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sheisjoeschateau · 3 months

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"...at the Chateau, we'll be alright."

Steve Harrington x Jonathan Byers x fem!reader A crossover au inspired by Saltburn and Call Me by Your Name. Additional inpso from Joe's college theater performance as in Spring Awakening.

Song Inso: "Chateau" by Djo

Strangers to best friends to lovers. Slowburn. Angst, angst, angst. Fluff, fluff, fluff. Hurt/comfort. Romance, with polyamory themes and schemes. Smut with hella plot.

Summary: The reader lives with her parents at a fancy chateau, in France. This year, her father offers their home as a housing sanctuary to a select student or graduate. He decides to invite two graduate students to live with their family over the summer, coming from different working class backgrounds, and help with their academic paperwork as a professor of archaeology.

Steve Harrington: a rich kid from a swanky boarding school with a bad boy reputation and too much charm for his own good. Surprisingly, his grades say otherwise. A’s and B’s, his parents claim that is seeking one-on-one tutoring so that he can progress in his studies — but it sounds more like an excuse to ship him off for longer periods of time, giving them an out for having their son around during the summer. The pretty boy’s all about ladies…but that’s only because he hasn’t met a boy who awakens his bisexuality. Yet.

Jonathan Byers: a kid from the lower working class, excelling in his studies and AP programs at the same boarding school as Steve which he only got into because of community sponsorship and grants. Quiet wallflower, little to no friends, a bit cynical. A closeted gay, he’s more determined to stick with being perceived as “ace” than come out of the closet. Until he goes to stay at a chateau with a handsome boy, and a beautiful girl who understands him.

Twists, turns and terrifying risks, you all put your hearts on the line that summer at the Chateau. Add the reader's cousin Eddie into the mix, along with her best friend Robin, Steve's ex-girlfriend Nancy, Jonathan's estranged mother and your progressive parents alongside Steve's absent parents -- it's a cruel summer.

But here, together at the chateau, you'll be alright.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊ ⋆SNEAK PREVIEW⋆ ⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ This will be another series of mine, dedicated to my boy. Coming soon.

[excerpt from the story]

There was something about the way you twirled in your sundress that reminded Steve of the bible.

He wasn't religious, nor did he think any god truly loved or believed in him. But here, watching you exist in your garden of eden at the Chateau, the good book almost seemed real.

You resembled something otherworldly. Heavenly, sent straight from above. Innocent, yet wise. Kind, yet strong. Powerful and delicate at the same time. Your laugh was soft, feminine and pure. Your spirit was whole. Your smile blinded him with joy. Your beauty was divine, angelic and overwhelming. You were too much…and yet, you could never be enough.

But that wasn’t because you yourself weren’t enough. No, rather it was because Steve would never be able to get enough of you. He could never be close enough. He could never be near you enough. He could never tell you enough words that would accurately describe the way that you made him feel.

The word ‘enough’ simply did not apply when it boiled down to you.

And yet, as Steve swept you up into his arms — discarding his books and his education down onto the lawn, much more driven to study you — holding you felt like that was all that he would ever need for his life to be considered enough. The feeling of your waist in his grasp, his strong arms circling your petite torso as your hair flew in the wind of the circle he spun you in, felt like a tornado. A cyclone, sweeping you both off your feet so that it could take you far away from everything and everyone. You were this fragile flower in his hands, yet unbreakable. Real, but too good to be true. A true story, but a fairytale of the mind.

Jonathan saw you this way — but from a more niche, almost platonic point of view. It was just as codependent, yet approached with more independence and the ability to exist on his own two feet. He’d do whatever it took to keep you, no matter what the hell that took. And he knew that to some degree, a pretty scary degree, that he needed you too. But he was content with the need. Satisfied, at peace. Completely grounded, secure. Unlike Steve, who smiled out of fear and loved with his whole heart on the line. Because Byers knew how to be alone. He knew how to rely on himself, fill his own cup even when it was empty — which was all the time. Byers was the epitome of “I walk alone.” The human embodiment of solitude. He preferred your company, your grace and your presence. It made him better, and stronger — because he’d known prior how to operate without it.

Harrington didn’t. Harrington needed someone, all the time. As an only child, the loneliness had suffocated him in his big house with no parents. He’d had no one to shush the nightmares away, no one to hold him whenever the monsters felt near. No one to run to and trust with any secret that he had. No true friend who would listen to his most intrusive thoughts without casting him away. No girl that wanted him in the ways that he so desperately sought to be loved, not just lusted after. Until you came along, sheltering him from all his deepest and darkest fears, childhood traumas and the ever-looming possibility of rejection. He had been a threat to himself, and you put that threat to rest with just a soft brush of your lips against his knuckles and the touch of your tender hands.

Whereas with Byers, you made him feel seen but not disturbed. You allowed him to be present without needing to overcompensate. You granted him refuge, earning his trust with your actions instead of your words. He didn’t need your touch to calm him. Rather, he felt steadied by just knowing that you were here. You knew that touch was never a friend to Jonathan, which is why you never pushed yourself in. Instead, he found himself drawn to you. He didn’t recoil at the physical contact made between the two of you. A hug, a warm embrace that lingered just an extra second or two. A gentle squeeze of a hand as you shot him a wistful smile. The most feather-like of kisses pressed to his cheek to say hello, good morning, good evening or goodnight. It felt…nurturing. Assuring, fostering.

Out on the outstretched lawn in front of the Chateau, acreage upon acreage, Jonathan watched your hair gleam underneath the golden glow of the setting sun. He let the Marlboro in his mouth dangle between his teeth, the curriculum resting upon his lap as the scent of nicotine and fresh air filled his senses. The mixture of it was perfect for the scene laid out before him: Steve spinning you around, his white collared shirt unbuttoned just enough to wear his tie swung in the breeze as he continued swirling you around like a princess. And when he’d placed you back onto your feet, he peppered every single inch of your face with an obscene amount of stolen kisses as you giggled like the darling that you so effortlessly are. Jonathan felt his lips tug upwards at the corner, unable to help himself when it came to the two of you. His shoulder angel and shoulder devil.

He turned the page of his literature books, revealing his unfinished letter that he’d begun writing at lunch in response to his mother. Joyce had written to him, asking him to tell her everything about the summer. How was it in France? What was it like? Were the hosts kind, was he being polite towards them? What about you? Were the two of you getting along, as well as the other student?

Jonathan glanced up from his scribbled cursive, back at the two of you. Steve was cupping your cheek, placing a flower in your hair with his free hand before moving to cup your other cheek so that he was cradling your face. His perfect, sharp nose nuzzled to the tip of yours sweetly. Jonathan felt his heart swell as the two of you turned to look at him with pure love. Your arms stretched out towards him, along with Steve’s, beckoning him. Come play with us. He grinned at you both wholeheartedly, holding up a hand — which you both knew meant he would, just a little longer. You’d all learned each others’ love languages by now, along with how to communicate through gestures and expressions. Body language was all of your specialty, in a multitude of ways that no one else could ever possibly understand. Jonathan didn’t mind that. It was only meant for the three of you.

Flicking his cigarette, he glanced back down at the incomplete letter he was ready to finish writing for his mother. He took his pen, letting the ink spill onto the parchment. He'd already written down things earlier, telling her that your parents had taken them in as their own. He wrote about how much your father made him adore his studies in ways he never had before, and how he'd been inspired to help Steve study alongside him as an assistant tutor of sorts. He wrote to her about an Aperol spritz had somehow become the drink of the summer, using fresh citrus from the gardens of your estate, and how it made uncharacteristically sappy. How you and Steve made him that way too, even without the poison coursing through his veins.

Something about them makes me feel like I can, Mom. I keep asking myself if this all just a dream. Or maybe, it’s the past? Not sure. Either way, just thought I’d ask. Not because I am seeking the answer, from you or the universe. Rather, I’m simply existing and letting it all just happen. C’est la vie. I know…so very French. Perhaps I'm running a fever. A lovesick sort of fever.

Jonathan grinned down at his writing with wry amusement at himself. At his life.

He turned over his shoulder, glancing back at the majestic chateau behind him. Chateau Chalamet. Your childhood home. His new home, as of that summer…which was dwindling away, day by day. Every day that passed meant that he had less time. All of you were losing time. He sighed, resuming his writing.

I’ll turn back the time whenever this all ends. In my mind, this will always be a home away from home. Which is something I never thought I would say. I’m not really sure what my future holds. But it doesn’t really concern me at the moment. Now right now. Right now, I'm at the chateau and I feel alright. Love, Jonathan

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