#steve harrington and will byers friendship

[hyperfixationgoddess]

I have this head cannon, y'see and I can't really talk about it in real life, so now it's tumblr's problem. Yaaaaay.

Okay, here it is. This is an a/b/o au. The upside down has its own scent, right? And it scents COLD. And only a select few in Hawkins know that scent. Of course, Steve Harrington is one of them. That day in the field, in s2, when the Mind Flayer was taking over Will, what if the high school gym was close enough to that field that everyone could smell it? That overwhelming scent of dark, cold, evil. Steve is the only one who recognizes it .

He'd never run so fast in all his life.

Steve is the first on the scene, sees Will just standing there, his own pup scent overwhelmed by cold. Steve has always run hot, and he learned a long time ago, due to absent parents, how to scent warmth.

He goes up to Will, and just hugs him, scents warm, because it makes sense, right? The upside down was making it cold, so Steve had to warm him up. When the rest of the crew find them, Steve is just holding Will close, scenting warm, and encouraging him to fight off the upside down.

"it's okay, Will, you're doing great, you're so strong, pup, you can do it, you're so strong, stronger than anything that place can throw at you, come on, kiddo, you got this..." Etc., Etc.

When the others arrive, he tells them to scent warm like he is, cause it'll help pull Will out of this dark place. They all end up in this big group hug: Steve, Will, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Joyce. Then, when the basketball team shows up looking for Steve, he just looks at Hargrove, and is like, you're basically a human furnace, get over here and help us get this pup warm.

Fyi, Steve is obviously an omega, and Billy is an alpha, so who is he to refuse.

Finally, Will wakes up mind flayer-free, and he just clings to Steve while sobbing. He accidentally calls Steve mama, which just makes him melt, and then Steve and Joyce and the kids, including Max, take Will home and just gives him all the love he deserves. The next day, Steve takes all the kids to meet the Hawkins High Dungeon Master, Eddie Munson, to help Will feel better

And that, my friends, is how Steve adopts all of the kids in this au. Of course, D'art is still around, so that's how Steve bonds with Dustin specifically. Dustin and Will are his favorites. Billy just kind of fell for Steve after seeing his mama bear side, as did Eddie, because I am a sucker for Harringroveson.

#harringroveson #stranger things #stranger things drabble #steve harrington #bi steve harrington #lucas sinclair #max mayfield #mike wheeler #will byers #steve harrington and will byers friendship #steve thinks will byers deserves the world #steve harrington is such a mom #protective steve harrington #billy hargrove and eddie munson are smitten #and i can't blame them #get yourself someone like steve harrington who will love and protect your family as much as you do

[unfinishedslurs]

welcome to eden

this is a love letter. inspired by this song

As soon as Steve picks up the phone, she knows she’s making a mistake.

“Rob?”

“No,” she says instead of hanging up like she should. 

“Nancy?” He sounds more alert now, and she can picture him standing up straighter, calling to attention at the sound of her voice. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” 

“Not really,” she sniffs, hating herself for it. “I—can we talk?”

He’ll say no. He’ll say no, because it’s one in the morning and he was probably asleep before the phone rang and she shouldn’t be asking to talk years after she broke his heart and didn’t even remember—

“Of course,” he says, and Nancy could kick herself. “Over the phone?”

“No. Not over the phone. I’m sorry, it can wait, you can go back to bed.”

She hears him huff a laugh, even though there’s nothing funny about any of it. “I wasn’t in bed,” he assures her. “Am I picking you up?”

Tears spring anew to her eyes. “If that’s okay.”

“Works for me,” he says. “See you soon.”

“See you,” she echoes, and hangs up. 

She spends the time it takes pacing quietly in front of the front door, berating herself for using him like this. But she needs to talk to him, and the sooner it’s over with the better. 

Headlights cut through the window way too soon, and she nearly throws herself out the door. 

She gives him a look when she opens the car door, telling him she knows how many traffic laws he must have broken to get here this quick. He just grins in return, ready to point out the felony in her closet. 

“Where are we going?” He asks, and her heart clenches. He’s so good. He’s so good, and she couldn’t-can’t love him like he wants. She has to tell him. 

Tonight probably wasn’t the best night for this conversation, but her skin feels like it’s peeling off and the faster she says something the quicker it will be over with and she can go back to how it was before. Back when she didn’t have anyone to talk to, because Robin might never speak to her again after she breaks her best friend's heart for the second time. 

Just rip the bandaid off, Nance. 

“I don’t know,” she says instead. Maybe she’s a coward. “A field? Somewhere I can see the stars.”

“I can do that.”

The drive goes by in silence, Nancy staring stubbornly out the window. She can feel Steve periodically checking on her, and she knows he wants to know why she called. She can’t open her mouth to say it in the suffocating enclosure of the car. She rolls down a window. 

They get to a field almost out of Hawkins, and the car is barely in park before she’s climbing out, going around to sit on the hood. Steve cuts the engine and follows. 

She still doesn’t say anything. She called him to have a talk, why can’t she just open her stupid mouth—

“Nancy?” Steve asks, gentle in a way that used to make her melt. She pulls her legs to her chest, feeling vulnerable. “What’s wrong?”

“Jonathan and I broke up,” she finally gets out. 

“Oh shit.” He looks genuinely surprised. “That sucks, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well, it was never going to be forever.” Except she’d thought otherwise. She thought they were Nancy and Jonathan, the two of them against the world. She hunches her shoulders. “We never talk anymore, and he was pulling away from me, and he was lying to me for months-“ she shakes her head, clearing the anger she feels at that. “It doesn’t matter. I’m starting to realize there’s things I need to work on, too. A lot to work on, actually.”

“I don’t know what that could be,” he says, flashing her a smile filled with boyish, roguish charm. “You’re already the best person I know.”

She sniffs, and suddenly she’s crying into her knees, shoulders shaking. He freezes beside her, before wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into his side. She leans in for a second, chasing the comfort, before remembering what she came here to do and ripping away violently. 

“Fuck,” she whispers. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. I don’t—I can’t—this isn’t what I—“

“Hey,” he soothes. “Slow down. Let it out.”

She wipes her eyes, suddenly furious. “I don’t want to date you,” she says, finally looking him in the eyes. “I don’t—I’m sorry for calling you. I just remembered how much better you used to make me feel, but then I realized that’s like…really shitty of me.”

“Why?” He asks, as if Nancy didn’t come out here to break his heart again. “I want to make you feel better. I like knowing I can make you feel better.”

“I don’t want to lead you on,” she says, mouth screwing up. “That’s why I called you out here. And I know it’s shitty of me—“

“Nancy, you’re not leading me on. I…I don’t want to date you either.”

That stops her in her tracks. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” he echoes quietly. “I—don’t take this the wrong way, okay, ‘cause I know I’m gonna sound like an asshole saying it, but, uh, I can’t do that again. And even outside of that, I don’t like you that way anymore. Uh, sorry.”

She tries not to sag at the overwhelming relief she feels at that. 

“Are you sure?” She studies him closely, trying to see if he’s saying this for her sake or if he means it. “Back in the Upside-Down, and when we were fighting Venca, it seemed…”

He grimaces, and Nancy thinks if it wasn’t dark she’d see the beginning of an embarrassed flush on his ears. “I…may have been feeling things,” he admits. “I was testing the waters, I guess. I started feeling nostalgic, and you were there, and everyone was encouraging me, and it all just ended up in this weird…feelings soup. Sorry.”

“You said you wanted to have six kids with me,” Nancy reminds him. “And travel the country in a Winnebago.”

He groans, covering his face with his hands. “I am,” he says, “so sorry. I don’t know why I said that. That had to be so weird for you.”

“It was kind of sweet?” She tries, not letting her relief show. Not yet. 

“We haven’t been together in years, and I decided to tell you I used to dream about you having my babies. How do you deal with me?”

“Well it helps to know you were dropped on your head. Puts everything in perspective.”

“Yeah, yeah, yuk it up.” He looks at her, really looks at her, and she tries not to fidget under his gaze. Too earnest, too caring for someone who doesn’t deserve it. He’s always tried so hard. To woo her, to be a better person, to keep back the vicious streak she still sees in him. “I meant it, when I said I loved you,” he tells her gently, no sign of that cruelty that had him painting her as a whore for the whole town to see. “Back then, I mean. I just wanted you to know that.”

She wants to cry. “I know. I’m sorry I couldn’t say it back.”

“It’s okay,” he says like he means it. He leans back against the windshield, looking at the sky. After a moment, she copies him. 

They watch the stars together, and the air feels clearer. 

“Where do we go from here?” She asks, afraid of the answer. 

“What do you mean?”

“What happens with us now?”

“Well,” he says gingerly, like he’s testing the waters. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard you’re a pretty kickass friend.”

Friends. She doesn’t know that she and Steve have ever been friends, not properly. Even after the apologies they made to each other, she doesn’t know that she could call what they had friendship. It wasn’t substantial on its own, needing Jonathan as the barrier between them. When it fell, so did they. 

“I haven’t had a friend in a while,” she admits. “Robin is kind of a novelty for me. She’s amazing.”

It’s funny, in a way. She was so jealous of Robin, of how close she was with Steve in a way Nancy wasn’t. She’d thought, at first, that it was because they were so clearly dating. After Robin told her they weren’t, she realized how badly she’d just wanted friends. She missed hanging out with Steve, missed his laugh and his squint and his bitchy attitude. She’d hoped that eventually they’d get to that point, was sure they were almost there before Starcourt. In a way, she’d been jealous of Robin for stealing Steve. She knew it was ridiculous. Steve had found a friend, a real friend who hadn’t cheated on him or slept with his girlfriend. She couldn’t begrudge him that. 

She just missed him. 

“She is, isn’t she?” Steve grins, but sobers up quickly. “I didn’t really think about that. How lonely you must be, since…”

She’s already shaking her head. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t reach out.” 

“I didn’t exactly reach out either.”

They fall silent again, at a loss for words. Barb’s death, as always, the canyon between them. 

Finally Nancy huffs. “It’s both of our faults,” she declares, “or neither of our faults. I don’t know. I just missed you.”

“Well shit, Nance, I missed you too,” he says, touched. 

“I’ve heard you’re a pretty kickass friend too, you know,” she says, glancing at him. He smiles. 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Nancy Wheeler, I would be honored to be friends with you,” he says, and sticks out his hand to shake, like they’re meeting for the first time. 

She stares at him, and starts laughing. “You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

She shakes his hand. 

Max has always felt like a mirror. One Nancy wanted to smash, pull her out of the shards of her reflective grief and hug. Stroke her hair the way she wanted someone to do for her and say you’ll get through this. So Max could hear it from someone who knows. 

Except Nancy doesn’t know anything. Still drowns in her guilt, the ball and chain dragging her into the depths. She can’t help when she’s still such a mess, three years later. 

Her hands clench when Mike says Max is pulling away from Lucas. She wishes she could look her in the eye and tell her you don’t have to be me. You can be better. 

She’s Mike’s friend. They barely know each other outside of a quick hello as they cross paths or fighting monsters. Max has enough on her plate, she doesn’t need her friend’s weird older sister butting in to tell her how to mourn the right way. 

Nancy just hopes she’s getting out of bed. Remembering to eat. Brushing her teeth. She had more cavities in the year after Barb died than she’d ever had in her life, and she knows Max doesn’t have insurance. 

Now, sitting next to Max’s hospital bed, Nancy wishes she’d reached out. 

With school back comes studying, and with studying comes Eddie Munson, in all his super-senior glory. Nancy is going to get him a diploma if it kills her. 

He laughs when she tells him so. “Shit, Wheeler,” he says. “The day something manages to get you is the day this shithole goes down for good.”

Robin turns down her offer to form a study group. “I’m pretty sure if I joined, I’d just distract Eddie, and let him distract me, and we’d end up throwing things at each other until you killed us. Sorry. Steve’s going to help me study for finals, though!”

She looks at Steve, eyebrow raised. She’s pretty sure it’s fair to be dubious, since she was the reason Steve passed his finals in the first place. 

“I’m her rubber duck,” he says as an explanation, and she nods in understanding. 

Her mom isn’t about to let her study alone with a boy in her room, though, and especially not a boy like Eddie, so she drags him to the library three times a week. He complains, he bitches, he tells her he doesn’t care about his fucking history class anymore. She just hands him a Rubik’s Cube she found to keep his hands busy as she quizzes him. 

Three sessions in, he slowly puts a worksheet down and screams into his hands. 

“Stop that!” She kicks him in the shin. “If you get me kicked out of the library I’m never forgiving you.”

“I can’t do it,” he says, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m so fucking stupid, Nancy. I can’t even get past question two. Is this torture? Did I die and go to hell? That would be fitting, wouldn’t it? Doomed to repeat high school for the rest of eternity?”

“Stupid” her ass. She knows what kind of work goes into those campaigns of his, has absently flipped through his annotated fantasy novels and left feeling as if she’d seen the story anew. Plus, she went and made a tape of everyone’s favorite songs, just in case, and she knew damn well how quickly he’d taught himself to play the song he did in the Upside-Down. “Stupid” and “Eddie Munson” don’t belong in the same sentence, much less belong in the same space in his brain. She hates Hawkins High just a little bit more for it. “Stop being dramatic. What are you stuck on?”

“Fucking nothing! I can’t focus, it’s driving me fucking insane. I keep trying, I swear, but it’s like I can’t even read anymore! This always happens, I swear to God it’s killing me more than the fucking demobats ever did.”

“Don’t joke about that,” she snaps. “You’re smart, Eddie, you know that. You just need to try.”

His face twists, and she realizes that was the wrong thing to say. 

“Oh, thank you, Miss Wheeler, why haven’t I thought of that? Sorry for wasting your time, I’ll get out of your perfect hair now—“

“Sit down,” she protests as he gathers up his stuff. “Eddie, I’ll help you work through the problem, okay? Just sit down, please.”

“No, Nancy!” He swings around, eyes wild. “It’s what everyone always says. Just sit still, stop doodling, be quiet, pay attention, try fucking harder…I tried, okay! I’ve been trying, I tried for fifteen fucking years, and I can’t do it! I might as well just drop out and get it over with. I’m fucking sick of this.”

“Okay!” She feels herself getting riled up. “You want to fail so bad, fine! I’m not your keeper, do whatever you want.”

“I will!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

They stare at each other, not moving. Finally Eddie storms off in a huff, flinging open the library door in a grand gesture she pretends not to see. There’s a sinking feeling in her stomach, but she can ignore it. 

She pretends not to notice when he comes slinking back five minutes later, shuffling his feet. 

“Sorry.”

“For what?” She asks primly, going over her notes. 

“Nancy, please.”

She sighs. “I’m sorry too. I’m just…frustrated.”

“I’ve been told I’m pretty frustrating,” he offers. 

“It’s not…”

“It is,” he says, sitting down. “It’s okay. God knows I piss myself off with this shit.”

She studies him, looking over his defeated face like he’s one of her flashcards. “You’re trying your best,” she says, sounding it out. She can’t really make sense of it. After all, trying her best has always been straight A’s, not stopping until she knew everything she needed to and more. 

“It’s not good enough.”

“It will be,” she says. “You’ve got me this time.”

“Listen, I know you’re trying to help—“

“Do you want fries?”

“What?” He blinks at her, shocked, as she starts packing up her things.  

“We’re not getting anywhere today. Sometimes you have to step back, and come back with a clearer head.” Usually she locks her door and cleans her guns, the repetitive motion soothing her mind until she can think again, but she has a feeling that won’t work for Eddie. 

“I usually just give up.”

“I don’t. Get your backpack, we’re going to the diner. Dinner’s on me tonight.”

At the diner, he makes her laugh so hard soda comes out her nose. The next day, they go to the library again. 

After a couple of days, he solves the cube. After three weeks, he nearly kicks her door down rushing to show her the B he got on a test. 

Two months later, he throws his cap into the air and his cane on the ground. Swings her around, both of them laughing. 

“Nancy fucking Wheeler!” He crows. “Achieving the impossible yet again!”

“Eddie, put me down!” She shrieks gleefully as he stumbles. She barely makes it back to solid ground before two more bodies are slamming into them, Steve and Robin whooping in their ears. 

It was weird, to see Steve and Robin effortlessly communicate the way she and Jonathan always had and have it be so unabashedly unromantic. She’d always thought that knowing someone like that was a sign you were meant to be, and they did it while still loudly proclaiming Platonic with a capital P. 

She and Jonathan didn’t do it much anymore. It was like dancing to a song that was always a beat off, syncing for just one moment before stumbling again, unsure that they were still allowed this. 

She’d known him better than anyone, once, and he’d known her the same. Now she wonders if that was ever true. 

“So,” Eddie says, throwing himself onto her bed. “Steve.”

She sits in her desk chair, raising an eyebrow. “What about him?”

“You broke up with Jonathan, right? Are you going to get back with him? I thought you would, but it's been months and neither of you said anything.”

“No,” she says. “No, that’s not what I want. It’s not what either of us want.”

“Really?” He rolls over, eyes searching. “What happened there, anyway? With both your boys. I’m a nosy little asshole, and I wanna hear it from you.”

It makes her laugh, the way he admits to it so freely. He grins wolfishly at her, baring his teeth in a grin. That’s probably why she tells him the truth. 

“I wasn’t okay, when I was with Steve,” she says honestly. “I was distant, grieving…I was a mess, and I stayed with him because I didn’t know what else to do. With Jonathan…I was getting closure, I was healing, and things were good between us. They were so good, but after a while, we just started to…deteriorate. I don’t know if we lost momentum, or if the stress just got to us, but we started fighting more and more,” She traces the desk with a finger, remembering the sour taste of Oliver Twist on her tongue. It was a shitty thing to say. “I thought we’d figured it out, for a little while, but then we just…stopped talking. I think, maybe if we’d talked more, we could have worked it out. But I’m…not upset that we didn’t, you know?”

It’s a different kind of loneliness when your partner won’t talk to you. It was different than grieving, different than not having anyone to talk to at all. Because even when she didn’t have friends, she had Jonathan. And then, slowly, she didn’t anymore. 

“Nancy, you’re one of my best friends, so-”

“Steve is your best friend.”

“Steve is my best best friend,” she agrees. “But he’s also more than that? Like, I think we’re literally soulmates. Platonic with a capital P soulmates, but, like, it feels like more than friendship sometimes? Like sometimes it’s like he can literally feel my bad days even when I haven’t talked to him yet. He told me once he just knows sometimes. It’s like I hit my hip on my desk and he felt it, but emotionally. It’s wild. It’s like the drugs literally combined our minds. Where was I going with this?”

“I don’t know,” she says, slightly bewildered. She wants to ask how they do that, but Robin barrels forward. 

“Right. So outside of mine and Steve’s platonic more-than-friendship, you’re kind of my best friend? And you’re, like, the coolest person I know.”

She blinks. She’s not sure she’s ever been described as cool before. 

After Barb, Nancy tried to cut her own hair. 

Her mom found her in the bathroom, unshed tears in her eyes and hair a mess on the sink and floor. 

She hadn’t laughed, hadn't said oh, honey, your beautiful hair. Just clucked her tongue and took the scissors from her hands. Stepped behind her and took over, took the uneven mess and made it something good, something presentable. 

She didn’t say anything until she was done, setting the scissors on the counter. “Sometimes,” she said, wetting her lips. “Sometimes we need a change, before we can move forward.”

The closer she gets to Emerson, the more she feels like she’s letting someone down. Mike. Max. Jonathan. All the people who have relied on her, all the people who trusted her to fight.

In a strange turn of events, her mom is the only one she doesn’t feel is disappointed in her. Her mom is more excited about college than she is sometimes. Chattering excitedly over dishes about the classes she’s going to take as Nancy dries and smiles and tries not to feel like the ground is being pulled from under her feet.

This is everything she’s ever wanted. Why does it feel so wrong?

She takes Eddie to the gun range, because having a gun in her hands has always made her feel safer. More in control. More like the badass protector she wants to be, than the scared little girl she feels sometimes. 

Eddie stares down the scope of the gun and shoots like he has experience, but doesn’t hit a single bullseye. 

“Your hands are shaking.”

“I’m in a fucking gun range and a bunch of small town hicks were hunting me not too long ago,” he snaps, taking another shot and missing the target completely. He swears and changes the magazine. “Excuse me if I’m a little bit on edge.” 

She hadn’t really thought of it like that. “You didn’t have to come,” she says. “I just thought with everything that’s happened, you should know how to use one. Just in case.”

“I know how to use a gun,” he rolls his eyes. 

“You know how to shoot one.” She looks from him to the target pointedly. “Not the same thing.”

“Deep. I could really feel the judgement there. Tell me, is there anything else wrong with me?”

“There’s security cameras all over this place. We’re not in Hawkins, so there’s no mob coming after you. I’m here, and I do know how to use a gun. No one is going to hurt you here.”

“I know all that.”

“Do you?”

He scowls at her. She looks back unflinchingly. She’s been here plenty of times, and the guys laughed at her until they didn’t anymore. By the time she brought Eddie, all she got was a raised eyebrow and a “boyfriend?” from Hunter at the desk. She didn’t know what was more incriminating, so she just shrugged. 

“You’re kind of a pain in the ass, you know that?”

She rolls her eyes, taking the gun from his hands and lining up a shot. “I’ve heard worse,” she says, thinking about Nancy Dre-ew, and Nancy “the slut” Wheeler, and priss, and shoots. It hits the bullseye. 

So do her next five shots. 

Eddie looks begrudgingly impressed when she reloads and hands the gun back to him. It’s more satisfying than it should be, to realize that while he’d known she had guns he’s never seen her actually shoot before. 

She raises a challenging eyebrow at him, and he huffs around a smile. “All right, all right,” he says good naturedly. “Let’s try this again.”

He does a little better this time around, now that he’s actually trying. He does a little dance when he hits one of the inner rings. 

“Take that!” He crows. “I bet Steve couldn’t do this. In your face, Harrington!”

“He’s much more of a close-combat kind of guy, isn’t he?” Nancy agrees. 

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” he says. “Does he really have a bat with nails?”

She blinks, caught off guard by the fact that Eddie hadn’t seen it. She never registered that he hadn’t used it during Vecna. Something about the fact seems weird somehow, as if it was as integral to Steve as his coiffed hair. “He keeps it in his trunk.”

“You and Byers need to update your Steve manuals. He said it’s under his bed now.”

“Ah,” Nancy says, thinking of all the times she’s slept with her pistol under her pillow. Empty, because she’s not stupid enough to sleep with a loaded gun when her little brother sometimes wakes her up after a nightmare, but the comforting weight of it alone makes it easier. 

“Just tell me one thing,” he says, widening his eyes imploringly at her. “Did he look as sexy as I think he did? Byers won’t give me a straight answer.”

It’s a joke, but his cheeks are a little pink. She’s not dumb, she’s seen the looks the two of them share, as if he and Steve were circling each other. Caught in a whirlpool, waiting for the moment the vortex would drag them down and they could finally touch. 

The looks between Eddie and Jonathan, too, that share a certain camaraderie she doesn’t entirely understand and at the same time understands all too well. Steve and Jonathan had always had a strange relationship, too close to not be friendship but not quite there. Surprisingly enough it was better after she and Steve broke up, Jonathan no longer avoiding them and the talk she’d forced the three of them into clearing the air. Sometimes, she’d wake up to Jonathan climbing into her bed, smelling of cigarettes and a hint of something stronger, and he’d tell her it was Steve who drove him there. 

She’s a journalist. It’s her job to notice things. She just wasn’t ready to confront that reality, where the two boys she’d wanted wanted each other as well. But she’s grown since then. 

She also knows that whoever Steve chooses, it won’t be easy. 

“You know,” she says, considering, “when we were dating, Steve never pressed me up against the wall or anything you’d expect from the King.”

Eddie gets this look on his face, caught between confusion and caught out. “…okay? Did you want him to do that or something? Are you trying to ask me to hint to him?”

“No,” she says. “I’m just saying, he never did any of that. It was kind of funny. He always made it so that he was the one pressed against the wall.”

Eddie misses the next five shots entirely, and she laughs at him through it all.

She’s hyper aware of touching other girls now. She didn’t used to be. Even with Robin, who is a lesbian and definitely won’t hate her. Who’s probably gone through the same thing. She can’t help it. 

What if they get the wrong idea? What if someone else sees? What if they can tell, what if they know, what if they hate me?

She hates feeling like this. She doesn’t know why it started, doesn’t know what’s wrong with her. She’s no stranger to casual affection—or at least she didn’t used to be. Why does it make her feel so tense now? It’s been years since she realized she liked girls, shouldn’t this have happened back then?

Deep down, she knows why. The Reagan sign in her front yard. Her dad sitting in his chair, the news always on. “Always that nasty disease, Karen, I swear some people are just asking for it.” She’s always known she could never tell him, but now she knows that if she gets sick he’ll say she deserves it. She doesn’t know what her mother thinks. She’s afraid to find out. 

She’s growing up, and her fear is growing with her. 

Objectively, Nancy knows she and Eddie don’t make sense. 

They’re not cut from the same cloth, like Steve and Robin. They don’t calm each other down, like Jonathan and Argyle. They’re too different, too alike in all the wrong ways, for them to get along. They’re both snappy, a little mean. Eddie’s dramatic enough to get on her nerves, and she’s prim enough to get on his. At their worst, they have earth shattering arguments that end in them not speaking to each other for days. 

When people see them walking down the street together, they whisper about “that nice girl Nancy Wheeler” and “that awful Munson boy.”

It’s not fair, never has been. Nancy hasn’t felt nice for a long time, maybe before Barb ever disappeared. Eddie isn’t always particularly nice either, but the court of public opinion takes it to extremes, twists him into something cruel instead of the kindness he carries under his leather armor. Someone to keep their children away from. It really is a shame, because Eddie loves kids in a way Nancy never has. She can see it in the way he interacts with them, his bright smile fading when a parent comes to drag them away. Even when he’s expecting it, his face falls, just for an instant, before spinning around with a grin that won’t reach his eyes. 

Nancy wants to take him out of here. There’s an offer on the tip of her tongue that she knows he’d refuse.

He’s not her brother, but he’s not…unlike one. It’s almost like talking to an older, flashier Mike. He’s annoying, is what he is. He picks at her, keeps pressing over the littlest things. Tries to get under her skin, succeeds, until she’s on the verge of stabbing him with her pencil. Looks triumphant whenever Robin has to grab her arm to drag her away, rambling an excuse about “some girl thing I totally forgot, yeah it’s an emergency,” while Steve drags him the other way to have bro time. 

“She loves it,” she’d heard Eddie crow delightedly once, when Robin didn’t get her out of hearing range fast enough. “Do you see that fire in her eyes?”

“Do I?” She asked Robin. “Love it?”

“I mean, far be it from me to tell you what you do and don’t like,” Robin answered. “But, uh, as far as I can tell, you totally love it. You look like you’re going to rip him to pieces and enjoy it, and he loves that. I didn’t think you’d be this much of a nightmare together, seriously, like, how are you two at each other’s throats one second and then best friends the next? Steve and I have debated locking you in a bathroom until you get along, but we’re kind of afraid you’ll kill each other.”

So no, Nancy and Eddie don’t get along. They’re kind of a nightmare together. They don’t make sense, and they don’t try to. They have other friends, who they get along with better, that they can seek out. 

But when Eddie knocks on her window, the only surprise is that he could even get there. 

“How?” She hisses, opening the window. He tumbles in, doesn’t even try to play off the utter gracelessness he’s displaying. 

“Wowie, I am never doing that again,” he breathes, flat on his back. “You’re going to have to help me down the stairs when I leave, had to leave my cane at the bottom and I cannot get back down that way.”

She doesn’t even want to know what he had to do to get up on her roof with his bad leg. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m but another lover, nothing but an ant in the face of your unwavering beauty, my queen,” he says, batting his eyes at her. The dramatics don’t hit the way he intends, given that he’s stuck on the floor. He holds a hand out pleadingly, and she rolls her eyes, hauling him up until she can get him to her bed. 

“Never mind.” She puts her hands on her hips, a gesture that is so obviously Steve she removes them immediately. From the glint in Eddie’s eyes, he notices.

She tries not to be jealous. She tries, she swears, but…

Three of the four (five? she doesn’t know what Argyle thinks of her) friends she has are dating each other. Two of them dated her, first. She can’t help but wonder, if she’d known that was an option, if everything would have been different. If she wouldn’t have this aching bitterness between her teeth. 

(Nothing would have changed, she knows. She’d been too desperate for other things. Trying so hard with Steve so her best friend didn’t die for nothing. Staying with Jonathan because he understood her more than anyone else, so maybe they didn’t need to talk. It wouldn’t have helped anything. She still wonders.)

It doesn’t matter. What’s past is past, and she needs to move forward. She can’t stop to think about could-have-beens, because thinking about boys is what got her into this mess in the first place. 

She closes her eyes, taking a shaky breath. That’s not fair. None of this is fair. None of it is fucking fair because Nancy stopped caring about fair when Barb died. 

She needs a drink. She needs a nap. She needs to stop feeling like Atlas with the world on her shoulders. 

She doesn’t do any of that. She calls Robin.

“Barb was my first kiss.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Nancy says, and keeps talking, because Barb is dead and Robin is a lesbian and she’s long forgotten what Barb’s favorite chapstick was back then. “We were seven, and I liked it but I didn’t know if I liked her. But I was convinced I was going to marry her, until my mom told me that girls don’t marry other girls. And I knew she liked girls when she died. She told me when we were fifteen, and I didn’t know the word bisexual but I knew I loved her and that was all that mattered. Not—not like that, not romantic, or maybe it was but it doesn’t matter because she was my best friend and I still love her but she’s gone forever. I loved her.”

She feels Robin lay a tentative hand on her back. 

“I had to look her parents in the eye and pretend. All those fucking NDA’s, I had to pretend there was hope. Pretend she was still missing. It was like everyone forgot about her except for me and them, and they sold their house to find their dead daughter and I wasn’t supposed to say anything and Steve kept reminding me about the fucking NDA’s—“

 “Nancy…”

“It’s my fault,” Nancy says, staring at the water. “I lumped in Steve, because it was easier than being alone. He didn’t know her like I did. She was worried about me. She stayed because she cared, and look where that got her.”

“That’s bullshit!” Robin’s eyes are wide, and she waves her hands around as she talks. “If it’s anyones fault, it’s those—those scientist guys experimenting on El! They knew there was a problem, and they tried to cover it up instead of making sure people were safe. You didn’t know it was dangerous. How were you supposed to know it was going to end up as anything other than normal teenage drama? None of this is supposed to be real, you didn’t know—“

“But I left her,” Nancy cuts in. “I left her alone to go lose my virginity to a boy she didn’t even like—“

“He was your boyfriend, it shouldn’t have mattered if she liked him—“

“It doesn’t matter!” Nancy shouts, and Robin falls silent, mouth still moving. “It doesn’t fucking matter how it happened, because it did and now she’s dead and she’s never coming back and it’s all my fault.”

Nancy is sick of crying. Sick of feeling helpless. Sick of not being able to change the past. 

“It’s not just Barb. I took Fred to the trailer park—he didn’t even want to be there, and now he’s dead. Eddie needs a cane, Max is almost completely blind and might never walk again and it was my plan that put them there. My plan that almost killed them. I’m responsible—“

“Fuck that.”

“Robin…”

“No, you listen to me, Nancy Wheeler,” Robin says, grabbing her by the shoulders. “You are one of the most remarkable people I have ever known. Max would have died without that plan. We all would have died. Venca-slash-Henry-slash-One would have won without that plan, and I am not going to sit here and listen to you blame yourself for saving lives. And-and Fred! Venca had already marked him, you know that. You couldn’t have done anything! And Barb is not your fault, okay? I-I-I know I can’t convince you, but I’ll say it as many times as it takes until you start believing it, because it’s true. You didn’t kill her. You didn’t kill anyone.”

“I killed Bruce,” she says, just to prove Robin wrong. And isn’t that shitty of her, to forget about him until she can use him to prove a point? She’s a fucking awful person.

“I don’t know who Bruce is, but given your track record I highly doubt that.”

“I bashed his head in with a fire extinguisher.”

Robin pauses, and Nancy’s stomach sinks. This is it, she thinks. This is what will convince her, this is what will make her see that I’m wrong, that I’m poison-

“What was he doing?”

“What?”

“Bruce. You had to have a reason for it. What was he doing?”

It’s like Robin doesn’t even care that Nancy just admitted to first degree murder. “He was flayed,” she admits, knowing Robin will take it as proof that she’s right.

“That’s not murder, that’s self defense,” Robin says, just like she knew she would. “Also, if he was flayed he was already dead. Sorry, I’m sticking to your side on this.”

“But I’m less torn up about killing my asshole coworker than I am about anything else. How does that not make me a monster?”

“He was already dead, Nancy!” Robin shakes her. “You’re not beating yourself up over it because you know he was already dead, a-a-and I know you’re using him to try and push me away and I won’t let you.”

“Robin…” she says, tears springing to her eyes. She’s so fucking sick of crying. So sick of the way she never seems to stop anymore. 

“Nancy,” Robin says. “None of us are going to leave you. Stop trying to make us.”

She pulls her into a hug, and Nancy sags into it, boneless. 

There, sandwiched between the sky and the water, Nancy starts to feel like she could forgive herself. 

“Nancy,” Steve says, putting a hand on her shoulder and ducking his chin to look her in the eye. “They won’t be alone.”

Tears well up, unbidden, at the way he seems to understand her now in a way he never did before. 

“I want this,” she insists. 

“I know you do,” he says. “Which is why you’re going to go out there, kick ass, and take names. We’ll be here, okay? We’ll keep an eye on them.”

“I know you will.” She swipes a hand across her eyes. “Can you talk to Holly, too? She gets lonely.”

Steve smiles. He’d always loved Holly, when they were dating. He used to braid her hair sometimes. Asked her about her drawings, her TV shows, listened to her talk with the same attentiveness Nancy’s father had never shown any of them. He’ll be a good dad, someday. To someone else’s children.

“I’ll talk to Holly,” he promises. “Does she still like princesses?”

“Ladybugs,” she says. “It’s ladybugs, now.”

“Ladybugs. I can do that. Black and red, and they’re all ladies. What’s not to like?”

“There are male ladybugs.”

“Wait, seriously?”

She laughs, tearfully, but they’re happy tears. Steve wipes them away gently, and she smiles at him to let him know she’s okay. “You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

“You’re the best person I know, Nancy Wheeler,” he replies, achingly sincere. “You’re gonna have the whole world under your thumb, I just know it. Ever thought of running for President?”

“Can’t be worse than the one we have now,” she says, grimaces as her own joke lands too bitterly to be funny. She sees his jaw tighten before he forces himself to relax. 

“I’d vote for you.”

She grins at him, sharp to punch through the tension she’d made. “I’ll make Eddie my Vice President.”

“Oh, fuck no. You lost me,” he says, and Eddie makes an offended noise from where he’s stealing snacks from the glovebox. Jonathan swats him, and she smiles at him too. He smiles back, tentatively, and wanders to her side. 

“You gonna be okay up there?” He asks quietly. She can hear the guilt in it, still, and she reaches down to squeeze his hand. The one with the scar that matches hers, so their palms line up. It feels full circle, somehow, the three of them together like this. 

“I’ll be okay,” she confirms, and feels the truth of it in her chest. Her boys are here with her, the ones who have been there since the beginning. Eddie’s watching them fondly, munching on a granola bar. Robin is inside somewhere, rambling at her mother. Mike and Holly are probably still bickering over the last cupcake. She loves them so much, all of them. 

“Of course you will,” Steve says. “You’re Nancy fuckin’ Wheeler. Nothing stops you.”

She wants that to be true. She can feel in her bones that it will be. Eighteen has nothing on who she’ll be at thirty. 

She’s Nancy Wheeler, and the world won’t see her coming. 

#welcome to eden au #stranger things fanfic #nancy wheeler #eddie munson #steve harrington #robin buckley #jonathan byers #this is the biggest thing i've posted so far #i ran out of the little fics i'm gonna have to start figuring out how to format the big ones #there's background steve/eddie/jonathan bc this was originally a companion piece to a seperate fic about them #that was 22k before i lost interest #i'll post that one eventually #can you tell nancy is my favorite character. i love u miss survivors guilt <3 #sometimes i think about how nancy has no friends for p much three seasons after barb died and i get very upset #jonathan could count but he also wanted to date her so i'm not counting it #I JUST WANT HER TO HAVE FRIENDS #i also love nancy/eddie friendship they're both judgy bitches #so is steve frankly. nightmare trio #i'm gonna write that ot3 one day (don't hold me to that)

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

What if Nancy slapped Jonathan?

Summary: When Nancy actually allows herself to be angry about Jonathan's pictures, she realizes that she doesn't regret sleeping with Steve and that there was more to Steve than she realized. Jonathan realizes his mistake and friendships begin to form. Long fic, one shot.

A cold, numbing feeling came over Nancy as she looked at the pictures. The worst fear of people somehow knowing came true and in the worst possible way. It wasn't that she was ashamed that she slept with Steve. It was the more that it was an intimate moment that she trusted Steve with, that she enjoyed knowing that it was just between them. Sure, there was a part of her that wanted to gush about it and talk about it. . .yes, but with her friends. . .with Barb. God, maybe it was her fault. She should have closed the blinds. . .pulled the curtains. . . Something. All she could think about was Steve.

No. No, it wasn't her fault. Steve wanted her there, invited her there. It was an intimate party between friends. Jonathan had found his way over there, crept in the bushes, and took her picture. He took Tommy, Carol, and Steve's pictures without their permission. They didn't know someone was watching them. Nancy could understand Carol's disgust. She was disgusted herself and quite, frankly, angry. Suddenly, she felt her hand moving on its own, and there came a loud slapping sound as her hand came in contact with Jonathan's face.

"What the hell, Jonathan?" Nancy asked.

"Damn," Carol whistled. "Didn't know she had it in her."

"Why?" Nancy asked.

"I was looking for Will," Jonathan said, clutching his cheek.

"I would believe that if the pictures didn't prove otherwise. You stopped the moment you took pictures of us in the pool. How long did it take for us to get from the pool to inside the house to me getting inside Steve’s bedroom? A few minutes, give or take, long enough for you to realize that you stopped looking for Will," Nancy snapped. "Why?"

"I just saw - I just saw someone trying to be someone they're not," Jonathan said. "I thought it was a good picture."

"That's bullshit!" Nancy exclaimed. "So, what? Because I wear sweaters buttoned up to my neck, I study hard, and I like nerdy things that I can't possibly be human and want to have sex with Steve Harrington?"

"It just didn't seem that way to me," Jonathan said, his eyes downcast.

"Just because I was nervous doesn't mean that I still didn't want to go through with it," Nancy snapped. "By the way, I've noticed that you still haven't apologized."

"I, uh," Jonathan started to speak.

"Save it. Saying it now, I know you're not going to mean it. The embarrassment you're feeling at having been caught is how I feel about having been caught, except the major difference here is that I have nothing to apologize for. I will never apologize for sleeping with Steve. It was my choice, my decision and it's something that I'm never going to regret. Your interpretation of me is dead wrong. For the first time, I was doing something that I wanted to do and not what was expected of me. Steve is who I wanted, I liked him not because every other girl in the school did but because I did. I like him. I'm sorry that your brother is missing, I truly am, but it doesn't excuse what you did and I hope that when he does come back that he never finds out about you using him as excuse," Nancy said it all with clenched fists and tears filling her eyes.

"She is ripping him a new one," Tommy cackled.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped. Steve was looking at her with genuine concern in his eyes, and she felt her anger melt away. Steve kissed her gently on the forehead and went to hand Jonathan his camera back. Jonathan went to reach for, but at the last second, Steve let it drop to the ground. Nancy felt a brief satisfaction for a moment when she heard the camera break and even more so when Steve tore up the pictures, letting them fall to the ground in front of Jonathan as he knelt to retrieve his camera. Nancy quickly picked up the pieces and stuffed them in her bag before Jonathan could get to them.

"Don't want him gluing them back together," Nancy explained to Steve.

"Smart," Steve muttered.

"Jonathan," Nancy said softly, and he looked up. "I think that maybe you need to step out from behind the camera every once in a while and remember that there is more to people than what you think pictures are saying to you. It's just something to think about."

As they walked off, Nancy wrapped her arm around Steve's waist, squeezing him. She was grateful that she had him to lean on in this moment. She realized again that it wasn't just her privacy that Jonathan had violated, but Steve’s as well. Nancy stopped him when they were out of earshot of Jonathan.

"Steve. . .do you mind if we get out of here? I mean, I know you wanted to watch the game, but I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed," Nancy said.

"Of course, I'm a little on edge myself. Was the camera thing too much?" Steve asked.

"No. He deserved it," Nancy said. "Was the slapping thing too much?"

"No, he definitely deserved it," Steve said and paused. "Did you really mean when you said that you don't regret what happened?"

"Yes, I like you, Steve," Nancy said. "I want you."

"I want you too," he said softly.

Nancy wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. She stood back and stared at him before frowning.

"I want to go back to your house and look for Barb," Nancy said. "I think something might have happened. I don't think she went home last night, and she definitely didn't come to school today."

"Okay. Do we - should we call the police?" Steve asked, rubbing her shoulders.

"Maybe we should check out your place first," Nancy replied, slipping her hand into his.

"Hey, Tommy, Carol. . . We're going to get out of here," Steve said.

"Oooh," Carol laughed.

"Have fun," Tommy said wiggling his eyebrows.

Steve flipped him off before walking off with Nancy to his car.

"I'm glad you're coming with me. I'm not sure that I'd want to do this alone," Nancy said.

"It's no problem," Steve said softly.

"I was right," Nancy said, leaning against the door. "There is more to you than what people say there is."

"Is that a good thing?" Steve asked.

"Definitely," Nancy said.

"Right back at ya, Nancy Wheeler," he replied.

When they drove to Steve’s house, they discovered that Barb's car was still there. Holding hands, they began searching the woods behind the house. Nancy and Steve moved through the woods, crunching sounds breaking the silence as they walked on the leaves. They could clearly hear the wind whistling through the branches, but they nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard larger rustling sounds as though someone or something was moving with them. Whatever it was, it was moving rather quickly.

"Barb?!" Nancy called out. "Barb?!"

"Barb?!" Steve called out, whirling around with Nancy.

Suddenly, there came a growling sound, and they watched a blurry figure dart through the trees. Nancy stumbled back into Steve’s arms.

"Did you see that?" Nancy asked.

"Did he - did he not have a face?" Steve whispered.

They heard another growling sound, and Steve was grabbing Nancy's hand again. They both took off at the same time, running straight towards Steve’s car. They jumped in, and Steve didn't waste any time driving away from the house. Once they deemed it a safe distance, Steve pulled off to the side to calm himself down. . .to calm both of them down.

"He was wearing a mask, right?" Nancy asked.

"I don't know," Steve said.

"What if something really bad happened to her, Steve?" Nancy asked. "What if she's - ,"

"I want to be positive here, Nancy, I really do, but I don't know," Steve said softly. "I really hope not."

Nancy reached over and hugged him, letting him know that she appreciated his honesty. The drive back to her house was silent, but Steve kept a comforting hand on her knee the entire time. He didn't hesitate to follow her into her home either. He must be as scared as she was. As soon as she walked into the kitchen with Steve’s supportive hand on her shoulder and when she saw her mom, the tears started to come.

"You're home early. How was the game? Who is - Nancy, what's the matter?" Karen asked.

"It's Barb. I think. . .I think something happened," Nancy sniffled. "Something terrible."

Karen was quick to call the cops after holding a crying Nancy. Steve and Nancy both sat down with a cop for what seemed like hours. Officer Moore seemed intent on Steve being the one behind Barb's disappearance, which Nancy was quick to rectify that he couldn't have done anything because he was too busy sleeping with her.

"I swear I was respectful. I made sure she knew it was her choice and everything. I was a complete gentleman. I really like Nancy," Steve had said quickly to her parents.

If it was under any other circumstance, Nancy would have laughed. Luckily, Karen seemed to believe Steve. Maybe it was the fact that Steve didn't want to leave her side during all of this when he had plenty of chances to. Night had fallen when Mike had come into the house suddenly, sobbing. They had found Will. The hope for Barb coming back alive dwindled inside of Nancy. When the cop finally left, Steve stood awkwardly in the kitchen, leaving Nancy to have time with her family, which is where Nancy and Karen later found him.

"I talked mom into letting you stay the night," Nancy said.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Steve said, scratching the back of his neck.

"No, Nancy's right. I wouldn't feel good at all sending you back to that empty house without your parents," Karen said, frowning. "Of course, Nancy twisted my arm into letting you stay in her room. She said she was just going to sneak you up there anyway."

"She's so determined," Steve said fondly, and Karen's eyes twinkled for a moment.

"I just don't understand why Mike wouldn't let us put you in the basement," Ted said as he entered the kitchen with Mike.

"Maybe he's keeping a girl down there," Steve said, causing Ted to laugh, and Mike's eyes widened.

"Not that Mike can't get a girl," Nancy said, smirking. "But I doubt he'd risk mom and dad selling his collectibles if he did that behind their backs."

"I mean, she's not wrong," Mike said, rolling his eyes as they laughed.

Later that night, Karen was saying goodnight to Steve and Nancy when Ted came in with an armful of pillows. He started putting them in between Nancy and Steve like a wall.

"Do you think you left enough pillows for the rest of the house, Ted?" Karen asked with a sigh. "I think you missed the ones in the living room."

"Oh, hold on," Ted said and came back with two more, placing them on Nancy's bed.

"I'm so sorry," Karen said.

"No problem, I think Mr. Wheeler's hilarious," Steve said with an honest grin.

"Hm. I think I'm starting to like you. Might have to resend my earlier statement," Ted said. "Goodnight."

Steve turned on his side as soon as they left, leaving the door cracked. He peered over the pillows at Nancy.

"I'm going to need a grappling hook to get over to you," Steve said in amusement.

"It's actually kind of comfortable," Nancy said.

"Yeah. . .wait, what statement did your dad make?" Steve asked.

"Don't worry about it, Steve," Nancy said and kissed him. "Thank you for being here with me."

"Thank you for letting me stay," Steve said softly, and there was a long pause between them.

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"Was Tommy telling the truth when he said that your mom follows your dad around to make sure that he doesn't fool around?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah, we walked in on him a few times," Steve said.

"I'm sorry. . .how often do they leave you alone?" Nancy asked.

"Too often," Steve admitted.

"Well, you're not alone now," Nancy said.

"Neither are you," Steve said gratefully and kissed her knuckles.

"Goodnight."

"Nighty-night."

The next morning, Steve ate breakfast with the Wheelers and helped Karen clean up before leaving the house with Nancy early so he could go to his house to change. Steve and Nancy stared at his house with trepidation.

"You know, any other day, I would be more worried about my asshole of a father and the fact that we had a party and we drank beer. It's crazy how small that seems now," Steve said.

"Yeah, it was just the other that Barb and I were shopping for a sweater that you might like," Nancy said. "So, I get it."

"We're going to figure it out," Steve said. "Somehow. . . Purple, by the way."

"What?"

"I think you look really good in light purple," Steve said. "You seem happier when you wear it. I don't know."

"It's my favorite color," she said and then paused. "You look good in blue."

If he chose a blue polo because of what she said, Nancy didn't comment on it, but she smiled, and for a moment, she wasn't worried. Well, not until she was called out of class to be questioned by the police again. She met Steve out by the gym to go over what the cops talked with them about, which was basically what they asked them last night. Nancy was glad that they were both peeved about them focusing on the wrong thing here. Who cares if Nancy and Steve had sex?

"It's all everyone seems to care about with me," Steve frowned. "Don't the cops have anything better to do? Oh, yes, looking for Barb."

"I'm not saying they're still not wrong about that, but to be fair, nothing like this has ever happened in Hawkins," Nancy sighed. "Something else is bothering you."

"It's nothing," Steve said. "It's nothing important."

"It's important enough to upset you. Tell me. Besides, I can't possibly decide what to do next. It might help me to think about something else," Nancy replied.

He was leaning against the wall, his legs spread out before him. Nancy stepped in between his legs, holding onto him tightly.

"I got into a fight with Tommy and Carol. Apparently, they got into their heads that you're stealing me away from them," Steve replied.

"You make it sound like you're with them or something," Nancy snorted.

"Well. . .I mean, it wasn't very serious. They made it very clear from the beginning, and I wanted a serious relationship," Steve shrugged.

"Oh. . .um, thank you for telling me," Nancy said.

"I trust you," Steve said.

"I trust you too," Nancy replied.

"Anyway, they said some really shitty things about you and then about Barb. I had to walk away," Steve said. "I'm done with them. I mean, not just for you but for me too."

"Mom said you're welcome to stay another night if your parents aren't back yet," Nancy said.

"This whole thing feels weird. . .I mean, you know what I mean, I think," Steve said.

"It's all weird, but I think Mom appreciates your help this morning," Nancy said. "And we all especially appreciate how nice you were to Mike this morning."

"Well, he's a good egg," Steve said.

"He's an asshole but yeah," Nancy said with a smile. "She also told me that you got up early this morning and had tea with Holly."

"She said she wouldn't say anything," Steve groaned.

"Come on, Princess, let's go get you some clothes," Nancy said in amusement.

After grabbing some clothes for Steve, they went back to her house. She spilled the contents of her bag to clean it out when the pieces of the torn up photograph also spilled out.

"Are those the pictures?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, I forgot about them," she said, frowning as she looked at them. "Steve. . ."

"Is that. . .?"

"The faceless man. Steve, what if whoever this is also did something to Will?" Nancy asked. "What if Will really didn't drown in the quarry?"

"Should we tell Jonathan?" Steve asked.

"I know neither one of us wants to see him, but he should know," Nancy said.

"Yeah. . .do you think someone's trying to cover this up. . .whatever this is?" Steve asked.

"Possibly," Nancy said. "Let's go."

After talking with Joyce briefly, Nancy and Steve found Jonathan at the funeral home picking out caskets. They hesitated for a moment before going in. Jonathan sighed before walking over to them. Nancy and Steve led Jonathan out of the room.

"It looks like it could be some sort of perspective distortion," Jonathan said when they showed him the picture. "But I wasn't using the wide angle. I don't know."

"Are you sure you didn't see anyone else out there?" Steve asked.

"No," Jonathan said. "And she was there was one second and then, um. . . Gone. I figured she bolted."

"The cops think she ran away, but they don't know Barb," Nancy said. "We went back to Steve’s place, and we thought we saw something. . ."

"Some weird man," Steve said. "Or. . ."

"We don't know what we saw," Nancy said, pausing as she realized where they were. "I'm sorry . . . We shouldn't have come here today, sorry."

"What he'd look like?" Jonathan asked.

"What?" Steve asked.

"The man you saw in the woods. What did he look like?" He asked.

"I don't know. It was almost like he didn't have . . . ," Nancy trailed off.

"Like he didn't have a face?" Jonathan asked.

"How do you know that?" Steve asked.

It was awkward, waiting for Jonathan to enlarge the photo. They could all feel the tension in the air.

"Have you been doing this awhile?" Nancy asked. "Photography?"

"Yeah. I guess I'd rather observe people than you know. . .," Jonathan said and paused. "You're right, though. I think I hid behind the camera too long and forgot for a moment that the people in the picture were real. . . Alive. I used that to distance myself from because it was easier to pretend they they were someone else, something else than admit that they could hurt me just like my dad. I tried so hard not to be like him that I - that I ended up doing something that he would have done. And he was never sorry for anything that he did or the hurt that he caused. I don't want to be like my dad. I am sorry, I really am."

Nancy smiled gratefully, taking his hand and squeezing it.

"I get the whole not wanting to be like your dad thing. I don't want to be like my dad either," Steve said.

"You have an asshole for a father, too?" Jonathan asked.

"Yeah," Steve replied.

There was a look of understanding between them all for a moment, and they could breathe a little better. Jonathan gazed at Steve as though he were trying to figure him out.

"You know, I really wanted you to be an asshole," Jonathan said.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Steve said.

"Don't be," Jonathan said.

When the photo was done, they got a better look at the figure behind Barb.

"My mom. . .," Jonathan gasped. "I thought she was crazy. She said that it wasn't Will's body, that he was still alive. And if he's alive. . . "

"Barbara," Steve and Nancy said.

Steve had to go home again to pick out a suit for "Will's funeral" with promises to meet Nancy and her family there. Despite the fact that they knew Will wasn't really dead, there might be hope for Barb, too. It was all still tragic. Steve let Nancy hold on his hand as tightly as she could.

"You didn't have to be here, you know," Nancy whispered.

"I wanted to," Steve whispered back and squeezed her hand.

Steve and Nancy met up with Jonathan after the funeral to calculate where the creature was going. Once they determined that it wasn't traveling far, Nancy decided that she wanted to go out and look for the monster.

"Yeah, no, that's crazy!" Steve exclaimed. "I mean, what are we going to do when we find it?"

"Kill it," Nancy said. "You don't have to come with us."

"And let you get all the glory?" Steve sighed and then said with a soft voice, "You can't get rid of me that easily. Let's kill this son of a bitch!"

Later, they went to Nancy's house to change out of their clothes and started looking around the house for weapons. She found an old baseball bat of hers from when she played softball.

"You know what would look great and add maximum damage?" Steve asked. "Nails."

Nancy chuckled and pinched his cheek fondly. They eventually headed toward the field where Jonathan told them to meet and found him, practicing how to shoot. He was rather bad it. Steve and Nancy teased him mercilessly.

"You ever shot a gun before?" Jonathan asked.

"Have you met my parents?" Nancy scoffed.

"I promised myself that I would never do it again," Steve said firmly.

"Yeah, I haven't shot one since I was ten," Jonathan said. "My dad took me hunting on my birthday. He made me kill a rabbit. I guess he thought it would make me into more of a man. I cried for a week."

"Don't sweat it, Byers. My dad took me hunting once, but I'm pretty sure it was only to impress a client. Anyway, he tried to get me to kill a baby deer, but I didn't want to do it. He tried to force me to do it. The gun went off. So, that's how I shot my father in the foot. I swore I would never shoot a gun again. My dad didn't try to force me to do it again either. It certainly gave him another reason to hate me, though," Steve shrugged.

"Okay, both of your dads are major assholes," Nancy said with wide eyes.

"Yeah, I guess my mom and dad loved each other at some point," Jonathan said as she showed Nancy how to shoot. "But I wasn't around for that part. Uh, just point and shoot."

"I don't think my parents ever loved each other," Nancy revealed.

"Your parents must have married for some reason," Jonathan said.

"Pretty sure mine got married because of me," Steve muttered.

"My mom was young. My dad had a cushy job and came from a good family. So, they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac, and they started their nuclear family," Nancy said.

"Screw that," Jonathan said.

"Yeah. Screw that," Nancy said. "Not that I never want to get married."

"You just don't want to end up up in a loveless marriage," Jonathan said.

"Exactly."

"Never really believed in the whole nuclear family thing but a family. . .yeah, I think it's nice. You know, when I was younger, I dreamed of having a big family. It's silly. . . I'm talking about a full brood of Harringtons. I figured we all packed into an RV and traveled to like the Rockies, the Grand Canyon, maybe Yellowstone. We'd end up in some beachside town in California. Learn how to surf or something. I don't know, whenever my parents left me on my own, it made me feel less alone," Steve said. "And I always thought that I would adopt, you know. Give kids a loving home."

"That actually sounds nice," Nancy said.

"Yeah," Jonathan said. "You really want to adopt?"

"Yeah," Steve said. "I always wanted to have a little brother or sister, but my mom always told me she doesn't like kids whenever I asked."

"Well, you're more than welcome to have mine," Nancy said.

"Wow. It's a little early in the relationship to be asking me to join your family, Nance," Steve asked, and Jonathan snorted.

"I wasn't - " Nancy sighed and rolled her eyes, smiling. "Asshole."

"She didn't even ask you first. No wining or dining," Jonathan said.

"Not even flowers," Steve said.

"Alright, can you guys go back to not liking each other?" Nancy asked.

"Nah," Steve and Jonathan said.

Once they got done practicing, they headed towards Steve’s as night started to fall. They moved through the woods, with everyone on edge. Nancy stopped suddenly.

"What? Are you tired?" Jonathan asked.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed.

That's when Steve and Jonathan heard it. A whimpering noise. The guys followed Nancy, and they came upon a wounded deer.

"Oh God, it's been hit by a car," Nancy said.

"In the middle of the woods?" Steve asked, incredulous, and Nancy gave him a look. "Sorry."

"We can't just leave it," she said softly.

"I'll take care of it," Jonathan said, holding out his gun.

"What about - ?"

"I'm not nine anymore," Jonathan replied.

Just as Jonathan was about to shoot, the deer got pulled away by something. To Jonathan and Steve's surprise, Nancy chased after the deer. Suddenly, she disappeared, and they couldn't find her until they followed the sound of her voice, along with the sound of something growling. They pulled her out of a tree, the both of them holding her tightly as the odd, squelching door closed, leaving behind no sign that something odd had happened. Nancy insisted that Jonathan go home and be with his mom, that he should meet up with them at her house the next morning. Steve brought her home, and she sat on the edge of the bed. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her.

"Tell me what you need," Steve said softly.

"I need to take a shower," Nancy said.

"Okay," Steve said.

"Can you - can you come with me?" Nancy asked. "Not to do anything but can you - can you hold me?"

"Of course," he replied.

Underneath the spray of the water, Nancy curled up in Steve's arms and cried. It was a different kind of intimacy, a lot more intimate, even more than them having sex. Not only was Nancy naked physically, but she was also exposed to Steve emotionally. Trusting him with the trauma of what just happened to her, trusting that he's there, and that he wants to be there.

"I'm here," he whispered as they clung to each other.

After showering, they crawled into bed and held onto each other tightly. Eventually, they drifted off to sleep, but it was restless for both of them. When they left the house that morning, Jonathan was waiting for them. They talked about what happened, and they all came to the possibility that Will and Barbara might be trapped in the place that Nancy was dragged into.

"We have to find it again," Nancy said.

"You want to go back out there?" Steve asked.

"When I saw it, it was feeding on that deer," Nancy said.

"Meaning he's a predator. Right?" Jonathan asked.

"Right," Nancy said. "And it seems to hunt at night like a lion or a coyote. But it doesn't seem to hunt in packs like them. It's always alone. . ."

"Like a bear," Jonathan said.

"And remember, at Steve's, when Barb cut herself?" Nancy asked.

"And then, last night, the deer. . .," Jonathan said.

"It was bleeding too," Nancy said.

"Sharks can detect blood in one per million. That's one drop of blood in a million, and they can smell it from a quarter of a mile away," Steve said, snapping his fingers, and they looked at him. "What? I like sharks."

"Steve, are you a nerd?" Nancy asked.

"What? No, of course not. Not that it's a bad thing," Steve said, and they continued to look at him. "Okay, fine. Hi, I'm Steve Harrington and I'm a closeted dork."

"Well, admitting it is the first step," Jonathan said he laughed with Nancy.

"Anyway, it's just a theory," Nancy said. "But we can test it."

Testing it, of course, required weapons and ammunition, which meant going to the army supply store. Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy, especially when they discovered that Tommy and Carol had called Nancy a slut on the theater in spray paint for all of Hawkins to see. They found them in an alleyway with Nicole and her meathead of a boyfriend, Andy. Heated words were exchanged with Tommy calling Nancy every name in the book and then turning on Jonathan. Nancy ended up slapping Tommy, and just as she went to do it again, Andy grabbed her arm. That caused Jonathan and Steve to snap. They started swinging until the cops came, but Jonathan stopped too late and ended up hitting one of the cops. Now, they were all sitting in the police station, Jonathan, and Steve handcuffed together. Nancy was putting ice on their wounds when Joyce and Hopper came into the station.

"What happened?" Joyce asked. "Jonathan?"

"I'm fine," He replied.

"Your son assaulted a police offer, ma'am," Officer Callahan said.

"It was an accident," Steve protested.

"Yeah, was it an accident when you were beating up those two other boys in the alley?" He asked.

"Nicole's asshole of a boyfriend put his hands on Nancy!" Steve exclaimed.

"Alright!" Hopper exclaimed and turned to Nancy. "You alright?"

"Yeah," she shrugged. "Steve’s face is worse."

"Take them off," Joyce said. "Take them off!"

"You heard her, take them off," Hopper said.

"Chief, I get that everyone's emotional here, but there's something that you need to see," Officer Callahan said.

When they showed Hopper the things that were in the back of Jonathan's car, they had no choice but to tell Hopper and Joyce the truth about the monster. And then Mike's bully, Troy, came in spouting stuff about a girl with powers who made him pee himself and the losers she hung out with. That led them to Nancy's house, where they discovered vans parked outside and a bunch of suits entering her house. Nancy gasped and went to walk over there when Hopper stopped her.

"Hey! The last thing in the world we need is them knowing that you're wrapped up in all of this," Hopper said. "They haven't found him. Not yet."

He pointed towards the helicopters, above the trees, that were searching the area.

"He's right, Nancy. I only met him once, but he seems to be as smart as his big sister. They're going to have a hard time finding him," Steve said reassuringly and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Look, we need to find them before they do. Do you have any idea of where they might be?" Hopper asked once they were back in the car.

"I don't know where he might be," Nancy said after a moment. "But I think I know how to ask him."

They managed to contact him over the radio, and after much convincing, Mike gave them their location. Hopper left them at the Byers' house while he went to the junkyard to get the kids. When they came back, night had fallen, and Nancy had burst out of the house before throwing her arms around Mike. They walked into the house, and Mike paused when he saw Steve.

"Jesus, what happened to your face?" Mike asked.

"A couple of bullies," Steve replied. "Not really important."

"And you took them on yourself?" Dustin asked.

"No, and if you should be impressed with anyone, it's Jonathan," Steve said.

"Hmm, modest," Dustin said.

"No, truthful," Steve scoffed.

"Sure," Dustin grinned. "El took out some bullies, too. Are you a superhero like her?"

"No. Nance, who the hell is this kid?" Steve asked, and she bit her lip, smiling.

After all that, they started talking about the place Nancy had been dragged down into. . .or what the kids call the Upside Down. The kids had discovered that a gate had been opened in Hawkins Lab. El tried to find Will and Barb by using her powers, but she had been too weak to do it. What they needed was a sensory deprivation tank, which required them to go to the school for the salt. Pretty soon, the deprivation pool was ready, goggles on El's face. Steve and Nancy shared a concerned look with each other for a moment, squeezing each other's hands. She searched for Barb first, calling out her name, and when El started to cry, Steve put his arm around Nancy.

"Gone. Gone. Gone! GONE!" El screamed.

Nancy pressed a hand to her mouth, sobbing. She turned and buried her face into Steve’s chest. Steve wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly as she shook. Once they discovered that Will was hiding out at Castle Byers, Hopper and Joyce left to go rescue Will from the Upside Down.

"We have to go back to the station," Nancy said to Jonathan and Steve.

"What?" Jonathan asked.

"Hopper and your mom are just walking in there like bait," she said. "The thing is still in there, and we just can't let it get them, too."

"You still want to try it out?" Steve asked.

"I want to finish what we started," Nancy said.

"What about the kids?" Steve asked. "Aren't those guys still after El?"

"Well, do you want to stay here?" Nancy asked.

"I mean. I also don't want to leave you and Jonathan," Steve frowned.

"Hm, you're torn. How about I help you with that? Steve, stay here. Jonathan and I've got this," Nancy said. "Keep the kids safe."

"There's one thing the cops didn't get," Jonathan said as he pulled the bat and nails out of his car. "You're going to need a weapon."

They went their separate ways with Nancy going off with Jonathan and Steve heading back into the gym with the kids. Inside, Steve put his bat together and stood ready to protect the kids with his life, which he almost did a few times. A couple of the agents shot at him, grazing his arm. Meanwhile, Nancy and Jonathan tricked the demogorgon into the trap, but eventually, it got out, heading towards the school when El killed the agents. In the classroom, the kids huddled together while Steve took on the demogorgon with his bat. He took a slash to the chest for his efforts, but it too was a graze. Finally, El came into the room, stood her ground, and sacrificed her life to protect them. Now, they were all at the hospital, waiting for Will to wake up. Nancy was sitting next to Steve after she made sure he got checked out by the doctors. Dustin was sitting on his other side, talking excitedly.

"Nancy, did you know that your boyfriend likes comic books? That he horded him under his floorboards?" Dustin asked.

"No, I didn't," Nancy said in amusement.

"Steve, do you think that you'd want to try playing Dungeons and Dragons with us?" Dustin asked.

"I don't know. Doesn't that require a lot of math? I'm not the best at it," Steve admitted.

"That's the best thing about it! We all have our own strengths and weaknesses!" Dustin said.

"I guess I'm willing to try it. . .on one condition, you have to at least give basketball a try," Steve said, and Dustin looked at him thoughtfully.

"I'm up for it," Lucas said eagerly.

"We can give it a try, but if we don't like it, we can quit, right?" Dustin asked.

"Of course," Steve replied.

"Then we have a deal," Dustin said and they shook hands.

It wasn't long after that Dustin fell asleep against Steve’s shoulder while Lucas fell asleep against him. Nancy smiled at him.

"Starting on your brood early?" She asked.

"Shh, go to sleep," Steve said and patted his other shoulder.

Pretty soon, Will woke up, and the kids were quick to gather in his room, flocking to him. Nancy and Steve stood in the doorway, smiling fondly as the kids relayed everything to him. Steve watched as the smile slipped off Nancy's face. She turned around and walked out of the room. Steve quickly followed her and found her trying to hold herself against a wall as she sobbed. He pulled her into his arms.

"I should be happy that he's back, and I suppose I am," Nancy mumbled into his shirt. "It's just that - "

"Barb should be here too," he whispered.

"It's not fair," she said weakly.

"I know," Steve said. "And when you're ready to talk about her, maybe you can tell me about her. I don't know, maybe it will help."

"Thank you," Nancy said. "For everything."

Jonathan came stumbling out of the hospital room. He shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I'm sorry about Barb," Jonathan said softly.

"Thanks," Nancy said and smiled sincerely. "I'm really glad your brother made it home."

"Me too," he said.

"Thank you for saving my life back there," Nancy said.

"Yeah, I think that means we're all friends now," Steve said.

"What?" Jonathan asked in surprised.

"Oh, do you not want to be our friend?" Steve asked. "Hm, and to think that I was going to share my hair care products with you."

"We are friends!" Jonathan said quickly.

"I knew it! You are jealous of my hair," Steve said, and Nancy giggled. "Well, I guess I can handle Jonathan Byers being interested in me only for my hair."

"Shut up, man," Jonathan said.

Nancy smiled. Of course, she would never be okay with what he did but mixed with his sincere apology as well as the way he almost died to protect her from the demogorgon. It's funny how forgiveness can sneak up on you in the most unexpected ways, and it's strange how quickly things can change. It's nice, though, that forgiveness can make you breathe a little bit better.

#stranger things #nancy wheeler #steve harrington #nancy wheeler x steve harrington #stancy #bisexual steve harrington #pansexual nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #character redemption arc jonathan byers #anti duffer brothers version of jonathan byers #nancy deserved to feel angry about what he did #stoncy friendship #the party #stranger things fanfiction #long fic #stranger things oneshot #rueleigh writes

[bylertruth3r]

Stranger Things and

their slow burn couples

their straightbaiting queer friendships 

insanity

#stranger things #slow burn couples #jopper #joyce byers #jim hopper #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #mike wheeler is gay #queer friendships #platonic stobin #steve harrington #robin buckley #platonic elmike #el hopper #they were insane for posting this #had to bring this back cuz not enough people talk about this

[justfandomwritings]

The worst part of volume 2 is that Will never got to meet Eddie.

#their friendship would’ve put everything else to shame #finally someone who loved dnd as much as each of them #noah schnapp #dustin henderson #gaten matazarro #Eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things #st4 #strangerthings #will byers #strangerthings4 #stranger things 4 #stranger things spoilers

[night-eyes1]

#stranger things #my friendship with duffers are over #Ao3 fix-it fics are my best friend now #stranger things 4 #stranger things 4 vol 2 #steve harrington #eddie munson #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #byler #will byers #mileven #steddie #robin buckley #lucas sinclair #max hargrove #nancy wheeler #ronance

[withacapitalp]

I won’t wish to be yours (or for you to be mine)

Read it on ao3

Second Part

Eddie was never going to be able to stay. 

Logically, Steve understood that. He understood it, and he agreed. No matter what the government tried to spin, no matter what Hopper told them, the people of Hawkins thought Eddie was a murderer. A boy like Eddie had been guilty since the first day he arrived, and this was the inevitable conclusion. 

Still, there was knowing he was eventually going to leave, and then there was watching Eddie put the last boxes in his van and cling on tight to his uncle.

July 14th. Eddie had stayed ten days past 4th of July. Just long enough to make sure they were all going to be okay on the first anniversary. It was kind. It was thoughtful. 

It made Steve wish he knew how to hate him. 

“Okay, so as long as you stick to your timetable, you should get to Chicago by tonight. You have a reservation at this hotel already, so try to get there around check in time, okay? They even have parking in the back,” Nancy rattled off, handing Eddie a thick folder of papers. 

When Eddie had told the five of them he was leaving, she had launched into research mode. It was the way she coped, and it was productive. In just one month she had managed to put together a full dossier of the exact route Eddie had to take to get to New York, even found him a few garages outside of the city in towns where no one would have ever heard his name. 

“Thanks, Drew,” Eddie said with a grin, patting Wayne twice on the shoulder and dragging Nancy into a hug, “Actually, thanks to all of you. You guys have been super helpful.” 

They had been. Nancy planned, Jonathan had started putting together an album of all the pictures he had taken, Argyle began cultivating the perfect stash for Eddie to bring with him, and Robin made about a dozen mixtapes of ‘real music’ for him to listen to. 

Steve had grieved. 

He hadn’t done a damn thing to help or make this process easier. Robin had done her best to try and make things better, she always did, but it didn't help that she was also leaving in less than a month. All of them were. Off to colleges all across the country, while Steve stayed here all by himself. 

He was supposed to at least be able to keep Eddie. But Steve never really got to keep good things, so he should have expected this. 

He turned away from the rest so they wouldn’t see the scowl on his face, kicking at some of the weeds stubbornly poking out from the gravel outside of Wayne’s trailer. The kids had already come by to say their goodbyes, leaving before they had to watch Eddie go. They had offered for Steve to come with them, and he should have taken it. It had felt wrong at the moment to be the only teen to not be there to wish Eddie farewell, but now Steve felt like his world was collapsing, and he just wanted to go home. 

Never mind that his home was standing about 20 feet away from him, laughing with the rest of his friends. Never mind that his home was leaving for good, never to return, and Steve was probably never going to see him again. 

“Hey, easy on the flowers,” Eddie said with a laugh, pulling away from the rest. He squatted low, picking the dandelion and examining it, “Still looks good,” 

Steve hummed, unable to make words come. 

“Make a wish,” Eddie whispered, holding the fuzzy flower up to Steve’s lips. He took a sharp breath in, hating the way his chest felt like it was about to cave in. 

I wish the people in this town would fuck off so you didn’t have to go. 

I wish everything would just stay exactly as it is. 

I wish you would stay. 

I wish I wasn’t so selfish. 

I wish I knew how to tell you I love you. 

Because he did. Steve loved Eddie in a way he thought he was never going to be able to love again. He loved Eddie so much it hurt, and he had started to think that Eddie might even love him right back, but then it had all broken down. 

Now Eddie was going, and Steve had missed his chance. 

Steve banished all of those stupid greedy thoughts, pulling away just enough to blow out a heavy short gust, watching the seeds dance away, merrily floating across the trailer park, unaware they carried no wishes with them. 

“What’d you wish for?” Eddie asked. 

Steve let himself look at Eddie. Really, honestly, look. He memorized the wave of Eddie’s curls, and the long slow slope of his nose. Steve mentally sketched out the sharp jawline, and the way his eyes sparkled. He committed it all to a place in his brain where Eddie could stay young and beautiful forever. 

That was the Eddie Steve could love forever, that was the Eddie that would stay. 

He could let this one go. 

“That you’d be happy, wherever you’re going,” He whispered, pulling Eddie into a far too tight hug. He rested his chin on Eddie’s shoulder and closed his eyes, dragging in a long breath and savoring the smell of Eddie’s cheap, terrible, 2-in-1 shampoo conditioner. 

Eddie held him back just as tight, his forehead nestled in Steve’s neck. 

“I’m gonna call. Every day,” He promised, and Steve forced down the scoff that wanted to come up. 

That’s what everyone always said. I’ll call, I’ll write, we won’t lose touch. It never happened. His own parents hadn’t even managed to keep calling, why would Eddie be any different? 

No, Steve knew the truth. They would call every day for a while, maybe even multiple times a day. Then they would slowly go to every other day, then once a week, once a month, just on birthdays and special occasions. And, eventually, Eddie would forget his name, or Steve would only be fond memories that lived in high school yearbooks and yellowed old photo albums. 

Eddie would forget that he had maybe started to love Steve. 

It was going to happen with Eddie, then Robin, then Jonathan, then Argyle, and finally Nancy. It would happen with the kids when they finally went off on their own, and Joyce and Hopper when there were no more people tying them down to Hawkins. Everyone would leave, because that’s what people did. 

They would leave, and Steve would stay, and he needed to learn how to be okay with that. He needed to figure out how to get over losing people. 

And he needed to be alone to learn how to do that. 

“Does that sound good, Stevie?” 

Oh. Right. Eddie was expecting a response. 

“Yeah. You better. I’ll be waiting by the phone,” Steve said, hating how much that was going to be true. Eddie laughed like it was a joke, but it was the god honest truth. Steve would wait by the phone every single day, and one day the phone wouldn’t ring again. 

He swallowed down the bitterness that was rising, untangling himself from Eddie’s arms and interlocking their fingers. This was the last time he was going to hold this hand, the last time he was going to feel those rings. He needed to savor it. 

They walked back to the others as one single unit. There was another round of hugs, a few well hidden tears, and then Eddie was getting into his van. For the first time there was an air of nervousness, and he glanced around the group, his eyes landing on Steve and staying there. 

Eddie wanted reassurance. He needed a patented Steve Pep Talk, a few words to tell him that he was making the right decision. 

Well, he was making the right decision for him, but Steve couldn’t do it. He couldn’t tell Eddie it was okay to go. His heart was already breaking in two as it was, giving Eddie the last push he needed would shatter it completely. 

Then Robin’s hand was sneaking into his, and she was giving him a look, and Steve couldn’t be selfish anymore. 

“Don’t forget us when you get big and famous,” Steve said with a wave, all of them pretending his voice hadn’t cracked even a bit. Eddie gave him a beaming smile and a two fingered salute, starting up the van with the usual roar. He carefully backed out of the drive, leaving the trailer park with an obnoxiously long beep of his horn and a waving hand. 

And he was gone. 

He was actually gone. 

Steve didn’t bother to stick around and chat with the rest. He had given the last bit of his care away to Eddie, and now he just wanted to curl up in his bed. Steve had to learn to live with this pain, and the sooner he started, the better. 

Robin followed him without words, and he loved her for it. They had already discussed their plans. They were going to get rip roaring drunk, and Steve was going to have a good long cry, and then they would eat ice cream. It wasn’t enough, but it was better than being by himself before he had to be. 

“I’m sorry,” Robin said softly as they got into his Beemer. 

“Don’t be. He’ll be okay.” Steve replied automatically, starting the car and pulling out, going the same way as Eddie. A wild crazy part of him almost wanted to speed to catch up, cut Eddie off, tell him not to go. 

Steve kept the car below 30, barely crawling on a street he normally flew down. 

“He will be,” Robin said carefully. The unspoken ‘I’m worried you won’t be’ sat between them, heavy and oh so painful. 

“I will be,” Steve said stubbornly, ignoring the look Robin gave him. He put the radio on so they didn’t have to talk anymore, hating himself for wishing that he had wished for Eddie to stay. 

#Steve harrington #Eddie munson #steddie #Steddie drabble #steddie ficlet #robin buckley #stobin friendship #platonic stobin #platonic soulmates steve and robin #Nancy wheeler #Jonathan byers #argyle stranger things #platonic edancy #I PROMISE IM GONNA FIX IT #Mack knows how #but till then #Everyone go listen to 11:11 by Ben Barnes #Liam speaks up #Writing(withacapitalW)

[biboomerangboi]

Eddie and Argyle trying to get the full story of the Upside Down after everything cools down and pulling the teens into a room and it just devolves into them both pulling out notepads and asking questions about all the cryptids they thought were real over the years. Like it’s just:

“Are aliens real?”

“What about Bigfoot? Nancy Wheeler have you shot Bigfoot?”

“Jonathan man I can’t believe you broke up with a girl that shot Bigfoot!”

#stranger things #the spicy six #eddie munson #argyle #I’m obsessed with thier friendship honestly #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #steve harrington #robin buckley

[hersterical]

Under what circumstances would Steve choose to save Dustin over Robin?

Under what circumstances would Steve choose to save Robin over Dustin?

If Steve asks Robin to save someone else over him, would she listen?

If Steve asks Dustin to save someone else over him, would Dustin listen? (post season 4 because pre-season 4 Dustin subconsciously views Steve as invincible, but after Eddie…)

How would Erica and Dustin remember them if Steve and/or Robin dies?

How would Will react to Robin dying after they come out to each other and bond in that way?

This is not an extensive list of my questions. If anyone has any thoughts I’d love to hear them

#stranger things #stranger things 5 #robin buckley #steve harrington #dustin henderson #erica sinclair #will byers #platonic stobin #stobin #will and robin friendship #scoops troop

[findafight]

I want more stobin (platonic obv) and jargyle (romantic) bestieness. Just two duos who GET each other. Robin and Argyle is such a slept on potential dynamic they would absolutely share conspiracy theories while they, themselves, are in a giant conspiracy and have possibly killed a man. Get along like a house on fire.

Jonathan and Steve friendship is actually so important to me Jon deserves a big tight hug from Steve as they introduce their soulmates to each other and fill each other in on Their Children. Steve is fully "Jonathan and I are such good friends I've missed him so much I'm so happy to see him! Jonathan!!! My buddy!!!" While Jonathan is like "oh! I didn't realize Steve thought of me as a friend even tho he called every week to talk to me separately from will and El. I missed him :)"

Steve, admittedly, has no idea what Argyle is saying half the time (or anyone else. Audio processing disord Steve my beloved...) but he has a nice voice and let's Steve play with his hair and talk about sports and gush about Robin. Argyle gushes about Jon and gets Steve to tell him about him when they were younger and also if the wheeler kid was always such a moody prick (the answer is no even if he was a little twerp he was never this bad!) Steve and Argyle Plot Against Mike together as bonding activity and Jon and Robin begin to possibly regret introducing them (Robin joins the Plotting. Jon requses himself bc he feels bad even if he's mad at Mike bc both his baby sibs like him.)

At first Robin and Jon sorta stand awkwardly together because they know OF each other but don't really know each other and it's kinda awkward. Jon is not one to take initiative in relationships often, and Robin stopped masking around Steve and therefore Steve's friends and sidekicks, so she is like...uh....the sky. It's. Nice. You ever heard a song about the sky? You like music right? There's probably songs about the sky, especially in California. And Jon is like ohhhhh. Oh I see. I am not the Only Nervous One Here.

And everyone assumes Robin and Steve are dating while Jon and Argyle are Such Great Friends even though they have similar closeness and they all get a kick out of it. Especially when it's clear Jon and Argyle are all ruffled from Totally Not Making Out and stobin are giving them matching Looks.

Anyway more stobin/jargyle friendship!! I think it'd be fun.

#jargyle #stobin #argyle stranger things #jonathan byers #robin buckley #steve harrington #platonic stobin #stranger things #finda's rambles #finda writes stuff #stobjargyle #horrible portmanteau friendship name lmao #the Looks stobin gives jargyle are matching 'we know what you did congrats dont do it infront of us please' looks

[swanqueenelmaxshadowhunters]

elmax/ronance au where Max works at the summer camp and El goes there with her friends (it's her first time there, but the boys go every year and Max and Mike don't get along like in the show and it just intensifies when Max meets Mike's girlfriend, not that she will do anything about it tho)

Robin, Steve and Eddie have also worked there for some time and know the boys well.

Nancy volunteers every year to help the monitors because she knows they are becoming fewer and fewer people (she swears it has nothing to do with Robin, but we know that's a lie)

Max can't stand watching Nancy and Robin dance around each other any longer and decides to give them a little push. Dustin, Lucas and El decide to help and this brings Max and El closer than they could have imagined, making El realize that there is more to life than stupid boys.

I would write, but I honestly don't have the time or energy for that right now, so if anyone wants to use this plot, feel free.

I would love to read this as long as elmax remains the main couple, followed by ronance because god knows we don't have enough fanfics with elmax as the main couple

#elmax #ronance #eleven hopper #max mayfield #max x eleven #eleven and max #jane hopper #el hopper byers #mad max #eleven #mike wheeler #will byers #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #lucas and eleven friendship #background byler maybe #byler

[audhd-nightwing]

more punk!steve and baby punk el bc i just love them

- steve buys el her first battle vest and him and will help her decorate it with pins and patches

- steve has a bunch of piercings and occasionally dyes his hair bright colors (his favorite is red)

- steve pierces el’s ears for her, and ends up piercing one of will’s too

- when he meets max he also subtly converts her to punk culture (not that it’s very hard) and buys her stickers for her favorite bands and punk symbols for her skateboard

- he makes a mixtape for max to listen to and she refuses to admit it but it’s her favorite gift she’s ever gotten

- el will and max end up becoming a trio of little punks and steve is so proud

- they sit together and listen to The Clash, Ramones, etc. and paint their nails (mainly black but el likes to use all the colors)

- jonathan likes punk rock and punk ideals but he doesn’t really delve into the fashion / culture part so he and steve usually just sit together and smoke and listen to music when they hang out

#stranger things #steve harrington #punk steve au #punk steve harrington #punk el hopper #el hopper #will byers #willel siblings #max mayfield #wonder twins #jonathan byers #stonathan friendship #steve and jonathan #punk max mayfield #punk will byers #baby punk el hopper

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Closure

"We like Steve, but we don't love Steve," Murray said mockingly.

A wave of fury rose up in Nancy. What business is it of his? Steve has been there for her more than anyone. He didn't have to go to the dinners with her but he did, every single one of them. He walked back into the house and fought the demogorgon when he didn't have to. He could have run. He was there for her, and she was just going to let this asshole mock him? No.

"I don't think it's any of your business," Nancy snapped. "And I love Steve. Maybe not in the way that he loves me, but I love him."

"Okay, okay," Murray said, holding up his hands defensively. "Sensitive, very sensitive."

Later that night, she lay in bed thinking about Steve and Jonathan. She also thought about Barb. She should feel victorious, but there was a guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach. She thought about the gate, how it was still open, and spreading into Hawkins. They weren't the same scientists, not the ones that killed Barb, and they were trying to stop the spread, but they were failing. . . They were only keeping it at bay momentarily. What if what she did puts them at risk because all she could see was getting justice for Barb? What if it swallows the entire town? What if it kills Holly? Or her mom and Dad? Or Mike? Oh, god, what did she do? What if the lab shuts down, and they can't stop it? Will was still getting treated by the doctors when no one else could possibly help, and she dragged his brother into this. Nancy rolled out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, emptying the contents of her stomach into the porcelain bowl. Jonathan popped his head into the bathroom.

"Nancy?" He asked as he knelt next to her.

"We fucked up. We shouldn't have done this. It's still open, Jonathan," Nancy said. "I didn't think about it when I saw it, and why didn't I? Why wasn't that enough for me to wake up? I was so angry. I was just so angry."

"Nancy - " Jonathan started to say.

"It's too late. I don't think I could get that creep to turn over anything now," Nancy sniffled. "God, it was so weird that he was pushing us together like that."

"Well, I mean, the idea of us isn't totally crazy, is it?" Jonathan asked.

"Jonathan. . .I'm still with Steve. . .and while I do have feelings for you, I don't think it would be a good idea. I'm still dealing with Barbara, and I could really use a friend, and I know that's not what you want to hear. I need friends to talk to. . . like you. . .like Steve. I don't think I can handle a relationship right now, not with either of you," Nancy sighed. "And I think that if you pulled your head out of your ass, you and Steve could be great friends too."

"Nance, he said some awful things - " Jonathan started to stay.

"Yeah, he apologized for those," Nancy snapped. "And you nearly killed him for it, so I think you're even."

"He's a douchebag," Jonathan scoffed.

"And you aren't? Need I remind you that you took those photos of me," she said. "And I just put everyone at risk! None of us are perfect, but do I really have to remind you that Steve put his life on the line for both of us? I could really use both of you. . . I can't lose anyone else. Can't you at least try?"

"Nancy. . . "

"Come on, you both like to cook!" Nancy said.

"He cooks? He doesn't have people do that for him?" Jonathan asked with a scoff of disbelief.

"His parents leave him alone all the time. He kind of had to fend for himself, kind of like you did, except your mom actually gives a shit," Nancy said and then paused. "Don't tell him I told you that."

"Damn it," Jonathan muttered and sighed. "Fine. I'll give the guy a chance."

"Thank you," Nancy said softly.

"I never actually apologized for taking those photos. It doesn't matter why I took those photos, I still took them, and I shouldn't have," Jonathan said. "I'm sorry, and I'm not taking it back this time. I actually mean it. Not only did I invade your privacy, but I also abused my skills as a photographer."

"Thank you for saying that," Nancy said softly. "And thank you for meaning it. There's a part of me that's always going to be a little weirded out by it, which is another reason why we shouldn't be together, but I want you to know that I do forgive you."

Nancy and Jonathan stayed on the floor in silent contemplation.

"You know, I don't think I'm ready for a relationship either," Jonathan said.

"Yeah," Nancy said softly.

There was another long moment of silence between them.

"You know, you would make a better journalist than that guy," Jonathan said.

"Yeah?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah."

When they got back to Hawkins, things had gone to shit. Will was now possessed by what the kids are calling the Mind Flayer, Steve’s like their guardian now, and El was alive, getting ready to close the gate with Hopper. Meanwhile, Steve and Nancy were looking through the heaters out on the lawn to use to get the Mind Flayer out of Will.

"You should go with him," Steve said.

"What?" Nancy asked.

"With Jonathan," Steve said.

"No, I'm not just going to leave Mike," Nancy scoffed.

"No one's leaving anyone. I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend . . . But I'm a damn good babysitter," Steve said.

"Steve. . . "

"It's okay, Nance. It's okay," Steve said softly, and her eyes filled with tears.

"You were not a shitty boyfriend! You were the best first boyfriend I could have asked for, and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you were. I was drowning and . . . You helped. You were there. After this we'll talk properly, okay?" Nancy sniffled and hugged Steve tightly. "Just want you to know that nothing happened with Jonathan. We're just friends. I don't want to lose either of you from my life, okay? Promise?"

"I promise," Steve said.

After freeing Will from the Mind Flayer, they met up with Hop in front of Jonathan's house. Hop was pulling El out of the car when they approached. Nancy opened the front door for him, following him into the house. When they walked in, they found the kids arguing with Steve over a knocked out Billy Hargrove. Steve’s face was bloody and beaten.

"I say we bury him outside with the other demodogs," Mike scowled.

"Mike! He is a person, and he's still alive!" Steve yelled. "He's also Max's brother."

"Stepbrother!" Max corrected.

"He slammed Lucas into a wall!" Mike screeched.

"He did what?!" Joyce asked, appalled.

"What the hell is going on here?" Hopper asked as he set El on the couch.

The kids started talking at once until Steve whistled, hollered, and clapped his hands.

"Hey, shitheads! Let me do the talking," Steve replied, putting his hands on his hips.

"You really are a good babysitter," Nancy grinned.

"More like a mom," Jonathan whispered loudly, and Nancy snickered.

"He's my stepbrother," Max spoke up. "He came looking for me. He didn't want me to hang out with Lucas, and so he attacked him. Steve stepped in to help, but Billy nearly killed him, so I used the ketamine to knock him out."

"I mean, I don't think he would have killed me," Steve frowned.

"You were unconscious, and he was still beating on you," Lucas said.

"You didn't see the look on his face!" Dustin exclaimed, his face pale. "He enjoyed it!"

"Okay. I need to deal with Hargrove, but first, I need to take you to the hospital," Hopper sighed.

"I'm fine," Steve said.

"Fine?! Fine?! He smashed a plate over your head, Steve!" Dustin exclaimed.

"What?!" Nancy, Jonathan, and Joyce exclaimed.

"Uh, I'll take Steve to the hospital, and you can deal with Hargrove if it makes it easier, Hop," Jonathan said, and Hopper nodded.

"I'll go with you," Nancy said.

"I'll go too!" Dustin and Lucas exclaimed.

"We're going to need to take Will to the hospital, anyway," Joyce said.

"I'm fine," Will said.

"Is there an echo in here?" Joyce scowled. "Max and Mike, you can ride with us."

"Yeah, we can go to the hospital," Will said.

Nancy practically pushed Steve into the passenger's seat before he could protest and climbed into the back seat with the two boys.

"Hey, Steve?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks, man," Lucas said softly.

"Anytime," Steve said with a grin.

Lucas lunged forward and hugged Steve from behind before plopping back down into his seat.

"Aww," Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin said in unison.

"Oh my God! Shut up and drive!" Lucas exclaimed.

After Steve was admitted into the hospital as the doctors wanted to keep him overnight for observation, Jonathan went to check in on Will. On the way out of Steve’s room, he pulled Dustin and Lucas out of the room, leaving Nancy alone with Steve.

"You know, I have a hard time putting into words how I feel about someone. Steve, you're an important part of my life, and I want you to continue to be a part of it. I do love you, Steve, but not in the way that you want me to. I'm sorry I couldn't say that before, and I'm sorry that I hurt you. Don't say that I didn't because I did, Steve. You were there for me when not a lot of people were and you went to every dinner when you didn't have to. You held me as I cried, and you listened to me talk about Barb. I think if Barb hadn't died that night, I think I would have fallen head over heels for you, but too much has happened, and I don't know how to forget," Nancy said, crying.

"I don't think you ever forget. I think you just put one foot in front of the other and I think you'll find that it is easier to walk even with all the weight that you carry. You just get stronger," Steve shrugged and paused. "I don't want to lose you either."

"You're pretty smart, you know that? Why don't you bring it out more often?" Nancy asked.

"Some people just like me for my pretty face," Steve tried to joke.

"You're beautiful inside and out, Steve Harrington," Nancy said.

"Back at you," Steve smiled, sniffling. "I love you."

"I love you too," Nancy smiled and hugged him tightly.

Jonathan tentatively knocked on the door and popped his head in. His shoulders were a little tense.

"Can I come in?" He asked.

"Yeah," Nancy said.

"I just want to say, Steve, that it was pretty cool what you did. Those guys mean a lot to Will, and he's very grateful to you. So am I," Jonathan said.

"Thanks, man," Steve said, and then he grinned. "I guess you heard that I'm single now. Do you want a piece of this action? I have to say I'm still very fragile."

"Fuck off, man," Jonathan laughed, his shoulders relaxing. "I don't do jocks."

Nancy giggled, looking gratefully at Jonathan. It was a good start for all of them. A very good start.

#stranger things #stranger things s2 #nancy wheeler #steve harrington #steve x nancy #stancy #steve & nancy #platonic stancy #jonathan byers #jonathan x nancy #jancy #jonathan & nancy #platonic jancy #steve & jonathan #platonic stonathan #steve & nancy & jonathan friendship #they all get closure #nancy tells murrary off #steve is a good man who's always been there for nancy #whether you think they're romantic or not you have to acknowledge that steve was there for her #i fixed it #nancy needs friends so do jonathan and steve

[love-starfruit]

my favorite eddie munson headcanon is that he takes will under his wing and becomes his gay mentor. imagine eddie “the freak” munson telling will byers that mike is so not worth his time and will replies “try to get over steve then. yeah i thought so” 

#eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie #gay #mlm #friendship #stranger things #stranger things s4 #will byers #mike wheeler #byler #queer

[rottenaero]

And also, the reasons behind each pairing

1.Steve, Max, and Will-

C’mon, have you SEEN the SASS? I guess one could argue Dustin should also be here, but his sass™️ is reserved for his brothers. Also, imagine the gossip sessions, like Will ranting about anything and Max and Steve absolutely cheering him on because he is 100% in the right.

2.Eddie, Robin, and Will-

Queer in a small town, Barb could also probably be in this group. They all bash each-other’s crushes until Robin wants to date Nancy, and Eddie starts liking Steve. Will would absolutely still be trashed for his crush on Mike. Robin would still bash on Eddie like have you seen that man? He’ll watch the same movie on repeat until he has to being it back.

Eddie just sighs and is like, I know, he’s great.

3.Nancy, Chrissy,Barb, and Robin-

Barb and Chrissy absolutely needed more screentime!! They were both so aghhh<33 They all kinda band together to do sleepovers and stuff, sometimes El and Max are invited when they aren’t doing their own thing. I just really like the characters.

4.Steve and Gareth-

Okay guys, have you seen that Steve and Gareth cousin au??(Someone please tell me the creator so I can credit them) Steve having another extravagant handshake for Gareth and Gareth always gushing about his cool older cousin to hellfire who is just like uh-huh sure Gareth.

I know theres the idea that Gareth would despise Steve, but also Gareth inviting Steve to hellfire after he got dethroned because Steve was there for his tough times so why can’t he be there for his?

5.Holly, Erica, and Steve-

Lets take babysitter!Steve to the MAX. All the parent call him when their younger kids need to be watched, he watches Holly for the Wheelers all the time to the point where he’s her brother, and she pretends to forget Mike’s name for like a week.

Erica insists only Steve can watch her, because he’s the only one who lets her watch My Little Pony without judging her or treating her like a baby, also because he starts getting into the show. Sometimes Tina and the rest of Erica’s friends come over and rope him into letting them paint his nails. Random days Steve will show up to Erica’s school with some McDonalds for her.

6.Murray and Alexei-

Self-explanatory because c’mon, really?

7.Steve, Will, and El-

Steve ADORES the Byers siblings, they say thank you when he does stuff for them, they are usually never the source of trouble when they go out.

Sometimes Will will just be so nice that it makes Steve feel bad for what he told Jonathan in s1 before their fight, because nobody in the Byers family is a screw-up except Lonnie, who was just a giant douche and a terrible father.

The only thing Steve dislikes about them is their respective crushes on Mike, because are you serious? He’s well on his way to becoming the next town Keith.

8.El and Max-

Also pretty self explanatory, El needs a better role model than Mike, and Max being overwhelmingly confident in every decision helps. Max also tries to make sure El doesn’t push herself to hard. Oh your head hurts? Lets get you some juice, we have this new flavor you’d like. You don’t feel good? Lets take a break. You scrapped your knee? I have a first aid kit somewhere…

Etc etc, Max just always making sure El feels comfortable.

#I NEED more will max and steve friendship ficlets/fics #try to guess who my favorite character is from this #or characters #just guess #stranger things #steve harrington #will byers #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #steddie #ronance #byler #barbara holland #chrissy cunningham #max mayfield #murray bauman #el hopper #jane hopper #erica sinclair #alexei #eddie munson #st4 #st1 #st2 #st3 #stranger things polls #love these dorks #crisisinverted17

[musicalchaos07]

Lamently (a year later) that Steve pining over a lost friendship with Nancy & Jonathan would've been so much better than St*ncy

#anything is better than St*ncy #but like y'all know what I mean #Steve who's upset over Eddie & Dustin being close #and Steve who's jealous that Robin has bonded with Nancy #and Steve in s5 who's EXTREMELY jealous that this “random” stoner has gotten Jonathan to open up to him and call him his friends #Steve who popularity has always come easy to struggling with friendships #and not understanding why he Jonathan and Nancy aren't as close as they SHOULD be #THEY TRULY DO NOT UTILIZE 19 YEAR OLD PEAKED IN HS MINIMUM WAGE NOTHING NEW STEVE AS MUCH AS THEY SHOULD #stranger things #Stoncy #steve harrington #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #anti stancy