Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jonathan Byers trekked up through the forest, being careful where he stepped. The trainers he brought had been for California weather, not the forests of Hawkins, Indiana. But he’d made do, putting on blue jeans, a white -shirt and a light blue denim jacket to venture into the woods that morning.

The early light of the sun trickled down through the tall trees around him. It was silent around him; The birds that once chittered brightly as the day began had smartly flown away from the nearby evil, leaving only the rustle of leaves in the wind as the sound of the forest now.

It had been five days since he had returned to Hawkins to find that the Upside Down had invaded their world. The government were quick to put up a militarized quarantine around Hawkins to try and suppress the spread of Vecna’s darkness.

As far as their motley crew were concerned, none of them were willing to leave and start living regular lives when they knew exactly what was going on. So they found places to stay outside the perimeter of Hawkins and began to prepare for the inevitable fight with Vecna that they would eventually have.

Jonathan had waited months to reunite with the girl he loved. And while being able to hold her in his arms and kiss her had made him the happiest he’d been in a whole year, the moment had soon been overshadowed by the threat of Vecna’s return. Not to mention what had transpired between him and Nancy yesterday.

But today Jonathan wasn’t out on some special mission to catch a monster, uncover a conspiracy or rescue someone in need. He was just looking to have a much needed talk with Steve Harrington.

He found him in a small clearing ahead, where big trees with bright leaves of green and orange stood high above a pair of rocks - on top of which rested a small crate of beers. To the side, the log of a fallen tree had several empty bottles on it, being knocked off by the swing of a baseball bat every so often. Jonathan easily recognised the young man doing so by his dark slicked back hair, tall frame and gray jacket covering a blue t shirt as King Steve himself.

“Hey, man.” Jonathan called out to the jock turned monster hunter.

Steve turned around at the sound of his voice, his eyes glinting recognition when he saw Jonathan’s face. Jonathan gave him a small friendly wave (at least he hoped it was friendly) and began to approach

His apprehension was understandable. When all this supernatural shit began, Jonathan had been the school weirdo and Steve one his many bullies. Although they had long since past the point of being enemies, reaching some form of ‘Armistice’ several years ago, they had never exactly been friends either. After Jonathan began dating Nancy they had settled into a weird form of acquaintance where they would talk on occasion, but not regularly, and not at all after his family moved.

But now Jonathan was back. And the Upside Down had been set loose into their world. Things were hardly the same as they once were.

“Byers. How’s it going?” Steve greeted him anyway, tossing his bat to the side.

“Good.” Jonathan stuck his hands in his pockets, not knowing what else to do with them. “You know it’s crazy that we haven’t really spoken at all since we got here.”

“We’ve both been a little busy. What with the world ending.” Steve remarked with a little smile. Jonathan let out a small chuckle at that. It was a relief to see his humor had also survived Upside Down.

“Letting off some steam?” He asked, gesturing towards the empty bottles.

“The beers are for Eddie. I’m pouring them out for him.” Steve looked at them sadly. Jonathan had heard of the death of the metalhead. He hadn’t known Eddie well, but he had been one of the kids who never was mean to him. Hearing that he had been killed was hard news for everyone.

“I’m sorry, He was a real hero.” Jonathan consoled Steve, who nodded absently. Him and Dustin had gotten to know Eddie better than most, so it wasn’t surprising that his sacrifice had a hard impact.

“How was California?” Steve asked suddenly.

“Hot.” Jonathan joked, making Steve smile as well at the terrible joke. After Eddie’s death, the emergence of the new threat they faced and Jonathan’s own personal issues, it seemed they both were looking for something to feel good about. Maybe that was why Steve was out in the woods smashing bottles.

Jonathan stepped closer to Steve and swept his dusky brown hair out of his face to so he could talk to him better.

“I wanted to thank you. For saving Nancy’s life.” He told the Steve sincerely. “You protected her, when I wasn’t here. When I couldn’t do anything. I can never repay you for that.”

Steve seemed shocked at the gratitude in Jonathan’s voice and eyes. Not only did the two of them rarely ever speak beyond small talk but most of their conversations tended to be about monsters and alternate worlds. Something as earnest as a ‘thank you’ was definitely new to them.

“It’s cool.” Steve finally nodded politely. A bemused smile crept back onto his face. “Anyway, she probably would have found a way to shoot her way to safety even if I wasn’t there.”

“She's a total badass.” Jonathan grinned at that. He’d heard the stories of her fighting Vecna and couldn’t help but be awed by how courageous she was time and time again. “But thank you anyway.”

“Anytime.” Steve nodded.

An awkward silence arose between them. Steve looked at his feet with pursed lips while Jonathan willed scratched the back of his head. He wasn’t looking forward to what he was about to say, but he knew they had to talk about the elephant in the room between the two boys. So he looked Steve dead in the eye, and took a deep breathe before he began what was certain to be an uncomfortable conversation.

“She also told me about what you said to her.” Jonathan said, his expression becoming more serious. They both knew what he was talking about.

Steve’s eyes widened slowly, and he reached a hand up to scratch his chin uncomfortably. “Did she?”

“I am her boyfriend.” Jonathan replied.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Steve’s awkward laugh at that did nothing to ease the tension that had arisen between them.

“I mean, I get it. She’s impossible not to love. And I remember how I felt when she was with you.” Jonathan said. It seemed the three of them were forever going in circles where one of them was with Nancy, leaving the other to pine after her from afar.

“So are we cool?” Steve asked tentatively.

Jonathan turned around to look at Steve incredulously. Was he serious?

“Are you kidding? Of course not! After all the stuff you said to her?” Jonathan protested. Steve had told Nancy that he was in love with her, and that he had envisioned their entire future. A future with 6 children! That was a huge invasion into their relationship. Yes, he was angry about it.

“You just said you got it!” Steve objected with surprise in his eyes. He had no idea Jonathan could be this annoyed or angry - at least not since their fight several years.

“I’m still pissed, you would be too! Confessing your love to her and talking about how you’ve imagined their future kinda feels like you were trying to sabotage our relationship.” Jonathan glared accusingly, once again pushing his hair out of his eyes. This time he did so with more frustration.

“Listen, we were dealing with some insane stuff here while you guys were on a road trip in California. We almost died a bunch of times! I wouldn’t have told her how I felt if I hadn’t thought there was a pretty big chance we weren’t going to make it back alive.” Steve explained with frustration,

Jonathan tried to calm down, looking away for a moment so he could collect himself.

“Steve, I’m not trying to be a dick! I know you went through some fucked up shit here, and I’m really happy you and Nancy are okay. But that doesn’t mean I’m just going to be cool with you telling her you’re elaborate vision of her future!”

Steve swallowed and looked at Jonathan with a firm gaze. “I’m not going to apologize for that, Jonathan.”

“And then there’s Robin being your wingman. She doesn’t even know me and yet she’s trying to break me and Nancy up for you to swoop in and get back with her?” Jonathan asked with annoyance, not wasting any time before airing his grievances.

Neither he nor Robin ever had a problem with one another, and Nancy had told him that she had been a good friend. Honestly, he thought she could be a big help to Will right now. But he he had no idea why she had been encouraging Nancy to give Steve another chance and It honestly hurt that she had been doing that behind his back. What gave her the right to do that?

“I didn’t tell her to speak to Nancy!” Steve protested, but Jonathan was pissed off. There was no stopping their fight now.

“No, you’re just the guy who was trying to get with my girlfriend while I was stuck in California!”

“I didn’t make you guys move to California. That was your choice.”

“That is not fair. You think I wanted to move? You think I didn’t beg my mom to stay? But I had to! For them!”

“And that’s your problem Byers! You’re putting other people other ahead of Nancy, when you should be more committed to her than anything else. You should have been here.”

Jonathan’s felt his face convulse and his fists clench. All of a sudden he was back at Hawkins High, being pushed around by popular jocks like Steve who called him ‘queer’ and ‘poor kid’ as they laughed at him for his old clothes and quiet behaviour. Steve had changed yeah, but so had Jonathan - he had long since learned to stand up for himself.

“You think that’s how it was?! You don’t know shit about my life! You never have!” He furiously jabbed a finger at the other guy, who threw his hands up in exasperation.

“You were gone for the whole year, and we were here in Hawkins. And then you chose to stay in Cali over spring break.” Steve accused him. Each word pierced Jonathan’s heart. “Why would you do that? Do you even still love her?”

Jonathan saw red. His body tensed and he clenched his fists. He didn’t hate Steve, never had, but telling him that he didn’t love the girl of his dreams made him want to hate Steve more than ever before.

“Of course I love her!” More than anything!” He yelled at Steve, his voice and temper rising. “I’ve tried so hard to be there for her this past year, no matter how hard it’s gotten for the both of us”

“I have been doing a long-distance relationship with the one person who makes me whole for a long time, and it has been a big fucking challenge. Each time I called her, or wrote to her or even thought about her, I had no idea if this was the day she realized that I wasn’t worth it, and she could have any other guy in the world better than me. And that’s without the monsters, and Russians, and government super children constantly trying to murder us all.”

“I was trying to protect her from a life that she never wanted. From being trapped by the thought she would have to be someone’s partner and housewife. Especially someone like me with no money and no prospects!”

As he ranted, he paced around in place furiously as the emotions he had suppressed inside for so long manifested themselves in his movement. He had spent every day in California pushing them down. Now in Hawkins, they had burst through. Eventually he turned back and stared at Steve with steely determination.

“But that has never changed how I felt about her.”

Steve sighed, his expression turning from stubbornness to acceptance. Like he understood how Jonathan felt.

“Okay, I’ll admit that it was inconsiderate of me. I wasn’t thinking about your relationshi-”

“I don’t care if you apologize or not, I just want to be angry with someone!” Jonathan interrupted forcefully. He was squeezing his fists at his side so hard he was losing feeling in his fingers.

His blood was up, his anger was flaring. There was no pot to calm him down, no Nancy to comfort him, no Will to make him think of somebody before himself. All his frustration and fear was bubbling to the surface, ready to explode.

“About what?!” Steve asked him in confusion.

“About everything! GAH!” Jonathan shouted, louder than he’d been in god knows how long.

He spun around to the side, snatched up an empty bottle off the log and threw it as hard as he could at the closest tree he could see with a yell of rage. The glass shattered and Jonathan turned back to Steve with a frenzied look.

“Because I’m fucking tired of sitting on the side-lines and being a complete loser when everyone else is fighting monsters and-and saving each other! My mom is going off on crazy trips to Russia to rescue Hopper, and Will is suffering all the time, and I’m doing nothing about it to help anyone! I’m tired of being useless all the goddamn time!“ Jonathan was almost screaming now. He grabbed a second beer and sent it flying into another tree. He needed to break something. Anything.

“But most of all, I’m angry that the girl I love was in danger, fighting for her life against a fucking monster while I was smoking weed and screwing around with stupid coordinates because I was too much of a fucking idiot to come back to Hawkins for spring break because I’m terrified that I’m not good enough for her!”

There were no other bottles left, so he grabbed his head in his hands, pushing his hair back up his face, and yelled anyway.

“And I’m angry that I’m angry, and I have to hide it or I’ll take it out on someone who doesn’t deserve it like you!”

And then he was done.

Jonathan panted, trying to regain his breath after his outpouring of anger. The switch was off, and he gradually cooled down, dropping his hands back to his sides. Steve just stood ahead of him, a patient expression on his face. Jonathan immediately felt guilty for his behavior, taking out his personal issues on Steve; someone who hadn’t really done anything wrong.

“I’m sorry.” He apologized quietly. All the rage he had built inside was gone.

Steve nodded sympathetically. “Me too.”

For a few seconds, they just stood silently across from one another. Each occupied with their own thoughts. In that moment, they both understood the other person better than ever before.

“Do you want a beer?” Steve asked out of nowhere, gesturing to the crate besides him.

Jonathan looked back at Steve for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. He could really use one right now. “Yeah okay.”

Steve turned to walk towards the beers, with Jonathan quickly following. A thought crossed his mind as he walked towards Steve.

“Make it two. So I can pour one out for Eddie.” He corrected himself. It was the least Eddie deserved.

When Steve handed him two beers, he immediately emptied the contents of one on the ground with a sad smile - hoping that wherever Eddie was, he was rocking as hard as he did in life.

----

“What’s going on with you and Nancy?” Steve asked him curiously.

The two of them were sat side by side on top of a rock, each drinking from a bottle of beer. They’d removed their jackets, settling for just t-shirts as the morning frost wore off, and were staring out deep into the forest - directly towards the deep red tint emanating from Hawkins. As much as they wanted to look away, they couldn’t.

Jonathan sighed. The memories of the day before flashed back into his mind. As much as it hurt to relive, Steve deserved to hear the story. Especially after the way Jonathan had just yelled at him.

“I was meant to go with Nancy to Emerson next year, but then I got scared about leaving my Mom and Will and bringing home a load of debt. I didn’t tell her that I also sent an application to Lenora community college, and I was seriously thinking about accepting it.” He looked down and swilled his beer around in the bottle morosely.

“I told her about it yesterday.”

The sound of her shocked and angry voice echoed in his mind. He could see her, asking him ‘Why?’ over and over again. Like a nightmare that would he couldn’t wake up from.

“So we had a fight. She got mad, and upset, and I guess I did too. Now she thinks I want to break up with her.” Jonathan brought the beer up and took several gulps, trying to dispel the sight of Nancy storming away in tears out of his mind.

“Do you?” Steve prodded him.

“Of course not! I don’t know what I was thinking back in California. It all seems so stupid.” Jonathan half-heartedly brought a hand down to punch the rock below him. “But now I’m here, I can see how much it really hurts her. ”

“That bad, huh.” Steve drunk his own beer, listening to Jonathan and letting him vent. It felt nice, to tell someone about his problems. Even if the act of doing so was making his heart ache and his eyes begin to water.

“It was the way she looked at me. She looked betrayed. Heartbroken. I hate myself for making her feel that way.” Jonathan confessed, swallowing down his sadness when his voiced almost cracked at the end there.

He felt like a piece of shit, and welcomed that self-hatred. For what he had done to Nancy, he deserved it.

He hadn’t seen her since the fight and could only imagine how she was feeling. He hoped his Mom had managed to check in on her that evening, since she had heard about the fight an hour after it happened and proceeded to admonish him for his stupidity in front of Will, Hopper and Eleven before leaving to go find Nancy.

To be reunited with her only to be cut off from her again was agony. And it was all his own fault.

“Damn. You really must have pissed her off.” Steve’s voice rang out cutting him off from his brooding.

“I just want to tell her that I’m sorry. That I love her. And that I would go wherever in the world with her if she asked me. Just as long as we were together.” Jonathan said quietly. He squeezed his eyes shut and thought about Nancy. And how much he wished he could comfort her instead of causing her pain.

“You probably should do that.” Once again, Steve’s words and knowing tone interrupted his thoughts. But instead of pissing him off, it made him chuckle instead at their situation.

“Stellar advice, Harrington. Thank you for that.” Jonathan told him sarcastically.

“Happy to help.” Steve shot back to lighten the mood.

The two raised their bottles together to clink them gently, each taking a swig of beer afterwards and gazed out in the woods. 5 minutes go they had been shouting at one another, and now they were sharing a drink

It was nice.

And much needed after his sleepless night of hating himself and trying to figure out a way he could make everything okay with Nancy.

“Are we friends, Jonathan?” Steve tilted his head to look him.

Jonathan thought to himself for a moment. He had asked himself that before several times, and never really knew for sure. Maybe it wasn’t simply of question of what they had been, but what they could be now.

“I think so.” He eventually settled on. “What about you?”

“We’re sitting here, drinking beer together in the woods and talking about your relationship problems while the apocalypse is beginning just a few miles away. That seems like something friends would do, right?” Steve asked with a grin of amused confusion. It seemed ridiculous at first, but made sense when Jonathan ponded it in his mind.

“I mean it doesn’t make much sense, but I do like you.” He admitted, almost incredulously. “It’s kind of hard not to after all the crazy shit we’ve been through.”

“Even though the only thing we have in common is that we’re both in love with Nancy Wheeler.” Steve remarked, turning forward to drink from his beer again.

“I guess.” Jonathan sighed at the thought of that. Things could never be simple between them.

The two friends (cause that’s what they were now) mulled over the conversation they’d just had and sipped from their beers. With all that had happened lately, it seemed strange to talk about something that wasn’t monster-related. But here they were.

The sun had crept higher into the sky now, shining down above the boys and lighting up the woods with a bright glow. It was almost enough to make them forget their other problems, casting Jonathan’s troubled mind back to the days in Hawkins before all of this; when the idea of monsters had been contained in his brothers games of Dungeons and Dragons and a relationship with Nancy Wheeler had been the futile dream of a lonely teenager.

“Did you get valentine’s days cards on valentine’s day?” Jonathan suddenly asked.

He didn’t even have to look to see Steve’s confusion. “What?”

“In school, you got a lot of cards from girls, didn’t you?” He asked again. Even though he knew the answer.

“I mean, I guess.” Steve shrugged modestly.

“I didn’t get any. A pity one from the teacher occasionally, but mostly I got nothing, Eventually I stopped caring. It was a lot easier to ignore it when it became just another day.” Jonathan reminisced casually. All the loneliness he felt growing up had been easy to suppress once he met Nancy and discovered the happiness she brought him.

“I forgot how sad your life was before all this supernatural shit.” Steve joked. Jonathan laughed in response, his mind casting back to thoughts of his life before Will’s disappearance. Before Nancy had saved him.

There were bad memories too.

“When I was 13, a few months before my dad left, he’d gotten drunk and hit me a couple of times the night before Valentines’ Day.” Jonathan remembered.

He didn’t look over at Steve to see his reaction. He just stared off into the distance, watching the trees shake gently from the breeze and enjoying the calm pattern the branches settled into. It helped distract him from the memories of his father.

Jonathan hadn’t thought about his dad for a long time now. He didn’t give a shit what happened to Lonnie Byers. But that didn’t mean that he hadn’t left scars behind when he abandoned his family.

Jonathan kept going with the story. “So I stole some of mom’s make up the next morning to try and cover up the bruise, but it still looked awful. I reckon most people could tell, but they didn’t say anything.”

“Nobody wanted to ruin Valentine’s Day by talking about the weird Byers kid.” He let out a small laugh at the memory of walking through hallways with his head down, unable to cold, judging eyes that followed his movement, or the whispers and insults that followed them.

“Then came math. The class where I sat two seats away from Nancy. I could see immediately that she knew what had happened. That feeling of her eyes on me for the whole hour was worse than anything my dad could have done.”

“But at the end of the lesson….” He paused there, trying to find the right words to describe what happened next.

“Nancy came over to my desk, gave me a card and said ‘Happy Valentine’s Day.” He looked up at the sky, and grinned fondly at the memory. “She didn’t say a thing about the bruise. She just smiled and gave the card like I was a normal person.”

“I remember she was wearing a pink dress and shoes, and her hair was black and curly. She was so pretty.” Jonathan felt a warm feeling in his chest from that thought. It made him feel just as he had all those years ago - awestruck, yet recognised for the first time by somebody who didn’t have to because they were family.

Steve hadn’t said a word. He just let Jonathan tell his story, listening to the meaning behind it.

“It had obviously been meant for somebody else, but she’d rubbed out their name and written mine at the top.” He could see the card in his eyes, and the kind look on Nancy’s face as she gave it to him. “She’d drawn a little smiley face in the corner by her name that just… washed all the pain away.”

Jonathan smiled. “I think I might have fallen in love with her right then and there.”

He had gone home that day beaming and full of happiness. Ever day in the future when he bumped into Nancy dropping off Will at the Wheeler’s house, or saw her at school, or encountered her when he was at work, those feelings he had towards her grew.

“I had a crush on her for years, but that was all it was. I never thought she’d be my first kiss. My first love. My first everything.” He blinked away tears growing in his eyes at the thought of how much she meant to him.

”I never even thought that she’d notice me again, until the day she did.”

“Did your dad hit you a lot?” Steve’s voice rang out, a surprisingly gentle tone now.

“A few times, only when we were alone.” Jonathan told him like it was no big deal. It wasn’t to him anymore. “My mom and Will never found out.”

“You never told them?” Steve asked in surprise, his eyebrows rising as he did so.

“Will was just a kid, and she was working two jobs just to keep the house. It wouldn’t have been fair to them.” Jonathan thought about everything Will had gone through. And how much his Mom had done for the two of them. He had always tried his best to make their lives easier.

“It was my burden to bear.” He muttered, just loud enough for Steve to hear it.

Neither knew what to say after that. Steve didn’t press any further, and Jonathan just decided to drink from his beer again. Sometimes, you didn’t need to say anything more.

“Despite all the weird stuff that’s happened to you guys, I sometimes envy how close your family is. It’s never been like that with my folks.” Steve admitted regretfully.

It was easy to forget how it was only his mom that knew about all the crazy shit in their lives. For Steve and some of the other kids, they couldn’t rely on their parents to comfort them about this stuff like he and Will could - although Jonathan had ended up comforting Joyce plenty of times himself.

“At least you’ve got Dustin and Robin, don’t you? They really care about you.” Jonathan reminded him with an optimistic smile.

Steve grinned at the mention of their names. “Yeah. I got real lucky with those two knuckleheads.”

“Until Nancy, Mom and Will were the only people who cared about me. So when we started dating, keeping one another safe after nightmares, and she told me she loved me….it mean so much to me.” Jonathan tenderly spoke into the air.

These were the things he had longed to say to people, to her, for so long. How he ended up saying them to Steve Harrington was a mystery he’d never understand.

Finishing the last of the beer, he put his bottle aside and ran a finger through his hair. Thinking of Nancy, realising how much her dearly loved her, and how stupid he had been to put that at risk, had made him consider what he wanted his future to be now.

“I want to have a family with Nancy.”

Jonathan blinked as soon as the words came out of his mouth. For so long it had been a hidden daydream of his, a fantasy that sustained his love for few when they were thousands of miles apart. He’d never spoken about it - but the moment he did, he felt a sense of warmth and comfort that only thoughts of Nancy brought him.

“I mean, I want her to have career and show the world how amazing she is most of all.” He quickly emphasized, knowing that she was the smartest person he’d ever met and certain to have a successful career in journalism.

“But I also imagine what it’d be like to wake up by her side with kids of our own one day, and rings on our fingers. With a little girl running around the house, just as brave and adventurous as Nancy. And a son, who’ll never have to worry about his dad hurting him or running away.” He could picture it all, no matter how scared of the future he was.

Yet despite all the happiness Jonathan could envision, there was a still that same nagging doubt that made him sigh despondently, and absently toss the last drops of his beer away.

“I think I’m just scared that part of my dad never left.” He muttered.

All of sudden, he felt a small weight on his back. His eyes darted to the side to see that Steve had reached out his hand and patted him comfortingly. The gesture was awkward and tentative, and incredibly kind. The type of small act of recognition that Jonathan had needed for a long time.

“Thanks.” Jonathan uttered after a few seconds, reaching a hand up to try and inconspicuously wipe away the tears that had formed in his eyes. He probably failed, but that was okay.

“I was a dick to you in high school, wasn’t I?” Steve conceded as he lifted his hand off of Jonathan’s shoulder. It was he closest thing Jonathan would ever get to an apology.

“I wasn’t perfect either.” Jonathan admitted with a rueful smile. He didn’t want Steve to think he was the cause of all of his problems, when he knew his a-sociality and awkwardness had also resulted in his ostracization during his early years of High School (though that didn’t totally forgive what Steve and other boys at school had done to him). It wasn’t really a black and white situation. Just something in the past he wanted to move on from.

He still looked back on taking photos of Nancy the night Barbara disappeared shamefully, and was so grateful she had forgiven him for his behavior - swearing he’d never be that person again. And he could honestly say that since Nancy became his friend and then girlfriend, he had become a far better person.

In their own ways, this was Jonathan and Steve burying the hatchet for good. Starting over as friends, even as the world began to collapse around them.

Meanwhile, Steve had finished his beer. He tossed it aside and turned in place to face Jonathan. The look on his face was a strange one of openness and honesty. It was easy for him to forget that Steve had become a much more mature, wiser person than he had been before everything changed in Hawkins.

“You know, doing the right thing totally blows. You’re lucky I’ve gone through such an emotional journey of self-discovery these past few years,” Steve asserted to Jonathan with a humorous

“...Okay.” He simply said.

Steve reached forward and placed a hand on Jonathan’s shoulder to look him dead in the eye.

“You’re a good guy, Jonathan. After all the shit that’s happened between us these last few years, I can honestly say that you’re way better than you think you are.”

Jonathan watched as Steve looked down and smiled to himself in a resigned way, before he brought his head back up. There was a calm certainty on his face like he’d made peace with something that had tormented thing for a long time.

“I’m always going to care for Nancy. But I know Nancy was thinking of you when we fought Vecna. And I saw how happy you two were when everyone reunited. How she looked at you, and held your hand, and smiled like everything was going to be okay.” Steve said with wistfulness, but not anger or jealousy. “That’s special right there.”

“I’m probably going to regret this, but I’m not going to get in the way of true love. Not when our lives could end any day now.” He told Jonathan firmly, his words making the the eldest Byers feel goosebumps on his skin as he comprehended the meaning behind them.

Without waiting for Jonathan to respond, Steve quickly held up his hands in a placating manner. “So, I guess I’m giving you two my blessing. As long as you don’t do anything else stupid, I’ll happily move on.”

Jonathan stared at Steve for a few seconds once he had finished, collecting his thoughts while he acknowledged Steve’s decision. One that could not have been easy for him. He had always hoped that their confusing history might resolve itself fully one day. But now that moment, he couldn’t really think of anything to say. Other than one simple phrase that Jonathan knew was needed.

“Thank you, Steve.” He said. He looked at the other boy gratefully.

“Hey, we’ll look back on this whole love triangle and laugh when you and Nancy join me and Cindy Crawford for a double date.” Steve smirked good naturedly to restore the good mood, springing to his feet and jumping down from their perch. The fallen leaves littering the ground scattered under his feet.

“I’m sure Cindy will be dazzled when she hears how you travel to alternate worlds and fight monsters.” Jonathan joked with a grin, hopping down off the rock himself.

“She’d better me, else why the fuck am I fighting monsters in the first place!” Steve’s laughter at his own joke echoed throughout the clearing. Once again, Jonathan felt like a regular teenager again for a moment. Like his problems weren’t as terrifying as they seemed and could be overcome in the end.

And that was why he wanted Steve to be his friend. Because someone like that would save lives, and keep them in the fight when it all looked hopeless.

“Should we hug?” Jonathan asked awkwardly. He didn’t no know if they were at the stage, but he wanted to give Steve a hug. Honestly, he had the feeling they both could use one right now.

“Why not?” Steve shrugged in response without any real hesitation.

The two boys stepped towards one another, opened their arms and wrapped them around each other a little stiffly into a hug. It took a moment, but then they relaxed slightly and got used to it. Jonathan smiled after a second as he gave Steve a pat on the back and after a few seconds they stepped back.

“That wasn’t as weird as I thought.” Steve cocked his head to the side in an amused way.

“Still a little weird though.” Jonathan couldn’t help but chuckle at the experience. It looked like this friendship would work out after all.

He turned to grab his denim jacket were it had been lying next to his seat, since it looked like they were about to leave/

“Oh yeah.” Steve agreed, picking up his own jacket from the rock. “Come on, let’s go back and find some othe-.”

Steve suddenly stopped what he was saying, trailing off into silence. Jonathan twisted around to follow his eyeline. And when he saw what had made Steve shut up, he felt his jacket slip out of his hand and to the floor. And he couldn’t stop it.

The two boys stood dead still in their tracks with surprise on their faces. Standing just ahead of them was none other than the topic of much of their conversation - Nancy Wheeler.

“Nance.” Jonathan breathed the name of his girlfriend, as the very sight of her left him speechless. The sight of her big blue eyes, smaller frame and bushy brown hair made his heart skip a beat. Wearing light blues jeans, a pink t shirt and the short sleeved blue flannel he’d been wearing when they reunited that she quickly snagged as her own; she was truly beautiful. More so than any picture he’d ever taken.

And she was looking at straight at him with an unreadable look that burrowed deep into his soul, and the glimpses of tears in her eyes.

“How did you know we were out here?” Steve asked to finally break the silence.

“Your radio was on.” Nancy lifted up her own walkie talkie. Hopper had given them all one after they reunited, and Steve had been given the oldest one. Hopper had warned him that the button had been broken and didn’t click down properly sometimes, so the radio might stay on if you didn’t press hard enough.

“The entire time?” Steve bulked. Jonathan didn’t say a word, just staring at Nancy as he realized what that would mean.

“Yeah.” Nancy sheepishly told them. Her eyes never left Jonathan though, her blue orbs delving deep into his own dilated pupils.

“Oh. Crap.” Steve cringed. Who knew howmany of the group had heard all of their personal conversation: their argument, their reconciliation, Jonathan’s thoughts and story.

But at that point, Jonathan didn’t care about anyone other than Nancy. They were still gazing at one another, their eyes interlocked, their hearts beating fast. Jonathan began to grow hot under the collar from her penetrating stare, but couldn't bear to look away from her.

Steve seemed to pick up on the situation, and began to awkwardly sidle away from Jonathan back towards the track used to reach the clearing.

“I should let the two of you talk. I need to go see how Robin is anyway.” He said slowly as he attempted to make a subtle exit from the other two.

“Thanks, Steve.” Jonathan wrestled his eyes to look at Steve with earnest gratitude, stopping him before he could leave. This conversation had meant more to Jonathan than he ever thought it could have.

Steve nodded with a smile, thankfully getting Jonathan’s look. “I’ll see you two around.”

Then he walked past Nancy and down the path towards Hopper’s cabin. Leaving just Jonathan and Nancy alone.

----------

Neither knew who started walking first, but Jonathan and Nancy wordlessly began to approach one another until they were just a step or two away from one another. Jonathan yearned to take her into his arms and kiss her as hard as he could. But after their fight he hesitated to move forward lest she was here to break his heart.

It didn’t help that with the suns rays beaming down onto her, she dazzled in the light. Her brown hair had softened into a rich light caramel cascading around her head like the halo of a goddess. He didn’t dare disturb that perfect image.

“Hey.” He finally uttered.

“Hey yourself.” Nancy replied, a tentative smile on her soft face. She truly was an angel.

“You heard everything that we said?”

“Most of it, yeah.”

“Oh.”

“Jonathan, I-”

“Nancy, wait. Please.” He interrupted her and surged forwards to grab her hands in his own, squeezing them tight. He gazed at her wide eyes while he felt the scars on their hands connected, just as they had been since they made the promise that night that bound them to that very day.

“There’s a lot of things I need to say to you. Stuff I should have said before, but I just didn’t know how to say it. But I’m going to now.” He told her with confidence he wished he felt on the inside.

Nany’s smile from earlier had dropped and she looked up at him with a hint of nervousness and fear on his face. He didn’t blame her, since yesterday he’d made it seem like he wanted to break up with her.

But compassion lingered in her eyes. The same compassion she showed when she came up to him at school to talk to him about his missing little brother. The same compassion she showed when she held him in her arms as they wept the night they saved Will in Hopper’s cabin, and when they tended to one another’s wounds after their fight in the hospital.

The same love and compassion that had comforted him during the long lonely nights in California when they were so far apart.

“Okay.” She nodded, clutching his hands as tightly as he did.

“First, of all I am so fucking sorry About our fight yesterday. About not telling you about Lenora. About every other stupid thing I’ve done.” He profusely apologized. The words soon began to tumble out as he held her hands tight and let her in as he had never done with anyone else in his life since they were torn apart a year ago.

“I was scared about going to Emerson. It wasn’t just that I didt want to leave Will and my Mom alone. I couldn’t stand it if I became a burden to you, someone dragging you down when you have such an amazing future ahead of you.”

“But coming back hare, and being with you again….It’s reminded that I was being a complete idiot back in California. I never wanted to hurt you, and I’m so sorry I did. I want nothing more than to be with you for as long as you’ll have me.”

He turned his hands in hers as he spoke and laced his fingers between hers. Each word he delivered with as much conviction and love he could summon through words, hoping that she would know how much she meant to him.

“I want to fight by your side against all the crazy monsters we fight. I want to comfort you when you’re scared or sad. I want to support you as you do great things with your life. I want to make you feel like you’re the most special girl in the world because that is exactly what you are.”

He brought her hands up to his lips and pressed two gentle kisses on each of her hands before his eyes darted up to meet hers once again.

“You mean everything to me, Nancy. If you’ll forgive me for, I promise that I will love you for the rest of my life.” Jonathan whispered to Nancy

“I’m done now.” He let her hands go gently.

Half a dozen seconds passed while Nancy registered the words of his speech. To Jonathan, they felt like an eternity. He waited desperately for her answer with each split second making his heart race faster and his fear of rejection grow.

He was completely taken back when Nancy let out a sob, grabbed his face his her hands and kissed him searingly. He rocked back from the force of her slamming into him but quickly reciprocated her kiss with just as much passion, holding her tight by the waist to kiss her back. Pressing his lips against hers and following her motions, Jonathan poured all his love and devotion for her into the kiss just as he had been desperate to do every single moment he had been away from her.

She pulled back after several seconds, keeping him in place and gazing up at him like he was the only thing in the world. God she was amazing.

“I was going to say that I love you.” Nancy giggled with joy. He joined in with her laughter, fighting to keep the tears from falling down his face at the sound of her so happy, and the feel of her lips on his own.

Her gaze softened into a look of so loving he could scarcely breathe. “And I forgive you. You’re the most moral, selfless boy I know. You just wanted to find a way to look after your family. Even if you were a total goober about it.”

He nodded at that, but kept her hands on his head and made sure he was staring straight back at her while she spoke her heart ti him.

“I don’t what’s going to happen to us now. I have no fucking clue if there’s going to be a world left for us when this is all said and done. Or if Emerson will even be left standing in the end.” Nancy reached up to wrap her arms around his neck and stare into his eyes with strength and certainty that no one but her could show.

“But I know that whatever happens, I need to have you with me.”

“You have never been, and never will be, a burden to me. You are my partner and my boyfriend, and I see our future together as clearly now as I ever have. And if you ever have any fears, or doubts, I will be there to remind you that you are good enough. For me, and for everyone else in your life.”

She stroked his cheek lovingly. “And you are not your father. You’re nothing like him, and you never will be. Promise me you’ll never forget that.”

He was speechless. More tears welled up in his eyes at her words of love just as they were doing in hers. “Okay.”

“I was apart from you for so long. That’s never happening again, you hear me?” Nancy’s voice cracked at the end but her words contained an unbreakable promise within them. Letting him know he was the puzzle piece that completed her life, just as she was truly his other half.

“Got it.” Jonathan replied with a beam, barely holding back from collapsing. His heart ached from how much her loved her at this moment.

“You were a complete idiot. But you’re my idiot. And I still love you with all my heart.” Nancy’s lips and hands trembled, but she smiled back at him through her own eyes.

“I love you too, Nance.” Jonathan pressed forward and surged their lips together to kiss her again. Softly, full of tenderness and love that he had been afraid to show her since he returned. It was a kiss of longing, where two hearts joined together, where lovers let go off all their troubles and just gave in to their feelings for their soulmate.

The two clung to one another, melting into each other as their arms traversed around their bodies so they could hold the other person closer and more tightly. Like they were afraid to let go. Her fingers wound through his hair, and around his neck, while his clutched her back and pulled her flush against his skin. When they finally broke apart for air, neither dared to move apart more than a few inches.

Jonathan pressed his forehead against hers, bringing a hand up to cup her head and the other to hold her waist gently. Nancy was quick to nestle closer to him in their pose, bringing her hands up to place one one his cheek and the other above his heart. They closed their eyes, feeling one another’s presence and being comforted by the strength it gave both of them. This was how they showed their love when words themselves did not suffice.

They didn’t want to leave this tranquil moment, cut off from the world in their own bubble, but they both knew that there were others who still needed them. In a few minutes they’d walk back out of the forest hand in hand with big smiles on their faces and rejoin their friends.

Their world had been a terrifying one for so long. And they knew that there were some tough fights in their future. But Jonathan knew that he and Nancy were endgame, and he would do everything in his power to ensure that they got a happy ending.