#will byers can and will weaponize those eyes of his

[afewproblems]

Part Three Mean!Eddie Misunderstandings AU

Part One, Part Two, read on Ao3 Here

Thank you everyone for your patience, I am splitting up this last part into two (I know, I know - I'm sorry!!)

***

 The drive home after dropping Robin off was long. She had offered to stay the night again but Steve insisted she go home unless she wanted her parents to throw them and impromptu engagement party after she eventually graduates --Steve still winces when he thinks about Mrs.Buckley cooing about what sweet babies they would make when she thought he had left the other night. 

He pulls into the empty driveway and shuts off the Beemer’s engine; it feels criminal for the sun to still be at full force at this time but at least he's been able to avoid the heat for most of the day. 

And say what you will about the Harringtons, but at least they had invested in AC before skipping town without him.

Once inside Steve hangs his keys on the hook beside the door and heads upstairs to change. He just wants to crawl into bed, hide himself under the covers and sleep after the day he's had. 

Robin did her best to give him a pep talk after their run in with Eddie at Family Video but it had mostly consisted of her brainstorming how to shave his head without implicating themselves. 

It made Steve laugh despite arguing that Eddie's hair was his third best feature and Steve is fairly certain he would be second in line to avenge it next to Eddie.

Steve throws on an old pair of pajamas and a ratty Hawkins high t-shirt from the floor beside his laundry basket. He sniffs it dubiously and throws it on, it could go another day without a wash --it's just him tonight anyway. 

Alone again.

Steve makes his way downstairs and debates a frozen pizza or the leftovers in the Tupperware Mrs.Henderson had forced into his hands before he left their house the other night. 

He'd picked up a lot of recipes from Claudia and learned different ways to stretch an ingredient across multiple meals or even make a single meal last multiple days -with his parents gone so often it had been crucial for him to learn. Steve isn't even sure where they are at this point or if they know about the earthquakes. 

A small part of him hopes they don't know, because if they did and still haven't called or come back to Hawkins to check on him….

Steve quells that line of thought and tosses it into the little box in the corner of his mind. 

Don't think about it. 

Steve rolls his shoulders and opens the fridge before taking out the tupperware and grabbing a plate from the cupboard.

The sudden sound of tires crunching and an engine turning off outside has him looking towards the front entryway, it's definitely in his driveway, but he isn't expecting anyone?

Oh god…what if it's Hopper or Nancy? Another gate? If Vecna's back, they needed him. 

Steve nearly drops the plate in his hands in his haste to get to the door, he manages to put it on the counter before sliding over the hardwood floor as he stumbles into the foyer. 

Steve flings open the door to reveal a nervous Eddie Munson on his doorstep.

"Eddie?" Steve says, his voice pitched with surprise and concern, he looks around for any sign of one of the other kids, "What is it? Is it Vecna? Is anyone hurt?"

Eddie blinks, his eyebrows pop up into his scruffy bangs, "What? No, no man, it's just me".

Steve breathes out a sharp sigh of relief and lets his heart rate slowly calm down, but if it wasn't the Upside Down why the hell was Eddie here? 

Contrary to popular opinion, Steve wasn't actually stupid, he knew Eddie wouldn't just be here for him, he'd made it perfectly clear that they weren't friends.

"Oh," Steve mumbles, still confused, "did you leave something here the other night?"

Eddie tilts his head slightly and his eyebrows fall into the barest furrow, "No Steve, I just, can I come inside?" 

His right hand twitches once before reaching for the door frame as he steps forward.

A million questions nearly burst forth from Steve, what do you want? Did the kids put you up to this? Are you going to say it to my face this time? What do you want from me?

He wrenches them back, shoving them all into that same little box, and instead says, "yeah man," as he steps aside to let Eddie through.

Eddie grins but it doesn't quite reach his eyes, the anxious feeling in Steve's gut, twisting and cold, begins to build again.

All at once Steve is incredibly aware of the fact that he's wearing pajamas and a dirty old t-shirt, he's sweaty and tired from a long day at work and he doesn't have the emotional fortitude to be told off again.

"Hey, Eddie, listen," Steve fumbles through the words, he reaches up to pinch his fingers into his eyes, "if this is about Hellfire, I'll back off, I didn’t mean to," he stops and swallows, searching for what to say. 

Because, what did he even do? It's still not clear and the thought makes him want to grind his teeth.

"To like, interfere with your set up? Or, or, actually, you know what,” Steve's voice suddenly climbs in volume, "I don't know, what did I do Munson?"

Steve raises his hands from his eyes to his hair which he grips harshly with one hand while the other gestures wildly in front of him.

"Why are you here? Why did you come to Family Video,” Steve shakes his head and chews harshly on his bottom lip, “if you hate me, I don't understand why you keep coming around?" 

Eddie is frozen in front of him, a ‘deer in the headlights’ look in his eye, his mouth opens once and closes, but Steve keeps going.

"I mean, was this just some kind of weird game to you? Let's see how much we can stick it to old King-Steve? I heard you that night man," his eyes begin to sting as he yells, his throat tightens and the words waver slightly at the end. 

Steve grits his teeth to keep himself from speaking, from revealing more than he wants to, he hasn't felt like this since Nancy called him Bullshit in the middle of that crowded Halloween party and isn't that thought a punch to the gut.

Steve shakes his head and turns his face away to pinch his nose so harshly he worries it'll bruise.

"So," Steve whispers, letting the fight drain out of him from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, "what do you want, because I am not really up for whatever this is". 

Eddie isn't looking at him anymore, his face is pointed at Steve but his eyes are trained on a point on the floor between them, his eyebrows furrowed.

Unbelievable.

"Look," Steve breathes out, he reaches up and presses the fingers of his left hand into his eyes, surreptitiously wiping away any evidence of moisture, and gestures behind him at the foyer, "if you want something just spit it out, otherwise I'm tired and I'm going to bed so--"

"I'm sorry" Eddie blurts out, he takes a step closer to Steve who steps back without a thought. Eddie winces at the movement and draws his arms around himself.

Eddie seems to hesitate, his eyes dart over Steve's face and once towards the front door before his expression flattens and his shoulders square in one fluid movement. 

Steve's stomach does a little swoop as he remembers that Eddie nearly sacrificed himself to save Dustin, he wonders if his face held the same expression before he cut the rope.

"I'm sorry for what I said, I," Eddie swallows audibly and shifts his weight from foot to foot, "I was so sure of something for a really long time and it made me act like an ass". 

"Sure of what?" Steve says, his voice nearly a whisper.

"How much do you remember about me from school?" Eddie murmurs eventually, there's a slight tremor running through his hands which tighten their grip on the sides of his jean vest until his knuckles stain white.

Steve shakes his head, there wasn’t much, but by the time he had heard whispers of the name Munson, he had been dealing with Hargrove, and Nancy, and Dustin's attempts at rehabilitating a demo-dog --he'd had more than enough on his plate at the time to worry about some metal-head that stood on tables in the school cafeteria. 

Eddie's breathing stops and starts in short shallow hitching breaths and his face grows even paler than normal, he looks like he's seconds from passing out if Steve is being honest with himself. 

Fuck.

"Hey, hey Eddie, come on breathe man," Steve says sharply, he moves quickly, keeping his hands up ready to catch him, just in case, as Steve leads Eddie towards the kitchen. 

He helps Eddie sit down on a stool by the counter ledge and grabs a glass from the cupboard. Steve flits around the kitchen, distracting himself with getting Eddie water and a cool damp washcloth which he drapes over the back of his neck.

Eddie lets his head droop slightly with the weight of the towel and scoffs, muttering something under his breath; Steve's hackles raise of their own accord as he steps away from him.

"I'm just trying to help man, Jesus," he bites out, resisting the impressive urge to throw the other man out. Steve leans against the wall opposite Eddie instead and scowls. 

"Christ," Eddie snaps as he grabs the cloth and brings it around to wipe his face, "I said, I can't believe I thought you were a Grade-A asshole".

Steve suppresses a flinch at the title, the tightness in his chest returns at full force.

"Thanks," Eddie mumbles, slumping in his seat as the anger seems to drain out of him. Eddie closes his eyes, holding up the towel, "how did you know that would help?" 

He reaches for the glass in front of him, the slight tremble of his fingers the only remaining sign of Eddie's panic.

Steve shrugs, a small part of him wants to tell Eddie about the Russians.

How his sense of touch almost always helped to snap him out of an episode, whether it was Robin’s small warm hand on his cheek when things got too much, or a cool wet washcloth to wipe away the sweat from his brow after a waking nightmare. It was grounding, bringing him back to the present quicker than any other method he and Robin have tried in the last year or so since recovering from their time underneath Starcourt.

Steve’s not quite ready for that conversation though.

Eddie's watching, analyzing him the way Robin does sometimes and Steve realizes he must have been quiet for awhile, Eddie’s big brown eyes trace over Steve questioningly, but he keeps his mouth shut for now. 

"You want to talk about it?" Steve says slowly, changing the subject. He half expects Eddie to tell him to shove it and get up from the stool to leave, pretending this conversation never took place. 

He doesn't though.

Instead Eddie drops the towel on the counter and brings both of his hands to his face. He sits there, hunched for almost a minute solid before letting them drop back into his lap.

Eddie doesn't look at Steve as he starts to speak.

"I've lived with my uncle for a very long time," he says softly, the words almost too quiet for Steve to make out at first, "I moved in with him just before highschool". 

Eddie swallows and licks his lips, "I told you a little bit about my dad already yeah?" 

He raises his eyes to finally look at Steve, who nods again. It feels wrong to speak, like he would be interrupting.

"Well, he wasn't arrested till after I was in Hawkins, but I don't think I really felt safe until the day Wayne got that call". 

Steve's stomach abruptly falls into his shoes. 

Sure, Eddie's story about learning to hot wire had made Steve pause but he hadn't really thought more about that story beyond the ease with which Eddie brought the vehicle to life. He feels his chest twinge with shame this time and steps closer.

"Apparently," Eddie continues, slowly, carefully, "Billy Hargrove had taken it upon himself to tell everyone he could about me and my shitty fuckin' family".

"That uh," Eddie's wary eyes flick up at Steve once more, his expression tight, "that my dad kicked me out, woulda killed me if he could've".

Steve feels a chill roll up his spine at the words.

“And he wasn’t wrong, got all the details right somehow, even the one about me liking--" he trails off before wiping his left hand down his face while the right reaches for the towel again and begins fiddling with it.

Steve makes a noise, something soft and understanding, he takes a step closer to the counter, halting as Eddie looks up with open panic.

"But," Eddie continues with watchful eyes, "up until a few hours ago, I thought…you had done that".

And that is the last straw.

Steve doesn't think this time when he moves, he steps up to Eddie and before he can even open his mouth or flinch Steve has him wrapped in his arms.

It's awkward with Eddie still seated on the stool, his face pressed into Steve's collarbone, but he’s tense and Steve knows he's stopped breathing altogether. 

"I'm sorry about your dad," Steve murmurs into the top of Eddie's wild hair, and he is. Steve knows exactly what it's like to have a dad that uses violence to get his way, that screams first and asks questions later.

Eddie shakes his head once, an incredulous expression pulls at his brow as he leans back slightly to look Steve up and down once more before he grins sharply.

"Yeah well," Eddie hums, "I'm sure he wasn't planning on having a fag for a kid".

Steve pulls away abruptly, but keeps his arms around Eddie's shoulders, his face briefly twisting into a harsh scowl. Steve doesn't catch the terror that flits across Eddie's face as he stands up to his full height.

"Don't call yourself that," Steve says harshly, "and don't use that word around Robin and the kids".

He lets go of Eddie entirely, and begins to pace, "Your dad is a piece of shit, who didn't deserve you and Billy Hargrove is lucky he's dead," Steve growls lowly, he takes a deep breath and holds it for a moment before releasing it slowly through his nose, he needed to calm down.

Like he said, Billy was dead, and the senior Munson was in some prison somewhere where he couldn't get to Eddie anyway, and not every problem required the use of his fists, Robin's words echo in his ear. 

"What?" Eddie blurts out, surprise painting his face. He cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes at Steve as though he's never seen him before. 

But there's a fire in Steve that has been burning for three years, ever since he tried to apologize to Jonathan and Nancy the very first time, and the flames burned even brighter a year ago when he stopped to take in Robin's pale, desperate, face as she told him about Tammy.  

"And I know Hawkins is shit, trust me," Steve growls, he steps into Eddie's space again, "but there are people here who believe that there is nothing wrong with you, got it? You have us now".

"I, I know," Eddie mumbles, he's still watching Steve with something akin to awe in his eyes but it disappears as quickly as Steve spots it.

"Thank you," Steve says eventually, "for telling me, sorry if I freaked you out just now".

It's quiet in the kitchen for a beat, the only noise is the steady tick of the large wall clock beside the pantry and the hum of cicadas from outside the kitchen window Steve had forgotten to close that morning.

Steve nervously chews his lip, he's ruined it again, his second attempts at being cool about someone coming out to him even worse than the first. Robin had been nice about it at the time -and admittedly neither of them could quite remember the bulk of the conversation, but he does remember telling Robin her first crush was a dud and sounded like a dying Muppet. 

So, he was two for two.

"You're sorry?" Eddie finally croaks, his eyes are larger than Steve has ever seen him and his chest stutters once as he breathes rapidly.

Steve reaches for the discarded cloth on the counter just to keep his hands from reaching for Eddie. 

"You're sorry?" Eddie says again, his voice barely a whisper, "you're unbelievable is what you are".

Oh. 

Steve sighs and blinks once, twice, before closing his eyes, "I know".

"Shut up," Eddie barks, "I'm the one who is trying to apologize and you're being so--"

"I know--"

"No! Let me fucking talk Harrington," Eddie shouts, and Steve feels his teeth click as he snaps his mouth shut.

He braces himself, better to get it all out on the table now, he thinks, let him say his piece and then they can all just move on -he can move on. 

"I don't think I ever understood you, how you fit in with this whole group," Eddie mutters, his face tipped towards the floor, he brushes a handful of curls away from his face as they slide forward.

"I mean, I watched you in action, you ripped a fucking bat in half man," he laughs but his expression is shuttered, almost blank as he counts off on his ringed fingers, "you carried me out of hell, you listen to all the shit the kids say when they tell you stories, do you know how many people would just tune them out? You cooked for my uncle, you--Robin is your best friend? Robin?" 

"Hey,” Steve says sharply with a glare, “layoff Robin, what are you even saying?"

"See!” Eddie throws his hands towards Steve emphatically, a wild look in his eyes,”that's what I’m talking about! Thats, it’s--okay it’s not coming out right," Eddie stands up from the stool but stays beside the counter. 

He huffs out a small quiet laugh and shakes his head, his eyes never once leaving Steve’s face, "you're just, you're not who I thought man".

Steve crosses his arms, wrapping them tightly around his midsection and the Hawkins high logo in faded orange print,"I thought we already had this conversation?"

"Yeah well, I actually mean it this time".

"...Right,” Steve sighs tiredly, it's laughable really, just how wrong he and Robin had been. 

All that time he thought they were growing closer, that Eddie had been his friend. 

All those small moments over the last few months were nothing. Just two people with vastly different expectations of what they meant to one another. 

Eddie’s face twists as the words tumble out at a mile a minute, "no, fuck, Steve, I can't, just--I don't," he grabs two handfuls of hair and yanks, hard, "I came here to tell you that I'm sorry, and I'm fucking it up.”

Eddie takes a deep breath before letting it all out in one smooth motion, "you're amazing, Steve, and I'm kicking myself for not seeing that before”.

He takes a step towards Steve but hesitates,spinning the rings on his fingers.

“I’m just, I’m really sorry and I hope that you can forgive me, that we can get back to where we were before?”

Steve feels himself smile mechanically, his chest tight and cold, he nods once and hears the words, 'yeah man,' leave his mouth. It's as though he's in a fog, everything feels so far away.

The smile Eddie gives him is brilliant, bright enough to light up the kitchen but Steve turns away and sweeps a tremulous hand through his hair. 

"Yeah, Eds, we'll see each other around, we're good".

Eddie's smile falters slightly, but Steve is determined to end this conversation, go upstairs and crawl into bed for a millennia,

"I'll put in a good word with Mrs. Henderson," Steve continues, gesturing towards the abandoned tupperware on the counter, "I think she'd listen if I told her you guys needed a place for Dusty-Bun's club".

Eddie's face falls slightly, "What, Steve--" 

"It'll be great, Claudia makes the best snacks and she honestly has a better basement than the Wheelers --but don't ever say that to Mike or you'll never hear the end of it," Steve says with a half smile as he walks towards the counter to grab the tupperware, he lifts it up to show Eddie before he reaches for the fridge door to put it away.

He's not hungry anymore anyway. 

"But…" Eddie whispers, the tone catches Steve's attention but he can't look at Eddie right now, he just wants to sleep.

"I mean, you could come, you know," Eddie clears his throat and moves, the sound of fabric and shoes scuffing across hardwood makes Steve finally look up.

Eddie is beside him, his expression equal parts wary but hopeful, his big brown eyes fixed on Steve.

I thought Hell would freeze over? Steve thinks to himself angrily before biting the inside of his cheek. 

They've just reached some kind of truce, Eddie apologized for fucks sake, he should just let this go. 

But there is a heat now that simmers in his chest, it makes him want to scream. Steve swallows roughly and pushes the feeling down, trying his best to smother the flames into embers before they engulf him completely.

If friendship is all he is allowed, then Steve can work with that, he just has to reign things in a bit. He’s been playing fast and loose with his heart for so long and that it's become a dangerous game.

"Yeah, sure, I can," Steve mumbles tiredly, "I just have to check my schedule, Keith's been keeping me on my toes lately". 

He shrugs and gives Eddie a wane smile before clearing his throat and turning away, "anyways man, I'm beat".

Steve moves towards the opposite hallway, he feels like he's escaping.

Eddie stands in the kitchen, shoulders drooped, but he nods and stuffs his hands into his pockets. He takes a step towards the foyer before turning sharply around.

"Harring- Steve," Eddie winces, "Steve, I also wanted to say we're sorry about the table, we didn't mean to scratch it all to hell that night and," he swallows roughly, "I can, we can chip in to…help fix it or whatever". 

But Steve is already shaking his head, the ghost of a smile on his lips, "it's cracked actually--"

"What?!"

"No, no," Steve cuts in, he waves his hand to sweep away the panic in Eddie's voice, "Sorry, it's been cracked for awhile, you guys didn't have anything to do with it".

Eddie deflates in obvious relief, he laughs brightly, letting the last of his nervous energy flow out in a cackle.

"Fuck man, thank God, I definitely do not have the money to fix that shit," Eddie sweeps his hands into his curls to pull them away from his face, "why's it still cracked?"

Steve shrugs, "No one's bothered with it before, easier to just leave it I guess," he breathes out sharply through his nose in something like a laugh, "I wouldn't know how to fix it if I tried, never been good at woodworking". 

Steve looks back at Eddie to find him staring, his eyebrows have pinched together and gone is the smile that shone nearly as much as the rings on his hands. 

"Anyway, I'll see you around man," Steve hums, he doesn't need Eddie analyzing him, seeing something in him that he shouldn't. It’s a dismissal, one that Eddie seems to take well, despite the stiffness of his shoulders.

"Yeah, I'll see ya," Eddie says softly over his shoulder as he makes his way out of the kitchen, back towards the front door.

Steve waits until the door has closed, until he hears gravel under tires, until he's sure that Eddie is gone. His chest tightens once more with hot blistering anger that builds in his stomach before overflowing into his chest.

It drives him forward, the anger, the overwhelming heat building up his neck and pounding in his head, he's at the counter all of a sudden.

The plate he was going to use for supper is in his hands.

He raises it over his head and brings it down in a satisfying clash of shattered ceramic that explodes all over the hardwood.

Steve stands there, breathing raggedy in a daze.

Fuck.

The floor is covered in shards of varying sizes, he realizes belatedly he's only wearing socks but the thoughts come slow as though dragging themselves through mud. 

Steve steps over the ceramic and walks to the pantry, he removes the broom and dustpan from the small hanger on the inside of the door.

Steve begins to sweep up the shards into a little pile, wincing as a few pieces here and there cut through the fabric of his socks and into the soles of his feet.

Steve doesn't realize he's crying until he sees the tears drop into the pile of plate shards and dust. Steve scrubs his arm over his eyes roughly and sniffs, his lungs stutter once as he chokes out a wet cough. 

"Get it together," he says sharply to himself.

Steve methodically sweeps the rest of the plate into the dustpan and walks towards the sink before opening the bottom cupboard and tipping the pan into the garbage can. 

He takes off his socks and examines the bottoms, there are a few small pieces of plate but no blood -Steve counts it as a win.

Steve leaves the broom and dustpan out and walks himself and the dirty socks out of the kitchen and up the stairs back to his room, his limbs feel heavy and the steady heat that had crawled up his neck has been replaced by a bone deep exhaustion that he longs to sink into.

Steve closes his bedroom door and steps towards the bed, allowing himself to tip forward and collapse against the comforter.

It's hard to move now, everything feels sore, from the tips of his toes, and the soles of his feet, to the top of his head. It's as though someone stretched him out between their hands and twisted and twisted until there was nothing left inside of him. 

He's empty and that thought is terrifying.

Steve reaches out blindly for the phone on his bedside table, he manages to snag it by the cord and narrowly avoids smacking himself in the face as the hard plastic swings into his hands. He dials the Buckley's home number by memory and waits.

"Hello?" 

"Hey, Mrs.Buckley, can you put Robin on?"

"Of course dear, but we are going to be having dinner soon so not too long okay?"

"Yes Mrs. Buckley,"

He waits, letting his pillow cradle the phone to his ear while the muffled background noise of the Buckley household trickles through the speaker, talking and television and laughter. It's a stark contrast to his own silent home. 

"Steve?"

"Hey Bobby," he nearly whispers into the receiver, he feels himself melt into the mattress at the sound of her voice.

"Steve" Robin grumbles over the line, "I just left you like an hour ago, what's up?"

He chews on his lip and the words for a beat, considering how to even tell her, "Eddie, um, came by".

"What?!" Robin's voice squeals over the speaker and Steve almost drops the phone as he jerks it away from his ear, "what did he want? Did you let him in?"

"Yeah Bobs," he sighs tiredly, "he, he apologized--"

"Steve, we talked about this, you forgive people way too easily--"

"I know, I just…" he doesn't even know how to say it, that a rage burnt him up from the inside out until he was nothing but hollow embers and smoke.

"Robin, I was so angry," 

"Did you yell at him? What did you say?"

"No," he pushes himself up from the pillows, just catching the phone as it threatens to tumble from his shoulder, "he left, he, we talked about going back to normal, he…"

"Steve, what the hell did he say this time, you have to tell me, it's like the platonic soulmate law--"

"He didn't mean it the first time, when we talked in the Upside Down, that he thought I was a good dude, everything I thought for months has been a lie," his voice shakes as he continues, "he thought I spread this awful rumor about him back in highschool and he's never forgiven me for it, but I had no idea and I didn't do it -I know I was the fucking worst back then but Robin I promise you I didnt-"

"Hey, hey, it's okay, do you want me to come over?" 

"No, your mum said you had dinner right away,"

"Steve, you’re way more important than dinner, that's so lame but it's one thousand percent true and I'll come up with something better when I get to your house, I'm leaving now".

Steve smiles as Robin hangs up with a soft, ‘see you in a minute!’ and sets the phone back on the receiver, he closes his eyes and tucks his face into the pillows for just a moment. 

Steve wakes with a start to the sound of feet hitting the stairs two at a time, he looks over at the red numbers on his bedside clock and squints as copper sunlight hits his face through his bedroom window. It's nearly quarter after seven now and the exhaustion that had held his limbs seems to have loosened ever so slightly. 

Steve doesn't move from the bed as Robin opens his door and pads slowly across the carpet. She says nothing in greeting and crawls onto the mattress. Steve shifts slightly to let her wiggle her way in between him and the bedroom wall.

"You asshole," Robin scolds softly, but there's still a smile in her voice, "you didn't even lock your front door, anyone could have come in here".

She wraps her thin arms around him from behind and Steve feels himself melt into the embrace.

"This have anything to do with the broom and dustpan on the counter?" she continues after a beat, "you don't really strike me as the sweeping type, it was like pulling teeth getting you to do it at scoops".

"Vacuuming is better" he mumbles into his pillow.

Robin is warm behind his back, holding him steady, and he finds himself reaching for her hand draped over his chest. The easy affection soothes the remaining burn in his heart.

"I smashed a plate," Steve says so softly he can feel Robin even shuffle closer to hear him. 

She's quiet a moment, but she doesn't move away. If anything, Robin seems to drape herself over his shoulder even more, wrapping him up in a cocoon of warmth. Steve swallows roughly and turns his face further into the pillows. 

"Nothing like a good plate smash," she mumbles sagely into his ear, "I think I read that in a magazine once, buy cheap dishes so you got something to smash when things just get too much," she pauses to sit up and turn him over to face her, "or maybe it was pencils".

Steve snorts as she mimes a violent snapping motion with her hands, and finally let's himself look at her. 

Robin's smiles as his eyes meet her own, but there's still a flicker of worry behind her blue ones that she can't seem to hide. 

And she isn't the only one who is worried.

This wouldn't be the first time he's acted out because of his anger. Steve would be the first person to admit he has a history of impulsive behavior, throwing himself fist first into situations before he can properly think it through. 

He says things in the moment he regrets later. Hell, Steve vandalized private property because he was angry with Nancy for christ sakes.

But this was different, it felt different. This scared him. It was like he had taken a backseat for a moment, disengaged from the world and came back to himself surrounded by shattered ceramic and a deep feeling of shame. 

He wonders, belatedly, if this is how his father felt when he would break things, when he would scream at Steve until he was red faced and shaking, when he would slam doors and smash the flat palm of his hand into walls or dragging his heavy class ring over the previously unblemished wood surface of his grandmother's table. 

It's terrifying to think about.

"You want me to stay?" Robin whispers after a beat.

Steve breathes out sharply through his nose, "I'm sure your parents would love that," he wiggles his eyebrows and attempts a lecherous wink, laughing at the squawk Robin makes.

She grabs one of the pillows and catches him with a face full of cotton batting, "Hey, for a fake boyfriend I could do worse you perv".

It starts an all out war, Steve lets her get him into a headlock before he licks all the way up the offending arm holding him in place, she lets go with a cry of, 'Gross!' and swings the pillow into his face again.

By the end of it they're both laughing so hard they can't even sit up.

"Robin," Steve says softly. 

They're laying on the bed, Steve with his head on the pillow by the headboard and Robin laying with her head closest to the end. She nudges his ear with her toe and he jerks away with a squawk.

"Yeah?" Robin groans as she slides her elbows towards her head to prop her torso up to look at him.

He lets his eyes trace over her, this girl who can make him laugh no matter what, who seems to read his mind with little to no trouble, who is ready to loudly defend him whenever possible.

He loves her so much.

Steve shakes his head, a prickly static charge builds in his hair as it rubs against the pillow, "just, you're just the best person I know," he says eventually, "don't tell Dustin I said that, but I'm glad I met you".

Robin mimes pulling a zipper closed over her mouth and flicks away the metal pull. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are suspiciously shiny at the tender admission.

"You absolute goof, do you keep onions under your bed," she snarks after wiping her eyes with her hand, she takes her wet fingers and wipes them off on his pajamas. 

"I'm glad I met you too, and if you want to talk about," she half shrugs and tips her head towards his bedroom door, "you know, the plate thing, I'm here".

She reaches for his ankle resting next to her elbow and gives it a squeeze, "God, all the hair on your legs, it looks like you have a second set of pants on".

"Can't even be nice to me for longer than five minutes," Steve mutters as he steals the offending leg to sit up on the bed.

"I didn't bring anything," Robin says suddenly, looking over at the glaring red numbers on Steve's alarm clock on his side table, "what's a gal gotta do for some food and some pj's?"

Steve rolls his eyes and uncrosses his legs and throws them over the side of the bed, sitting up while he's at it, "you figured out a Russian spy code with your little genius ears but you couldn't snag a change of clothes before you left?"

"Hey, you called me, I came running," Robin tells him firmly, she sits up and scooches over to sit beside him with her legs draped over the edge and their thighs pressed together.

"I know Bobby, I knew you would," he says softly as she leans her head to rest on his shoulder, the weight at his side is warm and familiar and pulls a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Steve lets his head loll to the side to rest on Robin's, his limbs loose as a tension he hadn't realized had been trapped in his shoulders flows out of him.

***

Over the next few weeks things begin to ease back into some semblance of normal.

It's not easy.

Steve ends up having to trick the kids into going to the old ice cream parlor where Eddie is waiting for them to make a separate apology for their last Hellfire meeting. 

Steve insists they're fine to the four sets of  disbelieving eyes that scowl at both of them, he and Eddie have buried the hack-saw and there's nothing more to say.

"It's hatchet, Steve," Dustin says with exasperation and barely concealed glee, “you buried the hatchet, sometimes I think you say these things on purpose".

"Oh Dusy-bun," Steve hums, reaching out to catch Dustin with his arm and drag him into a loose headlock, "I absolutely do it on purpose".

It's a little awkward, Will still seems a bit wary of Eddie, but Mike, Dustin, and Lucas obviously missed their Dungeon Master.

Steve can't help the clawing guilt that sits heavy in his stomach from being at the center of their little fight, but a small irritable part of him is envious of how quickly they all fall back into step with one another without missing a beat.

"This place is alright," Lucas says once they've all settled into a hideous lime green booth with their treats, "but the butterscotch is shit compared to Scoops".

He's frowning at the half eaten cup in his hands like he's tempted to toss it right then and there.

"Ice cream is ice cream," Mike scoffs with a roll of his eyes, he reaches for the cup which Lucas snatches back just out of reach from grabby fingers.

"Hey, I never said I wouldn't finish it--"

"You're practically giving it away dude, come on!" 

Eddie smiles and seems to finally relax into his seat, he leans across the table closer to Steve and Dustin and whispers conspiratorially, "What the hell is scoops?"

"Remember Starcourt?" Dustin chirps around a mouthful of Rocky Road before Steve can say anything, "Steve worked there, and Robin, that's how they met". 

Eddie tilts his head and frowns, his eyes pan back and forth between Dustin and Steve, "the mall that burnt down?"

Steve tenses, his right hand curls into a fist beneath the table while the little wooden spoon in his left hand threatens to snap between his fingers resting on the sticky table top.

Eddie glances at him curiously before looking back to Dustin who continues to speak, oblivious to the strangers around them.

"Oh yeah, that wasn't a fire--"

"Dustin," Steve snaps, more loudly and harshly than he intends, but it catches the teens attention. Steve shakes his head once and gestures around the shop, they're one of three full tables of people but even still, their voices have been carrying all afternoon.

Dustin has the good graces to look sheepish before scowling at the ice cream in his hands, "no one's listening--"

"Not here--" Steve manages to spit out between his teeth before all four kids are arguing at the top of their voices.

"Don't yell at Dustin!" 

"No one's even in here!"

"What, we can't even talk about this with each other now?"

"Fuck off Steve--"

Steve almost laughs, it's the first time in two weeks the kids have acted like their old selves instead of walking on eggshells around him, weighing their words carefully, avoiding bringing up Eddie or Hellfire and trailing off when he enters a room.

"Hey," Eddie says sharply, "layoff your babysitter alright, Jesus Christ guys".

And suddenly the spell is broken.

Lucas slowly puts down his cup and Mike rolls his eyes but seems to deflate in his seat, leaning into Will who frowns at Eddie slightly. Dustin crosses his arms across his chest and glares with a mutinous expression at the table. 

Dammit.

"Okay, everyone relax, finish up and let's go," Steve sighs. He reaches over and tugs on Dustin's ever present cap with his right hand while the left hand, still holding his spoon, snags a little taste of Lucas's cup of butterscotch. 

All of the kids start yelling again, but this time laughter rings out as the earlier tension melts away. 

Steve looks at Eddie who smiles widely at him, relief evident in his big brown eyes; he can't stop the small grin that takes over his own face at the sight, even if it does make his chest ache. 

They leave shortly after, the kids prattle on about some sci-fi movie that's caught their eye for the next trip to the Hawk Theater. Dustin argues that sequels never hold up while Will insists that as long as there are Aliens, as the title suggests, it should be just as good as the first.

Steve and Eddie follow just behind the group, Eddie slows down to walk in step with Steve. 

"Sooo that was a little…intense," Eddie says, it's phrased more like a question and the way he's looking at Steve, like he's waiting for an answer for why the air in the ice cream place seemed to shift. He reaches for Steve's elbow with soft fingers that curl around and press into his denim jacket. 

The kids have already piled into the beamer, Lucas snags the front seat since it's his turn --much to the irritation of Mike who 'never gets front seat dibs!'

Eddie swings in front of Steve slightly, letting his hand maintain contact at Steve's elbow, grounding them both.

Eddie's eyes narrow, just enough that Steve catches it, "You just…seem a little on edge or something".

Steve shugs and carefully pulls on a small neutral grin. It's comfortable, he's worn it before.

"Yeah man," he looks away from Eddie's concerned gaze, "it's all good, I'll see you later alright?

He keeps the tone bright. It's not his customer service voice, this is something he's carefully honed over years of sports injuries, smiling at teachers as they scolded him, or lying through his teeth to his dad after a particularly nasty screaming session.

It's light, and something he's never had to break out with Robin.

A small part of Steve was hoping he'd never have to use it on Eddie, but here they were.

"I gotta get the kids back anyway," it's not quite a lie but it's only three in the afternoon, and the words only seem to push Eddie a little further as his fingers curl more firmly around Steve's elbow.

"Steve," Eddie says again, but Steve is already pulling himself out of Eddie's grip, his hand falls away to hang limply at his side, silver rings glinting in the midafternoon sun.

Steve waves and makes his way to the driver's side door, ignoring the way Eddie's eyes follow him and the downward curve of his mouth.

He opens the car door and lets it shut, allowing the chaos of noise and teenage yelling drown out the guilt that followed him into the car.

"So," Dustin says from the back as Steve buckles himself in,"are you sure you guys are good?" 

Steve pauses for just a second before he blinks and puts the key in the ignition, "yeah, 'course man, why wouldn't we be?" 

Dustin is quiet for a moment, all of the kids are. 

There is a strange, somber heaviness in the vehicle as Steve makes his way down mainstreet. 

Mike seems off in his own stormy little world, glaring at the hands in his lap while Will looks out the window with a sad frown. Steve feel's Dustin and now Lucas watching him, their gaze enough to make him itch. 

"You guys just seem different," Dustin insists, he crosses his arms over his seatbelt and leans back into his seat. 

"You guys don't touch like you used to," Lucas says matter of factly.

Dustin snaps his fingers and leans forward once more to grab the back of Lucas's seat, "that's what it is! It's been driving me crazy!"

A dull ache throbs in Steve's chest as the kids continue to talk over one another, the volume gradually rising in the small space.

"Okay, first of all, I will crash this car if you all keep yelling," Steve barks over the four incessant voices, "Jesus, second of all, we don't touch each other--"

"Yes you do!"

"Um, have you met yourselves?"

"Jesus, it's like you're a pair of Octopuses!"

"If you're both sooo good why didn't you guys hug goodbye like you used to?"

"Enough," Steve says sharply, he signals right and slowly pulls off to the side of the road, letting the crackle of gravel fill the now silent vehicle. Steve grips the steering wheel hard enough that his knuckles have faded to white to hide the shaking of his hands.

"Look," Steve sighs, he lifts one hand away from the steering wheel to scrub harshly over his face. It catches on the hint of stubble on his cheeks.

"I appreciate you guys looking out for me, but I am an adult, and I can take care of myself".

"What about when Max saved you from Billy?" Mike scoffs, he ignores the elbow that Will throws into his side. 

"Or when Erica and I had to rescue you and Robin from the Russians?" Dustin challenges with equal ferocity. 

"That was different," Steve says with a scowl and a roll of his eyes, "I only got into those situations because I was looking out for you shitheads--"

"Exactly!!" Dustin crows with a smirk.

"Us shitheads stick together!" He raises his eyebrow like he's already won the argument and crosses his arms over his chest. 

Steve sighs and lets his head tip back into the headrest, he looks into the rear view mirror at the three sets of eyes staring back at him before tipping his face to the side to see Lucas's unwavering gaze from the passenger seat. 

"If I promise you guys that everything is fine for now, you'll drop it?"

The kids are quiet for a moment before Will says, "Party meeting, plug your ears Steve".

Steve considers just putting the car back into drive and continuing on their way, ignoring the ridiculous request. 

But it's Will, and the youngest Buyers has finally realized his ability to weaponize his big hazel eyes and bowl cut to get whatever he wants.

"How is this my life," Steve mutters under his breath but does as he's asked. 

He raises his hands to cup over his ears, muting the following low chatter around him. Steve hums a few bars of Dancing in the Dark to make whatever they're saying even more indistinguishable, because he's a damn good babysitter, before Lucas taps his elbow.

Steve shifts in the driver's seat, turning so he can see all of the beaming faces staring back at him. He feels his eyes narrow in suspicion.

"We'll drop it," Dustin tells him with a smile that doesn't waver once as he looks over to Lucas and then Will, Mike rolls his eyes though the smallest of grins tugs at the corner of his lips.

"If you agree to host Hellfire again," Lucas says with a sly smile, holding his hand out with wiggling fingers for Will to match the corresponding move with his own confident hand. 

"Guys…"

"Come on Steve, you've got the best place for it and we'll make sure you have a good time!" Dustin leans across Mike who huffs and pushes him away, it doesn’t stop Dustin from clasping Steve’s driver's seat with his hands and squeezing the leather by Steve’s shoulder.

Steve holds in a scoff, doubting that they can really guarantee such a thing, especially if Eddie and the other Hellfire members will be there, but the kids are all doing their best impression of the youngest Wheeler, Holly, when she begs for piggyback rides.

"Fine," Steve huffs out, he feels a small smile pull at the corner of his mouth as the kids cheer. 

"Yeah, yeah, if you really want to make me happy, one of you should learn to fuckin' drive".

Taglist: @zerokrox-blog @samcoxramblings @thosemessyvibes @liketheocean @vampireinthesun @themostunoriginalpersonever @merricatty @hyperfixationgoddess @hippieg1rl420

And thank you to @flowercrowngods for your encouragement, I hope the stobin fluff makes up for this not being finished yet!

[munsonson]

Blurb

Sunshine!Reader x Eddie Angst

She finds him eventually, leaned up against his locker with something crinkled in his hands. His hair, unkempt as it always was, drowned him in its essence, hiding his face from her. She smiles, running up to him with her familiar smile.

“Hey, Eds,” she greets, “did you want to go to that milkshake place after all?”

He doesn’t answer. In fact, he doesn’t move at all. Her eyebrows knit together in concern. She hesitantly brings up a hand to tap him on the shoulder.

“Eds? Hey, you okay?” she asks.

He looks up at her at last. He’s smiling, too, but there’s something strange about it. It was like he was forcing it. Those dimples that she always admired weren’t there. His eyes were still brown, but they didn’t crinkle at the ends. He crumples the paper in his hands even more.

“Can I ask you something, Y/N?”

It startles her when he uses her actual name instead of ‘princess’. She decides not to question it.

“Yeah?”

“Why are you trying to hard to be my friend?”

She was confused. “Huh?”

“Why are you trying so hard to be my friend?”

She was sure he was upset now, if his tone was any indication. He couldn’t possible be angry with her, could he? Did she do something wrong? Did Jonathan tip him off that she was going to ask him out tonight? Maybe she was overstepping her boundaries.

“Um, well I…I don’t really understand the question. I thought we were friends,” she says at last. That wasn’t the answer he was looking for. Now he was balling up the paper and he actually tossed it at her. It hits her forehead unceremoniously before falling to her feet. It was such a silly moment she nearly laughed. But he wasn’t. He was still forcing a smile.

“You know what I think? I think it’s time we put everything out on the table, really…examine what’s been going on here, you know?” he said. “See, I’ve made it pretty alarmingly clear that most people tend to avoid me, to the point I’m essentially Moses parting the goddam sea of jocks, cheerleaders, and even the burnouts. But for some reason…you won’t budge.”

She tilts her head. “Because I’m your friend.”

“No, it’s because I’m your charity case.” Eddie sneers. He’s not smiling anymore. “It all makes sense, I guess. Can’t find any friends outside of the pervy photographer, so you run off to take your chance with the freak, the super senior.”

“Hey,” she says, offended now. “Please don’t talk about Jonathan like that. And I don’t think you’re a freak, Eddie, what are you talking about?”

“Do you not see the people you surround yourself with?” he asks, incredulous. “Jonathan Byers, the alleged murderer turned non murderer who likes to take pictures of naked unaware chicks. And myself, who’s too stupid for graduation and too stupid to realize he’s been wasting his time on someone who wants to wipe the notion of witchy bitch off her back she’ll find two objectively worse guys just to feel better about herself.”

She had tears gathering in her eyes.

“Why are you saying all of this, Eddie? What is wrong with you?” she asks. Her voice cracks.

“Because I’m done with people using me. Alright? So do me a favor, come next year, put me in your rearview mirror. Just leave me alone,” he snaps, brushing by her.

She watches him. Her heart felt sore and heavy, her stomach nauseated and prepared to empty itself from how upset she was. Did Eddie really think she’d only befriended him to make herself look better by comparison? How could he do that? How could he throw what Jonathan did in her face? She’d told him that in confidence, not for him to weaponize it against her.

She fell into the lockers, the echoing slam not enough to deafen the sounds of her cries as she slid down onto the tiled floor. What could she do now? Should she tell Jonathan what happened, ask what she should do next?

She spots the tiny crumpled piece of paper beside her and picks it up. He’d been reading this when she approached.

Unraveling it and trying her best to smooth out the page, she reads it over. Startled, she quickly rereads it again.

It was for the parent or guardian of Eddie, explaining he’d have to repeat this term over again. He wasn’t graduating. That was why he was so upset.

Despite the words and insults he threw at her, she was still tempted to find him again and hug him. This was clearly what had him so depressed, not her. He was just letting his anger out. Even if that wasn’t right, she found it easier to forgive him now.

But she didn’t want to make him more mad. If avoiding her next year made him feel better about the whole ordeal, she’d oblige him.

[eiightysixbaby]

right here, right now

pairing: jonathan byers x fem!reader

wc: 2.1k

summary: it's almost time to try and save the world, again. but before you do, you and jonathan have something to take care of.

cw: 18+ ONLY - SMUT some angst, unprotected piv, creampie, use of pet names

author’s note: aahhhh, nothing like some ‘i need to have you right now because the world might end and idk if i’ll ever get to have you again’ smut

You aren't really sure how long it had been. You aren't sure how long it would be, until Nancy patched through on the walkie talkies to give you the all clear to join the others or until something killed you, whichever came first.

You sit in the back seat of Steve's BMW, clenching and unclenching your fist around your baseball bat to ease your nerves. You're parked off the side of the road, close but not too close to the most recent gate that had opened up in Hawkins. Steve, Nancy, Eddie, and Robin had gone through, preparing to enact the first phase of the plan. You'd spent the last couple of days preparing, giving yourselves until the last possible moment to ensure everything was perfect. To ensure that you could seal up the contents of the Upside Down forever - lock them away, never to seep into your reality ever again.

But now, as you sit trembling on the leather bench seat, the details don't matter. What does matter, a fact gone unspoken but known by each of you equally, is that this is your last chance. If you fail this time - and the possibility of that is very real - it will cost you your lives. It will cost the lives of everyone in this town; Hawkins will fall.

Jonathan's breathing is staggered beside you, his body shuddering with each exhale. He's trying not to panic for your sake, but you know he's fearing for you and for Will, for his mom, for himself. For everyone.

The world is dark around you, nightfall having hit what feels like eons ago. Your teeth chatter although it isn't cold, and you startle momentarily when you feel Jonathan's hand come to rest on your thigh.

"Hey," he says softly, bringing your focus onto him and only him. "It's gonna be okay, yeah? We're going to get through this."

You're silent for a moment. "What if we don't this time, Jon?" You can barely look at him as you say the words, because you fear you'll burst into tears if you meet those soft honey eyes.

He can see your sturdy resolve beginning to crumble, and he drops his weapon and pulls you into his chest, pressing his lips to the top of your head. "Don't think like that, okay? We're going to do this, we have to do this."

You know that he's saying this to convince the both of you, you know he doesn't fully believe it himself, but you appreciate the reassurance regardless. You bury your face further into the soft fabric of his shirt, taking a long, deep inhale. He smells as he always has, like laundry detergent and his cologne and a faint hint of coffee.

You don't want to think about the fact that this could be the last time you get to smell his smell.

Before you can stop them, a few stray tears escape your eyes, rolling down your cheeks. You sniffle quietly, trying to collect yourself once more, but Jonathan's already alert to your upset.

"Hey, hey," he soothes, tilting your chin up with a gentle finger. "Baby, I'm here with you. I'm here."

You don't want to say what you're thinking - But what if you aren't always here? What if this is the last moment we have together? - and so you say nothing. Your lip wobbles as you take a shaky breath, more tears rolling warm and heavy down your skin.

Jonathan is quick to wipe them away, the pad of his thumbs so soft as they rid your face of the saltwater streaks.

"I'm so scared," is all you can say before he's hugging you tight against him once more, his grip on you firm and comforting.

"I know, I know," he rocks you back and forth, kissing your forehead. "Me too."

You pull back suddenly, feeling the need to look him in his eyes. "I love you so much, more than I've ever loved anything in my life."

"More than you love birthday cake milkshakes from Benny's?" he jokes, the left corner of his mouth tugging upward in a slight smirk.

You laugh, a watery sound through your ebbing tears. "Oh, on second thought, never mind..."

He joins in on your laughter, and for a moment everything is normal. For a moment you're on the couch in his living room and Joyce is making cookies in the kitchen, and you aren't about to fight monsters and try to save the world, again. You appreciate his willingness to try and make you smile, even in the bad moments.

"I love you too, you know that. I always will." he returns your sentiment once your giggles have subsided, cupping your face in his hands and pressing his lips to yours.

You kiss him back eagerly, his mouth a welcome reprieve from the constant terror your life has been lately.

You can't quite pinpoint the moment it goes from sweet and tender to needy and hot, but it happens quickly. One moment his lips move slowly against yours, his hands soft on your cheeks, and the next his tongue is prying into your mouth and your hands are tangled in his hair and tugging. You're pulling yourself onto his lap, knees bracketing his hips, both of you breathing heavily.

He pulls away only for a moment, his eyes searching your face. "You really want to do this right now?" he checks, waiting for your permission.

You nod quickly. "Yes, right now." There's a pause, and then. "I don't know when we'll get to do this again."

It's a devastating statement if you really think about it, but neither of you are planning on thinking too hard. He doesn't dwell on the undertones of it, instead he lets his hunger take over.

You thought you'd been desperate to have him before, like that time after he was sick for two straight weeks and you couldn't see him, or when you'd teased him so bad beneath your lunch table senior year that he'd dragged you into the janitor's closet and made you late for the next class. But this? This was new, this rivaled every time before it. You were primal, animalistic in the way you licked into each other's open mouths, determined in the way you undid his belt and pushed his jeans down his thighs.

It was a desperation that could only come from such a dire sense of urgency - the end of the world wasn't necessarily far away, after all.

He wastes no time helping you shed your pants, both of you knowing that this isn't the time for drawn-out foreplay or extensive teasing - you never know when Nancy's voice might sound over the walkie.

Good thing for him, you're already soaking through your panties, the severity of the situation only turning you on further in some sick, twisted way. You need to have him, there's no questioning it.

You let out a harsh whine when his lips latch onto your neck, sucking hard on the tender skin, his hands gripping your hips with a ferocity you've never felt from him before. He guides you over his cock, letting his shaft slide through your folds, your juices coating him. He hisses at the sensation, his cheeks flushing a deep pink that you can decipher even in the low lighting.

"Shit, baby," he rasps, letting his head fall back against the seat.

You give him a sly little smirk. "Am I losing ya already?" you tease, satisfied when he rolls his eyes.

"No," he says, and before you can process it he's completely flipped your position; you now lying down along the cool leather seat, his body hovering over yours. "Definitely not."

Your lips part in an attempt to say something, but no words can come out before he's kissing you once more. Your legs fall open easily, allowing him space to fully slot himself between them. He lets out strained whimpers when he licks into your eager mouth, your hands splayed across his back, nails digging into the skin through his shirt.

"Baby," you pant. "I can't wait any longer, I need you," your voice is breathy, impatient.

"Don't worry, sweetheart," he murmurs against your cheek. "I'm gonna take care of you."

In seconds he's got his hand wrapped around the base of his shaft, slowly guiding the tip into your weeping entrance. You gasp at the initial intrusion, the sound turning into something closer to a scream the more of him you take.

"Jonathan, Jonathan," you mumble mindlessly, drunk on his cock and he's only been inside of you for thirty seconds. In normal circumstances he may have teased you, made your face flush with heat as he taunted your desperation. But these aren't normal circumstances, and he's just as needy as you are.

"I know, angel, I know," he murmurs. "Feels so good, huh?"

You nod, pressing sloppy kisses to his lips as he starts to move inside of you. The drag of his length out and in and then out again has you nearly delirious, bringing every inch of your body to life, as if you're a live wire.

"Fuck, fuckfuckfuck," he curses, picking up his pace rapidly.

The car fills with the sounds of skin slapping against skin, heavy breaths and moans and sighs. You're able to almost forget, like this. With his weight on top of you and his cock hitting the perfect spot inside, you can almost pretend like you don't have a baseball bat and an axe sitting on the floor of the vehicle, signifiers of your impending battle. You try to ignore the way the street lights flicker outside, something you know to be a sign of more than just faulty bulbs.

His teeth nip at your earlobe, a weakness of yours, and you know that he's seen the flickering too. It's his silent way of trying to distract you as best he can. Paired with the relentless way in which he pounds into you, it works, your brain nearly shutting off as you zone in on his grunts and whines.

"I love you," he pants. "So fucking much."

He tugs your bottom lip between his teeth, and only when he lets go do you reply. "I love you, fuck I love you. Feels so good, Jon."

He chuckles lightly at this, satisfied with his ability to bring you such pleasure. "You feel good, too. You have no fucking idea," he praises, resting his forehead against yours as he maintains his steady pace.

There's something in your gut that tells you you don't have much time before your friends will page you, and as if reading your mind, Jonathan's right hand finds its way between your thighs. The pad of his thumb begins to rub quick circles over your clit, your breathing growing heavier. You feel electric beneath his touch, succumbing entirely to how good he’s making you feel.

"You gonna be a good girl and cum for me, angel?" he asks, knowing if he keeps up his actions, you'll be hurtling over the edge in no time.

"Yes!" you cry, "Yes Jonathan, fuck. I want to be a good girl, wanna cum for you."

He dips his head low, his mouth against the shell of your ear. "So do it, then," he instructs, his voice deliciously husky, his tone commanding.

It's all you need to fully reach your breaking point, and your legs shake as you cum around his cock. His name spills from your lips in a shattered cry, back arching off of the seat beneath you. Your orgasm seems to last forever, your walls squeezing him tight until he's spilling inside of you, moaning your name followed by a string of curses. He collapses on top of you, and it's so comforting to feel the weight of him. To feel and hear him breathing.

The euphoric haze you’d been caught up in, the primal urge that had taken control of you starts to fade. You don’t want reality to set in, you want to fend it off for as long as possible, but it’s too late. Fear creeps its way back into your throat, and you cling tighter to Jonathan.

He senses your unease and you know he’s feeling it again, too. So when he speaks, his voice slightly hoarse from use, you’re expecting him to say something serious. “Do you think Steve will be mad we fucked in his car?"

You snort, genuinely caught off guard by the lighthearted question. "Let's save the world first, and then we can decide if we're even gonna tell him."

Jonathan laughs, and the sound tugs at your heart strings. It's one of your favorite sounds, and you only hope you get to hear it for years to come.

You kiss him, slow and passionate before deciding you need to redress. You prepare your backpack of necessary tools, you hold his hand as you wait for Nancy's signal.

And with ever perfect timing, her voice comes through the static.

One squeeze of your hand. Two. Three.

I. Love. You.

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Steddie Upside-down AU Part 16

Part 1 Part 15

Steve doesn’t know Eddie well enough to be able to tell if the way he’s bouncing is excitement or nerves. Either way, he’d all but bolted up to sprint to the phone hanging from the wall in the kitchen. It’s an ugly beige and has one of those chords that you can twirl around and around your fingers as you talk.

Steve and Will stand a few paces back, watching as Eddie picks up the phone, and presses it so hard into his ear that he’ll be able to hear the ocean out of it.

Eddie’s bouncing on his toes, but as the seconds tick by, he slows, then stops, heels planted to the ground. He hangs up the phone, hangs his head, planting his palms on the countertop like he needs its support to stay upright.

“He must be at work,” Eddie says.

Steve inches forward, laying his hand on Eddie’s shoulder and squeezing. The other boy takes a shuddering breath, before turning around, shrugging out of Steve’s hold.

“Do you want to try your parents?” he asks, looking Steve’s way.

He swallows the lump in his throat, forcing the words out. “Nah, they’re out of town.” He waves his hand breezily, like he couldn’t care less about his empty house. His absent parents. “Maybe we should try Will’s Mom again?”

Eddie’s eyes look sad and soulful, wet like Bambi’s. But he doesn’t say anything, just turns toward Will who’s still dawdling by the refrigerator. “We should try your Mom again,” he says. “But didn’t you say the Demogorgon came?”

Will wilts, the smile blooming on his face dropping before it’s even fully formed. “I think the phone got fried anyway.”

Steve’s not jealous of a pre-teen. Especially one trapped in a hell dimension being hunted by monsters. That’d be too fucked up to comprehend. “Dude, she loves you,” Steve says. “She definitely bought a new phone within like, thirty seconds.”

Will Byers beams, clearly a Momma’s boy through and through. Steve Harrington is not jealous, really. He’s not.

“How long ago did you talk to your Mom?” Eddie asks.

Will scuffs his already scuffed shoes against the carpet. “This morning, I think,” Will says. “But then the Demogorgon came, and I was running away when you found me.”

He says “found me” like Steve and Eddie are the best thing to ever happen to him. It runs through Steve like an electroshock, sends his skin buzzing in a way he can’t tell whether it’s invigorating or frying him from the inside out.

“Okay, so we should wait a little bit,” Eddie says, walking back and forth in front of them like a general to his soldiers. “Chill on our laurels, get some sleep, and come at this thing fresh eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow when the risk of Demogorgon sighting has gone down.”

Will bounces on his toes, once, twice, three times before seeming to catch himself. Oh, god. There are two of them. Steve may not survive long enough to meet Byers’ Mom, and it won’t be from a Demogorgon attack. It’ll be from two over-enthusiastic nerds.

Steve sighs. “What’re we going to do until then?” Steve asks. “It can’t be bedtime yet, just look at the sun.”

The twin looks of condescension he gets for that one are identical enough that he has to dig his teeth into the laugh that wants to burst out.

But then they look at each other, and it doesn’t seem all that funny anymore. Because Eddie’s smiling like the grinch right before he robbed all the who’s down in Whoville, and Will’s puppy-dog eyes could be charged as a lethal weapon.

“We could play D&D?” Will asks.

Steve groans slapping his hands over his face and rubbing them down harshly, even though the game is sort of fun. Even though it might be more fun with three people. Even though he was sold the moment that Will Byers looked at him with those eyes.

“Fine!” he says, throwing up his hands. “Let’s play your stupid nerd game.”

They gather around the coffee table, Eddie and Will leaning against the couch, Steve an island all on his own on the other side.

“Will, do you DM or should I?” Eddie asks, like the title is something grand to be bestowed upon someone. Like Will just got named Prom King and he’s asking if he wants the crown on his head.

“Maybe you can this time?” he asks, looking up at Eddie through his fringe.

Eddie nods. Steve settles his elbow on the table, sinking his cheek into his palm as the implications of “this time” run through his head.

“What’s your race?” Will asks, eyes glued to Steve.

Steve lifts his brow, shifting his gaze to where Eddie’s cringing away from Will. “We’ve, uh, sort of been playing with training wheels on?” he says, like it’s a question.

“Class?” Will asks, looking horrified. “Stats?” Eddie grimaces. Will sighs, turning back to Steve. “Do you have a character?”

“Sir Steven.”

“He’s definitely a human fighter,” Eddie mumbles, fidgeting with his rings like he’d committed some horrible sin.

“Okay, well, you’re supposed to roll the dice when you create a character so that you know how your character will react to things. Does that make sense?”

Steve nods even though it doesn’t, ignoring the way Eddie scoffs. Will fishes a little bag out of the pocket of his vest, dumping a pile of black dice. Steve recognizes the one with the twenty sides, but there’s a square one, a triangle one, and one shaped like a diamond he’s never seen before. He kind of wants to put them in his mouth, maybe swallow them.

Steve rolls a die for each stat, nodding along like it all makes sense. Eddie runs into his room for paper and a pencil, dutifully writing each number down.

When he passes the paper to Steve, he doesn’t know whether he should be insulted by the number for intelligence or flattered that Munson apparently thinks he’s charismatic. He keeps his mouth shut, not wanting to drop his score any lower.

Steve nods along while they discuss modifiers and alignments, but something of his confusion must show because Will and Eddie dial it back.

Will’s character is some sort of wizard who can cast spells and shit. He talks about his figurine, which Steve deduces is a little action figure like he saw in Munson’s room specific for his character, and the costume his Mom made for him to play, expression faraway.

They play. It’s more complicated this time, and when it becomes clear that Steve is struggling, Will scoots to the other side of the table to help point out which of the dice he should roll and what math he should be doing.

It’s fun, and they kick Xanthar’s ass, even if Steve’s pretty sure Eddie takes it easy on them. He tells himself it’s for Will’s sake, but the glimmer of humor in Eddie’s eyes makes it hard to hold onto that sentiment.

Will’s jaw-cracking yawn as they go over the story (campaign?) signals the end of the night. The poor kid’s eyes are drooping.

“Alright, bedtime for all the kiddies!” Eddie says, jumping up far too energetically for the end of the day they’ve had. “That means you, Harrington.”

The bed’s not big enough for all three of them, and Eddie’s bedroom doesn’t have enough floor space, so they huddle together in the living room. Will takes the couch after a thorough browbeating, huddled under two blankets and what must be Uncle Wayne’s pillow.

Steve and Eddie move the coffee table so they can sleep beside the couch, keeping their bodies between Will and the door. They make a nest of Eddie’s bedding and pillows.

Will’s breathing evens out quickly, poor kid. Steve stares at the ceiling. The silence drills into him until he can almost feel it, making him tense and tense until Eddie scoots close enough that their arms are touching.

The single point of contact seeps warmth into Steve’s bones. He closes his eyes, reveling in it.

“Should we really be wandering around with a child when there’s a monster running around?” Eddie asks, his breath whispering against the shell of Steve’s ear.

With his eyes closed, it’s easy to picture that thing, the Demogorgon. The way it’s claws curved, the way its face opens, and then opens again. The sound it makes. So, no. Steve doesn’t want that thing anywhere near the kid, but—

But.

“We’ve got to get him home, Munson.”

Eddie sighs, breath tickling the flyaways along Steve’s hairline. “Yeah,” he replies. “I guess we do.”

Steve falls asleep before Eddie moves back away, that single point of warmth following him into his dreams.

Part 17

[bloodibambiidoll]

We’re All A Little Mad Sometimes

Jonathan Byers x Fem!OC

Summary: Bunny is the girl of Jonathan’s dreams. With a masked killer on the loose he would do anything to protect her. She’s sweet, beautiful, and has a heart of gold. But things aren’t always as they seem… WK: 8.1k(oops)

This is a collab with @babygorewhore you can read her part about Eddie and her OC Sammy here.

Warnings: This is a scream AU so there will be descriptions of murder, violence, Jonathan is a perv(he thinks she doesn’t know but she does), mentions of male masturbation, slight jealous!jonathan, mentions of Bunny & king!steve in the past(she scares the shit out of him but doesn’t kill him), sub!Jonathan, Dom!Reader, blow job, unprotected sex. I thiiiink that’s it? Pls lmk if I missed any! Divider is @saradika-graphics

Jonathan walked shoulder to shoulder with Eddie down the hall, discussing the recent murder of Hawkin’s community’s head cheerleader, Chrissy Cunningham. The gruesome images of the small blonde haunted the minds of everyone who had the misfortune of seeing them. She was killed with a large hunting knife, multiple stab wounds littering her body. The police wouldn’t have connected it to the murders of him and Eddie’s fathers if it wasn’t for the exact nature of the kill being the same, down to the murder weapon.

A little over a year ago, only a few nights apart Lonnie Byers and Al Munson were murdered in cold blood with a hunting knife, “overkill” they called it. He and Eddie would both be lying if they said they were sad, they should’ve been scared that they would come for them next, but if anything, they just felt relief.

Him and Eddie parted ways, and he made his way to his photography class. His favorite class and not just because it was his favorite subject, but because this was the class he shared with her. Willow. The girl he couldn’t keep his mind off of. He walked eagerly into the classroom, his eyes landing on her immediately.

She was beautiful, her long blonde hair always looked so soft against her caramel skin, her pink mini skirts and chunky Mary Jane’s, those big brown eyes and pouty lips. He would do anything she asked and all she had to do was look at him. When she would put her small manicured hands on his forearm and look up at him sweetly, he felt like he could melt where he stood. Maybe he should feel pathetic, but he can’t find it in himself to care when she looks at him like that. Not when she was an angel on earth.

He walked over to their shared table, pulling out the stool next to hers and putting his bag down. He was lucky enough to be assigned her seat partner at the beginning of the year, and even luckier that they got paired up to do their next project together.

“Hey Jonathan! It’s nice to see you.” Her voice sounds like sugar, the smile on her face just as sweet.

“Hey Bunny, it’s nice to see you too. Especially with everything that’s going. I’m uh - glad you're safe.” Bunny was a nickname, one he was proud to have given her. It stuck, and now everyone in their group called her that. He didn’t mind really, but ultimately she was his bunny, he gave her the nickname.

“Oh yeah I know! Isn’t it just awful? I can’t believe someone would do something like that. The pictures made my skin crawl.” Her big eyes were wide, her lips set into a pouty frown. Jonathan wanted to protect her, he never wanted her to not feel safe.

“Yeah, it’s really awful… You don’t have to be scared though I’ll pro-“

“Alright class!! Everybody remember who you’re not partnered with?”

“Yes! You ready to get to brainstorming, Jonny bear?”

Jonathan forgot what he was even going to say, her sweet nickname and the teacher's interruption turning his brain to mush. He spends the rest of class bouncing ideas back and forth with Bunny and tries his hardest not to gawk at her but fails on multiple occasions. It didn’t help that she was always touching him in some way or another.

When the bell rings, Bunny grabs her things and waves to him, letting him know she’s going to go find Sammy and that she will see him in the group spot in a bit. He stares after her, her little skirt swishing back and forth with the swing of her hips, the bows in her hair trailing behind her and her shiny black shoes squeak against the classroom's linoleum floor.

Jonathan gathered his things and sighed, his mind filled with nothing but all things Bunny. He thought of her soft skin and how it would feel against his fingers as he walked down the hall. He thought of her silky hair, the way he caught a whiff of strawberries every time she whipped her head around. He imagined her plush lips pressed against his own, he knew the sticky pink gloss she always wears would rub off on him. He desperately wanted to know what it tasted like.

When he reaches the courtyard his breath catches in his throat. Bunny was sitting with Sammy by her side. It was rare to see one without the other. They were the dynamic duo, everybody knew that. Sammy’s style was much different from Willow’s, she gravitated more towards dark colors. Her bright pink curls and combat boots are a stark contrast to her best friend’s frilly socks and pastel pinks. Yet they complimented each other so well, like yin and yang. Her brow was furrowed and her small hand was grasping Sammy’s sweater covered arm while they talked to Eddie. She looked upset and he immediately wanted to do anything and everything to see her smile again.

“Hey man, you just gonna stand there with your jaw hanging open all afternoon or are you gonna go talk to her?” Steve came up behind him, his large hand grabbing onto his shoulder and shaking him slightly.

“I wasn’t… staring. I just… got distracted, is all.” Jonathan shakes Steve’s hand off of him, sending him a glare.

“Oh dude, you were totally staring! I don’t get why you don’t just ask her out, she’s clearly into you.”

Robin stood next to Steve, rolling her eyes with a smile spread across her lips. Her and Steve were constantly teasing him about her. It drove him insane, because he knew they were right. He should just ask her out. But she was just so beautiful, her and Steve’s dad were business partners so she never had to want for anything growing up. He also knows her and Steve have… history. He knows they were friends with benefits for a while and he knows that Steve wanted more than that but she turned him down. If she didn’t want someone like Steve why would she want someone like him.

He didn’t come from anything, he wasn’t athletic or classically handsome like Steve was. He probably wouldn’t ever make a lot of money, wanting to choose his passion over his salary. Steve was a business major with a job lined up for him when he graduated. Steve was on the basketball team, the swim team, he threw huge parties and fucked around with different girls every weekend. Jonathan was a loser virgin who spent his weekends smoking weed in his dorm with Eddie Munson while they played Dark Souls.

“Better snatch her up, before someone else does.” Steve winked at him before walking towards the table, his stupidly perfect hair somehow looking like it was glowing in the sunlight. He didn’t mind as much when Robin teased him but when it came from Steve it made his blood boil.

“Don’t listen to him Jonny, like Robin said, she’s totally into you.” Robin’s girlfriend, Marina smiled sweetly at him, tilting her head towards the table as Robin pulled her along by the hand.

He took a deep breath, thanking whatever god is out there that Steve didn’t take the spot next to her. He slid onto the bench, his senses immediately being flooded with sweet strawberry goodness. His heart rate picked up when she smiled at him.

“Hey Jonny bear, we were just talking about how scary all of this is…” Her lips were set into a pout, that same crease between her eyebrows he saw from afar that he wanted to rub out with his thumb.

“Yeah, it’s pretty fucked, huh? Like I know none of us were Chrissy’s biggest fan but I don’t think she deserved to die like that.”

“I’ve been thinking about those photos all morning… I can’t help but think about if that happened to me. You don’t think this guy has like… a type do you?” Her large brown eyes were filled with panic, her bottom lip squeezed between her teeth.

“I don’t think so, because before this it was me and Eddie’s dads, there doesn’t seem to be a specific pattern anymore. You’ll be okay… I promise l - I’ll keep you safe.” He smiled sweetly at her, forcing himself to be brave enough to give her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“Thanks bear…” She returned his smile with one of her own, her thumb gently stroking his hand.

“I-“

“You take a knife, and you slit them from groin to sternum.” Bunny’s hand drops from his, her head whipping towards Steve with her mouth hanging open. That crease between her brows returned and it made him want to smack Steve.

“Didn’t you and Chrissy used to date?” Eddie has a smirk on his face directed towards Steve.

“Yeah dude for like two seconds, and if you wanna call what her and I did “dating” then I guess me and Willie “dated” too, and look at her she’s perfectly alive and well.” Jonathan scoffed, Steve’s words, feeling like a knife in his heart. He knew they fucked, but he hated being reminded that it happened.

“Hey.” He was snapped from his thoughts at the sound of her sweet voice, her soft hand landing on his Jean covered thigh, causing him to gulp. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just being a fucking idiot. You still wanna work on our project today?”

“Yeah, of course.” He smiled at her, his cheeks tinted pink. What did she mean don’t listen to him? Is she reassuring him because she likes him? He really fucking hopes so. “You still want me to drive us there?”

“Yeah totally! I’m really excited! I think we will have the most unique topic honestly. Who else is going to think to depict the different types of gravestones depending on the time period?” He loves the way her eyes light up when she talks about things she’s excited about. He never would’ve thought this sweet girl with bows in her hair would ask him to take her to the Hawkins cemetery of all places. She was always surprising him in the best ways.

“With all this bullshit there’s probably going to be a curfew in a few days, so I’m throwing a party this weekend. You idiots are all invited.” Steve tapped his hands on the table, making sure to wink at Willow before he got up and walked off. Jonathan scoffed, anytime he felt like he was getting somewhere with her it was like his confidence was knocked down all over again.

“Don’t let him get to you Jonny, he’s not worth the energy. You wanna get going? If we leave right now we can get there before dusk! That way we can still get some natural light photos!” She clapped her hands together excitedly and Jonathan tried not to look at the way her boobs giggled in her tank top, he really did, but he just couldn’t help himself around her.

“Yeah uh - yeah, let’s go, Bunny”

Jonathan watched in awe as Willow weaved through the various headstones pointing out different shapes and sizes. He was actually really surprised with her knowledge on the topic, when he asked her if she had been doing research for their project she shook her head and said it was just something that had “always interested her” which just made her even more interesting to him.

“Jonathan! Look at this one, like I was telling you earlier doves were a very prevalent image on headstones in the mid 1700s! Oh! And that one over there, see how it just looks like a rock that someone carved into? That’s because before the 1600s they didn’t have professional gravestone carvers, so they didn’t start making them more decorative until then!”

Her eyes sparkled, the excited tone of her voice warming every inch of his heart. She was just so cute. Talking about the history of gravestones all clad in pink and white. He wanted to kiss her so badly. He watched her bend forward to brush leaves and grass off a stone by her feet. The heat that was previously residing in his heart rushed to his cock in a matter of seconds, her little pink skirt rode up her hips, showcasing her white panties that had little pink bunnies all over them… his breath caught in his throat as he held in a groan. It wasn’t the first time he had caught a glance up her skirt, and he hoped it wouldn’t be the last.

He wished he could say it was the first time he grabbed the camera that was around his neck, raising it to his eye. He quickly snapped a photo of her from behind, turning the lense slightly over her shoulder before she could turn around.

“Did you get a good one?” She turned towards him with a smile on her face.

“Huh?” He looked at her dumbfounded, did she know?

“Of that stone over there? Did you get a good picture of it?”

“Oh! Yeah! I think so, I’m gonna take one more, just to be sure.” He smiled sweetly at her, snapping a ‘second’ photo of the stone she was standing close to.

“Aw shit! My battery just died.” Bunny huffed as her camera beeped in her hands. “Can I use yours real quick? I was trying to get this shot and I’m scared that if I move I’ll lose it.”

“Oh! Yeah, of course.” Jonathan hands her his camera with a smile. His heart rate picks up when she takes it and their hands brush. Not just from her touch, but also from anxiety. He was really hoping she wouldn’t ask to use his camera. Earlier that morning he was sitting in his car before class, going through his photos and when he was scrolling he saw one he took of her a few days prior.

She was walking up the stairs a few steps above him and he had the perfect view of her panties, he just couldn’t help himself. He also couldn’t help himself when he pulled his hard cock from his jeans and started jerking off in his passenger seat with his camera gripped in his hands. When he came it was sudden, and way quicker than he expected so it shot onto the screen and the strap of his camera. It came off the screen easily, but the strap? Not so much. The more he tried to get it off the more it seemed to spread, so he ended up giving up. It had mostly dried since then but it was still a little tacky and he just prayed she wouldn’t notice.

“This is kinda sticky…” His heart immediately stopped beating in his chest as he watched her fingers stick and unstick from the strap. Part of him was terrified of her reaction but part of him was so turned on at the thought of her touching his cum that he wasn’t sure if he cared anymore or not.

“Oh shit, yeah, I’m sorry. I meant to tell you before I handed it to you, I spilled juice on my desk this morning and it got on the strap, I tried to get it off but it just kept spreading around. I’m gonna have to get a new one tomorrow.” He scratched the back of his head, nervously biting his lip.

“Juice?” She raised her eyebrow, her eyes traveling from the strap to his and back down to the strap, her fingers touching it experimentally. “What kind?”

“What kind? Uh - Orange. Yeah, it was orange juice.”

“Orange juice? That’s my favorite…” Her brown eyes twinkle and she holds eye contact with him as she lets her tongue slip from between her plush lips, trailing it along the length of the strap with a moan. She licks her lips and smiles at him. “Mmm… tastes so good.”

Jonathan’s jaw drops, his cock feels like it’s going to explode in his jeans, his mind doesn’t even feel like it’s properly computing what just happened. She just licked his cum, and she liked the taste. Did she know? He genuinely doesn’t even know how to respond, and she either knows that or doesn’t seem to be aware of the effect she just had because she just shrugs and puts the strap over her head. She brings the camera to her face, capturing the shot she had her eye on.

“Okay! I think we should take some in that area over there, and maybe walk down a little further to see if we missed any before we head back?” She smiles at him, blissfully unaware of the fact that if she so much as breathed the right way right now he would cum in his pants.

“Yeah, sounds good!” His voice came out squeaky, and he adjusted himself in his jeans as subtly as possible, withholding a groan at the momentary relief in pressure.

The next hour was both heaven and hell for Jonathan, he loved spending time with Bunny, he truly did. But right now he felt like if he didn’t cum soon he was going to fucking die. If he didn’t know better he would think she was teasing him intentionally. She kept bending over in front of him, doing those cute little excited jumps she would do when she was happy causing her tits to bounce in that little white top. At one point she even said she “could really go for some orange juice now” and that’s when he couldn’t take it anymore. Making an excuse about homework and calling it a night.

“I think we got some good ones, don’t you, Jonny bear?” Bunny skipped alongside him, a bright smile on her face.

“Yeah Bunny, I think we definitely got some good ones…”

Jonathan huffed as he declined the call from an “unknown number” for the third time in the last ten minutes. Ever since he switched phone companies a few months ago he swears the amount of spam calls he's gotten has doubled. His phone rang again, the same unknown contact lighting up the screen. Whoever this was clearly wasn’t gonna give it up.

“Hello?”

“Jonathan Byers?”

“Yeah this is him, who is this? Why do you keep calling me?”

“I think you know why, you little pervert. I’ve been watching you, I know about your little photo collection. I know about your obsession with your precious little Bunny.”

“W-what? I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about… whoever this is, leave me the hell alone.”

He scoffed, hitting the red circular button on his phone screen. This person was clearly fucking with him, and even if they weren’t they had no proof of anything. Fuck that. He let out a deep breath, trying to compose his anxious thoughts. He had just started to calm down when his phone abruptly started ringing again.

“You think you can hang up on me, Jonny boy? Think again. I’m not fucking around here, hang up the phone again and I’ll slit your little rabbits neck and come for you next. I’ll stab her more times than I did your low life daddy. Got it?”

“What the hell do you want? Who is this? If you seriously think I’m going to believe you’re the killer you’re insane. You’re obviously some asshole just trying to freak me out with everything that’s going on.”

“Oh so you wanna act tough? Don’t believe me? Check your texts.” His phone dinged seconds later and he removed it from his ear, clicking on the text notification from the unknown number. He gasped when he saw the contents of the text. It was a photo of him on the stairs, with his camera in his hands. The lens was tilted at Willow walking a few steps above him, directly up her little skirt.

“W-What do you want from me?”

“I don’t particularly want anything from you, I just wanted you to know I’m watching…If you want your little Bunny rabbit in one piece you’ll do what I say, when I say it. Got it? Have a good night, pretty boy… don’t let the bedbugs bite…” The line went dead, leaving Jonathan standing in the middle of his room alone, confused and shaking.

“He really called you? Like you’re sure it was him?” Bunny pouted as she leaned her elbows on the table, her chin resting on her folded hands. The red light of the darkroom reflects off her hair giving it a blood tinted hue.

“I’m pretty sure… He was really believable.” Jonathan gulped as he unrolled the negatives from their project, laying them out on the table.

“What did he say though? Did he threaten you??” Her brows furrowed, and yet again he just wanted to kiss right in between them, kiss all her worries away. Especially if she was worrying about him.

“Uh - yeah, kind of? He kind of made it seem like he’d be back later to force me to do something for him almost? I’m not really sure… but, he called Eddie and did the same to him. I’m pretty freaked out if I’m being honest.” He let out a shaky breath as he loaded the negatives into the enlarger, getting the first one in frame to process.

“That’s so scary… especially with your guys’ dads last year, and now Nancy. It seems like he might be targeting you or something. How are you doing by the way? With Nancy being found and all…”

“Yeah, I’ve kind of been thinking the same… I’m trying not to think too much into it, but it’s hard not to, ya know? Also I’m doing… okay? It’s not like she and I were on good terms in the slightest but I didn’t want her to die or anything, especially like that. I’m a sad obviously… It just mostly feels weird knowing she’s gone, I guess.”

Not as sad as I would be if it were you. He almost said it, he had to physically stop himself. He’d never even held her hand but he would feel like the world was ending if even a hair on her head was misplaced. Nancy had been brutally murdered, he did everything with her except actually fuck her and he didn’t even shed a tear. Granted she cheated on him with Steve, and he literally sent him a photo of her with his dick shoved deep inside her from behind.

“Kind of strange that two of the victims have been girls Steve slept with, don’t you think?” Bunny inquired, her small hand grabs a piece of photography paper from the stack, placing it under the focus finder for him. She leaned over the table to look into the peephole, giving Jonathan a perfect view down her little pink dress that he just couldn’t resist. Her hair fell over her shoulder and into her eyes and he reached out, pushing it back without thinking. He almost apologized, scared he overstepped, but she looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. “Thank you bear.”

“Yeah it’s a little strange, but if we are going by that logic he fucked me and Eddie’s dads too.” He chuckled at the thought, grabbing the sheet of paper with the photo Bunny took the other day and putting it into the liquid filled processing tub.

“Ha! I suppose you’re right about that. I know he won’t cancel his party either, he will totally see this as an opportunity to have everyone ‘chill and let loose’ or some corny shit.” She snorted, throwing her head back with a giggle.

“Yeah, you’re definitely right about that, Bunny.” He smiled, her giggle causing him to let out a chuckle of his own.

“Are you gonna go? To the party I mean.”

“Uh - I’m not sure, I’m still thinking about it. I think Eddie is going, if he does I probably will.” He shrugged, grabbing the next film strip and lining it up without thinking.

“Me and Sammy are going, it would be cool to see you there.” She smiled sweetly at him, her fingers twirling a strand of her hair. Her brown doe eyes were shining in the red light as she stared at him, far too distracted to notice the photo of her bent over in front of him at the cemetery being magnified by the negative carrier right next to her.

“Yeah? Then maybe I’ll go, I’ll let you know for sure. Um I -“ He stopped mid sentence when he turned back to the task at hand, his eyes widening at the sight of the photo in front of him. He quickly pulls the photo away, praying to whatever god is out there that she hadn’t noticed it.

“Oh shit - whoops!” Bunny let out a small gasp when she accidentally knocked over the stack of papers on the table, turning to pick them up off the ground, giving him yet another glimpse of her panties. It also gave him time to shove the film strip in his pocket and out of view.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just turned a little too fast and knocked these down, no biggie.” She picked up the stack, straightening it and putting it back on the table before pulling her dress back into place, giving him one of those smiles that is so sweet he feels like he’s going to get a cavity from it one day.

“Okay, cool, wanna keep going?” He smiled back, his cheeks dusted pink, he couldn’t help it, she was just so cute all the time, no matter what she was doing.

“Yeah, of course!” Her hand found his bicep, giving it a few soft strokes with her silky smooth thumb. It sent shivers through his entire body, there’s no way she didn’t feel the goosebumps raise on his skin.

“Cool, let’s do it, cutie. By the way I really do hope you decide to go, to the party I mean.” She winks at him, raising up on her tiptoes to place a soft lip gloss covered kiss on his cheek before turning back to the negatives, resuming her work like she didn’t just make his insides melt.

Jonathan wandered around the party with his camera around his neck and his hands stuffed in his pockets. His eyes scanned the crowd every few seconds, keeping them peeled for Bunny. He knew she was here, he saw her car outside when he was coming up. He decided to grab a drink and perch himself against a wall in the living room. He people watched as he sipped the strong syrupy drink.

He caught sight of Eddie, sitting side by side with Sammy on the couch and he smiled to himself. From what Eddie had told him things between them seemed to be going well. He heard a giggle he would recognize anywhere coming from his left over the music and he turned his head only to be met with a sight that made his heart shatter.

Bunny was here, that was for sure. She was standing in front of Steve, in front of being an exaggeration, she was literally pressed up against him, trapping him between her and the wall. She had this mischievous look in her eyes that Jonathan had never seen, and the smile on her lips was almost sinister. She looked like she wanted to eat Steve alive and he never felt more jealous in his entire life. That should be him. You should be doing that cute hair twirling thing you do and giggling at his jokes. Not fucking Steve. Jonathan watched as you continued to whisper in his ear, Steve’s bottom lip catching between his teeth at whatever you were saying.

“Listen up everyone!! If we are gonna survive this night with a psycho killer on the loose we are gonna have to understand the rules!” Robin stood clapping her hands to gain everyone’s attention.

“Rules? At a party? Seriously?” Steve scoffed, stepping away from Bunny to walk into the living room. “I think that’s the last thing on everyone’s mind right now, Rob.”

“Yes rules, dingus!! First rule, you can NEVER have sex. Have sex, and you die!” Everyone in the room booed and laughed at that, no sex? At a party? At Steve Harrington’s house? Not likely.

“I think you’re a little late for that…” Steve smirked over his shoulder at Bunny, sending her a wink. Jonathan cringed as he watched her bite her lip, curling a finger towards herself as she walked towards the stairs. He wanted to scream while he watched Steve’s smirk turn into a full blown smile, and when Steve followed her up the stairs? He wanted to bash his head into the wall. Fuck.

Robin continued to rant about her “rules” but he couldn’t hear a word she was saying anymore. All the blood in his body rushed to his ears and everything in the room sounded like it was under water. He brought his drink to his lips, chugging the remainder of it before scanning the room again. Eddie was still sitting on the couch but Sammy was gone, so he made his way to his best friend’s side like a kid who just got his toy stolen at recess.

“Hey man…” Jonathan sighed as he flopped down next to Eddie.

“Hey dude, you okay? I saw uh - you know…”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s cool. I’m sure she will say hi if she feels like it. Wanna smoke?” He tried to sound as nonchalant as he could, but Eddie knew him, he could tell how upset he truly was. But if he didn’t want to talk, he wasn’t going to pry.

“Yeah bro, light one up, why the hell not? It is a party after all, Robin’s rules be damned.”

Steve walked down the hall toward the door he saw Bunny go in, when he entered it was dark, and the door slammed behind him.

“Oh shit! Jesus Christ. Willow?” He searched the room for her but his eyes had yet to adjust so all he could see was darkness.

“Hey Stevie boy.” A voice came from behind him, one that definitely didn’t belong to the small blonde haired girl he was looking for.

“Wha-? Who's there? This isn’t fucking funny.” He whipped around towards the door, only to find it blocked by a black cloaked figure. The mask of the infamous “Ghostface” staring back at him. “Hey man, I don’t want any trouble, seriously. I’m just looking for my girl -“

“Your girl?” The figure rushes him, slamming his back against a near wall. A shiny silver butcher's knife is held to his throat so tightly when he gulps it knicks him a little. “Since when has she ever been your girl? And if you didn’t want any trouble Steve… Why did you do it?”

“Do - do what? What did I do?” His voice comes out as panicked as his hazel eyes look, his hands shaking at his sides.

“You really don’t know? Or are you really so much of a prick that you don’t even understand the concept of right and wrong? Remember how you fucked Jonathan’s girlfriend and sent him a photo of your dick buried inside her? Or what about all the times you’ve called him ‘little dick Byers’?” The voice was harsh and masculine, which confused Steve slightly due to the fact that the person standing in front of him was half his size. Regardless, they had a knife to his throat and he had seen the photos of their victims.

“That’s what this is about? Byers? Seriously? I’m just giving him shit dude! I know that shit with Nancy wasn’t cool but I was just being a dick! I’m fucking sorry okay!”

“Yeah? You’re sorry? That’s so sweet Steve… you know, I was going to kill you, but I think I’ll let you go. I have a better idea… you’re gonna tell Jonathan just how sorry you are, and then you’re never going to fuck with him again. If I find out you do, I won’t kill you, but, I will tell everyone how ‘Big dick king Steve’ is really just a subby little baby with mommy issues who wants girls to play with his ass and spit in his mouth. Got it?” Ghostface chuckles, running the tip of the blade along the boy’s Adam’s apple.

“Yeah! Yeah! I got it! Please just let me go!” Steve has no idea how they know that, there’s only ever been two girls he’s shown that side of himself to, but right now he doesn’t fucking care, he just wants this knife as far away from his throat as possible.

“Oh Steve? if you want my advice? I’d own the whole sub thing, you’re kinda sexy when you beg…” The figure taps his cheek with the blade before backing away from him, leaving the room and locking him inside.

•

“THE KILLER IS FUCKING HERE!! HE FUCKING STABBED ME! HELP!!” A dude came running in the back door, holding his shoulder that was gushing blood. Screams erupted around the room, everyone running towards the door, bodies slamming into each other and drinks spilling as cups were dropped from hands in a frenzy.

“Fuck.” Jonathan was immediately on guard, discarding his own drink and scanning the room for Bunny and Eddie. He pushed through panicked party goers, yelling out both her real and her nickname, but she was nowhere to be seen. He scanned the room for the fluffy curls of his best friend and came up empty. He rushed down the now empty hallway, poking his head into one of the bedrooms only to be pulled inside and slammed against the door.

A hand pressed against his mouth, his head shoved against the hard wood of the door, causing him to wince and close his eyes. His hands reached for the one covering his mouth, when they met silky soft skin his eyes shot open. Bunny. She was standing in front of him in her little pink dress, her small hand still held to his lips, but the look in her eyes is one he had never seen before. He tried to say her name but it came out muffled, he tapped her hand, silently asking her to move it. She complied, taking a small step back.

“Bunny? What’s going on? Are you alright?” His eye’s frantically searched her, landing first on the blood on her left shoulder, a bit of it staining the tips of her white hair. He couldn’t tell if it was hers or not. His brown irises traveled over her face, to his relief there wasn’t a scratch on it. But that’s when he noticed it, in her right hand, a butcher's knife, covered in blood. “Bunny? Why do you have that?”

“Aww, you’re so sweet to me Jonny Bear, I’m alright. Don’t worry. It’s not my blood.” A smirk stretches across her lips and that look he couldn’t identify before now presents itself as almost evil.

“Whose - whose is it then? And you didn’t answer my question Bunny… Why do you have that knife? Why is it covered in blood? What's going on?” Jonathan is frantic, his hands running through his hair as his breath starts to pick up.

“It’s Jason’s.” She shrugs, so nonchalantly, like holding a knife with one of their classmates' blood dripping from it is just an everyday occurrence.

“Jason’s? What happened to Jason?”

“Well… there is no more Jason.” She raises the knife, shaking it back and forth, that smirk on her face widening into a full blown smile. “Me and Sam made sure of that.”

“You and Sa - ? What do you mean Bunny? What did you do to Jason?” Jonathan is in disbelief, this isn’t the Willow he knows, did she seriously hurt Jason? Does that mean? No. She can’t be.

“Jonathan… baby, don’t do that.” She pouts as she closes the distance between them again, pressing her chest against his, the knife still held at her side.

“Don’t play dumb. You know what I did. Well, what we did. We stabbed him in the neck, both sides. If you need me to spell it out for you.” She giggles, that giggle that usually sounds sickly sweet coming off far more sinister now.

“Bunny… I - does that mean you - you killed all of those people? Why? Why would you do that? I don’t understand you’re so-“ his eyes search her face, his sweet Willow, could she really have done this? Everything he knows about her tells him no, but the way she’s looking at him right now, and the knife in her hand? They tell him otherwise.

“Well, I didn’t kill all of them… Just your dad… and Nancy…” She brings a delicate finger up to his jaw, tracing it. “I did it for you, ya know? Because you deserve better than them.”

“For me? What - what do you mean you did it for me?” Jonathan was beyond confused, why would she do that for him?

“Well, I feel like your dead beat dad was a given, I saw how upset you were when he came around here last year, asking you for money and insulting you when you didn't have it. Hurting you. You thought I didn’t notice but I did. You think I don’t notice you but I do…” she presses herself closer to him, her hand cupping his jaw while she runs her thumb over his bottom lip. He gulps, and he knows it shouldn’t but his cock stirs in his pants at the feeling of her boobs pressed against his chest.

“And Nancy… well I never liked her know it all ass anyways, but when I found out what she did to you? My blood boiled. Imagine having a sweet boy like you and hurting him like that? I almost killed Steve too… but I had a more fun idea for him. He’s locked in his room right now.” She giggles, her brown eyes shine and that sickly sweet smile doesn’t budge.

Jonathan is speechless, he still isn’t sure that this isn’t some kind of fucked up dream. His sweet Bunny, Willow, a killer?

“Don’t act like you’re not happy, Bear, I can feel your appreciation.” She ground herself against his hardening cock, the knife in her hand drags up his bare forearm and sends shivers through his entire body. “Plus, you aren’t so innocent, I know all about your little photo collection of me. I love how much you fall for my ditzy girl act, you didn’t ever think I was bending down in front of you in all those tiny skirts on purpose?”

“Were you… really?” He gasps, the knife continuing to travel up his shoulder, his collarbone, until it stops at his throat where she presses it lightly. Not enough to break the skin, just enough for him to feel it.

“Of course I was, oh, and orange juice? Jonny Bear, you really think I wouldn’t know? Pathetic virgin boy cum is my favorite flavor.” She bites her lip, her free hand coming to tug on the strap of his camera that he has yet to replace.

“You knew? I felt so bad, I’m so sorry, I just didn’t know what to say and I -“

“Jonathan!” She holds a finger to his lips, shushing him. “Don’t be sorry, I liked it. I’d like to get a taste of the real thing… if I’m being honest.” She bites her plump lower lip, her eyes traveling his face. He looked confused, but scared? No. When her eyes met his there was lust there.

“You do?” He bites his lip, his hands clenched into fists at his sides as he looks at her. The smile on her face is still there, but the look in her eyes is now filled with hunger and it makes his heart rate pick up in a different way.

“Yeah, can I taste you?” She leans up on her tiptoes, her lips graze his ear and it sends shivers through his body.

“Please.” He whimpers and it’s like music to her ears.

She tosses the knife across the room and it hits the wooden floor with a clank. She takes the camera from around his neck, bringing the strap to her lips and darting her tongue across it with a moan. Putting the camera around her own neck.

“I’m gonna make you feel so good, baby.” She drops to her knees and smiles up at him and her voice is like honey, and if he didn’t know any better he would believe she was the sweet girl he thought she always was until ten minutes ago.

She undoes his belt, undoing his button and zipper with haste. She pulls his pants down to his ankles in one swift motion and his cock springs free, hitting his stomach. It’s long and thick, honestly bigger than she expected and she moans at the sight. She takes it in her hand, her thumb circling the head, spreading around the precum that gathered there.

“Oh shit bunny.” Jonathan whimpers and sends shockwaves to Bunny’s core.

“Mmm.. I knew you’d sound so sweet whimpering for me, Jonny Bear.” She leans forward to kitten lick his head and moans at the taste of him. “And you taste so good.”

She smirks at him, batting her mascara covered lashes as she takes his head in her mouth, swirling her tongue around it. Jonathan moans, his hands coming up to clutch the wall behind him, his head thrown back.

“Oh god.” His voice sounds fucked out, his cheeks flushed, and he’s trying really fucking hard not to cum already. The way Bunny’s plump lips look so perfect wrapped around his cock just like he thought they would, her big doe eyes staring up at him as she moans around him. She takes the rest of him down her throat and he jerks forward, causing her to gag. “Oh sh - shit, I’m sorry bunny, fuck.”

“Mmm that’s okay baby, I liked it.” She takes him in her mouth again, bobbing her head up and down on his shaft. Her small hand comes up to play with his balls and his eyes roll back, a loud moan ripping from his chest.

“Oh fuck. Oh fuck. I’m gonna - I’m gon-“ Jonathan is seconds away from cumming when she pulls off of him with a pop.

“Don’t you dare cum yet, don’t you want to cum inside of me?” Bunny stands, that smirk on her face ever present. “You look so cute like this… I think I should take a picture. It’s only fair that I have one of you since you have so many of me, don’t you think, Bear?”

“Uh - yeah, yeah, I think that’s… fair.” Jonathan blushed profusely, the thought of her taking a photo of him with his pants around his ankles and his hard leaky cock exposed feels humiliating. But god he would be lying if he said it didn’t turn him on even more.

“Good boy.” Her voice is sickly sweet and those words leaving her mouth make Jonathan moan. She takes a step back, holding the camera to her face. She clicks the button not once, but twice. She pulls the camera over her head, setting it on a dresser in the room before her dress follows. His jaw drops and a whine leaves his lips at the sight of her bare before him. No bra or panties to be found under that little pink dress. “Take your clothes off and get on the bed for me.”

She doesn’t have to ask him twice. He quickly removes all his clothing as she watches with lust filled eyes. He lays down on the guest bed, his cock still hard and at attention. His brown eyes are wide with wonder as Bunny walks over to the bed to straddle him. She grabs his face in her hand, squeezing his cheeks together with her thumb and index finger roughly. But when she leans down to kiss him for the first time her lips are gentle, and so so soft and her lip gloss tastes like bubblegum. Jonathan moans into the kiss, his hands instinctively grabbing onto her hips.

“I wanna taste you too, Bunny.” He whimpers against her lips. “Will you sit on my face? Please Bunny?”

“Mmm… next time, baby. I’ll give you a little taste though, since you’ve been such a good boy for me.”

She uses her hands to push herself up against his chest, and god does she look beautiful sitting above him. Jonathan watches as she brings two fingers to her core, sliding them inside her. She fucks them into herself a few times and he can hear how wet she is. She pulls her fingers from herself and brings them to his lips.

“Suck.” Jonathan eagerly takes her fingers into his mouth, moaning at the sweet taste of her finally on his tongue. Bunny settled herself on his lap, her slick pussy lips sat directly on his cock. She grinds down, easily gliding along his length with how wet she is. “I can’t wait anymore to have this pretty cock stretching me out.”

She pulls her fingers from his mouth and brings them to his cock, rubbing her spit along the head. She takes his shaft in her hand, rising up on her knees and sliding his tip through her slick folds. She pushes his head inside, grinding up and down a few times before slamming the rest of the day down onto his cock in one thrust.

“FUCK! BUNNY!l Jonathan moans, his eyes crossed, his fingers digging into the flesh of her ass.

“Mmm Jonny bear, you feel so fucking good, filling me up just right, you’re so good for me. My good boy.” Bunny starts to bounce up and down on his cock, her hands planted on his chest and her manicured nails pierce his flesh in the best way.

“You feel - so good Bunny. So good. So warm. Oh god.”

He’s a whimpering mess, the girl of his dreams is riding him like her life depends on it, her pussy sucking him in like it was fucking made for him. Her tits bounce in his face and he wants to grab them so badly, it’s like she can sense his hesitation because she grabs his hands and brings them to her chest, squeezing. He greedily takes the invitation, his hands grouping onto the plush flesh.

“Did you jerk off to those pictures of me, bear? Is that why there was cum on your camera strap? Just couldn’t resist, could you?” She mock pouts at him, her thrusts never faltering.

“Y- yes. Yes, I saw this photo I forgot I took and - fuckingshitohmygod - and I just couldn’t help myself. It was in my car, in the parking lot at school too.”

“Fuck, that’s so hot baby, I love how much you want me. It drives me crazy.” She laces her fingers into his hair and pulls, It earns her one of those pathetic little whimpers she wants to record and listen to on repeat. She leans forward, attaching her lips to his neck. She sucks hard, making sure to leave her mark. “And you’re all mine, huh? My good boy? You don’t even care that I killed those people, do you? Just wanna be my little slut and let me use you?”

“Fucking, shit, yeah Bunny. I - Jesus Christ - I’d do anything for you.” His hands grip onto her ass but other than that he’s like puddy underneath her and you can tell he’s getting close.

She sits up again, her thrusts becoming harder and faster than ever. She brings her hand between her legs, rubbing fast circles on her clit.

“You gonna cum for me, pretty boy?” She brings her other thumb to his lip, running the digit across it. “Gonna fill me up?”

“I - FUCK!” Jonathan stiffens beneath her, his fingernails digging so deep into the skin of her ass that she feels the skin break. Seconds later he’s spilling inside her, the feeling sending her over the edge as well. She grinds through her high on his over sensitive cock, breathy little gasps leaving her lips while he whimpers overstimulated and at her mercy.

“Holy shit.” Bunny chuckles, rolling off of him and into his side with a groan. She snuggles up into his chest and he happily takes her into his arms. “That was amazing. You were so good for me Bear, my good boy, you’re always gonna be my good boy. From now on… I’ll never let anything happen to you.”

And she meant it. She would protect him at all costs. Even if it meant she had to go a little mad sometimes.

[stranger-fanfiction-n-things]

CHAPTER 5: THE FLEA AND THE ACROBAT

This is an Original Character fanfiction. All Stranger Things characters and content are owned by Netflix and The Duffer Brothers.

a/n: This is a long one and based off certain scenes in Lucas on the Line. As a black person, I never realized I was other until it was pointed out to me and once I internalized it, I had questions I couldn't ask my parent(s) because it's not something discussed at length in the black community because trying to survive is hard enough. I honestly urge y'all to read Lucas on the Line because it's such a well written story about the Black Experience and how nuanced and difficult it is to navigate especially black kids who grew up in white neighbourhoods.

I hope y'all enjoy. Let me know what you guys think and if you'd like to be added to the tag list, let me know too! 🤎

Warnings: Swearing.

Word Count: 4587

Masterlist

PART I || PART II || PART III || PART IV

THE WOODS 

I squeal dropping the mallet on the ground at the sound of a gunshot. Nancy giggles waiting for me as I pick up my weapon in the shrubbery. I never thought I would be on my way to meet up with Jonathan Byers on the opposite side of town to learn how to shoot a gun. But then again, a lot more bizarre things have happened this week so I shouldn’t be surprised. Nancy and I trek up the small hill as Jonathan shoots repeatedly at the target of empty tin cans or at least attempts to. 

“You’re supposed to hit the cans, right?” 

Jonathan looks over his shoulder smiling sheepishly. “No, actually you see the spaces in between the cans? I’m aiming for those.”  

“Sure.” Nancy answers, titling her head in amusement. She drops her backpack and baseball bat on the ground ready for practice. 

I don’t take off my backpack right away, taking in my surroundings. The wide-open space of dry leaves, weeds and shrubs. The tall pine trees encircling the space. The winter chill started to come in and I wish I wore a hat today to cover my ears, maybe even a heavier coat instead of a denim jacket. Jonathan opens the revolver to check how many bullets are in the cylinder before reaching in his pockets for more. 

“You ever shot a gun before?” 

“Absolutely not.” I answer. 

“Didn’t your dad fight in the Vietnam War?” I nod my head, shifting from side to side on my feet. My Dad would never let any of us touch a gun. There was no reason for us to. Jonathan shrugs.  “I’m surprised he hasn’t taught you how to shoot a gun,” he commented, directing his gaze to Nancy. “You?” 

Nancy scoffs. “Have you met my parents?” 

“Yeah, I haven’t shot one since I was nine. My dad took me hunting on my birthday.” I see the spark in his eyes dwindle to a low flame. “He made me kill a rabbit.” 

“A rabbit?” Nancy and I say at the same time.

“Yeah. I guess he thought it would make me into more of a man or something.” 

“Yes, because the world needs more men shooting guns.” I deadpan. 

Jonathan smirks, adding bullets to the cylinder. “I cried for a week.” 

“Jesus.” Nancy whispers. 

“I’m sorry.” I say to him. 

Jonathan didn’t say anything as he tried to drag emotion back under where he didn’t need to feel it. He snaps the revolver in place, the corners of his lips rise to a smirk again. “What? I’m a fan of Thumper.” 

“I meant your dad.” Nancy says. 

The detachment in his tone makes me uncomfortable. In seeing Jonathan’s dad for the first time today, the way he dressed and carried himself. There was something arrogant and insincere about him. When Will first went missing, I never heard Jonathan mention his dad, when Nancy and I found Jonathan at the funeral home, he was by himself picking caskets. Ms. Byers was at home grieving, but the whole town knew how adamant she was on finding Will, but where was his dad? The audacity to show up to the funeral of his youngest son, he did nothing to plan, to shake hands with the people who did care to find Will. Now with this story, it completed the picture. He was never in Jonathan and Will’s life and didn’t care to be. Only wanted to insert his toxic male dominance and masculinity onto the boys. 

“I guess he and my mother loved each other at some point...but I wasn’t around for that part.” 

Nancy gestures for the gun and Jonathan hands it to her. “Just point and shoot.” 

I walk behind Nancy to stand beside Jonathan, refusing to be anywhere near that sound. Nancy takes a deep breath aiming the gun at the can a few yards in front of her. 

“I don’t think my parents ever loved each other.” 

My eyebrows raise at the bold statement. “Nancy, you shouldn’t say that.” 

“I mean it.” she answers. 

“They must’ve married for some reason.” Jonathan states. 

“My mom was young. My dad was older but he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So, they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac and started their nuclear family.” 

“Screw that.” Jonathan says. 

“Yeah. Screw that.” 

Nancy closes one eye aiming for the beer can. I put my fingers in in ears just as Nancy pulls the trigger hitting the beer can. I chuckle in disbelief. From shot gunning to shooting them, anything involving beer cans, Nancy is a natural. I shrug off my backpack, placing the mallet on top. Despite the awe, I am uncomfortable with what Nancy said about her parents. Sure, Mr. Wheeler was a bit…impartial. I was around the family many times to know that, but to say her parents never loved each other? I don’t know. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to try, Diana?” Jonathan asks, offering me the gun. I don’t move contemplating. “It’s not gonna bite.” He jokes. I make a face at Jonathan and he laughs as I cautiously take it from him with my gloved hand. 

“Just point and shoot?” 

“Just point and shoot.” 

I standing in front of a can, widening my stance so I don’t fall over. “There’s nothing wrong with starting a nuclear family.”  

“That’s easy for you to say,” Nancy voices. “Your family is perfect.” 

I narrow my eyes at her, shaking my head. The contempt in her tone is shocking. “That’s not true.” 

“Diana,” Nancy chides, shoving her hands in her pockets. “You never argue with your parents and your parents never argue with each other. You are perfect. Your siblings are perfect. Everyone in your family is perfect.” 

I don’t miss Jonathan’s eyes darting back and forth between us. Having never seen us go back and forth with each other, I can tell he is surprised by this. What he doesn’t know is this topic of conversation isn’t new. Throughout our years of friendship, Nancy and Barb always made fun of me for being “perfect”; how I never make mistakes; I am always put together. I need at least eight-hours of “beauty” sleep. From the nickname “Lady Diana”, to my mom making me lunches because I refuse to each cafeteria food. At first it used to bother me, but I moved passed it until Tommy H and Carol picked up on it and started calling me “Anal Princess”. 

This may not be a new conversation, but the undertone certainly is and it’s why I am thrown off by it. It doesn’t sound like a joke anymore and there’s something deeper going on. I never thought Nancy envied me. I know I certainly envied Nancy for being strong enough to stand up for herself and say no. For being able to be defiant without feeling like its wrong. I lift my head high lifting the gun eye level. 

“I’m not perfect and my parents do argue, just not in front of us and there’s nothing wrong with that.” I begin. “You want to know why my dad never taught me how to fire a gun?” I refer to Jonathan’s comment earlier. “Because he never talks about the War unless it’s to teach us a lesson. I don’t know any stories of his time there. My family is seemingly perfect because we don’t talk about things, we don’t have difficult conversations. We just keep our heads down and try to live without feeling more of an outsider than we already are.”  I pull the trigger and the bullet hits the can knocking it off the tree stub. 

None of us react. The heaviness of what I said laying on thick. My family isn’t perfect. We are far from it. We are compliant and conforming because it’s the only way to not be seen as more of an outsider than we already are. I understand it to a certain extent, but sometimes I wish my parents would talk more about it. About being black in an all-white religious town. About their past and how they came to Hawkins. I know nothing and it’s something I push down to be the “perfect” daughter when deep down it bothers me. This is not something I can discuss with Lucas and Erica because they are happy in their bubble and I want to keep it that way for them. 

“What do you mean?” Nancy asks with a frown. “You’re not an outsider, Di.” 

“Never mind.” I say, handing Jonathan the gun, feeling more uncomfortable than before.

Nancy didn’t question me again and after shooting practice we decided to head through the forest looking for the mysterious animal. Dried leaves crunch under my boots as we all walked in silence. Jonathan and Nancy walked together giving me space to be alone for a while which I am grateful for because I didn’t feel like talking. My mind feels like it’s been jostled back and forth, buzzing with many thoughts. I can’t believe I said that out loud. I’ve never talked about it because who do I talk about this with? Uncle Jack only comes to Hawkins once a year and when he does the environment is uncomfortable and stuffy because Dad doesn’t like Uncle Jack and doesn’t hide it. Long distance calls are expensive and I have no money to pay for it and if Dad finds out I’ve been talking to Uncle Jack he’d be furious. Maybe I should start journaling or writing letters I’ll never send. 

“You never said what I was saying?” Nancy speaks after a long period of silence. 

“What?” Jonathan says. 

The conversation about the photos began in the darkroom yesterday, but I interrupted when I saw the final development of the photo of the thing that took Will and Barb. It’s definitely been the great elephant in the room between the three of us and though the conversation in the darkroom was light in nature, it is a serious situation. 

“Yesterday, you said, I was saying something and that’s why you took my picture.” I glance around not focusing on anything, while keeping my ears perked. 

“Oh, I don’t know. My guess…I saw this girl; you know trying to be someone else. But for that moment…it was like you were alone or you thought you were,” I cautiously peer at Nancy. She looks like she’s about to explode. “And, you know you could just be yourself.” 

I ground my teeth. Jonathan just opened up a huge can of worms. A few days ago, I would’ve agreed but after talking to Nancy, I don’t think she is trying to be someone else. She’s a young woman exploring and there’s nothing wrong with that. Also, Jonathan isn’t close to Nancy to know who she is and who she isn’t. Nancy doesn’t respond right away, processing the soft insult. She stops clenching her hands into fists. 

“That is such bullshit.” Nancy fumes, glaring at Jonathan. “I am not trying to be someone else. Just because I’m dating Steve and you don’t like him—” 

“You know what? Forget it. I just thought it was a good picture.” 

My head retracts back. “So, you were intentional in taking those photos.” 

Jonathan’s head whips back. His brows shoot up in disbelief. “What?” 

“You said you thought it was a good picture which means you were intentional about taking it.” My voice hardens. “Taking all of it.” 

“Don’t put words in my mouth, Diana.” Jonathan mutters furiously under his breath, walking away. I march behind him trying to keep up with his long legs and quick strides.

“I’m not putting words in your mouth! Nancy asked you a question and your answer quite frankly, was bullshit. Because really? That’s what you were thinking when she was taking off her shirt?” It’s a cop out. A poor excuse to deflect from what he did. Jonathan scoffs. “Unbelievable.” I hiss, catching myself before I trip over a branch. “What about how Steve feels?” 

“Oh my god!” Jonathan throws his hands up in exasperation and I am filled with so much adrenaline I’m starting to shake. 

“I told you his privacy was violated too!” I snap. “As was mine, Tommy, Carol, and Barb!” 

Jonathan spins around, eyes bulging out of his sockets. “And I said I was sorry for taking the photos!” He shouts. I blink repeatedly taken aback by this attitude. No one has ever yelled at me like that and Jonathan was the last person I thought would. Nancy steps in scowling at him. 

“Don’t yell at her!” she shouts, pointing at him. Jonathan glares at her and keeps his mouth shut. I look down at my boots, done with the conversation. “Steve is actually a good guy. The whole camera situation. He’s not like that at all. He was just being protective.” 

“Yeah.” Jonathan scoffs, walking away. “That’s one word for it.” 

“And what you did was okay?” Nancy barks, following after him. I stalk behind her keeping my distance. 

“I never said that.” 

“He had every right to be pissed—”

“Okay, all right.” Jonathan says, rolling his eyes, coming to a halt. “Does that mean I have to like him?” 

“No.” 

“Listen, don’t take it so personally, okay? I don’t like most people. He’s in the vast majority.” 

This is why he’s being like this. Because he doesn’t like Steve and has some sort of animosity towards him. I never thought I would stick up for Steve, but after my encounter with him in my garage, I think he’s a good person and deserves a chance to be seen and heard outside his bubble. 

“You know, I was actually starting to think that you were okay.” Nancy rages. 

“Yeah?” Jonathan challenges, eyes glowing with savage fire. 

“Yeah, I was thinking, ‘Jonathan Byers, maybe he’s not the pretentious creep everyone says he is.’” 

“Well, I was just starting to think you were okay. I was thinking, ‘Nancy Wheeler, she’s not just another suburban girl who thinks she’s rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does, until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales, and they live out a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac.’” His voice was stern with no vestige of sympathy in its hardness. “’Exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing, but now, hey, they get it.’” 

Nancy and I watch Jonathan march away. We look at each other absolutely gobsmacked at what just happened. Nancy’s face is so red, the veins in her neck pulsates with pent-up fury as she clenches her fists. I wrap my arm around her shoulders guiding her along the path. 

I admire the colours of the sky as we trek through the forest. Shades of pink, orange, and yellow blending and oozing together. The sun was setting and we would soon need to use our flashlights to navigate through the forest. My back aches from carrying my backpack for so long and I want to tell Jonathan to stop so we can take a break but he was far ahead keeping his distance. All of us have been quiet since the argument though Nancy walked beside me, we haven’t spoken focusing on our surroundings, deep in thought. 

A lot of truth has been said today and it felt like it was shoved down all our throats. I’m not mad at Jonathan for yelling at me and I hope he’s not mad at me for calling him out. What he did was stupid and I know he knows that, but picking a fight with Nancy was something completely different. It felt more personal and I can’t quite put my finger on why it would be since Jonathan and Nancy aren’t close. If anything, they may be farther apart now after what he said to her. I doubt Jonathan wants that especially because of how far we’ve come. 

“Are you okay?” Nancy asks quietly enough so Jonathan doesn’t hear. 

“Yes.” I respond automatically. Nancy looks at me and I drop the act. “No.” 

“Me neither.” she agrees, glaring at the back of Jonathan’s head. “I’m so sick of him and his holier than thou attitude.” 

“I can’t believe he yelled at me.” 

“I can’t believe that either!” she whispers hastily. “I didn’t like that.” 

“I know. Thank you for sticking up for me.”

“Thank you for sticking up for me and Steve.” 

“You’re welcome.” 

I debate on whether I should tell her he came to my house today, but decide it doesn’t matter and she probably already knew about it since he was in his way to see her anyways. 

“I can’t believe Princess Diana swore.” she teases, touching her chest in shock. 

“Oh, shut up.” I giggle, pushing her away. 

“Ou, again!” I roll my eyes. 

“I was just trying to understand why he took the photos.” 

“I honestly don’t even think he knows.” she says, looking at Jonathan again. There was no anger in her eyes, just curiosity.

“After that conversation, I think so too.” 

Nancy hums in response, tucking a stray wisp of hair behind her ears. “I was going to bring it up later but, what you did earlier today about being an outsider. What did you mean?” 

A ripple of anxiety went up my back while my stomach fell to my feet. I shrug my shoulders shaking me head. “I don’t know.” I deflect. 

“Diana, we’ve been friends for so long, you can talk to me about anything. You know that right?” 

I do know that, but this conversation was not about a boy or anything menial like that. It was much deeper and something I’ve been pushing down for years. I didn’t mean to say it out loud, but when Nancy went on about my perfect day family, I snapped. This past week I feel like I’ve gone through the most significant changes which in turn has brought up subconscious thoughts, emotions and insecurities. I feel like I’m being pulled in every direction, perfect daughter, perfect friend, Juilliard, Blackness, otherness. But who am I? Where do I want to go? Who do I want to be? 

“Diana.” Worry etched Nancy’s features. My silence makes her more anxious. I sigh, stepping over a branch. 

“Have you ever noticed there is no one who looks like me in our neighbourhood?” I mumble, uncomfortably. 

“No? What do you mean?” An expected answer. I close my eyes counting down from five. How do I go about this? 

“I mean, black.” I say, pushing down the lump forming in my throat. “My family…” I clear my throat. “My family is the only black family in the neighbourhood.” When Nancy doesn’t say anything, I continue. “I don’t remember when I noticed, but once I did, it’s hard not to. Even at school, I can count how many black people are there and majority are on the basketball team. Did you know that?” Nancy shakes her head. “I am the only black person in our classes, at dance. No matter where I go or what I do, who I am. I will always be the black one. Even in our friendship. That’s what I mean by outsider.” 

“My mom and dad don’t talk about our blackness and I’m left to figure it out on my own. I don’t have anyone to talk to about it. That’s what I mean when I said we don’t have difficult conversations. We just keep our heads down and conform, but sometimes I don’t want to conform. Sometimes…” I sigh feeling exhausted. Mentally. “Sometimes, I want to ask those questions but then I’ll feel like I’m not…” 

“The perfect daughter.” Nancy finishes. 

“Yeah.” I twirl the mallet in my hand. There’s so much to say but this conversation is exhausting enough. Nancy looks at the ground, kicking a rock. 

“I-I don’t know what to say…” she says lowly. “I’m sorry for not paying attention.” 

“You know now and that’s the first step.” 

“Of course, but please don’t be afraid to tell me these things. You’re my best friend and I don’t want you to feel like an outsider when you’re with me. What you said is something I need to know in order to change.” 

I nod my head and Nancy visibly relaxes, reaching to squeeze my hand. I rest my head on her shoulder feeling more relaxed than I did before the beginning of the conversation. It’s a conversation that could’ve easily gone south and I wouldn’t be prepared to handle it, especially after what happened hours before. Darkness quickly engulfs the sky and I am instantly aware of all the sounds in the forest. The wind slipping through leaves, the cracking undergrowth with each step Nancy and I make, the bugs crawling on trees. We all take out our flashlights to see and I notice Jonathan slows down to remain close, though still keeping his distance. I jerk at every unfamiliar sound making Nancy laugh again. 

“Do you remember Mei Wong?” I mutter, swatting away a fly.

“Yes. She auditioned for Juilliard!” 

“Well on Sunday at rehearsals, she told me…” I swallow to soothe the dryness in my throat. “She told me I should think about auditioning for Juilliard.” 

“Really? Wow!” 

I scrunch my nose. “I know.” 

“You definitely should. I meant what I said at Steve’s house. You’re such a beautiful dancer and you’re gonna go pro. I feel it.” I shake my head. Somehow Nancy sees it. 

“You are. I need you to be more confident in yourself.”

“I know, I know. It’s just…what if I audition and I don’t get in—”

“We’re only in 10th grade, you have time to worry about the auditions.” Nancy assures me.  “Maybe Juilliard has a summer intensive you can take beforehand to give you an extra boost.” 

“My dad will never allow that.” 

“Have you talked to your mom about it?” 

I shake my head. “Not yet.” 

“I say after all this is done and we find Barb, we will both help you research and come up with a plan for you to go to Juilliard. Because you’re going to Juilliard.” 

We find Barb. That’s the most important thing. It’s why we’re here now. The sound of her laughter echoed through my mind. The last time I saw her; felt her at Steve’s house. I don’t want to believe that was the last time I saw her. I shiver, crossing my arms above my chest. It’s so cold I can barely feel my ears and nose. Jonathan keeps pace with Nancy and I. There is still tension between the three of us, but now is not the time to dwell on it, not when we were outside in the forest on our own looking for God knows what. At random, Nancy slows down looking back and forth, her expression tight with strain. I keep myself composed despite the fact my heart is racing. Did she see something? Hear anything? Was it here? I tighten my grip on the mallet, my eyes darting from tree to tree. 

“What are you tired?” Jonathan asks. 

“Shut up.” Nancy hisses, looking around. “I heard something.” 

I follow closely beside Jonathan as we follow Nancy through the forest. I don’t know what we’re looking for or what she’s heard until I hear something faint…a whining sound. I gasp at the sight of a deer whimpering in front of underbrush. We all rush to the deer dropping to our knees. My stomach is in knots at the blood dampening its fawn-coloured coat. It looked like it’s been punctured multiple times. It’s ragged breathing and slow movements indicated it was in pain and about to die. I’ve never seen a deer this close before and I’m sad it has to be like this. Images of Bambi flash through my mind and I cover my mouth muffling my sobs.   

“Oh, God. It’s been hit by a car.” Nancy whimpers, tears brimming her eyes. She looks at the gun in her hand and holds it up. “We can’t just leave it.” 

“Wait!” I exclaim, grabbing her arm. “There must be something else we can do!” 

“It’s in too much pain. We have to.” 

“I’ll do it.” Jonathan says, taking the gun. Nancy and I look at him with wide eyes. “I’m not nine anymore.” Jonathan assures us. 

I stagger up on my feet grabbing Nancy’s hand. Jonathan points the gun at the deer. Time slows down and I feel like the forest is closing in on me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up just as Jonathan is about to pull the trigger when suddenly, the deer disappears into the underbrush. I jump back startled, mouth opening in a silent scream. 

“What was that? What was that?” Nancy shouts. 

I wring my hands jumping up and down. “Oh, my god. Oh my, god. I can’t. I can’t.” Panic shoots up my spine and I hold my chest struggling to catch my breath.

“There’s so much blood.” 

“Where did it go?” 

“I don’t know.” 

I quickly pick up the flashlight and mallet I dropped in my state of panic. My skin tingles and I shake my head trying to focus, aiming the light on the ground. Blood smears all over leaves and twigs. I proceed around with caution, shining my light on anything and everything in the forest, being cautious of not stepping on any gore. From the far distance I notice something dripping from a hollow tree stump. It looked like…sap. No, it’s too thick for it to be sap. I am vigilant taking calculated steps and kneel in front of the tree inspecting the foliage. It looked like the tree was creating mucus. Thick, slimy, runny mucus. There was no smell to it, but it was weird. I paid attention in biology last semester to know that this wasn’t right.

“Nancy.” I whisper. “This tree…there’s weird stuff falling.” 

Nancy joins me on my knees shining her light. She touches the tree stump, looking up. “Jonathan?” she shouts, looking around. I search as well thinking he was with us, but he’s nowhere to be seen. It would be unwise to leave Nancy here alone to look for him. We were better sticking together. When I turn back however, Nancy is taking off her backpack placing it beside her bat. My eyes widen. “You’re not seriously going in there!” 

“Watch my stuff.” 

“Are you crazy?” I snap. 

That mucus could be toxic or worse. There was no need to go inside the clearly rotting tree. Nancy ignores me crawling inside. I am lost for words because not only can she fit inside; her body completely disappears as if there was an opening on the other side. I blink, shaking my head, feeling disembodied. 

“Nancy?”

Adrenaline bursts through my veins to prepare myself to fight or flee. I feel like I am back in Steve’s backyard keeping watch while Nancy does something completely foolish like walk into the forest on her own or like now, crawling into a slime coated hollow stump. I curse colourful words under my breath that would shock my Dad. I can’t leave her alone. So, I take off my backpack and put the mallet on top; count down from five in my head and crawl through the hole holding my breath hopefully awaiting Nancy on the other side. 

CHAPTER 6: THE MONSTER

Taglist 🤍: @tinydramatist

[dragonflylady77]

This is one of the first fics I wrote and it's been gathering dust in my GDocs, waiting for me to write more.

I'm not sure I will, so in the meantime, you get to read it.

~~~☆☆☆~~~

Stop flirting and get in the house

A 'that night at the Byers house' ficlet for @lovebillyhargrove because she's the sweetest and i love her to bits. ❤️

Read on Ao3

“Am I dreaming or is that you Harrington?” Billy says, cigarette dangling from his lips as he takes off his leather jacket and throws it in the car through the open driver window.

The other teen sighs, hands on his hips. “Yeah it's me, don't cream your pants.”

Billy mutters, “Wouldn't be the first time…”

“What?” Shock in Harrington’s eyes and something else… Billy can't tell for sure because it's dark and he might be willing it to be there. Just a little bit. He also realises he said it out loud.

Fuck.

“What?” he says, trying to derail this exchange they're having.

Smooth…

“Oh, now, come on, I wanna hear you say it.”

“Fuck off, Harrington, I'm just here for my sister.”

“See, I wish I could believe that.” Cocky asshole. Acting like he's still that King Steve Tommy keeps yammering on about.

The way he’s standing shows he really wants Billy to get back in his car and fuck off.

Too bad.

Billy doesn't have time for the posturing, not when he's already met Neil's fists once tonight and knows he will meet them again if he comes home without the red-headed pain in his ass.

“I don't give a fuck what you believe, pretty boy. Now hand over my sister. I don't know what bullshit you and the weird kids get up to, but I know it's not worth me paying for it.”

The look on Harrington's face goes from cocky to worried in the space of a breath. “What do you mean, paying for it?”

Billy realises he's said too much. “Fuck this shit.”

He takes a few steps closer to the house, still a distance away from Harrington. Can see the kids in the window, a flash of red. Bellows, “MAXINE!!! TIME TO GO, shitbird.”

“Now wait a minute, there, Hargrove.” Steve moves to stand in his way, hand up, just shy of touching him. “You can't just—”

“You don't wanna test me right now,” Billy bites out, teeth on edge. “Move, pretty boy.”

“Make me.”

That's the moment Max chooses to come storming outside.

“Oh my god Billy, would you stop flirting in front of the children.”

Billy glares at Max before his eyes focus on Harrington again and the way his brown eyes are glued to Billy's chest. He feels his heart skip a beat then.

Maxine pushes past Harrington who's still staring. “Billy, I can't go home, there's serious shit going down.” She stops, waits until he sets his eyes on hers and he can see her make a decision. “We could use your help.”

Billy can't believe his ears. “Oh now you want my help?”

That snaps Harrington out of his trance. “What? Max, we can't—”

“Steve, listen. I know he's an asshole, but he's my brother and I think his anger issues could come in handy.” She turns to Billy. “No offence.”

Billy shrugs and lights a smoke. He knows he’s an asshole with anger issues.

“MAX!”

Does Harrington have to shriek this loud?

“What? I'm sure he'll enjoy smashing those demodogs just as much as you do.”

“I'm not giving him a weapon!”

Billy grunts. “He is standing right there.” He sighs. He’s tired, he’s sore and he’s reaching his limit with all the fucking posturing. “Max, what the fuck is going on?”

“Come inside and I'll explain”

“I don't think that's a good idea,” Steve pipes up.

Max rolls her eyes at Steve and walks back into the house.

Billy steps past King Steve with a smug smirk and follows Max, partly because he’s curious to find out what’s going on and also because it’s pissing Harrington off.

He hears Harrington groan behind him and can feel him following close.

When he enters the lounge, Max is in a huddle with the weird kids and they’ve having a hushed argument about him.

He stops and feels Harrington crash into him. The feel of the other teen’s warm body behind him creates a shudder he has no time to stop.

He moves away a bit to lean on the doorframe and crosses his arms in front of him while he waits for the children to decide he’s worthy of knowing what the fuck has them all in a tizzy. Like he fucking cares.

“Max, no…”

“Just do it Dustin.”

“Ugh. Fine”

Billy feels pride bloom in his chest for the way Max takes no shit from those teenage boys.

Billy watches the curly-haired one walk into the kitchen and stop in front of the fridge. The kid looks at Billy then at Max who nods. With a sigh, the boy opens the fridge door and something tumbles out of it.

The silence in the kitchen is eerie as Billy takes in the… creature… that fell out. It’s dark grey, half wrapped in a sheet or something, roughly the size of a big dog, but its head—there’s something wrong with its head, it’s like a freaking flower with teeth.

Billy guesses it’s one of those demodog things Max mentioned outside. He’ll definitely need a weapon if that’s the kind of shit Max and her gaggle of boys are up against.

He pulls out a cigarette and lights it, ignoring the dark look Harrington sends his way. He’s never met Mrs. Byers, but her house is a mess right now, and there’s some dead flower-headed monster in her fridge, so he doubts she’ll mind much if he smokes in her kitchen.

Billy straightens up and sets his eyes on Harrington. “Alright, I’m in.”

The weird kids all start shouting again and Max runs to him, wrapping her arms around his waist in a rare hug that has Billy floundering.

He awkwardly pats her on the shoulder, turning his head to breathe out smoke away from her, because he’s a considerate brother like that.

“Fine,” Harrington says, coming into the kitchen to stand in front of Billy and Billy wants to laugh because King Steve is clearly not the one in charge here.

[schrijverr]

Temporary Exhibition: Everyday Battlefields by Will Byers

[In the painting one can see a tiny cottage like house, surrounded by large magical trees. All around the house are humanoid pig creatures in shiny armor with menacing weapons, ready to bust in an attack the figure on the porch.

The figure on the porch in Jonathan, barely twelve, dressed in typical fantasy peasant clothes. He looks very small, standing there, a little hunched, yet determined. In his hand he has a sword and though he can’t even truly lift it, he looks ready to defend the house. There is seemingly no one else, except for a pair of small eyes, peaking over the couch in the window.

Will hadn’t been there when Steve protected the party against Billy, but he’d been there all those times Jonathan stood up for them when Lonnie was still there and 'friends' with the local cops. Furthermore, he’d never forget how Jonathan stood between him and danger again when their house got raided in ‘86]

Will Byers (1971-)

The Stance of the Older Brother, 2017

Oil paint on canvas

.

On AO3.

[rigginsstreet]

Prompt game number 57? If you please?

57. “Teach me to fight.” we're going byerway babyyy

-

chaos had ensued the night of tina's party.

billy and heather had been parked out at the quarry, sharing a joint on the hood of the camaro when rustling through the trees and loud yells and growls had alerted them to what could only be described as nightmare fuel.

weird, slimy, dog-like creatures came barrelling out of the woods, followed by nancy wheeler, steve harrington, and jonathan byers, of all people, wielding various weapons.

heather hadn't had much time to react before billy was throwing her into his car and yelling at her to lock the doors.

billy had joined the fight despite looking scared out of his mind and like he didn't have a clue what was going on, a start contract to the other three who looked way too familiar with whatever the fuck those things were.

and heather doesn't like to think of herself as a damsel, but when one of things jumped on the hood of the camaro and screamed at heather through the windshield, she was praying to god the glass would be strong enough to hold, because, honestly, what the fuck was she supposed to do?

it had been jonathan who knocked the beast away, pummeling it to the ground and killing it. shared a look with heather through the glass like he was making sure she was okay before running off to the others to finish the fight.

she made billy stay at her house that night. snuck him into her room after they learned from the other three about portals to other dimensions being opened in hawkins, about the truth of what happened to barbara holland last year.

heather hadn't wanted to be alone, looking over her should constantly to make sure another one of those things wasn't creeping up behind her. she hated it. hated feeling weak, vulnerable.

so, the next day at school she finds herself seeking out jonathan at lunch. finds him sitting alone at one of the lunch tables outside.

"hi," she starts confidently, placing her backpack on the table as she takes her seat.

jonathan glances up at her, confused. eyes darting around before they land back on her. "are you lost?"

"nope. you're just the person i wanted to see."

"why?"

"i... need your help with something."

jonathan byers is not someone heather has ever thought twice about. but last night has sort of changed that. hasn't been able to stop thinking about the way he came to her rescue. how, despite how meek and sheepish he seems, he had kind of been an action hero.

it was weird. and kind of attractive.

"look, if this is some popular girl hazing ritual-"

"what would i need to haze you for?"

jonathan shrugs, folding inwardly like maybe he doesn't know himself. "i don't know. but everyone's staring. so, whatever reaction you're looking for, you're not getting it."

heather looks around. notices everyone outside does seem to be focused on their table. she just shrugs it off. "everybody always stares at me. i have that effect on people. anyway. i need you to teach me to fight."

"i'm sorry?"

heather sighs, rolling her eyes. "teach me to fight," she repeats more slowly like he's stupid. a bitchy habit, she'll admit. "after last night, i don't-" she pauses, taking in a rare moment of vulnerability she never allows herself to show in front of practical strangers. "i don't want to be caught off guard like that again. i want to know how to handle things next time. if there is a next time."

she stares at jonathan, silently asking if there will be a next time.

he takes a moment like he's assessing her, how deep he wants to go into this, how deep he wants to get her involved in this, before answering, "there'll be a next time."

heather sucks in a shaky breath, but nods her head. "i want to be ready."

"aren't you friends with hargrove? i'm sure he can teach you."

"how to throw a punch, sure, but. he was as lost as i was last night. only advantage he has over me is muscle mass and unbridled rage."

that earns her a small smirk from jonathan before he quickly schools his features. "why not steve-"

"ew, no," heather immediately cuts off. "absolutely not. and don't say nancy, either. she's not the one who saved my life last night."

"i didn't-"

"yes, you did, hero boy. so just accept the praise and say yes?"

the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. jonathan looks back at the school, buying time before he gives heather an answer.

"okay. fine. i don't know how i'm supposed to do this, but meet me at the old junkyard after school."

"i have cheer practice."

jonathan scoffs, like he's mocking her, but he's got that little smirk on his face again, so heather doesn't take too much offense.

"fine. after cheer practice."

heather smiles her gratitude and stands up. she grabs her backpack and slings it over her shoulder, halfway turned to head to class before looking back at jonathan for one last thing.

"y'know, between kicking steve harrington's ass last year and now fighting monsters... you're kind of sexy, byers."

she sends him a wink, giggling to herself with the parting image of jonathan's cheeks turning red at the compliment.

it was half said just to rile him up, but she half kind of meant it, too.

[ponyosmom35]

The Upside Down

bittersweet chapter nine

steve harrington x fem oc

synopsis: After will's funeral Nancy, Johnathon, and Indie search through the woods for the monster who took barb.

warnings: the upside down

link to master list:

https://www.tumblr.com/ponyosmom35/733401347573088256/simon-ghost-riley?source=share

The atmosphere at Will Byers' funeral was permeated with a palpable grief that seemed to cling to the mourners like the morning mist. As friends and family dispersed under the leaden skies, Indie, Jonathan, and Nancy lingered, bound by a grim determination to unravel the mysteries that had enveloped their town. The map spread across the hood of Jonathan’s car was a constellation of horror, each point a reminder of the chaos that had unraveled their lives.

Indie’s finger traced the lines connecting the various incidents, her brow furrowed in concentration. “Look here,” she said, pointing to the clusters of events that formed a chilling pattern. “Every attack, every unexplained phenomenon—it’s all centered within this one-mile radius.”

Jonathan leaned in, squinting at the map. His face was drawn, shadows under his eyes testament to sleepless nights. “That’s near the old quarry,” he mumbled, piecing together the geography with a local’s intuition.

Nancy, ever the pragmatist, snapped the map with her fingers, her eyes sharp. “It’s not just random, then. There’s a method to this madness. Whatever is causing this, it’s based there. We need to check it out.”

Their plan took shape quietly but quickly. They assembled a makeshift kit of essentials—flashlights for the encroaching dusk, Jonathan’s camera to document anything they found, and, after some debate, weapons. Jonathan had borrowed a handgun from his uncle’s collection, though the weapon seemed alien in his hands.

Later that afternoon, under the guise of supporting each other in their shared grief, they met on the outskirts of the woods that hugged the edge of the search radius. The area was dense and unwelcoming, the trees like sentinels guarding dark secrets.

In a small clearing, Jonathan attempted to familiarize himself with the handgun. His first shot misfired, sending a jolt through him that was almost comical. Indie watched, trying not to laugh as his next attempts weren’t much better; each pull of the trigger was hesitant, the resulting shots erratic.

Nancy arrived in the midst of his frustration, her own weapon of choice a baseball bat slung confidently over her shoulder. Seeing Jonathan’s struggle, she offered a wry smile. “Here, let me try,” she said, her tone light but confident.

With surprising adeptness, Nancy took the gun, aimed, and fired. The cans they’d set up as targets rattled sharply as she hit them one by one. Jonathan and Indie’s mouths hung open in mild shock, their expressions turning into grins.

“Guess all those weekends at the shooting range with my dad paid off,” Nancy quipped, handing the gun back to Jonathan with a chuckle.

The momentary lightness of their target practice faded as they packed up and headed deeper into the woods. The canopy above them thickened, swallowing the last remnants of daylight. Indie, driven by a protective instinct, moved ahead, leading the group with a watchful eye.

The further they ventured, the more the forest seemed to close in around them. The path narrowed, branches reaching out like fingers to snag at their clothes. Behind her, Indie heard Nancy and Jonathan begin to argue, their voices low but tense.

“He’s not what you think, Jonathan. Steve’s just... under a lot of pressure,” Nancy was saying, her words laced with a defensive edge.

“And you’re making excuses for him. He’s part of why we’re in this mess,” Jonathan shot back, his voice harsh with frustration.

Indie stopped and turned, facing them both. Their faces were flushed, not just from the hike but from the heat of their disagreement. “Enough, you two,” Indie interjected, her voice firm. “We’re not here to fight about Steve. We’re here to find answers. Keep it together.”

Chastened, Nancy and Jonathan nodded, falling silent as they continued their trek. The woods around them seemed to watch, to listen to their every step.

As darkness began to creep through the trees, Indie’s thoughts turned to the photo she’d been given, to the shadowy figure that lurked on its edges. 

As night enveloped the forest, a tangible chill settled in the air, not just from the dropping temperature but also from the growing dread that encased Indie’s heart. Despite the fear gnawing at her insides, her determination to find Barb kept her feet moving forward. Nancy and Jonathan flanked her, their own anxieties masked by a veneer of resolve.

The woods were eerily silent, the usual nocturnal chatter conspicuously absent. Suddenly, Nancy halted, her head cocked to one side. "Did you hear that?" she whispered, a note of urgency in her voice.

Jonathan and Indie paused, listening intently. A faint, almost inaudible whisper seemed to float on the wind, an eerie susurration that made Indie’s skin crawl. Wordlessly, they followed the sound, their flashlights casting long, ominous shadows among the gnarled trees.

The source of the whispering was a grim sight—a deer, grievously wounded, its sides heaving with shallow, pained breaths. The animal's eyes were wide with fear and pain, and it seemed barely aware of the trio's approach. Jonathan’s face hardened as he drew the handgun, the weight of what he was about to do etched in his grim expression. Indie turned away, her eyes brimming with tears, unable to watch.

But before Jonathan could act, the deer was suddenly, violently dragged away by an unseen force. They jumped back, startled and terrified, then, driven by a mix of horror and resolve, followed the trail of blood that smeared the leaf-strewn ground.

The trail led to a large, hollow tree, its dark cavity gaping like a mouth. Nancy, gripping her bat tightly, nodded to Indie, and together they approached the hole. With a deep breath to steel her nerves, Indie led the way inside, pushing through the viscous, slime-coated interior of the tree.

Emerging on the other side, they found themselves in a part of the woods shrouded in mist and filled with strange, floating particles that glimmered in their flashlight beams. The surreal beauty of the scene was shattered by a grotesque sight not far from where they stood—the monster, feeding on the remains of the deer. Its back was to them, the sounds of its feeding grotesquely loud in the silent woods.

Indie’s breath hitched in her throat, and she reached out, grabbing Nancy’s arm. Mouths agape, they slowly began to back away, each step careful to avoid snapping twigs or rustling leaves. Their hearts pounded loud enough, it seemed, to betray their presence.

As they retreated, a twig snapped under Indie’s foot. The creature paused, its head lifting, sniffing the air. Panic flared in Indie's chest. "Run!" she hissed, and the two of them turned, sprinting back towards the hollow tree. Behind them, the sounds of the creature crashing through the brush galvanized their flight.

"Nancy, Jonathan!" Indie screamed as they neared the tree. The echo of her voice seemed to confuse the creature, its roars bouncing around the dense forest.

They dove back into the tree's hollow, the slime coating their clothes and skin as they scrambled through the tight space. Emerging on the other side, they found Jonathan, who had circled back at the sound of Indie’s scream. Without a word, he pulled them both into a desperate embrace, his relief palpable.

Shaking and covered in forest detritus and slime, they made their way out of the woods, the sounds of the creature’s frustrated roars fading behind them. The drive back to Nancy’s house was silent, each lost in their thoughts, processing the terror and relief of their narrow escape.

At Nancy’s house, Indie took a long, hot shower, trying to wash away the grime and the fear. But the water did little to soothe the shaking in her limbs or the images etched into her mind. As she dried off, she realized she needed space, needed to be alone with her thoughts.

She thanked Nancy and Jonathan for their help and made her way home. Once there, the events of the night replayed in her mind over and over, each iteration feeding her fear and her resolve. Indie crawled into bed, the exhaustion of the day's events pulling her into a fitful sleep, punctuated by nightmares of dark forests and monstrous creatures.

[the-lark-ascending69]

I need to think of a proper name for the comphet robin au because it has too much lore now. Anyway have some more monster hunting lore:

Monster hunting is a tradition transmited from generation to generation. It has nothing to do with inherited powers and habilities, and everything to do with knowledge.

There are two monster hunter families in Hawkins, though some think soon it will be only one.

Joyce comes from a long line of monster hunters. She left it behind when she met Lonnie, never really caring much for that lifestyle, but she did tell her boys some things about it, just in case. When her son Will went missing, she went back into action like in her youth, now accompanied by her eldest son and his friend, Nancy.

Nancy became a monster hunter through the Byers when Barb went missing. It's rare but not unheard of for monster hunters to "adopt" someone else into their tradition, and that is what Joyce did, acting as a kind of godmother. Despite not being related to the Byers in any conventional way, Nancy is considered a Byers monster hunter. The name she usually gives to other monster hunters outside of Hawkins is Ruth Byers, to indicate her afiliation while protecting her true identity.

The other family consists on Jim Hopper and his adopted daughter, El Jane Hopper, another case of a non-hunter becoming a hunter. Both El and Will were being terrorized by the same monster - El for much, much longer - so when they found Will, they rescued El as well, and Jim officially adopted her. She's a Hopper monster hunter.

Monster hunters keep their mission secret. Monsters are everywhere and you can never know how smart they are or whether or not they can hear you. Airing out the truth will just draw danger to themselves and the people around them.

Monster hunting knowledge includes knowledge of the Upside Down - a secret world in the woods, sometimes with portals and sometimes without them - knowledge of weapons and their use, and of monsters around their area. The Upside Down, Vecna and the Mind Flayer are the biggest threats, but they also handle vampires, werewolves, haunted houses, ghosts, not-deer creatures, etc.

Ever since the 50s, the Hoppers have been keeping an eye on a curse that seems to affect Hawkins specifically. They call it Vecna's curse. Every now and then, this spirit from the Upside Down will choose a person and cause them one of three afflictions:

First, they may have spontaneous visions of the Upside Down. This curse is a Type 1 curse. It's physically harmless, meant to cause panic, but it can become quite a problem if knowledge of this spreads. The only known treatment is music and leaving Hawkins. Sometimes, this curse goes away on its own. The other two outcomes are a) a stable persistence of the curse through the victim's life, or b) progress into Type 2. This curse is common for those who have survived the Upside Down. Often read as PTSD or schizophrenia by psychiatrists. Known victims: Will Byers, El Jane Hopper. Suspected victims: Nancy Wheeler.

Sometimes, a Type 1 curse will morph into a Type 2 curse, what we know as being flayed. This includes a slow infection of the victims mind as Vecna slowly overpowers them, to the point the person is lost entirely. The process can last up to 18 months, allowing Vecna's presence to go unnoticed for moths, even by the victim and their loved ones, but it can also be as quick as two weeks. Vecna does this in order to confuse people, create and control monsters, and have spies. Thankfully, there is a relatively easy treatment for this if detected early enough. It includes raising the temperature around the victim until Vecna releases their mind. A lot of the times the victim dies during this process. Known victims: Will Byers (cured), Billy Hargrove (†), Heather Holloway (†), Doris Driscoll (†).

The Type 3 curse is the worst and most dangerous one. It is preceded by nightmares and headaches, and it consists on hallucinations involving the victim's deepest fears, which makes it hard for hunters to detect on time since the visions are often so shameful that the victim will refuse to talk about it. Victims often report thinking they're going crazy. This type of curse is the most dangerous for both the victim and those around them, since it always results in the victim's death and the opening of a gate through it. It usually takes between one and two years for the curse to complete its cycle. The first victim Nancy saw with her own eyes was Max, who was the first person to ever survive one of Vecna's attack, though now she's in a coma with little hope of waking up. The hunters thought music would help - and it did, for a time, but it wasn't enough and now they're back to square 1. Currently, investigating, finding a cure and taking care of new victims has been assigned as Nancy and Jonathan's task. Known victims: Victor Creel, Chrissy Cunningham, Fred Benson, Patrick McKinney, Max Mayfield, Barbara Holland. Suspected victims: Robin Buckley.

The Hopper family has been keeping a written record of every supernatural thing that has happened in Hawkins for the past 40 years, though many statements and files are incomplete, or they're minor vampire or werewolf sightings, or they lead to dead ends. Plus Jim hasn't been taking care of it at all and now it's a disaster. Jonathan and Nancy spend a lot of time trying to fix that.

Will is currently being instructed by his mother in the tradition of monster hunting.

Will's friends have been trying to convince Joyce to let them become monster hunters too, but Joyce doesn't think it's a good idea. Nancy hates the idea of Mike becoming one, specifically.

Monster hunters don't go anywhere without at least a gun and a knife. Robin hates it when Nancy shows up to her house with weapons, because her parents hate guns and she's kinda uncomfortable with them.

Traditionally, monster hunters used to work with dogs and horses a lot. Dogs were useful to track down monsters, and they could fight or distract them, while horses allowed hunters to move quickly through the forest. Nowadays, Nancy, Jonathan and Jim Hopper, the most active hunters in Hawkins, prefer cars.

El and Will, being the youngest hunters, are often relegated to administrative work in Hopper's archive. Joyce can fight, but she's generally better with research and logistics. She's pretty much the leader of both the Byers AND the Hoppers, with Nancy being her right hand man.

Nancy often goes on small hunts alone. It's her way of channeling her anger.

Monster hunters get a (pretty miserable) earning from the oldest and wealthiest hunter families in the country, so they can dedicate themselves to hunting full-time. It's not much, and often more than one member will need to have a job on the side to maintain a full family, but it's something.

[afewproblems]

Part Four: Final Part Four Mean!Eddie Misunderstandings Au

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Read in full on Ao3

Thank you to everyone that cheered me on @samcoxramblings for your kind words on every post! @flowercrowngods and @barbariansteves for your helpful advice and @zerokrox-blog for your original prompt waaaaay back in February, I'm sorry this took so long but I hope you finally get the comfort you wished for!

***

The kids demand two weeks to prepare for their Hellfire session, insisting that they need this time to debrief Eddie and come up with their game plan, which is fine by Steve.

It also gives him two weeks to decompress from his last interaction with the kid's Dungeon Master, and time to try and untangle exactly how he feels about the whole situation. 

It was nice for things to start moving back towards something resembling normal. The kids seemed happier, even going so far as to begin splitting their time between Eddie and Steve once again. Asking for rides to the hobby shop in Indi from their resident metal-head rather than Steve. It was nice to finally have a little bit more time to himself again.

Even Robin, who had previously been steadfast in her Anti-Eddie stance, had suddenly grown rather tight-lipped about the whole thing.

She had even offered to accompany Steve on his errands for the day they scheduled their Hellfire meeting, citing that she was always up for a grocery run and he may need help bringing everything in.

Which, in hindsight, should have been Steve’s first clue that something strange was going on. 

“So, you ready?” Robin hums as they walk up and down the canned food aisle of Marsh Market, “you can still back out you know?”

Steve smiles and grabs a box of onion soup mix, he’s fairly certain he has some sour cream at home to make a dip of some sort, much easier than the last snack he tried to prepare for the group. 

“Yeah, Robs, I know, I think it should be fine,” he crosses off the soup mix on his list and turns the cart around the empty aisle to head towards the produce section, “the kids are already setting up now so the only thing I need to do is be there,” he shrugs and stops in front of the humming displays. 

Steve waits until the misting stops before reaching for a bag of mini carrots and tossing them into the cart. 

“Can’t believe you trust Henderson to have a key, I can’t believe you hold us at the same level of trust!” Robin grumbles under her breath as she picks up a granny smith from one of the bins and rubs it on the rolled up sleeves of her navy blazer; it’s just slightly too big for her, most likely stolen from her dad’s closet. 

Steve rolls his eyes and continues pushing the cart around the produce area, "careful Birdy, you roll those up anymore you're actually going to turn into Don Johnson". 

"I should be so lucky," she snarks back as she catches up to him by the celery.

She tosses the apple back and forth between her hands, nearly dropping it twice before placing the produce into the cart under Steve’s unimpressed gaze. 

She starts snapping her fingers and shuffling her feet as they continue walking up and down the aisles, going through their list bit by bit. Steve finds himself watching his friend’s nervous fidgeting with curious eyes, it was just a grocery trip, there shouldn’t be anything to really make her act like this, right?

He takes a quick glance around at some of the employees stocking the aisles, in case Vickie or some other pretty classmate of Robin’s is wandering around. 

But, they’re alone.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” Robin asks, as Steve folds up the list and turns the cart towards the check out tills.  

She tips the small watch she’s wearing up to her face, her eyes flit back and forth between Steve and the watch as she chews on her bottom lip, which is more than a little odd.

The kids are already at the house and Eddie and the rest of the Hellfire gang won’t be arriving for at least another hour, they have plenty of time?

Robin steps away from the cart and throws her thumb over her shoulder at the chip aisle, “you do realize that you’re going to have like ten teenagers at your house right? You think veggies and dip is enough?”

“I’m ordering pizza later, I think this is fine?” Steve says slowly, gesturing at the cart, confusion and suspicion saturate his words as his eyes narrow at his friend. 

“Robin,” Steve murmurs, walking the cart closer towards her, “what's going on?”

“Nothing, why would you --nothing!” She stutters as her freckled face pales slightly. 

Steve smirks, Robin is probably the worst liar he’s ever met, and it's always endearing whenever she tries. 

The last time she had lied to Steve, it had been about the mascara wand she had dropped onto the passenger seat, staining the leather just slightly, and smearing the black makeup all over the floor covers. 

Robin had panicked and insisted that had been there before she had sat down.

Steve had been sitting in the car with her at the time.

He knew a Robin lie when he saw it, but he also knew it wouldn’t take long for her to crack. 

“Okay!”

There it is.

“Listen,” Robin hisses sharply, she steps closer until she’s nearly whispering in his ear in the empty chip aisle, “I’m stalling you okay?”

“Probably not something you should be telling the person you’re stalling but okay?” Steve snorts as he leans onto the cart handle, “also, this was the worst place to go to stall us, it's two in the afternoon on a Wednesday, no one else is here”.

“I know!” Robin groans, letting her face fall into her open hands, she slowly lifts her face once more and lets her fingers drag across her forehead and cheeks, pulling at the skin, “I should have said no, I wanted to say no, but they used Will--”

Steve nods, “and you can’t say no to Will, yeah I gotcha”.

The words register after a beat.

“Wait, backup, the kids put you up to this? The unsupervised shitheads in my house right now?”

Robin nods, her blue eyes wide and the barest of smirks still covered by her hands.

“Oh christ,” Steve mutters under his breath, “do I even want to know?”

Robin drops her hands away from her face and scowls for a second before sighing, “I would absolutely love to tell you,” she shakes her head and looks up at the ceiling, “better yet, I’d love to just take you to Indi for the day, forget about this completely, but those God Damn kids know exactly what to say,” she looks at him once more in barely concealed exasperation, “how do they always know what to say?”

“How angry do I need to be, on a scale of like one to ten?” 

Robin stares at him consideringly, her eyes scanning his face, “I mean, if I were you, it would be at like, a hundred,” she says eventually, “but since it’s you?”

“Maybe a four”.

Steve nods and drums his hands on the cart handles, blowing out a long slow breath as he makes his decision, “how much more time do they need?”

Robin looks at her watch again and smiles this time, “Well this bought them another five-ish minutes, so maybe another half hour?”

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a crumpled five dollar bill, “come on, I’ll getcha a coffee or something?”

“Wait, do I even need these snacks? Robin?”

Robin was wrong, this at least warranted a five for the groceries alone. 

***

The drive back is uneventful, Steve did end up going though check out, rationalizing that, no matter what, he needed some veggies for the rest of the week so there were worse things he could have spent the money on. 

Robin had bought him a coffee from the gas station down the road. There wasn't enough creamer in the world to make that palatable so he leaves it in the cup holder while driving back. Even with a hot chocolate Robin hasn't fared much better. 

"Okay, well that's the worst five dollars ever spent," she groans after taking a sip. Robin wrinkles her nose and sets the cup in the other empty holder beside Steve’s before sneaking a quick look at her watch once more, “worth it though,” she says with a small smile.

It slides off her face after a moment when she realizes that they’ve turned down her street, “Steve?”

He looks between her and the road, tilting his head as she touches his elbow gently. 

“You can just come over you know, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to and that includes letting people force you to--” Robin snaps her mouth shut with an audible click of her teeth. 

She shakes her head and takes her hand back, “sorry, I promised not to say anything”.

Steve pulls over onto the Buckley’s driveway and finally turns to face Robin as much as the driver's seat will allow. 

“Still sure about this whole thing only warranting a four?” he asks softly as a bubble of anxiety begins to expand from his stomach and into his chest, as though he’s absorbed her nervous energy over the course of the afternoon.

Robin shrugs, “I don’t know, but,” her blue eyes bounce back and forth between his own, “just don’t let them make you make a decision you’re not ready for,” she chews her lip again, “no one gets to push you around but me”.

Steve laughs as Robin leans out of her seat to give him a quick, but firm, hug before she opens the door and steps outside. As soon as she’s out of the car, Steve wishes he had asked her to stay, to come with him and hold his hand through the unknown. The bereft, hollow feeling from before returns in full force as she walks up to her front door. 

She turns around and holds up her thumb and pinky as she lifts her hands to her face, mouthing, ‘Call me later,’ as she waves with her other hand. 

She stays outside as Steve slowly reverses, hesitating on the street for just a moment as Robin walks backwards the rest of the way to her door, she moves her hands, motioning for him to get going. 

Steve nods once and takes a deep breath as he shifts into drive and heads down the street.

It’s just the kids, he tells himself, how bad can it be?

***

By the time Steve pulls into his driveway, he’s nearly turned around to retrieve Robin and insist that she come with him at least five times. Even now as he pulls the emergency brake for the slight incline of the Harrington driveway, he considers starting the car again and leaving. 

The last time he felt this anxious to be home was after graduation, after he’d been rejected from every school he’d applied to and knew there was no getting around that conversation with his dad. 

That conversation had ended with the crack in the table, a hastily completed Scoops application, and his parents leaving for three months. 

If it hadn’t happened he wouldn’t have met Robin, so at least there had been a silver lining on that occasion. 

He’s not sure if there will be one this time.

Steve gets out of the car before opening the back door to grab the paper grocery bag from the store, he leaves the full coffee and hot chocolate cups with a grimace and makes a mental note to throw them out later before locking the car door. 

Steve slowly makes his way to the steps, balancing the bag on his hip as he rifles through his pants pocket for his house key. 

He looks around the street and spots Eddie’s van parked a few houses down. Great.

Steve knew that Eddie and the others would be showing up around now, even before Robin went ahead and spilled the beans about whatever it was the kids were secretly doing, but he had still hoped for a moment to just breathe before he had to face the inevitable.

Steve takes a deep breath and grabs the door handle, scoffing as it opens immediately. He makes a second mental note to scold Dustin for leaving the door unlocked for just anyone to come in --especially since the rest of Hellfire was already here apparently.

“Hey assholes, the snacks are here,” Steve calls out as he steps over the threshold, tossing his own keys into the dish on the side table. 

He kicks the door closed and locks the deadbolt with a roll of his eyes, “and I do include myself with that statement,” he adds under his breath with a smirk.

Steve slides off his shoes and pauses, looking around the foyer.

It’s quiet.

Where there is normally an abundance of yelling and laughter, of the kids arguing amongst themselves, or Eddie’s usual dramatic storytelling, there’s nothing. 

Steve walks into the kitchen and puts the bag onto the counter, “guys?” he calls out again, only to be met with silence. 

Steve makes his way into the dining room through the swing door and stops in his tracks.

The table is gone. 

“What the fuck?” he hears himself whisper as he walks into the middle of the space, nearly into the hanging light in the center of the room --he’d never noticed just how low it was, what with the table that was normally there to stop him from walking directly into it.

“What the fuck?” Steve hisses again, his heart starts to race as he steps around the light and spots the open sliding door to the backyard. 

“If you little fuckers decided to move my grandmother’s table when there is a perfectly good patio table out there, I swear to Christ--” 

But the kids aren’t outside either. 

Eddie freezes as Steve walks around the corner of the house, he’s standing next to the dining table with a piece of sandpaper in his hands.

“Steve,” Eddie squawks in surprise, quickly hiding the sandpaper behind his back, “hey!”

Steve’s not entirely sure just what he’s looking at as he takes another step further into the yard. Eddie’s normally black ripped jeans are covered in a fine layer of dust, his wild curls have been pulled back into a messy ponytail away from his face, and an open container of wood filler sits beside him on the concrete patio.

Steve takes another four steps until he’s close enough to touch the wooden surface, his mouth hanging open as he takes it all in. 

The surface of the table has been sanded down in its entirety, removing the beautiful deep cherry varnish, but the crack in the center has been mended, some kind of slightly darker putty has sealed the gaping wound that had marred the surface. 

“Can you,” Eddie’s voice shakes, drawing Steve’s attention once more, “can you please say something, I can’t tell if you’re mad or what?”

“You fixed it,” Steve whispers, his eyes fixed on the table, he reaches to run a shaking hand over the surface.

“Careful,” Eddie says softly, grabbing Steve’s hand before it can touch the center with long sure fingers, “that still needs about an hour or so to cure”.

Steve looks from the table to his hand, still cradled in Eddie’s own, before looking up to see two big brown eyes staring into his own. 

“I don’t understand,” the words come out in a whisper as Steve swallows around the sudden lump in his throat, “why?”

“Well,” Eddie murmurs as he squeezes Steve’s hand once before threading their fingers together and dragging Steve towards one of the pool loungers in the grass.

Eddie sits down and pulls Steve with him to sit, he feels a deep flush begin to wash over his neck and the tips of his ears, it's impossible to hide in the bright sunlight this time --not that he’d even be able to with Eddie’s firm grip on Steve’s hand.

“Those kids of yours are pretty genius,” Eddie says slowly, deliberately, his gaze never wavering from Steve’s face, “and they love you so fucking much man”.

Eddie clears his throat and rubs his thumb over Steve’s knuckles, “and there seems to be some confusion about how I actually feel about you, so allow me to uh, lay it all on the,” he gestures with his free hand towards the dining table and smirks, “well you know”.

Steve feels his heart leaping out of his chest, he can’t sit here, listen to this, he’s heard it before, it isn’t real.

Steve moves to stand up from the lounger but Eddie is faster as he manages to grab Steve’s other hand, holding him in place.

“Eddie--”

“You said no one had ever bothered before,” Eddie barrels on, speaking so quickly that Steve hardly understands at first. He squeezes Steve’s hands lightly again, the skin warmed metal from Eddie’s rings press into the palms of Steve’s hands.

“No one’s ever tried to fix it, have they?” Eddie breathes out as his eyes flit back and forth, searching Steve’s own, “would you let me try?”

For a moment, Steve lets himself just sit with the words. 

Lets himself indulge in the soft, almost reverent way that Eddie asks. He lets the warmth of Eddie’s hands tether him to something resembling hope.

Before he shakes his head.

“You don’t know what you’re saying Eddie,” Steve growls, but the words lack any true bite.

“I know exactly what I’m saying,” Eddie insists, he gets up from beside Steve and kneels in the grass in front of him, “but I don’t think you do, I think we’ve been talking past each recently Steve, and it took speaking to a bunch of people --way smarter than me, to realize it. So here it is--”

“Don’t,” Steve shouts at the same time that Eddie whispers, “I like you,” and for a moment neither moves. 

Steve slowly takes his hands out of Eddie's now slack grip. 

He lowers one hand down to the edge of the pool lounger, gripping it so harshly that his knuckles slowly fade to white, while the other he brings up to cover Eddie’s mouth.

“Don’t say something you can’t take back,” Steve says softly. 

Eddie just stares for a beat, his forehead pinched in a terrible frown, before he reaches up to cup Steve’s cheek and gently removes the hand covering his mouth. He smiles softly and lets his thumb gently run over the crest of Steve’s cheekbone.

“Good thing I don’t want to take it back,” Eddie insists, he slides the hand on Steve’s cheek down to hold his chin firmly between two fingers.

“Steve,” Eddie lifts himself up so he’s balancing on the balls of his feet, just high enough that they are at eye level now, “I spent a very long time holding onto things that weren’t even remotely true, and they made me act like an asshole, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for that sweetheart”.

“What if you change your mind, what if I--”

“Steve, what the fuck could you do at this point that would shock me?" Eddie says with a derisive laugh, he lets go of Steve's face to press his hand briefly to his own chest. 

"I’m a drug dealing, satan worshiping, murderer who almost ate it in another dimension from killer demon bats".

Eddie grins as he peppers his speech with air quotes but the edges of it are jagged, and the good humour doesn't quite reach his eyes.

Steve breathes out sharply through his nose and shakes his head, “I get angry sometimes, I say things I don't mean, I…" 

He sees himself surrounded by ceramic shards again, crying as he sweeps up his own mess, and shudders.

It's enough for Eddie to nod, and shuffle closer still.

"Pot," Eddie says softly as he pokes Steve in the sternum with this pointer finger and then brings it around to point at his own face, "kettle". 

Steve chews his bottom lip as his thoughts swirl together and fly apart, disjointed and frenetic, "I just," he swallows around a harsh lump that begins to form in his throat, "I don't want you to think that I'm something that I'm not”.

Steve closes his eyes, missing the way that Eddie freezes at the words, but he can’t stop now --he has to get this all out or he’ll never be able to.

"That I've changed, that I'm this thing you've built up, for your sake, because let me tell you, it's pretty heartbreaking when everything you hoped was real turns out to be all in your head".

Steve opens his eyes as Eddie makes a sound like he’s been punched in the gut. 

He’s still kneeling in front of Steve, even closer now, almost close enough that Steve can count the light dusting of freckles on his nose, and it feels like his heart will burst at any moment. 

Fuck it.

"I've been halfway in love with you since you woke up from the hospital," Steve blurts out, “only to find out that you didn't feel even remotely the same about me, this whole time,” he breathes in shallowly as Eddie pales.

"I don't think I could take it if that happened again Eds,” Steve continues as he drops his gaze to his knees, “I think it would crush me".

"That's why I don't want you to say something you can't take--"

The words die on his lips as Eddie grabs his face and kisses him.

It’s harsh and clumsy, their teeth clack as Eddie loses his balance, pushing himself into Steve. They fall over the lounger, Steve’s shoulders and lower back hit the metal  frame hard, forcing a muffled groan out as Eddie falls on top of him with his own faint, ‘oof’.

Eddie tries to raise himself up by his hands before falling even further as one of his hands slips through the rubber slats of the chair and he crashes into Steve's stomach.

Eddie babbles a string of incomprehensible apologies as he frees his trapped hand and manages to gently straddle Steve. Eddie hovers over him and lifts his hands to cup Steve's face.

“Shit baby, are you okay? Fuck, that’s not how I wanted that to go at all, I’m so shit at this”. 

“Can we, can you get off and then we can get off the stupid chair?” Steve wheezes as he tries to catch his breath and shift his weight away from the metal still pressed into his back, “lets go inside, we can..talk about this”.

Eddie curses under his breath, his expression nervous, and moves his legs off of Steve and the chair before holding a hand out to help Steve to his feet.

Steve rubs his back as he leads the pair back inside through the sliding glass door, not daring to turn around and face Eddie. 

He feels his own mortified flush spread across his chest and neck and winces; this is probably the most he’s blushed in years all in the span of a single afternoon.

He kissed me, he kissed me, he kissed me, plays on a seemingly endless loop in Steve’s head as he walks into the house, he can’t help the wide smile that blooms over his face --despite the other, darker thought that whispers in his ear, be careful, be careful, be careful.

Steve takes them through the empty dining room and into the living room before dropping onto the couch with another low groan. He looks up as he realizes that Eddie is no longer beside him.

Eddie stands in the entryway to the living room, he’s holding a thick handful of hair over his mouth and watching Steve carefully.

“Can’t talk with you all the way over there,” Steve huffs. 

He tries for a smile but the effect is lost as Eddie continues to stand and stare at him, looking as though he could bolt from the house at any moment.

“Please come here Eds,” Steve tries again, his voice small. He takes a deep breath, if Eddie can be brave so can you, he thinks as he holds out his hand.

Eddie hesitates for just a moment more, his eyes flick beyond Steve to the hallway linked to the foyer and back, it’s so quick Steve nearly misses it. 

Still, he keeps his hand steady, holding it aloft.

Eventually Eddie takes a tentative step, then another, slowly moving forward until his fingers brush Steve’s own. He takes a seat next to Steve on the plush gray couch but doesn’t relax as Steve turns his body to face him. Eddie tenses even further as Steve gives his hand a gentle squeeze.

He opens his mouth to start but Eddie beats him to it.

“I’m so sorry Steve,” Eddie whispers, his voice strained and thin as he takes his hand back, “I just fucking attacked you? Jesus, I," he cuts himself off, whatever he had been about to say trapped behind the teeth that dig into his bottom lip.

"I mean," Steve mumbles, hating the hunched line of Eddie's shoulders, "I tell you I've been in love with you for months and you kiss me, that makes sense to me?"

"Stop doing that," Eddie bites out as he stands up, slapping his hands on his knees to launch himself away from the couch.

He paces the living room, not looking at Steve and getting progressively more agitated as he walks.

"I apologize and then you turn it around on yourself, why do you do that? Just let me apologize!"

Eddie halts suddenly as he straightens and faces Steve, it's as though a lightbulb has blinked on in the ether as Eddie speaks his next words slowly and carefully, "stop letting me off the hook Steve, be honest with me".

"I have been honest with you," Steve tries but Eddie shakes his head.

"Nope, you've told me some of your stuff today, but not why you keep downplaying everything, why you're not just telling me you're upset, it's like you're censoring the stuff you think I don't want to hear, come on”.

"My stuff," Steve mutters under his breath as a hot flicker of irritation licks at his ribcage.

"Yes," Eddie says, throwing his hands into his hair in frustration.

"Everybody censors themselves Eddie, you think I tell the kids everything? That I've told Robin everything?"

At this Eddie blanches, surprise etched over his forehead as his eyebrows climb into his wispy bangs.

"But Robin--"

"Knows enough, but not everything,"Steve scoffs as he crosses his arms over his stomach, "and she doesn't need to".

Robin may know his parents are hardly around, she may have formed her own opinions, assumptions about what she thinks is going on; but Steve has gotten very good at hiding these things -especially over the years. 

Pulling out the King Steve persona, make them laugh, make them mad, watch this hand while the other pulls the wool over their eyes. 

"Then tell me," Eddie says softly, but there is a challenge to his words. 

He shifts his stance slightly, putting more weight on his left leg as he cocks his hip out to the side, "shock me Harrington". 

Steve shifts on the couch, feeling pinned under Eddie's gaze, before swiping a tired hand over his face and dropping it into his lap.

"That crack in the table happened just before I graduated," Steve says softly, his head tipped down so the words tumble into his knees. 

He ignores the sharp intake of breath from Eddie, not daring to look up as he continues,  "my uh, my dad opened the rejection letter from Vincennes, that one had just been delivered that morning I think". 

Steve breathes out slowly and picks at a hangnail on his left thumb, he hasn't ever spoken about this to anyone, he's never really managed to talk about his home life growing up without side stepping things. 

There had been moments where Steve thinks Tommy and Carol might have had their suspicions, but they never asked and Steve wasn't in a position to talk about it.

"I think that was at the beginning of June, so, so his logical conclusion was to uh, go looking for the other letters, the ones I must have received already". 

Steve barks out a laugh, but the sound rings out hollow in the large living room, he startles slightly as the couch dips down next to him as Eddie sits, close enough that his knees are brushing Steve's own.

He doesn't say anything, but it's enough for Steve to breathe out and keep going.

"And he found them, my dad, in the shoebox I kept in the back of my closet". 

"I don't know why I had even kept them," Steve shakes his head, "I should have thrown them away".

Steve absently traces a faint white line across his temple, staring past his knees into the patterns of the ornate area rug, "I got home from school and he had the letters waiting for me". 

"He laid them all out on the dining table," Steve sweeps his hands out, setting the scene in his head, "like you see in those detective movies right? He just needed some string to connect them all to me". 

Steve shivers and closes his eyes, the words still echoing fresh in his mind, the hot spittle that hit his face as his father cornered him against the wall still makes him flinch if he thinks about it too hard.

"He asked when I was planning to tell him about the rejections, and I couldn't give him an answer," he reaches up and pinches his nose, just once, blinking a few times as he wills away the gathering moisture.

"I didn't raise you to be this way Steven, like some fucking ungrateful coward --look at me when I'm God Damn talking to you!" Richard seethes as he slams the flat of his palm into the center of the table, his Harvard class ring splitting the wood as it connects with a loud crack.

Richard doesn't look down, his hand slides to one of the letters, snatching it from the surface as he steps around the table, towards Steve, in three sure strides. He backs his son towards the wall, looming over Steve as he shoves the paper into his face in one hand while the other grips the collar of Steve's T-Shirt.

"What will people think, huh, our only son didn't get into college, Hagan got in for chrissakes," his dad shakes him once, forcing Steve's head to connect with the wall, "what am I supposed to tell people Steven, what are we going to tell your poor mother?" 

"I thought that Wheeler girl was supposed to be smart, tutor you or something," Richard scoffs as he finally lets go of Steve's shirt collar, "or did she finally come to her senses?"

Steve sneers before he can stop himself, "I didn't think you were even around enough to see that dad--"

The blow comes swiftly, catching him across the temple, his father's class ring comes out to play once again as a hot burst of pain blooms across the entire left side of his face from the backhand. 

"Don't you ever speak to me that way again, you want to be a big man Steven? Just see what happens". 

Steve blinks once, coming back to himself, "my dad, um, he has a problem with anger, with uh, expressing it I guess".

"But that isn't what this is about," Steve whispers, and this time he can't keep the wobble from his voice as he speaks.

"I'm afraid, I'm just like him, that I could do what he did if I got upset enough, and you," he breathes out sharply but the sounds more like a sob than anything else, "you want me to be honest?"

Steve finally lifts his eyes up to meet Eddie's own. Eddie, who looks as though he wants to melt into the floor, his shoulders tense and his own eyes seem suspiciously shiny as they stare back at Steve.

"Why couldn't you be honest with me, huh?" Steve whispers, "from the beginning?" 

A tear breaks the surface, tracing down Steve's cheek. He manages to catch it roughly with the back of his hand before reaching up to press the heels of both his hands into his eyes --as though the pressure could stop the building deluge he knows is inevitable.

"I was so angry with you when you told me that you hadn't meant what you said in the Upside Down," Steve manages to speak through the tightening of his throat as he drops his hands back down into his lap, "that I smashed a plate in my kitchen after you left, I don't, I don't know what happened". 

His breath quickens suddenly and every other word comes out as a gasp, "but it's like my worst fucking fears h-have come true and I don't, I don't know what to do, I don't, I--" 

"Oh sweetheart," Eddie says softly as he reaches for Steve, pulling him into his arms with gentle fingers, "oh, I gotcha".

Steve lets himself be moved, for his head to be tipped into the crook of Eddie's neck and his body tucked into Eddie's chest. 

Steve tries to slow down his breathing, to stop the shuddering of his chest as he fights the tears. 

"It's okay," Eddie tries but Steve shakes his head.

"It's not," he bites out, the words taper off into a whine, "it's not--"

"Okay, you're right, it's not," Eddie says so softly Steve nearly misses it.

"I'm so, so, sorry Steve," Eddie murmurs into Steve's hair, holding him tighter as Steve finally gives in and lets himself cry. 

He's not sure how long they sit for, eventually Steve feels a steady hand card through his hair while the other strokes down his arms, he feels the tension in his shoulders begin to melt away and the tears slow to a gentle trickle.

"I'm an idiot," Eddie huffs out, the breath flutters Steve's hair, making him twitch at the sensation.

Steve reaches up and wipes at his face with tired hands. The skin feels warm to the touch and puffy around his eyes and his nose which refuses to stop running, he must look like an absolute sight right now, he thinks to himself with a grimace.

"You're not an idiot," he manages to croak, but Eddie's already shaking his head sharply, turning himself to look at Steve.

"Oh believe me, I've fucked up before, pretty spectacularly, but this takes the goddamn cake sweetheart". 

"And you're right," Eddie says slowly, carefully, "I shouldn't be harping on about you hiding how you feel when I'm the reason why we're in this mess".

Eddie chews his bottom lip, worrying it between his teeth before pulling away from Steve entirely as he reaches up to cup Steve's face between his hands.

"I'm sorry for not being honest with you Stevie, and I will spend every day trying to make it up to you if you let me?"

Steve looks at Eddie, really looks at him.

He takes in the drooped curve of his shoulders, the subtle pink of the tip of his nose and the glassy sheen in his brown eyes. The way his chest has stopped rising and he drops his hands away from Steve the longer he openly stares at the metal-head, the way Eddie anxiously spins and spins and spins the rings on his hands the longer he waits. 

It’s an easy decision to reach out and place his own hand on Eddies own, to halt the frantic movements with a gentle squeeze.

“So,” Steve says, grinning as Eddie finally looks up at him once more, "on a scale of helping to chauffeur the kids to finishing fixing the table, what kind of making it up to me are we talking about?"

The smile Eddie gives him is nearly blinding as he launches himself at Steve, gathering him up in his arms. His hair smells like sawdust and there's the barest hint of some kind of cologne that Steve can't place.

Eddie leans back into the couch cushions, laughingly wetly and taking Steve with him. The sound makes his chest ache as Steve realizes just how much he’s missed Eddie’s laughter. He buries his face in Eddie's neck as they cuddle into one another, letting themselves sit with nothing but the sound of the occasional car driving down the street outside or the humming of grasshoppers through the screen door to the backyard.

"For what it's worth," Eddie huffs, breaking the quiet, a hint of dimples revealing themselves as he smiles, "I've never met the guy, but from the sounds of it, you are the farthest thing from being like 'Ol Dick Harrington".

Steve says nothing but feels something in his chest finally unclench for the first time in weeks.

"Besides, there's nothing like a good plate smash every now and again Stevie," Eddie hums as he runs his thumb over the crest of Steve's cheekbone again.

"That's what Robin said," Steve mumbles, as he leans further into Eddie with a smile, "she came over that night, after". 

"A wise and terrifying woman," Eddie says sagely, "who I hope to never piss off again".

He stops suddenly and looks up at Steve, a nervous pinch to his brow as he plays with a loose curl hanging in front of his face, "I'm glad you guys have each other," Eddie says slowly, letting his thumb stroke Steve's hand absently, "that you have people in your corner and--”

Eddie swallows, his eyes darting back and forth between Steve's eyes as he finally seems to steel himself.

"I hope you'll let me be one of those people".

This nervous, quiet Eddie, is so strange to take in, but then again Steve's also never been on the receiving end of so many apologies all at once, it's just shy of being overwhelming at this point.

"Oh come off it Eddie," Steve huffs with a roll of his eyes, "you had me the moment I saw that fucking table outside and you tried to hide the sandpaper behind your back --real smooth by the way".

The way Eddie stares at him in surprise and that same look of awe from before, tells Steve that was the right thing to say.

Eddie barks out a wet laugh and squeezes him tighter, tipping his face to nuzzle Steve's ear, "I missed you teasing me".

"That was the worst part about all of this," he shudders once and drops his head to Steve's shoulder, "I thought I lost my friend, but I have you back".

"Yeah, you have me Eds," Steve says softly.

Steve rests against Eddie, uncaring that the position is growing more uncomfortable as the arm tucked closest to the metal-head falls asleep. Eddie holds him with such gentle reverence that Steve feels as though he may just burst from happiness at any moment. 

Everything he's wanted for months, has finally fallen into place.

It's quiet for another moment. Steve plays with one of Eddie's hands, running his fingers over the calluses from playing guitar and the eclectic rings decorating his knuckles.

Eddie clears his throat after a beat, swallowing once, “so uh, earlier….that wasn’t exactly how I pictured our first kiss you know?"

Steve feels a small grin slowly bloom, he's not quite facing Eddie the way they're sitting, so he can play coy a little longer.

 “You’ve pictured it huh?” 

Eddie snorts “Oh yeah, you have no idea, there’s usually more tongue involved and less chipped teeth”.

Steve nods, letting them sit for a moment longer, letting himself be chased for once.

Eddie pulls back slightly, leaving his arms loosely wrapped around Steve, “think we could uh, try again?”

“Will you mean it as much as you did the first time?” Steve says with a smile as he rubs his lip with his thumb and flushed cheeks.

“You liked that huh, always knew you were a freak like me Harrington,” Eddie barks out, his eyes shining with mirth as he leans closer to run the tip of his nose down Steve's before nuzzling them together, "wanna make some good memories in this house Stevie?"

“Only if you’re with me Eds,” Steve whispers against Eddie’s lips as he slowly leans in. 

Steve’s heart races, anticipation flooding his veins and filling his chest with a giddy realization that he finally, finally, gets to have this. 

That he knows Eddie finally, finally, feels the same way.

He’ll call Robin later, let her know about Hellfire’s plan, the apology, and maybe even the truth about everything he’d kept hidden away for so long. The old hurts soothed and the lid of the box in his mind permanently open now, the lid wrenched off its hinges so as to never close again. Maybe he could let people in, to let them know him. 

For now, Steve lets himself be lowered onto the couch, lets Eddie's hands roam freely, over Steve's shoulders, his neck --letting his fingers gently brush the long scar from the Demobat tail, before lifting one hand to cup his cheek while the other climbs into Steve hair, threading his fingers through it and giving the locks an experimental tug.

Steve's hands make their way up Eddie's back, under his shirt, tracing over the raised scars on his sides. Eddie shoots Steve a wicked grin, his eyes crinkle at the sides as he lets his weight gently fall over Steve, catching himself with his hands on the couch cushions on either side of Steve's face, effectively caging him in. 

Eddie moves slowly, deliberately, it's not nearly as brutal as the first time but Eddie kisses like a wildman starved, licking into Steve's mouth and grazing his bottom lip with harsh teeth. 

It feels like Steve is being consumed, slowly, carefully.

It's overwhelming in the best way. The feeling of his soft lips against Steve’s own, the harsh stubble that rubs against Steve’s chin. The smell of weed, and sawdust, and cologne invades his nose.

Eddie pulls back briefly before leaning down again to place a soft kiss against Steve’s lips.

“How's that for a second kiss?” he asks with a raised eyebrow and a wide smirk pulling at his slightly puffy lips.

Steve scoffs and tugs at Eddie’s shirt collar, “I dunno, maybe we need to check again?”

Eddie’s laughter rings out loud and long in the Harrington living room, as he leans down again and hugs Steve tightly.

For the first time in a long time, Steve feels himself relax. 

He lets the weight of Eddie press him into the cushions and releases a long contented breath, the Harrington house, finally feeling warmer than it has in a long time.

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed working on it! This was the first fic of this length that I was still actively writing as I was updating that I've actually completed and I'm pretty damn happy about that! I was so worried about abandoning this guy and I'm glad I was able to finish it, hopefully it has come to a satisfying conclusion <3

Taglist: @zerokrox-blog @samcoxramblings @thosemessyvibes @liketheocean @vampireinthesun @themostunoriginalpersonever @merricatty @hyperfixationgoddess @hippieg1rl420 @mysticcrownshipper @estrellami-1 @clumsiluni @messrs-weasley @the-obsessed-nerdist

[eleanorroseaxoxo]

The Transition of Jonathan Byers

Heavily based on Vicki's transition in The Vampire Diaries [Season 1, Episode 06], credits to the lines used from that episode in this fic go to the writers.

Nancy was in her bedroom in the Wheeler House, loading her shotgun. Nancy promised herself when she was thirteen that she would never go down the path her father did with hunting the supernatural, mainly because she believes that some of those creatures could be innocent. But now Will's missing, Barb's missing, and there's a seven foot tall monster crawling around Hawkins, Nancy couldn't take the risk.

As she finishes loading her weapon, someone begins frantically knocking at the front door, thank god she was home alone.

"I'm coming!" Nancy yells as she walks towards the front door. She opens it to see Jonathan standing there. Weird, Jonathan's wearing sunglasses, in November?

"Hey." Jonathan greets her. "Can I come in? The sun is killing me, my eyes are on fire."

"Yeah, come in." Nancy ushers Jonathan into the house and shuts the door behind her. "How did it go at the lab?"

"I don't remember?" Jonathan states as he rubs his neck, it's aching for some reason. "It's all a blur."

"Jonathan, did they do something to you?"

"No, I don't know, I-"

"Did something happen, Jonathan?"

Jonathan looks around the house, desperate for something but doesn't know what. "I'm hungry. Do you have anything to eat?"

Nancy's starting to become concerned. "Jonathan-"

"Sorry Nancy, could you just not talk so loud? My head, it hurts. I need quiet." Jonathan states as he stumbles to the kitchen.

An hour and a petrified call to Mrs. Byers later, Joyce and Hopper knock on the door to the Wheeler Residence. Nancy opens the door seconds later, panicked.

"Where is he?" Joyce asks the girl.

"In the living room."

"Did he eat something, take something?"

"I-I don't know, I don't think so."

Joyce makes her way to the living room, Nancy and Hopper behind her. She enters the living room to see all the curtains closed, food packets everywhere, and her son curled up on the floor.

"Jonathan, sweetie." Joyce makes her way to her son and couches down in front of him. "How are you?"

"Not good."

"Okay, uh, where does it hurt?"

"My gums."

"Your gums?"

Jonathan nods, on the brink of tears. "My jaw hurts. My gums, there's something in my gums, and it hurts."

Joyce goes to hug her son. "Oh, sweetie-"

Jonathan retracts away from his mother. "No! Just leave me alone. Just-Just turn it off!"

"Turn what off, kid?" Hopper asks, quizzing him.

"The talking, the chatter, just turn it off." Jonathan cries.

"Jonathan, what happened when you went to that lab?" Nancy questions.

"Lab?"

"You went to Hawkins Labs?" Hopper exclaims. Instead of an answer, Jonathan just groans. Hopper slowly starts putting the pieces together. "Joyce, step away from him for a minuet, please."

Joyce looks at Hopper to question him, but he gives her a look and she backs away.

"Kid, look at me." Jonathan looks at him and Hopper begins examining his face, mainly his eyes. "Right, I want you to go to Mike's room, shut the blinds and stay there until I come up, alright?"

"Chief, I don't-"

"Just do it, Jonathan."

Without further questions, Jonathan slowly stands up and walks upstairs. Hopper lets out a sigh and starts to pace.

"You know what's wrong with him?" Nancy questions the chief.

"Yeah."

"What is it?" Joyce pleads.

Hopper sighs before answering.

"He's transitioning."

Joyce and Nancy look at each other, confused. "Transitioning to what?"

Hopper contemplates for a moment on whether he should answer Joyce honestly, the truth could break her. After a few moments of contemplation, Hopper responds.

"A vampire." Joyce and Nancy appear stunned by this news, Joyce realising that her son is turning into a vampire and Nancy in shock as Jonathan is technically the first vampire she's came across. "The lab must've injected him with some vamp blood before killing him." Joyce lets out a cry, her son is technically dead. "He's new, he hasn't completed his transformation yet."

"H-how does he do that?" Nancy questions.

"He has to feed on human blood."

"A-And what if she doesn't?" Hopper doesn't answer Joyce at first. "Hop!"

"He'll die. He may only have a few hours left."

Joyce stands there, in shock. What would she rather have, a dead son or an immortal, blood-sucking vampire for a son? "Nancy, can you go check on Jonathan, please."

Without any questions, Nancy heads upstairs. Leaving Joyce and Hopper by themselves.

"It's ok." Hopper tries to comfort her. "He doesn't know what's happening to him yet."

"He's not stupid Hop!" Joyce cries. "He's gonna figure it out sooner or later."

"Right now, he doesn't remember anything." Hopper explains. "A part of him is still human, but slowly, the deeper he gets into the transition, the memories will start to come back, and then he'll know he has to make the choice."

In that moment, Nancy rushes downstairs. "He's not there!"

"What?"

"He' s not in Mike's room, or anywhere upstairs." Nancy exclaims. "Mike's window is wide open."

"Right, okay-okay. Let's split up." Hopper decides. "Joyce, search around the neighborhood. Nancy, look around the outskirts of the woods, I'll look in the town square. Radio in when and only when you find him."

A few hours later, Hopper found Jonathan downtown in an alleyway, ripping into some poor girls neck.

Yep, Jonathan's officially a vampire.

[bowiebond]

Mafia AU but it’s byerharringrove 👀

“Nobody disrespects the family. It’s mine.”

• Jonathan is the bodyguard to Will who’s only taking the family business because it was in their grandfathers will.

• Lonnie didn’t want Will to be the head because he’s gay, and Joyce didn’t want either boy to take it because she was married into the life and always wanted out (after Lonnie’s death she starts dating a police man who she has to hide the business from to keep her boys safe).

• Jonathan had an out once Lonnie unfortunately passed (an accident with a loaded shotgun he didn’t handle with proper care. Untimely, really, Jonathan would say with dead eyes and a smile on his lips when people asked at the funeral, shaking their hands with a terrifyingly firm grip). Will was to take on the role after all. Lonnie tried to undo it in his own will, but he was the second son to his own father and had less power even in death.

• Unfortunately he wasn’t able to leave his younger brother in the cage with tigers and stayed with the intention of keeping him safe since he was dethroned from the position he would have taken as the first born. Keeping Will alive and happy was his duty, always had been, and kept him from the throne himself. Kept Will from dirtying his hands when Jonathan was his weapon of choice.

• “Those Byer brothers…” People would say in shushed voices. “They’re psychotic. Ruthless. The Psycho Byers all were. Someone oughta put a bullet in them before the eldest catches you.”

• Billy is the next in line to be the head of the family. The Mad Dog who blew his expenses on women and alcohol, who got into bar brawls and laughed after spitting blood in his own bodyguards face, appointed by his father. Despite his frivolity, he was not to be toiled with. He’s Mad Max’s keeper, the step daughter from Neil’s second marriage after Billy’s own mother left the life of crime in the middle of the night. Billy was willing to spill blood at Max’s feet if given a whiff of ill intent towards her, on his fathers orders.

• Unfortunately, Max is intent on making a name for herself. Hates being babysat by her older step brother when she can take care of herself. She has every intent of stealing his crown and becoming head of the family herself, but she’s unable to bring herself to kill him. Mostly because of the treatment Billy receives from his father, especially when she messes up.

• Neil suddenly goes bye-bye during a gang shoot out with the Carvers, ‘taking a hit for his boy’ they would say, not knowing Billy put the bullet in him himself with one of the dead Carvers goons gun left on the ground.

• The title is supposed to fall to him, and everyone expects him to take it. And he does. But he wears it as a figurehead. A target for people to shoot at. He’s got the ability to lead them, but he doesn’t intend to. He’s leaving it to Max who actually wants the job and reaping the benefits as he keeps his nightlife alive and out of sight. Max accepts the condition, but she still intends to seize the business for herself while Billy’s not looking. She doesn’t care if it paints a target on her. She wants everyone to finally respect her like they should have when her mother married Neil.

• Steve is the prince of his family, the Harrington’s. King Steve, his friends/lackeys would joke. He’s used to getting what he wants, when he wants it, and everyone feeds into it.

• Except his father, who’s been adamant about him not taking over the business since he was a teenager. Steve sucks at finances, hates getting his hands dirty, and despite having a mean mouth, rarely won the fights he got into despite the years of self defence his father forced him to take.

• (Jokes on him, Steve fucked his teacher and didn’t learn anything. No, he doesn’t like to think about the fact that he was fifteen and they were much older, he’d rather assume he had the upperhand).

• Mr Harrington wants Steve to be in the background. Tells his members that Steve does work overseas for the family when in actuality he pays Steve to go and have quiet fun away from them. Because he’s an idiot and a disappointment, and he’ll never be good enough to run the family.

• Mr Harrington’s already training up his ex-girlfriend Nancy Wheeler to take over because of how ‘intelligent’ she is. Steve’s only getting the figurative throne if he marries her and Nancy has refused more than once because she intends to run things alone and will not be stuck in a ‘political marriage’.

• Steve doesn’t really want to marry her either, not after how things ended. Plus, his best friend Robin wants Nancy’s cousin, Heather, even if she doesn’t tell him to avoid hurting his feelings.

• Steve spends daddy’s money on booze, cigarettes and prostitutes since he doesn’t see any future in the business now. He may as well mooch off his old man and send himself into an early grave.

• It only makes sense that the two party animals of the trio would bump into each other eventually. Billy’s got most of his buttons undone, a blonde in his lap that he’s paying little attention too as he watches the dance floor where Steve is. He doesn’t have to know him to know he’s pretty, a really pretty boy in bell bottom jeans and a cropped top that barely skims where his pants are up around his waist. Expensive and chic and maybe a tad outdated. It works regardless.

• The light brown fabric of his shirt clings to Steve’s skin as he raises his hands up, rolling his hips, his blue jeans showing off his ass as he throws his arms around a short haired woman, singing along to the music and grinding against her as she laughs and grinds back. There’s no tension between them, just drunk giddiness, and Billy’s walking towards them without a second though.

• He comes up behind Steve and slots himself against his back, grinning at the woman, Robin he later finds out, who waggles her brows at him and excuses herself. Steve doesn’t hesitate to rub up against him, turning his head and raising a hand to cup his face, grinning against Billy’s cheek as the music pounds.

• By the end of the night, they’re tumbling into Steve’s suite and going at it like animals, Steve tearing up Billy’s back and ordering him to keep going like the spoilt prince he was. Billy’s good at taking orders, makes a good dog that’s willing to bark when told to and to lick when something tempting is put in front of him.

• Billy leaves before Steve wakes, but leaves his card. He can’t skip out on an ass that fine. A pretty boy is a pretty boy, bratty or not.

• Billy and Jonathan meet during a meeting. Business casual, of course, and Billy isn’t sure what to make of Will Byers. Has heard stories. Will is very smart, but there’s a touch of naivety to him, one that his bodyguard and brother makes up for when he places a hand on Will’s shoulder and whispers in his ear what to say next when stumped. He’s leader material, but he stays behind his younger brother without a sliver of contempt on his features. It makes Billy curious.

• He offers Jonathan a drink. No, no plus one. Just him. Jonathan’s eyes are killer when he meets Billy’s, seeking out ill intent. Sizing Billy up. In the end, he gives a curt agreement and Billy is brimming with satisfaction. Jonathan makes him curious and he demands to know what’s going on inside that head, inside their family.

• It starts with a drink. And then there’s another. And slowly Jonathan is getting looser, eyes drooping, softening. He’s resting against the bar, head on his folded arms as he looks up at Billy who talks in a low murmur about being the new king of his fathers legacy. He doesn’t mention how he kind of hates it, how he wishes his mother took him with her so he could leave it all to someone else, but that someone would be Max and he couldn’t let Max have a target on her back. If he died in this business, that was his birthright as the son of a Hargrove. That was not Max’s destiny as a Mayfield.

• Maybe it does slip from his lips though. Accidentally, a quick line that catches Jonathan’s attention, draws a gleam into them.

• “I could have left.” He mentions, slightly slurred around the edges and hair falling into his eyes as he raised his head and rolled his shoulders with a soft pop and a few cracks. He’s weathered despite his young age from his childhood, and Billy feels that. Feels it in the ache of his knees, the tension in his shoulders and back, the constant bruise of his hidden pistol pressing into his waistband.

• It’s the first time either of them really open up about it, drinks flowing as the night progressed. Jonathan reacts like he hates every sip, and he does, he doesn’t like drinking but it’s apart of the life really. Drinks with clients. Body guarding means he gets away with not doing it. But there’s an ease to being with Billy, and he doesn’t react so awfully with every taste when Billy and him are linking arms and throwing back shots; Billy with ease and Jonathan with a dribble down his chin, chuckling.

• Billy thumbs it from his chin and it’s like gravity when Billy falls into Jonathan, but it’s force that Jonathan leads with when he throws his arms around him and they topple against the private lounge.

• They don’t fuck, too drunk to figure out the mechanics, but there’s something equally satisfying about making out sloppily, grabbing at each other, their clothes, and grinding like they can’t get enough yet it’s also slow rolls, deep pressure. It’s magic and alcohol and neither really regret it.

• Well, Jonathan regrets it a little. He shouldn’t be fraternising with the leader of another gang like that. Even if he was purely a figurehead and didn’t seem to want to pull the strings, he still could. Getting in close with him would make people question his loyalties to Will, to the family. Could get them both in trouble.

• Doesn’t stop him from accepting his invitation every time. The first few times they do drink well into the night, talking about everything and nothing, about shitty childhoods and siblings and mothers and fathers, but it becomes apparent what their meetings are. They’re almost dates, with the intention of gratification.

• Billy almost forgets about Steve entirely with the new brunet he’s got in his lap once a week, but when the phone rings and he asks him to come by the same room as last time…well, Billy’s not a good guy. He’s selfish, actually.

• He sees Steve again and they fuck and it’s good. Good to get his dick wet after weeks of blow jobs and handies because Jonathan apparently never learnt how to hold his liquor and getting any further is a hassle. It’s not like he’s dating Jonathan, so it doesn’t matter if he sleeps with Steve.

• Jonathan met Steve a few years back; they were after the same girl you see. Jonathan won, but the relationship quickly fell apart due to Jonathan’s higher preference for men and loyalty to his family above all else. Steve wasn’t proud of the way he fought dirty for Nancy, and Jonathan couldn’t help holding grudges.

• So when Will decided to hang out with his best friend Mike and Steve was put in babysitting duty since Nancy was still ‘learning the ropes’, they were forced to see each other for the first time in years.

• Jonathan got better looking with age, and so did Steve. And maybe there was always a bit of tension they never let themselves give into in the past…

• Steve presses Jonathan against the bathroom door while Will and Mike play video games in the next room and Jonathan complains that he’s supposed to be guarding his brother, but it’s hard to think rationally when the guy who made you realise you’re not straight due to hate fucking fantasies is on his knees, sucking your dick like his life depends on it.

• Steve starts willingly babysitting Mike just to see Jonathan, and Jonathan is a weak, guilty man. Because he’s pretty sure he has a steady thing going with Billy but he’s here fucking the spoilt prince (*cough* King *cough) Harrington against a bathroom sink, face pressing against the fogging mirror, while his little brother plays video games with the kid he’s been crushing on since he was like five.

• Steve’s still seeing Billy fairly regularly too. Jonathan still gets drunk with Billy and fumbles with his zipper because there’s an unspoken rule that Jonathan has to be a tad tipsy to do such things even in his off hours (not that he really had any) but he’s doing so with Steve, so why keep pretences?

• Jonathan is completely sober when he arrives at the bar one evening and point blank asks Billy to fuck him. He’s got a room upstairs, champagne if Billy really needs it, but he needs to be sober for this before he makes it habit to only indulge in the blond when he’s drunk. Maybe fucking him while sober will remind him it’s a bad idea.

• it doesn’t. God, it doesn’t, because Billy’s hands still feel amazing, and for the first time, neither have a weapon on them or in reach, don’t have a drink in hand, too lost in each other to protect themselves from each other. Jonathan rides Billy the way they’ve both been wanting for months, and it’s exhilarating to feel Billy’s thumb press against the dip of his throat when he leans down to kiss him, messy and panting hard. Feels holy, like divine intervention to feel Billy’s hand in his hair, fisting the strands and tilting his head to kiss deeper, to feel his fingers dig into the meat of Jonathan’s thigh to remind him to keep moving.

• Billy smokes afterwards, and despite years of telling himself he’d never pick up the nasty habit like his parents, Jonathan wraps his lips around the filter when Billy offers. Breathes in, holds, and releases the smoke along with all his concerns. He’s been worried about everyone but himself since he was a kid. He wanted to savour this glitter of something good.

• The kiss after that feels like something more than sex, than companionship, and neither think of Steve then, but they do after. Steve who’s pretty and a bit mean but so soft around the edges when he’s got lips against his. When his spoilt bratty exterior melts away to something small and needy. Something that needs love and touch. Needs affirmation that’s he’s good.

• Jonathan and Billy are something of an unofficial couple after that night. Billy takes Jonathan out to dinner with his dead daddy’s money that’s now his own, and Jonathan has a growing album dedicated to Billy’s hands, to his lips, to his mirthful eyes and pristine curls. People talk, but nobody says too much too loudly. The Mad Dog and the eldest Psycho Byers have reputations stained with blood and nobody wants to be next.

• Unofficial is definitely the term, even between them. Maybe that’s why they’re still seeing Steve behind each other’s backs. Jonathan tries to protest after that sobering night, saying he’s seeing someone, but Steve has a way with words, with touch. And a mean set of doe eyes when he says, “Not like you’re official right? We can still play. You don’t gotta be guilty. Or you can be, whatever eases your conscience because we both know you’ll come back.” He does. He does and he’s guilty and maybe that’s the part that makes it better.

• Billy has some reservations. Says he’ll fuck Steve but he won’t kiss him like he used too, but it only takes a few meetings to change that because Steve has the most kissable lips and makes the sweetest sounds he wants to drink in and swallow.

• Steve doesn’t know they’re dating each other. He doesn’t ask who when they mention it. They couldn’t compare to him, surely (but they could and he knows and maybes he’s a little scared to lose either of them at this rate. Maybe he kind of loves them, maybe he wants them to whisk him away like he’s a princess instead of a prince).

• Steve calls Jonathan when he gets shot for the first time. He never expected anyone to take a shot at him, nobody cared enough to try taking him out, but he caught a bullet in the side, taking a small chunk out of his waist as it grazed by, before Robin ran them both out of the club, Tommy and Carol staying behind to find their mystery shooter. Robin and him lost each other in the crowd and all Steve could think except for ‘I’m going to die’ is ‘I need a bodyguard’.

• He calls Jonathan in tears, holding his side and curled up in a phone booth. “Please, I-I know you never l-liked me, but you— you gotta h-help me. Gotta know how, you- you’ve been shot, I know, Will- Will said- he said-“

• Jonathan arrives with Billy in tow ten minutes later, staying on the phone with Steve the whole time as Billy drove. They had been out at the time and Jonathan had planned to explain Steve away as a friend if Billy asked. Or maybe be honest. He hadn’t been sure, too worried about the whimpering brunet on the other end.

• Steve clings to Jonathan when he arrives, shivering, and when he sees Billy, his first words out are, “Billy, you remember her, my friend, Robin, the first time we met, did you see her? You had to see her, we- we lost— we lost each other, I- Jon, I lost Robin,”

• Jonathan is confused to how they know each other but quickly asks Billy to drop them at his place and circle back to look for Robin. Billy agrees and Jonathan sits in the backseat, comforting the exhausted Steve who curls around him like a inconsolable child. Kisses Jonathan’s neck because it’s the closest skin available and murmurs “thank you” and “I love you” over and over through sniffles and hiccups. Jonathan’s not entirely sure he means it because he seems delirious, but he can’t turn him away in his state, repeats “it’s okay” as he pets his hair.

• Billy drops them off and Jonathan spares a moment to lean over from the backseat to kiss him and promises to talk later before he takes Steve inside and Billy drives off to find Robin.

• Thankfully the damage wasn’t too severe, but the angle would leave a nasty scar, and his shirt was unsalvageable. Steve drops off to sleep pretty soon after being wrapped up and laid down, his adrenaline flatlining.

• Jonathan waits for Billy to come back but it isn’t until the next morning. He had found Robin, that she was okay, but she had found Carol bleeding out with Tommy, in his arms as he tried to put pressure on her wounds even as he choked on his own blood, and spent three hours arranging them to be taken to emergency and cared for. Billy only found her because she went looking for Steve around 4am, looking on the verge of tears.

• Robin and Steve reunite, holding each other tight and whispering in Jonathan’s bed about Tommy and Carol, silently crying. It’s then that Billy draws Jonathan away to talk.

• They talk over coffee, both with dark circles under their eyes and weary, and Jonathan admits to his infidelity. That he had been sleeping with Steve. That he might have feelings for him, that Steve’s call had been a wake up to how much he did care for him. Jonathan says he loves Billy, for the first time, and that he intends to be faithful this time if Billy ever forgave him.

• “there’s nothing to forgive.” Billy explains his side of things, that he had known he felt something for Steve for a long time but didn’t want to lose Jonathan because their connection is special. It was a rarity to have someone who understands him so fundamentally. Understands why he can never leave the business even if he wanted to.

• With the air cleared, Billy suggests that they keep seeing Steve. Separately, together, he didn’t care. Because Jonathan and him had something Steve could never tarnish or replace, but he was also something special they both wanted and perhaps even needed. That maybe Steve needed them too.

• Jonathan agrees, and from then on, their guilt is abolished. The secret between them is gone and with the space gone it’s like they’re closer. Steve is no longer between them, a hurdle, but besides them.

• Jonathan takes care of Steve through his healing alongside a Robin who brings back info on the recovering Tommy and Carol who barely made it through and are being insufferable about it. Meanwhile Billy looks into the shooter and pays someone under the table to take care of it. He’d do it himself, but he wasn’t dirtying his new boots with the blood of trash that low. As long as Steve can rest easy, he’s happy.

• Steve quite likes having both of their attentions on him. Liked watching them together too, but he especially likes being cradled between their bodies, Billy pressed as close as possible so he could wrap his arm around the both of them. Jonathan’s arm curled under Steve’s so his hand is between Billy’s chest and his back, nose to nose with Steve as they snoozed. It’s softer than anything the bodyguard has felt, gentler than anything the mad dog has experienced, and it’s richer than any amount of cash to the abandoned prince.

• None of them know where this will go, but for now, they’ll take the glimmer of hope that’s entered their dark life. They can be their own, small family. And nobody hurts family, not in their business.

[that-one-weeb-buts-its-the-main]

Being Franks Daughter in Hawkins pt 11

Gif Caption: Top Gif: Frank Castle from Marvel's Punisher Bottom Gif: Steve Harrington from Netflix's Stranger Things

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Reader: female | 17-18

Characters Mentioned: Frank Castle (MCU), Matt Murdock (MCU), Steven Grant/Marc Spector (MCU), Steve Harrington (ST), Billy Hargrove (ST), Jim Hopper (ST), Mike Wheeler (ST), Nancy Wheeler (ST), Dustin (ST), Lucas Sinclair (ST), Max Mayfeild (ST), Will Byers (ST), Joyce Byers (ST) Jonathan Byers (ST)

A/n: wow. This one wow.

Warnings: blood, injury, violence, guns, weapons

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You were carefully as you walked through the main lobby, pulling your hatchets out as she looked around the lobby? A mess, littered with bullet casings.

Picking one up you scanned over the case.

Its Franks

Not because of the type, but because you were the dumbass that tended to carve little things into his bullets.

Frank was here, and he was unloading bullets

Meaning those dogs were here.

Not to mention a red baton was stuck in the wall as well.

Matts here too, and most likely as Daredevil

You had to be careful

You rushed through the halls, looking for the group, or any sign of life.

So far your finding dead bodies and dead flower dogs

Blood coating the walls and floor.

You turned a corner

"Fuck-" Frank sighed.

"God damn-" y/n complained.

Both had been scared by the other.

"What are you doing here?" Y/n argued quitely.

"Me?" Frank argued, "i think you're out. Fuckin some guy and you're out pullin some New York shit."

"In my defense." Y/n argued, "I came sfter you."

"Yeah well we don't have much time." Matt spoke up, dressed fully in his daredevil suit.

"Daredevil. What are you doing here?"

"You're father here went through your contacts I suppose, got worried for you." He spoke, "I told you to stay out of trouble."

Y/n shrugged, "trouble finds me-"

"Can we go!?" Hopper argued.

Fair enough.

So you all started to leave, making it to the exit all in one piece.

You made sure the kids and adults got out first

Joyce wouldn't leave though, her friend was still coming along.

But it was too late, as soon as he got into view he was attacked by following dogs causing her to scream.

You had pushed her out the way of another attack the thing latching onto your lower calf.

"Get her out of here!" Y/n shouted Matt pulling Joyce away as Y/n turned around, it biting into her side.

She cursed in pain as it's now bloddied face came up to hers, ready to finish the job.

Y/n gritted her teeth, holding its mouth open the best she could till Frank came in.

Shooting the thing off her, and picking Y/n up, they both hobbling out the main lobby together and slammming the door closed behind them causing it to lock.

"Shit...shit." y/n complained, squeezing her eyes shut in pain, she getting up despite the pain and pushed on.

"Curt? Madani?" Y/n asked her dad, "Peter? Karen?"

"There with Marc."

"Oh thank god..." Y/n spoke getting towards the pick up truck they'd all have to squeeze in. They putting her in the back of the truck.

Frank and Matt both sat with you in the back as the eletronic gate opened cheering from the kids went into shock when everyone had to start climbing in as ordered.

"Holy shit!" Steve shouted, getting besides her, she covered in more blood than she went in with.

"Hey Pretty boy..." Y/n answered with a heavy pant holding her side.

Steve was completely speechless as he looked her over.

"Guys this...fuck...this is daredevil. Guys, Daredevil." Y/n introduced pointing the shocked kids to the Supehero in red.

"Stay still." Frank ordered opening the medkit.

"I didn't refill that." Y/n answered then groaned, "my bad."

"Fuckin' hell kid..." Frank grumbled.

"Its not that bad anyway..."

"Not that bad?! Look at yourself." Steve argued

"Most of it's the blood from my enemies." Y/n answered, "Think it might be ketchup really. Or just a really bad period day-ow..."

How

How are you making jokes at such a time where you're litterally dieing.

You all make it to Joyce's house.

Your dad tries to patch you up but your fine, or so you say.

Its a Lie, but still Joyce just lost one of her good friends and you tell him you should be there for her.

"Yeah. Yeah...I get how she feels." Frank spoke, "but your my kid. You're just a bit more important."

Y/n nodded, "yeah okay..."

"Bathrooms down the hall. There's some medkits in there." Jonathan tells the two, Frank nodding as he helps her along.

He sits her on the toliet to rest, she pulling off her shirt as she leans back.

"Fuck..." Y/n groaned.

"Got you pretty good." Frank spoke finding the large medkit.

"Mhm..." Y/n hummed in agreement, Frank starting his work.

She had been bitten in a few places, her hand, which still was covered in duck tape, and her calf, along with her stomach off to the side which he was cleaning now.

She held in a whine of pain as he pulled some teeth that had come loose from the dogs.

"This ones a big one-" Frank told her.

She sucked in her breathe, but couldn't help but cry out in pain as he pulled the largest one get from her adoment.

"Fuck! Fuck!" Y/n cried behind closed door.

"I know...I know." Frank spoke, it most likely a nail of the creature instead of a tooth.

"Is it out! Fuck!" Y/n cried.

"Almost almost."

Steve was in the kitchen, the whole house hearing the muffled shouts from the closed bathroom door.

"Fuck..." Steve spoke rubbing through his hair, "I should've never let her hop that fence."

"She'll be okay." Daredevil told him a hand on Steve's shoulder, "she's a strong one. Pulled me out of a building once or twice-"

Yet another cry of pain came from her.

"I can't just stand here." Steve spoke, walking away, going towards the bathroom.

Making it he opened it, Y/n now on the floor, violently coughing over the toliet as Frank patched up her back.

"Get out of here Harrington." Frank ordered wipping bloodied hands on his black jeans, standing up and leaning over Y/n with a hair band in his teeth.

"Did you...pull those from her?" Steve asked, looking at the three claws that sat on the floor with a pile of teeth, most of them broken off during the fight.

"She'll be okay." Frank told, pulling Y/n's hair back into a ponytail, "Claws get in deep. Her pain tolerance is high, this just went above that."

Y/n slowly started to calm down, breathing heavily. If Y/n had eaten anything lately she might have thrown up.

She pulled back leaning against the bathub leaning her head back.

"Fuck is it over." Y/n complained.

"I haven't even looked at you calf yet or you're hand." Frank told her as she groaned.

"I can help." Steve tried to persuade.

Frank looking back at him, "Go back kid. Now."

Steve though recluctant, left, closing the door behind him.

"Didn't have to be so mean." Y/n protested, "or are you jealous that this is our only daughter father time."

He rolled his eyes, "hurry up take off the jeans before I let you bleed out."

Y/n pouted, but did as asked, the injury worse than Frank thought.

"Mad that I found flower heads before you?" Y/n protested.

"Joyce knows." Frank spoke up.

"I...I know." Y/n answered, "That...thing that has Will...knows about us. Did the flower heads go after-"

"The rest of the group? Yeah." Frank informed, "there staked out at our place."

Y/n nodded, "Everyone's okay?"

"Last time I was there. Yeah." Frank responded, quickly pulling a tooth from her leg as she groaned, the pain annoying at this point.

It was silent for a moment, "Im sending you off after all this."

"What?" Y/n questioned, "where?"

Frank was silent sewing up the cut.

"Where are you sending me!?"

"Back." He responded.

"Back where!?" Y/n argued, "dad!"

"Back to New York!" He shouted.

"What!? No!" Y/n defended, "Im needed here-"

"No!" He shouted, silencing her, he sighed, wrapping her leg up.

It was silent, "I. Just need you to be safe kid." Frank argued.

"The Midnight Sons-"

"Fuck the Midnight Sons." Y/n snapped.

"Look. Each one can train you-"

"Train me? Oh please. I could beat them half to shit."

"When you're angry." Frank defended, "Kid."

She still looked off to the side in anger, "Y/n."

He cupped her face, hand full of blood, "Y/n please."

Her eyes flickered towards him, he sighing, "You wanna stay here?"

Y/n nodded

"You've got to get expirence beneath you're belt." Frank ordered, "The Midnight Sons. They'll help you."

Y/n was quiet, "I just...need you to have some experience. Not me teachin ya' how to shoot a gun and be angry. That isnt gonna help you in any of this."

Y/n was silent still, as he sighed, getting up, "I'll go get you something to wear.

You just watched as he left to go ask for some chlothes.

He was able to get you some chlothes from Jonathan

Which you put on, covering up your fresh bandages.

You come out, to join the group, a cleaned cut here and there on your face.

Everyones staring at you, but it doesn't last long with all the kids coming to hug you

"You should of seen your self!" Mike spoke enthusiastically, "You were like, You're not biting me! And held his mouth open like a total badass!"

"She was like that at the bus too!" Dustin cheered.

"Though get this" Lucas cheered, "She ripped It in half. Like the Hulk!"

"Oh it was so cool!" Dustin cheered.

"You okay?" Max asked Y/n nodding.

"I'll be good."

"Daredevil needs a sidekick anyway. You should totally roll with him!" Mike cheered then leaned into Y/n's ear, "ya know because you're dads retired."

Y/n smiled at the boys, "Maybe. For now. Let's figure out everything here. What do we know? What do we not? Whats are plan of attack?"

"We stay here and wait for help." Hopper deamnded.

"Help? Help!?' Will argued, "Not with those things running loose! We have help!"

Mike gestured towards Daredevil who was leaning against the wall then gestured towards her.

"They're both basically superheros!"

"Listen." Daredevil spoke up, "Im no hero, not the kind that takes on this."

"We stay put! And we wait for help!" Hopper argued walking off causing the kids to sit back down.

"This is total bullshit!" Mike argued taking his seat.

"What do you want us to do Mike!?" Dustin argued, "The Cheif's right! We're no match for those Demo-Dogs."

"Demodogs?" Max asked as Y/n leaned on the back of Max's chair.

"Demogorgin dogs." Dustin told, "Demodogs. It's like a compound, you know like cannot. Compond-"

"Okay. Okay." Y/n spoke stopping the curly haired kid, "So. We have. Demodogs. Little ass holes. whatever right. We had Dart. Now we have what? 30? 40? Darts."

"An army." Lucas spoke, "His Army."

"His?" Y/n asked, "So. Dart's the leader then?"

"No." Mike spoke, "That would be the shadow monster-"

"Okay this Shadow Monster essentially rules this upside down. He can just send more the more we kill." Daredevil explained, "So killing these things don't matter."

"Wait." Mike spoke up, "If the upisde down gets hurt, Will get's hurt. Not essentially, but he feels pain."

"Classic Hivemind." Daredevil spoke looking in Y/n's direction.

"Im sorry?" Steve asked, "Hivemind?"

"A super organism, it leads all." Dustin added.

"It's like a top guy in a drug organization." Y/n infromed, "The-"

"Brains of the operation." Mike quickly added.

"And all of this is connected to these tunnels?" Max asked.

"It connects to everything the upside down, the monsters, the tunnels-"

"Like the Mind Flayer."

"Okay Okay." Y/n stopped them, "You've fought a Mind Flayer before? Thats some Dr.Strange shit."

"No- just- Get everyone!"

Everyone collected in the dinning room.

"The Mind Flayer." Dustin spoke.

"Im sorry?" Frank questioned, "the what?"

"It's a being from another dimeson with super pyhcic abilities." Dustin explains.

"This is a kids game." Hopper argued.

"This is the best metaphor we have of this thing! So if you known something we dont!-"

"Analogy." Lucas defended.

"Analogy?! That's what your worried about!?"

"Hey!" Y/n shouted stopping the two.

"Okay Okay! So this thing. Everyone listening?" Y/n asked everyone nodding: she was scary when angry, "This thing. The- Mind Flayer." Analogy or Metaphor! Whatever the fuck it is! It's here but why"

"It believes it's the master race, and views other race, us, as inferior." Dustin explained, "It'll enslave our race to take others over."

"So we kill the Mind Flamer-" Nancy started

"Mind Flayer." Dustin spoke up, "Its the Mind Flayer."

Nancy sighed, "We kill the Mind Flayer, then what?"

"We kill everything its connected too. It's like what y/n said. A drug house operation."

Frank smacked her in the back of the head, "I thought I told you before stop comparing things to drug houses."

"Its a good Metaphor!"

"A-"

"If someone says Analogy instead I swear-" Y/n argued it going quiet.

"Okay. So how do we kill it?" Hopper asked, "Fireballs? Lasers!?"

"Oh see what you do is you summon and Undead army." Dustin started to explain, "you...know Zombies...and no brains-"

"Dustin." Daredevil stopped him.

"Yeah okay."

"God damn it." Hopper spoke in anger.

Y/n sighing, "We've gotta kill this thing."

"I agree." Joyce spoke, "I want to kill it."

Frank walked over to her, "Go. Sit and rest-"

"It needs to die."

"Will's connected to it right?" Y/n spoke up, "Should he know how to kill it?"

Mike nodded, "he would. But-"

"But?"

"He'll know where we are. Like he did at the Lab. We need a place he wont recongize."

"What Bout an emptied room?" Daredevil spoke up.

"No. No. It wouldn't work. Too recognizeable by the layout. Wall color." Y/n told.

"What about a covered shed?" Frank spoke up, "we cover the walls in tarp, all the windows."

"Like the shed outback." Jonathan added, "We could just empty it."

So thats what you all got to doing, emptying out the back shed, covering up every square inch in newspaper, tarp, anything to block out anything that someone could remember.

It took a good hour and a half.

When you stopped joyce towards the end.

"If...you allow me." Y/n started, "If this thing is scared of me. Of my people. I'd like to put him in a...situation. I won't let this thing get him."

Joyce looked up, "You think it could help?"

Y/n nodded, "Im gonna have to put on something that may scare you though. I won't hurt anyone."

She nodded, "I. I know. Im just so worried."

"I get it. I do." Y/n responded "But I will help in any way I can."

She agreed to it at the end of the conversation

You then went to Frank asking him, this was a life or death situation and revealing identities to everyone was worth it

So with heavy hearts you both in on it

Then you picked up the phone.

"Y/n?"

"Marc."

"Thank the gods your alright."

"Hey Steven." Y/n smiled, "Look. I need you to go to the house. My house, grab me and my dad's vest. Im gonna need all the help I can get with this one."

"Give us Ten love."

"Thanks Steven."

So you waited the ten mintues as everyone finished up, pacing in the front room.

Steve has seen you from the window worriedly.

"Steve." Nancy spoke, "I just-"

Turning her head she watched Steve walk away and towards the house.

He walked in stopping by a door frame watching her pace: "Hey."

She looked over, nerves racking her body.

"Hi..."

Steve smiled smally, "You bit the bullet a bit, didnt you? Or. Did the bullet bite you?"

Y/n chuckled, "The demodog did apparently."

Steve chuckled followed her's as he walked forward, hand grabbing hers in reassurance.

"Steve-"

"Hey. It's okay." He told, "You don't gotta explain anything to me. Trust me I barely know whats going on here anymore-"

"I'm breaking up with you."

Steve went silent, he in shock. "I. I'm gonna need you to explain that one."

He even laughed, this. This was unexpected, uncoming. This didnt make sense what so ever.

"Steve-" y/n started pulling away but he caught her face in a caress.

"Y/n. I don't-"

"I know. I know you don't understand."

"No..no I don't get it!" Steve started in anger, "I love you!"

Y/n grabbed the wrist of his hand that rested on her cheek in a comforting motion.

"I don't get it. I love you!" Steve spoke, anger turning to heart break, "Did I do something-"

"No I did-"

"What? What did you do!? Cheat? Steal? Punch? Get pregnant!?"

"Steve your being dramatic-"

"Oh am i now!? Not one time have you told me you love me. And I cant stop saying it! I love you! I say it when I see you I say it in my dreams to you! Im saying it even know in my head as I argue to you!"

"Steve you don't love me!"

"But I do! I love you!"

"What do you know about me!" Y/n shouted, "Truly!?"

"That I love you!" Steve shouted back, "And I've been in love with you since I seen you! And I can't help it! I can't help that every time that I fucking see you! I do this thing! This thing where all I have to do is just look at you, either it be in the the eyes or just your hair! Where I fall in love! All over again!"

Y/n lookrd st hum as his breathe had become heavy, Y/n grabbing his arms keeping him still.

"Steve." Y/n stopped him.

"Just. Please. Tell me. That you love me." Steve pleaded, "You can tell me...please. please just....just tell me that you love me."

"Steve...I can't."

"Why?" Steve questioned, "why can't you."

"Because last time. Last time I. Last time I...said..." Y/n tried to confess, "Steve...last time I looked at someone the way I look at you. He died. In my arms...I can't have you become Pietro..."

Steve looked at her as she held his face: "I won't let you become Pietro. So. I've got to let you go."

Y/n pressed a kiss to his cheek, "and I plead...that you don't fear me when I walk out that back door..."

"I could never be scared of you." Steve told her.

Y/n looked up at him, "You have no idea what your about to see then..."

Steve left her there, she sighing as she took a seat.

"That was a strong thing you did." Matt spoke, Y/n turning her head, his mask off now that no one was in the house.

She sat on the floor leaning her back against the wall.

"I...I wanted to be so normal." Y/n explained the tears she had held back for so long finally coming down, "and Look where I am now."

He sat next to her, "you know."

She looked over at him, "i can't see. Im blind."

"No shit Sherlock."

"But somehow. I know you're there before you even speak. Other people I can't. Sometimes I can get Karen Mixed up with Madani. Your father Mixed up with Curt. But I never get Foggy mixed up with no one."

"And?" Y/n questioned.

"Well I spend so much damn time with the guy, his' normal is who he really is. His really is is werid to others. He either cares to much or. Does that weridly. Or that." Matt explained, "he's left such an imprint in my mind I know who he is no matter who walks in the room."

"Wooo the blind man can recongize people. You gonna fight the bad guys next?" Y/n asked.

"Ooo ouch that one hurt." Matt spoke, "The one that can see gonna fine can't see whats infront of her."

"And whats that? Since you can see it?" Y/n asked.

"That you're not ment to save the world like you keep trying." Matt told, "You're allowed to be happy, allowed to cry, and allowed to feel."

"And you know this? How?" Y/n asked.

"I've been through it Im still going through it, your dads going through it." Matt responded, "you're in this thing called the denial phase. Best part. You know before you get your ass kicked, fall in love again- go off and on, then almost die, and come back and everyones really fuckin mad at you and you're on the verge of getting to alcholoic status on facebook and-"

"Oddly specfic there bud." Y/n responded.

"Point is." Matt started, "its okay, to be afraid and still walk the tightrope."

The talk was intruppted by a knock at the door and Y/n getting up.

It was Marc with everything in hand.

"YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT THEY HAD FLOWER HEADS THAT OPEN THE FUCK UP!"

"Yeah Im sorry bout that one."

So Marc seen the demodogs...

Yeah you should like summoned Khonshu or some shit to pass the message

Matt get's Frank and you all suit up.

Frank and Marc argue along with Matt

"She said more people ya dumbass!" Frank argued.

"Well let me just woop woop portal these mother fuckers here." Marc spoke in defense.

"Fuck wheres Hannie when ya need him..." Y/n sighed, slipping on vest, spray painted with a rib cage in casing flowers, one blue.

"Skull and Bones! Back in action!" Steven cheered, "Oh how exciting this is!"

"Skull and what?" Frank asked.

"Oh here we go." Matt spoke up.

"You and your daughter. Skull and Bones." Steven spoke, "ya know doesnt exactly sound good with Skull and Ribcage with flowers."

"Steven. Darlin." Y/n spoke, "not now?"

"Not now! Right!" Steven spoke, "Later?"

Y/n sighed, "Sure. Once Im dead and in the ground and go to haunt the upside down."

It was silent for a moment.

"Great! So suit?" Steven asked.

"That would be so so super great my tea lovin friend!"

Joyce walked in just in time, after Matt put back his helmet back on and Steven suited up.

"Hey." Joyce spoke up, Frank turning to her and walking towards her.

"Wow." Joyce aspirated, fist bumping Frank's chest playfully, "Thats...uh...your own handy work?"

Frank chuckled grabbing her hand in reassurance.

"You okay?"

Joyce nodded, "worried...about Will...and about you...is. is this good to go back to. To put this thing on?"

"I can't help who I am." Frank told her, bringing her hand up to kiss it.

"I. I know. Im just."

"Worried." Frank spoke cupping her cheek, "Nothin to be worried bout."

She smiled and nodded, the two leaning in for a kiss.

"Is that?" Steven asked.

"Yeah."

"She looks like a really nice lady."

"She is."

Frank looked back at the two, "could you not?"

"Yep my bad." Y/n spoke.

"Great to finally meet you Mrs.Byers. Lovely haircut you have."

"Oh. Well thank you...nice...hero mask

"Go."

"Alright alright. Im going im going."

So you wait till your called.

It's what? Ten more mintues lately but you feeling like its hours.

You catch up with Steven a bit. His accent and bubbly attuide about just anything could make you smile easily.

Also. Laying across Matt and him like there your personal therapy couch.

"I broke up with him..." Y/n spoke.

"Harrington? Or Hargrove." Steven asked.

"Both technically." Y/n responded, "Dead to Hargrove, broke Harrington's heart. Heart shit hurts."

"It does indeed." Matt explained patting her legs, "come on we're up soon."

Steve was pacing outside, they all waiting for you to come out the building.

It was tense in the air, and not just because he was heartbroken and making him see you would just rip his heart out

No.

You said he should be scared? But of who? You?

Playfully? Maybe. Reality wise? Absolutely not

"Guys." Dustin spoke up, no one paying attention, "Guys! Look!"

They all looked in the direction which the group was walking...oh....oh no...

It was like a cheesey slow motion clip from a movie, an explosion ment to happen in the background. Or hearts around the one attractive girl.

Maybe both.

Y/n walked front and center, her dad off to her right side, The Punisher off to the side of her. Mr.Moonknight on her left. Daredevil behind them.

"Holy shit..." Jonathan spoke, flabbergasted by what he was seeing, "Is that..."

"The Punsiher..Mr.Moonknight....Daredevil!" Lucas tried to silently fanboy.

"I thought Bones was a boy!" Dustin whispered to Lucas.

"Explains how she's so strong." Lucas answered, "Y/n. The Y/n! Is the Punisher's daughter!"

Hopper walked out from tying Will up in the shed, "Holy Fuck..." he choked out.

Nancy had a hard stare on Y/n the whole time. Meanwhile Steve's look was confused. Uncertain.

He had heard about everyone walking with her, backstreet heros. Mostly pieces of information came back to him and Skull snd Bones. Thats what they called the daughter father duo. Yet the Punisher still stuck to her dad like fresh gum on someones shoe.

"Don't. Freak out." Y/n told everyone.

"Dont Freak out?" Dustin argued, "Don't freak out!? You're god damn Bones! Thats fuckin amazing!"

"You're like super powerful!" Lucas cheered, "are you part of the Midnight sons!? You are right!?-"

"Later." Y/n responded the two boys nodding.

Y/n went to walk in first, but Nancy stopped her blocking the path.

"No."

"No?" Y/n complained, "Nancy move out the way."

"No." Nancy argued, "You guys cant be serious- Shes a murderer!"

"Yeah and you're a whore!" Y/n defended getting in Nancy's face, "So move, and if you don't I'll move you myself. Whore."

"Oh Im the Whore?" Nancy argued, "Rather be a whore than a physco who kills people for no reason. People that can make a diffrenence-"

"Oh you're being oddly specific ya know that, go ahead spit it out." Y/n threatened.

"Let's back up." Hopper spoke getting between the two.

"Arthur Walsh ring a bell." Nancy egged on.

Y/n laughed, "Oh. Whore you have no idea. I didn't just kill the man. I tortured the man. Packed him in a little box and mailed it to the DA's office. So remember that when you try and steal someone else's boyfriend you petty peice of shit."

"I said Back up!" Hopper argued pushing them both apart.

"Not worth it." Mr.Moonknight told her, "Love keep it in your pants. Have more terestrone than the three of us guys combined. Right now."

"Good thing he's your Ex now." Nancy just kept pushing her buttons.

"Move out my way. So i can go help my brother." Y/n defended Hopper dragging her aside letting the group of four in.

You woke Will up.

The sudden awaking startling him but, sighed in relief as you were infront of him.

"Y/n?" Will asked.

"Hey bud." Y/n smiled.

"W. Whats happening?" He asked, "who are they!? Why are you dressed like that? It doesn't want you here! Get out of here!"

It was alot easier to agitate this Mind Flayer than Y/n orginally thought.

"Get out! Get out you piece of shit!" Will shouted, it was quiet obvious from the tone and lanuage that this wasn't Will.

"Get out of Will!"

"Die you piece of shit!"

A Mind Flayed Will than spat on her right in the face.

"Alright. We're gonna do this the hard way then."

They gave you 15 mintues with him before the lot of you walked out.

15 mintues really felt like 15 hours to the group, screaming inable to make out just about thd whole time they were in there

Jonathan was waiting for you, outside on the steps.

"What did you find out?"

"That the Mind Flayers a dumb fuck." Y/n told, "and that Will knows morse code and so does pops. I need you to stay with Will for now okay? I'll fill you in later."

Jonathan nodded and carefully went inside the shed.

They walked in the house, everyone waiting.

"There's a gate." Y/n spoke up, "and Me and Hopper know where it is."

"A gate?" Joyce asked.

"A gate to where?" Steve asked.

"The Upside down."

"The lab." Hopper spoke.

"Exactly. We've gotta close that." Y/n explained, "we close that and it's done."

"Yet rule of thumb." Steven spoke, "its clearly been around a lot longer than we all know. If you've never closed if before it's stronger now. Never cut off it's food source in a sense."

"Okay. So. We close the gate and this all goes away?" Nancy asked.

Steven laughed, but Nancy raised an Eyebrow at him, "Oh your being serious?"

"We'd have to get the Mind Flayer out of Will before closing the gate." Y/n explained.

"So it's like a vortex to suck the Mind Flayer back in," Dustin added.

"Exactly, Will ways him down. Like his gravity. In a sense. Take away will."

"Hello other dimensional vaccum." Lucas told.

Y/n nodded: "only question is-"

The phone intruppted all of them.

"Shit! Shit!" Dustin shouted running over to stop it.

Just for it to start again, Nancy ripping it out the wall.

"Did he hear that?" Steve asked.

"Dont take any chances- Go Get will!" Y/n ordered

Everyone was in quick disaray,

Will had indeed found out where they were.

You had taken off your vest. Forcing Joyce to come with you ss Frank went to get Will.

"I need you to wear this!"

"What!? No way!" Joyce shouted.

"Joyce! Look at me!" Y/n argued, "you're going to be around Will the most and need the most protection, my dad won't leave your side but I need you to be safe okay! Having his back back get a little rough at times!"

"You need that-"

"No Joyce I don't!" Y/n defended, "I can handle myself alright?"

You help Joyce put the vest on and tighten it to fit snug against her body.

And then you're up and at em, pulling the kids away from the window's pushing them towards the walls.

Everyones lined up ready to protect the kids,

"They're dogs they're circle and attack." Matt informed, "Watch your back."

There was growling from every direction, your all on your toes, looking every which way for an attack.

Just for one to come flying through the Window

The door unlocked by itself, it opening slowly.

And there's a badass little girl standing there.

Its a happy renunion for most

Dustin's more than happy to introduce you and your group to Eleven.

"El this is Y/n. Shes a badass. Like you." Dustin introduced.

She looked up at Y/n, and walked past her.

"Takes a moment for her to warm up." Lucas told.

"Remind you of any one?" Matt asked.

"Haha." Y/n rolled her eyes.

"Ooo did you hear that?" Matt questioned.

Turns out this girl Eleven can help you close the gate

The main problem is. How do you get in.

With the demodogs quiet litterally multiplying and growing every other hour

Not to mention Will, if woken up could easily find out where you are

Problem is. How do you get the Mind Flayer out of Will.

"If it likes it cold." Jonathan spoke.

"We have to burn it out of him." Joyce responded.

"Still." Y/n argued, "Where'd you even be able to burn it out of him. You'd need a place where he wouldnt find any of us."

"I've got a place." Hopper told.

So you're all on the move once again, Hopper taking Will to the car, Frank going with Jonathan, Nancy and Joyce.

You're arguing with him, saying your coming but your told to stay put

So you argue thag your going with Hopper but he benches you too, your two other friends also going with him

"Your benched!" Frank deamanded.

"Benched!? No!"

"Yes! Now Stay here!"

"But-"

"Stay-"

"I-"

"Stay! Here! And I make you a pie after all this shit is done."

Y/n groaned watching both cars go off quickly.

Baby sitting yaya.

Atleast you'd get a pie

You sat at the dinning room table rubbing over your head everything starting to ache again.

"Mind if I?" Steve asked.

Y/n looked over, he has a med kit in hand, and a pair of sisscors.

"...yeah...whatever you want." Y/n spoke, Steve taking a seat and scooting closer to her.

He held his hand out, she letting her ducktaped hand into his own.

He was careful with the sisscors cutting the ducktape down the middle, the skin had turned purple and dark red, filled with deep cuts.

"How are the others?"

"Fine." Y/n responded.

Steve was silent after that, cleaning the wounds thoroughly. He didnt know what the say. To thank her? To question her?

"Kids...think your pretty badass you know." Steve started, "Yeah...starting to think they like you more than me..."

Y/n glanced at him shortly, "they...shouldn't...Im not..."

"A hero?" Steve asked with a soft smile, "yeah Im not much one either...try and impress the kids ya know. I try and make one hell of a baby sitter."

"I don't ever remember my baby sitter takin me to to a diffrent dimension for a playdate." Y/n told.

Steve chuckled, "Yeah. Extra pay for that."

Y/n smiled softly, "how much?"

"Ten bucks per kid. For two days."

"Ooo. Nice deal." Y/n complimented.

Steve smiled, "ah. Yeah. Lets me get supplies ya know? Bats with nails and sling shots."

Y/n couldnt shake the smile from her face, even if it was a soft small one. It was still full of love for the blonde.

"I. Wanna apologize." Y/n told him.

"No. No." Steve spoke, "I...uh get it. Yeah...being Bones and everything."

"Don't tell me you follow me on the news." Y/n teased.

Steve shrugged, "New York. It's on my bucket list. Gotta know a bit about its people, I would've realized it was you but you-"

"Wear a mask?" Y/n chuckled, "not really, just good at avoiding cameras I suppose. Plus. Me and dad been silent lately. I was busy ya know. In this town called Hawkins. Cute little place. "

"Yeah?" Steve asked, "what were you doin there?"

Y/n smiled and hummed, "I found a best friend... then fell in love...still in love..."

Steve stopped cleaning the cuts for just a moment, "sounds like you're still in love..."

"I am...but I got scared..." Y/n told him softly,"Scared of myself. Scared that if I tell him how I feel....something bad will happen it always does."

Steve took in a deep breathe, "how do you feel? You know. About him?"

"I broke his heart when I could of just...told him the truth, but not everyone takes the Punisher's daughter as such a hottie title." Y/n told, "then again. Dad's sending me away for some training. So why not let it die out right?"

Y/n looked up at him, Steve feeling the gaze on him as he met hers. He pulled out the bandage wrap.

"And if he's still in love with you?" Steve spoke, "even after all that time your gone, and when he's worried about you and this training?"

Y/n watched him wrap her hand, "I'd tell him to not to worry so much. That Im a big girl and can handle myself."

Steve finished wrapping her hand with a solemn smile, he holding her hand.

"You'd still be my penpal...no matter what?"

Y/n looked at him, "no matter what."

Now its just a waiting game.

Sitting around, despite not wanting too.

"Hey! Love birds!" Dustin called, "or ex...love birds i dont know- Help me."

Y/n got up and walked over, "Its a demodog, and?"

"Well. Put it in the freezer!"

"What!?"

So you spent your time. Stuffing a demodog.

In the freezer

Wonderful

Dustin dragged Steve off and you heard some arguing.

But your determined to get this damn thing in the freezer instead.

Finally getting in the freeze you look at the thing.

"Rough day too?" Y/n asked looking at the pratically folded thing, "yeah...you too."

The arguing contuined and Y/n finally slammed the door shut, "yeah. You too..."

Y/n walked over to the group, "what are we arguing about now-"

A reveing engine stopped the lot of them.

"Max! Max I know your fucking in there!"

"It's Billy!" Max told.

Y/n looked towards the door. "Go hide behind the couch. I got this." Y/n responded, everyone running to hide.

"Steve. Stay here-"

"You're hurt- I'm not letting you-"

"Just. stay here!"

Y/n carefully got up, everyone working there way over to the couch. She opened the door, closing it behind her.

"Is that you Castiglione?"

"Yeah. Its me dont cream your pants Hargrove."

He took another puff of his cigratte, Y/n walking down the steps.

"What do you want?" Y/n asked, "Im clearly dead to you. Dont tell me you come to actually dig my grave now."

"Dad's back home." He spoke flicking some ash away, "Two weeks my ass."

Fuck.

"He touch you?" Y/n asked.

"Why would you care?"

"Because Im dead to you. I never said you were dead to me."

Billy was silent, Y/n putting her hands in the back of her pockets.

"Yeah Well Max snuck out and I need her back." He ordered, "Thought she ran off to your place. But here I am."

"Haven't seen her." Y/n explained, "give you a call when I do."

"Then who's in the window?" Y/n turned her head, seen the kids in the window before they ducked away.

"Oh...come on..." Billy pushed past Y/n and ran into the house. She following him quickly.

"Sincalir-"

"Billy you need to leave-"

"Shut up Max!"

"Hey!" Y/n argued grabbing Billy by the shoulder as he turned around in Anger.

He turning around and swinging at her, knocking her to the ground.

"Fuck..." y/n complained rubbing the side of her face. Steve keeping the kids back behind him, he knew Y/n when she was angery.

"Billy!" Max shouted at him.

"What the hell man!" Steve argued walking towards him.

"Stay back!" Y/n shouted at Steve.

He stopping at her authoritive tone. She got up, as Billy watched. It was terrifying to anyone in the room. Steve ending in e pushing the kids back more as she climbed to her feet, her form seemingly growing to loom over Billy in a dark shadow. She unclipped her belt, if this was going to be a fist fight weapons weren't needed. Billy swung, and she ducked when his swing hit nothing but air she was quick to spring back up and punch him across the face.

"YEAH!" Dustin cheered. Billy looking back up at Y/n with a bloody nose.

"Its gonna be like that now? Is it?! You Finally got some real fucking fight in you Castiglione!" Billy shouted, coming at her.

He had the speed and the strength. Y/n may have been more blocky, with her speed, but could take a hit, she could fight and had the strength. The main diffrenence was she had a switch.

Killing verus Fighting.

Often that line blurred in the heat of the moment. Billy pushed her against the wall, this fight was more than just lieing about Max being around. This was deeper.

"Y/n!"

"I said stay the fuck back Steve!" Y/n shouted at him.

Elbowing Billy in the crevess of his neck causing him to drop her as she pushed him into the small wooden cabinet that was in the Byers front room. He doubled over, face bloodied along with hers. He on his knees, forehead pressed to the floor then looked up at her. They cheering her on in the background Y/n would've grabbed his head, slamming his head into the cabinet, most likely causing brain damage as she's done to people before. But she grabbed him by the throat, lifting him closer to her, his hands latching onto her wrist.

"C...city...bird..." he choked out eyes starting to roll back as his grip started to loosen, "I'm...sorry.."

Y/n froze, what was she doing? She dropped him, "No. No- I. I didn-"

"That was amazing!" The kids surrounded her.

"You were like! Pow! Wow! And knocked him out!" Dustin cheered.

"And Knocked him on his ass super easy!" Mike spoke

"Screw being Daredevils Sidekick! He should be yours!" Lucas told.

✧▬ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ▬✧

Tags: @raelwrites @miiikkeey @beebslebobs @ah-witch @supernaturallover2002 @pearlstiare @simonsbluee @stilllivindue2spite @lvbred @dancingqueen21 @writerdream22 @i-reblog-fics-i-like @knivqs @xxlaynaxx @3-spurr @eliskakratochvilova @sunshinepower17 @marssssaturn @howlerwolfmax @mxltifxnd0m @varientlyvisual @givemylovetoall @faithm120601

[inkandpen22]

Dazed and Confused (S1: 10/10)

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Female!Reader

Warnings: mild language

Word Count: 4.9k

Part Summary: Y/N and Steve are left watching the kids as everyone breaks out onto their own missions. When the kids drag the teens to The Hub, they truly put their feelings for each other to the test.

A/N: There will be an epilogue

Masterlist

Following Eleven’s grand return and Hopper’s conversation with Mike, everyone returns to the kitchen table to form some sort of game plan. I’m not sure in what world a bunch of kids and two adults could possibly take down a bunch of mini-Demogorgons, but I’ll stick around. I rather be here in a house full of guns and other weapons than be a sitting duck outside. 

“It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot,” Hopper expresses to everyone, especially Eleven who’s seeing everything for the first time. “And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs.” 

My point exactly. At least there’s someone else here who lacks a little faith in this death mission. 

“Demo-dogs,” Dustin corrects, leading me to roll my eyes. 

“I'm sorry, what?” Hopper questions harshly.  

“I said… uh…Demo-dogs.” Dustin continues and if I weren’t sitting on the counter across the room I’d knock him across the head. “Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass…”

“How is this important right now?” Hopper snaps. 

“It's not. I'm sorry.” The boy cowers. 

“I can do it,” Eleven interjects confidently. 

“You're not hearing me,” Hopper counters. 

“I'm hearing you. I can do it.” The girl stands her ground. 

“Even if El can, there's still another problem,” Mike reasons. “If the brain dies, the body dies.” 

“I thought that was the whole point,” Steve voices beside me. 

“It is, but if we're really right about this… I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mindflayer's army… Will's a part of that army. Closing the gate will kill him,” Mike explains. 

Suddenly, Joyce steps away and down the hall. Hopper follows after her, causing all of us to do the same. Steve pushes off the counter and grips my waist to help me down. We all shuffle into Will’s room where we’ve settled him on the bed. They had to drug him after he figured out where we were so he couldn’t send signals to the Mindflayer. 

“He likes it cold,” Joyce mutters. 

“What?” Hopper inquires. 

“It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold,” Joyce repeats as she stomps over to the open window. She slams it shut and turns to her sleeping son. “We keep giving it what it wants!” 

As I peer at Will’s newly pale complexion, I make a realization. “Then heat him up,” I mutter to myself as I piece it all together. 

Out of my peripheral vision, Hopper looks to me. “What was that?” He presses. 

“It hates heat,” I voice to the Chief then redirect my attention back to the boy. “Take wolves or polar bears for example. They need the cold to survive.” I scoop up Will’s hand to feel his temperature and sure enough he’s freezing. “If you place them in the desert, they’d eventually die out. Place him in heat.”

Jonathan moves to stand beside me and places a hand on his brother’s forehead. “We need to burn it out of him,” He concludes. 

“We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time,” Joyce remarks. 

“Yeah…somewhere far away,” Hopper agrees, and it’s evident by his expression he already has somewhere in mind. 

________________________________

Steve

While Y/N stays inside watching the little shits, Nancy and I dig around the pile of junk in the Byers’s yard for anything that can create heat. Jonathan and Mrs. Byers are going to take Will somewhere to burn this thing out of him while Hopper takes Eleven to close the gate. If we’re going to burn this parasite of an alien, we’re going to need a lot of heat… a lot a lot. As we kick and toss shit around, I realize this is the first time Nance and I have been alone in days, weeks almost. 

“You should go with him,” I tell her, breaking the silence. 

“What?” 

“With Jonathan,” I suggest. 

No, I'm... I'm not just gonna leave Mike,” she states, avoiding eye contact. 

“No one's leaving anyone,” I assure her as I spot a space heater. “I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend, but… turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter,” I joke half-heartedly.

Her features fall. “Steve…”

“It's okay, Nance. It's okay.”

She gives me a soft smile and continues digging. “So you and Y/N…” 

A soft nervous laugh escapes me and I feel a faint heat forming in my cheeks. “Yeah…” I bite down on my lip. 

“I’m… I’m happy for you guys…” Nance expresses. “Really.” 

I nod contently. “It was kind of unexpected.” 

“Suprised me at first,” She admits. “But now… Now I can kinda see how it made sense all along.” 

My brows scrunch together slightly without Nancy noticing as she searches for more stuff. So, Nancy can see how Y/N and I make sense, even while she and I were together? How? I didn’t even see it until all this happened. Could everyone see it? I mean sure Y/N and I were friends but… we were just friends… right?

_____________________________

Y/N

While Hopper is out with Eleven and the Byers/Nancy are with Will, Steve and I are left with the kiddos at the Byers. I remove myself to Jonathan's room for a second in search of one thing, his walkman. If we're going to be stuck here until the foreseeable future I'm not going to listen to a bunch of middle schoolers talk about nerd stuff for hours.

I shuffle down the hallway with some decent music. As I pass by the kitchen, my eyes land on Steve and Dustin struggling in front of the fridge.

Dustin removes the last remaining shelf and sets in on the floor. “Okay, he should fit now...” 

“is this really necessary?” Steve grunts, holding a clump of blanket in his arms. As he tosses his arms up to adjust, the demodog's head slips out.

“Oh my god!” I shout, causing both of the idiots to snap their heads in my direction. They peer at me with wide eyes like they've been caught committing a crime. "What are you guys doing?!” 

“This is a significant scientific discovery!” Dustin argues.

My jaw drops with a huff. “You’re not putting that thing in their fridge!” 

“You can’t just bury it like some common mammal!” Dustin whines.

I press my fingers to my temple with a deep sigh. I'm definitely going to need to see a shrink after this. I'm the one-woman show of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. “Alright, well --" I state calmly. "You’re explaining this to Mrs. Byers...” 

The two continue on with their task. I watch for a moment as they both try to shove the alien into the small fridge. Limbs are falling out and I swear they've lost their minds.

I shake my head and start toward the living room. “Jesus Christ... unbelievable...” I mumble.

Steve pants. “Babe, we got it!"

“Nope!" I holler from the next room, earning Lucas and Max's attention. "I saw nothing! I was not a part of that!” 

__________________________

Steve

How I ended up with these little shits in the kitchen as they come up with some grand scheme to get themselves killed is beyond me.

"We need Y/N's perspective," Dustin concludes.

"No, leave her out of your idiotic plan," I demand.

"But she-"

"I don't care! You hear that?" I snap, causing all of them to look at me wide-eyed. My eyes flicker over to her in the room, peacefully laying on the couch with Jonathan's walkman over her ears. I sigh, "Look, she's already on the verge of losing her shit so keep her out of this."

"What do you mean?" Mike challenges and gestures over to her. "Look at her, she's fine!"

"That's not fine! That's her trying to calm herself down. I've seen it before a million times." I argue. I love how he thinks he knows more about Y/N than me, idiot. "When she's quiet and reclusive, that's when you have to worry about her, so just trust me on this one, alright?"

Y/N

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. The sound of Asia blasting in my ears brings me a few steps closer to forgetting where I am or what we're facing. If I separate myself from the situation for a little bit then perhaps my trauma won't be so chaotic as it was after last year. I do my best to drown out the many voices traveling from the kitchen, but those little shits apparently have never heard of indoor voices.

“Guys! Hey! Hey!” Steve shouts.

I lift one headphone to listen in. "What's going on in there?" I holler.

The cluster ignores me or didn't hear me as they continue to argue.

“This isn’t happening!” Steve yells again.

I rise off the couch and begin toward the kitchen as Steve continues his lecture.

“No! No 'buts!' I promised to keep you shitheads safe, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do!" He declares. "We’re sitting here, on the bench, and we’re waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everyone understand that?” 

“This isn’t a sports game!” Mike fires back.

“I said does everyone understand that?!” Steve repeats, yanking the kitchen towel off his shoulder. “I need a yes.” 

"Yes!" They finally answer.

"Geez," Lucas grumbles.

"What's going on?" I ask again, causing each of them to flicker their focus in my direction.

Before I get an answer, the sound of a car rolling up the gravel driveway interrupts us. It couldn't be the Byers or Hopper already.

Max hurries over to the window and peeks out from behind the curtains. “It’s my brother!” 

We all gasp. “What?!” 

“He can’t know I’m here!" Lucas begins to panic. "He’ll kill me! He’ll kill us!” 

Steve starts toward the front door with a stern glare.

“No!” I grab his wrist before he can pass me. "Are you nuts?” 

“It’s okay, I got it," he tries to assure me.

“Billy is bat shit crazy" I remind him. "He’ll kick your ass!” 

“Aw come on, have a little faith," he chuckles, bringing his hand up to my cheek.

I could come up with a million more reasons as to why going out there is a suicide mission, but instead I watch silently as Steve disappears out the front door.

The kids one by one rush passed me to all watch from the window.

“Steve’s right, he’s got this," Dustin voices confidently.

“One punch from Billy and I’m beating the shit out of him with the bat," I huff and reluctantly join the kids on the couch by the window. I pry Lucas and Dustin apart to get a better view, much to their annoyance.

The five of us in a nice row, peer out the window as Steve and Billy exchange words. I can't help but fidget. God, I hate Billy. He creeps me out and if he so much as looks at Steve the wrong way I'm going full-blow psycho on him. I'm already on edge, I don't need Billy's bullshit on top of it.

Suddenly, Billy points toward the window and Steve turns around, making eye contact with me. In unison, the five of us drop onto the couch.

“Shit! Did he see us?” Dustin panics.

I lift myself up and peek over the back of the couch to see Billy shove Steve to the ground and stomp on his stomach. Without a second thought, I rush to my feet and sprint toward the door. Before I grab my handle, the front door flies open.

Billy marches in with a snarky grin and cigarette hanging from his lips. “Well, well, well, hey there Beautiful...” He purrs, eyeing my up and down. “Didn’t expect to see you here.” 

I growl and storm up to him. “You asshole!” I scream, shoving him in the chest with all my strength.

He stumbles only slightly, then wraps his fingers around my neck.

The kids scream for him to let me go as Billy pins me against the wall.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Mike yells.

Max hurries to his side and tries to pry at his arm. "Get off of her Billy!"

He easily shoves her away, causing her to fall on her ass. Lucas helps her up and pulls her away.

“Get the hell off of me!” I hiss, clawing at his hand around my neck.

“Oo, I love a feisty girl," Billy purrs, bringing his face mere inches from mine. "How about you and I go talk in private?"

You lift your knee between his legs, knocking him right in the nuts.

Billy falls to his knees with a sharp grunt. His hand slips from your neck and you sprint over to the kids to protect them.

He growls, slowly rising to his feet. “You’re so dead, you bitch!"

“No, you are!” Steve announces and punches Billy right across the face.

Billy releases a deep, evil, chuckle. “You got some fire in you after all, huh? I’ve been waiting to meet this “King Steve” they tell me so much about!" He yells.

Steve points to the door calmly. “Get. Out.” 

Billy ignores his command and throws a punch. Thankfully, Steve dodges it and hits Billy again.

“Get him!” Mike cheers.

“Get the son of a bitch!” Dustin adds.

Billy grabs a plate off the counter and smashes it over Steves head, causing the boy to fall to the ground.

Amidst the chaos, I glance at the small table by the front door. The medicine needle Hopper used to subdue Will remains filled on it.

Meanwhile, Billy, picks up Steve by the collar and brings him close. “No one tells me what to do.” He then headbutts Steve, knocking him out.

I start to Billy, but Dustin tries to stop me by grabbing my wrist. I yank my arm free and run into the kitchen, snatching the spare needle in route. I raise my fist to get a punch in. "You sick son of a-"

Billy laughs and intercepts my hand. "Gonna fight me, Princess? I don't fight girls."

"Guess you're a pussy then!" I snap and jab the needle into Billy's neck.

He whinces and feels around his neck to discover the plastic bit. His features morph into pure wickedness and he charges at me. His palm slaps me across the face with such force it feels as though my eye is going to be pop out of socket.

The children yell for him to stop, but to no avail.

Billy gathers a lump of my hair in his fist and yanks me closer. "You're gonna-"

Before the threat can be completed, Billy becomes unstable on his feet, swaying from side to side. “The hell is this?” He pants.

I pry his fingers from my hair with a hiss as he tugs at the root.

He falls to his knees, starting to appear delirious.  “You bitch, what did you? What did... you... you-” 

“Shove it you asshole!” I command, towering over him.

He slowly lays back onto the floor. “Screw... you...” 

“Oh don't you wish you could," I fire back.

In a matter of seconds, Billy is completely knocked out and I feel like a can take a breath again, not a fulfilling one though, not yet. I won't actually be relaxed until this shit is over, and even then I won't be fully settled.

I turn to check on the kids and they all peer at me wide-eyed.

"Holy shit!" Dustin gawks at the fallen Billy.

"That was badass," Lucas adds.

Max jogs over to her older brother and digs in his pockets. She reveals his keys and gives them a jiggle. “Let’s get out of here.” 

“Give those to me," I order, holding out my hand.

“But you’re hurt," she protests and points to my cheek.

I bring my hand up to not only feel my sensitive and likely to bruise skin, but also the blood coming from my lip. I sigh, "don’t worry, I got this." I take the keys from Max and turn to address the rest of the kids. "Besides, no one else can drive. Now, help me get Steve into the car before your psycho brother wakes up.”

____________________________

Steve

Everything hurts. I've never woken up with a headache, but now I know it's hell. I inhale and a sharp pain aches in my ribs. My eyes begin to flicker open, but one of them is refusing to rise above halfway. I forget where I am for a second, then I slowly start to realize the last thing I remember is Billy beating the living shit out of me. As I become more conscious, I comprehend I'm nowhere freaking near the Byers house and am instead in a car.

"Wait... What's going on?" I ask.

"Shh..." Dustin purrs next to me. "It's alright, buddy." He comes into view all blurry.

"Left here!" A voice instructs from the front seat.

"Shit!" I hear Y/N shout. "Maybe a little more heads-up!"

I jump as she jolts the car to the left and I slide into Mike. "Oh my god!"

"They were gonna leave you behind. I promised that you'd be cool, okay?" Dustin tries to reason with me.

"No, no, we're not doing this!" I protest. "Turn around!"

"I told you he'd freak out!" Mike barks.

"Y/N stop the car!" I yell to her.

"Everyone shut up! I'm trying to focus!" She snaps over her shoulder.

"Right!" Max announces, studying a map closely.

"For fuck sake!" Y/N shouts, taking another sharp turn. "Are you sure this looks like-"

"Stop the car!" I scream.

Y/N ignores me and instead picks up her speed. I grip the shoulders of the front seats, trying my best to not throw up as Y/N drives like a maniac.

Y/N

I skid to a stop right before a gorge-like hole in the middle of this pumpkin field. I swear to god these kids are going to get us all killed.

"We're here..." I announce with a huff.

Everyone begins to climb out and head to the trunk where we stashed everything we'll need, goggles, flashlights, mouth coverings, gasoline, a lighter, everything. We don't know what the hell is down there, so we came ready.

"Guys!" Steve shouts as he climbs out of the car. "Oh, no. Guys!" He covers his ribs and struggles to hold himself up against the door. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" He asks as Lucas passes him with cases of gasoline toward the gorge. "What are you, deaf? Hello?" He hollers as the kids and I continue our tasks.

I grab my swords from the truck and begin to strap them to my back. No matter how many times I use them, it'll never feel normal. I also pick up Steve's bat. He may refuse to come, but there's no way I'm leaving him without a weapon.

Once everything is out, I slam the trunk shut and start toward the gorge to set up with the kids.

“I made myself clear!” Steve yells as I pass him.

“Steve!” I finally snap, causing everyone to halt. “We get it! You’re not on board with this and frankly nor am I but this is all we got! I’m not going to just sit at the Byers house waiting for those demo dogs to eat us!"

Steve sighs, combing his fingers through his hair.

"Plus, Will needs our help!” I argue, much more calmly.

“Y/N, I promised nothing would happen to you!” He challenges.

“You can’t be certain of that! I got royally screwed last year and I refuse to let it happen again," I remind him.

It feels as if the entire world goes silent as I mention what happened. Since I was attacked by the Demogorgon, Steve has never forgiven himself. A complete stranger would be able to see it. What happened wasn't his fault, but he was the reason I was at the Byers that night at all.

“Now, you can either help us or you can stand here and bitch," I tell him.

Steve gently takes his bat from me, his fingers linger over mine. “If you think for a second I’m letting you go down there by yourself you’re crazier than I thought.” He offers me a weak smile and leans in to place a quick peck to my cheek.

Mike pretends to gag. “You two are more disgusting than the dogs."

Steve is the first to climb into the gorge. I offered, but of course, he refused. I could've seen that coming. He did, however, have no objects to me being second. We'll both put ourselves in front of the children in any circumstance.

While Steve holds the end of the rope and helps the kids down, I begin to walk ahead and get an idea of what we're working with. Blue intestines, that's all I can think. Icky, sticky, blue intestine tunnels.

“Hey!” Steve hollers.

I whip my head around to see Steve pointing at me warningly. “Don’t go too far!”

Who died and made him Queen?

I mockingly salute him. “Yes sir!”

He rolls his eyes and returns his attention back to his cluster of kiddos as they file in.

“I have a map!” Mike announces, joining me a few feet ahead of the group.

“Let me see that," Steve commands, snatching the map from him. He studies it and starts to march ahead. “So, we head this way and it should lead us to a cove of sorts?”

“Basically," Mike agrees.

“We’re calling it the Hub," Dustin voices a bit too enthusiastically.

Mike starts to walk ahead and Steve immediately protests. “Woah! Woah! Pause it! Any of you little shits down here I get the blame! I’m leading the way.”

“Then I’m leading with you," I announce, marching to catch up with him.

“No, no," he counters. "If anything-”

“Take it or leave it, Harrington," I state, already annoyed with this whole thing. Dustin thinks it's a field trip, Mike wants to save the world, and Steve is acting like G.I. Joe.

“Ugh fine," he huffs. "But if anything shows up don’t pull what you did at the junkyard alright? I want you to take these little assholes and run for it. You got that?”

“No promises," I grumble, moving ahead.

“Y/N!" Steve wraps his fingers around my wrist, pulling me to a halt. "I’m serious!”

“So am I! I’m not just going to leave you down here if something happens!" I argue.

“This isn’t just about our safety anymore! We’re also responsible for them!” He points to the cluster of tweens behind us watching like we're on Days of Our Lives.

I scoff. “You don’t think I realize that? But how can you expect me to get them out of here by myself if you’re dead?”

“Hey! Guys! Shut it! We have a mission here!” Dustin barks, snapping Steve and I out of our melodrama. “You act like a married couple later.”

Steve returns his attention to me, simultaneously gliding his hand down from my wrist to interlock with mine. "You're going to be next to me the whole time, no arguing, no heroic acts. You listen to everything I say."

I grin. "Oh come on, Harrington. You know that's not my style."

___________________

We walk for what feels like forever but is likely no more than ten minutes when all of a sudden, Dustin starts to scream.

"Shit!" He cries. "Help! Help!"

We all dart back to find him on the ground coughing up a lung.

"It's in my mouth! It's in my mouth!" He panics.

"Shit!" Steve huffs.

Dustin spits and peers up at us, looking like a complete idiot. He pants, "I'm okay."

"Oh for fuck sake!" I voice, following Max as she's already walked away.

"Sorry!" Dustin whines as he rises to his feet.

We continue marching along. Steve is at the lead, map in hand and flashlight in the other. I nervously twirl my lighter between my fingers. All I can say is this little shit better work down here otherwise we're fucked.

We emerge into a large circular space that connects various tunnels. Steve steadies to a stop and we all follow suit.

"Yo Wheeler," Steve announces. "I think we found your hub."

"Let's drench it," Dustin declares.

Like rain, we begin to pour gallons upon gallons of gasoline from the center of the hub and into the tunnel where we came. I've tried to mimimize my breaths down here considering there's white floating shit in the air, but even in short breaths I can tell it smells like a soaked up gas station.

"Get ready!" Steve announces once we're down to the last drops of gas. As I pass him, he snatches the lighter from my hand. "I'll take that."

"But-"

"No buts," he practically orders. "No way in hell I'm letting you do it."

I roll my eyes and reluctantly join the kids behind him.

"I'm so screwed," Steve mumbles to himself before dropping the lighter and setting the place on fire. The tunnel becomes an inferno and I watch in awe as the fire rapidly engulfs the place.

Steve grabs my hand urgently. "Time to go!"

I hadn't noticed the kids were gone, already well ahead on their sprint until Steve pulled me from my daze.

Steve and I start running toward the gorge and I can't help but laugh a little. "Is it too late to mention I have a deadly fear of fire?"

He chuckles and holds my hand tighter. "After everything we've seen, fire is still on your list?"

His words bring a smile to my face, but the brief moment of amusement is brought to a sharp end when I'm yanked to the ground by something locked around my ankle. I hit the dirt floor with a smack and flip myself around. The jet black, slimy, branch around my ankle begins to crawl up my leg.

“Steve, Hel...Help!" I stutter, in an utter panic. "Help!”

The kids come rush back as Steve begins to wack the branch with his bat.

"Get it off! Get it off!" I plead, memories of last year flood my mind. If I get stuck down here I'm haunting these stupid kids so hard for getting me into this.

The branch cowers back from Steve's assault and frees my leg. He wraps his fingers around my forearm and yanks me to my feet. His arms then fling around me, pressing me into his chest. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

I shake my head, still catching my breath. “God, I hate this shit.”

"We gotta go!" Lucas reminds us.

Steve grips my hand and keeps me close the remainder of the way to the gorge. Loud screeches echo throughout the space and it's evident the demodogs are close. We dodge branches, and holes, all while trying to see in the misty tunnel.

When we finally reach the opening and the rope, Steve and I both agree kids go first. The screeching of the dogs becomes louder and louder with each passing second. We're all yelling at one another to hurry the hell up so we don't become an alien's dinner. First, it's max, then Lucas, Mike, and finally Dustin all up the rope. Steve practically shoves them up by the asses in a panic.

A loud shriek comes from around the corner, causing Steve and I to pause. My heart sinks, already predicting what he's going to say as he picks up his bat.

“Y/N, go!” He urges me along.

“Okay, that's not happening," I remark, yanking my swords out.

“Babe, come on! Please just listen to me for once!” He yells.

"Y/N! Hurry up!" Mike yells, offering me his hand.

I huff at Steve. "I'm not just gonna leave you when-"

I breath hitches in my throat when a pack of demodogs turn the corner right at us.

"Shit! Shit!" I squeal and set up my swords in front of me.

Abruptly, the dogs run right passed us and down the tunnel. Immediately, Steve wraps his arm around me, pulling me into his chest. I hide my face in his neck, utterly losing my mind. I cling to his chest and never wish to leave. I wait for the dogs to realize their mistake and turn around to eat us. When that doesn't occur and their screeching fades into the distance, I lift my head slowly.

Steve is already peering down the tunnel where they went with a furrowed brow. Both of us are catching our breath, still left utterly confused.

“Eleven," Mike mutters from above.

Steve eyes flicker down to meet mine and slowly I'm brought down from that panic attack. Without any word or warning, Steve slams his lips to mine. I drop my swords and drape my arms over his shoulders, deepening the kiss. There's nothing quite like dying to make people realize their priorities and act on impulse.

The kids groan above us, causing Steve and I to chuckle, but don't stop in the slightest. When we finally break for breath, Steve and I rest our foreheads against each other.

"Never try to make me leave you like that again," I whisper, caressing his cheek.

He peers into my eyes pleadingly. "I just couldn't live with myself if anything ever happened to you... You're... You're everything to me... God, I love you so much, Y/N."

"I love you too," I tell him wholeheartedly. "Which is exactly why I could never leave you."

He nods and presses his lips to mine, this time gently and comfortingly.

God, I love Steve more than anything. I couldn't imagine risking my life on multiple occasions for anyone else.

______________________________

Masterlist

Tags: @treblebeth @supersouthy @ultrunningning @gillybear17bear17 @steve-is-daddy @babyblue-lahey @aut13har @redgetawaycar