like he got hit by a freight train right out of bed. It’s as he’s really thinking about that when a red flag pops up, because Jonathan has about 3 jobs and is stressed far too often for a young teen to be stressed and Hop never really understood the amount of concern Joyce had for him until now bc fuck watching this boy work like a dog is not fun.

So he brings it up when they’re both home. When they’re eating dinner and El is at Max’s and there’s a lull in the conversation bc Hop just can’t stop thinking about how tired Billy always is. How stressed he always seems. It worries him so much it gives him headaches.

“So… you’re working down at the warehouse?”

Billy nods absentmindedly. “Yup.”

“And going to school?”

Billy takes a big bite. “Yup. Pretty sure that’s why I still go every day.”

“Right. And you do everything around the house?”

“Do you have a point?” Billy asks over a mouthful of chicken.

“I- Look kid, you afraid of getting kicked out or something?” Hop asks, putting his fork down and staring at Billy with the question hanging between them.

Billy tenses. Sets his own fork down. Sets his eyebrows low too, showing off that hard disdain he’s always sporting.

“Why? What are you thinking about?” Billy asks, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed tight. Hop has seen the boy do this countless times before: he’s trying to look tough. But the thing is, it never works. It didn’t even work the first time he did this. He’s trying to look big but in reality he looks like a little kid who got told he can’t have dessert tonight. He glares but it’s always paired with a pout like a toddler.

Hop shakes his head. He feels like he can never win with the boy. He also feels like he says all of the wrong things in the wrong ways at the wrong times. He relies on Joyce for a lot of stuff. Probably too much stuff, but he’s been trying, alright?

“Cool it, I just… you do too much.”

“I what?” Billy asks like it’s some kind of insult. Hop can’t help the sigh he releases.

“You do too much. You don’t need to bleed yourself dry every day, alright? You’re doing too much.”

Billy’s mouth moves but no words come out. He looks semi-desperate to say anything, but he doesn’t. Can’t? Just furrows his brows and squints his eyes and shakes his head minutely and pouts. And Hop doesn’t know how to continue this, he just feels bad. Feels it heavy in his heart bc this boy has the deepest circles under his eyes and he feels kind of responsible for it. Really, seriously feels responsible bc he watches this boy work himself down every day and doesn’t say anything about it. It’s just that he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to do about any of it. He let it happen bc there wasn’t a lot of alternative when he was always at a loss for words as to why a boy would even want to work so fucking hard all the time.

But he can’t let it slide anymore.

“You can keep your job, I’m not saying you have to quit or anything, I just… stop cleaning everything. And doing all the laundry. It’s…. Nice, sure, but it’s too much.”

“I just… what are you talking about?” Billy asks, irritation laced with confusion in the blue of his eyes.

“I’m saying I need you to stop doing all the chores around here.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re tired! I can see you’re tired.” Hop pauses for a second. “And it weirds me out! I mean, you’re a kid, don’t you ever just act like a kid?”

“I’m not a kid.”

“You’re still 17, you’re a kid.”

“Why are you mad at me for doing what I’m supposed to do?”

“I’m not mad!” Hop nearly yells, hands going to his hair to pull at it. It’s a lie. He is mad. He’s mad at himself for not being able to find the words this boy needs to convince him to just calm down with the “responsibility” shit. “I just don’t want you running around-”

“I’m being responsible-”

“It’s not your responsibility!” Hop’s eyes are hooded by thick eyebrows bc he’s far too confused by these words to have any other kind of expression. At first glance, this kid looks like a brat. A boy who complains about having to do more than he needs to. About having to move off the couch to take the trash out.

But that’s what knocks Hop into it. Into the realization that he’s completely wrong. Bc Billy’s hands have always been calloused, he works on his car himself, he knows how to do all of this stuff in a timely manner. He doesn’t walk around like he’s confused, he walks around like a machine as he dusts the shelves and wipes down the tables.

It’s never a sarcastic, smarmy little  show of “I’m being a good house guest, can’t you see?”

No. it’s an act of: “i’m doing what I’m supposed to, don’t look at me.”

He always moves fast; always quick about it. His shoulders are always hunched over. Like he’s trying to stay hidden and now Hop knows. It starts clicking more and more and he’s livid at so many things right now he can’t even pinpoint them all and-

“No. It’s not your responsibility to take up every chore in the house. We can do it together and I know I kind of drop the ball on a lot of it but I’m gonna get better about cleaning but I can’t do that when you do everything and-”

Hop’s not even looking at Billy anymore. He’s looking at his mostly empty plate, rubbing at his forehead and his hair and trying to see through his squinted eyes bc this isn’t the conversation he ever thought he’d have to have but here he is and he looks up at Billy who-

Who is so confused. Whose eyebrows are closed in and whose lips are parted trying to form a question that isn’t coming out and Hopper sighs.

“Your place in this house is safe. I mean it.” Hop says seriously. Looks Billy in the eyes and doesn’t leave even a sliver of doubt. Doesn’t let Billy think for a second this is a joke or that it’s an empty promise. That he isn’t anything but absolutely serious.

Billy’s face falls from his confusion. His eyes are shifting everywhere, on the table, the floor, the wall next to them.

“Billy.” Hop starts, leaning forward a bit on his elbows on the table. “I’m serious. If you’re afraid of getting… I dunno, kicked out or something, you won’t.”

Billy blinks.

“Just…” Hop continues on a sigh. “Please stop doing everything. It makes me nervous.”

Billy nods slowly, eyes still confused. But he smiles a bit at the small smile Hop offers and it’s fine. Everything feels fine. Far better than fine.

And so Billy lets them help. El sweeps the floors and dusts the shelves. Hop wipes off the counters and learns to cook some more, as well as load the dishwasher correctly. Billy teaches him the “secrets” of doing laundry. (“They’re not secrets, old man, you’re just a caveman who doesn’t know how to keep towels soft.”)

And it’s a little alien for both of them (and everything is a new and exciting experience for El) but it’s far better than fine.

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

S.T. REWRITE - S2:E8; Chapter Eight, The Mind Flayer - [Pt. 1]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

An unlikely hero steps forward when a deadly development puts the Hawkins Lab on lockdown, trapping Will and several others inside.

A/n: This series has blown up so much, I don’t know how to thank you guys! I love you all!!

Warnings: Domestic violence, and a homophobic slur. Ugh, just Billy's dad in general. jc, this guy sucks. If you feel you need to skip this scene altogether, I completely understand. I will place the usual marker [●●●] at the beginning and end so you can scroll quickly. Safe reading, loves!

||3rd Person POV||

As Hopper gazes into the inky darkness, a great unending bellow erupts from within the pit. The elevator cables are struck by something below, indicated by their sudden whip that fell into a dull vibrating blur and soft twang. Immediately, a slender grey claw erupts from the shadows digging into the concrete edge. Emerging after it, was the figure attached, the beasts they could barely make out on the live feed. The same monster from the previous year, that thing this damn lab unleashed unto El and her poor friends. Hopper couldn't believe his eyes or his piss poor luck. Seemingly, neither could Dr. Owens who had numbly stepped closer to the window, next to Hop.

"Mother of God."

With stilled silence, everyone watches, eyes trained on the creature not knowing what to expect. And upon first glance, neither does the mutant. It stalks forward. It's eyeless bud-shaped head inspecting the glass before it rises to its hind legs, placing it's front claws on the glass. On the opposite side, Hopper leans closer to the pane, brows furrowed and ears perked as he takes advantage of seeing this unknown species up close.

The advantage doesn't last long, however, when the mutant takes one glance at Hopper and Owens individually - as if sizing them up, frighteningly enough - and it lets out a foggy huff before ramming its now open head into the glass. The two men jump back alarmed as it continues this, each strike against the glass is with more and more force and aggression.

"It's... It's polycarbonate. It can't get through." Dr. Owens utters, shuffling back despite his words.

On cue, the four-legged Demogorgan split it's head, and a bone-chilling shriek pierced the air. The shrill cry carried through the air, bouncing off the walls and deep within the caverns, continuously feeding into itself. The echo was enough to worry everyone, that was until they saw the elevator cables begin to move once more. It was then they realized, it had not been an echo, but the voices of dozens of its siblings. And they were all scrambling up the walls, out of the pit, and to its aid.

"Mother Mary and Joseph," murmured the man at the coms.

Another screech and they all fell in line taking orders. Not a single creature hesitated, and it was only a matter of moments before the pristine, spotless glass was near shattering. Hundreds of webbing cracks painted the glass to a point the creatures became harder to see.

"You sure about that glass?" Hopper piped.

His face flushed, Owens steps back to the panel, knowing what has to be done.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

The shrill alarm has reached the rest of the lab, bouncing off the cold white walls and alerting Bob and Mike.

"What the hell?" Bob asks, his protective grip on Mike feigning.

"We're too late," Mike realizes, voice grave.

"What?"

"We're too late!"

Mike escapes Bob's grip with ease, sprinting for Will's room where Joyce rises from her seat beside Will.

"What's going on?"

"We're under attack." Mike pants, face flushed.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"What's going on down there? Does anybody copy?"

The officer's voice echoes out of the speakers in the control room, though stifled by their panicked cries and the scuffle of their shoes on the floor as they run. Hopper is the last to exit, assuring everyone has made it out safely. The steel door slams shut just in the nick of time, no sooner does the splintered glass windows shatter into a thousand pieces, and the swarm floods in.

In the hall, Hopper and Owens flee with the other workers. That is until Owens finds a shortcut.

"Stairs, stairs!" He pants, shoving Hopper for the door. "Come on,"

The two men are able to safely retreat to the next floor, returning to the main floor. The same could not be said for the remainder of the team, who found themselves cornered in the elevator as the army broke free.

In Will's room, Mike spots the bottle of anesthesia and quickly snatches it up in his hands, turning to Joyce.

"We need to make Will sleep," He orders.

"What?"

"He's a spy! If he knows where we are, so does the Mind Flayer!"

Will sits up, his actions are suddenly frightened and hasty. He's furious. His once hazel eyes are almost completely black now. He quickly turns to Joyce and cries out.

"He's lying!"

"He killed those soldiers and he'll kill us, too!" Mike warned.

This only angered Will more, he shot up in his bed now fighting against Joyce's efforts to hold him down. He is screeching now, utterly infuriated and desperate as he fights against Joyce.

"He's lying! He's lying! HE'S LYING! HE'S LYING! HE'S LYING!"

The elevator has arrived on their floor, and when the designated guards arrive, the doors open revealing the several torn up bodies of the extraction team. The army of Demogorgan mutants don't hesitate on their newest targets, they stalk forward, their speed quickly climbing. In a flurry they scramble for their guns, shooting the evermoving targets as they pounce.

The gunfire echoes throughout the entire floor, including Will's room. Bob is at Will's bedside, aiding Joyce in restraining him, and he is the first to hear them.

"Those are gunshots!"

Everyone looks to the door, but their attention is quickly pulled back to Will who is still fighting.

"He's lying! HE'S LYING!"

Frightened, and short-fused, Joyce grips Will's arms.

"Okay, Will, Will, listen, listen. Do you know who I am?"

Will only looks dumbstruck, he looks at the woman before him, his body still half attempting to escape. At that moment, she knows Will is in there, but he has to fight for control.

"Do you know who I am?" She yells.

"You're..."

He falters, sending another crack through her heart as he searches his mind for her identity. And every moment seems to last an eternity, but when he finally spoke, she knew Will was losing his battle.

"You're... You're Mom."

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she looks to Bob with a determination in her eyes. Her pain is turning to anger.

"Hold him down."

Bob complies as she retrieves the needle and vial from Mike. Will comes alive, his anger - the mind flayer's anger - erupts from his frame and he is kicking and screaming with every ounce of energy he can muster.

"No! NO! LET GO! NO! NO! LET ME GO! LET GO!"

She steps forward, needle in hand, and quickly pins his arm down. She knows it is the mind flayer's doing, but she can't help but see the look of terror in Will's eyes and feels a wave of guilt. But she does not stop.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO-!"

"I'm sorry," she cooed, fighting to keep his arm down. "I'm so sorry."

"LET ME GO!"

Mike tries to cover his ears, Will's frightful and all-too frightening shrieks pierce his skull and heart. And he can't help but think, he knew now more than ever it was the Mind Flayer, not his best friend. The only other time he had seen him this angry - this threatened - was with Y/n.

The needle breaks his skin and not a moment sooner does his cries begin to die down, and from there, it is only seconds before he is completely subdued by unconsciousness. At that same moment, Hopper and Owens burst through to the door, to find an unconscious Will, and Joyce, needle in hand. They manage to put the pieces together when without warning, a thunderous crash and inhuman howl grab everyone's attention. Everyone turns to see the pair of oak doors at the end of the hall begin to crack and splinter, piece by piece falls to the floor with each forceful strike. The creatures have reached the main floor.

Hopper pales. "We gotta go. We gotta go,"

He spins on his heel, racing for Will's bed and he swiftly sweeps the boy's small frame up with ease. Joyce, Bob, and Mike follow, not without making off with more morphine before their haste escape. The new group makes it to the outer rim before they witness a pack of these creatures take down several lab employees just up ahead. Before they can flee from where they came, the sound of rapid gunfire comes first. They are forced to pilot away and out of the hall through a narrow doorway where they find themselves in one of the labs' surveillance rooms.

Owens is the last to enter, closing the door behind him and Bob is the first to take note of the chaos unfolding on the many screens.

"Oh, my god," he gasps, drawing everyone's attention to the screens.

Everyone stops to gape at the many images of scattered bodies sprinkled throughout the labs' otherwise empty halls. Every monitor displays the contorted figures of the otherworldly creatures stalking the halls, prowling. Hunting. The lab is overrun.

The fluorescence lights above their heads begin to flicker, and just as quickly, all power has been lost, the monitors first to go. Amidst the pitch back, the group huddles close as the strident battle cry of the swarm echoes through the darkness making one simple fact abundantly clear;

Hawkins Lab has officially become the hunting ground for the army of the Upside Down.

[●●●]

On the other side of town, Neil and Susan Hargrove pull into their driveway in a rusty '71 pickup. Stepping inside, placing her shopping bags onto the dining room, Susan calls out to her daughter and step-son.

"Hey, guys, we're home." Receiving no reply, she wanders down the hall in search of any sign of life. "Guys? Hello? Max?"

She reaches Max's room first, opening the door to find the room empty, save for the abandoned taped up skateboard, and the open window. The drapes dance in the wind, reflecting the soft yellow light from the girl's bedside lamp, and it was clear to her that the room had not been touched all evening. Attempting to stifle her growing concern, she steps forward and closes the sliding window shut disregarding the chill the autumn night brought.

Inside his room, heavy rock music blaring from his stereo, Billy takes a long and deep breath, letting the smoke of his third cigarette of the day fills his lungs. He bounces on the balls of his heels to the rhythm of the beat before his mirror as he preps himself for his night out. The moment is almost perfect had it not been for the persistent knocking on his door and the sound of his stepmother.

"Billy?"

"Yeah, I'm a little busy in here, Susan," He calls.

"Open the door," Bellows his father. "Right now."

Now his night was completely ruined.

Stuffing down his fear and anger, Billy marches across his room and throws open his door. As it always seemed to go, he found his father looking down on him, seething, and a troubled and anxious Susan at his side.

"What's wrong?"

"Why don't you tell us?" His father spits.

Billy shrugs, perturbed. "Because I don't know."

"We can't find Maxine," Susan says.

"And her window's open."

Billy looks away, hiding his inward sigh. Getting on his father's bad side was never a good thing. It was rare to come out on the other side without a welt or bruise or two. And Billy was always his favorite target. That is after his mother left the picture. Whatever hell Max had just cooked up, was more shit he'd have to pay.

"Where is she?"

Biting the bullet, Billy shrugs.

"I don't know,"

"You don't know?" Neil scoffs, rage quickly rising to the surface.

All Billy can do now is throw water on the fire, but he knows he's only buying moments.

"Look, I'm sure she just, I don't know, went to the arcade or something." He says, retreating into his room. "I'm sure she's fine."

Neil follows, swiping at his mouth, a habit of anger as he follows his son to his closet.

"You were supposed to watch her," He growls.

"I know, Dad. I was," Billy sighs, throwing on his coat. "It's just you guys were three hours late, and, well, I have a date."

Pulling his mullet out from under his coat, straightening out he shrugs. "I'm sorry, okay?"

His father crosses his arms, glaring at him as he gestures to his mirror. "So that's why you've been staring at yourself in the mirror-like some faggot instead of watching your sister?"

"I have been looking after her all week, Dad." Billy snaps. "Okay? She wants to run off, then that's her problem all right? She's thirteen years old. She shouldn't need a full-time babysitter. And she's not my sister!"

Billy steps forward, slamming the off button on his stereo. The music stops just as he feels the force of his father shoving him into the wall. Neil steps closer, his grip on Billy's jacket tightening.

"What did we talk about?" He growls.

His son does not answer, and his fist swings up to meet Billy's cheek. Susan looks away fearfully, unable to witness his beatings yet neglects to step in. Neil brings his hand near Billy's throat in an act to threaten him, his sign of warning.

"What did we... talk about?"

Billy swallows the urge to fight back, no matter how demanding and he has to spit out the words his father wants to hear.

"Respect and responsibility," He repeats, hating himself for the waver in his voice that his father always seemed to bring out in him.

His father nods. "That is right,"

He shoves Billy further into the bookshelf, the boy fights a wince as his spine digs further against the wood.

"Now, apologize to Susan,"

Billy takes a deep, shaky breath. The only thing keeping him from any act - any sign - of defiance is the fiery, hostile glare he is held under.

"I'm sorry, Susan," He says.

The woman shifts uncomfortably in the doorway. Fearful of anything she says, less it inflict more pain on Billy, or herself.

"It's okay, Neil," she eases. "really, I-"

"No," he roars, jostling his son once more. "it's not okay. Nothing about his behavior is okay."

He waves a stubby finger in Billy's face, reluctantly letting him go and stepping back once he felt assured the lesson had been instilled.

"But he's going to make up for it," He turns around to look in her frightened eyes. "He's gonna call whatever whore he's seeing tonight and cancel their date. And then he's gonna go find his sister. Like the good, kind, respecting brother that he is."

He returns his attention to his son, who stands frozen, tears misting his eyes.

"Isn't that right, Billy?" He steps forward at the boy once more, voice rising when he receives no reply. "ISN'T THAT RIGHT?!"

To the best of his ability, Billy swallows the lump in his throat, his voice hoarse. "Yes, sir."

The man sighs heavily, inching closer, head turned. "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you."

"Yes, sir."

Somewhat satisfied with Billy's response, his dark eyes return to Billy's, drilling holes with his threatening glare.

"Find Max." He orders.

Finally, he falls back, marching past his wife - who quickly steps out of his way - leaving a vulnerable and broken Billy behind. The door closes and only then does he let his tears fall in heavy streaks down his cheek. Expressing his emotions the only way he knows how, he chucks the nearest object - in this case, a cologne bottle - and it shatters at his feet. Another broken mess.

[●●●]

Max kicks yet another chunk of gravel in her path as she walks, trying as best as she can to keep up with Y/n's tale. How Max found herself in the middle of this confusing shitstorm, she would never know.

Steve, on the other hand, having known only half the story from the previous year, was gaining new information himself. About Eleven, Y/n, the experiments, everything. Just when he thought he knew everything about his hometown.

"You mean, he actually, like, yelled at you?" Lucas gaped. "Will?"

Y/n nods, eyes trained on the tracks below her feet. After a confusing roundup, the group found themselves walking the path the swarm had disappeared on. Having no choice but to answer their many questions, Y/n was recounting to them - without mentioning El or her trip to Chicago to the best of her ability - the events in the past 48 hours. It was proving a very difficult feat.

"'Get the hell out of my house', does not sound like Will. Like, at all."

"Exactly," Y/n insists. "I'm telling you, he's not himself."

"Clearly," scoffed Dustin.

"So I left. He didn't want me there, he made that clear enough."

"That still doesn't explain why you're dressed like that, or the fact that you came in, hands blazing, and fought off an army of Demogorgons,"

"It's complicated, alright?" She snapped defensively, rubbing a hand over her eyes. "I..."

The words died on her tongue, not even knowing what they were. She had no idea how or where to even begin. All she could do was choose her words carefully.

"I had to clear my head," she paused briefly when she saw the worried look in her brother's eyes, and sighed. "I had to get away, so...I did. Long story short-"

"Too late," Steve quipped.

"-I ran into some trouble. My clothes got trashed, so I got my hands on some spares, and I made my way home."

Satisfied with her careful recount of the events, she continued.

"And on my way, I-" she sighed once more. "Well, I figured out how to use my... powers."

The word still felt foreign on her tongue, still felt silly to say.

"Turns out, facing your shit helps."

"Wait, what does that mean exactly?" Max asked.

Y/n shrugged. "I was hurt, and angry, and confused. Apparently, that helps me control it."

An uneasy quiet falls over the group and she looks around to see her friends staring at her with intrigue. Even Steve stole a few glances at her hands, but she merely stuffed them in her oversized pockets.

"No," she scoffs, hiding a small smile. "You were all there at the junkyard, you already got a glimpse. Besides, I need to save my energy for those things."

Confusion flashes across her face and she looks between the four. "What about you guys? Why the hell are we fighting these things?"

Lucas looked past Y/n, gesturing to Dustin who had grown awfully quiet. "It's all thanks to Dustin, and his little 'pet'."

Y/n frowned. "You're sure that thing was Dart?"

"Yes," Dustin nods. "He had the exact same yellow pattern on his butt."

"He was tiny two days ago," Max pointed out.

"Well, he's molted three times already."

"Wait, m-malted?" Steve asks.

"Molted," Dustin corrects. "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."

"Well, when's he gonna molt again?" Max asks.

"It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. So will his friends."

Y/n grows more and more concerned by the moment. "Like, actual Demogorgan size?"

"Possibly."

"Yeah," Steve cuts in, scoffing. "and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats."

Everyone halted immediately, Y/n's eyes grew wide and Lucas throws a hand out at Dustin.

"Wait, a cat?"

Dustin freezes, his eyes as wide as saucers they flick nervously in Y/n's direction and Lucas gives him a firm push.

"Dart ate a cat?"

Y/n steps forward, advancing slowly. "Dustin, what is he talking about?"

He scoffs nervously, shaking his head.

"No, what? No,"

"Dustin-"

"What are you talking about?" Steve asks, clearly confused. "He ate Mews."

"WHAT?"

Max looks feverishly between everyone, once more completely lost. "Mews? Who's Mews?"

"You let that thing eat our cat?!" Y/n shrieked, now stomping closer to her brother.

Max gapes, having gotten her answer.

"I knew it!" Exclaims Lucas, joining Y/n's side. "I knew it! You kept him!"

He jabs an angry finger in Dustin's chest

"No!" Dustin shot back, albeit a bit weakly. "No. No, I... No, I... He missed me. He wanted to come home."

"Bullshit!" Lucas spits.

Dustin sees at the pointed looks of his friends, more importantly, the hurt in his sister's eyes and it is hit with a wave of guilt.

"I- I didn't know he was a Demogorgan, okay?" He looks to Y/n, reaching out for her. "Y/n-,"

He only manages to graze her shoulder, and he notes she is hot to the touch, proof that her powers were bubbling to the surface. She flinches, shoving his hand away and he winces at her scalding hands.

"Don't touch me," she huffs, avoiding his gaze. "You knew! You knew this whole time, and you kept him! We talked about this, Dustin! As a group. We agreed he was from the upside down-"

"He was my responsibility-"

"and you kept him and it murdered out cat! And, to top it all off you sent mom on a wild goose chase-"

Steve groans, knowing the fight will only intensify.

But the siblings did not hear, the fight-turned-screaming match.

"Like you're one to talk, you went off on some idiot side quest playing dress-up while the rest of us-"

"Excuse me?!" She turned on him, her fist bunch up at her sides and several waves of heat radiated off them. "That's some sexist hunk of bullshit! While the rest of you what, Dustin-?"

She gestures wildly around her.

"Yeah, 'the rest of you' are cleaning up your mess-!"

"Guys," Max tried. "It doesn't matter. Who cares, let's just-"

"It does matter!" Lucas retorts. "It does! You put the party in jeopardy! You broke the rule of law!"

"So did you!" Dustin shot back, pointing his flashlight at Max, gesturing to her. "You told a stranger the truth!"

Max guffawed, now just as invested and just as furious. "Stranger?!"

By now, Steve contemplates whether or not to leave the herd of bickering children and continuing on the path, seeing if they'd follow or even notice. But something in the distance catches his ear.

"Real nice, Dustin. Don't try and blame anyone else-"

He creeps forward, flashlight in hand, and aimed into the darkness of the trees. All the while, the screaming match continuing uninterrupted behind him.

"You wanted to tell her too!"

"But I didn't, Lucas, okay?" Dustin shrieks. "I didn't tell her!"

Steve hears the sound once more, the sound of distant cries - the same cries he heard at the junkyard. The swarm was close.

"We both broke the rule of law, okay? So we're even we're even!"

"-No, no! We're not even. Don't even try that!"

"You're so not even Dustin!" Y/n fires back. "At least when he broke the rules, it didn't end with a dead cat!"

"Oh, you're never gonna let that go, are you?"

"Let it go? Let it go? I just found out!"

"Jesus, is that what really matters right now?" Max shouts.

The broken party was now at war with one another, no one individual member speaking at once. They all continue to shout at one another, besides Steve, who is now completely on edge, wary of their surroundings.

"Hey, guys?" Steve calls.

"You're dumb pet could have eaten us for dinner!"

"He wasn't gonna eat us!"

"Oh, so he was just coming to say hello?"

"GUYS!"

The children stop finally, looking up at Steve and his angered - and frightened expression. They have only seconds to question his worry until another screech echoes through the trees. Everyone pales, and Steve's spiked bat comes to rest over his shoulder as he marches off into the woods, the founding members of the party following. Leaving an exasperated new member behind; Max.

She is suddenly filled with dread, and she shakes her head along after them.

"No, no, no. Hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" She asks, getting no answer. "Hello?"

She watches dumbstruck as they disappear over the small dirt hill, and into the trees.

"Hello?!"

She huffs, her head practically rolling off her shoulders and cursing herself for what she is about to do.

"Shit,"

She breaks out into a light jog, begrudgingly joining the rest of the group.

They follow the unending calls to the top of a hill, overlooking a small portion of Hawkins. Fog covers the lands, and the only other noise filling their ears are the croaks and ribbits of the marshy lands nearby.

"I don't see him," Dustin says, defeated.

A small click brings everyone's attention to Lucas as he takes out his binoculars, unfolding them. The lenses scan the town below until they stop on a darkened building Lucas recognizes all too well.

"It's the lab,"

His voice is grave, and it infects the others who all quickly dawn a similar, horrified expression.

"They were going back home."

+++

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[0kayblue]

Movie Night Need

A Movie Night Need

 It has been months since you got Billy back and you two have been stuck to the hip ever since. You guys were getting back into a routine and you both were apart of this little disturbed family. A family that made absolutely no sense, but still a family. Something Billy never really had before. And you had a boyfriend, Steve Harrington. Things were starting to look perfect. But, lately Billy’s been avoiding you like the plague and it’s hurting the both of you.   

Character Relations: Billy Hargrove x reader , Steve Harrington x Reader 

A/N: Hey, it’s been a hot minute. Ducks aren’t in a row and they probably never will be lol. This popped into my head and I just wrote it down. Enjoy. 

WARNINGS: CURSING

The familiar scent of buttered popcorn clouded the small living room as everyone tried to get comfortable around the TV. As elbows dug into sides and legs unwillingly outstretched and bent to accommodate to the space that was left the room grew louder and louder. Listening to them bicker was always the best part of movie night, but Billy couldn’t focus on a single word the kids were saying. Billy was too busy watching your head rest on Steve’s chest and how his arm was wrapped around your waist. Billy’s gaze was so fixated on you and how tenderly Steve held you- it was enough to make his blood pressure rise. 

“Jesus, just sit down, dorks. I would like to see the movie sometime tonight.” Billy’s gaze was broken by the sound of Robin-who apparently didn’t know how to sit like a normal human being. Billy’s eyes flickered back to you as he tried to relax back into the recliner. 

The last few movie nights he hasn’t even tried to watch the movies that played on the TV. Movie night, he didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t his favorite thing to do every other week. It was more of a check in then anything, to make sure everyone was doing as well as they could be after everything. A family get together if you will. So Billy got through it for Max, and for El, and for you. Even though lately he’s been trying to avoid you and it’s been hell. Ever since you started dating Steve he had found it hard to be around you and yet all he wanted to do was be around you. Most all of him wanted to take up all your time that way you wouldn’t have a second to be with Steve, to be so selfish with you that Steve wouldn’t have a choice but to see himself as option number two. Most all of him. 

The rest of him told him to keep his distance, to get himself in order so he didn’t go overboard and push everyone away- push you away.  So much of Billy has changed these past few months, he’s started behaving more and more like the Billy you genuinely got to know before anyone else got to know him. Not the the asshole Hawkins knew him as. Even though some of those asshole tendencies were still there, but they were tendencies most had anyway- the easily sparked temper, the prideful arrogance, the unforgiving stubbornness. They were defining characteristics that made Billy who he was; but it was important that it was understood that they weren’t all that Billy was. Believe it or not, Billy was rather thoughtful, had a rather strong sense of integrity, and was more generous than most. 

You and Billy were birds of a feather and the hardest to separate out of the gang. You were the one that pestered everyone about Billy and getting him back. Insisting he wasn’t dead and that the Russians had him. Then, once the hard part was over the healing process began, and you were there every step of the way. Learning how to change bandages and keep wounds clean. Long and sleepless nights of just talking and comforting Billy, either with him or through the phone. It was a lot and it was far from finished, but a lot of progress has been made. Regardless though, you two still talked on the phone until Hopper yelled at Billy for being up so late. You two were thick as thieves, that’s why this sudden split was so unnatural. 

It was unnatural to everyone. It left everyone confused- it left you more than just confused. It felt like you were just dropped off in the middle of nowhere in the dark with no clue which way was right or left. It truthfully took a toll on you, you weren’t expecting Billy to let you go so soon. After everything you expected Billy and you to be together forever, even if it wasn’t exactly the way you wanted it. But, you’ve just been trying to brush it off and carry on as normal. You reached for Billy and he either kept the conversation short or he just wasn’t there. For the life of you, you couldn’t figure out why he all of a sudden wanted nothing to do with you, but you figured he had just grown tired. You still were nowhere close to accepting it, you were furious. There was a fire in your bones whenever you looked at him, but you still can't bring yourself to speak up. Besides, what would you even say without sounding pathetic? So you just kept your distance. 

Billy’s leg started to bounce again as he saw Steve kiss your temple. It was infuriating. You were with him after everything? It just didn’t make any sense to him- and to anyone for that matter. You never even mentioned the slightest interest in the guy and all of a sudden you’re having hushed conversations with him in the corner of the room. It was always you and him, not you and Steve. Billy closed his eyes and let out a shallow breath, trying to calm himself. He should’ve made the move, he was just so scared that you wouldn’t feel the same. That his feelings would chase you away. He couldn’t handle the rejection from you, so he just kept things the way they were, thinking you’d always be right there. He was wrong, of course, he was just hoping he had a little more time. And whoever it was that swept you off your feet wasn’t the guy that was apart of this little fucked up family. Wasn’t the guy that you befriended while he was locked away in a Russian cell or the guy he had vendetta- for virtually no reason- with during high school. It pissed him off to no extent, he should’ve known that pretty boy was going to be the one that went after you. 

But, he has got to get over that. He has to come to terms with the fact that you and Steve were together and he was just a friend. Billy’s got those moments that you were constantly by his side, the moments were you treated him like the fine China that Susan kept on display in a curio cabinet, or the times you’d lean against him when you were stuck with the goblins way later than you should be at the arcade. The times you just started rubbing his back when you sensed he was uncomfortable and your hand probably stayed there longer than it should have, or when your eyes found his in a room telling him exactly what was on your mind. To him that meant something, something so much more, but he guesses he was wrong. 

A sharp hit to the leg pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked down at the culprit. Max was leaning against the side of the recliner, “Movie’s starting.”  

“Hands where I can see them.” Billy joked and as Max’s face twisted in disgust a sly smirk found Billy’s face, “I’m serious.” Max rolled her eyes and turned to start up conversation with Lucas again. An airy laugh left Billy as the room went dark and everyone focused on the TV. 

“You okay?” Steve asked pulling you out of your exhausted wandering thoughts. A little hum made its way out of closed lips as they formed into a little sweet smile. Steve let out a harsh breath of air through his nostrils as a weak smile crossed his face. “Alright. Whenever you’re ready.” Steve said as he placed a strong kiss on your forehead.

You are extremely tired, but Steve knew that wasn’t just it. He knew that it was Billy and Steve was not about to force you to talk about something you weren’t ready to talk about. He wasn’t going to poke and prod, he decided to just be patient with you, he knew you’d speak with him when you were ready. He didn’t know if you had feelings for Billy, but he knew Billy had feelings for you. He knew that’s why Billy pushed himself away from you- he knew, Hopper knew, Joyce knew, Murray knew, Nancy knew, Robin knew, Max knew, and hell even Mike knew. But did you know? 

As The Shining’s long and boring intro started Billy’s mind tried to focus on the film. Tried to keep his eyes trained on the TV and not on the way you were already starting to fall asleep on Steve’s chest. It was a battle between you and the TV. Thoughts of you winning every time. What exactly have you been up to lately? You’ve been working a lot more than usual because he’s seen your beaten down black 1971 Oldsmobile 442 in the parking lot of the corner store you worked at. That had to be the reason you were so tired. You only said ‘hi’ to him before you crawled onto the sofa and away from the fight over cheap pizza in the kitchen. Come to think of it Billy didn’t even see you eat. 

Billy’s watched at least forty five minutes of this movie give or take in between the time he’s watched you sleep against Steve’s chest. He’s absorbed maybe fifteen minutes of it between worrying about you and trying to put together what to say to you to clean up his mess. 

Frustrated, Billy’s leg started to bounce anxiously again as he moved to the edge of the recliner. Breaking his gaze with the TV he looked over to search for your frame until he realized it wasn’t there. Steve sat there alone, this might be the only chance he has to talk to you. 

“What are you doing?” Max hushed, irritated at the noise of the recliner breaking the barrier between reality and the psychological horror film that played on the screen in front of them. 

“Popcorn.” He gritted out, standing up and making his mind up to go and talk to you. He had no idea what he was going to say, but he had to try, he had to fix this. He ruffled Max’s hair while stealing her and Lucas’s popcorn bowl, and before she could swat his hand away, he was gone and the almost empty bowl was set on the breakfast bar. She just sighed as Lucas took her hand, her brother has always been an idiot who didn’t know how to clean up his messes. 

You sat on the toilet lid seat, you didn’t want to be here and you sure as hell didn’t want to be only feet away from Billy. It hurt too much. You should’ve canceled and lied saying you had taken an extra shift while actually you stayed at home in bed. As you pulled your knees to your chest you tried to hold it together. You always told yourself you’d be okay if this happened, why weren’t you okay? Things were starting to look up. Things were settling down and everyone was trying to get back to a semi-normal life. The kids were entering there teens in strides. You had a decent paying job and you just about had enough money saved to go on a trip. You were in a relationship. Everything looked so perfect. Why wasn’t everything perfect? 

You took a deep breath rubbing your temples. Billy was leaving you and you were not coping well with it. It’s not like he’s your boyfriend, you have a boyfriend. Speaking of boyfriend, Steve. You needed to talk to him, you needed to tell him you needed a break. Give him the whole ‘It’s not you it’s me’ spiel, because it was you. You just needed it to be you for awhile, maybe you two could be something. You just needed to go on that trip and get away for awhile. Get Billy out of your head, push those feelings aside once and for all, because he was obviously tired of you so it was time that you forget him. It was stupid of you to think that a boyfriend would help, because damn, it’s becoming more and more clear that Billy still had such a strong hold on you. 

As Billy rushed down the hall and to the right he stopped dead in his tracks in front of the bathroom door. Just a moment of second guessing himself entered his head before he knocked on the door three times, pausing for a few seconds between each knock. “Hey, can we talk?” He asked not too hesitantly as he leaned his head against the door before opening it. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Your voice was weak as you crossed your arms over your chest, shielding yourself from Billy. Your tired eyes avoided eye contact as you looked at the floor and noticed how desperately the tile needed to be mopped. “What’s up? Are you okay?” Despite the concern in your voice, your eyes remained glued to the floor as you continued to sink into yourself. It felt so nice to be near him, even though you wanted to deck him in the face. 

“No.” Billy walked into the small bathroom shutting the door behind him. Disappointment filling the air, can’t you look at him, all he’s done is look at you and you won’t even give him a quick glance. “What’s going on with you?” 

“Nothing, I’m okay.” You irritatedly stated breaking your eye contact with the floor and finally looking him in the eyes. You looked so exhausted and it hurt Billy. He let you fly under his radar for far too long, he should have done this so much earlier, but he was too busy being a jealous child and pushing himself away from you. He was hoping Steve was taking care of you, but he obviously wasn’t doing much. You looked so puny you must haven’t eaten an actual meal in awhile, and your eyes were bloodshot so you most definitely haven’t been sleeping. Why didn’t he come to take care of you sooner? Billy kicked himself, how shutout have you became in the past few weeks? 

With a chuckle and not being able to take the exhaustion and hurt in your eyes he painfully broke eye contact, “Liar.” 

“Liar? Excuse me?” 

“Yeah, a liar.” Billy bluntly said as he leaned against the exposed wood door. “Tell me what’s wrong. I know you aren’t okay.” Your eyes widened for a split second-this boy had the audacity to corner you into a bathroom and demand answers, when he himself was the main reason you were so upset-your brows knitted together and a tight and angry frown plastered itself to your face. You shifted your weight on one leg. “Nothing is wrong you, bumbling buffoon. Just get out of my way-.”

“You can’t be serious-?” Billy’s voice raising a little bit before he swallowed hard, trying to bring his temper back down. He knows he doesn’t deserve answers, but he needs them in order to fix this. “You can’t be serious?” His voice slightly cracking as he repeated himself. “(Y/N), I know something is wrong and I know I haven’t been around, but I’m here now. I need you to tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it.” You tapped your fingers against your arm in irritation. If he would just say sorry and tell you the truth. You both could get on with your lives and interact kindly with each other while you hung out with your little makeshift family. They didn’t have to know anything went down and it could remain your final little secret. 

In your terrifyingly angry silence Billy stepped out of himself. Maybe this wasn’t about him, maybe it never was about him. He racked his brain for something that El or Max might’ve told him. Something that might’ve happened over the past few weeks. He remembers how they talked about how you snuck them some snacks the other day, and how you tried to tell this one joke that you couldn’t even make it through because you thought it was so funny, and how Steve was dropping you off at work and one day he just stopped. He quickly clenched his hands into his fist and gritted his teeth together, “Steve.” You raised an eyebrow and when you went to say something Billy was quick to cut you off. “He didn’t do anything did he? I swear to God if he did you need to tell me right now, (Y/N)! I’ll beat his ass-!”

Your arms flew out from your chest and up in the air in frustration, “Steve? You think Steve did something to me? This is the first I’ve seen Steve all week! I’ve been working like crazy, and I’m exhausted, and you’ve done nothing but frustrate me!” You yelled before taking a quick and deep breathe and then lowering your voice to a stern hush, “You don’t stop by work even though I’ve seen you drive by! We haven’t hung out one on one in forever! You never call! You avoid me like the black plague! I don’t know if your okay and it keeps me up at night! But I’m too stubborn to call because one time I did, and you never answered, and I just took that as you didn’t want me around! Do you not want me around? What did I do to you to make you push me away, because as far as I can go back I don’t remember doing anything wrong and it’s killing me, Billy! It’s killing me! So in short, Steve didn’t do anything, you did! You idiot!” Your fingertips rubbed your forehead as an arm crossed your chest as a shield, protecting yourself again. “It’s like I need you, or something.” You let out an airy frustrated laugh, there went not screaming at him. It’s true what they say, the truth hurts. It hurts because no matter how hard you try to lie to yourself and say if they picked up and left you’d be fine, you’d never be fine. You weren’t fine and you couldn’t handle Billy packing up and leaving because you needed him. 

Billy broke, this was all his fault. Seeing you like this threw all rhyme or reason out of the window. So instead of just saying sorry and sticking whatever fragment of a plan he had, he charged into everything head first, ready to tell you; ready to make everything better regardless of the rejection he could face. He was ready to just have you back.  “Not want you around? Are you that oblivious?” His tone gruff as he walked closer to you. As your hand fell from your forehead and you went to defend yourself, but as your eyes locked and you saw him draw nearer to you; you backed up until your back hit the wall. “You don’t think I need you either? Damn, (Y/N)!” His right arm outstretched and his palm slamming straight down on the wall right beside your head, pinning you against the way. Your arms coming undone in disbelief as your face turned red, he was so close, the only thing keeping him from being up against you was his arm that was supporting his weight as he leaned against the wall. “I’m trying so hard to keep my distance from you because I can’t deal with you being with him! I can’t handle it and I don’t want to ruin it because of how happy you looked! Hell, how happy he looks! The way he looks at you drives me insane because that’s how I looked at you! How I still look at you! I want to look at you and not feel guilty because it feels like I’ve stolen something when all I’m doing is just looking at you!” Billy swallowed as he really started to examine your face. How intently you were listening to him as you looked at him oh so innocently, like this was all new information to you. Like you had no idea that he cared for you so intensely- and truthfully you had no idea. You really were that oblivious. Billy immediately felt the tips of his ears grow hot. 

He leaned his head down until your foreheads connected and as his face scrunched up in pain, he said,  “And I want- I want to be the one who kisses you as you lean into my chest while we suffer through these god awful movies. I want to be the one who drops you off at work late and tries to get you to leave early. I want to take you to California and watch as you experience how annoying sand can be but how great it feels against your feet. But I can’t, not now, you’re with Steve and I gotta accept it. I’m trying, I really am trying, but it’s so hard. It was all so unexpectant and fast. I mean one day you two were at each other's throats and the next he’s holding your hand as you guys walked up the drive. You never even talked about Steve. But that doesn’t matter.” Billy said, putting himself back on track, “Steve.” He paused, this next part pained him so much to say even though he firmly believed it. “Steve’s family. This family is the only family I’ve got and I can’t lose it. I can’t lose my sister again, I can’t lose my new sister, or those dorks crowded around the TV that make way too much noise and are always screaming at each other. I don’t want to be the thing that breaks up a family.” 

He pried his forehead away from yours and gently cupped your cheek and as his thumb ghosted over your lips he tried to memorize how they felt, “I need you, I’ve always needed you, and I’ll always want you. You mean the world to me, (Y/N). So keeping you around me- and this family- is my number one priority. I’ll do better I promise, you just have to be patient with me, because it is so damn hard seeing you with someone else.” He finished and as the deep breath he was taking hitched in his throat he shut his eyes tight; telling himself not to even dare shed a tear as his bicep twitched growing tired of supporting all of his weight. As his arm bent and he shifted his weight to balance on both legs, the weight of his actions-of what he just said, resting on his shoulders; he opened his eyes as he gazed into your wide eyes his brows knitted. “I’m sorry.” With a scoff he began to move away from you, but before Billy could do the simple math of two plus two equals four; your hands were gripping the sides of his face as you pulled his face to yours and your lips collided with his. 

A hot and passionate kiss turned into three or four as he pulled you into him by your waist and a hand found the side of your face and his fingertips gripped the back of your head and his thumb ran tenderly over your cheek bone. The unmistakable feeling of fireworks going off as both of your bodies relaxed into each other. As the world began to fade and Billy’s hands became more and more needy as they went from running up and down your back to gripping your hips pulling you closer, and the more you turned into putty with every graze of his fingertips and the weightless feeling you felt as his tongue grazed your bottom lip. 

But, a scream from the living room pulled you away from him so quickly. A light popping sound being made as your swollen and slightly pink lips were pulled away from his slightly swollen lips that had a fresh coating of a clear cherry flavored gloss. Your fingers found your lips as a light gasp left your mouth, “Fuck.” You cursed climbing over the toilet and falling into the sink. “Fuck!” You screamed, the guilt of your actions crashing down onto you like the weight of a steel beam falling on you and imprinting your skin and bones into the ground. Your stomach twirling as you reached for the door knob and a firm grip finding your wrist. 

Billy’s eyes locked with yours and all he wanted to do was run away with you. If the two of you just took off that wouldn’t solve anything. His grip around your wrist loosened, “It’ll be okay and I’ll be here. I promise.” Your eyes softened as your hand gently cupped his face and you kissed him on the cheek. A soft and chaste little kiss, but nonetheless defining and tender. He let go of your wrist and you turned to the door; but before you open it you quickly turned back around and as you got on your tippy toes you whispered into his ear, “I love you, I’ll be back. I promise.” As Billy’s breathing hitched he took in your warmth, and how he could faintly smell your perfume, and how soft your face felt against his. Billy closed his eyes as he savored those three words and gripped your shirt as a smirk found his lips. He hummed as you pulled away from him and he reluctantly let go of your shirt. As he heard the door open he kept his eyes shut and didn’t open them until he no longer felt your presence in the bathroom.

[theonewiththefanfics]

Hawkins’ Charm (Part 4/?)

Synopsys: They had gotten out of Hawkins. After all the shit that had happened, all the heartache and pain, Billy and the Reader had gotten away from that hellhole, building their life in California as he had dreamed. But when Max’s graduation rolls around and they go to celebrate, it’s as if the Upside Down was just waiting for all of them to return. And it has a bone to pick.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x f!Reader; platonic!Steve Harrington x f!Reader

Genre: angst

Warnings: blood, mentions of injuries and death, fighting, swearing

Word count: 3345

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CONDONE BILLY’S ACTIONS AND THE THINGS HE’S DONE! THIS IS BASICALLY AN AU, WHEN REALLY LOOKING AT IT! SPOILERS FOR S3! READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION!

Y/N’s heart felt as if it was about to break out of her chest, her arms clutching onto a crowbar she’d found under one of the bus’ seats. Steve’s back was just as tightly pressed against the inside wall, as was hers, his own fingers wrapped around a sturdy looking piece of wood, yet she still felt like there was nothing separating them from the Demogorgon.        Tears had started to stream down her face pretty much instantly when they both dropped down to hide inside the hull of the vehicle.        “Do you think it heard us?” Y/N whispered, trying not to move a muscle in her trembling limbs.        Steve shook his head. “I don’t think so, but I’m not about to ask it.”        “We have to get out of here.”        “Yeah no shit,” he hissed, extending his neck to see out the front window where the Demogorgon was still lurking, moving at a snail’s pace and sniffing each and every corner.    It looked about a hundred and fifty feet away, but it was still a risk to leave. They could slam up against something sharp, and if the sound wouldn’t give away their position the scent of blood definitely would.

       Y/N was desperately trying to look around the interior for anything they could use against it. She remembered that it hated warmth, despised it, so fire would be a sure way to incapacitate it for a moment, if not even gravely injure it.        Her Y/E/C eyes befell on a graffiti can.        “What are you doing?” Steve asked, hands gripping his weapon tighter.        She just shushed him with a look and passed her crowbar to him. Barely breathing, Y/N leaned to stand on all fours and crawled her way down the aisle. Just as her fingers were about to reach for the can, she heard the Demogorgon approach.        Y/N completely pressed herself against the floor as Steve did to the side of the bus. The fear was all consuming by that point. Sure, she’d fought one of those pieces of shit before, she had fought even bigger monsters, but there was something about the Demogorgon, that Y/N couldn’t quite shake.        Maybe it was the fact it had been the thing that started it all – taken Will, killed Barb and had turned her life upside down. Quite literally.        Or maybe it was the fact she was no longer fighting for herself or for her friends. Y/N had a family. A husband and a daughter that meant the most to her in the world, so the fact that the Demogorgon could so easily rip it away was not something she liked to consider.        They could hear the weird noises it emitted, as it walked around the junkyard, slowly moving further away from where Steve and Y/N were hiding.        He stretched his neck a bit further out to look at where the Demogorgon was, and after deeming it safe, Y/N crawled forward a bit more and got a hold of the can. She couldn’t tell if it was half full or completely empty, at least not by the weight of it, so the only way they’d be able to check was if she shook it and pressed on the nozzle.        “It’s gonna be loud,” Y/N muttered, looking at Steve.        He nodded. “I know…" then something dawned on him. "Wait, do you have a lighter or something?”       Shit. She hadn’t even thought about how she’d light it up. Y/N’s main concern had been getting the can and now testing it, not figuring out if by the lucky chance it was usable, they had anything to flame the paint up with.        Instinctively Y/N patted down Billy’s jacket, for the first time ever hoping to find either matches or a lighter, but of course, there was nothing. He hadn’t smoked in years.        Her mind wheered with the possibilities of what they could do.        “Do you think there’s something here we could use? There’s no way kids don’t come here to smoke or drink,” she muttered, scanning the bus again.        “Maybe,” Steve whispered back, still tracking the Demogorgon’s moves, the crowbar his new best friend until he could get his hands on his trusty nailed bat. “And there could be some stuff of use in the other cars, but are we sure we wanna risk it?”        “Steve,” Y/N whisper-yelled, “we’re gonna have to risk it either way. There’s zero chance we can take it on with a rusted crowbar and a wooden plank. Fire’s our best bet.”        “And if it’s empty?”        A pregnant pause passed.        “Then we run like fucking hell.”

***

       The junkyard might’ve been a twenty-minute walk through the woods from Tina’s, but with a car, with having to weave their way through the town, no matter how small Hawkins was and no matter how fast Billy was driving, it was still way too far away.        “Take a left!” Robin yelled, as he almost missed a turn, the tires screeching against the road and leaving black marks in their wake.        She looked to the side, watching as Billy’s knuckles on the wheel turned from white to almost translucent, eyes boring into the street like he could see invisible marks Y/N had left there that would lead them to Steve and her.        “They’re gonna be okay,” Robin tried to somewhat soothe him, but his grip only tightened, and his foot pressed on the gas pedal harder. “They’ve dealt with this before.”        “That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Billy grunted and quickly looked in his rearview mirror to see Nancy practically decimate the path behind them, her headlights shining brightly before they disappeared as she took a quick right to pull up on the other side.        “They’re alone, in a junkyard with whatever the hell kind of a monster the Mind Flayer has released now. No weapons,” he slammed a hand on the wheel, and Robin tightened her hold on the shotgun. “And it’s my fault,” he let out a bitter chuckle. “I called her a mood killer and told her to go home, ‘cause I just fucking needed to prove to fucking Tommy H, Tommy H! that I was still the King of Hawkins!”        “Look,” Robin started and then pointed to where a forest road led to the junkyard, Billy quickly turning that way. “Yeah, you were a dick, when she just wanted to relax with her friends, and your ego might’ve gotten in the way, but this is not your fault.”        “Really? Then whose is it?”        “I don’t know!” she practically screamed. “Probably whoever opened the Gate!”        Whoever.        Opened.        The.        Gate.        “Fuck,” they breathed simultaneously.        The Gate was open. Had to be. There was no other way to explain how something from the Upside Down could be here.        “Do you think it’s the Russians again?” Billy asked, trying to think of something else other than his wife fighting off a monster, and maybe, potentially, losing the battle.        “I don’t know,” Robin shook her head and loaded two rounds into the gun. “It wouldn’t make any sense, cause the people Hopper called to help us out four years ago made sure to lock everything up.”        “And do you trust what they said?”        “I mean given how they poured cement over each and every door, and Joyce was there to oversee it, yeah. I trust her.”        It didn’t make any sense. The only other option was that the old access point in the Lab had been opened.        “I mean, the Russians did apparently have their own Gates,” Robin suddenly remembered a conversation she’d had after the whole thing had gone down, hands slightly shaking at the thought of what was to come. Would it be as bad as it had been the first time around?        Billy’s eyebrows furrowed. “What like in Moscow or something?”        “I don’t know. All I know is that the last time Joyce and Hopper grabbed some commie dude, and he told them they used to have their own Gates, but something always prohibited them from fully working, so that’s why they came to Hawkins. This is like the source of all that Upside-Down shit.”        Of course, there’d have to be something completely wrong with this already godforsaken town.        “So, you think they did what?” Billy bitterly chuckled, “hopped on a boat and sailed here? Or did they send ‘em through the post?"        Robin was not on board with his attitude despite understanding where he was coming from. “Look, I said I thought I saw a weird humanoid thing with a flower for a head. Nance said that means it’s probably a Demogorgon, and the last time, that shit could make portals wherever the fuck it wanted. So, maybe there’s a Gate open somewhere in Russia, and it just decided to move on its own to where the pull is the strongest?”        They had slowed down to a crawl, headlights turned off before Billy had to kill the engine. They’d make the rest of the way on foot as to not give away their position.        “There still has to be a gateway open in Hawkins,” Billy whispered opening up the trunk and taking out a bat he kept there. Clara was a huge fan of baseball for some reason, and he had decided for her fourth birthday they’d go to a game and ask a player to sign it. “It might be able to survive with a Gate open so far away, but it wouldn’t be able to function. Trust me,” he gave Robin a painful look. “I’d know.”        “We need to see El,” Robin muttered, whispering as they neared the junkyard. “Maybe she can help us find out what the fuck is going on.        “After we save my wife.”        “And Steve.”        Billy just gave her a look of dejected confirmation before they stepped out into the dark woods. Y/N would always be his first priority. Her and their kid.        His grip grew tighter around the bat.

***

       They had miraculously managed to evade the Demogorgon, up until that point. Together Steve and Y/N had made their way across the junkyard and towards the tiny path that led into the forest but not before scouring every possible car. She was still holding onto the graffiti can like it was her last lifeline, which it might as well have been.        “The one time his disgusting habit could’ve been useful,” Steve had muttered to Y/N after they had searched the third car for something to ignite the fumes if there were any left in the can.        Their feet moved against the gravel with way too much noise for their liking, but the Demogorgon seemed to be far away enough, it wasn’t picking up on it or didn’t deem the prey noteworthy if it did hear them.        “Quiet,” Y/N hissed with a motion to the trunk as Steve popped the back open. It seemed to be a relatively new car in the yard, at least it hadn’t been there when they were teenagers, the paint was still shiny, the light from the moon bouncing off its sides, compared to the rusty beasts lying around.        A trash bag, what looked like a ripped-up sheet with stains littered across the fabric and a can of gasoline was what was inside.        Gently, Steve grabbed the handle and lifted it up. Clear as the day, they heard liquid slosh around the cannister. And yet, still, with the additional fuel they could use, there was no way to ignite it.        Something in the woods behind them cracked, and their heads whipped around. A low rumble echoed across the field. It was a rumble that Y/N would recognize even dead before it disappeared.        “Billy,” she whispered, hope lacing that single word, but during the little moment of happiness, she had let go of the trunk's hood, as had Steve for he had grabbed onto the crowbar with both hands thinking it was the Demogorgon when it closed with a loud slam.        The monster whipped its head around from where it had been sniffling, opening up its grotesque mouth and releasing a screech.        Her first instinct was to drop down and hide, but someone from the opposite side yelled ‘hey!’, and they took it as their opportunity to flee.        “Run!” Steve yelled, setting off in a dead sprint.        A gunshot rang out, the bullet whizzing past their heads, and Y/N instinctively ducked, the graffiti can rolling out of her hands and under a pile of metal scraps.        “Shit!”        Y/N scrambled towards where she thought it could’ve gone but had to recoil when something sneered directly into her face. It seemed to be a Demogorgon, but it wasn’t big enough, more so the size of a big cat or a small dog.        A hand grabbed at her collar yanking Y/N back, the crowbar in Steve’s hand meeting the back of whatever that thing was.        “Watch out for Demodogs!” he yelled, and a bullet from the shotgun Robin was holding met its head, the beast recoiling away but not dead.        Y/N’s eyebrows scrunched up. “Demowhatnow?”        “Demodogs!” Steve was gripping at her hand and pulling her away to the bus to take cover, as more and more of those things surrounded them. “The year after the first incident, Dustin found this weird lizard thing, and it turned out it was a Demogorgon, only not fully evolved.”        “So, you’re saying that those things,” Y/N pointed at one of them, “become that?!”        By that, she meant the Demogorgon making its way towards them but being fended off by Nancy who had made a Molotov cocktail from a whiskey bottle she’d snatched from Tina’s, the end of her blouse and a lighter.        A lighter!        “Nance!” Y/N yelled. “There’s a can of gasoline in the trunk we were looking in!”        “On it!”        The Demodogs were pressing in on them. She could hear the yelps from them when the thud of a crowbar or Billy’s bat met flesh, Robin taking as many out with her shotgun, Johnathan keeping Nancy safe by creating a wall of flame as he spilt another bottle of whiskey around them and lit it on fire.        It was unmistakably Billy’s arm that wrapped around Y/N's middle and pulled her behind him.        “Get to the car! Now!”        She wasn’t going to argue, seeing as she was the only one without a weapon, and where she was stubborn, she also knew how to read the situation. With one last look at Steve to know he was going to be okay, he nodded giving her the green light, and Y/N was running.          But she didn’t get far. Pain exploded all across her back, and a metallic taste invaded her mouth as she was slammed onto the ground. Bright spots danced across her vision, and it was hard to take in a breath. It was like a belt was slowly being tightened around her neck.        She thought she vaguely heard someone yelling her name. Someone vaguely sounding like Billy.        Y/N tried to answer, to call out for him, but her tongue was made out of cotton, and lips wouldn’t move. Her fingers went to grab at whatever was prohibiting her from taking in a breath when she was met by fingers with razors for nails.            Y/E/C eyes instantly sprung open to see the Demogorgon leaning over her, its mouth open as if waiting for her to give him permission to eat. Of course, that was not going to happen.        With as much strength as she could muster, Y/N kicked at the knees of the Demogorgon, and for a brief moment, she had taken it off its balance, allowing air to start flowing once more.        Quickly she turned on her stomach to crawl away, but her oxygen deprived limbs were too slow, and the agonizing feeling of claws digging in her back and dragging her away made her vision go black.        For a moment, Y/N opened her eyes and saw the junkyard illuminated by a circle of fire and a horde of Demodogs surrounding her friends and the one person she could never live without.        Then everything turned to darkness.

***

       Robin didn’t have any more bullets, and she was fighting the Demodogs off by simply slamming them with the shotgun. But the fight didn’t last much longer.    In a way, it was a miracle, as the surviving Demodogs retreated back from where they’d come from, hissing and growling. But at the same time, it didn’t feel right. Sure, they were battered and bruised and tired, and they had no complaints about no more fighting, but that’s when they were the weakest, the easiest to be killed.            Billy was sporting a nasty cut on his shoulder from one of the paws of the Demodogs, and it was hard to keep ahold of the bat the pain making bright white spots dance across the inside of his lids whenever he blinked.        “What are they doing?” Johnathan asked, completely confused as they’d stood back to back while struggling to defend one another.        “They’re retreating…” Robin stated the obvious, but it seemed so improbable it was needed for it to be pointed out. “Why – why are they retreating?”        “Guys?” Steve butted in, “where’s Y/N?”        “I told her to get to the car,” Billy responded, and it was those words that made him dash towards where he’d parked the Camaro by the junction.    He’d never been a religious person, the Virgin Mary that always hung against his chest had been his mother’s, but for the third time in his life, he prayed.        The first time had been when the Mind Flayer had injured him. He had prayed for death to come quickly. The second time had been when Y/N was in labour. He had prayed for everything to go as smoothly as possible. Now he was praying to find his wife in the safety of his car, but when he was fifty feet away, he didn’t need light to know she wasn’t there.        “Y/N!” Billy roared but was only answered by the silence of the forest. “Y/N!”        Four pairs of feet joined him and looked at the distressed man as he pulled at his hair and kept yelling her name    “Maybe the Demogorgon was chasing her, and she decided to run,” Steve threw out the idea, hoping for it to be true, but everyone had a gut feeling it wasn’t. Nothing was ever that easy.       “No! Fuck it took her! I left the keys in the car! If she would’ve made it, she would’ve slammed on the gas pedal.”            Billy chucked the bat against the door, and it left a sizable dent in it. He didn’t care about it anymore, he didn’t care about anything else anymore. His wife was gone, missing, and it had been his fault.        His fault she was hurt, his fault their daughter could possibly have to grow up without a mother.        His fault.        “Let’s go,” Johnathan’s voice brought him out of his self-loathing.        “No,” Billy shook his head. “I gotta find her.”        But he had nowhere to start.        Nancy tried to reason with him. “That’s what we’re gonna do, but it’s pointless to scour the woods in complete darkness with barely any protection. We don’t know where the Demodogs are or the Demogorgon. El’s at our place with the rest of the Party… She can help. She can find her.”        “Do you promise?” Billy asked through tears that he could barely keep at bay. “Can you promise me she’ll be alright?”        “I can’t,” Nancy’s lip quivered at the admission. She couldn’t lose another friend, but she also couldn’t swear that they’d find Y/N alive. “But El’s our best option.”        He kicked the dirt by the wheel of the car but nodded.        El was their best option.        “Come on,” Billy wiped his face down, a trail of dirt and tears left in the wake of his palm. “The sun's coming up.”    With the first scarlet rays of the new day, Billy and Robin climbed into his car as Nancy and Johnathan went back to theirs. He'd find her. And if he didn't he'd burn Hawkins to the ground.

Tags (crossed out wouldn’t take): 

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A/N: I apologise for any grammar mistakes, I’m pretty tired, but I wanted to put out this part :D

P.S. my tags are always open :)

[forhelvede]

Where the Storm Meets the Ground Ch. 6

In which I try my hand at cutesy stuff.

Chapter 6- The Promise

The drive to the hospital took forever. Or at least, that’s how it felt to Laurie. She held onto Alexei’s hands as tightly as she could without breaking it and found comfort in the knowledge that he was still holding onto her, still looking into her eyes as he fought to stay awake.

Joyce sped through the parking lot and pulling to a screeching stop in front of the emergency room door. Murray pushed opened the car door and ran to find a doctor while Jim helped Laurie carefully get Alexei out of the backseat.

They helped the hurt man up to the door where they were met by a nurse with a stretcher. Jim grabs Alexei’s legs as the man sits on the stretcher. Jim swings his legs up on the stretcher and backs off as the nurse and another doctor start to push it inside. Laurie turns to the trio.

“You three go. I’ll stay with Alexei,” Laurie ordered.

“Lore, Murray should stay,” Jim argued.

Laurie shook her head. “I’m FBI. I can translate and I’ll keep an eye on him and make sure no more Russians come for him. He told Murray everything you need to know, so Murray goes with you. Now go! You don’t have time for this!” she yelled. She gave Jim a quick hug and then headed off into the hospital after Alexei.

She caught up with the nurse and doctor, who had already cut off Alexei’s shirt and were starting to put an IV in. “I’m Special Agent Laurie Miller. He doesn’t speak English,” she explained as they tried to talk to Alexei and ask him what happened. Laurie pulled out her badge to show them. “I’m with the FBI. This man is.... he’s my partner. He was shot twice in the heart, but was wearing a vest.”

The Doctor nodded. “Tell him we’ll take care of him. We’re going to have to take him into surgery to stop the bleeding.”

Laurie leaned over Alexei’s face. “You’re going to be okay. Just be calm. I’ll see you when you get out. I’ll be here,” she whispered, gently caressing his forehead again.

“Promise?” he asked, staring up at her weakly.

“I Promise, Alyosha.” She kissed his forehead and then stepped back, tears pricking her eyes as they wheeled him away to take him to surgery.

Laurie quietly followed a nurse to the waiting room. She took a seat and began impatiently waiting. She worried about Alexei and she worried about Jim. What if the trio weren’t able to get into the bunker? What if they did need her help?

Unable to sit still, Laurie stood and began to pace around the waiting room, wringing her hands together. She was normally a fairly calm person. She had been in a shootout before and kept her cool.

So why was she so freaked out about Alexei? She barely knew the guy.

And yet she was here, pacing a hospital waiting room, terrified she might never see the young Russian man again.

Taking a deep breath, Laurie sat down again and putting her heads between her knees, she took several more deep breaths and let them out. After a few minutes of this, she felt calmer. Her heart beat slowed back to normal and head became clear again.

Jim could be trusted. Murray…probably in this case was going to do what he had to. Everything was going to be okay. And Alexei was going to live.

He was. He had to.

Laurie suddenly realized she hadn’t called in to her boss all day. Dreading it, but knowing it had to be done, she headed for a payphone and dialed her boss back in St. Louis. Adam James was a bitch of a human being, but who in his position wasn’t? Laurie didn’t know a single department head in the FBI that was nice.

“Do you fucking know what time it is?” he cussed once she identified herself.

“I’m very aware, sir. But I haven’t called in…”

“No, you fucking haven’t. You better have a fucking good reason why.”

“It’s been a very quick series of events and lots of driving.” Laurie took a deep breath and began explaining, starting with arriving at Murray’s and finding Alexei and getting all the way up to Alexei getting shot. She left out some of the weird stuff regarding another dimension. Adam, to his credit, listened quietly to the entire story.

“And you promised him he could be a citizen if he helped?”

“I promised him I’d help him defect if he helped, which he did.”

“Sounds like he got himself shot to me.”

An uncomfortable feeling grew in Laurie’s gut. She gulped nervously. “If he hadn’t given Chief Hopper the information, they wouldn’t have even known there was a secret Russian bunker underneath the fucking mall in Hawkins!” Laurie knew getting angry wouldn’t help, but God damn if she wasn’t going to fight for Alexei. He had helped.

“Don’t you fucking yell at me, Miller. You’re on thin fucking ice.”

Gritting her teeth and grimacing as much as she could without causing herself physical pain, Laurie held the phone away from her face and silently grumbled at the pay phone. She took a deep breath and then brought the phone back to her ear. “Sorry, sir. What I mean, is that Dr. Alexei has provided us with priceless information that has led to uncovering a dangerous Russian mission here on U.S. soil.”

“And is the fucking Hawkins Police Department the only law enforcement involved in this?” he questioned.

“No, sir.” Laurie grimaced again, knowing what was coming next. “The Department of Energy is also involved?”

“The Department of-…are you fucking kidding me? You disturbed me at eleven o’clock on fucking Fourth of July to tell me that the fucking Department of Energy and Hawkins fucking Police Department are fucking uncovering a goddamn Russian plot to infiltrate and destroy our country?”

Well, when you say it that way…, Laurie thought. “Um, I suppose so, sir. The FBI was also involved, too, you know…because of me. But yes…the Department of Energy.” She went quiet as her boss began screaming nonsense on the other end of the phone.

She was definitely not getting a promotion.

“Who-the fuck- at the Department of Energy is involved in this shit show, exactly? Or do you not know that?”

“That would be Dr. Sam Owens, sir.”

Adam breathed heavily, and quite angrily, into the phone. “I want you back in St. Louis first thing in the morning and I want that Russian deported. Call the Indy office now and let them know.”

“Sir!” Laurie protested.

“This is bullshit, Miller. None of this sounds legitimate. You are being played. Congratulations.” He went quiet for a moment as the anger and embarrassment began to fill Laurie. “I thought you were a better agent than this.”

A dial tone quickly followed his insult. Laurie stood there for a moment with the phone still at her ear, the familiar horrible feeling of sadness that was welling up in her chest. With a sob, Laurie slammed the phone back on the receiver and went back to where she was sitting.

This was why she hadn’t called anyone earlier. There was no way that the FBI would believe any of this was happening and they wouldn’t have acted soon enough.

If she didn’t go back to St. Louis in the morning, if she didn’t contact the Indianapolis FBI to tell them to get Alexei deported, she would most certainly not get the promotion and she very well might get fired. If she tried to wait to get information from this Dr. Owens, to get proof, she would likely still get in trouble at work.

What was she supposed to do? The FBI had been her life for fourteen years. What would she do if she lost her job or got demoted? A few more years and she could retire.

But Alexei…

If she had the FBI deport him, Alexei was certainly dead. The Russian government had already tried to kill him once. He needed to be protected.

He needed to stay.

“FUCK!” Laurie yelled, standing up from the seat to scream down at the floor.

“Excuse me!” A receptionist snapped at Laurie. “This is a quiet place!”

She threw her hands up at the woman and sat back down, putting her head in her hands. This was an impossible situation. Potentially lose her job (or worse. What if Adam accused her of working with the Russians?) or get Alexei killed.

What a choice.

Laurie crossed her arms and leaned her head back, squeezing her eyes shut. Before she knew it, she had nodded off, waking suddenly when someone lightly touched her arm. Laurie startled, grabbing the arm of the person who had touched her.

“Sorry,” she apologized when she realized it was just the doctor.

He frowned, but nodded. “Your friend is out of surgery and he’s doing well. Part of his sternum broke off with the force of the bullets and embedded into this heart, causing the internal bleeding you saw. Luckily, it wasn’t in there too far and we were able to remove the broken bone pieces, stop the bleeding, and seal it all up. We’ll want to keep him for a few days, but he should be okay.”

Laurie let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding. “Thank you. Can I see him?”

The Doctor nodded and gestured for her to follow him. Laurie walked down the white hospital halls, her mind still trying to come out with a way she could keep Alexei in the country and keep her job.

They finally came to the room that Alexei was in and Laurie stood in the doorway, taking a few deep breaths. There was no reason she had to tell Alexei anything right now.

The Russian was still unconscious, unsurprisingly. Laurie walked up to the side of the bed and took his hand in her own, squeezing gently. She stared down at his face. He looked different without his glasses. He was still handsome, for sure, but the boyish charm was missing. There was some more mature about him without the glasses. Something harder now.

She didn’t like it.

Laurie found his glasses on the side table and quickly put them on.

There. That was Alexei.

With her free hand, Laurie reached up and ran her hands through his hair. After watching him for a minute, she reluctantly pulled her hands away from him. She grabbed the nearby chair and pulled it right up to the bed. Grabbing his hand once again, Laurie then laid her head on the bed next to his arm, closed her eyes, and drifted off again.

Her dreams were not good.

She dreamt that Alexei had never put on the vest and that she had found him, after wandering a packed fair for what felt like hours, bleeding on the ground, everyone just wandering around him, ignoring him. And no matter how hard she fought through the crowd, she could never get to Alexei. Never touch him.

Never save him.

Once again, Laurie jerked awake. She checked all of Alexei’s machines, making sure he was still alive and breathing, before she sighed in relief. He was okay.

She stood up again, unable to stop herself, and leaned over Alexei to kiss his forehead, tears welling up in her eyes.

How could she possibly choose her job over him? She had only known him for a day and yet the idea of being selfish and saving her job made her feel like a traitor.

“Why do you cry, lyubimaya?” a croaky voice asked. She felt a weak hand touch her head and Laurie gasped as she moved back from Alexei’s face.

“Alyosha!” she called out, tears now spilling down her cheeks. “You’re awake!” She pressed soft kisses all over his forehead and cheeks.

“I am fine?” he said. Laurie wasn’t entirely sure it was a question or a statement.

“The Doctor said your sternum was broken and some pieces went into your heart, so there was bleeding, but it’s okay now! You’re going to be fine,” she said, lowering her voice as she realized she was almost yelling into the poor man’s face.

Alexei smiled up at her, though slightly weakly, which made her smile even bigger. “You stayed.” He ran a finger down the side of her face.

“I promised,” she whispered as she leaned down over him, their noses touching, lips just inches apart. “I promised.”

[fanwarriorfictions]

One-

A Stranger Things Fanfic

Chapter Eight- Part Two

   They waited, wrapping up their wounds with bandages from the first aid kit Joyce kept in the bathroom. Phina did hers by herself, shooing Jonathan away when he tried to help.

   "Go help Nancy," she told him, "I've done this plenty of times on my own."

   She now sat against the wall, on the floor, ignoring their quiet whispers. She had pulled the gun she had stolen from the waistband of her jeans, switching it from hand to hand. It was a .9mm, a similar caliber to Nancy's, but this one packed a stronger punch.

   "Where'd you get that," Nancy suddenly asks.

   "I stole it off an agent from Hawkins Lab earlier when I went with Hopper to get Mike," Phina shrugs, looking up at the two.

   "Do you even know how to use that thing," Jonathan asks.

   "Come on Jon, you have so little faith in me," she laughs, "I'm a better shot than you are."

   "When did you learn to use a gun," Nancy shouts.

   "Remember when I was in 8th grade, I was hanging out with that Clark kid? Yeah, well that summer  he took me shooting with his family almost every weekend," Phina explains.

   Nancy sighs through her nose, shaking her head at her sister. Nancy goes back to wrapping Jonathan's wound, and Phina tunes them out again. She stared up at the ceiling, thinking. Thinking of her past, of her family, of the craziness going on lately, just thinking. Getting lost in her own mind. She did it to distract herself, to keep her from feeling the terror coursing through her. Not for herself, no, she didn't care what happened to her, not at all. No, if Jonathan or Nancy were to get hurt, she would never forgive herself. Or if something happened to the kids, while she had left them on their own, that would kill her inside. The terror was enough to shake her to her bones, so she drowned it in the thoughts she could control, the good ones.

She fell so deep into her mind, that she was almost blind to the entire world. Nancy and Jonathan's conversation fell on deaf ears.

   Loud knocking suddenly sounded on the door making Phina jump, breaking through the veil of escape she had made. She falls back into reality, hard, she looks towards Nancy, who's eyes are wide with terror.

   "Jonathan! Are you there man! It's Steve," Steve Harrington shouts from the other side of the door.

   Phina jumps to her feet, why is he here?

   Steve starts knocking again, "listen, I just want to talk!"

   Phina looks at Nancy and Jonathan, who both give her a nod, and walks over to the door, cracking it open.

   Steve looks at her, confused, "Phina?"

   "You need to leave," tells him right away.

   "Listen, I'm not trying to start any shit," he pleads.

   "I don't care, you need to go. Please," Phina pleads back.

   "I know, I messed up, I messed up! Ok, please, I just want to make things right," Steve's voice wavers, "ok? Please."

   Phina gives him a look that he's never seen before, a look of understanding, of sadness, of, fear? She was scared of something, scared for him. He looks down at her hand that's resting against the door, noticing the bandage.

   "What happened to your hand," he asks, he grabs her hand gently into his, cradling it, "is that blood?"

   Phina she rips her hand out of his, "that is none of your concern."

   "What's going on Phina," he asks, "wait, did he do this?"

   "What! No," Phina shouts.

   Steve pushes past Phina to get inside, "Steve! Steve, stop! You need to leave!"

   "Let me in," he pushes past her and stumbles inside, seeing Nancy and Jonathan standing in the middle of the insanely messy house.

   "What is, what the," Steve stutters, looking around at the lights and the lettered wall.

   Jonathan starts to push him, "listen to me, you gotta get out of here. I'm not asking, I'm telling!"

   "What's that smell, is that gasoline," Steve shouts.

   Nancy pulls her gun on Steve, "Steve! Get out!"

   "Wow wow, wait, What," Steve yells, holding up his hands, "what is going on!"

   "You have five seconds to get out of here," Nancy shouts, "five."

   "Nancy, that's a little over dramatic, don't you think," Phina shouts at her sister then turns towards Steve, "Steve! You need to leave, right now!"

   "Four."

   "Put the gun down," Steve pleads.

   "I'm doing this for you," Nancy tells him, the lights flickering above her.

   "Three."

   Phina pulls her gun out of her waistband, looking around the room, at the lights.

   "Phina! What is happening," Steve screams, seeing the gun in the redhead's hands.

   "Steve, you need to go, please go" Phina shouts, then turns to her sister, "Nancy!"

   "Two," Nancy continues counting, Steve freaking out, yelling.

   "Nancy! The damn lights," Phina shouts.

Nancy stops her countdown and looks up, looking at the rapidly blinking lights. She turns away from Steve, looking all around. Phina slowly makes her way over to Steve, he was completely defenseless, and was now on her list of people to protect.

   "It's here," Jonathan shouts, grabbing the nail ridden bat.

   "Wait what's here," Steve asks.

   "Where is it," Nancy asks.

   "Where is what! Woah," Steve screams, seeing the bat, "easy with that!"

   Phina pulls Steve towards her, raising her gun to protect them, "shut up and stay close to me, got it? Where the hell is it Jon!"

   "I don't know," Jonathan yells.

   "Where is what, hello! Will someone," Steve is cut off by the Demorgorgan crawling through the ceiling.

   Phina and Nancy both raise their guns, shooting off a few rounds at it, not affecting it at all. Jonathan grabs Nancy and turns towards Will's room.

   "Go, run!"

   The Demogorgan falls through the ceiling and Phina turns, grabbing Steve's hand and bolting. The race back to Will's room, the Demogorgan letting out an awful screeching roar.

   "Jump," Phina shouts to Steve as they get to the trap.

   "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Steve screams, as he leaps over it.

   They run into the room, the door slamming shut behind them. Steve grips Phina's hand in absolute terror. She subconsciously pulls him closer to her, squeezing his hand back, half to comfort him and half to comfort herself.

   "Jesus! What the hell was that," he shouts, "What the hell..."

   "Shut up," the other three teens yell at him.

   The Demogorgan screeches again and Phina pushes Steve farther behind her, raising her gun towards the door. Steve yelps, cowering behind Phina.

   "What's it doing," Nancy asks.

   "I don't know," Jonathan breathes heavily.

   Phina grips Steve's hand, not caring that she was practically breaking it, neither did he.

   She watches for the yo-yo to fall, but it doesn't. The lights stop flickering, and it goes silent in the hallway.

   "Do you hear anything," Nancy asks.

   "No," Jonathan answers, closing his lighter.

   Jonathan slowly opens the door, preparing for the Demogorgan to attack, but it doesn't happen. He looks back at the others, a confused look on his face.

   The four teens slowly creep out of the room, looking for any signs of the Demogorgan. To their relief, it wasn't there, Steve still holding onto Phina's hand like a scared child.

   They walked slowly back into the main room, Phina holding her gun to the ground, ready to aim and shoot at any given time. Jonathan leads them, his bat held out in front of him. Nancy and Jonathan look for any signs of the monster, finding none.

   "This is crazy," Steve was whispering to himself, slowly getting louder, "this is crazy, this is crazy! This is crazy!"

   He finally lets go of Phina's hand and grabs the phone, dialing 911 probably. Phina marches over and takes the phone from his hand, throwing it to the ground and slamming her foot down on it.

   "What are you doing! Are you insane," he shouts at her.

   "It is going to come back," she yells at him, "and you need to get the hell out of here before it does!"

   Steve looks down at her, her fiery emerald eyes glowing, not in hatred, but in concern. For him, he realizes. She had never, ever been concerned for him, no, she'd hated him from the moment they met, for her to be scared for him, worried for him, meant that he was in serious danger, and she didn't want him to be hurt.

"Please Steve, you've got to get out of here," she whispers, "please."

   He nods, shell shocked. He give her one last look, before bolting out the door, running to his car.

   Phina let's out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding as soon as he is out of her sight.

   Almost as soon as the door closes behind him, the lights start flickering like crazy again. The three of them circle up, back to back, looking everywhere for it.

   "Where is it," Nancy asks.

   "Come on. Come on you son of a bitch," Jonathan says, "you see it?"

   "No," Nancy shakes.

   Phina's heart pounds in her chest, "where the hell is it!"

   "Come on, come on, come on!"

   The lights go out completely, Phina looks up at them, "son of a bitch."

   The noise of the Demogorgan makes Phina turn around sharply, to see it standing over Jonathan.

   "Jon!" "Jonathan!"

   The Demogorgan hits Jonathan, knocking him to the ground, and his bat falls from his hands. It gets on top of him and slowly lowers it face to his.

   "Jonathan!" Nancy yells.

   It opens its mouth, Phina raises her gun and starts shooting at the same time as Nancy.

   "Go to hell you son of a bitch," Nancy yells at it.

   It stands up to its full height, looking at Nancy and Phina. They continue to shoot at it, Nancy running out of bullets before Phina. Phina shoves Nancy behind her as the thing steps towards them, running out of bullets after a few more shots. The monster takes its sweet time walking over to the girls, almost as if it is taunting them, like it knows it's won. Phina slowly raises her hands towards the Demogorgan, the center of her palms slowly heating up, her eyes beginning to glow golden. The Demogorgan pauses.

   Then, out of nowhere, Steve screams, hitting the Demogorgan with the nail ridden bat.

   "Steve," Phina shouts, lowering her hands so she won't hurt him.

   The monster swings at him, but Steve ducks, taking another hit at it. He backs towards the hallway, the Demogorgan following. Steve hits it again, and again, until it steps in the trap.

   "It's in the trap," Steve yells, and the three run over to him, "he's stuck!"

   "Jonathan now!" Nancy screams.

   "My lighter, it's gone," Jonathan shouts, searching his pockets.

   The Demogorgan starts to pry the trap open, screeching in pain.

   Phina panics, pushing Jonathan out of the way and yells, "god damnit, move!"

   Jonathan jumps out of her way and she throws her hands up, her eyes glowing golden and a wave of fire shoots from the palms of her hands. The gasoline lights, and so does the monster.

   "What the hell," Nancy screams.

   The monster screams, the fire licking the roof of the house. Jonathan grabs at the fire extinguisher, not about to let his home burn to the ground. As the room is engulfed in smoke, all of them are blinded. They are limited to their sense of hearing.

   Coughing fills the air, and then a scream, Phina's.

   Steve recognizes it instantly, "Phina!"

   The smoke clears, and to the teens horror, the monster, and Phina, are gone. All that is left is the strange gooy substance bubbling on the bear trap, and drops of human blood mixing into it.

   "Where is she! Where is it," Steve shouts, holding the bat in the air.

   "I don't know! It should be dead," Jonathan yells, frantically looking for his best friend.

   Tears stream down Nancy's face, her mind filling with awful thoughts, like how she might loose her sister, just like how she lost her best friend.

   "Where is she, where did it take her," Steve yells, his voice cracking, turning to look at Nancy and Jonathan.

   "The upside down," Jonathan whispers, tears for his best friend forming in his eyes, he falls against the wall, almost as if he can't support himself anymore.

   Steve falls to his knees, Jonathan's reaction causing Steve's heart to painfully lurch. Phina was in serious danger, and Steve realized he had no idea how to help her. And, with that thing there as well, she was as good as dead, and Steve could feel his world crumbling beneath him.

-2126 words-

Oh no! Phina's been taken!!! Here is that action I've been promising you, and the little Steve action as well. Hope you enjoyed it.

-Morgan

[jxpper]

New World Order - Part One

Joyce Byers is your typical background shadow, living out her days as a nurse at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital. But when an Airborne virus breaks through, causing chaos about the city, she’s rescued by a mystery man named Jim Hopper and his foster family of supernatural misfits. It isn’t until the near end of the world that she realizes she isn’t just the unnoticed, she’s the epicenter of it all.

(AU - Apocalypse)

(I love the song Soldiers from the ST2 soundtrack to go with this chapter)

January 1st, 2000

3:14 pm

Manhattan, NY

It was a paralyzing fear, that’s the only way I know how to describe it. They say you know when you’re going to die and now I know that to be a fact. Honestly, I had no clue how I got to the top of that building. Everything from the moment I saw that ‘creature’ to the moment I found myself standing on the ledge, 25 stories above the ground. It was all a blank. The memory disappearing into thin air.

Smoke everywhere. Clouds of ash and dust crowded over the city like a newly found oxygen. The distance over the busy roads of Manhattan sounded like a mantra of car alarms and horrified screaming. It must’ve gone on for hundreds of miles, farther than the naked eye could even begin to process.

I could hear the booming sound of clanking metal growing closer and closer. Those… things, whatever they were, they were coming and they were coming quickly. The breath I had been holding onto was lodged in my throat as if my nerves were shutting down from fear, cutting off any signals my mind could send for me to just BREATHE!

Boom! Fists against the metal doors.

10 seconds left.

Hail Mary full of Grace,

9 seconds.

Nowhere to run.

8 seconds.

Maybe I can jump.

7 seconds.

But then I’ll die.

6 seconds.

I’m gonna die anyway.

5 seconds.

I can’t do it.

4 seconds.

I don’t want to die from those creatures!

3 seconds.

Just do it, Joyce. Just jump.

2 seconds.

Just close your eyes and fall.

‘BANG!’

Were those gunshots?

“HOLD ON!”

That was the moment I truly started believing in God because there was no way that wasn’t a miracle. Thick and brawny arms wrapped me up, holding me tighter than I thought could be possible.

Then it was bliss. He jumped off the roof of Bellevue Hospital and I could’ve sworn we were flying. I didn’t care though, I wasn’t going to die alone. I would die in the arms of a man whose face I haven’t even seen yet. With my head buried in his sweat-scented chest, I could hear the erratic pounding of his heart.

Just as my instincts told me we would hit the ground, our speed from the roof started to slow. The deafening sound of shouting and car horns was suddenly gone, only leaving me to hear my heartbeat.

“THUD!”

I closed my eyes, hoping it would somehow cushion the shock of death striking us. But… nothing?

“C'MON, ELEVEN!” the man yelled behind him as he threw Joyce over his shoulder, running like all holy hell broke loose…because it did.

Joyce couldn’t feel herself breath as she bounced along over his shoulder. Of all the saints of Christendom, what the fuck was going on? All she could see was the streets passing her as the man went like the speed of light while a young girl with a bloody nose followed in tow.

Countless amounts of whatever those creature things were hoarded in the streets, climbing on top of cars, attacking people, breaking through glass storefronts. This had to be a nightmare, that was the only explanation possible.

Joyce tried to close her eyes, willing herself to wake up from whatever fresh hell this was. It wasn’t working, she couldn’t bring herself out of it. This was real.  

Suddenly, she was placed in the front seat of a doorless Jeep while the man and young girl climbed into the vehicle.

“START THE CAR, DAD!” the girl cried as he jammed the keys in the ignition, flooring it as soon as it shifted into drive. Joyce held onto the safety bars as the man weaved through the empty parts of 1st Avenue.

“What the fuck was that?” Joyce barked as she finally took back control of her voice. The miracle man was layered in camouflage clothes and covered in dirt and sweat. He was so buff that she could probably wrap both of her hands around his bicep and still have room left. The only thing she could compare his look to was a dirty old army action figure in the 99¢ bin at a Goodwill.

“No time to explain, just hang tight!” he yelled back as the Jeep shifted into 5th gear, speeding them along the catastrophic streets.

“We didn’t die? We fell from the roof and didn’t die!” she screamed, completely and utterly confused as to why she wasn’t a pile of broken bones on the street.

“Yeah, you’re welcome for that! What’s your name?” the man asked, continuing to maneuver through the avenue of chaos.

Her name? She could barely remember how to breathe, let alone her name!“ “J-Joyce Byers! Thanks for that back there! But how are we not dead?” she shouted back over the increasing volume of the city-wide turmoil.

“I’m Jim Hopper, nice to meet you Joyc- FUCK!” Jim interrupted himself as he swerved out of the way of a screaming jaywalker.

“How the hell did you save me?” she questioned as she turned to him, her brown eyes as wide as saucers. None of this made sense, none of it! First, zombie creature-things chasing her out of her job, then G.I. Jim appears, they survive jumping off a building, now they’re driving through the Manhattan while the end of the world commences? This had to be fake! Th-this shit didn’t happen in real life!

“Like I said, no time to explain! Just buckle up and hang tight. Elle, you still with us?” Hopper shouted towards the backseat. The curly headed girl confirmed before throwing her seat belt on while Joyce did the same.

“We have to get somewhere safe!” Joyce cried, fear and adrenaline ripping through her veins at record speed.

“Sweetheart, safety is just an illusion at this point.’ Hopper replied with a morbid laugh. "Anyways, we gotta get back to base! It’s the only place we won’t get eaten alive by those fuckers.”

“Base? Where’s the base?” she asked, still gripping to the safety rail for dear life. The Jeep continued to topple over piles of the zombie-like creatures as they drove through.

“Jersey. Won’t be but a few in this puppy.’ Hopper laughed obnoxiously as he slapped the dashboard of the vehicle. Joyce watched in horror as he tore through the streets, ripping past the utter bedlam that now occupied all of New York.

"Woah Woah Woah, there is no way you’re gonna get through the Washington Bridge!” Joyce howled as she saw them veer towards the overpass. The entire bridge looked like a mayhem of parked cars and screaming people.

“Wanna bet?” he replied with an eerie grin before turning to Eleven with a nod.  Putting a lead foot on the acceleration, he gassed the car as fast as it would over the on-ramp. As if a way through the havoc was clearly paved, Jim sped over the bridge.

“DUCK!” he cried as the Jeep pushed through the toll caution bar, ripping the yellow and black barrier right off its hinges and sending it over the car.

“Home sweet home!” Jim smiled as he pulled into a warehouse out in the middle of nowhere. Two more unmarked Jeeps found their homes in the lot of the base camp, which led Joyce to believe they wouldn’t be alone.

“Ellie, go get washed up for dinner. I gotta talk to Joyce.” the kid ran off with a nod, leaving the two alone as they stepped out of the Jeep. Joyce gulped, still trying to wrap her head around all of this… even though that was pretty much impossible.

“Alright, so I’d assume you’re pretty confused,” he stated as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his vest pocket.

“No shit, Sherlock! You wanna explain?” Joyce replied angrily. Confused? She was fucking mortified! Zombies killing their way through Manhattan? She’d be a fool not to be confused.

“Walk and talk with me, toots.” he motioned with a small wave of his hand. Usually, Joyce would’ve chastised him for calling her 'toots’ but the confusion from the armageddon was enough to trump any fuck she could give.

“So, I’ll cut right to the chase. Those mongrels you saw back there? Those are pretty much zombies.” Hopper said flatly before taking a long drag off of his cigarette

“Zombies?” Joyce laughed with an incredulous glare up at the man. “You want me to believe that zombies took over New York?”

“After everything you’ve seen today, is it that hard to believe?” he asked with a smartass smirk on his face.

“Guess not…” she sighed with a confused frown. “That doesn’t explain how we didn’t splat on the concrete though.”

“No, but this might.” he grinned as he opened the door to the warehouse. As Joyce walked in, she looked around at the small house-like setup. The entire first floor must’ve been at least 5,000 square feet, filled with furniture and makeshift rooms.

“Daddy’s home!” Hopper called into the warehouse with a laugh.

“This is Joyce. She’s gonna stay with us for a while.” he pointed to the small woman next to him who was still shaking with fear inside of her scrubs. Joyce looked around at the four teens scattered across the room, all of them way too enamored in doing their own things to even care that he walked in.

“What the fu-” Joyce tried to catch her language since there were young kids in her presence, but as she looked over, she could’ve sworn the curly headed girl from earlier had picked a towel up out of thin air.

“Yeah, a lot of that happens around here.” Hopper smiled when he saw Joyce’s reaction. “This is our little family of freaks and geeks. Ellie isn’t the only one. We all uh- we all do shit like that.”

“Oh…” Joyce whispered under her breath, still not completely able to process what was in front of her.

“Yeah, so I’m Jim, also known as Dad, Hop, Chief, and Five. Right now I can tell that you think I smell like sweat but you also think I’m cute. Mind reading.” he said with a mischevious grin. “I also lied about not knowing your name, sometimes an introductory is nice.” he explained before turning to a young teen girl who was nose into a book.

“That’s Kali, she’s known as Eight. Mind manipulation is her trick of choice, she makes you see anything she wants you too. Say Hi, Kali.” he raised his brows, giving her a look of authority.

“Hi, Kali.” the teen girl repeated sarcastically.

“She thinks she’s cool because she has purple hair.” Hop whispered just loud enough for the girl to hear.

“Jonathan, that one.” Hopper pointed to a teen boy fidgeting around with a radio. “He’s known as Nine.” Suddenly, the boy disappeared out of thin air and appeared in front of Joyce, causing her to give out a startled yelp.

“I’m Jonathan, nice to meet you.” he smiled, holding out a hand for her to shake.

“Yeah, yeah. Show off.” Hopper snorted as the boy reappeared back where he was when they walked in.

“That’s Will, known as Ten. Show Joyce what you’ve got, Will.” he pointed to a younger teen who looked like he was drawing.

“Joyce Byers, 31 years old and from Queens, New York. A nurse at Bellevue, right? Watch this.” He looked at a pillow at the end of the sofa, and with a quick nod, it turned from green to red.

“Yeah, the kid got lucky and doubled up.” Hopper said as he glanced down at Joyce. “He can tell you anything about anyone he’s near and he can also change the color of any object too. Good job, bud.”

“You’ve already met Eleven, but her real name is Jane. Telekinetic little devil kid, but we still love her.” the curly headed girl turned and waved with a weak smile.

“So that’s why we didn’t die? She pretty much levitated us down?” Joyce asked with a confused expression.

“Yeah, I was kinda waiting to explain that until I could just explain it all at once. It’s easier to grasp it all that way.” he answered as he scratched the back of his neck.

“Wait, where’s Six and Seven?” she asked, looking up at him with her head turned.

“Sar-Seven isn’t with us right now.” he stuttered, causing each of the kids to look up at him with sad eyes.

“Oh, where is six?”

Hopper smiled down at her again, the mischevious grin she had seen earlier.

“I’m looking at her.”

To Be Continued

[themikewheelers]

8 for the prompts

#8: “Can I touch you?”

Send me prompts

You came back to me.

I missed you so much.

Never leave me again.

Thoughts jumbled around in Mike’s head, none of them being enough to say what he wanted to convey, nothing could ever truly capture the way he felt in that moment.

She was back. There were no existing words that could express the swelling in Mike’s heart upon seeing her.

But there she was, right before his eyes Mike saw Eleven standing there, with her hair tangled and her face covered in dirt, but Mike couldn’t notice any of that, because all he could see was her eyes wide open, staring right back at him.

She was terrified, he could see that clearly, shaking and dirty. Mike had never figured that wherever she had disappeared to had been a good place, but he couldn’t get over how utterly traumatized she was.

They were in the Byers house, the chief had called all of them to come over, but when Mike stepped into his best friend’s house, he never expected to see El. She’d been gone for almost a year now, there comes a point when even the strongest hope fades.

Everything had been acting up in Hawkins again, starting with the flickering lights, then Mike began to see Department of Energy trucks more and more around town, and then that 7-year-old girl had gone missing. Mike was suspicious that things had started up again, but that thought only depressed him. He didn’t want to go through that week in last November again, he didn’t want to face a monster, but most of all he didn’t want to do any of this knowing that she wasn’t there to fight with him.

The Chief’s call immediately brought terror to Mike’s mind, fears and ideas jumped around screaming at him that the Demogorgon was back, Will was missing again, or someone had gone to the Upside Down. He had practically dropped the phone when it hung up, and raced on his bike to head over to the Byers.

He ran into Lucas and Dustin on the street, and they had no idea what was going on either, so they just peddled faster and faster in hopes that nothing was wrong.

But for the first time in over a year, nothing was wrong. Everything was perfect in Mike’s life, because the girl he had missed for so long was standing right there in front of him.

Eleven never truly knew what it meant for someone to be happy to see you. No one in the lab ever felt any joy upon her presence, just obligation, disgust, and what bothered El the most– fear. She never understood this concept that just her being there could make someone happy, but as she sat there on the Byers’ couch, it seemed like everyone was thrilled to have her there.

Joyce sat next to her, rubbing her back reassuringly, while the chief questioned her about where she’d been for the past year. He was a harsh man, but even still, El could see the slight smirk on his face.

She didn’t answer any of Hopper’s questions, of course. There was no way she even wanted to think about that place, let alone talk about it, so Eleven remained silent.

When the boys came, Dustin and Lucas rushed to envelope her into a hug. She stiffened up for a moment before using her powers to push them off of her. They meant well, she knew that, but their touchiness was just too much in that moment.

Then there was Mike. He didn’t run up to her like the other boys did, instead he just stood in the doorway staring at her. Eleven didn’t need telepathy to tell that his heart was beating almost as fast as hers was.

After a few minutes of stunned silence, Mike made his way to sit on the other side of her, keeping himself a few inches away from her. He never said a word, which Eleven knew was strange for him. He had talked so much in that one week she knew him, she knew it must be rare to find him just as speechless as her.

Eventually the chief gave up with his questions, letting out a sigh when El didn’t answer for about the fifteenth time. He announced for Joyce and the boys to come with him to the kitchen, El knew that meant to discuss her, but she ignored it. Joyce got up from her seat and Dustin and Lucas followed Hopper.

“Mike, come on,” Dustin called, upon seeing his friend still unmoving on the couch.

“J- Just give me a minute.”

There it was, the voice that made Eleven’s heart ache. It was the first time she’d heard him talk in a year, and Mike’s voice was resonating deep inside her.

Mike didn’t want to go into the kitchen with everyone else, he didn’t want to step away from Eleven’s side for a second. He felt like even if he just turned around, or if he just closed his eyes to blink, she’d be gone again. So instead he just sat right by her, drinking in her image because she was finally back.

He wanted to say something. There were so many things he wanted to say, so many feelings he wanted to get out. She’d been gone for a year, how was he supposed to explain just how much he had missed her?

“You’re home,” He finally managed to say. It wasn’t much, and it wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg of feelings he wanted to get out to her, but it was all he could say right now.

Home. That was a weird word, and a word so many take for granted. El never had much of a home, but she had spent the past year just fighting to get back to Hawkins.

Mike had said that word to her before, when she came back to his house after saving him at the quarry. He had said he was happy she was home. That moment was the first time she ever truly felt at home, it was the first time she ever felt she had a place to belong to, a place she felt accepted.

But she wasn’t at Mike’s house now, and though she wished for it, from the way Joyce and Hopper were whispering in the other room, it didn’t seem like she’d be going back there. So why did she still feel like she was back home already?

Maybe that place wasn’t her home, maybe instead it was the fact that all the people she cared about were around her once more. Joyce’s reassuring hand on her back, Dustin and Lucas’s tight hug, the way Mike was making her feel like her heart had dropped into her stomach, that was what was really her home.

She nodded her head slightly, letting Mike know she heard him, and thought she didn’t want to talk quite yet, she wanted him to know she agreed, she really was finally home.

Mike smiled at her and gulped, the butterflies he hadn’t felt in a year were now erupting in his stomach once more, making his heart feel like it was fluttering out his throat. He wanted to pull El into a hug, to squeeze her so hard all the bones in her body would break. He wanted to kiss her again, to slam his face onto hers like he had once before. He couldn’t do it though, he saw the way she pulled away from Dustin and Lucas’s hug before, she was too terrified to talk, having only just now stopped shaking.

“Uh, El?” He called for her.

She looked over at him, eye contact melting his heart in ways he yelled at himself to stop.

She’s just looking at you, why are you freaking out?! She’s traumatized and all you can think about is kissing her!

His mind continued to yell at him, but El interrupted. For the first time in so long, Mike heard the voice that sounded like music, like angels, the voice he’d spent so long craving to hear just once more.

“Yes?”

Mike took a deep breath, “C- Can I touch you?”

El slowly nodded her head, and Mike let out a breath. He reached out for her, deciding to just hold her hand. It wasn’t the giant bear hug he so desperately wanted to pull her in, but it was where he figured she’d be comfortable.

He interlaced his fingers with hers, and was surprised at how strongly she was gripping onto him. Mike realized she must be as worried of letting him go as he was about her.

The two didn’t say anything, just squeezing each other’s hands reassuringly. Eventually El scooted herself closer to Mike, resting her head on his shoulder.

They tuned out the discussion coming from the kitchen, instead just focusing on listening to one another’s breathing. It was silent between them, and they had so many things to say, so many feelings to get out from their year separated, but none of that mattered quite yet.

They would have time to say all the words left unspoken that night, because all that mattered in that moment was that they were together once more.

[okaybutlikeimagine]

What would happen if Billy accidentally hurt himself but he was trying to hide it from Hop because he doesn’t want to go hospital but he finds out anyways ☕️

duuUUUUDE OKAY YES bc Billy is Reckless and Steve is a dumbass, really, and Max is Done and just wants to go hang out with Lucas or El or hell even MIKE but Steve didn’t believe Billy when he said that he taught Max how to skate so Billy asks Max for her board and tries to show Steve some tricks.

Problem is… Billy hasn’t skated in YEARS. So he’s a little rusty.

“Come ON Billy, seriously?”

“You owe me for how often I drive you around.”

“Uggghhhh FINE, just don’t break it!”

Max kicks up her board and hands it to Billy grumpily. Billy pats her head and Max swipes at his hand as he puts the board down and skates back to Steve. He’s a little wobbly, Max notices, but she just walks herself back to the curb and sits down with a huff. It’s after school and they’re off near the library exit where no one hangs around so that no one can see Billy and Steve being handsy.

Will walks by, having hung behind the group to check out a book from the library, and notices them.

“Hey Max, what’s up? Lucas was just saying he was going to ask you to hang out but he couldn’t find you.���

“Yeah, because my stupid brother wants to impress his stupid boyfriend!”

“Hey!” Billy and Steve yell back at her simultaneously, Billy trying to do a trick on the board. Max sticks her tongue out, but Will is looking at them and smiling shyly. He thinks Billy and Steve are so cute. He wants to find a boy who will look at him the way they look at each other. They make him feel like being gay is totally fine.

He sits on the curb next to Max, watching as Billy skates circles around Steve and Steve just has his hands on his hips, cheeks a little pink.

“Did you wanna come play some D&D tonight with us?”

“Yeah sure, if they’re ever done skipping circles around each other. I don’t have a ride otherwise.”

“I’m sure Jonahan will drive you. He’s already planning to see Nancy and your house is kind of on the way.”

‘Yeah alright. What book did you check out?”

“Oh it’s gonna help me with-”

“OW HOLY FUCK!”

The two kids look up to see Billy’s ankle is… not where it should be.

“OhmyGOD Billy!” Max is screaming and up and running towards him, Will a little behind. Steve is bent over the boy where he’s lying on the ground, grimacing hard and near wailing any time a sound comes out. “You absolute idiot! When I said don’t break my board, I didn’t mean your bones were a good substitute!”

“Shut up, Max!” Billy barks, accepting Steve’s help to get up.

“We’ve gotta get you to a hospital, babe.” Steve’s voice is filled w/ concern but Billy has an INTENSE fear of hospitals so he just grabs Steve tighter and rasps

“NO.”

“Babe, I think it’s broken!”

“It’s at least sprained…” Will says, no color in his face.

“NO. Promise me, alright? No hospitals.”

“Babe-”

and Billy does the only thing he can think of, which is give an incredibly dizzying kiss to Steve and wrap his pink around the pinky of the hand that Steve’s not using to hold Billy up and he pulls away with a “Promise?”

“Yeah promise~ wAIT, no, Billy!”

“You already promised, pretty boy.” Billy says, before putting as much weight on the ankle as he can. It’s clear he’s forcing himself through the pain but after walking in a few circles he looks at the group like: See?? I’m fine!

Will and Steve are the dictionary definition of concerned but Max just rolls her eyes and calls him a dumbass who “at least needs to ice it” before she skates to the front of the school to see if she can catch up with Lucas.

And Billy tries to hide it for fuckin’ DAYS my dude. This boy walks around on a sprained ankle and limps a bit and the first night Hopper is Tired and doesn’t notice but El does and tries to get it out of him but he’s real good at keeping it straight.

The next day Hopper notices at breakfast.

“Somethin’ up with your paw there, kid?”

“My what?”

“Your foot, kid, your foot. What’s wrong with your foot?”

and Billy gets defensive as fuck which honestly, NOT gonna help in making himself look fine but it hurts and he’s just a little on edge over here.

“Nothing’s wrong with my foot, see?” He stomps on the ground and somehow manages to not flinch at it. Hop eyes Billy disbelievingly over his spoonful of cereal.

The day after that, Billy asks Hop to drive him to school.

“You want me to do what?”

“Drive me to school, what, can you not do that?”

“I can, but I have no idea in hell why you’d want me to.”

“Because I’m sick of putting gas in it and I forgot yesterday and I don’t wanna go get gas right now because I’ll probably be late if I try right now and Steve is working right now and-”

“Alright, alright, I get it, I’ll drive you!”

Hop eyes Billy oddly as he favors one foot.

And it’s not until the third day when Hop gets a call at the station that Hop really finds out. It’s the coach of the school’s basketball team, telling Hopper that he needs to get Billy’s ankle checked out bc “he’s been unable to practice for 3 days now.”

And when Hop sees Billy next, he just crosses his arms and nods to his truck and says: “Get in the car, kid.”

“Where we headed, Disneyland?” Billy snarks, irritated as all hell bc his painkillers wore off an hour ago.

“The hospital, you brat.”

“What? Why would I need to go to the hospital? I’m not sick or anything-”

“Cut the crap, your coach called me at the station today.”

“Fuck him.” Billy mumbles as Hop puts a calming hand on Billy’s shoulder and guides him back out the door. (Joyce took El in for dinner bc neither of them felt a hospital would be a good place for her to be hanging out in, even if she was with Hopper.)

“Look, I’ll be fine.” Billy tries in vain.

“Steve said he thinks it’s broken.

“That bitch” Billy hisses. “Dad I-” he catches his breath. “I hate the hospital.”

“Yeah, I’m not a big fan either, but I don’t need medical school to tell you walking on a break isn’t a good idea.”

Billy grumbles and pouts the whole way, whining like a kid when they finally get there.

“Please, I’ll… I’ll just wrap it up or something.”

“Don’t think I won’t carry you in there, kid. In fact, maybe I should carry you in there.”

But Billy glares him down and says he’d rather die than have someone see him get carried in, so Hop just helps him in.

KAY now, with all that said, I just need us all to imagine a nervous Billy, body language making him look small as he sits on the middle of a little examination table and picks at the paper on it and jumps a bit when the super sweet doctor comes in and tells him he needs a cast bc his ankle is broken.

And then Billy hobbling out w/ a boot on his ankle and mouth pouting around a cherry lollipop as the doctor follows him and tells Hop: “Your boy was very brave!” with a super sweet smile that Billy wants to slap off his face.

And EVERYONE signs the cast!! Like, everybody. All the kids, Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, Nancy- even Tommy and Carol (although Tommy totally draws a dick on it to which Billy has to smack him and turn it into a flower or something bc “fuck you, dude, my sister is gonna see that!”). Steve signs it like, fucking 5 times, drawing little hearts and stuff all over it and even writing “I love you” and kisses Billy’s cheek after writing it and Billy’s face is blushing hard as he pouts about his foot being in a fucking cast.

[fanwarriorfictions]

One-

A Stranger Things 2 Fanfic

Chapter Five: Dig Dug

   "Stay close to me," Hopper says, quietly as he shines he shines his light around us.

   "No shit, Hopp," Phina says, holding onto the back of his shirt to make sure she doesn't lose him in the dark tunnel.

   They walk, carefully maneuvering the uneven terrain. Phina can feel the gross slimy substance underneath her shoes as she goes, and she can see it on the walls. Hopper shines his light all over the walls and the ceilings, at the weird vines all over.

   A noise from behind them shrieks, causing them to jump and turn around, Hopper holding up his gun. Nothing is behind them but with their knowledge, they know that anything could be in the darkness.

   Hopper starts to walk, Phina following behind, readying herself for the worst. The round a corner in the tunnel coming into a wider section, the noises growing louder. It sounds like breathing and hissing but no sign of what it was actually coming from.

   That is, until they looked up. A thing in the ceiling growls at them, showing teeth. It breathes in and then breathes out a gaseous substance.

   Phina coughs, falling back into the wall, Hopper doing the same. She quickly pushes off the wall, waiting for Hopper to do the same. He stumbles forward and she catches him, whatever that was had a worse effect on Hopper than it did on her. She puts his arm around her shoulders and they stumble back the way they came.

   "Come on, Hopp," Phina grunts, "help me here!"

   He falls from her grip, slowly losing consciousness. Phina falls to her knees next to him shaking him, trying to get him to wake up.

   "Hopp? Hopper, come on," she growls, "get up!"

   It seems like that gas was a poison, and it didn't affect Phina because of her affinity with nature renders natural poisons useless on her. It also seems like the tunnel's creatures realized that Phina wasn't affected.

   With her focus completely on Hopper, she didn't notice the strange vines sneaking up on her. They pose like snakes, ready to attack. With a sharp hiss, they do. They wrap around Phina who screams, calling to her power to burn the creatures. They feel the heat coming from her and hiss, throwing her into the wall as a last resort. She hits, her head hitting the wall hard. As she rolls to the ground black spots cloud her vision. Phina tries to push her self up but she falls back down, her vision going dark as she passes out.

-

   Hopper gasps awake, the toxins finally wearing off enough for him to become conscious. He pushes himself off the ground weakly, coughing up black tar that had accumulated in his throat. He tries to breathe but he can only take in small gasps of air. How long had he been down there? He didn't know. 

   He stumbles to his feet, grabbing his hat and his light off the ground, he needed to get out of the tunnel, who knows what this air was doing to him. He stumbles forward, his hand on the ceiling to find the opening he had come in from. 

   He trips over something, falling to the ground. He grabs his light that rolled from his hand and shines it at his feet. His heart stops at what he sees. Phina, unconscious, her forehead covered in blood from a long cut across it. 

   "Oh, my god," he says, "kid? Kid, wake up."

   He tries to shake her awake but she's out cold. He puts his hand beneath her nose to check if she's breathing, he sighs in relief when he feels the warm air.

   He needed to get them out of here, now, but the hole they had come from was nowhere to be found. Hopper takes his knife out of his pocket and cuts his sleeves, ripping them off to filter some of the air. Carefully, he wraps the sleeve around Phina's face, tying it behind her head. He does the same thing for himself. 

   Hopper puts his arms beneath Phina's legs and her head, lifting her up in bridle position. He starts to carefully walk back through the tunnel, watching where he placed his feet to make sure he didn't trip. He walks until he comes up to a split in the tunnel. He glances back and forth between the tunnels. He sighs, setting Phina done so he could grab his cigarets from his pocket. He takes one out and breaks off the end, throwing it onto the ground. Hopper looks back at Phina, he's gonna need at least one of his hands free for this.

-

   Phina was slung over Hopper's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Like hell he was going to leave her alone in the tunnel, but he needed his hands, and this was the only way. Besides, it's not like she was conscious to complain about it.

   "Does anybody copy," Hopper says into his radio, "look, if anybody copies, this is Jim Hopper, Hawkin's Chief..."

   Hopper stops dead in his tracks, his radio going static. He shines his light around him. Surrounding him, are the bones of all sorts of animals. He holds tight to Phina, making sure she's still with him in the horror.

   He looks over at one wall which is covered in the weird vines that surround this place. He walks towards them, bringing up his lighter towards them. It lets out a noise of pain and moves away.

   Hopper looks at the flame, the vines, and then at the girl on his shoulder, "what a great time for you to be unconscious, kid."

   He carefully sets Phina down on the ground and grabs a bone from the ground. He takes his uniform shirt off, leaving him in his white undershirt. He wraps the cloth around the bone, lighting the shirt on fire. He puts the flames by the vines and they hiss, opening up a hole to the wall behind them. Hopper carefully puts the flame down and starts to rip through the goo on the wall. He would dig him and Phina out of there, no matter how long it takes.

   The air was not doing Hopper any favors, at all, making him tired and weak as he dug upwards. He hardly even made a dent in the thirty minutes he'd been digging. He pants, trying desperately to keep going, but he can't. He slowly falls down the wall, leaning against it as he does. He coughs harshly, pulling out his cigarets as if they would help him any.

   As he does, the vines start to surround him, slowly beginning to wrap around his legs. Hopper looks down at them as he lights his lighter. 

   "Son of a bitch," he yells, flying to his feet."

   They crawl over him as he tries to cut them off with his knife, but there's too many. They take him to the ground, pulling him down as he yells.

   "No, no, wait, no!"

   It's no use, they cover him, keeping him from fighting anymore. He tries reaching for his knife but it's just out of his reach.

   "Hopper! Hopper! Hopper!"

   Joyce Byers and Bob Newby search the tunnels. They come upon the room of bones and Joyce instantly sees her.

-

   "Phina," Joyce yells, "oh, my god! Phina!"

   Joyce runs over to the unconscious girl, she turns Phina over to her back, seeing the wound on her forehead. It had stopped bleeding by now but by how pale she looked, Joyce assumed that she had lost a lot of blood. Next to her was Hopper's hat and Joyce knew that the two of them had to have been together. She looks away from the girls and spots something white.

   "Oh! It's his arm," Joyce yells, pointing over at the arm, covered in vines.

   She clambers over the girl, rushing towards Hopper. Bob follows. They start to pull at the vines on Hopper, specifically the ones around his neck.

   "It's choking him," Bob says, pulling the vine up as much as he could.

   "Knife," Hopper groans out.

   "Knife," Joyce asks.

   "It's over there," Bob points, trying to keep his hold on the vine.

   "Okay." Joyce grabs the knife, cutting the vine around Hopper's neck.

   "Hands," he yells.

   Joyce cuts away the shrieking vines around his hand and he grabs the knife from her. He cuts himself free, yelling out as he does.

   "Bastard!"

   Joyce and Bob pull him to stand. Joyce grabs Hopper's face between her hands.

   "Oh, my god," she pants, "Hopper, are you okay."

   "Joyce," he whispers.

   "Are you okay," she cries, "are you okay?"

   Hopper looks behind him, "hey, Bob."

   "Hey, Jim," Bob nods as he picks Phina up off the ground, keeping her from the vines that now moved towards them.

   "Oh, god," Joyce screams, stepping back into Hopper who hold her to him.

   Bob turns and screams when he is met by a man in a suit.

   "Go, go, go! Clear the area," he yells at them, "go! Move, now!"

   They all comply, except for Hopper who stops to grab his hat. The three adults run, following the direction of the men in suits. Bob holds Phina tightly to keep from jostling her around. Behind them, a flame thrower is used on the vines, above them, they hear screaming.

-1558 words-

   Y'all liked this chapter and are ready for the next one, there will absolutely be more Steve and Phina ;)

-Morgan